A couple of Sunday family meals

Now that we are living close to Lupe's family, we can have some big family meals at our house. Back in San Diego, I was always making big meals for just the two of us. No wonder why I gained so much weight. Now I can have fun and cook big meals, but I get to share them with lots of folks. Here are a couple of recent Sunday meals.

Lamb kebabs and grilled lamb

Lorena came over to help us with the prep work.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

She helped Lupe make all the veggie kebabs. I wanted to have the veggies separate from the Lamb, so I could get them all cooked properly. The lamb kebabs just had lamb and onions, while the veggie kebabs had red bell pepper, calabacita, red onion and mushrooms.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Along with the kebabs, I grilled up part of a butterflied leg of lamb. I figured I could cook the lamb kebabs a little more than I would normally do with lamb, while I could have the grilled leg medium rare.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I served it all up with some grilled asparagus, steamed veggies and smashed potatoes. Good stuff.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Lasagna dinner

I've been working on refining the lasagna recipe. The first time I did lasagna for the family it turned out very loose. The flavor was great, but they were awfully runny. I've cut back on the meat sauce on the red lasagna and have upped the percentage of cheese, and bechamel. We did two types again; meat sauce and spinach.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Along with the lasagna we had an antipasto salad, grilled asparagus and fettuccine with meat sauce for those who didn't want lasagna (or for those who just wanted to pack on the carbs).

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Another winner and everybody got a door prize......a big plate of lasagna to take home.

The return of the enchirito

When I was a little kid I used to love getting enchiritos at Taco Bell. An enchirito is a little burrito that is covered in enchilada sauce and cheese. As far as I can tell, they just made enchiladas with the ends of the tortillas tucked in like a burrito. Just a marketing ploy for an American market that was completely ignorant of real Mexican food. It worked; I loved the damn things. The best thing about it was the sliced black olives on top. I now know that they are about as unauthentic as anything from Taco Bell, but I love black olives and I use them in lots of my 'new' Mexican dishes.

I made venison enchiladas a few weeks ago and they had some structural problems. Trying to get them out of pan resulted in the filling spilling from the open ends. Still tasty, but messy and hard to get any sort of pleasing presentation on the plate. What to do? What to do?........

Enchirito them damn enchiladas. Same great flavor, but enclosed in a nice, tidy package. This time I got the great big, giant tortillas. Each enchirito was the full width of the baking dish. Each enchirito was probably enough to feed two. Of course, I had a whole one all to myself. Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire the damn food before you eat it.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

See, Lupe was impressed. She just had to take a moment and admire the beauty of the enchirito. Oh, by the way; they were goooooood!

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Homemade pickles

Not just any pickles; kosher dill pickles. It took a couple of tries to get things right, but it was sure worth the effort. I used Alton Brown's recipe for this batch. These are very good. Very similar in taste to the pickles that they serve at Canters Deli.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

What goes well with pickles? Everything. Especially pastrami sandwiches. To keep with the homemade theme, I decided to make my own pastrami to go with the pickles. I picked up a bunch of corned beef after St. Patrick's Day with the express purpose of making pastrami. Again, I turned to Food Wishes for the recipe. I didn't cook this in the oven, as Chef John does, but I did use the recipe for the spice rub. I smoked this on the BBQ for about 5 hours. It was a little salty, but the flavors from the spices were dead-on.

I don't go with the traditional deli-style pastrami sandwich. I like mine on Jewish rye with yellow mustard, swiss cheese and sliced pickles. A couple of pickle spears on the side and you got yourself one helluva lunch.

No pictures of the pastrami sandwich. I was hungry and ate it before I remembered to get the camera. I planned to take pictures the next day when I made another sandwich for lunch. Ate that one too fast as well. Next day.....pretty much the same. Seeing a trend develop?

Hammin' it up

Did another ham. A whole bone-in ham marinated and injected with mojo criollo.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Tender, juicy, spicy.......totally awesome.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

So, what could possibly make this any better?

Any ideas?

Anything? Farris? Farris?

How about Tater Tots?

Yes, TATER TOTS!

Lupe has been bugging me to make her some Tater Tots for a long time now. I've been tempted, but I've really been trying to keep my body in runway form, at least through the end of fashion week. Well, that's over, so now I can binge. Tater Tot time!

