Filet of Honeycrisp, Chicken Thighs and Barbados Cherries

Lady Sally wasn't feeling so well the other day, so she decided it was time for me to make some chicken soup. Everybody knows the efficacy of chicken soup in dealing with the common and uncommon cold!  My sovereign remedy is Chinese Hot & Sour Soup which is an ever evolving recipe that contains a standard body of ingredients which vary in quantity.

Hot & Sour Soup (Chicken Thighs #1)

Part of the charm of this dish is that nearly everything is in shreds or small strips.

32 oz no-salt Chicken Broth

4 Chicken Thighs (bone in)

1/4 lb extra firm Tofu cut into 1/4” strips

1 bunch Green Onions, cut into 1” julienne

1 Egg, beaten

4 oz Crimini Mushrooms

1/2 can Bean Sprouts

1 thumb fresh Ginger, julienned

1/4 cup White Wine Vinegar

1/4 cup Soy Sauce (I used mushroom-soy from my local Asian market which I had on hand)

1/8 cup Hoisin Sauce

1/8 cup Pepper Sauce (I had Tapatio handy)

S&P tt (salt and pepper to taste)

Brown the thighs, then add the broth and everything else except the vinegar and tofu. Simmer until the chicken is very done. Remove thighs, strip off the meat and discard the bones. Return shredded meat to pot, add the vinegar, tofu and a couple cups of water, and simmer 15-20 minutes more before serving.

Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie (Chicken Thighs #2)

I made this for our Sunday Lunch yesterday, but cooked the thighs Saturday evening and cooled them overnight in the fridge.  Both of us prefer chicken breast if I'm going to serve a slab 'o chicken on a plate.  But thighs are the perfect poultry part for dishes like Hot & Sour Soup or this pot pie -- more flavorful and much cheaper.  Buy the ones with bones and skin, then pull the skin off before cooking, to reduce the amount of fat in the dish. 

1 frozen rolled up Pie Crust

4 Chicken Thighs, bone-in, skinned

1 9oz box frozen Pearl Onions with Cream Sauce

4 oz Frozen Peas

4 oz Crimini Mushrooms

4 oz mixed Shredded Cheese

Cavendar's Spice Blend to taste (or Old Bay if you can't find Cavender's)

Saute the thighs, dusted with a bit of Cavendar's, until browned. Then add a cup of water and poach until they are almost falling off the bone. Cool, shred the meat and discard the bones.

Thaw the pie crust and roll out the cover a 9” deep dish pie tin. Thaw the frozen vegetables. Toss vegetables with the chicken, mushrooms, cheese and additional spice as desired. Dock the bottom of the crust with a fork. Fill the crust with the chicken-vegetable mixture until heaping (it will slump during cooking). Bake in a 350F pre-heated oven for 30-45 minutes until nice and bubbly and the crust is browned on the edges.

I served the pot pie with a side of my signature side dish:

Ginger-Orange Carrot Ribbons

1-2 large carrots per person

1 thumb of fresh Ginger, julienned

1/2 container frozen Orange Juice concentrate.

Peel the carrots.  Don't throw away that outer peel.  Just keep peeling until you can't get any more carrot ribbons.  In a large skillet put half the OJ concentrate and the ginger.  Top with the mass of carrot ribbons.  Cover and turn the heat on medium.  Cook about 10 minutes, tossing the carrots in the juice,  until the carrots are tender.

Barbados Cherry Jam

It's been a bumper year for our Barbados Cherry bush.  We've harvested more and larger cherries in the last month than in the previous 2+ years.  Full of vitamin C, the Acerola as it's also known has a taste sorta like crab apples -- tart not sweet.  Since there is very little meat on a cherry, juice and jams are good things to do.  I also combine the juice with cream cheese like I do with Key Lime juice, and make a refrigerator pie.

4 cups Barbados cherries

3cups water

1/4 cup Lemon Juice (I used Meyer lemon juice)

2 cups Brown Sugar

1 cup White Sugar

1 packet Pectin

Cook the cherries in the water for 15-20 minutes. Use a potato masher to split and otherwise dismember the cherries and let out all the high vitamin C goodness. Press through a sieve to extract the juice and leave behind the seeds and most of the pulp.

