This weekend was Battle Chicken at the Raihala household. Susan bought a smallish roaster, and also not quite 2 pounds of chicken breasts. How to create two totally different meals out of the same meat? Hmmm…
Almost immediately, I decided I was going to do a riff on a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, “French Farmhouse Cookbook” by Susan Loomis. If you are new to French cooking, and want to give it a go, get yourself this cookbook. I have used it more than any other cookbook I own in the last 5 years or so. It is absolutely wonderful.
My plan was to make a simple pizza crust dough, and wrap the whole chicken in it, along with sautéed leeks on the bottom, and bacon on top to provide some more flavor for the bread wrapping. I made the pizza dough and got it rising, and then I started the chicken by browning it in a large sauce pan in a bit of olive oil to render some of the fat and to brown the skin. I chopped 4 leeks and got those sautéing in olive oil as well.
When the pizza dough was ready after a rise of about 2 hours, I took it out of the bowl and rolled it out big enough to wrap around the whole chicken. I put the leeks on the dough, and then placed the chicken on the leeks. I put the bacon on the breast of the chicken, and then pulled the dough around the chicken and sealed it. I was really proud of how it was looking, and took some pictures. Then everything went south on me in a big way.
I started to pick up the chicken to place it in a baking dish, and noticed to my horror that the dough was sticking steadfastly to the counter. I gently tried to pull the dough-wrapped chicken up, and instantly ripped the bottom off, with hot leeks spilling all over my counter. After some R-rated commentary on my part, I did my best to get my temper back in check, and threw the chicken in the pan, sans the bottom part of the dough. I pushed the dough and leeks on the counter top, and threw that on top of the chicken, and threw the whole thing into the oven.
I decided to throw myself into the accompanying salad. I had gotten some nice baby spinach at the grocery store, so I wanted to do something with that. I dry-toasted almonds, pecans, and walnuts until the almonds were turning a nice brown on the outside, and then threw them into my Cuisinart mini-prep and chopped them until they were not totally minced into sawdust, but a bit bigger. I put the nuts on the spinach, then whisked together some walnut oil and balsamic vinegar. I poured that on the salad, and then put on some parmesan cheese. The salad turned out quite nice, although I did get a bit carried away with the amount of nuts I put on the salads.
The chicken itself turned out pretty darn good, if not very pretty. The meat was super moist after having cooked inside the dough, and the bread surrounding the chicken was delectable, with flavors of leek, chicken, and bacon.
On Sunday, I needed to do something with the chicken breasts. I had decided I was going to do something Indianish with them…something spicy and creamy with rice. I put a chopped jalapeno, a bunch of cilantro (about a cup and a half), a bunch of mint (about ½ a cup), 3 garlic cloves, an inch of peeled ginger, ½ cup of almonds, and two roma tomatoes into my Cuisinart and pureed the whole mess. It looked a lot like pesto, so I added a cup of plain yogurt, and blended that until it was smooth.
I grabbed my biggest skillet, and begin sautéing the chicken breast (that I had cubed) in some butter. I let that cook for a while, and then added one large chopped onion, a pound of quartered little red potatoes, and one red pepper. I let that cook for a bit, and then added a can of coconut milk and the pureed sauce from the Cuisinart. I threw in 2 teaspoons of Vindaloo seasoning (from Penzeys) and let that simmer for a while. After about 20 minutes I tasted the sauce, which was a little bland, so tossed in some salt and another 2 teaspoons of the Vindaloo seasoning (I had intended on also using some Garam Masala, but a alas, I was out). I kept simmering that until the sauce thickened nicely, and then served it over rice with homemade naan.
It all turned out pretty good. Not too hot; just enough spice to keep it interesting, and nice creamy sauce to go with the rice. It wasn’t exactly what I was going for, but then, I’m not exactly sure what I was aiming at, anyway. Maybe some chopped tomatoes should have in with the onions and peppers. I was also thinking that perhaps just a hint of ancho or chipotle chile powder could have given it a hint of smoke and spice; a little Indian-Southwestern fusion. Maybe next time….
