Comfort Food

Since Sis had a fretful night (as did I... Got to be 3 a.m. and I was in the middle of this really incredible dream even though I was 1/2 awake and aware of everything going on outside--I'll think about posting it) and she was tired after work, I changed my mind. I was going to do a chicken picatta type thing (next week?), but instead decided to go the comfort food route. Chicken, floured and sauteed, pan gravy and mushrooms/onions. You'll see. It's good. Shall we go to the kitchen, Dear Reader?

Chicken-fried Chicken with Mushrooms and Onions

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken (I used thighs. They're still cheapo compared to breasts)
1/2 onion, julienned
2 cups mushrooms, sliced thin
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter, separated
2 cups milk
salt and pepper

To prep the chicken: Cut into 'serving sizes'. For me, that meant taking the 5 boneless/skinless thighs and removing the excess fat from each. If you're using breasts, you may want to slice them in 1/2. Just make sure it's boneless/skinless, because this has enough calories as is.
In a plastic bag, mix the flour, the paprika and about 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons pepper until well blended. Reserve 2 1/2 tablespoons of the flour mixture to the side. Toss the prepped chicken in the remaining flour mixture.



In a saute pan, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat. Fry the chicken on each side until browned. Should take about 6-8 minutes each side. You may have to do this in 2 batches to get a good fry, do NOT crowd the pan. That will only steam the chicken, not fry it. Remove the browned chicken to a plate, leaving the oil in the pan.







Saute the onion in the remaining oil in the pan (and that lovely fond!) until soft...






...then add the mushrooms on top. Add about 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper to this. Stir together over medium-high heat until the mushrooms are soft. This should only take about 3 or 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the onion/mushroom mixture to a bowl on the side and cover with foil or a towel to keep warm.



You should have a very small amount of the drippings remaining in the pan. If the mushrooms did what they were supposed to do, you shouldn't have very much left at all, but what you do have will be QUITE flavorful. To those drippings, add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter.





Add the reserved 2 1/2 tablespoons flour to make a roux (we've covered the gravy basics before here), stirring the flour constantly until it's a medium brown. Add the milk, continually stirring to avoid lumps. Bring to a boil. Add about 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper.





Add the chicken back to the pan, drop the heat to medium low. Cover the pan, let 'stew' for approximately 10 minutes.





To plate: Piece of chicken, a small bit of the gravy (I did mainly to cover where I 'tonged' the chicken), then the reserved mushroom/onion mixture. I did mashed potatoes at the same time and took advantage of the gravy.

Chicken Fried Chicken with Mushrooms and Onions

You can also use rice instead of potatoes, not do a gravy, just top the chicken with the mushrooms/onions, or just saute the chicken without the flour mixture... I wanted a 'comfort' food, but didn't want to go to serious fry trouble AND didn't want to do something as heavy as the afore-linked steak. As always, let me know if you try it and what you thought.


--OFFBEAT EDITORIAL--
I'm surprised, almost on a daily basis, by the amount of people that actually hit the House™ through a search engine looking for recipes, or who pop in and comment. It seems a new face is added each week, so to speak. To that end, sometime in the next week or so, you're going to see a link on the side for Darkneuro's Kitchen™, where all the recipes in all their glory will be collected. IN addition... I know there's quite a few 'foodies' out there. If you like to cook, even if it's pulling a recipe from a book and adding your own touches to it, even if it's for taking ready-made stuff and making it better, SHARE. Join in on Recipe Tuesday. There's grower's markets that are going to be going gangbusters soon if they haven't already. Let's get cooking, people!!! I do the pictures 'cause I like photography and I think I'm good at it. That's me showing off 'skillz'. I'll take ego points where I can. You don't have to. But I'd love to have ya'll join in. It doesn't have to be every week, but what the hell, you know? C'mon... Share the recipes, share the love.

Curry chicken #2

Ah, yes... We hit the curry again, Dear Reader. I'm getting into it. This is a little different. I'm finding that ingredients here are a little wierd to get. Until the farmer's markets open up at the end of the month, veggies in the stores are rather... Sick looking. That said, this did turn out really mild, and really good. We had it tonight with a mixed salad. Shall we go to the kitchen, Dear Reader? Notes at the end for adjustments and other suggestions...

Curry Chicken #2

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
4 chicken thighs, skin on/with bone
Salt and pepper
1 medium onion, chopped into 1/4" pieces
3 teaspoons curry
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, coarsely crushed (I used a mortar & pestle)
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 pound bag frozen veggies: Cauliflower/broccoli/carrot blend (I used Bird's Eye)--THAWED



Heat butter and oil in large skillet over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook thighs skin side down until golden brown. Flip chicken and cook cut side until golden brown. Remove chicken from pan to a plate.





