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Tag Archives: New York Times Cooking

A Monday Monkfish Recipe – Monkfish Fillets Dijon Style

27 Mar

It’s nice to be able to get back to posting a blog! I am feeling better, and though I am still swamped with work, and we have lots going on around the house, I wanted to make sure I had time to post a recipe today, even if it is just a short one. Since it is the Lent time of year, more people are eating fish right now, which means you might be looking for some new recipes or different ways to make the fish you eat this week. We are lucky since we have a great fish market in the area now where I can get very fresh, great-tasting fish anytime. Such is the case when I went over there recently and picked up some monkfish to make for dinner. Monkfish has great flavor and a good texture, making it meatier than many other whitefish that you find sold. Many people refer to it as “Poor Man’s Lobster” since it has a similar texture and taste lobster without having to go through all of the hassles of getting through a shell for not a lot of meat. Though, by today’s standards, monkfish in many cases costs just as much per pound or more than what you pay for a lobster. In any case, it is a great fish to make and this simple recipe from Pierre Franey at New York Times Cooking gives a fast preparation that has great flavor.

Monkfish Fillets Dijon Style

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 skinless, boneless monkfish fillets, about 1 1/2 pounds

Salt to taste if desired

Freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard

¼ cup finely chopped onions

1 teaspoon finely minced garlic

⅓ cup dry white wine

½ pound small mushrooms

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Select a baking dish large enough to hold the monkfish fillets in one layer without crowding them. Pour the olive oil over the bottom of the baking dish. Turn the fillets in the oil to coat them well all over. Sprinkle each fillet with salt and pepper on both sides. Brush the fillets with the Dijon mustard. Scatter the onions and the garlic around the fillets.

Place the baking dish on top of the stove and heat the dish until the oil begins to sizzle. Add the white wine and scatter the mushrooms around the fillets. Bring the wine just to a simmer.

Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Baste the fillets and return the dish to the oven and continue cooking the fish for about 5 minutes. Remove the fish from the baking dish and place it on a platter. Swirl the butter in the sauce in the baking dish and then place the sauce over the fish fillets on the plate. Sprinkle the fish with parsley and serve.

This recipe is definitely one you can make quickly, and with ingredients you are likely to have on hand most of the time (except the fish, of course). The flavors all come together nicely, and the Dijon mustard does not overpower the fish at all. The onions, garlic, and mushrooms add a nice touch to the meal, and even just the hint of white wine in the sauce is very nice. You could even substitute another fish in here if you like, though I personally like the monkfish for this recipe. I served this with some wild rice and broccoli, and it was a nice, light, and complete meal.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day, enjoy your meal!

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Posted by on March 27, 2017 in Cooking, Dinner, Seafood, Uncategorized

 

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St. Patrick’s Day Recipes – NYT Cooking

13 Mar

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and if you are looking for some great ideas of what to make this year or want something different beyond the usual corned beef and cabbage, New York Times Cooking has put together an excellent collection of recipes that cover everything you might need. From soda bread to side dishes to desserts and drinks, you will find it all. Check it out.

On a side note, I haven’t been around lately because I have been fighting a terrible cold for 2 weeks now. The cold has pretty much sapped all my strength and leaves me coughing quite a bit. When this has been combined with a heavy workload I have had recently, I have little time for blogging. I am hoping to kick the cold this week as it seems to be waning, and then I can get back to posting recipes. Please bear with me a little bit while I get my strength back. Thanks!

 

Source: St. Patrick’s Day Recipes – NYT Cooking

 
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Posted by on March 13, 2017 in Appetizers, Beef, Beverages, Breads, Breakfast, Cakes, Cooking, Cooking Websites, Dessert, Dinner, Holidays, Leftovers, One Pot Meals, Potatoes, Side Dishes, Soups & Stews, Vegetables

 

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A Romantic Weeknight Dinner That’s a Breeze – Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce

14 Feb

It’s Valentine’s Day, and it’s a weeknight – not exactly a great recipe for putting together a nice, romantic meal with your special someone. The odds are pretty good that you both will be tired and maybe you will not feel like putting together a big meal. If you are like us, Sean has afterschool activities today until later in the evening, Michelle is working late at the office, and there probably won’t be time to do much of anything for dinner, so we’ll put it off until another night. However, it is not too late if you still want to throw something together for dinner, and nothing gets much easier than a nice pasta dinner. You can make a great dinner using this recipe for Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese sauce that I got from New York Times Cooking. It’s worth the little bit of effort you put into it to make a nice meal.

Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta

½ cup chopped onion

⅔ cup chopped celery

⅔ cup chopped carrot

¾ pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef)

Salt

Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

1 cup milk

Whole nutmeg

1 cup dry white wine

1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice

1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds pasta

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese at the table

Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring the vegetables to coat them well.

Add the ground beef, a generous pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir it well and cook the beef until it has lost its raw, red color.

Add the milk and let it simmer gently, frequently stirring, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a little grating — about 1/8 teaspoon — of nutmeg, and stir.

Add the white wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir them thoroughly to coat all the ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at a very light simmer, with just an occasional bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook the sauce, uncovered, for about 3 hours, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add about 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. In the end, however, no water at all must be left, and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste the sauce and correct it for salt.

Toss the sauce with cooked, drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve the meal with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.

I am not a pasta person myself, but Michelle loved this dish when I made it. She said the sauce was perfect and full of flavor. You do want to make sure that you taste the sauce along the way so you can make any adjustments regarding seasoning, water, etc. so it turns out perfectly. The longer you cook this sauce, the greater depth of flavor it will have so you might want to make this when you have time to set in on the stove for hours and let it go, with just the occasional check to see how it is cooking. Bolognese by definition is a pretty straightforward and mild sauce without a lot of spices in it, so the simplicity here lets it shine into a delicious meat sauce. That hint of nutmeg does make a difference so don’t be afraid to put in there. You can certainly let the sauce cook for only an hour or two, but it might not have the deep flavor to it that it will if you go for 3, 4 or even 5 hours. Just keep a watch on it to see if it needs water now and then. This meal is perfect with your favorite fresh pasta, a nice side salad and some homemade or store-bought dressing, some homemade bread (or your favorite store-bought) and a bottle of wine.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day, have a lovely Valentine’s Day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by on February 14, 2017 in Beef, Cooking, Dinner, Holidays, One Pot Meals, Pasta, Sauce

 

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Talking Turkey (Meatballs) – Scallion Meatballs with Soy-Ginger Glaze and Carrot Rice

06 Feb

Meatballs are always a family favorite and provide a lot of versatility when I make then. Typically, they start off with a meal that includes some type of pasta, but the meatballs are also fantastic for meatball subs or meatball parmigiana sandwiches. They also make a great addition to a pizza for pizza night. All of that is perfect when you make meatballs in tomato sauce, but once in a while, I like something that is a little bit of a change. I love Swedish meatballs or meatballs in a gravy and have found that making meatballs using turkey meat gives me the chance to play with all kinds of different flavors and create new meals. I had picked up some ground turkey recently at the store and wanted to make something different for dinner, so I combined these two recipes, one from Martha Stewart for a carrot rice and the other from Julia Moskin for scallion meatballs with a soy glaze.

Scallion Meatballs with Soy-Ginger Glaze and Carrot Rice

For the Sauce:

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup mirin sweet rice wine, or 1/2 cup sake with 1/4 cup sugar

¼ cup chopped peeled ginger

1 teaspoon ground coriander

4 whole black peppercorns

For the Meatballs:

1 pound ground turkey

4 large or 6 small scallions, finely chopped

1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped about 1 cup

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

Vegetable oil

For the Rice:

Salt

1 cup long-grain white rice

1 carrot, shredded

To make the sauce, bring the sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a boil in a saucepan set over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar melts completely. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the soy sauce, mirin, ginger, coriander, and peppercorns. Simmer, occasionally stirring, until the sauce is reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Strain the sauce through a sieve. The sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated.

To make the meatballs, mix the ground turkey, scallions, cilantro, egg, sesame oil, soy sauce and several grindings of pepper in a medium bowl. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls.

In a skillet set over medium-high heat, generously cover the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil. Working in batches to avoid crowding, place the meatballs in the pan and cook them, occasionally turning, until the meatballs are browned all over and cooked inside, about 8 minutes per batch. Arrange on a heated platter, spoon a little sauce over each meatball, and serve with toothpicks. If desired, keep warm in a 200-degree oven until ready to serve. Garnish with sliced scallions, if desired.

