Joy of Cooking: Beef Stroganaff

(In Five Easy Steps)

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of sliced beef (fillet of beef)

3T butter

1 Medium Onion

2C beef stock

3/4 lb sliced or quartered mushrooms

1 C sour cream

Nutmeg

Salt & Pepper

1T Dijon Mustard

Egg Noodles

Optional:

Thyme to seasoning mix

Worcester sauce

Tomato paste

Directions:

1. Brown the beef in some butter or olive oil. Hot pan, this is quick. Take the beef off, let sit on plate

2. Sautee onions for a few minutes, until translucent brown. Add mushrooms and brown those.

3. Add the beef back in, then add beef stock,

4. Add sour cream, Dijon, season to taste

5. Serve over cooked egg noodles - the longer it sits, the more the sauce thickens.



6. Enjoy!

I like it with zucchini or some other green vegetable. Chef's choice or whatever's around.

Directions

1. Brown the beef in some butter or olive oil. Hot pan, this is quick. Take the beef off, let sit on plate.

2. Sautee onions for a few minutes, until translucent brown. Add mushrooms and brown those.

3. Add the beef back in, then add beef stock (and Worcester, tomato paste, optional items)

4. Add sour cream, Dijon, season to taste

5. Serve over cooked egg noodles - the longer it sits, the more the sauce thickens.

JC Ticker
Julia Child Recipe: 1 of 20
Joy of Cooking Recipe 3 of 20.



Joy of Cooking 2: Chicken on a Bed of Mushrooms

Simple and surprisingly flavorful chicken dinner. For the most part it was also a fix it & forget it dinner. Love those!

This was one of those meals that felt like after making it a couple times, it will be old hat. And that you could throw it together for unexpected company and be happy with the results. Maybe not blown away, but really happy.

Season the chicken with Salt, Pepper, and rosemary (or herb of your choice).

Create a " bed of mushrooms" at base of casserole dish on top of some EVOO.

Add wine - about half way up the mushrooms.

Pile the seasoned chicken on the mushrooms and wine.

Bake!

Pull out the cooked chicken and mushrooms, and place in a dish. Any old dish will do.

Pour the remaining wine/chicken jus into a pan, add cream. Reduce to a delicious pan gravy.

A Few Pro Tips:

• Skin on, chicken preferred
• More importantly because this is such a low ingredient dish, the higher quality of chicken the better.
• I used bone-in, but will go boneless next time for ease of the meal - but the flavor was really nice.
• Extra broth or wine to extend the gravy at the end of the meal, as desired.
• Use a 9X9 casserole dish, if you have one
• If your gravy is taking forever to cook - maybe make sure that the burner is on... just a suggestion. Not from personal experience or anything - just throwing that out there, just in case.
• I served the above with: pasta and roasted Brussels sprouts - and loved it.
• But ... I had leftovers with tortellini and that was brilliant.

Ingredients

6 chicken breast halves (with skin)

1 teaspoon dried thyme (or rosemary or herb of your choice) 

Salt and ground black pepper  

6 large Portobello or 12 to 18 shiitake or button mushrooms (Enough to cover bottom of the dish)

2 Tablespoon minced garlic

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

2 Cups dry white wine

Olive oil

Sauce:

Enough water or Chicken Stock to measure 1 cup

1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream (optional)

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Rinse, pat dry, and trim any excess fat from chicken.
3. Season with thyme (or herb of your choice), season with salt and ground black pepper to taste.
4. Lightly oil a 9 x 9-inch baking pan or shallow baking dish just large enough to hold the chicken pieces in a single layer.
5. Remove the stems from mushrooms. Arrange the mushrooms, stem side up, overlapping if necessary, in the pan. Sprinkle with garlic and Salt and ground black pepper to taste.
6. Pour white wine over the mushrooms.
7. Lay the chicken breasts skin side up on top of the mushrooms. Brush lightly with olive oil.
8. Bake, uncovered, until the chicken skin turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Check to see that there is some liquid in the pan; if not, add more wine. Baste the chicken with pan juices and turn the pieces over. Bake until the chicken is firm and fully cooked, 10 to 20 minutes more.
9. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken and mushrooms to a platter, arranging the chicken skin side up on the mushrooms. Pour the pan juices into a small saucepan and skim the fat off the top with a spoon.
10. Add Chicken Stock (and extra wine if you're so inclined) and cream.  
11. Boil the sauce over high heat until reduced to a syrupy consistency. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Spoon sauce over the chicken, sprinkle the chicken with minced fresh parsley.
12. Enjoy

Joy of Cooking: 2
Julia Child: 1
Recipe Learning Remaining: 37

Julia Childs Recipe 1

Let the Julia Child cooking Begin!

