Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich - Leftovers [Zack]

A brisket is a huge hunk of meat to smoke.  Therefore, you'll probably end up with some leftovers.  Instead of just chucking it into your next batch of smoked beans, why not make a nice sandwich?

Ingredients:
Sliced smoked beef brisket
Slaw (shredded cabbage, greek yogurt, sour cream, lemon juice, other veggies)
Dijon mustard
Swiss Cheese
Toasted bread

Song: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Funky Monks

Israeli Vegetarian Lentil Soup [Zack]

Winter is raging outside and I wanted something to comfort my insides.  I chose to cook one of my favorite soups from an awesome little restaurant named Beni Falafel in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp.  They are known for making great falafel sandwiches, but I also really enjoy their lentil soup which is healthy, vegetarian, and kosher.

My version is very close to the original - I used lots of lentils, potatoes, red pepper, spinach, onion, garlic, and whole cumin seeds.  You'll feel like a super hero when you're finished eating - it's filling but doesn't feel heavy. 

Process:

Slice and dice all of your veggies.  

In a pot over medium heat, add 2T of olive oil and your onion, red pepper, and diced mushrooms.  Saute for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and cumin seeds.  Cook for another 1-2 minutes until fragrant.  Dump in the potatoes, tomato, and your veggie stock.  

Add 3 handfuls of lentils to the pot (check for stones first) and bring to a simmer.  Lower the heat to low and place the lid on top a bit askew.  Cook the lentils for about 30-45 minutes depending on your texture preference.  

Add the spinach during the last 3 minutes of cooking and serve hot.  A small squeeze of sriracha can add some heat and a bit of sweetness to the soup.

You'll warm away any winter blues!

Ingredients:

1 medium red onion, sliced

1 red pepper, diced
6 baby bella mushrooms, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1T whole cumin seeds
1 tomato, diced

8 golf ball-sized baby red potatoes, diced

3 handfuls of green lentils

1 quart (1 liter) veggie stock
1-2 big handfuls of spinach
salt and pepper to taste

squeeze of sriracha if desired

Song: D'Angelo - Betray My Heart

Easy Simple Fast Savory Pie Crust [Zack]

I’m a big fan of keeping a pack of puff pastry sheets in my freezer because I’m normally too lazy to make crust the traditional way.  We were in the mood to make a breakfast quiche and I realized we didn’t have any of the puff pastry sheets.  We found a 4-ingredient recipe online that took about 5 minutes to make.  It cuts out the fuss of using a food processor or letting it rest in the fridge.  As a bonus, it ended up having a better flavor and texture than the puff pastry sheets!  It was more firm and crumbly. 

Process:

Mix the flour and salt together.  Add a few ice cubes to a glass of water, and stir vigorously with your finger.  Loosely mix the oil and water together in another bowl.

Gradually stir the liquid into the dry ingredients.  Use a fork to mix together.  Once it's all combined, if it's still sticky, add a touch more flour until it becomes solid.  Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into the shape that you need.

Add quiche ingredients (I used roasted pumpkin, crispy bacon, shiitake mushrooms, feta cheese, and rosemary).  Bake for 35-40 minutes at 375F/185C.

Ingredients (recipe from Food.com)

1 cup flour
1/4 cup ice cold water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Song: Mathieu Boogaerts - Ondule 

Roasted Pepper Soup [Matt]

I was given a large bag of medium-sized peppers at work because our attempt to celebrate the last true Friday of summer was foiled by the propane tank being empty and attached by a bike lock that no one knew the combo to. So I glanced at some recipes for Roasted Red Pepper Soup, but quickly realized my peppers were multiple colors and people are dumb and generally use way too many ingredients. Below is my recommend on keeping it as simple as possible.

Ingredients:
5 - 6 large peppers
3 medium sweet onions
48oz chicken stock
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup heavy cream salt (to taste) crushed red pepper (to taste)

Let the easy recipe begin! Chop the peppers, toss in olive oil, then kick them in the oven at 450f until they start to char. Pull them out and put aside.

   

While the peppers cook, rough chop the onions. throw them into a gallon+ sauce pot with olive oil. You want them to begin to brown as well.

Once the onions have rendered, dump in the chicken stock (I used a blend of my lamb stock + chicken stock to give the soup a heavier flavor). This will stop the onions from browning. dump in peppers once they are ready. Bring to a boil.

Dump in cup of red wine (doesn't matter what kind. drink rest of bottle here). Let this simmer for about 20 minutes. Turn the heat off. Add heavy cream. Transfer soup to food processor or blender (pending your slice and dice situation)... if you have a hand blender like me (acquired today), use now. Blend until the soup's consistency is to your liking.

   

Serve - can top with some goat cheese, chives or dollop of sour cream. Great to pair with some crusty bread (I added some tomato and fresh mozzarella to top mine).

 

Poached Egg Over A Tangy Spinach and Buttermilk Sauce [Zack]

We went to a really inventive restaurant in Valencia named Joaquin Schmidt. The concept was really cool – the cook/owner/server answered the doorbell to let us into the restaurant. Everything was made to simulate a dinner party-type experience instead of a formal restaurant. The guy was a sport and played along with our miserable pigeon Spanish.

The meal was great – very inventive and intelligently done. We were not given a choice of what was being served, and we chose to have him fill us in on what we ate after we finished the plates. It was a total blast. To start, we had 3 different types of caviar with a bendy straw filled with jellied vermouth to cleanse the palate. The meal progressed with fun surprises until we had a dish that was really great. The presentation was all in white: all that was visible was a white sauce and a fluffy mound of pecorino cheese that was almost floating. Underneath the cheese was a perfectly poached egg and a tangy and savory buttermilk sauce. We all loved the simplicity and beauty of the dish.

I went home determined to re-create it. I think I got very close, but in a last-minute call, I wanted some more body in the sauce, so I added some frozen spinach. The result was a great brunch item, or good entree into a meal.

Process:

Here is a picture of everything you will need:

Get a large pot of water simmering.  It's important to use a big pot because you'll be swirling the water for your poached egg and the smaller pots lose momentum too easily.  Oh, and you swirl the water so your raw egg swirls around itself and stays consolidated in the water.

Put your frozen (or fresh) spinach into a sauce pan with a pad of butter.  Cook until the spinach has wilted down.

Next, add your chicken stock and buttermilk into the same sauce pan.  The proportions are up to you - if you want it more tangy, use more buttermilk.  If you want it deeper in flavor, use a bit more chicken stock.

If you want, you can use an immersion blender to put the sauce in a uniform texture.

Grate some pecorino cheese with a microplane and put it into the sauce to thicken it up.

Once your water is nicely simmering, turn down the heat to medium-low so you don't end up just boiling the egg.  Add a dash of vinegar (supposedly it helps keep the egg together, I haven't tested this, but I believe everything I read on the internet) and then crack one egg into a small bowl.  If you tried to crack the egg directly into the water, it would be much more difficult.

Swirl the water around in one direction.  Clockwise is definitely the best (good joke Zack).  Quickly and gently slide the egg in the center of the swirl and watch it curl around itself.

It's important to let the egg do its thing.  If you mess with it, it will get messy!

To distract yourself so you don't touch the egg, start plating your sauce and finish grating a good mound of pecorino.  Just cover the bottom of your plate with the sauce.

After about 4 minutes, gently take the egg out and place it in the sauce.

Hide the egg under a big mound of pecorino and serve with a piece of toasted bread.

Ingredients:
Sauce (makes ~4 servings)
about 5T pecorino cheese, grated with a micro-plane
1/4 cup chicken or beef stock
2 blocks of frozen spinach (or 3 cups of fresh spinach)
1 cup buttermilk

4 eggs
2 T of grated pecorino to top the egg
toasted and buttered bread

Song:  Massive Attack - Paradise Circus

Fig, Ricotta, and Honey Crostini [Zack]

When I don't want to have a heavy dinner, I skip out on meat.  I especially try to avoid red meat if I get home from work late and need to eat a later diner.  Nobody likes to wake up in the morning and feel heavy.

This recipe is very simple and has a few interesting flavors that meld together to produce a crunchy addition to any meal.  The sweet figs and honey balance out with the rich ricotta and savory, garlicy bread.

Try this one with a fresh summer salad!

Process:

(honey not pictured)

Slice your bread into 1/4 inch (or 1 cm) slices.  Heat your oven to 350F / 175C.

Lay the slices on a baking tray and lightly brush them with olive oil.

Pop the tray into the oven and bake for about 7 to 10 minutes, until it's brown and crispy.  Make sure to watch it - bread burns quickly!

While the bread is in the oven, mix your ricotta in a bowl with 3 of the sprigs of thyme leaves.  The leaves are easier to strip off of the stems if you run your fingers from the top and work down.  Add a pinch of salt and as much cracked black pepper as you like.

Slice your dried figs thinly.

