The Spring 2013 Bad Girl Ventures Class. (That’s the KB first row, second to the left.)

Hello dear readers!

Once again it’s been a crazy month here for the Kitchen Bitch and I have lots of great stuff to report!

First and foremost, the KB, aka The Delish Dish,  is a Bad Girl (as if you didn’t know that anyway)! What that means is that I am one of 10 women-owned businesses to compete in the Spring 2013 Bad Girl Ventures program for a $25,000 loan to get my business, The Delish Dish, off the ground.

Bad Girl Ventures (BGV) is a highly localized micro-lending organization focused on funding woman-owned start-ups in the Greater Ohio region, specifically Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. As a nonprofit, BGV combines micro-lending with a 9-week business development course to help support women entrepreneurs in all the key elements of their business.

The 9-week business development course is open to anyone—woman or man; however, if you apply to be finalist, you not only get to take the business courses on scholarship, you also compete against 9 other women-owned businesses for a $25K loan provided by BGV.

In order to become a finalist, I had to complete an in-depth application describing my business and what I would do with the $25K loan. From 46 applicants, the BGV board of directors chose 14 women as semi-finalists. Each semi-finalist then had to give a 10-minute presentation to the board, bankers, and investors. This is where the fun began for me, because I was in Las Vegas for my first Catersource Convention and Tradeshow, so I had to give my PowerPoint presentation and speech over Google Hangout! Ah!Talk about stressful—there were definitely some technical difficulties! In the end, it all worked out, and I’m so proud to announce that I am a FINALIST in this spring’s BGV program, its seventh class since the nonprofit started in 2010. What’s so amazing is that each finalist is paired with a SCORE counselor to mentor her throughout the program and is expected to complete and submit a homework assignment for each class, a business plan, a marketing plan, 3-year financial projections, and a SBA loan application.

At the end of the course each finalist presents to the selection committee, which determines who receives the $25,000 loan. The loan is awarded at a graduation celebrating the completion of the course.

So. …. WOW! I’ve got a lot to do over the next 9 weeks, but I’ll be so happy to have all of these important documents ready to go and I know I’m going to make lifelong connections with other fabulous women-owned businesses.

I love my SCORE mentor already, and I’m so excited to really get my business moving in 2013 with the help of all these amazing people. After attending the Catersource convention for catering professionals and personal chefs, I’m full of great ideas for moving The Delish Dish forward. Look for a new Corporate Catering Menu in the near future, as well as some yummy new recipes.

You can follow The Delish Dish on Facebook and Twitter if you want to follow my progress over the next few weeks. I couldn’t have gotten this far without all the love and support of my husband, family, friends, and AMAZING clients and readers! Thanks guys for sticking with me

Becoming a BGV finalist means more to me than words can express—it means that the last 3 years of blood, sweat, and tears were worth it. And that my dream of owning and running my own business full time will be reality in no time flat. I realize that the hard work has just begun, but now that I’ve laid the groundwork for this business I’m ready to take it to the next level and bring the greater Cincinnati area my vision of gourmet cooking.

Look out, world! Here I come!

Lots of love, The KB

Brrr … it’s cold outside! It’s the coldest it’s been this winter here in Cincinnati, so that can only mean one thing:

CHILI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, with the Super Bowl coming up, I’m sure you’re also trying to find crowd-pleasing recipes—and let me tell you, this Southwestern White Bean Chicken Chili is it!

I’ve been thinking about chili for awhile now (is that weird? I sometimes think about recipes for weeks before I make them), and I really wanted to make something lighter than a traditional all-beef chili but with all the full, well-developed flavors that make us love chili in the first place. Sounds like a good plan, right?

I started with a recipe from the ever-trusty magazine, Cook’s Illustrated, and built on it by roasting bone-in chicken breasts in the oven (or you can use a rotisserie chicken from your grocery store—even easier!) to produce tender, moist, easily shreddable chicken. I had a lot of extra aromatic vegetables lying around—carrots, celery, and bell peppers—and I knew they would really round out the flavors of this chili, so I added them to the three chile peppers that make this a Southwestern chili: jalapeno, poblano and Anaheim chiles.

