i used 2 recipes in preparing today’s lengthy gumbo. one is from a famous new orleans restaurant that got destroyed by katrina called uglesiches & bon appetit. using shrimp & andouille sausage. according to the new orleans recipe the roux needs about an hour to brown deeply. i’m using cubanello peppers instead of boring green peppers, clam juice & file! fresh okra, which has to be browned seperatly until it is no longer stringy. it takes a long time, because the roux is an hour + ordeal (a friend told me to make a big batch & freeze it, slice it off as needed-very smart however…i do not have a freezer. outside might work) i was nervous because the chicken stock made the last 2 days has chinese 5 spice, which means anise. anyways, lots of chopping, paying attention to the roux which can burn, etc etc etc.. i kind of enjoy making food that takes a long time.

making native new orleans food is one way of visiting without leaving home. i just finished another book about katrina that really crushed my heart. zeitoun was about a very sweet muslim couple. the wife left with their 3 kids before the storm. the husband stayed behind & rode it out. he went around in his canoe & helped save people & fed dogs. then he got thrown in jail accused of being taliban. with hundreds of other innocent people he was held without being given even a phone call. it’s always interesting to read about what really went on in new orleans during katrina. a lot of people lost their rights & freedom. makeshift jails were created by prisoners a few days before the storm. while other people were not saved. the military went in & did nothing. they just stood around with their guns & let people die.

from the colonel’s cousin’s girlfriend. this is decadent to the max. mmm…

meagan’schocolate meringue cookies

3 Egg Whites
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 oz. chocolate chips
1/4 c. walnuts (if you want, sometimes I leave them out)

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

-Whisk whites to stiff peaks. On a high speed, gradually add sugar and beat on high for 2 minutes. Sift cocoa onto the egg whites, add chocolate chips and nuts. Fold everything gently together, making sure that the cocoa is not folded completely into the meringue.

-Scoop meringues onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake them for about 20 minutes or until you’re able to gently slide the cookies off the sheet.

i entered myself in a chili cookoff that is happening today. i gathered the goods & cooked the master batch for hours last night, including chicken stock for a future dish.

i really believed that i had a chance at winning this because i’ve been lovingly perfecting my “roasted poblano white chicken chili,” for many years.

this batch conqured all those that came before.

i decided to keep this batch & share it with friends & loved ones. it’s too good to give to strangers. the chili cookoff got increasingly frustrating as time went on.

the rules kept changing. they were allowing the competitors to vote, even if they are vegetarian AND have a food allergy. one competitor wanted us to write our recipes down so she can “take extra tylenol for the migrane corn will surely give me.”

my recipe has corn in it.

you see where this was going?
i decided to share this recipe with you! yesterday i figured out the perfect base. i thought it was bacon last time i made this. and i was almost right. not regular bacon.

pancetta.
is betta.

BINDIFRY’S SECRET ROASTED POBLANO WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

THE GOODS
1 head of garlic
4 poblano peppers
2 T. bacon grease
olive oil
4 ounces pancetta
2 fresh red chili
1 LARGE onion
2 T. each of the following spices
-adobo
-garlic powder
-oregano
-cilantro
-basil
-cumin
-white pepper
-chili powder
-chipotle powder
24 ounce jar of vodka sauce (i like newmans)
14 ounce diced tomatoes
6 ounce tomato paste
15 ounce can great northern beans
15 ounce can baby red beans
3 1/2 cups emeril’s box chicken stock
1 broasted chicken cooled & pulled apart. put skin & bones into soup pot
the best sour cream you can find-16 ounces
hwc (heavy whipping cream)
1 cup frozen or fresh corn
smoked or regular gouda, or sharp white chedder if you like a topping of cheese
2 big bunches of cilantro
the juice of 2 limes

PUT ALL TRIMMINGS INTO STOCK POT & ADD 10 CUPS OF WATER. i added a lemon, potato, carrot, fresh poultry herbs, celery & fresh parsley to the rest. this will make a great broasted chicken stock you can use for a soup.

