Roast chicken and cherry tomatoes

We had a bunch of cherry tomatoes and I wanted to know what to do with them besides eat them raw. Actually I do a lot of things with them besides eat them raw, but I wanted a new idea... And I found this recipe. I found it here, but the blog post in question says she didn't follow the recipe exactly, and I guess neither did I. What follows is my modification. As usual, it's so simple that it hardly qualifies as cooking, but it tastes good.

Ingredients (serves 2 people generously):
two boneless chicken breasts, large
2 cups or so cherry tomatoes (basically a whole plastic pac from the supermarket, or blue cardboard carton from the farmer's market)
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp or so fresh marjoram
crushed dried chipotle pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
pepper

Directions:
1. Remove any stems from the cherry tomatoes, wash, put in a big bowl.

2. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes.

3. Chop the marjoram and sprinkle half over the tomatoes; reserve the other half for later.

4. Crush the garlic cloves and sprinkle over the tomatoes.

5. Sprinkle 1/2 tbsp or so of crushed dried chipotle pepper over the tomatoes; more or less to taste. Mix until tomatoes are thoroughly oiled and spiced.

6. Cut the chicken breasts into large chunks, 2 or 3 per breast depending on how big they are.

7. Put the chicken in a glass baking dish. Pour the tomatoes over and arrange them so that they're in a single layer around the chicken. Make sure the oil and spice mix drizzles over the chicken. Grind salt and pepper over the top liberally.

8. Roast at 450 degrees for 35 minutes or so.

9. Serve with the rest of the chopped marjoram sprinkled on as a garnish.

The recipe describes crispy chicken and caramelized tomatoes; what I got was really juicy chicken (but not crispy) and tomatoes that were shriveled but not yet caramelized. That was better, I think: they were juicy in a really concentrated way that really made the dish.

Careful with the chipotle pepper: I only added a little, probably less than what I describe above, and it came out nice and spicy. Next time I'll try it with the rosemary variation the blogger mentions, but I really liked the marjoram effect: it didn't counteract the spiciness of the pepper, but added a kind of aromatic halo to it.

We had this dish with corn on the cob on the side, and it was real good.

Green(ish) Curry

We tried a new curry recipe and the sauce turned out really nice--light and mild. It was supposed to use Panang curry paste, but I didn't want to make a special trip to the Asian grocery so I went with green curry paste and just a touch of red (maybe 1/2 tsp at most) to spice it up.

Green curry paste (I used most of a 4-oz can of Thai Kitchen green)
1 13-oz can light coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp grated lime zest or 3 kaffir lime leaves (I cheated and left this out but it'd probably be nice to have)
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
several shredded basil leaves or a generous sprinkling of dried basil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tsp lime juice

Heat a large pan on medium and mix together the curry paste, coconut milk, lime zest, and soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes or so and add whatever veggies or pre-cooked meats you want. Add the basil, cilantro, and lime juice at the end and serve over rice. Yum.

Our recipe called for red peppers, cucumbers, and tofu, but those felt a little bland to us, so next time I think we'll go for something stronger like broccoli and peanuts.

Froyo?

So are frozen yogurt stores all the rage across the country, or just around here? In the last year or so we've seen about three or four places pop up selling frozen yogurt. Not TCBY-type places. These are all self-serve and the gimmick is that they have a topping bar with everything from nuts to little pieces of mochi. Like this place, which is going in about a block from us. Get a load of that list!

We're crazy about it. Is this a nationwide fad?

Inarizushi is Yummy!

I finally got around to making inarizushi (稲荷寿司) this past Monday. Basically, do the following: 

Cook 1.5 cups of sticky white rice (that is 1.5 cups dry), which was at least a cooked cup too much.

Cool the rice off. Traditionally, I suppose you just set it out, but I sped up the process by putting the rice in a big bowl, spreading it out as much as possible, and putting the bowl in the fridge for a while.


Mix together about 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar with 1.5 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. If needed, nuke the mixture for a few seconds to help the sugar dissolve. I actually used closer to 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar and about 2 tablespoons of sugar. A mug works great for this mixture, as it is microwavable.

Anyway, once your rice is cool enough to handle comfortably (as in handle with your hands), mix it in with the rice until you feel like all the rice has some mixture on it.

