Deviled Eggs My Sun Dried Tomato Basil And Walnut Pesto Deviled Egg Recipe

Deviled Eggs

 

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Who knew that the dish deviled eggs had a history? Well, they do! Deviled eggs or as the bourgeois would call it Eggs Mimosa are just eggs that have been cut in half and refilled with their yolks prepared with some other ingredients like mayo or mustard and served hot or cold. They are most often served as a side dish or appetizer but many people including myself serve them as a main course.

Supposedly the Deviled egg was created in Rome, Italy. They are eaten in various forms and recipes all through Europe. The French call deviled eggs, eggs mimosa. Don't ask me why I don't know! They are called eggs kazino in Hungary and gevuld ei which is stuffed eggs. There is a version of deviled eggs that is filled with caviar and served with a remoulade sauce and it is called Russian eggs because of the caviar. Today deviled eggs are really common in the United States served as an appetizer, side dish or even as hors d'oeuvres. We in the states have made deviled eggs so popular that we have even created special deviled egg serving trays for them.

The word "deviled" in deviled eggs supposedly dates to the 19th century and refers to some rather hot spices used in cooking. Our more modern versions of deviled eggs include such ingredients as cheese, wasabi, garlic, capers, mushrooms, spinach and even smoked salmon or other seafood's and because of this most of our versions of deviled eggs are not hot or even close to spicy and that is why I added some heat to the one's in my video. In culinary terms the word "deviled" which goes back to around the 18th century also referred the use of hot and zesty ingredients in food which had heat to them

In some parts of the Southern and Midwestern United States, the terms "salad eggs" or "dressed eggs" are used, particularly when the dish is served in connection with a church function - presumably to avoid dignifying the word "deviled."

Many years ago I used to live in Alabama and in the south deviled eggs are commonly called "salad eggs" or "dressed eggs" and this is a term used when served at lunch or dinner time after a church function and the deviled egg dish is presumable called "dressed eggs" to avoid any connotation to Old Jebez himself.


It is Memorial Day Weekend and all of us have an extra day or two off from work. Thank God! I hope that we all took the time to remember our fallen dead, the one's that have fought for our freedoms throughout all wars. It is a time of remembrance and a time of celebration. Yes! Celebration of the freedoms we still have and a celebration of the one's that fought for it since the time this country began! All raise a glass in memory!

Now, many of us have little gatherings, parties, BBQ's and the like and naturally we will eat and drink. I stopped counting the drink after my 54th beer! (Yeah! don't believe that for a second!) So we go out shopping a day or two before the Memorial Day Weekend and we gear up for the cooking and BBQ. My whole neighborhood smells like one big BBQ on Memorial Day! I myself don't have a BBQ so I have to cook indoors.

So one of the dishes I make as an appetizer for my gathering is Deviled Eggs. I make a custom version of Deviled Eggs with sun dried tomato basil and walnut pesto and some peperoncino and spinach! Then I chill them for about an hour or two before serving and they are so rich and creamy and an absolute pleasure to wash down with a beer.  I hope you try this recipes it is really delicious!

Pesto Ingredients:

4 cups fresh basil leaves packed.
1 cup Pamesano Reggiano or Grana Padana grated.
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts and 2 Tbsp. crushed walnuts for garnish.
4 cloves garlic crushed.
1 Tbsp. black pepper.
1/2 small jar sun dried tomatoes in oil. Drain pat off excess oil from them and chop them up
Pinch of salt if needed as the cheese will generally have enough salt in it for flavor, but if you need a bit more then go ahead.

You will need one spinach leaf for each egg half you are going to serve. Cut the stems from the leaves, you want the bottom of the leaves flat.

You will also need to take a small handful of spinach leaves to make spinach chiffonade to decorate your plates.

