Sorting through recipes the other day I came across about 10 recipes (out of the 3-inch high stack) that I would like to fix real soon. I set those aside (this recipe among them). The rest got filed into my recipe binders. Filing is one of my least favorite activities, along with ironing and gardening. Back when I was a new college grad and went to work in a job that required me to file now and then, the filing piled up for months on end. The same thing happens here at home now, 40+ years later. I mean, I’m retired, for goodness’ sake, and still the filing doesn’t get done. As bills are paid I save the statements. I used to file all of them regularly, every month, then when tax time came around I’d pull them all out for the next year. But a couple of years ago I had a busy year and the entire YEAR of statements ended up in one single pile. Uh, do you want to know how high it was? Nah, you don’t really, do you? Well, it was about 18 inches.

Since we own two homes and two rental homes, we have a sizable amount of paper that traverses our household from mailbox to a sorting area in our garage, to piles for him and her (90% goes into mine), then they get dispersed to the pile, or other places for saving. I’m the one who pays the bills, saves important paperwork, does the tax prep work too. I’ve had to buy two 4-drawer file cabinets for our garage just to store old records. But ever since that year when I didn’t file, I don’t file bills at all anymore. They just accumulate into an 18-inch stack. Then I sort and toss a good part of them.Recipes are another to-file item. And no, they’re not even in the same room as the bill-paying department. I read a lot of magazines, and clip a lot of recipes. I try really hard to only clip recipes I truly think I’m going to prepare. But still, every month I have many new recipes I think I’m going to make. At what age I wonder will I stop doing this? At what point in my life will I decide I have enough recipes, that I don’t need more? At what age will I decide I don’t need more cookbooks? Same problem. One part of me says I’ll probably continue to clip recipes as long as I’m still able to cook and have a kitchen to cook in. And I’ll likely be interested in cookbooks for the same reason. When I’m gone, probably my kids will look at my files of untried recipes (of which there are multitudes) and toss every one of them in the trash. What appeals to one person doesn’t always appeal to another. Well, philosophical things to ponder.

Well, so here we are at this recipe. It had been hanging out in a stack of recipe clippings for oh, let’s say it’s been 9 years. (I have filed in that interim, but I don’t know why this particular recipe hadn’t been. A quandry.) It’s from a 1996 Gourmet Magazine. And the other day I decided I really, REALLY had to do something about the pile. So, I sorted all the recipes into category piles (appetizers, salads, sides, pork, breads, etc.), then filed them away.

The project took hours. And hours. My back was a-killin’ me when I was done. But, at least it’s DONE. And this recipe came popping up to the top. I had all the ingredients (particularly important are the shiitake mushrooms), and it didn’t take too long to make. It was good. Very good. I probably will make this again.

Here are my breading/dipping pans. Available from Williams-Sonoma, they have been a great addition to my kitchen equipment. They come as a set of three, and one edge hooks onto the next one, so the grouping stays in place as you work. In this case I dipped the chicken breasts in flour, then in egg, then in the shiitake mushroom and panko mixture before browning them very briefly, then baking for a short time in the oven. While the chicken bakes (about 10 minutes), you can whip up the mushroom sauce.

Cook’s Notes: Next time, I’ll make more sauce – it’s amazing how little sauce you end up with once mushrooms cook down. If you don’t have white wine (like vermouth), use sherry instead. This recipe had been posted to Epicurious, and a comment by several people included a suggestion to chop up the shiitake mushrooms more than you think – the recipe says coarsely. I probably diced them and they were fine. They need to adhere to the chicken, and if they’re too big they simply won’t stay attached to the chicken when you brown the chicken in the skillet. I also added a bit of water to the sauce (to make more), then ended up sprinkling a smidge of flour into the sauce (from the breading pan) to help it thicken up. Don’t overcook the sauce – it’s better if the mushrooms still have some definition.
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When my DH says this is a keeper, I listen up. He doesn’t say those words all that often. He enjoys my cooking and does tell me all the time how much he appreciates this dish or that. But those particular words just don’t come out of his mouth frequently. I heard them for this dish. He was intrigued enough by the appearance to ask me what was in it, how I cooked it. He keeps thinking that one of these days when he takes a several-day sailing trip on our boat, going out to Catalina, or one of the other islands within sailing distance of our shores, that he’s going to cook a nice dinner for his crew. (I’ve probably mentioned it before, but I don’t go on these jaunts because I get deathly seasick, or I’m so drugged up with Dramamine that I don’t function much, or suffer from very blurred vision if I use the scopalamine patch. All in all, I just don’t go. DH reminds me occasionally that he didn’t marry me for my sailing abilities. That’s for sure. He also didn’t marry me for my dancing style, either, but that’s another story.)

