One of my favorite tv chefs premiered his new cooking show last night - Michael Symon's Symon's Suppers.  We've loved watching him on Iron Chef and pretty much anything else he's on.  Not only does he cook like we do - lots of flavor - but he's got such a fantastic personality.  Connie and I were both exhausted and staying up until 10:00 was a major effort.  I know, what babies!  Let me tell you, the show was well worth it!  He made an incredible roasted chicken with salsa verde.  Along side he did fried smashed potatoes.  Oh, and a chocolate pudding cup.  Dessert is not our bag.  Roasted chicken is.  And, smashed potatoes.  Since we'd not been to the grocery in more than two weeks, it was time.  We bought a chicken and some parsley and tarragon.  Everything else we had. 

Now, Friday night is date night for us.  Connie used to play bridge on Fridays but has switched to Mondays.  It means we actually get to either spend a lovely evening at home or go someplace fun like First Friday - a wander around some art galleries.  Since we were supposed to have freezing rain staying home sounded like a MUCH better idea.  And, since I didn't have to be at the office at the crack of dawn it didn't matter when we ate.  Time to roast a chicken.

What did we think?  This went together really easily.  I actually made some gravy from the pan juices.  We didn't need it.  Let me tell you about the salsa verde.  Connie loves mustard.  I love gravy.  No, in both cases the word is LOVE.  Connie says, "This is almost as good as mustard."  I'm pretty much doing a Meg Ryan on my side of the table.  The salsa verde is seriously good.  It could be used for many dishes.  Connie was worried that it'd be too spicy with the jalapeno and crushed red pepper.  Nope.  It was perfect.  The only problem was the recipe called for the chicken to be pulled from the oven to rest when the thigh reached 160F.  That meant the legs and breast were undercooked.  I wound up putting the roughly chopped chicken back in the oven for 12 minutes to cook it through.  My advice would be to aim for 170F.  When we finally had fully cooked chicken, we loved this dish.  Another note - the recipe called for salting the chicken then refrigerating it overnight.  I didn't have that luxury.  I don't think it suffered a bit for the lack of the overnight salting.

Along with the chicken, Michael deep fried smashed potatoes in bacon fat.  He said that was his favorite fat. I declared mine to be duck fat so mine were drizzled with duck fat and roasted.  They wound up brown and crispy and fantastic.   They're very easy to make.  Just boil potatoes until they're smashable, smash them, drizzle them with duck fat.  Then, top with some salt and freshly ground pepper and roast them for about 20 minutes. 

Connie would like for me to try them deep fried in duck fat.  I don't think that's on the menu.  But, drizzled and roasted.  Absolutely!

Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

4-5 pound chicken
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded
2 fresh bay leaves
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small onion, quartered
1 small bunch fresh thyme
2 T olive oil

for the salsa verde:

1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 T capers, chopped
2 T fresh tarragon, chopped
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
2 anchovies, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
grated zest and juice of one lemon
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 shallot, minced
salt and freshly ground pepper


Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425. Rinse and dry the chicken.  Gently lift the skin from the breast.  Tuck in lemon slices and the bay leaves. 

Into the cavity put the rest of the lemon slices, the onion quarters, the garlic cloves and the thyme.  (I left the thyme out and didn't miss it in the least.) 

LIberally salt the chicken.  Slather the chicken with the olive oil.  Bake it at 425F until the temperature in the thigh measures 170F.

While the chicken is roasting make the salsa verde.  Combine all of the ingredients and set aside to allow the flavors to marry. 

Remove the chicken from the oven and allow it to sit for 10 minutes so the juices can redistribute.  Serve with the salsa verde.

Peanut Noodle Salad

Sadly, I'm not posting yet about Strawberry Torte. Or any of the other wonderful dishes or adventures from the last week. You see, I left my good camera at my step-son's house. He sent it to me today so shortly I'll be able to share some wonderful photos. For now, though, let's chat about Peanut Noodle Salad. My menu said we were going to have Pork Normandy tonight. Pork with pears in a lovely brandy cream sauce. Had I fixed that tonight it would've been pork with pear flavored rocks in a brandy cream sauce. Not the best use of the last pears from our CSA. So, I pulled out tomorrow's lunch recipe and we had it for dinner.

