Coq au vin

Time flies.  I forgot all about this delicious dish I tried in February.  This is my first attempt with Coq au vin.  I used the chicken, instead of the rooster.

Produce and Pesticides: What You Need to Know

Disturbingly, many farmers are using pesticides to prolong the lives of their crops. These chemicals enable foods to travel long distances and...
Click on the picture above to get to the full story at Dr. Oz's website.
My goal this year is to plant more veges in my garden.  Let's see how it goes.

Shoestring French Fries and Hamburger Dinner

After following the simple recipe in the Bouchon cookbook on how to prepare french fries, I made shoestring French fries.  I have so many different cuts of potatoes left from me practicing cutting the potato tourne, etc, etc, I thought it's a great idea.  The length and width are bit irregular and would not meet the standard, but they turned out great for our dinner.  We love the texture of crispiness of the shoestring French fries.

Sauteed Onion Glazed Chicken Breast with jus lie

I think by the end of March, I will be going through the Chickens as I have with pounds and pounds of flour for my baking adventure.  The more I learn about this "European" cooking method, I like the idea of adding varieties to the dishes prepared for my family - and economically. 
I was testing the Saute method to prepare the chicken breast slices.   They were lightly powdered with seasoned flour, and sauteed in butter.  I didn't have any recipe to follow.  I decided to saute the onion slices afterward in the same sauteuse.  Onions were sauteed till they are caramelized, then, smeared all over the chicken.   I prepared the jus lie with the drippings left in the pan.  Chardonnay + salt + fresh ground black peppers + sugar to taste.  Thickened slightly with Potato Starch (Japanese HOKKAIDO Potato Starch).

Chardonnay Roasted Chicken

Hmmm..... well.  After the fact that I made this, I found out the new info on "Dry-Heat" method of what is "roasting" is.   After I made this I decided to dub this Chardonnay Roasted Chicken.... Well, learning is a progress of failure and success.  I am still happy with the result.  But,  I will try to correct the 'roasting' method the next time.  I am getting good at preparing this 'potato tourne', however.

And this chicken are boneless.  I carved the meat off the bone.  Seasoned with Cilantro Lemon Salt Pepper rub with fresh thyme.  Clasped the no-skin side together and tied it with strings.
Prepared mirepoix and spread them on the bottom and set the chicken on the top. 
Bones are frozen because I already have enough clear chicken stock from the last chicken.
Roasted covered at 375'F for 1hr 30 min.  Added 1/2 Cup of Chardonnay after 55 min of roasting.  As this chicken is roasted in my favorite roaster with cover, I broiled the chicken for 5 min to brown the top.  The broiling would be unnecessary if I had used the right technique.

Scaloppini Chicken with Chardonnay Sweet and Sour Spicy Sauce

Scaloppini chicken - my first attempt at home turned out a new addition to my food adventure -  fairly thinly sliced chicken pounded further and coated barely with flour sauted butter.  Swirls of chardonnay into the pan to deglaze the food bits at the bottom of the pan.  The aroma of heated Chardonnay tingled my nostril.  That's when I got the idea of making the Chardonnay sweet and sour sauce.   I thought it is perfect.  It has the perfect acidity and mellowness that the ordinary mixture of vinegar and sugar can't bring out.  Addition of chili pepper flakes brought the flavor really together when tossed with mangoes.  The smaller pieces of chicken were served over steaming hot Jasmine rice.

Hotdog in Home Baked Buns, French Fries and Onion Rings

I tried the recipe from http://angelcookbakelove.blogspot.com's Christmas Tree Custard Bread (Super Soft).  The extra dough Angelbakelove used to make the hotdog buns looked attractively interesting  to make hotdog dinner that I wanted.  To make hotdog buns or hamburger buns.  I used 160 g AP unbromeated, unbleached Flour.  Pre-Mix 28g flour 28g  with 15 g Sugar, 8 g  Milk powder, 2 g  Salt with 109 g warm Water with 2.5 g Yeast.  Once the pre-mix bubbles up, add 15 g beaten eggs, and 15 g melted butter. Proceed to make the dough, rise, portion and bake in 180'C oven for 15 minutes.

