Chicken & White Bean Salad

When I started posting recipes I had no idea I'd end up with so many salad recipes. And really, until the past couple years, I was mainly just your basic potato salad-type of person; can't recall many others that I ate. But for whatever reason, I now seem to eat a lot of them! This one's from Cooking Light. I add the tomatoes in very gently at the end so they don't disintegrate.

Whisk together the following for the vinaigrette:

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, minced

salt & pepper

Drizzle vinaigrette over the following and gently combine:

2 cups coarsely chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/3 cup slivered fresh basil

2 16-oz. cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

Chinese Chicken Salad

Is this really Chinese? I mean besides the soy sauce & sesame oil? Whatever...I fall for almost anything with sesame oil. Generously adapted from a Food & Wine recipe. The original recipe calls for the meat from a 2.5 pound rotisserie chicken, which would certainly be good. But I often buy several chicken breasts at once and then just quickly roast them. As long as you're careful to take them out just when they're cooked through--and not cooked to death--they are still quite juicy.

2 chicken breasts

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar (or more, to taste)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon sriracha, or other hot sauce (again, to taste)

1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced (I used Savoy--use whatever you like)

3 scallions, thinly sliced

2-3 carrots, julienned (or shredded, I suppose)

3/4 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (or more) roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Sprinkle chicken breasts liberally with salt & pepper. Bake at 400 degrees until just done, 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Mix next 7 ingredients for dressing. Adjust seasonings--it will need to be strong to cover all the salad! Dice or shred chicken and add to the vegetables and peanuts. Pour over half the dressing and toss. Add more dressing until salad is coated to your liking. Serve on lettuce or as is. I often end up just eating it right out of the bowl!

Italian-ish Orzo Salad

I saw some orzo sitting in my cupboard and it got me thinking as to what else I had around that I could mix with it. There are probably a hundred million variations on this recipe, but this is what I ended up with and I CAN'T STOP EATING IT! So put in whatever ingredients you like and make your own.

3/4 cup orzo

1 can cannellini beans

1 can (petite) diced tomatoes

1/4 cup capers

2 shallots, thinly sliced

handful chopped herbs (I had cilantro & parsley on hand)

shaved Parmesan

olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt & freshly ground pepper

Cook the orzo according to directions; drain. Rinse and drain beans. Drain tomatoes but reserve juice. (Note that some canned tomatoes have added sugar or HFCS. I mistakenly bought one of these once and found the juice too sweet to add back in.) Combine all ingredients except the last four. Drizzle over a glug of oil & vinegar. Mix and season to taste with salt & pepper. Add in reserved tomato juice to moisten.

Super thin shallot slices courtesy of my ceramic slicer, similar to a mandoline.

And the ceramic slicer properly used with the guard. Really, if you don't use this you're just asking to cut yourself. (Yes, I cut myself).

Fluffy Biscuits

Page 381... Cook's Illustrated's The Best Recipe...I've now made this recipe so many times that the book just falls open to this page. You can also go there if you want the original recipe--this is my adapted version. For one thing, the original makes twice as many, but I find that biscuits are best fresh and so for just me I really don't want to keep that many on hand. These are very quick--20-25 minutes total--and come together easily in the food processor. I often make a little breakfast sandwich with with one of these sausages:

1/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/4" cubes

1 more tablespoon of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix milk and vinegar and let stand a minute or two until slightly coagulated (yes, a little gross). Combine all dry ingredients in a food processor and wiz for a second to combine. Add butter and pulse a few times until combined. Add the milk & vinegar, and pulse a few more times until it just begins to form a ball in the bowl. Scrape out onto a lightly floured surface. Working the dough as little as possible, form into a ball and then flatten to about 3/4". Cut into 6 rounds; you will have to combine scraps to get the last one or two. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush with the melted butter. Bake for 8-10 minutes--be careful, the bottoms can brown quickly.

Best breakfast!

Easter 2011

My third annual, highly anticipated (!) Easter post. Pretty self-explanatory...potato salad recipe here. Disappointingly soupy deviled eggs--the orangy ones with sriracha.

Rice & Potato Soup

First, I thought you might enjoy a shot of this hitchhiking carrot which met its demise in this soup.

What to say about this soup...excellent carb-y comfort food! The tomato paste & cheese rinds add a lovely savoriness, without being overly tomatoey or cheesy. Please keep in mind that if you leave the cooked rice in all that liquid, it starts to disintegrate after a day or so. So if you're not eating all the soup at once, cook the rice separately and add in small quantities to each portion just before serving. Adapted from Lidia's Italian Table (Lydia Bastianich, of course).

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/3 inch cubes (approximately--don't worry about these sizes too much)

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes

2 celery stalks, diced

2 teaspoons tomato paste

10 cups hot chicken broth

2 two-inch square (or whatever size) Parmesan rinds

2 bay leaves

3/4 cup long-grain rice

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

salt & pepper

In a deep, heavy 4-5 quart pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. (Potatoes might stick a bit, turn down heat if the bits are getting too dark.) Stir in carrots and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots soften, about 2-3 minutes. Season lightly with salt. Add tomato paste and stir to coat vegetables.

Add broth, cheese rinds, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, scraping up any bits of potato on the bottom, then lower heat to a simmer. Cover pot and coot until potatoes begin to fall apart, about 40 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until rice is tender but still firm, about 12 minutes. Remove bay leaves and cheese rinds. Stir in parsley and season with salt & pepper to taste. Lydia suggests you chop the cheese rinds into bitty pieces and add them back to the soup. I kinda like it...though not all rinds age so well. Taste a bit before you decide if you want to add it back into the soup or toss.

My bag of Parmesan rinds I keep in the freezer.

Beef Summer Sausage

I like meat. I wouldn't say I eat a lot, but every once in a while you need some spicy, garlicky summer sausage, right? And unlike many other cured meats, this comes together in just one day! One ingredient you do have to go out of your way for, however, is this Morton's Tender Quick. I had to order it online because I couldn't find it in stores. Once I tried what I thought was an adequate substitute (probably the tenderizer) and it was a disaster! The smallest bag is like 5 pounds or something and if you only use a tablespoon at a time it will last forever--but it's worth it! This is adapted from a recipe I found online several years ago (here is the original).

2 pounds ground sirloin

1/2 cup water

1 + 1/2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon (or more) finely minced garlic

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon Morton Tender Quick (NOT tenderizer)

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients together. Divide into 2-3 parts and roll each into a firm cylinder. Place each on a sheet of aluminum foil with the shiny side against the meat. Wrap so the seam side is up and refrigerate for 24 hours. Punch holes with a fork into the bottom of the rolls. Place on a rack set into a rimmed pan and bake at 325 degrees for 90 minutes.