Kitchen Hack

Mustard-Tarragon Chicken with Scallion-Garlic Smashed Potatoes

Getting to the point where I don’t need recipes has been liberating. Between staples that I always have on hand and then some random stuff in the fridge I can usually whip up something pretty tasty with minimal hassle. I still use recipes. There’s so much I don’t know in terms of fundamentals and then nuances of various cuisines. But figuring out how to wing my way to something good...that’s pretty cool. That’s where this meal came from. Both of the recipes are easy. Not many ingredients. Not a lot of steps. Nothing delicate. You just turn on some heat and start slamming away. 

It was a crappy day. Spent close to six hours at the airport not getting to Chicago for a meeting tomorrow. Gave up. Came home. Decided to take on the big ass hill that starts just on the other side of Sunset from the new casa. Important note - um...in winter it gets dark early and fast. Bring a flashlight you moron. I liked the hike, particularly when I got to the end of the road and slipped through a fence and caught a trail. Avoided any bad pratfalls but did have a few scary stumbles on the way down in the dark. Sans flashlight or headlamp. On top of that felt a little under the weather all weekend. Not sure if I’ve got something or am just stressed out from the move and not really sleeping well in the new place just yet. So haven’t felt great. Just kinda off. I didn’t want to do anything new. I didn’t want to go to the store. I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to screw with grub hub or pizza. 

I had a pack of chicken thighs and a pound of fingerling potatoes. Chicken and taters works just fine. But only if you do stuff to it. Otherwise its dull as all get out.

Looking in the fridge, I found this...

Lime-Oregano-Serrano Marinated Grilled Chicken Thighs

This nearly qualifies as a "Cooking for Dudes" entry but breaks the cardinal rule...NO GRILL. So it's a regular entry. That's just the way it's gonna have to be. 

This is, easily, the best thing I've ever created on the grill. By a lot. And it's super simple. 

Behold the ingredient list...

Ingredients
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
salt and ground black pepper
1 tbsp ancho chili powder
1 tbsp dried mexican oregano
1 serrano chile, minced
1 lime, zested and juiced
¼ cup olive oil
¼ bunch cilantro, chopped
⅛ cup cotija cheese, grated
½ lime to drizzle juice over the top before serving

That's it. And listing stuff like salt and pepper and oil shouldn't even count. 

I'm using chicken thighs in this. The thighs have more fat than the breasts and, as a result, more flavor. By virtue of having more fat they also are more forgiving. While it's possible to cook the beejeesus out of the thigh so that it dries out, it's difficult to do. If you're a hardcore conscientious chicken thigh objector, that's cool. Use breasts. You'll have to increase the cooking time and you'll want to move them over indirect heat about halfway in so it doesn't dry out. 

Cooking for Dudes: Chipotle-Lime Chicken with Red Wine Pan Sauce

I'm going to be erratically posting on the topic of Cooking for Dudes. Because I have learned a great truth. Having this blog and posting cooking stuff on Facebook and, maybe most relevant, having been married to Jill, I've learned something that all my male brethren need to internalize...girls like it when you cook for them. And by cook, I mean, NOT GRILLING. I know, I know. We're guys. We like fire. We get all caveman and science geek when we get outside with a hunk of meat and some flame. We drink beer and fart and hang out with other guys while turning a perfectly good hunk of meat into charcoal and then we douse it with some off the shelf sauce and we call it cooking. 

Here's the thing...your wife, your girlfriend, your significant other...she knows you're doing that for you but you just happened to buy so much meat that you can't help but have some leftover for her and the kids. She pretends not to know that. Because she loves you. And that makes her awesome and is why you should stay with her forever. 

Tomate Frito with Yucatán Spiced Chicken

The real thing worth paying attention to here is the sauce, Tomate Frito. It has noting to do with the abomination that is the Frito. Frito, in Spanish, means fried. So when you're eating those chips, you're eating Fried. Which likely makes it the most accurately titled processed food product ever. 'Cause whatever it is, is very much Fried, but there ain't much in the way of actual food in it. 

A classic Tomate Frito is a really versatile thing. Cook it down alot and it's a great sauce for fish, pork or chicken. I use it on omlettes, fried eggs, bacon. Cook it down just a little, add a touch of lime juice, and it's a crazy good salsa. We're going Yucatán-style with this, which means there's gonna be some Habanero going on, but that doesn't mean you gotta be punished by heat. I'll take you through how to get the piquancy of the habanero while controlling the heat to your liking. I've tried a number of versions of this in a quest to make it all chef-y. I've tried some of my own invention and tried out a passel of recipes I've found online. The Yucatecan culture is ancient. It's been doing this for a long time. Not surprisingly, then, the simplest, hardly any ingredients version of the sauce is, hands down, the best. For the simplest, most straight forward version of this sauce, I'd go with the version from Rick Bayless.

In this recipe, I'm putting it on chicken, but we'll also cover how to alter the cooking and ingredients just a little so it functions as a standalone salsa. 

Not Only Can You Put Apples In A Curry Dish - You WANT To Put Apples In A Curry Dish

It's Apple season here in Minnesota. Really good apples everywhere. Also, it's impossible on an iOS device to have the word "Apple" show up without capitalizing the first letter. I'm too lazy to correct it everytime it comes up. 

