Curry Chicken Salad

For this post I'm going to attempt a video post again. The actual filming fared far more successful then the last time (let's not talk about that...). Anywho the curried chicken salad came out great as always. Sarah and I had most of it for dinner as open faced sandwiches on a slice of home made bread as seen above. I ate the rest of it just out of a container, plain for lunch the next day. It's just so good. This time I made it from the left over chicken from a beer can chicken we had made the previous weekend when we had friends over. Last summer I just grilled up some chicken breasts to make it. You can also make curried potato salad the exact same way, just sub potatoes for the chicken (and personally I wouldn't use any sweet ingredients at the end, but to each their own), and that's also a delicious treat! So here goes nothing, see you next Tuesday!

Bread

Once upon a time when I was in college I made all my own bread for a while....my sister told me that I needed a girlfriend upon hearing this fact. Recently I've picked up this habit once more, because honestly as long as I'm home for a good chunk of the day on Sunday, why not? It's cheaper to make a loaf than to buy one, it's not that hard, it smells amazing, and it tastes pretty darn good too. But before I continue on to how simple it is to make a loaf of bread, I want to regale a tale of a certain housemate I used to live with. While in Providence my second residence was in a house with four other people. One time when a vacant room was filled a boy from Arkansas moved in. After a few weeks I asked him one day how he was liking Providence. He said it was nice, but that he couldn't find cheap bread. 

I won't lie, this piqued my curiosity so I bite and asked him the obvious follow up question: is bread that much cheaper in Arkansas? To which I got the response, 'Oh yeah, it's only like 98 cents a loaf at Walmart' ...'Have you tried going to Walmart here?' 'No, I probably should though' 'Where have you been getting bread?' ....turns out he'd been getting it at convenience stores. You know, only the most expensive place, typically, to buy a loaf of bread. The most amazing part about this conversation though was that as it turns out was that each other housemate had at some point or another in that week had the same conversation with him. 

The fact that he was so fixated on cheap bread could only then be met with the irony that when he moved out the boy who then filled his room baked a loaf of bread just about once a week. While I no longer live there, and neither does our bread making friend, I can only hope that whoever moved into that room also has a special relationship with bread. Anyways...

To make my weekly loaf for sandwiches and whatnot, I start with 3 1/2 cups of flour. Lately I've been using a roughly half and half unbleached white and whole wheat mixture, but all white flour will work as well. Add to that a 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast and 2 teaspoons of salt. Then mix it up with 2 cups of warm water. Now you can definitely just mix it with a spoon, but I'm lazy and just use the bread hook on the Kitchen Aide.

This will leave you with a wetter bread dough that won't really hold it's own shape, but is perfectly suited for a loaf pan. Usually you'd want to just used an oiled loaf pan, but since the bread is removed from it before finishing being baked, I've occasionally run into trouble with the bottom sticking to the pan. So lately I've been using parchment paper to line the pan to guarantee a clean pop out, but it will leave an imprint of the parchment folds on the bread. Which I'm totally fine with, cause I loathe when it sticks to the bottom of the pan.

Pour the dough into the pan. Then cover it with a wet dish towel.

Put it in a warm place to proof (rise). I put it in an oven that I preheat for a few minutes then turn off. 

Let it rise until it's even with the top of the pan (usually about 2 hours). Then bake it at 450*F for 30 minutes.

Take the bread out of the pan and place directly on the oven rack to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. In theory it should sound hollow when tapped when it's done, but I never quite know what that means, so I just make sure not to burn it. 

Let it cool completely before cutting into it ...I know it's hard, but it will stay better longer that way. Nom nom nom. See you next Tuesday!

Huevos Rancheros

It's safe to say that huevos rancheros is a favorite breakfast dish of both Sarah and I when we go out to eat. Lately though it's become a favorite week night dinner in our house. Perhaps a little less than a traditional version of it, it's super easy (and delicious) to make. 

So for a while we had been making it on corn tortillas, which is how it's typically made, but we find that while we don't always have corn tortillas around we almost always have flour tortillas in the house, and it works out equally as yummy either way. I spread refried beans on one half of the tortilla and fold it in half (if using corn tortillas, since they're typically smaller, I use two tortillas and spread the beans in between them).

Heat one side on the stove over a medium (I put our knob to 6) heat. 

Once it's flipped over put some salsa on top and next to it. (I usually put one spoonful on it and two next to it and spread them out). Then you want to quickly crack two eggs into the salsa being careful not to break the yolk. I tried for a long time to get the eggs to sit on top of the tortilla and not slide off, but found that the whites didn't cook quite enough (really for Sarah's liking, I'm a little less picky about having some stray runny whites) so usually just crack it on the tortilla now near the edge and let it slide off so that there a some amount of whites over most of the pan.

As soon as the eggs are in cover it with a glass lid. It'll get steamy and hard to see pretty quick, but you'll want to leave it on there until it almost looks like the yolks have turned pinkish when looking through the lid, but really it's just that the whites over the yolk have cooked. 

Carefully remove them as soon as they're done cooking from the pan and put them on a plate so that you still have ooey gooey runny yolks, yummmmmm. Toss some shredded cheese on.

And serve with some avocado and sour cream. Seriously, the best. See you next Tuesday!

Steel Cut Oats in the Slow Cooker

During the winter Sarah and I had steel cut oats for breakfast most days. They were yummy, and super easy to make. 

Coconut milk, steel cut oats and water are all that need to go into the slow cooker.

Step 1: Empty can of coconut milk into the slow cooker.

Step 2: Pour 2 cups of steel cut oats in.

Step 3: Use the can from the coconut milk to measure a little less than 5 cans worth of water, put it into the slow cooker and give it a little stir.

Step 4: Put on the lid, turn it to low and go to bed. In the morning it should look like this:

If you're into raisins or crasins in your oatmeal, now is the time to mix them in. (The first time I tried this, I put raisins in at night, and they got way to oversaturated with water and lost most of their flavor).

One batch of this makes enough for four days worth of breakfast for Sarah and I. I immediately put some in six mason jars. I fill each one up to the 300ml mark on the side of the glass and throw them in the fridge. When it comes time to reheat them I put them in the microwave (two at a time) for two and a half minutes, possibly add some water, stir and pop them in for another minute and a half.

We top our oatmeal with some brown sugar and nuts. So far of the ones we've tried I enjoyed walnuts the most, but currently we're on a bag of almonds. 

Beet Sliders

Since shallots, beets and garlic were in no short supply with our winter CSA share, beet sliders became a weekly staple in our apartment for a while.

I'm sure there are better ways to cook a beet, but I peeled it, sliced it and threw it on a grill pan with some water. Then I would very un-scientifically cover it with a pot lid to try and trap some of that moisture. I'd have to add some more water here and there as I flipped the beets periodically.

While the beets were cooking I'd take a small shallot and clove of garlic and cook those up in a pan. The shallot I would slice before putting it on the stove and the garlic I would grate on our handy dandy garlic grater (which I really do love and recommend to anyone, it's also great for ginger!)

Once the shallot and garlic are cooked they go in a small container with some mayo and get mixed up.

For the sliders we went White Castle style and put them on typical dinner rolls. First I toasted the rolls, then the top got some of the garlic shallot mayo. 

The beets got topped with a healthy slice of mozzarella, and viola! Beet Sliders for all! (Or at least Sarah and I). 

My favorite side to have these with were some homemade sweet potato fries (bonus: use the same pan as the garlic and shallot were cooked in to cook the fries, more flavor, less dishes). 

See you next Tuesday (hopefully, maybe?)!