Yesterday I made this stuffed chickcen breast, that is what ballottines means BTW. First off I have been having Brad look through the cookbook to see what he wants, but he didn't want to so I told I would just choose something. After I did that he said that he didn't like chicken that much. So I told him to find something else. So he started looking and complaining about how the book is set up. Julia's cookbook sets it up so that it teaches you while you are cooking and Brad couldn't find the name of the recipes very easily so he decided she was stupid and should of set it up like a normal recipe book but alas this is a cookbook. So we had the chicken...
So first of I learned how to debone a chicken breast. But I think I made the mistake of buying split chicken breasts that were skinless. Evidently I needed the skin. Plus it just didn't seem right when I was rolling the stuffing in. But I made due with what I had to work with. Then I also couldn't find the skewers so I used toothpicks and I couldn't any string and didn't buy any because I thought we had some. So I just held the rolled up chicken together with the toothpicks and that was it. Then the recipe was for 3 whold chicken breasts minus wing. So I bought 6 split breasts so I would have enough for Hayden. Not thinking that I would enough of the stuffing I made a double batch. But 3 whole chicken breast=6 split breasts DUH!!!! Had plenty. Stuffed to much oooooh well. Then to top that off the rating Brad=7-71/2, Kris 5-6, Stevie and Hayden 0
Didn't think that Stevie doesn't like stuffing and Hayden had never had it and didn't like it either. So Brad and I agreed that the chicken was dry, shoulda bought with skin on. We decided that I would make it again and use a whole chicken and just save the other parts for later. We both liked the stuffing part. It could definitely be improved and we would both try it again. Actually pretty good for a first. So here is the recipe.
Stuffing:
1 Sweet Italian Sausage
1 TBSP Butter
1/2 Cup Minced Onion
1 Cup Crumbs from fresh homemade type of bread, Used breadcrumbs for stuffing
1/2 Cup Minced Fresh Parsley
1/4 Cup Sour Cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Prick the sausage in several places with a pin, place in a small covered frying pan with 1/4 inch of water, and steam 5 minutes. Drain. Peel off the skin, chop the sausage, and saute several minutes in the tablespoon of butter to brown lightly. Scoop into a mixing bowl, leaving the fat in the pan. In it saute the onion slowly for 6 to 8 minutes. When tender, add to sausage. Blend in the remaining ingredients and season carefully to taste.
Chicken Breast Ballottines
3 Whole chicken breasts, minus wings
1 to 2 TBSP Melted butter
Equipment:
3-inch steel turkey skewers, white string
Preparing the breasts. The whole wingless breast and the boned whole breast are illustrated, step 1. Aim to keep the skin intact during the following operations. Scrape flesh from the bone on one side of the breast, going up to but not over the ridge of the breast bone. Repeat on the other side. Then lift up the carcass and scrape close against the ridge of the breastbone to release the carcass. You now have the two breast halves attackend to the skin.
Stuffing and trussing. Step 2, spead out skin side down, with 3 to 4 tablespoons of stuffing placed down the center. Skewer it closed, winding cotton string around skewers.
Baking and serving--about 1 hour at 350.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Vegetable Beef Soup
So I watched the movie Julie & Julia and I loved the idea of cooking and learning from Julia Childs. So I finally went out and bought one of her cookbooks and this last Sunday I made the Vegetable Beef Soup.
It was a interesting experience. I decided that to do this correctly I would have to use the correct ingredients and do exactly what it said. Sometimes I skip steps because I think they are useless.
So I made my own beef stock/consomme. Interesting, did you know to make your beef stock browner you bake the bones and some vegetables in the oven for 30 minutes. So of course that is what I did. This also helped with fat. Which was my other problem. I didn't want to waste all those vegetables by straining them from the stock but I did. And then I reused them in the soup. Don't know if you should but I just couldn't waste them. Then trying to skim that fat off was not necessarily fun...
I put leeks and turnips in the soup so I ended up not eating any myself. Leeks taste like onions and Turnips taste like radishes and there were a lot of them in the soup. And since I don't really like either one of those I didn't try the soup. I did taste the broth and it was good but the rating for this soup is all from Brad. Which he said was a 7 out of 10. Not bad for my first recipe of Julia's.
So I am going to try for a recipe every Sunday. We will see how that goes.
Recipe:
Beef Stock
The bones to choose: Raw beef bones, some of them meaty, are what you want here, such as the shank, the neck, the knuckle; leg bones, too, plus any raw scraps you may have collected in your freezer.
For 3 to 4 quarts of stock
3 to 4 pounds (4 Quarts or so) meaty raw beef bones sawed into pieces of 3 inches or less.
2 each: Large carrots, onions, and celery ribs, roughly chopped
6 or more quarts of cold water
A large-size herb bouquet plus 4 allspice berries and 6 peppercorns.
2 Large cloves or unpeeled garlic, smashed
1 Large unpeeled tomato, cored and roughly chopped, or 1/2 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp Salt, plus more as needed later
Equipment:
A roasting pan for the bones; an 8-quart kettle with cover for simmering the stock; a colander and fine-meshed sieve for straining.
Browning the bones--30 to 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450. Arrange the bones and 1/2 cup each of the chopped vegetables in the roasting pan and brown in the upper third of the oven, turning and basting with accumulated fat several times until they are a good walnut brown, step 2. Scoop bones and vegetables into the kettle; pour out and discard accumulated fat.
Deglazing the roasting pan. Pour 2 cups of the water into the pan and bring to a boil over moderately high heat; using a wooden spoon, scrape browning juices into the liquid, then pour the liquid over the browned bones in the kettle.
