One Pan Irish Nachos

We love nachos. So much, in fact, that we make them every week (Nacho Sunday!). 

Today is St. Patrick's Day, and I'm 1/4 Irish (and damn proud of it! Although I'm also damn proud to celebrate Cinco de Mayo...). It's also nacho day. I felt we should honor the Irish and the potato famine that caused so many of them to come to America (probably including my ancestors) by making our nachos Irish. 

Oh my goodness this was a good idea. Going to be doing this a lot more often.

This is called "one pan" because other than a butcher block to chop the veggies the whole thing was made in one cast iron skillet, and then we ate directly out of it. It was glorious.

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Soyrizo

Corn

Cheese

Bell pepper

Tomatoes

Cilantro

Avocado

Sour cream

Spices

Heat the cast iron skillet for a couple of minutes, then add a small layer of olive oil. Chop the potatoes into bite sized pieces and put them in the pan. Season generously with salt and pepper and whatever other spices you want. 

If you don't have a cast iron skillet, get one. The twenty bucks you'll spend is way, way worth it. Cast iron skillets keep very even heat on the whole thing so every piece gets cooked the exact same amount, preventing overcooking some pieces while barely cooking others. Plus, you can stick them in the oven. Seriously, they're great.

While those are cooking, chop the veggies and shred the cheese. We used the same veggies we do in regular nachos, but I imagine a wider variety of toppings will be good. Green onions, specifically.

Wow, that's a terrible picture... But you get the idea.

Once the potatoes are a few minutes away from being ready, add the soyrizo to the pan. I scooped half the potatoes on top of each other to make room. Once that was just about done, I added some corn. You could also add beans to make it real nachos, but there's so much going on you don't need to.

And then some cheese.

And then put it in the oven. That's probably one of the greatest things about cast iron - goes right from the stove to the oven. Just remember that the whole skillet is hot, so you absolutely need to use an oven mitt. Cook the skillet at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese is as bubbly as you like.

Then put all the vegetables on it! So good. How good? We made this early in the evening after not having lunch, and because we're fat kids we were kind of hungry again at our normal dinner time (8-9pm), so we made a second batch. It really is amazing we don't weigh more.

LOOK AT HOW PRETTY IT IS!

Naturally, it being St. Patrick's Day and all, we paired it with Harp. And it was good.

Total Cost: less than $10, feeds two fat kids 

Total Time: ~25 minutes

Note: In this particular post, most of the photos are courtesy of my phone, which, while awesome and pretty decent at playing camera, is no match for Rich's actual camera. So if the pics look like cell phone pics, it's 'cause they are. Especially the one of the potatoes and soyrizo... it's like I didn't even look at it after. Ugh.

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Gnocchi with mozzarella, basil and tomatoes

It's like pasta but with potatoes.

This is one of the easiest, fastest and cheapest meals and it's hearty and satisfying. Gnocchi are little potato balls that work like pasta and are as versatile as pasta. You could literally put anything on them and it'll be great. I like to keep it somewhat simple because the gnocchi tastes really good by itself.

Ingredients:

Gnocchi

Grape tomatoes

Mozzarella

Basil

Olive oil, balsamic vinegar

Step 1: Boil the gnocchi. Takes about as long as pasta, like 10 minutes or so. When the gnocchi rises to the surface, boil for two more minutes.

 They have risen!

Take the two minutes to shred the cheese and prepare the basil. Drain the gnocchi and put everything together with a small bit of olive oil and an even smaller bit of balsamic vinegar. Fee free to sprinkle with salt and pepper if you want, but we didn't.

Enjoy! A very italian dinner with all the right colors. This can even be gluten free if you find gnocchi that isn't packaged with wheat flour (to keep the potato balls from sticking together). You can also make a mini caprese salad appetizer with the same ingredients.

Total cost: ~$7 (feeds 2-4)

Total cook time: 10 minutes

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Chili Cheese Fries

Yes, all of this is homemade. Drool.

