Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

     You can't ever go wrong with a nice bowl of gumbo. Unless, of course, you don't like okra, then you're screwed. Okra seems to be the main factor in people not eating gumbo. Problem solved. I found a recipe that doesn't use gumbo. Some of the purists might say that it's not real gumbo then. Those people are totally entitled to their opinions. I'm also totally entitled to ignore the shit out of them and carry on with my day. This recipe was a winner all the way. Granted, I changed it up a bit. It had plenty of flavor and enough heat to keep things interesting. Serve it over rice along side a few ice-cold beers and you're in business. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
via The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American

Ingredients

• 1 pound sausage, browned (we used mild Italian sausage, though just about any sausage will do. Just make sure it's loose and not in the casing)
• 1/2 cup peanut oil (we used vegetable oil)
• 1 chicken, about 3 pounds, cut up (we used bone-in chicken breasts. Keep reading to see how we did it)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 green sweet bell pepper, cored and chopped (since The Wife doesn't much like green peppers, we used a sweet red bell pepper)
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2-1/2 quarts chicken stock (omitted. You'll see why)
• 2 whole bay leaves (just remember: unattended bay leaves equal death)
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning (omitted)
• pinch of ground cloves (omitted)
• pinch of ground allspice (omitted)
• 1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 quarts Cajun-style tomatoes with liquid. (We can these ourselves. Basically you can make them with 2 quarts of canned, stewed tomatoes, then add 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning of your choice and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper)

Directions

1. Brown the sausage in a frying pan (we used the enameled cast iron Dutch oven for the whole thing) with a small bit of the oil. Remove sausage and set aside.
2. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the chicken until brown. Remove and set aside (we totally went off-book for this step. I boiled the bone-in chicken until cooked, then stripped the meat off the bone and set it aside. I kept the liquid to freeze as chicken stock for later use.)
3. Add the flour to the pan and cook with the oil and pan drippings until you have a dark, rich roux, about the color of peanut butter. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula to make sure nothing is sticking. Add the vegetables and garlic and saute until limp (the vegetables, not you. If you're limp, add Viagra)
4. Place the vegetable roux in a 6-quart stockpot (if you're following my suggestions, you've already got it in a large Dutch oven, so you're good) and add the stock (or if you're doing it my way, here's where you put in your 2 quarts of Cajun tomatoes and liquid).
5. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until the stock thickens (this didn't take but a couple of minutes for me). Add any other seasonings and simmer, covered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 
6. Add the chicken and sausage to the stockpot and cook until the chicken is tender (I'm going to be honest and admit to throwing the meat in back during Step 4. No harm done)
7. Serve over cooked rice.

Good times!

Focaccia

     I don't think I'd be able to live with a gluten intolerance. I like bread way too much. I don't have the willpower to resist it. I'd eat a loaf of garlic bread and then sit in the bathroom for an hour screaming and cursing my existence. Then I'd go eat a stack of waffles. Circle of life and all that. Anyway, I've been meaning to try my hand at focaccia for some time and finally found a nice recipe hiding in one of my Frugal Gourmet cookbooks. This particular recipe takes about three hours from start to finish, so make sure you've set aside enough time for this. It's not particularly labor intensive, it just has a lot of rising time. It's totally worth it, as it makes a bread with a lightly crisp crust and a soft middle. It's very flavorful and seems like you could do all sorts of wonderful things with toppings. I'm calling it a winner. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Focaccia
via The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines

Ingredients
Dough

• 2 packets quick-rising dry yeast
• 2 cups tepid water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (use as many virgins as you like)
• 1/2 cup vegetable or salad oil (salad oil? Is that what you get when you wring out lettuce?)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5-1/2 cups unbleached white flour (I don't believe I've ever had that in the house. I went with regular old bleached white flour)

Topping

• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed (I used 4 cloves, and grated them. Take that, Frugal Gourmet!)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, whole
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (I used a Tuscany salt and pepper mixture in a grinder. Very tasty stuff)
• Sun-dried tomatoes. The recipe didn't call for them, but The Wife suggested them. They look great, but don't stay on the dough for shit. You pick up the bread and the tomatoes unceremoniously fall off. Not sure what to do to hold them in place. Maybe toothpicks or rubber cement. 

