Hairbows and Halloween

Although I like to cook and sew etc., I am not what I would consider crafty. But sometimes I surprise myself.
Some hairbows:
Halloween cards:

Maybe politics and cooking don't mix . . .

I heard about Samak Sundaravej, the prime minister of Thailand, on the radio. Apparently, before he was prime mister he was a famous TV chef, which earned him enough fame to get elected, however that past role is now getting him into trouble. Read here for more info: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9734

While cooking is my favorite hobby and policy analysis is my chosen field of study, it looks like pursuing them simultaneously as professions might be a bad idea.

On a tangently related note, it turns out the Thai food is awesome. I learned to love it on my mission. It is my understanding that Switerzland is the country with the second best Thai food . . . next to England. (That's a bad joke, but there are quite a few Thailanders in Europe) Tonight I made an easy Coconut Chicken Curry:

1 lb. skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut in bite-sized pieces
1/2 medium onion (optional, but I like it), chopped
1 medium red Bell pepper, chopped

1 medium green Bell pepper, chopped
1 can coconut milk (can use light or regular)
Curry paste

Salt to taste

Preparation:

1) Heat some oil (in the pan, you want a thin coating on the bottom).

2) Chop onion, and add.

3) Chop peppers and add. Stir. Cook until onion is getting soft, if it isn't already.

4) While that is cooking, chop the chicken.

5) Add the curry paste (including the salt).

6) Add the chicken. Stir until almost cooked through.

7) Add the coconut milk. (Note: this makes a fairly soupy curry. If you want it thicker, just add maybe 2/3 of the can.) Bring it to a boil, and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Trying My Hand at French Cuisine

I am a little embrassed to admit that before tonight I have never really delved into the world of French cooking. I mean it seems like it would be an obvious starting place since the French pretty much invented culinary arts. But it took Julia Child to inspire me to give it a try, and . . . WOW!

I found this recipe in a "Cooking Light" cookbook, but I did my best to add the fatting, yet tasty things, back in.

Chicken Francais:

Ingredients: 2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup dry white wine (I used a little apple juice and some dijon mustard for kick)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

3 garlic cloves, minced

8 (4-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

Cooking spray

Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Combine the eggs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, white wine, lemon juice, salt, hot pepper sauce, and garlic in a shallow dish. Set aside.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and pound to 1/4-inch thickness. You really do want the breasts a little on the smaller side for this as the very large breasts will pound out to nearly the size of your skillet! If this happens you'll end up cooking the chicken breasts one by one... Once pounded, dredge chicken in flour and dip in the egg mixture.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Add chicken breast halves (don't crowd the pan); cook about 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan and keep warm. Repeat the procedure with 1 1/2 teaspoons oil and the remaining chicken, wiping the drippings out from the pan between each batch.
After the last cutlet has been cooked, melt butter in pan. Add 1/4 cup wine and 3 tablespoons juice. Bring to a boil; cook for 10 or 20 seconds. Serve over chicken.

I served with with a quick and easy arborio rice salad. I just cooked the rice, added a diced tomato, some red onion and green pepper and tossed in some greek salad dressing, thyme and oregano. Also on the side I cooked up some spinach.

For Dessert:

Apple Tart

1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated crescent dough (such as Pillsbury)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 pounds Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (I used rehydrated food storage apples)

2 1/2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the top:

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup sugar

Combine apples and spices. Place in center of dough and bring up edges. Brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in 350 oven° for 15 to 20 min.

You will be humming La Vie en Rose the rest of the evening.

Bon Appetit!

Kelsey Nixon the Next Star

Our favorite cook from BYU TV is competing on The Next Food Network Star. Unfortunately we don't have The Food Network. But you can vote for Kelsey http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_nf/text/0,2495,FOOD_20096_67977,00.html .

Cooking Methods Lesson1: Braising

So I'm getting back to the hard-core cooking posts.

In this post I will be discussing the various methods of applying heat to food. Before that it is important to understand how different substances react to heat. Some of this might seem obvious, but it can be very helpful to break down whatever it is you are cooking and consider how each part will respond to the cooking method you have chosen.

Effects of Heat

Fats: Melt (just like butter in the pan and the extra bits of fat in meat) -- also if the fat is allowed to get very hot it will speed up the cooking of the sugars in the foods and make them crispy (like when you deep-fry something.)

Protein: "coagulates" meaning it get firmer. Also it is important to remember that proteins also lose moisture and get smaller.

Sugar: Caramelizes, get brown and a rich dark flavor. This is one the best flavors in cooking. Realize that sugar is present in almost all foods (this is why your chicken or rolls will get that nice golden color when cooked.)

Water: Evaporates. Most foods are primarily made of water and no one likes to eat food that is over-cooked and dry.

Cooking methods -can be broken down into two groups: dry-heat methods and moist heat methods.

