Weekend Farmer's Market Dinner

Had a great Saturday yesterday! Temperatures were in the 70's, the sun was shining, and the farmer's market was full of delicious food.

I picked up some orange and purple cauliflower and a happy, local, free range, organic chicken. I sliced the cauliflower lengthwise, brushed with olive oil and roasted at 400 for 30 minutes. For the bird, I did a dry brine, stuffed it with lemon quarters and thyme, then roasted at 475 for 35 minutes.

The cauliflower was beautiful, packed with antioxidants, and full of intense, caramelized flavor. The chicken had the best skin I've ever had, crisp and tasty, plus the meat was moist and plump, even the breast.

We finished the meal with a simple salad of baby arugula and a loaf of rosemary bread, yum.

CEiMB: Thai Style Chicken with Coconut Curry Broth

This week life kind of got in the way of my usual cooking and blogging routine. Work, boo. So I'm a little late with this post, and made significant shortcuts so this dish only vaguely resembles the original. It was, however, delicious! And very easy, even in my stressed out state, so I will share. 15 minutes and it's on the table-

Thai Style Chicken with Coconut Curry Broth

adapted from The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger

1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut into chunks

2/3 cup Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce

1 package button mushrooms, sliced

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 red onion, fincely diced

2 scallions, thinly sliced

1 handful cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup peanuts

1 lime, juiced

1 tsp zest of that lime

3 cups baby spinach

olive oil

cooked white rice

In a large skillet, saute red onion in 1 tbsp olive oil for 2 minutes on medium. Raise heat to medium high and add chicken chunks and cook 1-2 minutes until browned. Add mushrooms and chicken broth and simmer uncovered for about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, microwave the baby spinach in a small bowl for 2 minutes. Pour in red curry sauce and cook another 2 minutes to heat through. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice and zest.

To serve, make a pile of rice, top that with spinach and pour a ladle of the chicken curry atop it. Garnish with scallions, cilantro and crushed peanuts. Yum.

Thanks to The Not So Skinny Kitchen for choosing a great recipe, hopefully you will forgive me for liberties taken:) Check out what the other folks did at Craving Ellie in My Belly, and if you're interested in cooking a healthy, tasty recipe every week with a fun group of bloggers, join us!

Ellie's Balsamic Chicken with (Baby Spinach) and Couscous

Well, after a much needed and much enjoyed Caribbean holiday, I am back to work, ugh, and back in the kitchen, yay. This week's CEiMB dish was Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous, as chosen by Culinary Delights.

I love couscous and spinach but the rest of the fam doesn't, so I negotiated to keep the couscous but swap the spinach for broccoli. It's all about compromise, right? We liked this dish as a quick, everyday weeknight dinner, a slight departure from the rest of my boneless, skinless chicken breast repertoire, and will probably make it again eventually. A solid 3 out of 5 stars, with extra points for being on the table in 15 minutes.

I served it with a nice goat cheese and green salad, and lots of homemade bread. Next time I think I'll top the dish itself with crumbled goat cheese, for that last extra kick fo flavor. You can find Ellie's original recipe here, or follow along with the changes I made instead:

Balsamic Chicken with Broccoli and Whole Wheat Couscous
adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
3 cloves garlic, sliced (not minced, it will burn!)
1 head broccoli, broken into florets
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned with juice
1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous, cooked
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

Microwave broccoli florets on high for 2-3 minutes to parcook, set aside. Saute garlic on medium high in a 12 inch skillet briefly to flavor oil, 2 min, and remove to plate. Make it a big plate because pretty much everything's going to end up here. Add chicken to pan, with a little extra olive oil if necessary. Cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through, and remove to plate with garlic. Add precooked broccoli to pan and saute 2 minutes or so, and remove to plate. Add chicken broth, vinegar, tomatoes and red pepper flakes and bring to a boil, then turn down to medium low. Dump contents of The Plate (garlic, chicken and broccoli) back to the skillet, and cook for another 2-3 minutes to combine flavors, tasting and seasoning as you go. Serve over couscous, and crumble goat cheese over the top if so desired!

Ellie's Buffalo Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

It's been a while since I've made something that both J and I loved. We kinda have opposite food views. I would be fine if I never ate the same thing twice in my entire life, and he would rather stick to the same 10 things that he knows he loves. Diff'rent strokes I guess, but it would be nice to have an intrepid explorer to sample smoked lung with (apparently the texture is divine). I'll have to rely on my brother for that, right dude?


Anyway, this dish was a HUGE success all around. We literally licked our plates clean. Hubby loved it because it's a familiar classic, and I loved it because it had big, bold, unexpected flavors. Whoever first thought to pair spicy, vinegary hot sauce with blue cheese was a frickin' genius. And unlike the original, this version balanced out the richness, by cutting out the deep frying and incorporating some fresh flavors and crunch in the salad and extra veggies.

I made a couple changes to the original recipe, which you can find online here, but voila, my version:



Buffalo Chicken Salad
adapted from The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger

1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 head butter lettuce
1 carrot, thinly sliced or coarsely shredded
3 stalks celery, cut in 1 inch pieces
3 scallions, green parts only
2 cups Blue Cheese Dressing

Pound chicken breasts to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into 3 inch strips, similar to a chicken tender size. Or use tenders. Put chicken in a big ziploc bag, add hot sauce and olive oil, smush to combine and let marinate for 10-15 minutes. Preheat broiler to high, and then broil chicken for 5-6 minutes, flipping once. Prepare salad by tearing lettuce into bite sized pieces and tossing with carrots, celery and scallions. Top salad with chicken and dressing, and prepare to be blown away!

Thank you so much to, oh wait, I picked this recipe out, so good work, self! Stop by the Craving Ellie in My Belly website to see how the rest of the group did, and if you're interested in cooking a new healthy recipe with a bunch of fun people every week, new members are always invited!

Ellie's Chicken with Mango Barbecue Sauce

This week's CEimB pick was selected by Aggie's Kitchen, and I loved it! I've only made homemeade BBQ sauce with a ketchup base in the past, and this was so much more fully flavored than those versions. It makes sense: if you want a vinegar flavor, use vinegar, if you want a tomato flavor, use tomato sauce, not ketchup!! I broiled my chicken rather than grill it, so my dish was missing that smoky flavor. Next time, if I know I can't grill, I'd add a little smoked paprika, or maybe some chipotles to get that smoky dimension. I have lots of sauce left, and can't wait to try it on pulled pork, grilled shrimp, BBQ nachos, and everything else I can get my hands on.

Thanks for choosing a great recipe, Aggie, and be sure to check out everyone else's fun with mango BBQ at Craving Ellie in My Belly!

Mango Barbecue Sauce

adapted from The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 roasted red bell peppers

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp honey

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 ripe mango

3 jalepenos

Saute onion and garlic until translucent, then add red peppers and saute another few minutes. Pour in vinegar, honey, tomato sauce, allspice, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice and some salt and pepper. Let cool slightly, meanwhile, cut, peel and seed mango and remove chile stems. Use less chiles, or discard the seeds and ribs if you want to tame the heat. Add everything to blender and pulse until smooth.

To finish Ellie's dish, I broiled some chicken tenders for 5 minutes on each side, heated the sauce a bit, and drizzled it over the chicken. Spicy, tangy, slighty sweet...altogether delicious!

I made stock

I made stock. The thing about stock is that, while it takes 5 hours and makes you feel like a resourceful pioneer woman, and/or classically trained fancy pants chef, it's pretty boring, especially via blog. Not sure if I should even bother with a recipe??

