We go through culinary binges, and recipes are no different. So when we use a recipe from Cooking Light, it's likely we use two or three.
That was the case in the past couple of weeks with the August 2011 issue, and this time we were drawn to one of our favorite ingredients: avocado. Creamy, fatty, delicious avocado. And we'd use it to make Avocado-Corn Chowder with Grilled Chicken.
I'll admit: The blended avocado base was a bit texturally awkward for me. The flavors were great, but I don't see us making this again with the blended avocado base. The contrasting crunch of the bell peppers was nice, however.
Tuesday night presented a problem for us: We had no idea what to eat. On Monday, I mentioned that I didn't feel like de-cobbing a few ears of corn and freezing it.
Suddenly, an idea. Street corn! Delicious, yes, but not filling enough for a full meal. But then Melissa thought to pull up an heirloom Purple Cherokee tomato from our garden and suddenly we had dinner. The corn would wade in a lime-pickled jalapeno mayo while the tomato would be sliced into half-inch slices and topped with panko that was seasoned and then mixed with some Parmesan.
That was a good meal.
Panko-Topped Heirloom Tomato
(serves 4)
1 heirloom tomato, sliced into thick slices
3/4 cup panko
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
garlic powder
Penzey's pasta sprinkle
salt
pepper
1. Salt and pepper the slices of the tomato.
2. Toast the panko in butter in a small pan. Add the Parmesan, garlic powder, pasta sprinkle, salt and pepper to the panko to taste. Liberally top the tomato slices with the panko mixture.
Steamed Corn with Lime-Jalapeno Mayo
6 to 8 ears corn, cleaned
1 teaspoon chopped pickled jalapenos
1 cup mayo
1 green onion, sliced
1/2 lime, juiced
salt
cayenne pepper
1. Steam the corn. Meanwhile, prepare the mayo and mix together the jalapenos, mayo, green onion, lime juice and salt.
2. Spread the mayo mixture on the corn liberally. Top with cayenne to taste.
Last year we had a fabulous time on the Milwaukee Food Tours'Brady Street tour. On our tour, one of our stops was at Brocach Irish Pub. We tasted a sample of their Shepherd's Pie. It was amazing, and ever since, I've wanted to make shepherd's pie at home.
This six-serving recipe was pretty simple, and I love that they created the recipe as a one-skillet meal, minimizing clean up. The potato topping was creamy, and the filling had a great richness, in part because of the beer added (no worries, it's just 3/4 cup).
While this skillet recipe was great, it was no match for Brocach's offering. But America's Test Kitchen's recipe is still worth checking out.
(Recipe not provided because America's Test Kitchen is a pay service.)
I guess we just haven't been that inspired lately.
Unfortunate, yes, but because of that, we've been trying out a plethora of recipes we've found online or in magazines. One of the more recent ones that we tried was Corn and Potato Chowder from Cooking Light.
The recipe says it is ideal for weeknights, and that's true. We made it on a weeknight, and it was quick and easy. Flavor-wise, it was a hardy and filling dish. However, even though the recipe says it's a chowder, we found it was more like corn and potato hash plus some broth.
If you missed it, we wrote yesterday about a salad that we thought would be good. We liked the promise, but the flavor fell flat. So today we're posting our redone version of it.
What's redone? Well, we left the salad ingredients alone, keeping everything that Eat Better America suggested. But Melissa really tweaked the dressing and the corn tortilla strips.
For the dressing, she used lime juice, orange juice concentrate, sour cream, green onions, cilantro, cumin, chili pepper, Arizona dreaming seasoning, garlic powder, salt, pepper and buttermilk. Oh my, was this a rich and tangy dressing, and we both love a super-tangy dressing. But it also had hints of the lime and of the heat, which helped cut the tanginess just enough.
And for the strips, Melissa simply drizzled lime juice and olive oil over them before salting and baking them.
Dressing
lime juice
1 teaspoon orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup sour cream
3 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
cumin
chili pepper
Arizona dreaming
garlic powder
salt
pepper
1/4 cup buttermilk
Instead, we were left with a bland salad that should have tasted good. It provided us with inspiration on how to make it better, and how to make the flavors really shine in what should be a healthly, lighter meal. Check back tomorrow for our redone version.
Those mid-week meals are always the toughest. You don't want to stand around in the kitchen all night waiting for pots to boil or meat to cook through. That's why it's great to have a few easy recipes to throw together. You just need some ingredients, a quick cooking (if it's cooked at all) method and not a lot of patience.
