Chicken Kiev

This was a doozy to make. The task seemed daunting and, once I started, a never-ending process. Why did I choose to make these tonight? Well, long story short, when Andy and I bought a house, I promised our closing attorney to cook him a Russian feast (he wanted that in lieu of payment). Tonight’s cooking was part two (of two). Did you know that it’s pretty hard to flatten a chicken breast without using a meat tenderizer? I used a huge, metallic spoon instead and it took a very long time and a lot of arm-power. As a side, I also made him a large-ish container of venegret.

To make Chicken Kiev, you’re supposed to put butter in the middle and roll the chicken breast so the butter doesn’t pour out. Yeah, that didn’t really happen in my case. By the time the chicken was done, there was no butter inside. Although, the end product was still really really delicious. It was really flavorful. Plus, I sprinkled a bit of Parmesan on top.

Chicken Kiev
Serves 4
(Recipe via Diana’s Kitchen)

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breast halves
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 teaspon white pepper, or black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, beaten with 2 teaspoons water
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs

Directions:

Blend the softened butter with parsley, chives, pepper, and salt. Divide into 4 portions and chill until firm.

Flatten each chicken breast half to about 1/4-inch thickness by pounding each between wax paper or plastic wrap. Place a portion of the chilled butter mixture in the center of each flattened chicken breast half. Roll each to completely enclose the butter. Dust each roll in flour then dip in beaten egg and water. Roll in bread crumbs then place in lightly greased baking dish. Cover and bake at 350° oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer.
Chicken Kiev serves 4

No-Time Bread

Confession - I really really really suck at making bread. I tried making challah a long time ago and it came out hard as a rock. I’ve since successfully made dough for bread rolls, piroshki, pretzels, and cinnamon rolls but to make a delicious loaf of bread is still something I really want to do. So, when I saw a recipe for No-Time Bread I knew I had to try it. So, while the soup was cooking, I went to work.

(The recipe calls for a dutch oven, if you don’t have one, you can use another pot as long as it can go into a 450 degree oven and has a good fitting lid. Also, it requires a stand mixer. I guess/assume you don’t necessarily need it, but if you can do it by hand, go for it. The problem is that if the dough is gooey, it’ll be harder to mix it by hand.)

Honestly, I didn’t think the directions were 100% clear so I had to embellish a little and kind of go from memory (you’ll see later on). My first failure came at step 1. The recipe says to add yeast to water. I did and all I saw was my yeast sinking to the bottom. I knew that the water had to be a certain temperature and when I tried step 1 again with warm water, it worked!

That was pretty much one of the only things that went right (other than the end product). I don’t think I added enough flour, my dough didn’t rise properly, and I used a much-too-large dutch oven and so I came out with a flat, ugly loaf of bread. Nevertheless, the bread came out crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It wasn’t too dense, nor was it hard as a rock. So, to me, it’s partial success. Plus, it’s a perfect addition to the lentil soup.

No-Time Bread
(recipe from The Kitchn)

Ingredients:

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (two packets)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Directions:

In the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer put the yeast, sugar, and water and let it sit. (this didn’t work for me and I had to make sure my water was at proper temperature - between 100 & 110°F)

Heat the oven to 450°F. Put a Dutch oven (or one of these alternatives) in to warm as the oven heats. Get out your flour, salt, vinegar, spray oil, and anything else you need.

Now that the yeast has had a few minutes to bubble up, add 3 cups of the flour as well as the salt and vinegar and beat for several minutes with the paddle. Add the last 1/2 cup of flour and switch to the dough hook and beat for seven minutes. Alternately, knead vigorously for five minutes, or until the dough becomes extremely elastic. This will still be a wet dough, but not goopy. The dough will clear the sides of the bowl but still stick to the bottom (this is where, I think, I didn’t add enough flour)

Lightly grease a microwave-safe bowl with vegetable oil and transfer the bread dough to it, rolling it in the oil. Cover the bowl with a very wet towel. Cover the whole thing with a dry towel and put in the microwave. Microwave on HIGH for 25 seconds.

Let rest in the microwave for about five minutes.

Microwave on HIGH for another 25 seconds, then remove.

Let rest and rise for another 15 minutes.

Shape into a ball and plop into the preheated pan. Quickly slash the top with a knife. Cover and bake for about 30 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the internal temperature hits 210.

Crunchy Wasabi Salmon with Lime

New Year, New You. Right? Well, Andy and I vowed that we’re going to eat a lot more seafood at home. We used to eat salmon once or twice a month and then just sort of grew out of love. I was never crazy about cooked salmon, but I’m hoping to change that soon. My goal is to find lots of great recipes for different fish and seafood.

