Tag Archives: dinner

Thai inspired Coconut Soup

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Thai Coconut Soup

Thai Coconut Soup

 

One of my favorite soups to get when we go out to eat Thai food is Tom Yum soup.  It super easy to make at home, and if you make it vegetarian it’s super quick to make.  I used some of my home made chicken stock as a base for this, but if you’re vegan or vegetarian, you could just as easily use a vegetable stock, and skip the fish sauce.

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups of crimini mushrooms sliced thinly

2 stalks of lemon grass cut in half

2 inch bulb of ginger sliced thinly

2 cups of cabbage roughly chopped

2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

1.5 cups of organic coconut milk

2 teaspoons of lime juice– or more if you like

1/4 cup of Fresh cilantro roughly chopped

3-5 tablespoons of Fish sauce–really to taste since fish sauces vary by brand.  I used red boat, and about 5 tablespoons, but I know I couldn’t add that much with other brands that are more salty.  Start with 2 and add more gradually until you’re satisfied.

Chili pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

Add the stock, lemon grass, and ginger to a medium sized sauce pan, and bring to a simmer.  Let cook for  5 minutes so that the stock gets infused with the flavor of the lemon grass and ginger.

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Add in the mushrooms, fish sauce and lime, let cook for 3-4 minutes:

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Add in the cabbage and coconut milk.
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Allow the soup to cook for another 5 minutes or just until cabbage is nice and tender. Turn off the fire, top with cilantro, and red chili flakes, and enjoy!!!

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Sous Vide Chicken Thighs with Thyme and Garlic

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Sous Vide Chicken Thighs With Thyme and Garlic

Sous Vide Chicken Thighs With Thyme and Garlic

OMG! When I tell you, that this preparation of chicken is the best that I’ve eaten in years, believe me! My husband ordered me the new Anova immersion circulator through a Kickstarter campaign back in May. I waited patiently, and it arrived last week. My first thought when it finally arrived was to make these chicken thighs. I had watched this you-tube video , (there are 3 parts watch them all part2, part 3), of Michael Voltaggio making these chicken thighs sometime ago.  I was just in the early stages of learning about sous vide cooking, which means under vacuum cooking.  All of the things that I had read about sous vide had seemed so complex–holding temperatures, the right temperatures for different meats, cooking times–but Michael made it seem so simple, and it was! Sous vide cooking is the ultimate in lazy girl cooking.  It involves less effort than most slow cooker recipes, and the results are amazing!  This particular recipe literally involved 8 minutes of active cooking time.  If you add in the 5 minutes it took for me to salt, and bag the chicken for cooking, then it’s 13 whole minutes of your time.  So super easy! Sous vide cooking is the future of  the slow cooking movement.  After using my immersion circulator, it’s not hard for me to see why.  Unlike in conventional stove top and slow cooker cooking, in which flavor and nutrients cook out into the air, with sous vide cooking all of the flavor and nutrients stay in the food.  Every single bite that I took of this chicken was infused with the flavor of thyme, the nuttiness of the butter and garlic, and the umami flavor of the truffle salt that I used.  It was like eating  the juiciest and most flavorful  piece of fried chicken that I’ve ever eaten, only this chicken wasn’t fried. It was cooked slowly in a water bath at a low temperature.  The best thing about immersion circulators is that they can free you from weekday cooking.  You can cook these on Sunday with your immersion circulator, put them in an ice bath, and then refrigerate and “cook” or crisp the skin  3 or 4 days later.  As a side note, if you’re wary about cooking foods in plastic, like I was, there are plenty of safe BPA and Phathalate free options for out there to assist you.  Most food grade vacuum bags are both BPA and Phathalate free.  Foodsaver is one brand, even ziplock bags are-yes you can even sous vide in a Ziploc , see how here–but it has to be Ziploc not an off brand.  I use Vacmaster. Here is an article all about plastics and sous vide cooking.  If you are still wary, here is a silicone option, or you can use mason jars to sous vide in–just note that cooking in a mason jar will require additional cook time.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

3 chicken thighs skin on

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 teaspoon of grassfed butter cut 3 ways

sea salt to taste — I used a truffle salt

3 cloves of garlic smashed

3- tablespoons of a high heat oil

Directions:  Season the chicken with sea salt

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Place chicken- flat- into a food saver type bag–must be food grade-and hopefully bpa free–Food Savers are.  Top each piece of chicken with one clove of garlic, and a tab of butter. Lastly add the thyme, then vacuum and seal, using a edge sealer like a food saver, or if you have a vacuum chamber sealer as I do, vacuum it for 25-30 seconds with a 1.6 second seal.

