Feta Cheese Spread

This is going to be a short post… first, I’m not entirely awake yet, and second, this is a pretty simple recipe. It’s also kind of a pre-post for a roasted vegetable panini that I’ll post in a few days, but I wanted separate recipes since this is a really tasty spread.

Anyway, start with feta cheese, sour cream, fresh dill, kosher salt (I’m using a roasted tomato salt, hence the red, but kosher is fine), a diced garlic clove, and a bit of lemon juice.

 

Homemade BBQ Sauce, and my 50th post!

For my 50th post on here, I wanted to do give you all something special. For the last few years, the single best thing that everyone has wanted repeatedly has been my homemade bbq sauce. Whether it’s on pulled pork, oven baked ribs, or on top of burgers with bacon, it’s quite simply the best bbq sauce I’ve had. After finally tweaking it enough, I present it here for you. Thanks for your continued support, and I look forward to cooking many more delicious experiments for everyone out there.

Start by roasting some peppers. Jalapenos, serranos, and anaheim, to be specific. Broil on the top rack of an oven until blackened.

Put in a small bowl and cover tightly with foil (or steam in a plastic bag, but I’ve had the heat of the peppers melt the bag before) to loosen the skins. Wait 15 minutes, then peel the skins off. You don’t need to get ALL of the skins, just most of them, especially the blackened bits.

Puree in a blender along with the garlic, and to make it more liquid, 1 cup of the ketchup.

Add the contents of the blender, the remaining ketchup, and everything else into a stockpot. Stir really well, because the brown sugar will want to sit on the bottom and burn. Heat to a boil on medium, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 2 hours until the color darkens and becomes thicker.

Dustin’s “Mad for BBQ” BBQ Sauce:

3 jalapeno peppers
1 serrano pepper
1/2 poblano or 1 anaheim pepper
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, with 2 tsp adobo sauce
4 cloves garlic
7 cups ketchup
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup yellow mustard
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp worchestershire

Preheat oven on broil.

Broil peppers on the top rack until skins start to blacken. Remove and place in a covered bowl or plastic bag (be careful not to melt the bag) to steam and loosen the skins. Wait 15 minutes. Remove skins and ends of peppers, but leave the seeds in (remove if you prefer a milder bbq sauce).

Puree peppers, garlic, and 1 cup of ketchup in a blender.

Bring all ingredients including pepper puree to a simmer over medium heat in a saucepan. Reduce heat to low and simmer for two hours, or until sauce darkens and becomes thick.

 

Ancho Chile BBQ Sauce

Today, we’re getting ready for another great Superbowl recipe. This is a great bbq sauce, which I recently used to make shredded bbq chicken mini pizzas. It’s mild, rich, and not overly sweet. (A note for those who know me personally: this is NOT the bbq sauce I gave out for Christmas, it’s a different, less spicy/sweet one, more savory)

First, cut tomatoes into chunks and run them through a food mill to crush the tomatoes and remove the seeds.

Next, toast dried chiles in a skillet, pressing them down flat, until they’re soft and pliable.

 

Chipotle Hummus

As a friend described this, the hummus is yummus. Now, this is actually a combination of a technique from Smitten Kitchen, where you peel the garbanzo beans for a smoother, lighter hummus, but the flavors are from Natalie’s Daily Crave, somewhat adapted for my own tastes.

Start by peeling two cans of garbanzo beans. The technique is pretty simple, just hold one between your index and middle fingers with the pointy end toward you, and use your thumb to ‘pop’ the bean into a bowl, then discard the skin.

Once you’ve peeled all the beans, place them in a food processor along with 4 chipotle peppers and some adobo sauce, some tahini, olive oil, lots of garlic, some lime juice, salt, paprika, and cumin.

 

Great Guacamole

The title of this post makes me want to exclaim Great Guacamole, Batman! But that’s probably only me, and will go away once I completely wake up. In the meantime, I’m envisioning various Batman roles as mexican foods, so am thoroughly amused.

On to the food! This is Alton Brown’s guacamole recipe, and it’s pretty darn good. The few changes I made were substituting salsa for tomatoes, leaving out the jalapeno for a spice-intolerant friend, and added extra garlic. It worked out pretty well for us, though I’d add the jalapeno without seeds in next time for more flavor.

Start by halving, peeling, and seeding the avocados. Then toss it in a bowl with the juice of one lime, minus one reserved tablespoon of the juice.

Next, add kosher salt, cumin, and cayenne, then mix and mash everything together.

 

Homemade Peanut Butter

I’ve heard it a hundred times… “Making your own peanut butter is so easy, and so good!” but never gave it a try until now. So for New Years, I was going to make homemade peanut butter, roll it into balls, and cover it in tempered chocolate. Things interfered with the actual chocolate, so I just got a whole lot of homemade peanut butter… but dang is it good! And SO EASY!

Start with lightly or unsalted peanuts, and roast them in the oven on a baking sheet for 5-6 minutes until brown. What you see here is the first batch, which burned a little, so you want less dark than this. My second batch was amazing though.

Let the peanuts rest until simply warm to the touch, 10-15 minutes. Then place in a food processor and puree until the proper consistency, scraping down the sides occasionally.