"Smothered Chicken with Ham and Almonds" and "Carrots with Raspberry-Chambord Sauce"

More delicious successes from the Cookwise book.

Smothered Chicken with Ham and Almonds

This was so good! The sauce ended up really salty, probably because of our substitutions, but I quite liked it regardless.

Ingredients:
-1 ounce salt pork [we substituted bacon, and that might have been too salty, though we did double the amount, and that might have been too much :) ]
-1 pound smoked ham
-1 large red onion, quartered
-2 T. and 3 T. olive oil (1/3 cup total)
-8 to 10 large chicken thighs, each cut in half across the bone by the butcher [we just used chicken breasts]
-1/2 cup and 2 T. flour (2/3 cup total)
-1/4 tsp. white pepper
-2 cups homemade Chicken Stock or canned chicken broth
-1/4 pound whole almonds
-1 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
-Salt if needed

Directions:
1. Coarsely chop the salt pork, ham, and onion by hand or in a food processor. (If using the processor, process in two batches using half the onion and half the meat in each batch.)
2. Saute the salt pork, ham, and onion in 2 T. olive oil in a large, heavy frying pan or a large metal casserole over medium heat until the onion is soft and lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Remove the mixture to a bowl. Coat the chicken pieces in 1/2 cup flour and the white pepper. Shake to remove excess. Add 3 T. olive oil to the frying pan and the chicken and saute over medium heat until the chicken is deeply browned on both sides, about 8 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring the chicken stock and almonds to a boil in a medium saucepan, then turn down to low.
4. When the chicken is browned, spoon off any excess fat, sprinkle 2 T. flour into the drippings or on the chicken, and stir in the crushed fennel seeds. Cook several minutes, until the flour is well browned. Add the ham and onion mixture back to the skillet. Cook a minute, then add the hot stock and almonds. Stir well. Stir occasionally and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, until the chicken is very tender and the sauce is a deep brown. If the sauce is still thin, remove the chicken to a bowl. Boil the sauce gently, stirring, until it reaches the desired thickness, then add the chicken. Taste and add salt if necessary. Serve hot. Can be prepared ahead (leave the sauce thin) and reheated over medium-low heat.

Carrots with Raspberry-Chambord Sauce

I made this one because we had tons of carrots from the garden and it sounded interesting. And it definitely turned out pretty. Lookie here:


But if I made it again, I would either significantly decrease, or leave out altogether, the raspberry garnish. The ingredients in the savory carrots were so interesting and delicious when I smelled them all together, but they were too overpowered by the sweet sauce.

Ingredients:
-2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
-1 T. and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (5 T. total)
-1 T. and 1 tsp. salt (4 tsp. total)
-2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen raspberries, thawed [doesn't that seem like a lot?]
-2 T. cornstarch
-2 T. Chambord, Grand Marnier, or other raspberry or orange liqueur [I left this out]
4 T. (1/2 stick) lightly salted butter
1/4 tsp. white pepper
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Directions:
1. Boil the carrots in water to cover with 1 T. brown sugar and 1 T. salt in a large pot until fork-tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well.
2. To prepare the sauce, drain the juice from the thawed raspberries into a medium saucepan. Stir in cornstarch and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the juice thickens. Stir in the Chambord and gently fold in the raspberries.
3. When ready to serve, reheat the carrots by sauteing in butter in a large skillet over medium high heat for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. salt, white pepper, and lemon zest [That's what smelled so awesome: sugar, salt, pepper, and lemon--combined!]. Mound the carrots attractively on a platter, leaving a border around the edge. Spoon the bright red raspberry sauce into the border around the carrot mound and serve hot.

THE Cinnabon Recipe

I don't have a picture of these because they disappeared so quickly when we had them as part of Fast Sunday dinner that I didn't have a chance. But they really do taste as good as Cinnabons. We had this with some friends in California. They'd found the recipe online. So I've copied the recipe down as I found it [with my additions in brackets].

