Selective Palate

So my doctor put me on this diet she calls an anti-inflammatory diet or more accurately an elimination diet. In a nutshell (not peanut!) I am on a strick diet whereas I cannot have any wheat, corn, potato, diary, tomato, citrus, red meat, alcohol or peanuts. I am especially not to have anything processed or fried and should use only olive oil or extra virgin coconut oil. In addition, I should eat organic everything when possible. On a whole this is not too terribly hard but what is life without cheese and wine I ask?!

So that brings me to where I am now with experimentation with new foods, a few great recipes and several not so great recipes that I rather not make again. Also, somethings should not be made vegan - Tofutti Sour Cream I am talking to YOU! However, Veganaise you may stay.

Now lets get to the successes! Lately I have been making a lot of stews & soups; this has got M asking very politely for food he can actually, you know CHEW! So last night I made a friendly version of Chicken Marsala. I know the wine, but really 20% alcohol at the most here so I think I am ok.  This could be made without the wine I suppose but then it would not be Chicken Marsala now would it.

I love this dish and I didn’t think I would be able to pull it off with my restrictions to be  honest. I mean butter makes this sauce so velvety I didn’t think olive oil would be able to compete. Well it needed a little help but the dish came out perfect.

Recipe

2-4 boneless chicken breasts ( leave the skin on if you can)
2 cups sliced mushrooms (I love shitake, so I did 1/2 shitake and 1/2 crimini)
1 large shallot or 2 smaller chopped small
3-4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup and 1 T. Marsala wine
1 cup and 2 T. chicken broth
1 T. tapioca flour/starch (corn starch works fine here)
2 T. of flat leaf parsley
2 t. fresh sage
1 T. olive oil
2 t. Earth Balance buttery spread (or butter)
salt and pepper to taste

Start by heating your pan and 1 t. fake butter with the olive oil. Pat your chicken breasts dry and season with salt and pepper on both sides. When pan is hot place the breasts skin side down in the hot pan. There will be loud hissing but DO NOT TOUCH THEM! Let them cook for about 5 minutes. Test with your tongs; if the chicken releases from the pan without a fight then you can flip them, if not leave them cook another minute or so. Sear the other side for another 5 minutes or so then remove from pan and cover with foil. In the hot pan add your shallot and stir to coat evenly in the fat. (If you used boneless/skinless chicken you may have to add another T. of oil.) Cook shallots till fragrent about 1 minute and then add the mushrooms. Coat the mushroom with the fat in the pan and let cook for about 2-3 minutes; you want to see a nice color on the veggies. At this point salt and pepper and add the garlic. Cook for about another 30 seconds to a minute and deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of the wine. Scrape up all the leftover chicken bits from the bottom of the pan, bring to boil and let reduce for a few minutes; this gets all that flavor into each mushroom! Now add 1 cup of  your chicken broth or stock and bring to a boil. While you wait for that mix the starch with the remainder of the broth and stir into the pan. You may not need all of this mixture so do it a little at a time, each time wait for the sauce to come back to a boil to reach full thickness. When you have the desired consistency (should coat the back of a spoon) place the chicken back into the pan (skin side up) to finish cooking. When you are ready to plate add the rest of the (fake) butter, 1 T. of Marsala wine and the fresh herbs to the pan and give a good stir to incorporate everything.

Serve over pasta or rice and ladle the sauce, generously over the chicken. I used quinao pasta which I am quite a fan of. I swear I don’t notice the difference, you just have to be more diligent when cooking it and make sure you keep stirring the pasta while it cooks or it will stick together.

Enjoy!

Sometime back in late June early July garlic scapes and ramps were all over the famers market. I had never cooked with either so of course I picked up bunches of both to experiment. After tasting them I had tried them in several dishes from ramp risotto to home made garlic scape ‘n herb buttermilk dressing. Both were fantastic and I can say now that I am big fan of both. Unfortunately, the season for both are very short and I must wait till next year to enjoy them again. But I can look back and remember them fondly.

One Wednesday night back in July I had bought some gorgeous sea scallops and fresh jumbo shrimp from the fish truck. Now I am the only person in my house that eats either so whenever I make them I have to make a dish that I can throw in chicken or fish for M. This night I looked in my veggie bins for inspiration. It hadn’t gone to the farmers market that morning so I was working with the remnants from the weekend. I had a few garlic scapes, 2 ramps, and a bunch of swiss chard. Also, in the fridge was leftover brown rice from earlier in the week. I quickly figured on a variation of scampi!

