Outback Steakhouse Style Green Beans

Hello Friends!

Been almost 2 weeks since my last post, I apologize. I was rather hoping I would have my Shepherds Pie recipe nailed by now but I really haven't had the chance to experiment with it any further. Anywho we decided to go shopping at Lee Lees Asian market and I found some good looking, and reasonably priced Green Beans. Anyway I had been thinking about trying to replicate Outback Steakhouses' awesome Green Beans. Or at least what my wife calls, quote, liquid crack, end quote, that they put on them. After a little research and looking over some other peoples ideas and recipes I believe I got something close to them. Now they are not perfectly the same, but they are very tasty none the less.

Johns Outback Style Green Beans


Ingredients


3-4 Cups of Green Beans
3-4 Tbsp Butter
1-2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Black Pepper to your taste
White Pepper to your taste
Salt to your taste
Bacon Salt, again to your taste (http://www.baconsalt.com/) Seriously, this stuff is to die for.

Directions


1) Sort your beans out, cut off any vines or any bad spots. If a bean looks too wilted, throw it out.
2) Steam the beans for 8 minutes, remove the beans and put them in a colander. Run cool water over them. This will stop the cooking process and make them more crunchy instead of a mush.
3) Since this item is most likely a side dish, you can wait until 5 minutes before the meal is ready to start this next part.
4) Melt the butter and brown sugar in a pan. Gently put the beans into the pan with the butter mixture.
5) Toss the beans until the beans are covered in butter. (whats not to love about that last sentence)
6) Add as much of the peppers, salt and bacon salt as you wish. (NOTE! Bacon Salt doesn't contain any salt and on its own isn't even that salty, its also awesome over popcorn)
7) Toss the beans until everything is evenly coated with the peppery, butter, bacon salty goodness.
8) Serve
9) Enjoy!

Hope you like this weeks recipe, tell your friends!

John's Greek Style Potatoes

Now first let me say that this was not intended to be my first recipe. My first recipe was going to be a kick ass Shepherds Pie i have been working on, however that is still in the tweaking stages. But already my Mother-in-law has already said that it is the best Shepherds pie she has ever had. But I digress.

Greek potatoes! There was a Greek restaurant in the city of Columbia, SC called Grecian Gardens, and they had the BEST Greek potatoes. I would love to know how they did them. My regular meal there was a pint of Newcastle and the Gyro platter with Greek potatoes instead of rice. I could tell they were freshly made because every time i went there they would taste a little different but always good. So anyway, tonight i had a simmer sauce i got from a new supermarket chain called Fresh and Easy (i highly recommend this store). I had the beef and the sauce i just didn't have a side. I had been craving Greek for a while so decided to do a little research and came up with an idea for Greek Potatoes. They came out AWESOME! They was a mix between a boiled and roasted potato with subtle taste of lemon and garlic. My biggest mistake was I didn't make enough! Hope you enjoy and please leave me any suggestions.

John's Greek Style Potatoes

Ingredients.

½ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Lemon Juice (As I live in Arizona we have lemon trees-a-plenty, but use bottled if you don't have fresh)
2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
3 Cloves Garlic Diced (Fresh will have a good punch to it, but jarred garlic works fine also)
1 Tbsp Parsley (Fresh or Dried)
1 Tbsp Oregano (again, Fresh or Dried)
Salt and Pepper as desired
1 ½ lb Potatoes (I used Idaho)
1 Cup Chicken stock

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°
2. Combine the first 7 ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined fully.
3. Chop the potatoes into 2 inch chunks. Combine with the vinaigrette and shake the bowl or rotate it until the potatoes are totally covered.
4. While moving the bowl side to side, drop the potatoes into a 9x13 ovenproof dish so that any remaining vinaigrette coats the potatoes as they drop.
5. Slowly pour the chicken stock into the dish, put in the oven.
6. About every 10 minutes you need to take the dish out and flip the potatoes. The idea is to half poach and half roast the potatoes. As it cooks the stock will slowly be absorbed by the potatoes. You need to cook until all the liquid is almost gone, about 45 minutes. (It doesn't matter if the stock is all gone, all that will happen is that your potatoes will stick to the bottom of your dish, another reason to keep flipping the potatoes)
7. Serve into a bowl, let everyone grab as much as they want.
8. Enjoy!
   
   

Well there it is, my first real recipe. I promise i will work on my food photography. This wasn't supposed to be my first dish, but it was so good i decided I had to upload it. Please comment if you wish and please enjoy!