So, my mom makes awesome chocolate pie. She's got it down. She's been making them probably as long as I've been alive, if not longer. The crust is awesome. It is the 'super-flake' crust. She makes them every holiday and usually around a birthday or any time someone asks. I got her to show me the technique Thanksgiving, I think, 2 years ago. Anita was introduced to the deliciousness sometime around then and recently asked me to make one for her. Since I finally had someone compelling me to make one, I did. My crust was good. Mom has still got me on that one. I might have opened the door to improving the filling, though. Not that it needed improvement. I'll sit down and eat an entire one of those things if the rest of the family would let me. I just had to tweek it a little due to some lacking ingredients, and it just might have turned out for the better.
I actually don't have the recipe with me now so I will post it later. I just happened to have some internet access and thought I'd start. Will finish soon. I promise.
....Ok, 4 days later.
So start with the crust. Yes, you can buy pre-made pie crusts, but that's lame as hell, they're easy and cheap to make, and they taste way better.
You need:
3/4 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
sift together
1/4 cup shortening
use a pastry blender or a fork to roughly blend into the flour
1/4 cup cold water
fluff the water into the mixture
The idea is to be as light and gentle with this stuff as you can while still incorporating everything together. This will give it that flaky texture. Mom is great at that. Mine was a little on the dense side.
Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll out til large enough to overlap the pie pan. Once again, don't get too rough with it. Lay it into the pan so that the edges fall over the sides.
Cut the edges and crimp using your fingers. Prick the dough a few times with a fork. This keeps air bubbles from forming.
Bake the crust in a 450F oven for 10 minutes. About halfway through, stab any other air bubbles forming with a fork. Do not over bake!
Let the crust cool while you prepare the filling.
For the filling you need:
1 cup of sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
dash of salt (leave out if you use salted butter, but you shouldn't use salted butter)
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla (I probably use a little more)
Those are the traditional ingredients. I made a slight twist. I only had about 3 tbsp of regular cocoa powder and the other container I had, which I thought was more of the same, turned out to be dark chocolate cocoa powder. I like dark chocolate, but I wasn't sure I wanted a dark chocolate pie. I did, however, have some ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. So I ended up using ~3.5 tbsp regular cocoa powder, 2 tbsp dark cocoa powder, and a handful of milk chocolate chips. The chips made for a smoother, fuller, and creamier pie filling and the touch of dark chocolate gave the flavor a nice little tweek. I think more melted chips would have made it too heavy. As it was, it was a very good combination. Mom, if you don't try it before I see you (and I'm not sure when that will be) we'll have to make one together.
So, add the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa in a small pot. If using the chips, hold off til later.
Stir together til no lumps. Gradually add milk while stirring.
Turn on the stove to high heat.
Cook and stir constantly. Add the chips, if using. Keep stirring til it thickens. You will know when this happens. There will be no doubt. It might start popping at you. Keep stirring.
Once it thickens, we're almost there. Remove the pot from the heat. Temper your eggs with some of the mixture. Mix well, and add it back to the pot. Return the pot to the heat for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla.
Stir well. Pour into the pie crust. Let it cool for and hour or two at room temperature and then place in the fridge to finish cooling.
Eat all of it in one sitting.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Picadillo
History:
This is a traditional Cuban dish. When people talk about Cuban food, at some point Ropa Vieja [Old Clothes] and Picadillo will come up. We are going to do a Ropa Vieja later this week, but Thursday night I was craving good old Cuban food. We served this with black beans and rice, another Cuban tradition. This is mi Abuela's version. The olives and raisins trend to freak people out, but trust me... the sweet tanginess of it is great.
And an ode to Clark:
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
Olive oil, 1 onion, 1 green pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, 1.5-2 pounds lean ground beef [lean is important here], 3-4 tomatoes [deseeded and chopped], cumin, salt, pepper, ~1/3 cup of raisins, ~1/3 cup of Spanish olives
Heat the oil, then saute diced onions, diced pepper, and garlic. Add the cayenne pepper. Add the beef and brown. Add the tomatoes, cumin, raisins, and olives [cut into 1/3rds]. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Enjoy.
This is a traditional Cuban dish. When people talk about Cuban food, at some point Ropa Vieja [Old Clothes] and Picadillo will come up. We are going to do a Ropa Vieja later this week, but Thursday night I was craving good old Cuban food. We served this with black beans and rice, another Cuban tradition. This is mi Abuela's version. The olives and raisins trend to freak people out, but trust me... the sweet tanginess of it is great.
