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.

A farewell.

So, the continual feast that has been this summer is finally coming to an end. A really anti-climactic ending. I was planning on a huge dinner to end it all, with all sorts of tasty stuff in it. Unfortunately, I realized how much food I accumulated this summer, and my final week in the apartment is being dubbed as "feast week" as I finish off my stores of food. Sadly I don't have anything left to cook except troves of canned soup.

However, it has been a great summer - a really delicious one too. So as I look back at all the good food I ate, it has been fun writing and photographing my food. Most importantly, it has been fun eating and cooking it as well. I hope I've inspired at least one person to enjoy a tasty meal, or at least made your mouth water.

May you eat decadently,
    -Chris

Garden Fresh

Some Fresh Cucumber from my mommy's garden. Also featuring olive oil, salt and pepper.

Spelt Pasta with Garlic Alfredo Sauce, mixed with garden Tomatoes and Basil

My weekend was awesome. My family came to visit me, and brought gifts! Along with a great weekend in Boston, they gave me a bunch of food from my mom's awesome garden. To start off this summer supper, I sliced some garden cucumbers and topped them with a drizzle of olive oil, some course salt, and ground black pepper. Crunchy, cool, delicious.

My main course was a very simple dish. I used some garlic alfredo sauce from the store on top of some spelt pasta, and added in an extremely flavorful garden tomato. To top it off, I shredded some basil leaves off the small plant I have growing on my windowsill. All in all, this was a simple dish and salad, but it was fresh, tasty, and fit in well with the summer weather.

Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken

Chicken Thighs, herb roasted, covered with Thai Maple Peanut sauce

Chicken Thighs without the sauce: Olive Oil, Oregano, Pepper, Salt

This was a simple meal. After waking up sore from a workout the day before, I craved protein. My shakes weren't cutting it - I needed real meat. So I picked up some thighs and made them perfectly, but simply. After rinsing them, I drizzled them with olive oil and rubbed in salt, freshly dried oregano, and lots of freshly ground pepper. In my cast iron pan, I cooked it at 425 degrees for around 30 minutes. I took it out, made a quick slice to ensure it was cooked, took a temperature reading for doneness, and put it on a plate. I poured on some Thai Maple Peanut sauce that I bought from a local farm, and dug in.

Apart from this delicious form of protein, I found a great way of eating a salad - raw and with a decadent meat dish. The meat was so rich that I didn't need a salad to go along with it. After eating some meat, I just took a bunch of washed lettuce in my hand and bit into it. It was a great pairing! The savory meat played with the sweet maple syrup-based peanut sauce. This all contrasted with the bitter, fresh, aqueous taste of straight lettuce. Did it look classy eating four chicken breasts and biting into handfuls of lettuce leaves? No. But it was a delicious dinner for a starving guy.

I Make Shit Up

Beans, Basil, Beef, Butter. Also, some Mushrooms and Elbow Pasta

So. I know it's been a while since I last blogged. A few lazy nights of soup, and then some captivating episodes of Breaking Bad left me looking at my camera and promising to myself, "I'll definitely write up the blog for that tomorrow". Yeah right. I am very decent at lying to myself. But I didn't lie to myself when making this dish - I just put in whatever I thought would be delicious.

It had been a couple of nights of non-cooking, and I was in the grocery food store staring at the boxes of instant Mac & Cheese and my hand was starting to gravitate towards them. Then, like a good guilty conscience, the image of that box of raw elbow macaroni in my pantry popped into my head. I had to make Macaroni and Cheese myself. But no- it wouldn't be any ordinary Mac & Cheese, it would be Chris's awesome version of Mac & Cheese.

So, I embarked upon a small journey of cooking an eclectic Mac & Cheese variant, using mostly ingredients I already had. I started off by defrosting a half pound of ground beef, browning it in the pan as it warmed up from a frozen block. When I could break it apart, I added a bit of butter and sliced mushrooms, letting them all cook together, blending flavors. After a few stirs, I added a can of drained black beans. I let it simmer until most of the water had evaporated Finally, I sliced up the entire block of cheddar and placed the slices on top of the concoction, letting it melt through as the steam and food heated it from below. After the pasta was finished cooking, I mixed it in with the sauce. With some salt and pepper, and enough basil leaves to de-leaf half my little basil plant, the dish was finished. What a meal.

Bok Choy & Chorizo

Chorizo sausage and sauteed Bok Choy.

I came home this weekend with some fresh chorizo sausage, and with a few spare heads of baby bok choy in the fridge. I cooked them up together, letting the juice leaking out of the sausage flavor and saute the greens. To enhance the flavor, I added a plentiful mix of chili flakes and chili powder.

