Peruvian chicken soup

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Peruvian Chicken Soup


As a little girl I could count on my mom offering me 3 things when I was sick, saltines, ginger ale, and chicken noodle soup. Chicken soup is every moms go to meal when there is a sick little one in the house. It’s the perfect meal for almost any ailment, soothing for soar throats and upset tummies.  It is like a bowl of love, with the ability to heal anyone, one spoonful at a time. This particular recipe is my take on a chicken soup I have at my favorite Peruvian restaurant. It is everything that most people love about chicken soup, but the fresh cilantro brightens it up a bit. I use my pressure cooker to cut out spending hours in the kitchen making this. I am able to get a ton of flavor in this soup in half the time it takes to make this without the pressure cooker.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
1lbs of chicken legs (I prefer making soup with the bones in, it lends more flavor to this)
8-10 cups of water
7 celery ribs chopped
3 medium potatoes cubed
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 medium onion chopped
2 cups of fresh or defrosted frozen spinach
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Handful of  cilantro

Directions:
Season the chicken with sea salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in the pressure cooker. Add the chicken and brown on both sides.

Add in the onion and garlic, toss, and cook for 3 minutes. Add the water, make sure the chicken is fully covered with water. Bring to a boil, close and lock the pressure cooker according to the manufacturers instructions. Cook for 30 minutes undisturbed. Turn off the fire. Depressurize your pressure cooker according to the manufacturers instructions. Remove the bones and any skin on the chicken. This shouldn’t be hard to do, the meat should fall off the bone at this point. Turn on the fire, Add in the potatoes, and celery, close and lock the pressure cooker according to the manufacturers instructions. Cook for another 7 minutes undisturbed. Turn off the fire and depressurize the pressure cooker according to the manufacturers instructions. Remove the lid, add in the spinach and cilantro, mix well, then serve. You can add noodles to this if you’d like. You can also make this without the pressure cooker, just cook the chicken for 45 minutes to an hour, then add the potatoes and celery and cook for another 15-20 minutes, before adding in the cilantro and spinach.

What did your mom give you to comfort you when you were sick?

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No cream Creamed Corn

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Creamed Corn

One of my favorite things in the world is creamed corn. I remember at 5 years-old requesting it as a meal. My mom always bought the canned Del Monte brand, back then you could buy 4 cans for $1. While other kids were begging for cookies and their favorite brand of cereal, I was begging my mom for cans of creamed corn. I of course don’t eat the canned version any more, the preservatives alone keep me away from that stuff. Not to mention that it is extremely difficult now a days to find organic corn, let alone corn that is not genetically modified. Fortunately I’m lucky enough to have a local farm in my area, where I can buy organic and non GMO fresh corn. If you have never tried making fresh creamed corn without cream, then you’re in for a treat! It’s just as delicious as creamed corn with cream. The key to making this creamed corn, is a shallow cut.

Prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 12 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
4 raw fresh corn cobs husks removed
1 tablespoon of butter (optional)
1/4 cup of water

Directions:
Place the corn inside of a sauce pan, it helps to cut the bottom end of the corn so that you have a flat surface to work with. Cut down the sides of the corn, again the key here is to cut shallow, you really only want to cut the tops of the corn kernels. Once you have cut down all sides, slide the knife back up the cob in the opposite direction.

Be careful of splatter here, it can get messy. Continue to run the knife back up the cob until the cob is dry and all the corn and milk has been removed.

Place the pan over medium low heat, add the butter if using, and allow it to cook for 3 minutes.

Add the water, note if your corn had a lot of moisture you do not need to add all of the water, add as much as you’d like, lower the heat to simmer, and cook covered for another 7-10minutes. Serve and enjoy!

What was your favorite childhood food or snack?