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Battle: Cooking Light!
So, last Sunday, I decided I’d cook something light, since I’m normally a bit heavy-handed when it comes to oil, butter, and fat, and I was already making a fairly heavy dish with pork on Saturday night. I figured I’d do something with fish…some nice light filets. While at the grocery story some nice catfish filets caught my eye…yes, that will do, I thought. Maybe my spicy sweet potatoes would go nicely…and a spicy pecan topping on the catfish…yes, that would do the trick…it was all coming together nicely.
I sautéed the sweet potatoes in butter, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and ancho chile powder, with a hit of sea salt. I fried the pecan topping in butter and ancho chile powder. I sautéed the catfish in, you guessed, it butter. It was all incredible tasting, but even I felt a bit nasty after eating it. My wife sat back after the meal and proclaimed that I simply couldn’t cook “light,” that I was simply incapable. Here is the actual conversation, as she captured it in her blog, “Questioning My Intelligence” (the “me” being my wife Susan):
Me: George, you are incapable of cooking light.
George: Yes, I can!
Me: No, you can NOT.
George: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because I never have. Name that movie I’m paraphrasing.
Me: Princess Bride, of course. And that’s my point. You’ve never done it because you’re not capable.
George: I’ve just never tried to cook light. I’ve tried to cook delicious. Besides, beans and rice was my idea.
Me: That’s not cooking. That’s making rice, heating up canned beans, and mixing them together. The recipes you invent are never light. Besides, I’m always the one fixing beans and rice, not you.
George: I made light oatmeal cookies when we lived in Boise.
Me: Yes, I suppose you did. [Note: We left Boise in 2000.] But you are not capable of cooking a light meal.
George: You are trying to use reverse psychology on me. You’re challenging me.
Me: No. I truly believe you are simply incapable of cooking light.
George: I made you a delicious salad a few months back.
Me: It was wilted with bacon fat, had a pound of crumbled bacon on it, and an egg fried in bacon fat. NOT light.
George: You are evil. I’m going to make you eat turkey. Next weekend, you’re eating light. I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it.
Me: No, you won’t.
George: Yes, I will. How many meals have to be light? Just one? Surely just one. One would prove you wrong.
Me: True. But you can’t do it.
George: Yes, I will. But just once, to prove you wrong.
And so the challenge was on. I, of course, was not about to take this sitting down. I would make her eat crow if I had to boil a chicken breast and serve it plain over white rice. But, the key was to make something delicious and light at the same time.
I hit upon the idea of grilling or broiling some chicken breasts, making a mole sauce, and serving the chicken over rice, with slices of fresh avocado and tomatoes on top. The only problem was, I had no real idea how to make a mole sauce. So I grabbed Mark Bittman’s “The Best Recipes in the World,” and looked up chicken with mole. Turned out he has two recipes, one with a mole sauce made with chocolate and pepitas, and another with just almonds. Hmmm….I wanted to use chocolate to make my sauce rich, yet light (if I could), but the almonds sounded really good, too.
I decided to make a hybrid of the two recipes. It turned out my wife had bought some chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, I thought, so still good for “light”), but I got a couple more packages since the recipe called for a 3-4 pound chicken. I browned the chicken thighs in olive oil, and then sautéed onion, garlic, and cilantro in the left over oil and chicken fat. My wife had suggested removing the skin from the chicken thighs, but in my heart I knew that the skin would add some nice depth of flavor to the sauce. So much for lightness….sigh…my wife smirked knowingly.
