Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon

As most of you know, this has been a very emotionally draining week in Happy Valley. So what better way to lift our spirits than some soul food! Food that no matter what is going wrong in our life will make us forget for a brief amount of time what's going on in the outside world. This is definitely one of those dishes. A beautiful piece of filet mignon, wrapped in bacon, nestled in creamy smoked cheddar grits, topped with a spicy cajun hollandaise sauce. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

For the Grits

• 3 cups Water
• Salt
• 3/4 cups quick cooking or old-fashioned grits (not instant!)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 ounces grated smoked white Cheddar
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the Filet Mignon

• 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 2 Filet Mignons (4-6 ounces); at room temperature
• Salt, Pepper & Garlic Powder to taste
• 2 Slices of bacon

For Cajun Hollandaise Sauce

• 2 tablespoons Spanish paprika
• 2 teaspoons New mexican chile powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon chile de arbol
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, clarified and melted
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Dash Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F

In a saucepan bring the water to a boil. Add a generous teaspoon of salt and the grits and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. When grits thicken, add the milk, cream and butter and return to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover the sauce pan and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until grits are very tender, smooth, and creamy-thick. Add the Cheddar, season with black pepper, and stir until cheese is melted.

While your Smoked Cheddar Grits are simmering, heat 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil in a medium sauté pan. Generously season your filet mignon with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Next we want to wrap the strips of bacon around the outside of the filets. You want to wrap the bacon fairly snug around the filet in order to give the it a nice cylinder shape. The ends of the bacon should over lap and adhere to each other enough that it won’t come apart. If the bacon doesn’t stick together, slide a tooth pick in or wrap a piece of butchers twine around to keep it in place. Once your oil is nice and hot, we want to sear both sides of the filet until it’s nice and caramelized, about 2 min per side. Place steaks on a broiler pan and bake until internal temperature is 130° (Medium Rare). Please, for the love of god, don’t cook these beautiful pieces of meat to well done.

Filet's brought to Room Temperature

Filet's seasoned and wrapped in bacon

Filet's post sear

Stir together the paprika, chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, chile de arbol, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Place the egg yolks and lemon juice in a medium stainless steel bowl, set over a pot of simmering water not touching the bottom of the bowl. Whisk the yolks until pale yellow and fluffy. Slowly add the clarified melted butter, a few tablespoons at a time and whisk until thickened. Season the sauce with 2 teaspoons of the spice mixture, salt, and pepper, and a dash Worcestershire sauce. Keep warm until ready to use. Hollandaise Sauce is a challenging sauce to make and does take some practice. If you are having trouble, refer to this video to aid in visualizing the techniques: Hollandaise Sauce Video

Kitchen Word of the Day

Tempering:  To bring to a desired consistency, texture, hardness, or other physical condition by or as if by blending, admixing, or kneading. 

In the case of this recipe we are talking about the temperature of the Filet Mignon. In general, tempering is very important when cooking any meat. Before we sear, bake, broil, sauté, fry any meat it is important that we bring it to room temperature. Think about it, in every cooking method we are setting the device to a certain temperature. If we add a cold or frozen piece of meat to that pre-heated device, we will in fact lower the temperature. Tempering your meat before cooking aids in lowering the cooking time and cooking your protein evenly. 

Buffalo Nuggets

With the changing leaves and the summer breeze turning quickly into winter chill. This time of year brings on one of the greatest American traditions...football. With Football, most Americans have associated 3 food groups with the grid iron, Pizza, Beer & of course the chicken wing. Whether grilled, baked or deep fried we Americans love our chicken wing. Which brings me to my next recipe being featured  on Happy Valley Chow; Buffalo Nuggets (AKA boneless buffalo wings, but I wanted a special name for mine).

Ingredients

• 1.5 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tbsp Onion Powder
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Tsp Kosher Salt
• Pinch of Black Pepper
• 1 Lbs. Cubed Chicken Breasts
• Canola Oil for frying
• Chicken Brine (optional; recipe follows)

Directions

First, combine all the dry ingredients (Flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne pepper & kosher salt) mix with a fork until well incorporated. Separate the flour mixture in half and distribute to two separate bowls. Add the buttermilk to a third bowl and season (to taste) with salt and pepper. 

All of our dry ingredients 

Drudging Station (Flour, Buttermilk, Flour)

To cube the chicken breasts, first remove the tips. Then slice the breasts into 1" thick strips length wise. After you make the strips then you'll want to cut the them into 1" chunks. 

