Nigella Lawson's Cheddar Mashed Potatoes With Bacon and Apples 11.21.11

Well, I feel silly.

I took the time to take photos of everything... except these.  Unless you count the "in process" shot above as I lazily allow the kitchenaid to do all of the work.

BUT, these are outstanding!  Bacon!!!  Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!

And to top that off, the apples are actually cooked in the bacon fat!!!

One of those OMG recipes!

You can find the recipe on the Chew website (Click HERE).  It's not terribly difficult, just a pretty standard tater recipe, except...

You fry up a bunch of bacon....
While that is frying, core and peel 2 granny smith apples, diced
When the bacon is done, set it aside and dump the apples in the bacon!  When they are soft (and have absorbed all that delicious bacon grease, add some onions until they are soft as well.

Add to your cooked potatoes, add some grated cheddar, add milk, salt pepper and mash as you like (long time for smooth, or shorter time for the preferred lumpy!

Serve with Turkey, Dressing, Green bean Casserole and fresh made Rosemary Bread!

YUM!

Michael Symon's Mac and Cheese Casserole 11.11.11

I think next time I need to read the recipe just a little closer.  Instead of tossing the breadcrumbs with parsley at the end, I ran bread crumbs and parsley through a few pulses of a food processor.  Came out with that slightly unappetizing green colored topping.

Today's recipe Tasted fantastic!  Bacon and nutmeg and the addition of sweet creamy mascarpone cheese certainly makes the taste of this side dish stand out.  But adding the parsley colored bread crumbs took just a bit of the joy from the final product.

But that's just aesthetics, the taste left nothing to be desired, it was absolutely as good as hoped!

In addition to the slight error (again, my fault, the recipe clearly says to toss together, not sure what got into my head to pulse), I made a few slight changes in the recipe.

Michael used a rigatoni tube shaped pasta.  For Mac and Cheese, I like to use a Fusilli shaped spiral pasta.  i think the cheese that gets into the spiral is the perfect balance of cheese and pasta.

I also chose to use a high fiber whole wheat pasta.  After all, what's good for the American Colon is good for the USA!

And I served this as a side dish with a delicious spicy Cajun spiced Blackened Pork Chop!  Perfectly balancing the creamy sweetness of the cheese and the heat of the peppered chop.

Here's what I did...

1 pound Bacon
3 TBS Flour
1 Onion, diced
1 Butternut Squash, peeled and diced
2 cloves Garlic, smashed and minced
1 Quart 1/2 and 1/2
pinch Nutmeg
Bunch of chopped Parsley
1 pound Whole Wheat Fusilli
1 cup grated Gruyere Cheese
1 cup Mascarpone
2 cups bread crumbs

The dish is very very easy... Make the pasta as directed (al dente actually, cook 1 minute under the time recommended)
Preheat oven to 375
Cook bacon, drain and chop.
Add onion and squash to the bacon grease and saute until the onion is translucent.  Add the garlic and mix.
Slowly add the flour to the remaining grease and stir to make a roux.  Keep stirring until it softens and liquefies.
Slowly add the 1/2 & 1/2 while mixing and bring to a simmer.
Add in 1/2 of the Gruyere and nutmeg and stir until all of the cheese has melted.
Add the Mascarpone and continue to mix until melted and incorporated into the cheese
Add the pasta and mix

TOSS  the bread crumbs with the parsley and remaining gruyere and sprinkle over the mixture
Bake for 8 minutes

And ENJOY (highly recommend serving this with a spicy Cajun Blackened Pork Chop!

Carla Hall's Chew Chew Clusters 10.27.11

Happy Halloween!

I am writing this up on Sunday morning after a LOOOONG Friday and Saturday of pretty much wall to wall cooking.  I have a cousin, almost as big a foodie as myself.  This weekend I had a pretty big back yard BBQ planned (last day temps in the 70's for a long time... great excuse to smoke some ribs and pork shoulder).

So, with just a tiny bit of pleading, Cousin David, ... his wife and daughter and my wife started a few days of cooking, cooking, cooking!

