Chicken Chili
October 13, 2013
Margaux says…
We have been BUSY around here. With Desi starting school and Stella being at that age where she doesn’t sleep all the time anymore and is into EVERYTHING, I haven’t had time to do much of anything other than cook dinner and do dishes. The rest of the (extremely dirty) house and my side projects have definitely suffered. But fall is here, and I’m cooking new and fun things again, so I’m doing my best to make time to post about them.
My husband raved about this chili, and actually got really protective over the leftovers. I knew this meant that he really REALLY liked it, because usually I’m the only one in this house that eats any leftovers. The charred veggies gives the chili a little bit of a smoky flavor…it’s very different than any chili I’ve ever made. So I’m definitely making it again, even though that means I’ll have to make Desi his own little pot of chili because this one has meat in it AND is pretty spicy. But that’s ok…more leftovers for us.
Chicken Chili
adapted from Martha Stewart Living
10 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 jalapeno (or I used a Fresno because the jalapenos didn’t look that good)
1 yellow onion, peeled and halved
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 3/4-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1/4 cup chili powder
salt
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2-14 oz. cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Preheat broiler, with rack 3 inches from heat source. Arrange tomatoes, jalapeno and onion, cut side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil until starting to char, about 5 minutes. Pulse tomatoes and jalapeno in food processor until chunky. Chop onion and mince garlic.
Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil. Working in batches, brown chicken in a single layer, allowing to sear before stirring, 5-6 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to skillet. Cook until soft and golden, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chili powder and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Cook, stirring for one minute. Stir in chipotles, and drain fat off chicken and add chicken to the pot. Raise heat to high. Add tomato-jalapeno mixture. Cook, scraping up browned bits, until fully incorporated, 3-5 minutes. Stir in stock; simmer for 20 minutes. Add beans, simmer for 10 minutes. We served topped with sour cream and tortilla chips on the side…it would also be great with shredded cheese and chopped avocados, and with corn bread on the side.
Oven Roasted Shrimp with Tomatoes, Fennel and Feta
August 9, 2013
Aunt Suzy says . . .
I recently got together again with friends Ruth, Toni and Velma for an afternoon of cooking. Ruth found this delicious and easy recipe from The Contessa and we all agreed we should try it. I must say it was very easy to put together, but then again, there were four of us in the kitchen sharing cooking duties. We loved the beet and fennel salad we had last time we got together so much we served it again. The roasted shrimp dish went really well with crusty bread, a nice Pinot Grigio and a sunny July early evening on the deck!
I recommend you watch this video of Ina Garten making this dish. It illustrates just how how easy it is and shows how to make the fresh breadcrumbs. I think it’s hilarious that she adds way more of certain ingredients than she specifies in the recipe like the wine, olive oil, parsley and lemon zest. I like the way she cooks by feel vs. measuring. 🙂 We’ve adapted the recipe slightly, which you could easily do as well. I will also mention it says on the Food Network site that this dish serves 4. I think that would be 4 very hearty eaters – four of us dined very well and still there were leftovers.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons EV olive oil, divided
1 1/2 – 2 cups medium-diced fennel (2 medium bulbs)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine (unoaked)
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon Pernod, Anisette or Sambuca
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 – 1 1/4 pound (16 to 20 per pound) raw shrimp, unpeeled and deveined
5 ounces good feta cheese, coarsely crumbled
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 lemons, one cut into wedges
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10 or 12-inch heavy ovenproof skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add the fennel and saute for 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat, until the fennel is tender and starting to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute till fragrant. Add the wine and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the tomatoes with their liquid, tomato paste, oregano, Pernod, salt and pepper to the skillet. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes.
Arrange the shrimp in one layer over the tomato-mixture in the skillet. Scatter the crumbled feta evenly over the shrimp. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, parsley, and lemon zest with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle over the shrimp.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked and the bread crumbs are golden brown. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the shrimp. Serve hot with the remaining lemon cut into wedges.
Notes on ingredients:
SHRIMP: The original recipe called for peeled, deveined shrimp with tails on. We used unpeeled, deveined and cooked with the shell on thinking that it would add more flavor. While this makes it more challenging to eat, it insures that the shrimp will be juicy and succulent. I thought the specified amount of shrimp was a lot and will try this in the future with just one pound of either extra-large, as called for, or large shrimp.