Directions

1. Dissolve the yeast in tepid water. Add the sugar, olive oil, vegetable oil, and salt. Mix in 3 cups of the flour and whip until the dough begins to leave the sides of the mixing bowl, about 10 minutes (Whip? Whipping dough? Is that a thing? I don't have a whipping attachment for the KitchenAid, so I used the dough hook for the entire procedure)
2. Mix in remaining flour by hand or with a dough hook and knead the dough until it is smooth. Allow the dough to rise twice, in the bowl, and punch down after each rising (I went with about an hour for each rise. The dough will at least double in size)
3. Oil 2 baking sheets, each 18x13"(totally didn't bother measuring. I only own two baking sheets so measuring is kind of moot). Using your fingers, press the dough out to the edges of the pan. Allow to rise for about 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, Gasmark 5)
5. Brush with the garlic mixed with the oil for topping. Sprinkle with rosemary and kosher salt on top (or whatever else you decided to chuck on there). Bake for about 20 minutes (We did 20 minutes exactly and the bread came out golden with a nice bottom crust. Kind of like a diaper)

Good Times!

Shaker Bread

     I hope I never develop a gluten intolerance, because I love bread dearly. I love baking bread. I imagine The Wife, in large part, stays with me because I regularly bake bread. We could easily just sit and stuff our faces with hot buttered bread. This particular bread, a "Shaker Daily Loaf," comes out of one of my old Frugal Gourmet cookbooks. It's a simple, yeasty bread that toasts well and has a great crust. This would be a rock solid PB&J bread. As always, notes or changes are in blue.

Shaker Bread
via The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American

Ingredients

• 2 packages fast-acting dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1-3/4 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• Soft butter for greasing the bowl and top of dough, about 2 tablespoons (or if you're like me and counting calories, just use non-stick cooking spray instead)

Directions

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Warm the milk and melt the 3 tablespoons of butter in it. Stir in the sugar and salt and allow to cool to lukewarm. Add this to the yeast bowl along with 3 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth (I used the KitchenAid since I am too lazy to do the beating/mixing by hand)
2. Add the remaining flour and knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes (3-4 minutes on the KitchenAid if you're using the dough hook)
3. Place the dough on a plastic counter and butter the top of the dough with half of the remaining butter. Cover the dough with a very large stainless steel bowl and allow to rise until double in bulk (let it rise for about an hour. That should double it. As for the plastic counter nonsense, I just took the dough out of the mixing bowl, sprayed the bowl with nonstick cooking spray and rolled the dough in it and then left it in the bowl with a towel over the top.)
4. After the dough has risen, punch down and shape into two loaves for loaf pans (spray the pans with nonstick cooking spray). Again brush the top of the dough and allow to rise until doubled in bulk (this will be about 30 minutes. I skipped the butter brush and just put a little cooking spray on the tops of the loaves)
5. Bake at 400F (200C, Gasmark 6) for 30 minutes (this took exactly 30 minutes for us. Cooking times may vary)

Good Times!

Sally Lunn Bread

     Ladies and gentlemen, I think I have found my go-to bread recipe. This could very well mean my never buying a loaf of white bread again. I decided to poke around in my Frugal Gourmet cookbooks for a Sunday baking recipe when I found this little gem in The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American. Sally Lunn bread. Who is Sally Lunn? Instead of just copying and pasting the answer, simply follow this Wiki link to Sally Lunn! The bread is soft and springy with just the right amount of crust. The recipe says you can even do these up in a cast iron muffin pan and make rolls! As always, any notes or changes will be in blue.

Sally Lunn Bread
via The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 package dry quick-rising yeast
• 3 eggs
• 4 cups flour

Directions

1. Scald the milk, or bring it almost to a simmer, and add the butter, sugar and salt. Let cool until tepid or just warm (95F)(If you don't own a digital thermometer for the kitchen, you really need one. Baking and grilling is so much easier when you know stuff isn't raw and poisonous. Unless that's what you were going for and carry on)
2. Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of tepid water
3. Using an electric mixer, if you have one, beat the eggs and then add the milk mixture, the yeast water, and finally the flour. Beat until smooth, about 5 minutes (I used the Kitchenaid here, but any electric mixer will do. This batter will be pretty thin so it won't strain most mixers. You could do it by hand but it will be a bit of work.)
4. Leave the dough in the mixing bowl and allow it to rise for one half hour. Beat it down with the mixer for just a moment and then allow it to rise again (when they say "just a moment," this is not an exaggeration. I only let the mixer go for a second or two and it knocked the batter down at least 50%. Don't panic, this is normal). Do this a total of 3 times and then put the dough in 2 large greased bread pans (I used nonstick cooking spray with no issues). Allow to rise to double the bulk (I just let it go for about an hour)
5. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour (this came out in 45 minutes on the button for us. For once something cooked on the short end of time. Cooking times vary. You can always jab a toothpick in there to see if it comes out clean). The bread should be light and have a nice crust.

