Yogadad World

This was the dinner I had planned for last Sunday before I got waylaid by the good looking tuna at the fish market. It was worth the wait. The chicken was moist and juicy and the sauce tangy and tasty. For a meal this good, it was ready in an astonishingly small amount of time. Tossing in time to chop the mushrooms and shallot, the whole meal came together in less than 60 minutes.

The recipe is from Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way, a companion book to his 2005 PBS series. It's the first one I've tried from this book and based on my experience with this one, I'm sure I'll dip into it again.

One weird thing about this recipe though. It calls for the oven to be pre-heated to 180 degrees, with the chicken in for 10 - 30 minutes to finish cooking after the initial searing. After 30 minutes, I still had pink meat. It was not nearly cooked all the way through. My oven tends to run cool. So I had set it for 200 degrees and checked the thermometer we keep inside to make sure it was hot enough. The temperature was well above 180 degrees. Taking my cue from Pepin's admonishment to not keep the meat in the oven more than 30 minutes, I put it back in the skillet, over high heat and seared the breasts for 3 minutes more on each side. That did it. Now it was warm all the way through and thoroughly cooked.

The rest of the meal went off without a hitch. I used frozen corn and frozen peas, and they came out with just the right amount of crunch. I had never sauteed this two vegetables before and now that I know how easy it is and how tasty the veggies are, it's likely to become a staple way of adding them to a meal.

Dessert tonight was special, too. Shannon baked a white cake with lemon curd and blueberry topping. It was fabulous. Normally, I'm not a big fan of anything lemony in my desserts but this was quite good. The sweetness of the blueberries and the tartness of the lemons played off each other very nicely. The cake held it all together, literally. A great finish to a very good meal.

Ingredients
2 Tbl unsalted butter
1 Tbl good olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (each about 6 oz)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 c chopped shallots
1 c diced (1/2-inch) white button mushrooms
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
1 Tbl ketchup
1/2 c water

Corn and peas ingredients
2 Tbl unsalted butter
1 Tbl good olive oil
2 c corn kernels (from 3-4 ears corn)
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen peas (choose baby peas if using frozen)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 Tbl chopped fresh chives
 
Heat the oven to 180°F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and the oil over high heat in a heavy saucepan or skillet large enough to hold the chicken breasts in one layer. When hot, add the chicken breasts, and sprinkle them with the salt and pepper. Saute, uncovered, for about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer the breasts to an ovenproof plate, reserving the drippings in the pan, and place them in the oven and continue cooking for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes.

Add the shallots and mushrooms to the drippings in the pan, and cook for about 1 minute over high heat. Add the vinegar and ketchup and continue for another minute. Add the water, and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and stir until it is incorporated.

Meanwhile, for the corn and peas: Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the corn, peas, salt and pepper. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through.

To serve, arrange a ring of vegetables on each of four plates. Cut each breast in half crosswise on a slant and place the breast pieces in the center of the vegetables. Coat the chicken with the sauce, sprinkle with the chives and serve.

When I started thinking about tonight's dinner, I leafed through a few cookbooks and found one that appealed to me in Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way. The main course was boneless chicken breasts with a side dish made with corn and peas. I jotted down the ingredients I needed and headed to the market.

My first stop was Lansing's new City Market. It opened just after the new year, but the grand opening was held this past weekend. It was a zoo. All of the nearby parking lots were full and the building was claustrophobic. Still I had to get my chicken breasts and this was the place to get high quality meat at reasonable prices. I stopped at Otto's and got the breasts, then went in search of shallots and mushrooms and wondering if I could find frozen corn and peas there.

On the way, I got a loaf of fresh bread and figured I'd see what was available at the fish market. One look at the case and I changed my mind about Sunday's dinner. He had the best looking tuna I've seen in a long time. Red, juicy, and fresh. So I asked him for two 6 or 7 oz slices. They came out closer to 8 oz each but who cares? Since they were on sale because of the grand opening, I had a couple of luscious tuna steaks for under $10.00. All that remained was finding a decent recipe.