PERNOD: None of us has Pernod or Anisette in our liquor cabinet, and we didn’t want to spend the $30 on a bottle just for a tablespoon. Luckily Ruth had Sambuca. We had our doubts given the sweetness of that liqueur, but it worked beautifully.
FETA: Try to find a solid piece of feta for this dish and crumble it by hand. Crumbled feta comes packaged with cellulose powder or other anti-caking agents which affect how it melts. I recommend French sheep’s milk feta, if you can find it, for it’s soft texture and great melting properties. The Greek feta recommended by Ina is also good.
BREAD CRUMBS: We used a french bread that was on the softer side for the bread crumbs. We processed it with the crust, which didn’t break down as finely as the inside of the bread. I liked the texture this added to the bread crumb topping.
Easy Strawberry Tart
June 26, 2013
Margaux says…
This was the weekend of getting stuff done. Actually, every weekend needs to be the weekend of getting stuff done, but somehow that doesn’t happen. If I haven’t mentioned it before, my husband and I (more my husband, less me) are remodeling our house. FOREVER remodeling our house. Right now we’re re-doing our upstairs bedrooms…all three of them. It’s going slowly, as usual. Since it’s summer, we’re also trying to make our outdoor spaces more livable so that we go out there more often. I always feel like we spend more time at Home Depot and Menard’s than we do actually doing any work…but that might just be because I really don’t like those places very much.
This weekend I got the front yard looking pretty great…mulched, weeded, re-planted a bunch of stuff. And meanwhile, in the backyard, Jason painted the wicker furniture that I found in the alley a while back. I love finds like that! Now all it needs are some cushions and we’re on our way to some outdoor living!
So complicated baking projects were out of the question…but I had two quarts of strawberries that I needed to do something with ASAP. I saw this recipe on Martha Stewart’s website last week, and thought it would be the perfect quick dessert to use up most of the strawberries with. I love tarts, but making the pastry cream can be so time consuming and tedious. This was a great alternative, and who doesn’t like a dessert with cream cheese?? It reminds me of a dessert my Aunt Gigi always made for summer gatherings, especially the Fourth of July, strawberry pizza. It’s the same idea, with a shortbread-type crust, cream cheese topping and fresh strawberries. This is even better I think, though, because it has about twice the amount of cream cheese filling…yum!
Easy Strawberry Tart
adapted from Everyday Food
1 bar (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for handling dough
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 to 2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved
1/4 cup seedless red currant jelly or apple jelly
1/4 teaspoon salt
Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend flour, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt until moist crumbs form (this may take up to 1 minute). Transfer dough to a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom. With floured fingers, press dough evenly into pan and up sides. Dip a dry-measuring cup in flour, and use it to press dough firmly into bottom and against sides of pan. Freeze crust until firm, 10 to 15 minutes. Using a fork, prick crust all over. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes, pressing down gently once or twice with a spoon during baking if crust puffs up. Cool completely in pan.
Make the filling: In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth; spread mixture evenly in bottom of baked crust (still in tart pan). Starting from outside edge, arrange strawberry halves, stemmed side down, in tight concentric circles on cream cheese. Microwave jelly in a small bowl until liquified, about 30 seconds (keep a close eye so it doesn’t boil). Gently brush strawberries with jelly; let set at least 20 minutes. Chill in pan at least 1 hour (and up to 6 hours); remove from pan just before serving.
Strawberry Shortcake
June 24, 2013
Margaux says…
We’re kind of into strawberries around here. And I’ve been buying them like crazy this year, as usual, even though they’re not that great (all the rain around here made them kind of tasteless). Usually at my house we just eat them fresh with yogurt, or just, well, fresh. But since they don’t have a lot of flavor this year, I’ve been making desserts out of them (add lots of sugar and voila, they taste better!), like strawberry pie, and this amazing strawberry shortcake.
