WineLife365

Archive for the ‘Poor Man's Chef’ Category

What’s the day of the week that has so many of us down in the dumps?  It’s Monday, of course!  The weekend was fun:  you probably drank some great wine, ate some terrific food, and spent time with friends and family.  Basically, you did everything that you wanted to do all weekend long, but then it’s all over and the start of another frenzied week begins.  Here’s a thought:  Why not turn Monday, or at least Monday night, into something to look forward to with a “special” meal?!

Here’s a Poor Man’s Chef creation to wipe away the Monday Blues:

1 package of boneless chicken breasts (Approx. 1-1/2lbs.)
1 large Yellow Onion (sliced, diced, whatever…)
1 bag of Baby Spinach (You know, the bagged salad stuff in the produce aisle)
A handful of sun-dried tomatoes
A handful or maybe 2 or 3…of fresh watercress
A few slices of VA baked ham lunch meat (chopped)
1 lemon for some fresh squeezed juice
About one cup of Near East Mediterranean Curry Couscous  (leftovers from Sunday night’s dinner)

From my spice rack

McCormick Fennel Seed
McCormick Montreal Seasoning
A dash of Chef Paul Prudhommes Magic Seasoning

Directions:

Coat a large pot with olive oil on the stove top. Add pieces of chicken breast, sliced onion and sun-dried tomatoes.  Sauté a bit, then add the spices.  While cooking, add the ham, the entire bag of spinach and handfuls of fresh watercress to the pot and simmer it all down.  Douse with freshly squeezed lemon juice and add some fresh black pepper.  After everything is totally cooked, throw in your cup of couscous.  Toss it around and maybe even add a splash of white wine to the mix.  Why not…it’s Monday! 

Consider pairing this kaleidoscope of flavors with a couple of kaleidoscope wines.

For a white wine – consider a box of Big House White Wine.  It’s a potpourri of different grapes blended together to produce a crisp wine with floral notes ($20 for a 3L Box).  Try to avoid drinking the entire box though – it’s only Monday!

For a red wine, consider a Cotes Du Rhone like the 2008 Kermit Lynch Cotes Du Rhone ($12 US).  This rouge is blended to perfection to make just about any “thrown together” supper seem extra special.

Bon Appétit.  There’s only 4 more days to go until the weekend…Woo-Hoo!

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There’s a little saying in my kitchen:  “If you’ve got some leftovers, you’ve got tonight’s dinner.”  On this occasion, I had a piece of leftover grilled steak and one grilled pork chop that was going to get up close and personal with my frying pan!  So, with my two delightful pieces of leftover BBQ meats from day 1, here’s what else I used to make this “stick to your ribs” day 2 meal for 2:

• A big skillet
• 1 grilled Pork chop
• 1 grilled Steak
• Salted Butter
• Olive Oil
• 2 large Idaho Potatoes
• ½ yellow onion
• 1 green pepper 
• Salt-n-Pepper
• Rosemary – can’t beat the fresh stuff, but dried will do
• Sweet basil – preferably the fresh leaf kind
• Ground coriander seed
• About ½ bag or bunch of fresh arugula
• 1 lemon or a bit of bottled lemon juice 

Start by first poking a few holes into the potatoes and nuke them in the microwave for about 2-1/2 minutes just to soften them up a bit.  Dice up the potatoes, the leftover pork chop and onion and put them aside for now.

Warm up your large skillet and coat it with some olive oil.  Infuse the olive oil with the rosemary and sweet basil.  Add the chopped up potatoes, pork, pepper, and onion.  Season with a little bit of ground coriander seed, salt, pepper, and a tad of salted butter and flip it around until nice and golden brown.

Warm up the leftover steak in the microwave just long enough to make it hot (a minute to 1.5 minutes should suffice). Slice it in half into two portions.

Finally, take a small mixing bowl and toss together fresh arugula with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

To plate it up, put a little bit of the arugula mixture onto the center of each plate.  Dish out the warm skillet mixture and spread over each portion of arugula.  Finally, place a piece of steak on the top.

Complete this meat–n-potatoes makeover with a bottle of 2007 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Meritage.  It’s a blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec, and 2% Cabernet Franc.  It’s also easy on the wallet at a price of less than $12 a bottle.

Bon appetit!

