Hamburger Helper Fairy Chef Style

I have, a number of times, received emails from folks asking for recipes that take less preparation time, particularly something relatively easy to make to feed hungry children for dinner.

I don't know about all ya'll, but while my Mama did generally make home cooked meals every night, sometimes she cheated and out came the Hamburger Helper. I was partially fond of the Beef Stroganoff.

Unfortunately, the back of the package reads like a high school chemistry lab experiment.

So, tonight, I present to you a similarily quick hamburger meal but better for you (and you can pronounce all of the ingredients without a master's degree in inorganic chemistry).

Hamburger Helper Fairy Chef Style

1 lb ground beef
1/4 red onion chopped
1/2 cup zuchinni sliced
1/2 cup portobello mushrooms or button mushrooms
1/2 cup snow peas
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper
2 packets Goya Sazon con Azafran
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp olive oil*

First in a large skillet or wok heat the oil. Add the onions and garlic and brown for three minutes. Then add the hamburger along with the soy sauce and the Goya seasoning packets. When the hamburger is about half way done cooking add in the rest of the vegetables. Mix thoroughly until the veggies are al dente.

Serve this over jasmine rice.

Also, to save even more time, most grocery stories have pre-packaged, pre-chopped fresh vegetables. Economically, this makes less sense to buy the veggies this way, but if you are pressed for time they are usually relatively inexpensive (though very expensive for the amount you actually get). The upside is that it cuts out about 10-15 minutes prep time because of the lack of need to do much chopping.

The kids will love this dish.

This recipe will feed four people at a cost of about $9 and is way healthier than Hamburger Helper with about the same prep time.

*Please note...ALWAYS use Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Extra Virgin indicates first pressing and does not involve chemicals in the extraction processing...every level of purity down from extra virgin requires more and more chemicals to extract the oil from the same pressed olives.

Curry Pork with Green Beans

I know it's been a minute ya'll, but I've been busy, and I hope you have all been eating well. I have been busy as Hell for one of the unemployed masses, though my sweetly broke unemployed life ends next week when I return to the work force, at least part time.

So, before I do all that business, I decided to share with you a delicious recipe that is even now perfecting on the stove.

Curry Pork with Green Beans

1 lb pork ribs (if bone is in, cut meat from bone into 1" pieces)*
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 jalapenos chopped
2 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
1 cup fresh green beans
1 packet Goya Sazon with Azafran
2 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp olive oil

First, in a wok, heat the olive oil. Add in the onions, garlic, and jalapenos. Sautee them together for about 3-4 minutes until the garlic starts to brown and the onions are translucent.

Next, add in the pork. Sautee this all together for a couple of minutes until the pork starts to brown. Then add in the rest of the ingredients except the green beans.

Cook this all together for about 10-12 minutes on high heat. You want the pork to be almost cooked before you add in the green beans. Throw the green beans into the wok and sautee for another five minutes or so.

Remove from heat and serve over jasmine rice.

This recipe will run you about $8 and will happily feed 2-4 people.

*

If you buy the ribs with the bone DON'T WASTE THE MEAT THAT IS LEFT ON THE BONE! But that shiz in a pot of water, add soy sauce, and cook those bones and gnaw the meat off of them.

Chicken and Peppers Stew

Some like it hot! Lord knows I do. And this multi-layered flavored stew is going to start out sweet and end with fire on your tongue...but the kind of fire that keeps you dipping back into the pot. The subtle Caribbean flavors melded with a touch of the Phillipines and a dash of La France....makes me want to say Salamat Po Gracias Adios Bon vie bon!



Pepper Chicken Stew

1 whole chicken cut up
1 Poblano chili pepper sliced
3 cherry chili peppers diced
2 jalapeno peppers diced
1 Sweet Red Bell Pepper sliced
1 tbsp sliced fresh ginger
1/2 large red onion diced
1/2 cup diced basil
4 to 6 red potatoes cubed
4 cups red wine
2 cups green beans
4 limes
Dash of red wine vinegar

The lovely thing about stews is that they are 1) delicious and 2) easy to make. First, in just a little bit of olive oil, sautee the ginger, onions, and hot peppers for about three minutes. This unlocks their flavors and sets the tone for the rest of the dish. Once this is done add all of the rest of the ingredients to the pot.

Cook on high heat until the stew starts to simmer, and then cover it, reduce the heat to low, and let it stew for an hour to an hour and a half. The longer you can resist the pot, the better it is going to taste.

Serve it as a stand alone dish or with rice. This pot of stew will feed 10 people at one time or a family of four for several meals. The entire cost of this meal is $10-$12 depending on the price of the chicken.

