Chorizo & Purple Potato-Stuffed Matzo Balls

How is everyone?! 

School started back up last Monday (hence my absence all week!) and I couldn't be more excited for what's to come this quarter.  I'm in Garde Manger - which is basically all cold prep and charcuterie -type stuff.  Can't wait to share what I learn with you guys!

We basically just spent the first week butchering different animals - fish, duck, chicken, pork, beef. And this week we've already made Worcestershire sauce (it has to sit for at least 5 weeks before being fully developed!) and some infused vinegar (my group made a lemongrass, orange, and thyme infused vinegar - majorly excited about that) and some garlic salt!  Our vinegar and salt is supposed to be incorporated into our 6 course final at the end of the quarter, so I'll be busy brainstorming the possibilities!

I made a trip to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning and ended up with some local chorizo and some purple potatoes (among the other plethora of things I nabbed up!).  I had some Matzo meal that has been staring me in the face every time I walked into my pantry so I figured it was begging to be used up - and I didn't want to go the normal route and make some soup - it is WAY too hot for that right now!

So I ended up deep frying these babies and making a totally non-kosher Matzo ball.  And they were every bit of delicious. 

Ingredients:
Makes about 12 matzo balls

2 eggs
1 oz. water
1 oz. unsalted butter, softened
2 oz. matzo meal
1/4 cup ground chorizo, cooked and cooled
1/4 cup mashed potatoes (I boiled off about 3-4 small purple potatoes and quickly mashed them), cooled
salt and pepper, to taste
oil, for frying

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs and water.  Beat until mixed together.  Stir in butter.

Add matzo meal, chorizo, potatoes, salt, and pepper.  Stir until combined.

Chill mixture for about 1 hour.

Portion into 2 tablespoon rounds - you'll end up with about 12-15 balls.

Bring oil to frying temperature (around 375F), and fry until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.

Transfer to paper towel-lined plates to dry and season with additional salt, if needed.

Now chow down!

Hope you all have a great week - stay cool!

Spicy Fried Rice w/ Chorizo

Happy Friday guys!  I am so elated that it's rearing up to be the weekend, that it's not even funny.  We've got a pretty jam-packed weekend planned, actually.

Tomorrow morning is the Derby Marathon & Mini.  And no.  My butt is not running in it.  I'm not that in shape yet.  I'll actually be volunteering at one of the Powerade and water stations (mile marker 10/19 for those of you that are actually running!).  The only bad thing about this is... I have to be there at 6:15am.  SIX. FIFTEEN. In the morning.  On a Saturday.  Yeah.  I'm dedicated to giving the runners their fluids.

But it won't be so bad.  I've been on a volunteering kick lately, so it'll be good to get out there and do some good.  (And I get a free t-shirt, so that's always a plus!)

And there's also a free concert (that was supposed to be by the river, but considering Waterfront Park looks pretty much like Atlantis right now, I'm positive that they'll be relocating that) on Saturday night that we plan on going to with a couple friends.  The band?  Soul Asylum.  Yeah, anybody remember that early 90's band?  Most famous for that song "Runaway Train".  Yeah, I was 7 when that came out, so no, I don't really remember that band... but since Andy is a tad bit older than I am, he remembers them clearly.  Which is also funny because he can't ever remember to take out the trash on Mondays, but yet, remembers a band from ages ago.  But I digress. 

Anyway, let's talk fried rice.  Fried rice is one of those things that I believe my mom can make the best.  She always just added in whatever we had laying around the house, and it was always amazing.  Definitely great for dinner all on it's own.  But I'm not bragging.

What I will be bragging about, is this new recipe for fried rice that may give my mom's many versions a run for her money.  It's spicy, it's filling, it's absolutely delicious.  So go ahead, try it out - you won't be disappointed!

Ingredients:
Adapted from PigPigCorner's recipe

2-3 cups leftover cooked rice (cold and day old is usually best)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
4 pieces of bacon, chopped
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 scallions (green parts only), chopped
1 large cooked chorizo sausage (or whatever meat/protein you want to add - I just had some leftover), chopped
2 tablespoons Sriracha, or other hot sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Soy sauce, to taste
3 eggs

In a medium bowl, mix leftover rice with the melted butter and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together Sriracha, sugar, and hot water.  Set aside.

In a large skillet under medium high heat, fry up the bacon pieces until browned and crisp, about 6-8 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.  Set aside.

Drain pan of the bacon fat, leaving about 1-2 tablespoons still in the pan.  Add the diced onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in garlic and half of the scallions.  Saute for about a minute more.

Add rice to the pan and pour Sriracha mixture over top.  Mix well.  Stir fry for about 3-5 minutes, or until rice is started to "crisp" or brown.

Crack the eggs over the rice and stir to scramble throughout mixture.  Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in bacon pieces and chorizo.

Season mixture with soy sauce, I think I used maybe 2-3 tablespoons and it was perfect. 

