Two Soups For You
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Posted:Feb 1, 2013 10:56 am
Last Updated:Feb 5, 2013 6:34 am
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Two Soups For You
I have two soups for you, a vegetable bean minestrone and a red lentil sweet potato bisque.
The first soup is a veg bean minestrone type soup. I used my pressure cooker for this but you will have to adjust. I use dried beans and w/o a pressure cooker I would soak the beans overnight to soften them, otherwise I put them in the cooker in chicken broth for 15 minutes until partially soft, mixed beans, pinto, and barley and split peas totaling about 1 cup, then I add 4 stalks of diced celery to it and cook that for 12 minutes in the pressure cooker, then I add 5 carrots, 1 large onions, corn, garlic, and other vegetables you have or need to get rid of, last week I used some cabbage, and then the spices. Today I used salt, pepper, basil, oregano, and curry powder. Plus I added 14 oz (by weight) of crushed tomatoes. When done, serve with grated cheese on top. This soup tastes so much better with grated cheese, I can’t emphasize that enough.
The next soup, red lentil and sweet potato, I got off of Oprah. The recipe was created by Dana Jacobi. This soup needs something to make it pop and that pop are several things, so don’t make this soup without the red chili paste, the pomegranate juice AND pomegranate berries. Don’t leave these out. Without these, it’s good, but not outstanding. I did not put in the cilantro as I didn’t have any on hand.
Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Bisque Recipe
This made a lot of soup, you may want to cut it in half.
Ingredients
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped, about 1 large sweet potato
1 cup red lentils, rinsed! Always rinse your beans, they are dirty!
1/2 cup dried apricots, quartered
1/2 cup chopped onion or shallots
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Thai red chili paste or a hot curry red paste
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 tsp salt, or more to taste
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, or ground black pepper
3/4 cup light coconut milk
4 Tbsp pomegranate juice and some seeds for the extra juice and effect, put the seeds in at the end after blending
Chopped cilantro (optional)
Bring to a boil and then simmer all the ingredients but the coconut milk, the pomegranate juice and seeds, cover and simmer until the red lentils are soft. If you can’t find red lentils in your supermarket, try a health food store, or an Indian grocery store. Add the coconut milk. Using a blender, puree soup until smooth, in batches if necessary. I use a hand high speed blender wand. Mix in the pomegranate juice and serve in bowls and top with the pomegranate seeds and chopped cilantro.
You can substitute brown or green lentils for the red.
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Wednesday dinner - Curried Chicken with Chiptole crumbs & Apples w Applejack and balsamic vegetables
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Posted:Jan 30, 2013 4:33 pm
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
9224 Views
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Again, same story, standing in front of the stove not knowing what to make. So I decided to do something easy to start, balsamic vegetables. If you haven't tried this, it's tasty and easy. Put some olive oil in a pan, add some defrosted mixed vegetables, stir, then add some butter, wait until melted, stir, then add balsamic vinegar, stirring occasionally, when evaporated, ready to serve. Balsamic vinegar when it evaporates, it sweetens. If you put balsamic vinegar in a pot and evaporated much of it, you could use it as a syrup over ice cream, it becomes that sweet.
For the chicken, I wanted some heat to be offset by the sweetness from the apples and Applejack. I sprinkled salt, black pepper, and curry on the chicken. I then breaded the chicken with half 4C Panko Chipotle crumbs and half 4C Seasoned Panko Crumbs. I then cooked it in olive oil, flipped it, added some Laird's Applejack, WATCH OUT, IT HAS A VERY GOOD CHANCE OF FLAMING!!! Just let it flame, it will die down, keep combustibles away from it, paper, liquor, and such. When this has thicken a little, I removed it and put the diced tart apples in the pan, added some butter, apple juice from when I made apple sauce, and Laird's Applejack, when this has thickened and the apples are somewhat soft, I put this over the chicken and served. You want enough apples for every bite, 1 large apple per 1 chicken breast. In the past when I made this, I sometimes add some pure maple syrup.
