Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Generic Asian Chicken

Day 70: Recipe 19

The 'generic' in the title should not be interpreted to mean that it tastes bland - just that I can't place the region of Asia that this particular taste comes from. It's a good taste, though.

I've actually made this recipe before, but I used breast meat, and while we thought it was good, we thought it was really garlicy (yes, even I thought something was too garlicy) so I used thigh meat (as suggested) and modified the recipe a bit this time around. Good call!

Asian Chicken (modified from A Year of Crockpotting)
makes 6 chicken thighs

6 chicken thighs (I used boneless)
1 1/2 Tbl soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbl fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 tbs fresh minced ginger
1 Tbl canola oil

Put the thighs in the crockpot.

Dump everything else in a bowl and mix it well, then pour it over the chicken.

Cook it on low for about 6 hours, or on high for about 3-4.

Eat!

Survey Says
Will kept on repeating how much he liked it and how it was totally better than last time, so it's safe to say that he's a fan. I really enjoyed it too, but again, I could have used a bit stronger taste. Maybe I have a cold or something that's affecting my sense of taste?

Definitely making it again, though.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Veggie Taco Chili Soup Thing

Day 69: Recipe 18

I should probably stop making crock pot recipes and save them for a week that I really need them, but this is mainly just to get me back into the swing of cooking - next week I'll actually cook some stuff.

The official name of this recipe is "Taco Soup" but it's really more of a chili than a soup. At least mine did. Still good, though!

Taco Chili/Soup (from A Year of Crockpotting)
makes 3-4 quarts

2 cans of kidney beans
2 cans of pinto beans
2 cans of corn
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomatoes and chilies
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 packet of ranch dressing mix
shredded cheese and sour cream

optional:
1 lb browned ground meat (turkey or beef)

This recipe is an example of why I love the crockpot.

Drain and rinse the beans, then dump them in the crockpot.

Dump both cans of corn and both cans of tomatoes into the crockpot - the whole can, including the juices.

Dump the to packets of seasoning into the crockpot.

Dump the meat into the crockpot (if you're using it).

Stir.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-5.

Serve, add cheese and sour cream to taste, and eat.

I told you it was easy!

Survey says...
It was good. However, I'm starting to think that I may have lost a few tastebuds, because I think it probably could have used another packet of taco seasoning. We went meatless because the turkey wasn't defrosted before I left for work, and I didn't feel like messing with defrosting it and then browning it, but Will still ate it, which is a pretty big deal because he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. (Oh, and two years ago he wouldn't touch beans with a 10 foot poll!)

Will ate his whole bowl, seconds, and half of my seconds (because I got full). And took it in for lunch today. So my guess is that he liked it too.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Manouche Zatar

Day 68: Recipe 17

This is probably stretching whether or not it counts as a recipe, but I'm behind, so we're going to count it anyways.

Okay, so tonight I was craving something snacky, and over the weekend I'd wandered into a World Market and come across zatar spice mix and decided to buy it on a whim. I wasn't sure how, but I wanted to figure out how to throw together some manouche zatar, which is a bread thingie I grew up with.

We have some frozen Rhodes bread rolls because I discovered over Christmas that my husband is totally in love with them, so I decided to throw the two together and make me some manouche!

It should be noted that these are a lot smaller than they look in the picture - they're about 3-4 inches across.

Manouche Zatar


Manouche Zatar

frozen Rhodes bread roll
zatar spice mix
olive oil

Let the bread roll rise. This is the most frustrating part, because it takes the most time. There has to be an easier way to do this.

Roll out the roll into a little circle once it's defrosted and risen.

Mix the spice mix and the olive oil together, and then drizzle it on the bread.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes (but watch it, in case it overcooks).

Eat!

Survey Says
It tasted really good, but there has to be a better way of doing the dough. This was a spur of the moment decision, though, so I didn't really research it.

Will liked it too. Mine was heavy on the zatar, and I thought it was perfect, his was light on the zatar, and he thought his was perfect.

I'm so glad I thought of the rolls and figured out how to do it!

Cream Cheese Chicken

Day 68: Recipe 16

Just to let you know, there is no way to make this food look appetizing in a picture. It's very pale and looks kind of like mush. That is why there's no picture.

That should not, however, be taken to mean that it doesn't actually taste appetizing.

I was really skeptical about this recipe when I saw it for the first time because I couldn't really tell how all the flavors worked together. But I kept reading everywhere and it appears it's the classic easy crock pot recipe that everyone loves, so I figured I had to try it.

Cream Cheese Chicken from A Year of Crockpotting
makes enough for 2-3 adults

2 cups homemade cream of mushroom soup*
3 frozen chicken breasts
1 packet of dry Italian salad dressing mix
2 cloves of minced garlic
block of cream cheese (to add later)

*if you don't have homemade soup, you can just get a can of it, and then 2 cups of chicken broth

Put the chicken in the crock pot.

Dump the mix, garlic, and soup on top.

Cook for 6 hours on low.

(I love the crock pot)

Shred the chicken with a fork, and dump in the cream cheese.

Cook for another 30 minutes on high.

