Drunk Chicken Smothered in Shrooms with Sauteed Broccoli Rabe

Recently I have found a love of Chardonnay, never really being a wine drinker (used to make me turn bright red) I have seemingly rediscovered it and its endless ways it makes me just that much happier at the end of a long work day....so if you love something so much wouldn't it make sense to add that love to your food? 

yes, my reasoning is good.

What you need:

Chicken Breasts (skinless)

1 Package Mushrooms

lots o' Garlic

Bunch Broccoli Rabe

1/2 Lemon for juice

1/2 C. White Wine (something you like)

1/2 C. Chicken Stock

EVOO 

Fresh Herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)

S&P

Rice for carbs

Step 0: Slice mushrooms. Clean and pat your chicken dry. Coat both sides with Salt and Pepper. For best results use a kosher or sea salt.

Step 2: Put chicken in a preheated dry skillet, I prefer cast iron always (make sure you test the heat by putting a drop of water in the pan if it sizzles its ready, if not don't put anything in it yet). Cook till browned on each side, but not fully cooked (you can lower the heat a tad at this point).

Step 3: Remove chicken and set aside. 

Step 4: Pour enough wine in the pan to make it steam and bring up the bits of chicken debris from the pan. Add Mushrooms and 1T of EVOO. Salt and pepper and watch the mushrooms cook down.

   

Step 5: Once Mushrooms start to look small and shiny add about 1/2 C of wine and a pat of butter- bring to a boil.

Step 6: Once the pan starts looking dry gradually add about 1/2 C. stock to the mushrooms, it will start to look like a gravy. At this point add your chopped herbs to the mix.

what we are doing in non-technical terms is pumping the mushrooms full of wine slowly, essentially the mushrooms will taste like wine and not broth, the broth is for more of a sauce. if we did the liquids the other way around they would probably taste more like chicken. 

Step 7: Add the chicken back to the pan and pop in a 375˚ oven for about 25 min. Flipping the chicken a couple times to make sure it gets some of the brothy gravy inside of it.

Sauteed Broccoli Rabe

Step 1: add 1 T EVOO to saute pan and heat up, add the stems of the Broccoli Rabe and saute for about 1 min.

Step 2: throw in 2 cloves of chopped garlic to the saute pan. Remember you don't want to burn your garlic you want to slowly saute it so the flavor comes out into the oil..

Step 3: Once the stems and tender add the rest of the chopped broccoli leaves to the pan and half of a lemon's worth of juice. Saute till wilted. add some wine if your fancy.

Plate and eat!

 don't be fooled I did add rice to this but I hope you can figure that one out on your own.

Figgy Piggy

Or a stuffed goat in a pig blanket.

hmmmm....fruit, cheese and cured meat? The biggest fig hater would probably love it! It's salty, sweet and savory wrapped up into one little succulent bite!

What you need:

Figs

Goat Cheese

Prosciutto 

Step 1: Cut figs length wise

Step 2: smush a dollop of goat cheese in the center.

Step 3: fold back up and wrap the prosciutto every so gently around the outside.

Step 4: stuff in your mouth!

weekly Produce Box Discussion

Fall is here! 

We didn't get much of a summer or heck even an Indian Summer here in San Francisco, but that is okay because you can smell, feel and even better taste Fall right now!

The figs are cheap and good and the turnips and root veggies are ready for the slow roasts and pickling jars....I can't wait to get my fall on!

Here is what I got this week:

Featuring:

Bok Choy 

Turnips

Broccoli Rabe

Fennel

Radishes 

chard

sweet peppers

pears

heirloom toms

melon

grapes

Power Balls

aka Date Nut Balls.

When Josh and I were Leaving on the AIDS LifeCycle Ride this year, I really wanted to make a healthy good tasting snack that was also compact enough for a bike and won't spoil easily. And Then BAM! one day at the farmers market I got the most delicious honey dates, and these babies were born.

what you need:

Makes about 15 1" balls

1/2 C. Dried Dates

1/4 C. Currants

1/4 C. Dried Figs (optional)

Dried unsweetened coconut flakes

2 T. sesame seeds

1/2 C toasted walnuts

1 T. Lemon juice and 1 tsp zest

Step 1: de-seed Dates and toast all walnuts.

Step 2: Put figs, dates and currants in food processor and pulse till combined. Add the lemon (zest and juice) and half of the nuts and coconut, pulse till it is all one dark shiny lump of stuff.

Step 3: Toast remaining sesame, and coconut. Combined toasted ingredients with walnuts and chop to fine bits or use a processor.

Step 4: Wet one hand, pinch off some of the date mixture and form into a ball, then roll ball into the toasted nut mixture. 

Step 5: Enjoy! These guys taste great chilled and keep for sometime. You can use a ton of different stuff in here so have fun with them.

Greek Lamburgers

I love burgers, and I love greek food...so why not smash those two together????? Need I say more.These are stuffed with feta and completed with homemade Tzatziki and a hot pepper fig pepper spread...

what you need:

makes 4 Burgers:

1lb Lamb

garlic 

fresh herbs (mint, rosemary, thyme, oregano)

4-6oz greek yogurt (0% works well)

cucumber

lemon

figs

arugula

hot peppers

olive oil

S&P

sprouted grain buns

Tzatziki

Step 1: open yogurt container and throw in the bowl (I bought a single cup, so about 4-6oz is good).

