Chicken Orloff

I quite enjoy the Cooking Channel’s presentation of Julia Child and Friends. I have never attempted any of Ms. Child’s recipes so it was time. Saturday I watched the epidode of JCaF where she prepares Turkey Orloff. It is a VERY involved process. It isn’t difficult; It is time consuming. (Mine ended up way too saucy.) I will halve the recipe and yours will come out way better. Publix on Edmundson Pike doesn’t carry either turkey cutlets OR stock unless it is after October. So I used chicken. It is super delicious. I will definitley do the mushroom stuffing again.

Note: I started this post almost a year ago! I’ve made it twice and both times it came out amazing. Not as saucy as the first time. I use the Rice Soubise technique with many different cuisines. I took pictures but it is all saucy and melty so don’t judge by the picture. It is amazing!

Preheat oven to 325*

1/4 c. white rice
1-1/2 sticks butter (separated)
3 eggs; *Two separated use the yolks*
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms
Bunch of fresh parsley
6-12 leaves of fresh tarragon
pepper
6-8 chicken breast tenders; pounded thin
1 TBS olive oil
1 1/2 cups hot chicken stock
1/2 c. low-fat cottage cheese
1 c. lightly pressed down coarsely grated mozzarella cheese

Rice Soubise:

Boil rice in salted water uncovered for exactly 5 minutes; drain immediately and reserve.

Chop onions coarsely then toss them in a food processor. Pulse the onions until you have very finely minced onions. There will be a lot and it will smell terrible. Melt 4 TBS butter place it in a baking dish, stir in the onions, the drained rice, and 1/4 t. salt, mixing well. Cover and bake for 1 hour, stir once or twice until the rice is completely tender and beginning to turn a golden. When the rice is done and still warm, add one egg and taste as you go to see if it’s salty enough.

While rice and onion Soubise is cooking trim and clean mushrooms. Pulse into tiny pieces using a food processor until nearly sand like. NOTE: I didn’t do this the second time and it didn’t make a noticeable difference. By handfuls, either twist mushrooms hard with a tea or kitchen towel or squeeze through a potato ricer to extract as much of the juices as possible. Saute the mushrooms in 2 T. butter 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the tarragon and parsley; season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir into the cooked rice and onion Soubise and heat through.

Turn oven to 400*

Pound the slices between 2 sheets of waxed paper untill very thin.

Salt and pepper the slices lightly, dredge in flour and saute for about three minutes per side in 1 T. of oil and 2 T butter until golden. Set slices aside. NO NEED TO COOK THROUGH.

The Gratenéing sauce

Make a chicken velouté sauce as follows: Melt 4 T. butter over moderate heat; add flour, and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon until flour and butter foam and froth together for 2 minutes until it’s golden. Remove from heat add 2 cups of hot chicken stock. Whisk. Return to heat. Stir and simmer for 2 minutes.

In the food processor or an electric blender, puree the egg yolks with the cottage cheese. Beat the hot sauce into the cheese mixture

Assembling the dish

Butter the inside a baking dish (I used my trusty lasagna pan) and spread a thin layer of sauce in bottom. Make a neat and slightly overlapping pattern of the chicken down the center of the dish spreading each with the Soubise and mushroom duxelles mixture. Spoon remaining sauce over the turkey and spread the mozzarella cheese on top.

Bake approximately 25 minutes or until golden.

NOTE: This blog was written by my daughter Danielle who passed away January 23, 2012. Diane F

Can’t Get Through The Kitchen Door

Food is cool now thanks to the food porn at the Food Network and it’s celebrity chefs. Some of them are even pretty hot like Alton Brown and Bobby Flay. I’ve always had a thing for it even before friends were calling themselves ‘foodies’. When friends or coworkers have food related dilemmas or are in need of a dinner muse it is D to the rescue. That is pretty cool.

The trouble is I’ve become a little ‘more to love’ than I’d like. I’ve decided to quietly start watching my ass (hopefully) disappear. I thought I’d also start a blog for a bit of motivation and stimulation along the way. I hate diets and refuse to follow the blasphemy that is ‘Atkins’ or ‘South Beach’. I fully believe there is a way to eat delicious interesting meals and still not look like Dorothy (Bea Arthur) ate Rose, Blanch and Sofia in a late night gorging session. Bear with me. I love writing and I can be good at it. But it’s been since baby who knows how long.

I am a procrastinator.

My plan is a daily blog. I hope to expel temptation by posting recipes of things I won’t be eating as frequently. It’s what priests should do instead of having Jesus juice parties with the altar boys. Online food porn.

I will take pictures whenever possible of the dinners I’m making or thinking about. Dinner is my favorite meal to have after lunch. I worked at a Bed and Breakfast for three years. It made me slightly resentful of egg dishes so there won’t be many breakfast recipes. I also live in a dinky apartment so baking is mostly left to birthdays and pizza crust.

I hope I like it and I don’t blow it off for bad movie clips on YouTube. Enjoy the first recipe! It might be too much. If you aren’t up for the whole production it’s perfectly okay to buy store bought red sauce and crust. For bread you can use giant wheat tortillas or french bread from your grocer’s bakery. SO much easier. But not quite as good.

First Apartment Pizza (I made this recipe up while living in…yeah)

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust:

2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon pure olive oil
3/4 cup warm water
2-3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons olive oil
Olive oil, for the pizza crust
Flour, for dusting the pizza stone

Sauce:

6-8 fresh tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion diced
2-3 garlic cloves minced
Kosher Salt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Saute the onion in olive oil until nearly opaque then add the garlic.Blanch the tomatoes and deseed them. Dice and immediately add to garlic and onions. Cook at 30 minutes (very) minimum. Add basil, cook some more. Sauce should be thick.

Toppings:

Omnivore:

Mozzarella cheese, shredded (fresh is not best here)
Hot Italian sausage
Mushrooms (I’m finally out of the closet on this. I prefer canned mushrooms on pizza)
Green peppers
Caramelized onion

Herbivore:

Mozzarella Cheese
Goat cheese or fresh mozzarella
Garlic spinach
Roma tomato
Roasted red bell pepper
Black olive

The longest part is complete. You now get to decorate your bread base of choice. Noticed I didn’t give measurements on the toppings? I hold the firm belief that topping food is very personal. I have my way.It involves ensuring you get different combinations with every bite on a slice.

NOTE: This blog was written by my daughter Danielle who passed away January 23, 2012. Diane F