Breakfast Tacos at Home

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

Breakfast tacos. Say the wrong thing about them and you may have a certain portion of Texas coming for your head. I like having my head on upright so I'm going to give readers a quick rundown of the breakfast tacos history. It's origins trace back to...Texas. Haha. Probably the Rio Grande or San Antonio. Definitely not Austin, though I will give props to ATX for being the place that many of us non-Texans came to cherish the breakfast taco. Nothing against San Antonio but Austin just has more for the out-of-towner as far as business and or entertainment so it's how many of us become familiar with this Texas treat. That said anyone who's been to DFW, Houston, and of course San Antonio has crossed paths with the breakfast taco. As Texas Taco Expert Jose Ralat says "Breakfast tacos belong to all Texans." Here are three (loose) recipes you can whip up a quick Texas breakfast with.

 S'C'&C Breakfast Taco 

This is an original creation. Best made right about this time of the year when corn is in-season. I like to cut the corn off the cob and cook it in a little bit of grease obtained by cooking some loose breakfast sausage. Add in some diced onion and jalapeno and scrambled eggs if you want them. I then use a black bean spread across the tortilla before putting the sausage and corn mix on top and topping it with cheese. Add some cilantro and you got yourself a damn good breakfast taco.

Chorizo, Potato, Egg

This is my favorite type of breakfast taco. I make it in a variety of ways with just slight differences here and there. Sometimes I'll use corn tortillas, sometimes flour, sometimes scrambled eggs but I tend to go with an over easy fried egg as I prefer it that way. Sometimes I dont use any egg at all. One thing you do want to do is get your potatoes nice and crisp and to do that you need time. Once the potatoes are crisped up I like to add them separately so they dont turn to mush. Always delicious.

Puerco Guisado 

This is a taco that I just kind of created with what I had. Some nice pork loin which I diced up and browned. I followed that with chopped onion, jalapeno, garlic. All of that was spiced up with cumin, Mexican oregano, Magi seasoning sauce and such. Then I threw the meat back in with a can chicken stock to cover and little bit of red chile sauce I had made the previous week. Let cook until meat is just tender enough not to fall apart. Easily done with beef which would make it carne guisada. I like to smear my tortillas with rice and beans if making guisado tacos. These by the way are a popular breakfast snack in Texas but they also make great lunch or dinner. I'll be seeing y'all next time.

Taco Rice

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

I've always found myself fascinated with the extremely odd regional eats. I'm not even talking about beef bile or bull penis but rather the downright weird food concoctions that are local to regions across the globe. One of the funner ones I've come across is Okinawa style Taco Rice. It comes from Japan where they have an entire cuisine dedicated to their interpretation of Western style cuisine. It's specifically regional to Okinawa which is where the US military still holds down a fort. That's pretty much how it came to be as US soldiers missed their Taco Bell type fix and Japanese entrepreneurs took note of it. Nowadays it's a dish that's found all over the island and enjoyed by both Military personnel and native Japanese locals. There's plenty of info online about this unique Okinawan dish.

The Place in Okinawa said to have started the Taco Rice trend (Pic from theselfishyears.com)

Along with plenty of info on it's history you'll also come across lots of recipes. I guess you might need these if you've never cooked up a Taco Tuesday type gringo taco dinner but if you have you're good to go. Just substitute white rice for the hard shells and you're ready to roll. When I make gringo ground beef tacos I like to mix some onions into the meat when it browns as well as some fresh diced jalapeno if I have one. I use a taco blend mix from The Spice House here in Chicago or Central Market which I pick up when in Texas. I also like to use a little bit, maybe 1/4 cup, of taco sauce to season it up and make sure it's not too dry. Once your taco meat is ready make sure the white rice is the same and layer the beef on top of the rice and dress as you would a taco. I like to add diced pickled jalapeno as well as Cotija cheese with the standard toppings of lettuce and tomato. Serve with sour cream on the side. It's actually pretty good esp. if you already enjoy gringo tacos and or rice bowls. I dont have kids but I imagine this is something they would eat up. Yoshoku food at it's finest.

King T's Taco Rice

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See ya next time @chibbqking

Japanese Cooking at Home (Pt. 1)

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

When a recent case of the travel itch hit us it just so happened there were some bargain flights to Japan. So good was the price I was almost positive we were going. But then we let our conscious get the best of us and decided it was too much of a load with all the other things on our 2016 calendar on top of a marriage in Austin. Of course during the time I thought we were going I was already looking at what and where to eat. I couldn't stop as spot after spot and dish after dish stood out to me. I certainly wasn't unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine but I soon learned there's so much more of it I need to explore. So instead of going to Japan, for the time being anyway, we booked a fantastically priced ticket to Seattle where there's good Japanese food. Also since then I've been cooking a good amount of Japanese food myself with the help of the internet and Mitsuwa Market out in Arlington Heights.

