Southwest Chicken Salad

I was visiting my parents the other day and I decided to bring home all of my cookbooks and magazines that I had in their basement.  I found my Fine Cooking Magazine and on the cover was an amazing salad so I decided to make it for dinner tonight. This recipe was a little adapted slightly, but the true recipe can be found here.

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken tenders


1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/8 
tsp Paprika

1 tsp Light Brown Sugar 


1 tsp Ground Coriander 


1 tsp Ground Cumin 

Salt & Black Pepper 

2 - 3 tbs Olive Oil

Juice of 1 1/2 Limes

2 tsp Chopped fresh cilantro, plus leaves for garnish 


1 tsp Honey 

Sriracha


1 c Canned Black Beans, rinsed and drained 


1/2 c Cherry Tomatoes, quartered

2 large scallion, thinly sliced 


Romaine Lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces


1 medium firm-ripe avocado, sliced


Handful toasted pine nuts 

Now the recipe called for a grill, but it was since it was raining out side I used my grill pan.

While your grill pan heats up.  Combine the cayenne pepper, paprika, brown sugar, coriander, cumin, and salt in a small bowl. Mix to combine and add to a plastic bag, then add the chicken and coat well.

Spray the grill pan with a little olive oil spray. Cook the chicken until the edges of the top side are white, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lime juice, the honey, chopped cilantro, salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a few shakes of Sriracha
. Whisk to combine.  

Combine the black beans, tomatoes, scallion in a small bowl. Add a little of the dressing and toss gently.

Arrange the lettuce on a platter. Slice the chicken into bite size pieces. Pit and slice the avocado. Arrange the chicken, avocado, and salsa on the lettuce. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the salad. Garnish with the pine nuts.

Lemon Blueberry Creme Brulee

Tonight we are having left overs so there is no dinner recipe, but I am going to add an old recipe that I have listed on GroupRecipe.com.  I thought I would migrate them over to this site so that all of my recipes are in one spot.

This recipe is for my Lemon Blueberry Creme Brulee.  I came up with this recipe about three years ago plus any time you can use a torch is a good time!

Ingredients
¾ c blueberries
¼ c sugar
juice of half a lemon
2 c heavy whipping cream
½ c sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
4 egg yolks
¼ tsp vanilla
4 tbs sugar (for crust)

Pre-Heat Oven to 350

In small sauce pan over medium heat add blueberries, ¼ c sugar and juice of ½ a lemon. Let reduce till blueberries start to pop and form a syrup.

Add blueberries to the bottom of 4 ramekins.

In a large sauce pan add cream, remaining sugar and lemon rind. Bring to a slight boil then temper in the egg yolks that have been whisked with the vanilla.

Pour mixture over the blueberries in the 4 ramekins. Place ramekins in a bain-marie, then bake in the oven for 30 – 35 minutes or until the custard are set.

Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours or more.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar evenly over the surface of each custard along with some fresh plump blueberries. Using your kitchen torch, make small circles over the surface until the sugar melts and lightly browns.

Pasta e Fagioli with Spinach

Two posts in one day!

Today was miserable, it rained all day long.  When it rains there is nothing better than a big bowl of soup.  I am so excited about the fall.. cooler temperatures, sweater weather and getting to make soups. Soups are always so warm and inviting, plus there are always left overs!

Since I haven't made soup since last year I figured I would start with an easy one.  Pasta e fagioli with spinach.   It's a hearty soup but not heavy like cream based soups.  This is the soup my mom would make at least twice a month when I was living at home.

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil 

1 pkg Prosciutto, diced

1 md Onion Diced

3   Celery Ribs, diced

2   Carrots, diced

1 tbs  minced garlic

2 tsp  minced fresh rosemary

1 tsp  minced fresh thyme   

2 cans cannellini beans, drained 

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes, not drained 

2 cartons (32 oz) chicken stock
1 cup water

1 cup ditalini pasta

¼ cupgrated parmesan cheese

6oz  Baby Spinach

pinchof red pepper flakes

Turn thestovetop on medium-high and in a dutch oven or stock pot add the olive oil andthe prosciutto.  Cook until crispy, thenremove and put the prosciutto aside. 

Keep the oilin the pan, reduce your heat to medium and add your mirepoix (onion, celery,and carrots), garlic, rosemary and thyme. Cook until the vegetables are tender but make sure that your onions donot brown.

Add yourbeans, crushed tomatoes, stock and water to the pot.   Increase the heat until the soup starts toboil.  Reduce the heat and add yourpasta, simmer until the pasta is cooked. This should take about 8 – 10 minutes.

Finally addyour spinach, prosciutto, cheese and red pepper.  This is also a time to check and see if youneed to add any salt or pepper. Simmer for another 5 – 10 minutes and serve.

