Katrina Relief

I am participating in the TTLB Blogburst to help with Katrina Relief though my main blog, Happy Catholic. If you don't have a favorite charity and want to contribute, please consider joining in. (Follow the link.)

If you have a blog, please consider joining in.

I'll be leaving this post at the top of the blog for the duration of the weekend.

Skillet Chicken and Rice with Mushrooms and Green Beans

This recipe from Cover and Bake was a big hit with everyone and, though it is supposed to make enough for 4 to 6, makes enough rice for eight. I think it would work well using eight chicken thighs (my favorite for any chicken dishes that have to cook for a little while).

I mistakenly got skin-on, boneless chicken breasts for this recipe but just took the chicken out a few minutes earlier than the recipe calls for so they wouldn't be totally overcooked. Also, I forgot to buy green beans so used frozen haricots verts (ah, Central Market, where would I be without you?).

3 bone-in, skin-on split chicken breasts (10 to 12 ounces each), cut in half crosswise
Salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
10 ounces white button mushrooms, brushed clean and quartered
4 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1-1/2 cups long-grain white rice
1/2 cup white wine
3-1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 pound green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
4 ounces Havarti cheese, shredded (about 1-1/3 cups)

Dry the chicken thoroughly with paper towels, then season liberally with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Carefully lay the chicken in the skillet, skin-side down, and cook until well browned on the first side, about 4 minutes. Flip the chicken and continue to cook until the second side is well browned, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, transfer the chicken to a plate, and remove all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan.

Return the pan to medium heat. Add the onion, mushrooms, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, scraping the browned bits off the bottom and edges of the pan, until the mushrooms begin to soften and start to brown, about 8 minutes. Add the rice and continue to cook until the edges turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the wine and broth and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken to the pan skin-side up. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook until the chicken is not longer pink in the center and registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Stir in the green beans, stir the rice well, cover, and continue to cook until the beans and rice are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

E is for Elevenses

A colloquial expression which entered the English language in the late 18th century, meaning a light refreshment taken at about 11 o'clock in the morning. Although the timing is flexible and the extent of the refreshment, especially the food element, has proved to be highly variable, the institution has retained its place in the daily schedule of most British people. Nor are they alone in this. Of the many corresponding institutions in other parts of the world, the most important is probably the Mediterranean merenda or merienda. However, the zweite Fruhstuck (second breakfast) eaten in various German-speaking regions is an important northerly counterpart of this meridional institution.

In Chile there are salas de onces (Spanish for eleven), where empanadas, cakes, and snacks can be bought; and derived from the 'English custom of having tea or coffee and biscuits at eleven in the morning' and has become, 'by some extraordinary transmutation, afternoon tea, so that a is a tea shop'. Under Malta is a description of the refreshments taken by Maltese office workers in mid-morning. These examples could be multiplied, since the need for some refreshment between breakfast (especially if early and/or light) and lunch or its equivalent is wide-spread, although not universal, among human beings.

In this connection, it is necessary to heed the warning given by the expiring Henry King, that elevenses or for that matter other light refreshments punctuating the day should not be allowed to attain the status of meals.

The Penguin Companion to Food

So now I have a name for that mid-morning apple. That makes it all so sophisticated somehow.

Now Serving Hot Links

A COOK IS REVEALED!
Yurodivi is cooking up a storm over at his place! Sweet and Sour Pork, The Best Green Beans Ever, Chicken Burritos, and Shrimp Fried Rice await you. He's waiting for someone to report back so give these a try and let him know how you like them.

YES, CHILDHOOD OBESITY IS A PROBLEM. NO, YOUR WEIRD ICE CREAM IS NOT GONNA HELP.
Tana Ramsay (Gordon's wife) has developed a line of vegetable ice cream flavors that she thinks will make youngsters like vegetables. Hmmmmm. No, it's either gonna turn them off of ice cream forever or make them ask why real veggies taste weird. I think this shows us just how much Gordon Ramsay must love his wife because, judging from what I've seen on various television shows, he would blast anyone else who came up with such a lamebrain idea. Perhaps he would even shove a dish of the pea ice cream in their chests. Via Sigmund, Carl and Alfred.