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Tuesday night dinner - Ricotta Gnocchi with a butter lemon sauce
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Posted:Jan 29, 2013 4:26 pm
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
9255 Views
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Tonight I made chicken and also ricotta gnocchi. The chicken was nothing special but the ricotta gnocchi was good. This was a recipe I got from Epicurious. I made some changes and I will put in those changes. I thought they were good, my gf said they were excellent. I’ve never been successful with gnocchi and if anyone has a good recipe, I’d like to know about it. Normally when I “make” gnocchi, I buy it frozen and then make a super duper sauce for it to spice it up, make it tasty. The sauce tonight was just a lemon butter sauce with some grated parm reg cheese on top.
You mix the ingredients together then when you roll them out on a cutting board and cut them into pieces. Use a lot of flour on the cutting board. Boil them in salted water for about 5 minutes and then I like to put them in a hot frying pan with butter and olive oil, grate some cheese on them and serve. I think next time I’m going to beat in some cream cheese with the ricotta, egg, and potato before I hand mix the flour.
Below is the recipe with my adjustments.
Serves 2-4
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
1 large egg
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano (1 1/2 oz)
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup flour
1 medium potato, cooked and mashed
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Corn Bread - Very Tasty
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Posted:Jan 28, 2013 4:53 pm
Last Updated:Feb 8, 2013 4:29 am
10090 Views
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For dinner tonight, I made corn bread. The recipe I got off the internet but I don’t know where. I did not note where it came from. I thought it was excellent and so did my girlfriend. It was somewhat moister than most and sweet from the sugar.
Corn Bread:
You want to mix the ingredients into two bowls. The first set of ingredients go into a greased baking dish, or an iron skillet, your choice. The second set of ingredients go on top of the first ingredients. Then it’s put into the oven, bake 350 for 35-45 minutes
Mix
1 cup corn, fresh, frozen, or canned
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon ricotta cheese
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornmeal
mix then add
2 1/2 cups (10.6 ounces) flour
Mix in a separate bowl and put on top of the other in the baking dish
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 3 tablespoons melted butter
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Monday night - Chicken Fajitas with fried onion rings
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Posted:Jan 28, 2013 4:33 pm
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
9178 Views
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Well tonight's dinner was very simple. It had to be, I didn't feel like cooking.
First, I made chicken broth out of cut pieces from bone on chicken breast.
I then put several potatoes into the chicken broth and simmered them to make very flavorful mashed potatoes, home fries, and potato salad.
For the chicken fajita, that was easy. I thinly sliced the chicken breast and marinated it in Wegman's Fajita marinade/sauce then put the chicken in a hot pan with hot canola oil. Wegman's is a northeast U.S. supermarket chain that is very good, and their store brand products are excellent and inexpensive. I find all their pricing to be reasonable and less than the other supermarket chains around here, Stop n Shop, Shop Rite, Acme, Thriftway. But unlike many supermarkets, they have some very high end cuts of meat that are pricey. They have a terrific meat department, an unbelievable fish section, a bakery with a brick oven that were built by artisans, take out foods, even their liquor store beats others. They have a number of Culinary graduate chefs that are in charge of the preparation of the food and pastry. It's my main shopping store.
For the onion rings, that was simple, heated some canola oil in a small pot, very thinly sliced an onion then tossed in a bowl with flour and store bought Cajun seasoning. I put the onions on top of the fajitas on my plate.
You could put the chicken fajita's on a hoagie/sub roll or just plate it, the latter is what I did.
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Monday night - Chicken with pasta, mushrooms, and peas with a wine almond garlic lemon sauce
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Posted:Jan 27, 2013 7:47 am
Last Updated:Jul 2, 2013 2:34 pm
9116 Views
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Cook the spaghetti in salted water, I use kosher salt.
Slice the chicken thin or thinner, horizontally then dip in an egg batter and then sprinkle bread crumbs on. I did this twice thought not always necessary or wanted. This time I did a 50/50 mix of Italian seasoned bread crumbs and 4C Panko Chipotle crumbs. This will give it a slight bit of heat. Fry in olive oil, then remove when done.
