Mushroom Mac n' Cheese Cups

6 boxes of elbow macaroni later...

Mushrooms, both baby bellas and porcini, sautéed in butter and sherry with dried thyme.

Lots and lots of rounds of cupcake pans and muffin cups.

Note: environmentally friendly muffin cups to not stand up well to moisture buildup or reheating...

Whoops.

For the actual mixture I used 1/2 cup of butter, 2/3 cup of flour to make the roux. Then add 6 cups of milk and stir until thickening.

Add 3 cups of your favorite cheese. I used a mixture of sharp cheddar and gruyere.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, add 1 TBSP of truffle oil, and add cooked pasta (about 2 boxes).

Toss in the mushrooms and stir to encorporate.

If you're lucky, you'll have a friend to help you ladle out each portion of mac n' cheese into the muffin cups. Then bake them at 350º for 15-20 minutes.

If you have the patience, add a smidge of butter and bread crumbs on top of each cup before baking to create more of a crust.

Repeat the process three more times if you're feeding over 100 people...

I could easily have gone a much fancier route with this mac and cheese,  maybe combining goat cheese and herbed alouette for a more grown-up palate, but fancy cheese costs a lot more than standard sharp cheddar, so I just used the mushrooms and truffle oil to step it up a bit.

But it was tasty!

Ginger Chicken Skewers, for 130.

This would be one of the items I made for a friend's wedding recently, but if you're having a few people over for a cocktail party, these would be fairly simple hors d'oeuvre or part of a buffet meal that should be a pretty tasty hit.

This also harkens to my earlier comment about how 40 lbs of chicken breasts can be broken down into roughly 340 satay-style skewers.

Don't forget to soak your skewers in water for about 20 minutes before cooking or they may scorch.

And yes, it takes rather a few hours to break down 40 pounds of bulk chicken breasts, but to give you an idea, each chicken breast should make about 4-5 skewers.

Marinated chicken cubes, ready for skewering

I used the same recipe that I did in my Tangy Asian Chicken/Pork dinner, only multiplied to fit in two giant stock pots to marinate overnight.

That's a lot of soy sauce, honey, garlic, and fresh ginger.

(Thank you, Corrie, for all the grating help!)

Even in larger quantities, I stick with the measurement of equal parts honey and soy sauce, and equal parts garlic and ginger, respectively.

Ready to cook!

If you are making this for just a few people (say, 20-30) I would suggest broiling the skewers for 5-6 minutes total so the chicken remains juicy and tender.

As I was making hundreds, I baked them in a 350º oven for about 18 minutes, knowing they were going to be reheated later and would probably dry out a bit by the second heating.

I just hoped the flavors from the marinade would make up for the slightly dry texture.

Round 1 of about 4

If making this for a smaller group of people, I would suggest reducing the marinade down to a thick dipping sauce for the skewers, but only if you rinsed your chicken well before marinating. If there was any protein "goo" on the chicken your marinade will look like curds and whey. Gross.

An easier option is just to make a second batch of the marinade and reduce the sauce with no worries of contamination or questionable consistency.

Any leftovers you have would be tastily repurposed in a meal like this Quinoa Satay I posted a little while back, but this time you would use chicken stock instead of beef stock.

Either way, it's some tasty chicken!

Cooking Marathon in Progress...

In case any of you ever need to know, 40 pounds of chicken breasts can make roughly 340 satay skewers, if you use the 6" skewers and three 1" pieces of chicken per skewer.

Also: consider paying someone else to make them!

My First Thanksgiving

No, I'm not going to post some picture of me at 10 months old gumming cranberry sauce. That was the first time I was around for a Thanksgiving holiday.

This was my first Thanksgiving because it was the first time that I was in charge of cooking the turkey. Or rather, turkeys.
There were two.
For 5 people...

Being 30 has brought a number of milestones and Life Truths to light, and the first time cooking the Thanksgiving Turkey for the family was another one of them. I am always sous chef in my mother's kitchen: peeling, chopping, dicing, hefting, and generally helping to make our meals happen.
I still did all of that this year, but with the additional 100% responsibility of the birds.

And you know what?

I ROCKED THEM!

I mean, I couldn't retain my blog name if I didn't knock it out of the park now and again. (As well as go out singing until all hours every so often.)