Simmering the stock--4 to 5 hours. Add the herb bouquet to the kettle and the rest of the vegetables listed, with enough of the water to cover the ingredients by 2 inches. Bring to simmer on top of the stove; skim off and discard gray scum that will collect on the surface for several minutes, step 3. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Cover loosely, and maintain at the slow simmer, skimming off fat and scum occasionally, and adding a little boiling water if the liquid has evaporated below the surface of the ingredients. Simmer until you feel the bones have given their all.
Straining and degreasing. Strain the stock through the colander into a bowl, pressing juices out of the ingredients. Degrease the stock and season lightly to taste. Strain again, this time through the fine-meeshed sieve into a clean pan or container.
Beef and Vegetable Soup
2 TBSP Butter
1 Cup each: finely and neatly diced carrots, onion, leeks, and tender celery ribs
2 Quarts Beef Stock
1/2 Cup Neatly diced turnips
1/2 cup Orzo (rice-shaped pasta) or quick-cooking tapioca, or raw rice
1 1/2 Cups shredded green outer leaves of Cabbage
3/4 Cup peeled, seeded, and neatly diced Tomatoes
3/4 Cup cooked or canned red or white beans, optional
Salt and freshly ground Pepper
Melt the butter in the saucepan, stir in the diced carrots, onions, leeks, and celery, and saute 2 minutes. Pour in the stock, add the turnips and orzo, tapicoa, or rice, and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Meanwhile, drop the cabbage into a pan of boiling water and boil uncovered 2 to 3 minutes, until limp; drain, run cold water over it to set the color, and reserve. Just before serving, bring the soup to the simmer with the cabbage, diced tomatoes, and the cooked beans if you are using them. Taste carefully , and correct seasoning.
It was a interesting experience. I decided that to do this correctly I would have to use the correct ingredients and do exactly what it said. Sometimes I skip steps because I think they are useless.
So I made my own beef stock/consomme. Interesting, did you know to make your beef stock browner you bake the bones and some vegetables in the oven for 30 minutes. So of course that is what I did. This also helped with fat. Which was my other problem. I didn't want to waste all those vegetables by straining them from the stock but I did. And then I reused them in the soup. Don't know if you should but I just couldn't waste them. Then trying to skim that fat off was not necessarily fun...
I put leeks and turnips in the soup so I ended up not eating any myself. Leeks taste like onions and Turnips taste like radishes and there were a lot of them in the soup. And since I don't really like either one of those I didn't try the soup. I did taste the broth and it was good but the rating for this soup is all from Brad. Which he said was a 7 out of 10. Not bad for my first recipe of Julia's.
So I am going to try for a recipe every Sunday. We will see how that goes.
Recipe:
Beef Stock
The bones to choose: Raw beef bones, some of them meaty, are what you want here, such as the shank, the neck, the knuckle; leg bones, too, plus any raw scraps you may have collected in your freezer.
For 3 to 4 quarts of stock
3 to 4 pounds (4 Quarts or so) meaty raw beef bones sawed into pieces of 3 inches or less.
2 each: Large carrots, onions, and celery ribs, roughly chopped
6 or more quarts of cold water
A large-size herb bouquet plus 4 allspice berries and 6 peppercorns.
2 Large cloves or unpeeled garlic, smashed
1 Large unpeeled tomato, cored and roughly chopped, or 1/2 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp Salt, plus more as needed later
Equipment:
A roasting pan for the bones; an 8-quart kettle with cover for simmering the stock; a colander and fine-meshed sieve for straining.
Browning the bones--30 to 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450. Arrange the bones and 1/2 cup each of the chopped vegetables in the roasting pan and brown in the upper third of the oven, turning and basting with accumulated fat several times until they are a good walnut brown, step 2. Scoop bones and vegetables into the kettle; pour out and discard accumulated fat.
Deglazing the roasting pan. Pour 2 cups of the water into the pan and bring to a boil over moderately high heat; using a wooden spoon, scrape browning juices into the liquid, then pour the liquid over the browned bones in the kettle.
Simmering the stock--4 to 5 hours. Add the herb bouquet to the kettle and the rest of the vegetables listed, with enough of the water to cover the ingredients by 2 inches. Bring to simmer on top of the stove; skim off and discard gray scum that will collect on the surface for several minutes, step 3. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Cover loosely, and maintain at the slow simmer, skimming off fat and scum occasionally, and adding a little boiling water if the liquid has evaporated below the surface of the ingredients. Simmer until you feel the bones have given their all.
Straining and degreasing. Strain the stock through the colander into a bowl, pressing juices out of the ingredients. Degrease the stock and season lightly to taste. Strain again, this time through the fine-meeshed sieve into a clean pan or container.
Beef and Vegetable Soup
2 TBSP Butter
1 Cup each: finely and neatly diced carrots, onion, leeks, and tender celery ribs
2 Quarts Beef Stock
1/2 Cup Neatly diced turnips
1/2 cup Orzo (rice-shaped pasta) or quick-cooking tapioca, or raw rice
1 1/2 Cups shredded green outer leaves of Cabbage
3/4 Cup peeled, seeded, and neatly diced Tomatoes
3/4 Cup cooked or canned red or white beans, optional
Salt and freshly ground Pepper
Melt the butter in the saucepan, stir in the diced carrots, onions, leeks, and celery, and saute 2 minutes. Pour in the stock, add the turnips and orzo, tapicoa, or rice, and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Meanwhile, drop the cabbage into a pan of boiling water and boil uncovered 2 to 3 minutes, until limp; drain, run cold water over it to set the color, and reserve. Just before serving, bring the soup to the simmer with the cabbage, diced tomatoes, and the cooked beans if you are using them. Taste carefully , and correct seasoning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
