Farmers market improvisation: Stir-Fried Chicken, Asparagus, Green Garlic and Tomatoes

Chicken teams up with green garlic and asparagus from the farmers market and ginger, lemongrass and other ingredients gathered from the fridge and pantry to make a quick, delicious stir-fry. Recipe below.

A friend of ours refuses to eat leftovers. She calls them “used food.” Marion and I, on the other hand, feel wonderfully satisfied and even a little smug when every last morsel of something is consumed. Whether it’s a leftover that becomes a lunch or gets repurposed as part of another dinner, or it’s a last lonely shallot that livens up a salad dressing, not wasting food—or at least trying not to waste it—is just part of our working class childhood DNA. That instinct led to the creation of this lovely dish Marion recently cooked. I’ll let her tell you about it.

One of the great joys of late spring is when local farmers markets get back into action, with their ever-changing bounty. That’s also one of the pitfalls of this time of year. Armed with good culinary intentions and eyes bigger than your stomach, it’s easy to get carried away. The other day, our neighborhood farmer’s market opened for the season and we came home all flushed and excited, toting plenty—especially, green garlic and asparagus. Continue reading “Farmers market improvisation: Stir-Fried Chicken, Asparagus, Green Garlic and Tomatoes” →

Five great grilling recipes kick off summer

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer here in the United States. And as it so happens, last weekend marked a wonderful long weekend in New York City for Marion and me. We returned to Chicago Sunday evening to 90º temperatures, broken air-conditioning and little desire to cook. So this week, I’m raiding the Blue Kitchen archives for five recipes for the grill to get the season rolling.

1. Moroccan-influenced Spicy Grilled Chicken Paillards

Cumin and paprika add plenty of flavor to these quick-cooking chicken breasts, but not much heat. The sauce gets the same treatment from orange juice, lemon juice, honey, cinnamon and red pepper flakes. The dish originated in Paris and is just one of many French dishes that borrows flavors from Moroccan kitchens. Spicy Grilled Chicken Paillards is a great spur-of-the-moment dish, Continue reading “Five great grilling recipes kick off summer” →

American cider, Italian onions: Cider-Braised Chicken with Cipollinis and Sage

Crisp, dry hard cider combines with fresh sage, garlic and chicken broth to create a deliciously complex sauce without a hint of apple, for Cider-Braised Chicken with Cipollinis and Sage. Recipe below.

When we were recently invited to a dinner pairing food with super-premium American hard ciders, I planned to enjoy the food and be a good sport about the cider. I don’t drink beer and am not a real fan of apple juice either, so I merely hoped I could make it through the evening, politely sipping without openly grimacing in the presence of our hosts, Crispin Cider Company.

I needn’t have worried. The four ciders we sampled were delicious. Unlike many ciders, Crispin hard ciders are not styled as a traditional “sweet beer” beer alternative. They are crisp and clean, not sweet and sticky, and meant to be served over ice. From our first sip of their European-style brut—our favorite of the bunch—we knew we’d found a refreshing, light alternative to our go-to summer drink, pinot grigio. Continue reading “American cider, Italian onions: Cider-Braised Chicken with Cipollinis and Sage” →

A romantic dinner to impress your Valentine: Duck Breasts with Pears and Shallots

Shallots, garlic, tarragon, brandy and balsamic vinegar create a lively sauce for simply prepared duck breasts and sautéed pears—an easy, elegant Valentine’s Day dinner. Recipe below.

DUCKS ARE FUNNY. When we’re kids, they’re the subject of cartoons and homey barnyard stories. “Quack” is one of the great comic animal sounds we all enthusiastically learn. But put duck on a restaurant menu and suddenly it’s exotic and luxe, even in rustic preparations. Prepare duck at home and it’s sure to impress, making it perfect for a romantic dinner for you and your valentine.

Unfortunately, duck can also seem intimidating to some home cooks. And sure, preparing duck confit can be a long, involved process. But duck breasts are a breeze, not only easy to prepare, but quick. Continue reading “A romantic dinner to impress your Valentine: Duck Breasts with Pears and Shallots” →

A mild-mannered chicken curry takes the chill out of a rainy autumn night

Ginger, garlic and cilantro team up with a number of spices in this simple, fragrant Chicken Curry. Recipe below.

chicken-curry

One of the perils of living in a city like Chicago, with its rich cultural diversity and well-deserved reputation for authentic food of all ethnic stripes, is that your taste buds get spoiled.

When recent chilly, drizzly weather put me in the mood for attempting a curry dish, my spoiled taste buds were envisioning the robust flavors and aromas of Devon Avenue. The practical side of me, however, was looking for something simple, something doable on a weeknight.

I looked around at numerous recipes. Some sounded deliciously authentic, but more complicated than I felt like tackling at the moment. Others sounded a little too basic, a little to aimed at the American palate. Finally, I settled on one that had “good bone structure”—a satisfying number and variety of fresh ingredients and spices— Continue reading “A mild-mannered chicken curry takes the chill out of a rainy autumn night” →

Rustic but no plain Jane: One-skillet Chicken with Black-eyed Peas and Cherry Tomatoes

Fresh black-eyed peas, green beans and cherry tomatoes combine with wine, thyme and bacon to make this one-skillet meal complex, layered and delicious. Recipe below.

skillet-chicken

I love Mark Bittman dearly. And I’ve grown even fonder of him since he backed off his edict against canned beans. Sort of. Recently on his blog, he did a recipe with canned chickpeas [I’ll wait for the gasps to die down] and grudgingly admitted that canned beans were sometimes acceptable, but that dried beans were still better.