Preparation:

1. In a food processor combine the basil and walnuts and pulse them down a few times.
2. Now add the garlic and chopped sun dried tomatoes and pulse the mixture down.
3. Add some olive oil to we the mixture and start pulsing again to get the mixture to spin freely in the processor.
4. Leave the processor on constant and slowly pour the rest of the olive oil into the mixture.
5. Stop occasionally to scrape the side of the food processor with a rubber spatula.
6. Now add your grated cheese and black pepper and process your pesto to the consistency that you desire and then store in jar, I like to use canning jars cause they are really airtight and things will stay fresher longer in them.  I like mine a bit on the rougher side and some people like the pesto on the finer side. It is all a matter of taste and texture.

Egg Preparation:

1. 1 Lg pot cold water and add 1 or 2 Tbsp. salt and stir it in.
2. 1 dozen eggs, place them in the water and bring to boil and then cook 8 to 10 minutes depending on your stove until eggs are done.
3. Place eggs in bowl with cold water to stop the cooking and let them soak another 10 minutes this should soften the shells to peel easily.
4. Peel the shells off the eggs.
5. Place eggs on cutting board and have a sharp knife and wet paper towel to whet the blade so it does not stick to egg yolk when cutting.
6. Slice each egg in half the long way.
7. Separate the yolks from the eggs.
8. Place yolks in large bowl and crush them up with a fork.
9. For 12 eggs add 6 Tbsp. pesto to start. If mixture is still a bit on the dry side add more pesto until the mixture is smooth but with texture of different sized bits of yolk.
10. Add peperoncino to the mixture about 11/2 Tbsp. or more to taste. You can also use Sambal sauce or Cayenne powder if you want.
11. Mix it up well. Now you will begin by placing one spinach leaf in each egg half as you go and the spoon in the pesto/yolk filling. Wipe off any excess filling that gets on the rim of the egg whites. Repeat this until you have all the egg halves filled with spinach leaf and pesto/yolk filling.
12. Garnish your plate with the spinach chiffonade and place your eggs on the plate.
13. Garnish each egg half with some crushed walnuts pushed into the pesto/yolk filling and then lightly dust the plate with some more crushed walnuts. Then chill for an hour or two and then serve! You will love them, I promise!

Note: The pesto recipe will make approx. 2 cups of pesto and depending on how much of it you use on egg yolks you will have some left. If you have any yolk/pesto mixture left after making the eggs try some of it as a spread on French or Italian bread. Yummy!

Fry Bread The Navajo Taco Fry Bread Recipe

Fry Bread Navajo Taco's

 

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Many years ago I used to live in Los Angeles. I lived there for about thirty years and then I got really, really tired of the left coast and I decided to leave the republic for greener pastures and a different attitude. Well, I ended up hitching up and moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico. New Mexico is a state rich in many cultures hailing from Spain, Mexico and the American Indian nations of Navajo, Mescalero Apache and Zuni just to name a couple. All of these cultures are proud of who they are as well they should be.

Soon enough I began to realize that I was not in L.A. anymore and the activities that I was used to for so many years were not available in New Mexico. That was O.K.! I learned to appreciate activities that required me to be outside in nature more in New Mexico than in L.A., Don't get me wrong I spent plenty of time outside in Cali, but that was the beach and the activities in New Mexico were more the hiking and camping type. I learned to love it.

I did find that Albuquerque had swap meets just like L.A. did and I love a good swap meet. So I started going bargain hunting all the time. I even started selling stuff at the swap meet to supplement my income. I took one weekend off from selling at the local swap meet in town and I went to my first Indian swap meet on the Navajo reservation just outside of town. It wasn't like the mega size one at the racetrack in town, it was more native craft like jewelry and paintings and baskets and all manner of artifact and Indian handwork. It was at this Indian swap meet that I first learned about Indian fry bread. Fry bread is fairly common amongst many of the tribes of the Southwestern United States, but it is the fry bread of the Navajo that I am using in my video on this post. Fry bread is also common to many cultures on our little blue planet and I don't really know much about how those recipes came into being, but I do know that even though fry bread is a tradition and a staple of Navajo life that this recipe came with a cost in human suffering, pain and death.