And an ode to Clark:
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
Olive oil, 1 onion, 1 green pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, 1.5-2 pounds lean ground beef [lean is important here], 3-4 tomatoes [deseeded and chopped], cumin, salt, pepper, ~1/3 cup of raisins, ~1/3 cup of Spanish olives
Heat the oil, then saute diced onions, diced pepper, and garlic. Add the cayenne pepper. Add the beef and brown. Add the tomatoes, cumin, raisins, and olives [cut into 1/3rds]. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Enjoy.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
East-African Roast Chicken, Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Vegetable Biryani
I had to get my exotic spice on. I've been missing it.
There is a lot of spice involved with the chicken but don't let that bother you. It's very flavorful and it is very easy to make. You just throw it all together, marinate it for a day, and roast it. Nothing to it.
Doing this from memory so I might make revisions tomorrow.
East African Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken (mine was about 5 lbs)
4 tbsp thick coconut milk (don't know where you would get this. I considered reducing some regular coconut milk and then just decided to use 1/3 of a can as is)
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp tomato paste
chili powder
ground cumin
ground turmeric
dried thyme
minced garlic
good bit of chopped cilantro
salt
Remove the innards from the chicken, rinse, and pat dry.
Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl. Ease the skin from around the chicken and stuff some of the mixture under the skin. Cover the rest of the chicken well in the spice/herb mixture. Place in a roasting pan, cover loosely with foil and let marinate in the refigerator overnight.
The next day pull the chicken out of the fridge 1.5 to 2 hours before ready to cook so it can come up to room temp. Truss the chicken with butcher's twine.
Bake in the oven at 375F for ~1 hour. Baste with more butter at about 45 minutes and then flip the chicken over at the 1 hour mark. Baste with pan juices and let cook for another 20 minutes. Flip the chicken again and baste with pan juices. Let it go for another 15-20 minutes for a total of about 1 hour 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove twine if using, and let rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Ginger mashed sweet potatoes [PC]
These are really good, a little different, and very easy to make. The longest part is baking them in the oven. You can do this while the chicken cooks.
You need:
3-4 sweet potatoes
about a thumb of ginger, minced
120ml heavy cream
butter
s/p
a dash of sugar
Wash and scrub the potatoes. Stab them a few times each with a paring knife or something and place them on a rack in the oven at 425F. Let them cook for about an hour, til soft. Obviously, the cooking temp is different from the chicken. If doing them at the same time, just leave them in for longer.
Once they are done, remove from the oven. Place the other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Do not scorch the cream.
Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh. Place in a food processor or blender and puree.
Transfer the potato puree to a mixing bowl and pour the other ingredients over them. Stir well to mix. Eat.
Vegetable Biryani [CL]
Ok, this isn't actually a vegetable biryani. This is just some rice dish I came up with from eating a lot of indian food. It is similar, but I've never actually looked at any biryani recipes, so this is my imitation.
You need:
basmati rice (I got that part right)
normally you would use ghee or clarified butter-I just use olive oil, cause I always use olive oil
1 small onion, minced
~1.5 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, beans, carrots)
curry powder
garam masala
fennel seeds
golden raisins
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
s/p
Ok, I'm pretty sure in a normal biryani, you cook everything together. I've just never done it that way. There's something about boiled/steamed spices that doesn't do it for me. So I cook the rice separately, then the vegetables with spices, then I add them. Here we go.
For the rice:
fry the onions in oil. Toss in the bay leaf and cloves and let cook for about a minute. Add the rice and stir fry for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Add the water, a pinch or two of salt, cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
When that's getting close you can start your veggies:
Have your veggies already pulled and thawed. I usually run some water over them in a strainer.
Heat the oil/ghee/butter in a pan. Add the fennel seeds and fry for about 30 seconds. Add the garam masala and curry powder and fry for another 30 seconds.
Add the veggies and stir fry til heated and mixed well with the spices.
Add the golden raisins for just a few seconds and cut your heat down to low.
Transfer the rice to the pan and mix well on low heat til the flavors have combined.