If you’re afraid of spicy-hot things, as I once was, let me tell you that these chiles do not make this chili overly spicy-hot, or even hot at all. Instead, because all of their stems and seeds are removed, the chiles give great depth of flavor to this chili, without the sweat-inducing heat.

(Am I confusing you with all this talk about chiles and chili? In my understanding, chile refers to a chile pepper and chili refers to the much-loved meat-based stew. Although, to make things complicated, many folks use the words interchangeably. Got it? Good. Moving on … )

Another chef-y trick I use to pump up the chicken flavor of this chili is to use the chicken fat (aka schmaltz) leftover from roasting the chicken to saute the vegetables. And, if you’re really trying to get thrifty, you can freeze the chicken bones left after you shred the chicken and use them for making chicken stock at another date. In the kitchen, nothing should go to waste if you can help it.

The last trick I use in this chili was one I borrowed from Cook’s Illustrated: After sauteing the vegetables, I pureed 1 cup of them with 1 cup of cannelini beans and some chicken stock to make a cream-less creamy base for our chili. The puree gave thickness and body to the chili without adding additional fat.

My husband absolutely adored this chili, so it’s moved up the list to become our new favorite chili recipe. I hope it will be yours too!

One Year Ago: The KB’s Kitchen, DIY Fun: Bourbon Brown Sugar Mustard, Cooking with Julia: Beef Bourguignon

Two Years Ago: Party Perfect: Bacon-Wrapped Dates, Ultimate Luxury: Mushroom Risotto with Black Truffles

Southwestern White Bean Chicken Chili

Despite all the chiles used in this recipe, the final flavor is quite mild. You can leave the stems and seeds in the jalapenos to increase the spiciness, or you can simply serve the chili with hot sauce on the side. Serves 6. This dish is just as good the next day, and it freezes well for up to 3 months. Serve with warm cornbread for a wintertime feast. This recipe is adapted Cook’s Illustrated. Click here to download the handy printable.

INGREDIENTS

2.5–3 pounds raw bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, or 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
Olive oil
1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
2 onions, any kind, roughly chopped
1 bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, deveined, and roughly chopped
2 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded, deveined, and roughly chopped
1 large jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded, deveined, and roughly chopped
1 Anaheim pepper, stemmed, seeded, deveined, and roughly chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1½ teaspoons coriander
½ teaspoon chili powder
2 (15 oz.) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 large jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded, deveined, and minced
¼ cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Sour Cream, for garnish
Shredded cheddar, for garnish
Chopped green onion, for garnish
Jalapeno hot sauce, optional

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place the chicken breasts in a large, heavy-bottomed pot or on a sheet pan. Rub chicken breasts all over with salt and pepper, and lightly coat with olive oil. Roast the chicken fat side up in the oven until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160˚F, about 25-35 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken breasts. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Leave the chicken fat in the pot, or pour the chicken fat into a large pot if you used a sheet pan. Scrape up any browned bits that you can and add them to the pot to make the chili.

2. While the chicken roasts, combine the chopped carrots, celery, onion, bell pepper, poblano, jalapeno, and Anaheim chiles in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the vegetables are the consistency of a chunky salsa, about 10 seconds.

3. Set the large pot with the chicken fat over medium heat (if there’s not enough fat to coat the bottom of the pan, add some olive oil). Add the chopped vegetable mixture to the pot, as well as the minced garlic, cumin, coriander, and chili powder, and a big pinch of kosher salt, and sauté until the vegetables are tender, about 7-10 minutes

4. In the same food processor bowl, combine 1 cup of the sautéed vegetable mixture, 1 can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans, and ½ cup of the chicken stock. Process until the mixture is a smooth puree.

5. Add the bean and vegetable puree back to the vegetables in the pot, along with the rest of the chicken stock and the other can of cannelloni beans. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and let the mixture simmer gently for 10-12 minutes, until it’s reduced by about one quarter.

6. While the chili base simmers, remove the cooked chicken from the bones and shred the meat. Your house should smell awfully good now. Once the chili has reduced, stir the shredded chicken into the chili. Let the chili simmer for another 15-20 minutes to allow the chicken warm through and for the flavors to meld. Stir in the lime juice, the chopped cilantro, and the minced fresh jalapeno. Season the chili to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish the chili with shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped green onion, and jalapeno hot sauce, if desired.

