Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving blog-readers!

Hope you have a wonderful day. I will be learning new tricks in the kitchen, and hopefully sharing them with you once I've worked the kinks out of them.

Eat well and remember to thank your chef, whoever it may be!

Sloppy Joes (not from a can)

I am not here to knock Manwich in a can. It was that stuff that first turned me on to the greatness that is Sloppy Joes. Sloppy Joes are one of two things from my childhood visits to the neighbors' that I seriously thought (and still think) were (and are) some of the best things ever created to ingest, those being Sloppy Joes and Dr. Pepper. Every time I eat a Manwich or drink a Dr. P I am instantly transported to the neighbors' living room, where I frequently sat on their nice leather couch watching Price is Right. Man, that was the life. (Hi Rebecca!)

But anyway. I wanted to learn how to make Sloppy Joes, and I didn't want to have to go hunt for a can of Manwich at the very rare grocery stores that carry labels around here every time I want them. So I found a few recipes, and streamlined them all. And I finally perfected "my recipe," so I want to share it with you. It includes ingredients I always keep in my pantry, so it's pretty perfect for that cold night that you want something easy to make that will keep you warm. Kind of like tonight actually. Too bad I already had Sloppy Joes three days ago. Sigh.

Un-Canned Sloppy Joes

1-1 and a 1/2 lbs ground turkey (or beef if you can tell the difference)
A little olive oil
1 small diced onion
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 c ketchup
2 c tomato sauce (1 can)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp of dried thyme
A pinch of cayenne pepper or chili powder
Salt and black pepper
plus
6 hamburger buns, toasted

You'll want a deep skillet for this, because it will need to hold all of the delicious Sloppy Joe Sauce as well as the turkey. First, brown the turkey in olive oil. You should use a wooden spoon or something hard to break it up as it cooks. Once it is cooked through, and all the liquid is cooked off (if there is still liquid and it's cooked through, you can drain the meat; this step will be necessary if you use beef) add the onions and garlic and cook for a minute or two. Turn heat down to low and add all the rest of ingredients, minus the salt and pepper. Stir everything all together and leave heat on low, so that the liquid comes to a simmer. Let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the heat is spread evenly. It should look like this:

Turn your oven to 350, put buns on a cookie sheet, and toast them up (about 5-7 minutes should do the trick). After the 20 minutes of simmering, taste the Sloppy Joes. If the mixture tastes vinegary still, leave to simmer another five minutes. Once the vinegar taste is gone, add salt and pepper to your liking. I usually put a few shakes of pepper, and 1/2 tsp of salt to counter the sweetness. Scoop onto buns and serve (don't forget napkins)!

Just as easy as using a can I think. The only trick is making sure the vinegar cooks off, so taste it! It's always a good rule with slow cooking things like this. Oh, and also, don't leave your buns to burn in the oven. Believe me, burnt buns do not work well with Sloppy Joes. I've tried it. Enjoy!

Good Stuffed Chicken

Well, after that last blog, I am opting for something a little bit healthier (and more simple) for this next post. Today, stuffed chicken! I know I know, you are thinking of the bland wedding/banquet staple that no one really likes but everyone tolerates. Not so! Stuffed chicken might not seem exciting because of its bad rep, but it is! You can design it to your liking, and make it healthy and delicious. There is so much you can do with stuffed chicken, and it requires relatively little attention. All the work is in the preparation, so it is a great thing to have when guests come over. The prep work will take about 45 minutes, and the cooking about 20-30 more.

My classic stuffed chicken is filled with a mushroom stuffing. Because the base is vegetables cooked in olive oil, and there is no cheese involved, it is tasty but good for you. Here's the recipe:

Stuffed Chicken, Mushroom style

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut off any fatty or gross parts around edges)

Stuffing
1/2 a carton of button mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion (or half a big one), sliced thick
1/3 c of flavored breadcrumbs (approximate, see directions: if you only have plain breadcrumbs, feel free to add your own flavorings like garlic, thyme, parsley, etc)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Chicken bath
1/2 of chicken broth
1 clove of thinly sliced garlic
1/2 tsp dried rosemary (or thyme)

Special Tools: food processor, toothpicks, casserole dish

Preheat oven to 375 (you will use this later, so get it ready now.) Start by sauteing your sliced mushrooms and onions in a skillet over medium heat in some olive oil (1-2 Tbsps). You can add them at the same time. Just be sure to turn them every so often so they don't burn. Once they are cooked through (onions should be more translucent and both onion and mushroom should be soft) season with salt and pepper, and put into your food processor. While they are cooling in there, start on your chicken.