After the onions had softened, I put the chicken back in the pot, and added some cinnamon, thyme, tomatoes, and chicken broth to cover. Meanwhile, I toasted a cup of blanched almonds, a chipotle chile, and two ancho chiles in a dry skillet. When those where nice and toasty (the almonds turning a light brown on the sides and chiles were making popping noises), I tossed those in the pot and let it all simmer for about 40 minutes. Once the chicken was nicely tender, I removed it and put the pot on highish heat to reduce the sauce a bit. I tossed in one ounce of unsweetened chocolate and let that melt, and let it reduce a bit more. Once the sauce was nicely thickened, I pulled out my hand mixer and pureed everything, and then tossed the chicken back in the pot. I served it over rice, with a touch of sour cream (light, natch), and it was, dare I say, fantastically good. But not light. Dang. Round one to Susan….I went for full flavor over light, and while I wasn’t too broken up about it since it had turned out so nice, I was still a bit annoyed that I hadn’t proven her wrong…I was capable of cooking light and delicious!
So, today, it was back to square one in the cooking light battle. For tonight, I had a nice lean piece of London Broil and some asparagus, so I decided to try and make a light stir fry. I sliced the beef really thin and trimmed all the fat, and marinated it in black bean garlic sauce, red garlic chile paste, sriracha sauce, teriyaki, and soy sauce. I let that sit for about 45 minutes while I got the rest of the dinner going.
I took two bunches of scallions, minced 5 cloves of garlic, and minced an inch and half piece of ginger (peeled and minced), and sautéed that in two tablespoons of oil (one each of canola and peanut), along with a couple pinches of red pepper flakes. I then took 1 bunch of asparagus (woody stems snapped off, and sliced into 2” pieces) and added it to the wok, and stir fried that until the asparagus was getting tender. I then added the meat mixture, and let that cook for a while.
After about 10 minutes, the meat had released a fair amount of moisture, so I added some pre-cooked linguini noodles to the wok, and added another tablespoon each of the black bean garlic sauce and the red garlic chile paste. I let that all simmer for about 20 minutes until the noodles were nice and hot and had absorbed the meat juices and the added sauce and paste.
To cut to the chase, it turned out quite nice, with the only fat added being the initial two tablespoons of oil (and that was for 1.5 pounds of meat and a bunch of asparagus). I didn’t think it would be enough, but it really was…it didn’t need any more oil at all. The end result was a very nice dish that wasn’t overly oily. I’m not sure I would characterize it as “light,” but it wasn’t fatty and it was very tasty. Susan declared that I was capable of cooking light, so round 2 went to me!
I sautéed the sweet potatoes in butter, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and ancho chile powder, with a hit of sea salt. I fried the pecan topping in butter and ancho chile powder. I sautéed the catfish in, you guessed, it butter. It was all incredible tasting, but even I felt a bit nasty after eating it. My wife sat back after the meal and proclaimed that I simply couldn’t cook “light,” that I was simply incapable. Here is the actual conversation, as she captured it in her blog, “Questioning My Intelligence” (the “me” being my wife Susan):
Me: George, you are incapable of cooking light.
George: Yes, I can!
Me: No, you can NOT.
George: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because I never have. Name that movie I’m paraphrasing.
Me: Princess Bride, of course. And that’s my point. You’ve never done it because you’re not capable.
George: I’ve just never tried to cook light. I’ve tried to cook delicious. Besides, beans and rice was my idea.
Me: That’s not cooking. That’s making rice, heating up canned beans, and mixing them together. The recipes you invent are never light. Besides, I’m always the one fixing beans and rice, not you.
George: I made light oatmeal cookies when we lived in Boise.
Me: Yes, I suppose you did. [Note: We left Boise in 2000.] But you are not capable of cooking a light meal.
George: You are trying to use reverse psychology on me. You’re challenging me.
Me: No. I truly believe you are simply incapable of cooking light.
George: I made you a delicious salad a few months back.
Me: It was wilted with bacon fat, had a pound of crumbled bacon on it, and an egg fried in bacon fat. NOT light.
George: You are evil. I’m going to make you eat turkey. Next weekend, you’re eating light. I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it.
Me: No, you won’t.
George: Yes, I will. How many meals have to be light? Just one? Surely just one. One would prove you wrong.
