Chopped - Back in Action

I haven't posted anything about my latest Chopped at home adventures in a while. Initially this was because it took me forever to get plantains. You might remember that my last three ingredients were plantains, tofu, and bacon bits. Well, my grocery store didn't have plantains, so I ordered them from an online produce vendor. Then I waited. And waited. As time passed and we were coming up on our trip to Florida (yes, a month ago), I called the vendor and asked what the deal was. He said it had been too hot to ship the plantains, but they were planning to do so that weekend. I said, "Thanks, but no thanks," since that weekend was when we would be leaving for Florida for a week. Anyway, to make a long story short, we went to Florida, came home, and I ended up finding plantains at a local grocery store where I prefer not to shop. Ingredients in hand, I proceeded to the cooking part.

And that's where the second delay in my writing about the experience come in. It has been over a week since I created dinner from the above listed ingredients. I have just been too ashamed to tell about it. Okay, I'm not really that melodramatic, but I was bummed by how my meal turned out, especially on the heels of The Pickled Herring Disaster. Here was my plan - Slice the plantains, pan fry them in some oil with garlic and chopped bacon bits, then mash them with butter and put them back in the pan for a second fry. I still think this was an excellent idea, I just didn't execute it well. For the tofu, I got the extra firm variety, planning to coat it with seasoned flour, dip in egg, then coat with panko bread crumbs and more chopped bacon bits and pan fry. I figured the panko would give some good texture to contrast the mushiness of tofu and the S&P and bacon bits would add flavor to the blandness of it. This was executed just fine, but the idea wasn't so excellent.

I got my pan way too hot while struggling with getting the peels off the plantains. I thought they would peel off easily like a regular banana. Not so much. It took me forever to peel the darn things. Especially with two screaming children getting into all sorts of mischief under my feet. So, as I mentioned, my pan got way too hot. My garlic got burned. I was distracted and did not tend to my plantains as I should have. The plantains got burned. They were then hard and dry and would not mash. And they tasted burned. The tofu on the other hand was nicely coated, had a nice crunchy exterior, and absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Grade? D- I'd say.

What would I do differently if I had even the slightest desire to ever cook plantains or tofu again (I'm only sort of joking here)? I'd not get my pan so hot and would cook the plantains more slowly. Then I would follow my original plan and I think it would turn out well. I would probably do something entirely different with the tofu, like buy the soft version (what I used in the delicious Tofu Chocolate Pudding I made) and make a sauce or something with it and just pick a different protein entirely on which to put it. Or, I would marinate it. I learned this past weekend from my husband's cousin that this is crucial when preparing tofu. Like, marinate the heck out of it. Who knew?

I drew my next ingredients the other night and was relieved to get some more normal foods. Spaghetti squash, spinach, and merguez sausage. The only ingredient here that might give me a little bit of trouble is the sausage, because I've never had it before. It is a North African sausage made with lamb, which I think will have a bit of a smoky, spicy, slightly sweet flavor. My husband is making it as I type this. I am excited for this round, and am looking forward to hopefully cooking up another home run. I'm due, I think.

So It Turns Out I'm Not a Cooking Goddess

Damn. I was really hoping that I would be able to transform pickled herring into something delicious. If I'm honest, I was fairly confident in the plan I had come up with for using the herring, sweet pickles, and bran cereal for this week's home "Chopped" challenge. Unfortunately the plan was no match for pickled herring. Who knew that its taste was so strong? So persistent? So... pickley? Part of the problem was probably that I didn't even taste the herring until I was getting ready to cook it tonight. Remember how I said I wouldn't even be able to come up with a plan for it until I tasted it, since I had no idea what the taste and texture would be like? Well, I threw that out the window and came up with a plan, sans tasting, to make a Bran-Cereal Crusted Pickled Herring Po' Boy with Sweet Pickle and Onion Puree. I'm going to spare you the recipe, because it's not worth typing out, but here's what happened:

