Rosemary Lemon Chicken Stroganoff

Rosemary Lemon Chicken Stroganoff is made with the delicious leftovers of Nigella's Rosemary Lemon Chicken. You'll make extra just to be able to make this, I promise!

A few years ago, my cousin Connie sent me an email asking for family recipes to include in a cookbook she was compiling.  They didn’t have to be originals but they did have to be family favorites. Among those I sent her was Nigella Lawson’s Butterflied (Spatchcocked) Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary  because it is one of my go-to dishes both for company (because it can be prepared ahead and can just be stuffed in the oven when the guests are arriving) and even for weekday dinners (for the same make ahead reason.)

When it is just us, there are hardly any leftovers because I do one whole chicken with a couple of breasts (preferably on the bone for flavor) tucked in the pan extra. When we have guests, my congenital Cajun defect will not allow me to only cook how much I think people can reasonably eat; I have to cook more than enough. So, then, sometimes there are leftovers.  In the past, the leftovers have languished in the fridge, possibly being nibbled on as cold chicken, re-warmed chicken or even made into chicken salad. Inevitably, I end up throwing some away.

The last time we had leftovers, I did something different. I took all the chicken off the bones, discarded the lemon rinds, deglazed the pan and tipped the whole rest of the dish, including the pan juices, into a freezer bag and then popped it into the freezer. My plan: Rosemary Lemon Chicken Stroganoff (although I hadn’t actually named it yet) to serve over pasta. First, of course, you'll have to make the original recipe! And then use the leftovers for this lovely dish. 

Rosemary Lemon Chicken Stroganoff

Ingredients
Leftover chicken with lemon and rosemary – deboned, lemon discarded, plus juices from the deglazed pan. I had about a pound of stuff altogether.
2 heaping tablespoons of Greek yogurt
1/4 cup full cream
1 tablespoon corn flour or starch (and a little more cream to dissolve it in)

Method
Remove the bag from the freezer and thaw. I cut the bag apart and popped the whole frozen lump into a pan with a lid and covered, over a low heat. Once it is thawed enough, remove the lump from the pan and chopped the meat on a cutting board.

In retrospect, I surely should have chopped my chicken up before I froze it. Live and learn. Return the chicken to the pot and add the yogurt and cream.   

Turn the heat way down because you don’t want it boil.  Dissolve the corn starch in a little more cream and add it to the pot.

Cook slowly for just a couple of minutes until it thickens. Grind in a little more fresh black pepper. That is it!

The yogurt adds a little more tartness to the already present lemon flavor and it is delicious.

Serve over the pasta of your choice (my choice is almost invariably linguine) with a side dish of, perhaps, steamed broccoli. 

Enjoy!

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Eggplant Something I can't pronounce (Papoutzakia)

Okay, it’s Eggplant Papoutzakia.

and that is the link to the recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle written by Barbara Kingsolver, with her husband, Steven L. Hopp and, daughter, Camille Kingsolver.  I first read this wonderful book more than three years ago when I was living in Singapore.  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is about one family’s experiment with growing their own food and living off the land for one year and only buying what they could not raise or grow from local farms in their New England area.  It is all about the advantages (personal health, earth health) of being a locavore, that is, someone who eats food found, grown or raised within 100 miles or fewer of his or her home.

If you have every lived in Singapore, you know that not much is grown on the actual island. (There is a goat farm that I could buy fresh milk from, but that is another cheesy post altogether.)  Much comes from nearby Malaysia, though perhaps not within 100 miles, so living by the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle standards was hard to achieve but it did make me more aware of produce and the distances it traveled to be on my plate and I tried to make more reasonable choices when I could.  

Fast forward three years and we are back in Malaysia. Local produce is much easier to come by, although I must confess to succumbing to the allure of the occasional golden-red-skinned nectarine or small punnet of raspberries, both of which certainly are not grown here. Once again, it’s about making better choices as much as possible.

So on to today’s recipe. Eggplant Papoutzakia.  My mom came across the recipe while flipping through my copy of the book (elder daughter was reading it and left it lying around) and, being a lover of eggplant, she asked if we could try it. My policy is that I am happy to cook anytime, anywhere for just about anyone, if they will come up with the menu.

Ingredients

2 lb. eggplant
Olive oil
2 medium onions, garlic to taste (I used four cloves.)
2 large tomatoes, diced
2 tsp. nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
6 oz. grated mozzarella (I used about eight ounces and sliced it into little pieces which I cast randomly and, I like to think, attractively about the top.)

