REALLY Irish for St. Patrick's: Irish Soda Bread

If you're like countless other Americans, tomorrow you will don some shade(s) of green in your wardrobe and either celebrate your Irish heritage or pretend that you are part of the chosen people for a single day. To do this, you may also imbibe on Irish alcohols and various green-tinted food and drink. You may even cook up a batch of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. I certainly will.

Of course, there's really not much Irish about all that, or the way St. Patrick's Day has evolved into some sort of green-tinged bacchanlia. Yes, Irish like to drink, but green beer is classic American commercialization. And corned beef? More likely an affordable and readily-available cut of meat at the Jewish delis of New York, Boston and other American cities, where Irish immigrants often settled en mass and decided to use the day of their patron saint to celebrate the land they left.

My great grandmother Bridget Leddy, like so many other Irish after the potato famine, eventually made her way to New York City, making a couple of trips back to County Cavan late in life with her grandchildren. Along with her hearty brogue, she also brought to the new country a special family recipe that has been a part of my family's St. Patrick's Day celebrations as long as I can remember.

Irish Soda Bread is a quintessential dish from the Emerald Isle. My mother, among the first group of grandchildren Bridget took to Ireland a half century or so ago, says she remembers it being prepared in the big pot over the fire after the bacon was cooked. It created an unforgettable for her combination of salty and sweet.

Our Americanized versions leaves behind the rendered bacon fat, but makes it work with shortening. It is both a great breakfast and perfect side for your corned beef and cabbage, which, by the way, should be stewed in a Crock Pot all day so that you come home to that incomparable aroma.

Anyway, you really should not need instruction on how to make the main dish. In case you do, put peeled potatoes cut in half in the bottom of the crock, top with corned beef and the seasoning that comes with it, then the cabbage. Add some water. Cook.

Now on to the real Irish in your St. Patty's Day meal (pictured at the top of the photo below).

Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
3/4 cup seedless raisins
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup solid shortening
1 tsp caraway seads
1 cup sour milk (If you're like most people and don't keep sour milk, measure out regular milk and stir in 2 tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar to sour it)

Directions
-Rinse and drain raisins. Set aside.
-Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
-Cut in shortening. (If you don't know, this means dump the shortening in, then use two knives to cut across the mix over and over again until the shortening is cut up into small pieces and incorporated with the dry ingredients)
-Stir in caraway seeds and raisins.
-Beat egg slightly and add to sour milk
-Stir egg and sour milk into dry mixture blending only until all of the flour is moistened. Take care not to over stir. The characteristic coarse ground, feathery texture is ruined with over mixing.
-Turn into greased 8-inch round baking pan. (I like to let the mixture sit for a minute while I grease the pan)
-Bake in a 400-degree oven about 30 minutes

Cut the bread into wedges and serve warm. Yes, it will be crumbly. It goes great with butter or jelly as a breakfast treat, or with butter to go with your corned beef and cabbage.

To reheat cut, spread with butter and heat for 10 minutes in a moderate oven or put on toast in a toaster oven.

Erin go bragh!

Twisted Logic: Soft Pretzels, Pretzels Rolls and Pretzel Dogs

OK. This post is looong overdue. First I haven't posted a recipe in about six months. Secondly, I teased my friends on Facebook with this one a month or two ago. Anyway... let's get to it.

The wonders of modern technology allow me to listen to Philadelphia sports radio during my drive to and from work in North Carolina. One of the commercials on the station is the owner of a pretzel company who says, "Did you know the average Philadelphian eats 12 times the amount of pretzels as the average American?" I believe it. Pretzels are ubiquitous in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Far more than anywhere else I've ever been. And in my opinion the best pretzel of all is the soft pretzel, which is as much a staple of Philadelphia cuisine as the legendary cheesesteak.

Of course, like so many other popular foods, there are countless recipes for soft pretzels. I've found one that I think is pretty easy to make, tastes great and is versatile for some variations, including pretzel rolls, which have become a popular trend in restaurants.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
• 1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• Vegetable oil
• 2 3/4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling (though I haven't gotten it myself yet, there's actually something called pretzel salt that is likely best for sprinkling)
• 6 cups water
• 1/4 cup baking soda

Directions

Place the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside to rest until the mixture bubbles, about 5 minutes. (If the mixture does not bubble, either the liquid was not at the correct temperature or the yeast is old.) Meanwhile, coat a large mixing bowl with a thin layer of vegetable oil and set aside.

