Hello World… I’ve missed you!

It’s been quite sometime since my last post… A LOT has happened…

I’ll be short and sweet and wrap it up with a recipe.

Let’s start from where I left off:

MARCH: Team Zestybeandog participated in the Food Experiments SMOKE Experiment (3rd annual event and third time to enter). This year we WON 3rd place Judges pick!

APRIL: Evan and I bought our first home! We love it and couldn’t be happier with it and our new neighborhood!

MAY:  We unpacked a few boxes and then packed our suitcases for Singapore to visit Evan’s parents and Thailand for 2 weeks! The food was AMAZING! I need to do a full post just on that! It was also my 29th Birthday on the 8th!

JUNE: We came back to the U.S. and unpacked some more boxes.  We have been slowly settling in to our new home.  There is no time to be bored as I’m always finding something to do with the house when I’m not working one of my many jobs!  I plan to blog more often and catch up on reading your blogs, as I have missed it dearly!

It feels good to be (somewhat) back to “normal”!

 

 

Fresh Snapper in Homemade Broth.  

I made this meal while visiting in Singapore, my in-laws had a full kitchen in their apartment, in fact their apartment was huge, bigger than our new house (about 1,800 sqft).  So there was plenty of space to cook!

Evan and I went to a local Hawker Center and bought a plethora or fresh veggies, fish, and more.  Everything was so fresh and priced nicely.

Prep: 1 hr

Cook: 7-10 min or until done

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 whole Snapper (2lbs or so), filet the fish and reserve the head and carcass.
• 3 TBS roughly chopped ginger
• 3 TBS roughly chopped garlic
• 1/4 C. Light soy sauce
• 1 TBS lime juice
• 2 TBS Fish sauce
• 4 tsp. Fried shallots
• 2 tsp. finely sliced Thai chilies
• Pepper, black (just a sprinkle or so).
• 2 C. Chicken stock or veggie stock (no sodium), 2 C. Water

Instructions:

1. Place fish head and carcass in a large pot, add stock, water, ginger, garlic. Bring to boil and then simmer for 30-45 min. Eat the fish cheeks or give them to someone you love (they are the best part).
2. Strain stock then add soy, fish sauce, and lime juice.
3. Steam fish filets for 7-10 min.  Covered.
4. Place each fish filet in bowl and spoon stock over it until it’s sitting in a nice amount.
5. Garnish with black pepper, Thai chilies, and fried shallots.
6. Serve immediately while hot.

I will post all about Singapore and Thailand asap! Cheers for now!

 

 

Asian Style Chicken and Rice

 

Prep: 20 min

Cook Time: 1-1.5 hrs

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (fryer works well), about 3.5 lbs
• .5 Cup Dried dates, chopped roughly (pitted)
• .5 Cup Roasted peanuts
• 1 Cup Whole wheat rice
• 8 Cups Chicken stock
• 3 Cups water
• 1/2 Cup ginger, peeled and chopped into inch x inch cubes (remove after cooking)
• 2 Cloves of garlic, peeled and split in half (remove after cooking)
• 1/2 Cup Soy sauce, light
• Cilantro

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix uncooked rice, dates, and peanuts together. Stuff washed chicken with mixture. Tie legs together with twine.
2. In large pot add broth, water, ginger, and garlic. Bring to a boil.
3. Add chicken breast down making sure broth and water mixture goes into the cavity where the rice mixture is.  Bring back to a boil.
4. Reduce to simmer, for 40 min. Flip and cook for at least 20 more min. At and of an hour check rice texture for doneness. Cook longer if needed.
5. Remove chicken from broth, and set aside. Strain broth and reserve broth adding the soy sauce to it.
6. Remove rice mixture and quarter chicken to plate serve with a garnish of cilantro and side of broth.

Enjoy cheers!

Random pic! Here’s a cute nursing fawn in our neighbors yard on Cinco De Mayo!

The Food Experiments: Austin TX Smoke Experiment TICKET GIVEAWAY

ZestyBeanDog Blog is giving away a FREE ticket

to The Food Experiment’s ATX Smoke

Experiment !

Need a lunch break during SXSW? Last year Matt Lillard ate our Taco on his lunch break…

Want to try  several badass dishes prepared by Austin’s top amateur chefs and drink Brooklyn Beer while your at it!? Join us this Sunday at Clive Bar from 1-4pm. Things may get a little crazy (they always do) but we try to keep it weird and crazy here in ATX so come witness the delicious culinary madness in person! We’ll be waiting for you!

#teamZBD has placed each year:  2011 3rd place judges pick : 2012 1st place judges pick: 2013 WE SHALL SEE! This year we have put so much love into our dish it’s sickening, in a juicy, fatty, goodness kind of way! We know it’s all going to be damn good and a great time so cheers to that! Let the fires get started!

