Experiment 17 - The Selection

I came across two recipes this week that purport to be "Swiss" in some way.  I'm pretty sure it's all about the cheese.

First up, we have one of those recipe cards, a sample from an outfit called "Healthy Meals in Minutes ™".  I didn't subscribe, but what the heck, another addition to the recipe cache was always welcome.  No idea when it might have come in the mail, but the fine print shows MCMXCIV, so that's 1994 if I'm not mistaken.  Sometime after that, obviously.  I'm going to guess 1996, which is about when I was getting those Southern Living recipe cards, and started getting solicitations from all the other companies that wanted to reel me in.  The main dish this week will be:

Swiss Chicken Cutlets
 - serves 4 -
2 thin slices reduced-fat Swiss cheese (about 2 ounces)
4 chicken cutlets (4 ounces each), 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or margarine
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chkcen broth
1/4 cup dry white wine or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Chopped fresh parsley and fresh oregano sprigs for garnish

Kitchen twine and waxed paper will be required.  The notes mention that you can use boneless breasts if cutlets aren't available.  Just pound 'em flat.  I'll use thighs, of course, since I have a bunch of them in the freezer.  As far as the fresh herbs, I've discussed that - it's a waste to but the bundles they sell at the supermarket.  Unless I have something growing in my herb garden that I can snip fresh, I'll use dried or go without.

As an accompaniment, I found a clipping which appears to have come from a Sunday newspaper coupon insert.  On the back, there's a coupon that expired on 7/21/87, so that gives a basic time frame for the clipping.  The ingredients in this one just laugh at the low-fat, low-sodium ingredients in the recipe above.  I'll figure out how healthy I want to be when I go to the grocery store for ingredients.

Swiss Vegetable Medley
 - Makes 6 servings -

1 bag (16 oz.) frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower combination, thawed and drained
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded Swiss cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 teaspoon Durkee Ground Black Pepper
1 jar (4 0z.) chipped pimiento, drained (optional)
1 can (2.8 oz.) Durkee French Fried Onions

Well, I guess we know whose portion of the coupon insert this recipe was from.  Not sure what options I'll have on the onions, but as far as the pepper goes, this is a Penzey's household, and there is plenty of pepper on hand.

There is a lot rain in the forecast for this weekend, so maybe, just maybe, I'll manage to make this on Saturday.

Experiment 16 - Sweet & Sassy BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredients list

First, let's take a look at the ingredients.

Red onion - I swear, this thing looks like it's covered in purple wax.  But as can be seen in the  photo below,  unless there were some very diligent growers applying wax to every layer of the onion as it grew, I guess it's natural.  Nature is cool, eh?

BBQ sauce - just about every barbecue sauce on the shelf at the grocery store is a high-fructose corn syrup jubilee.  I finally  picked up a relatively expensive, not quite major market, type (don't even recall the brand name now), and then I wandered past the mark down section of the store.  Lookee there, Bullseye BBQ sauce at half-price.  I had to scratch and scratch to peel off the yellow markdown sticker so I could see the ingredients list, and finally could tell that it did not contain HFCS.  I bought two bottles then, and went back later in the day to buy another bottle of "regular" and two of hickory flavor.  So I'm all set with BBQ sauce for the summer, I think.  On the other hand, I probably ought to hunt down a barbecue sauce recipe of my own.

Cheese - The only pre-shredded pepper jack cheese available was Sargento brand, which I won't buy because of their support of Wisconsin (hopefully soon to be ex-) Governer Scott Walker.  So I bought a brick of the store brand.  I have a mandoline and I'm not afraid to use it.

Chicken - I chose a non-Hormel brand which came in a 12.5 ounce can.  Unit price-wise, it was still significantly cheaper than the name brands.

Pizza crust - suppose you were going to the grocery store and wanted to get one of those pre-made pizza crusts.  Boboli is one brand name.  Where would you look?  I checked the bread/baked goods area.  No dice.  OK, then how about the aisle where they have the pasta sauce and such.  Nope.  Finally I stumbled upon the display at the end of the frozen food aisle.  SRSLY?  Who is merchandising this place?  I guess it was close to the frozen pizzas, so maybe the idea was that you'd go looking for a Tombstone, see the Bobolis and say "hey wait!  I could make a fresh pizza instead!"  They did have some pepperoni and a couple types of jarred/canned sauces there, so I guess it almost kind of makes sense.  Whatevs.

