pan roasted chicken with honey mustard dressing

you'd think from this blog that i'm some sort of natural gourmand. but the truth is, i ate horribly until i met mr. mimi -- my palette was unadventurous and whatever i did eat was of the worst nutritional balance. one of the things i love about our relationship is how much i've learned and experienced with new foods over the years.

and although this dinner isn't so lofty, it was something new for me since i've never had a real honey mustard dressing before. it's embarrassing to admit, but the only honey mustard i've ever had is the sticky sweet kind in those plastic containers from random eating out at mcdonalds. and i don't mean to sound like a gourmand, but how does one ever think that is the way food tastes? mcdonalds might be an extreme comparison, and it's not like i ate junk food or fast food on a regular basis. but so much of what i used to eat that's considered "natural" was just a processed version of something that is so simple to make at home -- and dressings are a prime example. if you don't believe me, then surely you'd believe mark bittman! but if you need more proof, try this recipe that is super easy but full of flavor (aren't all donna hay recipes pretty easy but so tasty? that's why i love them).

pan roasted chicken with honey mustard dressing: serves 4
adapted from donna hay (spring 2009, issue 47)

4 chicken breasts
4 large carrots, sliced
6-8 baby potatoes, halved (or quartered if too large)
1 package of baby spinach leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tb whole grain mustard
1 tb honey
1 tb white wine vinegar

1. preheat oven to 375F. make the honey mustard dressing by combining the mustard, honey, vinegar, and 1/4 cup olive oil in bowl; set aside.

2. toss carrots and potatoes with olive oil and salt and pepper, place on baking sheet and roast for about 15-20 minutes.

3. meanwhile, salt and pepper the chicken breasts and heat oil in skillet on medium high heat. sear each side of chicken breast until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side.

4. put chicken breasts on top of carrots/potatoes on tray and continue roasting everything until chicken has internal temp of 165F, and carrots/potatoes are cooked through, about 20 more minutes.

5. toss spinach leaves with carrot and potato to warm and slightly wilt. serve with chicken breast on top and spoon over dressing to serve.

roasted fish, potato, asparagus with dill butter

just because i don't like salmon doesn't mean i don't like white fish fish (although now that i think about it, i do like salmon when it's raw suhi, but not cooked). we tend to make the same kind of fish dinners, only because we like to keep the flavors really simple and clean. this recipe is really no different, just another great combination of all the things i like -- asparagus from the farmer's market, potatoes, and capers. it's a super easy recipe, and with a great presentation and hardly any work involved at all, it would be a great option for a small dinner party, too.

roasted fish, potato, and asparagus with dill butter: serves 2
adapted from donna hay (spring, 2009 issue no. 47)

4 baby potatoes, sliced
1 lb firm white fish fillets
1 bunch thin-medium asparagus, trimmed
1 tb capers
olive oil
2 tb butter
1 tb dill leaves
salt and pepper to taste
lemon

1. preheat oven to 400F. toss potato and asparagus with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (not too much salt because of the fish and capers in the dish). place potato on baking tray and roast for 25 minutes.

2. season fish with oil, salt and pepper. add fish and asparagus to tray and roast for 15-20 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and the potatoes are golden.

3. combine the butter and dill and spoon over fish, garnish with capers and squeeze of lemon (donna roasted the capers along with the fish).

seared citrus salmon with dill-cucumber sauce

salmon is one of those things that i eat because i should, not because i particularly like it. not even smoked salmon with a schmear of cream cheese and capers (although doesn't that sound so hopelessly romantically new york?) but you know, it's healthy and blah blah blah so i try to eat some maybe once a month (and yes, always wild-caught alaskan).



but this salmon dinner was one i actually finished licking my lips. and i don't think it was the dill-cucumber sauce because that's just ordinary. but the orange-lemon glaze was amazing, i wish i had doubled it (though i wonder, does it follow the law of diminishing returns?) so if you're a salmon-phobe like me, do try this recipe out.

seared salmon with dill-cucumber sauce: serves 4
adapted from bon appetit (april 2005, original recipe click here)

2 tb olive oil
2 1/2 lb center-cut wild alaskan salmon fillet, pinbones removed and cut into 4 pieces
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
coarse sea salt and pepper to taste

for the dill-cucumber sauce
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tb milk
2 tb chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste

1. toss cucumber with salt and let stand for 30 minutes. transfer to colander and rinse well. pat dry with paper towels.

2. mix cucumber, sour cream, milk, and dill in small bowl. season with salt and pepper. cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

3. preheat oven to 375F. season salmon with salt and pepper. heat oil in oven-proof skillet on high, sear salmon skin side up for about 3-4 minutes. flip and sear skin for about 2 minutes. pour off oil (hold salmon with spatula).

4. mix orange and lemon juice and pour on top of fish, finishing in oven to 140F internal temp. the orange-lemon juice should be a bit syrupy -- pour that on top of each plated fillet. spoon the dill-cucumber sauce on the side and garnish with fresh dill.

andean bean stew with squash and quinoa

we made this back in march so again, apologies for another out of season recipe. but in my defense it is cold and rainy this week and winter squash be damned, i wouldn't have minded having a warm, cozy dinner like this last night!

the new york times runs this "recipes for health" series, although only until recently did they start including the nutritional information for each recipe. i like the way it's indexed by main ingredient so i can easily come up with dinner based on what i already have in the pantry or fridge.

even if quinoa weren't the nutritional powerhouse seed that it is, i would still always like to cook with it because i love the nutty taste, especially the red quinoa we used for this dinner. and like my previous enchilada post, this is a perfect vegetarian meal, too -- all real ingredients, easy to cook, and lots of sweet and nutty flavor. all you need is some crusty bread to offset the soft texture, and you have a perfect dinner for a cold night! and yes, it's better flavor as it sits, so a perfect left over lunch the next day, too!



andean bean stew with quinoa: serves 6
adapted from the new york times (november 2008; original recipe click here)

1 can pinto beans
1 can chopped tomatoes, with liquid
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1/2 cup quinoa -- make sure to rinse thoroughly
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tb sweet paprika
1 bay leaf
3 tb chopped fresh parsley

1. heat oil in large, heavy pot and cook onion until tender, stirring often, about 5 minutes. add paprika, cook for about 1 minute and then add garlic. cook, stirring for a minute or two, until onions and garlic are fragrant but not brown. stir in tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have slightly reduced, about 5-10 minutes.

2. add bay leaf and squash, bring to simmer and cover for 30 minutes until squash is tender. add beans and quinoa and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, until quinoa is translucent and the little white thread uncurls from the seed. season with salt and pepper if needed and serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

chicken with clementine salsa

this is going to be another one of those don't look at that photo, just listen to how wonderful this dinner is kind of post. i tend to not repeat making a recipe more than once, but this is definitely going into that small pile of eat, enjoy, repeat recipes. and yes i know that it's now mid-may and past clementine season, but it never hurts to bookmark this and try out later (later, like in next winter when they returns!). or maybe you can try this with regular oranges and see how it works out. a light, easy weeknight meal originally for chicken, surely this clementine salsa would work fabulously with fish, too!

chicken with clementine salsa: serves 4
adapted from bon appetit (december 2009, original recipe click here)

4 chicken breast halves
4 clementines, diced (about 1 cup)
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
2 tb fresh lime juice
1 serrano chile, minced
4 tb olive oil
1/2 cup clementine juice (need about 6 clementines)
salt and pepper to taste

1. place chicken breasts between two sheets of parchment paper and pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness.

2. mix clementines and next 6 ingredients in medium bowl, with 2 tb olive oil. season with salt and pepper.

3. season chicken breasts with salt and pepper, heat 2 tb olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. add chicken and cook until slightly browned and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. transfer chicken to platter, but do not turn off heat.

4. add clementine juice to skillet and boil until reduced to 1/4 cup, stirring often, about 2 minutes. drizzle sauce over chicken and spoon salsa on top.

sweet potato and black bean enchilada

this poorly taken photo is an embarrassment, there's so many things wrong with it! besides composition how about that white plate that looks pink? urgh. i'm determined to get myself a copy of photoshop elements this summer and give myself a proper tutorial on how to edit my digital photos. i know photo editing won't magically turn my photos into press perfect images, but it certainly will help me turn that plate white!

why all the complaining about this photo? because this dinner was just so good, that i feel badly my photo can't possibly give it any justice.

strange as it may sound, but i made the conscious decision to stop eating all those "fake meat" products when i decided to eat real foods, including meat. oh sure, i made a lot of great dishes from my favorite vegetarian cookbook by deborah madison but eventually convenience took over and it was as if eating vegetarian became only about pretending to eat what i didn't (boca burgers, smart bacon, etc), instead of creating new dishes that were worthy on their own. how did that ever make sense? and have you ever looked at the ingredients on those things? the list is just as long and convoluted as some of your typical processed junk food, maybe just minus the high fructose corn syrup.

and that's why this dinner was just so good. it was everything that a vegetarian dish should be -- real ingredients with all the right flavors, a little sweet and a little salty, and filling without making you feel over stuffed. i started thinking that even my meat eating friends would be impressed! honestly i can't remember exactly why i liked it so much but the minute i finished it, i mentally checked it as one of those recipes i would definitely make again. so forgive me for the bad photo, because it's the only one i have, but i hope my words have at least convinced you to give it a try!