 “All cowboys ain’t dumb. Some of ‘em got smarts real good, like me.” – Urban Cowboy  

Addendum:

In case you’re interested, here is how my leftover steak and pork chops came to be…

The day before, I marinated a few steaks and pork chops and fired them up on the grill.  For the steaks, I used a little butcher’s secret known as filet mignon “tips”.   Not a recipe tip, but rather the end portions of the slab of filet mignon.  Butchers can’t sell these “butts” at the normal nosebleed price because they’re not the perfect cuts that you and I know and love.  These filet tips are usually priced at about half the cost per pound of what a “perfect” cut of filet mignon costs.  It’s still filet mignon people – they just don’t look as pretty or cost you a car payment.

So, the next time you see the butcher, ask him where he keeps his filet mignon tips.

Onto to seasoning these steak ends.  I rubbed a little olive oil on them and sprinkled some garlic salt, salt, pepper, ground coriander seed, ground fennel seed, and then karate chopped them with some dried ginger powder and teriyaki sauce.

The seasoning for the pork chops included: olive oil, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and the very reliable McCormick Grill Mates Pork Rub.

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It was nearly 10pm before my wife and I finally sat down at the dinner table on this particular evening.  What can I say – it was the first day without rain in like 15 days or something.  My sons were so excited to see the sun that they wanted to play until nightfall.  Well, nightfall came just after 8:30pm on this warm summer evening and by the time they both got scrub-a-dub-dubbed and had a little story time, it was nearly 10pm.  Besides that, I was also obsessing over a newly stained door – wondering if the stain color looked the same as the other doors in which I used the exact same stain on.  Hmmm, does it look the same??

Given that it was late, nothing was cooking for dinner, and my wife vowed to call the insane asylum if I looked at the door for one more second, I took a peek into the fridge and pulled out these 3 items:

1.)    A chunk of Spanish Manchego cheese

2.)    A hunk of Sopressata dry sausage

3.)    Package of soft flour tortillas

I decided to make a Spanish/Italian quesadilla with the ingredients that I had.  Here’s the quick and easy microwave version:

• Place one soft flour tortilla on microwavable plate.
• Shave off slices of Manchego cheese and place on soft flour tortilla.
• Slice up some of the Sopressata dry sausage and place it on top of Manchego cheese.
• Shave off some more slices of Manchego cheese and place on top.
• If you have some fresh cilantro, put some on there as well.
• Finally, place another soft flour tortilla on top.

Place it in the microwave and nuke it for about 2 minutes.  That’s it.  Slice it into 4 sections and serve it up!  If it’s more like 6 pm, you can also fry this quesadilla up in a pan with some olive oil and serve it with a salad.

An awesome Spanish vino to pair this quesadilla with is the Castillo del Baron Monastrell.  This Spanish red wine has a lot of black pepper and spices going on to really get your taste buds popping with this two minute Spanish/Italian quesadilla.

Muy delicioso!  Buon appetito!

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According to Wikipedia: “…the word burrito literally means “little donkey” in Spanish, coming from burro, which means “donkey”.  “The name burrito possibly derives from the appearance of a rolled up wheat tortilla, which vaguely resembles the ear of its namesake animal, or from bedrolls and packs that donkeys carried.”  Ok then – consider yourselves educated.

My burrito creation this evening was hmmm… well, muy barato!  ¿Comprendes?

Here’s what you’ll need so that you too can have your very own little donkey:

• ½ of a leftover grilled chicken breast
• A generous amount of fresh cilantro
• About half a bag of frozen sliced yellow and red peppers
• A few handfuls of shredded cheddar or that “nacho taco” seasoned shredded cheese  
• 2 tablespoons of salsa
• 2 soft flour tortillas
• 6 to 8 slices of jarred sliced jalapenos
• And my secret ingredient – black bean dip (try the Desert Pepper Trading Company if they offer it in your grocery store)

Fire up the skillet and cook up the frozen peppers.  Dice up the leftover grilled chicken and toss it in with the peppers.  Throw in your fresh cilantro…as much as you want or have!

Now you’re ready to assemble your little donkey.  Take a soft shell tortilla and place it on a microwaveable plate.  Spread the black bean dip all over the tortilla, as if you’re spreading sauce on a pizza crust.  Take a handful of shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkle it all over the top as if you were making Spanish pizza.  Next, nuke it in the microwave for about a minute.

Spoon a generous amount of chicken and peppers over top and roll it into a burrito.  Top with a spoonful of salsa and a sprig or two of fresh cilanto and a couple of sliced jalapenos, and your donkey is ready to eat!

Pair up your chicken burrito with a small salad and a versatile summertime white wine like the Goats Do Roam from South Africa and you’ve got cena para dos!

¡Buen apetito fellow Poor Chefs!

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