Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago

When I first started Food Adventures of a Comfort Cook one of my earliest posts was about pizza. Now that was all about New York style pizza which I still feel is the best overall in the United States.

Part two of my three part pizza series was about Chicago pizza, and one of Chicago's famous pizza places is Lou Malnati's. While I cannot go to one of the locations in Illinois, I can still order online at their site: http://www.tastesofchicago.com/ and feed my craving for Chicago pizza. However, Tastes of Chicago is not all about pizza; oh no, you can get ribs in a delectable barbecue sauce, Vienna hotdog kit with all the fixings for an authetic Chicago style hot dog, cheesecake to die for, cookies that are absolutely awesome with milk and much, much more to satisfy any craving.

My favorite is the pizza though; all set up to just pop in the oven and devour when done. The crust is buttery and light, the cheese gooey, packed with sauce and fillings of sausage, pepperoni or vegetables. While it is not as good as a pizza cooked fresh at the pizzeria, it is as close as I can come to when living at the end of the world in Utah.

When ordering from Tastes of Chicago, the prices include shipping; there is a pizza of the month club; a specialty package for holidays and special occasions, and if you join their email club you'll be notified of any sales. Have never had a Chicago style pizza, well no excuse now when you can have it shipped directly to your door. So try Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Mary Cokenour

Oven Fried Chicken stays crispier.

My family loves fried chicken, but I hate the mess and any excess grease in the crust ruins the crispiness the next day. Making fried chicken with pieces that still have the bone inside are also sometimes difficult to get done correctly. Sometimes undercooked, so finished off in the oven; sometimes overcooked and the crust is dark brown to burnt while the chicken is still raw inside.

After some trial and error, I have come up with this recipe for oven fried chicken; the chicken stays crispy when cold, reheats well in the oven, and tastes delicious. I served the vegetable medley I had made from the zucchini and yellow squash I had purchased from Fresh for Less.

Oven Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

10 pieces of chicken (thigh, leg or breast), bone in and leave some skin on
1 quart buttermilk, divided in half
1 1/2 cups dried Italian flavored bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 tsp each ground black pepper and ground cayenne pepper

Preparation:

Place chicken into sealable bowl; pour half of the buttermilk over, making sure to coat all the pieces. Seal and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a large aluminum roasting pan with foil; spray rack with nonstick spray and place inside pan.

Set up dredging station - chicken in buttermilk, large bowl with bread crumbs, cornmeal, black and cayenne pepper mixed together, large bowl with other half of buttermilk. Dredge each piece of chicken in the dry mixture, coat again with buttermilk and dredge in dry mixture a second time. Place on rack (meaty side up); once all pieces are double dredged, place pan in oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Do not open oven door, do not move chicken around until then. Check internal temp of meatiest section of breast; should be at 185 to 190F.

Makes 10 pieces of oven fried chicken.

Mary Cokenour

ATTENTION: STOLEN BLOG POSTS

It has come to my attention that someone has had the nerve to steal my blog posts and post them as their own at: http://such-sweetdish.blogspot.com/ ; the user name is either MS, Adsense Blogger or Muhammad Salman, as he keeps changing it. His profile states he is from Pakistan and obviously has nothing but disrespect for those of us who work hard on our own personal blogs. He is simply nothing more than a thief.

I have contacted Blogger to report this and have requested that it be deleted from their system. I have also posted a comment on each of the stolen posts that they were stolen from my blog.

I would appreciate if everyone reading my blog would also contact Blogger and report http://such-sweetdish.blogspot.com/ as a PHONY and that they have stolen their posts from my own blog.

Thank you,
Mary Cokenour


He is now stealing blog posts from TastyKitchen.com and Food.com I have already emailed the owners, alerting them to the theft.

~ Aug 01, 2011 ~

Update: Google has removed the stolen blog posts. Thank you Google!!!

~ Aug 02, 2011 ~

Hiding Vegetables is not exactly a new concept.

So someone did a study on children and came up with the conclusion that if you hide vegetables in the meals you create, the kids won't know. Not exactly a new concept, especially for people who are good cooks and creative in the kitchen. Where was I when the grant money for this study was given out!?!

It doesn't work for just children, but for adults who don't like or won't eat their veggies. Personally, I'm very picky about what vegetables I eat, so I have to come up with recipes that can fool even me; and I'm the one who cooked the dish!

