recipe | nate elston

Pomegranate Ginger Muffins Recipe

By Nate Elston Posted on November 4, 2009 Posted in Recipes No Comments

As I was paging through the ads for the grocery store this week I noticed that Pomegranates were 5 for $5 so I decided, I had best find some recipes to make something with Pomegrantes. And while scouring the web I found several recipes for pomegranate muffins some of which included ginger, digging through my cupboard I found I had some crystallized ginger tucked away and began to look the recipes and again create one uber recipes from the wealth of recipes available on the web. And it delivered on really tasty batch of muffins.

In fact these muffins were so tasty my wife was the first to try one, before I even got a chance once they had cooled down.

Here is the recipe I used to create these gems.

Ingredients
2 c flour
2/3 c sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/3 minced crystallized ginger
1 tsp grated lemon peel (approx)
1 c milk
1 large egg beaten
1/4 c melted butter
1 1/4 c pomegranate seeds

Instructions
Mix dry ingredients well, adding in ginger, lemon peel and pomegranate seeds

In a separate container mix wet ingredients

Combine wet ingredients with dry ingrediants until just mixed together well.

Pour into 12 greased muffin cups evenly

Bake at 425 for approximentaly 16 minutes until done.

The one complication I did have was getting the seeds from the pomegrantes, as they were unwilling to give them up without a fight. So I ended up quartering the fruit and in a bowl of water using my hands to tear apart the husk and massage the seeds off. It worked quite well and in the water the husk floated and the seeds sank so it was easy to seperate them.

This went well and with any luck I will be making pomegranate rice for lunch so check back later for that posting.

Tagged with: baking, ginger, muffins, pomegranate, recipe

This ain’t yo mamma’s corn bread…Chipotle Bacon Corn Bread

By Nate Elston Posted on October 8, 2009 Posted in Recipes, Reviews 1 Comment

A while back I came into luck and had received a can of Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce and had been saving it for something special. Well that time has arrived and like the title says what happened as a result ‘ain’t yo mamma’s corn bread’, its a smokey, mildly spicy kick in the pants that will continue to remind you that you ate this delicate piece 30 minutes later. Now usually I make corn bread with chili to help absorb the bite, not so with this corn bread it may become a staple to stand on its own.

With our company pot luck in mind I decided I might cook a dish up to remember and as we were asked to bring a ‘dish to pass’ what better dish to pass than some innocent looking corn bread. So with that you might want the recipe which I scavenged out an old issue of Cooking Light, so here it is.

Ingredients
1 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c yellow cornmeal
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 c fat-free buttermilk
2 tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 tbsp chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
cooking spray

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425°F

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well. Combine buttermilk, butter, chiles, and egg in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Fold in bacon. Pour batter into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 425° for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Of note in the haste of preparing this dish I did forget to include the baking powder and it still came out very nicely.

Well tomorrow will be the taste test, will have to see if I come home with any leftovers.

Edit: The cornbread was a hit last week at the potluck, infact it was so good I made another batch today minus the bacon to go with our chipotle and black bean soup, should be a spicey/tasty combo.

Tagged with: bacon, chipotle, corn bread, recipe, review

The Texas Squealer Burger…squels of delight

By Nate Elston Posted on June 29, 2009 Posted in Recipes 3 Comments

This past weekend I had some company over and made the world famous squealer burger, for those who don’t know what a squealer is, it is quite possibly the moistest, tastiest burger one will eat. I used the a recipe found on Recipe Zaar as my base and went from there. Because of the crowd I was feeding I ended up using 6 pounds of beef and substituted 90% Lean Ground Sirloin in place of the called for the 80% lean hamburger meat called for in the recipe. The added moisture from the bacon more than made up for the lack of fat in the burger, it’s like basting the meat from the inside the whole time it is cooking. I grilled up 22 of these patties and they were oh so moist, had great flavor and were gone in minutes.

