Mussels are a great meal because they are cheap, easy to cook, and can be paired with almost anything. Duck and fennel go perfectly with mussels. We cooked our own duck stock then paired it with white wine and vegetable stock. In went the homemade duck sausage and fennel. This was the perfect way to break in our brand new kitchen.
Full Belly Blog cannot take credit for this recipe. We found this in one of our favorite cookbooks, Mozza. We usually don’t post about recipes we haven’t created but this was just too delicious to not share. This recipe is for slow cooking. Don’t rush any of the steps because in the end you will have the perfect bowl of pasta.
We are huge fans of skirt steak, mostly because it is a cheaper cut of beef. Other people must be catching on to how great skirt steak is because it’s hard to find cheap skirt steak anymore. After cooking this dish our new cheap cut is hangar steak. We cooked it pretty rare here but it was flavorful and delicious. In this Chimichurri sauce we used our homegrown Greek oregano along with a hint of orange.
David Chang has a show on PBS called, “The Mind of a Chef”, which we recently discovered. This show inspired us to make chicken soup. Danny’s favorite soup is Progresso’s Chickarina soup which is where we came up with the idea for the chicken meatballs. After collecting and drying all of our herbs we grew this summer we used some of the fresh fennel seed and lemon thyme in these meatballs. Hope you enjoy this on a cold winter day!
Most Gringos, ourselves included, don’t know much about Mexican food. The elaborate preparations and regional intricacies are usually lost in the typical, one-size-fits-all “joints” one finds north of the border. It’s a shame. Mexican food: the soulful child of European and Mayan parents, rivals any cuisine in assertive style and compelling flavor. Lizzie and I are two certified “Gringos” from the tri-state area and have begun the journey into our southern neighbor’s cuisine with Rick Bayless, author of Everyday Mexican, as our guide. We have customized one of his recipes for Enchiladas from Mexico City, for our Enchiladas De Dos Gringos.
On this beautiful Sunday we made some pizzas to celebrate the end of a great summer. We came up with two completely different toppings. The first one being a ricotta, lemon, basil pizza, which was light but really flavorful. The second being a guanciale mozzarella pizza which was savory and rich. Both are delicious and both are easy to make.
While Bloody Mary’s are generally thought to best compliment a cold morning, we used the power of fire and smoke to transform the winter classic into a delicious summer cocktail that pairs well with any backyard BBQ. Oak smoked tomatoes, pulla pepper infused vodka and canned chipotle juice are some of the original elements we used to make our spicy, Smokey Marys.
Danny and I were thinking about how we should cook something other than just BBQ this past weekend. We couldn’t part totally without that grilled flavor so we decided to grill some lobster tails paired with homemade red curry. Red curry is not something that we usually eat so when we set out to make our own we made sure to buy some canned pastes at the store to get an idea of the flavors. Luckily we have a great Asian market around us and found mostly all of the ingredients that are in an authentic red curry sauce. It was spicy but the coconut rice we made to go along with it really cooled the dish off. You gotta try this dish!
Real pulled pork takes a long time. That’s what makes it good. I suppose you could save time: dice up some pork loin and pour on liquid smoke after you pressure cook it. You could also buy a Honda, slap a stripe on it and call it a race car. But its not. And it never will be.
Fullbellyblog’s newest toy is a motor operated rotisserie attachment for a Weber charcoal grill. We wanted to christen the spit with something new, original and delicious: Duck! The bird marinaded in a mixture of expected Asian ingredients with one unusual addition: Root Beer. The sweet taste and complex flavorings of the soda complimented the Chinese 5 spice powder and molasses.
This idea was completely made up by yours truly. A couple days ago I heard about someone grilling avocados so my mind went straight to smoke. I thought about how good the creamy avocado flavor would taste with some hickory smoke. Danny and I went to the store to get ingredients. As we were walking out there was a huge bin of watermelons. It occurred to me that instead of the tomatoes used in the guacamole we could use watermelon. This dish was really flavorful. We ended up pairing it with some grilled pork tacos. The only thing I might change and Danny does not agree with this is that I would use one fresh avocado not smoked to keep some of the original flavors. He thought it was perfect this way. Try both!
We are calling these exploding ribs because we actually almost blew up the back yard while cooking these. We're still hoping the Landlord does not realize what we did. Apparently if concrete gets too hot it explodes. Halfway through cooking these we heard a huge explosion and a boy down the street yell "fireworks!". We ran back and saw that there were chunks of charcoal everywhere. Thankfully the ribs were fine. Oh yeah and the house too. Note to self- don't overheat concrete. We came up with this recipe from two small idea's the first being dehydrating lemon zest in our food dehydrator and the second being a red wine cured sausage we had. Realizing these ideas would be perfect for some slow cooked ribs. These took around 4 and a half hours. They were so moist on the inside and crisp on the outside that I think they were our best ribs yet.
Danny is always creating different sauces and spice mixtures. We decided to create some colorful sauces with our Negev Nectars olive oil for Cinco de Mayo. Negev Nectars olive oil is fruity which makes it a great pairing with peppers and spicy flavors. For all three sauces we used different peppers as the base and paired each with corresponding colors.
While we can't claim that we invented this clever technique, we can vouch for the remarkably juicy, tender chicken it produces. Beer can chicken is simple, tasty and has an extra dash of showmanship that will appeal to all serious grill junkies.
I think I had been craving wonton soup for at least week before making this. I wanted good wonton soup, not the bland crap you get at a Chinese restaurant. Danny and I came up with the idea of making duck wonton soup. This is totally different than what they serve in China but who cares. It was awesome! We made our broth from duck stock and the wontons are filled with duck. We used our pressure cooker to speed up the process of making duck stock. The results? DELICIOUS.
On the first day of Spring we decided we needed to start the BBQ season out right. Grilled pizza is great and so fun to make. You can choose whatever toppings you like. We made one pizza a spicy oil margherita and another a ricotta sausage and sun dried tomato oil. Both were great! One tip is to roll the dough out as thin as you can.
This our take on the American classic: Pork shoulder smoked so long it shreds off, doused in a vinegary sauce and topped with homemade slaw all on a soft, warm bun. To get the pork right, you will want to be able to dedicate 6-8 hours on this meal. We think it's worth it.
BBQ Rub
After studying in Rome for a few months I have been looking for classic Italian dishes that I can put my spin on. Since Danny and I both love spicy food I decided to add a Fresno chili to my sauce to add a kick to my sauce. This is my take on meatballs in a spicy white wine tomato sauce. Mangiare!
A friend of ours is currently living in Thailand. Since we are obsessed with different types of food we started wondering what great stuff she had been eating out there. Asian food is something that Danny and I have barely explored. When our friend said she loved Pad Krapow Moo we decided lets make this into one of our favorite things. A sandwich! Danny loves using the pressure cooker I got him for Christmas, so we decided to cook the pork with this. We got our ingredients at an Asian market in town. If you don't have any near you, you can always substitute any thing you cant find. Be creative!
