Chicken fricassee with vinegar and herbs

For this week, I decided to cook an entire meal.  There was a nice chicken recipe that I had seen in Simple French Cookery by Raymond Blanc.  When we lived in London, he owned a chain of french bakeries there called Maison Blanc.  He also came out with a few cookbooks and this is one I picked up.  This was a pretty straight forward recipe.  With French cooking, the modern cookbooks always try to save time by combining things or skipping steps.  This one seemed to be a happy medium.

 Here's what you'll need:

• 4 organic chicken drumsticks and thighs
• 1 tablesppon olive oil
• 5 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I ran out, so used Balsamic vinegar instead)
• 1/2 oz unsalted butter
• 3 1/2 fl. oz. white wine.  (I picked up a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc).
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled, but left whole
• 1 ripe medium tomato, finely chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh tarragon chopped (couldn't find any, so used dried)
• 1 tablesppon fresh parsley (didn't buy any, so used dry)
• sea salt and freshl ground black pepper.

For the sauteed potatoes:

• 4 medium potatoes diced into 3/4" pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 oz unsalted butter
• fresh parsley (guess what I used)
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped.  (forgot to buy it, so used a pearl onion instead)
• seas salt and freshly ground black pepper.

 I also picked up some green beans.  Nothing exciting, just steamed them and added some butter.

Start off by salt and peppering the chiken then browning it a large dutch oven for about 5 minutes.  I have a wonderful Le Creuset dutch oven  that's perfect for this job.  Oh, turn the oven onto 300 degrees to start heating it up.  Once the chicken's brown, (there will be a lot of oil if it's a good quality chicken) scoop out as much of the oil as you can, then add the vinegar and butter.  Let it boil and and wait for it to reduce a bit.    

Practice your knife skills and dice the tomato or use a mini-chopper.  I was being lazy so just hacked the tomato.  I love the gadget, but if i'm not chopping multiple items, a knife is just quicker.

Once that's done, add the white wine, let it boil for a bit, then add the tomatoes, garlic and tarragon. 

Cover the pot and transfer to the oven (the oven should now be at 300 degrees) and let it cook for 30 minutes.

While this is cooking, in a large frying pan (once again I love Le Creuset), heat up the olive oil and add the potatoes.  Fry them for 20 minutes turning them over every so often.  You want to get as many sides brown as possible (very difficult with six sides I have to say).  Season with salt and pepper.

Now that you have the potatoes cooking, start steaming the green beans in a regular pan of boiling water with a Steamer.  Ours is falling apart a bit with some of the metal leaves missing, but it does the job.  The string beans should be ready in about 7 minutes.

After 30 minutes are up, remove the dutch oven and season to taste.  Skim any fat from the surface and lay out the food in seperate platters.  You can serve it everyone, (chicken on top of potatoes with sauce and greenbeans on the side), or let them pick and choose.  My daughters mainly ate the potatoes (look daddy, square french fries!)

Bon Appetit!

Typical Meat Lasagna

I originally wanted chicken, but that was vetoed by the wife as we just had it two days ago.  I'll have my chicken dish up later this week!

Lasagna is a dish that can be made very simply or very complicated, depending on how far you want to take it.   A lot of the ingredients can be bought right off the shelf or made in the kitchen.  I opted to go with a little bit of both.  For this dish, there are so many variations and substitutes that can be used whether it be vegetable lasagna, meat lasagna or a combination of both.  So here's the basics in layers:

Some kind of sauce

Pasta

The 'Fill'

Repeat steps 1-3 at least 3x's

Here's what I used:

1. 
   
   1 1b. of a meat combo (beef, veal, pork)
   
   
   
2. 
   
   1 large egg
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Cabot fancy cheese blend
   
   
   
4. 
   
   fresh mozzarella balls
   
   
   
5. 
   
   parmesan cheese
   
   
   
6. 
   
   3 x 4 oz. cans of tomato sauce (they were on sale 3 for $1!)
   
   
   
7. 
   
   fresh pasta sheets
   
   
   
8. 
   
   15 oz container of ricotta cheese
   
   
   
9. 
   
   1 tomato
   
   
   
10. 
    
    Italian spice blend
    
    
    

Hardware

1. large 5 qt pot
2. frying pan
3. large bowl
4. colander
5. Microplane Grater/Zester
6. Spatula
7. 13 x 9 pan 

I was planning on making the pasta because I knew my wife had a Pasta Maker but alas, it was no where to be found, hence the store bought pasta.  To start, put the pasta in boiling water for about for about 3 1/2 mintes.  Drain well and pat dry.

A trick I learned is to add some olive oil into the pasta water while cooking.  This prevents it from sticking when you're draining it.  Brown the meat in the frying pan until all the redness is gone.

Mix the ricotta cheese, some of the fresh mozzarella, cheese blend, egg, spices and grate the parmesan with the wonderful Microplane Grater/Zester.  I love this simple tool and it makes nice and lite fluffy cheese.  Check it out, it's amazing.

Dice the tomato and mix with the tomato sauce.  Put a thin layer of tomato sauce and spices, then cover with the pasta.

Add the meat, cheese mixture and spices and cover with another layer of sauce.

Repeat until you run out of ingredients or you reach the top of the pan (in this case, 3 cans sauce = 3 layers).  At the top layer, sprinkle the extra cheese to make a nice topping.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes @ 375 degrees.  Remove and let it cool before serving. 

This is an excellent make ahead dish and tastes great reheated.  Enjoy!

