Cassoulet -- My Way

Today is cloudy, cool, and rainy!  A perfect day for some comfort food.  I had some big fat chicken legs in the fridge and some canned great northern beans, so cassoulet!  This is a much simpler method for making cassoulet. So here goes.  Oh, one other thing, I have fresh herbs growing in pots on my patio and you definitely need fresh herbs for this recipe.  Actually it's not so much a recipe as a process.  Let's get cooking!

First brown the chicken legs in a skillet.  I have recently been using coconut oil for cooking and baking.  (No, it does not taste like coconut--its just healthy clean pure oil.)

While the chicken legs are browning, chop up some onion, carrots, celery, and garlic.  I used half a large white onion, two stalks of celery, two large carrots, and two cloves of garlic.

Other stuff you will need...

Take the chicken legs out and place them on a plate.  Add the chopped onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.  Saute for a minute or so until fragrant, add salt and pepper.   Chop some fresh rosemary and thyme--about a tablespoon of each.  Add to the vegetables.

Next pour in a can of chicken broth and a can of tomatoes.  I used San Marzano tomatoes that I canned last summer.

Place the chicken legs on top of everything, cover, and place in a 350 degree oven.  Bake for about one hour.

Drain and rinse two cans of great northern beans, or navy beans, or canellini beans, pour over the chicken.  Add more chicken stock at this point if it looks too dry.  Sorry, this photo is sideways!!

Back into the oven for another 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, 3 tablespoons of butter, and some chopped flat leaf parsley -- about 3 tablespoons.  Mix the parsley into one cup of bread crumbs.

Remove the dutch oven and uncover.  Sprinkle the bread crumb parsley mixture over the chicken/bean/veg mixture.  Drizzle the melted butter over the crumbs.  Place back in the oven uncovered for another 10 minutes or until the bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serve each person a chicken leg (or two) with some of the crispy crumbs, beans, and vegetables.  A slice of buttered bread goes well with this dish.

Enjoy friends!

Zucchini Fritters

These have been a family favorite for years.  Especially when the garden starts producing more zucchini than you know what to do with.

Grate a small to medium zucchini, peel and all, into a bowl.

The rest of the ingredients:  

1 egg, onion, red pepper flakes, bread crumbs, salt & pepper.

Crack the egg into the bowl, add some red pepper flakes, 

thin onion slices, and salt & pepper.

Next, sprinkle in some bread crumbs.

Mix it all up.  Have a skillet brushed with oil, hot and ready to go.  

This mixture can't sit, you have to make the fritters right away otherwise, 

the whole mix gets runny.  Not good!

Drop by spoonfuls into the hot oil.

When the fritters are nice and brown, flip 'em over and brown the other side.  

Turn down the heat for the flip side.

When the fritters are done, drain on paper towel, sprinkle a little more salt on top. yum, Yum, YUM!

I could seriously eat these every day.  Enjoy friends!

Salmon Cakes

When I got home after a busy day and frozen everything -- 

chicken, pheasant, venison, beef.  

Oh, hey, there's a can of salmon in the cabinet.  So, salmon cakes for dinner!

Gather up your ingredients and let's get cooking!  

For a 7.5 oz. can of salmon, which makes four salmon cakes, you will need:

1/4 C bread crumbs
1 egg
1 Tbl. dill weed
1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
1 Tbl. mayo
1/2 Tbl. capers (rinse and drain)
1/2 Tbl. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. lemon zest

Please use the red salmon, not the pink, it's much richer and thus tastes better.  

This is the bowl of ingredients and the grating of the lemon for zest!

I love the Meyer Lemons!

Here's the mixture mixed up!  

Egg, dill, Dijon, mayo, capers, lemon juice, lemon zest, and bread crumbs.

Next, flake in the canned red salmon in big flakes/chunks!  You can remove the bones and skin, OR some people, like me, leave all of that in the mix -- it's lots of fish oil goodness, after all it has been pressure cooked and everything will mush up in the end.  Your choice.

Here's the mixture which you have mixed gently, oh so gently, not to break up those lovely chunks of salmon.

Form the mixture into patties of equal size. If things are falling apart, put the mixture in the fridge for a while to firm up, then try again.  Carefully coat the salmon patties in some reserved bread crumbs.

  

Here's the four salmon patties -- yours will be a more equal size than mine.  

Ok, it really isn't a big deal.

Then into the fridge for an hour to firm up.

Meantime, make some tartar sauce.  This is from food network and it is goooood!

1/4 C mayo, 1 Tbl diced dill pickle, 1/4 Tbl. white wine vinegar, 1/2 Tbl capers, 1/2 tsp mustard, salt and pepper.  Mince the capers and pickles, mix everything together and place in the fridge to marry the flavors.

Get ready to cook the salmon cakes.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat some oil and butter over medium heat.  

This is gonna be good!

Add the salmon patties and cook until golden and crispy, 

about 5 to 6 minutes on each side.  

Medium heat.

Flip 'em over.  Looking good!

Drain on paper towels, and resist the temptation to dig in!

My lemon twist looks so sad, but, after all

it was left over from the zesting of the whole lemon.

This was dinner with some steamed broccoli drizzled with lemon butter. 

Enjoy friends!

Potatoes au Gratin

Meatloaf...humm side dish of potatoes?  I thought of mashed, but we like gravy with mashed potatoes, can't make gravy from meatloaf!.  A lightbulb came on and Potatoes au Gratin came to mind.  Gather up the ingredients and let's get cooking!

• Two russet potatoes
• 1 Tbl. flour
• 1/2 C heavy cream
• 1/2 C whole milk
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt & pepper
• Grated sharp cheddar cheese

Peel the potatoes and slice thinly using a mandolin--if you don't have one, just slice them thinly with a knife.

Flour,salt, pepper, and minced garlic go into a bowl.  Then pour in the milk and cream and whisk it all up!

In a foil lined baking dish, start layering 1/3 of the potato slices.  I like to line with foil because cleaning up a baking dish after baking these potatoes is too much work.  Pour 1/3 of the flour/milk mixture over this layer.

Continue layering like this until all of the potatoes are used up, and the last of the flour/milk mixture is poured over the top.  BTW, those aren't flour lumps, it's the minced garlic.  Cover with foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the potatoes out of the oven.  I decided not to use the grated cheddar, instead, I topped the potatoes with homemade bread crumbs.  (Go ahead and use the grated cheddar if you like cheezy potatoes)  Back into the oven they go uncovered for another 20 - 30 minutes.  Watch closely, if the bread crumbs start to brown too much, cover with foil.

When the potatoes are tender and the sauce is all bubbly, they are done!  Along the way, if the potatoes and sauce start to look too dry, just pour in a little more milk.  I ended up adding another 1/2 Cup of milk.

Dinner is ready.  The meatloaf baked along with the potatoes, we also had steamed green beans.

yum, Yum, and YUM!  Dinner friends!

Here's an easy meatloaf recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 1/3 cup ketchup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, milk and bread OR cracker crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place in a lightly greased 5x9 inch loaf pan, OR form into a loaf and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. 
3. In a separate small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and ketchup. Mix well and pour over the meatloaf.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour.