Chicken Pot Pie

It has been a month since I’ve last eaten pasta, mainly because I’m trying really hard to reduce the size of my fabulous (motherly as my ex called them) hips. The road to not eating pasta has not always been easy. I have had my great days where I haven’t given my lovely friend pasta a thought but at times it can also be torture, where all I want to do is stuff my face with a big bowl of creamy pasta. I do still eat comfort food and putting something together might take some more planning but I’m hoping that it will all be worth it in the end…please tell me it will be.

I love stews and pies but have never had the courage to actually made one, but that all recently changed. In the past my friend Shannon has made a chicken pot pie recipe that can knock anybody’s socks off. She kindly sent me the link and before I could blink, I was in the kitchen cooking a storm away. This is one of Barefoot Contessa’s recipes and if you’ve heard of her, you’ll know that a tub of butter will get you anywhere.

This is fabulous recipe but it is not one that you can put together in twenty minutes. I’m sure there are ways you can cheat and eventually I will figure them out because I’ll be making this again but making this the first time nearly took me nearly 40ish minutes. The ingredients are as follows:

3 whole chicken breasts                                  2 tablespoons olive oil

5 cups chicken stock                                       1 chicken bouillon cube

12 tablespoons unsalted butter                         2 cups chopped yellow onions

¾ cup flour¼ cup heavy cream                         2 cups frozen peas

½ cup minced fresh parsley                               Salt and pepper

4 medium sized carrots, diced and blanched for 2 minutes

Before I go on, I should probably mention that there is also a list of ingredients for how to make the pie crust but I cheated and bought puff pastry which I used instead of laboring in the kitchen for hours.

I took the chicken breasts and rubbed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven for approximately 34 minutes. I then cut up the chicken into small cubes but mine weren’t that small and I have decided that next time I’m going to shred the chicken.

In a small pot, I heated chicken stock and one bouillon cube and left that to simmer for about twenty minutes. In a large pot (do use a large one and not a medium one like I did, it will make stirring so much easier and you won’t have to share your food with the stove either) I melted the butter and sautéed the onions for about 10 minutes until they were translucent. I then added the flour, stirring constantly (and I mean constantly) and slowly added the hot chicken stock to the sauce. The recipe indicates to leave this to simmer for about a minute until it thickens but I stirred mine all the way. The last part was the easiest, I simply seasoned the sauce, added the heavy cream, chicken, carrots and peas and hello I had a wonderful pot of chicken stew. I then took the puff pastry and baked it in the oven for about 10/15 minutes and when I dished it up, I simply tore off a piece and put it on top of the stew.

I am so proud of myself, this chicken pie dish is AMAZING and I’ll be making it again. The only negative aspect was that the stew was a bit thick but the taste was oh so good. This is a keeper, definitely worth making especially on a cold winter’s day.

Apple Crumble

A craving is like a drug, one that won’t go away until it has been fed. Mine started about a week ago when one of my students told me that her favorite dessert is warm apple pie with vanilla ice-cream and at that moment I knew that I badly needed some. I think I sulked for a day really wanting some and quickly realized that if I wanted apple pie I would have to make it myself.  Apple pie implies making a crust and that also implies baking and you all know that baking isn’t my cup of tea so I researched apple crisp and crumble recipes and decided on making the crumble instead. I realize that I took the easy way out but I promise one day I’ll challenge myself and make pie – that is of course after I’ve taken a course on how to make pie preferably somewhere in Italy with a hot Italian standing oh so close behind me showing me how to kneel dough…

I got home late on Thursday night and quickly ordered groceries and realized this morning that I forgot the ice-cream so I got up, showered and walked into town. It was and is bitter cold, but if you’re like me, determined to make something then nothing is going to stop you. I found my ice-cream and some other stuff that I didn’t really need, got home, took off my boots, walked into the kitchen poured myself a glass of wine (no, 2pm is not too early to start drinking) and started baking.

I found this recipe on epicurious.com and just love what they have. For this crumble I needed:

2 ½ cups of old fashioned oats

1 ½ cups of brown sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes

Nonstick vegetable oil spray (but butter works as well)

4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, halved, cored, each half cut into 6 slices

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

I pre-heated the oven to a180 degrees, put on some sexy music and started making this dish. I mixed all of the dry ingredients together, added the butter and “rubbed” everything together until it became moist clumps and set it aside. I peeled, cored, and cut the apples into thin slices and not into six slices as the recipe indicated.  I then mixed the apples with fresh lemon juice from a whole lemon (never underestimate the power of a lemon, I was clearly not thinking when I added the juice of a whole lemon), added some ground cinnamon and then realized that I had to add ½ cup of brown sugar into the apple mixture but I had put everything into the dry mixture (removing or trying to remove sugar from a dry mixture is no piece of cake).  I then transferred the apple mixture into a deep dish, sprinkled the topping on top and baked for approximately 50 minutes.

