Your Chicago Mortgage Guy

My Last Meal on Earth

Julie and I are addicted to Top Chef.  It's the only Reality show I have ever gotten into.  This week, the challenge was for the Chefs to create a "Last Meal" for some other very, very exclusive Chefs.  So, in that spirit, here is my last meal on Earth.  I could make this with my eyes closed. 

Spicy Italian Shrimp

• 1 LB of Medium Shrimp - Peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup or so of Olive Oil
• Red Pepper Flakes - Small handful
• 1 Lemon - Zested and Juiced
• Black Pepper
• Kosher Salt

In a bowl or baking dish, combine the Olive Oil, a handful of red pepper flakes, the zest of your lemon, the juice from that lemon, 1/4 teaspoon or so of Black Pepper and about a 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher Salt.  Sorry, I don't measure this anymore.  Whisk these ingredients together.  Coat the shrimp and put them back in the fridge until after the Steak comes off the grill.

Creamy Polenta

• 2 Cups of Water
• 2 Cups of Low Sodium Chicken Stock
• 1 Cup of Medium Grind Corn Meal
• 1/4 cup or so of Grated Parmesan
• 4 Tbs of unsalted butter
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper

Bring the water and chicken stock to a rolling boil.  Gently whisk in the Corn Meal until it doesn't look lumpy and is pretty thick.  Let this simmer for about 25-30 minutes.  Check back and stir every 5 minutes or so.  After 25-30 minutes, add the Parm and the Butter.  Stir until you have a nice texture, season with salt and pepper.  Cover.

New York Strip Steak with Spicy Coffee Rub

• 16 Oz. New York Strip - At least 1" thick for grilling
• 1 Tbs - Whole Coffee Beans
• 1 Tbs - Whole Black Peppercorns
• 1/4 Tsp - Good Quality Chile Powder - New Mexican preferably
• 1/8 Tsp - Chipoltle Powder
• 1/8 Tsp - Cinnamon
• Kosher Salt

First, Fire up the grill.  You want a hot two zone fire for searing your steak.

Combine the Coffee Beans and Peppercorns in a spice or coffee grinder.  Grind so that there are some Peppercorns that are still just cracked.  Combine with the Chile powders and the cinnamon.  Add more hotness if you see fit.  Season your steak with Kosher Salt and apply the rub.  Make sure the steak sits out of the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes before it hits the grill.  Grill over Direct High Heat - With the lid on - for two minutes, turn 90 degrees, two more minutes, flip and repeat.  You should get 4-5 minutes of direct heat on your steak.  Remove and tent with foil for ten minutes before slicing.  This is for Medium Rare.  If you like your steak Medium, add about 1:30 per side.  If you like your steak any more cooked than that, throw away this recipe and go to Applebee's. 

Once the Steak is off, put the Shrimp on skewers and grill over high heat for about 2-3 minutes per side.  You will be able to tell they are done when they have curled up and turned pink.  Try not to over cook. 

I like to cut my steak into strips and serve it over the polenta with the shrimp on the side.  I would also make some grilled Asparagus as well.

Yummy and probably not at all good for you.  But, if it's my last meal, who cares?

Joe Burke

Your Chicago Mortgage Guy

joe@yourchicagomortgageguy.com

773-742-6707

Meat Loaf Throw Down - Will Nick be up for the challenge?

As most of my friends know, I like to cook.  Well, it seems that my Loan Coordinator, Nick, likes to cook as well.  I asked Nick if he wanted to post a recipe on my blog and when he sent me his recipe for Meat Loaf, I couldn't resist.  We are going to have to have a little throw down here.  This is in no way affiliated with a certain cable station or the chefs who make a lot more money than I do.  It's just for fun.

Nicky V's Famous Barbecue Meat Loaf

• 1/2 lb Ground Sirloin
• 1/2 lb Ground Turkey
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Cup Whole Wheat Crackers - Crushed (Triscuits)
• 3/4 Cup Diced Onions
• 2 Cloves Garlic - Diced
• 1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
• 1/2 Cup Barbecue Sauce - plus extra - Nick uses Stubb's and swears by it

Mix the beef and turkey thoroughly.  Add the eggs.  Mix in the remaining ingredients until well blended.  Form the meat into a loaf on a sheet pan.  Coat with the extra Barbecue Sauce to taste.  Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Joe Burke's Guinness Meat Loaf

• Olive Oil
• 1 Carrot cut into small dice
• 2 Celery Stalks cut into small dice
• 1 Medium Onion cut into small dice
• 3-4 Garlic Cloves cut into small dice
• 1 lb Ground Beef - I like the 80/20 Chuck
• 1 lb Ground Pork
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Fresh Chopped Thyme
• 1 Tbs Fresh Chopped Parsley
• 3 Slice of White Bread - Cut up or torn
• 1/2 Cup plus extra Bread Crumbs
• 1-1/2 Cups Ketchup
• 1/2 Cup Guinness - Plus extra for drinking
• 1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees.

