Country Captain

Melanie asked me to post this recipe, its a good and easy chicken dish.

Turn the oven to 400F.
Throw your biggest frying pan on the stove and crank it to high.
Get a 6 pack of bone in, skin on, chicken thighs. That is, by far, the best part of the chicken; tender, juicy, and with the bone in the flavor is outstanding. Rinse them off with cool water, then run them through some flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of curry powder and some salt. For me “some flour” is usually about 3/4 cup.

Pour some olive oil into the hot pan, place the floured chicken thighs into the pan skin side down. If they don’t sizzle, then you didn’t heat the pan enough, fry them up until they are nice and crispy, then flip and crisp up the other side. Put them on a cooling rack. At this point the chicken is not cooked all the way through, its just nice and browned. I usually do 3 at a time.

Now you have a hot pan with olive oil, rendered chicken fat, curry and flour, the possibilities are endless. :D Deglaze the pan with chicken stock; basically put 2 cups of chicken stock into the pan and whisk it. Now you have the start of a nice gravy. Add 2 tablespoons of good curry paste, mix it all up real good. Throw in 2-4 cups of cut frozen veggies, I use the corn, peas, carrots, green beans combo. Add 1-2 cups of frozen pearl onions and 2 cups of fresh button mushrooms. Mix it all up and cook it up for about 5 minutes. Toss in the left over flour that you dredged the chicken with and mix it all up, this will help thicken the gravy and add some flavor.

Put the browned chicken thighs on top of the veggies skin side up. Put the top on the pan and put it in the 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the top and cook for another fifteen minutes. Remove the pan  from the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

I like to eat this dish over rice.
Heat your pan, add 2 tablespoons butter, add 1 cup of rice. Brown the rice, but don't burn it! Add 2 cups of chicken stock, cover and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer covered for ~20 minutes or until done. Best. Rice. Ever.

Keep in mind that all of my measurements are approximate, you need to look at what you are cooking and make command decisions. I rarely measure anything when I am cooking, I add what looks right and I taste as I go.

Best Sandwich EVER

So, make your basic muffaletta olive salad:

1 1/2 Cups Green Olives, Pitted
1/2 Cup Calamatta Olives (or Black) Pitted
1 Cup Gardiniera (Pickled Cauliflower, carrots, celery, Pepperoncini)
1 Tbsp. Capers
3 each Fresh Garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/8 Cup Celery, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. Italian Parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. Fresh oregano or 2 tsp. dried
1 tsp. Crushed red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 Cup Pimientos (Roasted red peppers)
1 Tbsp. Green Onions, thinly sliced
Kosher Salt & Freshly Ground pepper To Taste (salt may not be necessary)
Crush each olive on a cutting board with your hand. Combine all ingredients. Cover with:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil about 1 - 1 1/2 Cups
Put into a bowl or jar, cover and let the flavors marry for about a week.

Then get yourself some good focaccia bread and whip up a nice muffaletta
(Genoa Salami, Hot Capicola, Mortadella, Mozzarella, Provolone)

Put the left over olive salad in a sealed Tupperware container, throw it into the fridge and forget about it for 2-3 weeks. Open up a can of tuna (yes, tuna) throw it in a bowl with about a 1/3 – 1/2 cup of the olive salad and JUST enough mayo to hold it all together. Let that sit for 10-15 minutes, then put that between a couple slices of bread and THAT is the best sandwich ever.

Think about it, I usually chop up a little onion, garlic, capers, and shallots for the tuna, and that's pretty good, but the olive salad? MUCH better.

Seven Grain Bread

Melanie has been asking me for my bread recipe, here it is:

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups water
4-1/4 cups bread flour
2/3 cup 7 grain cereal (Melanie and I use Red Mill, thanks Melanie!)
2/3 cup molasses (or 2 Tbsp sugar)
2 Tbsp dry milk
1-1/2 tsp Butter
2 tsp Active dry yeast OR 3tsp Rapid Rise yeast

Directions
Make the bread with the ingredients. Seriously, just do it. If you have a bread machine, I would suggest that you follow the directions for “Dough” and then do the final knead/rising and baking yourself.

Variations
If you want a more “rustic bread” substitute 1 cup of the bread flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 Tbsp wheat gluton.

If you want a great chewy bread, also add 2/3 cup of 7 grain rice pilaf, its great.

If you want a nice heavy bread, after the second rising, firmly press the dough into your dough pan, yes that flattens it. Then bake it. It will still rise quite a bit and it will be a nice heavy bread.

If you want a more “store bought” bread, after the first rise, let the bread rise in the pans, this will yield 2 loaves.

I almost always make it single loaf with the rice pilaf, you end up with a nice chewy, nutty, heavy bread. It makes GREAT toast!

The bacone

Pronounced “bay-cone”, as in “bacon cone”, as in, “get the paddles ready and warm up the defibrillator , I am taking a bite.” And here it is in all of its splendid glory.

If you are very quiet, you can here angels having massive coronaries.

This lovely treat comes to us via baconcamp. Its basically a cone of bacon filled with scrambeled eggs and topped with sausage gravy and a biscuit! Get the full recipe and “howto” here.

Sweet Ricotta Pie

Nanna/Lee/Uncle Ricks mother makes a GREAT sweet ricotta pie that is
to
die
for.
Melanie likes it scrambled, so when Lee is removing the pie from the oven Melanie likes to pinch her to make her drop it. Not cool Melanie, not cool.

BUT, what IS cool is just how easy it is to make the pie. When I went to AllBunny on Easter we had dinner at PaulAndJoann’s and I helped Lee make the pies. It was so easy, that I just made two for myself. Here’s the recipe.

2 lbs of ricotta cheese
8 eggs
1 cup sugar
some vanilla (what eves, just poor in a couple of teaspoons)
Mix it all up with your hand whisk.
Put the mixture into 2 frozen pie crusts.
Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes.
Cool.
Eat.

You SHOULD cook them in a water bath so that the outside edges cook as fast as the inside. But I don’t, its too much work. :) You end up with a really nice “cheesecake” type dessert.

BaconFest, Christmas '08

I warned you that this was going to happen...
well, we did it. We turned 40 ounces of innocent bacon into a treat from Hell.

We started out with


That's 40 ounces of bacon.
Then we weaved it into a mat on the broiler pan, Melanie said to "weave it like the top of an apple pie" which turned out to be a great way to do it.
This is during the weave:



And this is ready for the oven!


We baked it at 400 degrees "until done". :) Melanie INSISTED on flipping it once, and that worked out with the first one. But we made 2 (we had 40 oz of bacon) and she flipped the second one too early. :( BUT, we were able to recover, and this is what it looks like coming out of the oven!

Now we had to stuff it! I wanted to stuff it with basically a scrambled Denver omelet, but Melanie and Sammi said "no!". SO, we just used grated cheese this time, but next time...

So we rolled it up with the "Mexican Blend" grated cheese

Sliced it up, and ate it!


The bacon mat was still pretty hot from the oven, so it melted the cheese nicely.

I tell you what, THAT was some good eating! Really, it was
awe
some.

NOW,
for those of you who say "That is so unhealthy!"
1) We baked it in a drip pan.
2) We don't do this every week, or even every month.
3) One slice of the bacon role was probably 2 slices of bacon
4) Bacon is basically a fatty pork chop "the other white meat", see #1
5) Go to hell.

Things for the "Next bacon Fest"
1) make enough extra bacon for an Elvis.
2) put some scrambled eggs and Italian sausage in with the cheese.
3) Its ok to flip it, but make sure that it has cooked enough that it is flippable.
4) 450 degrees is too hot, 400 is perfect