Sweet Green Curry Potatoes

I came up with last night to go with Soy Glazed Chicken.

Ingredients

10 to 12 medium size Red Potatoes

1 stick unsalted Butter

1 medium Onion

3 Tablespoons of Thai Green Curry Paste

1/2 cup of Sweet Chili Sauce

1 Tablespoon dried Sumac 

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cube Potatoes with skin on

Cut Onion into strips

Place in a bowl and season with Salt and Pepper

Melt Butter, add to it the Sumac, Curry & Sweet Chili Sauce, whisk to combine.

Pour over Potatoes and Onions, Toss to coat.

Place mixture in baking dish, cover with foil and bake for about 45 minutes or until Potatoes are soft. Toss Potatoes at least twice during the baking process.

Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Let cool about 5 minutes before serving

Enjoy Cooking

Grandma's Clam Chowder

I have been working up my menu for Thanksgiving and i have been pour over recipes. When going through my grandmothers cook book i came across this chowder, it was written on a piece paper that was stuck in the book, but it took me awhile to figure out the recipe since it was written in English, Spanish and a bit of French. It is a new take on the Manhattan clam chowder. Enjoy.

Grandma's Clam Chowder

Ingredients

4 cups of raw clams after they have been cleaned and removed from shells, diced
8 cups of clam juice - when shucking the clams you should get between 6 and 8 cups from them, if not use store bought juice
4 cups heavy cream
2 cups rock shrimp, shelled and cleaned
1 cups andouille sausage, diced
2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes
2 cups of diced potatoes
2 onions diced
6 tablespoons butter
4 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions

First divide the veggies in half and place into two bowls: this is the onions, carrots celery and potatoes.

In a skillet over medium heat melt 1 tablespoon butter. Next add one of the bowls of veggies and saute them until soft about 6 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, once cool enough to handle, puree them in the food processor and set aside.

In a large soup pot place 1 tablespoon of butter and melt over medium high heat. Add the remaining bowl of veggies to the pot and saute for 5 minutes. Now add the clam juice to the pot and long with the pureed veggies and the tomatoes, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and adding the thyme and the garlic. Simmer for about an hour until the potatoes are soft.

While the soup is simmering place 1 tablespoon of butter in the skillet over medium high heat to melt, next add the diced sausage and saute until brown and crispy.

After the soup has simmer for about an hour add the diced clams and shrimp to the soup, along with the parsley and simmer for an addition 10 to 12 minutes.

Next add the remaining butter, heavy cream and the sausage to the pot and simmer for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, remove the thyme sprigs and serve, garnish with some fresh parsley

Serve with a nice baguette and some brie.

Enjoy Cooking

Paprika Chicken

I was going through my files and i came across this recipe that i created about 2 years ago. It is a really simple dish and very filling, enjoy.

Paprika Chicken

Ingredients

3 to 4 lb chicken cut up
2 cups of chicken stock, low salt
2 cups of red bliss potatoes, 1 inch dice
2 cups of cauliflower florets
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 large onion diced
1 can of diced tomatoes, 15oz
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 tablespoon of paprika
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a large deep casserole add 2 tablespoons of the oil and place on a medium high heat, working a few pieces a time brown the chicken on each side, about 5 minutes and set aside. While you are browning the chicken place the cauliflower in a zip lock bag along with the 2 tablespoons of oil and one of the cloves of garlic: shake to coat. Pour the contents onto a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the oven for about 35 minutes, you want the florets to get a nice char.

After all the chicken is done, add the onions to the casserole and cook until soft. Next add the potatoes, reduce heat and saute the potatoes until they begin to soften. Remove potatoes and add the paprika and flour, stir to combine. Next add the chicken stock, tomatoes, salt and pepper, raise heat and bring to a boil. Lower heat and return the potatoes and the chicken to the casserole, cover and simmer until potatoes and chicken are done.

Now remove chicken from casserole and place on a deep platter. Now add the sour cream or yogurt to casserole, stir to combine. Now add the cauliflower to the casserole and simmer to warm, about 2 minutes. Pour the sauce, potatoes and cauliflower over chicken and serve.

Enjoy Cooking

Chicken and Potatoes

Here is a simple one pot meal that packs allot of flavor.

