#8 and # 9: Dill Salmon and Garlicy Mashed Potatoes

By Ryon - Dill salmon may have been one of the first meals I ever cooked. It was mom and dad's anniversary and Tanda, Chapin and I cooked them dinner. We had dill salmon, asparagus... and something else that I can't recall. I remember it very well because, as we brought the plates out to mom and dad in the dining room, dad remarked on our presentation and how we had angled the asparagus just right to make a very pretty plate. I think my response was something along the lines of, "Yeah, I totally meant to do that!". I was full of crap. It was a pretty plate, but I think the last thing on my mind was how I angled the asparagus. It was more on whether or not I had cooked the salmon properly. The fish came out great. The rest was accidental aesthetics. But our success should tell you how easy this meal is to make.

To this day, when I cook salmon I usually serve it with asparagus and some kind of rice (normally pilaf), This time, however, I wanted to mix it up a bit so I cooked brussel sprouts and dad's garlicy mashed potatoes. Some of you who know me well may be surprised to know that I am eating mashed potatoes again, but as dad says in the recipe, I eventually came around (Cailtin's persistent requests for this side dish MAY have had something to do with this). For some reason, mashed potatoes used to make me seriously sick to my stomach. It was a texture thing. I didn't like the creaminess, or something. I think the real cause was that, at some point when I was young, I ate mashed potatoes when I already had a stomach bug and for years I associated the taste of them with feeling sick. Dad used to put aside a few chunks of boiled potatoes for me before he mashed the rest, so I wouldn't have to suffer. That is true love.

Anyways, the flavor combination here was really nice. Two very simple recipes. One very tasty meal. Proof that sometimes simple is best.

Rating: SECCDI

#6 and #7: Christmas Eve Chricken Prot Prie and Pie Crust

By Ryon - For the rest of my days, I am most likely going to continue to be bitter at my siblings over the fact that they banned chicken pot pies from the Christmas Eve menu 5 or so years ago. Ivor finds them gross, and I'm not sure how a human can have that reaction to a chicken pot pie but, then again, he finds those little frozen peanut butter and jelly "sandwiches" to be God's gift to cuisine, so... you do the math.

These are truly a labor of love. Hands on time for this, combining mine and Caitlin's efforts, was about 3 hours. And that does not include cooking time. So this is definitely a weekend recipe. Or holiday. Or mental health day. You get the picture...
We actually had to go shopping for several non-food items before starting this. I had to buy a new pot for this recipe because, after I bought the whole chicken, I realized that I did not have a pot big enough to boil it in. So I went to Marshal's and bought a nice stainless steel 3-gallon pot. Happy early birthday to me! We also had to get some oven-safe bowls to make the pies in, which took forever to locate but we eventually found at Pier 1. I like the round bottom bowls for the chicken pot pies, but after 2 hours of searching I decided I could not be picky.
The chicken part was easy. Throw it in the pot with a few veggies and enough water to cover it, and you can go take a nap for an hour and a half. Which I may or may not have done. Although I think napping caused me to cook this part too long because the veggies came out a little soft in the end. Make sure you don't go over the hour and a half cooking time on this. Set a timer... or an alarm. Tearing the chicken apart is fun. Again, primal urges are satisfied (see chicken salad recipe). But make sure you leave ample time for the chicken to cool, otherwise this exercise can cause an unpleasant burning sensation in your fingers.

After I distributed the meat and veggies evenly over the bowls (dad says this will make 6 pies, but our bowls were on the larger side so we only got 5 pies out of the recipe), I turned to making the gravy. The end result was the right consistency and delicious, but I think I did something wrong in the process of trying to make the roux because, after melting the butter and slowly mixing in the flour, I was left with a ball of... well... butter and flour. I'll have to ask dad about this.

While I was doing all of this, Caitlin took care of the pie dough. So I let her take it from here.

By Caitlin - Well the first mistake that I made was that I looked at the wrong recipe. A quick call to the BFC for a metric conversion question revealed that I was erroneously intending to make Janette's Pie Pastry instead of Pie Crust. I actually had the pleasure of making this recipe with Barry over Christmas, so I wasn't too intimated... and by "making" I mean I poked the holes in the tops of the pies at the end. Best instruction: keep use of hands to a minimum. Working too much with the dough makes it sticky and unmanageable. Another good tip is to flour the counter top and the rolling pin. Since I had been intending to make Janette's recipe I only had frozen butter. So instead of breaking it up, I grated it and then kneaded it into the rest of the batter. I tried to maintain nice chunks of butter, but since I had grated it they ended up smaller than I would have preferred and therefore the crust a little less flaky than Barry's. I then rolled it up in a ball, stuck it in the fridge for a half an hour in plastic wrap and joined Ry for a nap. After it was nice and cool, I cut it into sections, rolled each section flat (the flatter you roll it the thinner the crust will be), and then I stuck them on top of the filled bowls while pinching the side. To make it nice and pretty, Ry helped me cut a nice edge around the bottom of the dough after we put it on the bowl. Don't forget to brush on the whole egg. They really turned out to be quite beautiful, and while they took some time the recipe really is quite simple...but then again I just did the pie crust. Perfect for a blustery day!