Many years ago in the past in the early part of the 1800's The Navajo tribe would trade goods with other Indian tribes as well as with the Mexicans, the Spanish and even some of the early Americans that showed up in the Southwest in those days. The problem with the mass migration of pioneers is that right behind them was the United States Cavalry. Without getting into a long drawn out history lesson as to  what finally became of the Indians at the hands of the cavalry I think it is safe to say that we all know what happened it was and still is a deplorable thing that happened.

The Navajo was well as other tribes were put into reservations that had mass overcrowding, sickness and disease. Many time the food that the soldiers supplied the Indians in the form of flour, powdered milk, yeast, baking powder and fat/lard were rancid. These foods are the origins of the fry bread and today fry bread is a common food at Indian swap meets, Pow Wows and many other venues.

On the other side of this coin it is a sad fact that these provisions that we supplied the Indians whether they were rancid or by some stroke of luck good to use, these provisions were not part of their true diet and it was these foods that over time led to ailments that have never affected the Native tribes before. The sad fact is that most people today in my opinion don't really understand what is behind each bite of fry bread or each Navajo taco they eat. Truthfully, I was only aware of these facts in a cursory fashion but as time went by and I kept going to the Indian swap meet that I learned these facts because I asked questions. I am glad I did!

On the other side of the planet in a totally different culture the Britons: British, Scottish ate fry bread. They called it "bannock." The recipe for this fry bread or bannock was brought to America by the settlers of the time. It became a staple food for them. It was made with whatever the settlers had on hand, such things as flour, cornmeal, oats or pulverized wheat. Then all you need is some kind of fat like lard, oil, or shortening and then other things like fruit, eggs and syrups were added as well. So when it comes to bannock or fry bread in the early regions there were many types and everyone who made it made it a bit differently and I am sure the descendants of these early British are still making it today as a family tradition.


Navajo Fry Bread Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached flour.
1/2 Tsp. salt.
1 Tsp. powdered milk.
1 1/2 Tsp. baking powder. Use a little more baking powder if you want to make the fry bread rise a bit more that's OK!
1/2 cup water.
Some extra flour in a bowl for you to flour up your hands for mixing the fry bread dough.
vegetable oil for frying.

1. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl together and whisk them together thoroughly.
2. Pour the water over the dry ingredients and stir them together with a fork until the mixture starts to clump up. I used a whisk in the video and that's OK! to start with but it gets messy when the clumping starts so I have elected to always use the fork in the future.
3. Now while the mixture is still in the bowl flour your hands.
4. Now use your hand or hands and begin rolling the dough or moving it about the bowl to pick up all the excess flour in the bowl to coat the outside of the dough. Don't knead the dough. You want to form a ball that is well floured on the outside and still doughy on the inside. Kneading this dough will make the resulting product heavy and take away from it's flexibility and chew. You want the inside of the dough sticky after the ball is formed.
5. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and using your freshly floured hands you can stretch and shape and press the dough into any shape you want. Navajo Taco's do not have to been perfectly round as they are not a perfect dish. If you want to roll the dough into a ball and use a roller for uniformity that is fine to, I have been known to do that as well. Form your pieces into 6 to 7 inch rough diameters or if making balls and using a rolling pin make then into 6/7 inch round diameter pieces.
6. Heat your oil in pan. You want 1/2 inch of oil in the pan minimum. The skillet should be at least a 10 inches. Heat to 350-400 F.
7. Take your formed dough and one at a time gently place the dough into the hot oil and make sure you don't get any splatter.
8. Press your dough down with your spatula or back end of a spoon to make a bowl indentation in your dough and to get the fry bread to submerge in the oil to get some of the hot oil on the top of the dough.
9. Fry each side until golden brown, 3 to 4  minutes per side each stove will be a bit different so check the fry bread a couple of times.
10. The fry bread you make will stay warm in your oven while you make the filling. I cover mine and put it in my microwave and they stay nice and soft. Then when it comes time to put the whole thing together I just nuke the fry bread for about 10-15 seconds and you are good to go!

