A little heat and a little sweet

Have you seen boyhood? If not, you must. It's so incredible. The film was made over 10? years and you'd think it would be choppy or broken into periods and it's not. It's so seamless and the acting is wonderful!

And now to dinner... I'm trying to follow the motto "cook what you have" I had chicken thighs and cauliflower. I went through different ideas curry or grilled chicken and roasted cauliflower but neither sounded good. Then I remembered the celery root I had in the fridge and that I had seen on some amazing blog to use that in a cauli purée and the meal started to take shape.

Enter...Spicy Chicken Thigh Ragu over Cauli-Celery Root Purée

This purée or mash or whatever you want to call it was the best one yet. The celery root tastes like all the best features of celery, crisp and fresh. I don't really like celery too much. It gets to mushy in soup and I've never really liked it in stir frys but the root is a whole different game. And I used way less water to steam the cauli and celery root so the purée wasn't as wet as it usually is.

The chicken thigh ragu was rich, spicy  and savory. It was perfect of top of the kind of sweet purée. Made great leftovers and would be great with an egg on top for breakfast. (What isn't good with an egg on top?)

Cauliflower Celery Root Purée

1 medium head of cauliflower broken in florets
1 celery root or celeriac bulb peeled and chopped in 1 in cubes
1/3 cup of full fat Coconut Milk
3 tablespoons Kerrygold butter (Use Ghee for Whole 30)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt to taste (I used salted butter so I didn't add any salt...mmmmm....salted butter)

In a large pot, combine celery root, cauliflower and about an inch of water. bring to a boil and cover. Cook until tender. Keep an eye on it as you don't want the pan to burn but you do want the water to dry out completely once the food is tender enough. (You can always drain it but this method made the puree really thick. Next, place the veggies in you blender or food processor. Add the butter, coconut milk and spices. Puree until creamy. Add more coconut milk if needed. Add salt if needed.

Spicy Chicken Thigh Ragu

Avocado Oil
1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 carrots, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 red or yellow bell pepper , diced (I used half of each because that's what I had)
5 cloves garlic, minced
8 green olives, chopped
1/4 cup red wine (Use broth if you'd like)
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp red chilie flakes
Salt and Pepper

1.  Heat a skillet over Med-High (more high than medium). Add some oil to the pan. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken on the outside. It doesn't need to be cooked through just browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. If needed, add more oil to the pan. Saute the carrots, onion, peppers for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another minute.
3. Deglaze the pan with wine or broth scraping up all of the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.
4. Add the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning and red chilie flakes. I added way more chilie because we like it hot. Don't overdo it though, you can always add more later.
5. Add the chicken back to the pan with all of the juices that are on the plate.
6. Let this simmer for 30 minutes until it thickens. Taste it and add more spices if needed.
7. Serve the ragu over the puree and smile because its going to be good!

Cranberry and goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts

Here is a recipe from a while back that I never got to post. As I have been out of cooking commission for a week now with a slipped disc in my back, I figured I would "back blog" get it??? Back blog?   ;)

I adapted this recipe from one found in Food Network Magazine, Sept. issue. I added dried cranberries to the filling and onions and garlic to the sauce.

For the chicken:
5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10oz crimini mushrooms
1 clove chopped garlic
1 tbs. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper (S and P)
6oz goat cheese, softened
2 tbs. EVOO
1/4 c. chopped Italian parsley
1/2 c dried cranberries

For the sauce:
11/2 c. shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp. flour
1/4 c. white wine (Not cooking wine, a wine you would drink)
1/2 c. chicken stock
1/4 c. dried cranberries
1 tbs. cold unsalted butter
S and P

Directions:

1. Prepare the chicken: Lay the chicken breasts on a piece of plastic wrap, place another piece on top of chicken and pound it using a mallet, heavy pan, or rolling pin until the chicken is about 1/4in. thick.



  2. Clean and cut off any dry/tough spots on the crimini mushrooms. Chop finely or use a food processor to make the mushrooms finely chopped.
3. Saute the mushrooms and garlic in 1 tbsp. EVOO over med-high heat. Saute until the mushrooms have released their juices and the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 mins.

4. Combine the goat cheese, cooked mushrooms, cranberries, S and P.
 
 5. Put one fifth of the mixture on the end of each chicken breast. Roll up the chicken breasts burrito style and tie with butchers twine.Season the roll ups with S and P.

 
 6. Saute the chicken over med-high heat, turning every few minutes to ensure even cooking.Total cooking time is about 12-15 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing the twine and slicing.

7. While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce. Saute the shiitake mushrooms and onions until softened, about 7 minutes.

8. Add flour to the sauce and cook for 2 more minutes. De glaze the pan with the white wine while stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add the chicken stock and dried cranberries and simmer for about 5 minutes at a low bubble until thickened. Add S and P to taste.

9. Slice the roll-ups into 4 to 5 pieces on an angle. Top with the mushroom cranberry sauce and enjoy! I served it with the gazpacho quinoa salad.

