Need help: chicken fried steak questions

With the purchase of our quarter of a cow, I'm exploring options that I've never tried before.  Tonight, I tried making chicken fried steak, and it was okay, but not great.

The recipe I used was from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. After tenderizing, I dipped the bread in egg-milk, then in bread crumbs. Then, following the recipe, I surface fried the steaks. Then, the recipe had me return the steaks to pan to cook for another 45 to 60 minutes, until meat is tender.

It was all going well, until time to return the steaks to the pan to cook until tender. My pan wasn't quite big enough and required me to stack the steaks, and as they cooked, the previously crunchy fried bread covering got soggy. I think that even if I'd been able to lay the steaks in the pan without stacking them, after 45 minutes, the bread covering would be soggy.

Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps a better recipe? Could I, after frying the steaks, put them in the oven to finish? Or can I treat them like the "unfried chicken" that enjoy?

Stir fry: cheap, good, easy meal

What you make for dinner, or lunch or breakfast, will affect your grocery budget. As I've been striving to minimize what we spend on food, without sacrificing nutrition or taste (or texture), and apart of that is finding recipes that lend themselves to being made cheaply.

I am also a bit of a lazy chef, so its got to be easy.

And versatile -- if I have to have some specific ingredient for a recipe, I'm less likely to make that recipe one of my staples. Unless its something I just about always have around, like onions. Otherwise, there's got to be some possibility of interchange.

On an aside, I saw a post once that said to save money in the kitchen to use less of the "flavor" veggies, like onions. Use half, instead of a whole onion. True, the flavor will be similar, but if you don't mind onions, onions are CHEAP. I use them regularly to "beef" up a dish. Onions serve nicely as cheap, flavorful and not bad for you filler.

So, stir fry. No, this is not a typical Chinese stir fry (I did live in China, I should know), nor is it a typical Chinese-American restaurant style stir fry (can you say 'complicated'!). This recipe (if you can call it that) is based on a recipe from savingdinner.com and another from Everyday Food (a Martha Stewart magazine). This recipe is extremely flexible and is good for those times when you have 3 to 5 veggies in the fridge that need to be used, but only 1/2 to 3/4 a cup of each (when chopped up).

I even took pictures while making it!

Rachael's Stir Fry (which Hubby loves, so it can't be all that bad, right?) makes about 5 cups of stir fry enough for about 5 servings. If you need bigger servings, add more rice. Need less stir fry, use less meat and fewer veggies.

1. Make rice. Rice cookers make this so easy. Even on the stove its not that bad. Need instructions? See the end of this post.

2. Cut up your ingredients.

     A. Meat -- you can use chicken, pork, beef, or whatever protien item you'd like to include. I, in general, refuse to eat dinner without a meat of some sort. Chicken and pork tend to work the best, as they handle the quick, high heat cooking the best. If you like meat, have up to 2 cups of sliced and diced meat. You can slice the meat into thin strips (and keep them thin, and not longer than about 2 inches), or you can dice it into 1 inch cubes. About 1 cup of meat is a good balance if you have veggies to fill out the stir fry.

     B. Veggies -- you want about 3 to 4 cups of diced, sliced and chopped veggies. I always have sliced onions, sometimes minced garlic, usually chopped carrots, often chopped broccoli, and some sort of leafy green. I've found that cabbage keeps for weeks in the fridge, and that has become my go-to stir-fry leafy green. If you are using something like spinach for your leafy green, keep in mind that its "fluffy" and so you'll start with more cups of veggies than if you used cabbage or other tightly packed leafy green.

3. Mix up your sauce.  You need flavor and you need liquid. I aim to have 2 cups of liquid total, but we like lots of sauce. If you want your veggies to have a bigger role (beyond roughage and filler) you might make less sauce. For 2 cups of sauce, I add to my 2 cup measuring cup about 1/3 to 1/2 cup soy sauce, then fill to 2 cup line with water or broth (chicken broth if you are using chicken or other lightly flavored protein, or beef broth if using pork or beef). Add spices -- I like to use turmeric (careful, it will color whatever it touches) and cumin, about 1 TBSP of each. If you want it spicy, add crushed red pepper, or other hot powder. Mix well.

The measuring cup is soy sauce plus water, and I'm using chicken base to make it "broth".

turmeric and cumin, some of the most awesome spices ever. At least for stir fry. yes, I buy cumin at Sams because I use so much.