Open a can of inarizushi-no-moto, which is the preseasoned fried tofu envelopes that make inarizushi so yummy. Carefully open each tofu envelope with your fingers and stuff with the rice mixture, leaving room to fold over the side so the rice doesn't fall back out. 

Snarf your fantabulous inarizushi! You can eat the leftover rice plain or you can roll it in nori (seaweed) for other sushi yumminess.

The cost of this yummy treat is not too bad when compared to buying inarizushi from a store (even from Lawson's outside the embassy compound in Tokyo, which is where I used to buy it as an occasional treat). The rice and rice vinegar are relatively cheap, since most of you will have them on hand already. The inarizushi-no-moto costs about $4.50 from your local Japanese market (um, I mean the Japanese market in your American city, not the market in your Japanese city). 


P.S. - Reese LOVED the leftover juice from the inarizushi-no-moto can.

Chèvre to the rescue

I <3 cheese. All kinds of cheese- I even like some blue cheese on the occasional salad.
I also <3 Mexican foods. This often involves Mexican blend cheese and all of their amazing melty, gooy wonder. This works out well for Cherilyn, who is all about the easy quesadilla or nachos, my problem is I really ought to avoid lactose. This is easy for me when it comes to milk as I have never enjoyed it. I drink Almond Breeze almond milk and life is good. Lactose free ice cream and almond or rice based ice creams are tasty as well. However cheese is my Achilles' heel.

Recently I decided, on a whim, to melt some Chèvre w/ basil I had on my tortilla and then add my salsa and see how it worked... It was AMAZING! The tartness of the Chèvre went so well with the salsa I was amazed! Since then I have obtained some Chèvre with pimentos in it & that is also very tasty! It melts well (though I find I have to use a knife to smear it around) & I love the blend with the salsa!

Does anyone else have any suggestions of tasty things to do with Chèvre? I eat it on crackers and salad and tortillas now. Anything to help me get my cheese fix, and stay out of the yummy sharp cheddar also in the fridge would be good!

Whomever gifted the yummy sugars...

Thank you!
I keep forgetting which sib gave Cherilyn the yummy fancy sugars, but I am enjoying them on top of my coffee! I also introduced Cherilyn to vanilla sugar on fresh strawberries! Yum yum!

General Food Updates

Hello, all and welcome, Dena! I have been cooking quite a bit recently but I don't really feel ready to be putting any new recipes on here. My cooking has been more oriented in a skill-building direction, following existing recipes written by professionals. The big news is I have started teaching myself how to bake bread! I got a fantastic book simply entitled "Bread." It is actually a DK guide. Thus far my experiences with this book have been excellent! The recipes are so detailed and thorough that it's basically impossible to mess them up so long as you are literate and at least passably good at following directions :)

Beyond the bread-making front, it is Gazpacho season!!! I love Gazpacho season. It is one of my favorite times of year. This year my garden is pretty much an epic failure. The fates are conspiring against me and I have had basically zero luck getting anything to grow and stay growing. So I have been leaning heavily on my local farmers’ market for my produce. Fortunately, they have phenomenal stuff!

K, maybe I lied a little because I am going to include a recipe for “zucchini carpaccio.” The name is a little over the top but you can blame Tyler Florence for that because I sharked the idea from him.

Zucchini Carpaccio:

2 small zucchini

2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Juice of ½ a lemon (recipe works without this too but this adds a pleasant freshness and makes it more salad-y)

Freshly cracked pepper/ lemon pepper

Salt

2 tbs julienned basil and/or julienned mint

Parmesan to taste ( I would recommend using the real stuff for this just because it’s pretty major in the recipe. Shaved will give you the best texture compliment too)

Very thinly slice the zucchini into rounds using either a very sharp knife and a steady hand or a mandolin. Dress with the oil, lemon, salt, and pepper. Shave your parmesan over the zucchini using your mandolin, sharpy-sharp knife, or the shaving side of a box grater. Add your julienned herbs (a combo of mint and basil is actually really nice on this). Mix gently and eat J

*I have been making this the night before for my lunch and it refrigerates well. The zucchini stayed firm and everything was delicious.