A Hungry Bear

sausage, peppers and fresh mozzarella pasta

I have a coworker friend who told me about a great sausage and pepper recipe that his family loves which I’ve been thinking about for some time. I intend to try his actual recipe very soon - it sounds perfect for football Sundays. If I understood him correctly, he takes up to 6 green bell peppers and sautes them over low heat until they’ve almost caramelized, and with good quality italian sausages cooked up alongside. I had a few peppers, and wanted to try this technique of longer, slower cooking to make the peppers sweeter. With some extra cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella, and a couple of fresh sausages, it was a delicious weekday meal that only took about half an hour to make. (more…)

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four cheese serrano mac & cheese (and cheese, and more cheese)

Can you ever have too many mac and cheese recipes? My sister told me she tried mincing some serrano peppers (remember her libba burgers??) and sauteing them in the butter she used for making the cheese sauce. Since I have a little serrano pepper plant - producing about 20 new peppers a week (really!), I had to try this. I threw in 4 cheeses, not to be fancy, but just to use up the ends of a bunch of things: cheddar, brie, gouda, parmesan. Some panko bread crumbs on top added some crunch to the rich cheese - perfect! (more…)

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turkey, blue cheese and caramelized onion sandwiches

I found this recipe in the september issue of bon appetit, and decided it would be a lovely way to shake up the weekday turkey sandwich routine. (Havarti with dill and roland extra strong is my “usual” - still lovely no matter how many hundreds I’ve had by now…) The original recipe calls for arugula mayo - a mix of 1 cup chopped arugula with 3/4 cup mayo - but I skipped it to save time, and just used regular mayo and plenty of fresh arugula in the sandwich. (more…)

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vietnamese shaking beef

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is The Slanted Door, a trendy Vietnamese place in the Ferry Building on Embarcadero (I go there for the food, not the trendiness - I’ve not been there once when the hostess hasn’t acted like I should be grateful that they allow me in the door - but I digress). Recently, a friend introduced me to their “shaking beef”, which is stir-fried filet mignon cubes with just the simplest of sauces to complement. Someone told me it’s called “shaking” due to the way the cook has to shake the pan to quickly sear the meat in the pan. Like everything I’ve tried at TSD, it’s amazing, but never in a million years did I think it’s something I could attempt at home. That is, until I came across this full recipe for TSD’s version of Shaking Beef on the SF Gourmet blog. I’ll let you check out the original, and here I’ll post my modified version. Please note that I did NOT use filet mignon, as I’m morally opposed to marinating any cut of meat that costs more than $20/pound. I substituted local ribeye at the suggestion of my butcher, and it was *amazing*. (more…)

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cream cheese brownies

Another weekend, another request for homemade dessert… A finally got his hands on my copy of “The New Best Recipe” (from Cook’s Illustrated), and started reading the dessert section. As an engineer, he was impressed with the thorough, scientific approach, which was all he needed to be convinced that their brownie recipes must be the best in the world. I had all the ingredients on hand, so we were digging in to hot gooey layered brownies about an hour later. (more…)

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classic jambalaya

None of these photos do justice to this classic jambalaya dish, but I’m going to blog it anyway in the hopes that AHB readers trust my recipes more than my photography skills by now… I’ve made crab and andouille sausage jambalaya before, but A made a special request a while ago for a “real” jambalaya (i.e. with shrimp, not crab).  There are a surprising number of versions of this dish, but if I was going to trust anyone specifically, it would have to be Emeril, since creole cooking is his bread-and-butter. He didn’t let me down - although his recipe made such huge portions (even by A’s standards), we were eating leftovers for so long that I probably won’t get this request again for months. (more…)

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roasted potatoes, onions & garlic on the grill

Have you ever tried this? It’s not really a recipe, but just an easy thing to put together if you’re already heating up the grill for barbeque chicken or steaks. Just slice up some vidalia onions and potatoes and layer in heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Throw in a few whole garlic cloves (smash just a little so the flavor comes out), drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and fold into small packets. Grill for about 15 minutes over medium flame.

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pesto chicken salad with bacon, tomatoes and garlic croutons

Yet another winner from my favorite new cookbook of the summer, “Raising the Salad Bar.” With all the fresh basil at the farmers market, I made up a double batch of pesto for a couple different meals (the other pasta dish to follow soon). If you have a food processor, some basil, garlic, parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil, you can make pesto in about 3 minutes (see previous post here). This recipe combines some chopped cooked chicken with a pesto + mayo dressing, then tossed with fresh tomatoes, bacon, and croutons. The book’s version doesn’t do it this way, but I also mixed all the ingredients with some mixed greens (the dressing coats all the lettuce surprising well, without having to add extra) for a “true” salad. (more…)

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grilled mahi tacos with avocado cream

I think everyone who picked up the most recent Domino mag fell in love with this recipe. Not just the idea of fish tacos (who doesn’t love fish tacos any day?), but the beautiful outdoor table setting, all the colors, all the “I just threw this little impromptu get-together with my friends and my backyard picnic table and strings of lights in the trees, you know, just because” - it’s so appealing. Well, I don’t have a picnic table, but I did decide to invite a couple of our friends over to share this meal. The idea of it was just too good to keep to ourselves. The avocado cream is nice, although next time I’ll do what I always do and make guacamole (dual purpose -for tacos AND chips!) and keep the sour cream on the side. Red cabbage with a splash of vinegar and pinch of salt - the crunchy texture was absolutely perfect with the grilled fish. I made another batch of the jicama mango salad and the entire meal was just perfect. (more…)

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brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (!!!)

Yes, these cupcakes are as good as the name suggests. Better yet, I’d wager you have all the ingredients in your kitchen right now. So maybe you should put down the laptop and just go see about making these right now, hmm? (more…)

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