One vegetable I dislike is eggplant; I don't like the texture and it tastes bitter to me. I have only tried it in dishes where it has been fried in oil, and being the sponge that it is, the eggplant is oily in taste and texture. However, they do have nutritional value, low in calories and high in fiber, so how to include them in a recipe without having to fry them?

Well, two dishes I know how to make are Eggplant Lasagna and Eggplant Parmigiana which both involve the use of homemade pasta sauce.  Wonder what it would be like if I used the eggplant in the sauce as an ingredient, like tomatoes?  After a bit of trial and error, I discovered that it worked very well indeed, and the eggplant substituted as a thickener for the sauce instead of having to use tomato paste.

Even though the sauce works well with any pasta, I like to use a ribbon pasta such as Tagliatelle or Papardelle.  I leave the sauce chunky and any eggplant chunks have absorbed the flavors of the sauce itself, so no bitterness.  Being a homemade sauce, I control what I put in it; salt and sugar, like in jarred sauces, really have no place, since the ingredients used already contain them naturally.

Vegetarian Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 medium eggplants, peeled and cut into 1” cubes

3 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes

3 Tbsp Italian herb mix

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

¼ cup grated Romano cheese

Preparation:

Set a 6-qt crock pot on low; put all ingredients into crock pot, mix thoroughly and let cook for 8 hours. 

Use an immersion blender or a potato masher in the crock pot to break up some of the eggplant chunks; this will thicken up the sauce.  The sauce will be chunky; if a smoother sauce is desired, use the immersion blender or potato masher until desired consistency is achieved.

Makes 5 quarts.

Mary Cokenour

Japan invades New Mexico!

Mikasa Japanese Cuisine

400 W. Main Street
Farmington, NM, 87401

(505) 327-2255

Website: N/A

Upon entering Mikasa, you are immediately greeted by a cheery receptionist, led to a table or booth; your waitress is quick to take your drink order and leave you to peruse the menu.  Mikasa is open and airy and features what you expect to see at an authentic Japanese restaurant....a sushi preparation station.

First we decided to try one of our favorite appetizers at any Asian restaurant...Crab Wontons.

The wontons skins used are thin, so they fried up perfectly crisp and light; the cream cheese is creamy, well seasoned and you can see the crab meat. This dish is served with its traditional sweet and sour sauce.

Next we ordered 3 Specialty Sushi Rolls and a Hibachi Bowl; while the rolls were created at the Sushi station; the Hibachi is done in the back kitchen...not all Japanese restaurants feature individual Hibachi grill tables.

Tiger Roll - inside is perfectly done shrimp tempura with thinly sliced salmon and green seaweed strands on top.

Dragon Roll - a traditional California roll topped with smoked eel.

Las Vegas Roll - Avocado, Cream Cheese, Salmon and Crab Meat; the cream cheese so smooth, it felt quite decadent inside the mouth,

The Hibachi Special Bowl - Hibachi grilled chicken, shrimp and beef and vegetables over fried rice (or white if you choose); served with a seasoned mayonaisse similiar to Utah's famous "fry sauce". The proteins had a wonderful grill flavor and the sauce helped to enhance this flavor even more so.

Our waitress, Lara, was very sweet and attentive...she helped make our meal even more pleasant with her happiness, and was very knowledgeable about the food served. All in all, this meal was worth every penny paid, we tipped Lara well and will gladly make the trek to Mikasa anytime we're in Farmington, New Mexico.

Mary Cokenour

Fresh for Less in New Mexico

This past weekend, I decided to surprise my hubby with a little road trip to Farmington, New Mexico.  I had read that there was a Farmers' Market at Animas Park on Saturday mornings and wanted to see what they had to offer.  So, after a 2 and 1/2 hour drive we got to the park by 9:30am and found....nothing.  No stands with fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers, no fresh baked goods; absolutely nothing there at all, but the park itself.  Talk about a big disappointment.  Ok, so it was still too early to go for lunch and decided to do a bit of driving about and window shopping....until I saw the sign, "Fresh for Less" on Main Street.  I had heard about this place from an acquaintance; it offered fresh fruits and vegetables at low prices, so we pulled into the parking lot.

