Giving Thanks - For Food!

For me, the holiday season begins with the long Thanksgiving holiday, and the gastronomic orgy this entails. This year, it is the first chance I’ve had to get into the kitchen in months, and I’ve made full use of it. Thanksgiving day itself is not my thing. It’s the following days: filled with cooking or lazing about eating what I’ve cooked. Below is what I’ve cooked &/or eaten over this debauched weekend:


RICE PUDDING (serves 4):
This is the perfect comfort food: warm, starchy, creamy & sweet. I prefer a steamy bowl straight from the pan as soon as it’s done, but Robert prefers a more traditional, pudding-like texture. That will take a few hours in the fridge.
¾ cup uncooked short grain white rice (I like Botan)
2 cups milk
1/3 tsp. white sugar
¼ tsp. white salt
1 egg
2/3 cup golden raisins (optional, I leave them out)
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

DUTCH BABY (serves 2):
A perfect, easy weekend breakfast. If you like, you can toss apple slices into the hot pan on top of the melted butter. The pastry won’t rise in the center, but it is still good. Try it both ways!
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour (bread flour produces a much better rise)
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
7 teaspoons butter
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Powdered or confectioners sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place oven rack on the middle rack of your oven. Place a large, heavy ovenproof, frying pan or a cast-iron skillet in the oven until hot and sizzling. While pan is heating, prepare your batter.***NOTE: Use a shallow pan, not more than 3 inches deep (pie pans, cast-iron skillets, oven-proof fry pans, baking dishes, paella pans). A 10” cast-iron skillet works best, but it’s fine if you don’t have one. I currently don’t, & a pie plate works just fine.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until light and frothy; add milk, flour, vanilla extract, and cinnamon; beat for 5 minutes more. The batter will be thin, but very smooth and creamy. Using a pot holder, remove the hot skillet from the oven; add the butter; tilting the pan to melt the butter and coat the skillet. (If you wanted to toss in some apple slices, now’s the time).
3. Pour the prepared batter into the hot skillet, all at once, and immediately return the skillet to the oven.
4. Bake approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown (bake until the pancake puffs up around the edges - it may puff irregularly in the center).
5. Remove from oven and serve immediately. Either bring the pancake to the table in its pan or slide it onto a serving plate. Once out of the oven, the pancake will begin to deflate.
6. To serve, cut into serving-size wedges and transfer to individual serving plates. Top with your favorite topping and serve immediately. For a classic German Pancake/Dutch Baby, sprinkle with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and dust the top with powdered sugar.

CHICKEN SCHNITZEL (serves 4):
I cannot take credit: Robert made this! So good served with mashed potatoes. You’ll get a little dizzy.
1 tsp. garlic infused oil
4 strips bacon
4 4-oz chicken escalopes or boned & skinned chicken breasts
1/3 cup white wine (chardonnay works well)

Directions:
1. Put the garlic oil in a skillet and add the bacon.
2. Fry till the bacon’s crisp and the pan is full of bacony juices, remove the bacon to a piece of foil, wrap it, and set it aside for a moment.
3. Fry the chicken for about 2 minutes a side, until there is no pinkness when you cut into a piece. Make sure the pan’s hot so that the escalopes catch a little, turning beautifully bronze.
4. Remove the chicken to a serving plate and quickly crumble in the bacon you’ve set aside, then pour the wine in and let everything bubble up, and pour over the chicken pieces.

CHOCOLATE PISTACHIO FUDGE was also involved in this weekends festivities, but I want to work on the recipe. It isn’t perfected, yet! ;) Eat happy!