Let’s pretend it’s summer, shall we?

Yes, let’s pretend that everyone is wearing short shorts and flowy hi-low hemmed skirts and drinking milk shakes and having backyard BBQs. That it hasn’t rained every day for what seems like weeks and that the sun is really just hiding out behind those ugly gray clouds, waiting to make it’s move.

You see, sometimes, in the deep, dark of winter, I like to make tropical foods to remind me of the warm, sunny days yet to come. Luckily, there are a plethora of tropical fruits to choose from at the supermarket, especially in winter. And since berries and other summer fruits aren’t at their best, I really encourage you to pick up some of those funny-looking fruits—persimmons, kumquats, mangoes, starfruit, dragon fruit, etc.—and give them a try. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of the flavors you’ll find.

For me, mangoes are the ultimate complement to spicy food. You can combine them with habaneros to make a killer spicy-sweet salsa, or use them as I do in this salad: as a cooling agent. I originally paired this salad with a particularly spicy Sopa Seca, one of my new favorite weeknight meals, and it really helped to tame the heat (and my sweat) while we noshed on that chipotle-infused noodle casserole.

This superb salad is a yummy combination of protein-packed, earthy black beans, crunchy bell pepper, sweet mango, tart red onion, and zippy lime vinaigrette—all flavors that can make your taste buds sing, despite the ugly weather outside.

I think this salad would be great as a stand-alone main dish with some warm rotisserie chicken and queso fresco mixed in (my stomach is growling at the thought). Or you can even get rid of the spinach altogether and you have a very mild black bean and mango salsa. I suggest adding some minced green chiles to the final salsa for a little kick. Isn’t it fun to pretend it’s summer?

One Year Ago: Lamb Kofte with Yogurt Sauce and Muhammara, Culinary Voyeur: The KB’s Kitchen

Two Years Ago: Eggs en Cocotte with Black Truffles, The Best Salad You’ve Never Heard Of

Mango-Black Bean Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

This salad is just as welcoming in the winter months as it is in the summer. It’s the perfect counterbalance to a spicy meal. Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this recipe.

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed
1 bell pepper, finely diced
1-2 mangoes, peeled, flesh cut away from pit, and diced
½ red onion, finely diced
1 avocado, flesh scooped out and diced
3-4 cups mixed greens
1 lime, sliced into wedges for garnish.

Combine the lime juice, minced garlic, and cilantro in a medium bowl. Whisk in the olive oil. Season the dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Add the black beans, bell pepper, mango, and onion. Toss to coat with the dressing. Gently fold in the diced avocado. Let marinate for 5 minutes.

Mound the mixed greens in a large bowl.  Arrange the black bean mixture on top. Garnish with a lime and serve.

Happy New Year, dear readers! Like many of you, I’ve been plotting and planning for this coming year, trying to come up with ways to not only improve my business, but also myself, my marriage, my home (which looked like a tornado had gone through it just a few days ago while I was reorganizing just about everything), and this little blog.

I wanted my first dish of the year to reflect the way I’m feeling at the present—a little unsure about which way to go, but ready to grab life by the reigns and let it take me wherever the path may lead. And so I offer you this Eggplant, Mozzarella, and Saffron Rice Bake, which is in fact a combination of two classic Italian dishes, eggplant parmigiana and saffron risotto, although it’s a bit more healthful as the eggplant is baked instead of fried.

How can this dish possibly represent me, you ask? Like this dish, my background is varied—I’m trained in both professional cooking and writing—and I’m trying to find my path by combining the best of both worlds. This dish takes two wonderful meals and make them into one outstanding dish, and that’s just what I’m hoping to do with my career. It’s up for debate whether or not I should start working in restaurants for the experience, but it might just be the next step in this wild ride of mine. I can’t help but dream of owning my own restaurant someday—and I hope dishes like this, which are fun, clever, and downright delicious, will populate the menu. Until then, I’ll continue my work as The Delish Dish, cooking up a storm for friends, family, and clients.

