Gorgeous stir fry! As colorful as Christmas ~

Vegetable Stir Fry

Some winter foods are so delicious and comforting, nice and hearty for a cold snowy night.    Here is one that is so gorgeous and yummy, but also low in fat and calories.

It's nothing revolutionary, but it does have tons of flavor and a bit of a kick too!

1 red pepper thinly sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 cup of mung bean sprouts
1 cup of snow peas
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 - 1 jalepeno pepper, minced (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon ketchup
1 teaspoon siracha or other hot sauce
1 teaspoon of soy sauce


In a large skillet or wok, heat oil on medium/high heat.  Add onion and red pepper, stir often and cook for 2 minutes.  Add snow peas and zucchini, jalapeno, cook for 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat  Add bean sprouts, ginger and garlic.  Stir quickly and cook for 1 minute longer.  Remove from heat, add ketchup and siracha, stir well.  Remove from heat.  Do not cover, you want your vegetables to have a crunch. 

Serving suggestion, add 1/2 cup of cooked meat or fish and either 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta.  Or for a complete vegetarian meal, serve on a pretty platter.  Voila, a beautiful and vibrant meal that will brighten up any table.

A pure taste of the rainbow ~

Ribollita ~

I love soup in the Winter.  And I love this Ribollita Soup.  It's easy to make, but it does take a lot of chopping.  So I make it when I know the weather will keep me inside for a few hours, like today.  The weather station is calling for a light snow for most of the day, not accumulating to a heck of a lot, but enough to make the roads slick.  So, I'll make the best of it ~

I first had this soup at a little Italian Restaurant in the North End, Antico Forno.  This isn't their recipe, but it comes close for me.  I read and tried lots of variations of this recipe. Some regions of Italy use bread in the soup, this one does not.  I like to thicken it with potato, which when diced really small so it disappears into the base of the soup when it's finished.

I have to say, I am very happy with the outcome of this dish.  Like most Italian soups, it's fabulous.

Ingredients

1/4 lb. smoked bacon, diced
2 onions, sliced thinly
4 carrots, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
2 medium potatoes (yukon gold), diced finely (1/4 " inch thick)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 (28 ounce) can of ground tomatoes (I use Pastene)
1 15 ounce can of small white beans, drained
1 whole bunch of kale, washed and chopped
1/2 large head of savoy cabbage, chopped
6 cups of good chicken stock
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
Parmesan Cheese for sprinkling

Into a large dutch oven on medium heat, add oil and when it's hot, add bacon.  Saute bacon on low heat, until it's golden brown, remove and set aside.  Add onions, carrots, celery.  Saute on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every once in a while.  Add garlic, potatoes, reserved cooked bacon, salt and pepper.  Stir.  Cook for a couple of minutes and stir.  Add tomatoes and chicken stock and turn heat up to medium heat.  Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring every once in awhile.  Add chopped kale and cabbage.  If you can't find savoy, just use any cabbage, except a red cabbage.  Place lid on the soup, but don't seal it.  Let simmer for another 15 minutes and add your drained beans.  Give every thing a stir and adjust your seasoning.  I like it a little kick in my soup, so I add a little extra pepper, both black and red.
Let soup simmer for about 10 minutes longer, turn off heat and let sit for a bit.  At this point,  I take my immersion blender and blend the soup so it's very chunky, not smooth.  And this step is up to you.  You don't have to thicken this soup at all, it's really thick enough.  But, I for one, like when soup is easy to eat, not just delicous.  So I blend it a bit. 

Serve hot with a big sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Oh, just so you get an idea of how you would like to eat this soup.  Here's a picture of it unblended and then again, once I have blended it a bit. 

Enjoy ~

Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Roast Chicken ~

This is a fabulous dinner dish, and yes Ina you were right.  It is the Perfect Roast Chicken.  I tweaked it just a bit though, I omitted the carrots and added a halved yukon gold potato.  I replaced the butter with olive oil, but that didn't change the flavor of this dish at all.  If I were serving it to company, I would stick with the carrots and make a potato dish that I like.  I didn't strain the gravy, because I like the rustic bits in the pan sauce.  But, if it weren't just for me, I would strain the gravy.

