Make It : Chicken Divan December 7, 2007

This is a throw-together, use-what-you’ve-got dinner that makes great lunchtime leftovers. Not exactly low-fat, but great for those evenings where it’s cold and snowy and you just want something warm and homey. If you don’t have exact amounts, don’t stress – use what you’ve got.

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 4-6 cups shredded chicken
16-20 ounces (1-2 packages) frozen or about 3-4 cups fresh broccoli (this is about 1-2 medium-sized bunches)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing/Miracle Whip – to cut down on fat, use low-fat mayonnaise. Miracle whip just adds a bit more tang to the recipe – I prefer it. You can vary the amount of this up or down by about 1/4 cup – if you’re using less, make up for it with a bit more sour cream or wine.
1 cup sour cream – same goes here – you can vary this by up to 1/4 cup – just make up for it with mayo.
1 – 2 cups shredded cheddar
1/2 – 1 cup white wine Feel free to cut this out if you are staying away from alcohol – just replace it with some milk or chicken broth.
1 cup bread crumbs
2 Tbsp butter

In a deep frying pan or wide saucepan, cover two chicken breasts with water (if you have it, add a cube of bullion or teaspoon of chicken stock). Place over medium-high heat. Let the water reach a boil, and poach chicken for 8-12 minutes, or until cutting into the thickest part of the breast reveals no pink.

Set poached chicken on a plate and allow to cool until you can comfortably handle it. (In the fridge, if you’re in a hurry) Shred or roughly chop the chicken – don’t worry about making it look pretty.

If using fresh broccoli, use a paring knife to trim into small chunks. Dump into boiling water for 3-5 minutes, or until the broccoli is a bright green and still has some crunch to it. If it’s still around, use the water you poached the chicken in – one less dish to wash, and the water should still be hot.

If using frozen broccoli, pour into a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on medium power for 3-5 minutes, or until defrosted.

In a separate, large bowl, whisk or stir together the soup, mayonnaise, sour cream, cheddar, and wine. Add the chicken and broccoli and mix together until combined.

Cover a 9 x 11 pan with foil (a single layer if you are baking this right away, a triple layer if you will be freezing this) and spray with nonstick spray. Dump the chicken mixture into the pan and spread evenly.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter by microwaving 30 seconds on high power. Stir in with the bread crumbs. Spread buttered bread crumbs over the chicken mixture.

To bake right away, place in a 350-degree oven for 35-45 minutes, or until it’s hot and bubbly.

To freeze, lay another piece of foil across the top and turn the pan over. Wrap securely and place in the freezer. When the time comes to bake it, your foil package should fit perfectly into your pan – just take the top layer of foil off, heat the oven to 350 and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

This is another recipe that is practically made for experimentation. Some of my favorite variations are adding parmesean cheese to the bread crumbs, adding a teaspoon of curry powder to the sauce, using cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken, adding a few tablespoons lemon juice, throwing in a few tablespoons of pimentos, and using colby jack cheese instead of cheddar.

Make It : Chicken Enchiladas December 7, 2007

In my house, these are known as “Zombie Feed” and no matter how many frozen batches I make, they disappear incredibly quickly. They freeze amazingly well, and the recipe is easy to double, triple, or quadruple.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 10-ounce can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream give or take… You can vary this up by about 1/2 cup if you want to stretch the recipe, or down by about 1/4 cup if you’re running low
2 1/2 cups cheese you can vary this by up to a cup in either direction – try using cheddar, Colby-Jack, or even the “Mexican” blend
1/2 to 1 small can diced chilies If you love spice, try diced jalepenos. If you are more of a mild-salsa person, half a can adds flavor without too much heat.
6-10 tortillas “Gordita” sized or larger – flour or corn.

This is the kind of recipe that is easy to vary and play with. You can throw them together with what you’ve probably got sitting around, except perhaps the chilis… and those are usually less than a dollar at the grocery store. If you don’t have a full cup of sour cream, then use a little less. If you LOVE cheese, throw in some extra. If you adore having red peppers in dinner, then slice some up, saute them to soften, and throw in. If you’ve got some leftover roasted chicken from last night’s dinner, use that. This is the kind of recipe that is made to experiment with, and use up whatever you’ve got around!

