two dudes foods

Vegetarian Reuben

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:49:00 -0500

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

Dude,
Did you once tell me that you make a vegetarian reuben?
Jamey

from Daniel Larkin
to me

Funny enough, I cut tofu this morning and started marinating it for ruebens tonight. Jenny’s parents are coming over for it!

I use my homemade kraut, so it’s basically the shit. Plus, the marinade mimics slow smoked, salty beef fairly well. It’s obviously a different flavor from a standard cornedbeef reuben, but I like the tofu just as much as any cornedbeef rueben I’ve ever had.

The process is pretty simple. I cut the tofu into thin slices, maybe about 1/4-inch thick, and marinate it in my special sauce (ewww) for at least 4 hours. My sauce is **roughly** a mix of 2 parts soy sauce, 1 part worcestershire sauce, and a few slashes of liquid hickory smoke. Then I dilute that all with water until I’m comfortable that it’s flavorful, but not overly salty.

When it’s done marinating, I cook the tofu in safflower oil on high heat until it’s brown on both sides. I’ve found that this gives the best texture. High heat and safflower oil.

Then I just stack it on some grilled pumpernickel bread with a heaping pile of warm sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island dressing (you’ll probably do Russian dressing).

Yum. I’m glad I was already planning on having these tonight, otherwise I would be scrambling to make it happen after writing this.

from: Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

That sounds great! I’ve been craving a Reuben, and we’re in the countdown to Orthodox Lent, so we just waved a 56 day goodbye to meat on Sunday. On top of that, I have a big bag of kraut in the fridge…I may hit up Whole Foods for some tofu in a bit.

Thanks!

[Update: Turns out we already posted about this in October. We’re idiots! http://twodudesfoods.com/post/11693303786/tofu-rueben]

SOUPS!

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:30:00 -0500

from Daniel Larkin
to jamey w. bennett

It’s downright shameful how long it’s been since we swapped recipes – picture texts and Facebook bragging not withstanding. I’ve been on a huge homebrewing and comfort food tear lately, and I’m finally at a breathing point where I can record it all.

So it’s officially soup season, and this is the first year I really feel like I’ve embraced the bowl and spoon with any modicum of success. I’ve already described my chicken soup in an earlier email, but I’ve got two more for you – a beef and barley stew that I randomly threw together and a vegetarian butternut squash and pear soup that I used to make at the Red Rooster Diner in Nashville. Both are astonishingly good, and both will warm you to your cockles this winter. Yeah, I said cockles.

First off, the Beef and Barley Stew. It’s super simple, and the prep work can be done in 30 minutes or less. The stew itself should cook for at least four hours, but I like to prep it in the morning and let it go all day. Peasant food was the original, “set it and forget it” theme in the kitchen.

1 qt chicken stock – homemade if you’ve got it, it makes ALL the difference in the world.
1 lb lean sirloin steak, diced into small cubes, salted and peppered and spread across a pan to reach room temperature.
1/2 stick butter.
1 pack beef bones (I recently noticed that most grocery stores sell large bone scraps for stewing, usually in packs of about a pound. A few of these in the pot with everything else transforms your chicken stock into a mighty warrior of deliciousness. And they’re dirt cheap.)
2 carrots diced
2 ribs of celery diced
1 medium onion diced
4 cloves garlic diced
1 14 oz can of diced tomato with liquids
1 fistful of pearl barley
Red pepper flakes to taste
1 bottle Guinness Stout

You can see where this is going, and I probably don’t even need to continue. But here it is anyway.

In an oven safe pot with a good fitting lid, brown the beef cubes in the butter on high heat – set aside.

Sauté celery, onions, carrots, and garlic on remaining butter and fat for a few minutes.

Toss the beef back into the pan, and add the stock, Guinness, tomatoes, beef bones, red pepper flakes, and barley and bring to a boil.

Toss the simmering mix into the oven at 220º and let it go as long as you can – four hours minimum. Remove the beef bones when it’s done, and salt and pepper to taste.

This is such a well rounded stew, nutritiously and flavor-wise. I recently took a Thermos of it to Ramsey Cascade Falls in the Smoky Mountains, and it was almost as good as the view.

OK, to the second soup, Butternut Squash and Pear. I used to make this at a little diner on the West Side of Nashville, and it always stuck with me as a favorite. Easy to make, and it can be ready in under an hour. I can’t believe it took me this long to make it again.

1 medium butternut squash peeled, cored and diced into approximately 1-inch squares.
4 pears, peeled, cored, and diced small.
2 small onions diced
1 qt vegetable stock
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, approximately 6-inches, whole.
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Sugar or honey to taste – if the pears are good, you shouldn’t need much
Heavy cream – less than a cup

The rest is simple.

Sauté the squash, pears and onions in butter until the onion is translucent.

Add stock, rosemary and cinnamon and simmer for 20 minutes, or until squash is done/mashable.

Remove the rosemary sprig and run that shit through a blender or food processor until it’s smooth.

Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste. You’re looking for more balanced comfort than sweet.

(An optional step here is to simmer it again on low heat for another 30 minutes or so, but it’s not 100% necessary)

Finish off with a touch of cream to round it out.

I like to serve this garnished with a dollop of sour cream on top, just to contrast the slight sweetness of the squash and pear. Jenny and I ate this on Christmas Eve alongside my sad attempt at a rustic bread loaf. It was delicious, though, and the subtle fruit, squash and rosemary flavors are all intrinsically winter for me. mmmm…..

Enjoy, hombre.

Jive Turkey

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:04:44 -0500

Daniel Larkin 11/23/10
to me

So I’m in charge of the turkey and stuffing for this year’s Knoxville Thanksgiving. Believe it or not, with as much cooking as I’ve done, I’ve never roasted a bird. But you have, during the turkey sandwich challenge. Do you have anytips/suggestions? The only twist I plan on implementing is rubbing chopped herbs between the skin and meat of the breast and thighs. (that sounded dirty)

I don’t own a real roasting pan with a rack, so I’m planning on doing this in a disposable aluminum one. How did you go about this?