Ways to win:

Spread the word by sharing this post on/and:

• Facebook, linking us in the post. via https://www.facebook.com/Zestybeandog
• Twitter  #zestybeandog
• Leave a comment here telling us your favorite smoked dish

We will pick a winner by Friday March 8th at 10pm CST. Your ticket will be available by pick up at will call using your name!

Good luck and CHEERS!

AFBA City Guide : PIZZA

Great Pies in AUSTIN… in no particular order

Salvation

Sum it up: Salvation Pizza is awesome super thin crust pizza at it’s finest! Very fresh ingredients and friendly waitstaff.

Personal Favorite: Bacon Asparagus and Jalapeno

Seating/Vibe: They have outdoor seating and as well as a small indoor area to sit.

Dog Friendly: Yes, outside

Happy Hour: Yes 4-6pm daily

Delivery: Yes

Location and Phone:

624 W 34th St
Austin, TX 78705
Neighborhood: University of Texas

(512) 535-0076

http://salvationpizza.com/

Spartan Pizza

Sum it up: Spartan Pizza’s are unique and delicious! They have a great sauce, I think it has rosemary and thyme in it…???

Personal Favorite: The Hades, The Helen, The Zeus

Seating/Vibe: They cook out of a vintage silver trailer

Dog Friendly: Yes

Happy Hour: Check Facebook for deals

Delivery: Yes

Location and Phone:

1104 E 6th St
Austin, TX 78702
Neighborhood: East Austin

(512) 484-0798

http://www.spartanpizzaaustin.com

Rounders

Sum it up: Rounder’s Pizza’s are quite tasty, full of flavor, and huge!

Personal Favorite: Mushroom, sundried tomato, bacon, and garlic

Seating/Vibe: Neat Vegas style decor

Dog Friendly: Yes, outside

Happy Hour: Yes and check Facebook for deals also free garlic knots with meal

Delivery: Yes

Location and Phone:

1203 W 6th St
Austin, TX 78703

(512) 477-0404

http://www.rounderspizzaria.com/

Entoteca

Sum it up: Great little Italian Restaurant and Deli, great food all around and lovely pizzas!

Personal Favorite: PROSCIUTTO

Seating/Vibe: Warm and friendly

Dog Friendly: Yes outside

Happy Hour: Not sure

Delivery: No

Location and Phone:

1610 S Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78704
Neighborhoods: 78704 (South Austin), SoCo (S. Congress Ave.), Bouldin Creek

(512) 441-7672

Pint House

Sum it up: Pizza’s are not amazing but they are good for drinking beer and hanging out.

Personal Favorite: M A R G H E R I TA, T H E A R M A D I L L O

Seating/Vibe: They have large picnic table seating. They also brew their own beer. *Note : Their are two different lines for beer and pizza.

Dog Friendly: No

Happy Hour: N.A

Delivery: No

Location and Phone:

4729 Burnet Rd
Austin, TX 78756
Neighborhood: Rosedale

(512) 436-9605

http://www.pinthousepizza.com

For a day trip: Flat Creek Vineyard

Sum it up: Wonderful wood fired pies, the crispy crust has a slight corn flavor, it’s really unique. I love the salt addition to the crust as well, very nice! Great wines too!

Personal Favorite: M A R G H E R I TA,

Seating/Vibe: Lovely big open spacious room, some out door seating, wonderful waitstaff!

Dog Friendly: Yes, outside

Happy Hour: N.A

Delivery: No

Location and Phone:

24912 Singleton Bend E Rd
Marble Falls, TX 78654

(512) 267-6310

http://www.flatcreekestate.com

Mandola’s

Sum it up: Brick oven pizzas are great here, I often crave the Parma! Sinfully good!

Personal Favorite: Parma

Seating/Vibe: Lively, lot’s of seating indoor and out.

Dog Friendly: Yes, outside

Happy Hour: Yes

Delivery: No

Location and Phone:

4700 W Guadalupe St
Ste 12
Austin, TX 78751

(512) 419-9700

Or

12815 Shops Pkwy
Ste 400
Bee Cave, TX 78738

(512) 600-8500

or

4301 William Cannon
Bldg E-1
Austin, TX 78749

(512) 524-2222

Here are some I have heard GREAT things about from multiple people but haven’t had the chance to try myself. Give them a try!

Pieous

Saccone’s

House

East Side Pies

Photo Courtesy of East Side Pies

Backspace 

Photo Courtesy of Backspace

Heart Shaped Ravioli with a Simply Delicious Sauce

I made this for Evan and I’s 2nd Anniversary in December! It’s a great special occasion dinner recipe and is sure to please! Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

Prep: 1 hr

Cook: 30 min

Makes: 12 Ravioli

Ingredients:

Meat or cheese mixture of your choice, meat should be pre-cooked. I used bison.

