Chicken Tray Bake

Keeping with the theme of marinating, I found another recipe that called for chicken to be brined.  I've never brined anything, but basically it seemed like a marinade with water and more salt added.  Why not?

344. Chicken Tray Bake (Jamie's America, page 320)

I gamely created the brine concoction out of water, salt, lemon, sage, apple cider vinegar and honey, and added my chicken breast quarters.  These went into the fridge for a few hours to soak.

The veggies I assembled in a large baking tray.  Three sweet potatoes and four regular potatoes sounded like a lot, but since I am a bit overrun by both right now I figured that was a good thing.  However, my sweet potatoes are monstrous.  I mean, they are seriously big.  Here's a comparison picture.

When I bought them (at the rhubarb festival of all places), I was promised that they would be the best ones I'd ever eaten.  So I had high hopes.  I cut back on the amount of regular potatoes so I could fit one sliced sweet potato in the pan, along with one sliced onion, 2 rashers of chopped bacon, 4 cloves of garlic, and a handful of fresh sage.  I added a swig of olive oil, salt & pepper, and a cup and a half of stock.  This went into a 350 F oven for a half hour to soften.  I also got the chicken containers out of the fridge, to bring them up to room temperature.

After the time had elapsed, I added 2/3 cup of light cream to the veggies along with a good handful of grated parmesan cheese.  I drained the chicken and patted it dry.  Then I made space to burrow it into the veggies, and topped each quarter with a small pat of butter, salt, and pepper.  Back into the hot oven for another 35-45 minutes or so it went.

My son came over for dinner so I served us both up a plate, with the addition of some grilled asparagus and the remains of the salad from the trout dish the other day.  The chicken was nothing special.  I really didn't seem to have benefited from the brining, at least not to my pallete.  We dipped it in BBQ sauce.  The veggies, however, were out of this world!  Seriously delicious.  They didn't lie about the sweet potatoes being the best I'd ever had.  I'm sure the bacon, cream, cheese, onion, garlic & sage didn't hurt either.  ;)

Wild West Trout & Salad

A bit of a long story - Jamie has started posting FoodTube segments called "what I'm eating today", filmed on his iPhone.  I find them quite fascinating.  I watched one yesterday that was shot on the set of his new TV series, Money Saving Meals.  He was eating with the crew, and one of the dishes on the buffet was a chili.  He asked the person who had prepared the meal "is it one of mine?" because he tasted it and thought it was familiar.  It turned out it was a recipe from the book Jamie's America. That struck my funny bone, because I do find that Jamie's flavour combinations tend to be quite unique.  Anyways, fast forward to me watching the Wyoming Wild West episode of Jamie's America, and then having a sit down to look through that chapter in the cook book.  I've hardly cooked anything from this book, but there really are a lot of great looking dishes in there.  Some of them were not shown on TV.  I need to start cooking from this one more!

343.  Trout & Salad (Jamie's America, page 305)

I picked up a really nice piece of trout at the market yesterday.  It weighed in at almost exactly a pound.  While it was already fileted (skin on), I decided to use it for this recipe, which calls for whole fish that have been scaled and gutted.  Unfortunately, I don't cook fish on the bone, because getting a bone in my mouth is enough to put me off the rest of the meal.  It's just not worth it, even though I know it's supposed to be more flavourful.

I thought I'd cooked trout just about every way imaginable, but think again!  This recipe says to marinate the trout for an hour or two max, in a mixture of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, salt & pepper.  Well, it also calls for whisky or bourbon, but my usual supplier of alcohol (my son, ha ha) was all out.  While the fish was sitting in the liquid, I threw a couple of potatoes, wrapped in foil, in the toaster oven to bake, and ran out to cut the lawn before the rain moved in.  Yes, it's really June, although you'd never know it from the cool, rainy weather we've been having.  The gardens seem to love it though!  The tomato plants are already taller than their cages.

