Chicken Three Ways! -or- What to do with a whole chicken

 Chicken has become a staple food in many omnivorous diets. At my house we have chicken at least once a week. Usually it is one of our favorite ‘go-to’ meals when we need something quick and versatile.  We have a number of incredibly yummy dishes that we rotate through depending on our mood. The problem: we mostly use the chicken breast.  We buy pre-butchered boneless skinless chicken breasts in large value packs and then portion them out and vacuum seal them before freezing them.  This works for us most of the time because we tend to be busy and need quick cooking meals after work.

There are a few reasons why this has been eating away at my conscience lately. First- what about the rest of the chicken? I know it goes someplace- the legs and thighs and wings do, and the bones. I am hoping that someone somewhere uses the extra bits and that they don’t find their way into our landfills, but there still seems to be the potential for a lot of waste for those boneless skinless chicken breasts.  Secondly- buying boneless skinless chicken breasts is expensive. At the grocery store you can pay anywhere between 5.99 per pound and 8.99 per pound for ‘value packs’ of five or six pieces. These can end up costing over 20.00 each and they eat a giant hole in our grocery wallet.  A whole cut up chicken gives you 8 pieces with bones and usually skin (but you can take that off yourself) for 3.49 per pound. If you buy a whole chicken on sale you can pay under 3.00 per pound. That is a significant saving. Thirdly- there are things you can do with a whole chicken that you can’t do with boneless skinless chicken breasts. They either wouldn’t turn out or they wouldn’t be nearly as tasty if you tried.

This past week I bought a whole chicken- about three pounds, and paid less than 8.00 for it. I used it three different ways and ended up with some tasty applications that I am going to share with you.

There are many applications for roasted chicken and chicken stock, so even if you get a pre-roasted whole chicken from your local grocery store, know that you are saving money and have lots of options for what to do with leftover meat and bones. The leftover meat can be used for chicken salad or club sandwiches, wraps, in pasta sauces, soups/stews, chili, casseroles or any other recipe you can think of! The carcass turned into stock can be used for sauces and gravies, soups and stews, rice pilaf, risotto, stir fry, marinades, and much more. Use these recipes to get you started and then explore your options and experiment with whole chicken! You and your wallet are guaranteed to end up happy.

Monday: Whole Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 lemon,
2 small onions,
2 Tbs butter,
2 Tbs olive oil,
1 tsp roasted garlic paste,
½ tsp poultry seasoning,
½ tsp onion powder,
½ tsp cracked black pepper,
¼ tsp paprika
1 whole chicken

1. Preheat oven to 350  ̊F. Cut the lemon in half and then quarter each half. Do the same with the onions. Peel the garlic and cut roughly into 3-4 pieces per clove. Set aside.

 2. In small dish mix butter, oil, garlic paste, poultry seasoning, onion powder, pepper and paprika. Mix well and set aside. 

3. Give the chicken a good rinse under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. If the chicken hasn’t already been trussed for you, use kitchen twine to tie the legs and tail area together tightly, close to the body of the chicken. Fold the wing tips up, back and under the back of the chicken (make it look like it is resting its hands behind its head/shoulders).  I like to truss chickens this way because then there is no twine digging into the leg meat or holding the wings against the breast and not letting that skin get nice and crispy.  If you want a better lesson on trussing there are many you tube videos or photo step by step instructions available online. 

4. Stuff the body and neck cavities loosely with half the lemon, onions and garlic. You may also stuff some of the garlic and smaller pieces of citrus or aromatic veggies underneath the skin of the chicken. Place the remaining citrus and onions in the bottom of a roasting pan. Pile them close together and then place the stuffed chicken on top. Brush with about half of the butter/oil/herb mixture. 

5. Roast whole chicken uncovered in oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, baste with remaining butter/oil mixture and return to oven uncovered for an additional 45 minutes or until juices run clear when a knife is inserted into fleshiest bit of drumstick and meat moves easily away from leg bone when twisted **.  Remove from oven and baste with pan juices.  Let rest in pan 10-15 minutes or until ready to carve. 

