Won-Ton Fun

And by "fun" I mean "time-consuming and I'll need a darn good reason to make again." Delicious, but I might be too lazy for this sort of thing. So much work! They really were good, though, and got rave reviews from the family. They requested, that for next time, perhaps I could fry them? NO DEAL. UNLESS YOU STUFF THEM, FAMILY, 'CAUSE I AIN'T.

Ahem.

Back to business. Without further ado, won-ton soup!

Won-Ton Soup

1 cup torn cooked chicken (roasted, grilled, poached...)
1/2 carrot shredded
4 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

24 Won-Ton wrappers

Egg wash

1/2 cup snow peas

4 cups chicken stock

Mix the chicken, carrots, green onions, ginger and soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble:


Lay one wrapper flat,brush with egg wash, spoon a heaping tablespoon of the mixture in the middle, fold corner to corner and crimp closed. Eat the remainder of the mix.

Delicious potential

 Set the chicken stock to boil, then lower heat to a simmer.
Add the won tons and simmer until cooked. Add the snow peas in the last minute of cooking.

Check it, this was yummy. But it is a lot of work. So this is going into the 'special occasion' category. Unless someone has an easier way?

Cookies!

More specifically, the chocolate chip kind. My nephew loves to bake with me more than anything. He loves to crack eggs, pour stuff and mix it all up. He's even got to measuring ingredients, by pattern-matching. He may not know what a "half" is, but he knows the 1/2 symbol when I tell him and to match it to the measuring cup/spoon! Pretty impressive for a five-year old, I say!

I even got my not-yet-two-years old niece in on the action. The Monkey would crack the egg into a bowl. After checking for any stray shell bits, I hand the bowl to my niece (forever known as the Cat) and she tips the bowl into the big mixing bowl. Yes, it's complicated, but darn it if it isn't adorable as heck!

Anyhoodle, the cookies we made were more of a soft-cakey kind of cookie, as that is how I like 'em. Not a big fan of crispy crunchy ones. This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2.5 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, salt and eggs. Beat until well mixed. Add flour and baking soda, mix until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Drop large tablespoons onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Lightly flatten with your hand. The cookies should be about 2 inches apart.

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the centre, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 2 minutes, transfer to cooling rack, plate or mouth.

DELICIOUS

See how expertly the monkey SMOOSHES flat the cookies?

Angry Birds break time while the cookies bake...

So soft.

The really funny lookin' one at the top was the remainder of the dough, HA.

Right, so naturally these were devoured in no time at all. My niece, of discerning taste, quite appreciated them.

I did, too. Lots of them. With milk. I miss them already.

Beef Tagine

Some time ago, I had made a lamb tagine recipe from Bon Appetit. It was A-MAZE-ING. Everyone loved it! So I wanted to make it again with The Monkey. Except lamb was expensive at the grocery store, and I didn't feel like going to another one... so, stewing beef it was. You know what? It was delicious! I think I prefer the lamb, but the beef was still tender and worked really well.

Beef Tagine

2 lbs stewing beef, cut into 1" cubes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 can diced tomatoes
Chicken stock
1 can chickpeas
5 tsp Ras-El-Hanout (see below)

Ras-El-Hanout
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground tumeric

Mix all together. Unused portions can be stored for a month.

Season the beef and brown in a sauce pot in batches. Set aside. Add onions and cook until soft and golden. Add the garlic, fresh ginger and Ras-El-Hanout. Cook for 1 minute. Add the diced tomatoes and the beef. Add enough stock to cover. Bring to a boil and then simmer until beef is tender, about 2 hours. Add the chickpeas in the last 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve over couscous, or I poured it over large egg noodles. Enjoy!

 

I served this with a "mini" Caprese salad. Traditionally, it is slices of tomato and mozzarella and basil. I used grape tomatoes, mini bocconcini and small pieces of basil. It was perfect!

Mini-Caprese Salad

1 container grape tomatoes

1 container cocktail-size bocconcini 

7-10 pieces of basil, torn into smaller pieces

Olive oil

Salt, pepper

Mix ingredients in a bowl with enough olive oil to cover. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

"Paella" of some sort...

So I cook with my nephew about once a week. So the day before I'm frantically going around assembling ideas and ingredients. For some reason, this week I wanted to do Paella. Except, I am always doing little adjustments so that this dish ended up paella-like but not officially paella. Traditionally there should be mussels and chorizo sausage and saffron etc. except I don't like mussels and I'd rather use a different sausage... so this is what happened. It was delicious, but it was more of a paella-like risotto.

Also, a confession: I hate measuring things. I like to throw stuff in the pot. So this recipe is as accurate as I can make it. Cheers!

"Paella"

2 onions chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts only, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
5 Chicken - cut into smallish chunks. Legs are traditional, but I had chicken breasts so I used that. I did a quick marinade of salt, pepper, paprika and garlic.
1 package Shrimp - I used shrimp that was deveined and deheaded, but I had to take the shell off. I did a quick marinade in garlic. Honestly, use whatever shrimp style you're comfortable with. It's just shrimp. Delicious, delicious shrimp.
4 Sausages - cut into slices. Traditionally, chorizo sausage is used. But I already had Eastern European-style sausage in my possession, so... klobassa it is!
1 cup rice - I used brown rice
Hot chicken stock
1.5 cups frozen peas (1.5-ish. You can have more or less, you rebel)


Again, traditionally, a wide, pan (called a paella pan, natch) is used. I wanted to make a large batch, so I used a large pot for all of this. Saute the leek, red pepper and onion until they are soft. Add the garlic and cook slightly. Take the veg out of the pan and set aside.
Saute the sausages until deliciously browned. Set aside.
Brown the chicken breasts in batches, to not crowd them. Set aside.
If the pan is dry, add some olive oil.
Fry the rice in the oil for a minute.
Add the hot stock, about 3 cups.
Add the chicken, sausage and vegetables.
Simmer until stock is reduced and rice is cooked. Normally, the water is all cooked off, but I left a little bit. The dish became a little bit like a risotto.
In the last few minutes of cooing, add the shrimp and peas.
Season with salt, pepper and paprika to taste.
I garnished with sliced green onion.

