Chicken Noodle Soup and Buttermilk Dry Jack Biscuits

Monday was a little wet and drizzly. So, it was a perfect day for soup. I had some cooked chicken left over from Gaslight Gathering, and some  three color rotelle, which would work just fine for the noodles. I added some diced carrot and white radish. I flavored it with a little thyme, oregano, and basil.

I always like a little bread with soup to help sop up the juices.  I decided to make biscuits. I thought the dry jack from Springhill Cheese would add a great flavor. I still had buttermilk that needed used up.

These biscuits came out light and fluffy, with a rich, deep flavor from the cheese and buttermilk.

Recipes

Chicken and Rotelle Soup

6 cups chicken stock
1 cup diced cooked chicken
3/4 cup diced carrots
3/4 cup diced white radishes
1 cup tri-color rotelle noodles
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried time
salt and pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan, heat stock over medium heat. When it comes to a simmer, add carrots, radishes, and dried herbs. Let simmer gently until vegetables are tender. Add noodles, increase heat until liquid comes to a boil. When noodles are al dente, stir in chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Buttermilk Dry Jack Biscuits

1 cup all purpose flour
3/8 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup grated dry jack cheese
1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 450 F.

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cream of tarter, and baking soda.

Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in dry jack cheese.

Add buttermilk, stir until dough comes together.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly, adding flour as necessary, until dough is  not sticky.

Pat or roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into six biscuits.

Place biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 - 12 minutes, or until biscuits are firm and golden brown.

Happy Eating!

Turkey Meatball Stroganoff

I wanted to do something hearty and simple last night, so went with meatball stroganoff. I had a pound of ground turkey defrosted that needed used up. I love beef stroganoff, but this recipe helps cut back on the fat. I substitute non-fat Greek yogurt for the sour cream. I used a can of Progresso Recipe Starters Creamy Portobello Mushroom instead of mushroom soup, because I had it. I think it produced a rich, creamy sauce. I also used Amish Country Kitchen Homestyle Noodles. These are a thicker, more robust noodle than most commercial egg noodles, and held up to the sauce quite well.

I made a green salad of mixed leaf lettuce, zucchini, yellow cherry tomatoes, and cherry peppers. I had a bit of pepper roulette with that salad. I tasted one, and it was sweet and not at all hot. I cut up a second one, and did not try it. I was a bit surprised by a bit of heat when I had the salad, although not unpleasantly.

Turkey Meatball Stroganoff

For meatballs:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 small white onion, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2/3 cup fine bread crumbs

For the sauce:
1 package sliced fresh mushrooms
1 can Progresso Recipe Starters Creamy Portobello Mushroom
3/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Make meatballs by mixing together meatball ingredients, and forming into approximately one inch diameter balls. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add two tablespoons canola oil. Brown meatballs, then remove from pan. Turn heat down to medium. De-glaze pan with red wine. Add mushroom sauce, yogurt, paprika, salt, and pepper. Add mushrooms, return meatballs to pan. Cook until mushrooms are tender, and sauce has thickened. Serve over egg noodles.

Happy Eating!

 

Chicken Party

The spouse is mildly addicted to the House Party website. It's kind of a weird site, where commercial companies offer stuff if you host a party to promote their products. There are a limited number of each party, so you apply, and you might get chosen, or you might not. The spouse has won a few, including one from Werther's, where they sent us bags and bags of candy, and now one from Foster Farms.

Luckily, they didn't mail us chicken. Instead, they gave us two $25 coupons, fourteen reusable shopping bags, a cookbook, and a chef's jacket. Amazingly, the jacket fit me almost perfectly. So, I added a picture of me in it to the blog. To pay for all the swag, however, you have to hold, and document, an actual get together.

So, the plan by the spouse was to have people over, and do lots of little dishes. We ended up settling on eight courses. Now, we both have been enamored of the concept of a tasting party for some time. The little dishes are really cute, and the spouse found some on sale cheap. Seemed like a good thing to try. We did a few old favorites, a few from the recipe book they sent, and few made up on the fly by me.

My goddaughter did yeoman duty as sou chef all day. She was a joy to work with, and I couldn't have pulled it off without her help. The spouse chipped in, as well as doing the bulk of scullery work keeping the pans clean throughout the day.



 For the first course, we went with a favorite cold dish; chicken, dried cranberry, and hazelnut salad. It has a great blend of tastes and textures, with chicken, dried cranberries, celery, nuts, yogurt, mayonnaise, honey, and herbs. I've done variations on this many times, and it works well with walnuts or almonds. You can also add a little diced granny smith apple, instead of the celery, for a little more tang.

