Learning to cook along the way
Dan Ferrell
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Life has been an adventure for me.
Over the past 16 years I have had the pleasure of living on both coasts as well as a three-year stint in Kansas City, Mo. As I moved to each of these different places, I gained some incredible friends. With each new friend usually came new recipes.
Today, I would like to share three of these recipes with you. I hope you enjoy them.
But first, how about a little background information?
My introduction to cooking began in earnest when I was about 18 years old. I had just recently moved out of Mom’s house and I quickly realized that food doesn’t magically appear on the dinner table each night. Fast food got old, and ridiculously expensive, really quick. I realized if I wanted to eat as I did at Mom’s I needed to start learning a thing or two about cooking.
I started out slowly with the easy stuff. You know, your basic mac and cheese or Rice-A-Roni entrees. As time went on, I started to experiment a little. I added cut up hot dogs to the mac and cheese, and the Rice-A-Roni was upgraded with a can of cooked chicken and some frozen broccoli. Look out world, this kid is cookin’!
About this same time, I purchased my first barbecue grill. My friends and I would get together on the weekend and bring all of our favorites to the grill. Hamburgers, steaks, brisket and ribs — we began sharing most of our barbecue secrets and before you knew it, we thought we were ready for the American Royal.
In 1993 I joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. After my tour was up, I decided to stay in North Carolina — in the suburbs of Raleigh — for an additional three years.
One of our favorite hangouts was a bar and grill called “Harrisons.” One night, I was in there with my girlfriend shooting pool. She had ordered a salad called the “Blackened Chicken Pasta Salad.” She kept raving about this salad. I finally asked her about it and she replied, “I am going to make you a bite and you have to try it.”
I was a little skeptical at first. She carefully put a little piece of each ingredient on a fork. I took a bite and could not believe how great it tasted. From that moment on, that was the only meal I ordered at this bar.
A few years later, I decided to move back to the Midwest. A couple of friends from high school were living in Kansas City and I had always enjoyed that area, so I thought it would be as good a place as any to live.
On the weekends we would all get together and prepare a feast. One thing about hanging out with this group of friends — most of them worked in restaurants on The Plaza and were pretty good in the kitchen. Needless to say, my cooking skills increased exponentially.
I was almost out of recipes to share when I started thinking about that pasta salad in North Carolina. I decided I would go ahead and give it a try. It is a pretty basic salad, the only hard part was the honey mustard. A friend helped me out with the ingredients for that. It actually turned out to be quite simple.
BLACKENED CHICKEN PASTA SALAD
Boneless chicken breasts
Tri-colored rotini pasta
Black olives
Tomato
Honey Mustard Dressing
Crushed bacon (optional)
The Chicken: The original recipe calls for ‘Blackened seasoning’ on the chicken, however you can actually use just about any seasonings you want. Give the chicken an even spread of seasonings and then place it on a grill or skillet and cook thoroughly. When the chicken is done, let it cool a bit and then cut it up into bite size pieces.
The Pasta: Cook pasta as you would any other pasta. When finished, place in a strainer and strain under cold water until the pasta is cold. (The chicken will be the only warm part of this recipe.)
Honey Mustard Dressing: First and foremost, make your own! Trust me it is 10 times better than anything you will buy at the grocery store. There are numerous ways of making honey mustard dressing. This is just one method. In a medium bowl place 1 cup of mayonnaise, 3/4 cup mustard, 1/2 cup honey and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Mix all of these ingredients until they are blended thoroughly. Season with some freshly ground pepper. NOTE: These portions may vary so take a taste test and make any adjustments you desire.
Once all of that is done, cut up your olives and tomatoes. Place pasta in a bowl, add the chicken, olives and tomatoes, then pour some honey mustard on top. To finish it up sprinkle some fresh bacon bits on top.
This next one is for all you grillers out there. The next time you have friends over to grill or barbecue, give these guys a shot. You won’t be disappointed.
The story behind this one comes from when I lived in Seattle. I was living in an apartment complex we dubbed “Ghetto Melrose.” Like the popular ’90s television show we had a courtyard and on hot summer nights people would gather outside. We all soon became friends and started organizing different parties and dinners. As time went on, friends started inviting friends. Before you knew it, there were more than 40 people hanging out.
On one particular weekend we were having some friends over for one of the last parties of the summer, right before the rain would start to fall and people began hibernating in their apartments.