Measure 4 cups of juice and the sugar into a pot. Bring to a boil and add the packet of pectin. Cook for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before ladling into jars.

Filet of Honeycrisp

I happened to see Lady Sally cutting up an apple the other day, an it dawned on me that I do it differently than most.  I don't cut wedges of apple then cut away divots of seeds in each piece.  Here's how I "filet" an apple:

No muss, little fuss, and no seeds to surgically remove!

Nibbles & Bites

“Oh this sounds yummy.” 

A lot of my culinary explorations start with some variation of this statement. This time Sally had found a CIA recipe in the USA Weekend Sunday supplement magazine. CIA? Not Men In Black Helicopters. This CIA is the Culinary Institute of America.  They do get told by the rest of us that they should be wearing black chef's coats, however!

Butternut Squash with Ricotta Gnocchi

This is my take on the CIA recipe, leaving out a couple fiddly bits.

Gnocchi? Think dumplings. Made by hand and boiled in a pot of salted water or broth. The dumplings can be made from a variety of combinations of flours, potatoes, cheeses, and other things. You can buy dried gnocchi in packets at the megamart; but where's the fun in that? These are both fun to make and flavor-filled.

Soft and tender, this is comfort food x 10. It would also make a perfect meal for someone recovering from an illness or surgery.

4 cups peeled and cubed Butternut Squash

1 tsp unsalted Butter

1 can low sodium Chicken Broth

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan (not that canned nonsense)

1-2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning blend

Gnocchi:

1-1/4 cups Ricotta cheese

3/4 cup AP Flour, plus additional as needed

1 Egg

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

3/4 tsp salt

Microwave the squash (or roast at 400F for about 20 minutes) until soft but not mushy. Reserve.

To make the gnocchi, start heating a large diameter pot of salted water. Mix the ricotta, flour, egg, oil and 3/4 tsp of salt into a soft dough. Add a tablespoon of flour at a time to stiffen the dough as needed, and reduce its stickiness.

When the water comes to a hard rolling boil, use two teaspoons to form more-or-less football-shaped dumplings and drop them in the boiling liquid a few at a time. When they rise to the surface, let them cook another minute or two, then use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked gnocchi to a dish. Repeat until the dough is used up.

OK! I admit that it's been years since I made gnocchi and my two-spoon skills have been lost. They don't look so hot. But who cares when it's for yourself at home? They tasted fabulous, and that's what counts, when all is said and done.

In a large skillet, place the chicken broth, butter, cooked squash and gnocchi. Dust with Italian Seasoning, to taste. Bring the liquid to a low simmer, cover and warm everything through for a few minutes before plating. Garnish with Parmesan and serve.

Frankly, serving the gnocchi and squash in a couple spoonfuls of broth was kind of a waste of broth, IMHO. Next time I'll use half broth and half water to cook the gnocchi in. That'll add some flavor. Or else I'll make a serious, soup-like broth and serve the gnocchi and squash as a soup.

Serves 4.

Chicken and Eggplant

This is the usual sort of dish I make for Lady Sally and myself, on the fly, from what's at hand in the fridge. Thursday night what I found was a pair of chicken breasts, a couple of nice Japanese eggplant, and a can of diced tomatoes with basil and garlic and oregano. From the spice shelf I grabbed an Italian Seasoning blend and some Spanish Smoked Paprika.

I sliced the eggplant about an inch thick, drizzled the rounds with a bit of EVOO, and dusted with the Italian Seasoning (I happen to have Rachel Ray's on hand). Fired up the broiler and gave them 5 minutes per side for color and caramelization. Then held them in reserve as I cooked the chicken.

Dusted the breasts with smoked paprika, then browned them for a few minutes on each side, tossed in a cup of water and slapped the lid on. Fifteen minutes later I had perfectly done bird. Add the eggplant rounds and the drained tomatoes and heat everything through. Bingo!

Guava Goodness

We've been seeing guava in the markets lately, and I picked some up for making desserts. We're big fruit smoothi fans, as you know, and guava are perfect for the task.

