Dateline: May 23, 2021 Grilled Chicken and Broccolini with Rice

 FD delivered a lovely chicken that unfortunately had burst its bag and spilt chicken juice all over the inside of the bag!  Everything but the blueberries was salvaged.    

I spatchcocked the chicken, which is splitting it open and removing the backbone and pushing down on the breast keel bone and flattening the chicken as much as possible so that it cooks evenly.  

I made a marinade of fresh lemon, calabrian pepper paste, garlic, salt and olive oil.  I ground up these in a spice grinder and it made a lovely orange paste.  This was slathered all over the chicken in a plastic bag, sealed and put into the fridge until ready.

Fire got started and roaring hot, out came the chicken and the broccolini and the chicken went on first.  I deeply browned the bone side first, then flipped over and let the skin get burnished and crispy and then threw on the broccolini and got that just a little blackened and dinner was served with left over rice! 

Dateline: May 22, 2021 Rack of Lamb on the Grill

What to grill?  What to grill?  In rooting through the freezer I found a rack of lamb, problem solved!

I made a quick marinade of preserved lemon, some calabrian chilis, a fat clove of garlic, and olive oil.  This got blitzed up to make a lovely orange paste which was smeared all over the lamb.  Popped in a plastic bag and in the fridge.

I am into peeling asparagus these days.  It is easy to do, provides a lovely color when grilled and makes them tender.  I also decided to rice up a head of cauliflower that I had in the veggie bin and make steamed cauliflower rice with dinner.

Of course, I only thought to take a photo halfway through the meal,  D'oh.  So the photo is of the individual chops after grilling.  The one of the far left shows some of the crustiness that the grill provided on the fat cap and the one on the far right shows that I did a good job of keeping them rosy pink on the inside.!  Yeah, me!

Below are the remains of the asparagus and the riced cauliflower.  I used a box grater to shred it up rather than a food processor because I was lazy, but then did really like the texture of the finished product!

Asparagus were oiled and sprinkled with salt and pepper then lightly grilled.

 

 

Dateline: May 18, 2021 A Produce Drawer Goes to Korea

I had a lot of produce that needed to be used up.  Several bunches of collards and Tuscan Kale, as well as a couple of small beets and an unidentified root veggie that came with a Misfits box.

This was an experiment.  And it turned out great!  We both couldn't stop eating it.  There was a bit of heat, but not too much, just enough to satisfy and the crunchiness of the beets and scallions went a long way toward that end as well.

A definite keeper in the rotation!

Ingredients

2-3 bunches of collards and kale or any other leafy veggies, cut into ribbons

1 large red onion, cut into thin wedges through the root end

1 bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 small yellow beets, peeled and sliced into thin half moons

1 bunch scallions, sliced into 3" pieces

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced thinly

1 jalapeno, halved, seeded, and sliced

2 T gochujang

2 T Korean soybean paste

1 heaping T Korean Chili flakes

1 T rice wine vinegar

1 T Mirin

2 T white wine

1/2 lb Korean rice cakes

Vegetable Stock, as needed

Method

1.  In a small bowl, put the gochujang, soybean paste, rice wine vinegar, mirin, and white wine.  Mix well.  Should have the consistency of oatmeal.  Add water or vegetable stock if necessary.  This is the sauce that will be added into the stir fry later.

2.  In a sauce pan, bring salted water to a boil.  Boil rice cakes for about 3-4 minutes, then drain and rinse.

3.  Heat a wok up, add some oil and fry the rice cakes until they have a few dark spots on them.  This will take longer than you think!  You need to evaporate the water off them before they will start to brown.  When browned to your liking, remove from wok and hold in a bowl.

4.  Add more oil to the wok, and add the garlic and ginger.  Then add beets and bell pepper and fry them until they soften up a bit and the beets lose their hard crunchiness. Add the onion and collards and coat with oil and cook until the collards wilt a bit.  Add the sauce and mix well.  If needed, add some of the vegetable stock to facilitate the coating of all the veggies in the sauce.  Add in the rice cakes and scallions.  Mix well.  When veggies are cooked to your liking and rice cakes are nicely coated in the sauce, serve.

 

Timeline: May 14 , 2021 Long Time No Post!

Hello again!  My paws has been because we have a couple of kittens staying with us.  As of this writing, I do not know for how long!  

They are adorable and frisky, which makes for a lot of herding of them.  I have been so entertained by their antics that I have completely gone off the blogging!

 This is an effort to turn some preserved lemon marinaded grilled chicken breasts from the previous night into a Chinese inspired stir fry.

The chicken was cut into strips, an onion, garlic, bell pepper, ginger, and last night's veggies were then stir fryed with some Pixian bean paste and a splash of shaosing wine, dark and light soy sauces and some rice vinegar.  

It turned out quite nicely.  I was unsure if the lemon would overpower and make it, well, gross.  But success.

Dateline: May 5, 2021 Cinco de Mayo, Chili Bandera

I pulled some ground turkey out of the freezer and was trying to figure out what to do with it, when I realized it was May 5!  So chili immediately sprang to mind.  So I browsed in the fridge and found 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 2 small onions, garlic, collard greens and there it was, just add turkey and a can of black beans and dinner was ready.

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey, I used 93% lean

1 green bell pepper, cut into bite sized chunks

1 red bell pepper, cut into bite sized chunks

1 hot pepper cut into slices

2 small onions, diced into bite sized chunks

1/2 a bunch of collards, stripped and cut into ribbons

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 T chili powder

2 t ground cumin

1 t ground coriander

1/2 t epazote

1/2 t mexican oregano

salt and pepper

1 box diced tomatoes, I used Colavita, 12 oz box

couple of glugs of wine, red or white

1 can of beans, rinsed and drained

Oil

1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped

Method

1.  Heat a pan and add some oil to coat.  Brown the turkey.  Add more oil if necessary, and saute the onions and peppers until a bit softened.  Add the garlic and collards.  

2.  Add the tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, coriander, epazote and oregano along with some wine and the salt and pepper.  Stir and cover pan.  Cook over med low heat for 10-15 minutes.

3.  Taste, adjust seasonings and recover.  Cook until peppers are soft, then add a rinsed can of the beans of your choice.  I used black beans.  Top with chopped cilantro and serve over rice.

 

Dateline: April 29, 2021 Clams, Shrimp, Linguini what could be better?

Fresh Direct came through again with their delivery, cockles!  What to do with them.  I had frozen shrimp in the freezer and the clams, why not some pasta.

 

 

I made a base of pancetta, garlic (lots of it), a shallot, and some grape tomatoes.  After they burst and the sauce was kind of soupy, I added the scrubbed clams until they opened.  I removed them and took the meat out of the shells.  Any clam juice went back into the pan.  I added some white wine and tasted for seasoning.  

The pasta water was set to boil and I added the frozen shrimp into the broth to cook through.  They were still half frozen.  When the pasta was cooked, I dumped it into the sauce along with some of the pasta water and stirred things around to coat each linguini strand with the sauce.

Dinner was served along with a salad!

Dateline: April 26, 2021 Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs

I had some chicken thighs that needed to be cooked or frozen, I opted for the former.  I sprinkled Galena Street from Penzey's on the thighs and then put them in the 400° F oven for 30 minutes.

After I removed them from the oven, I added the vegetation, broccoli, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and a green pepper.  Coated them in the fat in the pan, and nestled them around the thighs.  Back into the oven for another 30 minutes. or until the internal temp of the thighs reached 180°F.  Then we ate!

Dateline: April 24, 2021 Experimental Dinner: Air Fried Chicken Thighs

I know, I know, I visited the website Modernist Pantry and saw a demo of air fried chicken, ordered the components and decided to give it a go.

I should have been more attentive to the recipe, there was an error, that I unfortunately didn't notice until after I made the breading..... live and learn.

The error was in printing the weight of the AP flour as 600 g, but it was supposed to be 60 grams.  So I have a big bag of stuff that didn't work out so well.

I brined the chicken first in a buttermilk brine with Worcestershire sauce, powdered hot sauce, salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, and vinegar powder.  That part went well.  

