Simple Fish with a Fancy Relish

I love a three day weekend (of course who doesn’t)! For Memorial Day weekend we went up to Mentone with a few friends to relax and enjoy the nice the weather. As I mentioned in my last couple of posts May has been a really busy, fun month. It just seems like we have been going non-stop, so I told Russ earlier this week that while I love cooking I just didn’t have the time or energy to do any menu planning or shopping for this weekend. Being the sweet husband that he is he planned out all of the meals and did all of the grocery shopping. He also included eating out one night at Canyon Grill, one of our favorite restaurants! I had a delicious halibut that was pan sautéed and served with capers and lemons juice (piccata style). It was wonderful! The next day I was relaxing on the porch and reading my most recent copies of Cooking Light and Fine Cooking and found lots of recipes for halibut. Since I enjoyed my halibut so much at Canyon Grill I decided to put it on the menu for this week.

I decided to try the Fire-Roasted Pepper Relish from Fine Cooking and serve it over halibut. To make the relish you first roast the peppers. Now, I normally would roast my own peppers, but a friend of mine recently gave me a jar of fabulous fire-roasted red peppers, so I decided to use those tonight. Whether your roast your own or use jarred you slice the peppers into wide strips. Put them in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix everything together and let it sit while you cook the fish. Originally Russ was going to grill the fish outside, but since it was raining we decided to pan sauté it inside. I simply rubbed the fish with a little olive oil and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. I then got my sauté pan hot and put the fish side down and let it cook for several minutes on that side. I then flipped it (so the skin side is down) and let it cook a few more minutes. I served the relish on top of the fish with a side of roasted green beans.

I love roasted red pepper, olives, and capers, so it was no surprise that I loved the relish. It had a wonderful mix of shapes and sizes that gave great texture combined with the soft flakiness of the fish. I like that the mildness of the halibut was complemented by the bright flavors of the relish. Our only complaint was that the parsley didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the flavors and tasted a little off. I’ll be honest I am not sure if we didn’t just get a not so great, not so fresh bunch of parsley at the store (all the more reason I need to finish up my herb garden outside!). Either way, next time I think I will skip the parsley and use either cilantro or basil. All in all this was a delicious, simple, quick and easy meal that was perfect for a weeknight. Russ rates the halibut with the relish a 9. He said that it would have received a 10 had the parsley not been included.

Fire-Roasted Pepper Relish, Fine Cooking
Yields about 2 cups

Serve over grilled steak, chicken breast, or fish fillet such as halibut or swordfish. The recipe calls for both parsley and cilantro, but feel free to use other herbs like sliced chives or chopped basil.

3 red or orange bell peppers
¼ cup pitted Nicoise or Kalamata olives, halved
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, very roughly chopped
¼ cup fresh cilantro, very roughly chopped
2 Tbs. thinly sliced scallions
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. capers, rinsed
½ tsp. minced garlic
½ tsp. minced jalapeno or Serrano
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon plus a squeeze of lemon juice
Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prepare a hot gas or charcoal grill fire. Cut the tops and bottoms from the peppers and cut the peppers into 3 or 4 flat pieces, discarding the tops, seeds, and ribs. Grill the pepper sides and bottoms skin side down until blistered and charred all over; 6 to 8 minutes. Put the peppers in a bowl and cover with a plate. Let sit until cool enough to handle. Peel the charred skin and discard. Don’t be too concerned if flecks of skin remain attached. Cut the peppers into bite-size pieces or wide strips.

Put the pepper pieces in a medium bowl and add the remaining ingredients, stirring well and seasoning to taste with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

Make ahead: The relish keeps well in the refrigerator in a sealed container for at least a week. It’s best to make it a couple of hours ahead to allow the flavors to develop.

Comforting Chicken Casserole

Not quite a year ago Sumner called me and asked what I thought about starting a Book Club. I love to read and to discuss books, so I was very excited thought it was a great idea! Sure enough there were several other people who felt the same way and shortly thereafter the Edgewood Book Club was underway. (It is an open Book Club, so new members are welcome anytime. If you are interested in joining just email me.) About every six weeks we get together at one of the members homes and eat, drink a glass of wine, and discuss the most recent book. I have really enjoyed the camaraderie and reading books that I may not have picked out on my own.

This week it was my turn to host and therefore I was responsible for the main course. We have been really busy lately and I had the Bachelorette on Monday and a meeting on Tuesday night, so I needed a dish that could be made ahead and wouldn’t take a lot of time or work to make. Russ suggested Chicken Tetrazzini which can be made ahead of time, but is still a fair amount of work and a little time consuming. I talked to Mom and she mentioned one of her casseroles, Chicken Spectacular. I don’t tend to make a lot of casseroles, so I tend to forget that my Mother has lots of wonderful casserole recipes that I grew up eating and find just as yummy and comforting now as I did then. Sometime soon I need to go copy more of Mom’s casserole recipes down and give them a try.