Recipe:

Protein of your choice, I used sea scallops, shrimp, and sliced chicken breast, but you really can use anything you like. But if you use white wine like I did you may want to stick with your “white” meats. (Just a side note a great fall and winter variation I use red meat and red wine!)
1 bunch chard or any green you like chopped up into bite size pieces
red chili flakes to taste
2-3 ramps sliced up
1-2 garlic scapes chopped up
1-2 T. butter
1 cup or so white wine, any decent wine works here, I have done this with whatever I was drinking at the time or even vermouth.

First heat a fry pan until it is good and hot, melt 1/2 the butter (if it smokes too much you can add olive oil to bring the smoke point down, or just remove the pan from the heat as you add the butter). Place your scallops (or whatever) in the pan to get a nice sear on the meat. I seared off my scallops first then the shrimp and finally the chicken (each separately so not to over cook the seafood). Remove meat from pan and add more butter along with the ramps, scapes, and chili flakes if using. Saute for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until you just begin to see some color and smell the ramps and scapes. Add the wine and deglaze the pan scraping up all the wonderful bits. Add in the chard and begin to wilt the greens. Then place your meat back into to pan just to warm through, and finish cooking. You can if you like add a little more butter to the sauce at the last minute to give it a silky texture and don’t forget to season with salt and pepper at the end very important! Serve over leftover rice, pasta, cous cous or by it self.

And there you go a very fast, fresh and tasty meal. I make several variations of this all year long. This was a first with the ramps and scapes but I really enjoyed it. The scapes keep a good bit of their texture through the cooking process along with keeping a nice garlic taste. The ramps get nice and sweet and have a taste of well, sweet garlic shallots. I used the greens and the bulb of the ramp which both have their own flavor. Still if you don’t have garlic scapes or ramps sub out garlic and shallots, or onions, green onions or really anything you have on hand. This is not so much a recipe as it is a method, you really can do anything you like! That is what I love about cooking, you get to be so creative while using up what you have leftover!

So how many times can’t I ask for forgiveness before you all (all 5 of you that is) tell me f%^& off? Well I hope I its not now. Work has kept me so busy as of late that not only have I not posted but I have not made much of anything. I did get to make 2 very large quantities of guacamole 2 weeks in a row for friend’s parties and thanks to a friend I discovered that vidalia onions instead of say red onions in guac are very very good indeed! Other than that I have been shall we say lacking inspiration.

That is until the other night. M has been a bit of a funk as of late and the only way I know to help cheer people up is with food, yeah I know I am a diet’s worst enemy! Anyhow, I thought he could use a little pick me up after work so I thought I would combine 2 of his favorite foods into 1 tasty treat. And guess what; it was not all that bad for you either!!!!

Buffalo Chicken Burgers (combo of, you guessed it burgers and buffalo wings!) I got the initial inspiration from this lovely post and as always tweaked it to my liking.

Recipe:

2 chicken breast about a pound, cubed (leave the fat on!!!!!)
2 T. egg beaters or regular egg but I find it easier to just use the egg beaters.
1/2 a small onion (I used vidalia)
3 cloves garlic
1/4 -1/3 cup (palmful) of seasoned breadcrumbs
dash of hot sauce, pinch of cayanne, salt/pepper - all to taste
1/2 cup flour seasoned with cayanne (to taste)

Buffalo Sauce:

1-2 T. butter
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 - 1 Cup hot sauce of choice (or you can mix like I did, 1 part Tabasco, 2 parts Franks)
pinch (or more) cayenne
1-2 T. red wine vinegar
salt & pepper

Place the onion and garlic in a food processor and pulse a few times to rough chop. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until a nice mix forms, should look like, wait for it, ground meat! Mix together your flour and cayenne. Now wet your hand; helps with sticking, and make 4 patties out of the ground meat mixture. It will be sticky and it will be a little loose. Lightly dredge the patties in the seasoned flour and pat off excess. Place patties on a plate and refrigerate til ready to use. Chilling them helps to keep them together while cooking just like you would do for a crab cake. Meanwhile make the sauce. Melt to butter and saute the garlic for a few minutes until fragrant/brown but not burnt. Now lower the heat and whisk in the cayenne then the rest of the ingredients. Turn off heat. When ready to cook your patties heat a fry pan with enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan, when hot gently lay your burgers in. Cook for about 5 minutes per side. Each side should be golden brown. When fully cooked, completely submerge in the buffalo sauce. Place on a bun with blue cheese!

I used an English Muffin and seved with a side of celery and carrot stix. It was a great meal especially for summer. I think you could do these on the grill too but you would have to cook them on greesed aluminum foil. If you placed them on the grill it self I don’t think the flour would cook right and give you that great crust. Plus it might just fall through the grating. But hey if you try it and it works let me know; I am way to chicken (ha) to try it!

