A Good Yuleide, Merry Christmas, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Happy Solstice to all!
Everyone has holiday traditions, even if that tradition is no tradition at all, and with most of us part of that tradition revolves around food. Take my Thanksgiving tradition for example. Even though some years I crave a turkey dinner with all the fixings, since my son was around five years old, our real Thanksgiving tradition is to have mac and cheese and go to a movie (he got offended by a newscaster saying 'Happy Turkey Day'. He didn't understand why there was a holiday celebrating the death of an animal). One thing that has never changed though, is that for Yule/Christmas dinner, I make a lasagna.
I was really looking forward to making this dish, because I get to use a new piece of equipment - a mini chopper I picked up at Amazon.com. This comes in really handy to do quick chopping. It's a powerful little thing (but a little loud, so don't use it while your roommate is sleeping.)
It's been a little rough for me this week. A few days ago, my car slid into a ditch. No injuries and I thought the car was fine, the only casualty appeared to be the nasty cold I picked up waiting for the tow. Well, the cold got worse, so I missed some work, and the car started vibrating as I was driving. Christmas morning, my car started shouting all kinds of warnings at me. It seems the car's computer turned off the traction and stability systems, and powered down the engine. No way am I driving this up a snow covered mountain. Now I have to have it towed 40 miles to town to have it serviced. Oh joy. At least, when I had to leave early from work because of this miserable cold, I got my lasagna done.
Lasagna is not a difficult dish to make, you just need to get your layers ready to go. I start with the bolognese (meat) sauce, because that takes the longest to prepare, and you can do it the day before. That's the traditional way of making a lasagna. If you don't feel like going through the trouble of making a bolognese sauce, you can break up and brown 4 or 5 hamburger patties and add a jar of the prepared sauce of your choice.
Some people simply use mozzarella cheese for the cheese layer, which is definitely a way to go. I have been using this cheese mixture or years for stuffed shells, and love it in my lasagna. It only takes about 2 minutes to come together.
You also need to prepare your slow cooker. Spray the ceramic insert with a non-stick spray, or using a cooking bag. Even though I have a small crock pot, I use the larger cooking bags, because I got a good price on them, and I can also use them with my 6-qt crock pot, if I ever get the chance to get my stuff from storage. I highly recommend using cooking bags, because clean up is easy. Pull the bag out, wipe down the cooker, done. I've always hated cleaning that ceramic insert for fear of dropping it. In housing, my sink is not large enough to clean it anyway. So if you're using cooking bag, set it in your slow cooker and set it aside.
Like I said, it's been a trying week, but at least I can take comfort in comfort food, while I nurse my cold and watch some basketball.
Slow Cooker Lasagna
Equipment: Induction burner, saucepot, slow cooker
Ingredients:
1 package lasagna noodles
Quick Bolognese Sauce
1 lb. ground beef
2 Tbsps olive oil
2 - 16 oz cans tomato sauce
1 carrot, shredded
1 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
Cheese mix
16 oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan, shredded
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 Tbsp dried parsley
additional mozzarella cheese to top, because more cheese
Instructions
Bolognese Sauce
With your induction burner on medium high (5.0), brown the ground beef. Drain the fat and remove beef from the pan.
Heat the oil in the pan and saute the onion and garlic until they become translucent. Add the carrot and tomato sauce into the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the meat back into the pan and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until reduced by one third.
Cheese Mixture
Combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl, and mix till it is uniform.
Building the Lasagna
Now the fun part, layering the lasagna.
Spoon about one third of the bolognese (meat) sauce into the dish.
Place the uncooked lasagna noodles into the dish on top of the meat, breaking the up so that the entire surface is covered.
Spoon about one third of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles. Top with another layer of noodles.
Continue creating the layers the same way until all the meat and cheese is used. Top with any remaining cheese, ending with a good layer of mozzarella cheese.
Cover the pot and cook on low for 2 - 4 hours, or until the lasagna noodles are completely cooked.
Lasagna is best once it's allowed to rest, so that you cut through all the layers cleanly. By the way, this is a great example of why I love cooking bags. I only have two layers of each, because I was using an open pack of lasagna noodles, and didn't have enough for a third layer, but just take a look at those layers!
I placed the whole thing on a plate and cut the bag out from under it to cut it. Hope you had a great holiday!