Dough:

• 1.5 C. All purpose Flour
• 3 Eggs
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 TBS Olive Oil

Sauce:

• 2 Cups Chopped tomatoes with juice.
• 1 TBS Olive oil
• 1 TBS Garlic, minced
• 2 TBS Fresh Basil, chopped
• 2 TBS Shallots, minced
• Mushrooms, 1/2 Cup, sliced

Directions:

Dough

In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour and salt. Add eggs 1 at a time and continue to mix. Drizzle in oil and continue to incorporate all the flour until it forms a ball. Sprinkle some flour on work surface, knead the dough until elastic and smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.

Cut the ball of dough in half, cover and reserve the dough you are not immediately using to prevent it from drying out. Dust the counter and dough with flour. Form the dough into a rectangle and roll it through the pasta machine, 2 or 3 times, at its widest setting. Guide the sheet of dough with the palm of your hand as it emerges from the rollers. *Reduce the setting and crank the dough through again, 2 or 3 times. Continue until the machine is at its narrowest setting. The dough should be paper-thin, about 1/8-inch thick.

Dust the counter and dough with flour, lay out the long sheet of pasta. Use a heart cookie cutter (small) to cut the hearts.

Place a tsp of your meat/cheese mixture of choice on one heart and seal with another heart on top. Seal edges with fork or pastry sealer. Use

Boil in large pot of salted water for about 7 min. Strain.

Sauce:

• In a large braiser or skillet, heat oil, add shallots and garlic, cook for 1 min until fragrant.
• Add tomatoes and mushrooms, simmer for 20 min.
• Garnish with basil

Enjoy!

Wow! Check it Out!

The Marx Foods Contest : The Food Experiment’s ATX Smoke Experiment : The Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cook Book

Oh My!

There is a lot of crazy food stuff happening these days and I am LOVING it!  First of all the Marx Food Contest, It’s Easy Being Green has kicked off and I’d love your support. No email registering, hooha’s, or rings of fire to jump through, just a click and your done I did a Kiwi and Mango Nigiri which was fun and tasty!

CHECK OUT ALL THE CONTESTANTS AND VOTE HERE

I’m excited to finally announce what you all have been waiting for…  well at least what we have been dreaming about for the last 330+ days… THE FOOD EXPERIMENT’S are coming back to ATX. This year it will be the SMOKE EXPERIMENT and we are more than pumped in fact, words cannot describe our excitement. My awesome husband Evan and I are ready to do this and do it well! We have been experimenting and have a rock solid dish! It’s TOP SECRET and we can only tell you these two things, it’s smokey and delicious. If you want to hear more details and possibly subtle clues on our dish find us on Twitter or Facebook. Most importantly, if you are in Texas BUY a ticket to experience this first hand and prepare to have your world rocked with 25 different dishes and sweet sweet Brooklyn Beer! TICKETS WILL SELL OUT!!! You won’t wanna miss this, we guarantee it! We will be giving away a pair of tickets to one of our lucky followers soon so stay tuned!

SEE ZestyBeanDog’s PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTS HERE 

2012

2011

The AFBA is proud to release our very own community cook book out to the WORLD! We are taking pre-order’s for it now. It’s very exciting and yours truly, ZestyBeanDog will have a recipe published in it! Check out the appetizer section! All the recipes have been tested by someone other than the creator to ensure quality recipes! Get your copy on hold now!

Thank you all for your continued support throughout the years. Without you, ZestyBeanDog would not have the “zest” that it does for cooking and competing! You are all much appreciated! Thank you!

Much Love, Jen Daugherty

Kiwi and Mango Nigiri : It’s Easy Being Green : Marx Food Contest!

ZestyBeanDog has entered another Marx Foods Contest!  They are just too much fun to not partake in! Marx Foods send you a box of sample sized goodies and the rules are simple:  You have to use at least two ingredients and then blog the recipe. This time around there will be 2 winners, one from internal vote and one from public vote (that me means YOU, my dear friends). Voting will begin on Tuesday at which point I will add the new link to my blog. Then you can check out all the recipes and vote for your favorite one!  The winners get $100 in Marx Food Store Credit and you know I need that BAD!!! I’m all out of  YUZU juice!

I chose to use the Bamboo Rice, Cardamom, and the Mint Herb Crystals to create a Kiwi and Mango Nigiri. This was a tasty and whimsical play on dessert and sushi that I will be making it again for sure, probably for a dinner party. The cardamom infused bamboo rice was subtle yet alluring and the slight crunch of the crystalized mint paired surprisingly well with the mango and bamboo rice.  I couldn’t resist doing kiwi not only because it’s green but also because I love it and the little seeds gave a great texture to the nigiri. The nigiri was then served with a orange honey marmalade and rice wine sauce. Overall it was a fun dish, to eat and to make!

