I got inspired to make this recipe because I was thinking about making Sichuan Chili Chicken but needed a vegetable instead of chicken for dinner…So I thought I could make cauliflower taste like Sichuan Chili Chicken and I DID! I made a batter for the cauliflower and just cooked it off in the oven. The green beans got sort of fried on a pan. You can’t make substitutes here or it won’t taste right. The peanut oil and Szechuan peppercorns are essential.

Ingredients for around 4 portions

1 medium cauliflower – break down in florets

4 Tablespoons peanut oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoons Szechuan peppercorns – crushed

3 garlic cloves -ground to paste or microplane

4 Tablespoons corn starch

1 egg white

6 oz green beans – trimmed

1 jalapeno – chopped

2 Tablespoons peanut oil

1 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 Tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns – crushed

2 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

3 Tablespoons chili sauce like sambal – (or to taste)

non stick spray

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – chopped

Directions

Set oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a sheet pan with non stick spray and set to the side.

Ina large bowl mix together 4 Tablespoon peanut oil, 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon sugar, 2 Tablespoons Szechuan peppercorns, 3 garlic, egg white and corn starch. Mix well. add the cauliflower and mix till coated. Lay the cauliflower on the sheet tray in a single layer leaving a little room around each floret. They go in the pre heated 375 degree F oven until cooked though and brown and slightly crispy. (in my oven on the middle rack this took 45 minutes but timing can differ)

While the cauliflower is cooking in a small mixing bowl mix together the remaining peanut oil, soy sauce, sugar, Szechuan peppercorns together and heat it up in a small fry pan on medium high heat. When the oil is hot add the green beans and jalapeño. Cover with some foil so it can steam the green beans tender. This willl only take a few minutes. Add the garlic and take off heat.

Stir the cauliflower and green beans with chili sauce and finish with cilantro. Serve immediately.

Delicious, spicy and tasty!

I came across a Tomato Chutney recipe and thought of it as an Indian flavored tomato sauce that is used like a salsa or condiment. I started researching different recipes for tomato chutney so I would know what ingredients I’d want to use. Of course tomato chutney is vegetarian and wouldn’t be used the way I’m using it here but it is really delicious this way. Tomato chutney is a sweet, sour and spicy tomato sauce. I didn’t add sugar but used golden raisins for sweetness. It’s something different and delicious that you might want to try. I really got the one pot dishes down and they come out Forking GREAT. However the chicken skin in these dishes is not edible but gives off amazing flavors to the dish. The chicken is always moist and flavorful and leftover heat up moist , tender and flavorful too. This recipe will make about 4 dinners with sauce of about 4 oz of chicken each with around 6 ounces of leftover moist flavorful chicken that you can use for maybe two lunches. I would suggest to serve with a salad or maybe some rice or potato.

Ingredients for 4 servings plus around 6 ounces of extra chicken

1 medium sweet onion – diced

13 garlic cloves – fine chopped

25 curry leaves (curry leaves are controversial in cooking. Some chefs pull them out like bay leaves and other chefs chop up…I chopped them up fine and they were very good in the dish) – fine chopped Or whole if you want to remove.

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper or to taste…you might want more or less depending on your tolerance for spicy food.

1 teaspoon gram masala

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 cups crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

4 1/2 los chicken thighs – (with bone and skin)

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon paprika

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large baking dish or buffet half pan add the onion, garlic, curry leaves, cumin, mustard, red Chile, garam masala, ginger, fennel, tomatoes, raisins, vinegar and add the chicken thighs in a single layer on the top skin side up. Sprinkle evenly the salt, pepper, granulated garlic and paprika over the chicken. Cover the pan tightly with foil.

Put in pre-heated 350 degree F oven on the middle rack. Timing may differ but in my oven this was perfect in two and half hours. You must cook till the chicken is at least 165 degrees F to be safe to eat…but I prefer my dark meat chicken cooked at least 180 degrees…..I think that you will too if you try it.

When you take this pan out of the oven be careful not o burn yourself. You should remove the thighs so they will cool some so you can remove the meat from the bones and skin. The fat from the chicken does not mix with the sauce and you need to spill the chicken fat off. Either by letting it cool to room temp and chilling over night in the refrigerator and scrapping the fat off the top….OR you can just tilt the pan and let the fat run out.

If you enjoy sweet sour spicy and flavorful then you should enjoy this.

I got my Milk Street Magazine and I thought the German Apple Pie looked really great and I wanted to try it. When I looked at the recipe I thought that this is too much dessert for me so I cut the recipe in half and it still seemed like a full size dessert recipe to me. I simplified the Milk Street Recipe by making it into a one bowl recipe since it seemed very basic to me. The only thing I’d do slightly different is to not to add the one teaspoon cinnamon that I added to the recipe because it makes the dessert too dark. I did notice that many other recipes for German Apple Almond Cake do call for apple jam to brush on the apples and almost none of the recipes call for cinnamon since it makes the cake too dark…Oh well live and learn. The other BIG THING is that the texture and taste of this cake is much better day two…….Day one I wasn’t crazy for it because it seemed oily and too chewy to me but day two it seemed more cake like, fluffier and not as chewy. The Milk Street Recipe is mostly double of the ingredients I used, it goes in a springform pan for about twice as much time. I used a 10 inch pie pan that I sprayed with non stick spray and I thought this is plenty of dessert that can serve 8 or more…The Milk Street Recipe also serves 8 but much bigger pieces.

Ingredients for 8 servings

1/2 cup + I Tablespoon sugar (Tablespoon is for finishing)

4 oz unsalted butter – room temperature

2 eggs slightly beaten

1/2 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 oz almond paste (not marzipan) in 1/2 inch pieces

1 apple peeled and cut in thin slices

non stick spray

teaspoon powdered sugar to finish

Directions

Set oven to 375 degrees F

Spray a 10 inch pie or cake pan with non stick spray and set to the side.

