Tag Archives: cooking

Knock Down The Door Easy Chicken

Posted on by
Reply

Knock Down The Door Easy Chicken

2 chicken breasts
3 tbsp of Mayonnaise
2 tsp of Herbes de Provence
1 1/2 cups Italian Breadcrumbs

You will need a cookie sheet or other flat baking sheet, cover it in Aluminum Foil and spritz with non-stick spray to make cleanup a snap. Cut the breasts in half horizontally to make four thinner breasts. Put the mayo in a bowl with the Herbes de Provence and mix well. For each breast, brush on the mayo and herbes mixture thickly on both sides of the breast then dredge in breadcrumbs and place breast on cookie sheet. Repeat this for all the breasts. Heat oven to 350 degrees and place cookie sheet in oven for half an hour. At the end, test each breast with an instant-read thermometer and verify that it is greater than 150 degrees inside each breast. Plate and serve. Serves two to four people.

PAD 2/22/2013 – Seconds!

Posted on by
Reply

Describe the most satisfying meal you’ve ever eaten in glorious detail.

Without a doubt the most satisfying meal has to be the first time I assembled a Boeuf Bourguignon from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. There was a huge feeling of reward as I assembled all the ingredients, cooked them all independently and then assembled them. When the dish came out of the oven it was absolutely perfect. The scent of the wine and the beef were intoxicating and the flavor of the sauce was transcendent. The entire thing takes hours to make, but the reward was very much worth every moment, even worth going so far to not crowd the mushrooms and to individually hand-pat dry each chunk of beef before adding it to the cookpot. There were three distinct callouts to other recipes including braised pearl onions and butter-browned mushrooms that all had to have a hand in creating the final dish. There was a certain delight in preparing something as simple as egg noodles to serve as the substrate for this meal – the combination of the breathtaking complex paired with mindless simplicity really spoke to me. In later iterations of this meal I varied the substrate and discovered that I liked it more if the stew was resting in an island surrounded by mashed potatoes. Of course its a meal that isn’t meant to be eaten if you are on a diet – so you either have to live with the consequences or run around the block a couple times to burn off your caloric transgressions.

I’m glad I tackled it. I can’t do it without MAFC, but I know I can do it. Since it’s one the most complicated recipes out there there is a fair bit of pride in how well my first shot went. I’ve done it several more times and each time I think about sides that could compliment the dish. If I wanted to go over the top I could prepare a delightful Risotto while the stew cooks in the oven. That would be even more of a feat since I’d have pretty much every cooking tool in my house working all at once. It would be a gustatory tour de force but at that point you’d need an even stronger wine to pair with it and you’d need to also roast some asparagus on the side to serve as a counterpoint to the smooth richness of the Risotto and the delight of the Boeuf Bourguignon.

If I wanted to be really mean, I would pair the Boeuf Bourguignon with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. That’s another contrasting pair that I love. The very high with the very low. It makes me laugh heartily.

Julia Child Inspired Macaroni and Cheese

Posted on by
Reply
Julia Child Inspired Macaroni and Cheese

Tonight I decided that I would make something that I am quite fond of,
and something that I came up with all by myself, as far as I know. This
recipe for Mac and Cheese creates a different dish than the other Mac
and Cheese dishes I’ve had in the past and it’s quite good. I’m an
ardent believer that anyone can cook, even those who do not think they
can or should. Everyone Can Cook.

Here’s how I set it up:

Ingredients:

2 1-pound boxes of Cavatappi Pasta (hollow corkscrew shaped pasta, uncut
elbow macaroni essentially)
4 cups of milk (any kind, probably good at 2%)
4 tbsp of Butter
6 tbsp of AP Flour
At least 1 pound or more of any kind of cheese you like

Procedure:

