I know this does not sound very exciting. It is more of a treat really as opposed to a vegetable that is served with an entree. Artichokes are good if you want a nice glass or two of Chardonnay or Pinot and chat with friends over an appetizer. You could follow this up with a nice small cheese course, like say Burrata with grilled vegetables and a balsamic glaze.
You could also make them stuffed. The artichokes that is, not your guests. Besides, taxidermy, other than in a museum, is a little creepy, if you ask me.
The Drunken Chef (Russ)
Artichokes (Steamed)
Serves 3 to 4
SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS:
Big Pot with lid
Steamer basket
INGREDIENTS:
4 Artichokes
2 cups water
DIRECTIONS:
Place a vegetable steamer into a large pot and add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, while the water is heating up, cut the stems from the artichokes to leaving about one inch of stem. Lay each artichoke on its side, and cut away the upper third with a sharp knife (I use a sharp serrated knife). With kitchen shears, remove the prickly leaf tips from each remaining leaf. Remove any brown leaves from the lowest row closest to the stem.
Place the artichokes in the pot of boiling water on a vegetable steamer. Cover and let steam 30 minutes to an hour depending on size. The chokes are done when the leaves come off easily and the heart is tender when pierced with a tip of a paring knife.
Remove from pot and serve hot with melted drawn butter.
This is not just an entree it’s a meal. Maybe, even a Sunday dinner. As you can see in the picture, I hope. There is the chicken of course, your protein. There is the stuffing, that is your starch. Then there are carrots, the “veg”. Then there is the gravy (shown further down). For me, it is the chicken gravy that ties it all together. In essence, its three recipes, that I am posting in total today. Right here, from my kitchen to yours.
Happy cooking, happy eating, happy drinking!
The Drunken Chef (Russ)
Chicken Stuffing
Let’s start with the Stuffing. We all had it for Thanksgiving (in the U.S. anyhow) and we all miss it now but who the hell wants that big ass bird called a turkey again in our freezer right now! Much less taking up all that room in the fridge with all those leftovers, YIKES! Not me! I need the room for beer and wine.
Nope, no big birds here. I purchased an “Oven Suffer” chicken roaster that was just a bit over 6 pounds.
I start this meal by making the stuffing to stuff into this bird.
INGREDIENTS:
1 bag or box of your favorite seasoned cube stuffing mix
1 stick of butter
1 cup of chicken broth or (1-cup water, 1 heaping teaspoon Better then Bouillon chicken stock)
2 large celery stalks (finely diced)
1 large carrot (finely diced)
1 small onion (finely diced)
DIRECTIONS:
Into a large pan sauce pan, I melt a stick of butter. Then add the carrot, celery and onion. Simmer over low heat just until the onoin is translucent. Add 1-cup of chicken stock. Simmer the vegetables about 4 minutes. Just until they are barely tender.
While the vegetables simmer, get out a large bowl. Put the stuffing mix into the bowl. After the vegetables have cooked just a bit pour that yummy goodness over the dry breadcrumb cubes and toss lightly like a salad. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap at let stand 2 to 5 minutes steaming so the cubes of bread absorb all the liquid. After 2 to 5 minutes, toss again with a fork and its ready to stuff into that bird.
Note:
You can cook any extra stuffing you can’t get into your bird in a greased loaf pan for 45 minutes. Right next to you chicken.
Stuffed Roasted Chicken
Serves 3 to 4
SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS
Large Roasting Pan
Chef’s knife
INGREDIENTS:
1 chicken 6 to 8 pounds
1 stuffing recipe completed
The rest of the one-pound bag of carrots.
A large stalk or two of celery
1 large onion
Butter softened or Margarine (I use Margarine) (a squeeze bottle of Parkey when I can find it)
Salt
White Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Paprika
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
I begin by removing any gizzards or neck that may have come with the chicken. Now normally I do not rinse chicken but because I am stuffing it, I run cold water through the inside. It is critical however that there is nothing around the sink that could be splashed by yucky chicken water. We do not want anyone getting sick from that. When done you should wash your sink and counter with hot soapy water.
