Test Kitchen: Viking Gold

This is our go at potato skins - not super healthy, but hey!  They're gluten-free...  We tried both red and gold potatoes, and we're still deciding which we prefer.  It may take another batch to decide...yum.

Viking Gold

10 red potatoes
10 Yukon Gold potatoes
24 oz jalapeno bacon (or bacon cooked with a jalapeno with no seeds or core)
Shredded Mexican blend cheese
Seasoned salt (Lawry's)
Cooking oil

Okay.  First we baked our potatoes in the oven at about 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, until they were just firm enough to stay together, but definitely cooked through. While they were baking, I sliced the bacon into small pieces, then cooked them until golden brown, draining them on a paper towel.  Once the potatoes were out of the oven, we hollowed out the skins and set the cooked potato innards aside for more experimentation.  We left about a quarter to a half an inch of potato "meat" inside the skin.  We discovered that frying makes the best crisp, though oven broiling is an option.  Let's be honest, though.  No one makes potatoes skins to have a "healthy treat," so we fried those bad boys.  Once they were crispy, we immediately (if you don't, they get too soft) sprinkled the interior of the skin with seasoned salt, filled each with cheese, and topped them with jalapeno bacon bits.  We put these on a baking sheet and broiled them until the cheese was melted and a little bubbly.  These were a huge hit with the family test subjects, and the hollowed out skins can be frozen for up to a week for easy prep, as long as they go straight from the freezer into the oil.

Homemade Potato Skins

Homemade Red Potato Skins

So, Ritz and I were experimenting in the kitchen with a recipe for the cafe.  We decided that homemade potato skins would be worth exploring, but that neither of us really like russet potatoes.

Ingredients:

About 8 or so decent-sized red potatoes, washed
1 bag Mexican blend cheese
Bacon ends and pieces
Lawry's Seasoned Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Ritz started the potatoes off, baking them at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes wrapped in foil, though the larger potatoes stayed in the oven a bit longer until they were tender.

After the potatoes cooled off a bit, we sliced each potato in half and scooped out the insides, leaving about a quarter inch or slightly less of the innards around the skin.  After they were hollowed out, we made two separate batches to check taste with our teenage boy audience.

Both batches were fried (I used peanut oil because no one has allergies to that, but I'll use sunflower for the masses, since it has lower occurrences of creating allergy problems).  I seem to have misplaced my lovely home frier with its basket, so I fried them in a pot instead.  Unfortunately, that means I can't estimate the temperature, but I basically just watched them until they were nicely brown.

The first batch was filled with cheese (each got enough cheese that the cheese came up to the level top of the skin, rather than a set amount for each one) and we sprinkled the fried bacon pieces over the tops.  These were then baked in the oven until the cheese got nice and melty, which was around 7 or 8 minutes at 325 degrees.  The boys liked these, but said they were a little bland.

The second batch was sprinkled with a gentle dash of seasoned salt and pepper before being stuffed with the cheese and bacon.  I made half of that batch with the seasoning on the bottom of the potatoes and half with the seasoning inside the bowl of the potatoes, with the taste test winner being the potatoes which had the seasoning inside the bowl area immediately after frying. 

Blackened Pork Loin with Bacon Alfredo Sauce

I was in the mood for something a bit different tonight, so I tried something new.

Blackened Pork Loin

I used the seasoning blend for my blackened chicken, and rubbed it on my pork loin:

2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp powdered chicken bouillon
2 tbsp brown rice flour
dash of sea salt

I preheated the oven to 500 degrees and baked the loin for 10 minutes, then lowered the temperature to 400 and baked it for 50 minutes.  After the timer went off, I checked the meat temperature, and removed the loin to cool.

While it was baking, I prepared the alfredo sauce:

16 oz bacon
6 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup white cooking wine
6 cups half and half or heavy cream
2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

I began by cutting the bacon into pieces, which I then browned.  I removed the cooked bacon bits and added the garlic to the bacon drippings.  After the garlic was a nice golden color, I added the wine and let it cook while I measured out my half and half.  I used my wonderful magic bullet to mix the flour and some of the half and half.  I added the remainder of the half and half to the mixture with the pepper and let it heat.  I added the Parmesan cheese and stirred until it melted, at which point I added the flour and half and half mixture.  When everything was blended nicely and heated through, I added the bacon pieces back in, which had been resting on a paper towel to absorb their extra grease.  The result made a delicious pairing with the spicy pork loin. 

