Roasted Chicken, gravy for

Posted on November 20, 2012 by SlowDownAndCook with Meals not So Fast

This is a simple way to accent a home-made roasted chicken, with an elegant gravy.

We roasted a chicken in the standard manner, but in a small roasting pan, the chicken in a rack. We placed on-hand vegetables, coarsely cut, in the pan, under the chicken: onion, carrot, and potato – but anything would do; to this we added about a half cup of chicken stock, kosher salt, and pepper.

We removed the vegetables, and poured off the fat. We then combined the vegetables and the remaining juice in a blender, blended until smooth; we finished in a sauce pan by boiling down and adjusting the salt and pepper.

The resulting gravy was fantastic.

Posted in Roasted Chicken | Leave a comment

Creamy Dip with Spicy Kick

Posted on October 29, 2012 by SlowDownAndCook with Meals not So Fast

My husband is actually the one who bugged me for so long, that I finally wrote this recipe out to get some peace.  So, there are really only few ingredients:

  1. Sour Cream (1 tablespoon)
  2. Ketchup (1 teaspoon)
  3. Sriracha (Hot chili sauce) (1/2 teaspoon)
  4. White ground pepper (pinch)

I recommend maintaining these ratios, but the final quantity depends on you.  Sprinkle with fresh squeeze lemon juice right before serving for a brighter flavor. Goes well with quesadillas, sliced vegetables such as bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Try also with crab cakes, salmon pattties, and hamburgers (karbanatky).

Posted in Burgers, Diner Food, Fried Meat Patties “Smažené karbanátky”, Sauces, Sea Food | Leave a comment

Barbecue Pepper Tri Tip of Beef

Posted on September 23, 2012 by SlowDownAndCook with Meals not So Fast

I started with a 2 1/4 lb beef tri tip. After rinse and pat dry, I sprinkled it with Kosher Salt, and coated it with pepper corns. I used good tri-color pepper, and cracked the corns using two cast iron pans; I then pressed the tri tip into the cracked pepper corns, and worked them over the entire surface. I let that sit in the fridge for about an hour and a half.

The Barbecue: I prepped a hot and cold side in my long smoker barbecue, and brought the temp up to about 350ºf.  I wrapped the beef in foil and put it on the cold side, with the hood closed, for thirty minutes. I then removed the foil, increased the heat of the fire, and placed the beef over the hot coals for thirteen minutes a side, turning once. My barbecue has a greater distance between the coals and the grill than a standard Webber, so, using a Webber, one must be more careful about the heat of the coals. Remove from the heat, and cover loosely for ten minutes before slicing; slice across the grain.

We served it with white rice, yellow corn, and an onion-garlic-mushroom-oregano mixture sautéed in olive oil and butter, after bruschetta made from the garden, and edamame from the freezer.

Fantastic.

Posted in Barbecue, Beef | 1 Comment

Baked Dijon Chicken Cordon Bleu

Posted on September 22, 2012 by SlowDownAndCook with Meals not So Fast

Slice a boneless skinless chicken breast so that a slice of cheese and a slice of ham can be comfortably inserted.  The trick is to hold the breast in place with the palm of one hand, and, with the other hand, hold a knife level with the cutting board, and slice into the breast midway between the top of the breast and the cutting board. Also, I like to remove the fillet; it makes a tasty morsel, and leaves the chicken breast more balanced for stuffing and maintaining even sides above and below the stuffing. Cut so that there is a pocket in the breast, running the length of the breast. For the stuffing, I used Black Forrest ham and Jarlsberg cheese

  • season the breast with salt, pepper, and a pinch of herb du Provence;
  • place the slice(s) of cheese and ham in the pocket of the breast
  • tie the breasts off with twine, and put aside.

Preheat the oven to 425°f; prepare the bread crumb mixture, of: bread crumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper. Brush the breasts with Dijon Mustard; then roll in the bread crumb mixture. You now have the ‘packet’ ready for cooking.

  • Heat a skillet with olive oil and butter, till the butter is fragrant.
  • brown the breasts, only just, for about 90 seconds each side;
  • remove the breasts to a grated cooking sheet in the oven, for a total of 25 minutes, covered, loosely, for the last ten.
  • check to make sure internal temp is at least 160ºf; remove from the oven, cover loosely for about five minutes

I served it with Uncle Ben’s white rice and sautéed carrots. Fantastic.

Posted in Chicken/Turkey | Leave a comment