Blueberry-Almond Muffins

Blueberries are at full steam ahead here right now, so it's time to take advantage.  I suppose if you really want to fully appreciate a blueberry in all its natural splendor, you should eat it raw.  But when I have blueberries I can't help but want to bake.  Today I decided to try this delicious muffin recipe, incorporating both almond and blueberry flavors in one portable little package.  Yum!

I am a fan of just about anything almond-flavored, and this muffin did not disappoint.  The sweet-tart juice of the blueberries combines beautifully with the luxurious almond extract, punctuated with the occasional crunch of a slivered almond in the mix.  It's so delicious!  And it's low in fat and sugar, too, and packed with whole grains.  I definitely won't feel guilty eating this for breakfast tomorrow!

Blueberry-Almond Muffins

adapted from Eating Well in Season

makes 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup nonfat buttermilk

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups fresh blueberries (other berries would work too)

1/2 cup chopped toasted sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray, or use silicon or paper liners.

2.  Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl

3.  Whisk eggs, buttermilk, brown sugar, butter, oil, vanilla, and almond extract in another large bowl until well combined.

4.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  Add berries and almonds.  Stir just to combine; do not overmix.  Divide the batter among the muffin cups (an ice cream scoop works well).  

5.  Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 22 to 25 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

This is a simple and quick soup to pull together.  You just need a couple of interesting ingredients in your pantry (namely Thai curry paste and coconut milk), and you can whip this up in no time!  It also just happens to be yet another great way to use up some leftover roast chicken.

I made home-made stock in my slow cooker and used a good amount of it for this soup.  You can, of course, use the stock in a box - it's what I use for most of my soups, and it does just fine!  The result, whether you use home made or store-bought stock, is a slightly spicy, exotically flavorful broth with some tasty chicken and veggies floating throughout.  And I discovered to my great delight that it is extra delicious the next day!  So definitely make more than you can eat in one sitting, as the leftovers are even better.

It's light, it's healthy, it's good.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 teaspoons canola oil

2 tablespoons Thai green curry paste

3 cups chicken stock

one 14 oz. can of lite coconut milk (unsweetened)

juice of 2 limes

2 tablespoons crushed lemongrass

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

pinch red pepper flakes

2 scallions, thinly sliced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

2 cups cubed/chopped cooked chicken

salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.  In a soup pot over medium heat, heat the oil.  When it's hot, add the curry paste.  Stir and cook until fragrant.  Add the chicken stock, coconut milk, lime juice, lemongrass, ginger, and red pepper flakes.  Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 5 minutes.

2.  Stir in the scallions, bell pepper, and chicken and continue to simmer for 5 more minutes, or until chicken is heated through.  Salt to taste and serve.

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

It's St. Patrick's day tomorrow, and virtually every food blogger out there has posted a recipe for Irish soda bread this week.  I decided to join the herd and make my own.  The twist is that I've never eaten Irish soda bread before in my life.

I come from an English family.  My ancestors have a bit of Welsh on my dad's side, and a lot of eastern European on my mother's side.  But to the best of my knowledge, there is nary a drop of Irish blood in my family tree.  I have married into an Irish (many generations back) family, and thought I ought to live up to my new-ish name and get into the spirit of St. Patrick's day.  Beyond the traditional way of doing so, which is to drink oneself into a stupor. 

So today I tried my hand at baking soda bread.  It is named for its scientific component - the aspect that makes it rise, which is baking soda.  I don't bake a lot of yeast breads because of a completely irrational fear of working with yeast (which I do overcome from time to time), so this bread was right up my alley.  And this recipe for it was perfect - about as easy as it gets.  It did split a bit in the oven, but I rather like the pac-man shape it took on as a result.  It's crusty on the outside, fairly tender yet dense on the inside.  To top it all off, it's delicious!  It's just begging for a smear of butter and apricot jam, or a slice of sharp cheese.

This is easiest in a food processor, but you can mix by hand if you need to.

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

makes 1 round loaf

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups white whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cup plain nonfat or lowfat yogurt (more if necessary)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  Line a baking sheet with a silpat liner, otherwise grease lightly with a neutral oil or baking spray.

2.  Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a food processor (fitted with the dough blade, if you have one, but the regular blade is okay).  Process to combine.  Add the yogurt and process for about 30 seconds, until the dough starts to clump together.  If it is not moist enough, add more yogurt.  You want the dough to be mostly cohesive and soft, but not too sticky.  

3.  Turn out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet and use your hands to form a round loaf.  Slash the top with a knife  (if you don't do this deeply enough, you'll get a split like I did, but that's okay!).  Bake for 40 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when you thump the bottom.  Let cool before cutting into slices or wedges.

Enjoy, and happy St. Patrick's day!

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

Fun idea for using up leftover roast chicken #1:  chicken enchiladas!  We love enchiladas.  Seriously.  Love.  It seemed only natural to take some of the leftovers from yesterday's perfect roast chicken and turn them into a delicious platter of saucy, cheesy tortillas filled with goodness. 


