Chicken Cacciatore

Last night I wasn't in the mood for a lot of cooking. Putting something in the pot and letting it do it's thing was the answer. This might not be an original Cacciatore recipe but it is damn good. Give it a try.

1 3-4 lb chicken, back cut out
1 large yellow onion, chopped
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbsp. oil
1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/2 can tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup beef stock
1 tbsp. oregano
1/2 tbsp. thyme
1/2 tbsp. basil
Several grindings of pepper
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar

Put the onions and mushrooms in a pot, big enough to hold the chicken, with two tbsp. of oil. Saute over medium heat until onions are soft, then add the garlic. Cook two minutes more then add the wine. Add the herbs and and vinegar. Let reduce a little, then add the crushed tomatoes, sugar and the beef and chicken stocks. Let it simmer a while then add the tomato paste.

Meanwhile, take your chicken and flatten it, oil it and pepper it. Put it in a pan under a broiler just long enough to brown the skin. Remove the chicken and add it to your sauce. Cover the pot, put the temp on medium low and let cook for at least an hour, turning occasionally. Remove the chicken and degrease the sauce using a spoon. Place chicken back into sauce and allow to cook, on low, while you prepare the rest of the meal. This is great served with pasta topped with the sauce and freshly grated Parmesan.

Non-Posting

Hi, Folks:

I haven't posted recently because I have been dealing with a problem with the advertising portion of the blog. As I said up front, I am new to this blogging thing and I didn't know it was a bad thing to ask readers to click on ads. The advertising portion of my blog has been suspended/canceled due to "inappropriate click activity". That is my fault, as I asked people to click on ads. It is OK to click on ads, just not the same ones every time, every day. I am in the process of revamping the blog, or at least the advertising. I hope to be back up soon. If you e-mail me, I will let you know of any changes.

Thanks,

Walt

Spinach and Scallop Salad

There is a great restaurant in San Diego called the Fish House. It is in the downtown area located right on the bay. Every seat in the house offers a gorgeous view. This is a salad that I had there and loved so much that I went home and experimented with it until I got it right.

For two:

1 bag spinach, stems removed
1 red onion, halved and sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 slices thick cut bacon
2 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
12 sea scallops
freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

Cook bacon in a saute pan until crisp. Remove and add olive oil to the bacon drippings. Over medium heat, cook onions until they are soft. Push your onions to one side of the pan. Turn the heat to medium high and add scallops. Add the black pepper at this point. Brown the scallops on one side, quickly, turn and add garlic. Brown the other side of the scallops and remove from the pan. Add the vinegar to the pan and once heated, toss the onion, garlic and vinegar mixture with the spinach along with the blue cheese. Divide amongst two plates, crumble the bacon over the top and place 6 scallops on top of each salad.

Sauces and Gravies

Sauces and gravies, to me, are two different animals. As a general rule, in my opinion, sauces are reductions and gravies are made with a roux. Sauces can be made by deglazing and adding rich stock or demi glace. They are usually thickened by reduction and maybe the addition of what they call a liaison, usually butter, a flour and butter mixture, cream or egg. Gravy, on the other hand, is usually made with the addition of flour to the cooking oil after the meat is removed, creating a roux. All too often, cooks remove the meat, add flour to make the roux, then add water or milk or stock. They season it with salt and pepper and what you usually end up with is a gravy that is bland and salty. The better way to make a gravy is to remove the meat from the pan and then pour off the oil to another pan. Deglaze the cooking pan with a little liquid, wine or stock, then add stock and let it reduce. Reduction is key to all stocks and gravies, but remember, if you start with something salty, reduction will make it saltier. While your stock is reducing, make your roux in the other pan with the oil from cooking. Once your roux is ready, whisk it into your reduced stock, a little at a time, until you've almost reached the desired consistency. Let it cook a little longer and it will thicken nicely. I guarantee this will make a great gravy.

Black Bean Soup - Continued

Okay, so the beans are cooking along with the pork. They need an occasional stir and additional water sufficient to keep the beans and pork covered. When the pork is falling off of the bone tender, remove it and as much meat that has detached itself from said bone, to a platter. Then add the following ingredients to the pot.

