Chicken Salad Salad

6-29-grill

Tonight's dinner started with my weekly trek to Gentile's this morning.  Sunshine, blue skies, minimal traffic... It was the perfect drive down.  I had the wiondows open, the radio blaring.  What's that expression... "Dance like no one is looking"?  Well... that was me singing in the car.  It was rather fun.  Wendy Wadsworth and I belting out "I'm Guilty" and me, Dolly Parton and Vince Gill doing a great rendition of "I Will Always Love You".  (Eat your heart out, Whitney!)  Who knew 8 miles could be so much fun?!?

My timing was perfect, too!  The store wasn't crowded and I had time to actually browse around a bit.  The very first thing I saw was my oblong watermelon - with seeds!  I'm psyched!  I have to figure out how to carve it into a Hawai'ian outrigger or something for Saturday!  I picked up a lot of fruit that should be perfect on Saturday to chop and fill it up.

One thing I picked up for today was a bunch of long hot peppers for Victor to fry.  I like having them in the 'fridge to add to things.  And these guys have been pretty hot.

Victor said he would actually grill them this time around, so I got the fire going and cooked off a couple of chicken breasts for salads.  Victor was still working, so i charred them nicely, placed 'em in a bag to sweat, and then peeled and seeded them.  They smelled fantastic and tasted fantastic. At that point, all I really wanted was a chicken sandwich with peppers, but I also wanted a salad.  The salad won - but with a twist.

I made a quick chicken salad with the cubed grilled chicken, a couple of the peppers, diced, a tablespoon of mayonnaise, juice of a lime, salt and pepper.  Tart, creamy, spicy.  Perfect.

I also had an avocado that needed eating tonight.  It was r-i-p-e.  It was actually a little too ripe to just slice into the salad, and as I stood at the island, I saw those deep red, vine-ripened tomatoes and thought "Stuffed Tomatoes"!  I made a quick guacamole with the avocado and a couple of tablespoons of picante sauce, hollowed out the tomatoes and filled.

Foe the dressing, I added 2 tbsp of mayonnaise to the bowl I had made the guacamole in (there was a tiny-tad left in there), juice of a lime, a tablespoon of picante sauce, and a bit of S&P.  Instant Mexican Thousand Island!

Diced green onions, grapes, and apricots finished the plate.

6-29-chicken-salad

And tonight's dessert will be ice cream.


Salmon and Mango

6-27-salmon

I can tell it's time to go shopping - the plates are getting a bit disjointed.  But that's okay - everything tasted pretty good!

Tonight was salmon on the barbie.  Marinated with a bit of garlic and soy sauce, grilled to perfection over hot coals, and served atop a mango and sambal oelek coulis.  Grilled lemons and limes topped the salmon, while grill-basket potatoes and frozen corn rounded out the plate.

Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a busy shopping day...  I need to head down to Gentile's for lots of produce - plus a nice long shopping list for Victor's mom - and then trek out to Wegman's for all of our July 4th party needs.  Plus we're going to have house guests, so we need 10 times more stuff in the house than we normally have. (I'm neurotic, remember?!?)  Busy shopping day, indeed.

We're going for a modified Hawai'ian theme for the party.  That means we can have pork tenderloins with pineapple and still have hot dogs and potato salad.

We make the rules!

Time to start creating menus and writing out shopping lists.....


Strawberry Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

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After grilling all day long, I thought I would come home and - grill.  What can I say?  I'm a glutton for punishment.

Actually, it's pretty much the easiest way to get dinner on the table - and the least amount of mess. (Not that I clean, mind you, but I do like to think of others from time to time...)

Pork tenderloin grilled with strawberry bbq sauce sitting atop grilled pineapple - straight from the Dole can - and a drizzle of more bbq sauce on top.  Yes, I could have bought a fresh pineapple - and it really would have been excellent - but I bought 5 cans of pineapple on sale a while back and do need to use them up.  It sorta defeats the purpose of getting a  deal on something if ya don't use it, right?!?

The rice was cooked in the pineapple juice from the can, a bit of water, and a pinch each of allspice and ginger, salt and pepper.  I toyed with the idea of adding some coconut, and then changed my mind. - I thought it might end up being too dessert-like.  And green beans fresh from the freezer because my fresh produce is dwindling.  I have to go shopping Monday.

It was a 20 minute meal that took forever because the charcoal chimney just wasn't cooperating today.  It took three attempts to finally get it going. Oh well...  I still like it better than the gas grill.

