Oven Baked Chicken Thighs and Veggies

Yes, another chicken recipe, but this time using most flavorful part of chicken, the thighs. They take much, much longer to cook then a breast but they are also so much more flavorful.

With the exception of mushrooms and chicken, of course J, all other ingredients that formed the sauce were from my garden: onion, eggplant, red and green peppers, tomatoes and garlic. Prep time is reasonable 20 minutes or so of chopping and slicing. As is the case with all of my recipes amounts given are for 2 people plus good leftovers for next day lunch. I served it with orzo (rice shaped dry pasta) but it can be served with any other dry or even fresh pasta, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes or rice.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs (bone in and skin on)

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
1/2 medium onion
1 Oriental eggplant or 1/2 regular eggplant
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2 Roma tomatoes
1 cup sliced cremini or white mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. butter
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. dried basil or 2 tsp. fresh chopped basil

 Preheat oven to 350 °F and place rack in middle.

Generously sprinkle salt and pepper on all sides of chicken thighs and set aside.
Slice or chop onions, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers.
In oven-proof skillet (avoid non-stick pans) heat oil and add butter. When the foam subsides place thighs skin side down and cook until skin starts to brown little bit. Turn the chicken thighs over and cook another 3 minutes. Remove to plate and cover with foil.

In the same skillet, drop in onions and cook until they start to caramelize, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits.

Add eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms and stir to mix all vegetables.
Return the chicken thighs with accumulated juices back into skillet, cover and place in the oven. Check every 15 minutes if there is any juice left. If it looks too dry add white wine or chicken stock.

Meanwhile, cook your side (pasta, rice or potatoes).

After 30 minutes remove the cover from skillet and raise the oven temperature to 400 °F. Add the basil and cook for 10 more minutes or until the chicken skin is gold and crisp.

Serve immediately.

Chicken Breast Strips with Vegetables

All the veggies I used in this recipe were from my gardenand it did taste very fresh. From start to finish it took just little under 30minutes.

Main thing is to do all the prep first, start boiling waterfor pasta and you are on a roll. Also, I just do not like mushy vegetables,texture is terrible, they are tasteless and void of any vitamins, so I cookthem just until they are al dente or “soft to the tooth”. Same goes with the chickenbreasts, they are so easy to overcook. I just cook them till juices run clearwhen pierced with sharp point of knife or if there is no pink meat when you cuthalf way in.

I served this meal with wide noodles but I could have used gnocchi,rice or even potatoes with this sauce.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts cut into 1” strips across

3 shallots or 1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 cup of chopped eggplant

2 red peppers, seeded and chopped

3 tomatoes, chopped or small can whole tomatoes

1 tsp. dry basil or 1 Tbs. fresh chopped basil

1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

2 Tbs. olive oil

Wide noodles or gnocchi,rice or even potatoes

Season the chicken breast strips with salt and pepper andcoat with 1 Tbs. of olive oil. (I like to use small but deep stainless steelbowl.)

Cook pasta, toss in tablespoon of butter and keep warm.

Heat remaining oil in medium hot frying pan or skillet, dropin the chicken strips and cook on all sides. Test if they are done and removeto bowl. Set aside and keep them warm.

In the same skillet sauté shallots and garlic until shallotsare translucent and garlic is fragrant, then add eggplant, peppers and tomatoesand cook on medium high heat until peppers feel soft, about 5 minutes.

Add basil and balsamic vinegar and stir to mix.

Add pasta, chicken strips and mix till pasta is coated withthe sauce and chicken and pasta are reheated.

Serve on warm plates and garnish with extra basil.

Hungarian Gulyás (Goulash)

Goulash is a stew or soup made with meat, vegetables andpotatoes. In Hungary, it is lot closer to soup then a stew and it doesn’tcontain tomatoes. There are many versions in former states of AustrianHungarian Empire. In Czech Republic and Slovakia the liquid base is choppedtomatoes and it is served with either bread or BreadDumplings, in Austria it is served with rye bread and in Northern Italywith spaetzle or gnocchi. However, one ingredient that is constant right acrosswhole former Empire is paprika, and lots of it. Also, in Czech version, thereare as many onions as there is meat, by weight, and green and/or red peppersare always included and potatoes are seldom cooked in goulash itself but ratheron side if used as side dish.

As is the case with every national dish there are manyregional varieties. Szeged goulash is made with pork, some potatoes are replaced with sauerkraut and sour cream is added at the end of cooking. Znojemský(Moravian) Goulash is made with beef, onions, peppers and chopped pickles.In short, there are as many varieties as there are regions. In this post I willdeal with a basic beef goulash using tomatoes and with potatoes on the side.

Ingredients

1 Lb. stewing beef
1 Lb. onions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs. Hungarian paprika
1 tsp. caraway seeds
2 green and 2 red peppers, roughly chopped
4 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and roughly chopped
Tbs. lard or vegetable oil
2 Tbs. flour
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper (optional)

 Place flour and beef inside plastic bag, close it and shakethe beef until all sides are evenly coated with flour. Shake off all excessflour and set aside.

