I cooked up this simple rice and beans recipe after making beans for a few years. These are great, cheap and healthy. There are many recipes for beans, so let us know yours.
Quick rice and beans recipe
cook one bag of black beans, drain, and reserve liquid
chop one large onion and saute in oil until golden brown.
clear a space in the center of the pan to add the spice.
add 1 tablespoon of smoked pimenton or smoked paprika ( you can use a mild chili powder if you like, but us a lot less. add to taste, start with one teaspoon )
let this spice cook for 30-60 seconds in the center of the pan, don’t burn it though.
now stir back into the center the onions and allow the flavors to meld for 2 minutes or so.
add the drained black beans, and enough of the bean cooking liquid so the beans are thick but not like soup.
allow the beans to meld with the onion spice mixture on low heat and serve with rice and yogurt or sour cream.
NOTE: Depending on who you ask, there is concern about using galvanized metal in a cooking container. Viewer uses the information here at their own risk.
Want to make a food smoker? watch us. As part of our work with Ford promoting the Ford Fiesta, we went to Ikea, and bought the parts to make a salmon smoker. neat. and it works great.
Eric and his Ford Fiesta at the Red Hook Brooklyn IKEA
have you made a smoker? tell us :
First the recipe for the brine. You take the salmon, slice it into 2″ strips and place it skin side up in this brine. a 9″ x 13″ cake pan works well for this. Place the salmon in the refrigerator for at least an hour, longer is better.
Eric’s Salmon Brine Recipe:
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt – must be non-iodized
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon black pepper
Place the fish skin side down in this brine in a flat pan, cover in refrigerator for at least an hour.
Take out the salmon and place on a wire rack skin side down,
Drain the brine pan carefully, reserving the brine solids an. Take the brine solids at the bottom of the pan and use a brush to coat the salmon with the brine solids.
Point a small fan at the brined fish until the brine has pretty much dried on the fish.
How to smoke salmon:
Add a large handful of wet hickory woodchips ( or whatever kind you like ) to the cast iron pan on the electric hot plate.
Place the grate in the smoker and spray with non-stick cooking oil, or brush with vegetable oil. Lay the salmon skin side down on the smoker grate.
Place a digital thermometer probe in the fattest part of one of the pieces of fish, place another digital thermometer across the grate to read the ambient temperature in the smoker.
Turn the hot plate on, ( i set mine to HIGH ) close the lid, and let it cook. Check the ambient temperature, you want it to be 160-180 degrees. Adjust the hot plate accordingly.
Hot plates sometimes turn off by themselves, so one needs to pay attention if you notice smoke not coming out of the smoker. Also, use a heavy duty extension cord, the shortest possible, to plug in the hot plate. Its possible to trip a circuit breaker.
When the salmon reaches about 140F, it is smoked.
how to build an Ikea hack food smoker
for this Ikeahack, we’re using
2 Skrin storage containers
1 Lamplig trivet
1/4 threaded rod, 2 pieces cut to 17″
Four 1/4 nuts , preferably acorn nuts for the threaded rod
2 hinges – 2″ or 3″ metal hinges work well.
Bolts, lockwashers, and nuts for hinges. 1 1/2″ are a good length.
Washers that fit the bolts you are using for the hinges: you’ll need about 5 for each of the bolts you use to attach the hinges.
Attach the hinges to join the two Ikea Skrin boxes. Because of the rolled lip of the Skrin boxes, you’ll have to use the washers between the boxes and the hinges, so that the center pin of the hinges sits on top of the rolled edges of the two boxes.
Mark and drill the hinge bolt holes. Wear safety glasses when doing this.
Attach the hinges with the bolts, washers and lockwashers. Its handy to have a helper when doing this.
Drill four 3/8″ holes just inside where the hinges mount on the lower Skrin box.
In my original design i used bolts to hold up the Lamplig grate, this is not a great design, so I changed these bolts to threaded rod which extends across the Skrin box.
Cut the threaded rod to 17″and slide them through the holes. secure with acorn nuts. This will hold up the Lamplig grate.