To make the rice, in a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups of salted water to a boil. Add the rice and stir, and return the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the rice and cook it until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the rice from the heat and top it with the shredded carrot. Let the rice stand, covered, for about 5 minutes, then stir in the carrot and fluff the rice with a fork. Arrange the rice on a heated platter and top with the meatballs and sauce. Garnish the dish with sliced scallions, if desired.

Ground turkey by itself does not have a lot of flavor to it, but when you add the ingredients to the dish with the meatballs and the sauce, you will find that they pack quite a bit of flavor. The scallions and soy shine through nicely, and the meatballs are tender and tasty. The carrot rice is very simple, and the carrots add a nice touch and texture to the rice for something a little different. You can easily just make the meatballs and use them as an appetizer for any dinner, party or buffet you are having as well. I felt the dish was a nice change of pace from the usual meatballs and gives me something different to fall back on when I want to liven the meatball routine up a bit.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by on February 6, 2017 in Appetizers, Cooking, Dinner, Poultry, Rice, Turkey, Uncategorized, Vegetables

 

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More Than 23 Delicious Dinners in 5 Ingredients Or Less – Recipes from NYT Cooking

08 Dec

Like most people, finding time to cook regular meals during the holidays can be even more difficult then the typical weeks that go by. On top of everything going around to get prepared for the Christmas goes work, school, afterschool activities and more. For us, things have been really hectic around here as we are getting our kitchen renovated right before the holidays! I won’t be doing much cooking since the kitchen is going to be gutted and made over from top to bottom (something long overdue), but once it is done we will have a brand new space to work in and try new recipes. In the meantime, here are 23 great recipes from New York Times Cooking that use a minimal amount of ingredients and can be cooked quickly, both ideal for this time of year. Check it out!

Source: More Than 23 Delicious Dinners in 5 Ingredients Or Less – Recipes from NYT Cooking

 
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Posted by on December 8, 2016 in Beef, Breakfast, Cooking, Cooking Websites, Dinner, Eggs, One Pot Meals, Pasta, Pork, Poultry, Produce, Seafood, Side Dishes

 

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Our 20 Most Popular Thanksgiving Side Dishes – Recipes from NYT Cooking

05 Nov

It’s that time of year again – when people begin to think about Thanksgiving and what the meal will contain. It’s never too early to start planning out your menu and the more organized you can be the smoother the days leading up to and Turkey Day will be for you. A good place to start is to consider some of the side dishes that you will want to make for the day. New York Times Cooking has put together 20 of their most popular Thanksgiving side dishes so you can see some classic recipes or give something new a try this year. Check it out!

Source: Our 20 Most Popular Thanksgiving Side Dishes – Recipes from NYT Cooking

 
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Posted by on November 5, 2016 in Cooking, Cooking Websites, Dinner, Holidays, Potatoes, Produce, Rice, Side Dishes, Vegetables

 

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Another New Take on a Classic – Chicken Fajitas

02 Nov

Everyone has recipes that they generally try to fall back on time and again. I know for me, I very often make things like meatloaf, hamburgers or roasted chicken and just try to vary things up in different ways each time I do it so we do not get bored with the same old recipe. Such is the case with chicken fajitas. I have been making different types of fajitas for years because it has always been a family favorite. We vary the protein used-sometimes beef, sometimes shrimp, sometimes chicken-but the rest of the recipe always seems to stay pretty much the same. I was looking for something a little bit different this time to spice things up and get a little more flavor out of the dish when I came across this recipe at New York Times Cooking from Martha Shulman. This recipe adds a little bit more spice than some of the other usual recipes I have seen and it sounded like it was a good one to try.

Chicken Fajitas

Finely grated zest of 1 lime (about 2 teaspoons)

¼ cup fresh lime juice

Salt and black pepper

2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground

2 tablespoons adobo sauce from canned chipotles in adobo

1 chipotle chile in adobo, seeded and minced (optional)

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 large garlic cloves, minced or put through a press

1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 large red or yellow onion, halved and sliced

2 red bell peppers (or 1 red and 1 orange or yellow), seeded and sliced about 1/4 inch thick

1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced about 1/4 inch thick

1 jalapeño or 2 Serrano chiles, minced

¼ cup chopped cilantro

4 large flour or 8 corn tortillas

1 tablespoon grapeseed or canola oil (or use olive oil)

1 romaine heart, sliced crosswise

Salsa, for serving

Queso fresco or other cheese, for sprinkling

Guacamole, for serving

Sour Cream, for serving

In a small bowl, combine the lime zest and lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, the adobo sauce and optional minced chipotle, 1/4 cup of olive oil and half the garlic. Mix the ingredients well. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the marinade.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place it in a resealable bag. Pour in the marinade and seal the bag. Move the chicken around to coat it well with the marinade, place the bag in a bowl and refrigerate it for 30 minutes (or up to 12 hours). Flip the bag over from time to time to redistribute the marinade.

