A Can, A Plan, A Curry

This is the tale of two cans, a plan, and some curry paste, in no particular order.

We were very fortunate to receive a present: some essential ingredients of Thai cooking that a friend (who is Thai herself) felt would be useful to me as a homecook. I was excited to start exploring and immediately broke into the oyster sauce, which I put with some dark greens for a delicious meal. But the small and potent-looking can of curry paste...well, it just sat there. I'm going to admit that it kind of scared me and so, it lingered on a shelf, taunting me.

But I had a plan for this can: some leftover chicken, some corn from a lonely old cob, the remnants of the hot chili and two cans: coconut milk and pineapple rings. Boil, boil, a little toil, no trouble at all.

Thai Curry with Chicken and Pineapple

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

Half an onion, chopped

1 red pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 inch of chili pepper, seeded and membrane removed and cut fine

1 carrot, sliced thin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon thai curry paste (which is fish + chili + tamarind + MSG...oh well.)

1/3 can of coconut milk, about 2/3 cups

1 cup chicken stock

1 cob corn, kernels cut off

2 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1/2 can pineapple cubes or rings in juice, drained and cut into bite size pieces

Heat a large saute pan with some olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion. While the onion starts to soften chop your pepper (red and hot) and carrot. Add these veggies in and cook until softened. The carrots might still be a little hard, but that's ok.

Now, the fun: spice. Add in the spices and salt and stir into the vegetables. Cook for a minute or two. Add in the coconut milk and chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Add in the curry paste. I was trying to use only a little due to the MSG and it really went a very long way. I was relieved I didn't use more!

Cut the kernels off the corn cob and add to the pan along with the cooked chicken. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Drain and cut pineapple and add it to the mixture and heat through.

Mr. Lemon and I tasted it and threw away the Thai take out menu. It was seriously tasty, spicy and balanced savory with sweet nicely.

Spicing Up Chicken Soup

I like spicy food, but real chili peppers put me in a panic. Small, cute...dangerous.

So sure enough, the grab bag that is our CSA turned up a red hot chili. Remaining calm, I carefully picked it up by the stem, dropped it in my "market" bag (a Domino Magazine R.I.P. freebie) and then forgot about it for a week.

As part of the freezer swap (we are loading in anew, but first the hoarded treasures must come out), I had two chicken breasts, bone in skin on, perfect for some soup. I also had a couple late summer ears of corn that needed to find their way into a meal, stat, and that darn little chili. Soup, spicy, chicken, corn...Mexican.

I won't pretend this is a Posole stew, since I didn't have hominy. But fresh corn subbed in nicely.

Spicy Mexican Chicken Soup

Olive oil

1/2 larger onion, diced

1/2 inch of hot red chili, seeded and minced

2 chicken breasts, bone and skin on

Cumin

Salt and Pepper

2 corn cobs, cut off kernels and reserve cobs

5 cups water

1 lime

1/2 tomato

1/2 avocado

4-5 sprigs cilantro

In a dutch oven (or any big heavy pot) drizzle olive oil to cover the bottom (about 2 Tablespoons) and turn the heat to medium-high. Chop up half an onion and mince a very small part of a red hot chili. Saute until they start to look translucent.

Push aside the onion and chili, place the chicken skin side down in the center of the pot. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of cumin. Cook for about 4 minutes. The skin will begin to look brown. Do not turn it! But add in the two corn cobs and 5 cups water and more salt.

Turn back the heat and cook the chicken at a simmer about 8-10 minutes. Pull a piece of the chicken out and check to see if it is cooked through (white) inside. If done pull out chicken and set aside to cool.

Turn the heat back up and bring the broth to a boil. Cook for 5-8 minutes until it has reduced about an inch down the side of pot. Remove the corn cob and scrape off any corn bits and put them back into the pot.

Meanwhile, remove the skin and shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add the corn kernels in to the soup along with the chicken and turn off the heat. The heat of the broth will cook the kernels perfectly. Squeeze in the juice of one lime. Taste and adjust flavors. I added a little more salt.

Spoon the soup into bowls and add on top tomato, cilantro and avocado.

The Temptation of Two (Chicken) Breasts

A few weeks ago, a dear friend walked down the aisle. In and of itself, this has nothing to do with chicken.

BUT, pre-nuptials, we were recently talking about what changes once you're cohabitating, shacked up, etc. Here's what I've noticed: topics such as What's For Dinner become a looping dialogue. You know, the "What do you want?" "No, what do you feel like eating?" on repeat, every night, week after week, forever and ever amen. Really, someone making a decision on dinner should be part of the marriage vows.