What did we think? Wow, this was super easy to put together. And, the taste was fantastic. The original recipe from foodtv didn't call for the chicken but I knew I'd have part of one leftover from another meal so it only made sense to use it and turn this into a meal. I got a good serving of my dark pigmented vegetables. And, there's a bit left that we can arm-wrestle over for lunch tomorrow. LOL, I'll probably let Connie win.
One note here - Blogger has changed their format. The new one is lousy. My photos won't load correctly. I can't use colored fonts, change the font type or change the font size. I'll be looking for a new home for my blog. Any ideas fellow foodies?
Peanut Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

8 oz rice vermicelli noodles (I used linguine because that's what I had)
6 T fresh lime juice
3 T low-sodium soy sauce
3 T creamy peanut butter
3 T packed dark brown sugar
3 T vegetable oil
1 c roughly chopped chicken breast
1 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 c sliced scallions
1/2 c roughly chopped fresh basil (the frost got ours, I used jarred)
1/2 c roughly chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 c roughly chopped fresh mint (ditto frost and jarred)
1/3 c salted roasted peanuts

Directions:

Whisk together the peanut butter and three tablespoons of the lime juice. Whisk the other dressing ingredients in. Cook and drain the pasta. Toss the pasta with the dressing and the other ingredients. adapted from foodtv

Mediterranean Stacks

I am not the one you want going to the grocery store.  On the other hand, if you like fun stuff that's not on the list, then maybe you do want me going to the grocery store.  Just saying. 


On Sunday, we went to Thomas' funeral.  He was Auntie Deb's fiance.  Yes, it's complicated.  As with a lot of families these days we're a rather blended family.  Deb is my sister-in-law's older sister.  As in Pam who's married to the brother John who lives in Indy.  My other brother John lives in Orlando.  Yeah, reminds me of Bob Newhart too.  One's a full brother, the other is a step-brother.  They're both wonderful guys and I'm very lucky to have them as brothers.  As for Deb and Pam, we've known each other since we were knee-high to a grasshopper.  They lived a block down the street.  Went to the same schools, went to the same church.  So, I introduce Deb and her folks as my sister-in-law and my in-laws because that's what they are to me. 


On the way to the funeral I read the latest Rachael Ray Everyday magazine.  There were loads of great recipes and I  tore out probably 20 pages.  I'd kind of figured that after the funeral the whole fam would want to go out for dinner.  Wasn't happening.  Which was really a good thing because I was a bit wiped out after the trip to Columbus to see David, Kara, Bradley and Rosie.  I just wanted to go home and cook a good dinner.  Now, because I figured the fam would want to go out for dinner, I didn't put anything on the menu for Sunday.  All of the sudden, dinner was whatever I wanted it to be. 


The list of things to use up included tomatoes and goat cheese.  Rachael Ray Everyday had a great recipe for Mediterranean Stackers with both of those in there.  Perfect.  Now, I guess it's time to finish the first thought of this blog.  In order to make the Mediterranean Stackers, I needed an eggplant.  And, it'd be easier to buy a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts than it would be to thaw and bone a couple.  Oh, and I'd found a great blackberry recipe for a drink.  That meant we needed to stop at Marsh on the way home.  We put all the things we needed in the cart and went to the dog and cat food aisle to stock up for some of the furry kids.  Then, I headed the wrong direction.  Connie says, "Where are you going now?" Marsh has a wonderful bin of discount books - including cookbooks.  I was heading straight that way.  He rolled his eyes.  I forged on.  In the bin I found a great book called 3 Step Cooking with Flavor by McCormick.  The herb and spice folks.  I know they do a good job because I get their email recipes.  Into the cart the cookbook went.

Finally we were home and out of our funeral attire.  Connie was fixing cocktails and I was working on dinner.  The title of this really should have been "How to Take a Five Ingredient Dish and Turn It Into Something Much More Complicated."  Don't get me wrong.  Rach's original recipe sounded good.  It just sounded a little blah.  So, I kicked it up a bit. 

What did we think?  This was very good.  All the flavors played well together.  Using a chicken cutlet meant a perfect amount of meat.  And the marinade was perfect.  I'm not sure which marinade will be next but I can guarantee this new cookbook will get used a lot.  The only thing I'd change is that I'd make the eggplant slices thicker.  It got a bit lost.  There's a lot going on here all at once.  I decided to grill as much as I could to cut down on the mell of a hess in the kitchen.

