{CEinMB} Spicy Chicken Rice with Peanuts

Ellie, you are my Hero!! Stir fry with less oil.

YES!!!!!

Spicy Chicken Rice with Peanuts

Craving Ellie in My Belly is trying hard to get back in the swing of things. But we made another change. Seems we all like a litle structure so while we have free choice three Fridays/month on the last Friday one member chooses a recipe for everyone to share. This month it was Chaya’s choice and it was a really tasty choice.

While many fried rice recipes use lots of oil Ellie says,

“This aromatic rice dish is a meal-in-a-bowl you can really cozy up with. It is chock-full of tasty treasures—sweet bell peppers, crunchy water chestnuts, peanuts, and chunks of cooked chicken all stir-fried with just the right spicy kick. Made with a fraction of the oil typically used, you certainly won’t miss the grease—or the extra calories.

Using pre-cooked chicken {Ellie didn’t specify HOW to cook the chicken so I browned mine in just a smidgeon of EVOO} , this rice has just the right balance of crunch {and would have been crunchier if I had actually remembered the peanuts!!}, sweetness, and spice. Perfect!! Thanks, Ellie.

And thanks Chaya, for this pick. You can find the recipe on Chaya’s page or in Ellie’s newest book – Comfort Food Fix: Feel-Good Favorites Made Healthy

If all the recipes in this new book are this good I will have to add it to my shelf!!

{I’m sitting here imagining how good it would be with SHRIMP!!}

 

{30 Minute Thursday} Fettuccini with Spring Vegetables

Well, it isn’t EXACTLY Spring in the Deep South but with the weird weather we have been having {It was 73 yesterday!} it sure feels like Spring. Which is why I decided to fix this particular Hazan Pasta for today.

Fettuccini Penne Primavera

That doesn’t look like Fettuccini, you say! Seems when I went to fetch it from the pantry it wasn’t there. So Penne looked like the next best one to use. And it was. The little tubes held little splashes of the sauce and veggies: asparagus, red pepper, zucchini, celery, carrot and onion which had been sauteed. Well, I steamed the asparagus while I was cooking the pasta…

…over the pasta water. {Hazan says to gently boil it but I like steamed veggies better. I wish, now, I had also steamed the zucchini and peppers so they would have not gotten quite so soft while cooking.}

After all the veggies are cooked you add cream and parsley and cook until the cream is reduced then toss it gently with the pasta. Sprinkle with Rarmigiano-Reggiano and you have a wonderderful veggie meal, or a filling veggie/pasta side. Either way, it is very tasty!!

You can find the recipe on page 46 – 47 of Hazan’s 30 Minute Pasta. Check with Peggy and Kayte and see which pasta they chose for 30 Minute Thursday.

 

{TWD2} French Pear Tart

Think back to January 6, 2009. Do you know what was baking in your oven?
If you were a member of TWD that year, you had THIS lovely tart in there.

French Pear Tart

This tart was special because Dorie chose it for the group to bake. And hers is beautiful (DUH!!)
The tart calls for one of Dorie’s crusts – either the Sweet Tart or the Sweet Tart with Nuts. I had some shortbread crust left so I used that. It did add extra sweetness but just made the tart even better. The pear halves are sliced thinly and fanned out over the almond cream.

When out of the oven you can either brush with an apple jelly glaze, or, as I did, dust with powdered sugar.

The recipe is on Dorie’s Site so go there. This is so simple to put together you will want to make it EVERY nite!!!

I’m catching up on the TWD treats I missed before joining so you will be seeing still more of Dorie’s treats over the next few weeks.

 

{Malgieri Monday: Modern Baker} Raisin Pecan Spice Bars

If you like the flavor of Molasses, pecans, and raisins cranberries then you will really like these spicy bars from Nick’s the Modern Baker.

They are flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and nicely spicy. Since I am NOT a raisin fan I used dried cranberries and liked the result.

Recipe says to bake 20 – 25 minutes, but mine took 40 minutes. Just sayin’….

This was another cookie I made with Kayte, Phyl, Abby, Renee that weekend before the Christmas holidays. They are one of 25 cookies found in the Cookies, Bars, & Biscotti section of…

..and visit The Modern Baker Challenge – Cookies.

 

{ Slow and Steady BBA} Vienna Bread

I am really enjoying making bread again. It is just relaxing to put it all together, knead it into a soft supple dough, and watch it rise into a beautiful loaf. And the fragrance in the kitchen is worth the hour or so wait for it to rise. There is nothing better or more comforting than the smell of fresh bread.

And this one was no different.

Reinhart says that while we spend a lot of time with Italian and French breads we tend to ignore the fact that most of the French breads came via the Austrian bakers who arrived in different parts of Europe . What makes the Vienna Bread different is the inclusion of certain enrichments in the breads of Austria. In this case, diastatic barle malt powder which causes the crust to brown faster.

Loaves or pistolets are suggested with this dough, but I chose to make rolls. 1/2 of the recipe gave me 6 lovely rolls. Perfect for sandwiches.

The rolls were a beautiful yellow with a slightly sweet taste. You need two days to complete the bread. One day to make the pâte fermentée and one for the actual bread baking.

Thse are in Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (page 261)

Kayte and I are finishing up the BBA challenge so check out her bread, too.

 

{CEinMB} Fetticcine Bolognese

Pasta is one of the favorite meals in this household. It is not something we eat every night, but we eat it often. So finding a new pasta dish is exciting. Finding a new pasta dish that is healthy is extra exciting. Finding a new pasta dish that the family actually wants to eat again is Da Bomb!!

