My New Favorite Dessert: Buttermilk Pie

 

There is a place that Dale and I loved to eat at in Colorado Springs and it's called Rudy's.  It's a place that does great BBQ'd meats (no sauce which I like), and they had these tiny individually wrapped pecan and buttermilk pies.  I used to love to get them to take home after we gorged ourselves on the brisket and pork ribs.

I am proud to say that my pie-making skills are getting better as I'm making more pies.  This was a little over half of the batch of crust that I made the "cookies" with in my previous post.  I wanted plenty of crust to make a nice thick layer with a good healthy edge to work a beautiful crimp.  I'm getting pretty good at it!

Buttermilk Pie

Serves 8

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 tsp salt

pinch salt

3 Tbl flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 deep dish pie shell (pre-baked )

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Beat the butter and sugar together until light.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat.  Sift dry ingredients together and add to the batter alternately with the buttermilk and beat until smooth.  Pour into the deep dish pie dish (that has been placed on a sheet pan) and carefully put into the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for an additional 50-60 minutes.  Once a  golden brown color has been achieved, cover loosely with foil to prevent over-browning or burning.  The pie is done when an knife is inserted into the center and it comes out clean.

Cool and serve.  This pie will keep on your counter for a few days, if it lasts that long!  We gobbled this pie up!!

I am thinking about entering this into the Ruston bake competition.  Dale won second place last year!

Just Like Mom Used to Make

Whenever my mom would bake a homemade pie with lard in the crust, she would take the crust trimmings from the pie and lay them out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon and bake them with the pie.  We loved them!  They were so crisp and light.

So, when today proved to be a cooler day (after a week of sunny weather in the 80's) I decided to make pies.  I made a strawberry rhubarb pie, but that has a top and bottom.  Then I decided to make a pie that I liked and could eat and I picked buttermilk pie.  This has a bottom crust only so that left me with half of my pie crust recipe.

I made a pie crust (recipe on the strawberry rhubarb post) and added one tablespoon of cinnamon.  After the fact I couldn't really taste the cinnamon so next time I will just sprinkle it on the top with the sugar before baking. 

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or golden brown and delicious!

Easy as Pie - REVISTED!

It's a cooler day today and I have the day off from work, but Dale doesn't.  So I decided to make pie again for him with the frozen fruit I saved from the last time I made pie.  I would make the pie with fresh fruit though because the lovely "dome" top isn't as dramatic when you use thawed fruit.  Although this pie did turn out quite attractive if I do say so myself since I did a better job at fluting the edges.  

This pie was so beautiful the last time I made it but it was very runny.  So I've added an alternate filling prep.  I heard this clever way on "The Splendid Table" which is one of my favorite shows on NPR.

I also adjusted the pie crust recipe and swapped the vinegar with vodka.  The crust turned out so much nicer and very soft and smooth.  The last crust was a bit dry.   All new changes to the previous recipe I posted have been marked **.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie v2.0

(Serves 8)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (for ceramic or glass pie plate)
 
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus up to 1/4 cup additional as needed
1/2 cup cake flour (Softasilk is the brand suggested and what I used)
1 T powdered sugar
pinch salt
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening (Crisco is what I used and they come in handy sticks that are easy to measure and cut)
1/4 cup salted butter
1 egg
**1 T vodka, very cold
1/4 cup ice cold water, more if needed

Pinto bean pie weights

Sift all dry ingredients together and cut in shortening and butter until you have a crumb consistency and the fat is approximately the size of small peas.  Whisk together the wet ingredients and pour over the cut dry mixture and blend until you have a soft dough that comes together easily; add a little more ice cold water if needed.  Your dough should not be sticky and do not over-work it.  Dust with flour and wrap in plastic wrap or put in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge if you can.

Divide dough into half and roll out bottom crust and place in your pie pan that has not been greased.  Chill in refrigerator while you roll out the top crust and keep this cool if possible while you make the filling.

You can also pre-baked the bottom crust at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes using parchment paper and pinto beans as pie weights.

Filling:
2 1/2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
2 1/2 cups de-stemmed; washed and cut fresh strawberries (large pieces)
**3/4 cup sugar (you can adjust up to 1 1/2  [1 1/4 at high altitude] cup if you like a sweeter pie)
**3 T Minute Tapioca (less if you like a runnier pie)
1 T all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp lemon zest, fresh (you can use a fine shredder but I have a micro-plane and it works like a charm)
1/2 tsp lemon juice, fresh
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

3 T butter, cubed small for dotting

Crust Assembly & Topping:
1 egg white beaten with 1 tsp of water
Large granular sugar if you have it or regular works too

Mix all filling ingredients together and  fill your crust with the mixture (OR I highly recommend that you use the alternate preparation below if you have the time to reduce having a runny pie ; dot the top with the butter cubes.  Brush the crust edge with the egg white mixture and put the top crust on and pinch and flute the edges with your fingers or a fork.  Cut decorative slits in the top to allow the steam to release and brush the top and edges of the crust with more egg white mixture and sprinkle liberally with the large granular sugar; loosely collar your pie edge with foil or leave off if you don't mind over-browned edges.  Place pie on a rimmed cookie sheet to catch any spills.

