FoodB

We tried a new fried chicken recipe last night and I think we have a new favorite ladies and gentlemen.

Back in August, Jenn learned how to make her mom's fried chicken. The recipe is really good and I must say that I have enjoyed it every time it has been made for me. But Jenn and I were watching Tyler Florence, who is becoming one of our favorite TV chefs at the moment, and he made up some fried chicken that we just had to try. He used a different approach than the one we used for Jenn's moms recipe and he submerged the chicken in oil instead of pan frying it. Also he added some flavor to the flour and buttermilk to thicken the skin. Here's the recipe:

Fried Chicken

1 (3 to 4 pound) chicken, cut up into 10 pieces
Kosher salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons cayenne
Freshly ground black pepper
1 quart buttermilk
2 tablespoons hot chili sauce
Peanut oil, for frying
1/4 bunch fresh thyme
3 big sprigs fresh rosemary
1/4 bunch fresh sage
1/2 head garlic, smashed, husk still attached
Lemon wedges, for serving

1. Put the chicken pieces into a large bowl. Cover the chicken with water by 1 inch; add 1 tablespoon of salt for each quart of water used. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. In a large shallow platter, mix the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and cayenne until well blended; season generously with salt and pepper. In another platter combine the buttermilk and hot sauce with a fork and season with salt and pepper.
3. Drain the chicken and pat it dry. Dredge the pieces, a few at a time, in the flour mixture, then dip them into the buttermilk; dredge them again in the seasoned flour. Set aside and let the chicken rest while you prepare the oil.
4. Put about 3 inches of oil into a large deep pot; it should not come up more than half way. Add the thyme, rosemary, sage, and garlic to the cool oil and heat over medium-high heat until the oil registers 350 to 365 degrees F on one of those clip-on deep-fry thermometers. The herbs and garlic will perfume the oil with their flavor as the oil comes up to temperature.
5. Once the oil has reached 350 to 365 degrees F, working in batches, carefully add the chicken pieces 3 or 4 at a time. Fry, turning the pieces once, until golden brown and cooked through, about 12 minutes. Total cooking time should be about 30 minutes. When the chicken is done, take a big skimmer and remove the chicken pieces and herbs from the pot, shaking off as much oil as you can, and lay it on a tea towel or brown paper bag to soak up the oil. Sprinkle all over with more salt and a dusting of cracked black pepper. Repeat with the remaining chicken pieces. Once all the chicken is fried, scatter the fried herbs and garlic over the top. Serve hot, with big lemon wedges.

Note: We omitted the spicy stuff (hot sauce and cayenne) and the results were fine.

Good stuff!

Also on the same episode he made a batch of corn that looked better than the typical batch of corn would. We tried this one out on Saturday, when I burned the ribs, and everyone enjoyed it. Here ya go:

Roasted Corn with Chili Lime Butter

6 ears fresh corn, unhusked
1/4 pound butter (1 stick), room temperature
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 lime, zested

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the corn in its husks directly on the oven rack and roast until the corn is soft when you press on it, 30 to 40 minutes.
3. While the corn is roasting, combine the butter with the chili powder and lime zest.
4. Peel down the husks and tie in a knot to use as a handle while eating. Rub the corn with soft butter mixture, and serve.

Posted by Gordon at 10:00 AM | Permalink

Christmas was very good to our kitchen. We invited some new cooking items into our midst including a mixer and a pasta machine. With those two items I decided we should try making some ravioli's from scratch. One of our favorite Italian restaurants, Rombi's, has choices of different homemade ravioli's and they are by far some of the best pasta that I have ever had. So instead of going out and paying $30 to eat out, we thought we would try our hand at making some ravioli's.

Here is the recipe that we used to make the dough. It was pretty easy to make in the mixer and I am starting to wonder how we ever lived without one.

Ravioli Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour and salt. Add eggs 1 at a time and continue to mix. Drizzle in oil and continue to incorporate all the flour until it forms a ball. Sprinkle some flour on work surface, knead the dough until elastic and smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
2. Cut the ball of dough in half, cover and reserve the dough you are not immediately using to prevent it from drying out. Dust the counter and dough with flour. Form the dough into a rectangle and roll it through the pasta machine, 2 or 3 times, at its widest setting. Guide the sheet of dough with the palm of your hand as it emerges from the rollers. *Reduce the setting and crank the dough through again, 2 or 3 times. Continue until the machine is at its narrowest setting. The dough should be paper-thin, about 1/8-inch thick.

For the filling we used a spinach, ricotta, parmesan and egg mixture that was pretty tasty. There really is no limit to what you can put inside of a ravioli so we thought we would try the most basic of ingredients. We were also given a ravioli form which creates pockets inside of the stretched dough to place the filling and helps seal the edges.

Once the ravioli's are formed, you need to air dry them for 30 minutes. This is where we screwed up without meaning to. We put the ravioli's on a paper plate and didn't turn them over every few minutes. They ended up sticking to the plates and when we went to cook them there were a few that we had to sacrifice. Cooking them only took 4 minutes in boiling water and all of this was topped with some canned marinara sauce that Jenn had made for Christmas.