Stir in onions and cook until tender






Stir in spices and flour, cook until aromatic






Stir in veggies, coating well with spice mixture





Add chicken stock, bring to a simmer, stir in tomatoes.




Place chicken back into skillet, skin side up. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Serve over rice, spooning some sauce over rice.

CURRY CHICKEN #2

Notes: This is called Curry Chicken #2 because it's the 2nd curried chicken dish I've made. Lovely how these things come about, isn't it?
I used the frozen veggies because I just really couldn't find carrots, broccoli and cauliflower at the local markets that I was willing to spend money on. That being said, if you're lucky enough to be able to get really killer fresh veggies, do so. The equivilents would be 2 carrorts, chopped how you like, 1 cup broccoli and 1/2 cup cauliflower. It's easiest for me to do frozen veg, so that's what I did. I certainly wasn't going to use what the grocery had.
Instead of chili powder, you can use cayenne for more spice.
I used a yellow curry, Bro said 'MMm, green would be good!'. I agree as well, but again. Go with what you have on hand or can get. He's going to introduce me to Ms. Wong, who is apparently the go-to for 'wierd' ingredients (go figure... I can find pickled pigs feet in the local groceries, but no green curry).
Spice it up how you like. It's mild as is. If you want to add to it, go for it. If you want to leave stuff out, go for it. Let me know if you make it/enjoy it.

Veggies

Something Hiromi said about carrots gave me an idea for this week's Recipe Tuesday, Dear Reader. I've done all manner of main dishes, but haven't put up any side dishes (with the exception of rice... and come on... It's RICE). No pictures, 'cause I refuse to make 40 side dishes at once, and when I do sides, it's more a 'throw together' kind of thing without any 'recipe' to it. SO I thought I'd explain a bit more about what I like to eat as for veggies and how I like to eat them and along the way I'll tell you how I cook them and maybe you, Dear Reader, can get some ideas for your own kitchen. Sound good? Let's go.

So, first how I like to eat them.... Out at restaurants, I usually eat a salad, not cooked veggies. If I do order veggies, they're usually sauteed or steamed, and if they're plain, I'll actually ask for a side of vinagrette rather than butter. Hey... There's an idea! Steamed, vinagrette. I'll also add veggies into a lot of things I cook just to mix it up a bit. I made my Honey-Ginger Chicken tonight, changed a few things in the sauce (threw in a good 2 tablespoons of McCormick's Carribean Jerk seasoning, used plain ketchup, 1/2 honey-1/2 maple syrup for the honey in the original, a smidge of mustard, some barbecue sauce, more soy)... In addition, instead of serving it OVER rice, I made the rice a full side-dish, throwing in some frozen carrots and peas to the rice when I removed it from the boil along with some of the same seasoning blend to keep some continuity. I'll cut veggies differently. I'll roast them (cut into chunks, drizzle with olive oil, roast in 350 degree oven until tender), I'll throw various seasonings at them, I'll mix it up as I go. Here's a few of my favorite ways...

Carrots: I don't like carrots much. Never have. Especially not raw. Small bits, occassionally, I'm good with them. But give me a good steamed carrot, with some butter and honey and some fresh grated ginger, and it's good. Or just butter. I can deal with that. Now, we're not talking HUGE amounts of butter, we're talking a tablespoon for like, 2 cups of carrots. Easiest thing with carrots is to get a bag of baby carrots, pre-peeled. Wash them good, though. I hate the fact that most groceries, no matter where you are, insist on 'spraying' the veggies. What a mold fest, you know? And no, I'm not lucky enough to live by a Whole Foods. I don't think. Hmmm... Nope. No Whole Foods. Farmer's Market season is coming soon, though. YAY! So you pop either baby carrots or carrot chunks into a steamer basket, and simply steam them until you can insert a fork into them without too much resistance. There should still be some 'bite' to them, just not super-crunchy. While that's going, in a separate bowl that will hold all the carrots, mix together a couple tablespoons honey and a teaspoon of VERY finely grated fresh ginger. Microwave this for about 30 seconds so it's liquid and thin. When the carrots are done, dump them into the bowl with the honey/ginger mix in it, pop a tablespoon of butter onto the top and toss or stir to coat everything. Voila. Honey-ginger steamed carrots. If you use a bowl with a lid (large tupperware, for example) you can just cover the bowl and turn it over to mix it up.

Peas: My favorite side dish for peas is a 'spring pea gratin' that Emeril did one year for some holiday. Since I don't trust his lawyers to NOT come after me if I post up the recipe, I'll just point you to it. Go HERE for the way I like to eat peas. One caveat though... I usually do the cheese THEN the breadcrumbs. To me, it turns out better. But that's just me.

