Older Bolder Life

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cheese

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Cheesy Brisket Peppers w Shallot Vinaigrette

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I don’t know about you, but this time of year we’re feasting three or four days every week on delights from the grill or smoker.

We had a rainy and surprisingly cool May and early June here in North Texas (northward of 17 inches of rain in about 5 weeks in our neighborhood), but full on Texas summer has arrived in its hot-as-blazes glory over the past ten days or so.

These hot, steamy days were made for grilling or smoking proteins outside, and we’re forever on the hunt for nifty side dishes to serve alongside.

Having lived for many years under the bright Texas sun, my wife and I have a deep and abiding love for great Tex Mex, but dammit, it’s not the healthiest cuisine on the planet by a long shot. I in particular enjoy a great chile relleno though haven’t eaten the deep fried, classically prepared version in years.

A few weeks back I was basically whining to my friend Chef Libby in Austin about that very thing when she fired me a pic of a commercial grill covered with over 100 of these Cheesy Brisket Peppers she’d recently cooked for an event in Austin. Libby’s advice was that they can play either as the main event for a dinner, or make a great side dish when there’s a grilled or smoked protein as the centerpiece.

She’d sourced the recipe concept from Bon Appetite, and readily admitted their shallot vinaigrette was amazingly good on the roasted peppers (and lots of other stuff), though the addition of some smokey, chopped Texas brisket to the peppers was her call.

And what a great call that simple addition of a few tablespoons of brisket was.

Libby does these over live fire or in the oven; having just added a pellet grill to our home arsenal, I’m doing a batch of these on the Traeger on Saturday for friends coming over, though the peppers imaged in the post today were done in the over (easy peasy to do by the way).

These provide a ton of taste and visual appeal for the minimal effort involved, and you’ll want to make extra shallot vinaigrette too – it’s damned good.

2 medium shallots, sliced thinly lengthwise
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1 and 1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp kosher salt, more to taste
1/4 cup EVOO or avocado oil

4 Anaheim or New Mexico chiles, cut in half lengthwise, seeds and inner membranes removed
1 tbsp EVOO or avocado oil

1/2 cup (more or less) chopped brisket or protein of your choice (optional)
1/2 pound pepper Jack cheese, cut in to 1/2-inch cubes
Fresh ground pepper

Optional:
2 garlic cloves, grated fine
Chopped pickled jalapeño pepper slices, diced fine

Combine the first five ingredients for the vinaigrette and set aside.

Prep the chiles and preheat the oven to 475 or fire the broiler (or even the grill). Drizzle the peppers with a tbsp of oil, dust with good salt and fresh ground pepper, and place cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake/broil until skins begin to blister and the peppers soften, 5 minutes under the broiler and perhaps 6-7 in the hot oven.

Remove from the oven, turn over (tongs!), and spoon in a tbsp or so of the optional protein or chopped jalapeños if you’ve chosen to use them (we used chopped brisket in the pics there), then divide the cubed cheese among the peppers. Top with the grated garlic if desired.

Return to the oven/broiler and bake/broil until the cheese has melted and is beginning to brown (4-5 minutes in the oven, 3 or so under the broiler).

Remove from the oven, plate, and drizzle the shallot vinaigrette over; season to taste with more good salt and fresh ground pepper.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast on Thursday: Toasted Pecan Blue Cheese Ball

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In sharing many recipes here over the years I’ve unabashedly claimed the fact that I’m a child of the South having grown up in Texas, and in particular having grandparents ensconced on the Texas Gulf Coast (with ties to Louisiana and Tennessee woven into the family tree).

My earliest childhood holiday memories with these coastal-dwelling grandparents include tables spread with simple but oh so tasty – and plentiful – foods, and the venerable cheese ball never failed to make an appearance. Not only did the cheese ball make an appearance, it drew attention throughout holiday afternoons and evenings, through multiple refills of crackers and carloads of family and friends passing through.