I was so confident in my plan. I thought for sure if I rinsed off the herring to get some of the pickled flavor off, and then coated it with crushed brand cereal seasoned with some strong flavors (I used chili powder and a bit of cayenne pepper), and then pan fried it to give it a nice crispy crust it would be fabulous on a nice baguette with a caramelized sweet pickle and onion puree sauce. Unfortunately, this plan was based on my expectation that the herring would be salty and maybe a little sour, rather than sweet. Imagine my surprise when I tasted it and discovered the herring tasted like sweet-pickle fish! I had sweet-pickle fish and sweet pickles to put in one dish. This gave me pause, but I decided to push ahead with my original plan and make a few seasoning changes rather than taking the time to change things entirely (two small children fussing for dinner helped with this decision).

Like I said, I pulverized the bran cereal and added chili powder and cayenne pepper, rinsed and patted the herring dry, then coated the herring in the bran powder and put it in a hot pan with some oil to get crispy. For some reason instead of getting crispy, the bran "crust" just fell off in the pan. A few pieces did get a little crunch to them where the crust stayed on, but most just ended up kind of soggy. I'm not really sure where I went wrong here. Maybe my pan wasn't hot enough or I had a little too much oil. Maybe I should have used some egg to dip the fish into first to get the crust to stick better? If I had any desire to try this recipe again ever, I'd try that next time. . .

The sauce ended up okay. I did the usual, sliced the onions and put them in the pan with the chopped sweet pickles to get soft and caramelize a bit. I used a little bit of wine to get all the crust from the fish off the bottom of the pan. I added a diced ancho chile to try to cut the sweetness of the pickle. Then I pureed it. It was tasty by itself, but added to the still-sweet-pickley tasting herring, it was too much. Oh yeah, and I didn't have a chance to get a nice crusty baguette for my po' boys so I ended up using regular hot dog buns, which I didn't even remember to toast a little. Mush on top of mush on top of mush. . . It wasn't pretty (served with roasted Brussels sprouts).

I did have a small victory though. My husband actually ate all of his po' boy, as did I. It wasn't super delicious, but it wasn't awful either, and he did say that my pickled herring was more palatable than any other he has ever had. That's saying something, right? Right?

Home Run

Raisins and cherry tomatoes were my at-home-"Chopped" ingredients this week. I thought and thought for a week about what to do with them. Initially I was going to cook them with some onions and broth and spices and then puree them into a sauce for some pork tenderloin medallions. Then I realized that the skin and seeds of the tomatoes would probably not work well in a pureed sauce, so I scratched that idea. I finally settled on making a pan sauce for pork tenderloin using the raisins and then doing a side dish by caramelizing some fennel bulb (my new favorite vegetable since I learned how to cook it in my cooking class) with some raisins and then adding in the tomatoes. I wanted to use caramelized onions and raisins in a sauce (topping might be a better word than sauce, because the raisins and onion made it chunky) for the pork but add in just a bit of heat to compliment, brighten, and balance the sweetness of these ingredients. Similarly, I thought the tomatoes would balance the sweetness of the caramelized fennel and raisins in the side dish. Yeah. I hit a home run with this one. Here are both of the recipes.

Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Raisins and Onions

1 Pork Tenderloin (about 1 lb)

Salt and Pepper

1 Tbsp Vegetable oil

1 Onion, halved and sliced thinly

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 cup chicken broth

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1 Tbsp pieces

Trim fat and silvery skin from the tenderloin. Slice it into 1-inch-thick medallions. Season with S&P on both sides. Then press the tenderloins (with your hands or the flat side of a knife) until it's about 3/4 inch thick. Heat your pan over medium high heat. Put in the oil. When the oil is shimmering, add half of the pork pieces. Sear them on one side for 2 minutes, then flip them using tongs and sear the other side for about 2 minutes more (they should be firm around the sides). Remove to plate and cover with foil. Repeat with the rest of the pork. Add the onion and cook until it starts to get soft, stirring occasionally. Add the raisins. Let the onions and raisins cook together for a while so the onions get nicely caramelized. Add wine, cayenne and paprika. If you don't like spicy, you can reduce the amounts of these, but I would recommend still adding them, maybe at about 1/2 of the amount I used. Let the wine reduce by about half. Pour in the chicken broth and any juice from the tenderloin pieces that has accumulated on the plate and continue to simmer for a few minutes longer. Off the heat, add the butter, 1 Tbsp at a time, swirling each Tbsp piece around until it melts. Serve the sauce over the pork medallions.

