Tamarind Chicken Hash

 

Have you ever made too much of a particular dish and after a couple of meals there is just no way you want to reheat another plate of it?  That happened to me the other night when I made Tamarind Glazed Chicken legs.  I knew I shouldn't use the entire package but I did anyway.  I took them to work for a couple of days and then I didn't want to look at another chicken leg.  I almost thought about tossing the leftovers but being in the poor house tends to make a person less wasteful. 

 

So this morning I thought I would use up the rest of the butternut squash that I had cubed up.  My plan was to cook it with some chorizo and crack a few eggs in the skillet as well.  When I opened the fridge, all I could see was that big container of chicken legs that I couldn't bear to see go to waste.  I ended up making a hash that was really flavorful.  So, I am really pleased to have a wonderful recipe (Tamarind Glazed Chicken) that I can work into a completely different dish the next day.  More bang for my buck in way!! 

 

 

Tamarind Chicken, Chorizo and Butternut Squash Hash

 

2 leftover Tamarind Glazed Chicken legs, meat chopped into small chunks

1 cup cubed butternut squash

1/4 cup diced red onion

1 garlic clove, diced

2-3 inch link of chorizo

1/2 a jalapeno, chopped

2 T chopped cilantro

1. Heat some bacon grease (or fat of choice) in a skillet.  Add the squash and cover with a lid.  Toss the squash a couple times cooking for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onions are soft.  (The squash should be cooked through by this time.)
3. Make a little space in the center of the skillet and add the chorizo, cooking until it is browned through. 
4. Add the chicken and jalapeno.  Toss to coat all the ingredients in the chorizo grease.  Cook until the chicken is heated through.
5. After you've plated the hash, sprinkle with the cilantro and serve with sliced avocado.

 

 

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Shredded Chicken with Jalapeno Cream

I bought a new cookbook the other and I'm in love with it.  Not that I wasn't in love my old cookbooks but...well...they were old.  Shameful, I know, to just abandon my old faithfuls for a new book with no grease or tomato splatters and a firm spine but I did.  My new book is wonderful, full of recipes that require no paleo tweaking and others that will require minor adjustments.  I bookmarked 10 recipes after a cursory review and got right to work on two of them today.  They turned out really well despite my botching of the second recipe rendering it a distant cousin of the recipe I started off with.  That's why I love cooking, sometimes you screw it up and yet things will still turn out just fine...most of the time.  Oh, the name of my book!  It's Eat Cuban: Recipes from Floridita by Andy Rose.

For the first recipe I decided to try a poultry recipe.  Now the original called for duck but I went with chicken.  Also I cheated big time and bought a rotisserie bird to save a little time.

Shredded Chicken with Jalapeno Cream Sauce

For the chicken:

1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled and shredded

1 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

2T. fat of choice

4T sherry

2 roma tomatoes; peeled, seeded and sliced into strips

1T parsley, chopped

1. Heat the fat in a large skillet and add the onion, garlic and pepper.  Cook at med-low heat and sweat until soft.

2. Stir in the sherry and increase the heat to high until the liquid is reduced by half.

3. Add the tomato and parsley, stir to mix. Remove from heat.

4. Add the shredded chicken to the skillet and mix well.  (You may have to turn the heat back on to warm the chicken up.)

For the jalapeno cream:

1t. garlic, diced

2T shallots, diced

2T. fat of choice

2T sherry

1/2 C. chicken stock

1/2 C. coconut cream

1 to 2 jalapenos, diced

1T chives, chopped

1. Over low heat sweat the garlic and shallots in the fat until for about 5 minutes.

2. Add the sherry and increase the heat to high, boil for about 2 minutes.

3. Add the chicken stock and boil until the liquid is reduced by half.

4. Stir in the coconut cream and jalapeno. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the sauce is reduced by half.  Remove from heat and allow to cool a little.