It was delicious and would be nice during the holidays or cool weather with mashed potatoes.

PS.-I forgot to add the parsley. I would have put half in the cheese mixture and half as a garnish.

Oh New Mexican food. How I love thee...

let me count the ways...

I love the green chile chicken or veggie enchiladas made with your Hatch Roasted green chile.
I love your Posole, Tortillas, and Sweet Rolls from Frontier that Jeff brought to me this week.
I love your Red Chilie Powder that is cooking with a beef roast right now with tomatoes and beer in the crock pot for tacos.
I love much more but, these are my current food favs.

Here are my two recipes for enchiladas. One for chicken and one with veggies. Change up the ingredients as you see fit. I usually add more chile or cheese depending on heat levels. Almost every New Mexican Green Chile Chicken Enchilada casserole style dish is some sort of adaptation of this recipe.

Cooks Note: This time, I used fat free cream of mushroom soup and it tasted delicious. I did not have spinach so I used one extra zucchini. I was delicious!!!

Try to get the best green chile possible. If you cant bring it home by the bushel like we do yearly, then most grocery stores in the Southwest sell Bueno Green Chile. It is delicious. This recipe is actually an adaption of the one on the Bueno container.

Green Chilie Veggie Enchiladas

• 1 box frozen spinach

• 2 med zucchini, large diced

• 1 pkg white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 3 Tbsp. Oil or Butter
• 2 10 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup (I use low-sodium)
• 1 ¾ (or more) cups frozen Chopped Green Chile
• ½-1 cups milk, water, or veggie stock

• Salt and Pepper
• 12-20 Corn Tortillas
• 1-1½ lb. cheese, grated (Cheddar, Jack or mixture)

Preheat oven to 325º F.

1. Defrost spinach in microwave and drain using a clean kitchen towel. Get all of the water     

    out. Separate with fingers.

2. In a large sauce pan or stock pot, sauté mushrooms, zucchini, onion, and garlic in oil until slightly soft. (Optional: add 1 cup frozen or fresh corn sauté with veggies)
3. Combine veggies with soup, spinach, green chile, just enough water/milk/stock and stir. You want it soupy but not too runny. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cover the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with a layer of tortillas. Spread 1/3 of the sauce and

    veggie mixture over the tortilla pieces, and 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat layers.

    (At this stage, you can refrigerate the dish up to one night or freeze for up to one month)
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, until very hot, bubbly and slightly browned.

Serve with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.

 
 I did a little extra touch with "lattice"
 style tortilla strips across the top.

I top it with a ton
 of lettuce. Then,
 it fills you up!!!

Here is there recipe for the chicken version. Same steps, different ingredients. Eihter one is always a hit at a pot luck or party!!!

Green Chilie Chicken Enchiladas

• 4-5 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 3 Tbsp. Oil or Butter
• 2 10 oz. cans cream of chicken soup (I use low-sodium or fat free)
• 1 ¾ (or more) cups frozen Chopped Green Chile, drained
• ½-¾ cups milk, water, or chicken stock

• Salt and Pepper
• 12-20 Corn Tortillas
• 1-1½ lb. cheese, grated (Cheddar, Jack or mixture)

 
1. Season chicken with salt and pepper and broil, grill, or saute chicken, cool and shred.
2. Preheat oven to 350º F.
3. Saute onion and garlic in oil until slightly soft. Combine onion with soups, chile,
    water and stir. You want it soupy but not too runny. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cover the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with a layer of tortillas.
    Spread ½ the chicken over the tortilla pieces, then ½ the sauce, and ½
    the cheese. Repeat layers. Sometimes you will have 3 layers.

    (At this stage, you can refrigerate the dish up to one night or freeze for up to one month)
5. Bake 30-40 minutes, until very hot, bubbly and slightly browned.

Serve with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.

Yummy Maui Food and Recipes

First off, let me mention our favorite cocktail! We loved POG Passion-Orange-Guava Juice with vodka or rum and a splash of Ginger Ale. Jeff always served it with a garnish of pineapple. It was resort-style cocktails on home living prices!

 We ate so much pineapple! It was perfect every time. We bought it from the farmers market in Kihei.

One of our favorite beers was this Coconut Porter. We loved all of the Maui Brewing company's beers. Some other favorites were the Big Swell IPA and the Bikini Blonde Ale. Yummo! But I couldnt believe how expensive not only beer was but food also. Of course we took advantage of the offerings of the island and cooked up a storm. Here are a few of our favorite meals.





Super Quick Veggie Alfredo Pasta

 Saute 2 sliced small zucchini, 1 small Maui onion, with any spices you can find in your condo. :) We used a mixed seasoning (Like McCormick's steak seasoning). We stirred in the leftover Classico Alfredo sauce (about 1/2 the jar) from the first night and tossed it all with about 1/2 lb. cooked fettuccine. Served it with the last of our sourdough bread! Sad time for us! We loved that bread! Great 20 min meal!!!

