Category: Food and Recipes

A croquette is a savory, breaded patty that can be made of meat or vegetables and is usually fried. The word itself, croquette, is French – it comes from croquer, “to crunch” plus the suffix ette, which usually signifies something cute or little. Definition from Vocabulary.com

Last week I made chicken croquettes, something I’ve never made from scratch before. Chicken croquettes are definitely an old school dish. I am a big fan of old school dishes and bringing them back or introducing them to the younger generations.

When I say old school I am usually talking about dishes from the 1950’s, 60’s & 70’s, but chicken croquettes go way back. The croquette originated in France in 1898 by Auguste Escoffier, the founder of classical French Cuisine. With the help of Philias Gilbert they began to write the recipe down. After the formulation and procedures were in place, they began to teach chefs that were under the direction of Chef Escoffier. The chefs started to travel the world and brought with them croquettes.

The original recipe has taken itself into many different directions, by many different cultures. The original beef croquette expanded into salmon, fish, chicken, potato & vegetables. Almost every culture has their own versions of croquettes.

That leads me back to my croquettes. I laughed when I typed “they began to write the recipe down”. Before I try a new recipe I research it, read cooking blogs and compare recipes. I can never find one recipe that I agree with. Some recipes I don’t like their seasonings, the ingredients or the method that the cook used. I compile in my mind all of these ideas, then do my own thing. Big surprise! LOL

Even though I follow a very strict gluten free lifestyle, my recipes can be made without having to use any specialty gluten free ingredients. The exception to the rule for a gluten free version is when I need to substitute an all purpose gluten free flour or breadcrumbs for baking or recipes.

The recipe calls for cooked chicken. You can roast your own, use leftovers like I did, or use rotisserie chicken taken off the bones. My recipe uses ingredients called the holy trinity. This is what people down south, particularly in Louisiana call the combination of onions, celery & bell pepper. In French cooking they call onions, celery & carrots mirepoix.

I’ve written and typed tons of recipes over the years, but this is my first time doing it for a blog. I’ve come a long way in a week, and I am getting better working with WordPress every day. Today I learned how to insert gallery photos!!!! Exciting shit I tell you! Writing the recipe was the easiest part. Actually, on second thought, making the croquettes was the easiest.

I am sure I will look at this first recipe in a couple weeks and cringe. You can probably expect that it will look better one day when I re-do it. LOL. I am accepting right now that this is where I am at with my WordPress skills, and it can only get better from here! Bon appetit!

Chicken Croquettes with Chicken Gravy

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups of minced cooked chicken
2 Tbsp minced onion
2 Tbsp minced celery
2 Tbsp minced bell pepper (I prefer red or yellow)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper
1/2 cup flour or (GF version use corn FLOUR not starch or GF flour)
1 egg
2 Tbsp water
1 – 1/2 cups plain dry breadcrumbs (GF version I use Progresso GF Panko)
Canola or vegetable oil for frying

Thick white sauce:

2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour or (GF version the same amount of potato starch)
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp dry mustard
Pinch of pepper

Chicken Gravy:

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour or (GF version potato starch or GF flour)
1 cup chicken broth or stock (GF version use GF broth or stock)
Pinch of poultry seasoning
1-2 Tbsp heavy cream (optional)
Kosher salt & pepper to taste

Instructions: 

Thick white sauce:

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Once the butter has melted, add in the flour or potato starch, the celery salt, poultry seasoning, dry mustard and pepper.  Whisk the ingredients together and let cook for 2 minutes whisking constantly. 

Add the milk slowly and whisk until well blended and making sure there are no lumps. Cook whisking constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. The sauce is going to be very thick.

Chicken mixture:

In a large bowl mix chicken, onions, celery, bell pepper, salt and pepper. Mix well to combine.

Add the cooled thick white sauce, mix well to combine.

Using a scoop, form the chicken mixture into equal size balls rolling with your hands to form. Slightly wet your hands or the scoop if the mixture begins to stick to either.