My trick for stuffed chicken is not to do that rolling up thing that some people do. I can't seem to get that right. The stuffing always comes out, and I can't properly sear the chicken because there are a hundred toothpicks sticking out in all directions. And not only that, but if you can't remember where you put the toothpicks before cooking someone is bound to get poked in the mouth, and no one likes that. So instead of that mess, I slice the side, as if I was going to cut the breast into two cutlets, but I don't cut all the way through, which creates an open pocket in there. This is much easier not only to stuff, but to keep the stuffing in (which is the part everyone wants to eat anyway). Once the pockets are ready, sprinkle salt and pepper on the breasts, and let sit while you are making the stuffing.

Back to the food processor. Now that the mushrooms and onions have cooled, pulse them until they are chopped small--each piece of mushroom or onion should be about the size of a pea. Once this happens, add in half of your breadcrumbs along with 1/2 tsp salt and a little pepper into the food processor, and pulse until incorporated. The next part is the "use your judgment part". You want this stuffing to hold together, but you also want to be moist. You achieve this by adding a little more breadcrumbs until it holds together, and then just a tad of olive oil. You are going to want to feel the texture and make sure it sticks together. Then taste it for seasoning. It should be a little on the salty side because as the stuffing cooks, some of the flavor will leach out due to the steaming in the oven.

Now for the assembly. Stuff each pocket with as much stuffing as it can hold and still be closed. Then take a toothpick or two, pull the open sides of the pockets together, and sort of "sew" the toothpick through each open flap of the chicken, so that it stays shut. Now you know that the toothpicks will be along the opening, and you hopefully won't get poked by a stray one you forgot the location of before eating. Once you have done this with each piece of chicken, heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat (you can use the same one as you used for the mushrooms if you want). Once the oil is hot, add the chicken. The goal here is to sear each side. You want nice browning on each surface, but you do not need to cook the chicken through. That's what the next step is for.

While the chicken is searing, make the bath. Take a casserole dish that will fit all the chicken in it, and pour in chicken broth. Add rosemary and sliced garlic to the broth. Also grab a piece of tin foil. When the chicken is done searing on each side, place into the broth. Cover the dish with tin foil, and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes. This will not only cook the chicken through, but infuse it with some nice flavor and moisture from the broth bath.

When you are ready to eat, just uncover and serve. You can use the "bath" for sauce if you like. This goes really nicely with white rice and some green veggies. The key tricks here are the side pocket slicing, and remembering where your toothpicks are at. Other than that, you just want to make sure that you test your mushroom stuffing for consistency and flavor, and you'll have a perfect dish every time. Feel free to put your own stuffing in there if mushrooms aren't your thing: sundried tomatoes and goat cheese, spinach feta and pine nuts-- the possibilities are endless!

Apple Caramel Cake! Guest Blog!

Hello my fellow Honest Chef followers! Our candid culinary genius has asked me, her "Honest Eater" to take a turn at the keypad and tell you all about a new, delicious Autumn treat which we discovered this year, and which looked so good, I had to strap on the apron and take the lead. The scrumptious invention I wish to share with you today, is the Caramel Apple Cake as presented in the Food Network Magazine last month. It's a bit complicated, and it has a few different things that need to be happening simultaneously, so recruit some friends to be your sous chefs; they'll thank you later ;) Also, make sure you're not trying to cook anything else for the couple of hours you're working on this. As an experienced eater, I can say that most kitchen mistakes I see come from the chef, honest or otherwise, overextending themselves in the kitchen and letting something slip through the cracks. Just a quick note: you will notice in the pictures that we used a tube pan, with a hole in the middle, but that caused us some problems with leaking caramel, so I recommend sticking with a standard cake pan for this recipe.

