Category: Comfort Food

Categories
Comfort Food Main Dish

ChezHoff’s “Famous”(?) Mac-n-Cheez

Open blue box, follow directions…kidding…

  • 3 T butter (or bacon fat (or a combo), see note below)
  • 1 small yellow onion, minced (optional)
  • 3 T flour
  • 2-3 c milk, warmed (i.e in the microwave)
  • 8 oz. Velveeta type cheese, cubed
  • 4 -6oz sharp cheddar, grated
  • 1 lb large elbow macaroni
  • ½ c Panko bread crumbs
  • ½ c grated Parmesan
  • salt and pepper
  1. Cook pasta according to package directions, or until al dente
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes or until translucent
  4. Add flour and stir for 1 minute
  5. Pour in milk, stirring constantly. Heat for 4 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently until milk is near boiling and sauce has thickened
  6. Turn heat to low and gradually stir in cheese until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste
  7. Mix pasta and sauce together in a casserole dish
  8. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs and Parmesan over the top
  9. Bake for 20-30 minutes until lightly browned on top

Optional add-ins: 4-6 slices of bacon, crumbled, 1 cup or so of peas, ham if you’re weird like that.

Serves 6.

Categories
Comfort Food Side Dish Vegetables

ChezHoff’s White Bean Stew w/ Toasted Bread Crumbs

This is one of the favorite side dishes at our house and amongst our family and friends. Like most things I make it is easily adaptable – you can add different ingredients, leave things out, etc. It’s also a great main course and can be made vegetarian (or even vegan – which is a bit outside my norm!)

Ingredients

  • I large yellow onion, diced (optional if your initials are JS)
  • 2-4 (depending on your taste) cloves of garlic, minced
  • 4 slices of bacon (or a similar amount of pancetta, nduja, guanciale, salami, etc) (optional)
  • 3 – 14 oz cans of any kind of white beans (cannellini, great northern, etc.), drained and rinsed
  • 2 – 14 oz cans of diced fire-roasted tomatoes drained, juice reserved
  • Olive oil, as needed
  • ½ c white wine
  • 2-3 cups of low sodium chicken broth
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1 T. dried thyme (rosemary would be fine too)
  • 8 cups (ish) of Kale, Spinach, Arugula, Chard – something green and bitter (optional)
  • 1 c panko bread crumbs
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 1 c parsley, minced
  • S&P

Directions

  • Cook bacon in a large dutch oven (you know, a pot) until crisp, remove, saving fat
    • If you’re using another meat, sauté it for a couple of minutes in olive oil
  • Chop bacon and save it (snacking on some of it is totally understandable)
  • Sauté onion in the bacon fat over medium heat, adding olive oil as needed (or just cause you want to), 4-5 minutes until golden brown(ish) and soft
  • Now would be a good time to add some salt – maybe ½ teaspoon of Kosher
  • Add garlic and sauté another 2-3 minutes
  • Add tomatoes and – you guessed it, saute another 3-4 minutes. Stir a lot to prevent burning
  • Add the red pepper flakes and thyme
  • Add the reserved tomato juice, bacon, white wine, and broth
  • Add the beans and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes – you want everything hot and bubbly
  • Put about ¼(ish) of the bean and broth mixture into a blender and blend (leave the lid slightly ajar and put a towel over the damn thing when you turn it on unless you enjoy being covered in lava hot beans and broth. Add more broth to form a smooth puree
    • You want this really smooth. Would be good if you had a Vitamix (the only blender worth having – they’ll outlast 3-4 cheap blenders and do a better job. They’re expensive but you can save money by getting a refurbished one from the Vitamix web site)
  • Add the pureed beans back into the pot and cook (keep stirring) until they reach your desired consistency – maybe another 10 minutes, this is up to you
  • Add the kale and cook until softened
  • Stir in ½ of the parsley (a little more olive oil would be good too)
  • Adjust salt and pepper as needed
  • Meanwhile…you can do this next bit while the beans are cooking:
    • Heat a large non-stick skilled over medium heat
    • Add 2 T of olive oil and heat for a minute
    • Add the panko and sauté until GBD (golden brown and delicious)
    • You’ll need to stir these a lot – watch them, they can burn quickly (don’t ask me how I know this)
    • Once GBD, remove from the heat and stir in the remaining parsley and lemon zest  
  • Serving
    • This can be a main dish or a side (it’s particularly good with pork) (or with prosciutto wrapped cod)
    • Serve topped with the breadcrumbs and drizzled with (good) olive oil
    • A little parmesan or other hard (Italian – don’t buy the American crap…we make some amazing cheese here but the knockoffs of Parm and such suck. A lot) cheese would be just fine too
Categories
Comfort Food Main Dish Noodles and Pasta

Cooking and Saucing Pasta – The Right Way!

