Tag: Signature Dishes
Lemon Ricotta Meatballs with Orzo
Lemon Ricotta Meatballs with Orzo
This Italian-inspired dish is to die for. The chicken meatballs contain whipped ricotta and lemon zest, giving them a creamy tanginess. After they are browned, orzo pasta is simmered in chicken stock. Then heavy cream, butter, and lemon juice is stirred in; finished with shredded parmesan and freshly chopped parsley. It tastes so good, you’d think grandma made it.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup flour
- olive oil
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1/2 cup ricotta
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg beaten
- 2 tbsp parsley chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lemon zested
- salt and pepper to taste
Pasta
- 1/2 cup shallots chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup orzo
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- shredded parmesan for garnish
- parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Mix together all of the meatball ingredients.
- Form into 1” meatballs.
- Lightly coat the meatballs in flour.
- Heat up an 1/8” of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add in the meatballs.
- Brown for 10-12 minutes total on all sides. Remove from the pan.
- Add in the shallots. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add in the garlic. Cook for 1 minute.
- Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer.
- Stir in the orzo. Cook until al dente; about 8 -10 minutes.
- Stir in the heavy cream, butter, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add in the meatballs and cook for 2 minutes.
Homemade Buttermilk Pancakes
Homemade Buttermilk Pancakes
While there’s nothing wrong with buying premade mix, especially when your in a hurry, nothing beats made from scratch pancakes. Outside the buttermilk, most people have the ingredients in their fridge and pantry already. These take about 5 minutes to make the batter and 4-5 minutes each to make a fairly large pancake.
Ingredients
- vegetable oil for cooking
- maple syrup for serving
- butter
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix together all of the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
- Heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil on a griddle or nonstick skillet over medium heat per pancake. Ladle a 1/2 cup of pancake batter onto the griddle.
- Once air bubbles form and pop on top of the pancake and the bottom is golden brown, flip; about 2-3 minutes.
- Cook for 1-2 more minutes.
- Serve with butter and real maple syrup.
Jambalaya Burger
Jambalaya Burger
I’ve seen multiple recipes online for jambalaya burgers; all using ground beef patties. What sets my burger apart from everything else on the internet is that mine uses a raw ground andouille sausage. And the reason why is that people might have a problem finding raw ground andouille sausage. Almost all andouille sausage you find in a grocery is going to be smoked. My meat department happens to make a raw andouille sausage. If you can find a raw andouille sausage, take it out of the sausage casings and form it into patties. If not, I’m attaching my recipe for andouille sausage below this one. Just skip the stuffing and smoking. Beyond this andouille rant, this is one of the best burgers I’ve ever had; by far. I’m such a big fan of Cajun and Creole cuisine, I turned one of my favorite dishes, jambalaya, into a spicy, juicy, burger of meteoric proportions. Once again, I made an andouille sausage patty topped with Creole shrimp, the trinity(onion, celery, and bell pepper), and sliced heirloom tomato; with creole mustard on top of a toasted brioche bun.
Servings: 2 burgers
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground andouille sausage
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil divided
- 1/4 cup white onion finely chopped
- 1/4 cup red bell pepper finely chopped
- 1/4 cup celery finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 8 large 16/20 ct. shrimp peeled and deveined; tails removed
- 2 tsp creole seasoning
- 2 brioche buns toasted
- heirloom tomato sliced
- creole mustard
Instructions
- Heat up 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onion, celery, and bell pepper for 4 minutes.
- Add in the garlic and cook for a minute.
- Add in another tbsp of vegetable oil. Season the shrimp with creole seasoning. Add to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
- Flip the shrimp and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove the contents from the pan.
- Divide the ground andouille sausage into 2-8oz patties.
- Pan fry the patty for 6 minutes over medium high heat.
- Flip the burger and cook the patty for 4 minutes; covered.
- Put each patty on a toasted brioche bun. Place 4 shrimp on top the patty. Evenly distribute the sautéed vegetables on top of the shrimp. Top with creole mustard.
Smoked Andouille Sausage
Andouille sauasage is the famous staple of the cajun and creole cuisine of Louisiana. With it’s origins from French charcuterie, andouille sausage consists of coarse ground pork heavily seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme, sage, paprika, and a large amount of garlic. The pork is stuffed into casings and slowly smoked with pecan wood. Andouille can be used in numerous cajun dishes such as jambalaya and gumbo.
Equipment
- food processor
- meat grinder
- sausage stuffer
- twine
- Electric Smoker
Ingredients
- 8 lbs pork shoulder
- 40 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp sage
- 2 tsp pink curing salts
- hog casings
Wood Chips
- pecan wood
Instructions
- Place the garlic cloves in a food processor.
- Process until chopped.
- Mix together all of the seasonings.
- Grind the pork on a medium grind plate, one time through.
- Thoroughly mix the spices and garlic into the pork.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings.
- Twist into 6” links. Let cure overnight in the refrigerator.
- Cut every 4th link apart from each other. Tie in between the middle of the 4 links with twine to the grate of your smoker so they can hang.
- Place the grate on the very top rack of your smoker so the sausages can hang. Turn the temp to 130 degrees. Allow the sausages to dry out for an hour with out adding any wood chips.
- Turn the temp to 250 degrees and add your wood chips. Allow the chips to ignite. Turn your smoker down to 150 degrees. Smoke for 6 hours, changing out the wood chips every 2 hours. After 6 hours, turn up the smoker temp to 180 degrees and smoke for 1 more hour.
