Saturday, August 26, 2017

Chicken Croquettes

Chicken Croquettes

Oh boy, does this bring some memories of Sunday dinners at my beloved Grandmother's house.  No one noticed she lived in a tiny two-room house, because once you were there all you felt was love.  Her love for family filled every nooky and cranny and filled every pan and filled every dish.  My beloved grandmother was what would describe as a "plain cook," and no wonder as she endured the Great Depression..  There were no fancy sauces, but there was good white gravy seasoned with salt and pepper; no double baked loaded potatoes, but she could make a mash without lumps, loaded with sweet butter and fresh cream; and her nod to modern day living--canned peas



























And then there was the old Howard Johnson restaurant-hotel chain. Growing up, it was a big night out to dine at the Howard-Johnson (Ho-Jo's).  That orange roof with cupola could be seen from the road and beckoned many a traveler and promised good fare.  Many people wax nostalgic about their fried clams.  My Sweetie-pie and I, to our mutual surprise, learned we both loved the chicken croquettes there.  

It's taken me a long while to find a recipe I love.  Past attempts were pretty disastrous, with the food falling into the goopy or tasteless departments.  Ugh!  Disappointments abounded.  And then this.  Some may turn their nose up at the use of canned cream soup and packaged bread stuffing, and bless your heart, I respect that.  I ride that high horse sometimes, too, grins.  However, back in my real world, those products are made for ease and convenience in a life that is sometimes too busy, and like canned peas, can make a difference.

I can see why this was a Sunday meal.  This recipe takes some time; I start it in the morning to have it for dinnertime.  Mostly the time is the time spent in the refrigerator, the flavors getting to know each other and becoming all happy.

Chicken Croquettes  
(original recipe is found here:  http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-chicken-croquettes-253952)
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken**
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of chicken soup (low sodium is good here)
1/4 cup milk
1 6-ounce box seasoned stuff mix (or your own homemade bread stuffing)
1 egg
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 stick of celery, finely chopped
unseasoned breadcrumbs in a separate plate, for dredging
1/4 cup oil or enough oil to have about 1/4 inch deep in pan, or skip the oil if baking

In a good sized bowl, combine the first seven ingredients together.  Give it a pretty good mushing and then put it in the fridge to get all happy, for at least three hours.   

About a half an hour before you think you want to serve these, remove the mixture from the refrigerator and shape.  
  • Using about 3/4 of a cup mixture for each, you can shape the mixture into patties (the easiest and fastest), roll into a log shape, or the traditional cone shape.  
  • If you opt for the cone shape, which is fun but a little trickier to cook, first make the log, something about three inches long and two inches wide.  From a little height (we're talking only three or four inches, you don't have to drop it from the ceiling to the floor, for example)  just drop the end onto a plate.  The force of its own weight should flatten and spread out the bottom.  I pinch the top a little to define the shape a little more.
Gently roll each croquette in unseasoned breadcrumbs.  From this point you have a couple of choices.  You can freeze up to two months for later use (and these freeze beautifully and taste as good as the day you made them); refrigerate to serve following day, bringing to room temperature first; or proceed with cooking.

The easiest method is to bake them for 25 to 30 minutes at 350*F, if fresh, 45 to 50 minutes if baking from frozen. I baked the ones pictured above.  These were good, but truthfully, a tad dry.  I spooned a bit of oil on top of each one before baking and they were still dry-ish.


For flavor, we greatly prefer frying these.  Patties are the easiest to fry of course and take the least amount of time and oil.  If you chose the pyramid shaped croquettes, have enough oil in the pan to reach a depth of 1/4 inch.  Heat oil over medium heat and gently lower the croquettes into the pan.  The pyramid shaped ones are a little trickier because you're trying to keep the conical shape, gently turning and rolling it about in the pan with a spatula, being careful not to break them, and then standing them on end to make sure the bottoms are cooked.  They're going to take about 15 to 20 minutes to cook.  If you lose control of your croquette, try not to splash yourself with the hot oil.  I found it was best to let each side reach a golden brown color before turning to the next side.  If you need to cook these in batches, keep them warm in a 200*F oven.