The answer, so often in Lemonville (population 2.5) is not chicken. When do we ever say I want CHICKEN? Nearly never. (The Canine Taste Tester, our .5 member, would argue this but rarely has the vote because all we would eat is chicken if she could choose!) But we might come up with a regional cuisine, a flavor description or more often a shrug. Chicken is just, well, boring. It's the stuff you add to it that makes it special, or at least flavorful.

And that's what inspired this bi-cuisinal exploration -- two huge chicken breasts, staring me in the face this week. We'd had a holiday weekend of dietary debauchery (Ribs, Burgers, Hot Dogs, S'mores, in no particular order) over Labor Day, and we needed healthier dinners stat. And skinless, boneless chicken does offer a lean protein. Our local grocery was selling a "family pack" of two enormous chicken breasts for $5. Seriously, they were at least B cups, possibly C. But in my eyes they were a tempting call to action: let's divide and conquer, let's raise the bar here, let's make chicken a little more interesting than a dinnertime cliche.

So here we go:

Chicken with Yogurt and Cumin: No really, that's the recipe. Cut up one large chicken breast into bite-size pieces and marinade in 1 cup plain yogurt + 1 Tablespoon Cumin +Salt +Pepper.

Grill or saute in a non-stick pan until the chicken is white on the inside, about 3 minutes then turn it. It's spicy, tangy and very tender on the inside. I served it with a melange of veg: yellow squash, onion and broccoli. Yes, this was the bottom of the vegetable drawer

Chicken with Olives and Thyme

Cut one large chicken breast in half lengthwise. It will STILL be abnormally large. Salt and Pepper.

Heat a medium saute pan and drizzle in olive oil to coat lightly. Get it hot. Throw in your chicken, salt and pepper it, and do not turn until it has made a golden crust on one side, flip over and turn the heat back a little. Add 1/4 cup sliced, pitted mixed olives and 4-5 fresh stems of thyme with the leaves pulled off if the stems are woody. Cook until white on the inside. Mine were still very thick and took 8-10 minutes a side.

The olives will get a little crunchy and offer a salty kick that goes well with the mellow flavor of the chicken and thyme.

Alternate ending: Yes, this recipe has an alternate topping for the chicken. I also sauteed up three medium leeks, cleaned and sliced, in 1 Tablespoon butter. Cook until the leeks are very soft and add salt and pepper to taste. I originally made this as a side dish, but scooped up with the chicken, it was a wonderful silky sauce for the meat's browned outside and tender inside.

Tally:

Two huge breasts make two yummy dinners

Affordable lean protein gets some new flavors

Canine Taste Tester approved

Peach Chicken Cheap Out

Sometimes I am shocked at how this year has changed my 'tude. Let me put it to you this way. Even when I was an editorial assistant, scrounging around to figure out quarters for the laundry, delighting in a free (and bad) chardonnay-doused book event, unafraid to pick up my coffee/table trunk on Avenue A at 2 am (this was pre- the bed bug epidemic -- horrors!), I ordered in.

And there was one thing on the take-out menu that I ordered, no matter that it was an overpriced Chef's Special: Peach Chicken from China Fun. My brother, Brother Lemon if you will, introduced me to this rare treat--not to be found on just any Chinese take out menu. No the Peach Chicken is just, well, beyond. Basically, from what I can tell, because there is definitely a mystery to the whole affair, it's thickly-battered deep-fried white meat chicken covered in a sweet, sticky peach-juice sauce and accompanied by half a canned peach, some wilted broccoli, and always *always* a maraschino cherry. Yes, there is actually a cherry-on-top of this fried debacle.

So this year, I've held back. Peach Chicken has not graced our table but once. And to be honest, I miss it deeply. It was good at night, hot and a little greasy (although the broccoli somehow made it seem healthy.) It was even better cold and direct from the box the next morning. Yes, that's how much I love this dish -- it entered the ranks of cold pizza as a great morning after option.

But now, peaches are in season and I'm eating about 2-3 a day. And the old memory of my beloved fried friend haunts me. So it was time to figure out a DIY, healthier option. It wouldn't be pretty. It wouldn't be fried. But it certainly wouldn't be $12 (that includes the rice and fortune cookie...maybe not such a bad deal after all?)