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Thai style ground chicken and green beans

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Whenever we go out for Thai food my husband orders one of two things, ginger chicken or, green bean chicken. He absolutely loves these two dishes, and rarely ventures out to try anything else on the menu– unless venturing out is tantamount to him taking a few bites of my dish. I love ginger chicken, but I have yet to ever try this green bean dish that he loves so dearly. However, the ever ambitious girl that I am in the kitchen, decided to try to recreate this dish for him at home the other night. I can not say whether or not I hit the mark on what he has in the restaurant, but this dish definitely hit the mark for me! I loved it! My husband did too. He said “Mmmm…this is delicious” after every bite. You can substitute any ground meat that you choose in this dish.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minute
Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 lbs of ground chicken
2 cups of chopped fresh green beans
1/2 cups of green onion chopped
2.5 Tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup of cilantro chopped
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tablespoon of flour optional
1-2 teaspoons of chili pepper flakes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of water
Sea salt to taste.

Directions:
Heat oil in a skillet. Add ginger, onion, and garlic, and saute for 1 minute, stirring so that the ginger and garlic don’t burn. Add in the ground meat, cook until browned. Add in the soy sauce, toss, then add in the flour if using. Toss again, add in the green beans, and water, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the green beans are fork tender. Remove from heat, add cilantro, serve over brown rice, and enjoy!

What restaurant meals have you had success recreating at home?

Strawberry ice cream with Chocolate Balsamic Fudge Sauce

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Despite the fact that almanac says that Fall season has officially arrived, the weather here in Southern California continues to mimic Summer weather with temperatures in the 80’s. I decided to make ice cream, and since my daughter loves everything that involves strawberries, I decided to make strawberry ice cream. Since you could google any number of strawberry ice cream recipes, I wanted to make my recipe original and a little bit more sophisticated, so I came up with this balsamic chocolate sauce.  I absolutely love balsamic cream sauce, especially drizzled over strawberries. Talk about an easy dessert!  It absolutely doesn’t get better and easier than pre made balsamic creamdrizzled over fresh strawberries! If you don’t have a bottle of balsamic cream in your pantry definitely run out and get one, but first try this fudge sauce. The first time I tried to make this sauce, I burned the vinegar, so be forewarned that this isn’t one of those recipes, that you can put on the stove and walk away from. You really have to watch the vinegar, because it can go from perfectly fine to burnt in a matter of seconds. With that said this is pretty easy to make once you get past reducing the balsamic vinegar. I decided to use Organic corn syrup in this recipe. It’s not one of my favorite things to use, but I didn’t want a sauce that would get hard once it touched the cold ice cream. The corn syrup prevents it from doing so. If you want a crackling hard sauce then by all means leave out the corn syrup. The corn syrup that I is used is Organic, and it is not High Fructose corn syrup–big difference, so make sure you don’t get the latter, read the bottle!

Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 7-10 minutes
Total time: 11 minutes

Ingredients for Chocolate Balsamic Fudge sauce:
3 ounces of bittersweet dark chocolate (I used 60%)
1/2 cup of a good balsamic vinegar
2.5 Tablespoons of maple syrup or a sweetener of your choice
1 Tablespoon of butter
2 Tablespoons of organic corn syrup
Ingredients for ice cream:
1.5 cups of organic milk
2 cups of organic cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of maple syrup or sweetener of your choice
5 egg yolks

1 cup of chopped strawberries

Directions for sauce: 
Add the balsamic vinegar to a sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Once boiling lower the heat to simmer and cook until the vinegar thickens and reduces by half. Turn off the fire, add the chocolate corn syrup and butter and whisk until smooth. Serve with the strawberry ice cream, or just some fresh berries.
Directions for ice cream:
 In a sauce pan heat milk, vanilla extract, and 1 cup of cream and maple syrup to just below a boil– do not let boil! Turn off the fire, slowly add 1 cup of the hot mixture to the egg yolks whisking so that the eggs don’t scramble. Slowly whisk the egg mixture into the hot mixture still in the pan. Immediately add the remaining cream to the pan and turn the fire on to medium low. Stir the mixture
until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Turn off the fire, and pour the hot cream into a bowl to cool. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, then follow the directions for making ice cream according to your ice cream makers manufacturer.

