Chicken and Hominy Stew

  

  
I had something like this at a very fancy wedding reception. I was initially put off by the squash, because usually things with squash in them are made too sweet for my taste (except for pie, and sometimes even then). But I changed my mind, and here is my version.

1 butternut squash
salt, pepper, olive oil

1 onion
1 carrot
2 celery ribs
1 or 2 garlic cloves
1 large or 2 small chicken thighs

dash of salt & olive oil

1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 pasilla pepper (less spicy) or 2 jalapeno peppers (more spicy)
1 chili in adobo

1 can hominy

More salt to taste

Peel, seed, and slice the squash into pieces about 1/2" thick. Toss with salt, pepper and olive oil, and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 until a little brown around the edges. This will take a while, so in the meantime,

Chop the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Saute them on medium heat with a dash of oil and salt in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Mine is about a gallon size. When the onions are starting to go transparent, add the chicken. It's fine to use frozen, I always do. Poke the chicken to the bottom of the pan and let it brown a little, then fill the pot about 1/2 way up with water. Bring to a boil, then add the cumin, oregano, and chop the peppers and add them too. Cook until the chicken is done through, then drain and add the hominy. Boil gently until the chicken is starting to fall apart and you can mash it into bits with a wooden spoon.

By this time the squash is probably done. Take about 1/3 of the cooked squash and coarsely chop it. The rest can be used for something else. Add the chopped squash to the soup, taste for salt, and cook until the soup has thickened slightly and all the flavors have blended, about 15-20 minutes.

You should really eat this with tortillas and fresh cilantro, but I didn't have the energy to make tortillas today, and I was out of cilantro. More thoughts:

1. The original version of this used port rather than chicken, and I think I like that better. If you use pork, use a nice fatty cut.
2. You have to use enough salt. All the veggies add a lot of natural sugars, and the salt balances it out.
3. Skip the carrot? I ended up thinking it was unnecessary with the squash.
4. Consider using a different squash. Butternut is very easy to use, but it is quite sweet, which increases the need for salt. Kabocha or Hubbard squash might be a better fit.

I am still computerless, so I have no photos, but I got a message from Office Max saying my order has shipped, so I am excited.

*12/8/13 I now am have computer! So Excite. Picture enabled!

A Better Tortilla Formula

    

The trick is to use boiling water, and to smash them as you are frying them.  Here's the recipe-

400 grams all purpose flour
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all the dry ingredients and the oil in the bowl of your bread machine and turn it on. Slowly dribble the water in as the beaters agitate the flour. Let the knead cycle finish, and you're ready to go.

Roll out the tortillas as seen in the video toward the end of this post. The process is exactly the same, just bigger. You should get 10-12, 11" tortillas. If you make them little, you'll get as many as 15.

Heat a heavy skillet to medium-high. Make sure it is completely dry, or the tortillas will stick.

Have a clean, damp towel ready to wrap the finished tortillas in.

When the skillet is hot, lay a tortilla in the pan. It should turn translucent in about 5 seconds, when you turn it over. Use a silicone spatula to quickly but gently smash the whole tortilla against the pan for about another 7 or 8 seconds, then scoop it out and put it under the damp towel. Repeat until you've cooked all the tortillas. 

 Here are a few more technical pointers:
1. Use enough flour when you roll them out, or they will stick to everything.

2. Roll all the tortillas before you start cooking them. They really do only take about 15 seconds in the pan.

3. I have one of those large, super flexible pancake spatulas to do the smashing with. The smashing is important, it prevents the tortilla from developing giant bubbles which make them cook unevenly.

4. You will need a bigger frying pan than mine, like a 14" one. I'm going to be looking for one at goodwill.

5. As you can see from the pictures, one side of the tortilla has more freckles. That's because when you first put them in the pan, you basically just show it to the heat before flipping it over. That way you don't overcook it by accident.

6. You could put the hot tortillas in  tupperware or a ziploc bag, but I find that a towel allows them to stay moist as they cool without developing slimy spots. Once they cool off you can put them in something airtight.

