Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in again. We're still a bit behind on the production side, so these recipes are going up a bit ahead of our regularly scheduled broadcast. But, as always, i'm here to recap all the recipes for today's episode and to give a rundown of the show. Today I thought i'd make the recipe that I get the most compliments on, My Mom's Deep Dish Mexican Pizza (name is a slight homage to Heidi Swanson's My Dad's Garlic Bread. If you don't follow her 101 Cookbooks blog, do it now). When I became a vegetarian 9 years ago, the first question I had to ask myself was "Ok, now what do I eat?" After quickly getting burned out on every variety of frozen veggie burger and discovering that each and every kind of canned vegetarian chili SUCKS, I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to teach myself how to cook. But how does one do that? I did what any self respecting adult male would do in a conundrum like this one. I called my mom.
First up is My Mom's Deep Dish Mexican Pizza, a legendary recipe amongst me & my friends. I adapted this recipe to use a meat substitute, but all omnivores out there should feel free to use ground beef or ground turkey, browned as one might normally brown some meat. The key to this recipe is the crust, which is made from generic, store bought biscuits. These biscuits really cement what my whole philosophy about cooking is, and this recipe is the reason we decided to bring Cooking on Television to the airwaves, to share great, original & easy recipes with you guys & to prove that vegetarian cooking can be real "dude food" and also be healthy, fresh and cheap. Also, for those keeping score at home, this recipe is neither Mexican nor pizza, you'll have to ask my mom how she came up with the name Deep Dish Mexican Pizza.
Secondly, in my favorite segment of the show that I like to call "Can He Do It?," I've decided to make another classic cocktail, the Gin Rickey. The Rickey is about as classic a cocktail as there is, the Lime Rickey eventually lost the Rickey handle & is now known as a Limeade. I thought instead of making a straight Rickey, I'd put a twist on it & make it more cross between a Mojito and a Rickey. Also, I really dig the taste of Kendrick's Gin, but I thought what I really liked about it is the subtle cucumber flavor, so I thought if we added cucumber slices & some muddled mint leaves into the standard Gin Rickey, we'd have a unique & potentially ex-tremely tasty cocktail on our hands. I wasn't disappointed, nor was the crew, and I've dubbed this drink the Branch Rickey for perpetuity.
Lastly, I thought we needed to incorporate something green on the plate that wasn't in my drink, so we broiled up some of the terminally underused Brussel Sprout. This is a recipe I took from my great friend David Bowman, he & his wife Camden are two of the best and most effortless cooks I know. These broiled sprouts with garlic are good enough to be a main course, they've got such a nice crispness & flavor. Ok, kids, onto the recipes:
My Mom's Deep Dish Mexican Pizza
1 can biscuits (no buttermilk, no Grands, no extra flakey things. Just Plain Biscuits)
1 tube Gimme Lean Ground Beef of Sausage
2 small cans tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 tomato, sliced
12-16 oz Cheddar Cheese, grated
3 cloves garlic, minced or finely diced
1/3 cup black olives, sliced
Directions - Put tube of fake meat in large sauce pan over medium low heat with 3-4 tbsp olive oil, breaking up as meat browns. Once meat is broken up, add tomato paste & tomato sauce & stir in thoroughly. Next, add olives & garlic & stir in. Basically, you'll be making a very heavy meat sauce. POP open tube of biscuits and stretch each biscuit out before placing in bottom of 10 x 10 square pan, at least 2 inches deep. Arrange biscuits in pan to form a layer of crust, eliminate as many bare spots on bottom of pan as you can, but biscuits will retract upon sitting so do your best. Once biscuit crust is formed, put meat sauce atop crust, flattening out on top with spatula. Layer cheese on top, then place 3-4 thick slices of tomato on top. Cover tray with foil, place tray in preheated oven at 350 degrees. Bake for 25-28 minutes, once you pull the pizza from the oven, use a butter knife to pull crust from edge of pan to ensure that crust is done (should be lightly golden or slightly browned). Slice like a casserole, and you're welcome.
