The OTHER thing to do with peameal - roast it whole

I was so excited at the prospect of successfully supplying myself with an authentic peameal (Canadian) bacon I quickly reverted to my old school ways of roasting it whole.

As much as I love the flavor of individually fried pieces, the little char on the outside, the crisp edges, mmmmm, sorry, I digress.

As much as I enjoy fried slices, I also enjoy roasting the peameals whole. The one I made tonight is 2 lb but I've roasted them as large as 8 lbs. It is an incredibly tender, moist meat even if you do (accidentally) cook it a bit long. I think it's due to the brine/cure, it retains it's moisture when cooked beautifully, it's worth a try.

1 peameal - any size

sheet pan drizzled with a little oil

400 degree oven

bake till it's 138 internal temperature (or is really firm to the touch). The temperature will continue to rise when it rests for those who are concerned about temperature rules.

Let it rest about 15 minutes, slice, eat. Repeat.

I made my waterless garlic mashed potatoes and minty peas to accompany the roast tonight. Yum. Tomorrow we'll eat sandwiches, on the french bread Connor and I made yesterday, because as good as this peameal is hot, it's just about as good cold.

I'll watch for boneless pork loin to go on sale again, and load up now that I have mastered peameal 101, there's going to be more Canadian bacon in my world; without the 1,675 mile drive.

/enjoy

Split pea soup and sausages

I wrote and published two of the recipes a couple of you were waiting for, the yellow split pea soup and the quickie banger moment...

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-53128-Austin-Budget-Meals-Examiner~y2010m7d29-Yellow-split-pea-soup

http://www.examiner.com/x-53128-Austin-Budget-Meals-Examiner~y2010m7d29-English-sausages-bangers-for-dinner

I didn't want to write them out again so head on over and check them out.

/enjoy

Peameal bacon, in Texas - I did it!

This is a peameal bacon, a whole one, what the Americans call "Canadian bacon". I will not even enter into a discussion with any of my American, or specifically, Texan friends as to the identification of "Canadian bacon". Bless them but they've been led astray by culinary myth and no one bothered to set them straight...well, until today.

Reputable restaurants and specialty stores in the United States insist on presenting a round, boiled?, ham as the quintessential "Canadian bacon". Seriously people? Have you never BEEN to Canada and eaten bacon there? REALLY?

I feel obligated to do the quote thing because in Canada, it's just bacon or it's peameal. So named because historically it was rolled in yellow split pea meal to preserve, keep, the meat.

This is not going to be a long post, but rather a celebratory post. I have lived in Austin, Texas for 11 years and for exactly 11 years I have been trying to obtain a decent peameal. Oh, scratch that, decent peameal implies there have been choices. I've been in search of ANY peameal. Without success of any kind.

I used to be able to visit my remaining family members in Canada and upon pulling out of the driveway to drive back to Texas I'd be sure there was my son in the back seat and pounds of peameal in the cooler. They vacuum pack them there frequently, whole, and I drive them back here and pop them into the freezer - guarding them like a mad dog - there are very few occasions that warrant the use of a transplanted peameal. I slice them, I roast them whole I count count count to be sure of how many I have left at any given time and at 2, the grip tightens upon my beloved hunks of frozen meat.

I haven't been able to go north for 2 years and I won't be, for the foreseeable future, so my peameal crisis is hyped to a new level. I sort of need it.

Pork loins were on sale last week at my local grocery store. My mind reeled...dare I MAKE a peameal? A 2 lb boneless loin lept into my basket, came home with me, and lay in wait for me to put on my mad scientist hat.

I researched like mad and determined a dry cure was the way I was going to try it (first) so a short road trip to the local Calahans (cowboy store) to procure Morton's Tender-quick and I was ready.

In a NON REACTIVE dish I put 1 Tbsp Tender-quick and 1 tsp sugar for each pound of boneless pork loin. I rubbed it in well and tightly bound it in a number of layers of saran wrap. Into the fridge with a giant TUESDAY written on it. 5 days to wait - seemed nothing after a 2 year wait.

