Sopa Azteca – Cinco de Mayo Celebration

Remember back in March, we held our second progressive dinner on our street and it happened to fall right smack in Earth Hour? Our course was the appetizer and I chose to make Sopa Azteca or Tortilla Soup. The soup was a resounding success, full of flavour, colour and texture, but I did the unthinkable — I completely forgot to record my recipe which worked out to be a hybrid of Rick Bayless’s Sopa Azetca and a recipe that my good friend Barb of Profiteroles and Ponytails posted about some time ago!

Cinco de Mayo was just a few weeks ago and I thought it’s a perfect time to recreate this wonderful soup, before the weather starts getting too hot to enjoy soup. There is a bit of prep work, but once it’s all done, you pop it into a slow cooker and forget about it. I would even suggest you make it the day before you want to serve it because it’s just that much tastier the next day.

This soup is well worth the effort.

Sopa Azteca (Tortilla Soup)

Serves 4, dinner portions

Ingredients:

• 100 g onions, coarsely chopped
• 3 large cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 2 small smoked dried haberno chili peppers, seeds removed (haberno is hot)
• 1 large pasilla chili pepper, seeds removed (pasilla is much more mild)
• 4 coriander stems with roots (rinsed well)
• 2-3 epazote stems (I could only find dried, you could probably use a bay leaf instead, but remember to remove it)
• 800 mL strained tomato purée (I prefer low sodium)
• 2 L low sodium chicken stock
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp coriandre
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups frozen corn (or fresh on the cob BBQ’d and kernals cut off)
• 1 small whole wheat soft tortilla shell

BBQ’d Chicken or Turkey Breast

• 400 g skinless, boneless chicken or turkey breast
• 1 dried haberno pepper, seeds removed
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• pinch of sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Avocado Garnish (or use guacamole):

• 1 small avocado
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• juice of one lime
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 green onions, roughly chopped

Other Garnishes:

• 4 tbsp low fat yogurt
• 4 tbsp shredded Mexican melting cheese (like Chihuahua or mozzarella)
• 1 lime cut into wedges

Directions for the Soup:

1. Prepare your slow cooker by preheating it. Add the tomato sauce and chicken stock to the slow cooker; add the dried epazote and cilantro stems and roots.
2. Soak the seeded, dried chili peppers in about 1 cup of boiling hot water.
3. In a medium sauce pan, gently brown the onions and garlic. Turn the heat down and add the cocoa, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika and coriander. Strain the dried chili pepper water into the onion and scrap up any bits sticking to the pan. Add this mixture into the tomato sauce and stir well. Add the softened, strained chili to the sauce along with 1 cup of corn. Cook on a medium low setting for 3-5 hours.
4. Remove the cilantro stems and roots, blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve and add the other cup of corn. Reserve until you wish to serve.

Directions for the Chicken or Turkey:

1. Combine everything for the rub but the chicken or turkey in a dedicated coffee grinder for spices and grind until it’s a fine powder.
2. Remove any bits of fat or skin from the chicken or turkey and completely coat with the dry rub. Refrigerate while soup is cooking.
3. BBQ (with or without smoke) until the internal temperature is 74°C or 165°F. Set aside for 10 minutes and then using a fork, tear bite size pieces off. If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate and reheat when ready to use.

Directions for the Avocado Garnish:

1. Peel and chop the avocado into half centimetre cubes (1/4″).
2. Combine with the remainder of the Avocado Garnish ingredients and stir well.
3. Refrigerate until serving.

Tortilla Cones:

1. Preheat the oven to 175° C or 350°F.
2. Lightly brush the tortilla shell with olive oil to prevent it from drying out.
3. Using a pizza cutter and a kitchen ruler, cut the tortilla shell into 5-7mm strips (1/4″).
4. Join 3 strips together end to end using a bit of water and pressing the strips firmly together.
5. Carefully wrap each strip, oiled side in, on the cannoli cones. I found that pressing some tin foil on the tips prevented them from unraveling.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes turning once. You are aiming to dry out the tortilla into a crisp, cracker cone.
7. When finished, allow to cool for a minute and gently pry the cone from the cannoli mold. Reserve for presentation.