5.  Pour over the chicken mixture and mix well.  Top with the chives.

Tamarind Glazed Chicken

I'm on the hunt for some new cookbooks.  Our big box bookstore closed and since then I've been going through cookbook withdrawal (they did carry a good selection of cookbooks).  I love looking at cookbooks and finding a good ethnic cookbook whose recipes I can tweak a little (sometimes not at all) to fit my Paleo needs.  I've been testing out Indian inspired dishes and have discovered that I really like some of the flavor profiles.  I think my next cookbook purchase will be an Indian cookbook.

I stood in front of my bookshelf the other day and pulled Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet off the shelf.  I had marked a couple of recipes way back when but never tried any of them.  I found this one which originally called for fish as the protein.  She mentioned that it would be good for chicken and so I went with that.  

Tamarind Glazed Chicken Legs

1 1/2 c. water

1 ounce (about golf ball size) of tamarind pulp

1 small onion, diced

2 T ginger, minced

1-2 t. honey

12-14 chicken legs

1. In a small saucepan bring the water to a boil, turn off the heat and add the tamarind pulp.  Break the pulp up with a fork.  Cover the saucepan and let it set for about 20 minutes.

2. After 20 minutes, mash the tamarind some more.  Use your fingers to knead any clumps.  Pour the mixture through a strainer using a spoon to mash the pulp through as well as any liquid.

3. Place the chicken legs in a baking dish, rub with the fat of your choice and season with salt and pepper if desired. Place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

4. In a skillet heat some fat and add the onion.  Saute for about 5 minutes then add the ginger and let cook about 1-2 minutes.

5. Add the strained tamarind gravy to the skillet and cook at a slow simmer, adding the honey after 5 minutes, until the sauce is reduced by half. 

6. When the chicken reaches the 15 minute mark flip the legs over and cook for another 15 minutes.

7.  Pour the tamarind sauce over the chicken legs and cook for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is cook through.

Roast Chicken

I love a roasted bird.  This is another one of those simple "back burner" sort of dishes.  I can just pop a bird in the oven and let it go while I work away on some other recipes that I'm testing out and require a little more attention.  Roast chickens are quite simple to make.  I change up my seasonings every time I make one because you really can't go wrong.  Then you just pop it in a 350 degree oven (breast side up) and roast it for about 2 hours.  Basically it's 20-25 minutes for every pound of chicken.  My bird was a little over 4 pounds.  The only thing you have to do is peek in the oven during the last half hour and if the bird looks like it's browning to much just cover it with a little foil to keep it from burning.  I'm not putting a recipe down because roast chickens are so simple.  Just season with whatever you have and roast for the time listed above.  I always rub a little olive oil or better yet bacon grease on the bird before putting it in the oven.  For the bird in the picture I mix all my spices into my solidified bacon grease and made a paste.  I pushed some of this up under the skin as well. Super simple and quite tasty!!

Hawaiian Meatballs

I just call these Hawaiian meatballs because it's catchy.  I suppose the only thing that makes 'em remotely Hawaiian is the addition of pineapple in the sauce.  But one thing about it, they're pretty tasty.  Slightly sweet from the pineapple with a little kick on your taste buds from the red pepper flakes, plus a little savory or perhaps "umami" from the fish sauce. 

I had two recipes that I didn't quite have the ingredients for and as I was looking at them trying to decide which on to make I thought I would pull a little bit from each.  I'm trying these with ground pork the next time but I had to use chicken and turkey since it's what I had on hand.  One thing I wish I had was a little arrowroot to thicken the sauce some but really it's quite fine without it.  A thicker sauce is simply more visually appealing.

This recipe just sort of came together over the stove so I might tweak it a little the next time.  Perhaps bump up the heat a little or add some more pineapple.  But at any rate this gives you a good jumping off point.

