wamozart12 had a baby! The wamozart12 family has relied on the kindness of other people to stay fed for the past 4 weeks. wamozart12 enjoys speaking in the 3rd person.
Last night I made dinner for the first time since FC was born. I started the dinner, then FC needed to eat, so Clint finished the dinner, and we cheated and had Pillsbury Grands biscuits instead of homemade biscuits (but boy are those Grands tasty!)
Beef Stew, adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe
2lbs stew beef
1T olive oil
1T butter
2 onions, chopped into medium-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic (which I skipped, no garlic here)
1t Penzey's northwoods seasoning (supposed to be paprika, we're all out)
1t sugar
1t salt
2T Worcestershire sauce
1 bottle stout (or other dark beer)
2oz tomato paste
4 cups water (beef broth is ideal, I had none)
2 parsnips, cut into chunks
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 sweet potato, cut into chunks (we left it unpeeled)
mushrooms (we didn't add, but I wish we'd had some to add)
heat up the butter and oil in a large pot or dutch oven, then add the beef and brown a few minutes. Remove the beef and set aside, and saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes, until translucent. Add the spice mix, sugar, salt, Worcestershire and tomato paste and saute for a minute, then add the beef, stout and water (or broth). Bring to a boil and reduce to very low to simmer for 2-2.5hours. Add more broth/water periodically if the liquid boils off too much.
Then add all the veggies and cook for 30-45 min more.
Optional: if you'd like it thicker, place 2-3 ladlefulls of the stew liquid in a small boil and add 2-3T flour. Whisk thoroughly and then add this paste back to the stew, stir and cook for about 15 minutes more. (you can also add the flour directly to the stew pot, but then you're more likely to get lumps.)
Serve with the store-bought biscuits or some crusty bread, or if you don't have a newborn in the living room, get ambitious and make your own biscuits!
Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
What's Baking? February: Bake your own convenience food!
This month's theme was chosen by Stephanie from Brownies and Blondies. She challenged everyone to bake something they'd normally buy- example were pie crust or pie filling. I thought this was a great theme! And so I thought about what I'd make.
And I thought and thought. I don't buy a lot of baking things. I buy a lot of cooking convenience items, but not a lot of baking ones. So my husband got in on the brainstorming. He had some great ideas, but not things I'd use for baking.
Like cheese. Who makes cheese, really? Well, this girl!
I fully intended to make puff pastry. This has been on my bucket list since I saw the Martha Bakes episode on puff pastry. It looks tedious and time consuming, but not really hard. Well, that never happened- it will, though! I promise, it will happen, and I will blog about it.
So I present to you:
This might seem like a total cop-out, but if we have swedish meatballs (which is rare), we usually buy the big bag from the freezer at Ikea and slowly work our way through them. But one night, something made me think about meatballs- we had 1lb of ground turkey in the freezer, not much else, and it was too late to start chili for dinner. So I went hunting for a meatball recipe, and let me tell you, these are amazing. I'll buy my meatballs from my own chest freezer from now on.
Spiced Apple Swedish Meatballs
adapted from A Spicy Perspective
I made half a recipe- I just had 1lb of ground turkey and no sausage of any kind.
For the meatballs:
1 small onion, chopped finely
1T butter
1lb ground turkey (or beef or lamb, etc)
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup apple butter
2T sour cream or yogurt
1 egg
dash of salt
1/2t allspice
1/4t black pepper
For the sauce:
1/4 cup broth (chicken, beef, veggie, etc)
1/4 cup apple butter
1T honey
pinch of chipotle powder
note: I think I have more homemade items that could be convenience than I thought- the apple butter and chicken broth I used are homemade
Preheat your oven to 400F. Line a *rimmed* baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray.
For the meatballs: finely chop the onion and saute in butter over medium heat until the onion starts to brown. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Then put the onion and all the rest of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and work with your hands to combine everything. Form into small balls and place on the baking sheet- mine were about 1.5T each and I got 44 meatballs from this batch. The original recipe used twice the ingredients and made 45 meatballs so apparently those were quite large!
Bake for 15min at 400. Mean while, make the sauce.
Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk.
After 15min in the oven, take the meatballs off and spoon the sauce over each meatball.
Return to the oven and bake another 7-10 min.
And that's all! Enjoy!
I have to say, these are delicious. They smell delicious when you're making them, they smell delicious when they're baking (and normally I avoid smelling raw meat because I find the smell unpleasant). The combination of the apple butter, allspice and onion is amazing. I bought more ground turkey and also some ground lamb the other day so I can make these again tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Best pulled pork yet
No witty titles on this one, I am getting down to business.
We love pulled pork over here. Pork is our meat of choice, since we are recent converts and need to make up for lost time. Like many others, as children we were introduced to pork as "the other white meat", "other" indicating that it is dry, leathery and either tasteless or weird-tasting, and overall, rather unappetizing. (that being said, chicken was often dry and stringy, so it's a lost cause either way).
My conversion began about 9 years ago, during my 3rd year of grad school. One of my friends was engaged and she and her fiance bought a condo (incidentally, right next door to one of our other friends, which meant we all knew how to find her new place!). This friend happened to be marrying an excellent cook, which was great for her, and also for all of us (although less often). He cooked a few of us dinner one night, and the dinner was salad, pork tenderloin, smashed potatoes, onion cherry compote, and green beans. I am too polite to say, ugh I hate potatoes and pork. Instead, I helped myself to a huge portion of green beans and minimal amounts of pork and potatoes. Then I actually tasted the pork and had to go back for 2nds and 3rds. You see, this was my first introduction to properly cooked pork.
Brian pan seared the pork and then baked it, then used the drippings in the pan to saute onions and make a sauce/compote thing, adding dried cherries. AMAZING. It was so simple, I believe he cooked the entire thing before I finished my glass of wine (and I drank quickly in those days, my friends, as I was only 23). The key was not overcooking it. A slightly, barely pink center is good, that's what you want. If it's white all the way through, it's overdone and will be leathery. But I never knew this! I copied his recipe many times after that, and then started branching out to my own pork recipes.
But ever since, I keep pork tenderloins on hand. They're just so easy! Season, sear, bake til they're around 150, voila! What, like 15 minutes?
So, pork. Today's recipe doesn't use a pork tenderloin though, but tenderloins were the gateway pork for me. Ok I really only buy tenderloins, loins or chops (bone in or boneless), I don't get adventurous with other cuts (mostly because I don't know how to properly cook them, and I don't want to waste a lot of money on meat that I might screw up). I do use a variety of cooking methods for this small selection of cuts.
We're fans of pulled pork (I think the first time I had pulled pork was maybe in 2004 or 2005? Again, anti-pork before that, like, completely and entirely. What was wrong with me?!). Being a recent convert to pulled pork, I don't have any sort of stand-by pulled pork recipe to fall back on, so I have to search for good ones. In the past, I've found decent ones, but the stuff you get at a bbq place is always far better than mine.
Until last night!
I found this recipe on tastespotting (as usual). Clint voted for pulled pork because we had an ancient, freezer-burned 3lb pork loin in the freezer dated 2009. I'm sure some people would not have eaten it, but maybe it's my Yankee upbringing that turns wasting food into a mortal sin, I decided pulled pork would be a good way to use it. Braising is often the cooking style of choice for tougher meats, and the medium/low, slow cooking made me more confident that it would be thoroughly cooked and safe to eat. I did not time this ideally, I started thawing it in room temp water around 11am, and I kind of forgot about it until 2, so by the time I started looking for recipes, I had about 4 hours in which to prepare this. Most of the recipes I found wanted 8-10 hours in the crock pot, but I didn't have 8-10 hours. I'm still not good at converting crock pot times to oven times, but the recipe I found had all of the above, including 3 hours in the oven at 300F. Due to sewing machine malfunctions, it braised for 3.5 hours.
Not only was it thoroughly cooked and safe (18 hours later, I'm still fine), it was delicious. This, my friends, is my go-to recipe for pulled pork. The sauce is a very simple but flavorful affair of maple (be still, my heart!), bourbon (even better!) and other deliciousness. It takes about 2 minutes to put the sauce together, then you plop the pork in an oven-safe pot, pour the sauce over, and bake/braise. Then you pull it, reduce the sauce, and serve. It took us a total of 4 hours, but in the end, the hardest part was pulling the pork (it was hard to get it out of the pot because it kept falling apart, but when pulling it, it keeps sticking to the forks and is annoying. I always nominate Clint to do that part.)
Oh yeah, and I recommend keeping track of what's in your freezer, so you don't end up with 3 year old pork loins like we did.
Maple Bourbon Pulled Pork
recipe from I Adore Food.
1 pork loin, about 2-3 lbs, trimmed of fat and connective tissue
1/2 cup maple syrup
3T bourbon
3T cider vinegar
3T whole grain mustard
2T soy sauce
1/4t cloves
a few grinds of black pepper
1 onion, cut into slices
3 garlic cloves, minced (I actually just smashed these and tossed them in, I'm a little lazy when it comes to mincing garlic)
Note: I omitted the salt, since I was using regular sodium soy sauce and it was fairly salty in the end.
In a bowl (or the pot you're going to use), whisk together the liquids and spices. Put the pork in the pot, and if the sauce is in a separate bowl, pour over the pork. Otherwise, roll the pork around in the sauce to coat on all sides.
Cover the pot and stick in a 300F oven. Braise for 3hours (or more, if you get distracted by the feed dogs on your sewing machine not working), turning the pork over every 45-60 minutes or so.
Remove from oven. Place pork into a bowl, let it cool a bit, then start shredding with two forks. It should be tender enough that it starts falling apart while you're trying to move it (this makes moving it difficult, but it's a sign that it's nicely done). Meanwhile, reduce the sauce (this part is very easy if your baking pot is something like Le Creuset or another stovetop-to-oven material) over medium-high heat until it's nicely thickened.
Mix some or all of the sauce with the shredded pork.
Serve the pork on a roll with some extra sauce over the meat (what I do), or mix all the sauce with the pork and serve on a roll or just on your plate.
I used a 2lb pork loin and got 8 generous helpings for approximately
308 calories, 9.4g fat, 15.4g carbs, 0.3g fiber and 34g protein per serving. Nooot great, but delicious enough to justify it.
But wait, there's more!
I've also been on the hunt for a good slaw recipe. I'm an even more recent convert to cole slaw. I'm not big on mayo, so up til about a year ago, I always avoided cole slaw. But then I had some really delicious cole slaw at The Publick House in Sturbridge, MA (I think they add pineapple) and I started eating cole slaw if it was an option. Clint, however, won't do mayo, so I keep looking for mayo-free slaw recipes, with little luck til now. One interesting version was an asian slaw using fish sauce, which was good the first day, but.... kind of rotten-fishy after that.
Yesterday I was in luck, because I found this delicious apple slaw. I also finally cut the cabbage properly so it's not impossible to chew.
Apple-Cabbage Slaw
recipe from Food Opera
1/2 head of red cabbage
2-3 apples, grated or thinly sliced
Dressing:
1 apple, peeled and cored and quartered
3T rice vinegar
1.5T olive oil
1T lime juice
1/2t brown sugar
Remove the core from the bottom of the cabbage. Slice on a mandoline, and slice to that the core side is flat on the mandoline, to get nice, thin strips. Add the grated/sliced apple.
In a blender or food processor, combine all the dressing ingredients. Blend til you get a nice puree (look below, it's kind of like applesauce). Adjust flavorings if necessary (it wasn't for us), then add to the cabbage and apple and toss.
This makes 8 generous servings, 92 calories, 2.8g fat, 17.6g sugar, 3.3g fiber and 1.1g protein (approx) per serving.