And I have these twisty tie things, that truss a chicken or turkey.  I am sure you could find them in any kitchen store.  They are much easier to use than string and can be used time and again.  And go right into the dishwasher.  My chicken looks like an alien though ~

Here is the chicken right from the oven, after I removed the twisty tie thing.  The skin comes out golden brown and crisp.  My bird was only 3lbs, so I roasted it for 1 hour and 15 minutes and it was done perfectly.

I just poured a little sauce right on top of the fennel, potato and chicken.  Yum.

And thanks Ina, you are so right, this is just perfect.

Here's a link to Ina Garten's recipe.  Enjoy ~ 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_21404_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

 

Shrimp over linguine with bacon, lemon and cilantro..

This dish is an easy week night meal, and it taste so good too.  Easy and delicious meals make great, busy work week dinners.
I love this southwestern version of Shrimp Scampi and I think you would love it too.  The bacon and cilantro make this dish yummy.

Serve with crusty bread.

1 12 ounce box of spaghetti or linguine (I use Barilla)
1 whole lemon, zested and juiced
1/3 cup good parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 bunch of roughly chopped cilantro
8-10 Jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 slices of bacon
salt and black pepper
1 medium, ripe tomato
5 Tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine.

Cut up 1 medium tomato into dice size pieces and sprinkle with salt.  Let sit for 15 minutes and cook spaghetti or linquine as package directs.  Drain and set aside.  While pasta is cooking, start cooking the bacon.

Saute 4 slices of  good bacon in 2 tablespoons of butter, chopped to 1/2 " pieces until cooked, but not dark brown.  You don't want bacon bits here.  Remove from heat, place on paper towel to drain.

Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and shrimp, saute on each side for 2-3 minutes, until pink.  Add a clove of chopped garlic.  Stir and deglaze with a 1/2 cup dry white wine.  Add 1/2 squeezed lemon, lemon zest and toss.  Add cilantro and parmesan cheese, bacon and tomato.  Serve with lemon wedge to squeeze over. 

Enjoy ~ 

Israeli Couscous with Dried Cranberries, Celery and Scallions ~

I love watching Anne Burrell's show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.  I like her style, her boldness, heck I even like her "man grunts".  She's unique and her recipes are wonderful.

This recipe is wonderful, either warm or cold.  I served it with simple slices of grilled chicken, even in the dead of winter.  Although, this day was warm, sunny and a wonderful 60 degrees farenheit.  In Boston and in January no less.

The way she cooks the couscous in salted water, bay leaves and blood orange peels was so interesting.  She inticed me to try it and I had most everything in the house.  I didn't have green onions, but chopped a half of yellow onion small and put it in with the cranberries and vinegar to sit for about 1/2 hour on the counter.  I think it took the bite out of the plain onion and made it work well.   I did doubt her love for plain celery here, but it was a fabulous addition, so nice and crisp.  I added julienned red leaf lettuce, because I didn't have any parsley either..... and it worked wonderfully.

So do give this dish a try, you won't be disappointed, I promise.

Here's the link to her recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/israeli-couscous-with-celery-scallions-and-cranberries-recipe/index.html

Mini Pommes Anna ~

I love potatoes, well any carb really.  But, I am ever so in love with potatoes, really.  I have made many kinds of potato dishes over the years, but this one is a cinch to make and it's delcious too.  And it's all baked in a muffin tin, how easy is that?

No real recipe, just have on hand some very thinly sliced potatoes.  I used a mandoline, on a very thin setting.  If you have a food processor, it will work too, or even a good sharp knife.  The potatoes need to be really thinly sliced, that's all.  Just potatoes, salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves.  It makes quite a statement on your dinner table too.

Here is what I did.

Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter, brush the inside of a six holder cupcake/muffin pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.

