Cooking like the pros is no easy task

by Rachel Guard and Curt Cashour
FOR THE POST

After watching three cooking shows, this team picked a dish that is easiest for college students to prepare.

Food 911 was the first show. The recipe called for foie gras with figs and port wine sauce. Too bad we were fresh out of foie gras.

The Naked Chef was next. Although we were disappointed that he was clothed, he mentioned "herbs" and our ears perked. Unfortunately, this recipe required gutting a sea bass.

Emeril Lagasse was next, cooking with venison, red wine, noodles and huckleberry. Agreeing to save our venison for a special occasion, the search moved to the Food Network's Web site (http://www.foodtv.com). Here was a recipe for southern fried chicken and candied yams.

Dismembering the chicken was the hardest part of cooking the meal. Unsuccessful in our attempts to cut off the legs and wings, we each grabbed a limb and pulled. Although there were poultry parts flying all over the kitchen, the game of chicken tug-of-war produced two legs, a wing and three random pieces of meat.

Next, the chicken pieces were coated in the breading mixture and fried in vegetable oil over medium heat.

The recipe said the chicken would be done when the breading turned golden brown. That wasn't the case for the two legs, which were black by the time 30 minutes were up. Very colorful indeed, they were bleeding on the inside.

The yams turned out a little better. Once boiled, we set them aside in order to concentrate on the sauce - orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and corn syrup. We then coated the yams with a mixture of the sugars and flour, put them into a deep baking dish, poured the sauce over them and cooked them for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

The art of chicken dismemberment is key to nailing this recipe. Unless one has foie gras in the freezer, in which case we suggest you go for that.

Ingredients:

Southern fried chicken

whole fryer chicken

breading mixture of salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne and flour

Candied yams

4 pounds of yams peeled and boiled

2 cups orange juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup vanilla extract

light corn syrup

1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup flour

More than hot spices come with this meal

by Jay Boehmer and Lauren Gross
The Post

When cooking Cajun Chicken Mustard, the first lesson is to make sure there is a fire extinguisher handy because the seasoning isn't the only hot ingredient - as this team learned from experience.

After watching chef Rick Moonen effortlessly prepare the dish on TV Food Network's show Door Knock Dinners, we set out to recreate this spicy delicacy.

First we mixed the seasoned bread crumbs with the Cajun seasoning and began heating the oil in a frying pan. This first task was simple enough, even for us.

Next the recipe called for chicken tenderloins, but being limited, we had to resort to the closest thing that Bob's IGA offered - chicken breasts.

After breading the breasts we placed (read: threw) the chicken into the scorching hot skillet. Voila! Flames, third degree burns, charred skin - both on the chicken and our arms.

We pressed on after turning down the heat on the range and bandaging our battle wounds. "Fry the chicken until golden brown, about 1 minute," read the recipe.

Thirteen-point-six minutes later the chicken was dark brown on the outside, pink on the inside.

While one chef was weeping over the ruined chicken, the other hopped on the C-train to Sauceville. After carefully blending the milk and butter and then bringing them to a rapid boil, we added an entire jar of Dijon mustard. The urine-yellow mixture continued to simmer over low heat as the chicken's pink flesh turned white, and the brown crust turned black.

Alas, the cooking was done. Then, faster than a speeding whisk, we smothered the charred chicken in the mustard sauce, masking the crispy coating that enveloped the chicken. And for effect we threw in a potato dish and wheat bread.

As all chefs know, presentation is often as important as taste. So we placed a chicken breast at a 42-degree angle on elegant Family Dollar china. And finally, we fed the critic at gunpoint as he choked down the meal accompanied by Kroger applesauce, which he declined.

Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons spicy Cajun seasoning

2 cups seasoned bread crumbs

1 pound chicken tenderloins

2 cups milk

1 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces butter

1 jar Dijon mustard

copy gc

Se: rk 589-6750, kb 589-6020

Cq:

Who needs the right ingredients?!

by Kim Boal and Chris Congeni
FOR THE POST

Cooking is not a skill every college student has, or at least a skill students think they have.

With a simple cookbook, Betty Crocker's Healthy New Choices, random ingredients and a little time on your hands, you can (drum roll, please) cook dinner! As college students, one of us occasionally cooks and one never cooks, but we were ready and willing to put our skills to the test.

Despite the ever-present threat of salmonella, we chose to make chicken. After looking for a recipe that we could tackle, we agreed upon a dish called Peppery Chicken with Pears.

As we looked through the kitchen for ingredients, the realization hit us that all the ingredients for the recipe weren't in the kitchen. But that didn't stop us.

Modifying can be a cook's best friend, so we replaced the ingredients we didn't have with ingredients we did have. Our first missing ingredient was pears (we know - the recipe is called Peppery Chicken with pears), but apples sounded OK to us.

And since we were using apples, we figured we'd add a bit of cinnamon. The recipe didn't call for it, but we think cinnamon always goes well with apples.

The recipe did, however, call for white wine vinegar, and guess what was used instead of the proposed ingredient - white wine.

The recipe also called for honey, but no honey was in the cupboards, so we added sugar instead. Hey, they're both sweet.

Then the magic began. We baked the chicken with black and cayenne pepper and cooked the apples in a skillet with onions, white wine and cinnamon. Twenty-five minutes later, we had a fresh-cooked dinner ready to be devoured.

After a quick batch of a potato side dish and bread, the meal was ready.

From a purely unbiased viewpoint, it turned out great. In conclusion: buy a cookbook, grab a friend, improvise and voila - instant gourmet meals.

Ingredients:

4 Chicken breast halves

3 teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 medium pears

1 medium onion

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons white vine vinegar