To make Mom’s Chicken Spectacular you start by boiling chicken breasts (I used bone in, skin on breasts) in water until they are just cooked through. Then remove them from the water, let them cool, and shred the chicken. Next cook the curry rice by using the chicken stock from cooking the chicken instead of water. Once the rice is cooked, combine the chicken and other ingredients in a large bowl and mix until combined. Then spread the mixture into a casserole dish and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes to one hour or until warm all the way through.

The Chicken Spectacular was wonderful! It not only worked well for my hectic schedule this week, but it was tasty, filling, warm and true comfort food. Everyone at book club seemed to enjoy it and Russ and I plan to polish off the leftovers for lunch this week. The combination of rice, chicken and green beans is excellent and the curry from the rice gives the dish a real warmth and depth to it. Be sure and include the water chestnuts as the crunch they add really balances out the soft texture of the dish. The only change I would make next time is to add one more can of green beans. I don’t think you have to, but I would prefer a few more beans in it. This may require additional cream of celery or mayonnaise to be added to keep the consistency and prevent it from being too dry. This was very yummy and it would be great to make ahead and freeze if you want to stock your freezer. Russ rates the casserole a 9.

Mom’s Chicken Spectacular

Ingredients:
Chicken (3 to 4 breasts depending on the size), cooked and shredded
1 can Del Monte seasoned French green beans, drained (I plan to use 2 cans next time)
1 small box of curried rice
1 can of water chestnuts, sliced and cut into quarters
3 to 5 Tablespoons chopped onion
1 can of cream of celery soup
¾ to 1 cup of mayonnaise
1 medium size jar of pimento, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the chicken in water. Once it is cooked, remove it from the water, allow to cool, and shred. Use the water from cooking the chicken to cook the rice following the directions on the package (just replacing water with the chicken stock). Once the rice is cooked, combine all ingredients, and mix until they are combined. Spread the mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 40 minutes to one hour or until it is warm all the way through. Bake uncovered, however, check it periodically and if it is getting too brown on top then cover the dish with aluminum foil for the remaining baking time.

Crawfish Etouffee

I know I have eaten crawfish before Russ and I started dating, but I really can’t remember where or when or any details about it. Since Russ and I started dating I have eaten a lot more crawfish. We have had them at festivals, at home, and I am pretty sure we have eaten them at every Cajun restaurant in Birmingham. For the past two years we have had a small crawfish boil at our house, however, this year with both Russ and I turning 30 we decided to do a little bigger crawfish boil and make it a joint birthday party too. My parents hosted it at their house, Russ’ parents’ brought the drinks, we invited friends and family, and Russ boiled a lot of crawfish. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed lots of yummy crawfish!

One of the things I love about having a crawfish boil is leftover crawfish. We ended up with quite a few leftover crawfish this year which I was really excited about… until Russ and I had to peel them all… Since we were hosting The Bachelor (now Bachelorette) at our house on Monday I decided to make crawfish etouffee for dinner. I have made it once before and used a recipe of Emeril’s that I found on the Food Network site. I didn’t have a lot of time to look around at other recipes, so I decided to use it again.

To make the etouffee you start by making the roux. You melt the butter and the whisk the flour in and continue stirring until it is a warm peanut butter color. Then you add the chopped celery, onion, green pepper, garlic, bay leaves, and fresh thyme to it. Mix this together and let it cook until the vegetables have softened. Next add the stock, tomatoes, salt, crushed red pepper, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce and bring it to a boil. For my stock I actually cooked a few shrimp (peel on) to add to the etouffee in case anyone didn’t care for crawfish. So, the water I cooked the shrimp in I let cool a little and used it as my stock. If I hadn’t had any shrimp or fish stock then I would have used chicken stock and I think it would have worked just fine. Once you bring it to a boil you skim the surface and then reduce the heat and let it simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes. Be sure and stir it every now and then. Next add the crawfish (and / or shrimp), lemon juice, green onions, and parsley and let it cook for about 20 minutes uncovered and stirring periodically. Last add the remaining butter and stir to combine. Serve over white, steamed rice.

This is a great way to use leftover crawfish and while there is a fair amount of chopping and it does cook for a while you can do other things while it is cooking making it not too labor intensive of a meal. I love the texture of etouffee with all the chopped veggies and the little crawfish tails and the flavor from all the spices and the kick from the hot sauce. This recipe definitely has some heat to it, but once you put it over the rice it really does take some of the heat away. I put several bottles of hot sauce out on the table, so that those who like it even hotter could add more to their liking. This was a yummy meal and I look forward to using the rest of the crawfish that we froze in the near future. Russ rates the etouffee a 9.

