RECIPE: Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

I love casseroles.  Take the simplest, humblest ingredients--leftovers, even!--and throw them in a baking dish with cheese and some cream, and you're set!  I call this the Law of Excellent Dinners, wherein the prime tenets are simplicity, cheesiness, and toothy delight. 

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole 

INGREDIENTS

3 cups cooked sprouted brown rice
1 cup cooked sprouted wild rice
6 tablespoons butter
8 oz sliced fresh portobello mushrooms (about 3 cups, or 1 package)
1/2 sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups milk
1 cup sharp cheese, shredded (I used Parmesan & Gorgonzola)
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken*
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup slivered, sliced, or crushed almonds, toasted
salt & pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 9" by 9" glass baking dish with butter or cooking spray.  Cook rice as directed on package(s), using 2 tablespoons of the butter and a pinch of salt.

Meanwhile, in an extra-large skillet, melt the remaining 1/4 cup of your butter over medium-high heat.  Cook mushrooms, onion, and garlic in butter and white wine for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bellas are tender and the onions are translucent.

Reduce the heat to medium and stir in cornstarch.  Gradually add milk and heat to boiling; cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in half of the cheese.

In a large bowl, mix your cooked rice, milk mixture, chicken, broth, and seasonings until blended.  Scrape into baking dish with a spatula and sprinkle with almonds and remaining cheese.  Bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.

VERDICT?  This dish is so, so good.  It is complex.  It is rich.  It has cheese, chicken, bella mushrooms, and wild rice.  Can I hear three cheers for texture?  Amen.


* For this recipe, I used the leftover chicken from my honey & molasses-glazed chicken, which added a pleasant rich sweetness to the already complex pastiche of flavors in this casserole.

RECIPE: Honey & Molasses-Glazed Chicken

I have decided that I have a bad penchant for taking the path of least resistance when it comes to food.  That is, I tend to gravitate toward the cheap carbs, like the Ezekiel bread you can find at Harps or the great range of sprouted-grain breads, bagels, pastas, tortillas, and pocket breads that are available at Ozark Natural (my go-to place for whole, bulk, and healthy foods now).  These carbs are not bad in the big scheme of things--but they're still pretty worthless if they're your primary food group.

And so, because I like meat the same way that women like classy gentlemen, I decided I would try to introduce a little more protein into my diet.  (Protein is not to be confused with peanut butter, a divine substance which I believe stands as a food group in and of itself.)  Hence, I shopped the weekly special at Aldi and picked up a pack of drumsticks, simply because I've never cooked drumsticks before and they're a relatively inexpensive cut of meat, especially at Harps on a Wednesday evening.

Honey & Molasses-Glazed Chicken

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon garlic, minced or crushed
1 teaspoon olive oil
10 chicken drumsticks, skinned
salt & pepper, freshly ground, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the water, honey, balsamic, Dijon, molasses, and garlic.

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, and season the chicken with the salt and pepper.  Once the pan is sizzling hot, add chicken and brown on all sides.  Pour the honey & molasses mixture over the browned chicken, turning the drumsticks to coat.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover and cook the drumsticks for 15 minutes or until done, turning the chicken every 5 minutes.  Uncover and cook for an additional minute or until the honey-molasses mixture is thick and rich in color.  Remove from heat and cool 10 minutes before eating.  Cover and chill your leftovers--they make an excellent base for something like my chicken and wild rice casserole.


VERDICT?  I rather enjoyed this one.  I haven't made a sweet chicken recipe before, and it made a refreshing change from the dry and bland overcooked chicken that is so common in this area.  The meat practically flaked off of the bone, and even though it was sticky and messy it was a delight to eat.  Best of all, it violates none of the laws of the Body Chemistry Diet, and it's safe to eat for anyone with a gluten intolerance, as well.  Extra points!

RECIPE: Simple Potato Wedges

There's nothing simpler than making your own potato wedges.  In fact, baked potato wedges are a fast and dead-easy way of introducing a healthy dose of starch into your diet, with none of the grease and MSG and other additives that make fast food a documentary-worthy vice.

You also have to hold this recipe fairly loosely in terms of proportions--every potato is a different size, and only you know how many wedges will satisfy you (and your family or guests), and how much seasoning you like.

