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Spiced Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce
I really like this dish. It is simple and fairly quick to make. I had chicken drumsticks in the freezer which I needed to cook. I also had fresh tomatillos from the farmer’s market. I love using them for salsas. The have a wonderful tart taste that complements South western cuisine really well.
I came up with a spicy mixture to put on the chicken drumsticks. A combination of coriander, cumin and paprika- not spicy but very flavorful. I fired up the grill and cooked the chicken outside. My favorite part of the chicken are the thighs and the legs- the meat is so flavorful!
My husband loves enchiladas. Whenever we go to our favorite Mexican joint, that is what he gets- enchiladas with green sauce. I decided to replicate that. The green sauce was easy to make – I added all the ingredients in a pot and cooked them for a bit and then processed them into a sauce- done. Once the chicken was golden brown and cooked, I cooled it and took the meat off. Now I had all the components to make an enchilada. I always have corn tortillas in the freezer- I like them better than the regular flour ones- these have more flavor and taste more authentic. I grated some cheese and began to assemble then and placed in an oven proof dish. I baked them till the cheese was gooey and melted.
I was trying to be healthy and decided not to serve any rice. Instead I served an avocado and fresh corn relish. It was a good, healthy dinner – we all enjoyed it- my daughter had the enchiladas but stayed away from the relish.
Tomatillo Sauce
- 6 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
- 1 white onion, quartered
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 lime, juiced
- Salt
- ½ cup cilantro, chopped
Put the tomatillos, onion, cumin seeds, olive oil and garlic cloves in a saucepan. Saute for 4-5 minutes on medium heat and add 1 cup chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat and cook until tomatillos are soft- about 7-8 minutes. Put the vegetables in a blender and puree. Add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt, and pulse to combine. Set aside.
Chicken Stuffing
- 8 chicken drumsticks
Preheat outside grill.
Spice Mix
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin powder
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
Mix all the spices together and sprinkle all over the chicken drumsticks. Grill the chicken legs till both sides are golden brown, about 30-40 minutes. Let cook and take the meat off the bones and shred with hand.
12 small corn tortillas
3 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded
To assemble the dish: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drizzle some olive oil in a large baking dish. Dip a tortilla into the tomatillo sauce and put it on a cutting board. Put about a ¼ cup shredded chicken in the center and sprinkle a little cheese and roll the tortilla like a cigar to enclose the filling. Use a spatula to place it seam side down in the baking dish. Continue to fill all the tortillas. Pour the remaining tomatillo salsa over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for about 20-30 until bubbly and cracked on top.
Paola’s Fresh Tomato Sauce with Fresh Broccoli Rabe Ravioli
I have wanting to make this sauce since we returned from Italy. This was one of the dishes Paola made in our kitchen at the apartment. She started by buying the most beautiful red tomatoes I have seen. The sauce itself doesn’t really have many ingredients. Good tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil (from her back yard), garlic and salt. The reason the sauce and pasta were so good- the ingredients were impeccable. My daughter who doesn’t like chunky sauces thought it was the best pasta she had ever tasted.
Once we got home, I started thinking how to replicate this sauce. I can’t compete with those tomatoes and the ultra fresh extra virgin olive oil. I bought a few heirloom tomatoes, some baby roma tomatoes (plum) and I had a bunch from my backyard. I cut all of them up and cooked them with olive oil and garlic. I cooked them for a while till the tomatoes began to break down and soften. Instead of serving the sauce with linguine like Paola did, I decided to buy fresh raviolis from Whole Foods- I found broccoli rabe raviolis. I was very excited about them since broccoli rabe is one of my favorite ingredients.
Since I was serving the sauce with the raviolis, I decided to smooth it out in a food mill. Once that was done, I noticed all the seeds- the sauce looked rustic and it was fine, but I decided to add another step and strained it. Out came the most luscious, delicious sauce I have ever made. It was totally worth the extra work.
The ravioli dish was a big success. Everyone really enjoyed it and there was no left over. My plan is to buy 5 or 6 pounds of heirloom tomatoes and make a big batch of tomato sauce before the season is over. I can enjoy it in the winter season and look forward to summer again!
read more …
Roasted Chicken and Potatoes with Broccoli Rabe
I get lots of food magazines in the mail. It’s great to have them around but the problem is that I don’t get the time to actually read or even go through them. Ideally I like to sit and look through them for inspiration. I then tear out the pages I want to save for later and chuck the rest away.
