Shortcut Butter Chicken

With Brown Rice
3 chicken breasts
1/2 chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1 T. ground cumin
2 jalapeño pepper
1 T. grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup chopped coriander
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
1 can of tomato paste
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 t. salt
1 T. Garam masala
1/2 t. chili powder

Slice each chicken breast into 3 or 4 large pieces. Melt 2 tbsp butter in pan. Cook chicken with cumin. Add rest of butter and onions.
While chicken is cooking, finely chop peppers, including seeds. They should measure about 3 tbsp. Grate ginger and chop coriander.
Pour cream into pan. Scrape up and stir any bits from pan bottom into cream to add flavour. Then stir in butter, tomato paste, hot peppers, ginger, salt and spices. Bring to a boil. Then cover and simmer, stirring occasionally.
Pour over rice, serve with bread.

Buckwheat Crepe

I had never used buckwheat flour or tasted buckwheat flour ever that I can remember.

"...it contains all nine essential amino acids, rich in fiber, antioxidants and magnesium. Eating buckwheat regularly may help improve cardiovascular health, assist in regulating blood sugar, and reduce your risk of colon cancer"-Bon Appetit

It was scary. Buckwheat just doesn't sound that appealing and the magazine showed no images of it. I cut the amount of buckwheat in half and split it with all-purpose flour. I thought I'd start slowly.

I made a savory filling to experiment (Spinach, red onion, toasted pine nuts and mozzarella topped with Avgolemono Sauce)and I also made a sweet filling recipe slightly adapted from the magazine(Pear, lemon juice, brown sugar, lemon zest and devon cream).






Basic Buckwheat Crepe: (Bon Appetit)
1 1/4 cup buckwheat flour(Split with all-purpose)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil plus more for skillet
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 t. salt

Whisk ingredients together, pour over Med High heated non stick skillet. Immediately tip pan so batter goes right to the edge. Cook for 30 seconds on each side or until lacey and brown.

Spinach Pine Nut Filling:
-Toast pine nuts, add onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Saute. Set to side.
-Melt butter in aseparate pan, add fresh spinach, heat until just wilting.
-wrap into crepe with grated mozza
-Cover with Avgolemono Sauce

Avgolemono Sauce:
Boil 2/3 cup chicken broth. In a separate bowl whisk 2 egg whites and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Add half boiling broth in stream, whisking constantly careful not to scramble eggs. Then add that mixture to pot with other half chicken broth. Careful not to boil. Sauce should thicken slightly. Add salt and pepper to taste.



Pear Filling:(Adapted from Bon Appetit)
Heat crepe in pan with butter. Flip. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Fold into quarters. Keep warm in oven.
-Toss peeled, cubed pears (I used canned)with lemon juice and brown sugar.
-Lay onto crepe, top with lemon zest and creme fraise (I used devon cream)


Photos:Shawn Campbell

Buckwheat Flour

Chicken Pot Pie

The pie is in the oven and my house smells like baking cheese cake, pie pastry and comforting roasting chicken and vegetables.
The last time I made Lucindas Chicken Pot Pockets I had wanted to make a few changes. I did and I think she'd approve. I made an actual pie rather than pockets because I had less time to work with. I almost doubled the amount of veggies and added peas. And this time, I had chicken stock and shredded chicken left over in the freezer from when I made stock for Siri's Italian Wedding Soup. This cream cheese pastry literally took me 7 minutes to make. While the dough chilled in the fridge for 1/2 an hour I cut the veggies and made the filling. Super quick and super healthy.




Cream Cheese Pastry:
8T. unsalted butter at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t. coarse salt

-Mix butter, cream cheese and cream in a food processor, with a mixer or by hand with a fork.
-Add flour and salt. Mix until combined and dough just holds together in a ball.
-Divide into 2. Flatten into disks and warp in plastic.
-Refridgerate for at least 30 minutes. Or overnight. If chilled overnight, take out 15 minutes before ready to use.

