Monthly Archives: November 2013
Chicken, baked ricotta and greens
By Nina Max in uncategorized
This was a very satisfying meal. Chicken with White Wine & Lemon (recipe below), Farmhouse Baked Ricotta (with sweet potatoes and basil sauce), Roasted Broccoli, and a green salad with my version of Rita’s Dressing (with measurements! recipe below).
I had half a ball of fresh mozzarella in the fridge and decided to use it in lieu of cheddar or gruyere for the baked ricotta. Though it tasted good, the fresh mozzarella was too wet for this dish and made it a bit soggy. I recommend using a harder cheese, per the original recipe. For another view of the ricotta, scroll all the way down.
• Chicken with White Wine & Lemon •
from this recipe from Dinner A Love Story
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-6 boneless chicken breasts, pounded very thin (if they flatten into really large cutlets, you might want to halve them so they’re easier to handle in the pan)
1/2 cup flour or so, salted and peppered, and piled on a plate
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup white wine
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped shallots*
handful chopped parsley
Heat 1 tablespoon butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge chicken breasts in seasoned flour then add to pan (in batches if necessary), frying about 3 minutes a side. Remove breasts to a platter after they have cooked through and tent with foil to keep warm. Once all the chicken is fried, add lemon juice, wine, shallots, and remaining butter to the pan and turn up heat, scraping the brown bits as you go. Once the sauce has reduced slightly, pour over chicken on platter. Top with parsley.
*Onion will work in a pinch.
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• Rita’s Dressing (Nina’s Version) •
Note: I like to make this in an 8oz jar because we rarely use a whole batch at once, this makes it easy to save and use the next day.
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
the juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon lemon zest, or tiny, super-finely slivered bits of lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil (add more if it’s too tangy for you)
Combine all ingredients in a jar, shake vigorously to combine. Serve over greens alone, or over greens with herbs (recommended), or whatever you like!
Comfort food, and next week’s meal plan
By Nina Max in family, meal plans 3 Comments
You’ve probably noticed by now, that there is seemingly no end to my capacity for consuming tomato and cream-based pasta dishes. Add a bunch of cheese, and something green on the side, and you’ve got my version of perfect.
When my husband called to say he was being released from the hospital after yesterday’s back surgery, I told him I’d be right there, just as soon as I got dinner prepped.
What did I make for Shane’s homecoming/post-surgery/comfort meal? Why, Penne with 5 Cheeses, Tomatoes & Cream, of course! With a side of Roasted Broccoli, which my sister pointed out is “really good, even though you wouldn’t think it would be.”
With our family’s collective abilities quite limited for the coming weeks, I’ve decided to try my hand at some advance meal planning again. Here are some of the things on my list for this week:
Tried & True Meals:
Steak, Bok Choy with Tofu and Oyster Sauce, Rice
Chicken, Farmhouse Baked Ricotta, Salad
Spicy Vegetarian (or Turkey) Chili (this is a one dish meal)
DIY Burritos
New Recipes to Try (suggestions for what to have them with are welcome!):
Sweet Potato and Kale Gratin
Pan Roasted Cauliflower with Pine Nuts & Raisins
Pre-surgery Chicken Cacciatore
By Nina Max in family, pregnancy, quick
I didn’t post last night because instead, I was sitting on the couch drinking a glass of wine. Why? Because I’m well into my 3rd trimester and I can. (And also because my husband is having back surgery today.)
Surgery? You say. Didn’t he just have surgery a couple of months ago? The answers are yes and yes. He had a double surgery on his shoulder this past summer. And now, with only a month and a day to go before our baby is due, he’s having surgery again.
Everything will be fine, and in the long run, it’s good he’s having this done. But it does mean he won’t be able to pick up our newborn. Sigh. After several uncomfortable weeks of wishing for an early (but not too early) delivery, I now want our baby to stay in for as long as possible.
Anywhoo, about dinner. I made a shortcut version of Chicken Cacciatore from a recipe I found on Momfilter. I know nothing about Chicken Cacciatore. If you had asked me about it before last night, I would have been able to tell you that it’s a chicken dish, and that’s about it.