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To a stock pot add enough water to fill half of your pot, or above the minimum water level of your immersion circulator.  Turn on the circulator, and adjust the temperature to 149F.

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Once your circulator has reached temperature, add the sealed bag and cook for 1.5 hours.

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Make sure that your chicken is fully immersed.image

At the 1 hr and 20 minute mark, prepare an ice bath DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP, it’s a matter of food safety when cooking foods at low temps in an air free environment!–fill a bowl with ice and a little bit of water about 4 cups of ice to 1 cup of water–I added some frozen lime cubes as a weight. When the chicken has cooked for 1.5 hours turn off your circulator, and remove the bagged chicken from the water–be careful the water is hot–immediately immerse the bagged chicken into the ice bath and let sit for 1 hour undisturbed.  After the 1 hour ice bath, place it in the refrigerator, until you’re ready to cook..

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Once you’re ready to brown the skin, cut open the bag, and remove the chicken. It won’t look like it has been cooked, but it is fully cooked at this point–except for the skin.  Discard the garlic and thyme.

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Add the oil to a skillet/frying pan, and bring to temperature.  Once the oil is hot, add the chicken, skin side down, lower the heat to medium, and cook until skin is nice and crispy–about 6 minutes, flip the chicken over and cook on the other side for 1- 2 minutes.  Remove from the pan and enjoy!!!!! This looks as amazing as it tastes!

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Preserved Lemon Salt–How to make Sour Salts

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Preserved Lemon Sour Salt

Preserved Lemon Sour Salt

This blog has been a year in the making. Sour salts and the use of sour salts first caught my attention after reading an article in Bon Appetite Magazine about  how the chef at State Bird Provisions was using sour salts to brighten up dishes, and make use of an ingredients that would otherwise not get used.  His approach was simple, dehydrate something as simple as a preserved lemon, grind it into a powder, and boom you’ve created a flavorful salt without even trying.  After reading that article, I knew that I wanted to try making a preserved lemon salt.  I put it on my list of things to blog about, but never got around to it–it has been almost a year since I read that article! Of all the sour salts I have on my list to make, the preserved lemon sour salt has always intrigued me the most–that and a lime pickle salt–I love a good lime pickle! My first thought was to make my own preserved lemons and lime pickle.  But rather than make you all–and myself wait for me to make a preserved lemon, which would further prolong me making this sour salt, I thought  I’d just skip ahead a few steps and buy some preserved lemon’s from my local Whole Foods. Christmas is just a few weeks away, and since I’m giving these salts away as gifts I cant wait to make preserved lemons from scratch.

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Makes about 4 ounces of sour salt.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Drying time: 2hrs

Ingredients:

4 preserved lemons (sliced thinly)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 150F if using an oven.  If using a dehydrator set it to 135F. Place preserved lemon slices evenly onto your dehydrator sheets, if using a stove,  spread over a wire rack set inside of a bake sheet.

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Bake or dehydrate  until hard and brittle, it took about 1.5 hours in my dehydrator. Once slices are hard and crisp, transfer to a spice mill/ blender and grind until powdery,

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Transfer the powder to an air tight container.

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You’ve just created a gourmet salt.  You can sprinkle this on chicken, and fish.  Add it to my North African Lamb Stew, or to some grilled lamb chops, the possibilities are endless.

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Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup-All the Thanksgiving Recipes you need in one post!

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Thanksgiving is just a week away. I’ve been preparing my household and making lists for the big day.  What would this blog be without a post with my most useful recipes to get you ready for the big day.  The below is a list of must haves for almost any Thanksgiving meal.

Chicken stock

No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a good chicken stock on hand.  Nothing beats a homemade stock, especially if you plan on making homemade gravy to go along with your Thanksgiving meal.  Using home made stock to make your gravy could mean the difference between good gravy, and fantastic not a drop left in the gravy bowl, gravy!  One of my favorite chicken stocks to make is the one from Modernist Cuisine.  It requires the use of one pound of ground chicken and one pound of chicken wings, so it’s a bit more expensive to make, because the soul purpose of the meat used int he recipe is to extract flavor, so you can’t eat it, but it’s totally worth it!  You will not find a better chicken stock.  If you prefer not to splurge on the modernist version of chicken stock, try this one–I’ve made both and they both out perform the store bought stuff.

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 Poultry Seasoning

What’s better than a do-it-yourself seasoning for your bird?  Not much short of finding every single ingredient already in your cupboard–then nothing is better! This poultry seasoning tastes identical to the store bought stuff, only it has no fillers.

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Potatoes

What’s a Thanksgiving meal without potatoes?  In my family potatoes are as synonomous to Thanksgiving dinner, as turkey is to Thanksgiving.  They are a must have!  In the mean time, this recipe for smashed potatoes is one of my favorite ways to eat potatoes and is the perfect addition to any Thanksgiving meal.  My cauliflower mash is also fantastic!  I’ve had it with and without potatoes and either way the mash is devine!

Smashed Potaoes

Smashed Potaoes

Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Mash

Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Mash

Roasted Garlic

Let’s face it, roasted garlic makes everything better–especially a Thanksgiving meal–so here’s how to roast garlic

How to Roast Garlic

How to Roast Garlic

Creamed Corn

What is it about corn that screams Thanksgiving?  I don’t know but my no cream creamed corn recipe is definitely a brillant addition to any Thanksgiving meal

No cream Creamed Corn

 

Dessert

Finally while I don’t profess to be a dessert wizard, I do have a great recipe for diy condensed milk.  My grandmother would always have a couple of cans of condensed milk out for her baking, and I’m quite sure that she would approve of my do it yourself version. It can be made with dairy and nondairy milks.

How to make Condensed Coconut Milk

 

One of my favorite desserts is Chocolate Pots de Creme  my recipe for them is AMAZING!! If you manage to save any of these for more than 3 members of your family to enjoy, then you’re doing much better than me!

 

So tell me are you ready for the big day? What are you making?

D.I.Y. Poultry Seasoning

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Poultry Seasoning--D.I.Y. Poultry Seasoning

Poultry Seasoning–D.I.Y. Poultry Seasoning

So we are just a few weeks away from Thanksgiving.  I don’t know about you, but I have been thinking about and planning what I am going to make since September.  We are visiting family out of town, so I doubt that I’ll blog anything once we leave.  I always try, but the kitchen gets pretty busy as we cook our Thanksgiving meal, and since this is the one time a year that we see my husbands family, I prefer to be focused on them.  My daughter’s birthday is also on Thanksgiving so, we try to make it a special day for her.  Poultry seasoning is one of those things that most people pull out just once or twice a year to season their turkey and stuffing/dressing.  I used it a few weeks ago for Chicken in Milk Most people buy it only once a year for just that purpose.  My mom is one of those people.  I remember shopping for Thanksgiving dinner with her when I was little, she always made her way down the dry seasoning aisle to pick up poultry seasoning.  If by some chance we got home and she had  she forgotten it, she would stop what she was doing in the kitchen, and drive to the store to get it.  Besides sage–which I’m blogging about tomorrow–it’s one of the must have’s for most thanksgiving meals.  I LOVE making my own dry seasonings so of course I had to give this a try.  I must say that this poultry seasoning is spot on to the one my mom loves to use.  If you find yourself in a bind on Thanksgiving and desperately need poultry seasoning,  pull out these spices and make your own poultry seasoning. If you have these spices but they’re fresh, even better, just chop them up and give your turkey a good rub down with them and some butter.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of ground sage

2 teaspoons of dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon of dried rosemary

1 teaspoon of dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper

Directions:  Place all of the spices into a spice grinder and grind into a powder.  Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

 

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When do you start planning your Thanksgiving meal?  Do you make the same thing every year?

Coconut Flour–How to Make Coconut Flour

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Coconut Flour- How to Make Coconut Flour

Coconut Flour- How to Make Coconut Flour

 

I love the taste and smell of coconut flour, but anyone who has ever cooked or baked with coconut flour knows that it can be a real pita to work with. Mainly because coconut flour is super absorbent. It soaks up every ounce of moisture that you put into it.  It’s so absorbent that when I cook with it,  I add it to mixtures one  tablespoon at a time, and I wait in between tablespoons to see if I need to add more moisture back in.  I don’t know of any other alternative flour that requires that much attention.  But I’m not really a baker.  The issue is not necessarily the coconut flour, it’s the processing of coconut flour, which makes it so absorbent.  During processing, the coconut looses much of its fat and oil.  Making coconut flour in this way retains most of the oil, which makes it easier to bake and cook with.  If you make coconut flour this way, you will not have to add extra moisture, the moisture will already be there in the form of coconut oil. which makes it less drying.

