Posted By Lindsay on January 5, 2009
New Year’s Dinner. The recipe called for Game Hens, but Trader Joe’s was fresh out (if they ever have them? I’ve never noticed), and we didn’t want to brave the Kroger birds. So we went with a whole chicken.
As far as roast chicken goes, it was pretty darn moist, but also pretty darn flavorless. What’s the trick to getting more flavor *inside* the meat (because honestly, tasting like chicken is not necessarily a good thing). Is brining the only way, or is there something we don’t know here? Thank goodness for the cranberry sauce and risotto, or this meal would have been pretty blah. Now that I think about it, it’s basically a mini-thanksgiving, as far as the flavors go, and this meal might make a good ‘alternative’ for a two-person holiday meal. Not that I’ll cook a turkey-alternative on Thanksgiving, but I’m just saying. If only we could get some more flavor into that meat…
Cornish Game Hens with Sweet-Potato Risotto and Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup cranberries
1/4 cup ruby Port
2 Cornish game hens, halved lengthwise or 1 medium chicken
1 pound yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes), peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 onion, chopped
4 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme, divided
1 cup arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
Directions:
Bring first 4 ingredients to simmer in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until reduced to 1 cup, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Puree sauce in processor. Strain into small bowl. (Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, cover and chill.)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place game hens, cut side down, on small baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 30 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 450°F. Continue baking until juices run clear when thickest part of thigh is pierced, about 20 minutes longer. If cooking a whole chicken, cook at 425°F for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F. Cook until done (ours took about 1 1/2 hours).
Meanwhile, bring broth to simmer in heavy small saucepan; reduce heat to low and keep hot. Heat a swirl of olive oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato, and cook until browned and tender. Remove from pan and allow to cool, then put in a food processor and puree (if it is too thick to properly puree, add some olive oil and/or broth to thin)
Return pan to burner, and heat another swirl of olive oil if needed. Add onion and ginger and cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add thyme; stir 1 minute. Add rice and stir 1 minute. Add wine; stir until almost absorbed, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add 1 cup hot broth and cook until almost all liquid is absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding hot broth 1 cup at a time and stirring frequently until rice is almost tender, 15-20 minutes. When almost al dente, add sweet potato puree and stir until combined, adding more liquid if necessary to make it the proper consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon risotto onto plates. Top with hen, and drizzle with cranberry sauce.
Posted By Lindsay on January 3, 2009
New Year’s Eve Eve gave us this delicious and balanced meal, the highlight of which might be Taylor’s smoked paprika fingerling potatoes. We paired them with a pre-marinated pork tenderloin from Trader Joe’s, and some roasted asparagus. Though we found this asparagus overly stringy, which I think was a result of the asparagus rather than us. Oh well.
If you’re serving these potatoes with some form of meat like we did, sear your meat, and then saute the potatoes in the same pan with all the delicious drippings. The leftover pork flavored oil did a lovely job of browning these for us, something we sometimes have a hard time achieving.
Smoked Paprika Fingerling Potatoes
Ingredients:
12 fingerling potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Directions:
Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes until tender, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool under running cold water. Once cool enough to handle, place the potatoes on a cutting board and slice in half lengthwise. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper, to taste. Heat a 12-inch saute pan with the olive oil over medium high heat. Place the potatoes, cut side down, in the pan and cook the potatoes until browned and crispy, about 3 minutes. Turn over and cook for another 3 minutes. Transfer potatoes to a bowl and toss with salt, pepper, and paprika until coated.
Posted By Lindsay on December 30, 2008
Interesting dish, this one. I think the one thing we’ll definitely take away from it was the polenta crust (though why use polenta instead of cornmeal, I’m not sure – cornmeal it seems would produce a similar result). The pan sauce was interesting as well. Will we make it again? Probably. Will we modify it some? Probably too.
Sometimes I don’t have a lot to say about a dish, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worthy of sharing with you. This one included. In other words, less chat, more food. Read on!
