A Non-Traditional Paella

Ingredients
2 medium onions, diced
12 strips of precooked bacon chopped
6-8 carrots, cleaned and cut on the bias in 1/4" thick pieces
16 oz precooked dark meat chicken, pulled apart
1 lb mixed rice (mine was a mix of long grain brown, Himalayan red rice, wild rice and brown basmati rice)
2 qt chicken stock (I keep it simmering on the stove)

1 t rosemary
1 t tarragon
1/2 t ground black pepper

Instructions

In a large skillet with a lid, saute bacon pieces for a few minutes. Add diced onion in a layer. Lightly salt to get the onions to sweat. When the onions start to clarify, add carrots in a layer over onions.

Add a cup or so of chicken stock.

Add a layer of rosemary, tarragon and black pepper

Allow to simmer for a few minutes.

Add dry rice in a layer.

Add chicken stock to just cover the rice layer, place lid on the pan and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove the lid and add more chicken stock to again cover the rice. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Repeat this twice more (four 10 minute simmer cycles).

Add the remaining chicken stock, Lower the heat until it barely bubbles and let cook an additional 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 15 minutes to finish absorbing liquid.

Mix in chicken and place into serving dish. Hold covered with foil in a 200 degree F oven as needed. Add stock if it begins to dry while holding.

Oat Sunflower Seed Pumpkin Seed Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients
2 1/2 c skim milk
2 T instant yeast
1/2 c honey
1 c rolled oats
6 T melted butter
5 1/2 c whole wheat flour, plus more if necessary
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/2 c pumpkin seeds
1/2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 egg
Extra oats, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds, for sprinkling on top

Instructions

1. Warm milk in a glass bowl in microwave 30 sec at a time until milk is warm (about 115 degrees F). Stir in yeast and honey. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes until yeast begins to foam. Next, stir in melted butter (or oil). Let sit 5 more minutes.

2. Add in whole wheat flour, oats, pumpkin seeds, dunglour seeds, salt and cinnamon to a mixer with a dough hook. Mix with a dough hook until a blended. Add the milk mixture and start kneading with the dough hook until dough is uniform and forms a ball on the hook and pulls everything up from the bowl. Roll out onto a floured surface and knead by hand a few strokes. Form dough into a ball and place in a large, oil-or butter greased bowl, turning the dough over to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and allow the dough to rise for a little over an hour, or until doubled in size.

3.Lightly butter or grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans. After dough has risen, knead it just a few more times (about 1 min) then split evenly in half and shape each half into a loaf and place in prepared pans, tucking the ends in. Cover the loaf with plastic wrap and a towel and allow it to rise again for another hour, or until the loaf has risen to the brim of the pan.

4. Once dough has risen again, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove yowel and plastic. Cut a single 1/2-3/8" deep cut with a sharp knife down the top center of the loaf. Beat egg (optionally with a bit of milk or cream) in small bowl and brush over the top of the dough. (Please note that you won't need to use all of the egg wash, but only a small amount.) Sprinkle a few sunflower seeds then poppy seeds on top of the dough. 

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until loaf is golden brown on top and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom of the pan. If the top starts browning too much, cover with a foil tent. 

6. Once the bread is baked -- sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove bread from pan and place on wire rack to finish cooling for at least 2 hours. Bread should be wrapped tightly and store at room temperature.

Based on recipe found at  Ambitious Kitchen.

Monster Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wet Ingredients 1 lb (4 sticks) unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 c light brown sugar
1 1/2 c dark brown sugar
2 T vanilla
4 lg eggs

Dry Ingredients 4 1/3 c flour
2 t baking soda
2 t salt
4 c chocolate chips

Directions

Cover at least two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

Preheat oven to 375°

In stand mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix in well.

In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients.

Mix dry ingredients into butter/sugar one cup at a time.

Then slowly mix in chocolate chips.

Refrigerate dough for thirty minutes.

Scoop out golf ball sized (or a bit larger) portions placed evenly six to a sheet. Place one sheet in the oven and bake for 9 minutes 45 seconds. Remove immediately and allow to cool for five minutes for cookies to set. Then remove to cooling racks.