I was going through last months Bon Appetit and saw a recipe for a roast chicken with potatoes and broccoli rabe. As some of you may already know, that is my favorite vegetable in the whole world- well it’s definitely on the top of a very long list. I was very excited to read the recipe but soon found out it was quite lengthy and labor intensive. It was a bit confusing- so much so
- 2 pounds chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 1 pound fingerling or small white potatoes, washed
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe, ends cut of and the rest cut in half
In a large lined roasting pan, add the chicken and potatoes. Keep aside.
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 teaspoons salt divided
- ½ cup chicken broth
Preheat oven at 400 degrees.
In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and add 2 teaspoons salt. Add the olive oil and mix till a smooth paste is formed.
Massage the chicken and the potatoes with the paste mixing well.
Bake the chicken and potatoes for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Add ½ cup chicken broth. Bake for another 20 minutes. Take out of oven and add the broccoli rabe mixing it well with the chicken and potatoes. Sprinkle the remaining 2 teaspoons salt and place it back in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, making sure the broccoli rabe leaves don’t burn. Serve hot with a fresh baguette.
Mattar Paneer- Indian Cheese Cooked with Peas
I don’t want you to get intimidated by the long ingredient list. This dish is easy to make- just needs a bit of planning and some preparation. It is worth taking the time out and isn’t it great to know how to make one of the very popular dishes served in an Indian restaurant? If you make it at home, you will save money and it will taste a lot better and it will be a lot healthier. You can control the amount of oil, etc you add to the dish. There is usually a lot of butter and cream added to most Indian dishes with gravy.
The secret ingredient in the dish is the baked onions. It gives this dish a slow and long cooked flavor. The onions are baked with a bit of flour which thickens the gravy- perfect!
All the other spices add delicious savory flavor to the dish. Kasuri methi or dry fenugreek is really the key to finish the dish off. For my readers in the Maplewood/South Orange area- there is a new Indian/Sri Lankan grocery store on Irvington Ave in Maplewood- they will have kasuri methi. It is a great ingredient to have in your pantry and lasts a very long time.
Mattar paneer can be served with rice or roti- either way it tastes really good. It’s my husband’s favorite so he is extremely happy whenever I make it for him…
read more …
Rigatoni with Fresh Tomato Sauce Topped with Sauteed Scallops and Served with Arugula Bruschetta
I have been so inspired by my one day cooking class with Paola in Spello, Umbria that all I want to do is cook fresh tomato sauce. The problem with doing that and writing a food blog is that I need to switch the recipe around a bit so I can post it and inspire other people to make it as well. With all the yummy tomatoes around in the farmer’s market and my back yard, I just couldn’t help myself today and made yet another fresh tomato sauce.
I went to Whole Foods and bought fresh rigatoni- I haven’t made boxed pasta since I came back from Italy- not sure how long this obsession will last.. My plan was to buy some jumbo shrimp and make a shrimp scampi pasta with tomato sauce. I was standing at the fish counter when I noticed beautiful sea scallops from NJ. I had to buy them since they were so local. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them but bought them anyway.
I came home and cut the fresh tomatoes up and started cooking them. I boiled the fresh pasta and brought it together with the tomato sauce. I sauteed the scallops on the stove- very quickly- that is the trick to really juicy and tender- do not over cook them. I placed them on top of the pasta.
I remembered the arugula pesto in the fridge and decided to serve a bit of that in the form of a bruschetta. All in all it was a delicious meal. The fresh pasta with the fresh tomato sauce was of course delicious. The sweet and tender scallops were yum and the arugula bruschetta was out of this world. A bottle of Malbec made it even better!
- 3 cups fresh plum tomatoes, cut into rough squares
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Pinch of sugar
- ½ pound fresh rigatoni, cooked al dente (reserve ½ cup pasta water for the sauce)
In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil on medium high heat. Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar. Cook on medium heat for at least 20 minutes or till the tomatoes start to get mushy and soft. Add the ½ cup pasta water and the al dente pasta. Mix well and check for seasonings.