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Spicy ham, Tater Tots dusted with garlic and Cayenne pepper and veggies in a white wine, cream sauce. Now that's some good eatin' raht there.

Everybody is happy when Tater Tots are on the plate.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Valentines Day

Valentine's Day dinner wasn't that memorable (the food, not the company). The real high point of the dinner was the Boston cream cake. This is another gem from Chef John's Food Wishes website. This is basically two cakes filled with Boston cream filling and topped with chocolate ganache. Doesn't get much better than that. Oh yeah, sharing it with my Valentine sweetie was better than that.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Spring recap

I have no excuse for not posting anything in two months. It's not like I've been too busy to post. And I've definitely been cooking a lot. Oh well; I guess I'm just a slug. How the heck do real bloggers write new stuff every day? I feel like Ernest Hemingway when I do two posts in a week. Enough belly achin', let's get to the belly pleasin' food porn.

This is from a while back. Before we moved up to Long Beach, I had to travel up here every week for work. The last week before the move, I stayed at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro (ooooohhhh swanky). Since I was exiled in San Pedro, I had the perfect excuse to eat at the fish market at Ports O' Call. I wasn't really in the mood for a whole deep fried rock cod........

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

.....so I opted for the next best thing; the shrimp plate (camerones y papas).

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

This is the best thing you'll ever get served on a plastic cafeteria tray. And I do mean on a plastic cafeteria tray. No plates needed for this giant helping of shrimpy goodness. The dish consists of potato, onion, tomato and peppers sauteed on a flat-iron grill. When the veggies are cooked, a pound of shrimp (or however much you want to buy) are thrown on the grill. Everything is seasoned with what seems to be a Cajun-style seasoning powder. I think they splash a little water onto everything to make a nice, sloppy sauce. This big mess is dumped straight onto a cafeteria tray. I do mean a big mess. The shrimp aren't peeled, so you're going to have to wade in and get a little messy. Actually, you're going to get a lot messy. That's part of the fun of it all. Along with the shrimp and veg, you get these big pieces of awesome garlic bread.

The only thing that can make this anymore awesome is to eat there on a Sunday afternoon. Fully half the Mexican population of Los Angeles comes to Ports O' Call after church on Sunday. It is an absolute zoo. You have to send somebody out to find a table while you're waiting in line to get the shrimp, or waiting in line to get the shrimp cooked, or waiting in line to get drinks. There's a lot of waiting in line goin' on. That's just as well, because it's going to take at least a half hour for your scout to find a table. Most of the seating is out on the patio, overlooking the harbor. The patio is as crowded as a feed lot in a cattle yard. Along with everybody getting their grub on, you've got strolling mariachi bands and all sorts of unlicensed vendors hawking various and sundry trinkets and crap. It's pretty much like eating at a place in Mexico.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Good times. We're going to gather up the Lopez family and head back there some Sunday. I can't wait.

Enchilada venado (venison enchiladas)

I am in the process of swapping out our meat stock in the freezer. I just bought 8 racks of baby back ribs, so I had to clear some space in the freezer. Out with the venison and in with the pork. The first to be thawed was a large section of hindquarter. This was at least a 4-5lb section that I had boned out and butterflied. Even after the venison meat sauce/chili experiment, I still had quite a bit left over. I took a look a Chef Scott Leysath's very cool site, HuntFishCook, to get some ideas. While I didn't actually use his venison enchilada recipe, it did give me the idea for what I should do.

Day 1

The first step was to cook the venison. As lean as the meat was, I was reluctant to actually roast the venison. I decided to braise it instead. I cut the venison into large chunks to reduce the cooking time. Seasoning was pretty much my standard; salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper, smoked paprika and granulated garlic. I also used some Mexican oregano and cumin.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

The meat was seared on each side in a little lard and then removed from the pan. I had diced an onion, sliced a few jalapeños and crushed several garlic cloves. All of these got a quick sweat and then I deglazed the pan with some sherry. The meat went back in the pot along with a splash of cider vinegar and beef stock. After about three hours the venison was fork tender. Once cooled, I shredded it and then added all the pan juices back to the meat. I also re-seasoned at this time.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Day 2