The Branch Rickey
1.5 cups Simple Syrup w/ Lime Zest (just put 1 cup sugar & 1 cup water in a pot, heat w/out boiling & add zest of 1 lime, then cool mixture. This mix should make a full tray of Branch Rickeys)
1 1/2 oz Gin (I use Tanqueray)
3 slices cucumber
1 lime, juiced
6-8 mint leaves, loosely chopped to release flavor
3/4 oz Lime Zest Simple Syrup
Club Soda
Directions - In cocktail shaker, combine gin, cucumber slices, lime juice, mint at ice cubes. Shake vigorously, you'd ideally want the ice cubes to bruise the cucumber slices and pummel the mint leaves. Pour into cocktail glass over ice, top with club soda. Garnish with another cucumber & a lime wedge.
Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Garlic and Lemon
1 lb. Brussel Sprouts
6 garlic cloves, sliced
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 Lemon
Salt & black pepper to taste
Slice Brussel Sprouts in half, then place in large mixing bowl. Add garlic slices and oil and toss. Place in baking pan/sheet, and place in preheated oven at 400 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes, tossing sprouts 2 times every 8 minutes or so. Pull sprouts from oven and juice lemon over the top. Enjoy!
Ok guys, thanks for tuning in and I hope you enjoy these standard dishes from the kitchen of John M. Whitaker, and we'll see you next time, right here, on Television.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Ep. 1 - I'm Having a Party!
Hey guys, thanks for tuning in. I'm going to give a little recap, or pre-cap as it were (we're a bit behind schedule with editing b/c our producer & director are furiously at work on yet another reality show) of episode 1, and dish out the recipes & whatever secrets I might have to divulge behind these culinary semi-masterpieces. As always, our A-Team style mission here at Cooking on Television is to bring you vegetarian meals & drinks that are hearty, healthy, and most importantly, Kick Ass. So, party animals, here's the run-down of what we're Cooking on Television today.
In a little segment that I like to call "Can He Do It?", I'll be making the cocktail du jour for my party, the Rum Runner. Now, I know we can all whip out our handy Mr. Boston bar book & get the drink recipe for a Rum Runner, that's not where the "Can He Do It?" comes into this recipe. If you do care to flip through the pages of your favorite bar guide & look up the Rum Runner, you'll find the recipe calls for two ingredients that you might not have on even the most fully stocked bar: Blackberry liqueur and Banana liqueur. My take on these two ingredients goes something like this: while it's totally acceptable to go to the liquor store & stock up for the party, I don't think it's really the Cooking On Television way to get 60-70 bucks deep into two specialty liqueurs that will be sitting on my/your shelf for the next 4 years unused. So, I thought it'd be a fun experiment to fully incorporate these two flavors using fresh ingredients and the central ingredient in the Rum Rummer, i.e. Rum, to try and synthesize a little alcoholic paste to sub for the liqueurs. The result worked out amazingly, and made a cocktail unlike i'd ever tasted (or seen!)
Secondly, we're making the dip. Okie caviar, aka black eyed pea salad/salsa, is something I like to bring when I want to be the literal hit of the party. It's super duper easy, relatively healthy (let's just forget about all those tortilla chips used to dip in to it), and really inexpensive to put together. As nondescript as this recipe is, I defy you not to make it and not be labeled the hit of your next party/game day. Beats the heck out of pizza and store bought salsa.
Finally, and speaking of pizza, I thought pizza would be a fun thing to bring our little party, but was worried that it wouldn't be festive enough, would be too greasy & just not "special" enough for my special little party, so I thought it'd be fun to make little mini-pizzas out of some mini egg frittatas, loaded with all the fresh ingredients that constitute my favorite pizza from my favorite pizza joint. Throw some broiled tomatoes on top of those little guys, and the result is bite sized treats that work perfectly as both finger food and main course. Also, for all the omnivores out there, I added some sliced soppresatta to another batch of these and they were universally praised by all my party goers. Ok, there's the synopses, here are the recipes:
Okie Caviar - Party Size (adjust increments for one-man party size)
30 oz. Black eyed peas (as always, much better made fresh, but 2 16 oz cans will do the job)
1 16 oz. can of hominy (again, fresh is best, plus it's so much fun to slice the kernels off an ear of corn. If you care to do it fresh, just boil 1 ear of white corn, let it cool, and slice the kernels off. Easy, breezy, beautiful)
2 Jalapenos, finely diced (seeded if you don't want it spicy, seeds in if you like the spice)
2 Cans Rotel (once again, I recommend making fresh Pico de Gallo)
2 Tsp Cumin
Juice of 2 Limes
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions - Combine all ingredients, stir and serve. How simple is that, right?
