Brown Rice Risotto

Hello hello!

Today was an experiment day... can you make a good Risotto using brown rice? You can! It turned out really creamy and delicious. I added some cream at the end, but it really wasn't necessary. This took less stock than I'm used to, but took longer to cook.

Brown Rice Risotto

2 cups brown rice (we use parboiled)
6 cups chicken broth  (but we ended up not using it all)

2 small onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 chicken breasts, cooked (I used poached, but roasted, grilled, it's all good)

1/3 cup white wine

Optional: heavy cream, parmesan

Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter on low heat in a large sauce pan. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until soft but not browned. Add the rice, and cook 1-2 minutes, mixing to coat all the rice.

Add the wine and cook until almost all reduced.
Add about a cup of stock, continually stirring until almost all cooked off. Repeat until the rice is cooked and the liquid has reached a creamy and porridgy texture. Season with salt and pepper. If you want it to be more creamy, add a splash of heavy cream. But it is not entirely necessary. Grated parmesan can also be a nice topper.

I cut up the chicken and served on top of the risotto.

SO CREAMY AND DELICIOUS. My nephew really liked this. Rice and chicken? What else to five year olds love? If we had some cookies he would have been in heaven!

Chicken and Waffles

Time for a family favourite! Southern Fried Chicken!

I love this recipe, originally from Martha Stewart. Although I didn't do my normal 24 hour marinade in buttermilk, it still came out pretty well.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

16 chicken thighs, bone-in

1 L buttermilk

Salt, pepper, paprika. Generous amounts.

LOTS of paprika

I like to leave it in the fridge for 24 hours, but I didn't think of this dish until the day we made it. So it got about 6 hours or so.

Then the messy and FUN part. Time to bread those poor marinated cluckers.

A few cups of flour
Salt, pepper, paprika
Few tablespoons of cornstarch

Dip the chicken repeatedly until chicken is thoroughly covered in flour.

Results in AWESOME scary DOUGH hands

 Set deep-fryer to 375 F. The chicken should cook for about 15 minutes, until a nice deep golden colour.

This goes very well with waffles!

Waffles

This recipe is also adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, but I took out the vanilla and cinnamon to keep them less sweet and more savoury, appropriate for chicken.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 cups flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the milk, butter and egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add liquid mix to the flour mixture, mix together. Whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into the batter. Spoon 1/3 cup amounts into the waffle maker. Cook until no steam emits from the waffle maker.

Lumpy future deliciousness.

 

Waffle One

Pile o' waffles

Devour with the fried chicken.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

This is adapted from some recipes at Martha Stewart and one I learned at work.

1 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp oil, butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, rinsed and chopped
5 oz frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
4 oz cream cheese (half a 225g package), softened
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sour cream
1/4 cup parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.
Heat the oil and butter on medium flame. Add the chili flakes, cook 1-2 minutes. Add onions, cook until soft and translucent, slightly caramalized.
Add garlic and artichoke hearts. Cook 2-3 minutes, until soft.
Pour mix into bowl. Add cream cheese, mayo, sour cream, 1/2 the Parmesan. Stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Put into oven-safe container. Cover with the rest of the parmesan and the breadcrumbs. Slide into the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes, until dip is bubbly.

Yes, artichoke hearts look funny.

*Drool*

This was hoovered pretty fast in our house! We served it with some warm pita bread.

Another success!

Lasagna and Gingerbread Cake

Every week my nephew and I cook together. I try my best to get him involved in the whole process, so that he has fun, is more willing to eat food he helped make, and most importantly, keep him occupied! This week we made lasagna. The lasagna is adapted from a recipe I learned in cooking school and the gingerbread recipe is from Bon Appetit December 2011.


Lasagna


Sauce: 
2 tbs olive oil
2.5 medium onions chopped (save half an onion, uncut for later)
6 cloves garlic, minced (if you love garlic like my family, the garlic might be really more like 8 cloves. Or ten.)
2 lbs (about 900 g) ground meat. Beef is traditional, but I used a mix of half-pork half-turkey
1 can (28 fl. oz. / 796 mL) diced canned tomatoes
2 cups+ hot beef stock
Bay leaf
Salt, pepper

Onions and GARLIC. SO MUCH GARLIC

Season the meat.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.
Soften the onions and garlic. The Monkey was great at stirring!
Add the meat, cook until browned. Break up the pieces with a wooden spoon.
Add tomatoes and stock, to cover the meat.
Put on low simmer, add bay leaf.