Turkey # 1, moderately golden, totally juicy

Popular opinion seems to be that the entire purpose of Thanksgiving Dinner is just to have the leftovers as sandwiches, so my mother makes sure we have a LOT of turkey.

Specifically, two 14-pound birds. For 5 people.

I basically brought half a turkey back to NYC as leftovers.

(And I'm so full of fatty foods that I had to make some kale and white bean soup to detox over the weekend!)

And it SNOWED on Thanksgiving (in NJ)!

Granted it didn't stick to the ground, but it was still a surprise to see it falling for a couple of hours.

I maintain that our planet is actually a month ahead of our current seasonal calendar.

It's just insanity. 

And reason.

Back to the food...

We had stuffing and baked potatoes, both white and sweet, and corn and cranberry sauce... and turkey.

Turkey #2: Food Porn

LOOK at that bird! It's a friggin' masterpiece.

And no, it those dark spots are not burnt skin. They are the brown bits that were on the bottom of the pan when I cooked off the bacon that I mixed with the brandy and then poured over the turkey.

Sound familiar?

This is why.

I mean really, if it works for chicken, why wouldn't it work for turkey?

I now proclaim my motto of the Three B's of Thanksgiving:

Bacon, Brandy, & Butter

(Optional 4th B of Booze for the Cook)

Close-up Turkey Porn

Ok, so the method I used was as follows:

Allow the bird 45 minutes to an hour to come to room temperature before you even think of cooking it. You want ALL of the chill off of the meat.

And you will be able to tell because you'll be getting your hands all up in that bird's business.

(Same goes for when it comes out of the oven. 45 minutes of rest before you carve it or all the juices will run out.)

Naturally, both of our "fresh" organic birds came largely frozen, so I spent the first few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday doing the cool water bath, changing the water every 30 minutes, until the birds were completely defrosted.

Don't forget to remove the bag of giblets and the neck from inside the bird's cavity.

Using about half a stick of butter per bird, I let it come to room temperature and then spread the softened butter under the skin of the bird over the breast meat.

I was NOT going to chance dry meat.

I salted the cavity of the bird as well as the skin and tossed 1 medium onion, quartered, into the bird's cavity along with some fresh thyme, because that's what my parents had in the fridge. Sage or rosemary would also be great here.

 2 cans of chicken stock + water went into the bottom of the roasting pan along with another chopped onion and 3 peeled and chopped carrots.

Preheat oven to 325º

Follow the steps in The Greatest Roast Chicken for the bacon and brandy part.

That weird looking thing is the turkey neck.

DO NOT THROW IT OUT!

Even if you don't like the giblets that come with the bird, use the neck!

I tossed it into the bottom of the roasting pan, turning it once halfway through cooking, and not only did the meat on the neck taste like roasted thigh meat, it also exuded collagen into the drippings which make for a thicker gravy later on.

Also, it's fun to snack on.

Using my grandmother's rule of thumb, I roasted the birds at 325º for 12 minutes per pound.

I basted every 20 minutes or so, and when the skin on the breast meat started to look like it was pushing the line between crispy and burning, I covered it with tinfoil.

And now for the extra brilliant part.

I took the skin I reserved from Turkey #1 (roasted and carved the day before, so the skin would be soggy Day 2) and put that skin ON TOP of the foil so that it would re-crisp for the final 20-30 minutes.

I even basted the skin once. 

It was delicious.

Cracktacular skin

Don't believe me? My brother posted this the day after Thanksgiving:

And as it was his idea for me to take over The Bird this year, and he's quite particular about the quality of his food, I was over the moon when he posted this online on Thanksgiving:

Pardon me while I get a bit weepy, and also walk around pumping my fists at the sky and calling myself The Queen of Turkey.
(And no, that's not a political statement.)

Back to cooking points:

Finally, and most importantly, you must let your turkey rest for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size it may be longer, or else all the butter under the skin, bacon fat and brandy in the world will not stop the juices from running out and giving you a dry bird.

A note on carving:

I find it easiest to loosen the legs and remove first the drumstick, and then the thigh. Next remove the wing as a whole piece. Any joint you have trouble with, place the tip of your knife into the meeting of the bones, and wiggle a bit until it separates.

Finally I carve the breasts off as one large piece each and slice them crosswise so each piece has a bit of skin attached.

