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Rotisserie Chicken and Acorn Squash with Apples

Posted Oct 29, 2011

 

This is our first night back from a great visit to Malibu and Santa Barbara, CA.  The fresh fruit and vegetables are to die for.  I had a glass of water at a restaurant with a cucumber in it.  It was so good.  I asked if they pre-prepared the water with cucumbers and they said no.  I doubt that our dead cucumbers would flavor water here.  At Emilio’s, I had gnocchi dish with fava beans.   I have not had a fava bean since leaving CA years ago.  I cannot understand why they are not everywhere.
Tonight I made rotisserie chicken and an acorn squash dish from Penzeys.  I make the stuffing up each time I make it.  
Rotisserie Chicken
Ingredients:
Tarragon
Garlic
Lemons
Rosemary
Salt and pepper
Directions:
1.       Wash and dry the chicken.  Salt and pepper the cavity.  I then stuff it with herbs, lemon and garlic.  I used orange EVOO on the outside of the chicken and salt and peppered it. 
2.       Truss and skewer the chicken on the turnspit and hold in place with the prongs.  Jim set the  fire on high and we roasted a 4# chicken for 1 ½ hours. 
It was moist and very flavorful.    
I thought this squash dish would be better than it was.  My really good squash dish recipe is in a box somewhere. This serves 4.  The great thing is it is easy to divide in half.   
Acorn Squash with Apples
Ingredients:
2 small acorn squash
½ C melted butter, divided
¼ C dark brown sugar
2 C peeled and chopped apples
1-2 t minced orange peel
¼ C raisins
1/8 t ground nutmeg
¼ t cinnamon.
Directions:
1.       Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut each squash in half and remove seeds.  Place the halves in a baking dish sprayed with Pam, cut side down and bake for 40 minutes. 
2.       Combine half the melted butter in a dish with the brown sugar and mix well. 
3.       In a separate bowl, combine the remaining melted butter, chopped apples, orange peel, raisins, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Stir to blend.
4.       Remove squash from the oven and turn the halves so the cut side is up. 
5.       Prick the surface of the squash with a fork and then brush the cut surface with the butter/brown sugar mixture, pouring any extra into the halves. 
6.       Fill each half with the apple mixture.
7.       Place the filled squash halves in the oven and bake an additional 30minutes. 
The apples and raisins seemed to overwhelm the squash flavor.  Jim served a Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve merlot, Sonoma County, 2008.  It was great with the meal. 
We are getting close to Halloween.   I know that 2 young children live across the street.  We bought candy and I will be very dis appointed if we do not get trick or treaters. 

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Cream of Celery Root Soup with Pears and Blue Cheese + Pigs in a Blanket

Posted Oct 20, 2011

 

This is the best soup ever.  It was hard to find celery root around here, but we persevered and found it.  I got the recipe out of the Costco Connection magazine.  Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 ½ # celery root, peeled and chopped
3 fresh Bartlett or Bosc pears, cored and chopped, plus one more for garnish
4 T minced fresh chives
4 C low-sodium chicken broth
Salt and pepper
2 oz blue cheese, crumbled, at room temperature
Directions:
1.       Place celery root, pears, chives and chicken broth in a large pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. 
2.       Cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the celery root is tender, about 15 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3.       Carefully transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth.  (I use an immersion blender to avoid this step.)
4.       Pour the hot soup into bowls and garnish with the crumbled blue cheese and chopped pear. 
With this I served a version of Pigs in a Blanket.   It is from a new cookbook called Basic to Brilliant, Y’all by Virginia Willis.  This was not as great as I thought it would be.  I thought the mustard seeds on the pastry would add more taste than they did. 
Ingredients:
1- 14oz oz box store-bought puff pastry
All purpose flour for rolling out
1 large egg
1 T water
6 fully cooked andouille sausage
2T yellow mustard seeds
2 T very fine yellow cornmeal
Creole mustard, for serving
Directions:
1.       Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone baking liner or parchment paper.
2.       Place the puff pastry on a lightly floured work surface.  Sprinkle the pastry with a little flour and roll out to a thickness of 1/8”.  Brush away any excess flour and trim the edges to form a 12” square. 
3.       Slice in half horizontally, then again in thirds to make six 4/6 “rectangles. 
4.       In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water.  Brush the rectangles with the egg wash. 
5.       Put 1 cooked sausage along the long edge of the rectangle and roll up the pastry around the sausage and press the edge to seal.  The ends will stick out. 
6.       Place on prepared pan and continue to roll up the remaining sausages.  Refrigerate until firm and chilled, about 30 minutes or overnight.  Refrigerate the egg wash if keeping overnight. 
7.       Combine the mustard seeds and the cornmeal in a shallow dish.  Working with 1 roll at a time, brush the outside of the pastry all over with the reserved egg wash.  Roll in the seed-cornmeal mixture, and then place on the prepared baking sheet.  Finish all the sausages.  Return to the refrigerator and chill until firm.
8.       Bake until rich and brown on the bottom about 10 minutes.  Turn and brown some more until the pastry looks done.  Mine took 20 more minutes total and I turned every 10-5-5 minutes.
You can also cut each sausage into 6 pieces and bake flat if serving as a hors d’orves.  The brilliant part of this is to put on a wooden skewer and serve with mustard for dipping.  We were just doing dinner.   I think I am really going to like this cookbook.    