**Chicken Notes: This baking time is based on a 3 pound loosely stuffed chicken and that depending on the size of your chicken, roasting times may vary. If you are unfamiliar with carving a whole chicken, it is actually not as scary as it seems and it is easy. The two following you tube links show great demonstrations that are similar to how I carve chickens. Please take a look and keep in mind that my chickens and carcasses usually don’t look as pretty as theirs do when I’m done carving, but practice does make perfect and I am getting better!**

Video Link: How to carve a chicken , Video Link: Carving a Chicken 

Now that you have roasted and rested your chicken you can carve it and serve it however you want. This week I served it with seasoned baked mashed potatoes and salad. I also removed the lemon from the roaster and reduced the pan juices into a nice sauce, thickened with a little bit of flour mixed with cold water. After we ate there was still half a breast and both legs/thighs left over. I picked the meat off these and saved it for another application (See ‘Thursday’).

After I carved my chicken I removed all the stuffing bits from the inside and placed the whole thing in a big stock pot. I put the pot in the fridge until Tuesday when I was ready to make chicken stock. Make your stock on a day when you have the time to let it simmer and develop its full flavor.

Tuesday: Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

1 Tbs vegetable or olive oil

1 lb mixed aromatic veggies (I get a precut package of soup veggies from the grocery store that includes onion, carrot, celery, turnip and potato- I know the last two aren’t aromatics but they do give nice flavor to the stock)

3 garlic cloves- peeled and roughly diced

2-3 whole bay leaves

10 whole black peppercorns, roughly cracked

1 chicken carcass, leg and wing bones included if you still have them

water

1. In a large pot with a good lid, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add veggies and sauté about 5 minutes. Add garlic cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns. Sauté another 5 or so minutes, until you can smell the lovely garlic and bay leaf and there’s a little bit of brown caramelized bits on the bottom of your pot. 

2. Add chicken carcass/parts. Stir them around and make sure they get nestled in with the veggies.

3. Pour in enough cold water to completely cover the chicken. Cover and bring just to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and simmer with the water barely bubbling for 2-3 hours, stirring slowly on occasion and checking to make sure too much water hasn’t evaporated. I usually do this step with the lid partially on but tilted up a bit so that some steam can escape. I also occasionally skim off some of the fat and scum (foam or a skin that forms on the surface of your stock as it cooks) if there seems to be a lot.

5. Strain stock through a fine mesh sieve to remove carcass, veggies and spices. Re-skim at this stage if you want. Cool stock and refrigerate until ready to use. 

**Stock Notes: Some people also like to add rosemary or thyme or other herbs to their stock, but I just like bay, pepper, and the veggies.  Experiment and see what you like.  After cooling and refrigerating your stock, some of the remaining fat and scum will solidify and float at the top of the liquid. It is easy to skim this off when the liquid is cold. Stock can also be frozen in plastic containers or zip lock freezer bags. Some of you will note that I haven’t added salt to this stock.  I choose not to add salt to my stock so that I can control the sodium levels in the stuff I will make with the stock. I can then season it as I need it for individual recipes or usages.  This is purely personal preference and if you would like to season your stock, feel free to do so. **

Thursday: Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

1 Tbs vegetable oil or butter
1lb mixed aromatic and root vegetables (I get a precut package of finely diced soup veggies from the grocery store that includes onion, carrot, celery, turnip and potato)
1 onion- peeled and finely diced
3 garlic cloves- peeled and roughly chopped
1 large bay leaf
½ tsp cracked black pepper
½ tsp salt
2 cups cooked chicken meat- skin and bones removed, diced or roughly chopped
8 cups chicken stock
½ lb (½ of a bag) of broad egg noodles (you can use whichever noodles you like, but these are my fave)

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add onion and sauté for 5-10 minutes until translucent and starting to brown/caramelize. Add remaining veggies, garlic, bay, pepper and salt. Sauté for another 5 minutes or so until everything smells fantastic.