Next came the breading procedure.  The products that I ordered were Evercrisp and Batter Binder S.  These are designed to 1) hold the batter on the product and 2) provide a long lasting crisp on the food.  Neither worked, which I attribute to the stupid error in the recipe and I will have to try again.

The taste was pretty good, hit of spice came through and the crispy parts were crispy, but the batter did not adhere very well.  The vegetables were good, they were steamed!

I have to admit, the photo makes them look really good!

Dateline: April 22, 2021 Old Fashioned Pot Roast

I bought a large chuck roast that I had thought I would smoke, but the weather was too cold and windy to stand around tending the smoker, so I had to move to another plan......Pot Roast.

Old Fashioned Pot Roast

Ingredients

1 chuck roast or any cut that needs a long time to get tender

Kitchen Bouquet, Kitchen Magic or Maggi Seasoning 

Salt and Pepper

2 large onions, cut into thin half moon slices

2 medium or 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into smallish chunks

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

2 stalks of celery, cut into smallish chunks

oil

1/2 bottle of red wine

2 c chicken stock

thyme sprigs

Method

1.  Heat oven to 350°.  Coat the entire outside of the roast with the Kitchen Magic or Maggi, painting it all over and getting into all nooks and crannies.  Liberally salt and pepper as you go.

2.  Heat a cast iron dutch oven, large enough to hold the roast and veggies, add oil to the dutch oven and sear the roast well on all sides.  It is best to use tongs as a fork will pierce the meat and allow juices to run out.

3.  When the roast is finished searing remove it to a plate and use 1/4 of a bottle of red wine to deglaze the pan.  You will really need to scrape at the bottom to loosen up all of the fond.  This is a critical flavor building endeavor, do not skip, or God forbid, use a clean pan!  Once the fond is up, then reduce the liquid by half.  

4.  Add in the onions, and cook to soften.  Make sure to stir them around to absorb all of the wine-y goodness at the bottom of the pan.  When the are soft, add in the carrots and celery and saute until they soften up a bit as well.

5.  Make a little nest in the veggies, and settle the seared roast into the pan, pour in any juices that accumulated while resting.  Add the rest of the 1/2 bottle of wine and the chicken stock.  Mix well and bring to a simmer.

6.  Put lidded dutch oven into the hot oven and check on it in about 1.5 hrs.  Flip the roast over and return pan to oven.  Check on it in another hour or so.  The meat is cooked when it is easily pierced by a fork and offers little to no resistance to the fork.

7.  Carefully remove the roast to a clean plate or cutting board and tent with foil to keep moist and warm.  In the dutch oven is the "gravy".  Remove thyme sprigs.  Spoon off as much of the fat as you like, and with a stick blender, grind up everything into a thick-ish "gravy".  

8.  I find that if I cut the roast in half with the grain and then flip that chunk cut side down, then the slices will be cut against the grain and will be more tender.  Depending on your esthetics, you can cut into thick slabs or thin, depending on its tenderness and how the meat cooperates with your knife.  

Dateline: April 21, 2021 Lamb Tajine

We were visiting my mom in North Carolina last week, and prior to that I was not cooking.....that explains the break in posts!

I recently "found" my tajine pan again, so was itching to use it.  I had ordered from Fresh Direct some lamb chunks, and decided on tajine last night.  This was the perfect setting to pull it out and have a go.

I used a Melissa Clark recipe from NYTCooking.  Of course, I had to make a few changes, I didn't have apricots, so I used prunes, I didn't have almonds, so I used a mix of walnuts and pine nuts.  My lamb was without bone, so sue me, as it was boneless, I went with 2 lbs of meat chunks instead of the 3 lb called for in the recipe.

This was pretty easy, and very delicious.  I was concerned that it would be too sweet and possibly cloying, but that was not the case!  I had read some of the notes that stated they felt it was too salty, I used only 1 t of salt at the beginning and probably could have used the 2 t called for in the recipe.  The onions melted down into this delectable thick coating on the lamb chunks.  It was not too sweet.  It was luscious with the rice and the meal was rounded out with a salad.  Both of us were quite happy and it may just become a regular in the rotation.