Chicken Cordon Bleu

Some Steakhouse Staples

Creamed Spinach, Sirloin Steak, Asparagus

An American classic - steak and spinach. I was doing my regular casual walk by the meat aisle, coyly glancing at the beef cuts while saying quietly to myself, "well, there's no hurt looking" when the thick red slabs convinced me otherwise. It would be steak tonight.

For the steak, I did my usual recipe: salt + pepper and olive oil, searing both sides in a cast iron for two minutes before finishing it in a 500 degree oven. For the asparagus, I sauteed it in the steak pan while the steak was resting after cooking. The spinach took some time, slowly cooking down an entire pot's worth of greens into a half cup of cooked spinach. I'll post the recipe below, which included some milk and butter (didn't have cream) and garlic. I also added some salt and pepper to taste.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/creamed-spinach-to-die-for/

White Guy Stir Fry

Rice, Caramelized Onions, Snow peas, Cheese.

To all you cooks out there, this is not actually a stir-fry. It's nothing close. "What is it?" you might ask. Well, it's a made up dish of things that I thought would be delicious together. Maybe I cooked whatever was left in my fridge at the time, or maybe I just walked around the supermarket thinking, "what would be AWESOME to eat in a half hour?" So, after getting back from practice at 9:00 pm, I lit up the pans and got cooking.

For this meal, I cooked rice on the side while slowly caramelizing onions with some butter and olive oil. After they were almost done I threw in the snow peas, which cook quickly. A pinch of salt and sugar enhanced the flavor of the onions, and I threw it all on top of a bed of steaming rice. Lastly, I added some semi-hard cheese I had in the fridge to give the meal a salty and sour kick. the chunks of cheese quickly melted between the rice and vegetables and it all turned into a great dinner.

Nothing Special

A simple dinner of seasoned Chicken with sauteed Asparagus.

I know, it seems like I'm repeating meals. I am. There were some nights where I came home too exhausted to cook gourmet, and a simple asparagus and chicken dinner was just what I wanted to make. Nonetheless, it was easy and very tasty. For this chicken, I used a conglomerate of different spices. From what I can remember, the main spices were: salt, garlic powder, oregano, paprika, and a pinch of sugar.

To cook the meat, I used my perfect cast iron oven-cooking technique discussed in previous posts. For the asparagus, I threw it in a pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Easy. Good.

RIce and Brats

Another night of Sausages and pan-fried Rice.

So, I really liked the dinner I had the previous night. It was absolutely tasty, so I had to make it again. This time, my sausage of choice was one of Milwuakee's touted Brats that everyone loves here. They were good. For the rice tonight, I took the pan-frying a step further. In addition to crisping up the rice in the cast-iron with some spices and olive oil, I poured over it the water used to simmer the sausages in the other pan. This gave the rice a real meaty flavor, but nothing too strong. After simmering, covered, in a half inch of water, I fried the brats in the pan alongside the rice.

A Tale of Two Sausages

Two fresh Sausages, Asparagus, and Pan Fried Rice

Oh boy, this was a tasty dinner - even tastier than it looks. It's worth going into my cooking method for this meal, which I'm pretty proud of looking back.

So, for the week leading up to this dinner, I had been slowly seasoning my cast iron pan with fat from several steaks, multiple rounds of bacon, and other juicy meat drippings. I knew it was time to cash in on the flavor I had put into the pan. I started this meal by cooking a pot of sticky rice in my rice cooker. I recently switched to Japanese sushi rice for its flavor and great consistency; the one pain with it is that it must be thoroughly washed before cooking, else it gets overstarched and the rice cooker will foam over. Next, I simmered two fresh artisan sausages I picked up in Whole Foods in around an inch of water, with a cover on the pan to allow the whole sausage to cook.

After the rice and sausages were done, I tossed them into the sizzling hot cast iron pan, searing and glazing the sausages. With some spices and a drizzle of olive oil, I pan-fried the rice, allowing it to soak up the meat flavor from the pan. The asparagus got thrown into the original sausage pan, with a quarter inch of concentrated water that had soaked up flavor from the sausages. I added some oil to the water, and after the asparagus had soaked up all the flavor and the water boiled off, I sauteed them to give them a nice outside.