Polenta-Crusted Chicken with Balsamic Caper Pan Sauce
Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup polenta (preferably quick-cooking)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 inch thick between sheets of plastic wrap
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoon capers, rinsed
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 pound escarole or other greens, torn into bite-size pieces
Directions:
Lightly beat eggs with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Whisk together polenta, flour, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in another shallow bowl.
Dip chicken in egg, letting excess drip off, then dredge in polenta mixture.
Heat vegetable oil and 1/3 cup olive oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until oil shimmers. Cook chicken in batches, turning once, until golden and just cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes per batch. Transfer to a platter and keep warm, loosely covered.
Pour off oil and wipe skillet, then heat remaining 2 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in vinegar, water, capers, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and briskly simmer until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and swirl in butter.
Toss escarole with about half of sauce and pile on top of chicken. Serve remaining sauce on the side.
Posted By Lindsay on December 26, 2008
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever it is you celebrate. :)
Our supposed-to-be-relaxing morning began at the crack of dawn (6am) with an earsplitting fire alarm. Not exactly the way you want to wake up on Christmas morning.
The alarms in our building have gone ‘rogue’ (so says Taylor), and it’s beginning to wear on us. Something about the humidity, getting into the alarm boxes in the parking garage, and short circuiting the alarms in the entire building.
And it is LOUD.
We have to stuff kitty into her carrier box (after dragging her out from under wherever she attempted to seek refuge from the noise), make sure we remember the key so we don’t lock ourselves out, run down 3 flights of stairs with our hands over our ears, and stand, shivering, outside with our equally happy neighbors until the fire department comes and turns it off (obviously we’ve done this before).
Then, since we know it was a humid day, we go back inside and wait for it to happen again.
And it did. Twice. At 9:10 and 9:45.
You think they would have factored in humidity before installing the alarms.
As a result, Taylor and I have both become paranoid. We ‘imagine’ we hear the alarm starting, and our hearts jump. We had a tough time going to sleep last night, for that very reason. Every noise we heard could have been the dreaded alarm.
I hope you all had a better day off. :)
One thing that redeemed the bad start to the morning was these:
Pumpkin cinnamon rolls with caramel glaze. They might just be the most delicious thing we’ve eaten for breakfast in a long time. Mmmm. Which reminds me, that half of them are wrapped up in the fridge just waiting for me. With that in mind, on to the recipe!
Amish Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Icing
Ingredients:
For Dough:
1/3 cup milk or soymilk
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup canned pumpkin or mashed cooked pumpkin
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
For Filling:
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter
For Icing:
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
dash of salt
½ to ¾ cup sifted powdered sugar
Directions:
To prepare rolls, combine milk and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat just until warm (120 - 130°) and butter is almost melted.
In large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, and salt. Add warm milk mixture and beat until incorporated. Beat in egg and yeast. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours. Add half of flour mixture to pumpkin mixture. Beat mixture on low speed for 5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Add remaining flour and mix thoroughly (dough will be very soft). Turn into lightly greased bowl, then grease surface of dough lightly. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Turn onto lightly floured surface. Knead for 1 to 2 minutes or until dough is smooth, sprinkling with additional flour as needed. Roll dough into 12x10-inch rectangle.
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. With a pastry brush, brush surface of dough with melted butter. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar mixture. Beginning with long side of dough, roll dough fairly tightly. Pinch to seal. With a sharp serrated knife, gently cut roll into twelve 1-inch slices. Place rolls cut-side-up in greased 9-inch-square baking pan. (At this point the rolls can be covered and refrigerated overnight if necessary).
Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 20 minutes, or until rolls are golden. Cool 10 to 15 minutes.
While rolls are cooling, prepare icing. Melt butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Stir in vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar. Beat with an electric mixer or whisk vigorously until well blended. If necessary, add more powdered sugar for desired consistency. Drizzle icing over warm rolls.
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