Miscellania Life’s Miscellania

I am NOT a big fan of them, at least not the way I have been presented with them most of my life. This consists of either baked (which renders them sort of a cross between mush and slime and I am so bad about food textures) or the quintessential southern souffle topped with a ton of marshmallows. I do like sweet potato fries. I watched good eats and saw where Alton Brown recommended steaming them. I decided to steam them and make my own souffle. Unfortunately I didn’t measure, but here is what I did. This made enough for 2 people to eat as a side with 2 meals and still have a serving to send to Russ’s mom. I also ate 1 serving cold with whipped cream heh.

2 sweet potatoes peeled, cut into cubes
Mascarpone Cheese
1 Egg
Dried Cranberries
Pecans- some toasted, some not
Brown Sugar
Maple Syrup
Cinnamon
Nutmeg (fresh grated)
Coconut
Butter
Molasses
Salt
I would have added vanilla but I was out *sigh*

I couldn’t find my steamer basket so I put a wire mesh strainer over a pot that had a little boiling water in it and lidded it. How long depends on how big your cubes are. You want them soft but not mushy or falling apart.

I put the potatoes in a bowl and added a heaping spoon of mascarpone cheese, a few generous handfuls of dried cranberries, toasted pecans, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and molasses. (I would have also added vanilla at this point) I used the mixer to whip this up. Taste and adjust flavorings. Remember though that once baked it will taste a bit sweeter than raw. Then I added my egg while the mixer was going. Don’t overmix, you just want to make it a bit fluffy. Scrape it into a buttered casserole dish.

Mix butter, coconut (bout 1/2 can), untoasted pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to make a crumb topping. Make a good bit. This was my favorite part hehe. Sprinkle this very liberally (more of a layer than a sprinkle). Bake at 375 F until crumb top is toasty and firms up. Everything else is cooked except the eggs when you put it in. I think I baked it about 45 minutes, but mainly keep an eye on it.

I know I am being vague, I made this as an experiment before Thanksgiving. But it should give a jumping off point at least.

This was an experiment, but it came out really good. I measured very little…as usual

This is what I used

Individually frozen Chicken breast tenderloins
Corn Starch
Dried Rosemary
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
White Wine and Herb Chicken Broth
White Wine
Water
Matzo Ball Mix
Sour Cream

I think I used about 8-10 tenderloins. You could probably use less, there was a lot of chicken in this. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary, then very lightly dusted them with cornstarch. I browned them in olive oil in a skillet.

While they were browning I followed the package instructions for the matzo balls, except I added rosemary, garlic and black pepper.

I poured the chicken broth into a 2 cup measuring cup and into a pot. It was just shy of 4 cups of broth. I added enough water to make it 4 cups + 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup of a dry white wine. I added more garlic powder to the broth and heated it to boiling.

When the chicken was nicely browned and crusted on both sides, but still a bit pink in the middle, I removed it from the skillet and chopped it into bite-sized chunks. I added the chicken to the broth…carefully, it splashed easily.

After the matzo ball mix had sat the 15 mins the package specified, I formed it into  balls and dropped into the boiling broth. Then I reduced the heat to a simmer, covered and let it cook 30 minutes. After I removed it from the heat I gently stirred in 1/3-1/2 of a small container of sour cream.

This would probably good with onions, carrots and celery cooked in it as well, I just didn’t do it.

I baked some chicken tonight and it came out really yummy. Heres what I did:

Took a package of 4 skinless bone-in breasts and dumped the following on each one:
little bit of lime salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp good chili powder
generous couple dashes of ground cumin
3-4 dashes of Tabasco Smoked Jalepeño (aka Chipotle) sauce

I rubbed that all over the front and back of the chicken then added some salt and coarse ground pepper. I drizzled it generously with Olive oil and baked it at 375 for about 1 and 1/2 hours. 3 times I brushed the olive oil over the meat and I covered with foil about 1/2 way through. I added more olive oil if needed and would flip the pieces around in it to make sure they stayed moist.