Homemade Mustard – (makes about 1 1/2 cups)

• 1/2 cup mustard seeds (yellow or brown)
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbs honey
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbs water, depending on the consistency you desire

You can use either yellow or brown/black mustard seeds.  The yellow seeds are milder and the black/brown seeds are more pungent.  In theory I would have used a 1/4 cup of each type, but I could only find yellow on short notice.

Combine the 1/2 cup mustard seeds, 3/4 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup of water in a large container.  Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1-2 days.  You want to soften the seeds and let them absorb that delicious vinegar.

You will notice that the seeds will absorb almost all of the liquid.

Pour the seeds, honey, turmeric and salt into a blender and process to your desired consistency.  At this point you can add a few tablespoons of water if you like it thinner.  You can also add a tad more honey if you like yours sweeter.

Serve or transfer to a covered container and let it age in the refrigerator.  It will get stronger and spicier with time.  It will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month.  It also tastes better after a week of aging.

Homemade mustard is awesome!

This was my favorite condiment to make.  Check out my Homemade Ketchup Recipe.

Szechwan Beef Stir-Fry – (Adapted from BH&G New Cookbook)

• 1 pound sirloin beef
• 3 tbs dry sherry
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs water
• 2 tbs hoisin sauce
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed\minced
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 16 oz frozen stir-fry veggies, thawed
• 2 cups cooked rice

Thinly slice the beef across the grain into bite sized pieces.  The easiest way to do this is to partially freeze the beef for 10 minutes in the freezer.  It will make it a lot easier to cut.  Plus then you end up with perfect evenly sized pieces.

In a medium bowl, combine the sherry, soy sauce, water, hoisin, cornstarch, ginger, brown sugar, red pepper, black pepper and garlic.  Stir to combine and set aside.

Preheat a wok or large skillet over high heat.  Add the vegetable oil and then the veggies.  Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes till the veggies are crisp and tender.  Remove them from the wok and set aside.

Add the beef to the wok and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until browned and starting to caramelize.

Push the beef to the edges of the pan forming a well in the center.  Then pour the sauce into the center of the pan.

Stir the sauce until it starts to bubble and thicken.  Then stir it into the meat and add the veggies.  Stir until combined. Make sure the veggies are heated all the way through and serve.

Serve this over rice for a great meal.

It was my favorite stir-fry ever!  It was delicious!

¹ - Wikipedia (Szechwan) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szechuan_cuisine

Jerk Chicken

• Marinade
  • 5 scallions, roughly chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • 1 small onion, roughly chopped
  • 3 Scotch Bonnet or Habanero Peppers, seeded
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 2 tbs soy sauce
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • 1 tbs salt
  • 1 tbs brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tbs fresh thyme leaves, 2 tsp dried
  • 2 tsp ground allspice
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp dried mustard
• Chicken
  • 2-3 lbs chicken

Roughly chop up the scallions, garlic, and onion.  Place them into a blender for preparing the sauce.  Add the sugar, thyme, allspice, pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and dry mustard to the blender.

Add the lime juice, orange juice, soy sauce and olive oil to the blender.

Next remove the stem and seeds from the habanero peppers and place them into the blender.  I recommend using rubber gloves when doing this.  The heat from the peppers will stick with you for a long while.  The last thing you need is to accidentally touch your eye 4 hours after cutting up one of the spiciest peppers known to man.

Pulse the blender until everything is smooth.

Place the chicken into a 1 gallon plastic zip top bag and cover with the marinate.  Place the chicken in the refrigerator and let marinate for 4-24 hours.  The longer it marinates the more flavorful the chicken will be.  Make sure to turn the chicken a couple of times while it marinates.

Preheat your grill to medium/high.  If using charcoal make sure to place the coals to one side making an indirect heat area on one side.

Cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes over the medium/high heat.  Make sure to turn the chicken so that it gets browned on all sides.