There are two basic kinds of guava – the pink or “Florida” guava common to Florida and Latin America, and the white or Thai guava originally from Southeast Asia and now grown everywhere in the tropics. The pink are our favorite, as they have a scent and taste reminiscent of strawberry and banana! The white guava are less juicy, only mildy sweet, and have very little fragrance. Both range in size approximately that of a tennis ball.

As you can see, there are a zillion tiny, and very hard, seeds. Don't try to chew them, you'll break a tooth! There are so many that it's nearly impossible to remove them unless you take out the whole “seed packet”, which would be like seeding tomatoes, but more troublesome.

The smoothies I made featured three guavas of course, and three small bananas from a bunch recently ripened from the neighbor's creekside planting (taken with permission, of course). Instead of yogurt, I added some kefir.

Kefir? A sort of cross between milk and yogurt, made by fermenting milk using a special “kefir starter” – a bacteria/yeast culture similar to, but distinct from those used in making soft cheeses and yogurts. We got our kefir from a wonderful central Florida organic farm we recently discovered, but the drink kefir originated among the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains of Eurasia, between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.

The taste of kefir is sort of like buttermilk, sort of like yogurt. Slightly tart, and creamy at the same time. Enzyme rich, it is a very healthy food, and is often recommended for those with sensitive stomachs and gastro-intestinal “issues”. If you don't have an organic farm nearby, you can usually find kefir in the better class of megamart or health food store.

Bon Appetite!

Escalivada, Purple Yams! & DIY Baked Tofu

Lady Sally and her friend Susan spent a couple of days in Barcelona (the capital of Catalonia) while they were in Spain, and enjoyed some of the classic Catalonian fare.   For Gator Game Gathering the other night I made a classic Barcelonan warm grilled salad called Escalivada (which they hadn't tried) and served it on squares of grilled flatbread, all drizzled with a bit of good quality Catalonian olive oil from the village of Llado, and also a nice balsamic vinegar.

Escalivada

If you're a real grill-aholic, this is the salad for you. The whole dish can be done on a hot grill, as a starter, to be eaten while you grill the burgers or steaks.   Or you can make it on the “inverted grill” called your oven's broiler.

1-2 long Japanese eggplant per person (or one large dark eggplant)

1 large Tomato per person, halved

1 Red Bell Pepper per two people

1 large Poblano Pepper

1 small Red Onion, halved

1 small White Onion, halved

1-2 Tbsp Herbs de Provence spice blend

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Flatbread per person

Slice the eggplant into 1” rounds (or 1” fingers if using the large purple kind). In Barcelona they would skin the eggplant and the tomatoes, but that's a lot of bother, IMHO. Do take the papery outer skin off the onions though. Top and remove the seeds and veins from the peppers, and open them out flat.

Fire up your heat source – grill or broiler. Set everything on a grill pan with drain slots, or something similar. Make sure the peppers are skin side up and the onions and tomatoes are cut side down to start. Drizzle with olive oil. You could also put the prepped veggies in a large bowl or zip top bag, pour in some olive oil, and toss to combine, before setting the veg on the grill pan. Sprinkle with the herbs de provence, and put the pan on/under the heat. Cook 5-8 minutes until the peppers are charred nicely. Remove from the heat, flip everything over, sprinkle with more herbs, and oil, and return to the heat until the second side is cooked. Remove things to a warm platter as they finish cooking... the onions will be last.

Grill your flatbreads – either homemade or store bought work well as a base for this salad. Then divvy up the vegetables among the flatbreads, drizzle again with good olive oil and balsamic.

DIY Baked Tofu

Last week I gave you a recipe for a version of the PF Chang Vegetarian Lettuce Wrap, which used baked tofu. I found the baked tofu hard to locate, and you may too. But making your own is dirt simple although a bit time consuming. Make it one day for use the next, or later in the week. Most tofu is pretty bland stuff, but this is really tasty, if I do say so myself.