Place the flour, sugar and 1 tsp kosher salt in a large bowl and whisk briefly to break up any lumps and combine. Once the yeast is ready, fit the bowl on the mixer, attach a dough hook and start adding in the flour mixture. Mix on the lowest setting as you add the rest of the mixture and until the dough comes together, then increase to medium speed and mix until the dough is elastic and smooth, about 8 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball, place in the oiled mixing bowl, and turn the dough to coat in oil. Cover with a clean, damp dishtowel and let rest in a warm place until the dough doubles in size, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and knead it on a floured, dry surface just until it becomes smooth and springs back when poked, about 1 minute. Divide the dough into eight pieces.

OK. Here's where you can do some different things. 

If you want to make pretzel rolls, form the pieces into oblong rolls. Place the rolls on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and cut four 2-inch diagonal slashes across the top of each. 

If you want to make traditional twisted pretzels, you'll need a little skill. Fortunately, thanks to some visits to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery in Lititz, PA, the first commercial pretzel bakery in America, I am an Official Pretzel Twister, and I am here to share my knowledge.

First roll out the dough into thin ropes, like when you used to make a snake out of Play Doh as a kid. You want it probably 8-12 inches long. Now, lay it out in front of you in the shape of a U with the ends farthest away from you. Pick up the ends and cross them, switch hands, then twist so the loop at the bottom rotates a half turn so that when you put the loop back down and bring the ends down to the loop the middle interlocks. See the picture above for what it should look like. An easier way is to take two of the dough ropes and twist them together into braids. Same great taste. A lot easier to deal with. Whichever shape, place the pretzels on a sprayed baking sheet.

Finally, if you want to make pretzel dogs, roll out the long, thin ropes and wrap them around hot dogs. Place on a sprayed baking sheet.

Regardless of what form you've made, cover the pretzels with a damp towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, about 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425°F and bring the 6 cups of water to a boil in a large, deep saucepan over high heat.

Once the pretzels/rolls have risen, stir the baking soda into the boiling water (the water will foam up slightly). In batches, boil the pretzels/rolls for two minutes per side. Using a slotted spoon or spider, remove the pretzels/rolls, drain and place on the baking sheet, cut side up. Sprinkle well with salt and repeat with the remaining rolls. Fair warning: when you try twisting the pretzels, they can be very difficult to handle, especially flipping them in the water. That's why I make the long twists.

Once all the rolls are ready, place in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes

The pretzels rolls I made were great. They were firm, but light inside. The pretzels were perfect. The pretzels dogs were a huge hit with our 3-year-old.

By the way: Real Philadelphians eat soft pretzels with mustard. I prefer brown, spicy mustard.

Crumby Baked Chicken

Wow. Has it really been more than two months since I last posted? I guess things have been busy.

Well, time to get back on track with some good, simple recipes. Here's one that will help you make use of something you probably have in your kitchen that you don't know what to do with.

Admit it, you have somewhere a bag of chips or box of crackers that is approaching or already become stale. Well, you don't have to throw them away. Use them to make dinner.

Ingredients
1-2 cups of chip/cracker crumbs
bread crumbs (optional)
4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Directions
Crush up the chips/crackers. You can do it by hand, or put them in a food processor and pulse a few times. Put the crumbs in a shallow dish. Add in some bread crumbs if you think you don't have enough chip/cracker crumbs.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Coat with mayo. Roll chicken in crumbs to evenly coat.

Place breaded chicken in a baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

This goes great with vegetables and a potato.