Hawaiian Meatballs

For the meatballs:

2 lbs of ground meat (pork, chicken, turkey, etc)

2T Red Boat fish sauce

2T Coconut Aminos

2t. curry powder

2 green onions, diced

1t. ginger, minced

1t. cilantro, chopped

salt & pepper to taste

For the sauce:

1 can coconut milk

1C chicken broth

1 t. Red Boat fish sauce

1t. Coconut Aminos

1/2 t. curry powder

1 green onion, diced

1/2 T. red pepper flakes (more if you like it hot)

juice from 1/2 lime

juice from 1/2 lemon

2T. crushed pineapple

3T pineapple juice

2t. basil, chopped

1.  Mix all the ingredient for the meatballs in a bowl and then form into meatballs.  Make them whatever size you like.

2.  Put a little fat of your choice in a large skillet and fry up the meatballs.  I like them to be a little crispy on the outside.

3.  Remove from skillet.  Then add the ingredients for the sauce to the skillet. 

4.  Stir and bring to a simmer.  Add the meatballs and simmer in the sauce for 10 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

Chicken Croquettes

Here's another recipe, this time chicken meatballs, that I found while hunting and gathering.  It was fairly paleo friendly, the original called for cheese in the mixture which I left out.  The meatballs are rolled in a ground toasted nut mixture called dukkah.   These are really tasty and would make a great appetizer for your next party.  I had a few right after they were fried and then later at work I just popped them in my mouth right out of the fridge.  They're great hot or cold.

Chicken Croquettes

1 pound of ground chicken

1 egg

1/4 C. minced herbs (recipe recommended basil or cilantro, I used a little of both)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 t. sumac

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. allspice

1/2 t. paprika

1/2 t. cayenne (I mistakenly added this but it turned out okay so I'm leaving it.)

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Form balls. (Wet your hands to keep the mixture from sticking to you during this process.)

For the Dukkah:

1 C. toasted almonds

1/2 C toasted sunflower seeds (Original called for pecans which I didn't have.)

1/2 C. toasted sesame seeds

1 t. ground coriander

1 t. smoked paprika (I only had enough for the meat mixture so I didn't get to add any to the dukkah.)

1. After you have toasted the nuts and seeds, pulse finely in a food processor.
2. Combine the nuts and seeds in a bowl and add the spices.  Mix well.
3. Roll the chicken meatballs in the nut mixture.
4. Heat about 2-3 cups of oil in a skillet.  When it's hot add the meatballs in batches and cook until golden, turning often.
5. Serve with honey mustard.

Original recipe found here.

Odds & Ends

After my mass cooking for my work week I am usually left with a few scraps of various veggies and sometimes a little meat.  I only cook for one so I don't always throw it all in because then I'd have way more prepared than I could eat.  I'd rather bag the veggies and freeze the meat in order to make a different dish later on.  So today I found myself with some veggies in the fridge and not much direction in the culinary sense.  After some thought and visit to the freezer I thought I would just throw a bunch of stuff in the skillet and hope it turns out.  Here's what I had on hand: a ziploc baggie of cubed butternut squash, a bell pepper, onion and some mushrooms.  The freezer yielded some Italian sausage so I decided to combine it all.  It turned out pretty tasty and I was able to use everything up.  The bad part is that it made quite a bit and so I'll probably be eating this for the next 4 or 5 days.  Maybe I'll freeze a couple of servings and take them with me when I go to my parent's place.  Here's a pic of the dish: 

I just slice the onions and peppers and sauteed them until they were soft and starting to caramelize.  Then I added the mushrooms.  While this was cooking, I cheated and nuked the squash a little bit so that it was partially cooked.  I removed the onions mixture from the skillet and took the casing off the sausage and made mini-meatballs.  I dropped them in the skillet and cooked until they were 3/4 of the way done.  I wiped out most of the grease and then added the onion mixture and squash.  I rummaged around in the fridge and found a small container of fire-roasted tomatoes (about 1/3C.) and added that with a splash of chicken stock.  I covered and let it stew for about 10 minutes and called it good.