1 large ripe tomato, coarsely chopped
2 cups rich chicken broth
3 tsps Pequin peppers, crushed (or your favorite pepper for flavor and heat)
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp Oregano
Several grindings of black pepper

Let this cook at a little more than a simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally. Scoop out the solids and process them through a food mill, add back to the broth then shred the pork and add to the soup. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly. We like to enjoy it with freshly made corn tortillas and Pico De Gallo. A little avocado doesn't hurt my feelings either.

Sopa de Frioles Negro con Carne

I have always cooked black bean soup since my son was just a baby. We had him in a restaurant in San Diego and he was in a high chair. I had the soup as an appetizer and gave him a spoonful. I ended up giving him the whole bowl because he liked it so much. Bean soup all over his face and everywhere else, but he did eat a lot of it and has loved black bean soup ever since. Recently, I made a batch and decided to add meat (pork) to it. I don't quite remember how I did it but I am trying to recreate it today. This recipe is an ongoing progress. I will update as I fiddle and let you know the results.

As yet:

1 lb. black beans, rinsed
2 yellow onions, coarsely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
3-4 lb. pork, Boston butt, with bone, fat trimmed

Place all ingredients in a pot big enough to them along with enough water to cover. Place on stove and set temp to medium. This is going to cook long and slow.

Spicy Cilantro Pesto

Pesto is a wonderful Italian sauce used for pasta. This recipe has a Latin touch. It is another recipe I got from a great chef in San Diego. It goes well with chicken or fish. Toss it with some hot angel hair pasta, lay a sauteed fillet of snapper on top and you have a delicious, spicy meal. If you want more heat, use habaneros.

1 tbsp pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1 bunch cilantro, rinsed and dried
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp water
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 jalapenos, roasted and peeled
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp cumin

Place pine nuts, garlic and shallot in a blender along with the olive oil. Blend until smooth and add remaining ingredients. Blend, scraping down sides of the container, until the sauce is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste

Chipotle Sauce

Chipotle chiles are smoked jalapenos. You can find them dried or canned with adobo sauce in the Mexican food section of most stores. This recipe calls for the canned variety. This sauce is wonderful over grilled chicken and a bed of rice, however if you change the chicken stock to fish stock, it also goes well with grilled fish.

1 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
2 Chipotle chiles, with adobo - see note at bottom
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup rich chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
fresh ground pepper
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Toss bell pepper, onion and garlic with olive oil and place on a sheet pan. Put in oven and roast till bell pepper starts to blister, turning occasionally. Remove from oven and core bell pepper, removing skin and seeds. Place bell pepper, onion and garlic in a pot along with the chicken broth over medium high heat. Reduce by half, add Chipotles, salt and pepper and allow to cook for a few minutes then puree in a blender. Place back on stove, add cream and let reduce till thickened.

Note: Chipotle with adobo - when I call for a Chipotle with adobo, that means to use a spoon when removing the pepper from the can and include some of the adobo sauce with it.

Asian Chicken Legs

Recently, my wife told me that a friend of hers had cooked some chicken legs and served them to her with rice. Apparently, she baked the pollo with some soy, Teriyaki, orange juice and garlic. It sounded pretty good but I got to thinking it needed more, both in the cooking process and ingredients involved. This is what I came up with and my wife liked it so much, she made me prepare it two nights running.

For two:

4-5 chicken legs
1 large white onion, peeled, halved and sliced (1/4 inch cut)
5 large Roma tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp Sambal (Chinese red pepper paste)
3 oz orange juice
3 tbsp Teriyaki
3 tbsp Soy
2 tsp chicken base
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp cornstarch
garlic powder
freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat your broiler with a rack in the middle of the stove. In a glass Pyrex pan, spread the vegetable oil on the bottom. Put in the chicken legs and dust with a light sprinkling of garlic powder and a liberal grinding of pepper. Turn the legs over a couple of times to spread the oil, then add some more pepper. Place your onions in amongst the legs, but not on top. Place pan under broiler and cook just until the skin starts to crisp a little then turn the legs and repeat. Remove pan from oven and adjust temp to 350. Drizzle a little of the Teriyaki over each leg and pour the remaining into the pan. Scatter the garlic into the pan, but not on top of the chicken. Add soy sauce, chicken base, orange juice and sesame oil in the same manner. Add the tomatoes the same way you did the onions, not on top of the chicken. Place pan in oven and cook for 25 minutes. Turn the legs, adjust heat to 380 and cook for another 25. Remove from oven, place legs, onions and tomatoes on a platter. Use a foil cover to maintain heat. Pour liquid from the baking pan into a pot, place on stove over medium high and let reduce by half. Taste and add more soy, Teriyaki or Sambal if desired. Add your cornstarch to a 1/4 cup of cold water and add to the sauce, a little at a time, while stirring. When the sauce can coat the back of a spoon it is ready. I like to serve it with white rice. Just spoon a little of the sauce on the chicken and top the rice with the onions and tomatoes and a little more of the sauce.