When the bread comes out of the oven, let it cool until you can handle it, and then brush it with a peeled garlic clove.  The crunchy bread will grate the garlic and it will nicely fragrance the bread.

Spread the ricotta mixture over the bread, top with the slices of fig, and then drizzle honey on top.  Add the leaves from the last thyme sprig for some color.

Serve with something fresh - I chose a summer salad of radish, cilantro, avocado, and a lemon honey dressing.

Ingredients:
(makes about 8 large crostini, or 16 baguette-slice sized)

1 loaf of hearty wheat bread
1 250g container of ricotta cheese (~1 cup)
7 dried figs, sliced longways
1 garlic clove
1 to 2T of olive oil
2 T of honey for drizzling on top
4 sprigs of fresh thyme

Gotye - Somebody that I used to know

White Asparagus, Spinach, Pancetta, and a Poached Egg [Zack]

White asparagus is in season in Belgium and it's invading menus everywhere.  It's for good reason - it's really delicious!

I've been fantasizing about making this dish for a few weeks.  I figured the combination of the savory white asparagus along with some sauteed spinach would play really nicely when they are topped with some croutons, crisped prosciutto, and a (hopefully) perfectly poached egg.

This is a great dinner to have if you are sick of eating big slabs of meat, but don't want to quit cold-turkey for a meal.  And plus, I think you'll enjoy the interplay of this veggie-centered meal.  If you like your poached egg with a runny center, it will add a great creamy quality to the dish - you can save the hollandaise for a special occasion :)

Process:

We are going to cook the prosciutto and the croutons first since they don't need to be hot when the dish is served.

First, put prosciutto into a cold frying pan with 1 tsp of olive oil and turn the heat on to medium.  It will slowly render down the prosciutto and will crisp it after about 8 minutes.  Just watch it and flip it when needed.

Cube your bread as large as you like croutons.  Add 1 T of garlic butter (or regular) and 2T of olive oil to a pan on med-low heat. Let the butter melt and swirl it around until it coats the bottom of the pan.

Toss the croutons in the butter to evenly coat them.

Add in your dried oregano, onion powder, and salt.  Continue to toss every minute or so to ensure that all sides are being browned evenly.  If you think it looks too dry, you can always drizzle a bit more olive oil on top.

Transfer both your prosciutto and croutons on a separate plate to await the final step of putting everything together.

Get a large pot of water boiling for your poached egg.

Since white asparagus is thicker than normal asparagus, you should peel off the outer layer.  It tends to get woody otherwise.  Peel it just like you would a carrot and cut off the bottom 1-2 inches of the stem as well.

Add this to a medium-low pan with a 1T of olive oil.  Toss for a few minutes in the oil.  Add the shallots and then cook for another minute.

Toss in your handfuls of spinach and cook for another 3 minutes.  Take off of the heat until you are ready to serve.  It should still be hot as long as you don't screw around with the eggs too long.

Back the heat off a bit on your boiling water so it comes back down to a simmer.  Crack each egg into a bowl.  Swirl the water around so it looks like a typhoon and drop the egg gently right into the middle.  The encircling water will fold the whites over the yolk so you have one solid poached egg!

After 3 to 3.5 minutes, extract the poached egg and plate the whole dish.  Serve with an appropriate Belgian beer.  Here, I had a Golden Carouls Classic.

Ingredients:
8 white asparagus spears
3 large handfuls of spinach
1 shallot
2 eggs, poached
4 slices crisped prosciutto

3-5 pieces old bread
1 T garlic butter (or regular butter)
2-4 T olive oil (depending on how thirsty your bread is)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp onion powder

Song:  Selah Sue - Crazy Vibes (great Belgian singer!)

Limited Kitchen – BBQ Chicken Sandwich [Matt]

My office is great. Nice people, free beverages, located right near the beach – all round pretty awesome… well minus the kitchen.

We have a microwave and a toaster. This poses a problem. What can you do for lunch with such limited resources? Answer: Hack together a bomb BBQ Chicken Sandwich.

On your next weekly trip to the grocery, pick up 1lb of low sodium sliced chicken, favorite BBQ sauce, sliced mozzarella, dill pickles, and whole wheat buns.

Packing the sandwich is essential.

Use three sandwich baggies or a large-divided tupperware container. Place 1/3lb of sliced chicken, 1 slice of mozzarella, and a large squirt of bbq sauce into one baggie. Place a whole wheat bun into another baggie. Place 3 – 6 dill pickle slices into the final baggie.These ingredients MUST remain separate for anti-soggy sandwich success. Place the three baggies into your favorite lunch pale and shove it in the fridge when you arrive to work.