Two went in the oven and three in the freezer for deliciousness any day of the week! According to the BFC, these can by cooked straight from the freezer, just add (to the original cooking time) about 10 min at 400 degrees and 15 min at 325 degrees.

Considering the fact that this took two of us to make... Rating= BFC

#4 and #5: Steak on a fire and Mid-summer's Night Beans

By Ryon: The description for the bean recipe says it all. This pairing makes up one of my favorite meals of all time. If I had to live on a deserted island for the rest of my life and take only two friends with me, those two friends would be steak and mid-summer's night beans. This is my comfort food.
We had a beautiful spring-like day on Friday and I thought that we should take advantage of the warm weather and grill outside. Dad is famous for his propensity to grill no matter the weather or the season, so this January BBQ was sort of an homage to him, although 45 degrees is like summer compared to some of the conditions he has grilled in.
We had Nick Hargus over for dinner, so I got three NY strips from the Organic Butcher here in Charlottesville. Their meat is always fantastic (that's what she said?), but these steaks looked particularly good. I let them sit at room temperature for about 30 min and seasoned them with salt and pepper before I threw them on the grill.
The mid-summer's night beans I got started well in advance, as this is a dish that does well if you have to let it sit before serving. I have messed up this dish before by not letting the beans cook down long enough and you wind up with a somewhat runny mixture, so leave yourself enough time to cook this properly. I timed this so that the beans sat for about 5 min or so before I added the tomatoes, parsley, and cheese and served it up.
Back to the meat. If you are new to the grill, pay close attention to dad's description of how to get a good fire going. It's very important to the outcome of your meat. I used a mesquite wood in addition to the charcoal and it gives the meat a great flavor. My favorite wood that dad uses on the fire is apple wood, but that can be hard to find. It gives the meat almost a sweet flavor. I cooked our steaks for about 8 minutes a side to get them medium rare and they were perrrrrfect. Some of the best steaks I have cooked in my life, if I do say so myself.
The beans were spectacular, too. Not sure what I did right, but they were also the best I have cooked. I added a side of mescaline salad with dad's salad dressing (I made this a while ago, so I'm not counting it as a recipe) and voila! As dad would say, "You'd pay $30 for this plate at a restaurant."
To go with dinner, we had some Duvel. Nick's favorite beer. Caitlin almost polished off an entire bottle of wine by herself. Quite an impressive feat. Nick was also kind enough to bring over a really nice bottle of Balvenie 15-year old single malt scotch and we enjoyed that as an after dinner drink. A great evening...

Rating: RHC

#3 Pastrain

By Caitlin - Last night we made Pastrain, which is a recipe that we are fairly familiar with since we make it about once a week. Ryon can make the whole thing without looking at the cookbook. I, on the other hand, needed direction in simply how to cut the onions. Nonetheless, I took the lead on this one. I tried to channel Meryl Streep (playing Julia Childs...see pic). After chopping up the onions and 5 cloves of garlic we added them to oil. Next came the meat; we used both turkey and beef because we had both, but I will insist it was a well-planned choice to experience a novel flavor combination. Then some fresh ground pepper (Aileen's favorite addition to any meal), sea salt, and Italian seasoning. Finally, a can of crushed tomatoes and about a cup of white wine. The first time I made this recipe without Ryon I mistakenly put about 3 cups of wine in. Try that out for a really interesting take on the sauce! No, I am kidding. Ryon could smell the wine when he came home. It was a little...much. That said, we didn't really measure anything... it was more like we threw everything in a pot and let the flavors fight it out. Barry's opening line for this recipe is, "don't strain yourself with this one." That is really pretty lame, but I have to give him props for being accurate. Hands-on time is max 20 minutes. After putting all the ingredients in the pot, I took the remainder of the bottle of wine in the living room with me and played Nintendo while Ryon periodically stirred the sauce (you have stir it for the next hour or so before it is really good, so leave yourself plenty of time). We always make way more than necessary and save some for lunches. Put it over some pasta with a side of salad and Barry's dressing and you certainly have a meal to satisfy.

It may appear that all we do is play Nintendo and watch movies (well, I guess we do), but we have both been very productive in work this week. Really! Though tonight we are going bowling...and probably playing Nintendo.

Today we are introducing a new difficulty scale:

BFC = B-ery Friggin' Challenging (Ok, really this means that only the Barefoot Chef himself has mastered this one and Ryon messed something up.
RHC= Ryon Hurley Clarke handled this one. Novice cooks, proceed with caution.
SECCDI= think about it.....no ideas? Ok, So Easy Caitlin Could Do It.. We can also call this one SESCDI for Sarah. You get the idea. This level is for people whose culinary repertoire is limited to premade pasta sauce, hamburgers, and toast. This also includes people who are challenged by chopping onions.