Chili is the perfect cold weather food and French fries are the perfect American comfort food, so it only makes sense that combining these two things and topping it with a healthy amount of cheese is pretty frickin' delicious. This is a vegetarian recipe but my meat-eating boyfriend will attest that you don't miss the meat. But if you really want meat in it? Brown some ground whatever in the pan after the onions.

Ingredients:

Black beans

Kidney beans

Bell pepper

Onion

Corn

Diced tomatoes

Chilies

Tomato paste

Potatoes

Vegetable Oil
Olive oil

Salt
Red pepper flakes (or chili powder or anything spicy)

Pepper

Garlic

Dried basil
Cilantro
Cheese

One of the best smells your kitchen will ever experience.

Dice the onion and garlic (I seriously love garlic and it's good for you, so I used a whole one) and cook in a thin layer of olive oil on medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, or just until the onion starts to look transparent. Or when your kitchen smells amazing.

Spices make the chili.

Add the can of diced tomatoes, chilies (or a can of tomatoes with chilies to save a step), corn and whatever spices you want to throw in there. Think basil, chili powder, red pepper flakes, that Trader Joe's Smoke Seasoning I mentioned earlier, basil and anything else along those lines. Stir it all up.

The texture part of chili.

Add about a half can of tomato paste (keep in mind that a can of tomato paste is very small - see the ingredients photo) and the bell pepper. Make sure the paste is blended well and taste the mix so far. If the paste taste is too strong add more seasonings.

Nom.

Now add the beans and cilantro! It should be starting to look like chili. The mixture is supposed to cook on low-medium for an hour, but we got impatient and ate after 30 minutes. 

 The ever versatile potato.

This is a really convenient time to make the French fries. I included a picture, but for a reminder on how to cook them (chop, fry, dry, salt) go here.

Drooooooooool.

Spoon the chili mixture onto a plate of fries, top with cheese and chopped cilantro and eat while the cheese is melting. Homemade chili cheese fries really are so satisfying. And the great thing about making your own chili is that it costs like $5 and there's a ton of it leftover the next day (when the flavors really come together), especially if you spoon it over some rice or corn bread. You can top chili with sour cream, avocado or whatever tickles your fancy.


And now I'm hungry again.

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Fish, Fries and Brussels Sprouts

This evening started with the idea to make French fries and we had no idea what else. I mean, you can't very well just eat French fries for dinner (at least not and then post about it in a blog for all to read...). So this is a sort of fish and chips thing. And I had Brussels sprouts that needed cooking.

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Fish

Olive oil

Vegetable oil

Brussels sprouts

Salt (and other seasonings)

Despite their name, Gold potatoes end up looking kinda green.

I had Gold potatoes on hand but I imagine pretty much any potato will work. Russet is another great potato for frying. Wash, peel and slice your potatoes into French fry shapes. I like them a little thick because it gives them more of a potato taste.

Friiiiiiiiiiies.

 Pour about an inch or a little more of vegetable oil into a pan on medium heat and let it get hot before adding the potatoes. Stick one in to test the oil: I did this and it crisped dark brown in 30 seconds, so if the oil heat is way off at least only one fry is ruined. Once you've got the right temperature stick a handful of fries in. Flip them at least once so they're cooked throughout. After you've got them cooked to the crispiness you want take them out and lay them on a plate with paper towels to soak up the extra oil and retain the crisp. Sprinkle with sea salt (smoked sea salt is pretty frickin' awesome).

Tilapia! With dried basil, smoked sea salt and rainbow pepper.

Season your fish and put it in a pan with a very thin layer of olive oil. Flip once to cook through. This isn't fried fish like regular fish and chips have, but still tasty.

 Crumbly fish.

I got the microwavable bag of Brussels sprouts from Trader Joe's and they were done in 3 minutes. Sprinkle with seasonings (sea salt, pepper, garlic) and serve it up! 

