Easy Company Fare: Mustard Crusted Chicken Thighs

Everyone needs a few tried and true chicken recipes in their repertoire … the kind of recipes that only use a few staple ingredients and can be whipped up in a flash for a weeknight dinner.

This is one of those recipes.

It was an idea that came about while we were looking through the pantry, trying to think of what to have for dinner (an all-too-common occurrence, but one that often meets with mixed results). I had a package of chicken thighs that needed to be used, but no time to marinate them as I normally would.

So, I decided to rely on flavorful staples I had lying around -- a few tablespoons of mustard, fresh herbs and a bit of wine. I decided a bit of butter would keep the baked chicken moist, while ensuring a bit of caramelization on the exterior. And what started off as an impromptu experiment turned into one of the most delicious recipes I've come up with in a long time.

These delicious chicken thighs are impressive enough to serve to impromptu guests, but they feel just as at home alongside a pile of fluffy mashed potatoes and green beans.

Mustard Crusted Chicken Thighs

There are more great recipes where this one came from! We created this dish as part of our work with the Go Bold with Butter blog, where you'll find an amazing collection of delicious recipes using real butter.

©BURP!

Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Panini with Goat Cheese & Cherry Chutney

I promised there would be talk of the sandwiches we made with our delicious Maple Brined Cherrywood Smoked Turkey. And I can't leave you in suspense any longer.  After all, these little morsels were so stellar that you're going to want to try them out for yourself just as soon as you have some of your own Thanksgiving turkey leftovers on hand.

Before we get to the details of the sandwiches themselves, I'm going to take the opportunity to put in a plug for this cherry chutney recipe, which is quickly becoming one of our all-time favorite condiments.

Though it might not be quite as traditional as your usual cranberry sauce, I'm going to challenge you to consider making up a batch to put right out there on your Thanksgiving table.  It's tart and delicious.  And it goes perfectly with turkey. And stuffing.  It's also delicious spread on one of those dinner rolls you're bound to have left over.

Which brings me to the sandwich at hand.  These little beauties make use of leftover dinner rolls, one of the holiday staples that seem to get thrown out more than re-heated.  So, I like to think that these sandwiches are born of thrift.  They're also super fast to throw together, which makes them the perfect dinner for one of those busy weeknights that become inevitable as the holidays draw closer.

Since the goal here is to make you hungry, let me give you a quick glimpse into the sort of sandwich I'm talking about.  Just imagine a crisp, warm panini-pressed sprouted grain dinner roll spread with a liberal amount of fresh goat cheese, dolloped with cherry chutney and topped with delicious smoked turkey and fresh arugula.  Sweet-tart, tangy, smoky, peppery -- all of these flavors come together in glorious harmony as you bite into this crisp little slider.

Reminiscent of the holidays, but definitely more than just a repeat, these delicious snack-sized sandwiches are sure to please. The best part  is that, since they're small, you can even gobble up more than one.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Eat well. Enjoy family and friends.  We'll lift our glasses to you at our holiday table!

Post-Thanksgiving Panini with Goat Cheese & Cherry Chutney

 
©BURP! Where Food Happens

Near Perfection: Maple Brined Cherrywood Smoked Turkey

Since it's never too early to start thinking about what to prepare for the upcoming holidays, we've decided to share our perspectives on the infamous Thanksgiving bird -- the source of much hype, frustration, and experimentation.

When it comes to turkey, it seems everyone is looking for the same thing – a perfectly browned bird with a crisp exterior and a lusciously juicy interior. We want it to taste great and produce collective “ooohs” and “aaahhhs” when it’s taken from the oven. And I'm not sure any of us really want to spend days and days of effort to get those delicious results.  Especially when there are so many delicious side dishes to turn our attention to!

But, the fact remains that turkeys are notoriously easy to overcook and they often come out of the oven dry and tasteless (Admit it, this has happened to you! It's definitely happened to us!). In addition, your typical grocery store turkey is a mass-produced Broad Breasted White Turkey, factory-farmed and injected with a slew of chemical antibiotics and hormones. So, it’s not necessarily the most healthy or sustainable choice.

So, what's a food-loving, perfection-seeking blogger to do?   Well, we think we might have some suggestions.

First, we opt for a locally raised organic turkey. These birds might be more expensive than regular grocery store birds, but they're well worth the cost. Not only are they good for the environment (just an added bonus, in this case), they are more flavorful than your average bird.  To add to the magic, we like to brine our bird for about 24 hours before setting it up to cook in one of our favorite “kitchen” tools, our Orion Convection Cooker, an outdoor barbeque tool that uses indirect heat, generated by charcoal, to cook (and optionally hot smoke) foods.