2 chicken carcasses, including gizzards

couple onions and carrots, cut in half if you want

all the parsley stems you can find

fennel stalks, just cuz I had them, or celery

S&P

bay leaves

peppercorns

garlic cloves

Boil the hell out of the carcasses, skimming the foamy scum that collects(I googled it, it's protein and gelatin and impurities that will make the stock cloudy and funny tasting later. I always try my best but get bored and annoyed after 20 minutes). Once the scum tide subsides, throw in veggies and everything else and lower to a barely bubbling simmer for 3-4 hours or until you have to leave the house. Strain, let sit, skim the separated fat/weird gelatin stuff from the top and then make the best chicken noodle soup ever.

Perfect Roast Chicken: Trial 2

I am so good. Perfection the second time out. Skin is crispy, white meat juicy, good lemony garlicky flavor throughout. Plus, I oh so brilliantly incorporated a couple side dishes into the cooking process with a minimum of effort, dirtied dishes, and ingredients. I made a rack out of halved red potatoes, thereby raising the bird (ha) out of the skillet so the hot air was able to circulate and cook it faster. The retained heat of the cast iron skillet I used kind of pan fried the potatoes, giving the cut side an amazing browned crust. They were so good. And instead of making a gravy or pan sauce, I dumped 2 cups of cooked lentils into the chicken drippings, added some lemon zest and a little red wine vinegar. Totally easier than messing with a sauce without sacrificing the pan drippings. Also, I used the rest of the parsley pesto I blogged about a couple days ago to stuff and rub over the chicken, giving it a nice speckly skin. Next time I'm going to try broiling both sides to finish it off.



1 4 1/2 lb chicken
zest of 1 lemon
that lemon
5 garlic cloves
parsley
red wine vinegar
Olive oil
S&P
4 red potatoes
2 cups lentils (I used 1 cup red and 1 cup french)

Salt chicken inside and out, let it sit and come to room temperature. Rub skin with olive oil, stuff whole garlic cloves, 1/2 the lemon, and a handful of parsley in the cavity. Cut red potatoes in half and place cut side down in pan in order to make a kind of platform/rack and place chicken breast side up on top. Roast at 400 for 15 minutes per pound, or until internal temp reaches 170 and juices run clear. When there's 30 minutes left in the cooking time, add lentils to 4 cups of water, bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken and potatoes to another dish and stir lentils into pan drippings. Add the lemon zest and red wine vinegar to taste, confetti the whole lot with chopped parsley and you're set!

Variables
Iron skillet, supermarket chicken, 400 for 15 min per pound, raised, breast side up, garlic.

Results
Crispy browned skin, moist meat, garlicky lemony juices.

Perfect Roast Chicken: Trial 1

If I'm nerdy enough to have a food blog, I should be at least a decent cook. And all decent cooks can roast a chicken in their sleep. Since I can't yet, I hereby assign myself to a month of roasting chickens, with a little dabbling into all the many variables and methods and techniques out there. Come March, I'll release the official methode Andrea. And have the material for a ton of stock.

1 3.5 lb fryer
Olive Oil
1/2 Lemon
Handful cilantro & dill
S&P

Season skin and cavity with salt and pepper, let chicken come to room temperature for about 45 minutes. Place breast side up in oiled cast iron skillet, sprinkle with s&P again, stuff herbs and lemon into cavity. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes per pound, plus ten minutes (3.5x15+10=52). Poke inquisitively with finger for doneness, then take temperature at thigh/breast junction, hoping for about 180-190, then, just to be sure, squeeze juices out of thermometer hole to make sure they are clear.















(The bird was ravaged by the time I remembered I should probably have a "done" pic too)

Variables
Iron Skillet, 400 for 15 min/lb plus 10, small Fryer not Roaster, Sprouts chicken, but not organic or free-range, salted an hour before cooking, breast side up the whole time, herbs in cavity - dill & cilantro, no garlic or onions, no twine

Results
Both white and dark meat very moist; time was perfect I think - done on the first test; subtle dill flavor, nice touch; breast was nice and plump and slightly browned, but legs and back were pale; skin was ok. Would've liked crisper and browner