We love pulled pork over here. Pork is our meat of choice, since we are recent converts and need to make up for lost time. Like many others, as children we were introduced to pork as "the other white meat", "other" indicating that it is dry, leathery and either tasteless or weird-tasting, and overall, rather unappetizing. (that being said, chicken was often dry and stringy, so it's a lost cause either way).
My conversion began about 9 years ago, during my 3rd year of grad school. One of my friends was engaged and she and her fiance bought a condo (incidentally, right next door to one of our other friends, which meant we all knew how to find her new place!). This friend happened to be marrying an excellent cook, which was great for her, and also for all of us (although less often). He cooked a few of us dinner one night, and the dinner was salad, pork tenderloin, smashed potatoes, onion cherry compote, and green beans. I am too polite to say, ugh I hate potatoes and pork. Instead, I helped myself to a huge portion of green beans and minimal amounts of pork and potatoes. Then I actually tasted the pork and had to go back for 2nds and 3rds. You see, this was my first introduction to properly cooked pork.
Brian pan seared the pork and then baked it, then used the drippings in the pan to saute onions and make a sauce/compote thing, adding dried cherries. AMAZING. It was so simple, I believe he cooked the entire thing before I finished my glass of wine (and I drank quickly in those days, my friends, as I was only 23). The key was not overcooking it. A slightly, barely pink center is good, that's what you want. If it's white all the way through, it's overdone and will be leathery. But I never knew this! I copied his recipe many times after that, and then started branching out to my own pork recipes.
But ever since, I keep pork tenderloins on hand. They're just so easy! Season, sear, bake til they're around 150, voila! What, like 15 minutes?
So, pork. Today's recipe doesn't use a pork tenderloin though, but tenderloins were the gateway pork for me. Ok I really only buy tenderloins, loins or chops (bone in or boneless), I don't get adventurous with other cuts (mostly because I don't know how to properly cook them, and I don't want to waste a lot of money on meat that I might screw up). I do use a variety of cooking methods for this small selection of cuts.
We're fans of pulled pork (I think the first time I had pulled pork was maybe in 2004 or 2005? Again, anti-pork before that, like, completely and entirely. What was wrong with me?!). Being a recent convert to pulled pork, I don't have any sort of stand-by pulled pork recipe to fall back on, so I have to search for good ones. In the past, I've found decent ones, but the stuff you get at a bbq place is always far better than mine.
Until last night!
I found this recipe on tastespotting (as usual). Clint voted for pulled pork because we had an ancient, freezer-burned 3lb pork loin in the freezer dated 2009. I'm sure some people would not have eaten it, but maybe it's my Yankee upbringing that turns wasting food into a mortal sin, I decided pulled pork would be a good way to use it. Braising is often the cooking style of choice for tougher meats, and the medium/low, slow cooking made me more confident that it would be thoroughly cooked and safe to eat. I did not time this ideally, I started thawing it in room temp water around 11am, and I kind of forgot about it until 2, so by the time I started looking for recipes, I had about 4 hours in which to prepare this. Most of the recipes I found wanted 8-10 hours in the crock pot, but I didn't have 8-10 hours. I'm still not good at converting crock pot times to oven times, but the recipe I found had all of the above, including 3 hours in the oven at 300F. Due to sewing machine malfunctions, it braised for 3.5 hours.
Not only was it thoroughly cooked and safe (18 hours later, I'm still fine), it was delicious. This, my friends, is my go-to recipe for pulled pork. The sauce is a very simple but flavorful affair of maple (be still, my heart!), bourbon (even better!) and other deliciousness. It takes about 2 minutes to put the sauce together, then you plop the pork in an oven-safe pot, pour the sauce over, and bake/braise. Then you pull it, reduce the sauce, and serve. It took us a total of 4 hours, but in the end, the hardest part was pulling the pork (it was hard to get it out of the pot because it kept falling apart, but when pulling it, it keeps sticking to the forks and is annoying. I always nominate Clint to do that part.)
Oh yeah, and I recommend keeping track of what's in your freezer, so you don't end up with 3 year old pork loins like we did.
Maple Bourbon Pulled Pork
recipe from I Adore Food.
1 pork loin, about 2-3 lbs, trimmed of fat and connective tissue
1/2 cup maple syrup
3T bourbon
3T cider vinegar
3T whole grain mustard
2T soy sauce
1/4t cloves
a few grinds of black pepper
1 onion, cut into slices
3 garlic cloves, minced (I actually just smashed these and tossed them in, I'm a little lazy when it comes to mincing garlic)
Note: I omitted the salt, since I was using regular sodium soy sauce and it was fairly salty in the end.
In a bowl (or the pot you're going to use), whisk together the liquids and spices. Put the pork in the pot, and if the sauce is in a separate bowl, pour over the pork. Otherwise, roll the pork around in the sauce to coat on all sides.
Cover the pot and stick in a 300F oven. Braise for 3hours (or more, if you get distracted by the feed dogs on your sewing machine not working), turning the pork over every 45-60 minutes or so.
Remove from oven. Place pork into a bowl, let it cool a bit, then start shredding with two forks. It should be tender enough that it starts falling apart while you're trying to move it (this makes moving it difficult, but it's a sign that it's nicely done). Meanwhile, reduce the sauce (this part is very easy if your baking pot is something like Le Creuset or another stovetop-to-oven material) over medium-high heat until it's nicely thickened.
Mix some or all of the sauce with the shredded pork.
Serve the pork on a roll with some extra sauce over the meat (what I do), or mix all the sauce with the pork and serve on a roll or just on your plate.
I used a 2lb pork loin and got 8 generous helpings for approximately
308 calories, 9.4g fat, 15.4g carbs, 0.3g fiber and 34g protein per serving. Nooot great, but delicious enough to justify it.
But wait, there's more!
I've also been on the hunt for a good slaw recipe. I'm an even more recent convert to cole slaw. I'm not big on mayo, so up til about a year ago, I always avoided cole slaw. But then I had some really delicious cole slaw at The Publick House in Sturbridge, MA (I think they add pineapple) and I started eating cole slaw if it was an option. Clint, however, won't do mayo, so I keep looking for mayo-free slaw recipes, with little luck til now. One interesting version was an asian slaw using fish sauce, which was good the first day, but.... kind of rotten-fishy after that.
Yesterday I was in luck, because I found this delicious apple slaw. I also finally cut the cabbage properly so it's not impossible to chew.
Apple-Cabbage Slaw
recipe from Food Opera
1/2 head of red cabbage
2-3 apples, grated or thinly sliced
Dressing:
1 apple, peeled and cored and quartered
3T rice vinegar
1.5T olive oil
1T lime juice
1/2t brown sugar
Remove the core from the bottom of the cabbage. Slice on a mandoline, and slice to that the core side is flat on the mandoline, to get nice, thin strips. Add the grated/sliced apple.
In a blender or food processor, combine all the dressing ingredients. Blend til you get a nice puree (look below, it's kind of like applesauce). Adjust flavorings if necessary (it wasn't for us), then add to the cabbage and apple and toss.
you can see the dressing in the middle, very applesauce-like!
This is so crisp and delicious! I love the sweet, vinegary appleyness of it. We each had 2 servings last night- 2 big servings.This makes 8 generous servings, 92 calories, 2.8g fat, 17.6g sugar, 3.3g fiber and 1.1g protein (approx) per serving.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Pumpkin time!
It's pumpkin time! I've now had 3 pumpkin spice lattes, made pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies. Today was chilly (my husband turned the heat on yesterday) and my schedule was off as I tried to recover from working 4 days in a row at the winery (i.e. I fell asleep at 9:30pm and got up at 10, and had breakfast at 11) so I felt it was a soup kind of day.
I recently came across a mind-blowing blog- The Pumpkin Project: A Year of Pumpkins. AMAZING, right? She has a complete variety of recipes on there, using everything from puree to roasted pumpkins to pepitas to pumpkin pie spice. I love it. She doesn't weed out recipes to only share the good ones and is honest about the results.
The morning after Gal A blessed my inbox with the url to this blog, I practically blew up my pinterest page with all the delicious-looking recipes I wanted to make. (side note: I've been on pinterest since January 2011, and I never really found a use for it... until now.) One recipe that really caught my eye was the pumpkin tomatillo soup, because one of my knitting buddies had brought her tomatillo harvest to knitting one night to share, and I still had a bunch in my fridge, sitting around because I have no idea what to do with them. (after I started making this soup today, Clint was like, ooh are you making posole? duh! Why did I not think of posole before?! We love posole)
Pumpkin Tomatillo Soup
Recipe from Hello Giggles, by way of The Pumpkin Project
with my modifications!
1 and 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
8 tomatillos, quartered
1 roasted poblano pepper (we used 3 mystery peppers from the farmer's market. I should have used one or two)
1 can of light coconut milk
3/4 cup water (or broth/stock)
2t paprika
1/2t cumin
1/2t coriander
1/4t chipotle
1/4t sea salt
1/4t freshly ground black pepper
Did I mention this is really easy?
Combine everything in a blender and puree til smooth. Pour into a pot and boil for a few minutes to heat thoroughly.
Makes 5 cups. Per 1 cup serving (assuming my calorie calculator has the right coconut milk; there was only one option): 77 calories, 2.6g fat, 132g sodium, 13g carbs, 3.8g fiber, 3.2g protein. And 270% of your daily Vitamin A, bam!
I served with a spoonful of low fat sour cream. I'd originally planned to swirl in my chipotle sour cream (1/4cup low fat sour cream, a couple spoonfuls of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles, a small spoonful of lime juice and a tiny pinch of salt), but the mystery peppers were super duper hot, so I used plain sour cream. Next time I will use a pepper I can identify and avoid this little surprise.
That being said, this was perfect for a chilly day like today. The combination of the pumpkin, coconut milk and tomatillos is really unexpected and different, and really really tasty. It's also super quick and convenient. I think I need to rebuild my stock of coconut milk now!
I ate it with 2 pieces (1.25oz) of whole wheat ciabatta bread, each spread with one wedge of Laughing Cow cheese (one original, one sundried tomato basil, my new fave). The LC didn't really go with the soup, but oh well, it was still tasty.
I recently came across a mind-blowing blog- The Pumpkin Project: A Year of Pumpkins. AMAZING, right? She has a complete variety of recipes on there, using everything from puree to roasted pumpkins to pepitas to pumpkin pie spice. I love it. She doesn't weed out recipes to only share the good ones and is honest about the results.
The morning after Gal A blessed my inbox with the url to this blog, I practically blew up my pinterest page with all the delicious-looking recipes I wanted to make. (side note: I've been on pinterest since January 2011, and I never really found a use for it... until now.) One recipe that really caught my eye was the pumpkin tomatillo soup, because one of my knitting buddies had brought her tomatillo harvest to knitting one night to share, and I still had a bunch in my fridge, sitting around because I have no idea what to do with them. (after I started making this soup today, Clint was like, ooh are you making posole? duh! Why did I not think of posole before?! We love posole)
Recipe from Hello Giggles, by way of The Pumpkin Project
with my modifications!
1 and 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
8 tomatillos, quartered
1 roasted poblano pepper (we used 3 mystery peppers from the farmer's market. I should have used one or two)
1 can of light coconut milk
3/4 cup water (or broth/stock)
2t paprika
1/2t cumin
1/2t coriander
1/4t chipotle
1/4t sea salt
1/4t freshly ground black pepper
Did I mention this is really easy?
Combine everything in a blender and puree til smooth. Pour into a pot and boil for a few minutes to heat thoroughly.
