Ernie’s Pralines

 Life  No Responses »
Jun 262011
 

OK, here is the top-secret praline recipe that my father handed down to me (no, really!)…

Ingredients

  • 1 cup regular sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
  • 5 Tbs. water
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 Tbs. butter

Setup

These are just my personal tips for making sure the whole process goes smoothly.

  • Arrange for some open counter-space where you are going to spoon out your pralines. Lay down a sheet of newspaper and then cover that with some wax-paper. The reason you do that is so that when you spoon the (very) hot praline mix onto the wax paper, it doesn’t leave waxy residue on your counter top! :-)
  • You want a bowl of cool water near where you are cooking so you can test the mix to know when it is ready.

Procedure

Use a tablespoon-sized spoon to do the stirring because it is also the size tool you want to use to spoon out the mixture when it is done.

Combine the sugars and water in a pot and put on the stove at medium heat. Stir until it starts to boil then mix in the chopped pecans. Continue to stir the mix as it heats back up. It will start boiling again. You may want to back off the heat just a bit at that point so that things don’t happen to rapidly.

You want to be watching this mixture as it cooks and you keep stirring it. It will start to look less liquid on top and more “fluffy”. You want to start testing the mix to know when it reaches “soft ball stage.”

For the longest time I didn’t really understand what that meant. Soft-ball stage is when you take a small sample of the mix with your spoon. Hold the spoon over your bowl of cool water that you have close by and let a drop fall into the water. Soft-ball stage is when the drop of mixture stays whole and remains circular (almost spherical) when it settles in the bottom of the bowl.

AS SOON AS YOUR MIX REACHES SOFT-BALL STAGE….

Stir in the butter. As soon as the butter melts (and you may have to work quickly now, but carefully) you want to start spooning the mixture onto the wax paper that you have laid out.

Remember this stuff is really hot. Avoid the temptation to taste your handiwork until the pralines have cooled enough so that they don’t break up when you peel them off the wax paper. By the way, the best way to peel them off the wax paper is to lift up the paper and peel it away from the bottom of the praline as you support it with your other hand.

Arroz con Pollo

 Life  1 Response »
Apr 142011
 

This is a simple but superbly delicious recipe from the Delicioso! cookbook. I want to point out that all of the pictures that follow can be clicked on to see larger versions for more detail.

Serving Size

Makes about 6 servings, give or take.

Ingredients

  • Olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 whole chicken, cut up
  • 1 3/4 cups uncooked rice
  • 1 large onion, cut up
  • 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
  • 1 8-oz can tomato sauce
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 lemon (to put on served portions)

Here are all off the ingredients all laid out. I do recommend buying a whole chicken and cutting it up yourself. It is not hard to do. Just be careful. When cutting individual pieces apart you want the knife to cut between the moviing parts of the joints so you are not ever actually trying to cut through bone.

Arroz con Pollo - 01

Here is the chicken all cut up. I do remove the skin. Also I cut the breast meat off of the bone and cut it up onto smaller pieces. Basically each breast half is cut into two pieces. Also with the wings I cut the smallest segment of the wing off and discard it. Lastly I do not use any of the organ parts that are typically stored inside the body cavity.

Arroz con Pollo - 02

Here is the rice all measured out and the onions and jalapenos all cut up and ready to go.

Arroz con Pollo - 03

Procedure

Pour about 1/4 inch of oil into a stew pot. Heat it up and place the cut up chicken parts into the oil. Cook it, turning occasionally until it is nicely browned. Throughout this recipe I use a spatula to stir stuff up and to scrape the bottom of the post so things don’t stick.

This is the chicken browning in the oil. When you first add it in it may not all fit nice and flat on the bottom of the pot but as it cooks it will shrink up and you will have enough room.

Arroz con Pollo - 04

I use a fairly high heat while browning the chicken.

Arroz con Pollo - 05

When the chicken is nicely browned remove it from the oil and set it aside.

Arroz con Pollo - 06

Now put the rice, onions, and jalapenos into the hot oil and cook it until the rice is browned. Here is it after I first added it to the oil.

Arroz con Pollo - 07

While it is cooking you want to be sure and scrape the bottom of the pot frequently so that nothing sticks.

Arroz con Pollo - 08

When the rice is brown (not dark brown like chocolate, but lightly browned), you will add in the chicken, the tomato sauce, the spices, and 3 cups of water. Note: The empty tomato sauce can holds exactly one cup of water. How convenient!

Arroz con Pollo - 09

Turn the heat down a bit and let it simmer, covered, until the water is absorbed. The recipe says this will take from 35 to 45 minutes but it may take less time than that.

Arroz con Pollo - 10

Here is is, simmering.

Arroz con Pollo - 11

Very important! Be sure and scrape the bottom of the pot with the spatula frequently so that the rice does not stick. As more and more of the liquid is absorbed by the rice you will want to do this more often.

Arroz con Pollo - 12

This is done:

Arroz con Pollo - 13

Dish some of this up into a bowl and squeeze a little lemon juice on top and serve. This is a superb recipe. Enjoy!

2009-12-07 (Monday)

 Life  No Responses »
Dec 072009
 

Triathlon Training, day 71

OK, so Monday was my day off, but the coach is switching things around a bit. Since I have two marathons coming up and then several months before my first tri, she has made Friday my day off so I can fit in an extra run workout on Monday and we are backing off the bike training some for now. So …

Run The directions were to do a 5 mile endurance run. I didn’t find out about it until the afternoon so I did this on after work. Had to take a package for Gordy Jr. to the airport post office first — the line was impressive — and then stopped off at the Humble Bally’s (a.k.a. “The Ghetto”) and did the run on a treadmill. I really dislike running on a treadmill, but it was raining and I just didn’t feel like running on the road, at night, in Humble, in the rain. So be it. Details Duration: 00:58 Distance: 5.49 mi Heart Rate (avg): 130

Green Papaya Salad

The recent freeze has basically killed our Papaya tree. It had some still-green fruit on it which Mikie went ahead and harvested. Last night she found a great recipe for green papaya salad here. It turned out sooo good!