 

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Ingredients:

The meat from 2 large coconuts (about 1cup)

Directions:  Pre-heat the oven to 150F. Spread the coconut meat evenly out on bake sheet or a dehydrator sheet.

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Place the sheet in the oven and allow to dehydrate for 6 hours or until the coconut is dry and crisp.  Transfer dehydrated coconut flakes to a spice grinder or blender and blend until it reaches the consistency that you like.

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Transfer the flour to an airtight container until ready to use.

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Citrus Powder–How to make Citrus Powder

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Lemon and Lime Citrus Powder

Lemon and Lime Citrus Powder

 

Several  month’s ago I read an article in Bon Appetite Magazine about  how the chef at State Bird Provisions was using sour salts to brighten up dishes, and make use of an ingredients that would otherwise not get used.  His approach was simple, dehydrate something as simple as a preserved lemon, grind it into a powder, and boom you’ve created a flavorful salt without even trying.  After reading that article, I knew that I wanted to try making a preserved lemon salt.  I put it on my list of things to blog about, but never got around to it–it has been almost a year since I read that article!  I had almost forgotten about wanting to do a preserved lemon salt until last week, my husband and I went out to eat.  I ordered a Caesar salad, and when they brought it out, it looked completely under dressed, almost like they had forgotten to put the salad dressing on it.  I took a bite thinking it was going to be a bland salad, but instead  got this bright  burst of flavor.  The chef had dusted the salad with lemon zest.  The salad was fantastic! Even better than my Caesar Salad.  I  knew then that I had to try this at home.   It wasn’t until I read a review for the soon to be released cookbook Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes that I got the idea about exactly how I could do it, but even better.  Lemon zest is great but it’s not exactly shelf stable.  If you’re going to use it, you definitely have to use it right away.  But if you take the peels of a lemon, lime, or even an orange, dry them in the dehydrator, and then blend them into a powder, what you get is something extremely flavorful, and shelf stable.  You also have a way to use leftover peels! I don’t know about you, but I hate to waste, so anything that allows me to preserve, rather than waste, I love.   So you’re probably wondering, besides a salad, what you use these powders on.  The answer is almost anything!  You can sprinkle the lemon, or lime powder on chicken, fish, pork or steak to give it a fresh and vibrant twist.  You can add these citrus powders to baked goods, rim your tequila glasses with them, add them with some other dry spices to make a citrus rub, (stay tuned for that post), make citrus salts, the list goes on and on.  If you make enough of these powders, you can even give them as gifts for Christmas.  I for one am doing a lemon pepper for my friends.   Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes hasn’t been release yet, but I’ve already pre-ordered a copy through Amazon.  It’s full of recipes for dehydrating and powdering everything from herbs, to yogurt.   Yes you can even dehydrate yogurt! I suppose it’s not such a leap to know that you can dry yogurt, especially given the fact that powdered milk and cheese are products that you can buy in most grocery stores. However, the thought of being able to use my dehydrator to make my own powdered yogurt and herbs excites me!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Drying time: 1.5 hours-2 hours

Ingredients:

The peels from 2 lbs of organic citrus –I used lemon, lime

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 150F if using an oven.  If using a dehydrator set it to 135F.  Using a vegetable peeler peel the skin off of the citrus.

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Add the citrus to a pot, add enough  cold water to cover all of the citrus and bring to a boil—let boil for 1 minute.  Drain peels into a sieve and rinse under cold water.  Return back to the pot and repeat: boil ,drain, and rinse twice more.

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Spread the peels out evenly onto your dehydrator sheets. If using a stove,  spread the peels over a wire rack set inside of a bake sheet.

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Bake or dehydrate  until peels are hard and brittle, it took about 1.5 hours in my dehydrator. Once peels are hard and crisp, transfer to a spice mill

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Grind until powdery, transfer the powder to an air tight container.