11. Now this recipe will make 3 to 4 fry breads and in the video I made 4. This is OK if you want to eat your Navajo Taco open faced. I made a second batch late last night just to try out a theory and found that taking this recipe and and instead of cutting the dough into 4 pieces that if you cut it into 2 pieces you can get a really nice large 8 inch plus diameter depending on how thin you want to make the dough pieces and with them being this large you will be able to load them up and then fold them up for an ultimate Navajo Taco that is just amazing! I tested this last night at about 11p.m. and by midnight my tummy was nice and full and I discovered the Jumbo Navajo Taco!

Navajo Taco Filling:

1 Lb lean ground beef. I used 80/20.
1 cup diced onion.
1 15 1/2 can black beans rinsed.
1/2 cup kernel corn fresh or frozen.
1/2 to 1 head iceberg lettuce shredded.
2 tomatoes seeded and diced. I used fresh plum tomatoes.
2 cups shredded cheese either Cheddar or Jack. I used Cheddar, Jack and Asadero combo shreds.
1 3oz can of chopped green chilies.
1Tbsp. garlic granules.
1Tbsp. crushed Mexican Oregano.
1 Tbsp. cumin.
1 Tbsp. New Mexico Chili powder.
Salt and pepper to taste.

In a large skillet with med/high heat brown your meat and onions. When the meat is 50% done and the onions are translucent add your black beans and corn and mix. Just before the filling is done you can add your garlic, oregano, cumin, chili powder and salt and pepper into the skillet and mix. You can choose to add the diced chilies to the skillet while cooking or you can add them to the taco with the rest of the fillings. I put the chilies into the skillet with the meat and onions.

When the filling is done get your fry breads from the oven if you are keeping them warm in there or nuke them for 10-15 seconds in the mircowave and then they will be good to then put them on plates and spoon on the fillings from the skillet and then add your lettuce, tomato, cilantro, cheese and if you want some sour cream which is optional. Serve and enjoy with a cold beer or whatever you want to drink and enjoy!

Pasta Recipe - Pasta Puttanesca Pasta Of The Whore's

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Last night I felt like making a pasta recipe for dinner and so I decided to make a classic Italian pasta recipe from Campania, Italy called pasta puttanesca! The pasta of the whore's! Also called pasta alla putan or pasta alla putana's. In literal terms pasta puttanesca means "the way a whore would make it."

There are many stories as to how pasta puttanesca came into being as a pasta recipe. In it's most literal sense it was the pasta dish that the "ladies of ill repute" or the "ladies of the night" even though they also worked the day shift would make and eat between servicing their patrons.

There is another version of the story that goes like this: pasta puttanesca was made in the whore houses or brothels and that as the sauce  would cook the wonderful aroma of the puttanesca sauce would waft through the streets would entice and attract the local men to the front door of the brothel. Now to me that sounds a bit romanticized, but it is a true fact of nature that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!" I would venture to say that between the two versions of the stories of how pasta puttanesca came into being as a pasta recipe, that someplace the two stories will meet in the middle. This pasta recipe is not an "old" recipe that goes back hundreds of years, rather it is a contemporary Italian dish that was created in the 1940's during the WW2 era.

There are two cities in Italy that make the claim to fame for pasta puttanesca and they are Campania and Lazio. There is no way to really tell which city made it first or which story really goes to which city, but either way this is a delicious pasta recipe that I think everyone should try if they've never had it. As with many dishes in this world in Italy everyone makes puttanesca a bit differently. Sometimes it is spicy and sometimes it is not. Some people will add some sugar and some will not. This pasta recipe can range from tangy to spicy to salty. If you are like me you will try to make your puttanesca in such a way as to have all of the tastes expressed! This is what I strive for when I make pasta puttanesca for myself or for others.

