This casserole was easy and pretty tasty. It was a little too spicy for Girl, but the rest of us liked it. I toasted the fideos in the oven (375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until evenly golden browned), instead of in a skillet in oil, to simplify cleanup and also cut the fat content a tiny bit. I also added some frozen peas, because, of course, I am the meanest mom on the planet.
Category: Entrees
Chicken and White Bean Soup with Herb Swirl, Parmesan Toasts
This soup (from the always-awesome “Family Style” page in Bon Appetit magazine – March 2009 issue) was very tasty, but I’m not sure that the “herb swirl” added much in the way of flavor. In terms of presentation, too, it just seemed to get lost in the soup, so I would recommend either skipping it (one less skillet to wash!) or just sprinkling some fresh herbs directly into the soup before portioning. The soup was very tasty, though, and quite easy. A hit with all four of us.
I forgot to buy the Italian bread to make the Parmesan toasts, so I improvised with what I had on hand. Any resemblance to halved, leftover hamburger buns is purely coincidental.
Crispy Black Beans Tacos with Cabbage Slaw
These tacos (from February 2009 Bon Appetit magazine) were pretty tasty and quite easy. The beans could have used a tiny bit more seasoning, so I would up the amount of cumin, and maybe add some oregano, too, if I make these again. I substituted queso fresco for the feta.
All of us liked these except Boy, and I think that he would have liked them better if the beans were spiced up a bit.
We made Michelada cocktails to go with these, which were really not to our taste. The recipe sounded like it had potential (it’s the recipe from El Chile restaurant, here in Austin), but I think they just weren’t our “thing.” I think that I would have liked it better without the Worcestershire.
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
If you’re from Texas, this is a recipe that you remember eating all your life. It was the sort of thing that you’d eat when you went to visit your grandmother or went to a church potluck. Historically, it was made with some type of cream soup, but there are as many variations of this recipe as there are branches of the Junior League in Texas, but you must always include chicken, tortillas and a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes. I decided to try an updated “fancy pants” version of the recipe (Hubby loves anything cheesy and vaguely spicy, so I was sure it would be a hit, at least with him.) The “fancy” version definitely has more flavor than the original, but it’s still pre-cooked chicken, with soggy tortillas and lots of cheese, so it’s remarkably similar to the original. A bit spicier (too spicy for Girl, in fact.) Both the original and the “fancy pants” recipes can be found here. This casserole isn’t “gourmet” at ALL and certainly isn’t anything to look at, but if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re missing the point.
I did change the recipe around just a tiny bit. I roasted a whole chicken (*directions below) and then cut the meat up from that, instead of frying the chicken pieces in olive oil. Once the chicken was done, I cut the meat up (all but the legs and a little bit of the breast, which I’ll save for another use) and sprinkled it with a little lime juice and ancho chile powder. I skipped the step of pre-heating the tortillas, because I was feeling a little lazy and I had hungry people whining at me.
*Easiest Roast Chicken EVER
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove packet (gizzards and neck and other nasty stuff) from inside the chicken and discard it. Rinse chicken thoroughly, inside and out, with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Take a whole lemon and prick it thoroughly, all over, with a fork. Insert it into the chicken’s…ummm…”cavity.” Gently peel the skin up from the breast, starting at the neck end (don’t remove it, just make a “pocket”.) Remove any extra fat that might be inside the chicken’s cavity. Spread it out in the “pocket” that you’ve created between the skin and the breast. Generously season the chicken, inside and out (and in the “pocket”) with kosher salt and pepper. Feel free to add herbs, too, if you’d like (I usually don’t, depending upon what I’m going to do with the chicken and whether or not I’m planning to use the carcass for stock later.) Rub the chicken’s skin all over with a lightly coating of olive oil. Bake the chicken for about one hour or until a thermometer inserted into the meaty part of the thigh registers 170 degrees.