Chicken and Potatoes

Ingredients

1 3 to 4 lb chicken cut up
8 to 10 potatoes, medium to small, cut up skins left on
3 large tomatoes, quartered
3 onion, chopped
1 cup of white wine
4 to 6 cloves of garlic sliced
1/2 cup of fresh Italian Parsley, chopped
1/2 stick of butter
1 teaspoon each of fresh chopped Thyme, Tarragon and Sage
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Place butter in a Dutch oven low heat to melt the butter. Raise heat to medium, season chicken with salt and pepper and brown on all sides in the butter. Remove chicken from Dutch oven and set aside, now add the onions and cook until golden. Return chicken to Dutch oven with the balance of the ingredients, with the exception of the parsley. Cover the Dutch oven an simmer over medium heat for about 30 to 40 minutes until chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are soft. Remove from heat and add the the parsley. Transfer from dutch oven to a large bowl and serve.

Enjoy Cooking

Warm Potato Chip and Musroom Salad

I know this sound wrong but it is so good.

Warm Potato Chip and Mushroom Salad

Ingredients

4 to 6 large potatoes, washed and thinly sliced and place in a salt water bath
1 LB of Cremini mushrooms, sliced
Large package of wild arugula greens
8 oz are there about of fresh blue cheese crumbled , your choice
8 sun dried tomatoes, sliced
4 table spoons olive oil
2 table spoons unsalted butter
2 table spoons sherry wine vinegar
Veggie oil

Directions

Fill a sauce pot with oil for frying the potatoes chips and bring to about 390 degrees but first lets get the rest of the salad built.

In a skillet place butter, melt then add half of the olive oil. Place sliced mushrooms and saute for about 3 to 6 minutes are until soft.

Place arugula in serving bowls about 4 to 6, now in a small bowl place the remaining olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, whisk, add tomatoes and set aside. Once mushrooms are done place on top of the greens.

Now onto the chips, dry chips after removing from water bath, in small batches fry up the chips and place on paper towels for a brief moment, salt and pepper them, while still hot place on greens, followed by crumbles of blue cheese and then a light spooning of the dressing with the tomatoes. Note: when i am making this for a dinner party, i place the chips on a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet and place in the oven to keep warm as a fry up the chips but if you have a large enough fryer you should be able to do 4 to 6 servings at a time.

Enjoy cooking

Quad of Roasted Root Veggies

Quad of Roasted Root Veggies

Ingredients

Note: dices should be about 1/2 inch or so
3 cups diced sunchokes
3 cups diced red potatoes
6 beets, pealed and diced
2 celery roots, peeled and diced
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 to 1/2 cup of olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a large bowl place all the ingredients and toss to coat. Let stand in bowl for about an hour before baking, tossing about every 15 minutes. Pour into a deep baking dish and bake for about 45 minutes or until veggies are soft.

Serve

Enjoy Cooking

Spinach Potato Soup

I had this soup in a cafe local cafe near work and I though it was good but I could make it better. I think it turned out great, hope you do to.

Spinach Potato Soup

Ingredients

6 cups of veggie stock, low salt
5 cups of fresh baby spinach, chopped
2 cups of diced potatoes, i used red bliss
2 yellow onions diced
3 stalks of celery diced
1 red pepper diced
1 cup of dried green lentils
1/2 lb of bacon, chopped
6 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup of parsley, chopped and stems removed
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated cheese of choice

Directions
Place lentils in sauce pan and cover with water up to one inch, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Drain, rinse and set aside.
In a deep soup pot render bacon, you want the bacon nice a crispy. Drain off most of the fat and place onions, peppers and celery into pot over medium high heat and saute until tender and onions start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute, now add potatoes, lentils, stock and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about an hour. Add spinach and parsley to the pot and simmer for an additional 30 minutes, once the lentils and potatoes are tender the soup is done.
Ladle into bowls and top with the crispy bacon and some grated cheese of choice and serve with a crusty bread

Enjoy Cooking

Chunky Potato Soup with Sausage

This a twist on your traditional Potato soup: Traditional Cream of Potato soup is is great but I thought it needed something more, a kick.