THE STEP-BY-STEP MASTER PLAN
roast whole head of garlic in foil for an hour at 350. let it cool by seperating the cloves.
slice 4 poblano peppers & 2 red peppers, clean out ribs & seeds-remember to put all trimmings into another pot for the stock. brush with olive oil.
roast in broiler till skin turns brown, 5 minutes or so. cool, peel off skins discard into stock pot, dice chili & set aside. the skin puffs up & looks like this

brown 4 ounces of thin sliced pancetta bacon chopped small. (i have a special wood block for meat seperate from the produce board)
cut one large yellow onion thin & carmelize with the pancetta & bacon grease. remove the crisp bacon & set aside for later. add the diced chilis & all the spices. cook 10 minutes.

squeeze the roasted garlic, vodka sauce (pink pasta sauce), diced tomatoes, tomato paste & chicken stock into the mixture.
drain & rinse the beans. add with the chicken.
cover & cook low. if i owned a crock pot, i think this is where i would use it to gently slow cook it overnight because this flavor really comes alive. all the different chili create that most PERFECT ear burn. it’s a GREAT head buzz & super flavorful.

after the long cook for the last 15 minutes add 1 cup sour cream & the hwc (heavy whipping cream), the corn & fine chopped cilantro. powder up the crisp pancetta & add to mixture. squeeze in the lime juice.

serve topped with shreaded smoked gouda & a dollop of sour cream. the gouda is a new idea. as soon as it hits the hot chili, it just surrenders itself. it melts right in there.
and really kicks this dish FAR over the edge.

if you end up making this, PLEASE let me know. and if something in the recipe is not clear.

it’s a simple recipe yet the very best way to prepare brussels sprouts. take a pound or 2 of brussels, slice thin in food processor, cook in heavy skillet with european butter (my butter of choice lately is lurpak but plugra & kerrygold are also very nice) and good sea salt. cook until browned. this mixture would be great stuffed into a gyoza. that’s in my future. the colonel & i were discussing brussels & both agree-it’s our favorite vegetable & it grows through the winter here! so i guess we don’t have a lot to complain about. we might not have peaches, berries & pineapple year round, but we do have potatoes, greens, cabbages & the royal brussels sprouts

for dessert i dug out a mini loaf of choco-banana bread sitting in the back of my 6 inch by 12 inch freezer, sliced & topped with lurpak butter, put it in my toaster oven. omg.

i’ve decided to share different gadgets & kitchen stuff at the end of each post on this blog. today i present to you my new wooden toothpick holder. i bought it in georgia at the tomato house. this is handy for me because i’ve developed the habit of collecting toothpicks wherever i go & if you keep them in your pocket, they poke through & poke your hands & they aren’t very sanitary. i do this because i spent a lot of months in india & it’s dirty there. they also have the most ornate & strongest toothpicks. i use them to clean out my nails. and i can not stop this habit. don’t judge me.

i’m noticing a trend in some of my cooking. when the cold comes, i want potatoes. i want potatoes with bleu cheese. i want potatoes with bleu cheese & bacon. no, not bacon, because that’s too obvious. how about prosciutto bacon? i had that on a sammie a few weeks ago & thought to myself, “why not?”
so i made potato soup with bleu cheese & prosciutto. usually the bleu cheese soups use the cheese as a topping. this one has you blend it into the soup. and the results are amazing. the delicious blanket of textures topped with the oh-so-very crispy bits of prosciutto is a wonder. if you substitute this for regular bacon, no additional salt is needed. in fact this entire soup has no spices of any kind in it.

when i was in the south for the holiday, i went to an antique mall. they had lots of nice pyrex, but not such nice prices. i did, however, get this glazed cast iron skillet from the 50s for about $20. i think it was a really nice find. i’ve priced this kind of kitchen ware & it is very expensive. my vintage useable cookware is starting to grow!

