Culinary Therapy

Curry Yogurt Chicken

2010-11-30T08:44:00.000-06:00

This week I'm trying to be much more diligent in my calorie counting, as I have slacked off the last several weeks. This is a great dish that I just haven't made in awhile, for some reason. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures for you, since the boys had half devoured it by the time I got back from my run, and, well, after running, I really wanted to do some devouring myself. But it's a great, easy, healthy recipe that I want to share. Since you can marinate it overnight, it can also be a "do-ahead" meal.

I was out of lemon juice & ginger (not really sure how that happened), so I made the recipe without, but it's definitely better with it in. I simply served it with a side of frozen cauliflower & spinach (steamed, of course) and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.

The original recipe that I adapted this from called it "Tandoori Chicken," but this is nothing near actual Tandoori chicken, so I just don't feel right calling it that.

Curry Yogurt Chicken (serves 4)

- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (approx. 2 pounds)

- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- 1 tsp. kosher salt

- 1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt (Greek is best, as it has a little more sourness & flavor than just plain ol' plain)

- 2 cloves garlic

- 1 tablespoon curry powder

- 2 tsp minced fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground)

- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

- 1/4 tsp cayenne (optional, if you like more heat)

1. Rinse & pat dry the chicken breasts. Cut 1/2" deep slits all over the chicken.

2. Sprinkle the salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice over the chicken and rub in.

3. In a bowl, mix together the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice and all the other ingredients.

4. Pour mixture over the chicken.

5. Marinate anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight.

6. Bake 25-30 minutes or 350F, or under the broiler, about 10-15 minutes on each side.

Approximately 204 calories per breast (or serving).

....and we're back.

2010-11-28T20:39:00.001-06:00

My last post was in April. A lot has happened in 7 months. No, I didn't get married or have a baby or any other kind of "life-altering event," but life in general seems to have shifted. Attitudes changed, etc. I lost 25 pounds and picked up a "pesky" running habit. There hasn't really been a reason for me not posting. I've still been cooking, still been playing in the kitchen. But (as is so easy to do), I just got caught up in life. This silly little blog got pushed to the bottom of my priorities.

But food is still my passion, and I still want to share that with everyone. I think food is beautiful in its art and being able to capture that in pictures has been such a joy for me. I've kind of gotten stuck on what "direction" I've wanted this blog to take. Should it be instructional? More narrative? There are about a billion recipe sites on the web, so what will make mine stand out? But I've realized something: this blog doesn't have to have one singular direction because life doesn't have one singular direction. I love to create new dishes and I love to recreate dishes that the pros make (and thereby learning and improving techniques). But I'm a working mom of a toddler who is trying to keep my family healthy & full (meanwhile trimming my own waistline) and well, sometimes, I'm just too damn tired. So why not incorporate all of these aspects of me & my life? After all, isn't food (and writing and photography) art and, therefore, should be an extension of myself?

I hope you will join me on my journey to become a better stronger chef, yet at the same time feeding my family and keeping us healthy and fit (without spending an arm & a leg!). It's a tall order that is more difficult some weeks than others, but I hope this will give me an outlet to track my progress, work on my weaknesses, and hopefully we can all learn from each other.

The best things in life are.... raw?

2010-04-20T20:19:00.000-05:00

Nights, lately, I've been eating quite light. Mainly because I'm trying to drop a few pounds, but also because, sometimes, a salad just sounds so darned good (or I can't be bothered to break out the pans). I get very disappointed with restaurant salads because they are always so boring, so non-descript and with cheap ingredients. It doesn't take much to make a delicious salad, a few simple high quality ingredients thrown together and you're done!