Ingredients:

Rolls:
One 3/4 oz. pkg. yeast
1 c. warm milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. melted butter
1 t. salt
2 eggs
4 c. all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 1/2 T. cinnamon
1/3 c. butter

Icing:
7 T. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/4 c. (2 oz) cream cheese
1/2 t. vanilla extract (or almond extract, which I prefer)

Directions:

Rolls:
1. Dissolve yeast in milk.
2. Mix sugar, butter, salt, eggs, flour. Mix well. [I mixed in just the sugar at first, and let the yeast start growing for a bit before mixing in the rest]
3. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead into a large ball. [I kneaded at least 10 minutes, adding flour when the dough got sticky, until the dough was a nice elastic consistency] Cover, let rise 1 hour. [I learned this awesome trick on a friend's blog for raising dough: start an empty dishwasher running (no soap!) and then stop it a few minutes into the cycle. It will be nice and warm and moist in there. Just stick your bowl of dough, covered with a cloth, into the bottom of the washer and close the door (but don't re-start the wash cycle!)]
4. Roll dough into a 21"x16" wide rectangle. With the butter softened, I just use my fingers to spread it generously over the dough. Load 'er up with the filling (see below).
5. Roll from long-side to short side [hot-dog style]. Pinch the ends.
6. Using a very sharp knife (I prefer a serated one) cut into 1-inch wide rolls, amking sixteen. If you want, fewer, bigger rolls, cut them wider. [I actually prefer the unflavored floss approach to cutting--slide a string of floss under the roll of dough and pull the ends of the string across each other at the top until you cut all the way through the dough.]
7. Grease (butter) your preferred baking pan (I like mine to be all squished up next to the other). I generally use an 11"x15" pan. Then place the rolls in pan and into oven. Let the rolls rise for 30 minutes. [For me, this is when I started preheating the oven (to 400 degrees) and I let the rolls rise 30 minutes outside the oven - in the dishwasher again.]
8. Bake until the rolls are slightly browned and not doughy. This will vary according to your oven Just don't overbake. [For me, it wasn't too much longer than 10 minutes.]
9. When done, take 'em out and cover them in the delicious icing.
10. Do I have to admonish you to "enjoy?" Surely not. Then go eat!

Filling:
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling and the icing. Clean-up a little and then go read a chapter or two in your book.
1. Soften butter, so that it is spreadable.
2. After dough has been rolled out to the gigantic rectangle, spread the softened butter all over.
3. Sprinkle brown sugar over entire buttered rectangle. Use more if you like more.
4. Now sprinkle the cinnamon over the now sugary, buttery, doughy rectangle.

Icing:
Cream it all together with an electric mixer (or by hand if you just want to exhaust yourself for some reason). Spread on hot rolls.

Caramel Apple Tart

This is one of our very favorites from the Ivy Bake Shoppe book. As such, you know it's going to have tons o' sugar. But it's oh-so-good. And it has cayenne pepper and parmesan cheese in the crust. Nifty, eh?

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 T. sugar
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1 stick cold butter
3 T. ice water
3 T. breadcrumbs

Filling:
5 Granny Smith (ONLY those--no others!) apples, peeled and sliced
1 cup sugar
3 T. flour
2 t. cinnamon

Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cold butter
1 t. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the crust, mix the flour, sugar, cheese, cayenne pepper, and salt together in an electric mixer. Cut in butter until mixture is coarse crumbs and then add cold water. Do not overmix. Mixture will hold together when pressed between your fingers.

Pour into a well-greased 9-inch springform pan [that's best - I used to do a pie dish and it wasn't deep enough and would spill over into the oven]. Press mixture into bottom and up the sides of the pan. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the crust.

For the filling, gently combine all the ingredients together and then pour into crust.

For the topping, combine all the ingredients together and then sprinkle over the apple filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. Drizzle with warm butterscotch caramel sauce (we use Mrs. Richardson's). Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Yum!

Great Baked Pumpkin with Herbed Barley and Chickpeas

Once again, I love "Cookwise." All the recipes from it are so delicious! And they often have such interesting combinations of flavors. This recipe is no exception--as you'll see below, it has sesame oil and soy sauce, but also Italian spices, and then some orange marmalade. It's awesome! And it's the first time I've ever cooked my own pumpkin. Hooray! A very Fall dish.