Ingredients:

3/4 pound whole-wheat fettuccini
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 carrots, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 stalks celery, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
8 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped {Hubs doesn’t like so left them out}
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound lean ground beef (90 to 95 percent lean)
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves or 2 teaspoons dried
2 (14 1/2-ounce) can no salt added diced tomatoes with juice {I had some canned tomatoes from a friend so I used them, diced}
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup fat-free evaporated milk or regular whole milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Set a large pot of water on the stove to boil, and cook the fettuccini according to the directions on the box.

In the meantime, heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, ground beef, and thyme and cook until the meat is browned, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and broth and cook for 5 minutes, or until sauce is thickened. Stir in the milk and cook for 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper.

When the pasta is done, drain it, put it back in the pasta pot, add the sauce and stir the sauce and pasta together. Put into serving bowls and top with Parmesan cheese. {I am including the recipe because it is on the FoodNetwork Channel}

This was so very good. The lightness of the sauce is a lot different from the sauces I usually make. And the carrots and celery added a lot of flavor. Even the Hubs said it was good. Usually it is, “It’s alright!” Win/Win!!

Check out the CEinMB members and see what they are cooking this month.

You can find this recipe on page 163 of Ellie’s The Foods You Crave.

 

{TWD2} Catching up with Hidden Berries

On January 15, 2008, TWD bakers celebrated their third week in existance by making this little fruity cheesecake like dessert…

Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte

The choice was April’s of Abby’s Sweets for that week. Everyone who made it that week had a beautiful dessert on their hands. And mine was very tasty, but looked nothing like theirs – at all.

I used some Raspberry Plum Preserves and it fit very well with the Cheese-cake like tort. I think I used too much preserves and it took quite a while for the torte to bake enough to be done. That meant mine was nice and BROWN on top {Sound familiar?}

One-forth of the recipe was enough for a 4″ mini springform pan.

Definitely going to make this one again. Full size. Strawberry Jam!!

I know other TWD members are catching up on the recipes they missed. Check around. You won’t be sorry.

 

{Modern Baker Challenge} Caramel Crumb Bars

Do I really need to go any further than the picture?

Okay, Fine…

Before Christmas Kayte, Phyl, Abby, Renee, and I were baking cookies and this was one we made.

Caramel Crumb Bars

These cookies begin with a sweet crust pressed into a 9″ x 13″ pan.

While the crust is chilling you crumble the remaining dough for the topping and set aside.

The filling is made with butter, corn syrup, dark brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk. Mix these really LOW calorie ingredients together, simmer, boil, thicken, and cool. When cooled the filling is poured into the chilled crust, covered with the crumble topping and baked at 350° until the filling is bubbling, a deep caramel color and the dout is baked through. About 30 minutes.

What you end up with is…..

.. whole lot of caramely deliciousness!!!

I may have over baked these a tad, the crust was a little brown, but the caramel was deep, dark, and delicious.

If you want to see the other’s Crumb Bars, visit The Modern Baker Challenge – Cookies.

And if you want to join in the fun, contact us.

 

{BBA} World of Bread: Swedish Rye (Limpa) and Tuscan Bread.

Kayte and I are still working our way through Reinhart’s Bread Bakers Apprentice. Last week we made the Stollen. This week we made Limpa and Tuscan Bread.

Swedish Rye aka Limpa

I like rye bread and this one is no exception. It is slightly sweet due to the molasses and brown sugar. The recipe calls for fennel, anise and cardamom as well as orange peel or oil {which I used}. I didn’t have any fennel, but the 1/2 tsp for one loaf didn’t really change the flavor.

The dough was not easy to work with. It is very firm and I kept thinking I had failed totally at this bread. But in the end, it came out just fine. Even the top slashes were good!!!The Limpa reminded me a lot of pumpernickel. But sweeter.

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The other bread is this Tuscan Bread.

This was a beautiful simple bread to make. But it is different from other breads. And it is different for one reason. It contains NO salt. None!! Which means there wasn’t a lot of taste in the bread. According to Reinhart this makes it perfect for “…lavishing it with intensely flavored spreads and pastes, or eating it with flavorful dishes…”

I followed Reinhart’s suggestion and ‘lavished’ it with a Cajun Olive spread.

I also tried it with EVOO flavored with roasted garlic and other spices.

But now I have another idea for this bread – but that’s another post!! {and now you are curious!!}

The bread had a beautiful texture and with a tsp of salt it would be a perfect bread.

Check out Kayte’s Limpa and Tuscan Breads while you are browsing around.

 

{FFwD} m. jacques’ armagnac chicken

Do I have to tell you the last time I participated in French Fridays with Dorie?

Well, it was last September when I made creamy, cheesy, garlicky rice with spinach. It was really good. But since then I just haven’t had the time to do my FFwD thing.

I hope to remedy that this year, beginning with …

Pretty isn’t it?

But you should have seen it after the suggested 60 minutes suggested in the 450° oven. Oh, wait…

NOT very pretty. And it wasn’t completely done. So I left it in another 40 minutes. Done! Pretty!

While Dorie calls for Armagnac all I had in the pantry was… –>

I really hoped this got better with age because I know I’ve had it for 10 years. And I had just enough {1/2 cup} for the chicken.

The chicken and veggies are left alone in a heavy dutch oven soaking up the cognac for an hour with a tight lid so the whole chicken and the veggies are steamed. It gives you a nice moist chicken. The potatoes and carrots and broth were really good. The chicken… well, I think it needed more seasoning. The dark meat was okay, but the white meat, while very moist, was a little bland.

I am planning to use the broth/juice/gravy with the cognac for a soup base with the chicken. It was sooo tasty!!

Visit the other FFwD members and enjoy their armagnac chicken. And, hopefully, there will be more FFwD here as we go through 2012