One Year Ago: Fettucine alla Bolognese, Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake, Cochinita Pibil

Two Years Ago: Gruyere and Black Pepper Popovers, Chocolate-Drizzled Coconut Macaroons, Eggs en Concotte with Black Truffles

Eggplant, Mozzarella, and Saffron Rice Bake

You can undercook the rice when you sauté it so it doesn’t get mushy when it bakes with the eggplant. Makes 4 servings. This recipe is adapted from one by Luce that appeared in the September 2012 issue of Bon Appétit. Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this recipe.

Ingredients
1 large eggplant (about 1.5 lb) cut crosswise into 1/4-inch rounds
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, minced
½ cup Arborio rice
Pinch of saffron
¼ cup dry white wine
1 cup vegetable broth or water
2 cups store-bought tomato sauce (such as marinara), divided
8 ounce shredded mozzarella
½ cup coarsely grated Parmesan (2 ounces), divided

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat to 425°. Arrange eggplant on a large rimmed baking sheet, overlapping slightly to fit. Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake, turning eggplant halfway through, until tender and golden brown, 20–25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add rice; cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Stir in saffron, then wine. Cook until wine reduces slightly, about 1 minute. Add broth, and season with salt. Cover and cook over medium heat until rice is very al dente and still crunchy, about 6 minutes; remove pan from heat.
3. Cover the bottom of an 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish with ½ cup tomato sauce. Sprinkle 1/3 of mozzarella over, then 1/3 of Parmesan.
4. Cover with a layer of eggplant rounds, overlapping so hardly any sauce shows through. Add saffron rice, spreading it out in an even layer. Sprinkle over another 1/3 each of mozzarella and Parmesan, then ½ of the remaining tomato sauce and another layer of eggplant. Top with remaining tomato sauce and remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover dish with foil; transfer to a foil-lined baking sheet.
5. Bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Uncover dish and bake until golden on top, about 20 minutes longer. Let stand for at least 10 minutes to set before serving.

I’m proud to say that I’ve almost officially made it through my first holiday season as a personal chef and caterer at The Delish Dish! Wohoo! With all of my big events behind me, including The Delish Dish Homemade Holiday, it’s time to focus on what’s really important at this time of year, besides family, friends, and Christmas, of course:

COOKIES!!!

As you may recall, we’re big into sweets in my household, and my husband just loves cookies, especially these Five-Spice Snickerdoodles I made just for him last night. While Doug loves crunchy cookies like these Hazelnut Crescents with Vanilla Bean Sugar, I love cookies with a combination of crunch and chew and spice and icing, so it’s no wonder these Lebkuchen cookies caught my eye as I was flipping through Food & Wine magazine this month.

These gingerbread-type cookies, much like these Caramel-Frosted Brown Sugar Drops, are the stuff of my dreams. Lebkuchen cookies have crispy edges and a chewy center with a nutty almond undertone and a beautifully warm spicy flavor from candied ginger, sweet orange marmalade, and thick molasses. Oh, and did I mention that they have a thicker-than-usual powdered sugar glaze, with just a hint of butter.

So, have I sold you yet? If you love ginger and a little spice, you need to make these cookies now!

Lebkuchen

This recipe by Justin Chapple appeared in Food and Wine magazine. The batter can be frozen overnight and the cookies can be made up to 5 days ahead. Store them in between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container. Candied ginger can be expensive at the store, but it’s cheap and easy to make your own. I like this recipe for homemade candied ginger. Total time: 1 HR plus 4 hr freezing. Yield: About 36 cookies. Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this recipe.

FOR THE COOKIES:

1½ cups blanched whole almonds
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1¾  teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon fine salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1½ cups light brown sugar
½ cup sweet orange marmalade
¼ cup finely chopped candied ginger (1 ounce)
¼ cup unsulfured molasses
5 large eggs

FOR THE ICING:
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup whole milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

MAKE THE COOKIES:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Spread the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, until fragrant and lightly golden. Let cool completely. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, allspice, salt and nutmeg.

