Caramelized Onion Chicken

When trying to decide what do do with the chicken in the fridge, I came across this recipe from Cooking Light. I was a little wary of any dinner that called for jam, but this turned out scrumptiously! It's rather red, but totally delicious. Paired with green beans with a drizzle of walnut oil and shallots and roasted Yukon golds, it made for a delicious meal!


Caramelized Onion Chicken
from cookinglight.com

1 pound chicken breast tenders
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup sliced onion
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon bottled minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté 2 minutes. Add chicken to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove onion and chicken from pan.

Add jam and remaining ingredients to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return chicken mixture to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces chicken and 1 tablespoon sauce)

Red Shrimp and Mango Curry

I've been running a low on cooking inspiration lately, so I thought I'd seek out some new cookbooks. I picked up Nigella Lawson's new Nigella Express cookbook and have been very happy with it. It's perfect for tasty, healthy, quick meals you don't mind making even when it's been a long day, your hungry, exhausted and desperate for dinner. Now. Tonight's experiment was red shrimp and mango curry - I didn't have Thai red curry on hand, but had another curry paste and plenty of red curry powder and it turned out fairly well. It's probably better with the real deal but this was fun and tasty.

one day, the kitchen lighting will be as good as the food made in it...

Red Shrimp and Mango Curry
adapted from Nigella Express

1 scallion, finely sliced
1 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 Tbs curry paste
1 13.5 oz Lite coconut milk
1 c organic chicken stock
2 tsp fish sauce
2 1/2 c sweet potato, cubed
7 oz shrimp
1 c mango
1 tsp lime juice
3-4 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro

Fry the scallion in the oil for a minute then add teh curry paste
Whisk in the coconut milk, stock and fish sauce and bring to a boil. Tip in the sweet potato and simmer partially covered for about 15 minutes until tender. Tumble shrimp into pot and let the sauce come to a boil. Add mango and lime juice and cook for another minute or so until the shrimp are cooked through. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve over plain rice.

Grocery and Green-ing

Mr. Pleasant and I love to cook. We love to cook delicious, wholesome food and we love to try new things. For us, that frequently means trips to multiple grocery stores and our local farmers market. As the recent USDA beef recall has reminded me, I think it's important to buy (generally, but especially) meat that has been raised humanely, locally, sustainably and organically. Which, unfortunately, frequently comes with a higher price tag - which, for us, generally means fewer meat dishes. However, we are lucky enough to be part of a group that orders meat, dairy and some baked goods directly from a local Amish farm. The price is quite reasonable and the products are AMAZING. There are many similar programs for both meat and dairy as well as more commonly known "Community Supported Agriculture" or CSA's that allow you by a share in the farm and you are provided with farm fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season, and they are becoming more and more popular as people are becoming more and more aware of food security issues.

That said, we don't always get our order in time in which case we call on one of our local grocery stores. While our closest store has an okay general selection, they carry no organic meats. Whole foods (known to some as 'whole paycheck') is frequently where we end up buying much of our meat and produce. Whole Foods happens to be going the Ikea route and as of Earth Day 2008 are no longer providing disposable grocery bags. One of my new year's resolutions this year was to reduce my use of plastic and paper disposable bags. Enter Baggu (although there are a whole host of options out there)- sturdy little reusable grocery bags that hold more (and more securely) than your average double-bagged plastic bags and stuff down into tiny bags that fit easily in my purse.


I bought six, along with reusable produce bags , and haven't looked back! I augment them with a rag-tag collection of canvas and conference bags I've collected over the years, and they do marvelously! In fact, I probably could've done with just the old rag-tag troupe, but the small size of the baggu bags wooed me. I've gotten some admiration and no dark looks or angry bag-stuffing from any of the cashiers I've presented with my bags. It felt silly the first time I did it, but now I really feel good about using them :)

They are small changes that really add up to big changes.

Winter Pear Tart Frangipane

This recipie comes from one of my most dog-eared cookbooks - Sundays at Moosewood. Even if you're not vegetarian (although some of the recipies include fish) it is a fabulous resource for regional cuisine. Each region has it's own section - and the regions are as diverse as Sub-Saharan Africa, Finland, Japan, and the US South. Although tonights stuffed peppers and Gateau de Pommes de Terre did not go over so well with Mr. Pleasant (good thing to know over 4 years into a relationship that one's future husband does not care for stuffed peppers), the dessert was more of a hit. The Pate Brisee is inspired - it's melt-in-your mouth with just a hint of lemon that compliments the pear and almond beautifully. I wasn't sure what to expect - most pate brisee does not call for egg. I thought it might be heavy, but no! Beautifully buttery, crumbles delectably. I might try this a la Julia to compare the versions, but this was a delightful end to a cold, blustery January day.