And...  we have slices of Leslie's wedding cake for dessert, tonight.

Life is good.


Friday Fish

6-26-cod

As a kid growing up in the '50s and '60s, fish on Friday was an automatic.  But...  since my mom wasn't really crazy about most fish - and she did the cooking - our Friday Fish was usually relegated to her iceberg lettuce tuna salad in the summer, or tuna casserole in the winter.  Fish sticks never entered our home.

I've always liked fish, but, not having had it regularly as a kid, I just don't think about it that much as a dinner item.  And if I do, it's usually a nice, classic recipe such as a Sole Meuniére - sole dredged in flour and fried in half a pound of butter.  Or a nice, meaty fish steak with a Beurre Blanc - more heavy cream and butter.

Adding a few hundred grams of saturated fat to a product that is supposed to be lean and reasonably healthy is pretty much defeating the purpose of eating it in the first place.  Of course, I have never been accused of being logical or rational, either.

I've made a few strides in trying to lighten the classic French-style cooking I learned so many years ago...  I make lots of salsas and other sweet/savory combinations and make broth sauces and gravies where I once would have made a bordelaise.   But my first instinct is always to go with a classic.  And did you know that a hollandaise sauce can go on just about anything?!?  It's frightening.

So...  the challenge is always how to get the flavor and texture I want without resorting to "lite" versions of what was once real food.  (I do have my standards - low as they may be!)

I have to say that I hit a homer with this one, tonight!  It had all the necessary ingredients:  quick and easy to do, tons of flavor, and reasonably healthy, to boot!

Morue Sur un Croûton

  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 5 anchovy fillets, minced
  • 2 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 cod fillets
  • olive oil
  • 2 thick slices good bread
  • a dozen or so fresh basil leaves
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 475°F.

Mix first 4 ingredients and set aside.

Place fish on baking sheet. Brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until just done, about 6-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a splash of olive oil in a skillet. Add tomato mixture. Cook until tomatoes soften and sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.  Season with S&P to taste.

Lightly toast bread. Place on plate and top with tomato sauce, basil leaves, fish, and then a final spoon of sauce.  A bit of fresh basil on top, and dinner is served!

I did some mixed squash on the side - olive oil, garlic, and oregano.

This was so easy to do and got rave reviews from Victor.

And there's still angel food cake with fresh strawberries for dessert.


Multi-Meat Tacos and Canned Salad

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The cabinet and freezer clean-out continues.

I tend to buy whole beef or pork loins, whole chickens, etc.  I have a couple of knives and know how to cut steaks or chops, quarter a chicken - whatever.  I portion-and-vacuum-pack everything with my food saver, and into the freezer, it goes.  I sometimes end up with a single thin chop, an end to a beef tenderloin, the odd piece of chicken here and there.  Things that on their own aren't much use.  Victor always throws them into his sauce when he makes it, but I can buy more than he can cook!  I get tired of moving them around the freezer.  At some point, they all have to get used.

Tonight was that night.

I made beef, pork, and chicken tacos.

I took the reasonably-thawed meat and put it into a pot with half a bottle of Mojo Marinade (a real citrusy Cuban marinade) and a can of chipotle sauce.  Covered it and let it simmer for several hours.  I drained it, shredded it with two forks, and then put it into a dry skillet.  IAs it was heating, I added a can of chipotle sauce and it was ready.

Served it with fried corn tortillas for me and soft flour tortillas for Victor, along with guacamole, sour cream shredded iceberg lettuce, diced tomato, green onions, and shredded cheddar cheese.

And canned salad... I just made this one up to clear out some of the cabinets, as well...

Canned Salad

  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • 1 can white beans, drained
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1 small jar pimentos, drained
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • 1/2 small red onion, diced
  • 3 green onions, sliced
  • 1 tsp Happy Hal's Jalapeno Relish
  • 4 radishes, diced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup malt vinegar
  • 1/2 cup chopped parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • salt and pepper, to taste.

Mix, chill, and eat!

It's really colorful and really went well with dinner, tonight.

And, in keeping with my clean-out mode, tomorrow night's dinner is going to be sloppy joe's made with tonight's leftover meat.

Eating weird and loving it!


Canard avec l'orange et la sauce à chipotle

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Yep.  You read that right - Duck with an Orange and Chipotle Sauce.  Can we say WOW boys and girls?!?

