What The French Toast?!

It is Sunday morning breakfast, and yes, we are talking french toast! True, you can get french toast anywhere, but nothing beats a super easy, rich, and flavorful homemade french toast. I add something that gives this french toast a special twist. Ready, let's go!

This recipe is meant to serve 2-3 people, so adjust accordingly.

Recipe:

4-6 slices of 1 inch thick bread slices (we usually use about 1/2 of a loaf, but we will talk about bread below)
3 Eggs
1/2 - 3/4 cups of milk
A pinch of salt
2-3 teaspoons of lemon zest

I use a cast iron pan for my french toast, but you can also use a heavy-bottomed nonstick pan, an electric griddle or a griddle pan instead if you prefer. 


Oh, wait, did I say lemon zest? Yes, lemon zest! As we have talked about before lemon zest brings a nice citrus note and a touch of acidity to rich or filling foods. Want a refresher about how we can lemon zest? Check my "Batter Up" blog post. French toast is a rich, sweet dish, which is what you want -- and the lemon zest is a nice way to cut through the richness to provide a little relief to your palate. That's why lemon zest is the way to go.


Next is the important task of selecting the bread that you will lovingly devour when this is finished. First up, try to stay away from pre-sliced packaged bread that is on every corner of of shopping grocery store aisle. The aforementioned sliced bread won't stand up to taking on our egg custard that we need in order for this recipe and it is a crucial element of a successful fresh toast. Also, a lot of those store breads can bring a funny flavor to the party or you may end up with nut studded french toast, which I will say won't make, if I may, "good eats."

Okay, what should you be looking for in your bread based companion? Try a loaf of fresh french bread from your local grocery story or bakery, as well as brioche, challah bread, or sourdough bread will do very well here. We are choosing these fresh bread options for a couple of reasons, unlike many national brand breads you can often find bread options with a lot fewer unnecessary ingredients, you get to slice the bread at the desired thickness level you want to use for your french toast (versus pre-sliced breads), and lastly -- the interior layer within these breads will gladly and willing soak up the custardy goodness you are putting forth with your french toast recipe.

Picture time? Yes, I think so!

This is what we ate. Oh, so good!

"My name is Bread, Challah Bread." We use challah bread for our french toast recipe, and this is what it looks like. Yes, the end is missing because tasting and quality control is so important!!

Eggs and lemon zest getting together.

Captain, we have custard in sight.

The bread is getting its soak on. I would say about 60 seconds or so per side in order for the custard to absorb all the way through.

Here is everything you will need to make this happen all staged and ready to go. Consider this my Model FT assembly line for french toast.

This photo shows the golden brown deliciousness we want to achieve. Cook your bread on the cast iron "griddle" for a few minutes per side on medium heat until you get this color on both sides of the bread. When you first put the bread in the pan make sure your pan is hot or you will end up with soggy, mushy french toast.

I will let this photo sink in......You will never need french toast from an I-Pancake restaurant again.


Success! What a way to start your weekend day! :)

Dressing Dilemma

A couple of months ago while I was the store, I began the tedious hunt for my favorite salad dressing, balsamic vinaigrette. Looking for a vinaigrette went about as well as winning the lottery has gone for me. Yeah, that explains it all, right? I look down the aisle and all I can see are bottles with faces of roman characters, labels where all the money goes to charity, celebrity chef's dressings, and a simple label for a store off-brand dressing.

Yet, most of these bottles had one common problem, the number of ingredients doesn't make sense! One variety had 17 ingredients in it! Are you kidding? I thought to myself. I scowled at the Roman God on my way out of the aisle, checked out, and set out to make a dressing that would cost less than and rival any store bought bottle, and would be assuredly better for me than 11 extra ingredients I didn't need. I am happy to say that I won't ever need to buy balsamic dressing from the store any time soon.

How do you make this delicious concoction?  Follow this recipe:

• 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 ½ Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ¾-1 cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Add all ingredients above to the blender as well as 1/4 cup of the olive oil, reserving 1/2 - 3/4 of the olive oil. I have a Vitamix blender, but use what you have at hand. Once you've incorporated the first 1/4 of olive oil and the other ingredients, begin slowly drizzling the remaining olive oil into the blender until all the ingredients are emulsified.