Makes 5 cups. Per 1 cup serving (assuming my calorie calculator has the right coconut milk; there was only one option): 77 calories, 2.6g fat, 132g sodium, 13g carbs, 3.8g fiber, 3.2g protein. And 270% of your daily Vitamin A, bam!
I served with a spoonful of low fat sour cream. I'd originally planned to swirl in my chipotle sour cream (1/4cup low fat sour cream, a couple spoonfuls of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles, a small spoonful of lime juice and a tiny pinch of salt), but the mystery peppers were super duper hot, so I used plain sour cream. Next time I will use a pepper I can identify and avoid this little surprise.
That being said, this was perfect for a chilly day like today. The combination of the pumpkin, coconut milk and tomatillos is really unexpected and different, and really really tasty. It's also super quick and convenient. I think I need to rebuild my stock of coconut milk now!
I ate it with 2 pieces (1.25oz) of whole wheat ciabatta bread, each spread with one wedge of Laughing Cow cheese (one original, one sundried tomato basil, my new fave). The LC didn't really go with the soup, but oh well, it was still tasty.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
beer + chicken = yum
That's kind of exciting, right?
I recently renewed my subscription to Cooking Light. Gal A (thanks to Gal M for our new monikers) gave me a subscription a few years ago for my birthday, and I kept it up until maybe 6 months ago, when I decided to let all my subscriptions lapse in an effort to save money. Now my etsy shop is doing better, so I took my hard-earned sewing money and renewed. 2 weeks ago, 2 issues arrived together- October, with a cover full of enticing quick breads, and September, full of chicken recipes.
Now, I'm weird about chicken. I like it, technically, but I don't often experiment with it. Don't get me wrong, we have chicken all the time here (mostly because I need chicken stock for so many recipes, so we always have a lot of bone-in chicken in the freezer to make more stock), but it's always chicken soup, tacos, etc. But when I'm presented with a bunch of quick, easy and healthy chicken recipes for dinner... well, who can resist that?
The Beer and Honey Chicken was the main one that caught my eye. And beer... I can get that at work! It's very easy, just saute chicken breasts and then saute onions (supposed to be shallots) and whisk together beer, honey, mustard and soy sauce. For this recipe, I used our Oaktoberfest, which was just recently put on tap. I brought a growler home, since it's $6.50 for the equivalent of almost 6 bottles. Yesss, we could have just opened up a bottle, but I like this beer.
We had this with a CL sweet potato recipe (idea) and it was a great combination. Actually, we liked this so much that after dinner last night (the leftovers), we discussed how sad we were that it was all gone, and decided I needed to make it again tonight. So with tonight's leftovers to eat tomorrow (since I'm working all day), it'll be 4 dinners in a row of beer and honey chicken. This big run of leftovers isn't for everyone, but this recipe is delicious enough that it's great for us!
Beer and Honey Chicken
recipe from Cooking Light
2 chicken breasts, cut into 2 super thin pieces, a horizontal slice
1T oil
salt and pepper
2 shallots, minced (or I used one onion and 2 garlic cloves instead)
6 mushrooms, sliced (my addition)
1/2 cup beer, I used our new Oaktoberfest from the winery, CL recommends something like Blue Moon but I would go with something a little fuller.
1T whole grain mustard
1T honey
2T soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
2T fresh parsley
In a large pan/skillet (I used my Le Creuset braiser, love that thing), heat the oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then place in pan. Cook on both sides until cooked through (about 6 min total). Meanwhile, whisk together the beer, honey, mustard and soy sauce. Remove the chicken from pan and add the shallots, onion, garlic, mushrooms, whatever you're using. Cook a couple minutes, then pour in the beer mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, until the liquid is reduced almost by half. Put the chicken back in, turn to coat with the sauce all over every so often, for a couple minutes. Top with parsley, and it's ready to eat!
We served it with a mashed sweet potato idea/recipe from the same issue.
Chipotle Lime Sweet Potatoes
recipe from Cooking Light, this link actually takes you to a variation but it's pretty much the same, just different flavors
(this is a halved recipe, which makes 4 servings)
2 sweet potatoes
1.5t lime juice
1T milk (we used apple cider the first time)
1.5t brown sugar
1/2t minced chipotle in adobo
1/2t adobo sauce
pinch of salt
Prick the sweet potatoes a few times with a fork, then wrap each in a damp paper towel and microwave on high for 8 minutes, turning each over halfway through (it should be soft, if not, cook longer). Cut in half and scoop the insides and place in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mash together.
This is our favorite, and was also (fortunately!) the healthiest option in the "Sweet Potatoes 4 Ways" article. The other ways were brown sugar pecan, sage parmesean and something with bacon. I want to try them all!
It took about 30 minutes from pulling out the ingredients to sitting down to eat, which is just lovely. And it's tasty!
I'm considering a pork version of this, although our growler is almost empty.
I recently renewed my subscription to Cooking Light. Gal A (thanks to Gal M for our new monikers) gave me a subscription a few years ago for my birthday, and I kept it up until maybe 6 months ago, when I decided to let all my subscriptions lapse in an effort to save money. Now my etsy shop is doing better, so I took my hard-earned sewing money and renewed. 2 weeks ago, 2 issues arrived together- October, with a cover full of enticing quick breads, and September, full of chicken recipes.
Now, I'm weird about chicken. I like it, technically, but I don't often experiment with it. Don't get me wrong, we have chicken all the time here (mostly because I need chicken stock for so many recipes, so we always have a lot of bone-in chicken in the freezer to make more stock), but it's always chicken soup, tacos, etc. But when I'm presented with a bunch of quick, easy and healthy chicken recipes for dinner... well, who can resist that?
The Beer and Honey Chicken was the main one that caught my eye. And beer... I can get that at work! It's very easy, just saute chicken breasts and then saute onions (supposed to be shallots) and whisk together beer, honey, mustard and soy sauce. For this recipe, I used our Oaktoberfest, which was just recently put on tap. I brought a growler home, since it's $6.50 for the equivalent of almost 6 bottles. Yesss, we could have just opened up a bottle, but I like this beer.
We had this with a CL sweet potato recipe (idea) and it was a great combination. Actually, we liked this so much that after dinner last night (the leftovers), we discussed how sad we were that it was all gone, and decided I needed to make it again tonight. So with tonight's leftovers to eat tomorrow (since I'm working all day), it'll be 4 dinners in a row of beer and honey chicken. This big run of leftovers isn't for everyone, but this recipe is delicious enough that it's great for us!
Beer and Honey Chicken
recipe from Cooking Light
2 chicken breasts, cut into 2 super thin pieces, a horizontal slice
1T oil
salt and pepper
2 shallots, minced (or I used one onion and 2 garlic cloves instead)
6 mushrooms, sliced (my addition)
1/2 cup beer, I used our new Oaktoberfest from the winery, CL recommends something like Blue Moon but I would go with something a little fuller.
1T whole grain mustard
1T honey
2T soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
2T fresh parsley
In a large pan/skillet (I used my Le Creuset braiser, love that thing), heat the oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then place in pan. Cook on both sides until cooked through (about 6 min total). Meanwhile, whisk together the beer, honey, mustard and soy sauce. Remove the chicken from pan and add the shallots, onion, garlic, mushrooms, whatever you're using. Cook a couple minutes, then pour in the beer mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, until the liquid is reduced almost by half. Put the chicken back in, turn to coat with the sauce all over every so often, for a couple minutes. Top with parsley, and it's ready to eat!
We served it with a mashed sweet potato idea/recipe from the same issue.
Chipotle Lime Sweet Potatoes
recipe from Cooking Light, this link actually takes you to a variation but it's pretty much the same, just different flavors
(this is a halved recipe, which makes 4 servings)
2 sweet potatoes
1.5t lime juice
1T milk (we used apple cider the first time)
1.5t brown sugar
1/2t minced chipotle in adobo
1/2t adobo sauce
pinch of salt
Prick the sweet potatoes a few times with a fork, then wrap each in a damp paper towel and microwave on high for 8 minutes, turning each over halfway through (it should be soft, if not, cook longer). Cut in half and scoop the insides and place in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mash together.
This is our favorite, and was also (fortunately!) the healthiest option in the "Sweet Potatoes 4 Ways" article. The other ways were brown sugar pecan, sage parmesean and something with bacon. I want to try them all!
It took about 30 minutes from pulling out the ingredients to sitting down to eat, which is just lovely. And it's tasty!
I'm considering a pork version of this, although our growler is almost empty.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Summertime, and the eating is good...
Yeah that doesn't really work with the melody of "Summertime", but it's accurate. The eating is very good in our house.
But I have NEWS. Food-related news. I am on a "diet"! I "" it because I stopped thinking about "dieting" as "dieting" 12 years ago when I started going to weight watchers. I prefer to think of it as "rethinking what I eat." Because what good is going on a diet for a month, losing 10 or 15 or 50 lbs or whatever (don't lose 50 in one month, that's not healthy!) and then realizing you can't maintain your new "diet" long term, and gaining all or most back? That's just depressing. As someone who is more interested in eating delicious food than making sure it's healthy (there's something to be said for that, and you definitely can make delicious and super healthy food, but I have a serious sweet tooth and am somewhat lazy), I'd rather just educate myself on my food intake.
I also went to a new ear doctor at the beginning of July who recommended a low salt, low caffeine and low alcohol lifestyle to keep my ear stable (fluid is vital to ears, and a high salt diet will really mess up the equilibrium), so it was then that I started really thinking about what I was eating. Also, when I went to the national DAR meeting at the end of June last year, I was so busy and was basically eating just fruit and yogurt in any spare minute I could find, not the lavish sit-down meals at Old Ebbitt's Grill that we'd enjoyed in previous years (best crab cakes ever!), that I lost almost 5 lbs in 9 days, which made my size 8 capris fit and me very happy. This year, I was just as busy but sadly did not lose any weight , but a week after we got back, I shot up to a somewhat horrifying weight I hadn't seen since high school. I realized an immediate change, a "rethinking" was in order.
Step 1: I began to write down everything I ate. I didn't count any calories, I just acquainted myself with what I was eating. I learned that I snack a LOT. And I make very poor choices when I snack.
Step 2: I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app on my iphone (it's free!). I did start calculating calories after that first week, and then my husband said, you know, I bet there's an app for that. There is indeed. It's easy to input your food and it helps you calculate the calories and other nutritional info. Based on your current weight and height, your normal activity level and your desired weight loss rate, it calculates how many calories you can have in a day. There's a spot to enter in your current weight. And even better, it remembers the food you've eaten before, so if you eat the same thing every day (like I do, for the most part) it's right there and you just need to select it.
Step 3: I actually haven't gotten here yet: exercise. I am lazy and hate to exercise. I walk instead of driving whenever it's possible, but I choose not to count it as exercise, especially since I'm pretty sure each walk is burning less than 100 calories.
Since the day I stepped on the scale and saw the "horrifying weight", I've lost 11 lbs. I've set my app to lose only 1lb a week, and it's been a month, but I'm still overeating (according to their calculations) yet still losing. This makes me think I was horrible, horrible snacker before.
Now this dress fits! Much excitement :)
Fortunately, with the farmer's market just down the street, it's very easy to eat large quantities of nutritious and low-calorie food, like beets, cabbage, zucchini, etc. I'm not overly hungry, and sometimes when I have a very large helping of veggies (such as the night I decided to just cook up all the broccoli, it was a very small head of broccoli and I'm the only one here who likes it) I'm pretty full. The nestle's chocolate chip cookie recipe comes out to 150 calories per ounce of dough. My "big" cookies are about 1oz. I think my big splurge right now is corn on the cob (usually no butter), it looks healthy but it's like 90 calories an ear.... and I can easily gobble up 4 ears of corn at dinner- I loooove fresh corn.