Once the chicken is browned, turn off one of your burners and move the chicken so that it cooks over indirect heat.  Close the lid and continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the juices run clear.

Serve the chicken over rice with your favorite sides.

This was an amazing jerk chicken.  It was reminiscent of the great chicken I had in the Caribbean.  I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did.  It totally brought me back to the Caribbean.

The preserves in the sauce help keep it together and provide all of the sugar needed to make the sauce caramelize.

Chipotle Peach BBQ Chicken

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup peach preserves
• 2.5 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 2 chipotle peppers (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp adobo sauce (chipotles are packed in it)
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan combine the peach preserves, chipotle peppers, apple cider vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper.  Heat the mixture over medium high heat until the preserves start to melt.  Once the sauce is liquid, reduce the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the grill to medium/high heat.

Salt and pepper the chicken breasts.

Place the chicken breasts directly over the burner or coals.  Cook for about 5 minutes per side.

When the chicken is almost fully cooked start to glaze the chicken with the BBQ sauce.  This should be done in the last couple minutes of grilling.  Otherwise the sauce will burn.

When the chicken is no longer pink remove it from the grill and serve.

This chicken was full of flavor. It was spicy and sweet.  Basically the perfect chicken.

This sauce works perfectly with your favorite preserves.  Add the preserves for sweet and the chipotles for heat.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp - Awesome!!

The bacon is crispy that the shrimp are perfectly cooked.  A great recipe.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

• 11-12 strips of bacon
• 1 lb 22-24 ct shrimp
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup chili garlic sauce – In the Asian aisle at the grocery store
• zest and juice of two limes
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbs minced ginger
• 1 tbs red chili flakes (optional)
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• salt and pepper

The first step is to peel and de-vein the shrimp.  I like to leave the tails on for presentation purposes and to give your guest something to hold on to so that they don’t need a fork.  Holding the shrimp flat against the board slice a 1/8th inch slice down the back of the shrimp.  From the tail fan all the way to the head.  Remove the vein and then peel the shrimp.  I find it is easier to de-vein before peeling, as it makes the peeling so much easier.  You will need a sharp knife as you will have to cut through the shell.

Next place the shrimp in a zip top bag.  Then zest and juice the lime into the bag.

Zest and juice the lime

Now mince the garlic and the ginger and add it to the bag.

Finally add the remaining ingreadients except for the bacon.  Mix around the shrimp and the marinade and place in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes and up to 4 hours.  Remember we have lime juice in this marinade and you don’t want a ceviche.

Let the shrimp mingle in the sauce for at least 20 minutes

Right before you pull the shrimp out it is time to partially cook the bacon.  I find that it is easiest in the microwave.  That way the bacon stays flat and will be easy to work with.  Layer a couple of sheets of paper towel on a microwave safe plate.  Then place as many pieces of bacon as you can without overlapping them.  I could do about 6-7 at a time.  Then place a single sheet of paper towel over the bacon.

Mmm Bacon

Cook for 2-4 minutes depending on how many pieces of bacon you have on the plate.  I had 7 thick cut slices on my plate and it took 3.5 minutes to cook the bacon.  Cook till pink and halfway cooked.  Next remove the bacon from the plate onto a cutting board.  Slice the bacon in half lengthwise and let it cool for a minute.

Slice the bacon in half lengthwise

Remove the shrimp from the fridge and grab your skewers.  I have wide skewers that prevent the shrimp from rotating around the skewer.  If you have them, I recommend them.  Otherwise, use two regular skewers.  One through the head portion and one near the tail portion.  The will make it extremely easy for you to grill.  Otherwise the shrimp just spin around the skewer and they are hard as heck to flip.

Now starting at the tail of the shrimp wrap the bacon around one time so that the end of the bacon is wrapped by the main part of the bacon and is secure.  Then continue to wrap the bacon around the body of the shrimp until you are near the head. Finally make sure that the end of the shrimp is at a point where the skewer can pierce it and hold it in place.  This method will secure the bacon so that it does not fall off before it is cooked.

