101: Homemade Baked Tortilla Chips

If you happen to have some leftover tortillas in your fridge, this is a great way to use them up. Also a great lower fat way to propel high fat dip into your mouth!

Preheat oven to 450.

Slice the tortillas into wedges. The pizza wheel is an excellent tool for this job.

Toss the tortillas in a big bowl with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. (Start with LESS then you think you need. It will normally be enough). I like to sprinkle on salt, paprika, garlic powder and fresh ground black pepper - but feel free to experiment.

Spread the tortillas on a baking tray, but only one chip deep. For this batch I had to do three trays. Bake for about ten minutes, but shake and turn them AT LEAST once during the ten minutes, and keep a very close eye on them in the last three minutes. Crispy and lightly browned is the goal, but there seems to be but 45 seconds between perfect and overdone.

101: "Sticky" rice

Sticky rice, or jasmine rice, is extremely easy to make.

Into a small pot (one with a lid, preferably clear), add: 1 cup rice, 1.75 cups cold water. Swirl the pot a bit if you like, but DO NOT STIR.

Cover the pot and place on a burner set to medium heat. DO NOT STIR.

Bring the pot to a boil but (you guessed it) DO NOT STIR.

Allow to boil for a minute or two, and then turn the heat off. Do not lift the lid, do not peek, and DO NOT STIR.

After about twenty minutes your rice will be perfect!

For asian style dishes, use a spoon to place a scoop of sticky rice in a bowl or plate - but still do not stir.

101: Toast Rounds

A wonderful basic everyone should be able to make. Heat oven to about 400. (I say about because my oven DEFINITELY does not do what I tell it, and I haven't exactley figured out how much it is off)

Lay slices of baguette or similar bread out on a metal cooling rack:


Pop into oven, checking every couple of minutes. Remember, we are just toasting the bread - crisping it and adding a bit of color. 8-10 minutes will probably be enough.

Allow to cool COMPLETELY before you store them in an airtight container.

What to do with toast rounds, you ask? top with a bit of horseradish and mayonaisse, a thin slice of roast beef and a bit of red pepper for an appetizer. OR herbed cream cheese. OR serve alongside chevre (goat cheese) with hot pepper jelly. OR serve with spinach artichoke dip. OR serve with port wine cheese spread ....

101: chicken stock

Sometimes I read cookbooks where the author seems to think we're still cooking on these:

Especially when they say it takes hours to make chicken stock. Yes, good chicken stock must simmer for hours. But that doesn't mean you need to WATCH it simmer! Almost everyone has a crockpot - perfect for chicken broth.

Place chicken bones from one or two chickens in a crockpot. I recently started putting only the large bones in the crockpot. It reduces the mess in straining it later. Add any or all of the following: a few whole peppercorns, a bay leaf, a quartered onion (or if you are quite frugal, save the ends of the onions you normally discard), a chopped carrot, a chopped stalk of celery.

Simmer on your lowest setting overnight. Allow to cool for an hour or more, then pour into a holding container through a strainer.

101: how to pick a roast chicken

"picking" a chicken just means removing the meat from the bones and tearing or chopping the meat - just what you need for soup, chicken salad or casseroles. While you're at it, separate the larger bones for chicken stock.

This is just an exercise in patience - it doesn't take special tools or skill.

I normally use a plastic bag to catch the refuse - the chicken skin, the small bones, and cartlidge.

The large bones go in the crockpot to make stock. (more on that later this week)

The meat, both light and dark, get ripped into small bits.

101: Roast Chicken

Roasting a chicken is a good basic skill for any home cook. Roast chicken is inexpensive yet very tasty. And once you get past the first one, really pretty easy. The leftovers are great for soup, chicken salad, casseroles ...

Preheat oven to 500.

First - place your roasting pan next to the sink. Open the package of chicken in your sink. Remove the plastic bag of ... ummm ... chicken innards. I normally discard these. The days I'm feeling more ambitious I roast them, and use them for making gravy.

Place the chicken, breast side up, in the pan. I normally cook two at once because it is only 10% more work to make two at a time.

Liberally sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place one or more of the following aromatics in and around the chicken: quartered onion, peeled garlic cloves, celery stalks, quartered lemon, peeled shallots, sprigs or rosemary, fresh sage leaves ...

Put the chicken in the oven. After about 30 minutes (after the top skin starts to brown) turn the oven down - to 350 if you're pretty hungry, or 250 if you need to leave the house for a little bit. Roast to an internal temperature of 160. When you take the chicken out of the oven and let it rest it will continue to to rise in temperature in the middle enough to reach the government specified 165.

Allow the chickens to rest at least fifteen minutes before serving. If you're making the chicken specifically for something else, allow the chicken to rest for at least an hour before "picking" so you don't burn your fingers.

101: Croutons

A great frugal use for old bread bits, so you don't just toss them. (bread pudding, french onion soup, bread crumbs or strata would also be good uses). If I had some leftover "good" bread and it's gone a bit stale, I'll throw it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it. A good crouton makes all the difference in an otherwise boring salad (or a pureed soup!)

Cut with a knife into cubes, or just rip your stale bread:

Pour in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil (or melted butter) and toss until each piece has at least a bit of oil. At this you can add seasoning. Salt is a must. Other things you might add (just one or two): pepper, paprika, chili powder, thyme, oregano, garlic salt or garlic powder, powdered parmesan, rosemary.

Bake at 400 or 450, but don't leave the kitchen. I ended up letting them cook about five minutes on one side, pushed them around with a heatproof spatula, and then another five minutes or so. You want them to be lightly browned, but mostly just dry. Let them sit out for a couple of hours to COMPLETELY cool. Store in a plastic bag or airtight container.