Green beans: Do not mention green bean casserole to me. That is the foulest substance on the face of the planet and I refuse to eat it. It's GROSS. I like french-cut green beans if I buy canned or frozen. Again, steamed. After steaming, toss the beans with a tablespoon of lemon juice and sprinkle dill on them. Good stuff, dill. Works really well. Another option is to fry up a couple slices of bacon until crisp, drain all of the grease from the pan and throw in a few handfuls of frozen french-cut green beans. Saute them in what is left of the bacon drippings until they're warmed through, remove to a paper towel to drain them REALLY well (I'll put down some paper towelling, then the beans, then more towelling and just kind of pat them). After that, put them in a bowl and crumble the bacon on top. This works really well for fresh green beans as well.

Potatoes: I've given mashed as a side with the chicken-fried steak, but more often I'll bake a potato. Scrub it well, poke it on each end with a fork, rub it with canola oil, rub it with salt, and pop it in the oven straight on the rack. I typically do it at 350 degrees, for as long as it takes for it to get soft. Serve it with whatever you like as a topping. YUM. My toppings typically are going to be one of: a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of cream cheese, some sour cream, a slice of good ol' american cheese, bacon crumbles... Depends on what I'm in the mood for. And yes... I eat the peels. You can also saute potatoes, roast them... Roasted are good. Twice-baked are good (take a potato, bake it, cut it in 1/2, scoop out the center leaving the skin intact, mash it, mix it with cheese, put it back in the skin, rebake until the cheese is melted).

Squash: Squash is a good side dish for me. I'll saute up some crookneck (summer squash) and zucchini with some mushrooms. I'll slice up summer and zucchini for a gratin (layer in a baking dish alternating with cheese and breadcrumbs). I like acorn squash roasted (slice it in 1/2, remove the seeds, put a 2 tablespoon pat of butter into the cavity, olive oil it, pop it onto a baking sheet cut side up and bake at 350 until it's soft and slightly carmelized). There's so many things you can do with squash, really. I mean zucchini bread CAN be eaten as a side. Cook up some spaghetti squash and use an actual pasta sauce for it. Gnocchi. It's so versatile. Bread it. Chunk it and throw it in a roast for roasted in meat juices. YUM. Shred it and make a patty out of it using egg as a binder. Brown the patties.

Potato salad: I'm gonna digress for a moment here onto potato salad. Dan's family used to drive me INSANE when they served potato salad. This is what his mom, his grandmother, his step-dad and Dan liked as potato salad. It had: Potatoes, peeled/boiled/drained/chopped, mayonnaise, and Baco's. Occassionally, they'd throw in just the whites of hard boiled eggs chopped up. That's it. THAT IS NOT POTATO SALAD! That is some wierd dish that shouldn't have ever been developed. There is zero flavor to it beyond the mayonnaise. NO mustard, no veggies, just mayo. Eww.
I make potato salad the way my mom does: Potatoes (quartered, boiled, drained, peeled, chopped), mayo, mustard, sweet pickle relish, green onions, celery, hard boiled eggs (the full egg), garlic salt, seasoning salt. That's potato salad. You can add bacon bits, but PLEASE please please please (please??) fry up some bacon and crumble it. Do not use that wierd orange-y brown stuff that 'tastes just like bacon!'. It doesn't. Trust me. I've had to eat enough of it.

Spinach: My favorite way to make spinach is to buy baby spinach, rinse it well, DRY it well, saute it in a small amount of butter and olive oil that's had some bits of garlic softened in it until it's barely wilted, then toss with sesame seeds. YUMMY. Add a bit of lemon juice so it doesn't turn strange colors. You can mix this up with sauteed shrimp for a stellar shrimp salad. If you do that, don't toss with sesame seeds, but sprinkle them on top of a sesame dressing.

Any veggie can be used as a side dish, Dear Reader. The key is to find the flavors you like and exploit them. Going through the list, I like my veggies sweet, lemon-y, and a bit crunchy... Saute it for a different flavor (you can saute just about any veggie), make a gratin, combine them in a method you don't THINK will work, throw in mushrooms, use a vinagrette for flavor, use herbs with abandon, add in just about anything and it'll be good. Play with your food, people. PLAY! Life's too short to eat boring, over-cooked veggies.

