Old-Fashioned, Old-Size Bran Muffins with Pear Applesauce

 OK, I'll admit, one thing I'm not very good at is eating a healthy breakfast. So I decided to make these old-fashioned muffins using All-Bran, just like Mom and Grandma did. And my muffin tin is the same size as theirs, rather than the mutant giant-size muffins of today. So as you can see, one recipe makes 12 muffins, rather than, say, four. Pop them into freezer bags. Even at two at a time, that's breakfast for five days. Do you think I got the math wrong? Nope, two went to quality control.

Preheat oven to 400 and lightly grease a 12-muffin tin

In a big bowl, mix:

1 cup of whole bran cereal -- I used "original" All-Bran
1/4 cup milk
1 cup pear-applesauce or applesauce, preferably unsweetened or sweetened only with fruit juice (see below)

You want to let that mixture sit for a few minutes while the cereal absorbs the moisture.
Meanwhile, in a smaller bowl, cream together:
1/4 cup of room-temperature shortening or butter
1/4 cup sugar (Reduce this slightly if the applesauce you are using is sweetened). I use my "vanilla sugar," which is regular sugar that sits in a canister with some vanilla beans.

And to that mixture add
1 egg
1 Tablespoon honey (This helps the muffins get a crunchy top crust. You could leave it out, but I'd rather reduce the sugar a bit.)
Stir that into the cereal mixture
 
Now, mix together (sifting is what the cookbooks all say at this point, but you can use a wire whisk and mix them in a bowl just fine)
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg -- freshly grated if you can

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir just until combined. If you stir too much, you'll have more gluten, which means tough, dry muffins. Yuck.

Spoon this into the muffin tins. Each "cup" will be about 2/3 full. Always a good idea to put some in each one first, then go back and add if there's still batter left. 

Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes. Check at 25, for sure. If a toothpick comes out clean, they're done.

While still hot, sprinkle the tops with a little sugar, if you want to.

I have not personally done this, but if you have tins that make bigger muffins, say 6 or 4, I would add a little more baking soda to help the bigger amount of dense batter rise, then  cook them at 350 for longer, probably 35 minutes or so. I'd start checking at 30 minutes, though. (At 400, the outside would literally be toast before the inside was cooked.)


 
 

Hunter-style Chicken with Eggplant

This is delicious and fairly simple to make. If you do not like eggplant, frankly, you could leave it out or put potatoes or mushrooms or something else in instead. I like the eggplant, though.
You need:

1/2 cup of pancetta, diced (you could substitute bacon or even ham)
4 cloves of garlic; less if you don't like it, more if you do!
cooking oil
salt and pepper
1 large eggplant or a couple of the little ones
3-4 pounds of chicken. I used boneless, skinless thighs 
2 12-ounce cans of diced tomatoes (or you can peel, seed and chop fresh ones in season)
1 cup dry white wine
kosher salt (table salt will do if you don't have this) 
other seasonings you like; I used some Ancho chile powder and a dash of cayenne 
a big skillet
a Dutch oven 

First, slice the eggplant into strips, peel on. Put in a large colander over the sink or over a bowl and sprinkle liberally with the kosher salt. Let sit and drain for 30 minutes to an hour.
 
 Peel and mince the garlic. Put a tablespoon of so of oil in the skillet over medium heat and saute the pancetta and garlic just until the garlic is light golden. Don't burn it. Remove them from the pan.

Season the chicken with salt, pepper and whatever. Add a tablespoon or so of oil to the Dutch oven and, if the skillet is "dry," add some more oil to it. Saute the chicken in both pans  until lightly browned. (Two pans makes it easier to get all the chicken lightly browned; or you can work in batches.) Now you can put all the chicken into the Dutch oven.

Add the pancetta and garlic. Add a half cup to a cup of wine and simmer until it reduces.  Drain the tomatoes and add them. Cover and simmer for 35 minutes.

Pat the eggplant strips dry with paper towel. Add a little more oil to the skillet and saute them until they are soft and lightly browned. Then add them to the chicken for the last 5 minutes or so of cooking.

You can eat this by itself or over rice or pasta. It makes its own sauce with the wine and liquid from the tomatoes (even after you've drained them, they're pretty juicy). The great thing is that the chicken comes out tender and very moist.

 
 

 
 

  

Potato Leek pie (easy! versatile!)
This is a great recipe to use for improvisation, because I think you could sub in and sub out just about every ingredient except the potatoes, milk, cheese, eggs and the puff pastry (and you could even make your own crust, but why?).