Soak White Bread in Guinness

Heat 2 Tbs Olive Oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat.  Saute the carrots, celery, onion and garlic until soft.  Not to high, you want soft veggies without burning them.  5-7 Minutes

In a large bowl, mix the carrot and onion mixture(once cooled) with the ground beef, ground pork, 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs and a 1/2 cup of the ketchup, the fresh herbs and the two beaten eggs.  Squeeze the Guinness out of the white bread like a sponge and add them to the mixture.  Combine together with your hands or in a stand up mixer.  Add bread crumbs to get a not to wet consistency out of your mixture. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and combine the mixture into a loaf on the pan. 

Mix together the other 1 Cup of ketchup with 1/2 cup of Guinness and 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar until you have a nice sauce like consistency.  Cover the meat loaf with the sauce. 

Put in the oven for 45-55 minutes.  At about 25 Minutes, baste the loaf again with the sauce.

 

I'm not lying, that is my recipe.  Concocted from many an attempt at a good meatloaf. 

Now, Nick, we have to set up a time to get these tasted together so we can get some results to my viewers here.  Are you up for the challenge???

We will just have to wait and see...

 

Joe Burke

Your Chicago Mortgage Guy

joe@yourchicagomortgageguy.com

773-742-6707

 

 

 

Holiday Feast!

I'm getting a lot of flak for not getting these up before Thanksgiving, but I didn't cook my Turkey for Thanksgiving this year.  We're having the family over in a couple of weeks and I'll be Grilling this baby up for the family.  If you have never tried a Turkey on the grill, give it a shot.  You'll never go back to the oven.

Before you start.  Get the Turkey out of the Fridge.  You want it out for an hour before it hits the grill.  Remove the neck and giblits as well as the pop up timer.

I keep things pretty simple with my Turkey.  I will be using the Maple Brine that I listed in an earlier post and then I like to coat the turkey in a compound butter.  Here's the Butter I'll be using.

Compound Butter

• 8-10 Garlic Cloves -  Finely Chopped
• 1 Cup or so of Chopped Parsley
• 1 Tbs of Kosher Salt - If you Brine your turkey, you might want to skip the salt
• 2 tsp of Freshly ground Black Pepper
• 2 tsp good chili powder - go get good stuff, not the stuff that's been sitting in your cabinet for five years
• Zest of 2 oranges
• 1 Stick of Unsalted butter at room temperature

You can add or subtract from this. You can also do a mixture of sage and thyme if you don't like the orange.  Pretty much anything you want to mix with butter works here.

Take all of the above ingredients and mash them up really good.  You can do this and put it into the fridge the day before or even freeze it. 

Rub that Turkey good.  Get it under the skin and everywhere you can.  This is where the goodness comes from.

So, now you have a bird that's rubbed in butter.  I like to cut up the oranges and stuff them in the cavity with some more garlic to kind of steam the bird from the inside out.  Again, you can put just about any aromatics in the cavity to keep it moist and infuse some more flavor.  Once you've go the bird ready, set in it's rack in a disposable roasting pan.  I cut up a couple of onions and carrots and put them in the pan with about 4 cups of chicken or turkey stock.  Again, here you could use water or even beer if you really want to waste the beer.  The idea is to keep as much moisture in the cooking vessel as possible.

For your Grill.  Set up the grill for indirect cooking.  Coals on the outside.  Make sure the Turkey has been out of the Fridge for at least an hour before it hits the grill.  A 12-14 lb turkey will take 3-3.5 hours on the grill.  You will have to replenish the coals about every hour or so.  You want an instant read thermometer to hit 180 degrees in the thigh.  Your Turkey's temp will rise 5-10 degrees when you take it off the grill, so keep an eye on it and get it off before it hits 180 on the grill.  The less times you open the lid, the faster and better the Turkey will turn out.  You might have to wrap parts of the Turkey in tin foil for the last hour or so to keep it from burning.  When the Turkey comes off the grill, give it at least 20 minutes before you start carving. 

I'll get my gravy up on Monday.

Joe Burke

Your Chicago Mortgage Guy

773-742-6707

joe@yourchicagomortgageguy.com

Maple Turkey Brine

I thought I would get all of this up early, but I'm not doing my yearly turkey until December 13th, so I haven't been great about this.  Here's the Maple Brining Technique that I have used the past couple of years and will use again this year.  This is enough brine for up to a 20 Pound Turkey.  So, it should be enough for just about anyone.

• 8 Quarts of Water
• 2 Cups of Kosher Salt
• 2 Cups of Pure Maple Syrup - Grade B works fine here
• A handful of fresh Thyme or any other fresh herb you want to throw in
• 6ish Bay Leaves
• One whole head, or more if you really like, of garlic.  All of the cloves need to be good and smashed, but it doesn't matter if you peel them or not
• Handful of Black Peppercorns
• Handful of Cloves

At least a couple of hours before you plan on putting your turkey in the brine, heat all of the above ingredients until you dissolve the sugars and the salt into the mixture.  The hotter you get this, the longer it will take to cool before you put your Turkey in the Brine. 

I usually buy a paint bucket, but have also used a cooler to store the turkey.  Place a couple of UNSCENTED garbage bags or a brining bag into your bucket or cooler.  Put the Turkey in and pour the COOLED liquid over the entire turkey.  I usually pack the whole thing in ice, and this time of year, leave it out on the porch over night.  I'm sure some food nazi would tell me that is bad, but who has a fridge big enough for this?

I'll get my Turkey Recipe up later today...

Joe Burke

Your Chicago Mortgage Guy

773-742-6707