The Cookbook

[George K]

Lousy gravy, mediocre turkey.

I had a bone-in split turkey breast I made last night. It was, meh, ok, but not something I'd make again.

1 turkey breast bone & skin on
½ stick unsalted butter room temperature
Zest of half a lemon
1 teaspoon fresh parsley chopped
2 cloves garlic finely grated
¼ teaspoon salt & fresh pepper

Allow the turkey breast to sit at room temperature for 1 hour before cooking, a cold breast in a hot oven will cook unevenly and be tough. Pre-heat oven to 350 F and make the herb butter by combining the butter, lemon zest, parsley, grated garlic, salt, and a couple cracks of pepper in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside. Peel the turkey skin back, you may need to make a small cut with a knife, use your fingers to peel the skin off the meat to make room for the butter. Stuff the butter under the skin and distribute evenly. If you have room, you can add more butter and even rub it on the other parts of the turkey breast. Cover a sheet tray with tin foil and season the turkey breast with a generous amount of salt on both sides and a few cracks of pepper. Add a bit more salt than you think you need, trust me here.

Place a digital probe thermometer in the deepest part of the turkey breast, making sure not to hit the bone and roast in the oven until the temperature reaches 154 F, about 45-50 minutes. Turn the broiler to high and broil until the turkey skin is golden and crispy, about 3 minutes(you may have to move the oven rack up). Don’t walk away, watch the turkey to make sure it does not burn. Remove turkey breast from the oven and allow to rest with the thermometer in for 20 minutes under loose tin foil.

But what really got me is the gravy:

½ cup yellow onions chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup chicken stock
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt & fresh pepper

While the turkey is cooking, make the gravy by pre-heating a medium size pot over medium heat along with 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the onions, thyme, ¼ teaspoon salt, a couple cracks of pepper, and cook for 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes then add one more tablespoon of butter. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and whisk well, cook for 5-6 minutes until the color of the flour is medium blond. You will need to whisk pretty much the whole time. Add the chicken stock, whisking well, and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until the gravy has a nice consistency. Add the lemon juice, another ¼ teaspoon salt, a couple cracks of pepper, and check for seasoning. You may need more salt or lemon juice. Keep in the pot until ready to serve and warm as needed, pass gravy through a strainer when ready to serve.

This was, by far, the worst gravy I'd even made. It was bland, and boring. Never again.

[Mik]

My chicken was very good, but certainly not Unbelievable. It gave a really nice citrus and savory flavor to it. I think it would be better with bone in skin on chicken, kind of like Pollo Tropical, and marinated overnight. i will make it again.

Now I'm defrosting a package of local rib steaks. Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet.

[Mik]

Making Texas Chili today, with rib and flank steak from a freezer dive. I don't have the whole dried chiles, but I do have ground ancho , smoked paprika, ground chipotle, chile powder, etc. Can make do, but can't make it too hot for MFR.

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a38835439/texas-chili-recipe/

Ingredients

4 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
4 dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled
2 c. reduced-sodium beef broth
2 tbsp. cornmeal
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tbsp. canola oil
3 lb. trimmed boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 1/2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
Crumbled queso fresco, pickled sliced jalapeños, cilantro, and corn chips, for topping

Directions

1. Tear the guajillo and ancho chiles into about 1-inch pieces. In a medium saucepan, toast the chiles over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and darkened in spots, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the onion, garlic and enough water to cover by 1-inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the chiles are softened, about 10 minutes. Drain well and discard the liquid.

2. Transfer the chili mixture to a blender with the beef broth, cornmeal, oregano and cumin. Puree until smooth, about 1 minute. Set aside.

3. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. In a large bowl, toss the beef with the salt and pepper. Working in batches, cook the meat until browned on all sides, 8-10 minutes per batch.

4. Return all the beef to the pot and stir in the chili mixture. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

5. Stir in the cider vinegar. Season the chili to taste with salt. Serve topped with queso fresco, pickled jalapeños, cilantro and corn chips, if you like.

[George K]

@Mik that looks doable. I think I'd cut the beef into smaller pieces, but that's just me.

What would be a good substitute for cornmeal? I don't want to buy a bunch and never use it again.

