Green Beans with Bacon and Onions

Another green bean recipe. I like this one for several reasons. First the beans can be cooked ahead and saved for several hours. You then finish up starting 12-15 minutes before serving. Second IT HAS BACON ! This is mostly a CI recipe except I added some M-salt. This is a garlic - salty seasoning sold locally in west Michigan by friends of the family.

No Knead Bread

This is not a low carb recipe... big surprise there. Actually after I get the hang of this with real flour, I plan on try a low carb flour substitute. But that's for another day.

This recipe or variations of it has apparently been making the rounds on blogs and internet sites for years. The originator of the technique is Jim Lahey, a New York baker. An article in The New York Times in November of 2006 apparently set off a rage through blogs and internet sites which is still going on. We first saw a post on Savory Reviews (see my blog list) this month and in-spite of our low-carbing, we must try it.

Since I first saw it, I have done some research and found lots of variations. Admittedly they all are only minor variations but I decide to give the inventor credit and some of my money. I bought his book. I will follow his recipe but many sites commented on the need for a little more salt.

A note about the Dutch Oven that is recommended. Many have knobs that will melt if heated above 400 degrees. This recipe was so popular that it was blamed for an epidemic of knob stealing to replace the melted knobs. I bought a Lodge Dutch Oven and this is my first project with it but then I found the knob melts at 400. So before my first use, I replaced the knob with a Le Creuset stainless steel knob from Amazon for $10

Chicken Parmesan

This is a variation of the Lighter Chicken Parmesan from CI that I have been using for over a year. I have been making this low carb which only requires two variations. First I used three slices of a low carb bread to make the bread crumb and for the flour in the dredge I used Carbalose flour. The recipe as I present it will not include the these changes.

This is a great company recipe. I did this for 10 at Christmas in the form presented here along with the expected pasta and it went very well.

Rating 9.5 Always impressive in appearance and taste. 

(printable recipe)

 Tools: nothing special

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs- you may need up to 2 of not Panko

1 T olive oil

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

3 medium to large chicken breast - skinless, boneless 
1 - 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

3 eggs

2 T water

1/2 c flour

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1 1/2 t garlic powder
Simple sauce:

1 6oz can tomato paste plus equal amount water

2 cloves garlic crushed

1/2 finely minced small onion

1 T basal - fresh if available

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 450 convection (475 standard oven)

2) Prepare large shallow pan with rack. Aluminum foil on bottom would save cleanup time. Spray rack with PAM

Bread Crumbs: 

3) Heat a medium skillet on high with 1 T olive oil. Add the bread crumbs and brown. Panko bread crumbs would be good here or the crumbs of your choice.

4) let cool and add shredded parmesan

Create breading line

5) Use large plates or breading pans.

6) Pan #1 1/2 c flour. 1 1/2 t garlic powder, 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper. Mix well

7) Pan #2 three egg whites combined with 2 T water and mix well

8) Pan #3 browned bread crumbs mixed with parmesan cheese.

Assembly

9) Cut Breasts into cutlets by cutting them horizontally.

10) Dry the chicken cutlets with a paper towel. Dip in the flour mixture. Coat both sides and shake of the excess. Dip in the egg wash and then the bread crumbs. Press the crumbs firmly onto the breast. Place on rack. Spray the tops of the chicken with vegetable oil spray (Lightly)

Cooking:

11) Place on a middle oven rack and cook for about 20 minutes until temp of 170.

12) While cooking create your sauce. Add tomato paste with equal amount of water to sauce pan over medium high heat. Add 2 cloves garlic crushed or minced. 1/2 finely minced small onion. 1 T basal - fresh if available. 1 t salt. 1/2 t pepper. Bring to simmer and decreased heat to low and simmer until needed.

13) Remove the breast from oven when internal temp is 170.

14) Coat top of each breast with a generous amount of sauce and them as much mozzarella as you can get to stick.

15) Placed back in oven and cook until top is browned.

Notes:

1) The chicken breasts are easier to cut when still partially frozen. But I think they hold the breading better if not frozen.

2) Use any marinara sauce you want to replace my simple sauce. This will only make a small amount for topping the chicken. Not enough for pasta if you want that.