Beat the egg with the 2 Tbsp water and set up a dredging station with flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

Dredge the balls of chicken one at a time into the flour or corn flour, then dip into the egg shaking off  any excess, then roll in the breadcrumbs making sure the whole croquette is evenly covered.  Place each croquette on a plate and put into the refrigerator for about 25 minutes.

Pour approximately 2 inches of oil into a cast iron skillet or dutch oven. Heat the oil until it reaches 350 degrees or until a bit of breadcrumbs sizzle when added to the oil.  Carefully add the croquettes to the hot oil being careful to not crowd the pan. Fry for about 2 minutes turning or rolling the croquettes in the oil until all sides are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels.  Place croquettes on a baking sheet. Repeat until all croquettes are fried. Set aside on the sheet pan while making the chicken gravy.

Chicken Gravy:

In a small saucepan melt the over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour or potato starch and the poultry seasoning. Cook whisking constantly for 1 minute. 

Slowly add the broth or stock to the pan, whisking constantly removing any lumps that may form.  Cook for 3-5 minutes whisking constantly until the gravy begins to thicken. 

Simmer on very low for 5-7 minutes whisking occasionally. Whisk in the heavy cream if using.  If the gravy becomes too thick, add 1 tablespoon at a time of chicken broth until the gravy loosens a bit, but doesn’t become too watery. Season with kosher salt and pepper.

Reheat the chicken croquettes at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes or until hot. Top with chicken gravy.  Serve with mashed potatoes or side of your choice.

*** For extra gravy simply double the recipe.

*** Double the croquette recipe then freeze half. Bake the frozen croquettes at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until pipping hot.

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Day boat scallops are a thing, a thing I never heard of until a few months ago. Our good friend is a chef and he was having us over for dinner. When we got to his place he was so excited we could join him because he had these gorgeous day boat scallops.

The thing that I love when we go to Martin’s for dinner, we sit at his island and watch him cook. I can tell he is creating the meal as he goes along. He has been a chef for decades and has worked and owned restaurants in NYC, The Hamptons and many other places. His food is delicious; I have tried more new food in the year that I have known him, than I ever had in my life. Fancy scary stuff that I now like. He loves to cook for people and he is very passionate about it.

As we watched him prepare the scallop dinner, I noticed that the scallops required very little effort. When I used to make scallops they didn’t sear as nicely. Until now that is, but I will get to that. The meal was incredibly delicious. The scallops were sweet and tender with the perfect sear. I love that I have a cooking lesson every time we eat over. I share with him all the time how much I am learning by watching, I think he really likes that.

I started looking up the types of scallops. There are basically 3 different kinds at 3 different price points. Wet scallops are often sold in the fresh fish section usually sold as previously frozen or frozen in your supermarket. They range in price from $9.99-$15 a pound give or take. The second kind are called dry scallops. They have these in the fresh fish section at your supermarket and have never been frozen. These are the kind that recipes tell you to use for searing scallops since they aren’t waterlogged. These run between $15-$30 a pound. Actual day boat scallops you won’t find in a supermarket, they are found at only the finest fish markets. They are the creme de la creme of scallops and will cost you between $29-36 a pound. I looked up scallop prices this morning since they can really fluctuate.

Wet scallops are shucked on the boat and are put directly into a container filled with cold water to preserve them. The water preserves them for a longer time, but makes them wet. These tend to be older by the time they get to the seller. A preservative is added to the water to prevent the scallops from spoiling. They can be sold as fresh, frozen or previously frozen.

Dry scallops are also shucked on the boat, but they go into a dry container with no water or preservatives. This gives the scallops a more pure and concentrated flavor. They have a shorter shelf life, but are fresher when you buy them.

Day boat scallops are also called diver scallops. It actually refers to the method of harvesting. Instead of being dredged, these scallops are harvested by hand by actual divers. This is incredibly labor intensive and very pricey. It is rare to find them outside of a restaurant or a high end fish market.