Well, the season has started back up, and I've been happily manning my action station at the restaurant. It's not busy right now because the hotel just opened on December 7th. Thursday, I got to cook for one (yes one) person for the entire 4 hour breakfast shift. A couple of weeks from now we will all be begging for these quiet days (well, maybe not this quiet) when the season gets going. Until then, I continue to make an egg, and for practice flip it over, and over, and over, and over again. Or make something for the front and back of house staff for their breaks.
I also began my second job as garde manger at a fine dining Italian restaurant in the village. It was a slow start there as well, but since it was the first time preparing these menus items, the slower pace was a relief. I calmed myself by making a chocolate espresso sauce for the tiramisu plating, and looking for the equipment I need for my dessert specials going in to the holidays.
Finally it's a day off and I want comfort food. I also need it to be inexpensive (read "cheap") because I'm not going to see a suitable paycheck for a couple of weeks. I also want something that will, preferably, leave me with some leftovers for my son and I to munch on. Looking at the ingredients that I have available, I decided on Spam™ Fried Rice.
Fried rice is not a hard dish to make, and it's great if you want to stretch out a limited amount of protein. If you've ever been to a teppanyaki restaurant (you know the kind -- where the chef stands at the cook top clanging his metal turners on the flattop and flipping shrimp tails into his hat), you've learned how to make fried rice. You don't need a lot of ingredients or equipment, and with the right prep, it's a real fast meal. Your rice needs to have already been cooked, so either do this when you have leftover rice or make a batch. The recipe below makes a lot (4 cups), so if you only have a little left over rice, adjust the recipe accordingly, the technique is still the same.
If you don't have a rice cooker, feel free to make this using instant rice. For those of you new to instant rice, you always use equal portions of rice and water, and the rice will double in size. So if you want two cups of rice, use one cup of instant rice and one cup of water. Make the rice according to the directions on the box. If you're like me and like to put things in containers that close so as to keep things neater, you've already thrown away the box. Just remember, instant does not mean instant. I know, I felt lied to also the first time I tried to make it when I was in grade school. Quick refresher... boil the water, stir in the rice, cover, take off the heat and leave for five minutes. Similar to making a ramen packet, you're not really "cooking" the rice, you're simply heating and re-hydrating it. Just please don't try this with raw rice, and wonder why it was so crunchy and took forever, and a lot of liquid, to become edible.
Part of the key in dorm cooking (or any cooking, for that matter) is to do you mis en place. This literally means to "make in place", or to get all of the ingredients, prep (cutting, beating, etc.), tools, etc. ready before you start. This way all you have to concentrate on is cooking your food.
Spam™ Fried Rice
Equipment: Rice cooker, induction burner, large saute pan (or a wok, if you're lucky enough to have one with you)
Ingredients
4 cups cooked rice (2 cups uncooked rice)
1 can Spam™ of your choice (we like Spam™ Lite), sliced
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup frozen vegetables (peas, corn, mixed veg, whatever is in your little freezer)
2 Tbsp sesame oil (the sesame oil is for taste, so don't freak out if you don't have any, just use vegetable oil)
vegetable oil
1/2 - 1 cup soy sauce, depending on your taste (*The clear packet of soy sauce from your local restaurant holds about 2 tsps, the small foil packets about 1 tsp. 1/2 cup = 24 tsps, do the math)
sesame seeds
Cut the Spam™ in 1/4" slices and then into smaller pieces. Set aside.
In your saute pan, add the sesame oil and scramble the eggs. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add some vegetable oil to the pan to heat, and add the vegetables and Spam™, stirring to get everything coated, and cook for a couple of minutes.
Return the scrambled egg to the pan, and add the cooked rice and 1/2 cup soy sauce. Stir and fold all the ingredients together until the rice is completely coated, trying to get all the clumps of white rice. Once everything is completed coated and mixed, sprinkle in some sesame seeds and stir for another minute to get them slightly toasted.
If you want the rice a little bit darker, add a little more soy sauce and keep stirring until you're happy with the way it looks. Enjoy!!
I have become a Traveller. Not a traveler, mind you, who is globetrotting and seeing the world, but a Traveller, as in I am working as a seasonal employee, because I currently, have no home. While traveling was a always a goal of mine, that is not the case here. To make a long story short, I refused to sign a new lease on my last apartment with the $400/month rent increase, especially since both my son and I had just lost our jobs, so we opted to live in our car, a 1997 Honda Accord (which just died this August, but served us well). I found part time work in a catering kitchen, and would listen to other cooks talk about their seasonal jobs. Eureka! A lightbulb went off, and I realized I could still work and have a place to live. A month later, we arrived in Bozeman, Montana to work up at Big Sky Resort.