Apart from having added too much lemon, the crumble tasted great and looked good as well. I gave some to my roommates and they loved it and suggested I should make it over Thanksgiving. I ate the crumble with vanilla ice-cream and it was heaven in my mouth. I have one slice left and the longer the crumble sits that better it tastes. I major hit and I’ll be sure to make this again adding less lemon and maybe a bit more sugar (don’t hate a girl for having a sweet tooth). 

Italian Wedding Soup

I love soups and will be the first to admit that I’m not very good at making them but hold on, the soups that I’ve made (not that many actually) have come out pretty good, but I haven’t been able to master them yet. There is something about soup that terrifies me; maybe it’s something to do with the long ingredient list. Have you even seen anybody make soup using only five ingredients, because if you have please have them contact me.

If you happen to have a semi-soup phobia as me, you’ll be happy to know that there is “help” for us and the help ladies and gentlemen is can soup. I absolutely love can soup and miss them tremendously. I’m in my kitchen at the moment, grilling some vegetables (I am on this new health regime where I’m trying to eat more vegetables and TRYING not to eat carbohydrates at night), but I would kill for a grilled cheese sandwich and a can of chicken or mushroom soup.

At one point in my life while I was living in America, Thursdays used to be grilled cheese and can soup days and if I could turn back the clock, for a couple more of those days I would. I’ve come to the conclusion that we take the availability of food for granted. If I went into a store here in Poland and asked someone to show me where the canned soup aisle is, I would get laughed at. At the moment I have one can of imported mushroom soup that I paid a fortune for but I’m saving that for a rainy day

It must be that time of the month because I have been craving everything and one of those things was Italian Wedding Soup. Italian wedding soup and I met about six or seven years ago and it was love at first sight but he is sadly no longer available to me. I searched the Internet nearly like a mad woman until I found the perfect recipe and I think I did. While doing my recipe research, I stumbled upon a new cooking website called www.recipegirl.com and that is where I found my Italian Wedding Soup made by Barefoot Contessa. Let me just have a moment here and say how much I love Barefoot Contessa, she is simply amazing and when you get a moment, be sure to Google or you tube her. Anyways, I got home late Friday night and quickly ordered a few groceries online and crossed my fingers that I would find everything and I did except for fresh spinach. Seriously, how difficult would it really be to sell spinach in September?

This recipe really consisted of two separate stages which were later combined into something unbelievably good. The first step was to make the meatballs which consisted of the following ingredients: ground turkey, turkey sausage, breadcrumbs, minced garlic, fresh parsley, parmesan and pecorino cheese, milk, one egg and some salt & pepper. For the meatballs I only used about 500grams of turkey because I couldn’t find any turkey sausage. I should probably mention that here one can only find one type of sausage and I’ve got no idea what is in it, but I do know that it’s raw white sausage that’s cooked for approximately ten minutes and put on bread or the same sausage but instead of being raw and white, it’s orange and smoked.  I combined all of the ingredients into a bowl and mixed everything together and rolled them into 1-inch mini meatballs and baked them in the oven for about thirty minutes. After I took them out of the oven, I just had to taste one and boy where they good. They were crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and the cheese added a little extra oomph.

After eating about five meatballs (still making sure they all tasted the same) I started making the soup. In a large pot I sautéed some carrots, celery and onion until softened. I then added ten cups of chicken stock and ¼ cup of dry wine and brought everything to a boil. I also added a cup of pasta to the broth and simmered for eight minutes or until the pasta was tender. Last but not least, I added the meatballs and ¼ cup of fresh dill.

I am proud of myself because this soup came out great. It really is unbelievably good and it is something I will definitely be making again. The meatballs were delicious, the carrots were borderline soft, the pasta was al dente and the dill gave it a nice twist. Next time I make this, I’ll have to find spinach just to see how it changes to the flavor of the soup and less pepper because I might have over seasoned it just a bit. I still have about a bowl left in the fridge and the longer the soup sits, the better the flavors become. Definitely a keeper!!

