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Mediterranean Chicken Marinade

Written on January 7, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

One of my favorite trips for eating I’ve ever been on was to France, particularly Provence. Everything just tasted better there. The market was full of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and sausages. They used herbs and oils pretty liberally and the flavor shined through. One of the souvenirs I brought back was a bag of herbes de Provence. Little did I realize you can get this at most grocery stores in America. This marinade uses the oils, vinegar, and herbs for a flavorful outcome. A hint of nutmeg in the marinade brings out the earthiness of the chicken(Rachael Ray taught me that one).

Mediterranean Chicken Marinade

Ingredients:

1lb boneless, skinless chicken
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup water
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons herbes de Provence(or any Italian herb blend)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, or 1 1/2 Tablespoon whole cloves

Mix together all of the ingredients except the chicken to make the marinade. Pour it into a Ziploc bag and add the chicken. Leave the chicken in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight to marinate.

Once ready, preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Bake the chicken in its sauce for 45 minutes or until done if you’re using a thick cut like the breast. Remove the bay leaf and any whole cloves of nutmeg before serving. Pour some of the excess sauce at the end on top for added flavor.

The olive oil and herbs make this taste fresh and flavorful straight from the oven. It’s excellent with some light vegetables with the extra liquid poured over them to join the flavors. This is one of my new favorite recipes to throw together in the morning and cook at night.

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Gluten-Free Dumplings With Dipping Sauce

Written on January 6, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

It’s rare that I’ll put more than 30 minutes of actual laboring into cooking a meal. But some things are worth the effort. As a kid, my favorite food to order from a Chinese restaurant was always their dumplings; I love the soft, doughy exterior with the savory filling dipped in a sweet sauce. I never even thought to make these gluten-free until I saw them on another blog and wanted to give them a shot. Unfortunately, that recipe didn’t work out for me at all. A few kitchen sidesteps and 2 hours later I had 30 cooked dumplings and 1 burnt pan(but that’s a story for another day).

I’m not going to pretend these are a nice simple recipe for a weeknight; they aren’t. But what they are is incredibly impressive to make and very flavorful. Make a batch over the weekend and you can enjoy them through the week.

Gluten-Free Chinese Dumplings

Ingredients(Makes 30-36 dumplings):

4 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour(such as Bob’s Red Mill)
3/4 cup cold water
4 eggs, divided
1lb ground pork or chicken
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons green onions, chopped
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
3 Tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
2 Tablespoons sesame oil

To make the dough, mix together the flour, water, and 3 eggs. Work the mixture until it forms a tough dough and roll it into a ball.

To make the filling, mix together 1 egg, the meat, ginger, onion, garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Knead the mixture together until the ingredients are emulsified.

Roll the dough into balls and pound them into disks about 1/4-inch thick and 2 1/2 inches wide. Be sure not to pound them too thin or else they’ll tear.

Scoop a tablespoon of filling onto each disk biased onto one side.

With dry fingers, lift up the other side and bring it over to make a pouch. Pinch down to seal the edges. If any part shows sign of tearing, take a little extra dough and make it into a patch, pressing down lightly on the thinning area.

To steam these, boil a pot of water with a fitted steamer on top. Add as many dumplings will fit without layering them on top of one another. Steam for 10-15 minutes until the outside starts turning a deep yellow and the filling is cooked through.

To pan-fry these, heat a large skillet with a few tablespoons of oil in the pan. Once hot, add the dumplings and cook 5-7 minutes on each side until the breading is crunchy and cooked.

Gluten-Free Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil(preferably toasted)
1 tablespoon chopped green onion

To make the dipping sauce, mix the sesame oil and soy sauce well. Add the chopped onion on top as garnish right before serving. Be sure to mix the sauce again any time you serve it as the oil will separate.

These were a pain to make. But it all became worth it with the first bite of doughy, savory goodness. I think I preferred the pan-fried ones both on flavor and ease of cooking. The sauce is a perfect balance of brininess and depth to match the filling. These are undeniably not take-out food.

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Hot Honey Asian Chicken Marinade

Written on December 30, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

One of my parents’ favorite things to eat for dinner is chicken. It’s a nice, lean protein(because you know everyone’s always on a diet until the weekend) and it takes on flavors wonderfully. We like to keep things simple here, so a marinade is perfect; you just throw the chicken and sauce together in a bag in the morning and it’s ready to bake that night—no fuss!

This has a fun, savory flavor that’s not too abrasive but definitely not boring. It pairs perfectly with seasoned rice or steamed vegetables.

Hot Honey Asian Chicken Marinade

Ingredients:

1lb skinned and deboned chicken
3 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 tablespoons water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

In a large Ziploc bag, combine the sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, water, salt, chili powder, and black pepper. Add in the chicken and shake it so that the liquid mixture covers everything. Put the chicken and marinade in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to rest.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Bake the chicken for 45 minutes in the sauce until it has cooked through.

I love it when a recipe has extra sauce so that you can pour it all over your sides and make it feel like a complete dish. This makes plenty of extra, so pour it on thick and dig in.