Allow sheet to cool before adding more raw dough to bake.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

Ingredients
Cheese cake filling
2 lb cream cheese
1 c sugar
1T cornstarch
1/8 t salt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2T cocoa powder
3T red food coloring
Crust

White Chocolate Ganache

4 T butter

1/2 c heavy cream

11 oz bag of White Chocolate chips

2 + 2 c divided Red Velvet Shortbread cookie crumbs (recipe for cookies HERE)
5 T butter (melted) + butter to grease pan

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F
Butter a 10" spring form pan. Wrap pan in foil to seal out water bath (foil must come all the way up on all sides. (Add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of the pan to make serving easier.)

You will need a roasting pan large enough to hold the spring form pan and a cooling rack or meat rack that can keep the spring form pan off the bottom.

In another container boil enough water for the water bath to fill up to 1" below the edge of your springform pan when it's in the roaster pan. (For me that was about 3 quarts.)

(make a recipe of Red Velvet Shortbread cookies without white chocolate shown in the linked recipe, ground into even crumbs in a food processor.)

Blend 2 cups of Red Velvet Shortbread crumbs and melted butter. Pour crumbs into the pan. Press evenly into the bottom of the pan. Use a glass to press them down firmly. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool completely.

Cream together cream cheese, sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Scrape down mixing bowl and beater. Add vanilla, lemon juice, and sour cream and mix well. Scrape down bowl and beater again, restart mixer and add eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly between.

Scoop about four cups of batter into the pan. Spread evenly levelling completely. 

Add the cocoa and red food coloring to the remaining batter. Mix thoroughly. Add more food color if batter is too pale. Once mixed, gently scoop red batter into the top of the white batter. Level completely.

Place springform pan in the larger pan and on the cooling rack. Add enough boiling water until the water is 1" below the edge of the springform pan.
Bake in the oven for 55 minutes. Turn off the oven but leave the pan there to cool for an hour with the door blocked open.

Once cool, remove onto a cooling rack. Runs a thin knife around the edge. 

After the cake is completely cool to the touch, remove the spring form rim. Plate and refrigerate for at least four hours or up to three days.

After the cake has been refrigerated at least 4 hours (more if possible) prepare White Chocolate Ganache icing to finish the cheesecake. Put butter and cream in a high-sided glass mixing bowl (suitable for whisking it). Heat in microwave for 2 minutes or until the butter has melted. Add the White Chocolate chips and let sit until the chips begin melting. Whisk until melted and blended, then place in the refrigerator to cool for about 20-30 minutes. Check occasionally. When cooled (you feel no remaining warmth from the melting) whisk briskly by hand or mixer until light and spreadable.

I put the cheesecake on a decorators turntable and then started adding icing to the top first. Using an offset spatula, smooth frosting from the center outward to get an even thin layer. Then begin adding icing to the outside edge of the cake. This will be a rougher surface, so more icing will be required. Once the entire cake is covered. Gently press small hand fulls of Red Velvet Shortbread cookie crumbs onto the outside edge of the cake. When done, refrigerate.

When ready to serve, dip a smooth (non-serrated) knife in hot water and make one cut downward (the icing may be firm - the warm knife will melt through.) Remove the knife gently, wipe again with warm water and make each successive cut. If you used parchment on the bottom, you should be able to get a spatula under the edge of the cake and lift out each piece to serve.

Peasant Bread

Ingredients
1 c rolled oats (mill to fine flour in food processor)
1/4 c buckwheat
1/2 c whole wheat
about 5 c white flour
2 1/2 c warm water
1 T molasses
1 T honey
1 T brown sugar
2 T active dry yeast

Instructions
In a large mixer bowl, whisk water, yeast, honey, molasses, brown sugar until blended. Allow to sit and form a foam on top.
Process rolled oats, buckwheat flour and whole wheat flour in food processor.
Attach dough hook and add food processor contents. Start mixing, stopping occasionally to scrape bowl and dough hook. Start adding flour 1 cup at a time, mixing and scraping bowl and dough hook as dough forms. Once dough begins to come together and is climbing the dough hook, stop and roll out onto a floured table. Knead by hand turning dough in on itself. Put vegatable oil in a large bowl. Roll dough ball in oil and flip over into the bowl. Cover with a towel and set aside in a warm place to rise for 1-2 hours until doubled.
Punch down dough and roll it out onto a floured table. Coat with some flour and knead a bit. Roll into a cylinder. Use a sharp knife to cut the roll in half. Hand knead on half of the dough and turn it into itself to form a smooth ball. Place each ball on a baking sheet covered by a baking mat or parchment paper. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross on each loaf. Coat with egg mixture and sprinkle with oatmeal.
Bake at 375 F for 40 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients
10-12 lbs mixed onions (I used Vidalia/Yellow/Red mixed depending on what's available)
750 ml white wine (semi-dry Chardonnay or Springgate's Susquehanna Sweet White)
1 qt natural apple cider
2 gallons beef broth
Olive oil
Sea Salt