Plated together, this meal was great. The rice had a deep meat and seasoning flavor, but was still bland enough to offset the sharp flavor of the sausage. The asparagus still had its hearty flavor, but the savory sausage flavor had really penetrated into the vegetable. This was one great meal.

A Delectable Breakfast

Extra thick, smoked deli Bacon, Fried Eggs (over easy), Rosemary Bread drizzled with olive oil.

Well, I forgot to blog for the majority of this summer. So, I'll be posting mostly pictures without much commentary. But this delicious breakfast was the result of finding the Whole Foods near me. I couldn't resist buying delicious food, and I had a great breakfast the next day to show for it. Yum!

To Those Who Claim They Can't Cook

All of you who claim you can't cook - I'm calling you out. That's nonsense. One year ago I started cooking with nothing more than a cookbook, and a hungry belly. Honestly, most of cooking is about following directions. So, here's a meal for those who are living off of ramen noodles. It's cheap, it's easy, and it's damn right delicious.

Dry-rubbed chicken with coconut rice. Honestly, this takes 10 minutes to prepare.

This meal you can't mess up. The rice is coconut rice. Buy one can of unsweetened coconut milk, and mix it with 1 3/4 cups of water in a pot with 2 cups of rice. Add a pinch of salt and two pinches of sugar. Give it a stir, put a cover on, and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat down to barely nothing. Let this sit for 20 minutes, simmering gently after you reach a boil. At around 20 minutes, check on the rice. Stick a spoon in, and stir around. Most of the water should be gone. If it is, good, take the pot off the stove (it's done!). Otherwise check back on it in 5 minutes.

Ok, the chicken. Buy some chicken thighs. Preheat the oven to 350. Mix up a dry rub- equal parts of spices: oregano, ginger powder, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, salt (slightly less than an equal part), and paprika. Add some chili powder if you like it spicy. Rinse the chicken in cold water, pat it dry, then rub the dry rub all around it. Then, peel back the skin and rub the spices underneath the skin. Replace the skin. Drizzle with olive oil, rub it it, and place it in a pan (cast iron preferred).
Place the pan in the 350 degree oven and pull it out after 50 minutes. Perfect.

Plate the rice and chicken, and drizzle all that chicken juice from the pan onto the rice.
Wasn't that easy?

Baby, I'm Back

Sliced Skirt Steak flash fried to a crisp atop a thick mixture of cremini mushrooms and onion in a rosemary red wine reduction.

A bonus picture. Iceberg lettuce on bottom for a crunch, with tangy spring onions from the farmer's market.

After nine months of cafeteria food at college, I'm back in the kitchen making everything I desire to ingest. I'm back, and I'm hungry - get ready, it's going to be a wild summer.

Coming back from Ultimate Frisbee tonight, I knew I needed something delicious, absolutely savory to top my evening. So I fired up two burners, crisping up sliced skirt steak in a pan with olive oil at a high temperature. In the other skillet, I mixed equal parts of red wine and beef broth, reducing it with an onion that I sliced. As that simmered off I sliced a bunch of cremini mushrooms, sold to me at a farmer's market by a hippie claiming that his mushrooms were the "freshest". They were pretty fresh, but the hippie could have used a shower.

Anyway, I sprinkled some rosemary into the sauce, some salt and pepper, and a bouillon cube because I was out of stock. I spooned in some mustard to give it a bite,  then after tasting it, I realized a touch of cumin would neutralize the overwhelming floral taste of rosemary. After adding some milk and a pad of butter, I let it all reduce into a delicious mixture. I threw it all onto a bed of iceberg lettuce for a crunch, and sprinkled some tangy spring onions on top. I may have made up this entire meal, but it was great. The meat was crispy but juicy and a little pink inside. I left it unflavored, so it could be mixed with my onion and mushroom cream sauce. Offsetting all the richness was the crispy lettuce and tangy green onions. With a smile, I ate contently tonight.