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!

bacon pone

I made this bacon bread once before, but I think it looks a lot prettier this time. I used an enamelled pan, for one thing. My cast iron skillet did a great job on the onions initially, but the iron made the onions turn green by the next day. Very weird looking. Secondly, you simply don't need as much liquid as the recipe calls for. I think I reduced it by about half a cup- I left out the water and used sugar rather than molasses. Over all, it was a big improvement. Third-party taste test says it's a winner.

I do stick with my reccomendation for salad as an accompaniment. That's arugula and roasted squash, with some kind of hard cheese that had no label on it. It's pretty nutty, like a parmesan or asiago, and a little smelly, but that could just be my fridge.

Curry in a Hurry

Actually, it is probably slower to cook this in the microwave than on the stove, but I like the Seussian rhyme scheme of 'curry' and 'hurry'.

Lots of things made this meal come together. I didn't have a real appreciation of southeast asian food until recently. I knew about pho, and pretty much that was it. There was a chi-chi little thai place I got lunch at a couple times in NYC, which sort of started me in the right direction, but until I moved here, thai food was kinda intimidating, and I didn't want to try making any myself.

Anyway, last year, I got some curry off a hotcart on 10th and it had squash in it. I thought it was a novel idea, but it wasn't until I made that squash and mushroom pie a while back and had half a squash leftover that it occurred to me that my tofu quickie dish was not the only thing that could be made in the microwave. Then I had dinner at Jade Teahouse in Sellwood, and was pretty well impressed by their green papaya salad. It had the best shrimp on it that I've eaten in a long while. So after that I had to make some thai-style curry.

Squash and Veggies in Red Curry, with Jicama Slaw & Sticky Rice

3/4 lb butternut squash
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
2 green onions, sliced, both green and white parts
3 cups fresh baby spinach
1 cup coconut milk
1 to 4 T red curry paste (I used Maesri brand) depending on desired hotness level.
a splash of fish sauce
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/3 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1/2 lb jicama, peeled and julienned.
1/2 large lime
some cilantro to taste
1/2 tsp honey, optional
pinch of salt

Sushi rice or thai jasmine rice
more coconut milk

I used sushi rice. I think next time I will rinse the rice a bit first, it turned out almost too gooey. If you are using a less gelatinous type of rice, maybe you will want to skip the rinsing. Otherwise, just prepare the rice as usual, but substitute coconut milk for about 1/2 the water.

Scrape the zest off the lime into the jicama, and then squeeze the lime juice over it. Mince the cilantro and add that, and a tiny pinch of salt. If the jicama is not as sweet as it sometimes is, add a tiny dab of honey.

Cut the squash into slices no more than 1/3" thick, and about 1-2 inches across. Put them with a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup water in a 6 cup microwavable container with a lid and cook on high for about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms & onions, repeat. Add spinach, coconut milk and curry paste, stir, repeat. The squash is the determining factor here. When it's tender enough, add the peppers and ginger, taste to see if it needs salt and add fish sauce if it does. If you like it only mildly spiced, you will definitely need the fish sauce, or it will be very bland. Microwave for 1 or 2 minutes longer, and serve over the rice.

I strongly encourage you not to use light coconut milk. There is no protein or fat in this dish otherwise, you need something to make it satisfying. The lime juice on the jicama will cut the richness of the rice and curry in a very refreshing way.

Happy National Pie Day!

In honor of the occasion, I made mine like this:

1 recipe of pastry for a double crust pie. Mine is usually

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold water, more or less

But, I ran out of a.p. and had to sub in 1/3 cup whole wheat flour. Otherwise, made as I usually do.

Fill with

Most of a butternut squash, sliced 1/4" thick

a small thing of button mushrooms, sliced
the whites and a good bit of the green parts of some scallions, cut fine

some fresh rosemary, sage, salt, pepper, olive oil
about 3 oz. gouda
a big handful of fresh baby spinach


Heat the oven to 425

Toss the squash in a sprinkle of salt & pepper and a generous slosh of oil. Get a heavy bottomed skillet medium hot, put in the squash and a little water and cover for about  5 minutes. They'll cook surprisingly fast. Uncover and add the onions and herbs and a bit more oil if they're sticking a lot. You want to stir enough to get them cooked evenly but not so much that the squash mushes up or fails to brown a bit. When the squash is tender, put it in a bowl, scrape out the pan and add a little more oil and the sliced mushrooms. Let them brown, stir to turn them over, then add them to the bowl with the squash. Roll out your pastry and heap about 1/2 the filling in the middle. Put a generous handful of spinach on top and press it down gently, then slice or grate on a layer of cheese. Repeat, with a somewhat less generous heap of spinach and cheese, then loosely fold up the sides of the pastry. An egg wash is optional, but nice. Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven and desired level of brownness. My oven is a bit cool, I think, so it takes around 40 min, especially if I keep popping the door open to fiddle with things.

2 things to keep in mind- go easy on the sage, it can be overpoweringly bitter, and remmember that spinach will loose about 85% of its volume once cooked. I think that a little sauteed mustard or chard would have a better texture.

Odds an' Ends

Because I have no car, and it is winter, I am more than usually averse to shlepping myself to and from the grocery store. I hate dragging my ass home with a load of heavy soggy bags at the end of a day. This leaves me with some strange combinatons sometimes. The good ones end up here, the other stuff I pretend never happened.