Boil the pasta until al-dente and drain and put aside. Get a deep
saucier, they are halfway between frypans and dutch ovens. Warm the
butter with low heat until it starts to bubble, just gently bubble. Then
add the AP flour in one shot. Stir like mad for about 2 minutes. Pour
milk into 4 cup plastic measuring cup and microwave for about 3-4
minutes (watch as milk can boil and take off on you and make a hell of a
mess) right before the milk boils and expands, take it out and pour it
all in the saucier on top of your roux (which is what the flour and
butter did together) and stir that for the next 4 to 5 minutes, bring up
the heat, and stare at it, boil is coming. Once the milk starts to boil,
add salt and pepper, a pinch and a few grinds of both. You now have a
finished Béchamel Sauce! Now you can augment it. You can add anything
you like to this sauce, it’s like culinary velcro. It’ll accept a huge
amount of cheese, various different kinds of cheese, whatever your
little heart desires. Start with about a pound, more if you like cheese
a lot. I wouldn’t go beyond 2-3 pounds of cheese. The sauce can also
accept any herbal additions, like Thyme or Parsley or even Sage if you
like. Rosemary is nice, but it’s really quite twiggy and resinous so
unless you got a huge hankering for Rosemary, keep that out. You could
also sweat-and-brown onions or garlic or even shallot. Keep in mind that
onion can take an insane amount of punishment but it’s cousins cannot,
garlic and shallot are very quick, say 20-30 seconds of sauté before
they are toast. You could even go with raw garlic or shallot, as they’ll
work their magic once they get to the oven. With the drained cooked
pasta, mix that with the cheese sauce in another bowl, prepare a
properly sized vessel for baking and spray Pam on it first, that’ll help
keep it from sticking to the surface later on. Get that oven up to 350
degrees and throw the mix in the vessel into the oven for half an hour.
When it comes out the top will be lightly browned and bubbly. If you
want more brown, leave it in longer. Timing is flexible as long as your
temps are right – if your oven doesn’t have an over thermometer, stop
reading, go to the market and get one right now.

It makes enough to feed two for almost a week. Four for half a week. Six
for two days. Eight to Ten well, say goodbye to it. 🙂

That’s it, that’s dinner. A little salt and pepper, maybe some garlic
salt, celery salt, or seasoned salt and you’ll be on your way. If you
are afraid of your sauce breaking (which is to say, falling apart into
oil, water, and assorted debris) don’t be. You’re cooking the entire
thing and the Béchamel has no time to fall apart. You can add various
other small amendments if this is really a huge concern for you. Ground
mustard, about 1-2 tsp is good to keep the fat and water together and it
doesn’t contribute any unusual flavors. If you are working with really
freakishly mishmashed cheese selections you might want to look into
adding Sodium Citrate to the sauce. This chemical additive can help keep
different cheeses integrated and it doesn’t affect flavor, appearance,
or edibility. Tread carefully, as sodium citrate is the path to
Velveeta. Now you know how velveeta is made, hah.

One thing to say, the roux made in the first steps is Julia’s roux. One
thing that I do is monthly or so I take a stick of butter, weigh it by
gram scale, and then cook it down until it’s bubbling and then add the
exact same weight of AP flour to that and cook for 2-3 minutes. You
don’t want to see it get any darker than white to blond to “yellow corn
kernel” color, and yes, for a roux the color is VITAL. White and yellow
are good, brown or red is good for other things, not anything like this.
Once it’s all cooked and unmercifully whisked transfer it to a bowl and
wrap it up and throw it in the fridge. You now have the worlds most
perfect thickener. It’ll thicken anything. It’s flavor neutral and very
handy. Just scrape a little out with a fork and you’re all set. The
applications are endless. You can make lump-free gravies, sauces, soups,
stews, or anything else that needs a little thickening power – just add
a little at a time and stir like mad. One thing about roux made with AP
Flour is that it only reaches maximum thickening power when the water
it’s in reaches a boil. Also, since it’s wheat flour and tossed with
water you will have a minute but present amount of gluten there. So if
you don’t like gluten, this isn’t for you.

If you try this recipe and like it, please leave a comment. I think
anyone can make this dish as it’s very forgiving if you make any
blunders. The only real OMG place is that roux in the beginning. A dark
roux will crap out on you and your Béchamel will either not form or
half-ass form and the color will be off and there will be more caramel
notes in the final dish. It’s still edible, but, just be careful of that
color.

Good Luck!

