For Costume Party, which was the latest food party. Most of you won't know anything about it, because most of you aren't people we talk to, really. Of course, most of you don't actually read this blog either.
I made some french fries. I made 3 sauces. 1 sauce is a ketchup; the other two sauces are not ketchup. I should have done more sauce to really sell the effect, but I didn't.
I know I haven't posted anything in a while. Shut up. Shut your mouth.
Ketchup:
4 quarts tomatoes
2 quarts vinegar
6 chopped red peppers
4 tablespoons salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons dry mustard
3 tablespoons allspice
Peel tomatoes and place in a kettle with vinegar, chopped red peppers, salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and allspice.
Green:
2 C mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. curry powder
2 T scallion (minced)
1/2 tsp. (or more!) jalapeno pepper (seeded, minced)
1 T lime juice
1 T cider vinegar
2 T fresh parsley (chopped)
2 T fresh cilantro (chopped)
1/2 tsp. salt
Yellow:
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1 cup Ranch dressing
If you thought adding blue food coloring was cheap, how about tweaking the tint on the picture of the food?
Here, for your gall bladders delight, are my greasy contribute to the Blue Party; Blue cheese batter dipped Cordon Blue.
(also in the picture is a deep fried cornbread. Because what else are you gonna do with a ton of batter and hot oil but fry things)
Chicken breasts cut into small strips
Bacon
Veggie oil
Batter:
1 cup all purpose flower
1 cup ice cold water
1 handful of ice cubes
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese.
So I was aiming for a tempura type batter here. The recipe for that is the same as above just without the spices and blue cheese. I also originally planned on making a blue cheese dipping sauce, but the blue cheese I got was really crumbly, almost a powder. Instead I mixed it into the dry portion of the batter. The flavor came through in the end, so that was good.
The rest was really easy. I had the small cuts of chicken that I sat on one end of a piece of bacon that was laid out. I rolled it up, stuck a toothpick in it, then cut the extra length of bacon off to be used in the next bit of chicken. I ended up getting about 4 little rolls out of each strip of bacon.
I then dipped it into the batter, and dropped it into a pot of hot veggie oil for about 3 minutes. The end product wasn't really what I would call fine dining. In fact, I only ate about three at 6pm, and wasn't hungry again for the rest of the night. Normally, when deep frying, the layer of batter creates a barrier to the oil as you well know, but when inside of the batter is bacon, that barrier doesn't really matter. It just traps the bacon grease in. Also, I could only taste the blue cheese and bacon, and not much else.
Finally, here is a non-tinted picture of the goods.
These were my contributions to the slider party.
1 pack chicken breasts
1 box Japanese style Panko bread crumbs
4 Tablespoons flour
milk
baking soda
salt
pepper
oil
1 pack Hawaiian Sweet King rolls
Hamburger style dill pickles
A handful of stolen Polynesian Sauce packets from Chick-fil-A
With the chicken breasts, I cut each into 4 chunks; however, this made for very large sliders. I would recommend slicing some of the thicker cuts in half horizontally to make them more manageable. I then salted the chicken and made the dredge and breading
For the dredge, I mixed about 4 Tablespoons of flour with about a Tablespoon of baking soda in a bowl. I then added milk while stirring briskly until it was the right consistency. Just enough to coat a dipped finger.
I poured the box of panko into a bowl and added some more salt and a good dose of black pepper.
I dipped the chicken in the dredge, then sat them in panko. In order to get as much breading on as possible, I let them set covered in panko for about a minute before pulling them out of the second bowl.
I only had vegetable oil on hand to cook with, but peanut oil is always best for frying. I used a smallish put with about 3 inches of oil heated until it was about 350 F. This is a hard number to hit when you don't have a thermometer or stand alone deep fryer. The first few pieces I tossed in got too brown on the outside while the inside was still raw. Once I got the temp right, it took about 3 minutes to cook the chicken all the way through and at 350 F, the panko was just able to get nice and golden.
To keep the chicken crispy, it is important to not but them in an air tight container. Just set them on some paper towel to let the oil drain off and as they cool they will stay crispy.