Prep Time: 60 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Serves: Makes 8 Nigiri

Ingredients:

• .5 Cup Bamboo Rice
• 1 Cup Water
• 1 tsp Rice wine vinegar
• 5 Cardamom pods broken crushed with seeds
• 1 Kiwi
• 1 Mango
• 1 tsp Crystalized Mint
• 4 Mint leaves, small
• Marmalade

Instructions:

1. Boil 1 Cup of water add crushed cardamom pods and seeds, let sit for 10 min on simmer. Strain and reserve water for rice. 
2. Add rinsed bamboo rice to water bring to a boil, add 1 tsp rice wine vinegar, cover and simmer for 20 min or until done.
3. Cut up kiwi and mango thinly to arrange on top of rice.
4. Let rice cool for about 20-30 min.
5. Make 8 nigiri mounds with your hands and place fruit on top and garnish with crystalized mint and real mint.
6. Serve with honey orange marmalade with a splash of rice wine.

Enjoy with a glass of wine!

The Best Fried Chicken in the WORLD right from your kitchen!

We don’t eat fried chicken a whole lot but every once in awhile Evan or I will get a hankering for some good ole fried chicken. Usually when this happens we hit up our “go to” place = Max’s Wine Dive.  It’s always an expensive trip (the wine always gets us damn it…) and it’s quite far from us now that we live out in the boonies. This time we gave it a go at home. It was awesome!

Prep: 24 hrs (if you can wait that long)

Cook Time: 15-17 min per batch

Serves: 4 with sides

Ingredients:

• 4 Thighs and 4 drums (separated) with the skin on.
• 2 Cups Buttermilk
• 1 Jalapeno
• 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper
• 2 Cups all purpose flour
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• Peanut oil for frying
• More salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Blend jalapeno, buttermilk, salt, and pepper in a blender or food processor.
2. In a large glass mixing bowl: add marinade and chicken and cover with plastic wrap, let sit overnight.
3. Heat peanut oil up in fryer to 325 degrees F.
4. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper to flour.
5. Take chicken out of marinade and let sit for about 20 min on a baking sheet just to warm them up a bit so the fryer oil doesn’t drop drastically. Pat dry, dredge in flour, then egg wash, then flour again.
6. Fry pieces in several batches, how many will depend on your fryer’s size. Fry for 15-17 min.
7. Place on wire rack and keep warm in oven if you are doing several batches.

Serve with cayenne honey and a side of collard greens and a starch I did mashed sweet potatoes. Mmmm!

Grilled Shrimp with French Green Lentils and Roasted Carrots, Fennel, and Shallots

This healthy and earthy dish is very satisfying and simple to make. You will be happy you tried it I used the carrots and fennel from our CSA from JBG

 

Prep : 25 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Serves: 2

 

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup cooked green lentils
• 10 Large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, leave tail on.
• 1/2 Cup carrot, cubed
• 1/2 Cup fennel, shaved
• 1/4 Cup shallots, shaved
• 2 TBS balsamic vinegar
• 3 TBS olive oil
• Pinch of dill pollen
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions:

1. Make a vinaigrette with balsamic, 1 TBS olive oil, pinch of dill pollen, pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well.
2. Roast veggies on foil lined pan with 1 tbs olive oil and salt and pepper pinch for 20-25 min. Reserve in foil to keep warm. 
3. Heat medium skillet to high and saute shrimp in a TBS of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.
4. Mix roasted veggies, lentils, and vinaigrette together and serve shrimp on top.
5. Enjoy!

Crockpot Chicken, Carrots, and Mushrooms with Lentils and Wild Rice

This a great healthier  week night meal that is easy to set up and can cook in as little as 4 hrs in the crock while you are off at work or running errands.

This is not the greatest photo, but it was late and I was hungry

Prep: 10 min
Cook Time: 4-8 hrs
Serves: 4 ish

Ingredients

• 6-8 organic chicken thighs, remove fat (the ones I had were small so we had 2 each)
• 2.5 cups no sodium chicken stock ( I like homemade or Kitchen Basics)
• 1 cup blend of wild rice and lentils (pick your favorite)
• 1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms
• .5 cup chopped carrots
• .5 cup onions, chopped
• 1 TBS fresh lemon thyme
• .5 TBS olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Instructions:

1. Place stock in pot, add rice, veggies,oil, and herbs: stir.
   
2. Add chicken thighs to pot, season lightly with salt and pepper. 
3. Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. ( I do 4 on high)
4. Serve, salt and pepper to taste.