I also prepared a chicken dish that I found on PaleoMiddleEastern's blog.  Here's the link to the recipe.  It's super tasty!  I used all the same ingredients but my cooking method was different because I didn't want the oven on for an hour.  It was pretty toasty here today and we haven't turned on the air yet so I didn't want to heat the house up more than it already was.  It was just 40 degrees here a couple of days ago and rainy yesterday but it warmed up to 85 today.  So the dogs and I were fussy little babies about the house being warm.  I ended up preparing this in the crock pot and didn't have a bit of problem.  I just put all the veggies in the bottom and piled the chicken (I used legs) on top.  I put it on high and let it go for about 3 1/2 hours.  After a couple of hours I took the chicken out and browned it in a skillet so it would look so pale.  I put them back in the pot and mixed it all up.  I was really please with how it turned out.  Super yummy!

Today, I took a little leap towards my next goal...exercise.  I don't do any right now and I know that I need to be moving.  This is probably going to be tough for me.  I took the dogs to an area near our house that is only used a couple times a year for tractor pulls and an antique tractor show.  It has lots of open space so the mutts can be off leash and I don't have to worry about running into other people or run a chance of them getting to the road.  Today I decided to do some short "bursts" of running.  Although I don't think you could call what I was doing running or bursts of speed.  At one point I kicked it in high gear and was loping along when the little guy thought it would be fun to sideswipe me.  I, of course, dropped like a sack of potatoes.  At least I was on the meadow so the impact wasn't too bad which is good because I dropped right on my bum knee.  It has a huge scab from a tumble I took about a week and half ago that skinned both knees, sprained my thumb and tore a big whole in the knee of my jeans.  Perhaps I'll get better at staying upright while running or at the very least maybe I'll learn how to fall more gracefully!



Bacon Free

This week, due to my still awful shopping skills, is a bacon free week.  Well, not entirely bacon free.  I did use the bacon grease I had been collecting to cook a few things in.  Although at first, I whined like a baby and wondered what I was going to make.  After awhile, when I realized no one was going to go buy some bacon I shut up and I started thinking about what I was going to prepare for my work weekend.  I usually prepare my dinners and breakfast at the beginning of  my work week so that I can just grab and go.  It works really well for me and being prepared is what keeps me Paleo.  I think I'm getting a little better about menu planning and I'm not ending up with two or three kinds of leafy greens to eat all week.  Now, if I just can remember to grab my lunch when I walk out of the house!  I've forgotten it twice in the past couple of weeks.  Thankfully my sister brought my lunch in yesterday thus saving me from the chicken strip, mashed potato, tater tots and corn extravaganza that was available in the cafeteria.  There was also the wilted salad bar and nitrate laden lunch meats.  Yikes, I was in for a long day but she came to the rescue!  Thanks Boo Boo!

So, here are a few food pics of what I'm eating this weekend.  First up is chicken and collards.  The bacon would have been awesome in this.  I pack this in a small container and have it for my midway snack/lunch.  I work twelve hours so I usually eat breakfast at home and then have a small lunch and supper at work.

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of collards
8-10 cherry tomatoes (I bought some sweet yellow tomatoes because they were cheaper)
white wine for deglazing
chicken stock or water for steaming

1. Sautee the onion and garlic in bacon grease until it caramelizes.
2. Add the chicken and cook.
3. Deglaze the pan with the wine.
4. Toss the collards in and add a little chicken stock or water, if needed.
5. Cover and let steam until the greens have wilted a little.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook a few minutes so they are heated through and starting to break down.

Next up is my dinner plate for a couple of nights.  I bought some chopped steak type of meat and just browned it in some olive oil.  I'm serving it alongside some sauteed zucchini that I paired with some leftover yellow tomatoes and some spicy chipotle butternut squash.  Here's the recipe for the butternut squash.