The Southern cook’s holiday cheese ball has been around so long, persisted through so many generations, that it’s passed from being an old standby to kitschy cliche to being back in vogue again, with some nifty new flavors and ingredient combinations stealing the show these days.

A friend asked me a couple of weeks back for our favorite cheese ball recipe; this is the one that we’ve pulled together over the years, based on one that my Ma-Ma (pronounced maw maw) hand wrote years ago, and modified by bits and pieces as we’ve run across great recipes over the years.

I also reached out to Chef Libby in Austin, who emphasized that in her catering world, she builds all cheese balls around a great blue cheese (she likes Maytag) and a sharp, fresh goat cheese, with fresh dates for an earthy sweetness, two different alliums, and a generous splash of Worcestershire for the tamarind flavors, and a shake of a Cajun inspired hot sauce. For those really wanting to layer in flavor, she also toasts her pecans in a bit of Cajun spice mix and good Irish butter…

Libby added that the most critical mistakes home cooks make with this recipe include using pre-chopped dates, often dusted in sugar, which Libby likens to eating musty, slightly wet cardboard, and using a bland, minimally flavored cheese in lieu of the boldly flavored blue. You can of course throw in any cheese combination your heart desires (along with the cream cheese and butter to fill this one out), and experimenting with flavor is part of what makes the kitchen and cooking game so interesting.

By the way, once chilled these transport very easily for the days when we’re past the COVID hump and enjoying our friends and neighbors again.

3/4 cup full fat cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup good butter (11 tbsp), softened
1/2 cup blue cheese – get the good stuff
1/2 cup fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh dates (see note)
2 tbsp chives, chopped
2 tbsp chopped green onions, white and light green parts
1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp hot sauce of your choice (we lean to a Cajun sauce here)
Up to 1/2 tsp salt

To finish
2/3 cup spiced roasted pecans
1/4 cup fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley

Take the first four ingredients (cream cheese, butter, blue cheese, and goat cheese) out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before starting.

Throw everything into a mixer bowl (paddle attachment) and combine on low speed until evenly mixed; the mixture will be quite soft. Scrape the paddle and place the bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes, then form into one big or two smaller cheese balls and coat with the roasted pecans and chopped parsley.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Spicy Southern Sausage and Cheese Balls

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Growing up in the South, just about every holiday spent with extended family, or party with friends, included at least plate or platter of some version of these classic sausage cheese balls.

One of my grandmother’s (the scratch baker grandmother) recipe was something along the lines of classic Southern chef Vivian Howard’s; my other grandmother used the (gasp, cough, wheeze) Bisquick-based recipe still floating around out there today.

It didn’t matter, as kids we still stuffed our pockets with these little bite-sized delights and fought over the last two on the plate.

After moving to a primal | paleo food plan years ago, to be honest I’d never even thought about a gluten free, primally-oriented version of these until a friend recently asked me if I’d ever run across one as she was planning a party menu.

There are several good ones floating around, and this one isn’t all that different from many you’ll see, save for kicking the spices up quite a bit, and adding additional flavor with alliums and peppers. I’ve added a shallot (or green onions), finely diced, to sauté with the sausage, my grandmother’s dry mustard, cayenne, and red pepper flakes (or minced serranos), and even use Monterrey jack cheese occasionally to mix things up. (In the pic above, we used cheddar on the left and MJ on the right.)

Upping the coconut flour to 1/2 cup (a generous 1/2 cup) makes these a little more bready, though my wife prefers ‘em with less coconut flour. Another tip – portioning out with a cookie scoop (I used a No. 60, about a tbsp; made 7 rows of 5 balls, which just fit on a standard 1/2-sheet) make the prep easier and faster.

These are great for a quick snack and my lovely wife has been grabbing handful for a work lunch on the run.