Frozen layer yogurt cake

I recently got back from England, where I spent little more than five weeks working at a summer camp. My experience was fabulous, the weather was ideal (for me it was but maybe not for the rest of the population) the people I met were incredible and the food, well let’s just say there was so much of it. I’m not a very big breakfast person but in all honesty, breakfast was the best. Every morning breakfast consisted of the following; eggs (usually fried or scrambled), bacon or sausages, toast (if we were lucky we would get bagels – oh how I miss you) and croissants but by the time we got finally got to the “buffet” table, they were usually gone. England feels like home but home isn’t there at the moment.

I’ve been back for approximately two weeks now and have lost my food-mojo. I realize that food-mojo might not exist but appetite sounds less exotic at the moment. It makes me sad to report this because I love food but it is true and the culprit ladies and gentlemen is the weather. A heat wave has taken over Poland and being awake takes up a lot of effort in itself so by the time I get to the kitchen nothing seems to be appealing. I’ve been living off a sandwich or two, so pathetic but oh so true….

I received my last Jamie Oliver magazine and have decided that I simply cannot afford to renew my subscription, so I’m going to have to make use of my 12 marvelous magazines that are currently building up dust in my room. The last magazine is all about summer, so I got a little bit excited and wondered if I could find something that called my name. I was able to find something that I hope is going to taste good and it’s in the freezer setting as we speak.

I’ve decided to make a layered yogurt cake that simply consists of four different types of fruit and a bit of natural yogurt. I got up this morning and told myself that today would be the day that I got off my pretty ass and walked to town. Walking into town was a horrible mistake on my part. It is about 34 degrees but it feels like 40 something with so much humidity, I feel as though I am back in Sicily and can’t seem to get comfortable. Yes, I even took an ice-cold shower but I’m still feeling incredibly HOT.

I ended up buying bananas, peaches, raspberries (should be interesting) and strawberries, which I might add were very expensive and not quite as sweet as the ones I tasted in England. I lined a loaf tin with clingfilm and in a food processor blitzed the bananas with four tablespoons of yogurt, poured the mixture into the loaf tin and placed it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. After about 15 minutes, I repeated the process with three more layers of fruit. I just recently finished the last layer, the raspberries looked gorgeous but the banana and peach mixture looked like baby food. I cheated a bit when I blended the strawberries because I added a bit of sugar but we all know that sugar is good because it supplies the body with energy. I managed to use up all the fruit that I purchased this morning and if you’re curious to know what happened to the rest of the yogurt, let’s just say it befriended the drain.

The cake looks delicious but the taste wasn’t really delicious, rather refreshing. The raspberries overpowered all the fruit.  I’m not sure if I would make this again, but if I did, I would use definitely include blueberries. Presentation a hit but the taste was a miss and I’m not sure what the purpose of the yogurt was. 

Lemon-rhubarb chicken

I seem to cook less as the days are getting warmer. Summer equals being lazy and not doing much and cooking somehow seems to require quite a bit of energy. It was my turn to cook Sunday dinner this week and before this week had started; I knew it was going to have to be something light. At one point I was contemplating making pizza but it was a no go however, I am determined to make it.

I challenged myself and decided to use rhubarb, an ingredient that I have never tasted nor held before. I found an amazing bon appétit lemon- rhubarb chicken recipe that was posted on epicurious.com and knew that it would be an interesting cooking adventure.  Do you ever notice that people always seem to use the same ingredients over and over again, why are we so hesitant to try something different?

This week I decided to make lemon-rhubarb chicken, jasmine rice (let me just say this up front – I cheated and bought the box kind), a side order of carrots & green beans and a quick and easy cheesecake (don’t get too excited because there is a twist and it’s not your average cheesecake). The recipe was split into two part; one being the stuffing and the other the sauce. Before I started cooking I took out all the ingredients and laid them on the counter so I wouldn’t forget anything. Chopping the rhubarb took up quite a bit of time and 30 minutes later I was ready to begin. I made the rhubarb stuffing first which consisted of 2 tablespoons of chopped shallots, 2 cups of rhubarb and lemon juice. In a pot I melted 2 tablespoons of butter, added all of the ingredients, sautéed it for approximately 5 minutes and seasoned it with salt and pepper. To those of you who don’t know me, I am a very vocal person and when I tasted the stuffing I screamed. It had the nastiest taste ever! It was extremely bitter and tangy and I hate bitter food with a passion and hoped that somehow the sauce would even out the taste.  

 

Next step was making the sauce. In a large pot I melted butter, added 2 cups of rhubarb, ¼ cup of shallots and ginger. Sautéed for about ten minutes and added some sugar and ¼ cup of brandy, chicken broth, star anise and a bay leaf. The sauce simmered over low heat for an hour. After an hour I discarded the solids in a strainer and added some of the stuffing into the sauce. When I think of a sauce, I picture something thick and this sauce wasn’t. It was more of a broth but boy was it delicious. It was sweet with a bit of tanginess and this is something I will have to make again. So damn good.  After the sauce was done, I preheated the oven and stuffed the chicken with the rest of the leftover stuffing.

While the chicken was baking in the oven, I stared making the rest my menu. I cooked the rice and by that I mean I just put two bags of rice in a boiling pot and ten minutes later it was done. I love rice and when I was younger I knew how to cook it but than I moved to America and got lazy and started buying the box kind and now have difficulties cooking rice. I realize how stupid it must sound, but it’s true. In a separate pot I boiled water and cooked some cut-up carrots and green beans which I later coated with butter and breadcrumbs and lightly fried it. This is a homemade recipe my mom used to make and it is tasty. While I was busy getting the vegetables and rice ready, I would ever now and then check on the chicken and glaze it with some of the sauce.

I know I have said this before and I will say it again – I am baker but I really wanted to make some kind of a dessert. In a wine glass I crumbled some ginger cookies, next came the cream (in a bowl I whipped some mascarpone cheese, vanilla extract, sugar and heavy cream. I thought the mascarpone would be sweet and took a big bite only to realize that it had no flavor and it was my second horrible surprise of the day which resulted in another scream), on top of the cream I added some good quality strawberry jam and fresh strawberries and that ladies and gentlemen is my version of a cheesecake.

Dinner was delicious; the sauce was the winner by far, the vegetables were crunchy and the dessert was oh so good that I more or less licked the bowl (not with my tongue but finger). The only downfall is that I might have overcooked the chicken by two/three minutes. Lovely light Sunday dinner.

Falafel Burgers

My food journey this week had me reminiscing my fabulous time in Sicily and just how much I miss it. A few years ago on a hot summer’s day, my friends and I were sitting in a café (but I think it was more of a “healthy” fast food place) in an alley enjoying each others company. I think our aim was to go to this place because it sold cheap beer and we all know how refreshing ice cold beer is on a hot day. It was a fabulous evening, not only did we have lots of beer but we also ordered food and smoked a hookah. For only 10 Euros one could order a big hookah delivered to your table with your choice of tea leaves. Is it possible to get high on tea leaves, because I’m sure nobody did? One of my friends had ordered a falafel burger and after taking a bite, I knew I needed to order one for myself. Who would have thought that vegetables and spices could make a burger taste so good. It was a priceless evening;  a bunch of us sitting outside somewhere in an alley, surrounded by tons of people going on about their own business, drinking beer, smoking and eating falafel burgers.

 

I was browsing the bbcgoodfood website this week and jumped with joy when I came across a falafel burger recipe and just knew that this would be the one to make. Friday morning after I finished teaching I quickly went to the store and bought all the ingredients that I needed. The main ingredient for a falafel burger is chickpeas. I am not a fan of beans regardless of how good they are for our bodies (and whenever I eat them, I feel bloated and it leaves me farting which is so embarrassing but true) but have come to love chickpeas.

I got home, took out all of my ingredients and “throw” them into a food processor. Oh the joy of a food processor, can you just imagine how difficult life would be if we have to stir, chop, mix, smash things ourselves?  A quick little note here, I do not own a food processor but my friend Shannon does and I promise that one day when I have my own place, I’ll be the owner of a fabulous funky looking food processor.  I took one can of chickpeas, a few garlic cloves, some fresh parsley, cumin, coriander, chili powder, flour and salt and the food processor did the rest. Once everything was blended smooth, I then shaped the mixture into four patties and fried them for approximately four minutes on each side.

 

The taste of these burgers was really good, the combination of all the spices worked well together but they kept falling apart. When you make a burger you usually add an egg or breadcrumbs to keep the mixture together, but the falafel recipe didn’t include any of that.

The recipe only called for adding two tbs of flour but that simply isn’t enough. I will make this recipe again, but will have to tweak it a bit and add something to keep it all together.

All is all a wonderful recipe.

Burgers

A burger should be an easy thing to make but in reality it isn’t. I spend this week worrying about how to make the perfect burger. I must have looked at about five or six different websites trying to find the perfect recipe. I live with two wonderful friends who happen to have a bit of a different taste to food than I do. Knowing what they like and don’t like was something I also had to take into consideration while I was searching.

