First Ever Giveaway

To celebrate the mention of this blog in a major publication, I’m celebrating in my true fashion: doing something for others.  So I’m giving away two gift-packs and other goodies from Red Gold.  I’ve used these tomatoes in my recipes and have found them quite good.

What do you need to do to win?  Send me your favorite easy/quick tomato recipe.  I will randomly pick one.  The giveaway ends on May 9, 2009 and I will pick a winner on May 10th.

Looking forward to seeing your favorite tomato recipes!

** Update.  You can’t win the tomatoes if you don’t submit (via comments) your favorite easy/quick tomato recipe.  C’mon people, I know you want the yummy goodies.

Woohoo!

It’s so completely cool when another blogger links to you.  What’s also cool is if that blogger is blogging for the local paper and links to you.  Today I noticed that my blog was part of Alison Sherwood’s blogroll on Post-College Kitchen. Yay!  Thanks Alison!

Checking out the other local blogs that she listed, I found a few that I really liked.  So, I added them to My Favorite Links section of the blog.  See for yourself how much awesomeness happens in this cold little state.

Chahohbili-inspired chicken stew

Chicken Stew

Where I live, stew and chili season is quite a long one, from about October to about end of April or so. Not really knowing how to make this Georgian dish (ex-USSR Georgia, not southern US Georgia), I searched online and found a few recipes. I got the general idea, but not having an authentic recipe, I didn’t want to attempt it. But the pictures looked so good, that they got me thinking. With that as inspiration, I made a pretty good stew, if I do say so myself.  This certainly hit the spot on a cold and rainy evening.

Ingredients:
Chicken (I used 3 bone-in thighs and 4 legs; season with salt and pepper all over, even under the skin)
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 peeled tomatoes cut into rounds
4-5 potatoes (I use Yukon Gold)
2-3 red bell peppers cut into bite-sized pieces
2-3 tb of ketchup (or tomato paste)
Beef stock (about 3-3.5 cups total, depending on how much sauce you want and how thick you want it)
Olive oil, salt, pepper, ground cumin, ground chipotle (optional, dash), paprika (a dash), fresh dill

Chicken Stew Cooking

Steps:
1. Saute the onion and when the onion starts to brown a little, add the garlic.
2. Brown the chicken. This won’t cook it, just make it look prettier.
3. Add the peppers and the peeled and sliced tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium. To peel tomatoes, place a small X on the bottom and pour boiling water over the tomatoes. Let them sit in the hot water for a few seconds. This will loosen the skin so you can peel it. Once peeled, slice in rounds.
4. Season everything (salt, freshly ground black pepper, ground cumin, chipotle, and paprika).
5. Add beef stock and ketchup (about 2 cups or so of stock, to start) and let come to a boil. Make sure the ketchup is well mixed and distributed in the pot.
6. Add the potatoes (I cut them up into bite-sized pieces). Let cook on low heat for about 20 minutes. Check the sauce. Add more stock and/or spices if you like. If you like things as they are, let cook another 20 minutes on low heat.
7. At the very end, add dill.

I served it over cilantro rice.  The sauce was great with the rice, the chicken was so tender it was falling off the bone, the veggies and potatoes were good enough to eat on their own.  Which I did the next day.  YUM!  Can’t wait to make this again.

Asparagus

Asparagus

I didn’t grow up eating asparagus and it always looked a little scary in restaurants. You know the kind, an unnatural green, bizarely sagging, mushy spears. Yuck. Not knowing how to cook it, I’ve resisted it for a long time, but finally gave it a try. Turns out, I like it. A lot. I’ve roasted it a few times, but I was in an experimenting mood today. What you see is what I came up with.

Ingredients:
1 lb asparagus
1-3 tb of olive oil,
1-2 tb of anchovy paste
3-5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
a pinch of chipotle pepper (optional)

Steps:
1. Heat the minced garlic in the olive oil on low heat, until it’s fragrant.
2. Add the anchovy paste and try to dissolve it. It probably won’t dissolve completely at this point, and that’s OK. It will with the asparagus.
3. Add asparagus (and chipotle pepper, if using) and turn up the heat to high. Cook for a few minutes stirring all the time, until crisp-tender.

I served it with baked salmon. If you’re worried about tasting anchovies, don’t. All you taste is the smoky, velvety taste of something. Can’t quite put your finger on it, but definitely no fishy taste. And my choice of serving it with salmon was great. It worked out well.

