Yesterday I was migrating my website to a different server to correct the interminable slowness my site has been experiencing.  The first tech support call was great.  The second guy is responsible for the rampant hostility toward computer guys everywhere.  You know like the Nick Burns computer guy skit from Saturday Night Live.  I used to be Nick Burns – well hopefully I was less of a jerkhole, but that was my job.  At the end of the day, the site has been migrated and from my end all the issues seem resolved.  Please let me know if you continue to experience any time outs or slowness, and I’ll try to keep traceroutes, ping tests, and packet loss out of casual conversation.

I really was trying to be reasonable with the chicken tetrazzini.  I planned to make one for dinner and one for the freezer.  Found the recipe, then completely abandoned any potential for taking the easy road.  Cause I’m all from scratch, y’all.  Don’t feel compelled to fall victim to my insanity.  If you do, I recommend this as a Sunday project if you’re a working person or at least as a part of a larger meal plan.

My dear friend, Elizabeth, tried some Oprah meal planning awhile back.  In my memory it involved something like buying two rotisserie chickens, shredding them, then making four meals from the bounty.  I can’t remember much other than I don’t think she was wowed by the results.  My problem is we don’t really eat dark meat, so rotisseries don’t really provide a lot of shredded chicken.  Many things in cooking don’t translate into economies of scale but shredding chicken does.  No need to go all crazy and roast first, then boil the chicken like I did.  I was suffering from existential angst on Monday, forgive me.  I’ve been boiling split breasts for chicken soup for years with wonderful results, the extra roasting is so *not* necessary.  In any case, if you want to shred your own chicken, just get a large pot and do a bunch – like 8 or 10 large split breasts.  Then you can have shredded chicken and broth for Chicken and Goat Cheese Enchiladas or Chicken Stuffed Fried Avocados or Mediterranean Penne  or Chicken Salad or something of your very own creation.

Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe

adapted from Martha Stewart Everday Food April 2007

makes 2 casseroles, each having about 5-6 servings

5 split chicken breasts

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1 lb sliced white mushrooms

1/2 c. flour

3 c. 1% milk

3/4 c. dry white wine

3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 lb. linguine

10 oz. frozen petite peas

(Martha uses the shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken, if you go that route you’ll also need 2 c. of chicken broth)

In a large pot, cover split breasts with water, then add 2 teaspoons of salt and 16 turns fresh ground pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for about an hour, then remove chicken to a bowl.  Using a two bowl system, remove the skin and bones from the split breasts with two forks, then move your chicken to clean bowl and shred.  Repeat until you’ve shredded all your chicken.  Reserve 2 cups of chicken broth.

In a heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, then add sliced mushrooms.  Season mushrooms generously with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  I sprinkle the whole surface, but you can use approx 1/2 teaspoons of salt as a guide.  Increase heat to high to brown mushrooms, stirring occasionally.  Wait for mushrooms to release all their water, then continue over high heat until nicely browned.  Remove mushrooms to a bowl.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a bowl.  Break linguine in half, then cook approx nine minutes until just slightly less than al dente.  Drain.

In the same skillet used to brown the mushrooms, melt remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, then add flour, stir, and brown for 2 minutes.  Add milk while whisking furiously, then add wine and chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, then continue to cook over medium heat for 3 more minutes.  Whisk every 30 seconds or so.  Add a teaspoon of salt and 20 turns of fresh ground pepper, then 2 cups of the grated parmesan and the thyme.  Stir to combine, then adjust seasonings to taste.  This is the easiest place to mess up the recipe!  Be sure to season your sauce to taste.  The pasta, the chicken, and the peas are all pretty bland – all the flavor comes from the sauce!

In the now empty pasta pan, combine pasta, shredded chicken, browned mushrooms, peas, and sauce.  Stir until thoroughly coated.  Pour into two 8×8 glass pans.  Top with remaining cup of Parmesan.  Cover one pan with Saran wrap, then press down on casserole to create an airtight seal.  Freeze for up to two months.  Bake other casserole for 30 minutes at 400, until bubbly.  In full disclosure, I don’t use my freezer very often.  I’m not entirely sure what will happen when I cook the frozen one, but Martha says it’s freezer friendly so I believe her.  I’m guessing to thaw it in the fridge the day before, then cook it covered at 400 (30 min?), then uncovered  another 15-20 for browning.  I’ll let you know when I cook mine!

Don’t worry, I’m not having a life crisis.  This pot roast was prepared simply to signify the impending change of the seasons and provide a key one pot meal that could be made in advance (Soccer season has started!) then served again -even more deliciously in leftover form.  I never eat leftovers.  Ever.  Luckily my husband does without the slightest complaint, I think he enjoys them actually.  But soups – that is a different story – soups are designed to get better with age and therefore provide none of the diminished quality and disappointment I find in traditional leftover dinners.