And of course afterwards I get in there with my fingers to tear all the little scraps of meat that are missed by "pretty presentation" carving so that no part of the delicious bird goes to waste.

Except for the bag of giblets.

Oops.

Oh well.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, that you have come out of your Turkey Comas feeling rested and rejuvenated, and that the rest of the holiday season treats you well.

Queen of Turkey, out.

Cauliflower Concoctions

I have so many ideas for blog posts, and so few days when I'm feeling articulate enough to really write more than just a bald step-by-step. At some point I am going to delve into palates and how they can change and expand as you grow up and have more varied experiences. Along those lines, there are foods I would not touch with a ten foot pole when I was a child, and now I eat them with relish.
And no, I don't mean that pickled crap people put on sausages and hot dogs.
I still won't touch that stuff.

My most recent experiment in palate expansion involved cauliflower.
Blech!
Even tho I just ate it, my knee-jerk reaction is still, ''blech!"
I can't help it.
It probably didn't help that in college I did a play in which there had to be a brain in formaldehyde on a doctor's desk, and to create the "brain" the prop master (hi Krainin!) used a head of cauliflower in a large jar of water colored with a yellow highlighter, and MAN did that thing start to stink after a couple days. The Green Room had that funk for weeks.

A lot of people equate broccoli with cauliflower, and I just have to say, they are wrong. That is like saying carrots and parsnips taste the same. They don't! (But they are both delicious.)
As a child I always ate broccoli, whether raw in a crudité platter, steamed or grilled, roasted, whatever. My mother still won't touch the stuff, but I love it. However, you could not get me to eat cauliflower. It was bland, it was icky, it was white!! Everyone knows that nothing healthy is ever white! So why make me eat it? 
(No one actually did force me to eat it, since no one in my family ate the stuff. I'm just making a point.)

So WHY I got it in my head to try eating cauliflower again is beyond me, but I decided to give it a go. And you know what? With the right preparation, it's not bad. It's not my favorite, but I can make it perfectly edible.
I prepared it two really really basic ways, and sneakily fed it to the hubs to see if he'd eat it, without telling him what I was doing. (So trusting!) He seemed to find it perfectly tasty.

Image borrowed from ChowMama.com cuz I didn't take a pic of mine...

Method One - standard roasting in the oven.

I cut up some of the florets (damn does that stuff grow tightly packed!) and drizzled them with olive oil and salt, threw them in a 400º oven for 20 minutes. They came out browned and crispy, and perfectly tasty. I popped a piece in Mike's mouth, sort of without him seeing what I was giving him, and his response? "Tastes like broccoli."

Not exactly what I thought, but good enough, considering that that style of preparation is the only way I get the hubs to eat broccoli. And he actually likes it that way. Not just "will eat" it.

My own thoughts? Nice light char taste, the salt helps, and the only thing that gets me is the texture. Cauliflower just has such a weird texture. That right there may have been 50% of why I never liked it before.

Method Two - mash that sucker up with a bunch of potatoes and cheese. Oh yes.

I sliced up two yukon gold potatoes, put them in cold water and brought it up to a boil until fork-tender. For the cauliflower, I did not like the idea of boiling. The only vegetable I will actually boil IS a potato that is being prepped for mashing. So, I steamed the cauliflower for 15 minutes on the stovetop, until tender.

Giant bowl of steaming-hot white vegetables.

To this I added about 1/4 cup of fresh ricotta cheese, some salt, and later a decent handful of grated pecorino romano cheese. (Instead I might have used some garlic salt, but I only thought of that after I'd added the cheese, and that would have been too much salt. Maybe next time. But it needed something with flavor to it. Like a small head of mashed roasted garlic!)

Mashed all together it looked like this. 

Had I been worried about presentation, I would have snipped some fresh chives on top for both color and flavor.

Clearly, I was lazy.

Looks aside, it tasted pretty good. Creamy and cheesy and potato-y, tho I could still sense the texture of the cauliflower. I was just too lazy to haul out (and then clean) the food processor, which would have eliminated the texture of the cauliflower.

Note: good way to hide your vegetables from finicky kids - mashed potato purées like this one. Of course, it only works with other white foods like cauliflower, turnips, parsnips, and celery root. 