Not being familiar with the dish, I’m not sure what makes this version a cheater’s version, but I can attest that it was really easy and quick to make. The only time consuming part is chopping all those darn mushrooms, which doesn’t actually take all that long.
I worried that the dish would be boring. It wasn’t boring, it was quite good in fact, I ate around the chicken pieces. It’s a definite make-again.
• Cheat’s Chicken Cacciatore •
from Momfilter (especially the humorous instructions)
I’ve made it even more quick and easy with a few shortcuts below
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs*
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb fresh, sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp rosemary (minced if you’re using fresh)
1 x 19 oz can chopped San Marzano tomatoes
1 x 15 oz can of cannellini beans
Get out your Dutch oven – or another large, heavy bottomed pot – and your cutting board and knife and that’s all you’re going to need for this recipe. Don’t you feel more relaxed already?
Warm the oil in your pot over medium high heat. Slice the chicken thighs into about four pieces each and season them with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Working in batches, brown the meat**. Don’t worry about cooking it through, you’re just building a nice color for now. When the meat is brown, set it aside on a clean plate.
Reduce the heat slightly and toss in your mushrooms and butter. It’s going to seem like too many at first but fear not. They will eventually submit to you, collapse and take up much less space. Just keep stirring them every couple of minutes. Once they’re cooked down, add the garlic and rosemary and let it sautee for another minute.
Add the tomatoes – not drained – and beans – drained. Add the cooked chicken pieces and allow it all to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Taste to check seasoning and add some salt and pepper if you like.
*Boneless, skinless, breasts work great too, add some extra butter to compensate for the lack of fat in the breasts.
**My meat never seems to get brown, I cook it until there’s no visible pink and some pieces are slightly golden.
Much better
Tonight’s dinner was a vast improvement over last night’s. Like last night, I had a hankering for a creamy, tomatoey, boozy pasta dish. Instead of doing Penne alla Vodka again, I made Cappellini with Shrimp and Creamy Tomato Sauce (recipe below).
The dish is an oldie but goodie, first brought to my attention by Teresa, of Teresa Cooks. It’s quick, at only about 15 minutes start to finish, and oh so very delicious.
That stuff that looks a bit like popcorn, is actually roasted cauliflower, which you can cook exactly the way you do roasted broccoli, except that it seems to require significantly more olive oil. For a green, we had simple kale, sautéed with garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil.
• Cappellini with Shrimp and Creamy Tomato Sauce •
from epicurious via Teresa Cooks
1 pound peeled large shrimp
3 large garlic cloves, forced through a garlic press
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup sweet (red) vermouth
1 (14- to 15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 pound capellini*
Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then cook shrimp and garlic with oregano, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, turning once, until golden, about 2 minutes total**. Stir in vermouth and tomatoes, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet. Add cream and briskly simmer until sauce has thickened slightly, about 1 minute. Stir in lemon juice.
Meanwhile, cook capellini in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain pasta.
Serve immediately, topped with shrimp and sauce. Thin with some of reserved water if necessary.
* This makes a lot of sauce, enough to cover up to 1lb of pasta, if you want. Also, it’s fine to use thin spaghetti instead of cappellini.
**My shrimp never seems to get golden. I just cook it until it’s pink all over, or close (it will cook more in the sauce). This sometimes takes more than 2 minutes.
Fail
By Nina Max in failures 4 Comments
Here’s what I learned from tonight’s failed dinner:
1. When making Parmesan Chicken Goujons, it’s okay to use regular breadcrumbs instead of panko.
2. When making Parmesan Chicken Goujons, do not forget to grease the baking sheet!
3. When making Penne alla Vodka, do not substitute half and half for the heavy cream, it will curdle, leaving you with little white nerdles in your meant-to-be creamy sauce. And it doesn’t taste as good either.
4. Roasted Broccoli is hard to mess up.
Love,
Nina
Channeling my inner Irish, with tofu and bok choy
By Nina Max in uncategorized
You’re not going to believe me when I tell you this. It sounds like an urban legend, or something. But I assure you, I’ve witnessed it firsthand.
Here goes: When you go to a Chinese restaurant in Ireland, they offer you a choice of rice… or potatoes. Potatoes! You can get them boiled, baked, mashed or as chips (french fries). It’s true. Promise.
