feeling saucy

On a whim, I decided to make pasta sauce recently, so I promptly called my mother and asked for instructions. We refer to this as homemade, but I'm not entirely certain it deserves that label, because it doesn't involve any actual fresh tomato. Your mileage may vary; I just know this is kind of tasty.

One starts with a 28oz can of crushed tomato, a 15oz can of tomato paste, and about 45oz of canned tomato sauce (in this case a 29oz and a 15oz, but whatever's in stock, obviously). Dump these all into a large pot, cover, and simmer. This is where I made my first mistake. In general, it has been my experience that the ideal way to simmer something in a pot is to bring its temperature up to a reasonable level, then turn the heat down, cover, and continue cooking. As a result of this reasoning, I got to clean tomato sauce off every surface in my kitchen - including the ceiling - mere moments after cracking the first can. So believe me when I say you should start it on the lowest heat your range can swing, and do so with the cover on.

Once the body of the sauce is underway, one is invited to add whatever one thinks would be appropriate. Personally I went with well-diced onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, some ground paprika, and a truly absurd quantity of garlic powder. There is certainly an argument to be made for the use of fresh garlic instead - and some day I very much want to try the razor blade trick from Goodfellas - but I went with what I had on hand. I am not a big fan of mushrooms, generally, but the sauce would have been all wrong without them, no doubt due to the fact that my mother always included them. Whatever works.

In the future, if I'm feeling feisty, I might try such things as artichoke hearts, or perhaps even corn. I'm sure there are a variety of other options - feel free to suggest some.

At any rate, I also made meatballs. My typical meatball strategy is a pound of turkey, an egg, a third cup or so of french fried onions, and whatever spices strike my fancy at the time. (Bake for 20 minutes at 350°, flip halfway through.) The biggest problem with making these meatballs is that I tend to eat way too many while they're still warm, and this time was no exception. I doubled the recipe this time around, and tossed them in the sauce as soon as they cooled enough to move, but there still weren't any left after the initial dinner, so I'll probably make some more when I serve the leftovers.

I should note that these proportions produced a reasonably large pot of sauce - I fed five hungry people, several of whom went back for seconds, and had enough left over for a half-dozen or so more servings. It freezes well, as one would expect, and I know from past experience that having meat in the sauce doesn't change that. Once this is gone I might make a pot just to freeze; it certainly is convenient to have on hand.

chicken quick & quicker, plus misc

For reasons I don't want to get in to, I spent the summer sitting on someone else's couch eating food from the frozen section, and when I finally got home I was lazy and didn't cook for a while. I got back in to it, and in the process of trying to find a recipe I used to like, I realized I had never documented it here, so let's start with a [very] simple stroganoff.

This works best, in my opinion, with sauteed chicken breast, but leftover chicken works reasonably well, and I tried it last night with ground turkey and that came out okay as well, although slightly less interesting. Basically you just start by sauteing the meat (or reheating or browning as appropriate), then add such items as onions, mushrooms, and tomato. Then you add a mountain of paprika. Once that's settled in, you add tomato sauce, about 8 oz since that's the size those small cans come in, and a cup of sour cream. Plus more paprika, ideally. Then you mix it all up, cover it, and let it simmer for a good thirty minutes. Stir it occasionally, but mostly just leave it alone. Meanwhile make some egg noodles (or such), and poof. I recommend serving with something such as sweet peas, because if you're like me you can just mix them in, but whatever.

The reason I made this, actually, is because the night before I tried something interesting - chicken glazed with tomato, honey, and Worcestershire sauce. Just mix 3, 2, and 2 tablespoons respectively, roll some chopped chicken breast around in it, skewer the suckers, and broil them for 10 minutes or so. I served it on a bed of rice and a pile of broccoli. This was very exciting, because I had not used my broiler, and it worked very well. It was also exciting because I don't have a broiler pan, and I'll be damned if I can find one at the one store we have in this parts that might carry them, but because I was kabobbing, I was able to just lay them across a baking dish and it worked fine. The only problem was that I was dumb, and bought tomato sauce when I wanted tomato paste, so it was less glaze and more sauce - the up shot is I think that would have been fantastic if I'd let it marinade overnight. I want to try it both ways in the future.

Speaking of marinade, why did nobody ever tell me I could marinade salmon? I mean, it just never occurred to me. 'Why change the flavor of salmon,' I thought when I was introduced to the notion, 'when it's so perfect to begin with?' But by request, I let two salmon steaks sit overnight in Italian marinade, and good heavens was the final result lovely.

I am mindful of the fact that clear back in May, I promised you all a second pie recipe, and I do apologize. I have finally located said recipe! I know exactly where it is ... specifically, in the middle of a giant stack of paper that I will be sorting through Any Minute Now No Really I Mean It. So stay tuned.