Fresh For Less 
 
2330 E Main St
Farmington, NM 87401

(505) 327-4400

Up and down the aisles we walked, around the little tables offering melons, apples, and peppers galore; racks of spices and herbs; bags of rice and beans.  I had found my own little Farmers' Market inside this small building.   Half the trunk of the car was taken up by the loaded box of huge fruits and vegetables, plus a 10 lb bag of Colorado potatoes, and it only cost $43.  The photo below only shows a sampling of all we had purchased.

My biggest thrill was the bell peppers, only costing 99 cents each, instead of the $2 per pound that the supermarkets are charging.  The bell peppers were huge, some weighing in at 1 to 1 and 1/4 lbs; and they were as big as our hands.

In fact, some were so large, they almost covered up my hubby's face.

I was able to find a few smaller peppers and I used these to make my Tamale Stuffed Peppers. I did find a bargain bag ($1) containing 3 baby green zucchini and 3 baby yellow squash.  I cut these into 1/2 inch pieces, combined them with a pound of fingerling potatoes, olive oil, salt, black pepper and garlic.  Baked in a 375F oven for 45 minutes, and oh so good.  Except for a little discoloring here or there on the outside skin, the zucchini and squash were firm inside, so nothing got wasted when I made the vegetable medley.

...and if you are big fan of chile peppers, you need to visit "Fresh for Less"; the peppers are huge and beautiful; and they have them labeled for mild, medium or hot; so if you are not familiar with the chiles, at least you'll know the heat intensity.

I miss the Farmers' Markets I used to visit back in Pennsylvania, but this store acts as a great substitue.

Mary Cokenour

Philly Cheesesteak: the sub and the pizza.

The Philly Cheesesteak Sub - a massive amount of meat, onions and melted cheese crammed into a sub (hero, grinder, hoagie - depending on your area) roll. Sometimes sauteed bell peppers (use red and/or yellow; the green is too overpowering in flavor), sometimes hot peppers; it depends on who is making it.  Same thing for the cheese - maybe provolone or an orange cheese sauce called "Cheez Whiz"...me?  I use good old American cheese slices; 12 slices for every pound of meat.  The meat is normally thinly sliced Ribeye; just the right amount of fat and meat to keep it moist and tender.  You can have it sliced by the butcher, do it yourself, or find it already sliced and packaged in the frozen food section; the frozen Ribeye looks like small steaks, but when cooking, they break apart easily.

Philly Cheesesteak Sub

Ingredients:

1 lb thinly sliced Ribeye steak

1 medium onion, cut into strips

1 medium bell pepper, cut into strips

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 Tbsp minced garlic

12 slices American cheese

3 (6") sub rolls

Preparation:

In a large skillet, medium-high heat, brown the steak; it will be tender enough to break apart in the skillet while browning.  Remove to plate; leave 2 Tbsp grease in the skillet.

Put the onions, bell pepper, black pepper and garlic into the skillet; saute' until the vegetables just begin to soften.  Add back the steak; add the cheese and use two spatulas to break apart the cheese and mix with the meat and vegetables thoroughly.  Turn off heat.

Pack each sub roll with the mixture.

Makes 3 subs.

Now to make the Philly Cheesesteak Pizza, use the pizza dough recipe that I posted on January 21, 2011,  After the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 450F; put some flour on the dough and your hands and begin to spread it out to fit whichever method of pizza baking tool you use (traditional pizza pan or stone).  I usually put the dough mound over my two fists; using my knuckles and working from the inside out, start spreading the dough until I get the size I need, and then lay it on my pan or stone.  Nope, I don't toss it like you see some makers do....I'm not that dexterous.

Depending on what size you're making, spread 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of sauce (I use my homemade pasta sauce) over the dough, leaving about 1" room from the edge.   Now after I browned my meat and sauteed my vegetables, I set aside a good handful of each before bringing them together to make the subs.  So over the sauce, I evenly spread out the meat and veggies; then I topped it all with a generous helping of an Italian 6 cheese blend I had found at the supermarket.

I have 5 rack settings in my oven, so I put the pizza pan on the second from the bottom rack setting.  Bake the pizza for 20-25 minutes; check the bottom for doneness by slightly lifting up the pizza and looking for browness.  Remove from the oven, cut into slices and enjoy.

There you have it; the Philly Cheesesteak done as the traditional sub, or as a pizza.

Mary Cokenour