Heat up lard or oil in heavy pan or Dutch oven on high heat.Place the beef cubes in lard, leaving space in between, and brown on all sides.Remove beef to bowl and set aside. The beef will release some juice.
Pour off the lard leaving just a thin coat on the bottom. Lowerthe heat to medium, drop in the onions and garlic and cook till light goldenbrown.
Off the heat sprinkle the paprika and caraway seeds on topand then mix until onions are evenly coated.
Put back on medium heat, add peppers and tomatoes with itsjuices, stir and bring to simmer.
Put back the beef with collected juice, bay leaf and blackpepper. Bring back to simmer on medium high, lower the heat to low and simmer,stirring and scraping the bottom every 15 minutes or so.
Braise for 3 hours making sure that there is enough liquid. Iftoo dry add some liquid such as beer, wine or stock.
Otheroption is to cook the goulash in the 350 °F oven.10 minutes before serving add marjoram and adjust seasoning(salt, cayenne pepper).
Serve in preheated shallow bowl with potatoes, pasta, breaddumplings or just slices of rye bread.
As is the case with many stews, this goulash taste betterwhen reheated next day and when served with a different side you end up with a new meal.

Beef is already coated in flour.

Meat is browned, onions and garlic are cooked and paprikaand caraway seeds are mixed in.

Peppers, tomatoes with its juice are added and brought backto simmer.

Beef is returned to pot with bay leaves, pot is covered and slowlybraised for 3 hours.

Home Made Paneer Cheese

Last week Ferdzy, the publisher ofSeasonal Ontario Food,posted “Beans & Cabbage with Paneer” recipe. Itbrought back memory of my favorite non-melting cheeses. Of course, Halloumi ismy favorite, but since it is made with sheep and goat milk there is no chance Ican make it myself. Paneer, however, being a cow’s milk cheese is another animal alltogether (pun intended J). The reason I am saying that isthat one of my colleagues (back in my working days) had many lunches that hadpaneer in it and he said that his wife made fresh cheese on daily basis. Well,if you make cheese every day it does have to be simple, right? And is it ever!It is so simple that you can use just a quart or 1 liter of milk or even less. On top of it,as proven by me on my very first try, it is idiot proof!

When I finished pressing my firstcurds I have noticed that the whey wasn’t clear and light green as I saw on YouTube.No problem, I said. I put the pot back on burner and when it started to simmerI have added more lemon juice. And what do you know, new curds started to formand whey has turned clear and light green.

Lesson learned: make sure you havemore lemon juice than you think you will need.

Here goes a long list of ingredients.

2 L 3.25% milk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Yup, that’s it.

Equipment
Heavy bottom pot
Strainer
Muslin cloth
Spatula
Slotted spoon

Now the hard part. Yeah, rightJ

Bring the milk to simmer,scrapping bottom of a pot as you go. When the milk starts to roll over slowly pourin about a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Keep stirring until curds start to form. Ifthe milk doesn’t separate into clear and light green whey, add more lemon juice1 teaspoon at the time. Juice of one large lemon should be enough to make aclear separation of milk solids and whey but it is always better to be on safeside and have some more juice ready, just in case.
When the whey turns greenremove the curds with slotted spoon into a colander or strainer lined withmuslin.
Let it drain for about 20minutes and then tie up the muslin into a ball and put some weight on top tocompact the cheese. What I did was that I put the bag with cheese in potatoricer (it does have small holes all around) and placed 1 quart jar on top.Perfect fit!
Let the weight compact thepaneer to consistency that you like.
Well, the paneer is done andwhen eaten still warm and fresh with some strawberry jam, it is a heaven!
Next day I did try to shallowfry some slices with little salt and hot sauce and it was delicious!
Thanks, Ferdzy!

Note: Here are some video linksthat will help you understand the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gkor7dW6DU

On this video notice how fastthe milky whey turns into a clear greenish whey with just a tee-spoon of lemonjuice.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVHnWuAJWJ8

This one is interesting thatit shows how to make very smooth paneer. She is using oversized Indian spicegrinder but I am sure that mini-chopper will do same thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lcq1PdEVc0

Very innovative and original wayto use paneer. It is a definite “Must try soon” for me.

How I made Paneer

 Lemon juice was added and curds started to form.

 Curds started to separate in about 2 minutes.

Curds are placed in fine mesh bag and let drain for 15 minutes...

and then I put the bag in potato ricer (to form nice round cake) and a full jar of honey on top. In under one hour from milk to paneer!!! And, is it ever good still warm and super fresh!

Mushroom and Vegetable Soup with Paprika

Thisgoes under Comfort Food label, for sure. It is so substantial that I serve it withbuttered rye bread as a supper. There is a nice mix of textures in this versionof mushroom soup.

Yes,it does take some time to prepare because of all that chopping but it can be alot faster if you have a small food processor or my favorite, the mini chopper.Just never put the machine on run or you will end up with a paste. Short pulsesare all one needs.

Whenit comes to ingredients you can use pretty much any root vegetable that youhave in your fridge. Here is what I have used and it tasted great.