Hearty beef stew

For tonight's dish, Dear Reader, I ended up settling on a hearty beef stew. Simple ingredients, one pot and a total cook time (prep to finish) of about 1 hour, this isn't the shortest dish I've ever made, but it is good, it is filling, and it makes great leftovers. I do recommend prepping the veggies first, with the exception of the potatoes, which are added the last 1/2 hour of cook time. Simple flavors can be the best, and the basic ingredients mean anyone can make this. The picture here to the right shows the differences. Moving from the left, the first plate is the finely minced veggies, the chunked carrots at the top, then the coarser veggies on the very right. Enjoy!


Hearty Beef Stew

(I recommend using a stock-pot type pan for this, at least 8 quarts)
2 stalks celery - Chop 1 stalk about 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces, 1 stalk should be finely minced
1 onion - Chop 1/2 the onion into a fine mince, the other 1/2 should be julienned
5 peeled medium carrots - Chop 1 carrot into a fine mince, 1 carrot into 1/4 inch pieces and 3 carrots into 1 inch chunks
3 cloves garlic chopped or minced fine
8 new potatoes (the super-thinned red skinned variety), quartered (save the quartering until right before you add them in)
1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch chunks (make sure the beef has a good marbeling for flavor)
3 1/2 cups beef broth (2-14.5 oz. cans)
2 cups water
1 cup tomato sauce (8 oz. can)
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
2 bay leaves
3 Tablespoons flour
3 Tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon basalmic vinegar (the cheap stuff is FINE for this. Do not use the $40/bottle basalmic vinegar!)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and Pepper

First, season the beef with salt and pepper. Brown the beef in olive oil over medium-high heat. The goal is not to cook the beef through, but to get a good sear. Remove the beef to a plate once it's seared. Do not drain the pan.




Still working over medium-high heat, add the minced celery, carrots, onions and garlic. Add a pinch of salt, add a pinch of pepper. Cook this about 2-3 minutes, or until the veggies are soft. Since they are minced fine, they should cook up really quickly.


Stir in the flour, being sure to coat the veggies well. Cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring as you cook. Deglaze the pan with about 1/2 the beef broth (or 1 can), stirring well to combine. You shouldn't have any noticeable lumps. Be sure to scrape up any fond from the bottom of the pan.

Add the bay leaves and the rosemary. Bring to a boil, and reduce by half. This should only take about 10 minutes if you're working still on medium-high heat. Stir occasionally.

Add worcestershire sauce, basalmic vinegar, tomato sauce and 1 cup water. Stir to combine, continue boiling for approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining beef broth, water, add the beef back in, and the remaining vegetables. Taste, add salt and pepper as needed. Boil uncovered for approximately 5 minutes.

While this is boiling, quarter the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.

Add the potatoes to the pot, lower the heat to medium and simmer over medium uncovered (light boil, really) for 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Taste about 1/2 way through the cooking time and salt and pepper as needed. Stir occasionally.

Serve hot.

Hearty Beef Stew

Notes:
When I say season or add salt and pepper, season it to your specs. Keep in mind you can oversalt, but over-pepper is hard to do. If you do manage to oversalt this by the time you've let the potatoes get soft, just stir in a small handful of brown sugar and another dash of basalmic. It'll neutralize the salt.
In deglazing the pan, I've gotten really used to using a spatula or pancake turner. The flat edge really helps get all the fond up from the bottom.
If you add the broth and the water before the potatoes and notice that it's really really thin, you can take out about 1/2 cup of the juices into a bowl, stir in 1 tablespoon flour into the bowl (mix it REALLY WELL) and stir that slurry back into the pot. This will help thicken it up.
If you really want to, you can chop all your veggies the same, but the mincing helps distribute the flour throughout as well as disintegrates as it cooks, thickening. The coarser chop adds more texture throughout, and the chunked carrots give you something besides potato and beef to chew on.

Chicken cordon bleu

Welcome to another edition of Recipe Tuesday from Darkneuro's Kitchen, Dear Reader. Today, I wanted something that tastes like it takes a whole lotta work but really doesn't. I'm kinda lazy, you see...

Chicken cordon bleu can be a pretty bland dish. It was developed at Le Cordon Bleu in the late 19th century, and means 'blue ribbon chicken'. Unfortunately, with chicken now being mass-farmed, there is almost none of the flavor present in the original dish. Mass-produced ham and cheese can also affect that 'blue ribbon' flavor, but you don't have to buy the most expensive thing at the store. I used standard ingredients available in ANY grocery store (tyson chicken, pepperidge farms honey ham, kraft swiss cheese slices). Brining the chicken beforehand takes care of some of the flavor aspects that would be missing from the dish. It also takes care of a lot of seasoning while the dish is cooking.

