Recipe Reports

I’ve tried several new recipes this week. I’m somewhat surprised to report that they were all really good.

My daughter and I are both working on musical productions (at two different high schools — she is on the backstage crew for hers and I am the accompanist for mine). We had rehearsals every night this week either after school or evenings, and this weekend we have two concerts plus an extra rehearsal. Next week I have 6 shows (I think!) and two choir rehearsals and she has tech week (also known as Hell week in the theater realm).

SO — I’ve been looking for meals that are quick to fix and either either bake (can be left in the oven for an hour or more) or cook quickly.

Chicken walking through the village image by World Bank Photos via Flickr CC license

Chicken legs and thighs were on sale last week, so these are all chicken recipes.

Moroccan Sheet Pan Chicken

First up is Moroccan Sheet Pan Chicken. The recipe is from The Wanderlust Kitchen website.

Annabel Farley image of olives via Flickr CC license

Ingredients

For the Spice Mixture

• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¾ teaspoon paprika
• ¾ teaspoon turmeric
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed

For the Sheet Pan Chicken

• 1 lemon
• 2 large sweet onions, cut into 12 wedges each
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 skin-on chicken quarters (I used 8 chicken bone-in skin-on chicken thighs)
• 1 cup green olives, pitted
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves (I forgot to add this!)

Brian Siewiorek image of cilantro, via Flickr CC license public domain

Instructions

1. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a small bowl, prepare the spice rub by combining the salt, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cayenne, and black pepper. Stir in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and the pressed garlic.
3. Cut the lemon in half and set one half aside. Cut the remaining half into thin slices, then arrange the slices in a single layer on a rimmed half sheet pan. Scatter the onion wedges over the lemons, then drizzle 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over the onions. Sprinkle the pan with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon turmeric. (I think you could get by with 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric. It is SO expensive!)
4. Place the chicken quarters on the pan, skin side up. Pat the top of the chicken dry, then brush the prepared spice mixture evenly onto the skin of each quarter. I rubbed the spices all over the chicken with my hands.
5. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and roast for 45 minutes, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees and the juices run clear.
6. Scatter the pan with the olives and cilantro leaves. Squeeze the juice from the remaining half lemon onto the chicken. (I baked the olives on the pan with the chicken. I did remember the lemon juice, but forgot the cilantro.)

We had brown and wild rice with this. I poured the sauce from the pan over my rice and it was delicious.

 

Kate Ter Haar, lemons via Flickr CC license

One Pan Greek Chicken

Next up is another sheet pan recipe, this one from Damn Delicious:  One Pan Greek Chicken.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces baby red potatoes, halved (I had Idaho potatoes; I cut them into quarters. They were great.)
• 16 ounces green beans, trimmed (I used a 1 lb. bag of frozen green beans. It worked fine.)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves (optional)

For the marinade

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano (or Italian seasoning)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Mike Mozart image of green beans, via Flickr CC license

Instructions

• In a gallon size Ziploc bag, combine chicken, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar and oregano; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Marinate for at least 20 minutes to 1 hour, turning the bag occasionally. Drain the chicken from the marinade, discarding the marinade.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.
• Place potatoes and green beans in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Top with chicken in a single layer.
• Place into oven and roast until the chicken is completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 45 minutes.*
• Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.

This recipe was quick and easy, baked beautifully and was absolutely delicious.

Turmeric image by Steven Jackson, via Flickr CC license

Little Chicken image by poppy via Flickr CC

Pukka Yellow Curry

The next recipe was not quite so easy (my kitchen was a huge MESS by the time dinner was ready), but I think that might be just first-time-working-out-the-kinks issues. Pukka Yellow Curry is a Jamie Oliver recipe. The result was flavorful and very well spiced. It takes a pretty large pan to fit all the ingredients in.

Ingredients

• 2 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
• 2 yellow peppers
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 1-2 fresh red chillies (I used a jalapeno)
• ½ a bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon runny honey
• 1 level teaspoon ground tumeric
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (I used Penzey’s Sweet Curry)
• 8 chicken drumsticks
• olive oil
• 1 (14.5 oz can) chickpeas
• 1 teaspoon tomato purée (I left this out.)
• 320 g basmati rice
• 1 lemon
• OPTIONAL:
• fat-free natural yoghurt , to serve

Peel the onions, garlic and ginger and de-seed the peppers. Put 1 onion, 1 pepper, the garlic and ginger into a food processor. Crumble in the stock cube and add the chilli (de-seed it first, if you prefer a milder curry), the cilantro stalks, honey and spices, then blitz to a paste.