After the trout came out of the marinade, I was supposed to pat it dry...but I forgot.  I put it straight into a screaming hot griddle pan, skin side down.  I seasoned the top with a bit more pepper, but figured it was already salty enough.  I wish I could have BBQed it, but I'm currently without a BBQ that works well.  The one I do have seems to coat everything with a black film that tastes disgusting.  I've tried cleaning it, but it only lasts for a meal or two.  I am about ready to just buy a cheap charcoal BBQ from Canadian Tire and call it a day.

While the fish was grilling, I mixed up the salad - chopped cucumber, red pepper, green onions and tomato with some fresh dill and parsley from the herb garden.  I used my colourful little farmer's market cherry tomatoes.  This is dressed with a simple lemon & olive oil mixture, and seasoned with salt and pepper.   I flipped the fish over for a couple of minutes to cook on the other side, then served it up with the salad & my jacket potato w/ sour cream on the side.

OMG!  The fish was so moist and tender and flavourful.  I guess the marinade basically cooks it for you before it even hits the grill, at least the outside layer anyways.  And the inside holds in some of the juices.  A really cool way to prepare a big piece of trout.  I will definitely remember this trick!

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One year ago, I was making Garlic Scape Hummus!
Two years ago, I was checking out my early tomatoes.
Three years ago, I was enjoying some Strawberry Salad with Speck and Halloumi.

Wow, won't be long until I can post what I was doing four years ago....how time flies when you're having fun.  :)

15 Meal Minutes: Ricotta Fritters with Tomato Sauce & Courgette Salad

My farmer's market haul this morning included farmed trout, cherry tomatoes and more Ontario fresh strawberries!  I felt like making something vegetarian for lunch when I got home, and since I'd picked up some ricotta on sale while grocery shopping, I went with this recipe.

342.  Ricotta Fritters with Tomato Sauce & Courgette Salad (Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, page 232)

JamieOliver.com recipe

First things first, I had no courgettes (otherwise known as zucchini).  However, since I planted a couple of hills of them in the spring, I expect to be overrun with them in a few weeks.  So I thought I'd substitute fennel, as it also makes a nice salad, grated and mixed with chopped mint, lemon & olive oil.  I had a bulb in the fridge that needed eating.

I started out by soaking some dried mushrooms in boiling water, and combining an egg, ricotta cheese, the zest of a lemon, grated nutmeg, a bit of flour, and parmesan cheese in a bowl.  I put a casserole pan on the heat, and sautéed some garlic & dried chili in olive oil.  Jamie suggests anchovies as well, but they are optional.  I dug my anchovy paste of the fridge and discovered that it had expired in February.  Ah well.....I also skipped the black olives, as they aren't my favourite thing in the world.  So to the pan, I added a jar of passata, the drained (and chopped) mushrooms, and about half the soaking liquid.

I put a frying pan on the heat, added some olive oil, and started dropping heaping spoonfuls of batter into it to make my fritters.  I found the batter very loose, and it didn't really stick together that well.  For the second batch, I added a bit more flour to the mixture and it worked out much better.

Once the sauce simmered down a bit, I added a bunch of chopped basil, salt and pepper and turned the heat off.  I served this up with a piece of bread for sopping up the extra sauce (and because I really felt it needed a starch).  I figure I can always use any extra sauce for a pasta dinner this week.

Overall, this was ok.  I am sure the sauce would have been more flavourful had I put the anchovies in, but it was still good.  The fritters were nice, but texturally a bit confusing.  I mean, they were somewhere in between an omelette and a pancake, and ricotta, while creamy, doesn't have a lot of flavour.  I have a few left over fritters for lunches. The fennel & mint salad is always great, because I love fennel.  Would I make this meal again?  Possibly not.  How long did it take?  Probably 45 minutes when I was all said and done.  I'm sure if I had hurried I could have done it quicker, but it was a lazy Saturday afternoon and I was enjoying the process.  :)

15 Minute Meals: Smokey Maple Pancetta, Fluffy Corn & Chilli Pancakes

Hard to believe we are into the second week of June already!  The weather has been cold and damp this week, but the gardens are doing well regardless.  I'm already picking salad leaves for dinner most nights. I've been revisiting recipes from previous seasons lately.  In fact, this week I've taken an Amazing Indian Dosa with minted yogurt to work for lunch almost every day.  Last night I drove out to a rhubarb festival, and along with a rhubarb pie and maple pecan fudge, came away with some fresh corn and the biggest sweet potatoes I've ever seen!  This morning I perused the farmer's market and bought my first Ontario strawberries of the year.