To be honest, this is best made the day before because the flavors really develop later on. Still good with the chicken, though. I really considered using some of the pan drippings as my liquid, or even using the rest of the coconut milk and tomato paste in the rice, but I wanted to have something different yet complimentary. I was also saving the coconut milk for a flat bread recipe that I've been wanting to make for a while now. It would have gone quite well with this meal also. I usually make it when I make dhaal or chana masala. Maybe I'll post it for you tomorrow. It's a very simple recipe. The only time consuming part is frying the pieces of bread. good eats. good night.
There is a lot of spice involved with the chicken but don't let that bother you. It's very flavorful and it is very easy to make. You just throw it all together, marinate it for a day, and roast it. Nothing to it.
Doing this from memory so I might make revisions tomorrow.
East African Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken (mine was about 5 lbs)
4 tbsp thick coconut milk (don't know where you would get this. I considered reducing some regular coconut milk and then just decided to use 1/3 of a can as is)
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp tomato paste
chili powder
ground cumin
ground turmeric
dried thyme
minced garlic
good bit of chopped cilantro
salt
Remove the innards from the chicken, rinse, and pat dry.
Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl. Ease the skin from around the chicken and stuff some of the mixture under the skin. Cover the rest of the chicken well in the spice/herb mixture. Place in a roasting pan, cover loosely with foil and let marinate in the refigerator overnight.
The next day pull the chicken out of the fridge 1.5 to 2 hours before ready to cook so it can come up to room temp. Truss the chicken with butcher's twine.
Bake in the oven at 375F for ~1 hour. Baste with more butter at about 45 minutes and then flip the chicken over at the 1 hour mark. Baste with pan juices and let cook for another 20 minutes. Flip the chicken again and baste with pan juices. Let it go for another 15-20 minutes for a total of about 1 hour 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove twine if using, and let rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Ginger mashed sweet potatoes [PC]
These are really good, a little different, and very easy to make. The longest part is baking them in the oven. You can do this while the chicken cooks.
You need:
3-4 sweet potatoes
about a thumb of ginger, minced
120ml heavy cream
butter
s/p
a dash of sugar
Wash and scrub the potatoes. Stab them a few times each with a paring knife or something and place them on a rack in the oven at 425F. Let them cook for about an hour, til soft. Obviously, the cooking temp is different from the chicken. If doing them at the same time, just leave them in for longer.
Once they are done, remove from the oven. Place the other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Do not scorch the cream.
Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh. Place in a food processor or blender and puree.
Transfer the potato puree to a mixing bowl and pour the other ingredients over them. Stir well to mix. Eat.
Vegetable Biryani [CL]
Ok, this isn't actually a vegetable biryani. This is just some rice dish I came up with from eating a lot of indian food. It is similar, but I've never actually looked at any biryani recipes, so this is my imitation.
You need:
basmati rice (I got that part right)
normally you would use ghee or clarified butter-I just use olive oil, cause I always use olive oil
1 small onion, minced
~1.5 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, beans, carrots)
curry powder
garam masala
fennel seeds
golden raisins
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
s/p
Ok, I'm pretty sure in a normal biryani, you cook everything together. I've just never done it that way. There's something about boiled/steamed spices that doesn't do it for me. So I cook the rice separately, then the vegetables with spices, then I add them. Here we go.
For the rice:
fry the onions in oil. Toss in the bay leaf and cloves and let cook for about a minute. Add the rice and stir fry for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Add the water, a pinch or two of salt, cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
When that's getting close you can start your veggies:
Have your veggies already pulled and thawed. I usually run some water over them in a strainer.
Heat the oil/ghee/butter in a pan. Add the fennel seeds and fry for about 30 seconds. Add the garam masala and curry powder and fry for another 30 seconds.
Add the veggies and stir fry til heated and mixed well with the spices.
Add the golden raisins for just a few seconds and cut your heat down to low.
Transfer the rice to the pan and mix well on low heat til the flavors have combined.
To be honest, this is best made the day before because the flavors really develop later on. Still good with the chicken, though. I really considered using some of the pan drippings as my liquid, or even using the rest of the coconut milk and tomato paste in the rice, but I wanted to have something different yet complimentary. I was also saving the coconut milk for a flat bread recipe that I've been wanting to make for a while now. It would have gone quite well with this meal also. I usually make it when I make dhaal or chana masala. Maybe I'll post it for you tomorrow. It's a very simple recipe. The only time consuming part is frying the pieces of bread. good eats. good night.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
London Broil with fried Leeks and Sage and Home Fries with Bacon
Simplicity at its finest. We threw this one together in about 30 minutes and it was one of the best meals we've had. I think we had about 5 ingredients in the entire meal and 4 spices. For those of you who don't like the more complicated excursions, pay attention to this one....