So anyway, he was curious about the chicken and nearly licked the plate. The recipe came from a restaurant out in our California desert – a French place called Cuistot. We’ve eaten there several times, and enjoyed the food. A reader wrote into the Los Angeles Times (December 12, 2007) asking them to get the recipe, which the chef provided. I believe the article said this is a common bistro kind of preparation. It’s easy – from start to finish it took me about 45 minutes, with 25 of those minutes the chicken was in the oven. You heat the oven to a phenomenal 500 degrees F. Yikes. But it works. If you have a heavy-duty skillet that can withstand that kind of heat, go for it (that’s what the recipe indicates). I wasn’t sure enough to subject my Look brand nonstick skillet to that temp, so after browning the chicken pieces I popped them in an ovenproof pan. Then I deglazed the browning skillet and made the sauce while the chicken was baking. It sped up the dinner process since I was able to take the chicken directly from the oven to the plate and spooned sauce on it immediately with a bit of the drippings from the blazing hot pan.

This is the kind of dinner you could throw together quickly – providing you have shallots on hand and fresh tomatoes. Most home kitchens would have the garlic, butter, red wine, vinegar and chicken broth. I forgot to add the garnish in my haste to get the plates on the table.

You see, I was late getting home – went to see Kite Runner at 3:55 and didn’t get out of the movie until 6:15. And, oh my goodness, was that a movie! I’d read the book a year or two ago, right after it came out. The photography was excellent – even though it was filmed mostly in China. The bulk of the real story takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it certainly looked authentic. The story is heart-wrenching to say the very least about it. Highly recommended. And, of course, the book is better, but I thought the movie was exceptionally well done.

So, after a 30-minute drive home, it was late for dinner before I even started. Bang, clang, and I served it in a jiffy. And now this will go into the KEEPERS file. DH even asked that the next time this is on the menu, he’d like to make it. Now that makes this a real red-letter dinner! He’s never said that. Ever.
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Since I’d bought a Kosher chicken at Trader Joe’s the other day, I wanted to do something different. I mean, a roast chicken is a roast chicken, but we get tired of the same old sliced chicken. I wanted it to be succulent and juicy, not dry and stringy. What to do?

I turned to my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. The recipes are never overdone. They’re not fancy. But they’ve worked out these little details to make something ordinary like meatloaf – or roast chicken – better. I’ve learned to trust this cookbook when I’ve used it. This time was no exception.

Just the title, Roast Lemon Chicken, grabbed me. I’m a sucker for anything lemon, and had one Meyer left. The recipe suggests you brine the chicken. Well, if you buy a Kosher chicken, it’s already brined. Yea! I didn’t follow the recipe down to the letter. I didn’t whisk in the additional butter to the sauce which is mentioned in the recipe below. The book recommends using a V-rack. I have a V-rack, but it’s for a turkey, and I didn’t feel like retrieving the large roasting pan to put it in either, for this small little chicken. I just used a regular rack and put it on a piece of foil. And since I had just one lemon, I had to put some of it in the cavity and the rest was squeezed for the juice called for in the pan juices. I knew the juice was a necessary ingredient for the sauce. The recipe suggests baking the chicken for 40 minutes at 350. Then you turn the pan around and hike up the heat to 450. Laziness had set in and I didn’t move down the rack in my oven, so the skin got a bit charred, but the meat underneath was still succulent, likely because of all that herb butter that seeped into it.

I also used my new little heat-resistant silicone bands (looks like a rubber band on the legs above) for both the legs and the wings. They worked like a charm. And the finished dish? Delicious! I’ll make this again.
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You’re really missing out on something wonderful if you don’t make chicken and dumplings once in awhile. One day a year or so ago, in reading The Orange County Register, the Food Editor Cathy Thomas wrote up all the joys and virtues of chicken and dumplings. It set my mouth to watering, and I promptly made hers. Oh my. Was it ever GOOD. Actually, the chicken was Jamee Ruth’s version, from the book The Cookware Cookbook (had never heard of it, actually). It’s relatively simple, although it calls for ingredients I don’t often have on hand (6 leeks, for example and 6 shallots). The gravy/broth is just delicious, helped along with the addition of apple juice of all things. This is worth a trip to the grocery store. A good recipe for a chilly winter’s evening. I like to remove the chicken from the bones (and remove all the skin too so DH won’t eat it). Just reheat briefly.

