It’s up a week early…woohoo! enjoy!
Seasonal Kitchen enjoy!! I have to get cracking on August’s recipes, this is where the recipe creating really takes off…woohoo!
also including an bonus, I whipped some of this up last night to toss in with pasta for the wee one and fresh greens for me. yum.
Garlic Scape Pesto
1 c. garlic scapes, roughly chopped
1/2 c. olive oil (more as needed)
1/2 c. nuts-walnuts, almonds or pine nuts
1/2 c. parmesan (asiago is strong but would work well as a half and half blend with parmesan)
Whizz all the above ingredients in a food processor until paste-like in consistency. Add additional olive oil to make it a smooth paste. For best flavor, store in a sealed container and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
While this site is sadly neglected these days I can be found writing for the Seasonal Kitchen column at The Pagan Activist
I have this year’s list of thirteen up, a few old favorites have returned as requested by family members.
4-6 chicken breasts
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups fresh button mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup Marsala wine
1/4 cup half-and-half or light cream
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Heat oil in a skillet and brown chicken breasts on each side; remove
from pan and allow chicken to drain on paper towels.
Add mushrooms, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and chicken broth to
skillet, and cook over medium heat for several minutes.
Return chicken to skillet. Add wine and cover. Cook over low-medium
heat for 30 minutes. Add half-and-half and parsley and serve.
source: unknown
Pan Roasted Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic
4 Chicken breast, skin on
6 tablespoons Garlic Rosemary-Butter (recipe follows)
4 small onions
1 large carrot
4 small red potatoes, blanched
2 oz small green beans
4 oz white wine
4 oz chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Garlic Rosemary Butter
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon rosemary, chopped
2 tablespoon roasted garlic, chopped
Peel the garlic and place on a non-stick tray in 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes until golden. Remove tray and let cool. When garlic is cool to the touch, chop finely. Soften butter to room temperature. Combine the garlic and the rosemary with the butter and hold at room temperature until needed.
Loosen the skin from the breast, place 1 1/2 tablespoon of garlic-rosemary butter under the skin and spread throughout. Season the meat side with salt and pepper and reserve. Clean, peel, and cut the carrot in 1 inch pieces. Cut the potatoes into quarters. Peel the onions, keep the core attached and cut in half. Rinse and trim the green beans.
Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat, when the oil is very hot, place the breast in the pan, skin side down, and cook for 1 minute. Turn over the chicken and add the carrots, potatoes, and onions, cover and place in a pre-heated 400 degree oven. Cook for 7-9 minutes until chicken has an internal temperature of 140 degrees. Remove pan from the oven.
Remove the chicken from the pan, and return the pan to high heat. Add the green beans and deglaze the pan with wine and chicken stock. Let the liquids cook until reduced by 3/4 . Remove the vegetables, pull the pan off the heat and incorporate the butter.
Place the vegetables and the chicken on the plate, pour pan sauce over the chicken, garnish with the rosemary spring and serve.
Yields 4 servings
4 (5 oz.) chicken breasts
1/4 C. raspberry preserves
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/4 C. red wine
1/4 C. chicken stock
Jerk Seasoning
Jerk Seasoning
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. kosher salt
1 T. onion powder
1 T. granulated garlic
1 T. dried thyme
1 T. cracked pepper
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
Mix Jerk Seasoning and rub chicken breasts using about half the seasoning. Let marinate for 2 to 3 hours.
Heat oil over medium heat and sauté chicken until browned and cooked about halfway (4 minutes per side).
Add red wine and let reduce until almost dry, then add stock and preserves. Continue cooking until chicken is done and the raspberry sauce has thickened slightly (another 4 or 5 minutes).
Serve with roasted potatoes or rice and black beans.
Stuffing:
1 1/2c. low sodium chicken broth
3 tsp olive oil
1c. couscous
1 med sweet red pepper, cored & diced
1 med. yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4c. snipped fresh chives, minced basil or parsley
3TB grated Parmesan
1 small roasting chicken (3lbs)
IN a small saucepan, combine broth and 1tsp oil. Bring to a boil over moderate high heat and stir in couscous. Remove from heat and let stand covered 10 minutes.
HEAT remaining 2 tsp of oil in skillet over moderate heat. Add next 5 ingredients, cook 5 minutes or until soft. Transfer the mixture to large bowl, add couscous, chives, cheese and mix.
HEAT oven to 350* Spoon 1cup into cavity of chicken (which has been rinsed with cold water and patted dry). Put remaining stuffing in lightly greased gratin dish, cover with foil.