What makes this a better recipe? The boiling water. I find that if I use cold water, the dough is springier, and harder to roll out. That makes it harder to make a very thin tortilla. If they're too thick, they take longer to cook, which makes them dry out of you use a lower heat, or burn if you use higher heat.. If you don't cook them long enough, they just taste like raw dough. In either case the texture is a little stiff and papery.

On the other hand, using boiling water partially cooks the flour to begin with, which alters the elasticity of the dough. This recipe makes a very durable, forgiving dough that is easy to roll out, but difficult to accidentally poke holes in. They cook up tender but not gummy, delicately chewy, and substantial enough to make a good burrito even when they are very thin.
So, what's in the bowl? Tortilla soup of course. This is a 'cheating' recipe, because it uses a can of Trader Joe's Cuban Style black beans as a main ingredient.

David helped me make it. My instructions to him over the phone at about 3 o'clock were something like

"Get the big cooking pot with the silver handle sticking off it. Fill it half way with water. Put it on the big back burner on high. Put 3 frozen chicken pieces in it, 4 if they're small. Chop up an onion and put that in. Open the can of chilis in adobo and put 3 chilis in the pot. When it boils, turn it down to 5 and ignore it until I get home."

When I got home at 7, I added a bunch of cumin, garlic powder, a blob of tomato paste, a dash of salt and the aforementioned can of beans, cranked the heat back up to a boil, and waited until the soup had reduced enough that it looked tasty. It was, very. You tear up chunks of the fresh tortillas and put them in your soup and they get all dumpling-y. You can add fresh tomatoes and cilantro, but I was out of those things the day I took the picture, and it was still very good.

Steamed Chicken & Chestnuts

  

  
Pete & I made this once before, by which I mean, Pete made it while I had a beer or something. It was always one of my favorite dishes that Dad used to cook for his insane chinese Thanksgiving feasts, but of course he used turkey for that. I wish there was a way to make this a little more photogenic, but it really isn't a visually exciting food. Oh well. Makes up for it by being delicious. I think I got in trouble for eating all the chestnuts out of the dish when I was little. This is a small recipe, unlike the banquet-sized version Dad used to make.

1 cup sticky rice, like sushi rice or thai sweet rice. Arborio rice for risotto would probably work too.

1 lb boneless chicken
3 T white wine if you have it, or a small splash of rice or cider vinegar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 T sesame oil
4 T light soy sauce
a dash of pepper
a little salt

12 fresh chestnuts

If the chicken is fresh, cut it into 1-2" pieces, and mix with the marinade ingredients. Let it sit for a good half hour.

If your chicken is frozen, put it in a covered container with all the marinade ingredients in the fridge until it thaws out. Stir it from time to time, it may take several days. Then cut it into bits. In either case, save the marinade.

Meanwhile, in a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the rice until it is opaque and slightly golden. Keep the pan moving or the rice will cook unevenly. Let it cool enough to handle, then grind it into a coarse powder. A little coffee mill is good for this, but a small food processor works pretty well too. Set the rice powder aside.

Use a very sharp knife to score a hole in each chestnut, then boil them for about 10 minutes. Peel off the tough shell, and the inner skin. It's ok to break the nuts into a couple pieces. Roll each chicken nugget in the crushed rice, then arrange the chestnuts and chicken pieces in a bowl so that they're evenly distributed. Drizzle the reserved marinade over them. Cover the bowl with tinfoil, poke several holes in the foil, and steam the whole business for about an hour, or until the meat reaches 175 degrees.

Notes:

1. Thighs are very good for this. They take a little more goofing around with than breasts or tenders, but they have much more flavor. Just be sure to trim the excess fat and tendon off, or it will be gristly.
2. If you want to turn the dish out of its cooking bowl in an attempt to make it look fancy, remember to oil the bowl well before filling it. I forgot to do that, and had to squish it back together for the picture.
3. Do use a meat thermometer. I have no idea how Dad knew when this stuff was done back then. I think he probably just cooked the hell out of it and assumed it was ok. 175 is actually hotter than it needs to just be cooked, but you have to leave it in somewhat longer than that for the texture to come out right.
4. Don't be tempted to leave the inner skins on the chestnuts. They have a texture like wet brown paper bags, and are amazingly bitter. If your nuts don't skin easily, make sure they are scored all the way through the shell, and boil them for another minute. Leave them in the hot water and fish them out one at a time as you peel them. The moisture encourages the skins to come off.
5. I forgot that I own a steamer. However, that means that you don't need one either. I got a large pot, put about 2 inches of water in the bottom, dropped in a little bowl, put the chicken dish on top of that, then put the lid on the pot. Simple.

