November Recap!

 

 

All outta order, here we go…..

#1: CRAB!!  I still totally prefer Dungeness Crab.  This was Sean’s Birthday dinner  
#2-#7:  This is a blue cheese and beef pot pie.  Waaaaayyyy to salty (my fault), but besides that delicious
#8 & #9:  I totally did not know that brussel sprouts grow like this, I got this stalk at Trader Joe’s for $2.99.  Love that store.
#10 & #11:  Our taste tester giving the thumbs up on my homemade onion dip.  Delicious, but I think would be even better mixed with a little of the onion soup mix packet.  Thanks Martha for the recipe!  http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/sweet-onion-dip-recipe-mslo1111

P-Pa Stuffing!

 

Hi ya’ll, it’s your friendly ghostwriter, Jen, posting for P-Pa Sullivan, his soon to be famous Cornbread and Sausage Dressing….

Ok here are the ingredients for the Cornbread. We doctored this from the original because this is second time and I was not that pleased with the first one as written. The photos are a bit out of order, but if you run your mouse over the pic the title of the photo will pop up and you will see in the recipe below where it is referenced!

Cornbread

4 Tablespoons Butter

1 Teaspoon Vegetable Oil

¾ Cup Stone Ground Yellow Corn Meal

¾ Cup Stone Ground White Corn Meal

½ cup all purpose Flour

2 ½ Teapoons baking powder

1 Teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 large Eggs beaten

1 cup sour Cream

Milk as indicated in step 4.

1. Melt butter in small saucepan on low heat until is just turning color. A few minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 400f and rub a 9 inch cast iron skillet with the oil and place into oven to heat oil and skillet. Make sure it does not start smoking.

3. In a bowl big enough to stir every thing combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and Salt. Add eggs and sour cream to the melted butter and whisk well.

4. Pour into the dry ingredients stirring just until combined. I found that at this point the mix was extremely dry. I added about a ¼ cup of milk and stirred each time until the consistency is a thick pancake batter.

5. Pour the batter into the preheated skillet.

6. Bake about 20 min. and check it with a toothpick. On mine it was very close to done and I put it back in oven and turned the oven off for about 5 minutes longer.

7. Let the this cool in the skillet and then turn it onto a rack so it can cool completely. You will use this in the next part.

Cornbread and Sausage Dressing.

Ingredients

1 pound of Jimmy Dean Sage Pork Sausage it is a Tube.

3 cups of Chopped Celery

2 Onions chopped

Approx. 7 Cups. Crumble up the entire Cornbread loaf

4 cups of seasoned Bread Crumbs.

2 14 oz. cans of Chicken Broth

1 ½ teaspoons of Sage

¼ cup of chopped parsley (actually a bit more to taste

1. Preheat oven to 325 deg. F

2. Place sausage in large skillet on hi heat.

3. As the sausage begins to cook add the Celery, and onions and cook until softened and sausage is turning brown.

4. Set this aside. The original recipe said to drain but we found it very dry. When mixed with the crumbs.

5. In a large bowl combine sausage mixture with the crumbled cornbread, bread crumbs, chicken broth, sage. Picture Dressing 1

6. Apply butter to the sides and bottom of baking dishes to prevent sticking.

7. Mix well and transfer to a 9x13 baking dish and what ever is left (there will be some left) into a second smaller baking dish.

8. Lola’s input put about 8 butter pats on top of each prepared dish. She of course also contributed other ideas. Picture Dressing 5

9. Bake for about 45 min or until well set and cooked through. Enjoy. Picture Dressing 4 number out of order.

10. You can see in last picture where we tasted it.. hehehhe…. Enjoy and if you like post to the blog.

Mike's Thanksgiving

Well, I brined (brineded?) a turkey breast for the first time. Actually it was the first time I actually cooked a turkey. Which wasn't a whole turkey; it turned out to be the breasts only. Which looked a little odd, but turned out delicous. It was nice and moist for Thanksgiving dinner, but has also remained super moist for leftovers days later. Also made stuffing, vegtable tian, and a salad.  The vegtable tian is basically just baked, layered roma tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and potatoes, on top of a bed of sauteed onions and garlic and drizzled with olive oil and topped with parmesean cheese.  It wasn't bad. Even though there was some salt and pepper and herbs on it, it was a little bland. Overall though, it was a great meal and a great day.

Wheeeeeee I Love Gheeeeeee!

 

I have discovered Ghee.  SO GOOD.  If you are not familiar with it, basically it is clarified butter.  The milk solids have been removed so it has a very high smoke point and doesn’t burn like butter does.  It smells and tastes delicious too.  This is the one that I bought, and yes, I even bought it off of Amazon:  Ghee!

