Simple Garbanzo Bean Soup

This recipe is light and so easy to make. Dylan and I wanted something "soupy" and didn't want to go to the store for any chicken to make a light stock, so I grabbed a can of garbanzo beans, some garlic, thyme and lemon to make some soup.

:Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic

1 can of garbanzo beans (drained)

2 Tbsp olive oil

few sprigs of thyme (you can adjust depending on how strong you want it)

4 cups water or stock

Start by heating up the olive oil and mincing the garlic. Toss in the garlic to sweat it a bit and then add the garbanzo beans and sautee for a few minutes to incorporate the garlic. Next, add the thyme and water. When the water is boiling, turn down heat to simmer and salt and pepper to taste. I added some christophene to our soup to sweeten it up, but a touch of agave nectar or sugar works as well. When ready to serve, ladle into individual bowls and grate some lemon zest over the top.

Truffled Risotto with Shitake Mushrooms

I love risotto, but for me it needs too much of my patience and as much as I would like to be able to whip up a batch of risotto on my own, I don't have the attention span to do it. Luckily, Dylan makes an amazing risotto from scratch, which he did the other night along with some grilled flank steak and sauteed greens.

So Dylan started out with about 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter and about 2 Tbsp of olive oil. The Arborio rice is added when the oil and butter is hot. Let the rice soak up the oils, but remember to stir it around to lightly toast the rice. On a different burner you should have a pot of hot stock ready. We generally use chicken stock, but others can be used. Once the rice is a little toasted and has soaked everything up, add a ladle of the hot stock. Stir, and once the liquid is absorbed, add another ladle.




After using about half the broth, Dylan added his shitake mushrooms, a touch of minced garlic, and herbs. This time around, he used fresh thyme, rosemary, basil and dried sage. Stir that around and continue with the stirring and broth-adding. Keep repeating this process until the rice looks plump (we used 2 cups of rice and ended up using about 2 cans of chicken stock).

Once all the broth is added, it should be pretty liquid, so just cover the pot and turn the heat down low for 10-15 minutes. Before you know it the rice will have cooked through but because of the stepwise addition of the broth, it will have maintained an al dente feel to it. Before serving, add in some grated parmesan until it's nice and gooey. Dylan also adds a touch of heavy cream so it's not overly sticky.

Top it off with some black truffle oil and it's finished! Keep in mind that if you're serving this with fish or seafood, the cheese is left out. Cheese is traditionally never served with seafood in Italy.

Dylan served it with some grilled flank steak and sauteed greens. We picked up a great way to sautee greens from Dylan's dad - he likes to add a touch of cumin to the greens and some pinenuts.

We had a bottle of 2001 Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva, but any Old World Red would do perfectly with this dish or dish similar to this.

Steak Heaven at Doe's Eat Place

D is originally from Greenville, Mississippi and still has some family and friends down there. He and I recently took a trip down there to visit his mom's side of the family. I have never been to Greenville, or Mississippi for that matter, but I have heard of Doe's Eat Place and their steaks. Doe's started in Greenville, MS in 1941 and has now expanded to other cities. Doe's Eat Place is a small little shack on the side of the road with an open kitchen, a handful of tables and a reputation of grilling up some of the best steaks in the country. In addition to that, they're known for their great tamales. Their recipe has been a family secret since the very beginning and I must say, those things are darn tasty. I have no idea how Tamales got down to the Delta, but they stayed and every place has their own tamales recipe. D and I tried out the tamales at a few different places just to see if there was a difference, and there really is. I have to say though, Doe's had the most flavorful and juicy tamales out of the ones we tried. Apologies for the horrible picture... but here are the tamales in all their glory!





D ordered the 3 lb Porterhouse steak while I went with the 2lb T-bone. It was delicious! The steaks were perfectly grilled with juices running out to meet their amazing fries.

Doe's is a BYOB restaurant so we decided bring a couple bottles of wine. We ended up bringing a bottle of 2001 Penfolds RWT and a 2004 Caymus Special Selection. Both were great wines to have with what we were eating of course, but I really enjoyed the spicyness of the shiraz.

Overall, I would highly recommend dropping by Doe's Eat Place whenever you get the chance!

Dutch Oven Cooking

D and I recently took a trip to Greenville, Mississippi to visit some of his relatives. His mom and stepdad happen to be a part of an organization that goes camping together and they all cook something in their Dutch ovens.

The Dutch oven in general is really a great asset to the kitchen even though they're originally made for outdoor use with coals, but other varieties are sold that are more appopriate for the kitchen. The one we just bought is mainly for the stovetop and oven since it has an enamel finish on it. They are so versatile in the ways that you can use it, so it's always fun to experiment and try different recipes.