This method was taught to me by mother, she made it for us and now we all make it for each other and our families.  I’ve never been fond of the word stew – it sounds like something you eat when you don’t have enough money to buy something better.  Kind of like porridge or spam.  But I know that’s ridiculous, so I looked up the definition of stew and it turns out – pot roast is exactly this.  I was going to refer to this as Braised chuck roast, but braising refers to a small amount of cooking liquid – as I would with artichokes.  Stewing means liquid almost covering the meat.  The easiest place to go wrong with this recipe is by not browning your meat long enough – truly you want to brown it until you’re almost afraid of burning the roast.  The second word of caution – though I’ve made this type of meat THOUSANDS of times and only run into the issue once, but I feel compelled to relate – involves frozen chuck roast.  Should you be using a previously frozen chuck roast – PLEASE be sure your roast is completely thawed before you begin browning.  I ran into this problem in haste in July and blistered my face terribly when the hot oil popped up at me.  Don’t worry – it’s healed quite nicely and you can barely tell now.

As for the onions in the recipe – they are crucial – albeit hard to find.  What you want are small onions in a glass jar like this.  You don’t need this Aunt Nellie’s brand, that just seems to be the only kind I see in Texas.  In the Midwest they were called something different.  They’re generally in the canned vegetable aisle along the top row somewhere – possibly near beets.  You drain them, then pour right on in.  For some reason, they are really hard to find so I may have to start ordering them by the case like I do with my pickles.  In a pinch, like this week, I went with the small bags of white boiler onions found in the produce section.  This works fine but is so much more labor intensive, involving boiling quickly, about a minute, then peeling each one before adding to the stew.  Frankly, I just don’t have that kind of patience.  Not to mention they are so much more expensive this way, I think the package of approx 10 onions costs $3.95.

Thanks to my mother for teaching me this staple recipe, I don’t think I could possibly function without it.  Next time you want to send extra support to a loved one – you’ll know what to make.

Pot Roast Recipe makes about 6 quarts

2 beef chuck roasts – do not buy one that says shoulder – approx 6.5 lbs total weight

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

paprika

all-purpose flour

olive oil

8-9 carrots, peeled

8-9 medium size new potatoes

2 jars white onions

Season all sides of roasts with kosher salt, pepper, and paprika.  Pour flour into a small bowl, then coat all sides of roast with a layer of flour, shaking off the excess.  Heat a large – heavy bottom required – stock pot on medium high heat on the stove.  Add about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil, then brown one roast at a time on all sides.

Continue to move roast around about every five minutes.  Keep your eye on the flour mixture, as this will be the base of your gravy, if it looks like it’s starting to burn reduce your heat a bit.  Let first roast rest on a plate and brown the other piece.

When meat is completely browned, add reserved roast and any accumulated juices back to pan.  The entire browning process should take you about 40 minutes.  Cover with water almost, but not quite, covering the roasts completely.  Add 2 teaspoons salt and 16 turns ground pepper.  Cover stock pot with a lid, and reduce heat to medium.  Check after 1 hour, reduce heat by about 25% then cover and cook another hour.

Chop carrots in half lengthwise, then into 2 inch segments.  Chop potatoes in half lengthwise, then into thirds.  Add both to to stew.  Drain onions, then add.  Cover stock pot with lid and cook another hour and a half.  Use tongs to remove chuck roast to a bowl.  Use two forks to remove just the meat portion to a separate bowl then shred.  Discard fat and other parts. Then return shredded beef to stew, stir and season to taste.  Serve with a crunchy garlic french bread.  Happy eating!

What these really make me want to create is some sort of double chocolate eclair.  Do those exist already?  What I’m dreaming of is an eclair with a dark chocolate dipped top, then filled with a dark chocolate pastry cream.  Because why would you bother with regular pastry cream when it could be chocolate?  I don’t even want to eat these alleged eclairs, I just want to photograph them because in my head, they are beautiful.  So it’s another give away Tuesday.  Do you want a double chocolate eclair?  If so, post a comment and you might be the lucky winner.  Unfortunately, it’s August and I live in Texas, so I don’t think I can mail chocolate without creating a giant mess.  You’ll have to be in the DFW area to win or willing to drive to me to pick them up.

As for beautiful gougerès, I went ahead and made some with just an egg wash and some with grated Gruyère over the egg wash.  I think the ones without the additional grated cheese turned out so much prettier since they are so glossy, but weigh in, and let me know your thoughts.  Or try out the recipe and let me know what your taste buds tell you.  Here’s a picture of the gougerès with the additional grated cheese topping. 

