Recipes from the TWiT Army Mess Hall - Garlicky Black-Pepper Shrimp and Black-Eyed Peas

Ingredients
For black-eyed peas:

• 4 bacon slices
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
• 1 celery rib, finely chopped
• 1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 Turkish bay leaves or 1 California
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes
• 2 (15-ounces) cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

For shrimp:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

Preparation

Black-eyed peas:
Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until browned but not crisp. Transfer bacon to a plate, then tear into small pieces.

Cook scallions, carrot, celery, bell pepper, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, red-pepper flakes, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in fat in skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are pale golden, about 10 minutes. Add black-eyed peas and broth and simmer 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Make shrimp:
Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Season shrimp with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook shrimp with garlic, stirring occasionally, until just opaque (shrimp will not be fully cooked), about 3 minutes. Add wine and bring to a boil, then briskly simmer 2 minutes. Add bacon and black-eyed-pea mixture and simmer until just heated through (mixture will be juicy). Discard bay leaves.

Report from the Twit Army Mess Hall - Braised Chicken with Celery Root & Garlic

Ingredients:
3 lbs bone in, skin on chicken pieces, even if you remove the skin later you need it for flavor in the dish when cooking
1.25 lbs of celery root (check at your local asian or Whole Foods type market), cut into 3/4 inch cubes. N.B. you can't substitute celery for this, you need to find the real celery root
1 whole head of garlic, cloves separated but left unpeeled
1.5 c. chicken broth
1 tbl. olive oil
1 tbl. unsalted butter
2 sprigs of thyme

Preparation:

Heat the oil in the pan & brown the chicken pieces. Put aside in a dish or bowl (if you want to skin them, now is the time after the flavor from the skin has gotten into the pan drippings.

Browning the chicken pieces

Pour out all but 1 tbl of the drippings from the pan and melt the butter. Saute the celery root & garlic until browned, about 5 minutes.

Browning the celery root & garlic

Add the broth & thyme to the pan, bring to a boil & deglaze the pan (i.e. scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan so that they mix with the sauce). Add the chicken, cover & cook until done, about 25 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken pieces.

Remove the chicken & vegetables, cook down the sauce to the desired consistency (I usually boil it until it reaches the consistency of heavy cream, about 2 minutes).

Serve with crusty bread.

Finished dish ready to serve

Recipes from the Twit Army Mess Hall - Brisket in Garlic Sauce

Brisket in Garlic sauce

5 lbs of first cut brisket

40, or more cloves of garlic, peeled
Olive oil
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
1 c. beef or chicken broth, low sodium
3 - 4 sprigs of thyme or 2 tsp dried thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 tsp lemon peel

N.B. this can easily be increased, just increase all ingredients proportionally

Preheat oven to 325

Heat oil in pan and brown brisket on both sides, remove from pan & set aside.
Cook garlic cloves until golden
Deglaze pan with vinegar
Add broth, thyme & rosemary, reduce heat to simmer
Salt & pepper brisket as desired and put in pan spooning up the garlic cloves on top of the meat
Cover brisket with foil or a lid and place in oven.
Cook, basting with pan juices every 30 minutes until fork tender (about 2.5 - 3 hours)

Remove from oven, remove brisket and place into service (i.e. foil) pan. Skim & defat pan juices. Spoon garlic, thyme & rosemary leaves into a blender (discard the stems) with about 1.5 cups of pan juices. Puree the garlic cloves and return the puree to the pan or a sauce pan with the rest of the pan juices. Add the lemon zest and boil until the sauce is thick enough. Nap the meat with the sauce, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight to firm (if you're in a real rush 5 hours in the fridge will do it but overnight is better).

2 hrs before serving, Thin or thick slice the meat according to preference and replace in sauce (you can redefat the sauce at this point if desired). Reheat in 180 degree oven, covered, until at serving temperature. About 2 hours.

Enjoy.

Serve 10 or so depending on what else is present at the meal