Method

Slice eggplant lengthwise and sauté lightly in olive oil. Remove from skillet and arrange in a baking dish. I cut my eggplant into many slices and browned them all in a non-stick skillet with just a bit of olive oil for each batch.  I stacked them on a big platter until all were browned and I was ready to assemble the dish. 

Chop onions and garlic and sauté in olive oil. Add diced tomato and spices and mix thoroughly. My family is not a lover of onion chunks so I let this cook down like a good spaghetti sauce, until there was no crunch left at all. I also added a teaspoon of sugar to counter the acid in the canned tomato.  I let it cool for a little bit, then pureed it in the blender. 

Spread mixture over the eggplants and sprinkle an even layer of cheese over top. I oiled the bottom of my lasagna dish with olive oil and spread a bit of the sauce around first. Then, I added the eggplant, the rest of the sauce and then the cheese in the aforementioned attractive manner.  

 Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, until golden on top.

Enjoy!

If you are interested in finding locally grown foods in your area of the United States, check out this link. Buy mostly what is in season in your growing area and you are more likely to be buying local produce.

Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels

This is the chocolate that started me off.   

Almost two months ago I had the good fortune to be invited to Geneva to take part in a meeting of company spouses.  We were also treated to some lovely meals and excursions, one of which was the Cailler chocolate factory in Gruyère.    I’ve traveled all over the world, but somehow I had never come across chocolate with caramel and SALT. Ordinarily not a sweet lover, I ate the whole bar, square by square, nibble by nibble until it was completely gone. Then I mourned. Just as well, you say, and you are correct, but that new taste sensation has stayed at the back of my mind now for weeks.

Yesterday, I came across a recipe online, originally from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich and I knew I had to try it.

Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels
from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich (And if you, too, love Alice Medrich, check out her blog.) 

Ingredients
1 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup
2 cups sugar (I used only 1 3/4 cups)
3/8 teaspoon fine sea salt (I used a 1/2 teaspoon since I was trying to approximate my Swiss experience, which was definitely salty.)
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons pure ground vanilla beans, purchased or ground in a coffee or spice grinders, or 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I scraped the seeds out of one fresh bean then threw the whole pod in while heating the cream, taking it out before adding the cream to the sugar mixture as required.)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks, softened

Equipment
A 9-inch square baking pan
Candy thermometer

Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with aluminum foil and grease the foil. (Really grease it well or even the foil will stick to this caramel! Mine did in places so clearly my greasing wasn’t thick enough everywhere.) Combine the golden syrup, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to simmer around the edges. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes. (Meanwhile, rinse the spatula or spoon before using it again later.) Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once more. Attach the candy thermometer to the pan, without letting it touch the bottom of the pan, and cook, uncovered (without stirring) until the mixture reaches 305°F. 

Meanwhile, combine the cream and ground vanilla beans (not the extract) in a small saucepan and heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Turn off the heat and cover the pan to keep the cream hot.

When the sugar mixture reaches 305°F, turn off the heat and stir in the butter chunks. Gradually stir in the hot cream; it will bubble up and steam dramatically, so be careful. 

Turn the burner back on and adjust it so that the mixture boils energetically but not violently  Stir until any thickened syrup at the bottom of the pan is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, to about 245°F. (This part seemed to take forever. I had my fire rather low because I didn’t want the mixture to burn but it didn’t seem to go above 225 °F for the LONGEST time, so I raised the flame and the temperature finally began to climb.) Then cook, stirring constantly, to 260°F for soft, chewy caramels or 265°F; for firmer chewy caramels. (Took mine out at 260°F and they are soft and chewy and are a danger to dental fillings for sure!)

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract, if using it. (I skipped this step since the whole pot was filled with little bitty vanilla seeds and that seemed like enough vanilla.) Pour the caramel into the lined pan. Let set for four to five hours, or overnight until firm.

Lift the pan liner from the pan and invert the sheet of caramel onto a sheet of parchment paper. Peel off the liner. Cut the caramels with an oiled knife. (This DID NOT work very well for me. My well-oiled knife still stuck to the caramels. My kitchen scissors were much more effective in cutting the caramel into squares.) 

Wrap each caramel individually in wax paper or cellophane.  (I used cling film, cutting off a wide strip and lining the squares up in the middle with an inch or two in between each one. I folded the cling film over from the top and then the bottom, pressing a finger down between each caramel. Then I cut the cling film where I had pressed my finger, to separate them.)

  

These caramels are delicious. If I would do anything different next time, it would be to add even more salt flakes to the top. I mashed a lot of them off as I was trying to separate the caramels into squares.