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

Pork loin roast (5 pound) 1 tablespoon olive oil (or more as needed) 1 pound sliced bacon

1 tablespoon rosemary 1/2 tablespoon thyme 1 teaspoon basil 1 teaspoon ground sage ½ tsp oregano 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tsp Seasoned Salt 1 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1.	Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.  Place a lightly greased pyrex roasting pan in the oven.  Combine seasonings in a bowl.  Rub the pork loin with olive oil and spices and place the loin in the hot roasting pan (it will sizzle). Roast for 15 to 20 minutes until the outside is golden and starting to crisp (it will be a bit smokey when you open the oven, so you may want to open a window first). I actually cooked mine on one side for 15 minutes, and turned it over to cook for another 15 minutes, though that is not necessary.
2.	Remove roast from oven and wrap bacon slices vertically around pork roast; do not overlap bacon.  Secure bacon with toothpicks if necessary (I wish I had some!  My husband used all of mine for crafting, and when I flipped my roast, the bacon slid off and I had to re-wrap).  Reduce oven heat to 400 F.
3.	Roast for 15 minutes. Turn pork over and roast for 15 minutes. Continue roasting, turning occasionally until bacon is browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of the roast reads 145 degrees, which should be about 50 minutes. At this point, I turned the broiler on for a few minutes to make the bacon a bit crispier.  Remove the roast from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before carving.   Skim fat from pan juices, leaving browned juices in pan.  Add flour, milk, water, and pepper to make a pork gravy, if desired.

Bacon Chicken & Dumplings

Things have been a little hectic since I started classes again, and I haven't really been experimenting the way I was able to over the summer.  I do plan on trying some new things for Thanksgiving, and last night I tried a variation on an old favorite.

I get daily recipe emails from www.allrecipes.com.  Sometimes I look at the title of the email and delete it without even reading it, and sometimes I actually save it to read later, or open it right then.  I received an email about a week ago titled "Bacon Chicken and Dumplings," and got around to reading it yesterday.  The approach they took to the recipe was very different from the way I make mine, and I thought it might be possible to incorporate some of the ideas into my recipe, but still do it my way.  The empty pot that almost got licked clean by my kids (and my husband) confirmed my suspicions, but I do have to give credit where credit is due, and the inspiration was the email I received from that website.  If you want to check out their recipe, you might enjoy it, but here is what I did:


Bacon Chicken & Dumplings
1.5 pounds bacon (I used hickory smoked)
2.5 pounds chicken, cubed
1 bag frozen southern hash brown potatoes
1 tsp onion powder (the recipe on the other website used actual onion)
12 cups chicken broth (water + bouillon cubes)
3 tsp poultry seasoning
Salt & pepper to taste
Spicy garlic seasoning to taste (I have a grinder, but you can use garlic powder instead)
2 splashes of lemon juice
1 1/2 cups half and half

Dumplings:

4 cups flour
1  tsp baking soda
1  tsp salt
6 tbsp shortening
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp pepper

I normally boil my chicken for chicken and dumplings, so this was the first departure. 

Start with the bacon, and fry it up  to a nice brown color.  Set it to the side as it finishes (leave it for now), and drain almost all of the grease afterwards.  Make sure to keep the drippings!

While cooking the bacon, put the water, bouillon cubes, and the rest of the poultry seasoning into your big silver stock pot and start heating it up (once it boils, turn it down to a simmer).  If you have additional down time in between adding uncooked bacon to the pan and turning the bacon over, prepare your dumpling mixture. 

Dumplings: Mix your flour, soda, and salt and pepper together.  Once the dry ingredients are mixed, cut the shortening in (I use a fork and just make it crumble nicely).  Add your milk and mix.  If you have time before you start your chicken, potatoes and such, go ahead and roll out your dough and slice it into dumpling strips. If you don't have time, you can do it after you add the bacon and cream while your dinner simmers.

Note on the dumplings:  I had to use my hands to finish mixing the dough, and it was a little stickier than my other dumplings, mostly because for my other kind of chicken and dumplings I use a triple batch of dough, and I had to change the mixture since the additional bacon changed how it all went together.  It still worked just fine, and was plenty tasty enough. 

Cook the diced chicken in the bacon drippings and the teensy bit of grease that was left in the pan (hopefully less than a tsp worth of the grease after you drain).  Add the onion powder and about 1 1/2 tsp of the poultry seasoning to the chicken as it cooks.  Once the chicken is mostly cooked through, dump everything from the pan into your large silver stock pot.  Immediately put the potatoes in the already hot frying pan.  When they are lightly browned, added them to the stock pot as well.

Crumbled the bacon and add it to the pot.  Add the half and half.  Bring it back up to boil if the half and half cools the contents too much, then turn it back down, since it should be simmering at about medium low for as much of the process as possible (everything except your initial boil if you can manage it).  Make sure you are happy with the seasoning, and add whatever salt, pepper, garlic, etc. that you need if you aren't.  I used a couple of splashes of lemon juice after I tasted mine at this point in the cooking, just to take a little of the edge off.  I usually use more with my other recipe, but the bacon adds so much to the flavor of this, I didn't want to use too much.  You can even do without if you prefer.  Once you have your seasonings just right, start adding your dumplings. 

If you need to roll out your dumplings and slice them into strips, now is the time.  Once they are ready, feed them into the simmering pot, stirring occasionally so they don't stick together. 

Simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered, and make sure to stir frequently so it does not burn to the bottom of your pot.  Serve a yummy dinner!  If you have any questions, let me know. I'll be happy to answer any that you have.