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OMG! The smell of these powders while  you are grinding –AMAZING!!!! If you like this recipe you will love my  recipe for DIY Ground Ginger–How to make Powdered Ginger

 

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Chicken in Milk

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Chicken in milk

Chicken in milk

 

A few weeks a go I came across a recipe for Chicken and Milk by Jaime Oliver.  The recipe used one of my favorite ingredients–a whole chicken.  It seemed simple (code:Lazy) enough for me to try.   It didn’t require much more than adding the ingredients to a pot and letting it braise for an hour or so.  It also featured another one of my favorite ingredients-lemon with the addition of the milk– my taste buds were anticipating  chicken stewed in a creamy lemon sauce. The sauce was not as creamy as I had anticipated and hoped for, but it was still a great sauce none the less.  While Jaime Oliver’s recipe looked amazing, I did add a few of my own touches to the recipe.  I have been reading about the use of lemon leaves, (from a lemon tree), in cooking.  The leaves are usually used in the same way that bay leaves are used. You use them to impart flavor, but you never eat them.  If you have a lemon tree, pick two of the most beautiful leaves that you can find, wash them, and add them to this dish.  Also be grateful that the next time you trim your lemon tree, you will have an alternative way to use the leaves–you can dry them just like bay leaves! If you don’t have a lemon tree call a friend or neighbor who does and ask for a few! Just make sure to ask if they use any pesticides on their tree.   If that attempt fails, just cook this without the lemon leaves. I also added poultry seasoning, I didn’t have any fresh sage, which Jaimie’s recipe calls for.  The poultry seasoning has sage, so I used it.

 

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 1.5 hours mostly non active

 

Ingredients:

5 pound Whole Organic Chicken

10 cloves of garlic (whole no need to remove the skin)

Zest of two lemons (1 Tablespoon of lemon zest)

2 Leaves from a Lemon Tree

3-4 Tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of poultry seasoning

1/2 stick of cinnamon

Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste

 

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 375F  Rub the chicken generously with the olive oil, and season with a good amount of sea salt and black pepper.

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Then Brown both sides of the chicken over medium high heat. Once brown add in the Lemon zest, garlic, poultry seasoning, cinnamon, and milk.  image

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Cover the pot with a secure lid, then transfer the pot to the oven and cook for 1.5 hours   Remove from oven. serve and enjoy!

 

D.I.Y. Taco Seasoning

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Taco Seasoning

Taco Seasoning

 

I used to be the queen of packaged seasoning, if they made it I tried it.  It never really occurred to me that I could just as easily make most of these seasoning with spices that I already had in my pantry.   It wasn’t until I was in the middle of browning some ground meat to make tacos that I realized I was missing one key ingredient–the taco seasoning–and I was forced to make due with what I had. That was a fateful day indeed. Enlightening and freeing! I no longer buy pre-made seasonings.  I just make my own.  This taco seasoning is equally as good as the prepackaged mix that I used to buy, except it doesn’t have any cornstarch or any of the other fillers that packaged seasonings tend to have.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1/4 cup or one package of taco seasoning

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of chili powder (optional)

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl until well combined. Add the entire contents to browned ground meat, or try it out in my recipe for Makeover Chicken Taco’s

 

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Like this seasoning?  Then you make like my Dry Ranch Seasoning  or my Spicy Dry rub seasoning

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

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Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

 

Lamb is one of my favorite meats.  Personally I like it more than beef, if given the choice between lamb and steak, I’d choose the lamb every time.  My husband on the other hand prefers steak.  He is 100% a meat and potato’s kind of guy.  After having these lamb chops he said that he’s a convert..Lol..I doubt it!   However, I’m glad that he thought that these lamb chops were delicious. I came up with the idea of marinating these with the fillings that I use for my Lamb Patties.  I added a little bit of curry powder and cumin to give the chops a little punch of flavor.  I’m so glad I did these are super flavorful, and grilling them made them more amazing than they already were.  If you only try one of my lamb recipes try this one! You will not be disappointed!!!

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

 

Ingredients:

1 pound of lamb chops

1/4 cup  fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup fresh mint

1 large shallot (can sub with onion, use half of a small onion)

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon of cumin powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Sea salt to taste

 

Directions: To a blender add cilantro, parsley, mint, curry powder, cumin powder, shallot and olive oil, blend into a paste.  Season the lamb chops with sea salt, then rub with the marinade.

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Once your grill is nice and hot, place the lamb chops on the grill and cook for 7-8 minutes on each side or until the chops reach you’re desired level of doneness.  Remove from heat, serve, and enjoy!

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