Week 6: Brazilian - Churrasquinhos

Brazilian.. oh man.  I had a tough time with this one.  I searched and searched for recipes and nothing really sounded that delicious; nothing struck my fancy in terms of taste buds or learning a new technique.  I feel like I sorta copped out on this one and found something that didn't necessarily feel all the Brazilian, but whatever.  It was absolutely delicious. 

I cubed the beef loin and marinated it olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and onion. 

The cubed loin was then skewered with squares of Hempler's pepper bacon between each cube.

I used the same recipe for the green onion slaw that I made with the Tequila Lime Chicken a few weeks back but this time I made it directly according to the recipe (last time I was kinda winging it!). It was more beautiful this time, but it wasn't as tasty.  Not quite sure why... perhaps it was the extra Serrano pepper, perhaps it was more green onion, the real red wine vinegar (instead of red wine and white vinegar), or the forgotten salt and pepper... anyway, it wasn't disgusting, just not as awesome as last time. 

The beef skewers grilled up nicely and were so juicy!

We had some of our favorite dinner guests over and they brought some very tasty mashed potatoes to add to the mix.  Given the extreme spice of the slaw, they were the perfect compliment.

It was a pretty plate and a flavorful meal.  Maybe I don't hate Brazilian after all. :)

Week 5 - Alcohol - Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken with Cabbage Slaw

This week's cooking challenge was alcohol.  There as so many ways to incorporate alcohol into cooking that I thought I would tackle a type of alcohol I never use - tequila.  Now, I love to drink the stuff, but when it comes to cooking I usually find myself using a red or white wine. These recipes are all over the internet but I found it on the Smitten Kitchen.

This recipe called for marinating chicken in a tequila and lime marinade before grilling it so I decided to go for it. I found someone else who'd paired this recipe with the cabbage slaw recipe (which uses red wine so this is a double boozy dinner) and I was ready to go. 

I was supposed to marinate the chicken over night but I am an impatient cook with little foresight so I adapted.  Instead of full chicken breasts, I nuggeted (I know that is not a word, but I want it to be so I am using it) up my chicken and pierced each piece many times with a fork to allow the marinade to get in there as fast as possible. I dumped the marinade and the chicken into a freezer bag and then refrigerated it for just under and hour. I heated up the grill and threw my nuggets on.  I basted them a few times while cooking with the delicious marinade and cooked them 'till there were nice grill lines on each side. 

While the marinating was taking place, I sliced up my cabbage - I used green instead of red since we already had it in the fridge - and onions.  I emulisified the dressing in my totally awesome bullet blender and basically waited to dress the slaw until we were ready to eat.

Andrew cut up a tomato that needed eating and not only did it add some color to our plates, but also fit really nicely with the flavors of lime and hot peppers. The chicken had a really nice lime flavor and I imagine with a longer marinade the tequila might have come through more. 

The slaw was AMAZING.  This will most definitely become a regular rotation. It was so easy and it had such a nice mix of tang (due to the red wine vinegar) and spice (due to the serrano peppers).  Really yummy stuff. 

It needed to be paired with a margarita. Duh.