I should probably clarify before I begin all my raving that we haven’t been paid to talk about this cool gadget. In fact, it was just dumb luck that got us hooked on backyard convection smoking. We got the Orion Cooker a few years back after spending some time reading the entries in the Orion Community forum while looking for a recipe for ribs. After drooling over entries about succulent smoked ribs, brisket, and chicken, we decided we needed one for our very own. So, we splurged on one for our 10th wedding anniversary. And gosh, we’re glad we made the leap.

Not only does the cooker produce stellar smoked ribs and absolutely fabulous smoked summer corn, but it’s an absolute wonder for cooking turkey. Moist, juicy, and delightfully smoky, we’ve never had a bad turkey come out of the Orion. The best part is, we can produce a full cooked, smoked 12lb Thanksgiving turkey in about an hour and a half.

The biggest time investment we now put into making turkey is tied up in the brining process – and even that is pretty minimal. Our favorite brine is made with maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, and freshly grated ginger. It provides the perfect subtle flavor for the turkey, and it ensures that even the breast meat of the bird is ultra-moist.

And, oh my, you should smell it while it’s cooking… To. Die. For.

This bird was smoked with cherrywood for an early Thanksgiving celebration with friends. And trust me when I say that everyone was scrambling for the leftovers. We’ll be blogging about an awesome sandwich we made with some of ours in the next few days.

Since we realize that not everyone has access to a smoker or convection cooker, we’d like to assure you that a maple brined turkey roasted conventionally in the oven is also pretty darned impressive. For crisp skin, be sure you start the bird off at a high temperature (and unplug your smoke detectors for a bit) to get the bird nicely browned. Then proceed for the remainder of the cooking time at 350F.

It will take about an hour, but once your kitchen fills up with the smell of that delicious maple turkey, you will wonder why you ever did it any other way.

Maple Brined Turkey – Smoked or Roasted

And be sure to pay a visit to our friends over at Haute Apple Pie.  They're doing a Thanksgiving recipe round-up that shouldn't be missed (including our turkey recipe!)



©BURP! Where Food Happens

Soul Food Fusion: Fried Chicken & Waffle Sandwich

It all started with a trip to Roots, one of our favorite Milwaukee restaurants.  We love Roots for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it's got a gorgeous patio, surrounded with herbs and other edible plants, that overlooks one of the best views of the city.  It had been a long week, and we decided to meet a friend of ours for drinks.  While we were chatting, Peef picked up the menu and spied something that would change his (and thereby my) life forever:

Smoky Fried Chicken
Frank's Red Hot waffle, dill ranch, dressed kale

I'll pretty much guarantee that it was the Frank's Red Hot waffle that caught his eye first.  Being a man obsessed with condiments, particularly spicy ones, he automatically has a visceral reaction to words like "grainy mustard," "siracha," and "hot sauce."    And the man's pretty fond of waffles. 

Once he got over the intriguing idea of putting hot sauce into a waffle, I'm quite sure he quickly glossed over the part about the dill ranch and kale, but he definitely saw the fried chicken part.  And then it was all over.

We both ended up ordering the Smoky Fried Chicken.  And it was pretty incredible.

Since, as I've said many times before, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we decided to recreate this delicious sandwich for ourselves at home.  So, a few months later (fast forward to this past weekend), we pulled together a cadre of all the necessary ingredients.

Since we're in the midst of the Milwaukee Eat Local Challenge, we opted for Wisconsin grown Cornish Cross chicken breasts from Angel Acres and a nice bunch of locally grown lacinato kale.  We also subbed out the Frank's Red Hot for a more local option, Off Road Camp Fire Pepper Sauce.

After pounding our chicken breasts flat and dredging them in kefir, and then in a mixture of cornmeal, flour, and seasonings, we fried them up to a golden brown in a bit of oil.  While I was frying the chicken, Peef made up a batch of cornmeal waffles (our favorite pairing with fried chicken).

The best part about making these particular waffles was, of course, the fact that he got to sub in hot sauce for 1/4 cup of the buttermilk.  But, a close second was the fact that he got to make the waffles in our brand new West Bend Belgian waffle maker.

Our former waffle maker was a fancy blue FiestaWare model that I bought Peef for Christmas a number of years back.  Unfortunately, we had some restoration work done on our house this past year, and the poor waffle iron got knocked off of its shelf, shattering into about 5 different pieces.  So, we had been without waffles for quite a while before this handy dandy gadget arrived at our doorstep.

And I do mean handy dandy.  This waffle maker turns out perfectly golden waffles with very little skill needed. Just by gripping the handle, it twists 180 degrees so your waffles bake and brown evenly every time.  I've also been told this rotating action ensures that the batter is more evenly distributed leading to waffles that are are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
But, I'm no waffle expert.  All I know is that our waffles came out beautifully golden, perfectly tender, and -- whoo! -- just a little spicy from that cayenne pepper sauce we added.