Winter Pear Tart Frangipane
adapted from the Provence Section by Kip Wilcox of
Sundays at Moosewood

Pate Brisee
1 1/2 C unbleached white flour
2 Tbs sugar
1/2 C chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1-2 Tbs cold water

Stir flour and sugar together (I used a food processor for maximum mixing in minimum time - you do NOT want to overbeat this) in a mixing bowl. Add butter and mix until mixture becomes crumbly. Whisk together egg yolk, lemon juice and 1 Tbs of water. sprinkle the liquid over the butter-flour mixture and continue to mix until a ball forms. If the mixture is crumbly, add the remaining 1 Tbs water. Roll out into 9 or 10 " pie plate or tart pan. Flute and chill.

Carmelized Pears

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs brown sugar
1/4 c water
5 pears, washed cored and sliced

Heat butter and brown sugar in heavy skillet. Add the water (carefully! if too hot will splatter!) and stir briefly. Add the pear, and saute them for 10 minutes, covering the pan when not stirring. Remove from heat and set aside.

Frangipane
7 oz almond paste, softened
1/2 c butter, softened
2-3 drops pure almond extract
2 eggs
2 tsp flour

beat together the almond paste and butter. Add the almond extract. In another bowl whisk together the eggs and flour and then blend them into the butter mixture.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Smooth the custard into the pie shell. Arrange pears on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden and the custard is firm. If the crust browns too quickly, cover with foil.

No-Knead Bread!

Finally! I've managed to try out the famous no-knead bread recipe that took the food blog world by storm! First (I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong) published in the NY Times in November of 06', this little (and it is a little, simple recipe) recipe is a breeze to make and has remarkable results. It's even fairly flexible - I definitely let the dough sit longer than 18 hours in a room less than 70 degrees and still had great results. I'm eager to try the Washington Post's food sections variations with this technique!

No-Knead Bread

from the NY Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

¼ teaspoon instant yeast

1¼ teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Buckeyes

This weekend, a good friend of mine, Ms. M from Cleavland came to visit. In honor of it, I thought it might be fun to make buckeyes, a peanut butter-chocolate confection most folks from Ohio (and beyond, I'm sure) are familiar with. For me, it was a Christmastime treat my Ohio State alum parents included in our regular holiday fare. It was the first time I ever tried to make them on my own and it was a bit of an adventure! Also, it seems that paraffin is not a staple of any of the grocery stores around me. We omitted it without difficulty. Ms. M and I made the peanut butter balls without trouble, but once we started melting the chocolate in a double-boiler, we ended up with a congealed mass of rather gross looking chocolate. We tried again (this time with a recently and generously gifted copper beating bowl), to great success. Amazing what a difference a pot can make! And slow, low, steady heat. Much better results!



Buckeye Candy
Courtesy of The Ohio State University

1 lb. bag of powdered sugar
2/3 lb. creamy peanut butter
2 sticks soft butter
16. oz. chocolate chips
1 Tbs. Paraffin
1 wood toothpick

Blend sugar, PB and butter
Roll into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet
Freeze for about 5 minutes
Melt chocolate and paraffin in double boiler (over low heat!!)
insert toothpick into peanut butter ball and dip into chocolate leaving "eye". Refrigerate until served.

Literary, culinary

First, my apologies for the long absence. It's been an exciting time - Mr. Pleasant and I got engaged! Plus, I got to spend a week in Paris - pity I didn't photograph my meals - they were fabulous!!!

But, back to the present - we have a monthly book club, and this month was Mr. Pleasant's turn to pick. He picked "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle. Not bad culinary reading. Inspired by the book, as we were hosting, we put together a French-inspired meal with our new Williams Sonoma Bride/Groom cookbook (courtesy of Mr. Pleasant's brother and sister in law). Not only does it have great, basic but delicious recipes but it also has helpful advice about setting up and stocking a kitchen. Sure, it could be read as one giant ad for W-S, but it really is a valuable resource. It was the first time we used it and we were very impressed with the results! As were our fellow bookclub members.

First up was a fabulous marinated goat cheese. So easy! It's great to be able to do things ahead and this even tasted better for it! Dinner was red wine braised chicken with a mixed green salad and my standard roasted potatoes. I was very pleased with the chicken, although due to some regrettably over-the-hill chicken legs, we had to substitute boneless, skinless breast at the last minute, but it turned out okay. The salad was a triumph too - I've never actually made a salad with different greens before. Sure, I've bought lettuce mixes, but never before have I bought greens like frissee, watercress, endives and arugala separately and really thought about how all the flavors would meld. It opened up a whole new world to experiment with. It was all set off nicely by a lovely vinaigrette and pomegranate seeds. It really does add a whole new element to a bookclub when you can have a literal taste of what you're reading!

Here is what we did for the marinated goat cheese. We doubled the amount of cheese with great results, by the way.



Marinated Goat Cheese
W-S Bride and Groom Cookbook

4 rounds fresh goat cheese, each 1/2 inch thick sliced from a 2 1/2" log
3/4 C olive oil
3 or 4 sprigs fresh thyme (used dried thyme)
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted (this is easy to do in a nonstick pan- heat on medium for a few minutes - careful not to burn!)
2 dried bay leaves

Place the goat cheese in a shallow dish (we found a pasta bowl worked well). Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with the thyme, chili flakes, fennel seeds and bay leaves. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 day and up to 3 days. Remove from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving.