Poaching Chicken

Do you ever get tired of just boiling meat?  I mean, it serves it's purpose to quickly cook or tenderize meat, but it can leave tender cuts of meat, like chicken breasts, with the consistency of mush.  Who wants to eat that?  Next time, try poaching.  Poaching is a method of cooking used for tender items, like fish or fruit, while also infusing them with flavor. Since chicken breast is a tender piece of meat, it seemed like a good idea to me to try it.

First, prepare your poaching liquid.  Since I know I will be using my chicken for tacos, it was easier for me to choose the flavor choices.  Here's the ingredients:
3 c chicken broth
1 small onion, sliced
1 TBLS minced garlic
1 rib celery, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 bay leaf
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 handful cilantro leaves

Bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce to low, allow to simmer 5 minutes so the flavors blend.  Then place 2 chicken breasts in the pot.  I used boneless & skinless, but on the bone would be fine, too.

Bring back to boil, them reduce the heat.  Simmer, uncovered, until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.  Remove the chicken.

The meat is now ready to use in tacos, salads, chicken salad, etc.  But what do you do with that wonderful poaching liquid?  Pour it through a strainer placed over a large bowl.  This will separate the the broth from the solids.

This broth can be used in soups or other recipes calling for chicken broth.  It will keep in the fridge for up to a week.  It can also be frozen and used at a future time.  Be sure to label the container with the flavor profile so you don't end up with mixed flavors.

 
Enjoy!

Roasting peppers

Roasted red peppers seem to be all the rage on restaurant menus these days.  They are incredibly easy to make at home, and add so much flavor to your everyday foods.  I use my gas grill, but if you have a gas stove you can also do it there.  Just make sure you have plenty of airflow.  I know this from experience!

Start with peppers that are ripe but still firm.  I'm roasting both red bell peppers and hot peppers.  Preheat the grill till it's smoking hot.  Wash the peppers and dry them.  No need to oil or season them.  Place the peppers on the grill.

Turn the peppers often to keep them from burning.  You want the skins to be charred, but not really burnt.

The smaller peppers will cook faster.  As they release moisture, the bell peppers will make a popping sound.

Place the peppers in a large bowl and cover them with plastic wrap.  The condensation that forms will help the skins slip off more easily.

When the peppers have cooled completely, they will be slightly smaller than when you started.

Using your hand or a paper towel, scrape the charred skin off the pepper.  You don't want to get rid of it all, since it gives the pepper a smoky flavor.  Rinse under running water.  Slice the pepper in half; remove the seeds and veins.  They should come out pretty easily.  

Now you're ready to eat!  Slice the peppers into strips and use on sandwiches or in your eggs.  If you don't use them all at once, place in an air-tight container and sprinkle with a little olive oil.  They will keep in the fridge for one week.  Use the pepper-flavored oil as a marinade or in a vinaigrette.  Enjoy!

Basic Pie Dough: Apple Hand Pies

Pie is delicious!  It's one of those all-time favorite desserts that never seems to go out of style. Unfortunately, many find making a pie crust to be a daunting challenge.  Let's work through the basics of making the crust, then I'll finish with one way to use it.

The ingredients are:
2 c flour
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c COLD butter, cut into cubes
1/2 - 1/3 c COLD water
Apple pie filling (recipe at the bottom)

The key to a flaky pie crust is keeping it COLD.  So work quickly, touching it with the warmth of your hands as little as possible.

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl, whisking to blend. Add the cubed butter.  (Yes, I use BUTTER.  Some people use shortening, which actually produces a flaky crust, and eliminates the need to keep the dough cold.  Personally, I prefer butter for two reasons.  One, it gives the crust a richer flavor and two, I always have it in my house.)  Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter until it resembles lumpy sand.

Add the cold water, about 3 TBLS at a time, mixing quickly with a fork.  Continue adding the water until the dough begins to hold together.  Pour it out onto a floured surface and quickly knead into a ball.  Flatten slightly, shaping into a disk.  Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill at least 30 minutes to allow the butter to get hard again.  This is what creates the flakiness in your pie crust.

Unwrap the dough on a floured surface.  Roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness.  I use a marble rolling pin.  Because of it's weight, it makes the rolling time shorter, and being made or marble it stays cold.

Using a floured 4 inch cutter, cut circles from the dough.

Top each circle with about 1 TBLS apple filling, keeping it on the bottom half of the circle.

In a small bowl whisk and egg with 1 tsp of water, making an egg wash.  Use this to brush the edges of the dough.  This helps it stick together when it's baking.

Fold the dough over the filling, and crimp the edges with a fork.  Put the hand pies on a baking sheet.  Brush them with more egg wash, this gives them a golden color when they're baking, and sprinkle them with a little sugar.  

Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes.  Let cool a little before eating them.  This is the hard part!  But trust me.  If you skip this, you'll be pulling the skin of your tongue.  These are molten lava inside!  Enjoy!

Make the apple filling while your pie dough is chilling in the fridge.

