Curry Sauce

Here's an easy sauce to add punch to chicken or pork that you've browned.  It's my husband's favorite.  It goes well over potatoes or rice and vegetables, such as cooked carrots and celery.

2-3 shallots, chopped
bell pepper, sliced

1 15-oz can coconut milk or 1 pint cream or half and half
1 T sweet curry
1 T spicy curry

1. Caramelize shallots in saucepan for 10 min at a low sizzle in olive oil and/or butter.
2.  Add bell pepper and sizzle for 5 more min to complete carmelization of shallots and to cook pepper.
3. Add coconut milk or cream and curries. Simmer at least 3 min.

Fresh Sausage

Here's a way quick way to make delicious sausage, something I'd craved and didn't want to buy factory made.  It tastes best with ground pork or beef, but it can be made with turkey or chicken, too.  I've been frying it in the pan as a crumble, breaking it apart with a spatula.   Sausage patties would work well, too.  This recipe is by Sally Knitter on ehow.com, http://www.ehow.com/how_4574619_breakfast-sausage-seasoning-mix.html .

Batch of seasoning mix (for several batches):

¼ c each of sea salt, sage, thyme, and nutmeg
1 T cayenne pepper
Fresh ground pepper

1 batch of sausage:

1 lb ground pork, beef, chicken, or turkey
2 t of seasoning mix shown above
Butter and/or olive oil for chicken or turkey

1. Stir seasoning mix together in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix 2 t of seasoning mix with meat (and maple syrup).
3. Fry in a pan until browned. Add oil and/or butter as needed to keep from sticking to pan for turkey and chicken.

Freeze any you won't be using today or tomorrow.  Other spices to experiment with if you like: paprika, ginger, coriander, and celery seed

Chicken, Beef, and Vegetable Stock

Stock is called for in various recipes for cooking chicken or gravy, as a base for soups and Heidi Gunderson's "soy sauce" coming soon (check website, too:  migrainefreecooking.com), and can be substituted for water when cooking rice or quinoa.  We started buying whole cut-up chickens for grilling, and the backbone and neck come included for cooking stock.  When we roast a whole chicken, we save the carcass for stock.  For for making beef stock, cut-up bone can often be bought in the butcher section at the grocery store.  For vegetable stock, the base is chopped tomatoes.  I made some vegetable stock, but never use it.  Of course it would be great for vegetarians.  I use a couple of 8-cup glass measuring cups for cooling the meat stocks.  The method shown here is based on Delia Smith's Cookery Course (see references).

Chicken Stock
1 broken-up bird carcass
5 c cold water or enough to cover carcass
1 carrot, cut in chunks (more if not using parsnip)
1 bunch (~5) green onions or 3 shallots, cut in chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into large chunks
1 leek, cleaned & cut into chunks (or more onions instead)
1 parsnip, cut into chunks, optional
8 whole black peppercorns 
a few parsley stalks
a pinch of thyme
1/2 heaping t salt

1.  Put everything in a large pot (tall and skinny is better than short and wide); bring to a boil; skim scum off top.
2.  Reduce heat, simmer with lid slightly off for 2 hr.
3.  Strain through a sieve into glass bowl or measuring cup.  Discard everything in the sieve.  Cool in fridge over night, uncovered.
4.  Skim fat off top and discard.  Don't worry about whether the chicken stock came out gelatinous or not.  It's great if it does. 
5.  Freeze leftovers.   I like to use 1 and 2-c size containers.

Beef Stock
3 lb beef marrowbones, in pieces
Same vegetables, herbs, and seasoning as chicken stock above, plus
2 additional stalks of celery (3 total)
1 bay leaf
5 c cold water

1.  Optional, for dark stock:  Roast bones with vegetables in a roasting pan on top shelf of oven for 45 min at 450 deg; baste occasionally.  Bone and vegetables will be brown on edges when done.
2.  Place everything from roasting pan into stock pot.  Add water, herbs, and seasoning.
3.  Simmer with lid slightly off for 2 hr.
4.  Follow chicken directions 3-5 for cooling, skimming fat, and storing.  Beef fat will not be gelatinous.  Beef stock is the base for Heidi's Gunderson's "soy sauce".
 
Vegetable Stock
5 c cold water
Same vegetables, herbs, and seasoning as chicken or beef stock above
 
1. Put everything in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat, simmer with lid slightly off for 2 hr.
3. Strain into glass bowl or measuring cup. Cool to room temperature.
5. Freeze leftovers.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

This is adapted from a cookbook called "Dinner in Minutes,"* about which we joke, "How many minutes?" This recipe is, however, pretty quick and one of our favorites. When it's not good weather for grilling, this sauted recipe is just as much a treat.

In her latest cookbook, Julia Child* uses clarified butter (ghee) for sauteing. Due to a higher smoke point, it doesn't burn as easily as olive oil or butter. Instructions for making your own clarified butter can be found on the web. We purchased a jar at an Indian market for much less than the same amount of butter would have been.

1 shallot, chopped
1T+1t brown sugar
2 t freshly ground pepper
1 t salt
½ t nutmeg
2 t thyme
¼ t allspice

2T olive oil or clarified butter
4 chicken breasts

1. In a small mixing bowl, mix shallot, thyme, sugar, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. Poke holes in chicken, rub seasoning onto both sides of the meat with a soup spoon and your hand.
2. Marinate 20 min. to several hours. I avoid marinating as long as 24 hrs since some sources report increased tyramine levels as meat is marinated longer.
3. Heat oil or ghee in skillet. Sauté chicken on each side 5-10 min. (medium high heat for for 5 min, then medium). Be sure to brown the meat and carmelize the shallots. Test thickest part of chicken for doneness with meat thermometer or slicing open. Juices should run clear, and there should be no pink. Meat will still be juicy and moist.

Top chicken pieces with a generous portion of pan scrapings when serving! Brown rice and carrots or green beans accompany this dish well, with more pan scrapings on the rice. *(Linda Gassenheimer, 1995; Julia Child, 2009)

Breaded Baked Chicken

This is our homemade breaded chicken. For breading, I use store bought organic bread crumbs. If preferred, a couple methods for making bread crumbs are 1) my mother-in-law's way: lightly toast bread, cool, and grate with a cheese grater, or 2) my old way: pulverize untoasted pieces of bread in a food processor.

4 chicken breasts
4 T butter, melted
1 c bread crumbs (from bread at least one day old)
Sprinkling of salt & fresh ground pepper
1 1/2 T Italian herb mix or rosemary
optional:  sliced American cheese, broken into small pieces

Bake at 375 deg, 45 min or until completely cooked when sliced
1. Preheat oven. Melt butter and pour into a pie or cake pan.
1. Combine bread crumbs, salt & pepper, and herbs in a separate pie pan.
2. Drag each piece of chicken through melted butter, then bread crumbs.
3. Place in a 9”x13” casserole dish or pan.
4. Bake (see "Bake" above).
5.  optional:  5 min before done, top with American cheese.