The best way to sauce pasta is to finish cooking it in the sauce as this infuses the pasta with flavor!

To start, cook the pasta in a small amount of water – you don’t have to use a huge pot filled with water. Cooking pasta this way has a couple of advantages – the water takes less time to boil and the water is starchier once the pasta is done cooking (we’ll be using the water when we sauce the pasta). I use a 12 saute pan that is big enough to hold the pasta I’m cooking, you basically need just a couple of inches of water – enough to fully cover the pasta. Salt the water but DO NOT MAKE IT AS “SALTY AS THE SEA”. That’s a dumb old wives’ tale – sea water is wayyyyyyyy too salty. I use a tablespoon(ish) – if you taste the water you want it to taste “right” – to your salt taste. I actually salt to Ash’s taste as I like things saltier than most people. Bring the water to a boil (you actually don’t even need to do this, you can cook pasta starting in cold water) and add the pasta, stirring to keep it separate. Cook until a minute or so short of al dente (taste it – you want to pull it out when it is still chewy – a minute or so less than the instructions on the box/bag say). Drain the pasta but save a cup of so of the cooking water, you’ll need it. Alternately, you can use tongs and just lift the pasta out of the water and put it right into your sauce, I do this pretty frequently.

Meanwhile, while the pasta cooks, have your sauce warming up in a big skillet (or make it if it is a quick cooking sauce like carbonara (yeah, yeah, I’ll do that one live soon). Turn the heat up to high and add the pasta and start stirring. Add pasta cooking water to keep cooking the pasta – I start with about a half cup. Keep stirring, adding more water if needed, until the pasta is done. Add finishing “stuff” – grated cheese, toasted bread crumbs (if you haven’t tried this, do it NOW), olive oil, fresh herbs, etc. Serve in warm (always!!) bowls. BTW, DO NOT over sauce the pasta, you can add more at the table if you want.

The pic below was made with a long-cooked ragu. I combined these two recipes:

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/ragu-napoletano-meat-sauce-pork-beef-sausage-recipe.html

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/the-best-slow-cooked-italian-american-tomato-sauce-red-sauce-recipe.html

Categories
Comfort Food Italian Main Dish Noodles and Pasta

Spaghetti Carbonara

One of my favorite pasta dishes is spaghetti alla carbonara. This Roman dish – whose origins are disputed (we’ll talk about that tonight) – is super easy to make, especially if you know a few tricks. It’s also super comforting: it’s basically breakfast-for-dinner (eggs, bacon, cheese) + pasta! What could be better?

We’re going to use a recipe from Serious Eats as a guide, check it out here: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/12/pasta-carbonara-sauce-recipe.html

That will give you the basic ingredients that you’ll need. I know that you may not have everything and that’s ok! You can substitute any kind of pasta if you don’t have spaghetti (I’m going to use buccatini – my favorite long pasta) and can use any cured meat product (including bacon) if you don’t have pancetta (or even leave it out for vegetarian version)! Regardless, you should have the ingredients prepped and ready to go. One addition – if you have it – will be a couple of cloves of minced garlic.

From an ingredient perspective you’ll need:

1 lb. of pasta (preferably a long shape like spaghetti or bucatini but anything will work), 3-4 oz. of pancetta, bacon (chopped), or guanciale, 6-8 eggs, 1-2 oz. of parmesan or pecorino, 1-2 cloves of garlic, olive oil, S&P

From an equipment perspective you’ll need:

A pot to cook the pasta in (and a strainer), a pan to saute the pork-y product in, a heat proof bowl (e.g. something porcelain or ceramic), tongs, and serving bowls

Here’s the finished product!

Categories
chicken Comfort Food Main Dish

Chicken Tikka Masala

The recipe below is the original from Grace Parisi. It is great as is and I owe her for teaching me how to cook this. You can improv on this recipe pretty easily with little to no impact on the finished product. Things I typically do:

  • Add about a tablespoon of garam masal spice blend to the marinade
  • Marinating time doesn’t need to be more than 1 hour
  • No need to scrape off the yogurt before cooking the chicken
  • Grill the chicken, turns out better and is easier than broiling
  • If you don’t have almonds substitute almond butter…or skip it
  • If you don’t have cream substitute yogurt
  • Experiment with how much of the different spices you use – I often add more chile powder and garam masala
  • Add ½ c minced cilantro at the end of the cooking process
  • Serve with yogurt spooned over the tp

Grace Parisi’s Chicken Tikka Masala – from FoodandWine.com (https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-tikka-masala)