In a deep frying pan or wide saucepan, cover two chicken breasts with water (if you have it, add a cube of bullion or teaspoon of chicken stock). Place over medium-high heat. Let the water reach a boil, and poach chicken for 8-12 minutes, or until cutting into the thickest part of the breast reveals no pink.

Set poached chicken on a plate and allow to cool until you can comfortably handle it. (In the fridge, if you’re in a hurry) Shred or roughly chop the chicken – don’t worry about making it look pretty.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, 2 cups of the cheese, and chilis. Scoop about 1/3 of the mixture into a separate small bowl. Add the chicken to the remaining 2/3, and mix until combined.

At this point, you’ve got a couple of options. One 9 x 13 pan pretty much perfectly fits 8 enchiladas… or one 8×8 square pan fits 4. Either way, cover your pan with a layer of foil. Spoon the chicken-ified filling into tortillas, roll them up, and place seam-side down in the pan. Continue until the pan is full. Spread the reserved 1/3 of the cheese mixture (half of it if you’re using the 8×8 pan) and the remaining cheese (again, half for the 8×8) across the top of the rolled, filled tortillas.

If you are baking these right away, bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes, or until they’re melty and bubbly.

If you are freezing these, fold the edges of the foil down over the topping. Place a second piece of foil over the top, and turn the entire pan over. Wrap it up into a package (yeah, the topping will get smushed. This isn’t a big deal) and stick in the freezer. When time comes for dinner, the foil package will fit perfectly into your pan- just take the top layer of foil off (to expose the top of the enchiladas – leave the first layer of foil folded, however, to protect the edges) and put in your cold oven. Turn the oven onto 350, and come back an hour later. This way the enchiladas have a chance to heat up and defrost slowly as the oven heats up, preventing soggy-edged tortillas.

Try adding olives to the topping. Also try using salsa and cheese as a topping – or, if you’ve got a favorite enchilada sauce, use that!

See It Make It : Spanakopita December 4, 2007

These appetizers, also known as Terapitas, are not “quick, just-throw-them-together” treats. Start to finish time is usually somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours. While they are not necessarily difficult, they do take time, concentration, and effort – so I would recommend starting them sometime before your third glass of wine. You can also forgo the wrapping the filling up in phyllo dough, and just use the filling as a veggie dish on top of pasta.

Filling:
1/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch green onions, chopped
Green Onions are also known as “scallions” – you’ll see this name in a lot of Mediterranean cookbooks

2 10-oz. packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
See this post for more info if you’re using your own spinach. To “squeeze dry”, thaw your spinach in low power for 2-5 minutes in the microwave. Then place the spinach on the center a thin, lint-free towel. Gather the four corners of the towel around the spinach, then hold it over the sink and squeeze down. Green water should come pouring out. Do this until it’s reduced down to a drip. This removes all excess water and helps keep your recipe from getting soggy.

1 bunch parsley, chopped
You can pick up parsley in the produce section of just about any grocery store. One “bunch” is usually wrapped up with a rubber band or veggie tie of some sort. If it’s not, anywhere from 10-20 stalks is usually a good estimation. Rinse it, then place small bunches of it on your cutting board and chop using a large cooking knife, in a rocking motion. Don’t worry about getting the pieces tiny – just a rough chop works well here.

1 teaspoon dill weed, chopped
As with parsley, you can pick up dill fresh in the produce section – it’s usually in small plastic packages. If you don’t find any fresh, or have dried dill already in your house, use two teaspoons of the dried herbs. This usually goes for most dried vs. fresh herbs – dried simply isn’t as pungent, so you should use more of it.

1/2 pound feta cheese, crumbled
Most packages of feta no longer come packed in water, so don’t worry about “draining” it if the package you buy doesn’t have much water. If it does, however, don’t forget this step! Feta is very salty, and the water it is packed in will add quite a bit of salt that you don’t necessarily want in your recipe.

Assembly:
3 lightly beaten eggs
Just crack them into a bowl and whip them for a few seconds with a fork. All you need to do here is break the yolks and mix them up a bit.