Ingredients
For the Caramel and Apples:

* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
* 3 cups sugar
* 5 tablespoons light corn syrup
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 4 large Golden Delicious apples (1 3/4 to 2 pounds)

For the Batter:

* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 3 large eggs

Directions

Caramel
Now here are some general caramel rules (from me) before the official directions:
-Trust the ingredients and the recipe. If it says medium-high heat, use medium-high heat, not high, not medium, right in the middle of those two.
-Dark Amber is the color of a thick, syrup. Don't be afraid to let it get there.
-That being said, caramel needs attention. It should be mixed regularly and checked on almost continuously. It doesn't take long to make, but it is easy to overcook it.
-When it's time to work with it (pour it, spread it, etc.) work quickly, because it hardens as it cools and will be impossible to work with if you let it sit too long.

Butter a 9-by-3-inch round cake pan.

Make the caramel: Cook the sugar and corn syrup in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is dark amber, 7 to 10 minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium. Carefully add the cream and 4 tablespoons butter (it will splatter) and cook, stirring, until combined, about 3 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the heat and let sit 1 minute. Pour 1 1/2 cups caramel into a glass measuring cup and set aside. Pour the remaining caramel into the prepared pan and set aside until set, about 30 minutes.



Apples
Some notes about the Apples:
-The recipe calls for Golden Delicious Apples which is what we used but which are not the most common. I believe that any excellent cooking apple will hold up in this recipe and taste just as good.
-If you're following along at home, you see the Caramel needs to sit for 30min. As you know, many apples brown if you leave them sitting out. Therefore, wait to cut the apples until the caramel only has about 10 more min to ensure their freshness.
-Do NOT peel the apples for this recipe.

Cut 3 apples into quarters and cut out the cores with a paring knife. Arrange the pieces skin-side down in the pan (overlapping them slightly) to form a ring about 1/2 inch from the edge. Save any pieces that do not fit for later.


Halve the remaining whole apple crosswise. Scoop out the seeds with a melon baller or measuring spoon, leaving the stem on the top half. Chop the bottom and any of the leftover quartered apples into pieces; set aside.

Arrange the apple top, stem-side down, in the center of the pan. If the quartered apples shift, just push them back into place.

Cake Batter
Notes about the Batter:
-Always remember that in baking, measurement is of the utmost importance. Please double check your teaspoons vs. tablespoons, etc. and don't get cute and do something silly like adding extra vanilla because "everyone loves Vanilla." It doesn't work like that.
-Trust the Butter and Sugar to fluff up. It took ours maybe a little longer than 5 min, but it got there eventually. It should look like a cloud.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the batter: Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream, orange juice and vanilla.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl. Slip them into the mixer bowl, one at a time, and beat until the mixture is pale and creamy, about 5 more minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater with a rubber spatula.

With the mixer on low speed, add half of the sour cream mixture, then half of the flour mixture. Repeat. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula; finish combining the batter by hand.

Spread the batter over the apples in the pan. Top with the chopped apple. Bake on the middle oven rack until the cake is brown on top and springs back when pressed, 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes (don't worry if the top is dark). Cool in the pan on a rack.



Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a skillet wide enough to hold the cake pan. Carefully run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan several times, then rest the pan in the water to soften the caramel, about 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the water and dry.

Invert a plate on top of the cake, then flip over the cake and plate. Using pot holders or a towel, wriggle the pan off (see what it should look like below).


Soften the reserved 1 1/2 cups caramel in the microwave, about 2 minutes. Drizzle the cake with some of the caramel. Slice and serve with the rest.



At a certain point it all becomes very straight forward, but good golly, it is delicious. Just look at those gooey, dripping pictures. It has all the pleasure of the great fall delicacy added to a coffee cake like base. It's fun, it's good and it will not disappoint.

p.s. for more step by step photos, you can go to the Food Network website here, and follow along. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/caramel-apple-cake/pictures/index.html

Mom's Apple Crisp

Nothing says fall is here like apples! This is the first of the "Apple Series" here on the Honest Chef. Today we will be discussing apple crisp.

I love apple crisp because it reminds me of home. During the fall and winter, my mom always made apple crisp for dessert. She says she always makes it because it is easy. And this time, she was actually right (more often than not her "easy" recipes take me three hours during which I curse a lot). And let me tell you, her apple crisp is so delicious. I have had other "crisps" and "crumbles" but what makes my Mom's recipe awesome is not only that it is super easy, but that it is very sweet. In fact, I think that I inherited my sweet tooth from my mom. For example, this weekend when I was home, she was scooping spoonfuls of sugar onto her Life Cereal! Life Cereal is not cornflakes, I mean, you can see the sugar crystals on the pieces! But she likes her sugar. So do I.

