drool
I do every once in a while. This one is my favorite I’ve done:
Cream of Chicken Soup with Leeks
1/2 T olive oil
2 leeks, chopped
1 t salt
2 t minced garlic
2 celery stalks chopped
5 c chicken stock
1 1/2 c cooked chicken
3 carrots, sliced
3/4 c heavy cream
1 t chopped lemon thyme
heat the oil in a heavy bottom 4 quart pan. Add the salt, celery and leeks, cook over medium heat until tender and transparent. You want to sweat the aromatics, not saute them. Stir often and turn down the heat if they get a little color. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or so to release flavor. Dump in the cooked chicken, chicken stock and carrots. heat to simmer and cook until the carrots are tender. Gently stir in the heavy cream, then add the thyme. Salt and pepper to taste. heat through, but do not let boil. Serve.
::blushes::
The quotation “Mercifully, his recipe for ‘Duck a la Banane’ will go with him to the grave.” has been running through my head all day.
One of these days, we ought to have a big ol’ SDMB virtual pot luck supper…
My Pasta Fungi recipe.
Get a jar of chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil, about half a handful of pine-nuts, a couple of garlic cloves, some red wine, a big double handful of good mushrooms (chopped up a little), and some fresh pasta (linguini’s good).
Notice that Nemo is not big on measuring.
Start your pasta cooking off to the side.
Pour some of the oil from the tomatoes into a frying pan. Smash up your garlic and throw the garlic and the pine nuts into the oil. Fry them up until they start to brown. Pour in some wine. Add the tomatoes and mushrooms. Heat it up until the tomatoes and mushrooms are warm but not cooked.
Drain your pasta. Dump your sauce on top.
I do make up recipes, but mostly because either I can’t follow one, or because I’m out of something it calls for. Or sometimes I just want a different taste.
Peanut butter chocolate cookies, for instance. Use the Toll House recipe, except substitute peanut butter for half the shortening. Mmmmm.
A variation on ‘Chicken Veronique’ - still in development.
Dice two chicken breasts into one inch cubes. Coat in flour with a little salt and pepper. Sauté in about 2 tbsp butter, about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp ground rosemary, 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds and 1/4 cup white wine. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve on rice with side veg.
My next pomegranate, I want to experiment with flambéing the seed in gin; It’ll either be really cool or disgusting…
Make-it-up-as-you-go is pretty much all I do. I don’t cook that often, usually just when my GF asks me to make something to eat (she usually does it), so when I do I basically just take whatever we’ve got and mix it together with a dash of this and that from the spice rack. Sometimes it’s okay but not great, sometimes it’s brilliant.
Of course the problem with this approach is no matter how it turns out I’ll never be able to make it again.
Yep, I do it all the time. It drives my husband nuts–his family thinks recipes are sacred. They even got confused because I used two crusts on a particular pie that’s only supposed to have one… sigh.
Anyway, here are two good ones:
Mexican Mess (good for burritos, on top of salad)
Stir-fry together in the following order:
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
2 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
2 cans black beans
Rice, the cooked product of 1 cup raw
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
Salt to taste
Beans & Greens
Cook in skillet the following:
2 cloves garlic
1 diced onion
1 package frozen spinach
1 can tomato sauce
1 can beans of your choice
1 t dried basil
Salt to taste
I’m experimenting with pork loin currently. Here’s one I did this weekend that turned out great. I don’t measure a whole bunch, but I’ll estimate the best I can.
4-5 lb pork loin
10-12 strips of smoked bacon
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups apple juice
1 whole apple
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup kosher salt
1 tbsp liquid smoke
Your favorite variety of pork rub
BRINE:
Boil vegetable broth and apple juice, dissolve brown sugar and kosher salt in it and add the liquid smoke. Allow to simmer for a few minutes. Let it cool, then pour it on the pork loin in a large (2.5 gallon) ziplock bag, squeezing out the air. Let it soak up the brine for several hours, up to 24 hours.
PREPARE:
Pre-heat oven to 350. Slice apple into slices about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Place pork loin on a baking dish. Sprinkle meat with pork rub, then lay out apple slices on top. Wrap with bacon, securing with toothpicks. Pour brine in dish to about 1/4 inch deep.
Bake for 2:15 - 2:30 in center of oven.
I’m perfecting an original pie recipe right now.
It’s pretty cool to know I invented something.
Sure. One of my favorites, Measurements are approximate:
Simon & Garfunkel Chicken
4-6 pieces boneless chicken
Wine 1 cup
Soy sauce 1/2 cup
1 1/2 t Garlic
(2/3 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 fresh diced tomatoes
3/4 cup shredded cheese
Herbs (see below)
Beat hell out of chicken pieces & marinate in wine (I use white Zinfandel but anything you like will do) soy sauce & Garlic.