I started out by making the enchilada sauce. This step took me several hours, but it could go much faster. You can just use canned enchilada sauce if you want. I just like doing things from scratch sometimes. I removed the stems and seeds from about a dozen of each of Japonese, California and New Mexico chiles. I also used 5 or 6 ancho and morita chiles. The chiles were lightly toasted and then simmered in 2 quarts of beef broth for an hour or so. When the chile were soft, I pureed them in the blender. The beef broth was added to thin out the puree. When making the enchilada sauce like this, it is best to press the puree through a chinois or mesh strainer to remove the little pieces of chile. The next step was to sweat some diced onion, jalapeño and garlic in pork lard. When the onion softened I added a small can of tomato paste and seasoned with salt, pepper and Cayenne. As soon as all the liquid evaporated I added a quart of beef broth. This was reduced by half and then pureed in the blender. The tomato puree was returned to the hot pot and the chile puree was added until I got the desired taste and consistency. I only used about half of the chile puree that I had made. The rest will be used for the venison chili I'll be making next week. This mixture was simmered for another hour or two.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Once the enchilada sauce was done, it was time to make enchiladas. The shredded venison was mixed with some enchilada sauce, a couple of cups of grated Monterey jack and mozzarella cheese and about a cup of crema Salvadorena (sour cream is a suitable substitute). I don't know the exact measurements; I just eyeball this part. You want the enchilada filling to have enough cheese and sour cream to be smooth and creamy without being runny. This is also the last chance to season. I added more salt, Cayenne, paprika and garlic to 'kick it up' a bit. At this point you want to start dropping your flour tortillas (I prefer flour, but corn also work)in the enchilada sauce. Very fresh flour tortillas just need both sides covered with sauce. Corn or inferior flour tortillas need to spend a little time in the sauce to soften up. Add a thin layer of enchilada sauce to the bottom of a baking dish (greased will prevent scorching and ease clean up). The enchilada filling is spooned onto the tortilla and it is rolled up. Remember; if you fold over and close the ends it becomes an enchirito, not an enchilada. The amount of filling is dependent on the size of the tortillas and how sloppy you want the meal. The rolled enchiladas are placed, side-by-side, in the baking dish. When the baking dish is full, you drizzle some of the sauce over the enchiladas and top with shredded cheese. In a nod to the Taco Bell enchiritos that I used to love when I was a kid, I top the enchiladas with thinly sliced green onions, sliced black olives and a mix of shredded yellow and white cheese (cheddar, jack, asiago & mozzarella). I cover the pan with non-stick foil and heat in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. The foil is removed for the last few minutes to make sure the cheese gets all gooey and starts to brown a little.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Because the enchiladas are so rich, I thought it would be good to have a slightly bitter veg to go with them. As luck would have it, I had some Brussel sprouts. I sauteed the sprouts and green onion slices in butter and olive oil and then deglazed the pan with white wine. The sprouts were seasoned with salt, Cayenne and black pepper. I added about a half cup of water and covered the pan. When the sprouts were tender I added some cream and let it go on medium heat until the sauce thickened.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I garnished the plate with a little salad of finely sliced cabbage dressed with a pico de gallo.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

A lovely and tasty dinner. Yum.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Venison chili....or is it a meat sauce?

I really don't know how to describe this one. I broke out the first of the venison hindquarter meat and wanted to see how it would cook up. I know that you can cut steaks from the hams and quickly pan sear or grill them. I was wondering how much heat/time I had to play with before small strips of this ham would get chewy. It turns out, not much at all. I threw some into a hot pan with some diced onion and, before the onion had even started to sweat, the meat had gone chewy. Well now I know. Stick to steaks and don't go more than medium rare. I didn't want to waste the meat, so I decided to keep going with a really slow cook, until the meat became tender. I added some garlic, Anaheim and jalapeño chiles and a bunch of seasoning to bump up the flavor. When the veg had softened, I deglazed with a little sherry and then added tomato paste. When the tomato paste was mixed in and had started to cook, I added about four cups of beef stock. I reduced the stock by about half and then added a 16oz can of diced tomato and a 16oz can of Pato brand spicy tomato sauce. The sauce was extremely spicy, so I added a couple of tablespoons of honey. This was simmered, uncovered, for several hours, until the meat had become tender and the liquid reduced. The end result was more like a meat sauce than a chili. It was very spicy, but the heat was offset by the slightly sweet notes of the honey. The hot and sweet flavors worked well with the taste of the venison. I served it like a chili size, topped with cheese and with a chunk of sourdough bread to soak up the juice. This would have been just as good on top of a pasta.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Fajitas

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Chicken fajitas.