Serve it in a wide soup bowl, with the light dumplings on top. And I highly recommend Marion Cunningham’s recipe for Feather Dumplings which has fresh bread crumbs and onion in them. The minced onion gives a nice little crunch in the dumpling. Something a little different, but they’re worth making. From her book Lost Recipes: Meals to Share with Family & Friends. Although surely this dish is one you ordinarily think of as homespun, it would be wonderful to share with family, and good friends. Here it is in the bowl with the dumplings.

If you have leftovers, when reheating, put the chicken mixture in a saucepan, heat just to a low simmer, then gently lower in the leftover dumplings. Top with a lid and allow to simmer very slowly for just a few minutes, then serve. I also find that the broth/gravy can have some added water. When I made the chicken and dumplings this time, after completing all the cooking (except the dumplings), I ladled out about 7/8 of the leeks with some broth and whizzed them up in the food processor. That made the gravy a bit thicker, which is a good thing.
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Our friends, Russ & Stacey, who live in the Bay Area, did two turkeys for their Thanksgiving crowd. One was smoked, the other baked. With lots of family and children around, Stacey wanted to make it easy on herself and prepared this all-purpose gravy from Cook’s Illustrated. She emailed to tell me this gravy was just wonderful, and she liked it because it could be made ahead. We all know what it’s like in the kitchen during the last hour before Thanksgiving dinner is ready to eat. Great idea, Stacey, and thanks for the suggestion. I’m going to add this to my Thanksgiving repertoire for next year.

With my posting about Kosher turkeys (and sometimes they’re too salty to use the drippings for anything) this gravy would be a great make-ahead dish. One more menu item ticked off the list early. Here’s what C.I. has to say about it:

• This gravy can be served with almost any type of meat or poultry or with mashed potatoes. If you would like to double the recipe, use a Dutch oven to give the vegetables ample space for browning and increase the cooking times by roughly 50 percent. The finished gravy can be frozen. To thaw either a single or double recipe, place the gravy and 1 tablespoon of water in a saucepan over low heat and bring slowly to a simmer. The gravy may appear broken or curdled as it thaws, but a vigorous whisking will recombine it.

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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open MC – 14 has photo)

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KOSHER TURKEY

Until a a couple of years ago I didn’t know much about Kosher meats. Only that if you were Jewish and you wanted to consume meat within the dietary laws of Judaism, you purchased Kosher meat. And I thought a rabbi had been involved somehow in the butchering process, maybe that he said a prayer over it? I didn’t know. We have Jewish friends who have meat shipped from somewhere in the Midwest because they believe it’s much better meat than they can buy at their local deli that offers Kosher meat and foods. They don’t keep a Kosher home – they even eat pork, but they really like the Kosher meat they buy.

Then, I went to a cooking class in which Tarla Fallgatter, the teacher, mentioned that the Kosher chicken at Trader Joe’s was just really good. Because I’m always on the lookout for better chicken, I tried a whole chicken – Kosher – from Trader Joe’s. OMGoodness. It was fantastic. It was better than any chicken I’d ever purchased before.

But still, that was the extent of what I knew about Kosher meats. Then I read an article in one of the food magazines about Kosher. About what they do to the meat. How it’s butchered, and exactly what’s involved in the process. It was a very interesting read, actually. And no, the rabbi doesn’t pray over the meat. But had I not already tried Kosher chicken I probably wouldn’t have even read the article. Since I’m not Jewish, I would have just gone right on by, not to give it another thought. What makes Kosher chicken or turkey better is that it’s already been brined or salted. The butchering process by rabinic law requires the animal to be slaughtered by a deep stroke across the neck and quickly draining the animal of its blood.

• Jews do not eat blood because the life of the animal (literally, the soul of the animal) is contained in the blood. This applies only to the blood of birds and mammals, not to fish blood. Thus, it is necessary to remove all blood from the flesh of kosher animals.