Making Sandwiches

Posted on by
Reply

I was raised with an appreciation for the simplest sandwich possible. The venerable Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. It’s something that my father makes, some would say it’s the only thing he knows how to make, beyond fudge, and it’s something that I’ve just refined.

The refinement I’ve made adapts something my father does but always seemed unusual to me. He adds butter to the sandwich and as far as I can remember, he butters the side of the bread that eventually carries the peanut butter component. I’ve noticed for a long time that when I make a PB&J that the side of the sandwich that carries the jelly (or in my preference jam or preserves) always ends up being slightly soggy because the bread sucks up the water from the jelly/jam/preserves and carries that mush through, so you’ve got a dry slice and a damp slice. This makes for an okay PB&J, but it can be better. I’ve adapted my fathers use of butter to act as a water barrier on the jelly/jam/preserve side of the sandwich. By spreading a thin layer of butter on that side, you create a waterproof block against that slice of bread. After the butter, then the jelly/jam/preserves go on and you join the sandwich together. It can stay that way for a while, or at least until lunchtime and the bread isn’t damp or soggy. Plus the butter adds a little extra something to the sandwich that I like.

So if you are also fond of PB&J’s then I suggest you explore adding a little butter to the side where you spread your jelly/jam/preserves. You’ll be glad for a equally dry bread-edged sandwich.

Pushing Om Nom Nom to 11

Posted on by
Reply

Quite possibly the best recipe I have that is insanely delicious and not very bad for you is Alton Brown’s Dan Dan Noodles. Here’s the recipe:

Dan Dan Noodles – Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2011

Prep Time: 30 min Inactive Prep Time: 0 Cook Time:1 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
1 tablespoon chili oil
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
8 ounces ramen noodles
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
3 scallions, finely chopped
Directions
Place the peanut butter, garlic, ginger, soy sauce,
brown sugar, sesame oil, black vinegar, and chili oil into the bowl of a mini-food processor. Process until
the mixture is well combined and forms a paste, 1 to 2 minutes. With the processor running, gradually add the
chicken broth and process until the sauce is creamy and well combined, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a large
mixing bowl, cover, and set aside while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Place 4 quarts water into a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the noodles and cook until al
dente, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Drain thoroughly in a colander. Add the noodles to the bowl with the sauce and toss
to combine. Serve topped with the peanuts and scallions.
Copyright 2011 Television Food Network G.P., All Rights Reserved
Printed from FoodNetwork.com on Sun May 08 2011© 2011 Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

The Most Difficult Recipe I’ve Mastered

Posted on by
Reply

Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon

Without a doubt in my mind the most difficult and taxing recipe that I’ve ever tried was the Beef Bourguignon recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking from Julia Child. I have to admit at first to really enjoying how the MAFC presents recipes and I wish more recipes followed that design. Following this one was only really challenging in that there are quite a number of call-outs to other recipes that you have to master first in order to build the primary recipe. From individually patting-dry each chunk of beef to getting just the right color on the pearl onions and NOT CROWDING THE MUSHROOMS it’s nearly a whole day cooking affair. The reward at the end is definitely worth all the labor and it was important for me to master it so that I could build up my culinary confidence. Now when I botch a dish I can at least lean back and say “But I *can* pull off a kick-ass Beef Bourguignon.”

Powered by Plinky

Wii’ll Fit

Posted on by
1

Ever since I returned from visiting my folks in South Carolina I’ve been using my Wii much more, and my Wii Fit program with the balance board. For the past 14 days I’ve been following a rather extensive exercise regimen:

  • Yoga: Deep Breathing, Half-Moon, Warrior, Sun Salutation, Standing Knee, Palm Tree, and Chair.
  • Strength Training: Single Leg Extension, Sideways Leg Lift, Torso Twists, Rowing Squat, Single Leg Twist, Lunge, and Jackknife.
  • Aerobics: Hula Hoop, Basic Step, Basic Run, Free Run
  • Balance: Soccer Heading, Penguin Slide, and Balance Bubble.

Mostly I’ve trimmed this list to most of the Yoga, and Strength Training as I do my workouts at 6:30am and they last me about 45 minutes until 7:30 or so when I get dressed and head to work.