We're going heavy on the curry in this post. This weekend we also did a really nice homemade applesauce. I don't even like applesauce. 

Easy Sweet & Spicy Chicken Curry (with apples)

Apples a-poppin' everywhere. This recipe started with a li'l something I found on the New York Times Cooking site. And then I screwed around with it. I first tried this recipe a couple of years ago when Jill first got sick and we had to be really careful about what she was eating. We needed calories but we needed them to be healthy calories. Over time I've played with it a bit and evolved it. 

You want a really sweet Apple. My go-to is Honeycrisp...it's sweet and it holds up well to cooking. But use whatever you like. One safety tip - stay away from anything with "delicious" in the name. These aren't that delicious and tend to turn into baby food when introduced to heat. 

First, get all your stuff together. 

Ingredients

2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tsp ground allspice
3 tablespoons butter
½ chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 sweet apple, cored and finely cubed, about 1 cup (Honeycrisp)
2 ribs celery, small dice
4-6 new potatoes, diced
2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
2 tsp red curry powder
10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
¾ cup chicken broth, fresh or canned
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts, about 1 1/4 pounds total
2 tablespoons finely minced cilantro or parsley

Quinoa, Salsa & What to Do With the Leftovers

One of the things that's fun about cooking is figuring out how to use the leftovers. And, often, the leftovers are way more better than the thing you originally made. So...we're gonna cover three things here: Nemo's Mango-Chipotle Pico de Gallo; Southwestern Quinoa Pilaf; and something I have yet to name, that involves both of those and a couple of chicken breasts. 

Saturday we knew Erin would be coming home from seeing her dad down in New Orleans. Before leaving, I promised her I'd cook her something when she got back. She replied with "Salsa!" So, that was pretty clear direction. 

Also, I'd spent the week eating food that was a long way from healthy. I craved leafy, bitter greens (crazy healthy). 

And, I knew I needed protein but healthy protein. 

So, This Happened...

TL;DR is I wanted to make a salad with grilled chicken and this big involved thing just sorta happened on its own.

After a followup visit to the doc on Thursday I have decided that this lethargic, “I don’t give a damn about me” state has got to stop. I’ve added 8lbs in 3 months and my leg, four months after injuring it, is about where it should be one month into rehabbing it.

Combine that with it being summer and between having great fresh veggies in the garden and spectacular summer produce available in several nearby farmers markets, maybe, I thought, I should start eating like I want to stay alive for awhile. Further, I needed to take this long weekend as the kickoff to pounding the hell out of my leg. Which means healthful, anti-oxidant rich foods would probably be a good idea to help with recovery. I am, after all, old. I can use all the help I can get. I am also open to voodoo and incantations. ‘Cause the increase in walking and the sadistic stuff the physical therapist gave me (pretty sure she’s just pissed I've been blowing her off so she dreamt up stuff that does nothing but cause pain) is...ouch. Caya has taken on dual roles as Sous Chef and SVP-Physical Therapy. The latter role consists of going on walks with me and forcing me to pick up the pace (which hurts but the doc says I gotta start pushing it). The former role is essentially to guard the meat. She was very disappointed with how the food part of the weekend started. I did a couple of quinoa dishes yesterday to give me a big protein blast without the fat. There was no meat. Caya thinks cooking without meat is just dumb. Like taking a walk without peeing on things. I mean, who does that?

Chorizo & Potato Tacos with Good Stuff

Posted a picture on Facebook and had a few requests for the recipe. Context: I was just using up stuff I had laying around. There wasn't, like, a guiding philosophy. Other than to make it good. I made it for two but have scaled up to make it for 4. I was winging it while I was making it so the measurements aren't exactly precise ('cause if I wanted precision I'd bake something).

It works because of the balance of the flavors. The heaviness of the chorizo and potatoes is offset by the sweet peppery flavor of the mango and the fresh burst from the pickled jalapeño and onions. And cream and feta are just yummy. As with any recipe, don't let it become limiting and do some substituting if you feel like it. Like, if you don't have champagne vinegar, a white or white wine vinegar will work just fine. A red wine or balsamic vinegar might be a little bit much. I had parsley laying around, but cilantro is a better choice. A crumbly Mexican cheese could replace feta. Lime juice or blood orange juice would be great replacements for the lemon. Just go for a balance of body and freshness, heat and sweet. Play around. Have fun.

Hanging Out Cookin' Stuff with The Dog

We decided that we should go back to our lives today. Maybe just have a day, not one riddled with depth and longing and all that stuff. Grieving is exhausting. Despite the fact that you can't turn it on or shut it off at will, it also gets boring. No one tells you that part. You're gonna go through it as long as you go through it, I'm convinced of that. It seems to defy acceleration or control of any form. But even in the midst of any given wave of it, there are times when you think...Christ, this is getting old. Not in a histrionic sense. Don't know how to describe is other than it gets boring.

It's good to take a day off. After not working the last couple of days I have some work things to catch up on but not enough to fry the whole day. Kim's working, Erin's living, it's just me and Caya. Rough start...It was 36 degrees when Caya and I started the day.

This is Caya last weekend when the temperature was in the 60's.