I have almost no Chinese cookbooks, so an online search commenced and turned up healthy-food TV cook Ellie Krieger's version. It looked good and so I went for it, with a few slight changes. The result? Tangy sticky sauce, check. Peachy sweetness, yes indeedy. Crunchy? For crunch I roasted the broccoli, so a healthy answer to my take out urges.

Peach Chicken

Adapted from Ellie Krieger's recipe

1 Tablespoon oil (olive)

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 clove garlic, grated or minced

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon honey

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

2 Tablespoons orange juice

2 peaches

2 chicken legs, pre-poached

2 scallions, sliced into rounds

In a medium size saute pan, heat the oil over high heat.

Make the sauce by mixing the honey, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and orange juice in a separate bowl. I added a little pepper and salt.

When the pan is very hot, pop in the ginger and garlic and stir to cook quickly about 30 seconds. Add the sauce and it will boil quickly, so turn back the heat. Slice the peaches thin and add them to the sauce, spoon to cover.

Now, I had those 2 chicken legs from the stock-making-paella-fest of Monday evening, so I took off the skin and shredded the meat. I think legs or thighs are a nice match here because they add a little richness, although the original recipe calls for breast meat. My inspiration is deep fried, so some tender thigh meat is hardly worse for me, right? If you don't have cooked chicken on hand, cook whatever cut you have until done in the pan before you add the ginger and garlic and reintroduce it at this point. Add the scallions and get this nice and steamy.

Roast the broccoli while the chicken and peach sauce are melding. At 400F, roast the broccoli florets with a little olive oil and a splash of water for 7-8 minutes. They will get a little brown and slightly crunchy.

Tally:

A Chinese delight goes healthy

Using up my poaching poultry cleans out the fridge

A thrifty answer to my take-out urges

A Summer Soup Break

A few summers ago to be "healthier," I tried to cut corn out of my summer cooking repertoire. What a mistake. Fresh sweet corn offers a special taste of summer goodness that it turns out is actually pretty good for you.

So with a leftover cob and another whole one in the fridge, I thought I'd try my hand at a little chicken and corn soup. Also leftover? Two strips of bacon whose compatriots made my quiche of last week so tasty and the sole survivor of a 3-breast chicken package.

Put it all together and you have a wonderfully rich summer-time lunch. I usually lean on lighter cuisine when the weather is so steamy, but sometimes having something that's not too heavy but still hearty is a nice change of pace.

Corn and Chicken Soup

2 strips smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 large onion, diced

2 small potatoes, diced

1 corn cob (leftover, no kernels)

1 whole corn cob

2 cups 1 % milk

1 chicken breast

5-6 leaves basil

Salt

In a larger sauce pan or dutch oven, over high heat start to cook bacon pieces. When they begin to crisp up, add the diced onion and potato. Cook, stirring, until onions are translucent and potatoes are slightly tender. The potato is adding some starchy heft to the broth. You could skip it, but it makes it a little heartier and adds texture.

Meanwhile, cut the chicken breast into three sections (mine was huge.) Place it on top of the onion/bacon mixture and add the milk to cover. Bring to a simmer then lower the heat to keep it just steaming and poach the chicken until cooked the whole way through. (I pulled it out to check.) Mine took about 15 minutes, but it really depends on the size of the breast, so best to check.

Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Cut the kernels off the whole corn cob. I've seen "easy" ways to do this that involve multiple bowls, etc. Um, no. Just go slow and cut from midway on the cob, downward, on a cutting board with a sharp knife. Then flip the cob upside down and repeat. If you don't get the kernels cut close to the cob, don't worry, you'll get all that goodness out when you...

Add the de-kerneled cobs to the milk-onion-bacon mixture and keep the mixture at a simmer. While the cobs are getting nice and warm, shred the chicken into bite size pieces. Remove the cobs with tongs and hold up on a cutting board. Scrape the cob with a knife to get out all the remnant corn bits and return the bits and their liquid to the pot. Add the chicken and uncooked reserve kernels into the pot. Salt to taste. Simmer 5 minutes. Stir in some basil leaves and serve.

Tally:

Leftover bits and pieces come together for big flavor

A hearty summer soup to break up the lighter fare and fuels some summertime adventures

Corn's sweet summer flavor pops in this soup

Getaway Grilling

Despite the odd year we've been having (see the no-moneymoon), Mr. Lemon and I are able to take a deep breath and recognize the sweeter stuff in life. Tops on that list: outdoor space. This steamy summer may have us hiding in the AC-cooled apartment during the day, but at nightfall, when the temperature drops, we've been eating dinner on the terrace.