At first I thought about grilling them. It's very nearly grilling season here in central Michigan (but then, isn't every season grilling season?) and there's nothing quite as good as high-quality tuna off the grill. But it's been a wet weekend and standing in a cold drizzle wasn't very appealing.

So I pulled one of my favorite fish cookbooks, Fish Without a Doubt by Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore, off the shelf and had a look. I found a few tuna recipes but it was this one that called to me. It was the mango - jerk seasoning that did it for me. A spicy dish, cooled by the mango sauce sounded just about perfect.

The jerk seasoning I used comes from World Market, a chain of stores with an outlet not too far away. After going with the amounts in the recipe, I would definitely add more next time, probably doubling the amount on each piece of fish. There just wasn't enough contrast with the mango sauce.

I'd also cook the fish just a little bit longer. I'm a big fan of eating tuna rare, and you can see that these are quite rare. But they were too cool at the center and a little more heat would have been good.

The mango sauce was great, and we had a side dish of jasmine rice cooked in coconut milk, with grated carrots. Cooking rice in coconut milk is always a treat. Add in one of my favorite vegetables and you have a great side dish.

A little more spice from the jerk seasoning on the tuna, and it would have gone from a very good dinner to an exceptional one.

Ingredients
For the Mango Sauce
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted & chopped
1 1-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled & grated
1/3 c orange juice
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
2 Tb fresh lemon juice

4 6-oz pieces of tuna, about 1/2 in thick
Coarse salt
4 tsp vegetable oi
4 tsp jerk seasoning

For the mango sauce, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Taste the sauce. It should be tangy. If you need to, add a bit more lemon juice. This makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Season the tuna with salt and rub each piece with 1 tsp of the oil. Rub 1/2 tsp of the jerk seasoning into each side of each piece.

Heat your grill or stove-top griddle. Grill the tuna for 2 minutes for medium-rare. If heating on a grill pan, heat over medium high heat and grill the tuna for 1 1/2 mins on each side.

To serve, spoon the mango sauce onto dinner plates. Slice the tuna and fan the slices over the sauce.

I hadn't used my pressure cooker since the last time I canned jalapeno peppers and salsa. Until this evening. I hadn't really tried to cook with it so was feeling a little skittish. After putting the lentils & water into the cooker and bringing the water to a boil, 35 minutes later I had very tender legumes. Mixed in the spices, tomato, & cilantro and had a very tasty dish.

Ingredients
1 cup whole green lentils
2 Tbl Ghee or canola oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 c finely chopped red onion
1 large tomato, cored & finely chopped
1/4 c finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves & tender stems
1 1/2 tsp coarse kosher or sea salt
1 tsp ground Deggi chiles (or 1/2 tsp cayenne mixed with 1/2 tsp sweet paprika)
1 tsp Toasted Cumin-Coriander Blend
1 tsp ground tumeric

Place the lentils in a pressure cooker. Fill the cooker halfway with water, and rinse the lentils by rubbing them between your finertips. The water may appear slightly dirty. Drain this water. Repeat 3 or 4 times, until the water remains relatively clear. Add 3 c water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over high heat. Sim off and discard any foam that forms on the surface. Seal the cooker shut and allow the pressure to build up. When the cooker reaches full pressure, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove the cooker from the heat and allow the pressure to subside naturally, about 15 minutes, before opening the lid.

Meanwhile, heata medium-size skillet over medium-high heat and pour in the ghee. Add the cumin seeds and cook until they sizzle, turn reddish borwn, and are aromoatic, 5 - 10 secs. Add the onion and stir-fry until it is light brown around the edges, 3 - 5 minutes.

Add the tomato, cilatnro, salt, ground chiles, cumin-coriander blend, and turmeric. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the tomato breaks down to a saucy consistency and some of the ghee starts to separate on the surface, 5 - 8 mins. Set the skillet aside until the lentils are cooked.