Mini Pizza Frittatas with Broiled Tomatoes
12 eggs, beaten
1 cup Cream (I used Almond Milk in mine, Soy Milk works great too. Recipe is just as good made for those Lactose intol folks at your party)
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
10-12 large Basil leaves, loosely chopped
15-20 Cherry/Grape tomatoes, Broiled
Directions - In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and cream/milk substitute. Add Basil and Garlic, mix in thoroughly. Grease muffin pan and pour mixture into cups (no paper muffin cups necessary), leaving 1/4 inch at the top of each cup. Frittatas will rise when cooking, but will settle back down upon cooling. Place in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. You'll be able to tell when they're done by placing a toothpick/fork into mix and it comes out dry, just like baking a cake or muffin. When you're ready to serve, pop the frittatas from muffin pan and top each frittata with a peeled, broiled tomato. Broiled tomatoes can be prepared in advance, place tomatoes in small pan and put them in the broiler of your oven for 5-7 minutes. Let tomatoes cool and then peel, tomato skins should come right off and peeling should be a very simple, if slightly messy, operation.
A Very Special Episode of the Rum Runner
First, the Banana/Blackberry paste. Peel 2 bananas and mash in a medium bowl until bananas have a baby food like consistency. Then, add 1 small package (roughly 8-10 pieces) of blackberries and mash into banana mixture. You should, at this point, have a scary looking paste that is beyond ready to be made into a nice strong syrup for cocktails. To do that, start by adding two 3/4 oz shots of your favorite dark rum. Stir until rum and banana/blackberry paste have started to make a syrup roughly the consistency of molasses. If the syrup is too thick, add one more shot of rum & mix in until syrup looks, well frankly, like a purple mess but has the consistency of molasses & not pancake syrup. The rest of this recipe is for 3 drinks, or one very large one, and remember because of the "Very Special" nature of this Alco-paste we've prepared, there's one and only one rule for mixing this Rum Runner, & that's to James Bond it. Shaken, not stirred!
In a cocktail jigger/pint glass, combine:
3 shots dark rum
3 shots light rum
3 shots pineapple juice
3 shots OJ (I prefer freshly squeezed, but I realize that's a real P.I.T.A.)
2 shots prepared Banana/Blackberry syrup (see above)
Shake the mix up, shake the mix up again, & shake the mix up one last time for good measure. Serve over ice with an orange wedge and serve yourself first. If drink is way too strong, add 2 more shots OJ & re-shake. Since a Rum Runner is a classic cocktail, it should have a bit of a kick to it, but should also be very refreshing.
Alright guys, thanks for tuning in, be sure & post any questions/comments you have to any of the recipes here at the blog, & be sure to check for our next episode right here, on Television!
In a little segment that I like to call "Can He Do It?", I'll be making the cocktail du jour for my party, the Rum Runner. Now, I know we can all whip out our handy Mr. Boston bar book & get the drink recipe for a Rum Runner, that's not where the "Can He Do It?" comes into this recipe. If you do care to flip through the pages of your favorite bar guide & look up the Rum Runner, you'll find the recipe calls for two ingredients that you might not have on even the most fully stocked bar: Blackberry liqueur and Banana liqueur. My take on these two ingredients goes something like this: while it's totally acceptable to go to the liquor store & stock up for the party, I don't think it's really the Cooking On Television way to get 60-70 bucks deep into two specialty liqueurs that will be sitting on my/your shelf for the next 4 years unused. So, I thought it'd be a fun experiment to fully incorporate these two flavors using fresh ingredients and the central ingredient in the Rum Rummer, i.e. Rum, to try and synthesize a little alcoholic paste to sub for the liqueurs. The result worked out amazingly, and made a cocktail unlike i'd ever tasted (or seen!)
Secondly, we're making the dip. Okie caviar, aka black eyed pea salad/salsa, is something I like to bring when I want to be the literal hit of the party. It's super duper easy, relatively healthy (let's just forget about all those tortilla chips used to dip in to it), and really inexpensive to put together. As nondescript as this recipe is, I defy you not to make it and not be labeled the hit of your next party/game day. Beats the heck out of pizza and store bought salsa.