Anyway, that's my current update. Please note: this isn't necessarily right for everyone. It may not even be the best thing for me, but I feel good, I'm healthy (my doctors agree) and I'm sticking to it. The only thing I can recommend is being fully aware of what you eat. If you're not happy with your weight, write down your food intake. Pay attention to your activity. A lot of weight-gain seems to be because people just aren't paying attention to what they're doing. It's far too easy to open that tupperware container of chocolate chip cookies and lose track of how many you've eaten.
Because of my efforts, I'm not baking much (except bread, since I have toast for breakfast every day) unless it's to bring somewhere or give someone. I reallllly want to make some jerky, we bought some at the VT beer festival and it's delicious, makes a very filling snack (even just a couple bites) and it's only 70 calories an ounce! 1oz of jerky is kind of a lot, too.
But now to the recipes. We've been eating a ridiculous number of turkey burgers. At about 300 calories a burger, plus an ear of corn and some broccoli or a helping of corn and blueberry salad, it's a very filling dinner for a decent number of calories. I've also been playing around with a lot of Penzey's spice blends: Northwoods on corn on the cob makes you forget you ever even put butter on corn in the first place, and Muskego Ave seasoning on broccoli will make you devour the entire head of broccoli (unfortunately, both of these blends contain salt so watch out).
Turkey Burgers
recipe adapted from a recipe from the July/August issue of Everyday Food
1lb ground turkey
3T panko
1T whole grain mustard
1t dried sage
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Mix all together. Form into 5 patties, and grill or broil until done (like 5-7 minutes on each side)
Easy peasy! We've been buying some delish whole wheat ciabatta rolls at the grocery store, which are 140 calories each, although the photos here are of kaiser rolls- we've tried just about every roll they carry. I should dig up my burger bun recipe and just make my own, because those were pretty darn good.
Blueberry Corn Salad
loosely adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod
kernels from 3-4 ears of cooked (steamed, boiled, grilled) corn, cut off (however much you have)
3/4-1 cup blueberries (or more, or less)
2T lime juice
1T honey
2T minced pickled jalapenos
1/2t cumin
1/4t chipotle powder (or less)
dash salt
Whisk the lime juice, honey, and spices together, then toss with the corn, berries and jalapenos.
This is delicious. I've made it like 5 times now. Last night I actually got a little crazy and substituted this for corn and bean salad for our fish tacos. There is about 400-500 calories in the entire salad (depending on how much corn and how many blueberries you use, last night's batch was 312g corn (312 cal) and 300g blueberries (170 cal), and we usually get 6-8 servings out of each batch. Help yourself to seconds!
You also see on my plate onion rings. These are not healthy. They're not exactly unhealthy, since they're baked. They're dipped in flour, dunked in flour/egg/buttermilk and coated in panko drizzled with olive oil. They are ridiculously good, but I haven't made them nor calculated the calories since I started paying attention to my food intake. I'll report back when I figure it out! I like to eat them with storebought BBQ sauce. This is also not all that healthy, but it's my little indulgence!
Friday, April 27, 2012
What's Baking? April: Baking with Yeast
Lindsay of Peace, Love and French Fries chose the theme for this month, and she chose yeast! Her intent was to try to get people who haven't done much/anything with yeast before to give it a try. Obviously I'm not one of those yeast-fearers, but I did try to make some I've never done before. Originally I planned to make soft pretzels, but things were way too hectic to plan for that. Fortunately, I had another recipe in the back of my mind that was a little easier.
Pitas!
I'd wanted to make pitas ever since someone mentioned how she never bothers buying them anymore because her homemade ones are so much tastier and are easy to make. I can't really compare these to storebought pitas because I have never found any in my area. Because of that, pitas aren't really on my radar, I never think of them as an option for anything. After my first attempt at making them, that's totally changed!
Homemade Pitas
recipe adapted from Tide and Thyme
I only use active dry yeast, since I buy it in bulk (2 cup deli containers) at the store, and that's all there is in bulk. The original recipe used instant.
3-4 cups flour1.5t salt
1T sugar
1T yeast
1 and 1/4 cups warm water
2T olive oil
Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water, let sit for a few minutes to let the yeast wake up. In a medium bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), combine 3 cups of flour and the salt, and then add the yeast mixture and oil and stir together with a wooden spoon, until the mixture forms a ball. If it seems dry, add a little more water.
Knead for about 10 minutes- either by hand or with your stand mixer. While kneading, gradually add more flour until the dough is tacky but not sticky (I added an extra 3/4 cup or so).
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, roll the dough around so it's oiled all over, and cover with a dish towel and let rise for 1.5-2 hours in a warm spot.
After the dough has approximately doubled in size, punch it down and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll each into a ball, and place on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp dish towel. Let rest on the counter for about 20 minutes.
On a well-floured surface, roll out each dough ball to a round with about 1/4in thickness, about 6-8 inches in diameter. If you're having trouble getting the dough to stretch, let it rest and come back to it after working on the others. Place all the rounds on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, cover with the damp towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.
Now preheat the oven to 450F, and preheat the baking surface- either a baking stone or a cookie sheet. My baking stone is small so I used a cookie sheet. When the pitas are done rising, open the oven and place each round directly on the preheated baking surface- using my biggest cookie sheet I could fit 4 pitas at a time. Bake for 3 minutes (or up to 6-8 if you want them a little crispy). They'll puff up impressively.
Now fill them and enjoy!
The reason I made these pitas the day I did is that I had some ground lamb in the freezer and a recipe from the Sandwich King I wanted to try. Greek tacos! Ground lamb cooked with chopped onions, tomato paste and oregano, made into a pita sandwich with some tzatziki and a cucumber-tomato-red onion relish
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Authentic, Americanized
I love Indian food. It's like spicy comfort food- creamy sauces, chewy, buttery bread, and all these delicious flavors I can't even identify. Unfortunately, I can't really make good Indian food. Oh, I've tried! Tried and tried. It's good, it's just not quite right. The curries I make are kind of thin and missing something. I follow the recipes, I have all the ingredients, so I don't know what's missing.
So I decided to turn to someone I thought would give me a good recipe- an authentic recipe, but one that fits an American kitchen with ingredients from American grocery stores- Aarti Paarty! I love her. She's so fun and cheerful and cooks these amazing things- not just Indian food, but all sorts of lovely and interesting things (like celery root with vanilla and black pepper... I'm very eager to cook that one, if I could ever remember to look for celery root at Big Y!)
Last night I made an Aarti dinner: chicken tikka masala, basmati rice, and naan. None of it tasted like what you'd get in an Indian restaurant, but it was much closer than any other recipe I'd used! The kitchen was a little frantic with 3 unfamiliar recipes, but I fit it all on the stove and everything was hot when we ate it. I call that a success!
Chicken Tikka Masala
Aarti Sequeira's recipe
Marinade:
1 cup yogurt (I used nonfat Greek)
1T freshly grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, pressed in a garlic press
salt and pepper
1lb of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used 2lbs of bone-in thighs)
In a medium bowl, mix the yogurt, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper, and then add the chicken. Move the chicken around to coat it well on both sides with the yogurt mixture, and leave for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge. I marinaded about 2 hours at room temp.
Sauce:
3T butter
2t olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
2-inch piece of ginger, grated
2 serrano pepper, minced (I used 3 sanaam chilis, which is all we had on hand)
2T tomato paste
2t paprika
1t garam masala
8 Roma tomatoes, diced (I used one can of tomatoes- I forgot how Clint devours tomatoes!)
1 1/2t salt
2 cups water
1T dried fenugreek leaves, optional (I used dried cilantro)
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used my favorite fat free 1/2&1/2!)
In a large skillet, melt the butter and oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and peppers and cook, stirring, until the mixture just begins to brown (about 5 minutes). Add the tomato paste and cook until it turns darker, about 3 minutes, then add in the paprika and garam masala and cook until fragrant- about 1 minute. Now add the tomatoes, salt and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer 20 minutes. Then remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Place in a blender and puree, then return to the skillet.
Meanwhile, heat up the broiler. Line a cookie sheet with foil for easy clean-up, and place the chicken on the foil. Broil for about 10 minutes, flip the thighs and broil for another 10.
Place the broiled chicken in the pureed sauce in the pan, and place over medium heat. Cook for about 15 minutes and then stir in the cream (or 1/2&1/2). Serve with naan and/or rice.
Naan
Aarti's recipe
1t active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (not too hot, around 100F is good)
2t sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1t fine sea salt
1/8t baking powder
3T plain yogurt (I used nonfat Greek again)
2T extra-virgin olive oil
melted butter, about 1-2T
sea salt
dried basil or cilantro, or other tasty herbs
In a cup or small bowl, combine the water, yeast and sugar. Let sit til the yeast wakes up, about 10 minutes. Stir in the yogurt and olive oil. In a larger bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the yeast/water mixture to the flour mixture. It's very, very sticky, but once all the dry ingredients are incorporated, start kneading with your hands- it'll get a little more elastic and will come together, although it'll still stay pretty sticky. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a dishtowel or plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 2-4 hours.
After the dough has risen, divide it into 6-8 equal-sized balls of dough. Get a small bowl of cool water to have on hand. Roll out on a floured surface into oval/teardrop shapes (teardrop is traditional, although I was doing too much at this point so honestly, just roll it out, it could be a parallelogram for all it really matters). Heat a large pan or griddle over high heat. Take one rolled-out piece of dough. Wet your hands in the bowl of water, flip-flop the dough between your hands to dampen, and then slap in the hot pan. Cook for one minute, then flip and then cover the pan and cook for an additional 30sec-1min. The naan will get a little charred but that's just how it is. Remove from the pan and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and dried herbs (I used cilantro this time but I've also done basil in the past, both are good). Serve warm. These reheat fairly well.
And finally, I used Aarti's basmati rice recipe, which honestly wasn't all the great, but I attribute it more to my inability to make good rice and the fact that I used brown basmati instead of regular, than the recipe itself. It calls for rinsing the rice, something I don't think I've ever done before. It lenghtens the time it takes to make rice, which, if you ask me, is too long anyway. I want to get some regular basmati rice and try it again sometime.
And the results? Well I already told you about the rice. The naan was good. I didn't roll it out evenly, so some of the pieces had a very doughy edge, but that's ok. Brushing with butter and sprinkling with salt was quite tasty, as it is butter and salt. I'd never seen a naan recipe with baking powder, and I do think this was a better recipe than any of the others I'd used before. The chicken tikka masala wasn't quite authentic, but it was loads better than any of the other chicken tikka masala recipes I've tried before. And the kitchen smelled delicious.
One thing, though- I don't recommend a meal with 3 brand-new recipes, it's too hard to stay on top of things. I'd also intended to make some maple-roasted brussels sprouts, since Clint will eat them if they're roasted and we have a ton (thanks, BJ's! lol sometimes I love buying in crazy bulk sizes) but I actually forgot completely about that intention until the last naan was in the pan. oops!
So in the end, I highly approve of the chicken tikka masala and the naan. I'll give the rice another try next time. And there are no pictures because we were too eager to eat it all!
Today I meant to do a lot with yeast, but it didn't really happen- I'm making a bread with a sponge (I've never done this before!) and forgot I was going to bake it today- postponed til tomorrow! And I tried to make pizza crust.... but didn't realize I forgot to add the yeast until it'd been "rising" entirely unsuccessfully for almost 3 hours. d'oh! I sprinkled in yeast and kneaded some more, and we'll see what happens with that. It's such a shame though, I'd added all these fabulous herbs and spices to make the dough even more delicious! That'll teach me to email people while I'm cooking!
