Chicken and Beef Stock

Technique: Chicken and Beef Stock

Chicken and Beef Stock

I use a lot of stock for making pan sauces. Typically, store-bought stocks are way too expensive and really don't taste that great. I have been making my own stock for a couple of years now and it is so much better tarting and virtually free. I save/freeze beef bones from grilled steaks and pork chops, roasted chicken carcass, turkey necks, etc., put them all together in a big pot with water and vegetables and gently simmer it for 4-5 hours; poor off the stock and make a remoulage (which is simply adding more water to the leftover, cooked down vegetables and bones and gently simmer that for another couple of hours to extract all of the flavor).

Chicken and Beef Stock (been bones, chicken carcass, etc. water, carrots, celery, onion with skin, parsley, black pepper corns, bay leaf optional) - gently simmer 4-5 hours; poor off stock through a fine mesh strainer; refill pit with fresh cold water and gently simmer remoulage for another 2-3 hours. Makes about 12+ cups stock. Let the stock cool and skim off hardened fat. I even use a chinoise (super fine mesh strainer) to filter out even more impurities.

Frozen Chicken/Beef Stock.

How to make a Pan Sauce for any Pasta Dish

Seafood Medley Linguine in a Cream Sauce with Peas

I regularly post pictures of the food I cook on my facebook page, especially of my pasta dishes) and my friends frequently ask me for the recipes; the problem is that I just make it up as I cook along.

I have made a lot of pan sauces for pasta over the last 6 months, but even going to culinary school has not taught me how to make a proper pan sauce while the pasta is cooking using just a few ingredients, including the starchy pasta water, until I read an article in a recent issue of Bon Appetite that was all about making the perfect pan sauce for a pasta dish: How to make Perfect Pasta. It is my personal pasta sauce bible and I have not had a failure since.

Sweet Potato Gratin with Marshmallows

Sweet Potato Gratin - unfortunately this is the only picture I have.

About 30 minutes before the turkey was supposed to come out of the oven I realized that I had not yet started the maple glazed sweet potatoes, which, according to the recipe, took 50 minutes @ 375F. I could feel a slight feeling of panic breaking out since I have not even peeled the potatoes yet and I had to come up with a fix - quickly!

Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula Salad

Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula Salad

I love to eat pizza! Not just any pizza - my own thin-crust prosciutto pizza topped with Arugula salad. If you have not tried a little fresh Arugula salad on your pizza you are in for a treat! I usually make my own pizza dough, but if I don't have time I cheat and use Trader Joe's pizza dough which works just fine.

Potato Hash

Potato Hash with Bacon, Pork Sausage, Spinach, and Red Peppers

Yesterday was a cold November day and we did not feel like leaving the house to go to the market and get lunch supplies. A quick rifle through the vegetable drawer revealed a couple of red potatoes, piece of red pepper, handful of spinach, and a small onion. Combined with 2 slices of smoked bacon and a little sweet Italian pork sausage.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Who doesn't like a grilled cheese sandwich?! It is easy to make, inexpensive and so delicious. I just love biting into that warm, crunchy crust with that melted, gooey cheese center. But to get it just right there are a few little tricks that if followed will get you perfect cheese sandwiches every time.

Paella with Chicken, Pork Sausage, Mussels and Shrimp

Paella with Chicken, Pork Sausage, Mussels and Shrimp

Paella is one of those dishes that is pretty easy to prepare, inexpensive and so delicious. Once you know the technique of how to make paella you can pretty much mix and match any kind of ingredients and proteins. Paella is also great if you have a bunch of leftovers in the fridge like sausage, pre-cooked chicken, frozen seafood medley, ribs, vegetables, etc.

Pureed Vegetable Soups

Pureed Curried-Cauliflower Soup with Florets.

I recently received a gift from my two best friends: a Breville Juice & Blend. The juicer and blender 'attachments' share one powerful motorized base. I've only had it for a few weeks, but I have made numerous pureed vegetables soups that are not only low in calories, but absolutely delicious, inexpensive and easy to prepare. If you don't have a blender you can also use an immersion blender.

I'm not giving you exact measurements for these recipes, but rather ratios that will work for many kinds of vegetables like carrots, broccoli with stems, frozen peas, corn, cauliflower, potato, asparagus, etc. For every 1 lb of vegetables use 1/2 onion - this amount is usually enough for 2 generous servings.

How to Boil an Egg

I like hard boiled eggs - not green and not slimy, but just so! There are many techniques to get the perfect hard boiled egg, but this one seems to work for me.

How to Boil an Egg
Bring a little pot of water to a boil. On the flat side of the (cold) egg poke a little hole with a fork. Gently lower the eggs onto the boiling water. Make sure the eggs are covered by the water and set your timer to 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn off the heat and set your timer for another 5 minutes. Immediately rinse the eggs under cold water. Done.

Cobb Salad with Rosemary Ham, Eggs and Avocado

Today I had my heart set on spinach and roasted beet salad with goat cheese and a citrus dressing. I could taste it already, but I still had to head out to the store to get spinach and goat cheese. At the store I grabbed some milk and headed over to the deli cheese case and looked for plain goat cheese, but OMG - the prices for any type of cheese are outrageous! $6 for 1/2 cup of crumbled goat cheese . . . no! Then I remembered that I still have some lettuce, mustard greens, 1/2 tomato, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 red pepper, some red onion, celery, eggs, jack cheese, and rosemary ham - Cobb salad. Bye bye expensive store - that's why I don't shop here.

Cobb Salad with Rosemary Ham, Eggs and Avocado.

Basic-8 Salad Dresing

• 2 tbs good olive oil
• 1 tbs red wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp honey
• Kosher salt
• 5 turns on the black pepper mill
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 pinch* granulated garlic 
• 1 pinch* herbs de province

*Use the thumb and index finger.

Salad Ingredients

• 1-2 handfuls of mixed greens
• 2-3 leafs of green or red leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 leaf mustard greens, cut into small pieces (optional)
• 1/2 tomato, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• some red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 hard boiled eggs, cut into eights
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 2 slices of rosemary ham (or turkey), cut into thin strips
• sprinkle of chives or freshly chopped parsley

Combine the first 6 salad ingredients and toss with most of the dressing. Divide into 2 bowls and arrange the eggs, avocado, ham, and cheese on top of the greens, drizzle with the remaining dressing and sprinkle with chives or parsley.

I served it with a freshly baked whole wheat roll that was still warm and crispy.

Enjoy.

Wikipedia described the creation of the Cobb salad in part as "He browsed the refrigerator for ingredients, and chopped them up finely" which means to me 'whatever you have, as long as there are greens, tomato, avocado, cheese, and eggs - that's close enough to a Cobb salad for me'.