Chicken and Turkey Sausage Jambalaya

The twist here is to cook each element separately instead throwing everything into a pot. Each component gets it's own loving treatment.

Every recipe I have seen adds the requisite chopped onion. I don't like onions with chicken or sausage. I do go heavy on the garlic and spice.

The chicken thighs and sausage will be seared and then braised. They will be very tender and flavorful.

The rice will absorb all the flavors and become crusty and delicious on the bottom.

First, you will need one of these:



No cast iron skillet? Any big pot will work, especially if it's cast iron. I am guessing you do not have a paella pan.  Neither do I, but a paella pan would be perfect.

3 boneless chicken thighs
1 pound of smoked turkey sausage (kielbasa), sliced
8 cloves garlic, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 red pepper cut into strips
1 big can diced tomatoes
Chili flakes as desired
Cayenne pepper as desired
Honey to smooth out the spice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken stock
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil

Slice what needs to be sliced.



Brown the chicken that has been salt and peppered in a skillet with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Remove and slice into bite-sized pieces.



Sear the sausage and remove. Add two more tablespoons olive oil to the pan. Add the rice. Stir and toast the rice for a couple of minutes. Add the chicken stock and deglaze the pan scraping the burnt meat bits from the bottom. Add the garlic, celery and red pepper. simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cayenne and chili flakes and gently mix in. Taste. Add salt as needed. Add the diced tomatoes and simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Taste again. If too spicy, add the honey.



Finish with some red wine vinegar and taste again for proper seasoning.



The rice on the bottom of the pan will be crusty. That is a good thing.

This recipe makes a lot of food. Freeze half of the jambalaya in an air tight container.

Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Pizza

First, paint on a base of cream cheese and mayonnaise on some artisan flat bread or pizza bread. You can of course make your own pizza dough.



Add sliced tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper.



Add some crispy bacon.



Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes and add the lettuce.



Sprinkle some red wine vinegar on top.

Mushroom Stroganoff over Zucchini Noodles

This dish is vegetarian, but has a hearty beef-like taste.

You will need a mandolin slicer for this recipe.

1 green zucchini
1 yellow squash
12 ounces sliced, baby portabello (cremini) mushrooms
1 cup sour cream
3 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese as desired
Seasoned bread crumbs as needed to thicken the sauce
1 handful of chopped, fresh parsley

Use the mandolin to slice the squash lengthwise. With a knife, slice the slices into long strips as shown below.



Briefly wash the mushrooms but don't soak them. Add the mushrooms to a hot dry pan to dry them out. Season with soy sauce and pepper. After you start to smell them, add a couple of tablespoons olive oil and stir fry. Set aside.

Season the vegetable stock with soy sauce and pepper. While simmering, stir in the sour cream. Add this mixture and the mushrooms back to the frying pan. While the mushrooms and sauce are simmering and reducing, boil the squash noodles for a couple of minutes. Set aside.

Add two tablespoons butter to the mushroom sauce. Stir. To thicken even more, add maybe a tablespoon of seasoned breadcrumbs and stir. It does a great job of thickening. Add a little more if needed.

To plate: Season the noodles with salt, pepper and optionally, Parmesan cheese.



Stir the fresh parsley into the sauce. Spoon the mushroom mixture over the noodles. Optionally, add more grated cheese. Serves two.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

I made this the way I had it in an authentic Irish Pub. Everything was cooked separately.

How did  I know it was authentic? Well, the staff cursed in Celtic. I picked up the occasional "fookin". My barmaid's name was Grainne pronounced nothing like it looks. It was something like "grawn-ya".

I haven't made corned beef and cabbage in years. How hard can it be? Hunk of meat, cabbage and potatoes. Sadly, the label on the hunk of meat recommended a three hour cooking time. THREE HOURS! What kind of show leather did I buy?



I was ready to season this myself and I saw there was this tiny seasoning packet. Okay, let's use that too. In a big pot, place the meat, water halfway up the sides, add salt, black peppercorns and bay leaves. Bay leaves are the key flavoring during a long simmer time. Set the timer for 3 hours and forget it. Simmer covered

Cut a green cabbage in half, from root to top. Remove the hard white core. Quarter one of the pieces as shown below.



Season with salt and pepper. Simmer covered with two cups of water and half a cup of apple cider vinegar. Simmer for about 45 minutes.

The potatoes. Clean some small Red Bliss potatoes and cut them in half. Boil uncovered in water with salt and turmeric for about 30 minutes or until tender.



