Gravy Revisited

This is my version of gravy without roasting meat. I had some leftover duck giblets from the weekend but you can basically use any left over raw meat. For more flavor in the liquid I added onion and caraway seeds. I left the skin on the onion because this makes the gravy darker, weird but true! haha These flavors echo the flavors of the duck I'll be serving this with. Feel free to add flavors that match your meat like other herbs or citrus. For a really simple, traditional gravy just season with salt and pepper once the liquid has reduced.

Ingredients:
2 duck giblets, washed and cut in half
olive oil
3 cups total of flavorful liquid. mix of wine, stock, pan juices if roasting meat, or water. Use whatever you have on hand, it'll all taste good
2 tbs. butter
2 tbs. flour
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. thaw giblets or meat and cut into smaller pieces. Drizzle olive oil in a stainless steel pan (this is important, can't get brown bits on a non stick pan). Place meat into pan and brown over medium high heat.

2. Keep turning meat over in pan every 3 minutes until the bottom is covered in brown bits. Once meat is dark/browned on the outside take it out and set aside.

3. Add 3 cups of flavorful liquid. Using a wooden spoon scrap bottom of pan to get all brown bits into the liquid.

4. Allow liquid to boil over high heat until liquid has reduced by 1/4. this is when i added the onion and caraway. now's the time to add any other flavorings you want.

5. Strain liquid and pour into a gravy separator. If you don't have one you can use a pitcher with a spout from the bottom or just let the liquids settle and skim the fat off carefully with a spoon.

6. Rinse out pan you already used to brown meat and melt 2 tbs butter. Add flour and whisk until it is a paste like consistency. Cook for about 3 minutes to get rid of floury taste (10 points to anyone who remembered this was a roux. 5 points if you didn't haha)

7. Add strained liquid to pan and whisk to get out any lumps. Cook for 2 minutes and then taste for seasoning. It'll most likely need a good bit of salt and pepper so don't be afraid to use a lot. Continue cooking gravy until it is a little thinner than the consistency you like. (it will thicken a little more while cooling)

8. Pour into a nice gravy boat or dish with a spout and serve with meat.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is awesome because it's all about the feast. It seems like this year in our family everybody did something. Tracy made a delicious turkey and stuffing. Megan made dessert, key lime pie and helped with the sweet potatoes. Rachel made dip and heated up veggies. And my mom, grandma and I made appetizers and dessert. For apps we bought things like salami and cheese and crackers, hummus and pita chips, pre-cooked and peeled shrimp. I added the "klein touch" to the purchased cocktail sauce. I feel the best way to do apps is buy some and make 1 or 2. So I decided to make crab and artichoke dip. Mom and Grandma did the shopping for all the ingredients for all the apps so making the dip was super easy. I also got to make pumpkin pie and crescent cookies. Both these recipes are on here in previous blogs but I did something different to garnish the pie. I made leaves out of extra pie crust. I'll describe that below. Normally I wouldn't do this but since it was a holiday I decided I should make it look extra pretty.

I also had a turkey day disaster. I was in charge of the gravy and my first attempt was horrible and burned and just disgusting. I wanted to deglaze the roasting pan the turkey was in by adding wine and scraping up all the brown bits. Then I was going to strain the contents of this pan and add them to a roux (equal parts butter and flour that is used to thicken liquid). I did these steps and I started to reduce the liquid and let it thicken. As it reduced I started to smell burning. It was my gravy! It was literally black and smoking. I realized soon after that there were burned bits on the bottom of the pan and not brown bits. The burned bits ruined the rest of the liquid and turned my gravy into a mess. So now I had to start over. Here was the new and successful plan. I wasn't completely satisfied with this gravy and I am going to work on it for the future so look for it to come soon.


Shrimp Cocktail Sauce:
purchased cocktail sauce (trader joe's)

When I tasted the sauce it seemed a little sweet so I added some prepared horseradish sauce (for some kick) and lemon (for a little acidity) these two additions really boosted the sauce and it was nice because we happened to have those things.

Crab and Artichoke Dip:

1 10 oz. can of crab
1 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts in water
1 lemon
1 1/2 cup mayo
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (divided)
1 t. chili powder
1 t. red chili flake ( could also use hot sauce, just want a little spice/kick in dip)
salt and pepper
garlic and onion powder if you have it but it's not necessary

1. Drain artichoke hearts and then chop roughly into bit size chunks, place in a large bowl

2. Drain crab and place in same bowl

3. Add rest of ingredients (saving 1/3 of cheese for topping) and stir together. Feel free to add more chili powder/red chili flakes if you want dip spicier. Add more lemon for a brighter/fresher taste. and Add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Feel free to customize this dip to your/ your family's taste buds.

4. Place dip in an oven proof dish and sprinkle top with rest of grated cheese. Bake in a 400 oven for 10 minutes then turn oven to broil and cook another 3-5 minutes or until crust is bubbly and slightly golden brown.

5. Serve with either french bread slices (cut on diagonal/bias for easier eating)or crackers, pita chips, or bagel slices.




Gravy:
5 tbs. butter
5 tbs flour
1 cup water
1 cup red wine
about 1/4 cup of juices from resting turkey that collected (not burnt pan drippings!)

Directions:
1. melt butter in a medium size sauce pan.

2. Whisk in flour and cook for 3 minutes. This allows the "flour taste" to be removed.

3. Whisk in water, wine, and turkey juices. Lower heat to medium low and keep liquid at a low boil

4. Keep whisking occasionally and keep cooking gravy until it is a gravy like consistency. It should coat the back of a spoon.

5. When it reaches this consistency season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Then pour into a nice gravy boat and serve with your dinner.

-other ideas about this recipe: if there isn't much turkey juices then go ahead and use chicken or beef stock as well as wine and/or water. If you want a more flavorful gravy go ahead and add bay leaves and dried herbs like rosemary and thyme or whole black peppercorns. Then strain the gravy before serving so there's no chunks and the gravy is nice and smooth.

Pumpkin Pie Garnish:

1. Roll out extra pie crust ( could use store bought crescent rolls or puff pastry)

2. Using a knife cut out a oval/leaf shape.

3. With the back of the knife blade (un-sharp side) make an indentation down the middle, tip to tip. Then make diagonal indentations from the middle line toward the outer edges. You can then roll these on your finger to give a little 3 dimension effect.

4. bake on a cookie sheet at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them after 4 or 5 min because they can get dark really fast! I suggest making extra because you'll probably lose a few.


Overall this thanksgiving was delicious and the cooking will continue into this weekend when we make ducks and dumplings which is our Czech traditional thanksgiving!

Salmon in foil with Rice 2

I really liked the last salmon I did and I wanted to use the same method but with slightly different flavors. I looked in my spice cabinet and saw all the caraway seeds from my left over duck and I decided to use "duck" flavors for the fish. This is basically salt, pepper, caraway, and onion. The caraway has a really distinct taste but the fish isn't as reminiscent of the duck as I had wished, probably because it's salmon and not duck haha. It still tasted really good so if you have any extra caraway seeds feel free to use them up with this but I must admit I like my first salmon in foil recipe slightly better. Remember the rules about buying salmon, it should smell like the sea or nothing!

Ingredients:
1 lb salmon
1 t caraway seeds
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
olive oil
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 lemon
1 lime

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 400

2. Put foil on a lipped sheet pan. Make 2, 1 ft by 1 ft pieces of foil

3. Cut salmon into two pieces using long knife strokes in the same direction. Place a piece of salmon on top of foil and create a boat around it by lifting/crimping sides.

4. drizzle each piece of fish with a little olive oil. Sprinkle caraway seeds, salt and pepper over fish.

5. Layer onion slices on top of fish and sprinkle with more salt.

6. Squeeze half of lemon and half of lime juice over salmon pieces.

7. Seal foil packets by crimping/folding foil over fish. and place on foil lined sheet pan

8. Cook in oven for 25 minutes. Once fish is in oven make side dish of rice and/or sauteed veggies.

9. Serve everything together with a little extra lime or lemon wedges.

Caramelization

This is a technique that basically brings out the sugars in a food. It's usually used for onions and sometimes shallots but it's a handy thing to know. Here's how to do it:

Slice onion (or whatever your caramelizing) in half then into thin slices. Prepare a saute pan by melting a pat of butter and drizzling a little olive oil. Allow this to heat just a little over medium heat. Then add onions and stir so everything gets coated in fat (butter/oil). Add a pinch of salt because this helps soften the onion.

Now over medium-low heat, slowly cook the onions. They will turn a golden color as they cook because the sugars inside are being cooked. This takes time and if you rush it your caramelizing can turn to burning which isn't tasty. If you need to speed up the process you can add a little sugar to the pan to get a richer color. Make sure to keep stirring the onions every few minutes so they don't stick to the pan and burn.

