Earlier this week, my family grilled up chicken for our family dinner.  A friend joined us and it was very tasty.  Looking into my fridge, I was thinking what I could make for dinner tonight using the left over chicken: two drumsticks and a breast. In this tight economy, people are using every resource they have to stretch their dollar.  When I lived alone, I was able to make five dinners from one whole chicken.  I would cut it up into wings, drumsticks, thighs, breasts, and back.  Each breast was a meal in itself (2), the wings made a light dinner (1),  and the drumsticks and thighs were combined for other dinners (2).  I would save the back of the chicken.  Once I had two of them, I would stew the backs to make chicken stock that could be made into soup, stew, pilaf, or risotto.
I would even debone the backs for some additional meat to add into the stock. But, many times, eating leftover chicken time and time again can get boring.  There are several suggestions on the Web regarding left over recipes, but I thought I would post a pair of my favorites.

Chicken and Black Bean Stew (modified)

Ingredients:
Precooked chicken
1 cup of chicken stock
3 TB olive oil
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed 3 times
1 lb of carrots, cubed
1/2 lb green beans, cleaned, stemmed, and cut into 1 inch length
2 lbs of red potatoes, cubed
1 small onion or 1 leek, rough chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of chili powder (I prefer chipotle or ancho powder)
1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp of fresh ground pepper
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cut up the leftover chicken into pieces.  In a large pot, begin heating the oil.  Once heated, add the chicken to brown slightly, stirring occasionally and add the leeks or onions and the garlic.  Add enough water to cover the chicken.  While continuing to stir, add the black beans and carrots.  Continue to stir and simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the potatoes, stock, and the cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, and black pepper.  stir once to blend and cover the pot to continue to cook (about 15 minutes).  Stir and check the tenderness of the potatoes.  At this point, add the green beans and salt to the mixture and continue cooking for another 5-7 minutes.  Keep in mind, potatoes will often absorb the salt, so you should continue to taste the dish.

The  potatoes will thicken the dish turning it into a stew.  I really enjoyed serving this dish over rice.  Other items may be added to this recipe.  Stewed tomatoes may often be added giving this dish a “chili” like appearance.

Asian Chicken Soup

One of my family’s favorite recipes for the sick is my Asian influenced Chicken Noodle/Vegetable Soup.  The secret to this recipe is baby/young ginger root that can be acquired at various Asian markets.  It is sweeter than standard ginger and contains vitamins C, B6, B12, A, antioxidants, and beta carotene.  It’s tasty too.

1 quart chicken stock leftover chicken, deboned.
2 medium sized carrots
2 cloves of garlic
2 pieces of baby ginger, minced or sliced
1/2 cup of pea pods
1/4 cup of green onions, diced
1/4 cup of shelled edemade/ soybeans
Rice noodles or rice
Salt or pepper to taste

optional ingredients: red peppers, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, baby corn, mushrooms, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, cabbage, and cilantro.

Saute the chicken in a separate pan to slightly brown it before adding it to the broth.  Add the sliced up the carrots, baby ginger, green onions, and garlic.  Add these vegetables with the chicken and then add to the broth.  Keep the soup on a low simmer.

Add the noodles or rice and continue cooking until almost done.  Add the pea pods and the soybeans and any other green vegetables.  The rice or noodles should be done, but the green vegetables should be served el dente – cooked, yet crisp.  Season with salt and black pepper. This dish can become more colorful with the use of the optional vegetables and ingredients as well.  If it doesn’t cure you, it will certainly taste good and make you feel better.

Tags: Food, Hints, recipe

Now that winter is here, some of my favorite fruits – blood oranges, have come into season.  As well as Cara Cara oranges, I take great delight in zesting, juicing, and eating these dark, rich, and sweet citrus fruits.

Last weekend, I did some prep work in juicing and zesting several types of citrus including oranges (blood, navel, and Cara Cara), lemons, and limes.  It took several hours and the product  is now safely in my freezer for future use in cooking and baking.

During this process, I discovered an over abundance of blood oranges.   As someone who does not like to waste food, I had zested my share of blood oranges, but had more than enough juice.  I wanted to try something nice and light for dinner and came up with the recipe below.  I really hope you like it.

Blood Orange Ahi Tuna

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 (8 ounce) ahi tuna steaks
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups blood orange juice
1/2 teaspoon of blood orange zest

Directions
In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sear tuna on one side for about four minutes. Flip and sear other side for three and a half minutes, or until tuna is cooked to your satisfaction. Remove from skillet and allow to rest.

Return skillet to heat and slowly add the white wine. Scrape bottom of pan with spatula to remove any seared tuna bits from sticking to the pan. Reduce heat to medium and add shallot and garlic. Cook and stir until shallot is clear, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in blood orange juice. Boil until the liquid has reduced to half its original volume or until it thickens. Add tuna briefly to cook on each side.  Remove from heat.

Slice the tuna across the grain. Fan the slices out onto a place and drizzle with blood orange sauce.  Sprinkle the zest on the dish for garnish.

I enjoy this dish when the tuna is served on top of a bed of spinach greens.  Enjoy.

Tags: recipe

A fan of mine recently pointed out that I have not posted any fish or seafood dishes on my site.  My apologies; I’ve been distracted with the holidays, personal life, and my friend’s appearance on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America.

I have two favorite recipes both using trout:   Both dishes are easy to make, tasty, and low fat.  I really enjoy using trout as it is a mild tasting fish.  If it smells fishy, it may be past its prime.  Usually the high-end grocery stores carry fresh trout, but it is my experience one can buy fresh fish inexpensively by visiting an Asian market.