Marinate for at least four hours, up to overnight.
pour marinade in frying pan, along with chicken pieces.
Cook chicken until white on both sides.
sprinkle with herbs (Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme)
remove chicken from frying pan , place in baking pan
add onions & peppers to frying pan, cook until all the marinade is absorbed.
top chicken with onion & peppers & bake for 30 mins
add cheese bake for another 20 mins
add tomatoes bake for 5 additional mins
Janis, what temp do you bake the chicken?
Expando-thigh Pie.
Start with a basic graham cracker crust. Don’t crush the crackers too finely. Leave them a little chunky. Line the top and sides of a 9"x3" round cake pan with parchment and press in the crumbs. I like them nearly 1/2 an inch thick and par baked 10 minutes for extra crunchiness. Follow up with your favorite cheesecake batter. Don’t make the cheesecake layer too thick. three quarters to one inch is plenty. Using a water bath, par bake the cheesecake at 325 for 20 minutes to help set the top.
While the cheesecake is in the oven, prepare a batch of pecan pie filling. Carefully pour the pecan filling onto the cheesecake, again trying for about half to three quarters of an inch thick. Top with roasted pecans and return pie to oven to finish baking. 40 minutes later, check with a knife. it should come out nearly clean. Shut the oven off but don’t remove it the pie yet. Let is remain undisturbed for at least an hour then transfer to the fridge overnight before you attempt to de-pan it.
After removing it from the pan, press finely chopped toasted pecans against the sides of the pie. and then try not to eat the whole thing.
I’m still experimenting with this. It’s good but not quite right yet
Oops! heh 375!
What is it? (Or I suppose it must be a secret). I find that every time I think I’ve come up with something original, a little bit of Googling shows somewhere, someone else has already done it. The only thing I’ve created that I haven’t been able to Google is a xoconostle (sour prickly pear) and strawberry pie.
I’m not very adventurous, but once in a while…
Teriyaki Soul Chicken Breasts
you need:
- chicken breasts, one per person
- a bottle of thick-style Teriyaki sauce
- Soul Food Seasoning
- foil
Take your chicken breasts and slather them with a thick teriyaki sauce. Seal in a ziplock bag overnight. The following day, sprinkle the breasts liberally with Soul Food Seasoning. Wrap them in foil and bake at 350 until they’re done (however long it usually takes your oven to handle fresh, rather than frozen, chicken breasts. for me that’s 30-40 minutes, but the oven’s a bit flaky)
It’s not a combination most people would think of, but it seemed like a good idea when faced with (raw) leftover teriyaki’d chicken. YMMV
Ten Minute Chocolate Covered Cashews
you need:
- one can of cashew halves & pieces (not whole)
- at least one five-six ounce bar of your favorite milk chocolate (Dove, Cadbury, Hersey, Symphany etc) OR buy a bag of milk chocolate baking chips and measure out half of them to begin with
- a double boiler
- a roll of wax paper
Set up your double boiler, and while you wait for the water to boil, break your chocolate bar into pieces, the smaller the better. Less than 1/2 an inch is best. Also, take this time to line one or more cookie sheets with wax paper.
When the double boiler is boiling, pour your chocolate into the upper part and stir as the chocolate melts. Once the chocolate is uniformly melted, stir in cashews a handful at a time (don’t dump a whole bunch in at once, basically), making sure that each piece of nut is throughly coated with chocolate. Spoon up several pieces of nut and a bit of chocolate together and plop it onto the wax paper in a rough cluster. Continue to do so, putting a bit of distance between the clusters (like when spacing cookies or biscuits), until you run out of chocolate and/or nuts.
Place cookie sheets in the fridge and chill until hardened. Enjoy!
Like I said earlier, I am playing around with pork loin. Here’s a stuffed loin that I like to do.
4-5 lb. pork loin
1 box Stove Top Chicken stuffing
2 cups chicken broth
1 small red onion
1 small apple
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Nutmeg, ground sage, salt, pepper
Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare the stuffing according to the directions on the box, except use chicken broth, or at least a diluted chicken broth/water mix.
Shred the onion and the apple.
Mix stuffing, onion, apple, nutmeg and dried cranberries. (Nutmeg can easily be made optional)
Cut the pork loin lengthwise about 3/4 of the way through, but leave an inch of it uncut at each end. Fill the cut with stuffing. Sprinkle the roast with ground sage, salt and pepper.
Bake at 350 for 2.5 hrs., basting with chicken broth with about an hour left.