CINCI - Oh hey, Ohio

I'm lame and broke so for my last spring break as an undergrad I went to... OHIO! (Yeah even when you try to make it sound exciting, it's still Ohio). But I love roadtrips and I had fun so that's what's important! 

First note-worthy food stop was Tom+Chee. I know, I don't usually post so much about chains but these guys were pretty good.  

Turns out they have their special donut grilled cheese. I was a little iffy about trying it, and not all super hungry. My friend and I ended up splitting a mac and cheese grilled cheese sandwich. That's right, I have a professionally made one finally. 

It was awesome. Hot and cheesy, this place knows how to make them right. Maybe I'll venture for the special next time I see a Tom+Chee. 

Chicken Cacciatore

Fancy name for a pretty simple dish! 

All we did for this was dredge about a pound of chicken pieces (legs, thighs, breasts, all of it!) in flour, salt, and pepper. We heated a little olive oil in a pan and browned the chicken really quickly on all sides and then took it out of the pan. We added 2oz of medium diced onion, 2oz medium red peppers (we didn't have green like the recipe called for), and 1 clove of minced garlic and sauteed them. Then we added 2oz of sliced mushrooms a pinch of dried thyme and kept sauteeing until the mushrooms were soft and tender. 

We deglazed the pan with 2oz of white wine then added a cup of chicken stock and half a cup of tomato concassee (basically pureed tomatoes). 

We threw the chicken back into the pan and covered and cooked it for 30minutes until the chicken was done and served it! (Don't turn up the heat too much! We don't want it burn!). I'm not a huge fan of peppers so if I made it again at home I wouldn't add them but they did add a lot of the flavor to the dish so I'd had to season a little more, but overall it was really good and a simple one pan dish!

Turkey Scallops!

It's a weird name but basically it's just round turkey slices with pine nuts! So. Good.

For these guys we took a heavy saucepan and heated it with about 3 tbsp of virgin olive oil. We threw in about 2 or 4 tbsp of chopped shallots for about 5 minutes. Next 1/3 cup of white wine vinegar, 1 cup of water, 10 black peppercorns, and 3 bay leaves to simmer for 20 or 30 minutes to reduce the liquid by half.

While that was going we beat 3 egg whites with salt and pepper in a bowl. We coated the 8 turkey breast cutlets in the egg mixture and set them aside then heated another heavy sauce pan with 2/3 cup of veggie oil. Once that was HOT we coated the turkey cutlets in about a half cup of bread crumbs, then browned them in the pan (about 1 or 2 minutes per side. They cook fast).  

We plated the turkey, sprinkled on a combination of 1/2 cup of chopped parsley, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, and 1/2 grated orange zest. We topped it with the sauce we had going in the first pan, then threw on some toasted pine nuts (one of the best parts in my opinion!). 

This was such a good dish and I'm questioning why I haven't made it again (even those this was just a couple weeks ago). It's going on my grocery list really soon.  

Eggs Benedict 2.0!

Awhile back I wrote about my first attempt at making eggs benedict, then my first taste of a real eggs benedict from a diner, and now it's back again! 

Breakfast week in cooking class was a blast! Class starts at 9am and finishes at noon so it's not even close to being too late for breakfast. It could be 6pm and STILL not be to late for breakfast but that's besides the point! 

Starting off, we team had to make an omelette and a perfect egg over easy. We hit crunch time and my team only made one omelette (a tiny bit brown on one side but nice and soft on the inside). But we each made our own egg over easy. I'm just gonna brag here a little and say mine was perfect! (I'm patting myself on the back right now as I right this - not really but shhh) I got the perfect flip on the egg so that the white cooked just a little and the yolk didn't break or overcook. I'm super proud of myself!

Back to the Eggs Benedict! This one came out much better than my first one and was much more traditional. Toasted english muffin, slightly browned canadian bacon, and a poached egg on top! I guess the excitement is in the hollandaise sauce...

For this I whipped 4 egg yolks with 1tbsp of water in a metal bowl. I placed the metal bowl over a pot of boiling water (make sure the bowl isn't actually touching the water, that would be too hot for the eggs!) and I stirred the eggs to heat them up a little. Then I took it off the heat and my lab partner slowly added a cup of clarified butter while I whipped the mixture (Yes. Use clarified butter. It makes a difference and it'll taste better that way!) until it was blended together. Then we added 1 tbsp of lemon juice and seasoned it with salt and cayenne pepper to taste and voila! incredible eggs benedict! (We added more hollandaise sauce after I took the picture. Just cover those eggs, they like it that way.)

Filled Croissants

I don't quite know how I came up with this idea but one day I decided it would be a good idea for me to stuff croissants with a fruit preserve and some brie. I'm inventive! 

Again with the pre-made croissants in a tube because they are my best friend when I want to experiment. I just rolled them out, spooned out some blueberry preserve that's been sitting in my kitchen forever. Added a little bit of brie on the big end and rolled! 

Turns out I may have used too much blueberry preserve... my ratio was a little off.. but it was still good! Breakfast on the go for a week!