 4. Cook the stir fry. Ha, ha, you say. This akin to saying "cook 'til done".

Okay, grab a large skillet, or even a wok if you have one. Add some oil. About 2 or 3 tbsps worth, you don't want to have to add oil later. Turn the heat on high to get that oil nice and hot. Turn the skillet around and around till the oil has coated the bottom and up the sides a bit. Toss in your meat, and cook till the outsides are nice and done. The meat won't be cooked through, but that's okay. 

Then, add in the veggies that need the longest to be cooked. For example, onions, garlic, carrots (unless you want crunchy carrots). Stir it all around, letting the veggies cook. Then, add in stuff like cabbage, celery, and broccoli and let that cook for a bit, stirring regularly. Finally, add in those veggies you want nice and crispy, like sugar snap peas. If you are using a fragile leafy green, like baby spinach, DO NOT add it yet.

 

 
Right after you add that second batch of veggies, add 2 or 3 tbsps of corn starch to your sauce mixture. Stir well, and keep it swirling till you are ready to add the sauce to the stir fry, otherwise your corn starch will settle and get thick on the bottom. When that second batch of veggies have cooked and softened just a bit, pour the sauce into the pan, and keep stirring. And keep stirring. Don't stop till you see and feel the sauce thickening up and coating the veggies and meat.

5. The rice should be finishing up about now, but if not, turn off the heat and put the lid on the pan. Serve up, piling the stir fry onto a bed of rice. If you are using a fragile leafy green, like baby spinach, mix it in just before serving (otherwise it gets too soft if cooked to long).

It might not be "restaurant quality" in the visual category, but its pretty darn good.

Hubby loves this even as leftovers. We package up rice and stir fry, he adds more red pepper flakes and its a self-contained, single container, even-has-some-veggies lunch for the next day.

Making Rice -- 
In a rice maker: measure your rice into the rice maker. Add 1 1/2 cups of water for each cup of rice. Turn on rice maker. Should be ready in 20 to 30 minutes. 

On the stove: measure your rice into a large pot that has a lid. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water for each cup of rice. Turn stove onto med. high, when water comes to a boil, turn stove to low and put on lid. Let cook till water is just about gone, about 20 minutes.

As a note -- more water means more sticky.

Instructions should also be on the package of dry rice.

Daylight Savings and Perpetual Bone Broth

What, you ask, do these two things have to do with each other? Nothing really, except they are both on my mind right now.

Yesterday, I heard a DJ say that it is nice, on a farm, to have the extra hour of day light that daylight savings gives. Dude, you have the SAME NUMBER OF HOURS OF DAYLIGHT HOWEVER YOU NUMBER THEM!!!! Yes, I meant to yell. The time changes drive me crazy, and now its even worse. Please, Mr. Politician, can you explain to my baby that he needs to adjust his sleep and nap schedule?

As for the perpetual bone broth idea... I'm not sold. I set up the big crockpot (holds about 4 quarts) with 2 picked clean chicken carcasses. Yes, 2. The author of that post uses 1 in 6 quarts (if I read it right). After the first 24 hours, I ladled out some beautiful broth, just as I would normally do. I got out 2 quarts of golden, savory-smelling liquid gold.

This is normal. I added back in 2 or so quarts of water, and let the machine do its magic for another 24 hours. The broth, at that point, was the proper color, but didn't smell as strong nor taste as strong. But I filled the machine with an appropriate amount of water, again, and let it go for another 24 hours. At the end of that 24 hours, it seemed more like broth colored water than actual broth, so I decided to let it go for another 24 hours. 

Inadvertently, I discovered that my crockpot doesn't work like I thought it did. Its always cooked a bit on the hot side, and its got to be full or food will burn. It seems that the crockpot just adds a particular amount of heat, rather than keep the food at a particular temperature. (I hope that makes sense) This meant that after 48 hours on low, the broth was a full, rolling boil. ACK! So I turned it down and we ladled out the broth later that evening.

I used it for chicken soup the next day. Yep, colored water. Maybe I am just too picky about these things? I demand that the broth congeal when it cools down (showing its got the collagen, thus protein, from the bones) and that it taste strongly of chicken (or beef or whatever the bones are from). I can buy colored water from the store, thank you very much.

Could be a few issues.... my crockpot cooks too hot; the chickens I used just aren't as "good" (I don't use specially marked organic or free range, or what-have-you); or my standards are just too high and the 4th, 5th and 6th run of broth really is more than colored water.

So, with my crockpot and my chickens, I might start giving bones a second run for broth, but not a third. I think we will continue to live in at a broth shortage status quo for now.

Has anyone else tried this? I know Mrs. Mac tried it and it seemed to have worked out for her. If you have feed back or ideas, please let me know!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

Goodness, been weeks since I've done one of these! Bad, Rachael, Bad. But then, my life is rather rote these days. Enjoyable, but mundane.