No Butter Butter Chicken

I do not have much experience with Indian food, but this is one recipe I am so glad I tried.  It is not only super easy, but really good for you!

No Butter Butter Chicken
Adapted from Bal Arneson at cookingchanneltv.com

1/2 T. of Ghee or Oil
1 onion (chopped)
3 T. garlic
1 t.  fresh Ginger (or 1/4 t. dried)….more if you prefer, I’m
       personally not a huge fan.
2 T. tomato paste
1 T. brown sugar
1 – 1-1/2 t. cumin
1 T. garam masala (I got mine here: My Spice Sage)
1/2 t. red pepper flakes (more if you perfer)
1 t. tumeric
1/2 t. salt
1 lb. chicken breast, in one inch cubes
1/4 c. low fat plain yogurt
1/2 c. water

Directions

Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. When it starts to get hot, add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook for 4 minutes, or until the onion is golden. Add the tomato paste, brown sugar, cumin seeds, garam masala, red pepper flakes, turmeric, and salt and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken cubes and stir well to coat. Add the yogurt and water and cook, stirring until the chicken is done, about 8 minutes. Serve the chicken with roti or rice

Even my kids ate it!

Freaking Puerto Rican Stinking Rottiserie’d Pork Tacos!

 

These are pictures of my “Puerto Rican” Rotisserie’d pork that I ended up using as taco filling. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the tacos after they were put together, because as soon as I made one they would vanish in someone's mouth! These were very good. The cut of meat I used was “Boston Butt”. To put it on the sword was difficult because there is a crazy bone running through it, and the sword would not penetrate all the way through, so I had to remove it and I stuck the meat that was around the removed bone on the side of the whole thing kind of like you see on the Gyro spits. Anyway it was marinated in cilantro, parsley, lots of paprika (paprika infused oil first pic below), and lots of garlic over night.

The picture above of Rusty was taken as we waited impatiently for the thing to finish roasting, it smelled amazing! I will have to revisit this recipe again in the future, as good as it was I think I can tweak a little more flavor out of it by adding a few things to the marinade. Overall it made an outstanding taco.

Smoked Salmon Ala Lola

Prepare 4lbs. of King salmon fillet by deboning the fish , run  some cold water on the fish and dry it good with paper towel.

Place the fillet in a glass baking dish

Mix 3cups dark brown sugar and 1cup Kosher salt

After mixing the dry ingredients thoroughly, rub the fillets gently with this mixture, be generous don’t skimp, rub both side of the fish.  Cover and leave it in the fridge overnight turning twice.

Rinse the fillet good and let it drip in a colander for a few minutes then dry it gently with paper towel.

Start the Smoker,  the temperature should reach  200 deg.  Place salmon in the smoker and let it smoke/cook for 3 to 4 hrs turning 1 time.   Do not overcook or it will be too dry.

Let it cool for several hrs.  Gently put the salmon inside the plastic bag then vacuum pack it.

Freeze if you don’t use it within a week otherwise leave it in the fridge.  If vacuum packed it should last approx.  1 year.   If you want to warm it up before eating, place a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan to quickly warm up the fish.  You can also make salmon dip or salmon chowder from this smoked salmon.  Bon  apettit.

Salmon

I feel lucky to live in a part of the country, or the world for that matter, that can afford to sell salmon at an inexpensive price. Definitely one of my favorite foods. And so easy to make. Like tonite's dinner.

 -Mike

Zah.

I like pizza.  A lot!  But, I am usually disappointed when pizza is ordered.  It’s just not very good!  But I think I have solved this problem.  I have found a dough recipe that is easy and freezes well.  Sean has come up with a sauce that is amazing and also freezes well.  Next step is for me to make my own mozzarella, which I have the rennet and citric acid to do, but just haven’t gotten to it yet.  Until then I love the “fresh” mozzarella from Costco.  The only trick is that you need to pull your dough out the night before and stick it in the fridge.  Mike, trust me, you should do this!!

Pizza Dough for Thin Crust:  http://www.food.com/recipe/pizza-dough-for-thin-crust-pizza-70165

Note!  I make the following changes to the above recipe….

• After step 8 (after the rise) I divide into 2 balls, coat well in olive oil and put in freezer bags.
• I do not use cornmeal (step 10), I prefer oil.
• The day before I pull out baggie and put in the fridge
• I “pre-bake” the crust.  This really, really is key in my opinion.  I take a cookie sheet (round if you prefer…), oil it well and using my fingers stretch the dough to the size I want.  Dock the dough.  Put in the oven (at 425) for about 10 minutes, until it is set but not browned.  Pull it out and put on your toppings.  At this point when you return it to the oven you can either leave it on the sheet tray or put it directly on the oven rack.  It will be crispier if you put it right on the rack.  Because you prebaked you will not have to worry about stickage or getting a floppy pizza with all the toppings into the oven. 
• fyi…I have found if I don’t freeze the dough it is pretty elastic and is much more difficult to stretch out, so I prefer to plan ahead and use rested dough.