Place your rinsed chicken in the roasting pan a dry it well with paper towels. (This can all be done while you vegetables are simmering for your stuffing)
Standing the chicken on its neck, I salt the inside of the chicken.
Now you can stuff that bad girl with that yummy the stuffing.
Coat the outside of the bird with butter or margarine. Then I season it with a light sprinkling of salt, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.
Add two cups of water to the bottom of the pan.
Place the chicken in the 325 degree oven at bake for an hour and a half.
Peel and roughly cut up your remaining carrots from the one-pound bag. Peel and roughly cut one large onion. Wash and roughly cut two large stalks of celery.
Remove the chicken, pan and all, from the oven. Baste you bird with the juices from the bottom of the pan. Don’t forget to add a little basting to the stuffing too. Now add the vegetables to the bottom of the pan. Add more water only if necessary to keep it at about one to cups in the pan.
Pop it all back in to the oven. Continue to bake it at 325 degrees for an hour and a half to two hours or until the internal temperature of the breast reaches 160 degrees. (see gadget list for digital thermometers)
Remove the chicken to a carving plate. Cover the chicken with aluminum foil and let rest while we make our gravy. Remove the vegetables from the pan to a bowl.
Prepare the Chicken Gravy recipe next. That is your third recipe for today.
Chicken Gravy
Finished Chicken Gravy
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups chicken stock
Pan drippings (1 cup to 2 cups)
4 Tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
DIRECTIONS:
Pour hot chicken stock into the chicken roasting pan and stir, losing and removing anything that is stuck to the pan. I think the French did this just so the pan was easier to clean in the end but that could just be me.
Pour the chicken stock from the pan trough a strainer and into a measuring cup. Discard what is in the strainer. Save what’s in the measuring cup for the next step.
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and cook flour four to five minutes until the flour and butter become very pale tan, the color of varnished maple wood.
Slowly whisk in the chicken stock to the flour while over medium heat. As it returns to the simmer. Add a little more of the chicken stock until you reach the perfect consistency. The sauce with be at its thickest each time it comes up to a simmer. Stop add stock when you have a gravy thickness you prefer.
Taste. Add salt or pepper to taste.
TO SERVE
Remove the stuffing from the chicken to a microwave safe bowl. Cover with platonic wrap and poke a few holes. Heat for a minute or two to make sure it is good and hot.
Carve up the chicken and serve with gravy, stuffing and the vegetables.
Unlike most of my recipes I do not remember where it was I first had a hot steamy bowl of Italian Wedding Soup. Perhaps is was at a restaurant or maybe even at a catering hall during a wedding, nah, too corny. Wherever it was, I liked it. I do remember one place in particular that had a very good recipe. This place was deli/caterer with a few table. They made great sandwiches and had wonderful soups. They used to make Italian Wedding very often. They unfortunately, are no longer around so now I have to make it myself.
Because of the cold weather that we have been having here in New York, I have been making a quite few soups and stews. I thought I should share some of them with you. Unfortunately, for my coworkers I have been reluctant to bring any “extra” soup to work and share it. I have been trying to follow the best practices for social distancing. A chef NEVER wants people getting sick from standing around pot ladling out soup. Perhaps as things start improving I can bring them all in a large pot of this soup or maybe the stuffed cabbage. Wouldn’t that be a gas! (Scrunchy face)
Well that’s all the time I have for bad puns this morning. I hope you at lease enjoy the soup even if the jokes aren’t any good.
The Drunken Chef (Russ)
Italian Wedding Soup
Serves 4 to 6
SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS
Large Pot
Chef’s knife
Large bowl
INGREDIENTS
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 ½ to 3 quarts chicken broth
2 cups baby spinach – rinsed
1 cups baby Bok-Choy
1 cups escarole – rinsed and cut
1 cup seashell pasta or large white Couscous
3/4 cup diced carrots
3 chicken bouillon cubes
DIRECTIONS:
In a medium bowl, combine the beef, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, basil and onion. Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls and set aside.
In a large stockpot heat chicken broth to boiling and add meatballs and carrot. Return to boil a cook for 10 minutes until meatballs are no longer pink inside. Add the spinach, escarole, pasta. Return to boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, at a slow boil for at least 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente.