After 5 days, I removed the loin and washed it well then dried it and rolled it in a heavy coating of cornmeal.

OK OK, historic peameal was rolled in yellow split pea meal but it isn't anymore, it's rolled in cornmeal so I went with the flavor I miss not the historical accuracy - sue me.

Back to my beloved pork loin, I rolled it in the cornmeal, thickly, covered it and put it back in the fridge.

Wednesday lunch - out came the pork. There aren't words to describe the level of joy and the elation of success. The picture above is how it came out of the fridge the day after being rolled...here's the rest of my journey (and yes, we ate it on the homemade french loaves we made yesterday because peameal cries out for being eaten, hot, on fresh bread in a sandwich;

Try it, it's 5 days but there's really only 5 minutes of work the entire time. If you don't try it, and you know me, don't worry, I'll feed you some. One at a time, the Texans will 'get' what Canadian bacon actually is. Specs and Central Market might get a sample too, the deli people did mention an interest in trying it if I mastered it.

That's one thing off the list of imports, now, if I could just get a Swiss Chalet, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire or a Pizza Pizza down here, I'd be set!

/enjoy!

Biscuits - the best thing I've E.V.E.R. made

I do realize that in the scheme of the universe, a biscuit is just a biscuit. You get some flour, some fat and some liquid, mix it, bake it, eat it. I know people who aren't going to care about this one little bit, how sad. I, on the other hand, care deeply and am going to share this with you because sometimes you play in the kitchen and you make something so delicious you look around to see who you can share it with. Sometimes a bite is that good.

Anyway, you can make a biscuit with a mix or without much thought but then you wouldn't be nearly as happy as I am at this moment, having just eaten the best thing I ever made. You have to make this version, every day and eat it and make it for people you love. Make it for your boss and you'll get a raise, for strangers and they'll become friends and for people who hate you, well, you'll be on the Christmas list for SURE.

I surf the net all the time looking for new and interesting twists on food, I saw a recipe that called for the sugar on the outside and thought, oh yes, we like this idea a lot. I didn't want to use white sugar and thought brown would be too heavy. I searched through my cupboards and made a glorious discovery...an ingredient I don't use much but thought I could be onto something cool...I wondered if it would work but forged bravely ahead - it's only a bit of flour after-all.

These biscuits are a little sweeter than many recipes but what's life without a sweet biscuit. I think they would do fine without the sugar on the outside and maybe the addition of some shredded cheese and chives for dinner. The texture of these is divine and I have no doubt they would lend themselves to all manner of ingredient addition, whether sweet or savory. Here is what I did today (and I actually wrote it down and measured, see, I'm learning)

In a food processor, sift,

2 cups AP flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp sugar (if you want, don't do this for a savory version)

Whirr it around and add 6 Tbsp of very cold (mine was actually frozen because I plan badly) unsalted butter cut into teenie weenie pieces.

Whirr it around until it looks like peas, then dump it into another bowl (I have never trusted a Cuisinart with biscuit dough)

Add up to 3/4 cup milk to the dough and mix with a fork until it forms a shaggy dough, turn it out onto a board floured with...wait for it... confectioners sugar! (icing sugar) You don't need much, just a light dusting, which I passed through my seive to remove any lumps. Quickly form the dough and roll it to about 3/4 inch thick. I'm notorious for overworking dough so have a light hand here. The sugar doesn't get absorbed at all but makes a lovely little coating and stops the dough from needing extra flour which would make it tough, sweet AND useful - wondrous. I did dust it off a bit before I cut the dough into pieces.

Cut into rounds, straight down, no twisting allowed! I used a juice glass, 2" diameter maybe and got 9 biscuits. Do not re-roll the dough, squash it back together and do a quick shape and then cut, those biscuits are shaggy and almost like pull apart biscuits and that's bad, how?