There have been some noticeable changes in my body while using these programs on the Wii Fit. My overall balance has greatly improved. I no longer find myself toppling over when I’m on one foot to put on my socks, I don’t fumble about when I’m trying to put on shoes and I feel more centered in general. My general workout is to do the most pleasant Yoga poses in the morning as a warm-up, then run through the Strength Training series at least once, and then double-up on Torso Twists, Jackknives, and Rowing Squats. My goal is to lose weight and tone my abdominals and lose my love handles.

All the Wii Fit in the world will just make me sweat and feel good that I’m getting my 30-minutes-a-day exercise in that everyone says will keep me healthy. In order to really see some progress and to lose weight and BMI, I have to eat less and eat better. The quality of my food really can’t get much higher, I’m cooking 99% of the food I eat and I’m sourcing damn near everything from basic raw foods, removing processed foods where I can and such. That brings me to eating less. There are some very handy strategies I already know in order to achieve this goal, such as drinking 500ml of filtered water right before a meal, stuffing myself with green vegetation, and eating the ‘main course’ in a normal bowl or small plate.

This is way more important now that autumn has arrived, the change in the seasons brings on overeating, eating sweet and or fatty foods, and generally plumping up over the colder months to come. I’m planning on hitting the Wii Fit every day and eating smart in a bid to prevent my personal plumping, which almost always coincides with our Halloween Event, Thanksgiving, and all the eat-and-sleep that is coming.

My goal is to reach 200 pounds. I don’t know how long it will take me to get there, but I do know that’s where I want and need to be in order to avoid the traps coming for me down the road, such as prostate cancer, hypertension, and diabetes.

French Cooking

Posted on by
Reply

Last night I got home and was faced with a quandary, what to make for dinner. The classic response to this is a battle royale where we struggle to figure out what the other person wants to eat, we compare what we have in the pantry and fridge and if we’re very lucky we can make something that if it isn’t what anyone really wanted, does at least dispel hunger for a while longer.

Last night I arrived home and looked in the freezer. I had previously used my FoodSaver system to secure/freeze a giant blister pack of chicken breasts, two at a time per bag and they were mocking me in the freezer. “Oh whatever will you do with us!? Try as you might, it’ll be either minimally acceptable or barely edible!” and it struck me that I had a copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, AKA, THE GREAT BOOK. (The Holy Bible is the Good Book, whereas the MAFC is THE GREAT BOOK. Accept that cookbooks > bibles and you’ll go far in understanding me!) So I grabbed the blessed tome of tasty and looked through the table of contents. Ever since becoming acceptably proficient in making Boeuf Bourguignon I’ve been itching to try more from THE GREAT BOOK. I discovered that what I had was 4 frozen “Supremes”, or so the French call them, and there was an entire section devoted to them in the MAFC. I opened the first recipe “Supremes De Volaille A Blanc” and looked over the plan. I had nearly every ingredient on hand. On the sheer thrill of trying something from the MAFC I thought about a side-dish that I could make and remembered that two days ago I had watched an episode of French Cooking (yes, the B&W one, Julia herself, soldiering on, and yes, on our HDTV) where she featured potatoes as the theme. She had prepared Gratin Dauphinois and watching her became a clip-meme that was bounding around in my head since I saw it. I decided that I would look it up, found it, again had a good number of the ingredients already on-hand and that became side #1. As I pondered over the MAFC it struck me that I had a main course, a side-dish featuring potatoes, but no vegetable! (I don’t regard potato as a vegetable, I regard it rightly, as a pillar of cuisine, I’m Irish, deal with it.) I then scanned the MAFC and briefly chuckled at my hubris, that I would take on not one but three untried recipes singlehandedly. For the vegetable side I selected Carottes A La Concierge. I marked the three recipes using slips of paper (I need a set of five bookmarks to just keep in THE GREAT BOOK itself I think) and had a list of things I needed to get at the market. I was able to acquire the ingredients for this hubristic cavalcade for just under $20, which was just about all I had left in my food budget.