The other thing I like about this crisp is that the apples really meld together and become nice and soft. The top gets really crispy and then the contrast is just awesome.

So here's the recipe. You will be super amazed at how easy and how awesome this is.

Mom's Apple Crisp

7 apples (a variety; and mom says don't use McIntosh)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 stick butter (softened JUST A LITTLE BIT, so it's easier to crumble)

Preheat your oven to 375. Your first step is to core, peel, and slice the apples. I have a handy gadget for this, but you can do this by hand. I like to slice my apples pretty thin, so that each slice is about 1/4 inch thick and 1 inch long. I think this really lends the apples to becoming uniformly soft underneath the crust.

The second step is to put all of these into a 9x13 glass baking dish. You will see that the apples fill it up. This is good. When you're done, they will be shrunken to about half that size.

The third step is to get a big bowl, add your brown sugar, flour and stick of butter, and mix it all up until the butter is incorporated throughout (there should be small chunks of butter through the whole thing).

Pile this mixture on top of the apples, and put in oven for about 45 minutes. The crisp should be uniformly brown on the top (see below). You should also notice that the thickness of the crisp has shrunk to half its previous size.

And you're done! See, wasn't that simple? Four ingredients and three steps. Mom was not joking when she said it was easy. And I am not joking when I say it is the best apple crisp ever.

The tricks to remember are to make sure the butter is incorporated throughout the sugar and flour mixture, and to cut your apples thin. That's it! Enjoy.

The "Whoopsie" Pie

You may think because I post delicious looking things on this blog that I am now a seasoned cook and I really know what I'm doing. Guess again. This blog isn't called the Honest Chef for nothing. Last weekend I really messed up. You know those chocolate chip cookies? That everyone loves and always asks me to bring to things? Yes, friends, I messed those up. I have made them probably 100 times. I hope this makes you feel better about messing up in your own kitchen. I hope you aren't laughing at my idiocy instead. Well, even if you are, I will be vindicated by the great ending to this story, so read on.

Here's what happened. I was making chocolate chip cookies for a birthday party. I put in all the ingredients, one by one, measuring, etc. I was moving right along until I got to adding the chocolate chips, where I stopped. The dough just didn't look quite right to me. It looked too firm, and frankly, not like cookie dough. It tasted ok, but I could tell something was off. And then I noticed them. The TWO EGGS were sitting there on the counter, next to the beater, looking up at me and saying, "Yep, you forgot us down here." NOOOOO. I couldn't make them all over again! I didn't have any more butter, and I had used up the last of the vanilla extract. NOOOOO. And have I mentioned how much I hate to waste ingredients?

So what did I do? Why, called my mom of course. "Oh my god Mom, I am an idiot and forgot to add the eggs to my chocolate chip cookie dough. Is there any possible thing I can make with this wrecked dough?" She replied hesitantly that I could try to make a crust for some kind of pie. She wasn't sure it would work, but she too hates to waste ingredients, so I thought I'd give it a go.

But what kind of pie? Chocolate cream, replied my husband. Perfect! The cookies were supposed to have chocolate in them anyway, plus it didn't require a long cooking time (which was good because the party time was creeping up on us). So, we put a little bit on a cookie sheet and popped it in the oven to make sure that it would taste good once it was cooked. Miraculously, it did! Actually it was really good. But then I tried to roll out the dough into a pie crust shape. Forget it. I could get it to be thin, but it kept breaking apart. At this point, I was willing to do anything to get it into the pie plate, so I took all the small rolled out pieces, and pressed them together into the pie plate. Then I threw it in the oven at 375, and kept an eye on it until it turned brown.

Once it was ready, I took it out and put it into the freezer immediately. (If you ever want to make this and you have more time though, just let it cool regularly. I was desperate to finish). While this was happening, I made the instant chocolate pudding. After the pie shell had cooled sufficiently, I poured in the pudding, and let it sit in the fridge for another ten minutes. Then I topped it whipped cream, and voila! It was finished. Too bad I didn't know how it tasted. But no matter, we at least had something to bring to the party.

Well let me just tell you, that was the best freaking chocolate cream pie ever! Take that people who were laughing at me! The crust was so rich and delicious it was just awesome! People were talking about how good it was days later. I have to say, it was my best mistake ever. Or best recovery from a mistake. (Thanks Mom!) I might actually do this on purpose again sometime soon!