Bake for 15 minutes and then decrease temperature to 350 degrees F and bake an additional 45-50 minutes.  I removed the foil collar at this time and the whole top browned nice and evenly.

Drained Juice Reduction

Draining Fruit

**Alternate filling preparation to reduce : Do all of this well before you bake your pie, or while your crusts are chilling in the fridge.  Mix all filling ingredients minus the butter for dotting.  Let the filling sit for about half an hour to allow all of the juices to collect.  Then drain the fruit in a fine sieve and collect the juices in a bowl for about another half hour.  Set the fruit aside and bring the collected juice to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until a nice syrup is forming and the liquid had reduced by half.  Let this syrup cool a bit and right before you are ready to fill the pie, mix it with the drained fruit mix and fill your pie. 


Once the top is golden brown and delicious and you see the juices bubbling remove your pie.  Let it cool completely before slicing and serving. 

Chillin' & Grillin'

Finally!  The nice weather has come to Ruston!  I thought the winter here would never end, but the skies cleared, the rain has stopped (for now), and the temperatures have risen.  Nice weather compels us to spend time on the front porch, have a few (or several) brews and other tasty libations, perhaps smoke a cigar, and fire up the grill for a fantastic meal.

Green Tea Beer is delicious!

Last weekend we enjoyed a growler of Tieton Cider Works Apricot Cider and a growler of Port Townsend Yoda's Green Tea Golden Ale from our new favorite beer and hotdog place, The Red Hot (TRH) in Tacoma.

First of all I must say that I am absolutely in love with this cider and have been very sad that it has not come back to TRH.  However, I am crossing my fingers and would gladly fill all four of our growlers with it when it does come back.  It's so light and fruity and crisp and very refreshing.  The thought of apricot kind of threw me off, but Dale had a pint at TRH and I gave it a try.  Delicious!

Dale, enjoying a stogie

I had the green tea beer and I must admit that the flavor kind of had me on the edge of liking it and not liking it.  Dale liked it so we filled up and took some home.  It sat in the fridge for a bit and we were told that the tap had blown when they filled our growler which left a small bit of head-space in the neck.  Whatever happened, when we cracked that baby open, poured, and sipped...what a nice beer this was!  Surprisingly, after drinking 128oz. of brew together (that's a half gallon each), neither Dale or I complained of any type of alcohol aftereffects that strong brew can bring on, and we were feeling preeety fine if you know what I mean.  We've decided unanimously that it must have been the green tea in the beer that protected us from the evils of hangovers! We'll be taking home more of this when it come back to TRH! ;)

I've always taken pride in my cooking skills and I have to admit that I may be better while I'm sporting a strong buzz!  Grilling is simple but not everyone possesses the knack of doing it really well.  I learned my grill skills from my days of working as a night cook at a little supper club in Minnesota when I was 19 years old.  Unless you like chewing on over-done, dry, and (heaven forbid) even burnt meat, you have to understand the "feel and timing" to get that perfectly cooked steak.  Be it bloody, rare, medium rare, medium, medium well-done, well-done, or shoe leather (my brother, Dean insists on this) nearly anyone can grill to anyone's preference.

Diane's Steak Grilling Method 

My method is using a gas grill and cooking steaks to medium rare; a pretty pink nearly all the way through and just a titch cool in temperature.  This is the only way I'll eat steak, but I could post how to do other doneness, but then I would have to eat over-done meat and that makes me sad.  I'll feed it to Dale!

No less than 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick (up to 2 inches if you like, usually a fillet minon cut can be this thick) of your favorite quality cut of beef; any weight you desire as the thickness is really the key; my preference is rib-eye and Dale likes NY stripe; my steak weighed in at nearly 2lbs! 

Coarse salt (I always use Kosher) 

Fresh ground black pepper

First of all, and I think this is key, take out your steaks to reach room temperature (or at least warm up if you have the phobia of getting sick from meat sitting out on your counter).  I keep them wrapped and put them out for about an hour.  Usually this is the time when I'm prepping all of the other stuff for the grill feast like grilled corn on the cob and prosciutto wrapped asparagus spears.  This also puts a spotlight on the importance of prepping each item of your meal.  You don't want your steaks sitting on the grill "keeping warm" while you are trying to throw the other stuff together.  Letting your steak warm up will give you more control of the cooking than using one straight from the cold.

When we use our gas grill (we have a double grill, but a nice large single grill is nice for a meal like this) I preheat the grill on high (and preheated the other for the asparagus).  Not only does this burn of any old stuff (come on, who really keeps their grill sparkling clean after each use??) but it gets the grates rocket hot, and you want that!  So preheat the grill for about 15 minutes or so.  I threw the corn on at this time and went out and turned it every so often, then I took it off the grate and put it on the higher grate to keep it warm but away from the fire.

Fancy grill marks aren't just for eating out!

Be sure your steaks are dry and if they aren't, take some paper towel and give them a good pat down on both sides.  Excess moisture on the outside can impede achieving a good sear and that restaurant quality look of cross-cross grill marks if you should choose.  I always choose to mark my meat 'cuz it makes it just a wee bit more tastier in my brain.