Enjoy! 

Oven-roasted Tomatoes with Pasta

So I was browsing food blogs today and came across a recipe for stuffed roasted tomatoes that are served over pasta. It sounded delicious, except that it called for anchovies and pancetta and I am catering for a mixed group which includes one well-loved vegetarian.  I fully support her decision not to eat meat so I modified the recipe and, frankly, did my own thing ingredient- and method-wise.  Which is my way.

Ingredients

4 fair-sized tomatoes
3/4 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan for recipe and extra to sprinkle on when serving
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon of butter
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Dash of ground cayenne
450g (about 16oz.) of pasta
1-2 tablespoons freshly chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

First, cut the top of the tomatoes, just under the stem base.  If the openings to the seeds are not visible, slice another thin piece off of the tomatoes, until they are.  You want to be able to scoop the seeds and the top of the core out of the tomatoes. I used a grapefruit spoon and it was the best tool for the job!  The grapefruit spoon allowed me to cut less off the top and still scoop all the innards out without a hassle. Save the top slices of the tomato and chop into small bits. Discard the tomato seeds and top of the core.

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C.  Heat a small saucepan on the stove with some of the olive oil and slice the four garlic cloves right into the heated pan. Sauteé the garlic until soft and then add the chopped tomato bits, salt and pepper (don’t forget the cayenne too) to the mixture as it cooks gently, until all the juice from the tomatoes is gone. Remove from heat.  Add the butter and let it melt.  Transfer the mixture into a small bowl and stir a few times until it cools. 

Add the bread crumbs and the Parmesan, stirring until fully incorporated. 

With a spoon (or I used a spoon and then my fingers) fill the tomatoes with the mixture and pack in the holes. Top the tomatoes with the balance of the filling.

Place in an oven proof dish, trying to keep the tomatoes upright.  At first I had mine in a non-stick baking dish, then I transferred them with tongs to a muffin pan (Thanks, Mom!) because they wouldn’t stand up.  Drizzle tops with olive oil and bake for at least 45 minutes.

About 15 minutes from done, put your water on to boil for pasta. Add salt and a little olive oil.  I boiled all 500g of the bag of rigatoni and had leftovers of the pasta because someone at my house (read: youngest daughter) will always eat leftover rigatoni but 450g will surely do, even for four generous servings.

After the pasta is done, drain it and return to pot. Drizzle with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking together. (If you aren’t serving for a while, save a little of the pasta water to use to loosen the pasta again before serving and don’t put the tomatoes in yet. You will need to be able to stir the pasta vigorously while warming. ) Gently add the roasted tomatoes and the juice from the roasting pan and sprinkle with the flat leafed parsley.  Let each person scoop up some pasta and one tomato to serve.  Offer the extra Parmesan to sprinkle as needed.

(As suggested in the original recipe, I had fried crispy bacon to add but I kept it separate on the side so that each person could add or not add bacon as they saw fit.)

Birthday Crème Brûlée

Some people want carrot cake. Some people want banana cream pie. My mom asked for crème brûlée.

Anthony Bourdain's Crème Brûlée

from his Les Halles Cookbook*

Ingredients

1 quart/900 ml heavy cream

1 vanilla bean

6 ounces/168 g sugar

10 egg yolks

6 tb/84 g brown sugar

This makes six 8oz ramekins. I halved the recipe to make five 5oz crème brûlées, still using one whole vanilla bean.

Method

Put the heavy cream in large pot. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise- scrape the insides into the cream. Put in empty pod as well. Add half of the sugar to the cream, stir well. Bring to boil.

Preheat your over to 300 °F/150 °C.

Whisk egg yokes and remaining sugar, until pale yellow and slightly foamy. Remove cream mixture from the heat and SLOWLY, gradually, whisk it into the yolk mixture. Make sure to whisk constantly to prevent the hot mixture from curdling your eggs. Remove the vanilla bean and discard.

Place ramekins in the baking pan and fill the pan with water so it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Divide the custard evenly among the ramekins and cook them in the oven for 45 minutes or until the top is set but still jiggly. Remove ramekins from the oven and let cool to room temp. The custards can be placed in the refrigerator overnight- cover in plastic.

When you are ready to serve, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar over the top of each custard. Carefully run the propane torch's flame over each custard to caramelize the sugar. Wait a minute then serve the custards with spoons.

Happy 73rd birthday, Mom!

Yeah, we didn't bother to put candles. 

Enjoy!

