Bacon Fat Fries

I know this is really hard to believe...but I made these on accident.  

Well and by accident, I mean that I really hadn't planned to make these at home.  Have you ever been to Beer Belly in Ktown?  They have the most amazing duck fat fries and bacon fat fries.  If you're interested in checking out Beer Belly click here.  So french fries that have been fried in duck or bacon fat are pretty epic.  The crispy, buttery crunch and the feeling of the fat on your tongue is like no other.  You don't need ketchup.  I just like to season with Lawry's seasoning salt and some black pepper.  The first time I had duck fat fries, I had to close my eyes for a second to just savor the fat hitting my tongue.  The only other time I had an experience equal to duck fat and bacon fat fries was a loooooong time ago when I was living in the dorms.  I met this girl from Pennsylvania.  Her mother sent her a care package of Grandma Utz kettle chips.  It was this OMG moment when I ate my first chip.  I read the label and read that it was cooked in....lard.  yeah.  

So here's what happened....I had made bacon for breakfast so I was left with bacon fat afterwards.  I don't pour it down the drain  nor do I like throwing in in the trash hot so I poured into a glass to let cool. I thought I'd scoop it out later and throw in the trash.  

That evening, I made beef stew for dinner and had peeled too many potatoes.  At the last minute, I opted not to use all potatoes and just left them in the sink soaking in cold water. Don't worry.   I didn't waste the peels either.  I use those for potato peel fries chips that I bake in the oven.  You can check that recipe out here.

The next day when I got home from work, I realized that I had the perfect combination to make bacon fat fries.  So why not?  Let's go for it.  Soaking the potatoes for a day in water helped remove a lot of the starch.  Why does this matter?  Well, removing the starch makes for a much crispier potato.  I read somewhere that it also makes the potato lower in carbohydrates...I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I do know it makes for a crispier french fry.

I'm not actually deep frying these.  It's more like pan frying.

All you need is:

Bacon fat (I think I had about 10 tablespoons or so?? I don't actually know)

potatoes that have soaked in water overnight

Lawry's seasoning salt

black pepper

That's it.  Oh, and some patience.

Here we go...

I nuked the glass with bacon fat in the microwave just a tiny bit to warm it and turn it back into liquid form.

Then I poured it into non-stick frying pan.  Heat the bacon fat on medium to medium low.  If you don't have enough bacon fat to cover your potatoes, then add a little bit of olive oil like I did.

I took the potatoes and sliced them lengthwise.  I sliced them fairly thin and then I stacked them back up like this:

Then I sliced them into strips

I like to go fairly thin to cut down cooking time.  Just make sure you cut evenly so that all your potato sticks are evenly sized to ensure even cooking time.

By now your oil is hot.  Use medium low because you want it hot, but not so hot that it's smoking and burning.  Add your potatoes in and try to make sure they are evenly spaced out and all covered in oil.  If you have to do two batches, then do that.  Don't over crowd your pan or you'll end up with something that's more like a bacon fried hash brown...that's not a BAD thing, but fries are so much more fun to eat.

Here's a little video...wish you could smell it too:

These guys started to get brown and crispy after about 5 minutes (remember we're cooking on medium low and I made these really thin) and so I flipped them over to brown the other side.  They can get really crispy so if you don't like them like that, then cook for less time.  

I used a wooden spoon to transfer them into this old pie tin while I started the second batch.  Repeat the same process with the second batch.

When the second batch was almost done, I added the first batch back into the frying pan to reheat.  I remove all the fries from the oil into a bowl lined with a paper towel and IMMEDIATELY season with Lawry's seasoning salt and pepper.  

Eat them while they are hot.  They are divine.

I make in small batches.  I think this is kind of a small batch kind of treat.  I also don't make these too often.  Or try not to.  But once in a while is okay.  They also aren't that hard or scary to make.  I found this on the livestrong website and I almost died laughing:

Warnings

• Cook fries with a helper. Deep-fry accidents can leave you incapacitated, so it's good to have a friend around to help if something goes very wrong.

I think you'll only need help eating these...

Mashed Califlower and Potatoes with Garlic and Sour Cream

I made this epic Prime Rib Roast the other day.  Nothing goes better with Prime Rib Roast (Yes.  I think it merits capitalization like a proper noun...) then potatoes.  I wanted to bake some potatoes, but the Indian and I negotiated and we landed on mashed potatoes as one of the sides for our Prime Rib.  If you are interested in the recipe for the Prime Rib, you can click on this link here.

