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21
Dec
08
Dangerous Hanukkah Dinner, Oy!
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.
This recipe is from Cooking Light and it really tastes fantastic. I hated meatloaf as a kid, not because there was anything wrong with the way my mom made it – it was mostly because of the name! It sounds terrible. Tip to moms – call it something, anything but “meatloaf.” Anyway, I followed this recipe exactly and it worked really well.
Garlic Parmesan Mashed Red Potatoes
After reading quite a few mashed potato recipes, none of them sounded quite like what I was after, so I just concocted this combination. They turned out nice and creamy.
8 medium red-skinned potatoes
2 cloves of garlic, minced (divided)
¼ cup butter
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Seasonings of your choice such as Lawry’s seasoned salt and garlic powder
Wash potatoes and remove eyes and bad spots with a peeler, but leave skin on. Place in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 minced garlic clove to the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cooking until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to hot pot to cook off excess water. Remove from heat. Smash up potatoes and add 1 clove minced garlic, butter, sour cream, milk, Parmesan and seasonings. I added about ¼ teaspoon of Lawry’s, a couple dashes of garlic powder and some more salt and pepper. Mix until smooth using a hand or stand mixer. Makes 4 servings.
15
Oct
08
Chicken Mesilla
This is a ridiculously easy meal that makes great leftovers, too. This dish is named after my home town in New Mexico – Chicken Mesilla is what my family has always called this.
1 14 oz package skinless boneless chicken tenders
¼ large onion, sliced into thin rings
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes, roughly chopped (save juice)
8 roasted, cleaned and peeled green chiles
2 tablespoons olive oil
Shredded Mexican cheese
Flour tortillas for serving
Preheat oven to 350. Wrap stack of flour tortillas in foil and put them in the oven to warm. Season chicken tenders with salt and pepper or seasoning of choice (I like Lawry’s season salt and a little pepper). Heat oil on medium heat and add onions and garlic, sautéing until onions are tender. Remove onions and garlic from pan and reserve. Add chicken tenders to pan and brown thoroughly, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Add tomatoes and juice, green chile and onions and garlic to pan. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for another 7-10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked completely. Use a slotted spoon to plate chicken tenders with the tomato, onion and chile mixture. Sprinkle with cheese and place under the broiler to melt. Serve with warm flour tortillas. This is also great served over white rice. This makes two large servings with a little bit left over. Leftovers are great wrapped in a flour tortilla and cheese and heated through.
My college roommate Juliet’s mom created this dip and Juliet introduced it to our household junior year at Washington and Lee. I don’t think we ever had a party without Juliet making her famous dip. It’s the best spinach-artichoke recipe I’ve ever found and I still make it all the time when we have people over. I’ve been making this from memory for a while, not really measuring, so it might have morphed a little from the original recipe, but here goes…
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
½ medium onion, minced
1.5 cups shredded Parmesan (you can use the packaged tub from the store, but this tastes even better if you grate it fresh)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 package Knorr’s vegetable soup mix (dry)
Mix all ingredients together well. Heat through until bubbly, either in the microwave, stopping to stir every few minutes, or in the oven (approximately 15 minutes at 350). Serve with Tostitos, light crackers, or baguette slices. By the way, you can use light sour cream and mayo to lighten up the recipe a little. It’s very rich!
I love this short rib recipe from the Washington Post. It’s so easy to make and great for a buffet or football party. The short ribs end up so tender they’ll fall apart on your fork, thanks to the tenderizing secret ingredient, prune juice. Simple pasta with butter and rosemary is a great complement. I served this with a wilted spinach salad. The amounts I made served two with some leftovers. I garnished the plates with a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary. Nice how the peppercorns make the short rib look like it has eyes. That was an accident.
I halved this recipe and used boneless ribs. I marinated them for two and a half hours instead of all night and they were still fall-apart tender. The short ribs took about an hour and twenty minutes to cook rather than the full two hours suggested in the recipe. I sprinkled a few fresh rosemary leaves on top of the short ribs after pouring a little of the sauce on them on top of the noodles.
Pasta with Rosemary and Butter
I made ½ pound of fettuccine and added a tablespoon of butter, a teaspoon of minced fresh rosemary (leaves stripped from stems), and freshly ground sea salt and pepper. The Washington Post short ribs recipe suggests wide noodles such as pappardelle.
This recipe turned out to be a disappointment. The dressing was way too thick and lacked the right zing. There’s no way you should add two tablespoons of flour to the dressing. I’m not totally convinced there should be any flour. After making the recipe exactly according to the directions, the dressing was way too thick and “floury.” I added about 5 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, one at a time, to thin it out and a tablespoon of honey to counteract the bitterness. I also added bacon bits, from the bacon cooked to get the drippings, to the final salad for more flavor. This recipe failed to live up to the wilted spinach salads I remember growing up, but I’ll try it again sometime, probably adding little if any flour. The dressing should be mainly bacon drippings and vinegar.
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.
