Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Archive for the ‘Food blogging events’ Category

We have lots and lots of bok choy in the garden right now. It doesn’t really seem like that much – we have four more plants out there – but when there are only two of us to feed, a little goes a really long way. See here for a picture from a while back.

In case you’re not familiar with it, bok choy is also known as Chinese cabbage, although it doesn’t really look like cabbage. It has stems that look like celery and broad, dark-green leaves that can be treated like spinach. I use it in stir-fries, but I also use it to replace celery, as in this recipe.

This chicken fricassee recipe is based on one from Cook’s Country magazine, a sister magazine to Cook’s Illustrated. You can use any kind of sausage in it that you like. I had some chipotle chicken sausage I had picked up the last time I cruised up to Trader Joe’s in Newport New, so I used that, but kielbasa, andouille or something similar would work just as well.

Creole Chicken Fricassee

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
3 tsp. Creole seasoning
8 oz. andouille sausage, cut into 1/2-inch rounds (I used chipotle chicken sausage)
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 celery ribs, sliced thin (I used six bok choy ribs, with leaves)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Hot cooked rice

Sprinkle chicken with 2 tsp. Creole seasoning and toss to coat. Cook sausage in large pan over medium-high heat till browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer sausage to paper towel-lined plate, leaving fat in skillet. Cook chicken in sausage fat until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to plate with sausage.

Add oil, onion, celery and pepper to skillet and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour and remaining tsp. Creole seasoning and cook until flour begins to brown, about 1 minute.

Slowly stir in broth until sauce is smooth. Return chicken and sausage to skillet. Cover and simmer until chicken registers 160 degrees, about 10 minutes. Serve over hot cooked rice.

This is my entry in Grow Your Own, the twice-monthly food blogging event that celebrates home-grown ingredients. It’s hosted this month by the founder, Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes.

Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday, so I had a great time yesterday and Tuesday getting ready for the big feast. Not so big, actually, since it was just Dan and me this year. But it was great

I’ve had this fear of making turkey gravy for several years, but now – yay! – I’m over it. I think one year, I didn’t cook the flour-fat (roux) mixture enough, because the gravy tasted floury, and after that, I convinced myself I was no good at sauces. So my mom came for Thanksgiving several years in a row and I told her the gravy was her job But she and Leo have gone south on the Intracoastal Waterway already this year, so I had to do it myself.

Luckily, earlier this week, I got an email from America’s Test Kitchen for make-ahead gravy, from a Cook’s Country magazine recipe. It called for roasting turkey wings (I couldn’t find them, so I used necks) with chopped carrots, celery, onions and garlic and using the roasted veggies to make stock for the gravy.

Oh. My. God. It was so good, I went back today and bought more necks so I can make more stock. It was so good, I’m going to make soup tomorrow with the next batch. Yum.

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Makes about 2 quarts

6 turkey drumsticks, thighs, or wings
reserved turkey giblets
reserved turkey neck
2 carrots, chopped coarse
1 head garlic, halved
2 ribs celery, chopped coarse
2 onions, chopped coarse
Vegetable oil spray
10 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups dry white wine
12 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Table salt and ground black pepper

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Place giblets, neck, drumsticks, carrots, celery, onions, and garlic in roasting pan, spray with vegetable oil, and toss well. Roast, stirring occasionally, until well browned, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (I set my oven to 400 and checked after 1 hour; I think 1 hour and 20 minutes would be enough).

Transfer contents of roasting pan to Dutch oven. Add broth, wine, and thyme and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until reduced by half, about 1 1/2 hours. Pour through fine-mesh strainer into large container (discard solids), cover stock with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until fat congeals, at least 2 hours.

Using soup spoon, skim fat and reserve. Heat 1/2 cup fat in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until bubbling. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, until honey colored, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in stock, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Gravy can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.) Reheat gravy in saucepan over medium heat until bubbling.

This is my contribution to Tasty Tools: Roasting/Braising Pans, hosted by Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a potluck lunch at work, the annual Fall Fling. Amy in HR had begged me to bring the pesto pasta I took last year – she had never had pesto before, and loved it. But I like to bring something different each time, so this time, I ended up making up my own recipe.

That was because the recipe I started out with turned out rather dry and bland. So I bumped it up a few notches and came up with something really good. It’s perfect for a potluck, too. It’s a casserole, so after making it the night before, I put it in my Crock-Pot crock in the fridge overnight. I took the Crock-Pot to work and set it on high, and by lunchtime, it was nicely heated up. So I took the heated Crock-Pot to the lunch and it stayed good and hot during the entire hour and a half or so. And it got rave reviews – several people asked how it was made.

Next time I bring something that’s a bit ambiguous, though, I’ll put a little sign next to it. I heard from a few people that they didn’t try it because they didn’t know what it was. To me, that’s a reason *to* try it, but some people aren’t so adventurous.