A note about this method: if you start with an onion, you'll end up with like 1/2 onion. The amount of the original product will go down after this process so if you want a lot of caramelized onions for burgers or something, make sure to start off with more onions then you think you need.

Blanch

This post is for Beth. She suggested I take the time to define some cooking lingo. I didn't even realize how I had taken my knowledge for granted. haha oh and beth paper shmaper?

blanching isn't too bad. It's basically making something really hot then stopping the cooking really fast by making it cold suddenly. First put a big pot of water on the stove over high heat to boil. Then get another big bowl and fill it with ice and water. Add salt to boiling water then add whatever vegetable you are blanching (it's usually veggies in this technique) Let it boil for 2 minutes or until veggies are really brightly colored. Then immediately! put in the ice bath. Allow veggies to cool in ice bath (cold water).

The point of this is to keep the veggies crisp during other cooking methods. It's also nice because you can blanch veggies ahead of time, store in a plastic bag and put in the fridge, then pull out when you want to use them and saute them for a minute to heat through. You can do lot's with this technique but sauteeing the veggies with caramelized onions/shallots and bacon fat usually makes the veggies taste pretty good haha.

Sweet Glazed Chicken

So this is in an attempt to keep eating healthy. My babysitter, Chio, used to make this glaze for ribs and chicken. I like it because there's only 3 ingredients and it has a really distinct flavor. Chio is one of the first people who taught me how to cook. I messed up many of her recipes as a kid but without all those screw-ups I wouldn't be the good cook I am today. This is also a great recipe to make right now because I'm trying to get through school work and this is a meal that you can leave alone for 10 minutes at a time.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup heinz chili sauce
1/2 cup boysenberry jam, seedless! and I recommend Knott's
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 chicken thighs
4 russet potatoes

1. Pull chicken out of fridge to come to room temp. Preheat oven to 350

2. Combine chili sauce, jam, and soy sauce in a saucepan. Bring to a low simmer so everything melts together. Allow to cool slighly

3. ON A FOIL LINED PAN!!! place chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cover both sides of chicken with sauce. Place in oven and bake 10 minutes.

4. Cook potatoes by cleaning and pricking all over with a fork. Put in the microwave for 3-4 minutes then finish in a 350 oven for 20-30 min until tender.

5. After 10 min. pull chicken out of oven and baste with more sauce. Cook 10 more min, baste again, cook 10 more min and baste again, then cook 5 more min. 35 min in total.

6. Serve Chicken and potatoes together. Feel free to top chicken with any leftover basting sauce before serving.

Salmon in foil with Rice

I'm trying to eat a little healthier again so I decided to try a new recipe for salmon. I like this one because there is very little clean up since the foil can be thrown away. Plus I wanted something fast and easy so I could watch the ducks game tonight. This recipe is great for parties because the packets are quick to put together. They are also easy to customize if someone is allergic to one of the ingredients. A great side dish to this besides rice would be green beans. Caramelize some extra shallot in bacon fat. Blanch the green beans then add to shallot pan. Saute 2 minutes then plate and serve.

This salmon uses italian flavors and very few ingredients (most of these I have in my pantry already). Make sure when buying the salmon that it smells like the sea or nothing and ask for the pin-bones and skin removed.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs salmon (basically half of a salmon)
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 shallots
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes or 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 lemon worth of juice
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken stock or water

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 400

2. Cut salmon into equal size pieces, about 5 oz each

3. Lightly coat with olive oil, then season with a good amount of salt and pepper

4. Combine shallots, tomatoes, lemon, and herbs together in a bowl and let blend/marinate a few minutes.

5. Place each piece of salmon into a square of aluminum foil. Crimp up the sides around fish so foil acts like a bowl. pour in a equal amounts of liquid into each fish packet.

6. Seal up foil packets and place on a foil lined baking sheet.

7. Cook fish for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

8. After placing fish in oven start rice. Put a pat of butter into a sauce pan and allow to melt.

9. Add rice and allow to toast for 2 minutes.

10. Add chicken stock (it might boil up so be careful) and cook for about 15 minutes over low heat or until rice is cooked through.

11. Serve salmon and rice together. Add a little lime or lemon wedges in case liquid isn't acidic enough. I just serve the dish wrapped in the foil but for a more elegant look, place fillets on a large platter and cover with tomato-shallot mixture.