greg cooks

nourishing the body

chicken

Buckwheat Fettucine

I adore pasta. A simple food but one that is so satisfying. Fresh pasta is so much better than the dried kind too, and it’s really not hard to make. It is especially easy if you have a pasta rolling/cutting machine to help you out (which I do). I had in mind to make a pasta last night and when I was rummaging through my pantry I saw a package of buckwheat flour that I had forgotten about. Perfect! Buckwheat pasta. I love Japanese soba noodles and thought I could use the flour in a more Italian inspired pasta. So, I made some fettucine. I made a rather soft dough using 1 cup of unbleached all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour, 1 tsp of salt and about 3/4 cup of water. This was kneaded in my kitchenaid for about 5 minutes until it was nice and stretchy. I wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it sit for about an hour. I rolled it out using my pasta machine then ran it through the fettucine cutter to make long strands. I needed to use quite a bit of flour along the way as this was a pretty wet dough. I let this hang to dry for a while so it would be easier to handle. I have had problems before just piling up my pasta and coming back a few minutes later to find my nicely cut ribbons all stuck together in a big mass of dough. Hanging them helps to keep them from clumping together.

My fettucine was flavored with a creamy chicken, rosemary and pea sauce. I started by sautéing cut up boneless chicken breast. This was removed and set aside to be added back at the end. I caramelized some onion in a pan and near the end added chopped garlic. The peas went in along with a few tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary and this was cooked for just a minute. About a cup of milk with 2 tbsp of flour whisked in was added to make a thickening cream sauce. It actually thickened too much. I used way too much flour I think. I’ll have to really cut it down next time. I did thin it out a bit with some of the pasta water, but it was still a little too thick and pasty in the end. Lessons learned! I threw in the chicken to reheat with the sauce. In went the freshly cooked pasta and a half cup of parmigiano reggiano. Overall it had a pretty good flavor. The texture of the pasta was very nice. Next time I have to make this the right way with cream and cheese to avoid the bland pasty sauce.

Olive stuffed chicken with polenta

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.

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.

Eggplant and Chicken Extraordinaire

Lately I have been eating a lot of Asian inspired dishes. But on Monday I was in a mediterranean mood. I had these two eggplants and didn’t quite know what to do with them. I was thinking about the baked eggplant slices with tomato I have made before, but I wanted something a bit more substantial. I wanted a one-dish meal. I ended up with this chicken and eggplant dish. It was quite simple to make and it still is low fat and low in calories. This HUGE dish of food split into six very generous portions packs less than 200 calories per serving.

I cut up two eggplants into 1 inch cubs which resulted in about 6 cups of eggplant. I also cubed up 16 oz of boneless skinless chicken breast. This was tossed together with 1 large onion, chopped, about a half cup of chopped garlic-stuffed green olives, 1 whole head of chopped garlic, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a couple tablespoons of dried oregano, salt and pepper. This was all placed in my large wide porcelain pan and drizzled with just a scant tablespoon of olive oil on the top. Now, normally I would have soaked the dish with olive oil but I’m trying to be light. This was baked in a 400F oven until all the vegetables and chicken were cooked through, the juices were bubbling up, and the top was beginning to caramelize. This took about an hour. You can see I served it with some of my mixed beans and grains. The garlic, olives and oregano really make this dish sing.