Chicken Tortilla "Miracle" Soup

Here is the soup that my mom made for me and worked miracles when I was sick. I like it SPICY with many a jalapeno.

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1-2-3 tablespoons diced jalapenos (canned Ortega)
3 zucchini, diced
4 tomatoes, diced
4 cups, cooked and diced chicken (just get a rotisserie chicken from the market and shred the breast meat)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

2 boxes of Swanson chicken stock or enough to cover chicken and vegetables to your liking.

Tortilla strips
1 avocado, diced
Cheddar cheese, grated

Heat oil in a saute pan. Add onion and carrot and saute until tender. Add garlic, jalapeno and zucchini and saute for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer then add tomatoes, chicken, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Cut corn tortillas into strips. Fry until brown and crispy. Drain well on paper towels.

Shred cheese. Dice an avocado.

Ladle into soup bowls and top with tortillas strips, avocado and cheese.

Eat and sleep for 10 hours

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I am a bad food blogger this past week. Its because my mom has been in town and she has been cooking EVERYTHING for me. Are you jealous? You should be! We have a fridge stock-piled full of chicken tortilla soup, mint brownies, chicken enchiladas, homemade spanish rice. Nom Nom Nom.

I plan on getting these recipes out of her because they were so extremely excellent and not terribly hard to make. However, until then--here is a token BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe which is Lars favorite dinner that I make. True story. I got this recipe from my friend Colin during an "experimental" phase he was going through with pizza making...



INGREDIENTS

• Two tablespoons of green onions, chopped
• Cilantro leaves
• Quarter of a yellow pepper
• One tomato, thickly diced
• A bone-less half breast of chicken
• Stubbs BBQ sauce (OR Trader Joe's)
• Trader joe's corn meal pizza dough (Or your garden variety pizza dough)
• One quarter bag (or less) Trader joe's four-cheese italian shredded blend (mozerella is not sharp or salty enough)
• About one and a half table spoons of finely crumpled gorgonzola or plain goat cheese (im trying cotixa next)

Preheat oven to 350

Salt and pepper chicken. Coat all sides with BBQ sauce, leaving ample
on the top to carmelize.

Bake chicken for 25 minutes.

Butter pizza pan.

Remove dough from the fridge and flatten immediately (dissregarding
instructions on the packaging). Turn dough between your hands and let
gravity spread it out. Finish at about an eighth of an inch thick.

Top flattened dough with bbq sauce, just a little bit more than you'd
need to glaze it. Use the back of a large spoon.

Top with thin layer of cheese, not obscuring all of the sauce.

Slice pepper lenghwise, in thin strips. Arrange in rough cris-cros
across pizza. Add tomatoes.

Remove chicken from oven, and let rest for 5 minutes before cutting.
Reset oven to 450.

Cut chicken lengthwise, and again across into pieces no thicker than
the flattened dough. Place chicken pieces on the pizza, wedging them
in between the vegetables. Refridgerate remaining half of BBQ chicken
for tomorrow's pizza.

Top with green onions, gorgonzola (or goat cheese) and a handful of
shredded cheese, just for binding.

Top with cilantro and then a half handful of more shredded cheese.

Bake for 10-15 minute, or until the crust crisps brown. Remove, cool
fot 5 minutes and then eat. With a spoon.

Butter makes everything better or Basic Scone Mix

This recipe is courtesy of my restauranteur neighbors Tommy and Eddie Golden (original owners of the Beachgrass Cafe and Parkhouse, now they operate Iris in Del Mar). Most scones are tough and dry but these are so tender and yummy you will never buy another one from Starbucks/Peets etc. I like mine plain with fresh fruit (mangos and berries sweetened with a little vanilla sugar) on the side but you can probably add your favorite ingredient as long as you are careful not to over mix the dough.

Some helpful hints:
Make sure your butter is very COLD.
Use a food processor on the pulse setting to mix in the butter, it gets the right consistency in a fraction of the time so the butter doesn't warm up before you need to mix in the wet ingredients.
DO NOT OVERMIX once you add the buttermilk and eggs, just mix until the dough just starts to hold together. Roll it out onto a floured surface and work just a little bit before shaping.
Another secret from Tommy: keep a small container of sugar with some vanilla bean skins in your pantry. The resulting "vanilla sugar" is a great addition to coffee, berries etc.

3 1/2 cups of Flour
1 tbs Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 lb of chopped butter, chilled (yes, that's right a CUP of butter, hmmm butter...)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs beaten, plus one egg beaten for egg wash
2 tbs of turbinado sugar (raw cane sugar)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients then add chilled butter and cut in.
Butter and flour mixture should resemble small crumbs when done.

Mix wet ingredients then add to flour mixture till dough just holds together.
Roll onto flat floured surface and cut into desired shape. (I usually shape it into 2 rectangles, maybe 9 inches long, 3 or 4 inches wide and about an inch + thick.)

Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I use silpats), brush with egg wash and sprinkle turbinado sugar over the tops. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Crepes for breakfast, lunch AND desert!

All I craved while I was pregnant was crepes. I made them every weekend, so now it's a tradition. The best part is that they will refrigerate/freeze really well. So I'd keep them on hand throughout the week, and serve them for lunch or dinner (with chicken, rice & salsa) and then for desert (helloooo bananas, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream!)

Super easy (hey, that's my thing!) ingredient list:
1 cup unbleached flour
1 tbsp raw sugar
1 cup milk
1/3 cup water
3 eggs
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Heat nonstick griddle pan until VERY hot. Mix batter ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Pour crepe batter into middle of the heated pan, and roll the pan until the batter gets flat. Wait for air bubbles to appear consistently throughout crepe, and flip with a wide spatula (usually takes me under a minute).