Once I returned from the market with my supplies I got down to thinking about something I need more experience in, which is kitchen timing. Which dish do you start with? How do you manage mise-en-place with hot components, and how can you work three MAFC recipes with a kitchen as woefully tiny as mine? I enlisted a friend in vegetation disassembly but once I had everything I was pretty much on my own. Let it be clear, I was on my own by design, many offered to help but working with the MAFC is a one-man-one-book-one-sharp-knife deal. I started the Dauphinois first, since it needed to bake for at least half an hour in a blazing box at 400 degrees. I then got the ‘Carottes’ dish off the ground and started both it’s primary section and it’s attendant sauce and finally worked on the Supremes, and their attendant sauce.

The first thing that occurred to me as I promptly botched the prep for the Dauphinois was that Julia’s two pounds of potatoes is kind of a winking joke. There was no way that two pounds of potatoes were going to actually come together properly, it’s actually about 1 pound 12 ounces that you need. Julia’s estimations aren’t wrong, for her tools they were probably just right, but for me and mine, yikes. I was able to salvage the botched prep on the Dauphinois and then the first durable lesson popped out at me, that dogmatically following these recipes would be an utter disaster. If you want to cook French properly, you have to follow Julia’s suggestions on her video programs and cook by the seat of your pants, the recipe as a rough guide, not a scaffolding or a plug-and-play situation as I originally approached them as. Along with the potato oddity the instruction that a supreme should be able to cook to done in a 400 degree oven in 6 minutes from raw was dangerously off. I was really concerned about this because the 6 minutes passed and my probe thermometer showed an internal temperature of 108 degrees for the Supremes. I sat there thinking about why I read “6 minutes, maybe a moment more” when my common sense is screaming “try 14 ya dumbass! Yer gonna kill someone with raw chicken!” and then it struck me like a ton of bricks. Julia Child, and the MAFC was written when Supremes were of a certain size. Yes kids, we have witnessed a definite manipulation of CHICKEN. My Supremes were 3 times bigger than Julia’s! Each! So armed with my probe thermometer I let the Supremes go for nearly 17 minutes, checking every few minutes until they got to 150. I knew they would coast all the way to done at 160 and I knew that they were rendered “safe” at 140.

As the Supremes coasted and rested I was able to turn my attention to the sauces. Once I got them whipped into shape I pulled out the Dauphinois and looked down and into the casserole dish I had prepped them in. I couldn’t face them if they were as I feared, goopy and overdone or raw vegetal nasty underdone. I was absolutely convinced that the Dauphinois was an utter loss. I reached in, grabbed them, and pulled them out. As I set it down on the counter I peered in, steeling myself for the absolute worst. Well, as it turns out, they came out perfectly. They were not goopy, nor were they underdone. I reflected on the Dauphinois, it wasn’t difficult to throw together and the recipe is deliriously (and thankfully) resistant to botching, even if you utterly botch the prep! With one success under my belt for the night I covered the Dauphinois and got back to everything else. I added the egg/cream thickener to the ‘Carottes’ and what was a dingy speckled thin mess became a mustard colored dingy speckled thin mess. I let it simmer for a long while and in the end I figured this would be my failure. I poured the sauce onto the ‘Carottes’ and covered it all up and let it rest.

All in all I was facing plating and presentation, the Dauphinois was a great surprise, and I could handle the failure of the ‘Carottes’ if the Supremes worked. As everyone congregated I uncovered the Supremes and started to plate them each out, 1 Supreme per person. I got out the forks and I showed off all that I had done. The sauces sensed my foreboding and thickened magically and when I uncovered the ‘Carottes’ dish, they were PERFECT. Everyone dug in and in the end I had a lot of clean plates and very happy diners.

I must admit that I did not suffer for my hubris, and now I have experience in these particular dishes I now feel more at home in the MAFC than ever. I find myself itching to try other recipes in the MAFC, and a part of me would love to whip up something for my folks in Rock Hill when we go on vacation.