The strawberry shortcake I grew up on was basically a buttermilk biscuit recipe with a little more sugar in it. My husband grew up on angel food cake as the cake part. Both good, but this is so, so much better. The shortcake is so delicious that I’ve been just eating the leftovers plain-ahem-for breakfast. And the recipe is super easy since it’s done in the food processor. I was stressed because I didn’t start making it until after dinner, but it was no problem!
If you don’t have a food processor, you can still make this recipe! But first….you should really invest in a food processor. It’s one of my most-used kitchen tools! Mine is a Cuisinart from the early 90’s that I got from my mom. (She hates to cook, but when I was a kid thought for a minute that she might like it and took a bunch of cooking classes and stocked our kitchen with fancy tools. Lucky for me, I have most of that stuff now.) Anyway, it’s a fantastic machine and if you can find a used one at a garage sale or something, it will most likely work great! But anyway, I’m guessing you’re not going to run out and buy a food processor for this recipe, so in the meantime…I’ll give you instructions below.
Aunt Suzy says . . .
A while back we posted another recipe for Strawberry Shortcake. We might call it the shortcut shortcake because the “cake” is Joy of Cooking cream scones, which have only 4 main ingredients with heavy cream filling in for the butter and eggs. From looking at Margaux’s recipe, these will be much richer and probably more classically “shortcake” as we Americans would think of it for this dessert. I’m going to have to try this once we get strawberries up here in Minnesota. Our winter lasted into mid-May so we are waaaaaaaay behind! Hey, Margaux, how about we make these for breakfast at Wimbledon?
Strawberry Shortcake
adapted from Everyday Food
the shortcake
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons cold (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a food processor, pulse flour, baking powder, sugar, and the salt until combined. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal but with some pea-size bits of butter remaining, 10 to 12 times. In a medium bowl, whisk together cream and the eggs; pour over flour mixture, and pulse until some large clumps begin to form, 25 to 30 times.
If using a pastry cutter instead of a food processor: cut the butter into the dry ingredients in a large bowl using a pastry cutter until the mixture is a coarse meal, with some small chunks of butter. Whisk together the cream and eggs, pour into the butter and flour, and using a wooden spoon (or your hands, which is easier), mix together the mixture until large clumps form. Do not overmix.
Using a half-cup measuring cup, gently pack dough, invert, and then tap out onto a baking sheet. Repeat to form 8 biscuits. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool, about 15 minutes.
The strawberries:
Hull and quarter about 6 cups of strawberries. Mix them in a large bowl with about 1/2 cup of sugar. Let is sit for at least an hour, until they get nice and juicy.
The whipped cream:
Beat 1 1/2 cups whipping cream with 2 tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla until soft peaks form.
Assembly:
When shortcake has completely cooled, you can carefully cut them in half lengthwise with a serrated bread knife. Add strawberries and whipped cream and serve!
Beet and Fennel Salad with Buttermilk-Herb Dressing
June 19, 2013
Aunt Suzy says . . .
I learned about this salad recently when friends and I got together to cook Asparagus and Leek Quiche. It was a perfect compliment! I love both beets and fennel, so what’s not to like? It’s easy to put together once the beets are cooked. We thought you could add a little feta cheese and call it a main dish salad!
Ingredients
1 pound cooked beets, cut in small wedges
1 small fennel bulb, halved lengthwise, cored and thinly sliced plus chopped fronds for garnish
about 6 cups lettuce, torn in small pieces or use spring mix
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs like chives, parsley, dill or mint (we used chives and mint)
Instructions
To cook the beets you can either roast or cook stovetop. For stovetop, place the unpeeled, washed beetroots in water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer at a gentle boil for about 20-30 minutes for small beets and longer for larger ones. Here’s a great how-to for stovetop cooking of beets. Remove from heat, drain and let cool slightly. When cool enough, you can easily slip off the skin with your hands. Let cool completely and cut into small wedges.
Make the dressing by whisking the buttermilk and mayonnaise together until emulsified. Add the herbs and continue to whisk. Set aside.
Wash and dry the lettuce and spread on a platter. Place the sliced fennel bulb on top of the lettuces, then the beet wedges. Pour desired amount of dressing over the salad. Garnish with the fennel fronds.