I used to be intimidated by scallops and always ordered them when went out to eat. Now I felt confident enough to start experimenting and figured out how to turn frozen, wet scallops into dry ones that sear beautifully. Being frugal, unless it was a special occasion, I would only buy the frozen ones.

I started by defrosting my scallops the safe and proper way in the refrigerator. Next, I ran them under cool water hoping to rinse off those preservatives. They’re wet already, so who cares if they get wetter. Right?

Next, it was time to clean and remove the muscles from the scallops. this is the muscle that is attached to the shell. Don’t leave them on, they are tough and you don’t want to eat them. Lift the little rectangular piece of tissue and just pinch with your fingers and pull it gently off.

The next step was to remove all the water from my wet scallops. I used clean, dry paper towels stacked in a couple of layers under and on top of the scallops, This is where you only get what you pay for. I am frugal with some stuff, but I buy name brands of some pretty important items. Bounty paper towels are one of those items and we use them in both my home and production kitchens. No plug for Bounty, just my preference. I put some weight on the plate to press them down. I stuck the plate in the refrigerator for an hour. I took the plate out and repeated 2 more times with fresh, dry paper towels. you will be shocked vat the amount of water that comes out of the. Let me warn you to take your trash out that night or you garbage will be very stinky the next day!

When I was ready to cook them I removed them from the fridge and plumped them up with my fingers again after being flatten. They bounced back nicely. I only season my scallops right before I am ready to sear them. Right before, not 10 minutes before. I sprinkle them with kosher salt and pepper, that’s it. Before I season my scallops I get a cast iron pan screaming hot. I use a higher smoke point oil and squirt just a small amount and swirl it around in the pan. I have to stress just a small amount, using a lot of oil is the last thing you want.

Place the seasoned scallops in the hot pan. Do not move them around or even touch them for 2 minutes. Peek under one to see if they are nice and brown. You don’t want to go too far and dry them out and over cook them. Flip them over and add a knob of butter. Let them go for another 2 minutes. While they are cooking spoon some of the butter over the scallops. Peek at them again. If they are nice and brown and go from translucent to opaque turn off the heat.

Now here is what they don’t tell you. Remove them from the pan immediately and get them on a clean plate. Cover them loosely with foil to keep them warm. Now you can take a big deep breath and not have to worry about over cooking them by leaving them in the hot pan. If you are going to serve them like this, do it. Just a squeeze of fresh lemon on the scallops before plating is so simple and delicious. If you are going to make a pan sauce, this is when you would reuse the pan without washing it. You don’t want to get rid of all that delicious flavor the scallops and butter left behind. There are dozens of sauces to make to serve with your scallops.

So that is the story of day boat scallops. Now you know more about scallops than you ever imagined! I never thought I would ever spend so much time on scallops, but I learned a lot myself. Don’t be intimidated. It is ok to practice. Everyone who is a good cook has ruined a shit ton of meals while learning. If your scallops aren’t perfect, you can still eat them, and please don’t beat yourself up like I do. I am learning on my journey that I can’t expect to get everything perfect the first time.

Remember that 5 pound package of chicken that I picked up for just $5? Guess what? I got 4 meals plus leftovers from it. When I purchased it I had no idea what to do with it. Food is on my mind 24/7 so I started thinking about what I felt like making right away. You don’t have food on your mind??? That is fine because there are plenty of ideas on the internet. Just type in leftover roasted chicken and see the 1,000,000 things that come up.

The first thing that I wanted to make was something nostalgic. Nothing says nostalgia like chicken croquettes. I am a huge fan of cooking old school dishes that have been tossed aside. I remember having chicken croquettes with gravy and mashed potatoes when I was a kid. I loved it! I got so excited when I saw that blue box of Weaver Chicken Croquettes in the freezer. I liked how it came with 2 little white cups of gravy.

This was the first time I ever made chicken croquettes and it was so much easier than I thought. I am writing the recipe and will be posting it on here very soon.