Which brings me to another thing I’ve discovered. There is a kind of magic in cooking. It’s a feeling I haven’t felt since my early years at SUNY Buffalo. Watching the loom of the kitchen work, all the ingredients coming together, the amazement at the complexity of some of these dishes and the utter surprise when they are successes feels a lot like hacking away, writing code in whatever programming language, and creating something. That I think is the same rush that painters feel when their work is done, when a sculptor chips the last bit of marble off, when a thing is created, new, and it was all your doing that made it happen. I also firmly believe that the loom of the kitchen cannot operate properly unless emotions are also present in the room, and all of them too, hope, compassion, love, rage, will, avarice, and fear. It’s why I could never cook like this on a timer, for money, I could never be a professional chef. I care too much, I think. It’s also a kind of therapy I think, definitely a giant batch of crack for a Cancer such as myself to cook this way. There is something utterly delightful and perfectly wonderful in creating truly amazing dishes. The MAFC may be a doorway for me to find my Art.

Only time will tell.

Best Bread Ever!

Posted on by
1

This recipe takes two days and creates a handy loaf of homemade bread, unit price per loaf is less than 50 Cents, 1 loaf can be a meal.

Ingredients –

  • 3C Water at 100°F
  • 2 Packets of regular Yeast
  • 6.5C of AP Flour
  • 2 tbsp Salt

Procedure – Wake up Yeast in 100° Water for 2-4 minutes. Stir vigorously to get them all distributed evenly. Put salt and flour in mixing bowl, mix them up. Pour water and yeast into mixing bowl and mix until the entire mass is turned into dough and there is no loose flour on the walls of the mixing bowl. If you have a stand mixer, dough hook attachment, 10 seconds for dry mix on 4, then likely 2-5 minutes on 4 to get the dough to form while pouring in the water and yeast. When the dough is completely formed, scoop out and put in a soup pot or plastic bin big enough to handle 4x it’s starting volume. Place pot or bin on countertop and cover. Leave it for 2 hours, then put it in the fridge overnight. Next morning take out the bin or pot, with a serrated knife hack it into 4-5 equal pieces. Prepare a work surface, put down some more flour, grab a hunk of dough and knead it into a ball, you want a taut drumhead surface and a bunched up bottom. Lube up cookie sheet, put bread on cookie sheet spaced an inch or more apart from each other. Melt half stick of butter, brush onto bread loaves. Fill oven-safe bowl with water, heat oven to 350°F. When oven is at 350°F, put bowl of water at the bottom rack, then bread on next highest rack. Bake for 40 minutes. Bread will be fragrant about 30 minutes in and will be an early warning that you are getting close. Pull at 40 minutes, bread should have a thump-able crust.

You can multiply this recipe as much as you like, either for your arm+mixing spoon or the size of your mixer. Recommend that if you want to multiply, mix in batches and set in batches. The dough is viable for 2 weeks in the refrigerator, the longer it goes the more complicated the flavors get as the yeast complete their life-cycle. You can dole out whatever shape bread you want, I prefer the 5 loaf approach because they are handy and makes enough for 4 people + 1 bakers loaf. You could incorporate mixins if you wanted or cover in cheeses or augment the butter or switch fats and go with olive or peanut oil to brush-on or you could skip the fats altogether. Up to you. One important thing to note, this bread requires absolutely NO KNEADING. Bread needs gluten to form properly, gluten can either be kneaded in or ‘waited for’. I elect to wait for gluten to form, makes for a much moister interior and a more satisfying texture.

This recipe is from the “Artisan Bread” recipe available on splendidtable.org. I heard it on the program, made it once, fell in love. Everyone should listen to The Splendid Table! With these loaves made, you can have a loaf or two a day and if you are trying to eat without chemicals and to do so incredibly cheaply, you cannot go wrong. I imagine that if you hollowed out these loaves and put in a thick soup, you’d be able to make bread-bowl-soup, quite delicious, for pennies on the dollar for what you’d pay at Panera, for example.

With good clean water, you know EXACTLY what you are eating. No preservatives, no chemicals, nothing but yeast, water, salt and flour. If you want to use different flours, feel free. Don’t know what happens if you use something that isn’t as balanced as AP Flour. Bread Flour might make a really rough-and-tumble loaf, pastry flour would probably just puddle or flop about. If you attempted to use a different starch, like arrowroot or rice flour, I have no idea what might happen, no gluten, no structure *shrug*