Tips, Tools, Techniques

A guest Chef!

This week I’d like to welcome my friend Beth as a guest Chef who will be giving us a recipe for Cinnamon Apple Crisps.

The knives are yours Beth!

Having grown up on a small apple orchard when I was little, I have acquired a love of apples. There was nothing like picking a ripe red delicious apple off the tree and biting down into it. It never failed that I would come home my chin and hands would be caked with apple juices. There would be long afternoons with my grandmother and then my mother and father baking apple pies with gala, golden delicious, and granny smiths. There really are so many wonderful varieties and flavors in this simple fruit.

When I was visiting my mother some years ago I had this sweet craving. She pulled out this recipe and suggested we give it a try. Within the first thirty minutes the house smelled so good, reminding me of those memories growing up. After the first hour, I was ravenous! Pulling them out of the oven to put them on the rack, they cool quickly. They were wonderful! The perfect sweet thing along with a potato chip crunch, I was hooked!

There is no need to peel or core the apples, just wash them off and dry them. I use a mandolin to slice the apples; they make the perfect paper thin slices with half the work. Don’t slice more than you can bake at one time, or you will wind up with brown slices. Unlike baking cookies, you can place them as close as you want to each other, they will shrink and ripple slightly during the baking process.

I put my sugar and cinnamon in a shaker and just sprinkle liberally over all the slices. Easy clean up. After you pull them out of the oven, you can use your fingers or a spatula to put the slices on a cooling rack. Let them cool thoroughly before storing. I normally just put mine straight into snack bags for the work week, also great for the kids lunch boxes. They will last about a week after baking them. It’s the perfect sweet, crispy, healthy snack. I hope you enjoy!

RECIPE:

Cinnamon Apple Crisps

Ingredients

2 small apples, Red Delicious or Gala, sliced paper-thin

1 Tbsp. sugar

½ tsp. ground cinnamon.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (NOT WAX PAPER). Place apple slices in a single layer on paper.
3. Mix sugar and cinnamon
4. Sprinkle over apple slices
5. Bake until lightly browned, about 2 hours. Cool on a wire rack and serve.

This is a Weight Watchers recipe and makes 4 servings at 1 point a piece.

Double bonus, makes the house smell wonderful!!!

3-T Tuesday – Chili Seasonings

Welcome everyone to our weekly edition of 3-T Tuesday!  This week’s edition ties into our ongoing Chili Chronicles because we are going to discuss chili seasonings.

As I’ve made it abundantly clear that I love chili in the fall I though it would be a good time to talk about how to season the pot of chili that we started last week.  In that recipe I discussed using a chili mix in my fixings but one thing to remember is that the seasonings can define your chili and to me that’s the most important part.  I’m always looking to have my OWN chili recipe that I can pass down to my daughter.

Today we are going to discuss making our own chili powder.  A good friend of mine asked in last Thursday’s post, what to do if you couldn’t find the mix I recommended.  Use your own.  Now if you don’t have any interest in making your own chili powder then look near the spices and gravy mixes in your local grocery.  There should be at least a couple mixes there.  Or you could just buy chili powder.  But I say poo on that and let’s make our own!!

~Did you know that Chili Powder is just a mix of other spices?~

Chili Powder:

• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder

So let’s talk about the five spices listed above and how to prepare the chili powder.  When mixing this recipe please please please do NOT use Garlic Salt instead of Garlic Powder!  They are two completely different things.

Many people don’t realize that each one of these spices has a variety of different versions.  Paprika comes in cheap ole’ paprika, smokey, Hungarian and so on and so forth….

I personally use very specific versions of these spices and I would encourage you to experiment also to try and find a version you like.

**WARNING – Cayenne pepper is hot.  Once you add that to the mixture you MUST wash your hands immediately to get the residue off you hands. 

BONUS TIME!!!!

I’m sitting here writing this weeks post and my 4 month olds’ good mood is rubbing off on me.  The recipe above is for chili powder but what about the mix that goes in chili?  Good question because you don’t just use chili powder, you mix up a chili spice mix.

Chili Mix

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon oregano

One thing to consider in the Chili Mix recipe is that there is no salt listed.  I do not believe in pre salting seasonings.  It’s one thing if the salt comes in the tomatoes like on Thursday’s recipe.  You should only add salt to food when it is needed.  This helps keep down on the sodium levels in your meals.

AND NOW FOR THE TIP OF THE WEEK!!