I will admit, without (too much) shame, that this is barely a homemade recipe.  Enchilada sauce from a jar?  Come on!  Well, if you have the time and the will to make your own, please do.   It's easy enough.  But today I came home from work wanting enchiladas, and wanting them fast.  I had a jar of Trader Joe's enchilada sauce in the cupboard.  It was meant to be.

I experimented with a healthier preparation technique gleaned from the fabulous Simply Recipes blog - rather than frying each tortilla in oil, you stretch a small amount of oil among many tortillas just to soften and warm them.

These came out delicious.  Make sure you use a good enchilada sauce, because it will make a difference - buy one you trust, or go ahead and make your own.  You can, of course, make any kind of enchiladas following this method - double the cheese to make cheese enchiladas, or substitute a different type of meat or vegetable for the chicken.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

serves 3-4

INGREDIENTS:

8 ounces of red enchilada sauce, divided

1 1/2 cups shredded leftover roast chicken, white and/or brown meat

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar, divided

2 teaspoons canola oil (more if necessary)

10 white corn tortillas

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce with the chicken and half the cheddar cheese.  Stir to combine.  Set aside.

2.  In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, warm up 1 teaspoon of canola oil.  When it's hot, add the first tortilla.  Move it around to spread the oil, then flip with tongs after about 5 seconds.  Immediately stack another tortilla on top of the oily side of the first.  This will absorb some of the oil into the second tortilla.  Flip over both tortillas after about 5 seconds.  Repeat this process, gradually adding each tortilla to the oily side of the previous tortilla.  Add additional oil to the pan as oil is absorbed.  When all the tortillas are warmed, transfer them to a plate.

3.  Put a 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a small baking dish and spread.  Build the enchiladas one at a time - take a tortilla and spoon about 2 tablespoons of the chicken mixture in a line across the middle.  Roll the tortilla around the chicken mixture and place seam-side down in the baking sheet, on top of the sauce.  Repeat with all 10 tortillas, tucking them in to fill up the baking dish.

4.  Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas in the baking dish, trying to distribute it evenly.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheddar and 1/4 cup mozzarella.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until sauce is starting to bubble.  Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Enjoy!

Perfect Roast Chicken

There is really no excuse for the fact that it took me this long to try roasting a whole chicken.  I know it's not hard, and I know people who cook far less often than I do who have roasted many a chicken in their lives.  I blame the fact that my husband and I are both white meat people, so a whole chicken never seemed like the smartest idea.  But it has always been on my to-do list, a goal I wanted to achieve, simple though it may be. 

So finally, I did it.  And I will be doing it again.  And again.  And again.  I warned my husband (if you can "warn" someone something that is such good news) that this is going to become a tradition.  He seemed okay with that.

But first, a word from our ethics committee (i.e. me).  I consider myself to run a pretty sustainable kitchen.  That is, I don't cook that much meat, and when I do, I try to make it as environmentally friendly as possible.  So if I was going to roast a whole chicken (and I was), I needed to make sure it was from a good source.  Hence a special trip to Whole Foods, where I do not ordinarily shop, to go to their butcher counter and buy a rather pricey (but worth every penny) organic, free-range "Rosie" chicken from Petaluma, California.  If you have access to organic, free-range chickens that are truly humanely raised, I implore you to get one for this recipe rather than a factory farm raised bird.  Yes it costs more, but when you divide the cost by the number of meals you're going to get out of the chicken, it is actually really cheap.

But of course, you can do whatever you want.  I just recommend you try this recipe, tweaked from Martha Stewart's oh-so-educational book, Martha Stewart's Cooking School.  I thought it would be a good starting point for my first attempt at roasting a whole bird.  And was it ever.  I added halved fingerling potatoes and quartered fresh carrots to the roasting pan, and they got golden and crispy and fantastic in the chicken drippings.  Best. Veggies.  Ever.

The result of this recipe was a fantastic, succulent bird, and quite possibly the best chicken I've ever tasted.  Definitely the best that's ever come out of my kitchen. You will be seeing a couple of fun leftover chicken recipes in the week.

Perfect Roast Chicken

adapted from Martha Stewart's Cooking School

serves 4 (or 2 with leftovers to be used for other meals)

INGREDIENTS:

1 fresh (organic, free-range) whole chicken, about 4 pounds

coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1 lemon, cut into 1/4-inch rounds

5 sprigs fresh thyme

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken stock

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Prepare the chicken.  Remove the bag of giblets and discard (or save for another use).  Let chicken come to room temperature for at least an hour, up to two hours.  Rinse the chicken inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels.  Get the cavity as dry as you can.  Trim excess fat from the cavity.

2.   Preheat oven to 450.  Season the chicken cavity with salt and pepper, then stuff with lemon, thyme, and garlic.   Rub the skin with the 2 tablespoons of butter.  Tuck some under the skin on the breast if you feel like it (it will add amazing moisture and flavor).  Season all over with salt and pepper.

