It's 8 days into spring and it's been snowing all day. The ground temperature and surround is above 32F so nothing is sticking.
Spring Tulips are starting to bloom, but snow this late in the year? Intersting that this year the tulips are a solid bright yellow... last year the tulips where pink and yellow. Must have to do with the pH of the soil.
For dinner I had one fresh chicken breast remaining... quickly made fajita tacos.
1/2 onion, sliced 1/3 bell pepper, sliced into strips 1 clove garlic, minced salt and pepper 1/3 C Salsa 1 T oil
Heated oil and sauteed the onions, garlic, bell pepper and chicken together with a few sprinkles of salt and a couple grinds of black pepper, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Added the salsa, stirred and covered to let the chicken finish cooking, about 3 to 5 minutes.
The Final Dish
Steamed the tortillas in the chicken mixture for about 30 seconds.
Dressed with green chile salsa, lettuce and the chicken "fajita" mixture. Sprinkled a little shredded cheddar cheese for flavor.
Since the casserole from last night was sort of rice pudding like, I wondered if I can pan-fry the rice sort of like pan-frying polenta.
Pan-frying the rice - used a little oil and butter.
The Final Dish The pan-fried rice cakes
The rest of the dish. The chicken was cubed and mixed with cream of mushroom soup (that's all I had) so the chicken wouldn't be as dry. Also, I steamed more broccoli since I wanted more veggies.
Overall, the dish was okay. Nothing to rave about.
Tonight is casserole night. My goal was to make something simple and have enough leftovers for lunch.
I have two recipes in mind.
The first uses cooked ingredients and the second recipe uses raw ingredients. I was torn between doing what I know would work, the first recipe, and just wanting to throw everything in at once and not worrying about it, but I only had raw ingredients.
My attempt at a casserole... I know I wanted broccoli and I had chicken so I looked at both recipes and combined techniques.
The Fixins' 1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup 4 chicken Breast, Raw 2 C Rice, uncooked 2 C Broth 2 C Broccoli, par-boiled Black pepper Garlic Powder Grated Cheddar
Mix the soup, broth and add rice. Add broccoli Top with chicken breast, a little black pepper and garlic powder.
Bake 375 for about 45 minutes Top with Cheddar and bake another 10 minutes
The Final Dish
Overall, the dish was not that good in terms of texture, flavor was okay. The rice was almost rice pudding like where the texture was very soft. The chicken was a little dry. The broccoli was actually okay considering the broccoli was cooked over 45 minutes.
My plan was not to spend the time cooking, but I knew I should have cooked everything before forming the casserole. Since I went down the no-cook path, my initial thought was to place the broth and rice on the bottom, cover with a thick layer of broccoli and mix the raw chicken and cream of chicken soup together to form the top layer.
What I did instead, since I forgot my initial plan, was mixed the broth and soup with the rice to form the bottom layer. I didn't have a thick layer of broccoli and the chicken was placed on top bare. That's when I remembered my initial plan. Oh well.
Next time I'll just spend the time cooking everything separately before combining to let the flavors meld in the oven.
In terms of time, it would have worked out the same and I would have had time to do the extra dished while the casserole was baking.
After a week of beef and "fancy" eating, I was in the mood for a light meal.
I remembered I had a bottle of Ponzu Sauce I found while walking through the aisles of a local Asian market.
Citrus seasoned soy sauce. Hmm... That sounds interesting. I like a squeeze of lemon or lime in my food. Also, I must be a sucker for pretty packages. I wonder if the kanji means "Buy me" or some other subliminal messages. :-)
I pulled out the George Foreman. A few dashes of salt and a couple grinds, plus a couple drops of olive oil on a chicken breast. Grilled about 5 minutes and done.
I dipped a piece of chicken breast in the Ponzu sauce and the other Kikkoman soy sauce. The soy sauce is definately saltier and has a stronger malty aroma and taste. The ponzu sauce is about half as strong as the soy sauce, but it also has a tartness to the flavor, from the citrus. Not bad. Would make a good dipping sauce for potstickers or tempura. However, for stronger flavored foods, I believe the subtle tartness would be washed out.
The Final Dish Grilled chicken breast, a wedge of iceberg lettuce and orange segments (in fancy restaurants known as orange supremes - orange segments with the skin, pith, membrane and seeds removed)... dressed with a Ponzu dressing.
The taste was like a Chinese-style chicken salad without the puffy noodles and toasted almond slivers. A light soy sauce flavor was enhanced by the nuttiness of the toasted sesame seeds.
For the dressing, I just kept it simple. 1 T Ponzu 1/2 t olive oil a drop or two of toasted sesame seed oil
I had a partial sheet of puff pastry dough leftover from my Beef Wellington dinner. The leftover bits of puff pastry dough measured roughly 3 inch x 9 inch, plus a 2" x 9 inch trim piece.
I made butterfly cookies which are also known as palmier cookies.
Butterfly cookies were popular when I was younger when we'd go to Chinatown. A local bakery sold these treats that were easily the size of a saucer. The cookies were flaky, crispy, slightly sweet and had a light glaze.
The leftover bits are too small to make gigantic saucer-size treats, but large enough for a small palm-size cookies.
The method: 1. Lay the flat sheets on the counter, sprinkle sugar on both sides, as if you were making cinnamon toast. In fact, I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on the "inside".
2. Roll the sheets forming a roll or roll from both ends so the spiral meets in the middle.
3. Cut the spirals to about a 1/4" thickness.
4. I used parchment paper so the the cookies wouldn't stick. Would they stick without parchment paper? I'm not sure.
5. Bake 425F for about 12 minutes. I checked at 10 minutes and let the cookies bake until golden brown.
What am I going to make for dinner? I wanted to try something different, unique and special.