Jamey W. Bennett 11/23/10
to Daniel

Easy. Here’s what I did after consulting my friend Sarah.

Disposable aluminum.
Thawed the turkey in cold water (this takes like 8 hours)
Pulled out all the junk and set it aside
Separated, carefully, the skin from the breast
Rubbed a shitload of butter in there between the skin and breast
Rubbed thyme and rosemary in the same place
Lightly sprinkled the skin with salt and pepper

Dropped that beast into the oven at 475 for 20 minutes to sear the outside and lock the juices in (or at least that’s the theory)

Reduced to 250 (leaving the bird in), and calculated 20 minutes per pound

I didn’t have a thermometer, but I had one of those little pop-out indicators and I did fine. But EVERYBODY says you should use a meat thermometer. Either way, stab that beast when you think it’s ready, and it should be juicy, but clear

I did not do stuffing. I know lots of people do, but there are also a lot of critics about the stuffing in the bird. Dowhachalike.

My grandma uses a rack, and she flips the bird upside down so all of the fat and juices cook into the breast. My mom swears by it.

And for your enjoyment from Facebook:

Saying prayers for the 45 million turkeys whose lives will be taken in the US this year, and hoping for the truth about the origins of Thanksgiving to make it into the minds, hearts and bellies of humans everywhere!

May the truth set the birds free…….Say NO to genocide for all species!!!!

Squash Stuffing, Roast Chicken and Chicken Soup

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:45:00 -0500

Daniel Larkin 4:39 PM (16 hours ago)

What’s up, dude? How’s the double shift lifestyle been treating you? Work seems to be picking up, as long as the engineers can stay on top of the scheduling. I’m hopeful that a five day work week is around the corner, so fingers crossed.

In food news, though, I’m officially obsessed with roasting chickens. Being married to a vegetarian, I don’t come across too many occasions to cook a whole bird, but I got a wild urge to roast one last week and followed through. When I get into the mood for chicken, it’s usually accompanied by a craving for stuffing. I’ve adapted a pretty solid vegetarian stovetop stuffing recipe so Jenny can jam on it too. We had a regular Thanksgiving.

So in order of everything, here’s a quick rundown of the stuffing.

Stuffing

For the bread, I raided the freezer and ended up with about 6 hoagie rolls (white, wheat and sesame) and two hamburger buns. I cut them into cubes between 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch, and toasted them in the oven at 250º until they were nice and dry.
Other ingredients are

Handful of walnuts
1/2 butternut squash
Real maple syrup
Half a large yellow onion
One rib of celery
One medium carrot, or about 8 baby carrots
Garlic
Vegetable stock
Fresh rosemary, thyme and sage

I cut a butternut squash in half, peeled the solid top, and cut it into 1/4-inch thick slices. (I stopped about an inch short of the stem) I brushed the slices with real maple syrup, sprinkled on salt and pepper, and then roasted them at 450º until they were cooked but still firm. When the slices were cool enough, I cut them into 1/4-inch cubes. Immediately after I pulled the squash from the oven, I threw a handful of chopped walnuts into the oven on a separate pan and roasted these for a few minutes.

In buttered pan, I sauteed the chopped onion, chopped celery, chopped baby carrots, and three cloves of garlic minced. I also included about a 6-inch sprig of fresh rosemary, about five 4-inch sprigs of thyme, and three sage leaves, all chopped finely. Oh yeah, and salt and pepper.

When all of this looked about done, I added the roasted walnuts, the par cooked squash cubes, a little more butter and a light drizzle of male syrup. I sauteed this for another minute and pulled it off to cool.

Then in a large stock pot, I combined the dried bread cubes and vegetable mix – tossing by hand until everything was mixed. When it was time to cook, I slowly heated the pot on the stove and gradually added vegetable stock until I found the right consistency. The key is to go slowly, because you can alway add more liquid, but you can’t remove it without cooking the whole thing to mush.

But it’s chicken time.

I would be willing to bet that my approach to roasting a chicken is similar to yours. Buy a good bird, and just don’t screw it up with a bunch of extras.

All I did was wash it, drizzle the skin and cavity with olive oil, salt and pepper, and stuffed it with a few sprigs of thyme, rosemary and a few sage leaves. I also cut a lemon in half, squeezed some juice on the skin, and then stuffed the two halves in the cavity, with the larger end plugging the bird’s ass. I roasted the chicken in a disposable aluminum pan for 105 minutes without once basting it. It was seriously the most moist white meat I’ve ever eaten, and the hint of lemon and herbs was fantastic!

Hold on, now there’s soup!

I collected all the extra fat and liquids from the roasting pan and put them in a large metal container. I quartered the bird and put the main carriage (skeleton) in with the juices, lemon and herbs and set this all in the fridge. I ate on the chicken for four days, and every time I would finish a quarter, I would toss the bones and extra meat in with the carriage and juices.

A few days after finishing the chicken, I removed as much meat as I could from the carcass and bones and set it aside on a plate. I put the bones in a two quart pot topped off with water; then I began the boil. I also included half of the lemon in the mix, but I took out a lot of the herbs. When I had lost roughly 1/3 of the liquid to evaporation, I added about 8 oz of homebrewed ESB and kept boiling. (I’ve made similar soup using A LOT more homebrew, but I was running low this time.)

I salted the stock lightly and tasted often. When I had the flavor I was looking for, I strained off the liquid and picked off whatever meat had separated during the boil. Then I threw the bones away. Since I had just strained the liquid into a separate jar, I used the two quart pot to sauté some carrots, celery and onion in butter. When the veggies were almost done, I added all of the meat into the mix and cooked it a bit more. Then I just added the stock back in and simmered everything for about 10 more minutes.

