Mac & Cheese

My recipe for macaroni and cheese is adapted from Martha Stewart's. Her recipe calls for a full pound of macaroni and feeds 12. Mine halves it and adds in ham and broccoli. Either way..it's delicious. It also uses a ton of pans, so clean what you can as you go or have a VERY understanding spouse to help with clean-up.

Ingredients

4 tbs butter

3 slices white bread

2 1/4 cups 2% milk

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 1/4 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese

1 cup grated smoked gouda

1/2 pound macaroni

1 1/2 cups diced ham

1 1/2 cups broccoli florets

Prep

Pre-heat oven to 375 and grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish with PAM or butter. Rip the bread up into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces and put in bowl. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and pour over the bread, tossing to coat. Let the bread sit.

I use the Kahn's L'il Ham. It's usually in the meat section on a shelf above near the kielbasa. It's a very small ham and I'll slice off about 3 half-inch slices and cube that into 1/2 inch pieces. I forgot to weigh or measure it the last time I made this, but it works out to be about enough to hold in your two hands together. It all depends on how much ham you like in your mac & cheese.

The same goes for the broccoli. I use a good size crown and get bite-sized florets equal to the volume of the cubed ham.

Cook the macaroni for about 1-2 minutes LESS than the directions say. Drain, rinse, and set aside to drain more.

In a saucepan, heat the milk. In a large skillet (with high sides) melt 4 tabs butter. When it bubbles, add the flour and cook while stirring for 1 minute. Slowly pour the hot milk into the skillet while whisking. Keep whisking until milk bubbles and thickens.

Remove the pan from the heat. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg. Add 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese and 3/4 cup gouda. Stir until all is melted.

Stir the macaroni into the cheese sauce. Add the ham and broccoli. Turn out the whole mixture into the casserole dish. Top with the remaining cheddar and gouda. Top that with the croutons that have been soaking up the melted butter.

Bake at 375 until brown on top - about a half hour.

Mom's Chicken-in-a-Biscuit

Chicken:

1 chicken, cut-up (3 pounds)

1 onion, quartered

4 celery stalks, halved

Seasonings (bay leaf, salt & pepper, simon & garfunkel)

10 cups water

Biscuit:

2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup milk

4 eggs

2 tbs cooking oil

Oil for deep frying

I always make a lot of this. The biscuit wrapped chicken makes for a great snack to grab from the fridge, or to pack into your lunch the next day.

Bring chicken to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer for 30-40 minutes. Chicken should be cooked through and starting to draw off the bone. Remove chicken, rinse, and let cool. Separate all the meat from the bones, the pieces should be varying in size from bite-size up to larger tenders.

Mix all the biscuit ingredients together a

nd add a shot of water. Fold in the chicken pieces.

Put a layer of brown paper bag (or paper towel) on a rimmed cookie sheet and warm the oven to about 250

Pour oil into deep frying pan, about 1 ½ inches deep. Heat oil to point where a piece of bread will sizzle when pl

aced in the oil. Using a large spoon (I use one that holds about ¼ cup water), remove a portion of batter and chicken and pour from spoon into the hot oil. The size of the portions depends on how you like the finished product. Some people like just one large tender in the biscuit, I tend to like a lot of smaller s

craps mixed together. An assortment makes for a good presentation at the table. Fill the pan, but don’t crowd the portions. I’ll usually do four or five at a time.

Once the batter sets in the oil, nudge it to make sure it’s free of the bottom of the pan and is slightly floating. When golden brown on the bottom, use tongs to turn them over to finish cooking to golden brown. Remove from oil and place in oven on cookie sheet to drain and stay warm.

Traditionally, chicken-in-a-biscuit is served warm with mashed potatoes, corn, and cranberry jelly. I also mix up a honey-mustard sauce using Goulden’s brown mustard and dry mustard powder. Sweet chili sauce also makes a nice condiment.

Mom's Banana Bread

4 mashed bananas

¼ cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

If you like a light fluffy bread with a taste of banana, then get a box mix cause this recipe makes a hearty moist loaf. This is my Mom’s recipe, which I think she got from her Mom. The ingredients above are enough for one loaf; I always double the recipe.

Banana bread is an exercise in patience. You can’t make a good banana bread with freshly ripe bananas; you need to wait until they are over-ripe. I’m not talking darker yellow with a few freckles of brown. You want those skins all brown, moving into black, and the bananas inside browning. The darker the banana, the sweeter the bread. You have to be patient and wait for them to be ready; not for when you want it. When I was a teen, Mom had a great deal going with the produce guy down the street at Danny’s Market. She had commented how she could never find bananas ripe enough for banana bread, because he kept taking them off the display when they went past ripe. So they struck a deal – he’d hold the over-ripe bananas aside and when she wanted some, he’d give them to her free in exchange for a loaf.

Mash up the bananas, I use my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer on a low speed. Add the soft butter, the sugar, the egg. Mix the baking soda and flour together first, then slowly add to the wet ingredients. I’ve taken to weighing flour on a digital scale, rather than trying to figure if it’s too tightly packed or loosely sifted. 5 oz is a cup. I don’t add nuts – I like a plain and simple banana bread. Tho, sometimes I do scatter a handful of dark chocolate chips into the batter – not too many, it’s not chocolate-chip banana loaf. – just a handful.

Grease a loaf pan and pour in the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Let cool about 10 minutes and invert pan to remove. Patience: let the banana bread cool completely before cutting. When cool, just slice and eat. Mom always liked a little soft butter schmeared on her slice.