London Broil [CL]
We had a ~1.5 lb london broil cut. That's beef for those not in the know. Very tender cut. Makes a great roast or even stew.
Pull it out of the fridge 1-2 hrs before cooking so it can come up to room temp. Season with salt and pepper and go do something with yourself. We went to the gym.
Heat the oven to 350F and heat a skillet large enough for the meat on high. Season the meat again with granulated garlic and onion powder. Could you have done this before when you seasoned with s/p? Yeah.
Once the skillet is hot (you'll know) sear the meat on each side, bout 2 minutes each side.
Place in a roasting pan and put in the oven for 10 minutes. This will give a great medium doneness for a 1.5 lb cut. You may need to go a little longer on a larger one, but not much.
Remove the meat from the oven and LEAVE IT ALONE for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat some oil on med-high to high heat and finely chop some leeks (or onions/shallots if you've got 'em) and torn sage leaves for just a minute or two.
Slice the meat and garnish with fried leeks and sage.
Home Fries w/ Bacon [JG]
You should know how to make these, but we'll tell you anyways.
Diced onions, diced bacon, diced potatoes, s/p.
Throw the potatoes and onions together in a bowl and season well with s/p.
Fry up bacon, add onions and potato mixture with more oil if you need to. Or, if you happen to have some more reserved bacon grease in a jar next to your stove, use that. It's really healthy for you. (disclaimer: it is NOT really healthy for you. It is, however, delicious)
Do all this on med-high heat and toss frequently to keep from burning. you can also cover the pan to speed up the cooking process. Also, the smaller the potato cut, the quicker it will cook. Let them go til they start to get a nice crisp, just before they start to burn.
You're done. We made a huge salad to go with it.
And yes, we have been on a meat, potato, something green kick for a while. What do you want. We're busy.
London Broil [CL]
We had a ~1.5 lb london broil cut. That's beef for those not in the know. Very tender cut. Makes a great roast or even stew.
Pull it out of the fridge 1-2 hrs before cooking so it can come up to room temp. Season with salt and pepper and go do something with yourself. We went to the gym.
Heat the oven to 350F and heat a skillet large enough for the meat on high. Season the meat again with granulated garlic and onion powder. Could you have done this before when you seasoned with s/p? Yeah.
Once the skillet is hot (you'll know) sear the meat on each side, bout 2 minutes each side.
Place in a roasting pan and put in the oven for 10 minutes. This will give a great medium doneness for a 1.5 lb cut. You may need to go a little longer on a larger one, but not much.
Remove the meat from the oven and LEAVE IT ALONE for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat some oil on med-high to high heat and finely chop some leeks (or onions/shallots if you've got 'em) and torn sage leaves for just a minute or two.
Slice the meat and garnish with fried leeks and sage.
Home Fries w/ Bacon [JG]
You should know how to make these, but we'll tell you anyways.
Diced onions, diced bacon, diced potatoes, s/p.
Throw the potatoes and onions together in a bowl and season well with s/p.
Fry up bacon, add onions and potato mixture with more oil if you need to. Or, if you happen to have some more reserved bacon grease in a jar next to your stove, use that. It's really healthy for you. (disclaimer: it is NOT really healthy for you. It is, however, delicious)
Do all this on med-high heat and toss frequently to keep from burning. you can also cover the pan to speed up the cooking process. Also, the smaller the potato cut, the quicker it will cook. Let them go til they start to get a nice crisp, just before they start to burn.
You're done. We made a huge salad to go with it.
And yes, we have been on a meat, potato, something green kick for a while. What do you want. We're busy.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Chicken Fricassee with Risotto alla Milanese
Once again, I'm a day late posting. I'm starting this tonight just so I can post what we had tonight separately on tomorrow's post. Yes, we've actually cooked 3 nights in a row now. We just don't have time to type this stuff up.
Both of these recipes were from the Professional Chef. I had some chicken and I wanted something different. I came real close to making my Chicken Parmesan, which is wicked awesome by the way, but I decided to try something new. Don't worry. You'll get the chicken parm recipe eventually.
To be honest, the chicken was alright. Nothing great. The sauce was pretty good and I was very happy with the risotto. It was my first time making risotto and I thought it went pretty well. It was exceptionally good with the sauce from the chicken.
