That's What Bob's Cooking: October 2012

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Shiitake Chicken Soup

I find it funny when motivation strikes. Sometimes it’s just a craving, sometimes it’s a audiobook of the Julia Child Biography, “Dearie”, sometimes it’s thumbing through a recent copy of a magazine. This week, while at work, and part of my job is to keep my area clean, so I was cleaning out a cart, when I came across a free magazine left there. In the magazine, there was recipe for a version of this soup. I was motivated to make it, and during the making of it, I had to do a few adjustments, but for the first time, I WROTE DOWN THOSE ADJUSTMENTS!!!! Now rest assured you can make exactly what we had!

(Side Note: My taste tester, recipe trier, and partner in life, had 2 bowls and finished both before I finished my first!-so this recipe is a keeper.)

Shiitake Chicken Soup

2 Qt. Low Sodium Chicken Broth (or so)

2-3 T Olive Oil

1 lb. Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts, diced (raw) (I sautéed a few until crispy for garnish)

¾ Shiitake Mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 T. Minced ginger

3 Garlic cloves, minced

1 T light soy sauce (or Low sodium)

Salt and Pepper to taste

½ Cup Cream

¾ Cup Green onion, chopped

Prep all items prior to starting recipe

Clean (remove all fat and non-meat parts) and dice chicken breasts. (I marinated these in some left over PF Chang’s Lettuce Wrap sauce)

Clean and Slice mushrooms

Peel and mince Ginger

Mince garlic

Using a large pot, coat with olive oil, and bring to a high heat. Add in Chicken breast pieces, and sauté until cooked, deglaze bottom of the pan with small amounts of chicken broth. Add in garlic and ginger. Sauté until tender, deglazing as you go (deglazing is to remove the browned bits from the bottom of the pan). When the broth has almost evaporated, add in the mushrooms, and sauté until tender.

Add in the remainder of the broth, and reduce, to intensify the flavor. Add more broth, as needed. Cover and allow to simmer 20-30 minutes, if time allows.

Using a hand blender, or small amount in a traditional blender, blend until smooth.

Right before serving, add in cream, so that the heat doesn’t “break” (separate) the soup.

Serve in bowls with crusty bread, and top with crispy mushrooms, green onions and a few drops of hot chili oil.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Butterscotch Haystacks

Years ago, I remember a “cookie” my mom used to make, but I don’t really remember mom making any cookies, so I’m not sure where I remember this from, but regardless, I love me some butterscotch, and these cookies are AWESOME.

When we were visiting my best friend in Arizona, she made these, but used Corn Flake in place of the Chow Noodles. While they were good….nothing beats the crunch of the noodles!

Butterscotch Haystacks,

“Ting-A-Lings, or whatever you call them”

1 Cup Peanutbutter (crunchy or plain old smooth)

2 Pkg. Butterscotch Chips

1 lb Pkg. Crunchy Chow Mein Noodles

½ - 1 Cup Peanuts

Heat peanutbutter then add butterscotch chips, stir until melted. Stir in noodles and nuts, until coated. Spoon heaped mounts onto wax paper, and cool until firm.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Savory Rosemary Figgy Scones

Fresh Figs!

Recently, we were invited to our friend’s annual wine tasting party. This year we decided to stay over, since we have heard about the great food they have the next day for brunch. I decided to bring some savory scones. I must say these were a hit, even Craig said, “Can you make these again?”

Savory Rosemary
Figgy Scones

Ingredients

¾ cup well-shaken buttermilk

¼ cup pure maple syrup

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 oz goat cheese

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

½ lb dried Calmyrna figs, stems discarded and figs cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups) I also added 4 fresh figs, chopped

1 spring of Rosemary, stripped and coarsely chopped

2 large egg yolks

Preparation

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 400°F.

Whisk together buttermilk, syrup, and 1/2 cup cream in a small bowl. Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment at low speed (or whisk in a large bowl) until combined. Add butter, goat cheese and mix (or blend with your fingertips or a pastry blender) until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Mix in figs and rosemary, then add buttermilk mixture and mix until just combined. (Do not overmix.)

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and drop 10 (1/4-cup) mounds of batter onto each sheet, leaving 1 inch between mounds.

Whisk together yolks and remaining 2 tablespoons cream, then brush over tops of scones (use all of egg wash).

Bake, switching position of baking sheets halfway through baking, until scones are puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes total. Transfer to a rack and cool to warm.

My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!