Chicken Curry Soup with Rice

I was feeling quite under the weather last week, so obviously for dinner I had to make the quintessential chicken soup.  Opting for rice instead of noodles, and a bit of a kick to really help drain those sinuses (tmi?) this chicken curry soup was born.

I found a spice bottle in our spice rack with a hand-written label on it that said "curry powder".  There are lots of types of curries, all with very distinct flavors.  I didn't really know what I was getting, but I figured I'd never met a curry I didn't like, so I would have at it.  Turns out this one resembled the Indian curries I'm accustomed to.  It worked out.

So first I sauteed the garlic and shallot in a little olive oil, then added 1/2 cup of brown basmati rice (uncooked) to coat in the oil mixture.  Then I added the curry.  Probably about 1 tbsp (it's better to under-add the spices at first, then go back for more if you need them).  I mixed and heated everything through to really let that flavor infuse as much as it could.

Then I added the chicken broth (maybe 3 cups worth? sorry, i never measure) and sliced carrots.  This would allow the rice to cook in broth instead of water, and the carrots to soften. 

The rice would normally take about 20 minutes to cook, so after about 15 minutes I added the raw chicken.  I used sliced chicken breast meat.  I added this later because I worried that if it was stewing too long it wouldn't stay as tender, so closer to the end point was when I wanted to start it poaching.

Once done, the rice was falling apart, the carrots were soft, the chicken tender, and the broth with just the right amount of kick.  You can add more broth as you find necessary, and I added a little bit of pepper and dried tarragon.  Suddenly being sick didn't feel so bad. 

Beef Stroganoff

 

Beef Stroganoff is a pretty easy fixin, because it's really nothing fancy.  The sauce is beef broth and sour cream, but Stroganoff plays the role of comfort food well and is a nice change-up if you're making pasta again but want to alter the sauce/toppings.

I found myself with two remaining thinly sliced steaks, so I cut them into strips.  I also chopped some garlic and shallot, and had I stocked my fridge properly, mushrooms would've also been invited.

Start by sauteing the garlic and shallots (and mushrooms) in a little bit of butter or olive oil.  Then add your steak strips and cook until browned on all sides.  

Next it's time to make the roux.  Move your ingredients to the side of the skillet so that the butter finds itself alone on the opposite side.  Add some flour.  Depending on how much butter/grease you have, add about a tbsp of flour and mix it with the grease until a roux forms (the firm combination of flour and oil that is mostly solid).  

Add your beef broth at this point (as much as you want sauce on your pasta...1 cup? 2 cups?) Don't worry, thanks to the flour the broth will reduce and thicken so you may need more than you initially add.  

Once you cook the broth down to the desired amount of sauciness, add your sour cream to taste.  About 1/4 cup - 3/4 cup should be plenty.  Mix and then add your final touches of fresh herbs.  I recommend dill.  I did not have dill so I went with tarragon.  It helps to have a little bite to combat the beefy/creamy taste of this dish.  

Pour your meat/veggies/sauce over freshly cooked pasta (egg noodles work well for this, but I just had regular fusili), garnish with herbs if you'd like, and serve!

Rice and Beans

This was one of those "what can I throw together with existing ingredients, but that is very dense because I'm very hungry" meals.  Lacking tortillas, I figured I could make what I would normally put in a burrito, but eat it like a stew-y mush.

Rice and beans.  A good starting point.  I only had brown basmati rice, though, so we'll call this a bit of a fusion dish.  Basically I cooked the rice according to the directions.  In a separate skillet I heated a little olive oil to cook the garlic and onions.  Then I added a can of black beans, which I partially drained.  As the beans cooked, the liquid diminished, so I thought I'd maybe treat this like a black bean soup, and I added some chicken broth, which too cooked off eventually.  I added the sliced chicken to basically poach in the liquid, and once no longer pink I added the rice.  I now had a soupy mixture, so I added the juice of 1/2 a lime and cooked until the liquid was reduced completely (only about five minutes or so).  To finish it off I added a bunch of fresh cilantro and scallions, poured it in a bowl, and melted some cheese on top.  It definitely did the trick and filled me up.

Balsamic Marinated Steak with Pesto Mashed Potatoes

I bought these weird thinly sliced steak strips that called themselves sandwich strips.  I figured I'd marinate them, grill them, put them between some bread, and do the whole sandwich thing.  Well, my bread went bad, but I was hungry, so I figured I'd treat these steaks how I normally would a skirt or a flank steak.

