August 18, 2007 – 10:07 am
Another delicious recipe from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast. I would buy the cookbook on the strength of this recipe and Grilled Tomato Linguine alone, but I have a couple more weeks to keep it from the library so I’ll be cooking more from it this week.
Simmering the chicken in chicken broth and sauteed mushrooms gives it a wonderful flavor. I substituted fresh oregano for the parsley that the recipe called for because that’s what I had.
Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Oven-Baked Polenta
Adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lb. white mushrooms, washed and sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1/2 c dry white wine
- 1 (14.5 oz.) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 T chopped fresh oregano
- Oven-baked polenta
Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Saute until golden in large skillet over medium high heat in 1 T of oil, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil.
Add another T of oil to the hot pan and then add the mushrooms and garlic. Season to taste with salt. Let the mushrooms sizzle for 2 to 3 minutes without tossing or disturbing them. Then continue cooking, tossing occasionally, until juices evaporate, about 8 minutes.
Add the wine to the pan and cook until evaporated, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth and oregano and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Return chicken to skillet and cover. Simmer over medium-low heat until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Serve chicken and mushrooms over polenta with a bit of the cooking broth poured over it.
August 18, 2007 – 9:55 am
You won’t catch me stirring a bubbling and spitting pot of polenta again. Oven baking it is so much cleaner and more convenient. Plus, you don’t need special polenta — just use regular cornmeal.
The recipe called for 1/4 c milk to be stirred in after the polenta is baked, but I forgot to do that and the texture was just fine. You could add that if you wanted it a little richer and creamier.
You might also like to add some chopped fresh herbs, a bit of grated parmesan cheese, or some roasted garlic after it’s baked.
Oven-Baked Polenta
Adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
- 3/4 c cornmeal
- 3 c water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 T butter
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk together cornmeal, water, salt, and pepper in 2-quart glass baking dish or casserole. Tightly cover — I used tin foil, because my dish doesn’t have its own. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Whisk in butter and serve.
August 15, 2007 – 2:20 pm
Even if you haven’t grown your own tomatoes, you can enjoy delicious summery tomato pasta. I wouldn’t do a raw tomato sauce with the tomatoes I get at the grocery store, but this grilled version substitutes nicely. The juice in the tomatoes becomes thick and rich, not dripping out like you might expect it to given you grill the tomatoes first cut side down.
This recipe dispenses with the normal routine of basil and garlic. It uses thyme instead, though I’m sure basil or oregano or parsley would taste good too.
Grilled Tomato Linguine
Adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
- 3 lbs. plum tomatoes
- 5T extra virgin olive oil
- chopped fresh thyme, to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb. linguine
- 1/2 c. grated parmesan
Preheat grill to high. Core tomatoes and cut in half. Mix in bowl with 3T olive oil, fresh thyme, and salt and pepper. After grill is preheated (mine takes about 15 minutes), reduce heat to medium high, lay tomatoes cut side down on grill, and grill until charred, then flip over to skin side. Grill until charred on that side too. Let cool.
Meanwhile, start a big pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta. Cook the linguine until al dente, then drain.
When tomatoes are cool, chop into bite-sized chunks. Mix linguine, tomatoes, remaining olive oil, and parmesan cheese in large serving bowl.
August 14, 2007 – 12:12 pm
Adapted from The Dinner Doctor by Anne Byrn.
Caramelized Onion and Garlic TartÂ
Make a crust of canned crescent roll dough by lining a pie plate or tart pan with triangles, long points facing inwards. Press together to cover entire bottom and sides. Bake briefly in 375 degree F oven.
Slice 2 medium onions thinly, saute until golden brown in 2T butter with fresh thyme and pressed garlic. Spread in crust. Make a custard of two eggs, 1/2 c. heavy cream, and 1/2 c. grated parmesan. Pour custard over onions. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until custard is set.
Notes: I added an extra egg and a bit of milk to the custard so I’d have more. The crust got overly dark in the oven (maybe because I cooked it longer due to the extra custard) so I tented it with tin foil.
Good: The crust was easy and not soggy at all, probably due to the prebake. The onion filling was nicely flavored.
Bad: The custard was both too loose and too rich. I think half and half or even whole milk would have been better than heavy cream. And I’d do more onions next time (the recipe called for two medium) with maybe a two-egg custard so it was mostly caramelized onions, held together with just a bit of custard.
Byrn’s recipe also called for 1 tablespoon sugar, added after browning the onions. But the onions brown fine without it and they’re naturally sweet enough that you don’t need it. I only added 1 tsp. and it was still too much.
The verdict: Good idea, especially the crescent roll crust. I’ll keep working on this one.
August 12, 2007 – 6:50 pm
Adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Tzatziki (cucumber sauce)
- 1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and grated
- 1/2 c. plain yogurt
- juice from 1/2 lemon
- handful fresh mint, chopped
- small garlic clove, pressed
- salt and pepper to taste
Mix together, cover, and chill.
Lamb Burgers
- 1 lb. ground lamb
- 1 small onion, chopped
- handful fresh parsley, chopped
- leaves from a few stems fresh oregano, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- pita bread
- lettuce, washed and dried and torn into pieces
Heat grill to high. Mix ingredients gently. Form into 8 small patties. Grill until medium rare, about 5 minutes a side.
Warm pitas on grill and tear in half. Put one burger in each pita half and garnish with lettuce and tzatziki.
Comments
Would I make this again? Probably not. But I will definitely keep looking for a good lamb burger recipe. This was my first time cooking with lamb, and it came out reasonably well. Next time I might try this on crusty rolls, a la Rachael Ray’s Middle Eastern Lamb Burgers. Pita bread falls apart and fails to satisfy.
The burgers were good, though lacking in flavor. I didn’t realize lamb was so rich — the fire flared as I turned over the patties.
I didn’t mince the onion finely enough, making me think I ought to get out my food processor and mince a bunch of onions, then save them in cupfuls in quart-size freezer bags.
August 12, 2007 – 2:04 pm
This is the second incarnation of The Everyday Cafe. I kept a blog of the same name at Typepad for a year or so starting in 2004 (here’s a page from the Wayback Machine). Now I’m back at it.
I made a deal with my husband. He does the big grocery shopping trip each weekend and handles occasional expeditions to Costco. I plan and cook dinner every night. I hate crowds while Rick likes the thrill of the (grocery) hunt. I like to try new recipes while Rick has just a few entrees at his command: tacos, rice-a-roni with canned chicken, and sausages on buns, for example.
I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to write. This blog combines all three of those in one. So… enjoy! I know I will.
, the cookbook that goes with Martha Stewart’s