In Italian, the puttanesca sauce is called "Sugo Alla Puttanesca." Traditionally, puttanesca is served with common spaghetti but it goes good with just about any kind of pasta from fusili to regate to fettucine! I love to eat puttanesca with my favorite pasta called bucatini. There is an Americanized version of pasta puttanesca that uses onion in the sauce and this is not the traditional Italian way so I would say to avoid doing it that way and I don't use onions in my puttanesca recipe ever! In some traditional puttanesca recipes some will just before serving the pasta puttanesca will add cooked tuna or cooked salmon to the puttanesca sauce just before that sauce goes on the pasta of choice and this is done to add some protein to the dish as well as another layer of flavor and aroma.

For this pasta recipe I will be making the puttanesca with a pasta called orecchiette, a pasta that is shaped like tiny little bowls of pasta that really take the sauce and holds it so that you can enjoy every drop of this excellent sauce. So in this video I will be making Pasta Alla Puttanesca De Orecchiette! Enjoy!


Ingredients:
1 Lb pasta. (Any kind will do, spaghetti, penne, fusili, bucatini etc.)
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
1 can/flat of anchovies, drain the oil off of them and chop them rough or use 2-3 Tbsp. anchovy paste.
1/2 Tsp. red pepper flakes to start. If you want it spicier then use 1 Tsp and it will bring the heat.
1 can chopped black olives. You can use oil cured if you want to peel the meat from the pits or you can use kalamatas.
3Tbsp. capers drained and rinsed.
1/3 cup of olive oil.
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves roughly chopped. If you don't have fresh then use 1Tbsp. dry to start, taste and add more if needed.
3/4 cup of basil chiffonade to add as topping to pasta before serving. You can use flat leaf parsely if you want to.
1 28 oz can of plum tomatoes that you have crushed up by hand and you can use domestic or San Marzano tomatoes.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Grated parmigiano reggiano or grana padano or any Italian grated cheese as preferred topping if wanted.

Instructions:
1. Heat up your large skillet (12 inch if you have one) on medium heat.
2. Add olive oil, garlic, anchovies, and red pepper flakes and saute until anchovies melt into oil and garlic softens.
3. When anchovies melt and garlic softens add olives, capers, tomatoes, black pepper, salt, basil and bring to bubblling and then simmer to desired thickness. Some people like their puttanesca on the thin side and some like it a bit more on the thick side.
4. Add 1-2 Tsp. of sugar to taste(optional)to help cut the acid of the tomatoes and red pepper flakes.

5. While your sauce is simmering put your pasta into well salted water and cook until Al Dente and then either toss the pasta with the sauce and serve or plate some pasta and top with the sauce, basil and cheese.

Hope you enjoy!












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Shrimp Cocktail-A Gazpacho Recipe For Mexican Schrimp Cocktail

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Shrimp Cocktail anyone?  How's about some gazpacho? The all time favorite liquid lunch from the southern region of Spain called Andalusia. Gazpacho is probably the best known dish in all of Andalusia and with good reason, it's delicious! I love Gazpacho because it's easy to make and it's loaded with vitamins and nutrition, but the best part is that it's especially delicious during the brutal summers of the great southwest where I live. We get summer days here as high as 115F. or higher!

I love soups all year round, but I don't want to eat hot soup when at nine at night it is still 90F. outside. Here's the kicker, the same ingredients that you would use to make gazpacho also makes a killer Mexican shrimp cocktail. Read on!

Gazpacho comes in many varieties depending on region or time of year. Some will come with tomatoes and some without tomatoes. Some will come with almonds(ever hear of gazpacho with almonds! Yup! There is!) and some without almonds. One of the ingredients in classic Spanish gazpacho is red wine vinegar and some food writers that I have read think that the addition of the red wine vinegar may point to a connection with the Roman empire and the Spanish as recipes developed over time and cultures exchanged influences in all areas of life including food.