NOTES:
Extra chicken broth is sometimes need to reheat leftovers when the pasta has absorbed all that yummy stock.
This is a dish both my sister in-law and I have been trying to make now for years but have never did it. Every time we eat it out at our favorite Jewish delicatessen we both say, “We have got to make this.”
So here it is, sister in law. My recipe for the stuffed cabbage I dropped off to you the other night.
The Drunken Chef (Russ)
Cabbage (Stuffed)
Serves 4 to 6
SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS
Dutch Oven
Chef’s knife
Can opener
Large bowl
Large Pot
INGREDIENTS
12 large cabbage leaves off a large head of cabbage
1 lbs. ground beef
2 sweet pork sausage about 1⁄4 lb ground pork
1⁄2 cup rice, made with beef broth and
1 tablespoon butter (1 cup rice when cooked)
1 egg beaten
¼ cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon sweet basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 ½ tablespoons onions, grated
1 ½ tablespoons celery, mined
1 ½ tablespoon shredded carrot
½ cup cabbage, shredded
Sauce ingredients:
1 can of Campbell’s tomato soup
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ can of water
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Coarsely slice remaining cabbage for bottom of pot
DIRECTIONS:
1. Cut 12 large leaves off of a head of cabbage, cover leaves with boiling water, let stand until leaves are limp (2-3 minutes); then drain OR core cabbage head, and boil cabbage until leaves are tender enough to remove easily (10-15 minutes), very carefully remove 12 large leaves (You may have to peel the outer layers first and then return the cabbage to cook and continue peeling the leaves until all are done); then drain.
2. Mix together the beef, pork, rice, egg, milk, seasonings, and grated vegetables.
3. Put 1-4 tablespoons (depending on the size of leaf) of meat mixture in center of each leaf; tuck in sides and roll to cover meat. Repeat until all the meat is in cabbage leaves.
4. Mix together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Add some of the sauce to just cover the bottom of the Dutch oven, then line the bottom of the pot with the remaining sliced cabbage, that had been sliced into ¾ to 1 inch strips.
5. Next, add 1/3 of the sauce on top of sliced cabbage then layer in the stuffed cabbage rolls and add 1/3 of the sauce between each layer, making sure the cabbage is seam side down in the Dutch oven. Cover top layer with sauce. Cover pot and simmer over low heat about an hour or until the cabbage it tender with tested with a fork.
I always prefer homemade soup to anything I can get in a can or even a “Bread Place”. I just doubled this recipe just recently to make it for a small lunch crowd. I served it with a thick crusty bread and butter. Too bad it was a warm day, but everyone still seemed to enjoy it. I don’t know how well it reheats. There is usually nothing left.
The only thing I was missing at lunch was a half of a roast beef sandwich, or a Cuban panni! Next time!
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups fresh broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
1 1/2 quarts chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 cups milk
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of celery soup
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water (or Belgian wheat Beer)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
DIRECTIONS
In a large soup pot, cook broccoli in broth until tender, about 10 minutes.
In a medium bowl, mix together milk and condensed celery soup. Blend cornstarch with cold water, then stir into soup mixture. Pour into the pot with the broccoli. Cook over medium heat, stirring steadily until thick and bubbly. Stir in cheese, and simmer, stirring until hot. Do not boil.
NOTES: This is one of those once a year recipes I must make.
This IS a recipe I have been eating since I was a child. These were always a favorite with my sister and brothers. God, I still remember vividly how my brother would make a lake using mashed potatoes (and so did I). Then we would have mom fill it with gravy. I can even still smell all the black pepper he used on his potatoes. This was all way before the movie Close Encounters of the Third kind too!
Here is my mom’s recipe. This is one I watched her make forty or fifty times at least.
SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS
One big ass pot
Electric mixer
Colander
INGREDIENTS
5 lbs. of Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
1 stick of Butter
½ cup half and half
¼ cup whole milk
Salt
White pepper
5 Cloves of roasted garlic (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Peel and cut potatoes into 2 inch pieces. Cook potatoes in boiling water about 20 minutes. Test potatoes with fork or metal skewer for doneness. Drain potatoes (in colander) and then return to pot. Add butter in tablespoon size pieces; add cream, milk, roasted garlic, salt, and pepper. Using an electric mixer starting on low, beat the potatoes until there are no lumps. Add cream and milk slowly as not to cool off the potatoes to fast or slash out while mixing.
