African Bean & Chicken Stew

Chicken is one of the most popular ingredients among our students. If you are looking for a quick and easy dinner option, chicken is a winner. It's versatile, and reasonably priced, particularly if you shop the sales. All this makes it a popular choice with time-strapped students on a budget. This recipe takes pantry ingredients to produce an unusual entree. It's super-easy and the beans stretch more expensive boneless chicken to feed six. You may not think boneless chicken is that expensive, but it is still 3-6x more expensive than the canned beans. And for convenience, a can of beans is hard to beat.

Peanuts are a New World food, originating in South America. But they grow very well in Africa and are a popular ingredient in West African stews. That's why this is called African Bean and Chicken Stew.

African Bean & Chicken Stew
(6 servings)

1 ½ cups of brown rice
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into ½" chunks
2 - 3 green onions, chopped
½ cup Fajita sauce (see Note)
3 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 cups frozen corn or 1 12 oz. can corn kernels, drained
1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can red beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5 oz. can petite-diced tomatoes, undrained
4 to 5 drops hot sauce, such as Tabasco
¼ cup chopped peanuts

Bring 3 ½ cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add brown rice, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 50 minutes until rice is tender. When rice is nearly done, heat oil in a large pan; add chicken and sauté over medium heat, stirring and turning frequently until almost all pink color has disappeared. Add green onions; sauté 2-3 minutes longer, continuing to stir frequently; reduce heat to low. Blend fajita sauce with peanut butter, drizzle over chicken and onions. Add corn, beans, tomatoes and hot pepper sauce; stir well to combine ingredients. Simmer mixture a few minutes longer to heat throughout, stirring occasionally. Spoon over brown rice in individual serving bowls. Garnish with chopped peanuts.

Note: This recipe uses liquid fajita sauce. There are a number of brands; we like Frontera skillet fajita sauce. One packet of Frontera skillet fajita sauce contains enough sauce to make this recipe twice.

Sesame Street says "Let's Cook!"

Most of my audience are not the Sesame Street set. But, maybe some of you are parents and you struggle with getting your kids to eat a variety of foods. I know how that goes. My daughter is now all grown up and her palate has expanded a great deal but she was a fairly picky eater as a kid. The fact that her mom was a trained chef meant nothing to her. I introduced new foods until they became old foods and familiar to her. I cooked more simply. The wonderful folks at Sesame Street have just released a cookbook for families, which uses many of the concepts I used with my daughter. It has recipes that appeal to children (children-tested too) wrapped up in that lovable Sesame Street package of Grover, Elmo, and Zoe.

One recipe, Zoe's Tortellini Soup with Tiny Turkey Meatballs, is printed in a story in the New York Times. Check it out. It's a very easy soup that takes advantage of pantry staples and pre-made food to make a filling dinner that kids and adults will love. You buy the tortellini. You make your own tiny turkey meatballs. You use packaged stock and canned tomatoes for the soup. Simple and delicious. Pre-made food isn't bad food if you are careful about what you use. And, it definitely makes the parent's job of getting a meal on the table a lot easier.

“Sesame Street Let’s Cook!” by Susan McQuillan, RD. Copyright © 2015 by Sesame Workshop.

Photo credit: By cyclonebill (Tortellini med svampe og mascarpone) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Roasted Chicken with Fennel

I'm participating in the VegOut! campaign from Recipe for Success. It's a positive way to say "Eat Your Veggies!" Try a bunch of different vegetables - the goal is 30 veggies in 30 days - and see how you like them. Find some new ones you may not have known you liked and just eat more of them. Americans don't eat a lot of vegetables. Research shows that eating them is good for your health. You may be surprised to learn that you don't need to eat a lot of them - a meta-analysis showed that 4 servings a day is the sweet spot. Less than 4 is sub-optimal but more than 4 didn't seem to confer any greater health. So, get to 4. It's not that hard to eat that many. Stick to ones you like, nothing wrong with that. But, eat more of them!

This recipe uses a somewhat unusual vegetable: fennel. Fennel has a subtle licorice taste. You can eat it cooked or raw. It's used a lot in Italian cuisine where it goes by the charming name of Finocchio.

Note: This dish needs to marinate overnight for the full development of flavor.

Chicken Roasted with Ginger, Fennel, and Tomatoes
(serves 4-6)

Rub
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons grated ginger
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed (see Note)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

4 - 6 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on (about 2 pounds)
1 head of garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 head of fennel, cored and sliced thinly
1 large onion, thickly sliced
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup dry white wine or vermouth
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and black pepper

Combine all the rub ingredients in a small bowl. Rub the chicken thighs with this, making sure you get most of it between the skin and the flesh of each thigh. Place the thighs in a large (big enough to hold the chicken and all the vegetables which you'll add later) glass or ceramic baking and marinate, covered, in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Scatter the garlic, fennel, onion, and tomatoes around the chicken. Pour in the wine, drizzle the oil on the veggies, and season the whole thing with more salt and black pepper. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 ½ hours until chicken is completely cooked. Remove the foil and increase the oven temperature to 450°F. Put the chicken back in the oven and roast at this higher temperature until the skin gets browned and crispy. Serve over rice or roasted potatoes.

