Results tagged “onions” from Bodacious Girl

The weekend after I moved into my MASSIVE apartment in Chicago, Lollapalooza came to town. A weekend of lewdness and drunkenness and bawdy lascivious women and I decide to leave for the weekend. NICE HUH? Who makes these plans for me?!? I had this massive kitchen in which to cook and create... and here I was leaving.

Yes, YOU DO remember what my kitchen looked like right?

Seriously - it is THAT small. That is a real penny. Was my change from laundry. The laundry room is bigger then my kitchen.

Actually it is bigger then my apartment. But I still lurve it.

I decided after I got back from my weekend (which, I may add contained some debauchery, some bread, a few beers... did I mention debauchery?) that I wasn't going to let such a small kitchen scare me into a life of carry out. I could still cook and boil and maybe even saute' in my lil kitchen. Ooh and maybe even bake! Oh yea, this winter mah teeny little apartment is so going to smell like fresh baked bread and cookies and cupcakes all season long and it is so going to RULE! (But it won't ever smell like cranberry walnut bread. I'm just saying...)

However tonight, I craved a nice & healthy light dinner for myself. Something tasty and satisfying, and not to heavy. So over carryout from Jimmy Johns - I retro-fitted my lil kitchen, and chopped my way into Tabouleh heaven.

In case you were wondering, tabouleh is a bulgur and parsley salad, that is not only yummy, but rather healthy as well. It fills you up and is chock full of fiber and antioxidents - it was just what I needed after the two beers I enjoyed with my #12 unwich.

Here are your required ingredients:

2 bunches of fresh parsley (1 1/2 cup chopped, with stems discarded)
(Traditionally curly parsley is used here, however I prefer flat leaf Italian.)
2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup bulgur
3 - 4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 - 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 t salt (to taste)
1/2 t pepper (to taste)
dash of cayenne (again... TO TASTE)
optional - left over cucumber (diced) from last nights peanut butter and cucumber pop tart swammich. (I so ROCK the eating for one adventure!)

First - soak the bulgur in cold water for 1 hour.

Drink a beer or 5 while waiting... then,

Chop the parsley:

(I propped my cutting board over my mini-stove top to make room for all the ingredients. It didn't quite work.)

Then chop the mint, the tomatoes, the onion, and you get where I am going here right? It is tabouleh - not bioengineering.

Toss all the chopped goodies with the drained bulgur. Top with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the cayenne and stir to incorporate. You can serve it immediately with pita or leaves of romaine, but I like to chill it for at least an hour. Mmm yum!

My kitchen is Tabouleh friendly! Yay! Next up little kitchen - chateaubriond. Chateaubreoind? Chateaubriand!! Ah screw it. Chocolate Chip Cookies!...

Be afraid.

Hello Tuesday.

You snuck up on me and I don’t quite appreciate it. Seems like just yesterday I was fixing my first bagel sponge. Minding my own business. Working and cooking. How I like to spend my day. Then Saturday came around and with her came Tequila Rose and my bagel sponge grew 10 times the size and started crawling across the counter top and damn I need to grill some brats for the Brat Showdown! Oh mah GAH who can eat a BRAT now? Maybe if the world would stop spinning so fast…

So while all my partners in brat crime followed the rules and posted on MONDAY (some even stretched and posted at like 10 pm on Monday… you know who you are… ) I was just DINING on my brats Monday by the time most were in bed. And mmm were they good.

When I first signed up for this brat showdown my mind started to race. How can I use brats in an original way? Something different. Special. Never done before.

Ooh! Now THIS has never been done before!
 
I’m sorry, but for those not in the know - I am a Chicago girl. One of my rights of passage other then a Maxwell Street Polish or an Italian Beef Sammich’ is a good ole beer brat, grilled to perfection. If I had some Gonella bread I would have been in heaven.

But I don’t because they don’t deliver to Arizona which annoys the crap out of me.

So instead of a bun, I made the next best thing. Potato and scallion pancakes. I went total Bavarian! You there - hand me my lederhosen and let’s forget about the tomatoes and duck confit! Scrap the idea of goat cheese and truffles. Someone pass me the horseradish!

Will admit, when I first proclaimed my menu for dinner it was welcomed with mixed emotions. And questions about what kind of syrup to use… Oh my food lovin’ head…

After the first bite however. All were hooked.


Simple and tasty.

Ingredients:

For the brats:
Package of brats.
One white onion sliced
Two bottles of beer.

Put brats in pan.

Top with onions

Pour in one bottle of beer.

Simmer till cooked, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and pan.


For the Potato Pancakes:
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and grated coarsely.
3-4 scallions, trimmed and cut into quarters.
1 1/2 T flour
1 egg
1 t lemon juice
1 t parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

While the brats are simmering, crack open that other beer and coarsly grate those potatoes. Let them drain on a paper towel in a colander.

Add them to your food processor with the remaining ingredients and pulse a few times until the mixture is smooth and the scallions chopped.

Heat some oil in a skillet and pour out some of the potato batter onto it into little pancakes. Cook till browned, then flip. Come on now it’s not like you don’t know how to make pancakes - you can do that right? If you seem perplexed, have another beer.

While you are browning the pancakes - grill these brats so that the skin is nice and crispy.

Serve and eat quickly before anyone wants seconds.

You CAN remove the brats from the pan and add some butter to the onions and cook down and add some salt and pepper and serve with the brats which is a side of heaven, but because I was grating potatoes they reduced to onion charcoal. ICK.

Be sure to check out the rest of the brat lovin’ fools here! Be sure to tell them you think HEATHER won… heh heh.

Eric @ Eric Rivera Cooks
Paula @ Bell’ alimento
Jeff @ Culinary Disaster
Kristy @ The Wicked Noodle