Stir in sesame oil and remaining scallions.  Serve hot and with extra Sriracha if you'd like!

This was seriously delicious.  We had this with some Red Curry Chicken Wings (recipe soon to come!) and it couldn't have been a better meal.  The best part?  We had a good amount of leftovers, and after making this on Tuesday, they're practically almost gone.  It's almost bittersweet... but then again, I could always just make some more!

How do you guys fix your fried rice?  Leftovers are always useful!

Hope you all have a great weekend and look forward to a new recipe on Monday!

Twice Baked Loaded Sweet Potatoes

I'm telling you, these past couple of weeks, with flu season and all, have made for some quite hellish days at work. I'm so stressed out from the pharmacy that after coming home from a late shift, I don't want to spend hours preparing a great meal. I can settle for a quick, mediocre one. And this was just the case the other night with these potatoes I found over at Mango & Tomato...

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
2 medium sized chorizo pork sausages
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
6-8 fresh mozzarella balls
salt and pepper to taste

This is pretty much a no brainer recipe: just cook potatoes, fry filling, and bam, but I'll go into the details just in case...

Preheat oven to 475 degrees and bake potatoes for about 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes. Mine were pretty hefty, so it took all of about 45 minutes to get them good and done.

While you're waiting for the potatoes, remove the chorizo from it's casing and fry in a skillet until browned. Then add your garbanzo beans and mix well. The chorizo gives the filling a pretty decent heat, but I found that I had to add a little bit of salt and pepper just to add a little more flavor.


When potatoes are finished, allow them to cool for about 10-15 minutes. Make a slit in the middle of each one and carefully remove the filling and add it to the sausage/garbanzo mixture.

Shred some fresh mozzarella into the mixture, as much as you'd like, and mix well. Then add the mixture into the potato skins. Top with bits of mozzarella (I did this in layers by putting some cheese on the bottom of the potato skins, then add some filling, then more cheese in the middle, and more filling, and then top with cheese, but I like mucho cheesy things so you don't have to do this). Bake the potatoes for about 5 minutes, until cheese is nice and melted and dig in!


This didn't take considerably long to make, especially since I made Andy start baking the potatoes a little before I left work so they would be done by the time I got home! Smart eh? Overall, it was okay... would have been great as a side dish of loaded mashed sweet potatoes, but it was quick, easy, and relieved a little bit of my stress so I can't complain! Enjoy!

Chorizo-ed Out Baked Potatoes

After eating quite healthy for a week, I decided that "eating in sin" was the way to go for this next dish. When I think of a baked potato, I always think of the baked potato that my mom or dad would serve with dinner - not even baked at all. Nuked in the microwave for about 10 minutes, slit in the middle, and served with a slice of butter. Not too fancy, and not too good - for me anyway. Way too boring and didn't excite my mouth.


So I perused for a good LOADED baked potato and came across this recipe from The Noshery that I just couldn't resist. I fell in love with this recipe mainly because it had some meat in it - chorizo sausage. Perfect mix of spicy and pork. Some of my 2 favorite things.

Ingredients:
4 Potatoes (I used Russet because there's big and I was super hungry)
10 oz. ground chorizo
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
sour cream
shredded cheddar
scallion

This is definitely another quick fix meal for a weeknight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Start by wrapping the potatoes with a damp paper towel and nuke them in the microwave for 10 minutes. When I first read that they were going to be nuked in the oven, childhood memories of bland potatoes came back to me and I was a little frazzled, but I gained composure and knew that these were no ordinary potatoes. Also, watch carefully that the damp towels don't dry up in the microwave, because I had a few potatoes that kind of melded with the paper towel, but it's nothing a little elbow grease and some water can't rub off.

Meanwhile, while the potatoes are in the microwave, heat up the chorizo in a skillet for about 5-10 minutes, until all of it is cooked and set aside.


I got chorizo sausages and just removed the casing instead of buying a roll, because every time I buy a roll of sausage it seems that I never use the whole thing and it ends up going bad. This way, if I have extra chorizo sausages, I can just grill them up for a quick lunch.

In a small bowl, mix up the olive oil, salt, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.


This was heaven in a bowl. This mixture could really be put on anything. Potatoes, veggies, steak, etc. I had to control myself from licking the spoon like it was left over brownie batter.

Brush a little bit of the mixture on a sheet pan and place potatoes on top. Score the potatoes and mash each one down. Not too rough though, still want the potatoes mostly in tact.

I almost lathered my potatoes in the olive oil mixture because it was THAT good.


But smother as much on as you see fit.

Then place potatoes in oven for about 25 minutes, when outside is a bit crispy but potatoes are still tender.

Top however you like your baked potato, mine consisted of a layer of shredded cheese first (so it could melt on top of the hot potato), then LOTS of chorizo, sour cream, and a garnish of green onions.


Boy was this delicious. I made 2 for the both of us, but I could only eat one. Starches are quite filling, but it was so good I had to save my pretty little potato for lunch the next day... and it was still just as amazing!