Serve over rice or pasta.

Survey Says
I liked, it but I thought that it needed more flavoring. Maybe two dressing packets next time?

Will thought it was good, but that it lacked texture. I'm going to try it again with more flavoring (maybe use the flavorings that are included in the "homemade" version of the recipe I linked?), and a pasta that has some texture (like farfale or rotini).

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Stuff to freeze!

Day 67: Recipe 15

In my continued attempt to cook regularly, I scoured through my bookmarked items to try to find the next recipe, and decided to try Chicken Puff Samosas because

(a) I've never cooked anything like this before, and
(b) The pictures on this blog are so amazing that I'd gone way too long already without trying one of her recipes

Seriously, poke through her food blog. The pictures make my mouth water just from looking at them.

Actually, I'm going to go grab a samosa from the freezer before I finish writing this, because the pictures are making me hungry.

Chicken Puff Samosas

Chicken Puff Samosas modified from here
makes about 24

6 puff pastry sheets
1 chicken fillet (about 5 oz)
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sour cream
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 chili pepper
1/2 onion
1 T oil
honey
parsley
curry powder
paprika powder
pepper
salt
egg

If you got frozen puff pastry, pull it out so it has a chance to defrost.

Mince up the bell pepper, onion, and chili. You can peel it if you want, but I didn't, and didn't really find any issues with the texture.

Cut up the chicken, and then sprinkle some salt, pepper, and curry powder, and then mix it all up. Make sure everything's well coated I under-seasoned and then ended up adding a lot more later, so go generously - especially with the curry. But if you're sensitive to spice and taste, know that you can add later.

Heat up the oil and toss the chicken in, cooking it until it's really well done. Then dump the chicken into a bowl, but don't clean out the pan, and toss in the veggies (add more oil if you need it).

Cook the veggies over medium until the onions translucent, and then add in the tomato paste and sour cream. The original recipe had pineapple & pineapple juice, but I'm not a fan of pineapple, so I did a squeeze of honey to substitute the sweetness, without having to do the pineapple taste. Mix it all up, and then let it simmer over low heat while you tend to the chicken.

Get the chicken shredded, whether that's by hand, with two forks, or just chopping it up into little bits. Toss it into the veggies, and taste to see if you need to add anything again.

Taste a second time, because it's really good.

Taste a third them, and then tell yourself that you need to stop, or else you won't have anything left to fill the puffs.

Grab a small bunch of flat leaf parsley and chop it up. Then stir it into the chicken veggie mixture.

This must be the longest recipe I've typed up yet.

Sprinkle a cutting board with flour and put the pastry sheet down, and then sprinkle it again. This was my first time dealing with this kind of dough, so know that it's fragile and can be sticky. Roll it out so that it's flatter, and then cut each piece into quarters. Put some of the filling on it and then fold it over to pinch it up. The original recipe said to fold it on the diagonal to make triangles, but I much preferred the fold-in-half-to-make-rectangles ones because there was a more even meat-to-puff ratio.

Plop them on the cookie sheet. (Delicately, so they don't fall apart!) They're not going to expand by much, so you can put them relatively close together.

Okay, so this next part is optional, but fun. To add a little color to the outside, you can crack an egg, and brush it on it. To add a little taste to the outside, sprinkle paprika on the now-wet dough. Or, if you're completely uncoordinated like I am, mix up the egg and the paprika, and then brush the mixture over the dough.

Get your oven to 400 degrees, then put them in there. Leave them there for 12 to 15 minutes, and then take them out.

Eat.

Survey Says
They were GOOD. My husband said that they're "probably some of the best samosas [he's] ever had," but I suspect he's exaggerating a bit because he doesn't want to do the dishes. I think I want to try them with a non-pufflike dough, or maybe I just need to perfect working with the dough.

We froze them after cooking because I want more non-microwave-dinner stuff in our fridge. While writing this I ate 3 that I'd defrosted and they were great.

I want to try figuring out how to make veggie ones, but in the mean time I'm going to love eating the ones we have!

I love cooking.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Day 66: Recipe 14

Friday night after the fun scallop experiment I went through and made a menu plan for the week, because I've decided that I need to stop making excuses for not cooking, and just do it. It helps my mood so much, so I just need to get it done.

One of the things that I've found is that there are a handful of "quick and easy"-type recipes that require cream of something soup - most often, cream of mushroom. So when I was looking through recipes I've bookmarked from A Year of Crockpotting I decided that a good place to start would be to make my own cream of mushroom soup!

My husband was less than thrilled with this proposal, since he's not a fan of mushrooms, but he was a good sport and let 2 pounds worth of mushrooms cook in the apartment all day anyways. The recipe is modified because we only have a 4 qt crockpot, and she suggested a 5 qt for the proportions she mentioned (though now I think I could have done her proportions with my size anyways).

Cream of Mushroom Soup from A Year of Crockpotting

1.5 lbs mushrooms
1 cup water
4 cups vegetable broth
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 tbsp dried minced onion
1 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning

3 cups milk (added later)

Wash and cut up your mushrooms. Dump in the crockpot. Add the spices. Add the lemon juice. Add the vegetable broth and water.

Cook for 8 hours.

With an immersion hand blender, blend it all up. It will look kinda grainy, but it doesn't taste that way - just make sure all the big chunks are blended.

Stir in the milk. The only thing we had in the house was lactose-free milk, which tends to be a little on the sweet side, but it was fine.

Let it cool on the counter for a few hours. We watched The Wrath of Khan to kill the time.

Stir it to mix up anything that may have settled, and then pour it into whatever storage device you're using. We used sandwich-sized freezer bags. Freeze them flat, then you can store them wherever you have room once they're solid.

Survey Says
It was good! Even Will said that "it was okay." He's also said that he's "willing to try more of it." For someone who hates mushrooms, I'd say it was a ringing endorsement.

I used the same amount of pepper as was used in the original recipe, and there was a bit of a kick to it, so if you're really sensitive to spice, I'd tone it down a bit (or use more mushrooms). Also, it didn't have the thickness that I'm used to with regular cream of something soups - it was pretty thin, but I didn't mind that.

Definitely using it in recipes, and just eating it all alone.

Friday, March 6, 2009

I can cook scallops!

Day 65: Recipe 13

My goal is to be at 45 recipes by the end of March, so that at least I'm halfway caught up.

So I love scallops whenever I eat them in restaurants, but I've been really anxious about making them myself because they're expensive and everyone says they're really complex. However, last night during my grocery store visit I decided, what the heck?

So I went to the seafood counter and asked for 2 scallops. "Only two?" the guy asked. "Only two," I confirmed. "I've never cooked them before, so I'm just experimenting." "Makes sense," he said, and wrapped them up for me. "Two scallops, that'll be $300."

And THAT is why I only got two. (I should probably clarify that they weren't really that much.)

I was really nervous about cooking them. If my boss didn't read this, I might admit that I spent about an hour this afternoon watching videos about how to cook them online. But since she (and her mom) do, I won't tell you that.

There's this dish from one of my favorite LiveJournal communities ever, Food Porn, that I've been wanting to try for a while, so I figured I'd try to throw that together, even though there's not a real recipe, but instead just ingredients.

And it worked!

Red Pepper Scallop Pasta

Red Pepper Scallop Pasta from here
serves 2

at least 2 scallops (though next time I'm totally using more)
14 oz of spaghetti
1 red pepper
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
oregano
basil
olive oil
salt
pepper

The night before, cut up the onion and pepper and put it in a container. Dump some olive oil, salt, and pepper in, and let it sit overnight. (Mix it or flip it over a couple of times so that all of the veggies get marinated.

The next day, cook up the pasta.

Put the veggies in a pan and saute them over medium heat in the olive oil with the garlic, oregano, and basil (and other herbs you think would work if you have them) until the onions are relatively clear. Once they're cooked, dump them and most of the olive oil into the pasta.

Put the pan over high heat and tend to the scallops. I cut them in half horizontally, so I ended up with 4 discs. Season one side with salt and pepper, and then put them, seasoned side down, into the pan. Let them cook and sprinkle the up side with more salt and pepper. Flip them when they're nicely browned - it took me about a minute and a half. After another minute and a half, you're done!

Serve up the pasta and veggies, then top with the scallops.

You can cook scallops, too!

Survey Says
Overall, we really liked it! One thing I'll change next time is that this time I cut the veggies in strips, next time I'd dice into small squares. Also, I'd use more scallops now that I know I can cook them and make them taste yummy.

My husband wanted something to balance out onions and peppers, but isn't sure what he's looking for. It might be that they needed to cook for a little longer so that they weren't as strong tasting, but we're not sure if that's it. Any suggestions?

But yes, we're definitely making it again.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Cooking totally turned my day around

Day 64: Recipe 12

I was in a major funk today, and then to top it off I had to go shopping for an ice cream social in my building today. While at the store I decided that I was going to cook, gosh darn it, because cooking makes me feel better!

Since it was already 8:30 at night I didn't want to do anything fancy, so we just threw the steaks on the grill. But I called my mom to get this salad recipe that I'm kind of in love with.

Yes, salads count.

Insalata di cipolle e rucola

Insalata di cipolle e rucola
(Arugula and onion salad)

Serves 3-4 normal people, or just me

1 large red onion
baby arugula (spring mix works too)
thinly sliced parmigiano cheese – Reggiano is best
3-4 garlic cloves
a bit sea salt
a bit freshly grounded black pepper
juice from one lemon (use ½ the juice to start; remainder to taste)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Pound the garlic and the salt together until it becomes kind of a creamy mixture. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper and mix it all up well.

Cut up the onion and saute it in some more olive oil until it's brown. Once the onion is done, pour half the sauce on the onions.

In a salad bowl, layer the arugula, onions, and slices of parmigiano cheese.

Dump the rest of the sauce on.

Eat.

Survey Says

Well, I made this because I love it so it's safe to say that I think it's a keeper. My husband said it was really good, but that it needs something crunchy in it - "like a walnut, or bacon". He wants me to add bacon to everything, so this may just be an excuse, but it's definitely something to consider for the future!