As soon as you can loosen the crepe by rocking the pan, it's done (it should slide right off).

NOTE: don't do anything else while these cook. This is a very fast process, and if you get distracted, your crepes will burn. I cooked the whole batch in less than 5 minutes. So I recommend you cut up all your fruit/toppings before hand.

Panko Salmon

This is nothing special, but it's very easy and quick! I had a little help from my friend Trader Joe. I kinda winged it on this recipe, and there are lots of opportunities to vary the salmon (add toppings, sauces, etc.)

Ingredients:
wild salmon
1-2 cups Trader Joe's panko crumbs
Seasoning salt
frying oil
1-2 eggs, beaten

Directions:
Heat oil in frying pan. Beat the eggs in a wide bowl, and fill another wide bowl with Panko crumbs/seasoning mixture. Coat salmon pieces thoroughly with egg batter on both sides, and then transfer to the Panko mix and coat thoroughly on both sides. Add salmon pieces to hot frying pan, and cook until one side is browned. Flip, and cook until the other side is browned and fish is no longer pink (or however you like salmon) : )

Like I said - SO easy!! I served this with Jasmine rice, steamed aspargus and topped it in low-sodium Soy sauce. That's it!!

Fab

I love this! It will be fab. However, I no longer cook. I plan to start again once school is out. A newborn baby won't come between me and my mixer, right? Meanwhile, I'll try to post a bit about the ice cream cake that was actually a pie. Because it was fine.

Poulet Provencal

I am not a big fan of handling a whole raw chicken but I love roast chicken recipes because I can get multiple meals out of just one dish. We recently tried this one from Gourmet magazine, via epicurious.com and it was delicious--way better than those rotisserie chickens you can get at the market. If you're like me and hate handling the whole bird, you could probably use some skin-on chicken breasts instead with okay results. But seriously, if I can get over my squeamishness so can you and the payoff is pretty damn good.

• 1 pound tomatoes (3 to 4 medium), cut into wedges
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges, leaving root ends intact
• 1/2 cup drained brine-cured black olives, pitted if desired
• 1 fennel bulb, cut into wedges
  
• 4 large garlic cloves, sliced, plus 1 teaspoon minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds)

Preheat convection oven to 400°F for regular oven to 425°F with rack in middle.

Toss together tomatoes, onion, olives, fennel bulb, sliced garlic, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence, fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a 13- by 9-inch or other 3-quart shallow baking dish. Push vegetables to sides of dish to make room for chicken.

Stir together minced garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, remaining teaspoon herbes de Provence, and remaining tablespoon olive oil.

Remove excess fat from chicken and pat dry, then rub inside and out with seasoning mixture. Tie legs together with string, then put chicken in baking dish.

Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of a thigh (do not touch bone) registers 170°F, about 1 hour in convection oven; 1 to 1 1/4 hours in regular oven.

Let chicken stand 10 minutes before carving. Serve with vegetables and pan juices.

Oh, the pressure!

Something healthy? Something decadent? To post pics or not? Witty instructions or keep it simple stupid? Complicated ingredient list, or useful pantry stand-bys?

I love a challenge. And cheers to yet another blog we can all stalk. Where would we be without you, blogger?

Sinful Macaroni & Cheese.

It only seems appropriate that our first shared recipe post be macaroni and cheese. Why? Because if you don't like macaroni and cheese, then get the hell outta this blog. I kid I kid. I mean, really though. How do you not like Macaroni & Cheese? What did it ever do to you besides clog your arteries with this cheesy goodness?

I think it would be great to post photos but that requires a whole new level of organization that I'm a little afeared to tread into...we shall see, though!

Recipe Ahoy!

Classic Macaroni and Cheese--serves 6-8 as a main course or 10-12 as aside dish (trust me--if you make the entire thing, it will last for days!)

Its crucial to cook the pasta until tender--that is, just past the "aldente" stage. In fact, its better to overcook rather than undercookthe pasta. Whole, low-fat and skim milk all work with this recipe.The recipe may be halved and baked in an 8 inch square, broiler safebaking dish, If desired, offer celery salt or hot sauce, such astabasco, for sprinkling at the table.

BREAD CRUMB TOPPING:
6 slices good quality white sandwich bread torn into rough pieces
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into
6 pieces

PASTA & CHEESE:
1 pound elbow macaronisalt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all purpose flower
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
5 cups milk
8 oz monterey jack cheese shredded (2 cups)
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded (2 cups)

1) For the bread crumbs: Pulse the bread and butter in a foodprocessor until the crumbs are no larger than 1/8 inch--ten to fifteen1--second pulses. Set aside.

2) For the pasta and cheese: Adjust an oven rack to the lower middleposition and heat the broiler. Bring 4 quarts of water to a rollingboil in a Dutch Oven over high heat (I have made this in a big souppot AND a dutch oven and it really doesn't make much of a difference). Add the macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt and stir to separate thenoodels. Cook until the pasta is tender. Drain in a colander and setaside.

3) IN the now-empty Dutch Oven/Pot, heat the butter over medium highheat until foaming. Add the flour, mustard and cayenne (if using) andwhisk well to combine. Continue whisking until the mixture becomesfragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Whisking constantly,gradually add the milk; bring the mixture to a boil, whiskingconstantly (the mixture must reach a full boil to fully thicken), thenreduce the heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, untilthickened to the consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Off theheat, whisk in the cheeses and 1 tsp salt until the cheese are fullymelted. Add the pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirringconstantly until the mixture is steaming and heated through--about 6minutes.

4) Transfer the mixture to a broiler safe 13 x 9 inch baking dish andsprinkle evenly with the bread crumbs. Broil until the crumbs aredeep golden brown--3 to 5 minutes--rotating the pan if necessary foreven browning.
Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.