That's what we had in this Chicken and Roasted Corn Quesadillas. (Really, we just threw together some leftovers in our fridge and freezer, including the roasted corn. That's why quesadillas are easy.)
Chicken and Roasted Corn Quesadillas
4 flour tortillas
1 chicken breast, shredded
1 cup red onion, diced
1 cup roasted corn
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup cheddar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 Tablespoon sour cream
cilantro to garnish
1. Set broiler to high. Place down 2 flour tortillas and 1/8 cup of monterey jack cheese on each on a baking pan.
2. Broiler for about 1 minute, then add the chicken, red onion, roasted corn, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin and cheeses. Top with other tortilla and place in broiler until tortilla is slightly burned and crispy.
3. Cut into 4 wedges and serve with sour cream and cilantro garnish.
A while back, we were reading one of our favorite blogs, Burp! Where Food Happens, which happened to be posting a risotto recipe they created. It was interesting because I had been thinking about making a risotto for a few days before reading that. That blog post motivated me to use up the rest of our arborio rice.
We had a few leftovers in our fridge that we decided to use (sort of a kitchen sink risotto, if you will).
Out came the Canadian bacon, sliced for easier consumption. Out came the 5-year aged cheddar cheese, grated for easier melting. Down came the unopened white wine, a gift we got when we bought our house.
Together those and a few other ingredients helped create a creamy and savory risotto.
Canadian Bacon and Corn Risotto
(4 servings)
arborio rice
2 Tablespoons butter
1 red onion, chopped
32 ounces vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine
4 slices Canadian bacon, chopped
1/2 cup aged cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup corn
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
chives
1. Toast rice in pan in butter over medium-high heat.
2. Stir in 1/2 cup of broth at a time, continually stirring rice around. About midway through adding the broth, add the wine. Make sure each 1/2 cup of liquid is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup.
3. Add Canadian bacon, cheese, corn, red onion, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper.
We waded through "Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast" recently and have been planning our meal calendars around recipes from the book. The latest is a vegetable-filled cream soup with just a bit of spice -- and a hint of sweetness.
It's Spicy Poblano and Corn Soup. It's an easy recipe that calls for cooking corn (we used sweet white corn), chopped poblano and onion and water. We blended some of the corn and milk and added to the pot. Then we garnished with cheddar. It was a filling soup with some spice and some sweetness -- a great balance.
Yes, Thanksgiving is safely in our rear-view mirrors, but we recently finished off the rest of our leftover turkey. And we did so thanks to some impromptu Turkey Quesadillas.
We made a couple of them and split them each time. This allowed us to tweak the quesadilla the second time to highlight flavors and to better balance the texture. This is what we did on our second take (but the photos are from our first take).
We started by lightly browning the bottom tortilla in the broiler under low. Then we added the cheddar cheese, turkey, green onions and green peppers. Reheat the corn until warm and add that, too. Then we sprinkled in the chili powder and cumin and topped with a bit more cheddar and the other tortilla.
Getting the broiler treatment:
Ours was perhaps a bit less cheesy for it to be called a quesadilla, but it walloped our tongues with the flavor of chili powder and cumin (and not in a bad way). And the brightness of the onions and peppers provided a great burst in every bite, too. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is now so very far away.
Turkey Quesadilla (makes 1) 2 12-inch flour tortillas 1/2 cup to 1 cup turkey, shredded cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons green onions 2 tablespoons green peppers 2 tablespoons frozen corn 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon cumin
Yes, it's that time of year. The time to find out something to make to use up all of that leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
For us, that was turkey pot pie, so we decided to make a type of pot pie we haven't made in quite some time: Puff Pastry Turkey Pot Pie.
Saute the mirepoix in butter and then thicken with some flour. We wanted it a bit thicker so we added more flour and some milk. Then add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Next, add the turkey, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes. Then add the peas and corn.
After that, unroll the puff pastry dough and set on top of mixture, which should have been transferred to 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
Bake for about 30 minutes and then let it sit for about 5. The puff pastry dough looked incredible.
Even after all of that thickening, ours did not thicken up as much as we had hoped it would.
Puff Pastry Turkey Pot Pie 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup onion 1 cup carrots 1 cup celery 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided 1 1/4 cup milk 28 ounces chicken broth 2 cups shredded turkey breast and thigh meat salt pepper thyme rosemary 1/2 cup frozen peas 1/2 cup frozen corn cooking spray puff pastry
1. Saute the onions, carrots and celery in butter. Thicken with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.
2. For thicker consistency, add 2 more tablespoons of flour and milk, combined together. Then add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.