First up was a dessert.  Handy to have around throughout the weekend to snack on and I know from experience, no one wants a heavy dessert after a huge BBQ meal (more on that at the bottom, I was able to feature a couple of The Chew recipes from the past.

But first... The candy!

If you check the video highlight on The Chew website for this recipe (Click HERE for the video highlight). you will see Carla loving describes making these as a home made version of a beloved southern candy treat.  She does mention that you can use whatever candy fillings you might like for these.  Think designer Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

Now, her version (the copy of the childhood memory) features peanuts, caramel and marshmallow fluff.  I had everything except the fluff.  I was already into an expensive weekend, so i substituted mini marshmallows.  The recipe was so good, I am sure at some point I will happily revisit this recipe.  When I do, I promise to hunt down the fluff.  But, for the day, the mini marshs worked fine.

The recipe actually could not possibly be easier.

Bag of chocolate chips to start.  I prefer the double boiler method of melting the chocolate.  It is possible to melt in the microwave, but this is just easier and works better for me.  If you do the microwave thing, just be sure to do it in stages, 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between each stage.

And, while the chocolate is melting...

Have a package of those tiny cupcake cups handy.  and a mini muffin baking pan.

one cup in each of the spaces in the tin and fill with 1 tsp of melted chocolate.  be careful not to put too much in there.  You are going to be making a sandwich, with a layer of chocolate, layer of candy and another layer of chocolate.

And now time for filling...

Peanuts...
Marshmallows...
And a layer of Caramel Sauce (I did make Carla's recipe and it came out GREAT!  Hope that makes up for me using mini mashs instead of the fluff).

And finally, top with another tsp of the HOT melted chocolate.

It will seep into the fillings and seal itself on the bottom layer.

take a few seconds and push some around all the edges and you have a very simple designer candy cup.

But wait... There's more!  I only made 1/3rd of my candy with the peanut cluster.  I also had a candy corn/cashew nut snack mix handy (easiest thing in the world, 1 part CC to 1 part cashews... tastes like a Payday Candy bar).

Make this, same way as above, add a little caramel and you have a chocolate-caramel payday candy bar.  Really Really GOOD!

And I made 1/3rd of my candy with the seasonal candy mix.

And that leaves 1/3rd more to be made...

HMMMMMM... wonder what I should use....

I know, something for Michael Symon...

BACON BACON BACON BACON BACON

I am so proud of my guests... Equal numbers of all the treats were made... Chew Chew Clusters, Chocolate Paydays and BACON Cups... All were eaten by the end of the parties, but by far, most popular were the BACON Cups!  Think a salty sweet treat!

A wonderful winner from The Chew!

And speaking of the weekend parties...

On Friday night when it was just 5 of us (Cousin David, wife Becky, daughter Breann, shown above snacking on the BACON Cup) and my wife, we were planning to watch the final game of the World Series (Whoo Hoo, what a great Series this year!).  So I made a batch of  Clinton Kelly’s Texas Nachos 10.19.11



These were a great way to start the weekend, Nachos and friends!

And here's the table ready for our BBQ Blast, well represented with a few of The Chew's past hits...  Look close, if you toss aside the Cole Slaw, Robs, Pulled Pork and the BEST smoked beans you will ever have in your life, you will see...

Mario Batali's  Potato Salad 10.12.11

Don't you just love the Texas serving plate for the Italian warm potato salad?

And Monday I have a leftover dish planned... Pulled pork shepherd's pie with this potato salad mashed up to make the mashed potato topping!

And if you look close, inside the pulled pork sandwiches, shove aside the red, white and blue cole slaw and you will see some of Michael Symon's pickled Red Onions (well pink).

A good day was had by all!

Michael Symon's Grilled Banana, Bacon, Chocolate and Hazelnut Sandwich 10.7.11

There must be a dirty word that the host's of The Chew are not allowed to say...

NUTELLA

Throughout the segment, they simply referred to the Chocolate/Hazelnut spread.  Whoa to anyone with an urge to give this a try, but are not aware.

