KitchenKatalog: Blog 195

Meredith and I made Rosemary Shortbread for our respective work pot-lucks. We used the same recipe (with rosemary) as the first time (and our unsuccessful last time). We used fresh rosemary from the garden.

I do not know if it needed more rosemary of what, but we didn't think it was as good. It wasn't bad per se, but didn't have the strong, earthy flavor we liked so much before. Also, I think it needed to be cooked a tad bit longer.

We again tried like last time to roll it out and slice it (and baked it on silpats) but thankfully, it didn't spread out as much!

We also skipped the egg wash and sugar on top. I do not think that made too much of a difference but Meredith liked how it looked more without it.

Patatas Bravas

We made our regular Patatas Bravas. Meredith made the sauce, though it came out really spicy.

The new thing was trying to use canned potatoes. It was had to find the diced ones but we eventually found them. We really liked them on 2016-12-03 so we decided to try diced. I drained, rinsed, and dried them (with the salad spinner), then tossed them with oil. I used some smoked paprika and a tiny bit of salt (though they are really salty already so I went light). I was worried they wouldn't come out very good since they all stuck on the tray, but I think they worked fine. They had a similar texture to the full-sized ones. Sure enough, they had a nice crunch with some creamy interior.

Once the sauce was done (Meredith followed the recipe but it was super spicy) we topped it and then put on a fried egg.

Green Chile Bacon and Eggs

A very quick breakfast. I baked the bacon at 350°F (convection) for about 18 minutes and then let had them on paper towel. Meredith made some fried eggs with green chile.

Dijon Bacon Brussel Sprout Hash

We made brussel sprout hash. Meredith made it last time but I made it this time so things were a bit different.

I started by cutting and rendering out about 1/2 a pack of center-cut bacon (6 slices or so). I let it render, took out the bacon and poured it out. I also drained the bacon on a paper towel a bit.

I sautéed up half an onion until it was browning and then I added the brussel sprouts (with a tiny bit of the bacon fat back in). As it was cooking, I added a bunch of dijon mustard. I kind of kept going bit by bit with the mustard and also added salt as I went. When I could, I would deglaze it with white wine.

I wish I kept better track of how much mustard I used because it was really good, but oh well. I certainly went heavy on it since Meredith said she missed the flavor of it last time despite using it.

Like I said, it came out really well. I would make it again. It was also pretty easy.

I also roasted delicata squash. It was a bit old and you could tell, but I still liked it.

Turkey Taco Skillets

Meredith did most of the work with this. She used the same recipe except we thinly sliced the pepper instead of spiralizing and used a tiny bit of frozen corn and also added a jalapeño.

We liked it a lot, but maybe next time we will double the spices (except paprika) like last time

Kimchi Fried Rice

I made the kimchi fried rice like last time based off of the same recipe. I followed the recipe for the general guide, but we used a lot of vegetables.

We had most of a bag (1 lbs?) of snow peas and then also a handful of sugar-snap peas. I also sautéed a bag (1 lbs) of mushrooms with the 1/2 block of pressed tofu at the beginning. I also added 1 Tbsp of butter.

We liked it. More complex than last time which may be the butter or having used a different kimchi. I also added a bit of extra juice from the kimchi for extra spice.

Chicken Cordon Bleu and Roasted Potatoes

Meredith and I wanted to make a dinner that was a bit nicer than something we would do during the week but also not go too crazy. I did a bit of googleing and we came up with making Chicken Cordon Bleu and roasted potatoes.

Chicken

For the chicken, I very loosely followed this Betty Crocker recipe (Local ¹). We bought 2 breast for about 1.25 pounds of chicken² and flattened it out as best I could. I did some salt and pepper on both sides. I then spread some dijon mustard on followed by lacy (low fat) swiss and (low sodium) ham. As seen in the pictures below, we then added fresh chives (forgot before) but we ended up moving them down to the mustard layer.

I rolled them up as best I could and used a toothpick to hold it. We made an egg wash of 1 whole egg and a bit of water. I then took panko bread crumbs and broke it up and bit before adding salt, pepper, and hot-but-not-smoked paprika.

I put it in the oven at 375°F (+convection) originally for 27 minutes but ended up adding another 20 (47 total) since I kept getting some low temp readings (as well as high-temp ones. I was confused). In the end, I think it was fully cooked and wasn't too dried out. We cut them in half and saved two servings for lunches. The flavors were really good though. And, one of them came out really pretty as you can see in the photo below.

I also really liked having the mustard it in there. I am glad I read that addition.

Potatoes

At Thanksgiving, my mom made super delicious potatoes. They had a great texture with a crisp outside and a creamy center. It turns out she used canned potatoes. I was a bit surprised, but I think that was really the key. They were essentially par-cooked already.

I decided that I am comfortable using canned tomatoes all the time; why not canned potatoes. We used two cans of whole potatoes and tossed them with 1.5 Tbsp of melted butter. We used some Emril's Cajun Essence and Penzeys' Roasted garlic powder. I originally was going to do 40 min at 375°F (+convection) but since I had to let the chicken keep going, I ended up at an hour. I had tossed them every once in a while to keep them from burning.

They came out really good. Maybe not as good as my Mom's but still had a nice texture. And I want to explore using canned potatoes for other things.

Additional Photos

U: guest, P: name of my dog, all lower case ↩
The recipe says 4 breasts for 1-1/2 pounds. You really cannot find chicken breasts that small these days ↩

Meredith Meal

Not pictured above is that Meredith also made guacamole. It wasn't her usual one with being really heavy on green onion and jalapeno and no lime or tomato. Still, it was pretty good.