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.
Alright, I think it is about time for some crazy Vittles and Mangia posting time. To start us off, I'm challenging all y'all in making either a soup or stew and posting it. It's the Soup Stew Challenge. So come on, lets see what you got. Soups are easy to make, or at least some are. Put your veggies and meats together and try to beat this stew that I just made last night.
I made this not really having a plan ahead of time. I just started chopping and ended up making really too much. The largest pot in my house was filled to within a half inch of the rim.
Here are my ingredients.
1 onion
2 potatoes
1 large zucchini
4 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
2 ear corn, fire roasted
1 whole chicken
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 inch cube fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon Pho paste
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon black pepper
salt
water
cilantro
1 lemon, juiced and zested
oil or butter
I had all these ingredients at home before starting except the chicken. I ran out to the store, grabbed the chicken and was ready. I wanted to give the chicken a little more flavor, so I put it on a baking sheet, greased up the skin with oil, and rubbed on a healthy dose of kosher salt. I put this in the oven at 400 degree. My aim was to get the skin all crispy and golden before tossing into the soup. While the chicken baked, I prepared all the veggies. With the corn, I have a gas burner and so I was able to slowly turn the corn over the flame and get it nice and roasted. I chopped everything up, and sauteed them in a couple tablespoons of butter with some salt to help them along. All in all this took about 30 minutes. The chicken was just about done so I pulled it out and let it cool. I added enough water to make it soupy, rather than stewy. I added the seasoning as the soup heated up. I didn't add any more salt because I knew the chicken would be pretty salty. If you need more salt, you can always add it right before it is served. Once the chicken cooled, I sliced off the breasts and chopped them into cubes. I removed the wings and drumsticks and put them in the soup, bone in. I would have added the thighs and the rest of the meat but the soup pot was too full, so I just put them back in the oven to finish cooking and then pulled it and put it in tupperware.
The soup stayed on the heat for another 30 minutes. Right before serving, I juiced a lemon and added the zest. I also chopped some cilantro and put that in my own bowl. Cilantro looses a lot of it's flavor when it cooks so it is best to put it on right before eating.
So yeah, that's my soup contribution to The Soup Stew Challenge. I don't expect people to try to replicate this exactly. And there isn't really a way to taste all the soups and judge them to see who's is best. There will be no contest. This is just a challenge. Make some soup or stew. Ring the Bell.
Yes, I stole this recipe from the Food Network, but I pretty much steal everything I have from others.
Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa:
1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole
4 garlic cloves
2 jalapenos
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 lime, juiced
Enchiladas:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock,
storebought Chopped cilantro leaves
1 deli roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, meat shredded
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
10 large flour tortillas
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 cups sour cream
Chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves, for garnish
Spicy Black Beans, recipe follows
Yellow Rice, recipe follows
Guacamole, optional
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
For the salsa: On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.
Enchiladas: Meanwhile heat a 2 count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized - this should take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for a further minute. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn't burn then gradually add the chicken stock to make a veloute. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens. Turn off the heat, add half of the roasted tomatillo chile salsa, some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Change the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and begin assembling the dish. Take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa. Now take the flour tortillas and briefly flash them over the stove-top flame (or put them briefly under the broiler if using an electric stove). Using a shallow bowl, coat each tortilla lightly with the reserved salsa mix. Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix on top of the tortilla followed by a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll like a cigar to enclose it. Using a spatula place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all the tortillas. Finally pour over some more of the salsa and top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Garnish, cilantro and tomato.
Serve hot with Spicy Black Beans and Yellow Rice, the remaining tomatillo salsa, sour cream and fresh guacamole, if desired.
Spicy Black Beans:
2 cups (about 1 pound) dried black beans, picked over, soaked overnight
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf Kosher
salt
freshly ground black pepper
In a large pot, soak beans overnight covered in water by 2 inches. Drain and set aside.
In the same pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic, and bay leaf and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the beans and cover with water by about 1-inch. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the beans are tender. Remove the bay leaf and discard. Taste the beans and season with salt and pepper.
Yellow Rice:
2 cups long-grain rice
4 cups water
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 bay leaf
Put all the ingredients into a heavy-bottomed pot, stir well, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat until the rice has absorbed the water, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Discard the garlic and bay leaf, fluff with a fork, and serve.
Okay. This makes A LOT of food. Enough to feed probably 8 people. The rice is the biggest portion here. I would suggest cutting down the recipe down by half or even a forth. The beans were a good portion, and the enchlades you might want to cut in half as well.
I made some alterations to this recipe when I made it. My family doesn't like the texture that flour tortillas produce in dishes like an enchilada when they soak in juices. We substituted yellow corn tortillas wich are much smaller than the flour tortillas called for. Instead of using 10, we ended up using just under 30. For the black beans we used canned. We have found that these often will have a very dirty taste to them but that can be avioded if you rinse them in a strainer under cold water for a few minutes.
Those are the only adjustments I think we made, but if we did it again (and I hope we do because they are freakin' good) we would also cut the recipe size down big time.
Just a quiky here. And it is almost THEME related. I'll call it queso picante.
1 lb (16 oz) Velveeta or similar cheese
1 can Ro-Tel tomato and jalapeno.
Mix together and heat in microwave until is is yummy. I know this isn't gourmet or really authentic, but it is a post.
So it's been decided. As you can see on the right of your screen, the majority of you voted to make the month of September a Mexican Food theme.
Remember, this does not mean that every post has to fit the theme. It's simply to encourage the lot of us to all try our hands at some Mexican food.
Feel free to post as many recipes as you like.