Chestnuts are a weird thing- they are slightly mealy because of their high starch content, and for the same reason, they are slightly sweet once cooked. They have a subtle, floral aroma, and have an almost meaty taste which must explain why they go so well in meat dishes, especially with poultry. Chicken and turkey compliment the nuts without overpowering their unique flavor. Aside from the chestnuts, the other thing that makes this dish interesting is the toasted rice powder. If you were to dredge the chicken in plain flour, or even untoasted crushed rice, the texture would just be gloppy. Toasting the rice gives it a firm but tender mouth feel. The principle is the same as for making risotto, which is why I am assuming arborio rice would work fine for this.


Man I still love this stuff.

  

Pole-ish

  

  
I missed the Polish festival, didn't I? Dang. Those ladies know how to make some serious grub. Plus, there are people running around in costumes at events like that, and I'm always in favor of playing dress-up.

But I missed the cabbage rolls! Drat and drat. Cabbage rolls are a thing I have loved for many years. Dad used to make them filled with beef and rice. I think he topped them with a lot of ketchup, which may have influenced my liking for them; be that as it may, I start hankering for them in the fall. There is no way I'm going to fiddle around with scalded cabbage leaves and so on for hours on end, so I came up with this stew instead. It has the earthy/savory/sweet/sour flavor combination of a really good cabbage roll, without all the fussing. Plus, it isn't as greasy as the traditional ground beef or pork things.

2 chicken thighs
a small can of tomato sauce
about 4 cups water
1 teaspoon chicken broth concentrate
1 tablespoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon dry marjoram
a shake of onion powder
2 or 3 allspice berries
3/4 lb cabbage

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice


Take the first 5 ingredients and put them in a large, heavy, pot, one that has a good lid. Bring them to a slight boil, and then keep it that way, covered, until the chicken shreds easily.This could take a while. Assume at least half an hour, maybe longer, if you use frozen chicken like I do. Stir it from time to time until you can smash the meat with the back of a spoon. About half the water should have cooked out by this time.

Coarsely chop the cabbage and add it along with the allspice, marjoram and onion powder. Simmer until the cabbage is very tender, which could take another half hour. You can turn the heat up a bit, but make sure the pot doesn't go dry.  Add the lemon juice, simmer for a few more minutes, taste for salt, and serve with some fresh thyme leaves on top. I'm going to eat it with potatoes, but you could serve it over rice, which would approximate the ingredients of a cabbage roll.


notes-

1. You could use any can of plain tomato something. Sauce is what I had, but crushed, diced, pureed, any old tomatoes would work. You just have to taste the stew to see if it has the right amount of salt.
2. You can use oregano if you don't have marjoram, but use a little less of it. Marjoram is sweeter, and oregano is more peppery.
3. Don't rush it. The most important ingredient in stew is time. Enough time to break the collagen in the meat down into gelatin, for the texture. Enough time for the cabbage starches to begin to convert to sugars, and for the acids in the tomatoes to mellow out a bit.
4. The reason you want to use whole allspice berries is so that you can fish them back out when you have flavored the stew as much as you like it.
5. Do use thighs. You need a little fat in it to help carry the oil-soluble flavor molecules, as well as to make you feel full after a reasonable portion.

Chicken and Majaddara

  

  
What makes something authentic, anyway? What's the cutoff point at which something stops being what it purports to be? In the case of food, who gets to decide? I got this rice mix at TJ's to see what it was like, and it's pretty generic, I think of it as being typically 'american' flavored. It's got long grain rice, wild rice, and a bunch of dehydrated vegetables in it. Looks great in the bag, plenty less so once you cook it up. By itself, it's awfully blah. It's rice for people who don't want to eat rice, but aren't adventurous enough to go out and get something with texture or flavor. This is what despairing non-cooks will slap on their oafish menfolk's plates in the hope of getting them to eat anything except white bread and a pound of bratwurst for dinner. I tried making risotto with it, which tasted ok, but I might have known it would lack the creamy texture that makes risotto worth stirring for half an hour.