I added a teenie weenie shard of cold butter on the top of each biscuit and baked it at 450 for 15 minutes on a parchment lined pan on the upper third of the top oven. See how specific I'm getting, I've been recipe nagged for just long enough now.

The biscuits come out crispy on the outside with a slight sugar crust almost and are soft and flaky and unctuous on the inside. They rise beautifully and you don't need a knife to cut them apart, they are easily pulled apart to separate the warm insides waiting for a knob of cold butter and a healthy dollop of ice cold seedless raspberry compote.

There's not much more to say, I'll just leave you with the images...

Put this on your short list of things you can do my heart, you'll make them often. I'm going to make a savory version now, all in the name of culinary research of course...

/enjoy

FASTEST lunch E.V.E.R. - welcome to curried couscous (salad)

ok, fastest lunch ever - ready? GO!

In a saucepan with a lid add a small blob of butter and fry a sliver of onion with a hefty sprinkle of curry powder until the onion is soft.

While it's frying (run cuz this is a fast lunch!) open and drain and rinse a can of chick peas and put a small fry pan (dry) on another burner and toss in some almonds to dry roast - watch them as they will burn on you in the blink of an eye.

Back to the onion, add 1 cup of water and the white part of a green onion (scallion) a small handful of raisins and 35 or so of the chick peas (yes, I counted for you). Bring the liquid to the boil and add 1/2 cup of couscous. Put the lid on and take it off the heat, attend to the almonds and slice the rest of your green onions.

Pour a glass of wine, tidy the kitchen, rinse your knife and put it away (I'm funny about knives) and get a pretty low sided bowl.

Check to see the liquid has been absorbed by the couscous. Give it a squirt of lemon juice to brighten the flavor then fluff it with a fork. Add the almonds and green onion and fluff again. Tip into your pretty bowl, slice some tomato from your garden on the side and sit down to a surprisingly healthy and delicious lunch. Make a double or triple amount and keep it in the fridge, it's delicious cold with some sliced chicken or grilled fish. YUM!

Oh and yes, this is what we have instead of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches *sigh*

/enjoy!

I got Figs, I made something

I like figs. They are in season at the moment in Austin and my friend has a heavily laden tree which hangs over her driveway. All these are good things.

I brought a big bag of the figs home with me yesterday and this morning stood, with hands on hips and devised a little somethin' something' to do with them. Here's some of the shots from the experiment:

I pulsed some flour, sugar and butter in a processor and squashed half in a lined pan, 8x8. I whirred a load of figs, lemon zest and lemon, a little flour and a spoonful of sugar and blobbed that on top (it was a blob! - too thick to pour too thin to be a paste) then crumbled the rest of the topping/base over the top

I baked it off for about an hour at 375, let it sit for 45 minutes or so to settle and firm up and removed it in one piece then cut it up and ate too much of it.

I posted the recipe on my examiner spot, it's austin and it's budget afterall :) go check it out here:

http://www.examiner.com/x-53128-Austin-Budget-Meals-Examiner~y2010m7d8-Its-fig-season-in-Austin

/tracy

It's Meat Pie and it's one of the few things I think I do really really well

I was born in Brighton, England and was raised in Canada. We eat meat pie.

I moved to Texas and thought for sure they'd be into meat pie. They are not.

I stopped making it for alot of years for reasons unknown. I rectified that mistake.

I have my own combination of British meat pie, Cornish pasty and French Canadian tourtiere. (which is the fancy word for meat pie)

It's one of the few things I'm pretty confident I make pretty well. Since I mastered the whole pastry crisis thing, I will make this more often. I love it and actually prefer it at room temperature or cold which is something my dear Texans just can't deal with - yet - I'll make converts out of them, one at a time.

I wanted to get a picture up and I will go write the recipe/method out and get it up. I'd do it now but, um, there's pie waiting for me.