Dinner at Home

Russ and I have had a really busy schedule lately, so nights at home have been almost nonexistent. We’ve been celebrating Russ’ birthday, watching the Bachelor with our Bachelor group, various meetings at night, sewing class (that’s me, not Russ, and Sumner and it is so fun!), celebrating Russ’ birthday some more (I mean it is a big one and don’t worry we are celebrating it again tomorrow night and the next night), and the list goes on and on. Even our weekends have been packed with going to out of town to a wedding and up to Mentone. Everything is something that we wanted to do and I wouldn't change a thing about any of our plans, but at the same time I have really started longing for those nights (especially weeknights) where we come home from work and have nothing more to do that cook dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, and relax together. Tonight I was supposed to have my last basic sewing class, but it got moved until next week. While I am loving my new hobby and hanging out with Sumner on a weekly basis I was beyond excited that this would allow for Russ, Cash, and me to have a plain, nothing special, regular, old night at home! I knew exactly what I wanted to do tonight… try out a new recipe using my tagine and relax with my boys.

Tonight’s recipe comes from a new source for me, one that I almost hesitate to tell you about as I am kind of embarrassed by it. You see I have this aversion to free recipes that just show up in the mail. In almost every way this blog has been a good and positive experience for me except one. What one you ask? Well, I’ll tell you… it has turned me into a little bit of a food snob. I’ve said it before here and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but at times and to be fair it is not very often I have a snobbish attitude towards certain things one of which is free recipes that show up in the mail. I am not sure why because it is not like I am some accomplished chef who can create amazing recipes, but still I somehow just can’t bring myself to try any of these recipes. Usually I just throw out any free recipes that show up in our mailbox, but there is one exception. I have received a sample issue of Cuisine at Home a couple times now and each time I not only flip through the issue, but also have something in it catch my eye. Usually it doesn’t strike my fancy enough for me to give it a try or want to subscribe to the magazine, but just enough for me to hang on to the sample issue for a week or so and then pitch it. A couple weeks ago I received another sample issue and I again thumbed through it and there was one dish that struck my eye for a couple reasons that I couldn’t forget about. The first was that it was a tagine recipe that they modified so you didn’t have to have a tagine to make it, but I do have the a beautiful, blue tagine that I am madly in love with so I just modified it back to a tagine recipe. The other reasons were the ingredients – kalamata olives, chickpeas, tomatoes, lemon wedges, cinnamon stick, and several fragrant ground spices – I mean my mouth starts to water just listing them off. This recipe kept sticking in my head, so despite my somewhat food snobbish tendencies towards free recipes that show up in the mail I decided to give this one a go.

To make the Spiced Chicken Thighs in Tomato Broth with Olives and Chickpeas you start by combining the spices in a small bowl. I normally am not good about measuring things out and go with eyeballing it, but this time I did measure it out and I think it is important in order to get a the balance of flavors that these spices bring to the dish. Next you rub it on the chicken and let it sit for a few minutes. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts simply because I had some that I need to use, but I do think that the thighs would work even better here. Next sauté the chicken for a few minutes on each side and then remove it and set it to the side. Then you sauté the onions for a few minutes and then add the ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, and cinnamon stick. Once you have sautéed these for a few minutes you add the white wine and tomato paste. Once the liquid has mostly cooked down you add the tomatoes, chicken broth, chickpeas, olives, honey, lemon, and bay leaf. Toss these together until they are all mixed in and then add the chicken to the top. Let this simmer for about 20 – 25 minutes. I served it over cous cous with a side of steamed broccoli.

First off let me say that I love my tagine and I have so much fun cooking with it (thank you sweet Russ!). Tonight’s dish really exceeded my expectations which were rather low since it was a free recipe from the mail even though I thought it looked good. The spices on the chicken were so fragrant that from the moment I started cooking the kitchen smelled warm and delightful. I really enjoyed this dish because it had several of my favorite ingredients in it, but I must say that what made the dish was the salty, meaty, a little tangy flavor and dark color of the kalamata olives. They not only looked beautiful in the dish, but they really did add great flavor. The dish as a whole had a nice balance of warm spices and heat from the cayenne and red pepper flakes. I do think I over cooked the chicken (which is why thighs would be even better in this dish), but all in all it was a very savory, delicious dish. Russ rates it a 9.