Dry Heat Methods include- Broiling, Grilling, Baking, Sautéing, Pan-frying and Deep-Frying. These are great because they get the caramelization going, which adds that great flavor.

Moist Heat Methods include- poaching, simmering, boiling, steaming. The real advantage here is that they add moisture as cook, so you don't end up with a dry finished product.

Braising is one way to get the best of both methods.

Braising is a great way to cook larger, tough cuts of meat, like Roasts and Ribs. Lately, I have been discovering how great braising is for chicken, which is what inspired this post Braising is very similar to what you are already doing in your crock pot; however, most of us are skipping the first and maybe most important step.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Season the meat and brown in a sauté pan with a little fat. (Dry seasons like salt, pepper, garlic salt, and rosemary work well because when you coat the meat and then when you brown the outside the sugars in the meat, the fat and the seasons create a delicious hard shell around the meat that keeps all the juice inside. Also dredging smaller cuts of meat in flour with seasonings can create the same effect.)

2. Finish the meat by simmering it in a liquid or sauce. You do this by transferring the meat to a crock pot or deep baking dish or pan. You can simmer on the stove top or in the oven. Braised meats should be tender. For large, tough cuts of meat the simmering stage could take 3-4 hours, but for smaller and tenderer cuts, like chicken, 30 minutes may be all you need.

Simple, right? Here are some ways you can try it out.

Here is a recipe for Cafe Rio's Pork Barbacoa

http://durhamfam.blogspot.com/2008/04/caf-rios-pork-barbacoa.html

This is a great recipe, but before you put it all in the crock pot, rub the dry oregano, ginger, chili powder, garlic powder and dried onions all over the raw pork and brown it in a sauté pan on medium high with a little bit of oil. Transfer the meat to the crock pot, then "deglaze" the pan (fancy cooking word for using a liquid; classically wine, but you can use water, stock, vinegar, juice; to get all the delicious browned bits and flavors left in the pan after you brown something.) Pour what you have in the pan over the meat in the crock pot and follow the rest of the recipe.

One more recipe:

This is a very yummy Cranberry Chicken I made on Wenesday.
http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--1576/cranberry-chicken.asp

Do everything this recipe says, but before topping the chicken with the cranberry/Catalina dressing sauce. Shake salt, pepper, garlic salt and dry rosemary (not too much) on the chicken and brown (the chicken should not be cooked through because you will finish that up in the oven) in a sauté pan (deglazing is less important in this case because the recipe calls for onion soup mix, which has about the same flavor. If you don't have the soup mix you can sauté some onions with chicken and then deglaze with stock. Also, I added a bit of Dijon mustard to the cranberry-catalina sauce, which added a nice little punch.

Good luck!

Mother's Day Strawberries

Several weeks ago I ran into Josh and the other counselor in hall at the church (since he's been put in the Bishopric, we don't really attend church "together"). Josh started asking me if chocolate dipped strawberries would be hard to make and prompting me to affirm that they were.
Josh:Janae, don't they need some kind of special, expensive chocolate? Wouldn't that be really hard to do?
I excitedly responsed: No, they are super easy. Are you guys going to do that for mother's day? I want to help."
And today we handed out two chocolate strawberries to each woman in our ward. Here's the process from raw berry to decadent delight.

We melted two huge bricks of milk chocolate.

We dipped about 150 berries. On Saturday Josh and I were at the mall and saw chocolate dripped strawberries on sale for $2 each, so we firgured that we made $300 worth of strawberries for around $25.


Veva, the first counselor's wife, had the great idea to drizzle white chocolate over the finished strawberries. I think that made them look very fancy. Good thinking Veva!

Jokes

Josh and I have decided that I have made a total of three funny jokes during our married life, one that ocurrred just last night. I make up for my lack of prolificacy by reliving these rare moments often. Here goes. . .

Several years ago, Josh and I were walking down the street talking about what kind of job I should get after I graduated with my bachelor's degree. We saw one of those Schwan trucks with the little freezer compartment on the back.

Janae: Maybe I could work for them, you know deliever ice cream and frozen chicken cordon-bleu.

Josh: I guess so, but what would you be called? I have only heard them refered to as "Schwan-men"

Pause

Janae: "Schwan-princess"

Josh and I went to Europe last summer and Josh packed Ainslie all over Italy in a baby bjorn. At St. Peter's Basilica in Rome they have these huge JumboTron screens set up where they broadcast the Pope's addresses. When I saw the three of us show up on the huge screen I exclaimed "Look, we are on the Vati-cam."

Last night I was helping Josh study for his up-coming exam in Trusts. He was explaining what makes a trust viable and I was asking questions about it.

Josh: It is illegal to pass on defective property through a trust.

Janae: Why is that?

Josh: Well you can't give something to the beneficiaries that wouldn't benefit them.

Janae: Oh I get it, if you gave them something bad it would make them "Nega-ficiaries."