I've had a duck breast in the freezer for a while, and it just seemed time to use it.  At lunch today, I went to the Epicurious site and this recipe jumped out at me.  It was totally no-brainer easy, and REALLY had a great flavor!

I used an 18 ounce moulard breast and followed the cooking time fairly closely.  The sauce just rocked!  I strained it about half-way though and then cooked it down to about a half-cup.  Hot, sweet, and smoky.

Broiled Duck Breasts with Orange Chipotle Sauce

Gourmet | October 2005

Adapted from Mark Miller's Indian Market Cookbook

Duck breast is a sadly underrated meat. Served rare to medium-rare and sliced on the diagonal, it has the mineral tang of beef. This southwestern version, with its slightly spicy sauce, elicits every ounce of flavor from the bird. And it's so easy!
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Active Time: 25 min
Total Time: 1 hr
ingredients
For sauce
2 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons maple syrup (preferably dark amber or Grade B)
1 tablespoon finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1 (3- to 4-inch) cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
1 teaspoon salt

For duck
3 (1-lb) boneless Muscovy duck breasts with skin or 6 (7- to 8-oz) Long Island (also called Pekin) duck breast halves with skin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Special equipment: an instant-read thermometer
preparation
Make sauce:

Boil all sauce ingredients in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, skimming foam occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to about 1 cup, 30 to 40 minutes. Let stand while duck broils.

Prepare duck:

Remove rack of a broiler pan, then add 1 cup water to broiler pan and replace rack. Preheat broiler with pan 5 to 6 inches from heat.

Pat duck breasts dry and score skin at 1-inch intervals with a sharp knife (do not cut into meat), then sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Broil duck breasts, skin sides down, 4 minutes for Long Island duck or 8 minutes for Muscovy, then turn over and broil until thermometer inserted horizontally into center of a breast registers 130°F (see cooks' note, below), 8 to 10 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand 5 minutes. Add any juices accumulated on cutting board to sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.

Holding a sharp knife at a 45-degree angle, cut each duck breast into thin slices and serve with sauce.

The sauce is a real keeper.  I can see lots of variations and uses with this!

I made my own Rice-A-Roni with angel hair pasta, rice, garlic, broth...  And the zucchini was sliced with this wavy-knife-thing that lives buried in the back corner of the utensil drawer... (It was easier to dig it out than break out the mandoline for one zucchini...) and sauteed with a bit of butter, salt and pepper.

And there's more of that mixed fruit crisp for dessert tonight!


Pheasant with Figs and Apricots

Back when we lived in San Leandro, our next door neighbor, Bruce, belonged to a hunting club.  Every now and again during season, he would show up on our doorstep with fresh pheasants.  I LOVED those birds.  They were all cleaned and dressed.  All I had to do was figure out how I was going to cook them.  I loved it.  We found one particular recipe from Lidia Bastianich that we liked and made it often.  We made it for my family one holiday and my nieces and nephews asked for it every time we had them over for dinner.  It was a hit.

Alas, we moved and the free birds were no more.  Until today.

I've been chatting with one of our customers, Bob, for quite a few years, now.   Bob is a fairly local guy who has been hunting locally all of his life.  He's watched the area go from wide open and wild to housing developments, and the animals go from free range and wild to hemmed in by housing and traffic.  He's a fun guy to talk with.  I'm not a hunter myself, and am generally anti-gun, but understand the difference between hunting and eating the catch, and shooting animals out of airplanes and helicopters.  Hunting rifles and AK-47's are different.  And I most definitely like the taste of food that didn't come from a refrigerated dislpay case in a supermarket.

So... enter Bob today, with six beautiful pheasant breasts!  I was psyched!  There was no question that we were eating pheasant tonight.  My only dilemna was how...

The Lidia recipe is fairly time consuming, I think - it's been a while since I made it (Victor's mom's 75th Birthday party.  I paid $20 bucks a piece for 4 pheasants at Genuardi's...)  Soi I did a quick search on Epicurious.  This recipe came up:

Roasted Scottish Pheasants with Apricots and Dates '21' Club

Gourmet | November 1995

  • 1/2 cup dried apricots
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from about 2 large limes)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • two 2 1/2- to 3-pound pheasants (preferably wild Scottish)*
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 2 teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
  • 2 bay leaves
  • vegetable oil for brushing pheasants
  • 1/2 cup pitted dates, chopped
  • Garnish: fresh thyme sprigs

In a small heatproof bowl cover apricots with boiling water and soak 10 minutes. Drain apricots and cut into quarters. In a small saucepan simmer wine, liqueur, lime juice, and sugar 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Cut off legs of pheasants and reserve for another use. Sprinkle pheasants inside and out with pepper and salt to taste. Put 1 teaspoon thyme and 1 bay leaf in cavity of each pheasant and close cavities with skewers or toothpicks so that pheasants hold their shape.