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Escarole Salad with Provolone, warm white beans and Prosicutto Crisps

Posted Oct 18, 2011

 

I got this salad out of USA weekend.  It was excellent.
Ingredients:
4T EVOO
3 oz. prosciutto cut into small dice (I used pancetta)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can, 15oz, cannellini beans, not drained
1 head of escarole or romaine, halved, cored, chopped, washed
½ red bell pepper, stemmed, cored, seeded and cut into short thin strips
¼ large red onion, thinly sliced
16 pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped (about 1/3 C) Jim does not like olives so I added mushrooms
3 oz provolone, cheese diced
½ T wine vinegar
Directions:
1.       Heat 1 T EVOO in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add prosciutto and cook, stiring frequently until crisp and darkened in color, about 5 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon.  Add garlic to the skillet; sauté until golden, just seconds.  Add beans and their liquid; simmer until heated through and juices reduced slightly, a couple of minutes.  (Since I used pancetta, I did not use the oil and cooked the garlic, mushrooms and beans in with the pancetta after it rendered it’s fat.)
2.       Meanwhile, mix escarole, pepper, onion, olives and cheese in a large bowl.  Drizzle in remaining EVOO and add a sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Toss to coat and add the red wine vinegar.  Toss again and add the bean mixture.
3.       Taste and adjust seasonings.  I used a T of the vinegar.  If you used proscuitto, sprinkle on top.
Serves 4  

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Seafood Tortilla Lasagna

Posted Oct 16, 2011

 

I did not like last night’s dinner, but Jim did, so I will add it to the blog.   It might have been that the fish was not flaky enough.  This recipe comes from Penzeys catalogue.  It serves 8-12, and yes we have leftovers. 
Ingredients:
1 12 oz jar picante sauce or salsa (I used salsa from Costco, Mango with Peach)
1 ½ # halibut or other white fish (I used Tilapia)
1 t granulated garlic powder
4T EVOO
1/3 C flour
1 ¾ C chicken broth
½ C half & half, cream or 2% milk
1/8 t cayenne pepper
10-15 tortillas
2-3 C shredded cheese (cheddar, Colby or Mexican blend)
Directions:
1.       Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2.       Place sauce or salsa in a blender and puree until smooth.
3.       Cut the fish into roughly 1” cubes.  Heat 2 T EVOO in a large, heavy skillet.  Add the halibut and garlic and cook until the halibut is opaque.  Remove the fish from the pan and set aside.
4.       Add 2 T EVOO to the pan.  Add the flour and stir continuously to make a smooth paste.  Add the broth a bit at a time and stir until thickened.  Reduce the heat to low and add the cream, cayenne and the pureed salsa.  Cook until heated through. 
5.       Spray a 9x12 pan with the cooking spray and spread a layer of sauce.  Top the sauce with a layer of tortillas and then the fish.  Repeat with another layer and top with cheese.  Bake at 375 for 30 – 35 minutes. 
I served with a simple salad of lettuce.  You can see that depending on the sauce or the fish this recipe could have many different flavors.  Also the originator of the recipe is from Alaska.  Interesting that she used grangulated garlic.  I bet if you do not have grandulated garlic that one clove fresh would be the substitute.     

