Thursday, August 20, 2009

Savory Chicken Salad

P8190032

I wanted to make some chicken salad from the leftover rosemary-garlic paste roasted chicken my husband cooked the other night. I’m not a big fan of the fruit-laced chicken salads (apples, grapes?!) so I headed straight for the umami.

 

P8190011

This is from my prior batch of pancetta flavored bacon. (My husband suggested the name, but I’m too embarrassed to call it that anymore.) This section was so fatty I didn’t want to eat it as bacon, so I saved it for pseudo lardons.

 

P8190016

This is about 8 slices cut into 1/4 “ strips and fried.

 

P8190017

I’ll chop and “toast” these pecans in the bacon fat.

 

P8190018

Smells real good about now.

 

P8190019

Minced shallot and garlic.

 

P8190022

The shallots have been “sweated” and I’m adding the garlic for the last 30 seconds.

 

P8190023

Draining the lardons and the pecan-shallot-garlic mix.

 

P8190025

Shredded rosemary-garlic roasted chicken.

 

P8190021

It was too late after work to make my own mayo.

 

P8190026

Love this Louisiana Cajun seasoning.

 

P8190029

Gotta have some of this.

 

P8190030

About 1/2 cup of mayo, 2/3 cup of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, plus Maldon sea salt and freshly ground pepper (not shown).

 

P8190038

I over-toasted the bun in the broiler, but it was still delicious.

Thyme Roasted Potatoes

Technorati Tags: ,,

P8160009

I’ve often heard that potatoes roasted in goose (or duck) fat are the best. As I had a bit of duck fat saved from the duck confit I used to make the Duck Rillettes,  I had to try some.

 

P8160003

I used this recipe for the method. I used small russet potato wedges. These were parboiled for 4 minutes.

 

P8160004

The lovely duck fat and some thyme from my garden. I sprinkled the thyme on the potatoes during the last 5 minutes.  The potatoes had a wonderful crunchy exterior and tender interior. They were good, well worth the effort.

P8160010

My husband had roasted a chicken with a rosemary-garlic paste spread under the skin in our Big Easy infrared turkey fryer.  It made a great sandwich with some homegrown lettuce.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Easy Hamburger Buns | Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Buttermilk White Mix 08012009_07

Since my husband was making some lovely pulled pork to make barbequed pork sandwiches, I was happy that I had some Buttermilk White Bread mix from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day already mixed in the refrigerator.

 

Buttermilk White Mix 08012009_01

This is the mix in the bucket.

 

Buttermilk White Mix 08012009_05

I had a hamburger pan from earlier experiments. Sometimes it is good to hang on to baking pans you never thought you’d use again.

 

Buttermilk White Mix 08012009_06

I love the “shooting through glass” option on my camera.

 

Pulled Pork on BW Buns

The pulled pork with barbeque sauce, homemade mayonnaise, homemade buns, beans from our garden, and fried potatoes.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Bacon, Garlic, and Thyme Gougères | Duck Rillettes

P8110218

I saw the recipe for similar gougères a few days ago on the Cook's Illustrated website. I had some leftover Emmental from the Quiche Lorraine, my bacon, and thyme in my garden; now was the time to finally try pâte a choux. Back in June, Michael Ruhlman had posted about taking some cheese puffs to a friend’s house and eating them with leftover duck confit. I didn’t think ahead to make duck confit, but while I was at one of my favorite grocery stores – Calandro’s – buying the flour, right there in the charcuterie area was canned duck confit. Not quite inventing the universe; but, sometimes, instant gratification is very satisfying. I decided to use the Cook’s Illustrated flavorings with Ruhlman’s Ratio. I watched Jacques Pépin make the choux paste on his The Complete Pépin: Techniques and Recipes DVD for a confidence boost (he uses half the butter compared to Ratio, hmmm).

 

P8100196

My bacon, thyme, and the rest of the Emmental.

 

P8100197

Minced thyme and garlic cloves.

 

P8100200

Diced bacon and minced garlic, draining.

 

P8100198

Replaced some of the unsalted butter with bacon grease.

 

P8100206

The choux paste. I used buttermilk (had some in the fridge) rather than milk.

 

P8100207

I didn’t want to clean my pastry bag after this sticky paste, so I used the baggie trick.

 

P8100208

Ready to bake. My piping skills aren’t so good.

 

P8100214

Coming out of the oven.

 

P8100213

Warming the duck legs.

 

P8100210

Lovely duck fat and gelatin (duck goo) in the bottom of the can. After shredding some of the leg meat to serve on the gougères, I made Duck Rillettes (adapted from Kevin Weeks’ – adapted from Charcuterie). I just tried to get the proportions right for the goo and fat to the amount of duck leg meat left and processed it.

 

P8100212

Served beans from our garden on the side.

 

P8100216

The shredded confit was lovely, but I like the rillettes. For some reason I find it amusing that it looks like devilled ham.

 

P8110217

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Wish I’d Invented This

Plumeria 07212009_04

Lovely Kaneohe Sunburst Plumeria I recently added to my collection.  One of the many things I (used to) miss from my adolescence in the Florida Keys.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_16

Inspired, yet again, by a Michael Ruhlman post - The Best Quiche; I had to try my hand at it. Especially since I had saved some of my pancetta-cured bacon in slab form to make lardons. As my husband says, “Any recipe (like my sister Peggy’s  famous Baked Potato Casserole) that starts with a pound of bacon, is a good recipe”.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_01

Well, my mama was praised for her pie crust which she always made using Crisco; so there.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_02

Good thing I stole her pastry cutter.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_04

No beans to use for pie weights, but rice works.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_05

The onions softened, but not too browned.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_07

Lardons from my slab bacon.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_08

I shouldn’t have used the microplane for the Emmental cheese. It was so fine, by the time I was ready to sprinkle it, it was almost melted together even though I put it in the fridge. Next time I’ll use the box grater.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_10

The lardons draining. Crispy on the outside; still tender on the inside.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_09

Custard mise en place. I love this nutmeg grater; no more knuckle-skin flakes in the food. And, you’d have to pry my Magnum pepper mill from my cold, dead fingers.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_11

Half the lardon and onion mixture. Then added half of the frothed custard and half of the cheese. Repeat.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_12

Pooh! Even though I thought I patched all the cracks in the crust, I must have missed some. I think I was being too careful not to overwork the dough.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_13

My husband said, “It’s ugly.”

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_14

Here it is cleaned up a bit.

 

Quiche Lorraine 08012009_16

It may not be that pretty, but it was good, very luxurious.