Lemon Two-Crust Pie - my version

I have never been able to make pastry.

I have "hot hands" and come from a line of women who are master pastry queens. My mother makes it in a machine, without thinking, and it's light and flaky every time. My paternal grandmother made it in a bowl with a knife and it was absolutely perfection. Not wanting to let down the family, on either side, I'm willing to give it another go.

I collect old cookbooks, really old, 1800 old. I line them up and read them and enjoy them and smile at the advice for young women sections. It never occurred to me to actually cook something out of them. It's going to be my new gig, I'm going to bring old school back into fashion, well, that's my theory anyway.

I was reading and found a recipe for a lemon custard, two crust pie. I thought it sounded interesting and I bookmarked it. Later, I read about an american 'shaker' style lemon pie that left the rind in. Marmalade pie? I was intrigued to say the least. I rather like lemon meringue pie and tend to make it without any meringue. Kind of like when my husband ordered, on an early date we had, "coconut shrimp without coconut".

I decided to attack the pastry portion of the pie. Before I go any further, it turned out amazing and I am taking myself OFF the "those who fail miserably at pastry" list. Make this stuff, it works!

Pastry

1 cup of a/p flour

1 stick of cold unsalted butter (cut into teenie weenie cubes)

1 heaping teaspoon of salt.

Blend together with a pastry blender (I have to, hot hands remember) until it looks like peas in the flour.

Add 3T ice cold water and stir with a butter knife!! stir like crazy and it'll come together in clumps or not, if it doesn't, add 1T of ice water at a time and give it another few minutes.

As soon as you can reach in and make a solid snowball from the pastry, grab it together into a ball, cut it in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Toss it into the fridge.

Filling

3 medium lemons, washed, dried and sliced as thin as you can possibly slice them. You have to be able to see through these lemon slices. Remove any seeds and throw the slices into a bowl

Add

2cups of sugar

1T salt

stir around, cover and leave it on your counter overnight. Stir it whenever you walk by if you feel like being more involved in the process.

Take the pastry out of the fridge when you are ready to make the pie. Turn oven to 425.

The standard 'shaker' pie leaves the rind in the pie, I don't like rind so I removed it. Carefully strain (pressing out all the juice from the rind) and add 4 eggs, 3T melted butter and 3T flour. Blend well.

Roll out one piece of the pastry to fit a 9inch pie plate. Pour the filling into the pie and cover with the other piece of pastry rolled out. Do whatever you want to the edge, I don't do pretty so mine are always a mess. Cut a slit or two to vent the steam.

Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, lower temperature to 375 and bake 25 minutes, it'll be golden brown. Leave it to come to room temperature and then get into it.

The pie is custard but not really, it makes you think it might be jelly or curd but it's really not. It has a thick but not smooth texture and the flavor is tart and fresh and slightly sweet. I think I like this pie alot.

I think the pastry is out of this world, completely flaky and lovely and as I said, I am off the "fail" pastry list for all time. I'm going to use this pastry to make my meatpie next week (yes, it'll be here) because it has a retro feel and my meatpie is old school. This pastry has no yolks or vinegar or mixtures of shortening or lard, it's flour, salt and butter and the layers explode in the heat of the oven.

I like this pie and hope you do too.

Enjoy

/Tracy

Dinner for 3? Oh you'll need one piece of chicken for that...

Ok, so I do know this is lame (the cross link rather than writing it all out again) but I'm crushed for time and wanted to link the two. I cooked and I wrote today.

I will be submitting piece/s to eatingeverywhere tomorrow and will link them through here as well.

I'll be honest, I'm a little sick of chicken, and I wonder if the examiner thinks chicken is the only thing I cook. The whole point of being the 'budget meal examiner', in my mind, was to supply information on cooking on a budget and I'm going by what the stores are putting on special to that end. I think HEB needs to put something ELSE on sale in the next little while. I did manage to do something 'new' with it today and frankly, I was thrilled at the outcome. Instead of writing it all out, here's the direct link.

A meal for 3 out of one chicken breast, c'mon, that's impressive :)

http://www.examiner.com/x-53128-Austin-Budget-Meals-Examiner~y2010m7d1-Chicken-dinner-for-3-with-one-piece-of-chicken

Make it. Oh and no, I have no idea what I'm doing with the other two breasts I cooked at the same time. Ala Scarlett O'Hara, I'll worry about that tomorrow.

/tracy

I have 10 minutes and I need dinner on the table

There are no amounts because it depends on how much pasta, what pasta and how hungry everyone is.

Put a huge pot of water on to boil. Pour yourself a glass of wine.

I toss as giant fistful of Vermicelli in insanely boiling insanely salted water, hit timer for 5 minutes. Sometimes I break the length into thirds so we don’t have to twirl or cut the pasta, sometimes I don’t. It’s a mood thing. I throw in a squashed garlic clove to flavor the water, it’ll virtually disintegrate, and it’s lovely to work into the sauce afterwards and is a very mild flavor.

On the side, in a giant bowl, throw in a blob of room temperature unsalted butter, *for me, a blob is a big rounded tablespoon?*

Pour a couple of glugs of cream over the butter (heavy or table cream NOT 1/2&1/2), loads of freshly ground black pepper and a couple of gratings of fresh nutmeg. There’s only a few ingredients here, quality matters.

Shush it around; don't worry about the butter blob.

Grate a big pile of fresh parmesan into a Ziploc bag to keep in the fridge so next time you don't have to do this step. Time is precious!
DING! (5 minutes are up)
Dip big coffee cup into water and get a some salty starchy water
Drain pasta
Throw cream mix into hot pot on stove on high heat, it’s going to boil immediately.

Toss pasta in and shush it around with tongs madly till butter melts, it's quick!

Take it off heat, throw in loads of fresh parmesan over and toss it around, add the saved water if it needs thinning, too thick and it's clumpy and NO ONE liked clumpy Alfredo *shudder* too thin and it's soup *double shudder*

TASTE IT then add more pepper then add more cheese :)

Serve drooling child/husband/friend/mother with more fresh parmesan sprinkled over.

To be honest, sometimes I add peas to the pasta because my son loves them, if you need a protein, a little cooked chicken on it or in it is fabulous. A quick salad with field greens and a light vinaigrette is perfect on the side. Mostly though I’m cooking this because we’re home late from soccer, choir or my Loopers! class so he washes up and rummages through his backpack while I whip this up so he gets this with a glass of milk and a big ole hunk of crusty bread rubbed with garlic and a little olive oil. Enjoy!

/tracy

Quickie Update about me and my food

This is the requested dinner the 11 yr old asked for when his dad was out of town for a week. Not pizza or burgers but a firm, "mom, while dad's gone, can you make that creamy shrimp pasta that I love?" The request made me laugh so of course it was on my short list of things to cook this week.

I'll post the whole recipe/process later today.

For the moment, I wanted your attention. It looks like I get to share my particular form of insight (?) with an even wider audience. For those of you who are keeping score. I'm writing for www.eatingeverywhere.com . I currently have pieces in the cookbook section, the food news section and the review section for Austin, Tx. It's a great resource and is hoping to cover the whole country, go check the site, look for your city and eat well.

As of yesterday, I'm the newest addition to www.examiner.com and will be their Austin Budget Food Examiner and those bits and pieces will live here: http://www.examiner.com/x-53128-Austin-Budget-Meals-Examiner. Imagine how much better the page will be when I actually write something. I think I'll do a fine job because I love to cook, I know how to cook and more importantly, I cook on a budget. My family doesn't like processed food (well except hubba hubba who seems mysteriously addicted to Ramen noodles) so I have the challenge of being on a budget and making it all from scratch. I think I've done alright so far and hopefully I'll be able to add a tidbit of knowledge or two to whoever watches me other there.