lasagne bolognese with spinach was my chosen first new years day dinner. it will be prepared on all future special occasions. and it was made in my toaster oven! i did a half order & i had a friend over in addition to the colonel. we ate 3 more servings today. so that’s 6 big, greasy, delicious servings! i have never tasted or prepared a better lasagna. this is italian traditional because there’s just a little tomato paste. the bolognese sauce is actually made with white (yes! white!) wine & milk! the base of it is pancetta, a tiny amount of paste, ground beef & onions. the only spice is thyme. of course i was skeptical, because the lasagna i’ve always known was heavy on the mozzerella (this has none), heavy on the sauce (this has none), RED wine, NO milk & sausage-NOT hamburger!

i doubted the lasagna.

epicurious lets you review their recipes. i gave this one 4 forks. the highest rating.

holy smokes this is absolutely perfect! you don’t think it will be that good because there’s almost no tomato in it. i read the other reviews & it seems people claim it is dry. i had NO problem at all. in fact, the oil formed a little puddle. it has plenty of olive oil, the pancetta added more oil & then i bought fatty ground beef (74%) so if this was a dry dish, it HAS to be that cooks are cutting back the almost frightening amount of oil. i followed the recipe exactly but left out the carrot & celery. i also made a half order because i don’t have an oven & it would not fit. next time i will add those veggies because it was just meat. they have a purpose. i seriously can not imagine a better lasagna. this will be a new years day recipe for years to come.

i am not really much of a fan of pancakes. this is due to the fact that they are almost always TOO big, TOO dry or TOO sweet. i got this idea for a recipe inspired by my husband’s uncle arthur, who makes divine moist thin cakes

i posted the photo i took of them from christmas morning after cakes. a flickr friend of mine who lives in melbourne gave me suggestions, because i don’t really want to try to make arthur’s cakes. i don’t think i can make them taste the same no matter what. so i took doug’s suggestion of using mascarpone cheese for half the milk & topping with maple syrup with fresh blueberries. he said when they burst, they change the syrup. he was SO right.

with electric whisk until fluffy
4 eggs
1/4 cup veg. oil
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup whole milk
add 2 cups bisquick, one cup at a time, scrape bowl.

fry in hot cast iron skillet in plenty of veg. oil. cover over med-high heat. flip when heavy bubbling occurs, press down, set stacked under dome to keep warm.

over medium heat in saucepan combine
one small bottle of REAL maple syrup
1/2 pint fresh blueberries

cook till the berries burst.

top cakes with a slice of lurpek or other european butter, pour syrup over to melt butter into the cakes.

devour.

i had a surprisingly hard time finding a good xmas cookie recipe. one that had tons of flavor & could be rolled. even though this recipe requires the “press” method, i chose it based on the amount of butter-3/4 pound. i used plugra.

enough said.
norwegian butter cookies pretty much rock. i have these guitar shaped cookie cutters & left the colonel to the artistic part. i call these the “special edition” nordic butter cookies. but my favorite of all is his cookie that i could wear as jewelry

so today was all about emptying the fridge. i am getting tired of having dorm fridges. i can’t ever freeze anything. for awhile i was using the great outdoors but last night i put a loaf of nice artisan bread to freeze & in the morning it had rained on it & got warmer. luckily i tied it up in a couple of bags. good thing because i had to feed the sick colonel. i had bacon fat leftover from a few slices yesterday, so in the cast iron skillet i fried chopped brussels sprouts for awhile & then added a lot of baby spinach. that was the side. no seasoning needed.

then i cooked some more bacon & carmelized an onion in the fat. set it aside & cooked 2 over medium eggs. put some plugra butter on 2 large slices of italian bread, toasted in toaster oven, then i topped with the bacon, eggs, onions & smoked gouda. i melted the cheese, sliced & served with the brussels/spinach side.

all on my new vintage plate.

life is good.

i had a craving for chocolate last night & knew i had some nice cocoa powder but no chips, so i decided to make martha stewart’s cream filled chocolate cookies her take on the classic oreo. these are kind of hard if you do not have a mixer (i don’t) because the dough & the icing are very stiff. it takes a lot of muscle. i also made the mistake of leaving my butter soften on the radiator, which melted it. i had to put it outside to stiffen again, i think it changed the texture of the cookies. they turned out pretty hard. i recommend baking them a few minutes less than the recipe calls for & definitely using an electric mixer if you have one. the cookies are really good just on their own.