Brush pheasants with oil and in a roasting pan arrange, breast side down. Roast pheasants 20 minutes and discard any fat in roasting pan. Turn pheasants over and to pan add apricots, wine mixture, and dates. Roast pheasants, adding about 1/2 cup water if all liquid evaporates, 25 minutes more, or until thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 160°F. Let pheasants stand 10 minutes.

Transfer pheasants to a cutting board and cut each in half. Serve pheasants with apricot date sauce and garnish with thyme.

A typical Gourmet recipe.  Convoluted and time-consuming.  But I liked the sauce concept.  I'm a sweet/savory kind of guy.

So.....  here's what I did:

I pulled the meat from the bone, checking for shot (Bob said there may be a little, so be wary.)  Into a skillet it went with a bit of olive oil and shallots.

After it browned a bit, I added:

  • 2 cups red wine
  • 1/2 cup brandy
  • juice of 1 orange
  • splash of lime juice
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots
  • 1/2 cup dried figs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp herbs d'provence

I let it simmer a bit but it wasn't quite there.  I added an 8oz can of tomato sauce and a handful of oil-cured olives to cut the sweetness a bit, and let it cook down and thicken.

All I can say is "wow."  It came our really good!  I wanted to serve it over spaghetti - and didn't have any in the house!  (I had angel hair, 2 types of fettuccine, ziti, mostaccioli, and half a dozen others - but no spaghetti.)  So, fettuccine it was.  And a damn fine choice, I might add!

There is enough left for Victor to have lunch tomorrow, too.  Always a bonus.  Thanks, Bob!

Now I think I'm going to go in and make a pumpkin pie.


Simple Spring Salads

A Simple Spring Salad

We're seasonal eaters in our house.  I know that I can buy just about anything semi-fresh from some country around the world, but I don't want to eat fresh raspberries in January.  I also don't want to eat acorn squash in July.  I like the flavors of the seasons...  And by the end of March I want big salads, again.

I know it's pushing the envelope just a bit, but... that big plate of greens topped with whatever happens to be handy was calling my name last night.

I had some thin-sliced pork chops thawing, so I made a marinade of chipotle powder, a homemade raspberry sauce left over from Easter, and some olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.

Onto the plates went my bed of greens, hard cooked eggs (also from Easter) some chow-chow, dried raspberries, and lots of tomatoes...  I also had some cheddar cheese curds that were perfect.

I grilled the pork chops and made a quick dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, more raspberry sauce, a smidge of chipotle powder, and S&P.

Topped the salads with the pork, topped the pork with the dressing, and dinner was served.  I had a bit of the Easter bread left over and that went along with it.

Dinner took 15 minutes to get on the table.

I can't wait to be doing this every night - with fresh berries!


Potage Français D'Oignon

French Onion Soup

J'aime le potage!  Thin soups, thick soups, as a side, as a meal.  Serve me a bowl of homemade soup and I'm a happy boy.

I especially like soups because they're so easy to make and (depending upon the soup) use up all the bits and pieces of whatever I have left over or lying around the fridge or kitchen.  Just about anything goes.

Late this morning I was at the grocery store and saw a huge display of onions.  Big onions.  2 lbs for $3.00.  (Who would have ever thought THAT was inexpensive?!?)  So I bought about 8 pounds...

Onions for soup

I sliced them up, put a half pound of butter into the pot, added the onions, and let them slowly start cooking.  Slowly.  Slow is key to properly caramelized onions. I came back into the kitchen every 15 minutes or so, stirred the pot a bit and then went away.  They can't be rushed.

Onions caramalizing

After several hours, they started looking like this.  Almost there.   They had cooked down to about a third of their former volume.   Rich caramelized color, and the scent wafting through the house had me going crazy!  I knew it was going to be a good batch!

Soup’s On!

And I was right.  It was GREAT!


Turkey Croquettes

Here's another recipe from Mike!  Bein' that I still have some leftover turkey in the freezer, I may just have to make these this weekend!