Place a very large casserole pan on a medium-high heat and fry the chicken drumsticks (pull the skin off first, if you prefer) with a splash of oil for 10 minutes, or until golden, turning occasionally with tongs. Remove the chicken to a plate, leaving the pan on the heat. Roughly chop the remaining onion and pepper and add to the pan to cook for a few minutes, then tip in the paste and let it cook down for around 5 minutes. Pour in 500ml of boiling water. Drain the chickpeas and add along with the tomato purée and a pinch of salt and pepper, then stir well. Return the chicken to the pan, pop the lid on, reduce the heat and simmer gently for around 45 minutes, or until the sauce darkens and thickens. Sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro leaves.

With 15 minutes to go, put 1 cup (320g) rice and 2 cups of boiling water into a pan with a pinch of salt and simmer with the lid on for 12 minutes, or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Serve the curry in the middle of the table with a few dollops of yoghurt (if using) and a scattering of coriander leaves, with lemon wedges for squeezing over and the fluffy rice on the side.

One Skillet Chicken with Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce

My last success recipe to share is from Little Spice Jar:  One Skillet Chicken with Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ⅓ cup finely diced shallots (or red onions)
• 2 tablespoons salted butter
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or basil

INSTRUCTIONS

 Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large oven proof skillet and then add the chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Brown on both sides. The chicken doesn’t have to be completely cooked through. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set it aside. Add more oil if needed. Saute the onion until softened add the garlic and saute about a minute more. Then add the broth, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Reduce the liquid until about 1/3 to 1/2 cup remains. Add the butter and whisk (or use a fork) until it is melted. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly add the cream. Put the chicken in the sauce and then stick the whole thing in the oven for 5 minutes or so to finish cooking the chicken and heat up the sauce. Serve with hot cooked pasta or noodles. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley or basil.

image via Flickr CC by cookbookman17; Fresh Parsley — A bunch of fresh hand picked parsley. This parsley is bursting with flavor and ready for use.

Chicken image by Smudge 9000 via Flickr CC

 

 

 

Something New: Recipe Reviews!

I love to try new recipes.  I find them in many places:  online, on TV, in cookbooks, in magazines, from friends, etc.  I make new recipes sometimes several times a week so I thought a new feature for this blog could be for me to report how the recipes turn out for me.

I haven’t thought about a rating system, but I will give that some thought.   Spoons or forks up instead of thumbs up?  Coffee cups instead of stars?  I’m open to suggestions here!

Sometimes I turn on the TV when I am folding clothes or when I am eating lunch.  One day, I discovered a cooking show on the Food Network called “10 Dollar Dinners.”  I watched enough to know I wanted to make all the recipes featured on the show that day.  I set the DVR to record it, and then looked up the recipes online.

Get ready for some Moroccan flavors!

It took me a few days to gather all the ingredients, because one was something I had never heard of before.:  lemon confit.  Basically lemons are preserved in salt with a few spices and left to sit for about 30 days.  The lemons get very soft and salty (of course).  I didn’t want to wait 30 days to make this recipe so I searched for a quicker solution.  I found a method and improvised a bit to make it fit my needs.  I think it worked, but since I don’t know what lemon confit is supposed to taste like I guess I’m not totally sure.  The meal was delicious, at any rate.

I found various recipes for making lemon confit:

Here is one that takes 48 hours.  

This one is very thorough but it takes 2 weeks.  (I learned that preserved lemons are the same things as lemon confit).

This one takes a month.

This one bakes in an oven for 3 hours.

The three-hour recipe was getting close, but I only had about 2 hours.  So this is what I did:  I cut 2 organic lemons into fourths and put them in a small saucepan with 3 T. of kosher salt.  I added just enough water to cover the lemons.  I boiled it and then simmered it until I needed it.  I did let them cool a bit before I chopped 4 of the quarters up for my chicken tangine.

Here is the link for the whole dinner menu:
Melissa’s Ten Dollar Moroccan Chicken Dinner.

First I started on the Carrot and Cauliflower Soup.  Since it is January in Wisconsin, I decided to serve it warm not chilled.

Here is the recipe for the soup.  Please follow the link to read the whole thing. To whet your appetite though, the ingredients needed for the soup are:  olive oil, onion, carrots, cauliflower, red pepper flakes, cumin, lemon zest, chicken or vegetable stock, salt and pepper, and plain yogurt, and a green onion for garnish if you wish.

This is what mine looked like:

Carrot and Cauliflower Soup made by The Tromp Queen following Melissa D’Arabian’s recipe

Mine is little chunky because my pan was too big and when I tried to use my wonderful Cuisinart immersion blender in the pan, the soup was splurting about quite a bit.  Also I wasn’t careful after I added the yogurt and it got a bit curdled.  (This bowl was reheated for my lunch today, so it is a little more curdlier, too!).