Creamy Coconut Adobo Chicken

Creamy Coconut Adobo Chicken


Adobo is a Philippine way of cooking in a marinade of vinegar, garlic, and soy sauce. The recipes for that marinade vary by family and household. Even if the ingredients remain the same, the proportions can vary to result in entirely different tastes. You can have adobo chicken, pork, beef, squid…it goes with everything. It is sweet and tangy and, like arroz caldo, a wonderful comfort food.

This version of adobo chicken uses coconut milk to create a creamy sauce.

Adobo:
1 ½ cups rice vinegar
1 cup coconut milk
¼ cup soy sauce
1 head garlic, peeled and crushed
3 bay leaves
Ground pepper
3 lbs boneless chicken thighs

Mix all adobo ingredients together in a sealable bowl and add chicken. I prefer to use the boneless chicken thighs, they take the flavors well and don’t dry out in the cooking like breast meat can. Cover bowl and let rest in refrigerator at least overnight.

Adobo cooks with a strong aroma. Traditionally, we’ll make sure all the laundry is put away and the bedroom doors are shut before firing up the pan.
Heat the adobo to a boil in a large non-stick saucepan over a high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer,stirring occasionally to keep chicken covered in sauce. The chicken will take about 10-15 minutes to cook thru. Remove the chicken from the sauce.

Bring the sauce to a boil on high heat until thick - about 15 minutes. I break-up any remaining garlic with wooden spoon as it boils to incorporate it to the sauce. Remove the bay leaves when done and add chicken back to sauce to coat and heat.

Serve with white rice and steamed broccolli.

A note on leftovers: this is a meal that you want leftovers. Overnight, the flavors in the cooked adobo continue to mull and layer. Once I even made the entire meal for company a day ahead, just so that it could sit in the refrigerator overnight before I served it.

arroz caldo

Arroz Caldo

I had a major Crohn’s flare last Saturday and spent 5 days at the hospital. First just IV; then clear liquids. (When did red jello become a clear liquid?). Getting the grilled cheese was a treat, even tho it was tepid and damp. Entire time I was looking forward to a bowl of hot, gingered, comforting arroz caldo seasoned with drops of salty amber patis. Arroz caldo is Filipino comfort food. Translating to “hot rice”, it’s a chicken-and-rice dish seasoned with ginger and garlic. Perfect for a rainy day, or one of those days when life just isn’t going the way it should. The ginger calms the stomach and the flavors calm your soul. It’s also great when you have a cold.

My mother-in-law taught me her recipe; it’s a traditional process; cooked slowly over a long time with the chicken and rice melding flavors in the pot together. Delicious, but takes hours. I found another recipe that reduces the time and still gives great flavor, prepping the chicken separately and cooking the rice as a risotto. Like any recipe, I tweak it here and there each time I make it. What follows is the basic recipe and method.


The Chicken & Broth:
3 lb Chicken, skin on and bones in.
1 medium onion, quartered
3 stalks celery, cut in half
1 head garlic, peeled not crushed
Seasonings

You’ll want a mix of white and dark meat to get a nice light blend of the taste. I’ll use either a packaged whole chicken cut-up or a mix of 4 thick thighs and 2 breast halves. If I have to choose one or the other, I’ll always go with dark meat cuts. They are tastier – and cheaper. Drumsticks work ok, but there doesn’t seem to be as much as meat as you want.
Wash the chicken and put in a large pot with 10 cups of water, the onion, celery, garlic, salt, and whatever seasonings you like in your chicken broth (bay leaves, salt & pepper, simon & garfunkel). Bring to a full boil and then let simmer for about a half hour.

The goal is fully-cooked chicken that is drawing off of the bone but isn’t boiled-out. When cooked, remove the chicken to a colander. Then, slowly pour the broth and other contents of the pot through a mesh strainer into a large bowl. Let the contents drain into the bowl and then rinse any leavings from the pot. Pour the broth back into the pot and set on stove at low to stay hot.

The Rice
3 tablespoons oil
1 head garlic (12 cloves) crushed
One 2-inch piece of fresh ginger (about 1 ¾ oz) peeled and julienned
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 cup rice. White rice, short-grain.



In a large non-stick skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil (cornola/veg) and cook the garlic to golden brown. Remove garlic and drain on paper towel.

We found a great trick for peeling ginger, thanks to Martha Stewart. Use a basic table spoon to gently scrape off the brown skin. It will slide right off and lets you get into all the corners.
Add ginger and onion to hot oil and sauté until translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the rice and toss to coat with oil. Cook, gently stirring on medium low, about 3-5 minutes. Rice will start to turn translucent. Add a ladle of the Broth to the rice and stir around until absorbed. Add another ladle of Broth, stir until absorbed. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It will take about 20-25 minutes to cook the rice to the appropriate consistency. What is the right consistency. The rice should have liquid in it, and can be al dente or softer. We prefer the rice on the softer side, a thick porridge appearance.



Shred the chicken, mixing the light and dark meat. Scoop a portion of the rice into a dinner bowl with an amount of shredded chicken. Take some fried garlic – crush it – and sprinkle over rice. Use must drops of patis (fermented fish sauce) to season the arroz caldo; serve it in a small ramekin with the meal. (A note on patis – you can buy the fancy fish sauce in the Thai section and get a small bottle for a little over $4. If you look further along the aisle to the general Asian section, you can get a medium bottle for under $3. If you go to an Asian market, you can get a large bottle for about $3.) The patis imparts a richer, deeper, saltiness that merges with the flavors.

This recipe makes enough for 4 people. It keeps well in the fridge and can be microwaved to have as leftovers. I prefer, tho, to save some of the broth aside and reheat the rice on the stove by adding slowly broth and stirring until it’s reheated and at the consistency I want.