Then I thought of majaddara. Nicholas' Restaurant has amazing majaddara. I looked up a bunch of recipes, and they're all just 3 things: lentils, rice, fried onions. The flavoring agents range from salt only to any combination of salt, pepper, allspice, bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, coriander, lemon rind, fennel seed, and nutmeg, plus maybe other things. Which brings me back to the authenticity thing. I don't actually care that much about authenticity, especially in food, but I did feel like the vague instructions in some of the recipes to use whatever I feel like to tart it up gave me the green light to use this bastardized rice for majaddara. Good thing, because otherwise I think that rice would have stayed in my cupboard until it got infested by meal moths.

Majaddara according to me:

1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup lentils
2 or 3 allspice berries
1 or 2 cloves
1 bay leaf
a couple pinches cumin
salt
olive oil
the fried onions from the previous post

yogurt, chopped mint, oregano & parsley for serving

Cook the rice & lentils separately, because they get done at different rates. I salt the water for the rice, but not the lentils. Cook the rice as you normally do, but add the spices. Cook the lentils as though you were making pasta, again with the spices in the water. I used red hulled lentils, which cook very fast. Because they are hulled, they tend to disintegrate quickly. I solved the problem by just cooking them until they were barely done, then draining them quickly and putting them back in the warm pan with a little olive oil and a dash of salt. This let them continue softening up while the rice cooked. I also pulled out the bay leaf and allspice to keep flavoring the rice. When the rice is done, throw out the cloves, leaves and berries, and mix the lentils, rice, and onions together.

The chicken that went with:

2 chicken thighs
1/4 lemon, chopped into 1/2" bits
2 green onions, chopped
salt & pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds
a pinch of cayenne
about 1/4 teaspoon  pumpkin pie spice
about 3 tablespoons olive oil

 Marinate the chicken for about 2 or 3 days with all the other ingredients. I recommend pan-frying the chicken, unless you have a grill and want to cook it that way. The benefit of the frying pan is that the marinade reduces to a zippy glaze. Throw out the lemons halfway through cooking if you do that, or the rinds will overpower the rest of the flavors. On the other hand, grilling makes most things turn out pretty well. That's what Pete does, and it's his recipe. Except for the pie spice- he uses cinnamon sticks, but I don't have any of those.

An Old Chicken Recipe

This is good if you like sweet-and-salty things. I make a lot of snarky comments about the deli I used to work at when I was in my 20's, and indeed they were in the vanguard of Ann Arbor foodie hipsteremia, but they had some good recipes. They called this "venetian" chicken, but what a chicken ever had to do with Venice more than any other place I can't tell you.

Venetian Chicken

Chicken. I used some frozen thigh meat, which is cheap, but this would actually be better with skin-on birds. The skin browns better.

Marinate the chicken. If it's frozen, put on some salt, pepper & olive oil, and let it thaw in the fridge for a few days. The night before you want to cook it, mix equal parts cider & sherry vinegar with a teaspoon of dried marjoram and a couple cloves of crushed garlic and coat the meat with it.

The next day, assemble some prunes, yellow dried figs, and mixed olives. Do get some half decent olives, but try not to have them be the kind that have a lot of herbs and things on them, it'll throw off the flavor of the dish. Don't be tempted to get dry cured olives either, they're way too salty!

Pour off most of the marinade and put the chicken in a baking pan. Cut the prunes & figs in half and throw them in along with the olives. The amounts are up to you. I used about 8 or 10 each of the fruits, and about 1/2 a container of TJ's mixed greek olives, the ones from the refrigerator case. Just the olives, not the brine. Try to get about half the fruit and olives under the meat and half on top.

Bake covered at 350 for about 30 minutes if, like mine, there's no skin on your bird. You can leave the cover off if it's skin-on, since the meat won't dehydrate as much. After the first 30 min, uncover the dish and bake another 15 minutes. For my 3 thighs, that was enough to get the chicken actually cooked, but there was still a lot of liquid in the pan. So I pulled it out and poured the drippings into a saucepan and set it on medium-hot to reduce into a glaze. Then I cranked the oven heat to 500, got all the fruit piled on top of the meat, sprinkled a light dusting of white sugar over the dish and browned it for another 10 minutes or so. Once there were little crispy looking spots on the olives and figs, I dumped the glaze back on the chicken and said the hell with it. If you get to the point where your birds are cooked and you don't feel that there is too much juice in the pan, just skip the part about making a reduction. I do wish I'd had some parsley to go with this, I'm having that midwinter craving for green crunchy bitter things.

When I worked at the deli, I made this with whole birds. The procedure is roughly the same, but you need to loosely stuff the cavity with some of the fruit, and adjust the cooking time to account for the thickness of a whole carcass. It makes a neato looking presentation, especially if you put some rosemary branches under it  when you serve it, but having the chicken cut up already both speeds cooking and gets the meat more evenly seasoned. I bet it would be fun to do with cornish hens!

Tasty Noodles & a Side Dish

I fixed these noodles once about 8 years ago and then for whatever reason, I never did it again. They were definitely good enough that the recipe stuck with me, but somehow I never had all the correct things at the same time, or it never crossed my mind. I can't remember if I put chicken in it last time, but I had some I needed to use up. For this, a slightly under-ripe avocado is best because the firmness will stand up to a bit of frying better.

Noodles
Chicken- I used 5 tenders
1/3 red bell pepper, in small dice
4 green onions, both tops & bottoms chopped fine
1/2 avocado, diced
Olive oil, salt & pepper

I usually take some frozen chicken parts, salt and pepper them, and dash on some olive oil before leaving them in the fridge until I remember to eat them. It's a good generic prep for anything I can think of, and it makes the meat tender and flavorful without much thinking. So I had some of those.

Use some type of wide noodles- papardelle, linguini, etc. Farfale would be ok, but I don't like those.  Have those cooking (about 3 servings worth, 2 if you have big appetites) in salted water while you do the other things.

Brown the chicken bits in a medium-high skillet. Heat some oil in the pan, then put in the chicken in a single layer. Let it brown without moving it, then flip once and let it sit for a couple seconds. If you use tenders the way I do, they'll already be done when you flip 'em, cooking the other side is just for looks. Take out the chicken and set it aside, and if the pan is pretty dry, add some more oil, about a tablespoon. Then brown the peppers and onions. Remember to add a sprinkle of salt to encourage them to brown. Add the avocados toward the end so they get cooked, but don't have time to turn into mush. When it's looking pretty good, but before the stuff stuck to the pan goes black, tear up the chicken and put it back in along with any juices that have accumulated, and throw the cooked noodles on top. Add a good shake of pepper and another pinch of salt if it needs it, turn off the heat and stir it around until the brown stuff has come off the pan.

You know what I forgot? Pine nuts. There should have been pine nuts in it. Dang. Oh well. If you use those, put them in the pan at the end of the part where you brown the peppers and onions.

I had beets & basil with it. No secrets there, just beets, fresh basil,  and a pinch of the white parts from those green onions I was using. Dress with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper. But I do want to add that cooking beets in the microwave is super convenient and I don't know why I never did it before. Just stab some holes in them so they don't blow up, and put them in a covered container with a half inch of water. 4 smallish beets took 3 rounds of 3 minutes at full power. Brilliant!

Chicken Piccata

Maybe there are 2 t's in that? Piccatta? Is it Italian? Who cares. This is lunch in 20 minutes.

3-5 chicken tenders
some butter
some flour
salt and pepper
1 or 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
half cup of chicken stock
some capers
parsley

served with papardelle and peas

Dude! This recipe has no cheese! That puts it in the minority of non-asian dishes I find satisfying. No onions or garlic either; that's something.

I prep the chicken tenders a few days in advance because I start with frozen. I salt & pepper the frozen chicken, drizzle on a dab of olive oil and leave it covered in the fridge until I want it.

Start the water for the noodles.