Note: To crush fennel seeds, smash them with the flat bottom of a skillet.

Chinese Ground Meat and Rice Casserole

I made this one with cooked leftover leg of lamb.

This recipe was inspired by one for Lamb Crepes Oriental. Just a hunch...most people reading here are not going to make crepes. I simplified things by using rice and making this a layered casserole. This is a delicious way to use up all sorts of cooked meats: beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, pork. If you don't have 2 cups of cooked meat, you can substitute 1 pound of ground meat. See the instructions for changes if you start with raw meat.

We don't usually think of cooking lettuce, but romaine is hardy, holding up to some gentle cooking, and adds some nice crunch here.

Chinese Ground Meat and Rice Casserole
(serves 4)

non-stick cooking spray
4 cups cooked rice (brown or white)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (if using cooked meat only)
1 onion, minced
2 cups of cooked chopped meat or poultry
OR
1 pound ground meat
¼ cup beef broth
½ large head of romaine lettuce, shredded
½ teaspoon black pepper


Sauce:
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon dry sherry, sake, or rice wine
1 cup beef broth

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 9"x11" baking dish with cooking spray. Spread the rice in the dish and set aside.

If using cooked meat, heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauteacute; for 5 minutes. Add in the cooked meat and beef broth. Simmer until meat to warmed. Remove from heat, mix in lettuce and black pepper.

If using raw ground meat, heat up a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the meat until no longer pink. Drain off most of the fat, leaving about 2 Tablespoons. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook the onion for 5 minutes. Add beef broth and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, mix in lettuce and black pepper.

Pour the meat-lettuce mixture over the rice.

Make the sauce: Combine the cornstarch, soy sauce, ginger, dry sherry, and beef broth in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Spoon the sauce over the meat. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.

Adapted from a recipe for Lamb Crepes Oriental in Cooking with Cornelius: The Corning Cookbook by Cornelius O'Donnell, Random House, 1982

Turkey Posole Soup

I have an old cookbook called Half a Can of Tomato Paste and Other Culinary Dilemmas. It's one of my favorites because it has recipes for using up little bits of this and that. Like a cup of milk or half a can of tomato paste (something I don't have to deal with much now since tomato paste started coming in squeeze tubes). It was published in 1980 and the culinary world has changed quite a bit since then. This recipe for turkey soup was inspired by that book - using up leftovers in an interesting way.

Back in the day, everyone had a bottle of ketchup in the fridge for who-knows-how-long. Now, it's a jar of salsa. This recipe is a good place to use up that old red or green salsa. Any brand you like will do but I like green salsa best.

Posole is dried corn, commonly used in the Southwest. The kernels are whole. It was a wonderful corn flavor and a chewy texture. You can find it dried or easier still, rehydrated in cans. The canned posole makes this soup soup-er fast.

Though this is a turkey soup - because I had leftover Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer along with homemade turkey stock - you could make this with cooked chicken and commercial chicken stock for an even easier version.

Turkey Posole Soup
(serves 6)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into thin half moons
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed in your palm
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ to 1 cup green or red salsa
8 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 pound 9 oz can posole, drained
2 cups chopped turkey meat
salt (may not need any if using commercial stock)

Possible Garnish
chopped avocado
crushed tortilla chips
grated jack or cheddar cheese

Heat up the oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, until translucent. Add carrots, celery, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir around and cook for a few more minutes. Add the salsa, turkey stock, posole, and turkey meat. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes, until carrots are tender. Taste for salt; add more if necessary. Serve with your choice of garnish on top.

5 Ingredient Pasta Dinner

Super simple recipe but it illustrates a few things.

• The use of ready-made ingredients, like a commercial pesto, can elevate some simple things to delicious heights and save you a bunch of time.
• In a recipe as simple as this, you have room for improvisation. Instead of chicken, use shrimp or a firm fish that will hold together like mahi-mahi. Instead of artichoke hearts, use cubed summer squash, halved cherry tomatoes, or lightly cooked broccoli.
• Pasta water makes a good thickener for pasta sauces. It helps the sauce stick to the pasta better and stretches out a sauce without thinning it out.

And this whole recipe takes about as long as it takes to boil water and cook pasta.