2. Add chicken and stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour or until the vegetable pieces are just under cooked to your liking. (this all depends on the texture of veggies you like and how large the pieces are)

3. Add egg noodles and simmer 5-10 minutes more until noodles and veggies are perfectly tender. Enjoy!

**Soup Notes: This soup isn’t very salty. ½ tsp salt has approximately 1000 mg of sodium in it. This soup will make 8 large bowls of soup, so about 125 mg of sodium per serving, and people can add more to their liking, or you can add more to the pot as you cook it.  This soup is also great with other veggies if you like them. Try adding frozen peas or corn during the last 10 minutes of cooking, or bite sized broccoli and/or cauliflower florets. **

Mmmm Brownies.... Nom Nom *drool* Delicious Brownies....

I take no credit for this recipe, although I will accept finder's fees (erm, finders thanks work too) for putting you in touch with this super simple super fudgey super duper delicious brownie recipe. The recipe comes from a Hershey's Brownie Cookbook that my Mom got for Robert for Christmas one year.

Super Simple Fudgey Brownies

Brownie Ingredients:

4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate (1 oz per square), broken into peices
¾ cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1½ tsp vanilla
1cup flour
2/3 - 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 recipe Creamy Chocolate Frosting (below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13x2 inch baking dish. I use a Pyrex glass baking dish.

2. Cut or break the baking squared into smaller pieces for faster melting. In large microwave safe bowl place baking chocolate and butter. Microwave on high heat 1 minute, stir and microwave for another 45seconds - 1 minute. The chocolate may not be completely melted, but stir it gently for a little bit when it comes out of the microwave and the whole thing should become silky smooth.

3. Add sugar and stir until combined. I use a wooden spoon that does not incorporate much air into the batter, making for a dense and fudgey brownie. Add eggs and vanilla, and stir until combined. Add flour and nuts (if you are using them).

4. Pour into greased baking dish, spread evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out almost clean (a few crumby bits stuck to it is perfect!). I find 30 minutes works perfectly in my oven, but yours may vary. Let brownies cool in pan and then frost, if desired with the frosting recipe that follows.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Frosting Ingredients:

3 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened baking chocolate
3 Tbs butter
½ cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups icing sugar

1. Break the baking chocolate into smaller pieces and place in a small microwave safe dish. Add butter. Melt on high in microwave for 1-2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute. Stir until well combined. 

2. Pour melted chocolate mixture into a medium-large mixing bowl. Add milk, vanilla and icing sugar. beat on medium speed with electric mixer or stand mixer until thoroughly combined.

3. Frosting will appear very soft and runny. If you prefer a stiffer frosting, add more icing sugar or cut the milk to 1/3 cup. You can also refrigerate the frosting for 10-20 minutes (or while your brownies cool) and it will thicken up.

4. Spread evenly on your brownies and enjoy!

I love this recipe because it's easy to make and it delights everyone I serve it to. It is not low fat and is quite rich, but its perfect for small decadent treats with tons of chocolatey goodness. The recipe is good with or without nuts. I like it with big chunks of toasted almonds. Hazelnuts or macadamias would also be good.  

(P.S.- I won't tell anyone you licked the spatula when you finished spreading the frosting!)

Hamachi Steakhouse Bar and Grill- A Special Occasion Favorite!

It was Robert’s birthday on March 2nd and we have been really busy, so we had the standard dinner with family during the week to celebrate. I made his favorite ice cream cake (which I will post about later, promise!).  Some friends still wanted to get together and celebrate and we have wanted to go back to Hamachi Steakhouse Bar and Grill for a while. We had been there before a few times and wanted to share the experience with new and old friends.

Hamachi Steakhouse Bar and Grill is one of seven restaurants and a catering company owned and operated by the Hamachi Group. I have only had the pleasure of eating at two locations, Hamachi Steakhouse and Hamachi Kita Sushi and Asian Flare. I recommend both and I plan to visit the others in time.  The Steakhouse is located on Halifax’s beautiful waterfront and is partly characterized by huge windows that look out onto the boardwalk and harbor. Inside the restaurant there is a mix of seating options. There are taller tables and spots close to the bar and sushi bar, tables in the main dining areas, a few booths and then there are the Teppan-yaki Stations.  The Teppan-yaki tables are long wooden cutting board style planks wrapped around three sides of a large stainless grill and flame hood. The chairs are the same as at the regular tables and are sturdy yet comfortable. Another detail that has not been over looked is eating utensils. Hamachi place settings offer chopsticks as well as a fork and knife to each guest, which gave some of our group a chance to practice with chopsticks, others a chance to use them for the entire meal, and some a chance to skip the embarrassing dribble stains on shirts and pants and just use the fork. 

Eight or Nine people can sit around one station and there are two stations back to back in one end of the restaurant. Our party of 8 fit comfortably around the table and everyone got a good view of the action. I can’t remember our servers name but she was very friendly and polite. On other occasions we have had Anthony as our server, and he is also wonderful. The good wait staff makes the experience even better. Our server explained the menu to everyone, brought us drinks and took our orders. Then the magic starts to happen. Everyone that orders off the Teppan-yaki menu gets a small serving of Miso Soup and a House Salad with their meal.

Miso Soup is a traditional Japanese sipping soup made with tofu, green onions and seaweed in a miso broth. The flavor is slightly salty, with hints of soy sauce (which makes sense because miso is fermented soy bean paste) and doesn’t taste like seaweed until the very end when you are left with the bits at the bottom of your little cup and you see that there are actual bits of leafy green sea plant settled there. It is an acquired taste and not everyone in our party liked it. It didn’t offend because they just passed the small cups down the line until they got to someone who wanted more soup.  I think the miso at Hamachi is lovely. It’s one of those flavors that I wasn’t quite sure of the first time I tried it, but I wasn’t ready to give up on it just yet. The second time I tried it I liked it a little more. And the third time I had Miso soup while dining out I knew it wasn’t something I would trust myself to make and eat at home but it was something that I enjoyed while eating out on sushi lunch dates with my best friend and on special occasions like this one at Hamachi House. 

The House Salad at Hamachi is wonderful for at least two reasons. The salad is mixed light vegetables. Lettuce, thin sliced carrot, cucumber, a little cabbage and corn kernels. The veggies are crisp and flavorful and come in a small side bowl. Just enough salad (about a cup) for you to be satisfied but not over-stuffed, and enough for you to enjoy eating it but not be bored with it by the time you reach the last bite.  The salad is dressed with house made apple vinaigrette that leaves you happy to have eaten your veggies and not weighed down by a heavy cream dressing. 

Hamachi Steakhouse has recently added a sushi menu to their existing fares, and a few of our party tried it. There was a spicy delight roll and a dynamite roll (I think). Both looked amazing. I tried the spicy delight roll and it certainly did not disappoint. It was spicy, but not overwhelming, and it had an amazingly smooth texture. It was a larger roll and it even managed to stay together after I took the first bite and continued to hold it in my chopsticks for the second. That could have just been luck though. **Note to self and others: must return to Hamachi Steakhouse for sushi feast!

Now that we have the first two courses underway, our chef comes out wheeling a cart full of fresh ingredients and sauces. This is the evening’s entertainment. The chef wipes down the grill with oil, which is piping hot and greets everyone. He reviews the menu which has been divided to show where everyone is sitting in relation to what they ordered. Then he gets down to business. Teppan-yaki style cooking means he cooks our whole meal before our eyes and he does it with style and flare. Everyone has decided that instead of getting the steamed white rice that usually comes with your meal, we are going to have Japanese fried rice instead and this is what the chef prepares first. A heaping bowl of white rice and another head of pre-chopped peppers and onions go on to the grill with a sizzle. Then butter, sake and the first fire of the evening is started. The chef uses sake and a barbecue lighter and flame enveloped the food to our table’s ‘ooohs’ and ‘aahhhhhs.’  We are treated also to a mix of grilled vegetables including zucchini, mushrooms, baby corn and a flaming onion volcano, pictured here.

