Jana: Caribbean Chicken Fried Rice

Rob's request for egg-month was Caribbean Fried Rice. So one evening last week, I decided to acquiesce. Found this recipe for Caribbean Fried Rice and paired it with this recipe for Caribbean Black Beans.

Knowing that my "growing" boy wants and needs meat in his meals, I decided I would dice some chicken to add in. In the middle of prep, I remembered that I had a bottle of 30-minute Caribbean Jerk marinade in the refrigerator and thought that would be just the right flavor for the chicken. I used Kroger brand, but apparently Lawry's and KC Masterpiece also make some. And, of course you could make your own, but I just googled "caribbean jerk marinade" and all the recipes I found had >15 ingredients. I simply don't have time for that.

The original fried rice recipe called for dried chiles, but warned it would make the meal pretty spicy. Rob and I like spice, but we don't like fire, so I opted for a hint of ground red pepper and the spice from the chicken marinade instead--and I have to say that was a good choice for us. Add peppers at your own risk.

I went ahead and made 6 cups of rice, which was way overkill. Made enough for two leftover lunches (one for each of us!) and caused me rethink the option of adding garlic bread.

The meal was yummy. My only complaint is that the rice was a bit dry--maybe I stir-fried it too long, maybe it needed to mix better with some kind of liquid (the oil, maybe?). I would definitely make it again. It wasn't too bad for a school night, but definitely required more chopping and timing than the other recipes I've tried before.

And, even though this post is primarily the egg recipe... the beans were super delish. Most definitely recommend that recipe, too!

So, here in full color...

Callie: Cinnamon Brioche

Back when we lived in Atlanta and got to shop at the Dekalb Farmers' Market, we always made time to stop by the bakery and taste the bread samples that were being featured that day. Once, we sampled a bit of brioche, and I have never forgotten its distinct eggy taste. So when we picked out this month's challenge ingredient, I decided to try my own hand at brioche.

My recipe comes from Peter Reinhart's cookbook, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I love this book because it doesn't just tell you how to make bread; it also tells you why you do each step. As I prepared for this recipe, I learned that breads are classified based on their butter to flour ratio; brioche is classified as a "rich" bread because this ratio is more than 20%. (Basically, the eggs, milk, and butter mean that it's not very good for you!) Reinhart includes three brioche recipes, each with a different amount of butter. I chose the "middle class" recipe, hoping to find a middle ground between flavor and difficulty level.

Jordan loves cinnamon bread, so I wanted to find a way to flavor my bread. I thought about a cinnamon swirl (à la cinnamon raisin bread) but ultimately chickened out...it looked too complicated for my first attempt! So instead, I settled for a cinnamon-sugar topping, which tasted good, but meant that it only had cinnamon flavor on top.

Apparently, the traditional shape for a brioche is called brioche à tête, which requires a special mold that I do not own...so I went for the loaf shape instead. (And my personal favorite way to shape bread is to make a circular loaf in a pie pan.) This worked out just fine; the circular loaves had more surface area, thus more cinnamon flavoring.

One thing about baking bread from scratch: it's NOT for the impatient. In fact, it took two days to make this recipe! Each step is fairly simple; but then you have to wait...wait...wait...until it's time for the next step.

The bread has received a stamp of approval from my mom and from Jordan, both of whom tasted it and requested seconds! It does have that unexpected eggy-ness to it, but that is exactly how I remembered it, so I guess I did something right! Here's the recipe....I tried to simplify as much as possible, though, so it's not word-for-word.

Jana: Banana Crumb Muffins

So we're stuck inside in the historic snow/icestorm of 2011, and I thought this is a perfect time for my next recipe. I know that I probably should use eggs as my MAIN ingredient; however, I feel proud that I'm cooking anything at all. Much less banana nut muffins without Betty Crocker!

Given the success of my last recipe, I went looking to BigOven again, and found this recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins.