Don't have a blender? No problem! You can do this by hand pretty easily but it can take a bit longer for all the ingredients to emulsify. Just add all the ingredients, but slowly drizzle the oil in a small steady stream and whisk until it starts to come together. The visual cues will be clear, when the dressing begins to come together the color will begin to change as you whisk, and lastly, you will notice that the mixture thickens.

I included the visual cues because so often recipes don't do an adequate job describing what it should look like, smell like, feel like, and so on. That is one thing in lots of recipes that drives me crazy.

Okay, time for a couple of photos.

Here is the finished balsamic in a mason jar. Just put a lid on it and it can hang out on the counter and be perfectly stable.

Here is another look at the mason jar from a different angle. This yields around a cup and a half of dressing.

Make sure you taste this because sometimes you need to adjust the seasoning. Try using a piece of lettuce dipped in the dressing to check the level of seasoning, or a piece of bread will do nicely. Sometimes I add a splash of lime juice for a fruity undertone. Remember, if the balsamic seems super strong you can thin it with a little more olive oil, or vice-versa if you aren't getting that balsamic note. As with most of my recipes, adjust accordingly.

Looking for a new twist for how to use this vinaigrette?  Try making a baked potato with a little sour cream, and finish with a drizzle of vinaigrette and some salt and pepper. Truthfully this is one of my favorite ways to use the balsamic. You could also use this for a slaw if you aren't a fan of mayo based dressings or just a regular potato salad. Again, you can use this for anything.

















 

Not Your Mama's Corn

It is that time of the year, time for corn! Like so many things, corn is super versatile and can be a star in any dish. Of all the variations on how to cook corn I wanted to talk about grilled corn. Grilling corn looks awesome and provides an amazing, complex flavor that is a great compliment for any meal.

Who doesn't love perfectly charred, smokey sweet kernels of corn that pop in your mouth when you bite in? Oh, did I mention that we are putting the corn straight on the grill with the husk removed? Yes, this isn't your Mama's grilled corn after all.

I think this picture speaks for itself.


The application of this recipe is super simple:

Remove the corn from its husks.
Place corn on the grill with no oil or seasoning (we will fix this later) on medium to medium high heat. Allow the corn to get some char and color then rotate about a1/4 turn. Once you have charred all sides (about 4 quarter turns) you will be ready to move on.
Make a seasoning packet out of foil with enough space in the foil pouch to place the corn inside. You could use salt, pepper, butter, olive oil, paprika, a little chili pepper (if you want), and a little bit of brown sugar.
Place the charred corn in this packet and wrap it up tight. setting it aside for 10 minutes or so. You are actually finishing the corn by steaming it in the foil packet with the seasoning. As you are ready to serve, roll the corn in the melted seasoning mix until it is coated to make sure it has plenty of flavor.

Corn On!

Here is what you should achieve after about 15 minutes. May take a little longer depending on your grill and how much heat has been lost by checking on the corn.


That is it. You are done making some amazing corn! This will be a recipe you go to again and again.

How do you know the corn is ready to be pulled off the gril and wrapped in foil? The kernels will start to separate from each other a little bit and that is your clue it is time to wrap the corn in foil. Be sure not to cook the corn too long after you see the kernels pull away or you will have mushy corn and that could be your Mama's corn.

Boom!

Okay, I hope you enjoy and soon we will be on to our next.......did you really think I would leave you without a finished plate?  If so, well then congratulations you have earned yourself more photos. If not, well, take better notes as home cooks can be creatures of habit, but I digress.

This photos is because, well, I enjoy a good steak. Want a refresher on  cooking steak essentials? Review the "Party on The Barbie" blog post.

Here is a finished plate. Now I am done. Oh, just one last thing, I am going to show you how to take this roasted corn to another level in a future post.

Rice On, Rice Off

Rice, a staple food loved by many, but intimidating to many who try to make this soft, pillowy, starchy goodness. As strange as this may sound, rice was one of my most feared culinary enemies.