DRIVING AROUND FRANCE
David Lebovitz takes us on his vacation. If you ever wondered what French highways and rest stops are like, then check this out.

D is for Diner

An important American institution which originally, in the middle of the 19th century, was a railway dining car. However, by extension it came to mean a cheap roadside restaurant which could be either a disused railway dining car, or something built to resemble this, or something else giving the impression of mobility. Although diners, almost by definition, offer modestly priced food of an unsophisticated nature, they offer scope for connoisseurship and even minor cults, and various publications had been devoted to them in the latter part of the 20th century.

The Penguin Companion to Food

I had no idea that diners originated with railroad dining cars or that conveying mobility was essential. Though I'm mourning something I never got to experience, I wish we still had real diners.

Doboschtorte

For those who were drooling over Hannah's Birthday Cake, here is the recipe from Time Life Foods of the World: The Cooking of Vienna's Empire. As I mentioned I didn't make the top caramel layer but just frosted it all with the chocolate filling. No one complained. However, I am giving the complete instructions here. This may look daunting but is simple although it does require a candy thermometer ... and enough time to not rush through anything.

The Cake
1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugar by beating them together against the side of a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the flour and the vanilla extract. Continue to stir until the mixture becomes a smooth, firm batter.

With a pastry brush or paper towel, butter the underside a 9" layer cake pan, then dust it with flour. (I can never get 7 layers out of the 9" pan so I always use 8" pans.) Strike the pan against the edge of a table to knock off the excess flour. With a metal spatula, spread the batter as evenly as possible over the underside of the pan to a thickness of 1/8". Bake in the middle of the oven 7 to 9 minutes, or until the layer is lightly browned around the edges.

Remove from the oven and scrape off any batter that has dribbled down the sides of the pan. Loosen the layer from the pan with a spatula, put a cake rack over it and invert. Wipe the pan with a paper towel, butter and flour it again and repeat the baking process with more batter. (You may, of course, bake as many layers at a time as you have cake pans.) Continue until all the batter is used. You should have 7 exactly matching layers.

The Filling
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup water
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cream of tartar and water. Stir over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved, then turn the heat to moderately high and boil the syrup without stirring until, if tested, it registers 238 degrees on a candy thermometer, or until a drop of the syrup in cold water forms a soft ball.

Meanwhile, in a mixer, or by hand with a rotary or electric beater, beat the 8 egg yolks for 3 or 4 minutes, or long enough to thicken them and lighten them somewhat in color.

Pour the hot syrup into the eggs, continuing to beat as your pour in the syrup in a slow, steady stream. If you are using a mixer, beat at medium speed until the mixture cools to room temperature and changes to a thick, smooth cream. This usually takes from 10 to 15 minutes. (If you are beating by hand, set the mixing bowl in a pan of cold water to hasten the cooling and add the syrup a little at a time.)

Continue to beat until the cream is cook, thick and smooth, then beat in the cocoa and vanilla extract. Last, beat in the butter, adding it in small pieces until it is all absorbed. Refrigerate while you make the glaze.

The Glaze
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

First, place the most attractive of the cake layers on a cake rack set on a jelly-roll pan, then mix the sugar and water together in a small heavy saucepan. Without stirring, cook until the sugar dissolves, boils and begins to darken in color. Swirling the pan, continue to boil until the caramel becomes a golden brown, then pour it over the layer. With a buttered knife, quickly mark the glaze into 16 equal wedges, cutting nearly, but not quite, through to the bottom of the glaze. This mirrorlike layer will be the top of the Torte.

Assembling the Torte
Place a cake layer on a serving plate and, with a metal spatula, spread chocolate filling over it to a thickness of 1/8 inch, then top with another cake layer. Continue with the other layers, finishing with a layer of filling and the glazed top. Use the rest of the chocolate filling to cover the sides of the cake, smoothing it on with a spatula and refrigerate. To serve, slice along the lines marked in the glaze.