We took those lovely waffles and sidled them up right against pieces of fried chicken, which we then topped with finely shredded kale tossed with a deliciously refreshing dill ranch dressing.  Another waffle on top, and all of a sudden we had a pretty spectacular waffle sandwich.

Just like they make at Roots. And probably even better.

Cornmeal Waffles
Dill Ranch Salad Dressing

And now for the fun part!  We get to give one of our lucky readers the chance to win a West Bend Waffle Maker of his or her very own!!  

For your chance to win, just leave us a comment letting us know about your favorite way to eat waffles.

Rules:  All comments must be received by Monday evening, September 19th, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. CST  Winners will be announced on Facebook before the end of the day on Tuesday, September 13th.  Entrants must provide a working email address in their comment or blogger profile to win.  Limited to citizens of the U.S. and Canada.

Alright, ready...set... go!

Full Disclosure:  Although we were given West Bend Company products free of charge for the purpose of this review and giveaway, all opinions expressed in this review are our own.  

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Daring Cooks January: Cassoulet

Since Lo decided to take a brief hiatus from blogging, I begged and pleaded to do this month's Daring Cooks Challenge... especially once I found out it was going to be cassoulet.  After all, EVERYBODY loves a good cassoulet, right?

Heh. I'll be honest, I thought cassoulet was just a fancy name for a casserole... or a "kick-asserole,"which is the name we've coined for the really good casseroles.  You know -- the ones that put all others to shame.

And trust me, I've learned a little bit about casseroles over the years. As a child, I attended my fair share of church potlucks. And I endured my share of nasty casseroles.  Surprisingly, I still love tater tots. But I prefer them baked or fried and eaten plain, rather than sprinkled on the top of ground mystery meat mixed with can of cream of mushroom soup.  But, I digress...

It doesn't really seem like cassloulet would be that big of a deal to make. I mean, c'mon! It's beans layered with meat... and more beans... and then you bake it.  Peasants made this stuff way back in the 1300's before electricity, right?  How hard could it be?

So, I did a little bit of reading.  I found out that cassoulet is a slow cooked stew/casserole that's named after the vessel in which it's cooked, the cassole, which is essentially a big pot that has slanted sides (You might find it interesting to note I like to pronounce the word, cassole, with a nice thick northern WI accent so it sounds like I'm calling someone a bad name. Lo prefers to let it roll off her tongue like she is a pretty lady from France. Ying and Yang I tell ya...) It is truly unfortunate that we do not possess a cassole. But we do have a huge LeCrueset dutch oven. And it's French. So I decided it would do just fine. And fine it did.

I washed my hands, waxed my mustache, and did a little dance.  I also may or may not have pulled out my very long, very skinny cigarettes and insist that Lo refer to me as "Pierre"...

And then, I took a look at the recipe.
The first mandatory requirement was to make a confit. Well, remember that pork belly we procured a while back? It was much too large to eat all at once (even over French Fries), so we confited the rest of the pork belly in olive oil. Well, as luck would have it, we still had some left. Mandatory requirement number one accomplished! So, thanks to Lo, I got out of having to do the complicated stuff.

Second step -- make beans.  Ha! Making beans is so Cooking 101.  I was also required to make up a batch of caramelized onions, brown sausages, and then layer things with bacon. Hmph. These were all things that even a person with minimal cooking skills (such as myself) could easily do. 

Looks like once I had that altogether, it was as simple as taking the whole shebang, putting it into the oven, and letting it do its thing. Mmmm, meat and beans.

I continued reading. Turns out the instructions didn't stop there. Oh no. This Kick-assoulet was going to be so good, it required me to cook it all over again the next day.

WHAT?! I had to read the directions again.
I looked at Lo, who knew exactly what I was thinking.  She smiled.

"So, THIS is why she needed a break from the blogging world", I thought to myself. "This is the beast that broke Lo's back." Or something like that. Actually, I think I just looked up and said something about how good it is that I don't have a job because this business of "making kick-assoulet" was going to consume me for at least the next 3 days.

And that is when my three day affair with Kick-assoulet officially began.
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Since our confit utilized pork, I was hesitant to use more pork sausages for the cassoulet.  So, I went to my friendly little butcher man (not really little, quite large actually), and inquired about my options for duck sausage.  He provided me with some lovely duck-links, and about a pound of homemade bacon, which he hand cut right to my specifications. Once I had my meat, I made another stop at the local co-op to get some dried beans before making my way  home.