I garnished it with a little micro basil from our CSA.

For the second course, we made a cold Asian chicken noodle salad. The chicken is marinated in the dressing, which has fresh ground peanut butter, fish sauce, soy sauce, chilies, garlic, and lime juice.  The chicken is then stir fried, and chilled. It's added to cold rice noodles along with fresh pea pods, and carrots. The noodles are dressed with the same sauce as the chicken was marinated in. It was garnished it with scallions, basil, and chopped peanuts.

For the third course, we made eggplant parmigiana with chicken Alfredo sauce. I had some beautiful white eggplant from my CSA. It was very firm, and quite mild. I breaded it with a mix of fine bread crumbs, shredded Parmesan, and Italian herbs. It was fried in very hot oil until brown and crisped, then placed in a 200 degree oven to keep warm. The goddaughter made the Alfredo sauce. It was a mix of butter, heavy cream, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and garlic with shredded grilled chicken. It was garnished with micro basil.

For the fourth course, we made pulled chicken in hoisin barbeque sauce with pickled cucumbers.and red onion. The chicken was cooked in a crockpot, then shredded. The BBQ sauce has hoisin sauce, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and soy sauce, The cucumber and onion are pickled in lemon juice and cider vinegar, flavored with clove, allspice, black pepper, and chili powder. It's served on a toasted Hawaiian sweet roll.

For the fifth course, we served hazelnut-sage chicken with ravioli.We used a mini ravioli. The chicken was sauteed with sage and lemon zest, and then tossed with the ravioli. It was garnished with chopped hazelnuts. The consensus among the cooks was that we should have used more zest, as the lemon just didn't come through.

For the sixth course, we made bacon wrapped chicken skewers with maple-pomegranate glaze with a pepper-zucchini slaw. Hard to go wrong with bacon, and the pomegranate molasses and maple syrup, with a hint of ginger, had a great sweet/sour thing going. The slaw, is a red wine vinaigrette, was garnished with pomegranate flavored dried cranberries. The acid in the slaw helped cut the fat of the bacon and the sweet of the glaze. I'm most proud of this one. I feel it was my most original of the day.

The seventh course was a miniature version of the lime marinated grilled chicken soft tacos I made earlier. We used mini corn tortillas here, and diced things smaller in proportion.

The final course was an old favorite, green chili chicken stew. A friend developed this recipe, and it is classic. Chicken, celery, carrots, and green chilies, with cumin just works beautifully. usually served over corn chips, I instead garnished it with fried tortilla strips. It was additionally garnished with shredded cheddar cheese.




Since this post is getting soooooo looong, I will end here, and post the recipes in a separate post.

Happy Eating!


Beer-steeped grilled sausages, zuchini, and cold noodle salad

Still using the grill for most of the cooking.  Tonight, we had beer-steeped grilled sausages, horseradish jelly-pomegranate molasses glazed grilled zuchini, and an ancho chili-tangerine cold noodle salad.

I used Hillshire Farm Gourmet Creations Beef & Bacon and Chicken Apple with Gouda sausages.  I grilled them, then simmered them in a pot with a pint of Shock Top Belgian White Beer and an equal amount of water. I love the chicken sausages, which I also used on July 4th.  Sinmmering in beer ensures the sausages get fully cooked, while remaining plump and juicy.
For the zuchini, I mixed about 3 tablespoons of horseradish jelly with 2 teaspoons of pomegranate molasses and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.  I split the zuchini lengthwise, and grilled them cut side down, until they acquired good grill marks.  I turned them and brushed them with the glaze, then cooked them until tender. The pomegranate molasses added tangyness.

Ancho Chili-Tangerine Cold Noodle Salad

1 inch diameter bunch whole grain thin speghetti
3 dried ancho chilies
1 1/2 cups white wine
1/4 cup slivered almonds
8 ounces fresh snap peas
juice of 3 tangerines
zest of 2 tangerines
2 Tblsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Remove stems and seeds from chilies. Place in bowl, cover with wine, let stand until rehydrated.

Boil speghetti in salted water until al dente, then shock in an ice water bath to stop cooking. Drain.

Toast almonds in a dry pan over medium heat.

Wash pea pods, and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Drain and dice chilies..

Whisk together juice, zest, oil, and salt.

Toss speghetti with pea pods, chilies, and almonds, and dress with juice mixture.  Chill until ready to serve.

I used dry mead for the wine, as I had an open bottle that needed to be used up. I was really happy with this salad.  The fresh pea pods and almonds added crunch, and the chilies I had were very mild and fruity.