2. In a food processor, pulse the cooled almonds until coarsely chopped. Add the brown sugar and pulse until incorporated. Add the marmalade, candied ginger and molasses and pulse until the mixture is well blended and the nuts are finely chopped. Add the eggs all at once and pulse until just incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and pulse until incorporated and the batter is uniform in color. Scrape the soft batter into a bowl, cover and freeze until very firm, at least 4 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a 2-tablespoon ice cream scoop, scoop 8 level mounds onto each baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. Freeze the remaining batter between batches. Bake the cookies in the upper and lower thirds of the oven for about 20 minutes, until risen and slightly firm; shift the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Transfer the sheets to racks and let the cookies and pans cool completely. Repeat with the remaining batter.

4. MAKE THE ICING: In a bowl, whisk the confectioners’ sugar with the milk and butter. Spread the cookies with icing and let dry completely before serving or wrapping.

As usual, life is racing by this holiday season. I made it through the first round of my newest project, A Delish Dish Homemade Holiday, with more than 150 jars of jam, jellies, and preserves sold by Thanksgiving! Pictured above is an Instagram photo of my full line of homemade goodies from Thanksgiving (follow me @KitchenBitch), and I’ll be swapping in some new favorites for Christmas, like Christmas Plum Conserve, Apple-Jalapeno Jelly, Blueberry Maple Butter (hello, pancakes!), Fig Strawberry Jam with Balsamic Vinegar, and my first-ever low-sugar preserve for those with diabetes, Mixed Berry Apple Spread. I make everything myself in small batches, and the 4 and 8 oz. sizes are perfect for gift giving! Click here to download the new order form!

One preserve that no one can seem to get enough of is Spiced Apple Butter, and it’s fairly easy to make your own at home, although it takes many hours in a slow cooker or Dutch oven  to achieve the desired color and thickness. Funnily enough, apple butter has  no actual butter in it. Nope, it’s just plain old apples, made into apple sauce and cooked very slowly with sugar and spices until it melts into a gorgeous, thick, spreadable butter.

And, if you’re going to spend some time on it, you might as well (in my opinion) go double or nothing and have a huge batch of apple butter that will last you through the coming winter. Yes, it’s messy, but enlist a friend to make it a fun weekend project. The recipe below is for a single batch, but you can easily double it and then preserve it in a boiling water canner in batches, OR you can simply ladle the apple butter into jars and refrigerate for 2-3 months or freeze for up to a year.

And the beautiful thing about apple butter is that it’s not just for spreading on toast or bagels, it’s also great for stirring into oatmeal, cottage cheese, or yogurt; slathering on sandwiches; as a glaze mixed with mustard for pork or ribs; as  a substitute for up to half the fat in cakes, muffins, and cookies; and as a frosting in between layers of spice cake.

I’m such a nerd but I have to say it: How about them apples???

I list several methods for making apple butter below. I actually use a combination of the slow cooker and stove top methods for my apple butter, because one of my slow cookers can’t seem to achieve the dark, thick butter I’m looking for. So, after 8-10 hours in the slow cooker, I move my apple butter to the stove top to finish cooking for about 30-60 minutes, or until it reaches a nice thick consistency that mounds on a spoon.

Spiced Apple Butter

This recipe is from Canning for A New Generation by Liana Krissof. Instead of canning, you can refrigerate the butter for 2-3 months, or freeze for up to a year. If you don’t have a food mill or Squeezo strainer, you’ll need to peel and core the apples before you start. You can puree the butter a second time with an immersion blender to achieve an ultra-smooth butter. Yield: About 6 half-pints or 3 pint jars. Click here to download the handy printable PDF.

INGREDIENTS

6 pounds apples, cored and peeled only if necessary, cut into quarters
2 cups apple cider or water
About 1½ cups sugar
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground aniseed (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put the apples in a 6- or 8-quart heavy-bottomed pan. Add the cider and 4 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, until the apples are completely broken down and the peels have separated from the pulp, 30 to 40 minutes.
2. Pass the mixture through a food mill to remove the peels and cores. (Or, if the apples are already peeled, puree it in batches in the food processor or blender). Measure the puree.
3. For the stovetop: Rinse out the pan and return the puree to it. Add 2 tablespoons sugar per cup of puree, and add the spices. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, stirring somewhat frequently with a wooden spoon, for several hours, until the puree is dark and thick enough to mound on a spoon. You should be able to dollop it on a plate and no liquid will seep out from the dollop.
4. For the slow cooker:  Pour the puree into a slow cooker, and stir in the sugar and spices. (Puree with immersion blender if desired.) Cook on the low setting with the lid propped up or set askew to allow the liquid to evaporate for 9 to 12 hours, stirring occasionally when you can, until thick and dark. (Keep in mind different slow cookers cook at different temperatures.)
5. For canning: Bring the apple butter to a boil (you can turn the slow cooker on high for 10-15 minutes, or transfer the butter to pot to achieve this). Ladle hot apple butter into hot jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. Remove the jars from the canner, and do not disturb for 12 hours. After 1 hour, check to see that the lids have sealed, and immediately refrigerate any jars that haven’t sealed.