5* Ingredient Pasta Dinner
(serves 4)

12 oz. chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon oil
¼ cup white wine (or use broth or water)
8 oz. frozen artichoke heart quarters, thawed
1 pound short pasta such as penne or cavatelli
4 Tablespoons pesto (homemade or commercial)

Start heating up a pot of salted water. Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Heat a skillet over high heat. Add the oil, then the chicken pieces and sauté. As soon as the water boils, add the pasta and set the timer for 1 minute less than the suggested cooking time (how long depends on the shape). Cook the chicken until browned. Add the wine and scrape up any browned bits and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Add the artichoke hearts, cover, and turn down the heat to low. When the pasta timer goes off, check to see that it is very nearly done. Scoop off a ½ cup of cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the pasta, reserved water, and pesto to the skillet. Stir to cover the pasta with the sauce. Check for salt; add more salt if needed. Serve as soon as it is all hot.

*And, yes, I can count. I'm not counting the salt, pepper, or oil because they are pantry items. If I wanted to really push it, I'd say 4 because there is always white wine in my house. :-)

Chinese Curried Noodles

Need a recipe using the Fresh Chinese Noodles from a couple of days ago? Here you go! This is an easy stir fry that becomes a delicious saucy dish. Comes together in no time. If you have some fresh noodles stashed in the freezer, you can make dinner appear in about 15 minutes. It will taste better than anything you could find in a box or jar.

There are a couple of important general cooking facts in here:

1. Cook the curry in oil to release its fragrance. If you add it with a bunch of liquid, this won't happen and the flavor won't be as good.
2. Cornstarch needs to boil to activate the starches that do the thickening, so make sure you boil your sauce. Good to know for any cornstarch thickened sauce.

Chinese Curried Noodles
(serves 4 to 6)

1 pound ground meat (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or turkey)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon + 1 ½ Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 Tablespoons curry powder

Sauce
2 cups no or low salt chicken stock
3 ½ Tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ½ Tablespoons cornstarch

1 8 oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 ½ cups frozen peas or shelled edamame, thawed

1 pound fresh Chinese noodles (or ¾ pound dried fettuccine or linguine pasta)

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

While it's heating up, combine the ground meat with the 2 Tablespoons soy sauce. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

Heat a wok or deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of oil. Add the meat and stir fry until it is no longer pink, stirring to break up big lumps. Remove the meat to a clean bowl using a slotted spoon. If there is a lot of fat in the pan, pour it off and discard. If you are using chicken or turkey, there will be almost none.

Return the pan to high heat. Add 1 ½ Tablespoons vegetable oil. Add the onions and stir fry for 4 minutes until soft. Add the curry powder and stir fry until you can smell the curry, about 10 seconds. Stir the sauce to dissolve the cornstarch (it settles to the bottom on standing) and add to the pan. Add the water chestnuts and peas. Stir. Bring to a boil, add the meat, and reduce to a simmer. Add more salt if needed.

Cook the fresh noodles for 1-2 minutes (7-9 if using dried) until just done. Drain and add to the sauce. To serve, put noodles in a bowl with some of the sauce spooned on top.

Reheats well in the microwave.

Adapted from Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1997.

Korean Grilled Chicken

Korean dinner: grilled spicy chicken, kimchi cucumber and some simple green beans

It's still grilling season and here's a delicious combination of flavors. There are a lot of ingredients in the marinade but they are all easy to find. If you can find Korean crushed red pepper - it's much milder than the stuff you shake on pizzas - use that. Rather than searingly hot, it's slightly hot and fruity. On the heat/flavor scale, I think it's close to Aleppo pepper, though that isn't much easier to locate than Korean chile! If you must, use the crushed red pepper. Or you can leave out the chile because there is a lot of flavor going on here.

This marinade is also great on veggies, such as chunks of red peppers, shiitake mushrooms, whole scallions, or spring onions.

Korean Grilled Chicken
(serves 8)

2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts

3 Tablespoons soy sauce
⅓ cup rice wine or dry vermouth
3 scallions, white and light green part, finely minced
8 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
4 walnut halves, toasted and finely chopped
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Korean red chile flakes or Aleppo pepper OR ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 ½ ground black pepper
pinch of salt

oil for greasing grill
salt

Cut the chicken breasts into 1" thick slices. Mix together the remaining ingredients in a large glass baking dish. Add the chicken and coat with marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat up your grill on high. Brush with oil to prevent sticking. Reduce heat to medium. Remove chicken from the marinade, sprinkle lightly with salt, and cook until done, about 20 minutes, flipping to get some light char on both sides. Serve as whole pieces, or slice on the bias (as in photo above).

From Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen: A Cookbook by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall, Ten Speed Press, 2001.

