I was kind of in a Mediterranean mood last night. My original thought was to make some kind of homemade pasta with chicken. I was thinking I would make something like my creamy chicken and rosemary pasta but with homemade noodles. But when I got home from work I had no flour to make pasta. So I had to look through my pantry to find something else. That’s when I spied a big container of yellow corn meal that I haven’t touched in a long time. Of course! Polenta. It’s easy to make and delicious. You simply whisk in some corn meal and salted water and cook it with stirring until it is thick and creamy – about 40 minutes. You can add cheese to it if you like or even cream or butter. I left it non-fat as it was creamy and delicious enough. To go with the bed of polenta I made a stuffed chicken breast. I started with a boneless skinless chicken breast that was pounded out very thin. It was stuffed with a mixture of green olives, Italian peppers and a bit of feta cheese. This was just ground up in the food processor, slathered on the chicken and the whole thing was rolled up. I seared it on both sides in a hot pan and finished it off in the oven until it was cooked through. Accompanying the chicken and polenta is a bit of sautéed onions and baby spinach flavored with lemon juice.
Boiled Dinner
Well, that’s what we call it when we start with some meat, throw in vegetables and water and boil away. I often make this from leftover roasts. A simple country dish, it really is easy to make. I started with some leftover pork shoulder roast that we had the other night. I just cut it up into cubes. Added a cut up onion – you want big pieces. Some carrots and potatoes went into the pot. I also added some kale and cabbage. This was covered with water and seasoned with salt and pepper. It was simmered until the potatoes and carrots were soft. To sop up the juices I threw together a quick whole wheat Irish soda bread. This was simply made from 3 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, about 1.5 cups of milk, and some salt. A little dense and dry but it was hearty and delicious soaked in the soup.
Asian Hot Pot
Many cultures have a variation on a hot pot dish. The idea is that you have a central pot with something hot that you cook foods in and eat. Fondue is a hot pot dish. You coat food with a hot cheese sauce, for example. In Asia most countries have a variation on this type of communal eating. In Japan it is called shabu shabu so named for the swishing sound thinly sliced beef makes when you cook it quickly in a pot of boiling broth. There’s hot pot in China and in Korea. I love this dish. It is healthy, lowfat, and just plain fun. Often after eating the meats and vegetables, noodles are cooked in the boiling broth and it is eaten like a soup. It’s a great way to eat and we really enjoyed our hot pot dinner tonight. This one was really a fusion of styles borrowing from Japan and Korea.
Here is a picture of the place setting. The sauce you see flavors the meat and vegetables after it comes out of the hot broth. It was simply made by whisking together a tablespoon of peanut butter, a teaspoon of Korean gochujang sauce (a sweet and spicy red chili sauce), some sesame oil, some mirin, rice wine vinegar and a bit of water.
Some hot pots simply start with water and the meat and vegetables cooked in it flavor the broth by the end of the meal. I like to start with a broth already flavorful and seasoned. It makes for a more hearty and delicious meal. I started by taking some water and soaking dried shitake mushrooms in it for several hours. Then a large piece of konbu (Japanese seaweed) was added along with chopped garlic and some beef dashida powder. This was simmered for about an hour to create a flavorful broth and cook the mushrooms.
I have had inquiries about the dashi powders I refer to quite often. I buy Korean dashida from my local Asian market. Three staples I rely on a lot are shown below. There is a beef flavored soup powder, a clam flavored one, and a fish flavored dashi. They are great for quickly whipping up flavorful soups and broths.
My hot pot this evening featured beef. I love beef. Of course you could use anything you like in your hot pot. I used a well marbled rib eye steak this evening. You want a nice cut of beef that will be tender when barely cooked. I slice it very thinly so it cooks quickly in the simmering liquid. It’s easy to slice if it is still partially frozen.
Vegetables make up the greatest portion of the meal. You can use anything you like. This evening we had a lot of mushrooms. On the platter below you can see (clockwise from the top) napa cabbage, soybean sprouts, carrots, the cooked shitake mushrooms, fresh oyster mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms.
The meal takes a while to eat which is just fine for me. I like to eat slowly. It’s nice when the meal forces you to slow down and enjoy it. The meat and vegetables are cooked a little at a time, dipped in the spicy peanut sauce and enjoyed with wonderful company. After the meat and veggies are all consumed it is traditional to cook noodles in the remaining broth. Tonight I made homemade udon noodles. I was greatly inspired by Kevin at Closet Cooking and followed his recipe. Instead of flattening the dough out and cutting into strips I rolled and stretched them out by hand into ropes and cut them. They turned out great! Thanks Kevin!
I have to say by the end of the meal the broth was fantastic with the udon.
Chicken Stir Fry
For quick meals you really can’t beat a good stir fry. And you can make it even healthier by changing up the rice for a better grain. In my case I used a bed of cooked coarse bulgur wheat. My stir fry was very simple – chicken breast, red bell peppers, onions, garlic, and ginger. It was flavored with soy, sesame sauce and lots of lime juice (I like it tangy). A bit of corn starch to thicken it and make it glisten was all it needed. The accompanying side dish is just shredded cabbage seasoned with soy and sesame oil.
Chicken Curry Barley Risotto
If you’ve followed my cooking exploits for a while you might know that I tried to make a healthier version of seafood risotto a while back using barley. It turned out well then and I’ve done another barley risotto this time using chicken and Indian curry flavors. Of course you can add whatever flavors you like to a basic risotto method. This is just what I had on hand last night when I was throwing together dinner at the last minute. For this risotto I used the following ingredients.
1 medium onion, diced small
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 large carrots, diced small
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red bell pepper, cut into small strips
14 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups pearled barley
~6 cups beef broth (made from water and beef dashi powder)
2 tbsp Madras curry powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
I started by heating a large flat pan. In went the olive oil followed by the onions, carrots and mushrooms. They were seasoned with salt, pepper, curry powder, and asafoetida and cooked together for a few minutes until they began to soften. Then I threw in the garlic and barley. These were tossed together in the pan for about a minute. Then began the risotto process. I added a couple cups of beef stock to the pan. This was cooked with stirring now and then until the stock reduced. More stock was added in small amounts and stirring/cooking was continued until the barley was toothsome but tender, about 35 minutes. I then added the chicken and pepper. I made sure there was enough liquid for it to cook for another 8-10 minutes. This was cooked down until the broth was all absorbed and the chicken was cooked thoroughly.
Next time if I were to plan this I would add some lemon juice at the end to give it more zing. I might also add some green chilis to the mix to give it more fire. Of course if I had fresh cilantro that would be added to the top after it was plated up. You can’t really go wrong with this. I can envision a Thai inspired version using green or red curry paste for flavor and some coconut milk/chicken stock for the broth.