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook, stirring, until they soften and begin to color, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the bell peppers and chile and cook, stirring, until the peppers begin to soften, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Turn the heat to medium, add the remaining garlic and cumin and salt to taste, and cook, stirring often, until the peppers are nicely seared, softened and beginning to caramelize, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Pour in the reserved 2 tablespoons of the marinade and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to deglaze the pan. Add half the cilantro, and stir the ingredients together. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Remove the mixture from the heat but keep it warm.

Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm them in a low temperature oven, or wrap them in a towel and warm them in a steamer or in the microwave.

Heat the grapeseed or canola oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy skillet. Remove the chicken breasts from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels. Add the chicken to the pan, rounded side down, and sear the breasts for about 3 to 4 minutes, until they are lightly charred. Flip the breasts over, pour in the marinade, cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the chicken for about 12 to 15 minutes, flipping the breasts over from time to time, until a thermometer registers 160 to 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part. Transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board and cover them with foil. Let the chicken sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then cut the breasts across the grain into 1/2 – to 3/4-inch thick strips.

Arrange the romaine lettuce on a platter, then place the chicken next to lettuce. Tip the juices from cutting board over the chicken and sprinkle the chicken with cilantro. Serve the vegetables on the same platter or separately. Serve with warm tortillas, salsa and crumbled queso fresco or other cheese, guacamole and sour cream.

I made one slight change to the recipe as I went along and added the sliced chicken back into the pan with the vegetables so that everything could mix together and the flavors could meld, but other than that, I followed it as is. These fajitas are a bit spicier than what you might usually have because of the adobo sauce, which is usually spicy on its own even if you just use a little bit. I did add any chopped chipotle to the dish because I thought the heat might be too much for everyone, but if you like spicy then you should go for it. This recipe had the best flavor of any fajitas recipe I have tried before and I think the sauce makes a real difference in giving flavor in the marinade to the chicken and the vegetables. I think the marinade would work just as well with beef if you wanted to try it and you can certainly substitute chicken thighs for breasts if you prefer. The recipe makes plenty and we even had some leftover that I was able to have for lunch the next day. Serve the fajitas with any of your favorite fixings – lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, different cheeses – and you could even double the recipe if you are serving a big crowd. This one certainly went over well at our house so I’ll be using it again.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, Enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by on November 2, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner, Poultry

 

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The First Soup of the Season – Baked Butternut Squash and Celery Root Soup

20 Oct

Okay, so the weather hasn’t been exactly fall weather here the last 2 days, with temperatures getting up into the 80s during the day on both days, but it still seems to be that soup time of year. Things cooled down quite a bit last night and should be back more towards normal here, which means brisk autumn air that makes for good soup weather. With so many great fall vegetables around right now, particularly a bunch of different root vegetables, the opportunities are there to make all kinds of good soups. One that has always been a family favorite of ours has been butternut squash soup and since squash is so plentiful right now  I knew I just had to make some soup the other night. I had picked up a couple of butternut squash at the farmer’s market last week, along with some carrots, celery root and leeks and I knew this was all going to come together nicely for a soup dinner. I decided to use this recipe from Molly O’Neill at New York Times Cooking for a baked butternut squash soup and adapted it to include some other great root vegetables to make it my own.

Baked Butternut Squash and Celery Root Soup

2 butternut squash, about 1 pound each, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 medium leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed well and finely chopped

1 celery root, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons honey

⅛ teaspoon each of mace, ground ginger, cinnamon and allspice

 

3 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, stems removed, finely chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place the squash, carrots leeks and celery root in a shallow roasting pan or casserole dish. Sprinkle the olive oil over the vegetables, add salt and pepper to taste and toss the vegetables in the oil to coat them well. Drizzle the vegetables with the honey and add the mace, ground ginger, cinnamon and allspice and toss the vegetables again so they are well mixed. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and roast the vegetables in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove the foil from the pan and continue roasting the vegetables until they are lightly browned and fork tender, about another 20 to 25 minutes.