Liberally salt and pepper both sides of the steak to taste.  That's it for me.  No fancy marinade, rubs, season mixes, etc.  I just like plain salt and pepper, but I also don't use any sauce.  If it's a tasty cut of meat, who needs all of that stuff to mask the flavor?

With the grill on high, slap them babies onto the grill!  I love this part because it's quite dramatic and I enjoy the sizzle and flare ups! I let my steaks in the picture sear for about a minute or so but you can take a peek underneath to see if the searing is nice and brown. Using tongs, lift up and rotate the steak 45 degrees or so and set back down onto the grill.  Turn your heat down to medium and shut the lid at this time.
 
I cooked these steaks for about 3 to 4 minutes more and then I turned them over.  You can put grill marks on the other side, but you don't have to unless you serve the thing balancing on it's edge.  Wouldn't that be something?  Any hoo, cook the other side for about 3-5 minutes.  Really, it's hard to put time to this because combined with time, I cook steaks by the feel of the steak as well.  What I mean by feel is that I will use my tongs to press down (now you're not smashing your steak like I see so many do and they squeeze all the juice out!!  Shame on you!!) to get a feel of the "give" of the meat.  Check out this clever method using your hand to get a very general idea for the feel of each doneness. 

Medium rare was perfect for this thick-cut rib-eye

Once I've felt satisfied with the doneness (I will turn over if I feel the need to test the doneness as well, and you can just take a peek inside by cutting in to see, but do this on the side without your awesome pro-grill-marks!) I pull off the steaks and put them on a plate and then loosely cover (tent) with foil and then let sit for about 5 minutes.

Letting your steak rest is very important and I never skip this step.  You can cook the steak just slightly less if it's a thinner cut and during the resting period it will continue to cook.  This is the time I throw on the asparagus which take about 5 minutes on the other high heat grill.  Keep reading for my corn on the cob and asparagus on the grill methods.

Diane's Corn-on-the-cob Grilling Method 

Fresh cobs of sweet corn, husked and all the silk removed

Kosher salt 

Fresh ground black pepper

Can of non-stick, non flavored cooking spray

Heavy aluminum foil

I have cooked corn in the husks before, but I prefer cooking them in foil. Also, I don't usually eat butter on my ears of sweet corn so I prepare them using a non-stick cooking spray like Pam, but you can use butter in lieu.  Or, use butter-flavored cooking spray if you'd like.

Spray each cob with the cooking spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper, or you can use your favorite seasoning salt or Cajun seasoning is what I like too.  Tightly wrap each sprayed and seasoned cob with foil and place on the grill.  I usually cook the corn when I'm preheating the grill on high, turning them every 5 minutes or so and taking them off after about 10-15 minutes.  Just be careful not to burn your corn.  I love slightly charred corn, so I cook mine longer.

You can remove your cooked corn, but keep it wrapped and it will stay piping hot.  I just put mine on the upper rack of the grill away from the flames.  When you are ready to eat, just unwrap and enjoy! 

Diane's Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus Grilling Method

A lovely bunch of fresh asparagus
1 package of quality Prosciutto (usually found in the specialty food area of most grocery stores; you know, near the fancy cheeses like the brie or goat cheese)

Clean and prepare the asparagus.  I usually just snap the bottom off where it breaks the easiest.  I don't like the woody ends, but if you like the whole thing you don't have to do this.  Take three or four spears and wrap a piece of Prosciutto tightly around the middle; securing your spears into a neat bundle.  Repeat until all Prosciutto and asparagus is used.  You can season with black pepper but don't use salt.  Prosciutto is a very salty cured type of ham.

I have this clever "pan" that I picked up a few years ago.  It's made for the grill but it's non-stick and has small holes to keep food from falling and perishing in flames below.  I put this pan on the grill during preheat and when I was ready to cook the asparagus while the steaks were resting, this pan was searing hot.  Use a non-stick cooking spray and carefully spray the whole surface of the pan.  Remember that you're spraying aerosol near an open flame so try not to blow yourself up! ;)

Place the bundles on the pan and turn occasionally.  The Prosciutto will start to brown and the asparagus will turn bright green.  I don't like over cooked asparagus so I removed it when the ham was well browned. Serve immediately.

Dale gave no complaints about his meal!

Of course because my steak was so ginormous, I couldn't eat it all, but I love leftovers nearly as I love the actual meal!  Dale finished his steak like the good boy he is, and we gobbled up all of the corn and all of the green stuff.  It was sooooo delicious that I'm getting hungry by just writing about it! 

So, with this wonderful weather, or even if you don't have wonderful weather, don't be afraid to fire up your gas grill and cook up your perfect steaks today!


It doesn't get any better than this!

Grand Growlers

Dale and I were invited by our neighbors, Patti and Lyle to the Tacoma Narrows Rotary Club charity auction dinner the other night, and we were able to invite my friend, Erin to come with too!  It was great fun and for a great cause!  The theme was the Roaring 20's and Dale and I dressed in costume.  I love fancy dress parties!

I wanted to win something at the silent auction so I chose the basket full of beer and just bid the "guaranteed price."  Nice! Instant winner!  There were ten types of beers (most were IPAs), and an empty growler (Pint Defiance), and two gift cards (one to Pint Defiance and one to The Red Hot) to fill the growler.  Calling Colorado Springs home, I was not unfamiliar with the growler concept, but never partook in this tasty and Eco-friendly way of trying local brews until now.

Erin saw that one of the gift cards was from The Red Hot (TRH) and told us it was a great place to eat.  So, today we went to sample the food (and beers) and fill the growler.

After woofing down a Heidelberg sausage with kraut, I felt that my meat fix hadn't been sated and ordered a Red Hot to top that one off and washed it down with a pint of Old Tacoma Lager.  Then I enjoyed a pint of the Port Townsend Yodas Green Tea Gold brew. Strangely the green tea flavor was quite dominate but good.  Dale enjoyed a Ninkasi Sterling Pilsner and then a delicious Tieton Cider Works Apricot Cider.  I was skeptical about the cider but found that it was light, crisp and very refreshing.  Our server also gave us a taste of the Everybody's Brewing King Common as well, but we went with filling our prize growler with cider and then we purchased a TRH house growler and topped that one off with the Green Tea.  I can't wait to enjoy these as home.  Bonus: since it was Monday they were running a special and gave us six wooden nickles (three for each growler) for $3 off each growler at our next refill! 

Woo hoo!!  Gotta love that deal!

If you're local to the Tacoma area I highly recommend that you get out to 6th Ave. in Tacoma, Washington and give this place a try.  Or if you aren't local but luck enough to live near micro-breweries, definitely take advantage of the growlers!

The "Mother" in My Cupboard

I love my NPR (that's National Public Radio for you mainstream folks out there) and I listen to the Podcast of "The Splendid Table" to and from my commute to work.  Well, several listeners have called Lynn (the host of the show) asking advice on what to do with leftover red wine that's gone stale.  I've had this same quandary myself.  Since Dale is not a huge red wine drinker and we decide to have some libation some evening, and I choose wine...I can't (or shouldn't) drink a whole .75L bottle myself.  I can usually go back to a bottle the next day and drink from it after I've stopped the top, but I don't really enjoy that as much.  I haven't cooked much since we've been here in Washington state (deployments, Army, yadda, yadda, yadda...) but using really old opened wine that you think can save for cooking later isn't a good idea.  It turns bad.  So, of course if you put bad wine in your food it's going to make it taste bitter.

Well, back to my first train of thought.  So, Lynn always suggests making your own red wine vinegar.  Hmmmm...I've always been fascinated about it and would love to try it.  So I did.  It's a long process but once you start and it's successful, I'm told that I could be filling my crock for years to come by starting my initial batch with a "mother." Gotta love that alien creepiness about that.  A giant glass jar or ceramic crock.  Preferably one with a spigot like the lovely one I have here purchased from Amazon.com (yes, my favorite go-to-online-shopping-for-everything".

I was explaining this to my friend, Erin and as she's obviously disgusted (her only comments are "Ewwwww!" but I know she's intrigued.  As we are like a lot of what-seems-disgusting but yet we can not NOT look at it.

Here's how I did it:

Homemade Red Wine Vinegar

One, 8 fluid ounce jar (or 1 cup)  of "Mother of Vinegar - Red Wine" (which I just found online from a home-brew website...what the hell, I'm game to give them a shout-out.  homebrew4lew.com  I also bought white wine but that's coming later.)

Not-less-than 1 GAL size glass or ceramic jar (PLASTIC spigot is good for extracting your delicious vinegar)  Basic science here...vinegar is acid and acid and metal don't go together...need I say more?  My jug is a 2 1/2 GAL ceramic style with plastic spigot and came with a plastic ring for the top to nest water bottle atop.

Cheese cloth (thanks again Amazon.com)

2 cups tasty (or was previously tasty at initial opening) red wine (you can buy nice tasting and inexpensive wine just for this purpose, but why??  Use some leftover or save some up until you have at least enough to start with

1 cup water (you can use bottled if you like, but our tap water is good where we live; a suggestion if your water is chlorinated, let the water sit several hours or overnight to ensure the chlorine has evaporated)

So, give your new crock or jar a good rinse and add the following ingredients in.  No need to stir.  Cut or fold layered cheesecloth into a square large enough to cover top and secure with cotton kitchen string, a large rubber band, or do what I did and put the ring on top of the cloth to keep it down. 
Your vinegar will need to breath but you don't want anything falling into your concoction.  Place your creation in a dark and preferably warmish area.

The idea temperature that the "mother" works her magic at is 80 degrees, but that's pretty hot to me.  I think cooler temperatures just slows down the process, so you don't have to increase your heating bill to keep your "mother" happy.  Just don't let her starve!  When she starts doing her magic, don't be freaked out.  She'll start to form a sort of...leathery scum and sink to the bottom over time.  If this isn't happening...then your "mother" is probably dead.  Sniff.  But if your "mother" is looking pretty grodie...you're on the right path.  You can then fish out some of the old sloughs of "mother" and put them in a jar with some liquid and give it to friends or anyone else willing to venture out.