Since I'd procured butter beans (large lima beans), I soaked the beans for 24 hours, then cooked them in the slow cooker for another 16 hours or so. Started them on high for a few hours then switched to low overnight. They were not done yet in the morning, so I let them go for a few more hours. When they finally decided to be done (beans can be stubborn this way, I'm discovering), I drained them and reserved the cooking liquid.

Next I browned the duck sausages. The recipe instructed me to do this in duck fat, but (always the rebel) I did it in bacon drippings. I call that an upgrade. Sausages came out and I cut them into chunks so it would be easier to dish up. Then the sliced onions went in to do their thing.  Aren't they pretty?

The caramelized onions made their way into the blender and I ran it until they were smooth. Finished by taking the pork belly and browning it up. And then, it was time to assemble.

I should warn you. This is when it gets really good. I took the thick cut bacon and lined the dutch oven with it.

I put in a good layer of beans. Then I added some duck sausage chunks, topping them off with some of that awesome caramelized onion love from the blender. Repeated that layer again, adding a bit more love puree. I saved the pork belly for the top layer. Added the rest of the heavenly puree and topped with the last of the beans. And then it was "Into the oven with you."

By the time the first round of baking was over, the smells coming out of the oven made me want to rip the door off and shove my face right in the pot. But I didn't. I waited like a good boy.  And I didn't even snitch a taste while the beans were cooling down and waiting to be put into the fridge.

The last day was the best day because I had the opportunity to smell all of those intoxicating smells all over again. And this time, I knew that once it was done I could reap the rewards of actually eating it.  It took a bit longer to heat through than the recipe indicated, but I was pleased to note that it was worth the wait.

This kick-assoulet was completely amazing. The smokey bacon infused the beans. The duck sausage was succulent and delicious. And the pork belly....well...there are few words that can really describe how good it tasted in my mouth. A wonderful meal for any winter's night.

Recipe: Cassoulet

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman. 


©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

Roasted Porcini Chicken: They Call Me Mimi

Lo: How about Porcini chicken for dinner tonight?
Peef: You want to make a Puccini chicken?
Lo: NO -- PORCINI chicken.
Peef: Oh, ok. Can we call the chicken Mimi?
Lo: What?! Um... no.  Besides, I don't like to name my food, remember?
Peef: Oh, yeah.

(After some time)

Peef: Is it ok if I call her Mimi?
Lo: Do what you must, just keep it to yourself.
Peef (Out loud): Come here, little Mimi, let me get my hands under your skin.
Lo (now disgusted): PEEF! Enough!

This scenerio may or may not have actually taken place in the Burp! kitchen.  Nonetheless, we like the idea of a little opera singing chicken named Mimi.

For those completely lacking in knowlege of opera trivia, Puccini (a pretty famous opera composer) just happened to have a little opera by the name of La Boheme.  It wasn't exactly about a chicken. But, well, you'll forgive us for our imagination, won't you?

The fact is, there is a character in La Boheme whose name is Mimi... well, Lucia, but people call her Mimi. And Mimi is just lovely (much like this chicken recipe).

If you're in the mood for a bit of culture while we're cooking, here's a snippet of the wonderful and talented Maria Callas singing Mi Chiamano Mimi.

 Italian not so good?
Well,  that's not a problem. The gist is that Mimi just met her neighbor, Rodolfo, who happens to be a writer. They are attracted to each other and she sings him this aria which mentions something about living alone and making these beautiful fake roses.  They don't smell pretty, but she likes them, and she adores April kisses and, conveniently, she also likes poetry. By the end of her aria, Mimi & Rodolfo end up being quite enamored of one another.

And that's your music lesson for the day. And it serves a dual purpose because you can totally picture Peef as Rodolfo -- thinking his chicken named Mimi is pretty innocent and cute, right?

The fact is, we love a good roasted chicken. This one happens to be full of flavor -- thanks to the simple magic of something called "porcini dust," which just happens to be dried porcini mushrooms ground into a fine powder with a coffee grinder.

The porcini powder is mixed with fresh garlic, white wine, salt, and a bit of olive oil, and then spread between the skin and the meat of the chicken. 

Earthy and garlicky, this chicken is completely & amazingly delicious.  And, although it makes wonderful use of the rich, deep flavor of porcini mushrooms, it does so judiciously, so it won't completely break the bank.

The recipe gets even better when you choose to cook the chicken in the same pan with halved new potatoes and quartered turnips.  The vegetables caramelize nicely and they absorb plenty of the earthy flavor from the porcini mushrooms, along with that deliciously savory chicken flavor.

Perfect for company.  Just pair with a green salad and a bit of crusty bread.