I like my corned beef and cabbage with mustard and horseradish. The idea here was to combine the two into a sauce.

Two tablespoons Dijon mustard, one table spoon prepared horseradish and a teaspoon of water. Whisk together and drizzle over the final dish.

Vegetable Lasagna

2 large cans crushed tomatoes
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 16 ounce package of lasagna noodles
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
8 ounces mozarella, sliced thin
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons olive oil, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces ricotta
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 pinch nutmeg

I made this recipe in a 10" X 7" Pyrex baking dish. This would work well in a lasagna pan as well.

A mini-food processor will make things much easier. Don't have that? Sharpen that chef's knife.



Prep the  Vegetables

Chop up the mushrooms. Set aside. Chop up the zucchini and set aside. Chop up the carrots and set aside. Chop the onion and set aside. Chop the garlic and set aside.

Boil the lasagna noodles according to package instructions. Set aside.

Make the Vegetable Sauce

This recipe makes a lot of sauce. If I am going to make sauce, I am going to make a big batch. Jar the leftover sauce for pizza and pasta dishes.

In a pot with the olive oil, stir and cook the tomato paste. Add the onions and stir. Add the garlic.

Dump in the crushed tomatoes, the vegetables, oregano, some salt and pepper and red wine vinegar. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, preferably one hour, uncovered. It should thicken nicely. Season again with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the Dish

Grate the Parmesan cheese.

Slice the mozzarella into thin slices.

Season the ricotta with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Spread some sauce on the bottom of the tray.

1. Layer with noddles but don't overlap. Trim the noodles with a knife if necessary. If you need a half wide noodle for the edge, cut a noodle in half.


2. Spread the ricotta on the noodles.


3. Place the sliced mozzarella into the pan.


4. Ladle with sauce.

Repeat steps 1 through 4 until you have 4 layers of noodles.

Top with finely grated Parmesan.

Bake at 375 degrees, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the Parmesan is golden and bubbly.

Anytime Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup flour
2 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine butter and sugar in a bowl, and mix until combined and fluffy.

Add vanilla and milk to the butter/sugar mixture.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients, using either a spatula or your hands.

Add extra flour as needed if the dough is too sticky.

Form 12 equal-sized balls. Roll the dough balls in additional sugar if desired.

Place the balls on parchment paper in a cookie sheet. If you don't have parchment paper, that's okay.

Leave plenty of space - about 2 inches - between cookies. They will expand and spread out.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a cookie comes out dry.

This all comes together very quickly. If you forget to leave the butter out to soften, 20 seconds or so in the microwave should do the trick.

Bialys

So many bagel places, thousands of bagels and good luck finding a bialy. If you do, they are the saddest things to look at: Small, thin and a quarter teaspoon of precious onions in the center. You'd think the onions were caviar.

After less than thorough internet research, the one thing I see that distinguishes an authentic bialy is the sourdough starter.

I have made bagels from scratch.



A lot of effort was involved and they were only incrementally better than what you can get fresh from the local bakery or bagel shop. With bialys, I pretty much have a clean slate because anything is better than nothing. Plus, I get to use a lot of buttery chopped onions.

The sourdough starter literally takes days to make. Using store bought pizza dough or pizzeria pizza dough I can get 90% of the result I am looking for with 90% less time and effort. The result was extremely good.

Pizza dough
Rye flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Yellow onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt

Put the pizza dough in a bowl and dust it with rye flour. It will help prevent  sticking and adds flavor. Cover the bowl and leave out at room temperature for 3-4 hours. Take the dough out of the bowl, flatten it slightly and cut into 6 pieces:

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Flatten each piece into a 5 or 6 inch circle. Dust generously with the rye flour.

While the dough pieces rest, melt the butter in a hot pan and saute the chopped onion for 7 minutes or until golden. Set aside.

Back to the dough. Flatten again. Use your thumbs to get a depression in the middle of the dough. Fill with as many onions as will fit. Pierce the bialy all over with a fork to prevent puffing up in the oven. Push the onions down with the back of a spoon because the dough will tend to spring back.

Sprinkle the bialys with salt. Place in a pre-heated 475 degree oven for about 10 minutes. This will vary from oven to oven. The important thing that the dough is cooked through. You test this with a knife by piercing the edge of a bialy and having a look. It should look airy and bread-like.

When you take them out, push the onions down one last time. I like a good salt kick so I will salt the bialys again while hot.



Serve with or without a schmear of cream cheese.