Wait one week and start feeding your "mother" a cup of red wine on the first day of the initial waiting period, then another cup the third and fifth day.  I guess that's it.  In about three months this will develop into some delicious red wine vinegar.  You can keep feeding your jar over time and keep the red wine vinegar production going.  I've heard that there will be differences in the flavor of the mature vinegar as time passes and what you put into it.  You should just stick to red wine though, but I guess there are people that throw in white as well.  I have read that you never want to put wine in your jug that has any trace of cork.  Pee-Ew...who likes cork in their wine anyway?  Plus someone may need to to wine bottle opening 101!  Ha!

I guess this will be trial and error and I truthfully, I can't wait until the magic starts to happen!  I'm keeping a log of my "mother's" progress on the side of the crock with a Sharpie.  So, I started out cheap with some Two-Buck-Chuck (I likie) and have a pricier wine to add on Monday. 

Perhaps I should just make a Two-Buck-Chuck Red Wine Vinegar and try to sell it back to Trader Joes!  Ha!  That's would be a hoot!

I will keep everyone up to date on the progress of My "Mother" in My Cupboard!!

Now I have to go drink some red wine...poor me.

Comestibles on KAF?

Ah, here I am deployed yet again.  I fear that as long as I'm in the Army I will deploy many more times after. I am in Afghanistan instead of Iraq this time.  Although the quality of life and even job is "better and easier" I'm not going to lie...it still stinks.  Literally it stinks here on Kandahar Airfield thanks to a giant quad pool of human excrement and nastiness.  But enough about that as Comestible Creations is about savoring and relishing good food and drink and other stuff.

However, the food here does stink and everyone at home should appreciate the delicious bounty to choose from either at a grocery store or a nice restaurant.

Yeah, yeah, I've had worse deployments but I don't live in the past.  I live in the now, and now the food is gross and makes me want to throw up a little bit.  I'm glad that others share my woes and frustrations of the dining facilities (DFACs) here. A friend of mine, Chris turned me onto this humorous and very truthful blog called Just DFACS Ma'am.  Reading this makes me laugh and gives me some comfort to know that I'm not the only one with working taste buds.

I've also been inspired to post on my blog now even though I'm not cooking.  Well, I do "cook" per say in my room with the occasional ramen noodle cup, but you can hardly call plugging in an electric kettle to boil water cooking.  Like I said before, I live in the now.

Butter Chicken

Dale and I were introduced to butter chicken at his farewell lunch from his section at Fort Carson.  They chose an Indian restaurant that was very good and one of the officers that was being "farwelled" along with him told us about his favorite dish...butter chicken.  We ordered it and thought it was very good!

When we were going through Trader Joe's we picked up butter chicken in the frozen dinner form that had a serving of chicken with sauce and basamati rice.  It was pretty good as well, but I thought it was a bit expensive for the portions.  Of course I thought to myself "I could make this!"  So I did.

It's fairly inexpensive, but only once you've made your garam masala mix.  This is a blend of spices that makes one super spice blend that's just heavenly.  It can be a bit costly, but then again, spices are costly, as they have always been throughout the existence of civilization.  I had some spices on hand, but I think it would be best to start fresh and grind your own when you can.  Once you whip up your garam masala you can keep it for all sorts of future Indian dishes so the initial cost does go a long way.  Plus if you do buy spices in their whole form, you can make little batches and keep that.  The whole form spices store longer and are fresher and more pungent when you grind them.  It's up to you.  I'm a bit lazy and just whipped up a whole lot of it.

Super Easy Garam Masala
(12 servings)

I tripled the recipe below (so that's 36 servings) and sealed it in a container for later use and used whole spices and ground them in my Bullet!  Yes, the one AS SEEN ON TV!  You could use a clean coffee bean grinder, but be sure to grind them fine.

1 T ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamon (this comes in pods and you have to shell them first and grind the seeds inside; totally worth it)
1 1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Put all ingredients in an airtight container and shake until thoroughly mixed.

Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
(serves 4)

I doubled the below recipe when I made it, but prepared them in two portions as my pan was way too small.  I put the first portion into a container and threw it into the freezer for another spicy Indian day.

For the Sauce:

1 T peanut oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/4 white onion, chopped
2 T butter
2 tsp lemon juice
1 T ginger garlic paste (I found separate tubes of ginger and garlic paste near the fresh herbs section at Safeway)
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup plain yogurt (fat free is fine)
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup tomato puree
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch black pepper

For the Chicken:

1 T peanut oil
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces (you can use breast meat, but I think dark meat tastes way, way, way better.  But that's just me.)
1 tsp garam masala (yup, more yet and so worth it)
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 T corn starch
1/4 cup cold water

*NOTE:  Mise en place...learn it...live it.  Prep all your stuff before you start.  Chop and measure and all that jazz with all ingredients and then put them into small bowls and dishes.  You don't have to have a ton of dishes (I hate washing dishes) but you can put ingredients into groups by when you're going to use them.  For example: all of the spices were measure and put in a tiny bowl along with the bay leaf, and the ginger garlic paste was put in with the lemon juice.  You can see this in one of the photos.  Just use your best judgement.  Either way, doing this in some sort of order every time you cook helps make life in the kitchen so much easier, and it looks more impressive if you're cooking in front of an audience!  Read about mise en place in this past post.

