Food good for body and soul
Sometimes simple does it just fine. Take chicken, for example.You can dress it up, cut it up, marinade it, grill it, and use it in innumerable recipes for soups, stir fry dishes, casseroles, pasta dishes, wraps, and more. One of the most versatile of foods, …
I admit it. I am totally in love with my magazine and online subscriptions to Cook’s Illustrated, even though I do find some of the recipes a bit fussy for my taste. But this Caldo Verde recipe is quick and easy to prepare, uses inexpensive …
Upon learning that I had never prepared a stewing hen, Jeff from Copicut Farms suggested I try one since he knows I like to experiment in the kitchen.
Spoiler Alert: 15 minutes in a pressure cooker does the trick, although I know one can have equally excellent results using a crock pot or simmering or braising the bird long and slow on the stove top or in the oven.
The other spoiler alert: Stewing hens are UG-U-LY!
I was a bit short on time and I also had a hankering for garbanzo beans since, in my research, I had come across some recipes that combined chicken and chick peas, as garbanzos are also known, in a hearty stew, hence my opting for the pressure cooker method.
I came up with an outline for a recipe, posted it on Facebook so I would have it in writing, and onward into the kitchen I went to get the beans into a quick soak before cooking them with the chicken and barley. I had decided I wanted a stew and barley seemed a good choice for a fall concoction.
There are some variations in instructions for soaking beans, but generally, dried legumes bigger than lentils or peas need to be soaked about 8 hours and then drained before cooking in fresh water. If short on time, you cover the beans by about an inch of water in a pot, bring it to a boil, remove from heat, and let sit covered for an hour in lieu of the longer soak.
In a real pinch, you can opt to cook beans in the pressure cooker without any soaking, but unsoaked garbanzos would have taken way longer than the chicken and barley; plus, I’d rather soak beans so as to make them more digestible.
While the beans soaked, I gathered the first set of ingredients and cut up the chicken and seasoned it with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Once the beans were ready to go, I lightly browned the chicken in some olive oil, added a clove or two of garlic, (about a scant tablespoon chopped) stirred until fragrant, and then added the soaked and drained garbanzos and 1/2 cup pearl barley that I had first picked over and rinsed. I tossed in two bay leaves and topped it all off with 6 cups of water, closed the lid, brought to pressure, and cooked for 15 minutes.
After the 15 minutes, I removed the pressure cooker from heat and let it sit until the pressure came down naturally and the pot could be opened safely. (You can run a pressure cooker under cold water – the fast release method – but it can wreak havoc with some foods, such as beans!)
Then I drained the beans and barley because they were almost too done and I still had carrots and leeks to cook in the liquid.
Along with carrot and leek from Farmer Dave, I chopped up a bunch of fresh parsley from Flats Mentor Farm to make a 2-3 tablespoons, and added a teaspoon each of dried oregano and dried thyme to the liquid.
I also had a tomato that was just about too ripe, so I chopped that up to add to the fun.
Next I brought the liquid back to boil, added the veggies, and simmered until the veggies were tender.
While that was going on, I picked the now cooled chicken off the bones and the skin off the chicken and pulled the chicken meat into bite-sized pieces.
Note how dark the meat it compared to that from a chicken raised for butchering. It makes for a nice deep flavor…Nothing against Copicut Farms regular chickens! Those rock, too. 🙂 And have more meat, of course.
Once the veggies were tender, I added the chicken, garbanzos, and barley back to the stock, and heated through.
A final touch of salt and pepper was all it needed. Quick, easy, tasty, nutritious. A winner! I’ll be asking Copicut Farms to bring some more stewing chickens to the market this week, that is for sure! And, thanks for the suggestion, Jeff! 🙂
Last week Michelle The Fish Lady (aka Globe Fish at the Wakefield Farmers Market) recommended that I try some hake, a white fish that is similar in flavor to haddock et al. Always up to trying something new, I got a pound and decided to …
I have tried making kale chips here and there over the years but was never that impressed with the results. But finally, I have learned a few tricks that guarantee perfect kale chips every time. It is all in the technique and the proportion of …
Start with beets, carrots, baby turnips, and greens:
Heat some olive oil in a pan, add root veggies, and saute:
Turn heat to very low, cover, let cook until tender, then stir in greens, cover, and cook for a bit more.
