DINNER TIME! Lemon Garlic Chicken and Potatoes

We have a lot of chicken thighs frozen in our freezer. Letty had some leftover lemon garlic marinade. Taylor made for a quick, easy, and delicious dinner.

First, I better give you the marinade. I used leftover but use the juice of a lemon, 6 garlic cloves minced, a tablespoon of olive oil, a sprinkle of Kosher salt and pepper.  Use this as a rub on your chicken and, when you cook it, save the drippings...that's how we ended up with leftover marinade.

Take three thighs, put in a ziploc bag with the marinade (fresh or leftover...only difference is that the leftover also has chicken stock), and let sit in the fridge for 6 hours.

Dice up some yellow potatoes.

Put in a ziploc bag, sprinkle in about a quarter teaspoon of Kosher salt, a few sprinkles of black pepper, and a teaspoon of olive oil. Shake well in sealed bag.

Smear olive oil on a baking pan, put the potatoes in the bottom of the pan.

Put the thighs on top of the potatoes, skin side up. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

I'm also cooking a little broccoli for the side. Prepare the same way as the potatoes and wrap in foil with a little opening at the top.

Put the baking dish with the potatoes and chicken in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes. Turn chicken, put back in oven for another 30 minutes. Put the broccoli in the oven at this time, also.

At the end of the second 30 minutes, turn the chicken skin side up again. Increase heat to 475 and cook for another 15 minutes to crisp the skin.

It should look like the picture above when done.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Potatoes: The Go-To Potato Dish - Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Meat and potatoes, the ultimate protein and starch. Here's a really easy and delicious recipe that is v ery hard to mess up.

INGREDIENTS: 

1/2 pound fingerling, golden potatoes.
salt
pepper
olive oil

I like to use the small, fingerling, golden potatoes that I can buy for about two dollars a pound in my area. They are forgiving if you leave them cooking too long...they won't turn to mush like other potato varieties will.

Cut the potatoes into small, bite size portions. Depending on the potatoes you buy, that might be in half, thirds, or even quarters.

Put into a leak-proof plastic bag (I save bread bags for this this reason), put in a quarter teaspoon of salt and a couple of shakes of pepper. Twist the end of the bag closed and shake vigorously to distribute evenly. Put in half a teaspoon of olive oil, twist and shake again.

Dump out onto a sheet of foil paper and close the foil around the potatoes.

On the barbecue or in the oven (300 deg.), cook at lease 20 minutes before you start to cook anything else. Leave on the grill, on indirect heat but close to the coals while you cook everything else...about another 20 minutes.

Once everything else is done, then remove the potatoes and serve.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Ispanakli Patates Casserole

Ispanakli Patates is Turkish and it basically translates to spinach potato. Recently in Berlin, we were treated to the most fantastic food in the Turkish neighborhood where we were staying. The Turks are one of the biggest non-German ethnic groups in the city, over 300,000 live there.

Our favorite restaurant...though, it's hard to pick one out of all the good restaurants there...is Cafe Neffes.  I had this wonderful spinach and potato casserole there one night and vowed to try to make it for myself when we returned.

A couple of weeks later, after browsing dozens of Turkish recipe websites, I've came up with my own variation.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cooked spinach (1 cup after cooking)

1 cup Greek or Mediterranean yogurt

2 oz. feta cheese crumbles

1 small pasilla chile, chopped

2 large tomatoes or 4 medium tomatoes, diced

1 cube chicken bouillon

3 Mexican green onions or 1 medium white onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon marjoram

dash of nutmeg

1/2 pound golden fingerling potatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 link soujuk sausage, thinly sliced (easiest to do when frozen)

2 eggs

In a pot of boiling water, boil the potatoes for 30 minutes over medium heat.

If your  spinach isn't already cooked, put a tablespoon of olive oil in a 12" pan. When hot, fill as completely as you can with spinach and cover. It should render down to about a cup of cooked spinach in around 5 minutes. When cool enough, chop it up.

In a medium sauce pan, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and cook...stirring...until translucent. About 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and pasilla chiles. Add the chicken bouillon. Add the garlic, oregano, marjoram, and nutmeg. 