Standard ingredients we have at home

There are some basic staples that you should always have on hand for cooking.  These include mundane things like salt and pepper to various vegetables like onions.  In no particular order:

• Various Dried Spices (basil, sage, thyme, oregano, bay leaves to name a few)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Parmesan Cheese
• Canned Tomatos
• Red wine vinegar
• Balsamic vinegar
• Vegetable Oil
• Tomato Paste
• Mushrooms
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Garlic
• Butter
• Flour
• Pasta
• Rice

BBQ Fried Rice

Okay so today was a good day. I was able to enjoy my day off with my brother and nephew. We hit up the Tim Burton Exhibit at the MoMa, lunch at The Burger Joint at the Parker Medien, desert at The Cold Stone Creamery then finally off to see Avatar. Amazing hookie day! My name is Eddie and it's my turn to write.

Today I have to cook something fun for the blog and I was feeling a little uninspired. I snooped around in the fridge and saw some left over Pork Ribs (Brother Jimmy's: Bait Shack) from my sister's birthday bash last night. So I have a kooky idea: BBQ Fried Rice. In the true nature of Fried Rice it utilizes left over ingredients from previous meals to make a new dish. For those of you who are big pasta fans it's the Chinese version of Puttanesca.

So here's what you need:

1. 2 cups of minced BBQ meat (Ribs, Brisket, Pork whatever you have on hand)
2. 6 Cups of Cooked Medium Grain Rice (1 Day old even better)
3. 1 cup Diced Sweet Potatoes (Sauteed with Salt and Pepper)
4. 6 Eggs Scrambled just under done with salt and pepper
5. 1 cup of Corn optional
6. Salt, Pepper, and Fresh Garlic
7. Vegetable / Canola / Peanut Oil
8. BBQ Sauce and Cajun Seasoning Optional

Hardware:

1. Sautee Pan to Sautee the Sweet Potatoes.
2. Pot or any vessel with a high rim
3. Wooden Spoon or Spatula

Start the party off with your Mise En Place. Basically get all of your ingrediants both cooked and raw ready to go. Are ya with me so far? This is Stir Fry people so you have to be ready to boogie when the time is right. It'll make your life so much easier and Stir Fry won't as intimidating when you're prepared.

Get your pot on the stove with 4 tablespoons of the oil you plan on using at at medium high heat. I like to use a large rimmed stainless steel pot like my sturdy All Clad 6 qt. Stainless Steel Pot you can use a Wok or a Dutch Oven if you like. With stir fry you will be using high heat and the ingrediants need to constantly move or they will burn. Wih a high rim your ingrediants won't end up all over your counter top as you flip and stir.

As you see the oil get hot and ripple through toss your minced garlic in. I like to use about 3 teaspooons.
 

The garlic will react quickly so once it begins to lightly brown and become fragrant toss in your chopped meat in for 5 minutes.

Next is the Corn and sweet potatoes for about 2 minutes.

Next is the Rice for 4 minutes.

Finally is the scrambled eggs. Just incoporate with stirring and folding.

Salt and Pepper to taste. At this point if youre real funky you can use 2 table spoons of your favorite BBQ sauce and / Or a tablespoon of your favority Cajun seasoning. For today I used Tony Chacherie's Hot Cajun seasoning.

Give it a good rigourous stir on a medium high for about 5 minutes and you're ready for some "Ragin,' Cajun,' Asian Fried Rice". Wok and Roll baby! I'll catch ya in two weeks!

Beef Stew

Beef Stew

With the cold weather now in full blast, I thought it would be time to make a stew.  The easiest was a beefstew.  You can usually find beefstew at a ski lodge.  This is one of the best meals that can be eaten while skiing because it's warm, provides protein, and is filling.  This type of stew mainly consists of three parts.  The Beef, The sauce, and the vegetables.  Feel free to throw in whatever vegetables you have around the house.  The more the better.  For this particular recipe I used the following:

• 3 lbs of beef chuck, cut in 1" cubes, salt and pepper the meat.
• 28 oz diced tomatoes, 1 cup red wine, 3 tbs dried parsley
• garlic, pearl onions, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, and a yellow onion

Start off by turning on the oven to 450 degrees.  Next in a high walled dutch oven (Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 7-1/4-Quart Round French Oven, Black Onyx is what I used) add some vegetable oil.  Sear the meat on both sides.Once that's done, remove the meat and add the diced garlic (handy tool I use to dice is  the Black & Decker HC306 1-1/2-Cup One-Touch Electric Chopper)

This was a wedding present that I had thrown onto our registry.  You can't beat this for quickly dicing any type of vegetable.  Side note: works great on powdering chocolate for hot chocolate drinks as well,   however, lousy for making confetti out of construction paper. After about a minute, add the yellow onion (sliced) for another minute.  At this point, you can add the wine mixture and can tomatoes.  Bring the whole thing to a boil, then add the seared meat and the rest of the vegetables (cut any way you like).  Practice those knife skills, but watch your fingers!  Let it come to a boil again and then turn off the heat.  Place a sheet of aluminum foil snugly over the pot a press down around the edges for a tight seal.  Put the lid on and pop it into the oven for about 1 1/2 hours.  Watch a movie.  Remove from oven, let it cool, then serve!  Great to serve over rice or egg noodle pasta.

Quick Summary:

1.  Sear the meat

2.  Add the liquid

3.  Put the Vegetables in.

4.  Cover tightly with foil and lid and pop in the oven.

5.  Out of the oven 1 1/2 hours later.