Breadcrumb crusted chicken with brussel sprouts

Until a few weeks ago I didn't think that I liked brussel sprouts. That all changed when my brother in law cooked the most delicious brussel sprouted dish for thanksgiving - brussel sprouts in a white cream sauce.  It was so good that I decided to try and recreate it at home with a Mastering recipe.

The first step in the process was to partially cook the brussel sprouts in boiling water (about 5 minutes in altitude) then shock them in an ice bath. This was a step that I kind of scoffed at, thinking that MC [Ms. Childs] was taking things a bit far. I have not taken a bath in about year, so why should these vegetables deserve better treatment? But to make sure I made the best recreation I could, I gave them a bath. Maybe it made a difference, who knows.

5 out of 5 on Yum scale

Next, I made the sauce mornay, which is a bechamel sauce with swiss cheese - which is a white sauce made with butter flour and milk. Did you catch that? It was about as easy to follow in Mastering,  it took 3 cross reference recipes spanning about 300 pages. But the sauce isn't hard - just make a butter and flour roux, add milk, boil and add in swiss cheese, salt and pepper. The sauce is sooo good on pretty much any dish. I just poured that over the sprouts with some parmesan cheese on top, and put it in the oven for 25 minutes. Even Ian, who actually doesn't like brussel sprouts very much, enjoyed the dish.

FAIL

The next thing I attempted was another risotto. I successfully made one a few weeks ago so I thought it would be cake. Oh, hubris, you got me. It was horrible, I cooked it for about an hour and the rice was still chewy. I think it was because I used 45 minute brown rice instead of 20 minute white rice, so much for trying to be healthy. Ian and I both tried to nibble on it with dinner, but gave up and tossed it out. It's been a while since my last fail, so I guess one was due. As least we had delicious brussel sprouts to cleanse our pallets.

breading the chicken

The main course was breadcrumb crusted chicken. The recipe calls for a whole chicken, but since I didn't want leftovers for days, I used chicken breast. The first step was to cook up some chopped onion and garlic with herbs (I used thyme). Then I combined that with dijon mustard. While that was going on, I broiled the chicken for 10 minutes on each side. Then I covered the chicken with the dijon mix and patted on the breadcrumbs. Then the chicken went back into the broiler for another 10 on each side. It was ok. -  moist and fairly tasty, but I've made a similar recipe before and like that better.

3.5 out of 5

Here's my stab at re-doing this dish:

2-3 chicken breasts, cleaned and sliced into 2in by 1in strips
1-2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup dijon mustard
2/3 cup parmesan
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Spice the chicken strips with salt, pepper and onion powder, set aside. Beat egg(s) and mix in milk and mustard [NB: you can just use the mustard without eggs and milk for a stronger spicy flavor]. In another bowl combine parmesan and bread crumbs. Dip the strips in the egg mix, then press on the bread crumb mix. Put in the oven for 20 minutes at 350. It's easier than the Mastering recipe, but I like it better. Next time I make it, I might copy MC and cook up some onions/garlic cloves and add that to the mustard mix. Also, I think broiling it at the end would be good to get a crunchy top to it. Even thought the meal wasn't the best one I've made, I'm glad to have rediscovered brussel sprouts...and eaten something with the yummy white sauce again!

Pan Seared Steak With Stuffed Mushrooms and Gnocchi

Last night I felt like it was time to challenge myself with some Mastering cooking in prep for thanksgiving. 

3 out of 5 on Yum scale

I started off with my now nemesis, gnocchi. For the third time I boiled, mashed (sans potato ricer still), and dried the potatoes. Then I made the pate a choux - fancy French for flour/butter/egg paste - and mixed it in. I then dutifully stood by the pot and simmered it for 20 minutes. STILL some of them broke apart. I think I have figured out the problem though...the recipe calls for 3-4 potatoes. I am guessing that when MC [Ms. Childs] wrote Mastering in the 60s potatoes were a bit smaller. Thus, the pate a choux/potato ratio is wrong. Now, I'd like to say that I am going to try out my theory, but right now I am a little sick for making gnocchi. I kinda of want to make a  baked potatoes and cover it in light sour cream just to spite gnocchi - I've gone to the irrational potato place. Thus, I'll wait for a while for my sanity's sake. It still tasted pretty good, and I covered it in a white swiss cheese sauce that I'd pretty much eat on anything. 