Today's recipe is kind of a default....I wanted to make the Crab Bolognese recipe from 15 Minute Meals this weekend, but after rewatching the episode, realized it was pointless without some fresh brown crab meat, but I don't know where to get it!  All I can find is fresh claw meat (white) or frozen king crab legs.  I'll have to do some research.  In the meantime, I found this cool little "breakfast" recipe that looked good. I had everything necessary, even fresh corn, while Jamie suggests frozen.

341.  Smokey Maple Pancetta, Fluffy Corn & Chilli Pancakes (Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, page 246)

Since we were still on a sugar high from the festival last night, these savoury pancakes looked like a wonderful Saturday brunch.  I made the batter first, combining self raising flour, milk, an egg, a bit of grated cheese, some chopped jalapeno and the fresh corn.  Next, I chopped up some fresh tomato and avocado to make my topping.  I combined this with the leafy part of a bunch of cilantro, and the juice of half a lemon.  The recipe calls for pancetta but I used maple flavoured bacon instead.  Handy, since Jamie wanted me to glaze it with maple syrup!  Yum!

Once my guinea pig son arrived, I put a small pan on a medium heat and added a tsp of oil.  Then I ladled in a quarter of the batter, spread it evenly around the pan but tilting it this way and that, and cooked 4 thin pancakes.   We topped them with the tomato/avocado/cilantro mixture, one piece of glazed bacon each, and a good dollop of fat free Greek yogurt. 

My son loved this - in fact he ate two.  The only issue was the jalapenos.  They were killer hot!  Considering they came from my garden (frozen from last year) I was surprised, but after one bite I had to agree.  We ended up picking most of them out rather than suffer.  And I'm not a wimp when it comes to chiles....far from it.  These seem to have intensified in the freezer!  LOL 

I thought this was a deliciously different take on your traditional pancake and maple syrup.  I loved that it was savoury rather than sweet, and yet there is a touch of sweetness in the corn and bacon.  Mmmm mmmm good.

15 Minute Meals: Spiced Chicken, Bacon, Asparagus & Spinach Lentils

This has been "love your lentils" week here in Canada.  I've been meaning to get around to this recipe for a while now, so tonight seemed like the night.  The problem was that I was out of chicken breast, and last week no one had it for a good price.  So I decided to go with what was in the freezer, which basically meant steak or fish.

340.  Spiced Chicken, Bacon, Asparagus & Spinach Lentils (Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, page 52)

Substitution:  rainbow trout for chicken, basmati rice for crusty bread
Omitted:  bacon
Forgot:  to marble yogurt through the lentils

I was intrigued by the way spinach was used in this recipe.  Instead of wilting it down, Jamie puts it into the food processor raw and pulses it so that it is basically the same size as the lentils.  Little things like that are important, because some days I feel like I've exhausted every cooking method and trick imaginable!  But apparently I still have lots to learn.  :)

So this is a two pan meal....one to sweat some finely chopped rosemary, onions and carrots down, then add the canned lentils and the chopped spinach, along with a roughly chopped tomato and a bit of red wine vinegar.  The other to pan fry the seasoned chicken or fish, along with some fresh herbs (I used bay leaves) and garlic cloves.  Jamie "spices" it up with a bit of cayenne pepper.  To this pan, you also add your trimmed asparagus spears.

 

 

Really a very simple (and fairly bland) meal, but I do love roasted garlic in any setting.  I think if I made it again I'd spice the lentils up Indian style, and add the plain yogurt that I forgot in the rush of the dinner hour.  Not only did I whip this up for myself, I also made a pan of beef fried rice and veggies for the boy.  Because I had fresh rice on hand, I decided to eat this with basmati rice instead of crusty bread.  Rice and lentils always go well together.