Japanese Grocery Chain in the Northwest Suburbs 

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Japanese Gyoza

Gyoza Ready for the Pan

Dumplings are most certainly one of my favorite forms of food and Gyoza are always good when I get them while eating out. But it's shockingly easy to make your own and you'll get at least 50 of them out of what you'd pay for around 12 of them at a restaurant.  Mitsuwa Market usually has a selection of fresh not frozen dumpling skins. You want to use the Gyoza ones while trying to stay away from the Dynasty brand which is too rubbery for my liking. Get one of the ones imported from Japan with very little English displayed on the wrapper. Like I was saying I've relied solely on internet recipes thus far and even though me and the guy have bumped heads over on da twitter this recipe from the Food Lab is money. Although I like it with a bit less cabbage then it calls for. 

Japanese Gyoza Dumplings

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Tonkatsu Sandwich

As easy of a recipe as there is, especially if you get the ready to fry pork at Mitsuwa pictured above

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Yaki Udon 

Here we have my favorite thus far. I also made it for my family recently and they too really enjoyed it. Yaki Udon is a homestyle dish that's very easy to complete, like most other Japanese recipes. It's all about the ingredients and the girl who's recipe I used suggested a wonderful brand of Udon to look for and sure enough Mitsuwa had it. They also have a bunch of different Mentsuya options so if you don't want to make your own just pick up a bottle there. Again I suggest the one with very little English except whats on the sticker which mentions no MSG. Its crucial for this recipe which I add a poached egg on top of. It's made on my Dash Rapid Egg cooker which was well worth the $20 imo.

Yaki Udon with Pork

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Next Month: A look into the Mitsuwa Market Food Court Options.

Breakfast: Tacos + Hash

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

I'm not a big breakfast guy. Usually I'm still full from the night before. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the first meal of the day from time to time. Even if it's not my first meal of the day. Sometimes I'll wake up and be in the mood for one of two things as far as breakfast food goes. Hash and Tacos.

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Breakfast Hash 

Breakfast Sausage, Potatoes, Peppers, Onions, Cheese

I don't have exact recipes here because I rarely make the same hash twice. The most important feature of a good breakfast hash is potatoes. It takes time to get them perfect so if you don't have at least a half hour you might find yourself out of luck. That is why this dish tends to be a weekend thing for me. The key is cubing the potatoes down into bite size pieces and cooking them until crisp. You can achieve this by making sure they're nice and oiled and also by not jamming the frying pan with potatoes. Let them breathe, you may need to do them in batches. I tend to cook the potatoes the night before and then crisp them up real well the next morning with everything else.

Breakfast Hash

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Breakfast Tacos

 Chorizo, Potatoes, Cheese, Onion, Cilantro, Egg

I take the same approach with taco that I do with hash. There's a few keys to the perfect breakfast taco and I think the first one is flour tortillas. Its not standard but its certainly the majority in places like Austin Texas where they take them as serious as anyone. Next up is balance. Figure three maybe four ingredients including the eggs. Which speaking of I prefer to be cooked over easy as opposed to scrambled. I like the yolk releasing flavors into the fold. Other keys are cheese and again if using spuds, crispy potatoes which I already explained how to achieve. Make sure you cook your chorizo first and then crisp up the potatoes in it's grease. I also have an original breakfast taco recipe.

King T's Bangin' Breakfast Tacos

I dont have exact portions but thats becasue there isnt any. You'll need the obvious, tortillas, as well as fresh locally grown corn cut off the cob, loose breakfast sausage, cheese, and a black bean spread. Top with onions and cilantro. This is best eaten this time of the year when corn is as good as you'll get anywhere here in the lovely Midwest. Don't stress, just cook, hash and tacos are all about free-styling. There really are no rules except in the case of hash you need potatoes and in the case of tacos you'll need tortillas. Other than that, you're free to explore. See ya next time.

The Real Deal

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T's Turkey Sandwich

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

I make a handful of trips a year to the Vienna Beef Factory Store which also has a cafe for both of it's employees and also public to enjoy lunch. Of late they've always had a special at the deli counter on their turkey pastrami meat for $3/lb. So I've been buying it each trip in. I came up with a sandwich recipe that fit's perfectly with the pepper crusted turkey meat and would like to share the simple recipe with you here today. No exact measurements because you don't need them. You just need to know a good portion size and how to toast bread on a flattop.