Homemade BBQ Sauce with Applejack

BBQ sauce is very easy to make. I'm not going to tell you that homemade sauce is oh, so much more healthful than the supermarket variety. However, I think it's way more tasty. Many of the bottled sauces are cloyingly sweet and they add too much smoke flavor for my taste. You can make your own and the most exotic ingredient for this one is smoke flavor. I think this recipe is really delicious, particularly on ribs (beef or pork) or dark meat chicken. Because there is a lot of sugar, brush it on near the end of cooking and then pass more warmed sauce at the table. You can also use it in an upcoming recipe for Crockpot BBQ'ed Beef and Beans.

Applejack is used to flavor this sauce as it complements the cider vinegar that gives the sauce its tang. Applejack is a brandy distilled from apple cider (French Calvados is the most esteemed of the apple brandies). Laird's, the original American applejack, has been made in Scobeyville, New Jersey since 1698. It's the oldest brandy distillery in the US, though they no longer distill in NJ. The apple brandy is now distilled in Virginia and blended in NJ. I used to live in Monmouth County, NJ and drove by the original distillery often. It's still surrounded by apple orchards that supplied the apples for a brandy that George Washington enjoyed.

Applejack BBQ Sauce
(makes about 3 cups)

1 cup applejack
1 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ medium onion, minced
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons Tabasco sauce (optional)
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon liquid smoke

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to maintain a low boil and cook until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching at the bottom. Sauce can be used immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 months.

Adapted from Barbecue Bible Sauces, Rubs and Marinades by Steven Raichlen, Workman Publishing Company, 2000.

Chicken Potato Enchiladas

Another class tonight at CU. We're cooking easy Mexican. The menu is Guacamole, Salsa Fresca, Chicken-Potato Enchildadas, and Rice with Beans & Salsa. We made Cheesy Chicken Enchildadas during our first year of classes back in 2011. Since I am incapable of making the same recipe twice (just kidding, though it's very rare), I had to mix it up. This recipe has less cheese, potatoes, and the sauce is chunkier. I tested this recipe with frozen green chiles. In many places, there are no frozen green chiles, but here in Colorado we have a choice and I would pick frozen every time. Use what you can find and use the heat level that you prefer. I have found that the canned mild chiles are milder than the mild frozen. If you don't like spicy, stick to mild canned chiles.

Chicken-Potato Enchiladas

(serves 4)

Green Chile Sauce

2 Tablespoons oil

2 Tablespoons flour or masa harina (see Note)

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup thawed frozen green chiles or 8 oz. canned diced chiles

1 Tablespoons dried minced onion

1 cup water or chicken stock

¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour or masa and stir. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add cumin, onion, and chiles, stir, and cook for another minute. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir. Bring to a boil, reduce to heat to low, and simmer for at least 10 minutes.

Enchiladas

2 cups frozen O'Brien potatoes (cubed potatoes with onions and peppers)

½ teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

8 corn tortillas

rest of a 13 oz. container of frozen green chiles or 4 oz. canned diced chiles

1 ½ cup cooked chicken

1 cup shredded jack cheese (about 4 oz.)

Warm up tortillas so you can roll them: Heat oven to 250°F. Wrap tortillas in aluminum foil. Heat for 20 minutes. Keep wrapped until ready to roll enchiladas.

Increase oven temperature to 350°F. Place potatoes in a microwaveable bowl, cover, and cook on HIGH for 1 ½ minutes. Stir in oil and cumin. Cook for another minute. Transfer to a large bowl. Add salt, pepper, green chiles, cooked chicken, and ½ cup cheese. Mix to combine.

Spread ½ cup sauce in the bottom of a rectangular (8"x10" or 9"x11") baking dish. Lay a tortilla flat on a cutting board. Place about ½ cup of the filling on tortilla along the diameter. Roll up and place in baking dish, seam side down. Repeat with the rest of tortillas. Pour the rest of the sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle on remaining cheese. Bake until hot and bubbly, about 25 minutes. If you want the cheese to brown, increase temperature to 400°F at the end and bake until cheese has browned, another 5 minutes. You can also put it under the broiler for a minute or two to brown if you have used a baking dish that can go under the broiler.

Note: Masa harina is the corn flour used to make corn tortillas and tamales. If you are avoiding gluten, it makes a great thickener here. It also adds a special flavor because masa has a distinctive taste that is singularly Mexican.

Keeping Beasties at Bay: Part 1

Raw chicken - it's only scary if you don't know how to handle it

I was going to start this series with personal hygiene since it's the most basic way to decrease the chances of picking up a case of food poisoning. But, with the news on antibiotic-resistant salmonella showing up in mass-produced Foster Farms chicken, I decided to bump up a discussion on treating poultry safely in the kitchen.