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Ancho-marinated skirt steak with warm black bean salad

Posted Oct 13, 2011

 

I have been asked how I do it with my hip being so bad.  Well on really bad days we either eat simple or out of the freezer.  Tuesday we finished the lasagna that I made when Sandy and Dave were here.  I served it with a spinach salad that had croutons and hard boiled very fresh eggs from Pam’s chickens.  Tuesday I was on the verge of killing, so we had microwaved broccoli, the Idaho brand of instant mashed potatoes with 4 cheeses and cod with Penzeys seafood spice on it, baked in the oven.   Nothing much to write home about, but the meals were good and good for you.   Today I am better so we are having a hopefully wonderful meal.  The beef is marinating and I have all the dicing and chopping done.  I got this out of Sunset magazine.  This morning I noticed that it serves 6 with a 1 ½ # skirt steak, mine weighed 2.5# so I called Jo and Dave to come over.  Ingredients:
½ C Syrah or other dry red wine
½ C red wine vinegar, divided
6T EVOO, divided
2 T minced garlic, divided
1 T plus 1 t pepper
2 t kosher salt, divided

2 t ground cumin, divided

2 T chopped fresh oregano leaves (I used died, 1/3 less, 2 t)
1 T ground dried ancho chilies or chili powder
1 skirt steak, 1 ½ #.  (Sometimes called flank or tri-tip, depending where you live) 
2 fresh poblano chilies
1 large sweet onion, chopped
3 cans black beans, (15 oz each) drained and rinsed
1 large red pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into ½” chunks
1 ½ C cherry tomatoes, halved
About 3 green onions, sliced (including green tops)
¼ C chopped fresh cilantro

I hope you are still with me after that list of ingredients.

Directions:
1.       Either early in the day or the night before combine ¼ C vinegar, wine, and EVOO with 1T garlic and pepper, 1 t slat and cumin, the oregano and chile power in a resealable plastic food bag.  Rinse and dry the steak and add to the bag, seal and turn to coat.  Chill at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.   
2.       Preheat broiler.  Halve, stem, and seed the poblano.  Lay skin side up on a baking sheet and broil 4” from heat until well charred, 6-7 minutes.  I did mine on top of non-stick aluminum foil and after broiling I gathered up the ends of the foil to create a pocket for the peppers to steam.  Let stand 10 minutes, peel and coarsely chop.  One caution, I did not think they were that hoot, they are, wear rubber gloves.  I just rubbed my nose and it is burning. 
3.       Heat the outdoor grill to high (450-500)
4.       In a large frying pan over medium-high heat sauté onion and remaining 1T garlic in 2T EVOO until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in beans and remaining 1/4C vinegar and 1 t each pepper, salt, and cumin; turn heat to low. 
5.       Oil the grill well.  Lift steak from marinade (discard marinade) and grill, turning once, until browned on both sides but still pink in the center 7-10 minutes total.  Transfer to a board and let rest at least 5 minutes. 
6.       Meanwhile, add poblanos, red pepper, tomatoes, 3 green onions, and cilantro to bean mixture, and stir occasionally until warm.  Slice steak on the diagonal across the grain and serve on warm bean salad.  Garnish with more green onions if you like.
I made corn bread to go with the meal.  I have made all kinds of cornbread recipes, but I find my mother’s recipe the best.   She was the original semi-homemade person.
Ingredients:
1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix
1 large egg
1 small can of creamed corn. 
Directions:
1.       Mix in a bowl and pour in a 9x9 pan.  Bake according to pkg. directions. 
I added a few jalapenos to go with this recipe.  Well, we all liked it.  The beef was excellent and it all had a little heat, but not too much.   Jim served Crozes Hermitage, 2003. There is a note on the back of the bottle that he bought it for $11.59 at total wine, but no date. 
For dessert, Jo brought jam cake that I am just beginning to hear about.  It was very good.  I bought a cookbook from the Nashbille Loveless Cafe and have seen a recipe in there.  So much to learn.  A good time was had by all.  Jim is cleaning up the dishes as I complete the blog.  I love having dish help.     

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