When the lentils are ready, add the sauce. Pour 1/2 c water into the skillet and degalze it, releasing any browned bits; pour this into the lentils. Stir once or twice, and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the lentils from sticking, until the flavors permeate the legumes, 8 - 10 minutes. Then serve.

Garlic. Chicken. Mashed Potatoes. Broccoli. What's not to like? Throw in a homemade pound cake from Mimi's secret recipe, and it was a little bit of heaven. Amanda was coming over for dinner so I decided to do the full-spread. She's a big mashed potato gal and likes her chicken. She'll even nibble on a few pieces of broccoli to keep her dad from growling about the lack of vegetables in her diet. Shannon provided the piece de resistance with her grandmother's pound cake.

The chicken recipe is from my friend Dave. He sent it along after our January outing to Colorado. Included in the package was a PBS special from 2001 called The Natural History of the Chicken. The recipe is a keeper. The DVD is a hoot...or maybe a cluck-cluck. We enjoyed both.

I don't have a skillet that's big enough to accomdate as much chicken at this recipe specifies. So I browned the whole, cut-up chicken in two smaller pans. Afterward, I transferred the chicken to a baking dish rather than baking in the skillet. That worked just as well.

40 cloves is a lot of garlic; I used three complete heads. By baking the dish with the chicken lying on top of the garlic, yhe garlic infuses the chicken nicely, giving the meat a kind of nutty flavor. The wine and juices from the chicken cook the cloves so that they're soft and spreadable by the time it's taken from the oven. We spread it on bread, mixed it in the potatoes, and popped it into our mouths straight. It was all good.

The recipe says you can peel the garlic or not; your choice. I peeled them for this dinner. It's a bit tedious peeling that many cloves of garlic but I didn't like the thought of all that unpeeled garlic just lying in the dish. After taking it from the oven, though, I can see quite easily that it would have worked just as well unpeeled. That would have saved quite a bit of prep time, too.

I followed Mark Bittman's guidlines for mashed potatoes in his book How to Cook Everything, and I used his vegetable gratin recipe for the broccoli. You can see that I burned the bread crumbs a bit on top of the broccoli. I left them a bit too long under the broiler. Next time I do the broccoli gratin, which we all loved, I'll put it in the oven for a bit to bake, then give it a minute or two under the broiler to crisp the breadcrumbs.

The mashed potatoes were excellent. I'm learning that the big secret to exquisite mashed potatoes is to mash them as gently as possible. Otherwise, you activate all the starch and end up with gummy potatoes and just kind of stick together. So stay away from the blender, food processor, and hand mixer. Use a ricer or hand masher. I have the latter and I was careful to press down slowly, going around the bowl several times to get as many lumps out as possible. But also not getting so vigorous that I ended up with a pasty mass. The result was a very good bowl of mashed potatoes. Add a few well done cloves of garlic and it's a heavenly dish.

We ended the meal with Shannon's pound cake. It didn't need any adornments. Amanda has long been partial to desserts. She ate this one with gusto and took much of the leftover home.

I don't get to cook for Amanda often enough and this dinner turned out to be quite the success. We all pushed back satisfied.

Ingredients
Whole chicken, cut-up & skinned
2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
40 garlic cloves, peeled or not
2 cups dry white wine
4 sprigs thyme or 1/4 tsp dried
1 sprig rosemary or 1/4 tsp dried
Salt & pepper
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley as garnish

Heat oil in large skillet, lay chicken in pan in a single-layer and cook over medium-high heat. Sprinkle salt & pepper evenly over chicken. Cook until golden brown, about 2 mins on each side. Remove chicken from pan & set aside.

Reduce heat to medium. Add garlic & cook 1 minute or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently. Arrange chicken on top of garlic. Add wine & herbs. Cover & cook in oven at 350 for 45 - 60 mins.

Serve with toasted baguette slices or crostini.