Wartime Wednesdays: 20th Anniversary Edition - Fried Chicken & Corn Bread

Fried Chicken

 

"To Clean Giblets

Cut the fat and membrane from the gizzard. Make a gash in the thickest part, cutting to, but not through the inner lining. Remove the inner sac and throw it away. Carefully separate the gall bladder from the liver and cut off any part of the liver that has a greenish color. Remove arteries and veins from the top of the heart and squeeze out clots of blood." 

  The Victory Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book; Wartime Edition---published 1943

 

Yummy! (shudders)

I picked this recipe because who doesn't love fried chicken (don't answer; I don't want to know)?

The book offered two recipes; the second a more conventional 'dip into fritter batter' version, but I was curious about the first. 

Cut two small chickens into 4-6 pieces, then dip (quickly!) into cold water, the sprinkle with salt & pepper before rolling in flour. 

Saute in fat (no specification) until browned on both sides.  Drain & keep warm while making the accompanying gravy (I did not).

 

It made for a nice, slightly crisp chicken. Again, fairly low effort & ingredients, decent results.

 

In lieu of gravy (the men in this house do not like it), I made 

 

Southern Corn Bread

I personally prefer a slightly sweeter corn bread, but this one is solid.

About as plain as you can get - white corn meal (yes, white), salt & shortening get mixed with scaled milk. Then goes in baking powder & a beaten egg yolk.
Finally, An egg white, stiffly beaten, gets folded in. 

All that goes in a greased pan & baked hot (400 F) about twenty minutes.

If you toast the pieces & slather with butter & jelly, it's kind of amazing.

Oh!  There's also the  'Sprinkle with diced bacon before baking' option. 

I Should Have Waited

 And made this next week.

Bruschetta Chicken Pasta

Because next week, the temps are hitting low to mid nineties.  And I will NOT want to cook.  Or eat. Or even think about food.

But this? This was easy. Light.  Perfect for those new to cooking, or, in this case, not really wanting to spend a lot (or any!) time over a hot stove.

Cook chicken, flavored with Italian seasoning, as well as S&P. Cool. slice.

Mix small tomatoes with (torn) basil, garlic and olive oil.  That gets tossed with al dente angel hair pasta. Top with the chicken

That's IT.

It's nothing spectacular. But it's summer without the heat and humidity, in a bowl. 

As for next week, we may be putting ice cream on the menu.

Miss Me?

Earlier tonight, I made a recipe for chicken meatballs (yes, with a faux chicken version, too...nothing's changed on that front), and in addition to breadcrumbs, it wanted both beaten egg and milk in the mix. 

 

And I couldn't help but wonder why? Ground chicken is already gloppily wet. Hang on, shuddering at the memory.

 

They were so wet and sticky, I had to put them in the fridge for a few hours just to firm up enough to cook.)

(This is a re/cross-post from my Tumblr, for Misfit Day.)


You didn’t think I’d let the day go by without another culinary creation, did you??

(Truth: I have three more, but my camera has been behaving badly and I either can’t take photos - as in, it won’t turn on - or because it won’t turn on, I can’t upload anything. It’s frustrating, for obvious reasons and the fact the darn thing’s only a few months old! So, with any luck I’ll have a few more treats to share with you tomorrow. If I can coax the darn thing into working again.)


Behold! The Charlie Chicken Sandwich of Awesome!!

I wanted to come up with a sandwich of ridiculousness (kind of like the Outrageous Burgers Turhan’s Bey Company and I like to make), using the sort of components Charlie might assemble from a diner’s menu.

So, I give you this surprisingly well-balanced (flavor-wise), messy-as-all-get-out (seriously, don’t wear anything nice or make this for a first date and make sure you have a stack of napkins handy) and definitely not calorie-friendly concoction.

Ok.

Start with a layer of (deep-fried) onion rings. Add (this is a brilliant little recipe/hack I learned about last year and had been dying to try out) cheese sticks - but not just ANY cheese sticks! string cheese that has been rolled up in egg roll wrappers and quickly fried! Genius. You get self-contained, crunch and wow, so much easier than battering/coating and less mess- I layered three across.

Next, and I really and truly wish the color hadn’t faded, chicken tenders that have marinated in buttermilk for an hour or so and then dredged in a mixture of rice flour and CRUSHED ANDY CAPP HOT FRIES.


YES.


The color was the same as Charlie’s hair. It was meant to be.

Fry ‘em.

Two slices of melt-y cheese, I used organic ‘orange’ and a Pepperjack.

Bacon. Super-crispy and lots of it.