Kale Pesto
June 9, 2013
Margaux says…
I love pesto, but I’ve been wanting to try new things besides basil pesto. This kale pesto is really yummy, and can be used in a number of ways: on a sandwich, in an egg scramble, on chicken or fish, on pizza (which we did the night after we had it on pasta…yum!), or, of course, on pasta. This recipe is enough to cover a pound of pasta, plus extra for other things on later days. It really freezes well, too!
Kale Pesto
1 bunch kale, stems removed
1/3 cup toasted walnuts or pine nuts
1 clove garlic
zest and juice from one lemon
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup or more olive oil
Bring a large pot of water to boil, add kale and boil for about 30 seconds. Immediately drain kale and run cold water over it to cool it off. Squeeze off excess water and put in food processor, along with nuts, garlic, lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper. Process for about 30 seconds, until its all ground to a fine meal. Scrape down the sides and pulse a few more times. With the processor running, add the olive oil in a steady stream. Scrape down the sides again, taste, and add more olive oil if needed (and salt and pepper), and pulse a few more times. The consistency isn’t as creamy as basil pesto, and I found that I needed more olive oil than with basil pesto. I think I used almost 1/3 cup.
If making pasta, cook your desired type of noodle to al dente and place it in a large bowl, reserving some of the pasta water. Add about half the pesto to the pasta, and combine thoroughly, adding up to 1/2 cup pasta water as needed. Serve immediately, topping with parmesan cheese, and maybe a little toasted walnuts for garnish. It’s also really good with some halved cherry tomatoes stirred in.
Black-Eyed Pea Salad
June 4, 2013
Margaux says…
I’m kind of a salad fanatic, and it’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about having warm weather finally! So far I’ve made this pasta salad, several quinoa salads, including this one and this (which is one of my favorites), and I can’t wait to make potato salads, especially this one. Platter salads are another favorite for us, and we’ve already had my favorite Cobb salad, even when it wasn’t that warm yet. I couldn’t wait.
This is a salad that has become kind of a summer standard here over the past few years. When my son was an infant and I was stuck to the couch for hours on end either nursing him or “napping” with him, I would watch endless amounts of TV, a lot of that being the Food Network. I’ve always liked cooking, but I think that’s when I really got my love of cooking, and I would try out tons of the recipes I saw on TV. This was one of them, on “The Neely’s” (a show I didn’t often watch, by the way, but I’m glad I caught this episode). I don’t really ever watch Food Network anymore, but I’m glad I did because a lot of my standard recipes came from that year of watching.
Black-Eyed Pea Salad
Ingredients
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar (I have also used white wine vinegar)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 (15-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained (or 4 cups soaked dried beans…I think that’s about a cup and a half of dried)
Directions
Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the rice wine vinegar, canola oil, sugar, and salt and pepper.
Toss all together and let marinate for at up to 8 hours in the refrigerator before serving.
Greek Quinoa Salad
June 2, 2013
Margaux says…
In the warmer months, we eat a quinoa salad at least once a week. Everyone loves it…including my picky son, it’s super quick and easy, and nice and healthy. I should really call this one “clean out the fridge” salad, because I often make it when I really need to go shopping and I have to just use up whatever is left in the fridge. We always have most of these things on hand because they’re all favorites of my son. I find that you can add or subtract any ingredient, based on what you might have on hand. Some other things that would be good tossed into this are avocado, parsley, chopped fresh spinach, mint, celery, zucchini, green onion, radishes, pine nuts or white beans.
Greek Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups water
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cucumber, chopped
1/4 red onion, fine chop
1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved
1/2 cup feta, crumbled (leave out for vegan)
1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
Rinse and drain quinoa. Add water and quinoa to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as it starts boiling, cover, run down heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes. Dump immediately into a large serving bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, chop your veggies. When the quinoa is cool, add all veggies and beans to it and mix.
Make dressing: Mix together lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pour over salad and mix well. Carefully stir in feta. Serve at room temperature with warmed pita and white wine as a main dish. Also great as a side at a BBQ, or with chicken.
Lebanese-inspired Chickpea and Chicken Stew
April 20, 2013
Aunt Suzy says . . .