Edit::The Actual Nate Elston Texas Squealer Burger Recipe

The recipe I used is as follows:

Ingredients
Per 1 pound of extra lean (90/10) ground sirloin
1/4 pound uncooked finely (size of a pea or a little bigger) chopped bacon, thicker cut bacon is better
Worcestershire sauce to taste
1 tbsp Mc Cormicks Grill Mates Hamburger Seasoning

Instructions
Hand mix all that together in bowl or large pot, and then form into burgers, about a 1/3 pound each.
From there put them in the freezer for about a half an hour it seems to help them grill better.
Grill until done to your taste.

If you want some extra kick, I have in the past added cheese (cheddar or pepper jack) and jalapeños to the meat before it is grilled, its almost like having a burger with the toppings inside.

Tagged with: bacon, beef, food, grill, hamburger, recipe, review, squealer

Slow Cooker Stuffing Recipe Review

By Nate Elston Posted on June 15, 2009 Posted in Recipes No Comments

Have you ever wanted the stuffing without the hassle of making the turkey? Maybe you don’t eat meat but smell the glorious smell of stuffing when you visit with your relatives for Thanksgiving. Well what ever the case I love stuffing, I mean forget the turkey, give me some stuffing. Well in my quest to find good stuffing without the bird I decided I had to start somewhere so I went to my favorite recipe finding tool, Google, and I found a starting point. Over at AllRecipes.com I found a recipe for Slow Cooker Stuffing, it looked easy enough so I gave it a whirl. Being that I live on my own I decided to make a quarter recipe of this, which filled about half of my mini slow cooker. I also used fresh sage and dried parsely, didn’t quite have enough to strip my plants. I dried the bread in the oven at 200°F until the bread felt crisp. I then mixed per the recipe but refrigerated over night and threw it in the cooker this morning and left for work.

When I arrived this evening I was greeted by the pleasant aroma of stuffing so I fried up the grill and threw on some chicken. Meanwhile, anticipating the flavorful treat that was waiting for me. Finally the moment arrived I scooped out a healthy portion of stuffing and dug in.

Stuffing Ready to eat with chicken breast.

Once I finally got to eat it I was not disappointed, it was moist, flavorful and remarkably like stuffing. Now that is not to say it was as good as out of the bird but it certainly was a great substitute, it tasted like stuffing, smelled like stuffing and will do just find to hold me over tell I have time to cook a whole bird. I will surely cook this again, probably in a week or two.

Tagged with: recipe, review, slow cooker, stuffing, thanksgiving

Mmmm….Sage and Rosemary Pork loin

By Nate Elston Posted on June 3, 2009 Posted in Recipes 1 Comment

Thanks to a gifted pork loin, I had to find something tasty to make of it and I did! Let such a beautiful piece of meat suffer in the bowels of tastelessness was not an option for me, and so I set out to the interweb to find the most delicious sounding recipe for this particular cut of meat I could find and I found many, but I finally settled on a recipe from Good Housekeeping entitled Sage and Rosemary Pork. Now the recipe calls for a substantial amount of fresh herbs which thankfully where all available on my patio herb garden, making this an easy and thrifty choice of meat. I prepared the meat just as the recipe called for except I ‘stuffed‘ it the night before and kept it in the fridge, upon arriving home this evening, I placed it in the oven and prepared the rest of the meal fried asparagus (just add a little olive oil, garlic powder and seasoning salt to taste and fry until bright green) and chipotle garlic mashed red skin potatoes. This was a culinary delight, no doubt I will have wicked breath for the remainder of the evening but the infusion of flavor from the stuff pork combined with the asparagus and potatoes was incredible. The pork was well flavored using this method and moist. If you are looking for a simple recipe for pork loin, I would suggest this. Be sure to check back, as I am finding so many amazing sounding recipes I will be sure to cook up more pork in the future.

The pork loin, fresh out of the oven, resting.