me make food

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the left is diced, the right chopped, both green chillies. I chose to go with the generic on the left cuz it said diced. We all know it is the same thing inside, but the label is different.

I made up a roux. I did not get pics of it, but I made up a bunch and put it in a cup so I could thicken the sauce later.

Onions and garlic sautéed in clarified butter. If you have been paying attention that is the third time I have used real onion in food I make this week. Number of times onions have been used in food I make ever = maybe 5 including these 3.

Just throw the whole little can in there. They have hardly any heat and that little can might not have been enough for the right flavor actually.

lightly dredged the chicken bits in some flour, pepper, salt, and cayenne. Bit of olive oil and butter to cook them in.

some of that awesome fresh mozzarella to cheese it up a bit. This was a total guess. I remember the sauce being pretty thick and rich. The mildness of the cheese should help it get there nicely.

The cheese thickened it up a bunch. I panicked and added more milk. I could not bump up the heat or add more roux so I grabbed a dollop of sour cream to thicken it up a bit.

The first bite made me grin from ear to ear. The flavor was very familiar. Theresa loved this dish back at crane river, but it was a bunch of work for her. She tried to not eat the onions or chillies, it was the flavor of the sauce she loved.

It was a bit thin sauce wise. The extra milk at the end caused that. I would maybe use more sour cream or a bit of half and half or heavy whipping cream to kick the sauce up a bit. Also add another 1/2 can of chillies. We simply cannot wait to try this again.

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melted down some of the chicken stock from roasted chickens from the freezer.

flour, cayenne, pepper, salt, and garlic powder mixed in.

made a light roux and poured the thawed stock in there.

taters

These were pretty spiced. The coolness of the taters and light gravy smoothed it out well.

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I headed to bed bath and beyond to pick up a good stainless steel saute pan. $25, and it is not too bad. Man they have $300 ones. Ummmmm…. not yet will I spend that on a pan.

So the goal was to cover some meat with some very coarse crushed black peppercorns and a bit of kosher salt and char the outsides. Well picked up some whole peppercorns and smashed them in a sammich bag to get them to the right size.

Needed some clarified butter to sear the steaks and avoid too much burning. This would be the first time I have made that. Took some unsalted butter and cooked it on low heat for 20 minutes which it seperated into the 3 layesr, whey foam on the top, the clarified butter, and the milk solids on the bottom. Skimmed the foam, and filtered the rest out with coffee filters.

Coated the fillets with the peppercorn chunks and some kosher salt.

Dropped some clarified butter in the skillet and dropped them encrusted fillets in there. They smoked up a storm and we were glad the fan was up to suck out the stank.

3 minutes on the first side and flip

Plugged a probe into into the fillet and put it in a toaster oven at 325 degrees to get them cooked.

Now to get on with the peppercorn sauce. I used a cup of low sodium beef beef broth and poured it in the pan and scraped all the little crunchies off, boiled it down to about 1/2 the volume.

So the only thickener is boiling it down and heavy whipping cream. Added another cup of liquid, heavy whipping cream.

let it simmer for about 10 minutes and let it thicken up a bunch. It smelled like heaven. Coated the back of the spoon and looked awesome.

I wanted mushrooms on mine so I sauted them up.

I blotted the butter grease to make this evil dish just a bit more healthy

I left the probe in the fillets to make sure the juice does not leak out. We got them to 160 degrees which would be medium. I would of liked them a little less done, but it did not matter cuz it ruled.

Covered with foil to let them rest.

The cream added a really sweet flavor to the sauce. The peppercorns did not over power it too much. I added no salt or pepper to this meal. Theresa made a Parmesan risotto with some Parmesan cheese shredded on the top of it and some dinner rolls.

I could eat this every day for the rest of my life. It was that good. We are gonna make it again for sure, and I would not change a single thing.

So good

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Then I got it figured out. The secret is to make a roux and then add the broth, get the right thickness, and season it up a bit. it comes out perfect almost every time.

making gravy from drippings is something I never mastered. They are very variable and usually really fatty. Making a generic gravy perfect is a great solution.

- Get a good sauce pan.
- two tablespoons of butter
- two tablespoons of flower or more
- 3/4 can of condensed broth (double powered)
- 3/4 can regular broth (low sodium works better)
- seasoning

Melt the butter on medium or a bit below.
Add the flour and whisk it in till it makes a pretty thick paste and starts to clump up.
You can brown the roux a bit, but it is not necessary.
Add some of both of the broths and let it get thick, still on medium heat. Wisk like a mad man.
It needs to get hot enough to start bubbling for the thickening power to work.
Add more of either broth till it gets to the right thickness.
I use misty’s seasoning and black pepper. Sometimes some parsley flakes if it is chicken gravy. salt will not be needed because you might boil down the liquid, and the condensed is salty.
Remember to get it a bit thinner than you would think it should be cuz when it cools it will set.
When it is done it is done, no reason to steep it or cook it for a long time.

it is almost too easy. We roasting a bawk bawk tonight and you bet your ass there will be gravy.

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syren over at SCS gave me some pointers.

Okay so the basic recipe for any cream based dressing is 1 C Mayonnaise, 1/2 C sour cream, and 1/4-3/4 C buttermilk (depends on the consistency you’re looking for.) If you have the extra 20 minutes to make your own mayo, do it. The quality, texture, and taste if the final product is worth it especially if you use a peanut or sesame oil. If you’d like a good mayo recipe I can get you that too.

So once you get your base put together you can add whatever herbs suit your meal. For a ranch you’re going to have to play a lot. But there is a secret to ranch… Premade cheap as hell lemon pepper. I don’t know why but usually the ones that are $1 work better than the ones that are $3.50. Maybe if you’re willing to go beyond that mark for a bottle of spices it gets better again, I don’t know. So a basic list of herbs for a ranch would be parsley, oregano, dried chives, a little paprika, garlic and onion powder, lemon pepper, and dill but only if you like it. Dill can be overpowering and if you hate it you can leave it out. Let stand overnight to get the best effect and to avoid eating the dried herbs before they absorb the moisture from the cream base.

we were gonna go all out. First the mayo:

Mayo is a little tricky. You start with 2 egg yolks and turn on the mixer. Add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, 1/4 salt, and pinch of white pepper (I add garlic powder and dry mustard but I like tangy). Then add 1 C of oil one tsp at a time allowing each one to mix for about 20 seconds before adding the next. Most recipes say that after the first 1/2 C you can start adding the oil in a thin stream but I like to add it all teaspoon by teaspoon for added thickness. I’ll also add my herbs and seasonings to the mayo instead of the dressing and then just add the seasoned mixture to the buttermilk and sour cream. This way I have good mayo for tuna salad and bagel sandwiches.

then the base:

testing out different variations:

we ended up with 7 different mixes:

the results:
well that was a good bit of work. Came down to liking the hidden valley buttermilk seasoning pack the best. Still was it like the delicious ranch dressings T loves at Crane River or Misty’s? Nope. But it was not too bad. The others we made from herbs were interesting, not real ranchy though. The chicken pita’s were kind of a let down as well. But gosh darnit at least we tried.

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