In a large sauce pan (I had to swap out pans since the one I started out with was way too small!  Oh well, live and learn), heat up the peanut oil over medium heat.  Add your shallots and onion and cook until they are translucent (yes, the shallots are missing in my picture and if you can't get them, it's fine).  Add the butter, ginger garlic paste, all of the spices (for the sauce portion of the recipe) and the bay leaf.  Stir vigorously and cook for a minute or two.  The fragrance that will be wafting up and out of the pan, greeting your nose will be like nothing you have ever smelled!  It's pure Nirvana and will make the house smell wonderful.  When I was at this step I heard Dale exclaim from the other room, "WOW!  That smells great!"  Oh yeah!

Add the tomato puree and cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in the yoghurt and the half-and-half and keep stirring until it has heated through.  Turn the heat down to low.  The sauce will looked curdled, but don't fret.  This is the reaction from adding dairy to something with acid (lemon juice).  Keep the faith.  Your dish will not be lost!  Simmer for about ten more minutes and stir frequently and add salt and pepper to taste.  Take this off the heat and set aside near your stove.  You'll be needing this in just a few minutes.  I added some dry chilies in the hopes I could make it even more hotter.  Yeah, I like to try to reach the highest heights of heat enlightenment!

In a large saute pan, heat up more peanut oil over medium-high heat.  Don't worry about it smoking.  Peanut oil can withstand super high temperatures.  Think about what you cook all of those deep-fried turkeys in!  Brown your chicken and then add the additional spices and stir.  More delicious aromas will fill the air.  Continue to brown your chicken and keep the heat where it's at.  All of this portion shouldn't really take much time.  Good thing you followed the mis en place guideline!

*NOTE: The next is my own method.  When I read the original recipe I was working off of, the method didn't really seam to make sense to achieve a thick and creamy sauce after looking at the sauce I had just made and set aside.  So I just followed my gut-instinct and did the following:

Ladle a portion (I have 1 cup ladles) of the sauce into the hot pan.  This will help deglaze the pan, pulling up all the lovely brown chickeny (that's a word that Julia Child liked to use and I'm rather fond of it) bits and stuff, and reduce the sauce.  Cook and reduce your sauce and stir constantly.  Don't worry, you won't burn it if you're awake and paying attention!  Keep adding the sauce by ladlefuls, all the time letting the sauce reduce more in between additions.  Once you get all of your sauce onto the chicken and it looks fairly creamy but it's still a bit runny, turn the heat off.  Stir up your cornstarch and water and pour this into your sauce and stir quickly.  Your sauce will thicken more and more and coat the chicken, making it look like it should.

I also added this last finish by stirring in a couple more tablespoons of butter (or more!) into the chicken and sauce.  It really does "round" out the finished dish and what the hell...it's BUTTER chicken after all!

Serve immediately over hot basamti rice and serve with naan if you have it.

This dish is definitely one I will remake!  Well, after I serve up the frozen portion later.  This does freeze beautifully and so does rice.  So, I made a bunch of rice for both of the meals.

Try cooking this one yourself!  Like I said, after you get done shelling out some cash for the base of spices for your own garam masala (or if you can find it already blended, even better!) your doorway to Indian cuisine has only just opened into a new world of flavor intensities!  You could probably do this vegetarian if you would like with cauliflower or that super-rubbery Indian cheese.  I'm not sure what that is...

Anyhoo, anyway you cook it, it's definitely an easy dish and sure to please most!  Enjoy!

आप का खाना स्वादिष्टहो (āp kā khānā svādiṣṭa ho) - good eating!

Squished Game Hens

Here is my first post from Ruston, Washington!  I made this dish a few weeks ago and I had to tap into my Iron Chef skills.  I bought these little game hens to make into this delicious Korean soup.  It had been cold and rainy and soup sounded great.  Well, I took them out to thaw and the moment I decided to make them it was a beautiful day!  So much for the comforting soup on the cold and dreary day.  So, I came up with my own brick style chicken.

Squished Chicken (Game Hens really) & Garlic Butter Broccolini

Serves 2 slightly hungry persons or 1 pretty hungry person

2 Cornish Game Hens, cleaned and patted dry and butterflied (see my technique written below)

Slap Yo Mama spice (I picked this up in Houston and it's pretty spicy, or whatever you want to use)

non-stick spray

manual panini press or a couple of heavy bricks (yes bricks, new and clean) wrapped in heavy-duty foil

Bunch of Broccolini, cleaned and split into thinner strips if you like (I like)

3-4 cloves crushed garlic (the more the better I say)

Olive Oil

Butter (Come on!  Go for the reals stuff!  We don't need no steenk-ing margarine!)

squeeze of lemon juice if you so desire

Preheat your oven to about 475°F (you want it good and hot).

  

Take the hens and use a good hefty pair of kitchen shears to cut out the backbone.  Don't be a chicken, you have to be aggressive even in little birds like these. I save the backs in a baggie and throw them in the freezer for use at a later date.  These leftovers are great for stock.  But back to the job at hand!  Clip off the wings and throw them into your stock bag.  Wings from a game hen are pretty much tooth picks and will just burn cooking with this method.