One of the big issues with employee housing (or dorm or hotel living) is that there's no kitchen. I'm a cook and a pastry chef. I need a kitchen, preferably, with an oven. With us in the car, we had brought an induction burner, a pot (3 quart) and a pan (3 quart/10"). Once we got to housing, we had a shared microwave in the hall. Period. Hot plates are not allowed in housing (although some people did quietly have them), because they're a fire hazard. You see, hot plates work on thermal induction, which means you plug them in, turn them on, and they get HOT. Induction burners work on magnetic induction, which means that the only surface that heats up, is the area that is covered by a pot/pan that can hold a magnet, so you need a pan such as cast iron, and certain stainless steel. Aluminum pans won't work (you can test the pan by seeing if a magnet sticks to the bottom of the pan). No other surface area gets hot. If the pan is not on the surface, there is no heat. If you leave it on with no pan, it will just keep beeping at you until it eventually turns itself off. (As a safety note: Please never leave any pot unattended! Not only is it a big fire hazard, you can lose some of your favorite pots that way. Believe me, I know this from experience.)
Now a person cannot live by ramen alone, at least not me, and restaurants up here are few and expensive (the closest fast food is about 40 miles away) so when I got my first real paycheck, about a month later, I splurged on a small (4 quart) slow cooker. Not too long after that purchase, getting a little frustrated with the altitude adjustment (we were at 4,800 ft above sea level in Bozeman, moving eventually to over 7,000 ft above sea level in Big Sky), came a small rice cooker. Now, I could make some food...soups, stews, chili, rice dishes, definitely an improvement. I still missed toast (the iron works ok, but it's not the same) and baking. In our second season, we got moved to a different room, and joy of joys! inherited a small toaster oven from a departing employee.
Fast forward to Fall 2017. I'm from the east coast (big ups to the Bronx!) and was missing the change of season. Montana is a beautiful state, but we live above the deciduous tree line, so everything stays green. I also wanted a traditional Thanksgiving, so that's what I decided to make.
Thanksgiving Dinner
Cooking a multi-part meal with minimum equipment and space take coordination. What can be done quickly and put away? What can be done at the same time? The day before Thanksgiving, I started with the cranberry sauce, since this is served cold anyway. The next step was to prep the turkey. Given the lack of space, I bought a turkey breast (on the bone), and with a sharp knife, removed the breast from the bone. I line my slow cooker with a cooking bag because I hate to clean the ceramic insert (I'm terrified of breaking it and got a good deal on Amazon.com), so I rubbed the turkey breast with oil and placed it in the bag, rubbed all my seasonings on the breast and set the slow cooker on high to cook for 5-6 hours, or until tender.
While the turkey was cooking, I made the traditional green bean casserole. I mixed all the ingredients, according to the directions on the box of fried onions, and put it in a small aluminum foil tin to cook in the toaster oven.
After I removed the green beans from the toaster over, I started cooking my sweet potato. For a nice baked sweet potato, clean the potato well, and poke all over with a fork. Rub butter well all over the potato, and bake in the toaster oven at 400º F for 30 minutes, turn potato over and bake for another 30 minutes, or until soft. I like it really soft, with the syrup on the skin, so I turned it again and left it for another 30 minutes, total cooking time of 90 minutes.
I was just using StoveTop™ for the stuffing, and a packaged sauce mix for the gravy (although I did doctor that up with butter and some of the drippings from the turkey) so I did those after everything else was done.
All in all, I was very satisfied with with my results.
Cranberry Sauce
Homemade cranberry sauce is so easy to make, you'll never use canned again.
Equipment used: Induction burner, 3 qt pot
Ingredients:
12 oz bag cranberries
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
Over medium heat (5.0 on induction burner) add sugar, water and orange juice to the pot, stirring gently until all the sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil. Stir in cranberries, and bring back to a boil. Boil the cranberries, stirring occasionally until they all pop open, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool until ready to serve, or refrigerate.
Note: If you want plain jelled cranberry sauce, instead of the whole berries, pour the cooked cranberries into a strainer over a bowl and press through until only the skins remain in the strainer. Discard skins, and cool the strained mixture.
