they grow up so fast

So the sprogs have decided to try their hand at some of the cooking responsibilities around here. It works out well as far as scheduling goes; every Wednesday one of them visits their father & the other stays home & vice versa. Reigning them in as far as scope goes is another story – they want to create meals off the cuff like the adults do. Which is fair, but not necessarily conducive to the sense of accomplishment I feel they should have in taking on such responsibilities. It’s taken a little negotiation but I’ve talked them into simpler meals that they know go over well for their first few attempts.

Last night was the daughter’s night home & this is what she decided to create:

A basic sandwich with a little oomph. I often make this with leftover roast beef but this week we had leftover turkey. The focaccia is homemade by the daughter (I did proof the yeast before she got home in the interest of timing but she did everything else,) the veggies she roasted on her own & she also put together the horseradish mayo. The only times I intervened were to prompt her to get some of her prep work done at certain junctures (like while the dough was rising) rather than scrambling to time everything in the last few minutes before serving & to give little lessons on tools usage (such as providing one’s self the most stable surfaces whilst cutting the vegetables & the bread) & effective clean-up-while-you-work strategies.

It’s been an interesting exercise for all of us. I get to see just how much they’ve picked up through observing us in the kitchen (& was very impressed that the daughter remembered to brush the bread with a little olive oil halfway through cooking & asked questions when she found herself doing things automatically without knowing why she was doing them – not bad for a 10 year old, eh?) & relinquish the kitchen control stick to their capable hands. They get to feel like they’ve got some say in the way we eat, get out of table setting duty & get their creations posted on the internet.

So far we’re onto a winner with this, me thinks.

Sunday dinner redux

I was feeling adventurous & had a pork tenderloin roast in the freezer begging to be cooked into something yummy. So I experimented with simple ingredients; you can barely see the tenderloin up there smothered in its wine, apple & mushroom jus, but it was very much present in terms of flavour & texture within the meal itself.

What you need:

1 pork tenderloin roast

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cups of dry white wine

5 cloves garlic, smashed & peeled, but not crushed

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 sliced, large apples

1/2 stick of butter

salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Once it’s hot gently place the two sides of the tenderloin into it to sear & dust the exposed meat with a little salt (a pinch per loin should do it). Sear the tenderloin, turning as you go in order to get all sides lightly browned. Once browned lightly deglaze with one cup of wine, using a wooden spoon to lift any meat residue from the bottom of the skillet. Slice almost but not fully through the meat at one inch intervals along the length of the roast. Add the garlic to the pan & transfer the roast, skillet & all, to the oven. Cook for about 40 minutes or until the roast is nicely brown on the inside. Remove the tenderloin from the oven & transfer to a cutting board to sit.

Heat the skillet containing the leftover juices & wine from the roast over medium-high heat. Stir the contents until they’re reduced by half. Add the mushrooms & the apples. Continue to heat & stir until the apples & mushrooms are fork tender & the juices have been reduced by about half again. Add the butter & stir that in until it’s combined with the rest of the sauce. Stir in the remaining cup of wine & taste. Add more salt if necessary. Reduce the heat & let simmer for about 10 minutes until it’s slightly thickened.

Cut the roast into medallions along the slits you’ve already made & transfer to the dish in/on which you intend to serve it. Spoon the jus over the roast & garnish with a couple sprigs of fresh thyme or parsley. Serve hot over rice, potatoes or (as seen below) savoury madeleines (a recipe I will not share at this time as I haven’t perfected it yet but is really quite delicious nonetheless.) The fresh, steamed, green beans make a lovely side.

more chicken

I have to admit a bias toward drumsticks when it comes to cooking with chicken. Many of the treatments I give them are easily adaptable to breasts and whole birds for a more formal dining experience and that’s precisely why I lean toward drumsticks; they’re very informal, finger food, go with just about anything and therefore make children happy. I often make a bigger batch than is necessary as they’re something the sprogs will willingly pack in their lunches for the next day.

This recipe is nice because it goes together very quickly and the heat output from the chili sauce is very controllable – it gets diluted quite a lot by the butter and lime but more can be added as desired or can be served on the side for the more adventurous to dip into.