Below are two Dutch ovens cooking on the coals. The idea is to put a specific number of coals in various arrangements depending on what temperature you want your food to cook at. The coals go under and on top of the Dutch ovens, then you just let it sit and cook!

Ready for opening and serving!

Brisket - this turned out so incredibly juicy and tender. We basically seasoned it with onions, bell peppers, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and some paprika.

Some Dutch oven bread made from biscuit dough but turned out like soft country bread!

The overall spread - I decided that I had to make a salad in order to have some sort of fresh greens to go along with the heartier fare. That's a strawberry salad with a simple red wine vinagrette there on the side.

After seeing what these things can do we're already itching to start our own collection of Dutch ovens!

Okinawan Sweet Potato and Haupia Pie

So I ran across some sweet purple potatoes (Okinawan Sweet Potatoes) at a Korean supermarket a couple weeks back and started what I do best - hoarding. I grabbed an armful of these purple gems and smiled to myself thinking about eating fresh baked sweet potatoes... just like my mom makes them. Of course, after eating sweet potatoes for a few days in a row, D and I were completely sick of them so now i have extra potatoes. Found this interesting recipe on the web so decided to try it since it sounded like a nice, fresh and not overly-sweet dessert despite the sweet potato part.

First Comes the Crust...

1/2 sticks of unsalted butter

1/8 cup tablespoon granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour1 cup nuts, chopped (I think the original called for macadamia nuts, but i put in pecans and almonds instead)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

If you have a food processor, you should just start by pulsing the nuts until they're roughly chopped. It's okay if they're big chunks since you'll be pulsing some more. Add in the flour and sugar, give it a pulse and start adding the butter. Let it mix until it's crumbly. Press lightly into a 13" x 9" baking pan. (I used a normal springform pan)

Bake at 350°F for ~ 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Set aside.

Then comes the sweet potato filling...

2 cups Okinawan sweet potatoes, cooked and whipped

1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Next, fold in whipped Okinawan sweet potatoes. Then, add in milk, vanilla and salt. Continue to mix until well combined. Mixture should be the consistency of pancake batter. Pour onto crust and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Then the Haupia Layer...

*Haupia is a Hawaiin dessert that is coconut-based. It's basically a thicker coconut milk jello.

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

1 12-ounce cans coconut milk, defrosted (you can use two cans if you like a strong coconut flavor, I went with one for a lighter coconut taste)

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add water and stir until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat coconut milk on low until warmed through. Slowly add in sugar/cornstarch/water mixture, stirring constantly until coconut milk mixture is thickened (about 5-7 minutes). Let cool slightly, then pour over Okinawan sweet potato mixture. Refrigerate until firm, about 4-5 hours, overnight is best.

Cut into squares and enjoy!

D and I were browsing one of our favorite food blogs: chubbyhubby.net and decided to try out a few recipes from there. We made the deconstructed california roll with a trio of tuna tartare. Because I'm horrible at following directions unless it pertains to baking, I fiddled around with the tuna tartare recipe. The dish turned out really great although I substituted a seaweed salad instead of the wakame seaweed for the deconstructed California roll. The pictures are horrible though because we only had my old camera to use.

Tuna tartare from bottom to top: ginger and red pepper with sesame oil tartare, sauteed shitake, green onions and soy tartare, spicy cucumber tartare. Everything was really flavorful, especially with limiting each tartare to a few flavors. D paired this dish with Dagueneau's 2004 Silex which is deliciously crisp and minerally Pouilly Fume Blanc.

Then we had the braised pork belly over a scallop congee. This was so wonderfully cozy and warm. It's a really rejuvenating dish and marinating the rice in a spring onion oil really makes such a delicate difference!

The pork belly was extremely tender after braising it for 8 hours in the oven and then simmered with a soy, rice wine and sugar mixture that added just the right amount of salty and sweet. D decided to open a bottle of 2004 Twelve Pinot Noir from Oregon for this one and the smoky sweetness of the pinot paired perfectly with the braised pork.

Then for dessert we had the chocolate donuts and vanilla panna cotta with an espresso gelee. The pictures didn't turn out that great on this one, but here it is.

I had extra chocolate ganache drops so i decided to put one on top of the donut. D and I love dark and rich coffee so I made the espresso gelee extra dark and the bitterness of the espresso went perfectly with the creamy vanilla panna cotta below it.

All these recipes can be found on chubbyhubby.net which is a highly recommended site for some great recipes!