While the veggies cook we are served our fried rice in the same size small side bowl as the miso soup came in. It gives you a lovely serving size that at first seems small but soon you will have more food in front of you than you know what to do with. The fried rice is paired with a sweet and zingy ginger sauce that is extraordinarily delicious on top of the already tasty rice. The ginger sauce is also good on your veggies if you can save some long enough to try it.  

The last thing the chef prepares is the meat. Hamachi offers a wide range of meats and combination choices for their teppan-yaki style dining, and their regular table menu is the same.  Most of us wanted to try a combination plate but are not too adventurous, so we ordered combination A, which offers 3 oz each steak, chicken and pork. Two friends ordered a sharing combination that offered scallops, chicken and steak. The steak is cooked perfectly to everyone’s individual liking and covered in a light and tasty sake/teriyaki sauce combination. The pork and chicken are sautéed the same way but served with a black bean ginger sauce. All of the meat selections are very tender and juicy. My friends have had the seafood selections there and enjoyed them. Everything looks super fresh and definitely tastes great.  In addition to our combination, Robert and I ordered Bean sprouts and Edamame (soy beans- delicious!), which are prepared the same way as the other vegetables and are great to share around the table as a little something extra. The ginger sauce from the rice= delicious to dip your edamame into. Yumm. 

And just when we thought we were finished, having become too full to contemplate desert and thinking of the brownies I had made for us at home, our server comes back to the table with a free desert for Robert. Apparently she listened when I mentioned that we were all here to celebrate Robert’s birthday. The desert got shared around. It was a decadent hot chocolate brownie/cake with powdered sugar, ice cream and whipped cream. It was drool-tastic. 

Once we were finished it took a long time for us to get our bills. We eventually learned that our server had gone on her break and another server took care of us. One of our party had ordered off the regular menu and received a discount because his meal took longer to prepare than anyone else’s. This also added to the wait time and confusion but we were really too satisfied to be upset and they were quick to fix the mistake. While we waited we also became delighted to see that at the table next to us was sitting three celebrities! Victor Garber and Sam Jaeger, whom both have many credits for television and movies but both of whom were also in one of my all time favorite shows, Eli Stone, were having dinner here, in lovely Halifax.  And then they were joined by Gabrielle Miller who played Lacy on Corner Gas. Let me tell you. The gentlemen were handsome, but Gabrielle Miller?! The woman is gorgeous. We swooned and gushed. My friends and I giggled and whispered and then realized we were being foolish and got back to minding our own business. We wanted to pay our compliments to them but at the same time we wanted to be respectful. If you ever happen across this post, Victor Garber, Sam Jaeger or Gabrielle Miller, know that you are wonderful and that we expressed our dorkiest fandom as soon as we left the restaurant, and for most of the rest of the evening. 

If you are wondering about the financial side of things, Hamachi is a special occasion favorite for a reason. It can be pricey but it is well worth the experience. Before tip, for three of us to get a combination plate, fried rice, two drinks and two additional veggie sides was $160 and in my eyes, completely worth it. If I had to rate Hamachi Steakhouse Bar and Grill, based on the experiences I had this weekend and previously, I would give it five out of five stars, two thumbs up, a big smiley face, or whatever symbolizes really really good in many many ways.

To make a long (but hopefully entertaining) story short, you must try Hamachi Steakhouse at least once!

Steak Mistakes and Happy Endings

Lately I have been honing my steak cooking skills. It is still too chilly to brave the barbecue on the balcony. Call me a wuss if you must, but I don't like to barbecue unless I can do it barefoot without getting frostbite. So the steak has been getting cooked inside during these cold winter months.

I recently went to Jane's on the Common, a fabulous restaurant here in Halifax. It wasn't my first time there and it surely won't be my last. In fact, someday in the future I will have to go back simply so that I can tell you all about it. While this post is not about my experience at Jane's, it was my inspiration for cooking the other night. When I was there I had their 6 oz. Char-broiled Beef Striploin, a delicious piece of meat cooked to my desired perfection and topped with caramelized onion jam and
green peppercorn herb butter. It was soooo good. SO Good!