Oh snap this was good!

Big hot mess

Mmmmm chicken and sausage and shrimp...

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It was finished quickly, too!

Schnitzel and Onion Rings

At my house, we make our schnitzel a little different. Classic schnitzel is really thin veal, breaded and baked. At our house, we take chicken breast, bread it and then deep fry it. HEAVEN. Also, breading? Perfect for little hands! It gets very messy ;)

Pohanje (Po-han-yeah)

6 chicken breasts, cut into rough quarters
Salt, pepper, paprika, Vegeta (optional, a Croatian spice mix)
Vegetable oil
Flour in a bowl
Eggs, beaten in a bowl
Breadcrumbs, in a bowl


Season and coat the chicken with the spices and enough oil to lightly coat.
Breading: taking pieces one at a time, cover in flour. Dip in the egg until covered. Dip in them breadcrumbs and fully cover the chicken.


Set the deep fryer to the chicken setting (usually 350F) and cook the chicken until dark brown. Serve and enjoy!

Pre-frying. Full of potential!

 Onion Rings


I decided to try making onion rings the same way we did the chicken. Why not?

6 onion, cut short-wise to keep rings intact. Separate the rings.
Bread in the same manner as the chicken.
Deep fry until deep golden.

Pre-frying.

YUM!

I had also made some mashed potatoes, but left the skins on. I might be a little lazy, HA. The onion rings came out really well. Since I hadn't used a classic batter, the rings weren't 100% covered. But you know what? It worked! They became really sweet but had a slight crunch from the breading. I have been told these will have to be made again.

Brown Rice Risotto

Hello hello!

Today was an experiment day... can you make a good Risotto using brown rice? You can! It turned out really creamy and delicious. I added some cream at the end, but it really wasn't necessary. This took less stock than I'm used to, but took longer to cook.

Brown Rice Risotto

2 cups brown rice (we use parboiled)
6 cups chicken broth  (but we ended up not using it all)

2 small onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 chicken breasts, cooked (I used poached, but roasted, grilled, it's all good)

1/3 cup white wine

Optional: heavy cream, parmesan

Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter on low heat in a large sauce pan. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until soft but not browned. Add the rice, and cook 1-2 minutes, mixing to coat all the rice.

Add the wine and cook until almost all reduced.
Add about a cup of stock, continually stirring until almost all cooked off. Repeat until the rice is cooked and the liquid has reached a creamy and porridgy texture. Season with salt and pepper. If you want it to be more creamy, add a splash of heavy cream. But it is not entirely necessary. Grated parmesan can also be a nice topper.

I cut up the chicken and served on top of the risotto.

SO CREAMY AND DELICIOUS. My nephew really liked this. Rice and chicken? What else to five year olds love? If we had some cookies he would have been in heaven!

Chicken and Waffles

Time for a family favourite! Southern Fried Chicken!

I love this recipe, originally from Martha Stewart. Although I didn't do my normal 24 hour marinade in buttermilk, it still came out pretty well.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

16 chicken thighs, bone-in

1 L buttermilk

Salt, pepper, paprika. Generous amounts.

LOTS of paprika

I like to leave it in the fridge for 24 hours, but I didn't think of this dish until the day we made it. So it got about 6 hours or so.

Then the messy and FUN part. Time to bread those poor marinated cluckers.

A few cups of flour
Salt, pepper, paprika
Few tablespoons of cornstarch

Dip the chicken repeatedly until chicken is thoroughly covered in flour.

Results in AWESOME scary DOUGH hands

 Set deep-fryer to 375 F. The chicken should cook for about 15 minutes, until a nice deep golden colour.

This goes very well with waffles!

Waffles

This recipe is also adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, but I took out the vanilla and cinnamon to keep them less sweet and more savoury, appropriate for chicken.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 cups flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the milk, butter and egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add liquid mix to the flour mixture, mix together. Whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into the batter. Spoon 1/3 cup amounts into the waffle maker. Cook until no steam emits from the waffle maker.

Lumpy future deliciousness.

 

Waffle One

Pile o' waffles

Devour with the fried chicken.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

This is adapted from some recipes at Martha Stewart and one I learned at work.

1 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp oil, butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, rinsed and chopped
5 oz frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
4 oz cream cheese (half a 225g package), softened
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sour cream
1/4 cup parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.
Heat the oil and butter on medium flame. Add the chili flakes, cook 1-2 minutes. Add onions, cook until soft and translucent, slightly caramalized.
Add garlic and artichoke hearts. Cook 2-3 minutes, until soft.
Pour mix into bowl. Add cream cheese, mayo, sour cream, 1/2 the Parmesan. Stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Put into oven-safe container. Cover with the rest of the parmesan and the breadcrumbs. Slide into the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes, until dip is bubbly.

Yes, artichoke hearts look funny.

*Drool*

This was hoovered pretty fast in our house! We served it with some warm pita bread.

Another success!