To make the almond garlic sauce, cook the sliced almonds (not slivered), in water until very soft, I used milk this time but be careful it does not foam up or burn. Do not let the liquid evaporate, add some more water before the almonds burn! You can also use cashew pieces. When soft, put the almonds and water or milk in a blender, (I used a mini food processor) if more liquid is needed, add some milk, with salt and quite a bit of garlic and whirl! Fresh mint or basil can be added to the blender. Remove the chicken and put more olive oil in the pan with the thinly sliced mushrooms. Stir periodically and let shrink down, when almost done add more minced garlic, a little very finely diced onions, swirl, then put the peas in for a few minutes, add the chicken, white zinfandel wine, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, juice of 1 lemon and grate the lemon zest, an optional spot of.Triple Sec. Let this simmer for a minute so the flavors meld and just before serving add the almond garlic sauce, mix, remove the chicken to the plate, add the pasta to the pan and toss. If the sauce is too thin, sprinkle in just a little flour, NOT MUCH! Sprinkle! as if you were using salt and pepper. Cream can be used in the pan for a sweeter or thicker sauce. Fresh tomatoes are optional.
Optional, using the Panko Chiptole crumbs, more heat is not needed but if you like heat, add a touch of red pepper flakes.
My girlfriend said this was excellent. Me? I thought it was good, maybe very good. It’s normal to me, what I cook. Sometimes it’s hard for me to say.
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Thursday night dinner - Chicken with sausage, peas, and pasta
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Posted:Jan 24, 2013 4:53 pm
Last Updated:Jan 24, 2013 4:54 pm
9314 Views
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Tonight's dinner I thought was good.
I put some penne in salted water and brought it to a boil and then simmered.
I used a large pan with high sides as the last few minutes of this dish I like to add the pasta, mix, and let it sit for a few months.
I diced up a chicken turkey sausage poultry pattie from Wegman's. If you don't have a Wegman's near you, but some hot sausage and dice that up very fine and put it in a pan with hot oil. I then diced up a chicken breast after cutting it off the bone, saving the bone and skin to make broth another day. I seasoned the chicken with panko bread crumbs, Italian seasoned bread crumbs, cumin, curry, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt, black pepper and added it to the pan. When stirred I added 2 Tb minced garlic, 1/2 medium diced onion, stirred, when almost done I added 1/2 cup white zinfandel wine, stirred, added 34 cup defrosted frozen peas, 1 cup crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup of homemade chicken broth. I drained the penne and added it and stirred. I let it sit until the sauce is the right thickness for pasta. Then I served and grated cheddar cheese into the mix. The cheese you use is completely up to you, cheddar is all I had. A goat cheese would work well with this dish.
And tomorrow night? Maybe I can convince my girlfriend to take me to a truck stop for dinner!
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Chicken Soup
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Posted:Jan 24, 2013 4:36 pm
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
8965 Views
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I made chicken soup today using the homemade chicken broth from yesterday. Skimming off the fat this morning. If you leave the fat in the pot, you'll have a richer tasting soup but of course higher calories. It was great. I don't know the amounts, I just had a large pot on the stove and started adding ingredients to it. You don't want it to thin nor too thick. There was a couple of key ingredients, juice of 1/2 lemon, dill, salt, grated parm cheese in the bowl.
I cut up 4 carrots, 4 stalks of celery plus the greens, 2 Tb minced garlic, diced medium onion, 1 cup of crushed tomatoes, juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 tsp salt, black pepper, basil, oregano, dill, then shortly before the carrots were soft, I added some macaroni as I had no egg noodles. You can also use broken pieces of spaghetti. I served this sprinkling dried in a jar parm cheese.
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Great Tasting Mashed Potatoes
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Posted:Jan 23, 2013 4:48 pm
Last Updated:Jan 24, 2013 4:54 am
9245 Views
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Today I made chicken broth for soup tomorrow.
Many times I buy chicken breast on the bone and I save the bones and the scraps to make soup. I also save the trimmings off the chicken breast. I put them in a zip lock bag in the freezer until I have enough. Then I just lightly simmer the pieces for a few hours, refrigerate overnight, scrape off the fat, and I have broth.
I wanted to improve the taste of my mashed potatoes. I know you boil potatoes to make mashed potatoes so I figure why not put the whole potatoes in the chicken broth as I simmer that? So of course, I did. The worse I could lose is a few inexpensive potatoes. I simmered the potatoes until knife tender, for the perfect mashed potatoes. I took out all the potatoes using a slotted spoon. Then I mashed one in a small bowl, added a little salt, some butter, mixed it, tasted it. It tasted great! A lot of chicken flavor. Will I do this every time? Sure, if I'm making soup or have another use for the broth. It will take some planning.
Mashed potatoes without adding any spices or ingredients, taking them up a notch, who would think.
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Made bread today
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Posted:Jan 23, 2013 6:37 am
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
9255 Views
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Today I made bread, great tasting bread. I have a bread maker and there's not a day that doesn't go by that I don't have homemade bread. When it's gone, my bread maker is going. I love to make the bread in the bread maker but my girlfriend doesn't like how it comes out. I do. It's very light and flaky and falls apart easily, I love the texture and taste of it. That's what I like, but that is not what my gf hates about it, the texture of the recipe that I use when I make it in the bread maker. So I use the bread maker to rise the dough and then we bake it in the oven.
When she bakes it in the oven, she was putting in the loaf pan from the break maker and baking it and it always came out heavy. I changed that. I looked at the problem. The problem the dough wasn't rising high enough and that's why it was heavy. So I decided to do a 2nd rise in the oven. We use a small rectangular convection oven, EuroPro. It's great, better than starting the big oven up. I only use the large oven when I making sheets and sheets of cookies, 3 pies, or a big turkey.
I mix and rise the bread in the bread maker, 64 minutes. Then I put the bread in a loaf pan and into the convection oven. I set the oven for 150 minutes for 10 minutes, the bread rises, and I let it stay there for 30 minutes total. I then do not touch the risen bread, I turn the oven on to 450 for 30 minutes. She likes a lower temperature for 40 minutes. The higher temperature gives me a thicker, harder, and crustier crust which I like. After the bread is done, I open the door to heat the house! in the winter of course, and let the bread sit for a while to cool down. Warm and hot bread crushes when cut. Only use a sharp serrated knife when cutting bread. I have a serrated knife that I've never used for anything else but cutting bread because I want to maintain the edge and I don't want the knife to dull.
The key to good bread is the yeast. The yeast you buy in the store in packages is fine but it's expensive. My gf buys this yeast. I stop at a local health food store that also bakes and prepares food and I buy their yeast from the refrigerated cooler. It's about $1.00 for quite a bit of yeast that lasts me many months. I use 2 tsp of yeast in warm tap water. If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast. I put 1 tsp sugar in with it for food for the yeast to feed off of. I then let the yeast sit until it starts foaming. Now it's ready to put in the bread maker. The yeast is alive and I've given it a head start. This is the first step to have light bread, the 2nd step is a 2nd rise, plus the important kneading.
The recipe for the bread I made is as follows.
3 cups of flour but for this bread I used 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of light whole wheat pastry flour, also called white whole wheat flour, or light whole wheat flour. It can go by many names. You can try 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour or 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour and see how it works.
1 1/4 cups of water, I use 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk, skim is fine. Sometimes I might substitute a 1/4 or 1/2 cup of apple juice.
1 Tb sugar
2 tsp yeast which you should have used in 3/4 of water in the beginning, then add 1/2 cup more of liquid when mixing after the rising.
1 tsp salt, too much salt will impede the rising but no salt will give tasteless bread.
1 Tb olive oil or canola oil, this is optional. If I'm making pizza dough, I want to add some oil as I want to make the dough a little more workable but I also add corn meal to my pizza dough.
At this point you can have options, you can add Italian spices, you can add a liqueur, you can add vanilla, you can also add this after the first rise and then knead the bread down and add these items and then let it rise the 2nd time in the loaf pan in the oven before baking.
