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Posts Tagged ‘garlic’

Quick Rustic Chicken and Vegtable Pasta

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

I know, I know people are telling me to update my blog! Give me a break people I am busy just like all of you. I have now moved from one job to two and can barely keep track of myself.

I also have barely enough time for cooking new dishes, which leaves time for WRITING about them even more scarce!

A few weeks ago, Ben and I went out of town for the whole weekend, which means no grocery shopping. On the Tuesday after I got back I finally had a chance to make it to the grocery store to grab a few things. One of them was a rotisserie chicken. While a rotisserie chicken is an easy meal, I thought it would be good in a pasta instead of just making a couple of sides with it.

When I got home I looked in my fridge and I saw a bunch of vegetables on the verge of going bad with 1-2 days left max. I really try not to waste produce, I know what to buy for the two of us and I use it. Also, since it’s spring my herbs are really growing like crazy and this was the perfect opportunity to use them. While I have a list of vegetables I used in my pasta, feel free to substitute anything you have on hand. Nothing needs to be chopped finely since it is Rustic! So have fun and experiment!

What you’ll need

Handful of fresh broccoli
1 zucchini chopped in chucks
Handful of grape tomatoes
Handful of chopped onions
1 red bell pepper seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic skins removed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup mixture of fresh herbs chopped (I used basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary)
1/2 lb pasta (whatever you have on hand but a rotini would be nice)
1/3 a rotisserie chicken (dark and white meat as desired) chopped into pieces
about 1/4 cup pasta water
1/2 cup parmigiana or Romano cheese (or a mixture of both, which is what I used)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Throw all the vegetables (including garlic) on a baking dish and drizzle olive oil on top, squeeze the juice of one lemon, add the chopped herbs, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and mix everything together with CLEAN hands. Don’t be afraid to get them dirty; you can always wash them.

Stick the vegetable mixture in oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta according to package directions and drain, saving about 1/4 (or a ladle full) to add to the pasta mixture. Also, tear apart the chicken pieces and set them to the side.

When the vegetables are done, combine them with the pasta, chicken, and pasta water, then mix together. Add the cheese and it’s ready to serve.

While this meal does take about 45 minutes to prepare, most of it is spent watching the television while the vegetables roast. Also, what I love about this is that it’s basically things we all have on hand anyway. I think some roasted pine nuts added would have been fantastic also, but I just didn’t have them.

So, next time you are at the grocery store trying to pick up a quick dinner, or you have some left over roasted chicken, give this recipe a try!

Happy eating!

Tags: bell peppers, broccoli, cheese, garlic, herbs, olive oil, onions, pasta, tomatoes, zucchinni
Posted in Recipes | 5 Comments »

Copy Cat Penne Rustica

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Today I went to a cooking themed get together! How fun. The theme was copy cat recipes. When I saw the theme, I just new that I needed to make. I have been experimenting with the Penne Rustica recipe from Macaroni Grill. Today I think I nailed the recipe right on the head, so this is what I’ll be sticking with from now on if I want to make it really authentic tasting like Macaroni Grill.

Ingredients
• 1 jar alfredo sauce
• 4 cloves garlic (roasted)
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried
• 1lb penne pasta
• 2 chicken breasts
• 4 slices of prosciutto (or bacon)
• about 12-15 medium shrimp
• 1 Tbsp olive oil plus some to put on chicken
• ½ onion diced
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 roasted red pepper diced
• paprika
• salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees

In a small sauce pan empty alfredo sauce, the mashed roasted garlic,
and rosemary (if you don’t roast the garlic first, sauté it in the
sauce pan for a couple of minutes in olive oil then ad alfredo sauce.)
Let simmer.

Heat large sauce pan on stove and cook pasta. Set aside when done.

Cover raw chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Grill on
high heat grill until done. Let rest for a few minutes then slice and
set aside.

Heat olive oil in sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add prosciutto and
cook for a couple of minutes to brown. Salt and pepper raw shrimp. Add
shrimp and onions to prosciutto. Cook for a couple of minutes until
the shrimp are almost done but still a bit translucent.

Combine chicken, prosciutto/shrimp mixture, and alfredo sauce
together. Add about 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and most of the red
pepper. Mix everything with the pasta in an oven proof dish. Add the
rest of the red pepper on top. Cover with rest of parmesan and
sprinkle with paprika.