The Vienna Beef Factory Cafe 

What You Will Need

1 lb Turkey Pastrami
1 Package of Rye Bread
1 Tomato, sliced
1 Red Onion, sliced
12 slices Swiss Cheese
Yellow Mustard of Choice
Butter
Bacon (optional)

The toasting process is simple. Serve with chips, fries or tator tots

The first step is cooking the sliced red onion in a pan with butter until nice and browned. The butter is the key here folks, don't skip this step. The building of the sandwich is simple. Put the cheese on both the top and bottom. The onions go on the top followed by the tomato and then the turkey meat. Smother the top half with mustard and spread butter on both the top and bottom bun. Cook on a buttered flattop until golden and slice in half. Always hits the spot.

The insides

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See ya next time @chibbqking

Japanese Comfort Food

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

What's the one country that you just know, should you go, you'd be totally overwhelmed with the food? Mine is Japan. There's so much more to it than sushi and ramen. When we did a little izakaya crawl thru Toronto a couple years back I dreamed of the culinary journey that lies ahead of me when my time to visit comes. In the meantime I've been satisfying my winter craves for comfort food with some wonderfully easy Japanese recipes. So easy there is no set recipe to go with them, just a general idea for those lacking some inspiration for a quick 30 minute meal. Hope you enjoy.

Teriyaki Skirt Steak and Eggs with Fried Rice and Onions

Is teriyaki marinated meat commonly ate in Japan? I'm actually not so sure but I do know we see our fair share of teriyaki chicken stands as you can find one in most any mall in America. Anyway this is more of a Japanese Hawaiian fusion dish where I marinate a nice piece of skirt steak for four hours or even overnight and then grill it up and eat it with eggs and rice. Easy enough and always a treat.

Chicken and Bacon Yakisoba 

As wiki states "literally buckwheat" and in this case it's made into noodles and stir-fried. This popular Japanese festival dish has it's origins from Chinese cuisine. It's very comparable to chow mein. When I go to one of the mega Asian grocery stores in the suburbs I like to pick up a couple packages of the yakisoba to keep in the fridge for a quick dinner. I'm actually partial to the fresh ones served in packs of three made by Maruchan. The sauce packet is addictive. All you need is some chopped sauteed vegetables, preferably the traditional topping cabbage for some crunch included and your meat of choice. Pork is most popular but chicken and bacon might be my favorite preparation of it.

Tonkatsu Pork

Not to be confused with tonkotsu ramen, this is the popular bento box eat of a fried pork cutlet. One of the simplest recipes one can make (google search will give you the basis) a tender pork cutlet gets bathed in S&P, flour, egg and tempura batter before being fried and then sliced. Serve with white rice.

See ya next time @chibbqking

Italian Eats

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

With the holiday season in full swing I've been a bit busy and am going to half ass this weekends post. Haha, not really but I will admit I just threw this together last second as I decided the story that was going to go up should be held for something else. So anyways with the holidays comes lots of cooking and with it I thought I'd throw up a few recipes I made according to Saveur. I still think this is the best food magazine in the game, granted its a dying game. Everything is online these days.

Minestrone Soup

Pork Scallopini

Ravioli with Italian Sausage (Ingredients from Eataly)

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See ya next time @chibbqking

Building the Perfect Cuban Sandwich

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

I recently had three beautiful pork tenderloins from Fresh Farms and needed some inspiration for something other than serving it roasted and sliced with vegetable sides. The thought came to my mind that maybe I could use them to make Cuban Sandwiches, Tampa style of course. Just like with sushi and steak, a Cuban sandwich can only be as good as the product used to make one. Yes La Segunda is a 17 hour (straight thru) drive from Chicago so the real deal Cuban bread is a no-go but I do believe that in the same case with making a New Orleans style Po Boy, the crusty long loaf of French bread from D'amato's does the trick better than the rest. For the ham I went to Paulina Meat Market and got their homemade sliced deli variety which was crucial but not necessary, just get the nicest stuff you can find. Same thing for the Genoa salami and the pickles which should be deli style. Don't forget the Swiss cheese and mustard. I don't have exact ingredients needed but would guess that one pork tenderloin, one long French loaf, and a 1/2 pound of each Salami, Swiss Cheese and Ham with a whole sliced deli pickles would get you four sandwiches. You'll want another so don't worry about anything going to waste. I already foresee making these again this month.

a Cuban Sandwich can only be as good as the ingredients used to make it 

 
I marinated the pork tenderloins overnight in an extra potent potion of 1.5 cups fresh squeezed orange juice, 3/4 cup fresh lime juice and lots of chopped garlic/onion with a few dashes of some Mexican oregano and cumin. I seared each one separate in a smokin' skillet to brown them up before they all went into the oven at 375 for 20 minutes. Let them rest until room temp and then slice thin as seen above. There is a one by one system that should be used when it comes to building a authentic Cuban sandwich. Balance is also key. As far as tools you'll need a panini press or a big brick or two to flatten them and let that amazing flavor combination mold together while toasting. Let's roll.