1 sheet of puff pastry, the kind from the freezer section, thawed. My store sells them in boxes of 2 sheets. Save the other in the freezer for later.

Thawing one  takes about 30-40 minutes, which gives you time to do all the other stuff.

• 4 medium sized potatoes -- I used Yukon Gold.  
• 3 small leeks or 2 bigger ones
• 1/2 cup (or more) of chopped ham
• 1 bunch of watercress
• 1/2 cup grated or 3/4 "shaved" cheese (I used a mix of romano, asiago and parmesan that my store sells as "salad blend" and which I tend to have on hand.
• 1/3 cup light cream (original recipe called for heavy, I'm sure that's good, too)
• 2 eggs
• salt, pepper, and OK, a tiny bit of cayenne pepper because that's how I roll

Read the instructions for thawing the puff pastry. Thaw one sheet of it, still folded up, at room temp, preferably on a towel or paper towel.
Fill a medium saucepan about half full of water and add a teaspoon of salt. Fire up the burner.
Peel the potatoes and slice them fairly thin. If you have a mandolin or V-chopper, this is a fun time to use it. Otherwise use a knife. 
By now the water should be boiling. Put the potatoes in and cook for about 5 minutes, just until tender or slightly underdone. They get to cook some more later. Drain them so they don't sit in that water and get all soggy.
Clean the leeks and slice them. Just use the white part. Remember to cut them in half first and rinse out the middle. 
Heat some butter or oil in a skillet and cook the leeks just until soft. You don't want them turning golden or brown or black or anything like that. 
Set the oven to 400.

When the puff pastry is thawed, you can open up the folds without breaking it. You may want to put a little flour on your counter or board. Roll it out so it is big enough to line the 9-inch or so pie pan.
Put the pastry in the pie pan and use a fork to prick a few times in the bottom to let the steam out so that part won't puff up too much. Don't prick around the top, though.
Now put in the potatoes, the leeks, the water cress, the ham.
Beat the eggs, add the cream and the cheese, and pour over the other stuff.
When the oven has reached 400, put the pie in. Bake for about 20 minutes until the puff pastry is golden brown.

Obvious substitutions. If you don't have watercress, parsley. Or baby spinach? Arugula! Or any vegetable, although you might pre-cook something like green beans or peas, in with those leeks.
Don't have leeks? Onions? Might be pretty onion-y, so go lighter on those.  Or use a combo of shallots and chives.
No ham? Bacon? Cooked chicken? Leftover turkey? or leave it out and be vegetarian (although obviously not vegan because of the dairy and eggs).
I'm pretty sure any kind of cheese would work.
I'm pretty sure you could add just about anything in moderate amounts. Maybe saute some mushrooms. I would definitely pre-cook most ingredients except the very tender greens.
No cream in the fridge? I'm sure you could use milk. Wouldn't be as rich, but it would work.

Crabcakes

 This makes 4-6 crabcakes. I made 5. Start at least 1-1/2 hours before serving, if you can, to allow time for chilling. If you can't, you can't. You can make them several hours in advance and keep chilled in the fridge. They take less than 10 minutes to cook, so be sure to serve 'em hot.

• 1 pound crab, either all lump or lump and backfin mixed; cooked and sorted through to make sure there aren't shell pieces lurking
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 T mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. mustard
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning (if you can't get this, there are recipes on the Web. Mostly it's paprika, celery salt, a little ginger, salt, pepper; if you can get something called Sate seasoning, that's actually pretty close, too.)
• salt and pepper (careful with the salt, especially if using celery salt already and if using crushed saltines for the breading)
• any other spices you want to perk it up; I add a little extra smoked paprika and a touch of cayenne, but not too much!
• cracker crumbs or bread crumbs or Panko bread crumbs. I'm using Panko today. Sometimes I use cornbread crackers. I've heard of using ground up cornflakes. Fun to try 'em all. Quantity depends on what you use and, frankly, how wet the crabmeat is. Today I used about 1/2 cup for the mix and another 1/2 cup for the outside.
• oil for frying, 2 to 3 T

Mix the egg, mayo, mustard and spices  in a bowl. Add the checked-over crabmeat and mix gently with your fingers. Slowly add the crumbs so that you add just enough to be able to form the cakes and have them hold together.