Porcini Roasted Chicken


©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

Das Truthahn Ist Sehr Gut: Turkey with Riesling & Sauerkraut

Our last name being "Fredrich" and all, you may have already guessed that there's a bit of German heritage floating around in Peef's veins.  We probably pay homage to that heritage best in the summertime when drinking a nice dark brew & indulging in one of those awesome Wisconsin bratwurst with kraut.  However, this year's turkey feast makes me wonder if we should capitalize on that heritage a bit more often.

Peef first spied the recipe for Turkey with Sauerkraut, Riesling, and Pork Sausages in the latest issue of Saveur magazine.

"You've got to take a look at this,"  Peef said, with that tell-tale drooly look on his face that not-so-secretly declared that he'd experienced love at first sight.

I perused the recipe, first noticing that it called for four pounds of raw sauerkraut.  FOUR POUNDS.  I almost shut down right then and there. After all, four pounds of high quality raw kraut could run upwards of $50 in these parts... unless of course, you know someone who's brewing up a nice 5 gallon crock of fresh kraut made with local cabbage.  Heh. 

I immediately emailed my friend Steph to see if she could part with four pounds of her kraut. Upon her affirmative response, the challenge was ON.

Turkey. Check.
Onions. Check.
Bottles of Riesling. Check.
Locally grown Black Willow Twig apples. Check.

Once we had gathered all the ingredients and thawed the turkey, the process was simple.   There was no brine. No overnight marination. No puttering or futzing.  Just a few simple steps.

First, we chopped up 3-4 of the Black Willow Twig apples into julienned strips.  We mixed the apples with drained sauerkraut and set that mixture aside. We made a bouquet garni with garlic, juniper berries, cloves, thyme, and parsley and tossed it into a large roasting pan. After cleaning and seasoning it, the turkey was stuffed with the sauerkraut-apple mixture and laid atop a bed of Riesling-infused onions, slab bacon, and more sauerkraut. It was topped with more strips of bacon, tightly covered in a cloak of parchment paper and aluminum foil, and left to roast for 3 hours in a 350 degree oven.

We joked that our house was sure to smell like a nursing home with all that kraut cooking away in the oven.  But, the truth is, it wasn't until the last half-hour of baking that we began to smell the delicious odor of the roasted bird -- seeping quietly and subtly out from under the oven door.  It was like a perfume.  Barely sweet, scented with juniper and garlic, and not nearly as "cabbagey" as I'd expected.

It was the easiest turkey I've ever made. And quite possibly one of the most delicious.  The breast meat was meltingly tender, and the dark meat was succulent -- vaguely redolent of the sweetness of the apples, the savory notes of the saurkraut, and the perfume of those mysteriously piney juniper berries, it was a perfect match for the bottle of German Riesling we chose to serve with dinner.

Served here alongside a very delicious herbed stuffing (Peef declared it the "best stuffing ever") with mustard greens and some of that deliciously tender kraut.

Turkey with Riesling & Sauerkraut

Herbed Stuffing with Mustard Greens


©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

Jerk Wraps with Fresh Peaches, Fried Plantains, and Ginger Mayo

Every summer it seems we find a new addiction when it comes to fresh peaches. Oddly enough, it's not usually a dessert recipe.  It's usually a sammich.

Two years ago, we fell in love with Thai style fish tacos with red curry coleslaw and peach salsa. 

Last year we discovered the BLP -- which made us so very happy we had a hard time saying goodbye to peach season.

And this summer, I'm afraid it's the Jerk Wrap.

I've been waiting all summer for the blushiest, ripest peaches so that I could pair them with something spicy. Usually, they'd end up in some sort of salsa.  But, not this year.  This year I decided to veer along Caribbean lines. The first thing I did was to fry up a couple of plantains.

I tend to like my plantains on the sweet side. But, for this recipe I opted for fruits in the mid-range of ripeness -- mostly yellow with a few black flecks.  I figured that the semi-ripe fruit would hold up a bit better during the frying process, and the starchier flavor would compete less with the sweetness of the peaches.

In keeping with the Caribbean theme, I decided to fry the plantains in coconut oil.  I use coconut oil frequently for making Thai curries, for frying fish and seafood, and for baking.  I also love the flavor it adds to roasted cauliflower, turnips, and potatoes.

In this particular case, I was trying out a new product. Tropical Traditions had just sent me a sample of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil -- a coconut oil made using the traditional methods (grating the coconut, extracting the milk and allowing the milk stand until the oil separates naturally from the water).

One of the first things I noticed about the TT oil was its clarity -- perfectly clear at above 76º. The oil also smelled rich and nutty.  Since the oil was warm enough to be in its liquid state when I pulled it out of the cupboard, I used a ladle to put about 1/4 cup into my cast iron skillet.

I heated the oil over medium-high heat before adding the plantains, which I had sliced in half and then lengthwise (making them a reasonable shape to put into a wrap.   The plantains fried up beautifully golden brown.  The outside of the fruit was golden and crisp, while the inside was warm and creamy.  And the plantains carried with them just a hint of the nutty coconut flavor.

Once the plantains were fried, I sliced up the peaches while Peef shredded up the jerk chicken.  I also mixed two tablespoons of ginger with about 1/3 cup or so of mayonnaise. I spread the mayo onto a sprouted grain wrap, added a couple of slices of peaches, a length of plantain, about 1/4 cup of shredded chicken, and a few fresh arugula leaves.

One bite and we were both hooked. The peppery arugula provided crunch. And the complex flavors of the jerk chicken -- allspice, habanero, thyme, and garlic -- paired perfectly with the sweetness of the peaches and the liveliness of the ginger mayo.  Meanwhile, the warm crisp plantains provided body and "tooth" to the wrap.  

This recipe would be equally as good made with tofu or pork.  In fact, we're already working on a winter variation of the recipe -- jerk pork with sliced pineapple, watercress, and ginger aioli.

Burp! Jerk Marinade
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**** TROPICAL TRADITIONS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ****

Congratulations to our winner, Elisse!  Thanks for playing.

Interested in trying out Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil for yourself?

Tropical Traditions has generously offered to send a quart sized jar of their coconut oil to one lucky reader.  To win, please read the instructions below. Be sure to leave a comment for each entry (and leave your email address if you don't have it listed on your blog/contact info).   Contest ends 9/25/10 at NOON (CST).

Mandatory entry (must be completed or no other entries will count):   

• Tell me which of these Coconut Oil recipes you most want to try

Extra entries – please leave a comment for each additional entry, letting us know you completed it

• Subscribe to Tropical Tradition’s email sales newsletter 
• Give us a "like" on Facebook!
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• Use the following text to tweet about this giveaway (please leave a link to your tweet in the comments for credit):  
• Tropical Traditions Gold Label Coconut Oil - #win a quart @Burp_blog:  Ends 9/25 #giveaway
  
  
  

Full disclosure: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.



©BURP! Where Food Happens

Daring Cooks June: Teriyaki Chicken Burgers with Pineapple & Macadamia Nut Butter

 I have been a fan of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for as long as I can remember... I particularly love them when made with salted roasted macadamias, since the combination of salty toasty nuts and sweet white chocolate is pretty difficult to beat.

I'm also a big fan of the macadamia nut pie -- which I fell in love with in 1998 when a business associate mailed one to me as a Christmas gift. Since I'm a nice person, I immediately cracked open the package and shared the bounty with my colleagues -- but soon regretted the decision. Let's put it this way, the word "luscious" doesn't even begin to describe that deliciously salty sweet pie.  In fact, I've been conspiring to make a pilgrimage to Hawaii to pay homage to the macadamia nut ever since.

It probably goes without saying that if someone challenged me to make something delicious with macadamia nuts, I'd be most likely to think of a sweet application for them.  But, those Daring Cooks... they're sly. Margie of More Please  (who also happens to be a local food blogger -- yay!!) and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies chose to challenge all of the Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and then use the nut butter in a SAVORY recipe.

Hmm. I'll admit I had to think about this one for a moment.
It's not that I've never eaten a savory recipe made with nut butter.  After all, there's nothing quite like a mole made with almond butter or an Asian noodle dish made with peanut sauce.  But, I wanted to do something a little different. And less... well... expected.

So, I enlisted my usual compadre in crime, Peef, to help me think of a great savory application for nut butter. Our two brains ground around on the topic for quite some time (pun intended), and we finally decided on a plan.

The credit for the burger concept belongs to Peef, who is always coming up with new and wonderful ways to combine meat and bread. He may have been slightly inspired by the Barrie burger, which is served at a little local burger joint called AJ Bombers (if you're on twitter, you've probably heard of them).  The Barrie burger consists of a cheeseburger topped with bacon and... peanut butter. Actually a fairly brilliant combination, master-minded by @KateBarrie, and enjoyed by many in the humble city of Milwaukee.

But, we're not complete copy-catters (though you might remain unconvinced if you look back in our archives at the Stendler breakfast burrito or the Buttafuoco tomato sandwich  -- both Comet Cafe knock-offs).  And I was pretty determined to do something wonderful with macadamia nut butter.  So, we settled on that classic combination -- teriyaki chicken and pineapple.  To take the challenge truly over the top, we also added a Daring Baker's challenge -- homemade brioche buns.

While the dough for the burger buns was rising, we put our heads together and came up with a nearly perfect marinade for the chicken.  A bit of pineapple juice, some soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and a whisper of brown rice vinegar.  Taste and... perfect.

