Sausage, Rice & Beans for One

This is another dinner inspired by a leftover. We had some wonderful Polish & Ukrainian sausage from an amazing Eastern European deli in Northeast Minneapolis, Kramarczuk's, at our beer tasting this weekend. There were a few sliced left so Matt suggested I use them to make beans & rice for myself this week.

I typically would have let the beans cook with the rice in a recipe like this but it seems so often my dried beans are not getting tender enough in time & I end up overcooking the rest of the food. This time I cooked the beans to tender & then just added them in at the end so they had the perfect texture. You could stop cooking the beans a little earlier than I did & add them in with the rice to finish them off. If you do that I would add a little more broth.

Sausage, Rice & Beans

1/4 c dried red beans

1/2 T olive oil

1/4 c red onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 T chopped red onion

1/2 c link sausage, diced (I used a good garlicy Polish)

1/2 T tomato paste

pinch of smoked paprika

pinch of chipotle powder

1/2 c of diced fire roasted tomatoes

1/4 c basmati rice

1/2 c chicken stock

salt & pepper

Put the dried beans in a pan with 3/4 c water & bring to a boil. Let boil for two minutes. Remove from heat & cover. Let sit for 1 hour. Bring to a simmer & simmer gently for 60 - 90 minutes until tender, adding more water if needed. Drain & set aside.

In a medium saucepan heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic & sausage and cook until the onion begins to get translucent. Stir in the tomato paste, paprika & chipotle powder, cook for about a minute. Add the tomatoes, rice & chicken stock & bring to a boil. Reduce heat & cover. Allow to simmer for about 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Add the beans & heat through, adding more broth if its a little dry.

1 serving

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Mac & Blue Cheese for One

I had a bunch of wonderful blue cheese, St. Pete's Select from Fairbault, MN, leftover from last weekend's beer tasting so I decided to make myself some Mac & Blue Cheese with it. Blue Cheese really dresses up a basic mac & cheese by adding a sharp, tangy flavor. I would have liked to have put some caramelized onions in this but I didn't have any onions in the house so, I tried caramelizing some shallots. They just didn't get that same sweet flavor onions get from slow cooking so I left them out.

This is not really much different than my Grown Up Macaroni & Cheese recipe I've shared in the past but I thought it thought it was worth sharing the directions for making a single serving. I don't know about you but the times I'm eating alone are often the times I crave some good comfort food.

Mac & Blue Cheese for One

3 oz. elbow macaroni, cooked & drained
1 t unsalted butter
2 t all-purpose flour
1/4 c milk
2 T half & half
1.5 oz. cheddar cheese, grated
1 oz blue cheese, grated or crumbled
pinch of dry mustard
salt & pepper
panko

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour & stir while cooking for 1 minute, do not let it brown. Slowly whisk in the milk & half & half. Stir until smooth & slightly thickened, about a minute. Turn the heat to low & add the cheese. Stir until melted. Season with the dry mustard, salt & pepper.

Mix the cheese sauce with the cooked macaroni. Spoon into a two cup ramekin. Sprinkle the top with panko. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the cheese is bubbly & the top is golden brown.

1 serving

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Onion & Potato Tartes Tartin

Now, I've had dessert tartes tartin but had never even heard of a savory version until Matt pointed this one out to me in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. It looked amazing in the book & since we were having Steak Diane Flambé for dinner I figured it would be a perfect side dish. I even had all the ingredients on hand.

This dish is a real stunner & would be great to serve at a dinner party plus it tastes absolutely wonderful. To top it off it's actually really simple to make.

Onion & Potato Tartes Tartin
from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

sheet of puff pastry dough
2 T cold unsalted butter plus extra for greasing the pans
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 russet potato, sliced very thin, scant 1/4-inch
salt & pepper
2 T balsamic vinegar
pinch of sugar

Preheat oven to 425 F. Butter two 4-inch mini cake pans & set aside.

Roll the puff pastry out to a scant 1/4-inch (our's was already that thin so it didn't need any rolling). Cut out two circle of the dough big enough to fit inside the widest part of the cake pan. Prick the dough with a fork. Chill the dough circles for 30 minutes.

Layer 3 or 4 slices of onion on the bottom of each pan. Top with a layer of concentric circles of potato & season with salt & pepper. Add another layer of potatoes & salt & pepper. Top each with a puff pastry circle. Place on a baking sheet then bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is puffed & golden brown. Immediately invert the tartes onto a serving platter.

Add the balsamic vinegar & sugar to a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer & stir until thickened into a syrup. Cut the 2 tablespoons of butter into small pieces. Whisk the pieces in a little at a time until all of it in incorporated. Brush this glaze on the top of the tartes.

Serves 2

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Recipes to Rival - Steak Diane Flambé

This month's Recipes to Rival challenge was brought to us by Temperance of High on the Hog & Shawnee of Delishes Delishes.

This was actually a pretty easy dish to make though we could never get ours to flambé. The best hint I can give it to have everything together & ready to add to the pan before you start cooking since it comes together quickly. We used a 10-oz beef tenderloin cut into 4 thin steaks to serve the two of us. The meat was cooked perfectly & came out very tender. The sauce was just wonderful.

Steak Diane Flambé
recipe by
Frank Bordoni from Great Food Live

Ingredients

For the steaks
4x85g beef medallions
1 tsp Dijon mustard
freshly ground salt and pepper

For the sauce
1 tsp Butter, clarified
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Shallots, finely chopped
50g button mushrooms, finely sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice
125ml double cream
1 tbsp Chives, snipped
50ml Brandy

Method
1. Rub the medallions of beef with the mustard, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and when hot, add the clarified butter and Worcestershire sauce.
3. Add the shallots and mushrooms, and push to the centre of the pan. Arrange the medallions around the edge. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring and tossing the mushroom mixture as you go. If you prefer your steak well done, give it an extra minute or 2.
4. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
5. Turn the steaks over and pour in the cream and chives. Tilt the pan slightly (away from you) and pour in the brandy at the far end. Now turn up the heat to high so that the brandy ignites. Swirl the sauce around in the pan and turn off the heat.
6. Put the medallions on 4 plates, pour over the sauce and serve.

Later today I'll share the recipe for the amazing onion & potato tartes tartin we made to go with it.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

The world's most exotic meat?

We Minnesotans like our jerky, its the perfect snack for when you're out fishing, hunting or hiking. At last summer's Aquatennial Parade I was almost knocked to the ground by people trying to grab feel samples of jerky being thrown to the crowd. Heck, I've even been known to search out a small butcher shop in Duluth because they supposedly made great homemade jerky. So, when Jerky.com asked us if we wanted to try a sample of an exotic meat jerky we enthusiastically responded yes. Boy, when they said exotic did they ever mean it! We were certainly thrilled to have the opportunity to try Sasquatch Jerky.
Now, we've tried some interesting cuts & types of meat in our time but I never thought we'd get to try sasquatsh. I understand that fresh sasquatch meat can be a little tough because it is so lean but that doesn't make a difference once the meat has been dried for jerky. This jerky has been marinated in brown sugar & soy sauce before being smoked which gives it a sweet & salty flavor that we really loved. The meat itself is a bit gamier than say beef or turkey jerky would be but that's to be expected from such a wild meat. We love the fact the Jerky.com's jerky is all natural without a ton of over-processing so we could really taste the flavor of the meat. 

Apparently, sasquatch is quite hard to source so Jerky.com only has limited quantities available from time to time (they do currently have it in stock). The price is a bit dear at $549.99 for 8-oz but you can get it right now for $50 off & shipping is free. It's just the thing for those who feel like they've tried everything.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski