Tips for Home Cooks Part 2--Better fried chicken, use of vinegar, home made mac n' cheese, pizza dough at home, leftover mashed potatoes, etc.

This is my second installment in a short list of tips for home cooks who want to put in a little extra effort and learn some quick little items to enhance their technique if you haven't already figured some of this out.  I read a lot of cookbooks and food magazines but I am constantly humbled by what I don't know.

I hope this is helpful for a few of you out there!

*Better fried chicken--I have always struggled with making great fried chicken at home, but today I tested out a technique I saw on some food show that really helps.  I don't have a deep fryer, but this worked fine in a pan with a half inch of canola oil.  My kids were starving, so I didn't even use my usual bone-in chicken; we sliced up the dreaded boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead!  (I just prefer bone-in almost all the time).

The key was to soak the cutlets in milk, dip in a flour mix ("Frying Magic" brand works fine if you don't want to mix your own), and then DIP A SECOND TIME IN MILK, then sprinkle on my flour mix.  Simple adjustment but the results were so much better.

*Vinegar--this is a tiny thing I read from one of Michael Ruhlman's incredible books; you can see his site by clicking here.  He's a great teacher.  The idea is to simply splash a tiny amount of vinegar into a soup to brighten up all the flavors.  Trust me, it works.  A teaspoon is often sufficient for a home cook's pot.  Chili recipes often use vinegar, so why not soups?  I like apple cider vinegar for many uses, and rice wine vinegar is an obvious component for Asian dishes.

*Home made mac n' cheese--I still enjoy the boxed stuff once in a long while, but making home made mac n' cheese is awesome and my kids love it.  You can search for recipes, but my basic plan includes a roux (butter & flour), then becomes a Bechamel when cream or milk is whisked in, then a rich cheese sauce when you fold in great shredded cheddar, gruyere, or whatever you prefer.  Then, fold in al dente elbow macaroni with a bit of salt and the secret ingredient--ground dry mustard.  Just a bit.  Then bake it with good breadcrumbs on top.  If you don't have time, skip the baking and it will still be superior to the blue box stuff. Optional ingredients include bits of cooked bacon or onion.

*See my recent pizza dough post on this!  Very worth the time and mess.

*Leftover mashed potatoes--again, see my new post on this.

*Squeeze lemon juice (from actual lemons) on veggies, grilled meat, etc.  Squeeze lime juice on your tacos and use real corn tortillas (fry them quickly on each side for maximum flavor).

Have fun and go the extra step to enjoy great food at home!

What to do With Leftover Mashed Potatoes: Potato Fritters

After Thanksgiving I had some leftover mashed potatoes; a simple way to transform them into a snack or part of a meal is to mix them with some egg, toss in chopped parsley and scallions, and fry them in real butter.

This was really simple and went well with a dollop of sour cream on top, much like what you'd do with German style potato pancakes.

Tips for Home Cooks--Roasting Chicken, Curing Salmon at Home, etc.

In the last few years I've been doing a lot of reading about cooking and have improved a lot of things in my home cooking.  I humbly present my first set of tips for home cooks who want some simple ways to boost what they can do, some of which I've already posted about (see the links highlighted):

• Roast a chicken every week, enjoy it with sides and maybe a gravy from the drippings, and use the extra meat for either a chicken noodle soup or shred the leftover meat for a taco filling.  Substitute rotisserie chicken from a store if easier.

• Use leftover french bread that is getting a little stale by chopping it up and tossing it like crutons in a salad with vinegarette, or use the chunks to thicken a soup.  Even simply heating up chicken broth with some leftover bread will warm you up and be an easy snack.

• Pat dry sea scallops for sauteeing, otherwise they won't sear and just poach lamely in all the water they release upon cooking. 

• Saute onions!  Just slice white or yellow onions thinly and saute them in olive oil until the have a nice mix of carmelization and sweetness while retaining a bit of crunch.  Use medium to high heat but reduce before burning them.  With some experience this can become the number one topping for your burgers and chicken breast sandwiches. 

• Cure your own salmon--buy a good, fresh piece and rub a mix of salt and brown sugar all over it, then rub in a splash of rum or whiskey.  Wrap it tight and in two days you'll have a delicious filet you can thinly slice into lox.  Place it atop a traditional bagel & cream cheese, or go for a BLA--bagel, lox, and avocado (mash avocado and lemon juice as a topping, and add slices of tomato and red onion to complete it)

Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce, Chicken, and Carrot--Easy Kid Fuel

Many weekends when my kids have soccer games or tournaments, they get sick of concession stand hot dogs and hamburgers.  As a healthy and tasty alternative, I often whip up a pile of noodles the night before and stir in either a quick Alfredo sauce or use jarred Thai peanut sauce.

In this version, I used partially whole grain spaghetti, a decent jarred Thai peanut sauce ("Bankok Padang"), shredded carrots, and leftover braised chicken.  Sometimes I'll toss chopped green onion and peanuts for even more flavor.

My son loves spicy food but you can easily use less of the sauce, or buy a milder version.  When I make something like this for myself, I will squeeze lime juice on top and use julienned red pepper instead of carrot.

Leftover Crusty Bread

If you're like me, you buy French bread at a store and use it for various things.  Even basic grocery stores can provide decent French or Italian bread, so no need to make it yourself, though I recommend trying it sometime. 

Inevitably you'll end up with dried out bread that is too crusty for sandwiches, garlic bread, or making pizza bread.  However, no need to throw it out. 

Two great uses of such bread:

1) cut it into cubes and toss with a large salad that has a lot of moisture, i.e. chopped tomatoes and homemade vinaigrette.  It will give your salad enough heft to serve as a whole meal.  One time I tossed a small tin of Italian tonno (tuna), bread cubes, mayo, chopped tomato, chopped red onion, balsamic vinegar, dijon, and olive oil together to make a great lunch.

2) chop or tear your crusty bread into cubes and use it as a thickener for any kind of soup; I especially like to add it to a rustic Italian style soup of cannellini beans, broth, leftover chicken or pork, onion, and garlic.  Any soup or stew is a great use of dried out French bread. 

What to do with leftover rotisserie chicken!

Sometimes I pick up a rotisserie chicken from the local grocery to make quick tacos for the kids.  I usually have plenty of chicken leftover, especially the dark meat that they don't favor, so I will make chicken noodle soup or some similar concoction.

In this photo, I've sauteed onion and carrots in olive oil before adding a cup or two of chicken broth:

After the veggies have softened up a bit I add all of the chicken, even if much of it is still on the bone.  It's a good idea to let the juices seep into the soup--a little fat isn't going to be a big deal and it adds a lot of flavor.

When the chicken has heated up slowly on low heat, I remove the pieces and let them cool, then shred the remaining meat from the bones from hand and add it back to the soup.  I will either add egg noodles to finalize the soup, or some orzo.  In this photo, I simply have added some sweet corn from a can along with just a small amount of orzo.

All I'm really doing here is short-cutting the production of chicken stock using a classic mirepoix (saute of onion, carrot, and celery) and utilizing the leftover chicken immediately to form a hearty, tasty soup!  It's very easy to adjust to your own tastes--I might suggest a version with cilantro, chopped raw onion, and lime at the end for a Mexican theme.  The main point is to use up the delicious roasted chicken!

Pizza Tortilla Rolls for Kids

My kids were recently hungry in between breakfast and lunch, so I quickly wrapped up some pizza sauce, mozzerella cheese, a bit of oregano, and sliced pepperoni into tortillas, and baked these little rolls quickly to make them a hearty snack!  They specifically asked me to include this on my food blog, so I hope it shows one way to whip up a quick bite to eat when there are leftovers around to use up!  (in this case, I already had the pizza making ingredients open and available in the fridge, and making something out of leftovers is an art in and of itself in my humble opinion)