Season with ground coriander, to taste, starting with 1/2 teaspoon.
That’s it! Season further with salt and pepper if desired, and/or with whatever flavors strike your fancy. 🙂
I have re-discovered locally raised pasture-fed beef, pork, and poultry, thanks to going to the Winchester Winter Farmers Market at Mahoney’s for the past several weeks. I am so glad our friends at John Crow Farm of Groton, MA are there – I sure have …
Those little packs of taco seasoning are convenient and do the trick just fine, taste-wise. But, if you want to control your salt intake, increase the heat, save a few pennies, or just didn’t realized that you forgot to buy the seasoning pack until you …
My husband would have never agreed with the title of this post before trying steak prepared via a simple stove-top technique presented by Chef Tiffani Faison on NECN earlier this week.
Although we tune into NECN mostly for the weather (we are big Matt Noyes fans), we caught Chef Tiffani’s Valentine Dinner segment and decided to try it for ourselves, albeit putting our celebratory meal off to Friday night. You can see the video, recipe, and the chef’s extra tips by clicking HERE.
I had hoped to get some locally raised beef for this meal, but was not able to get to the Medford Winter Farmers Market on Thursday, so I opted for two strip steaks from Farmland, our local grocery store. [Note to self: talk to Frank about offering locally raised meats at Farmland!]
For this recipe, all you need is:
Other than that – you need to have a really good pan. Chef Tiffani recommends cast iron, but any pan with a thick bottom that spreads and hold heat evenly will work just as well. How do I know? I’ll tell you. 🙂
I had two steaks, but only one of my well-seasoned cast iron pans is big enough for one steak, never mind two. But, I also have an All-Clad saute pan… Time to experiment! Good thing Steve knows his way around the kitchen.
The first step was to bring the meat to room temperature by removing it from the fridge an hour or so before cooking. Then we prepped each station with a few crushed garlic cloves, a small bunch of thyme, and partially melted butter, as well as a basting spoon and tongs at each site. We put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in each pan and were ready to go.
Steve took his place at the cast iron and and I stepped up to the All-Clad saute pan, and we were off!
Here is the technique, edited down to a few simple bullet points:
Note the lovely crust! We also did as the chef suggested and used the tongs to hold the steak fat band in the oil to crisp that up, also. Holding the steak so that just the fat is in the oil is also a great way to test whether the pan is hot enough – if it gives a good strong sizzle, it is ready for the steak.
While the steak rested, I steamed some asparagus and finished up the potatoes…Oh, I forgot to mention the potatoes! To accompany, I cut up five or so small red potatoes and half a big Vidalia onion, added around 10 little cremini mushrooms, and tossed them with freshly ground black pepper, kosher salt, and a tablespoon or two olive oil in a corning ware casserole. I also had some thyme to spare…
I then covered with foil and cooked for about an hour at 400 degrees, obviously starting them well before the steak. Once the steak was done and resting, I removed the foil and kept cooking to crisp up just a bit.
And then, a lovely dinner. This picture does not do it credit. At all.
We could have done fine with just one steak rather than two, but we did have plenty leftover! But, in general, one steak weighing a pound or a bit under is more than enough for two.
Bottom line, this is a really tasty way to prepare steak, as well as quick and easy. And, here is a cleanup tip: Let the pan sit overnight and use some paper towels to wipe out the congealed fat. Then, simply wash as usual if using a stainless steel pan, or, if using cast iron, just soak for a bit in very hot water and then wipe clean.
And, which pan did the best job? After trying some of the second steak the next day, I can say that they both produced an equally crusty and delicious steak. So, while cast iron is the classic choice, feel free to use a stainless steel pan providing it has a heavy bottom and can handle high heat.
But, especially if preparing a special meal to share with your honey, I recommend the pan contest, or a least work together to create the entire meal. That will add the best seasoning of all. <3
Why broccoli soup? Well, one reason is the two full bunches of broccoli (read: over three pounds) that Steve brought home instead of the 2-3 broccoli crowns I requested…They say necessity is the mother of invention but, in this case, too much of a good …