The basic ingredients are as follows:

INGREDIENTS

Potatoes, sliced

Herbs, to taste

Salt & pepper, to taste

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese

As for my own personal preferences:

I like russet potatoes well enough, but Aldi was selling butter golds for cheap when I was last there, and I've discovered a new love in life.  Butter golds are really and truly--and naturally--buttery tasting.  They don't crisp up as much as your russet, but the flavor is delightful.

As far as seasonings go, I'm a fan of adding a little garlic (powder or fresh), a little paprika, summer savory or thyme, and rosemary.  There are endless ways you can spice up your wedges, but I have found the combination that works for me (for 6 of my little butter golds, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon savory, and 1/2 teaspoon rosemary).

DIRECTIONS

The trick to good wedges is to get your oven well and truly hot--between 400 and 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Throw all of the ingredients into a ziploc bag.  (For my six butter golds, I add a 1/3 cup parmesan and a healthy drizzle of olive oil.)  Zip the bag shut and shake it around until the seasonings are evenly distributed, then pour the contents out onto a foil-covered baking sheet, making sure they're not crowded together.

Bake until tender and golden-brown, somewhere between 25 and 40 minutes depending on the type of potato and oven temperature.  I recommend checking the wedges at around 25 minutes, and if they're not done, flipping them and adding another 10 minutes to the clock. 

Baked wedges things are always a bit unpredictable, but they are always delicious.  So long as they don't burn and they're not over-seasoned in jalapeno flakes, it's almost impossible to ruin them.  Enjoy!

RECIPE: Scalloped Turnips

Turnips are one of those vegetables I never felt tempted to try.  That being said, I kind of made a promise to myself on starting this new diet that I would be adventurous--and try everything listed on the "best veggies" list.  I haven't yet found a use for kale that I think I can tolerate, but here's one way to make turnips palatable!

RECIPE: Scalloped Turnips

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

4 medium-large turnips, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons cornstarch

freshly ground salt & black pepper, to taste

1 cup milk (or cream, or [preferably] a mixture of the two)

1 cup shredded cheese*

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter a 8" by 8" glass casserole dish.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pan and sauté the sliced onions until they begin to wilt.

Layer the sliced turnips in the casserole dish and top with a third of the onions.  Sprinkle liberally with cornstarch, salt and pepper, and pat with dollops from 1 tablespoon of butter.  Repeat until you have run out of ingredients.

Pour the milk/cream over the turnips, and sprinkle the cheese over the top of the casserole. 

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes--or until the cheese is turning a nice golden brown, and bubbling.

* NOTE: I used a fiesta mix, but cheddar or even parmesan would work, depending on your tastes.

VERDICT: This is actually a fairly tasty dish.  Now, I tend to think anything cooked with cheese is pretty excellent, but this is actually quite good.  The turnips are a milder flavor once cooked, so add to rather than detract from the cheese-loving extravaganza.



 

 

 

 

 

RECIPE: Maple Walnut Whipped Sweet Potato

I apologize for not having blogged over the last week.  Thanksgiving, you know?  Things just got away from me.  I was planning on blogging about my adventures in the kitchen over the holiday, but it turned out that I wasn't much wanted/needed in the kitchen since my sister was so on top of things.  She personally brined a turkey straight into heaven, and had most of the sides and desserts ready even before we drove into town.  I would love to blog about her creative and fantastic foods, but I wouldn't know where to begin.  I'll let her win you over herself, supposing you're friends with her on Facebook.

It's so funny to think of Facebook now, all these months after quitting.  My finger doesn't automatically twitch over to the Facebook button on Symbaloo anymore.  I think I must be recovering!  I'm plenty busy with cooking, sleeping, and generally surviving to worry about missing everyone's what-I-had-for-breakfast status updates.

Ah!  But you didn't come to this blog to hear about my life.  You came to this blog to find out about my maple walnut whipped sweet potatoes!

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I returned home from Alabama to discover I had very little food in the house save for sweet potatoes and fish.  Now, I love fish.  I adore fish.  There is, however, only so many ways to prepare fish without boring my blog audience.  I will find some new ways to prepare the sea's bounty before talking more about them. 

My sister had made this fabulous sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and pecans, but as you well know, sugar is a definite no-no on the Body Chemistry Diet.  Besides, I think sweet potatoes are quite sweet enough without that delectable nonsense of a crunchy topping.

