Smoked Chicken/Turkey and Pork
I love smoking meat. I usually fire up my smoker once a month to fill my fridge and freezer for the next couple/few weeks. Tonight, I did two turkey legs, three chicken leg quarters, a pork loin and two pork chops. While the lump charcoal heats and the wood chips (apple and a little hickory) soak, I put a rub on the meat. My standard rub is: Garlic powder Onion powder Sea Salt Black Pepper Paprika I don’t use cumin, unless it’s for ribs. I often will mix in some pre-made blend, such as Toni’s Cajun, or Montreal Steak. Depending what I have around. Tonight I used a fair amount of Mrs. Dash. My goal is to usually smoke my meat for 2 hours and then to finish over a low gas grill. If I’m doing a Boston Butt, I start that 4 hours earlier. For this mix, 2 hours and...
Lemon Haddock with Toasted Almonds with Lemon Butter and Parsley.
Tonight’s dinner is a continuation of the exploration of what may be my favorite cookbook of all time, My Wild Atlantic Kitchen, by Irish chef Maura O’Connell Foley, a fellow Kerry Ireland Foley. But this time…I didn’t change (almost) anything. I didn’t have sole, so I used haddock. Flounder would have worked too, I think. I tweaked a few things, but this was mostly from the source. So I give you Lemon Haddock with Toasted Almonds with Lemon Butter and Parsley. But, with Haddock. Ingredients: A couple fillets of a nice white fish. Sole if you have it, but flounder, cod or haddock is good. A cup of flour season with sea salt and fresh crushed black pepper Butter or olive oil, or a mix of both Almond sliversJuice of a lemon A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley...
Chicken with Lime & Lemongrass
Saturday night’s dinner once again is an adaptation of a recipe from My Wild Atlantic Kitchen, a wonderful cookbook I picked up in a small bookstore in Kenmare, Ireland, where the author lives and is a chef. There are several items I didn’t have access to, so I made some substitutions that I’ll note. But the flavor profile, I would like to think, comes pretty close. I also finished the chicken in an air fryer, and not an oven. Ingredients: Chicken Ingredients 3 chicken leg quarters, broken down 2 Tbsp flour Butter Marinade Ingredients 2 Tbsp coriander powder Zest and juice of 2 limes Crushed red pepper flakes 2 Tbsp olive oil 3 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp ginger Lime syrup ingredients Zest and juice of 3 limes 1 Tbsp agave ½ cup white wine (Substitutions, I used...
Lamb Chops and Cucumber Salad
Sunday Night Dinner. Lamb Chops and Cucumber Salad I live in an interesting place…Colonial Beach. About an hour or so out of the DC area. One good thing is it a small town, but it has limited access to good meat. So on Thursday I went to the Big City (Fredericksburg) to get my driver’s license, and I took my electric cooler with me and filled it up with fish, chicken, beef and…lamb. Thus tonight’s dinner. I love lamb, and I tend to always prepare it the same way. A rack of lamb ribs is heaven, but I’m cooking for myself these days, so while at the Publix, I found a nice package of 4 small lamb chops. Bingo. Lamb Robert is heaven, and a recipe for a crowd…in the future. I bought a cucumber during my trip because…well, Lamb AND Cucumber! My cucumber recipe is...
Baked Fillet of Salmon with Lime & Coriander Butter
Saturday Night’s dinner was an adaptation of a recipe from my favorite new cookbook, My Wild Atlantic Kitchen, by Kerry Ireland chef Maura O’Connell Foley. This meal took about 10-15 minutes to prepare and full of flavor. I served it on top of my spiralized Zucchini. The recipe is called Baked Fillet of Wild Salmon with Lime & Coriander Butter. INGREDIENTS: 2 Salmon Fillets 3 oz of Kerrygold Irish Butter Juice of 2 Limes 1 tablespoon Coriander Powder Freshly Ground Black Pepper Zucchini 1 Spiralized Zucchini ¼ cup chopped jarred roasted red bell pepper ½ chopped onion 1 tbsp Kerrygold butter Roasted garlic Crushed red pepper flakes Freshly ground black pepper DIRECTIONS: Preheat your oven to 400°. Spray a glass baking dish with olive oil spray. Make a foil...
Don’s Enchiladas
This is one of my favorite recipes. I’ve been cooking it for three decades, harkening back to my days in Phoenix as a young visual journalist at the Arizona Republic. You can use any kind of meat. My favorites are grilled chicken thighs, pulled pork and of course…the day after Thanksgiving, my famous turkey enchiladas. I guess in theory you could leave the meat out, and it would still be incredible. You can use store-bought enchilada sauce as well, but home-made is very easy and tastes much better. I will admit to using the canned sauce, as it is mild and I generally have cooked for people that need mild. Not tonight. Tonight, I’m cooking for myself, using an air-fried leg quarter from last nights dinner. So I was happy to find my old sauce...