My usual chili recipe is one I got from Penzey's Spices. After the onions and garlic are tender, you stir in the chili powder, cumin, and other spices so that they get to bloom in the oil before you add the liquid and tomatoes. The chili should simmer for 3 hours to develop the best flavor. I use that technique for both beef and vegetarian chilis.
Years ago I developed a chicken chili recipe that's made thick and rich with a can of refried beans.
Last night I opened a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and started dicing them to make a sort of fried rice dish. Since I had cooked 4 servings of rice, I wanted about a pound of chicken, and there were 2 lbs in the package.
I decided I might as well cook all the chicken, and freezer or refrigerate the leftovers. As I finshed the chicken fried rice I had planned for dinner, I threw the extra chicken and onion into a saucepan and made what I thought was a sort of half-assed chili. Not enough spices. Needed more veggies. Maybe I'll pick some stuff up at the grocery store and make it into a sort of tortilla soup...
But the roads were awful tonight, and we ended up having the half-assed chili all by itself. It was pretty good. This makes 4 rather small, but filling, servings.
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 small onion, diced
1 T olive oil
10 oz. can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 oz. tomato paste
2 tsp Penzey's medium-hot chili powder
~ 1/2 tsp ground cumin
White pepper to taste
Trim the chicken thighs of any large blobs of fat and cut into 1/2 inch or smaller pieces, removing any stringy tendons or membranes as you work. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat and cook the onion until translucent. Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally until the surface is browned in patches, and opaque everywhere else. The chicken will cook through in the next step.
Meanwhile, pour the Rotel into a 3 quart saucepan with a lid, and heat over medium until it begins to simmer. Add the chicken, chili powder, cumin, beans, and tomato paste. Stir until the tomato paste dissolves. (Don't taste right now -- the chicken might still be raw in the center.) Bring the chili to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot, and allow it to simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Add pepper and taste -- you probably won't need any salt.
Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheese.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Saturday, January 19, 2013
A Pumpkin Muffin worth sharing
My pumpkin muffins took a few tries. You can't make a gluten-free muffin tough by overbeating, but you can make it tough if you make the batter too dry. This was my third attempt, and the first worth sharing.
I like to make a cinnamon cream cheese sweetened with honey or brown sugar to go with these muffins, so they're only lightly sweet.
14.5 oz. can solid pack pumpkin
2 eggs*
70 grams oil (I used grapeseed)
185 grams lowfat buttermilk
30 grams golden flax meal
75 grams light brown sugar
75 grams sugar
1 1/2 t double-strength vanilla
100 grams teff flour
75 grams sorghum flour
2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
1 t kosher salt
2 t Penzey's Cake Spice
1 c. walnut pieces or pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas)
If you're using walnuts, break each walnut half into 6-8 pieces. Spread the broken walnuts or whole pumpkin seeds on a foil lined sheet, and toast in an oven or toaster oven until lightly browned and fragrant.
Preheat the oven to 350F, on the convection setting if you have one.
Weigh or measure all of the first group of ingredients into a mixing bowl. Weigh or measure the second group of ingredients into a separate container.
Beat the contents of bowl thoroughly with a spoon or dough whisk until everything is smooth and uniform. Stir in the dry ingredients gently at first, and then beat with the dough whisk. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and fold the batter over to make sure there aren't pockets of unmixed wet or dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the nuts or seeds.
Spray the cups of two non-stick muffin tins with 100% oil cooking spray. Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full. You won't have quite enough batter for all 24 cups. Wipe the cooking spray out of the empty cups, and wipe off any over spray on top of the pan.
Bake at 350F until the muffins are lightly browned firm enough to spring back when you gently poke one with a finger. This took me 18 minutes with the convection setting on -- it will probably take a little longer in a conventional oven.
Remove muffins to a wire rack too cool.
After they're completely cool, you can freeze leftover muffins and reheat them in the microwave or toaster oven.
*Egg sizes vary. Since I had been tweaking this recipe, I was weighing everything, and my 2 eggs totaled 115 grams.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Chicken and Black Bean Soup
1 lb dried beans, soaked overnight in brine
2T olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 ~ 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ~ 1 1/2 chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of salt
8 ~ 9 c. water
4 chicken thighs, skin removed
1/2 c. finely chopped carrot
1/2 c. finely chopped celery
1 1/2 ~ 2 T. Penzey's Chicken Soup Base
1 red bell pepper, diced into 1/4" pieces
1 green bell pepper diced into 1/4" pieces
15 oz. can petite dice tomatoes with celery and onions
Did you notice the "small dice" theme in the ingredients list? I wanted every spoonful of this soup to contain a couple beans and something else.
Cooking bean soup from scratch is not quick... I started the beans around 10:30 am, and declared the soup done at 2:00 pm. I was doing other stuff in the kitchen off and on, so it was easy to keep an eye on it. If you don't have other pots to watch, you and increase the heat after each ingredient is added, to bring the soup back to a simmer faster.
The black beans give the chicken a purpley-black tinge. If you find that idea unappetizing, you could probably make this much faster using 3 - 4 cans of rinsed black beans, in which case it will look more like a chicken soup with the occasional purple bean floating by.