Finally, and speaking of pizza, I thought pizza would be a fun thing to bring our little party, but was worried that it wouldn't be festive enough, would be too greasy & just not "special" enough for my special little party, so I thought it'd be fun to make little mini-pizzas out of some mini egg frittatas, loaded with all the fresh ingredients that constitute my favorite pizza from my favorite pizza joint. Throw some broiled tomatoes on top of those little guys, and the result is bite sized treats that work perfectly as both finger food and main course. Also, for all the omnivores out there, I added some sliced soppresatta to another batch of these and they were universally praised by all my party goers. Ok, there's the synopses, here are the recipes:
Okie Caviar - Party Size (adjust increments for one-man party size)
30 oz. Black eyed peas (as always, much better made fresh, but 2 16 oz cans will do the job)
1 16 oz. can of hominy (again, fresh is best, plus it's so much fun to slice the kernels off an ear of corn. If you care to do it fresh, just boil 1 ear of white corn, let it cool, and slice the kernels off. Easy, breezy, beautiful)
2 Jalapenos, finely diced (seeded if you don't want it spicy, seeds in if you like the spice)
2 Cans Rotel (once again, I recommend making fresh Pico de Gallo)
2 Tsp Cumin
Juice of 2 Limes
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions - Combine all ingredients, stir and serve. How simple is that, right?
Mini Pizza Frittatas with Broiled Tomatoes
12 eggs, beaten
1 cup Cream (I used Almond Milk in mine, Soy Milk works great too. Recipe is just as good made for those Lactose intol folks at your party)
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
10-12 large Basil leaves, loosely chopped
15-20 Cherry/Grape tomatoes, Broiled
Directions - In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and cream/milk substitute. Add Basil and Garlic, mix in thoroughly. Grease muffin pan and pour mixture into cups (no paper muffin cups necessary), leaving 1/4 inch at the top of each cup. Frittatas will rise when cooking, but will settle back down upon cooling. Place in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. You'll be able to tell when they're done by placing a toothpick/fork into mix and it comes out dry, just like baking a cake or muffin. When you're ready to serve, pop the frittatas from muffin pan and top each frittata with a peeled, broiled tomato. Broiled tomatoes can be prepared in advance, place tomatoes in small pan and put them in the broiler of your oven for 5-7 minutes. Let tomatoes cool and then peel, tomato skins should come right off and peeling should be a very simple, if slightly messy, operation.
A Very Special Episode of the Rum Runner
First, the Banana/Blackberry paste. Peel 2 bananas and mash in a medium bowl until bananas have a baby food like consistency. Then, add 1 small package (roughly 8-10 pieces) of blackberries and mash into banana mixture. You should, at this point, have a scary looking paste that is beyond ready to be made into a nice strong syrup for cocktails. To do that, start by adding two 3/4 oz shots of your favorite dark rum. Stir until rum and banana/blackberry paste have started to make a syrup roughly the consistency of molasses. If the syrup is too thick, add one more shot of rum & mix in until syrup looks, well frankly, like a purple mess but has the consistency of molasses & not pancake syrup. The rest of this recipe is for 3 drinks, or one very large one, and remember because of the "Very Special" nature of this Alco-paste we've prepared, there's one and only one rule for mixing this Rum Runner, & that's to James Bond it. Shaken, not stirred!
In a cocktail jigger/pint glass, combine:
3 shots dark rum
3 shots light rum
3 shots pineapple juice
3 shots OJ (I prefer freshly squeezed, but I realize that's a real P.I.T.A.)
2 shots prepared Banana/Blackberry syrup (see above)
Shake the mix up, shake the mix up again, & shake the mix up one last time for good measure. Serve over ice with an orange wedge and serve yourself first. If drink is way too strong, add 2 more shots OJ & re-shake. Since a Rum Runner is a classic cocktail, it should have a bit of a kick to it, but should also be very refreshing.
Alright guys, thanks for tuning in, be sure & post any questions/comments you have to any of the recipes here at the blog, & be sure to check for our next episode right here, on Television!
Monday, August 3, 2009
thanks for tuning in
hey guys, thanks for tuning in. we're had a blast this week and hope you like this week's episode. recipes & bloggy thoughts coming soon.
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