When it comes time to mix the spices together for the Chili Powder I recommend using an inexpensive coffee grinder.  The reason I say inexpensive is because you’ll never get the flavor out of your regular coffee grinder.  I highly recommend this method of mixing because it allows you to a really good mix and it also helps ensure that the spices are evenly distributed.

BONUS TIP!!

I like to mix my spices in large batches so I tend to buy large quantities.  There are two great ways to buy large quantities.  Find you local Indian Food Market.  They tend to sell spices in large quantities which makes it really easy to mix up large batches.  The other way is at your local warehouse club!  Costco and Sam’s carry very large batches of common spices that makes it really easy to mix up batches!

Keep Cooking Folks!

Chef Ben

Chili Chronicles: Part 1

So how do you take these items

and turn them into this?

The interesting thing is that it’s been a source of contention based on different parts of the country.  The South vs. Texas vs. the West vs. the North.  Everybody has their own ideas of what chili should be including myself.  I know that I really love a sweet and smoky chili with no beans.

That brings up a whole different discussion about the contents of the chili.  If flavor is the first battle, contents are certainly the second.  Beans or no beans, chilies or no chilies, what type of meat to use in the chili.  There are all different types of thoughts behind the flavors, textures, and heat levels.

As the weeks progress and the weather cools here in Central Ohio, I tend to make chili every weekend but I don’t think it really qualifies as a lazy Sunday meal.  I put a lot of work into my chili because I really enjoy eating it and watching my wife’s face as the different flavors come out of the concoction.  Some nights I just want water with my chili, some nights its an ice cold beer and sometimes it’s milk to cool the heat but I truly do believe that chili is without a doubt the best fall food and I hope that I can educate you about the different types of ingredients, varieties, and flavors that go into a great bowl of chili.

Be talking to you soon,

Chef_Ben

3T-Tuesday #1 Kitchen Cutlery

Welcome to our first edition of 3T-Tuesday!  The 3T’s stand for Tips, Tools, and Techniques.  Today’s article is going to be about various types of kitchen knives and what I believe a cook actually needs in the kitchen. 

I’ll actually be breaking this into a two part article.  Today’s will be about the types of knives and my opinions on them.  Next week’s article will be about how to purchase the knives at a good price and what quality of knife should be purchased!

No more talk, let’s get started!

Paring and Serrated Knives – These knives are not used as frequently as some of the ones we are going to cover later but they do come in very handy.  The paring knife is good for smaller hand work and the serrated blade is actually best used for cutting tomatoes.  You should ONLY have two serrated blades in your collection.  There is the one about 6 inches long (see photo) and then there is also the bread knife.  Serrated knives are NOT intended for other types of kitchen work other than cutting grapefruit, bread or tomatoes.

Kitchen Shears – A good pair of these is absolutely vital in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, as with most utensils in the kitchen, the good ones are expensive.  They can be used for everything from disassembling a chicken to cutting vegetables.

Carving and Slicing – These blades are the second most used ones in my kitchen.  I use these primarily for slicing meats like London Broil, roasts (pork or beef) or roast fowl.  Every so often if I have something wide I need to slice I will use these knives when I would normally use my chef’s knife.

Sharpening Steel – A sharpening steel is one of the most important tools for taking care of your blades.  Prior to using you knives you should ALWAYS run the blade down the steel three times on each side.  I will soon be doing and article on how to sharpen you blades but for the better knives you must keep them sharp.

Chef’s Knives – Perhaps the most versatile knife you will ever own.  This is the knife to use for dicing, slicing, and just about anything else.  The top knife is mine and the bottom one in the photo belongs to my wife.  The majority of work that is done in cooking is the prep work.  You will spend more time dicing vegetables and fresh spices in preparation for assembly the final dish that you need a knife you like.

So these are the components that make up a good collection of knives and their uses.  I highly recommend that the blades you end up owning are used for their specific tasks.  Nothing will ruin a knife quicker than misuse which includes not sharpening them.

The last thing I’ll say without spoiling the next part of this article I will tell you that there are three pieces up there you should really spend good money on.  The Chef’s Knife, Slicing Blade, and Sharpening Steel should be of a definite higher quality than the other knives.  These three items will be used more than anything else in your cutlery gallery.

Be sure to check back in Thursday night for our weekly recipe!  Just as a sneak peek it will be another Lazy Sunday recipe!

Keep Cooking,

Chef Ben