Ham, Broccoli and Cheese Rotini Casserole

A nice black forest ham was all that looked like a good deal at Safeway.  I already had broccoli thanks to Save-On having it for $1.29/lb and cheese from the last sale.  I hadn't thought about a starch till I got home and started preparing things.  I'll use rotini pasta so it won't seem like macaroni and cheese. Eventually I figured out I was making my first casserole. I think when I decided the casserole dish would be perfect!

I diced an onion and a stick of celery. I cut up a crown of broccoli and enough ham to feed two hungry men and two little doggies. One and three quarter cups rotini pasta cooked for half or a bit more of it's time.  It will absorb some of the cheese sauce as it finishes cooking. In a large pan I sweated the onions and celery, then added the cubed ham.  I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour over all and added a tablespoon of butter and cooked that in.  First an ounce of chicken stock, then a cup of milk, let it heat up.  Add a cup and a half of grated cheddar.  When the cheese is melted add the drained half cooked pasta and toss to coat.  Add the broccoli and toss. Pour into the casserole dish and top with grated parmesan and bread crumbs if you have them. If you use bread crumbs, spray a little oil over them so they brown. Put in a 350ºF oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

The vinaigrette for the salad is 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, dot of dijon mustard. Whisk and toss the salad in it.

It was quite wonderful for my first casserole. Having a salad every night is helping too.

Chicken Tomato Curry

Ever in search of new ways to cook the same old thing I decided to try tomato curry this time.  Fern complained about the pineapple coconut curry being too sweet. Pineapple tends to do that. So I started out in the direction of Indian Butter Chicken and diced a potato into the sauce. Turns out Fern thought the potato was pineapple. When I served dinner he complained that he was looking forward to pineapple in the sauce! I'll never win.

To make this meal, dice an onion and sweat it.  Dice chicken and flour it then add it to the pan and sear it all round.  Add up to one tablespoon of curry powder and some salt and cook it a minute.  Add a can of tomato paste and an ounce of chicken stock.  Add water till it thins into a sauce. Add a potato diced into 1/4 inch pieces, preferably par boiled. If you want to cook the potato in the sauce then remove the chicken so it doesn't become rubbery. About 5 minutes from ready add some frozen peas. Serve over rice.

The salad is garden mix bag of salad. I make a vinaigrette, toss the salad in it and put it in a bowl. If I do that, we eat salad. If I have to make the salad too, we don't eat salad.

Vinaigrette

1 tbsp olive/canola oil

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 dot dijon mustard. (less than half a chocolate chip)

1/2 tsp salt

pepper

Whisk and toss the salad in it.

Liver and Onions

I tried to get liver the other day and didn't find it.  Turns out that Save On Foods has it so I bought the smallest package.  Broccoli was on special too so I bought two crowns. I had onions and bacon in the fridge so I headed home.  I peeled potatoes and readied the vegetables, sliced up two large onions and cut three pieces of bacon into small pieces. First I fried the bacon till crispy and added the onions and plenty more oil. I kept tossing the onions till they were golden.  When the vegetables were almost done I ran them under cold water to stop cooking.  Then put them back in the empty pot to finish in olive oil.

The liver I cut into manageable pieces, salted and floured it.  It was cut very thin which made it difficult to work with and it cooked in  a flash, literally. Turn it over quickly and brown the other side and plate. I like liver with ketchup too so I put a squirt here and there. The mashed potatoes have just butter, salt and milk in them.

I guess I could have placed the ketchup a little better, but it all tasted good and that's what it's all about.  Some day maybe I'll make it pretty too, but for now, I'm hungry.

Macaroni and Cheese

Lunch time! Mac'n Cheese is almost as easy to make as KD and tastes light years better. I like ketchup on my mac'n cheese, I have since I was old enough to hold the ketchup bottle. To start, grate about a cup of cheese. I usually use Balderson's Extra Old Cheddar but Armstrong also produces a good result. Get a large pot of water boiling and measure between 2/3 and 1 cup dry macaroni per person. Salt the water and put the macaroni in for 8 to 12 minutes depending on brand. (read the package) When it's done, drain it. Don't rinse cooked macaroni, put it in the empty pot and let the sauce loosen it up.

While the macaroni cooks, in a sauce pan put a little oil and a pad of butter, at least a tablespoon altogether. Put a teaspoon of flour on the butter and turn the heat up to a bit more than medium low.  The butter and flour should make a thin paste that needs to bubble a bit to cook off the flour taste.  Don't cook it till it starts to brown. Remove from heat and add a splash (1/2 ounce) of chicken stock to give a savoury background, whisk the lumps out and add a bit of milk.  Whisk smooth and add more milk up to about one cup, whisk again and return to heat.  Heat the sauce up to bubbling and add the cheese.  When the cheese is all melted and the sauce is the right consistency, pour the sauce into the macaroni, toss and serve. If the sauce is too thin, add a little instant blending flour over the top, mix and cook the flour taste off for a minute or two. If it's too thin, add a little milk.

Easy and delicious!

Pork Tenderloin

Fern had to eat early so I had to rush things a bit.  I didn't marinate the meat like I did last time and it showed.  I didn't get the bright acid taste into the meat and I used dried oregano which didn't impart as much flavour as fresh. It was good but not great.

I started with a shallot diced and when it was sweated added a few cloves of crushed garlic.  I cut the tenderloin into bite size pieces and seasoned them with salt and pepper. The pork went into the pan and got a nice sear all around then I added the mushrooms and green pepper. A little water accumulated in the pan so I sprinkled a little flour over it and tossed it together. That gave a nice sauce. I sprinkled lemon juice over the pan and cooked it off to give the dish a little zing. I served it next to rice and put some soy sauce on mine. Fern prefers plain white rice, that's why I don't usually do a pilaf. 

For a 30 minute meal it was pretty good.

Chicken Breast

The chicken was great, the sauce shouldn't have made it on the plate.  I intended to put a few drops of white wine vinegar in the sauce and half an ounce splashed out. I rescued it as best I could but Fern didn't like it at all. I should know by now if I screw up, leave it off the plate. 

I salted and floured the chicken with a little corn meal.  I browned it on both sides in a pan then put the pan in the oven for 25 minutes. Rice was plain with salt and a bit of oil. The vegetables were steamed then cooled under running water and reheated in olive oil for flavour. 

Except for the sauce, it was great!

High Fibre Pasta and Prawns

I tried other high fibre pasta and it had a gritty mouth feel, Barilla isn't gritty. I wasn't sure if the taste was exactly the same but it wasn't noticeably different. The prawns I defrosted in cold water and took the tails off.  I sweated a shallot with a bit of basil then added the prawns.  I cooked colour into them but didn't cook them through so they could finish in the sauce.  I took them from the pan and set them aside. 

I opened a can of organic tomato sauce, the best I could find (it's almost as good as Mezzetta but over $4 cheaper). I cooked it down slowly letting the water come off while the pasta cooked. Five minutes before the pasta was done I added the prawns into the sauce.  

While that was finishing I put one tablespoon oil in a bowl and added two teaspoons white wine vinegar to it. A bit of salt and some black pepper.  Whisk and toss the lettuce in it.  I'm finding a bag of cut up salad fixings can be cheaper than buying all the ingredients and have them all wilt. 

A little grated parmesan on the pasta and serve.  It was wonderful.  Having a small salad served with the pasta ensured the salad was eaten. It was all mouth wateringly good.