sweet potato and black bean enchilada: serves 4
adapted from whole foods market (original recipe click here)

1 jar of green chile sauce (we cheated and bought a jar of chile sauce, but it's easy enough to make your own and it's included in the printable recipe)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
4 garlic cloves, minced
fresh juice from 1 lime
2 cups cooked diced sweet potato
1/2 cup chopped roasted green chilies
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 tb chopped fresh cilantro
8 small flour tortillas (we couldn't find fresh corn tortillas the weekend we made this, so had to deal with the flour ones -- which technically makes it more like a mini burrito than an enchilada, but either way it's all good!)
4 ounces shredded monterey jack cheese

1. preheat oven to 350F. to make enchilada (mini-burrito) filling, combine the black beans with minced garlic and lime juice. toss to coat the beans and set aside.

2. in separate bowl, combine the cooked sweet potatoes with the chopped green chilies, and the spices and season with salt and pepper.

3. pour about 1/4 cup of the green chile sauce on to the bottom of a large baking dish. assemble each enchilada separately by laying the first tortilla in the baking dish, wetting it with the sauce. spoon 1/8 of the sweet potato mixture down the center and top with 1/8 of the black bean mixture. wrap and roll to the end of the baking dish, and repeat with the remaining tortillas.

4. spoon any leftover mixture around the sides, top with a generous coating of the chile sauce, and sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

5. bake for 20-25 minutes or until they're piping hot and sauce is bubbling around the edges. mid-way through, we topped with a little bit of chile sauce to keep the flour tortillas from drying out (not sure if this is an issue with corn, but you might want to just check).

fish and fowl: origins unknown

even though i wasn't on my blog doesn't mean i wasn't actually cooking and taking photographs. i actually have quite a few photographs of some tasty meals that i'm going through now, some very good, indeed.

then there is this one that i remember being very tasty, but for the life of me i can't remember where i got the recipe from and i've looked everywhere. you can google something like fish, fennel, orange and get a recipe or two to try out. but none of them were the one i used. besides the tomato base it also looks like there is some sliced potatoes in there, too. i wish i could remember as fennel is one of my favorite vegetables!



and here's another origins unknown photo. although i remember that this one wasn't from a recipe, but just a dish that we created. evidently we must have been in a tomato phase, even though these were both made in the dead of winter. so much for seasonality! but a sauce of chopped carrots, onions, and tomatoes over grilled chicken and topped with capers -- not sure how exactly we made it, but still looks tasty!

holidays at home: lemon-caper crusted turbot and roasted rack of lamb

the holidays were quiet at the mimis, in a new city without having many new friends yet. i don't feel quite at home, yet. my stuff is here, but it still doesn't seem like something i can really nestle into (which only makes it worse to own so much stuff). i had the small epiphany that for every other apartment we've lived in, we always made sure to paint the walls of each room before moving in. i always thought it made the rooms show off our personality, and i guess now that my walls here are pure white, a palette of color made those old apartments feel like home, too.

but i'm too lazy (and uncertain of the future) to take the time and effort to paint the walls now that we've moved in. the only way to create some sense of comfort is in our cooking. so we decided that for both christmas and new year's eve, we would stay inside, trying to recreate the warmth of home with dinners that would hopefully make us feel like there was nowhere else to be.

we originally had this idea of crab stuffed sole for christmas eve, but when we got to whole foods (sadly, we haven't found a "real" fish monger here in DC, yet. we miss blue moon!) the turbot looked unbelievably fresh, as if you could eat it as sashimi. mr. mimi's dictum is always buy the freshest looking fish, even if it isn't what you thought of making. so we bought a fillet and crusted it with some lemon breading, broiled with white wine, and garnished with capers and chives.



for new year's eve, it was the rack of lamb that was looking the freshest that afternoon and who am i to refuse a beautiful rack! i guess i'm making up for all those years i didn't eat any, but i just love lamb.we cooked this up with a port wine reduction glaze, with deep roasted garlic and rosemary. it was all so rich and delicious, for a moment there, it almost felt like home again.



milo loves lamb, too.

grilled lamb chops with salmoriglio sauce

wow for someone who was vegetarian for about a decade, i do seem to eat a lot of meat now!! it's not something i'm necessarily happy about. i would be lying if i said i didn't like the taste of certain pieces of meat. but i would be definitely lying if i said it didn't make me feel morally conflicted.