Good times!

Steamed Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao)

     Some days a simple idea completely explodes into a full-blown project. This was one of those days. I wanted to make a simple Chinese pork and cabbage soup. The thing is, when I have soup, I want bread to go along with it. Since this was a Chinese soup, I wanted a Chinese bread. I made the mistake of using the first recipe I found. I found a recipe for char siu bao. For thirty-plus years I just called them steamed pork buns. I figured I would give them a go. I loved them when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong, they came out great and tasted absolutely fantastic. The problem was that this recipe was a Colossal Pain In The Ass. I should have known I was in for trouble when the recipe book didn't have any pictures. What book you say? I set the Way-Back Machine and consulted my copy of The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines. I didn't let small problems like not having the right ingredients or even the right equipment stop me. Some people suggested baking these, but I grew up eating them steamed, so that's how I was going to make them, at least this time. They came out exactly as I remembered. Soft and chewy, the dough a bit sweet and the filling a bit savory. Was it worth the effort? I'd say so. The wife and I ate 10 of them between us for dinner. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Steamed Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao)
via The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines

Ingredients
Bread Dough

• 2 packages fast-rising yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup milk, lukewarm
• 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

• 1/2 pound Chinese Barbecued Strips (char siu), chopped into medium-small dice (I was feeling industrious, but not industrious enough to make a separate pork dish for this. I just browned up 1/2 pound ground pork)
• 2 green onions, chopped (accidentally used some of the green onions I needed for a soup recipe. I wound up using 4 green onions here)
• 1/4 cup fairly finely chopped Chinese celery cabbage (Napa) (this totally didn't seem like enough cabbage. I used a full cup)
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce (none in stock. I used an equal amount of black bean and garlic paste)
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• pinch of salt (omitted)
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (I used regular soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water or cold chicken stock

Directions

Dough

1. Sprinkle yeast over the lukewarm water and then add the sugar. Allow to stand and then stir in the yeast (this was pretty amusing to watch. I stood there like a total dope watching the yeast foam up for about five minutes)
2. Add the milk. Be careful that it is lukewarm or tepid, about 90F. Stir in the flour and knead until smooth (much like I always do, the recipe suggests using a Kitchenaid if available).
3. Place the dough on a plastic countertop and cover with a large metal bowl. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, around one hour. When properly risen, punch the dough down and allow to rise another 30 minutes (be ready, this dough inflates spectacularly when it rises. I lifted the bowl after an hour and feared I would be overwhelmed with dough). 

Filling

1. While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Combine all the ingredients in a wok, except for the dissolved cornstarch and chow (stir-fry) just until the mixture is hot (I didn't use a wok. I just stir-fried everything in my non-stick skillet) Thicken with cornstarch and allow the filling to cool.

   

   Totally not the filling the recipe calls for.

Construction

1. Punch the dough down and knead for 1 minute. Roll the dough into a snake about a foot long and divide the dough into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then roll out into a 4-inch circle.
2. Fill each bun as you roll it. Place a little more than a teaspoon into the center of the dough circle. With your fingers, gather the sides of the dough around the filling in loose folds, meeting at the top. Pinch the dough so it will hold (I wasn't terribly detail-oriented at this point. I just sort of flattened out each ball by hand, dropped in the filling and pinched it closed) 



Please make note of the lack of uniformity of size and the fact that I have not laid them on the waxed paper the right way. I can say with total sincerity that I gave not a single damn regarding these inconsistencies. 

3. Place the filled bun upside down on a 2-inch square of waxed paper and place in a bamboo steamer (not only do I not own a bamboo steamer, I didn't turn those little bastards upside-down. Totally forgot. I have no regrets. They just sat on the counter for a while)
4. When all the buns are finished, cover the steamer with the lid and allow the dough to rise until not quite doubled in size. In about 30 minutes, the dough should spring back slowly when pushed gently with your finger (yeah, still don't have a bamboo steamer. Fortunately, the kitchen was hot and humid as hell, so I'm counting it. The dough did spring back when pushed, so it was all good.)
5. Steam them for 15 minutes (I totally faked the bamboo steamer. I took a big pot and filled it a quarter of the way with water and brought it to a boil. I then hung my Dollar Store Chef Basket over the boiling water. Working in batches of 6, I just loaded the dough balls on their wax paper into the basket and balanced the lid on top)

   

   It worked, too! So there.

Good times!