Chilaquiles
Chilaquiles with beans and avocado, topped with a fried egg
Sorry for the over-exposed photo. Click the “Simply Recipes” link all the way down at the bottom of this page for a more picturesque version of chilaquiles.
Chilaquiles
Makes 4 smallish servings or 2 very large ones
8 leftover (stale is actually better!) corn tortillas, each cut into 6 wedges
about 1 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup queso fresco, crumbled
4 eggs (or 1 egg per person that you’re planning to serve)
butter for frying the eggs
1 avocado, sliced, optional
1 1/2 to 2 cups of leftover red chile enchilada sauce (we LOVE the sauce in this recipe)
1 can beans, optional
(pinto, black or refried – any kind is fine, but these are yummy)
Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the tortillas, in batches if necessary, until browned and crispy. Remove from oil and set aside to drain on paper towels.
Pour the oil out of the skillet. Heat the enchilada sauce over medium heat in the (now empty) skillet until warm.
In a separate skillet, fry the eggs in butter to your desired level of doneness.
While the eggs are cooking, toss in the fried tortilla wedges into the sauce and gently fold until they are lightly coated in sauce.
Portion the chilaquiles out onto serving plates (or bowls) and garnish with cheese and avocado. Place a fried egg (or two, if you’re making two servings) on top of each portion. Serve with beans alongside.
You can adapt this recipe to just about anything that you like. Feel free to incorporate cilantro, sour cream, onions, different kinds of cheese, etc. Chilaquiles are wonderful for breakfast, but are also great anytime of day or as a snack after a late night out.
Here are two other great recipes for chilaquiles variations:
Chilaquiles from Simply Recipes
Chilaquiles from Gourmet Sleuth
Cinnamon Chicken
adapted from this recipe on Cooks.com
Girl is a HUGE Little House on the Prairie fan (OK, well I am, too). In some of the later episodes (the ones that we’ve been watching lately), Laura makes “Cinnamon Chicken” for her husband, Almanzo. I had never heard (aside from the show) of Cinnamon Chicken, so I decided to do some searching and see what I came up with up. This recipe looked promising, so I decided to give it a shot, but I changed it pretty significantly from the original. It turned out really well and all of us liked it quite a bit. The cinnamon flavor worked surprisingly well with chicken. The original recipe didn’t have a sauce, but when I saw all of the beautiful little browned bits in the pan, I decided that I just had to make a reduction. I mean, seriously…just look at this:
Could you pour that down the sink? Not me!
Cinnamon Chicken, inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder
makes 2 very large or 4 small servings
For chicken:
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper (white or black – your choice)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp turmeric*
1 tsp cinnamon
3 egg whites
1 cup bread crumbs
canola or olive oil (for frying)
For sauce:
1/2 of a small shallot, finely minced (2 – 3 Tbsp)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
Cut each chicken breast into two equal pieces. Gently pound each chicken piece to an even thickness. Mix the salt, pepper and flour and spread on a plate. In a small bowl, whisk the turmeric and cinnamon into the egg whites. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, then dip them in the egg whites and coat them with the bread crumbs.
In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet large enough to hold the chicken pieces in a single layer, heat the oil over medium heat. Lay the pieces in the skillet and cook chicken until it is nicely browned on both sides and cooked through, turning once. Adjust heat if necessary to keep chicken from burning. Add slightly more oil, if necessary.
When chicken is done, remove it from the skillet (reserve oil and crusty bits in the skillet) and set aside. If there is a lot of oil in the skillet, pour it off until you are left with about 2 tsp. Re-heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook 2 – 3 minutes until softened. Carefully add the wine and simmer, whisking to incorporate the browned bits in the bottom of the pan, until the mixture is very thick and almost all of the wine has bubbled away. Add stock and simmer, whisking occasionally, until the sauce has thickened to the desired consistency. Pour over chicken or serve on the side.