Green beans with turmeric and mustard seeds

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One of my husbands favorite veggies is green beans. I could serve him green beans every day for a year, and he would never get tired of them. The problem is that I would get tired of green beans, and I’d get tired very quickly.   This recipe is one of my favorite ways to eat green beans. It’s simple, it’s quick and very delicious!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 lbs of fresh green beans, you can use frozen but make sure they’re defrosted
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric
4 tablespoon of olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
In a cast iron skillet heat the oil along with the mustard seeds and turmeric, when the seeds begin to pop add in the green beans, cook for 10-15 minutes, allowing the beans to brown some and loose most of the water in them. Add salt toss turn off fire, serve and enjoy!

What is your favorite green bean recipe? Follow and like me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lazygirldinners

Salmon Sorentina

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Salmon Sorrentino

This week has been so hectic on the work front for me, so I apologize for not posting a recipe sooner, but sometimes life really does get in the way of me posting. One of my favorite types of restaurants are those hidden gems nestled within a quaint neighborhood. For some reason the city that I live in is scattered with exactly those types of restaurants. Literally there is a home lined street and at the end of that street is a restaurant. The locals here love these little gems and know exactly where they are. So there is little fear that any of these restaurants will actually ever go out of business. We have this amazing little Italian Cafe near our house, and one of my favorite things on the menu there is Salmon Sorentino. All the elements in the dish speak to me. I love the saltiness of the kalmata olives, and the brininess of the capers, they all work together perfectly in the cream sauce. This recipe is my version of the restaurant version.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1lb of salmon
1 cup of heavy cream
1 clove of garlic chopped
3 tablespoons of capers drained
1/2 cup of kalmata olives
5 basil leaves chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions:  Add oil and garlic to a frying pan and cook until you can smell the garlic 15-20 seconds. Add in cream, salmon, olives, and capers, cook for 7-10 minutes or until salmon is cooked through. Add in basil, turn off fire and enjoy on a bed of pasta, or spinach, or with some steamed veggies.  If you love this, you will probably love my recipe for Chicken with Lemon Caper Cream Sauce

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Chocolate Pots de Creme

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Chocolate Pots de Creme

In keeping with my theme this week of putting an adult twist on popular foods loved by kids, I decided to make a pudding that you will love as much as your little ones do. Warning, do not make a double batch of these ( it makes 4-5 servings), because you will eat them all. Moderation is key! I had to fight my husband and my daughter for my own serving, that is how amazing these are! But try not to eat all 5 servings, at least not in 1 sitting.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook rime: 5 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
4 ounces of 60% bittersweet chocolate–chopped
3 egg yolks
1 cup of heavy cream
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of maple syrup or sweetener of your choice
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:
Place the chocolate in a blender. Whisk the milk, 1 cup cream, egg yolks, granulated sugar and salt in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spoon and almost boiling, 5 to 6 minutes.  Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate in the blender. Put the top on the blender and blend until combined and smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender as needed. Divide the chocolate mixture among ramekins or small cups. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Enjoy!



Artisan Prosciutto Tomato and Basil Pizza

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Okay I admit it, I’m lazy and don’t feel like cooking most days. But if I gave into my impulses to not cook, I’d likely starve. When I’m feeling especially lazy I take out a pre made pizza dough and  the most basic jar of tomato sauce I can find and make pizza. I love pizza and I feel like it gets a bad wrap because of all the frozen pizzas out there. Rightfully so too. Frozen pizzas lack the flavor of fresh ones, and no matter what you add to them, they just cannot compete with a fresh hot  homemade pizza. Pizza also doesn’t have to be just for kids, with the right toppings you can take a plain pizza dough and turn it into something that is sophisticated and grown up without too much effort. This recipe is a great example of that. Start with a great Proscuitto, I get mine at my Whole Foods deli. They slice it fresh, on the spot. The fresh basil in this is also a must, dried just doesn’t bring the flavor you need for this, so don’t take the shortcut unless you absolutely have to.