My dilemma, then, was to capture the same spirit of the sweet potato, without all of the sugar.  I made this up on the spot, and it is quite simple, but I feel this recipe does justice to the materials I had on hand.

Maple Walnut Whipped Sweet Potato Confection of Goodness

INGREDIENTS

1 whole large sweet potato

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 cup sweet white wine (optional), like a Moscato

2 tablespoons maple syrup (for the potato mixture)

1/2 to 2/3 cup whole walnuts

2 tablespoons maple syrup (for the walnuts)

DIRECTIONS

Bake the potato until very soft, about 7 minutes in the microwave (on high)*.  Make sure to stab it with a fork a couple of times and wrap it in paper towel before putting it in the microwave, and be very careful when removing it--or you will learn the true origin of the game, "hot potato."  (I'm serious.  You could really burn yourself.)  Test the potato with a fork.  Once the potato is soft all the way through, cut it in half and scoop the flesh out of the skin.

Put the sweet potato in a medium sauce pan and add the olive oil and white wine, mixing with a fork.  Turn the stove to medium-low heat and stir in the milk, vanilla, and maple syrup.  Use the fork to crush lumps of sweet potato against the side of the sauce pan, for a more even and creamy texture.  Heat until the mixture is smooth and bubbling, then remove from the heat.  Beat the mixture rapidly with your fork until it begins to look whipped.  Alternatively, you can use an immersion (stick) blender to do this for you.

While the sweet potato mixture is cooking, heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Pour your remaining maple syrup over the walnuts and turn so that they are evenly coated, then lay them out on a small, foil-covered baking sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until the syrup has caramelized but not burned--keep a close eye on the walnuts to ensure that they do not get to that point.

Once the walnuts are toasted, remove them from the oven and let cool until they are easy to handle.  I bundled them up in the foil and stuck them in the freezer for around 5 minutes, then took them out.  Remove the walnuts from the foil and add to the sweet potato mixture, stirring to combine.

Serve warm!

VERDICT: I felt like I was having dessert, this was so delicious, but it actually served as a relatively healthy main course.  It was far from being overly sweet, as sweet potato casseroles often are.  The walnuts add a delightful crunch to the creamy sweet potato, and add another little distinction from the standard pecans they are often paired with--but pecans would work in this recipe if you did not have any walnuts on hand.  By leaving out cinnamon and other spices, the sweet potato really asserts its natural, complex flavor here.  (This also has the added benefit of being gluten free!)  Housemate J gave her cute face of approval when I showed her the final product.



RECIPE: Slow-Cooked Apple Cider Ribs

Monday being my day to make dinner for the house, I decided to go with something relatively simple that I wouldn't have to worry about when I got home from work.  Once again, I picked my recipe based on what ingredients I happened to have on hand, which happened to be beef ribs, apples, and leftover apple cider from a party.  Hence, slow-cooked apple cider ribs with roasted radishes as a side dish.

Slow-cooker meals are about as easy as they come.  I'm not sure how I feel about them, in general, given that a lot of flavor is cooked out of foods by stewing them for such a long time ... but the simplicity factor means a great deal when you're making a meal for more than just yourself.  And I have to admit that having our whole house together, sitting down at the kitchen table and sharing a meal together, is a lot of fun.

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs boneless beef ribs
4 apples
2 cups apple cider
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (or regular vinegar, if you're using apple cider)
4 cups water
salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Core, peel, and chop your apples into chunks.  Cut apart the ribs (if necessary) and place all of the ingredients in your slow cooker.  Set to "low" and cook for 8-10 hours.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the ribs and apples from the slow-cooker, as you will have a lot of leftover liquid.

OR,

Place the ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the ribs are tender (approximately four hours).

VERDICT: I'm used to my beef being spicy, I think, so this came as a bit of a surprise to my taste buds.  That being said, it was pretty dang good for an(other) experiment.  The apple cider vinegar and the lengthy cooking process made the meat so tender it flaked under the fork.  The savory radish dish was the perfect flavor complement to the slightly sweet ribs.