[Mik]

I used masa flour, which is a corn flour. that's what I always use in chili. These might give you some ideas, although I wonder if you have them.

https://bakeitwithlove.com/cornmeal-substitute/

[Mik]

I had to add some more beef, so I got out a pound of hamburger patties. I think the extra fat will be good too. Per your comment, I went through with kitchen shears and cut all the pieces in half or quarters. It's tasting pretty good at 6 hours simmering.

[Mik]

Highly recommend this recipe. Delicious. MFR put cheese and sour cream in it (ugh). I added fresh jalapeños.

[George K]

@Mik did you seed the chilies and jalapeños?

And did you really simmer it for that long?

[Mik]

Longer, 7 hours, but only because of the ~~shoe leather ~~ flank steak.

I used ground chiles, so no seeding. I did not sees the fresh jalapeños, but I added them to my bowl at serving.

I would guess I used 2t ground ancho, 2 t ground chipotle, 2 T smoked paprika and 1T Chile powder. You could use more, but start small. The cumin, etc, I just followed the recipe.

[Mik]

Beef Stroganoff with ground beef. It turned out great. Even MFR who seldom says anything more than “it’s ok.” Said it was really good and had seconds. Our guest took some home for tomorrow.

The recipe is:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16433/stroganoff/

I added a little Worcestershire sauce, 2 cloves of garlic and more smoked paprika than it called for. It was a big hit. Do use egg noodles, not pasta.

[Mik]

OK, I'm going all Minnesooota tonight with....

HOTDISH! Will update. It's essentially ground meat and onions topped with mushroom soup mix, then cheese, then tater tots.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-make-hotdish/

[Mik]

[George K]

Looks good. Did you use golden mushroom....

[Mik]

No, all I had was cream of. Don’t think it would have mattered much. Came out kind of soupy and uninteresting.

[George K]

@Mik thanks for the heads-up. I'll pass.

Mrs. George is not a fan of cheesy stuff, so this is a non-starter for us. FFS, she won't even eat a freaking cheeseburger. I'm shocked we're still married.

[Mik]

It wasn’t bad, just kind of dull. Maybe it needed some flour.

[George K]

Smothered Pork Chops

6 boneless thick cut loin pork chops
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon adobo
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbs butter
4 cups potatoes, sliced very thin (mandoline is recommended)
1 can (10.75 oz) cream of mushroom soup

Take your pork chops and season them with salt, pepper & all other seasoning until evenly coated. (you can mix all seasoning ingredients together in a small bowl prior to coating chops) , set aside.

Butter a 2-quart baking dish

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat & melt 2 tbs of the butter in the pan, add in your minced garlic, then add in your seasoned pork chops.

Cook them until browned on both sides, remove and set aside.

Add the remaining 2 tbs butter to the skillet and add the chopped onion, cook until soft.

Add the condensed soup to the cooked onions and gradually stir in the milk, set aside.

Slice potatoes and place in an even layer in the prepared baking dish.

Place cooked pork chops on top of potatoes, then pour soup mixture over the chops.

Make sure everything is even in the baking dish.

Cover and bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Remove the cover and bake for an additional 40 minutes.

Sprinkle lightly with parsley if desired.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I only made two chops and ended up wasting most of the seasonings.

The pork chops were WAY overcooked.

See where it says "add milk?" Yeah, it's not in the ingredients, so I just threw in some milk.

Yeah, golden mushroom, of course.

Potatoes were OK, but had a bit of a boiled texture to them.

The liquid turned out kind of watery.

Won't do again.

[Jolly]

@Mik said in The Cookbook:

Anybody like cole slaw? This is an excellent easy dressing recipe. Takes like two minutes and the lemon juice makes it really fresh. I used cider vinegar.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/240784/easy-coleslaw-dressing/

Can't have fried catfish without coleslaw...

[Mik]

This was good tonight. I had a bag of small sea scallops in the freezer that looked a bit the worse for wear, so I defrosted them. They were fine. I added the scallop water to the pasta after it was cooked and drained. Very tasty.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/216757/savory-sea-scallops-and-angel-hair-pasta/

[Mik]

Making pork chops in golden mushroom soup tonight. Just pork chops, soup, 1 c water, garlic and Italian seasoning. Threw in just a touch of liquid smoke for interest.

MFR is delighted. Are all redheads like this?