Poultry contains salmonella. Accept this. Yes, antibiotic-resistant salmonella is worse, but regular salmonella is no picnic either. Nor is campylobacter, another bacteria common in raw poultry. So, no matter what chicken you are using - organic, natural, mass-produced, grown in your own backyard - you better be treating it carefully. All of it can make you sick if not handled properly.

Here's a list of things to do to assure that you don't unwittingly give yourself a dangerous case of food poisoning:

Storing: Always store raw poultry at the bottom of your fridge where raw juice can't drip on anything or place in a bowl or pan to catch the drips. Plastic wrap is notorious for leaking and if raw chicken drips on anything you will eat raw, it's bad news.

Thawing: If using frozen poultry, thaw in the refrigerator. Only thaw thin pieces, like chicken cutlets or tenders, in a bowl of cool water in the sink for no longer than 30 minutes. If you want to speed up thawing in the fridge, place the chicken in a bowl of water. That speeds up the thawing considerably. Remember that this water is now contaminated with bacteria, so treat it like raw poultry too.

Rinsing: Don't rinse raw poultry. You are not going to rinse off the bacteria. Not possible. All you are going to do is spread the bacteria around your sink, contaminating even more surfaces.

Planning during Prep: Think ahead about the tools you will need when working with raw poultry and get them out before you start handling the chicken. This will save you the step of washing your hands so you can get the knife out of the drawer - because you don't want to touch that drawer pull with your nasty chicken-y hands. Tongs are really useful. You can keep your hands clean when moving the chicken around. Don't let anything you will eat raw, like lettuce for a salad, near raw poultry. This is called cross-contamination and it is often how bad bugs get into our food.

Cleaning Up: Anything that touches raw or partially cooked poultry needs to be washed with soap and water or put them in the dishwasher. This includes knives, tongs, cutting boards, your counter, your sink, and your hands. Soap, water, and little elbow grease does a pretty good job of getting rid of nearly all of the bacteria on surfaces. You can also invest in disinfecting wipes for a final wipe down of counters and the sink.

Cooking: Cook poultry to the proper internal temperature, at least 165°F. There should be no pink at all. When you cut into the chicken, juices should run clear, even if you cut all the way to the bone. I think that an instant read thermometer is an excellent investment, but using one does require some practice. You stick it into the thickest part of the chicken, the place it's going to take the longest to cook (in a whole chicken, that's in the thigh). Wait until the temperature stops rising and see what you get. If the temperature is too low, cook it some more. And don't forget to wash your thermometer with soap and water before sticking it back in the chicken again!

After Cooking: As with all cooked meat, chill down any leftovers quickly. Don't let roast chicken sit on the counter for 2 hours. Cooking doesn't kill all the bacteria and they will start to multiply again if given the right conditions. So, put it in the fridge as soon as you can.

Corn and Peach Salsa

It's corn season. It's peach season. Why not combine the two? This salsa recipe is from King Soopers (part of Kroger's). I modified it slightly. They have it paired with a teriyaki-grilled salmon, which you can see in the photo of my dinner. It's very tasty with the salmon but it would be good with grilled chicken too.

To grill corn, shuck it and lay the ears of corn directly on a hot grill. Turn when the kernels are mostly dark brown.

Corn & Peach Salsa
(makes 4-6 servings)

2 ears of corn, grilled, cooled, and kernels cut from the cob
1 peach, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
¼ cup minced parsley, about 6 sprigs (see Note)
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Mix together all the ingredients in medium bowl. You can serve immediately but it gets better if it has a chance to chill for at least an hour before serving.

Note: The original recipe called for cilantro, which would give this a more southwestern twist. Fresh basil is also wonderful with corn, peaches, and tomatoes.

Italian Wedding Soup

When I was a kid, I loved Progresso's Chickarina© Soup which is chicken soup with little chicken meatballs. It's a regional thing; I can't find it in Colorado. But, Italian Wedding Soup, a chicken broth with little chicken meatballs and greens, is pretty close. It's a good dish for sneaking some greens into your diet.

Here's my rendition of that soup.

The broth is stock in a box, the best way to get a decent stock without simmering bones for hours. The meatballs are made from scratch and take a bit of time, but you can cook them, freeze them, and then reheat them in soup when you want a comforting bowl of soup. These meatballs are very tasty and would be delicious in a meatball sub too. For the soup, we make them small.

Italian Wedding Soup
(serves 6, costs $10)

Meatballs (makes enough meatballs for 2 batches of soup)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground chicken
½ pound ground lean beef
1 large egg
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (see Note)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
10 sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 ¾ teaspoons salt
leaves from 1 sprig of basil, minced or 1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Soup
10 cups low-sodium chicken stock
salt if needed
6 cups (about 6 oz.) fresh greens such as escarole, chard, or spinach, washed and chopped coarsely
¼ cup soup pasta such as stars, alphabets, or use broken pieces of angel hair pasta
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan for garnish
¼ teaspoon black pepper for garnish

Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for a few minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking until onion is soft and golden. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or oil lightly with vegetable oil.

