Dublin Coddle

This dish is an old variation of traditional Irish stew. Layers of sausage, bacon, onions and potatoes are slowly simmered (“coddled”)for hours, often this turns into a mushy mess! So for a taste to fit today's tables,- and keep the ingredients intact- We crisped the bacon and browned the sausages!

We gently cook this in the oven to create a creamy layer of potatoes and add a splash of vinegar to cut down on the “richness”.
Since tradition calls for“bangers” which are hard to find in the US, here we used available bratwurst.Perfect meal to share.

Here is an alternative and inexpensive meal to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. All of the traditional tastes in an easy to fix format. A great way to stretch the budget and still provide for guests in a way they will remember long after all of that bland expensive corned beef is used up. Just add a crusty bread, and a pint or two of a favorite beer! The slow roasted bratwurst imparts a wonderful taste.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 2 lbs pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
• Salt and pepper
• 4 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1½ lbs bratwurst
• 2 onions, sliced into ½-inch-thick rings
• 1 tablespoon minced thyme
• 1¾ cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.

Gather and prepare the ingredients:

peel and slice the potatoes and cover with a damp paper towel.

Slice the onions.

Cut the bratwurst into thirds.

Cut the bacon.

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

“Shingle” the potato slices to cover the bottom of dish. Sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper; set aside.

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy, 12 to 14 minutes. You want them to crunch! Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel–lined plate.

Carefully add sausages to the skillet and cook until lightly browned on tops and bottoms, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towel–lined plate.

Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons fat from skillet and return to medium heat. Add onions, thyme, ½ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper. Cover and cook until onions are softened, 7 to 9 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping up any browned bits.

Add broth and vinegar, scraping up any browned bits, and bring to simmer. Carefully pour this onion mixture over potatoes, spreading onions into even layer.

Place sausages pieces, browned side up, on top of onions. Cover. Bake about 1½ hours. Test so see if a table knife meets little resistance from the potatoes.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with reserved bacon. Serve with a crusty bread to soak up the wonderful juices.

 

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyOkbcTxa7Q

Happy to be serving my Master Indy by sharing this meal with slave's senior neighbors !

Here is a special Saint Patrick's Day Prayer slave shared before the meal:

Our heavenly Father, what a magnificent powerful God!

You have engineered such a complex universe, and filled it with beautiful colors and wonderful music!

Yet too often we allow the noise of fear and pain to keep us from feeling the joy You have made for us.

We lift our hearts to You as children reaching up to be held.

We ask for only what we need. Please Father, when we find that old wrinkly person in the mirror, let us see the light of Your love shine forth. For when we know its there, we'll find it in the faces of others. With this all else will follow.

As we raise daily, we reach for Your hand. Lead us along the path You have laid out for us. Down the steep rocky trails and up the tallest mountain we know as age.

For when it is time to sit down. Time to slip off our shoes and lean back with our feet up. That time we will truly be cupped into Your palm and You will carry us home to a place of ultimate love.

We Thank You Father and pledge You our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name:

Amen

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM%20via%20@amazon 

Montrose Chicken Pasta Dinner

Let's build a healthy tasty meal. Cooked tomatoes are good for you as is spinach. Boneless, skinless white meat chicken is a great source of low fat protein. Let's throw in some pasta to fill the meal out and what do you know? A good tasting inexpensive low fat meal!

This dish is named after a neighborhood of Houston TX. Back in 1991 it was the intersection of Homophobia and Aids Health Crisis. Find out about this part of our history in a short article after the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 lb. chicken breasts, boneless and skinless (cut into 1" cubes)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 5oz fresh spinach
• 4oz low fat cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 can tomato bisque soup
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (if you wish opt for a couple of jalapeño peppers, cut and the seeds removed)
• ¼ pkg of pasta (I used rotini)
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Parisian cheese for topping.
  

Directions

Prepare your ingredients by chopping the onion and garlic, then cut up the chicken.

In a large covered skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add chicken cubes and cook, while stirring, for 5 to 10 minutes or until chicken begins to brown. 
 

Remove chicken chunks to a bowl leaving as much of the oil as possible in the pan.
Add the onions to pot. Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. Add chopped garlic during the last minute.
Pour in the can of stewed tomatoes and stir.

Add the spinach by handfuls at a time so they wilt down. Stir occasionally for about 7 – 8 minutes.

In a bowl mix the cream cheese into the tomato bisque soup along with crushed red pepper flakes (or jalapeños).

Add the uncooked pasta to the skillet along with the chicken. Pour in the soup mix and bring to a boil. Cover with lid, lower the heat to medium-low and let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and not letting pasta overcook. 
 