Cook in oven for about 20 minutes until the top of the pasta is browned.
Garnish with fresh rosemary. This sucker serves 8-10 people pretty easily.

There were some other pretty cool copy cat recipes at this party too. One person made Wendy’s Chili and it was spot on. Another person made candy that tasted just like snickers bars. It was a great idea. Do you have any copy cat recipes that you like to cook? Leave a comment below

Tags: chicken, garlic, onions, pasta, prosciutto, rosemary, shrimp
Posted in Recipes | 3 Comments »

Accidental Delight: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

On Sunday I decided to make a roast chicken. I decided this a week ago. So all week I have been picturing this perfect roast chicken I was going to make for a Sunday dinner. I searched different recipes that I wanted to try and I finally settled on this one from Tyler Florence from the Food Network.

This post is not about how wonderful this Chicken turned out (even though I dreamed for a week about what it would look like). This chicken turned out to be a complete failure.

I followed the directions to a T (unlike usual for me with a recipe) because I had only roasted a chicken once before and it came out so-so. This time I wanted it to be crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. I cooked it to the temperature that it suggested and put my thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh and it read 169 degrees, 4 degrees over the recommended 165 for a cooked chicken in the recipe. Oh no I thought, better get this bird out of the oven before it over cooks!

I even made the gravy, and it tasted wonderful. I really have never tasted homemade gravy so good. And I am sorry to those of you reading this blog whose gravy I have eaten in the past, its not that my talent in gravy making is superior to yours, its that this recipe really renders a fantastic gravy.

I put everything out onto the table. This night we would sit at the kitchen table and eat like civilized people instead of at the coffee table in front of the television. It looked beautiful with the bird I pictured in my head as the center piece. Then we cut into it…

…it was still raw in the middle! What?!?! I did everything right. How could this be? Ben and I picked at a couple of pieces of cooked juicy breast, but most of the chicken was really uneatable. I was so upset, dinner was ruined.

While I sat there and contemplated what to do, I thought about how I was going to boil the bones afterwords to make stock, and I thought, maybe I’ll just make some soup instead since most of the meat was still intact.

After a phone call to Ben’s mother (thanks Julia) for some advice about how to boil the chicken. I looked at what ingredients I had in my kitchen. There was about a cup of white/wild rice mix from Thanksgiving that I was probably never going to use. I had some onion, carrots, and mushrooms. So I thought maybe I’ll do chicken and wild rice soup.

Now, about the only chicken and wild rice soup I have ever eaten is from Panera Bread, and that is my favorite soup there. But I have never boiled a chicken, and I have never made any type of chicken soup myself.

But this is what this post is about. How I made the most fantastic, mouth watering, and wonderful chicken and wild rice soup from a failed roasted chicken.

Here’s what you’ll need

1 whole 3-5lb chicken, cooked or not (mine was half way) and as much meat as you have left on it.
about 1/2 an onion chopped. And one onion in large chunks.
about a cup of carrots
about 80z of mushrooms
about a cup of white/wild rice mix
4 cloves garlic
fresh oregano, thyme, and parsley chopped. Maybe a tablespoon a piece (I have no idea what made it into the soup because mine was already on the bird)
6-7 cups water
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

First you put your chicken and the onion chunks in the pot (I actually added everything that was stuffed in the bird except the orange from the original recipe), cover it with water, and boil it until it’s cooked. If its already cooked, a 1/2 hour will do just fine. If not, it may take longer. Let it cool and drain the chicken from the liquid (SAVE THE LIQUID! THIS IS YOUR STOCK!!!!) and when the chicken is cooled pick all the meat off the bird. Then you can discard it and the onion.

When you are ready to make the soup. Add some olive oil to the pot over medium-high heat and cook the onions, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms until tender, about 5 minutes. Then add your stock (mine was about 6.5 cups), rice, chicken and herbs, salt and pepper. Let the liquid boil then cover and reduce the heat to low for 45 minutes. The picture below illustrates my final product.

So at about 10pm on Sunday night. I finally finished dinner attempt number two. Wow, it was worth the wait. What was once an underdone disaster turned into the best soup I have ever made, ever! Now I only hope you, and myself can reattempt this accidental masterpiece.

