Soup and Scones!

Man, I keep falling behind.  I still want to make the Indian dish, but I have no idea when.

I did, however, make up the Chicken Tortilla Soup and the Bacon Cheddar Scones.

First, the soup.  Things started off with a nice mirepoix (although I guess in this case we should call it a sofrito, eh?)

And ended up with a really delicious soup!

Like ringy we couldn't find any mexicorn, so I just used a can of corn.  And, what I thought was a can of green chilli's was actually salsa verde, so most of that went in instead.

We chose to garnish the soup with some sour cream, fresh grated cheese, avocado (because they are my favourite) and the leftover salsa verde.

When I asked Derek what he though his answer was "It's soupy".  Um, yeah.   Despite that comment we both really enjoyed the soup.  The avocado got a bit lost with all of the other flavours, and Derek needed the sour cream to tone the heat down to a level he was happy with, but I'll definitely be making this again.

Now, on to the bacon.

This was my first experience making scones, and while I wasn't sure if my dough was right, they were amazing.  I followed the directions exactly and ended up with this pan of delicious for Sunday breakfast.

Because we are gluttons, we had these, topped with some MORE butter and coffee for breakfast.  There was 1 left.

I will 100% make these again (but maybe cook up the bacon the day/night before) and am quite interested in experimenting with different scones in the future!

Now, who's got recipes that use up butter milk?

Dinner scones

I couldn't find the time to make the scones for breakfast this week but hey - who's to say you can't have them for dinner?

Sometimes, just for the hell of it, I like prepping all my ingredients and putting them into little bowls like they do on TV. It makes me feel like a real chef.

Hey! Stop snacking on my ingredients!

I used pancetta instead of bacon again, and soured milk (milk + 1 tbsp vinegar) instead of buttermilk. Otherwise I followed the recipe. No wait, I also forgot the egg wash. Oops.

I think I messed up the pastry making. The pastry blender I have isn't the best (it's a weird flat-bottomed shape), and I was running out of time as we had to head out, so butter-flour mix wasn't quite the right texture. Also, I think that making the mix in a metal bowl may have melted the butter a bit (because of my warm hands holding the bowl). It was still tasty but the taste and texture of the dough wasn't as rich and melt-in-your mouth as I hoped. It was doughy :(

The pan was ungreased as the recipe said but they stuck a little bit. I used parchment paper on the second batch - much better.

Anyway, we had it with a beautiful big salad. It needed it - it was indeed very filling. I'll try it again someday and hope that it turns out even better!

Sherlock is not so interested in the salad

Everything's Better with Bacon

That has long been my philosophy. I was looking for a brunch recipe for today and was very excited to see these bacon and cheddar scones were this week's choice. I already had everything I needed except the buttermilk, so I picked up some on my way home from church this morning.

They came together really quickly and were soon ready for the oven.

I served them with scrambled eggs and am looking forward to having the leftovers for breakfast this week.

Bacon always makes things better

I'm always a fan of stuffed stuff.

A couple of substitutions - white onion instead of red since I always have those on hand. Boneless, skinless chicken thigh instead of breast since it was cheaper. Dried cilantro instead of parsley.

The hubby made oven dried tomatoes (an idea we got from our favourite panini place). They're just as intensely flavoured, but more sweet and less tart than sundried tomatoes. These are pretty simple - just drizzle some olive oil and salt on grape tomatoes and bake them for a very long time at low heat (200F or so)

Other than the onion and parsley, I more or less followed the recipe.

I have to admit at this point, I wondered if I had done it wrong

After the success of last week's recipe, Mr. Ringy insisted on incorporating bacon into this week's recipe. So I wrapped them in pancetta. Then I baked them for about 35 minutes at 400F.

Sorry you can't see the chicken... because it's wrapped in bacon

We had them with potato bhaji (into which we also threw in the extra artichoke stuffing) and a lovely Chardonnay which was a gift for performing Ave Maria at a 40th wedding anniversary last weekend.

Naked - so it must be good!

The Whole Fish Experiment

I will confess, this dinner absolutely terrified me and I have no one to blame but myself, because I am the one who posted it. I had grilled cheese and soup in the wings, just in case it was a culinary failure.

It started off great. I got a fantastic deal on the fish at B.J.’s warehouse. I got them for $4.49/pound when the grocery store had them on sale for $6.99/pound.

The stuffing came together beautifully and smelled delicious.

Then, I got ready to stuff them. And I got scared. They didn’t “open flat like a book” which flustered me. Then I tried to cut the tails off and they didn’t want to go and that made me more flustered. And they have bones. And I forgot the lemon juice. I eventually got them stuffed and into the oven.

Poke, poke. Is it done yet?

They actually came out pretty good, but I won’t be doing whole fish again for a very long time.

Week Four - Mushroom and Bacon-Stuffed Trout

If you have looked at my other blog, you may have noticed that I have a list running down the right hand side. This is my 101 things in 1001 days challenge and my time runs out on September 28th. So I thought I would use this post to kill two birds with one stone, and be able to check off "cook a whole fish."

I like fish. I like it a lot and I like all kinds of fish, but trout is one of my most favorite. You don't see it on restaurant menus very often here and I always order it when I do. I thought I would take a stab at making this recipe from Cooking Light.

Mushroom and Bacon-Stuffed Trout

• 2 (1-ounce) slices white bread
• Cooking spray
• 3/4 cup chopped green onions (about 2 bunches)
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped cremini mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 4 center-cut bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
• 8 (8-ounce) dressed whole rainbow trout
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon wedges and fresh thyme sprigs (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place bread in a food processor; pulse 2 times or until crumbly. Sprinkle crumbs on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 5 minutes or until golden.

Increase oven temperature to 400°.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add green onions and onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Add mushrooms to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until mushrooms soften and most of liquid evaporates. Add chopped thyme; cook 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Combine mushroom mixture, breadcrumbs, and bacon in a bowl.

Open trout flat as you would a book. Drizzle trout evenly with juice; sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Spoon about 1/4 cup mushroom mixture onto bottom half of each fish; fold over to cover with top half of fish. Arrange fish on a foil-lined broiler pan. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork or until desired degree or doneness. Garnish with lemon wedges and thyme sprigs, if desired. Serve immediately.