Chunky Potato Soup with Sausage

Ingredients
8 links of Andouille sausage, 1/4 inch slices that have been quartered
6 cups of water
1/4 cup olive oil
2 table spoons unsalted butter
8 medium potatoes pealed and cubed
8 small red potatoes, cubed
2 medium tomatoes, quartered and seeds removed
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 leaks, cleaned and diced, just the bottom to the light green part
4 sprigs of fresh Thyme, leaves removed from the stems
2 fresh bay leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
8 cloves of garlic, 6 minced and 2 sliced and placed in a tea ball
1 cup of half and half
1/2 cup Italian Parsley, chopped stems removed
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Place the red potatoes, olive oil and minced garlic in a bowl and toss to coat. Dump on to a cookie sheet and place in the oven and roasted for about an hour, you want them nice a crispy. Remove from oven and set aside.
In a large soup pot over medium high heat place the sausage and brown for about 5 minutes. Remove them from the pot; now add butter. Once the butter has melted add the onions, celery, leaks and red peppers and cook until tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Now add the thyme, bay leaves, mustard and cumin seeds, salt and pepper, toss to coat. Next add the pealed, cubed potatoes and the water. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes or until potatoes are soft. 10 minuets prior to potatoes at their desired softness, add the tomatoes. Once potatoes are soft, add half and half, stir to combine, remove the pot from heat. Remove bay leaves and puree all the soup and return to the pot. Now add the sausage, the roasted potatoes, and the tea ball with the garlic. Note: use tongs to remove the roasted potatoes from their pan, do not dumb the potatoes from their roasting pan into the soup pot; you do not want the oil from the pan to go into the soup. Simmer over very low heat, covered for about 15 minutes, stirring a few times during the process. Then remove tea ball. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with the parsley, serve with a baguette and a nice cheese.

There were a few steps to this soup but it is so worth it.

Enjoy Cooking

Roasted Potatoes

I know it sound simple but post of the time i have had potatoes they have been really bland or just un-interesting. But potatoes are really simple if treated really simple. The next recipe is just that simple.

Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

2 pounds diced potatoes, with the skins on, you choose the type of Potato
1/2 cup diced shallots or onions
3 table spoons diced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon rosemary
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Place all ingredients in a large ziplock or bowl and toss well. Next place on a baking sheet and roast for at least an hour or until golden brown. Serve with your meat of choice.
It can not get any simpler than that.

Enjoy Cooking

Crawfish Boil

The hardest part of the recipe was figuring out the spices for the boil, there are all these prepackaged spice mixes but they usually have MSG in them or other caking agents. So it was a bit of trial and error until I got the correct taste. I have not made this in a while, hmm maybe this weekend.

Crawfish Boil

Ingredients
3 to 5 pounds of live crawfish
1 pounds of fingerling potatoes
6 ears of corn cut into 1 inch pieces
12 andouille links cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 large onions quartered
6 celery stalks, chopped
4 lemons quartered
4 garlic bulbs cut across the top, remove loss skin
1 table spoon whole pepper corns
1 table spoon whole coriander seeds
2 table spoons of whole cloves
2 table spoon of whole all spice
2 table spoons of cumin seeds
2 table spoons of yellow mustard seeds
3 table spoons of cayenne pepper
2 table spoons of paprika
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
6 sprigs of fresh oregano
6 sprigs of fresh dill
6 bay leaves, fresh
Lots of salt

Directions
You are going to need a really big pot with a basket, about 5 gallon size.
Place in the spice grinder all the seeds and grind for 10 seconds or so, it can be chunky. Fill the pot with about 3 gallons of water and add all of the spices: note have the basket in. Also salt the water to your desired taste, i do not really cook with salt so i put in about 1/3 of a cup of salt. Bring pot to a boil, covered. While the water is coming to a boil it is time to clean the crawfish. You will need to rinse and rinse and rinse the crawfish. It took me the first time about 10 rinses until the water ran clean through the colander. Remove any dead crawfish during the process.
Once water has come to a boil add the remaining ingredients, minus the crawfish at this point. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes are until potatoes are soft. Once veggies are done add the crawfish and cook for about 3 minutes. Turn of heat and let sit covered for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove basket from pot and dump contents into a really big bowl and serve with baguettes and beer. I like spreading the cooked garlic on the baguette.

Enjoy Cooking

Vegetable Soup

Here is another great soup, it is very easy, there is just allot of stuff in it.

