Beef Wellington - I Can Makes It!

Last night I learned how to make Beef Wellington and accompanying side dishes for a most delightful meal.

A private chef was holding cooking lessons and dinner, and we managed to snag two tickets.

4 couples were present for the instruction, which was held at the chef's house where she has an awesome kitchen. One of the couples included a retired F-15 pilot that probably knows juvat, (though he himself wasn't in the juvats). Fun conversation was had.

A nice bunch of folks.

The only disruption was at the steps leading to the house there was a very large garter snake that made its appearance known from the underbrush near the steps up to the front door.

Tash really doesn't like snakes. So after helping her recover from a heart attack of a snake appearing inches from her feet while she was wearing open toe sandals, we headed in to get cooking.

The meal consisted of a salad course, then the Beef Wellington was served alongside roasted carrots and fondant potato cylinders, and the dessert was Nutella and banana crepes.

We mad everything from scratch aside from the duxelles (mushroom filling for the Beef Wellington) because that takes hours to make all by itself, but we learned how to do it as well.

So everyone peeled a potato and carrots and we got things prepared.

For the Beef Wellington, the filet is first seared in a pan, removed, wrapped with a piece of prosciutto and sealed in saran wrap and placed in the fridge to cool.

After cooling, it is wrapped in puff pastry that is rolled out to size with its inner side covered in duxelles, and all edges closed so no meat is showing.  Then the whole thing is coated in an egg wash to seal the seams and the meat inside.   Into the oven it goes.

The pan is then deglazed with a good wine (never use cooking wine for this), and then reduced by half and it makes one heckuva nice sauce with beef stock added and then reduced again.

While others did the steps for the salad and such, Tash and I made the crepes for the dessert from scratch and it was so good I made that again for breakfast here and we just feasted on crepes for breakfast.  

Super easy and fun to do.

An impressive looking and tasting meal that is actually pretty easy to make.

Accompanied with a nice pinot noir that we brought along (the meal was BYOW), it was a most excellent dinner. It's visually impressive, tasty as all get out, and a rousing success and good time had by all.

I'm going to have to make this again for fancy occasions.

A Man And An Easy One-Dish Comfort Food Plan

It's grey out, local roads were absolutely covered with ice this morning, and it's time for some comfort food for dinner and I'm cooking.

Since I'm cooking it needs be simple.

Chicken Cream of Mushroom Soup and Rice simple.

You'll need:

1 deep oven safe baking dish with a lid
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup;
1 pack Chicken drumsticks;
1 cup rice;
paprika and pepper;
water; and

An oven pre-heated to 375 degrees.

Got it? Ok, on to make it:

First add a cup of rice to the dish.

Next, add the can of soup all nice and gloppy. Keep the can for the next step.

Add a can and a half of water, and use a spoon to scrape out any remaining soup.

Add a good solid shake of paprika and some freshly ground pepper and stir.

Then add the drumsticks and cover with the liquid.

Note that the package claims there's five drumsticks inside, yet there's only four in the pack, so someone can't even count to five out there...

Cover the baking dish and place in oven.

It should be done in about 50 minutes. The rice will absorb the liquid and the chicken will be nice and ready.

An easy, simple, comfort food for those grey days.

Sunday Night Eats: Awesome And Easy Roast Chicken

This is a real simple recipe that makes a wicked easy and tasty roast chicken.

1. Preheat your oven to 425, or I find the convection setting at 410 works best if you've got one.

2. Wash the chicken, pat it dry, remember to remove that giblet package in the the body cavity.

3. Take powdered garlic and really shake a lot into the body cavity, then folow it with kosher salt and black pepper.

4. Then drop in a large amount of thyme into the cavity.

5. Next cut a lemon in half and insert it into the body cavity. You're done prepping the inside.

Now for the outside:

6. Melt two tablespoons of butter and brush it over the outside of the chicken. Leave the breast side up.

7. Then shake on a lot more powdered garlic on the breast side, followed by black pepper and kosher salt.

8. Then spread some olive oil onto the bottom of a roasting pan and put the chicken breast side down into the pan.

9. Then put the chicken into a roasting pan breast side down and then brush the side facing up with melted butter and then douse this side now facing up with garlic powder, black pepper and kosher salt.