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Bacon-Fried Quinoa

Written on December 23, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I love leftovers. Even though they’re already cooked and flavored, they’re so easy to make into something new and flavorful. Some foods even get better on age. I made The Best Quinoa Stuffing to bring to a party on Sunday. First of all, you wouldn’t be able to imagine how much Italian grandmothers loved quinoa, even if they couldn’t spell it for their life. Soft, flavorful and easy to chew? It was bound to be a winner with my family. With the leftovers I wanted to do something a little different; I decided to cook it like I would leftover rice, except add bacon because bacon makes it better. Chinese restaurants should take a hint from me.

Bacon-Fried Quinoa

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon, diced
1/2 cup leftover, prepared quinoa(I used The Best Quinoa Stuffing)
1 egg
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Heat a pan over low-medium heat. Add in the diced bacon and cook it until it’s pink and starting to crisp at the edges.

Add in the leftover quinoa, egg, and soy sauce. Constantly move the ingredients around in the pan over the heat until the egg has cooked and the fat has been absorbed. Be careful as the quinoa tends to pop when the pan is dry. Serve hot.

Just like fried rice, this isn’t the prettiest dish but boy does it taste good. Adding the soy sauce and bacon elevates the flavor of the quinoa a lot; I could hardly tell this was the same dish as the leftovers.

I served it with steamed brussel sprouts with a little soy sauce, because I just love brussel sprouts and bacon. You could add more vegetables to cook with the bacon and make this into a stir-fry. Or you could forget vegetables together and add more bacon. I’m not one to judge when it comes to loving bacon.

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Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

Written on December 18, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

As you could have guessed, I’ve been reuniting with a lot of things around here since I’ve been home, things like my own bed, Tivo, and bacon. Yes, bacon. I can’t believe it’s been over 4 months since I’ve cooked with bacon; I could feel Jessica’s heart breaking the whole time. The reason I didn’t buy bacon sooner is because I like to keep it in the freezer and my mini-fridge’s freezer was never that good. I learned from Food Network that if you keep bacon in the freezer, you can take it out, cut off the amount you need, and stick it back in and keep it like that for months! Genius, right? Because we all would like to believe that if we bought bacon we’d “eat 2 strips to satisfy the craving and then the rest would just go bad.” A likely story.

Now that I’ve gushed about bacon for too long, I’ll just say that, besides bacon, I love sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts, and combining them all in one pan is a recipe for comfort.

Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprouts With Bacon

Ingredients:

4 strips smoked bacon, diced*
1 small sweet potato, cooked and cubed
1/2 halved and cooked brussel sprouts
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

*You could make this recipe vegetarian by using a tempeh bacon or other bacon substitute. However, since those tend to be less fatty, add about a tablespoon of cooking oil in with the vegetables.

Heat a pan at medium over a burner. Add in the diced bacon once it has come to temperature and par-cook the bacon until it slightly browning but still flimsy.

Next, add in the brussel sprouts, sweet potato chunks, and soy sauce. You can cook these in the microwave or use them leftover from another meal(I steamed mine in a microwave).

Continue stirring the pan every few minutes until the fat has been absorbed and the edges start to brown/burn. Note: A little burning adds flavor into your dish. A lot of burning adds firemen into your kitchen. Serve hot.

There’s something great about eating a food you love. There’s something amazing about eating all the foods you love and their flavors come together. This is sweet, smoky, savory, and wholly comforting. Now someone please hide the bacon from me for the next month.

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Sweet And Spicy Tofu With Steamed Kale

Written on December 13, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

They say you need to eat a food 12 times before you learn to like it. I’m not quite sure how true that is, because last time I checked people don’t need that much convincing to like chocolate or peanut butter. But tofu is something I’m still learning to like, even after years of eating it. It can either taste delicious or fake depending on how it’s cooked. This is a great recipe because it’s flavorful and can be made in about 10 minutes with no pressing involved. This is one recipe that has helped me learn to love tofu.

Sweet And Spicy Tofu With Steamed Kale

Ingredients:

1 block of firm or extra-firm tofu, cubed
2-3 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
a pinch of salt
1 bunch of kale, washed

Start by making your sauce. Whisk together honey, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, and chili powder until it has emulsified.

Heat a pan over medium heat with enough sesame oil to cover the bottom. Once the pan has become hot, add in your tofu and cook for about 5 minutes until the outside starts browning and the tofu is heated through.

Pour in your sauce and mix the pan to coat the tofu. Continue cooking while the sauce boils down and thickens. As it cooks, the tofu should absorb the liquid and become a golden brown color. It will be done when all the sauce is absorbed.

You can either steam your kale on the side, in the microwave, or(like I did), add it on top of the pan in the last few minutes of cooking. Steam it until it has reduced to about half its original volume.

Serve hot and season with salt and pepper.

What about you? Tofu lover or hater? Any way in particular you like it?

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3-Ingredient Thai Curry Tofu

Written on December 2, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I’m not usually a fan of shortcut ingredients; they’re too Sandra Lee for my preference. But some of them are too good to pass up. For that reason, I love to keep a jar of Thai Kitchen’s curry paste in my refrigerator. Curry paste is all the ingredients needed for a good curry all concentrated and combined. Since it’s so dense with ingredients and flavors, you don’t need much more for a delicious lunch.

