Chicken with Tarragon and White Wine

(from Giada de Laurentis)

I'm between jobs right now, so I've been spending a lot of time (sigh) watching all kinds of bad daytime TV. This includes cooking shows (let's face it, though, it's usually Say Yes to the Dress and Property Brothers), which is where I found this recipe. I watched Giada make it, then gave it a stab myself. Her type of cooking is the type I can recognize and replicate without too much instruction (garlic? Got it!), so I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out, sans recipe.

That being said, I made this over a month ago, and promptly forgot how to make it. Luckily for me, the Internet is a great refresher, and I found the exact recipe (without God-knows-what modifications I made), which you can find below, with some modifications.

This was really easy and delicious, and it's nice because it seems fancy and could therefore be served to guests. Of course, Giada made some kind of appetizer and these little miniature fruit tarts...for lunch. Not going to happen, folks. So I made it for dinner, with some roasted Brussels sprouts, and called it good. And it was!

So:

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil. I mean, come on...)
1 (4 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces (I used four chicken thighs)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour for dusting

1 1/2 cups (about 10 ounces) cipollini onions, trimmed and peeled (grab a handful)
4 cloves garlic, halved
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup white wine, such as Riesling
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus 1/3 cup
1/2 cup chopped fresh tarragon leaves, plus 2 tablespoons

Heat the oil over high in a Dutch oven or large saucepan. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, dust with flour, and cook, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

Scoot the chicken to the side and add the onions and garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste, about five minutes. Increase the heat and add the wine, scraping up the brown bits that cling to the pan. Add 3 cups of the chicken broth and 1/2 cup of tarragon, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low to simmer, and cover. Turn the chicken every 10 minutes or so until it's cooked through. Serve over brown rice and garnish with remaining tarragon.

Now, what the Internet version says to do is a little different, and not what I remember following from TV. It sounds good, though, so if you wanted. You'll need:

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Remove the chicken to a platter. In a small bowl, mix the remaining 1/3 cup chicken broth and flour. Whisk the flour mixture into the sauce in the pan until smooth. Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook uncovered until it thickens. Stir in the butter, and serve the sauce over the chicken.

Moqueca - Brazilian Fish Stew

(adapted from Saveur magazine)

While we're on the topic of shrimp (when are we not?!), here's a great and pretty easy recipe for a hearty stew that uses them, discovered in a recent issue of Saveur magazine.

The recipe was a good one, although we both agreed that we expected more flavor from the final result. So I've modified the original recipe to include some additional things (my untested additions are starred below, so you can make it as-is, or give the alternative a shot and lemme know how it goes), like cayenne and extra garlic. Maybe it's because we couldn't find palm oil and had to substitute butter. In any case, it was still pretty delicious, and a nice alternative.

1.5 lb boneless, skinless catfish filets, cut into 2" pieces
8 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
Juice from two limes
*12 cloves garlic (recipe called for 8)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium/large yellow onion, 3/4 minced, 1/4 thinly sliced
1 "Italian frying pepper" (if you have any idea what an Italian frying pepper is, use it; I used a jalapeno); 1/2 minced, 1/2 thinly sliced
*Cayenne pepper to taste
2 plum tomatoes, 1 minced, 1 thinly sliced
*1 cup chicken stock (recipe called for fish or vegetable)
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp palm oil (recommended if you can find it; I used butter)
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1/2 cup minced Thai basil leaves
Cooked brown rice, to serve

Toss the fish, shrimp, lime juice, half the garlic, and the salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the rest of the garlic, the minced onion, and the minced pepper, sprinkle with cayenne, and cook until soft. Add the minced tomatoes, and cook until broken down. Add the stock, coconut milk, and palm oil/butter, and bring to a boil. Drain the fish and add to the pot, cooking until just cooked through, about 7 minutes. Add the sliced onion, pepper, and tomato, and cook, covered, for about five more minutes. Stir in the cilantro and basil, season with salt and pepper. Serve over rice.

The Best Shrimp Recipe Ever

 

Are you ready for this? The best shrimp recipe ever? Yes, you are. Because it is so delicious, and so easy, it will become your new go-to, and you'll make it again. At least I do.

100% credit - maybe 110%, it's that good - goes to my dad for this one (and, admittedly, for many others!). He made it for us when we were home over the summer, and oh my God. I mean, I love shrimp already, but even people (ahem, Joef) who don't go insane for shrimp (really, though? How could you not?) love this recipe.