*It’s worth the extra effort to find the turmeric, if you don’t already have some in your spice cabinet. It adds a little spicy flavor to this dish (without adding “heat”) to balance the flavors and keep the chicken from being too cinnamon-y sweet. Turmeric can be used in lots of other Indian and Mexican dishes and has been credited in a recent UCLA study with possibly helping to prevent amyloid plaques in the brain (which have been tied to Alzheimer’s Disease.)
Red Lentil-Rice Cakes with Pico de Gallo
Red Lentil- Rice Cakes with Pico de Gallo
adapted from this recipe in Cooking Light magazine
Red Lentil-Rice Cakes:
5 cups water, divided
1 cup dried small red lentils
1/2 cup uncooked basmati rice
(or 1 and 1/2 cups cooked
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
Bring 4 cups water and lentils to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain. Place lentils in a large bowl.
Combine remaining 1 cup water and rice in pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 18 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Cool 10 minutes. Add rice to lentils.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onion, cumin seeds and garlic pan; saute 2 minutes or until tender. Cool 10 minutes. Add to rice mixture. Add cheddar cheese and remaining ingredients, stirring until well combined. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Wipe skillet clean with paper towels. Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Spoon half of rice mixture by 1/3 cupfuls into pan, spreading to form 6 (3-inch) circles; cook 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Carefully turn cakes over; cook 5 minutes on other side. Remove cakes from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil and remaining rice mixture. Serve with pico de gallo.
Pico de Gallo:
2 cups coarsely chopped plum (Roma) tomato
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 small squeeze fresh lime juice
3 pickled jalapeno slices, finely chopped
Gently fold all pico de gallo ingredients together. Add a small amount of salt, to taste. This stuff is GREAT as a chunky salsa to top quesadillas or dip chips into. You can also stir it into mashed avocados to make a mild, fresh guacamole. I could eat this stuff with a spoon if you let me.
Note: There is NO SUCH THING as too much cilantro. Cilantro is awesome.
The lentil cakes were really yummy and could easily be adapted to any flavor combination that suits your fancy. The original recipe has a more “Italian” flavor, with basil, mozzarella and fennel seeds instead of cilantro, cheddar and cumin seeds. You could probably easily go Mediterranean or Indian with these, too. These took a little time and prep, but were not difficult at all. The “5 minutes at medium heat” time was PERFECT: you really don’t even need to peek or watch them much as they’re cooking; just set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away (or work on the rest of your dinner or set the table, or whatever).
I served these with roasted chicken and a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette and Baby Bam croutons.
Smoky-Spicy Tamale Pies
Smoky-Spicy Tamale Pies, from Cooking Light’s “For Two” column
Hubby and I liked these a lot. They were a bit too spicy for Girl, but she’s not feeling well and wasn’t too excited about dinner, in general, anyway. Boy got hungry before these were finished baking. These were tasty and simple, but more time-consuming than this tamale pie recipe (although not a lot more). It’s a nice variation, but the two are pretty different. The first one is more like a soupy chili with soft polenta topping and this one is more like a spicy turkey-tomato stew with a cornbread topping. I added a little bit of oregano and assorted seasonings to the cornbread, which turned out to be a good move; it would have been TOTALLY bland without it. Overall, this was pretty good, just very different than the other one. I doubled the recipe to make 4 and ended up using some small fruit bowls that are a part of my (ovenproof) everyday dishes. The recipe calls for 1.5 cup ramekins, but I’ve NEVER seen ramekins that big. If you have something like onion soup crocks or ovenproof soup bowls, etc., that would work nicely.
Ina Garten’s Asian Salmon and Crunchy Noodle Salad
Asian Salmon and Crunchy Noodle Salad
These two recipes are from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa show on Food Network. I LOVE watching Ina’s show, but I am actually pretty surprised to admit that this is the first time that I’ve tried one of her recipes. For as many time as I’ve watched her show, that really is kind of unbelievable.
