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Apple Time Giveaway  It’s cold in Okieland!! Who would have believed this past summer, as we suffered through 60 some odd days of triple digit temps, that we could ever reach 30 degrees! It’s glorious. The sun is shining, we got a little rain yesterday and the air is clear. Good times! In this cold weather, this wonderful chicken dish is hot, fast and filling. Accompanied by hearty Indian Basmati rice and fried spinach you’ll think you are in Calcutta. Mr. Fix-It loved this dish and ate two helpings. I think you’ll love it too because it is so easy to fix. So here you go: 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes or strips 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small onion chopped 2 cloves garlic minced or 2 tsps garlic paste 1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes 2 tablespoons yellow curry powder 1/2 cup coconut milk salt and pepper to taste 3/4 c. flour 1/4 c. cornstarch 1/4 tsp tumeric 1/2 tsp. soda 1 egg 1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water  Pour olive oil into large skillet  Add chicken and cook on medium high until lightly browned but not cooked all the way through. Remove from skillet and set aside.  Add onions to the skillet  And garlic. I have found this wonderful stuff at Walmart. It is in the produce section. There are a variety of organic herbs in paste form. How cool is that? It takes two teaspoons of this garlic paste. Cook until onions are tender and slightly clear  Reintroduce lightly cooked chicken to the skillet with the onion and garlic and add tomatoes. I am using home canned tomatoes here, that I pulsed in the blender for a few seconds. Stir until ingredients are mixed.  Add two tbslps curry powder and stir until curry is mixed throughout. Simmer the mixture for 30 – 40 minutes, stirring occassionally, until thickened and chicken is cooked and tender. Start your rice.  You can find coconut milk at any grocery store. Shake the can and then pour out 1/2 cup. Store the rest in the frig in a refrigerator dish.  Add coconut milk and stir to incorporate. Allow to simmer 10 more minutes, stirring occassionally.  While the curry is cooking, mix flour, corn starch, tumeric and soda in a bowl and add beaten egg. Slowly add 1/4 cup ice water and stir. Add more water as necessary to form a nice, thick batter like pancake batter. Start a skillet or pan of hot oil about 3″ deep and heat to 350º.  Take a handful of fresh spinach and dip the entire handful into the batter.  It’s messy, I know. It doesn’t matter if all of the spinach is covered. The object is to make all the leaves of spinach stick together.  Drop battered clump of spinach into hot oil and fry on one side until browned and then turn. Drain on a rack over a paper towel.  Put rice onto plates and spoon curry over rice. Add spinach and a salad and you are done!  |
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Posts Tagged ‘rice’
Quick Curried Chicken
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Shrimp Etouffée
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
  When I was in high school, my family spent a glorious week in New Orleans while my father spoke at an education convention there. We stayed in a beautiful, vintage home called the Lamothe House that was the traditional French style home surrounding a courtyard of gardens. I remember that the beds were also French with the tall, mahogany headboards spanning the wall to the ceiling and topped by an ornate mahogany half canopy. We felt pampered and awed by the opulence. That was in the early ’70’s and this gorgeous home is still a thriving bed and breakfast. Seeing the Preservation Hall jazz band with Billie and Dee Dee was a treat in an old, ramshackle building with wooden floors and folding chairs. Beignets at the Café Du Monde and meals at The Court of the Two Sisters, Antoine’s and several others that are no longer in business, started me on my love affair with French cuisine and all things Cajun. My favorite is Crawfish Bisque and that recipe will come later, but just for a quick summer meal, I thought I’d show how I make shrimp etouffée. I make a cajun seasoning mix that I store in a glass jar and use as needed. How hot you like your food determines how much cayenne pepper you use. I’m a weenie and Mr. Fix-It has had to swear off of hot food as the doctor has demanded, so cayenne is limited for us but it can be Katie-Bar-The-Door for you if you are brave. Hope you enjoy the recipes. Place all ingredients into a quart jar with a lid. Shake jar until all ingredients are well mixed. Store covered and use as any commercial seasoning.
 Press or chop 5 cloves of garlic and set aside  In a large, deep skillet, melt butter and add flour to make a roue  Stir flour into butter until a smooth paste is created  Cook on high heat, continually stirring. The roue will go from a thick paste to a thinner mixture and be very bubbly.  Continue stirring and cooking until the color of the roue is a deep caramel color. It will smell slightly burned. Set off of heat.  In a second skillet, sauté onions, garlic, bell pepper and celery in 1 Tblsp olive oil. I am using dried peppers and celery here, but fresh is great.  When onions are clear and tender, place skillet with roue back onto heat. Add veggies and shrimp and stir.  Add 1 Tblsp Cajun seasoning from mixture in recipe above.  Add can of chicken broth  Add more black pepper to taste. We think that you can’t have too much black pepper! Simmer until liquid is reduced to a nice, thick gravy.  Serve Etouffée hot, over rice. Serves 4  |
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Chicken and Broccoli Bake
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
 Once in awhile I get a wild hair and just start experimenting. Like splashing paint randomly on a canvas, I’ll play a game of “pull out what you have, throw it together and pretend it’s good!!” Most of the time, the result is pretty successful, but once in awhile I’ll end up with a disaster like my ‘seafood casserole’ which has been the subject of really bad jokes for the past 10 years. Or at least I think they are bad. For some reason, at family get togethers, that meal always finds its way into the conversation. That casserole was big enough to feed our family of six and all the neighbors up the road and across the road. Unfortunately, the kids took one bite and asked when I had started combining WWII MREs for dinner. Actually, WWII MREs would have tasted better. Mr. Fix-It, always the gentleman, smiled through gritted teeth and pretended to chew. I gave the casserole to our Labrador, Toby, who is the canine equivalent of “He likes it! Heh, Mikey!” (The Life commercial, silly!) Toby sniffed the casserole and looked at me with those big, brown, soulful eyes that silently queried, “When did you start combining WWII MREs for dinner?” He didn’t eat it either. Mr. Fix-It is my restaurant critic. No thumbs up from him or five stars. It’s number of helpings that determines the quality of my concoctions. One helping that is barely touched is a signal that failure is the operative word while two helpings is the, “Old gal, you did it!!” Well, this was a ‘Mr. Fix-It Two Helping Recipe” and so I thought that I would share it with you. And please, if you don’t like it, don’t tell me. Just go buy a Labrador! 
 Salt and pepper chicken breasts and brown in 2 tbsp olive oil  Place chicken in a baking dish. Lay broccoli around and on top of the chicken breasts  In the same skillet of drippings, sauté onions and garlic until just clear.  Add mushrooms and cook until tender and browned  Add prepared gravy mix. I like using the mix because it is lower in calories and fat, but you can make a white gravy mix from scratch, in a saucepan, using equal amounts of melted butter (or other fat) and flour, adding milk a little at a time and stirring until gravy is thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.  And stir until everything is incorporated  Pour mushroom sauce over the chicken and broccoli and spread to cover and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the sauce  Cover and bake in 350º oven for 30 – 45 minutes until brown and bubbly
 In a large saucepan add bouillon to water and add turmeric  Bring water to a boil and add rice. Cover, reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes  Toss rice and cover to let stand for 5 minutes.  Serve one breast and broccoli with sauce per person. And of course, you’ve gotta have that homemade whole wheat bread!  If you have leftovers, pop them into plastic trays, wrap with foil, label and freeze and you have your own ‘TV Dinners’. This is one chicken breast split into two dinners! Can we say, “Lunch?” |
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