NOTES: My mother never used half and half just whole milk. She alos never used roasted garlic. I find the ½ & ½ gives it a nice extra richness. I don’t make mashed potatoes every month so I can splurge on the extra butter and cream. I only use roasted garlic when making Prime Rib or a Standing Rib roast or leg of lamb.
You can make you own beef gravy of you so choose or you can “doctor up a jar of Heinz brand Anjou gravy simply by adding a can of sliced mushrooms to it and a tablespoon of butter for extra richness. You could buy McCormick’s powdered gravy mix and repeating the steps above.
If however, you are feeling adventurous or simply do not like the idea of serving anyone jarred gravy here is a traditional recipe for a basic brown sauce.
INGREDIENTS
2-1/2 to 3 cups of Beef Stock (see beef stock recipe upon its availability)
3 tablespoons of butter (or pan drippings)
3 tablespoon of flour
1 shallot minced
DIRECTIONS:
Heat butter and/or pan drippings to a medium size saucepan. Add 3 tablespoons flour and 1 shallot. Cook over medium heat until flour golden brown. Slowly add warm beef stock while whisking. After each ½ cup allow sauce to come to a bubble. Once bubbling this will be the sauces maximum thickness. Keep adding beef stock until desired thinness if reached. Strain to remove and lumps. Serve immediately, the sauce with thicken more as it cools.
As a child growing up my mother never made meatloaf. When I asked why it was because she thought my older brothers and sister would not like it! How many delicious things did I miss-out-on because they were so dam picky? The answer to this question I will never know. She did finely make it for both my brother and myself. It was served with mashed potatoes, gravy and canned shoestring green beans from DelMonte that I added tabasco too try and spice it up. My brother liked his with just plain tomato sauce over the top.
I don’t know how old I was when I had my first ever meatloaf sandwich. I am not even sure it was at home or at a local deli.
I have now spent my entire adulthood making it at least once a year but the irony is that my own son dislikes it. He dislikes anything beef in general.
Since he is away at college, this is what we had for dinner Sunday.
To me the best thing about meatloaf is the hot meatloaf sandwich the next day. It must include extra gravy on the sandwich, a large dill pickle on the side and a bag of plain old-fashioned potato chips.
I know this dish is not for everyone but I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Especially for lunch!
3 lbs. 80% lean beef chop meat – some people perfect meatloaf mix (equal parts ground beef, pork and veal)
3 large eggs
1 small onion diced
½ cup of milk or water
1 clove crushed garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 ½ cups seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tbls Worcestershire sauce (optional)
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Ketchup (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, add: 3 lbs. ground beef, 3 eggs, 1 small onion that has been diced, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 1 ½ cups of seasoned breadcrumbs, ½ cup milk or water, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional), a dash of salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until all the ingredients are even distributed.
Place in a baking dish. I prefer a metal pan to a glass Pyrex dish. I think the meatloaf just browns better. Shape ground beef mixture into a loaf. Cover with a layer of Heinz ketchup.
Spread sliced onions around the edges or just outside the loaf (not on top). Sprinkle onions with olive oil. Season onions with salt and pepper. Bake in a preheated oven for about 1 hour or until the internal temperature reaches 150 – 160 degrees. Remove from oven and let rest for ten minutes.
NOTES: Serve with mashed potatoes, beef gravy and zesty shoestring string beans.
While most people are counting the days until Christmas, I will be counting the days until April 30th. This will be the one-year anniversary of when I have started my cookbook-writing project here. I have posted 123 recipes so far but I still have 168 recipes to prepare, take pictures of and write about.
You see not only am I posting my recipes but also I am posting them as I cook them throughout the year. This way, I know it is a complete cookbook from all the entries from the past year. At least the ones that were worth of cooking. The hard part is that some of my recipes I cook more often than others. Like last night for example, I made the short rib recipe again as well as shrimp cocktail. This time the ribs were severed with a baked potato. It was all good but I have posted all those recipes earlier in this blog. I mean who cooks anything just once a year, except maybe a stuffed turkey (the traditional American Thanksgiving meal).