He agreed that he was willing to try a hybrid of mashed potatoes and cauliflower.  Personally, I would just eat mashed cauliflower and think it's just wonderful.  The Indian needs a little bit of cajoling/deception to eat most veggies (remind me of the time I made a tofu scramble and just told him it was a scramble and he ate it thinking it was an EGG scramble....whatever.  He ate it and he liked it...) so I was excited that he was willing to try the hybrid cauliflower potato mash.

I peeled six small potatoes and threw them into some salted boiling water.

I like to use kosher or sea salt but you can use ionized table salt if you prefer.

I also like to cut my potatoes into halves to speed up cooking time.  Did you know why cutting a potato decreases cooking time?......Anyone? Anyone?  

Cutting up a potato increases surface area and cuts down cooking time.  You can thank my high school science teacher for that tidbit.  I know you'll use it to win the jackpot round on a trivia game show one day.  Thanks, Mrs. Reeves!

I also happened to be at Costco and grabbed this bag of prewashed and cut cauliflower.  You can use a whole head of cauliflowerbut sometimes it's nice to not have to cut, trim and clean.  I used about half this bag which I approximated to be about one entire head of cauliflower.

When the potatoes were starting to get soft but not quite cooked through, I threw in my raw cauliflower.  The potatoes had been cooking on a rapid bowl for about 15 minutes.   I let it all boulder for another 5 to 7 minutes until the potatoes and cauliflower were soft.

Remove from heat, drain off all the water.  Immediately add about a tablespoon of fresh, crushed garlic.  Using a spoon or masher, I push through garlic to the bottom of the pan and make sure it's covered completely by the hot potato cauliflower mix.  The garlic will cook a bit from the heat and will lose some of that acrid spiciness that raw garlic can have.

I add some real butter (you can skip the butter if you prefer).  I think it tastes fantastic without butter too.  Add about a cup of sour cream and black pepper.  I generally don't salt because I'm pretty generous with the salt that I use in the boiling water.

Using a masher, make sure to mash and mix completely keeping in mind to distribute your garlic evenly.

This steamy, creamy concoctionis divine!

AND...you can make this and start to decrease the amount of potatoes until a certain vegetable avoiding person doesn't even notice that it's mostly cauliflower!  SHHHHHH...

This is a great way to bump up your veggies intake while cutting out some starch and carbs from potatoes but not giving up flavor and texture.

Prime Rib Roast

You know what's awesome?  Prime rib roast.

It's not often that I crave meat and potatoes.  Usually I want spicy, garlicky ethnic food.  But sometimes, you just want a good piece of prime rib.  Until recently, I'd always gone to a restaurant to fill those cravings.  Like Lawry's.  MMMM!  There's just something about a nice slab of medium rare prime rib complete with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and Yorkshire pudding....and don't forget the horseradish and au jus.

Make sure you get:

Prime Rib Roast (I usually got for 4-7 pounds. That's enough to feed 4-6 regular people or one Indian dood)

kosher salt

black pepper

olive oil

crushed garlic

dried herbs (optional)

It's actually really simple to make.  You just have to invest in a good piece of USDA prime grade prime rib roast (bone in.  ALWAYS get bone in).   It looks like this:

This is about a 5 pound piece.  It was on sale for Easter for a mere $5 bucks a pound!  There's usually good deals around major holidays.  Nothing says holiday like pigging out! Be prepared to pay more than that without a sale.  I think they have a good deal at Costco, but I'm not prepared to buy it in bulk like that.  I like to buy it ahead of time and let it age in my fridge.  It's not real aging.  I don't have the right temperature conditions for real aging.  Why age your meat?  I know this sounds strange, but aging helps break down the connective tissue which will make your beef super tender and the process helps deepen the flavor of your beef.  So I just do my version of it.  (Ask the butcher for about 2 feet of twine.  They usually will give it to you for free.)

I bought this 5 days before I cooked it.  Ask your butcher to cut it away from the bone, but don't completely cut off.  Then have him tie it back on with butcher's twine.  This is usually how it comes, but make sure to ask.  Trying to cut it yourself is tedious and almost impossible unless you have really good butcher knives.  I salted with Kosher salt and wrapped it back up and let it sleep in the fridge.

