Oodles of Nuuudons

Before I start, I wanted to say that I added another addition to my Le Creuset collection!!! This is what excites my life now, besides heels. My other half purchased the 11" Nonstick Shallow Frying Pan for me because our other pans were getting old. I have yet to use it, but he already conditioned the pan for me: washed it, put a coating of vegetable oil, rinsed it off, and dried it with a paper towel. What I really enjoy about this pan is the magnetic stainless steel base so it'll work on any stovetop/don't need to worry that it'll fall or something (I don't know how that could happen, but it could!) Also, the handle is hollow and a stay-cool stainless steel so the heat from the pan won't transfer to the handle, but that doesn't mean you should avoid wearing an oven mitt. Safety first! 

My mini Le Creuset collection!

Back to food! As I said in the "Nacho Mind" post, the rotisserie chicken lasts for 3.5 days or more for my other half and I. As I was rummaging through my fridge to see what to make with the chicken, I had leftover ingredients from the nachos, besides the corn tortillas. Then I spotted a few packages of udon and it hit me...STIR FRY UDON!

*Disclaimer: Taking photos had slipped my mind during the prepping and cooking process so I only have photos of the finished product. Sorry!

The first thing I did was boil my udon for 1-2 minutes to loosen it up and slightly cook it. Then I sliced up sweet white onions, cut fresh green beans into smaller pieces, and sliced fresh garlic. I sauté the onions first in EVOO for a couple minutes, then added the green beans. I always add garlic last so they don't stick/burn (I happen to love the taste of raw garlic!). After draining the udon, I put corn and shredded rotisserie chicken to the pan to heat it up. I added the udon and tossed everything together. I seasoned it with ground black pepper, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper. I wanted to make an Chinese type of stir fry udon so I added hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, nuoc mum, sriracha, and oyster sauce. I don't measure it out, I sprinkle it on here and there, taste and adjust. I finished it off with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. The finished product was amazing! The udon noodles had just enough chewiness and the sauce was sweet, tangy, and spicy. You get a crunch from the green beans and the green onions. I forgot to add cilantro, but that would've given it a good earthiness and cut the heat.

It's a pretty easy dish to make with simple meat leftovers or tofu. 

I realized that was a lemon seed and took it out after the photo! 

Another angle!

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

PS! Check out my new Pinterest board at: Felicia's Food Fight Pinterest! Click here!

It's still a work in progress!

Nacho Mind

I love Costco. Granted, my weekly Costco trips only consist of stocking back up on fruits and vegetables for the week, it is still a great experience. I get their rotisserie chicken once in a while because that 1 chicken lasts my other half and I about 3.5 days for $5.00! What?! Yeah, for real. It's crazy.

While talking to one of my dear friends and biggest supporter of me and this blog, she said "chicken nachos!" And started listing out mouth watering accompaniments to the nachos. I was going to make chicken and shrimp spring rolls, but nachos sounded way better. I needed to get tortilla chips, but wanted to make it "semi-homemade" so instead of buying chips, I bought yellow corn tortillas and decided to bake them! If I wanted it to be homemade, I would've bought masa harina to make my own masa dough ->tortillas->chips, but I hadn't intended on doing that. Maybe next time! ;)

I cut the tortillas into triangles (1 tortilla = 4 chips), and baked them at 350 degrees. I did 2 test batches prior to ensure I wouldn't mess any of the chips up. The 1st batch was made at 350 with 1 plain chip and the other brushed with olive oil. The 2nd batch had the same type of chips from the 1st batch, but I increased the temperature to 400. I preferred the plain chip that was made at the 350 temperature. It had a great crunch and no grease!

Freshly baked tortilla chips!

The best part of nachos is the cheese. I'm not a fan of cheese, but I love nacho "cheese". So artificial, but so good. I had low fat shredded mexican cheese but wanted to make a good creamy, yet healthy nacho cheese sauce. And I did it with 3 ingredients: Cheese, flour, and chicken broth! I don't eat a lot of dairy products so when I want to create something creamy and lush, I improvise and whatev happens, happens! I made chicken broth, whisked in flour and added the cheese and that was it! I would add water if it got too thick. I love spicy food, so I charred some diced up jalapenos to get their essence going then added the other ingredients. And voila! Healthier cheesy goodness.

Oozy, gooey, bubbly cheese

What is nachos without salsa? I enjoy acidic food cutting through the richness of the cheese, so I made a fresh salsa using a red onion, corn, tomato, cilantro, green onion, and squeezed the juices from a lime and lemon. Added a little ground black pepper and garlic powder and put it in the fridge for the flavors to blend together.