This was a lot of work but the results were really good for our first try. Next time I plan on using smaller pieces of dough in the pasta machine because they started to reach lengths of over 4 feet once pressed. Also next time we will use wax paper to dry the finished ravioli's on instead of paper plates.

On another note, the marinara sauce that we canned tasted really good once it had time to set for awhile. Not to say that I don't like the flavor of it when Jenn cooks it fresh, but the flavor just seemed to come together so well after being in the jar. I am starting to think we need to make a bunch of tomato sauces for our own pantry pretty soon.

Posted by Gordon at 12:32 PM | Permalink

I mentioned in yesterdays post that I ended up making the filet mignon recipe twice. Well the reason was, we decided to cook some beef ribs on Saturday so we could freeze the bones and give them to our dogs whenever we want to give us some quiet time or we have guests over. We started doing this about a year ago and found out that buying a slab of beef ribs is only about 4 dollars and you get around 7 to 8 bones out of it. Much better than buying rawhide bones in the store which go for around 4 bucks a piece. The bones once cooked won't splinter and the dogs just love them. The bonus to all this is that you can make some good BBQ with beef ribs so we get a meal and the dogs get a treat.

That was the plan. We invited some friends over and had everything all ready. I started the ribs early in the day because they take 6 hours to smoke and when I brought them inside the house I was petrified to find out that they were a big hunk of charred bones. After investigating, the meat under the char was still good and cooked fairly well but the outside ruined the flavor. Luckily our dogs aren't as discerning as we are when it comes to taste so they are getting an even bigger treat because they get the meat that we usually eat attached to their bones.

The reasons that I think things went horribly wrong were either my thermometer was reading the wrong temperature or that I put to much smoking wood in the burner. I am going to check the thermometer this weekend but I have a feeling it was the wood. I'm just grateful it wasn't a $30 brisket or pork butt that was on the receiving end of my mistake.

Posted by Gordon at 10:11 AM | Permalink

It's kind of embarrassing to admit this but I am a horrible at cooking steaks. I mentioned briefly in my last post that I tend to screw up steaks whenever I cook them but that is really downplaying my relation with the bovine meat products. Let's just say that in my time I can say that I have only cooked two good steaks total.

Let me clarify that though. I've cooked a lot of roasts that were good or amazing, I've smoked a few briskets and still have a bit to learn about those and I love me some tri-tip and haven't messed one up yet, but what I am talking about is generally a cut of the cow that is less than an inch thick and will fit on a plate.

The first steak I successfully made was a rib eye that I pan fried. I got the recipe from the Everyday Italian cookbook that I gave Jenn a few Christmases ago and we were both shocked on how good it was. The second I got off from Food 911 and that is the recipe I am sharing today. Really good stuff and comes out looking under-cooked but trust me it was perfect. Here you go:

Filet Mignon

2 (8-ounce) filet mignon steaks
Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Season filet mignon steaks generously with salt and pepper.
3. In a heavy, ovenproof skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Pan-sear the steaks, only on 1 side, for 2 minutes until a crust forms.
4. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 10 minutes or until cooked medium rare.

Pretty simple. This is what they charge you $28 bucks for at a fancy restaurant so save your money and do it at home.

So now I have no more excuses when it comes to making a good steak. I will say this though, I tried making it again and ended up cooking it to much so watch your time carefully. Nothing worse than trying to eat a hockey puck, unless of course your into that kind of thing.

Posted by Gordon at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Chicken is probably my favorite meat. It is one of the first things that I learned to BBQ and I tend to lean toward cooking it more than anything else. When it comes to BBQ'ing, I tend to screw up steaks any time I cook them and I only smoke pork so my grill generally only sees chicken's cooking on it.

For Christmas, my mom and dad got us a roasting pan. I have wanted one for some time to help with making cheese cakes. When you make a cheese cake, you need to place the cake pan in a water bath and we only have pans that are about an inch high. Now I can make a proper cheese cake.

With the pan though, Jenn decided to try her hand at roasting a chicken. We have roasted chicken in the oven previously and the results were generally good, but I know now what was missing. The difference this time is we had a rack to keep the chicken separate from the pan so it was not seeping in it's own cooked out fat. I don't find chicken fat very appetizing and this was a welcome change. The meat was very moist and the skin was nice and crisp. An added bonus was that we were able to use the leftover meat from the chicken for chicken taco's the next day and chicken salad the day after that. Three meals in one cooking, that's good stuff!

Herb Roasted Chicken

1 tsp Dried Basil
1 tsp Dried Majoram
1 tsp Dried Sage
1 Tbsn Fresh Chopped Rosemary
1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 3lbs. Whole Chicken
2 Large Chopped Carrots
1 cup Pearl Onions Peeled (use frozen onions to save time)
1 Tspn Olive Oil
1 10oz. package Frozen Peas Thawed

1. For herb rub, combine the herbs, salt and pepper.
2. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Loosen skin on chicken breast and using your fingers carefully spread half the herb rub under the skin.
4. Skewer neck skin to back and tie legs to tail with toothpicks. Twist wings under back.
5. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the chicken.
6. Place chicken breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan.
7. Roast uncovered in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.
8. In a casserole dish, combine carrots and onions.
9. Toss the remaining herb rub and olive oil, cover and place in the oven.
10. Roast about 45 minutes more until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
11. Add the peas to the casserole the last 15 minutes of roasting.