COOK'S NOTES:  This is a good way to use up leftover chicken, or if you're of a mind, store-bought rotisserie chicken.  For us, I poach boneless, skinless chicken thighs with a generous amount of my DIY onion soup mix and a half teaspoon of chicken bouillon to up the chicken flavor a bit.  I drain off the liquid, let cool, and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

I'm fortunate enough to have a mini food processor so I pulse the onion and celery in it.  I'm looking for a fine dice, not puree.  Same thing with the chicken.  I give it several good pulses.  The packaged stuffing mix I buy is cut into bread cubes, and I think would be too chunky for this.  So, once again, I give it a couple of whizzes through the food processor.  I'm not looking for bread dust here, just smaller pieces.  Once all the ingredients are mixed together, the stuffing breaks down even further, hence the caveat to keep the stuffing at a smaller-medium size, if that makes any sense.

I made my own white gravy.  I do it by sight, so no exact recipe and no thrills, no frills.  Over the lower end of medium heat, add three or four heaping tablespoons of flour and a good sized gob of butter, maybe half a stick.  Stir, stir, stir, stir.  Once it starts to get all bubbly, add a good splash of milk as you stir,  stir, stir, stir.  It's going to seize up and be a glop. Don't despair and don't give up. Stir, stir, stir.  Add another good splash of milk and stir, stir, stir, repeating until the gravy loosens up and is a consistency you like. You can't rush it, and you can't quit stirring and you can't despair.  This is going to need some flavoring, so a generous amount of freshly grated pepper is good here.  And my secret ingredient for my chicken croquette gravy:  chicken bouillon.  I use Knorr brand but I suppose they're all good.  The Knorr I like it because it's a powder, not a pressed cube, so I have more control over it.  Better Than Bouillon is a great brand too and would be equally as good. (Not an endorsement of either product, just observations of my own experience.) Whatever you choose, I think bouillon can be pretty salty, so I started with maybe a 1/4 teaspoon or less, tasted and then ever so carefully added more grains.  The gravy can easily and quickly become overpowered with salt and chicken flavor.  Remember you can add but you can't take away.

Got lumps?  I use a flat whisk but recently purchased a round collapsible one and it seems to work really well.  If all else fails, do as one of my good friends does, strain the gravy through a strainer to remove any lumps.  It works!  No one's the wiser and her gravy is silky smooth.  Just don't strain it down the sink drain as she did when she was first learning to cook.  HA!

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Favorite Banana Bread



I tried a fair number of banana bread recipes over the years.  Some were good, others not quite so much.  Too crumbly, not enough banana flavor, added ingredients.  I forget where I discovered this recipe but it's the one I've settled on for our tastes.  It's straightforward, no added spices or fruits, just a nice moist, buttery banana-y banana bread that goes down a treat any time of the day.

Now here's a hint I saw on Facebook the other day and it's so brilliant I had to share it with you.  I'm chagrined to think I've gone all these years without knowing and doing this.  You know how quick breads seem to take forever to cook in the middle?  The outside gets all dark and dry and the center is gooey and raw?  Well, looky look.  Take a piece of aluminum foil and cut out an opening the size of the center of your uncooked loaf.  Put it back in the oven and let it go another three or four minutes or however long it needs.  The edges are protected and the center is cooked.  This worked a charm!






















Favorite Banana Bread

1/3 cup melted butter
3 or 4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Grease and flour a 9" x 5" pan and set aside.

In a large bowl mix the butter into the mashed bananas.  Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix.

Sprinkle the baking soda and salt** over the mixture and mix.

Add the flour and mix to combine.  This is a quick bread so just mix it until all moistened; you don't have to beat it.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let rest in pan for about ten minutes before running a thin knife around the edges of the loaf and tipping out on a rack to finish cooling.

**Recipe calls for a pinch of salt which is about an 1/8th of a teaspoon.  I use salted butter so I omit the salt entirely. 

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Tortellini and Spinach Soup

Tortellini and Spinach Soup

Monsoon season in Arizona means sideways, blinding rain and loud cracks of thunder fill the sky.  The days can look a little gray, threatening but not always following through.  When the torrents do come, they don't last for long, but our three cats vanish under the bed or in a closet, and those few brief hours can turn even a human heart to look for a spot of comfort.  This tortellini and spinach soup is just such a soup—warm and filling and satisfying.  It was so good and easy and was even better the second day.

Simple, simple, simple.  For us the only "exotic" ingredient was the tortellini, easily found at our local market with the other fresh pastas and cheeses, or can be found in the frozen food section.  We chose the fresh tortellini filled with chicken and cheese, and it worked deliciously here.