While the sauce is simmering, prepare the bechamel sauce.

Bechamel Sauce:
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
3 cups milk
Half an onion (from the sauce)
Bay leaf
5-8 cloves
Salt, pepper, nutmeg


Melt the butter in a medium sized pot. Add the flour and cook 2 minutes, constantly stirring.Remove from heat when cooked.

Flour and butter - "Roux"

"Stab" the bay leaf into the half of onion using the cloves.

Onion cloute

Put the milk in a small pot with the onion contraption. Heat on medium high until milk is steaming, but not boiling. This is called scalding the milk.


Remove the onion cloute and slowly add the milk mixture to the roux while vigorously whisking. Put on medium heat until bubbling, to thicken the sauce. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside. 

 

Now, what I did next might be a bit unorthodox, but I thickened the sauce, without waiting for it to reduce naturally. *Cue the smelling salts*

I couldn't wait anymore!

I took about 4 tablespoons of flour and whisked it with liquid from the sauce in a bowl. When the mixture is smooth, I poured it back into the sauce and let it cook.

Assembly:

I used oven-ready lasagna sheets, but you can use regular lasagna sheets. Cook according to the box, but leave it a little under-done as they will continue to cook in the pan.
1/2 cup grated parmesan
150 g ricotta cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella

Despite being five, the Monkey can handle a grater!








Preheat the oven to 350.
The layers: spread a small amount of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a large rectangular casserole pan.
Add enough pasta to cover.
Ad half the tomato sauce.
Bechamel sauce, use a spatula to spread around.
Add spoonfuls of ricotta.
Another layer of lasagna.
Rest of the tomato sauce.
Sprinkle the mozzarella and parmesan.

Put in the oven! 40 minutes should do it (until bubbling and the cheese is deliciously melted and browned)

 Before

And about 40 minutes later!

This went over like gangbusters in our house, pretty much finished by noon the next day.

For dessert? Gingerbread cake!

Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Curd Topping

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, cut in 1/2" pieces
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses (recipe originally called for "light" molasses. My grocery store had no idea what that was, so I just got regular "fancy" molasses. Dark as night and twice as delicious.)
1 large egg, beaten
2 tsp grated peeled ginger

Preheat oven to 350. I used a square springform pan, but really any 8-9" springform should do.
Whisk flour with the ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and soda. Put butter in a large bowl. Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over the butter, whisk to melt. Whisk in sugar, molasses, egg and fresh ginger. Add dry ingredients, whisk to blend. Pour into pan and bake. Bake about 15 minutes, or when toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes, then remove from pan.

We're too cool for toothpicks. We use steak knives to check our cakes!

Topping: The magazine recommended mixing store-bought lemon curd with whipped cream, but that's not how we roll in our house: we make our lemon curd, because it is delicious and we are lemon fiends. This is my recipe for lemon curd which has been lovingly taken from Martha Stewart.


Lemon Curd:

1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg, plus 3 egg yolks
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
4 tbs butter, cut into pieces
Pinch of salt

Whisk all of the ingredients except the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continually whisk until thick, 4-5 minutes. Strain through a sieve into a bowl. Add the butter, whisk until melted. Cover with plastic wrap, directly touching the surface of the curd. Refrigerate until cold. 

Mix mix mix!

Whisk whisk whisk!

Plastic wrap plastic wrap plastic wrap?

 

 

After the cake has cooled, the curd is nice and cold, I did a simple spread for the curd onto the cake.

YES

I was quite impressed with the ginger cake. It was like a big, soft gingerbread cookie with bright, fresh lemon icing (we didn't 'cut' the curd with whipped cream. Why dilute that perfect flavour???). This was a big hit, too. The Monkey is very picky with his cakes, and he loved this. Excellent capper to a big meal of lasagna.