The preparation was super simple.  Cook the sliced onion in the olive oil until caramelized.  Pour the sauce onto the crust, then add the chicken, onions, and cheese.  I might have used a lot more cheese than called for, but I'll never tell.

Cook it up in a 450 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, end Bob's your uncle.

Verdict: This was really good, and with a bit of tweaking, it could be great.  I can hardly believe I'm about to type this, but maybe there was a bit too much barbecue sauce, because it was a bit hard to handle the slices.   Also, if I work on finding a BBQ sauce recipe (as mentioned above), I'll have a bit more control on the amount of sugar.  As hokey as the name of this recipe may be, it actually works - the sauce and the caramelized onions provide the sweetness, the pepper jack cheese give it sass.  When I baked the pizza, I went with the low end of the 12 to 15 minute range, but I should have gone for the high end.

Lessons Learned -   Obviously, this recipe did not teach me any new cooking skills.  And while it might seem like an obvious recipe, sometimes I just need ideas to get me out of the rut of "things tossed into a skillet" (for $600, Alex).  I will definitely make something like this again, and I can imagine using the pre-made crusts for other pizza styles as well.
Tools needed - nothing new this week.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.

Experiment 16 - The Selection

Hey Hey, look at me go, it's Wednesday and I'm posting my recipe selection.  Of course, I have to work on Saturday, probably for more of the day than I care to think about, so there's little chance I'll make this until Sunday.  On the other hand, this looks fairly simple and doesn't look like it will take a lot of time, so we'll see how that workday goes.  Because after working all day, what would be better than ....

Sweet & Sassy BBQ Chicken Pizza
(hey look, I don't name these things, I just pick 'em out of the box)

1 can (10 oz) HORMEL ® Chunk Chicken, drained
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 T. CARAPELLI ® Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4 c barbecue sauce
1 (12 in) prepared pizza crust
3/4 c shredded Pepper Jack cheese

OK, so obviously this is from an ad; it appears to be from a Sunday newspaper coupon section.  I can not guarantee that I'll be using the name brands mentioned, that all depends on what is in my pantry and what is at the store.  I'm kind of surprised that there's no brand name attached to the barbecue sauce.  Guess I'm on my own for that one.  I did just use up the last of my olive oil when making tonight's dinner, so I know I'll be buying that.  Not sure if there's any canned chicken on hand, but even so, I'm thinking that 10 ounces spread over a 12 inch pizza crust might be skimpy (there's another adjective for the recipe name, eh?).  Details on the shopping trip when I post the results.

Experiment 15 - Chicken Cassoulet - The Results

Ingredients list

A couple things to note about my ingredients.  For the chicken, I used boneless skinless thighs.  They're my favorite, and cheaper than breasts.  For the sausage, I used turkey keilbasa.  As you can see, I used V8 instead of tomato juice, mostly because it was what I have on hand.  And finally, rather than buying too many carrots and too much celery, I was happy to go ahead and buy the mirepoix at Trader Joe's.  There was a little bit more than the recipe called for, but I used most of what was in the container and will use the rest to make something else this week.

This was pretty simple to put together.  First up was the beans - rinsed and placed in a saucepan with enough water to cover by two inches.  They were brought to a boil, the dropped to a simmer for ten minutes, then removed from the heat, covered, and left to sit for an hour.

In the meantime, I cut the keilbasa in half lengthwise, then cut it into one in chunks.  I rinsed the chicken off and patted it try, the put it everything back in the fridge while the beans soaked.

When the beans were just about done, I put the mirepoix on the bottom of the crock pot, then put the chicken on top.  I drained the beans and put them in a bowl with the sausage, spices, juice and Worcestershire sauce.  I mixed it all up then poured on top of the chicken.  Then came the really wasy part - turn the crock pot onto low and cook for 9 to 11 hours.  (The recipe says you can cook on high for 5 1/2 to 6).

(time passes)

After a busy day outside, it was finally time for dinner.  The recipe said to use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken and sausage.  This was easier said than done, as my slotted spoon picked up plenty of beans, and a lot of the chicken was falling apart.  As always, I did my best.  The final step was to slightly mash the means.

Chicken, sausage and bean mixture were served up in a soup bowl.  And I added a Trader Joe's multi-grain croissant, because it seemed like a good accompaniment.