Now first a caveat.  I used the entire bag of fresh tortellini (I don't recall how many ounces it had now), which was too much for the amount of liquid.  By end of day two, there really wasn't much liquid left.  It was still tasty, of course, but I would have preferred more broth.  Next time I'll buy frozen tortellini, and reduce the amount I use, and save the remainder for soup for another day.  Bonus!  Secondly, this made a lot of soup.  It filled the slow cooker up to the brim (probably due in part to the generous amount of tortellinis, grins). I reheated it at work for lunch and was happy, happy.  Anyway, I think for the most part, this soup is quite forgiving and there is no real right or wrong, just whatever pleases your palate.  That's how good soups are made.

Tortellini and Spinach Soup
1 bag of frozen tortellini
1 small bag of frozen spinach
2 cans of Italian style diced tomatoes (I didn't drain the cans)
1 eight-ounce block of cream cheese, cut into chunks
4 cups of either chicken or vegetable stock

Put all ingredients together in a slow cooker.  Cook for 5 or 6 hours.  

I'd check this at 4 hours to see how this is going and check maybe every 30 minutes or so thereafter. Give it a nice stir to make sure that the cream cheese is melding with the broth.  I think 6 hours of time for pasta would turn this into mush, but then again I started with fresh tortellini.

 

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Frosted Tea Cakes

Frosted Tea Cakes

There's a childlike glee in me when I see cookies; my eyes widen  and my mouth becomes an O, and all my senses rush to tell me, these are going to be so good! 

And these are very good, far better than a look-alike, store-bought version, in my opinion.  Tender, thick, oh-so-buttery, moreishly good.  Plus, they're pretty. Pink frosting and sprinkles brings out my inner child.  Can you say tea party?

The first day the cookie part seemed a tad dry and crumbly and I was disappointed, but on the second and subsequent days, these become what they are meant to be, soft and sweet and delectable.  The recipe made 18 good-sized cookies for us, and lasted an entire week in a tightly covered container.  Grins, we are adults here after all and had to show restraint.  

Frosted Tea Cakes

For the cookie: 
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temp 
2 eggs 
1/2 cup sour cream 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
3 cups all purpose flour 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt (reduce to 1/4 tsp if using salted butter)

For the frosting
 2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 tablespoons milk or more for desired spreading consistency**
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
Tiny drops of food coloring if you wanted tinted frosting
Sugar sprinkles
  
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large mixing bowl and using your hand mixer or the bowl of your standup mixer, cream together 1/2 cup softened butter with 1 cup sugar and mix for a couple of minutes until smooth.  Add in sour cream, eggs, and vanilla and mix well. 

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. (I used a 4-cup measuring cup and sifted directly into the measuring cup using a fine strainer.)  Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well. Measure rounded tablespoonfuls of dough for each cookie and roll into a smooth ball.  You should have something about the size of a walnut.  Place on ungreased cookie sheets (I lined with parchment paper), making sure to leave a good 1 inch between each cookie as these will rise and spread. Lightly flatten the dough a bit and gently reshape into a circle if needed.

Bake for 11-12 minutes, then immediately remove from the oven. The cookies will appear underbaked a bit but this is what you want. Carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and repeat the process until all of the dough is gone.  

To make the frosting, beat butter with a mixer for about 30 seconds, then add in powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Add in vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons of milk and mix until light and fluffy.  Add food coloring (if using) in sparing drops, mixing well after each couple of drops to attain the color that you want.  Use a knife to slather each cookie with frosting.

If you're going to use sprinkles, I find the best way is to put the sprinkles in a small plate and gently press each cookie as it's frosted into the sprinkles.  The frosting tends to dry and the sprinkles will not adhere easily if you wait to the end and just try to pour them on.


Cook's Notes:

I measured my dry ingredients into a 4-cup measuring cup, with a fine mesh sieve.  

Try to resist the impulse of flattening these cookies too much.  They are intended to be a little thick and not a wafer cookie.

Believe it or not, no milk in the house, and I substituted milk in the frosting for half and half.  In the past I've used light cream and even whipping cream. The substitution makes for a richer tasting frosting; yes, it probably adds calories but in for a dime, in it for a dollar, I say.  No regrets.