Then bake. And of course enjoy. Everyone knows the smell of fresh baking bread!
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Tuesday Night dinner - Chicken Stew
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Posted:Jan 22, 2013 6:21 pm
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
8552 Views
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I have to remember to do my blog after I cook while what I used is fresh in my mind. Again, tonight, I stood in front of the stove and threw stuff in the pot. But it came out pretty darn good tasting. I used the electric pressure cooker tonight but anything made in a pressure cooker can be made on the stove in a pot or pan. I will not give the times in the pressure cooker, you will have to go by texture in a pot.
This is for 2 people.
I cooked 1/2 cup dried black beans with 1 1/2 cups of water and chicken broth and spices. I like to cook beans in some chicken broth for the flavor but I also like to add spices to the water as the water is absorbed into the dried beans, so will the spices.
Cook all of this covered! to speed the cooking and to keep the juices intact.
When the beans are halfway done, I added the 2nd longest cooking item, the two sliced carrots, then as they start tenderizing, I added the two med/large diced potatoes. Then a little bit later I added the 1 chopped onion, 1 cup of crushed tomatoes, 2 Tb minced garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp smoked paprika, a chicken breast separated from the bone but I added the bone also for flavor and the little bit of fat it renders. Cook this until done and tender.
If you choose, you can substitute tomato sauce for the crushed tomatoes. You can substitute sweet potatoes for the potatoes. You can add white zinfandel wine. You can put this over rice or egg noodles.
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Friday Night Dinner - Chicken Francese w chiptole bread crumbs, lemon, & orange liqueur
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Posted:Jan 19, 2013 4:59 pm
Last Updated:May 4, 2024 2:22 am
8593 Views
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Tonight I made Chicken Francese and did it with a twist, as usual, always with a twist. How can I not trying to take food up a notch?
I sliced the chicken thinner, patted the chicken dry, mixed up a egg and milk mixture, and in another, Italian seasoned bread crumbs and some 4C Chipotle Panko crumbs mixed in. Mix whatever amount of Chipotle you want heat! I like panko because they crisp up very very nice, kinda of like corn flakes! A dip in the egg batter than the dry batter and a little OO in the hot pan, add some minced garlic, then when the chicken has browned on side, flip it, when it becomes lightly brown, I added some white zinfandel wine, quite a bit of triple sec as this is the flavor I wanted to achieve, the juice and zest of 1/2 lemon.
I served this with spaghetti and homemade tomato sauce also with the hint of the triple sec. My gf loved the taste of the sauce with the triple sec, I didn't.
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Lemon Pudding Cakes
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Posted:Jan 18, 2013 1:34 pm
Last Updated:Jan 18, 2013 4:08 pm
8745 Views
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Lemon Pudding Cakes
I made these today to compliment tonight’s dinner, Chicken Francese. The pudding part tastes like the filling of a lemon meringue pie! The bottom is a creamy lemon pudding while on the top there is a fluffy cake layer that develops. It is very tart but I find it acceptable and interesting. I topped these with a sprinkle of powdered sugar which gives it a nice elegant look. They aren’t too sweet and has a very lemony taste. After making these exactly as the recipe calls, next time I’ll try either with a pie crust bottom and little up the side of the cups or with phylo in the bottom. Phylo is a flaky crust found in strudel and the Greek dessert, baklava. I also tried a sprinkle of cocoa powder on the top, though it looked nice, it didn’t add to the taste at all, possibly finely shaved chocolate. Best to eat this warm.
I got this recipe from EatingWell Magazine.
Mix
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix
1 cup milk, skim is fine
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup real lemon juice
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 large egg yolks
Whip 3 large egg whites until stiff peaks form then add 1/4 cup sugar.
Whisk the wet and dry ingredients and then careful fold the egg whites in careful not to mix, just fold in, and not too much!
Butter or spray the ramekins and pour the batter in leaving just a hair expansion room at the top.
Bake 25-30 minutes at 350°F, preferably in a hot water bath halfway up the ramekins. Careful, if you put too much water in the bath, the ramekins will start floating and tip!
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