Drain your soaked beans and rinse them.
In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender and just beginning to brown. Add the garlic, oregano and chipotle and stir to combine. Add your water and beans and turn the heat up to high to bring to a boil.
Once the pot boils, turn the heat down until the pot is just barely simmering. I've started using the small burners on my stove for simmering. Cover and cook until the beans are tender about halfway through.
Remove the skin from the chicken thighs and trim off any large pieces of fat. Nestle the meat into the bean pot. Cover and wait for it to return to a simmer (you can speed that up by turning up the heat), and then reduce heat so it just barely simmers for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken and place on a plate to cool.
Test your beans and make sure they're almost tender and creamy all the way through. If not, cook a little longer.
When the beans are almost ready, stir in the carrots, celery, and 1 1/2 T soup base. Simmer until the vegetables and beans are tender.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat into bite size pieces. Discard the bones and any tough tendons.
Add the peppers, chicken, and tomatoes to the soup and stir. Taste the broth and decide if you'd like to add more soup base or salt. Cook until the peppers are crisp tender.
2T olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 ~ 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ~ 1 1/2 chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of salt
8 ~ 9 c. water
4 chicken thighs, skin removed
1/2 c. finely chopped carrot
1/2 c. finely chopped celery
1 1/2 ~ 2 T. Penzey's Chicken Soup Base
1 red bell pepper, diced into 1/4" pieces
1 green bell pepper diced into 1/4" pieces
15 oz. can petite dice tomatoes with celery and onions
Did you notice the "small dice" theme in the ingredients list? I wanted every spoonful of this soup to contain a couple beans and something else.
Cooking bean soup from scratch is not quick... I started the beans around 10:30 am, and declared the soup done at 2:00 pm. I was doing other stuff in the kitchen off and on, so it was easy to keep an eye on it. If you don't have other pots to watch, you and increase the heat after each ingredient is added, to bring the soup back to a simmer faster.
The black beans give the chicken a purpley-black tinge. If you find that idea unappetizing, you could probably make this much faster using 3 - 4 cans of rinsed black beans, in which case it will look more like a chicken soup with the occasional purple bean floating by.
Drain your soaked beans and rinse them.
In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender and just beginning to brown. Add the garlic, oregano and chipotle and stir to combine. Add your water and beans and turn the heat up to high to bring to a boil.
Once the pot boils, turn the heat down until the pot is just barely simmering. I've started using the small burners on my stove for simmering. Cover and cook until the beans are tender about halfway through.
Remove the skin from the chicken thighs and trim off any large pieces of fat. Nestle the meat into the bean pot. Cover and wait for it to return to a simmer (you can speed that up by turning up the heat), and then reduce heat so it just barely simmers for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken and place on a plate to cool.
Test your beans and make sure they're almost tender and creamy all the way through. If not, cook a little longer.
When the beans are almost ready, stir in the carrots, celery, and 1 1/2 T soup base. Simmer until the vegetables and beans are tender.
When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat into bite size pieces. Discard the bones and any tough tendons.
Add the peppers, chicken, and tomatoes to the soup and stir. Taste the broth and decide if you'd like to add more soup base or salt. Cook until the peppers are crisp tender.
Investment Cooking on a Sunday
Today I chopped onions before I had my first cup of tea.
For several years, my sweetie and I had separate houses, so a lot of meals were made in my kitchen, and then re-heated/assembled and served in his. I started devoting my Sundays to making big batches of soups and sauces and pre-cooking things for quick weeknight dinners.
So the first thing I did this morning was cook 2 small onions, 4 cloves of garlic, some dried oregano and a minced chipotle in a little olive oil. Then I added water, and the black beans that had been soaking on the counter (drained and rinsed). I brought that up to a boil, and tossed it on a back burner to simmer for awhile.
The hot front burner was turned down and a 10 inch skillet replaced the soup pot. When the skillet was warm, 4 links of hot Italian sausage and 1/2 a cup of water went in. I covered the skillet and let the water simmer until the links were opaque on top, then flipped them and let them go a few minutes longer. Those links are cooling on a plate while a second pound cooks. I've learned to let them cool before butterflying them because you get a smoother, cleaner cut and that smooth surface crisps up nicely when you want to serve it. 2 lbs of sausage will become 14 brown & serve portions in the freezer, and 2 servings for breakfast.
I've sliced some small Yukon Gold potatoes, and those are sizzling in some good olive oil. Fried potatoes are best cooked low and slow...and normally I don't have patience... but since I'm already puttering in and out of the kitchen this morning, it's a good time to start a batch. When they're almost done I'll brown up 2 portions of the sausage, and scramble some eggs with spinach and a little bit of feta.
After breakfast is cleaned up, I plan to skin a package of chicken thighs, and nestle them into the simmering beans to cook. Those will eventually get shredded into the bean soup when I add the rest of the vegetables. I also have a chuck roast thawing, which has a date with a smoking hot skillet, to brown it before it goes into a crock pot with some tomatoes and gets cooked until it shreds apart into a rich pasta sauce.
What do I get from spending half a day in the kitchen? I get quick sausage dinners where the sausage is really brown and crispy. I get long simmered pasta sauce in half an hour after work. And I eat delicious soup for lunch that has 1/2 the sodium and tastes twice as good as anything from a can.
For several years, my sweetie and I had separate houses, so a lot of meals were made in my kitchen, and then re-heated/assembled and served in his. I started devoting my Sundays to making big batches of soups and sauces and pre-cooking things for quick weeknight dinners.
So the first thing I did this morning was cook 2 small onions, 4 cloves of garlic, some dried oregano and a minced chipotle in a little olive oil. Then I added water, and the black beans that had been soaking on the counter (drained and rinsed). I brought that up to a boil, and tossed it on a back burner to simmer for awhile.
The hot front burner was turned down and a 10 inch skillet replaced the soup pot. When the skillet was warm, 4 links of hot Italian sausage and 1/2 a cup of water went in. I covered the skillet and let the water simmer until the links were opaque on top, then flipped them and let them go a few minutes longer. Those links are cooling on a plate while a second pound cooks. I've learned to let them cool before butterflying them because you get a smoother, cleaner cut and that smooth surface crisps up nicely when you want to serve it. 2 lbs of sausage will become 14 brown & serve portions in the freezer, and 2 servings for breakfast.
I've sliced some small Yukon Gold potatoes, and those are sizzling in some good olive oil. Fried potatoes are best cooked low and slow...and normally I don't have patience... but since I'm already puttering in and out of the kitchen this morning, it's a good time to start a batch. When they're almost done I'll brown up 2 portions of the sausage, and scramble some eggs with spinach and a little bit of feta.
After breakfast is cleaned up, I plan to skin a package of chicken thighs, and nestle them into the simmering beans to cook. Those will eventually get shredded into the bean soup when I add the rest of the vegetables. I also have a chuck roast thawing, which has a date with a smoking hot skillet, to brown it before it goes into a crock pot with some tomatoes and gets cooked until it shreds apart into a rich pasta sauce.
What do I get from spending half a day in the kitchen? I get quick sausage dinners where the sausage is really brown and crispy. I get long simmered pasta sauce in half an hour after work. And I eat delicious soup for lunch that has 1/2 the sodium and tastes twice as good as anything from a can.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Blender Banana Pancakes - Gluten Free and Multigrain
Using gluten-free flours means that you don't have to worry about making pancakes and waffles tough by overbeating the batter. Blending helps incorporate air into the batter, and gives you a better texture. In this recipe, the bananas are completely broken up -- if you like moist chunks of banana in your pancakes, you might want to dice an extra banana and sprinkle some chunks on the pancakes after you pour them.
2 large eggs
4 T of light flavored oil
2 medium bananas, very soft and ripe
~ 1 c. milk
2 T sugar
1/2 t salt
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Sprinkle of vanilla powder (optional)
125 grams of 40/60 All Purpose Gluten Free Blend
60 grams of millet flour
65 grams of buckwheat flour
4 t baking powder
Peel the bananas, break them into chunks and place them in a 2 cup measure. Add enough milk to reach the 2 cup line with all of the banana submerged. Pour the milk and bananas into a blender. Add the eggs, oil, and sugar. Cover and blend until smooth. Add the sugar, salt, and optional seasonings, and blend again.
You can weigh out all the flours into a single container. Add about half of the flour to the blender, cover and process. If there are dry patches stuck to the side of the blender, scrape it down with a rubber spatula and process again. Blend in the rest of the flour, and then scrape the sides of the container and add the baking soda. Blend until thoroughly combined - 60 seconds. (Remember, you can't make these pancakes tough with overblending!)
Cook the pancakes as you normally would. They're ready to turn when bubbles in the center break and the edges are starting to look dry. If the pancakes get too brown, reduce the griddle temperature so the center cooks before the outside burns.
2 large eggs
4 T of light flavored oil
2 medium bananas, very soft and ripe
~ 1 c. milk
2 T sugar
1/2 t salt
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Sprinkle of vanilla powder (optional)
125 grams of 40/60 All Purpose Gluten Free Blend
60 grams of millet flour
65 grams of buckwheat flour
4 t baking powder
Peel the bananas, break them into chunks and place them in a 2 cup measure. Add enough milk to reach the 2 cup line with all of the banana submerged. Pour the milk and bananas into a blender. Add the eggs, oil, and sugar. Cover and blend until smooth. Add the sugar, salt, and optional seasonings, and blend again.
You can weigh out all the flours into a single container. Add about half of the flour to the blender, cover and process. If there are dry patches stuck to the side of the blender, scrape it down with a rubber spatula and process again. Blend in the rest of the flour, and then scrape the sides of the container and add the baking soda. Blend until thoroughly combined - 60 seconds. (Remember, you can't make these pancakes tough with overblending!)
Cook the pancakes as you normally would. They're ready to turn when bubbles in the center break and the edges are starting to look dry. If the pancakes get too brown, reduce the griddle temperature so the center cooks before the outside burns.
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