But the best ways to fool a finicky kid into eating veggies is to add them to mashed potatoes, cover them in cheese (neither of which is terribly healthy...) or purée them into tomato sauce over pasta.

If I wasn't trying to serve this to the hubs as well, I might have used sour cream to create a similarly tasty and creamy side dish with a slightly different flair, but sour cream is on the list of Things Mike Won't Eat, so I'll have to store up that idea for some time I have chosen to make this for just myself.

Which I so don't see happening... too much food for little ol' me.

But maybe one of you will want to try it that way.

Ah, the ubiquitous photo of sautéing shallot.

To go along with our cauliflower experiments, I made a super simple chicken cutlet. 

(Totally didn't realize I was defrosting cutlets instead of breasts when I took them out of the freezer yesterday... whoops.) 

(I don't even know why I bought cutlets in the first place... must have been on sale.)

Super fast pan gravy using the browned shallots and garlic, a little flour whisked in, salt, and a splash of white wine & lemon. If you care enough, crush some dried thyme in there as well. Crank on high until it comes together.

(Sounds remarkably close to Picatta, doesn't it? I didn't realize I'd essentially been making a version of Chicken Picatta as my go-to pan sauce all these years...)

Dinner done.

And I totally ate all the (not pictured) roasted cauliflower as a snack while cooking the rest of dinner.

The reason for the slap-dash chicken is that I cooked this the same day that I made another successful batch of the Julia Child version of French Onion Soup. So I was exhausted from cooking that for 2+ hrs, and then experimenting with cauliflower. The chicken was a total cop-out protein.

But it was still tasty :)

Cooking Basics

If you are a regular cook, or even an accomplished one, you can feel free to disregard this post.
I am writing this as a basic for those friends who seem to read my blog and then say that they feel that they are finally learning to cook, or who email me for specifics that I did not think to write down.
So, a few key basics.
Sit by my knee, young grasshopper, er - cooks...

EVOO:

You may see me write this all the time, but I want to specify. When I am cooking something: roasting vegetables, sautéing things, etc., I use the DeCecco brand evoo, because I find that it does not have a very strong flavor. If you were to drizzle it over a summer salad of fresh tomato and mozzarella, you would be vastly disappointed.
However, if you are serving fresh tomatoes with mozzarella, or finishing any other dish in which you want the olive oil to add to the flavors of the dish, THAT is when you use a fruity and vibrant olive oil. I like one called Olave, which I believe may actually be Chilean, by way of Bronx, NY. But I like its flavor on breads and dips and so forth. However, I learned the hard way that if you try using it to roast vegetables, your veggies will come out quite off-tasting. Avoid.

SALT:

Other than fancy finishing salts that I talked about before, there actually IS a difference between regular Morton's table salt and Kosher salt. There is a difference in texture, if nothing else. Kosher salt tends to be more coarse, and a bonus of this is that when you take a pinch to season with while you are cooking, it most likely will not stick to your fingers if they are damp. But it also means that if you were using larger amounts, more table salt would fit in 1/4 cup than Kosher. Additionally, table salt, being finer, will dissolve faster than the larger Kosher and Sea Salts. There is also the possibility of the "iodized" flavor in table salt.
It's complicated and I'm still learning about much of this myself.

Also, yes, ALWAYS salt your pasta water. And I'm not talking about a "pinch" either.

POTS:

Well this could be a hugely open-ended category. What I'm really getting at is that if you are going to cook for yourself regularly, you should have good pots. It is not worth it to buy a cheap pan for $35 if you're going to have to replace it every 3-5 years. Drop the $100 and get a lifetime-warrantee pot like an All-Clad. And then treat it well.
If it is stainless steel, use a Brillo pad every once in a while to make sure stains don't build up. And if it is non-stick, make sure you do not put it in the dishwasher, and only use wooden or silicone utensils while cooking, because you WILL mar the surface and then you've voided your warrantee and your pan will become a sticking-pan. They make things called Dobie pads that are sponges wrapped in plastic mesh that can help scrub a non-stick pan without harming it. They are also useful on enamel, such as you would find in Le Creuset Dutch/French Ovens and so forth.
But good quality pots will help you to cook better foods more reliably.
For when to use which type of pan, see below under "Chicken".
*Those are Julia Child's pots. Copper is very hard to care for for the average chef.)