Additonal Modification: If you want, you can cut an access panel on the short side of the lower skrin box so one can easily add more woodchips to the hot plate. This is a lot easier than having to open the smoker and pulling out the grate.
The Skrin boxes come with metal covers, and you can use that metal to fabricate a access panel cover with a piano hinge and lock.
Wondering how to make biscuits? How about how to make southern biscuits? Today we make biscuits with southern food fans Rachel Wharton of Edible Brooklyn & Edible Manhattan, & Charlie Shaw, southerners who both love making biscuits.
As part of our promotion of the Ford Feista, Ford arranged for me to have a Sirius Radio installed in my Ford Fiesta and then I got to visit the Martha Stewart Living Channel at the Sirius studios in midtown NYC. How cool is that? A big thanks for Ford and Sirius. watch, this is fun.
Pulled pork is one of those BBQ dishes that can be many things to different people. BUT , when you don’t have your smoker handy, this slow cooker – crock pot pulled pork recipe is pretty good. Its not the real thing, but its a good second, and it cooks overnight.
Slow Cooker Crock Pot Pulled Pork
1 pork shoulder with skin on
3/4 cup Dry Rub either store bought or home made *see note below
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 bottle of liquid smoke
Rinse Pork Shoulder and pat dry. Place the pork in a large flat cake pan or cookie sheet.
Slather with the Dry Rub, trying to coat the whole shoulder evenly .
Wrap the shoulder in plastic wrap and refigerate for a few hours or days. Its up to you.
Place the pork shoulder in a slow cooker, turn on Low, and let cook for 8-10 hours. Add half a bottle of liquid smoke. No need to do anything, just let it cook.
After cooking, remove the shoulder from the cooker and gently pull apart the meat with 2 forks, you can remove the leftover skin and fat.
Roughly equal parts: salt, brown sugar, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder, black pepper, celery seed
I usually use it on ribs, but probably be fine in this case, too. I’ve also used commercially available rubs (which tend to have more salt) — e.g., from the Salt Lick in Texas. Alton Brown’s recipe is also good:
Basically, 8 parts brown sugar, 3 parts kosher salt, 1 part chili powder, 1 part *insert your mix of spices here*
The only required ingredient is salt and there is lots of room to experiment. For this relatively wet application, the sugar probably isn’t quite as big a deal since it’s not going to really caramelize.
________
What is your Dry Rub recipe? and have you tried the slow cooker method? how is it?
OK here it is, the secret mom meatloaf recipe. meatloaf is one of those classic comfort foods for me, yum. watch here and share your meatloaf memories and recipes. ( i’ll post the recipe as soon as i finish the site )
The Gardenfork.tv Banana Bread Recipe by Eric Rochow
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 handful walnuts
3 really ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1 stick of butter unsalted
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup yogurt, buttermilk, or milk with 1-1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar added – let the milk/vinegar sit for 5 minutes, then add to batter.
This is the one bowl method of Banana Bread.
Preheat the oven to 350F
Melt the butter -if using a microwave it helps to cover the bowl with wax paper. Save the butter wrapper and bowl used to melt butter to grease the loaf pan.
Add the mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, and yogurt to a large bowl and mix well.
Then add each dry ingredients. The trick here is to not over mix the batter, which can cause the bread to not rise well.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Then toss in the walnuts. You can use chopped walnuts or pieces. (don’t toss in the walnuts before this, or they will be coated with dry flour )
Grease the loaf pan with the butter wrapper and the butter left behind in the bowl what was used to melt the stick of butter.
Place in a 350F oven and bake for 55-65 minutes. When a clean knife is inserted and comes out clean, its done. My oven always takes longer than most to bake things, so check the bread at 55 minutes.
Allow the banana bread to cool for 10-15 minutes then run a knife along the edges of the pan and turn out onto a cooling rack. Let the banana bread sit for a bit, it will slice much easier that way. copyright eric gunnar rochow
Screwball cake is one of those formative things in the life of Eric. It was one of the first recipes I ever made as a kid. This screwball cake recipe is close to what I remember making, but i’m sure time has clouded that memory.
Anyway, watch our show and learn how to make screwball cake and enjoy the recipe.