This is the tedious part...Check your rib roast everyday to make sure its not sitting in moisture (blood).  I use paper towels to wrap it and change them every day. Then I wrap it back up in the butcher paper that it came in.  Look.  I get it.  You're taking advice from a girl who can't even remember to scoop her poor cat's litterbox everyday...but you have to do it.  If you let it sit in moisture, it will rot and go bad.  I don't always salt it.  I think it helps season all the way through.  Maybe not.  But you have to check it to make sure it is not sitting in wetness for every day its sitting in your fridge waiting to be cooked.  Okay? Cool.

When you're ready to cook your meat baby, make sure you let it come to room temperature.  Some cooking sites will say to pull it our at least 30 minutes before cooking.  But trust me, it will take more than 30 minutes to come to room temperature especially if your roast is on the larger side.  I took mine out and let it sit in the oven (turned off, of course, and still wrapped in butcher paper) for about 3 hours.  It's okay.  It won't rot in that time.

Turn on your oven.  Set it on roast (if you have settings) and to 450 degrees.

Okay.  Now the seasonings for your meat.  In a bowl, I add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

To the oil I add 1 heaping tablespoon of crushed garlic and 1 heaping tablespoon of dried herb d'Provence (which is just thyme, oregano, savory, rosemary, marjoram, and lavender).

Mix it up and make a paste.  Add more oil if you need to.

Also, make sure to have kosher salt and pepper on hand.

I take the butcher's twine off and expose the side that's tied to the bones. 

Don't cut it.  Unless you have some extra to tie back onto the bones

Slather your garlic, herb paste and salt liberally with kosher salt and pepper as much as you want.

Don't be afraid to really add a good amount of salt (it's a large piece of meat you need to season).

You can do all this in your open butcher paper that your meat came in.

I tie the meat back onto the bones and slather the oil herb paste onto the the exposed sides of the meat.  

Make sure you salt and pepper all sides.

Grab yourself a shallow baking pan with a wire rack like this:

Oh!  And if you seasoned your meat in the paper...

Clean up is a snap!  Boom.  Throw in the trash.

Place your meat bones down, fat side up.

Your oven should me nice and hot by now and ready to go.  Place your meat baby in the center rack.
I like to let it sear on high for about 20 minutes.  This will help form a nice crust.

Then I turn it down to 325 and let it roast for about 15 minutes per pound.  15 minutes per pound if you like your prime rib medium rare (like I do!!! mmmm.), more if you like medium/medium well.

Take your roast out and let it sit for about 15 minutes before slicing.  You have to give it time to relax. It will continue to cook while it is resting.

Slice and eat with horseradish and au jus....mmmmm.

This 5 pound roast can feed 4 - 6 people depending on what kind of sides you have. 

If you have leftovers, you can slice up and make french dip sandwiches or chop up and make prime rib hash for breakfast.  I like to save the bones and make my own beef stock.  

Easy Chicken and Rice Soup (Using Costco Rotisserie Chicken)

This is actually a part 2 posting that involves Costco's rotisserie chicken.  In the first part, I used the bones and carcass to make stock that I used for this recipe.  You don't have to make the stock yourself.  You can just used canned.  Trader Joe's has pretty good chicken stock.  But if you wanna give it a shot, you can check out the step by step how to here.  The broth you make from boiling the bones from the Costco rotisserie chicken is really full of flavor and buttery tasting.

The rotisserie chicken they sell at Costco is amaze balls.  It's steroid and hormone free and such a steal for what they charge.  I can get multiple meals out of one chicken.  On of my all time faves is chicken and veggie soup.  You could, of course, just boil fresh chicken, but it doesn't taste as good. There's something about rotisserie chicken and all it's roasted glory....

So here's my very simple recipe for chicken and veggie soup.

You'll need:

Shredded chicken (as much or as little as you want)

chicken stock (can be canned if you want)

onion

bell peppers (any color)

celery

carrots

chicken stock

garlic

dried herbs (I use herbs d' Provence.  You can use thyme and a bay leaf.  whatever)

water

salt

pepper

I start by chopping my celery, onions and bell peppers.

I used about 2 cups of carrots, 7 stalks of celery, an entire onion and half of a yellow pepper and half of a red pepper. Cut your veggies into same sized pieces for even cooking times.

In a large stock pot, I added my veggies and sauteed over medium heat with about a tablespoon of olive oil

To the pot, I added  1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt, a lot of black pepper and about a tablespoon of herbs.

I'm kind of new to the herb game.  My ma never used any, obviously, in Korean cuisine.  Someone (Hi Tere!!) got me this little pot of Provence herbs for Christmas and it's been a use on everything solution.

and about 1/2 tablespoon of chopped garlic.