Rating: SECCDI

#2: Curry

By Ryon - Last night I cooked a curry. This is a perfect weekend cooking endeavor because this recipe takes a few hours from start to finish. Plus, the curries always taste better if you let them sit for a night or two in the fridge (or stored in the freezer), making it a great mid-week meal when you don't feel like cooking.
I will have to get Ivor and Abigail to send some curries back here when they are in South Africa. As delicious as this recipe is, it is always somewhat of a disappointment to me because I'm not cooking with the Durban curry powders, or "Durbs Masala" as dad refers to in the recipe. They do not have that "particular aroma" and taste that dad's curries always have. A while back I purchased the Indra brand curry powder at a local Asian market and have used this in all of the curries I have made to date. It has a good flavor, but is slightly dull compared to the fresh South African curry powders. I'm sure there must be a comparable curry powder here somewhere... I have just not found it yet.
Beef, chicken, or lamb can be used for this recipe. I tend to use chicken, although I love lamb curries and will probably use it next time I make this. Chicken is cheap and, after cooking for a long time, is fall-off-the-bone delicious. For those of you who do not like bones in your curry, just pick up a package of boneless thighs. I have found that to be the easiest and most flavorful alternative to using a whole chicken.
I have found one important element to be missing from this recipe, and it is something that took me a few tries to figure out. The first few times that I made this recipe, the curry was totally lacking in spicy heat. I initially thought I was just not using enough curry powder and steadily ramped up the dosage on each attempt. To no avail. Eventually I figured out (actually, I think I just asked dad) that you need to add hot PEPPERS to the mix. This may not have been included in the recipe because the Durbs Masala has some heat to it, I think. The stuff I'm using does not. So be aware that if you like hot curries and you are using a non-spicy curry powder, throw a few peppers into this recipe. I added two jalapenos and two serranos into this one... and yikes... it's hot.
As you can see from the pictures, this is a colorful concoction and it tastes even better than it looks. Caitlin and I had this right away last night for dinner served over rice with a spicy mango chutney (in my opinion, a must-have when eating curries). We both had it again for lunch today. It's amazing either way, but it definitely gets better, and spicier, if you wait. Of the recipes I have cooked out of the book since we've had it, this is in my top five.

Rating: RHC

An Iced Tea Tragedy

This is not a recipe in the Clarke Family Recipe book, but I thought you all would find this amusing. From time to time Ryon and I enjoy sipping on some iced tea, particularly in the hot and steamy summer days here in Virginia. Over the summer we got to brewing our own homemade iced tea from recipes that we got out of Imbibe magazine (one of Ryon's favorite reads and perhaps becoming one of Jay's too since he got a subscription for Christmas). The recipe is straightforward-- three heaping tablespoons of loose leaf tea for every gallon of water. Then you leave it to brew by either either sticking it in the fridge overnight or in the sun for about 3 hours. Since the sun was out yesterday we chose the latter method, which is called sun tea. A seemingly simply recipe, but alas, when you 1) don't take into account that the temperature outside is in the 20's not the 90's and 2) forget that you are brewing tea altogether you end up with frozen tea versus simply iced. Today we woke up to a 22 degree morning and a pitcher of frozen tea.

#1 Cheeken Salad

We're kicking off the countdown with lunch, which is not very exciting I know, but I'm hungover so give me a break. Caitlin and I had roast chicken for dinner last night (which I am not counting as a recipe since it was in 2009), so making chicken salad with the leftovers seemed like a logical place to start in the cookbook. As dad wrote in the recipe, this is one of mom's favorites. This chicken salad always reminds me of summer in Vermont, I think because it's the only time of year I ever remember dad making it. The best part about making this is taking the cold leftover chicken and tearing all of the meat off of the bones with your bare hands. It satisfies a primal urge. Beyond that, it is probably one of the simplest recipes in the book, but sooooo good (which, again, makes it great for hungover cooking).

We put ours on locally made bread, paired it with Charlottesville's own Starr Hill Jomo brew (a little hair of the dog) and the rest is culinary history. Dad says this will keep well for a few days in the fridge, but I give Caitlin until midnight to polish the rest of it off.

Rating: SECCDI

...and so it begins.

2010! A whole decade past Y2K and we are still going strong. Now that the confetti has fallen and the resolutions have been made, what better way to ring in the new year, slightly hungover and very hungry, than to make a new promise to ourselves to eat well this year...for the whole year. As we were alphabetizing the recipes in the updated Clarke Family Recipes yesterday we thought to ourselves, "man, there are so many recipes in here that we have not cooked." Then it hit us. We should make all of these recipes this year. Since we actually have lives, unlike Julie (of Julie-Julia) we have decided to make (well Ryon to make, Caitlin to eat) all of the 100 recipes within 365 days. Really, what better way to break in our new Le Creuset pots and the bake ware that was bestowed upon us for Christmas. We will blog regularly about the successes and tragedies of the cooking with the Barefoot Chef and maybe add in a little about what is going on down here in C'Ville...like how right now there is a 6 foot wide snowbank in front of our house that does not appear to be leaving anytime soon. Seriously, does anyone around here know how to use a snow plow? So for now back to re-hydrating and playing Mario- we are on the second to last level. Check back later for our first recipe...chicken salad.

In our best Julia Child impersonation...Bon Appetite!