Fennel with Raisins and Cherry Tomatoes

1 tsp Vegetable oil

2 Fennel bulbs, julienned

1 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup raisins, chopped

1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

Sprinkle of salt

Heat a pan over medium high heat. Add oil, then fennel. Stir fennel to coat with oil and add sugar. Stir, then add raisins. Cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, to let the fennel soften and start to caramelize. I can't remember how long this took, but the fennel will start to darken and get soft, but still have a little bit of bite to it. Add the tomatoes and stir them in. cook for a few more minutes to let the tomatoes start to soften, but don't let them get too mushy. Sprinkle a little salt on, stir, serve.

I was so happy with the way these dishes turned out. Lots of flavor and great textures. The only thing I might have done differently would be to add more wine, chicken broth and butter to the pan sauce to have more of the liquid part of the sauce. It was yummy.

We have already decided to go to 3 ingredients this next week and I drew them from our spreadsheet. I do it like the old game Battleship, picking coordinates that my husband matches up the the spaces on his spreadsheet. The one way that we limit what comes up is that he makes sure at least one of the ingredients is a protein. So, next week? Sweet pickles. Bran cereal. And Pickled Herring. Yes, you read that right. Pickled Herring. My husband told me this and then said, "I hate pickled herring." What?! This freaked me out a little, because I thought I was doomed from the start if he hates it (I've never had it, so I have no idea, though I can imagine, how vile it is). I was prepared to go ahead with it, but I think he felt bad for including such a horrendous ingredient on his list. He suggested we draw a different protein, and we did. The next one that came up was Canned tuna. But after thinking about it for a bit, I told him that I wanted to go ahead with the herring. That's the challenge, right? Taking something crazy, and potentially kind of gross, and making it fabulous? *gulp* Hubby did point out that it's actually a win-win situation for me though. If the dish I make is horrible, I can blame it on the herring. If it's delicious, I become a cooking goddess. Score. I told him I can't even begin to plan what I'm going to make though until I go to the store and get some herring and taste it. I have no idea what it's texture or consistency or taste is like, so I can't figure out what I'll do until I know that. Wish me luck!!

In other exciting news from the weekend (and to get on to the cute pics), we got our swing set delivered on Friday! The Hubby and I started putting it together during nap time yesterday.

Naturally we couldn't get it all done while the girls were sleeping, so they joined us outside while we continued to work on it.

We had to put in some more time this morning, though it was mostly the hubby getting it done today because the girls were awake the whole time. Finished product:

We have to trim up the landscaping and the dead stuff underneath a bit and put down some soft mulch, but the girls didn't care about that. They went right to it after they woke from naps.

This one continues to amaze me with her climbing. My mom says she gets it from me.



And no, she didn't actually climb all the way onto the platform by herself, but she did climb the ladder all the way to the top, until her hands reached the platform and she wasn't sure what to do with them to keep climbing. I don't have photos of that part of her performance, because I was hovering around her as spotter just in case. She never even faltered though!

I love this swing set and I know the girls will get so much fun out of it. According to my husband, who had to deal with most of the inevitable frustrations of putting such a contraption together, they'd better!

As a last note, please excuse the status of my header right now. I thought it was about time to change up the photos, but for some reason could not get the far left photo to fit in the header correctly. Also, some of the photos in this post have a bit of a foggy look to them. It's because my camera lens fogged up when I took it from inside the air conditioning to the muggy outside. Sorry!