I went for a balsamic-based marinade, so into the ziploc bag went the balsamic vinegar, salt/pepper, rosemary, garlic, and a touch of olive oil.  Into the fridge it went while I sliced some red onion and scallion (onion overkill? probably. but they were all i had in terms of complimentary produce).

I then made some mashed potatoes, because nothing goes better w/ steak than potatoes.  I mashed with cream cheese and pesto sauce, rather than milk and cheese, for a little variation.

Finally, it was time to cook the steak.  It took about three minutes since it was so thin, and I didn't want to overcook.  Heat the skillet over medium-high heat.  Add your steak, red onions, and the juices.  Cook the steak about 1-2 minutes per side.  Turn over, repeat.

Plate your mashed potatoes, lay your steak atop them, and drizzle with some of the red onions and reduced balsamic vinegar marinade.  Garnish with some fresh scallions if you're feeling like your breath won't be pungent enough already.

Spiced Shrimp with Avocado Corn Salsa

My friend hosted a dinner party last weekend and I volunteered to bring an appetizer.  The entree was turkey chili, so I wanted something that could compliment that and provide a little something different.  Now I'm embarrassed to say I did not take a picture of my finished product (mostly because it was in her kitchen surrounded by people I just met and I didn't feel the need to whip out my camera to document a bowl of shrimp).  So here's a stock photo from the internet, but if you look below you can see the blurry image of my bowl of salsa with shrimp dangling around the rim!

Look at that lovely bowl of appetizer holding it's own amidst a sea of lavish tableware.  Ok, enough about my lack of photography, here's how you make it.

Take your raw, peeled, deveined, butterflied jumbo shrimp and put them in your dry rub with a little olive oil and garlic.  I used cayenne pepper, paprika, ground coriander, dried oregano, cumin, pepper, diced garlic, extra-virgin olive oil.  Toss the shrimp to coat and place in the fridge until ready to grill (at least 30 minutes). 

Next prepare the salsa.  Dice your red onion and tomato first.  Then add your corn and chopped scallion.  I added the avocado, cilantro, and lime juice last, so as to avoid browning of the avocado.  Again, toss to coat and store in the fridge until ready to serve.  

I brought the uncooked shrimp and salsa to the dinner party and grilled the shrimp on the stove there.  You don't really need to oil the skillet since there's oil in the shrimp marinade.  Using tongs and a grill pan, cook about 2-3 minutes on each side until the shrimp is cooked through.  Arrange shrimp surrounding the salsa.  Rather than scoop the salsa with the shrimp and eat with your fingers, I recommend a fork.  The spiciness of the shrimp coupled with the cool and citrusy salsa make for a perfect pairing, and also go nicely before a hearty turkey chili. 

Banana Bread

I'm a big fan of banana bread.  Every time I buy bananas and don't get around to eating them before they turn brown, I throw them in the freezer and accumulate them until I have enough to make a batch of banana bread.  I have tried many recipes.  Some use milk, some use cinnamon, some are dense, others are fluffy.  My current favorite recipe doesn't use many ingredients, but it does use brown sugar in lieu of granulated sugar.  I also may notoriously undercook my baked goods, but I haven't had any complaints yet, so if you are so offended, just leave the bread in the oven the extra ten minutes.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (softened, not melted)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 - 3 overripe bananas

Step 1: Acquire over-ripened bananas.  Yes, they are brown and look like this:  Don't fret.

Step 2: Cream butter and brown sugar in a bowl.  This is much easier with an electric mixer, but I had to suffer through hand mixing (woe is me).  Once creamed, add the eggs and the bananas.  Lumpy is ok.  

Step 3: Combine flour, salt, and baking powder and slowly add to the mushy banana mixture until everything is combined.  At this point add any extras you want: nuts, chocolate chips, or nothing at all.

Step 4: Pour into a greased baking dish (preferably a loaf pan, but use what you have) and bake for an hour to an hour and 10 minutes.

Step 5: Remove from oven.  Test doneness with a toothpick.  Slice and serve!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I'm not a huge pancake fan, but I am a huge cinnamon roll fan, so in an attempt to fool myself into thinking I was eating a healthier version of a notoriously sweet breakfast item, I stumbled upon this recipe for cinnamon roll pancakes and tried my hand at them for a brunch this past weekend.  Above you see the last pancake to come off the grill, but worry not, there were no survivors. 