1 pound extra-firm Tofu

1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame oil

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce or Tamari

1 Tbsp Rice Wine or Sherry

1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar or White Wine Vinegar

1 clove Garlic clove, minced

2 tsp fresh Ginger, minced

2 Tbsp Water

1 Tbsp Sriracha or Asian chili paste

1 Tbsp Corn Starch

Drain the tofu: wrap it in several layers of paper towel, and place it on a plate with more paper towel underneath (gotta absorb the water). Put second plate on top of the tofu and place a heavy can of beans (28-32 oz) or a brick on top.

Brick? Doesn't everyone have a “kitchen brick” wrapped in tinfoil? They're handy for all sorts of flattening jobs like bacon strips and flattening a chicken breast for Chicken Milanese.

Let the tofu compress for 30-45 minutes. Unwrap it, pat dry, and cut into cubes, slices or whatever shape you like. I prefer slices about 3/8” thick, and I get about 10 slices per pound.

In a large, zip-top bag, mix everything else except the corn starch. Add the tofu pieces, zip the bag shut and remove as much air as you can. Refrigerate for anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight (I made mine with 4-5 hours of marinade time), turning a couple times during the period to ensure good coverage.

Preheat your oven or toaster oven to 350ºF, or an electric skillet to 325ºF.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or put a piece of tinfoil in the bottom of your electric skillet.

Drain the tofu (reserve the marinade for other uses) and transfer the pieces to a large bowl. Use a mesh sieve or strainer to sift corn starch over the tofu, tossing periodically to coat everything thoroughly. Alternatively, put the tofu pieces in a large plastic bag, add the corn starch and shake gently to coat (which is what I did).

Reserved marinade can be refrigerated, and used for a dipping sauce or dressing for another dish.

Bake the coated tofu (covered if using an electric skillet), turning several times, until crisp and brown, about 45 minutes until you get the degree of brown-ness you want. Place on a rack to cool. 

 Use immediately, or store in the fridge for 4-5 days. Great not only in that Veggie Wrap recipe, but as an additive to an Asian style salad, stir fry, soup, or just as an out-of-hand snack.

Purple Yams

Yes... another purple food. I'd heard of them, but until last week at a local Farmer's Market, hadn't had a chance to try them. The seller mentioned that the purple variety wasn't quite as sweet or moist as its orange brethren, and he was right. Cooking time was the same though.Very tasty in their own right. Give them a try if you see them!

We had them just microwaved whole, then halved to serve with butter, but I think they would be visually stunning and very tasty in a side dish of cubed yams, mixed in equal amounts with the familiar orange ones.

Bonus Salad

Crisp Romaine lettuce, fresh beefsteak tomato, and a drizzle of really good balsamic vinegar!  Can it get any better or simpler?

Copycat PFChang, Jackfruit and Rambutans revisited.

This week I was tasked by Lady Sally to re-create the PF Chang Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, for our vegan friends Susan & Patrick.  Sally and Susan had had them at the PFC at the Atlanta airport on their way to and from Spain a couple weeks back.

A quick search gave me a couple of copycat recipes, which I compared to the copycat version of the PFC Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps I'd made some time ago for Sally's daughter Holly.  Then I tweaked the recipes to create mu own version.



CopyCat PF Chang Veggie Wrap
The idea is simple - "stir fried" diced Asian veggies and a protein, served in a fold of leaf lettuce like a soft taco.  You can do this with beef, chicken or tofu, and all are very tasty.

Although the recipe sounds complicated, it really isn't.  But you do have to make two sauces and a stir fry oil blend.  If you like this dish, I might suggest making up, say, a cup or more of each sauce and storing it in your fridge for future cookings.

I suggest visiting your very best local Asian market to obtain most of the ingredients for this dish.  Baked tofu (a different from regular tofu) is not readily available in megamarts.  Do not substitute firm or extra firm regular tofu, or you'll regret it!

Also things like soy sauce, cellophane noodles, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, hoisin and oyster sauces (and their vegetarian counterparts) are generally much cheaper, available in much greater variety, and overall "better" than the Westernized stuff you find in a megamart.

If you're making this for non-hardcore vegetarians, you can, of course, use regular Hoisin and Oyster Sauces.

