Weekenders

This weekend, we hosted the newest installment of Froula, seen here in the "barrel room" at the winery closest to our house.

They came with us to our Catechism class, followed by Mass, and then we returned home for a lazy Sunday afternoon, capped off with a late lunch, which was prepared thusly:

While Matt and Justin dusted off the backgammon board and set up shop in the living room, Rose and I prepped the kitchen for lunch-making, she by washing the breakfast dishes and I by preparing the chicken. (Free-range organic, of course!)

Heat the oven to 400. Remove the giblet-things from the 3-4 lb chicken, and rinse it in cold water, patting dry with a clean rag. (We buy plain white bar-towels in bulk, to save paper-towel waste.) Rub all over with olive oil and salt, and place in a glass dish in the oven. Mix one 1 lb bag of frozen sliced peaches (if fresh are not available, which they are not right now) with six halved shallots, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, six sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. If the peaches are fresh, use four, halved, and add the mixture to the dish immediately. If not, add this mixture to the chicken about a half hour into the roasting time. Total roasting time is about one hour, ten minutes, or until thermometer in the thigh registers 180.

Forty minutes into the roasting time, I washed, peeled, cut and boiled four Japanese sweet potatoes*. While they boiled, I trimmed 1/3 lb of green beans and set them aside. Then, I diced two shallots and one clove of garlic, browning them in a tablespoon of butter. Add the green beans, and, while they sizzle, squeeze the juice of one lime over all. When the beans got tender (about five minutes) I placed them in a covered dish on the table. The yams were ready, and I added 1/4 cup heavy cream (forgot to buy milk, oops!) 1 tbs butter, and mashed them up. By this time, the chicken was done and had been resting for ten minutes, so we sat down to eat!

The potatoes were VERY dry: I wish I had remembered to buy milk; then I could have put more in and they would have been creamier. The chicken was perfect: tender, juicy, the peaches added sweetness, and the balsamic vinegar kept the sweetness from being too cloying. The lime in the beans added a bit of zing to our plates.

This meal is definitely one that we will be serving again!!

*I'd planned on sweet potatoes for this meal. At the store, there were these "Japanese Yams" which I thought would be fun. They turned out to be a pale yellow color, and a little stringier than I liked, but the taste was pleasing.

Link "repair"

Much to my disappointment, the Post Punk Kitchen's website is down (looks like a domain-expiration thing) and all my links to them are consequently irrelevant. Because of this, I am posting in its entirety the recipe I linked to in my first post. I mentioned earlier that I was having difficulty finding one of the ingredients, fenugreek, and my mother has sent me some, and so I re-made it last night, and let me tell you, that fenugreek makes a HUGE difference! Gives it quite a kick...

Ethiopian Spicy Tomato Lentil Stew

Boil 1 cup brown lentils for 45 minutes, or until tender. (I have used green lentils, with no disastrous results.)
Prep: Dice 1 large yellow onion and peel and dice 2 carrots. Grate two tablespoons of fresh ginger, and mince 4 cloves of garlic. Mix together: 2 tsps ground cumin, 1 tsp ground fenugreek (I ground mine in the blender), 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/8 tsp ground all-spice, 1/8 tsp ground cloves, 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt. Open and measure out 1/2 c tomato paste, measure out 1 cup vegetable stock, and quarter four large tomatoes (or halve eight cherry/plum tomatoes).

In a large pot, over medium heat, saute the onion and carrots. Add the garlic, ginger and spices. Saute 5 more minutes.

Add tomato paste and mix, add vegetable stock and tomato pieces and simmer until bubbling. Add the cooked lentils and 1 cup frozen peas, simmer 15 more minutes.

This takes me a little less than an hour to make. The peas may sound optional, but without them, this stew looks...um, well, it looks unappetizing, and if you have small children, they will fill in the details for you! ;)
We think this is the perfect lunch AND dinner for a Friday in the wintertime! Very warming and filling.
Enjoy!

Announcement

Two things.