I made Aarti's tikka masala a second time and added brussels sprouts! I know, it was a weird idea, but it kind of worked. It's a relatively easy way to get some extra veggies.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
What's Baking? November: Savory Treats
This month, Jey of the Jey of Cooking chose to have us all bake something savory. Originally I wanted to make some cheesey biscuits or crackers, or something with lots of herbs. But alas, I was only at home for about half of the month, so things got a little tricky. And on top of that, I am full-on in the Christmas rush for my etsy shop! Which is great, but it means I'm not cooking much... or at all.But tonight! Tonight I decided to utilize all the leftover turkey my parents gave us. What to do, though? This year I got sick and didn't get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my entire family, and therefore missed Uncle Bob's chicken pie, which is the FAVORITE dish at Thanksgiving. Turkey? whatever. We go for the chicken pie. It's a huge tradition, and Uncle Bob's is amazing. So having missed that, I thought, I should try to make my own version! Huge success. This is my top recipe for leftover poultry.
Chicken Biscuit Pie
adapted from foodnetwork.com
Pie
2T unsalted butter
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
8 mushrooms, quartered
1/2t salt
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
herbs of your choice (I used 1T of a poultry seasoning blend from Stonewall Kitchens)
1/3 cup flour
4 cups chicken stock
leftover chicken or turkey (original recipe calls for 4 cups, I used about 2 and it was enough)
freshly ground pepper
In a 9in oven-safe skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat and add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions and salt. Cook for about 4 minutes. Add the herbs
and then the flour, and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for a few minutes, til thickened. 
Add the turkey/chicken, bring to a boil, and remove from heat. 
Now make the biscuits.Biscuit topping
2 cups flour
1T baking powder
1/2t salt
1t sugar
6T butter (original recipe says 7)
3/4 cup milk
Whisk the dry ingredients together, then rub in the butter 2T at a time with your fingers. Stir in the milk, stirring until just barely combined. Place the biscuit dough on a floured board and knead for a few seconds, then roll out to a 10in circle, to fit over the chicken veggie mixture (or just break into single serving-sized pieces). Place the biscuits on top of the chicken/veggie mixture and bake at 425F for 40-50 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
This was delicious! It's pretty quick: baking it takes a little time, but it's quick and easy to put together. The biscuit top was light and fluffy but with a nice crust, and the chicken and gravy mixture was so flavorful with the herbs and pepper and veggies. I usually don't put mushrooms in chicken pot pie, but now I realize I really should!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Bulgogi
Isn't that a fun word? I love saying it.
We had beef bulgogi at the food and wine festival at Disney World a few weeks ago- I've been writing this post for over a week now, it's actually kind of embarrassing I can't get it done. But you know why? Inserting photos into blogger is a huge pain in the... you know. And the F&W post will have upwards of 30 photos. It's a daunting task.
I'm also lazy and have attention span issues lately. But that's neither here nor there. Also? I opened an etsy shop. Making things for my etsy shop takes up a lot of my time- but it's super fun so I usually don't care that I completely miss lunchtime and forget about making dinner until 9pm (which then means that we have cereal or sandwiches for dinner- until I got smart and made a huge batch of pulled pork and homemade grinder rolls, allowing dinner to be thrown together in about 10 minutes). Clint may not agree with the funness being worth eating at 10pm, but pulled pork heals all wounds.
Go see my etsy shop! Sorry, end of advertisement.
So let me quickly tell you about this pork bulgogi recipe I made.
It's not authentic, it's Martha Stewart. But inauthentic can still be delicious! (especially when it's Martha Stewart) It was lovely and easy and thinking about eating the leftovers 2 days later was particularly joyful. We served it with sushi rice for a super yum meal.
Pork Bulgogi
Recipe from Martha Stewart
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2T sugar
1T sesame oil
2t crushed red pepper (I used 2t sriracha, use 1t if you don't want it really spicy)
2t ginger, freshly grated (I used ground ginger, I was lazy)
1/4t ground pepper
1lb pork tenderloin, very thinly sliced crosswise
1 onion, cut into 12 wedges
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips (my addition)
Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
In a shallow pan, assemble the marinade: whisk together the garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, crushed red pepper/sriracha, ginger and pepper. Slice the pork very thinly across, and add to the marinade. Stir around to coat, cover with plastic wrap and marinate for 10-15 minutes (I left it on the counter to marinate).
Spray a large pan with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper and pork with marinade (in 2 batches if necessary), and stir fry until pork is cooked through, about 5 minutes. If cooking in batches, place on a plate while cooking the next batch, and when everything's done, add back the already-cooked back to warm back up. Serve over rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
This was such an easy dish, and is very flavorful. I cut corners by using ground ginger instead of fresh, but really, it was still great. 2t of sriracha makes it my ideal degree of hot- hot so you notice and after several bites you need some water, but not burn-your-mouth-immediately hot. Of course, we all have different preferences for spiciness, and Clint didn't think this was hot at all. The marinade makes a nice salty, sweet glaze. I plan to make this again.
We had beef bulgogi at the food and wine festival at Disney World a few weeks ago- I've been writing this post for over a week now, it's actually kind of embarrassing I can't get it done. But you know why? Inserting photos into blogger is a huge pain in the... you know. And the F&W post will have upwards of 30 photos. It's a daunting task.
I'm also lazy and have attention span issues lately. But that's neither here nor there. Also? I opened an etsy shop. Making things for my etsy shop takes up a lot of my time- but it's super fun so I usually don't care that I completely miss lunchtime and forget about making dinner until 9pm (which then means that we have cereal or sandwiches for dinner- until I got smart and made a huge batch of pulled pork and homemade grinder rolls, allowing dinner to be thrown together in about 10 minutes). Clint may not agree with the funness being worth eating at 10pm, but pulled pork heals all wounds.
Go see my etsy shop! Sorry, end of advertisement.
So let me quickly tell you about this pork bulgogi recipe I made.
It's not authentic, it's Martha Stewart. But inauthentic can still be delicious! (especially when it's Martha Stewart) It was lovely and easy and thinking about eating the leftovers 2 days later was particularly joyful. We served it with sushi rice for a super yum meal.
Pork Bulgogi
Recipe from Martha Stewart
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2T sugar
1T sesame oil
2t crushed red pepper (I used 2t sriracha, use 1t if you don't want it really spicy)
2t ginger, freshly grated (I used ground ginger, I was lazy)
1/4t ground pepper
1lb pork tenderloin, very thinly sliced crosswise
1 onion, cut into 12 wedges
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips (my addition)
Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
In a shallow pan, assemble the marinade: whisk together the garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, crushed red pepper/sriracha, ginger and pepper. Slice the pork very thinly across, and add to the marinade. Stir around to coat, cover with plastic wrap and marinate for 10-15 minutes (I left it on the counter to marinate).
Spray a large pan with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper and pork with marinade (in 2 batches if necessary), and stir fry until pork is cooked through, about 5 minutes. If cooking in batches, place on a plate while cooking the next batch, and when everything's done, add back the already-cooked back to warm back up. Serve over rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
This was such an easy dish, and is very flavorful. I cut corners by using ground ginger instead of fresh, but really, it was still great. 2t of sriracha makes it my ideal degree of hot- hot so you notice and after several bites you need some water, but not burn-your-mouth-immediately hot. Of course, we all have different preferences for spiciness, and Clint didn't think this was hot at all. The marinade makes a nice salty, sweet glaze. I plan to make this again.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
German-inspired dinner
For some reason, pork chops (except for stuffed pork chops) kind of remind me of German food. Perhaps because once upon a time, I hated pork and I didn't really like German food? Also, German restaurants were once almost the only place I ever saw pork- but we're talking back in the '80s, when food and restaurants were rather different than the are now.
Fortunately, by now I've had good German food (a matter of both going to different restaurants and one restaurant just being better), and I learned how to cook my own pork chops so they're not dry and leathery. And I therefore like to eat a lot of each.
We were trying to use up the pork in our freezer, so I was looking for pork recipes. Martha Stewart has these great themed slideshows, and I found the pork one. So many delicious-looking pork recipes! Because we had apples that needed to be used up, the pork chops with apple chutney immediately caught my eye. And wonder of wonders, it was pretty quick and easy.
You'd think that while being a housewife, "quick and easy" isn't really necessary anymore, but I have other things to take up my time... I'll share more info soon ;)
(most boring plating ever, right? I wish I'd at least put this on the blue plate)
Pork Chops with Apple Chutney
recipe from Martha Stewart
For the pork chops:
2T olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
4 boneless center-cut pork chops (1 1/4 pounds), cut 3/4 inch thick
For the apple chutney:
1T olive oil
1 onion, coarsely diced
4 green apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1t ground ginger
1/4t dry mustard
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Preheat the oven to 400F. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides. In a large oven-safe skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sear the pork, about 5min on each side. Then transfer to the oven and cook til the meat is 155F, about 5-8 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the chutney. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil and add the onion. Cook, stirring often, until it begins to turn translucent, about 5 min. Add the diced apple and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the vinegar, raisin, ginger, mustard and cayenne pepper, and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Plate the pork chops and pour the chutney on top. Delicious with spaetzle!
Spaetzle. Oh god, I love spaetzle. Like, lovvvvvve. I think mostly because they have nutmeg and are sauteed in butter. Seriously, where can you go wrong sauteing anything in butter?!
I'm not sure where this recipe came from, I've been using it for years.
Spaetzle
serves 2
1/2 cup flour (AP or whole wheat, whichever)
1/2t salt
1/2t nutmeg
2T milk
1 egg
1t butter
thyme or chives, optional
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and nutmeg and make a well in the middle. In a separate small bowl, whisk together with a fork the milk and egg. Pour into the flour well and stir around with a fork, gradually incorporating everything. Let the dough rest for 15min.
Heat a large or medium saucepan of water to boil, then place the dough in a potato ricer or colander with large holes, and extrude the dough into the boiling water through whichever device you're using. Stir so the individual spaetzles don't clump up, and boil for about 4 minutes. Strain, rinse with cold water, and then heat the butter in a frying pan/skillet over medium-high heat and add the spaetzle. Saute for a few minutes, until it turns golden brown on the edges. Sprinkle in some herbs, if desired.
Honestly, you can't have pork chops without spaetzle. That's just plain silly.
Fortunately, by now I've had good German food (a matter of both going to different restaurants and one restaurant just being better), and I learned how to cook my own pork chops so they're not dry and leathery. And I therefore like to eat a lot of each.
We were trying to use up the pork in our freezer, so I was looking for pork recipes. Martha Stewart has these great themed slideshows, and I found the pork one. So many delicious-looking pork recipes! Because we had apples that needed to be used up, the pork chops with apple chutney immediately caught my eye. And wonder of wonders, it was pretty quick and easy.
You'd think that while being a housewife, "quick and easy" isn't really necessary anymore, but I have other things to take up my time... I'll share more info soon ;)
(most boring plating ever, right? I wish I'd at least put this on the blue plate)Pork Chops with Apple Chutney
recipe from Martha Stewart
For the pork chops:
2T olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
4 boneless center-cut pork chops (1 1/4 pounds), cut 3/4 inch thick
For the apple chutney:
1T olive oil
1 onion, coarsely diced
4 green apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1t ground ginger
1/4t dry mustard
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Preheat the oven to 400F. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper on both sides. In a large oven-safe skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sear the pork, about 5min on each side. Then transfer to the oven and cook til the meat is 155F, about 5-8 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the chutney. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil and add the onion. Cook, stirring often, until it begins to turn translucent, about 5 min. Add the diced apple and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the vinegar, raisin, ginger, mustard and cayenne pepper, and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Plate the pork chops and pour the chutney on top. Delicious with spaetzle!