Even after slaughtering, the animal still has some blood contained within, so they must perform a second process:

• The remaining blood must be removed, either by broiling or soaking and salting. Liver may only be kashered by the broiling method, because it has so much blood in it and such complex blood vessels.

Since I’m a huge convert to the brining of lots of different meats, but particularly chicken and turkeys, I am relieved of having to DO the brining. The Kosher process does it for me. And since I’ve not perfected the ratio of water, sugar and salt so that a turkey doesn’t come out too salty, I’m happy to let the Kosher butcher do all the work for me.

I will say, buying Kosher is more expensive. This year I went to Trader Joe’s, who usually has them at Thanksgiving and Christmas, to buy my turkeys on Monday, the 19th. They were already sold out. I was absolutely devastated. I stood there in the middle of the store, with lots of people trying to get by me, and nearly cried. I talked to any clerk I could find. Nope, no Kosher turkeys. I went to the customer service desk. And very nearly cried. They shrugged. They told me all of the TJ’s stores in Orange County were sold out by 10 am that morning.The last 2 years I’ve relied on TJ’s Kosher turkeys. They’re certainly not carried at any of my local grocery stores. Thank goodness for Whole Foods. Yes, they had Kosher turkeys, but each 14 pound bird was about $75.00. A whole lot more money than TJ’s. But, these two were the most moist turkeys we’d ever eaten. And the brining was absolutely perfect – I could use the juice in the bottom of the pan – it wasn’t too salty at all. Some of our guests were blown away by how juicy the breast meat was. I may have converted several people to buying Kosher next year.

So, your challenge is to find a Kosher market (or a TJ’s) and try a Kosher chicken or turkey. You’ll be amazed, I do believe! As a little aside, I notice that all of the Kosher chickens and turkeys I’ve purchased have still had some feathers attached. And the only organ meat included is the liver – no heart of gizard. That’s part of the Kosher law. So, there’s your little lesson today in Kosher!

Note: my Kosher info and facts for this post came from Judaism 101.

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L-R: Sliced (kosher) turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and pearl onions, one mounded plate of food.

L-R: broccoli/leek puree, Italian sausage dressing, broccoli hollandaise, grilled orange slices.

Awesome pumpkin pie and DH and me in the kitchen just before the dinner bell.
I’ll be sharing the recipes for the dressing, the mashed potatoes and the broccoli/leek puree in the next couple of days. The pumpkin pies (all 3 of them) were Libby’s recipe, still considered one of the best there is.

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Here’s another great chicken (breast) recipe. Another recipe from Phillis Carey’s cookbook, that I’ve talked about before. She’s just such a wizard with chicken. This could be a “regular” night dinner, although I think it should be elevated to “company” status. It isn’t exactly on the low cal side – it has some heavy cream in the sauce – and it isn’t exactly quick, either. Fortunately I had two helpers (Dana, my daughter, and her daughter, 10-year old Taylor). They’re all visiting us for the week (my daughter – and her two children – come to join her husband who’s been with us for a couple of months while he works on a project here, locally). So, chicken seemed like the best choice for dinner. Chicken breasts were defrosted, and I found I had everything on hand to make these. It’s nice when you do a dinner like that and you don’t have to make a trip to the grocery store.

Cajun and Creole are two different things, just in case you didn’t know. The cuisines are different, and although I’m not from the south (I’m actually a California native), we’ve visited enough times that I’ve learned not to mention to the N’awlins’ folks that they might appear similar to the unknowing. Since I couldn’t remember what the difference was, I looked it up on Wikipedia:

• According to an expression of the region, Cajuns live to eat, not eat to live. Outside Louisiana the distinctions between Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisine have been blurred. However, Creole dishes tend to be more sophisticated continental cuisine using local produce. Cajun food is rural, more seasoned, sometimes spicy, and tends to be more hearty. Many well-known Cajun dishes were originally centered on wild game, rice and other local ingredients.