What are some meal time disasters you have had in the kitchen? Were you able to salvage the dish? Let me know in the comments below. And enjoy the happy accidents in life.

Tags: carrots, chicken, garlic, mushrooms, onion, soup, wild rice
Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment »

Stir Fry Mania: Pork Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Onions

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Man, I have been away from this blog for way too long. The beginning of the year has been very busy for me. First I was looking for a new job, and now I am working a new job. I also broke my computer (for what seems like the umpteenth time) and that has really slowed my blog process down. I don’t want to digress, however, because that is not what I want to talk about in this post.

What I DO want to write about tonight is Stir Fry. I promised myself this year that I was going to explore Asian cooking a little more. I love Asian flavors, but I don’t always know what to do with them. I do have a couple of tried and true recipes that I turn to, but I am at a loss regarding how to really diversify myself. Then, like a shinning beacon landing in my mail box, came my very first issue of the Food Network Magazine, which my wonderful boyfriend got me a subscription to for Christmas.

I didn’t even know that Food Network had a magazine, so I had no idea what was in store for me. Let me tell you, it really over whelmed me. I mean, it’s a WHOLE magazine that is full of recipes and cooking advice. I seriously didn’t know what to do with myself. The cover picture is of a stir fry and I was instantly intrigued by this recipe. When I turned to the page with the article in it, the title was 11,375 Stir-Fries! What?!?! How can there be 11,375 stir fry recipes in ONE cooking magazine, but then you look to the next page and see the beauty of the whole thing. Its a mix an match ingredient list. Perfect, I thought to myself, this is exactly what I have been looking for. Basically, you pick a protein, some vegetables, a sauce, and you’re on your way. What is great about this is that you can pretty much use what you have on hand as far as vegetables and meats are concerned when you’re not sure what to make for dinner that night. There are a few ingredients in the sauces you may have to pre plan for, but even the sauces use a lot of the same ingredients: so, once you have them, you can keep them on hand for all the variations.

Anyway, over the next weeks or months I am going to feature different stir fries. Some will be inspired by this article, and some may be from other places (I do have a mean stir fry I already make and I’ll have to feature it in one of my posts). I will also research and tell you a bit more about stir fry, its history, and some general tips for cooking it. But those will have to wait for another post because this one is getting a bit long.

So, now on to the recipe:

Stir Fry Test One: Pork, Bok Choy, Mushrooms, and Onions.

What you’ll need:

Sauce, Mix together:

3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp Rice wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Other ingredients:

3/4 lb pork chops cut small strips
1 egg white
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 head bok choy chopped
1/2 a medium red onion sliced
80z mushrooms (I just use one package from the grocery store) sliced
2 heads garlic minced
2 tbsp grated ginger
additional salt
additional sugar
Vegetable or Peanut oil (I used Canola)

First marinate your meat in the vinegar, cornstarch, and egg white (first 3 ingredients) for about an hour. While that is marinating, prep all your ingredients. Get your sauce ready in a bowl, chop all your veggies. Grate your ginger and mince your garlic.

Now we are ready to cook.

Heat your wok (or you may use a skillet) over medium heat. Add about 1/4 inch oil (I just plopped a couple tablespoons in there). Drain the marinade, add the pork, and stir until white and no pink is showing (depending on how small you cut your pieces, I would say that should take no more than 2-3 minutes). Remove the pork from the pan and wipe it down. Turn the heat up to high. Next add 2 tbsp of oil back into the wok. Add the garlic, ginger, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of sugar. Cook for only 30 seconds. Then add the vegetables. It says to add from the ones that take the longest to cook to the ones that cook the shortest. I added the mushrooms and cooked them for a 1-2 minutes, then I added the onions for another minute, and finally the bok choy for another minute or so. Finally, add the pork and sauce back into the wok and cook for about another 3 minutes.

The sauce with this recipe is very light and it really lets the flavors in the vegetables and meat through, so make sure that you are using really fresh ingredients. Everything was cooked great, the bok choy still had a crunch to it, and the dish looked so pretty and uncluttered. You can try different meats too; just marinate them the same way or switch out a vegetable or two. It’s very versatile, and it comes together super fast once you are cooking. Then you can just slap it over some rice, couscous, or even quinoa and enjoy!