My friend and former Emporian, Ryan Schierling, decided to try something new for this particular party. He brought out these things that looked like some meat wrapped around a pepper. I asked him what they were and he replied, “Bitchin’ Bacon Beef Bombs. I don’t know how they are going to taste. I just thought they might be good.”
Without knowing how good they were going to be he only made eight. They came off the grill and about a minute later they were all gone. People were licking their fingers and asking when the next batch was coming out. Unfortunately there were no more to be had. The mistake of only making eight would not be made again.
BACON BEEF BOMBS
Lay down a piece of thick-cut bacon. On top of that put down a piece of pounded chuck steak strips (cut to the same width as the bacon and a little less than a 1/4-inch thick). Lightly season the steak with some all-season salt or a little barbecue rub. For a bonus add some of your favorite barbecue sauce or a little hot sauce on the steak. Grab a pepperoncini pepper and place it at one end and roll up the pepper with the steak and bacon. Hold it all together by a toothpick (which actually pierces the pepperoncini, letting the juice marinate the beef from the inside).
Place all of that on a grill.
Now, here comes the kicker. As it is cooking, apply some molasses to the outside bacon. Brush it on just like barbeque sauce. Make sure it is all covered. As it cooks, all of the flavors come together leaving you with something special.
Like most meals, let’s end this with a dessert.
Growing up, both my mom and my sister loved to create desserts. There was usually a dessert with just about every meal. It really is amazing I stayed as thin as I did for as long as I did. Ah, the good ol’ days.
One night, my sister came home from college with a new dessert. She told us it was a peanut butter pie. It only took about a millisecond for us to become addicted to this pie.
With that said I must warn you this recipe is NOT for those trying to lose weight. In fact, you might gain a pound or two just reading the recipe. So proceed with caution!
PEANUT BUTTER PIE
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (This pie is not cooked so you will want to use “Egg Beaters” instead of the eggs. Egg Beaters are pastuerized, so you won’t run the risk of salmonella.)
1 stick of butter or margarine (room temperature)
1 cup peanut butter
8 oz. frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 graham cracker crust
In a medium to large bowl place the sugar, eggs and the butter, then begin to mix with an electric mixer. Mix until the sugar is no longer granulated. Next add the peanut butter and continue mixing. Finally add the whipped topping and slowly mix until it is completely blended.
Pour all of this into the graham cracker crust. As an added bonus you can sprinkle ground up Reese’s Pieces or chocolate chips on top.
I prefer to store the finished pie in a freezer, but you can also place in a refrigerator. Just make sure you keep it chilled until you are ready to serve.
- Dan Ferrell can be reached at danfgazette@yahoo.com.
schierling (anonymous) says...
You've got to use pomegranate molasses on those bacon beef bombs - it adds sweetness and carmelizes on the outside of the meat. Regular molasses (or blackstrap) is a little harsh.
-Ryan
January 14, 2008 at 5:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mythoughts (anonymous) says...
And where does one obtain this pomegranate molasses? Is there a recipe for it?
January 14, 2008 at 9:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
schierling (anonymous) says...
If you can't find it locally, you can order it online... search amazon.com for "pomegranate molasses." It's about $3.50 a bottle.
If you're feeling ambitious, you can make it...
4 cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
In a large, uncovered saucepan, heat pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice on medium high until the sugar has dissolved and the juice simmers. Reduce heat just enough to maintain a simmer. Simmer for about an hour, or until the juice has a syrupy consistency, and has reduced to 1 to 1 1/4 cups. Pour out into a jar. Let cool. Store chilled in the refrigerator. (from simplyrecipes.com)
January 15, 2008 at 12:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
danf (anonymous) says...
You beat me to it Ryan. :)
Thanks for providing the revised information.
The few times I have made these I used standard molasses and have had good results. I guess now I have to make two batches and compare the results. ;)
cheers,
-Dan
January 15, 2008 at 2:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mythoughts (anonymous) says...
Thanks to you both - so glad to have something new to try! I may try this with jalepenos, too, since I'm not a big pepperoncini fan. I may even stuff the peppers with some cheese...mmmmmmm.
January 15, 2008 at 3:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
danf (anonymous) says...
mythoughts, Jalepenos? stuffing cheese in peppers? Now you're talking crazy! —Kidding. I haven't strayed very far from the original recipe (except from the whole molasses thing), but you do bring up some very good possibilities.
Hope you enjoy. :)
January 16, 2008 at 6:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )