Chicken Fricassee

Martha Stewart Recipe (two pictures from me. One from www.marthastewart.com). 

Produce from the box: white onion

Produce from the Farmer's Market: carrot, celery, herbs, lemon, eggs

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, divided

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, cut into ½-inch dice (1 cup)

1 carrot, cut into ¼-inch dice (1/2 cup)

1 celery stalk, cut into ¼-inch dice (1/2 cup)

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and quartered

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ up dry white wine

4 cups chicken broth

2 sprigs fresh flat-leave parsley

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

½ cup heavy cream

2 to 3 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh tarragon leaves

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions 

1. Brown Chicken

Season chicken on both sides with 1 tablespoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Preheat a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and the oil to the pot. When butter melts and foam subsides, add half the chicken, skin side down in a single layer, do not crowd pot. Fry chicken, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 10minutes total, and transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken.

2. Sauté mirepoix

Reduce heat to medium and add mirepoix (onion, carrot and celery) to pot, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. Sauté mirepoix, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown in places, 8 to 10 minutes.

3. Cook mushroom and flour

Add mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms darken, become glossy, and begin to release liquid, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in flour, and cook until flour is absorbed by vegetables and is no longer visible, about 1 minute.

4. Pour in Wine and Broth

Add wine to pot, and bring to a boil, stirring until liquid just thickens, about 45 seconds. Add broth and stir.

5. Simmer Chicken

Place chicken, skin side up, in a single layer on vegetables, our juices that have accumulated on plate into pot. Tie parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs and bay leave together with kitchen twine, add to pot. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially. Cook until internal temperature of thickest part of chicken registers 165, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to a clean plate. Simmer liquid, uncovered, until reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Discard herbs.

6. Make and add liaison

To make the liaison (sauce thickener), whisk together egg yolks and cream in a medium bowl. Whisking constantly, pour ½ cup cooking liquid. 1 tablespoon at a time, into liaison to temper it. Stir tempered liaison into pot.

7. Finish with Tarragon, Lemon and Butter

Return chicken to pot. Add tarragon, lemon juice, and the remaining butter. Bring to simmer, stir gently to combine, and serve.

Summer Veggies

Produce from the box: one white pepper, onion (used 1/2 of it)

Produce from the Farmer's Market: yellow, green, red pepper, celery, carrots.


I cut all veggies in cubes and made two groups.
Group 1: onion, celery carrots.
Group 2: all the peppers.

Heated oil in the pan, added first group of veggies into the pan, cooked them for about 3-4 minutes, stirred often until onions were soft. Added peppers with some salt, pepper and vegetable broth. Continued to cook it for another 3-4 minutes until all peppers were soft.

Cooled the mix and made small portions. Brought some of it to friends and put some of it in the freezer.
It can be used warm (as side-dish or mixed with pasta or rice), cold as salad or as base for a soup.

I didn't add a lot of spices. I will do it when I take a portion out of the freezer. Pepper flakes can be added, curry version can be made or some fresh herbs will add a kick.

Lemon curd & yogurt fool

Produce: Strawberries


Ingredients (4 servings)

11 oz jar lemon curd (I used only 1/2 of it.)
18 oz tub 0% Greek yoghurt
7 oz strawberries
1 tbsp sugar


Method

Put the lemon curd and yoghurt into a bowl. Fold together for rippled effect. Dvidie the mixture between four glasses and chill.

Mix strawberries and sugar (I added some Cointreau and lemon zest) together and gently crush, then spoon with their juices over the chilled mix and serve.

Asian green beans with garlic and beef

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 pound green beans, washed
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups of flank steak, cut in small pieces

Directions:

1.    Heat oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add garlic slices and cook for a minute.

2.    Stir in green beans and sesame oil and cook for eight to 10 minutes. Beans will turn bright green. 

3. Add steak cubes into the mix, continue to mix.

4.    Add soy sauce and cook for another five minutes, stirring frequently, and then transfer to serving platter.

Fried Rice with Kale and Pomegranate

My produce items: Kale and Pomegranate

1 bunch of kale
1 pomegranate
1 lemon
1/4 cup of chopped onion
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of honey
1 cup of rice

Mince onion and saute in olive oil in a skillet.  Chop up kale into desirable pieces and add to saute.  Stir periodically.  Add one tablespoon of honey and juice from half a lemon.  Stir well.

Prepare rice (I used a rice cooker).  Add rice to saute and mix well.

Seed pomegranate.  Crush pomegranate seeds well (I used a potato masher).  Drain juice into rice mixture but keep the seeds separated.  Repeat juicing and draining procedure two more times.

Add remaining half of lemon juice and additional tablespoon of honey to the rice and stir well over low heat.  Top rice with remaining pomegranate seeds or stir into mixture before serving.

Serve hot.

Serves 4-6

Final Verdict: Not Bad

The pomegranate I got wasn't super ripe.  It was more pinkish than red and the seeds were not nearly as sweet as redder/riper pomegranates.  I had to make up for the lack of sweetness with honey.  And since the pomegranate was a little on the sour side, juice from a full lemon was too much.  Half of a lemon would have sufficed.  Juicing the seeds actually made them quite soft.  I usually don't like pomegranate seeds because they are a bit tough to bite into.  Crushing them softened them up a lot and made them a nice addition to the dish.  Next time I'll try to find a riper pomegranate and lessen the lemon juice.

Couscous Salad

I never made this salad and I don’t have a recipe. I improvised.

Couscous: I followed the directions on the box and left the couscous cooling down during the prep of the vegetable salad.

Cleaned and chopped vegetables in small cubes. I had the following vegetables/fruits in the box: tomato, pears, a green and a yellow pepper, avocado and zucchini. I mixed them all with a vinaigrette (oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper) and some cornichons.

Mixed vegetable salad with couscous when couscous was still slightly warm. Added some more salt to taste.

Cornichon: French word for Gherkin. They are usually pickled with vinegar and are used with other foods and in sandwiches (especially in Europe).