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Category: dinner/lunch

Chicken Marsala-ish

So I had a hankering for Chicken Marsala… but no marsala wine. But that’s not the sort of thing I let stop me.

I looked up several recipes for chicken marsala and them left them all at work and tried to recreate the plan from memory.

Also, I did not see the need to buy marsala. After all, if you need fortified wine, what could be better than Manischewitz?

So I glugged a bunch of oil into a pan and fried thinly sliced chicken, which had been dredged in lightly seasoned flour.

Then, about halfway through, I realised that I should have sauteed in less oil so that it would make a nice gravy base.

So after the frying was done and the chicken was draining on paper towels, I pulled out another large pan and scooped up as much of the floury dregs from the bottom as I could and used that to fry onion and mushrooms.

(note: It was useful here to cook up three breast instead of the two I really needed because it was impossible not to sneak hot fried chicken breast bits while fiddling with the rest)

Once the mushrooms had cooked to the point where they released oil back out, I dabbed some up with a paper towel. Then the chicken went back in and I glugged a bunch of Manischewitz over all… And added the garlic (3 large cloves, chopped). Lots of pepper, salt, and a good bit of powdered thyme went in – with a dash of worcestershire sauce and a drop of browning sauce.

More cooking.

And then [redacted] lobbied for a splash of milk (ended up being light cream) to loosen things up a little more.

We ate it over mashed potatoes with cooked spinach and garlic on the side – very tasty. (very rich, too)

Carrot and Ginger Soup & Mediterranean Lemon Chicken

I made two tasty things this weekend, and I don’t think I have posted these recipes before. Both were inspired by fairly different dishes at restaurants.

Carrot and Ginger Soup
based on the Carrot and Ginger Soup at the Hershey Hotel buffet lunch… their soup was smooth and creamy and the sort of thing where the directions tell you after cooking to put everything through a processor and strain it. I so don’t understand why people think it is such a good idea to transfer boiling hot soup through several different containers and processes, so this one all went into a Cuisinart (because the kitchen I was using had one!) before being added to the soup.

Step 1: Soak a cube of Knorr’s vegetable bouillon in 2 cups of hot water. (Or have real stock available, but we didn’t at the time.)

Step 2: Melt butter in stockpot (minimum of 2oz, but feel free to add a lot more). Chop 2 medium onions in Cuisinart and 1 clove of garlic (only 1 because I don’t think the original soup had any, but I found myself unable to make savoury food without any garlic). Dump onions into pot and rinse the Cuisinart.

Step 3: Peel carrots (7? A bagful? A bunch o’carrots) and put them in the processor (ETA: in retrospect, it would be better to precess the carrots after. There were tiny grainy bits (that weren’t a bit deal but could be improved) in the final product). Peel ginger (1.5-2 inches), slice it against the grain to break up the fibers, and put that in the processor. Dump into the pot. Stir around to just fry it all in fat a bit and then add the stock/bouillon.

Step 4: peel half a normal-sized sweet potato (or one small one), put it in the processor, and then add it to the soup for smoothness. Peel, process, and add one apple, too.

Step 5: Let cook covered until there is no resistance on your tongue.

Step 6: Reduce heat, and finish off with whole milk and/or cream until it looks sexy to you.

~*~

Mediterranean Lemon Chicken
inspired by those Moroccan nine-course dinner places with belly dancers… usually one course is really sexy chicken, and this is the closest I can get to the flavour.

Ingredients
Garlic – as much as will – a minimum of 3 pods, but one of those large jars of peeled garlic cloves will be very useful here
3-5 lemons
chicken parts
white wine
(olive oil)
8-10 olives (not in vinegar, not in cans, and not in jars either – go somewhere with a fancy olive bar and look for wrinkly black olives in oil that smell dark and musky – they should add a nice flavour to the chicken without making it olivey)
optional fresh herbs (rosemary works well, and you only get to pick one herb and stick with it for the dish)

Directions
Choose a casserole dish that will fit your chicken pieces laid out flat – and deep enough to hold juices.

Cover the bottom of the casserole dish with peeled garlic cloves. No, that’s not enough, I said *cover* the bottom – 1 solid layer.

Put chicken in dish. If you are using both dark and white meat, but the white meat to the center and the dark meat around the outside (and, I have a theory that if you are doing both, the dark meat should be pulled from the fridge and the breasts from the freezer, but I haven’t tested that theory yet).

Scatter olives evenly among the meat.

Slice the lemons into slices of any thickness, leaving the ends chunky. cover the surface with lemon slices and put the ends around the edges of the dish.

If you want, take some herbs, still on the stems, and just lay them over the chicken and tuck them under some of the lemon slices.

Add a little white wine to give it some juice as it starts cooking, but no more than will cover the layer of garlic.

If your meat is predominantly white meat, then drizzle some olive oil over the top as well.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake until it is cooked. If you have all thighs, then you might need to check it halfway through and see how the level of liquid is doing… you might need to drain some. After it is cooked though, uncover it, and let it go a few more minutes to get some color.

Furthermore, these dishes have been given the AprilKat seal of approval.

