main courses

appetizers / main courses — 2 Comments
7
Oct 09

Thai Chicken Tenders

I started off calling this post “Skewerless Chicken Satay,” but it felt oddly deceptive. Because for me, Chicken Satay translates roughly as “Peanut Sauce on a Stick,” and there’s no peanut sauce (and no stick) in sight. Not to say that you can’t serve these chicken tenders with peanut sauce. Because that would be mighty delicious, but I didn’t do it here.

Instead, I looked for a way to make a classic Thai appetizer into a convenient weeknight dinner. I love the light flavor of chicken satay. It’s subtle but distinctly Thai. And that yellow color. And those delicious brown grill marks. They make me weak.

So it’s really no surprise that I loved this dinner, and even more because it was so simple to throw together. Without the tedious skewering of chicken satay, I spent less than 10 minutes on prep work. And in the time it took the chicken to marinade, I was able to make the rest of the meal.

Recipe after the jump…

main courses / soups — 7 Comments
5
Oct 09

West African Peanut Soup

If you’ve seen the latest episode of Glee, you’ll understand why I spent the entire day after it aired belting out renditions of Somebody to Love by Queen. By evening, even I was willing to admit that I needed something else interesting and complex to distract me from the broken record in my head. As usual, I turned to the kitchen for help, and that’s when I thought about West African peanut soup.


I’d heard about this soup a while ago, but never bothered to look up a recipe. Making a peanut soup sounded like something that would take hours and lots of concentration, and I thought it would be the perfect distraction. For better or worse, it actually turned out to be quite simple, and I ended up chopping and stirring to the beat of the
music. But let me tell you, that music made one hell of a tasty soup.


This soup is beautiful, its earthy orange tones flecked with red and green bell pepper. And even though making it didn’t distract me from my music, eating it certainly did. It has a remarkably complex flavor that’s a mix of familiar and exotic. The ingredient combination might sound a bit weird, and in fact, it is. But it works. It really really works. And if you make it and disagree, I’ll be happy to take any of your leftovers.

Recipe after the break…

main courses — No Comments
24
Sep 09

Balsamic Glazed Chicken

Have you ever wondered about the price markup at restaurants? On average, food costs the restaurant only 35% of what you pay. But try to make a restaurant dish at home, and you’ll find that you have to buy so many weird ingredients that it ends up costing more money, and taking way more effort to make it yourself. This dish is a serious exception.

Now, I’m sure that many professional chefs would turn their nose up in scorn at me for saying this, but I don’t believe that you need to be a hugely ambitious cook to enjoy an elegant dinner every once in a while. And I certainly don’t believe you have to break the bank for it.

Take this dinner. At under $1.50 per person for the main event, you can probably afford to splurge a bit on a side dish or two. I sauteed up a bunch of spinach with nothing but olive oil, garlic, and a pinch of salt, bringing the total to a whopping $2.50 per plate. It takes all of 20 minutes to put together, and dirties only one pot and one skillet. And the leftovers are absolutely delicious cold.


Recipe (and price breakdown) after the jump…

main courses / sides — 2 Comments
31
Aug 09

Quinoa Salad with Mango and Mint

I must be perfectly honest when talking about quinoa (which, to the best of my knowledge is pronounced “keen-wa”): I usually find it pretty boring. I first heard of the stuff about two years ago, and everyone who had eaten it waxed philosophic about its wonders. First of all, it’s a grass, not a grain, but please don’t ask me what the difference is, because I couldn’t tell you to save my life. The only significance this has for me is that it’s kosher for Passover, which seemed like a big plus for a time when rice, pasta, and bread are pretty much off the menu. It’s also high in protein, which makes it a healthy, complete meal with just a few tweaks.

However, even in my grain-deprived Passover state, I was really quite underwhelmed by quinoa. It was mediocre at best, somewhat bitter, and otherwise not particularly flavorful. Somewhat disappointed, I decided that I would probably never make it again.

I lived quinoa-free until a couple weeks ago, when a coworker brought in a salad made with quinoa and tomatoes for a group lunch. It looked light and fresh and summery, and I was tempted enough to try it. Having had such mediocre experience with quinoa, I was surprised to find that it was actually incredibly delicious; the juicy tomato contrasted beautifully with slightly toothy quinoa, and the runoff from the tomatoes created a light dressing for the entire salad. She threw in a few herbs for good measure, and called it a day.

This experience got me thinking about what else could be done with quinoa, and I decided to put together this salad, which is merely a variation on the one she made. I substituted mango for the tomato, and used mint to bring out a cool, refreshing feeling. For a dressing, I mixed vinegar and brown sugar to get a sweet-and-sour kick with a little complexity. Whether made savory with tomatoes or sweet with mango, this salad made me understand why people fell in love with quinoa.

Recipe after the jump…

main courses — 3 Comments
25
Aug 09

Lemon Chicken

Last Monday, my wallet was stolen. After being emptied of cash and credit cards, it was returned a couple days later, but my grocery shopping days were over until I could get my hands on some money. Experienced bloggers probably have an arsenal of unpublished posts ready to go in case of a crisis like this. But the whole blogging thing is pretty new for me, so I was caught off guard. Now that I have money again, it’s bye bye frozen leftovers, and hello freshly cooked homemade meals. You have no idea just how excited I am.

