Thursday, April 21, 2016

DRIVE BY RECIPE: EASY Bread and Butter Pudding with a little caramel, aka, I was home, I was hungry

I had bread, I had eggs..  that sounds like breakfast to me  The fun of breakfast when you're faced with bread and eggs is the combination that you use.  Anyone can make toast and throw an egg on it.  Not me, not today, sweetie, not today. 

On this particular day I thought to myself, "self...I need a good old fashioned british food... some bread and butter pudding". 


DRIVE BY BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING 

(WITH CARAMEL)


I mixed up 3 of my backyard eggs, some milk, a little salt and a small palmful of sugar. I add milk till it measures about 1 3/4 cup liquid.  Mine is screaming yellow because of my chickens' yolks are that color.  They are happy birds.

Then cut up some ciabatta slices, buttered the slices, sprinkle the smallest amount of sugar on the bread, slice it into little squares and toss it all in a dish.

Pour the eggy mixture over the bread and turned the oven on to 375.

Mmmmm, eggy gooey goodness. Press the bread down so it will  soak up the yummyness. I also was sure to let some of the pointy bits stick above so they'd get crispy and crunchy.
        

While the oven heats and the bread soaks, I read a little of my book...with company, it's weird to be me sometimes
   
375 degrees and 45 minutes later !!DING!! Lookie what I found in the (toaster)oven waiting for me *joy*

I will admit, sometimes my food tries very very hard for me and this is absolutely one of those times.  LOOK!  IT's a mountain!  oh I love the puffiness when it comes out of the oven.

Pouring a little caramel sauce on while it's puffy and hot... the more in my bowl.
   

I'm pretending this is my serving serving size but we all know I'm going to eat it all... well, I'm sharing a bit with teenageson but then, the rest is all me.


I poured a river of thick and sticky warm caramel down over for it to settle into the hills and valleys of my breakfast. It's warm and crisp and soft and thick and sticky and sweet and salty. As good as you think it is - it's better.  I officially don't care what happens for the rest of the day.


DRIVE BY CARAMEL SAUCE

There are no measurements here because this is a process not a recipe, quantity doesn't matter here, it's how you do what you do.

Put some sugar, maybe 3/4 cup? in a saucepan, I put a couple of tablespoons of water to moisten it and get it started and put it on high heat.  
NO stirring, swirling is fine. 
Swirl until it's the color you like then let it go one more second, take it off heat and pour in heavy cream until it's the color you like.  It WILL boil up so use a BIGGER pan than the size you think you need.  
Boil a minute or so then add more cream if it needs it, add a little salt and a little vanilla. 

There you go, it'll thicken a bit when it sits.  I like it pourable when it's cold so I added a little extra cream, oh yes I did.

Oh look at my lovely!

 

There you have it, breakfast :D  

/enjoy


Friday, April 1, 2016

DRIVE BY ROAST TURKEY ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON RECIPE


 

I'm back in CounterTop roaster land.  I finally bought the Rival, no frills, no insert, basic, cheapie $19.00 full size roaster and I am HAPPY!

I've added a few countertop recipes, I'll add more.

TODAY thought FRESH turkeys were on sale at HEB for $1.10/lb so I grabbed a 12.66 lb girl and rushed home.  There are few things so lovely as a roast turkey dinner for no reason.  We will have a load of leftovers that are easily transformed into "not another turkey dinner" meal and I'll have more time to art this week so it's all good.

DRIVE BY RECIPE; COUNTERTOP ROAST TURKEY FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN I WANTED TURKEY AND IT WAS ON SALE

INGREDIENTS;

1 turkey, mine is 12.66 lbs
1 countertop roaster, preferably the Rival, base model,
salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, olive oil, herbs
carrot
onion
celery
water

METHOD

Remove innards and fatty bits from turkey and throw them in a pot covered by a couple of inches of water to simmer so you can use it later.  Don't season it, just the innards, fried in a little fat then cover with water.  You can season it later, you want pure stock here.

Dry bird inside and out and put in a foil tray, I like using a foil tray.  if you don't have one, don't use one.  The cooker comes with a rack take that our of the oven and put it in the sink and use that.  OR use a pan that fits in the roaster... pretty easy.   Sprinkle bird with seasonings of your choice.  Drizzle with a little oil or butter.  if you're using a pan, throw a carrot, celery and onion under the bird,  if you're not, throw them in the roaster when you put the bird in.

\PREHEAT roaster for at least 30 minutes to 450 degrees.

Pour about a cup or so of water in roaster and put the bird in.  Cover

Set timer for 45 minutes.  Go do something.  NO PEEKING

After 45 minutes turn the roaster to 325 NO PEEKING and set a timer for the rest of the time.
THIS is where math happens.
It's easy, it's me, I hate math.

The calculation to cook any turkey perfectly in a roaster is 8 minutes per lb IF
 you do a 45 minute heat blast, which we are because we're cool like that.
SO....

My turkey is 12.66 lbs x(multiplied by)x 8 (minutes per lb) = 101.28 minutes of total cook time.
101.28 minutes - (minus)- the 45 minutes of initial cook = 56.28 minutes.
Always round up
SO when I turn the roaster down to 325, *I* will set a timer for 57 minutes.

SEE?  even I can do that math

After the 57 minutes, I will turn the roaster off, still not peeking and leave it about half an hour.  These roasters cool down FAST so this is some well needed resting time.

Remove the bird from the roaster and set it somewhere to rest some more, tent it with foil till we slice it up and divide the meat.

Remove any juices, defat them and use as a juice for the meat or make gravy by adding a roux or just boiling for a while, we're not going into that here, i have loads of other gravy instructions.

Slice up the turkey how ever you like, I cut it all, divide into two containers and freeze half.

Keep the turkey covered, it'll be happy and room temperature all day, easily.

Make whatever vegetables makes you happy.

Serve it up to the delight of your family.  I think it's easier than dealing with a couple of chickens, truly, get a roaster, make turkey this way on a Tuesday just to mess with their heads, be happy.

Here's the quick pics:

I put the roaster on the side of my gas grill, perfect fit :)  Set the bird on the rack.  I did double the foil pan because I think it'll help me carry it later
  
 I add a generous cup or so of water under the bird, put the lid on and leave it for 45 minutes.
 
After 45 minutes, I turned it down to 325 and set timer for 57.  No peeking.  After 57, I unplugged the cooker and left it sitting on the porch.  STILL NO PEEKING:

After about 45 minutes (I got busy)  THIS is what I found:
OK, these birds are not pretty, I don't care.  IF you do care, throw it under the broiler for a few moments to brown it.  I pull the skin off anyway so I leave it.
 
I pulled it from the pan after about 30 after I turned it off and put it in a clean foil pan, covered it with foil and put it aside.  I drained the juice and added the broth I made from the innards.  I defatted it, made gravy and sliced up the turkey into two containers, one half each, to help be sure we eat the whole bird evenly, it also makes even leftovers which makes me happy. 
Here's some more shots of the last bird. 

 

I cut the turkey up into two pans one of each body part in each pan. Sliced and the carcass thrown in the pressure cooker for stock.

Tender, delicious, moist, so lovely... the only way I will ever cook turkeys

Here's dinner... mid week and really, I didn't have to DO' anything and even though it took a few hours, it wasn't actually time that I had to DO anything other than monitor and have a glass of wine.  That's my sort of cooking. 

I started to take pictures and Connor found me and had to sneak some :) 
    
Connor's plate and mine, I added a stuffing ball :)  
  

So tender, so yummy and no holiday stress :)  go make a turkey for no reason other than just to eat a delicious turkey


/enjoy
Tracy