3.  Put the chicken in a large ovenproof skillet or a small roasting pan with a rack.  Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh (avoiding bone) registers 160-165, about 55-60 minutes.  Remove chicken to a platter or carving board.  Let rest for 10 minutes.

4.  While the chicken rests, make a pan sauce in the roasting pan.  Spoon and discard fat from juices in pan (or separate in a gravy separator).  Pour accumulated chicken juices from the cavity into the pan.  Place pan over medium-high heat.  Pour in wine or stock to deglaze the pan, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon.  Cook until reduced by about half.  Pour the sauce through a fine sieve into a liquid measuring cup.

5.  Carve the chicken and serve with the pan sauce.  

Enjoy!

Avgolemono Soup (CEIMB)

When I was in law school, we often went to a Greek restaurant called Taverna Tony for lunch.  It was right down the street, and it had (free!) excellent bread and taramasalata dip. There was one menu item that we always had to get.  It was the lemony, creamy soup known as avgolemono - or chicken lemon soup.  It was my favorite soup of all time, and I still get the hankering now and again to drive up the coast to Malibu for a bowl.  No other Greek restaurant makes it quite as well as Taverna Tony, and believe me, I've looked.

It just so happens that this week's Craving Ellie in my Belly recipe is for avgolemono soup (or "Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo," as Ellie calls it).   I was so excited that this was the pick of the week!  I have to say that it is remarkably like the version I grew to know and love in law school, only with thyme instead of parsley.  I think next time I make this recipe (and there *will* be a next time), I will use parsley and see just how close to Tony's recipe this one is. 

This is a magical, lemony soup that tastes creamy and decadent, but the source of its creaminess is tempered eggs, rather than cream, flour, or any other typical soup ingredient.  It's a rather unassuming variation on chicken noodle soup, but it is so incredibly good, you can't even believe it until you try it yourself.

Avgolemono Soup

adapted from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave

serves 3

INGREDIENTS:

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into small chunks

pinch of salt, plus more to taste

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 medium carrot, diced

leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme

3 cups low sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup orzo

1 large egg

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat.  Season chicken with the salt, add to the pot, and cook, stirring often, until just cooked through, about 4 minutes.  Transfer the chicken to a dish and set aside.

2.  Add remaining teaspoon of oil to the pot.  Add onion, celery, carrot and thyme and cook, stirring, over medium-high heat until the veggies are tender, about 5 minutes.  Add 2 1/2 cups of the broth and bring to a boil.  Add orzo and let simmer until tender, about 6 minutes.  Turn heat down to low to keep the soup hot but not boiling.

3.  Warm the remaining 1/2 cup broth in a small saucepan until hot, but not boiling.  In a medium bowl, beat the egg.  Gradually whisk the lemon juice into the egg.  Then gradually add the hot broth to the egg-lemon mixture, whisking all the while.  (You are tempering the egg, as opposed to cooking it).

4.  Add the egg-broth mixture to the soup, stirring well until the soup is thickened.  Do not let the soup come to a boil.  If any bits of scrambled egg form, fish them out, but this shouldn't happen if you have the heat all the way down.  Add cooked chicken to the soup, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Lentils and Kale

You can add just about anything to pasta and call it dinner.  Case in point:  lentils, kale, and caramelized onions.  Not the most obvious combination in the world, but it definitely works!   This is a heaping bowl of pasta you can feel good about eating - it's packed with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein.  And, surprise of all surprises, it tastes great!

The key here is to be patient with the onions.  Onions take a long time to caramelize properly.  I'll admit it, I got a little impatient and didn't brown them as much as I should have, so they still had a bit of a bite to them.  But if you cook them low and slow, and let them get brown and sweet, this dish will be utterly transcendental.

If you're not sure whether you're a lentil fan, this is a great way to try them out, as they have a supporting role here.  Give it a go.

Pasta with Lentils and Kale

adapted from Gourmet Today

serves 3

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup small green or brown lentils

1 cup water

salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)

1/2 large onion, chopped

leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme

1 bunch of kale, stems and tough ribs removed

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 pound whole wheat corkscrew or elbow pasta

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Combine lentils, water, and pinch of salt in a small saucepan.  Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until tender but not falling apart, about 20 minutes.  Remove from heat.

2.  Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.  Add onions and thyme with a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, or until onions are golden and tender.   Remove cover and cook for another 10 minutes, or until onions are golden brown.

3.  When you have uncovered the onions, bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt it.  Add the kale and cook just for 2-3 minutes, until slightly wilted.  Scoop the kale out of the pot but leave the boiling water on the stove.  Place the kale in a colander and squeeze out excess water.  Chop it up and add to the lentils.

4.  Cook pasta in the kale cooking water until al dente.  Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water before draining.  Add kale, lentils (and their cooking liquid), and pasta with reserved cooking water to the onions.  Stir everything together and heat through.  Serve.

Enjoy!