Wednesday, June 24, 2009
A challenge, if ye will...
So, I was talking to Joanna and we've decided to let people suggest what they want to see on here. Is there a recipe you've always wanted to know how to make? Something you vaguely remember from a restaurant visit long ago that you'd love to see recreated? Well, let me know. Put it in the comments or email me at vragis357 (at) gmail (dot) com and tell me what you want to see. I'll happily rise to the challenge and, if you're nice, possibly let you try the finished result or at least give you a recipe and step by step instructions. On the list so far is a chocolate cake/cheesecake combo for Joanna's roommate Amber. I await your orders kiddies...
Cake class, week two
This is a crappy picture from my Blackberry but making this cake amused me. The writing is fairly self explanatory. I had weird colors of icing going (never choose colors when you're tired) and used this cake as essentially a practice board for some techniques (and to get rid of excess icing). Thus, the writing is a disclaimer, if you will.
Anthony, grill master
While I generally eschew pictures of myself, I'm all about promoting friends. With that in mind, this is Anthony, the cook of that awesome Italian dish a couple weeks ago. I will admit, based on this picture, I'm not sure who's having more fun, him or the corn.
Here's the dinner he made. It's all from scratch.
Bacon wrapped steak, grilled corn, cheddar mashed potatoes, homemade beer bread, and wedge salad.
Next time I want to go to Ruth Chris, I'm just going to pay him to make me steak.
Here's the dinner he made. It's all from scratch.
Bacon wrapped steak, grilled corn, cheddar mashed potatoes, homemade beer bread, and wedge salad.
Next time I want to go to Ruth Chris, I'm just going to pay him to make me steak.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A pirate's life for me...
As I mentioned, Joanna and I are taking a cake decorating class. I've often said that my baked goods are delicious but I can't pipe for crap. Last night I made this cake. The lettering kinda sucks but I like the border I did and it amused me so I thought I'd share. This is NOT an admission of guilt so the RIAA, MPAA, and SBA can go suck a lemon.
L'chaim!
L'chaim!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Beef with Broccoli and Chicken Fried Rice
Anyone who knows me knows I love Asian food, be it Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, or good ol' Americanized Chinese. As such, I've lately been making things like Yakitori Chicken and Beef with Broccoli for lunches.
This is actually lunch from two weeks ago but I've been busy with things like cake class and my real job so I'm posting this a little late.
Fried rice is a great dish to make from leftovers. The first and not pictured step in making fried rice is cooking the rice. I do it ahead of time in my rice maker and toss it in the fridge. When cooking the rice, I prefer to not rinse it as I like making fried rice that is stickier and more like the Japanese variety than the Chinese. It's all a matter of taste.
The next day, break out the wok (or a big skillet) and brown some onion. Everything is better with onion...at least that's what the chewing gum and breath mint companies would have you believe. Set this aside.
Next, brown up some chicken or whatever protein you prefer and then set it aside. Or, skip this step and don't put any in. If you skip proteins, stare at the empty wok a second and ponder what might have been.
This looks like scrambled eggs, and it basically is. The main difference is 3 drops of soy sauce and 3 drops of sesame oil per egg. I use two because I love eggs. Set this aside.
Toss the onions in with the chicken and get it heated up again.
Then toss in your rice and some light soy sauce. This is also where you'd toss in carrot, bean sprouts, green onions, chuzwuzzles, or whatever else floats your boat. Just make it taste like you want it to.
There you have it. Fried rice. No real measuring required. So simple that anyone can do it...unless you're a zombie. I don't want zombies cooking for me. I'd be suspicious of the ingredients.
With the fried rice done, let's make some beef with broccoli to sit beautifully on top, shall we? This is another Cooks Illustrated recipe so I'm being intentionally vague to avoid litigation. If you haven't subscribed yet, what are you waiting for?
Once again, I'm slow with remembering the camera. Take your beef, about a pound or so, and marinate it in soy sauce for an hour or more. Then drain it and toss it in a really hot wok or skillet with a little oil (in my parlance, little means a tablespoon or so) and cook it till just done. Set it aside. Good stir fry is about cooking things quickly and in batches and then bringing it all together when the time is right.
These are frozen broccoli florets as I didn't feel like trimming a head of broccoli myself. If you go this route, make sure the bag says florets on it. It will be a little more expensive than broccoli pieces but you won't get chunks of the tough fibrous stem in the bag. I tossed them in a little more oil then threw in some water and covered the pan so it cooked quickly. Remember, high heat is important. Remove this to a paper towel lined tray.
Now briefly cook up a little red bell pepper. You could use green but the color contrast is nicer with red and they are a little sweeter.
Now we add the aromatics. Minced garlic and ginger.
Finally we bring it all together. Everything back in the pan. It's like a high school reunion for ingredients except no one is divorced or still stuck on the four touchdowns they scored in that homecoming game...