If you don't know what risotto is, it is rice made with a very specific technique. It ends up with a very creamy, porridge like consistency without being at all mushy or clumpy. It is really very good and if you ever watch cooking show competitions freakin everybody makes them.
The chicken is braised in a white wine and cream sauce with chicken stock. I think if I would have followed the recipe better and used dark meat it would have turned out better. I had chicken breasts and when you braise with breasts they tend to dry out, get tough, and lose flavor. I also didn't measure crap and since the PC makes everything in a billion portions my ratios could have been off. I will give you the recipe per PC and you can scale down as you see fit.
Chicken Fricassee
You need:
5 chickens, cut into 8 pieces each
1 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
4 oz clarified butter or oil
1 lb diced onions
2 tsp minced garlic
2 oz AP flour
8 oz white wine
16 oz chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp thyme
8 oz heavy cream
1 lb small-dice carrots, blanched
1 lb small-dice leeks, blanched
1/2 oz chives or parsley, chopped
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large pot and saute chicken til they stiffen slightly, but do not brown. Transfer chicken to a pan and reserve.
Add onions and garlic to the pan and cook til onions are translucent.
Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the wine to the pan, stirring to release any drippings. Let the wine cook for at least a minute to burn off some of the alcohol. Add the stock, bay leaves, and thyme and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken along with any juice to the pan. Cover and cook over low to medium heat til chicken is fork tender, ~30 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a pan and moisten with some of the cooking liquid. Keep warm while finishing the sauce.
Add the cream to the sauce and simmer until the sauce has thickened slightly. Skim to degrease and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Strain the sauce and return to the pot.
Return the chicken to the sauce along with the leeks and carrots and simmer for another 2 minutes. Serve with chives/parsley.
Risotto alla Milanese
I'll give you the PC recipe as is but then discuss what I did. Once again, you can scale down as you see fit.
Both of these recipes were from the Professional Chef. I had some chicken and I wanted something different. I came real close to making my Chicken Parmesan, which is wicked awesome by the way, but I decided to try something new. Don't worry. You'll get the chicken parm recipe eventually.
To be honest, the chicken was alright. Nothing great. The sauce was pretty good and I was very happy with the risotto. It was my first time making risotto and I thought it went pretty well. It was exceptionally good with the sauce from the chicken.
If you don't know what risotto is, it is rice made with a very specific technique. It ends up with a very creamy, porridge like consistency without being at all mushy or clumpy. It is really very good and if you ever watch cooking show competitions freakin everybody makes them.
The chicken is braised in a white wine and cream sauce with chicken stock. I think if I would have followed the recipe better and used dark meat it would have turned out better. I had chicken breasts and when you braise with breasts they tend to dry out, get tough, and lose flavor. I also didn't measure crap and since the PC makes everything in a billion portions my ratios could have been off. I will give you the recipe per PC and you can scale down as you see fit.
Chicken Fricassee
You need:
5 chickens, cut into 8 pieces each
1 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
4 oz clarified butter or oil
1 lb diced onions
2 tsp minced garlic
2 oz AP flour
8 oz white wine
16 oz chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp thyme
8 oz heavy cream
1 lb small-dice carrots, blanched
1 lb small-dice leeks, blanched
1/2 oz chives or parsley, chopped
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large pot and saute chicken til they stiffen slightly, but do not brown. Transfer chicken to a pan and reserve.
Add onions and garlic to the pan and cook til onions are translucent.
Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the wine to the pan, stirring to release any drippings. Let the wine cook for at least a minute to burn off some of the alcohol. Add the stock, bay leaves, and thyme and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken along with any juice to the pan. Cover and cook over low to medium heat til chicken is fork tender, ~30 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a pan and moisten with some of the cooking liquid. Keep warm while finishing the sauce.
Add the cream to the sauce and simmer until the sauce has thickened slightly. Skim to degrease and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Strain the sauce and return to the pot.
Return the chicken to the sauce along with the leeks and carrots and simmer for another 2 minutes. Serve with chives/parsley.
Risotto alla Milanese
I'll give you the PC recipe as is but then discuss what I did. Once again, you can scale down as you see fit.
46 oz chicken stock
3/4 tsp saffron (do you really need this? no.)
salt
pepper
3 oz minced onions
7 oz olive oil
14oz medium grained white rice (Arborio rice to be strictly italian, but I don't know where you'd get this)
2 oz dry white wine
5 oz butter
6 oz grated parmesan
Let's talk technique.