1 pound unsalted butter
The unsalted here is important. The feta cheese adds plenty of salt – and while the amount of salt in butter is usually negligible, it is noticeable here.

1 pound phyllo pastry
Phyllo is usually right by the frozen pie crusts. Be sure to get the “sheets” of phyllo and not the “shells.” Phyllo is a very very very thin dough that can be a pain in the arse to work with. Buy it a day or two in advance and let it defrost in the freezer. Because the sheets are so thin, they dry out very quickly and rip very easily. The good news is, because you’ll work with several layers at once, a rip or four isn’t that big of a deal. The easiest way to handle phyllo is to unroll it onto a cookie sheet, then cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap and a damp, clean kitchen towel. Get each piece out as you need it, and keep the rest covered. This will help keep it from drying out so quickly, and keep it easier to work with.

Over medium heat, warm the olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the green onions until soft – about 3 minutes. Add the spinach and heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through. Add remaining the parsley, dill, and feta; blend well. Cool completely.

To assemble: Melt the butter by microwaving for 30 seconds, then stirring until it is almost entirely liquid.

On a cutting board, slice the phyllo into approximately 2-inch wide strips. A pizza cutter works wonderfully for this. Cover the dough with a sheet of plastic wrap and a damp kitchen towel.

Separate one two-inch strip of two layers of dough, and using a new paintbrush or pastry brush, brush the dough with butter. Spoon a small amount of the filling onto the end of the strip. Fold into a triangle like a flag (begin by taking a top corner of the dough and folding it over the filling into a triangle shape. Fold that triangle down, wrapping the filling, and continue until you’ve reached the end of the strip.) Brush with beaten eggs and place on a baking sheet. Once you have a full sheet, bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Can be kept for 2 days in fridge. Or, freeze the unbaked triangles and allow to defrost for 30 minutes at room temperature before baking.

Try this with fresh basil or thyme instead of dill or parsley. Or, replace the frozen spinach with other chopped, frozen leafy greens. The feta can also be switched out, just be sure to use “dry” crumbly cheeses such as Parmesan. Cheddar and other oily cheeses will melt all over your baking pan and soak through the dough – yuck! (I, sadly, speak from experience here.)

Ask The Foodie : Pomegranate Love December 4, 2007

I love pomegranates, but I can’t stand getting covered in purplish red juice everywhere. Help!

I, too, used to have this problem! Pomegranates are wonderful to eat, and the shot of juice in a ruby-red seed is amazingly happy. However, digging the seeds out can be a messy, sticky fiasco.

Easy solution – use the specific densities of the different bits of the fruit. Translation – slice into the skin enough to get a grip enough to crack it open. Submerge the entire thing in a large bowl full of water, then crack it open and begin to peel apart the seeds and pith. The seeds are heavier than water, because they contain natural sugars, but the rind and pith (the white stuff) is lighter than water, and will float to the top. The water rinses away any seeds you manage to break.

Once you’ve torn apart the pomegranate, simply skim the pith and rind off the top, drain the water, and you’ve got a bowl full of fruity gems!

Try using them as garnish on fruit salads, or eat them as an afternoon snack. Either way, it’s worth the effort.

Ask The Foodie : Quickie Chicken December 4, 2007

What’s the best way to cook chicken breasts in a hurry?

Honestly, this entirely depends on what you plan on using the chicken for. If you’re looking for a quick lunch, you’ll treat the chicken differently than if you’re throwing together some enchiladas.

First thing to remember is that the thicker meat is, the longer it takes for the heat of cooking to penetrate deep enough, long enough, to actually cook. If you’re going for a quick meal, you’ll want to get that heat in the cells, quickly. First – have it defrosted. Do this in the microwave if you must, but DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT cook the chicken entirely in the microwave!

This is because the microwave will cook through the chicken by vibrating the water molecules already in the chicken – without evaporating any of them. This turns into rubbery, all-but-inedible meat. Defrost on low power.

Second – slice it up. The thinner and / or less mass each piece of the chicken has, the faster it will cook.