4.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

Next I made stuffed mushrooms, they were de-lish! It was a mixture of choped up onions, shallots, butter, bread crumbs, swiss and parmesan cheese. You just stuff it into the caps of the mushrooms and bake for 20 minutes or so. It was the easiest thing I made that night as well as my favorite! I would definitely bring that dish back for another round - without the subsequent mental break down that's probably going to come with my next potato venture. 

Steak - 3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

The last thing I tackled was the steak itself. Since I used a thin cut to get less fat on the meat, it just took a quick 3-4 minutes on each side. MC didn't call for any marinating, but I couldn't help myself and put salt, pepper and onion powder on it. I also made an herb garlic butter to put on top of it and keep moist. I've never made a flavored butter before, but I LOVE it. You just have to whip the butter until it is soft then toss in whatever you like and it infuses in! It then melts into the food and doubles the flavor. I highly recommend it.

The best part of the whole meal was the wine reduction sauce I made. I've made a few wine sauces before, so I thought I would try the seasoning myself. Here's what I used:

1/2 cup wine

2 TBS chopped onions

1 TBS herbs de provence 

1 clove garlic

Red wine reduction - 5 out of 5 on Yum scale

I just put everything in the pan where the steak was to keep that flavoring then did a hot boil until it was a syrup texture. Took about 5 minutes and it was super yummy. I would put this sauce on any meat. I had a glass of the same wine with dinner, and it was a perfect match! I'm getting really excited about experimenting with all these new recipes I'm trying - I didn't think I would get this far so fast. 

Chicken Tortilla Soup with Jalapeno Cornbread

All this cold weather has made me crave more soup, and as I said yesterday, I am missing Texas a lot. So to meet all my needs I made Chicken Tortilla soup last night. It's a dish that my good friend from law school used to make whenever we had a big group gathering. I'm sure there was a set recipe at some point, but it seemed to change every time we had it (in a good, "look what I found at the grocery store!" way). Here's what I decided to put into it:

1 quart chicken broth
3 quarts water
1 jar medium salsa
1.5 jalapenos diced and seeded
3 chopped carrots
2 chopped celery stocks (leftover from my last soup, along with the carrots)
8 pearl onions (my new favorite thing to put in soups/everything)
1 can whole corn
2 chicken breasts, cooked then shredded
salt, pepper & cumin to taste
1 avocado
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Baked at 350 for 25 minutes

The way I did it was to bring the water, broth and salsa to a boil then dump all the veggies into the pot. I then seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, onion powder and cumin and set it in the oven for a while to bake. Once the chicken was done I took it out to cool then shredded it and put it in the pot as well. Leslie used to make it with the canned chicken, that honestly tasted about the same, but with my affinity for getting food poisoning, I figured I would make it with ones I had cooked. Also, it's not like I am hurting for time.

4 out of 5 on the Yum scale

After that, I just let it simmer for a while, letting all the flavors set. Lastly I seasoned the soup to taste and then served with avocado slices and cheddar cheese on top.  It was yummy and not to hard to make - though I don't think I could ever make it taste as good as when we'd eat it coming off the slopes during our annual law school ski trip. That may have had something to do with the company/inevitable feeling of starvation that comes after snowboarding all day.

3 out of 5 on Yum scale

I used the leftover jalapenos and cheddar cheese to spice up the cornbread. In retrospect I should have just made the cornbread myself, but I had impulse bought the insta-mix stuff at the store. It was fine and the jalapenos gave it a Southern kick, though it did dry out kinda quickly by the next day. all in all, it was a good meal and got me warmed up while making me feel like I hadn't left Texas too far behind. Maybe next time I can tackle enchiladas and perhaps even a mexican martini!

Leftover Ingredient Stuffed Shells

Those of you who suffered through my cooking pre-Mastering and Joy know that I love to experiment. I think the height of cooking is looking into your cupboard, realizing there is no recipe that you know which work with the ingredients, and making a great meal anyway. Sometimes it works out great and you create a delicious new dish....sometimes you create a monster.

Last night I was too tired to go to the grocery store (honest reason: really I just hate going when I know I have to go back in the next 2 days), so I decided to see if my skills in leftover creations had improved. The main thing I wanted to get rid of was a huge tub of light ricotta cheese that I bought when I thought I needed 2 cups of ricotta, when I really only needed 2 tablespoons. Therefore, it seemed like an Italian kind of night. I also had some medium sized pasta shells, so I settled on stuffed shells.