 

 This was our breakfast daily! Birds in a nest. Jeff made it for us and he mastered it perfectly!!!
Directions: Take a piece of bread (any type will work) and cut a small hole in it and remove the bread from the center leaving a hole. (About 2 inches across). Heat a small amount of margarine (its what we had) in a skillet. Toast the bread for a bit. Flip it and crack one egg in the center if the hole you created. Cover and cook until almost set, flip and cook until preferred doneness. We like it runny so you can dip the crusts in the middle. Yummy! With pineapple of course!

 Here is one lunch that we packed for ourselves but they were all pretty much the same. Turkey and Cheese sandwich on sourdough, Maui sugar animal cookies, pineapple, mango salsa and chips, and water and Gatorade. Delicious every time when you are eating it in Maui!

 So this was the best candy in the word!!! We pulled over South of Wailea and bought it on the side of the road! It was 8 dollars so I was skeptical. When walked away he said that we would be addicted and wouldn't stop at one. 

 Well he was right! It was the most amazing candy I've ever had. It tasted like coconut covered with praline. It was creamy and buttery and only had three ingredients. Gosh! I want some now!

 We went to Mama's Fish House for our "fancy" dinner. It was one of the best meals that I have ever had. The entire restaurant is open to the ocean. The walls open and it would be amazing for a sunset. Now I know why they get booked up a few weeks in advance for the sunset times. The hostess stand was literally outside. The bar was super cool.  Here is my mai-tai. They were delicious!

 Now to the meal. The chef served us a small cup of chilled ginger-asparagus soup that was such a refreshing combo! I want to try and replicate it! We had crab cakes as an appetizer. Pretty good but nothing to write home about. My meal though...that was something special. Macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi topped with a small lobster tail. the Mahi was stuffed with crab and lobster. It was served with rice and asparagus. I didn't eat the corn. It didn't seem to fit for me. It had a macadamia nut puree sauce around it and it was really unforgettable! I will be making this some day!

Jeff had a traditional Hawaiian luau feast. It included Mahi Mahi with coconut sauce (with extra sauce in the coconut). Kalua pork which is buried over hot coals and slow roasted for a day. The entire thing tasted like bacon. A Hana banana, sweet potato, Poi (the only food neither of us liked-sorry islanders-it's rough!). Lomi Lomi Salmon-Raw and delicious! Overall, the meal was sensational and well worth the steep $$$. I highly recommend it!

 And now for the first phase of the best home cooked meal of all. We started it off with Poke. It is fresh sushi grade Ahi Tuna marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil with some green onions. It is really fresh and good. We bought it from Safeway...imagine that?! Jeff put it in leftover lettuce cups and we had it as an appetizer. I could only eat one. I dont know it was a texture or spice thing I had trouble with. It needed to have some siracaha or wasabi on it.

 So for the main course we had sweet potatoes, bbq chicken, red bell pepper rice, and grilled pineapple. Arent these sweet potatoes the biggest ever??? They were so good. We poked them, wrapped them in a wet paper towel, and microwaved them until the were soft. Sliced them open and put some butter, sugar, and cinnamon on them. So good!!!!

 We got thin sliced chicken breast. As we only bought margarine for our week long stay Jeff melted some, basted the chicken with it, and then grilled it. Genius! He added some hickory and Brown Sugar BBQ sauce towards the end. It was awesome using the grills at the condo. It was filled with drunk Canadians and listening to them was a hoot. (Maui was filled with Canadians.)

 For the rice, we sauteed 1 Maui sweet onion, 1 red bell pepper in some margarine. Added 1 cup of long grain white rice and toasted it for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and cook for 20-25 minutes. The red pepper made all of the rice taste so strong of peppers. It was delicious. I don't know if it is because it was fresh and not covered in that waxy stuff but it was GOOD!

 We sliced this pineapple into long wedges and grilled it wth the chicken it was great with the rice and with the chicken!

And Success!!! A dinner fit for a king...or 2! :)

 LEFT OVER MANIA: On the last day we had to use up all of our food. (And drink up all of our liquor.) Needless to say it was a rough day. :) So we used our leftovers from the bbq chicken meal and our fridge to make: Chicken Fried Rice.

We had some left over snow peas from the farmers market that we had been snacking on all week. We chopped them in half and sauteed them with the bell pepper rice, 2 diced BBQ chicken breasts. Saute until everything is warmed through. While that is cooking scramble one egg and one egg white in a pan. Remove from pan. We added some pineapple juice to the rice at the end to give it an island flair. I wish we had more pineapple but it was not to be. Combine the chicken and rice mixture with the egg and serve! It was light and delicious!!!

Chicken, Snow Pea, and Red Pepper Fried Rice

 I cant wait to relive our trip through all of the meals and flavors that we enjoyed while there! I will be including Mahi-Mahi, macadamias, fried rice, and pineapple in my future recipes!!!!