3) I frequently will do chicken cutlets on the grill and for baking. It allows the meat to cook through without drying out the outside. Both breading and skim can protect meat from drying on a grill or in an oven but if you are just putting on some butter, seasoning and garlic, you need them to cook through faster.

Simple Roast Bone-in Skin-on (Split) Chicken Breast

Sometime you just want simple. Minimal fuss and muss. I had no specific plans when I to the store to pick up a prescription and get something for dinner. Nothing struck me as the next post or even anything I really wanted to fuss with. I grabbed the 99 cents/lb chicken breasts ($3.34 for three). I was tired of breading things so the skin on would keep it moist. So home to find a recipe that would be simple or just do it myself. The search of CI site lead to a simple recipe. Yes, they do have some. I of course added more garlic but otherwise followed the recipe


 (printable recipe)
Tools: Aluminum foil, broiling pan or pan with rack, Pam

Ingredients:

3 not too big chicken breast
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons non-salt butter
kosher salt
pepper
olive oil

Instructions:

1) Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 450 degrees convection. Line the broiling pan or other pan with aluminum foil. Place top on broiler or rack in the pan and coat the devil out of it with Pam. Clean up was easy if you think ahead!
2) Trim up the breasts. Do not remove the rib portion. Just any fat that is easy to remove.
3) Mix 3 tablespoons of non-salt butter at room temp or slightly softened with 3/4 tsp salt and the two cloves garlic crushed. See Note 2 below about salted and non-salted butter.

4) Make a "pocket" between the skin and meat by lifting up the skin near the ribs. Create an one inch opening and then reach in with your finger and expand it to make as large of a pocket as possible while being careful not to create another hole and enough of an edge to keep it intact when you stuff it and bake it.
5) Insert one third of the butter mixture into the pocket and spread with a spoon. Mashing around on the skin also helps.
6) Sprinkle the underside with pepper and kosher salt.

7) Fold the rib section of the breast under and place on the pan. Pull the ribs out enough to propping up breasts on rib bones.

8) Cover each breast with about 1 1/2 tsp olive oil and then gind some pepper on.
9) Place thermometer and set to 180. (see my note below). Should take about 35 minutes depending on breast size and oven.

Notes: I had my thermometer in one of the outside breast on the pan. I also had the thickest breast in the center. While I moved my probe several times, when my wife cut in, it was still a little pink. Not acceptable! I picked 180 but the recipe actually called for 160. That would have been really bad. So lessons learned. Put the thickest breast on the outside position. Probe more than one breast and be sure to include the center one.
In spite of the pink issue, the meat was extremely tender and flavorable in the outside breast. This will be repeated many time in this house.

Note 2: Why would you add salt to unsalted butter? Why not just use salted butter. There are several reasons. 1) Variable amount of salt in butters. 2) Salted butter usually has water hence decreasing fat and flavor. Enough said.

Parmesan-Sesame Crackers

My DVR recorded a Good Eat's with Alton Brown last night. He did crackers. Check it out at Flat is Beautiful: Going Crackers.  Way to many carbs for me, but I do crackers too, low carb of course

This is a modification on a recipe from Blain's Low Carb Kitchen.  The show has no new episode but I did enjoy it when it was airing on FIT TV. The original recipe had poppy seeds. I prefer sesame seeds and I also added the salt. The original recipe calls for soy flour which Blain used extensively to lower carb counts. Any flour or flour substitute can be used. It has been done with good results with standard all-propose flour. 

So how is a recipe like the Pirate's Code?

Part three of this quote is the answer.

Captain Barbossa to Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean:
"first, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement, so I must do nothing, and secondly you must be a pirate for the Pirate's Code to apply and you're not, and thirdly the code is more of what you call guidelines than actual rules"

So a recipe is "more of what you call guidelines than actual rules".

I consider it play time. Time to experiment. I love Cooks Illustrated recipes. I always learn something. I love Alton Browns stuff. Again I'm learning.

So relax and enjoy your cooking... they're just guidelines REALLY.

Green beans with red onion and bread crumbs

It's about time I did a vegetable. I find many variations of ways to cook green beans, I have tried and use most of them. We do a lot of green beans since they fit a low carb diet.

This time I needed something with the chicken cordon bleu. I did extra bread crumbs for that recipe so I used them here. It worked very well.

Pre browning the bread crumbs here helps keep them crisp.