Risotto takes pretty much constant attention and stirring. This is not a bring to the boil, cover, and walk away type of rice dish. It is typically made with a medium grain rice. Longer grain will take longer to cook and probably more liquid. I'm not sure, but a short grain rice might be a little mushy if you try to use it for a risotto. A medium grain rice should take about 20 minutes to cook. The liquid in risotto is added a bit at a time, about 1/4 to 1/3 at a time and stirred constantly until all the liquid absorbs. Since you are not covering, the rice:liquid ratio should be somewhere around 1:3. Keep adding and stirring until the liquid is absorbed and the rice develops a creamy consistency.
So first off, heat up your stock over low heat and add the saffron to it. Sweat the onions (I actually used leeks since I had some left over) in the oil til soft and translucent. Add the rice and stir constantly til you get a toasted aroma, a minute or two. Add the wine and cook til dry. Add 1/3 of the stock and cook, stirring constantly til the liquid is absorbed. Repeat, adding the remaining stock in 2 more portions, allowing each to be absorbed before adding the next. Stir constantly and once you've gotten to the end you can actually start tossing the risotto in the pot to help incorporate air into it and make it creamier and fluffier. At this point, the rice should be just tender, most of the liquid absorbed, and very creamy.
Finish it by stirring in the butter, parmesan, and a little oil. Adjust seasoning and add any fresh herbs if you want. Serve.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tuna and Peanut Sauce Udon Noodles
History:
I was hungry... we had tuna. I haven't cooked in some time. And yes, we do not have a camera anymore.... so our great food can not look great. :(
And actually this is close to the original meal that started this whole thing.
Tuna:
Nice and simple. Salt and pepper. Sear on both sides for ~4 minutes.... about 2/3 into the cooking/searing I squeezed 1/4 of lemon juice around it for both sides. When serving put a small slice on top.
Peanut Sauce:
What you need:
Peanut oil, sesame oil, green onions, brown sugar, peanut butter, garlic, red chili paste, soy sauce, udon noodles.
Cook the udon noodles... this will take not time. Rinse with cold water, dry, and toss in a bit of sesame oil so they don't stick. Saute the garlic, green onions, and red chili paste in the peanut oil.... once cooked add the soy sauce [be frugal], peanut butter, and brown sugar. Use water if you have to, and create a sauce. I don't measure at this point, and I usually taste and adjust as needed. Pour the sauce on the noodles and toss.
Enjoy.
I was hungry... we had tuna. I haven't cooked in some time. And yes, we do not have a camera anymore.... so our great food can not look great. :(
And actually this is close to the original meal that started this whole thing.
Tuna:
Nice and simple. Salt and pepper. Sear on both sides for ~4 minutes.... about 2/3 into the cooking/searing I squeezed 1/4 of lemon juice around it for both sides. When serving put a small slice on top.
Peanut Sauce:
What you need:
Peanut oil, sesame oil, green onions, brown sugar, peanut butter, garlic, red chili paste, soy sauce, udon noodles.
Cook the udon noodles... this will take not time. Rinse with cold water, dry, and toss in a bit of sesame oil so they don't stick. Saute the garlic, green onions, and red chili paste in the peanut oil.... once cooked add the soy sauce [be frugal], peanut butter, and brown sugar. Use water if you have to, and create a sauce. I don't measure at this point, and I usually taste and adjust as needed. Pour the sauce on the noodles and toss.
Enjoy.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Fried Chicken with Potato Galettes
Good ol southern cooking.
Straight up Southern Fried Chicken [TK]
Potato Galettes [PC]
Blanched Green Beans
Buttermilk Biscuits
We made this for our third night in the new house. I'm just now getting around to posting it. The fried chicken was from a Thomas Keller recipe. It was amazing. The potato cakes (cakes is easier to type than galettes) were out of the Professional Chef. Also delicious. We had blanched green beans with some butter, salt, and pepper for the green and Jake made some southern-style biscuits.
Fried Chicken [TK]
A lot of the flavor comes from marinating the chicken in a brine for up to 12 hours prior to cooking.
For the brine:
~ 1 gallon water
5 lemons, halved
few sprigs of thyme
parsley
1 head of garlic, cut through the equator
10 oz. salt (I don't know, about a cup?)