3. Add the turkey, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes. Then add the peas and corn.
4. Transfer mixture to 9-by-13-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Cover with rolled-out puff pastry.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
I was able to get a bunch of ears of corn from a farmers market recently, and we had a stash of potatoes that would have allowed us to survive an apocalyptic event.
So we sought out the basis for a recipe, and we found one in a recent issue of Cooking Light for Grilled Corn and Potato Chowder.
We started by taking the potatoes boiling them in water. Then we cut them into about 1-inch sized pieces.
While the potatoes are cooking, we turned to the corn. We shucked it and then scrubbed off the excess silk. Then we took a bit of melted butter and rubbed it over the corn.
I put the corn and potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet and put them under our broiler for about 3 minutes. After that, we rotated the corn and potatoes and put back under the broiler for about another 3 minutes.
After the corn and potatoes have cooled, cut the corn off the cob. Take about 1 cup of the corn and run it through a food processor.
Then, in a pan, melt a bit more butter and saute some onions for about 3 minutes. Add some salt and pepper, then throw in the potatoes and the non-pureed and pureed corn. It's also time to add some milk and bring to a boil.
Then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Garnish with some chives.
This hearty recipe was a great seasonal dish that helped us use up our surplus of corn and potatoes. It was a bit rustic, with the nicely sized chunks of potatoes (although Melissa liked the size a bit smaller). And the milk brought a great richness. I would have preferred to have a bit more heat in the dish, but it was definitely delicious without it.
Last year, we bought a large package of arborio rice to use for risottos. We made one in December, Smoky Corn Risotto, and then another recently, Lemon Risotto. There has been other recipes we have been wanting to try, so we gave one of them -- Pepperjack, Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto -- a try this past week.
The interesting note about this risotto recipe is that it does not call for any wine. So if you don't have any on hand, this could be the recipe to try.
Simmer water and vegetable broth; keep warm.
In a big pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add rice, cumin and garlic and saute for 1 minute. Then stir in 1/2 cup of the broth, mixing until the liquid is nearly absorbed by the rice. Repeat this, adding 1/2 cup at a time, until all the broth is absorbed. Stir constantly.
Then add the green onions, pepperjack cheese, hot sauce, corn and roasted red bell peppers. Cook for about 3 minutes.
I garnished with a bit more pepperjack (You can't haven enough.) and some chives.
Risottos are generally hearty, and this one is for sure. But you can still taste some of the creaminess from the liquids and the cheese. And the rice and roasted pepper add some great flavor, too.
We have been to Vegas many times, and one of our favorite restaurants in that burgeoning dining town is Rosemary's.
We dined there for lunch in May when we were in Vegas to get married. And we had a great dish we had there before: Corn Soup. (In fact, as of this writing, they still have it on their menu. We haven't eaten any of the recipes they offer, but they're still intriguing enough to try sometime.)
It's a really rich soup with a chive compote butter and it was an amazing beginning to our meal there. So in trying to replicate the Rosemary's recipe, we based ours off of one we found on MyRecipes.com from Coastal Living.
So I went about by taking about a dozen ears of corn (we tripled the recipe) and started to shuck the husks.
Now comes the hard part: You need to cut the corn off the cob. It's easiest to stand the cob up; be slow during this so as not to cut your hand or fingers.
Now it's time to start cooking. In a big stock pot, let the white onion cook in butter. After it gets tender, add the corn and some sugar and then cook for a while.
Then stir in the vegetable broth and let it simmer for about 30 minutes (it takes longer tripling the recipe). While that is simmer, it's a perfect time to make a great accompaniment to the soup: Chive Butter.
After the butter is done, simply wrap it in some plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for a few minutes while the rest of the dinner is prepared. It will look like this:
After the soup has simmered, add the half-and-half (we used it instead of heavy whipping cream to lighten the dish up a bit). Let it simmer.
Then transfer the soup to a blender, blend, and then put the soup through a strainer into another stock pot or similarly large pot. Discard the solids. Season with salt and white pepper (the pepper to ensure there are no specks to disrupt the consistency and appearance).
Then cut off a slice of the Chive Butter for each serving.
After about 30 seconds, it will look much better as the butter melts:
It's been a few months since we dined at Rosemary's, but it seemed like the flavors were really close and the richness of the soup and butter was extracted fully. The chives were a nice touch, and we made some biscuits to go with our servings, too. Using half-and-half instead of heavy whipping cream didn't really affect the dish since it seemed to be such a close replication of Rosemary's great soup.