To cook the chicken – your three fastest options are:

1- Poach. Boil water in a saucepot with a bit of chicken stock or cube of bullion. Drop either a full breast or, more ideally, slices of the chicken, into the boiling water. Let boil away for at least 7-10 minutes (for slices) or 12-15 minutes (for a full breast). Pull out and cut into the thickest part of the chicken. If there is pink, cook for a bit longer. If not, you’re done! This will not caramelize any of the exterior, but it will cook the meat through. This is best used in soups, pastas, anything where color isn’t a big deal.

2- Pan-fry. In a hot frying pan, drizzle a small amount of oilve oil and whatever spices you’d like to use (garlic, paprika, and salt make up most poultry seasoning mixes). Drop in the raw chicken, and stir quickly. This is, in effect, stir-frying the meat. You should continually stir if you’ve got the heat on high on pretty much anything, in order to prevent burning.

3- Grill. I know, I know, the contact grills are over-hyped. However, a contact grill can save you time and effort. Throw some spices on the chicken, put it in the grill, and worry about the rest of dinner. Just be sure to cut into the center to make sure it’s done!

Good luck, and enjoy!

Make it : Roux November 29, 2007

I promise, roux (pronounced “roo”) is not nearly as scary as it sounds. It’s actually a fairly simple mixture that goes a LONG way in making your everyday cooking easier / better.

All that a roux is made of is a fat, a starch, and a liquid. For white sauces like alfredo, this is butter, flour, and milk. It could be sausage grease, flour, and milk in a sausage gravy. It could be oil, cornstarch, and chicken stock in a slightly thickend Almond Chicken sauce. Just about anything that combines these three elements qualifies as a roux.

The benefits of this concoction are that it acts as both a stablizer and a thickener. The fat binds the starch molecules so that when they are exposed to heat and explode (ok, it’s not quite that dramatic, but a fun image) they have enough structure to trap liquid and thicken it rather than becoming lumpy. The higher the ratio of fat and starch to liquid, or the longer it’s heated (to a point) the thicker the liquid gets.

The benefit of this is that other things can be suspended in the “web” that the fat and starch create. Everything from cheese to chicken to spices can also be suspended, creating the creamy sauce we all imagine.

So, imagine my surprise when I pick up a shredded cheese blend from the store yesterday to make some homemade mac and cheese. I look at the back of the package, to see what they suggest, and they give instructions to boil the cheese with pure milk and dump in noodles.

While, at the surface, this appears to be a good idea, it would end up being a greasy, lumpy mess that wouldn’t really taste, look, or feel appetizing. The cheese grease would float to the top of the milk while the solids would sink to the bottom and get slightly gritty. Yuck.

So, don’t be afraid of a little roux. Want to try it yourself? A basic roux to experiment with:

2 Tbsp butter (melt over low heat or in the microwave)
2 Tbsp flour (whisk into the butter with a fork or whisk)
Slowly add 1 cup milk, stirring or whisking. Heat, stirring often, until it begins to thicken.

You usually want to add at least a little salt to roux, since all three ingredients can be a little bland without spice.

There you go! Add a few handfuls of shredded cheese before the milk (it will look like a solid mass, but it will smooth out once you add liquid), some garlic, and a bit of salt and pepper. Pour over noodles, and you’ve got homemade mac and cheese.

Or, use the white sauce with some extra milk, toss in diced-up leftover ham and pototo chunks for a darn good soup.

Or toss in parmesean and feta cheese for a greek sauce to pour over spinach and chicken.

The possibilities run far and wide. Don’t be afraid of roux!

Make It : Hard Boiled November 26, 2007

Happy Survived-Thanksgiving week to everyone! This Thanksgiving included lots of food, as always, and lots of conversations about possible new topics for Fascination. Let me know if you came across any questions.  Having had between 10 and 15 people eating at my house or with my family for four and a half days, I don’t have a lot of leftovers. What I do have lots of, however, are eggs. Three dozen or more. And while we go through a lot of eggs at my house, that’s enough that some of them are getting hard-boiled.