When we sat down to dinner, Marty and I were both surprised how moist, soft and flavorful they were. He apparently had those Weaver ones when he was growing up too. “These aren’t hard like the other ones” he said. I realized that he was right and we both said how dry the Weaver ones were too. Like sawdust inside. I never noticed that about the Weaver ones before since I never had anything to compare them to. Now I know why they gave you two cups of gravy. We both agreed that mine were delicious and I would be making them again. Next time, I will double the batch and freeze the other half for a quick dinner one night.

The next thing I made for lunch the next day was a big bowl of curried chicken salad. When I cooked at school everyone who tried it loved it and ordered it every time it was one the menu. Mine is more flavorful than most I’ve tried. Not more curry, more flavor. It’s sweet, salty and a hint of spice. I put raisins & dried cranberries in mine. They add a sweetness & additional texture I am looking for. “I don’t like raisins” that’s too bad, pick them out, they are going in. LOL

Yesterday all during production I was starving. Through most of the cleaning, washing dishes and packaging I kept trying to think of what to make for lunch…with chicken of course. I knew I was making something with chicken for dinner, so it had to be completely different than the other dishes.

We don’t have a lot of frozen food in the house, but the ones we do have are for quick meals on our heavy production days. We get these cauliflower pizza crusts at Restaurant Depot and they are pretty good.

I grabbed a crust and cut up some chicken and tossed it with Thai chili sauce. I topped the pizza first with Thai chili sauce instead of pizza sauce. Then I shredded and topped with some mozzarella cheese. Next, I quickly grated a carrot, sliced up some mini bell peppers and green onions. Finally I added the chicken. When it came out of the oven I topped it with some cilantro. It was delicious and hit the spot. Best part was it only took about 20 minutes start to finish.

Last night I made Chicken & Hominy Tortilla Soup. I wanted something hearty and warming on such a snowy night. This was the first time I put hominy in my tortilla soup and it was delicious making the soup even more filling. The few fried corn tortilla strips that I made gives the soup the crunch and finishes the dish off.

We made this soup minus the hominy at our cooking class last year. It was a hit and I am tweaking the original recipe I wrote and adding in the hominy as an option. I will post this recipe on here as well.

So that’s it guys. 4 meals with one 5 pound package of chicken. Having a well stocked pantry and some staple items in the refrigerator are the key to be able to pull meals right out of your ass! 😏

When you see a 5 lb package of split chicken breasts for 99 cents a pound buy them. I’m going to show you now to tackle it. First of all people ask me all the time how much I spend on groceries since I cook real food every day. I am so tired of hearing people say that’s its more expensive to buy real food and that junk food is cheaper. Buying organic hell yes is more expensive. Any “diet” food is more expensive, but real food is not. The thing that people don’t like to hear is that you actually have to cook. They prefer quick prepared items, if you cost it out prepared food costs more without a doubt. for example I grew up eating instant potatoes. The box of potato flakes isn’t expensive. You can buy a whole bag of potatoes and make 3 times as much and it will taste so much better. Just sayin’. This Marty and I know because as school lunch directors we had a budget of around 74 cents a meal. That was for a protein, starch, veg, fruit and milk, all for only 74 cents. We did it and made some pretty damn good food that kids enjoyed. It involved cooking from scratch, looking for bargains and bought what was in season. We in most cases, introduced children to real food. The first time I made homemade chicken noodle soup all the kids didn’t know what it was. “What’s that?That doesn’t look like my mommy’s soup.” LOL Most of them tried it and liked it. However, some kids dumped it straight into the trash that first year. Many of them could tell what I was making just by the delicious smells going through the hallways of the school.

Like I wrote about yesterday, when you are not being tied down to a certain list or menu, you can keep your eyes open for bargains. Figuring out what to do with it comes later. Of course, you could always take it home, break the package up into smaller portions, wrap them up well and throw them into the freezer for a few meals. You can also plan your week around such a bargain like I did today.