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a hearty one pot meal that beats anything you could get from a hamburger helper type of box!


For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ChADh1zt5I&index=18&list=RDEhZba-P7R18


So honored to be able to serve my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM%20via%20@amazon 

The Monsters in Montrose 

 

Paul Broussard was a 27-year-old Houston-area banker and Texas A&M alumnus. He was fatally attacked by a gang of youths outside of a nightclub on July 4^th of 1991. The young men, nine teenagers and a 22 year old had gotten high on drugs and alcohol at a party in the suburbs and had gone down to the neighborhood of Montrose. The area was the one gay area in Houston, known as “homo heights”. According to stories they had been refused admittance to several night clubs there before pulling into a parking lot and finding Broussard and two friends walking home.

The youth asked them for directions to “Heaven”. The boys then reportedly jumped out of their cars and attacked the men with fists, steel-toed boots, bear claws and a knife.

The young banker was beaten and stabbed twice with a knife. Broussard suffered abrasions, puncture wounds, a broken rib, bruised testicles, and two stab wounds. As he lay on the ground, barely conscious, two of his attackers went through his pockets and took a comb as a souvenir!

That is when a second, perhaps more insidious attack happened. 1991 was almost ten years into the AIDS health Crisis. “First Responders” were notoriously slow to answer calls from Montrose for fear of “contamination”.

When EMS staff finally arrived at the scene, Broussard was still lucid and talking. For unknown reasons, paramedics determined that the severity of his wounds warranted low priority transport (no lights or sirens). As a result, what should have been an eight-minute trip took forty minutes. It was then another hour before a doctor could be located who was willing to address Broussard's wounds. Broussard latter died.

An expert medical examiner listed cause of death as both internal injuries as well as "a delay in treatment".

When Houston Gay Rights Leader Ray Hill confronted police about the case, he was told that they had no intention of solving the murder.

The public outcry was focused then on the boys, called "The Woodlands Ten". All ten were soon arrested and signed confessions without attorneys present. They were plea-bargained into prison without a trial. The court did order them to pay for Broussard's funeral.

Gay rights advocates, frustrated about being ignored and persecuted by city officials, marched through the streets and in front of the Mayor's home for several days in what became Houston's largest and long-lasting gay rights demonstration in history.

 

 "The Guy With The Knife"

A documentary film: "The Guy With The Knife" uncovered the pattern of delay in responding to the gay community in Montrose by Houston first responders (EMS and police). It recounts unfortunate advice that was repeated in Montrose during those years: "If you get hurt in Montrose, get in your car and drive some place else– and then call 911."

The story seems to take new twists and complications each year. However it is one of the many stories that make up our LGBT history. One which I urge you to discover.

Pork with Night Shift Gravy

This wonderful pork dish features a gravy that might surprise you. Trust me on this. It is based on a proven flavor mix that has been a family favorite for ten generations. Hope that you find this new variation to be one your family will want over and over again.

Here is a modern gravy that draws its inspiration from tradition. I hope you will try it, change it to fit your tastes and keep it in your book of great sauces.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of nice thick pork – used here are boneless pork steaks –

a Saint Louis Favorite

3 slices of bacon

½ C of yellow onion chopped finely

3 cloves of garlic chopped

2 Tbs flour

1½ cup of chicken stock

1 Tbs soy sauce

1 tsp instant coffee

Directions:

When ready to cook, rinse and pat dry pork with paper towels.

Pre heat the oven to 250 degrees. (this is low and slow)

Line a pan with foil and spray a rack to set inside.

Place in oven for about 50 minutes or until a thermometer reads 110 - 120 degrees.

This give you plenty of time to do your cutting! Chop the onion and garlic in separate bowls.

When pork is about ready:

Fry the bacon until crispy, remove with slotted spoon reserving the bacon grease. Add butter, but don't let it burn, while it is still bubbling, sear the pork for 6 minutes on each side or until a nice golden.

This will go by quickly since the outside layer has dried in the oven. Look for temps to reach 150 degrees. Remove the meat and tent with foil.

Into the grease add the onions. Stir and cook for 5 minutes adding the garlic the last minute of cooking.

 

In a medium bowl mix chicken stock, soy sauce, and instant coffee.

Sprinkle cake flour into the skillet with the onions and garlic. Stir well. Crumble and add the bacon and the cup of chicken stock mix.

Cook and stir until nice and thick, about 6 to 7 minutes.

This is wonderful served with noodles, grits or even rice or quinoa! Pick a nice green vegetable to compliment textures and colors.

What a wonderful new sauce – gravy for you! It is based on the old Red Eyed Gravy that has been around for 200 years.

If you have never had this, try it before someone tells you what it is! Red-eye gravy was first created in the early 1800s. For hundreds of years, this salty, smoky sauce is heaven to mix with pork. And it's ridiculously easy. The purist version is just black coffee and the drippings from frying up some country ham. The thin sauce often separates, creating a rosy "red eye" of fat around the dark pool of coffee.

But for this dish we tone down some of the bitter notes in the traditional sauce, and create a new modern gravy.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tZWLRh3xmU

Serving my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM%20via%20@amazon 

Confidence Building Chicken

Do you ever want to fix something neat like fried chicken but think you can't do it? Perhaps you don't have the time or equipment. Don't want to heat up all that oil then find a place for it when cleaning up? Here is a simple way to make some great chicken that just bypasses all those fears.

Keeping it simple: keeping it safe: and keeping it tasty: that's the whole idea behind serving the best. The frying is just to give a beautiful color and crunch and the roasting will finish cooking. Letting it sit lets all those wonderful chicken juices collect right where they should be! Nearly fool-proof!

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs (with skin & bones)

2 Tbs oil
2 Tbs of butter.
½ cup of cake flour (all purpose flour will work)
½ tsp of salt.
½ tsp of white pepper

½ tsp onion powder

1 tsp paprika

2 pinches of dried Thyme

Directions:

Open the chicken, rinse off and pat dry on paper towels. Sprinkle with cornstarch. And let sit for half an hour.

Pre heat the oven to 450°


In a wide bowl stir together:

flour
salt
white pepper

onion powder

paprika

and 2 pinches of dried Thyme ( go very light with this because the herb can burn when frying)

When the chicken has sat for half an hour, most of the corn starch will have disappeared but dust it off with a dry paper towel. (This will have dried the skin – makes it crispy)


In a large covered skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.


Dredge and roll each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and let sit.
Add the butter to the skillet and let melt into the oil while you give it a stir. You don't want it to turn brown - While it is still foaming, place the chicken in – skin side down and cover. Do not touch for 7 – 8 minutes. You want the skin to turn a nice golden brown before you turn each piece over. If not the color you want, give it another minute. 
 

Let fry for a second 7 minutes uncovered. (if worried, check the temperature, it should get to about 100 to 110 degrees)
Place each piece on a sprayed rack in a foil lined pan. Let roast in oven for a full 13 – 15 minutes to finish cooking and crisping the skin!
Check again: the temps should reach 165 to 170.

Remove and lay a piece of foil over and let rest for 3 to 4 minutes.
Serve

Go ahead and microwave a couple of side vegetables, or even (horrors!) instant mashed potatoes, just don't tell me about it OK?


What a meal. Easy steps, tastes great and crunchy. No big clean-up.

For music tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLioSN38EME
 
So happy to be allowed to serve a meal like this to my Master Indy.

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM%20via%20@amazon

Sunrise Meatloaf

At times in life it is easy to overlook the simple. When facing that question: “What's for dinner?”and the mind to go blank, go for simple. Yes, a meatloaf can be “simple” but it can also be just the right balance of tasty vs budget and effort vs ease. More than most, this combination highlights the flavors of a high end hamburger from an expensive restaurant.

Here is some sunshine baked right into a wonderful nest of a juicy hamburger like dinner. Let your supper smile with the flavors that say, “Summers coming”.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped fine
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Salt + black pepper to taste

• 1 egg + 3 eggs for stuffing
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• 1 nice slice bacon
• 2 oz Low fat cream cheese (room temperature)
• 3 slices American Cheese

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

Do your cutting first always: chop the onion. You want this into tiny pieces.

In a bowl, add the ground beef, onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, 1 egg and breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly and let set for 5 minutes.

Place the meat mixture in a loaf pan, shaping the edges up and leaving a trough down the center for the filling.

Cut the bacon into two pieces and lay them on either side of the indentation. Spoon the cream cheese into the space between. Just spread in down the length.

Lay out the three pieces of cheese on top. Gently push down on the center of each piece with your thumb. This forms a well for each egg. Crack them in and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.

Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour. Carefully slide a spatula down the sides and ends to free the loaf and lift to a platter.

The hour of baking gives you plenty of time to set the table, wash-up the kitchen and fix a couple of side dishes. Here slave chose to open a can of stewed tomatoes. Easy to fix, tear up a couple of pieces of your favorite bread, mix and microwave till heated (about 5 minutes). Slave warmed some left over broccoli to balance the presentation with color and texture.

A truly welcoming dish for my Master Indy.

For our music tonight, something different:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLioSN38EME

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM%20via%20@amazon