Hard-boiled eggs are probably one of the simplest snacks and easiest ways to get protein. They make great lunchbag stuffers and even better midday snacks. While your basic hard-boiled egg method couldn’t be simpler (put eggs in boiling water) this leads to tough, rubbery eggs that are unappetizingly green and a bit bitter.

A truly good hard-boiled egg takes a bit of time and attention, but are very worth it. The first and most important thing – make sure your eggs are NOT fresh! In fresh eggs, the chalaze (the strand of protein that connects the white and the yolk and shell. That opaque strand in the white when you crack open an egg) is very strong and prominent. Hard-boiling the eggs at that stage strengthens the connection and makes the shell stick to the egg.

When you let eggs sit for a week or so, the chalaze begins to break down and the air pocket between the white and the shell gets larger. Boil the eggs at that stage, and getting the shell off is much much easier. So buy “old” eggs in the grocery store (check the container for a date) or let them sit in your fridge for a week or two.

Once you’ve got old eggs to boil, avoid that green around the yolk and the slightly bitter taste with this method:

Place a single layer of eggs in the bottom of a pan. Cover with cold water only until the water reaches barely above the top of the eggshells. Place on medium-high heat. When lots of bubbles begin to roll up from the surface (this is a simmer), turn the heat down to medium, or until only a few small bubbles roll up every once in a while. Let the eggs sit in this almost-simmering water for 20 minutes. Take the eggs off the water, and either fill the pan with cold water or place the eggs in a bowl of cold water. This stops the cooking process and prevents the bitterness.

Store eggs up to two weeks in your fridge. To peel, roll back and forth on a paper towel to crackle the shell and pull off. If the eggs are being stubborn, crackle the shell and then let the shell-still-on eggs sit in a bowl of water in the fridge. The water will seep in and help loosen the shell.

See It Make It : Cream Cheese Chocolate Drops November 21, 2007

1 small package cream cheese (8oz) – room temperature
1 1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon baking soda
3 cups white flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips or semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

Cream the cream cheese and sugar together until fluffy. (The crystal structure of sugar is very angular, and when you mix it in with something rather vigorously, it rubs and scratches the surface, and allows air into the mixture. This air makes the cookies feel “lighter” once they come out of the oven.)

Mix egg and lemon juice into the cream cheese and sugar until fully combined. (The egg adds the proteins needed to give the cookies structural support… once baked especially, they hold everything together rather than turning into soft crumbs.)

Pour in 1 cup of the flour and the baking soda. Mix thoroughly . Add last of flour, and stir until all flour has been incorporated. Dough will be very sticky.

Place butter/margarine and chocolate in a small microwave-safe container. Microwave for 20-25 seconds, or until butter is melted and chocolate is beginning to soften. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. (If you microwave chocolate until it is entirely melted, the water inside of it will evaporate and the chocolate will “seize” – turn into little globules of rather unappetizing chocolate-like product. By adding some fat/oil and applying only minimal heat, you minimize evaporation. The other option is to create a double boiler style setup by placing a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water and stirring constantly. Either way, treat chocolate gently!)

Using a rubber scraper or wooden spoon, drop bits of chocolate over surface of the cream cheese dough still in the mixing bowl. Fold (dig your scraper or spoon in on one side, and very carefully run it along the bottom of the batter, then lift up and over the top) gently until the dough is swirled, but not mixed.

Drop by small teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes in 350 degree oven. Cookies are done when puffed and slightly resistant to touch. Edges will not noticeably brown. Pull out of oven, and transfer to cooling rack.

Ask the Foodie : Storing Leafy Greens November 20, 2007

Q: How do you extend the life of spinach or other greens? They seem to go bad SO quickly.

The two things that make leafy greens spoil quickly are moisture and air – they work in tandem with bacteria to break down the cell walls and create the “slime” that coats greens after a few days in the fridge. When vegetables look fresh from the store (or better yet, the garden) the cells are full of water and push out against their cell walls (this is, honestly, known as “turgid”). As soon as a plant is cut off from it’s water source, the cells start to very slowly lose water via evaporation. When this happens, the cell walls start to collapse in on themselves and the leaves begin to wilt.

Eventually, the cells have lost enough water that the cell walls start to break down and create that “slime” that shows up after a few days in the fridge.