Fast forward to this week. There are two vacuum sealed NY Striploins hanging out in my freezer and I am craving caramelized onions on top of something, or maybe just by themselves.

Now, I have been practicing the art of caramelizing onions. It takes patience and time and the right onions and just the right amount of heat. I have done it right a few times and wrong a few times. And the other night things went a little wrong, but fixed themselves in the end.

I started by getting the steak ready. The strips were thawed and ready to go. I used my lovely friend, roasted garlic paste. Roasted garlic paste is fabulous to me because I don't have to spend time roasting the garlic myself, then mashing it all up. Which honestly, roasting garlic isn't hard, but it isn't convenient either. I get my roasted garlic in a lovely little refrigerator tube from the produce section at Sobey's. It's got six ingredients, all of which I can pronounce (garlic, oil, fruit sugar, sea salt, vinegar and lemon juice), and none of which are seriously bad for us in small quantities. So I don't feel bad about not making my own.

Anyway, here's my method. I put about half a teaspoon of roasted garlic paste on each steak, and rub it in with the back of a spoon, making sure it gets all coated and lovely. Then, I season with a sprinkle of Montreal Steak Spice, and rub that in a little with the spoon too. Then, flip the steak over and repeat the process, so both sides are smeared with roasted garlic and steak spice. Yumm.

I set the steak aside and take care of the onions. I used one regular yellow onion because that's all I had and there are only two of us, so one is enough. I slice the onion thin and use a metal skillet to cook them in, with 1Tbs olive oil and one Tbs butter. Here is where my steak mistake developed. I was impatient. I had the heat up too high to start so some of the onions got brown and crispy while the others did not. When I realized my mistake I of course turned the heat down, but I wanted the onions to all caramelize and be wonderful. Knowing yellow onions have less sugars in them than other varieties, I sprinkled on a little sugar to try and speed up the process. Dun dun dun...
Well, the onions caramelized but I also ended up with a clump of hard chewy candied onions. Not quite what I was going for, although I'm sure it could lead to a wonderful new recipe in the future... ?
I set the onions aside and re-heated the pan to cook the steaks.

The problem with me and steak? I and my boyfriend like our steaks well done, or at the very least medium well. I can handle some pink in my steak, but he is really not a big fan of it at all. But I have learned a trick to telling doneness of meat and I use it, and most of the time it works. So here's what you do. Take your hand (either one, I use my left because I'm a righty) and hold it open palmed and relaxed. Use the index finger of your other hand and poke at the fleshy palm bit below your thumb. That squishy bit feels about the same as a rare steak. (Go on, poke your steak, and poke your palm). Then put the tips of your thumb and index finger together, but relaxed. Use your other index finger to again, poke the fleshy bit. Hello medium-rare. Then use your middle finger and your thumb. This is medium. Then your ring finger, this is how a medium-well done steak feels. Lastly, pinky and thumb together, and this is what well done steak feels like. Practice with this and you will be able to cook your steak to the right doneness and hopefully not end up with a piece of dried out, sinewy cardboard flavoured meat. Once I was satisfied with the steaks I set them aside to rest before we cut into them.

Now, what to do about those sticky-crunchy onions? I put them back in the frying pan. I added another gob of butter (1tsp) and a gob garlic paste, some cracked black pepper and just 3 Tbs of water. I could have used stock but I didn't have any, and it turned out just fine. The water softened up the onions, deglazed the pan, and reduced quickly into a tasty topping for our steak. It was simple. It didn't have a lot of ingredients or complex procedures (as do some of the caramelized onion jam recipes I have seen). And most importantly, it was delicious. It had a great flavour on its own and was super when added with the awesome steak and it was an equally tasty yet less expensive at home version of restaurant food.

I love happy meal endings... don't you?

Spaghetti!

So, I'm off to a great start, I have already skipped a day of blog/flogging. But I do have something to tell you today about yesterday!