BARBECUE POTATO CHIPS.

(not pictured here because this was the omnivore version and he won’t eat them - spear/slices of bread and butter pickles*)

Lettuce (for this I like to use Bibb or Boston), nice slice of tomato (we’re finally getting into tomato season!) and a hearty slathering of mayo.

All on a squishy roll.

Smoosh to eat. Laugh at the mess but make lots of “mmmmmm!’ noises.

Happy Misfit Day!




*I made a vegetarian version for NinjaSpyBoy and me - Gardein (and several other companies) makes decent faux ‘tenders’ that hold up to just about any cooking preparation, and of course you can get veggie bacon from companies like Morningstar Farms. All are becoming more and more available in mainstream grocery stores. I’m sure a vegan recipe could be worked up, but we’re ovo-lacto, and that’s not my area of ‘expertise’, but I can point you in the direction of places like VeganEssentials, who carry vegan alternatives for just about everything.

Cover Grill

People who follow me through social media must suffer from whiplash on a regular basis. I'll post something about comics, followed by food porn and then highlight some form of social injustice.
What can I say: I'm a complicated gal.

This post was prompted by something Bon Appetit Tumblr'd last week, a call to make their cover recipe and share the results.

Sambal Chicken Skewers.  Not for the heat-intolerant. But worth eating through the pain!

It's not exactly a cover shot, I know. We were in a hurry to get dinner to the table.  But I happen to believe true beauty isn't always on the surface!

TDATD: Retro Vibe

Old-timey POP.

While everyone else was mashing potatoes and getting creative with pumpkin, we were channeling the 1940s-1960s in preparation for our annual Two Days After Thanksgiving Dinner.

 


Iceberg lettuce wedges with a house-made French dressing.

Matt doesn't like turkey, and Alex and I are both vegetarian. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner isn't something that appeals to us.

Many years ago, even before we met, Matt started hosting a dinner party for friends the Saturday following turkey day, aptly named the Two Days After Thanksgiving Dinner.

Each dinner carries some sort of theme. Previous parties included Indian, Things Stuffed Into Other Things, Mexican and Halloween in November. This year, we decided to give retro foods a spin.


Rolls from a wartime (the big one, for those wondering) cookbook.

Pulling from both vintage and retro-themed cookbooks, we put together a casual, almost-cocktail party menu.


Tomato soup

You've gotta have soup, right? Very basic, but strongly flavored.


Shrimp cocktail with a horseradish-heavy cocktail sauce.

What's a more classic appetizer than the shrimp cocktail?  The sauce came from my trusty Wartime cookbook.


Waiter, would you serve the nuts? I mean, serve the guests the nuts.




Smoked-chicken salad, served with classic crackers.

The molded salad was such a standard dish. It's also pretty gross. I wanted to keep the look without turning my stomach while making it, so we went with chicken salad: smoked chicken, mayo, celery and chipotle powder, molded in a plastic wrap-lined bowl and chilled then served on a bed of lettuce with Ritz, Triscuits and Captain's Wafers on the side.


Deviled eggs



Feta salad in cucumber cups

Like your favorite Greek salad, inverted.



Making it up as we go: Mock-Champagne Punch.

Matt and I don't drink alcohol (not for preachy reasons, we just don't care for it), but I'm always looking for reasons to use my vintage punch bowl.
The Champagne Punch without the punch is a good enough reason.  Vanilla seltzer, lavender dry soda and pineapple juice.



Dessert

Hostess was in the news around the time of the party. So I made my own cream-filled chocolate cupcakes and 'canoe' cakes.



Oh, look - it's me! Or my pedicured-foot in my rockabilly shoes and dress.




Even did my hair sort of vintage: the pin-curl is my new best (style) friend.

Cambodian Chicken & Rice Soup for Souper Sundays

,

I like the cooler temperatures a lot more than Matt. My feeling is that you can
add more layers to get warm, but when it's hot you can only take off so much
to get cool!

There's another, and more recent, reason I like this time of the year: Matt's more
willing to eat soup. (This is called a 'win-win'.)

Give it some Asian flavors and he might even have seconds.

Cambodian Chicken and Rice Soup (with shrimp, which we omitted) is ridiculously
easy and full of flavor.
For Matt's, we used our already-smoked and shredded chicken instead of rotisserie.
Ginger and garlic (we used jarred pastes for ease) are heated, stock (more of the smoked
chicken stock), water, fish sauce, honey and cooked jasmine rice are boiled.
Add in the chicken, then the shrimp (if using) until just cooked. Throw in some
lime juice, shredded basil & sliced chile and you've got a filling soup with a
bit of heat.