The first instinct most people have is to seal up leafy greens in an airtight container in order to prevent evaporation. However, this usually leads to them spoiling even more quickly. This is because the water still evaporates from the cells, but with nowhere to go, it hangs out in the air near the leaves and adds more moisture and “weight” to the air, which encourages the cells to break down even more quickly.

The best way to store leafy greens in the short-term (up to a week or so) is to wash them in cold water, pat them mostly-dry, and wrap them in paper towels (no more than one or two layers of greens – if you have more, layer them with more paper towels). Then put this paper-towel-greens layering into a plastic grocery sack, and store it in your fridge (the “veggie” drawer if you have one.) The slightly damp paper towels get a degree or two colder than the fridge and help slow down how fast water evaporates from the cells. The grocery sack protects the greens from the breezes in your fridge while still allowing what moisture does seep out to actually evaporate.

If you want to freeze your leafy greens, however, you’ll need to treat them a bit more harshly. If you just throw the leaves in the freezer, then the water inside the cells will freeze, expand, and burst. Burst cells equals plant mush. It’s easiest to process leafy greens for freezing in medium to large batches, because you’ll need to get a few things set up.

First, get a large bowl and fill it with half water, half ice.
Second, wash your greens. Don’t worry about drying them.
Third, in a large, wide-mouth pot, boil some salt water (about 1 tablespoon salt for every 2-3 cups water)

Using tongs, take a bunch of the greens and dunk them in the boiling salt water for about a minute. Pull them out and immediately dunk them in the ice water. The boiling water kills bacteria and softens the plant fibers. The cold water stops the cooking process, so you don’t have fully cooked (and therefore mushy) greens on your hands. Once the greens are nice and chilled, either 1- wrap them in paper towel, seal in an airtight zip lock (evaporation isn’t an issue in the freezer) and freeze; or 2- chop them into small bits, seal in a small zip lock bag, and freeze. You won’t want to use these frozen greens for salads, but in dips, baked dinners, or soups, they are amazing.

However you choose to store, process, and use your leafy greens, they’re worth enjoying. Thanks to Laurie, my beloved plant geek, for making sure I remembered my basic cell biology correctly!

Ask the Foodie : Falling Quickbread November 20, 2007

This is from a chat I had via the “Ask Me” box – give it a try if I’m online – I can’t *promise* I’ll respond right away, but if I miss your question there I’ll answer it here.

Q: I need help with baking bread – my quick bread loaves always end up soggy in the middle of the top. I’ve tried extending the bake time and it doesn’t seem to help. Any suggestions?

A: There are three possible culprits when a quick bread goes soft in the middle, all of which should be fairly easy to fix with a little bit of trial and error. When baked goods start going wonky (and that is the official term) – I would say first and foremost, if you don’t have one, buy an oven thermometer! Ovens can vary by as much as 30 degrees, even when they are on the *right* setting. Once you are sure you’re baking things at the right temperature…

The first possible guilty party in soggy quick bread is that the batter is sitting for too long before you bake it. At the point you combine the liquids and dry ingredients the leavening starts to act, and if it’s all used up before it goes into the oven, there is nothing left to create “new” airspace in the bread. Those little air pockets help bake the batter around them by acting as an insulator. So put the batter in the oven as soon as you can.

The second possible miscreant is not enough or not powerful enough leavening. If you have old baking powder / baking soda, then it may have lost its effectiveness. If you can’t remember the last time you bought a new container, throw it out and go get a new one. (Usually 2 years is about the longest you want to keep this stuff around.) If you are using new leavening and still having this problem, then the recipe may not have enough leavening in it. Try increasing it 1/4 teaspoon at a time.

The third possible transgressor is too much liquid. Especially if you live in a humid environment, or have a humid home / kitchen, the flour you are using could already have more moisture in it. When your “dry” ingredients contain more moisture, than you don’t need as many “wet” ingredients to get the proper balance of moisture. Try reducing the liquid in your recipe in 1/4 cup increments (either all the main liquid, such as milk; or, try 1 tablespoon of the oil and 3 tablespoons of the main liquid).

Good Luck!