It looks so fresh and I love the colors!

With the chicken from Costco, I shredded it and added its juices to the salsa.

And there you have it! Simple, healthy chicken nachos! I added Cholula hot sauce to mine to give it more of a kick. The chips came out so good! They were not greasy and very crispy. I was on Google Hangout with my friend and she wanted to hear me crunch into a chip and it did! This meal for 2 people didn't even cost $2 because I didn't fully use all the ingredients! AND if you have leftover salsa and tortillas, you can make chicken tacos! BAM! Another meal.

The salsa really added a great raw crunch and freshness. These nachos won't make you feel heavy after!

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

PS. You can check out my Instagram: Pholeeshia for photos!

Oink Oink!

I've been busy traveling the last couple of weeks and haven't cooked as much. The food I ate while traveling will be another post. Tonight was supposed to be a "light" meal since I have been eating out a lot, but it ended up not being very light.

I was perusing my fridge and freezer trying to come up with something to make for dinner. I remembered I had pancetta from Boccalone in San Francisco and I wanted to build a dish around it. I found tortellini and broccoli and there was my dish! My other half wanted some bacon so I bought a few slices of jalapeno cured bacon from Whole Foods.

The first thing I did was boil my broccoli for 2 minutes that way it wouldn't need to completely cook in the pan and bring everything else to a halt. Using the same water, I cooked my tortellini in it.

While the tortellini was cooking, I rendered down the fat of the pancetta and bacon.

Rendering down the pancetta and bacon

Then I added diced up onion and garlic.

Once the garlic and onion became translucent, I added the broccoli.

The tortellini finished cooking, I added it to the mix and let them all mingle together. I added cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, parsley, thyme, garlic powder, and chili powder for taste.

I topped tortellini off with a poached egg to give it a creamy texture like carbonara, green onions for freshness, and some pieces of the pancetta and bacon for crunch.

Perfectly poached egg with the yolk dripping down. YUM.

It was a great meal. The pancetta had enough salt for the entire dish, the creaminess of the yolk against the tortellini left a buttery feel to the mouth, the bacon and pancetta had a great crunch, the broccoli and green onion slashed the buttery feel and gave it a fresh taste. Thinking back I should've added lemon juice for acidity, and I also have a ton of lemons. I'll add some juice to the leftovers!
   
                                                                                   

                                                                     Until Next Time!
                                                                          CheFelicia

You are my lobster

My other half suggested that we started doing a nice weekend dinner like trying the different cuts of meat from Whole Foods, getting seafood from our local Santa Barbara fish market, etc... so we did! I wanted to reproduce a classic steak dinner, but then I found out our local seafood market had live Maine lobsters on sale so I decided to make a surf and turf with classic sides.

I bought 3 1.5-2lb. live Maine lobsters and 2 dry aged ribeyes from Whole Foods.

Very live lobsters and great steaks.

I've eaten a ton of lobster growing up but the only time my other half really had it was when we went to Jamaica, and I wanted to recreate a lobster dish he had. I made lobster in 3 ways: lobster "roll," lobster in garlic and butter sauce, and steamed.

Trio of lobster: steamed, sauteed in garlic butter, and lobster "roll"

I didn't buy a cracker for the lobster and we used a hammer. It was my first time using a hammer and it was CRAZY. Shell and meat were flying everywhere! And it took a good hour to get all the meat out, but it was a fun experience! But I think I'm going to invest in a few crackers..it's so much more efficient.

The motherload. Such sweet, sweet meat.

For the lobster "roll", I seasoned chunks of lobster with ground black pepper, granulated garlic, green onions, parsley, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice mixed with some of the good stuff from the lobster head "green gunk" and a little dab of mayonaise for creaminess. Instead of placing it in a roll, I placed the lobster on top of a toasted crostini. It was the most perfect bite of food...rich and creamy, with the fresh taste from the onion and the acid from the lemon juice that breaks through it.

I don't eat or cook with butter when I don't have to, but this was a special occasion. The first time my other half had lobster was in Jamaica and he had it in a garlic butter sauce and I wanted to recreate it. I melted some butter, added garlic, parsley, ground black pepper, and sauteed some lobster claws and tails for him. I didn't try it, but he said it was really good.

Butter melting.

Garlic, butter, seasoning and lobster.

For the steaks, I seasoned it with ground black pepper and granulated garlic and used my Palm Restaurant cast iron skillet to sear it and then continued to cook it in the oven. The steak cut like BUTTER and melted in your mouth. I barely chewed. It was one of the best steaks I've ever had.

