Epic Portions

Category: My Recipes

  • Chopped Salad

    From the desks of Simon-in-5-TV..

    My modus operandi is generally not food oriented discussions however I am in the process of shaving of some weight so being creative with a few healthy options has been my move so I thought I would share a quick salad that I have been making lately.

    First off, for the past 6 months or so I have given up on “traditional” salads…in other words I only eat CHOPPED salad…its no big deal to order any salad this way at a restaurant and easy to do at home. I grew tired of stabbing into a huge slab of lettuce and having it fling stuff all over my face and shirt!  Plus, when you chop it you can get more flavors in each bite.  Makes perfect sense!!

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    So, here is my quick, easy creation…in a large stainless steel bowl:  get a bag of chopped romaine from the grocery store.  Chop up some red onion, toss in a small can of sliced black olives and any other leftover vegetables you have in the fridge.  Then, if you don’t grow basil in your backyard yet, get on this!!! Chop up a few basil leaves and toss them in.  A little cracked pepper and some garlic salt…then two or three shakes of EVOO and one or two shake of balsamic.

    Now the fun begins…for the chopping part the critical must-have is the large stainless steel bowl.  Grab huge mounds of salad with tongs and place a sharp butcher knife between the tongs and slice…slice and slice, grab and slice…don’t worry about the knife scraping the bowl, that’s why there are sharpening tools!!  Once chopped to your liking, this salad is awesome.

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    Why, you ask, am I so fired up about salad??  Trying desperately to integrate healthy stuff into my repertoire…good bye chocolate-covered-pork, hello chopped salad.

  • Volcano Quesadilla

    Just got back from the Taco Bell trip and am way too lazy to write anything up right now.  I did, however, invent a genius creation using their test kitchen.  The Volcano Quesadilla. The lady didn’t believe that I hadn’t worked at Taco Bell before.  Haha!

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  • Taco Truck Style Tacos

    I always like traveling somewhere and finding that there is a regular taco truck in that area.  I like it, but it pisses me off that there’s not one by me.  This afternoon I had a craving for an authentic taco made inside of a large automobile so I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own taco truck style tacos.  I don’t own a large vehicle or the proper cooking equipment to fit inside of one so I had to settle for my kitchen.  While the atmosphere wasn’t the same, I think these turned out pretty damn good.

    First thing I did was buy some nice pork cutlets.  Normally I like to buy an entire shoulder but I was in a rush and had no time to cook it.  Also, I wasn’t hungry enough to take out 8 pounds of tacos.  Lay those badboys out and chop them up into small strips.  I believe I used about 2 1/2 pounds

    Next, throw the strips into a large ziplock bag.  Add about a table spoon of cumin, half a table spoon chili power, a quarter of onion (diced), 3-4 cloves of minced garlic, half cup of tequila and the juice from a half of a lime.  Put that in your refrigerator and let it marinate for about an hour.

    During that hour, I decided to cook up a pepper relish.  I hate the word “relish” but it’s the only thing that fit here.  I minced 3 seranno chilis, a pablano, and an aneheim chili and let them roast in a pan until soft.  I then added a quarter cup of tequila and let it simmer for about 20 mins.

    The relish should cook down to the point where you can see very little liquid.  The tequila should be pretty much cooked out of the mixture.

    After the hour of marinating, take out the pork and cook it on extremely high heat until done.

    After your pork is cooked all the way through, chop up some fresh cilantro.  I feel like that’s the key to the taco truck taste.

    When ready to serve, grab a small tortilla, spread around a little sour cream, add a few pieces of the pork, top that with the pepper relish followed by a sprinkle of cilantro, and add some jack cheese to the top.  Your tacos should look something like this(amazing/beautiful/delicious/incredible/tasty):

    My work here is done.