INGREDIENTS:
No, you should not use the $200 bottle of wine in your bolognese. Drink that shit. And invite me over to share it with you.
 But, do not EVER use cheap booze in your food. If you would not enjoy drinking it at your leisure, then do not put it in your food. The flavor will only intensify with cooking, and you can throw your whole meal off if you use the $5 bottle of Chardonnay instead of the $15 Pinot Grigio. While I am not urging you to over-spend on all-organic, grass-fed, additive-free, bio-natural top ingredients (because really, I can't be bothered, can't afford it, and cannot always taste the difference) but I DO say that the quality of the ingredients that go into your dish will be directly proportional to the final product.

MEAT:
Always rinse your meat under cool water, and pat COMPLETELY dry. If the meat is damp, it will not brown. Also, make sure your meat is always at room temperature before it hits a hot pan. If not, your meat will seize up and be tough and once your meat has seized up and gone tough, there is really no way to salvage it that I know of. Depending on the size of the cut of meat, 15-30 minutes should be enough for the meat to warm up. If you think that is too long and you really need to get dinner started NOW, take a deep breath, pour yourself half a glass of wine, nibble on some olives or prosciutto or other typical antipasti, and sit the hell down for a few moments of calm. You will feel better when you go to cook after that anyway.

Also, always defrost meat in the refrigerator overnight. Sometimes it may take 2 days for the center of your chicken breasts to defrost all the way, depending on how cold your fridge is, so plan ahead whenever you can. Cooking semi-frozen meat never yields a good meal.
I avoid microwave defrosting at all costs. If my meat is still frozen, I will just make something else that night. If it is an emergency tho, place the meat in a bowl of COLD water in your sink, and change the water every 30 minutes until the meat has defrosted.

CHICKEN:
Yes, chicken is meat*. I just thought I'd specify a few things on cooking this bird.
*If you call yourself a vegetarian, but you still eat chicken and fish, or even just fish, you are full of sh*t. And animal meat. In that scenario, you are a person who elects not to eat red meat, whether for health reasons or just because you don't like it (Weirdo). You are still an omnivore like most people.
A vegetarian is someone who does not eat anything that ever had a pulse, or eyes to look back at you in contempt when you decided to eat it for your own survival/enjoyment. Fish counts as "animal" people. Live with it.

So chicken... I don't think I've really written this down before, so I'll so do now. For your average boneless, skinless chicken breast, the following cooking method should work for everyone.
Rinse your chicken breasts in cold water (especially if it was frozen... it will have a coating of defrost-slime.) and pat them completely dry. Season them with salt and whatever else your recipe needs. Heat oil in your pan* on medium/medium-high until the oil starts to ripple. 
*For red meat, or just fattier meats in general, any pan will do: stainless steel, cast iron, enamel, etc.. But when I am cooking chicken, I try to use my non-stick whenever possible. It means I can use less oil and I won't have to worry about the meat sticking and tearing when it is time to turn it.
Place chicken seasoned-side-down in the pan for about 7 minutes. What you are looking for is the opaque whiteness to creep up halfway to 2/3 up the side of the chicken breast. That is when you should flip the breasts, and then cook another 5-6 minutes on the other side. Your chicken should come out lightly browned and still juicy.
If your chicken breasts are especially large or plump at the fat end (bigger than your hand, palm-up, and thicker than the muscular base of your thumb in side-view) then you might have to cook them for 9 minutes on the first side, and 7 or 8 on the second. That is why I told you about the opacity factor to look for. That is really how you should judge cooking time.
Peruse this post from way-back-when for basics in amount of time to cook a roast chicken.

PRE-MADE:
I try to make many things from scratch. This includes tomato sauce (half the time), pesto, dips, salad dressings, cookies, etc.. However, things that I will absolutely take help on are things like stock and glacé, salsa, brownie and cake mixes, slow-cooked tomato-basil sauce, and some marinades (teriyaki). And many things from the store can use an extra hand from you when you get home.
Things I avoid using pre-made: lemon juice. (COME ON! Lemons are like .40¢ each. Just squeeze some fresh ones. Plus you can never get fresh zest from a plastic bottle of yellow acid.)
I also refuse to buy any type of pre-made mashed potato, potato flake, stuffed potato, etc. They are going to have additives as well as 5X as much fat/cream/butter as you would put in making them yourself. And they will probably take as long in the oven as it would take you to boil some potatoes on the stove.