Ingredients:
Butternut squash, cubed (1 small)
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
1/2 can of fire roasted tomatoes
Cumin, to taste
Cilantro

1. Saute the onion until it's soft and then add the garlic.  Cook for a few minutes until it's aromatic.
2. Toss the squash in the skillet with some fat and let it cook.  I just go to the point that it's starting to brown up on all sides.
3. Add the cumino and toss it all around for a minute of two.
4. Blend the chipotles and adobo sauce with the fire roasted tomatoes.  Add this to the skillet with the squash.  Cover and cook until squash is soft.  (You may have to add a little chicken stock or water if it starts to dry out.  Basically you want the sauce clinging to the squash.)
5. Sprinkle with some cilantro and serve.

Please, pack your knives and go.

I think the first thing I learned when trying to lead a Paleo lifestyle is preparation.  It's the key to success.  In my early efforts I would fail to buy the right things at the grocery store.  Overbuying some weeks and falling short on others.  I would sometimes get home with three different types of squashes and no other veggies.  I was a disaster when it came to grocery shopping and awful at preparation.  I'm doing a little better now and I must say that I really like the menu lists and shopping lists that Paleo Plan provides me.  The past couple of weeks I have ventured out on my own and haven't used the lists.  I think I've done a fairly good job with purchasing and preparing my meals without guidance.

Another obstacle is my work week.  I work 12 hour shifts and every other weekend I put in 4 days in a row.  During this time I don't like to do anything except get up, shower and grab a bite for breakfast.  I then gather my lunch and dinner out of the fridge and put it in a sack and head to work.  When I get home I go right to bed.  So I try to prepare all my meals in advance for this little stretch.  That's my key to eating Paleo during this time.  In my pre-Paleo days I would hit the drive thru, order take out, raid the candy bins in the cafeteria and eat whatever meal I brought with me (spaghetti, enchiladas,etc).

I truly enjoy cooking and while I may not be a top chef in the kitchen, I think I do a pretty decent job for someone who just started cooking in the past couple of years.  Sure, sometimes I bomb and from time to time I make something inedible but since it's just me eating this food I don't really worry about it.  I'm just glad I'm not cooking for these three.  

Here are some pics of what will be on my lunch and dinner menu while I work this week.

Omelette Muffins for breakfast so I don't have to cook in the morning!  I just chop up whatever veggie I have, saute some onions and sausage and put a scoop in each muffin tin and fill with beaten eggs.  I bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.  I use a jumbo tin so for a regular size tin just cut back the time.  They freeze up great and I just pop one in the microwave in the morning to heat it up.  Great time saver!

Mashed Rutabaga is going to be a side dish for some leftover braised shortribs that I had earlier in the week.  I just cubed up the rutabagas and tossed them in a small pot with some water and boiled, covered until they were soft and then I mashed them with a little chicken stock.  I found the recipe for the braised shortribs here.  I simply made whatever adjustments I needed to the recipe in order to make it my style of Paleo.

Baked chicken leg quarters using a recipe in one of my Rick Bayless cookbooks.  This one called for making a little marinade with orange juice, mexican oregano, diced garlic, ground canela, cloves, apple cider vinegar and pasilla chile powder.

Sauteed Kale in tomato sauce.  I find that I always make kale with a tomato sauce so the next time I'm going to search for a recipe sans tomato.  I suspect I do this because I'm still trying to get use to the taste of kale as well as other dark greens.  I never ate these in my pre-Paleo days so I'm trying to acquire a taste for them.  I simply soaked some ancho chiles and then ground them up in my vita-mixer with some crushed tomatoes and chicken stock.  I sauteed some onions in a skillet and then added the tomato-chile mixture.  I let it cook for a minute or so then added the chopped kale and covered it so the kale could steam.

Jumbo pork chop braised in some apple juice with aromatics.  I mix in some crushed ginger with the apple juice and then chopped up some celery, apple and onion.  I put this all in a baking dish and baked the chop until I thought it was done.  I think I may have over cooked my protein which would get me booted off Top Chef.  Thankfully Tom, Gail and Padma  aren't critiquing my dish.