| Thursday, July 29, 2010 |
| Creamy chicken and pierogi |
While watching "No Reservations", which is a lackluster remake of the more superior "Mostly Martha" ("Bella Martha" in German), I cooked up some pierogies, which I have been thinking about for the past week or so. As a child, I loved pierogies, but my exposure to them was the frozen sort. And for a while, before I learned how to make them, I would buy Mrs. T's pierogies, but they are not that great--just sort of lackluster tasting. My friend Jen gave me a recipe back in college, nearly 10 years ago, and I never bothered with them until a few years ago, when I bought a box of Mrs. T's pierogies.
Unfortunately, the pierogies did not taste as good as the ones from the West Side Market or any of the Hungarian or Eastern European restaurants.
So I finally made these pierogies:
Dough
- 2 handfuls of flour
- 1 large egg
- warm water
Make a nest with the flour, and put the egg in the center. Fold the egg into the flower, and mix in just enough warm water to make a ball of dough. If sticky, add mix in some flour.
Potato filling:
- 2 c. potatoes, cooked
- 3 oz. cream cheese
- 1 small onion, diced and sauteed in butter
Mash the potatoes with the cream cheese (I also added some butter). Mix in the sauteed onions.
To make the pierogi:
Pinch off a small bit of dough, roll into a ball. Roll out into a thin disc. Put 2 spoonfuls of potato filling on the disc and fold in half. Pinch the ends closed. Boil pierogi in a pot of salted water. Pierogi are cooked when they float on top of the water. Drain and rinse with cold water. Fry the pierogi in a pan with melted butter (can also cook some onions with it, too). 
We've also been on a mission to clean out our fridge and pantry (in other words, eat whatever we have). While this sometimes leads to eating things that I don't particularly like (canned peas, or yucky condensed corn chowder--which I didn't buy, by the way, but I was hungry), or things that are better tasting, such as brownies...I wanted somethign that didn't come out of a powdered mix. So I defrosted some chicken breasts and made sure that I had chicken broth and cream cheese. I found a recipe for this chicken with a creamy pan sauce, so here is the recipe, courtesy of kraft foods.
- 4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 Tb flour
- t Tb oil
- 3/4 c. chicken broth
- 4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
Coat chicken with flour. Heat oil in large skillet. Add chicken, cook 5-6 minutes on each side, or until cooked thoroughly. Remove chicken from skillet, reserving drippings in skillet. Cover chicken to keep warm. Add broth to skillet, stirring to scrape up browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add cream cheese, cook for 3 minutes until cream cheese is melted and sauce starts to thicken, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Return chicken to skillet, turn over to coat both sides of chicken with sauce. Cook 2 minutes or until chicken is heated through. Sprinkle with parsley. Note: you can use other herbs. I used fresh basil from my own little garden! Labels: recipe |
posted by Me @ 7:16 PM  |
|
|
|
| Friday, June 11, 2010 |
| I'm back |
So it's actually been a few years since I've actually done anything with this blog. Actually, life got in the way. Although I didn't starve to death while not updating this blog, I fell off the one-recipe-a-week resolution, because life got so incredibly busy, that all I wanted to do was to just not do anything more time consuming than opening a jar of spaghetti sauce and boiling some noodles. So the focus of this blog is going to change a little bit--I'll still share my cooking adventures, some recipes, and yes, I'll even eat food that I didn't cook.
So let me start this off right--I had been hungering for spaghetti pie these days, so I decided to break out a recipe and googled it. I found one on foodnetwork.com that sounded pretty good, but after reading some of the comments, I made a few modifications to it. For the original recipe: click here. My adaptation follows. I think it tastes darn good, too.
Ingredients
3/4 pound spaghetti
9 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves coarsely chopped
1 small onion, thinly sliced
16 cherry tomatoes, halved
20 kalamata olives, pitted and halved
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
6 ounces fontina, grated
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, grated
4 ounces feta, crumbled
4 ounces Parmesan, shredded 8 ounces Pancetta (I got a pack with them already diced up into little cubes)
Few sun-dried tomatoes, sliced into smaller pieces
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Special Equipment: 2 pyrex pie pans (or two cast iron skillets)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Generously add salt and 3 tablespoons of oil and add the spaghetti. Bring back to a boil and cook for 11 to 13 minutes until the spaghetti is just tender. Drain into a colander and rinse under cold water. Return the spaghetti to the pot and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cherry tomatoes, kalamatas, 1 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper and cook for an additional 5 minutes until the tomatoes begin to break down.*
Remove the mixture from the heat and set aside.
Whisk the eggs and cream together in a large mixing bowl. Add the remaining teaspoon of salt, a few grinds of pepper, the red pepper flakes, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, fontina, feta, 4 ounces of the Parmesan, mozzarella, and the tomato mixture. Mix in the spaghetti.
Heat the remaining olive oil in the 10-inch skillet over high heat. Add the spaghetti mixture, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven for 30 minutes until the center of the pie is set and the top is golden.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Run a spatula around the edges and underneath the pie to loosen. Place a large plate over the skillet and invert the pie onto the plate. Place another plate onto the pie and invert again. Let the pie set for an additional 10 minutes.
Slice the pie into 6 to 8 pieces and garnish with Parmesan and basil leaves before serving.
*Cook's Note: You can help the tomatoes break down by crushing them with the back of a spoon as they get soft.
Labels: recipe |
| posted by Me @ 6:41 PM |
|
|
|
| Sunday, March 18, 2007 |
| Luck of the Irish |
I skipped cooking last week, because I was stressed out having to study for back-to-back exams. So as penance, I made two dishes on St. Patrick's Day.
One was an Irish Stew, which was yummy. Even if the meat was tough and had to be gnawed to be even digested.
The other was a beer bread (originally I planned to make a soda bread, but forgot the buttermilk.
Here's how to make the bread:
3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb sugar
2 tsp dill seeds (optional, I didn't have these)
1 2/3 oz butter, cubed
12 fluid oz. Guiness Stout Ale (all in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day!)
1/4 c. all purpose flour, extra
dill seeds, extra (optional)
coarse sea salt
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush a baking sheet with melted butter or oil. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into large bowl. Add sugar and dill seeds; stir to combine. Use your fingers to rub butter cubes into the mixture. Make a well in the center and pour in beer all at once. Using a wooden spoon, quickly mix into a soft dough.
2) Turn out onto floured surface. Sprinkle extra dough onto hands and dough. Knead for 1-2 minutes until dough forms a smooth ball. Elongate ball slightly, flatten a little, and with the blunt end of a large knife, press down 1 inch along center. Brush surface with water, than sprinkle liberally with dill seeds and coarse salt.
3). Bake 20 minutes, lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked. Remove from oven and place on wire rack and leave to cool.Labels: recipe |
| posted by Me @ 5:17 PM |
|
|
|
|
|