This is also when you'd add sauce. You can go the jar sauce route or make it yourself. Mine had sherry, chicken broth, oyster sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and tapioca starch (same deal as cornstarch but more common in asian cuisine. Use interchangeably).
PF Changs, eat your heart out.
L'Chaim!
This is actually lunch from two weeks ago but I've been busy with things like cake class and my real job so I'm posting this a little late.
Fried rice is a great dish to make from leftovers. The first and not pictured step in making fried rice is cooking the rice. I do it ahead of time in my rice maker and toss it in the fridge. When cooking the rice, I prefer to not rinse it as I like making fried rice that is stickier and more like the Japanese variety than the Chinese. It's all a matter of taste.
The next day, break out the wok (or a big skillet) and brown some onion. Everything is better with onion...at least that's what the chewing gum and breath mint companies would have you believe. Set this aside.
Next, brown up some chicken or whatever protein you prefer and then set it aside. Or, skip this step and don't put any in. If you skip proteins, stare at the empty wok a second and ponder what might have been.
This looks like scrambled eggs, and it basically is. The main difference is 3 drops of soy sauce and 3 drops of sesame oil per egg. I use two because I love eggs. Set this aside.
Toss the onions in with the chicken and get it heated up again.
Then toss in your rice and some light soy sauce. This is also where you'd toss in carrot, bean sprouts, green onions, chuzwuzzles, or whatever else floats your boat. Just make it taste like you want it to.
There you have it. Fried rice. No real measuring required. So simple that anyone can do it...unless you're a zombie. I don't want zombies cooking for me. I'd be suspicious of the ingredients.
With the fried rice done, let's make some beef with broccoli to sit beautifully on top, shall we? This is another Cooks Illustrated recipe so I'm being intentionally vague to avoid litigation. If you haven't subscribed yet, what are you waiting for?
Once again, I'm slow with remembering the camera. Take your beef, about a pound or so, and marinate it in soy sauce for an hour or more. Then drain it and toss it in a really hot wok or skillet with a little oil (in my parlance, little means a tablespoon or so) and cook it till just done. Set it aside. Good stir fry is about cooking things quickly and in batches and then bringing it all together when the time is right.
These are frozen broccoli florets as I didn't feel like trimming a head of broccoli myself. If you go this route, make sure the bag says florets on it. It will be a little more expensive than broccoli pieces but you won't get chunks of the tough fibrous stem in the bag. I tossed them in a little more oil then threw in some water and covered the pan so it cooked quickly. Remember, high heat is important. Remove this to a paper towel lined tray.
Now briefly cook up a little red bell pepper. You could use green but the color contrast is nicer with red and they are a little sweeter.
Now we add the aromatics. Minced garlic and ginger.
Finally we bring it all together. Everything back in the pan. It's like a high school reunion for ingredients except no one is divorced or still stuck on the four touchdowns they scored in that homecoming game...
This is also when you'd add sauce. You can go the jar sauce route or make it yourself. Mine had sherry, chicken broth, oyster sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and tapioca starch (same deal as cornstarch but more common in asian cuisine. Use interchangeably).
PF Changs, eat your heart out.
L'Chaim!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Food from friends...
Apparently good cooks congregate together because I got this picture today from Joanna's roommate Amber. Her boyfriend Anthony made an Italian feast last night.
Her description:
"It is a picture of hot italian sausage stuffed into banana peppers and then rolled in cheese/pizza dough. On the side is bow tie pasta with spaghetti and sausage. It looks good and was delicious, and so I took a picture of it."
I heartily concur. It looks fabulous. Next time I'm inviting myself over for dinner and will nosily take pictures in his kitchen while it is prepared.
L'chaim!
Her description:
"It is a picture of hot italian sausage stuffed into banana peppers and then rolled in cheese/pizza dough. On the side is bow tie pasta with spaghetti and sausage. It looks good and was delicious, and so I took a picture of it."
I heartily concur. It looks fabulous. Next time I'm inviting myself over for dinner and will nosily take pictures in his kitchen while it is prepared.
L'chaim!
Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Joanna got a membership to Cooks Illustrated Online, the online version of the magazine of the same name. She's been letting me browse through the site and I've found some great stuff on there. What I really like about it is that they provide you with tips and techniques which make one more apt to try something new. They also have great product comparisons and reviews. Since this recipe comes off their paid site, I'm going to approximate what I did so as not to infringe on copyrights. If you like what you see, spend the $15 bucks for the one year membership. As my friend Jimmy would say, it's a fine deal.
This required a lot of prep work so you gotta REALLY like cooking or have a bit of a masochistic streak. In other words, this will never end up on Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals. We have dijon mustard, oil, white wine, chicken broth, mushrooms, leeks, garlic, parsley, thyme, lemon juice, butter, and butterflied chicken breasts pounded to about a quarter inch.
