Moroccan Chicken

 When I roasted a chicken yesterday, in my head I had a plan for the pieces.  Thighs were going to be some version of chicken cacciatore, and the breasts & bits were going to be fajitas and chicken salad.  I needed to be careful, though, because the lemon flavor from the roast came through quite well, and I didn’t want to compete with that flavor – rather, I’d like to compliment it.  Then I came across this recipe, from Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes, and sort of fell in love.  Raisins!  Olives!  Spice blend! and lemon was a part of the flavor suite. 

I wish that I could explain to you how good this smelled cooking.  Or even just how good the rub smells.  Sweet and smoky and ohmygoodness delicious.  Additionally, this is a really pretty dish – totally “company’s coming!” worthy.  I almost called people to come over for dinner to wow them with the aroma as the walked in the door and so I could take the lid off of the pan with flourish.  Instead….I decided getting to eat this twice was going to be more rewarding in the long run.

I halved the recipe (roughly) to account for my only having 2 thighs to work with and because I am only one person.  I also do not own preserved lemons and so just used normal lemon, and added white wine and craberries to the mix with the reasoning of, “why not?”  As my first foray into voluntarily cooking myself something with bones in it, this was a complete success.  Also, since my chicken was already cooked, this came together really quickly, which was a nice perk.

 

Adapted from Simply Recipes:  Moroccan chicken with Lemons and Olives

Rub:

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Everything else:

2 chicken thighs

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, chopped

3 thin slices of lemon, halved 

1/2 c green olives, pitted

1/2 c white wine

1/2 c water (as needed) 

1/4 c raisins and dried cranberries

2 T chopped fresh cilantro

2 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Salt

Dry the chicken pieces and put in the bowl.  Combine all the spices and rub into the chicken thighs. Allow the chicken to sit for ~ 1 hr in the rub.

In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil on medium high heat. Add the chicken pieces skin side down, sprinkle lightly with salt, and brown, ~ 5mins. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the garlic and onions. Cover and let cook for 15 minutes. (If using already cooked chicken, say from a whole roast, let cook for ~5 mins until the onion is soft.)

Turn chicken pieces over. Add the lemon slices, olives, raisins, cranberries and wine. Bring to a simmer on medium heat, then lower the heat to low, cover, and cook for an additional 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and quite tender. If the liquid evaporates off too quickly, add some water in as needed.  (Again, if your chicken is already cooked through, ~15mins will be sufficient to allow the flavors to combine.)

Mix in fresh parsley and cilantro right before serving. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Fish tacos & guacamole!

I’ll be upfront when I say that I feel a little silly offering a “recipe” for fish tacos, especially one this simple.  To compensate, I’m also going to share my easy-peasy weeknight guacamole recipe.  This is all really straightforward and quick and you could probably figure it out for yourself, but if you are like me, sometimes just seeing an idea to mix up the dinner rotation is useful. 

Can we talk about fish tacos for a minute?  These things have so. much. potential.  And yet, they fall flat all together too often.  Though most white fishes have a fairly delicate flavor, they can stand up to a lot – toss some spice in and let the contrast in flavors enhance both of them.  Stop selling fish short! 

I used Old Bay, applying the ”if it ain’t broke…”  rule.  Could we get fancier?  Sure.  But I walked in the door tonight and I was hungry.  I wanted quick, delicious, warm food and these delivered.  The thing about fish is that it goes from frozen to the dinner plate really quickly – it thaws quickly in a water bath, and it cooks quickly.  So, without further ado:

Fish tacos!  (I feel like tacos! always has an exclamation point at the end.  Go with it.) 

I made this just for me – so I just thawed one fillet.  Feel free to increase the recipe based on how many people you have.

 Fish:

1 cod fillet (or tilapia, or snapper – your favorite fish!)

1.5 Tbsp flour

1 tsp Old Bay

1 Tbsp peanut oil

 Thaw the fish fillets and cut into pieces.  Pat dry with a paper towel.  Mix the flour & Old Bay together on a plate and dredge the fish in the flour mixture.  Heat oil in a pan over med-high heat.  Place the fish into the oil (it should sizzle!) and cook until golden brown (~3-4 mins), turn over and brown on the other side until the fish is done. 