Oxtail Stew with Black Beans and Black Eyed Peas

The first time I can say for sure that I had oxtails was at the poet Staceyann Chin's 30th birthday party. Not only can that woman spit fierce spoken word, but, the little general as I call her, can also cook up some fierce West Indian food. At her party she had a hell of a spread, and the best of the best was the oxtails. For about an hour, as the house filled up with the most beautiful black lesbians the world has to offer, I sat in the kitchen, nodding hellos, and eating about sixteen cows worth of oxtails. There wasn't an ounce of shame in my game.

Since then I have come to deeply love and admire the tail of the ox. From it's preparation in West Indian to traditional Thai soups, the oxtail can't have a much bigger fan than me.

Yesterday, I left the house to go shopping for meat to cook with the black beans and black eyed peas I had at home. I was cooking dinner for my friend Natalie, and I wanted to make sure I made something that was delicious, filling, and that I could send home with her in large quantities. Natalie will be the first to tell you that she is a champion eater, and she is a wonderful person to cook for as she is very vocal in her praise, but she doesn't find the same joy in cooking that I do. When I stumbled across to packages of amazing looking oxtails at D'Agostino, a recipe popped into my head that I knew I was going to have to make.

Plus, Nat loves oxtails as much (perhaps more) than I do. Plus, she's Jamaican, so I wouldn't even try to compare my tails to the ones her family throws down.

Unfortunately, I mistimed the cooking of the beans, and so the soup was almost but not quite ready to be eaten when Natalie came over. Since it was already past 8pm, we ordered Thai take out and I sent her home with soup. I woke up this morning to an email from her praising the soup, which made me happy. Now I am sitting here eating a bowl of it, and I thought I would share the recipe with ya'll.

Oxtail Stew with Black Beans and Black Eyed Peas

2lbs of oxtails (if you can get them from the butcher, they will be cheaper than the grocery)
1/2 lb chuck roast cubed
1 large carrot
1 large parsnip
1 large red potato
1 red onion
1 bunch scallions
6 cloves garlic
2 jalapenos
1/2 lb black eyed peas
1/2 lb black beans
3 tbsp Goya Adobo
2 packages Goya Sazon con Azafran
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp dried basil flakes

First of all, if you remember, soak the black beans over night. Pour them in a bowl, cover with water, and let sit until its time to cook. Do NOT soak the black eyed peas. If you do not soak your black beans the cooking time for the stew goes from 3 to between 5 and 6 hours.

Chop the carrot, parsnip, and potato into small pieces. Mince the onions and garlic. Cube the chuck roast. Then put it all in a large pot along with the spices and the beans. Cover with water and then stir so that everything is well mixed. Turn the heat to medium high. Check the pot regularly, stirring occasionally, and make sure that there is always sufficient water in the pot (sufficient meaning that everything is cover...you don't want the oxtails to dry out).

If you soaked your beans over night, cook for three hours. If not, cook for five to six hours checking the black beans until they are ready to eat. The black eyed peas cook, without soaking, in just a couple of hours. Also, the black eyed peas, when fully cooked, will give the stew a rich brown broth (until then the water will remain relatively clear).

Serve the stew with a side of jasmine rice and steamed vegetables. This will make a HUGE pot of soup. The ingredients will run you just around $20, and this stew will feed a family of four for several days or 10 to 12 people at one sitting.

Adobo Chicken Puerto Rican Style (Pollo Adobado del estilo boricano)

This past Labor Day weekend, I played host to two of my favorite people in the entire world: two of my four sisters. My sisters Jasmine and Shannon came to NYC to visit me for the weekend.

In my family, the only person I would never go head to head with during a cooking contest would be my sister Jasmine. Let me tell you about this woman. First of all she is gorgeous. Last Saturday night, we cooked a family dinner, and I had some of my friends over. Jasmine and Shannon showed up to my apartment dressed to go out on the town. They both came in looking like beauty queens. Jasmine had on a tight blue cocktail dress, come do me leather high heels, and was made up to heaven. That didn't stop her from putting on an apron, tying back her hair, and laying down some fierce sinigang (a soup from the Philippines that is tangy and delicious).

The left on Sunday, and since then I have been in the kitchen experimenting with Puerto Rican and Pinoy flavors. The cuisines of both countries are related, in some respects, due to their shared history as Spanish colonies. One type of dish loved by both nations is the tradition of adobo. Adobo is Spanish for stewed, and the techniques for cooking Puerto Rican adobo and Filipino adobo are related.

Tonight, I made a dish that combines some of the flavors from both types of adobo. And I almost ate the entire damn pot.

