Cream of Mushroom and Potato Soup (With Chicken)

Wow, I haven't posted in too long. Well, this is as good a post as any to break my silence with -- I thought it turned out really well

• 5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• About twice as much vegetable stock as would be required to cook them in
• A bundle of fresh herbs, tied in cheesecloth for easy removal
• 1 lb white mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned, and finely chopped in the Cuisinart, then cooked in 1 tbsp butter along with a minced shallot
• 2 chicken breasts, boneless, and marinated in lemon, olive oil, and fresh dill (marinated for at least a couple of hours).
• A pint of heavy cream or half-and-half
• 1 tbsp flour, for thickening if necessary
  

Cook the potatoes in the vegetable stock (I home-made mine, but that's another story) until quite done. Add the mushroom mixture and flour puree with an immersion blender (or, I suppose in a regular blender until creamy. Add the cream, and let it get all hot again -- just below boiling.

In the meantime, simply pan fry the lemony-dilly chicken until nicely browned, but not cooked through. On a cutting board, slice them thinly, and add them to the soup. They add flavor to the soup, and vice versa. Check them for done-ness periodically, and when they're done, so is the soup. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if you have any.

Filling, warming on a cold evening, and quite rich.

Chicken Salad

Well, with the remains of our Thanksgiving Chicken (the white meat at least, the dark was long gone, thanks to two hungry people who love those parts) I made what I think of as a classic chicken salad. We've had it two nights in a row, once on pumpernickel swirl toast and last night on soft buns, which we both preferred. It gave it a more picknicky feel, somehow. Anyhow:

• Jeez, I don't know how much chicken. Basically the meat from the breast of a roasted 5 lb chicken, more or less. Dice fairly finely.
• 2-2 1/2 stalks of celery, also diced finely
• 1 large onion, diced finely
• 1 cup ( or more, totally up to you) of mayo. I used Hellman's, having had a complete Mayonnaise Fail trying to make home-made.
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 4-5 pickled Gherkins, finely minced
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1-2 teaspoons Chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried dill (fresh would be better, but gimme a break, it's December)
• Squeeze of juice from half a lemon
  
• Ground pepper

And that's about it. Combine it all in a big bowl, and put in the fridge, covered. It will be nice immediately, better later that day, and much better the next evening.

Tomato Relish

Ok, that's not really accurate, but it's as close as I can come to describing it. We had a pint container of cherry tomatoes (one of those clear plastic vented deals) that we bought, like, weeks ago. I noticed it on the counter again, and discovered that they were all perfectly good! So, I washed them, and threw them in the food processor along with various ingredients and left it in the fridge overnight. We ate it last night with yellow corn chips, and it turned out darn well if I say so myself.

• 1 pint small cherry tomatoes
• 2-3 tbsp freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, maybe more
  
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic (I also used some Sherry vinegar)
• Some pepper
• Squeeze of half a lemon
  

Buzz it all in your mini food processor, and let sit overnight. This might also be good on little toasts, bruschetta style. Thoughts for next time -- chopped Kalamata olives? A couple of anchovies? I'll definitely be trying this again.

Brining a Chicken

Got a 4-5 lb. bird from the poultry stand at Eastern Market, which you can read all about here:

The brine was basically:

2-3 tbsp kosher salt
2-3 tbsp light brown sugar
Several teaspoons cracked pepper, plus a scant handful of whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp dry Coleman's mustard
1/2 tsp red chili powder

Take a pot and put your chicken in it, and fill with water until it is almost submerged. Remove the chicken and put it back in the fridge. The water remaining is how much brine you will be making!

Put all the dry seasonings in the water and boil for five-ten minutes. Remove from the heat and add several cups of ice cubes to cool it down. Once it's cool, put the chicken in (should be submerged) and fridge it anywhere from 3 hrs to a whole 24 like we did.

Makes for juicy, flavorful chicken. Enjoy!

Meatloaf

This is essentially a combination of Mark Bittman's meatloaf recipe and Alton Brown's, but I ended up tweaking it so extensively that I feel comfortable claiming it as my own and bothering to blog about it. It's very simple, in two parts: the loaf, and the glaze.

The Loaf

• 2 lbs ground chuck, 80% lean
• 6 oz pork belly, de-boned and ground in the food processor (this part came up because my butcher had no ground pork or veal, which the aforementioned recipes both call for
• 1 medium onion, minced finely
• 1 carrot, peeled and minced
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard (I used Coleman's) don't click that, obnoxious Flash intro
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal, soaked briefly in 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
  

Mix this all up in a large mixing bowl -- but not too much mixing, as that will compress the meat and it will end up dry and dense. Believe me, if you follow my directions, that will be the least of your worries. Use a largish spatula and use a folding motion. Get everything well integrated, but don't go overboard.

In the bowl, use your (washed) hands to form the loaf into -- well, a loaf. I made mine rectangular, sort of like it had been in a bread pan. Plop this into a baking dish, or cast iron pan, and put in the oven at 350 or so. Cook for about 20 minutes, and then add:

The Glaze

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of your hottest hot sauce

Combine the above in a small ramekin and microwave for about 30 seconds. It sort of takes the bite out of the garlic. Probably an unnecessary step.

Once the meatloaf has been in for about 20 minutes, take it out and cover with the glaze using a brush (if you're fancy) or a spatula (if you're like me). Put the dish back in the oven.

Here's where it gets really unscientific for me, because my oven's temp is so undependable, and because it is so slow to rebound from having the door opened. Cook until it starts smelling good, about another 30-40 minutes, and then test with an instant-read thermometer; you're looking for it to be close to 160, your target temperature.

Once it's close, turn on the broiler. This will create a nice crunchy, meaty, sweet crust out of the glaze that you created. Wait no longer than five minutes, and remove. Serve with potatoes of your preferred preparation, rice, and whatever veggie strikes your fancy. This goes very well over rice with some pan drippings on top, and cornichon on the side as Sylvia discovered.

Pickles!

This is an adaptation of Alton Brown's bread-and-butter pickles recipe which Sylvia and I made last week. After not even 24 hours, they were delicious -- and have only been getting better. Note: these are refrigerator pickles, meaning not the kind that you can store at room temperature forever.

• 2 medium-large cucumbers
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 cup sugar (I used white sugar, but will try light brown next time)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1/2 tsp pickling spice (I got mine at the hardware store, of all places)
• Pinch of Kosher salt
  

This will make two quart-jars worth.

Slice up the cucumbers into very thin rounds, and pack into the jars. Boil all of the other ingredients for about five minutes, and then pour over the cucumbers. Cap them with the screw-on lids, let cool slightly and put in the fridge.

This was incredibly easy, and resulted in some of the best pickles I've had in ages. Total cost per batch is probably about a dollar a jar, and I don't think I'll ever buy store-bought pickles again.

This will make no sense, best to ignore it

This will make no sense unless you are a fan of both Fallout 3 and The Hold Steady.

well holly came from megaton
when her dad stepped out, it was the smoking gun
the smoking gun that echoed as she stepped out onto
the banks of the potomac river

[insert chorus, something that rhymes 'smoked those raiders' and 'she said laters' ]

and she came to ground and she staggered around
she did some jet and some stimpaks
and she had to kill some tunnel rats
on the banks of the potomac river

[something that rhymes 'young turk' and 'mirelurk']

I was bored while getting a haircut, and had been listening to The Hold Steady right beforehand, give me a break, huh jeez