..and the secret ingredient is ketchup!

This weather in New Jersey has been strange.  Last month we had balmy weather with beautiful sunny days.  Now it's back to being cold and rainy again.  There is something to be said with global warming messing up the weather.  And when it's cold and wet, comfort food is always what drives the cooking.  Looking through a variety of recipes, I came across one that looked simple enough (and I had the majority of ingredients already.  The secret ingredient seemed to be ketchup in the recipe's I looked through.

Software:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 pound ground veal
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 teaspoons spice mixture (3 tbls paprika, 2 tbls salt, 2 tbls parsley, 2 tbls onion poweder, 2 tbls garlic powder, 1 tsp black pepper, 1tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp  celery salt)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cup fine dried bread crumbs
• Glaze:
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Hardware:
Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife
Cutting Board
Measuring Spoon Set

Mixing Bowls Large Blue

Haeger Natural Stone Baking Dish, Square: Blue

   Chop the vegetables up and add them to a large skillet with the vegetable oil.  Add the spices (garlic, salt, basil, thyme, pepper) and cook until they are soft and golden.  Turn off the heat and set aside.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Next in the first mixing bowl, combine the meat together til the pork, veal and beef are blended well together.  In another bowl, mix the ketchup, heavy cream, spice mix, dijon mustanrd and worcestershire sauce together.  Then dump everything together into the 'meat bowl' (in my case the blue bowl) along with the vegetables from the stove as well as the breadcrumbs.

Mix well together until you get a blend.  If you have an extra pair of hands like I did, it makes it that much easier.  Spread the mixture into your casserole dish  and smooth it out.  Top it off with the glaze (ketchup, brown sugar and worcestershire sauce mixed together). 

Bake for about an hour and 15 minutes.  There will be a pool of excess grease coming out.  Let rest for about minutes before serving.  Freeze or refridgerate any left overs.

Chicken Pot Pie - It's all about comfort food.

Comfort food, often it's not pretty, but it's just very good and very filling. With the wintery we have been having in the northeast, this always hits the spot. I've never made chicken pot pie before and even though the recipe said, 'this is a time consuming recipe, but well worth it'. Plan on 4 hours for pep (includes roasting the chicken), then another 90 minutes for final cooking. I broke it down into 2 days for the completion of this recipe. There's nothing like taking a roast chicken out of the oven at 2 o'clock in the morning

Software:

3 lb. roasting chicken

2 cups chopped carrots

2 cups chopped potatoes

2 cups sliced mushroomes

2 chopped cloves of garlic

24 pearl onions, peeled and left whole

Assorted herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme)

1 cup peas

6 tbs. flour

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Puff pastry sheet

2 cups chicken stock

4 tbs butter

Olive oil

Salt and pepper this is always a given for any recipe

Hardware:

Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 7-1/4-Quart Round French Oven, Cherry Red

Progressive International 9 Inch Silicone Gripper Tongs, Red

Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife
Pyrex Prepware 2-Cup Measuring Cup, Clear with Red Measurements

MIU 5-Piece Stainless Steel Measuring Cup Set

BRUSH PASTRY 1" 

Heat the oven to 375.  Cover the chicken with olive oil and salt and pepper the whole thing.  Chop all your vegetables and put them in the dutch oven (except for the peas). Add the spices and mix.   Put the chicken in the pot with the vegetables and put it in the oven for 2 hours 15 minutes.  Baste every 20 minutes.  When complete, remove from the oven and turn the temperature up to 400 degrees.

Remove the chicken and put it to one side.  Remove the vegetables and put them in a seperate bowl (make sure there's enough extra room in the bowl as you'll be adding the chicken).  Add the peas.  Remove the meat from the chicken.  I've wait to find a graceful way to do this, everytime this happens it feels like i'm in survivor mode as I'm tearing it and digging out the chunks of meat. 

With the pot now empty of chicken and vegetables, put the pot on the stove and add the chicken stock and heavy cream.  Let it come to a boil, then slowly add the flour.  This should reduce down to a soupy mixture (called roux, don't ask me why, it's french!). 

 

With the chicken meat, chop it down into small chunks (about 1") and then add it to the bowl with the vegetables.  Pour in the roux.  Mix everything together and add more spices or salt and pepper for more flavor. 

Lay the puff pastry out on a flat surface and lay your dish that will house the pot pie.  Make sure the dough will overlap the dish.  The dough should be around 1/8" thick.  The pepperidge farm one I used was perfect for this.  Cut off any excess around the bowl (leave about 1/2" around the diameter). 

Add the chicken mixture into the bowl.  Cover it with the puff pasty, making sure you seal along the edges.  You should have a pie now.

Now, mix the heavy cream with the egg yolk in a small bowl.

Taking this mixture, paint the top of the puff pastry.

 

As you can see, I had a helper show up just for this task. For those that don't have your own sous chef,  you'll need to do this on your own.  Put the pie into the oven and bake for 55 minutes.  Remove and let it cool for about 5 minutes before serving!