In a large bowl mix together the the sugar and butter till creamy. Then add the egg till that is creamy. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and almond paste and mix well. Spread this evenly in your pan. Top with the apple slices and fan them out to cover most of the surface. Push them in a little. Sprinkle with the remaining Tablespoon of sugar.

Bake till edges of cake are brown and a tooth pick comes out clean. This should take 25-30 minutes.

Let cake cool on counter. This cake should be served room temperature or slightly warmed up and add a small amount of powdered sugar before serving. I thought that this cake was much better the next day.

Mine is a little darker than yours will be because I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the sugar topping. adding more of the cinnamon and sugar to the ends.

ENJOY!

A special THANKS to Milk Street Magazine showing us your version of German Almond Apple Cake.

I was watching Diners Drive Inns and Dives on Food Network and saw a restaurant that made Pastrami from eye roast. I thought that was a great idea. So I can do it too. Actually this is my favorite pastrami recipe I’ve done so far. It taste the best to me. It’s a lot easier to trim. It’s leaner but in a good way and not dry way. This comes out tender moist and flavorful. I might delete my older brisket recipes for pastrami. Real pastrami takes at least a week. This Pastrami Eye Roast sits in brine for three days and gets cooked on the fourth day. I only use Diamond Brand kosher salt because it has a different salt content for brining meat. The crystals are also shaped different and penetrate the meat better. The different brands work different on the meat and Diamond brand works best for this application. DO NOT USE ANOTHER BRAND. I thought the seasoning was perfection when I tasted it on rye bread with a thin smear of extra mild French mustard (Amora Brand) I liked the clove finish it had. It was Forking Delicious! The next day I tasted just a small piece plain and plain I thought the cloves could be cut back a little…….so adjust to if you want a clove finish or cut the cloves in the recipe by up to a teaspoon.

Ingredients for around 20 servings

4 lb eye roast (Do not use a smaller eye roast…The eye roast must be at least 4 lbs after trimming) (I bought a whole eye roast from Safeway….It was the skinniest eye roast I ever saw) – The eye roast needs to be trimmed of all fat and silver skin.)

1 cup brown sugar

5 oz DIAMOND kosher salt – ONLY USE DIAMOND BRAND OR RECIPE WON’T WORK and you can get sick if the meat isn’t salted correctly!

1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons juniper berries

3 Tablespoons coriander seeds

2 teaspoons allspice berries

3 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

2 teaspoons whole cloves (or decrease up to one teaspoon less to cut the clove finish)

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds

2 Tablespoons black tellicherry peppercorns

2 teaspoons white peppercorns

1 teaspoon ground ginger

10 garlic cloves – sliced thin

1 Tablespoon granulated garlic

2 dried hot Calabrian Peri Peri peppers (or a 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper)

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 quart water

1/3 cup canola oil – (for rub)

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce – (for rub)

4 Tablespoons ground coriander

1 Tablespoon ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon smoked paprika

Directions

To your sauce pot add the salt, brown sugar, honey, juniper berries, coriander seeds, allspice, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves, mustard seeds, pepper corns, ginger, garlic, hot pepper, (2T) smoked paprika and 32 oz of water and bring to boil then reduce to simmer for around ten minutes and then take off the heat and let it cool. You can’t use it until it feels cool to the touch. I put a bowl of ice under the pot and it cooled down pretty fast.

Peirce eye roast all over with a fork.

Get a large bag. Either a brining bag or a turkey roasting bag and add the eye roast and when the brine is cool to the touch add the brine. Put the bagged meat in a pan for support. Push air out of bag and tie well. Let it sit in the refrigerator for three days.

On the forth day set oven to 500 degrees F.

In a small mixing bowl make the rub. Add oil, Worcestershire, (4T) coriander, ground black pepper and (1T) smoked paprika. Mix well and rub all over the eye roast.

Put it in a pan.

It goes in the pre heated oven at 500 degrees F for 15 minutes BUT DON’T OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! After 15 minutes shut the heat off but leave in the oven 2 hours (don’t open oven door) After the two hours take out. Let it rest maybe 30 minutes and then you can enjoy!

This is really Forking Awesome!

This is really beet guacamole but I didn’t want to call it that. It came out really Forking Delicious. I made this with some ingredients that you might not have. like chitepin chili peppers and the brine from my Forking Awesome pickled caccabella peppers. You can make substitutions if you care to but you will not get the same delicious flavors. This came out as flavorful as really good guacamole but it seems lighter and it’s a bit fruity. I think it will be great as a dip or a relish for poultry.

Ingredients for around 6 servings

1 lb beets (must be red because yellow react from foil) peeled

1 lime (just the fresh squeezed juice

3 oz sweet onions – diced

2 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

4 Tablespoons pickled pepper brine – preferably Forking Awesome Pickled Cascabella Peppers recipe

1/2 oz fresh cilantro (leaves and some tender stems) – chopped

.03 oz mint leaves – chopped

1/2 apple – peeled – small dice

4 chitepin chili peppers – crushed with fingers

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut down beets so they are smaller either in halves or quarters depending on size. Wrap each beet piece with foil and add a tablespoon of water to each wrapped piece of beet. Put the wrapped beets on a baking sheet or dish to catch liquids that might run out. Cook beets till tender. Timing may differ but in my oven this took one hour. Take beets out of foil and add to a container for stick blending.

To yor container add the beets, lime juice, garlic, cascabella pepper brine, chitepin peppers, salt and pepper and blend till smooth. Mix in the apple, onions and fresh herbs. Finish with some pomegranate seeds.

It’s Forking Delicious!