You will need:

2 c apples, cored and sliced

1/4 c sugar

2 tsp corn starch (or 1 TBLS flour)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

1 tsp lemon juice

You can use a knife to pare your apples, but I prefer a potato peeler.  It's much faster when you have a lot of apples to peel, and it removes a uniform amount of skin without losing too much of the apple's flesh.  There's also two schools for coring your apples.  One is to use a small, sharp utility knife and dig out the core, while making small v's to remove the stem and bottom end. 

The other is to cut the apple into quarters.  While laying eat section on it's side use a large knife, and cut diagonally down, removing the core and stem all in one motion.  This is how I do it.

Combine the sugar, corn starch, cinnamon and salt in small sauce pan.  Stir in the apples and lemon juice.  (The lemon juice helps to balance the sweetness of the apples.)  Bring to a boil over medium heat, until the sauce thickens and the apples begin to soften.

Cool slightly, then use in the hand pies.

Fresh Salsa-- Peach Poblano, to be specific

This being August, we're in the height of tomato season.  Whether you grow your own or get them from a local farm-stand, it's incredibly easy to turn them into a delicious fresh salsa in no time.  My family eats salsa like it's going out of style, so I can major amounts every year and am pretty much out by the following August.

This recipe is for Peach Poblano salsa, but you can substitute other tomatoes and peppers and omit the peaches to make your own version, to fit your tastes.  I used orange/yellow tomatoes in this recipe both for their low-acid and how their color matched the peaches.

Here's the ingredients:
6 c tomatoes, chopped and seeds removed
2 lg peaches, skinned and chopped
1 purple onion, chopped
1 TBLS chopped garlic
2 poblano peppers, chopped
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
juice of 2 limes
1 TBLS vinegar
1 tsp salt

When you cut a tomato, always use a serrated (toothed) knife.  The skin of the tomato repels most knives, and the flesh ends up bruised and mushy one you actually get the knife to cut through.  The teeth of the serrated knife allow it to glide through the skin while preserving the flesh.

To prevent your salsa from being too thin, you want to remove the seeds from the tomatoes.  There are two methods for doing this.  One is to cut the tomato in half, then simply squeeze it.  The seeds will come right out.  This method also yields a mushy flesh. The second is to cut the tomato in slices, then using a knife to cut around the seed pockets.  I like this one better, and it also allows for a more even cutting of the flesh.

When your chopping the tomatoes, peppers, onions and peaches, it's important to cut them all as close to the same size as possible.  The makes for a prettier salsa, and makes it easier to get a little bit of everything in each bite.

Ok, combine all your ingredients in a large bowl.  Allow to sit about 30 minutes so the flavors can blend.  The longer it has to get acquainted, the tastier it is!  Stored in an air-tight container, this salsa will stay fresh for up to a week.  Enjoy!

Buttermilk Biscuits

I have been in the kitchen for almost as long as I can remember.  And I have loved it just as long!  I've had successes and failures, and they all balance out in the end.  People ask me if I get stressed when I have to cook for a large group.  Not really.  It makes me feel like I'm in the zone.  My happy place, if you will.  "What if it doesn't turn out", they ask.  Well, it's not rocket surgery (to coin a phrase from a current commercial).  It's just cooking.  I am comfortable and confident in what I do.  That allows me to just roll with the punches.  I am hoping that through this blog I can get you to that place, too.  Once you get the basics down, it's a piece of cake.

Biscuits are delicious.  When they are fresh from the oven, smothered in butter and jam, they are one of the best, simplest, tastes on earth.  Unfortunately, some people have trouble making them.  Overwork them and they become hockey pucks.  Who wants to eat that?  Because I love biscuits and I think everyone should enjoy them, I have decided they will star in today's blog.

Here's the recipe:
1/2 c cold butter, cut into cubes
2 c flour
1 TBLS sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 c buttermilk

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.  Whisk to mix.
(Pretty easy so far, right?)  Add the cold butter and use a pastry cutter to blend it into the flour mixture.  If you don't have a pastry cutter, don't sweat it!  Just use 2 dinner knives and cut the butter into the flour mixture, using a criss-cross action.  The mixture should look like sand.

Make a well in the center of the flour, then pour in the buttermilk.  Use a fork to blend the buttermilk and the flour til it sticks together and begins to form a soft dough.  Mine doesn't usually get totally incorporated, so don't worry if yours doesn't.  Pour out the mixture onto a floured counter top.  Knead the remaining flour into the dough, but just barely.

Using a rolling pin or your hands, roll or pat the dough to 1/2 thickness.  An easy way to test the thickness is with your finger.  The dough should fit in the space between 2 of your knuckles.

Using a floured 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter, or a regular glass, cut circles out of the dough.  (Resist the urge to twist as you cut!  Twisting will make the biscuits rise unevenly.)  You will get 10-12 circles.

Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet.  Allow the sides to touch if you like them soft.  Place them 1 inch apart if you like the edges crispy.  Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes.  The biscuits will be slightly puffed and golden brown.

These biscuits are best served warm, and are just as delicious reheated in the microwave as they are straight from the oven.  Now, dig in and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Once you have down the basic recipe, it's a cinch to make variations: cheddar-garlic biscuits like they make at Red Lobster,  herbed biscuits to complement the soup or salad they'll be served with, and sweetened
to be used as a base for fruit shortcakes.