The strips are being attached to each other.

I won’t lie and say it’s easy, but with a little practice, it worked out very well.

The cones are ready for the oven

They released perfectly without casualties.

Soup Assembly:

1. Reheat the soup and chicken/turkey separately until piping hot. Ladle a generous amount of soup into each bowl, pile the chicken/turkey in the centre. Add a tablespoon of the avocado mixture and a tablespoon of yogurt. Sprinkle a tablespoon of the grated cheese over the hot soup and add the tortilla cone last to stand in the centre. Serve immediately with a wedge of lime.

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Lemony Chicken

My friend Barb made an incredible feast for Chinese New Year, she had so many delicious things it was really difficult to choose just one. But when I saw the Lemon Chicken plated out, I knew I had to try it because, believe it or not, I happen to adore the not so good for you version at Chinese fast food stalls! It turns out that lemon in savoury dishes is not one of JT’s favourite things, although he did say he didn’t hate it. Well, what he actually said was he prefers the taste of lemons in desserts! Go figure. I really enjoyed this recipe because I adore sour and sweet combos. And I have to admit, I reduced the sugar for our dinner and if I were to make it again, I would reduce it even more as I found it a little too sweet for my taste (I have adjusted the recipe below to reduce the sugar). I also baked the skinless, boneless Chicken breasts instead of pan frying to be a little healthier.

Original Recipe from House and Home

Serves 2, 100 g portions

Cutting the chicken into strips allows them to cook faster so that the crumbs become crispy but don’t burn.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp sugar (I have reduced this from my pictured recipe already)
• 1 heaping tbsp grated ginger root
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 200 g boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tbsp cold water
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 cup panko-style bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• Mix of greens such as shredded romaine lettuce.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine water, sugar and ginger in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes to infuse the water with the ginger.
3. Stir in the freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest and quickly return to a boil.
4. Dissolve the cornstarch in about 1 tbsp cold water and stir well into the lemon mixture. Cook on medium neat until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Remove all residual fat from the chicken. Place in a zip lock bag and pound so that the breasts are even thickness. Cut each breast into similar thickness stips.
6. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, stir well. Set aside.
7. Whisk egg white, water, soy sauce and garlic in another bowl, set aside.
8. Pour Panko into a third bowl and mix in the sesame seeds.
9. Set up your breading stations so that the flour mixture is first, the egg whites second and the panko last.
10. Dredge the chicken strips in the flour mixture and shake off excess, then dip into the egg whites and lastly coat with panko/sesame mix. Repeat with all the chicken strips until all have been breaded.
11. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for about 12-15 minutes (turning about mid way) or until chicken has an internal temperature of 165°F or 74° C.
12. Reheat the sauce. Fill a bowl with mixed greens, place chicken strips over the greens and dress with the hot lemony sauce.
13. Enjoy!

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Coconut Curried Chicken

It’s still blistery cold in these parts and we’re craving hearty foods. This was a recipe created because I wanted to make Naan again and I needed something Indian to go with it (I know, it’s usually the other way around, but I really wanted to eat test my new recipe again). It’s a lovely subtle curry with just enough spice to enhance the flavour and a wonderful creamy texture. I used coconut milk powder and water for the coconut milk in the recipe, but feel free to use the high fat canned stuff, I’m sure it will taste a lot richer. By the way, serve it with this Naan.

A delicicous combination of curry and coconut milk

Coconut Chicken Curry

Serves 4, 100 g servings of chicken each

Ingredients:

• 400 g boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2.5 cm or 1 inch chunks
• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 4 tbsp coconut milk powder
• 400 mL or 14 oz warm water
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 red pepper sliced thinly
• 1/2 green pepper sliced thinly

Directions:

1. Heat oil and curry powder in a large skillet over medium-high heat for two minutes. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Add chicken, tossing lightly to coat with curry oil. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in center and juices run clear. Reserve chicken.
2. Combine coconut powder and warm water and mix well.
3. Pour coconut milk, tomato paste, lemon juice and sugar into the pan and stir to combine. Cover and simmer stirring occasionally for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or until the coconut milk reduces to a nice thick sauce. During the final 15 minutes, add the red and green peppers so they don’t overcook and the chicken to reheat.
4. Serve with Naan.

