Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Chorizo Carbonara

Ingredients:
  • 1 pound bulk/loose/casing removed chorizo sausage
  • 1 large red onion - chopped
  • 8-10 cloves of garlic - chopped
  • 8 oz. baby bella/cremini mushrooms quartered
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1 pound prepared spaghetti squash - holler if you need help here
  • 1/3-1/2 C white wine
  • 4 eggs
  • 1-2 C grated parmesan cheese
  • 2t dried cilantro
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • lime wedges for serving
Servings: Russ - 1, Mortals - 4?
 
 

 


Directions:

Heat large cast iron* skillet or dutch-oven over medium heat, 3 minutes or so.

Add bulk chorizo sausage and break up with wooden spatula. Continue to cook and break up until the fat starts to release, then add garlic, red onion, and mushroom one at a time. Mix thoroughly to coat everything in the chorizo 'juice'.

Continue to cook and stir in order to brown everything. While cooking, combine eggs, parmesan, and cilantro in separate bowl and beat/mix together.

Continue cooking till things start sticking to the bottom/browning, if that doesn't seem to be happening just crank up the heat to med-high. At this point add the raisins and spaghetti squash. Mix thoroughly.

Add white wine to deglaze the bottom and scrape up any browned bits and mix once again.

Pour egg mixture over top and fold in to once again mix thoroughly. Cut off heat as there should be enough in there already to cook the eggs, as overcooked eggs suck. As the saying goes - done in the pan, overcooked on the plate.

Plate and serve with lime wedges.

I plan on going back to this and experimenting with adding eggplant/jalapenos/different cheeses/etc. Probably tweak the spices too - smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne.....lots of options. As always, recipes should just serve as a jump off point.

One quick easy variation would be to switch the chorizo to Italian sweet or hot sausage and the cilantro to basil.

Walmart of all places - at least in Robinson - has decent bulk chorizo on the cheap. It's from Chicago, where once of the largest Hispanic populations in existence resides. I generally source mine from The Westside Market in Cleveland though - family recipe from my source. You may be able to find some decent stuff in the Strip at Parma or Renya Foods.

Enjoy.

*Anything large will do, I've just fallen in love with cast iron.



Latest Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Appearance (1/21/14)

My latest appearance in the Post-Gazette. Hey PG, with as many times as a grace your pages per year, how about appointing me as Health & Fitness Editor/Reporter?!?!

It's an opportunity for you to step up your game and offer the same high-quality and up-to-date health & fitness coverage as the New York Times.

Just sayin'.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/letters/2014/01/21/Exercise-correctly/stories/201401210017



Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 7 (12/9/13)



Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 7

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights ...are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, it would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's 'Winner': CrossFit



Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 8 (12/16/13)


Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 8

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, i...t would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's 'Winner': Up-right Rows




Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 6 (12/2/13)



Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 6

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights ...are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, it would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's Winner: Having your orthopedically healthy client - though substantially overweight and weak- stand on a BOSU repeatedly waving a BODYBLADE (it's such a popular item at Wal-Mart that the page won't load as I type this if that gives you any indication how 'useful' one of these might be).




Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 5 (11/12/13)



Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 5
Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, i...t would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's Winner: (Cutting)cookies is suitable for Christmas, but not for training.




Merguez Madness Volume 1


On my recent trip to San Diego I was able to source some merguez sausage from my (new) good friend Hanni at the Mid-East Market.

For those not familiar, merguez sausage is a fresh sausage made with lamb, beef, or... a mixture stuffed into a lamb-intestine casing popular in North African cuisine. It is also popular in the Middle East, and Europe, having become particularly popular in France by the closing decades of the twentieth century.

It is heavily spiced with cumin and chili pepper or Harissa, which gives it its characteristic piquancy and red color, as well as other spices such as sumac, fennel, and garlic. (SOURCE: Wiki)

Over the coming weeks I'll be experimenting with various methods of preparing and enjoying this fine delicacy. Up first, a (severe) adaption from the following recipe in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/dining/201prex.html?_r=0