Combine the rest of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. Shape into 1 ½" meatballs and place on the greased baking sheet. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes. You can turn them after 10 minutes if they seem to be browning quickly on the bottom, but this usually isn't necessary. Remove from oven. At this point, you can drop half of them immediately in the soup and serve. Cool the rest in the fridge and freeze for some later batch of soup or refrigerate for use with a few days.

To make the soup, bring the stock up to a simmer. If using frozen meatballs, add the greens and meatballs. You'll need to simmer them for about 15 minutes. Add the pasta after 10 minutes. The meatballs are completely cooked already but you don't want to bite into a semi-frozen meatball.

If using hot meatballs, add the pasta along with the greens and meatballs and cook for 5 minutes until greens are wilted and the pasta is done. Taste for salt. You may need to use more if you use a sodium-free stock.

To serve, ladle in soup, greens, and 4 meatballs into a bowl. Garnish with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and black pepper.

Note: To make fresh breadcrumbs, very lightly toast the bread (or use slightly stale bread which isn't as soft) and use the fine side of a grater to grate it into crumbs. You can also grate them in the food processor. A slice of bread with yield about ½ cup bread crumbs.

Caribbean Grilled Chicken

Here's a boldly flavored marinade/BBQ sauce. Most of the sauce is used to marinate the chicken. It's a quick marinade so you don't need to think far ahead to make this on a summer night. The rest of the sauce is drizzled on the cooked chicken.

You can use all lime juice, or substitute some lemon or orange juice for some of the lime juice.

Caribbean Grilled Chicken
(serves 4, costs $9.35)

¼ cup chopped fresh basil
2 Tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger
¼ cup fresh lime juice or ½ lime and ½ lemon, or orange juice
¼ cup oil
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
2-3 teaspoons Siracha or Asian chile sauce
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 to 1 ¼ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs

Combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a 2 cup measuring cup. Mix well to dissolve the sugar. If the chicken breasts are thick, cut into 2 thinner pieces by slicing the breast in ½ horizontally. This increases the amount of marinade in contact with the chicken and speeds grilling. Place the chicken in a glass dish or plastic bag. Pour on ⅔'s of the sauce, reserving the remaining sauce to serve with the cooked chicken. Marinate the chicken for 15-30 minutes, and no longer than 1 hour (the lime juice will make the chicken mushy). While the chicken is marinating, heat up the grill on high. Just before placing the chicken on the grill, reduce the heat to medium. Grill the chicken about 5 minutes per side. Serve with remaining sauce.

Dry Rub Magic

More on grilling, this Memorial Day weekend. If you haven't spiced up your grilling with a bit of dry rub yet, I have a tip for you. Unlike marinades, dry rubs can be put on your meat close to grilling time, so using them requires no advance planning. You can rub them on in advance, if you like, but it's not absolutely necessary to impart flavor. The dry rub brings plenty of flavor in no time at all.

There are an infinite number of dry rubs, depending on where you draw your influence from. This is a traditional American BBQ style rub, a little sweet, and one that you can use on poultry or any kind of red meat, even salmon. I used it most recently on Cornish game hens, which are great on the grill. They are a bit more expensive than chicken, but they are also a bit more impressive than plain chicken. Everyone can get their own half a hen and they cook in 30 minutes if you split them in half before cooking. Another advantage of splitting them in half is you can cover the inside of the bird with the rub too.

In keeping with the quick theme, rub on the dry rub when you start your grill. By the time the coals are ready or your grill is hot, you can put the hens on. If you have more time, put the dry rub on a few hours ahead and refrigerate until you're ready to cook them. Either way, they will be delicious.

This recipe makes more rub than you will need for a single meal. Put it in a glass jar and store in a cool, dark place. You'll have it in the pantry whenever you need a quick BBQ fix. Use it up with a few months of mixing it up. For 4 Cornish game hen halves, you'll need about 6 Tablespoons.

Basic BBQ Dry Rub
(makes 1 cup)

¼ cup coarse salt, such as kosher salt
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sweet paprika
3 Tablespoons ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon dried minced onion or onion powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix together in a bowl and store in a tightly covered jar in a cool, dry place.

Use on chicken, Cornish game hens, ribs, pork chops or roasts, salmon, or steak.

Adapted from a recipe by Steven Raichlen.

Baked Meaty Pasta

Don't you love recipes where you dump the pasta in with everything else, and it magically cooks just right? I do! I used ground bison, you could use any ground meat: beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, even vegetarian "meat." This is extremely simple and extremely satisfying, with a layer of gooey cheese on top. Gets even better on reheating.

