Meat on a stick

Food on a stick is generally a good thing. I actually struggle to think of something served on a stick that I don't like. Perhaps the best example is satay. Whether its pork, beef, or chicken, meat on a stick is a pretty easy to prepare and a great vehicle for good sauce. I made this recipe last night to bring to a party and spent quite a bit of time finding a recipe for peanut sauce. I actually made one version of it on Friday and was very disappointed by the results. I threw it out on Saturday morning and started over. The second time I decided to adjust a recipe I had made before from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest that is used for a Broccoli and Tofu Stir Fry (I highly recommend - both the cookbook and the recipe) to suit a dipping sauce. It worked beautifully.

Chicken Satay with Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

4 - 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 in fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp honey

16 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes

In a bowl combine soy sauce, ginger, honey and water. Slice chicken breasts into 4 slices each. Place in a sealable Tupperware and add marinade. Cover and let sit, refrigerated, for 1 hour up to a day. Brush a roasting pan with oil and preheat broiler. Skewer chicken strips, moving the skewer front and back to assure that chicken stays attached. Lay on the roasting pan and broil about 2-3 minutes each side or until the chicken is cooked through.

Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

3/4 cup peanut butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp molasses

6 tbsp rice or cider vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/8 - 1/4 cup light coconut milk (adjust for consistency)

Blend all the ingredients using a food processor or blender. Let sit in the refrigerator for about an hour before serving to allow flavors to meld.

Pozole, Posole

Two day effort went into tonight's soup. Yesterday, I roasted a chicken and made broth with the carcass and was all prepared to cook Jay's favorite, posole, for dinner. Unfortunately Jay had to be an adult and work late and I wasn't about to cook posole for just myself... So I waited till tonight for the preparation. There are of course a multitude of variations. There is Mexican stylepozole, served with a clear broth, and New Mexican style posole with either green or red chili. For those of you unfamiliar with New Mexican cuisine, it seems to pretty much revolve around one central choice: green or red. Green is milder and usually involves some diced cooked chili similar to a fresh pablano, while red is hot and spicy and usually ground into a powder. New Mexico red chili powder is far better than any chili powder I have ever used and quite honestly, I am not sure I could ever go back to the other stuff. When we are in New Mexico we buy it in bulk at the Albertson's (of all places) and use it for the rest of the year. So obviously, given the choices, I made my posole with red chili. It was delicious, easy and very, very satisfying:

Posole:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, minced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 tbsp New Mexican red chili powder

8 cups chicken broth

4 cups cooked posole (in cans available at many grocery stores)

2-3 cups shredded chicken

salt to taste

In a soup pot heat oil and cook onions over medium heat until just soft. Add garlic and jalapenos and cook for 3 or 4 minutes more. Add spices and cook for 2 minutes to release flavors. Add broth, cooked posole, and cooked chicken and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook 10 minutes until all the flavors are melded. Salt to taste.

Mexican Leftovers

So today I set about making a "traditional" Mexican tortilla soup. I would need to look no further than that PBS star and my own personal hero, Rick Bayless. How this man remains so thin despite frying every ingredient in oil is beyond me, but nonetheless he knows his Mexican cooking. So of course I consulted his Authentic Mexican cookbook when attempting this quintessential Mexican soup. Turns out that Tortilla Soup, in its traditional form, is quite simple. A rich broth over whatever happens to be leftover in your pantry. Essential is the stale strips of tortilla, fried and placed at the bottom of the bowl to await a brothy bath. In addition to the tortilla, Rick recommends a combination of fried dried chilies (he suggests pasillas, I used guajillo because I had them leftover from a mole we made recently) and simple cheese (queso fresco if you can get it, monterey jack will work). To make a more hearty meal (which was my goal) he suggested adding chicken. Given that the soup was meant to use up whatever was left in the pantry I felt that it would be okay to remain a traditionalist when it came to the broth (and of course the fried tortillas) but allow for a little more creativity when it came to the rest of the "garnishes". In that spirit I decided to cook up our weekly chicken gold with some onions and dried chilies, dice monterey jack and finish it off with some fresh cilantro. If I were to do it again I would actually use fresh chilies, perhaps some pablanos, rather than the dried, but other than that it was perfection:

Tortilla Soup

4-5 tbsp canola oil

1 small and 1 medium onion thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, whole

1 cup diced tomatoes from a can

6 cups good broth (I used homemade turkey, but chicken or veggie would work)

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast sliced into 1/2 in chunks

3 dried guajillo chilies thinly sliced

4 stale corn tortillas cut into strips

1/4 lb monterey jack cheese, cubed into 1/2" cubes

1 large lime, cut into wedges

fresh cilantro, chopped

hot pepper sauce (optional)

To make broth, heat 2 tbsp canola oil in a skillet and fry medium onion and garlic 10-15 minutes on medium low heat until golden brown. Blend in a food processor along with diced tomatoes. Add 1 tbsp canola oil to pan and return tomato mixture to pan. Heat over medium heat 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally until the color had darkened. Scrap into the bottom of a soup pot and add a cup of the broth. Whisk together and heat to a slow boil. Add remaining stock, bring to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes. Salt to taste and set aside.

To prepare "garnish", heat 1 tbsp canola oil in a skillet and add small onion and dried chilies. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the chilies are slightly softened. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink. Salt to taste and set aside.

Add remaining oil to the skillet and fry tortillas strips (or use a nonstick pan). This took me a good 10 minutes in the nonstick skillet on medium heat, but the point is really just to dry them out as best you can.

To assemble soup, add a few cubes of the cheese, some of the chicken chili mixture, and a few tortilla strips to the bottom of a bowl. Pour broth over until it just covers garnish. Sprinkle with cilantro and squeeze a lime wedge over the soup. If desired you can spice the soup up with some hot pepper sauce.

Fills the Belly

For the past two or three months or so, Jay and I have been trying to eat more meat (he is now officially an almost vegetarian as well). What this means is that every Sunday (at least when we are in town) Jay and I stroll down to the Ballard Farmer's Market (one of the few year-round, rain or shine markets in town) to buy what amounts to chicken gold. Free range, organic, coddled, pampered, and preened chicken that pretty much costs as much as my weekly unemployment check per pound. With this edible gold I made pretty much the quintessential winter soup, Chicken and Dumplings. After the meal Jay and I both noted feeling notably warmer. Lovely.

Like the tomato soup, I had never made Chicken and Dumplings so I consulted Epicurious and then altered the recipe to suit. I made the soup with homemade turkey stock that has been sitting in my freezer since Thanksgiving. Otherwise I altered the recipe by making the dumplings a little more waist friendly (replacing cream with nonfat yogurt and making them with whole wheat flour). When chopping your veggies, go ahead and leave them big, there is something very satisfying about big meaty chunks of carrots.

Chicken and Whole Wheat Dumplings

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced in thick slices

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 med onion, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

4 celery stalks, chopped

1 small parsnip, chopped

two sprigs fresh thyme

3 bay leaves

5 cups poultry stock (chicken is best but turkey works fine if you have it)

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup nonfat plain yogurt

1/2 cup lowfat milk

In a wide soup pot, heat olive oil. Dredge chicken pieces in flour and brown them on both sides. Remove them from the pot and set aside. Add onions to pot and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add remaining veggies, thyme and bay leave and cook for another few minutes. Add stock and chicken. Bring to a boil and lower heat. Simmer for 15 minutes.

While you wait, combine the first six ingredients for the dumplings. Mix the yogurt and milk together. This mix should be about the consistency of buttermilk, add extra water or milk if it is too thick. Before you ready to add the dumplings to the chicken and vegetables, salt and pepper them to taste. Add the milk and yogurt mix to the dry ingredients and mix until just wet. Drop the dumplings into the simmering broth in heaping tablespoons (about 12 or so). Continue to simmer 6-8 minutes then flip the dumplings. Simmer until the dumplings are cooked to your liking (I prefer my dumplings a little doughy). Enjoy!