Greekish Eggplant

This was a thought experiment. I can’t remember whether I actually made this.

Greek-ish Eggplant (not served at moot)

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants, trimmed, peeled, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon salt
2 medium-size red bell peppers
8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1-2 canned tomatoes
3/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

(maybe olives, but in a removable format)

Dice eggplant.

Roast peppers. Peel and seed peppers; cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips and set aside.

Heat 6 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until light golden, about 10 minutes. Mix in garlic. Add eggplant, tomatoes, half of parsley, bay leaves, 1 teaspoon pepper, sugar, oregano, and cumin. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Add bell peppers and olives; cook uncovered 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Chill. Rewarm before continuing.)

Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Baigan Bhartha

Pretty sure this if from Indian Epicure: Classic Recipes from North India by Meera Taneja, but my cat isn’t letting me up to check.

Ingredients:
2 large round aubergines
1/2 lb onions
1 inch root ginger, chopped fine
1t cumin seed
1t salt
1/2t chilli powder
1 green chilli, chopped fine
1lb fresh or canned tomatoes
2-3T oil

Scorch the aubergines under the grill until the skin has charred. Set aside to cool. Peel off the charred skin and chop the aubergines. Chop the onions finely, heat the oil in a deep frying pan, add the onions, green chilli, ginger, cumin seeds and chilli powder and fry until the onions are light brown. Add the aubergines and tomatoes. Cook slowly, stirring frequently. The aubergines will absorb the oil from the onions, so cook until the aubergine, tomato and onion mixture releases the oil slightly – about 15 minutes. Serve very hot. [also good with some yogurt mixed in at the very end.]

Mother’s Southern Recipes: Chicken Raft, Chicken Creole, Gumbo

My mother gave me a package of chicken breasts to use up – anyone want to come over and let me cook for you? Not only will this use up the meat, but also it will force me to get off my ass and clean my apartment (which I have been neglecting for a couple months).

Dinner would probably be chicken raft. I know – you’ve never heard of it. It’s one of my family’s recipes… and, since I promised Biz, I’m including a few of my family recipes in the post (note: measurements are almost always approximations)

Chicken Raft (Sometimes this is called Chicken & Dumplings, but this is not the vegetables, yellow gravy, and distinct floating blobs of dough – but it’s not really a Chicken Pie, either)

Boil together:

  • 2lbs cubed chicken breast
  • 1 onion, finely chopped

  • dried celery flakes (or 1 whole stalk celery to be removed later)

  • water to cover, plus some

Add salt & pepper when done (if using celery stalk, remove it now).

Pour chicken and onion into a large casserole dish, and then pour the water left in the pot until it almost covers the chicken.

Mix up the BisQuick biscuit recipe only slightly drier… basing the amount on 2 cups of BisQuick, more if using more chicken. (Biz – substitute any biscuit recipe that works for you)

Roll out the dough to at least the length of the casserole dish. Slice the dough into 1/4″ strips. Any excess can be wadded up and plopped into the chicken… corners first to support the raft. Then lay strips 1″ or less apart lengthwise and then widthwise (I start at the edges, then middle, and then evenly divide the space until the grid is filled).

Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes.

Open oven, but don’t remove the raft – add 1 whole stick of butter, sliced into pats and laid atop of the intersections of the raft… and add as muck milk as the dish will accommodate (pouring evenly over the crust to soften it)

Bake another 10 minutes.

~*~

Chicken Creole

Ingredients:
bunch of chicken breasts (3-4?) (you can substitute shrimp in this recipe)
1/4 lb butter
1 onion, chopped
8-10 fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced (or 2 15oz cans of diced tomatoes)
10-12 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
fresh marjoram (optional… or can be substituted by thyme)

***

IN one saucepan, lightly brown bite-sized chunks of chicken breast in lots and lots of butter. Add onions and keep cooking until creamy golden. Add tomatoes, garlic, and green pepper. Cook until saucy but not watery. Salt and pepper to taste. If you have fresh marjoram, it is nice if added right at the end of cooking.

Serve over plump, white rice.

~*~

Gumbo Now, there are worlds of debate over how to make gumbo, even within the family, but this is how my mother likes it

Ingredients:
3 medium onions
3/4 or 1 cup flour
2 1/2 to 3 lbs chicken, cut up (white or dark)
smallish stalk of celery
2 bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 lbs shrimp, cooked and cleaned (with tails still attached)
1 1/2 lbs crab meat (or 6-8 soft shelled crabs)

butter
water (stock can be substituted for some of the water)
salt
pepper
worcestershire sauce
seafood seasoning (Old Bay, or your preferred brand)

***

Chop up onions. Grill onions in butter until translucent.

Brown flour. Make into a roux. Add enough water to make a thick gravy.

Pour gravy into a stock pot and add onions. Add chicken. Add more water until gravy is medium thin.

Add salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce, and a dash or two of seafood seasoning to taste. Add celery, bay leaves, and garlic.

Add shrimp and crab meat.

Let it cook until perfect.

You could also add scallops or lobster, but no fish or sausage or any of that crap (really – my momma says so).