So, now you know that I make mistakes on things I have made a hundred times. And you might too, but the good news is that now, if you forget eggs in your chocolate chip cookies, you'll know what to do!

*P.S. The photo is not mine. I didn't take a picture because I thought it would be terrible. But it kind of looked like this. And a blog post is boring without a picture.

Summer Tomato Sauce

I have been getting many requests for "things to do with all the tomatoes I am getting." Some people seem to be luckier than me to have lots of tomatoes donated to them by their friends and co-workers. Maybe if this recipe is good enough you can introduce me to them.

The last days are summer are here, and so are the last fresh tomatoes of the season. So here's a simple recipe for sauce that can be made only with fresh, summer tomatoes. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT try this with tomatoes from the supermarket or tomatoes out of season; farmer's market or garden tomatoes are the only ones that will work. Other, than that, there really isn't too much to the sauce. Our family learned this from one of my Italian relatives who makes this sauce all the time; she doesn't realize how delicious it is compared to what we are used to!

Summer Tomato Sauce (from Alessandra, a real Italian)

5-6 BIG tomatoes from the market (or 7-8 medium ones)
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 medium cloves of garlic, whole but peeled (see below for technique)
Fresh basil, about a handful, chopped not-too-small
Salt and pepper

The first step is to peel the tomatoes. I know this is not something we usually do here in America, but I guarantee you it makes a huge difference. No one likes getting stringy bits of skin in their tomato sauce. After peeling the tomatoes, core them, and dice them up. You will have a lot of tomatoes, so make sure you have a big enough bowl to put them in because there is a lot of liquid, and it will spill all over your whole kitchen if you just the cut tomatoes on the cutting board. (Yes, this happened to me.)

Once your tomatoes are prepped, put the oil in a large skillet that can accommodate all of those tomatoes. A skillet is important to use (rather than a sauce pan) because it allows more surface area, and therefore, the sauce can cook down more quickly while maintaining the fresh tomato flavor.

Next is where you need your garlic. The best way to peel a garlic clove is to smack it with the flat side of a chef's knife. For this technique you will need: 1. A 8" chef's knife. I would not recommend trying this with a smaller knife. 2. Force. 3. Courage. Put the whole unpeeled garlic clove on a flat surface (cutting board, counter). Hold the knife so the blade is flat (rotated 90 degrees from how you hold it when you are cutting). Put the thick part of the blade onto the top of the garlic, so it is just touching it and hold the handle firmly. Then take the heel of your other hand and SMACK DOWN right on top of the garlic. You must be forceful, and hold the knife tight. This seems scary at first, but it really is not, as long as you do it with confidence (no looking away in fear or anything like that! that is how you cut yourself.) Once you've practiced a few times, you'll use this trick a lot. It is way better than sitting there for 10 minutes trying to peel it with your fingers and then your fingers get all sticky and smell like garlic for the whole day. Knife technique is better.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat, and add the garlic cloves to the oil. Saute the garlic cloves until they become fragrant and start to brown. This usually takes me about 3 minutes. If they brown right away, it's too hot, so turn it down.

Once the garlic is ready, add all the tomatoes to the pan; keep on medium heat. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt onto the tomatoes in the skillet. Then stir once, just so all the tomatoes can get a little oil on them, press the tomatoes down so that they are in a flat layer, and do not stir anymore. Seriously. It is kind of the trick to this recipe. Leave it on medium for a while, as you see the tomato juices start to come out. This will be probably about 15-20 minutes. Do not stir.
It will look like this:

When you see the tomatoes have broken down a bit, and the liquid has been somewhat absorbed, you can turn the heat down so the sauce is just simmering. Keep it simmering for about 10-20 minutes more, until the "extra" liquid is just about cooked off. Then you add your basil, and stir lightly so that the basil is incorporated. Then 3 more minutes and it's done! Season with salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Tasting is always important. Here's the final product:


Now you're ready to add to your favorite pasta (I think it tastes great with spaghetti, fettuccine, or any of the longer pastas). You can also freeze this sauce, but I have to admit it just does not taste quite as good as it does when it is fresh.

Lots of fall recipes are coming up on the Honest Chef. But for now, enjoy the last of summer!