We mixed the chicken with the pineapple mixture and put everything aside to marinate in the fridge.  In the meantime, we took about a cup of roasted salted macadamia nuts (this seems to be the only way we can find them here in Wisconsin), and made our nut butter. We used about one cup of macadamia nuts, which produced approximately 1/2 cup of butter.

Thirty seconds in the food processor was all it took to create a creamy delicious butter. And, of course, the first thing we did was to stick our fingers into the bowl to get a sample.  Smooth, creamy, nutty, slightly salty... dare I say buttery?

The thing about macadamia nut butter is that it's scarily addicting. In fact, the both of us stopped just short of simply taking out a couple of spoons and finishing up the batch right then and there. But, we refrained. And, as painful as it was, our burgers were far better for it.

We distracted ourselves by finishing up the brioche rolls. Gorgeous, aren't they?  (seriously, you must try this recipe at least once... it was particularly perfect with these burgers)

After the chicken had marinated for a couple of hours, we hauled out the KitchenAid meat grinder attachment that we got from my parents for Christmas and slopped the chicken bits right into it, along with about one-fourth of a large red bell pepper (which added both color and flavor).

We probably should have drained off more of the marinade, since the resulting ground meat was a little bit damp.  But, we solved that problem by adding a few crushed saltine crackers to the mix.  We formed the chicken into patties and put them on a plate in the refrigerator to give them a bit more time to firm up before we grilled them, along with a few slices of pineapple.

And then it was time to feast...
A homemade hamburger bun, a slathering of fresh macadamia nut butter, a perfectly grilled teriyaki burger, and a slice of grilled pineapple -- there's something for everyone on this burger. The freshly ground meat was tender, the burger was juicy, and the flavors were outstanding. A little bit of sweet, a little bit of salty... and all kinds of great synergy between the pineapple, red peppers, macadamia nuts, and soy sauce.

Seriously one of the best burgers we've had in a very long time.  And totally worth every last bit of effort. Especially that 30 seconds we spent on the nut butter. *wink*

Light Brioche Buns
Teriyaki Chicken Burgers with Pineapple & Macadamia Nut Butter

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

And don't forget to check out other Daring Cooks' Challenges!  Lots of creative folks out there whipping up nut butter.


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Braciola di Pollo: Stuffed Boneless Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes & Summer Herbs

It's going back quite a ways, but I can still remember the first "fancy" dinner party dish I ever made pretty vividly. It was a recipe for chicken breasts that were pounded flat, stuffed with cheese, fastened with toothpicks, and baked in the oven.

The first lesson I learned was that you should always COVER your chicken breast with something before whacking away at it with a meat mallet. That was followed shortly by the realization that over-stuffing the chicken breasts probably wasn't the best idea.  And then I rounded the experience out by nearly impaling myself with the dullest toothpick I've ever encountered.

My oh my, how things change.

I haven't stuffed a chicken breast with anything in a very long time, though I've actually developed some pretty mad skillz for using toothpicks. And I've gotten pretty good with a meat mallet.

But, stuffed chicken (albeit not breasts) really IS the point of this post. So, I'd better get on with that.

The inspiration for this dish hearkens back to a chicken roll recipe from Mario Batali that we came across online a few months back. It was a boned chicken, stuffed with veal, pork, and ham and roasted in the oven until it was crisped and browned.  I liked the idea of a "boneless chicken roll," so I decided to play with the flavors.

We actually learned to debone poultry when we tackled Julia Child's Pate de Canard en croute for a cooking challenge last summer. It was a skill I was pretty proud to have developed (especially since a number of chickens were sacrificed along the way in order for me to gain confidence with the process).  But, I hadn't put it to good use in quite a while.  So, I figured a little bit of experimenting would get me back into practice.

Inspired by the summer weather, I decided to go with a stuffing that was lighter and far less meat heavy.  I happened to have a few dehydrated Principe Borghese tomatoes leftover from last summer's harvest on hand.

I also realized that it was the perfect opportunity to capitalize on all the summer herbs we had in the back yard.  Peef clipped some basil, parsley, and rosemary. And we got started.  I mixed the herbs with re-hydrated tomatoes, fresh bread crumbs, blue cheese, and a couple of eggs.

We de-boned and stuffed the chicken, and then threw everything into a hot oven for about 40 minutes.

The fact is, this is a relatively simple dish once you've got the pesky de-boning out of the way.  These days I almost always de-bone more than one chicken at a time and I always roll up one or two to sock away in the freezer for later. Makes for pretty slick entertaining when the time comes -- and honestly, it shaves off enough time that we can even throw together a delicious meal like this one on a regular old weeknight.

And, honestly, who can argue with that?