I split the Hawaiian King rolls in half, placed a single dill pickle slice on each, set down the chicken, and drizzled on some Polynesian sauce. I found that each packet would cover about 2 1/2 sliders.
Pictured here: Mofongo, Frijoles con Dulce, Griot Fried Pork, Fried Fish Escovitch, Hawaiian Fruit Dip, and a weird kind of Fruit Breakfast Pizza. It was a pretty solid party, though as you can see, our output wasn't as high this time around. We had some people drop the ball. I'll let other people post their recipes should they want to. I made the Fried Fish Escovitch.
Basically I looked at a ton of recipes for how to do it, and then I just winged it. I started with 3 beautiful whole Red Snapper, scored the flesh so it would take my dry rub better, seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, a tiny bit of ground allspice, and thyme. Then I fried them in a very hot skillet in vegetable oil for roughly 4-5 minutes per side. At the same time, I brought a sauce pan of white vinegar to a boil, and to this I added green bell pepper, onion, carrot, and 2 whole habanero peppers, seeds in, allspice, orange and grapefruit juice, thyme. Pulled the fish out, slapped the sauce on, and called it done.
It was pretty good. Only real thing I totally botched was I took the butcher's word for it about him having deboned the fish, and so it was a little tricky to eat with all the picking around you had to do. On a side note: I'm pretty sure it is, or should be illegal to boil habaneros in vinegar. The resulting fumes are toxic.
This was my contribution to the Breakfast Party.
I used this recipe here but made a few adjustments. I used pear instead of apple, and where the recipe calls for rolling the strudel up before baking, I kept it flat and then cut it down to size once it was done cooking.
For the Filling:
¼ cup butter
2 lbs pear, peeled and diced
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup raisins
¼ tsp cinnamon
12 oz Havarti cheese with dill or caraway seeds, cut into ½ inch cubes
Dash pepper
2 Tbsp butter
2 leeks, cleaned well and sliced in rounds
2 Tbsp shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, cleaned well and chopped
¼ cup butter
2 lbs pear, peeled and diced
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup raisins
¼ tsp cinnamon
12 oz Havarti cheese with dill or caraway seeds, cut into ½ inch cubes
Dash pepper
2 Tbsp butter
2 leeks, cleaned well and sliced in rounds
2 Tbsp shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, cleaned well and chopped
For the Pastry:
½ pound phyllo dough
½ cup melted butter (for painting phyllo dough)
Large mixing bowl
Large sauté pan
Pastry brush - medium size
9 x 13” glass pan, greased (a greased baking sheet can be substituted)
Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
Sauté pears in ¼ cup butter, add sugar, raisins, cinnamon and stir until well blended.
Increase heat and stir until juices evaporate then, transfer to bowl.
Sauté leeks, shallots and garlic, add parsley, stir well.
Add mixture to bowl with pear mixture and then, add cubes of cheese.
Combine well.
Wrap in phyllo by layering a piece of phyllo pastry on baking sheet or in a 9 x 13” pan, use a medium size pastry brush to paint melted butter over phyllo sheet and repeat until you have layered 10 or so sheets.
Add filling to center of pastry and wrap as a package, finish by painting butter on top and sides.
Bake at 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool to set on baking rack cutting into squares to serve.
I found that using phyllo dough is a bit tricky. It is important that it has at least 24 hours to thaw before working with it otherwise it will stick together and tear to tiny bits.
Also the cooking time is fairly precise. If you pull it out too soon, it will stay soggy from all the butter, but if you let it go too long, the phyllo dough will get brown and be too dry and taste burnt.
So that is what I made. It was good.
Super Bowl is coming, so here is a good party dip recipe! I've had nothing but rave reviews!Enjoy!
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients:
2-4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and coarsely chopped or shredded (I usually use 3 breasts.)
2 pkgs (8oz) cream cheese softened
1 C blue cheese salad dressing (can substitute ranch if desired)
1 C hot sauce
3/4 C chopped celery
6 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Saute celery in hot sauce then add cream cheese, dressing, chicken and half of the cheese. Stir over medium high heat until well combined. Pour into a deep casserole dish, cover with remaining cheese (or extra cheese for those who like me like it extra cheesy!) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve with celery sticks and tortilla chips.