 

Fondue de Poulet a la Crème (Chicken Simmered with Cream and Onions)

  

I'm not attempting to do a Julia & Julia type thing here. I am, however, trying to expand my cooking repertoire and cooking confidence.

 

I want to face down a few recipes that intimidate me. I want to cook something that's not from the foodnetwork. I want to learn some traditional recipes and gain some new staples.

 

This is the perfect entry level recipe that my mom selected on a recent visit!  There weren't too many ingredients, and not too many complicated steps. The title says it all - Chicken simmered with cream and onions - and it cooks almost just that easily!

 

The result was incredibly delicious. The chicken looks bland and understated, but the flavor is rich & extravagant. I would absolutely serve this to guests at a dinner party.

 

How'd this first Julia Child Chicken get made, you ask? Let me show you.

 

The trick to this recipe was not letting anything brown.



 

 

Cook Chicken for 5 minutes, turning and not browning.

Take out the chicken, cook diced onions for about 5 minutes - without browning.

Add the chicken back in, and cook some more. Still no browning! Of course.

Add salt, pepper, curry, and cream. Bring to a boil & then let simmer for 30-35 minutes. Turning once.
After that, take out the chicken and bring back to a boil to reduce the sauce by at least half. Add lemon juice, more cream, salt & pepper to taste. Et Voila!



The Final result. Delicious!

Serve with: Mme. Childs recommends serving with Risotto, but I went with the classy boil in bag brown rice. Can't rush the culinary magic. This was magnificent, I already can't wait to try it again.

If I were to do it again, I'd also serve it with a crunchy green - broccolini, asparagus, or zucchini.


Ingredients
 

• 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. of cut-up frying chicken
• I used thighs - I used skin on, bone in, but would use skinless next time
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 1/2 cups diced yellow onions (I used sweet onions)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp white or black pepper 
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 1/3 cup cognac, Calvados, Madeira, or port; or 3/4 cup dry white wine, or 1/2 cup dry white vermouth (I used whatever white I had on hand)
• 3 cups whipping cream brought to a boil in a small sauce pan 
• Salt and pepper, drops of lemon juice
• 3 to 4 tbsp whipping cream (used to finish the sauce at the end of cooking).
• Parsley

 

Recipe

• Dry the chicken thoroughly. Turn it in hot butter for 4 to 5 minutes, until the meat has stiffened slightly but has not browned. Remove to a side dish.
• Stir the onions into the butter in the pan.
• Cover and cook very slowly for 5 minutes, or until the onions are fairly tender but not browned. 
• Return the chicken the casserole pan, cover and cook slowly for 10 minutes until chicken swells slightly and stiffens, but does not brown.
• Turn it once during this period. 
• Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and curry powder.
• Pour in the spirits or wine, raise heat, and boil rapidly until the liquid has almost entirely evaporated.
• Pour on the hot cream, bring to a simmer, baste the chicken and cover the casserole. Maintain at low simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and its juices run a clear yellow when the meat is pricked with a fork. The cream may look slightly curdled, but will be smoothed out later.
• Take the chicken out and place in a hot platter, cover, and keep warm for 5 minutes while finishing the sauce. Almost done!
• Skim fat off the sauce, then boil rapidly, stirring until it reduces enough to coat the spoon lightly. Correct seasoning, adding lemon juice to taste.
• Turn off the heat & beat in enough extra cream (by spoonful) to smooth out the sauce.
• Pour the sauce over the chicken, decorate with parsley and serve to the hungry masses.

Thanks Mom for your recipe selection & all the help!

JC Ticker
Julia Child Recipe: 1
JC Recipe 2 of 40.

Goal Number 8: Learn to Make Bread!

I declare: I'm officially a bread baker!

When I set out to rid myself of the fear of working with yeast and the fear of kneading (which always sounded like a very advanced culinary skill), I decided that I had to successfully make at least 3 types of bread - including french bread. I am proud to say, that day has come!

I have made dough with yeast. I have kneaded. I have made BREAD! Edible, tasty, beautiful bread.

Some more tasty, some more beautiful, all edible, all bread.

To date I have made: Easy No Knead Bread; Focaccia; Honey bread; and French Bread. There are now so many more breads that I get to try making. As appears to be the beginning of a trend, I wondered before I made my above declaration - could I claim to be a bread maker? could I claim that i have completed my goal? I have not made dinner rolls or pizza dough or basic sandwich bread. Who was I to declare myself a bread maker?

But I quickly realized that the fact was that I now feel no fear in faces those new bread challenges. I am ready. Ask me to bring those to a dinner function - and I will gladly make them! Which means, I've made it to the other side - from non-bread-maker/fearer of yeast and kneading to breadmaker. Yahoo.

Bring on the delicious wafting aroma of fresh baked bread, please.