Me: True. But you can’t do it.
George: Yes, I will. But just once, to prove you wrong.
And so the challenge was on. I, of course, was not about to take this sitting down. I would make her eat crow if I had to boil a chicken breast and serve it plain over white rice. But, the key was to make something delicious and light at the same time.
I hit upon the idea of grilling or broiling some chicken breasts, making a mole sauce, and serving the chicken over rice, with slices of fresh avocado and tomatoes on top. The only problem was, I had no real idea how to make a mole sauce. So I grabbed Mark Bittman’s “The Best Recipes in the World,” and looked up chicken with mole. Turned out he has two recipes, one with a mole sauce made with chocolate and pepitas, and another with just almonds. Hmmm….I wanted to use chocolate to make my sauce rich, yet light (if I could), but the almonds sounded really good, too.
I decided to make a hybrid of the two recipes. It turned out my wife had bought some chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, I thought, so still good for “light”), but I got a couple more packages since the recipe called for a 3-4 pound chicken. I browned the chicken thighs in olive oil, and then sautéed onion, garlic, and cilantro in the left over oil and chicken fat. My wife had suggested removing the skin from the chicken thighs, but in my heart I knew that the skin would add some nice depth of flavor to the sauce. So much for lightness….sigh…my wife smirked knowingly.
After the onions had softened, I put the chicken back in the pot, and added some cinnamon, thyme, tomatoes, and chicken broth to cover. Meanwhile, I toasted a cup of blanched almonds, a chipotle chile, and two ancho chiles in a dry skillet. When those where nice and toasty (the almonds turning a light brown on the sides and chiles were making popping noises), I tossed those in the pot and let it all simmer for about 40 minutes. Once the chicken was nicely tender, I removed it and put the pot on highish heat to reduce the sauce a bit. I tossed in one ounce of unsweetened chocolate and let that melt, and let it reduce a bit more. Once the sauce was nicely thickened, I pulled out my hand mixer and pureed everything, and then tossed the chicken back in the pot. I served it over rice, with a touch of sour cream (light, natch), and it was, dare I say, fantastically good. But not light. Dang. Round one to Susan….I went for full flavor over light, and while I wasn’t too broken up about it since it had turned out so nice, I was still a bit annoyed that I hadn’t proven her wrong…I was capable of cooking light and delicious!
So, today, it was back to square one in the cooking light battle. For tonight, I had a nice lean piece of London Broil and some asparagus, so I decided to try and make a light stir fry. I sliced the beef really thin and trimmed all the fat, and marinated it in black bean garlic sauce, red garlic chile paste, sriracha sauce, teriyaki, and soy sauce. I let that sit for about 45 minutes while I got the rest of the dinner going.
I took two bunches of scallions, minced 5 cloves of garlic, and minced an inch and half piece of ginger (peeled and minced), and sautéed that in two tablespoons of oil (one each of canola and peanut), along with a couple pinches of red pepper flakes. I then took 1 bunch of asparagus (woody stems snapped off, and sliced into 2” pieces) and added it to the wok, and stir fried that until the asparagus was getting tender. I then added the meat mixture, and let that cook for a while.
After about 10 minutes, the meat had released a fair amount of moisture, so I added some pre-cooked linguini noodles to the wok, and added another tablespoon each of the black bean garlic sauce and the red garlic chile paste. I let that all simmer for about 20 minutes until the noodles were nice and hot and had absorbed the meat juices and the added sauce and paste.
To cut to the chase, it turned out quite nice, with the only fat added being the initial two tablespoons of oil (and that was for 1.5 pounds of meat and a bunch of asparagus). I didn’t think it would be enough, but it really was…it didn’t need any more oil at all. The end result was a very nice dish that wasn’t overly oily. I’m not sure I would characterize it as “light,” but it wasn’t fatty and it was very tasty. Susan declared that I was capable of cooking light, so round 2 went to me!
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