Chicken Cordon Bleu
boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 per person for however many you're feeding), pounded to about 1/2-inch thickness, brined for at least 2 hours before cooking
1 to 2 ham slices per chicken breast (you can use canadian bacon, proscuitto... it's all a variety of ham)
1 to 2 swiss cheese slices per chicken breast (you can sub your favorite type of cheese too)
Seasoned bread crumbs (you can make your own or buy... I bought)
1/3 cup milk, cream or half&half for dipping (I used half&half)

BRINE:
1/4 cup salt
2 cups water
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon basil
2 scallions, chopped fine

To prepare the chicken, pound the chicken breasts to about 1/2 inch thickness between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. You can use a mallet, another pan... I've even used a hammer when that was the only thing available to me. To brine the chicken, mix the water, salt, scallions and spices in a microwave safe dish, heat for 2 minutes on high, cool with 6-8 ice cubes. Once it's cooled down to about room temperature, add the flattened chicken breasts, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you're about 1 hour away from mealtime. This actually flavors the chicken itself and make it more tender and more juicy.


To assemble: Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Place ham slices and cheese slices, 1 to 2 slices of each in each chicken breast, roll and secure with toothpicks (this is optional, I never do... just make sure it's rolled tight and stays that way). Take each roll, dip into the milk, then coat each roll in breadcrumbs. Set the rolls side-by-side in a baking dish. Bake about 45 minutes or until the chicken juices run clear when poked. Serve with your favorite side dishes.

TIPS: I like to sprinkle the breading into the pan and also over the rolls before baking. If any cheese leaks out, it's caught by the bread crumbs, reducing the mess.

As always, if you cover your baking dish with foil, you don't have to worry about clean-up.

Various breadings can be used. I used pre-seasoned italian style bread crumbs. You can also use panko, make your own breadcrumbs... I've even used crushed cereal (corn flakes, wheat flakes, crushed rice krispies) as a coating. If you do make your own crumbs, please remember to mix in some seasonings.

I also don't worry about how long it's in the oven. Because you brined, there will be more 'flex time' that the chicken can be in the oven without drying out. I've pushed brined chicken to 220 degrees (that's 50 degrees hotter than the USDA says is a 'safe temperature') with ZERO loss to juiciness. Every chicken in the oven should be brined.

Instead of using sliced cheeses and ham, you can use chunks of cheese and ham. Just be sure that it rolls up completely so it doesn't fall out and you should be good. If you use large chicken breasts, or if you wind up with a huge sheet of chicken to fill, this may be an easier idea.

Don't be afraid to experiment with this. Chicken Kiev is made much the same way, only instead of meat and cheese, it uses a compound butter. Play with the slices in the center, play with the breadings. You can really have fun with this, and it really is a no-hassle dish.

Sweet Curried Chicken

Greetings, Dear Reader. I've got Recipe Tuesday today WITH PICTURES... Let the fanfare commence and let's get cooking, shall we?

Basmati Rice: (I know I've included the rice recipe before, but this one is a little different. I'm using a different brand of rice, with some *slightly* different directions. Follow the directions on the package with the addition of the spices. It will turn out fine)

1 cup Basmati Rice
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon finely ground mustard
1 teaspoon grated or minced ginger

Start the rice first. It'll keep while the rest of it cooks if it happens to get done first. Boil water with spices, stir in rice. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes. At 20 minutes, leave covered, turn off heat.

Sweet Curried Chicken

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken (I used thighs) cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed (I minced)
2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons ginger, minced or grated (I minced)
1 large yellow onion, chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 can chicken broth (just under 2 cups)
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 cup mincemeat
2 tablespoons flour
Salt/Pepper
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
4 green onions, chopped fine




Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly brown chicken (LIGHTLY salt and pepper while browning).

Remove from pan (I put mine in an old pie tin). In the same skillet, add garlic, ginger and onion. Saute about 4 minutes.
Stir in flour, cook 1-2 minutes. Stir in curry powder, cook 1-2 minutes. You should have some really good fond going by now.
Add broth, bring to a bubble while stirring. Be sure to scrape up that really good fond. It's all flavor.
Add mincemeat, stir well to combine.
Stir in reserved chicken, reduce heat to medium-low. Taste. Add salt and pepper as necessary, strictly to taste.



Simmer 5-10 minutes, adding tomatoes during last 2 minutes of cooking time. Serve in bowls, over rice. Top with chopped green onion. Serves 3 to 4.

Sweet Curried Chicken

My first endorsement: Two Thumbs Up! -- Sis and Bro.

Bro came up with the idea of using mango in place of the tomato. It is a sweet curry more than spicy thanks to the addition of the mincemeat (should be available in the baking section of the grocery store). The mincemeat adds some different flavors (fruity, cinnamon-y, sugary-y). If you make it and change it, let me know. It's really good. This recipe was adapted from a chicken curry recipe by Rachel Ray, and cooks really quickly.