SETTING THINGS ON FIRE:

Ok, so this may not be a "basic" action for most cooks. At least not intentionally setting things on fire. But if you should have the desire to make something fancy that requires alcohol in a pan + fire, here are important rules:
Never pour the booze directly from the bottle. The fire can, however rarely, ignite straight back into the bottle and then you have a giant molotov cocktail in your hands and kitchen. The smart thing to do is to measure out your booze in a shot glass or measuring cup, and then add it (carefully, no sloshing) that way. If you're really worried, take the pan off the flame, add the alcohol, and then place it back on the burner. Also, when I light it, I use one of those long-necked kitchen safety lighters. Mostly because when I try that nifty "tip the pan to ignite" move, all I do is slosh my sauce all over the stovetop.

I may write a "Cooking Basics Part 2" if I think of enough other legitimate tips, but for now, I hope that I have helped a few people.
Any in-depth questions can always be emailed to me at rocknrollgourmet@gmail.com.

Get cookin'!

Finicky Fred

Or in this case, Mike.
So I'm writing this blog largely about food, but I should explain something before continuing with all the recipes.

I have forgotten how to cook.

No, really. I don't remember how I used to cook when I was single. I'm sure I used things like vinegar and mustard all the time, but because those are two things Mike can't stand the smell or taste of, I have had to work around them. And now I forget about them sometimes when I'm cooking for myself. But more often I just can't serve a recipe I see because it contains something Mike won't touch.
And I have tried sneaking minute amounts of dijon mustard into Croque Monsieurs and he still tastes it and won't touch it. And I usually need his services as plate-cleaner at the end of meals, so I don't want to make myself something he won't eat. (My eyes are bigger than my stomach. What can I say?)

A sampling of Things Mike Won't Eat:
Vinegar
Mustard
Shellfish
Crustaceans
Salmon
Sushi
Mayonnaise
Salad Dressing In ANY Form
Salsa
Sour Cream
Guacamole
(let's just say all condiments except the occasional ketchup & BBQ)
Onion Soup
Tuna (the mayo)
Mushrooms
Olives
Asparagus
Raw Tomato
and other stuff I can't think of at the moment because it's too frustrating.

I do not know how he survived before I met him, because he did not eat anything healthy. I sometimes have to trick him by putting the frozen chopped spinach in a baked ziti so it blends with the tomato and ricotta and he doesn't taste it, like tricking a little kid. I had to twist his arm to convince him that he would enjoy broccoli if I roasted it, if he would just TRY it. And now he eats it all the time. So, He Can Be Taught. It just takes a bit of convincing.
We have been together for 6 years now and he has come a long way as far as trying things and branching out, but it has been an uphill battle. If he had his way, I think Mike would only eat BBQ Bacon Cheeseburgers and Tater Tots, with French Fries as a swap. And there is nothing wrong w/ a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger... I have frequently stated my love of bacon. But that should not be a regular meal for a person who wants to live past age 50.

So that, dear readers, is why the dinner recipes I post may seem to have tunnel vision. I have a finicky, Meat and Potatoes Man in the house, and it's taking time to break him of his habits and dislikes.
I really hope that some day I can finish a dish with a balsamic drizzle again. You have no idea how much I miss balsamic vinegar. I could drink the stuff, I love it so much. But it's the kind of thing that lingers on the breath, so if I have it at lunch, Mike can tell when he kisses me hello after work. So, a good tip if I'm annoyed with him and want to keep him at arm's length, but not something I want to do regularly.

All I can say is, thank heaven he likes garlic & isn't a Lactard*, cuz that would have been a deal breaker!

*For those who don't know, some people cannot process dairy foods. Their bodies just do not like it and it is very unpleasant for them to try to digest it at all. This is a great shame, because there are oh so many lovely cheeses and cream sauces to be had. (No, Suzanne, I still do not believe that something made out of pistachios can be considered "cheese".) These people are usually referred to as Lactose Intolerant. But that is a long phrase, and makes them sound like they don't LIKE dairy, and Intolerance is not something that should be practiced. So instead, I call them Lactards. And I say it with love, and pity. Lots and lots of pity.