Frosty Weekend Sorrel Risotto

So I guess I planted my gardens a week early.......tonight marks night four of a frost warning.  The tomatoes and peppers are all tucked up in their cages, under a couple of heavy blankets. The strawberries are covered with plastic, and the basil plants are covered with containers. Hopefully this will be the last night I have to do this.  Summer, where are you?

 

 

This weekend, I picked up a few new-to-me items at the farmer's market: Welsh onions, apparently a perennial that looks like green onions on steroids, and some local goat cheese curds to go along with this next recipe.  It caught my eye the other day on Jamie's website, and looked like a great idea, since my cold weather loving sorrel plant is going crazy out there!

 

339.  A Beautiful Sorrel Risotto with Crumbled Goat's Cheese

 

JamieOliver.com recipe

 

This is another variation on the usual Risotto Bianco recipe, with the sautéed garlic & sorrel added in towards the end, and the goat cheese crumbled over the top.  However, I made it a little more interesting by using a large Welsh onion along with celery for the base of the risotto.  I figured it was going to get green anyways, so might as well go all the way.  ;)  I also used my own homemade turkey stock, but I had to skip the wine because the cupboard was bare.

 

 

 

I did not roast my goat cheese, as I don't think curds are that way inclined.  However, I did bash up a bit of fennel seed and dried red chili as a topping.  I decided to combine this with some Herbed Chicken to make a dinner out of it.  It was tasty for sure, but I think my favourite risotto is still the Fennel & Ricotta version.  However, the sorrel is mine all mine (aka free).  I love growing my own food!

 

I shared this post at the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up at Gastronomical Sovereignty!

 

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One year ago, I was making Farmer's Market & Leftover Minestrone Soup.

Two years ago, I served Chicken Skewers, Amazing Satay Sauce and Fiery Noodle Salad.

Three years ago, I made Amazing Herb Salad On A Tomato Bruschetta.

Seasonal Inspiration: Sautéed Jerusalem Artichokes

My farmer's market haul this weekend included local fresh asparagus, golden beets and Jerusalem Artichokes, as well as four heirloom tomato plants.  I utilized the square foot gardening method this year and got everything planted that I had planned - tomatoes, hot peppers, arugula, pole beans, bush beans, zucchini (green & yellow), cucumbers, and some experimental romano beans that I dried last fall.  Now my fingers are crossed that it doesn't frost again!  I mean, come on, it's the May long weekend!  That is traditionally the time to plant in Ontario, Canada.  I'm trying to forget that it snowed last week.

I went looking through my cookbooks for something new to make with Jerusalem Artichokes.  When I discovered them last year, I parboiled and stir fried them with some wild leeks and bacon.  I also used them in a minestrone soup.  Not sure how I missed it before, but Jamie devotes a couple of pages to their preparation in his book Jamie's Dinners.

338.  Sautéed Jerusalem Artichokes with Garlic and Bay Leaves (Jamie's Dinners, page 172)

JamieOliver.com recipe

I liked this simple, vegetarian recipe because doesn't call for bacon or cream (although it does call for a pat of butter).  I peeled the artichokes with a speed peeler, and cut them into chunks.  Then I combined a bit of olive oil and a pat of butter in a pan, and fried them until they were golden on all sides.  At that point, I added some sliced garlic, some red wine vinegar, and a bit of water to stop the frying process and start the steaming process.  I seasoned with salt and pepper and covered the pan, so the vegetables would soften.  I left it on a low heat for about 20 minutes.








Obviously you should remove the bay leaves before eating, but I was trying to replicate the picture so I left them in.  I don't think there is any way to keep such vibrant yellows and greens in a dish that has been cooking for a good half an hour - Jamie's photographer must have used a filter.  Otherwise, I think my dish came out pretty well.  I ate it with some sautéed bay scallops.

 

This post has been shared at the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up at Gastronomical Sovereignty!