You can use any kind of chip/cracker you'd lip. I used an aging box of Cheese Nips. You can use potato chips, tortilla chips, Ritz, saltines, Doritos, whatever! And of course, you don't have to use ones that are stale. Fresh works just fine, too. The idea behind the stale ones is just to use

Intermediate Italian cooking: Chicken/Veal Parmagiana

I promised early on in this blog that I would share some of what I've learned about Italian cooking, as it's what I'm asked about the most. A few months ago, I shared a very easy started recipe in Baked Ziti. I've also shared Chicken Lombardi, Veggie & Turkey Sausage Lasagna, Chicken Cacciatore and even Pepperoni Rolls. Now, though, it's time to share another staple of Italian restaurants: Chicken/Veal Parmagiana. In this instance, I'm gonna give you the recipe based on chicken, because that's what I just made, but it works just the same veal.

Now one thing I've learned the last few years is an amazing bit of culinary magic. If you want to take a small amount of food and make it look like a big amount of food, change the form is some way of a chicken breast. Dice it, shred it, flatten it, slice it. Whatever you do, you'll probably be amazed how much chicken you actually have in the end, and this recipe for Chicken Parmagiana proves it.

To make this dish, you'll need to pound chicken breasts flat. This accomplishes a couple of things. Most importantly it helps ensure even cooking, which is very important with chicken. It also helps stretch what you have.

There are a couple of ways to flatten out the chicken. First, lay out a boneless, skinless chicken breast on a cutting board and cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap that is at least three times the size as the pieces of meat. I use the flat side of a meat hammer/tenderizer to gently pound out the chicken to about a half-inch thick. If you don't have a meat hammer, you can use a rolling pin to roll it out under the plastic wrap. When you flatten them out, the chicken breasts will be quite large. I recommend cutting each in half, giving you eight pieces in all.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts, rolled to about 1/2-inch thick
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup flour
3 eggs, beaten
1-2 cups Italian style bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
2 jars spaghetti sauce, divided
2 cups shredded mozzarella or Italian mix cheese
Oregano
1 lb pasta of your choice

Directions
Pound chicken out and cut into eight pieces as described above. Season each piece with salt and pepper on both sides.

Set up a breading station using three shallow dishes. The first dish has the flour, the second the beaten eggs, the third the bread crumbs.

Working in batches, bread the chicken by coating with flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. Make sure in each step to get full coverage and too shake off the excess.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat some of the olive oil (enough to coat the pan) and place the breaded chicken in the skillet. You should be able to do half the chicken in each batch. Cook for about three minutes on each side until you have a golden brown crust. Keep in mind, you do not have to cook the chicken completely in this step. The goal is to sear in the juices and get the crust just right.

Using one of the jars of spaghetti sauce, spread a little of it across the bottom of a large baking dish. Layer the dish with the fried chicken cutlets. If your dish is large enough, you can make two layers, which is preferable. Mine was not, so I made two layers. Spread some of the sauce on top of each cutlet (using the entire jar by the time you're done), then top with the shredded cheese. Sprinkle with some oregano and/or other Italian spices.

Bake in a 375-degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starts to brown. Make sure the chicken is cooked inside, which it should be.

While the chicken is baking, make the pasta as directed and heat up the other jar of sauce. Serve the pasta (I used rigatoni) along side the chicken. I suggest some garlic bread and a salad, too!

It may seem like a lot, but this is really a very simple recipe, and it's well worth the effort. Try this, and you'll probably never bother getting chicken (or veal) parm in a restaurant again, because you can do it just as well at home.

Unless you're having a lot of people over for dinner, you'll probably have a lot of leftovers, so you can certainly cut this recipe in half if you'd like. Of course, Italian leftovers are the best, so enjoy for a few days. You can even make a chicken parm sandwich!

Game Day Eats: Kickin' Chicken Philly

We're getting close to kick-off for the Super Bowl, so it's time for another game day idea. Of course, chicken wings are popular dish. So are sandwiches. So try out this recipe that combines the best of both worlds.

The very first recipe I posted on this blog was a copycat of one of my favorite sandwiches at a restaurant here called Two Guys Grille. Well, since then I've found a new favorite at Two Guys called the Kickin' Chicken Philly, so I decided to try my own version.

Now as you may know, as a native of the Philadelphia area, I'm something of a cheesesteak purist. The cheesesteaks/chicken cheesesteaks at Two Guys typically include green peppers, but green peppers are not a traditional ingredient in a cheesesteak (You can usually find a pepper steak on the menu at real cheesesteak places, but it's usually at the bottom of the menu. Bottom line is that green peppers are NOT a staple ingredient.), so I leave them out. The Two Guys sandwich also calls for jalapenos, and I've just never been the biggest fan, so I left them out. You, of course, are welcome to add back in the peppers as you wish.