Full

Starting swimming lessons and gymnastics class and three forensic cases to do and trying to get in my 20 days of exercise this month and watching Chopped last night. . . and this week is quickly getting away from me. So I realized, "What happened to my Independence Day post?" Well, it got combined with my Wednesday July 6th post, that's what. Here you go!

As I predicted, our 4th of July celebration consisted of more of the same festivities that filled the rest of our holiday weekend.

Well hello there Hunk.

Celebrating the birth of our country with my sunscreened babies, splashing and loving the water. Cherishing family. Perfect.

That and great outdoor food. We had grilled kielbasa, veggie kabobs, potato salad, the works. Even ice cream!

Miss loves her "Chocolate ice cream on a stick" - otherwise known as a Dove Bar.

And this little one had her first taste of the sweet stuff.

The brat making continued. Here's my hubby making sausage.

My hubby after I pointed out to him that he's wearing his "Wiener Shop" T Shirt.

Wieners.

We ate some for dinner tonight. Fantastic. There's nothing like fresh, homemade sausage. He also made chorizo, which I love to cook with. I can't wait to try out a new recipe using it.

Speaking of new recipes, my "Chopped" ingredients this week are cherry tomatoes and raisins. I wasn't able to get to the grocery store until today, but I got my ingredients and have something of a plan for my dish. I need to refine it in my head before I dive in to make it, so it'll be Friday or so before I do it. Stay tuned.

I think I've written about how I have ordered some new big girl outdoor toys for Miss so that the push-behind lion can be passed down to Lass now. We are still waiting for her trike, but her roller skates arrived yesterday. And so did these:

We had to try them on today to make sure they fit. I ordered them with the intention that they would fit her now and also be gear she can grow into, so they look a little big but they do fit. Naturally she didn't want to take them off and had to dance around in them until I had to nearly pry them off her for nap time.

Soon to come will be photos of this ensemble, outside, with little Barbie roller skates. I love it.

Right now we're busy in a great way. Miss loves her gymnastics class and seems to be enjoying her new swimming class so far. We're having play dates.

I'm enjoying work. Being a professional. Sorting out the intricacies of psychiatric diagnosis when a case is a little unusual. It helps me to be well-rounded. To be challenged and stretch my brain in a different grown up way. Then I come home and get back to my real job. And it's good. My life is full. In the best possible way.

Shrimp and Grits

Ingredients for this week's "Chopped" Challenge: Shrimp and Cheddar Cheese

My mind automatically went to Shrimp and Grits as the dish to make. I don't really know why. I've only eaten one bite of shrimp and grits ever. It was at a restaurant in Charleston. My husband ordered it. I would never order such a thing. Surprisingly it was delicious. My version? Read on and see.

So okay, to be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure if traditional Shrimp and Grits has cheese in it, or if I'm confusing "Cheese Grits" and "Shrimp and Grits." Either way, I made Shrimp and Grits and it had cheese in it. Here's the recipe:

Shrimp and Grits

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

14 oz Andouille sausage sliced about 1/2 inch thick (you can use a bit less or more, this is just what size package I found at our clearly un-Southern grocery store)

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced

3/4 cup quick grits

1/2 tsp salt

1 12-oz can 2% evaporated milk

2 cups water

1-2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (I didn't measure but I think I used closer to 2 cups)