I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow. Who wouldn’t want this even as leftovers?!

Asparagus cooking

Finished Asparagus

Salmon and Asparagus

Mung Bean

Mung bean and chicken

My dad tells me that we ate this on occasion when my grandfather would make a dish featuring this bean. It took ages for me to remember what my dad was referring to. In Uzbek cooking, this bean is called “mash” and my dad was referring to a dish called “mash-kichiri”. I can’t believe I forgot about this little gem. Apparently, this bean is extremely healthy in many ways. I wasn’t able to find it at my local grocery store, but did find it in bulk at the healthy/organic food store (Outpost, for those in my neck of the woods). Also, I bet Indian food stores would have it since it’s popular in Indian cuisine and is known as dal or dahl.
Since I don’t really have any recipes for what to do with this bean, I decided to improvise. Here is what I came up with.

Ingredients:
2 large Carrots
1 large Onion
1 cup uncooked Rice (I used brown rice)
Chicken stock
1 cup uncooked Mung beans (I soaked the beans overnight and the 1 cup uncooked looked more like 2-3 cups)
Spices (to taste): salt, pepper, cumin

Soaked Mung Beans

Carrots and Onions

Cooking Mung Bean

Mung bean and Rice

Steps:
1. Dice the carrots and onions. Cook rice according to package directions, stopping about half way through.
2. Sautee the carrots and onions on a low heat for a few minutes until a little tender. Season to taste.
3. Add the beans and rice and chicken stock. Just enough chicken stock to continue cooking the rice.
4. Cover the pan and let cook over a low heat until all the liquid is gone, about 20 minutes.

I served this with the Updated Roasted Chicken.

Roasted Chicken – Updated version

Roasted Chicken

[I originally started this post in January. Just saw that it was still sitting unpublished and decided to publish it, just how I wrote it in January.]
It’s been a long time since I posted anything here. That’s not to say that I haven’t cooked. Just nothing “new”. But being stuck in a rut of sorts can be helpful in getting me out of that same rut. I’ve been craving a roasted chicken lately. It’s been a long time since I’ve made it, and I’ve been making it the same way for a while. So, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to try something different. I finally decided to make my own spice rub. I’ve seen it enough on TV and decided to give it a shot.

I mixed cumin, salt, pepper, and coriander with some olive oil until I liked how it tasted. Then, I rubbed it on the chicken and placed the covered chicken into the oven.

Follow the original recipe here. The only thing I did differently is the spice rub.

The day I made this chicken, a friend was visiting and she seemed to enjoy it.

Roasted Chicken Chili

Roasted Chicken Chili

Remember how I made two chickens for my birthday? Well, I used most of the 2nd one for this chili. I used the legs and thighs for other meals and had two fairly large chicken breasts and other odd pieces for the chili. So without further ado, here is what I did.

 

Ingredients:
1 can of Red Gold tomatoes with chilis
2-3 cans of tomatoes
2 cans of chili beans (I used mild since the tomatoes were plenty spicy)
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 chicken breasts, diced into bite-sized pieces
2 bell peppers (any kind, but I like red)
6-8 cups of water, depending on how watery you like your chili and how much pasta you’ll add
a handful of pasta

Steps:
1. Saute the onion and garlic.
2. Add the tomatoes and beans and cook a few minutes.
3. Add the bell peppers and cook a few minutes.
4. Add the diced chicken and cook a few minutes.
5. Add 2-3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Check the spices and adjust as needed.
6. Add the rest of the water and bring to a boil. Then add pasta and turn down the heat to low.

Chicken Chili

Almost done

Birthday Celebration

Birthday Celebration

I know that it looks like I haven’t cooked anything in months.  And it’s almost true.  I have cooked things I already wrote about and have a few more recipes I haven’t posted.  But let me start with the birthday celebration which was in early March.

I made two roasted chickens, just to be sure I had enough. But one was enough. Everyone seemed to love it. I hope they weren’t just polite but actually liked it.

I also made:

• Seafood salad
• Salmon “pizza” that was inspired by Emeril’s Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Pizza Bites. Mine had regular cream cheese instead of goat cheese and using store-bought dough made it extra quick.
• Baked potatoes
• Marinated mushrooms, and these really did seem to be a hit

Additionally, I bought a lot of marinated things such as marinated tomatoes, mushrooms, and pattisons (baby squash of some kind).