Sis' easy veggie chili

No pictures for this one, Dear Reader. I didn't think to grab the camera (sorry) but it's GOOD. And quick. And easy. In short, it's a good recipe that allows for a LOT of play around room if you want to mess with it.

Sis' Easy Veggie Chili

1 15 1/2 ounce can black beans (store brand ok)-undrained
1 10 ounce can Ro-Tel brand "Chili Fixin's" (seasoned diced tomatoes and chile)-undrained
1 8 ounce can whole kernel corn (store brand OK)-undrained
shredded cheddar, sour cream, chopped green onion for garnish

Mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbling. Turn the heat down, let simmer for about 30 minutes. Serve with garnish and crackers (Sis introduced me to the Town House Bistro brand 'Corn Bread Crackers'. They're a sweetish cracker that really makes a great addition to the chili).

See? Told you it was easy. You'll get about 4 medium bowls of chili out of this as is. Double accordingly for more people, add in your own touches. Possible additions include ancho chiles in adobo sauce, more diced tomatoes, more black beans, red or kidney beans (note: If you use red beans or kidney beans, be sure to drain and rinse them... if it looks like mucus when you open the can, rinse). Serve with fritos, mix in different cheeses... Garnish to your liking. Let me know if you make it, what changes you made to it, and if you liked it.

Bologna Salad

Lunch today at Mom's (doing laundry, having a bad day, actually) was one of my favorite lunches. Mom's bologna salad. Sounds gross, doesn't it? It, like fried bologna sandwiches, is kindof a low-rent lunch. But boy-oh-boy is it good stuff. No pictures, but it's easy. And you can do it with a meat grinder or in a food processor.

1 pound bologna, medium grind (mom usually gets the 5 lb. chub and splits it)
1/2 medium onion
2-4 tablespoons pickle relish
3-5 tablespoons mayonnaise

TO GRIND THE BOLOGNA: Use a grinder, medium coarse, to grind the bologna with the onion. If you're using a food processor, use the blade and pulse to chop into a medium coarse grind (and don't tell me your food processor won't... I can do it in my little 2 cup processor)

Mix all ingredients together. It should be about the consistency of chunky peanut butter. DO NOT ADD SALT. The meat has enough salt.

As with all the recipes I've ever posted, feel free to experiment with it. What do you like in your tuna salad? What do you like in your chicken salad? Use the ground bologna as a jump off point. We usually just spread it onto bread or crackers. It packs really well into ice chests, doesn't lose its consistency in the fridge, and is relatively cheap and easy to make.


Now... back to packing.

Gramma's breakfast biscuits

Greetings, Dear Reader. As forewarned in the previous post, this Recipe Tuesday doesn't come with pictures of the recipe, but (!) it does comes with a picture of what I had for dinner.

Gramma's Breakfast Bisuits

(Elinor's recipe)

2 1/2 cups Bisquick
10 oz. Cheddar cheese
1 lb. pork sausage (if you go with the 'sage' flavored, it'll be more savory, if you go with 'maple', sweeter)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

You may want to wear gloves, this can get messy.

Break the sausage up into a large bowl. Add about 1/2 the Bisquick, mix together with your hands. Add in about 1/2 the cheese, mix together. Add the other 1/2 of the bisquick, mix. Add the other 1/2 cheese, mix. Add enough water to this mixture to make a thick biscuit like dough. Form into round balls about the size of a golf ball and flatten very slightly. Bake on an ungreased pan until browned (about 20 minutes).

Serve with syrup, butter, jam, honey, cream cheese, plain... They're really good and really filling and hey... you can freeze them.

This is what I had for dinner tonight. I would have preferred gram's biscuits, but I *really* wasn't in the mood to cook. Instead, I spent the evening alternately packing, working on frankensteining that computer, and waiting for Dan to finish watching his movie right in the middle of when I was being all geeky.

Peace, Dear Reader.

Curried Scallops

Greetings, Dear Reader! It's time once again for Darkneuro to hit the kitchen and whip up something wonderful. Since I missed it last week, shall I do penance? Someone give me penance.

I decided to hit a cookbook for a wee bit of inspiration this week. Quite frankly, since I'm refusing to buy anything for the apartment that I'll leave behind, I've been trying to go through the miniscule freezer. Steak just didn't sound appetizing to me today (oooh, the horror...the horror!), and a roast... Meh. Too heavy. I wanted something that was quick, relatively light, but a lot of flavor.

