Chicken Paillards with Hazelnut Cream Sauce

This is another dinner for one.  And again, it is a dinner chosen by the boundaries of the pantry.  I think that cooking without a recipe is an invaluable skill.

Chicken Paillards with Hazelnut Cream Sauce

1 chicken breast

1 T butter or olive oil

2 T chopped shallots

2 T chopped and toasted hazelnuts

2 T dry vermouth

2 T mushroom broth (from rehydrating dried mushrooms)

2 T heavy cream

Slice the chicken breast on the diagonal to make 4 equal pieces.  Place each piece between two pieces of waxed paper and pound to make a thin scallopinis or paillards.

Saute the chicken pieces in butter until cooked.  Place on a plate and tent with tin foil to keep warm.  When the chicken pieces have been cooked, in the same pan saute the shallots.  Deglaze the pan with the dry vermouth and mushroom broth.  Reduce until only half remains.  Add cream and hazelnuts and again reduce until the desired thickness of the sauce has been reached.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour the sauce over the paillards.  Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed green vegetables.

Saturday Blog Showcase - Pizza Dough from Sidewalk Shoes

I have joined Saturday Blog Showcase.  One week it will be hosted on Thibeault's Table  and the next week Lori on All That Splatters will be the host.  We will be cooking a recipe from someone else's blog and showing you how we did it.  All That Splatters is hosting this week.

I thought my kitchen was limited before, but you should see it now!  I thought I would make muffins today - no muffin tins.  Wanted to make a simple apple crisp - no baking pan.  What was I thinking when I told my house sit host it was okay to take all those things out when she packed up?

I did make a little apple crisp in my All Clad saute pan.

Then I revisited Pam at Sidewalk Shoes and saw her wonderful pizza dough recipe, so that is my plan because I do have a baking sheet.

But even with the pizza dough, necessity is the mother of invention.  I only had a little bit of all purpose flour left.  Then I remembered the bag of King Arthur whole wheat flour that I bought to take back to Canada with me.  So I made this recipe with half all purpose and half whole wheat.  It was perfect.

My toppings came from the pantry, again.  Don't you love soups, salads and pizzas?  You just use what is at hand.  I had a bit of left over ricotta in the freezer, some dried wild mushrooms, some olives, some pimento,  roasted garlic, thin slices of fresh lemon, some feta and thyme  and oregano in the garden.  Don't you love it!  It is almost Christmas and I can go to the garden for herbs.  That is all there is in the garden but this wouldn't happen at home.

I wonder what else I can make with this batch of pizza dough?  Any ideas?  I made these breadsticks - dipped in garlic butter and rolled in sesame seeds and sea salt.

This is the recipe from Pam at Sidewalk Shoes.

The concept is simple. You mix your dough in a big bucket or container. Stir it up with a big wooden spoon. Then let it sit on your counter top for about 2 hours as it rises. Once it has risen and then deflated slightly, you store it in the fridge, loosely covered. When you are ready to bake, bring it out, cut off a lump, roll or shape, rise (if needed) and bake. That's it. It's genius, really.

Olive Oil Dough
From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
(makes about 4 pizzas)

2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the water, yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil in a 5-quart, lidded container (or bowl).

Mix the flour in, without kneading. Use a wooden spoon, a stand mixer, or a food processor.

Cover, not airtight, and let sit at room temperature for about 2 hours, until the dough rises and then flattens on top.

Store in the fridge, keep it covered, but not air tight, and use within 12 days.

On the day you are going to make pizza, bring the dough out of the fridge. Dust the surface of the dough with some flour and pull off a one pound chunk (using a serrated knife or kitchen shears), this is about grapefruit size. Put the rest of the dough back in the fridge to be used another day. Using floured hands quickly shape into a ball and then roll out, just like you roll any other pizza dough. Using flour when needed to keep it from sticking. There is no need for it to rest, you can proceed directly with your pizza recipe!

Rice Kheer - Indian Rice Pudding

From the first time I visited my sister in India, I have loved rice kheer.  This is a rice pudding that is served throughout the country with regional variations.  I enjoyed it so much that I have never made my Canadian style rice pudding since.