 

Weeknight Guacamole

1 avocado

1 thin slice of red onion, chopped fine

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1/8 tsp garlic powder

pinch of salt

small pinch of cayenne powder

lime wedge

Scoop the meat out of the avocado and into a bowl.  Add the onion, cilantro, garlic powder, salt and cayenne.  Mash together until well combined.  Squirt the lime wedge over the guacamole and give it a stir.  (This adds flavor & helps to prevent it from turning brown in case you have leftovers.) 

Fixin’s

2 tortillas per person

sour cream, grated cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.

Build your tacos as you see fit!  Full disclosure – I’ve made this twice in the last week.  One night I had tacos as tacos, the other night I made a salad and put the fish on top.  Both were delicious and satisfying.  The Old Bay gives the fish a nice kick and the fresh guacamole is a nice, cool treat.  And now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s still a bit of guac sitting in a bowl in my kitchen that I’m going to eat with a spoon.  You know you would eat it too.  :)

Roast Chicken

Truth be told, I’m not much for chicken.  (Unless it is a vehicle for some delicious sauce.  Then you can usually talk me into it.  But I digress.)  For whatever reason, I just never feel like eating a chicken breast and I’m not keen on wings or thighs as they have bones and tendons in them, making them a little complicated to eat.  Lately, though, I’ve been seeing a lot of “Buy a whole chicken!  Roast it and use the parts for days!  Economical!  Delicious!” press.  I want to be economical and eat delicious things.  Part of me also feels like it is about time to get over my whole “I don’t eat things with bones in it” stubbornness.  So I bought a chicken – a local chicken and they were right!  It was economical!  And delicious!   Turns out, if you smell something cooking for over an hour (I roasted it), when you finally get to eat it, it’s pretty rewarding.  Roasting chickens might make a convert of me yet.

There are more tips and tricks to roasting chickens than you can shake a stick at out there.  I read a bunch, watched several internet videos on trussing & prepping the chicken, and then turned to Ms. Jones who offered a simple recipe, easy preparation, and the all important, “There’s no need to truss the bird.”  SOLD!  Ms. Jones is fast on her way to being my new favorite.

This really was good.  I really liked the lemon & thyme and black pepper combination with the chicken – nothing over powering, but light and crisp.  I then butchered (hacked?) the bird into pieces for additional meals for the coming week. 

I adjusted her recipe a bit – subbing in onion for shallot & scallions.  I’m certain that would have been even more delicious, but I didn’t have any.  Onion did fine.

1 chicken, 3-4 lbs

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 T finely chopped onion

2 strips of lemon peel (I made each strip ~ 2 inches long), finely chopped

1/2 c fresh parsley (small handful), chopped

leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

1 T olive oil

salt & freshly ground pepper

Mix everything together and give it a quick going over with a knife so everything is good and combined.

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry with paper towels.  Then, loosen the skin from the breast and thighs and spread the mixture under the skin with your fingers.  I sort of mashed it in there & then redistributed it through the skin.  Let’s just say that this was not my most refined moment in the kitchen.  I’m still learning. 

Rub a little salt, pepper and olive oil on top of the skin all over the bird.  I then let it marinade for ~ 30 mins while the oven heated up and I did some necessary cleaning up. 

Preheat the oven to 375oF.  Place the chicken breast side down in a small roasting pan (or large, oven safe skillet if you don’t have one) and put in the oven for 45mins.  Turn the chicken over and roast for another 30-45 mins until the juices run clear when the bird is pierced (165oF deep in the thigh).  Let rest for 5-10 mins before carving.  

I served this with some oven roasted potatoes (and sweet potatoes) popped in when I turned over the chicken, and pan roasted brussel sprouts with a balsamic glaze.  Delicious!

Rescuing a Recipe: Green hummus.

Recently, I was looking for something to make and had been feeling a little meat heavy and so wanted something vegetarian. I stumbled upon this from Smitten Kitchen (if you do not yet know this blog, do yourself a favor and go investigate) and decided that this was going to be IT. It had flavors that I love and simple ingredients. This was going to be tasty.