Although personally, I think Nutella should be appointed it's own food group on the charts.  It is a name brand and believe it or not, there are other brands advertising themselves as chocolate/hazelnut, so I guess I can see the need to be coy about the name.

But come on... it's Nutella!

I do think that Michael Symon missed an opportunity with this recipe.  On the show, he advises buttering the bread before you toast the sandwich.

Much as he is such an advocate of bacon fat (the rendered grease after frying up the bacon), why not just toast the sandwich in the bacon fat.... YUM!

This is one of those recipes where everything is in the title.

It's a sandwich, so you need a couple slices of bread (I make my own, but on the show, Michael just uses a couple of slices of a store bought loaf).

Nutella spread

Bananas (sliced lengthwise)

Bacon

Assemble the sandwich and fry in a thin layer of bacon fat (or butter the bread and toast as Michael does in the show).

The Chew website does have a recipe posted, Click HERE.  Although for some reason they leave off the banana in the title and in their photo (it is in the recipe and was shown on the show).

As to the taste... this ranks as an incredible OMG !!!  Sure, it's an odd combination, hot bananas, chocolate and bacon, but it all comes together perfect.  As I said, Nutella can do no wrong.  I am filing this away for family visits.  Think Thanksgiving or Christmas morning with lots of kids and grandkids.  This is a HOME RUN!

Carla Hall and Sam Champion's Mac & Cheese 10.4.11

Today is a difficult episode for me to comment on.  I live in the Kansas City area.  We have a tragedy going on right now.  You may have heard that there was a nationwide Amber Alert, centered in Kansas City.  The least of my concern was the ongoing TV coverage of the event.  As I write this, Lisa Irwin is still not home where she should be.  As I sat down to watch yesterday's episode, the first 20 minutes were centered on the ongoing investigation.  Also, another couple of news breaks interrupted or abbreviated the live show.

So, I don't think I saw an entire segment, and certainly not an entire recipe.  BUT... the good folks at ABC have set up a website that made it a bit easier (http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew).  Sadly, I did not find the episode I wanted to see until this morning, but I was able to find the recipe.

The recipe is incredibly easy.  It also makes just about the creamiest, the cheesiest Mac N Cheese I have ever eaten.  It is a stove top recipe, which makes it very easy.  I do miss the contrast of textures from a baked MnC, with a bit of a crunch.  BUT, the ease that this comes together, combined with the incredible taste makes this recipe a real keeper.

And of course... BACON, BACON, BACON, BACON, BACON!

As I am working on this post, I have been listening to the segment.  This is an interesting segment, Sam Champion is NOT a cook.  He freely admits that his schedule keeps him from cooking and that certainly showed in the segment.  While I have enjoyed the food related guests, I think this is a great move from the shows' producers.  Non-cooks are terrific to use as examples of how easy cooking actually is.  It is also a bit of a trick to gently teach cooking techniques without saying you are teaching.

Now, there is a small detail in the recipe.  It is listed as taking 30 minutes or less.  In fact, there is no way to caramelize onions that fast (unless you do a cheat and add brown sugar and butter to the pan, but that makes onions in a caramel sauce... almost the same, but not really).  The caramelized onions show up as an ingredient.  Sorry Carla, I just don't know where to shop where I can find caramelized onions.  they are easy to make, but it takes time.

But that's not that big of a concern.  Just know that the recipe will take about 45 minutes to make the onions.  Multi tasking can get this recipe into the 45 minute time frame and leave plenty of time to work on a main course...

Like this simple Balsamic Chicken Bruschetta open faced sandwich i served along side the Mac N' Cheese.

OH, one final change, Carla made this dish with standard elbow Macaroni.

I used a Rotini, corkscrew type pasta.  In fact, I used a whole wheat pasta.  I like the idea of whole wheat as adding a shade of a health benefit to this very fat filled recipe.  I also personally like the extra chewy texture of whole wheat pasta.  But that's just me.

You can find The Chew website version of the recipe by clicking HERE.  Easy, fast, especially VERY easy and fast if you eliminate the caramelized onions.