Ingredients

MASALA MARINADE

1 cup plain low-fat yogurt

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Salt and freshly ground pepper

CHICKEN

2 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, fat trimmed

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup blanched whole almonds

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala

1 1/2 teaspoons pure chile powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

One 35-ounce can peeled tomatoes, finely chopped, juices reserved

Pinch of sugar

1 cup heavy cream

Directions

  • MAKE THE MASALA MARINADE: In a large glass or stainless-steel bowl, combine the yogurt, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cayenne and turmeric. Season with salt and pepper.
  • PREPARE THE CHICKEN: Using a sharp knife, make a few shallow slashes in each piece of chicken. Add the chicken to the marinade, turn to coat and refrigerate overnight.
  • Preheat the broiler and position a rack about 8 inches from the heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade; scrape off as much of the marinade as possible. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and spread the pieces on a baking sheet. Broil the chicken, turning once or twice, until just cooked through and browned in spots, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut it into 2-inch pieces.
  • Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil. Add the almonds and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer the almonds to a plate and let cool completely. In a food processor, pulse the almonds until finely ground.
  • In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil until shimmering. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, about 8 minutes.
  • Add the garam masala, chile powder and cayenne and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes with their juices and the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cover partially and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Add the cream and ground almonds and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes longer. Stir in the chicken; simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, and serve.
  • Serve With Steamed basmati rice, rice pilaf or warm nan.
Categories
chicken Comfort Food Main Dish Uncategorized

Roast Chicken

The best way to cook a whole chicken is to spatchcock it and that’s not only because it sounds dirty. When you spatchcock a chicken (or any other kind of poultry), you remove the backbone and flatten it. This process has three benefits:

  1. The flattened fowl is more evenly thick and that = even cooking
  2. The squished squawker is, overall, not as thick and that = faster cooking
  3. You get to say spatchcocked a lot = more entertaining cooking

Start this process a couple of hours before you want to cook the bird so it has time to marinate.

For a detailed guide to this process, check out this site (I LOVE seriouseats.com): https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/01/the-food-lab-how-to-roast-a-butterflied-spatchcocked-chicken.html

Ingredients

  • 3-4 pound whole chicken (organic is preferred)
  • 2-3 T spice rub of your choice (more on that below)
  • ½ C mayonnaise

Instructions

  • Place the bird back side up on a cutting board
  • Using kitchen shears, cut down each side of the backbone to remove it
    • This may take some effort. You’re strong, stick with it
    • As a guide, the piece of backbone that you’ll remove will be about 1.5 inches wide – you don’t want to cut out too much of the meat
  • Grab the two sides of the chicken and sort of pull it apart to start to flatten it
  • Clean up any offending ‘bits’ (fat, blood, whathaveyou). No need to rinse the chicken, that just makes a mess
  • Flip the bird over and push down on the breast to fully flatten. You may need to flip the legs around, you want the whole bird as even as possible
  • Create a pocket under the skin on the breast by poking your fingers under the skin and wiggling them around
  • Sprinkle the entire bird including under the skin (in that little pocket you just made) with the rub. on both sides
    • See notes below on rubs
  • Slather (that’s a technical term) the bird (again, both sides, and under the breast skin) with the mayo            
    • I use mayo because the fat and protein in it help the skin brown and crisp (no, it won’t taste like mayo)
  • Set the bird on a wire rack in a roasting pan, put it in the fridge and let it sit for at least an hour, longer is fine too
  • Preheat your oven (on convection if you have it) to 425 degrees
  • Roast the bird, legs towards the back, for 40-50 minutes
    • Check the temperature starting at about 35 minutes
    • The bird is done when the breasts are about 150 degrees and the legs around 170 degrees
    • If the skin gets too brown, cover it with foil
  • Remove the chicken from the oven, cover it with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes
  • Carve – first remove the legs, then split the breast in half lengthwise and then again cross wise. You’ll have six pieces total
  • Place the chicken on a warmed platter and serve

A Word on Rubs

You can use whatever rub you like – a pre-made one from the store, a homemade one, whatever. Seriously. Don’t stress. If you don’t have a rub, use a tablespoon or so of (Kosher) salt and lots of pepper. When I cook this on the ‘gram I use 2 tablespoons of a commercial porchetta rub from Clif Family Wines (check them out – great wines and food products (and energy bars) to which I add 3 minced garlic cloves, ¼ teaspoon or so of crushed red pepper flakes, ½ teaspoon of ground fennel, and 1 teaspoon of ground rosemary. I mix the whole thing up with my mortar and pestle but you can use a spice grinder, food processor, or a large hammer.