Turkey Croquettes

Back just before the year 2000 there was a business plan that made the papers where a company would be formed to buy the leftover food from the world’s great restaurants and freeze it for shipping to gourmets around the world.  I don’t know whether it worked or not, but it was a novel approach to the question of what to do with leftovers, especially after the holidays.

Here is a good idea for something to get rid of a little more of the Thanksgiving Monster.   They are especially good to make and freeze for a quick meal later  when you’ve had a long day at the office.

Any poultry will work, and you get a whole new flavor if you substitute crab meat for the turkey.  If you bake these, they are low in fat, high in fiber, and addictive.  They have more flavor fried (OK – so what doesn’t?) which is fine if you can stand the calories.

Turkey Croquettes

Mike Amason

Makes about 24 croquettes 2-1/2” diameter.   Leftovers freeze well.

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds leftover turkey (or 2 chicken breasts, cooked)
  • One large onion, any color
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 1 stalk celery
  • ½  green bell pepper
  • One whole green chili or jalapeno pepper or ½ tsp cayenne
  • 2 Tbsp Olive oil
  • ½ tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp paprika to sprinkle the patties if baking them
  • ½ cup sour cream or mayonnaise
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1-1/2 cups SR flour

Baked:  Preheat oven to 375° and grease a cookie sheet with Crisco
Fried:  Preheat ½” of your favorite vegetable oil in your favorite frying pan

Run chicken and vegetables through a food processor one item at a time and combine in a two quart mixing bowl.  Adding the olive oil to the carrots makes them chop better. Mix sour cream, beaten eggs, and spices in well before adding flour.  You will end up with a bowl of sticky paste that can be formed into patties that will hold their shape.

Scoop out balls of the paste to whatever size you like.  The quantity mentioned above assumes balls slightly larger than a golf ball flattened into patties roughly 2-1/2” in diameter by ½-3/4” thick.

Arrange on cookie sheet, sprinkle with paprika, and bake 30-35 minutes, or fry in oil and turn when edges turn brown. They are done when brown on top and bottom.  Drain on paper towels before serving.  Baked croquettes will not get as brown as the fried ones, but that doesn’t hurt a thing.

Baked Croquettes

These are wonderful served with a pot of large dried lima beans cooked with a ham hock, zucchini strips salted and peppered and sprinkled with parmesan cheese and roasted in a 375° oven for 15 minutes (Why waste the heat when the oven is hot?  You have two racks in there for a reason), steamed broccoli, or just a plate of fresh biscuits.  These make outstanding leftovers and are a good finger food hot or cold.

A good red pepper sauce or a hot pepper vinegar is a great accompaniment for these as is a good chow chow.


Turkey on the Barbie

No, I haven't stopped cooking. in fact, I'm probably cooking more than ever. It's just that I haven't been making the time to 1) take pictures, and 2) actually sit down and write here.

I've been pretty busy updating websites, lately. After finally learning the basics of CSS, I'm redoing a whole slew of sites. It keeps me off the streets.

So... yesterday during my weekly shopping excursion, I picked up a turkey breast. It's called a "hotel" breast, because it just has the top part of the carcass - breast and wings - and all bone-in. I put it on the grill.

I heated the grill, and then turned off the center heat. After wrapping the bird in bacon I placed it in the center, turned down the other two knobs, closed the lid, and walked away. About three hours later, we had a GREAT bird!

I was craving a good ol' turkey sandwich, so...

  • Whole wheat bread slathered in mayonnaise...
  • Sliced heirloom tomatoes
  • Sliced avocado
  • the aforementioned bacon

What a taste treat!

I served them with a manchego and apple salad I found in Bon Appetit a while back:

  • 1 chopped apple
  • 1 cup cubed manchego cheese
  • 1/2 cup marcona almonds
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Dinner was yummy - and now I have all sorts of turkey to play with!

Tonight... salads...


Thanksgiving Dinner - in March

During my normal shopping trek on Wednesday, I spied an organic fresh turkey - at a great price. I thought "Why not do up a mini-Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday?" I picked it up, grabbed a few more fixin's, and home I went. We called Victor's mom to come over Saturday, and I proceeded to make a feast...Turkey, gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans... Oy! The food for three people! Oh - and I made a pear clafouti for dessert.

We sent mom home laden with food for a week, the carcass went into the pot for soup, everything else nicely tupperware'd and into the 'fridge.

I definitely can't eat like this often, but it's fun more than just once a year!