20 bay leaves
It's best to make this the night before. Then you can let it cool completely and put in the chicken first thing in the morning. That way it will be ready for dinner. Put all in a pot and heat it up to boiling. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool for a couple hours and then refrigerate. Let the brine cool completely before placing the chicken in. Allow the chicken to marinate for up to 12 hours before cooking. The brine will impart a lot of flavor to the chicken. Just don't let it sit too long or else it will be really salty.
Take the chicken pieces out of the brine, remove any herbs from the skin, pat dry and allow to come up to room temp, ~1 hr.
Set up your breading station. You can season the flour however you like. AP flour, salt, pepper, granulated garlic, onion powder, maybe some paprika and cayenne pepper. Anything else you like. Mix well and divide the flour into two bowls. Take another bowl and pour in your buttermilk. Set up the station chicken, flour, buttermilk, flour.
While doing all this you should have a large pot with a lot of either peanut, vegetable, or canola oil heating up. If you've got two pots you can do one for dark and the other for white meat. Once again, I don't have a thermometer so I have to troubleshoot it, but you want to do the dark meat first at about 325F and then the white meat at about 340F.
Only bread the amount of chicken you plan to cook immediately. If you bread it and let it sit for a few minutes then the flour tends to blacken and look bad when you fry it. Make sure your oil is up to heat before frying the chicken. Otherwise, the chicken will soak up a bunch of oil and be soggy. If you're not sure, just wait. you could also drop a pinch of flour in. It should immediately sizzle and fry upon hitting the oil. I have to put my stove top just about at six for the right heat.
When your oil is ready, bread the chicken and carefully place the dark meat in the oil so as not to splash and burn the hell out of yourself. Wait at least 1 minute and probably two before turning the chicken and making sure that pieces aren't stuck together. Let it go for 10-12 minutes. You might need to turn once or twice more, depending on your oil level. Drain chicken on a rack or paper towels.
Once you put the chicken in the pot, the temperature of the oil drops significantly. Give it some time to recuperate before adding chicken again. If you're ready for the white meat then turn it up just a bit to get another 20 degrees in there. Cook the white meat for about 7 minutes. You now have some beautiful and delicious homemade straight-up southern fried chicken.
Potato Galettes:
These were damn tasty and just a somewhat different way of having potatoes. Much less involved than the chicken, but still takes some frying time. These are pan fried though, not deep fried.
You need:
Potatoes, peeled
Onions
garlic
parsley
Chives
a little AP flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
s/p
oil for frying
Grate the onions into a bowl and squeeze out the excess liquid. Grate the potatoes into the bowl and add the egg, flour, garlic, parsely, chives, s/p. Mix well.
Heat the oil in a skillet. Add a spoonful of the mixture and mash down to flatten it as much as possible. Fry for a few minutes on each side til golden brown.
Drain on paper towels.
The biscuit recipe I believe you can get from the "biscuit vs. biscuit" post. We prefer the Tom Keller recipe, but the PC is also good, especially if you like 'em sweet.
.....doing research. will finish tonight.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
We are back... internet and all.
So what have we been making?
Last night was muffins for work. Chia and blueberry. Dinner left overs. Today Jenny cooked. Go Jenny. To give her props I would like to talk about what she made.
Quick and easy... not very Clark and jake.
Equal parts butter and olive oil... melt down, saute in garlic, lemon zest, and parsley. Add in the juice of one lemon. Toss in cooked spaghetti, grate fresh Parmesan on top.
I like this. I have a play on something like this where I use Parmesan, garlic, oil, basil, oregano, and parsley.... I toss that on spaghetti.... like a simple pesto sauce. To give Jenny credit I did like the lemon in it.
Tomorrow... Carbanara. Sorry, I know a repeat, but I have been craving.
Last night was muffins for work. Chia and blueberry. Dinner left overs. Today Jenny cooked. Go Jenny. To give her props I would like to talk about what she made.
Quick and easy... not very Clark and jake.
Equal parts butter and olive oil... melt down, saute in garlic, lemon zest, and parsley. Add in the juice of one lemon. Toss in cooked spaghetti, grate fresh Parmesan on top.
I like this. I have a play on something like this where I use Parmesan, garlic, oil, basil, oregano, and parsley.... I toss that on spaghetti.... like a simple pesto sauce. To give Jenny credit I did like the lemon in it.
Tomorrow... Carbanara. Sorry, I know a repeat, but I have been craving.
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