Ending the bacon right where the skewer pierces it will help keep it on the shrimp.

Continue with the remaining shrimp.

Place the shrimp on a plate and cover with the remaining marinade.  Plus add a bit of salt and pepper to the outside of the bacon wrapped shrimp.  Place in the refrigerator while the grill is heating up.

Preheat your grill to medium.  Seafood is a tricky beast and you don’t want to overcook it.

Now that your grill is preheated, place the skewers on a diagonal to the grill grates.  Unless you have a giant grill, this will probably be the only way that the skewers will fit on the grill and still allow the lid to close. Shut the lid and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Make sure to check for flare-ups.  If you have any squirt them with a little water.

Place on a diagonal to the grates

Flip the shrimp and continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes.  When the bacon is crisp remove from the grill.

I love grillin shrimp

You may have to cook them for a little longer on each side depending on the thickness of your bacon.

Ready to eat

Let cool for a minute before serving.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

Squeeze a little lime juice over the top of the shrimp and serve.

Time to eat

Enjoy!!

Wingtacular Rules:

• Make a sauce from scratch, you can use pre-made hot sauces to help, but no bottled hot wing sauces.
• All wings will be fried by the wingtacular fryer.  Once the wings are cooked the wings are distributed to the competitors for saucing.  The competitors then sauce and put the wings into the serving vessel given to them.  Then they deliver the wings to the judging table. 
• Three wings will be taken out for the panel of judges.
• Once the judges have the wings we will continue to cook hot wings and sauce wings for each competitor’s sauce.  These wings will be labeled and placed on the public table for the popular vote.  Total points from the judges and the popular votes will be counted.  Top three in the points standing will be the 2009 Wingtacular Champion and the holder of the coveted Wingtacular Cup. 

This year we have moved venues and will have the capability to cook 80-100 hot wings at a time.  We will have double blind judging. 

Last year was a blast.  We went through 60lbs of hot wings.  This year is going to be bigger and better.  All of the competitors from last year have been invited back.  We will have 3 spots 5 spots open for new competitors, and are looking for one more judge a couple of judges with a stomach of steel.  If you are going to be in the Washington, DC area on Saturday, May 16th 23rd and are interested in competiting, send me an email rex@savoryreviews.com.

First things first you are going to need the following ingredients:

• 1 Box Mac N Cheese
• 3 tbs Butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 5 Jalapenos
• 1 large tomato
• Salt and Pepper

Start your water with a little salt and bring to a boil.  Once it is boiling add your macaroni.  I usually boil it for about 6-6.5 minutes.  Any longer and it is not al dente.

Next using your grill, a indoor grill pan, or even a frying pan roast the peppers.  Get them nice and black all the way around.  Should take about 5 minutes.  Once they are roasted, remove them from the heat and place them in a zip top bag.  This will loosen the skins so that you can peel them easily, otherwise it is quite a pain in the you know what. 

Make sure to leave them in the bag for a couple of minutes.   Remove the Jalapenos from the bag, hold them by the stems and slide the edge of a knife against the skins.  They should easily peel off.  Then cut off the stems and at this point you can remove the seeds if you do not want your mac n cheese too spicy.  I leave the seeds in as I like it hot!!  Then dice the Jalapenos.

Now dice the tomato.  I like mine finely diced as I like to get a little bit in each bite.

Remove the pasta from the water and strain.  While the pasta is in the strainer add the butter, milk and cheese sauce.  Then add the macaroni and stir.  Finally add a bit of freshly ground pepper, the jalapenos and the tomatoes.  Stir and plate.  The fire of the jalapenos and the cooling of the tomatoes as a perfect complement to the creamy cheese sauce.  The perfect 20 minute meal for the family.

If you have any suggestions for modifying mac n cheese, I would love to hear them.