i try to assuage this conflict by at least only buying locally raised meats from the farmer's markets. this past weekend i went to a new farmer market (new for me folks, and that was thankfully light years better than that other one i tried out) and some of the farms even had photo albums of all their happy chickens, sheep, pigs, and bison in real fields and mucking grounds. it certainly convinced me that, indeed, these animals probably lived their lives as naturally as possible. but it made it that much harder for me to look at those photos and then buy a piece of cryovacked loin. but like i read somewhere recently, these chickens had a really good life for several months and then one very bad day.



i don't mean for this to devolve into a manifesto of sorts, although i do believe too little attention is paid to what we put into our bodies. i spend the majority of my disposable income on food. i believe that i should spend an equal amount of thought and conscious effort in making sure i know the provenance of that food. if not because of the animal i am eating, or the inevitable environmental damage, but at least because of the very fact that i am ingesting it!

i might think a lot about food, but when it comes to cooking, simpler is a lot of times better! i was looking for a new lamb chop recipe and came across this unassuming idea. salmoriglio is a strong, pungent lemon-herb sauce, originally form calabria and sicily. i could not believe how delicious it was! if you like lamb, please try this recipe! and then we can go back to debating whether i should be vegetarian again :-)



grilled lamb chops with salmoriglio sauce: serves 4
from gourmet (may 2000, original recipe click here

1 1/2 tb finely chopped fresh oregano
1 1/2 tb finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tb fresh lemon juice
1 tsp coarse salt
salt + pepper to taste
6 tb olive oil
4 shoulder-blade lamb chops

1. grind herbs, zest, lemon juice, and 1 tsp coarse salt to a paste with a mortar and pestle. transfer to bowl and add oil in slow stream, whisking until emulsified. season with salt and pepper to taste.

2. pat lamb dry and season with salt and pepper. heat a lightly oiled well-seasoned ridged grill pan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. then grill lamb, turning once about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.

3. spoon sauce over lamb. if this is how the sicilians eat, then i need to move there.

chicken fajitas with mojo de ajo

when i lived in new york city i had a favorite quick, cheap mexican place as a go-to for dinner. it wasn't nearly "authentic" mexican, but somewhere between that and the oozy, greasy, cheesy, incarnation that tex-mex often becomes. it had all the usuals, and normally i like fajitas because i'm such a sucker for sizzling platters of food! but i wasn't terribly fond of the fajitas at this particular place because while sizzling in temperature, it never seemed to really dazzle me in flavor.

so when i saw this recipe in martha's magazine a couple months ago i definitely wanted to try it. and fajitas are one of those recipes where one can think, do i really need a recipe? cut up some peppers, onions, meat and toss it in a hot skillet! and true, it doesn't really get (and shouldn't get) much more complicated than that. but i was really curious about this "mojo de ajo," especially since we loved bobby flay's mojo on a grilled pork tenderloin.

evidently mojo is the cure-all because it's definitely what my go-to place was missing in their fajitas! plus the combination of thighs and breasts (gee, that phrase seems awkward, huh?!) made it so much more flavorful. we only served ours with guacamole and pico, no cheese or sour cream (the guacamole is creamy enough!) i think this is a perfect dish for impromptu summer dinner -- quick, easy, and ready to share with friends or family!



chicken fajitas with mojo de ajo: serves 4
adapted from martha stewart living (june 2009, original recipe click here)

mojo de ajo
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tb minced garlic (4-6 cloves)
3 tb fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 tsp red-pepper flakes
1/2 tsp coarse salt

fajitas
1 tb olive oil
1/2 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices (about 1 cup)
1 large green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced 1/2 inch thick
8 oz boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2), slicked 1/2 inch thick
8 small 6-inch flour tortillas, warmed
salt + pepper to taste
guacamole
pico de gallo

1. make the mojo: cook oil and garlic in small saucepan over low heat until garlic is soft and fragrant, about 8 minutes. remove from heat, stir in lime juice, red pepper, and salt.

2. heat large skillet over high heat, add oil and gently coat. add onion and bell pepper, season with salt. cook, stirring frequently, until onion is bornwed in spots and pepper has softened slightly with blistered skins, about 5 minutes.

3. add chicken, salt, and stir and cook until chicken is browned and thoroughly cooked, 5-7 minutes (you can finish in the oven if you chose).