Relevant sidenote on some family history: Before Texas, my family lived in Washington DC where my parents ran several restaurants. The one I went to most frequently was Gina's, a classic Italian joint. My favorite dish was the marina stuffed shells (with a dessert of baked Zeppole, of course!). Soooo good. I could, and often did, eat it day after day. Since I have grown up, however, I kind of fell out with Italian food. Nothing tasted as good as what I remembered as a kid, and in the end I'd rather get my carbs in delicious French food. Thus, these leftover stuffed shells had big shoes to fill.

Here's the recipe I came up with:
2 eggs
2 cups (minus 2 TBS) ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
1/2 cup parmesan
Package of mid-sized jumbo shells (not the huge restaurant sized ones)
6 pearl onions, pealed but not minced (another thing I had just sitting in my fridge)
1/2 TBS italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 jar spaghetti sauce

First step, as always, was preheat oven, here to 350. I then cooked the shells in boiling water for about 10 minutes and drained them to let them cool. Next I beat the eggs, then mixed in the ricotta, 3/4 cup mozzarella and the parmesan. I then added the spices - I never really measure spices, I just season to taste, but above is my best guess. It ended up being a lot of italian seasoning and garlic salt, less pepper. Once the shells were cooled, I put the cheese mix into them, then laid them in a baking dish seal side down. Next I sprinkled a little of the mozzarella cheese in the dish to make sure it got nice and gooey. Then, I placed the pealed pear onions throughout the dish, and poured on the sauce. Lastly, I sprinkled the rest of the mozzarella cheese on the top and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Result:

3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

Things I would change:
1. Up the temp to 375 to make sure the cheese on top got a little browned.
2. Make the sauce myself: 1 can diced tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, maybe some mushrooms, and the pearl onions. Sauté in pan for 15 minutes, starting with onions, then adding other ingredients.
3. More pearl onions. And if I wasn't making sauce I'd put them in the water with the boiling shells to make sure all of them cooked/infused their flavor fully.

Even without the changes it turned out pretty well. The flavors weren't complex or anything, but it didn't take too much time, tasted good and had a comforting feel to it. The best part is, whatever veggies you have left over you can easily throw into the dish. While it did not live up to my childhood expectations completely, if I ever buy way too much ricotta cheese, I will definitely be making this dish again.

Success with Tuna in a Tomato Sauce and Scalloped Potatoes

Success! After a few set back dishes I am back on track AND this one was a bit complicated. I started off off with an appetizer of wine infused croquettes. Yet another thing I hadn't even eaten until I decided to cook it. It consists of a cream base (flour/milk/eggs) plus a vermouth flavoring that you mix together then let chill for a few hours so it gets hard. You then batter it in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and fry it. For those of you who have dined in the Dullum household, it's kinda like flat chicken, minus the chicken plus a gooey filling. Ian looved it. I set them in the office with him while I finished off the sauce for another dish and by the time I got back over half were gone - always a good sign!

4 out of 5 on Yum scale

Since I had to start early to get the dough chilled, the croquettes were a good stimulus to make me actually prep before cooking. I normally just chop as I go, but today I did it in the afternoon and put them in little bowls until cooking time. It made the cooking later easier AND I felt like a tv chef having it all laid out in cute bowls! The most interesting prep was the tomatoes for the sauce. They had to be peeled, seeded and diced - and as Blair said a little while ago it is a bit of work! MC [Ms. Childs] did have good advice on peeling though - you blanch the tomatoes for 10 seconds in hot water and then skin will just peel right off. It made it a lot easier...but it is one more dish to wash, so I'd say a toss up on whether I'd do it again.

Two in front are peeled and two in back are not.

The main course was Thon A La Provencale (tuna steak with wine, tomatoes, and herbs). I have found a pattern in a lot of MC's protein recipes: 1) brown protein in pan, 2) take protein out and cook veggies/herb for 5 minutes, 3) put protein back in pan and bake for however long, 4) remove protein from pan and on stovetop boil down veggies until a sauce. It makes a delicious dish, this case was no exception, but I feel like for how famous Mastering is there should be more variety. Perhaps the recipes that appeal to me are just in this fashion - I have no intention of killing a lobster in my kitchen - but I still feel that there should be more variety. Even if routine, the tuna steaks turned out really well.

3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

The side dishes I made were baked cucumbers and scalloped tomatoes. The cucumbers were pretty easy - you just seed and slice them then put then in the oven with olive oil and spices for about an hour. I like them a lot...but I love anything cucumbered (except pickles, they are what happens when the cucumbers become possessed by the devil). The only negative thing about this dish was that it did not reheat well the next day for lunch. I think next time I may try to grill them to get some crunch back.