Yes, these are as good as they look. I kid you not.

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Another Cold Cure Chicken Noodle Soup

It’s that time of year again, cold and flu season. For the most part, I can pretty well ward off any cold or flu I come across with my evil powers (just kidding) but this one bugger finally got me late last week. I’d been plagued with a sore throat since a week ago Monday, but no coughing or sneezing or any other symptoms, until Saturday. My voice is now three octaves lower and a little raspier…dare I say sexy? Well, if it wasn’t for the sneezing and coughing, perhaps. But not so much !

We went Christmas tree chopping on Sunday (you may recall we did this last year too), I probably shouldn’t have gone, but I really, really, really wanted to. And it was cold, and slightly snowing. We snapped a few pics but the weather wasn’t great and I paid for it the following day. I stayed home and nursed my achy body. And with great timing, my friend Kelly up in Ottawa at Inspired Edibles created a alcohol free (I know, what was I thinking?) hot toddy that sincerely HIT THE SPOT. I will make this my go to winter drink when I feel a cold coming on. You can actually taste the healing properties (and heating properties !) I’m not going to post the recipe because I made it just as Kelly suggested (except I didn’t have star anise, so I used cloves instead) and her pictures are better anyway. Please do yourself a favour and try this drink. It is seriously yummy and it works!

Lightly snowing made it picture perfect for tree cutting

No, we don’t just walk into a forest to chop down our tree, we actually to go a tree farm!

We chose another smallish tree, but this one has a lot more girth (but Mum’s the word when the tree asks if it looks fat all dressed up!)

We’ll decorate it tomorrow night! (Weird glow is from the iPhone 4 flash)

When we arrived home that evening, I just felt like soup, so I made just what the doctor ordered, chicken noodle soup. This is a variation of Nigella’s Cold Cure Soup as I wanted something a little simpler than her version. And I only put 1/4 of a fresh lemon into it as I have found that more than that can make the soup bitter tasting, particularly when your taste buds are a bit off with a cold.

Cold Cure Chicken Noodle Soup

Serves 4 generous portions

A gorgeous mix of carrots, parsnips and onions garnished with parsley and green onion. There are glass noodles hiding in there too!

Ingredients:

• 2 bone in, skinless chicken breasts (about 400-450 g)
• 1 medium carrot, cut into large chunks
• 1 medium parsnip, cut into large chunks (reserve the tops)
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed but left whole (so you can remove them)
• 1/4 lemon
• 1 tsp canola oil
• Water
• Salt to taste
• Glass noodles
• Parsley to garnish
• Green onion to garnish

This is the instagram photo

Directions:

1. If the chicken still has some fat on it, remove all fat (you’ll thank me later so your soup isn’t a large puddle of grease!). Sear the chicken breasts, meat side down until lightly browned.
2. Add onion, carrots, parsnips, garlic and the lemon. Stir for a moment. Fill the pot with water to cover all of the chicken and vegetables.
3. Wash and tie the parsnips tops, add to the soup pot. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through (I found that 1 hour 30 minutes was good for our chicken, but you should definitely check the internal temperature) You don’t want to cook it too long so that the vegetables are not mushy!
4. Remove chicken and allow to rest for about 5-7 minutes (covered). Taste and salt stock to your preference.
5. In the meantime, soak the glass noodles according to directions.
6. Strain the soup through a fine sieve, reserving the carrot, parsnip and onions. Discard the parsnip tops, garlic and lemon.
7. Cut the carrot and parsnips into small bite size sticks.
8. De-bone the chicken and tear into small bite-size pieces.
9. Into four bowls, add even amounts of the noodles, vegetables and chicken and cover with the hot stock.
10. Serve immediately garnished with parsley and green onions.

On an unrelated note, my blog is fast approaching our 100,000 visitor! I’m hoping we can reach that goal before the new year. I might even do a give away! Stay tuned.

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Capote’s favourite Basil Chicken Hash

In October we were invited to another theme dinner party: Truman Capote’s Black and White Masquerade Ball, the party of the century! We were asked to dress in black and white and wear with a mask, which worked out perfectly since Halloween was just around the corner!

