Week 9: Lemon & Parmesan Risotto

My weeks are way off, but I’m playing blog catchup! We had a stay-in date night to celebrate Valentine’s Day a month ago, and we (yes both of us!) cooked up dinner. We’ve usually kept V-Day low key, and this year was no different. Except we had lobster tails & risotto. That was for sure a step up from the steak we usually make!

I picked risotto because I wanted something that complemented the tender, soft & succulent lobster tail. And because I had never made it before. And because Valentine’s Day is the only day I think I could actually commit to stirring something for 30 minutes straight. Yes, 30 minutes. But oh so worth it! Here’s out it goes:

6 cups chicken stock

2 cups Arborio rice

1 cup white wine

1 lemon, juiced & 1 teaspoon of zest reserved

8 oz unsalted butter

4 oz freshly grated parmesan (the good stuff, please!)

1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped

Salt & pepper

Heat chicken stock in a stock pot, and keep warm. Melt 6 oz butter in a medium sauté pan on medium heat. Stir in rice, & continue stirring for 3 minutes. Add in 1/2 cup of white wine and juice from lemon & continue stirring until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add in remaining white wine & keep stirring until liquid is almost absorbed. Keeping with the same idea, add in 1/2 cup of heated chicken stock, cooking until liquid is almost absorbed. Keep stirring the entire time! Test the rice to make sure it’s cooked to your liking after about 20 minutes. I prefer mine firm with a little bit of give, but it’s up to you! Keep adding liquid/stirring until you’ve reached the texture you are looking for. 

Once the rice is cooked, stir in lemon zest, remaining butter, parmesan, parsley and salt & pepper. Enjoy immediately!

My apologies for the after picture. Turns out creamy rice doesn’t look all that great in via camera lens. Just believe that it’s underneath the lobster & asparagus, and it tasted as wonderful as lemon and butter and parmesan and love should. Dish up!

Week 8: Chick-fil-A on a Sunday

Chick-fil-A Spicy Chicken Copy Cat

Rarely does hubby ever request a certain food or dish. But a couple weeks ago he hands me his iPad and says “I want this”. I was intrigued, so I played along. And I quickly grew excited. It was a recipe for making Chick-fil-a sandwiches at home! Political hoo-hah aside, Chick-fil-a makes a damn good chicken sandwich. Just not on Sundays, which is probably the only time I crave it. Or at 10:32 a.m. when I want a chicken biscuit… Rules!?! I’m still not sure how I have never thought of trying to copy this at home, but I’m thrilled he came across this & am even more thrilled to share it with you. I made spicy because I wanted to, but I’m sure the non-spicy is just as good. I’m a bad blogger because I didn’t try both. But we ate Chick-fil-a on a Sunday & broke the rules!!

2 chicken breasts, halved (see time saver tip below)

1/4 cup pickle juice

1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional for spicy version)

1 egg

1/8 cup milk

1/2 cup white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon of each:

garlic salt

celery salt

basil 

paprika

salt

pepper

cayenne (optional for spicy version)

1/2 cup peanut oil

4 hamburger buns, buttered & toasted

8 pickle slices

Heat peanut oil in a skillet (cast iron preferred) to about 350 degrees. Marinate halved chicken breasts in pickle juice & hot sauce for 45 - 60 minutes (hot sauce optional for spicy version). Mix together dry ingredients for breading. Whisk together leftover pickle juice, eggs & milk. Dip chicken in flour mixture, egg mixture, then flour mixture again. I find it easiest to bread all of the chicken breasts before frying & lay them out onto a wire wrack. 

Fry (sheesh I hate frying because it sounds so indulgent!). But if you were going to eat Chick-fil-a anyways, it would have been fried. So… fry the chicken breasts for about 3-4 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature reaches at least 162 degrees. 

Butter and toast hamburger buns. Place 2 (or if you are me, closer to 5 or six) pickle slices on the bottom bun. Top with cooked chicken.

Serve with any Chick-fil-a sauce pouches you managed to not consume last trip and waffle fries. We enjoyed these with baked sweet potato fries. Because I have a dream that one day Chick-fil-a will make, in honor of me, sweet potato waffle fries. Also, I didn’t think the chicken was quite spicy enough, so I’d recommend adding a full teaspoon of cayenne if you can take the heat. Dish up!

Time saver tip: Split chicken breasts in
half for quick freezing/thawing

Time saver tip: Since it’s just the two of us, one of the only things I will buy in bulk is chicken. Any time chicken breasts are on sale, I’ll stock up and use this trick for easy freezing/thawing/portioning. It requires a little work up front, but is especially convenient when you are in a dinner rush. I’ll halve each chicken breast like this (I did not make this video, nor did I select the audio). Then place the split chicken breast in one quart size freezer bag. Push the air out & zip tight. Freeze the bags laying flat, & the next day you can stack them or store in the freezer door. Take these out of the freezer when you are ready to cook, and they thaw evenly, in about half the time. What’s even better? Thin filets cook much faster. You can also use the same method to freeze soups, stocks, ground meats, etc. 

Week 7: Hot & Sour Soup

Hot & Sour Soup

Yesterday it was 76 degrees outside. And beautiful. Since it’s Texas, it is now sleeting, icing and 23 degrees. And aside from a handful of days this winter, I’ve spent most of it iced in & bundled up. I think the cold wind blowing out of Canada (eh) forgot to stop at the Red River this year, & I don’t like it. Not one bit. I’ve made lots of soup this year in the fight against cold weather and winter snuffles. This hot & sour soup has been one of my favorite rounds of ammo. 

I found this recipe in Chinese Cooking the American Way. It’s a well worn favorite in my cookbook collection. Side note: I collect old cookbooks, and my favorites are usually well worn, sauce-covered & have a thoughtful sentiment hand written on the inside cover. No sweet sentiment to me, just to the person that eventually sold it to Half Price Book, donated it to a thrift store or settled for a quarter at a garage sale. 

I can’t find the button to click where you can link to a real life cookbook, so here’s a picture of the recipe. It is really easy. Probably the only ingredients you’ve never used are dried mushrooms (I put a before/after below because they look so funky), tofu & MSG. And I don’t know where to buy MSG, & even take-out restaurants have deemed it unhealthy, so even after cooking this soup, I still haven’t used MSG. But this soup is fast & warms you up on a cold day like today.

wood ear mushrooms, before

wood ear mushrooms, after

My version:

2 cups chicken stock, heated

1 1/2 cups water, heated

8 oz ground pork (or chicken)

8 oz firm tofu, rinsed & cubed (1/2 in. cubes are a good size)

5-6 dried wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted & thinly sliced

1 cup chopped white mushrooms

1 large egg, beaten

2 tablespoons corn starch

1 tablespoon green onions

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Seasonings:

1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon sriracha (or preferred hot sauce)

2 teaspoons vinegar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

Cook ground pork (or chicken) in a stock pot over medium heat, until evenly browned. Add in mushrooms, then continue cooking for 2-3 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Add heated chicken stock, water, tofu and seasonings, then bring to a boil. Thicken with cornstarch paste (2 tablespoons cornstarch + 2 tablespoons cold water) & continue cooking for 2 minutes. 

Remove from heat & stir in beaten egg. Top with chopped cilantro & green onions. 

It’s still winter for another couple of weeks, so next time cold stops by, you have the flu, or just a craving for homemade hot & sour soup, bookmark this one. It’s a winter winner. Dish up!