)
Heres’ the recipe for screwball cake. do you have a recipe for this cake? would you post it here? thx.
I found this version posted in a bunch of places
3 cup Flour
2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Cocoa
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Soda
2/3 cup Oil
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of boiling water
Sift the dry ingredients together and put in a greased 9 x
13 pan. Scoup out 3 holes, 1 for each liquid ingredient.
Pour boiling water over all and mix well. Bake at 375~ for
25-30 minutes.
A viewer, Paige, sent me this comment:
It was great! FYI to all, I divided the recipe in half and made a smaller cake and it turned out just fine. It’s moist and rich, but it’s not too overwhelming. The frosting worked out really well, too. Here’s the recipe if any are interested:
2 c. confectioners sugar
1/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. butter (1/2 stick)
1 tb. water
1 tb. corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt
Combine all with an electric mixer on low speed, then increase speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes.
This is a light, fluffy icing that goes well with a rich cake. But, I think vanilla ice cream on just a plain piece of screwball cake would be great too.
When people think of rhubarb, they think of rhubarb jam recipes, or rhubarb crisp recipes. Here I make a simple rhubarb sauce recipe for all sorts of uses. Watch and then leave a comment on how you use rhubarb or post a rhubarb recipe.
Want to learn how to make yogurt? Here you go, yogurt video on how we make it. Making yogurt is fun, and in a cardboard box its even easier. and kinda green as well.
What i like about this is the simplicity of this and i think kids would like to do this, with supervision, of course. watch our gardenfork.tv episode on making yogurt in a cardboard box and then tell us how you make yogurt below.
The Gardenfork.tv Yogurt Making Recipe
Our how to make yogurt recipe is based on 1 quart of milk, which will fill up two 8 oz mason jars, which is what i use to make yogurt. You can use skim, part fat, and whole milk, it just depends on your preference. Whole Milk will taste better, but you know that. You can add powdered milk to the mix, which will make the yogurt thicker. Add too much and it gets like custard.
1 quart of millk
1 talbespoon of plain yogurt, the more natural the better.
optional: 1/4 cup of powedered milk
Put the milk in a pot with a thick bottom, or use what I call a waffle, or heat diffuser between your pot and the burner. Burned milk is no fun.
Heat the milk to 180 degrees F, bubbles will gather around the edges of the pot when the temperature is right.
Put the pot in the fridge, or put the pan into an ice bath to lower the temperature.
When the temperature is between 90-110 F, add the plain yogurt and if desired, the powdered milk.
Pour into clean glass containers, screw on the cap, and place in your cardboard box yogurt maker. You can also use a large stock pot with the heating pad placed in the bottom of the stock pot. Make sure the heating pad is a waterproof one.
After pouring the milk mix into the jars, you can add maple syrup, honey, or other sweeteners if you like.
Let the yogurt ferment at about 110F for 3 hours, check for doneness.
Temperature is important when making yogurt, too high or too low and it wont work. Do not move the yogurt jars while incubating them, it wont end up being good yogurt if you do.
There are a ton of 40 Garlic Chicken recipes, and of course we had to do one ourselves here. What is your recipe? how about sharing it in the comments here?
OK wake up. lets make waffles with the easy waffle recipe by eric. here we go:
Eric’s Waffle Recipe
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
[to substitute milk here, put 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar in 1 1/2 cups of milk, let stand for 5 minutes, then add to recipe ]
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs, yolks separated from whites.
Preheat your waffle griddle.
Combine the egg yolks with the buttermilk. add dry ingredients and just mix till mixed, don’t over mix.
Then add oil.
Using a whisk or electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they form peaks,
Then turn the whites into the batter. Do this gently, you do not want to overmix this.
Spray the waffle griddle with vegetable oil or non-stick cooking spray. Pour about 3/4 cup of batter onto the griddle, spread it around a bit.
Close the griddle and sit tight. after 3-4 minutes, gently lift the lid and check the bottom for done-ness, if its nicely browned, flip the waffle griddle to cook the other side. Cook for a few minutes more until nicely browned.
Serve with Maple Syrup and butter, you can also dust with confectioners sugar.