Mexican Casserole

2 lbs. ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped green chiles (I used Anaheims from the garden)
3 tbsp. ground red chile pepper (I used ancho chile powder)
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
8 corn tortillas, torn into pieces
2 14-oz. cans white or yellow hominy
1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with chiles
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 lb. grated sharp cheddar cheese
salt and ground black pepper

Brown the beef and pour off all but 1 tbsp. fat. Add onions and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add green chiles, spices, hominy, tomatoes and tomato sauce and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add half of cheese and stir well.

Place the mixture in a 5-quart slow cooker and put on low to keep warm for serving. Or, chill and serve within 2-3 days. Place mixture in slow cooker and put on high for 3 hours to warm up, then put on low to keep warm for serving.

You can also divide the mixture and freeze half for later. Put half the mixture in a 2-quart dish and freeze up to four months. Bake the other half in a 350*F oven for 45 minutes. Top with the remaining cheese and serve.

This is my entry in the food blogging event Original Recipe, hosted by Culinarty. The roundup of all the recipes is here.

We planted a pretty good variety of peppers this year, both hot and sweet. We had so many Tabasco peppers, I decided to make homemade Tabasco sauce.

So I Googled for recipes, and the same one kept popping up. That seemed like a good endorsement, so I tried it. I’ll be honest – I haven’t actually tried this on anything yet. I mean, I like hot food, but after whizzing it in the blender, I gave it a sniff and you know what? I have one piece of advice: Don’t sniff the blender

Homemade Tabasco Sauce

12 large Tabasco chile peppers, stemmed (I used 15 because that’s how ripe ones many I had)
1 clove peeled garlic
½ cup vinegar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar

Boil the chile peppers and garlic in vinegar in a small, non-metal saucepan until tender. Puree in a blender with the salt and sugar. Run through a metal sieve if necessary.

Dilute this paste with more vinegar until it is the consistency of rich cream. Pour into a non-metal saucepan, bring to a boil, then pour into a hot, sterilized bottle to within ½ inch of the rim.

Run a sterilized knife around the inside of the bottle to release air bubbles. Wipe the rim clean and seal with a scalded top. Store in the refrigerator once opened.

From: Red Hot Peppers by Jean Andrews

This is my entry in Grow Your Own, the twice-monthly food blogging event that celebrates homegrown produce and other items, originated by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes and hosted this time by Heart and Hearth.

The roundup of all the recipes is here.

Wow, check it out – it’s already the 20th of the month. This has been a long, busy month at work, and it’s only getting more so. But it’s a good busy. But it means I haven’t had a lot of energy for blogging. I cook and take pictures, but they don’t always make it into the blogosphere. This one did, though!

This is definitely not one of my favorite dishes, but Dan loves a good split-pea soup when the weather gets cold, so baby, this one’s for you – all of it

One of our exchange students, Josi from Berlin, gave me Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here for the Food” for my birthday a couple of years ago. This recipe is from that book, and it’s probably one of the easiest recipes I know of. Here goes:

Alton Brown’s Split-Pea Soup

18 oz. dried split peas
1 finger-sized piece of salt pork (Dan likes porky goodness, but this is optional)
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
1/2 cup each chopped carrots, onions and celery
2 quarts chicken broth
1-1/2 tbsp. miso paste

Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker and set it to high. Cook for 6 to 8 hours until the peas have softened. Really, that’s it.

And here’s the delicious (according to Dan) but not real appetizing-looking (to me) result, garnished with a little sliced green onion:

This is my entry in No Croutons Required, hosted by Lisa’s Kitchen.

I still have some basil and a few green tomatoes in the garden, but a couple of weeks ago, we started our fall garden, including onions, a variety of lettuces and bok choy.

On Saturday, Dan came in from the garden and asked me what I had planned for dinner. I hadn’t really planned it out, but when he told me some of the bok choy we planted was ready to use, I decided to make fried rice with some leftover white rice I had in the freezer; I thought, this would be great with crispy baked chicken and a Chinese-inspired dipping sauce. We also have a few pimento peppers left, so I added those in, too. I looked at a few recipes and then got going. It turned out really well.

Fried Rice with Bok Choy

2 tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
1 small red and 1 small green pimento or bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups leftover cooked white rice (leftover works better than fresh, because it’s more dry, so it browns better)
5 large leaves and stems of bok choy, leaves julienned and stems sliced crosswise

1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil

Heat oil in saute pan or hot wok over medium-high heat till it shimmers. Add onions, peppers and garlic and stir-fry 4-5 minutes or until softened. Sprinkle with oyster sauce and soy sauce and stir well. Add sliced bok choy stems and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add bok choy leaves and rice and stir-fry 3 minutes. Drizzle with sesame oil and serve. Makes 4 servings.

This is my entry in the food blogging event Grow Your Own, which celebrates growing or raising fresh ingredients. It was originated by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes and is hosted this time by A Laboratory in the Kitchen.