Margaux and I are on the lookout for good recipes using shredded chicken. I was looking for something new to make but that would be fast and easy on a busy Sunday. I love all the flavors in this stew, so thought I’d give it a whirl. It was a hit! Randy and I both agreed that I should double the recipe next time – we barely had a small lunch portion left after eating. We served it with a salad, baguette and some a Pinot Gris wine. Since spring is seeming like it is not going to show up this year, this warming dish was especially welcome on a cold and snowy day.
Margaux says . . .
This dish was a hit in our house, too! We always love bean stews, so I knew it would probably get gobbled up. At Aunt Suzy’s suggestion, I made a double recipe, and I’m glad I did. It was the perfect amount for dinner and then lunch for Desi and me the next day.
When I made this, I misread the recipe and used bone-in chicken, and it was really good, if a little greasy. I just skimmed as much of the extra fat off the top as I could. This would be a great recipe to use for leftover shredded chicken, I would just use chicken broth instead of water, and add the chicken at the end with the red peppers, etc. It would also be good vegetarian, eliminating the chicken altogether. In that case, I would maybe use more red pepper.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
4 cups water or chicken stock or a combination
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup roasted red peppers from a jar, drained and sliced into 1-inch pieces
Juice of ½ lemon, or more
1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
Directions
Heat the olive oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt; add to the pot and cook, turning once, until browned, 8–10 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Reduce heat to low and let oil cool slightly; add garlic and cook, stirring often, until fragrant, 30–60 seconds. Add cumin, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes; stir until a smooth paste forms, about 1 minute. Add the liquid, the reserved chicken with any accumulated juices and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, occasionally stirring, until chicken is tender, about 20 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a plate and let cool slightly. Add chickpeas to pot; bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for 10-15 minutes. Shred the chicken. Add the chicken, red peppers, half the herbs and lemon juice; simmer for a couple of minutes until heated through. Season with salt and more lemon juice, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with more of the herbs.
Roasted Cauliflower Pasta with Red Onion and Capers
March 21, 2013
Margaux says . . .
I’m really loving non-traditional pasta dishes like this with just a few ingredients tossed with some pasta. Probably like most Americans, I always assumed pasta came with meat sauce, marinara, or, if you’re feeling fancy, Alfredo…Jason and I survived on spaghetti marinara for the first few years we were together, living in our dinky little basement apartment in Lincoln Park. It was either that or Ramen noodles, and I really hate that stuff. So it’s been really fun the past several years, since I’ve become a stay-at-home mom/foodie cook, discovering all pasta has to offer.
This Martha Stewart recipe has been sitting in my files for a few years now, and I really wish I would have pulled it out sooner! The sweetness of the roasted cauliflower and onion coupled with the salty bite of the capers is really fantastic. This is in the “can’t stop eating it” category, for sure. We ate it as a main dish, with a green salad. For those of you keeping track, my little picky eater loved it, too!
Aunt Suzy says . . .
I’ve noticed lately that cauliflower seems to be the new kale. It’s everywhere! When I told Margaux that I wanted to make this cauliflower pasta recipe, she said she’d been intending to make this one from Martha. So we’ve made both and this is our first post. I’m not sure I know which is my favorite – I loved both. Look for a post on the other recipe soon. We served this as a side dish to a roasted chicken breast and served the leftovers as a main dish, both with a green salad. Yum either way!
1 large head cauliflower cut into small chunks (about 7 cups)
1 red onion, halved lengthwise and then cut into 1/4″ thick slices
1/4-1/3 cup capers, rinsed
1/4 cup olive oil
12 oz orecchiette pasta, whole wheat recommended
1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley
zest of 1 lemon, Meyer if available
1/3 cup grated Parmigiana Reggiano or Pecorino Romano
Preheat oven to 450. Toss the cauliflower, onion and capers with the olive oil in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spread this mixture in a single layer on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Roast, stirring halfway through, until cauliflower is tender and brown, 25-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook, al dente, according to package directions. Save 1/2 cup pasta water and then drain the pasta.
Turn the pasta back into the cooking pot or a large bowl. Toss the hot pasta with the roasted cauliflower mixture, 1/4 cup of the pasta water, the parsley and lemon zest. Stir until completely combined. Add more pasta water if too dry. Either add the cheese to the pot and stir to combine or pass the cheese to add to individual servings.