Just before my wallet was stolen, I was planning on making chicken picatta for dinner. But over the course of a pasta-filled week, my craving for yet another Italian dinner has temporarily evaporated. Lemon chicken channels the essence of chicken picatta, but strips the classic of its rich butter sauce in favor of a clean, bright tang that is absolutely mouthwatering. As the chicken cooks, some of the sugars in the lemon juice begin to caramelize, adding a complex and slightly sweet note to an otherwise simple dish.

Contributing to my willingness to make food that requires the use of a stove is my recent purchase of an air conditioner, which I swore mere days ago that I would not buy because I didn’t want to pay the electricity bills, only to come home to the hottest, most humid night of trying to sleep yet this summer. Thankfully, my resolve quickly dissolved, and suddenly using the stove has become a real possibility. This was the perfect simple yet exciting summer meal to get me out of the frozen food doldrums.

It feels good to be back.

Recipe after the jump…

appetizers / main courses — 5 Comments
10
Aug 09

Mini Buffalo Pizzas & Blue Cheese Dressing

I often find myself craving buffalo chicken for no apparent reason. In the heat, it’s the cool and creamy blue cheese dressing that appeals to me, and in the cold, the hot sauce beckons me unrelentingly. Today was one of those days when it was all about the blue cheese dressing. Standing in the grocery store with no idea what to make for dinner, I discovered myself next to the blue cheese when suddenly the craving struck. I wasn’t in the mood to fry up a batch of wings, but the thought of pizza with buffalo chicken, doused in blue cheese dressing had my mouth watering.

I’m sure that pizza dough is quite easy to make, but it’s certainly easier and faster to buy. Store-bought pizza dough is surprisingly good, and because I’d resolved to make my own blue cheese dressing from scratch, I wanted a plain, simple backdrop for the other flavors in my hand–nothing too bold or outrageous.

There are several tricks to make something ordinary into something slightly fancier, but the easiest by far is taking something usually served in a large batch and shrinking it down. This, in addition to the fact that I didn’t feel like making a whole big pizza, inspired me to miniaturize, and my experimentation worked out nicely. The whole thing took about 15 minutes to put together and 12 minutes to bake. That’s less time than it takes to get delivery, and it’s so, so much tastier.

Recipe after the jump…

main courses — 1 Comment
5
Aug 09

Shrimp Scampi & Linguine

I confess that I have never cooked shrimp before in my life. I grew up in a kosher home, and therefore couldn’t eat shellfish in the house. However, because I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted outside of the house, I was thankfully introduced to a vast array of foods that I would have otherwise never experienced, including shrimp.


Despite certain objections to its menu presence, shrimp scampi quickly became a restaurant favorite for me. Frequently, it was disappointing. Restaurants would add too much butter, too much garlic, overcook the shrimp, serve too few shrimp over a veritable mountain of pasta, or otherwise mess up the dish. Side Note: I’m not really sure I philosophically agree with the idea that there can ever be too much garlic, but it has happened on occasion. But then there would be the times when it was made beautifully. Succulent, juicy shrimp seasoned with garlic, in a creamy, silky, yet tangy sauce, atop tender pasta that soaked up all the flavors so perfectly.

It was these times that have kept me addicted to shrimp scampi, and the hope of recreating the experience at home that inspired me to make my first attempt at tackling the enigma that is shrimp. For direction, I turned to the Cook’s Illustrated cookbook, The New Best Recipe, which I recently received as a graduation present. This cookbook promised seriously well-tested, well-thought-out recipes that would work at home, and I wanted my first shrimp-scampi-making experience to be a hit. Their recipe looked delicious, but I wanted to serve it over pasta, so I doubled the amount of sauce, and halved the amount of shrimp (pasta always seems to suck up so much sauce). The result: perhaps not one of the world’s most original dishes, but one that far surpassed my expectations of the delicious classic.

Recipe after the jump…

appetizers / main courses — No Comments
29
Jul 09

Zucchini and Carrot Fritters

I learned my lesson this time: don’t make things that require standing over the stove on a hot, humid summer day. That said, the final product of my sweat and tears was both simple and delicious, and would be a great meal to make on a cooler day in the summer, when zucchini is pouring in like a flood. After all, there’s only so many times you can stick zucchini on the grill, mix it in with pasta, or add it to a salad. Sometimes, you just need a little crunch.


Carrots are almost the opposite. Ever-present, carrots are ubiquitous yet frequently ignored except as a trusty constant in salads and a crisp, healthy vehicle for dip. While people attempt to find different uses for zucchini (even baking it into cakes to add moisture), the carrot is mostly ignored.

Make the carrot fritters first, because they’ll retain their crunch better than the zucchini will. While they’re cooking, you can keep the finished fritters on a plate in an oven set to warm to keep everything hot.


Recipe after the jump…

main courses — 1 Comment
21
Jul 09

CPO & Chipotle Lime Sour Cream

CPO, or Chicken, Peppers, and Onions became a standby for me while at college because it has essentially 3 ingredients, is really easy, and super versatile. Nearly every cuisine around the world incorporates these 3 ingredients into its repertoire, so all you need to do to mix it up is change around the sauce.

Today’s version took on a latin flare with a chipotle-lime sour cream, which is adapted from a recipe by Andy Husbands, one of this year’s Hell’s Kitchen contestants. Served atop a warm tortilla, it was a blend of warm and cool, tangy and creamy, chewy and crunchy that had my mouth dancing and me excited for every new bite.

Recipe after the jump…