Add a layer of Ham to the bottom portion of a sliced 9" roll

Add a couple layers of Roast Pork

Add a layer of Salami (tuck the ends in so they don't stick out)

Add a layer of Swiss Cheese

Add a layer of thinly sliced Deli pickles

Add Mustard to the top portion of the roll, and make a sandwich with it

Add butter to the top and bottom of the sandwich and prepare flattop

 Cook sandwiches on a medium heated well buttered flattop. About 3-5 minutes per side.

Remove sandwich when well colored and crisp and slice diagonally from corner to corner

Enjoy!

You know I did!

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Note: If you share a passion for all sandwiches from one end of the world to the other check out the Sandwich Tribunal. A cool site dedicated to trying them one by one, in ABC order. 

Cajun Meatball Stew

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

Sticking with the Cajun theme as I've been on a kick with it since returning from Louisiana. Before I went into Cajun Country I did some online research and checked out the menus at a few places of interest. Many of the lunch counters there have a daily menu so only certain things are available on certain days. One of the common meals I was seeing was meatball stew. It intrigued me but I wasn't going to be there on a day when the places were making it so I decided to try my own spin and came up with this recipe where Creole Italian meets Cajun Country. It's part stew and part gumbo.

 

Creole Meatballs

Creole Meatballs

    3 LBS ground beef
    1/2 cup oatmeal or toasted breadcrumbs
    2 eggs
    3 cloves garlic (minced)
    1/2 onion (finely chopped)
    1/2 cup sliced green onion
    3 TBPS Worcestershire
    Creole Seasoning to taste (2 TBSP+)

Directions

Mix everything together in a bowl and form into balls. I like to make mine about the size of a golf ball, maybe a little bit bigger. I just use a 1/2 cup measure to scoop out the meat and then pat it onto a ball. Proceed to brown meatballs in some oil in the same pot you'll cook the stew in. Place them to the side when done.

Creole Meatballs Cooked and Ready

Gumbo/Stew

     2 TBSP cooking oil
     2 links of andouille sausage (diced)
     1 bell pepper (chopped)
     2 onions (chopped)
     3 stalks celery (chopped)
     4 carrots (diced)
     3 cloves garlic (minced)
     1 cup dark Cajun Roux (Recipe HERE)
     7-8 Cups Beef Broth (can use chicken broth or water if need be)
     2 Bay Leaves
     Cajun seasoning to taste (2 TBSP+)
     2 tsp of file powder  
     1/2 cup fresh sliced green onions, tops included

Directions

Carrots and Andouille cook first (saute and set aside)

Next up add your Holy Trinity (onions, peppers, celery) and saute until soft, proceed to add the carrots, andouille and the roux, then the seasoning and let cook five minutes

Next up empty the beef broth into the pot and throw the bay leaves and meatballs in there too

Let it cook on medium low for a couple hours and you'll be good to go, add file powder when pot is turned off and serve with white rice and fresh chopped green onions on top

Always better the next day!

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See ya next time @chibbqking

Wurst Kitchen

- The Midwest: Butchers + Bakers + Sausage and Cheese Makers

Tucked away in a residential neighborhood out in Aurora is one of the states oldest butchers. Wurst Kitchen has been at it since 1885. Just last year they celebrated their 118th anniversary. They started out serving a predominantly German community becoming well known for high quality fresh meats and especially for their homemade German sausages.

Aurora, IL

During the course of the year Wurst Kitchen makes over 80 different varieties of encased meats.  Customers have been known to drive hundreds of miles out of their way to buy sausage. I've been known to take the drive from Chicago as these are some of the best brats you'll find anywhere.

As we enter

They've been making these coveted brats since they opened up shop back in 1895 when Aurora was predominately German. From their original recipe brats down to the German potato salad they make a great amount of stuff for a small shop on a quiet neighborhood corner. The people behind the counter are extra friendly, always making sure you get what you need.

Some of the goods in the display case

Fresh and Grilled Bratwurst 

Your options are a wide range of encased meats, not just brats. My buddy the Grub Seeker swears by the uber garlic brats, others love the spicy "Kicker" ones and while those will both be in my future I think their original recipe brats are right on par with Ream's. A taste off might be in order but both happen to be sitting in the same elite seats so who cares. I always pick up a couple packs of their just made English Bangers and they are great. I'll stock the freezer with those and plenty of other treats for winter party time. This recipe HERE is one of my go-to's on a cold winter night. Excellent!

Wurst Kitchen English Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy at Home

Wurst Kitchen
638 2nd Ave
Aurora, IL 60505
(630) 898-9242
Website