2 1lb. dry aged ribeyes

Beautiful grill marks.

Beautiful medium rare.

As for the sides, I made cheese fries topped with green onions, mac n cheese topped with bacon, and corn. I had thought about making fresh baked french fries, but I had a lot of other things going on so I baked frozen french fries, topped it off with a mix of cheeses and cut green onions. The mac n cheese was from the frozen section at the market because we didn't need much and if I were to make it, we'd have a ton of leftovers. Frozen mac n cheese.. I know. So sue me. As for the corn, I was going to get corn on the cob, but I had a few cans of corn and had to use it. With simpler sides, it made my life a little easier because after cracking all those lobster shells, I got tired.

Cheese fries.

The entire meal (not my portion). Steamed lobster tail, lobster sauteed in garlic and butter, lobster "roll", corn, mac n cheese with bacon, and half of a rib eye.

The meal was so good. The lobster was sweet and lush. The steak was tender and melted in your mouth. The sides were a great accompaniment. All the sides were finished, but we had a great amount of lobster and steak leftover.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Ring My Bell

My other half's mother had given me leftover ground beef with taco seasoning and I wasn't sure what to make with it, but after scouring my fridge and finding an open jar of tomato sauce it came to me! Stuffed bell peppers! Mine consisted of onions, garlic, brown rice, bell pepper I took off from the tops that I cut off, the seasoned taco meat, and green beans cooked in a red wine tomato sauce with some chicken stock in my Le Creuset dutch oven.

I took the core out of the bell pepper and roasted them for 10 minutes at 350.

Peppers pre-roast

I sauteed the garlic, bell peppers, and garlic in EVOO. Then I added the brown rice and cooked it with some chicken stock and the tomato sauce. I put the cover on and let it cook. Later on, I added the ground beef and green beans and continued to let it simmer down (Sorry, I was charging my phone and forgot to take a photo!).

Sauteed onion, garlic, and bell peppers in EVOO

Once the stuffing was done, I stuffed it inside the bell peppers and roasted them off for 15 minutes at 400.

The finished product! Although it may not look like it, the peppers have a nice char on them!

The inside! It cut like butter.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Carbs, Carbs, Carbs

I went to a graduation party at a beach house over the weekend and I wanted to contribute a snack for my other half's family, so I decided to make a blooming bread for them because carbs makes everything better! 

 My other half's mom bought a sourdough bowl from Costco, but you can use any type of bread you want like roasted garlic, olive oil and basil...anything that makes you happy. I scored the bread and stuffed the crevices with green onions and cheddar cheese. I sauteed a white sweet onion and garlic in EVOO with a simple seasoning of ground black pepper and garlic salt. Stuffed the sauteed onions and garlic into the bread and topped it off with more cheddar cheese and green onions. Placed it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 and voila! A delicious, golden brown goddess with gold emerged!

 I wanted to keep this simple because I knew there was going to be other snacks and didn't want people to get too full before dinner. What I like about blooming bread is that there is no certain way to make one or a certain recipe you need. You can put ANYTHING you want in it! Like for real. Mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers...anything you want to do, you can. Most people enjoy cooking with butter but I don't so my to-go fat to use are EVOO and Grapeseed oil infused with garlic and basil. 

Onion and Garlic Blooming Bread. Crusty and crunchy outside with a soft melty ooey gooey inside.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Pizza, Pizza!

I wanted pizza without all the grease and heaviness of the dough, so I made my own BBQ chicken pizza on multi-grain english muffins!

The first component is the sauce. Instead of putting just BBQ sauce on them, I mixed BBQ sauce with a sweet tomato sauce and added Cholula, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, and granulated garlic. The sauces combined created a sweet and smoky flavor (like if I had added bacon) to the pizza.

The second component are the onions atop the pizza. Normally, they are raw red onions, but I made a little twist to it. I caramelized 1 large white, sweet onion and reduced it with red wine, balsamic vinegar, and red pepper flakes.

The third component is the cheese. I'm not a cheese eater, so I just bought a bag of Mexican blended cheeses (Pepper Jack, Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Colby).

The fourth component is the chicken. I used cut up chicken thighs, seasoned with ground black pepper and granulated garlic. I pan fried the chicken with my infused garlic and basil grapeseed oil. The oil gave the chicken a great crust and enhanced the flavor.

Popped them in the oven at 350 degrees to crisp up and it off with some spring onion for a crisp and fresh taste.

Onions caramelizing in red wine and balsamic (I added more red wine after this photo).

The finished product! BBQ Chicken Pizza on a Multi-Grain English Muffin.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia