Recipe: Chicken, Pea Shoot and Fennel Soup

13 Mar


I invented this in a moment of brilliance. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I was thinking. I had a bunch of veggies from my produce box, and I knew I wanted to use the pea shoots. They were getting wilty.
So, I threw a bunch of ingredients together and as I was chopping onion and meditating on the flavor of the pea shoot, I thought to myself, “Hm. I should put some fennel in this!” So I did. And it was good.

Serves 2.
Ingredients:
1/2 LB of chicken breast, boneless/skinless, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, smashed and diced
1 large bunch of pea shoots, enough for 2 cups, leaves and outer stems ONLY**
1 TB fennel leaves
1/4 C dry sherry (you can leave this out if you prefer)
5 C chicken broth
1 TB olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

**Note about pea shoots:
Pea shoots consist of three parts–the stalks, the leaves, and the outer shoot. The outer shoots are the bits with the leaves attached. The only parts you want to eat are the leaves and the outer shoots. The stalk is way too tough. Believe me, I tried to eat it! Strip the stalk of the shoots and leaves, then roughly chop them.

Directions:
Chop all of the vegetables and the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot. Add the diced onions and garlic and heat until the onion is translucent. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Add the stock and the fennel and bring to a boil. When the stock is boiling, add the pea shoots. Let boil for about 3 minutes, then add the sherry and turn off the heat. Check seasonings, and add salt and pepper.

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Recipe: Winter Chicken Pot Pie

6 Mar

Oh no! I nearly forgot all about my weekly DinnerLove recipe post. Lucky for you I have remembered just in time!
I call this “winter” chicken pot pie because I use a wintery vegetable mix of leek, carrot and potato instead of your basic pot pie veggies like corn and peas. This is yet another recipe of mine in which cream sauce plays a vital role. I’m telling you, all you need is a basic cream sauce recipe and you can make nearly anything.

1 pre-made pie crust (say what you will. I use pre-made crust because it is EASY.)
1/2 LB skinless, boneless chicken, light or dark, depending on your taste
2 small or 1 medium leek, cleaned, split and chopped
1 C chopped carrot, around 2 large carrots
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 large clove garlic, or enough for 2-3 tsp, chopped
2 tsp salt
ground pepper
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 TB butter
1 TB flour
1 C milk

Pre-heat the oven to 350˚.
Melt the butter in a pot on the stove. Add the garlic and leek, saute 5 min. Add the potatoes, carrot, and about 1/4 C of water. Lower heat to medium, cover, and cook for 10 min.
While you wait for the veggies to cook, dice the chicken. Add the chicken, rosemary, and thyme. Cook for 5 min. Add the flour, stir to coat, and add the milk. Let the sauce thicken at medium heat for about 5-10 min, until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add the salt and the ground pepper. Pour the mixture into a pie plate (or a medium-sized casserole dish) and cover with the pie crust. Flute the edges and cut several vents into the top of the crust. Put into a 350˚ oven for 40 min.
The crust should be golden brown and slightly crispy. Make sure you let the pot pie sit for at least 10 min before you cut into it because it is going to be very hot. If you can’t wait (I never can!) just be very careful. Getting your mouth (or hands) burned is no fun at all. Other than that, enjoy!

If you have any questions about this recipe, feel free to contact me!

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Recipe: One Pot Roasted Chicken & Potatoes

27 Feb

This is an awesome one pot meal idea. My boyfriend always yells at me for using multiple pots when I cook (in my kitchen, I cook and he cleans!) so I created this specifically to use only one pot. The chicken is first seared in the pan and then finished in the oven with a liquid. I use beer–but you can use broth if you don’t want to use alcohol.
A quick note about chicken–I used boned and skinned legs and thighs for this recipe. You can use any chicken cut that you like, but be aware that the cooking and searing times will be lessened if you use a skinless and/or boneless cut. In addition, white meat cooks much faster than dark meat. So, for example, if you were to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, you would want to cut the searing and cooking times in half. I would sear the breasts for 1-2 minutes, remove to a plate, cook the veggies as directed for 30 min in the oven, and then add the chicken breasts when you add the flour and cook another 30 min.

Ingredients:
– 2 legs and 2 thighs, with skin and bones
-Small yellow potatoes, cubed, enough for about 1-1.5 C
-2 medium to large carrots, cut into sticks
-1 TB olive oil
-2 tsp rosemary
-1 tsp thyme
-1 TB crushed garlic
-1/2 C of beer, an ale, I used Newcastle
-1 tsp salt
-pepper to taste
-1 TB flour

Directions:

Heat oven to 350˚.

You will need a pan that can be used both in the oven and on the stovetop.

Put the olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic in a dutch oven on the stove. Turn heat to medium and saute the garlic. Add the chicken pieces skin side down and sear for 5-10 minutes. We want te skin to get nice and crispy!
While the chicken is browning, cube the potatoes and the carrots. Add to the chicken, along with the rosemary, thyme and beer. Turn off the heat. Cover the dutch oven and put in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, take out and uncover. Add the flour and stir (as much as is possible, we just want to evenly distribute the flour). Put back in the oven uncovered for another 30 minutes. Take out of the oven, check seasonings, plate, and enjoy!