4. add mojo de ajo, and stir to coat. season with salt and pepper. serve immediately with guacamole, pico de gallo, and warm tortillas!

pork chops with rhubarb-raisin compote

yes, yes i'm still here!! although i have had a lousy track record, these past two weeks were not entirely my fault for not posting. i finally started a new job, yay! but it meant leaving my beloved new york city, sniff sniff.

except i haven't had really any time to mourn the loss of living in the best city in the USA because i received the offer one week, and moved myself down the next weekend (with the faith that i would be lucky enough to find an apartment in a day, and not be camping out on a park bench), and started working last week! i'm still living in a basically empty room -- i'm living on an aerobed and not much else! -- because the rest of my belongings don't come down until next weekend. and hopefully mr. mimi will follow soon thereafter.

so you see my absence was not intentional, and to prove it here's a post about an obviously previously made dinner. why obviously? because folks, it has rhubarb!! and we all know the peak rhubarb season is only in spring. i was a little late to the party because i was in nigeria, but there were still some good bunches left in june.



we didn't have cherries so we used the raisins from the pantry. the compote (as expected) was delicious and could easily be used with a chicken dish as well. in this heat of august you probably won't find any good rhubarb around, but bookmark this for next spring and i'm sure you'll love it!

for the recipe, click here.

roasted chicken stuffed with dried fruits

how fitting that my election night post was about roasted chicken, and here we come back to roasted chicken for today.

besides my political dreams, as an adolescent i also thought i was going to be a famous artist. i'd skip classes for days on end to be in the art class studio all afternoon. i was passionate about van gogh, cezanne, and kandinsky. i loved hopper. i was sure i was going to be the next contemporary brice marden or julian schnabel.

then my tortured adolescence of drawing and painting came to an end, but i still loved visuals - typography, design, illustration. and so when i ended up working at a bookstore, i was always a sucker for the cover of a book. i bought man without qualities because when both volumes are put together, the spines are a image of his face. and no, i have never gotten past page 100, but i still love that cover.

another thing i learned working at the bookstore is that the holidays are prime cookbook buying time. who knew? but several years ago we joined that tradition and bought claudia roden's middle eastern book for someone. back then i was pretty ignorant and all i knew about middle eastern food was your standard kebabs, hummus, and tabouli. and i was definitely ignorant about what a great writer claudia roden is. she doesn't just give recipes, she's a storyteller - of food, history, and culture. honestly i really didn't know anything except that this book had a gorgeous cover! so gorgeous in fact that i had to buy a copy for ourselves the next year.

and after all that babbling, all i have to say is: make this chicken. you will love it.



roasted chicken stuffed with dried fruits: serves 4-6
adapted from claudia roden's new book of middle eastern food (excellent book, highly recommended, 2000, p. 225)

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 - 4 lbs (preferably organic, humane)
1 onion, finely chopped
butter
olive oil
1/2 lb dried prunes, soaked, pitted, and chopped
1/2 lb dried apricots, soaked pitted, and chopped
1/3 cup raisins, soaked
2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (a specific type is not mentioned; we used granny smith)
salt + pepper
1 tsp cinnamon

1. preheat oven to 325F. fry the chopped onion in 2 tb butter until soft and golden. add chopped fruits and raisins and sauté for a few minutes. season to taste with salt, pepper, and cinnamon.

2. stuff the chicken with some of this mixture, securing the opening with a toothpick. rub chicken with olive oil, salt, and pepper. put the remaining mixture in a roasting pan. place the chicken - breast side down - on top of the mixture. salt and pepper. (this roasting method of breast side down is unsual, but mr. mimi is convinced what gave the chicken such great flavor and moistness and wants to try it with other dishes.)

3. roast the chicken for about 1 1/2 hours total, turning the chicken over after 40 minutes. serve the chicken with the extra stuffing mixture, accompanied by rice.

roast flounder provençal

i haven't been posting as frequently as i had been. time constraints during the busy month of december are real but couldn't be the sole reason.

i still try to keep up with all the new posts in my reader, and after reading some of my favorites, finally i realized that one reason i feel less vested in my blog is the artificial wall i put up to preserve my "identity". i was always worried about remaining anonymous. mimi isn't even my real name! but i realized that the blogs i love the most are those that are personal. not necessarily dirty laundry personal. but those who have the stamp of "i" clearly and openly in their writing and photography.

it may be that my online identity is an artificial façade because i'm so unsure of my own personal identity at this time. too many changes, not enough answers, getting older but not feeling much wiser.

but it's nearly the end of december and i can't let it go by without another recipe. here's an easy one, maybe a good option for a simple christmas eve dinner?

roast flounder provençal: serves 2

1 lb flounder
2 shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
handful european olive mix, pitted and sliced
olive oil
fleur de sel
pepper
thyme and chives, chopped
white wine

1. preheat oven to 375F. rub flounder fillets with olive oil, cracked pepper, and fleur de sel. roast until firm, about 10 minutes.