I've decided to do Beef Wellington. Beef Wellington is a beef tenderloin, layered with sauteed mushrooms (the fancy name is mushroom duxelles), pate and wrapped in puff pastry.
I enjoy watching reality cooking shows and one common dish seen on Gordon Ramsay's show is Beef Wellington.
Gordon Ramsay making Beef Wellington
I've had Salmon en Croute, salmon in puff pastry, but not Beef Wellington. My curiosity has motivated me to try making the dish, but on a smaller scale.
My version of Beef Wellington Steak
1 beef Filet Mignon about 1.5 inches thick - 6 to 8 ounces Salt and Pepper
8 ounces of mushrooms, finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped (about the size of a 1/4 onion) 2 pinches thyme Salt and pepper
2 slices Prosciutto. My original goal was to make the Beef Wellington with pate, but pate is difficult to find so I used Ramsay's video as a guide.
1 Sheet Puff Pastry
Step 1. Salt and pepper the steak
Step 2: Chop the mushrooms and shallot
Step 3: Brown the steak on both sides about 2 minutes per side. The main reason for browning is to develop some flavor. Note that the steak is not thoroughly cooked. Afterwards, the steak was placed in the refrigerator to cool down.
Step 4: While the steak is cooling down, the mushrooms were sauteed with a little oil and butter. Salt and pepper plus the thyme was added at this time. The head was medium-low. We're sweating the mixture and drying it out, not browning. Also, looking at many recipes for mushroom duxelle some call for red wine/Madeira while others called for cream.
The mixture after cooking. The taste is nice. A little red wine in the saute would have been nice too.
Step 5: The prosciutto and mushroom mixture are laid out on plastic wrap.
Step 6: The cooled steak is wrapped with the ham and mushroom mixture. Again refrigerated to ensure the product is cool
Step 7: Setting up the steak on the puff pastry
Step 8: Trimming the puff pastry leaving about 1" overlap. The puff pastry was unwrapped and a little egg wash was brushed along the edges to help glue the edges together.
Step 9: Wrapped like a Christmas present (I'm terrible at wrapping) and ready for baking.
Step 10: Baked 425F for about 25 minutes. The Wellington was allowed to rest on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.
Cut in half... The beef filet is cooked to medium. Just the way I like it. I lucked out. :-)
The Final Dish The steak is enough for two. Served with smashed red potatoes infused with garlic and horseradish with a couple spoonfuls of beef jus. The cabbage is steamed and lightly sauteed and topped fried prosciutto.
Overall the dish was nice. The puff pastry will become soggy if allowed to rest too long which this dish was on the verge. I've read on different websites that you can put a layer of bread or a pancake between the puff pastry and the meat mixture. This would seem like too much breading for my liking.
The prosciutto I used turned out to be smoked which overpowered some mushroom mixture.
The mushroom mixture was good. A splash of red wine would have improved it especially when served with beef.
Would I order this dish in a restaurant? Probably not. I like the steak to be simple with a good sauce. Although a sauce can be made for this dish, it just seems that the sauce would want to ruin the puff pastry.
I had some leftover corned beef and roasted potatoes so I decided to make corned beef hash. When I go out for breakfast, corned beef hash or biscuits and gravy are my two must tries at a restaurant, but not at the same seating. lol :-P
The Fixins' 3/4 C roasted potatoes, coarse chop 3/4 C corned beef, coarse chop 2 T onion, coarse chop 1 T bell pepper, coarse chop 1.2 T parsley 1/4 t garlic powder Pinch of tarragon Pinch of thyme
Of course, being a guy I have to use every dish, pot and pan, plus pull out appliances to make this dish.
I typically just chop and fry, but this time I wanted to try a finer mince so I dumped all of the ingredients into the mini food processor and gave it a few pulses.
The ingredients after a few pulses. This looked good to me. I didn't want a mash. The mixture at this point looked a little dry, but I continued on.
Pan frying the corned beef hash in a canola oil/butter mixture, about 1 T (T = Tablespoon). I remember watching the show, Good Eats, and Alton Brown used a weight to cook his corned beef hash recipe. I believe the weight acts to increase the contact area and help brown the hash, similar to a bacon press. I used a sauce pan filled with water as the weight. Pot #2. :-)
The hash did not flip as a pancake, but turned out crumbly. I also poached a couple eggs as a topper.
Corned beef hash topped with two poached eggs and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. I got a little distracted and didn't flip the hash sooner. The crispy bits are a little dark. :-)
The Final Dish Corned beef hash, poached eggs served with a buttered English muffin. Instead of Hollandaise sauce, ketchup and Louisiana style hot sauce was used.
Overall, the dish had good flavor but was a little dry and crumbly. I was hoping for something a little more moist and cohesive.
Corned beef hash was originally based upon leftovers. I had some cabbage and carrots from the St. Patrick's Day meal, but didn't want that in this dish. However, those veggies would have added extra moisture to the dish. Also, the roasted potatoes I did use are drier than boiled potatoes.
Next time boiled potatoes will be used and that should increase the moistness of the dish. Also, increasing the veggies a little - onions, bell pepper, fresh garlic and parsley, will help too. Finally, a little broth can be added to increase moisture and flavor.
Final utensil count Pot and Pan Count: 3 (Frying pan, weight pan and poached egg pot) Appliance: Food processor Other: Cutting board, knife, slotted spoon, spatula