So in flipping through Mom's copy of Betty Crocker, I hit the seafood section. And then I found Curried Scallops. And my mouth said "MMmmmmmmm.... Curry" and began watering. Then I read the recipe. And my brain said "Effing WOW! Easy!"... But me being me, I had to mess with it just a smidge. I'll note the original recipe in brackets [ ] where I changed it. (and yes, I did say 'effing'... I've been doing that lately. Don't know why, it's just... there.)


Curried Scallops

3 tablespoons butter, separated [original said margarine or, and then used margarine throughout. BUTTER, people. USE BUTTER. It really does taste better, and for sautées of any kind, it can't be beat.]
1 pound sea scallops, cut in quarters [said half, but they were HUGE... U20's]
4 green onions with tops, chopped [they said 3]
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon curry powder (use your favorite)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt... sea salt, seafood... Yeah.)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
2 roma tomatoes [said 1 medium]
Hot rice for serving



Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until melted.
Throw in the scallops and saute 4 to 5 minutes [they say until white] until very lightly browned. Remove them from the skillet, and wipe out your pan [drain]



Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the same pan. Cook onion, flour, curry powder and salt over medium-high [medium] heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly.






Remove from heat. Stir in chicken broth and milk. Put back on the medium-high setting. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute.






Stir in tomatoes and scallops. Heat about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice.

Curried Scallops

NOTES:
1. On the scallops: They were pretty expensive here. $10 a pound, but the quality was EXCELLENT. Really fresh, firm, gorgeous. Simply beautiful.
2. Curry: Use your favorite. I used what the local grocery had. I should probably have hit the Asian market instead.
3. I used Roma tomatoes because they don't have anwhere near as much juice as the standard 'tomato'.
4. If by chance you get a too-hot-for-you curry going, just tame it down with a little plain yogurt or a smidge of sour cream. That said, this had 0 heat factor for me.

Honey Ginger Chicken #2

Greetings, Dear Reader. Ready to hit the kitchen again for another Recipe Tuesday? I wanted to try a slightly different take on the honey ginger chicken. Namely, use boneless/skinless chicken instead of the bone-in, skin-on thighs. SO, I hit the kitchen (yes, Ginger Rice is on the menu) and decided to see what I could come up with. It worked really well, and since I prefer using boneless/skinless, I'll do it this way more often.

HONEY GINGER CHICKEN #2

3/4 pound boneless skinless chicken thigh cutlets**, cut into rough 1x1 inch pieces
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon grated gingerroot
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated gingerroot
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce (I used Tabasco©)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix the flour, ginger and black pepper in a plastic bag. Toss the chicken in the bag until it’s well coated with flour. Let this sit while you put the rice on (see below)
After you put the rice on, assemble the sauce in a small bowl or in a measuring cup (makes it easier to pour)
After the rice has been cooking approximately 10 minutes, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet on medium high heat until shimmery.
After removing the rice from the heat, go ahead and start cooking the chicken.


Put the floured chicken in a single layer in the bottom of the skillet. Cook approximately 2 minutes, stir. Cook approximately 2 minutes, stir.





The goal is to cook the chicken through and get it lightly browned.Once this happens, (took me approximately 7 minutes) pour the sauce mixture into the pan and stir. Continue stirring for approximately 3 minutes, then remove from heat. The rice should be done with its ‘sitting’ time right about now.

Serve chicken and sauce over the ginger rice.


Ginger Rice:
1 cup basmati rice
1 3\4 cup water
2 teaspoons grated ginger

Mix all ingredients in a 3 quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir once. Cover pan, reduce heat to low. Simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and leaving it covered, let it sit 10 minutes.

HONEY GINGER CHICKEN #2--The boneless version

**NOTES: On the chicken #1: I hit the grocery store to get some boneless/skinless breasts. Those fuckers had small packages of breasts, but they wanted 4.99 a pound for them!! The LARGE packages of breasts were selling for .99 a pound. Excuse me? I’m sorry. I live in an apartment. I have a SMALL refrigerator/freezer unit. I do not have the room to STORE 6 pounds of chicken breasts at once. So I got the thigh cutlets instead. Regular price? 1.99 a pound. That’s so messed up.

On the chicken #2: Cut your chicken with scissors. You'll be happier and there's less mess. YES, the scissors will go in the dishwasher. Do what I do, hit the dollar store. Buy 6 pair. You'll never need to search for scissors again.