*Emily crafted her own green curry paste from scratch! If you want to be really enthusiastic, try that and I bet it would work just as well, though you might need to double the amount here because it seems less concentrated.

3-Ingredient Thai Curry Tofu

Ingredients:

1 block firm or extra-firm tofu
1 tablespoon Thai curry paste
1/3 cup coconut milk

Cut the tofu in whichever manner you prefer. Add the tofu, coconut milk, and curry paste to the pan and heat to medium-high.

Continue to cook the curry until the tofu picks up color and the coconut milk gains a runny syrup consistency.

Serve the tofu over seasoned rice or quinoa. Reserve the excess curry milk for drizzling.

I usually don’t make many ethnic dishes because I can never understand the flavors or the cooking techniques and how they all work together. But when it’s made this simple, anyone can make a tasty curry dish.

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Apricot Glazed Tofu With Walnuts

Written on December 1, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

You know how you’ll discover a food and then want to eat it with everything and anything? That’s what’s been happening with me and apricot jam. It all started with this chicken salad and has just skyrocketed from there. Apricot jam on sweet potatoes? Yes, please! Apricot jam burgers? Not so good… Apricot jam on tofu? A winning recipe. I liked this so much because it tasted distinctly American with an ethnic flare. This is the kind of recipe I would suggest to people scared of how tofu tastes, because it’s deliciously sweet and tangy with a nutty crunch. You could certainly use this same glaze for chicken or pork, too.

Apricot Glazed Tofu With Walnuts

Ingredients:

1 block firm or extra-firm tofu, pressed and cubed
3 tablespoons apricot jam
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
pinch of black pepper
1/3 cup walnuts

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix together the jam, olive oil, vinegar, and black pepper. Stir to emulsify.

Toss the tofu in the glaze to coat. Lay it out on a single layer on a lined baking tray and bake for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, take out the tray, flip the tofu to prevent sticking, and add in the walnuts. Stick this back in the oven for 10-15 more minutes until it starts to smell “nutty”.

The Fall flavors of apricot and walnut pair perfectly with any squash dishes as a sides. Or you could serve it with quinoa or rice for a warm and comforting tofu bowl.

The only question is what to put apricot glaze on next?

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Scrambled Tofu

Written on November 24, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

This is one of my favorite things to make for lunch or brunch on the weekend. It’s a flavorful dish that’s extremely easy to cook, and it’s very warm and comforting, just like real eggs should be. It goes great with hash browns or any other sort of carbs you could imagine. All you need is a block of tofu and a few pantry-staples to make this, too.

Scrambled Tofu

Ingredients(For 2 servings):

1 block firm or extra-firm tofu
1/2 onion, diced
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add in the diced onion and cook until translucent.

Next, crumble in the tofu using your hands. Sprinkle in the paprika, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder and fold them in with a fork. Cook 5-10 minutes while the tofu absorbs the oil and moisture cooks off. It will be done when the tofu starts sticking to the bottom of the pan and turning brown in parts.

Season with salt and pepper.

These really can be made and used in any way regular eggs are. Stuff them in a tortilla for a new twist on a breakfast burrito, or eat them with ketchup or siracha—whatever floats your boats. And you could certainly fool even the staunchest meat eaters in looks and flavor with these.

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Baked Pork Chops With Spicy Peanut Glaze

Written on November 16, 2010 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I love peanut butter. I really do. So when I heard about The National Peanut Board’s recipe contest, I knew I was going to participate. The only question was “what to make?” The recipes for this contest need to highlight both the versatility and health benefits of peanut butter. There are other restrictions about serving size and number of ingredients which you can read about here. I went with this recipe because it’s simple yet flavorful, and draws its character from a perfect pairing of peanuts and chili powder with a slight tang and saltiness to round it out.

Baked Pork Chops With Spicy Peanut Glaze

Ingredients(Makes 2 servings):

2 pork chops, fat trimmed
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons natural creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 tablespoons milk(or non-dairy substitute)
1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt(1/4 teaspoon if your peanut butter is already salted)

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Line a pan with aluminum foil, add in the pork chops, and drizzle with the cooking oil to coat. Make sure that the oil covers the whole pork chop to prevent burning. When the oven is preheated, put in the pork chops to bake for 30 minutes.

While the pork chops are cooking, combine the peanut butter, chili powder, vinegar, milk, and salt in a small dish. Whisk together to emulsify.

Once the pork chops have cooked for 30 minutes, take them out of the oven to put on the sauce. Evenly distribute the sauce between both chops and brush on in an even layer. Put the pork chops back in the oven for 10 more minutes to finish cooking and for the sauce to thicken.

Simple, yet flavorful—the sauce doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to put together, and can easily be used on any neutral-flavored protein(chicken, tofu). Pork just happened to be what I had around. Serve with light vegetables like a salad or other greens so that the peanut flavor really pops. And if you’re interested in entering the recipe contest, you don’t need to have a blog or anything; just head on over to their website for more info before November 19th.

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