[Pretty]

These were utterly delicious! Its the dough recipe from LittleHomeInTheCountry, stuffed with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. I made pizza the same night, but we kept each going for one of these "pizza rolls" as I called them.

[Happy]

Peanut loves to eat. I knew this as he is a nursing machine, but he seems to love the solids even more. In general, he has liked almost everything I've offered him. I'm so thankful that his nutrition is primarily still from nursing, so I can just offer him this and that, and not worry about if he's getting enough of this or that.

[Funny]

I never imagined that figuring out orientation while making slippers would be such work. It required all the spacial thinking I could muster, and I still ended up goofing. At first, I ended up with 2 left shoes, and then I had a right and a left, but in different colors. After redoing the uppers twice, I finally was able to make a second set so that I now have two sets, one in each color. 

[Real]

Laundry is not done till its folded and put away, so my mother and flylady say. I'm trying to keep to spending 15 minutes each day just picking up and putting away, and that includes laundry. For such a little guy, Peanut sure has increased the amount of laundry that I do.

So, there is it. A glimpse into a week with Rachael.

How I waste money

Ya wanna know how I waste money? Yes, I do waste some of our hard earned cash at times. I don't mean it, and I don't do it purposely. But, due to neglect, sometimes I do. Here is it, its gross, so be prepared...

I made the picture as small as I could. In addition to this head of lettuce, I had to put 3 tomatoes in the compost pile. Luckily, even rotting veggies will nourish the garden. At least something good comes from my neglect.

Yes, sometimes I buy veggies and they end up rotting in the fridge. This head of lettuce was intended to be salads with spaghetti, and pizza, and some other meal. Perhaps the unfried chicken from last night?

I'm getting better at using the veggies before they go bad. Much better than even a year ago.

Hi, my name is Rachael, and I let veggies rot in the fridge.

In other news, I totally blew the October food budget. Yep, blew it out of the water. Good thing my Hubby is really smart and said I should work to *average* $200 a month. But even then, between September and October, I'm on a average of $370 a month. Ouch. Perhaps my $200 a month is unreasonable. Though I think I'll need November (a big month with Thanksgiving), December (a low month as we are at Hubby's family for the holiday), January (a more normal month) and February (a short month) to really see what a reasonable average is. Wait. Let me revise that statement. I will need April, May, June and July as well, as those are garden produce months (if I don't let the garden produce rot in the fridge). Alas, I think I need a year's of receipts to know what a reasonable month's food budget is.

Angie's Chai Tea

I enjoy tea. The folks from India who stayed with us, left a package of tea, so I've been making "chai", which is really just tea. In Chinese, "chai" (with the right tone) is "tea".  But, to the last few cups I've add a few cardamon pods, some cloves, a few black pepper corns and a cinnamon stick (half of one, less would be okay, too). It makes a flavorful tea when a touch of sugar is mixed in.  I"ll give the recipe below.

As I sat and drank, I remember the first time I'd had this version of chai. It was in 2001. I was living in China, and had met a gal, Angie, when I was on holiday in Thailand who was living in Kunming at the time, which was an day's train ride west for me. It was the national holiday week, so I took the week and went west to visit her. That was the first week of October. It was just getting a touch chilly then, and Kunming is set up in the mountains so the nights were down right nippy.

We had a great time that week. Angie and I really hit of off. Two single gals, both of rather independent spirits. Both fairly well educated, and both in need of a good friend as we were both on our own in this new place. We were both studying Chinese, and spent several days scoping out and finding the spices needed to make "Chai". Its not easy figuring out how to say things like "nutmeg" when you aren't sure what the whole spice looks like. Google images wasn't available to us then. We had a few misses, but after a few days we'd found the spices, and knew the names in Chinese.  We made the tea and savored it while singing to Angie's guitar playing. We drank it while chatting late at night, and in the morning before breakfast.  Those were good times.

We both eventually returned to the states. I went to grad school, Angie returned home to work, and I learned later, met a boy and got married. Last time I saw her, she was married, and pregnant with her first (a boy if I remember correctly). That was fall of 2005. And I was figuring out what to do with this boy showing me all this attention (he's now my Hubby). Last I heard, she was pregnant with her second, living in Singapore.

Angie -- should you read this, I'd love to catch up and see where life has taken you!

