Irish Food

Guess what tomorrow is? It's St. Patrick's Day! Time for the Wearin' O' the Green, the Reinforcin' O' the Stereotypes, and most importantly, the Eatin' O' the Irish Food!

Trav's Corned Beef and Cabbage

3-5 pound corned beef brisket, trimmed
2 or 3 cans of beer (Irish beer, if you are a snob)
1 large head of cabbage, cored and cut into wedges
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon mustard seed (whole)
1 teaspoon coriander seed (whole)
6 alspice berries, whole
6 whole peppercorns

Rinse the corned beef brisket, and place in a crock pot. Add the beer, mustard seed, coriander seed, peppercorns, and alspice. Cover tightly and cook on the "Low" setting for 6 hours or until the brisket is tender.

Add the sliced onion and cabbage wedges, and cook on the "High" setting until the vegetables reach the desired level of tenderness (30 minutes is usually good). Serve hot with homemade bread, three pints of Guiness, two black-and-tans, and a fifth of Bushmill's.

Hey. I'm part Irish, so don't give me any flack about the stereotypes. Bona na croin!

Valentine Brownies

I've decided that I would try to post a new recipe every week. I like to cook, I like to eat, and I like to write, so it really was only a matter of time.

This week's recipe? I baked these brownies as a Valentine's Day gift. So I'll call 'em Valentine Brownies. They are perfect for those special occasions when you need to give someone a nice gift, but are too broke to buy anything. (Because, hey...who doesn't like brownies?)

Valentine Brownies

3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup melted butter or margarine, divided use
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips or chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan, and dust with cocoa to prevent sticking.

2. Stir cocoa and baking soda together in large bowl, add 1/3 cup of the melted butter or margarine. Add the boiling water and stir until mixture thickens. Stir in sugar, eggs, and remaining butter, and stir until smooth. Add flour, vanilla, and salt, and stir until blended. Add chocolate chips or walnuts if desired.

3. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake 30-40 minutes. Cool completely in the baking pan on a wire rack, then cut into squares. Makes about a dozen large brownies.

(Okay, I admit it...this is not my recipe. I straight-up boosted it off of Hershey's website.)

Leftover Pizza

I've been reheating leftover pizza for years, but I have been doing it all wrong. A microwave is the quickest and easiest method, but it makes the cheese hot enough to burn through plastic, and leaves the crust all rubbery and leathery. You could always reheat your pizza in a conventional oven, too, but it dries your pizza out, turning the crust into a concrete-like slab and shriveling your toppings up like so many shrinky-dinks. More often than not, I am content just to eat the pizza cold and call it good enough.

But no more. Today, I found the superior method for reheating pizza that leaves the toppings moist, the cheese gooey, and the crust crisp. Forget the microwave, forget the oven...just get out your non-stick skillet and rub it with a little bit of olive oil. Over medium heat, fry your slices of pizza with the cheese-side down for a few minutes, until the cheese is hot and bubbly (and maybe a little bit toasted...to each their own). Then flip it with a spatula and let the crust-side toast itself like a grilled cheese sandwich until the whole slice is piping hot. If you wish to add more cheese or toppings, now is the time.

Presto. Reheated pizza that is still edible. Bonus points for using a flavored oil (like garlic-basil, or red pepper oil). Sure, it takes a little bit more time than the microwave...but the finished product is a lot more enjoyable.

Wok Your Face Off

(Sorry, Kelly.)

I was mixing up a batch of stir-fry last weekend, and I came up with this pretty tasty sauce recipe that I thought I would share. I haven't tried it with seafood or tofu, but it tastes pretty good with beef and chicken.

Trav's Spicy Stir-Fry Sauce

1 cup broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)
4 T cornstarch
4 T soy sauce
4 T sugar
4 T dry sherry
1 T cider vinegar
1/4 t. ground ginger
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1/2 t. ground red pepper*
1/4 t. ground black pepper

*This will make a "medium" sauce. For "hot," increase the red pepper to 1 teaspoon. For "mild," omit the ground red pepper altogether. And for "very hot," increase the ground red pepper to 1 teaspoon and add 1 tablespoon of hot pepper oil.

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Add to your favorite stir-fry, after the meats and veggies are all fully-cooked. Stir-fry over high heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Serve over rice or noodles, and garnish with chopped almonds, cashews, or peanuts.

Clamenza Would Be Proud

I perfected my meatball recipe last night, and I thought I would share.

Spicy Meatballs
1 pound lean ground beef
12 saltine crackers, finely crushed
6 oz. tomato paste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon grated Parmesian cheese
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well with your hands until smooth and evenly blended. Shape into 2" balls.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-low heat. Place the meatballs in the skillet and brown them evenly on all sides, shaking the skillet and letting the meatballs roll around while cooking. Once they are all browned, place the meatballs into the oven (skillet and all). Bake for 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until the meatballs have an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees.

Remove them from the oven and blot them on paper towels for 5 minutes.

Pile them on some hot pasta with your favorite sauce, and pour yourself a glass of red wine. Or stuff 'em in a split loaf of french bread with some provolone and marinara, and crack open a cold beer.

TIPS

If you don't have an oven-safe skillet...say, your skillet has plastic handles or a Teflon coating...just dump the meatballs into a casserole dish or cake pan to bake them.

Substitute half of the ground beef with your favorite spicy Italian sausage.