Remove Tips

Cut Into Strips

Cut Into Chunks

Now we are ready to begin frying! Heat enough canola in a large stock pot so that the chicken chunks are covered when we begin frying (for me I put in about 1-2" of oil). Heat the oil to 350-365° F. While the oil is heating begin preparing your first batch of chicken (I started out with 6 pieces) you want to dredge them in flour, then in buttermilk (drain off excess) and then dredge again in flour. After oil is heated add in your first batch and fry until cooked through, about 5-6 min (If you're worried they aren't done, either cut a piece open to make sure it's cooked all the way through or test with thermometer, should read 160°F) transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Repeat until all chunks are fried. 

After all pieces are fried, transfer to a bowl and coat with your favorite sauce or simply don't use any sauce and sprinkle on some fine sea salt, fresh rosemary and thyme. Bon Appétit! 

Looking to kick up your chicken for any meal?? Try this delicious brine!

Ingredients

• 1 Quart Water
• 1/4 Cup of Diamond Krystal Kosher Salt (International Section of most grocery stores)
• 1.5 Tsp Whole Peppercorns
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• 4 Bay Leaves
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 Lemon
• 1/4 Bunch of Parsley 

Directions

Makes 1 Quart

In a medium sauce pan bring water to a bowl. Add in remain ingredients, stir and continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and let cool down completely and transfer(lemon, garlic, everything in the pot)  to a container or 1 quart mason jar and refrigerate. 

Whenever you are ready to brine, just put your chicken in a large zip lock and pour the brine in so that the chicken is completely covered and let sit for about 2 hours or up to 12 hours (note: Brining can make your food taste great, but over brining can lead it to be very salty so experiment with your brining times). 

Kitchen Word of the Day

Mis en Place:   (pronounced [miz ɑ̃ plas], literally "putting in place")  is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as "everything in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that he or she expects to prepare during his/her shift

Prepping everything you need is crucial for any cook, whether they are professional or your average home cook. Having everything in order cuts down on time & stress and will usually increase the quality of your food. 

Baked Chimichangas

My Girlfriend and I absolutely love Mexican, we probably have it once a week. Whenever we go out to Mexican restaurants I usually peruse the menu, but then end up getting "the usual"...chimichangas. Now for me, the perfect chimichanga has a nice crispy tortilla shell and a hot and gooey mixture in the middle (in this case chicken). After going out for chimichangas way to much, I figured it was time to come up with my own variant of the dish that would be an easy and cheap alternative for a week night Mexican crave. So, without further ado, the first recipe presented on Happy Valley Chow...the baked chimichanga!

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 Lbs. Shredded Chicken Breasts
• 1 Can (4.5 oz.) Chopped Green Chiles
• 1 Package of Taco Seasoning
• 4 Flour Tortilla's (10")
• Egg Whites
• 2 Cups Shredded Cheese (Cheddar, Monterey, Pepper Jack, etc. your preference)
• Taco sauce (if desired)
• Sour Cream (if desired)
• Guacamole (if desired)
• Refried Beans (if desired)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F

Heat 1.5 Tablespoons of Olive Oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add in the shredded chicken and canned diced green chilies, mix together until incorporated. Add in package of taco seasoning and add water as directed by packaging. Stir together until combined and let simmer, stirring occasionally over medium heat until hot and the sauce has thickened, about 5 min.

While chicken mixture is simmering, wrap tortillas in a paper towel and microwave until pliable. When chicken mixture has thickened lay out the flour tortillas and spread the egg whites on the outside rim of tortillas. Evenly distribute chicken mixture in the center of the four tortillas. Top with taco sauce (if desired) and cheese.

Heat 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil in medium sauté pan on medium heat. Fold the sides in on the tortillas so that they overlap, then fold down the top and fold up the bottom of the tortilla to enclose the chicken mixture in tortilla, should form a box shape like a little package (refer to 5:00 of video). When oil is heated add in chimichangas folded side down and pan fry on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a baking sheet and put in oven for about 10 min, until crispy and gooey. Cut, plate and add your condiment(s) of choice. Bon Appétit! 

Surf n' Turf Sandwich

Hello Everybody and welcome to Happy Valley Chow! As you probably figured out this is my first ever blog so please forgive me while I'm growing accustom to this website and get a better handle on talking while I cook.  So, for my first blog post, I have decided to post the video of me creating my 6 Foot Surf n' Turf style sandwich that I made for the Nittany Tailgating Association (which I am quite proud of). It was in planning for about 3 months and finally putting it all together was a huge thrill and I couldn't have been any happier with how it turned out. Unfortunately there's no recipe for this post (that's a secret), but please enjoy the video and let me know what you think! Check back frequently for future recipes and other thoughts for foodies. Thanks again for visiting!