Wine Tasting

Veronica and her DH very kindly invited Tom and me to a wine tasting they had purchased at an auction. Lucky us! We got to taste twenty wines, learned a lot from the fast talking and charming wine man, and see a buncha people we like very much ... not least of which are Veronica and her DH who we count among some of our favorites.

I was hoping (hoping, hoping) that I wouldn't like any of the wines very much and got about 2/3 of the way through when my mouth was lit up by a sinful Zinfandel (mmm, mmm love Zinfandel - the proper red ones, not the travesty-filled white ones). So we took a case home, along with three extra bottles thrown in for lagniappe (brought the per bottle price down to $17 so it was a great deal overall).

We learned about French oak barrels, American oak barrels, and stainless steel ... and how to sniff them out in the glass. I now know that I am more of an American oak fan although the wines I liked most had done time in both American and French oak. What can I say? I'm complex!

(Tom learned that he truly is a beer guy ... but we knew that all along. Now if it had been a tasting between Mexican, Belgian, German, French, and Czech beer he would have been an especially enthusiastic student.)

Hot Links Served Up

QUICK! NAME THAT SERVING SIZE!
John Stossel talks about the serving size myth. This is something a lot of us know about but it is all too easy to forget. Via Lori Byrd.

MMMMMMM ... SHRIMP FRIED RICE
Yurodivi remembers that he meant to share his love of cooking with us ... and I'm glad he did because this recipe looks both simple and great!

THE SUBSTITUTION GAME

I head to the refrigerator. Hmmmm, the only milk I have is vanilla flavored soy. Vanilla is good, I like vanilla flavoring. I pick up the carton and realize there isn't much left. Ah no worries, I can improvise. My 8 cups of milk becomes three cups of milk mixed with 5 cups of water. It's like skim milk, right?

Dinner at The Big Yellow House has never been more interesting as the ingredient substitution leads to ... well, I'll let y'all find out for yourselves.

Milk in France

... in France, only children drink glasses of milk, although sometimes adults indulge in the bowls of hot milk they enjoyed as children. But even when a child drinks a glass of milk, it is rarely plain, but instead flavored with chocolate, mint, or strawberry... The hot milk that tiny children drink from their bowls at breakfast usually has two cubes of sugar in it. When French children are ill, they have hot milk and honey as a soothing drink and, for a grown-up feeling under the weather; a bit of rum is added to that.

Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living

Hot milk, whether sweetened or not, is one of the few things that makes me seriously question whether the French actually understand food.

Hot Links About Tea

TEA, TEA, AND ... MORE TEA
All over at A La Cuisine where tea is the subject of interest right now. Get the scoop about anything that even remotely has to do with tea around the world in parts one, two, and three.

NOT EXACTLY TEA BUT CLOSE ENOUGH
Green Tea Vodka (what will they think of next?) highlighted over at World on a Plate.

The Mystery of the Rich Tea Biscuit Solved

The Rich Tea presents us straight away with a paradox. If these are 'Rich' Tea, where are the 'Poor' Tea biscuits and what on earth do they taste like? Well, they would have to be fairly ropey old affairs because the Rich Tea itself is not exactly a self-contained one-biscuit flavour festival...

What flavour it does manage to achieve comes from the various sugars in its recipe -- sucrose, maltose and some glucose -- plus a little bit of salt. So what are they good for? Dunking, of course. The Rich Tea can drive even the staunchest anti-dunker to dunk.

Nicey and Wifey's Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down

Aha! I made the mistake of believing the "rich" part of the name and buying a package of these at Central Market. It was like eating some crunchy cardboard. I couldn't imagine who would buy these or why. The dogs liked them but they made very expensive dog treats and, as we all know, dogs will eat practically anything regardless of the actual flavor. At least now I have the whole picture, although, not being a dunker I will continue abstaining from the Rich Tea biscuit.