Except it wasn’t. At all. I can’t tell if I overcooked the chickpeas, didn’t add enough salt, or added too much cumin (in hindsight, I’m fairly certain this was part of it). (???) Whatever the source, this was a solid recipe fail the likes of which I hadn’t participated in since I added too much mint to some version of beans and greens. (You should be cringing as you read that – it was AWFUL.) BUT, I had a pot full of the stuff. Nothing was fundamentally wrong with the ingredients (chickpeas, spinach, onion, a little tomato), and I hate throwing away food. So, I stuck it in the fridge and hoped inspiration would strike.

Strike it did! I turned this into a remarkably healthy (and tasty!) green hummus. Even overdoing the garlic a smidge (heh …..I have been vampire safe for the last week…very vampire safe), this worked out. It was excellent as a dip with veggies & crackers, and as a sandwich spread. I even put it in a pie crust with some ricotta & sundried tomatoes as a rustic tart.  So, the take home message is:  when recipes go wrong, use it as an excuse to try something out.  If it is already a big thumbs down, playing with it a bit isn’t going to hurt anything – you were already going to throw it out, and who knows?  You might transform it into anti-vampire potion.  ;)

Though I have not tried this specifically, if I were to recreate this dip without the initial step of the Sunday dinner flop of 2010 (and toning down the garlic), this is what I would do:

½ lb dried chickpeas, soaked until tender (or 2, 15 oz cans rinsed & drained)

1 lb spinach, washed

½ t cumin

6 cloves garlic

Juice from 1 lemon

2 T olive oil

1 ½ T cooking sherry or red wine vinegar (optional)

¾ c fresh parsley (small handful)

Salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste

Heat 1 T of the oil in a large skillet. Cook the washed spinach (no need to dry, just shake the worst of the water off) in the oil until tender.

In a food processor combine chickpeas, spinach, garlic, parsley, red pepper flakes and 1T of lemon juice. Puree until smooth (or a consistency you like).

Taste. Add the other 1T olive oil, salt, sherry or vinegar (or just more lemon juice) to taste and combine. Sprinkle with paprika (smoked if you’ve got it) and serve.

I had to work in batches because I have a little food processor, but it worked. Just divvy up the ingredients (or toss them all in a bowl first, before adding to the food processor to have consistency in batches). You will end up with buckets of the stuff, but it holds up really well in the refrigerator, and I froze some so I will keep you posted if that is a go/no-go.

Pork Hash

In the final recipe of the pork tenderloin series, Ms. Jones suggests Pork Hash – in this case, Red Flannel Pork Hash as it has beets in it. She also includes a lovely quick anecdote about cooking hash with Julia Child including tips for making a successful hash.

Though I didn’t quite get the hang of really making it a “hash” that feels like a cohesive lump of food, I suspect partly because I do not have a cast iron skillet, the flavors were delicious and it was a surprisingly satisfying stand-alone meal. Ms. Jones also suggests that the ingredients in this are variable – and I agree. You could easily make this with nearly any meat and with any vegetables that you have on hand.

The rules are: equal parts meat and potatoes. Cut everything into very small pieces, and cook it slowly to let any sugars carmelize together and form a glaze that will hold the hash together. Then, you can let the bottom brown to get that nice pan crust if you like.

This gave me one and a half servings of hash – so the next day I tossed a couple fried eggs on top of the leftovers and ate this with toast. I gotta say, that was the way to go. So comforting, so simple, and really very flavorful from all the root vegetables and…well, the butter.

Here’s what I did (adapted from The Pleasures of Cooking for One):

1 T butter

½ medium onion

1 small celery rib

Leftover roasted vegetables from the roasted pork tenderloin including:

1 ½ small red skinned potatoes

¼ c sweet potato

¼ c roasted beets

Bit of fennel bulb

3-4 oz leftover pork

¼ c beef stock

Salt & pepper

Chopped fresh parsley

Chop everything into small, hash-sized pieces*

Melt the butter in a heavy pan. Stir in the onion and celery, cook until soften (~5 mins).

Add vegetables, meat and stock, salt and pepper, then cook slowly, covered, over low heat. (~10 mins)

Remove the cover and let the bottom brown a bit – but keep an eye on it. Brown is one thing, burnt is another. Mash it down with a spatula & flip it over (probably in chunks) to let the other side brown. Transfer to a plate or bowl, sprinkle with parsley and enjoy!

*I suspect this is another place where my hash making skills could use some improvement.  I should have really chopped everything rather than the coarse dice that I did.