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 cup more water

2 tsp Paprika

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large non stick pan with a lid over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil and heat until shimmering. Add sausage and brown on both sides. While sausage is cooking pat shrimp dry and season with S&P. When the sausage is browned, remove it from the pan and place on paper-towel-lined plate. Drain all but about 1 Tbsp of sausage drippings from pan. Add shrimp to pan in batches and brown on both sides. Only cook a minute or two on each side and just until the shrimp is opaque to avoid over cooking. Remove shrimp as it is cooked to another paper-towel-lined plate. If all the fat is taken out of the pan, add a bit more oil and let it get hot. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Then add grits and stir to coat with oil and brown a bit. After a few minutes, add 1 cup of the condensed milk (reserve the remaining 1/2 cup in can) and two cups of water to grits, stir, scraping browned bits from sausage and shrimp from the bottom of the pan, bring to a boil and cover, cooking for about 5 minutes. While grits are cooking, add 1/2 cup water to the remaining 1/2 cup evaporated milk and whisk in the cornstarch. When grits are done, add cheese in handfuls, stirring to melt and alternating with adding the water/evaporated milk/cornstarch mixture. When the cornstarch liquid and cheese are added to your liking (you'll probably need to add a bit of water to keep it from getting too thick, see note below), add in the paprika, cayenne pepper, shrimp, and sausage. Add S&P to taste. Cover and cook for a few minutes to let the shrimp and the sausage get warm again. Serve.

So, I stirred the shrimp and sausage into the grits to get them warmed up again, and the result was an extremely ugly dish of food. I probably should have tented the sausage and shrimp with foil, or perhaps placed them in a 200 degree oven to keep them warm, so I could just put them on top of the grits instead of needing to stir them in to warm them up again. Appearances aside, the dish had good flavor but it was too thick for my taste. I would either lessen the amount of cornstarch in the slurry or add more water or milk to adjust the consistency after all the slurry and cheese were added. I did manage to get the grits cooked better this time, as they were not "gritty." In all honesty, this was not my favorite of the "Chopped" dishes I've done so far. Perhaps I shouldn't have gone with the first dish that came to mind. I could have been a bit more creative. Maybe I could have done a chowder or some sort of play on a tuna melt or a Po'Boy. Whatev. The dish was good, but not delicious. I'll do better next time!

We were supposed to have storms today. They missed us.

We were glad.
It was a good day.

Summer Lovin'

I love the smell of my babies in the summer. Sunscreen mixed with chlorine, a little bit of dirt and little girl sweat. . . Heaven. We have been busy here living summer. That's what people do here in the North Country. After such a long winter this year we are trying to wring every last drop of summer-ness out of the few days of beautiful weather we have had so far. This weekend has been packed with the farmer's market, two trips to the pool, and making the most of life outside - grilling and eating and lots of playing.

Tonight we had a jam session on the front stoop.

Miss had been collecting rocks from our front landscaping and asking my husband and I which ones were our "faybwits" (favorites). We were sorting and admiring rocks so much my hubby decided to grab his guitar and make up a song about Miss and her favorite rock. Notice in the photo above, his favorite rock sitting on his knee. She requested the song over and over, even after he had moved on to more well-known tunes.
These days are magical. Funny sayings from Miss. First assisted steps from Lass using the lion walker (featured here). Getting soaked at the water table. Miss dancing the most adorable wiggle to her daddy's guitar music. Exchanging glances and laughs with my husband as we watch our amazing girls. When I stop and soak it in it makes my nose tickle and my eyes tingle and my heart squeeze with happiness. I love summer and the opportunities it brings for moments like these with my girls and their Daddy.

Note - My computer is "in the shop" again, because I am having trouble accessing all the photos I restored after my hard drive was replaced. Hence, my lack of blogging. Hopefully I will be back in full swing again very soon.

And I'd like to note that the recent lack of posts about our "Chopped" adventures has been due to my husband's work in creating a list of ingredients to draw from, as I will now be doing two surprise ingredients each week. The list is now completed enough to pick from it (though it is a work in progress), the ingredients have been drawn, and my next challenge is to use shrimp and cheddar cheese. Immediately what came to my mind was Shrimp and Grits, so I'm going with that. I'll post the recipe and let you know how it goes later this week. What would you make??

Rock Soup or Flank Steak?

While we waited for our dinner to braise this afternoon, the girls and I went outside, where Miss proceeded to make her own dinner of Rock Soup. It all started with puddles this morning, which we used to "paint" the driveway with sticks and grass, and then sponges and sponge brushes. This afternoon, however, the puddles were all dried up, so I got Miss a bucket of water and she proceeded to "paint" some more.