Having worked out in the yard all day yesterday, I was also way too tired to even make anything dessert. So, I had a half of a Pepperidge Farm chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookie they call Sausalito. Plus, an ice cold glass of milk. The milk I purchased at a place called Stew Leonard’s. There is only one of these huge supermarkets by me but I love this place. I also purchased the short ribs there because they were on sale this week. I really went in there for the lobster tails that were on sale but they were way too tiny at only 4 ounces to even bother cooking. Plus I don’t think that when they are that small they are very good tasting. I need a lobster tail that is at least 10 ounces for it to taste any good and it be worth going through the trouble of making for dinner. I have not made my favorite 16 once tail in so long just because the price of them is so prohibitively preventative.
What will be on tonight’s menu that I can write about? I didn’t even know yet but if you’re interested come back here and read all about it on Monday. I will need to post more than one recipe a day between now and the end of April if I plan to stay on track.
Friends of our due to come back from Florida soon and we will all need to all get together over dinner and drinks so I can hear all about their delightful culinary experiences. Unfortunately, the way Jennifer has been feeling we could not go with them; It may still be a long time before she can get on a plane or take a long trip anywhere at least until she is out of the excruciating back pain she is still in.
Today will be a day for more grocery shopping and chores around the house. The batteries in the smoke detectors need to be changed as we rolled the clocks back an hour. Hopefully, I can squeeze enough time for a bit of cooking. More importantly, I hope its new recipe. Well that’s all I have for now until I cook something. Like breakfast or maybe even lunch. You can also follow me on Instagram @drunckenchef82.
Let me begin by apologizing for being gone so long. Yes, I have been cooking. It just has not been anything new. I have not been sleeping well and have been rather tired. I even did take out once or three times. I will hopefully be cooking some new things this weekend. Let’s see how it goes.
I have been making my own chili for years. The recipe has only changed in instances where I am trying to accommodate other people’s tastes who are eating it with me. For example, I did not make hot and spicy chili for the cub scouts or my fellow coworkers. Those batches were milder. Now that a have made it this year it is finally time I can share it with you guys my loyal readers.
The recent batch that I made and heated up for lunch I could actually put green peppers in. When cooking at home I never use green peppers. Jennifer does not like them and more importantly she is allergic to raw peppers.
So now here is the recipe. I hope you enjoy it.
Chili
SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS
1 Big Ass Pot
INGREDIENTS
4 lbs. chop meat (option: substitute 2 lbs. chop meat for ground turkey)
2 medium onions diced
1 small green pepper – seeded & diced (optional)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 16 oz. can tomato sauce
1 16 oz. can of water (option: Sam Adams Octoberfest Beer)
1 can red kidney beans (optional) this was not in the camping chili
1 can cannellini beans (optional) this was not in the camping chili
1 can black beans (optional) this was not in the camping chili
1 box Carroll Shelby’s Chili Mix
If no chili mix is available double this:
2 tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper and/or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
DIRECTIONS:
Cook onions and green pepper in olive oil over medium low heat until translucent in a large heavy pot. Add chop meat to pot and stir in onion. Cook chop meat until no longer pink and drain off most of the fat. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add Carroll Shelby’s Large Spice Packet, ¼ of the Small Cayenne Pepper (hot) spice packet, and some salt. Save the Masa packet to throw away at the end. Add garlic powder, onion powder, and fresh ground pepper. Cover and let simmer on low stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. Cook 30 minutes. If the chili is not to thin and watery then throw away the Masa packet and your chili is done. If the chili is too “soupy” then add the Masa in thirds to thicken (I’ve never had to use it) and cook 10 more minutes.
Serving suggestions: Serve hot chili in crock pots and cover with grated cheddar cheese. Melt cheese under broiler and then top with diced red onion and serve HOT! Also an excellent hot dog topping!
NOTES
This is great as a hot dog topping (particularly without the green bell pepper) in winter or at a summer barbeque.
The Magic of a Perfect Pairing 