This was an easy meal, which used the overpowering flavor of the spicy choizo sausage to play against the smooth taste of the bok choy. It ended up as a perfect balance of flavors and textures. Between the crunch of the greens and the chewiness of the meat, this meal was a savory blend of two different ethnic cuisines.

These are a few of my Favorite Things

16 ounces of Dry-aged, Grass-fed Beef. Rib Eye cooked perfectly.

A scrumptious stir-fry of Snow Peas and Baby Bok Choy.

Like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, I felt like skipping through mountain fields of flowers as I walked out of Whole Foods with some nicely marbled beef. Not really. It was just a Friday after three days of eating rice. This was my economic model in action: I saved up money for a few days, so I could blow it later. Oh, and I ate well.

This dinner was composed of a succulent stir-fry of snow peas and baby bok choy, and a full 16 ounce rib eye steak made with dry-aged, grass-fed beef.

I started stir-fry with olive oil in a hot pan, cooking bok choy and snow peas slowly, letting them soften up and absorb the sauces in the pan. I added in: soy sauce, some thickening/flavoring sauce made for stir-frys, chili flakes, and hoisin sauce. When the vegetables looked near completion, I cooked my steak just how I like it. You can find my steak recipe in my previous post, "Steak." It came out as I expected, with the juices seared in, tender and flavorful, and medium rare.

The dinner hit the spot, it was just what I needed after a long week.

Bacon and Pasta Make Great Mates

Fetuccini Carbonara - Savory blend of Bacon, Garlic, Romano, Egg, with fresh Italian Parsley

So my buddies from Jersey came up to visit this weekend, and so I had to make something hearty and delicious before our long night of festivities and catching up. Also, I wasn't about to toil for hours over dinner while they kicked back with beers. Enter Fetuccini Carbonara,  one of the most delicious and easy recipes out there.

This recipe was really simple. First, I used a saucepan with a flat bottom but high sides. The pasta will later be mixed into it. Heat it up, and start to cook some strips of bacon in it. Meanwhile, boil a large pot of water for your pasta. Next, As you throw the pasta into the water, toss some finely chopped garlic into the pan with the bacon. As the pasta cooks, whisk an egg or two in a cup and grate about a cup of romano or parmesan cheese. When the pasta finishes, strain it and dump it in with the bacon and garlic. Now pour your cheese and egg over the top and continually mix with the heat off, until the egg is just cooked (don't overcook the egg! If it's a little runny, that will add flavor). Put it in a bowl and top with fresh parsley. Done. Probably less than 45 minutes of cooking, and this dish is great.

Eat up folks!

Chris Takes a Cooking Shortcut

Veal Tacos, made extra spicy. I'm not going to lie, these are mostly from a taco kit.

That enormous batch of risotto filled me up with many days of leftovers. I also had a long day at work. So I cooked a semi pre-made meal tonight. But hey! I'm not here to make excuses, especially since this is my blog! I clearly went into this summer with the intention of cooking anything and everything that I had a craving for. I craved tacos today and I made them. They were delicious.

I guess it wasn't fully the conventional taco, so I'll let you in on my recipe. I picked up some taco shells and taco seasoning today, along with one of those pre-shredded bags of mixed cheeses. You know, those next to the cream cheese that look delicious but end up tasting like cheese powder. If we're going to do fake mexican food, we might as well do it the American way.

The shells crisped in the oven for a few minutes, while my ground veal browned in some olive oil. Next came the addition of some water and the packet of taco seasoning. As it simmered, I added a generous pouring of Mexican Chili Powder, and my awesome super-spicy chili flakes. These chili flakes were made last semester after regular chili flakes weren't spicy enough for me. I took a bunch of dried tiny Thai Peppers and ground them up in a food processor. BAM. Very spicy chili flakes with little flavor. Next fall I might attempt it with ghost peppers, but we'll see.

I finished the dish with the cheese mixture, freshly diced tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, and a generous helping of my favorite salsa picante. My best effort cooking? No. Delicious? Yes.

Saffron and Adobo, a Yellow Friday

Chicken Drumsticks baked with Adobo seasoning, freshly dried Oregano, Olive Oil.

Risotto with Carnaroli rice, and Saffron for color and taste.

A big 'ol dish worth of delicious cheesy-rice.