Basically I got the recipe from this site: http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/.  So you should obviously follow those directions and admire her prettier pictures, but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway. 

I prepped the pancake batter first, then made the brown sugar/cinnamon filling and put it in the fridge, and finally prepped the cream cheese icing.

This was actually my first time making pancake batter from scratch (i.e. no bisquick involved) and I must say it's a rather easy process. 

The bag of buttery brown sugar was also a delicious food coma inducing sugar bomb.  So the tricky part came with the execution of these pancakes with the cinnamon swirl.

There was a little trouble initially.  But hey, it's still tasty.  My brown sugar/cinnamon was a little runny, so I had to amend my pouring technique from the ziplock bag.

While still not perfect, I had vastly improved by the last few pancakes.  So once you flip these guys over, you will no longer see a beautiful brown swirl amid your dough.  It kind of melts away, so you see remnants of where the swirl used to be.  You don't lose the flavor though.  Serve with your cream cheese frosting drizzled on top and suddenly you've got a brunch dish that will please pancake lovers and sweet tooths (teeth?) alike. 
 

Mashed Potato Benedict

Yet another variation on my favorite brunch item: benedict.  This version utilizes some leftover cheesy mashed potatoes I had in the fridge, because why should such a delicious form of the potato be reserved solely for dinner?  Upon eating this yesterday, I have discovered my current favorite easy breakfast. 

Step 1: make sure you have leftover mashed potatoes in your fridge and scoop some into a ball/patty.

Step 2: cook the bacon in a skillet. remove to paper towels when cooked through.

Step 3: cook potato patty in bacon grease to brown the outside (~2 min per side)

Step 4: plate potato patty, cover in bacon, and now crack the egg into the skillet.

Step 5: slide your fried egg atop the bacon covered potatoes

Step 6: devour

Cilantro Chicken over Saffron Rice

I have dubbed this meal "Chicken Irene" in honor of last night's impending hurricane while the meal was being consumed.  Luckily there was no damage and my 6 gallons of bottled water did not need to be utilized.

So this is pretty simple.  Prepare saffron rice according to package instructions.  The package looks like this:

I then chopped 1/4 of an onion, about 10 mushrooms, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 large chicken breasts, and 1/2 cup cilantro.  Add some butter to a saute pan and cook the garlic, onion, and mushrooms first.  Once softened add your sliced chicken.  Cook until no longer pink and add a pinch of the cilantro, salt, and pepper, to the pot.

I added about 1/2 of the remaining cilantro to the fully cooked rice and mixed.  Plate the rice, then top with the chicken mixture, and garnish with the remaining chopped cilantro.  I was lacking any sort of sauce for this dish so for a little extra flavor we gave ourselves the option of mixing in hummus.  These portions served 3 people.

Broccoli Soup

 

Hello faithful followers!  The brief hiatus in cooking and blogging is due to the fact that I just moved across the country and have primarily been dining out as a result of empty pantries.  I made this broccoli soup before the move, but due to the hectic nature of relocating, I am just posting it now.  

The original broccoli soup recipe came from an old Martha Stewart cookbook and is relatively straight forward:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 leek, minced
1 carrot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken stock
1 head broccoli, cut into small flowerets
1 cup heavy cream
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon celery seed

1.  In a pot melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the leek, carrot, and garlic.  Cook until they are tender, about 5 minutes, making sure they do not brown.

2.  Add the stock.  Bring to a simmer, and add broccoli.  Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until broccoli is tender.

3.  Pour the soup into a food processor and process until the vegetables are finely chopped but not pureed.  Pour soup back into the pot.  Stir in the cream, cayenne pepper, and celery seed.  Reheat before serving.

That's all well and good, but I amended it, as per usual.  I did not have any leeks so scallions sufficed.

Since carrots don't soften so easily I cooked it for more like 10-15 minutes.  Next up came the broccoli and chicken broth which I also let stew for a good 15 minutes or so. 

Finally, the best part, I used an emulsion hand blender, rather than a food processor.  It's way cleaner, easier, and definitely more fun.  

So if you like your soup with remnants of veggies left behind, by all means, don't puree it completely, but for this soup I like to blend it fully because I still notice a little texture creeping in from the broccoli and carrots that doesn't completely turn to mush.  I added a little cream, but was lacking the celery seed so used salt and pepper instead.  You can throw some cheese in at the end for a broccoli cheese soup or serve as is.