Filet with Blue Cheese Sauce

If you love steak, as I do, you have to try this recipe out. If you had to tie me down and ask me what my favorite steak is I would tell you it is a Kansas City Strip, bone in. The marbling and the bone give that steak an enormous amount of flavor if cooked properly, medium rare. Now a filet, on the other hand, is nothing but meat. It has no marbling. What it lacks in flavor, though, it makes up in tenderness. To me, it just cries out for a well made sauce. This is one I recreated from yet another San Diego restaurant.

3 cups beef stock
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 green onions, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
10 black peppercorns
1/4 cup gin
2 cups Merlot
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup minced parsley
8 oz. blue cheese
4 tbsp. butter
2 filet steaks, 8 oz, room temp

Preheat oven to 250.

Place beefstock, garlic, onions, peppercorns and shallots in sauce pan, bring to a boil and reduce to at least half. Strain. Melt butter in a saute pan and cook your steaks for at least three minutes per side for rare. Cook longer for your desired doneness. Remove steaks and place on a plate and put in the preheated oven, where they will continue to cook. Using the pan you cooked the steaks in, turn heat to high and add the gin, scraping the bottom of the pan. When that has almost evaporated, add your strained stock and wine, continuing to scrape the pan. Reduce to about a third, then add cream. Reduce heat to medium high and allow sauce to thicken. Add blue cheese and parsley. Whisk until the cheese is melted and the sauce is thickened, pour over steaks and enjoy.

Cheese, Queso, Framage, etc.

Cheeses can be an integral part of cooking, from sauces to toppings. You will notice that I always call for freshly grated or crumbled cheese. There is a reason for this. All cheeses, without exception, begin to dry out and lose their flavor as soon as they are processed. Buying grated Parmesan or crumbled Bleu Cheese is, to me, a waste of money. You pay more for it and the product doesn't compare to the flavor of buying a chunk and grating or crumbling it yourself. Do yourself and your tastebuds a favor and do it yourself. Also, if you are serving cheese as an appetizer, it is best served at room temperature. This allows the flavors to be at their max. By the way, don't even think about buying that green can.

My Blog

I hope you like my blog. I put a lot of thought into what I post. I hope to include some instructional video soon. It is a daily effort that I enjoy doing. You could help me out when you visit the site by clicking on an ad. It doesn't cost you anything, but it helps me out. I would appreciate it. Also, at the bottom of each post, you will see a 'comments' tag. If you click on that, you can give me some feedback, positive or negative. I would appreciate the comments.

Tequila Lime Shrimp Pasta

This is another one of those recipes inspired by a dish I had at a restaurant and then decided to recreate it at home. Again, it was a restaurant in San Diego but I can't remember which one. It is a spicy dish. I hope you enjoy.

For two:

4 oz dry linguine
10 oz peeled and deveined medium shrimp
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, sliced
1 habanero chile, minced (use jalapenos if you want less heat)
2 limes, juiced
1 1/2 oz Tequila ( I like a gold tequila)
3/4 cup cream
1/2 cup rich chicken broth
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
3 oz. freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Cook the linguine, al dente, rinse and set aside. Melt butter with oil over medium high heat. When the butter stops foaming, turn the heat up a little and add garlic, onions, habaneros and shrimp. Saute for one minute, turn the shrimp and saute for one minute more. Remove shrimp to a paper towel lined plate and add the tequila. Let reduce until almost dry then add the lime. Let reduce by half then add chicken broth. Let reduce by half then add the cream, pepper and Parmesan. When sauce begins to thicken, add shrimp, pasta and cilantro. Let cook for a max of two minutes. Toss thoroughly and serve.