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Archive for the ‘poultry’ Category

Chicken & Quinoa Lettuce Wraps with Apricot Curry Sauce

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2011| 1 Comment »

So, this recipe is loosely based on a Charlie Trotter. The sauce is his, and the overall flavor concept is his, but I added some of my own touches and served the quinoa mixture in lettuce cups. Honestly, I think he’d prefer that I use his recipe for inspiration rather than to have me follow it to the teaspoon.

First thing I did was make the apricot-curry sauce. I took 3/4 teaspoon of curry powder, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 3/4 cup dried apricots, and 1/2 cup of water and blended it all together in my small food processor until all of the little apricot chunks were hacked up to a pulp.

Then I strained it while pressing it through with the back of a wooden spoon. I covered it in plastic and put in the fridge while I cooked everything else.

For the quinoa I used a handful of fresh chopped parsley, some red leaf lettuce leaves, 1 clove of garlic minced, 1/2 inch of ginger minced, 5 green onions chopped, 1/2 red bell pepper diced, a handful of dried apricots diced, 1/2 cup of quinoa rinsed, and 1/2 lb of skinless boneless chicken thighs chopped up.

In a hot pot I poured in about 2 tablespoons of canola oil and added the garlic and ginger. I let them sizzle for about 30 seconds and then added the bell pepper and green onions. After about 5 minutes I added the quinoa and let it sort of toast in the hot oil for a few minutes. This brings out its nutty flavors.

Then I added the chicken and let it just start to cook. I poured in about 1 cup of water, seasoned with a little salt and pepper, let it come to a boil, covered the pot, turned the heat to med-low, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Then, I turned off the heat but kept it covered for another 15 minutes. After that I took off the lid, added the parsley, and fluffed it up with a fork. I tasted for seasoning and that’s about all there was to it.

To serve, I simply laid some of the lettuce leaves down, spooned on some of the quinoa, then topped with the curry sauce.

I served some white rice and miso soup along side.

For this miso soup I used miso, 3 shiitake sliced, 3 green onions sliced, 1 block of fried tofu diced, and some wakame. I used my typical miso soup making method.

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Chicken and Lentil Stew

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I made this dish last Monday, so I’m a little late putting up here. A couple of our friends had a party for us since we’ll be new parents in a couple of months, and we came home with leftovers. We had some vegetables from the veggie tray as well as some leftover catered Middle Eastern food. Looking in my cupboard I found some lentils and thought a simple stew would go well and help use up the ingredients.

We had brought home some celery and carrots that I diced. I also diced an onion, minced 3 garlic cloves, minced an inch of ginger, chopped up 3 skinless chicken thighs, and got out 1 cup of chicken stock, 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes, and 1 cup of lentils.

I heated up a pot and then added about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. I threw the ginger and garlic in for about 30 seconds, then added the onion, carrots, and celery. I let them sweat down for about 6 minutes and then added the lentils. I wanted the lentils to sort of saute for about 2 or 3 minutes before adding anything else.

Then I poured in the chicken stock. Once it started to boil I added the can of tomatoes and seasoned with salt and pepper. I noticed that I had a big sprig of rosemary, so I tossed that in as well. Once everything started to boil again I added the chicken. I let it come to a slow boil, covered the pot, and turned the heat to med-low. I let it stew for about 15 minutes.

I realized that I had some spinach in the fridge, so I chopped up a large handful, threw that into the stew, and let it go for another 10-15 minutes.

I served the stew with leftover hummus with pita and some Jerusalem Salad which consisted of chopped cucumber and red bell pepper with a parsley and lemon vinaigrette. I added some red leaf lettuce. The sides were all from Salam.

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Chicken with Peppers and Chickpea Kale Soup

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Besides being a great Japanese housewife, I also have a little Italian bosom to me. I’m very worldly for being a midwestern Jewish man. The other night I made a classic Southern Italian Chicken and Pepper Stew along with a Tuscan-style soup. Instead of a Tuscan Bean Soup that uses cannelloni beans I used chickpeas, simply because I had a can in my cupboard.

The soup couldn’t be simpler. I used 1 bunch of kale chopped, 1 onion sliced, 3 garlic cloves diced, 1 quart of chicken stock, and 1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed.

I put everything except for the chickpeas in a pot along with a couple of bay leaves. I brought it up to a boil, covered the pot, turned the heat to med-low, and let it simmer for about 45 minutes so that the kale would get nice and tender. I didn’t add the chickpeas until a few minutes before dinner time. Since they were canned the didn’t need to be cooked, just heated. I seasoned with salt and pepper just before serving.