3.5 out of 5 on Yum scale

The last dish was scalloped potatoes. I have not eaten many scalloped potatoes,  but that may change. Process is again time consuming, but not very difficult. First you peel and slice the potatoes and layer them in a baking dish with swiss cheese, butter and milk.  Then you just pop them into the oven for 45ish minutes until crispy on the top and soft on the inside. I am not a huge swiss cheese fan, but I feel like in this dish it blends well enough with the other flavors that it enhances and does not overwhelm like it can tend to. 

4 out of 5 on Yum scale

Every dish in the dinner was a success and it added up to a nice looking spread:

note the 1/2 eaten croquettes

I think my favorite part of cooking is that it makes Ian and I sit down twice a week and eat dinner slowly with each other. Growing up both my parents and my grandmother loved to cook, thus, we ended up eating a lot of delicious meals together. I am really enjoying starting that tradition here in Denver. Now that I think about it, since we inherited my parents table when they moved to Florida, we are starting the tradition on the same table! Wow, that's too sentimental for me to deal with. I better end this post...now.

Show Me The Boeuf!

Today I decided to finally try out Boeuf Bourguignon. Besides having the most ridiculous name in MC's Mastering, it is also one of the most talked about dishes as well as one of the most time intensive. So obviously I decided it was a good day to try and bake my own bread as well. Needless to say, it was a tough day 'o cooking. To make the old Boeuf Bourg you have to get all the ingredients simmering in the oven for about 3 hours until tender. But before you do that, you have to cook each individually, in order, so that they soak up the correct juices. MC's order is: bacon, cubed beef, onions, carrots, more onions then mushrooms. Once that is all done (about 3ish hours of work), you make the stew out of wine, beef stock and some spices. Then comes the 3 hour oven-boil and post oven simmering. I started at about noon and finished at about 8 - with a 1.5 hour hiatus in the middle for pilates. At that point I kind of hoped I would hate it so I wouldn't have to cook it again. Unfortunately, and fortunately, I didn't. It was complex and hearty and exactly what I would want on a cold winters night:

4 out of 5 on the Yum scale

If I could have someone make me that every time I got off the slopes I would. I would also have them make me the cheddar cheese and herb bread from The Joy of Cooking (Mastering does not have a bread recipe as far as I can tell). Honestly I was expecting more of a challenge baking bread from all the play it gets, but really the big thing is time management. You have to be able to set the dough out for 1 hour in the bowl then another in the bread pan, but since I was chained to the kitchen for the Boeuf Bourg it wasn't such an issue. One thing I did wimp out on was not kneading it enough because I had to run out to pick up Ian. As a result the yeast didn't get enough air and it didn't rise as much as I hoped. BUT the flavors were all there and I kinda liked the denseness of it. To top it off, it was great to dip in the left over stew.

3.5 out of 5 on the Yum scale

The last thing I did was a frozen pea fix as suggested by MC. Now I would love to say that I did it to see how MC handled frozen versus fresh food - it seemed so unlike her to include this in the recipe book; however, it was because I forgot to grab potatoes (the suggested side) at the grocery store. Luckily, I had the frozen peas I normally use to ice my knees after a workout in the freezer. She suggested to simmer them in chicken stock with some spices and butter to add some depth of flavor. Meh. I ate a lot of frozen veggies when I was a vegetarian in college and I think butter with lemon pepper in the microwave did just as well if not better. (I am sure 300 cordon bleu chefs just rolled over in their graves). It was fine, and I'll eat them as leftovers cold on my salad tomorrow, but I expected more.

2 out of 5 on the Yum scale, but I might be biased
since I am generally not a pea fan

Despite the lackluster peas, it all added up to  pretty fantastic fall dinner, about to be followed by the fantastic fall dessert of hot chocolate and a good book. 

Joyful, But Not So Tasteful Cooking

Today I decided to tackle The Joy of Cooking by Rombauer, Becker and Becker [RBB? BBR? BRB?...cute nickname will be forthcoming]. I decided to do the Baked Stuffed Boneless Chicken Breasts with the Scalloped Cauliflower in White Sauce and Butter Made Dumplings. Despite the more complicated recipe names, I found them easier to make than the past few I've tried. It was Ian's favorite thus far, but I felt some of the spicing was lacking.

First off, the chicken. I started by making the Italian bread crumb stuffing. It wasn't too complicated, just some sautéed onions, spices and bread crumbs. Next was hammering out the chicken - my favorite part! - then rolling up the chicken with the Italian mix in the middle. I did forget to buy toothpicks so I had to improvise how to keep the chicken rolled. Luckily, we have been doing to picture hanging around the house so we had some things on hand:

Yeah, that's a nail holding it all together!

Don't worry I washed it then sterilized in boiling water before I used it! I did, however forget to take them out before serving and Ian got a little surprise with his meal. Luckily, while cutting up his chicken he commented on the bones in the boneless chicken and I remembered before we took a bite! The only thing I would change - other than the extra iron - was that the recipe didn't call for spicing the chicken and I think little salt, pepper, onion powder would go a long way. The stuffing was nice though (Ian loooved it) and with a few tweaks it could be super good.  And it looked pretty cool in the end:

3 out of 5 on Yum scale...for looks :)

Next up was the cauliflower. I whipped up the milk based white sauce earlier in the day and turns out it was the same one that my mom makes. I think there must be some more spices in her sauce because I much prefer hers. I poured it over the steamed cauliflower and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top before I put it in the oven. It was very comforting, if not very flavorful.  Last I made the butter dumplings. They were also a little bland, but I liked the idea of boiling them in the chicken stock/water mix instead of just water - it helped a lot. I also added some Herbs de Provence (thanks Aunt Jan!) on top after taste testing and it helped a bit, and added some color to my all beige colored dinner.

Dumplings and Cauliflower:  2.5 out of 5

 Next time I'll try to add some color to the dish! In the end it all tasted alright, but didn't hold a candle to the herb crusted pork, even in leftover form. I'll see if I can fix them in post to make some good lunches for the rest of the week.

Cookies!

No fancy MC cooking today - just a whole bunch of cookie making! Ian came home last night and around 10PM said "Hey, we have a grad school potluck tomorrow - can you make some dessert?". I had no idea what to do because it was in Boulder, a 40 minute drive from Denver, making cold or hot desserts out of the question. Thus, my ability to make fairly yummy pies was of no use. Luckily, for our wedding we got "The Cookie Book" by Catherine Atkinson:

According to the insert Ms. Atkinson is Cordon Bleu trained and VERY fancy when it comes to cookies.

Now, I am not a huge cookie fan - I normally just eat the batter; however, I did find a few recipes that ended up being pretty good. The first was a Greek Honey Crunch Creme (appropriate for the Classics event I was about to attend). Unfortunately, I learned that Greek honey is the most expensive honey in the entire world. Since Ian and I are living on a grad student/stipend budget that was out of the question. The cookies still turned out great with our poor man's honey, and they were Ian's favorite of the night. It was a fun process of making the outer cookie from butter, baking soda, sugar and honey and then the creme part from honey, powered sugar and (surprise, surprise) butter. I found the ratio of creme to cookie not quite to my liking, so I made most of them open faced cookies instead of the oreo-esque cookies they were intended to be:

3.5 out of 5 on Yum Scale

The other "cookie" I made was a Caramel Chocolate bar, and they were extremely rich. I hadn't tried to do a homemade caramel before and it was both fun and kind of science-experimenty at the same time. It reminded me of what Top Chef contestants have been saying for the past 7 seasons - cooking is more of an art and baking is more of a science. It's really true, if you forget an ingredient cooking you can play around with it and perhaps come up with something better, but with a lot of baking, if your measurements are off you end up with a fallen flan or runny meringue no matter what. Luckily my experiment went well and I was able to thicken the caramel and get the chocolate top layer to melt AND re-freeze. Here was the result:

4 out of 5 on the Yum scale

To serve I sliced them up into 3 in x 1 in bars. One potluck goer proposed marriage based on my ability to make these bars alone, so I'm going to call them a pretty major success.  I was going to make some modern truffles as well, but I forgot to grab baking powder at the grocery store and god forbid I go to that place more than once in a day. I did some google research and turns out you can create baking power from baking soda, but it does not go the other way around unless you have creme of tartar (for a dry mix). Oh, the random things I'm learning in my cookery!

I also realized throughout the day that I have become more of a cook than a baker. I prefer the freedom of mixing and matching at the last minute to the more rigorous adherence to detail required with baking. I thought for a long time that I was more of a baker, and am kinda excited that I have grown comfortable enough with flavors to play with them in the kitchen. Maybe the next step is to come back around and be able to experiment with baking...but I think I am a ways off from that!