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU - I planned it this time

Unlike my spontaneous Cordon Bleu last week, I planned this one. I decided to do the "stuffed" method instead of wacking it with the meat pounder and rolling it. That is an option if you want or need to take out aggression.  If you do the rolling method, use slices of cheese and ham. Dicing works better for stuffing.

(printable recipe)
Tools: small edged cookie sheet with rack. One large knife for chopping and several small knifes. Pam. Aluminum foil.

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (because there are three in the package)
2 oz diced ham
2 oz diced swiss cheese
2 green onions
1 cup bread crumbs -panko or home made low carb
1/4 cup parmesan cheese shredded
1 egg
1/2 cup flour (I used a low carb type)
1 tsp onion salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Instructions:

1) Oven to 425 convection.

2) Heat a medium skillet on high with the olive oil. Add the bread crumbs and brown. I used low carb bread run through a food processor. 1 slice makes 1/2 cup of crumbs. If not low carbing then panko bread crumbs would be good.

3) Mix the flour, onion salt, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a large shallow bowl.  I use  breading pans from William-Sonoma. In a second pan/bowl separate the egg, keep the white, toss the yoke, add 1T water and whip with a fork. In a third pan/bowl place the browned bread crumbs.Add the parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs.
4) Line the pan with aluminum foil. Spray the rack pan heavy with Pam. It won't help the cooking but makes clean up better.

 

5) Prep the stuffing. Mince the green onions. Dice the Swiss cheese and ham together in 1/8-1/4 inch pieces. Toss together with the green onions.

 

6) Prep the chicken breast. Pat dry with paper towels. Trim the fat. Lay a breast on a cutting board. Cut a slit about 1 1/2 inch long and deep into the thick side of the breast. Expand the pocket to extend into most of the breast. BE CAREFUL not to put a hole in your pocket.

7) Assembly: Stuff the chicken breasts. You could use a toothpick to close the pocket but I didn't and had no leaking. Dip in the flour mixture. Coat both sides and shake of the excess. Dip in the egg wash and then the bread crumbs. Place on rack.
8) Place on center rack of a 425 convection oven. Insert meat therommeter and cook until 180 internal temp. About 40-45 minutes.

 

Looks good served with the Green beans with red onion and bread crumbs.

Notes: The onion in the stuffing was very nice but the left over breast was to much onion. This is not a good left over dish anyways due to the coating.

Finest Kind Ribs

Ribs are a religion to some requiring hours of fussing to create the prefect ribs. They must be boiled, or smoked or who knows what else. Ohhhh BS...

I decided ribs should be cooked somewhat like I cook brisket. It's tough but responds to long cooking at a lower temp, sealed in foil. I have added liquid smoke but it is really not good.

Here is my original recipe... totally KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

UPDATE-Useful links
Recipezaar # 16732 - Gates & Son's KC BBQ Rub
Recipezaar # 16745 Gates & Son's KC BBQ Sauce
My Memphis  BBQ Sauce - You must try this

(printable recipe)
Tools: Wide heavy aluminum foil, 1/2 sheet baking sheet, boning knife

Ingredients:

1 slab pork back ribs (pork spare ribs also are fine here)
Rub (you can find many recipes for rub or I use Gates from Kansas City)
BBQ sauce (again I use Gates)

Instructions:

Clean the ribs by stripping the pleura off the inside of the ribs (the tough membrane for you non-medical people).

Trim any fatty areas as much as possible.

Sprinkle heavily with the rub and rub in.

Seal tight in aluminum foil.


Cook at 300 for approximately 2 hours . Place the 1/2 sheet pan the next level down to catch any dripping.

Remove, open one end of foil and drain the fluid and fat. If you are precooking for later then re wrap and refrigerate or freeze. Or I frequently freeze prior to cooking and then add an extra 30 minutes to the cooking time.

To eat now, place on the sheet pan and open. Lightly brush a sauce of your choice on top (bottom is optional).  Finish off under a broiler or on a grill for about 4-5 minutes (per side if you did both sides) until crusted.

These will fall off the bones and taste great.

We use Gates rub and sauce (of course...is there anything else worth eating) (Gates Site )

Notes: These are very moist and falling off the bone. If you want it "dryer" open the foil for the last 20-30 minutes.