A bouquet garni composed of several sprigs each:
  Thyme
  Rosemary
  Bay Leaves
  Oregano
  Sage

For serving:
Toasted bread
Shredded cheese

Instructions:
You will need two stock pots. One to preheat the stock and a larger one to actually make the soup.

Peel and cut onions in half. I use a food processor slicer to slice all of the halves into thin slices.

Add beef broth to a stock pot and slowly bring to a simmer while cooking the onions. Since I usually have my beef broth frozen, starting this now gets it ready for when I need it later. If you have unfrozen beef broth, this still helps get the soup boiling faster when you assemble it in the large stock pot.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat (I have a 15" Lodge cast iron skillet for this.) When hot, add Olive oil to coat the bottom. Fill the skillet half full of onion slices. Sprinkle on about 1/2 t Sea Salt. Add another layer of onions and salt again. Allow the onions to heat up and begin to fry a bit. Be patient. You want them to caramelize slowly to a dark mahogany color without burning. Once you begin to see color on the bottom, gently roll the pile to put uncaramalized slices on the bottom. Keep going, slowly stirring until the entire batch has softed and caramelized.  Remove that batch to your unheated large stock pot to hold for now. Repeat with the rest of the onions, one batch at a time.

On the last batch of onions, once they have caramelized, add the apple cider, stir to deglaze the skillet and let simmer to reduce by at least 1/2.

Continue to stir while adding the bottle of wine, then allow to simmer to reduce by 1/2 again.

Add the contents of the skillet to the rest of the caramelized onions. Add the preheated beef broth as well. Assemble your bouquet garni and put it in the stock pot as well (I use a large tea ball to keep the herbs all together and out of the soup.)

Bring to a low boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 1 hour (longer if you wish). Simmering integrates the herb flavors into the soup.





Prepare to serve:
Fill an oven-ready bowl to within 1/2" of the top. Add a piece of toasted bread and cover with cheese (I prefer Gruyere, but also like the taste of aged sharp Provolone or good Swiss cheese.) Place bowls on a baking sheet and put under the oven broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately.

Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

Ingredients
1 lb of chicken breast, cut bite sized (I had 1 lb+ breasts from Karns, so I used just one)
1/2 t ground pepper

1/4 t salt

1½ cup cornstarch
3 eggs, beaten

Canola or other high smoke point oil for frying chicken pieces

Sauce Ingredients

3-4T ketchup

1/2 c cider or wine vinegar

1 c white sugar (you could use brown)

1-2 T soy sauce (to taste)

1-2 t garlic powder (don't use garlic salt - you don't need extra salt in this)

1 1/2 T cornstarch

Veggies

1 can pineapple, drained (I used an entire fresh pineapple here - yummy)

2 large sweet peppers (colors make it look nice)

1 large onion

sliced button mushrooms (optional)

Instructions

coat a 9x13 pan with oil. preheat oven to 325 F

Put cornstarch and salt & pepper in a quart (or larger) sized plastic container with tight fitting lid.

Separate cut up chicken chunks and drop into container. Once all pieces are in, cover with lid and shake to completely coat with starch/salt/pepper mixture. 

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat and add oil to coat the bottom. When the oil shimmers, it is ready to cook. Remove pieces of chicken from starch mixture a few at a time and dip to coat in beaten eggs then straight into the skillet. The chicken should only be in a single layer, so work in batches. Brown on all sides and remove placing in a layer in the bottom of the 9x13 pan. When all chicken is cooked, allow to cool while making the sauce.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together Sauce ingredients making sure sugar is dissolved.

Add Veggies to the top of the chicken in the 9x13 pan, then pour sauce mixture over all, spreading to cover as much as possible.

Bake on a middle rack. Remove to stir and coat all Veggie and Chicken pieces evenly every 15 minutes or so. Total bake time is about 60 minutes.

Remove and serve over rice.