Braciola di Pollo: Stuffed Boneless Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes & Herbs

This post is part of our Summer 2010 Herb Series: Using and Preserving Herbs. Stay tuned every Friday for more hints, tips and tricks on how to use summer's bounty!  

We're also excited to announce that, starting next Friday, we'll be featuring guest posts from some of our favorite food blogger friends as part of the herb series.  First up on July 9th -- Amy from Very Culinary!


©BURP! Where Food Happens

Make Ahead Meal: King Ranch Chicken Kickasserole

 
This is not the blog post where I tell you all the secrets to successful meal planning.  I won't tout the benefits of "once a month" cooking or give you a slew of time-saving tips to use on your everyday weeknight meals.  Because, generally, that's not the way I operate.

I am NOT a domestic goddess. I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kindofa girl when it comes to weeknight cooking.

It's not that I haven't tried.  I've given meal planning a whirl. Made the list. Clipped the recipes. And meticulously shopped for all the grocery items that I need to create exactly seven home cooked meals in a week. I've witnessed the money it saves, and the headaches it prevents. But, honestly -- when the rubber hits the road -- planning ahead to that extent simply doesn't work for me.  In fact, some of you will be surprised to hear that that level of planning actually starts to stress me out.  I like a little bit of flexibility in my evening plans... maybe even a bit of uncertainty when it comes to what I'll whip up for dinner.

So, I was a little bit surprised when I discovered the brilliance that is the King Ranch Casserole.

YES -- this is a bit like the Tex-Mex casserole dish that shows up in all the ghastly women's magazines.  And YES -- it's a throw-back from post-World War II cooking, when casseroles made with canned soups were the space-age cuisine (because they could be made quickly and kept for later use, casseroles liberated the modern woman from the slavery of cooking).

But, NO -- this is NOT the version that uses cream of *whatever* soup.  And I promise you, this isn't a trap.  But, it will give you at least a night off from cooking... if you do a bit of prep work ahead of time.

This dish does require you to think ahead -- because the flavor of the dish improves pretty dramatically over the course of a day... or three.  The flavors meld. The textures improve. And, although it will still take you an hour or so to bake it up for dinner on the night you serve it, it gives you what might be exactly the right amount of respite from actual cooking duties to renew your strength and energy.

The best part of it is, it doesn't even require a REAL recipe -- though I'm going to give you a bit of a cheat sheet you can use if you'd like to recreate this dish at  home.

Here's what you'll need (more or less)

• a package of corn tortillas (A pack of 12 works great. We like sprouted corn... )
• 2-3 cups tomatillo sauce (it helps to have a bit of this in the freezer, but you can make your own)
• 3 cups cooked chicken (again, nice to have this in the freezer)
• An onion 
• a few cloves of garlic
• a teaspoon or so of cumin and smoked paprika
• salt and black pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 cup or so of chopped cilantro
• 8 oz sour cream
• 2-3 cups of grated cheese (Chihuahua, Monterey Jack, or whatever you have on hand)

Dice your onion and saute it with the garlic until everything is tender. Mix in the cumin, paprika, cilantro, pepper, salt, and chicken.   Provided you have your sauce and chicken together, this is all the cooking you'll need to do.

Put a bit of tomatillo sauce on the bottom of a glass or ceramic baking dish, and start layering your ingredients:

1. 4 tortillas
2. a bit of sour cream (spread this over the top of the tortillas)
3. 1/3 of the chicken mixture
4. 1/3 of the tomatillo sauce
5. cheese

Keep layering until you've used up all of your ingredients -- ending with a nice layer of cheese on the very top. Cover the pan, and place it into the fridge.  Leave it there for 1-3 days. I promise you, it's worth the wait.

While you're waiting for your casserole to "age"  you can do all sorts of fun things -- go out, make a new friend, write a blog post or two, read other peoples' blogs and get new ideas for what to make for dinner NEXT week.

When it's time to bake the casserole, put the dish into a cold oven.  Set the oven to 375ºF and allow the casserole to bake for 50 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, whip off your apron and mix yourself up a nice stiff brandy old fashioned. You deserve it.  Make it a double.  After all, you'll have to wait almost an hour for the casserole to come out of the oven. Might as well make it worth your while.

When the casserole is all brown and bubbling, it's going to smell seriously good and you'll be tempted to slice right into it.  But, you should refrain for about 10 minutes just to let everything set up a bit.

One bite of this and the children will rejoice. Your significant other will sing your praises. And the dog will beg to lick your plate when you're done eating.

You'll feel liberated.
And modern.
And oh-so-very-savvy.

But you can thank me later.  In the meantime, take a bite of your casserole.

Quick Roasted Tomatillo Sauce


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