Sauce:

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

1 1/2 T. evoo

2 T. fresh basil (dried works if you can’t get fresh)

1 1/2 t. dried oregano

1 1/2 t. sugar

1/2 t. garlic

3/4 t. salt

mix and use/freeze….yummmmmm

In fact….hmmm….I bet if you parbaked the crust and put on the toppings then re-froze the whole thing you could cook it like a frozen pizza…hmmm…ok, now I need a bigger freezer!

Oranges Anyone?

 

These are valencia oranges from the food locker at Miramar.  The food locker is basically a place to go to get free (FREE!) food.  They often have very nice vegis and fruit.  Sometimes the quantites are limited but they’ve been trying to get rid of these oranges.  I guess people don’t want an orange with seeds, even if it’s free.  But I do!  I enlist the girls help and we squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze some more!  Fresh OJ!  Portion it into baggies, freeze flat (to save space) and then whenever we will want OJ for breakfast I pull out a bag the night before and put it in the fridge.  It is really, really delicious.

As I started to juice these Sean started searching for some recipes to utilize these oranges in some different ways.   And so for breakfast this morning we had this:

Cranberry Orange Bread!  This has to be one of the best fruit combos, like lemon and raspberry, they make a perfect contrast. 

Stock 101

 

I love to make my own chicken stock.  It really is easy, all you need is time!  I will sometimes buy a whole chicken, butcher it then use the carcass to make the stock.  This time I bought a 10 lb bag of leg quarters and used about 2/3 of the bag.  It is important to hack into the bones to release all the yummy flavor they have locked away inside.  Toss the chicken in the biggest pot you have along with onions, celery, garlic, carrots, parsley, thyme and a bay leaf or two.  To make it even more economical I keep a plastic bag in the freezer where I toss any celery leaves, onion tops and tails, raw chicken bones, carrots that are getting a little soft, parsley stalks, basically everything that would normally go in the trash!  When it’s  time to make stock I just plop the frozen trimmings in the pot along with my fresh veg and herbs.  Next, the most important ingredient:  water.  This is NOT a place to skimp!  Use GOOD water, it’s the main ingredient after all!  Cover everything by about an inch.  Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. 

I made this stock Friday night, as you can see the clock says it’s 10:27 p.m.  I let it simmer overnight.  By simmer I mean barely bubbling.  Not bubble, bubble, bubble, but bubble..bubble……………bubble. 

The next morning….

Next you need to let it cool and strain it through a fine mesh strainer.  If you are feeling extra picky you can use cheesecloth, but I have a pretty fine strainer.  At this point I add salt, or I will fortify it with a bit of “Better than Bullion” in lieu of salt.

At this point there is quite a bit of nasty fat going on and if you taste your stock you will get oily undertones.  Quite unpleasant.  To fix this place your stock in the fridge (once cooled) overnight and all the fat will solidify on the surface, just scoop and Voila!  To preserve the stock I portion it into freezer bags, premeasuring a variety of quantities and noting the amount on the bag.  Press out all the air and lay the bags flat to freeze.  This is important because it saves freezer space, and also if you just need a tablespoon or 1/4 cup you can just grab the baggy from opposing corners and snap off a tiny amount of frozen stock, take out what you need, reseal the bag and return it to the freezer. 

Uses:

Soup recipes (obviously!)
Gravy
Use instead of water when making rice or boiling potatoes
Risottos
Pot Pies
Pasta Sauces

You can basically use it anywhere you use water!  Well, maybe not for coffee…

I had never made a beef stock, so this was an experiment.  I have not yet skimmed it so I haven’t had a taste of the finished product, but it sure smelled good!

Beef stock is more work.  You must roast the bones in the oven (do not burn!) and caramelize the veg on the stove top.  Also, I only had this stock cook for 4 hours.  Again, keep a baggie in the freezer where you put any beef trimmings.  Then you need bones, neck bones are what I used.  My stock does have a tinge of purple to it because I used a big ol purple onion.    Again, I fortify with some good bullion.

Your homemade stock should not taste like ramen broth!  Save most of the salt for when you are actually using the stock, this way you can control the sodium. 

I wish I had had my homemade beef stock when I made this delicious stroganoff!

So give stock a try, your house will smell delicious!