This recipe was a spur of the moment type of find. I have no idea how I even found. But I’m really glad I did. This recipe is really easy, has a small list of ingredients, quick to make, and extremely delicious.

Crunchy Wasabi Salmon with Lime
(recipe from epicurious)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup wasabi peas (about 3 ounces)
4 (8-ounce) salmon fillets with skin (each about 1 inch to 1 1/4 inches thick)
1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 cups thinly sliced red cabbage (about 1/2 large head)

1 (8-ounce) package trimmed sugar snap peas
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Lime wedges

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Blend wasabi peas in processor until ground but with some coarsely crushed pieces. Lightly oil rimmed baking sheet. Arrange salmon fillets, skin side down, on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle fish with salt. Press ground wasabi peas onto tops of salmon fillets to adhere, covering tops completely. Sprinkle grated lime peel over salmon; drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Roast salmon just until opaque in center, about 10 minutes. (I cooked my salmon for a 3 or so minutes longer).

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add cabbage and sugar snap peas; sauté until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer 1 salmon fillet to each of 4 plates. Drizzle with lime juice. Mound cabbage-snap pea mixture alongside. Garnish with lime wedges and serve.

Banana Bread

I have never had home-made banana bread…at least not that I can remember. I usually buy a slice at Starbucks with coffee and always regret it. I find that the store-bought banana bread is always far too sweet and tastes nothing like banana. So, when I heard that banana bread can be made with old/brown frozen bananas, I was sold. I froze some overly ripe bananas and when I collected 3, I was ready. I found a really simple recipe that didn’t even require me to use my kitchenaid mixer. It took over an hour to bake, but the wait was totally worth it. The banana bread came out very soft, but crunchy on top, low-fat, healthy, and not too sweet. I changed the recipe a little bit and you can see my notes along the recipe.

Banana Bread
(recipe - Cooking Light)

Yield: 1 loaf, 14 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw)
1/4 cup butter, softened (I used 1 tablespoon)
2 large eggs (I used about 1 cup of egg beaters - it’s all I had)
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (I used regular sour cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Cranberry Scones (with lots of cranberries)

Tonight was dedicated to cranberries. I’m telling you, a bag of cranberries doesn’t last very long in this household. Not long at all. First I made cranberry oatmeal, then I used almost 2x the prescribed amount (in the recipe) for the scones. Maybe that’s why they look so weird. But don’t let their looks deceive you, they are uber delicious! I really hate that I had to use a stick and a half butter to make the scones, because I can easily eat half of them. They’re not really chewy, yet crunchy, and tart (but sweet). So perfect.

Cranberry Scones
(from thekitchn)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (I used more like 2 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
Zest of 1 small orange (I totally forgot to about this)
2 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
1 egg, beaten (I used egg beaters)
1/2 cup milk (I used 1% organic)
Extra flour
White sugar, for topping

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350F and prepare two baking sheets by lining with parchment or lightly spraying with spray oil.

In the bowl of a food processor, whiz the cranberries until lightly chopped. Dump out into a bowl toss with the brown sugar and orange zest. In the food processor, whiz the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces and whiz with the flour in the processor until fine and crumbly. Mix with the sugar and cranberries and stir in the beaten egg and milk.

Sprinkle the counter or a board with flour, and dump the dough out on it. It will be very wet and sticky. Cut out rounds using a biscuit cutter or glass, and put on baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with sugar.

(here’s the deal, the dough is super sticky. I just used my hands and then resorted to using a spoon. They’re not perfectly round, but I don’t really care)

Bake for about 25 minutes or until just getting golden. Serve warm with plenty of butter.

Soft Pretzels (a.k.a. delicious goodness)

After 3 tries, I finally did it. It finally happened! I baked bread. It actually took me two tries tonight to get it right. The first time I didn’t add enough flour, so the dough was very very wrong (sticky and not dry enough). Then, I tried again and it was perfect! I now know what dough is supposed to really feel like.

Last week, I wrote about my fear of my kitchenaid mixer. That same day, I was looking on various websites and found a recipe for Alton Brown’s Soft Pretzels. I bookmarked it and tried to make them that same night. No luck. I don’t know if I had old yeast, or I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing, but it didn’t foam like it was supposed to.

Since this was my first time eating bread fresh out of the oven, I was blown away. I now understand why people bake their own bread. No matter how fresh store-bought bread is, it’s never as good as the one you make at home. Now, this makes me wonder, does the bread made in a break maker taste as good as one made in the oven (?)