Jamey, this might have been the best soup I’ve had in years. The light lemon flavor and the fat of the olive oil and butter were a perfect match. The chicken meat was tender, and I could have drank the broth all day.

It’s a long email, I know. But next time you roast a chicken, this is a guaranteed way to perfect soup. My initial plan was to add noodles, but I never missed them. Who needs chicken noodle soup when chicken soup is better?

Fried Foods! Yay!

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:41:00 -0400

Daniel Larkin to jamey
10:57 AM

So I sent you pictures of our Bar Food Friday last weekend, but I wanted to share the goods. The chicken nachos were decent; we made them using my veggie taco recipe with real chicken. We started drinking before cooking, so we were a little rosy by the time we got to the cheese, and it ended up more like a Mexican mozzarella than queso fresco. But I’m not really writing you about the nachos. You know how to do nachos. What I’m talking about are the fried pickles.

October is over, so I’m assuming you can splurge on some good old fashion horrible-for-you food. I use this batter for just about everything fried – chicken, onions, pickles, etc. – and it’s never let me down. I actually learned the recipe from a popular bar I worked at in Charlotte named The Penguin.

The batter is simple, though my recipe may not be 100% accurate, since I’ve never measured my spices. Ever. I actually taste as I go, mostly checking salt and heat levels. (I know some people have an aversion to tasting raw flour, but it’s the only way I’ve been able to get it spot on every time.) Consequently, all of my measurements here are guesses, and you can add/subtract to it as you see fit.

Two cups of flour
2 tbs. garlic powder
1 tbs. chili powder - maybe more
1 tbs. red pepper - maybe less
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tbs. cayenne pepper
A few grinds of fresh black pepper
Enough Lawry’s Seasoning Salt to cast a thin red layer on the top of the mixture.

Mix ingredients, insert a wet fork, and taste. Again, I taste for salt and heat. You want to taste the salt, but the heat needs to be background noise. You don’t want it too spicy.

That’s the best I can describe the recipe.

Frying onions and pickles are essentially the same. Chicken isn’t even that much different either. The key to all is small batches. You don’t want to drop the temperature of the oil too quickly, and you don’t want the items to stick together when they’re in the oil.

For onion straws, slice a sweet onion thin (I use my julienne slicer for thin uniform cuts) and soak it in buttermilk. When it’s time to fry, just pull a small handful of onions out of the milk, dredge them in the batter, shake off the excess batter, and drop them into a pot of your favorite frying oil. They’re done when they’re a light golden brown. These onion straws make any burger 100x better. Seriously.

For pickles, buy a jar of dill pickle chips and pour out the juice and replace it with buttermilk. (I know this sounds gross, but it’s fine. Buttermilk is curdled to begin with.) When it’s time to fry, pull out a small handful of chips and shake off some, but not all, of the extra milk. Toss the pickles in the batter mix to fully coat them. Next, pull the chips out of the batter and shake them around in a sifter over the remaining batter. This breaks up any globs of flour, and prevents the chips from sticking to each other in the oil. Toss them in the oil, and they’re done when they float to the top with a golden brown color. Serve in a bowl lined with paper towels, and have some Ranch dressing on hand to dip them in. Oh, and prepare to be in heaven.

For chicken, I cut my breast meat into thin slices and soak them in a mix of buttermilk, one egg, and a few splashes of Texas Pete hot sauce. Aside from the extra wet ingredients, the only thing I do differently with chicken is to double batter it. Soak, toss, soak, toss, fry. It gives it that supreme crunch that chicken tenders need.

I hope this all makes sense. It’s an easy recipe, and it kills me how good it is every time I try it. The pickles are especially gratifying, since no one outside of The Penguin can seem to make a decent fried pickle.

Cincinnati Chili!

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:03:00 -0400

Daniel Larkin to jamey 10:41 AM

I don’t know if you’re aware of my family’s obsession with Skyline Chili, the Cincinnati purveyors of heaven in soupy meat form. They aren’t located in Tennessee, and as far as I know, the closest location to me is in Louisville, Kentucky. Still, it’s worth the drive.

For all of their unwillingness to sprawl, two stores somehow ended up in South Florida. When the Florida Marlins were created in 1993, my father and I would make regular trips to watch them get their asses beat up and down the inaugural calendar. Our routine usually involved dinner at Skyline Chili on University Drive on the way out of town. This was sometimes spiced up with other fun activities like flattening the tires of my sister’s fiance, who my father had nicknamed “shithead.” Skyline Chili is a fantastic enough establishment by itself to constitute life-long loyalty, but the fact that it was such an integral part of that routine with my dad made it almost mythical. (I now sport their logo tattooed on my left calf.)

Cincinnati Chili is unlike any other type of chili out there in that is has a sweet, cinnamon and chocolate flavor. There are no chunks, but it’s a fairly loose mix of meat and tomato base. Oh, it’s a beautiful thing.

Anyway, when you live in Tennessee, or Pennsylvania for that matter, you really only have three options for Skyline Chili.

1.) Drive to the nearest Skyline Chili location. This will always be the best option.

2.) Search out the canned stuff from a grocery store. I have mixed feelings on this, but it’ll do in a pinch.

3.) Make your own. This was never a realistic choice, until about a year and a half ago.

It all started because I wanted Jenny to know the true gloriousness of Cincinnati chili, but she’s vegetarian. The recipe, therefore, is for a vegetarian version of the chili – using TVP (texturized vegetable protein) instead of beef. The flavor is still pretty spot on, but you can easily revert it back to ground beef if you want.