Once again, it's Deb and her Souper Sundays that gets me back here and posting!

Real-Deal Tortilla Soup for Souper Sundays

I am such a bad food blogger.

I made this soup three weeks ago. I had every intention of posting!

...And then I didn't.

Ah, well.

No time like the...blah blah blah.

I've become such a fan of Serious Eats over the last year. I think a third of my bookmarked recipes come from them.

And despite Matt not being much of a soup fan (I know, I cry a little on the inside, too), he was very interested in this one.

Bonus? I finally got to use the Michael Chiarello method for slicing corn kernels from the cob!

I think the only changes made were using some already-cooked (and smoked) chicken for Matt, tortilla chips instead of frying fresh...and of course, leaving out that foul cilantro.
OH!
And blue potatoes. Come on; look at that beauty!

Really fabulous & quick soup. Deep flavor - it has a lot going on. And so filling!

DEB!!! I AM HERE!!

It's Ridiculous

This sandwich, I mean. It's kind of ridiculous. We were sitting around the dining table one night, at dinner, & I had this idea for a sandwich. (What? You don't discuss food while eating food with your family?) I knew I wanted something along the lines of a Primanti Brothers sandwich, but a little different.

 A mayo-smeared roll topped with French fries, slices of fried chicken, prosciutto, avocado, shredded lettuce & tomato.

What a mess. What a delicious mess.

It wasn't exactly right: a spicy mayo or even spiced fries would improve things. And mashing the avocado would help structural integrity.

But it was good. (Alex & I, of course, had a similar sandwich using faux chicken & bacon).

Good, & let's face it: ridiculous. 

Chicken Tikka Makhani

Oh, hey. It's me again.

Twice in one week? This is when you start looking for the pod.

This recipe for Butter Chicken came up on my Twitter feed a few weeks ago, via Serious Eats.

Yes, it's a lot of ingredients and sure, it takes a bit of time.

The good news: it's not active time. There's a quick pureeing & the chicken marinates for hours. Then, it gets broiled & set aside.
Toss a bunch of stuff into a pot. Simmer, add in the chicken.

Serve with rice & you're done.

Oh, & the wait? Totally worth it. A vivid tomato-flavored sauce. And for an Indian dish with cream, it's relatively light.

Worth the $5.75

Summer vacation starts early here, and Alex was getting bored.

This meant it was time for a trip to the big used book store.

So, he and Matt stopped in one day, coming home with a huge stack of thick books (Arabian Nights, Richard Burton translation, among them).

They also grabbed a copy of Asian Wraps: Deliciously Easy Hand-Held Bundles to Stuff, Wrap and Relish by Nina Simonds for me.

We're all fans of Asian flavors here, so it wasn't an entirely altruistic gesture on Matt's part.

The book saw its debut tonight, with the Vietnamese Chicken Salad.

Thin rice noodles are topped with shredded chicken (for Matt, we used some of the hickory- & pecan-smoked chicken we'd made last night, while Alex and I used the soy delight nuggets from Earth Fare, pan-fried in a splash of olive oil), grated carrot, peanuts, mint and (replacing the we-think-it-tastes-like-dish-soap cilantro) basil. That then gets a Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce poured over (lime juice, crushed red pepper flakes sugar, minced garlic, nam pla soy sauce and grated carrot.

Easily eaten in Boston lettuce leaves or from a bowl (we did both), it's a good combo of bright, fresh flavors and crunch. The dressing really ties it all together. Both guys are taking leftovers for lunch and we're already looking forward to trying more recipes. You've gotta love those used book stores.

Halal Cart-Style Chicken & Rice with White Sauce

You'll have to excuse the low-quality photography here. We're in the process of turning Alex's bedroom into the BatCave which has resulted in my dining room being more or less inaccessible (and yes, that's where my lights & photo box reside).

That means lots of eating in the living room...on paper plates. We're all about glamour over here.

I recently signed up for the Serious Eats newsletters, after following them on Twitter for about a year. With a kid & our own Dog Pack, traveling to various cities to try out recommended restaurants & dishes is out of the question, but the recipes? That's another story.

One of the first things I made was this dish. A fairly simple marinade for chicken which is then grilled. Butter, cumin & turmeric flavor rice, with an extra boost from stock. Serve with a sauce of mayo, sugar, yogurt, lemon juice & parsley, & lettuce, tomatoes & pita. A little harissa to spice it up.

So good it was almost addictive.