Mediterranean Stackers

Ingredients:

For the chicken:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced horizontally to make cutlets
1/2 c olive or vegetable oil
1/4 c Dijon mustard
2 T  Italian seasoning
1/2 t garlic powder

For the eggplant:
1 eggplant, cut into 1/2" slices, lengthwise
2 T olive oil
1 T Italian seasoning
1/2 t crushed red pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
3 oz fresh herbed goat cheese at room temp





For the tomatoes:
1 large beefsteak tomato or several smaller tomatoes
olive oil
1 T capers
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot

For the bread crumbs:
2 thick slices coarse Italian bread, torn into pieces
1 T olive oil
garlic powder

Directions:

Slice the eggplants.  The recipe calls for peeling them but I rarely do so.  Put the slices in a colander and sprinkle them with salt. 

Allow them to drain for about 30 minutes.

Mix the marinade for the chicken.  Cut the breasts in half horizontally to make cutlets.

Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating and the eggplant is draining, get the rest of your ingredients ready:

Slice the tomatoes.  You'll want one slice per stack plus a cup or more of chopped tomato.  I used four fist-sized tomatoes and one smaller one.

If your goat cheese has herbs in it already, great.  If not, mix in some herbs.  We used smoked goat cheese and mixed in a small sprig of rosemary, a couple of sprigs of globe basil and two large sprigs of oregano - all the herbs were chopped very finely. 

Prepare the oil for brushing the eggplants.  I mixed olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic and crushed red pepper.

Prepare the bread crumbs.  Heat the olive oil to shimmering in a large skillet.  While it's heating, process the bread until it's in large crumbs.   Some of the crumbs will be 1/4" wide.  When the oil is sizzling, add the bread crumbs and sprinkle them with the garlic powder. 

Stir regularly so they don't burn.  You want the crumbs to be nice and crispy.

In a small skillet, heat some more olive oil - about a tablespoon.  Add the finely minced garlic and the chopped shallot. 

Saute until they're slightly browned.  Add the chopped tomatoes and their juice and the capers.

In a medium skillet, saute the tomato slices until they're warm and softened. 

You don't want to get them too done or they'll fall apart when you try to take them out of the skillet.

Now, it's time to grill.  The eggplant may take longer than the chicken.  Brush both sides of the eggplant with the red pepper oil.  Grill it on direct heat.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade.  Grill the chicken. 

It's time to make stacks...

Put a slice of eggplant on the plate. 

Schmear goat cheese on it.  Top that with a chicken cutlet.  Top the cutlet with a tomato slice

then a bit of the tomato sauce.  Sprinkle a generous amount of bread crumbs over the top.

Baked Greek Chicken

Typically by Sunday afternoon I have the menu made for the week.  That wasn't the case last week.  I mean, how exciting is it when the menu consists of Sunday evening and Wednesday evening?  We met some friends for the two for one fish and chips at Claddaugh's, I hosted a colleague's long-term care seminar and I'm teaching a Social Security seminar.  Not much home time last week.  So, I did very little to prepare other than tear a few recipes out of magazines on the drive to and from the office.  One of those proved to be a total winner.  It was very easy to put together and tasted fantastic.  Oh, and the super double bonus was that I had all the ingredients on hand.  No trip to the grocery required.  Connie could make his slices of happiness while these chicken breasts merrily baked away in the oven.

Baked Greek Chicken

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
1 10 oz box spinach, thawed and drained
 freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 c panko bread crumbs
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
1 t dried oregano
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet.  Saute the diced onion and 2 large garlic cloves until softened. 

In another small skillet, melt the butter with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the panko, oregano and one large clove of garlic, finely minced.  Stir until well browned. 

MIx the onion and garlic mixture with the spinach, nutmeg and 1/2 c of the crumbled feta cheese. 

Put the spinach mixture into an ovenproof baking dish.  Top with the chicken breasts.

Top with the other 1/2 c of feta cheese then the browned bread crumbs.

Bake at 425 until the chicken breasts register 160-170 degrees, about 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let them rest for 10 minutes. 

adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray