Garden Herb Chicken with Greek Salad

The rice was done with a teaspoon of olive oil, salt and a few drops of fresh lemon juice. The chicken was marinated in herbs from the garden then BBQ'd.

Chicken Marinade

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp paprika

juice 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup chopped fresh oregano

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 tbsp chopped chives/green onion

I just rolled the chicken in it and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. It was enough, the flavour was better than I hoped. I BBQ'd the chicken for 20 minutes on medium high. I managed to squeeze a few drops of lemon on the breast on the plate too.

Greek Salad

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

2 medium tomatoes diced

4 inches English cucumber diced

tbsp chopped chives/ green onions

2 tbsp feta cheese

10 black olives

Toss and serve.

The chicken was outstanding. The oregano came through beautifully with a nice garlic background, the lemon tang carried it home. Everything else was merely delicious.

Pork Dinner Sausage with Caramelized Onions, Cabbage, Turnip, Carrot and Crimini Mushrooms

I like cabbage, sometimes, so it's an occasional purchase. One was cut in half already so I bought half to go with the turnip I already had in the fridge. I've started buying Brian's pork dinner sausages at Mitchell's, he makes them in-store and they're very good and inexpensive. I also picked up some crimini mushrooms to add some earthy flavour to the dish. I started with the turnip, it takes an hour to cook so I set it going. I diced up the cabbage and put it in the steamer and set it over the turnip. For the turnips last twenty minutes I added a diced carrot to the pot. The onion I sliced thinly then caramelized and removed from the pan then the same for the sliced mushrooms. I fried the sausages to get a nice sear all round then let them cool. 

In the empty pan I put a big teaspoon of flour and enough butter to make a paste and cook the flour taste off. Once it's bubbled a bit, slowly add beef stock. I used up beef stock that was in the cupboard for a while. I probably put in two cups of stock. If you whisk the stock in slowly it shouldn't have lumps. Add a bay leaf.  Add the pre cooked ingredients back into the pan, cutting the sausage into pieces. I drained the turnip and carrot and added that and the steamed cabbage. Bring it to a simmer adding salt and pepper as needed. The pork sausage needs to be cooked in the centre so I let it simmer for a few minutes to also develop more flavour. I plated the stew with mashed potatoes.

It developed good flavour but in hindsight I think cabbage goes really well with a hint of liquorice flavour so I'll try that next time. Anise, star anise, caraway seed, fennel, dill and tarragon all have a version of this flavour so it should be easy to find something to try.

Breaded Pork Cutlet with Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli and Jalapeno Jelly

Breaded pork cutlet from Mitchell's, good enough flavour and so easy to cook, just fry it. I boiled a couple of potatoes and steamed some broccoli. The broccoli was cooled and reheated in olive oil. the potatoes were finished with butter, salt, milk. The condiment is Jalapeno Pepper Jelly made by my neighbour Jillian Amatt and I sprinkled fresh lemon juice over the broccoli on the plate.

It looks simple but it tastes great and took almost no effort.

Lemon Dill Chicken Breast with Mashed Potatoes and Greek Salad

I was beginning to wonder if I could make chicken without Cajun spice. I was looking at spring growth in the herb garden and dill was coming up from root so I grabbed a stalk and took it to the kitchen. I stripped the leaves from the stems, chopped them up a bit and put them in a bowl. To that I added 2 cloves garlic diced, 1/4 cup olive oil, juice from half a lemon, teaspoon of salt, pinch of cayenne. I rolled the breasts in the marinade let them sit for a few minutes. The acid in the lemon whitened the meat but it cooked out nicely. The flavour would still come out with less lemon so next time I'll use half as much. I BBQ'd the breasts for twenty minutes on medium high heat.

Mashed potatoes were boiled, drained, mashed, salted, buttered and finished with milk whipped in with a fork. Using a fork prevents over whipping the potatoes and turning them into a thick unpalatable paste. Green onion dropped over top so it doesn't look so bare. Turns out the onion tastes good with it too.

Greek salad is one of the easiest to make. Chop up a tomato or two, 4 inches of English cucumber. a couple of green onions. Add a few black olives and break some feta cheese over it all. Drizzle some olive oil over it and the juice from half a lemon. Pinch of salt and come black pepper. Toss and serve.

The chicken was wonderful. So were the potatoes. The salad was good too. No wonder I'm fat.

Cajun Chicken with Caesar Salad

This meal usually loosens up our 60ish constitutions. Lettuce is finally on sale for .98 a head instead of $3 so it's a joy to have a plate of crisp romaine again. I actually used a big pot instead of smaller bowl for mixing. Helped a bit, an even larger pot would have been easier. A Caesar Salad has 3 components, romaine lettuce, croutons and dressing. The croutons I usually make from Alpine Bread.  Dry it, cut it up and fry croutons in olive oil with a bit of salt. 

Romaine lettuce cut up, washed and spun dry. Use the whole head.