Although many professional chefs already know this, but many of my readers are not chefs, and, with the current economy, are finding ways to eat well without hurting the pocketbook.  I can buy fresh fish and seafood at Asian markets at a fraction of the cost at a seafood market or specialty store.  The exception to this suggestion are the coastline seafood markets.

For this recipe, you will need trout that is gutted and boned.  Although many stores can sell a fish that is dressed (innards removed), but many do not know how to bone a fish.  Before the recipe, I thought I would list directions on how to remove the bones of a fish prior to cooking.

1. Place the cleaned and dressed fish on cutting surface.
2. Hold the fish by the head (if the head is still attached; it doesn’t need to be) and slice into the fish behind the gill until you feel the knife touch backbone.
3. Turn the knife so it’s flat against the backbone, touching the ribs. The edge should face the tail.
4. Cut along the backbone through the fish from head to tail, under the fillet.
5. Turn fish over and repeat. At this point two sets of bones will remain in the fillet.
6. Cut away the rib cage bones, which will be visible, by sliding the edge of the knife between the rib bones and the meat of the fillet.
7. Pull out the smaller set of bones, called pin bones, that run through the center of the fillet.
8. Use your finger to feel for the pin bone tips sticking out of the fillet. Use tweezers or needle-nose pliers to grab the tips and pull them out.

After following the instructions above, your fish is ready to be cooked.  Not all recipes will call for deboning, but it will make the dish easier to eat.

Stuffed Trout with Lemon
4 pink trout, gutted and boned
1 fresh lemon
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup of fresh parsley
Kosher or sea salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)

Zest the lemon and pare away and discard the white pith of the lemon.   Slice the lemon and cut it up into small pits.  Mix the lemon and zest, garlic, parsley along with the salt and pepper.   Stuff each fish with some of the mixture and allow mixture to penetrate the fish prior to cooking (20 minutes).  Bake the fish for 15-20 minutes in an oven preheated to 400 degrees.  Serve hot or cold.

The next recipe is fun for camping or cooking out on the grill.

Planked Trout
Grill or campfire
4 pink trout, cleaned and dressed
1 fresh lemon
4 cloves of garlic, minced
Kosher or sea salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
4 Untreated oak or cedar planks (no more than a foot long and six inches wide)
Steel nails

Begin heating up the grill or start the campfire.

Zest and juice the lemon.  Add the minced garlic to the lemon juice.  While that sits for two minutes, slit the belly so that it goes from neck to tail and open the body cavity larger.  Using five nails, attach the the each fish to each board (one nail for the head, two nails for each side), this will open up the fish to expose the inside.

Using a spoon, drizzle the lemon juice and minced garlic mixture to the interior flesh of the fish and let it sit for 3 minutes.  Sprinkle fish with the lemon zest (reserving half of it for later), and sprinkle salt and pepper.

Place the planks so that the heat from the grill/fire can slow cook the trout.  The planks may have to be rotated 180 degrees for even cooking.  DO NOT LET THE PLANKS CATCH FIRE, as it will cause a loss of the fish.  Depending on the size of the fish, anywhere between 15-30 minutes, the fish should be done.  Serve with a nice white wine.

Tags: cooking, recipe

Chef Sameh Wadi, owner of Saffron Restaurant and Lounge, will appear on the Food Network’s ‘Iron Chef America’ on January 24, 2010 at 8 pm (CDT). At 25 years of age, Chef Wadi will be the youngest chef to have appeared on the Food Network show as well as the first chef from Minnesota.  In this episode, Chef Wadi will face Iron Chef Morimoto.

Chef Wadi flew to Kitchen Stadium in New York in July 2009 to tape the episode and has been sworn to secrecy about any specifics regarding the competition until now.  Competing on ‘Iron Chef America’ is just the latest in an impressive string of national and local achievements for the chef that opened his restaurant just three years ago at the age of 23. Last fall, Chef Wadi won City Pages’ annual Iron Fork competition. In June, he was invited to participate in the 24th annual Chefs’ tribute to Citymeals-on-Wheels at the Rockefeller Center in New York. Wadi was the only Midwest chef at this event working alongside such other notable chefs as Daniel Boulud, Alfred Portale and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. That same month Chef Wadi also competed in the Walker Art Center’s annual CuisineArt 2009: From Palette to Palate museum fundraiser where his dish won the Duchamp Award for best interpretation and was the overall favorite of guest of honor, Wolfgang Puck.

“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Chef Wadi while he was attending The Art Institutes International Minnesota for his Culinary Arts degree,” says Anjila K. Olsen (aka Alice the Cook).  “He was a great student and involved with the college’s American Culinary Federation Hot Food Team for several years and still continues to be involved with the college by participating in the school’s Professional Advisory Committee for the Culinary Arts program.  I am really excited for Sameh and can’t wait to see how he does.  It’s nice to know someone in the local food industry who has been getting noticed for their talent.”

Chef Wadi graduated from The Art Institutes International Minnesota in March 2004 and was recently nominated in the “2009 James Beard Foundation Award for Excellence” and was a semi-finalist for the category “Rising Star: A chef age 30 or younger who displays an impressive talent and who is likely to have a significant impact on the industry in years to come.”  Sameh owns Saffron Restaurant and Lounge, located at 123 N. 3rd Street in Minneapolis. Saffron Restaurant and Lounge was recently voted the “Best Middle Eastern Restaurant” by City Pages- the Best of the Twin Cities 2009.  He has appeared in numerous publications including METRO Magazine, Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine, Star Tribune, Minnesota Monthly, Vita.MN, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, and St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Tags: colleague, media