I really really love potato latkes. it can be a mess making them, but they are good. watch here and learn how we do it.
Eric’s Potato Latke Recipe:
6 Russet Potatoes, peeled and grated
1 smaller onion, grated
1 egg
6-8 saltine crackers or matzoh cracker, broken up.
salt and pepper
Mix the potatoes, onion, egg, and crackers in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper. Remember, potatoes can take a lot of salt.
Heat canola oil in a heavy fry pan, and over medium to low heat, spoon a heaping serving spoon portion of the mixture into the pan for each latke. If you want to be authentic, you can fry them in chicken fat.
Allow room between the latkes so you can flip them. Be careful not to burn them, if they are done on the outside before being done in the inside, turn down the heat.
When they are nicely browned on the outside, remove to a plate piled with several paper towels to cool for a minute, then its best to eat them right away. You can keep them warm for a while covered with a towel in a warm oven.
we had a great visit with the crew from WFSB in Hartford, though they were suprised at how long it took to get to our house. Watch the show and see how they made me look kinda smart…
Thanks Irene and the excellent crew.
Baked Eggs Recipe ( based on Mark Bittman’s NY Times Article )
Preheat your oven to 300F
grease or butter small ramekins. if you use bacon grease the eggs will be yummy.
place small chunks of cooked ham, cheese, bacon, (whatever you like really) in the bottom of the ramekins.
crack one egg into each ramekin
place in oven, i cook them for about 10 minutes, but you should do some tests with your own oven, they are all different.
Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Ingredients
• 1 large or 2 medium Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1-2 tart apples
• 2 cups milk or cream
Cooking Directions
1. Saute the onion until it starts to get golden and sweet.
2. Add the cubed squash, 3 cups of water and cover.
3. Allow the squash to cook, a knife should pierce the cubes.
4. Liquify with a hand blender, or spoon the mixture into a food processor.
5. How smooth you want the soup is a person preference.
6. Add the milk or creme to taste, it adds a richness to the soup.
7. Variations: you can add some cumin or coriander to this, and a bit of bacon when sauteing the onions.
Frequent Gardenfork Contributor Mike told me about Alton Brown and his Cardboard Box Smoker, so we HAD to make one. It took a while, so the show is in 2 parts. Tell me what you do to smoke food.
part 1:
part 2:
The Smoked Salmon Brine Recipe:
Eric’s Salmon Brine Recipe:
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt – must be non-iodized
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon black pepper
Place the fish skin side down in this brine in a flat pan, cover in refrigerator for at least an hour.
Take out the salmon and place on a wire rack skin side down,
Drain the brine pan carefully, reserving the brine solids an. Take the brine solids at the bottom of the pan and use a brush to coat the salmon with the brine solids.
Point a small fan at the brined fish until the brine has pretty much dried on the fish.
How to smoke salmon:
Add a large handful of wet hickory woodchips ( or whatever kind you like ) to the cast iron pan on the electric hot plate.
Place the grate in the smoker and spray with non-stick cooking oil, or brush with vegetable oil. Lay the salmon skin side down on the smoker grate.
Place a digital thermometer probe in the fattest part of one of the pieces of fish, place another digital thermometer across the grate to read the ambient temperature in the smoker.
Turn the hot plate on, ( i set mine to HIGH ) close the lid, and let it cook. Check the ambient temperature, you want it to be 160-180 degrees. Adjust the hot plate accordingly.
Hot plates sometimes turn off by themselves, so one needs to pay attention if you notice smoke not coming out of the smoker. Also, use a heavy duty extension cord, the shortest possible, to plug in the hot plate. Its possible to trip a circuit breaker.
Wondering how to make biscuits? How about how to make southern biscuits? Today we make biscuits with southern food fans Rachel Wharton of 
Our how to make yogurt recipe is based on 1 quart of milk, which will fill up two 8 oz mason jars, which is what i use to make yogurt. You can use skim, part fat, and whole milk, it just depends on your preference. Whole Milk will taste better, but you know that. You can add powdered milk to the mix, which will make the yogurt thicker. Add too much and it gets like custard.
