Noah Oliphant - Appetizer

Grilled Jalapeño Poppers

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:05:36 -0600

Cut off the tops of the jalapeños. Cut a slit down one side lengthwise and remove seeds and pith.

Blanch peppers in boiling water for one minute. Let cool.

In a small bowl fold together cream cheese, garlic, basil, and sun dried tomatoes. Add a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper.

Cut each piece of bacon in half.

Stuff the jalapeños with cream cheese mixture. Wrap each jalapeño with ½ strip of bacon. Secure with toothpicks or bamboo skewers.

Grill over low heat until bacon is crispy and peppers are fully roasted.

Complicated Steak Nachos

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 16:48:47 -0600

Preheat oven to broil.

Pound the flank steak until uniformly thin.
Cut small notches all over with a small sharp knife.
Rub steak generously with olive oil, minced garlic.
Dust with chili powder, cumin, sea salt, black pepper, oregano on both sides.
Note: heavy on chili powder and salt/pepper, the cumin and oregano can overpower if abused.
Rub spices gently into meat.
Sprinkle generously with lime juice and set aside.

On a large cookie sheet, make a continuous layer of tortilla chips spread thinly with refried beans. If you find the beans unwieldy, you can microwave them in a bowl so they are softer. But really, that's kind of ridiculous. They're just beans, what's wrong with you?

Once sheet is covered with well-beaned chips, sprinkle (wait for it) generously with the shredded cheese of your choice. If you prefer to use a grater and a block of cheese, I salute you, but the bagged stuff is handy and makes a nice lacy brown crunchy substance in any area between chips. Plus this really only needs like half a bag full, so you can make this twice.

Heat large skillet on high until pan is smoking slightly.
Am I kidding? Have you seen a skillet smoke?

Put cookie sheet in broiling oven. Watch em, though, because they'll burn fast. When the cheese starts to brown in a few places they're done.

Throw steak down on smoking pan. Sear for a minute or two on each side, depending on your taste for meat. Remove from pan and cut into bite-size pieces.

Dollop guacamole on tray of nachos as it cools, then top the guac dollops with the little pieces of steak.

Use spatula to serve onto plates, or just haul out the whole tray and tell everyone how hot it is. If you're smart, you'll have a non-stick cookie sheet that cools in like 5 minutes and it won't matter.

Serve with cold mexican beer with limes in it. Ya heard?

Guacamole

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 00:44:19 -0600

Remove seeds from jalapeño, and finely dice. Finely dice onion. Finely dice or grate garlic. Quarter cherry tomatos.

Remove the ends of the cilantro stems and finely mince the remaining stems. Use as much of the stems as you can without including the cilantro leafs.

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Juice the lemon and lime and season to taste with salt and pepper.