I had never tried to make it as all I had ever heard were horror stories of cooking on the stove top or in a rice cooker. Luckily for me, rice was always around when I wanted to have some and usually in large amounts. My best friend's mom was Filipino and there was always rice, I mean always.

How I learned to cook rice is a two part story. The first is, once again, I ended up falling in love with someone who could make rice and it made me happy as a clam. A few years ago, I became pretty ill and rice became, well, a staple while I worked to get myself healthy again. One day when I wanted to have rice and I used all I had earlier in the day, it became clear I needed to learn how to make it. So, when my girlfriend returned home from work, she began to teach me how to make rice so I could support my rice habit. The best thing about this recipe is it is pretty simple and works every time. Although this is very basic recipe, rice can be used in any cuisine and with any cooking technique.

Here is the recipe:

2 c water
1 c rice
A pinch of salt

Bring two cups of water to a boil and add the salt.Add the rice when water reaches a boil and turn the heat down to medium low. You want a very steady, gentle simmer for the rice to cook evenly -- a rice sauna! While the rice simmers stir ever 2-3 minutes so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

After most of the water has evaporated and absorbed by rice. You can easily recognize this point in the cooking process as the rice will be clearly exposed with a small amount of water in the pot. At this point, move rice to a cold burner and put a lid on the pot, leaving about a inch gap for steam to escape while the rice completes its cooking. After 10 minutes just fluff with a fork and serve.

*Note: We like our rice slightly al dente, which means there's a slight bite to each individual rice kernel. If you like your rice a bit softer you may cook it a couple of extra minutes on the heat and let additional water absorb/evaporate before letting it cool. 

Done!

Here are a few photos to go along with this recipe:

You'll see in the photo above the rice cooking at a gentle simmer. You will want the simmer to be a little more active than is visible here, but not a hard boil.

OK, this photo shows you the point where you will want to pull the rice off the heat and move the pot to cold burner, partially covered with a lid. As noted above, if you want your rice to be a little softer and a little less moist than our recipe, let the rice remain on the heat a couple extra minutes.

Just like that, you have cooked rice. So, we can all cross rice off the list of intimidating things to cook!

Bolognese That Will Bowl You Over

OK, tonight we are talking about a classic Italian pasta dish -- Bolognese. It is simply a rich flavored, tomato based sauce. Sounds good right? There is only one problem with this amazing sauce, it is not known to be a quick cooking dish.

You can find a million recipes that list the cook time between 3-12 hours to get this right. Who can spare that time? Even on weekends that can be hard unless you use a crock-pot. By the way, you can make the sauce that way if you prefer. However, I have a recipe that you can have up on the table in 45-60 minutes instead of 12 hours. That sounds even better, doesn't it?

Here is what's behind door number one!

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/simple-bolognese-recipe2.html


Let's talk changes:

We love garlic. So, instead of 2 cloves we use about 6-7 cloves, adjust accordingly.

Meat mash-up. The first time we made this we did try the ground beef but found the pasta to be overly heavy and it left a unpleasant coating in the mouth with each bite. We loved the recipe and wanted to find another option so we turned to ground turkey. Ground dark turkey meat will give you the richness and flavor, and in my opinion, you  won't miss the ground beef at all. Since it is just the two of us we do three quarters of a pound and do just fine.

Basil makes everything better. We prefer basil to parsley, so that is what we use when we make this sauce.

Finally, we love Parmesan cheese to finish this pasta. The cheese is rich, creamy, and brings a pleasant finish of salt with each bite. We prefer fresh shaved Parmesan, which requires a small piece of Parmesan cheese to use as needed, but if you don't have the access to a whole piece of Parmesan then the pre-shaved stuff works just as well.

Speaking of salt, seasoning is really important here. Remember to season often with this dish to build the layers of flavor. Also, taste, taste, and taste. Taste is the key that unlocks the door to great fare.

Just so you can get an idea of what you will need I have included this photo for you.

Level one, onions and garlic. Keep an eye on the heat level as each stove cooks a little differently. Don't rush, you will have time to make sure everything is cooked through.