And better yet, we've been making dinner out there, too. We've got a little grill and we're making the most of it. Grilling's a healthy way to get a lot of flavor out of not only lean meats, but those uber-healthy, CSA-supplied dark greens, too. So on a recent hot night, with some on-sale chicken breasts pulled from the freezer and a bag o' greens from the CSA, our little terrace turned into a Caribbean getaway.

Caribbean Spice-Rubbed Chicken

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

6 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 chicken breasts (this proportion could also 'rub' up to 4 breasts)

Combine the spices, oil, thyme and garlic in a shallow dish or bowl, and add the washed and dried chicken breast. Rub in the spices, all over. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in refrigerator for half an hour (or more.)

Grill over indirect heat, about 10 minutes each side until done. You could broil this easily, too.

Grilled Collards in a Bag

I saw the adorable Jamie Oliver make his greens this way on his Cooking Channel show, and whether it was his charming accent or his use of lemon, he had me convinced that this was the solution to my CSA-greens overload. And it turns out he is 100% correct. This method can't be beat and the greens are not bitter, have a silky texture and still keep all their healthy nutrients and fiber.

2-3 cups collards/greens/what-have-you, rinsed and trimmed (Take off the really thick part of the stalk)

1/2 lemon

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Salt and ground pepper

Create a bag with tin foil: use two sheets about two feet long each. Place sheets one on top of the other and fold over, then fold two sides, leaving the fourth side open and creating a "bag"

In the bag, place the greens, torn into large pieces, along with the olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper. Seal the fourth side and grill for 20 minutes.

It wasn't the deck of a boat, or a beach bungalow's porch, but sitting out there enjoying our spicy chicken and greens, we felt like we had found our own little tranquil island escape in the big noisy city.

Tally:

Chicken breast w/bone, not the healthiest, but grilling drains some fat away

A flavor-packed way to get our "greens" in without adding porky bits

Grilling takes away a dark green's bitterness in one simple step (no blanching!)

Fast dinner that doesn't heat up the kitchen

Persian Pomegranate Walnut Wonder

I recently had a project that took up some serious time, meaning the thrifty cooking efforts were at risk of falling by the wayside.

But rather than reach for the take out menus, I reached for my stash of frozen goodies. What goodies do I speak of? Well, I'll tell you.

A couple weeks before I'd found my winter-long chicken stock supply had finally been tapped out. To my great good fortune (yes, I do actually get this excited about this stuff), the local supermarket had a good deal on bone-in chicken breasts. I'd poached them with the usual stock subjects (carrot, onion, salt, pepper, parsley), pulling out the chicken when the meat was still tender and pulling it off the bone, then returning the bones to the stockpot to bubble and boil some more.

Which is all to say, I had some frozen cooked chicken. Yay! I had some frozen chicken stock. Double yay!

The aforementioned project included some Persian poetry which got me thinking about my favorite use for pomegranate molasses (another already there pantry item from a cocktail experiment that went, well, wrong.)

This is quick to throw together, kinda healthy (pomegranates are loaded with antioxidants, walnuts with omega-3's), and pretty inexpensive due to buying protein on sale and the occasional but long-lasting pantry investment. Tangy and satisfying, I'll make an authentic version of this someday...but for now, I'm happy with this concoction.

Persian Pomegranate-Walnut Chicken

2 cups (2 breasts) poached chicken (I had frozen mine)

1/3 cup pomegranate molasses

1/4 cup whole walnuts

A olive oil, 1-2 glugs, if the chicken sticks

In a non stick pan toast walnuts and re-heat shredded poached chicken. If you don't have cooked chicken, you could poach 2 breasts or cut them into small pieces first and saute in olive oil. Personally, since this is a 'fudged' recipe already, I like to maintain the texture of the soft, shredded meat as it allows the sauce to reach more chicken nooks and crannies.

Remove the walnuts when they start to smell and are toasted. Mine got a tiny bit of color on them (oops, the risks of multitasking!) and they were fine.

Add the pomegranate molasses and combine thoroughly with the chicken. Turn the heat back so that the chicken simmers in the sauce. Add the walnuts, broken up, back in.

While it's simmering, make some couscous and a green salad.

Speedy Dinner...Done.

This is pretty tangy, so if you don't like your proteins candied (if you don't, we can't be friends), add some chicken broth to mellow the molasses.