Spaetzle. Oh god, I love spaetzle. Like, lovvvvvve. I think mostly because they have nutmeg and are sauteed in butter. Seriously, where can you go wrong sauteing anything in butter?!
I'm not sure where this recipe came from, I've been using it for years.
Spaetzle
serves 2
1/2 cup flour (AP or whole wheat, whichever)
1/2t salt
1/2t nutmeg
2T milk
1 egg
1t butter
thyme or chives, optional
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and nutmeg and make a well in the middle. In a separate small bowl, whisk together with a fork the milk and egg. Pour into the flour well and stir around with a fork, gradually incorporating everything. Let the dough rest for 15min.
Heat a large or medium saucepan of water to boil, then place the dough in a potato ricer or colander with large holes, and extrude the dough into the boiling water through whichever device you're using. Stir so the individual spaetzles don't clump up, and boil for about 4 minutes. Strain, rinse with cold water, and then heat the butter in a frying pan/skillet over medium-high heat and add the spaetzle. Saute for a few minutes, until it turns golden brown on the edges. Sprinkle in some herbs, if desired.
Honestly, you can't have pork chops without spaetzle. That's just plain silly.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Best Sandwich Bread EVER
Last night I made some sloppy joes. Now, I don't really like sloppy joes (Clint does), but these were sloppy joes with a Vietnamese twist. And you can pretty much give any dish and Asian twist and I'll try it. But when we ate the sandwiches, what blew us away was not the sloppy joes (they were totally fine) but the sandwich bread. The sloppy joes recipe wanted to be put on French bread, and of course I didn't feel like going to the store, so you know me, I'll just make some. I googled "french bread recipe" and made the first recipe I found... which was ridiculously amazing. This is my new favorite sandwich bread. Forget your wonder bread, your healthy multi-grain bird seed bread, even your fancy artisan bakery bread. This is an easy-peasy bread recipe and only took me about 2.5 hours start to finish. I cannot wait to make a nice cuban using this bread, or maybe I'll get brave and make a french dip.
Best Sandwich Bread EVER
recipe from food.com
makes 3 grinder roll-sized loaves, each loaf good for 2 sandwiches
2 cups warm water
1T yeast
pinch of sugar
1t salt
1T oil (I used olive)
5-5.5 cups bread flour*
*I used King Arthur's First Clear flour, which is a high gluten flour used in Jewish rye. I'm not sure if it's as high gluten as bread flour, but it has a nice earthy taste to it, kind of like whole wheat flour. I used 4 cups of first clear and 1 cup of whole wheat, and the bread wasn't heavy like whole wheat, but had that kind of hint of flavor to it. I highly recommend the First Clear.
In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Let sit for 10-15 minutes for the yeast to wake up. Stir in the salt, oil and 3 cups of the flour. Stir for about 2 minutes. Add 2 more cups of flour and knead for 10 minutes. Let sit in an oiled bowl until doubled, about 1-1.5hrs. Shape into long baguette-shaped loaves (I shaped into 2 loaves, next time I'll make 3 loaves), cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with water (liberally) and bake in a 375F preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown.
This bread is crusty without being rock-hard-crunchy, and super soft in the middle. It's still kind of chewy like french bread, not cottony like most grocery store sliced breads, and is my ideal sandwich roll texture. It's not so flavorful it takes away from a sandwich, but it tastes good on its own. You have to try this!!
Vietnamese Sloppy Joes, or Sloppy Baos
recipe modified from Martha Stewart
I halved the recipe, which would serve 4-5, and wanted to use onion instead of shallots
1-1.25lb ground beef (or sub in another ground meat if you like)
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1T chopped lemongrass (I used dried)
2T red curry paste
1 cup ketchup
1T fish sauce
10 basil leaves, minced
1t brown sugar
2T mustard
julienned green mango or green apple
sliced jalapenos
french bread
In a large skillet, brown the meat with the onion, garlic, lemongrass and curry paste. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the ketchup, fish sauce, half the basil, brown sugar and mustard. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice the loaf of french bread lengthwise (like for a grinder/sub) and toast in the oven for about 5-8 minutes.
To assemble the sandwich, spread the sloppy joe mixture on the bottom half of the bread, arrange julienned mango/apple and sliced jalapenos on top, and top with the top half of the bread. Slice the grinder into individual-sized portions and enjoy!
I really only made this dish because we wanted to use up some ground beef in the freezer. Clint loves sloppy joes and used to eat them often before we got married. I kind of can't stand them. But like I said, I'll try almost anything with an asian twist. And.... these were ok. Clint had seconds, so you *know* he liked them. If you're a sloppy joe kind of person, you'll probably like these. And like I said before, the bread is amazing.
Best Sandwich Bread EVER
recipe from food.com
makes 3 grinder roll-sized loaves, each loaf good for 2 sandwiches
2 cups warm water
1T yeast
pinch of sugar
1t salt
1T oil (I used olive)
5-5.5 cups bread flour*
*I used King Arthur's First Clear flour, which is a high gluten flour used in Jewish rye. I'm not sure if it's as high gluten as bread flour, but it has a nice earthy taste to it, kind of like whole wheat flour. I used 4 cups of first clear and 1 cup of whole wheat, and the bread wasn't heavy like whole wheat, but had that kind of hint of flavor to it. I highly recommend the First Clear.
In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Let sit for 10-15 minutes for the yeast to wake up. Stir in the salt, oil and 3 cups of the flour. Stir for about 2 minutes. Add 2 more cups of flour and knead for 10 minutes. Let sit in an oiled bowl until doubled, about 1-1.5hrs. Shape into long baguette-shaped loaves (I shaped into 2 loaves, next time I'll make 3 loaves), cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with water (liberally) and bake in a 375F preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown.
This bread is crusty without being rock-hard-crunchy, and super soft in the middle. It's still kind of chewy like french bread, not cottony like most grocery store sliced breads, and is my ideal sandwich roll texture. It's not so flavorful it takes away from a sandwich, but it tastes good on its own. You have to try this!!
Vietnamese Sloppy Joes, or Sloppy Baos
recipe modified from Martha Stewart
I halved the recipe, which would serve 4-5, and wanted to use onion instead of shallots
1-1.25lb ground beef (or sub in another ground meat if you like)
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1T chopped lemongrass (I used dried)
2T red curry paste
1 cup ketchup
1T fish sauce
10 basil leaves, minced
1t brown sugar
2T mustard
julienned green mango or green apple
sliced jalapenos
french bread
In a large skillet, brown the meat with the onion, garlic, lemongrass and curry paste. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the ketchup, fish sauce, half the basil, brown sugar and mustard. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice the loaf of french bread lengthwise (like for a grinder/sub) and toast in the oven for about 5-8 minutes.
To assemble the sandwich, spread the sloppy joe mixture on the bottom half of the bread, arrange julienned mango/apple and sliced jalapenos on top, and top with the top half of the bread. Slice the grinder into individual-sized portions and enjoy!
I really only made this dish because we wanted to use up some ground beef in the freezer. Clint loves sloppy joes and used to eat them often before we got married. I kind of can't stand them. But like I said, I'll try almost anything with an asian twist. And.... these were ok. Clint had seconds, so you *know* he liked them. If you're a sloppy joe kind of person, you'll probably like these. And like I said before, the bread is amazing.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Anniversary Dinner!
Today we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. How times flies, etc etc. We're following the traditional anniversary gifts, so this year was cotton.
Unfortunately, our anniversary fell on a work day (for Clint) and I had choir rehearsal, so we ended up having our nice dinner yesterday. But I did sew all day- with 100% cotton fabric and cotton/poly thread, so that totally counts, right?
So what does the little housewife make for her darling husband on their anniversary? Burgers.
Not just any burgers, no, no. These were burgers we saw on Bobby Flay and were completely captivated by. These are the burger to end all burger. Also, they're lamb. That's kind of celebratory, special-occasion, right?
Greek Patty Melts
Recipe from Bobby Flay's friend Miriam Garron
Parts:
Burgers
Muhammara sauce
Pizza crust
Cheese (we used gouda and chevre, Miriam said kasseri- fat chance I could find that)
Caramelized onions
For the pizza crust, use your own favorite recipe. Bobby and Miriam say to grill it, but I just baked it at 425F for the appropriate amount of time, stopping about 4min before it was done to top half with cheese.
Muhammara Sauce
1lb red bell peppers (3 peppers), charred under the broiler for 10 min, flipped, and another 10 min, then placed in a covered bowl to cool before peeling the charred skin off.
1-2 small hot red peppers, treated the same way (I omitted and added 1/2t chipotle powder)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1t cumin
salt to taste
1T maple syrup
1T pomegranate sherry vinegar
1T lemon juice
2t lemon zest
Miriam actually called for 1T pomegranate molasses and 1T sherry vinegar, but I don't have pomegranate molasses. I have tons of maple syrup, and I happened to have pomegranate sherry vinegar, thanks to a gift card to Whole Foods, when I just went and bought interesting things I wouldn't normally splurge on.
Place everything but lemon zest in a food processor and process. Stir in the lemon zest by hand. Salt to taste. Set aside. Easy peasy!
Burgers
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/3cup Greek yogurt (I used fat free sour cream)
2 clove garlic, minced
2t coriander
1/2t salt
1/2 paprika
1/4t allspice
1 and 1/4lb ground lamb (we used bison- Big Y had no lamb!)
Olive oil
Mix everything but the olive oil together with your hands (ewww) and form 4 large, flat patties. Brush both sides with olive oil. Grill over medium-high heat, a few minutes per side, until done.
Now, we very unfortunately forgot the caramelized onions part. These are easy, they just take time. Slice 3 large onions (I like vidalia) into medium-thin slices and cook with a little olive oil over medium heat until they caramelize. These cook low and slow but it's worth it!
Assembly:
Cut the pizza crust into pieces slightly larger than the patties. Each burger gets one side with cheese and one without. Top the burger with the muhammara sauce and a big spoonful of caramelized onions. Enjoy!
Unfortunately, our anniversary fell on a work day (for Clint) and I had choir rehearsal, so we ended up having our nice dinner yesterday. But I did sew all day- with 100% cotton fabric and cotton/poly thread, so that totally counts, right?
So what does the little housewife make for her darling husband on their anniversary? Burgers.
Not just any burgers, no, no. These were burgers we saw on Bobby Flay and were completely captivated by. These are the burger to end all burger. Also, they're lamb. That's kind of celebratory, special-occasion, right?
Greek Patty Melts
Recipe from Bobby Flay's friend Miriam Garron
Parts:
Burgers
Muhammara sauce
Pizza crust
Cheese (we used gouda and chevre, Miriam said kasseri- fat chance I could find that)
Caramelized onions
For the pizza crust, use your own favorite recipe. Bobby and Miriam say to grill it, but I just baked it at 425F for the appropriate amount of time, stopping about 4min before it was done to top half with cheese.
Muhammara Sauce
1lb red bell peppers (3 peppers), charred under the broiler for 10 min, flipped, and another 10 min, then placed in a covered bowl to cool before peeling the charred skin off.
1-2 small hot red peppers, treated the same way (I omitted and added 1/2t chipotle powder)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1t cumin
salt to taste
1T maple syrup
1T pomegranate sherry vinegar
1T lemon juice
2t lemon zest
Miriam actually called for 1T pomegranate molasses and 1T sherry vinegar, but I don't have pomegranate molasses. I have tons of maple syrup, and I happened to have pomegranate sherry vinegar, thanks to a gift card to Whole Foods, when I just went and bought interesting things I wouldn't normally splurge on.