We had bananas frozen in the freezer, which I used rather than fresh ones. And, Rob and I go "nuts" for nuts, so I decided to throw a good bit (about 1/3 cup) of chopped walnuts into the mix before pouring into the muffin pans.

The result was quite yummy. My mix made 15 big muffins, perfect for a stranded day. We ate them for a snack, for dinner, and a late night snack while the BCS Championship was on. Rob's response, "this is awesome. Why didn't you girls start this project years ago?"

Here's the recipe:

 

Props to anyone who can figure out the other similarity (besides eggs) between this recipe and and my previous one... anyone...?

Callie: Fried Rice and Wonton Quiche

Back when I was in high school, I invented my own recipe for quiche: I pressed biscuit dough into muffin tins, filled each with a mixture of eggs, turkey, and squash, and baked it in the oven. So when we started the Iron Chef challenge, I knew I wanted to make a quiche, but I thought I should find something a little more sophisticated. Eventually I decided on Mini Wonton Quiches for my first recipe...and found out that my high school recipe was remarkably similar!

I followed the recipe fairly closely, but since I don't like ham, I substituted chopped mushrooms instead. If I were to make it again, I would probably add cheese, too. But cooking with the wonton wrappers was a lot of fun, and they ended up with a perfect crunchy texture. (Expect to see more wonton recipes this year!) Although the recipe says to "press the wonton wrappers into each cup," I actually found it worked better to pinch the bottom of the wrapper first.

We still needed a main dish, though. Going with the Asian theme, I decided to make fried rice. Nothing super fancy, but still tasty. I added mushrooms to this recipe, as well. However, I guesstimated how long it would take to cook them, and they ended up slightly underdone. Neither Jordan nor I really love green peas, so I don't know why I used them...but I guess it was nice to see some green on our plates!

One of the things that amazes me about the real Iron Chef show is how they prepare five courses, all at once. It was hard enough to balance two! (I had planned to take pictures of the entire cooking process, but ended up just taking one at the beginning and one at the end. Also, my photos are not quite as fancy as Jana's--sorry!) But hopefully I can become an even more coordinated chef as the year goes on...and maybe even a better photographer/Photoshopper.

As for the reception...I think Jordan was just impressed that I didn't burn anything. But he went back for several more wontons and even looked forward to the leftover fried rice. All in all, it was a good first try!

Jana: Garlic-Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

To start this challenge out right, I searched high and low for a main dish course containing eggs. I'm not big on breakfast for dinner (although sometimes a bowl of cereal reigns victorious!), so I wanted something that required chicken or pork as well. Remembering a yummy recipe of cracker-crusted recipe I used a while back, I searched for a breaded recipe. Egg is what holds the breading together.

Searching through the BigOven app on my phone and then through the website itself, I found recipe #1 here.

Much to my surprise, I already had eggs in my refrigerator (and the expiration date had yet to pass!), so all I needed to pick up at the store this evening was fresh garlic, pork chops, and seasoned bread crumbs. I had hoped that they would have the thin-cut pork chops (often called breakfast chops)--they cook really fast, but alas, they only had the thick ones (which is what the recipe really called for anyway).

I followed the recipe pretty much to the tee, just substituting olive oil for vegetable oil, and I forgot to take the garlic out of the oil. Knowing that this was a pretty complicated recipe to make for a weeknight, I paired the pork dish with mixed vegetables and roasted red potatoes (both from the frozen food aisle).

The only mishap of the adventure was the fact that when I asked Rob how long he was planning to spin on the bike trainer (and how long I would have to cook), I misheard, thinking half an hour instead of an hour and a half. Luckily, I left the veggies in the microwave, kept the potatoes warming in the oven, and quickly warmed the chops before plating.

Even an hour later it was delicious. A perfect combination of crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The parmesan and herbs were hidden inside the outermost layer, making a tasty surprise. Rob's first response, "damn, this is good"... Rob's second response, "This is amazing"... Rob's eighteenth (or more) response, "man, this hit the spot." He went back for seconds.

Without further adieu, the recipe....

 

Month 1