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Broth
2 large yellow onions quartered
6 celery stalks cut into 3 inch pieces
6 carrots cut into large slices
10 stalks of Italian Parsley
6 sprigs of Thyme
6 sprigs of marjoram
12 cups of water
1 table spoon of salt
1 table spoon of pepper corns, black or pink
1 table spoon of yellow mustard seeds
pinch of Saffron

Soup
Note: you want a large dice for the veggies below
2 table spoons of olive oil
1 yellow onion diced
3 cups of diced Yukon gold potatoes
3 leaks, dark green part removed, cut in half, clean and then sliced into 1/8 slices
3 cups of diced carrots
3 cups of diced parsnips
3 cups of diced turnips
1 celery root, cleaned and diced
1 funnel bulb, cored and diced
4 gloves garlic diced
1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped and stems removed
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

In a large deep soup pot place all the ingredients for the broth, bring to a boil, then reduce to low medium and simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes. when the carrots are soft the broth is ready.
Strain broth and set aside, you have made more broth then you need for this soup but you can freeze the balance for other uses.
In the same large pot add 6 cups of the broth you just made and the olive oil and bring to a boil. Now add all the ingredients from the soup list with the exception of the parsley. Simmer, partially covered over low medium heat for 35 to 45 minutes. At the midpoint taste the soup and salt and pepper to taste. Once all veggies are tender the soup is done. Now add parsley and stir.

Serve with a nice baguette and an herb goat cheese.

This soup also is a nice base for other ingredients, like left over cooked chicken, ham or even lamb. Just add them at the last ten minutes so that warm up in the soup.

Enjoy cooking

Potato Salad or is it chicken salad

I received an email tonight requesting my Potato and Chicken salad recipes, well the dressings on both is the same. I just change the main ingredients; this came about one summer when i was making the dressing for the chicken salad for our lunches and preparing the potato salad for a weekend party and when i had both recipes up on the cabinets in the kitchen did i realized with one slight change the dressing would be the same. There was egg in one and not the other and i thought why not add it to both.

I never really like potato salad i always thought it was rather bland, too sweet or full of things that just was wrong and it does not help matters that i do not like Mayo, ugh! But Michael loves potato salad, so i set out to make one that we both would like. I did this to many dishes that have mayo in them, i will post those recipes soon to.

OK lets start with the dressing for both recipes;

"The Dressing"

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of Olive oil Mayo
3 table spoons of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon of ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 table spoons of sherry vinegar
4 hard boiled eggs, yolks separated from the whites, dice the whites and set aside

Directions

In a small bowl add the seeds and the vinegar and let steep for at least an hour. I do the step right before i start cutting up the veggies.

In a large bowl add the balance of the ingredients and mix well, make sure that the egg yolks are completely incorporated into the mixture. Chill this part while you are preparing the main part of the recipes. Leave the vinegar and seed mixture out at room temp.

Now it is time for either the Chicken or the Potato salad, lets do the Potato salad first;

Potato Salad

Dressing - see above

Ingredients

2 Lbs of red potatoes, cubed skins left on
4 large celery stalks diced
1 large sweet onion diced
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cup of fresh dill, chopped and stems removed
1 cup of green onion, just the tops chopped
1/4 cup of Italian parsley chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large pot add diced potatoes in enough water to cover by 1/2 inch. Salt the water, bring to a boil and cook potatoes for about 10 to 15 minutes or until tender but still firm. Drain and place in an ice bath the stop the cooking process.

While the potatoes are cooking, in a large bowl place the sweet onions, celery and red pepper and toss in the vinegar seed mixture from the dressing, toss to coat and set aside.

Once potatoes are cool, drain from ice bath, try to get them as dry as posible and add them to the Mayo mixtures from the dressing along with the diced egg whites, the green onions, parsley and dill and mix well. Once all the potatoes are coated add the vinegar seed mixture to the party and and mix well.

Cover bowl and place in the fridge for at least two hours. Remix right before serving


Chicken Salad

Dressing - see above

Ingredients

Chicken prep

1 whole chicken cut up and skinned
1/4 cup olive oil
1 table spoon cumin
1 table spoon dried mustard
1 table spoon paprika
Salt and pepper

Salad

1 cup dried sour cherries
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 large sweet onion
4 stalks of celery diced
1 red pepper diced
1 jalapeno pepper seeded and minced
1/4 cup of chopped Italian Parsley


Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
In a large zip lock bag add all the chicken prep spices, olive oil and the chicken. Seal and shake bag to coat.
Place on a on pan so that all the chicken pieces are a single level, place in oven and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove from Oven and let cool. Once cool, remove meat from bones and shred.

In a large bowl place sweet onions, cherries, apricots, celery, red pepper and add the vinegar mixture, toss to coat and set aside.

Next add chicken, egg whites, walnuts, jalapeno, parsley to mayo mixture. toss to coat chicken. Now add the Vinegar mixture, mix well and chill for at least two hours.

Both recipes will keep for a few days.

I do not know what well be next. Maybe some of my seafood recipes or other salads, i will see what comes to mind.

Enjoy cooking