When your veggies are soft, add 3 cups of stock.  I used homemade stock.  You can use canned.  If you use canned, hold off on adding salt until you taste the canned stock.

Add 3 cups of water to the pot.  I add water because the stock I made is very concentrated.  You can gauge how much water you will need by tasting.  You will want to make sure your veggies are covered with water so use more stock if you need to.  

Now I add my shredded chicken.  This is the meat from one entire Costco rotisserie chicken.  

You can add as much chicken as you want.  I used about half this container.  It's up to you.

Cover your pot and let simmer for about 30-40 minutes on medium low.  Come back to this:

I serve with cooked brown rice.  You can add cooked noodles if you'd like.  I use this kind of rice:

I love this brand because it's brown rice, but not as tough to chew as other brown rice.  It's ALMOST like white rice. Don't add raw rice or noodles.  There won't be enough soup to cook the rice or noodles and you'll end up with a gooey mess...unless that's what you want.

I also like to squeeze a little lemon in my soup because I'm pimp like that.

Serves 4-6.  Although, the Indian ate almost the entire pot in one sitting.... 

Costco Rotisserie Chicken Stock

This started out as a chicken soup post.  But I thought I should do a separate post on how I use Costco rotisserie chicken to make my own stock.  Has anybody NOT tried the rotisserie chicken at Costco?  It is probably the best chicken I've ever had plus its super cheap.

I have a confession to make.  I think I buy it just so I can boil down the carcass to make chicken stock...actually, come to think of it, I think I also make bone in prime rib roast so I can boil down the bones to make stock.  Hmmm.  Not sure why I am so obsessed with making my own stock.  It is so easy to do and the results are divine.  So why not?  I use the stock that I make for a lot of my food and I really think it makes a huge flavor difference.   I get a lot of credit from my friends who have tasted my Korean jjuk (죽/porridge/congee), but it's good only because I use the stock from this recipe.   

I also love Costco chicken because it's hormone free and steroid free.  See?

Back to the chicken...I think I buy it to make meals out of it.  We rarely eat it as a meal.  But when we do, I usually serve it with tortillas and beans.  Sort of like a home version of El Pollo Loco.  Then the real magic happens.

For someone who hates dealing with raw chicken, it amazes me that I actually don't mind getting my hands into the cooked chicken.  I still wash everything like crazy because I'm scared of salmonella, but that threat doesn't seem as severe with cooked chicken...I know.  I know.  I have problems.

I usually refrigerate the chicken overnight or for a few days until I can get to it.  I wash my hands, take off all my jewelry, and just tear into it.  I am really surprised at how much meat I can get off the entire chicken.  Did you know there's a part on poultry that's called the oyster?  I first heard Bobby Flay mention that so I looked it up.  There is always these highly sought after parts on food.  Sorry.  I totally digress.

You can read more about it here if you're interested.  

I put the chicken meat in one container and the bones and skin and everything else in a huge stock pot filled with water.

I couldn't take a pic of the process because 1) its messy and I use both hands to do it and 2) I have to fight off the little carnivore I live with.  Once she catches on that I'm wrestling with Costco chicken, it's game over.

 She LOVES Costco chicken too.

Here is all the meat.  Good for chicken salad, chicken curry, chicken enchiladas, chicken nachos, chicken soup, chicken a la king, chicken....well, er, yes.  You get the idea.  We almost had a Forrest Gump moment there.

And here are most of the bones and everything else.

I throw it all in a pot to boil on medium.  Even the weird chicken jello on the bottom of the container.  Yes, that too.  Its all flavor.  Cover with a lid and go do something else for at least an hour.

Your house will smell wonderful.  After an hour or more, I turn off the heat.  I have one of these strainer thingamabobs.  I love it.  I skim out all the skin and bones.

The strainer gets all the teeny, tiny pieces too!

I transfer all of it back into the container that the chicken came in.

Package it all up and throw it away!!! Outside.

And you're left with this rich, buttery, and delicious broth.

What about all the glossy fat on top?  Refrigerate over night and the fat will harden on top of your broth.  Just use a spoon to scrape it away.  Don't be alarmed if your stock is gelatinous when cooled.  That's just because of the collagen from the bones and stuff.  Chicken jello.  Good stuff, Maynard.

Divide into containers and freeze for later use.  Genius.

You can apply this same principal to turkey, rib roasts, etc.  Or even chunks of brisket meat.  It's really not that hard to make your own stock.  I've even used shellfish to make a seafood stock and it makes a HUGE difference in my jambalaya.  Give it a try.