Serves 4

Cooking Sauce

1 tablespoon Vegetarian Hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 tablespoon Mirin, rice wine, or dry sherry

2 tablespoons Vegetarian Oyster sauce

2 tablespoons Water

1 teaspoon Asian style Toasted Sesame oil (not the plain stuff)

1 teaspoon Sugar

2 teaspoons Cornstarch

Marinade

2 teaspoons Cornstarch

1 Tbsp Mirin, rice wine, or dry sherry

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 teaspoons Chinese Chili Sauce (Sriracha, or any hot pepper sauce)

1 Tbsp Water

StirFry Oil

1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil or peanut oil plus 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil, shaken or stirred to blend

Filling

2 cups Baked Tofu, 1/4" diced (use 5 spice flavored tofu according to a former employee)

2 teaspoons fresh minced Ginger

3-4 Garlic cloves, minced

1 bunch Green Onions, minced

1 Red Bell Pepper, 1/4" diced

1/4 large Red Onion, 1/4" diced

1 can Bamboo Shoots (8oz), diced

1 can Water Chestnuts (8oz), diced

Serving Items

1 package Cellophane Noodles (rice noodles or bean thread vermicelli, 8 ounce) 

2-3 heads Romaine Lettuce, leaves separated and trimmed

Mix the Cooking Sauce in a bowl and set aside.   Mix the Marinade in a medium bowl. Mix well and marinate the tofu in the sauce for at least 15 minutes.

Start heating a pot of water.  When it boils add the cellophane noodles, turn off the heat, and let the noodles soften while you cook the filling.

Heat wok, griddle or skillet to medium-high heat. Add the StirFry oil and fry tofu for 2-3 minutes, turning constantly. Set cooked tofu aside.

Add the ginger, garlic and onion; and fry for about a minute. Add the other ingredients and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.  Return the tofu to the heat. Add the Cooking Sauce and cook until thickened (about 2 mins).

Drain the cellophane noodles and arrange them on a platter. Spoon the filling mixture over them and serve with lettuce leaves.

Jackfruit, plus Bananas and Rambutans revisited

Last week when I stopped at the Thursday Farmer's Market, I visited my friends from Pine Island Botanicals/The Sprout Queen -- a local organic farm that offer year-around gourmet greens, sprouts, and seasonal tropical fruits and veggies as well as free-range chicken eggs.

This week I got a large slice of ripe jackfruit from them.  And at another both I found some Rambutans that had been imported.  

Jackfruit can be intimidating.  First off, they are HUGE!  At least the size of a bowling ball.  They can get as big as 80 pounds and 30 inches in diameter.  I bought a slice a bit over an inch thick that weighed a pound and a half and was nearly the diameter of a dinner plate.  Finding a vendor that will sell you slices by the pound, is a GOOD THING unless you know you love jackfruit and have some ideas of what to do with the ripe fruit.

Green Jackfruit can be used as a protein substitute for vegetarian cooking.  The ripe fruit, with its heady scents of pineapple and banana, is fabulous for smoothies and other purees, or for simply eating out of hand.  They do require a bit of preparation before indulging however.  See those yellow pockets of yumminess?  Each one contains a seed the size of your thumbnail, that are easy to remove.  But then the pockets have to be dissected away from all the other bits and pieces:

That being done, you can combine them with other fruits and milk products to make fabulous smoothies.  The first two smoothies were made from one half of that slice of jackfruit pictured above, a splash of half & half, and two bananas we'd ripened from the banana patch behind Sally's house:

Bananas

From one stalk of bananas we obtained nearly three dozen 6" bananas that are super tasty.  I discovered that you should freeze bananas individually after peeling them.  Then put several frozen bananas in a zip top bag and seal for long term freezer storage.  The neighbor just brought me two more stalks of bananas to ripen!

Rambutans

 Here are the rambutans I found at the market.  Had to get some so I could photograph them for my food photo collection!  And taste, them of course.  These weren't quite ripe, so they were a bit hard to peel.  Not nearly as juicy or meaty as lychees or longans.

Unfortunately rambutans are too "cold sensitive" to grow here -- even in Keysian Florida!  But at least here we get some imports from Costa Rica and other nearby tropical countries.  I added these and some yogurt to the remaining of the jackfruit for a second round of smoothies.