Catching Up
Hey hey, Gentle Reader, it's Thursday. I don't know about you, but this week has felt like two in one because the time has just flown, yet I seem to have accomplished nothing.
Okay, so I did accomplish a few things. Let me tell you about them!
I Fry Chicken
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I grew up in a house in which chicken was not fried frequently. Steak was chicken-fried with alarming regularity (how we've all lived to tell the tale amazes me, to be quite honest), but Mum wasn't one for frying chicken. No, if we wanted fried chicken, we picked up a container of it at Kwik-Pik in Fairview, often after Mass. Along with some fried potato wedges for the elder sister and Dad. Yum.
Given my lack of exposure to fried chicken, you can understand then, Gentle Reader, why I've never done it in my own home. Plus there's that whole fear of fat and fear of getting burned by hot, popping grease.... But I have successfully conquered my fear of the fried chicken with the help of the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen. I haven't said it in a while, but...
I Heart Christopher KimballTable salt and ground black pepper
1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 T vegetable oil
2 T unsalted butter
1 medium onion, minced
3 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 T)
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 1/2 C long-grain rice
1/2 C dry white wine
4 1/2 C low-sodium chicken broth
1 C frozen peas
5 scallions, sliced thin
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season it with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in flour to coat and shake off any excess.
- Heat the oil in a 12" nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the chicken well on one side (about 5 min.), then transfer it to a plate and set aside.
- Off the heat, add the butter to the skillet and swirl to melt. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and return to medium-high heat until softened (2-5 min.).
- Stir in the garlic and pepper flakes, then cook until fragrant (about 30 sec.).
- Stir in the rice thoroughly and let it toast (about 30 sec.).
- Stir in the wine and let the rice absorb it completely (about 1 min.), then stir in the broth, scraping up any browned bits.
- Nestle the chicken into the rice, browned side facing up, including any accumulated juices.
- Cover and cook over medium heat until the thickest part of the chicken registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer (about 10 min.).
- Transfer the chicken to a clean plate. Gently brush off and discard any rice clinging to the chicken, then tent the chicken with foil and set aside.
- Return the skillet of rice to medium-low heat, cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender (8-12 min.).
- Off the heat, sprinkle the peas over the rice, cover and let warm through (2 min.).
- Add the scallions and lemon juice to the rice. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with the chicken and lemon wedges.
As always with these recipes from America's Test Kitchen, I have no nutritional info to share. Sorry!
The Faudie's Futzings
- I used canola oil because I have no straight-up veggie oil. Does that make a difference? I dunno. That's why I'm The Faudie.
- While I do have some unsalted butter (or at least I think I do), I used Promise. I didn't notice that its additional water content screwed up the recipe: All the liquid was absorbed quite nicely by the end.
- In lieu of peas, which the boys won't eat, I threw two cups of once-frozen broccoli left over from something I'd made earlier. The husband said he'd eat that, and I figured I had a better shot at getting the boy to eat the rest of the dish with large chunks of green instead of thousands of little green things. And I was right. The boy ate quite a large portion of chicken and rice along with a few mandatory brocc pieces. I declare victory!
Yummy!By the by, I did use unbleached all-purpose flour--bought it from Bulk Foods Playland at Central Markup just for this recipe. And the scallions--those are just green onions. Since scallions and green onions seem interchangeable to some folks, I had to rewatch part of the episode to be sure what exactly the recipe needs. Now you don't have to worry!
I Have a Second Go-Round With Rice Krispie Treats
A few days ago, I experimented pretty heavily with a Rice Krispie treat recipe--and it wasn't an unmitigated disaster. Emboldened by this success and looking to whip up another quickie dessert recipe, I opened up my King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, set it before the husband, gave him his marching orders...and he found a few recipes that are probably yummy but would be difficult to modify so that I could eat them and not be miserable with guilt. So I took back the tome, thumbed through a few pages and found something else.
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 C (2.75 oz.) corn syrup
6 C (6.25 oz.) crisp rice cereal
1 C (6 oz.) chocolate chips (optional)
- Line a 10" x 15" jelly roll pan with parchment or waxed paper. Spray the paper lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the cereal in a large bowl.
- In a medium-size saucepan set over low heat, combine the peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk and corn syrup, then stir until smooth. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Pour the warm peanut butter mixture over the cereal, stirring until it's evenly combined.
- Use a flexible spatula to press the cereal into the pan.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the bars while they're still warm. As an additional option, spread the softened chips over the top of the cereal.
- Let the pan sit for 5 min. and chill until set, then cut into bars.
Nutritional Info
This info is for a bar with chocolate.
Calories: 153
Fat: 8 g
Protein: 4 g
Complex carbs: 7 g
Sugar: 11 g
Fiber: 1 g
Cholesterol: 5 mg
Na: 128 mg
The Faudie's Futzings
- I used reduced-fat Peter Pan, so that probably lowered the total fat per serving some. I have some low-sodium Better 'n Peanut Butter, but I decided to just use good 'ol Peter Pan.
- I ued fat-free sweetened condensed milk. I have no idea if the fat-free version of this stuff impacts a recipe. Perhaps someone with experience using both kinds can tell me, for I have never used anything but the fat-free kind. Eaten? That's another story....
- I used half a cup of Nestle mini morsels because that's all I had on hand. Well, in terms of chocolate chips options, that is, for I'm fresh out of carob chips and any other variety of chocolate chips. I only used half a cup because a full cup of mini morsels is chocolate overload, which isn't always a good thing, Gentle Reader.
- I exercised the option to smear the softened chocolate all over the cereal. Why? Dunno. Because I felt like it. So there!
So how did this recipe compare to the one I half-assed a few days ago? I have to say that I prefer the earlier ones, with the cocoa I added. I found that those cereal bars had more peanut butter taste--yet required far less peanut butter--than these bars from King Arthur. The husband agrees with me about the peanut butter flavor, but I think he's partial to King Arthur's bars. Eh, to each his own.
I have a whole lot more to post, but this one's getting excessive. Perhaps this weekend I'll take a break from The Day the House Was Cleaned event we have planned here on Saturday at Chez Boeckman-Walker to share more recipes and photos with you, Gentle Reader. Or I could just declare that cleaning out my Blog Fodder folder qualified as housecleaning while the boys scrub the floors on hands and knees.
(Yeah, I know, Gentle Reader. I'm highly deluding myself if I think I could relinquish control enough to let someone else besides me scrub the floors on hands and knees. But I have to find something for them to do. I can't do it all--again.)
0 comments:
Post a Comment