After you've removed the backbones from both, flip them over and spread out the hens as flat as you can.  Then, using the palm of your hand press firmly down and bust their little breast bones.  So cruel I know, but relax, they won't feel a thing (they're dead!) and you want them to lay down as flat as possible for even cooking.

Make sure your hens are pretty dry and season liberally front and back with the Slap Yo Mama (or whatever you'd like to season them with).  Keep in mind that you can use Mrs. Dash or something non-sodium, but the salt helps crisp up the skin.  It's up to you but I loves me some crispy skin!  Spray them front and back with non-stick spray.  Don't worry if you blast off some of the seasoning because you can reapply.

Get a grill pan nice and hot (med-high heat, more on the higher side if you get my drift) and be sure that it's a pan you can put in the oven.  Put hens in breast side down to sear.  There will be a lot of steam but now is the time to be fearless.  Apply the panini press or bricks.  You want to weight your birds down to get as much surface to the hot pan.  Let sear for about 2-3 minutes and flip over and reapply the weights and sear for an additional 2-3 minutes.  The searing time really depends on how it looks.  If it's pale and not appetizing at all, sear some more.  If it looks like you could tear into right away because it's so mouth-watering brown, then you're about right.  Don't tear into it though!  It's still raw on the inside!

The skin should have nice grill marks and be golden, brown and delicious! With the weight still on pop the whole thing into the hot oven and continue to cook for about 8-10 minutes or until there is no blood or pink at the leg and thigh joint.  Be sure you have a good grip on this because the weights can be heavy!  You'll hear a ton of popping and sizzling but these are the sounds of goodness cooking up in the pan.  Do not flip the birds.  They can just finish as they are in the hot oven.  It's okay to throw them back in if they are still a bit underdone.

When the hens are cooked to perfection, take them out and let them rest on a board, tented with some foil.  I let them rest about 5 minutes or so.  This gives me time to de-glaze the grill pan or you can just reserve the super-condensed and nearly sticky juice to pour on top before serving.  If you do de-glaze, use a little water or maybe some white wine.  You're not making an elaborate sauce here.  You just want to get up all of those mouth watering brown bits and stuff on the pan.  Now while your hens are taking a rest, it is time to saute up your broccolini.

In a hot (medium-high heat) saute pan pour in about a tablespoon or so of olive oil and the crushed garlic.  Then throw in your broccolini.  Do this quickly to brown your garlic but not burn.  Toss the broccolini and cook until bright green and tender crisp.  This will only take a couple of minutes if even that.  Right before you shut the heat off, toss in a healthy nob of butter and melt.  It'll sizzle and help lift all of that browned garlic from the pan.  Serve on a warmed platter and squeeze lemon juice on top if you wish and a little kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

Plate your squished hens onto another warm platter and drizzle the pan juices on top.  Serve with warm bread of your choice.  I served some warmed up naan that we picked up from our Trader Joes.  How in the world did I ever do without them this long?

We dined alfresco on the porch (on a table of course) and Dale and I dug in.  The hens were so succulent and the broccolini was so fresh and crisp that it didn't take long for us to let our animal instincts kick and in reduced the hens to a pile of little bones.  What a wonderful thing to serve on a beautiful day!  Give it a try.  Remember, it's really all about timing so be sure you prep everything before you start cooking.  It's fun and simple and quite impressive to serve up!

Enjoy!

Greeting from Puget Sound!

Wow, I'm so behind on cooking and posting.  Well, I've been cooking, but nothing extravagant and definitely nothing to shout about or even blog.  Dale and I spent all of March and most of April packing and moving and unpacking and moving into our new home in Ruston, Washington.  We love it!

I promise I will start cooking and posting some great food!  I am slated to got to Afghanistan next month for 9 months or so, but I will try to make some nice dishes for Dale and myself before I head off.  Until then!

A Passage to India

My friend, John and I went out on Sunday to catch up and eat good food. We went to a place on 8th street called "Little Nepal" and it was pretty good. I ordered a kick-ass super-spicy dish called Lamb Madras. I always order lamb if it's on the menu and it's a bonus if I can get it spicy. Indian spicy is how I ordered it. Oh yeah.

Well, I brought half of it home and stuck it in the fridge. Last night I ate half of that and tonight I thought I'd pull a little "Iron Leftover-Chef" and think of something creative to make with the other half of my Indian dish.

Have you every heard of roti? It's a type of Indian bread and you can stuff it if you'd like. In fact that's really the only way I've eaten roti. Tonight I made my own version. I don't have a Tandori oven. Actually I was told the other night by the Indian guy that waited on us that you'd need about $8,000 to get a really good Tandori oven. Then he went on how it had to pass the inspection, electrical specs...blah, blah, blah... I improvised using my grill pan set on high heat (and then lowered later).

Here is my version of roti using some pizza dough that my friend, Carmen was gracious enough to let me have. We made pizzas on Saturday when I took the new Jetta up to Highlands Ranch.

Lamb Madras Roti

1/2 cup give or take Lamb Madras leftovers with some basmati rice (or any good Indian curry, vindaloo, masala, etc.)
4 oz. raw pizza dough or about the size of a tennis ball (bread dough, refrigerated biscuits in the can that scare the bejeezus out of you when you pop them open, etc. - you can use wheat bread dough)
2-1/4" slices fresh mozzarella cheese (I added this because I love cheese)

Preheat your grill pan over medium high to high heat. You want it to be fairly hot so you can "sear" the dough and make it kind of crunchy. Remember, think Tandori oven. Think of naan. Yum...naaaan...

Mix the rice and Lamb Madras (cut any large pieces of lamb into smaller bits) in a small bowl and set aside. Take the dough and flatten it out into an oblong shape. You can roll it out on a board dusted with some flour if you'd like. I didn't because I wanted the dough to pinch close.

Tear up one slice of the fresh mozzarella and place on one end of the dough and spoon the leftovers on top and spread out but not all the way to the edges. Place the other broken up piece of cheese on top.

Fold the other half of the dough over and pinch the edges all around to get a good seal. Be careful not to put holes into your raw roti. If you do just pinch. You may have to force the air out and flatten the roti a bit.

Put the roti in your hot grill pan and turn over when you have a nice brown and crunchy dough. Turn down the heat to medium and cover it with a lid (domed if you have it) and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Be sure not to burn it. Flip over and cook again for another 3-5 minutes. The roti should be nicely browned and not doughy.

Wow, this was really good. The Lamb Madras was pretty hot and it tasted so good in this bread with the melted fresh cheese. This really would be great with any type of "gravy" Indian dish. You could make little mini rotis if you were up to it. Maybe I'll have to do that in the future and post that method.

Next time you bring home Indian food give this a try! You won't be disappointed! Lamstina, until next time!

Eggies! It's Not Rocket Science!

So, I was at "the Walmart" tonight looking for a jug of foaming soap for my soap dispensers at home. To no avail I was not able to find the damned soap but I did find this little gadget. The thing with not having cable or antenna attached to our television is that we don't get those infomercials. Most people can live without them, but to tell you truth, I love em'!

Why just this very day I boiled up some eggs and they were so hard to peel that I practically shredded them up trying to get the shell off. So, I saw these little doohickies and thought I'd give them a try.

After looking at the actual infomercial on the Internet I got the gist of what they were trying to sell. Convenient hard boiled eggs that you can season before you cook and you don't have to worry about those messy shells. Easy enough. Looking at the package the design seemed like it could deliver what it said.

Well, I also looked on YouTube and saw some "consumer reviews" of the Eggies and I'm sad to say that most were not good. They complained that the egg would ooze out while they cooked, that they looked really funky shaped, etc. Well, I was going to try making some whenever I had a hankering for more hard cooked eggs, but I couldn't resist. I mean, how hard could this be?

I looked at the the construction of the cups and there were little seals that appeared that they would keep egg matter from seeping out into the boiling water. That was a huge complaint. Another complaint was that the eggs got stuck in the cups. Um...the directions specifically say to spray cooking spray or oil onto a paper towel and coat each cup bottom and top with an even coat. Not too complicated.

So the most difficult thing I thought was to crack that egg into that little hole where the lid screwed in. I did spill some of the white on the first cup and I was leery that the yolk would bust, but the raw egg slipped in well. I was sure to screw the ring in the middle quite firmly, and same with the lid. Then I slipped them into my pan of hot water that was already sitting over a flame.

These eggs do take a long time to cook in comparison to the normal way I boil eggs. If I want soft I time 3 minutes from the the time they boil, but in these little Eggies it takes a bit longer. Really, these are just egg coddlers and I've been looking for some of these. I brought the Eggies to a boil and actually popped a lid on top. It didn't seem to hurt the cups at all.

So, one egg I plucked out early (10 minutes) and it was nice and soft, but I could have taken it out sooner I think. Less time for true coddled eggs. Some people eek out over soft whites, but I love them. The other egg I boiled 15 minutes and the yolk was still a bit soft, but I could have just let it hang out in the hot water after I shut the flame off and I'm sure it would have finished nicely with the residual heat.

I don't know what the big fuss was. I think people just slap these things together without really understanding that they need to secure the thing together quite tightly. Plus they fill them way too much if they are using the egg substitute that comes in a carton. I'll have to try that some other time, however what would be the reason for that?? There's no shell you're trying to avoid.

So all in all I was quite successful and with a little more testing with cooking times I could be enjoying my eggs any softness/hardness I so choose. The only thing that throws me off is the shape. It's like a giant bonbon, or something rubbery some flat chested girl would try to stuff into her bra, or a scoop of mashed potatoes the lunch lady slapped on your tray in high school, but you know what? I don't really care because it beats the poor egg I attempted to peel this morning that looked like it had wobbled onto a landmine.

If you have some time to kill and you love "AS SEEN ON TV" crap like me, give these bad boys a try. They are fun for kids I think and remember, you don't have to have a PhD to use these! They are about ten bucks for six and a egg separator. I'm donating the separator, and I may donate the actual Eggies once the novelty wears off...or who knows...these may be as crucial in my kitchen as my trusty All-Clad...

Get out your kosher salt and your pepper grinder and enjoy an Incredible Edible Egg!