The first step is sauteing the mushrooms. I love mushrooms. They are one of the many things I hated as a child but tried again as an adult and now adore. Spinach falls in the same category. Let that be a lesson to you. You should give pretty much all food experiences a shot...with the exception of eating bugs. That's just gross.
Once the mushrooms are good and cooked, toss in those leeks. This made me want to make potato leek soup, so I shall. Leeks taste like a mild onion. If you didn't know, now you do, and knowing is half the battle, or so they tell me.
Now let's make all this jibber jabber aromatic by tossing in garlic and parsley. Thyme came late to the party. Rosemary and sage stayed home that day.
Once this all got cooked, I set it aside, deglazed the pan with white wine, and set that aside. This doesn't look like much but it's the beginning of a beautiful sauce.
Our lovely mushroom, leek, garlic, parsley mixture gets together in the cozy mini food processor. As in real estate, cozy means ridiculously small.
Mix that up with some chicken I pureed left over from trimming the breasts, the rosemary, and some salt and pepper and voila! You have stuffing. Either I have Parkinson's or my camera stinks at focusing.
Spread this out among 4 flattened breasts like so, and then roll and tie them up tight. I wasn't kidding when I said this was labor intensive.
I made a little baby one because I could. So there.
After browning them on all 4 sides (yes I know a circle doesn't have sides), you cook them in the white wine and broth for about 18 minutes. As the recipe says, you need an instant read thermometer to make sure the stuffing is cooked too since it has raw chicken in it.
Mmmmmm...look at that. They can chill out for a minute while I make some sauce.
In goes the mustard and it gets reduced down. Once it has reduced, the butter and lemon juice are added along with salt to taste. If I had one critique of this recipe, it would be not enough sauce. Next time I'll double it because it was phenomenal.
Cut it into medallions and drizzle with sauce. I served it with white rice and green beans I blanched and then tossed in a simple reduction of butter and balsamic vinegar. The white wine was already open so might as well drink it, right? You never want to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink...except maybe Marsala. I think that would burn off the lining of your stomach. Anything called "fortified wine" kinda scares me.
And, of course, what is dinner without dessert? Joanna made Dulce de Leche cheesecake/custard. That was her gig so I didn't document it. I really just forgot to as I was busy licking the spoon after she made the caramel in the first step.
Holy crap it was good.
L'Chaim!
This required a lot of prep work so you gotta REALLY like cooking or have a bit of a masochistic streak. In other words, this will never end up on Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals. We have dijon mustard, oil, white wine, chicken broth, mushrooms, leeks, garlic, parsley, thyme, lemon juice, butter, and butterflied chicken breasts pounded to about a quarter inch.
The first step is sauteing the mushrooms. I love mushrooms. They are one of the many things I hated as a child but tried again as an adult and now adore. Spinach falls in the same category. Let that be a lesson to you. You should give pretty much all food experiences a shot...with the exception of eating bugs. That's just gross.
Once the mushrooms are good and cooked, toss in those leeks. This made me want to make potato leek soup, so I shall. Leeks taste like a mild onion. If you didn't know, now you do, and knowing is half the battle, or so they tell me.
Now let's make all this jibber jabber aromatic by tossing in garlic and parsley. Thyme came late to the party. Rosemary and sage stayed home that day.
Once this all got cooked, I set it aside, deglazed the pan with white wine, and set that aside. This doesn't look like much but it's the beginning of a beautiful sauce.
Our lovely mushroom, leek, garlic, parsley mixture gets together in the cozy mini food processor. As in real estate, cozy means ridiculously small.
Mix that up with some chicken I pureed left over from trimming the breasts, the rosemary, and some salt and pepper and voila! You have stuffing. Either I have Parkinson's or my camera stinks at focusing.
Spread this out among 4 flattened breasts like so, and then roll and tie them up tight. I wasn't kidding when I said this was labor intensive.
I made a little baby one because I could. So there.
After browning them on all 4 sides (yes I know a circle doesn't have sides), you cook them in the white wine and broth for about 18 minutes. As the recipe says, you need an instant read thermometer to make sure the stuffing is cooked too since it has raw chicken in it.
Mmmmmm...look at that. They can chill out for a minute while I make some sauce.
In goes the mustard and it gets reduced down. Once it has reduced, the butter and lemon juice are added along with salt to taste. If I had one critique of this recipe, it would be not enough sauce. Next time I'll double it because it was phenomenal.
Cut it into medallions and drizzle with sauce. I served it with white rice and green beans I blanched and then tossed in a simple reduction of butter and balsamic vinegar. The white wine was already open so might as well drink it, right? You never want to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink...except maybe Marsala. I think that would burn off the lining of your stomach. Anything called "fortified wine" kinda scares me.
And, of course, what is dinner without dessert? Joanna made Dulce de Leche cheesecake/custard. That was her gig so I didn't document it. I really just forgot to as I was busy licking the spoon after she made the caramel in the first step.
Holy crap it was good.
L'Chaim!
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