Posted by Gordon at 09:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know I know, it sounds like a strange concept. When I think of deep fried meat one of the last things that I think of is beef. Jen and I were introduced to this recipe while we were living up in Portland by our good friend Miki. She introduced us to a lot of good food as well as teaching us how to make Shabu Shabu (without spending $80 at a restaurant). So when she invited us over for fried beef one night we were very skeptical but trusted her completely when it came to food. Here is the recipe that she gave us and if you are reading this Miki, I still miss your kitchen:

Fried Beef

1 Flank Steak
2 Tbs Grated Ginger
1 clove Minced Garlic
1 Chopped Onion
1 tsp. MSG
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Mirin
Flour for Dredging
Green onions on the side

1. Take the flank steak and put saran wrap over it, pound it with a meat tenderizer starting for the middle working your way to the ends. Repeat on the other side of the flank steak.
2. Cut Flank steak into bite size pieces, about and inch cubed.
3. Mix together the ginger, garlic, onion, MSG, Soy Sauce, Sugar & Mirin in a large zip lock bag (preferably a gallon or quart size) and then add the steak.
4. Marinate either overnight or at least for an hour ( the longer you marinate the better the flavor and the more tender the meat will be.)
5. You can use either a deep fryer or a pan of oil, enough to deep fry these and raise the temp to 375 degrees.
6. After marinating is done and oil is heated, put flour in a bowl and start dredging the pieces of steak from the marinade into the flour.
7. Put pieces of dredged steak into the fryer but don’t do too many pieces at one time, you wont want them to stick together.
8. Deep fry for 4-5 minutes or until brown.
9. Remove from fryer and place on a paper towel for draining.
10. Serve with white rice and garnish with green onions.

Posted by Gordon at 02:39 PM | Permalink

The holidays have come to an end. Here at Foodb we are also celebrating our 50th posting. Pretty good for a guy that gets bored very easily and gives up on projects quickly. When I started this site, all I was looking for was a way to document the recipes that I enjoyed and make a sort of online family cookbook for ourselves. In the months since it has kind of morphed into an inspiration for my wife and I to find better recipes and enjoy cooking more.

So for the 50th posting I thought I would post the recipe for the ham that we made for last years Christmas party that we held. We saw Alton Brown make it and it was an easy enough recipe and looked really good so we thought it was perfect for Christmas Eve. It was very well received and from now on I will measure all hams to this one.

City Ham

1 city style (brined) ham, hock end*
1/4 Cup brown mustard
2 Cups dark brown sugar
1-ounce bourbon (poured into a spritz bottle)
2 Cups crushed ginger snap cookies

*Cook's note: A city ham is basically any brined ham that's packed in a plastic bag, held in a refrigerated case and marked "ready to cook", "partially cooked" or "ready to serve". Better city hams are also labeled "ham in natural juices".

1. Heat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Remove ham from bag, rinse and drain thoroughly. Place ham, cut side down, in a roasting pan. Using a small paring knife or clean utility knife set to the smallest blade setting, score the ham from bottom to top, spiraling clockwise as you cut. (If you're using a paring knife, be careful to only cut through the skin and first few layers of fat). Rotate the ham after each cut so that the scores are no more than 2-inches across. Once you've made it all the way around, move the knife to the other hand and repeat, spiraling counter clockwise. The aim is to create a diamond pattern all over the ham. (Don't worry too much about precision here.)
3. Tent the ham with heavy duty foil, insert a thermometer, and cook for 3 to 4 hours or until the internal temperature at the deepest part of the meat registers 130 degrees F.
4. Remove and use tongs to pull away the diamonds of skin and any sheets of fat that come off with them.
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Dab dry with paper towels, then brush on a liberal coat of mustard, using either a basting brush or a clean paint brush (clean as in never-touched paint). Sprinkle on brown sugar, packing loosely as you go until the ham is coated. Spritz this layer lightly with bourbon, then loosely pack on as much of the crushed cookies as you can.
7. Insert the thermometer (don't use the old hole) and return to the oven (uncovered). Cook until interior temperature reaches 140 degrees F, approximately 1 hour.
8. Let the roast rest for 1/2 hour before carving.

On another note, our poor little site was down for about a week. Sorry about that. My domain name (kungfujoe.com) expired and it took awhile to find someone that could help (Thanks Joe, I owe you big for the help).

Also we arrived at a new year. I usually make about 2 to 3 resolutions each year and I'm pretty good about keeping them. One of them this year is to eat out a lot less. We have so many things that we would like to save money for and eating out is a big drain on our savings. So our meager little kitchen will be getting a workout this year and hopefully this site will benefit as well as our bank account.

Posted by Gordon at 10:54 AM | Permalink