What you need:

16-20 chicken drumsticks

1 stick of butter

Juice of 2 lemons or 4 limes

1 tbsp dried thyme or you can remove the leaves from two or three fresh sprigs

2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (I use this but one can easily make their own)

2 tsp powdered ginger or 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger grated (I recommend having one of these on hand for that job)

Melt the butter in a medium sized microwavable bowl or on the cooktop in a medium sized saucepan, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn’t burn (if you’re doing it in the microwave be sure to give it a stir at the one minute mark.) Add the lemon/lime, thyme, chili garlic sauce & ginger to that. Stir until combined. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Dip each drumstick into the mixture and move to a roasting pan, preferably one with a rack to keep the chicken off the bottom of the pan – this makes clean-up so much easier. Once all of the drumsticks have been dipped & arranged brush each one with a little more sauce and toss the pan into the oven. Cook for 30 minutes & serve hot – or let them cool and take them on your next picnic or as your incentive to not eat out for workday lunches.

sweet potato drop biscuits

So these are what I had intended to make before burning the sweet potatoes. They’re a wonderful accompaniment to roasted or fried chicken or just on their own with a little butter or red pepper jelly.

What you need:

3.5 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp. salt

1 large peeled cooked, mashed/pureed yam/sweet potato (this should yield about 2 cups of mash – if it’s less than just top it up to two cups with more buttermilk)

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together then cut the shortening in with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture achieves a coarse, crumbly texture. In another bowl mix the sweet potatoes and buttermilk together until well blended. Slowly add this to the dry mixture, stirring all the while until you have a loose, wet dough. Grease 2 10×13 casserole dishes or a baking sheet if you prefer a crisper finish to biscuits and drop heaping 1/2 cup dollops of the mixture into them, leaving about half an inch between each one. Bake in the oven for 15- 20 minutes until golden brown. This should give you a dozen biscuits.

To this batch I also added 2 tablespoons of dried chives & 1 teaspoon each of ginger, onion powder & nutmeg to the dry ingredients just to spice them up a bit.

Of course this recipe can be adapted to make traditional cut biscuits by adding another half cup of flour, or enough to make it a kneadable dough. I’m lazy so I just go with drops – plus I feel they add an interesting textural element to a plate.

ick

So I burnt a pot of yams tonight. We won’t get into how it happened but suffice it to say that it did and here are the results:

Looks like a lot of hard work, doesn’t it? Well…I happen to know a secret; I just toss the contents of a can like this:

…into the afflicted pot. Simmer for about 30 minutes and end up with this:

…and a much lower elbow-grease quotient.

Non-burnt recipes to come.

Spicey, citrusey vegetable stir-fry

We’ve had a bout of poorliness for the last few days chez nous so I thought I would put together a cold-busting, sniffle inducing dish.

What you need for the sauce:

Juice of 2 large navel oranges

1/4 cup soya sauce

1/2 cup chili & garlic sauce

1 tsp. sesame oil

What you need for the rest:

1 pkg. extra firm tofu or 1/5 cups of pre-fried firm tofu

16 thinly sliced shitake mushrooms

2 cups broccoli florets

2 large red bell peppers, thinly sliced

1 can sliced water chestnuts

2 cups snow peas

1/2 cup grated coconut

Thoroughly mix all of the sauce ingredients except the oil together in a medium sized bowl and set aside.

If the tofu is not yet fried then that will be the next step. I like to cut it into small slices by cutting the loaf into thirds lengthwise then 1/4 inch slices widthwise. This can be done quickly so oil for shallow frying can be heated before cutting. Shallow fry all of the tofu in small batches – about a third of the loaf at a time. It won’t take long as it really only needs a lightly crisp outer coating. Move each batch to a towel-lined plate as you go and set that plate aside until later.

Heat the wok and 2 tbsp peanut oil over high heat until very hot. Add the mushrooms to the oil, lifting them up along the sides of the wok and letting them rest there for about 30 seconds. Stir the mushrooms then lift up around the sides for another 30 seconds. Add the broccoli and keep stirring the mushroom/broccoli mixture around for about 2 minutes until the broccoli has a little give to it and isn’t quite so crisp. Add the water chestnuts, peppers & snow peas and stir for a minute before adding the sauce. Stir the sauce in with a pinch of salt to coat all of the vegetables. Top with a lid and allow it all to simmer for 3 minutes. Toss in the coconut and sesame oil and stir again to coat. Serve over brown rice vermicelli and you’re done!