Jan 09
Curry – a new ingredient for me. I’ve only had curry dishes a few times in my life so I was looking forward to cooking with it. The recipe comes from Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” episode “Casserole Over”. I used the recipe off of the Food Network site, but it is also in “Good Eats the Early Years”.
The Program
4 cups frozen vegetable mix, peas, carrots
1 to 2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 package puff pastry
The Prep
This is a very easy dish to prepare. There are a lot of ingredients and I recommend getting out your prep bowls and having everything measured, chopped and ready to roll. “Mise en place” – as the French would say. The only shopping we had to do for this was the curry powder and the frozen vegetables. I had stock and cubed chicken (from making the stock) in the freezer. And being a good student of Alton, I had a box of puff pastry in the freezer already!
The Process
Once you have everything prepped and ready to go, get your favorite stainless 3 quart or larger stainless saute pan and have at it. While you sweat the onions and celery on your main burner, get the milk and stock warming on another. From there you add the flour and curry to the pan let it cook a bit then build your sauce. Once it thickens a bit, add in the chicken and veggies and let them warm through. Then it’s as easy as pouring it in your baking dish and adding your puff pastry as the crust. Bake and enjoy!!
The Payoff
For as easy of a dish this was to prepare, it is pretty good. As you can see, it makes a ton. We definitely had some left overs. I could have used a little more curry. The curry flavor was there but for me it could have been a little stronger. It was also a little bit runny, but I believe that is because I didn’t fully cook out all the water in the frozen vegetables. As they cooked down, they sweat out. I guess that could have watered down the curry flavor as well… Over all it was pretty good for as easy as it was.
Enjoy!!
Tagged with: AB • chicken • cooking • curry • Food
Jan 05
After opening with a heavy hitter, I thought I would follow that up with a classic side dish / dessert. Applesauce!! This, however is one of Alton Brown’s super fast and super easy recipes.
The Program
3 Apples – Golden Delicious; peeled, cored & quartered
3 Apples – Fuji; peeled, cored & quartered
1 cup Unfiltered Apple Juice
2 tablespoons Cognac
2 tablespoons Unsalted butter
3 tablespoons Honey
½ teaspoon Cinnamon
The Prep
The prep for this could have gone a little bit better. I went to purchase the Apples and managed to forget the non-filtered apple juice that is also required. Of course, I didn’t remember it until I had already started peeling the apples. I finished peeling and cutting the apples and put them in a big bowl covered them with water and put a plate on them to keep them under the water. I hoped this would stave off the oxidation long enough to run to the store and back. Luckily, it did.
The Process
This recipe, which comes from Alton Brown’s “Good Eats – The Early Years”, is super easy. Literally toss all the ingredients in a large bowl and microwave on high for 10 minutes. Let them cool a bit and hit them with the immersion blender until you have sauce. It really is just that easy.
The Payoff
This is very good applesauce for the time and effort involved. It is not, however my grandmother’s hand pressed cinnamon red-hot applesauce that I have eaten gallons of in my lifetime. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like, because I did and I will make it again, it’s just that… well you know… not Grandma’s. The only thing I will change next time is to double or triple the cinnamon. I’m a big cinnamon fan and while this applesauce had hints of cinnamon, I could use a little more.
Tagged with: AB • cooking • Food
Jan 01
I knew I wanted to start with something serious for my first AB and Me recipe. I went straight to steak – good steak. This recipe for Steak au Poivre came from the Good Eats episode “Tender is the Loin – I”. I found the details and recipe on the food network site.
The Program
4 ea Tenderloin Steaks, 6 to 8 oz <1 1/2" thick
2 tablespoons Peppercorns
1 tablespoon Unsalted butter
1 teaspoon Olive oil
⅓ cup Cognac, plus 1 teaspoon
1 cup Heavy Cream
The Prep
I had, in the freezer, two 1-pound hunks of beef tenderloin around 2 inches thick. Those will be perfect. Scanning the ingredient list the only other thing I didn’t have was cognac. I know, I know – I don’t want to hear it. I’m a whiskey drinker. Anyway, knowing that Indiana has absolutely ridiculous laws concerning liquor sales, I went and got a hip-pocket sized bottle of Courvoisier last evening since I wouldn’t be able to today. Other than moving the steaks to the fridge to thaw yesterday morning, that was the only prep needed.
The Process
I’m going to cut straight to chase on this one…. FIRE! Yup, you add the cognac to the pan after removing the steak to rest and light the fumes. This was my first kitchen fire and luckily, it was intentional. It did, however, scare the dog a bit 
I’m not sure if the flame made it all the way to the ceiling or not, but since I had a couple of seconds of trouble lighting the firestick, I definitely got a fireball. Next time, I’ll have Lori ready with the camera!!
The Payoff
mmmmm Steak & Potatoes
The picture was taken before putting the final layer of sauce on every thing. Sorry I didn’t take a “final – final”… I’ll learn
So, the results were very positive. Not quite the best steak I’ve ever had, but putting alcohol and cream on a really good steak certainly put it up there. Final score:
Tagged with: AB • cooking • steak
Dec 31
As you may or may not know, Alton Brown is my culinary hero. His show Good Eats is the only cooking show since Julia Child’s show to win a Peabody Award – and not without good reason. His unique approach to cooking strikes a chord with me. I am a big fan of learning how and why something works and that’s precisely how he goes about teaching. From putting himself in a giant grill to explain radiant heat and the convection process to wire and foam representations of chemical compounds his use of props to make the point is not only fun to watch, but is an effective way to get you to remember.
So, it is with great respect that I launch this section of the website. I plan to prepare at least 1 Alton Brown (AB) recipe per week, usually from his book “Good Eats – The Early Years” (but sometimes from the Food Network site) and blog about it. I’ll post pictures, explain the process and talk about the results. Please join me every week here on AB and Me!!
Cheers!
Tagged with: AB • cooking