Number one: My dear mother found me some Fenugreek, and sent it to me. It smells SO good! (The wrappings it came in smell good, too!) Thank you, Mom!

Number two: We are entertaining this week, and I have to try the Ethiopian Stew again, to see what difference the fenugreek makes. Stay tuned...

The Latest Challenge

OK, last night, my best friend turns to me and says, "So, the doctor thinks I'm allergic to wheat."

I'll keep ya'll posted.

The Bloody Aftermath of the Holiday Season.

Unfortunately, I STILL feel like it's the holidays. Maybe something to do with the fact that we haven't been home for longer than three days together since, well, ThanksGIVing???! We've been pretty much running in the door, cycling through four loads of laundry, repacking our bags, and running out again, with Wallace in the background going "What the HELL???" like the bystanders in the Tasmanian Devil cartoons. Anyway, I guess it's over, and so I've thought back to the pre-Christmas preparations and dug out one of the more popular "Christmas Treat" recipes. Also from the PPK.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting.
(Preheat oven to 350 F. Line tins with paper cupcake liners.)

Sift together 1 ¼ cups flour, 3 tsps ground ginger, 1tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ¼ tsp ground cloves and ¼ tsp salt.

Whisk together ½ cup vegetable oil, 1/3 cup molasses, ½ cup maple syrup, ¼ cup soymilk and 2 tbs soy yogurt until well emulsified.

Fold dry ingredients into wet, whisking to combine.

Fold in 1 ½ tsps lemon zest and ¼ cup crystalized ginger, finely chopped

Pour into tins, 2/3 of the way.
Bake 17 - 22 minutes, until top springs back when touched or a toothpick comes out clean.
When fully cooled frost them with frosting below.

Prepare the frosting
In a round bottom bowl cream ¼ cup soybean margarine and ¼ cup vegetable shortening with a strong fork. (Make sure they are thoroughly blended and smooth.) Add 1/3 cup confectioner sugar and mix, gradually adding ¼ cup soymilk. Add juice of one lemon, and keep creaming away until everything is perfectly smooth. Refrigerate until cupcakes are ready for frosting.

My favorite thing about their dessert recipes is that they taste and feel good. We regularly eat their cupcakes for breakfast.

***every time I made these, the centers would fall a little. I'm not sure why; maybe the yogurt I was using was too heavy or something...

Christening the Accommodating Chef

The other night, we had some friends over for dinner. He is a big meat and potatoes Mid-West guy. She is a native Oregonian and hard-core vegetarian. What to eat?

I marinated lamb LOIN chops (not regular chops; loin is more tender) in olive oil, fennel seed and cumin for two hours.

In the meantime, I put this together. Although we have been unable to locate fenugreek anywhere, it came out alright. I undercooked the lentils a bit, but it ended up working out perfectly, since I started it too early. It's a stew, so it's not supposed to sit around simmering for an hour, unlike other lentil soup recipe we like. One word of advice: I feel that I should have prepped the ingredients for every stage before I dove in; it's kind of hard to grate two tablespoonfuls of fresh ginger when the onions are beyond caramelized. I usually do it as I go, but that didn't work out so well this time. That's what those miniature bowls in the mixing set are for, I guess.

While the stew was heating through one last time, I shaved three medium-sized carrots into strips, and then we scraped the fennel seeds off the lamb and heated olive oil in a cast iron skillet medium high. We seared the chops, one-two minutes per side, and then transferred them to a baking sheet in a 350 oven.

I dumped a 15 ounce drained can of garbanzo beans into a pan, on medium, stirred them around for a few minutes and then added the carrot strips, stirred around a few more times and put them in a serving dish. (This is supposed to the bed which the chops are served on, but I've found that vegetarians are "no-touch" when it comes to meat and their food.)

Dish up the lamb chops, garbanzo beans/carrots on the side, with an entree of lentil stew for the veggie-girl, and Bon Appetit.

A big hit all around, with madeleines and ginger tea for dessert.