Here’s the ingredient list:

One 12 oz. bag of Morningstar Crumble, or whatever type of TVP you prefer. (The 12-oz. bags contain no fat drippings, so they roughly equal one pound of ground beef – browned and drained.
1/2 Medium sized onion – chopped.
One clove garlic – minced.
One tablespoon each of brown sugar, chili powder and cider vinegar.
One teaspoon each of cinnamon and cumin
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and ground allspice
1/2 cup of water
One (15 oz) can of tomato sauce
Two small pieces of dark chocolate – the snack size. (We always have Dove Dark squares on hand)

1.) First, sauté the onion and garlic until translucent. (This may be considered sacrilegious in some circles that believe the onion should be raw and added on top of the finished product. In my opinion, though, the flavor requires cooked onion, and so powder would be a necessary substitute. Skyline has no discernible chunks of garlic or onion, so I assume they use powder for both, but I prefer to use fresh when possible. Plus, I HATE raw onion.)
2.) Next, toss in your meat (either frozen TVP or browned and drained beef)
3.) Mix in the liquids – tomato sauce, water and vinegar.
4.) Stir in the brown sugar, chili powder, allspice, cinnamon, cumin and salt.
5.) When the mix is nice and warm, reduce the heat and toss in the chocolate squares and stir until they’ve completely melted in and are mixed.
6.) Simmer for 30 minutes until thickened.

It may not smell like a final product while you’re cooking it, but it’ll all come together in the end. I like to step outside for a few minutes to reset my olfactory senses while cooking this. When I step back into the house, I get hit with a wall of Skyline Chili.

Now there are a few different ways to serve this, but there is one constant – the cheese. Buy a block of good sharp cheddar and shred it as finely as you can, making the shreds as long as possible. The goal is to have a heaping pile of room temperature cheese whose sharpness perfectly contrasts the sweet, cinnamon chili. When you’re piling on the cheese, remember to put on an obscene amount, and then add some more.

To serve it on a hotdog, chose a neutral tasting dog that isn’t too big. You want the chili to shine. Lay the dog on a steamed bun laced with cheap yellow mustard, smother it with chili and toss on a grotesque amount of cheese. This is where the raw onion would go too, if you were so inclined.

The other way to serve this is on a plate of spaghetti. Blanket a plate of noodles with chili, and then add the obligatory heart attack of cheese. When you do it this way, you need to supply everyone with a side bowl of oyster crackers for texture and extra salt. Raw onions can also be added. Blech!

Here’s a few photos on proper presentation and possible side effects.

Tofu Rueben

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:17:00 -0400

Daniel Larkin to jameyshow details 10:16 AM (1 minute ago)

I’m not going to lie to you, Jamey, last night I made the best tofu rueben I’ve ever eaten. This normally wouldn’t sound like a big deal except that an all vegetarian restaurant in Knoxville named Veg-O-Rama used to make a tofu rueben that would knock my socks off – that is until they closed shop. Anyway, I think I beat their rueben!

Another reason this is big news is that after living with a vegetarian for 7 years, I think I finally figured out how to make good tofu. I’m sure you’ve cooked enough tofu to know that it’s a blank slate of a food item texturally and flavor-wise, and it requires some seemingly magical skill to make progress on either front.

Marinating is obviously necessary, but there’s always the problem of sloppy loose texture – even when you use “extra firm” curd. There is one brand of local organic tofu we buy sometimes that’s thick as a steak, but what’s good for the texture is bad for flavor, since the denseness impedes rapid marination. (And who wants to marinate tofu all day?)

So here’s what I learned.

First, I bought the generic organic tofu – extra firm, but still squishy in regards to the final product. I cut the tofu into about 1/4 inch slices and pressed them with paper towels to dry them out as much as possible. (Nothing new here, this is standard prep work for tofu) Then I laid them flat in a large ziplock baggie and filled it with a rough 1:1 mix of water and soy sauce with a splash of worchestire sauce and liquid hickory smoke. I set that in the fridge and let it go for a few hours while I worked.

Now, the biggest thing I did differently than any other time was that I cooked the tofu slices for about 10 minutes on very high heat with a small amount of safflower oil. I’ve never used “high heat” oil for tofu before, and so I’ve never been able to utilize the temperatures needed to toughen and crisp the slices. It was beautiful! Golden brown slices that didn’t just dissolve in my mouth. There’s no faking corned beef, but this was damn good.

I placed a few stacks of the tofu slices on some pumpernickel bread smeared with Harvest Ground mustard and Thousand Island Dressing, and topped it all with a good swiss cheese and my homemade sauerkraut (left over from Oktoberfest). I broiled the sandwich in the toaster, and viola!

In all honesty, I think the sauerkraut made the sandwich what it was, but the marinated tofu cooked to perfection was what I’ve been missing all these years. It was fantastic, and I’d even wager that my father would like it.

IPA-Crusted Pizza

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:32:36 -0400

Dude,
It was good to talk to you tonight, and a bit of an encouragement just to share stuff with ya.

So the verdict is in. The pizza was really good. I’m still way amateur when it comes to homemade pizza, but theconsistency and presentation on this one was pretty good.

Basically, I kinda just winged it. I really wanted pizza, but I wanted to stick with my October Unprocessed commitment. So at Trader Joe’s I picked up unbleached whole-wheat flour, and some good, basic mozzarella with no crazy anti-caking agents or anything. I had bacon from WholeFoods, local hot sausage from the farmer’s market, and some jalapenos I pickled myself (inspired by your pickled eggs bit).

For the dough, I used 4 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder (this is the only iffy thing on processed foods), 1-1/2 tsp. salt, a packet of yeast, 2 tbs. olive oil, and a can of beer. Mixed it together (had to add a little water), kneaded it and covered. After about 2 hours I split it in two, rolled it into a ball, and then flattened that shit.