Likely the lines are a bit blurred in this recipe as well. Whatever it is, and whatever its roots, it’s just gosh-darned tasty. I’d serve this to guests anytime, although I’d make double the sauce. There just never seems to be enough sauce to go around. And I like to serve this with pasta on the side, and the sauce goes just nicely with the pasta. I happened to have served it with green beans – the Green Beans with Garlic and Olive Oil that I shared a couple of months ago on the blog. This time I had some mushrooms on hand, so I added them to the Creole sauce. They weren’t in the original recipe, so you decide whether you want to do that. The chicken breasts were pounded to an even thickness, then sort of stuffed with a cream cheese-green onion – Parmesan mixture, dipped in egg and bread crumbs (I used Panko), then baked for half an hour. Meanwhile you make the creole sauce and boil up some pasta. And whip up a bright green vegetable, perhaps a salad, and you’re done.
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When a cooking instructor says something like “this is one of my favorite recipes,” I listen up. Make notes. And prepare the dish soon for my family. That’s this recipe today. Phillis Carey, whom I’ve mentioned many times before, is a wizard with chicken (she’s even published a cookbook about chicken). I’ve made any number of the recipes in her cookbook, and this is a relatively easy one. Dinner, with a fresh vegetable and salad, took an hour. (Sorry Rachel, I can’t seem to manage 30 minute meals no matter how I try, unless I’m reheating leftovers.)

What sets this recipe apart from lots of other baked chicken breasts are the following things:

the lemon zest and lemon juice

the fresh bread crumb topping

the extremely hot oven it’s baked in

Lemons are a regular on my menus, all times of the year. We found a stray Meyer lemon on one of our dwarf trees a week or so ago, which made me very happy. I used part of it the other day and had a half leftover. Just barely enough to add juice to the sour cream mix and zest to add to the bread crumbs. I can’t say that it was very easy zesting a cut/half lemon, but I managed.

The bread crumbs must be fresh. Do not, under any circumstances, use canned bread crumbs for this. They’ll make it way too dry. You need crumbs that have some moisture. I do keep some crumbs in the freezer, but I must say they don’t keep overly well once the icy particles cling to them. I’ve even used wheat bread for this, although I do think white bread makes a prettier crust.

First you pound the chicken breasts to make them approximately uniform in thickness. Prepare the sour cream mixture and have the bread crumbs at the ready. I use a large silpat in a pan.

I remove the chicken tenders and make them separate, small servings. Try to mush them up thicker, so they don’t overbake. Then you cover the chicken with the sour cream, garlic, lemon juice and mustard mixture. That takes about 2 minutes max. Then you sprinkle the fresh bread crumbs on top and kind of pat it onto the sour cream so it sticks. Cover as much of the sour cream as you can.
Meanwhile you will have heated the oven to 475 (hot!). Pop these babies in that hot oven and watch them carefully so they don’t dry out. Mine take exactly 12 minutes. Serve immediately.

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How many possible pizza combinations are there, out there? Way too many for me to guesstimate. When California Pizza Kitchen opened up, probably 20 years ago, I was amazed at the variety. It surely swept in with the “California” style of cooking. Lightening up, fresh ingredients, etc. Lots of chicken.

So, when our daughter, Sara, was still living at home with us (probably she was in college then), she had a hankering for pizza one evening, and looked through a cookbook I had. She settled on this one, using a whole wheat dough that was easily mixed up in the bread machine. By the time DH and I got home from work, she was in the middle of this and we all just raved about how good it was. I’ve made this umpteen times since then, always to good reviews. I don’t make pizza often. In fact I don’t think we’ve even eaten pizza in over a year, but it just sounded good.

Our son-in-law, Todd, is still staying with us (he’s an electrician, and is wiring the new house for our son and his wife), and he’s a pizza fan, so I thought this would be a good choice.

First you make the whole wheat bread dough in your bread machine. You don’t have to use whole wheat dough. We just liked it that way from the get-go. It’s a mixture of 2/3 white and 1/3 wheat flours. It still has the resiliency and easy rising ability of white, though. The joy of the bread machine is that it makes pizza dough so very easy. You use the machine for mixing the dough and rising it once. Then you remove it and continue by hand. Sara used the recipe from my bread machine’s book and we’ve stuck with it ever since. I used Trader Joe’s pre-made pizza dough: I bought one white and one whole wheat and mixed them together.

Meanwhile, you marinate the chicken pieces in some lemon juice, olive oil and oregano. But, having made this plenty of times, if you forget this step, just briefly saute the chicken pieces IN the lemon juice marinade, then you’ll get at least some of the wonderful lemony flavor. Thank you, Sara, for finding this gem of a recipe.
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