Spiced Chicken Thighs in Tomato Broth with Olives and Chickpeas, Cuisine at Home
Makes 4 thighs; Total time: about 45 minutes

Combine; Rub Over and Sauté in 1 T. Olive Oil:
1 t. paprika
1 t. ground coriander
½ t. ground cumin
¼ t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. cayenne
Pinch salt
4 chicken thighs (I used 2 breasts that I cut into medium size pieces)

Add and Sauté:
½ cup onion, diced
1 T. fresh ginger, minced
1 T. garlic, minced
¼ t. red pepper flakes
1 cinnamon stick

Deglaze with:
¼ cup dry white wine
1 t. tomato paste

Add and Simmer; Season with:
1 cup tomatoes, chopped (I used canned diced tomatoes)
½ cup chicken broth
½ cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I used the entire can)
½ cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1 T. honey
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 bay leaf
Sautéed chicken thighs

Finish with:
Chopped fresh parsley
Salt to taste (since I used canned tomatoes it didn’t need any extra)

Serve with:
Toasted pita bread (I served it over plain cous cous)

Combine spices and salt in a dish, then rub over chicken thighs; let stand about 5 minutes. Heat oil in a skillet (I used my tagine) over medium; add chicken, skin side down, and sauté until browned on both sides, 10 minutes total (less if using boneless, skinless breasts like I did). Remove chicken and pour off all but 1 T. drippings.

Add onion and sauté 3 minutes. Stir in the ginger, garlic, pepper flakes, and cinnamon stick; cook just until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Deglaze with wine and tomato paste, stirring to combine. Simmer until liquid evaporates.

Add tomatoes, broth, chickpeas, olives, honey, lemon, and bay leaf; stir to combine. Arrange reserved chicken on top, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low (low if using a tagine). Simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is reduced, 20 – 25 minutes.

Finish with parsley and salt just before serving. Serve with pita bread.

Crunchy Tacos

I have mentioned a couple of times how much Russ and I love Jamie Oliver’s new show on the Food Network, Jamie at Home. Well, what I may not have mentioned is that his show comes on at 8:30 am on Saturday mornings. While this may surprise some of you, I am actually a morning person on the weekends (I can’t explain it, but I am… only on the weekends), so I am usually up by 8:30 but Russ is usually still sleeping. It has become our routine to record Jamie at Home and watch it when we are both up and drinking coffee. We don’t have a Tivo or DVR though, so Russ records it to a blank DVD which he sets to start recording just a couple minutes before the show starts. For the first few times we watched Jamie at Home we kept catching the very end of Tyler Florence’s show Tyler’s Ultimate and every time his dishes looked amazing. So, Russ started recording both shows and now we watch both of them once Russ wakes up over a cup coffee – a perfect way to spend a Saturday morning!

One episode that we caught the end of was for his Ultimate Beef Tacos and they looked so delicious that we had to give them a try. Luckily I learned my lesson earlier this year here to always read the recipe through ahead of time. To make the beef tacos you have to sear the meat and then let it simmer for three hours. Well, on a weekend this would be fine, but on a weeknight we would end up eating after 9 pm… I had already gotten the ingredients at the store, so I decided that I would sear the meat at lunch and then let it cook slowly in the crock pot for the afternoon. To make the beef you salt and pepper it on each side and sear it in oil until it forms a crust on each side. While it is searing you add the onion and garlic and let them cook. At this point I then moved the beef, onion, and garlic into the crock pot and added the crushed tomatoes, water, ancho chili powder, cumin, cayenne, and bay leaves. I left the crock pot on low for the afternoon. When I got home I turned it off and let it cool. Then I shredded the meat. I saved the tomato liquid to put the leftover meat back in to keep it moist for lunch the next day. While the meat was cooling I made the salsa. You basically just toss all the ingredients into the food processor and let it go. The only change I made was to substitute two jalapeno peppers for the Serrano (only because the grocery store was out of Serranos). While I made the salsa and chopped some lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and avocado for toppings, Russ fried the tortillas. To make the taco shells you heat vegetable oil in a large pot. You then add one or two corn tortillas to the oil and fry them until they are golden brown. The recipe calls for you to then shape them to fold in half once they are out, but ours folded up on there own while cooking, so we just took them out and put them on paper towels and sprinkled them with salt.

These tacos were wonderful and a nice change from our typical quick and easy tacos with ground beef. The beef had great flavor and texture and while I think our meat got a little over cooked it was still tender once it was shredded. The tacos shells were fantastic with great crunch and flavor. Russ is usually not a fan of corn tortillas and I am usually not a fan of hard taco shells (as I think store bought ones taste stale and have a fake corn flavor… I’ll admit it I’m a food snob at times), we both loved these! The taco shells had great crunch and nice flavor and were the perfect size. We decided not to use the slaw and instead used lettuce, tomato, onion, salsa, shredded cheese, and avocado slices as toppings all of which went really well with the meat. The salsa was so simple to make and very fresh tasting with a nice flavor from the cilantro. The only problem was that the two jalapenos I used had a huge kick to them and made it almost too spicy for me. Next time I’ll cut back on the pepper at first and then taste and add more only if it needs it. This salsa is not a chunky one, but more of a pureed salsa that still has some texture to it (not perfectly smooth). We usually eat chunky salsa, but I have to say I loved the texture of this one and thought it worked really well with the shredded meat and crunchy taco shell. These tacos were a real winner! Russ rates them a 9.