Variations on a Theme: Chipotle Chicken Salad

Hi everyone,

I hope you're coping okay with the stay-at-home and mask restrictions. I've noticed a lot of people these days have been keeping themselves busy in the kitchen. I completely applaud this for a couple reasons. 1) I love it when I can geek out with people who share my hobbies. 2) When the activity you're engaged in uses your senses in a big way, it's therapeutic. Cooking uses all of them.

Now that I see chicken breasts at the store on a regular basis, I've been cooking them a bit more. I make chicken salad because that way when I have the leftovers, I don't even have to worry about heating something up. Here we go

• 2 cooked and chilled chicken breasts (average chicken breast these days is 5-6 ounces), chopped.
• 2 green onions, chopped (I use the white and green parts; if you prefer just the green, use 3)
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano (I will be adjusting this next time I make it)
• 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce from a can, chopped, smooshed, or run through a processor) (look here for other things you can do with the rest of the can). 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Mayo to taste
• Ripe avocado (if you can find one) cut into chunks for topping

Makes 3 generous main-dish servings. 

I cook chicken breast sous vide these days because it's so easy, at 145 degrees F (62.78 C). However you cook your breasts, I recommend putting them in the fridge for at least a couple hours before you make the salad.

Combine the chicken, onions, oregano, and peppers in a bowl. Stir 3-5 times to spread the adobo sauce around. Use a fork and press down a lot. Now the rest is up to your taste. Me, I don't like tons of may, so I tend to use just enough to hold everything together. You might like a little more because the cooling ability of the mayo will balance the adobo. I might try part mayo part plain yogurt next time. Continue stirring and pressing until the mayo is blended. You're going to get a pinkish orange tint when you're done.

Add salt & pepper to taste, more oregano if you like.

For serving, I went with yet another attempt at arepas, which I still don't have down, also some butter lettuce on the side. I just dropped the salad on the arepa. You could also use warm corn tortillas or the bread of your choice, or even pita chips.

My avocados, alas, were underripe. One of these days I'll be able to ripen them at home properly. I know the best tricks, it's my judgement that's off.

If you try this, please let me know. I'd love some feedback. I was massively happy with it, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to tweak.

Cheers everyone. Stay safe.

Balls revisited.

Back in (holy cat!) 2010, I made a recipe of Greek Meatballs with Feta and Orzo. I got lucky, not only to find meat in this time of hoarding, but to find lamb, which is usually less expensive at this time of year.

I don't now why I waited so long to do this again. It's a fabulous recipe. I did cut the garlic down like I said would. I still didn't get any hint of cinnamon, but there is a warmth to these that I like quite a bit. 

The only other thing I changed was more feta upon serving, because feta.

Hope you're all coping with the various isolation and other Covid 19 precautions. Some of the next few entries will be dependent on what ingredients are either available or in the freezer. 

Since I'm staying home, I'm cooking. Arthichoke and Spinach Pasta

Hi everyone,

It's been a while yes. Many things have happened since I last post. Let me explain. No, that would take too long, let me sum up. My apartment building was purchased and nobody's lease was renewed, so after an exhausting search complicated by issues at work, I grabbed an apartment not far from the United Nations. One of its attractions is there was enough room in the kitchen to handle all my stuff.

Then there was losing the old job (long store, this isn't the place), the stress of finding a new one. Fortunately, I managed to do both of those in the same month, so things could have been a lot worse. The  new place is fabulous.

And now, social distancing due to Covid 19. I'm an introvert most of the time, so being by myself or working from home isn't a hardship. It's also an opportunity.

When I went to the store recently, they were out of meat except for chicken wings and sausage. There was plenty of cheese and vegetables, though, so here's three of my lunches for this week.