I also wanted to take a quick moment and thank you for coming by and checking out what I do here. I really enjoy it and the opportunity to write about for a wider audience is pretty cool for me.

I'll post here when there's new material up on either site. Thanks for the ongoing support, I appreciate it.

/tracy

Oh yes, You CAN live on bread and water

I love bread, I love smelling it, making it and best of all, I like to make it for other people. My son's best friend is a sweetie and I call him "other-son".

He has a wide, easy smile, twinkly eyes and is a joy to cook for. He is one of my biggest fans. I think everything I've ever cooked for him has been "the best I've ever had". Hopefully it doesn't annoy his mother, I think he's just being gracious. I've never had less than a licked-clean plate come back so he must enjoy it on some level. I have a rather extensive repertoire but he always for one of the same three things.

He is here for the weekend before he moves out of state so I told him I could deny him nothing, culinarily speaking and the smile crept across his face.

"Can you make me some of your bread?" The same smile crept across my own face, "Absolutely".

Bread it is, other-son. The "your bread" to which he refers is a ridiculously easy ciabatta type loaf that is, as far as yeast breads go, pretty quick and incredibly tasty. The ease of mixing, rising and baking makes it a standard here. I quickly mixed the mixed the highly hydrated dough and left it to rise while we ran some errands. We came back and his eyes lit up at the sight of the giant bowl of giggly, bubbling ooze that greeted us.

I flipped it quickly out onto heavily floured parchment, sliced it into two gelatinous masses and stretched each to loosely form a ciabatta "the slipper" loaf. The oven was cranked to 500 and when it registered as preheated, we waited 15 minutes more.

I slid one loaf at a time into the oven, onto a heated cookie sheet and hit the timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I flipped it off the cookie sheet onto the racks and hit the timer for 5 mins. After 5 mins, I flipped the loaf upside down and hit the timer for another 5.

DING! straight onto a cooling rack so the crust stayed crispy all around and we tried really really really hard not to rip it into pieces right then and there. We lasted about 3 minutes.

In the name of decorum, I sliced it up, we slathered it in cold butter and, um, he ate it. I baked the second loaf the same way, there's still some of that left but then again, they did go outside for a few minutes, I have no faith it'll survive.

Here's the details:

In the bowl of 'big red' dump 500 grams of A/P flour (the ONLY thing I measure by weight is this flour, it matters and it changes?! so measure it), 2 tsp yeast, 2 tsp salt and a small sprinkle of sugar. Stir quickly and pour in 2 cups of water all at once. Mix quickly and leave for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn the mixer on high and leave it there. It'll start out looking like pancake batter then the weirdest thing happens to it and becomes stretchy and thin and sticky and smooth all at the same time. The dough clears the side of the bowl and then it starts to climb! It climbs up the paddle and toward the mixer housing and all the internal workings...it's ready then.

Don't even try to touch this dough. It's sticky and awful and you can't get it off you. I am absolutely sure some woman made this back in the day, the husband saw her and wrote The Blob in it's honor.

Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl with room for it to TRIPLE, doubling doesn't work here, it's got to triple. Cover the bowl with sprayed parchment and leave it. Go run some errands. It'll depend on the day how long it takes, it's risen for me in as short a time as an hour and has also taken upwards of 2 1/2 - weather, temperature, flour, humidity, your mood, really it all matters. Make this when you have no serious time constraints.

When it's tripled, tip it out onto a well floured parchment lined board, slice it in half quickly and with well floured hands, flip each half over and stretch it slightly elongated and leave it. Turn the oven to 500 and go have a glass of wine. I wait about 30 minutes before I put the dough in the oven. I cut the paper around each wobbly loaf and slide it onto a pizza peel then slip it (on the parchment) onto the stone I keep in my oven. Alternatively, you can slide it onto a cookie sheet and bake it OR you can slide it onto a cookie sheet that you've preheated. It's pretty forgiving.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven and take it off the parchment, put it back in the oven for 5 minutes, flip it over and bake for an additional 5. Cool it for a couple of minutes on a cooling rack. Slice, rip apart - eat.

