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!

Pizza time!

I don't know about you, but growing up in NYC we take our pizza pretty seriously. Since moving to Jersey City I've never quite found the perfect Pizza so began making my own. It was the only way to get my Pizza "just right."

I like to make my pizza dough in batches and freeze them. When I feel the urge for pizza making coming on I will take the frozen freezer bag with pizza dough out and thaw it for 24 hours in the fridge.

Here's the Pizza dough recipe for making ahead:
4 1/2 Cups of All purpose flour Unbleached Preferably
Pinch of salt if your using table salt, 2 pinches if your using kosher
1 Teaspoon of instant yeast
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 3/4 cups of cold water (NYC water Preferably)
1 teaspoon of Dried oregano
1 Teaspoon of Rosemary
1 Teaspoon of thyme

Mix everything into a bowl split into portions and place into a greased freezer bag and into your freezer.

Sauce:
1 Can of Crushed tomatoes (San Marzan Preferably)
3 gloves of garlic minced
1 head of a small onion diced
Teaspoon of Olive oil
SnP

Sautee the onion in olive oil for 3 minutes then add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the Tomatoes and SnP to taste. Let cool completely before use.

Toppings:
Sliced Pepperoni
Shredded Mozzarella, I freeze the mozz for a couple of hours to make grating easy.

Preset your oven to the highest possible setting and leave your pizza stone in there for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.

Roll out your down on a flour dusted baking sheet using your knuckles to press the sides out.

Ladle the sauce over the dough.

Sprinkle some cheese and your choice of topppings.

Dust the pizza stone lightly with flour or semolina flour. Using your baking sheet slide the pizza in a quick jerk onto the pizza pan.

In about 15 minutes you should have a piping hot pizza. I suggest waiting 5 -7 minutes before cutting so the ingediants have a chance to settle down.

Now dig in! this recipe is fun to make with kids and couples its easy, delicious and fully customizeable to taste. Mangia!

Tools of the trade

How Sweet it is....and hot!

With all the snow we have been getting hit with in the Northeast, after shoveling and playing in the snow, it's always nice to come into some hot chocolate.  We also get to use some nifty gadgets.

Software:

• Milk
• Heavy Cream
• Chocolate (currently using Valrhona, excellent article on chocolate here Dallasfood.org
• Dash of sugar (optional, depending on the chocolate)

Hardware:

• Microplane Grater/Zester
• Typhoon Frother, Vanilla Cream
• Coffee Mug

Grate the chocolate using the microplane.  Put the grated chocolatein the mug.

Fill mug with milk leaving enough space at the top for when you mix it.  Place  the mug in the microwave for 2 minutes on the high setting (add another 30 seconds if you want it scalding).

While the milk is heating, pour some heavy cream into a small bowl.  Fire up the electric whisk to make some whip cream.  By the time the microwave timer dings, you should have some nice whip cream.  Remove the mug from the microwave and whisk the milk and chocolate together.  Add the whipcream on top and sprinkle some chocolate shavings on the whip cream.   Drink up!!!!  Also optional, peppermint schnapps!

Lets get "Stoned"

Okay so props to big stoners out there. Baking or pizza stone that is :). Until recently I thought it was a pretty useless item that sat on culinary store shelves until its ready to be marked down to next to nothing before some poor chump picks it up as a gift for someone who ends up putting it away on their shelf to wither away.

Well I could not be more wrong. Most of do not have commercial grade ovens so part of the job of the stone is to help maintain that nice hot oven as you oven it to put in your dough. For a fairley inexpensive tool why the heck wouldn't you want one? It can pretty much stay in your oven as you bake day in and day it and it certainly wont hurt anything.

Why my recently love affair with Stone? Well I recieved two wonderful books this past holiday from my sister in law: Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method. Both fantastic publications that allow you to bake professional quality bread in the comfort of your own home. Though a stone is not mandatory for the recipes, for a fairly small investment why the hell would you risk it?

Now pizza is a completely seperate story I find a stone essential for getting that chewy, crusty crunch that you expect from New York City Style pizza. This week lets get some buns in the oven (No pun intended to baby Chelsea).

Like to get stoned?

How old is this recipe? Pork Tenderloin with maple glaze

 
These were the first words my wife said when she tasted the Brussel Sprouts.  Looking at the copyright of the cookbook, it was 1989, 21 years ago.  I was in a thrift shop and they had a cookbook called 20 minute menus. Quickly thumbing through it, the author was the former editor of the NY Times food section, and the book was only  $0.50, so why not.

I had this pork tenderloin that's been sitting in my freezer.  It was on-sale for I think .49/pound, but you needed to buy at least 2 pounds.  Unfortunately for me, when I froze it, I didn't cut it up into smaller portions and just put the whole package in the freezer.

In the book there was a pork tenderloin with chervil & maple syrup.  So it seemed pretty straight forward,  no need for strange gadgets, just straight forward 20 minute cooking (though prep was like 40 minutes).

Software: (I 4x the tenderloin recipe)

Tenderloin

• 8 oz. pork tenderloin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chervil (I couldn't find any, used parsley instead)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard

Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts and Onions

• 9 oz., tiny new potatoes
• 18 oz. whole onion (sliced)
• 1 tbl. spoon olive oil
• 10 oz. brussels sprouts
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp soy-sauce

 Hardware:

• Broiler pan
• Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife
• Le Creuset pan
• Progressive International 9 Inch Silicone Gripper Tongs, Red
• Trudeau Melamine Mixing Bowls, Set of 3

Heat the broiler on high.  Line the broiler pan with aluminum foil (this will save cleaning up the mess in the pan later).   

Wash and pat dry the tenderloin and cut into 3/4 inch slices.

Mix the chervil, maple syrup, mustard in a bowl.  stir well.

Dip each piece of pork into the mixture, make sure they are coated well.

Put the pieces of pork into the dutch oven and cook for 10 minutes (keeping the meat about 2" from the flame), flip and cook for another 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and lay on a platter.

While the tenderloin is cooking, boil the water, add the sliced potatoes and cook for about 20 minutes.  When it's boiling, add the sprouts and cook for 6-7 minutes.  Slice and saute up the onion in the frying pan.  You want to cook the onions enough, but not actually carmalize them.  Throw them all into a dish and add the sugar and soy sauce.  Mix well. 

* After eating this, I would have changed:

• Soak the pork tenderloin in the mixture for at least 24 hours.
• Do not *boil* the vegetables.  I think broiling/baking them in the oven would have been much better.

Seared Scallops with Angel Hair Pasta

A few months ago, I had gone on my anniversay out to a French restaurant called Verjus.  I ordered their seafood dish that had scallops with pasta.  I'm normally not a fan of mixing seafood and pasta, but was really surprised at how delicious the dish was.   The overall dish seemed simple enough and found a suitable recipe.

What you'll need: (software)

• 1 cup of peas (I used frozen)
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 8 oz. angel hair pasta
• 3/4 pound scallops (remove that muscle if attached)
• 2 tbl. spoons unsalted butter
• 2 tbl. spoons water
• 1/2 cup white wine

Hardware I used:

• 3-4 quart pan to cook the pasta
• Le Creuset Frying pan (believe it or not, I can't find the link, maybe discontinued)
• Pyrex Prepware 2-Cup Measuring Cup, Clear with Red Measurements
• Measuring Spoons
• Global 8-Inch 20cm Cook's Knife

Start boiling some water with a dash of salt thrown in for the pasta. When the water is boiling, add the peas and pasta, (about 5 minutes if using fresh pasta).   Remove the pasta and peas and set aside.
Salt and Pepper the scallops  and in your other pan, melt the butter in the pan until it starts to sizzle and brown. Add the scallops and brown on both sides (about 2 minutes total).  Make sure you do not over cook the scallops!  They become tough and rubbery when you do!

Remove the scallops and put them with the pasta.  With the remaining liquid, add the wine and scrape up any bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Let it deglaze for about a minute, then add the cream and water and add salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce the liquid for about 3 minutes more.  Remove from stove and pour over the scallops and pasta.  Bon Appetite!