I started on the chicken after I got the vegetables going and simmering.  The recipe for Chicken Tangine, the main dish, is here.

The ingredients are: chicken thighs and drumsticks, salt and pepper, butter and olive oil, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic, wine, chicken broth, lemon confit, olives (I used both kalamata and green), cilantro, and parsley.  I only used drumsticks because they were on sale this week.  I think you could leave out the parsley, frankly.  I don’t think you really have to use the wine, either, though I happened to have some so I did.  The lemon confit does add a distinct flavor but it you have to substitute I would add lemon juice and lemon zest and a bit of extra salt.  It won’t be the same, but it would help in the right direction.

Here is what mine looked like (leftovers for lunch today!):

Chicken Tangine made by The Tromp Queen following Melissa D’Arabian’s recipe from Food Network

The final component to the menu is the couscous you see served under the chicken in the photo above.  The recipe is here.  The ingredients needed for Melissa’s Couscous with Peas and Mint are:  frozen peas, couscous (I used whole wheat), butter, mint, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I used Trader Joe’s whole wheat couscous in a box.  I only used 1.5 cups, but you could probably use less.  We had way TOO much couscous even with cutting the recipe down.  You decide what is best for your folks, but 2.5 cups of couscous that the recipe calls for could feed a neighborhood pot luck.  I followed the direction on the box of couscous to scale down the amount.  If I remember correctly the amount of couscous is equal to the amount of water, so it is pretty easy to scale up or down.  I kept the other ingredients about the same.

The Review:

Overall:  I thought the meal was delicious.  I would not describe doing all three at the same time EASY, though.  Maybe do just the chicken and the couscous one time, and do the soup another time til you get the hang of what needs to be done.  The colors and aromas of the meal are beautiful and incredibly appetizing.

Soup:  I think it had very good flavor.  I used about 1/2 the amount of red pepper flakes and it was still noticeably spicy.  I like it, but both my other family members thought it was still too much spice.  My husband did not like the texture of the creamy soup and wondered if I could leave more vegetable chunks the next time I make it.  I liked the texture of the creamy soup, so I will have to mull that idea over a bit.  I am also curious what it would taste like cold as the recipe calls for.  It was very good warm (hot, really).  I didn’t figure out the calorie count, but from years of Weight Watcher experience I think this would be a very low point soup.

Chicken:  The main dish has interesting, complex flavors.  My only experience with Moroccan food is from Epcot in Disney World, so I don’t have much real world experience to compare to.  I thought it was delicious.  I love olives, lemon and cilantro.  The spices used were not overpowering at all.  I might make it next time using just lemon zest and juice to see if the trouble of making the lemon confit is worth it.  I will definitely make this dish again.  I might consider using chicken off the bone next time to make eating it easier.  You could easily use boneless, skinless thighs cut into bite sized chunks and get nearly the same effect.  The bones add flavor, granted, but it was a little messy to eat.

Couscous:  Given the fact that the chicken dish is so complex and flavorful, I’m not sure the couscous needs quite so much going on.  I would use fewer peas next time and not use fresh squeezed lemon juice. I forgot to add the mint!  I didn’t have any fresh and would have used dried.  Again, I’m not sure it needs anything extra, though.  The couscous is really there to soak up all the delicious liquid from the Chicken Tangine.

Overall:  I would make this meal again. 4.5 out of 5 forks!

Lemon Pecan Rice

Image by The Tromp Queen, CC license

Cook rice however you prefer to do it.  I use 1 c. rice to 2 c. water and about 1/2 t. salt. I bring the water to a boil, then add the rice and salt, stir, cover and simmer (low) for about 14 of 15 minutes.  It can sit off the heat until you are ready for it. I use Indian Basmati white rice for this recipe.  I often double it b/c it is so yummy and is good leftover.  I love it w/ grilled ribeye steaks or any grilled meat (chicken or pork are especially good with it as well).

While the rice is cooking, put the following into a small bowl:
(these amounts are good for 1 c. uncooked rice — double this if you use more than that)

1 T. olive oil
2T. lemon juice (or the juice of 1 lemon)
2 tsp. lemon zest (the zest of 1 lemon)
3 or 4 thinly sliced green onions (incl the green part)
1 t. Dijon mustard
1/2 t. salt (I use kosher)
a couple of dashes of tabasco or cayenne

Stir this mixture into the cooked rice.  Stir well so it gets through all the rice.  Cover and let sit for a couple of minutes.

While the rice sits, toast a handful (1/4 to 1/3 c. or so) of pecans (or zap in the micro), then chop them finely and scatter the pecans over the rice right before you serve.

(My longtime Facebook friends might recognize this recipe from a NOTE I posted a couple of years ago.  Since this dish is something I make frequently, I want to be sure it gets published here on my recipe blog, too!)