On the chicken #3: While you're cooking the chicken, you'll notice the flour from the chicken starts making a roux. Again, since the goal is to get the chicken lightly browned and cooked through, you'll want to watch your roux as well. I cooked it to a light-medium tone (sorry about the yellowish photo. I'm still learning how the camera sees certain light types and how it autocompensates)

Chicken fried steak

There’s a food tradition in this country that needs to go away, Dear Reader. It’s the tradition of calling cubed steak that’s dipped in flour and then deep fried ‘Chicken Fried Steak’. When you fry chicken, do you first de-bone the chicken, send it through a tenderizer and then put too much pepper on it as you deep fry it? No. You take the chicken, marinate it, perhaps in a little buttermilk and some spices, dredge it in flour, and pan fry it in about ½ an inch of oil. Right? That’s kind of what we’re going to do today. And along the way, we’re also making mashed potatoes and a country gravy (and no, I’m not talking that icky white paste with pepper that so many places serve). So let’s have dinner!

Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes and Country Gravy

The Steak


So I was confronted at the store with this lovely sale on chuck rib steaks. Not too much marbling, but not too much side fat either. Definitely steaks for a good panfry. Each steak is ¾ of a pound, and about ¾ of an inch thick. That will change. Tenderize your steak. Take whatever you use to tenderize (skillet, mallet, hammer), whack it a few times all over each side, knock it down to just over ½ an inch in thickness. Season it. Now, before you ask me the question, I’ll answer it for you… I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU USE TO SEASON IT. SEASON IT WITH WHAT YOU LIKE. I’m using Montreal steak seasoning from McCormick. It’s got some spices, pepper and garlic. It works. Do that on the outside, let it sit for a few minutes. While it’s sitting, prepare your batter.



Today’s batter is the simplest drench/dredge there is. In one tin/plate, flat shallow dish thingy, beat up an egg and about 2 teaspoons milk. Season it with salt and pepper. In another tin/plate, mix 1 cup flour with some of your seasoning. You should be able to SEE the seasoning, but not a whole lot. Some specks, but not a huge amount. Take 2 tablespoons of this and set it aside for the gravy. DREDGE the steak, both sides, let it sit.





Heat some shortening in a skillet over medium heat until about 350 degrees. Your goal is about ½ inch in the bottom of the skillet.







While your shortening is heating, take the steak (already dredged), and dip it in the egg mixture.





Then dredge it again, drench it again, dredge it again. There’s going to be 2 layers on this.






When the shortening is hot, gently place the steak in the pan. Cook until the down side is browned, but not all the way done (you should still see some white in 1 or 2 of the divots). Flip it.



Cook the other side until completely browned, then flip a second time to
catch the first side again. All in all, my steak was in the hot grease for about 15 minutes: 5 minutes the first side, 8 minutes the 2nd side, 2 minutes back on the first side.


After you finish the steak, set it aside on a plate to rest. You’ll be using the pan for gravy.



The Gravy

Drain the fat from the pan. I usually drain it all out, catching as much of the fond as possible before it leaves. Then add back in 2 tablespoons of the fat back into your pan, heat to medium.







Sprinkle the reserved flour mixture over the fat in the pan. Cook it until it’s a really really pale tan, mixing in the bits of fond. Once it’s all uniformly tan, pour in some milk. Typically it’s going to be about 1 ½ cups of the white stuff. And yes… I use whole milk. This is comfort food, not good for you food.






Mix/stir/whisk the flour mixture with the milk, making sure there’s no lurking lumps ready to turn into paste in your mouth. Bring the whole concoction to a boil, stirring more or less constantly.







It’s done when your spoon/spatula/whisk leaves a trail behind itself (tried to catch it in the photo).




The Mashed Potatoes

OK, everyone should know how to make rudimentary mashed potatoes, right? What’s that? How? You only open a box or an envelope and that’s your m…. Oh, Dear Reader. Tsk tsk tsk. Homemade mashers is one of the easiest dishes you can do.


Take as many potatoes as you have people eating, plus 1 if they’re mid-sized. That’s how much you’ll make. I was making for myself, so I did 2 potatoes. Now, since I love mashed, I picked REALLY BIG POTATOES. I used standard russets. Wash them. Peel them. Chop each potato into 6 chunks.





Boil these chunks in enough water to cover the tops of them until they’re fork tender. This means you can put a fork into one of the chunks, twist it and break the chunk apart, but it won’t disintegrate. Drain the boiled potatoes. In the pan with the potatoes, throw in 2 tablespoons butter (BUTTER. Not margarine. BUTTER), mash with a masher. Add about ½ cup milk, mash with the masher. Mix until mostly smooth.




Plating it up: Spoon the potatoes on the plate with the steak. Make a well in the center of the potatoes (it doesn’t have to be deep), pour gravy over everything. Enjoy.

Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes & Country Gravy

I took this to show the absolute perfect medium-rarity of this fried flesh. MMMmmmmm… and tender too.