Verdict: What I had was very good, but I don't think it was a true cassoulet (although I've never had one, I did my research).  I did like the fact that there was no salt or pepper added to the recipe, and it didn't need any.  I will probably go ahead and search out more authentic versions - either to make myself, or to have served to me in a small village in France.

Lessons Learned - nothing new this week.
Tools needed - nothing new this week.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.

Experiment 15 - The Ingredients

I just didn't feel up to transcription last night, so here are the ingredients for this week's selection

Chicken Cassoulet


1 cup dry navy beans (7 to 8 ounces)
2 1/2 to 3 pounds meaty chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, and/or drumsticks)
1/2 pound cooked Polish sausage
1 cup tomato juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon instant beef or chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)

This will be going in the Crock Pot, so I can prep in the morning, do my outside chores, and then 8 hours later, dinner will be ready.  But all that will happen tomorrow.

Experiment 15 - The Selection (more or less)

After last week's delayed preparation, an' all that, I'm nearly completely discombobulated.



I grabbed a small Better Homes and Gardens cookbook - more of a pamphlet really - and settled on a cassoulet recipe.  Yeah, a whole lot less random than the original brief for this blog.  Yet that's what it's going to take if I'm to continue, so I'm OK with that.   It looks like it won't take so much away from my outdoor time, which is kind of precious at this time of year.  It'll be hotter 'n' Hades soon enough, but while it's not, I have to do what I can out there.

I'll post the ingredients list early tomorrow.

Experiment 14 - Carne Asada - The Results

Ingredients list

I was well on my way to actually making this last night (Tuesday), but I got a phone call that required me to leave the house for several hours.  I ended up eating a Big Mac for dinner.  The best laid mice, or something like that.

Tonight was the night though.  I got everything laid out and ready to go. The recipes as written were not very specific on what kind of peppers to use for the sauce and the Cebolla con Rajas, so I bought some jalapenos for the former and a poblano for the later.  For the cilantro issue, I happened to be in a small garden shop the other day, so I went ahead and bought a live cilantro plant.  That had more than enough "sprigs" for me to use, plus I can put it in the garden outside and have some ready for the next time.  It certainly didn't cost any more than an oversized bundle from the grocery store, most of which would have gone to waste, so I think that worked out well.

First up was the sauce.  I started a large pot of salted water to boil, then peeled the papery husks off the tomatillos and washed them.  When the water was boiling, I dumped in the tomatillos and let them cook for 10 minutes.  The directions state specifically to cook "until easily pierced by a fork."  In the meantime, I used my kitchen shears to cut my sprigs of cilantro, got two garlic cloves peeled and ready, and I opened up one of the jalapeno to remove the seeds and veins.  I decided that one would be enough, so I put the other one aside.

I also had time to cut two limes in half and juice them, for use with the steak.  I also cut the steak into thin slices, across the grain.  These slices were then pounded a bit and set aside.

Once the tomatillos were done, I put them in my colander which was placed over a large bowl, and smushed 'em up good so as to remove the skins and get the rest to flow down into the bowl.  I hope it was OK to include the seeds.  When I had gotten as much juice as I could, I put the skins aside and put the juice, cilantro, jalapeno and garlic into the blender and pureed it until smooth.  In a saucepan, I melted some shortening (the recipe said lard, but I'm not down with that), then tossed in the puree.  When it was heated, I added the water and salt.  And here was this week's oops.  I was halving the recipe, but I forgot and used a full cup of water.  So I had to let everything cook down for a nice long time, instead of the 10 minutes called for.

No rest for the wicked with this set of recipes.  With the sauce doing it's thing, it was time to "sprinkle" the meat with lime juice and salt liberally.  Yeah, right, sprinkle.  I got out my Tupperware marinader, put the sliced steak in there and dumped all the lime juice on top.  Then I used the sea salt grinder I'd gotten for the soft pretzels from a couple weeks ago and let loose.  I put the top on the marinader and gave everything a good shake.  I continued to give the container a good shake every 10 minutes or so while I waited for the sauce to cook down.

This gave me some time to get the onions and pepper ready for the Cebolla con Rajas. I cut the poblano into strips (oops, I was supposed to peel it), and attempted to make something like rings from one of the large onions.  That didn't work out too well - the onion was so large that there were two inner cores, so to speak.  I just cut up as much as I thought I'd need and figured it would all come out in the fry pan.