Who knew that a bucket of water and some sponges could provide such entertainment?? Lass just loved being in the grass.

After a while, the painting stopped and Miss said, "I stiwing (stirring!)" so I asked her what she was making. "Wock soup!" was her answer.

Everyone had to taste some and we "oohed" and "aahed" over how delicious it was.

Lass especially enjoyed it.

Shortly after filling up on Rock Soup, I had to come inside to finish fixing our real dinner. Tonight was the night I used our most recent "Chopped" ingredient, flank steak. I decided to use what I learned in my cooking class on braising to make the flank steak, since it is a pretty tough cut of meat. The dish? Braised Flank Steak Stew with Fennel and Leeks. It was delicious. Even Miss gobbled it up. Here's the recipe:

Braised Flank Steak Stew with Fennel and Leeks

Ingredients:

1.5 lb (approx) flank steak, cut into 1 inch pieces

Olive oil

2 garlic cloves

1 Tbsp minced fresh lemon thyme (or regular thyme)

Salt and Pepper

Flour

1 cup chopped carrots (about two handfuls of baby carrots)

2 celery ribs chopped

1 medium onion chopped

1/2 cup red wine

zest from one lemon

beef stock

1.5 lbs Dutch baby potatoes

1/2 stick butter

vegetable oil

2 fennel bulbs, sliced

1 large leek, halved, rinsed, and sliced

4 tsp sugar

Put the cut up steak, thyme, and garlic in a bowl and add a few tablespoons of olive oil (enough to wet all the steak) and some salt and pepper. Mix to get the meat well coated. Put in refrigerator overnight.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat. While your pan is heating, start flouring your meat (make sure you shake off the excess flour). Add about a tablespoon of olive oil and let it get hot, then add your meat in batches.

Get the meat pieces nicely browned. Then remove to a plate, add more oil, and do the next batch. Repeat if necessary.

I had to cook the meat in three batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Lass woke up from her nap after the second batch and decided to help me out.

Once all the meat is browned, add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and put in the carrots, celery, and onion. Cook until they start to soften and brown.

Then pour in the red wine. Let it cook for a minute or two to reduce a bit. Then put the meat back in the pan, making sure to also get any accumulated juices on the plate poured into the pan. Add the lemon zest and enough beef stock to cover the meat half to two-thirds of the way. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for about 2 hours.

About a half hour before your meat is done, start cooking the rest of the stew. Cut the larger baby potatoes in half. Put them in a sauce pan with enough cold water to cover them. Bring to a boil and boil until tender, 10-12 minutes. Drain off water and add butter and salt to taste. Smash up the potatoes as you stir in the butter.

Once your potatoes start to cook, put another skillet or saute pan over medium high heat. Slice your fennel and leek. Blot them dry with a paper towel. Put about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in once your pan is hot. When the oil is hot, put in the fennel and leek and stir to coat. Stir them occasionally. You want them to start to brown and caramelize. Add sugar during this process (fennel has very little natural sugar in it, so adding sugar helps it to caramelize nicely). Cook until softened and browned.

Pull the meat out of the oven. Taste the sauce and check the consistency. When I took mine out the consistency was perfect, but the sauce needed more salt. Add S&P as necessary and adjust thickness of sauce as needed (to thicken whisk some cornstarch and beef stock together and add, or add more stock to thin). Put some potatoes in a bowl and top with beef mixture and then fennel/leek mixture. Makes about 4 servings.

I would not have done anything differently with this dish other than maybe skipping the leek and adding a third fennel bulb. The fennel added a delicious sweetness and crunchy texture, but the leek didn't really seem to bring anything to the dish. My husband was wishing for more fennel, though I thought the ratio of fennel to the rest of the dish was okay, so maybe I would add more fennel, maybe not. I guess since the elements are put together after they're cooked and each person can choose how much fennel to add on top, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to cook another bulb and then each person can add as much as they want. Otherwise, I was extremely happy with the dish! Next week, two ingredients (in one dish)!