1 pound spicy ground sausage
1 medium shallot, diced fine OR
2-3 green onions, thinly sliced

4 eggs
4 and 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp sour cream or softened cream cheese
1/3 to 1/2 cup coconut flour (generous measure, see note above)
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp good salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne

2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar or Monterrey jack cheese

Optional
Toasted red pepper flakes
1-2 minced serrano or jalapeno peppers

Sauté the sausage for several minutes, breaking it up into small pieces. As it’s beginning to brown, throw in the shallot or green onions. Brown the sausage well, and drain in a paper towel-lined bowl.

While the sausage is browning, melt the butter and set aside. Grate the cheese and line a baking sheet with parchment. Preheat the oven to 375.

Now combine the eggs, butter, sour cream/cream cheese, mustard, garlic powder, salt, baking powder, cayenne, and red pepper flakes or minced peppers; whisk to combine well. Now whisk in the coconut flour until well combined.

Stir in the sausage-onion mixture and the cheese until evenly distributed, then form into balls roughly 1-inch in diameter (I used a cookie scoop) and place on the lined baking sheet. Place fairly closely on the sheet in 7 rows of 5 and it’ll just fit a standard 1/2-sheet.

Bake for 16-18 minutes until slightly browned; cool and store in the fridge (should be good for a week or so, though they won’t last that long).

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Wednesday: Green Chile Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

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Having spent a fair amount of our respective childhoods and later married life wandering around the Southwest, particularly New Mexico and Colorado early on, my wife and I developed a genuine love for green chiles, particularly those grown in abundance in New Mexico.

We’ve accumulated a host of recipes over the years featuring those chiles, and often work them into other recipes where you might not expect to find them, like this Green Chile Cauliflower Mac and Cheese inspired casserole.

There are host of similar recipes floating around, and we’ve come to appreciate this one in particular for several reasons. Roasting the cauliflower (instead of microwaving as is commonly done) adds a layer of caramelized flavor (we opt for shorter roasting times to give the cauliflower a bit more tooth), the coconut milk adds just a hint of tropical undertones and a load of healthy fats, and the green chiles bring their magic to the dish.

You can of course vary the cheese to suit you, add bacon (we almost always do), and we’ll even caramelize onions to throw on top too. Try a batch with the chopped pickled jalapenos sprinkled on as well…

8 cups cauliflower, chopped to uniform size (mid-sized head)
2 tbsp avocado oil or EVOO
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper

1 cup full-fat coconut milk
6 ounces full fat cream cheese, room temp
1-2 tbsp hot sauce of choice
1-2 tsp Dijon or Creole mustard
1 tsp salt
4-5 ounces mozzarella, grated/shredded
4-5 ounces Monterrey jack, pepper jack, or cheddar cheese, grated/shredded
4-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained
1-2 ounces cheese of choice, grated/shredded, for topping

Optional
Caramelized onions
2-4 slices crispy bacon, crumbled
1-2 tbsp finely chopped chives
Chopped pickled jalapenos

Fire the oven to 425.

Prep the cauliflower, sprinkle with the oil, salt, and pepper, and roast for 15-25 minutes (see above, we like ours with a bit more tooth). Set aside to cool and turn the oven down to 350.

Meanwhile, combine the coconut milk, cream cheese, hot sauce, mustard, and tsp of salt in a medium saucepan; heat, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from heat, stir in the green chiles, and set aside.

Once the components have cooled sufficiently to not melt the cheese immediately, combine the roasted cauliflower, the coconut milk mixture, and the 2 larger piles of cheese. Add the bacon if using, and stir to combine.

Spoon the mixture into a glass baking dish (we use and 8×8), cover with foil, and bake for 45-50 minutes until bubbling. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining 2 ounces of cheese and the caramelized onions if using, then back into the oven for 10-15 minutes more. You can certainly fire the broiler to melt and brown the additional cheese as well (4-5 minutes).

Let rest for a few minutes before topping with the chives and chopped pickled jalapenos just before serving.

Enjoy.