10. Insert chicken into the oven, set your timer for 90 minutes and go off and do something else for 90 minutes. Easy, right? If you're the nervous type, you may check it from time to time, but remember, a watched chicken never roasts.

11. Come back 90 minutes later, remove chicken from oven, make sure its fully cooked and juices run clear. Slice and serve immediately.

It comes out nice and juicy with a crisp skin. Perfect.

It doesn't get much easier than this for a great roast chicken.

Hanukkah Recipe Time

Hanukkah as written above is a festival of lights, the holiday commemorating the miracle of the oil that burned in the lamp in the liberated Temple in Jerusalem for eight days when there was only enough oil for one day. It is a festival of religious freedom and an celebration of an ancient Jewish feat of arms in driving the Hellenic Syrians/Greeks out of the land of Israel and freeing the nation to be Jewish again and able to worship freely.

The second miracle of Hanukkah is that the Jewish people have been eating latkas and doughnuts fried in oil for hundreds of years, yet we survive!

Now you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy latkes and sufganiot (homemade doughnuts! - think a Jewish variety of beignets for those of you lucky enough to have gone to Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans). However not being on a low fat, low carb diet is pretty much a prerequisite for enjoyment. Consult a physician before preparing and consuming the recipes below.

So in honor of the holiday I give you Natasha'a recipe for the epitome of the Hannukah Latka, and for Sufganiot. Indeed her recipes are the perfect embodiment of everything a Latka and Sufganiot should be and they're both very easy to make, and fun to cook and then eat.

This is Natasha typing.

There really isn't a recipe for latkas, but I will try my best.
1. Peel potatoes until you get sick of peeling (I would say 6 potatoes for the family of 4)
2. Get your newly seven-year old to cut them up while begging her to keep her fingers out of the way.
3. Grate them using your indispensable food processor. Grate a large onion while you are at it [don't grate them too finely].
4. Get your four-year old to crack a couple of eggs. Make sure all the shells are out of the batter.
5. Add salt and black pepper. Start adding flour or matzah meal until the mixture comes together (I added about half a cup).
6. Make the batter into pancakes and fry in lots and lots of oil until golden brown and delicious [have your husband do this, he's not scared of using lots of oil]. Blot on paper towers and serve and sour cream and apple sauce (home-made from apples you picked yourself, of course).

Okay, now for the sufganiot/donuts.
1. Go to the store and get fresh self-rising flour. Do not substitute any other kind of flour, and do not use last years - it has lost its magic.
2. Combine the following:
-- 1 1/4 cup self-rising flour
-- 1/2 cup sugar
-- 3/4 cup sour cream
-- 1 egg
-- vanilla
3. Deep fry in lots of oil.
4. Drain on paper towels and serve with powered sugar. Some people like to inject these donuts with jam, but while I was looking for the injector, all the donuts disappeared.

Enjoy!

Happy Hannukah from our family to you and yours.

Question of the Evening

If you take a can of V8, add vodka and spices and turn it into a Bloody Mary does it still count as two servings of vegetables?

Answer: Drink it and you won't really care too much either way.

Apparently according to Wikipedia, such a concoction is called an Bloody Eight or an Eight Ball. Mind you Eight Ball sounds like you're doing illegal narcotics - "Dude, want an Eight Ball?", so we shall remain refined and stick to calling it a Bloody Mary.

What you'll need (per serving):
1 glass to put the following in, in order -
1.5 oz (1 jigger) Vodka, chilled (Stolichnaya is what I've got on hand and its good).
1 can V-8, chilled.
2 twists of black pepper grinded from the pepper grinder.
1 tsp Worcestershire (Lea & Perrins, of course accept no substitutes).
1 squirt lemon juice.
3 drops of Frank's RedHot or Tabasco sauce.

Mix drink, unwind and contemplate the remains of the day as you consume the drink and feel virtuous that you just drank 2 servings of vegetables with your after-dinner cocktail.