Things were reaching critical mass now.  I had one fry pan with a bit of olive oil in it to saute the onions and peppers (again, skipping the lard, and even the shortening this time).  I had another with a small bit of oil in it to soften up the tortillas for the enchiladas (we're getting to that), and I had the sauce on a third burner.

I turned on the oven to 375.  Then I heated up the pan for the CcR and got that going.  Then I heated the pan for the tortillas.  The process went like this - toss a tortilla in the pan to soften up.  Bathe it in green sauce.  Fill it with diced onion (did I mention dicing the onions yet?  Yeah, that happened somewhere along the way)  Fold up and place seam side down in a baking dish. There were three tortillas to take care of.  Once these were ready, they got topped with more sauce and the parmesan cheese.  I had a handful of colby-jack in the fridge, so I tossed that on, as well, because who ever heard of enchiladas made with Parmesan, anyway?

Into the oven for a bit - "until the cheese is melted".  Finally it was time to cook up the steak.  The directions called for it to be broiled for a minute or two on each side, but I re-used the CcR pan instead.  See below.

And then suddenly, everything was ready.  I pulled the enchiladas from the oven and placed a couple on my plate.  I drained some of the carne on paper towels and then moved it to the plate.  In between, I placed the Cebolla con Rajas, and on the side of the plate, a spoonful of guacamole.

Oh, OK, I couldn't go without a drizzle of salsa for some color.

Verdict:
I'm am nearly positive that I've never had an enchilada stuffed with nothing but onions, but here they were.  ANd they were really good.  On the other hand, this whole meal had a whole lot of onions.  The carne itself was fantastic.  As a meal, it all went together really well.

On the other hand, in the end, I think making all of this stuff at the same time would have been ambitious even on a weekend day.  I really think that this full slate of recipes would require a commercial kitchen.  Here I am with the enchiladas in the oven, but the carne is supposed to be broiled.  Yeah, maybe if I had a salamander.  But I just have the basic suburban kitchen with an electric range.  As noted, I used a hot cast iron skillet for the carne and that worked out well enough.

I'll definitely make some carne asada again.  The whole sauce, enchiladas, and so on?  Yeah, not so much.

Lessons Learned - nothing new this week.
Tools needed - nothing new this week.
Skills needed - I think I know about cutting meat "against the grain" now.  I'll have to get a professional opinion.

Experiment 14 - The Postponement

A funny thing happened on the way to the Carne Asada.  It wasn't an ingredients issue - I was able to get the tomatillos I need.  Well, two pounds of them, anyway, but that works for halving the recipe.  I think I ended up with only 1.96 pounds, but that was nearly everything that the store had.

No, it was springtime.  Springtime happened.  After spending hours outside working on the yard on Sunday, the thought of spending another couple hours on my feet prepping the sauce and everything else just wasn't in the cards.  And today being a work day and having other chores lined up used up my available time.

Granted, I have the tomatillos and other produce, so I'm going to have to make this stuff tomorrow.  Wednesday at the latest.

In the meantime, here is a brief story to entertain you.  Many years ago, when I still lived in Connecticut, I was out to dinner with my friend Barry at a Mexican restaurant called Jasper's.  I believe it was located on Capitol Avenue at the time, although it later moved downtown to Union Place, in the location that had been Mad Murphy's.  But I digress.  After we'd eaten our meal, I excused myself to go to the men's room.  When I came back to the table, Barry had ordered coffee for both of us.  Up until that moment, I had never been a coffee drinker, at all, ever.  It smelled pretty good, though, so I figured I'd give it a try.  I thought it was great, and wondered why I'd been drinking tea all those years.  I was immediately hooked, and have been drinking coffee ever since, although at first I couldn't figure out why what I was drinking didn't taste quite the same.  The twist was that what I'd had at Jasper's was "Mexican Coffee."  Nothing alcoholic, but with lots of brown sugar and cinnamon.  I still make it that way for myself once in a while.  Although as of this writing, my coffee maker isn't working, so there's another thing to deal with.

Anyway, Carne Asada coming up within 48 hours.  Please stand by.

Experiment 14 - The Selection

I actually picked this clipping out on Wednesday, so I have no good excuse for not posting until Friday evening.  I blame robot aliens from the mysterious future.