Ingredients

1Tbs. oil

1Tbs. butter

3shallots or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

2cups sliced mushrooms

1tsp. caraway seeds

1Tbs. Hungarian paprika

3/4cup carrots, finely chopped

3/4cup celeriac, finely chopped

3/4cup celery, finely chopped

2Russet potatoes, cut into 1/4” cubes

2Tbs. flour

6cups chicken or beef stock, heated

1bay leaf

1tsp. marjoram

Saltand pepper to taste

Choppedparsley for garnish

Ina heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven heat the oil and butter.

Whenthe foam from butter subsides add shallots and sauté till light gold, about 10minutes.

Addmushrooms and caraway seeds and cook on medium high heat until mushrooms arelightly caramelised.

Addcarrots, celeriac and celery and sauté until vegetables are soft.

Offthe heat, sprinkle paprika over mushrooms and shallots and stir till mushroomsare coated with paprika.

Addpotatoes and mix with rest of the vegetables.

Returnto heat and sprinkle flour on top of potatoes, mushrooms and vegetables and keepstirring until flour is cooked and reached paste consistency. The flour willform lumps with vegetables.

Pourin hot stock and mix until al flour lumps are mixed in and soup feels smooth.

Lowerthe heat to medium low, bring to simmer and cook for 20 minutes scraping thebottom of pot with wood or bamboo spatula (my choice) to prevent flour fromburning.

Removeabout 1 cup of mushrooms and vegetables with slotted spoon and set aside.

Withan immersion blender finely chop or liquefy (your call) rest of the solids. Putback reserved mushrooms and veggies and bring back to simmer.

Addmarjoram and taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Cookfor 5 more minutes.  

Servein a bowls and garnish with parsley.

Serves4 - 6

Risotto Cakes with Goat Cheese

Every timeI make risotto I make sure to double the recipe so that I have a lot of left-overs.As I noted in another risotto cake post, some restaurants actually make risottojust for the cakes. Once you taste one (good one, that is), you will definitelylook forward to the next one.

When I madeChickenand Mushroom Risotto I made it really creamy. Really great as a risotto butit is a problem when you try to form a cake with the left-overs. I had no choicebut to mix it with little bit of bread crumbs to give it some body.

To make thecake I chopped the leftover chicken and mushrooms, mixed them with soft goatcheese and formed a small ball. Then I formed ball with risotto, made deepindentation in risotto ball, placed goat cheese ball inside, enclosed it andflattened it to form a cake or pate about 3” in diameter and inch and halfhigh. Next came 3-step breading job: first, coat cake in flour, then beaten eggand finally Panko. Press the Panko in so it doesn’t get loose when placed inhot oil. I shallow fried the cakes till light golden brown on all sides. In 10minutes it was ready to be served with arugula and cherry tomatoes andfreshly grated Parmigiano cheese on top.

I just lovethe texture of crisp Panko on the outside and soft risotto and creamy goatcheese on the inside, all in one bite!

Steamed Pearl Balls - Chinese Dim Sum

Chen-chu-jou-wan

These steamed pork meat balls coated in sticky rice are not only favorites in Dim Sum restaurants but at formal Chinese banquets as well. They are so easy to make, especially if using store bought ground meat. Since I never buy ground meat it takes me few minutes longer to prepare, but for me it is worth the time and effort since I know exactly what is in my meat. Same pork mixture can also be used in wontons for soup and also pot stickers. It is very versatile recipe.

 Ingredients

3/4 cup sticky rice
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
3/4 pound pork butt or equivalent ground pork
1/2 Tbs. fresh ginger, minced

2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tablespoons water chestnut, finely chopped

3 green onions, minced

2 shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped fine
1 Tbs. Sake or rice wine
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 Tbs. peanut oil
1 large egg, beaten

Napa or Savoy cabbage leaves

Soak sticky rice in water for minimum 8 hours, preferably overnight.

Drain well in colander and leave the rice in the colander over a bowl to catch water drippings.

If using pork butt, grind the meat using 1/4” plate.

Mix salt, pepper, sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.

Place the ground pork in a large mixing bowl together with ginger, garlic, water chestnuts, onions and mushrooms and mix with your hands until the mixture is well combined. Add dry mix and mix till mixture is smooth.

With a spoon scoop out about 2 tablespoons of meat mixture and roll it in palm of your hands forming uniform ball. Place the ball on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat till all balls are rolled. I prefer to scoop out all the meat first and then roll all the meat at the same time.

Firmly roll the meat balls in colander holding the rice until rice completely covers the meat. It is lot easier to do if you firm up the meat balls in freezer for about 20 – 30 minutes first.

Line a bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves. Place balls 1/2 inch apart in steamer and cover with steamer lid. Add water to a large skillet to a depth of 1 inch and bring to a boil. Place steamer in skillet, and steam balls 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Remove balls and cabbage from steamer and serve with soy and Chinese red vinegar dipping sauce.

This Chinese aluminum double-decker steamer is one of the most useful utensils in my kitchen. (This picture shows only one basket being used.)