2. meanwhile sauté garlic and shallots in olive oil until tender. de-glaze with white wine, add tomatoes, olives. season with herbs, flip twice and turn off heat. serve over top of fish. goes perfectly with roasted fingerling potatoes and carrots!

comfort food: pierogi

sorry, no tuesdays with dorie here. vibi from la casserole carrée choose the "two-fer" pumpkin slash pecan pie, but i already have got my pies to bake for thanksgiving, and i just can't bear to do another one!

but this weekend i did make pierogis. i can't remember when i first ate a pillowy puff of potato, but evidently i was polish in a past life because i love them!! they're like a comfort food for me. when i was younger i used to eat a plate of them with caramelized onions for dinner.

so when we finally decided to use up the kielbasa we bought from the farmer's market, i got the brilliant idea of making my own pierogis!!



yes, it's true i like martha's recipes, but i figured her mother would know a thing or two about making pierogis. unfortunately i was going between the online and magazine recipe, and halving both and i wasn't as organized as i should have been. it was an afternoon of oops, that was supposed to be 1.5 cups of flour! and an oops, i forgot to salt and pepper the potato mix! and shit my countertop next to the oven is hot and my dough is now sticking!

do you ever having baking days like that???



but the end result was some delicious pierogi. never doubt that something as simple as potato stuffed dumplings can taste amazingly better homemade than store bought! i think there was a little bit of that delicious taste called "pride" in each bite too ... i couldn't believe i made these babies by hand!!

for the online recipe - and a great video of martha and mum - click here.

winter squash soup with sage leaves

in an effort (however non-effective, at least it's earnest) to try to reduce the gluttonous impact my recent omnivorous ways have been taking on my body, i'm devoting one night a week to making soup for dinner. last week's was pasta e fagioli. yes, i know soup doesn't necessarily mean "healthier", but it at least feels healthier, so i tell myself.

we had a butternut languishing on our counter and fresh chicken stock (yes, i'm in love with homemade chicken stock) waiting in the fridge. some of my favorite soups come from, of course, ms. madison. so we decided to try this simple sounding squash soup with sage leaves.



i was worried without some beans or pasta or dare i say, meat, i wouldn't feel full from this soup. but coupled with a crunchy greens salad and some baguette, it was a perfect dinner. it was so flavorful, and like always, was better the next night. i even had the last bit for lunch yesterday and i still loved it. yes, that bears repeating ... i ate this soup three days out of this week and still loved it on the third day!!

so what are you waiting for?

winter squash soup with sage leaves: serves 4-6
from vegetarian cooking for everyone (1997, p. 215)

2 1/2 - 3 lbs winter squash
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for squash
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
12 whole sage leaves, plus 2 tb chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
4 thyme sprigs, chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt + pepper
2 quarts homemade stock (be it vegetable or chicken, but please be it homemade!)
1/2 cup fontina, pecorino, or ricotta salata, diced into small cubes

1. preheat oven to 375F. halve squash and scoop out seeds. brush surface with oil, stuff cavaties with garlic and place cut sides down on baking sheet. bake until tender, about 30 minutes.

2. meanwhile heat 1/4 cup oil in small skillet until nearly smoking, then drop whole sage leaves and fry until dark, about 1 minute. set leaves aside on paper towel and transfer oil to wide soup pot. add onions, chopped sage, thyme, and parsley and cook over medium heat until onions have begun to brown, about 12-15 minutes.

3. scoop squash flesh into pot along with any juices that accumulated in the pan. peel the garlic and add to pot along with salt and stock and bring to boil. lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes. if soup becomes too thick, simply add more water/stock to thin it out. taste for salt.

4. depending on the type of squash you've used, the soup with be smooth or rough. if you want a refined soup, use a handmixer or blender. if you mix it, you might want to heat it up a bit again. then ladle into bowls and distribute cheese over top (the cheese adds a contrast flavor to the sweetness of the squash, so yes, it's necessary!) garnish with sage leaves, add pepper, and enjoy!

thyme roasted chicken with apples and bacon

sorry there's no tuesdays with dorie here today (but please check out everyone else on the blogroll for a very awesome kugelhof as chosen by yolanda from the all-purpose girl!)

but i don't want to leave you empty-handed, so let's revisit a week ago tonight, election night. what a strange ride this has been, when the only reasonable discussion of policy and politics i could have was with my republican cousin-in-law because everyone else in my immediate circle was an obamaholic who couldn't see beyond their own assumptions and stereotypes. i'm a 110% dyed in the wool liberal - love me or leave me - but go ahead and challenge me! i love to refine my arguments with debate and deconstruction until alas, you just have to concede that i was right all along ;-)



we had some people over for election night and wanted to serve a family style meal that was easy but comfy. we settled on roasted chicken, butternut squash risotto (that was awesome), and arugula salad (thanks J!)

so here's to change, here's to hope, and here's to turning that map a little more darn blue.

thyme roasted chicken with apples and bacon: serves 6

large whole chicken (ours was 5 lb)
1 bunch thyme
2-3 apples
4 garlic cloves
3 slices turkey bacon, cooked
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine
olive oil
salt + pepper
lemon juice

1. preheat oven to 425F. rinse chicken inside and out; discard gizzard and neck.

