FoodB

Here hoping you all have a good Thanksgiving. If not I hope you're at least enjoying the time off because I know I sure will be.

I made my Pumkpin Cheesecake last night. The process was a lot easier this time around cause I knew what to expect. I also used a bigger bowl for the mixing and that made life nicer. We have a handheld mixer and the last time I made the cheesecake I ended up spraying cake mix all over the walls. Since I am in charge of cleaning the kitchen I only had myself to blame.

Posted by Gordon at 08:50 AM | Permalink

2 Recipes for the price of one!

I was watching Everyday Food on PBS and they actually had recipes that made me curious. The show is okay but the recipes they make seem to be a little on the boring side. It is targeted for people that have only a little time to cook and generally they go pretty simple on the ingredients, so I tend to not try there recipes very often (what I really mean is to have Jenn make up the stuff I saw). This weeks episode actually had 2 recipes that interested me.

The first was for empanadas. I have never had South American food and I know that empanadas are pretty popular in Argentinean food. I have really been curious about Argentinean food lately ever since I saw that we have a restaurant fairly close to us that specializes in it. So instead of spending money on a restaurant that is new I decided to go ahead and try and make them myself. Here is the recipe they gave:

Empanadas

Filling:
2 pounds ground pork or beef
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 jalapeño chiles, minced (ribs and seeds removed for less heat, if desired)
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Dough:
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cold water
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water (do not beat until ready to bake)

1. Make the filling: In a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, cook meat until no longer pink, breaking it up into small pieces, 5 to 7 minutes.


2. Add onion and jalapeños; cook until soft, 5 minutes. Stir in chili powder and tomatoes. Cook over medium until mixture has thickened, 12 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in cilantro. Let cool.


3. Make the dough: In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Using your fingers, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add just enough cold water so dough comes together.


4. Form empanadas. If desired, freeze on a baking sheet until firm, 2 hours. Wrap tightly in plastic; freeze in plastic bags.


5. To bake fresh or frozen empanadas, preheat oven to 400°. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush tops with egg wash, avoiding crimped edges. Bake until golden brown, rotating sheets halfway through, 30 to 40 minutes.

The results were OK as far as I am concerned. The dough was great and Jenn and I got to discussing what else we could put in the dough. the filling on the other hand was kind of bland. The only time I usually get ground pork is in our meatloaf mix, and even then it is mixed with 2 other meats, so I don't know if that was the problem. Next time we are going to try putting some Italian items such as pancetta and mozzarella and make our own version of a hot pocket.

<rant>Speaking of which, shouldn't hot pockets be good. I enjoy all of the things that they put in them but every time I ever tried one, they were pretty nasty.</rant>

The other thing that they made were little puff pastry cookies. We had some pastry left over from a tart I tried to make that didn't work out so well and we always have plenty of jam lying around so this was pretty easy.

Puff Pastry Cookies (I think they are a version of a Napoleon)

1 Sheet of puff pastry, thawed
Fruit Jam of your choosing
4 Tbsp Sugar

1. Unfold the sheet of puff pastry dough. Cut 5 equal strips along the longer end (about 2 inches per strip).
2. Spread a light amount of the jam on 4 of the strips. If you add too much jam the pieces will not stick together well.
3. Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons of sugar on the jam.
4. Stack the 4 strips on top of each other. Add the uncovered strip to the top and place in the freezer for 15 minutes to set. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
5. Remove from the freezer and slice the pastry about 1/4 per slice. Place on a cookie sheet with about 1/2-inch space between pastries.
6. Sprinkle the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar on each piece.
7. Place in oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. The tops should be golden brown. Let cool and serve.

Note: I couldn't find the recipe online so I had to write it myself. Sorry if it doesn't make much sense because writing recipes appears not to be my forte.

This one was a big hit for both of us. Jenn almost attacked me last night because she was out of these. I used apricot jam which was very tasty as a filling. We have a lot of jam left from our Oregon days so I think I can make this one for the rest of the month. This one might even make it to our holiday celebrations. Good stuff!

