Category: Dave’s Blog

Dave’s Halloween Chili with Kicked Up Sour Cream

3 to 4 lbs. untrimmed tri tip

2 lbs hot Italian sausage, casings removed and broken up like ground beef

2 onions, diced

1 head garlic, finely diced

1 can diced green chiles

1 can diced jalapenos

2-28 ounce can diced tomatoes (keep another one handy if you need more)

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons coriander

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 package of chili mix. I like Shelby’s

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons paprika

2 bay leaves. Don’t eat the bay leaves

2 (14 ounce) cans of your favorite beans (optional)

1 or 2 cups red wine

Remove your tri tip from the fridge. Trim as much fat off the trii tip as you want and season liberally with salt and pepper. Allow the tri tip to reach room temperature.

Heat your grill or bbq with a hot zone and cold zone.

Sear the tri tip on both sides, about 3-4 minutes. Don’t walk away while searing…It’ll catch on fire if you don’t watch it. Move it around if you have to so it doesn’t burn. After searing, move the tri tip to the cold zone and turn down the hot zone to medium high.

Cook the tri tip until the internal temperature reaches 130 degrees. Get it off the grill and rest it at room temperature while you brown your sausage.

Heat a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add a couple of turns of olive oil to the hot pot. Add your onions and cook through until translucent, about 4 minutes.

Add your sausage. Cook until just browned.

Add the canned tomatoes. Stir to incorporate completely. Bring the pot to a mild boil, then turn down to a simmer.

While simmering, cube the tri tip. Add the cubed tri tip, all of the spices, chiles, jalapenos garlic and wine. Stir to incorporate completely. Bring it back to a mild boil then turn down to a very low simmer and simmer for at least one hour to several hours. As the chili simmers, thin with water or broth if needed. If the chili is too thin for your liking, add masa.

Add beans (optional) about a half hour before serving.

Serve with corn bread, flour tortillas, crackers or garlic bread and toppings.

TOPPINGS:

Sour cream (kicked up sour cream recipe follows)

Cheddar cheese

Sliced radishes

Sliced green onion

Sliced avacado

Pickled jalapeno

Lime wedges, for squeezing

Kicked Up Sour Cream

1-16 ounce container sour cream

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon cayenne

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

A few dashes of hot sauce

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Keep chilled in fridge ’till service.

Coney Island Hot Dogs

1 ½ pounds lean ground beef

2 cups water, or as needed

1 white onion, diced

⅓ cup ketchup

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons chili powder, or more to taste

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon ground cumin, or to taste

1 teaspoon celery salt, or to taste

1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

8 good quality, all-beef hot dogs

8 good quality hot dog buns

Prepared yellow mustard

Combine ground beef, water, 1/2 cup diced onion, ketchup, butter, garlic, chili powder, salt, black pepper, cumin, celery salt, and cayenne pepper together in a pot. Mix with a potato masher or spatula over medium-high heat until mixture has a finely ground testure and begins to bubble, about 10 minutes.

Bring beef mixture to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens and reduces, about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook hot dogs in boiling water until heated through, 5 to 7 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange hot dog buns on a baking sheet. Cook buns in the preheated oven until soft and warm, 2 to 3 minutes.

Place 1 bun on a plate. Place a hot dog in the bun and top with meat sauce. Drizzle yellow mustard and a portion of remaining diced onion over the meat sauce. Repeat with remaining hot dogs.

Enjoy!

Tex-Mex Enchiladas with Chili Gravy

Chili Gravy

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, chopped

3 Tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon Mexican or regular oregano

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups chicken broth. More, if needed

Enchiladas

1 twelve-ounce block cheddar cheese, shredded

12 corn tortillas

1 twenty-eight-ounce can red enchilada sauce.

1 white onion, chopped

Handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Make the Chili Gravy

Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat. When browned add chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add chili powder, cumin, cayenne, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Stir until mixed evenly.

Add the flour and stir in with the seasoned ground beef.

Pour in the broth and bring it up to a boil. Then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. It smells really good at this point. When it thickens up, then it is ready to pour over the cheese enchiladas. If the gravy is too thick for your liking, add a little more broth.

Heat The Tortillas

In a skillet, heat the enchilada sauce to barely boiling, then turn down to a slight simmer.

Submerge each tortilla in the hot enchilada sauce to make it soft and pliable before adding the cheese and rolling it.

Enchiladas

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Ladle about a half cup of the chili gravy into the bottom of a 9×13 pan.

Add about 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese on the lower third of the sauced tortilla. Then tightly roll the tortilla around the cheese and place seam side down in the 9×13 baking dish. Repeat until you have rolled all enchiladas.

Pour the remaining chili gravy over the enchiladas, and sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded cheese evenly over the top of the enchiladas.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Serve the enchiladas hot, and top with chopped onions and chopped cilantro just before serving.

Sausage, Ham, Pepperoni and Salami Stromboli

FOR THE DOUGH

1 cup warm water

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

FILLING

1/2 lb. hot Italian sausage, removed from casings and crumbled

1 cup sliced yellow onion

1/2 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper

1/2 cup thinly sliced green bell pepper

2 tablespoons thinly sliced seeded and stemmed jalapenos

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 lb. sliced ham

1/4 lb. thinly sliced pepperoni

1/4 lb. sliced salami

1/2 cup sliced black olives

2 cups grated provolone cheese

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water to make an egg wash

1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Dough:

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, sugar, and 1 tablespoon oil and stir to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until all the flour is incorporated but the dough is still slightly sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes.

Oil a large mixing bowl with the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

To make the Stromboli:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a large baking sheet and set aside.

In a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium-high heat until browned and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan. Add the onions, bell peppers, and jalapenos and cook, stirring, until very soft, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and Italian seasoning and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and cool.

Punch down the dough and divide half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the dough to a large rectangle, about 10 by 14 inches. Spread half of the cooled sausage mixture across the dough leaving a 1-inch border. Overlapping slightly, layer half of the ham, pepperoni, olives, provolone and mozzarella cheeses over the top. Using a pastry brush, paint the border of 1 long edge with egg wash. Starting at the opposite long end without egg wash, roll up the dough into a cylinder, pinching the edges to seal. Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with the remaining ingredients. Let the dough rise, 20 to 30 minutes.

Brush the top of each stromboli with egg wash. Bake until nearly completely golden brown and starting to crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle each stromboli with Parmesan cheese and return to the oven until the cheese is melted and the dough is golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes. Slice thickly and serve.

Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef

1 yellow onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup beef broth

1 table spoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons regular ketchup

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Montreal steak seasoning

4 slices provolone cheese

4 buns, toasted with butter in a skillet or on a grill pan.

1. Cook the beef, onion and pepper in a skillet over medium-high heat breaking the beef up as you cook it, drain excess grease if you want to.

2. Add the garlic and cook for a minute.

3. Add the mixture of the corn starch and broth, followed by the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, steak seasoning and cook until the sauce thickens a bit, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Place the provolone on top of the beef mixture, then put the skillet under the broiler until it has melted. Mix the cheese into the meat.

5. Divide the filling between the buns and enjoy!

Ruthie’s Sunday Salisbury Steak

THE GRAVY

2 tablespoons oil ( more as needed)

2 onions, halved and thinly sliced into half moons

12 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

6-7 tablespoons all-purpose flour

A pinch of cayenne pepper, or crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

3 cups beef broth

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon beef bouillon powder

THE PATTIES

2 lbs ground beef

2 tablespoon Christopher Ranch jarred minced garlic

2 eggs

2 packages Lipton soup mix

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

In a bowl, combine the patty mixture until combined. Shape into 6 oval patties.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a cast iron skillet, if you have one.

Add the patties, cook until browned on each side (about 3-4 minutes per side, the patties do not have to be cooked all the way through as they will finish cooking in the gravy) remove to a plate.

To the same skillet, add sliced onion and mushrooms; cook stirring and scraping up any browned bits that have accumulated on the bottom of the skillet; cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the onions are softened. Add flour and cayenne pepper or pepper flakes; stir for 2 minutes.

Add in beef broth, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper; bring to a simmer stirring continuously until bubbly and thickened (at this point, add the beef bouillon powder).

Add the patties back to the skillet. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes turning the patties over once halfway through cooking. Serve right away.

Caramelized Hoisin Chicken Wings

3 lbs chicken wings

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 honey

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 cup hoisin sauce, prepared or homemade

4 garlic cloves, minced

Garlic salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Lime wedges, for squeezing

Preheat oven to 375°

Place chicken in a 9×13-inch baking dish.

Mix the oil, soy sauce, ketchup, honey, hoisin sauce, garlic, salt and pepper and pour over the chicken.

Bake at 375° for one hour or until sauce is caramelized.

Serve wings on a large platter garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.

Hoisin Sauce

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste

1 garlic clove, minced

Pinch of black pepper, or to taste

Whisk soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, hot sauce, garlic, and pepper together in a large bowl until well combined.

Beer Battered Fish Tacos with Quick Pickled Onions & Cucumber

& Chipotle Crema

Vegetable oil, for frying

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons ground cumin

3 teaspoons cayenne pepper

3 teaspoons garlic salt

A few dashes of Tapatia hot sauce

12 ounces beer.

3 (8-ounce) cod fillets, cut into chunks

8 (8-inch) corn tortillas, lightly charred over a gas flame or on a grill

Lime wedges for squeezing

Quick-Pickled Onion and Cucumber, recipe follows

Fill a large pot with oil halfway up the pot. Heat oil to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup flour, cumin, cayenne, and salt. Slowly whisk in beer until thick, but not runny. Add a few dashes of Tapatia to the batter. Dredge fish in remaining flour first, then dunk in the batter. Fry in batches until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper-toweled lined plate.

Serve fish in tortillas topped with Chipotle Crema and Quick-Pickled Onion and Cucumber

Quick-Pickled Onion and Cucumber:

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon salt

1 large red onion, medium dice

1 large Vidalia onion, medium dice

1 English cucumber, medium dice

1 habanero chile, seeds removed, minced

1 Roma tomato, seeded and diced

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves

In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil the vinegar, sugar, water, and salt. Add onions and cucumber and continue to cook a few minutes more. Remove from heat, add chile, and transfer to a bowl. Let cool slightly then chill covered, for at least 1 hour.

Toss in the tomato and cilantro, 5 minutes before serving.

For the Chipotle Crema:

1 cup mayonnaise

2 chipotles in adobo

1 tablespoon adobo sauce

2 garlic cloves

pinch of salt

squeeze of lime

Plastic squeeze bottle, for dispensing the crema

For the Chipotle Crema, add the following ingredients to a blender or food processor and combine well: 1 cup mayonnaise, 2 chipotles in adobo, 2 garlic cloves, pinch of salt, and a squeeze of lime. You might need to add a splash of water to get it to combine. If you want more heat, you can add more chipotles or some of the adobo sauce. You can substitute some of the mayonnaise for plain Greek yogurt. Use a plastic squeeze bottle to dispense the crema. It looks really nice on the tacos.

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

1 lb medium shrimp, deveined and tails removed

1 lb spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine or bucatini noodles

8 garlic cloves or more, according to personal taste, minced

1/4 cup butter

Olive oil

Italian seasoning

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

red pepper flakes

Fresh basil or parsley, for garnish

1. Boil pasta in heavily salted water for 8 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Reserve the pasta water.

2. While pasta is boiling, wash shrimp.

3. Melt butter over medium heat. Add shrimp.

4. Let cook till a little pink and starting to curl. Then add garlic.

5. Cook 5-7 min., add oil. Continue to stir till shrimp is pink and curled.

6. Add pasta to skillet. Add seasonings. Add just enough pasta water till it is not dry but not swimming in liquid either.

7. Keep tossing all ingredients around in skillet till all is incorporated and hot. Enjoy!

Crispy & Sticky Air Fryer Chicken Wings

4 pounds chicken wings

1/2 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon paprika

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste

Fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Lime wedges, for squeezing

Honey Buffalo Sauce

2 cups buffalo or wing sauce

1 cup honey

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

Preheat the air fryer to 390 degrees.

In a medium bowl, add wings and toss with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and salt and pepper.

Place them in an even layer in the air fryer basket. Cook them in batches. Cook for 10 minutes at 390 degrees. Flip the wings and cook for another 10 minutes or until crispy on the outside and they an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Honey Buffalo Sauce

In a small bowl, whisk buffalo sauce, honey, and Worcestershire sauce. Toss the hot wings in the sauce and serve with lime wedges and chopped parsley or cilantro.