I don’t particularly like red meat but from time to time I’ll have something with ground beef in it (guess my body needs the protein, right?). I am not someone who tends to order a burger in a restaurant but recently I have found a sandwich shop near my house that makes the best burgers. A simple classic burger but it is seasoned well and cooked to perfection. Pure joy I tell you. Summer is more or less here and I didn’t feel like making anything heavy today so I decided on making a burger. Hold on for a sec, I didn’t just make one burger but ended up making two different kinds and get ready for this, I also made rosemary roasted garlic potatoes and cream corn (I can hear your thoughts – what the hell was she thinking?) but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Most women can multi-task and I happen to be one of them.

I woke up this morning with the start of a sinus headache and by the time I got up from my afternoon nap I was in serious pain. I took something and off to the kitchen I went with my wild bed hair, headache and pj’s (Sunday is the one day where I don’t worry how I look, so please do not judge me). I knew that if I wanted to have everything ready at the same time I needed to be focused and organized.

Step one:

I started on the potatoes because I knew that they would take the longest to cook. I preheated the oven to about 230 and I washed and cut up some potatoes into 1-inch wedges. I took the potatoes and mixed them together with a couple of smashed garlic cloves, some salt and pepper, fresh rosemary sprigs (I think everyone is meant to have a rosemary plant in their kitchen so if you don’t, please do get one the next time you are out) and some olive oil. I then layered the potatoes onto a hot tray and baked them in the oven for approximately 45 minutes but every ten minutes or so I would turn them.

Step two:

While my potatoes were baking I decided to make my first set of burgers. I made some fabulous Spiced Thai Burgers that (a) one of my friends had sent me and (b) that I couldn’t eat because they were too bloody spicy. The basic components of a spiced Thai burger are: ground turkey, peanuts, scallions, garlic, chili, fresh coriander, lime and some salt and pepper. In a food processor I mixed the peanuts, scallions, garlic and chili. I could not find fresh chili but I was able to find some in a jar. I don’t eat chili and they looked so small so instead of only using one I decided to use four or maybe five (sometimes it is good not to change the recipe!!!) and added the mixture into the turkey along with some lime zest and  juice, fresh chopped coriander and some salt and pepper.

Step three:

While the spiced Thai burgers were “marinating” in the fridge, I started making the other burgers. Making these burgers was difficult because I still wasn’t sure how exactly I would be seasoning them. I decided to go with the less is more theory and just ended up seasoning them with some salt & pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. I then put them in the fridge for about ten minutes. You know what they say “the longer you leave the burger, the better it will taste”.

While my burgers were marinating I started making cream corn. I have always loved cream corn and for as long as I can remember I have always eaten it straight from a tin.  One of the joy’s of living in a big country is that you can find anything. Since moving to Europe about two years ago and found out that I couldn't  find nor buy cream corn here, my heart has been broken. One of my dear friends Shannon is always making her own things; her theory is that if you can’t find it then make it yourself. About a month ago she made cream corn and it was tasty. So after thinking about it and talking about it forever, I finally decided that I would try making my very own cream corn. This recipe called for combining corn, heavy cream, salt, sugar, butter in a pot and adding some milk and flour and stirring it until it thickens. I made the cream corn and it tasted good but I still prefer the one from a can. Guess some things are meant to be from a tin.

When I finally had all the cream corn ingredients in a pot, I started frying up some bacon and burgers. At certain moments I had my right hand stirring the corn and my left hand flipping burgers and making sure my bacon wasn’t burning. Multi-tasking is possible but not always easy. Fifteen minutes later everything was ready. By everything I really mean everything; burgers – check, crispy bacon – check, roasted potatoes – check, cream corn – check and the rolls were in the oven – check. I ALSO somehow managed to set the table with a few extra burger goodies.

 

I had a little bit of everything but really only loved the rosemary roasted potatoes and the “regular” burgers. The potatoes were so good. I don’t eat a lot of potatoes but every time I do they seem to taste fabulous. The so called regular burger wasn’t regular but delicious (the secret is to coat the burger with some mustard while it’s cooking), it was juicy and cooked to perfection. Served with some sautéed onions (made those as well), cheese and bacon made it all even better and it makes my mouth water just thinking of it again.

After taking a bite of the Thai burger I decided that I wasn’t going to eat it. It was too spicy for me. The burger was seasoned well (both my roommates preferred this burger) but it was too much for me. Not sure if I would make this burger again but it is a wonderful recipe to pass on to someone who likes spicy food.