Stir in and bring to a boil. Add spinach and stir in. Turn the heat to medium and boil for 5 minutes then turn heat off.

When the potatoes are done boiling, strain and set aside.

Coat a casserole dish (about 3 quarts) with another tablespoon of olive oil. Put a layer of the tomato/spinach sauce on the bottom in a fine layer. Put some sausage over that and sprinkle with feta cheese. Spread a layer of yogurt over that. Ladle some potatoes over that.

Repeat this layering until you run out of sauce.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, put two raw whole eggs on top, put back in over for 10 minutes to cook eggs. 

Let cool for 10 minutes after that before serving.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

DINNER TIME! Baked Pork Chops

This week, I'm pulling out some pork chops from our freezer. Hmm..fry them? Barbecue? I think I'll bake them, sort of like a home made 'shake 'n bake.'

They're frozen and I want to make them for dinner so I have a quick way to prepare them and defrost the the same time. I'm making some brine, which I'll put in the ziploc bag the chops are in to make them tasty, tendy, juicy, and thawed at the same time.

For the brine, I put half a liter of water into a sauce pan. Two heaping tablespoons of Kosher salt, a teaspoon each of marjoram, terragon, and sage go into the water, which I bring to a boil. When it does boil, I stir it vigorously, let boil for another minute and then remove from heat.

Let that sit for 10 minutes before adding into the bag with the chops. Let that marinate for 4-6 hours.

I have some leftover roasted potatoes from last week's chicken dinner. There's also a zucchini in the fridge that I can use for the side.

I coat a baking pan with olive oil.  The chops go into a plastic bowl where I pour some half and half on them. I sprinkle with black pepper and then bread crumbs. Turn them over and do the same thing.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cook for 30 minutes. Then remove from oven.

Remove the pork chops and put the potatoes on the bottom of the pan (if you're using uncooked potatoes, put them in at the beginning - see last week's recipe on how to prepare them). Put the chops back in on top of the potatoes with the cooked side down.

Dice up the zucchini.

Fill in the spaces in between the chops with the zucchini. Sprinkle some Kosher salt on them. 

Drizzle a little quality olive oil on the zucchini.

Put back in the oven for 25 minutes.

At the end of 25 minutes, increase temperature to 475 and cook for 15 more minutes for browning. After this, you're ready to serve.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Los Angeles' Best Eats - Eastside Edition, Part 4

See the ever-growing list of our best Eastside Eats here!

Sometimes you just want a good steak, price be damned. The population of the eastside is made up in large part by carnivores. You can get your red meat protein almost anywhere at a range of prices from cheap to astronomical.

About the best you can get is at the Sycamore Inn in Rancho Cucamonga where the history goes back 170 years, although the modern era of the restaurant is a little more modest...approaching 100.

Elegant inside with professional waiters serving on linen covered tables and high-backed chairs, this is the place for a great steak in the Inland Empire.

Custom aged and hand-carved USDA prime steaks that melt in your mouth are the stars of the menu here. This is a special place and the food is pretty special, too. The kind of dinner locals will splurge on for a birthday, anniversary, or even a proposal.

Feast on a tomahawk rib eye with some peppercorn sauce...or perhaps you will like the bearnaise better?...with some broiled broccoli or a classic baked potato. All good but I'm an au gratin guy.

Wash it down with with some Duckhorn Russian River Pinot Noir or any other choice from their extensive list.  Don't hurry...just enjoy the meaty flavor enhanced by some California alcohol.

Pair it with a lobster? Why not, or have one alone on it's own dish.  Poultry is well represented here, too, with Jidori roast chicken or maybe you'd care for a rack or lamb instead.

Save room for the Grand Marnier chocolate soufle but make sure to order that way at the beginning of dinner...it takes time to make it right.

It's not a cheap treat...if you try really hard you just might get out for just under $100 per person - pre tax - but save up to splurge at this inland institution of fine meat.

Oh yeah, you can get a bit of that Sycamore Inn experience for a fraction of the cost if you come during their happy hour...served in the lounge on the wraparound porch until 8pm daily...where you can get discounted drinks and the most expensive dish is the filet mignon at $28 or the prime rib at $26.