Now take about three slices of potato and lay them in each muffin slot.  Brush with a little butter and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, just a pinch of each.  Place 2 or 3 slices more on top of the first layer and brush again with a little butter.  Repeat layers until muffin slot is filled.  Sprinkle with a little more salt, pepper, and finish with a sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves.

You will need about 3 large potatoes to fill a six muffin pan.  Press the potatoes down with your fingers gently as you make your layers.

Place in the oven uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes, uncovered.  Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

These will come out of the muffin tins easily.  I used a thin spatular to take them out and you can serve them either straight out or invert them and they will look like the one in the middle of the above picture.  They look gorgeous either way don't you agree?  Here's a closer look at the inverted version.  Just adorable and each muffin tin of potatoes is just enough for one serving.

Oh did I say how simple these potatoes are to make?  Well, they are foolproof and taste simply delicious.  And the ideas are endless too.  Any flavor combination you'd like you could do.  Next time, I will be trying some parmesan cheese, sprinkled in between the layers.  Because next to my love for potatoes, is my love for cheese!   

Enjoy ~

PW's BBQ Chicken Pizza - Yum ~

Here in Boston we aren't really known for our BBQ, let alone BBQ Chicken Pizza.  But, I was home yesterday morning and perusing recipes and came across one from The Pioneer Woman's Website.  I saw her awesome pictures and thought, yum.  I have never tasted, never mind made a pizza with bbq sauce on it.  We here in Boston are more known for our "red sauce" type of pizza.  And I have made plenty of those through the years.  So as the New Year was fast approaching, I decided to give this "new-age" pizza a try.  It has all the ingredients I love, so why not.  I did throw in extra ingredients on mine, to spice things up just a bit.  And I am so glad I did, it was a delicious and mighty tasting dinner.

So here you go, a pictorial of my BBQ Chicken Pizza.



If you're making one pizza, use one half of a boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Put it in a plastic bag, or a container with an air tight cover, with 1/2 cup of bbq sauce and let it marinate for a couple of hours in the fridge.  When ready to begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place chicken into a pyrex dish and pour the marinade over it.  Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, uncovered.

While your chicken is baking, prepare your other ingredients.

1 medium red onion, cut in half and sliced thinly
1 6 ounce ball of mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
2 ounces of chedder cheese, sliced thinly (optional)
1/2 medium jalapeno pepper, chopped tiny (optional)
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Place your dough on your floured counter and stretch it into a large half sheet pan, with a tablespoon of cornmeal on the tray so it doesn't stick while it bakes.  I buy my dough frozen from my grocery store and keep it in the freezer, so I can have it on hand always.  It comes in a 1lb package and that's the amount I use to make a large pizza.  Any brand will do, trust me. Or you can make your own if you like.

When your chicken is done, slice it thinly and then cube it.  Take 4 tablespoons more of your bbq sauce, any good jarred brand will do.  Or you can make your own.  Now spread it on your pizza dough.  Oh and  turn up your oven to 500 degrees, farenheit.

Don't put too much sauce on the dough, just enough like this.  Spread it around, with the back of a tablepoon.

Now start layering everything on top of your pizza.  First your cheese, then your chicken, next your jalapeno and red onion.  Fan out your red onion so no one gets big clumps of it when they bite into the pizza.





Place your pizza in your lower 1/3 rack of your oven and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove pizza from the oven and check the underneath crust by lifting your pizza from the edge with a butter knife.  You are looking for a golden brown crust under there.  Now place your pizza back in the top 1/3 part of the oven for 2-3 minutes, so all of the cheese is nice and melty.

Remove pizza from the oven and let rest for about 5 minutes before cutting it.  Then sprinkle lots of chopped cilantro on top of the pizza and serve.

  I didn't stop at one slice.

Yum, that's for sure.  I am now a big fan of BBQ pizza and will be putting this on my menu again for sure.  I love pizza and not just the "red sauce" type any more.

Enjoy ~