When I got the chicken home yesterday I really had no idea what I was going to do with it. I slept on it and came up with a couple ideas. At this point I decided I was going to roast the whole 5 lbs. I took the chicken out and patted it dry with a paper towel. Put it into a pyrex dish that would hold 5 lbs of chicken. I rubbed the pieces down with olive oil, granulated onion and garlic, paprika, kosher salt and pepper. I baked the chicken uncovered at 375 degree for about 50 minutes.

After my timer went off I took the temperature of the chicken with a digital thermometer. Since the pieces were all such different sizes I took the temps of 3 different pieces. You can see how they varied. You always want to cook poultry to at least 165 degree and the only way to tell is to temp it. Some recipes say it’s done when the juices run clear. That is a bunch of horse shit. You do not want to give yourself or your family food poisoning from undercooked chicken.

After the chicken cooled, I took the meat off the bones and you can see how nice it came off . I was amazed at how much chicken I had to work with. If I was bored I would have taken the bones and made a pot of chicken stock, but not today. I have a couple meals planned, then whatever is left I will wrap it up well and freeze the cooked chicken for another day. Stay tuned to see what dishes I make. It smelled so comforting in the house while it was baking, perfect on a snowy winter day.

When I was young I used to watch the Galloping Gourmet with my dad. It was on tv from 1969-1971 so I was pretty young. We also watched Julia Child along with any other cooking shows first on PBS then later on the Food Network. My dad loved to cook, but not regular supper type food. He loved to make gourmet dinners and desserts. I remember my dad going to the big public library in Elizabeth, NJ where we lived and he would come home with arm loads of cook books. He worked nights then and didn’t start work until 3 pm. He used to sit and pick out what recipes he liked and ones that he wanted to try to make. Of course, there were not Xerox machines to copy the recipes he wrote them all down in his own cookbook that he made.

The book is huge with hundred of hand written recipes. I remember him making many of them. I also remember watching him prep all his ingredients on our kitchen table since we had literally no counter prep space. He was doing his mise en place like he saw on tv! His cookbook was so organized he had different sections with an index for each one. Every recipe was numbered in the index so recipes were and are easy to find.

Who did he cook for? Well not for me, I know that. My parents liked to entertain and so did their group of friends. They had a supper club that they would take turns each month and go to each others houses and basically out do each other and even themselves year to year. My dad always picked October since he was German since he liked cooking German food and March because that was what my mother wanted since she was Irish. He really didn’t like that he always ended up making Corned Beef and Cabbage. Not a culinary challenge or fancy, but he did whatever made her happy. I think one year he made a Guiness stew along with the usual dishes and she refused to eat it. Funny the things we remember.

I mentioned that my dad didn’t like to cook regular old week night food, so that was up to my mother who hated to cook. I am adopted so its funny that I got my love of cooking from my dad, along with a lot of other things as well. What did someone who hated to cook make? I grew up on frozen, canned and boxed meals. Lots of meals with Campbell Soup. I only had real mashed potatoes at other peoples houses or on Thanksgiving. To be perfectly fair my mother put a balanced, good tasting dinner on the table every night. Not everyone enjoys cooking, planning, prepping so I get that. She would eat out or take out every night if they could afford it. I’m not saying that she didn’t make anything from scratch. She made things she liked, shhhhhhh but not well. Sorry its true. I didn’t realize how bad they actually were, until I began cooking. Meatballs and sauce, beef stew, lamb chops obliterated beyond any mint jelly could help and london broil. Besides chop meat & cube steak that’s the only cut of meat I think any of us had.

My dad was a fun guy. He liked to cook and drink. He was a bartender for a caterer and made some mean ass drinks. Everyone liked him and his easy going way and funny stories and sayings. He passed away in April of 2000. I still miss him greatly and think of him so often when I am cooking or mixing a cocktail with one of his glasses or drink stirrers. I am so grateful that I have that cookbook in my possession. I cherish it and really feel like I should keep it in a safe. I looked through it this morning and picked out a bunch of recipes I want to make.