Place everything but lemon zest in a food processor and process. Stir in the lemon zest by hand. Salt to taste. Set aside. Easy peasy!
Burgers
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/3cup Greek yogurt (I used fat free sour cream)
2 clove garlic, minced
2t coriander
1/2t salt
1/2 paprika
1/4t allspice
1 and 1/4lb ground lamb (we used bison- Big Y had no lamb!)
Olive oil
Mix everything but the olive oil together with your hands (ewww) and form 4 large, flat patties. Brush both sides with olive oil. Grill over medium-high heat, a few minutes per side, until done.
Now, we very unfortunately forgot the caramelized onions part. These are easy, they just take time. Slice 3 large onions (I like vidalia) into medium-thin slices and cook with a little olive oil over medium heat until they caramelize. These cook low and slow but it's worth it!
Assembly:
Cut the pizza crust into pieces slightly larger than the patties. Each burger gets one side with cheese and one without. Top the burger with the muhammara sauce and a big spoonful of caramelized onions. Enjoy!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Ham!
Have you ever seen the Iron Chef: America Battle Ham episode? The way the chairman's nephew says "ham!" is hilarious. "Haa-aaa-aaaammm!" There's no way I can convey it in text, but the title of this post imitates him.
Like most people, we had an abundance of ham after Easter. So of course I had to figure out what to do with it. My biggest success was chicken cordon bleu.
Chicken cordon bleu and I have a long, lovely history together. In middle school, when Pace opened up in our area (later becoming Sam's Club), we went and marveled at the sheer quantity of random groceries. My 13 year old self indulged in Barber's frozen prepared chicken cordon bleu, and took much joy in popping one in the oven on night my parents made my most hated meal, stuffed bell peppers.
In the past few years, I've indulged in these here and there, but once I had my cousin Rich's chicken cordon bleu (doused in an amazing (and amazingly fattening) bechamel sauce I couldn't really go back to the Barber ones.
Well, we had ham, we had frozen chicken, and we just happened to have swiss cheese. Obviously I had to make chicken cordon bleu.
Chicken Cordon Bleu
adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe
4 chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally and pounded to flatten a bit.
4 slices of ham (prosciutto would be good, too), each cut in half
about 1/2 cup grated swiss cheese
2T flour
1/2 cup panko
1/2t thyme
1t olive oil
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with nonstick spray.
Beat the egg in a bowl, set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, panko, thyme, olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
Place a piece of ham on top of each chicken breast. Sprinkle as much swiss cheese as you like on top of the ham. Roll up the chicken, and secure each roulade with a toothpick.
Dunk each roulade in the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture. Place in the baking pan, and bake for 45 min, until chicken is fully cooked.
These are really good, even as leftovers. I think I may try to bring more ham into my kitchen, just so I can make these again.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Fish en papillote
This recipe is supposed to be salmon, but we had some cod to use up, and it turned out great. So sub in almost any fish you want!
The goal for this dinner with something healthy and relatively quick. Check, and check (with one make-ahead step). Oh, and it's very tasty.
Honey-soy fish en papillote
adapted from Tastes of Home
This recipe uses Yuen Chen Thick Sauce. I have no idea what that is, and our sad little ethnic aisle at the grocery store wasn't much help (they don't even always carry fish sauce) but with the help of google, I figured out how to make my own. I found it kind of amusing. Warning: it's a very aromatic sauce to cook, but even though it's a little fishy, I didn't find it unpleasant. Just... intriguing.
Homemade thick sauce
(I can't remember where I got this recipe)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup fish sauce
In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar and water and cook until it's caramel-colored. Slowly pour in the fish sauce- it will bubble up wildly, but swirl the pan and it'll calm down. Cook until it's thick, a few minutes.
Let cool a bit, and store in a sealed container in the fridge (I couldn't find any info on storage, so I just keep it in the fridge).
For the sauce for the fish:
2T thick sauce
2T honey
1T soy sauce
splash of sake (I used mirin- not exactly right, but it's what I had)
Whisk the sauce together.
For the rest of the dish:
4 6oz salmon steaks, or other fish
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 stalks scallions, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T fresh ginger, grated
2 shallots, finely diced
1/2 head of bok choy, roughly chopped
Tear off 4 pieces of tinfoil, each about 3x the size of each piece of fish. If you want, spray with nonstick spray of brush with oil (I didn't, it was fine). Place a piece of fish on each foil and brush generously with the sauce. Bring up the sides of the foil so it's like a cup/bowl and the sauce doesn't spill everywhere. Divide all the sliced veggies (leek, scallion, garlic, ginger, shallot, bok choy) among the 4 pieces of fish and pile up on top of the fish. Divide the remaining sauce and pour over each piece of fish/pile of veggies. Add an additional splash of sake to each of the 4 fish/veggie piles, and wrap up the foil, completely sealing the foil package except for a small steam hole in each. Line them up on a baking sheet (rimmed is best, just in case) and bake at 350F for 15-20 min, depending on the thickness of the fish.
Serve the foil packages on each plate for each person to unwrap, or transfer the fish and veggies to each plate yourself. We served with rice flavored with a little soy sauce and ginger.
The goal for this dinner with something healthy and relatively quick. Check, and check (with one make-ahead step). Oh, and it's very tasty.
Honey-soy fish en papillote
adapted from Tastes of Home
This recipe uses Yuen Chen Thick Sauce. I have no idea what that is, and our sad little ethnic aisle at the grocery store wasn't much help (they don't even always carry fish sauce) but with the help of google, I figured out how to make my own. I found it kind of amusing. Warning: it's a very aromatic sauce to cook, but even though it's a little fishy, I didn't find it unpleasant. Just... intriguing.
Homemade thick sauce
(I can't remember where I got this recipe)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup fish sauce
In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar and water and cook until it's caramel-colored. Slowly pour in the fish sauce- it will bubble up wildly, but swirl the pan and it'll calm down. Cook until it's thick, a few minutes.
Let cool a bit, and store in a sealed container in the fridge (I couldn't find any info on storage, so I just keep it in the fridge).
For the sauce for the fish:
2T thick sauce
2T honey
1T soy sauce
splash of sake (I used mirin- not exactly right, but it's what I had)
Whisk the sauce together.
For the rest of the dish:
4 6oz salmon steaks, or other fish
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 stalks scallions, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T fresh ginger, grated
2 shallots, finely diced
1/2 head of bok choy, roughly chopped
Tear off 4 pieces of tinfoil, each about 3x the size of each piece of fish. If you want, spray with nonstick spray of brush with oil (I didn't, it was fine). Place a piece of fish on each foil and brush generously with the sauce. Bring up the sides of the foil so it's like a cup/bowl and the sauce doesn't spill everywhere. Divide all the sliced veggies (leek, scallion, garlic, ginger, shallot, bok choy) among the 4 pieces of fish and pile up on top of the fish. Divide the remaining sauce and pour over each piece of fish/pile of veggies. Add an additional splash of sake to each of the 4 fish/veggie piles, and wrap up the foil, completely sealing the foil package except for a small steam hole in each. Line them up on a baking sheet (rimmed is best, just in case) and bake at 350F for 15-20 min, depending on the thickness of the fish.
Serve the foil packages on each plate for each person to unwrap, or transfer the fish and veggies to each plate yourself. We served with rice flavored with a little soy sauce and ginger.
Monday, March 14, 2011
A vote for Mexican
I recently asked Clint to vote for what we'd have for dinner. He seemed pretty stumped, so I made it easy: pick an ethnicity and pick a meat, I'll pick the recipe.
He chose Mexican and chicken, and I chose this Veracruzana-inspired chicken dish from a Light Mexican cookbook I bought in Disney World several years ago (and have never used... I do that too often).
It was good, and relatively easy. The next day, however, I did something I don't often do: I transformed the leftovers into a new dish. Normally I'm perfectly happy with leftovers, but we ran out of brown basmati rice, and chicken served over plain rice doesn't really inspire me, anyway. And I really like pairing corn with Mexican flavors.
So first, Veracruzana-style Chicken Stew with Prunes (or in my case, figs)
The next day, the chicken was shredded from the bone, mixed with its sauce, and made into Miss Smart's Hot Tamale Spoonbread (which, incidentally, is now my favorite cornbread recipe, I love how soft and moist it is).
Stewed Chicken with Chipotles and Figs
adapted from Mexican Light, by Martha Rose Shulman
My changes were based on the ingredients I had and my desire not to go to the store again.
Note: this recipe has you make fresh chicken stock to use, which is unnecessary for me, since I make it so often, but I wasn't sure how else to cook the chicken if I skipped boiling it and generating stock. So, extra stock. The only downside is this way I didn't have enough time to chill it to skim the fat off the top like I normally would.
2 quarts water
3 lbs of bone-in chicken (I used 4 thighs and 2 split breasts, skin removed)
10 dried Black Mission figs (or 8 pitted prunes)
4 garlic cloves, 2 of them set aside and 2 of them unpeeled and toasted in a frying pan
1 medium onion, cut in half
2lbs tomatoes, halved and roasted (or 28oz of canned tomatoes, drained)
1T canned chipotles in adobo
freshly ground black pepper
pinch ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1T oil
First, roast the tomatoes and onion. Line a cookie sheet with foil and place the tomatoes and one onion half on the foil. Set the broiler to high, and broil for a few minutes, flip each tomato and the onion over, and broil for a few more minutes, until they're all lightly charred. Side aside. (If you're using canned tomatoes, just broil the onion alone)
Toast the garlic (this is optional): place the 2 unpeeled cloves in a frying pan and let them toast for a few minutes, moving them around occasionally. Let cool and then peel.
Begin the chicken stock. Place the water, the other onion half, 4 figs and the chicken in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 15 minutes. Strain 2.5 cups of the stock (or not...) and set the rest aside (later on, transfer it to tupperware, chill and skim the fat off the top, and use the stock for something else). Also fish out the figs/prunes and have them ready for the next step.
Transfer the roasted tomatoes (or use the drained canned tomatoes), roasted onion half, the toasted garlic, the chipotles, black pepper, cloves, and the figs from the chicken stock to a blender and puree.
Heat the oil in a large pot/dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it's hot, transfer the tomato puree into the pot and stir for about 5 minutes, until it's thickened slightly. Add 1/2 cup of the strained stock and some salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Then add the chicken from the stock, the remaining figs/prunes, the cinnamon stick and the remaining strained stock and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.
Serve chicken and the sauce over rice (rice that can be cooked using the chicken stock you just made... if you need ideas for how to use that stock).
This dish is different from what I think of when I think "Mexican", but different in a surprising and good way. I'd just add more chipotles next time.
Leftover Remix: Stewed chicken with chipotles and figs turned into corn spoonbread.
Inspired by Miss Smart's Hot Tamale Spoonbread
Leftover chicken from the above recipe: I used 1 breast and 2 thighs, but next time I'd add at least another thigh
Cornbread:
2 cups milk
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs, separated
1 cup of corn kernels, frozen, fresh or canned (drained)
Shred the chicken with two forks (or your hands) and stir together with the sauce. Place in a layer in an 8x8 baking dish.
Make the cornbread:
In your stand mixer, start to beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the milk until it starts to bubble, then add the cornmeal (if you forget and add them to the saucepan together, that's ok). Cook, stirring continually, until it thickens (a few minutes). Remove from heat.
Whisk the egg yolks and temper them into the milk mixture and stir in the corn. Gently fold in the egg whites and any extra spices you like (I just use salt because the chicken sauce has enough flavor). Pour the cornmeal mixture over the chicken in the pan, and bake at 350F for about 50-60 minutes, until the cornbread is cooked through.