I really should have made rice to have with our steak, and very Chinese restaurant-tasting bok choy tonight. But my inner Irish got the best of me, I made potatoes by mistake.
Even without rice, the bok choy was exceptional. My non-veggie-loving husband and daughter both ate, and liked it, which is saying a lot.
The bok choy was based on this Mark Bittman recipe, which I made a couple of weeks ago. My adaptation uses baked tofu and ginger, and is totally worth trying, if I do say so myself. The recipe is below.
• Bok choy with Baked Tofu, Ginger and Oyster Sauce •
adapted from Mark Bittman’s recipe
1 package extra-firm tofu
2 lbs bok choy, trimmed
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced, fresh ginger
1/3 cup oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Drain the tofu and wrap it in several layers of paper towels. Press it between a plate (on the bottom) and something heavy (on top) and let sit for 20-30 minutes.
Chop the tofu into approximately 3/4″ squares and toss in a medium bowl with one tablespoon of vegetable oil, until well coated. Lay the tofu out on a parchment or foil covered baking tray and bake until very lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Toss the tofu squares a few times while baking. Remove from oven and set aside.
Wash and clean the bok choy. Separate leaves and stems of bok choy; cut stems into 2-inch lengths and chop the leaves in half.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic, ginger, bok choy stems and tofu to the pan and cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the bok choy leaves, oyster sauce and water and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve right away. Rice would be a nice accompaniment.
Simple Saturday
We had a pretty busy day today, with Rose at gymnastics for three hours and Shane and I Costco-ing, hauling baby stuff up from the basement, and trying to make space for another person in our apartment. Shane went off to his studio in the evening, and Rose and I totally reorganized a closet.
After all that work, a simple dinner was in order. We had pasta with some leftover sauce from my birthday lasagne. I made mine with extra sauce, and topped Rose’s with sausage.
We ate at the coffee table, something we can’t do when Shane’s around (he’s too tall), so that Rose could rainbow loom while we ate. It was a good kind of Saturday.
Cauliflower soup
By Nina Max in uncategorized
This soup should not be good, it defies logic. The ingredients are cauliflower, onion, olive oil, water and salt. Boring right? I don’t understand how it comes out tasting so good. In fact, I’m not sure why I even bothered to make it, but I did. Probably because the Community Pick recipes over at Food 52 are very reliable.
After setting myself up to be incredibly disappointed, we ended up having a lovely meal and a new soup to add to our repertoire. To make the meal more substantial we also had crusty bread, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and roasted peppers.
A friend asked that I be less vague about some of my vegetable recipes. I measured tonight and am giving you the foolproof roasted pepper recipe below, as well as the cauliflower soup recipe. Enjoy!
• Cauliflower Soup •
from this recipe by Paul Bertoli at Food 52
3tablespoons olive oil
1medium onion (6 ounces), sliced thin
1head very fresh cauliflower (about 1-1/2 pounds), broken into florets
Salt, to taste
5 1/2cups water, divided
Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Warm the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Sweat the onion in the olive oil over low heat without letting it brown for 15 minutes.
Add the cauliflower, salt to taste, and 1/2 cup water. Raise the heat slightly, cover the pot tightly and stew the cauliflower for 15 to 18 minutes, or until tender.
Then add another 4 1/2 cups hot water, bring to a low simmer and cook an additional 20 minutes uncovered.
Working in batches, purée the soup in a blender to a very smooth, creamy consistency. Alternatively, you can use a stick blender to purée it, right in the pot. Let the soup stand for 20 minutes. In this time it will thicken slightly.
Thin the soup with 1/2 cup hot water, if needed. Reheat the soup. Serve hot, drizzled with a thin stream of extra-virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.
• Foolproof Roasted Long Peppers •
4 long un-spicy peppers, like these
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon good quality balsamic vinegar (optional)
Heat oven to 35o degrees. Seed the peppers and cut them lengthwise, into long, thick strips, about 4-6 strips per pepper. Toss with olive oil and salt and place them in a medium glass baking dish, I use a pie dish. Roast for about 1/2 hour or until soft and wilted, stirring a few times along the way. Remove to a serving dish, pouring the juices over them. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar, if using, and serve.