Chicken Adobo (Stewed Chicken) Puerto Rican/Pinoy Fusion Style

Two leg/thigh chicken pieces cut into quarters (including the leg)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 jalapeno minced
1 medium red onion diced
5-6 cloves of garlic minced
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup Goya Adobo seasoning
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 bunch scallions diced
2 tsp paprika
2 tbs patis (fish sauce)
1 packet Goya Sazon con Azafran (optional but adds a helluva flavor)

This dish is best when it is cooked in a dutch oven. Though any good pot will do. Combine all of the ingredients into your dutch oven. Using a large spoon make sure that the chicken is evenly coated with all of the ingredients.

Cover the dutch oven, and over a medium high heat bring it to a boil. Once the adobo starts to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook covered for 30 minutes stirring occasionally to continue marinating the chicken. Do not worry about liquid as the ingredients combined with the liquid already present in the chicken will create a rich broth.

After 30 minutes, uncover the pot and allow the chicken to simmer, uncovered for another 30 to 45 minutes. Basically, you want to let the chicken cook until about half of the liquid that was in the pot when you uncovered it is gone. The sauce will thicken, and this will be an amazing topping for your rice.

After simmering uncovered for 30-45 minutes, turn it off, and serve it over your choice of rice (I had mine with a mixture of leftover jasmine rice mixed with short grain brown rice served with a side of black beans...perfection!)

This amazingly savory dish will run you no more than $7 and, if you aren't a greedy monster like me, will easily feed four people.

Seafood Jollof Rice

Some of the most amazing foods that I have ever had come from Africa. From Ethiopa to Morocco, from Nigeria to Senegal, I am in love with the flavors as well as the communal tradition of eating. My all time favorite dish from the African continent has to be Ceebu Jen, the national dish of Senegal. I was dating a wonderful man that was ex-military, had spent quite a bit of time in Senegal, and ended up raising the sons of his best friend. These boys were amazing and hilarious. They called Tony "toubab", which is translated as "ghost skin" or something close to that. They would also cook dinner for us from time to time, and the rice and fish dish that is ceebu jen blew my mind.

I tried to make ceebu jen once, and it was something of a minor fiasco.

So, last night, my friend Bebe was coming to my house for dinner. Bebe is from Cameroon, and I thought I would attempt, again, to make a popular dish from Africa. This time I went after jollof rice, which is probably one of the better known African dishes to people living in the United States. And this time, though I had to modify the recipe a bit so that David, my pescatarian partner, could it. This is close to traditional jollof rice, but I won't claim it is authentic, but it will give you some of the amazing flavors in that tremendous dish from the Mother Land.

Seafood Jollof Rice

2 catfish fillets cubed
1/2 lb uncooked shrimp
1/2 cup sesame oil (regular or hot)
1/2 medium red onion minced
1 bunch parsley minced
5 cloves garlic minced
1 can tomato paste
1/2 can whole stewed tomatoes
4 cups jasmine rice
2 jalapenos minced (also four Thai chili peppers, one habanero or two poblanos would work depending on your tolerance)
2 medium red potatoes cubed (small!)
1/2 pound fresh green beans chopped (again bite sized pieces)
Two teaspoons salt

In a large pot, heat half to the sesame oil. Next throw in the fish and shrimp. Cook for approximately two minutes, just enough to lightly cook both, but not enough to cook them all the way through. Remove the fish/seafood from the oil and set aside.

In the same oil, add the onion, peppers and garlic. Saute them until the onion starts to turn transparent. Next add the parsley and potatoes. Cook until the potatoes start to soften just a bit. Next add the green beans and salt to the mixture, stirring frequently, for the next three to four minutes.

Next add the rice to the pot. At this point, also add the second part of the oil. Stir the mixture together for two to three minutes making sure that all of the rice is integrated with the vegetables. Then stir in the tomato paste. Continue stirring until the tomato paste has been disseminated throughout the rice.

Next, add half of a regular sized can of stewed tomatoes. Using your cooking utensil, chop up the tomatoes as you stir them into the mixture. Do not use the juice from the can, just add the fruit. Continue stirring frequently for about two minutes. Watch to make sure that the heat isn't too high, so that the contents aren't burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Finally, add in three cups of water. Then throw the fish and shrimp into the mixture Stir two or three times IMMEDIATELY but do not stir after that or your rice will get mushy.

Let the contents come to a rigorous boil. Then reduce the heat and let cook for about 15 minutes/until the rice is cooked. Remove from the heat, stir once, and serve.


This amazingly delicious African inspired dish will cost you roughly, depending on the price of fish/seafood in your neck of the woods, $15-$18 and will easily feed 6 to 10 people.

Seafood Jollof Rice