Speaking of Prime Rib, you can get the best we've tried in Southern California at a little dive bar at an old, slightly run down strip mall in Redondo Beach. Yeah, it doesn't quite fit our eastside criteria, being a block away from the ocean in a decidedly westside location, but once in a great while those western centered lists will drift over the line, too.  Purely by accident, I'm sure.

We'll let joke telling bartender, Kevin, punctuate this entry: "How do you tell a boy ant from a girl ant? You put them in a glass of water. If it sinks...girl ant. If it floats...boyant. "

We're sure this is the best prime rib around, with the possible exception of a certain Beverly Hills chop house, and this one won't break the bank too much, either.

The Bull Pen is that place where you see the gray-haired barflies rubbing elbows with the tattooed, mascaraed, and bleached blonde, among other assorted quaffers of their very well stocked bar serving day drinking prices before the dinner bell. Yes, these are my kind of people and I love hanging out with them. 

The chaser, though, is that little dining room, off to the right, over the low divider. While the menu has a good list of steaks, chops, seafood, and a very righteous burger, people mostly come here for one thing...the prime rib.

It's a thick hunk of tender beef, recommended at medium rare. Marbled well and with a peppery crust holding the mass of meaty juices in. Served with a nice, creamy horseradish (straight is also available) and a cup of au jus, a dip here...a dip there and pop this melt-in-your-mouth juice bomb in your mouth for a protein delight.

Kevin: "How to you make Holy Water? You boil the hell out of it. "

Served with baked potato, mashed, fries, or vegetables...also an excellent fresh salad with the option (exercised by most customers) of jellied beets put on top. This king of Southern California prime rib, labeled at 12 ounces but I'll be damned if it's really not 16...is delivered to your table for $29.95. A 9 ounce light eater's version is $18.95.

A secret bargain, though...if they don't sell out on Friday night, they'll serve the rest as a Saturday lunch special for less than half price. Call after 9:00am on Saturday to see if they'll be having the prime rib as a lunch special.

Kevin: "Did you here about the police station that had their toilet stolen? They're out looking for it but have nothing to go on. "

NOTE: The Pasadena location of Cafe Bizou (below) has permanently closed. Locations in Sherman Oaks and Agoura are still in operation

Cafe Bizou has now graced the Pasadena landscape so long that it's considered an anchor in the area but at one time, it was the new kid on the block, bringing in fun French inspired dishes to the masses in a service-oriented, Continental atmosphere.

Except for the 'new' part, all the rest is still there. White table cloths, professional waiters, great food at exceptional prices.  It's not trendy in this neighborhood anymore where the Slaters, the Meat Districts, the Vertical Wine Bars, Himalayan restaurants, and the oh-so-pricey restaurants of the moment.

Cafe Bizou only offers reliably outstanding food, good service, in an upscale and comfortable atmosphere. It's also very easily accessible, almost right across the street from the Memorial Park Station of Metro's Gold Line light rail train.

While we're talking about meat and potatoes on this installment, we'd like to highlight the red-meat centered entrees available here but also know that there is a very good selection of seafood dishes here such as their Friday night bouillabaisse and their famously good Chilean sea bass.

We come here, however, for the meats...steak frites, steak au poivre,  and lamb. Tender, tasty, lamb chops without a hint of the gaminess you find at lesser establishments. Oozing with fatty juices, seasoned with Rosemary, and butterknife-tender. The New York strip steak with a savory Burgundy sauce cooked to melt-in-your-mouth perfection, served with some double fried string potatoes.

The best of an outstanding lineup for me is the thinly sliced, perfectly pink pieces of meat served in a creamy brandy sauce that make up their steak au poivre...so very fork-tender...with the beef juices lovingly blending into the sauce that makes up their steak au poivre. It's my go-to dish here.

A very creamy version of handmade mashed potatoes is served with it but you can also ask that their super creamy potatoes au gratin be substituted. It all comes with some typical crusty baguettes and a little pile of perfectly blanched vegetables.  It's one of the few times Tim will willingly eat all of his veggies.