Ingredients for 1 pound of pasta:

Pasta Sauce 

• 6 cloves of garlic (alternately, roast a bulb)
• 1.5 cups of minced onion, or a combination of onion and shallot
• 1 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts in water
• 5 oz of spinach
• 4 oz of whipped cream cheese
• 2 cups of milk
• 5 oz fresh spinach
• 6-8 ounches Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt (eliminate if you're using salted butter)
• 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence 
• zest of one lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper (optional)
• 2 Tablespoons butter

Warm Tomato Salad (side dish)

• 1/2 to 3/4 Cup grape or cherry tomatoes per person
• Olive oil to coat (spray is also good here)
• Salt
• Balsamic vinegar to taste

Drain the artichokes well, then chop them half-inch bits or run them through the electric toy of your choice. Put back in the colander and smush the water out of them. Set aside

Melt the butter on low heat in a sauté pan. Add the raw chopped garlic (if you roasted it, add it after the cream cheese is melted), onions (and shallots if using) and cook, stirring constantly until the onions are translucent. This may take longer than you think, but the idea is to have them mostly melt into the sauce. Low and slow is the way to go here.

Add the cream cheese and let it sit in the pan for a few minutes before it starts to melt. This will be a touch annoying since, but it's mitigated by using the whipped cream cheese instead of a block. Slowly stir in 1 Cup of the milk until everything is of the same consistency.

Add the artichokes, the lemon zest, the herbs, and the salt & pepper. Stir until everything is combined. Slowly add the grated cheese. Taste to see if you'd like more pepper or herbal flavor and adjust accordingly. 

Let simmer. Stir occasionally while you do the below

Side dish time: This sauce is an awful lot of richness, so I put a side together with acid to cut that, and it's pretty easy. Turn the oven on to 425 F. 

Cut your tomatoes in half and arrange them in a glass baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you have an olive oil spray, spritz them a couple times and toss in the dish to ensure they're oiled all over. If not, start with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, and stir. Put in the oven,, uncovered, set your timer for 25 minutes.

Back to the sauce. Stir in the other cup of milk until it is incorporated fully. Add your spinach a handful at a time. Once all the spinach has been added, start your pasta water and cook your pasta according to your taste and/or package directions.

I used baby spinach and it took a while to completely wilt and get fully engaged in being part of the sauce. After the timer goes off on the tomatoes, check them. You should be able to smell them, and they should look a little dried and wrinkly. If they still look like you just cut them, put them back in the oven and check them every 5-8 minutes.

When your pasta is ready, drain well and slowly stir into the sauce. Let simmer while you put the tomatoes on a plate and put a little balamic vinegar on them.

Season to taste while eating with black pepper. Or red pepper, if you'd like a little bite.

I only used 8 ounces of pasta so I could play later. After I put aside two dishes' worth for lunches later this week, I still had sauce left over. Plans for this include a package of mushrooms and possibly a quarter pound of pancetta. 

Enjoy!

In which Kate Halves a Protein

So it's still summer, even if it is after Labor Day for the last few months that's often meant cool or cold meals, partly because who wants to heat up the kitchen and run up the air conditioning bill?

I forget how I came across this recipe, but I've been eating olives a lot and this recipe didn't have leafy greens. It's not that I don't like leafy greens, It's that I had braces from 2011 to 2013 and I didn't eat them for two years because I didn't want to pick them out from under the wires and brackets. This means now I only have them occasionally becaues I don't digest them light I used to. Arugula and spinach seem to be okay, at least.

I figured this would be good for light dinners, since during the week my biggest meal of the day is lunch, but then I looked at the recipe. Take a look:

• 2 (5-ounce) cans oil-packed tuna, drained (or use tuna in water and 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumbers
• 1/4 cup pitted, chopped kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh oregano leaves
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Toss all ingredients into a large bowl until well mixed

T

This seemed to me to be not enough vegetables to tuna. You'd barely get enough to flavor the fish. I love briny things, so I wanted the olives pretty strong. I also love lemon. So I cut the tuna in half but left the vegetables and spices as listed. 

I'm really happy with it. I think I can boost the flavors with more lemon juice (or maybe some lemon zest), and I may up the vegetables and the spices by 50%. Capers have also crossed my mind.

I got three main dish servings out of the salad; I ate them with pita chips to throw in some more variety to the textures. If you're looking for adding other vegetables, putting this on a bed of shredded romaine would likely serve you very well. 

If you try it, let me know how you like it!