Fish, fries and sprouts!

For a spur of the moment, what-sounds-good-with-fries night, this turned out really well and tasted great. A few potatoes, a bag of sprouts, and a pound of fish fed us fat kids quite nicely.

My spice cabinet.

How to choose your seasonings: Put the same seasonings you used on the fish and fries on the sprouts and everything will have a cohesive flavor. In fact, this is a great rule for pretty much everything you make: if you're using pepper and garlic in mashed potatoes, add it to steak too. I just discovered smoked sea salt and am very impressed with the taste. Worked great on fries, enhanced the fish and seemed perfect on the sprouts. Except for the paprika, you can see everything is from Trader Joe's, and that's because each of those containers (including the big one on the left) was $2. The tall one is regular sea salt, and there's dried basil, ground garlic, smoked sea salt, rainbow peppercorns, and behind those is dried oregano, red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, and two spice blends, one called everyday seasonings and the other called South African Smoke flavor. I use all of them regularly and one day I'll have a much more comprehensive set of spices. 

The whole point of spices is to use what you like. I love garlic and put it in everything (sometimes pretty heavily in everything). Because I eat a lot of things that absorb the flavor of what you cook with it (rice, eggs, tofu, etc.), spices play a huge role in my cooking. Rich has this Italian seasoning blend that's super delicious, too, and way better garlic than my ground jar. Experiment with spices and find out what you like best.

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Seared Ahi Tuna Steaks with Mashed Potatoes

Tuna, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Mmmm!

This is a deliciously impressive meal but is super easy to prepare. And delicious. Just want that part to be clear.

Ingredients:

Ahi tuna steaks

Potatoes

Corn on the cob

Spices (garlic, pepper, salt)

Heavy cream

Butter

Let the tuna marinate with some pepper and garlic for a while. Don't overpower the tuna, though, because the flavor is good enough on its own. 

 They're so purdy!

While the tuna is sitting, peel and boil the potatoes. Gold potatoes can be boiled with the skins on, as long as you're ok with a slightly lumpy result. Boiling time will depend on the size of the potatoes you use (Russets are giant and take forever to cook, Golds are much smaller and boil faster, but this will easily be the most time consuming part of the meal regardless of what kind of potatoes you use).

 Naked Gold potatoes

While the potatoes are boiling, shuck the corn and boil them, too. The potatoes will be done when you can stick a fork in one and it goes in easily. Drain the water and mash the potatoes with a spoon (or a potato masher, if you have one). Mix in a little bit of the cream, as in, like, 1/4-1/3 cup (you can always add more if you want it to be creamier), and add salt, pepper and garlic. Mash to your heart's content.

 Super creamy mashed potatoes. With lots of garlic :)

Put a tiny little bit of butter in a very hot pan and put in your tuna steaks. When the bottom has a thin layer of done-ness flip it with tongs and do the same to the other side. Get a nice even layer of done-ness on both top and bottom and let the spices get really seared into the steak. Sesame seeds are really good for searing tuna, too.

Pink on the inside

When the tuna is done, drain the corn (forgot to take pictures of the corn, but really you just throw them in some boiling water until they're as soft as you want them to be, not exactly real hard), add some spices to taste and nom!

 If this doesn't impress, I don't know what will

We paired this meal with Karl Strauss 22nd Anniversary Vanilla Imperial Stout, which is ridiculously good. Karl Strauss is one of the top craft brewers in San Diego and they make some seriously tasty beers. Not a single one that I've had has been boring in the slightest, and the 22nd Anniversary was something Rich had been saving for a special occasion (tuna steak night was pretty special). 

Stouts and porters are the best, and vanilla anything is soooo good

This beer also makes a great dessert. It's thick, dark and just sweet enough with the vanilla for after meals. It's not regularly available, though, so if you're lucky enough to get your hands on it I hope you enjoy it.

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