Posted by Gordon at 03:10 PM | Permalink

This being sick business made me long for some soup. My usual destination for sickness fighting soup is Sam Woo's out in Irvine, but Jenn and I had already visited there once when we first started getting symptoms so I decided to ask my mother-in-law for her Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe instead. She found the recipe somewhere online and it's a fairly healthy fix for easy meals.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 or 2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped Onion
2 Cloves minced Garlic
3 chopped Green Onions
2(12oz.) cans Diced Tomatoes
4 cups Chicken Broth
1/3 cup Salsa
1/2 Red Pepper, chopped
1/2 Green Pepper, chopped
4 Celery Stalks, chopped
1/3 cup Cilantro
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Chill Powder
1/2 tsp. Basil

• Boil the chicken breasts in water. Once cooked, cut it up and set aside.
• Add all ingredients in a pot until the vegetables are tender.
• In a bowl, break some tortilla chips at the bottom of the bowl and sprinkle the desired amount of cheese in. Pour the soup over the tortilla chips and cheese and serve.

I guess I still have to work on this one because it wasn't near as good as when she makes it. The soup was pretty good but seemed to be missing something. I'll have to make it once with her help sometime and see what I was doing wrong. Speaking of which, she is going to help me make an apple pie for Thanksgiving. Now that's good stuff!

Posted by Gordon at 02:48 PM | Permalink

I'm so fraking sick of being sick. And yes, I realize I am watching to much Battlestar Galactica because now I am starting to curse like they do.

I first noticed that I was getting sick about 6 weeks ago and it's been a pretty miserable existence since then. I've been getting sore throats and some really crappy congestion off and on and I've been neglecting most of my chores since then. Jenn caught whatever it is this week and is lucky that she gets to stay at home and fight it off. I did go to the doctor and they told me I had allergies. I've had allergies since I was about 1 year old and I know when they are effecting me and this ain't it.

In the midst of all the suffering, I found time to BBQ on Sunday night. Food Network is doing a big Thanksgiving event for the next two weeks and I caught the Bobby Flay grilling show. He made an Turkey Breast with an orange sauce that really got my interest. So with all of this inspiration in my head, I went out to the store to get me some turkey breast and was pleased to find out that the five stores that I went to (including my beloved Plowboys) only sold from turkey breast with the rib cage still intact. I didn't have either the patience to wait for it to thaw nor the will to de-bone it so I settle on making his recipe with chicken thighs. Really good stuff! After rereading the recipe, I noticed that I omitted about half of the ingredients for the orange sauce (I only used orange juice, honey, lemon juice, onions and garlic) and the sauce was still pretty tasty. Here's a link to the recipe:

Brined Turkey Breast with Spanish Spice Rub and Sour Orange Sauce

Hopefully in the near future I am going to retry this recipe as it was intended. I still can't believe I couldn't find the type of turkey I wanted, two weeks before Thanksgiving. Oh well.

For Thanksgiving we are going up to Victorville and I am in charge of dessert. I am going to make the Pumpkin Cheesecake that I made for Halloween and try making an apple and pumpkin pie as well. Should be fun. I also found out that my family is serving ham for Thanksgiving. Now I love ham and all but it just seems a little to against the grain to not have turkey available. My parents have a pretty good grill so I'm thinking I will sneak some turkey legs up with me and make this recipe. It was also featured on the same episode of Boy Meets Grill and looked really good as well.

Note: just a quick note, that picture was one of the first to appear when I typed in Orange Chicken in google. Man I love the Internet!

Posted by Gordon at 03:12 PM | Permalink

Just a quick posting about a couple of cool restaurants that we have enjoyed in the last few weeks.

The first is Seoul Oak in Garden Grove. Jenn and I were craving Korean food one night and we live right next to the Korean district of Garden Grove. So we decided to go driving and see if we could find a place our friends in Oregon recommended to us and ended up finding something else entirely. Seoul Oak is a huge restaurant (two stories and bigger than most peoples houses) and we noticed right away that we were the only white people there. If you have never been to Korean BBQ before it can get pricy but the last time Jenn and I went with some friends (yes that means you Lee) that they added and all you can eat special. So now for the price of what one plate generally costs you can get three different varieties and it just keeps coming.

Just watch out for the kimchi though because it sneaks up on you.

The other place I found out about when I was trying to find a good Greek place near where we work. The OC Weekly did a review about the Greek Town Grill in Costa Mesa and I got Jenn to go along with trying it on our lunch break. We found out the hard way though that this place took a little to long to get to so we didn't get a chance to eat there that day but promised that we would try on the weekend. I'm glad we came back because this place isn't your typical greek fast food place (Daphne's) where the only thing they actually do is just assemble everything there. They make their own pita bread and the sauces feel homemade as well.

Posted by Gordon at 04:18 PM | Permalink