Sauce is Done aka Another Cheat Sauce

Hi everyone,

I wasn't going to blog this one because the list of ingredients are pretty vague. I also did a long, slow cook on it and I know there's a lot of people out there with InstaPots. I'm not going to diss them, but I'm not in a hurry to get one. One, I live in a Manhattan apartment and my kitchen storage is already over capacity. Two, when it comes to low and slow, I am really fond of my immersion circulator. Give me a kitchen with three times the storage, and I will load up with an Instapot, a wok, and a tagine. And a food mill. Which, if I owned, today's recipe would be from fresh tomatoes. 

Anyway, on to this adventure in cheat sauce. I use a sauté pan and here's what went in this batch:

• 2 cloves of garlic--actually, it was three small ones, but some of the cloves were unusable, so I'm going to call it two. Sometimes when you order groceries things aren't perfect. On the other hand, someone carries the big, heavy, and awkward stuff.
• 1 large shallot--a large shallot takes up most of the palm of my hand, and it at least 2 inches from its longest points
• 2 onions about the size of baseballs. If sports comparisons aren't your thing, this is approximately one cup chopped into about 3/4-inch pieces
• Olive oil as needed
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 2 12-oz cans of tomato sauce
• 1 large can tomato paste (or two of those little ones)
• 2 6-oz packages of sliced mushrooms (because sometimes I'm downright lazy)
• About 5 ounces of wine because it all didn't get drunk over the last few nights
• One pound 85/15 ground beef
• The last bit of parmesan found in the fridge, shredded
• dried oregano to taste
• dried basil to taste
• crushed red pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• black pepper (preferably freshly ground) to taste.

Like I said, it's a bit vague. Trust yourself and taste a lot.

• in a sauté pan, heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat. Throw in the garlic, and stir constantly until the garlic turns light brown so you get a nice toasty flavor
• stir in the onions, make sure they're well coated with the olive oil. Shake dried herbs and red pepper over the veggies and stir some more.
• in a separate pan, turn your burner up to medium-low, add 1/2 T of olive oil, add your ground beef, sprinkle it with salt and black pepper, mush it out of the shape it came in, alternate stirring between your pans until the meat is browned with minimal pink spots.
• Add the mushrooms to your garlic and onions.
• Add  your meat (fat and all) carefully to your sauté pan and stir. There is a lot of splash potential here. Your mushrooms will absorb some of the beef fat and juices. Yum!
• Add your diced tomatoes (do not drain them), then your cans of sauce, and stir until everything looks evenly distributed.
• Stir in the shredded cheese.
• Time for the tomato paste. Scrape out the can(s) and add carefully because your pan is likely getting full
• Add the wine to the can of tomato paste, swirl it around, and stir in.

At this point, it's stirring, adding spices, and tasting until you get what you like. I typically simmer for a couple hours (and strongly recommend buying a splatter guard). I've always liked a really thick sauce, but as you wish.

How thick do you like yours? Send pictures!

Another One That's Gina's Fault: Salmon Cakes

It's lovely when my friends support my hobbies. This past holiday season, I was gifted with a small jar of Penzey's wasabi powder. For the smell of the place alone, I miss living with easy access to a Penzey's.

When I took and experimental whiff of the powder, my brain immediately went, 'salmon,' and I thought I'd make salmon cakes. It didn't take long for the ingredients to come together in my head. I surfed the web a bit until I had a good idea of the proportions and came up with this:

• 1 14.5 ounce can pink salmon (do not drain)
• 3 green onions, chopped 
• 3/4 Cup of bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon of celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon of wasabi powder
• 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 t light oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Shichimi Togarashi (a Japanese red pepper mix that I utterly adore)

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Carefully (as in be prepared for splashing) de-can the salmon using a fork and take apart any large chunks. Combine with the rest of the ingredients, using a rubber spatula. 

I wanted cakes, not patties, and while I know they're often fried, it made sense to me to use one of my muffin tins. Well, tin is really not the word, I have these:

I didn't press the mixture into the tin, rather I rolled it into six spheres, and then baked for 35 minutes.

For condiments, I put 2 T of mayonaise, 1t of soy sauce and 1 T of a creamy garlic hot sauce by Famous Daves in a ramekin and stirred until everything was evenly distributed. 

For serving, I put 2 cakes on a bed of butterhead lettuce and squeezed a bit of lemon over.

For a first try, I think they're pretty damn good, but I have some plans for improvement most of which can be summed up in one word: MORE. Green onions, wasabi powder, Shichimi Togarashi. I got a little of the wasabi flavor, but not quite enough. Under consideration as additives are finely chopped celery (I rarely buy celery because I need so little at a time. I should check a local salad bar) and a shallot. Also more lemon. Many of the recipes I browsed have red pepper in them, but I think that would take away from the wasabi and I don't want that. Some shishito peppers on the side, maybe.

Now, I need crabmeat to go on sale......

Seeking perfection: Because I should be able to do Better than Starbucks: Sous Vide Egg Bites

You may have noticed people raving about Starbucks sous vide egg bites of late, and I think they're pretty damn good. They're reasonably filling, full of protein, and it's a nice change away from the typical American carb-heavy breakfast (but don't you even think about taking away my bagels).

Naturally, people started making their own, because this way there are no preservatives and you have more choices. I've been meaning to do this for a while, so today was the day. I got my proportions to start with from Inova, though I looked at multiple sites. 

I was surprised to learn that Starbucks uses cottage cheese in theirs. I mentioned this my friend Scott and he reached the same conclusion I did, "What about a nice ricotta?" So there was my first change. I also thought I wanted a few more fillings, so this is what I started with:

• 6 large eggs
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream (some sites say cream, some say cheese, some say both. So I embraced the power of AND)
• 1/4 cup of whole-milk ricotta
• 2 green onions
• 3 pieces of bacon
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 6 grinds of black pepper

Also needed:

• Water bath (I have a large Rubbermaid container with a hole cut out of the lit to fit around the circulator).
• Tongs of some kind to lift your jars.
• Immersion circulator
• 6 4-ounce bell jars with 2-piece lids (Thank you Fae!)
• Blender

I got a little ambitious and I'll get to that later.

First off, I set the immersion circulator for 172 degrees Farenheit (another site said 180 with a shorter cooking time, but the 172 felt better to me). I cooked the bacon instead of putting it directly into the jars. While the bacon was cooking, I chopped the tomatoes and put about 3/4 of them into the jars, figuring I'd save the other 1/4 for a topping if there was room.

Next, I chopped the green onions and followed the same procedure.

Cheese was next. I used a sharp cheddar. When the bacon was done, I crumbled it and spread it among the jars as well. I did a quick grind of black pepper over each jar.

6 eggs went into the blender, followed by the salt, ricotta, and cream. I blended on low for about 45 seconds, until it was all a lovely uniform shade of yellow just slightly darker than butter.

I poured the mixture into the jars up to the convenient line. Like I mentioned above, I got a little ambitious and had egg mixture left over. 

With the jars, you don't want to put the ring on too tight. Every site I looked at agreed. What you're going for is 'fingertip tight.' In other words, you want to be able to open the jar with your fingertips. The water pressure will take care of the rest.

Using the tongs (I have a pair tipped with silicone that I got from Target), carefully place your jars in your water bath, and set a timer for 60 minutes. Clean your kitchen. Scramble any leftovers  If, like me, your heating system is forced dry air, enjoy the extra humidity. 

When the timer goes off, turn off your circulator and carefully remove the jars onto a flat surface where you have paper towels or a dishcloth. After a minute, dry off the lids by blotting with paper towels or a clean dishcloth. They're ready to serve after about three minutes. I was pretty surprised at how quickly the jars were easy to pick up.

I ate mine with a spoon right out of the jar, but there are a few options here. Run a butter knife around the edges, pop off and finish with a torch for extra color & texture. Or top with cheese and broil for a little bit.

I want more cheddar in the next batch, and really, more fillings in general. I will need to consider this while I have these for breakfast all week. Meanwhile, I have plenty of goodies for topping before I pop them in the microwave.

Cheers!