Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Porterhouse Steaks & Chapatis

As always, steaks from Bunzels are great. We didn't have a chance to age these, however.

The chapatis are from Mark Bittman's recipe in the NY Times from last week. They were simple to make, pretty good, although they cried our for yogurt sauce, which we did not have.

The salads were made with produce from our farm.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Chicken & 3 Vegetable Stir Fry

Cook's Illustrated has long argued the use a cast iron pan instead of a walk. The heavy, flat surface is more conducive to reaching and maintaining the high temperatures needed to quickly fry things.

I've used our Dutch oven before and decided to try it with our new, 13" i.d. skillet. It worked great!

Cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into little pieces and marinade in dark soy sauce, pepper flakes, oil, and a little salt and sugar for at least 30 minutes.

Heat the pan until very hot, add oil, swirl, and toss in the meat being careful not to crowd it. If the pieses are two close together the pan will cool off too much and there won't be space for the excess liquid to boil off. The result will be a simmer, not a stir-fry. Stir occasionally and cook till done, about 3-4 minutes. Remove and reheat pan.


For the vegetables I used carrots, onion & shallots, and summer squash. Peel and cut into bite sized pieces. Repeat the stir fry process, starting with the longest cooking item (carrots in this case) first. Successively add the others, removing done ones if necessary.

I added some oyster sauce at this point.

Recombine and heat through. Serve with rice and light soy sauce on the side.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Chicken Breasts with Okra

Although an easy and tasty meal, we don't cook boneless-skinless chicken breasts all that much. The classic dry-wet-dry method is one of my favorite ways to prepare them.

Cut the halved breasts in half the long way by pressing it on a cutting board with the palm of your hand and running the knife parallel to your hand. Prepare three containers with flour, beaten eggs, and corn meal. Season to taste.

Dredge the breasts in order, flour-egg wash-cornmeal then saute in a cast iron skillet with a little oil for about four minutes per side, under golden brown.

Rest five minutes before serving.


We steam a lot of vegetables. Today we steamed okra and broccoli together.