Pull the tough white things out of the tenders if you like. Makes them easier to eat. Heat a skillet to medium-high. Roll the chicken in flour and melt a pat of butter in the pan. Brown the chicken on each side. Tenders will take about 1 minute for each side!

Somewhere in here, the water will boil. Throw in the noodles. I cooked 'em til they were about 3/4 done, then dumped in the peas too. Less clean up.

When the meat is cooked, set it aside, and add the stock, capers and lemon juice to the pan, along with another little pat of butter. Taste it- if it is too sour for you, add a little more stock to thin it, and a tiny pinch of sugar. Bring it to a boil and it should thicken up. Turn the heat off and wait for the noodles if you need to. If you don't, then just before you serve it, chop up the parsley and add it to the sauce. If you're by yourself, I wouldn't blame you if you were to throw the noodles and chicken into the pan and eat from the skillet. I assure you, it is just as tasty that way, but I did want a slightly fancier picture to show you all.

Notes: fresh lemon juice. I keep lemons frozen for practicality, but nuking them to get the juice out also gets a lot of the bitter oils from the rind into the juice. It's ok, but given my druthers... Don't be tempted to put the parsley in too soon. The acid in the lemon juice will start to make it go all brown after about 9 seconds. Really.  When  flouring the chicken, really press it in. You want a good coating; enough to give a bit of crispyness but not enough to resemble breading. The flour that falls off and stays in the pan is what thickens the sauce later. And dagbone, I meant to brown some mushrooms in it! Oh well, next time.

"...I love my chicken...You got to know your chicken..."
 

Chicken Soup with other stuff

As usual, I was mooching off my brother, and there is a resulting recipe. This is a third-hand recipe that originated in a cookbook with a depressing title, "heart healthy recipes" or suchlike. But don't be put off, it is very tasty.

4 chicken tenders, mine were frozen
1 qt water
1 T broth concentrate
the white parts of 4 green onions, chopped pretty small
1 bay leaf
1/2 of a tiny can of roasted green chilis

1 can white beans
1 cup corn nibs, I used frozen
1+ T cornmeal

I discovered to my dismay that I do not have any chili seasoning; here's what went in it instead:

1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4+ tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp ground cumin
scant 1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp ground coriander, although I do start with whole seeds and crush them up. Better that way.
1/4 tsp paprika

Put the chicken, water, and stock concentrate in a 3 or 4 qt pot and bring to a boil.  No need to thaw the chicken if you use frozen, it just adds fussing. When the chicken has thawed and cooked mostly through, use a fork and a spatula or something like that to tear the meat up into little chunks. Put the onions, chilis and the other seasonings in and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the flavors blend and the chicken is quite tender. Then drain and rinse the beans, add them and the corn nibs to the soup and bring back to a boil. Sprinkle on the cornmeal and simmer until the soup has thickened slightly.

You can add a dash of cayenne for more heat (highly recommended) and because it is very boring to look at, do garnish it with some cilantro, or parsley if you don't like cilantro. It's more fun to eat that way. I put a dab of hot sauce on it for the picture. And Greek yogurt.

Should have taken a picture

I was faced with a need to make something tasty, quick, and acceptable for last minute company. I had not been to the grocery store, at least, not to do more than pick up a couple eggs.

Chicken and noodles in a Florentine-esque sauce

Somewhere, I read that when something is labled "florentine" it is supposed to indicate that it contains spinach. Florence being known for its spinach, I guess. Likewise, in things named "vichysoisse" you ought to expect to find peas, which are supposedly abundant and/or especially special in the neighborhood of Vichy. Which makes me think that it is rather typically american that the one thing best known (to me at any rate) as Vichysoisse is a potato soup, with nary a pea in sight. But that is neither here nor there.

Again- chicken and noodles, etc.

4 frozen chicken tenders
salt, pepper, dash of olive oil

Set a large pot of salted water on to boil the noodles.

Heat a deep skillet with the oil and a sprinkle of salt in it to about medium. Put the frozen tenders in and sprinkle over a generous dash of pepper and a touch more salt. Cover. Meanwhile, assemble:

half a large onion, diced small
2 T tomato paste
1 and a half cups frozen chopped spinach
1 garlic clove
a bag of trader joe's plain papardelle

Flip the chicken tenders over after they brown a bit, and re-cover. When the other side has browned, they will probably be slightly raw inside. That's fine, just put them in a bowl and ignore them for a while. Put a little more oil and a sprinkle of salt in the pan, and throw in the onions. Stir them around, and if they don't sweat enough on their own to take up the chicken residue, add a half cup of water and then crush in the garlic. Stir every few minutes until the onions are caramelized, then add 2 cups of water and the tomato paste and spinach. Cook until the spinach is done, check to make sure it has enough salt, then slice up the chicken bits and return them to the pan to finish cooking. It'll probably only take a couple seconds. Remember to put any juices that may have drained out back into the sauce. Somewhere in there, the water will have come to a boil and you can drop in the noodles, but remember that it only takes about 4 minutes for those things to reach al dente.

Serve with grated cheese, and optional chopped olives.

Tomatillo Tagine and Cous-Wa

An unexpected crop of tomatillos + a jar of preserved limes made during the enthusiasm of summer = north african with south american ingredients.

The Tagine part:

2 onions, sliced
6 tomatillos, chopped
1 clove crushed garlic
2 frozen chicken tenders, cut up
1 large russet potato, in 1 inch cubes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp coriander seed, ground
a generous shake each paprika and turmeric-it adds color
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
the fleshy part of 1/4 of a preserved lime plus about 1/4 tsp of the skin, minced very fine
hot pepper flakes optional
broth concentrate & water
kalamata olives or some olive mix you like.
olive oil for browning the onions

Brown the onions, tomatillos and garlic in a heavy saucepan. If it has a heatproof lid, you can do the traditional thing and finish the recipe in the oven, but I just did mine on the stovetop, so that's how my directions will go. When the onions are browned and the tomatillos are mush, add the chicken and the spices and lime. Cook until the chicken is almost done, then add the broth concentrate and potato, and add enough water to almost cover everything. Cook until the potatoes are done and you start to get some browning in the bottom of the pan. If it looks too watery, leave the lid off so it can cook down into a nice thick gravy. When you're about 5 minutes from done, add a handful of olives.

the Cous-Wa part:

And what is cous-wa? Another of Pete's recipes. His originally had basil and yellow peppers, I had no basil left, but tarragon and thyme make a good substitute.

1/2 c couscous
1/2 c quinoa
1/4 c diced bell pepper
1/4 c green beans -I used frozen
2 or 3 scallions, chopped
a dab of broth concentrate
olive oil
1 tsp mixed tarragon & thyme, minced finely
pine nuts-damn these are expensive these days! How long does it take to grow a frikkin' pine tree?!?!?

Brown the scallions and bell peppers in a bit of oil in a saucepan big enough to cook the grains in. When the onions are brown, add about 1 1/2 cups of water and a bit of broth concentrate. Bring to a boil, add the quinoa and cover. When the quinoa is almost done (it'll take about 10 minutes) check to make sure there's still about a half cup of liquid. Add a bit if necessary, put in the couscous & herbs, stir well and cover. Turn the heat off. The couscous will steam up in about 5 minutes and you can toss it up with a handful of pine nuts just before serving.

Garnish with mint for authenticity -hah- or parsley if that's what you got.

I am not a big fan of either couscous of quinoa by themselves. Too many dumbell college hippy recipes, I think. Curiously enough, combining the two made a very appealing dish. The quinoa makes up for the lack of textural character in the couscous, and the couscous ameliorates the peculiar musty flavor of the quinoa to a level that is piquant rather than obnoxious. Sometimes I remember that food like this has only been possible in the last 1/2 century, and then only for a very few of us. I feel lucky indeed.

Neon Food! With Minty Pea Sauce!

Yes, the real reason for this post is that the phrase "minty pea sauce" makes me snicker. And I saw a picture of these pickled eggs in the paper and had to try it. Not my most inspired moment of food styling, I have to say, but hey, it is eye-catching.

I love food that appears to have an unnatural color. Mostly, if it looks unnatural, it is. Especially if its blue. (I failed to grow any borage this year, so I have no blue food, but next year...) However: this here picture shows all 100% natural coloration. And it really is all that bright, no foolin.