Gougères Recipe

adapted from Recipe in Barefoot in Paris

1 c. 1% milk

1 stick salted butter

1 tsp kosher salt

5 turns fresh ground pepper

2 shakes cayenne pepper

1 c. all purpose flour

5 large eggs

1/2 c. fresh grated Gruyère cheese

1/4 c. fresh grated Parmesan Reggiano

1 egg

1 tsp water

This goes very quickly – so make sure you have your cheese grated and your eggs out, then preheat oven to 425.  In a medium saucepan, add milk, butter, salt, and peppers over medium heat.  Stir continuously with a wooden spatula, until mixture just begins to bubble.  Add flour and stir continuously with wooden spatula until combined, then keep stirring, reduce heat to low and cook another 2 and 1/2 minutes.  Remove from heat and place in food processor with blade attachment.

Add all five eggs and cheeses, then use pulse button to incorporate.  Use spatula to stuff your dough in a ziplock bag, squeezing out as much air as you can, then sealing the bag.  I’m partial to the slider lock bags, myself.  Use your hands to work dough into one of the bottom corners, then clip the end to just open the corner.  Squish into spheres just slightly larger than a quarter spaced evenly on a cookie sheet.  Wet your index finger under the faucet, then push down any pointed peaks to make a smooth sphere.  In a small bowl, beat remaining egg with the teaspoon of water.  Use a brush to gently coat the tops of each sphere. Bake 15 minutes.

Cheers!

Hamburger Soup Recipe

2.5 lbs ground chuck

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cans stewed tomatoes (14.5oz)

4 cans Campbell’s Beef Consomme (10oz)

1 can water

12 turns fresh ground pepper

In a large stock pot, brown ground beef on medium high heat.  When you can see no more pink, use a spatula to push beef to one half of the pot, then add the diced onion to the other.  Spread out your onion and stir each half every thirty seconds.  Continue until onion is soft and beef is very brown.  Use spatula to push beef and onions to one side, then tip pot to drain fat to the other side.  Remove fat with a spoon and discard.  Add tomatoes, consomme, water, and pepper to pan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer 25 minutes, then serve and enjoy!

Any how, since I really did love the music, and many of my friends were involved, I chose to be a serving wench.  I graciously delivered bowls of beef with barley soup, plates of prime rib, and glasses of wassail to the crowd.  As a reward, I got free dinner and to see the show.  And a reason to be out socializing on a school night.  Which I was *always* looking for.  So perhaps I was caught up in the beauty of the costumes, or the sound of the music, or caught up flirting with my latest love interest, some how, I can not make this soup taste how I remember it, nor find a recipe that in anyway holds promise to do so.  And I didn’t go to a fancy high school so so I’m bound to be crushed one day when I learn I’ve been longing for Kroger brand Soup in economy size cans.

This soup isn’t bad, my husband loved it actually.  And the homemade beef stock from the leftover ribs from my standing rib roast turned out perfectly.  But if you love something you eat when out and about – beg, borrow, or steal the recipe quickly!  Don’t wait to attempt your own version nearly 15 years later. I realize many of you have no desire to make your own stock.  So for an express version, simply purchase boxed beef stock.  I recommend Kitchen Basics.  But if you cook a standing rib roast, save your bones in a ziploc in the freezer and make this stock some Sunday!  One thing I’ll probably alter next round will be to use a chuck roast instead of leftover prime rib, cause seriously, who usually has that lying around.  I’ll go ahead and brown it and braise it the way I do for my pot roast and chimichanga meat.  Then shred the meat and add it to the soup.  I’m a huge fan of shredded over cubed meats.

Beef and Barley Soup

6 c. beef stock – see recipe for homemade stock below

3 stalks celery, chopped

1.5 c. baby carrots

1 medium white onion, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 c. pearled barley, uncooked

3 c. leftover rare prime rib

Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat olive oil in a stock pot over medium high heat.  Add carrots, onions, and celery and saute until slightly browning, scented, and softening.  Add beef stock, leftover prime rib, and garlic, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer.

Meanwhile, boil 4 cups of water in a sauce pan.  Add 1 tsp salt and barley, reduce to a simmer, cook for 45 minutes.  Then add to soup.  Remove leftover prime rib from stock, then shred if you can or cut into bite size pieces and add back to stock.  Skim any surface fat with a spoon to remove.  Season soup with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.  Let simmer 15 more minutes, then serve.

Homemade Beef Stock

leftover ribs (4) from a standing rib roast

water

2 tbsp salt

2.5 c. celery, chopped

2 c. yellow onion, chopped

2 c. baby carrots

fresh ground pepper

Place ribs in large stock pot, fill to the top with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook for 3 hours, then add celery, onions, and carrots, salt and pepper.  Cook another hour, then strain into a fresh pan.  Let sit 30 minutes to separate, then skim off all fat with a spoon.  Or refrigerate, then pull off the solid fat pieces.

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