Case in point:

I even took this picture with my iPhone to add to the theme of simplicity (read: laziness) of this post. But what we have here is this:

organic mixed greens: There are only a few things that I insist must be organic, greens being one of those things. I find many salad greens to be bitter (another reason why I'm heavy on the acid/sweet component in my salads), but organic greens are less so. Maybe because I'm a PTC taster? Who knows.
cherry tomatoes: It has been alleged that I have eaten an entire carton in one sitting. I cannot confirm nor deny this.
goat cheese: creamy, tangy, delicious and should be served on almost everything.
glazed pecans: You could make these yourself (and I have, for Christmas gifts) or you could check out your grocery store's bulk section for already glazed pecans. Since I put these on all my salads (as well as on top of desserts), I prefer to buy them already made (harder on the wallet, easier on the clock).
extra-virgin olive oil: Don't listen to Rachel Ray. If you're using "EVOO" to cook with, then you're just wasting your money. Buy a nice extra-virgin olive oil strictly for putting on salads, dipping with bread, etc. Buy a cheap olive oil (but NOT pomace) for all your sauteeing needs.
balsamic vinegar: Again, something you want to spend a good bit of money on. I buy a nice 10-year-old balsamic (the longer it's aged, the sweeter it is). I put it on all salads, as well as broiled vegetables. I also hear it's good on strawberries.

Simple, easy, delicious. No cooking involved. Sometimes it's all you need.

Spicy Coconut Shrimp with Jasmine Rice & Mango Salsa

2010-04-09T16:01:00.004-05:00

I have several recipes that are in my regular rotation. Usually a recipe ends up in the "regulars" category based on how much I crave the dish or its flavor profile. This is one of the those dishes that I... just... CRAVE.

I don't know what it is about it, really. Something about the heat from the jalapenos perfectly balanced by the sweetness of the coconut milk just satisfies me so completely. The rice is sweet and fragrant, cooked in coconut milk, and the sweet/hot theme continues into the salsa: sweet mango with green onion that, somehow, manages to give it some heat. Basil throughout the dish adds extra fragrance.

Best of all... it's easy. I used, for the first time, boil-in-bag jasmine rice, but substituted half of the water with coconut milk. The mango salsa can be made ahead of time (or you could even buy a pre-made mango or pineapple), as well as the marinade for the shrimp. I've done this recipe where I've only marinated the shrimp for 30 minutes or less, and I've done where they've marinated for hours. Both ways work fine! The most important part of this dish is cooking the shrimp PERFECTLY, so cook them hot and cook them fast. Make sure your pan is very hot before throwing the shrimp in and cook them until they just turn pink.

You can find the recipe here.

Bread Machine Love.

2010-03-25T10:43:00.000-05:00

I love to keep fresh baked bread around the house. Something about the smell just instantly makes it feel like home. It's a detriment to my waistline, but it keeps my family happy and I would love for my children, once grown-up with children of their own, to be taken back to their childhood anytime a waft of fresh bread hits their noses.

But here's the problem....

I SUCK at baking. I mean, absolutely suck. The things I bake don't necessarily taste bad, but they typically tend to look like something out of my dog's ends. No matter what I do, I only seem to be able to produce short, squatty loaves with an unnaturally dense texture. Cue the Red Star bread machine:

I bought this for $20 or so off Craigslist, shoved it in a pantry for 6 months, and finally brought it out a few months ago. I am in LOVE with this piece of equipment. It has become my second favorite piece of equipment in the kitchen, second only to my KitchenAid Pro 6 stand mixer. And don't even get me started on that. I have an unhealthy love for that mixer, the likes of which have only been seen on BBC documentaries (you know the ones....).

This bread machine makes a perfect loaf every time (well, except in the case of "user" error). Just throw your ingredients in, hit the buttons, and go. I feel like I'm cheating every time I use it. I think back to my ancestors who would knead dough until their hands turned raw. Bread this good shouldn't be this easy, I always think, as I happily chew away on a perfect piece of whole wheat toast smothered in sweet homemade marmalade. Now, granted, I can't compare my "instant" bread to a wonderfully made piece of rustic bread infused with years of experience and love, but for someone who has yet to develop that experience and has a ravenous toddler with an obsession for carbohydrates, then my little $20 machine does the trick just fine!

Cioppino.