Angie's Chai Tea

Ingredients


You will need:

loose black tea


cinnamon sticks


whole cloves


whole nutmegs


whole cardamon pods


whole black peppercorns


sugar (I figure you know what sugar looks like)

For 1 cup:
Use about 1 tbsp black tea, a single half-stick of cinnamon, a few (3-5)whole cloves, 1/4 or so of a nutmeg (use a knife to cut up), a few (4-5)cardamon pods and a few (3-4) peppercorns. Cover them with a mug full of milk, and heat over medium heat, stirring regularly.  When hot, strain into a mug and add a spoonful of sugar. Enjoy!

For the next cup:
Adjust the spices to fit your taste. I tend to like a bit more cinnamon and a bit less clove and peppercorns. Also, if you don't have one or two of the spices, its still good. More than that missing and it is a bit bland.

You can also make it with water: Use more of everything, but not a ton more. Bring it to a boil, then let cool and seep overnight. Strain and store in the fridge. Add about half of this very strong tea and half milk to a mug and heat. Add sugar to taste.

Keep in mind, this isn't exact! And its all very flexible.

Mourning my loss... of a cup

Since I'm avoiding dairy products and foods that have dairy in them, or are exposed to dairy, I've gotten creative with breakfast. There's peanut butter on graham crackers, peanut butter on homemade, dairy-free bread, or peanut butter on ritz... yes, I eat a lot of peanut butter. Luckily, I really like peanut butter. In fact, I like it so much I usually by it by the 40 oz jar 2-pack at Sams.

Peanut butter and chocolate is the best, but since chocolate has dairy... I will mix Hershey's chocolate syrup into peanut butter. Not quite as good at mixing in actual chocolate by way of chocolate chips, but close enough.

To break out of the peanut butter monotony, I expanded into fruit.  I made peach-strawberry sorbet with a borrowed ice cream maker...

all the fruit to make into sorbet.  Yummy, yummy

Sorbet takes a lot of sugar... 8 oz!

Its fruit, its gotta work for breakfast, right?

And I've made fruit smoothies for breakfast. Strawberry-orange-banana, or peach-strawberry-banana-orange, or peach-orange. I have orange juice, thus the proliferation of "orange" in the smoothies.

This has worked nicely until today. Smoothies are utterly transportable via a wonderfully double-walled insulated, even has a straw, cup. I love this cup. When I was hug-o prego, I kept this cup full of ice water. I made ice coffee to go in this cup. Have I mentioned that I really like this cup?  But today I was forgetful and ended up feeling like quite a dork. I left the cup on top of the car.... and it fell off as we were driving and broke.

Sad, broken cup :(

I haven't decided if I'm going to replace the cup or not. It won't be a Jamba Juice cup if I do replace it, and not even a new Jamba Juice cup would truly replace this cup.

Ah, well, it is *only* a cup. But, I will say good bye and wash it out one last time before putting the cup to rest.

On the bright side, no smoothie was found on the car after retrieving the cup. And no smoothie was lost out the seal where the top screws on. That's a good seal.

Non-dairy recipe: Pizza substitute

Hubby loves pizza and Friday is pizza night. But, as I'm doing the sans-dairy thing, no cheese for me. And that's just weird having pizza, sans-cheese.  So, I came up with a permissible substitute... bread sticks with marinara sauce.

I made pizza dough as I normally do, but saved a chunk off the bit I rolled out for the pizza. That I divided up and rolled each bit into long ropes. I baked the pizza dough ropes with the pizza. I saved back some of the sauce, dished out my favorite sweet onion vinegarette dressing (no dairy!) and I had a nice dinner.

My pizza dough (sans-dairy)

In a mixer bowl with a dough hook (or in a good sized bowl and a hefty spoon), mix:
2 Tbsp yeast
2 cups warm water
2 cups wheat flour

Let sit for 10 to 30 minutes (however much time you have).  Then turn the mixer on low and add:

1 to 2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Add about a half cup of white flour at a time, till the dough holds together and isn't so sticky. You'll need about 3 to 4 cups. If you are doing this by hand, you'll need to pull the dough out of the bowl at some point and knead by hand. Either way, kneed or run the mixer till the dough is smooth and stretchy, about 8 or so minutes by hand, less by mixer.

This is enough for 2 thin crust pizzas at about a 10 inch diameter, or one thick crush 10 inch diameter pizza. Pulling off enough for 3 bread sticks still gives a decently thick 10 inch diameter pizza.

The marinara sauce I like, I found here. I've stopped adding maple syrup as I don't have any (used some homemade vanilla syrup first time, then no sweetener the next time, and liked it just as well). I've also used sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar. All three were good, I liked it with the balsamic best.

Enjoy!

Non-diary recipe: Honey Chicken

Since I've gone on a complete dairy elimination diet, I'm looking for meals I can make with no dairy.  Seems like most things are at least "manufactured on equipment that also manufactures goods containing milk", so it has become necessary to get creative.  I sorted out my recipe binder and found several things that are dairy free, and I plan to present those things here.  First up: Honey Chicken.

This was my absolute favorite dish growing up. I LOVE this sauce. I will even enjoy rice with this sauce.  I believe it comes from a 2008 Southern Living cookbook. And its very flexible.

Ingredients:
Honey
Mustard
Oil or butter
Cumin
Chicken pieces

Instructions:
Arrange your chicken pieces in a 9x13 baking dish. If they are boned, bone side down. If not, just space them out. Fit however many pieces you'd like, and scale the sauce to cover them.

Sauce: Use about half honey and half mustard. Mix in the oil or melted butter, about 1 TBSP for a total of 2 cups of sauce, and about 1 TBSP ground cumin for 2 cups of sauce (give or take a bit, according to your taste). We like lots of sauce, so I often use a cup of honey and a cup of mustard. If you like it sweet, use more honey than mustard. If you like it tart, use more mustard than honey.  If your tastes are simple, like ours, use straight yellow mustard. If you have more discerning tastes, use a fancy mustard -- according to your taste.

Pour the sauce over the chicken pieces, being sure to cover the pieces well. Place in the oven uncovered.

Bake at 375', for about 45 minutes. I suspect smaller pieces of chicken, like thighs will need a shorter time in the oven. I know for sure that bone-in pieces need the full 45 minutes.

Enjoy over rice and with a salad -- with a non-dairy dressing.

Recipes and Food

I tend to find new recipes in a magazine I read or a blog or some such. I have cookbooks, but I have too short an attention span to sit and read them. At times, I have something I need to use in the fridge, and will go looking for a recipe. That means I put the food item in a google search bar and see what comes up. I have enough cooking-fu to recognize what might taste good and what won't, or how to adjust it so that it does taste good.

I follow two food blogs that I just *love*. I have used, saved and printed up more recipes from these two blogs than any other source of recipes.

Tasty Kitchen is one that has something just scrumptious almost every day.  You can find any number of recipes here, but one is featured on the blog each day. I've yet to be disappointed.

Smitten Kitchen offers a new recipe about every other day or so (maybe every 3rd?). She cooks up some odd-ball things at times, but it always looks so yummy. I don't try every recipe, but perhaps every 4th or so recipe she offers, and I've loved each one I've tried.

Both of these web sites cycle between desserts, main dishes, sauces and other food categories. I've found lots of good stuff between the two (and other sites, but those are for a different post).

Salmon Croquettes vs Tuna croquettes

I found a recipe for salmon croquettes several months ago on Food Renegade. Salmon is more expensive than tuna, so I made the croquettes with tuna. We like them quite a bit. Recently, I got some canned salmon and tried out the croquettes with the salmon. I made half with salmon and half with tuna.


I think the salmon comes in smaller pieces, as the croquettes made of salmon stayed together better. Plus, the salmon blended with the other flavors better than did the tuna. The tuna was just stronger in flavor and overpowered the veggies (and onion & pepper are not weak).


The tuna certainly wasn't bad, and for those on a budget, the tuna is a better deal.


Also please note, I didn't use "organic" or "no additive" (not sure how Worcestershire sauce can be additive free, that's what its all about, the many subtle flavors?), I just used what I had. I used simple veggie oil to fry them, as well.


I learned something new making these, as well. I always wondered about rolling the patties in bread crumbs and then frying. I thought it was for looks or some such, so I often skipped it. Something inspired me to coat some in bread crumbs this time and some not. Those coated in bread crumbs stayed together better when frying and flipping. As Hubby said, just because you don't know why doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, especially when following a recipe. (something I don't do so well at)

Yummy White Sauce

A good friend shared a simple white sauce recipe a while back. Its so very yummy on spaghetti with a red sauce (with sausage) to mix it with. Ah, almost to die for.  However, the white sauce isn't so "healthy" and neither Hubby nor I need a lot of extra calories or fat, would rather get those from the dessert! Here's the original:

Melt 1/2 stick of butter and saute 1 Tbsp of minced garlic in it till honey brown. Stir in a small carton of heavy cream and 8 oz of cream cheese (cut up is best). Stir until all is melted and blended. Add any desired herbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese until melted. Do NOT boil. Serve fresh from stove.

I adjusted it a bit to make it more "healthy" (though who knows that means, really...) I used a spoonful of butter to brown the 2 tbsp garlic and I left out the heavy cream and used about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of non-fat milk. It made a bit less, but it came out just right to give me enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

I'm all about adjusting recipes to fit our needs, and this time it worked. Very nice!