So, the salad was an absolute success. I substituted whole wheat udon noodles for the spaghetti because, well…just because and I substituted black sesame seeds for the white ones because I think they’re prettier. I left out the parsley because it just didn’t seem “right” to me. If I had had some cilantro in the house, I would have added that, but I (strangely, for me) didn’t have any in the house, so I just left the chopped herb garnish off. Cilantro would have been really nice. This salad could easily adapt to whatever Asian (-ish) veggies you might have on hand: broccoli, water chestnuts, bok choy, snow peas, edamame, etc. It was delicious, as is, but wouldn’t have to be made exactly the same way. I also cut the amount of vegetable oil to 3/4 cup because 1 cup just seemed like SO much. I don’t like things that are really oily. My dressing may have been a little richer as a result (higher percentage of peanut butter), but it was perfect. Another 1/4 cup of oil would have been too much. If you’re calorie conscious, you could probably get away with leaving off the last 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the dressing (add some vinegar and a bit more oil and the remaining dressing would be GREAT on an Asian chicken salad). It was plenty “saucy.”
The salmon? Well…I think I did something wrong. I’m used to thinking of panko as being crunchy and this salmon, after being doused with the (delicious but waaaaaay too salty for my taste) sauce, was just, well…soggy. The flavors were still good and the amount of sauce that soaked into the fish itself was perfect, but the sauce-soggy bread topping was just too wet and salty for me, but Hubby loved it, so make of that what you will. Boy loved it, but he, too, scraped off the breadcrumbs.
So, the salad? A make-again. The salmon? Probably not in its current incarnation, but with some adaptations, maybe.
Escarole Soup with Meatballs
Girl is home sick today, so I made this for lunch for the three of us.
Escarole Soup with Little Meatballs, adapted from The Sopranos Family cookbook
4 cups chopped escarole, thoroughly washed and spun dry
(about 1/2 of a large head)
chicken broth, 4 to 6 quarts (start with 4 quarts, but have more on hand)
2 cups coarsely chopped carrots
for the meatballs:
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1 large garlic clove, minced or run through a press
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano is best)
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper
olive oil for browning, 2 to 3 Tbsp.
Mix all ingredients together, except for olive oil. Shape into balls about the size of a grape. Saute the meatballs (in batches) in the olive oil, in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat, until they are lightly browned on all sides, but not cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, on a paper-towel-lined plated to drain and cool.
This is the same meatball that is used in this recipe, which it just so happens I made for dinner on Saturday night. I wanted the meatballs to be half pork-half beef, but could only find both meats in one-pound packages. I made a double batch of the meatballs and browned them all. We used half for dinner Saturday and I froze the other half (browned but not totally cooked through) for future use, so they were ready to go right into this soup.
8 ounces fideo pasta (or spaghetti, broken into small pieces)
extra freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread pasta in an even layer on a shallow baking pan and toast in the oven until golden. Set aside to cool.
In a VERY large stock pot, combine the escarole, broth and carrots. Bring to a simmer and cook until the escarole is tender, about 30 minutes, adding more broth, if necessary.
When the escarole is cooked, stir in the reserved browned meatballs and reserved pasta. Add more broth, if necessary. Cook over low heat, uncovered, until the meatballs are cooked through and the pasta is al dente (about 20 minutes). It may be necessary to add more broth as the pasta is cooking and absorbs some. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Serve hot with grated Parmesan cheese over the top.
The verdict: The soup was tasty and VERY easy (because I already had escarole and pre-browned meatballs on hand) and is great for someone (Girl) who is not feeling well, but it was a little bit bland. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t GREAT, like the lentil soup last night was. If I make it again, I will saute a little minced garlic and chopped onion in the bottom of the pan before I add the carrots, escarole and broth. I think that would help it a lot. Maybe some chopped, fresh herbs, too. Don’t be afraid to be pretty generous with the salt and pepper, too – this soup really needs it.