Our lovely hostess made this beautiful little booklet for the evening. The menu was pulled from Capote’s favourites, Basil Chicken Hash and served similar to the style of the time. We all had a blast! Mind you, I think we lasted about 10 minutes wearing the masks! Sadly, I didn’t get any pics of JT and I. Nor did I shoot the hash…but rest assured, it was AMAZING. The basil infused the chicken and although there is nothing Thai about it, it had a slight Thai flavouring to me. This will definitely go into our steady repertoire, such a flavourful and easy dish.

My friend chose Ina Garten’s recipe which turns out to be healthier than the real deal, believe it or not; Ina uses an extra pot to sauté the peppers, but I wanted to make it much simpler and modified the recipe accordingly.

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Our lovely hosts also gave us a bit of a teaser for the next themed dinner party in the Springtime…it will be Bond 007! What fun! Now, tell me which Bond girl should I be?

Basil Chicken Hash

Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network

Serves 4, 100 g chicken per serving

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin removed (400 g)
• 5 stalks of fresh basil leaves
• dash of EVOO
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 small boiling potato, peeled and large diced
• 1 red onion, chopped in large quarters
• 1 red bell pepper, large diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, large diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 4 minced scallions, white and green parts
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh leaf parsley
• dash of vegetable or chicken stock
• Sea salt to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Spray the baking sheet with non-stick spray and lay two stalks of the basil leaves down (I was lucky, I used what was left from the garden).
3. Place the chicken breasts on top of the basil, bone side down. Lightly rub each chicken piece with EVOO and sprinkle with salt. Put two more basil stalks on top of the chicken and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and cut the chicken in large dice pieces and set aside.
4. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large sauté pan and add the potatoes and onions, salt and saute over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until evenly browned and cooked through. I added a dash of stock at this point. Add the peppers, garlic, thyme, paprika and tomato paste and mix well. Add the chicken and another dash of stock and place into the oven to finish for about 10-15 minutes.
5. Garnish with the remaining torn basil leaves, minced scallions and chopped fresh parsley, toss together and place on a serving platter. Serve over greens (I only had one smallish potato but if you use the recipe as is, you will not need a side with it).

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Titanic Hors D’œuvres: Chicken Liver Pâté

As you know my dear friend Angela is hosting a Titanic Anniversary party on April 14; it’s the Centenary Anniversary and she is going all out for 8 of her most fortunate friends. JT and I are very happy to be included and I have embraced her enthusiasm and jumped on the band wagon, as any good friend would do (well, I’m no saint, the reasons are purely selfish, I just LOVE this kind of stuff), thank you Angela for allowing me to share in your excitement and to help with some of the food and the embellishments! I really do LOVE this stuff.

Many of my wonderful, gentle readers have been so generous with supportive comments and enthusiasm for this fun event, we thank you sincerely. My new found friend, Charlie Louie from Australia (I really do wish we were neighbours!) gave me a link to one of her very first posts on her lovely blog, Hotly Spiced that gave us a recipe for Duck Liver Pâté from a book she received as a gift from her son (she made her recipe with chicken livers, YUM). I remembered I had a couple of chicken livers in the freezer, so I thought, why not? Plus I needed a little appi for a friend coming over for drinks on Friday! We’ve had such a mild winter, and it warmed up to close to 20°C so we had to indulge and sit on the back patio for drinks after work. We still needed a sweater, but who cares, it was March 16 for crying out loud. I ain’t complaining!

The photo was taken last fall with the foliage in all its glory! Sadly the herbs have seen better days.

I don’t think Angela is including this recipe in her dinner, but I am totally into the mood, so I wanted to try it anyway (update, Angela has kindly given me the opportunity to make this appetizer as well, so I’m really pumped about it). I have to admit, it sounded a little bland when I first read it, but I wanted to keep it true so I didn’t change it up at all. The flavours were subtle yet it was very tasty. The liver really shined with the dash of rosemary. I used a square form that I was able to push the set paté out onto a plate, Charlie plated her’s in ramekins which also looked beautiful. I had to cut the recipe down because I didn’t have enough chicken livers (plus there were only three of us) but you can click here, for Charlie’s recipe. Note, as is my usual fashion, I cut down the butter and used milk instead of cream. I didn’t feel the taste suffered because of my changes.