I ain't afraid of no yeast!

***************************

For anyone's that's tempted to break some of their own fresh baked bread, let's talk about the breads I've made quickly.

I was so worried I wouldn't see an "indentation"

French Bread -

I used trusty Betty Crocker's French Bread Recipe. 

After looking back at the recipe, I never refridgerated the dough or let it rise a second time - suggesting that bread is a lot more forgiving than I had ever believed. 

Some mild regret not doing the recommended egg wash for a shiner, prettier bread. But still delicious!

 No Knead Bread - Discussed in a previous post.

The Prettiest Bread!

 And the Focaccia!

I followed this recipe from the Cake Duchess, but added caramelized onions and shallot seasoning as I had no tomatoes on hand. It was freaking delicious.

I can't find the recipe for the Honey Bread - such a shame! I will find it though, because that bread was good.

Um, Yummy sandwich bread! Yeah, I made that.

Goal # 30: Learn to Make Pie

Pie! And a bit of a check in.

I have faced my fear of pie crust.

While I'm not any pie making expert, I can now make a crust and therefore make a pie! Next Pi Day, for example, I could totally bring a homemade pie. Next holiday season, I could bring an apple or pumpkin pie! And really, that's all I wanted to be able to do.

Meaning... Pie Making Goal Achieved!

I was reflecting upon this Goal being achieved, whether that was really all. It felt almost too easy of a goal to count towards my 40.

But you know what? I realized that these 40 are not about hard or easy, but about facing challenges. About not letting myself hold back from life anymore. Whether it be in my kitchen going back to basics and learning to make one of the more intimidating dishes. A dish like pie that has not been baked in many of my my previous ovens because I was too afraid of making all the learning pies.

I think I didn't appreciate that the learning pies meant that I would get to have a whole pie to myself. I mean, if I'm too ashamed to make a pie, that means that's a pie for me right? Even if the crust is bad, I could eat the yummy insides. And as it turned out, I was shame free in all my pie making ... so far. And able to share with others. What a pleasant, delightful pie surprise!

Okay, so I haven't reached the beautiful pie making phase. I can admit it. But who cares, as long as it tastes good, right?!

I have been using the pioneer woman's perfect pie crust recipe with both butter and shortening.

The most recent recipe I  used was more like this:

3 Cups of Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 C butter
1 C shortening
1 egg
5 Tablespoon ice water
1 Tablespoon vinegar

I froze the dough for over an hour, and was glad I did - especially in the summer heat!
 *********
Some other pies I've now made!:

Rustic Plum Tart

French Silk (Sans Whipped topping!)

Goal 8: Bread - Truly Easy No Knead Bread

Goal #8: Learn to Make Bread!!

This is the bread I learned to make this weekend. My very first loaf of homemade bread - and it's good! It's cheap, it's incredibly easy, and it's tasty!

I had this image of working out frustrations kneading bread dough. Romantic ideas, even, about how it would transfer to love in the bread making process. That was not to be.  At least not this time. But that's because this bread was so easy to make. Easier to make than chocolate chip cookies. By far.

For those of you paying attention to my 40 before 40 list - I'm not crossing this one off quite yet. I have bread ambitions yet before I'd feel ready to cross this off the list. I'd like to conquer kneaded bread at the very least!

But for now - I'm feeling like I'm off to a grand start!  





Ingredients: 
1 1/2 Cup Water
3 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast. 

Step 1: Mix Dry ingredients (flour, salt, yeast). 

Step 2: Add water & mix.

Congratulations - you now have bread dough! Even if it doesn't look like much at this stage.

Step 3: Cover with saran wrap and let sit 12-18 hours. This is easily done by making it in the evening and letting the dough rise overnight. As the dough takes almost no time, this should be fairly doable to do regularly!

You'll know the dough is ready when it's doubled in size and has little air bubbles. Success!

Step 4: On a well floured surface, form the dough into a ball.

This was much easier than it sounds. I was having some bread making fears bubble up at this stage, but really - transferring the dough from the bowl to the floured surface was almost all it took to get the dough into a ball form. It basically fell into formation!

Step 5: Cover with the saran wrap again, and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
After the oven is warmed, put the cast iron (or clay pot) into the oven to warm it. I let mine warm about 15-20 minutes to be sure it was good and hot.

Step 6:  Put the dough ball into the oven warmed dutch oven, cast iron pot, bread making vehicle of your choice - and cover. Bake for 30 minutes.

Step 7: Take off the lid and bake another 15 minutes.

Eh, Voila!! You have delicious, fabulous bread!!

Here's the hardest part! You have to wait until the bread is "quiet" before cutting into it! You can hear it crackling as it settles. Which is pretty fabulous.

 Enjoy!!