Ingredients:
-1 fresh pumpkin, about 10 inches in diameter
-2 large onions, chopped
-1/4 cup sesame oil
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-3 cups quick-cooking barley [I couldn't find barley anywhere! So I used some leftover brown rice that I'd already cooked. Since it was already cooked, I should have decreased the amount of liquid in the recipe, but I just drained some off afterwards and it was fine.]
-3 cups homemade Chicken Stock or canned chicken broth
-3 cups water
-2 cans (16 oz. each) chickpeas, drained
-2 cans (16 oz. each) navy beans, drained [oddly, I couldn't find those either, and used pinto]
-1 T. dried oregano
-2 t. dried basil
-1 t. dried rosemary
-1/2 cup orange marmalade
-2 T. light brown sugar
-1/2 cup chopped parsley
-1/4 cup soy sauce
-1 t. salt
-1/2 t. white pepper
-1 to 2 T. Chinese hot chili oil [I didn't have any and left it out, but it was delicious without]
-Large green leaves, for garnish [also left out]

1. Cut the top from the pumpkin slightly lower than for a jack-o'-lantern. Scoop out and discard the seeds. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cook onions in sesame oil in a large skillet over low to medium heat (to avoid damaging the sesame oil) until the onions are just clear, not brown. Stir in the garlic and cook briefly. Cook the barley in the stock and water for 10 minutes at a low simmer in a large covered saucepan.
3. Stir together the onion mixture and the rest of the ingredients except garnish in a large mixing bowl. Spoon the mixture into the pumpkin and fit the lid back in place. Place on a small pizza pan in the lower center of the oven and bake for 1 hour. The pumpkin should be lightly browned.
4. Serve the pumpkin surrounded by large green leaves [or not]. Remove the lid and lean it against the side of the pumpkin. Serve a piece of pumpkin with the filling.

Hint: This was extra delicious with some cinnamon sprinkled on top after serving. If you eat the pumpkin separately, it needs a little salt. But it's great if you mix it in with your rice/barley mixture.

Shallot Mashed Potatoes with Garlic

I'm still going through the bushels of potatoes we got from our summer CSA fling. (That's Community Supported Agriculture, if you haven't been as indoctrinated with local food movement thingies as I've been of late.) It's over now, but it was really fun.

This is a delicious recipe from Cookwise (all the recipes I've tried from that book have been). I couldn't find shallots at the store, so I used a combo of small onions and green onions. Was ever so yummy. I also only mashed the potatoes by putting them through a ricer--didn't stir with a hand mixer or anything--so they had a neat texture.

Ingredients:
-4 to 5 medium Burbank Russet (Idaho) or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/3 inch thick
-3 medium shallots, crushed
-2 cloves garlic, crushed
-2 tsp. and 2 tsp. salt (4 tsp. total)
-1/2 tsp. cider vinegar
-5 shallots, finely minced [8 total!]
-2 cloves garlic, finely minced [4 total!]
-3 tablespoons butter
-1/4 tsp. white pepper
-1 cup heavy or whipping cream
-1/2 to 1 cup half-and-half or milk

Directions:
1. Precook the potatoes by heating enough water (about 6 cups) to cover them in a large pot over high heat until hot but well below a simmer. Turn heat down to low and add the potato slices, crushed shallots and garlic, 2 tsp. salt, and vinegar. The potatoes will cool the water down to about 160 degrees F. Cook at about this temperature, well below a simmer, for about 20 minutes. Drain and run cold water over the potato slices to cool them. Let them stand in water in the pot until you're ready to finish cooking, or drain, cover, and refrigerate.
2. When ready to mash, saute the minced shallots and garlic in butter over medium heat until just soft in a heavy, medium saucepan. Stir in 2 tsp. salt and the white pepper. Add the cream and half-and-half and heat gently. Set aside.
3. To finish cooking, add water to the cool potatoes if necessary, bring to a boil, and simmer until fork-tender, about 5 minutes at a simmer. Drain, remove the crushed shallots and garlic, put the potatoes back in the pot, and heat for about a minute to dry them out. To mash, put the potatoes once through a ricer or large-holed strainer into a medium mixing bowl. Bring the shallot and cream mixture to a boil and stir into the hot mashed potatoes. Taste and add more salt or pepper as needed. Serve immediately. (Makes 4-6 servings)

Yum!