ROAST chicken, basting every 15 minutes, for 1-1 1/4 hr or until juices run clear when thigh is pricked.
Bake stuffing last 30 minutes
12g. fat
493 calories
Serves 8 to 10
The pomegranate glaze makes for a beautiful, burnished bird. This
turkey is delicious stuffed with Corn Bread, Wild Mushroom, and Pecan
Stuffing or Classic Stuffing.
1 12-to-14-pound fresh turkey
2 onions, cut into wedges
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 6-inch lengths
3 stalks celery, cut into 6-inch lengths
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 6-inch lengths
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 pomegranates
1 quart Homemade Chicken Stock, or canned low-sodium chicken broth,
skimmed of fat
3 tablespoons red currant jelly
2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cognac
1. Heat oven to 425°. Rinse turkey breast; pat dry. Rub breast
with salt and pepper.
2. Arrange vegetables in a large, heavy roasting pan, making sure
that the vegetables are more or less flat in the bottom of the pan.
3. Truss legs together with kitchen twine, if desired. Rub the
bird with butter, and place on bed of vegetables in roasting pan.
4. Roast turkey for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°, loosely cover
bird with an aluminum-foil tent, if necessary, and continue roasting,
basting every half hour with the juices in the pan
5. Meanwhile, slice pomegranates in half crosswise. Using a hand-
held wooden lemon reamer or manual juicer, collect the juice in a
small bowl. Strain juice through a sieve lined with cheesecloth.
Combine juice and 1 cup of the stock in a small saucepan. Cook over
high heat until mixture is reduced enough to coat the back of a
spoon, about 20 minutes. Stir in currant jelly. Set aside.
6. When a meat thermometer placed between breast and thigh reads
170°, remove turkey from oven (the total cooking time to this point
should be about 3 hours and 15 minutes). Discard aluminum-foil tent,
and brush bird evenly and smoothly with pomegranate reduction. Lower
temperature to 325°, return bird to oven, and continue roasting for 5
minutes. Brush again with pomegranate reduction, and roast for 5 to
10 minutes more. Do not allow glaze to burn.
7. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, and transfer to serving
plate. Let turkey rest for 20 minutes before carving.
8. Remove vegetables from roasting pan with a slotted spoon,
transfer to a food processor, and process until smooth.
9. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the drippings in pan,
reserving juices in a fat separator or Pyrex measuring cup; discard
fat that rises to the top. Place pan over medium-low heat, and add
flour, working it in with a wooden spoon until mixture is smooth. Add
3 tablespoons of the puréed cooking vegetables to pan, and stir until
smooth. (Remaining purée can be served as an additional side dish or
discarded.)
10. Add cognac to pan, and stir with a wooden spoon to loosen any
particles on the bottom. Continue cooking slowly over medium-low
heat. Stir constantly while adding degreased pan juices and the
remaining 3 cups stock. Raise heat to medium high, and cook until the
gravy thickens, 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and
pepper. Serve in a gravy boat alongside turkey.
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
1 9-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted, or 1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, well drained
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon flour
Cooked white rice
Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
Heat butter or margarine in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and saute until golden brown. Remove from skillet. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken pieces to remaining butter in saucepan and saute until browned on all sides and nearly cooked through. Return mushrooms to skillet and add artichoke hearts, white wine and chicken broth, stirring well and scraping bottom of pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and stir in curry powder. Whisk the flour into the sour cream and add to chicken mixture over low heat, being careful not to boil. Heat, stirring often, until heated through. Serve over hot cooked rice and garnish with chopped parsley.
Makes 6 servings.
Note: The recipe can be prepared ahead and refrigerated in a greased casserole dish, tightly covered in plastic wrap. Uncover and reheat in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes before serving.
10 ounce package of Chinese egg noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 scallions or green onions, finely chopped
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon ground cilantro or parsley
3 boneless chicken breasts, sliced
4 ounces snow peas, tops and tails trimmed
4 ounces baby corn
8 ounces fresh bean sprouts
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil over a medium-high heat setting. Add the Chinese egg noodles and cook as directed on the package. Drain the noodles, cover, and keep them warm. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok or a heavy skillet over a medium heat setting. Add the scallions and sauté for about a minute, until fragrant. Add the ginger, garlic, paprika, ground cilantro or parsley, and chicken to the oil and stir fry for about 4 minutes, until the thickest portion of chicken is cooked through. Add the snow peas, baby corn, and bean sprouts to the top layer of the wok or skillet and briefly steam to warm through. Then toss all the ingredients together and begin to blend the mixture. Finally, stir in the cooked noodles. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, lemon juice, cornstarch, and sugar. Add the mixture to the wok and simmer briefly, tossing the ingredients until the sauce thickens a bit. Serve warm, topped with a sprinkling of sliced scallions, if desired.