All veggies report to the pan. Repeat, all veggies report to the pan. This is not a drill.

The ground turkey has been working with all the vegetables for a few minutes here.

Right before you let this simmer add a dash of dried oregano, dried basil, between 1/8-1/4 cup of wine (something you would be happy to drink). Once this starts to simmer stir everything together and continue to stir every few minutes until the sauce has reduced enough.

Feel like the sauce is lacking the special something? With a couple minutes left before you are ready to serve add 4-8 tablespoons worth of left over pasta water to the saucepan.. Why? The pasta water will have salt in it, which will help you give the sauce additional flavor and you might be able to add less salt as a result. Also, the starch in the pasta water will help give the sauce more body and richness, and will help the sauce adhere to the noodles better.

That's it! Done. You won't regret it. :)

Roasty Toasty Bird 2.0

As I alluded, you will never look a store bought rotisserie chicken the same after you try this recipe. I believe that this will be a recipe you come back to time and time again.  Whether you make this chicken on a week night, special occasion, it won't matter -- it's so delicious you just might dream about it!

Here is the your payoff:

The recipe am I using has been adapted from the Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken from Ina Garten. I have provided the full recipe via the link below.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-and-garlic-roast-chicken-recipe.html



Here's how we rock this recipe with our changes:

• Don't bother with the bacon. Originally, we were concerned about the bacon being used mostly for flavor and keeping the meat moist, but we wanted to know if the recipe could be done sans-bacon. Little did we know, that this would be the dream recipe. However, the bacon was giving us reason to reconsider. Although we had great success without the bacon, to make sure we were being fair to the recipe we made it with the bacon to see what would happen. Honestly, we noticed very little difference and it didn't impact the flavor profile at all. So, for us, this wins without the bacon time again. As you can see, we love our bacon, so this isn't a knock against our favorite smoked meat, just about what it brought to this party.

• As you can see from the photo included below, you don't need to worry about tying the chicken legs together. It makes the presentation look really cool, but it is not necessary for a successfully roasted bird.

• Save the gravy train. As I have stated, this chicken has plenty of flavor and will be more than moist. Also, if you need a little extra sauce, spoon over a bit of the pan drippings over the chicken meat, as the flavor from the lemons will bring a much needed reprieve from the richness of this meat.

Lets look at a few photos that will help you with this bird:

 

On the left, the ingredients that you are going to use to stuff the cavity, on the right is what your cavity should look like. Layer as follows, half a head of garlic, 2 lemon quarters, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary, 2nd half the head of garlic, and last two quartered lemons. The peeled garlic cloves we will use later.

Okay, here is the chicken ready to go in the oven. Two important tips, you can go a little lighter on the paprika and that will help the skin of the chicken not be so dark as it cooks. Note: Make sure to place your oven rack on the lowest position in the oven before putting the chicken into the oven to roast.

While roasting, if you think the skin is getting too dark and you still have a lot of time left to go, cover the chicken with foil for the last 30 minutes or so. This will keep the skin from getting too dark. In order to keep the bird moist, pull the chicken out of the oven after roasting for 1 hr & 25 minutes to 1hr & 27 minutes. You are going to let this bird rest on a cooling rack (an oven mitt or you can put it on a cold burner if you don't have a cooling rack) and it will finish cooking -- otherwise known as carryover heat. So it is OK to pull the chicken out just a couple minutes early.

After you pull the bird from the oven, let the chicken rest for 15-20 minutes covered in foil to cool. Then you are ready to move it to a cutting board and slice. When you are ready to save your leftovers, remove the aromatics from the cavity as they can leave a funny flavor in the chicken once it's been cooked.

Party on the Barbie

Yes, we are back on the grill! Okay, except for one element, but we will get there.

In case you missed it, lets review. Tonight we have steak, roasted red peppers, and a vegetable with a license to kill.

Ready? Good, let's get at it!

Roasted red peppers or any color that works for you.

In a dish, roll the peppers around in olive oil, salt, and pepper till the peppers are well coated on all sides.

