Grilled Sweet Pepper Rellanos with Goat Cheese, Charred Corn and Apricot

In the final recipe that I have for you all from the Walmart Challenge Chefs, I'm sharing Chef Chad Johnson's recipe for Grilled Sweet Pepper Rellanos with Goat Cheese, Charred Corn and Apricots!

Grilled Sweet Pepper Rellanos with Goat Cheese, Charred Corn and Apricots

by Chef Chad Johnson

Ingredients:

12 mini sweet peppers

1 ear sweet corn, shucked

8 ounces Chevre, or other soft goat cheese

1/2 cup dried apricots, diced

2 tbsp basil, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the grill using Kingsford charcoal, until briquets are consistently ashed over.

Grill peppers over a medium fire until lightly charred on all sides. Place peppers in a bowl and wrap with plastic wrap, allowing to cool to room temperature.

Char corn on the grill over high heat until moderately charred. Remove and cool and remove corn kernels from the cob.

Mix the goat cheese, charred corn, apricots and basil. Season with sale and pepper.

Cut a slit in the side of each pepper and gently scrap out the seeds. Fill each pepper with the goat cheese mixture until full. 

Return stuffed peppers to the grill and cook over medium heat until the goat cheese is warm and soft.

Enjoy!!

Walmart Choice Steak Challenge

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Walmart Choice Steak Challenge presented by Kingsford Charcoal and Coca-Cola. Tampa has been selected as one of eight markets to be selected for this challenge taking place in Walmart parking lots nation-wide. At the Tampa event, our very own Chefs Chad Johnson from Bern's Steak House and Eric Lackey from Flamestone Grill competed to determine who has the best steak-grilling skills in town. Walmart shoppers judged the Walmart Choice Premium Rib Eyes prepared by the chefs.

Before the event started, both chefs were happy to share some tips and busted some myths of grilling:

Tips:
1. Drink beer while grilling. Seriously, this was their #1 tip and personally, I find it to be a good one!
2. Don't puncture the steak.
3. Create both a hot zone and a cool zone on your grill. To create the hot zone, position the coals 6 inches below the top of the grill. The hot zone is great to finish off your steak once it has been cooked almost to the way you want. The cool zone would be an area where the coals are 10-12 inches below the top of the grill and is great to have when a steak seems to be cooking too fast. A chimney is recommended so the coals burn evenly.
4. For a simple marinade, just leave your steak in olive oil for 15 minutes before grilling. The olive oil really allows the steak's natural flavors to shine through.

Busted Myths:
Myth #1: Start cooking your steak at room temperature.
Busted: Actually, it's much preferred to start grilling your steak right after you take it out of the fridge.

Myth #2: Poke the steak for the marinade.
Busted: It's better to not puncture the steak as punctured steak on the grill will allow the natural juices to seep out.

Myth #3: Only flip steak once so you cook once on the front and once on the back.
Busted: The chefs recommend you flip your steak multiple times. In fact, a minimum of 4 flips is great.

After chatting with the chefs, the event was underway!

Chef Eric Lackey with the Kingsford representatives

Chef Chad Johnson prepping his steaks

Chef Chad Johnson grilling

Chef Eric Lackey taking a photo-posing break from grilling

Steaks from Chef Chad Johnson (Bern's)

Steaks from Chef Eric Lackey (Flamestone)

And the winner is...

Chef Eric Lackey from Flamestone!!

Chef Eric will now move on to compete in New York, along with seven other chef finalists, on May 22nd! Good luck to him! We will definitely be visiting Chef Eric at Flamestone when he gets back from New York.

Prior to the event, the chefs cooked up some delicious grilling recipes that Kingsford graciously shared. All photos and recipes are courtesy of Kingsford. I'll be sharing one recipe now and 2 more at a later date.

Coca-Cola Balsamic Marinated Bermuda Onion

by Chef Eric Lackey

Ingredients:

2 jumbo red Bermuda onions

1 12-ounce can Coca-Cola

2-3 cups hot water

1 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Leave ends on onion (can trim) and cut in half. Peel away paper-like skin. Place in food storage container.

2. Mix Coca-Cola and vinegar. Pour soda-vinegar mixture into food storage container with onion. Add as much hot water as needed to submerge onions. Marinate overnight in fridge.

3. Preheat the grill using Kingsford charcoal, until briquets are consistently ashed over.

4. Remove onion with marinade from fridge and grill onion for 20 minutes on medium heat, turning occasionally. Before removing from grill, find hot spot to char onion and caramelize natural sugars for a few minutes to finish. 