2010-03-03T15:17:00.009-06:00

I was looking at beautiful pictures of food all weekend, looking for inspiration (as well as gloating over my foodgawker post!), and I kept getting blown away by gorgeous pictures of mussels, which got me thinking, "I need to cook mussels, and I need to cook them NOW!"

I've only ever prepared mussels once, and that was in culinary school. We made a dish called "cioppino" (pronounced chuh-PEE-noh). It's much like a seafood stew with a tomato broth that was brought to the west coast by Italian immigrants.

Notice something missing from this picture? Yeah, that's right... the MUSSELS.

I went to the store on the day I decided to make this, and guess what? NO MUSSELS. I was devastated. Especially since my husband had been there the day prior and had seen the mussels (said they looked good too!). That was ok, though, because the beautiful 10/15 gulf coast shrimp more than made up for it.

The beautiful thing about cioppino is that you can use any combination of fish you like. Much like a meat stew, it can kind of be a hodge-podge of everything. In my version, I used extra littleneck clams (to make up for the lack of mussels), large gulf coast shrimp, tilapia, and scallops.

I like this dish. Simple to prepare with wonderful homey flavors. Red wine, tomatoes, and a little bit of acid from lemon juice makes for a great combination with the seafood. I first made the dish with the requisite amount of hot sauce, but the "gulf coast" in me found this to be not nearly enough. I'm sure the Italians didn't intend for this dish to be overwhelmingly hot or "Tabasco" flavored, but for me, if I have any kind of seafood in a tomato-y broth, then it better be spicy. I'm not Cajun, but I sure do like to eat like one! I'm leaving the hot sauce amount as is, but if you're anything like me, I would double it, then have some extra on the side for after you serve it.

Unfortunately, I decided to not cook the clams in a separate pot (I try to avoid using more pots than necessary), and my clams ended up being stubborn and holding on to life until the bitter end, which resulted in my shrimp being a touch on the overdone side. I have modified the recipe so that you can cook all the fish in the same pot, but so the timing is right.

I would love to hear your versions! If you try this dish, please leave me a comment and let me know how it turns out, what combination of seafood you used, and any modifications you made. It's fun to experiment, and we can all learn from them!

For a printable version of this recipe, click the link below:
Cioppino

Asian Style Noodles with Perch and Vegetables.

2010-02-23T08:04:00.021-06:00

It's funny to me how my inspiration for making certain dishes comes about. It seems to be different every time. Sometimes, I will just browse through a cookbook or magazine and wait for something to catch my eye. Other times, I might have a certain style or flavor in mind or want to find a variation of an old standby, or if I'm feeling lazy, then I might just throw together that old standby. And then there are days like today, where I just look in my freezer, fridge, or pantry, and say "What can I do with this?"

Today's this was some crappie (also known as white perch) given to me by one of our many fisherman family members. The Moosewood Restaurant cookbook had been so good to me on Valentine's Day, I decided to see if there were any ideas in there for how to handle the fish. I've been trying to cook more from my cookbooks lately (isn't that the opposite of what most people try to do?!?), because the old standbys are getting old and also, there are so many flavors and combinations of flavors with which I am unfamiliar or that just aren't my "go-to," when creating a dish off the cuff. The only way I can grow, evolve, and prosper as a chef is to expose myself to new techniques and new flavors and then learn to perfect those techniques and flavors and incorporate them into my own style.

Back to the cookbook... I studied every fish recipe in the book (luckily, there aren't too many), looking for one that not only sounded like it would work with crappie, but that also fit what I was desiring to eat for dinner and didn't sound too boring (I find a lot of "low-fat" fish dishes to be bland). What eventually caught my eye was, what they call, "Poached Fish with Vegetables." I find the name to be misleading, because "poaching" technically involves cooking fish in a small amount of liquid over a slow simmer (very slow, hardly any bubbles). When I think poached fish, I think of fish that has been cooked in this manner and is served with a sauce. But when you read the recipe, you realize this is almost more of a soup served with noodles (think Pho). This sounded perfect. It used flavors that I don't use often, was a more creative way of preparing crappie (not my favorite fish to eat just on its own as a fillet), and also used bok choy, which I had left over from Valentine's Day.

