Corn Tortilla Chips

White or Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips!

When I go to any Mexican or Tex Mex Restaurant, I expect Corn Tortilla Chips and salsa.  I want my chips hot and salty, like they just came out of the fryer.  Then I eat at least an entire bowl for myself before the help even has a chance to bring me my food.  It’s kind of funny.  Aren’t the Corn Tortilla Chips and Salsa food?  No, that’s the food before you get the food.  The food before the food!  Though it usually fills me up, its still just Chips and Salsa.  But, don’t you crave this at home?

First things first.  If you don’t already have a Deep Fryer, go get one.  They’re only $30 bucks and they really go a long way. Now, when you’re deciding what kind of tortilla you want to use, it’s really simple, because there’s only a few choices.  Sure you could get all exotic and go for the Blue corn, but most likely, all you’re going to find at your local grocer are the basic yellow and white corn tortilla’s.  So, all of you got to do is choose your favorite.  I personally like a lighter corn taste, so I go with the white corn tortilla’s for that reason, and that reason alone.  This video will show you how easy it is.  Fry the tortilla slices at 350 degrees for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes and salt heavily.  Then sit down and enjoy your fresh Corn Tortilla Chips with my Fresh Salsa recipe.

Corn Tortilla Chips Ingredients:

1 Bag of Yellow or White Corn Tortilla’s
Oil for frying
Salt to taste

Slice the Fresh Tortilla’s into fours and fry for 2 minutes at 375 degrees F and then salt the Corn Tortilla Chips to taste.

Barbecue Pork Medallion

Barbecue Pork MedallionThis Barbecue Pork Medallion is Top Notch!

There’s a very good reason why Pork Medallions, or in this case, why my Barbecue Pork medallion is so tender.  It’s a Pork Tenderloin.  So unless you over cook or burn the meat, it’s virtually impossible to not have silver dollar sized slices that practically melt in your mouth.  The secret to my recipe is just a 24 hour marinade.  As far as the rest goes, there really isn’t much to it.  In fact you don’t even have to use any special dressing or any cure for the meat.  Just your favorite BBQ Sauce!

Honey Hickory SmokeNow let’s talk about taking it to the oven.  Again, there’s nothing to it, but the way I was first introduced to the Barbecue Pork Medallion, we were hanging 1 lbs portions with meat hooks that draped over skewers on the top rack shelf of a meat locker oven.  A pan on the bottom caught all the drippings.  It’s very common to cook ribs, thighs or poultry this way as well.  However, given that most of us don’t have restaurant size ovens in our kitchens, any pan or oven safe dish will do just fine.  After a 24 hour marinade in your favorite Barbecue sauce, 350 degrees in your oven, for an hour and a half, will get you right where you want to be when your slicing up your succulent Barbecue Pork Medallion.  And coming from a 5 dollar Tenderloin and possibly a 98 cent bottle of Honey and Hickory Smoke BBQ Sauce, like I use from Kraft, how can you go wrong.

This is the way P.F. Chang’s makes their Pork Medallion, only they use their barbecue sauce, however.  I have the recipe for that too.

CLICK HERE if you want P.F. Chang’s Barbecue Sauce Recipe

Barbecue Pork Medallion Ingredients:

1 Pork Tenderloin
1 cup Barbecue Sauce

Marinate Tenderloin in BBQ Sauce for 24 hours then bake at 350 degrees f for 1 1/2 hours.

Classic Margherita Pizza

Margherita PizzaMargherita Pizza is my Favorite!

I’ve been surprised to find that there are a lot of people that don’t know what a Margherita Pizza is.  Maybe because it isn’t on the Menu at most of the large corporate food chains.  I don’t know.  But I do know that this is one of my favorite Pizza’s by far. The sauce is made from 3 different ingredients; salt, olive oil and garlic.  And as far as I’m concerned, that’s just a winning combination.  The other ingredients that make up a Margherita Pizza, other than cheese, are Roma Tomatoes and fresh Basil.  Never EVER use dry Basil when you’re making this Pizza.  I just can’t stress that enough.  You’ll never get the same taste that everyone expects when they sink their teeth into a Master piece like this one, and you’ll very quickly turn what most people consider a work of art, into a piece of trash!

IMG_0872Margherita Pizza Ingredients:

Pizza Dough
3 large chopped Garlic Cloves
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
2 Sliced Roma Tomatoes
4 lg chopped Basil Leaves
Provolone and Mozzarella Cheese

Once you’ve rolled out your dough, throw down some corn meal on your pizza pan to prevent sticking and spread the dough out evenly.  CLICK HERE if you need a dough recipe.  Then combine the Olive Oil, Salt and Chopped Garlic in a Large bowl and place the Chopped tomatoes in it for marinating; 10 to 20 minutes.  Chop the Basil and Grade the Cheese if you haven’t already.  Drizzle the olive oil over the dough and use it as the sauce.  Lay down the cheese, then top with tomatoes and fresh Basil and spread evenly like pepperoni.  Drizzle the left over oil, chopped garlic and the juice from the tomatoes over the entire pizza, and sprinkle just a little more cheese over the tomatoes.  Bake on the very bottom rack at 550 degrees for 6 minutes, or 500 degrees for 8.  Ovens are different, that’s why there’s a variance.  Enjoy your Margherita Pizza.