Step 2: De-seed and dice cucumber, chop herbs, and add about 2 T. of lemon, 1/2 T. EVOO and 1 finely chopped clove of garlic to the mix.

Step 3. Stir and taste...season with S&P to whatever feels greek enough to you.

Step 4: Put in fridge and chill.

Fig and Pepper Spread

Step 1: lightly chop 1 fig and 1-2 hot peppers (leave seeds if you like a bite)

Step 2: Put in food processor, add 1/2 T. EVOO while it is running.

Lamburger

Step 1: Put Lamb in bowl.

Step 2: Chop Herbs (all listed) and 1 clove garlic, add to lamb and season with S&P.

Step 3: Mix (hands work best if not taking photos)

Step 4: Break into 4 equal sized balls and flatten into concave patties. Stuff with Feta (time to eye ball)

Step 5: Ever so gingerly roll the burger into a ball and then re-form to look like something familiar. (I learned this technique watching women make papusa's at 3am)

Step 5: Slap on a grill or hot skillet. Cook for about 4min. on each side.

Construction: This is the most important step to any type of sandwich making, poor, un-ordered construction can change a flavor or texture of your food. Don't think it doesn't matter. BECAUSE IT DOES!!!!

Step 1: Toast Buns, when buns are brown smear the pepper fig spread on the bottom bun and cook for a few more sec.

cover with arugula

Step 2: Place Burger on top of arugula and Tzatziki on top Bun

Step 3: Step Flip the lid and enjoy!

Weekly Produce Box Discussion

I have been dealing with a load of tomatoes and I love them and don't want them to go away, it's kind of this hoarding desire to hold off on using them all...I do that with food I know I don't have an endless supply of (like my figs that I ate one at a time savoring every last figgy bite). This week you get to look forward to mama meme's marinara sauce, a truly special treat....and a great way to use and store unused tomatoes for the future in the fridge.

Let's Rap about what I got this week:

Pair of Bartlett Pears

Gaggle of tomatoes

Precious Heirloom Toms

Purple Peppers

long red pepper

finger potatoes

melon

plums

lettuce

zucchini

huge radishes

broccoli 

oh and the most fragrant Basil that is making my fridge smell like it's from Italy. 

Back to tomato talk...like seriously I can't even describe how amazing they are right now, especially the heirlooms, some times it seems blasphemous to do anything with them other than tomato salads, like I mentioned before I have a food hoarding issue as well as a if you love it so much don't mess it up mentality. Most can be said with the contents of this weeks box as well....except for those potatoes that will be getting braised with some lamb later this week and that broccoli that will get turned into something non-boring (pinky swear). The highlight though will be Mama Meme's Sauce...Can't Wait!!!!

Ciao!

Summer Stuffed Chicken with Heirloom Tomato Eggplant Salad

Dear Reader(s?),

Sometimes I get a little freaked out about making stuff I have never made, especially when there is a country at stake, like Paella and Spain, and in my case Ratatouille and France. I was thinking to myself, 'self, wow I have the perfect amount of ratatouille fixings in my fridge, however I have never made it before and well there seems to be big arguments online about how it's made- what if I make it wrong and then someone leaves me a smug comment on here and it's the end of my shot lived blogstar career' 

Thankfully the Indian Summer heat decided to roll in and the idea of sauteing and roasting ect. seemed unbearable, especially being as unsure of myself in the process....my weakness? anyways I went a different route with the same stuff, but different.

Summer Stuffed Chicken

What you need:

Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless)

Zucchini

Tomato

Olive Oil

Wine (if you have it in the fridge)

Fresh thyme

S&P

Step 0: pre-heat the oven to 350˚, wash and dry the breasts. Prep a backing dish with a smear of Olive Oil and a dash of white wine.

Step 1:  Butterfly the breasts and cover with S&P inside and out. On a different cutting board slice tomatoes and zucchini into thin slices.

Step 2: Add Sliced tomatoes to one half of the chicken, layer herbs on that, and then cover with zucchini, add a bit more S&P on the stack.

Step 3: Fold the halfs together and place in backing dish. Make another layer with the tomato and zucchini on top of the chicken and more pepper. Put in oven.

Step 4: periodically check baste the chicken with the pan juices, after about 25min.  check for doneness, if you poke the largest part and juices run clear you are good. You want the veggies to look like this:

Step 5: (optional) cover in parmigiano reggiano and place back in a 400˚ oven till browned.

Heirloom Tomato Eggplant Salad with a Balsamic reduction vinaigrette 

what you need:

eggplant

zucchini

heirloom tomato

sweet pepper

fresh basil

valbreso feta

Balsamic reduction vinaigrette 

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

S&P

Step 1: cut eggplant and zucchini into 1" squares (the general idea), place in a bowl and  toss with EVOO and S&P, put on a baking sheet and cook at 400˚ till brown (you can also double up if you are making the chicken too)

Step 2: cut pepper and tomatoes into nice chunks, put in same bowl you used to toss eggplant with, top with basil and some chunks of feta, place in fridge to chill while waiting for the roasted veggies.

Step 3: Once Eggplant is done toss let it sit for a few moments to cool off, then toss into tomato mix.

Step 4: put some balsamic vinegar in a pot and reduce it down till it looks like it is coating the pot.

Step 5: remove from heat and in a separate bowl whisk some olive oil and S&P in, it should look pretty dense almost molassesey, toss in salad once the vinaigrette is emulsified.

Step 100:

Plate food and eat!

I love stacked food!