1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 1/2 cups sauvignon blanc or other dry white wine
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper
2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup butter ( 1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
1/3 cup thinly sliced basil leaves
Combine onion, garlic and wine and bring to simmer. Carefully ignite fumes of wine (if flame blows out, reduce stove-top heat). When flame subsides, pour into noncorrosive container large enough to contain breast pieces without overlapping. Chill. Add breasts to cold marinade; they should be completely covered. Cover and refrigerate 24 to 36 hours.
Remove chicken breasts from marinade and set them aside. Strain liquid into small saucepan. Bring gently to simmer; do not allow mixture to boil. Skim surface of anything that floats to top. Continue simmering and skimming until wine is clear; this will take at least 20 minutes. Add chicken broth to wine and, skimming as it cooks, reduce gently to 1/2 cup. This will take about 45 minutes.
Remove chicken breasts from liquid and season them with salt and pepper to taste at least 5 minutes before cooking, then grill over medium-high heat until cooked through but still moist inside, 5 to 6 minutes a side. Add tomatoes to reduced wine and broth, bring to simmer and stir in butter by the tablespoon until incorporated. Add oil. Add basil leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide sauce among 4 plates and top with grilled chicken breast.
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup plus
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
6 tablespoons honey
1-1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
chopped fresh parsley
lemon wedges
Whisk 1/2 cup oil, 1/4 cup mustard, wine, garlic, and thyme in medium bowl. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and chill at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.
Preheat oven to 425 F. Whisk honey and 3 tablespoons mustard in small bowl. Mix walnuts, flour, salt, and pepper in pie dish. Remove chicken from marinade; shake off excess. Coat chicken on both sides with walnut mixture. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until golden, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer skillet to oven; bake chicken until cooked through, about 12 minutes.
Transfer chicken to plates. Drizzle with honey-mustard sauce. Sprinkle with parsley and garnish with lemon.
Bon Appetit/September 2002
Use whatever vegetables you have to hand in this richly flavoured and substantial one-pot meal.
Serves 4
Onions - 2, sliced
Carrots - 4, sliced
Swede - 1 small, sliced
Parsnips - 2, sliced
Turnips - 3 small, sliced
Celeriac - ½, cut into matchsticks
Leeks - 2, thinly sliced
Garlic - 1 clove, chopped
Bay leaf - 1, crumbled
Chopped fresh mixed herbs - 2 tbsp (such as parsley and thyme)
Vegetable stock - 300 ml (½ pint)
Plain flour - 1 tbsp
Red skinned potatoes - 675g (1½ lb), thinly sliced
Butter - 50g (2 oz)
Salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 190 °C / 375 °F Gas 5. Arrange all the vegetables, except the potatoes, in layers in a large casserole dish with a tight fitting lid.
Season the vegetable layers lightly with salt and pepper and sprinkle them with garlic, crumbled bay leaf and chopped herbs as you go.
Blend the stock into the flour and pour over the vegetables. Arrange the potatoes in overlapping layers on top. Dot with butter and cover tightly.
Cook in the oven for 1¼ hours, or until the vegetables are tender. Remove the lid from the casserole and cook for a further 15-20 minutes until the top layer of potatoes is golden and crisp at the edges. Serve hot.
source:unknown
What makes this dish —- despite ingredients which may seem strange to a lot of the population— exceptional? Hearty, deeply flavorful, lapped in a rich, glossy, savory sauce, spiked with red wine, it’s serious winter-time satisfaction in a bowl. It is everything you want from a stew, from the seductive aroma with which it warms the house, to its robust, filling, substance and big, distinct (”manly,” we might have said in pre-feminist days) chunks of potato and other vegetables. Dried shiitakes hydrate in the ragout; garlic (and no wimpy amount of it, either) is used almost as a vegetable in its own right. The garlic chunks mellow during the cooking process, yet what they lose in individual integrity they give to the dish as a whole.
But though this ragout is everything you want, it’s nothing you don’t — no fatty layer requiring degreasing, no stew beef cooked past flavor and recognition to mere stringiness. And, though it is absolutely impossible that something so stalwart should be low-fat, low-fat it is. Serve it in a bowl, accompanied by a hunk of good bread, starting off with a big green salad splashed with a tart vinaigrette or non-sweet sesame dressing. Or, try it ladled over any cooked grain or pasta. In any case, you’ll have a wafting fragrance in the house presaging the most fulfilling of cold-weather meals — a combination guaranteed to console the disheartened and nourish the dispirited.