Delicata Squash with Tofu and Spinach Stuffing
(served with some other stuff to make it interesting, like.)

On the right there is the cous-wa again, that's old hat. The raddiccio is mostly for color, although the bitter crunchyness goes well with the rest of the stuff.

The tofu stuffing came about because I have these enthusiasms for an ingredient, and have to go and get some to see what its like. The peedan was one I actually knew what to do with; those blessed tomatillos were another story... This time it was bacon salt.  Somebody (Dawn) mentioned it and I thought, wow, bacony goodness without having to cook any bacon! Yep, I am that lazy.

Well, I found one thing to do with it: I put it in my do chang. But then what? Attempt to make fake bacon out of tofu, obviously. Not a success, obviously. But I did get a curiously satisfying marinated tofu good for sandwiches. Then I ran out of bread, and besides, I was bored of sandwiches. Some time ago, Cynthia gave me a dinky little squash, and there was pretty much nothing else left in the kitchen when I got home today. This gave me a reason to have the oven on for an extra hour, which is a good thing around the solstice.

1 block super-firm tofu
bacon salt
nutritional yeast
olive oil
some ground toasted flax seeds
bear with me.

Cut the tofu into strips about 1 inch wide and at most 1/2 inch thick. Coat them generously with a mix of the dry ingredients. You can go moderately heavy with the bacon salt, it seems to be mostly composed of garlic powder and paprika. Put it in a tupperware thing and add a slosh of olive oil and shake it around to get the oil distributed. Then leave it in the fridge until you feel guilty about not eating it, which was about 5 days for me. Maybe longer. Then decide that you might as well combine it with that other thing you feel guilty about not eating, and locate your squash.

Mine was a particularly small squash, definitely a one-person size. To fill it, I used:

2 strips marinated tofu
2/3 cups frozen chopped spinach
a toasted heel of bread, torn up very small
salt and pepper

To assemble the squash, cut the squash in half to form 2 little cups, and scoop out the seeds. Put the tofu and spinach in a bowl and microwave it just until it's all hot, then smash up the tofu with a fork. Stir in the bread bits, taste for salt and pepper, and if it is very dry add a spoon of water. Mine had all the leftover olive oil from the bottom of the tofu batch, so it was pretty moist. Cram the stuffing into the squash cups, put them in a pan with a little water in the bottom to keep them from utterly drying out, and bake them for about an hour. The time will vary depending on how big your squash is, and if it's very large, you may want to cover it for the first half of the baking or it will burn on the outside before it gets done through.

Pete's Sausage Dressing

According to an old redneck I used to hang out with (bless him) it is properly called 'stuffing' only when it is served out of the cavity of an animal. Turkey or whatever. If it is cooked and served as a side dish, it is 'dressing'.

2 mild italian sausage links
1 large onion, diced
3 or 4 celery ribs, diced
fresh sage, parsley, rosemary, minced
salt & pepper
a bit of olive oil

about 1/2 recipe of leftover cornbead

Smash up the sausage links and fry them in a large heavy pan. Discard the casings if you like, they're sorta rubbery. When the sausage is mostly done, add the onions. Depending on how fatty the sausage is, you may need to add a drop or two of olive oil. Stir a bit, and when the onions are starting to go transparent, add the herbs and celery, stir, cover.

At this point, I cut the cornbread into rather thick slices and toasted them in a mostly dry skillet. You could skip this step, but I like the toasty bits from re-frying the bread. Turn the bread slices to brown both sides if you do this.

Once the celery is tender, add the cornbread to the pot and smash it up with a spoon or something.

Serve with squash. Pete usually does his mashed, like potatoes, but I like mine like this:

1 butternut squash
salt, pepper, olive oil

I use butternuts because they are very easy to peel with a potato peeler, and they have a very small amount of guts as compared to other kinds of squash. So, peel one, scoop out the guts, and cube the squash. Toss with a good amount of olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Bake on a sheet for as much as an hour at 375. The time varies from 1/2 hour up, depends on how big your cubes are and how large your squash was.

I think goat cheese would be very nice with this.

Brussels sprouts for breakfast indeed!

This weekend I got some brussels sprouts at market and made up a mess of my favorite sprouts and squash dish. It made more than I anticipated, and in order not to get bored of it, I came up with this.

Sprouts & Squash

1 large stalk brussels sprouts
1 largeish butternut squash
olive oil
salt & pepper
pumpkin pie spice
butter
honey or maple syrup

Peel & cube the squash, toss in olive oil and a liberal shake of salt & pepper and bake at 375 until tender. A few brown bits is good, but not required. When the squash is done, halve the sprouts and put them in a lidded pot with about 1/2 cup water and a couple tablespoons of butter, and a pinch of pie spice. Steam them until the sprouts are bright green & tender, stirring occasionally to make sure they cook evenly. When they're done, add the squash and a tablespoon or 2 of honey or syrup to taste. Very easy.

The stuff in the picture is an egg scramble with the squash as prepared above, with a little bit of leftover red bell pepper and some sheep milk gouda. Brown the pepper & sprouts in a bit of butter first, then throw in the eggs. When they're about done ( it'll only take a sec) remove from heat, top with cheese and cover until the cheese has melted. Sprinkle with a pinch of fresh rosemary if you like it.