Caesar Dressing

1 egg yolk

1/3-1/2 cup olive/canola oil

1-3 cloves garlic

few drops Worcestershire Sauce

anchovy fillet (if you have one)

salt

black pepper

juice from half a lemon

parmesan cheese

Separate the egg yolk and wash the whites down the sink unless you really want to make pralines. One teaspoon at a time whisk the oil into the egg yolk. Whisk in all the other ingredients except Parmesan and croutons. Toss the dried lettuce in the dressing till evenly coated. Add croutons and parmesan cheese and toss again. Serve.

The Cajun Chicken was seasoned, salted and coated with olive oil then cooked on the BBQ for about 20 minutes. 

I always feel good after eating this meal.

Pork Dinner Sausage in Southern Gravy with Fresh 10 Grain Bread

I wasn't sure what to call this but I found a recipe for Southern Gravy that was flour and milk so I went with that. I started in the afternoon deciding to make 10 grain bread. I got out my french bread recipe, swapped 1/4 cup 10 grain cereal for 1/4 cup flour and adding a tablespoon of molasses. It worked but a couple of things I could have done would have made it much better. I cook for two people so my recipes are always for small amounts.

French Bread

1 2/3 cup flour - I use all purpose flour but swap a tablespoon of wheat gluten

2/3 cup water

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp oil

optional:

1/4 cup 10 grain cereal

1 tbsp molasses

2 tsp sugar

Turn oven light on, the light alone warms the oven to the perfect temperature to rise bread and make yogurt. Warm the water to 35C or till it feels neither warm nor cold when you stick your finger in it. Yeast likes the same temperature your body does. Add the yeast and struggle a bit to get the lumps out. No doubt there is an easy way to do this I have yet to discover. I let the yeast rehydrate for a few minutes before making the dough, it seems to work much better. If I had put the cereal in the water first the soften up for a couple of minutes it would have produced a better result. I'm not sure if I have to add more water for this, we'll have to see next time.

Put water in stand mixer bowl. Add wet then dry ingredients. Lower dough hook. Turn mixer on for 5-10 seconds then turn off for 5 seconds. Repeat this until all ingredients are taken up. It makes better dough than just turning the machine on. Once the dough has been made, increase the speed and let it run so the dough is slapping against the bowl. The dough needs to be on the hook and stretched against the bowl by centrifugal force to be kneaded by the machine. If it's too dry it will form a ball and require hand kneading.

Once the dough is soft enough to slowly stretch under it's own weight it's ready to go. It will be soft and supple. If it's firm it will bake into a rock. Put one tablespoon olive oil in a bowl, roll the dough in it and put it in the oven till it doubles in size, an hour or so. Remove from bowl, punch down or stretch into a roll or baguette and put on baking sheet. Let rise to double again. Remove from oven. Turn oven on and warm up to 375F. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Dinner Sausage with Southern Gravy

3 strips bacon

2 onions sliced thinly

2 sticks celery

1/2 red pepper diced

1 large potato

3 pork dinner sausages - fresh made at Mitchell's they are wonderful

1/2 cup frozen corn

1 tsp beef stock powder

1 tbsp flour

1/4 cup butter

1 cup milk

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Peel, dice and boil the potato then drain. Fry 3 strips bacon. Fry the onions in the bacon fat adding oil as needed. When the onions are caramelized add diced red pepper and celery. Sweat these vegetables then remove all from the pan. Fry the sausages so there is colour all around them. Remove from the pan. Turn heat in pan below medium and add flour and butter. Cook the flour in the butter for a minute or two. The longer it cooks the less it will thicken so go easier on the milk. Remove from heat and whisk in the milk and beef stock and add the corn. Put back on burner, bring up to a simmer, add thyme. Chop sausage and bacon and add everything back into the pan including potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the corn is cooked and the gravy has thickened plate with sliced bread and enjoy!

Liver, Bacon, Onions, Turnip, Peas and Potatoes

I liked liver even as a child, especially with ketchup. This time I tried plating the onion and bacon in the centre, then the liver over top. The liver is too spread out and maybe there's too much so it wasn't effective. 

I thoroughly cooked three strips of bacon first then caramelized two onions in the bacon fat. Even thinly sliced the onions still took 20 minutes to slowly turn sweet and golden without drying to paper. While they were cooking I salted, floured the liver. The turnip was boiled for over an hour so it was completely softened, finished with butter. The mashed potatoes were finished with a little butter, milk and pinch of salt. The frozen peas were done in the microwave and finished with butter and a pinch of salt.

When the onions were done I removed them from the pan and put the liver in. If it's thinly sliced, liver cooks really fast so everything else should be ready first. 

I let the peas sit in the hot water a minute too long. I cooked the potato in a little too much water so they were a touch mushy. The turnip was over cooked but still tasted good. I sliced the onion very thinly which gave a better result. I ate everything on the plate so it was good enough not to leave any.