2. dice apples and mix with lemon juice. slice garlic cloves and dice turkey bacon. toss all in bowl with a little olive oil, a couple thyme sprigs, and salt and pepper.



3. place remaining bunch thyme sprigs in roasting pan. stuff chicken with apple/garlic/bacon mix. rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (and other seasonings as desired). place on top of thyme sprigs.



4. roast in oven for 20 minutes. turn down to 325F and pour some of the chicken broth and all the white wine over chicken. continue to pour a little fresh broth on chicken every 20 minutes until roasted to an internal temp of 165F.

5. take out and let rest for half hour. carve and set on oven-proof platter with stuffing, pouring juices over the chicken/stuffing. put the platter back in the oven and bring back up to internal temp. serve sizzling and enjoy!

pasta e fagioli

i have to sheepishly admit ... many times i go through my google reader and think so many things look delicious and i post a comment "got to try this soon!" - sometimes even a "definitely trying this out!" - and then i guiltily never come through on my encouraging promise.

but for some reason, this pasta e fagioli bucked the trend when i saw it on jen's blog use real butter. folks, i saw this yesterday and made it tonight ... that's how much i was impressed by this so simple, but so delicious supper soup!



i made some slight modifications based on what we had in the pantry, and our preferences. we used our favorite turkey bacon instead of the italian sausage, and navy beans instead of northern. we did splurge on the ditalini (oh when am i going to use this again?!) and we had fresh rosemary instead of dried (if you use fresh, add and remove with the cinnamon, not in the beginning as written in the recipe).

i worked later than usual tonight so i asked mr. mimi to have it ready for me when i came home (i know, spoiled by a professional chef!) and when i walked in the hallway, the spicy aroma - combination of cinnamon, rosemary, and vinegar - was sooo nice!! it was a perfect meal with some crusty bread, and even though i was tempted to halve the recipe i'm glad i didn't because i bet it will taste even better (as all soups inevitably do) for tomorrow's, and the next day's, and next day's lunch!

now you might notice that my soup doesn't really look like anything from jen's soup. although i'm sure her photographs benefit from natural mountain sunshine, my soup was definitely a dark red in real life too, so it could have something to do with brand of tomatoes i used. regardless, it tasted great, so who cares what color it came out!



plus! when i started getting ready to write this post and upload my photos i noticed that unbeknownst to me at the time of my clicking - both of us did a spoonful money shot. great pasta e fagioli minds think alike :-)

for the recipe, click here.

alsace onion tart

savory tarts are one of my favorite meals.

i had bookmarked this alsace onion tart a couple of months ago. caramelized onions in a tart? i'm happy to report it tasted as amazing as it sounds!

we used turkey bacon to assuage our fat intake guilt, and of course it tasted just as lovely. i was tempted to add a sprinkling of gruyère, but decided to leave the recipe as written. i never think a little bit of cheese makes anything taste badly, but this tart was perfectly creamy and rich just the way it was.



for the recipe, click here (from gourmet 2004, posted on epicurious).

think spice ... think paprika ... think chicken paprikash!

this recipe is a family hand-down from mr. mimi's great grandma, who came from czechoslovakia (and supposedly somehow through marriage - and maybe some tale telling - is related to the great masayrk) and brought all her amazing cooking with her.

mr. mimi's fondest memories of his great grandma is visits to her large, ornate apartment in the bronx, especially on christmas eve when she hosted the family dinner. but regardless of when the visit was, and what it is for, the minute he stepped into her home, he was greeted with the most amazing smells coming from the kitchen. she was the one who inspired him to be "chef boy rp" (rp is mr. mimi's real initials). she always had something cooking, and was famous for her chicken soup with egg drop. it was crafted from hours of labor and a heart full of love.

one of his other indelible memories is his great grandma sticking a big brown bar of soap in his mouth when "damn" came out of his precious four year-old mouth. he never said it again in front of her ;)

this recipe is in honor of his great grandma, who taught it to his mother (yes it skipped a generation; his nana was of the 'everything convenient is good' mantra of the postwar 50s), and who passed it to him. although it is less a "recipe" because there are no real exact measurements. what's written below is a close approximation of what happens without thinking about it in the kitchen. it's a cliché, i know, but it is one of those family dishes that was taught by feel and look and taste rather than teaspoons and cups and pounds.