Roasted Squash and Bacon Pasta

Hooray for Fall! I'm so happy when squash and sweet potatoes start featuring in our meals again. In my produce bag last week, I had a big acorn squash, and I used it to make this meal from my Williams-Sonoma cookbook. So delicious. I've stolen the photo and recipe from their website since I forgot to take a picture at the time. My squash was a lot squashier, and ended up smeared all over the noodles instead of in nice little cubes, but I thought that made it yummier. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. butternut or other winter squash, peeled, seeded and cut into small cubes
• 1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 4 thick-cut bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh sage
• 2 Tbs. salt, plus more, to taste
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 lb. rigatoni or other large pasta shape
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving

Directions:

Roast the squash and onions
Preheat an oven to 425ºF.

On a large nonstick baking sheet, toss the squash, onion and bacon with the olive oil. Sprinkle with the sage and season with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer. Roast until the squash is caramelized and tender and the bacon is crispy, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Cook the pasta
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the 2 Tbs. salt and the pasta to the boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until al dente (tender but firm to the bite), according to the package instructions. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Return the pasta to the pot. Add the squash mixture and toss for 1 minute over high heat, adding as much of the cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce. Add the 1/2 cup cheese and toss, then serve immediately. Pass additional cheese at the table. Serves 4. (More like 6, for us.)

Ok, fine. Here's the photo I took of my leftovers.

Not quite as artsy. But it's oh-so nummy and gooey.

Green Hot Chili Peppers

A couple of weeks ago, my farm produce bag brought me a whole bunch of hot peppers--green chili peppers and jalapeños. "What do I do with these?" I thought. And the subsequent search led me to a couple of really yummy recipes, both from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Primero: Baked Chicken Chiles Rellenos

It's kind of like Chiles Rellenos inside out.

Ingredients:
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1 4-ounce can whole green chile peppers, rinsed, seeded, and cut in half lengthwise. (I just used fresh ones, since that's what I had.)
2 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, cut into six 2-x1/2-inch sticks.
2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro or fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 8-ounce jar green or red salsa

Directions:
1. Place each chicken breast half between two pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound chicken lightly into rectangles about 1/8-inch thick. Remove plastic wrap.
2. In a shallow dish combine the flour, cornmeal, and cayenne pepper. Place egg in a second shallow dish; add water and beat lightly to combine.
3. Place a chile pepper half on each chicken piece near an edge. Place a stick of cheese on each chile pepper half. Sprinkle with snipped [parsley] and black pepper. Fold in side edges; roll up from the edge with cheese and chile pepper. Secure with wooden toothpick.
4. Dip chicken rolls in egg mixture; coat with cornmeal mixture. Place rolls, seam sides down, in a shallow baking pan. Drizzle with butter.
5. Bake, uncovered, in a 375 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove toothpicks. Meanwhile, heat salsa; serve over chicken.


Y Segundo: Salsa!

I've never made homemade salsa before. And this recipe makes that great, fresh-chopped kind that's so cool and refreshing and just makes you feel healthy.

Ingredients:
1 cup seeded and finely chopped tomato (3 small)
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion (1 small)
2-4 fresh serrano, habañero, or jalapeño chile peppers, seeded and finely chopped (I recommend you wear rubber gloves, especially if using the spicier peppers)
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro [OF COURSE, I left this out. And it made it ever-so-much more delicious for me and most of my cilantro-hating family.]
1/4 tsp. salt
4 cloves garlic, minced

Directions: Basically, chop it all up and stir it all together in a bowl, then chill it for 2-48 hours. Yum! (The chopping got a bit tedious, as you may be able to tell from some of the big chunks in the picture below. If I could have one real chef skill, it would be speedy chopping.)