Easy Guinness Pulled Pork

Bill has been watching BBQ shows lately and has pretty much been salivating over it ever since.

I knew it would make him happy so I thought I would surprise him.  I've never made pulled pork and well for my first attempt it was pretty tasty.  Rather than pour water in the crock pot I added Guinness to give my own twist.

So many uses for Guinness... it is a magical beer.

Ingredients
2 1/2 lb  Pork Shoulder
Pork Rub
1 lg  Onion
3 cloves of Garlic
1 can of Guinness
16 oz  bottle BBQ Sauce

I first thawed out my pork shoulder then covered it with a pork rub. I used sublime swine to coat all sides of the shoulder, covered it and let it sit in the refrigerator over night.

The next morning I got up bright and early, chopped up the onion in big chucks and smashed the garlic.  I put that on the bottom of my crock pot.  I added my pork, the Guinness and then put the lid on and turned the crock pot on high for 4 hours since I was home.

At the 4 hour mark I check my meat and it was extremely tender so I discarded the onions, garlic and most of the guinness.  I shredded the meat put it back in the crock pot and covered it with BBQ Sauce. I used Sweet Baby Rays.

I turned the cock pot to low and left it on for another 3 hours then lowered to warm until we were ready to eat.

Easy Pork Gyoza

This weekend was full of activities so I didn’t cook at all, but I still wanted to pop a recipe up on the site. I made my pork goyza a few weeks ago for porch time so I wanted to share this recipe. 

They are pretty easy to make and very tasty but they are time consuming.  If I can I try to freeze them but we always seem to eat them in one shot.

Easy Pork Goyza

Ingredients

1 beaten egg                          

1/4 c finely chopped onion

3/4 c chopped water chestnuts

3 chopped green onion

1 tbs soy sauce                                        

2 tsp fresh gingerroot                                           

1/2 tsp sugar                                          

1/4 tsp salt                                               

1/8 tsp white pepper                                           

1/4 tsp garlic                                          

1/2 pound ground pork                   

1 package goyza wrapper*

Vegetable Oil for cooking

*You can also use the square wonton wrappers if you can’t find the round.

Directions

Combine egg, onion, water chestnuts, soy sauce, gingerroot, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add ground pork and chopped shrimp; mix well.

To make the goyza, take one of the wrappers in the palm of your hand and then add about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of the filling.

Folding for Round Goyza Wrapper

Wet the edges of the wrapper and fold it over like you are making a taco. Starting from once side start sealing the wrapper by making pleats.  Make sure the two sides are sealed by pressing folded pleat tightly against the flat edge.  This will ensure the filling does not come out.

Folding for Square Wonton Wrapper

Wet the edges of the wrapper and fold corner to corner so you have a half triangle.  Then wrap the two ends together crossing in the middle of the dumpling. Make sure the two sides are sealed so that the filling doesn’t come out. 

To cook the goyza heat about 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Put gyoza in the pan and fry on high heat until the bottoms become brown.  You should be able to heat about 6 – 8 in a pan at a time if you use a large skillet.

Turn down the your heat and add about 1/4 cup of water in the pan. Cover the pan and steam the gyoza on low until the water is gone and cooked through.

I usually serve this with a sweet chili sauce.

Enjoy!

Philadelphia Style Guinness Ice Cream

Well it's Labor Day weekend and the end of Summer 2012. What better way to end the summer than to make ice cream, and not just any ice cream.... Guinness Ice Cream.

Oh yes that delicious creamy dark stout mixed with a dark chocolate in a Philadelphia Style base.

Not familiar with Philadelphia Style Ice Cream? "Philadelphia Style" is ice cream created using cream and sugar to create the base rather than the "French Style" custard based ice creams which include eggs.  I highly recommend giving it a try. While I've never made homemade ice cream using the French style I personally think the Philadelphia is just as good if not better.

Plus I'm always scared of getting pieces of egg of I don't temper them properly. Yuck

Philadelphia Style Guinness Ice Cream

2 cups  Heavy Cream
2 cups  Lights Cream
1 cup   Sugar
1 cup   Guinness Beer
1 tbs    Real Vanilla Extract
4 oz     70% Bittersweet Dark Chocolate
Pinch of Salt

Place chocolate in a medium metal bowl. Set bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir chocolate until melted and smooth. Set melted chocolate aside; 

Warm the cream, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.  You want to get the temperature to about 170 degrees.

Pour the cream mixture over the melted chocolate, then stir until the chocolate is incorporated. Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in Guinness.
You will need to let the mixture cool before you put into your ice cream machine. Once it's ready follow your ice cream makers instructions.