Minced chicken seasoned with Cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, garlic power, Mexican oregano, cumin and a splash of cider vinegar. White onion and poblano chiles for the veg. Cast iron pan, lard, heat, squeeze of lemon, done and yummy.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Served on corn tortillas with frijoles negro refrito, salsa guacamole and sprinkled with cilantro.

Cuban sandwiches

So, I'm strolling through the meat department at Von's and what should catch my eye? Cheap ham!!! Every so often, Von's will have Farmer John hams on sale for some insanely low price, like 97 or 99 cents/lb. Last week they had whole, bone-in hams on sale and I just couldn't pass them up. I picked up a 22lb ham for just over 20 bucks. As usual, Lupe busted my chops for bringing home another ham, but I paid no mind to her protestations. "We don't have room in the fridge" We just had ham last week" "We had a ham the week before" yada yada yada. Doesn't she understand? 22 pound of ham for 20 bucks! How can I pass that up? I told her; "Don't worry. We'll have your whole family over for a meal and then we won't have to worry about not being able to close the refrigerator door. Jeeeeesh; she worries about such little things all the time.

Invitations went out to Familia Lopez and I cranked up the new BBQ. At some point after the purchase of the ham, I decided that I also needed to buy 10lbs of pork shoulder. With the pork shoulder in hand, it occurred to me that I had the makings for Cuban sandwiches. While I didn't have true Cuban rolls, I did pick up a load of bolillos from Northgate. I just needed Swiss cheese and pickles and I would be set. Fortunately, I had been experimenting with making dill pickles last week, so I had several jars in the fridge. All set and ready to Q.

I used my flavor injector to add some yummy tastiness to both the ham and the pork. I injected mojo criollo into both and then rubbed with same. I loaded the ham and pork onto the BBQ for their long journey to Flavortown. A mix of hickory and maple chunk wood was used for smoke. I even added sugar cane at the end for a little Caribbean flavor. Throughout the day I also basted the meat with mojo criollo marinade.

I worked on the side dishes while the meat was smoking. I made a ton of frijole negro in the slow cooker. I started by searing some chunks of heavily spiced pork belly in a cast iron skillet. When these were partially cooked, I removed them from the heat and set aside. I then cooked some thick-cut, lightly cured bacon in the same pan. As I had no smoked ham hocks, the bacon was going to stand in in it's place. The beans (4 cups) went in the slow cooker along with the bacon, a diced red onion, a handful of garlic cloves and 4 or 5 morita chiles. The chiles would provide the heat and, along with the bacon, some smokiness. As usual, chicken stock was used as the cooking liquid. When the beans were nearly done, I added the salt and tossed in the chunks of pork belly to finish cooking.

I had Lupe and her sisters make a large pot of calabacitas to go with the meat. While the calabacitas cooked, I removed the pork from the BBQ and shredded it. We also made some avocado-tomatillo salsa to go with the meal. When everything was ready, we warmed up about a billion corn tortillas.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

We got everybody served with pulled pork tacos, sliced ham, calabacitas and frijoles before I started making the Cuban sandwiches. I had two cast iron pans heating on the stove. In these, I put sliced ham topped with Swiss cheese. I covered the pans to steam and melt the cheese. When the cheese was thoroughly melted onto the ham slices, they were removed and placed onto the bread.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

The bread was spread with yellow and dijon mustard and then pulled pork was piled on top. The homemade pickle was added and then the sandwiches were brushed with spicy melted butter. The sandwiches were returned to the pan and then I used the other hot pan to squash them flat. Who needs a panini press anyways?

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

I think everybody enjoyed the Cuban sandwiches. I even made a bunch of to go orders, so people could have at work the next day.

Cubanos = awesome