Ingredients (per sandwich)
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Chopped onion
Sliced mushrooms
Hot sauce/Buffalo wing sauce to taste
2 slices white American cheese
1 hoagie roll

Directions
Slice a chicken breast as thinly as you can. The thinner the better. Marinate the chicken in the hot/wing sauce.

On a hot griddle or frying pan, heat up a little olive oil. When it's hot, add the onions and cook a little. Push them out to the edge and add the chicken. Turn over the sliced chicken and add the mushrooms. Mix the chicken, mushrooms and onions together until the chicken and mushrooms are cooked. Top with cheese slices and continue to heat until the cheese starts to melt. Pile everything into a hoagie roll.

You can top your sandwich with what you'd like. In this case, I added some ketchup and tomato slices. If I'd had some lettuce, I would've added that, as well.

Game Day Eats: Bacon Mushroom Sliders

Looking for some meal ideas for Super Bowl Sunday? I'll give you a couple new ones this week starting  with this one.

To be honest, I'm not sure what all the fascination the last several years has been with "sliders." For those that don't know, sliders are just small hamburgers. They get their name, as I understand it, from the tendency of White Castle burgers to slide right through you. In the last decade, though, they've become something of a culinary, but when all is said and done, they're just small hamburgers.

I decided to make them, to get my two-year-old to try something different, and it worked. So be creative with these and do with them what you'd like.

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Garlic powder
3 slices of bacon
3 slices of cheese
Sliced mushrooms
Slider rolls (or small dinner rolls)

Directions
Fry up the bacon until crisp. Saute the mushrooms in some of the bacon drippings. Keep bacon and mushrooms warm on the side.

Mix the beef with Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder. Divide it up to make six small patties. Grill the burgers or cook them in a frying pan. Two to three minutes on each side should be plenty. Top each with half a slice of bacon, half a slice of cheese and some mushroom slices, plus your favorite burger toppings.

As I said, the little man like these burgers built to his scale. He also enjoyed the baked sweet potato fries on the side.

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

My father is Italian. My mother is Irish. When they were dating, the first meal she made for him was chicken cacciatore. That was bold. But she forgot the spaghetti. That was a little embarrassing, and a cute story she's told many times, which makes a dish a sentimental favorite for me.

Now silly family stories aside, chicken cacciatore is a truly classic Italian dish. Translated, it means hunter chicken, and alla cacciatora means a dish prepared hunter-style. Now real chicken cacciatore involves braising the chicken slowly in wine, etc. But we don't have time for that in our busy lives, right? Of course not. But we do have a Crock Pot that will let us make a simplified yet delicious facsimile of the classic recipe.

Ingredients1 lb chicken
1 onion cut into eight pieces
1 green pepper cut into strips
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 lb pasta of your choice

DirectionsFirst a word about the chicken. Traditionally, you should use a cut up chicken still with the bones in. I find that a little more difficult to eat, especially when you're feeding it to children, so I prefer to use boneless chicken. When I made this the other day, I used breasts, but you can use whatever pieces of the chicken you'd like, including boneless thighs, which are readily available in your grocery store's meat department.

OK. Now that we have our chicken, put it in a Crock Pot. I like to put it in when the meat is still at least partly frozen so that it hold together a little better during a full-day's stewing. Next add in the onion and green pepper. Dump in the spaghetti sauce and the tomato paste. (I added this ingredient to the recipe even though I didn't use it myself the other day, because I found the sauce to be a little thin in the end, and I think the paste will help thicken it. I will update the recipe the next time I try it.)

Turn the Crock Pot on low, put on the lid and go to work. Dinner will be pretty much ready when you get home. All you'll have to do it make the pasta (I used rigatoni) when you get home.

Sorry for the bad photo. I'll update this, as well, the next time I make this.

The chicken will be fork tender. Serve it over pasta with some garlic bread and a side salad. It doesn't get much easier than this, and is perfect for a chilly day.