Let me know how you changed this dish up, and look for the next recipe in this series where I’ll use different meats, veggies, and a different sauce!

Tags: bok choy, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, onions, pork, sesame oil
Posted in Stir Fry Mania | 18 Comments »

Twist on a clasic: Oven baked Fries

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

This is a boniato.

This is what it looks like on the inside.

One day I was on facebook and someone said yams and sweet potatoes aren’t the same. Really? I had no idea so I promptly googled it. Turns out she was right. A yam is actually a white sweet spud that is a little nutty and used a lot in Latin cooking, it is better known as a boniato (bone-YEE-et-O).

Well last week I was at the Latin grocery store I sometimes go to and there they were. I had to get some. But what to do? I decided to alter this recipe from Lottie + Doof.

Here’s what you’ll need:

8 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp vegetable oil
4 boniatos peeled and cut into wedges or sticks
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

Heat oven to 475. Heat the garlic and oil in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute. Pour about 5 tbsp of oil onto your baking sheet (but leave the garlic). Add boniatos to remaining oil and garlic and mix together thoroughly. Cover with plastic and microwave about 6 minutes stirring once half way through.

Next add cornstarch, salt, pepper, and rosemary and mix together. Place on pan…

and throw them in the oven for 30-40 minutes until crispy. Turn them once during baking. Then remove from the oven and enjoy.

These are really good and the boniato gives a subtle sweetness to it which pairs well with the rosemary and garlic.

Tags: garlic, olive oil, potatoes, rosemary
Posted in Recipes, Vegitarian Options | 1 Comment »

Quick Dinner: Leftover Potato Parmesan Hash

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

So its the last day of vacation before I return to work. Which means I have spent it in front of the television in my pajamas crocheting a scarf. Yes I know I sound like an old woman, but that’s besides the point. The point is that I don’t really feel like cooking tonight (gasp I know, sometimes it happens).

I did, however, plan to make Mongolian Beef which I had the steak defrosting on the counter top. Right around the dinner hour I fell asleep. My boyfriend, who didn’t want to wake me up, but was hungry made his favorite thing in the world (no matter how many things I cook, I don’t know if this will ever be replaced in his heart) a sandwich. I know he lived off these and frozen pizzas before we met, but that is another story all together.

So now, there I was awake and hungry. What did I want, definitely nothing fancy. And since it will be 29 degrees tonight (in FLORIDA!!!!!) I have been in a continual state of cold all day even with the heat on (first time this season it got turned on last night), I wanted something hearty to eat.

What I ended up making took me literally 10 minutes from start to finish, and my boyfriend asked if he could have some cause it smelled so good. But no, it was for me, all for me!!!! The main part of this dish came from some leftover baked potatoes that I had from a couple of days ago. I saw my dad make something similar to thing years ago when I was a teenager and it has stayed with me since. I think I get my experimental side of cooking from him. Not that I remember him just sitting in the kitchen coming up with dishes. But when he did cook it was throwing whatever he could find in the frig in a pan and cooking it hoping for the best.

Here’s what I used

A drizzle of olive oil
1 garlic clove
2 slices of deli ham
left over caramelized onions (but feel free to use regular satued onions)
2 small baked potatoes
Parmesan cheese
a bit of fresh rosemary chopped up.

Heat up a medium skillet to medium high heat. Cut up the deli ham and add it to pan to brown. After ham is browned add garlic. Cook garlic for 1-2 minutes. Then add onions and potatoes. Cook for another couple minutes as they heat up. Finally add the Parmesan cheese and let it melt all over the dish. Finally add some salt/pepper and the rosemary and serve.

Wow this hit the spot, and like I said it was fast. Try something new for yourself too. Not everything you cook has to be a grand event. Everyone is about to go back to work, and we working drones don’t have time to slave over a kitchen stove all night when we get home. So try something like this and let me know what you think.

Tags: garlic, ham, onion, parmesan cheese, potato, rosemary
Posted in Recipes | No Comments »

Explore. Cook. Eat.

Posts Tagged ‘garlic’

Quick Rustic Chicken and Vegtable Pasta

Copy Cat Penne Rustica

Accidental Delight: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Stir Fry Mania: Pork Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Onions

Twist on a clasic: Oven baked Fries

Quick Dinner: Leftover Potato Parmesan Hash

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