Serves 4-6, depending on how hungry you are!

Chicken Liver Pâté on the back deck on March 16. Who would'a thunk it!

Ingredients:

• 113 g Chicken Livers
• 25 g melted butter
• 13 mL milk
• 1/4 tsp brandy (I actually cheated and added about a tablespoon)
• 1/4 tsp chopped rosemary
• crackers

Directions:

1. Heat 15 g of the butter in a saucepan, add the livers and cook gently for 3-4 minutes. The livers should be cooked on the outside but a little pink on the inside.
2. When the livers are cooked, place them into a processor and process until smooth.
3. Add the brandy and rosemary to the saucepan then heat gently, scraping up the residue of the livers.
4. Add the heated brandy and rosemary to the liver in the processor, together with milk and seasoning. Process until smooth.
5. Pack the paté into a form (mine was square) and pour the remaining melted butter over the top of the pate to seal, cover and place in the fridge to chill. This should be made in advance so that the flavours have a chance to really pop.

Thanks again, Charlie, I look forward to making this for April 14th (I’ll likely do your proportions at that time!)

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Chicken Fajitas, low carb style

I’m in a bit of blogging bog. I haven’t been inspired to make anything photo worthy or blog worthy. I totally dropped the ball on the weekend, did not plan out my blog entries nor did I even think about it. I still made my rounds reading and commenting, which is usually the fun part. But I had nothing to post.

My wonderful hubby, JT surprised me with a delicious dinner the other night, one that we used to have most Fridays (Fajita Friday), but since we’ve been trying to cut the carbs, haven’t had it for quite some time: Chicken Fajitas. On the most part, this is not an unhealthy dinner, provided you don’t eat heaps of it, but it is quite carb-ie due to the fajita shells so I did a little ‘take’ on it which considerably reduced the carbs and increased the fibre. She’s back!

Fajitas are all about the condiments! Darn, is that a glass of wine, during the week?

Instead of using my fajita shells to hold my toppings, I cut one up into strips, sprinkled the strips with cayenne and baked them in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes until they were crispy. I was able to have only about half of a small 6″ tortilla as garnish on my fajita salad. It was surprisingly delicious and filling. I will have my fajitas this way from now on! JT had his traditionally in a soft tortilla shell.

Makes one serving

Ingredients:

• 3 oz chicken per person, shredded (we used our BBQ’d chicken we roasted on Sunday)
• 2 cups of greens (arugula and spinach)
• 3 mushrooms sliced thickly
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
• 1/4 red pepper thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
• 2 tbsp fat-free, carb-free, low sugar hot salsa (we used Herdez)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• pinch of cayenne
• sea salt and pepper
• 1/2 soft whole wheat tortilla shell
• non stick cooking spray

Condiment Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp fat-free Greek Yogurt
• 1 sliced green onions
• 1 tbsp shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 3-5 grape tomatoes sliced in half
• 1/2 tsp cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tsp guacamole (we usually make a large batch and save small portions in an ice-cube tray, it freezes very well)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
2. Take one 6″ whole wheat soft tortilla shell. Spray lightly with non-stick spray on both sides. Cut into 1 cm or 1/2 inch strips. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and cayenne pepper. Bake for about 10 minutes, but watch carefully, because you want them crisp but not burned!
3. In a cast iron pan, add a couple of squirts of non-stick spray. Add the onion and sauté until somewhat translucent. Add the mushrooms and sauté until golden in colour (this is why you don’t want them too thinly sliced, so they can stand up to the heat).
4. Add the red peppers, garlic and cook just until you smell the garlic. Add the salsa sauce and stir well. Add the chicken and heat through.
5. Spread the greens onto an appropriate plate, cover with the hot fajita mix, sprinkle with cheese, a dollop of the Greek yogurt and guacamole and arrange the crispy fajita shells on top. Sprinkle with green onions and cilantro.
6. Dig in!

Yes, that plate is the bottom of a glazed flower pot. Clever huh?