This makes amazing pizza dough too! If you cut the recipe in half and form it into a loose circle when you tip it out of the rising bowl; drizzle it with garlic infused olive oil and whatever you have in your fridge that you'd like on pizza. Slice your additions thin though as this bakes quickly. Or you can simply press your finger tips into the dough and drizzle with oil and loads of salt and pepper before it goes into the oven like a mock foccacia.

This is a fun dough to play with and mess about with. Do it and let me know what you did.

/tracy

Fish and Chips, but this time without the Chips

Fish and Chips doesn't always need the chips

I wander grocery stores. I kind of like it, I find it peaceful in a weird, overcrowded "I don't really know what I want here"sort of way. Sometimes I have a list, sometimes not. I am of the old school of seeing what’s fresh, what’s plentiful and that’s what comes home for dinner.

Cod was on sale the other day for $3.99/lb, that resulted in a direct and instant craving for fish and chips. I bought 1 1/2 pounds, I wanted flaky fish with a crisp coating and I wanted it now!

Take a large bowl (my beloved Ikea glass “triangle” bowl) and put 1 cup of flour into it, season heavily with salt and pepper. Crack an extra large egg in and stir around to make a horrid gloppy mess. Open a beer (and who doesn't think that a lovely addition to any food blog) and pour the beer into the batter until it’s the consistency you like. It should be akin to heavy cream. I can’t give an exact measure here because it depends on the flour, the egg, the beer. Whisk like mad until its smooth, cover and put in the fridge to relax and think about what a lovely coating it’ll make. I left it about an hour; I think I did laundry.

Heat up about 1 ½ inches of peanut oil in a very wide frying pan over better than medium heat until it was hot enough to turn a piece of white bread, brown. Throw a square of bread into the oil when it’s cold, when it turns brown, the oil is hot enough to fry in. That’s the temperature trick I learned way back in the day and even though I have all sorts of gadgets and thermometers here, I still take the temperature of oil the same way. I think sometimes I’d be handy on a desert island.

Get the fish out of the fridge and cut it into hunks about 2inches squares and season heavily with salt and pepper. Dust them very lightly with flour, I dusted them so lightly I can’t really even justify saying they were in fact, dusted. It was as though flour was breathed upon them. Dip the fish into the batter and lift it straight out, letting the excess drip back into the bowl.

Lay the fish in the oil, it should bubble like mad. Don’t crowd the pan, but you can cook enough to fill the pan so long as they aren't touching at all. Cook it until it’s brown around the edges, 2-3 minutes then flip it gently over and continue to cook it until the other side is pretty too. Another 2 minutes maybe?

Lay out all the fish on a rack over a paper towel, salt liberally, and hold them in a 300 degree oven. They stay crispy for quite a long time which surprises me, I don't know if it's the batter, the oven, or the kitchen fairies. It makes cooking up a big batch of these little darlings easy and less daunting when you don't have to worry about holding fried foods with the perpetual fear they'll sog out on you. In the kitchen, for me, there are few prospects more frightening than a sogged out fried anything.

I’m serious about this coating shattering when you break into it. No, really, it does and it's not greasy and there's no undercooked floury layer beneath. It's perfectly cooked, tender, flaky fish and a shatteringly crisp coating. I don’t actually need chips with this fish, a salad and I’m good to go.

I could eat it every.single.day.

If I’m passing on the salad idea, I like a little aioli with it; that's another post. Dip it in whatever you like fish dipped in, tartar, cocktail sauce, thousand island, ranch dressing, or straight mayonnaise. Don’t dip it. Serve it formally with knife and fork. Throw it in a warm tortilla with some shredded cabbage with chili mayonnaise. Use your hands, use a knife and fork, whatever it takes. Make this. Eat this.

