Chicken Curry Leftover Update

In consuming my chicken curry leftovers, a few more things occurred to me that I should share with you. First, the fennel seeds, while imparting a wonderful flavor, were too much when crunched between the teeth. I would hate to lose their flavor so perhaps I will grind the seeds up first before adding. The problem with that, for me anyway, is that I have a coffee bean grinder that I actively use for coffee and I do not relish the idea of fennel-flavored coffee. The second thing I will change is that I would decrease the amount of onions from three to two onions. I know, I know, I am the consummate onion lover. However, I think that two onions will still provide enough flavor while allowing the smooth sauce to shine. With three onions, I felt that I couldn't enjoy the sauce, it was more like chewing mouthfuls of onions suspended in a few bits of sauce. Again, don't try to trim time by sauteeing the onions for a short period of time. Really let them cook down, past the point of being translucent, until they are very tender and without bite.

New Obsession

I am in love with this tea! N. made some at his house last week and I can't stop drinking it, with lots of milk and honey. It's full of vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom, wholly delicious and very comforting.

Chicken Curry

My new recipe of the week was inspired by the Chicken Curry recipe in my Cook's Illustrated cookbook but I really deviated it from it so much that I can't claim it. But it was still really tasty and I'm betting that it will be even better for lunch today.





Chicken Curry
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks
splash lemon juice
1/2 t. fennel seeds
1 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cardamom
1 t. ground clove
1 T. curry powder
1 T. garam masala
salt and pepper
2 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
3 medium onions, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. fresh ginger, minced
16 oz. can whole tomatoes and their juice, chopped
1 1/2-2 c. chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1/2 c. yogurt, room temperature
1 T. curry paste, I like the hot variety
cashews
cilantro

Raita
1 c. plain yogurt
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped
1/2 small cucumber, chopped
1-2 t. cumin
salt and pepper
lemon juice

Toss the chicken in the lemon juice and spices and marinate at least an hour. Add oil and butter to a pan and brown the chicken in two batches. you don't have to cook all the way through, just get a nice sear. Remove the chicken and add the onions, cooking very slowly on low heat. This may take an hour or so. Once the onions are soft, transluscent and deeply colored, turn the heat back to medium, add the garlic and ginger. Cook for two more minutes, add the tomatoes, stock, cinnnamon and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and let reduce on medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes. Turn the heat off. Let this cool for about ten minutes and then stir in the room temperature yogurt. If you do this when the chicken is too hot or the yogurt is too cold, it will curdle. Add the curry paste to taste and bring the heat back up to continue simmering. Top with cashews and cilantro over rice. It's even better with raita and chutney.

Notes: As usual, I dumped some of everything in my spice mixture, use whatever combination of spices you like. I also didn't have any chicken stock so I used 1/2 c. sake and a cup of water. I added the curry paste at the end because it needed some more kick but certainly leave it out if you wish.

World's Best Meatballs. Really, It's True.

I often see recipes that claim they are the best, blue-ribbon recipes, always imitated but never the winner. I usually scoff at that but I made these meatballs the other day that were out of this world. To show you how serious I am about that, I'll go so far as to admit that my sauce wasn't all that. Not that I didn't lovingly prepare my sauce but I skipped the layers of pork and that was a mistake. But we're talking meatballs here. So...I usually make meatballs with ground beef but I decided to go all out and do the veal-pork-beef combo. I also watched a meatball-off this weekend on the Food Network and the winner put a whopping FOUR eggs in per pound of meat. I usually do one and I was wary of such excess so I settled on two per pound. I also added some chopped banana peppers for a little zing and a couple shots of vodka because, well, why not? It's delicious in vodka sauce, right?

1 lb ground beef, preferably chuck. Don't go all lean and healthy here
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground veal
olive oil
3 c. chopped onion
10-15 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/3 c. chopped banana peppers
3/4 c. romano cheese
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
6 eggs
A few glugs vodka, or milk, or wine
salt and pepper

Of course, caramelize the onions in olive oil for about 20-30 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a couple more minutes. Let cool. Mix all the other ingredients in together and let sit for about 15 minutes. I don't know why but it's better that way. I almost always bake them as opposed to frying them but I did both this time and I liked them either way. Some say that frying creates a nice brown crust that cannot be achieved in the oven. Mine have so much cheese and whatnot in there that, even in the oven, they get pretty golden and crusty on the outside as well. Plus, it's so much less work. I made this triple batch last week and I'm happy to say, my freezer is neatly stacked with delicious, cheesy, spicy meatballs. They should last me the next couple of weeks, at least.