Today I picked up some expensive herb. No, not that herb - I'm talking saffron! Tonight was a theme of yellow-colored seasonings and herbs. To satisfy my need of meat, I decided to roast some drumsticks of chicken. For flavor, I tried out my roommate's bottled Adobo seasoning (found in large quantities in any ethnic supermarket). I had passed by her room too many times smelling deliciously seasoned poultry and shrimp. So, although it was less exciting seasoning from a pre-made mix, it paid off. But of course, I couldn't just have chicken for dinner. To make it a meal, I made a large batch of saffron risotto.

I'll start with the simple stuff- the chicken. To make it, I poured on the bottled adobo seasoning (again, you can find this at any supermarket) and added some newly dried oregano that my mom gifted me from her garden. I drizzled some olive oil in my cast iron skillet and over the meat, and I placed it in the oven at 350, for 45 minutes. Halfway through, I flipped the drumsticks and gave them an additional olive oil drizzle and freshly ground salt and pepper. That's it. The chicken was easy, but came out deliciously seasoned through to the bone, and juicy tender throughout. Perfect.

The risotto was a little more of a process. I got my recipe from the Joy of Cooking (go buy that book, it's the bible of cooking!). The important part of this recipe was both the saffron and the rice grain used. I used a traditional Italian Carnaroli rice which really worked out well with this recipe. The saffron was also important - being the most expensive spice in the world, hand picked from flowers that yield only a few stigmas each. Risotto was a very long cooking process that involved simmering rice with saffron, onions and chicken broth for hours. The chicken broth is added very slowly, as the rice absorbs it. Eventually, the mixture is extremely creamy even though minimal butter was used. In the end, you add a bunch of parmesan or romano cheese and it thickens up a bit more. Although work intensive, risotto is a very easy recipe that calls for few ingredients (but a ton of broth!). I cheated a bit by buying one box of very expensive chicken stock, and then using bouillon powder to make the other 6 cups of broth that the recipe called for.

I'm stuffed now, and satisfied by this delicious meal. It'll definitely feed a large family, or at least me for a couple of days. Happy eating!

Italian Inspiration

Capellini Pasta with fresh Greens and Herbs, tossed with a sauce of roasted Corn, Garlic, Cheese, and Lemon juice

So my weekend back in NJ was nice and relaxing. Of course, I had to pick up some cooking supplies while back! New in my kitchen are a nice set of measuring spoons and dry measuring cups. Furthermore, I sprung for proper salt and pepper grinders! So, atop my Capellini dish tonight is freshly ground black peppercorns and nice large flakes of pink Himalayan salt (haven't you always wondered what it tasted like?) Well pink salt tastes pretty good, a slightly richer version of normal table salt, with some extra minerals in it and a cool hue.

Back in my non-air conditioned apartment, I knew I had to make something summery to match the 'sunny' weather outside. Sunny is putting it lightly. What I made was a very fresh tasting pasta dish -  the best part being the raw green leaves mixed with roasted corn and garlic. The dish starts out with an oven roasting of the garlic (in foil with olive oil), and entire ears of corn in the husk at 400°. For the corn to cook perfectly, leave it in for 25 minutes and try to ignore the smell of burning husk - your corn is safe and juicy inside!

For the base sauce, I followed a suggested recipe using a bit of blue cheese, a bunch of mascarpone, and a dab of butter mixed with a quarter cup of grated romano cheese. This was mixed together with the second part of the sauce, a lot of corn, prosciutto,  some olive oil, a head and a half of roasted garlic, and the juice and zest of two lemons. Finally, this was mixed in with capellini pasta, and tossed with herbs and greens. For the herbs, I used plenty fresh basil, parsley, and chives. The greens were from a mixed batch I bought: a bitter mix including chard, radiccio, arugula, red romaine, spinach, and other goodies.

All together, this was an awesome supper. The mix of creamy sauce with roasted corn and ground pepper contrasted nicely with the sharp bitter crunch of the herbs and greens. If there is one dish you try for fun this summer - make it this one:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Capellini-with-Fresh-Ricotta-Roasted-Garlic-Corn-and-Herbs-242499
(Instead of ricotta, use 2 T softened unsalted butter, 4 oz imported mascarpone, dollop of gorgonzola, 2-4 T of pasta cooking water. Add at the end: 5 slices of prosciutto, cut into thin slivers)




 

Getting Creative with Leftovers

Fried Rice, made with yesterday's peppers and onions

So today is a short post, for a small dinner. As I opened my fridge tonight and brought out the bowls of leftover grilled peppers and onions and plain white/brown rice, I was less than enthused at the prospect of a bland, microwaved supper. So, I put two and two together (literally! aha!) and made a stir-fry. Into the pan went the rice and vegetables, along with some soy sauce and sesame oil. Several minutes later, voila! I had a delicious, hot dinner. I ate my fried rice happily.