RECIPE: Baked Apples

Baked apples are one of those desserts I used to read about as a kid--the kind of thing little boys would bake over campfires while waiting for rescuers or dodging them (think Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, respectively).  They're so absurdly simple and impossibly delicious that I can't believe I never made them before--or that my mother never made them for us kids.  I suppose she was too busy trying to convince us that apples could be eaten in any other form than pie.

You can make this recipe with as many or as few apples as you like, so long as you have a proportionally sized oven-safe dish to put them in, and scale your ingredients up or down to suit.  I will simply relay the portions that I used.


INGREDIENTS

3 small apples (mine were gala)
1/3 cup walnuts
cinnamon
cardamom
nutmeg
allspice
cloves
honey*

white wine (optional) or water

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Core the apples carefully, cutting from the top making sure to leave the skin at the bottom intact.

Take your walnuts and pound them into submission, then mix with your spices to taste (I like my spices to be strong at this point, since a lot of them cook into the apples).  Pack the nut and spice mixture into the wells left by the absent apple cores, and drizzle over the top with a scant tablespoon of honey per apple.

Place the apples in an oven-safe pan (I used a bread pan), and pour about a quarter inch of white wine or water in the bottom of the pan.

Bake until the apples are soft enough to cut easily with a spoon and your house is filled with the smell of deliciousness (around 40 minutes).  Remove from the oven and let cool before eating, and serve.

VERDICT: Well, they look kinda funky, but they're absolutely scrumptious.  I recommend baked apples as a healthy (!) treat to all my friends and family.

* If you're not on a killjoy sugarless diet, you can use brown sugar instead of (or in partnership with) honey.  Mix the brown sugar in with the nuts and cinnamon before packing the apples.

RECIPE: Bacon-Wrapped Whiting

One of my housemates has told me I should advertise my blog as gluten-free while I pursue this Body Chemistry Diet.  I'm not sure I really know what qualifies as gluten-free, so I'll have to do a little more research.  What you can know for a certainty, though, is that for the near future you will not be seeing any baked goods where I have not personally cranked the wheat through the hand mill (which arrived day before yesterday!).  I will make sure to exclude any wheat/grain-based dishes from the gluten-free tags.

For this meal, however, you gluten-free friends won't have to bat an eye.

Bacon has been on my mind a lot lately.  I have heard about some current craze in bacon desserts, and last weekend I saw some bacon-topped chocolate cupcakes in Savoy, a little tea shop in Pinnacle Hills.  I'm still not convinced that bacon and desserts go together, but I'd be open to trying it some day ... some day when I'm not on the Body Chemistry Diet.  Anyway, I picked up some peppered bacon last week and was looking for creative ways to cook fish and thought: hey!  I have these two ingredients!  I wonder if they work together? -- and so I used trusty Google to see if anyone else had the same idea.  They had, but I like to do my own thing.  So I whipped up a simple but delectable dinner for anyone who likes white fish and bacon, together or separately.


INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon butter
Two sizable white fish fillets (I used whiting, but tilapia would work just as well)
1/2 one chopped yellow onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup white wine (I used a moscato, which complimented the peppered bacon perfectly)
6 medium slices peppered bacon (prosciutto and regular bacon also works, I hear)
1 tbsp chopped basil (fresh or dried)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

All good things start with bacon, so begin by pan frying your bacon until it is about halfway done--that is, until it is beginning to brown, but is still flexible enough to wrap around your fish.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

In the same pan (keeping the bacon drippings, since they're so wonderful), saute the onion and garlic in the butter.  As the onion begins to become translucent, add the white wine and basil and let simmer until the sauce cooks down to about half its original volume (somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes). 

As the sauce cooks, wrap your bacon around your fillets, using toothpicks to secure the bacon.  Place the wrapped fillets in an oven safe glass pan or casserole dish.

When the sauce has cooked down, remove it from the heat and pour it over the fillets.  Place the pan in the oven and cook for between 40 and 45 minutes, or until the bacon is crispy on both sides (turn the fillets over halfway through).

Serve hot, heaping the caramelized onions on top and drizzling with the remaining sauce.

Do remember to remove the toothpicks before chowing down.

VERDICT: This dish is as divine as you can imagine for a simple, easy dinner.  Sure, it takes about an hour to prepare--but a meal like this is worth every second.  The natural sweetness of the white wine and the yellow onions pairs perfectly with the unique taste of whiting and the bold sharpness of the peppered bacon.