I had it for lunch the next day and I must say, it was even better than yesterday. We will definitely be making this again.

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Maple Garlic Chicken Wings

I know, my super bowl menu listed Honey Garlic Chicken Wings, but while I was grazing my reading list of blogs, I saw that Kay over at Pure Complex recently made Grilled Maple Mustard Chicken Wings and I just knew I had to revise my Honey Garlic CW to Maple Garlic Chicken Wings – yet another tip of the hat to the New England Patriots! Unfortunately, my photos just did not turn out well, so I trashed them. You’ll have to use your imagination on how yummy they were.

Ingredients:

• whole mess of wings (I like them separated so they bake more evenly)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 4-5 cloves garlic, finely minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• non-fat cooking spray

Directions:

1. Dry off the wings and add to a zip lock bag.
2. Mix all of the remaining ingredients and pour into the bag and close. Rub this mixture into the wings — you can leave in the fridge over night, if you wish.
3. Pre heat oven to 200° C / 400° F
4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment (will save a lot of time cleaning up). Spray a bit with the non-stick spray.
5. Pour wings onto the sheet and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning once when the fist side has a nice golden colour to it.
6. Enjoy with Blue Cheese dipping sauce.

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Chicken Cacciatore Revistied

Although it has been unseasonably warm this past week in the big smoke, it’s been crazy rainy and windy. It’s a perfect time to stay in and make some healthy comforting food that is great for lunch the next day. I posted this recipe in 2009 because it is an incredibly tasty and easy dish for a week night, but I find myself craving to repost as I really hated the old photo! This is still JTs signature dish so I won’t alter his recipe other than how it has morphed over the years, and it has morphed a touch over the years. But I will say, please make this, it is really, really, really good!

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway! I’m really excited about the give away and what creative things you will make with it and blog about. I did forget to detail the time the draw closes: 12pm Eastern Standard Time, that will give me some time to get the correct entries together and have JT do the draw! As well, the Just a Pinch salts were purchased entirely by ME! It is not linked to any other promo! Time is a tickin’ people, better enter soon!

And did I mention that a couple of the answers are found in more than one post? Oops! Good luck!

A hearty but healthy dinner on a cold winters night

JTs Chicken Cacciatore

Adapted from Fannie Farmer, December 1984 (originally published in 1896!).
Serves 4 (2 dinners and 2 lunches in our case)

Ingredients:

• 400g chicken breasts, skinless, boneless
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 28g dried mushrooms rehydrated in about 1 cup warm water, set liquid aside (make sure you strain through coffee filter to ensure no sand gets into it)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (or low sodium chicken stock)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced (we used green this time because that is what we had)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste (put remaining tomato paste into an extra ice cube tray and freeze, remove from tray into a resealable container and voila, tomato paste as required!)
• 2 cups canned Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• Chili peppers to taste
• Salt to taste
• Grated Parmesan, if you wish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (or you could just cook the entire dish stove top with the lid on)
2. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven and cook the chicken until lightly browned on all sides.
3. Add the onion and sauté a minute or two and then add the wine and allow to boil up.
4. Lower the temperature and add the garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, pepper and the mushrooms.
5. Add the seasonings, bay leaves and the mushroom liquid.
6. Cover and bake in the hot oven for about 1 hour, or until chicken is cooked through. If you like a dryer cacciatore, leave the cover off so that some of the liquid evaporates; I prefer mine a bit wet so that it makes a tasty ‘dressing’ for the greens.
7. Remove bay leaves, taste and season if required.
8. Serve on a bed of mixed baby spinach and baby arugula leaves. You can also serve with grated Parmesan and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, but we’re reducing our intake this week, so we omitted it.

Tips: You can also add black olives (chop in half) and crumble some sheeps milk feta on top instead of the Parmesan for a slightly Greek version of the dish.

I had to update this post with a photo I recently took with my iPhone at work. I just loved how rich the sauce looks and how luminous this photos is.

Our studio has amazing light. And yes, that surely is cayenne pepper on the chicken.

