Uninvited dinner guest...

Today was hot. Very, very hot. The morning was taken up by all four chefs gathering to move the belongings of one chef to his new home. The afternoon was filled with food. Good, good food. It was so hot, we propped the kitchen door open, and almost had an uninvited guest come in. He was sent away, but reappeared when it was time to set the table.



Tonight's menu was a new recipe from Cooks Illustrated: Enchiladas Verdes. Mexican rice on the side, and birthday cake (of the flourless chocolate variety) with ice cream for dessert.

The enchiladas were AMAZING. The sauce started with tomatillos. These are actually more closely related to gooseberries than tomatoes. A pound and a half of tomatillos were selected from among those available at Cub (Fresh).



These were grilled with poblano peppers that had been split in half with seeds and pith removed.



Once blackened, the skins were removed from the poblanos and they, the tomatillos, a little sugar, a little salt, some garlic, and some chicken stock were processed by Big Bertha.


The chicken stock was really part of the poaching liquid that the chicken was cooked in. First onions were cooked in the poaching pot, to add a little something extra. This chicken was shredded, mixed with some pepper jack cheese and used as the filling.

The tortillas were briefly warmed on the grill, then filled with the chicken mixture and rolled tightly and put in the 9 by 13 baking dish. This was covered with the tomatillo sauce and a little pepper jack cheese was sprinkled on top.



Bertha had a second job for this meal. She processed some tomatoes and an onion for the mexican rice.


Two cups, and ONLY two cups, of this mixture was added to some slightly "fried" rice along with the rest of our quart of chicken stock.



This all came together with some lime wedges, cilantro, green peppers, and diced japalenos.



Overall, the dinner was amazing. The enchiladas couldn't have been better.

Dinner was complemented by flourless chocolate cake (Martha Stewart's recipe, though apparently some chefs do not approve of her) and some neapolitan ice cream. Since this was for a birthday, we splurged on the Deluxe Neapolitan ice cream. With real artificial flavorings.



Delicious, but No Cats Allowed!

It's been a while...

and the four chefs still are not all on the same continent. In the meantime, one chef's glorious sunday dinner will be featured.

The purpose behind this menu was that it features the use of a dutch oven. A nice Le Creuset dutch oven. The 7.25 quart one. Because the 5 quart one would be too small. Even though the 7.25 quart one might weigh more than this chef might hope....

So Coq au Vin. There are actually two CI versions of this classic available online. One takes longer than the other and includes carrots and shallots. A blend of these two recipes was used for this night's meal. Carrots, but not shallots.

This was the first meal that involved this particular chef using a real bottle of wine. This required the first purchase of a bottle of wine, as well as the first opening of a wine bottle. Thankfully the Sunday Night Chefs are a friendly bunch, and are open to lending out corkscrews as necessary.



Look at that cork! All out and all in one piece!

This wine was combined with some chicken stock, thyme, and parsley and reduced to 3 cups.



At the same time, in the dutch oven, things were getting quite heated. The chicken was browned and the fond was used to cook the vegetables. In this case, pearl onions, carrots, and garlic.



This was the first time ever that frozen pearl onions were purchased in Minnesota by any of the Sunday Night Chefs. And let this chef announce for all the world that frozen pearl onions are at least one-hundred times easier to deal with than fresh. None of the blanching or peeling is involved.



After the vegetables were cooked, they were mixed up with some flour and tomato paste and then the wine and chicken were added (or in some cases returned) to the dutch oven.

Stew on the burner for at least 25 minutes. Yum yum.



Since this was one chef making Sunday night dinner, the (delicious)
Coq au Vin was served with Healthy Harvest whole wheat egg noodles. Not anywhere near as good as fresh pasta, but still a lovely accompaniment.




[Agh! If anyone knows how to make blogger realize that you do in fact know how to orient your own pictures, please let me know. I don't know why it thinks this picture should be rotated this way.]