While the vegetables are roasting, heat the chicken broth in a large pot or Dutch oven until it is simmering. Remove the pan from the oven and place the vegetables in the pot with the broth and mix them well. All the broth and vegetables to continue simmering for about 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the stove and using an immersion blender, blend the vegetables and broth together until the vegetables are smooth (You can also do this in a blender in batches if you prefer). Return the pot to the stove and bring the soup slowly to a boil over medium-low heat and then stir in the heavy cream. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with parsley, if desired.

You get some great combinations of flavors here with the squash, celery root, carrots and leeks. The honey just bumps up the sweetness a tiny bit here and the spices, even though they are in small amounts, add just the right touch. I like roasting the vegetables before putting them in the soup because they get nice and tender and seem to have better flavor this way than if you sautéed them in a pan or the same pot as the soup. You can leave out the heavy cream if you prefer but I added it because it helps create some great texture to the soup. The soup would benefit even more if you added a peeled and sliced apple to the vegetables when roasting, but I didn’t have any on hand so I left it out. You could also easily make this a vegetarian meal by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth or just using water.This makes a nice batch of soup so you can have leftovers for other meals or lunches and we had the soup with sandwiches for dinner, but you could easily have it by itself, with some croutons, a salad or just with some homemade bread or biscuits. It was a great way to kick off what hopefully is the first of some awesome soups and stews this year.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by on October 20, 2016 in Leftovers, Lunch, One Pot Meals, Vegetables, Vegetarian

 

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Have Your Beer and Eat it Too – Beer-Brined Chicken

27 Sep

While I am not a huge beer drinker by any means, I do enjoy having a good beer now and then. While I am particularly partial to having a Guinness, I try to keep an open mind and do drink several other different craft beers. I appreciate that not everyone enjoys having beer is there beverage of choice, but making use of beer in cooking can be quite tasty. Not only is it great to use in batters for things like fish or shrimp, I have also found a few different recipes that make use of beer in both the brine that is used for additional flavoring and in the braising or roasting. That is just what this particular recipe has to offer that I found at New York Times Cooking for beer-brined roast chicken. The original recipe comes from Red Rooster Harlem, a well-known restaurant here in New York. The recipe itself is pretty simple, though you do need to plan a little bit ahead so that you can brine the chicken and have it ready to go for roasting.

Beer-Brined Roast Chicken

 

For the Brine:

1 cup kosher salt

⅔ cup packed light brown sugar

4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

1 leek (white and light green part), quartered

5 sprigs thyme

7 sprigs sage

2 shallots, halved and peeled

3 (12-ounce) bottles lager-style beer

For the Chicken and Vegetables:

1 whole chicken (4 to 4 1/2 pounds)

1 ½ pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise

1 ½ pounds fingerling potatoes (or other small potato), cut in half lengthwise

2 cups whole peeled pearl onions

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 sprigs sage

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 (12-ounce) bottle lager-style beer

To prepare the brine, in a large pot combine 8 cups of water, the salt and the sugar and bring the mixture to a simmer over high heat, stirring to help dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the garlic, leek, thyme, sage and shallots; let the brine cool to room temperature.

Place the chicken in a deep container large enough to hold it and the brine. Pour the cooled brine over the chicken. Pour in the 3 bottles of beer until the chicken is submerged; cover the chicken and refrigerate it overnight.

To prepare the chicken and vegetables, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the Brussels sprouts, potatoes, onions, chopped sage and lemon zest in a large bowl. Drizzle the vegetables with vegetable oil and season them with salt and pepper; toss the vegetables to evenly coat them.

Remove the chicken from the brine and pat the skin dry with paper towels. Place about half of the vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan or large sauté pan and set the chicken on top of the vegetables. Rub the butter evenly over the top of the chicken to coat it well. Pour the bottle of beer into the pan and arrange the sage sprigs in the pan around the chicken.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour, basting every 20 minutes with the liquid in the pan.

Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Spread the remaining vegetables on a baking sheet and place them on a low rack or the bottom of the oven. Cook everything until the chicken skin is golden brown and crisp and the vegetables are just tender and slightly charred, 20 to 30 more minutes, stirring the vegetables and basting the chicken once halfway through.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving. Plate chicken with a mix of roasted veggies and the vegetables from the pan. Spoon the reduced cooking liquid from the pan over the top.