Time to apply the heat, medium high will work well here.

Let each side get charred and keep turning. Don't worry, this is how we achieve flavor and it will work out.

Once the peppers obtain this level of char on the skin, pull them off the heat, place them in a bowl,  cover with foil, and wait. Why do this? Now that we have applied all this heat we are going to use the steam from the cooked peppers to help remove their skins. Trust me, otherwise it isn't easy to remove the skins. Now, cover with plastic wrap and wait another 10 minutes or so.

You will then be able to peel the skins off the peppers. *Warning* the peppers will be super hot still, so protect your fingertips and use a fork to pull off the skins or just wait a little longer until the peppers are cool enough to handle.

Here are your finished roasted peppers. These are amazing on salads, sandwiches, an olive or meat tray, soups, and pastas. Did I say pasta?

After you have gotten all your peppers peeled, throw a few in a blender with a bit of half and half or milk, salt, pepper, a garlic clove or two, and a little liquid from the roasted peppers. Congratulations! You have just made a killer roasted pepper pasta sauce. Oh, I suppose you would like a photo of that too? Oh OK -- here you are.

Roasted red pepper sauce complete.

This is fettuccine with roasted red pepper sauce, spinach, arugula, and a little sausage. Feel free to omit the sausage for a vegetarian version and this will still be amazing, I promise!



Steak:

We are using a rib-eye steak tonight. This cut of meat has the most flavor, it is pretty forgiving when cooking, and relatively economical. I recommend, if you can, finding a good butcher that will cut you the size you want. You only need 4 to 6 oz per person for a proper portion.

Alright, so before you cook a large piece of steak or pork, you want to set it on the counter for a little while to let it come to room temperature. Before you throw me into the fire, I can assure that you leaving a piece of pork or steak out for a up to a couple of hours won't cause you to take a trip to the ER or leave you on your death bed. If you left it out for a few days and moved it between hot and cold climates, more or less humidity, and exposed it to other contaminants, then yes, you would be asking for trouble!

Next, like our short ribs recipe, you want to salt the rib-eye pretty heavily, as shown in the photo (above). Again, this  heavy dose of salt isn't a sure fire sign of bad cholesterol or anything like that. If you have to add salt to your coffee, cereal, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and dessert, then yes, you might have a bit of problem. Seriously, we are going to lose some of this during cooking and the meat is going to absorb this salt -- which = flavor.

Season well with fresh ground pepper as well.

Look Ma, no salt! The steak has taken all that in and created a glossy finish that will help develop color when cooking the steak.

The steak is done! Cook it for about 4 to 5 minutes a side for medium rare. Make sure the grill is hot, as medium high heat is the target. When the steak hits the grill, don't move it! You won't get the color you want if you keep moving it. You should only turn the steak a total of 4 times in the entire cook process. When you take the steak off the grill, let it rest. This will help the juices redistribute throughout the meat. I usually tent my steak with foil for another 10 minutes once it is taken off the heat.

I will give you a minute to take in these photos.

Last but not least, the 007 of vegetables....Sprout, Brussel Sprout.

I know of all the brussel sprout horror stories, but I think these photos will change everything. We make this a few times a week.

The formidable and intimidating brussel sprout.

First up, cut the stem end off as demonstrated here.

Cut the brussel in half, peel the exterior leaves that make look discolored or funny. The external leaves will come off really easily.

Heat a pan with a good bit of olive oil and put it on medium heat.

The brussel sprouts absorb the oil as they get good color on them. Put the brussels in a middle or large saute pan when it starts to smoke and get hot. *Note: Move the pan off the heat if it gets too hot. Place the brussels in saute pan cut side down.

After about 4 minutes you should have brussels that look like the photo below. At this point you want to add water into the pan about two-thirds of the way up. Don't submerge the sprouts in the water. Just enough where most of the brussel sprout is submerged. OK, turn the heat up to medium high and cook until the sprouts can be pierced with a easily with a fork with a little bit of resistance.

Congratulations, these are your finished brussel sprouts!



Put everything on a plate and enjoy!