Holiday prep is already in full swing here for The Kitchen Bitch aka The Delish Dish, and I’d like to share with you my new Fall Menu, as well as tell you about the launch of A Delish Dish Homemade Holiday! You can check out the new menu on my website or you can download a PDF of my new Fall Menu here.

Also, this holiday season The Delish Dish is offering a number of homemade goodies for folks in the Cincinnati area that would be perfect as stocking stuffers or staff gifts, or for all the foodies in your life. A few items include Bourbon Barrel Beer Jam, which is like a thick syrup that’s great on cheddar or in Beer Jam Manhattans! (recipe included with each beer jam) and Honey-Pear Vanilla Bean Jam (see Instagram photo above), as well as Pear-Cranberry Chutney for the Thanksgiving table. The full list is below for you to drool over.

I’m so excited to share this new adventure with you! If you would like to place an order, please download the Delish Dish Holiday Order Form and email me your order at DelishDishCincy @ gmail.com. Thanksgiving orders are due by Friday, November 16th, and Christmas orders are due by Monday, December 10th. Low-sugar jams and jellies are available by special order. Jams will be available for pick-up in Covington, Ky., or via USPS for an additional fee if you’re out of state. I will personally answer all orders. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or special requests.

Let me start by saying: I could eat this dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or brinner. Or brunch.

It’s what you might call a “crossover” meal, as anything with a fried egg can be deemed breakfast OR dinner, at least in my book. (And I’m sure many of you, dear readers, agree).

It’s savory. It’s comforting. It’s satisfying. It’s a big bowl of simple ingredients put together to make something truly special—something worth waking up on Sunday morning just to make.

The key is to start with the best stone-ground grits you can find. Grits are basically the crushed kernals of dried corn. Grits can be made from white or yellow corn, with no significant difference in taste.  I took the plunge and ordered some online from Old School Brand, a North Carolina-based company that uses an antique grist mill to grind its products, based on a recommendation from Bon Appetit magazine. WOW! They are so good. If you like grits, I highly recommend ordering some. They’re $3.50 for a 2-pound bag, plus shipping. I ordered two different kinds and store them in mason jars.

The topping for these delicious grits is easy to make: brown up some sausage, saute an onion and pepper, add some seasonings and a small can of tomato sauce, and voila! Instant sausage with tomato-pepper sauce. You could totally swap in mushrooms, shallots and thyme for the peppers, or any other vegetable combo you enjoy. And the sunny-side-up egg is optional—I think the runny yolk really elevates this dish from good to great, but feel free to fry the egg all the way through if that weirds you out, or leave it out altogether.

You can also spice up this dish by adding jalapeno or crushed red pepper to the sauce. However you make it, this dish is sure to be a crowd pleaser—who can resist breakfast for dinner?

Sausage & Cheese Grits with Tomato-Pepper Sauce and Fried Egg
This one-bowl meal is great for breakfast or dinner.  Serves 4. Click here to download the handy printable PDF of this recipe.