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Recipe: Potato and Kale Gratin

20 Feb

What is kale, you ask?
Kale is a leafy green vegetable that, once upon a time, you would have hated but your mother would have made you eat anyway. Now that you’re grown, kale is a leafy green vegetable that is sort of strange (what does one make with kale?) but you keep getting it in your produce box because it is in season. So you have to find SOMETHING to do with it because you are not going to let it go to waste (that wouldn’t be very responsible of you) and besides, kale is very good for you. It is leafy, and green. That is almost the definition of “good for you”.
If you are anything like me, you take veggies that you are unsure of and turn them into gratin. There is no vegetable that a little butter and cheese will not cure.

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, thinly sliced.
1 bunch kale, stems and inner ribs removed and leaves chopped.
1 medium to small onion, thinly sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic
Parmesan cheese

Sauce:
1 TB butter
1 TB flour
1 C milk
Pinch of saffron
Salt and pepper

A quick note about kale–you have to make sure that you wash the leaves very well. Buggies love to hide in kale leaves. For example, I just had a photo shoot in my bed with my kale bunch so I could get the Still Life with Steffany and Kale shot, above, and now there are bugs in my bed. Boyface is going to be upset. Moving on.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375˚

Chop all of the vegetables and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the garlic and onion and saute around 5 min, until the onion is starting to become soft. Add some ground black pepper. Add the kale and the saffron, and cook until the kale has reduced to about half of its original size. While you are waiting for the kale to cook, line the bottom of an 8×8 in pan with the potato slices, reserving enough potatoes for a second layer.
Return to the kale, add the flour, stir, then add the milk and simmer the entire mixture until thick. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle a layer of parmesan cheese over the potatoes, add the greens, then sprinkle another layer of parmesan. Add the final layer of potatoes on top of the greens, then add more parmesan on top of the potatoes. Cover, and put in the oven. If you don’t have a lid for the dish you are using, you can use a cookie sheet or some foil.
Bake for 30 minutes covered. After 30 minutes, uncover, and cook for a final 15 minutes. You want the cheese on top to be browned, and the potatoes to be tender.
Remove from oven and let cool before slicing.

Yum!

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Recipe: Poached Eggs with Dijon Dill Sauce

15 Feb

I’ve been really lazy lately–not posting anything, and I haven’t taken any pictures in awhile, either. I’m going to try to start posting a new recipe every Friday, but I can’t promise I’ll have a bunch of pictures to match. I try; but it is really difficult to cook and photograph at the same time!

Poached Eggs with Dijon Dill Sauce, for 2

This is something I invented myself last Saturday morning while I was trying to figure out what to make for breakfast.

Ingredients:
2 slices of toasted Ciabatta bread, 1.5-2″ thick.
2 slices of honey ham
1/2 C. shredded, steamed chard
2 eggs, poached

For sauce:
1/2 TB of butter
1/4 tsp of flour
1/3 C of half and half
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp honey dijon mustard
A bit of dill, around 1/8 tsp, just a few gentle shakes of the spice jar
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Toast the bread, top with the ham, and put in a 250 degree oven to keep warm. Prepare the chard by removing the stems and center vein and slicing into ribbons. To steam, put in a pot with 1/2″ of water and cook until the chard is bright green, around 5 minutes. Put aside.
Poach the eggs. Fill a pot with water, enough so that the cracked eggs will be completely submerged. Add 1 TB of white vinegar to the water. Bring to a boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil, make the sauce (recipe below). Crack the eggs into the boiling water. Reduce the heat to medium and cover. Cook for 2-5 minutes, depending on how well done you like your eggs. I usually cook mine for about 3 minutes, and I like them slightly runny.

Sauce:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add the flour and stir to combine. Add the half and half and stir again until slightly reduced. Add the garlic powder, dill, and a little bit of pepper. Turn off the heat and add the mustard, stirring until completely combined. Taste and add salt if needed.

To assemble:
Take the bread and ham out of the oven and plate. Divide the chard evenly onto both slices, top with the poached eggs and the sauce, and enjoy!

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Recipe: Avoglemeno Greek Wedding Soup-Originally Posted 1.16.09

29 Jan

My first soup recipe!

I originally got this recipe from Rachel Ray-her Greek Wedding Soup. I changed it just a little, added chopped kale and I made it avoglemeno. Avoglemeno is a traditional Greek sauce made of eggs and lemon that is added to soup. Avoglemeno soup is usually made with chicken and rice (that’s how my Dad used to make it for me when I was little, anyway) but the sauce itself can be added to any soup that you like.

Ingredients:
5 cups of chicken stock (or beef, whatever you have on hand)
1/2 lb of ground beef
3/4 C orzo pasta
1 C chopped Kale (or other leafy green veggie, like spinach, chard, or collards)
2 eggs
1 lemon
1/2 C of breadcrumbs
1 tsp Parsley, dried
1 tsp Oregano, dried
2 tsp garlic
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Drizzle some olive oil (about 1 TB) into a pot large enough to hold 5 cups plus of liquid. Remove the inner stem (unless you’re using spinach) from the leafy green of your choice and chop into small pieces. Saute the greens for about 5 minutes, and add the orzo. Saute for another few minutes, until the pasta starts looking like it is toasted (5 minutes max!). Add the stock and turn the heat to high. While you wait for the liquid to boil, make the meatballs.

Meatballs:
Mix together the ground beef, breadcrumbs, 1 egg, garlic, parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper. Once the stock is boiling, turn the heat to medium so that the liquid stays as a simmer. Form the meat mixture into balls with your hands and drop them one by one into the simmering liquid. Then, start on the avoglemeno.

Avoglemeno:
Crack the remaining egg into a medium to large sized bowl, and scramble. Add the juice of 1 lemon and scramble again. Next is the tricky part. If you have ever made egg drop soup, you will know that if you add egg to a hot liquid the egg will curdle. That is NOT what we want. So the trick is to mix the lemon and egg sauce with one hand while you carefully add little bits of hot stock, about a 1/4 cup at a time. I usually use a big soup spoon, or a small ladle. Continue to add the hot stock a little bit at a time until you have added at least a cup of stock (I prefer to add 2 cups just to be sure) to the egg mixture. Then, turn off the heat to the soup. While the heat is off, stir the soup with one hand and add the avoglemeno and hot stock mix with the other. Once the two have combined, turn the heat up again to about medium and let the soup come to a boil, stirring the entire time.

Turn the heat off and check the seasonings, adding more pepper, salt, lemon, what have you. Ladle into bowls and enjoy!

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Recipe: Beef Stroganoff Skillet-Originally Posted 12.18.08

29 Jan

This is my favorite meal idea right now. It’s quick and super-delicious. I got the original recipe from foodnetwork.com but I don’t use the actual recipe anymore, and the one below isn’t verbatim.

Ingredients:
1/2 Lb ground beef
1 pkg (16 oz) of egg noodles
1TB olive oil
1 tsp (ish) of some kind of grill seasoning, like McCormick’s or Old Bay
1/4 C of sour cream
2 cups of beef stock
1 tsp flour, optional
1 small onion (or half of a large one)
4-5 cloves of garlic or jarred equivalent
ground pepper
parsley
This dish is made on the stovetop, and all in one pan, so make sure you grab a pan large enough to fit everything. You’ll also need either a lid or a lid-like device to cover.
Chop the onions. Pour the olive oil into the pan and set the heat to medium-high, then add the chopped onion. Sauté the onion until slightly translucent, then add the onion and the ground beef. Cook the beef until browned, but still pink.
Add the grill seasoning to the meat and stir. Add the egg noodles and the beef stock, lower the heat, and put the lid on.
Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the noodles have been cooked enough to be able to stir. Stir and cook until the noodles are tender. At this point, add the sour cream and stir again.
This is where the flour comes in! If the sauce looks too thin, add the flour to thicken. Simmer until the sauce is as thick as you would like. Add the parsley and stir to combine. Put the noodles into individual bowls and top with cracked pepper.

Yum!

This isn’t exactly healthy, but it is SO DELICIOUS and hey, it’s homemade! If you’re feeling especially guilty you could serve alongside some steamed veggies like broccoli or green beans (I keep frozen green beans in my freezer for just this reason).

Enjoy!

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My Sad Tomato-Orig. Posted 12.6.08

29 Jan

I live in San Francisco. This summer, I wanted a garden very badly. So I picked up my copy of “You Grow Girl” by Gayla Trail, and read the sections on urban and container gardening obsessively.
On my fire escape, I had baby popping corn, strawberries, bell peppers, and tomatoes. They were all doing marvelously, until they all died.
The corn grew and grew until it came down with some kind of nasty fungi.
The strawberries never flowered, and thus never bore fruit, and eventually just kind of gave up and dried out.
The bell peppers were infected with aphids, and NOTHING I did cured them of this affliction. I eventually just threw them away.
But the tomatoes, oh the tomatoes.
They survived, somehow, and even managed to bear some fruit. One fruit, to be exact. This fruit.
Close up.
It’s looking much more red now, but you get the idea. I am very protective of my little tomato. I put him on the balcony during the day so he can get some sun, and I bring the whole pot in at night when it is cold.
It’s a little ridiculous, actually, but I refuse to let the damn thing die. I’m becoming a little attached, actually. I’m not sure I’ll be able to bring myself to eat it!

In other news, I bought a christmas tree this year. It’s not a real christmas tree, it’s a rosemary bush trimmed to look like one.
See the tag?
I made the cranberry and popcorn garland myself. My boyfriend and I are having a foodie-themed christmas.
The rosemary has already come in quite handy (rosemary potatoes, anyone? Yum!) and I figure if I can keep it alive, I can just trim it back into a tree shape and use it again next year.

The problem with that logic is that I’ve never managed to keep rosemary alive for longer than a few weeks, so wish me luck!

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