I made it for the first time on one of the first nights in our new place, accompanied by some truly amazing steak from The Local Butcher Shop (yet another reason to love Berkeley, by the way). Unfortunately, I lost/deleted pictures of that steak (gah!). Fortunately, we made the shrimp again (as if we wouldn't!), so at least we have that going.

The secret is my dad's marinade, and cooking them up nice and quick over the grill. Oh, and leaving the skin on. You can turn it into a big meal (serve with steak and fresh salad for some surf-and-turf), medium (maybe some nice aglio e olio), or relatively light, just the shrimp and, say, a nice arugula salad with fresh cherry tomatoes, baby mozzarella, and a cherry balsamic vinaigrette. Drooling...

           

This might be one of my favorite recipes, period. I mean, I don't want to artificially raise hopes and all that, but I'm pretty confident it won't fail you.

Because it's a marinade, the recipe is rather loose. Here's what my dad said:

Olive oil, garlic, ginger, black pepper, parsley, lemon juice.

You can kind of play with the amounts of the ingredients, and my general guidance would be:

1-2 lbs shrimp, cleaned and deveined, but NOT peeled
Juice from two lemons, and some pulp (take the end of a spoon or tongs and just jam it into the lemon while squeezing)
2-4 cloves garlic, smashed a bit with the side of a knife, then roughly chopped
2-4 twists of the black pepper mill
Small bunch of parsley, chopped
Generous amount of ginger powder (yes, powder) - 5 or so shakes?
A few glugs of olive oil 
Bamboo skewers, soaked in water beforehand

You should have enough liquid to coat the shrimp, and some will pool in the bottom of the bowl as well. You combine all of these ingredients in a bowl, stir them up to coat the shrimp, then pop them in the fridge for about 3 hours. Skewer them, making sure the skewer pierces the shrimp in two places, and that all tails are facing the same direction.

Shrimp cook really fast, so just cook them a couple/few minutes on each side on the grill, so that they get nice and pink. Eat outside with a nice white wine, and it will be a wonderful evening.

Soft-Boiled Egg Sandwiches

This is one of the first breakfasts we made in our new place. We had fresh heirloom tomatoes (those yellow bits) from the Farmers Market, Joef hadn't started work yet, and this was just the perfect lazy morning meal.

There's a place in Boston called Clover Food Lab where we first had breakfast sandwiches like these, with pita and soft-boiled eggs. I don't know what they did to those things, but they were crazy delicious. And these were, too.
 
I had to learn how to make a soft-boiled egg. Thanks, Internet!: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Soft-Boiled-Egg. If you feel like yours end up too runny after following these instructions, you can pop them in the microwave for like, 10-20 seconds.

All you need is:
Eggs, poached (see link above)
Pita bread
Cheddar cheese, sliced
Tomato, sliced

Assemble! I'd recommend putting everything together, apart from the egg, first. Then you can pop the warm egg right in there and start melting the cheese a bit. Mmmm!

Chobani Black Cherry Brownies

(from Chobani)

Time for a Joef recipe, folks (generally, when there's dessert involved, or baking, it's all Joef; he is simply way better at this whole following a precise recipe thing than I am)! On one of our first trips to the grocery store in Berkeley (oh yeah, we moved! It's awesome here!!), we were picking out yogurt, and Joef spotted a recipe for brownies on the back of a Chobani yogurt container. I generally don't get that enthused about desserts, so I reluctantly said yes, let's do it, but you're doing all the baking! Joef happily took up the mantle.

And OhMyGod, am I glad he did. I can't tell you how delicious these are! I mean, I can - they are SO delicious! Moist, flavorful...just, wow. I've heard some of my baking friends talk about using yogurt in their cooking, and now I get it. The fact that it's Greek yogurt adds just that hint of tartness that keeps it from being too, too sweet. Oh man. I want these again.

Here's the recipe, straight off the container:
1 cup black cherry Chobani non-fat Greek yogurt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 10oz bag semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk the Chobani, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in a bowl. Melt the chocolate chips with the butter and let it cool, then whisk it into the Chobani mixture. Last, stir in the flour and salt. Grease an 8-inch baking dish and pour in the brownie mix. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

La Piccina Cucina: Camping Edition #2

Every two years or so, Joef and I grab a few innocent and unsuspecting souls and drag them out to the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada. This summer was my third trip and Joef's fifth, and it did not disappoint. It's some of the most beautiful, pristine wilderness I've ever seen, and I'll go back again and again. I mean, what's not to love about canoeing 20 miles a day with portages in between?

Last trip out, I posted about our handpicked blueberry compote. We were a little too early in the season this year for berries, but we did make a point of getting creative with cooking this time around. 