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Thai Inspired Lemongrass Chicken Soup

My friend, Barb (Profiteroles and Ponytails) went to Australia several years ago and shortly after we visited her in Vancouver; for our premier dinner she made us the Thai Coconut Soup that is so famous in restaurants and it was delicious! I had no experience cooking Thai food at home and as a gift she bought me a Thai cookbook called Australian Woman’s Weekly, Easy Thai-Style Cookery. It is really my ‘go to’ cookbook for Thai food, my favourite being Lemongrass Soup. It has great step-by-step instructions on how to with very clear photos. You really can’t go wrong. I have made this soup so often I don’t even look at the recipe anymore and basically just eyeball and taste it, so you’ll have to excuse my loosey-goosey measurements! I have served this soup at several dinner parties and I am told by some of my Thai food-lover friends that it is very delicious!

Thai cooking is about balancing salty, sweet, spicy and sour so you really have to taste, taste, taste and adjust as you go along. My Lemongrass soup is my favourite to the restaurant variety as I find some too salty and too sweet. Most restaurant versions also don’t include fettuccine-sized rice noodles (half centimetre wide) in the soup, but there was one place across from the Eaton Centre on Yonge Street that always had the noodles in the soup and I really enjoyed it, so I usually include them!

This soup comes together very quickly, the hard part is waiting for the rice noodles to soften up. You can also substitute shrimp for the chicken.

Comforting lemongrass chicken soup

I always make an extra huge batch so I can take some to work for my lunch the next day.

A mouthwatering delicious balance of salty, sweet, sour and spicy; can I get you a bowl?

Serves 3 in large bowls

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp flavourless vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 3oog boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
• 2 cups thinly sliced plain white mushrooms (I like a lot of mushrooms in my soup)
• 1/2 cup finely sliced onion
• 2 cloves garlic finely minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
• 1 tsp ginger (ground is fine, fresh is better)
• 2 tbsp finely chopped lemon grass
• 4 kafir lime leaves
• 2 small bits of dry galangal (Thai ginger)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2-4 tbsp sugar (or I used agave nectar)
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes (or to taste)
• 4-6 cup water or low sodium chicken stock (I did a mix of the two to mitigate calories)
• a good handful of fettuccine-sized rice noodles

Garnish:

• 1/4 cup finely sliced green onion (forgot to add for the photo)
• 2-4 Thai basil leaves, chiffonade (did not have this, nor did I miss it)
• handful of chopped cilantro (did not have this, but I surely missed it)

Directions:

1. Heat the water in your kettle until boiling. Pour over the rice noodles and allow to sit until they are totally reconstituted, 10-15 minutes. Do not over soak, you want a bit of a bite to it.
2. In a large soup pan, heat the two oils until hot but not smoky (the sesame oil has a very low smoke point). Add the onions and stir until slightly translucent. Add the chicken and brown a bit. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
3. Mix the cumin, coriandre, ginger and lemon grass together, sprinkle on the chicken and stir until you can really smell it. Add the garlic and stir once. Add all of the chicken stock, kafir leaves, galangal, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and chili flakes. Stir well. Heat so that the chicken cooks through. Once the chicken is cooked, taste for salty, sweet, spicy and sour balance and adjust accordingly. Remove the galangal and kafir lime leaves, discard.
4. Put one third of the cold noodles into a large decorative white bowl. Add ladle-fulls of the chicken soup with bits of chicken, onion and mushrooms. Garnish with the green onion, chopped basil leaves and cilantro leaves. Enjoy.

Cooks tips:

• Store your fresh ginger knobs in the freezer in a resealable container; grate on a fine micro-plane grater when required, you need not peel it! Keeps indefinitely.
• I usually buy a large quantity of lemongrass and chop them finely in my food processor, and then I freeze them in a reusable container. I can usually break off what I need.
• If you are taking the left overs to work, I recommend storing the cooked noodles in a separate container to the soup so that they don’t absorb any more liquid. When you reheat the soup, do so to just before boiling (so the chicken doesn’t cook further) and that way when you put the chilled noodles in, they will cool it down to a palatable level.
• Fish sauce is used in thai cooking instead of salt.
• To save time, I have sometimes used Rosa’s Lime Cordial instead of lime juice, but you have to remember NOT to add the sugar.

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