jim brentar dinner report 8-25-13 “Hey Jim, what was dinner tonight?” Once again, I had to scramble a bit to get dinner on the table. I had a late lunch with a friend from out of town (whom I don’t get to see too often) and a friend from in town. We were watching the Indians game (on TV) while eating. Although I didn’t stay for the whole game, I stopped at the store briefly and didn’t get home til late afternoon. Then put the last few dishes into the dishwasher and got it going. Then check e-mail and facebook—which I hadn’t done since yesterday before bed. Then I had to practice a bit on mountain dulcimer. Winfield is coming up soon. Anyway, I put the dulcimer away and looked at the clock. almost 7pm. Well, maybe closer to 6:45. When is dinner supposed to be? We’ve gotten into a bad habit of eating dinner late. But, still... It’s almost 7pm. I could have made it easy on myself and told Mary Kay that we’re having fried bologna sandwiches and tater tots tonight. No. Not on a weekend with nothing planned for the evening (except to watch Food Network! Restaurant Impossible. Great Food Truck Race. Yum.). I turn on the oven. I always do that first thing. Don’t want to be stuck waiting for the open to heat up. But, what if it’s 95 degrees and no air conditioning? Then I wouldn’t be baking or roasting anything anyway! I’m digressing here... The other day at the store, we bought some chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs. I grabbed the thighs. You know the drill! cookie sheet or shallow baking pan; line with foil; spray with veg oil spray. WARNING!!! DIGRESSION: Why do I line the pans with foil? Is it essential for cooking? No. It just makes cleanup easier. I could just use salt and pepper and stick it in the oven, maybe brush on some BBQ sauce 10 minutes before they’re done cooking. Boring! Two main ways to get flavor into meat: marinade and dry rub. How about if you’re in a hurry? Ever see recipes (there’s lots of em) that say “marinate overnight”? And some people start cooking following a recipe that they neglected to read thru before starting. In a hurry? Dry rub! Yes, some will tell you that you want to “marinate” the meat in the dry rub for a while. But even if you slap on the rub and shove it in the oven immediately, you can get lots of flavor. A certain food-products company that manufactures mustard is eager to have us coat the chicken in mustard and then apply seasonings and/or bread crumbs. Or to make a wet dry rub using mustard and/or honey and/or mayo along with whatever herbs and spices. Mad scientist chef jim comes up with a plan! WARNING!!! DIGRESSION: mixing up a marinade or dry rub can be done in about 60 seconds if you have done it before and know what you want in the marinade/rub. Yes, you can buy prepackaged, preprocessed, factory-food dry rubs and marinades. Not here at Cabbage Creek! Some may be all-natural, but many contain unwanted and unneeded chemicals. So, I mix together some honey, some mustard, and some blueberry preserves. That took less than a minute. Dip the thighs into the honeybluemustard; be sure to coat them well. Then come the herbs and spices. I used salt (just a pinch), pepper, garlic powder, dried parsley, paprika, turmeric, and dried sage. Mary Kay would say, “That’s too many different seasonings! The taste will get muddled!” A legitimate difference of opinion, in my view. But Mary Kay is right. (She will be reading this.) It’s possible that I get a little carried away sometimes. But... anyway... Use what spices you want! Experiment. Find ones that work well together for you! So, coat with wet dry rub, coat with the dry dry rub, to cookie sheet, and into the oven they go! About five or ten minutes after I grabbed the thighs out of the fridge. But they couldn’t have gotten up to room temperature yet!!!!!!!!! Yeah, it’s best to bring many different kinds of ingredients, especially meats, up to room temperature before cooking. It will cook faster. And it makes them cook better and taste better. But, SCREW IT! I don’t have time! It’s not going to ruin everything to put it in the oven while still cold! It’s not! In a hurry? And want to serve a meal that has more than one course or dish? Make one of the dishes something that can sit and bake or simmer while you work on the other dishes. So, while the chicken gets baked, I work on gravy and mixed mashed. VEGETARIAN GRAVY: Folks with gout should avoid meat gravy. But you shouldn’t avoid all gravy! Veggie gravy is all okay! Step 1: Sauté some onions Step 2: Make roux. Add 3 tbsps of butter or oil to the onion pan. Add 3 tbsps all-purpose flour. Add flour 1 tbsp at a time and stir it in. Cook for at least 3 minutes, stirring constantly. WARNING!!! DIGRESSION: Mary Kay rues the day she taught me to make roux. Step 3: Add liquid gradually. broth or stock or even milk. Tonight I used vegetable stock. You can make it yourself (more on this some future day). Or you can buy at the grocery store all natural low sodium vegetable stock. Add it gradually. Add a little. Stir til it’s all absorbed. Add a little more. Stir. etc. It will start out as a paste then turn into something more like a batter. Then it starts to become a very very very thick liquid. Don’t stop there unless you’re making jelly instead of gravy. Add a little more. Stir. etc. Step XX: this step is secret. Okay. It’s adding a shot of Worcestershire Sauce. There! Step 4: bring to boil, then simmer. you stop adding liquid when it starts going from a very thick liquid to a liquid that’s almost sort-of thinking about being thin. Usually 2 or 3 cups depending on how much roux you make. You can sometimes do things in this step, like adding some mushrooms. WARNING!!! DIGRESSION: Are you concerned more with preparing highest-quality gourmet food? Or are you in a hurry? The gourmet will buy only whole mushrooms and will clean them and slice them herself. In a hurry? Buy the already sliced mushrooms and give em a quick rinse. So, the chicken’s baking, the gravy’s simmering... Mixed Mashed! Mary Kay says we need to charge for this recipe; so I can’t leak it here. All I can say is that it involves boiling together in the same pan potatoes, carrot, garlic, and cauliflower. Then mashing them all together. Okay, the gravy took a long time (sautéing the onions, making roux and adding liquid). Peeling the potatoes is quicker than scrubbing, but still takes time even with the samurai speed peeler (an actual product that was “As Seen On TV!”). By the time I get the mixed-mashed pot onto the stove, the chicken is nearing completion. It’s been in there over a half-hour. If you bake the parts of the chicken (instead of a whole bird) it usually takes between 45 and 75 minutes. Depends upon which parts and how much space they have. Get a meat thermometer. Check the internal temperature. Or if you do it often enough, you might even be able to tell by looking. But I still don’t have a green vegetable! Throw together another salad real quick? No, I just did that recently. Besides, we also got these sugar snap peas at the store the other day. But snap peas take at least 10 minutes to cook! Yeah, but the meat needs to come out and rest a few minutes before serving. Always let the meat rest before cutting into it. If I’d known I was going to do this, I’d a put the kettle on first thing when I turned the oven on. Kettle on. Wash peas. How quickly can I snap off from each one any remnants of the stem that may remain? Without pulling the little string that lets all the peas out? I got up to about 1 or 2 seconds each before I was thru. Into steamer basket. Add some mushrooms. Jim’s sneaky secret: add a pat of butter and some salt and pepper. Adds flavor and the butter won’t be entirely absorbed (it will just impart its flavor). And pour the boiling water in... Oops, not boiling yet. I did those peas fast! And I’m slow! And i should have put the kettle on first thing. Check the time. It’s about 7:50 (it’s been a busy hour), but I can mash the mashed and serve everything in time to eat in front of the TV while watching Restaurant Impossible!
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 05:02:07 +0000
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