I did my own pizza sauce, too (sorta). I got the idea from AllRecipes.com, but I did things my own way. Basically, I took about 4 oz. tomato paste, 3 tbs. grated parmesan, a couple garlic cloves, 2 tbs. honey (instead of sugar), ¾ teaspoon onion powder, and ¼ tsp. of each of the following: oregano, marjoram, fresh basil, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes. Then I slowly poured crushed tomatoes into the mix, stirring constantly, until it tasted how I wanted. I also salted to taste. It was sweet and yummy.

One pizza was a spicy Hawaiian-style. I used bacon, sausage, pineapple, and jalapeno.

The other pizza was full of caramelized goodness. I caramelized slices of heirloom tomatoes (!!!!!) in my skillet, and caramelized some onions – all with my local, organic, raw butter. Threw that on a pizza with cheese. DAMN. I think tomorrow I might just caramelize some tomatoes to eat like candy.

Sprinkled oregano on top, then baked at 400 degrees. I always bake in a pan, then for the last couple minutes I pull the pizza off the pan with my pizza peel and put it directly on the rack.

I’m interested in your pizza tips one day.

Cheers,
Jamey

P.S. Oh yeah, and I brushed melted butter on the crust. It was awesome.

How to make good guacamole… A TDF exclusive.

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:40:43 -0400

How to make good guacamole…

A TDF exclusive.

Consider joining me (Jamey) for October Unprocessed. You can...

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:25 -0400

Consider joining me (Jamey) for October Unprocessed. You can check out more here.

Hot Sauces of Two Dudes

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:28:00 -0400

to Daniel Larkinfrom Jamey Bennett

Hey man,

I hope your journey is fantastic. I wanted to drop you a quick note about some sauces I made today. I made two hot sauces, two wing sauces, and finished up my fermented hot sauce. I think one of the wing sauces needs its own post, and the fermented sauce deserves its own as well.

SO…let me start with my basic sauce. I started making this when I lived in Hawaii, and had a surplus of peppers. After messing around with a few different ways of making this sauce, I settled on a basic, “Keep It Simple Stupid” recipe. Basically, I just take a bunch of peppers, boil them in vinegar for about 20 minutes, throw in a blender with some salt (and maybe a bit of garlic), and you’re done. Today, I made one variation on this: I boiled serrano, jalapeno, and green cherry peppers in water. Drained, added vinegar and Goya’s Adobo seasoning (it’s basically salt and garlic powder), and blended with a tablespoon of sugar.

Next, I’ve been jiving on this amazing carrot hot sauce from WMD Hot Sauce, a local sauce company, that I had custom made for my groomsmen and priest. So I did a little google search on carrot hot sauce, and this is the plan I devised. It made way more hot sauce than I imagined, but it is pretty good.

I took a little bit of onion and 4 or 5 garlic cloves, and cooked them in a bit of macadamia nut oil until the onions were slightly translucent. I threw in 1 lb. organic baby carrots, about 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vinegar, and the juice of 5 limes. Brought it to a boil. After a few minutes I added a little less than 1/2 pound of habaneros (mostly reds, a few oranges, and one red cherry pepper from my garden). I cooked all of this until the carrots were pretty soft and easy to break apart with a spatula….this also meant I had to add a little more water at one point. I put this all in the blender, and added salt, 1 tbs. sugar, and added vinegar little by little until it blended smoothly. I chanced it, and added some water, too. Pretty soon I had the consistency I wanted. It tastes fantastic, but with that many habaneros…wow. And the carrots bring such a delicious sweetness to the sauce.

Now, here’s the bonus. I took some of the sauce, melted some butter, pressed up some garlic, tossed in some soy sauce, and bam! Wing sauce. Could have used some cilantro, too, but it was really great.

Happy saucing!

UPDATE: I did the cooking my cast iron skillet. Evidently, I have a lot to learn, because the next few times I used my cast iron skillet, our eyes hurt from spiciness in the air…

Sauerkraut at Home

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:56:35 -0400

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

Dude,
So my sauerkraut was a hit at my wedding this past weekend, even among the non-kraut-enthusiasts. I used a combination of my priest’s “50 lbs. every autumn” recipe with some techniques I found online. Basically, I used an empty sanitized brew bucket, a growler filled with water (for weight), a small plate, a knife, a kitchen scale, a rolling pin (to smash the cabbage), about 20 lbs. of cabbage, and lots of salt.

Simply put: I’d slice the cabbage (getting rid of the core) into pretty thin strips. Using my kitchen scale, I’d slice and slice until I had 3-1/2 lbs. I’d throw that into the bucket with 1 tbs. non-iodized salt. I kept this up until I chopped it all up. Every now and then, I’d stir the mix and smash it together. My arms were pretty tired by the end. I had some serious juice-age in the bucket, too.

I put the plate on top of the cabbage and pushed down until all of the cabbage was submerged in the brine, and I set the growler on top of the plate to hold it down. I dropped the bucket off in my basement and covered it with a towel. I checked it every day for a little over two weeks, and skimmed any film off the top that developed. Next time I do it, I’m going to give it another week.

The caterer cooked it, and served it up with pieces of kielbasa. It was awesome.

How’d you do your kraut? I saw you linked this about it, but I was wondering how closely you followed it.

jamey

from Daniel Larkin
to Jamey W. Bennett

I followed that recipe to a T, and it turned out amazing! I undershot my cabbage weight a little, though, so my spices were a bit more than they were supposed to be. But that was fine, since the caraway seed, mustard seed, and juniper are all spices that go well with kraut-esque food anyway.

The only thing I’ll do differently is that when I periodically top off the cans to replenish evaporated water, I won’t used salt water. I realized that the water may be evaporating, but the salt was being left behind, so I was really just salting the hell out of an already salty foodstuff.