There was the usual fresh-caught fish (bass), fried:

But we also got experimental, with things like modified hummus (chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, sesame seeds, lemon, salt, and zatar are all easy to pack): 

 

Enjoy them with tortilla chips (cut tortillas into triangles and fry them up):

And we even made pasta, with pesto (paste) and sundried tomatoes:

The coup de grâce was cake baked in an orange peel. Now, it should be noted that the final outcome, taste-wise, could probably, er, be improved upon. But the concept is sound! Next time, we'd only fill the oranges halfway, and would either put them on top of the grill, or further from the fire. There was a bit of an ashtray effect. But we MADE CAKE IN THE WILDERNESS! With sparkly frosting!

Choose a batter that doesn't require eggs. Slice just the top off an orange, and scoop out the insides. Mix your batter, and spoon it into the orange.

Secure the top of the orange with toothpicks.

Place the batter-filled orange(s) near the fire. Rotate now and then to heat all sides. Cook for...um...20 minutes? Eyeball it.

Remove the oranges from the fire. Allow to cool, then remove the tops.

Spoon out the cake and dab with frosting!

It was an amazing trip with amazing people. Plus, no injuries! Here we are, just after getting off the water:

Bake Sale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwiches with Jalapeno Slaw, and, Welcome to California!

(adapted from www.food.com) 

Phew, talk about a hiatus! We're back, folks! To remind myself how long it's been since I've posted, and therefore, how long it's been since I've cooked anything (new, at least, but pretty much just anything), this recipe is from MAY. Specifically, from Joef's graduation from the Yale School of Management (watch me burst with pride!). Since then, we've moved out of New Haven, CT, driven to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis; camped in the Boundary Waters; driven back to Chicago and St. Louis; flown to San Francisco; driven back to Minneapolis, back to St. Louis; and then driven all the way from St. Louis to Berkeley, CA, where we now reside (hooray!).

This first-recipe-back is appropriate, then - Joef requested it for his graduation because he'd gotten to know and love Bakesale Betty's, an Oakland favorite, during his internship last summer. And now, internship has turned into full-time position, and here we are, living in the East Bay. And I'm finally posting this recipe. It's like a welcome to the neighborhood. And WOW, is it beautiful here. The local grocery store has more (low-price!) fruits and vegetables than I could count, about half of which I've never even heard of before. But I digress...

What really makes these sandwiches (besides the delicious, delicious grease!) is the jalapeno coleslaw. That's right. It's wonderfully tangy and hot, and cuts the grease of the fried chicken just right. I borrowed the recipe from Food.com, and it was a crowd pleaser.

By the way, this makes a TON of coleslaw. Way more than you need. So you could halve that portion of the recipe, if you so chose.

CHICKEN
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or however many sandwiches you want to serve - my memory is failing me, but I may have fileted the breasts in half, but that's up to you)
Salt
1 quart buttermilk

VINAIGRETTE
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

SLAW
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 cup red wine vinegar
2-4 jalapenos, seeded, cut in half and sliced crosswise
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 green cabbage, core and outer leaves removed, and very thinly sliced
Salt

BREADING
1 lb all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon salt (or more to taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper

AND
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
4 rolls (or however many sandwiches you want to make)

Season chicken breasts with salt. Let sit at least 5 minutes. Fill a wide, shallow nonreactive bowl or casserole dish with buttermilk. Add the chicken and soak in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 

In the meantime, start on the vinaigrette: combine mustard, vinegar and salt in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until well blended.

Then, start on the slaw. Macerate onions in the cup of red wine vinegar, and let sit at least 20 minutes. (I had to look up what "macerate" means. It's the process of softening something by soaking it in liquid.) Remove onions and discard vinegar. Toss onions with jalapeno, parsley, cabbage and salt. Toss with vinaigrette until evenly coated. 

Ready to fry the chicken? Prep the breading by mixing flour, cayenne, salt and pepper in a wide, shallow bowl. Pour vegetable oil into a large stockpot. Do not fill up more than halfway, or the oil could splatter. Bring oil up to 365°, using a digital thermometer/candy thermometer to monitor the heat. Pull a chicken breast out of the buttermilk one at a time, letting excess drip off, and dredge completely in flour. Do not drain or shake off excess buttermilk or flour during the breading process. That's the yummy part!

When the oil is at 365°, carefully place chicken pieces into oil one by one. Let each cook for a minute before moving the piece, then help it “swim” in the oil with tongs, until it is evenly cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towels. Season immediately with salt.

To pull it all together, place fried chicken breast on bottom of torpedo roll and top generously with coleslaw. DEVOUR!