Now, I loved the recipe... BUT

I do wish the hosts would have discussed Brick Cheese vs the bags of pre-shredded cheeses.  In my opinion, brick cheese has a deeper taste.  The pre-shredded bags add surface area to the cheese.  More surface area, more oxygen hits the cheese.  more air hits, the faster the cheese losses it's taste.  ALSO, the bagged cheese adds just a touch of wax to keep the cheese from re-clumping.  It's subtle, but the wax does have a taste.  With all of those potential sous chefs, seems like Carla could have assigned and explained what most cooks and all chefs know.

Like I said before, though, it is one heck of a GREAT recipe!

Clinton Kelly's Romaine Heart BLT 9.26.11

Welcome to blog post number one, from the first day of the CHEW, ABC's new daytime all food all the time talk show.

Only the first day.  I have some opinions, most strongly that the show is too full.  Too many people, cooking too many recipes, not enough details to really stick out.  Also, too easy.  I am fine with 5 minute meals, 5 ingredient meals, etc.  But so far, the entire show was filled with these quickie dishes.  With the exception of Mario Batali's very quickie take on homemade pizza.  4 minutes, including a homemade crust recipe just does not cover it.

But, first day, way too early.  Time will tell and I am sure we are just getting the early version of a terrific idea.

I decided to make Clinton Kelly's Romaine Heart BLT.  Clinton is the "Entertainment" guy on the show.  His specialty is parties and style.  He chose the first show as an opportunity to showcase some party appetizers.  His theme was to deconstruct big main courses and turn them into tiny appetizers.

Like a Classic Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich...

Big change from the classic sandwich is no bread.  It's a lettuce wrap.

You can view the ABC The Chew Homepage official recipe and photo by clicking HERE.

Under the categories of "Who am I to make such changes", I made a few changes...

I didn't do anything terribly special to change.  I made mine two bites, so I used a little larger piece of bacon and two cherry tomato halves instead of one.

I also caramelized the tomato halves.  Very easy to do and by heating these you bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes.  Very simple, heat a saute pan over medium heat.  Add just a single TBS of Canola Oil (Best not to use Extra Virgin Olive oil as it can burn at higher temperatures).  Do that chef flip thing to coat the tomato halves.  Cover and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes.  Double check them every few minutes to be sure they are not burning.  You do not want to discolor them with char marks.  I did this the same time I was making the bacon, so I do not think it added any real time to the recipe... just an extra dish.

I also changed the recommended store bought spicy Mayonnaise with my own home made Cajun Garlic Aioli.  This sounds so incredibly special and exotic.  Honestly, it is a matter of a few squirts of a couple of liquids, a quick and easy peel of a few garlic cloves and a whirl in the blender or handy dandy mini chopper.  Once you stop taking the time to measure, you can whip this up in 2 minutes.  Again, while the bacon was frying, I just added, whirled and it was done!

Here's the recipe...

1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 TBS Dijon Mustard
4 cloves garlic
Zest of 1 Lemon
Juice of 1 Lemon
2-5 Basil Leaves
1 tsp "Big easy in a Jar", or any Cajun Spice mix

Add everything in a blender, whirl until garlic has been minced and the Aioli is the constancy of the original mayo.

BTW, I make my own Cajun mix I call, "Big easy in a Jar".  You will be seeing this ALOT.  It's a fast way to add that special heat to any dish.  I make about 2 cups worth a month and bit by bot, it is gone!  Tastes great on eggs to chicken and anything in between!

1 part Garlic Flakes

1 part Onion Flakes

1 part Dried Thyme Leaves

1 part Dried Oregano

1 part Black Pepper

1 part White Pepper

1 part Lemon Pepper

1/2 (one half) part Cayenne Pepper

1/2 part Ground Bay Leaves

4 parts Sweet Paprika

This is a great little spice to have around. Add brown sugar (1/2 the amount of spice mix) to make a BBQ rub. And add a little to a soup to zing it up.

Again, feel free to substitute a commercial brand of spicy Mayo or if you make the Aioli, you can sub a store bought spice mix.

 And that's what I made from day 1!