But again, the recipe was bangin! I have to make a bunch this week for our Oktoberfest party in a few weeks.

A Call to Raise the Bar

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:36:00 -0400

Daniel Larkin to jamey show details 12:13 PM (1 hour ago)

First off, congratulations on your wedding. The photos I’ve seen are fantastic, and Alison’s dress looked stunning. I hope the celebrations went off without a hitch, and I hope the sauerkraut was a hit. Your presents are still sitting on our kitchen counter waiting to be mailed. Hopefully that will happen today.

But down to business, I think it’s time we upped the TwoDudesFood bar. Not that our recipes have been lackluster; everything I’ve made of yours has been dead-on delicious. But here’s what I’m thinking, instead of (or more appropriately, in addition to) writing post-meal notes, we should occasionally meet a challenge head on.

The idea is more or less inspired by this post from my friend Peanut:

We should both tackle this Nacho-Burger dilemma, and compare recipes/results. You’ve got a honeymoon to attend to and we’ve got a vacation on the books, so it may take a few weeks before we get there. But I know we can do it. My first thought was, “How do I keep nacho chips from becoming soggy on a burger?”

Unexpectedly Delicious Salsas

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:00:05 -0400

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

Dude,

So with #weddingweek craziness upon us, I thought it would be nice to have my brother, sister-in-law, and parents over for dinner right when they got to town. I had intended to get a locally-sourced brisket for my smoker, but the lady at the buying club dropped the ball somehow.

Anyway, so I decided to make tri-tip tacos. I smoked carne asada-style tri-tip, premarinated from Trader Joe’s. I wanted to have some vegetables for the tacos, but thought maybe going fajita style with them would be a nice touch. So I sliced up jalapenos, cherry peppers, several colors of bell peppers, yellow and red onion, cloves of garlic, and tomatoes, placing them in a bread pan. I poured a generous amount of Italian dressing over the top, and let it marinate for a couple of hours. Then I put the pan in the smoker for a couple of hours. Honestly, it could have used more time, or I should have just done it in the oven. But they came out great. Oh, and when I was done, I threw the veggies in a colander to get the excess dressing off. In the end, the tacos were a smash hit.

Now, let me digress. I made guacamole and fresh salsa to go with the tacos. My regular “staple” salsa is simple: tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, salt and pepper. Never measured, all to taste. But that night, it was perhaps the best it has ever been. My secret? The juiciest, deepest red, large heirloom tomato. Oh my gosh, that salsa was like candy.

Needless to say, while I was running around the kitchen finishing up the tacos, my giant bowl of homemade chips were being used to devour my salsa. By the time I sat down for dinner there wasn’t much salsa left.

Since then, I’ve been craving salsa, and #weddingweek has made it impossible for me to get back out to the store for another gorgeous heirloom tomato.

So this morning, I scooped a bunch of my leftover marinated and cooked veggies into my food processor, grabbed and rinsed a handful of cilantro, added salt and pepper, and blended until nice and chunky. It is really damn good. The Italian dressing adds a nice subtle vinegar tang and the olive oil gives it a good mouth feel. It’s heavier on sweet peppers and lighter on tomatoes, but the sweetness of the roasted vegetables makes it difficult to stop eating.

I think I may have just stumbled onto something awesome.

Spinach Enchiladas

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:57:23 -0400

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin
date Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 10:02 PM

Dude,

I’ve got something for your Mexican night, mostly invented tonight. The best part about this is not the enchiladas themselves, it’s the sauce. Now, you might ask, what made you think to do this, Jamey? I’m glad you asked, and I’l tell you. I went to the grocery, trying to spend between $10 and $20 for a fat ass platter of verde enchiladas (recognizing that a few of the ingredients were already on hand). When my bill was over $30, I knew something was up. Turns out, the three cans of verde enchilada sauce were $4.49 each.

I put the cans back, and came up with this. Here’s how to make the sauce.

28 oz can of tomatillos
1 small can of green chiles
1 tsp. cane sugar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
a handful of cilantro
the juice of two small limes
1 cube of bullion dissolved in 1/2 cup of hot water (I used chicken/tomato)
a couple of jalapenos
salt to taste

I mixed all of this in the blender, then I threw it in a skillet and simmered for about 15 minutes.

While I was doing all that, I was constantly mixing in fresh spinach in a pot with a little bit of butter. As it cooked down, I’d add another handful. I don’t know how much I put in there, but it was at least a pound, if not 1-1/2 pounds.

To make the enchiladas, I microwaved about 25 corn tortillas for 1 minute. This is important because they will break if you don’t.

I chopped an 8 oz block pepper jack into rectangular blocks. I also had 2 bags of 8 oz. shredded “Mexican taco” cheese.

Another can of green chiles.

One diced tomato.

Each tortilla got a pinch of tomatoes, green chiles, some chunks of pepper jack cheese, some shredded taco cheese, a spoonful of the simmering enchilada sauce, and a forkful of spinach. Roll it up and throw it in a oven-worthy dish. Once you’ve filled the dish, you’ll probably have to move to another one. Then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of all of the enchiladas. Finally, pour the enchilada sauce over the top.

Throw that into a 350 degree pre-heated oven, and when the cheese appears to be melted, it’s time to eat!

Alison told me she thought it needed salt or something like that. I thought it was perfect.

Enjoy.

Vegetarian Chicken Soft Tacos

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:09:00 -0400

From: Daniel Larkin
Date: Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:56 PM
Subject: Today I share the secret
To: “jamey w. bennett”

After years of blindly making this recipe, I finally measured the ingredients for my chicken soft tacos. I figured you should be the first person I share the recipe with. If anyone can give me constructive feedback on my taco recipe, it’s you – the taco guy. I make these veggie-style, using Quorn Naked Cutlets. I’ve never made them with real chicken, but if I had to, I would first try using left-over chicken (fully cooked) shredded as thinly as possible.