 
FOR THE GRITS:
4 cups milk or chicken stock (or a combination)
1 heaping cup stone ground grits
½ tsp. salt
½ cup shredded cheddar
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch of cayenne
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the Topping:
1 pound pork sausage, such as Jimmy Dean’s
1 red pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 large tomatoes, diced
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons fresh herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, thyme, etc.)
4 eggs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Bring the milk/chicken stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the salt and whisk in the grits. Lower the heat, and simmer until the grits are tender and creamy, about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk in the cheese, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Turn the burner to low until you’re ready for the grits. Thin with more milk if the grits become too thick.
2.  Meanwhile, while the grits are cooking, brown the sausage in a large skillet, then move it to a paper towel-lined plate to drain, leaving about a tablespoon of fat in the pan. Return the pan to the heat, and add the pepper and onion; sauté until tender and the onion is translucent. Add tomatoes, sauté 2 minutes more. Add the sausage back to the pan as well as the tomato sauce. Let simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors. Add fresh herbs and season to taste with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
3. In another large skillet over medium heat, fry the eggs in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until the whites are cooked through but the yolk is still runny.
4. To assemble: Divide the grits between four bowls. Top each with a quarter of the sausage-pepper mixture and a fried egg. Serve immediately.

As the first months of our marriage go by, Doug and I seem to be eating more and more classic Mexican food each week. And it’s not just because Doug has developed what seems to be an endless affinity for the stuff (when we first met 4 years ago, Doug hated Mexican food because he had never had the real deal; now he requests tacos at least once a week). It’s also because I never grow tired of cooking it and sharing it with folks who have never experienced the pleasures of simple, traditional dishes made in homes around Mexico. And recently I got to cook this homey Mexican dish for my longtime friend and neighbor, Matt. (Thanks for stopping by, boy!)

Sopa seca, aka dry soup aka Mexican Noodle Casserole, is something that I’ve mentioned on this blog before. I made it in culinary school once, but this was the first time I’ve had a chance to make it at home, and WOW! I love this version from Saveur. Sopa seca is like the (spicy) Mexican version of noodle soup—it’s filling, comforting, and good for the soul. There’s no meat in it, but you won’t miss it—at least I know we didn’t, and that’s saying something. Although the ingredient list is short for this recipe, the technique for making this dish is unlike any I’ve seen before: you actually TOAST the noodles before making the casserole! I believe this begins the cooking process, so the noodles can more easily soak up the sauce while the casserole bakes in the oven.

As with Italian spaghetti, the sauce for this dish is tomato-based, but it tastes nothing like normal spaghetti sauce. It’s thick and rich, spiked with spicy chipotles and earthy cumin, thinned with chicken stock, and flecked with cilantro. I added both cumin and oregano to the sauce to give it a little more depth of flavor—and because cumin might be favorite spice—so feel free to leave them out if you wish.

The version I make is spicy—I had a pleasant sweat going on at the dinner table—so cut the number of chipotles in half or more if you want less heat. Even one chipotle will bring a nice heat to this dish; however, this spicy casserole is served with cooling condiments like cheese, Mexican crema (or sour cream), and avocado, to help lessen the burn, so feel free to use the full number of chipotles if you’re ready to feel the heat.

Sopa Seca Mexican Noodle Casserole

This recipe is adapted from Diane Kennedy. The original recipe called for mincing the garlic and chipotles, but I found it unnecessary since everything goes into the blender. Serves 4. Click here to download the handy printable.

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup canola oil
8 oz. fideos or vermicelli or spaghetti noodles, broken into 3-inch pieces
4 canned chipotle chiles in adobo
4 cloves garlic
1 (15-oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes in juice, crushed
½ small white onion, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano, preferably Mexican
½ cup chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup crumbled Cotija or Queso Fresco
¾ cup crema or sour cream
2 tbsp. minced cilantro
1 avocado, cored and diced

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray an 8″ x 8″ baking dish with cooking spray, set aside. Heat oil in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Working in two batches, add pasta and cook, stirring, until lightly browned and toasted, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain; set aside.

2.  Purée chipotles, garlic, tomatoes, and onion in a blender until very smooth, at least 2 minutes. Return skillet to heat, and add tomato purée; cook, stirring occasionally, until almost all liquid is evaporated, about 18 minutes. A wooden spoon ran through the sauce should leave a visible line for a few seconds. Season sauce with salt and pepper.

3. Add stock, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add noodles, stir to combine, and season to taste if needed. Transfer to baking dish, and cover with foil; bake until pasta is tender and sauce is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes.

4. Divide the pasta among serving plates, sprinkle with Queso Fresco, and drizzle with crema; sprinkle with minced cilantro and avocado, if desired, before serving.