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Posts Tagged ‘carrots
Recipe Mashups has moved to http://www.recipemashups.com/. Please click here for a link to the post you were looking for: Mustard-Thyme Roast Chicken and Sauteed Carrots with Lemon and Marjoram.
I’m going to make a couple things to take to my husband’s family’s Thanksgiving celebration. My job is a side-dish and a dessert. I picked two things already posted on this blog: Roasted Root Vegetables and Alayne’s Pumpkin Bars. Why these recipes? They’re both easy to scale for a crowd, fairly simple to prepare, tried-and-true recipes (so no ugly surprises the day of the party) and I think both dishes have pretty broad appeal. Also, I think these items will travel fairly easily in covered dishes. We’ll see how it goes!
Turkey and cranberries sounded so good I just couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving. This Italian twist on the classic comes from Giada de Laurentiis via the Food Network.
It was good, a very stick-to-your-ribs meal, but I wish I’d used more cranberries. The cranberry flavor wasn’t that noticeable. The gravy makes this a very creamy dish. The parsley stood out as a fresh note and I would say using fresh parsley is important or you could risk an overly creamy, somewhat bland dish. I grated a little Romano cheese on top when this was ready to serve. Also, I was worried about making sure the turkey cooked, so I boiled the ravioli for 5 minutes instead of the 3 in the recipe.
This is an Emeril recipe also from the Food Network, originally meant to go with roasted chicken. It’s an easy fall side dish and I make it frequently. I left out the beets this time and added red onions.
We opened a bottle of La Crema Chardonnay with this meal. It seemed to be a good match for the turkey and the creaminess of the sauce.
02
Nov
08
Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce
Yet another great Jacques Pepin recipe from Food and Wine. All in all, the recipe was fantastic, came out very flavorful and rich.
I had to modify the recipe slightly because Lund’s grocery store surprisingly didn’t have a couple of the items I needed: flatiron steak and pancetta. Here are the ingredient changes I made:
-Substituted sirloin for flatiron steak.
-Substituted thick-cut bacon for pancetta.
Following are the process changes I made:
-Cooked the meat in the wine in the oven for one hour instead of 1.5. Still, it came out drier than I would have hoped.
-Cooked the bacon in the pan for the vegetables, then added the vegetables to the bacon when it was crispy. Relied on the grease from the bacon drippings rather than adding olive oil.
I served this over white rice with crusty Italian peasant bread on the side, and garnished it with thyme sprigs. One other thing – my husband hates mushrooms and I love them, so I kept them in the recipe and just didn’t put any on his plate. They do add a lot of flavor. The wine I used in the stew was La Playa 2006 Merlot from the Colchagua Valley of Chile.
I started out with this Chicken Stew with Cider and Parsnips recipe from Food and Wine. I made quite a few changes, some based on ingredient availability, some based on preference.
Ingredient changes:
-Halved the quantities to make 2 servings instead of 4.
-Used 3 cut-up chicken breasts instead of thighs and drumsticks.
-Added 4 chopped strips of bacon to add flavor and prevent dryness since white meat was used instead of dark meat.
-Used chopped apples instead of parsnips because it’s what I had on hand.
-Used 1/2 cup white wine instead of apple cider because it’s what I had on hand. I reduced the total amount of liquid by about 1/4 cup to account for using apples, which release some water as they cook.
-Added 1 clove of minced garlic and 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary.
Process changes:
-My first step was to cook the bacon in the stew pot until crispy. I then removed it from the pan and used the drippings to brown the chicken pieces, and then removed the chicken from the pan.
-Next, I cooked the onions, garlic, carrots and apples in the pan for 3-4 minutes before adding the liquid. I think I should have let them cook a little longer at this stage, particularly the carrots. They were still a little undercooked when the rest of the stew was ready.
-At this point I added the white wine and then the chicken broth, and the thyme and rosemary, and simmered the mixture for 10 minutes, then put the chicken and bacon back in, and cooked it in the oven for 10 minutes. It could have done with more time for the vegetables to cook and the liquid to reduce a little more, but the chicken was done after ten minutes and I didn’t want it to be overcooked.
I served this over white rice. The bacon added what the chicken breasts left wanting as far as flavor and richness. This turned out to be a flavorful and satisfying meal.
Confetti Slaw
This fresh, colorful slaw is a great alternative to a run-of-the-mill salad. Toss all the ingredients together and dress with the lime Dijon below.