Kheer can be made with variations including saffron, coconut, cashew nuts, pistachios and dates to name a few.  It can also be made with vermicelli rather than rice.  This is my version of kheer.

Note:  I forgot to say that the cardamom pods should be cracked so the seeds inside spill out and flavour the milk.  This is really important.  Just crush them like you would a clove of garlic or use the mortar and pestle.

Rice Kheer                                                                        

3 - 4 cups of whole milk

1/4 cup rice (basmati rice is best)

1 t butter or ghee
1/4 cup sugar, jaggery or brown sugar is best
1 tablespoon raisins, chopped

1 T shredded, sweetened coconut, chopped and dry toasted

pinch of saffron
1 tablespoon of dry roasted pistachios nut pieces. (Roasted cashews or almonds are also fine)
3 green cardamom pods

1. In a wide open heavy bottom pan, add butter and fry rice for about a min until it becomes golden brown.
2. Add the milk and cardamom pods and allow to boil. Stir often until it boils as it might burn the bottom.
3. After it starts boiling, allow it to boil for 30 min in the low-medium flame. Keep stirring occasionally and make sure bottom is not burnt as it spoils the taste of the kheer.  Add raisins after 15 minutes.
   
4. Add a tsp of sugar, saffron & grind them in mortar and make it to a fine powder.
5. Add sugar and let boil for 3 minutes.
6. Add powdered saffron and mix well. It gives a nice peach color to the Rice Kheer.
7. Add the nuts and coconut to the kheer.
8. Garnish with chopped nuts, threads of saffron, rose petals or edible silver.  May be served hot or cold but I prefer it served cold.

Spicy Chicken and Beef Satays

The January 2010 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I made beef and chicken satay grilled on hardwood charcoal.  I bought Trader Joe's peanut sauce, but these satays are so flavourful that you don't even need the sauce!  I took a couple of 'authentic' recipes and just eliminated the hard to find ingredients.  It makes no difference to the enjoyment of these satays.

I actually made these last month, before the challenge, but with Christmas and all I decided to submit it as my entry for this challenge.  I had made exactly what was required with this challenge!


Beef Satay

3 t whole coriander seeds
2 shallots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 t ground turmeric
1 T fresh ginger,coarsely chopped
1 T brown sugar
1 T peanut oil
1/2 t salt

 Place the coriander seeds in a small food processor. Pulse until the coriander is well ground and dusty, about 2 minutes. (Don't remove the coriander from the food processor at this point — you're going to grind it again along with the other flavoring-paste ingredients.)
 
Add shallots, garlic, turmeric, ginger, brown sugar, oil, and salt to the food processor. Pulse until you have a smooth paste.  Add up to 2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon at a time, periodically turning the processor off and, with a spoon, scraping the unground portions down toward the blade as you go, if necessary.  Transfer the blended marinade into a nonreactive bowl large enough to hold the beef.
 
Slice the beef into long, 1/4-inch-thick strips against (not with) the grain of the meat, as you would if carving a cooked piece of London broil. The pieces should be no wider than 1 inch.

Add the sliced beef to the bowl and combine it well with the marinade, making sure that every piece is coated. Allow the beef to marinate at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours.
 
Thread the beef strips onto the presoaked bamboo skewers, weaving the point of each skewer through the center of the beef every 1/4 inch to make sure it holds tight and remains secure while it cooks. Use 1 to 4 pieces of beef per skewer, depending on how long the pieces are, making sure that the beef extends from the tip to the middle of the skewer. Leave plenty of room so you can grab the skewer at the bottom — the meat should not extend from one end to the other.
 
To cook the beef on a grill, first prepare a medium-hot wood charcoal fire. When the fire is hot (this may take up to 20 minutes), place each skewer on the grill, making sure that the beef, not the skewer, is directly over the heat. Grill the beef until it is cooked through and has begun to pick up a few crispy brown-black spots, about 2 to 5 minutes (depending on how hot the fire is). Turn the skewers over carefully and continue grilling until the other side is browned, another 2 to 5 minutes. Do not overcook the meat — it will dry out if you do. Test a piece by touching it with your finger. The beef should be firm, not squishy. Another way to test it is by cutting into the thickest point: It should be very faintly pink, neither blood-red nor gray.
 
To broil the beef in the oven, preheat the broiler for at least 5 minutes and position the rack so that the satay skewers will be 3 inches from the heat source. Line a half-sheet pan with aluminum foil. Place each skewer on the pan, arranging them so that the meat is in the center of the pan and the skewers slightly hang over the outside, and slide the pan into the broiler. Broil until the meat begins to turn golden brown and develops a few char spots, about 5 to 6 minutes. Turn each piece over to brown the other side, an additional 5 to 6 minutes of broiling. Test a piece by touching it with your finger. The beef should be firm, not squishy. Another way to test it is by cutting into the thickest point: It should be very faintly pink, neither blood-red nor gray. If the surface doesn't char (your broiler or the distance from the flame may not allow it to), don't worry — as long as the meat is cooked through, the satay will taste wonderful. Do not overcook the meat; it will be unpleasantly dry.
 
Transfer to a serving dish and let the skewers rest for about 1 minute, until they are cool enough to handle. Serve immediately.

 

 





Chicken Satay
For 2 pounds of chicken breast 
1 stalks lemongrass
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 red chili
1 onions
thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
juice of 1 lime

Slice the chicken breast thinly in long narrow strips and set aside in the fridge while you prepare the marinade.
Slice the white part of the lemongrass finely and place in mortal and pestle or blender.  I bought the dried lemongrass in a jar and it worked just fine.  I used about 1 tablespoon.

Add coriander seeds, chopped chili, peeled and diced onion and ginger.  Pulse in a food processor until well combined and smooth.
Add salt, brown sugar, water, vegetable oil, and lime juice and mix well.
Add the marinade to the chicken pieces and stir until well coated.  Set aside for a few hours, or overnight.

To serve, thread one or two pieces of marinated chicken onto each skewer and barbecue or grill until golden brown on each side. 

Homemade peanut sauce      from Crisis Brownies

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves of garlic.
• 1/2 c. peanut butter
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 2 T honey or agave nectar
• 2 T rice vinegar
• 2 T. chili oil
• 1 chopped hot chili

Directions:

1. Put the garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and puree until smooth.
3. Add water to thin the consistency if you find it necessary.
4. Refrigerate any unused sauce in a tightly-lidded container.
5. You may use more or less chili pepper to suit your taste for spiciness.

Pork Tenderloin with Madeira Sauce for One

My friend at lostpastremembered is going to make me a madeira convert.   I think I will, in all inevitability, have a nice bottle of madeira in my house at all times.

I bought a pork tenderloin to make prosciutto as I learned from La Table de Nana.  But I am only cooking for me!  So I decided to cut off a few medallions for dinner tonight.  This is just a simple dinner.  You could pound the slices of tenderloin into paillards, thin medallions.  But I like the medium rare of the thicker piece.

I soaked some dried mushrooms for half an hour.  Saved the liquor for another use.  Finely chopped the mushrooms.  Sauteed them with a couple of tablespoons of sweet onion.  I would have preferred shallots but this is what I had on hand.  After sauteeing the mushrooms with the onions for a couple of minutes, I added a smashed clove of garlic.  Sauteed for another minute or so and then added a splash of madeira.  I reduced this until almost dry and then added a cup of chicken broth and a sprinkle of dried rosemary.

I reduced this to a moderately thick sauce.  Meanwhile, I flash fried the medallions of pork in duck fat.

I served the medallions with stir fried green peppers and grape tomatoes.

So easy and an easy dinner for one.

Fennel and Potato Soup

Fennel and Potato Soup        Makes 2 large servings

1 teaspoon olive oil 

1 small fennel bulb, chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion 

1 large russet potato, peeled and sliced 

2 cups sodium reduced chicken broth 

1/2 cup fat-free milk 

1 teaspoon lemon juice 

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the fennel and onion. Saute until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the potatoes, chicken broth, milk and lemon juice. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
In a blender or food processor, puree the soup in batches until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and heat until warmed through. Ladle into individual bowls and garnish with toasted fennel seeds. Serve immediately.