Andalusian gazpacho was historically made by hand in a large mortar and pestle setup by adding the veggies and week old break and pounding it into a paste and then the tomatoes would get added along with the olive oil, red wine vinegar and other ingredients and pounded into the desired consistency. Mexican shrimp cocktail on the other hand is made of basically the same ingredients as gazpacho, but these ingredients will not be pounded, food processed or blended with week old bread as a thickener to make a gazpacho recipe. Instead the ingredients for this shrimp cocktail will get finely chopped/diced for the crunchy texture and no bread will be added.

Gazpacho is THE soup/salad of Spain and it has been a popular dish in the U.S.A for a long time now. Most of us have had gazpacho in Mexican restaurants and the Mexican gazpacho recipe is very much the same as the Spanish gazpacho recipe but with some subtle differences. In the Mexican gazpacho recipe white vinegar will be used instead of red wine vinegar.  Also, in the Mexican gazpacho recipe there will be oregano added that you will not usually find in the Andalusian gazpacho recipe and in the Mexican gazpacho recipe you will find jalapeno peppers added whereas in the Spanish gazpacho recipe you will find bell pepper.  Here is another one, in the Mexican gazpacho recipe will use white or brown onion whereas the Spanish gazpacho recipe will use purple onion and the Mexican recipe will use dill weed whereas the Spanish gazpacho recipe will use chives.

These are just some subtle little difference and not matter how it is made gazpacho is delicious! So today I thought I would make a modified version of a gazpacho recipe that will lean a little more toward the Mexican style which will be a bit more spicy than it's Andalusian gazpacho recipe counterpart. I have a friend Ernie here where I live and he had a Mexican restaurant that unfortunately closed because of the economy that we are in. One of the local faves  from his appetizer list was his Mexican shrimp cocktail. I called Ernie and asked him if I could make this recipe for my blog and he gave me the go ahead. I love to make this dish during the hot summer months, it is cooling and really refreshing. So,  I am going to share with you how to make my version of Ernie's  Mexican shrimp cocktail.



Ingredients:

1 lb bag of large 26-30 or extra large 16-20 shrimp or more depending on size of serving glasses and the amount of shrimp you will want to put on rim of each glass.

6 tomatoes peeled and chopped.

1 brown or white onion peeled and finely chopped/diced.

1 cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped fine.

4 jalapeno peppers seeded/not seeded and chopped fine.  You can add more if you really want to bring the heat! You can also use any chili pepper that you want. In the video I used chopped Hatch green chilies from New Mexico, they have an excellent taste!

2 celery stalks finely diced.

2 Tbsp. fine chopped cilantro.

2 clove garlic minced. (I usually use 1 clove garlic for every two people.)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar or white vinegar. Red leans toward the Spanish recipes and white leans toward the Mexican recipe.  I am using red wine vinegar for this recipe.

1/4 cup olive oil.

2 to 4 fresh squeezed limes. (Have some extra limes on hand for people to add more lime juice if they like.)

1 Tsp. oregano bulb crushed.

2 Tsp. sugar.

4 cups tomato juice.

3+ avocados depending on size pitted, peeled and chopped medium to medium fine. Avocado acts to thicken and make the cocktail sauce really creamy when eaten so you can add more avocado if you wish!

1 Tsp. Worcestershire sauce. (optional)

Salt/Pepper to taste.

Optional: Add 10 drops of your favorite hot sauce or don't add any and let your guests add their own to their tastes. Have extra quartered limes on hand for people who like to add an extra jolt of lime juice to their cocktail.

Instructions: Combine all of the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl. Don't use plastic or some kind of reactive metal bowl as this will effect the taste of the mix. Let this mixture sit in the fridge for a minimum of two hours before serving. Let stand in refrigerator overnight the flavors to maximally marry. Then serve in a large cocktail glass or wine glass. Put some of the mixture in the glass and then add chopped avocado and then add more of the mixture and then more avocado in layers then put shrimp around the rim of the glasses and serve. Enjoy!

Note: This recipe is a basic outline for serving 8 people but can differ a bit for everybody because of things like the size and kind of tomato and other veggies used and the serving size of the glasses that you put the cocktail in.

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