/enjoy

It's Chicken, They're in Strips, it's fake cooking 101

It's the end of the school year; rock and roll show practice night, falling on the heels of pool party, scale sea creature hanging at the school and I’m not in the mood to make dinner. I was brilliant earlier in the week and roasted off a ‘family sized’ package of chicken breasts simply with salt and pepper and a healthy drizzle of olive oil on the skin, made mashed and minty peas. I make a killer gravy which we had with it. I packed it all in the fridge in sweet anticipation of not having to cook again in the midst of the chaos of this week.

Well ahead of the game, sure, but unfortunately it was really good, my son had a double helping the night we had it then snacked on it, my husband had a return engagement plateful after a night out; my ‘make ahead dinner’ is gone. Trust me, I’m not about to moan about the fact my family likes my cooking; I just need to hide it better.

I have an hour at home this morning before I have to run again and won’t be home till 5 after. Four frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts in a bag are staring at me from the freezer. I don’t have a lot of time so they’ll be quick half-thawed in water. 20 mins and they are starting to thaw enough for me to deal with, slice them into long thin slices. Back into the water for 10 mins and bingo, thawed chicken strips.

Mix ½ large container of plain (NOT VANILLA) yogurt and 2-3 large spoonfuls of good mustard, I use Dijon, I like the flavor it imparts, try not to use yellow mustard but you certainly can in a pinch. I just add salt and pepper then dump the chicken fingers into it, squish it around, cover and shove in the fridge. See you at dinnertime boys!

Home after a crazy day, I have salad in a bag in the fridge, and some vine tomatoes on the counter; hello side dish. After this crazy day, I’m pretty happy dinner can be on the table quickly and it’s not out of a carton, box or freezer will be on the table faster than the dogs can be taken out, fed & watered, the backpack emptied and homework organized.

Walk in the door and turn the oven to 425, it waits for you, never the other way around.

I mix equal parts of crushed Ritz crackers and Panko Japanese bread crumbs. One for a buttery flavor and a savory edge, the other for crispness and lightness. Crack black pepper over the crumbs and mix well. No salt needed, the crackers take care of that. Take one chicken strip at a time, scrape a little of the yogurt marinade off it, dredge well and lay on a rack on a sheet pan. You can line them up quite closely but don’t let them touch. I don’t like doing this without a rack, the bottom doesn’t get crispy and who wants a half soggy chicken strip? No one worth feeding wants crunchy tops and soggy bottoms.

Drizzle the chicken with the teeniest bit of olive oil purely for flavor because the Panko takes care of crisp and crunch. Toss them into the oven for maybe 15 minutes. Check them; it is so dependent on how thick you sliced the chicken and how thick your coating is. Just test one and see if it’s cooked all the way through. You want them golden, crunchy and yummy looking.

I have been known to make a quickie aioli when the chicken is cooking. An egg yolk, a little spoonful of mustard, a garlic clove, salt and pepper in a mini processor with a feed tube, whirr it up to puree the garlic then pour a thin stream of olive oil through the tube while it’s running until it is thick and glossy and yellow and garlicky and crazy delicious.

Tonight I’m in no mood, I am feeling a little extended so I want to eat, shower and lay on my bed with my Nook (www.nook.com). The sauce will be a simple store-bought mayonnaise/mustard combo for dipping. Two blobs of decent mayonnaise in a small bowl and 1 blob of mustard is generally how I measure it out, mix, add salt and pepper, taste it and serve it with your chicken. That bagged salad, some sliced tomatoes and whatever dressing I can find in the back of the fridge makes a virtually health conscious choice. The very best part is the 11 yr old thinks I’m a hero, “Thanks for letting us have junk food mom!”

Nothing fried, salad on the side, um, I don’t like this trend but every once in a while I like to try it on. It doesn’t matter how many of these you make, they’ll all go.