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 whole wheat Pizza dough,
1/2 cup of organic tomato sauce
Proscuitto 1/4 of a pound
1/2  cup of fresh basil leaves
1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
1 tomato sliced

Directions:
Preheat your oven according to the instructions on your pizza dough. Dust a working surface with flour, and roll out your pizza dough. Try to get an even thickness, shape doesn’t really matter. Top with a generous amount of tomato sauce, then add cheese, tomato slices, basil and lastly the Proscuitto .

Put it in the oven on either a pizza stone or a foil lined cookie sheet (make sure you spray it with a little oil) until the dough is golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

What are some of your favorite pizza toppings?  Follow and like me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lazygirldinners 

Amara’s Indian Fish Fry

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Amara’s Fish fry

I’ve had many Indian style fish fry’s in my life, but this particular one carries special meaning for me, because it is a recipe that was taught to me by my mother-in-law. Like many mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships ours didn’t begin easy. But our relationship turned into a relationship filled with deep love, admiration, and mutual respect. Our relationship was hard in the beginning because my mother-in-law had such a deep love for her son. It was hard for her to take a second seat to me, but the truth is she didn’t have to, my husbands heart is, and was, big enough for both of us to be in it. You could see the mutual love they had for each other upon every meeting. Every time my husband entered his moms presence, she would beam with joy! The whole room would light up from her smile when she saw him. I’ve never met a man who was as close to his mother as my husband was to his mom. He’s a better man, a better husband, and a better father because of that love. I will always be thankful to her for that. One of the things I loved doing most with my mother-in-law was cooking. We didn’t cook together that often, because she wanted to cook for me and my husband not with us. She especially loved cooking for my husband, and he loved eating her food. He would often call me to come over and have dinner with them, while we were dating, and when I arrived there would be this massive meal just for the 3 of us. This recipe is simple in every way, but it’s delicious, and more importantly dear to my heart.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
1 lb of white cod, cut and cubed
2-3 teaspoons of ground turmeric
3 tablespoons of safflower oil for frying
Sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro
4-6 Lemon wedges

Directions:
Heat the oil in a cast iron pan. Season the cod with sea salt, then lightly dust all sides of the cod with the turmeric, and place into the hot oil.

Cook for 3-4 minutes on both sides, remove from oil, and serve with lemon wedges and cilantro, enjoy!

Ground chicken Larb–the ultimate lettuce cups

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One of my favorite Thai meals, besides Crab fried rice, is Larb! It’s light, refreshing, and so flavorful. It literally makes my taste buds do a happy dance with every bite. This recipe is a great way to use any ground meat that you have, but it works especially well, with chicken and pork. If you have never tried Larb before, then your taste buds are in for a real treat!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Servings 8-10 lettuce cups

Ingredients
1lb of ground chicken
1/2 cup of green onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
1/2-3/4 cup of fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup of chopped red onions
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
Sea salt to taste
1 cup of shredded cabbage
1/2-1 teaspoon of chili pepper flakes or more if you like
1 head of romaine lettuce, or butter lettuce, leaves removed and cleaned to use as cups

Larb Dressing:
4 Tablespoons of fish sauce( available at any store in the ethnic food isle)
1/3 cup of fresh lime juice
2 cloves of garlic chopped

Directions:
In a small bowl add the ingredients for the dressing, mix well and set aside.
Season and brown the ground chicken with the red onions and garlic. Once the meat is browned pour out any excess liquid, then add in the green onions, half of the mint, chili pepper flakes, and the dressing. Cook for 1-2 minutes then turn off the heat.

Spoon the meat mixture into the lettuce cups, top with remaining fresh mint, shredded cabbage, cilantro leaves and enjoy!