Filling: (Adapted Version)
3 T. butter
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cup cup chopped celery
2 chopped carrot
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/2 t. coarse salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
2 1/2 T. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 heaping cup of shredded chicken
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg, for egg wash

-Melt butter in a hot skillet and add onion, celery and carrot. Saute over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the salt and flour and cook for 1 minute more. Add chicken broth and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add chicken and cheese. Cool in fridge while you roll dough.
-Preheat oven 375.
-Roll out dough, lay half in a 9 inch pie plate, fill with filling, top with rest of rolled out dough, curl edges of top piece under edges of bottom piece.
-Crimp edges with fork. Chill for a few minutes.
-Cut 3 slices in top of dough so steam will escape during cooking process.
-When ready to bake, beat the egg with 1 T. water. Brush top of pie.
-Bake at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden and juices are bubbling.
-Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting.
-Serve with mashed potatoes or green salad or steamed green beans. Or put greens beans right in the pie!! The more veggies the better.

Source: Adapted from "Mad Hungry" Lucinda Scala Quinn
Photos: Shawn Campbell

No, I did not make this up.

Cuz that would be creepy, but I stumbled upon this blog the other day when I was researching Lucinda Scala Quinn. The blog author claimed to be Lucinda herself. To be honest, I really didn't think it was her. I thought maybe it was someone who is more obsessed with her than me, but I didn't think it was actually her. I thought it was kind of frightening actually. So I left a comment and this is what she said. Now I'm not sure if I need to carry on with this thing we call blog....
Does it get any better than this?

Ashleigh said...
Is this really Lucinda? I make her recipes, I own her book. In fact I made eggs poached in tomato sauce this morning. I have a whole label dedicated to her. Check it out.

February 21, 2010 12:39 PM
LUCINDA SCALA QUINN said...
Ashleigh:
Yes, it's Lucinda and you ROCK. Love those eggs too.
Best,
LSQ

Stuffed Chicken

Ham and swiss rolled into chicken with whole grain mustard.

Wash and pound chicken until thickness is somewhat even throughout the breast. Spread whole grain mustard on one whole side of chicken breast. You want to barely taste the mustard so make sure it's quite thin. Layer a piece of salty ham. Layer swiss cheese thick enough to lose some throughout the cooking process. Roll tightly. Secure with toothpicks. Top with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.

I served it with garlic mashed potatoes and fresh steamed green beans.

Photos:Shawn Campbell

Eggs Poached In Tomato Sauce

Oh Lucinda...Once again you've outdone yourself.
I added green onion to this dish and next time I would have put the egg over fresh or cooked spinach.

-1 28 ounce can whole plum tomatoes or crushed or pureed
-1 T. olive oil
-2 Garlic cloves
-Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
-Coarse Salt and freshly ground pepper
-6 Large eggs
-6 slices toasted or grilled bread
-Freshley grated parmesan

Transfer tomatoes and their juices to the jar of a blender. (I used a food processor) Blend until the tomatoes are coarsely chopped.

Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat, add olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes.

Add tomatoes and bring to a boil-season with salt and pepper.

Reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes.

Crack eggs into tomato mixture, cover and let cook for 5 minutes. Remove from skillet, uncover, let stand for 5 minutes.

Transfer egg to a piece of toast. Spoon sauce over egg. Garnish with cheese.

Source:"Mad Hungry" Lucinda Scala Quinn

Italian Wedding Soup

The recipe for this soup was copied directly from one of my favorite Blogstresses Siri. If you haven't been to Siriously Delicious, actually even if you have been, go now.
I had never tried this soup before making it today and what I loved most about it was how beautiful it was. The picture doesn't do it justice as I was without my photographer, but the colors were super bright and vibrant. And the the taste was great too. I'll make this soup again and I won't change anything. I also like how it's italian cuz I often pretend I'm italian. In my head. The recipe is here.


Source: Siri @ Siriously Delicious