 




* Disclaimer:  This is an affiliate link.  I will earn some small change if you buy after following this link*

Boiled Crawfish in Kuala Lumpur!

We ordered the little critters from a farm in Johor on Wednesday, paid the money (RM31 per kilo) into the farmer’s bank account and then picked them up well-packed and all alive (!) on Saturday morning from the courier’s office.

We cooked them in two batches in my big stockpot on the stove since we only had 15 kilos, well-seasoned - with potatoes, corn on the cob and loads of garlic butter to go around. And cold beer!  Gotta have the ice cold beer!

It was so good and easy to do that we are already planning the next order.

Borlotti cream sauce with pasta

Once again, my visiting photographer (my mother) took the photo. Unfortunately, she only remembered her duties after eating a few bites. Tomato and cucumber salad with two types of tomato and Japanese cucumber (probably grown here in Malaysia though) with a simple dressing of thinly sliced onion, vinegar, olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Plus a lovely cream sauce over whole wheat pasta.

Ingredients
1 can of rinsed borlotti beans
1 onion, finely minced
6 cloves of garlic, finely minced.
2 tablespoons of plain flour
1 -1.5 cups of low fat milk
1 cup (8 oz) cream
2 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley
1 vegetable stock cube
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
500g (16 oz. pasta)

Method
Rinse the beans and mash 2/3 of the can.
Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil until translucent and tender. Add the flour and stir to make a roux.  Add 1 cup milk, stirring quickly so as to avoid lumps. Add more milk if necessary.  Cook for a couple of minutes and then add the mashed beans and the stock cube. Add a little water if mixture is too thick. Cook for a few minutes and then puree in a blender or with a hand blender. Return to the pot and then throw the whole beans in. Cook another few minutes until thickened sufficiently, then add the cup of cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Then add parsley. Make sure it is warmed through then it is ready to serve.

Serve with a generous helping of grated or shaved Parmesan cheese over freshly boiled pasta. Serves five generously.

Optional for non-vegetarians: Top each serving with crispy bacon bits and pan-fried Italian sausage sliced thinly. You don’t need much - treat these like a garnish.

Spinach Feta Burgers

Baked Bree - Spinach Feta Burgers

If you don’t read Bree’s blog already, you don’t know what you are missing. Last night I had the excellent good fortune of having my daughter cook for me. This is what she made and it was delicious. I made some sweet potato and baking potato oven fries to go along with the burgers. Lovely meal and lovely company!

Eton Mess Adapted

So this was from more than a year and a half ago, but still on my mind since I just made homemade meringues and they didn’t turn out very crunchy.
Eton Mess

It was Victoria’s last day of Christmas vacation and, despite it being Saturday, we decided to do a Sunday dinner around 2 p.m. since we would have to be at the airport around 6:40 in the evening. My small oven was already over-scheduled with a roast leg of lamb, roast potatoes and, waiting its turn in line, a Yorkshire pudding. We needed a dessert recipe that didn’t need baking! I remembered that I had some store-bought meringues in the freezer, as well as some blackberries, and we were off! This is adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Eton Mess recipe which calls for strawberries and pomegranate juice. I substituted my blackberries and just a splash of balsamic vinegar instead.

Ingredients
3 cups blackberries
Vanilla sugar – enough to sprinkle on the blackberries and lightly coat (You can use plain caster sugar if you don’t have vanilla sugar.)
1 teaspoon good balsamic vinegar
2 cups whipping cream
About 60-70 grams of tiny meringue nests

Method
Put blackberries into a bowl and add the sugar and vinegar, smash them slightly with a spoon and leave to macerate while you whip the cream.

Whip the cream in a large bowl until thick but still soft. Roughly crumble in most of the meringue nests - you will need chunks for texture as well as a little fine dust – leaving just a couple for topping.

Take out about quarter cupful of the blackberries, and gently fold the meringue cream and rest of the fruit mixture together. You don’t want it homogeneously red or purple, but just mixed so there is still some white whipped cream showing.

Arrange in berry bowls or wine glasses, and top each with some of the remaining macerated blackberries and crumbled meringues. Makes four or five servings, depending on the size of your glasses and how full you fill them. The perfect sweet (but not too sweet) ending to a perfect meal.

Heaven is an Italian market. I could live in Florence.

April in Italy. Our last Spring Break when it really is Spring Break. Next year we will have no ties to a school schedule and we are not sure how we feel about it.  But I know I felt about the market in Florence. Love at first sight.

The one thing I bought to take home:  A small bag of sea salt with truffles.