Spring seems to have finally gotten to Vermont however this being Vermont that could change within the next hour! The weather forcast however, is calling for an absolutely beautiful weekend and what better way to kick off the season than with a picnic! Ok, how about just picnic food? As I was telling you yesterday I will be catering a small bridal luncheon in June and I have been diligently testing recipes. The weather being as it is I decided to test out 2 different chicken salad recipes and let friends taste test them for me. Before I tell you the winner I should tell you the different recipes…

First up, a recipe including dijon mustard, sliced almonds and red onions. I roasted the chicken on the bone for both recipes after which for this recipe I cut up the chicken in quite small pieces and the red onion and celery were cut in a very small dice. The dressing was mayo, dijon, tarragon, and lemon juice. This salad was great it had a nice bite to it and fit and stayed on the bread very nice. However I think for a wedding day red onion may be a no go and to be honest the tarragon was a little strong in this recipe. Next up, I took the same chicken roasted on the bone and cut into bigger bite size pieces mixed it with toasted sliced almonds, green grapes, celery and a dressing made of lemon juice, mayo, and less tarragon. Over all this salad was fantastic. The taste of the grapes and the almonds really made the salad pop and the use of tarragon was more of an accent here and worked great. However, the size of everything was too big and would not stay on the bread. End result, the salad chosen for the luncheon is the second salad with the grapes with a few tweaks made to the prep of the chicken and grapes. If it were not for the whole wedding thing I would make the second salad with the addition of the red onions and of course the smaller pieces!

Recipe:

Ingredient:
4 Split chicken breasts on the bone with skin roasted with just salt, pepper and olive oil
1/2 cup good mayo
1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped tarragon
2 stalks diced celery
1 cup green grapes depending on size either 1/2′d or 1/4′d
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
the juice of 1/2 a lemon

When the chicken is cool remove the meat leaving the skin and bone and cut in 1/2 inch pieces or smaller. Add the rest of the ingredient and season with salt & pepper. Stir, let sit for at least an hour for the flavors to meld and enjoy.

Today I was cruising through Tastespotting for ideas on what to do with the roasting chicken I defrosted for dinner tonight. I didn’t want the same ‘ol same ‘ol roast chicken with lemon and thyme; though very yummy I was not in the mood for traditional. SO… I saw a recipe for a soy and ginger glazed bird that looked amazing! So my mind just went in that direction I just spruced it up a bit to my liking.

First I did quick counter brine with a simple solution of sugar, salt and cold water and let the bird swim in that for about an hour or so. Meanwhile I concocted the glaze! In a small sauce pot I simmered Chinese rice wine, brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili sauce, worchestershire sauce, and a splash of rice wine vinegar until it became a thick syrup. Then I went to work on the chicken; I took it out of the brine and patted it completely dry. I gave it a good massage with oil and Chinese five spice (go easy, I only used a heaping teaspoon for the whole bird) and stuffed it with a few crushed cloves of garlic and a handful of ginger coins. Then I seared it in a large pan over high heat. Once brown on both sides I flipped it on it’s back slathered it with the glaze and popped it in a 400 degree preheated oven. I then basted it every ten minutes for 50 minutes. Let it rest for 10 and carved. I know this seems like a lot of work but it was well worth it. The skin was so crisp, meat so juicy, and the flavor so unique. Just what I was in the mood for!

I served it with steamed scallion jasmine rice and stir fried asparagus. Perfect meal for a chilly Vermont night.

Recipe:

3-4lb roasting chicken
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups cold water
teas. chinese five spice
2 tbsp. oil (canola, peanut, vegetable)
3-4 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 cup-1/2 cup ginger coins

Glaze:
1/2 cup chinese rice wine
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup worchestershire sauce
heaping teas. chili with garlic sauce or rooster sauce
2 tbsp. hoison sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
good splash of rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup (or so) ginger coins
3 cloves smashed garlic

Combined salt, sugar, and water to dissolve. Add chicken and let sit at room temp for about an hour; you can brine longer if you want but make sure to refrigerate until 1 hour before cooking.

Preheat oven to 400. Retrieve chicken from brine and pat completely dry. Rub with about a tbsp. of the oil and the five spice. Stuff cavity with the crushed garlic and ginger coins; you can truss the bird if you like or tie the legs together but I never do, I just never seem to have the twine on hand. Heat a large oven proof pan with the remaining oil and sear the bird; making sure that each side consists of a leg and breast; about 5 minutes per side. Flip onto its back, liberally apply some glaze with a brush and transfer to the oven. Bast bird with the remaining glaze every ten minutes until internal temp. (inserted at the thigh) reads 155. Take out of oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Carve and enjoy!