I ended up with another clipping of "The Butcher", but this one isn't dated.  The column itself talks about San Francisco in the 1950's, and specifically, the Papagayo Room at the Fairmont Hotel.  Merle Ellis talks about customers (from prostitutes to celebrities), the owners, and the parrots what were free to fly around the restaurant.  The recipes in the column are taken from a cookbook that was published by the owners and available from Amazon for prices ranging from $40 to over $500.  I think I'll stick with the four recipes that I have in this clipping for now.

And speaking of four recipes, this week is going to involve making all of them, since they all go together.

1) Carne Asada
2 pounds boneless top sirloin in one piece
juice of 3 limes or lemons
Salt
This is meant to be served with guacamole, Enchilada Verde (see #2 below) and Cebolla con Rajas (see #4 below).

2) Enchilada Verde for Carne Asada
6 Tortillas
2 cups onion, finely diced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups Salsa Verde (see #3 below)
Oil for frying tortillas

3) Salsa Verde
4 pounds tomatillos or 4 12-ounce cans tomatillos
2 or 3 small green chiles
3 cloves garlic
8 sprigs cilantro
2 tablespoons lard or shortening
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt

4) Cebolla con Rajas (Green chile and onion strips)
2 large onions, cut in rings
1/2 cup peeled long green chilis cut in strips (rajas)
1 tablespoon lard or vegetable oil

I will definitely be trying to halve this recipe, 2 pounds of beef is a bit much.

I believe I'll start with the Salsa Verde, since that will need to be ready in order to make the Enchiladas.  There is also a note that it freezes well, so maybe I'll consider making the full batch of that.

The tomatillos might be a challenge to find, which might make this whole experiment a bust from the git-go.  We'll see.  Tom Leonard's, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods ... ?  There are some bodegas around, also, which I guess should be the first places I check.  On the cilantro, as noted a couple weeks ago, I'll most likely use something dried, although I don't know the "sprig to tablespoon" conversion factor.  Unfortunately, I don't expect to have any parrots flying around the house this weekend.

Experiment 13 - Stuffed Steak Florentine - The Results

Ingredients list

I'll just go ahead and mention that my weekend started out OK and went rapidly downhill.  By noon on Saturday, I was ready to throw in the towel on everything.  I did manage to get to the store and pick up the required steak and other ingredients by late afternoon, but actually taking the time to follow a recipe after that?  That was most definitely not in the cards.

The steak I picked up was labeled as a "London Broil" and also said it was top round, so I was good to go there.  I never actually measured the thickness, but I think I got at least the 1 1/2 inch lower limit. Nothing else in the ingredients list was out of the ordinary.

Although I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, the instructions did call for using a boning knife to cut a pocket in the steak.  The knife I used is in the picture above.  Is that a boning knife?  I don't have the foggiest idea. But let's start at the very beginning.  I hear it's a very good place to start.  Actually, upon review, I see tht cutting a pocket in the steak is the very beginning.  Mr. Ellis said to make a small cut with a boning kinfe "in the center of the side without the fat cover" and then to pivot the knife around to make a pocket.  I think I did OK, although the stuffing part did cause a little problem.  But we'll get to that.

Once the cutting was done, I sauted the spinach and green onions in the olive oil "until softened", then added the sour cream, dill, egg, cheese, salt and pepper.  I immediately took it off the heat to cool a bit.

After a few minutes, I started to spoon the stuffing into the previously prepared pocket. As you can see below, there seemed to be more stuffing than pocket, but I did what I could.  The next fun part was tying everything up with toothpicks and twine.  There's a line drawing in my clipping that looks a lot better than what I ened up with, but I seemed to have a fairly well-tied package (not shown).

This got tossed under the broiler for a while, turning occasionally until cooked to the desired lever - "10 to 12 minutes for medium rare"

Here is the cooked result.

I served it with a loaded baked potato (except the chives haven't come up yet, so those were missing).  At about 7 o'clock on the plate you can see a spoonful of sauted mushrooms and onion.  Since the theme of the article was adding flavor to steaks, I thought I'd add some help of my own.

Verdict: I liked the stuffing, but I still ended up tossing a bit of Pick-A-Peppa sauce (it's like A-1, but a billion times better) onto the steak.  I'd probably just go ahead and buy a better cut of meat in most cases.

Lessons Learned - nothing new this week.
Tools needed - nothing specifically, although I need to study up on my knives so I know the names of what I have.  Maybe that's a lesson learned, not a tool needed.
Skills needed - nothing new this week.