Creamy Chicken Casserole

Another easy meal day. We needed to use up some vegetables and left-overs. Autumn is finally setting in here. It is the perfect time for casseroles, warm yumminess.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 rib of chopped celery
1 large chopped carrot
1 medium chopped leek
1 medium chopped potato
1 boneless, skinless chopped chicken breast
1 cup grated cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup cream
1 cup milk
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp chopped lemon balm
2 hamburger buns
garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste
1/2 tsp herbs de Provence
Butter spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop vegetables. Chop and season chicken.
 

2. Saute chicken. Steam carrots and potatoes.

3. Remove chicken from the pan. Add the flour to the pan. Stir in with juices and oil over medium heat. Whisk in cream and milk. Add chopped garlic. Heat and stir until it thickens to a gravy.
 

4. Add vegetables, chicken, herbs and eggs to an oven safe dish.

5. Stir in gravy.
 

6. Top with shredded hamburger buns. Coat with butter spray and herbs de Provence.

7. Place dish in oven and bake for 45 minutes.
 

8. Allow to cool. Serve.

The Saga of the Ham, Part 1

If you read my earlier post on my love of pork, then you know I am interested in making a ham. Not any ham but something in the neighborhood of Parma perfection.

The first part of any saga like this is research. I’ve found a number of places on line with some helpful advice. If you are interested in making ham, you should check them out.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/cure_smoke/virginia_ham.pdf
http://www.foodandwine.net/recipes/recip009.htm
http://forum.rivercottage.net/viewtopic.php?t=13379
http://www.culinary-yours.com/ham.html
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/C/come_dine/7philham.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnweakle/Hog_Killing.htm

Given this research, I have a good feel for the ingredients and the basic process. Now I need to settle on the cut of meat, the recipe and the specific technique.

I am a beginner here, so I am a little nervous that I will completely screw this up, so a smaller cut of meat is intriguing. On the recipe side, I would like to do a Parma style ham. The basic ingredient here is salt though you can add other ingredients to spice it up a bit.

OK so I had 1 pound of left over tenderloin. I decided I needed a curing agent other than salt. I went to Bass Pro Shop and picked up Lem’s brand cure. Nothing more than Prague #1 or Instacure #1 for those in the know. I think for ham you should really use Prague #2, but I couldn’t get that anywhere quickly. This is an experiment so #1 it is.

 

I mixed 1/2 tsp of the cure with 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp ground pepper and 1 tsp ground corriander. This was double the cure the package called for but I think it is typically used with ground meat…

I rubbed every last bit of the rub over the meat making sure to miss no part of the pork. For the last step I wrapped it up in celophane and placed in the fridge. I’ll check back in 2 weeks.
 

Scallops in Carrot Sauce

 

A few years ago we went to a fun restaurant outside of Seattle called the Herb Farm. This was a spectacular meal in a spectacular restaurant.

The restaurant has a really cool concept. One seating a night. Family style. All food comes from the northwest U.S.

One of the dishes from our dinner was a scallop dish in a carrot sauce. Luckily the Herb Farm has a cookbook. I’ve done this a few times now and it comes out great each time. Very easy dish that is a real crowd pleaser.

Ingredients:
2 cups carrot juice
1/4 cup white wine
1 medium shallot finely chopped
Juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup fresh marjoram
12 medium scallops
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
Salad

Directions:
1. Combine carrot juice, 1/4 cup wine, lemon juice and shallots in a large sauce pot. Bring to a low boil. Reduce to 1/2 cup.
 

2. Slowly whisk in butter. Add marjoram and remove from heat.

3. Salt and pepper the scallops to taste. Heat oil in a large pan until smoking. Add scallops sear on one side for about 3 minutes. Flip scallops and sear for about 2 minutes.
 

4. Transfer scallops to a warm plate and keep warm in 170F oven.

5. Drain scallop juice from pan add to carrot mixture with remaining 1/4 cup wine. Remove marjoram. Reheat sauce while whisking.

6. Add the salad to plates, top with scallops and drizzle with sauce by straining through a fine mesh strainer. Serve with rice on the side.
  

Bratwurst

I’m on a homemade charcuterie kick lately. Today’s project was bratwurst. This time I used a pre-packaged mix. Bass Pro Shop carries meat curing supplies. I picked up a bratwurst spice mix there for this first experiment. Next time I’ll do the whole thing from scratch.

The brats came out great.  Add spicy sweet mustard and the kraut stuffed peppers on top and you have one awesome brat. This is definitely a “do over”.

Ingredients:
5 lbs pork butt
Hog casings
1 package bratwurst spice mix

Directions:
1. Rinse and soak the casings.
 

2. Cut meat into 2 inch cubes.
 

3. Coarsely grind the meat.
 

4. Mix in the spice mixture.
 

5. Rinse casings and thread onto tube.

6. Stuff the casings. Don’t over stuff. You need enough room to twist into links.
 

7. Cut into links. Mix a bottle of beer with enough water to cover the brats. Bring the beer and brat mixture to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
 

8. Fire up the grill with hickory wood for extra flavor. Cook the brats for about 5-10 minutes per side until nice and reddish brown.
 

9. Prepare the brats on a bun with mustard, peppers, and kraut. Enjoy.

Pork Roulade

It is funny how some of the easiest meals to fix become the fanciest looking and sometimes best tasting. Last night I just wanted to do something easy to get rid of some left overs. Pork tenderloin, some slices of prosciutto, some aged Gouda, and various vegetables.

The dish came out very nice, the flavors worked better than expected and the crispy prosciutto stole the show.

 The only hard part here for beginners is the slicing of the meat. Take the tenderloin and cut a slit in it lengthwise. The cut should go deep, leaving about 1/4 inch thickness uncut. Now open the pork like a book. With the knife as parallel to the board as possible cut one side of the pork. Essentially you are spiralling around, always leaving 1/4 inch against the board. Keep unfolding until you get to the end of the one side. Then continue with the other. It sounds hard, but with practice you can do the whole process in about a minute.

 

Ingredients:
1 small pork tenderloin
about 2 cups of sorrel leaves (arugula or spinach will work)
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup grated aged Gouda (or other hard cheese)
6-8 paper thin slices of prosciutto
Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the tenderloin into a 1/4 inch sheet. 
 

2. Layer the sorrel, onions, and cheese on top of the sheet.
 

3. Roll the pork tightly. Season with ground pepper.

4. Wrap in prosciutto and place in an oven safe dish.

5. Place in oven and cook at 375F for 45 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Cutting too soon will cause the juice to run everywhere, leaving the pork dry.

7. Slice and serve immediately. Served here with turnip root and greens as well as fried potato wedges.