Serve with some chopped cilantro.
I love this dish, I use it pretty often with shredded chicken (which usually only happens when I make crockpot chicken stock and save the chicken meat for something else). I also plan to turn the last 2 thighs from the stewed chicken recipe into a quesadilla, but that's less exciting than corn spoonbread.
He chose Mexican and chicken, and I chose this Veracruzana-inspired chicken dish from a Light Mexican cookbook I bought in Disney World several years ago (and have never used... I do that too often).
It was good, and relatively easy. The next day, however, I did something I don't often do: I transformed the leftovers into a new dish. Normally I'm perfectly happy with leftovers, but we ran out of brown basmati rice, and chicken served over plain rice doesn't really inspire me, anyway. And I really like pairing corn with Mexican flavors.
So first, Veracruzana-style Chicken Stew with Prunes (or in my case, figs)
The next day, the chicken was shredded from the bone, mixed with its sauce, and made into Miss Smart's Hot Tamale Spoonbread (which, incidentally, is now my favorite cornbread recipe, I love how soft and moist it is).
Stewed Chicken with Chipotles and Figs
adapted from Mexican Light, by Martha Rose Shulman
My changes were based on the ingredients I had and my desire not to go to the store again.
Note: this recipe has you make fresh chicken stock to use, which is unnecessary for me, since I make it so often, but I wasn't sure how else to cook the chicken if I skipped boiling it and generating stock. So, extra stock. The only downside is this way I didn't have enough time to chill it to skim the fat off the top like I normally would.
2 quarts water
3 lbs of bone-in chicken (I used 4 thighs and 2 split breasts, skin removed)
10 dried Black Mission figs (or 8 pitted prunes)
4 garlic cloves, 2 of them set aside and 2 of them unpeeled and toasted in a frying pan
1 medium onion, cut in half
2lbs tomatoes, halved and roasted (or 28oz of canned tomatoes, drained)
1T canned chipotles in adobo
freshly ground black pepper
pinch ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1T oil
First, roast the tomatoes and onion. Line a cookie sheet with foil and place the tomatoes and one onion half on the foil. Set the broiler to high, and broil for a few minutes, flip each tomato and the onion over, and broil for a few more minutes, until they're all lightly charred. Side aside. (If you're using canned tomatoes, just broil the onion alone)
Toast the garlic (this is optional): place the 2 unpeeled cloves in a frying pan and let them toast for a few minutes, moving them around occasionally. Let cool and then peel.
Begin the chicken stock. Place the water, the other onion half, 4 figs and the chicken in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 15 minutes. Strain 2.5 cups of the stock (or not...) and set the rest aside (later on, transfer it to tupperware, chill and skim the fat off the top, and use the stock for something else). Also fish out the figs/prunes and have them ready for the next step.
Transfer the roasted tomatoes (or use the drained canned tomatoes), roasted onion half, the toasted garlic, the chipotles, black pepper, cloves, and the figs from the chicken stock to a blender and puree.
Heat the oil in a large pot/dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it's hot, transfer the tomato puree into the pot and stir for about 5 minutes, until it's thickened slightly. Add 1/2 cup of the strained stock and some salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Then add the chicken from the stock, the remaining figs/prunes, the cinnamon stick and the remaining strained stock and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.
Serve chicken and the sauce over rice (rice that can be cooked using the chicken stock you just made... if you need ideas for how to use that stock).
This dish is different from what I think of when I think "Mexican", but different in a surprising and good way. I'd just add more chipotles next time.
Leftover Remix: Stewed chicken with chipotles and figs turned into corn spoonbread.
Inspired by Miss Smart's Hot Tamale Spoonbread
Leftover chicken from the above recipe: I used 1 breast and 2 thighs, but next time I'd add at least another thigh
Cornbread:
2 cups milk
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs, separated
1 cup of corn kernels, frozen, fresh or canned (drained)
Shred the chicken with two forks (or your hands) and stir together with the sauce. Place in a layer in an 8x8 baking dish.
Make the cornbread:
In your stand mixer, start to beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the milk until it starts to bubble, then add the cornmeal (if you forget and add them to the saucepan together, that's ok). Cook, stirring continually, until it thickens (a few minutes). Remove from heat.
Whisk the egg yolks and temper them into the milk mixture and stir in the corn. Gently fold in the egg whites and any extra spices you like (I just use salt because the chicken sauce has enough flavor). Pour the cornmeal mixture over the chicken in the pan, and bake at 350F for about 50-60 minutes, until the cornbread is cooked through.
Serve with some chopped cilantro.
I love this dish, I use it pretty often with shredded chicken (which usually only happens when I make crockpot chicken stock and save the chicken meat for something else). I also plan to turn the last 2 thighs from the stewed chicken recipe into a quesadilla, but that's less exciting than corn spoonbread.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Pumpkin Party: Main dishes, part 1
I'm only 3 weeks behind on posting.
You may have guessed, but yes, stuff is going on in real life. Stuff interferes with blogging, with baking, even with exercising (sigh!). Hopefully stuff will improve soon, but in the meantime, we all have to eat, and I have plenty of recipes saved up to try (I know, that doesn't help you at all).
Back to the pumpkin party. November, and even December, is still pumpkin season, so these are still good for making now.
At the pumpkin party, I served pumpkin chili with pumpkin cornbread, as well as pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin pizza, and my favorite, pumpkin, spinach and leek quiche.
Let's quickly start with the gnocchi.
Oh, man. This was my first time making gnocchi- even my first time eating gnocchi. So I didn't quite know what I was doing. I followed this recipe, which I found on taste spotting and chose because the blogger is Italian, and of course, an Italian would undoubtedly know how to make gnocchi. I think the Italian knew more than I did and either lost info in translation, or makes assumptions I don't know about, but this was a huge recipe fail. I wish I'd used Lidia Bastianich's recipe from a recent issues (October 2010, perhaps) of Bon Appetit- next time.
However, we do have a silver lining: the cinnamon walnut cream sauce (inspired by the suggestions of a Nestie) was delicious and almost saved the dish. The cream sauce was made by making a roux of 1T butter and 1T flour (melt the butter in a saucepan, then whisk in the flour and cook a couple minutes), then slowly adding about 3/4 cup of fat free 1/2&1/2, cooking til thickened (a few minutes- I really wasn't paying full attention) and then sprinkling in about 1/2t cinnamon and 1/4 cup crushed toasted walnuts.
Moving on.
The pumpkin chili was a huge success in comparison. It was like a standard chili of ground turkey and beans and the standard spices (lots of cumin, oregano, cilantro and chili or chipotle powder), but had a nice subtle pumpkin undertone. Love, love, love.
Pumpkin Chili,
adapted from The Family Kitchen
1-1.5 lb ground turkey
2 15oz cans beans- I used red kidney and black beans
4 cups pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, I used 2 15oz cans)
56oz tomatoes (the original recipe calls for 2 large cans of diced tomatoes, but I used 1 14oz can and 48oz peeled tomatoes that I'd frozen over the summer)
4 cups chicken broth (if using canned, choose low sodium- you know I used my homemade stock)
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T cumin
1t chipotle powder
1t salt
1t black pepper
small handful of fresh cilantro, or 2t dried
2t dried oregano
In a large pan/pot, brown the meat. When it's about half cooked, add the diced onion. Transfer to your crock pot (or, alternatively, you can leave everything in the large pot and cook on the stove top). Add in all the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or high for 4 hours. (or on the stove top, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 2 hours).
Serve! Garnish with cheese and sour cream, and whatever else you like on your chili.
To pair with your chili, make some pumpkin cornbread. Now, I have to admit, this wasn't as huge a success as the chili itself- mostly because the cornbread was simply too sweet. It was more like cornmeal cake for dessert than something to have with chili, so next time I will reduce the brown sugar by half or more.
Pumpkin Cornbread,
taken from Recipe Girl
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1T baking powder
1t salt
1/2t ground cinnamon
1/4t ground nutmeg
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup brown sugar (I'd go 1/3 cup or less, maybe even just 2-3T)
¼ cup canola oil
1T molasses
Combine dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt, spices, cornmeal). In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and molasses, whisk together and then add to the dry ingredients- stir just until combined, don't overmix. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 pan, and bake for 30-35 min at 400F.
You may have guessed, but yes, stuff is going on in real life. Stuff interferes with blogging, with baking, even with exercising (sigh!). Hopefully stuff will improve soon, but in the meantime, we all have to eat, and I have plenty of recipes saved up to try (I know, that doesn't help you at all).
Back to the pumpkin party. November, and even December, is still pumpkin season, so these are still good for making now.
At the pumpkin party, I served pumpkin chili with pumpkin cornbread, as well as pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin pizza, and my favorite, pumpkin, spinach and leek quiche.
Let's quickly start with the gnocchi.
Oh, man. This was my first time making gnocchi- even my first time eating gnocchi. So I didn't quite know what I was doing. I followed this recipe, which I found on taste spotting and chose because the blogger is Italian, and of course, an Italian would undoubtedly know how to make gnocchi. I think the Italian knew more than I did and either lost info in translation, or makes assumptions I don't know about, but this was a huge recipe fail. I wish I'd used Lidia Bastianich's recipe from a recent issues (October 2010, perhaps) of Bon Appetit- next time.However, we do have a silver lining: the cinnamon walnut cream sauce (inspired by the suggestions of a Nestie) was delicious and almost saved the dish. The cream sauce was made by making a roux of 1T butter and 1T flour (melt the butter in a saucepan, then whisk in the flour and cook a couple minutes), then slowly adding about 3/4 cup of fat free 1/2&1/2, cooking til thickened (a few minutes- I really wasn't paying full attention) and then sprinkling in about 1/2t cinnamon and 1/4 cup crushed toasted walnuts.
Moving on.
The pumpkin chili was a huge success in comparison. It was like a standard chili of ground turkey and beans and the standard spices (lots of cumin, oregano, cilantro and chili or chipotle powder), but had a nice subtle pumpkin undertone. Love, love, love.
Pumpkin Chili,adapted from The Family Kitchen
1-1.5 lb ground turkey
2 15oz cans beans- I used red kidney and black beans
4 cups pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, I used 2 15oz cans)
56oz tomatoes (the original recipe calls for 2 large cans of diced tomatoes, but I used 1 14oz can and 48oz peeled tomatoes that I'd frozen over the summer)
4 cups chicken broth (if using canned, choose low sodium- you know I used my homemade stock)
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T cumin
1t chipotle powder
1t salt
1t black pepper
small handful of fresh cilantro, or 2t dried
2t dried oregano
In a large pan/pot, brown the meat. When it's about half cooked, add the diced onion. Transfer to your crock pot (or, alternatively, you can leave everything in the large pot and cook on the stove top). Add in all the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or high for 4 hours. (or on the stove top, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 2 hours).
Serve! Garnish with cheese and sour cream, and whatever else you like on your chili.
To pair with your chili, make some pumpkin cornbread. Now, I have to admit, this wasn't as huge a success as the chili itself- mostly because the cornbread was simply too sweet. It was more like cornmeal cake for dessert than something to have with chili, so next time I will reduce the brown sugar by half or more.
Pumpkin Cornbread,
taken from Recipe Girl
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1T baking powder
1t salt
1/2t ground cinnamon
1/4t ground nutmeg
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup brown sugar (I'd go 1/3 cup or less, maybe even just 2-3T)
¼ cup canola oil
1T molasses
Combine dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt, spices, cornmeal). In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and molasses, whisk together and then add to the dry ingredients- stir just until combined, don't overmix. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 pan, and bake for 30-35 min at 400F.
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