I chop the Naked Cutlets into thin strips, lay them flat, and chop again until the pieces resemble shredded chicken like you expect to see in Mexican restaurant. If you can find the Naked Cutlets in Philly, I would recommend this as a meat-free meal. I know you could use a little taco in your meat fasting days.

So here it goes.

6 oz chicken (this translates into 3 Naked Cutlets) finely shredded as mentioned above.
8 oz can of no salt added tomato sauce
4 oz orange juice. (I measure this in the empty 8 oz tomato sauce can)
4 oz water
1 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Squirt of lemon or lime juice
Chopped cilantro

Jenny’s not a fan of overly overly-spicy foods, so these are super low on the heat scale. But you can heat them up with cayenne and red pepper flakes, or by tossing a few Jalapenos in the marinade.

Marinate the chicken in all ingredients (except cilantro and lemon/lime juice) for at least 30 minutes.

Bring the mix to a boil, and simmer covered on low for 5 or 10 minutes.
Remove lid and simmer for another 15 minutes – until sauce has thickened or soaked into meat.

Toss in some chopped cilantro and squeeze in lemon/lime juice, and viola!

Let me know how it goes. I would love the feedback.

Fresh Red Sauce

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:49:00 -0400

from Daniel Larkin
to jamey10:39 AM

I know I’ve told you about my rustic marinara with carrots, onion, celery, rosemary, thyme, oregano and Cabernet Sauvignon; a recipe I learned/adapted while working at Cafe Nonna in Nashville. I use this for lasagna and other hearty dishes.

But I don’t know if I’ve ever told you about my simple red sauce. It’s nothing I learned at a job or from some aged family member. I’m slightly ashamed to admit I learned it from Anthony Bourdain’s “Skills” episode of No Reservations. (Most other things on that episode were stupid basics I already knew, but the sauce stood out so much to me that I made it the next day.)

I’ve made this recipe using both fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes, and as long as you use San Marzano canned tomatoes, there’s almost no discernible difference. I’ll probably still make it fresh every now and then just because I enjoy the process. The recipe calls for Roma tomatoes, but I’ll bet you can use any tomato variety, so long as it’s been vine ripened and has a good sweet flavor.

To make it with fresh tomatoes

Blanche a few pounds of Roma tomatoes until the skins break, and then transfer them to a bowl of ice water. This should only take a few minutes, and it’s more efficient to only do a few tomatoes at a time – that way you don’t drop the temperature of the boiling water too much, and you can keep a closer eye on the tomatoes.
Once the tomatoes have cooled, peel the skin off. (this is actually very easy, since the skins have separated during the blanching process) Over a bowl, run your fingers through the tomato cavities and take out as many seeds as possible. Don’t worry about getting them all, I think that’s impossible. You can reserve the liquid and seed mix to strain and add later if you think the sauce needs it.
Toss the tomato flesh into a heavy-bottomed pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil, some salt and a few shakes of red pepper flakes. Cook this all on low for about 45 minutes, mashing it with a potato masher every few minutes. The goal is to get a semi-smooth consistency without having to use a blender.

Or, you can use two 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes. Toss them in a pot with the oil, salt and pepper – skip the potato masher – and cooking for about 30 minutes.

Here’s the secret to this recipe, and where the fresh and canned tomato recipes converge. In a separate small pan (I use one of those tiny single-egg pans) toss between five and ten cloves of garlic cut in half. Obviously, the more garlic you use, the more you’ll taste it, so plan accordingly.

Next, throw in a handful of fresh basil leaves on top of that; again, using as much as you think you would like, but at least a good handful. Sprinkle on a few more red pepper flakes, and douse it all with enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the garlic. (I use the one-egg pan because I can easily cover the garlic with less than a cup of oil.) Warm this mixture on low heat until the basil has wilted into the oil, and keep it on low while the tomatoes simmer. The point here is to infuse the oil with the garlic and basil flavors.

When your tomatoes are at the right consistency, pour in the oil – through a strainer, leaving the garlic and basil behind – and whip vigorously to incorporate the oil into the tomato mix. (In the picture below, I’ve separated the oil into another container, because I was dehydrating the tomato mixture for a hiking trip. You can’t dehydrate fat, so I packed the oil separately an incorporated it at camp.)

Anyway, now take a deep whiff!! Hot damn!

This is great served just with noodles. Throw 4 ounces of al dente noodles and a splash of noodle water and about 6 ounces of sauce into a shallow pan. Let it simmer until the noodles are done, and then drop in about a tbs of butter (yum) and some chopped fresh basil. Toss it all in the pan for a bit – try to look like a celebrity chef. Plate it up and eat.

It’s a super simple sauce, and you can’t beat the freshness of it all. The sweet acidic tomatoes and the rich garlic and fresh basil. Man, it’s great.

OR!!!! This stuff makes fantastic pizza sauce! The flavors are so fresh and bright, that they just sing on a plain cheese pie.

How to Really Grill Steaks

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:16:00 -0400

How to Really Grill Steaks:

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

Hey man,

You probably don’t do steaks a whole bunch, but I came across this link a couple years ago and it has changed everything about how I prep steaks. Worth the read.

Jamey

P.S. Click the title.

Agave Lemon Beer Butt Chicken - with BACON

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:09:00 -0400

Every year, if we’re all together, my (Jamey) family has a beer butt chicken cook-off around Christmas or New Years. This is what I did in 2010, and it was awesome. Daniel asked what I did…and here’s my response.

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

Okay, here it is.

1 whole chicken
1 beer butt stand (you can get these at Walmart or online)
1/2 beer in a can (you can use a soda can & fill it up with homebrew or whatever)
Lemon pepper seasoning (the one I used was fancy, and included a lot of goodies like garlic powder and salt and such - in other words, just find one that sounds awesome)
1 stick of butter
Agave nectar (you can get this in the honey section)
1 pack of bacon (12 oz or 16 oz, you choose)
2 lemons
Toothpicks

Thaw the chicken, separate the skin from the front and the back of the chicken carefully. There may be sections that will be difficult to separate, so I just took a knife and made little slits in the skin, and put my finger in their to separate it a bit.

Squeeze bits of the butter in between the skin and the meat all over the chicken. I didn’t quite use the whole stick, but pretty close.

At this point, it may be a good time to put the chicken on the stand for decoration purposes, but don’t put the beer in yet. Sprinkle the outside with the lemon pepper, and load your hand up with lemon pepper and work it into the meat, between the meat and skin.

Cut one of the lemons and squeeze the juice all over the bird, and even inside if you wish.

Use the agave nectar and squeeze it between the meat and skin, and then do a few circles on the outside of the bird (it will slowly run down your chicken.

Now wrap that shit in bacon, and use toothpicks where necessary to keep the bacon in place. Glaze the bacon with the agave. Now let it sit for awhile for the flavors to soak in.

Pull the stand out, put the beer can in the stand, then stick it back in. I threw a few bits of red onion inside the can, as well as some lemon peel, but I have no way of knowing if this did anything. Sounded good to me, though. Oh and I put a bit of soy sauce in the beer too, but that was an impulse. Also, I used a Bavarian-style hefeweizen in keeping with the lemon fruitiness theme. But I bet even Coors would make a mean bird.

Slice into the other lemon a bit so that the meat of it is exposed and shove it into the top of the bird where the neck used to be. This will keep the beer goodness locked inside the bird, and will hopefully allow lemon juice to drip into your bird, making it moist and delicious.

Grill or bake upright (thanks to the stand). We grilled for about an hour. It pretty much requires your attention the whole time (keeping the grill shut as much as possible), but especially because of the butter and bacon - you will have flare ups.

Use a meat thermometer and pull off when it’s 170-180 in the thigh. Remove it from the stand (this is tricky and may require several tools and people), remove the lemon, get the toothpicks out of it, carve, and enjoy.

This kicks ass. I’d like to figure out how to make it a little more lemony if possible. Oh, and drink a few beers when you cook it. I almost forgot that.

Laterz,
Jamey

from Daniel Larkin
to jamey w. bennett

Oh shit. I think I just peed a little bit reading that. You know its a quality recipe when it has the three-B’s of awesomeness – bacon, butter and beer. I’ve never heard of a beer-butt can cooker, but that looks genius. I will definitely have to try this. Thanks!

from Jamey W. Bennett
to Daniel Larkin

They are awesome.

Here’s a standard type: http://amzn.com/B000XE63M2

And here is a fancy one, looks like no BPA. http://amzn.com/B0007ZGUK2

German Pork Ribs!

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:55:00 -0400

I’m sure I’ve told you about the Octoberfest party Jenny and I are planning for this Fall. We’ll have two 5-gallon kegs – the Octoberfest, which I entered into the TN Valley Competition (it took silver!), and the Bohemian Pilsner. We’ll also be grilling all day. This is actually what inspired my recent crack at making sauerkraut (results still unknown).

Anyway, I’ve never used kraut for anything other than dousing a sausage, and I figured if I’m going to be making it I should find other ways to eat it. I don’t think I can eat enough hot dogs to make it through two liters of sauerkraut.

So here’s what I did as a test. This was just an amalgamation of other recipes and ingredients I found online.

I bought a 24 oz can of GOOD German sauerkraut and 2 pounds of country style pork ribs. These aren’t the rack ribs you think of when someone says ribs. They’re much larger and come sliced individually.

I salted the ribs and browned them in olive oil in a heavy duty pot. Set ‘em aside.Tossed in a whole onion sliced and two green apples sliced and sauteed them in the oil and pork remnants.

Once the onions were translucent, I added all of the kraut (strained and drained) I also stirred in some caraway seed, a few Juniper berries and a heaping scoop of Grey Poupon Harvest Ground Mustard.

I sauteed this mix for another minute then removed half of it. I set the ribs on top of the mixture and covered it with the remaining half of the kraut, apple and onion mix. Then I just dumped a full 12 oz bottle of Octoberfest beer, covered it with foil and the lid and baked it for 5 hours on 275º. In all, prep time was almost nil. It was less than 20 minutes between opening the ribs and closing the oven door behind them.

I didn’t take any pictures because it ain’t a pretty meal to look at, but the pork melts in your mouth and the kraut/onion/apple mix is ridiculous. I served it all with mashed red potatoes with butter, cream, rosemary and thyme. I’m thinking this is what I might make for the Octoberfest party.

TwoDudes exclusive update. Put the leftovers spread on a hoagie roll with a generous slathering of course mustard, and you’ll be in pig heaven!

two dudes foods

Vegetarian Reuben

SOUPS!

Jive Turkey

Squash Stuffing, Roast Chicken and Chicken Soup

Fried Foods! Yay!

Cincinnati Chili!

Tofu Rueben

IPA-Crusted Pizza

How to make good guacamole… A TDF exclusive.

Consider joining me (Jamey) for October Unprocessed. You can...

Hot Sauces of Two Dudes

Sauerkraut at Home

A Call to Raise the Bar

Unexpectedly Delicious Salsas

Spinach Enchiladas

Vegetarian Chicken Soft Tacos

From: Daniel Larkin Date: Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:56 PMSubject: Today I share the secretTo: “jamey w. bennett”

Fresh Red Sauce

How to Really Grill Steaks

Agave Lemon Beer Butt Chicken - with BACON

German Pork Ribs!

From: Daniel Larkin
Date: Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:56 PM
Subject: Today I share the secret
To: “jamey w. bennett”