Put the rest of the crumbs on a plate or platter
 
Gently form four to six cakes out of the mixture. Transfer each to the crumb plate to get a thin layer of crumbs on the outside.You may want to use a turner for this to prevent them falling apart.  If they start falling apart anyway or are too wet, add a bit more of the crumbs and reform.


When all the cakes are formed and breaded, put the plate of them in the fridge for an hour or so to let them "set up." This will make it easier to fry them without them falling apart. They may fall apart a little anyway, but that's not fatal. Still good!

Heat oil in skillet on medium high and fry for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side, just until nicely golden brown. Do not mess around with them -- gently turn them just once. Alternately, place on an oiled baking pan and brush lightly on top with oil or butter and stick 'em under the broiler, 3-5 minutes on each side.

Memo to the British  isles: Please note that no mashed potatoes were used in this recipe.

Bacon, cheese and tomato, again -- never boring!

A friend gave me some really, really good bacon and a couple of wonderful tomatoes from the farmers market, and it is July, so I had to make my favorite summer sandwich again. But here's a tip:

To cook a bunch of bacon, so you can make sandwiches and salad for the rest of the week, use your broiler. In my gas broiler, if I use the second to the top rack, it's 5 minutes on one side and 3 on the other. Yours might be different. But it's way easier than frying in a skillet, and most of the fat drains off, although you'll still want to drain the bacon on paper towels. Now you can refrigerate and use all week -- as if it would last all week! Too delicious.

Toast the bread very lightly first. (If you don't, it will probably be soggy. If you get it all the way to toast, by the time this is done, it will be burnt toast. Trust me.) Put the bacon on it.  Put the tomato slice on that. If you want to add onion, put the onion slice under the tomato. That's just the way it goes. Then add your favorite cheese, or whichever of your favorite cheese you have, as long as it is a good melting cheese. This is Jarlsberg. I'd recommend anything in the Swiss, Monterey Jack or Cheddar categories. It would taste good with melted brie, Camembert, etc., but might be too much for some people, and definitely messy.

Broil just until cheese is melty/toasty, but don't let the bacon and toast burn! So I can't give you a time, you just have to watch it.

Chicken & mushrooms to save and savor

This is a way to make some really good food that you can enjoy now, take to work and reheat in the microwave, and freeze for later. Or feed a crowd, if that's what you need to do.

Ingredients are chicken, mushrooms, garlic, shallot, tomatoes, and whatever green veggie you have. I had broccoli. And of course, salt, pepper, and whatever herbs and spices you like.  Simple. But,.boy, is this tasty.

My store had those "family packs" of chicken thighs on sale again. Boneless, but with the skin, which I like for the flavor. Bone in is good, too -- this recipe would still work, but they might need to cook longer.

Because they were boneless, the "fillets" opened up and could be arranged flat on the baking pan. I put a little, but very little, olive oil on the pan first, just to prevent sticking. The chicken will do the rest! You definitely cannot use a cookie sheet for this, because of the fat that will come out. If you don't have a pan with sides  like the one in the picture, those Pyrex baking dishes work well, too.

Season the chicken, put the minced garlic and shallot on it, put the sliced mushroom on, put the tomato and broccoli on -- in winter, even canned tomato would do.

With the fillets, I cooked for 20 minutes at 350; if you were using bone-in thighs, because they are thicker, they might take longer, so you should check.

When you reheat them (from the fridge or freezer), I wouldn't mind if you added some grated cheese.

I made a batch of couscous to eat them with, and of course you can freeze that in portions in containers, too. I saved the pan juices, skimmed most of the fat off, and used that when I made the couscous, so it was extra delicious.

You could freeze some without any "side" and make noodles or quinoa or couscous fresh, preferably using good chicken stock, even store-bought, instead of water. Get the kind in the carton, not in the can! Also, you could freeze without the tomatoes and add some fresh ones when you reheat.

Also makes a good sandwich on good whole-grain bread. Add mayo, bbq sauce, honey-mustard dressing, whatever you like.

Moules frites, sort of

"Pommes Patricia" with moules (mussels) and of course white wine.

Just got my 1000-watt, 14-cup Cuisinart -- that's right, a THOUSAND watts! 14 cups! -- and was feeling in a French-food mood. My grocery had beautiful mussels at a good price, so that clinched it. I do not have a deep fryer, so I made my variation on Pommes Anna instead of actual fries. I've posted both recipes here before, so no need to repeat. The food processor made very quick work of slicing the spuds, as well as chopping the garlic, shallots and onion for the mussel-cooking liquid.