Every Monday dinner has to be quick and nourishing because of 6pm badminton. This means we want something quick, tasty, and full of energy for the workout. Last night, it was spaghetti. I was craving it anyway, and it is a relatively fast meal these days.

Almost everyone has their own family traditional or secret special tomato/spaghetti sauce. When I was growing up our spaghetti sauce usually had a plethora of ingredients and a variety of meats in it. It had ground beef, hot Italian sausage and sometimes pepperoni or leftover meats from the night before. It also had green bell peppers, onions and a whole can of sliced mushrooms. At the time, I would spend the first 10 minutes of every spaghetti supper picking out every single individual piece of mushroom and onion, which I detested, and piling them up on the rim of my plate. But I still loved spaghetti dinners. Why?

 Well, I loved the tomato sauce for one, the meat didn't bother me either, and the garlic bread with ooey gooey melted mozzarella cheese. The tomato sauce itself was pure tomato bliss, slowly simmered and seasoned just right. It was the first tomato sauce I ever learned to make, and one of my first areas of experimenting in the kitchen. The sauce consisted of a base of:

1 lb ground beef,
1 or 2 cans of tomato sauce,
1 small can of tomato paste,
maybe a little water if it got too thick,
2-3 cloves of fresh garlic,
dried basil, oregano, and pepper,
the occasional half or full teaspoon of sugar.

The beef was browned off in the pot and then everything else was added and slow simmered for at least an hour. Additional meats and were added during the frying process and if there was onion or mushroom in the mix, they were added with the meat before the sauce, herbs and spices hit the pot. The sugar is used to balance out any bitterness or tartness that might be in the sauce. You have to taste it as you go to make sure it's good, and to make sure it's what you and your family want to eat tonight. You taste it to make sure it appeals to your palette, and if it is, it gives you something to really look forward to serving your family. If it's not, it gives you a chance to make it better! If the sauce is bitter, add a half teaspoon to a whole teaspoon of sugar, and taste again. If it doesn't have the right flavour, smell your spices and herbs until you smell the one that appeals most to you, and add a little bit of that. If it seems too thick, add a little water or stock. You'd like a spicier sauce tonight? Add some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. 

Over the years the art of spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce has been lost to many people. There are ever growing aisles of the supermarket devoted to pasta sauces in convenient non perishable jars. Sometimes these sauces are tasty and some can even be healthy with hidden veggies. But some of them can be very bad and are often full of preservatives and sodium. Nonetheless, seeking a quicker alternative to my made from scratch spaghetti sauce, I began trying different brands. I was looking for a healthy, lower sodium, low ingredients I can't pronounce, and tasty sauce that I could add my own meat and some of my own flavorful flare to if I wanted. We tried a lot of different brands, but it took going to another country to find our favorite. While home in Maine to visit my Mom, she introduced us to her new favorite quick and easy spaghetti sauce. Thus began my renewed love of spaghetti sauce.

Tuttorosso Traditional Natural Pasta Sauce. It was so good, even just plain on pasta or with only ground beef in the sauce. I was delighted! My boyfriend loved it! We were excited to get home and find this sauce and use it in our own delightful dishes. The unfortunate thing we discovered was that Tuttorosso spaghetti sauce seems to only exist in the United States and we couldn't find it anywhere in our Canadian city. We still can't. But thanks to my wonderful Mom and her gifts of heavy boxes full of jars wrapped in paper towel and plastic bags, we have a stockpile of 'imported' spaghetti sauce in our apartment. I must also give thanks to the confused customs agents who let us through the border with said imports after we explain our story to them.

So, what's the deal with Tuttorosso? Each 1/2 cup serving contains 70 calories, 3g fat (0 saturated and 0 trans), 0g cholesterol, 620mg sodium, 12g total carbohydrates (2g fiber, 9g sugars), and 2 g protein. It is also a source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

The ingredients list is: tomato puree, soybean oil, salt, sugar, dried onion, spices, extra virgin olive oil, parsley, dried garlic, citric acid and 'natural flavor'. 