This recipe uses homemade creamed spinach, which is easy to make. You make a Bechamel sauce (a milk sauce thickened with butter and flour, one of the classic French sauces) and mix in chopped spinach. You could use a package of frozen creamed spinach, but it's so easy to make your own, why not make it from scratch? Tastes a lot fresher too.

Baked Meaty Pasta
(serves 6-8, costs $9.50, though the cost will vary depending on meat used)

non-stick cooking spray
1 pound ground meat
about 1 teaspoon salt
about ½ teaspoon black pepper
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water
8 ounces dry penne, regular or whole-wheat
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup milk (skim, low-fat or whole)
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (see Note)
4 ounces grated mozzarella cheese, about 1 cup

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 3 quart baking casserole dish with non-stick baking spray and set aside.

Spray non-stick cooking spray on a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add the ground meat and brown. Break up the big chunks into small pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the tomatoes, garlic powder, dried onion, oregano, basil, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Spoon enough sauce into the baking dish to cover the bottom. Add the penne. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the penne.

In the same skillet that you cooked the sauce in (no need to clean it out), melt the butter. Add the flour and stir to combine. Add the milk, stirring to smooth out the lumps. Cook until the milk thickens. Add the spinach, stirring to combine. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour spinach over sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes until the casserole is hot and bubbly. Sprinkle on the cheese and return to the oven, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

Note: Instead of frozen spinach, you can use a 10 ounce package of fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped, or 2 cups cooked broccoli. You can even use a combination, which is what I used.

Simple Cinco de Mayo Chicken

This is a delicious and unbelievably simple way to cook chicken. The recipe is inspired by one from Rick Bayless. He uses a tomatillo sauce but it works just as well with a spicy tomato-green chile sauce. Serve this over rice or pasta to soak up the sauce. There is a lot of sauce, but that is not a problem. It is delicious and rich. You can use the leftover sauce in something else, like our chilaquiles, or mix in some cooked beans and serve over pasta to stretch in into a whole other meal.

Roasted Chicken in Spicy Chicken Sauce
(serves 6, costs $11)

1 recipe of Spicy Tomato Sauce - the Mexican version, heated
3 pounds bone-in skin-on chicken parts, whatever kind you like
salt and pepper
½ cup heavy cream
8 - 10 sprigs cilantro, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Pour the hot tomato sauce in a baking dish or large skillet. Lay the chicken pieces in the sauce, skin side up. You don't want to submerge the chicken because you want it to roast, not braise. Season the chicken with salt and black pepper. Place in the hot oven, uncovered and roast for 25-35 minutes, until cooked through. Make a cut into the thickest part of a piece of chicken to make sure it's done all the way through - the juices should run clear and there should be no pink.

When the chicken is done, remove the chicken from the pan to a clean plate. Stir in the heavy cream. Taste for salt; add more if the sauce needs more. Return the chicken to the pan, sprinkle with cilantro, if desired, and serve.

Chicken Gyro-Style

Lemon is a lovely flavor enhancer for chicken. Many marinades use lemon juice but here we use lemon zest. It has a purer lemon flavor. Lemon juice is very acidic and that tends to overpower the lemony flavor. Lemon zest gets all its flavor from the lemon oil in the skin. Just make sure to only grate off the bright yellow skin. The white underneath the skin, the pith, is exceedingly bitter and not the flavor you want to add to your chicken.

Here's a selection of tools you can use for zesting. My favorite is Microplane® but you can use the smallest holes on a box grater. You can get a box grater for a lot less money than a Microplane and it has multiple purposes (like shredding cheese). If you do spring for a Microplane, get one with a handle. They are easier to use than the handle-less variety. The citrus zester is a bit of an antique these days. Before there was a Microplane - it appeared in culinary stores in the mid 90's - the citrus zester was the tool for zesting. But, it can't compete with a Microplane which is why mine hides way in the back of the drawer these days.

Back to front: box grater, 2 different types of Mircoplane and a citrus zester

Chicken Gyro-Style
(serves 3-4, costs $4.65)

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
the zest of 1 fresh lemon
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped
1 pound boneless skinless chicken, thighs or breasts
salt and black pepper

Mix together garlic, olive oil, and lemon zest in a non-reactive pan that will hold all the chicken in one layer. Crumble up the dried herbs in your palm and add to the garlic mixture. Add the parsley and mix to combine. Put the chicken in the dish and rub the herb mixture all over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Season chicken with salt and black pepper. Broil or grill until cooked all the way through, how long will depend on thickness of chicken. Thin pieces will take only 15 minutes and whole breasts can take 30 minutes.

Serve on a big salad or stuffed into a pita with lots of lettuce and tomatoes.