For the chicken I used about 1/4 cup of parsley chopped, 1/2 onion sliced, 3 cloves of garlic diced, 2 plum tomatoes skinned and diced, 1 dry pint of sweet peppers seeded and sliced, 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks skinned with the bone in, and 1/2 cup of white wine.

In my pan I heated up about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and sautéed the onion for about 6 minutes. I took the onion out, added another 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and added the chicken. I browned the chicken all over for a few minutes and then put the onion back in. I poured in the wine and let it reduce by half for about 5 minutes or so. Then I added the peppers and tomatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper, stirred it up really well, covered the pan, turned the heat down to med-low, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I stirred it occasionally throughout the 30 minutes. Just before serving I mixed in the parsley. Another simple, yet delicious dish.

I got some nice crusty bread to serve with everything. I did make some white rice for Yuki since she needs rice in her guts. I stuck with the bread though so I could sop up all of the juices and dip into my soup.

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Braised Yakitori

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2011| 2 Comments »

Braised yakitori, kind of a misnomer. Yakitori translates to “grilled chicken”. I didn’t grill anything for this dish. Braised typically means cooking something in liquid over low heat for a long period of time. I didn’t do that either. What I did was make a standard yakitori marinade and cook some chicken thighs along with green onions in it. Why did I call this “Braised Yakitori”? Honestly, I just don’t know what else to call it.

First thing I did was make the marinade. In a small saucepan I poured in 5 tablespoons of soy sauce, 4 tablespoons of sake, 1 tablespoon of mirin, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. I brought it up to a low boil and let it gently simmer for about 5 minutes or so. I just wanted the sugar to dissolve and the marinade to thicken up slightly. After that I turned the heat off and let it cool down for about an hour, until it reached room temperature.

I minced up 2 garlic cloves and chopped up 6 green onions and 6 skinless and boneless chicken thighs. I mixed them all together in a glass dish and poured to marinade over. Covered with plastic wrap I put it in the fridge while I got the veggies and miso soup ready.

For the miso soup I only made 2 portions. We had some tomato soup leftover from Kasia’s that became lunch today, so I didn’t need to make too much. I used 1-1.5 tablespoons of miso, one yukon gold potato skinned and chopped, 3 shiitake sliced, 2 tablespoons of dashi flavored soy sauce, and some salted wakame. For the wakame, you have to rinse the salt off and then let it soak in cold water for about 10-15 minutes. I honestly cannot tell you how much I used, I just eye-balled it. You have to be careful though because it does get considerable larger as it absorbs the water.

In a small soup pan I poured in about 1.25 cups of water and added the dashi soy, potato, and shiitake. I let it simmer over a very low boil for about 20 minutes. That was just long enough for the potato to cook but not so long that it started to disintegrate.

Just before serving I put the miso in our little tea colander and swished it around for a few minutes until it all mixed into the soup. Using the colander keeps the miso from being chunky. But, this was right before serving (at which time I also added the wakame). Before I did this I made the veggies and cooked the chicken.

I kept the veggies very simple. I cut up 1 head of broccoli, sliced up 1 carrot, and rinsed about 2-3 ounces of bean sprouts. I got my steamer going and steamed the broccoli and carrot for about 5 minutes. After that I added the bean sprouts and let it go for another minute or so. A little sprinkle of salt and the veggies were ready.

To cook the chicken I heated up my pan and added about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. When the oil was shimmering I just dumped everything in. It took about 9 or 10 minutes for the chicken to cook through and the sauce the thicken up a little. I seasoned with a little black pepper and that was all.

Of course, white rice accompanied the night’s chow.

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Cabbage Rolled Chicken Meatball Nabe

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 17, 2010| 2 Comments »

 

The other night I made one of Yuki’s favorites, a dish she usually makes. She, like most Japanese absolutely love nabe in the winter time and it’s hard to blame her. You just can’t beat a good table-top soup filled with meat, veggies, and a good broth. I think chicken meatballs rolled in cabbage is her favorite and one she’s made quite a few times for me, so this time I made it for her.

First thing I did was get the meatballs wrapped and ready to go. I used chicken stock as my base for the broth so I used 2 cups of it to soak a heaping tablespoon of dried hijiki seaweed for about 30 minutes before I could do much else. When the hijike was rehydrated I strained the broth into a soup pot. The rest of my meatball ingredients were 1/2 red onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 inch of ginger, 1 pound of ground chicken thigh, and a small head of napa cabbage.

To make the cabbage more pliable I dropped it into some salted boiling water and let it boil for about 2 minutes. Then I took it out and shocked it in ice water. The boiling water softened it making it easier to roll while shocking it in ice water helps it retain its color.

In a glass bowl I grated the onion, garlic, and ginger into the chicken meat, added the hijiki, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and mixed it thoroughly. Then I rolled walnut-sized meatballs in the cabbage and secured them with toothpicks.

The rest of my ingredients for the nabe were 6 green onions chopped, 2 small carrots chopped, 1 small daikon chopped, 7 fingerling potatoes halved, 8 shiitake halved, a package of fried tofu sliced, and 1 Honey 1 Rib (yes, I am finding creative ways to finish up those ribs since I over-ordered).

I put the rib in the chicken stock that had already soaked the hijiki and added 2 cups of water. I brought that to a boil and let the rib simmer in the broth for about 15 minutes. Then I strained the broth into our nabe (clay pot). The rib added some nice smokey depth to the broth. It also gave me some moist tender meat to nosh on while finishing up the cooking.

Then I brought the broth back to a slow boil and added the chicken-cabbage rolls. I let them cook for about 15 minutes to make sure they cooked all the way through. Once they were cooked I took them out and set them aside.

I kept the broth at a low boil and added all of the veggies. I let them all cook for about 10 minutes.

Once all of the veggies were cooked I added the chicken-cabbage rolls back and took the nabe to our table-top propane burner.

 To serve, I poured about a tablespoon of ponzu in each of our bowls. We helped ourselves by adding broth, meatballs, and vegetables along with a dash of togarashi. I had white rice topped with ground sesame seeds along with it.

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Las Tripletas

Posted in poultry, Restaurant, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2010| 1 Comment »

The food in San Juan, Puerto Rico is very expensive for what you get. I guess that’s expected in such a touristy city. That’s especially true when walking the streets of Old San Juan. While that part of town isn’t without its charm, rustic old world food certainly isn’t its draw. We found that the best way to fill your belly without emptying your wallet is to find a good kiosk and get your hands on a tripleta sandwich, a similar morsel to the Cuban sandwich.

We found this Las Tripletas kiosk on the south end of Old San Juan on the cobblestone street near the cruise docks. While I was ordering the sandwich artist told me that his tripleta was much better than any Cuban I’d ever eat. When I asked why he said because his pork was wet and juicy while most Cubans had dry pork. Nothing better than a wet sloppy pork sandwich. Well, almost nothing, I can think of a few things but that’s another conversation.

Quite spacious for a little kiosk. My man here layered the lettuce, tomato, turkey, ham, and pork on the pan de agua (typical Puerto Rican baguette), then squirted some mayo all over and pressed it on his griddle panini-style.

It was a damn good, juicy pork sandwich. Not bad for $5.50.

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Thanksgiving

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This year for Thanksgiving we didn’t really have much of a plan. There weren’t a lot of options on the table for us. We could have gone to my mom’s in Merida, Mexico, but flights were very expensive this year. We could have gone to my Grandma’s in the Quad Cities, but no one there cooks anymore, they go to a restaurant in Andalusia. Not exactly a mouth-watering proposition. Almost all of our friends were with their families. It wasn’t until 3:00 Thursday afternoon that we figured out what to do. With so little time we decided to keep it very simple. So, we headed to Stanley’s and Whole Foods to get the fixin’s we needed to make a small dinner of four portions.

First thing I made was a sweet potato puree soup. I skinned and chopped up two medium-sized sweet potatoes and tossed them into a pot with 3 garlic cloves and 2 cups of chicken stock. I brought it to a boil, covered it, and let it simmer for 20 minutes until the potato chunks were nice and soft. Once it cooled down a little I threw it all into my blender with a cup of soy milk and pureed it nice and smooth. I seasoned it with some salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of cinnamon and then poured it back into the pot ready to re-heat once everything else was done.

For the rice I simply rinsed 2 cups of rice and put it in our rice cooker. Once I poured in the water I added one diced carrot and 1.5 tablespoons of dried hijiki. I let it sit for about 30 minutes and then hit the start button. Simple as that.

For the Turkey I just got a 1.75 pound breast. I laid it in a large rimmed baking sheet and covered it with a mix of 2 tablespoons of miso, the juice from one lemon, the zest from half of the lemon, and some black pepper. After evenly coating the top of the turkey with the miso I put it on the lower 3rd rack of the oven at 400 degrees. I let it roast for about an hour. Once the hour was up I took it out and put a bunch of haricots vert all around the pan and poured 3/4 cup of chicken stock around the bird. I put that back into the oven for another 15 minutes. When I took it out I let the bird rest on a board and set the haricots vert aside. I mixed together 1 tablespoon of miso and 1/4 cup of chicken stock and poured that into the pan to mix with the rest of the juices. That was my sauce for the turkey after slicing it.

While the turkey was cooking I melted 1/4 cup of butter and slowly carmelized 1 sliced onion for about 20 minutes.

To serve, I sliced the turkey and laid it on top of the haricots vert. I spooned some sauce on top and then laid down some of the onions. I garnished it all with the other half of lemon zest. The soup and rice were on the side.

I cheated on dessert, we just picked up a pumpkin pie and some vanilla ice cream. It’s a shame we didn’t plan ahead because both Yuki and I make a mean pumpkin pie. I also make a pretty good ice cream. Oh well, we weren’t trying to impress anyone this year, so this worked out just fine. Maybe next year we’ll be more creative and extravagant. In the meantime, everything turned out really tasty and we have no complaints. It sure beats a restaurant in Andalusia.

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Pozole Verde con Matza Balls

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

With the weather getting really cold here in Chicago already, my mind starts to go towards stews, braises, and soups. Being Jewish, a good chicken soup with matza balls is always a winner (at least the way I make it), but I wanted to do something different. Since my mom lives in Mexico I thought I’d make a Mexican-Jewish soup. I made a relatively classic chicken pozole verde but dropped some matza balls in the soup instead of tortilla chips. 

Most of the recipes I found online used a combination of store-bought chicken broth and water with chicken breasts. Making a simple chicken broth is really easy so I opted to use plain water and chicken thighs. Dark meat has much more flavor than white meat and I never use breasts when making a soup. What I did was bring 10 cups of water to a boil and then put 2 pounds of skin-on bone-in chicken thighs in. Once it came back up to a boil I turned the heat down to medium and let it simmer for about an hour. Every 10 minutes or so I skimmed the surface to remove the muck and some of the excess fat. Once I had gotten all of the chicken flavor into the broth I removed the chicken, took off the skin and bones, and shredded the meat. I set the meat aside while I prepared the verde part of the soup.

The verde part is really just a simple salsa verde, much like you’d be served at a taqueria with chips. I used 1 pound of tomatillos, 2 poblanos, 2 jalapenos, 5 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup of cilantro, 1 small onion, and 1 tablespoon of dried oregano. I gave everything a rough chop and tossed it into my processor. I processed it into a smooth salsa and added a ladle of the broth to make sure everything mixed nicely.

I heated up a soup pan and poured in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and then added the verde. As you can see from this picture it started off a nice bright green. About 10-15 minutes later with occasional stirring…

…you can see it took on a much more drab color. That’s what you want in order to get rid of the raw flavors of the garlic and jalapeno and whatnot. Then I poured it into the broth and made the matza balls.

The last time I made matza balls my mom called me out for using matza ball mix. So, this time I did it from scratch. Honestly, there really isn’t much difference. I used 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of matza meal, 3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and some cracked black pepper to taste. I mixed everything thoroughly in a glass bowl, added about 4 tablespoons of cold water and mixed that in, then covered the bowl and threw it in the fridge for about 45 minutes.

Then I got the accoutrements ready for the soup. I got out the shredded chicken, 3 radishes thinly sliced, 1 avocado, a 28 ounce can of hominy drained and rinsed, and a large handful of watercress chopped. I added the chicken and hominy to the soup and slowly brought it back up to a low boil while the rest of the ingredients stood aside and waited their turn.

When the soup was at a low boil I got the matza ball mix out and turned it into matza balls. With moist hands I rolled out balls about the size of silver dollars and dropped them in the soup. A lot of people cook theirs in plain boiling water and then add them to the soup. I’ll never understand why as that prevents them from absorbing the broth’s flavor. I want tasty balls! Once my balls were all swimming in the soup I covered it up and let them cook for about 30 minutes.

For a side I just made a simple tomato and watercress salad. I quartered a bunch of cherry tomatoes, laid them on a bed of watercress, and drizzled some sesame dressing on top.

To garnish the soup I added the sliced radish, the watercress, I diced the avocado, and squeezed some lime juice in.

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Chicken in Chinese Black Bean Sauce

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

For dinner last night I made a simple Chinese-flavored ground chicken stir-fry. For the sauce, I used fermented black bean and garlic sauce. It’s a real easy way to get a lot of flavor into a quick, healthy dish.

My ingredients included 1 carrot cut into half moons, 1/2 pound bean sprouts, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 10 green onions thinly sliced, 3 tablespoons of black bean and garlic sauce, a package of shiitake diced, 1 head of broccoli cut into florets, 1/2 inch ginger, minced, 3 cloves garlic minced, and 1 pound of ground chicken thigh.

First thing I did was to mix up the sauce. In a small dish I mixed the soy and black bean sauce. After tasting it, I decided to add a little sweetness so I mixed in 1 tablespoon of mirin. I set that aside and heated up a saute pan.

Once hot, I poured in about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and then added the ginger and garlic. I let them sizzle for about 30 seconds and then added the carrot and green onions. I sautéed them for about 3 minutes and then added the chicken. I broke up the chicken as it cooked for about 7 or 8 minutes and then added the shiitake. Once the shiitake were coated with the rest of the ingredients I added the sauce and mixed it around. At this time I put the broccoli into my steamer. Broccoli only needs about 4 minutes to steam to a nice al dente and at this point all I need to do with the stir-fry was let the sauce boil down a little and add some pepper and the bean sprouts. So, that’s what I did. Easy as that.

The other day Yuki had made some sweet potato rice that we didn’t finish. Instead of making new rice I decided to use that up. White rice probably would have matched better with the slightly salty dish, but the sweetness of the sweet potatoes wasn’t that bad of a match, and it added a higher nutritional value to the meal. So did my beer.

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Chicken Fajitas

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night I made a fajita fiesta for dinner. We picked up a couple of pomegranates the other day and I wanted to use some in guacamole. So, I made up a Mexican meal.

The first thing I did was make a real simple corn soup. I took 4 ears of corn, 1/2 onion, and 1 garlic clove. I stripped the kernels from the ears and tossed it all (ears included so I wouldn’t lose all of the milky flavor) into a soup pan. I chopped up the onion and garlic, tossed them in the pan as well. Then I poured in 3 cups of water. I brought it to a boil, covered the pot, turned the heat down to medium-low, and let it simmer for about 7 minutes. I turned off the heat and let it cool down a bit.

After it cooled a little I discarded the ears and poured the rest into my blender and pureed it. I wiped out the pan and strained it back in then seasoned with some salt and pepper. I let that sit covered while I prepared the rest of the dinner and just re-heated it for service, garnished with some cilantro.

For the rice, I used my rice cooker to make 2 cups of rice, but added 1/4 cup defrosted frozen peas, and 1 carrot chopped into quarter moons. I also replaced 1 cup of the cooking water with chicken stock to deepen the flavor a little. I hit the start button and let the cooker do it’s thang.

Then I put together the guacamole. I used 3 avocados, 2 plum tomatoes (the pic shows 3, but I only used 2), 1/4 onion, 1/2 pomegranate, the juice from 1 lime, 1 garlic clove minced, and some cilantro. I actually started on the onion quite a bit earlier. To take the bite out of without cooking I diced it and soaked it in cold water for about 2 hours. That keeps it crisp but eliminates the rawness. In a glass bowl I let the minced garlic soak in the lime juice for about 10 minutes to mellow it out a bit, then I added everything else and mashed it u with a fork keeping it a little chunky. I seasoned it as needed and then set it aside (I did snack on it while I cooked).

For the fajita I used 1 teaspoon cayenne, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons dried oregano, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 green bell pepper sliced, 1 orange bell pepper sliced, the zest and juice from 1 lime, 1/2 jalapeno sliced, 1/2 onion sliced, and 1 pound of chicken breasts sliced into thin strips.

In a glass bowl I mixed together the lime zest and juice with all of the spices and tossed the chicken in. I let it marinade for about 30 minutes. I used that time to cut the peppers and get the black beans going, but I’ll get to the beans in a minutes.

In a large saute pan I heated 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and stir-fryed the chicken and spices for about 7 minutes. Then I added the peppers and onion and stir-fryed them with the chicken for a further 7 minutes or so. For service I garnished it all with some fresh cilantro.

Alright, for the beans I thoroughly drained and rinsed 1 14oz can of black beans and put them in a small sauce pan with 1/4 onion small diced, and 1/2 jalapeno diced. I filled the black bean can about 1/4 full of water and poured that in. I brought it up to a slow boil and let it go while I finished up the fajitas. I seasoned it as needed.

For service I just laid everything out on the table along with some warm whole wheat tortillas. I know whole wheat is not very authentic, but I opted for the health benefits of whole wheat instead of authenticity. The only thing missing was sour cream, a mistake I will not make the next time.

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