even thought it doesn't look like much the best thing about it is the smell that is so warm and fantastic while it's braising. by the time it's finished you will think you're starving because it smells so good. this must be what mr. mimi means when he talks about his great grandma's kitchen.

and when i chose paprika for think spice this month, i knew i would make this. if you'd like to join this event, you still have a week left! for the rules, click here.



mr. mimi's chicken paprikash: serves 4
adapted from great grandma

1 whole chicken, cut into parts
1 large onion, medium diced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2-3 bay leaves
1-2 big cans crushed tomatoes
hungarian sweet paprika
salt + pepper
1/2 cup sour cream (give or take)
tomato paste
olive oil
1 lb large pasta shells

1. season chicken with salt and pepper, and heavily coated with paprika on both sides; rub in paprika. in heavy dutch oven, heat olive oil on medium and lay chicken skin side down carefully and sear until deep golden red, about 5 minutes. then flip over and sear on the other side for another 5 minutes. note: depending on your dutch oven size, you probably will have to do this in two batches; for the best sear, don't crowd the chicken!

this isn't the prettiest photo, but just to show you the chicken should be well coated with paprika!



2. take out chicken and place on plate. pour out oil and wipe out dutch oven if necessary. add a little fresh oil and sauté the garlic and onion until caramelized. stir in a tiny bit more paprika.

3. put chicken back in, skin side up. add bay leaves, tomatoes, salt and pepper. turn heat down to low, cover, and simmer for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. occasionally stir and turn chicken.

4. pull chicken out. temper the sour cream by adding a little bit of the tomato sauce to the sour cream and whisk; then add back the tempered sour cream. you will have to adjust the amount by eye, it should be similar in color to a dark pink vodka sauce. if necessary, tighten it up with some tomato paste.

5. meanwhile, bring salted water to boil and cook pasta according to directions.

6. skim off fat from tomato sauce and add back chicken. slowly bring back up to heat. add in cooked pasta and stir well so the shells get nice and coated. bon appétit from the old world!

note: if you're not in budapest or going there any time too soon, the best readily available (at least in the US) hungarian sweet paprika is from szeged.

roasted fish with vegetables

last night was one of the first saturday nights the mimis have had in a while to stay in and enjoy a home cooked meal. we made sure to get to the farmer's market early (which for us, is by noon. what is early for you on a saturday??) so that we could see what blue moon had on hand. striped bass comes in to market season by late summer, and we were lucky they still had some filets left for the day. noodle pudding usually has it on their specials list by now. in fact, that may have been where i first tried striped bass a couple years ago. it's now one of my favorite fish for fall.

i often think of fish as a summer thing because i love it on the grill with just a spritz of lemon. it's hard for me to think of mild fish in the colder weather when i'm craving heavier, cozier type of meals.

but here's a recipe that is perfect for fall, that keeps the fish light and fresh but incorporates one of my favorite ways to have vegetables in the fall: roasting.

and the beauty of this recipe is that it is so versatile. i prefer mild, flaky fish like striped bass but you could use other filets as well. as long as 1. it can be cooked through (i.e., tuna would not work) and 2. it isn't too soft (i.e., skate is a possibility but you'd really have to watch the time).



also feel free to use whatever combination of vegetables you may prefer for roasting. i love the simplicity of mirepoix, with leeks instead of onions. the leeks roast up to a sweet toasty crisp. and of course, garlic. roasted garlic cloves may be the vegetable kingdom's gift to the culinary world. don't skip on them, and don't be afraid to eat them whole!



roasted fish with vegetables: serves 4

1 1/2 lb filet of fish
1 bunch carrots
1 bunch celery
1 bunch leeks, white and some light green parts, cleaned
8 garlic cloves
salt + pepper
olive oil
lemon

1. preheat oven to 400F. cut the carrots and celery into 1/2 inch chunks and the cleaned leeks into 1/2 inch slices. slightly smash and peel the garlic. toss everything with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. evenly place on bottom of roasting pan. cook until just tender and slightly brown, about 45 minutes.

2. rub some olive oil on both sides of each fish filet. season with salt and pepper (i like using coarse sea salt for this). lay on top of roasted vegetables and cook until fish is done, about 15 - 20 minutes depending on thickness of filets. by then the vegetables should be nicely roasted and caramelized, but if not you could always take out the filets when done and finish off the vegetables for a couple additional minutes. spritz fish with lemon and enjoy!