(Adapted from a recipe for lamb gyros from the American Lamb Association)

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Penne, spaghetti - fuhgeddeaboudit! They both work. But, you'll need spaghetti to recreate the scene in The Lady and the Tramp.

What's more romantic than a big plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs? "You have a funny sense of romance, lady." Go watch The Lady and the Tramp, that Disney classic, and then tell us Spaghetti and Meatballs isn't romantic. We used a couple of different recipes (including my mom's that I've been eating most of my life) and took the best parts, streamlined them a bit so it's do-able on a weeknight, and voila! You have a romantic meal that's easy to pull off in about an hour, where half the time is enjoying the smell of the sauce simmering away on the stovetop.

Put some Frank Sinatra on, open a bottle of red, and you have yourself one heck of a romantic dinner. And the leftovers are every bit as good.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Spaghetti and Meatballs
(6 servings, costs $11.50)

Meatballs

1 pound Lean Ground Meat (beef, chicken, turkey, veal or some combination of them)
1 clove Garlic, minced

½ cup Dry Breads Crumbs

2 large Eggs

¾ teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon Black Pepper

¼ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley, chopped (about 4 large sprigs)

½ teaspoon Dried Oregano, crushed in your palm

¼ teaspoon Dried Basil, crushed in your palm

¼ cup Milk


¼ cup Flour

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Sauce

28 ounces canned Diced Tomatoes, undrained

16 ounces Tomato Sauce

1 teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon Black Pepper

1 teaspoon Dried Basil

¼ teaspoon Dried Thyme

½ teaspoon Dried Oregano

1 Tablespoon Dried Minced Onion (see Note)
2 teaspoons Sugar

1 pound Dried Spaghetti

2 teaspoon Salt for salting the pasta water


Grated Parmesan Cheese, for garnish

Combine all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Mix to combine but don't squeeze too much or the meatballs will be dense and tough. Form into meatballs (small or large, whatever size you like). Put the flour on a plate and roll each meatball in the flour.

Heat the olive oil in a large covered skillet over medium-high heat. Place the meatballs in the hot oil and brown on top and bottom. Turn with care to keep them from breaking apart. Remove the meatballs to a plate. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add all the sauce ingredients and stir to combine. Add back the meatballs and any juice that collected on the plate. Cover the skillet and simmer for 30 minutes, reducing the heat further to keep it from boiling too vigorously.

While the sauce is cooking, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the spaghetti and salt. Cook spaghetti until al dente, about 9 minutes. Drain. To serve, place a portion of spaghetti in a bowl, ladle on some sauce and meatballs (how many depends on how big you made them) and garnish with grated Parmesan cheese.

Like many sauce-y things, the sauce tastes even better if chilled then reheated.

Note: Dried Minced Onion is a great pantry item. Inexpensive and lasts forever. You can add it directly to sauces and over long cooking, it will dissolve into the sauce, imparting a bit of onion flavor without any crunchy bits of onion. It's my go-to onion in slow cooker recipes where you don't want to bother with sautéing the onions before putting them in the slow cooker.

Chicken Curry

We are big fans of curry. So many wonderful flavors and aromas in a bottle of curry powder! We have posted a number of curry-using recipes here - Turkey Curry, Thai Fried Rice, Vegetarian Curried Split Pea Soup, Curried Chicken Salad. Well, here's another one. The addition of tomato makes this one different. The tomato mellows out the curry. It's really a delicious combination and not uncommon, if you look in Indian cookbooks. It bears absolutely no resemblance to the chicken curry that you often see on menus in Chinese restaurants. This is much, much better.

Chicken Curry
(serves 4-6, costs $9.20)

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, sliced
2 sweet bell peppers (same color, different colors - use what you like), seeded and sliced
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained (see Note)
3 Tablespoons milk or heavy cream
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
juice of ½ lemon

Heat 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil in a skillet with a cover over medium-high heat. Brown chicken on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Remove from the pan. The chicken won't be completely done; it will finish cooking in the sauce. Cut the chicken into 1" cubes and place it and any juices in a bowl. Set aside.

Add the remaining 1 Tablespoon oil to the skillet. Add the garlic, onion, bell peppers, and curry powder. Stir to combine and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until the onions and peppers are just starting to soften. Add the reserved chicken and its juices, tomatoes, milk, salt, and pepper. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the chicken is completely cooked, about 15 minutes. If all the liquid cooks off, add ¼ cup of water. Stir in lemon juice and add additional salt, if needed.

Note: 14.5 oz. seems to be the current standard for cans of diced tomatoes. If you can't find that size, anything from 14 to 16 oz. is just fine. I have lots of old recipes that call for 16 oz. cans so apparently cans have been shrinking over the last 30 years.