For dinner, I also prepared French Fries from Chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon Recipe book.  I learned about blanching the french fries at 325'F and then fried at 375'F.  Wow... time consuming.  I also made some onion rings ... woops... didn't have Panko in my pantry.  Soooo.... onion rings dipped in seasoned flour, buttermilk, and tested with  white corn meal dip also.... that was not very tasty.... so I changed the last coating with Tempura powder.  That's much better.  Keeping the peanut oil between 350'F and 375'F is challenging indeed.  This is when the electric skillet with temp controller would work well... I think.

Canneles de Bordeaux 2011

This is my 3rd batch for 2011.  I think it's time to re-tin my canneles copper molds.

Valentine Chocolate Mini-Cupcake

Late posting, absolutely and timely, but want to let you all know that it was fun making this mini-cupcakes for my grandkids.

Beef Stew

In attempting to practice cutting potato and carrot tourne, I made this beef stew.  Tourne is quite challenging - gives me the finger cramps.

Chardonnay Flavored Sweet and Sour Lemon Spicy Sauce

Another evening of challenging cooking.  Prepared sauteed chicken with Marsala, but I didn't  have marsala.  Looked for substitute recipe for marsala.  Hmmm...grape juice and brandy... Yak!  nope, I do not like the taste.  Back to square one.  How about sweet and sour sauce?  But I did not want the vinegar.  An idea --
Ingredients:
1/2 C fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 C Chardonnay.  I used Inglenook brand's
1 C homemade chicken stock (seasoned, but no salt) 
1/4 C finely chopped - fine brunoise - 1/16"x1/16"x1/16"
1 clove of garlic chopped
2 to 3 Tbsp Sugar
about 1 tsp+ of chili flakes
1 Tbsp Japanese Potato Starch (Katakuriko) mixed with water = 2 Tbsp Slurry
Salt to taste

Sauteuse pan
Strainer
Glass bowl
Heat proof spatula

After chicken breasts--thinly sliced, pounded (scaloppini style), dredged in flour  (make sure to shake almost all the flour off each chicken slice and sauteed in butter, set the chicken aside.
In the same saute pan, add the onions and sweat it.  Pick up all the goodies at the bottom of the saute pan.  Then add 1 C chardonnay, add chopped garlic and cook to reduce to 1/4 C or less.  Add 1 C home made chicken stock.
Cook to reduce (evaporate) by 1/4 C.
Remove from heat and strain the sauce.  Discard onions and garlic...etc. or gobble them up  :-)
Return the sauce back into the sauteuse.
Heat - just before it starts to boil, add chili flakes.  Add 2 Tbsp sugar and taste.  Add more sugar as needed to your sweetness taste.  Sprinkle with salt to taste.
(Liquid should be bubbly until finish.)
Add 2 Tbsp of starch slurry, and stir quickly with heat proof spatula.
Cook till liquid is evenly thickened and for 2 min--stir continuously.
Remove from heat.

Cut the chicken into desired size if plating for individual size.
Arrange on plate and served with julienned Mango on chicken scaloppini layer. Drowse with Chardonnay flavored sweet and sour lemon spice sauce on each layer.
Yuummmy!!

Other odd pieces of chickens:  cut into somewhat equal size.  Serve after tossing the chicken and sauce together.

Roasted Turnips and Spaghetti Squash

They are heart warming and tasty.  Turnips tasted like DAIKON, but with firmer texture.
The spaghetti squash is very interesting.  

Poached Pears with Wild Berry Wine Sauce

I never thought I will ever poach pears... and in wine?  well, I am into the new arena in cooking adventure this semester.  Not too sure about poached food items in the meat group, but it works wonder with this pears.