1/3 package shredded coleslaw mix with red and green cabbage and carrots
3 tablespoons finely chopped red onions
½ yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
½ large apple, finely chopped
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Zesty Lime-Dijon Dressing
3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Juice of ½ lime
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
½ clove of garlic, minced
Freshly ground sea salt and pepper to taste
Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl. Add more EVOO or lime juice to your taste. This dressing is also great on a chopped salad.
02
Oct
08
Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry
I put this dish together to try use a few ingredients I had on hand: chicken breast, green bell pepper, red onions, baby carrots and white rice.
For sauce, I made the following recipe: Restaurant Teriyaki Sauce. I was not totally pleased with how this came out. ½ teaspoon ground ginger was WAY too much – the whole house started smelling like ginger. Fresh ginger probably would have been better, too. Also, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder was not enough. Perhaps these quantities were reversed. I added a clove of minced garlic to the sauce as it cooked. All in all, this sauce was too sweet and too gingery for teriyaki – really not the best recipe. Because of this, I only added a couple tablespoons of it to the chicken and vegetables and served the rest on the side. A little of the sauce goes a long way and this worked out fine.
Chicken and Vegetables:
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
½ green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
½ cup baby carrots, quartered length-wise
¼ red onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 tablespoons sesame oil
Heat one tablespoon sesame oil over medium heat. Add minced garlic. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add to skillet or wok. Brown chicken for 4-6 minutes per side, turning once, making sure chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from skillet and cut into strips. Add one tablespoon of sesame oil and Worcestershire sauce to skillet. I used Worcestershire instead of soy sauce because I ran out of soy sauce after making the teriyaki sauce. It actually worked really well. Add vegetables and stir fry until desired doneness is reached, approximately 7-10 minutes. Add chicken to skillet. Add as much teriyaki sauce as desired and make sure chicken is warmed through.
Serve over rice. Serves 2.
Herb Roasted Chicken with a Mix of Roasted Baby Root Vegetables is an Emeril recipe from the Food Network. The roasted vegetable recipe is one of my favorites, but this was my first time roasting a chicken.
Herb Roasted Chicken
I followed the recipe exactly to prepare the chicken and put the chicken in the pan breast-side up. 30 minutes in, I basted it with the pan juices. The 3.5 pound chicken I used was done at 50 minutes instead of the hour called for. A meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh read 165 degrees. I let the chicken stand for 10 minutes as the recipe called for. It turned out perfect – tender and very juicy with crispy golden brown skin.
Roasted Root Vegetables
I made a few modifications to the roasted vegetable recipe based on the availability of ingredients:
1) Used quartered red-skinned potatoes instead of fingerling potatoes.
2) Used full-sized beets cut in one-inch cubes instead of baby beets and baby golden beets. This was the first time I used beets in the recipe – I usually leave them out. They tasted great, but gave all the other vegetables a reddish tinge.
3) Used regular turnips cut into one-inch cubes instead of baby turnips.
4) Added about ½ cup of red and yellow onions cut into thick slices and chopped into large chunks. I’ve added onions to the recipe in the past and it gives the whole dish a great flavor.
Yes, I’m STILL using up the zucchini I got at the farmer’s market last week. This is a good appetizer – excellent football food. I borrowed from this Beer Battered Zucchini recipe (from a site called “Bullets-and-Beer.com” no less) but also made things up along the way. The batter is very thick, sticks well to the vegetables and turns out like tempura. Here’s the final recipe I ended up with:
1 medium zucchini
4 medium carrots
1 cup flour plus a little extra for coating vegetables
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
6 oz. beer
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup olive oil
Peel carrots. Cut zucchini and carrots into spears. Place vegetables into Ziploc bag with a couple tablespoons of flour and shake until they’re thoroughly covered.
Mix flour, salt, baking powder, cayenne and paprika. Add beer and stir until mixed. Let stand for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat vegetable oil and olive oil together in a large skillet until bubbles appear and oil sizzles if a drop of water is added. Coat floured vegetables in batter. Fry on one side until golden brown. Turn and repeat on the other side. Remove vegetables to a plate lined with paper towels for draining. Put plate in the oven to stay warm between taking out batches of vegetables. Add salt and serve immediately. Serve with the sauce of your choice.
For a dipping sauce, I mixed light creamy peppercorn dressing with barbeque sauce and it went with these amazingly well.