Putting this dish together had me a bit nervous, though. I'm not sure why, but I began to doubt my abilities and the combination of flavors. What started to get me nervous was making the dashi. Dashi is a Japanese broth that I have only made once before, when making miso soup. The miso soup I made (years ago) required a bonito-konbu dashi (bonito = dried mackerel flakes; konbu = Japanese dried kelp). The flavor was definitely not something I was used to, and I found the bonito to be completely overwhelming. This recipe, though, only asks for a konbu dashi. I pulled out the konbu I had left over from the failed attempt at miso soup years ago (again, a bit nervous that maybe the konbu was too old, even though it was dried) and proceeded to make my broth. Tasting the broth after it was finished, it had a very unique flavor. It reminded me of yellowtail sashimi. Sounds strange, but let me explain... I love yellowtail sashimi because of its cool, clean flavor. To me, it doesn't necessarily taste like fish, but tastes like the ocean (and I don't mean like taking a big swig of seawater). This is how the dashi tasted to me- like the ocean. Try it, and you'll see what I mean. The flavor is light, mellow, and simple, which is how I imagine dashi is supposed to be.

My other hesitation was the use of orange juice in the recipe. Orange juice is only something I have used in dishes that are supposed to be overwhelmingly citrusy, and I became worried that the orange juice would dominant every other flavor in the recipe. But, boy, was I wrong!

This meal was INCREDIBLE. The combination of the citrus and the ginger gave it a flavor similar to lemongrass (one of my favorite flavors!). The vegetables offered crunch, and the fish was flaky and tasted of the broth that it was cooked in. This would be a great alternative to soup, if you are feeling under the weather. The tanginess, sweetness, and warmth of the broth all work together so well.

Click the following link for a printable version of the recipe:
Asian-Style Noodles with Perch and Vegetables

Love is in the details.

2010-02-14T22:38:00.000-06:00

Nothing makes me happier than to prepare an incredible meal for someone I love. There's just something about what food can do to a person. The look of surprise on their face when the glorious meal is set down in front of them. The range of facial expressions as they taste the food and their taste buds try to decipher it all, starting with wonder and eventually ending with contentment. Food is one of the few things that we can derive so much pleasure from, yet at the same time is a complete necessity. There is no greater joy than fulfilling that need but yet, providing pleasure from that need. It's easy to slop down some food on a plate and call it dinner, but when you add in some love and some care (and the right amount of seasoning!), then it becomes not just dinner, but an overall experience. In every dish I make, I bring a lot of love to it, and my love is in the details.

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something a little different. We had had the traditional steak dinner a couple of nights before, had a barbeque the day prior, so when the actual V-day came around, my husband requested something a little on the "lighter" side. I have numerous cookbooks, several of which are healthy/light/low-fat books. But for some reason, on this day, my Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favoritesbook caught my eye. I have only made a few recipes from this book, but my husband found them a bit too "vegetarian" for his liking! Even still, I thought it was time to give it another shot.

I immediately flipped to the "Fish" section (seafood being his all-time favorite), and found, what they call "Thai Seafood Yum." Thai is another one of our favorites, so this was a no-brainer. From there, the sides came easy... broiled eggplant and curried noodles.

Crisp, fresh greens, tomatoes, and onions combined with the tangy sourness of the shrimp and scallops coated in lime juice and cilantro.

Crunchy peppers and carrots, soft noodles, and the bold flavors of curry powder, cumin, garlic, and ginger. I find this dish visually appealing with the yellow, red, and orange colors, combined with the green of the bok choy. Simple to prepare, and would make a great dish to have on hand for lunch.

The finished meal. Wonderfully easy to make, and only about 400 calories for the entire plate, to boot.

For printable versions of the recipes, click the following links:
Thai Style Broiled Eggplant
Curried Rice Noodles
Thai Seafood Salad