Tally:

Chicken on sale turns into ready-to-serve dinner

Pomegranates and walnuts are healthy, Fat-Resistance friendly

This goes so fast you need to start making the salad first

A strong flavor from the pantry saves the day

Thai Chicken Salad

Like all good New Yorkers, Mr. Lemon and I have a stack of beloved take-out menus. Now that we're in full thrifty mode, we don't really order in, but we're still reaching for those take out menus for ideas of what to eat. So, what are we eating?

Larb.

Sure it doesn't *sound* good, but it is. Larb is one of those Thai restaurant gems that is surprisingly easy to reproduce at home. Really. This one is so easy and yet tastes EXACTLY like the dish from the pros. Plus, it's super healthy, beyond quick, and a great way to combine a little inexpensive protein with a whole lot of veggies.

We'll just call it Thai Chicken Salad.

Dressing

1 lime

1-2 Tablespoons Thai fish sauce

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 lb.-1lb. ground chicken or turkey works, too.

1 small onion, half sliced, half diced

1 red pepper, seeded and cut into slices

1 head romaine lettuce, torn

1/2 c. cilantro, minced

1/4 c. mint, cut into strips

Over medium high heat cooking the chicken and half the onion, diced. I usually add a tiny bit of olive oil to the pan to cut down on the meat sticking.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by combining Thai fish sauce, sugar and the juice of one lime in a large bowl. I try to balance the amount of lime juice to Thai fish sauce, so eyeball it. You can use this dressing separately on a salad with leftover flank steak, too, for another yummy combo.

When the chicken is cooked through, add it to the bowl with the dressing and toss. Let the mixture cool slightly. (If the meat is hot, it will wilt the salad.) On to the salad!

Make a salad with lettuce, onion, red pepper, cilantro and mint and scatter the chicken on top. The dressing on the chicken is salty, flavorful and delicious -- and enough for the whole pile of veggies.

Tally:

Easy, quick, make ahead=the perfect dish

Salad gets a salty kick from a fishy fridge staple

A delicious way to use up half a package of ground chicken or turkey

Shiny Happy Food

"Put down the phone." We are tired, home later than expected and wondering what's for dinner. Mr. Lemon is ready to order in.

And some delivery guy has kindly pushed a bunch of suggestions under our apartment door. Thanks, delivery guy! Way to help us stay focused on healthy eating.

My favorite take-out menus feature pictures of the food, which are invariably kind of shiny. Now that I'm photographing what I cook with somewhat shiny results, I totally relate to the photos and love them a little bit more. Maybe there's a career move here. See below:

But I don't love blowing money on take-out. Not anymore. And there's no telling how much fat and salt we're getting with each slug of noodles or General Tso's. So we'll be doing Fake Out, not Take-Out.

Sweet & Sour Chicken Stir Fry

Serves 4 or 2 very-hungry people

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated

2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 c. baby carrots or 1-2 regular carrots peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices

1/3 c. water

1 c. shredded cooked chicken (Sunday's roast chicken, take 3: the dark meat)**

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tablespoons Grapefruit Ginger Preserves (leftovers...) or sweet marmalade + 1 T. honey

1 c. brown rice

Get the brown rice into the microwave. I just follow the instructions on the box and it comes out ok. It's not sticky or as tasty, but it's fiber-licious. And it's done in about 30 minutes, right in time for your stir fry.

In a large saute pan over high heat, heat oil, grated ginger and garlic. While that's getting soft and making the kitchen smell good, slice onions and celery and add to pan. Toss in the baby carrots. (My street fruit vendor has these for $1 and honestly I use carrots more when they are already peeled and so cute.)

Toss the mixture around and let it cook for a couple minutes. Then add water to keep the veggies from drying out as they continue to cook. Cook until veggies are tender--about 8 minutes. The water should evaporate. If there's a little extra it will combine into the sauce.

Add in the chicken, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and preserves. I had some more of my Grapefruit-Ginger Preserve left over from the weekend, so I threw that into the mix.

Allow mixture to cook for several minutes, turning back the heat. Serve hot over brown rice.

Done.

**You can use more meat -- didn't mean to look chintzy. While dark meat is nutritious, it also has more fat, so I split the difference. 2-3 cups of white meat would be perfect and healthy, too.

Tally:

Healthy cheap Chinese food. Shiny happy husband.

Reusing my standard veggie supply for new flavors

Fiber-licious whole grains covered in tasty sauce

Leftover chicken, leftover preserves, more room in the fridge