This is a pretty basic roast chicken recipe with vegetables that lets you do most of the work all in one pan. I love roasting this way because you get to use just one pan and you get a great melding of flavors as the chicken juices run onto the vegetables and everything tastes great. I actually poured out the juices from the vegetables once the chicken was done and thickened all of the juices up as a gravy in a separate pan. It was great flavor that came from the beer, the chicken and vegetables. I used a Samuel Adams beer, actually their Maple Ale that is part of their seasonal beers that are out right now and it added a very nice flavor to the sauce and the chicken, but you could certainly use any beer that you enjoy the most. The vegetables were all roasted very nicely and had great flavor also. You can use a mix of any root vegetables you really like here to make the dish your own, but I love roasted Brussels sprouts myself. Throw in some carrots with the potatoes and you have everything to go. I actually made some of our favorite biscuits to go with everything to make the meal complete.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by on September 27, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner, One Pot Meals, Poultry, Uncategorized

 

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A Picture- Less Posting of Recipes – Fried Shrimp and Sweet Potato Oven Fries

06 Sep

After taking a nice long break for the Labor Day weekend, I am ready to get back to posting some recipes. There are times where I try out and cooked different recipes and just get caught up in the moment or daily life and forget to take pictures of whatever it is that I have made that day. This leaves me with a bunch of recipes that I do not have pictures for but that I have actually tried. I do not really like to post recipes without posting a picture that goes along with them, even though most of the pictures that I take are hardly what I would call “professional grade” and probably do not make that much of a difference. However I do like to show pictures of that people reading do know that I have actually tried out the recipe being posted so they can see what it looks like when I do it. That being said I do have some recent recipes I have tried that I either failed to take pictures of or, since I recently had to reset my iPhone, have lost pictures along the way because they were still on my phone before I could transfer them over to the computer. Two such recipes are those that I have tried from New York Times Cooking from Mark Bittman and Jonathan Reynolds. They are recipes for oven baked sweet potato fries and for a very basic fried shrimp. Both are very simple to make and allowed me to have a very quick dinner one night when we were scrambling around trying to find something to do.

Oven Sweet Potato Fries

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the sweet potatoes into sticks  of about 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide and 3 inches long, and toss them with the olive oil.

Mix the garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and toss them with the sweet potatoes. Spread the sweet potatoes out on 2 rimmed baking sheets lines with parchment paper.

Bake the sweet potatoes until they are brown and crisp on the bottom, about 15 minutes, then flip the potatoes and cook them until the other side is crisp, about 10 minutes longer. Serve the potatoes hot.

This was a very easy recipe to follow and do and provides you with a perfect alternative to actually frying the potatoes. All they needed was that little bit of olive oil to really make them come out crisp and tasty. They were the perfect accompaniment to a fast fried shrimp recipe.

Basic Fried Shrimp

1/4 cup vegetable or peanut oil for frying

2 pounds small, large or jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails intact

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

1 cup cracker meal, breadcrumbs (fresh or store-bought) or 1 cup of crushed crackers

In a large cast iron skillet or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 365 degrees on an instant-read thermometer or candy thermometer inserted into the oil.

Place the shrimp in a medium bowl. Mix the milk and eggs in a glass measuring cup with a fork until they are well blended and pour the mixture over the shrimp. Toss the shrimp until they are well coated and drain the shrimp in a colander.

Roll the shrimp in the cracker meal or breadcrumbs and shake off  any excess.

Fry the shrimp in the oil until they are golden in color, turning the shrimp as necessary, about 1 to 2 minutes total. Remove the shrimp from the pan with a strainer or Chinese spider (also called a skimmer) and shake off the excess oil. Serve the shrimp with tartar sauce or cocktail sauce, if desired.

You could always spice up the shrimp a bit by adding some other spices like paprika, chili powder, Old Bay seasoning or any other spices that you might like. Mix the spices in with the breadcrumbs and they will pick up the flavor nicely. The shrimp take no time at all to cook and you may have to do them in batches if you make the full two pounds so you do not overcrowd the pan. They go very well with tartar sauce or cocktail sauce and would even be perfect to have in a po’boy sandwich or even over a salad or with a steak. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of them; they came out quite nicely, with a nice golden brown color and great flavor to them since I had purchased some Wild American shrimp and used them for the recipe.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner, Potatoes, Seafood

 

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