Ok, so I wasn’t going to write about this. I even said out loud that I wasn’t going to write about this, but the more I thought about it, the madder I became. So fuck it, I’ve decided if I am going to be honest on here, I should be honest. Here is book that someone put hundreds of hours into creating and treated it like a bible. I can still see my mother with a cigarette dangling from her lip on the phone and needed something to write down a phone number and some other information. She used his fucking cookbook! I remember getting up from the smoke filled kitchen and going upstairs to my room and punching my pillow and crying. I couldn’t stop her because that would have had a terrible aftermath, so I never said anything but it changed something that day, how I felt and how I viewed other people. Everything that I learned from watching other people in my childhood did one of two things, I either wanted to be like them or not.

We went to the store today to pick up a few things for dinners & lunches this week. I spent about 40 minutes this morning trying to menu plan for the week and came up with nothing. The hardest part of cooking is what to make right?? I decided I would figure it out when we got there. We shop at Aldi because its a smaller market with fewer choices. I don’t need 10 different types of everything to choose from. We basically only buy some produce, proteins and gluten free items there. When you shop at a farmers market things aren’t available and you just buy what’s in season. That’s another blog post another day. Yes we have to go to big supermarkets to pick up some things you can’t get anywhere else and I hate it. If I had a nice little market in our town like some of our wholesale customers markets own I would shop there daily. Would I spend more no. Would I waste more no. Would everything be fresher yes! Would I be a nicer person….YES!

Minding my own business in the produce area I heard a ripe avocado say “hey you!” I actually turned around and went back to the avocado section. I looked at them skeptical because they are usually hard as rocks and by the time it ripens I forget about it and its bad. Sound familiar?? I wasn’t looking for an avocado or ingredient for a Mexican meal, but I picked up one that looked perfect, looked around to see if anyone was looking and gave it a gentle squeeze. A tiny one. It was perfect. I still wasn’t sure what was going with it until we got to the meat section. I chose a package of country style boneless beef ribs that were $2.89 a pound. Everything else in the beef area was considerably more expensive.

Cuts of meat like these boneless beef ribs along with chuck roast, bottom round, rump roast etc are not pieces of meat you can come home and slap on the grill. If not cooked long, low, slow or under pressure they will be tough AF. I decided I would make Barbacoa Beef for tacos. I got out my pressure cooker and started my dinner. The meat was done in 23 minutes! I made my crunchy turmeric cumin rice, cut up some toppings for the tacos and called it dinner. As soon as I figure out how to share recipes I use I will add the link and eventually there will be a recipe section. That is in the near future. Today Marty figured out how to let people subscribe and comment!!!! This was a big deal after trying to figure this WordPress out.

When you go into a store shop like a chef does, let the ingredients speak to you and be ready to listen…the rest will fall into place.

Ugh I overcooked my gorgeous asparagus!!! I tell my cooking students if they want to enjoy cooking don’t overwhelm yourself. Pick recipes that are correct for the amount of time you have. I also tell them to Mise en Place which means to make your place or in other words prep your food ahead so the actually cooking is quick and easy. So I was blanching my asparagus for dinner the next night. I did this while I had a lot going on including feeding our dogs Otto & Klausie boy. Needless to say I overcooked the asparagus. Sigh, I wanted it to be crisp tender and ready to be sautéed with a little butter and lemon to serve with my scallops and gnocchi the next night. Damn no other green veggies in the house so my dinner will be not what I wanted. Now what do I do with this limp, boarding on mushy but still green asparagus????? I decided the next morning to make egg cups. So I cut a bunch of the least mushy pieces into little pieces, chopped up some off the bone ham, grated some Swiss cheese, grabbed a pinch of dried onion flakes and tarragon. Cracked some eggs, throw all the stuff in with a splash of half and half and prayed. LOL I’ve made egg cups before so I knew that my 2 cup liquid measuring cup filled to the top is the perfect amount for my 24 cup mini muffin tin. Threw in a 350 degree oven for about 13 minutes and boom we had Sunday breakfast. The rest of the mushy asparagus will get mixed into Otto and Klausie boy’s food for the next couple of days.