I don’t know about you, but for us, canned beans are one of the greatest cooking conveniences known to mankind. Yes, when we have the foresight and luxury of soaking beans overnight, we’ll sometimes do so. But honestly, the outcome is far from certain for me when I do. So naturally, when I had the chance to one up Mr. Bittman by skipping his dried legumes and cooking fresh black-eyed peas, I had to do it.

Not being a southerner myself but being surrounded by southern relatives pretty much from birth on, black-eyed peas have never not been a part of my life. I’m sure some relatives cooked them fresh, but when my mother was in the kitchen, they always came from a can. So I took up that practice on the rare occasions I cooked with them—my Curried Steaks with Black-eyed Pea Salsa, for instance.

Still, more than one person has told me that fresh black-eyed peas were better than canned. Continue reading “Rustic but no plain Jane: One-skillet Chicken with Black-eyed Peas and Cherry Tomatoes” →

Five easy meals for summer

With the fourth of July weekend in the rearview mirror, summer is officially in full swing. And as much as we may like to cook, there’s no shortage of diversions ready to lure us from the kitchen. These five recipes run the gamut, from quick cooking to outdoor cooking to no cooking at all. Gathered from the Blue Kitchen archives, they’ll help you get great summer meals on the table with minimal time and effort in the kitchen.

tomato-basil-cruda

1. Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta

Cooking doesn’t get much easier than this—salsa cruda is Italian for uncooked sauce. The only thing you cook for Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta is the pasta itself. The hot pasta warms the salsa of raw, chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil, filling the kitchen with a big, delicious fragrance. And the uncooked salsa slightly cools the pasta, making for a light summery meal.

spicy-turkey-burger

2. Spicy Turkey Burgers

In the days before air conditioning, a separate summer kitchen was sometimes added to homes to keep the heat of cooking out of the house. Today, the ubiquitous grill Continue reading “Five easy meals for summer” →

Cool summer dinner idea: Chicken Salad with Toasted Coconut and Roasted Cashews

Served over a bed of mixed greens, Chicken Salad with Toasted Coconut and Roasted Cashews is light, lively and mayonnaise-free—a modern Chinese take on a summer classic. Recipe below.

chicken-salad-marion — Chicken Salad with Toasted Coconut and Roasted Cashews

ONE OF MY FAVORITE COOKING RESOURCES IS THE CHINA MOON COOKBOOK, by the wonderful Barbara Tropp, one of the great interpreters of Chinese cooking for the American kitchen. If you’re an American cook who has explored Chinese cuisine, you’ve been affected by Tropp’s amazing work. She is often likened to Julia Child, and the comparison is apt. She, too, came to an intriguing strange land, and through its food learned to understand its culture. And she, too, returned to the United States to teach what she had learned to American cooks. As the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in her obituary, “Freshness, seasonality and authenticity were the hallmark of Ms. Tropp’s cooking at a time when much U.S. Chinese cooking relied on canned staples and hackneyed pseudo-Cantonese dishes.” Continue reading “Cool summer dinner idea: Chicken Salad with Toasted Coconut and Roasted Cashews” →

Borrowing from Japan, China and Toronto: Maple-Miso Grilled Chicken

Maple-Miso Grilled Chicken raids Asian and North American pantries to produce subtle, satisfying depth while claiming no one nationality. Recipe—and some ingredient substitutions—below.

maple-miso-chicken

I OCCASIONALLY TALK ABOUT THE VARIED PLACES INSPIRATION COMES FROM when I’m cooking. The inspiration for this subtly flavored grilled chicken came from these very pages, sort of. In last week’s Five fresh reasons to check out my blogrolls post, I included Maple and Miso Scallops from Kevin’s Toronto-based Closet Cooking. When Marion saw that recipe, you could almost hear the wheels turning. Soon she was saying, “I bet those flavors would be good with grilled chicken or maybe some pork.” Soon after that, she was emailing me some recipes she’d found. And a dish and a post were born. Continue reading “Borrowing from Japan, China and Toronto: Maple-Miso Grilled Chicken” →

Warm, simple antidote for reluctant spring: Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée

A base of coarsely puréed scallions and potatoes adds a rustic note to this hearty country dish with a French accent, Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée. Recipe below.

The April issues of the food magazines are filled with springy, hopeful recipes and pictures. Beautiful, slender spears of asparagus abound, as do fresh snap peas, baby spring greens and fingerling potatoes. But as T.S. Eliot warned us, “April is the cruellest month.” It certainly has been here in Chicago. A snowstorm postponed the White Sox home opener by a day; cold rain fell on the Cubs’ first outing in Wrigley Field. And persistent, sharp winds have more than once made us regret abandoning our down parkas for mere wool coats.

So I was quite happy to find this hearty, comforting dish in the April chapter of Amanda Hesser’s The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings for the French Countryside. Although the green onions [two dozen of them, no less] give it a springlike brightness, the long-braised chicken has a definite wintry stick-to-your-ribs quality about it as well.

This is the second of three Francocentric cookbooks that Karin over at Second Act in Altadena has recommended to me. I can see why she likes it so much—and why avid [obsessive?] gardener Christina from A Thinking Stomach loves it. I’d be hard pressed to name a cookbook that more completely connects the garden to the dinner table. Author Hesser spent a year as a cook in a 17th-century French chateau in Burgundy, and a central figure in the book is the aging caretaker of the chateau’s kitchen garden, Monsieur Milbert. Hesser gradually overcomes his Gallic reserve, and he shares the secrets of the garden with her.

Beautifully told stories aside, this is an impressive cookbook, with more than 240 recipes arranged by seasonality. I haven’t spent nearly enough time exploring it, but the straightforward goodness of this recipe tells me I’ll be back for more. Continue reading “Warm, simple antidote for reluctant spring: Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée” →