Oh hey, now it's lunch. You hungry? Me too. I really hope this sandwich doesn't take more than 5 minutes to make, otherwise I'll eat my hand (don't worry it only takes 2.345 minutes to make).

1. Put the whole wheat bun in the toaster - set to your darkening preference.

2. Place the chicken/ cheese/ sauce pile onto a plate. Put that into the microwave for 1 minute.

3. Open pickle bag.

4. Now that the bun is toasted, take your warm pile of awesome out of the microwave. Plop it onto the bottom half of the bun.

5. Place your pickles in some geometric pattern on top of the deliciousness.

6. Drop the top bun on. Compress slightly to convince co-workers that you have a panini press hidden somewhere in the office.

7. Enjoy.

Fall Fresh-Market Mushroom Salad [Zack]

Antwerp has an open air market every Saturday in the center of the city.  It’s immensely popular with the locals - they do some food shopping and have fresh oysters with champagne before noon :).  Can’t hate on that.  I love wandering around, looking at each of the food booths and imagining fun things to cook/eat.  In the late fall, mushroom purveyors are prevalent and I decided to make a chicken and mushroom salad as a fresh lunch.

I always like asking opinions of experts – and in this case the woman in the booth was extremely helpful.  I explained that I wanted to make a fast and fresh salad, and she let me sample a bunch of different types of mushrooms and made great suggestions.  I ended up using chanterelles, pink oyster mushrooms, and some unknown mushroom that she brought from below the table.  Feel free to use any combination of mushrooms that you have available to you, just make sure they are fresh and delicious!

Process:

Start by making your mise en place.  

Grab a cup and put some very hot water into it.  Submerge your sun-dried tomatoes and let them stand for about 20 minutes to re-hydrate.

Wash the mushrooms to clear off the dirt.  Some people suggest using a mushroom brush, but if you are sautéing them in a frying pan, I don’t see the need to take the extra time.  Slice them until they are nicely-sized bites.  Mince the shallots and slice the sun-dried tomatoes (when they have hydrated enough).  Start 2 pans on your stove on medium heat.

You will use the first pan for sautéing the mushrooms.  Put 1 T olive oil and 1 T butter into the pan and let it melt.  Add your shallots and sliced sun-dried tomatoes into the pan and cook for about 4 minutes.  

Once that is cooked, add in your chanterelle and pink oyster mushrooms and let them cook down and eventually get some color.

While your mushrooms are going, sprinkle your chicken breast with salt and pepper and put in the pan with a small bit of olive oil.  Feel free to pound out the chicken breast so it isn’t tough.  Cook, turning once until it is cooked through.  

Let rest for 5-10 minutes while you finish the rest of your salad.

Knock out a quick salad dressing – my favorite method is to make it in a glass jar with a nice snug lid.  Add all of the ingredients at once and shake until emulsified.

Dice your fresh mushroom that you are going to add to the top.  This is optional.  Slice your rested chicken breast diagonally.  

Dress your salad and then add the chicken, cooked mushrooms, and the fresh mushroom on top.  Garnish with some fresh parsley on top if you'd like.  Enjoy eating healthfully!

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast (preferably organic and free range - it tastes better I swear!)

1 cup sliced pink oyster mushrooms

1 cup sliced chanterelles

1/3 cup fresh white mushrooms, sliced

6 sun-dried tomatoes

1 small onion or 2 shallots

1 head of lettuce

optional 1 T of minced parsley for garnish

Salad Dressing:½ c. apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1-2 cloves finely minced garlic
2-3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 ¼ c. olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream, optional

Baked BBQ Chicken Thighs [Zack]

Here is a good way to "test" your newly made BBQ sauce.  I don't currently have a grill, so I have to improvise.

Here's a quick technique tip:  if you put your BBQ sauce on the raw chicken before putting it in the oven, you will poach the leg instead of getting a crispy skin and caramelized sauce.  Instead, you should bake the chicken as you normally would, then coat it with the BBQ sauce and throw it under the broiler to caramelize for the last 5 minutes of cooking.  It’s the exact same concept for grilling both ribs and chicken.

Process:


Take out your chicken thighs and let them rest outside of the fridge for 30 minutes.  You want it to cook evenly, so you want it close to room temperature.  Pre-heat your oven to 375F / 190C and start an oven-proof frying pan over medium heat.  Put 2 T of olive oil in the pan and let it heat up a bit.  Dust your chicken thighs with onion powder, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Put your chicken thighs into the pan and crisp the skin until it's browned.  It should take about 5 minutes.

Bake for about 45 minutes or just before the chicken is done.  The meat should be firm, but not tough and the skin will pull back from the skinny end a bit.

Place the oven on high broil, coat the legs in the BBQ sauce and pop it back in the oven for 5 minutes, or until the sauce is caramelized on top.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs and legs
BBQ Sauce
thyme
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Song:  Allen Stone - Unaware

Summer Salad with Figs and Ricotta [Zack]

If you don’t know what weather in Belgium is like, picture London or Seattle.  It has rained at least once a day for each of the 3 months of “summer”, was just warm enough to wear t-shirts, and cloudy even at night.  I’m guessing it rendered more than one weatherman useless (and jobless) because the weather really lacks variety.  I don’t mind the rain, but when the weather god(s?) decide to give us a nice day or two, I really appreciate the sunshine.  To take advantage, almost every Belgian goes on long walks, rides his bike everywhere, sits on terraces with a cold beer in hand, and enjoys the precious days while they last. 

Matt, you aren’t allowed to comment about your beautiful sunshine in Cali.

In celebration of the summer season coming to an end, I decided to make a fresh salad for lunch.  The combination of sweet and savory is one of my favorites, but the dish still ends up feeling light and relatively healthy.  Enjoy this one on a nice day with a cool glass of wine - hopefully on a porch swing.

Process:

This recipe has a few things to assemble and place in the oven at once.  It takes a bit of advance prep-work, but if you run short on time you can omit the bacon-wrapped goat cheese bites and the phyllo “croutons”.

I posted on the phyllo croutons earlier - they are really easy to make.  Caramelize your onions and apples for your croutons.  Put them into your defrosted phyllo cups and top with brie cheese.  Set aside – you’ll put these in the oven with the rest of the salad components.

Pre-heat your oven to 200 C / 400 F and start to prepare your bacon-wrapped goat cheese bites.  You can most likely find these pre-made in your grocery store.  If not, buy goat cheese with similar consistency of feta (so it doesn’t melt too easily) and cut into squares or circles.  Wrap with your favorite bacon.  Place these in a baking dish or sauce pan.  They will go in the oven at the same time as the figs (for ~15-20 mins) until the bacon browns nicely.

Stand the figs up on their flat bottoms.  Cut off the stemmy end of the fig.

Make a cut in the shape of an X ¾ of the way down the fig.

Gently pinch the base of the fig to open it up like a flower.

Lay them out on a tray with enough space between them so they open up and caramelize.  Drizzle olive oil on them and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.

Add a handful of pine nuts to one of your baking trays.  Now you are ready to place the phyllo croutons, figs, and bacon goat cheese in the oven at the same time.  Make sure that the pine nuts don't burn - they toast quickly!

Get a small sauce pot of balsamic vinegar slowly reducing on low heat while you prepare the rest of the salad. It should coat the back of a spoon when finished.

To prepare the ricotta filling, simply open your ricotta container and grind pepper in it to taste.

Now it’s time to make your dressing.  Dice some garlic and place it in a bowl.  Add the vinegar, mustard, and soy sauce and mix.  Whisk to combine the mustard.  Then add in the olive oil and mix until you get an emulsion. 

Everything in the oven should be finished around the same time - the figs should be nicely browned, the cheese melted on the croutons, and bacon nice and crispy on the goat cheese.

Take everything out of the oven and dress your salad.  Put the figs on your plate and put a dollop of ricotta in each of them.  Drizzle the balsamic over the top of them.  Add the croutons and bacon goat cheese bites and serve.

Ingredients:

Makes ~4 medium-sized salads

firm goat cheese squares wrapped in bacon
toasted pine nuts

8 fresh figs

Dash of olive oil

½ cup ricotta

Cracked black pepper

Fresh salad greens (you can choose the variety – I like some rocket in there)

Reduced balsamic vinegar (optional)

Phyllo cup “croutons” (optional – this recipe will make more than you need)

24 phyllo cups

1 diced apple

1 diced onion, caramelized

brie cheese

honey

sprig of thyme

Balsamic dressing (follow this recipe, but substitute the apple cider vinegar with balsamic vinegar)

½ c balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1-2 cloves finely minced garlic
2-3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 ¼ c. olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Jamiroquai – you give me something