Remember the beets from last week? I made beet pickles, and dropped some boiled (shelled) eggs in the extra pickle juice. It makes 'em taste like devilled eggs, but the pink part is what has the pickle-y flavor.

The recipes for the yogurt and the chutney can be found on my facebook pages and the rest goes like this:

Lazy Curry Chicken

2 or 3 chicken breast tenders
1/4 turmeric
1/2 tsp curry powder, I recommend hot
salt & pepper
olive oil

If you use frozen tenders, just throw them in a bowl and coat them with the marinade, and leave them in the fridge a couple days. Turn them once or twice to get them well coated with the seasonings, and wait'll they thaw. When you're ready to use them, put a dab of oil in a pan heated to medium. Put the tenders in with any marinade/juices and cover. Cook for 3-4 minutes, flip, turn heat off, cover, ignore until the rest of the meal is done. This method works for me because 1) I use a heavy skillet and 2) I use an electric stove which takes a minute to cool down.

Bright Yellow Pilaf

1/2 cup white rice
1/2 cup red lentils
pat of butter
broth concentrate
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika


Rinse rice & lentils well, add 1 1/2 c. water and the other stuff and cook as you usually would. This method makes the lentils disintegrate, if you want them to stay whole, cook the rice about halfway then stir in the lentils.

and....dun dun DUN!

Minty Pea Sauce!

It isn't really that exciting, sorry. Microwave 1/2 cup frozen peas with 1/3 cup water just barely until they are bright green and tender. Put them in a blender or mini food processor with 4 mint leaves and grind the bajeebus outta them. Add the tiniest pinch of salt. This isn't to make it taste salty, it just makes it taste more interesting. Truly, it works. The sauce will still taste sweet and have a cooling sensation, but it won't be flat and blah. This stuff is actually great with the yogurt.

Here's the eggs again, just because they look neato. Oh and those bright orange things in the other picture are nasturtium petals... They were just..orange, ok?

Bietola, damnnit! Bietola!

Is that what the stuff is called? Yes I think so, this time. It inspired this meal:




1 bunch bietola. Or chard, they're similar.
1 clove garlic
1 unit broth concentrate
pepper
olive oil


1 fennel bulb
1 or 2 onions
salt, pepper, olive oil


2 chicken tenderloins, marinated in:
salt, pepper, olive oil
fresh rosemary, parsley and thyme
sprinkle of roasted garlic chips

These amounts make enough for one meal for me, with leftovers for lunch the next day.

Roasted walnuts and fresh goat cheese to serve with.

Up to 3 days in advance, mince the fresh herbs to go on the chicken, toss the tenderloins in with the rest of the marinade ingredients and cover. I recommend 2 things- first, remove the tendons from the meat. They're stringy. Second, allow at least overnight to marinate the meat. I started with frozen and left them for 3 days in the fridge.

On the day you want to eat, allow about an hour and a half. That's enough time not to get frazzled doing this, if you're having company.

Start with the fennel and onions. Preheat the oven to 350. Slice the fennel and onions in 1/3 inch slices, toss with plenty of salt, pepper and olive oil, and bake for about an hour. The fennel and onions should be tender and shriveled, and some of the small pieces should be dark brown and caramelized. Turn the oven off and leave them in there til the rest of the stuff is done, crack the door if you're worried about overcooking.

The greens take around 1/2 hour. Cut them up and put them in a heavy bottomed pot with a little olive oil over medium heat. Toss them up, add a little pepper and cover. When they're about half wilted, crush in the garlic clove and add the broth concentrate. Keep them mostly covered until they are very tender. They should steam down in their own juice. A little browning is fine, but you don't want a lot. Stir sometimes.

When the greens are about done, heat a skillet with a little oil to medium and put in the chicken. Brown on both sides, it only takes a couple minutes per side. At this point, if the greens are watery, let them cook uncovered while you do the chicken. Check the greens for salt, while you're at it.

I cooked the meat with the lid on, like this: chicken in pan, cover. Wait a few, peek, cover, wait. Peek, flip, turn heat off, cover, ignore.

Serve with a sprinkle of cheese and nuts.