I know this is not exactly a low sodium sauce, but it is in the mid range and totally worth it for me. This is a great tasting basic sauce that I can ad my own flavors to. Here is what I did last night:

Ingredients:

1lb extra lean ground beef
1 ancient sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and diced (since I've grown up, I have developed a like for onions)
1tbs olive oil
1tbs roasted garlic paste
1tsp montreal steak spice
2tsp dried basil
1tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 jar Tuttorosso Original pasta sauce

Steps:

1) Using a high sided saute pan, brown the ground beef. I alternatively like to steam the ground beef or gook it with a few tablespoons of water and the lid on the pan, stirring and breaking up the meat occasionally. I find steaming it or using water in the pan helps keep the meat from drying out or becoming too tough. Steaming also gets rid of a lot of extra fat, as it melts out before making it into your sauce. Otherwise, drain any excess fat and liquid out of the pan when all of the ground beef is cooked.

2) Add the olive oil, onion, pepper, garlic paste, steak spice, basil, oregano and pepper. Mix well and saute for 5-10 minutes until the onion gets soft and translucent, and you can smell the lovely garlic. Note that you can also use two or three (or as many or as few as you want) fresh garlic cloves, grated, minced or sliced, instead of the roasted garlic. And that these measurements are flexible and not exact. I use sprinkles and dashes and palmfuls and shakes. The key here is to TEST your sauce to make sure there is enough herby garlicy goodness.

3) Add the jar of tomato sauce. If the sauce appears to be thick or if a lot is left in the jar, add a 1/2 cup of water to the jar, put the lid on, and give it a shake. This should loosen up the sauce from the jar so you can pour it into the pan and loosen up your sauce just enough. Add more or less as you see fit.

4) Wait for your sauce to get completely warm and simmer a little bit to let the flavours mingle and develop before you taste it. If you find it tart or bitter and don't like that, add a half teaspoon of sugar and test it again. The same rule applies to other flavors and seasonings. Add a little bit at a time and keep tasting until it gets just right.

5) Boil your water and cook your spaghetti. You can even do this while you cook the sauce. Enjoy!

**Note** this sauce changes and is a little different almost every time I make it, depending on what I feel like and what tastes right on any given day. That is the importance of taste testing! I also use fresh herbs when I can and get a different flavor, or add different vegetables. Regular bell peppers work well, and so does shredded zucchini or mashed up steamed cauliflower if you are trying to hide veggies on someone, although beware that zucchini and some other veggies will add more moisture to your sauce, so it might not be as thick. 

I hope that the recipes and memories I have shared with you inspire you to get creative and excited about your next spaghetti dinner!

 If you would like more information on Tuttorosso Tomato sauce, check out www.TuttorossoTomatoes.com

It's a Blog about Food. Does that make it a 'Flog'?

Sunday, 6 March 2011

It's a Blog about Food. Does that make it a 'Flog'?

This is my very first new blog entry. I know that there are lots of people blogging these days. I have been thinking for a few weeks about starting one of my very own. I used to have LiveJournal account but those days are long gone. My inspiration for this blog is not only one of my favorite adventures, but it is the source of our daily energy, one of the sources of our great life! It's FOOD! I love eating, and as a human, I need to eat to sustain myself. I also find food nourishing more than just my belly. It nourishes my creativity and keeps my brain sharp. I love to cook and create new food. I love reading cookbooks and trying new recipes or adapting them to be just the way I know I and the people I love and love to feed will like them. I love learning new things about food, exploring at the grocery store and farmers market, reading cookbooks and sharing recipes, going to restaurants and having new culinary adventures or reliving old favorites.  It is this love that I want to share with you through this blog. Hmmm It's a blog about food, does that make it a 'flog'?

Either way, here I will try to share with you often. Sometimes I will write about a restaurant I have gone to, or a potluck dish I enjoyed, a recipe I have tried and/or adapted and/or love dearly, meals I have eaten, and other culinary adventures. Welcome to my FLOG!