Sauteed Scallops
- 1 pound sea scallops, cleaned
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Heat a non-stick frying pan on high heat. Add the olive oil and scallops. Add salt and pepper. Cook on each side for 2 minutes on high heat. Cook in two batches is the pan is not big enough.
Serve the pasta with 4-5 scallops on top. Toast some sliced baguette and top with the arugula pesto. Serve with the pasta.
Bok Choy and Fresh Corn Fried Rice
I served this rice with the salmon marinated with miso. When my husband and I ate at Ming Tsai’s restaurant, my lobster dish had the most delicious fried rice I have ever tasted. As I enjoyed and devoured the rice, I realized it had butter in it. Now, of course I am health conscious and don’t want to use extra fat but I realized that if I saute the rice in a mixture of butter and olive oil, I can get great flavor as well.
So that is what I did with this rice dish. I had farm fresh corn and bok choy and decided to combine the two in the dish- the more the merrier. Actually the two went really well together. The sweet corn was great with the earthy taste of the bok choy. I sauteed everything together and cooked the rice in chicken broth.
I love making fried rice as a side dish. You can put anything you want in there, really- no rules.. It’s easy to make and all sorts of vegetables can be added to make it healthy.
I was happy to serve a really healthy protein with this fried rice full of vegetables- it was a great combination. My daughter didn’t eat the fish but loved the rice. There was no mention of the strange green vegetable floating around- that is another reason to make fried rice- kids will eat it with whatever you add to it.
Overall it was a successful dinner- no complaints.
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt
In a medium saucepan, heat the butter, olive oil and add the rice. Saute for a minute on medium heat or till the grains begin to look opaque. Add the chicken broth and salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium once bubbles begin to show on the surface. Cover the saucepan once the broth has evaporated and cook on low for 15 minutes or till rice is cooked. Take out and let cool.
- 1 large head of bok choy, cleaned and the white and green parts separated and chopped.
- 2 ears of corn, husked and kernels taken out
- 3 inch piece of ginger, minced
- 1 teaspoon white miso
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 teaspoons tamari
Mix the white miso, honey and tamari together and keep aside.
- 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil
In a wide wok-like pan, heat the olive oil and add the ginger. Saute for a minute and add the chopped white parts of the bok choy. Saute on medium high heat for 3-4 minutes. Next, add the green part and the fresh corn kernels. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked rice and the miso mixture. Saute the rice on high heat for 5-6 minutes. Check for seasonings.
Miso Marinated Salmon
I love miso flavored anything. I first had the alaskan butterfish marinated in white miso at Ming Tsai’s restaurant, Blue Ginger in Boston. It was so fabulous that I replicated it at home with great success. Alaskan butterfish or black cod is quite expensive and is definitely not for a regular weeknight meal. I wanted to use similar flavors and try it with another fish. Salmon came to mind since it is one of the healthiest fish to have and it is not as expensive.
I bought fresh Alaskan salmon at Whole Foods. I am a little leery about using the farm raised variety, especially since they add color to make the salmon pink- I really don’t like that idea at all. I would rather have salmon less often and pay more for the wild variety.
I bought a big piece and and marinated it with white miso, tamari and a little mirin. The flavors are wonderful together and compliment the fish really well. I also made a fried rice with the fish – I had fresh corn and bok choy in the fridge and decided to combine the two in the rice (recipe to follow on Monday).
It was great healthy meal. My daughter does not like salmon- at all. So, I had her try a bite (she hated it) and then gave her the fried rice and made a chicken sausage for her on the side. She is usually such a good eater that I didn’t have a problem with her not enjoying the fish. It is probably the only fish she doesn’t like. All in all it was a successful meal.
- 4 salmon fillets (6 oz each, about an inch thick)
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 2 tablespoons tamari
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon butter
Mix the miso, tamari, sugar, honey and mirin together and marinate the salmon for 2-3 hours.
Arrange fish in a shallow dish lined with aluminum foil. Spoon the left over marinade evenly over the fish. Distribute the butter evenly over all the fillets.
Broil 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
Serve with fried rice.