Potato-Kale-Beer Chowder

My friend and co-worker told me she was making a potato-kale chowder with chorizo, which sounded delicious so I made the appropriate "mmmm" sounds until she promised to bring some in for me the next day. She didn't, but I didn't think about it until Sunday when I thought to my self "Hey, that sounded so tasty and mighty comforting during this cold spell." Although I didn't have any chorizo, I had just bought some fantastic organic kale from the Co-op. It was long, slender and very tender, unlike the curly, woody stems usually found languishing as a garnish on dinner plates. The beer was an afterthought. I hate wasting things and couple of weeks ago, I opened a beer that I could not finish. No, I'm not that dainty, I had two before that. Anyway, I didn't want to waste it and I am so glad I didn't. It was a dark beer, perhaps stout, I can't remember since I threw the bottle out already. I added the beer to deglaze the pot, after cooking the onions, and it really rounded out the soup and gave it a biting, nutty undertone. I'm really going to have to approximate the amounts in this recipe, I kept adding this or that.

Potato-Kale Chowder

1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1 onion, diced
1-2 T. flour
1/2 bottle dark beer
2 c. diced potatoes
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into rounds
1 bunch kale
2 cups chicken stock
pinch salt and pepper
pinch nutmeg
pinch thyme

Heat the olive oil and butter, add onions and cook about 15 minutes. Once cooked, add the flour and stir. After a minute or two, once the brown fond starts to form, add the beer to deglaze. Add the potatoes and carrots, then the stock. Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender. You can keep the soup like this but I fished out the potatoes and pureed them, then added the mash back to the soup pot to give it more body and heft. I sauteed the kale separatley and added it to the pot to simmer away a bit more but I did it like that so it was easier for me to remove the potatoes. Add seasoning. I ate this as is but yesterday, I aded some milk as I reheated the soup and, of course, that made it creamier and fuller. You can add more stock or milk if the soup is too think.

Zucchini Bread Update

I posted a recipe for the best zuchinni bread I ever made here a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, it did not survive longer than two hours so I decided to make it again this weekend, albeit with some minor tweaks. In an effort to make this bread even more healthy so that I could justify eating the whole thing by myself, I made the following changes and it still turned out marvelous.

-Instead of 1/3 c. whole wheat flour and 2/3 c. white flour, I made the ratio 1:1. Increase the iron and fiber while adding to the texture of the bread? It's a win-win situation. I was afraid of messing up the balance and yielding a heavy loaf but it was light as air.

-I decreased the the amount of sugar from 3/4 c. to 2/3 c. I was able to get away with this by the addition of dried fruit.

-I bought some apricots on Saturday for no reason and, as I gnawed my way through them Sunday morning, I thought I'd chop up the remaining ones and add to to the mix. I also was bringing this to a friend with a nut allergy so I skipped the pecans in favor of the apricots. Then I made another loaf with apricots AND almonds. Delightful.

-Even more black pepper. Still not enough. Next weekend, I'll try 15 turns of my pepper mill for maximum effect.

And finally, my mother served this alongside another one of those chocolate truffle pies she made last week (She made it becasue she had creme fraiche left over and of course, since there is no other known use for creme fraiche, she simply HAD to make another one. Flawless logic.). I thought my apple-butter, dried apricot concoction would taste like sawdust next to the truffle pie but it actually stood up quite well and provided a nice foil to the intense chocolate.

Next Up: World's Best Meatballs (No, I am not humble.)

Happy Birthday My Lovely Lucy!!!!!!

I wish I could be there with my gorgeous niece on the anniversary of her birth but I cannot. So I will eat this cake in her honor. Also, sending enormous, beautiful, congratulatory thoughts to my sister and her husband for creating this little person!