Please note: I always do this dish in a heavy-gauge, non-stick Dutch oven. If you use a conventional cast-iron or enamel-clad one, spray the heck out of it with Pam cooking spray before you start, and expect to stir the dish considerably more often than I suggest here to prevent sticking.
Pam cooking spray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, cut vertically into crescent-shaped slivers
1/4 cup unbleached white flour
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup tamari/shoyu soy sauce
1 cup hearty, full-bodied, tannic red wine, such as a Cabernet, Barolo, or Barbaresco
1 tablespoon umeboshi vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
A major grinding of fresh black pepper — 1/2 to 1 teaspoon or so
1 cup canned diced tomato in tomato puree
8 to 10 cloves garlic, peeled, quartered or thickly sliced
1/4 teaspoon Dragon Salt**
6 to 8 dried shiitake mushrooms, broken roughly into quarters
1 packages (8 ounces) “traditional-style” dark seitan, well-drained, diced into stew-beef size squares, 1 to 1 1/2 inch or so
4 small potatoes, scrubbed, peel on, cut in large pieces
2 carrots, scrubbed, peel on, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds
1 parsnip, halved lengthwise, sliced in 1/2 inch half-rounds
2 cups green beans, stemmed and sliced into 2 to 3 inch long pieces
1 zucchini, halved lengthwise, and sliced into 1/2 inch half-rounds
Minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, optional, for garnish
1. If using a conventional Dutch oven, spray it with Pam cooking spray and see note above; you’ll have better results with a non-stick one. Heat the Pam cooking sprayed or non-stick Dutch oven with the oil over medium high heat, and add the onions, stirring to sauté for about 6 minutes, or until they start to brown but are still a little crisp.
2. Sprinkle the onions with flour, and, lowering heat to medium, continue to cook for about 4 minutes. Add about 1/2 cup vegetable stock, stirring it in to smooth it into the flour. When the flour is incorporated and the liquid is free of any flour lumps or clumps, add a little more stock, then, finally, the entire remaining amount, stirring often. Add nutritional yeast (you will think it’s going to lump, but the flakes will dissolve), soy sauce, red wine, umeboshi vinegar, honey, black pepper, tomato, garlic, and Dragon Salt. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to simmer.
3. Drop in the dried shiitake mushrooms (they will hydrate as the stew cooks), with the seitan, potatoes, carrots, parsnip, and green beans. Lower heat slightly, cover, and let ragout barely simmer, stirring every so often, for 35 minutes, or until potatoes are nearly done. Lift lid, drop in zucchini, recover, and let cook another 10 to 15 minutes more, or until vegetables are tender but still distinct. Serve, hot, if desired with a sprinkle of parsley.
Variations:
I’ve been so delighted with the flavors and textures of this stew that I’ve prepared countless variations of it over the years.
Tempeh’d Deep December Ragout of Shiitakes & Winter Vegetables with Garlic & Red Wine : Omit seitan. Stir pre-baked tempeh or tempeh “bacon” pieces into the stew, with the zucchini, in the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking time.
Deep December Ragout of Shiitakes & Winter Vegetables with Garlic, Garbanzos & Red Wine: Omit seitan. Drain a 15-ounce can of garbanzo beans, reserving both liquid and beans. Use the bean liquid as part of the vegetable stock called for, as you make the recipe above. Add the beans in the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking, when you add the zucchini
4 to 6 servings
**Dragon Salt
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
A homemade seasoning with serious kick.
Some years ago at the inn we used a hot but nicely herbal seasoning salt from New Orleans. The packaging — a round yellow tube with bright drawings of fish — made it resemble a canister of fish food, but we loved it anyway, though not being wild about the granulated garlic it included (drying and granulating it, I think, loses the best of garlic’s soul and leaves only the worst of its flesh). I used the stuff for awhile on almost anything — pasta, vegetables, egg dishes of all kinds. When it quit being available, I began making our own, which I love even more — because it doesn’t have granulated garlic or garlic salt. When using it, I often combine it with a little commercially made roasted garlic oil, or just some fresh-pressed garlic and olive oil.
1/3 cup salt, preferably sea salt
1/3 cup medium-coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup dried dill
2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon dried sweet basil leaves
1 tablespoon celery seed
1.Combine all the ingredients, tossing gently. Stand back as you toss; due to the cayenne, tossing can be a bit cough-producing.
2.Transfer to a jar with a tightly fitting lid. This keeps well indefinitely, though it begins to lose potency after a year or so.
http://www.dragonwagon.com/11seitan_ragout.htm