Also, thanks to Kingsford, I have some koozies and hats to give away! Leave a comment below if you want a koozie or hat and I will give them away until I've run out.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Drumettes and Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes

For most items that I make, I gather inspiration from others. Tonight for dinner, I made Sweet & Spicy Chicken Drumettes, inspired by Giada as I was watching my daily dose of Giada at Home on Food Network. The final product made my mouth water and I promptly decided that I had a menu plan for dinner. As a side, I decided to make the Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes that I read about a couple of months ago on Gretchen's blog (a favorite of mine). With the promise of an amazing side without the need for butter, I jumped on board!

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Drumettes

*adapted from FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pineapple juice

1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup sweet Marsala wine

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3 pounds chicken drumettes

Vegetable Oil cooking spray

Salt

1 tbp cornstarch

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pineapple juice, soy sauce, Marsala wine, brown sugar, vegetable oil, garlic, paprika and red pepper flakes until the sugar is dissolved. Put the chicken drumettes in a resealable plastic bag. Add the marinade to the chicken and seal the bag, removing as much air as possible. Marinate the chicken for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray it liberally with the vegetable cooking spray.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet. Season the chicken with salt and bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, about 30-35 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the remaining marinade in a small saucepan. Whisk in the cornstarch and bring to a boil over medium heat (in order to kill bacteria from the raw chicken). Reduce the heat to a low boil and cook until thick, about 5 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

Once the chicken is done cooking, use a pastry brush to brush some of the cooked marinade over the chicken or pour it into a small bowl and serve on the side.

***

Next, it was time to start on the whipped potatoes. Ever since I received a stand mixer for Christmas from my boyfriend, Mike, I have been dying to make whipped potatoes using my new machine.

Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes

*from Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen blog

Ingredients: 

10 red potatoes, peeled

8 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, for roasting (1 tbsp used in recipe)

Salt and pepper to taste

1-2 tbsp heavy cream (optional)

Directions:

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are completely soft. 

While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add peeled garlic cloves until oil begins to softly bubble. Reduce heat to very low and "roast" cloves until they are browned and soft. Remove from heat, set aside cloves and 1 tablespoon of oil, and save the rest of the garlic-infused oil for other uses. 

Once the potatoes are done, drain the water and return to the pot. Add the heavy cream, if you are using, then whip together using an electric hand mixer, potato masher, or stand mixer.

Mash together soft garlic cloves with a fork, then add them plus the olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix together well. Garnish with what you so choose.

***

I have to admit that I was pretty hesitant to believe that whipped potatoes could be this amazing without copious amounts of butter. But, the garlic-infused oil made the potatoes so moist and flavorful (and, I admit, I used all of the oil in my potatoes instead of just the 1 tablespoon- the oil was that amazing). Thank you to Gretchen for permitting me to share your recipe here!

Do you have any different ways of making mashed or whipped potatoes?

Macaroni & Cheese (some of the best you'll ever have)

French fries. Cheeseburgers. Chicken wings. Pizza. Typical foods that we just can't get enough of, right? Another food? Macaroni & Cheese!

My good friends Bonnie and Nick gave me this great recipe for homemade Mac & Cheese that I'd like to share with you all.

Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

1-1.5 cups noodles

1/4 cup margarine or butter

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 cup flour

1 3/4 cups milk

8 ounces sharp cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used all cheddar, but my friends typically use 1/2 cheddar and 1/2 something else, like swiss)

Directions:

Cook noodles as directed and drain.

In another pot, stir together and cook the margarine, onion, salt and pepper over medium heat until onion is slightly tender. 

Blend the flour in the pot with the margarine and onion. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. *Apparently, it's very important to continue to stir constantly. It's easy to mess this part up and think the mixture is done before it actually is. But, this step should take between 5-10 minutes and result in a more liquid substance than when you first started.*

Remove from heat and stir in milk. Return to heat and heat to boiling. Once the mixture starts to boil, stir constantly for a full minute. Then, remove from heat again. Stir in cheese cubes until melted.

Place cooked noodles in an ungreased casserole dish. Stir cheese sauce into noodles. Cook uncovered at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

For an added bonus, sprinkle some shredded cheese on top!

***

Voila! This way of making Mac & Cheese is definitely more tedious than the boxes with the little packet of cheese sauce, but it's worth it! I felt accomplished and I ate a whole plateful. Delicioso!