This is not a budget breaker either, as I've alluded to above. My favorite dish, the steak au poivre, is only $21.95. Nothing on their regular menu even comes close to thirty dollars (they do have a very popular prixe fix menu for $36 dollars that covers everything from soup or salad through dessert). Adding a salad or soup de jour is $2, you can upgrade to a Caesar
salad for an extra buck.

And, while they have a good wine list here, you can bring your own for a very reasonable two dollar corkage fee...bring as many bottles as you like, they're all just $2 each.

-

Anaheim is a German-based word for for Ana's home.  It came about as a German settlement arose by the Santa Ana River, south of Los Angeles in what is now Orange County.  Home by the Santa Ana River.

After World War II, all things German were a bit touchy. Into this era came a private cultural club, German, in Anaheim who wanted everyone to know that they were not like 'those' Germans. They were to be welcoming and all inclusive, celebrating their history and culture without the baggage of the war. Rising up with a new Germany from those ashes like the legendary Phoenix bird. This was the founding of the Phoenix Club in 1961.

When the city of Anaheim wanted the land on Katella Avenue where their modest club house was to build the Honda Center (home of the Ducks NHL team), they agreed to build a new club on land behind the arena. That's where you'll find the modern Phoenix Club in a large, modern building along with their Bierstube Restaurant.

Although a private club, it is always open to the public. The Bierstube is a fine, friendly place to indulge in German food and beer.

It's really more like a pub than a restaurant. Amid the woody, cozy room...walls adorned with the emblems of the many clubs that call the Phoenix Club home...you'll find a long bar, taps pouring brews from the motherland, and German dishes heavy with sausages, kraut, spaetzle, and more.

While you can get a good steak here, a great charcuterie dish, and big soft pretzels, pork is the reason we come here. 

Our favorite on the daily menu is jaegerschnitzel, a pork cutlet covered with a wild mushroom sauce and served with spaetzle. Starting off with a tender chop, with juices flowing, the savory sauce along with the earthy mushrooms are a carnivore's delight. The spaetzle (a kind of German pasta) adds to the heaviness of the dish...it will fill you up fast...so you might want to substitute potatoes or plan on taking half of the dish home.

You'll want to wash this down with whatever German Oktoberfest beer they're serving at the time.  I'd say save room for dessert but that's just about impossible here.

If you see their pork chop special on the board, you will want to try that.  Another very juicy and lovingly cooked chop, covered with a thin brown gravy and served with some of the best mashed potatoes you can find in Southern California.  This is my favorite dish here and always leaves me wanting more.

Bargains abound at their daily happy hours with beer, drink, and appetizer specials plus one of the biggest and best Oktoberfests happens here on weekends from mid September through October in their large biergarten out back.

Carnivores can find much to please them in this area but these are a few of our favorites.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

This Week's Sunday Menu: PrimeTri Tip Steak with Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Eggs

Meat and potatoes...delicious ones...for those of us on a low-sodium diet.

The entree for this week's dinner is some fantastic tri tip steak. USDA Prime that I found for $7.99 per pound. Great deal.

Breakfast uses our standard scrambled eggs recipe but we're cooking some delicious Danish bacon

Get the recipes below:

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Bacon (for an added treat, cook the eggs in the bacon grease after you cook that).

Dinner: Tri Tip Steaks and Roasted Potatoes

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Mashed Potatoes

While boxed potato flakes might be easier to make, they're not that much easier than making mashed potatoes from scratch.  Once you learn, you'll never go back to boxed potatoes.

INGREDIENTS
3 medium russet potatoes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup half and half
1/3 stick margarine (or butter, if you prefer)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

The hardest part comes right up front, peeling the potatoes. Even so, we're not cooking for an army, peeling three potatoes is not too bad.  I peel over the sink to make cleanup of the skins easier.

Put the peeled potatoes in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat town a couple of notches. I like to do a low boil for an hour.

When potatoes are cooked to a soft consistency, drain off the water...keeping the potatoes in the pot. Get a masher and start mashing. This is the second hardest part of the recipe. Add the other ingredients.

Keep mashing and stirring to get a creamy, smooth consistency. Taste test as you go along. Not salty enough? Add a dash or two until it is. Not creamy enough or soft enough?  Splash in a bit more half and half until it is.

Serve with your favorite protein.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved