Chicken Piccata Pasta

I'm over winter. I grew up in the desert, where winter was about 3 days long, and when I moved to Indiana I loved the thought of actually have seasons. Still do. But this winter has been a bit taxing. Between Snowpocalypse and some crazy up and down weather, all I want is 50° and sunny. Just for a few days. Please.

My cooking is starting to reflect this want of change. Case in point I grilled steak teriyaki the other night just because I wanted to cook outside. It was cold, windy, and my wife thought I was nuts, but I was set on having a grilled piece of meat.

Where am I going with all of this? As spring sets in and the weather warms, my food starts to reflect the change. The heavy stews and chili of winter gives way to artichokes and brighter dishes. I found this recipe from Rachel Ray and it fit my mood quite well, it was quick enough to assemble on a weeknight and was not a stretch for ingredients considering most vegetables are out of season right now. I really liked it and only tweaked it a tad (RR dishes tend to come out on the high end of liquid so it takes adjustment).

The good news of course, is that the sun is shining and we have 10 days of warm weather coming. Time to start digging in the garden…

Chicken Piccata Pasta (adapted from Rachel Ray)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white wine
1 lemon, juiced
1 cup chicken broth or stock
3 tablespoons capers, drained
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake
1 pound penne rigate pasta, cooked to al dente
Chopped or snipped chives, for garnish
Salt and pepper

Heat a deep skillet over medium high heat and add a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Brown chicken until lightly colored all over, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and return the skillet to the heat. Reduce heat to medium. Add another tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon butter, and shallots to the skillet. Saute and shallots 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook additional 30 seconds.  Add flour and cook 2 minutes. Whisk in wine and reduce liquid 1 minute. Whisk lemon juice and broth into sauce. Stir in capers and red pepper flake. When the liquid comes to a bubble, add remaining 1/2 tablespoon butter to the sauce to give it a little shine. Add chicken back to the pan and heat through, 1 to 2 minutes. Add parsley, toss hot pasta with chicken and sauce and serve. Adjust salt and pepper, to your taste. Top with fresh snipped chives.

Happy Pi Day!

Pi Day is my favorite day. Why? Not just because I love pi and pie, but also because I got married on Pi Day. Because my wife and I are huge nerds. Also, I will never, ever forget my wedding anniversary. It's a win-win for me.

But Pi Day is also about pie. And it just so happens I have a recipe up my sleeve! It's also my favorite pie (so now we have my favorite pie on Pi Day, my favorite day. I think I should turn this into a children's book). I'm going to catch some major heat for posting this too, because I have not made one in a while. Oh well, if you make one, please send me a slice.

Chocolate cream pie and I have a strong bond. I used to eat this as a kid on Sunday mornings with my mom while reading the paper. Yes, you read that correctly. And it was awesome for me as a child. It was the only sweet that was ever allowed something like this. So now I treat any time as chocolate cream pie time. Yum!

I also want to mention this pie is gluten free (without the crust). My friend Sarah had me make it for her mom who is intolerant, and she gave it thumbs up!

Chocolate Cream Pie

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham crackers (about 8 or 9)
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F. Crush graham crackers in bag with rolling pin or with food processor until fine. Combine ingredients in medium bowl and mix with hands until the butter is incorporated. Dump into a 12 inch pie pan, pressing down with the heel of your palm and fingers to make a firm, even crust (it should go part way up the sides). Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown, let cool.

Filling
5 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
3 3/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 t salt
3 T cornstarch
3 T butter
1 T vanilla

In large pot over medium heat, heat milk until almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Add chocolate and stir until melted. Meanwhile, while milk is heating, in stand mixer or large bowl, combine eggs and sugar and beat until fluffy. Add salt and cornstarch, mix well. Pour about 1/3 of the milk mixture into the bowl (this will temper the eggs), mix and dump entire contents of bowl into pot. Return to heat and stir (constantly!) for about 15 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla, stir to combine, and pour into pie shell. Let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes, and then move to the fridge for at least 4-5 hours. Your patience will be rewarded. Make sure the pie is firm and cool before cutting. Serve with Cool Whip slathered on top.

Fiesta Mexican Grill

Next up in my restaurant review files is Fiesta Mexican Grill, a local burrito joint near Purdue's campus.  Somewhat similar in the vein of Chipotle and Qdoba, they offer up a service line of burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and salads. The similarities end there.  This place is easily one of my favorite places to eat, and you will quickly learn I'm not a stickler for fancy dining, I just like good food. 

Fiesta prepares their burritos as close to homemade as I have found.  They make their own tortillas and sauces, as well as having a variety of fresh accompaniments to top or stuff in your food.  I've heard the tacos and quesadillas are good, but I order a burrito every single time I come here.  Why mess with something so good?  They let you choose your choice of fillings including rice, two types of beans, and multiple meats (including a great grilled steak or roasted pork).  Then you can choose to have your burrito enchilada style, and let me say right now, do that.  They top it with a sauce of your choice (green tomatillo, green chile, or red chile), sprinkle it with cheese, and bake it.  Then you can add salsa, sour cream and a few other sides if you wish.

This place has become somewhat of an obsession at work, with "Fiesta Trips" happening every other week.  The food is outstanding.  The grilled steak burrito is my current favorite, with green chile sauce on top, which adds just the right amount of spice and lends great flavor.  If you live in Lafayette and have not visited here, you are truly missing out.

5/5 Sheepdogs

Chile con Carne

I have a very bad habit of not taking pictures of food I make when a) I host a party or b) make something delicious.  It's like I have this premonition the food will be amazing, and therefore for some stupid reason I should NOT capture it in a picture.  C'est la vie, I guess.

I made this tasty concoction for the Super Bowl a while back, and it turned out really well.  I'm into braising right now, and I need to get it out of my system before spring rolls around.  I also decided to make two types of chili for the big game, red and white (no blue though, that's just weird).  This recipe popped up in a recent issue of Bon Appetit and sounded delicious.

A few notes on it before the recipe.  It calls for ground ancho chiles, which is NOT chile powder.  If you cannot find the ground chile form in your local Mexican market, buy the whole dried chile, remove the stems and seeds, and ground in your food processor.  I prefer this method because it enables you to add a bit more heat in the form of a guajillo chile to the mix.

Chili con Carne (adapted from Bon Appetit)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
4 pounds beef stew meat (or chuck roast cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 head of garlic (about 15 cloves), peeled, chopped
1/2 cup ground ancho chiles
1 ground guajillo chile
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 12-ounce bottle dark beer
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons coarse corn meal
1 teaspoon chile powder
kosher salt
pepper
Garnishes- coarsely grated cheddar cheese, chopped cilantro, fresh tomatoes, or sour cream

To grind the chiles, place 3-4 dried ancho chiles and a dried guajillo chile in a food processor and blend until chopped fine, 1-2 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat. Salt the beef and add 1/3 to the pant. Cook until browned, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to a plate lined with paper towl. Repeat with 2 tablespoons oil and beef.

Reduce heat to medium and add 1 tablespoon oil until shimmering. Add onions and sauté until soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic; cook for 1 minute. Add ground chiles, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add beer and stir 1 minute, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot. Return beef to pot. Add tomatoes (with juice), 2 1/2 cups water, oregano, and a tablespoon kosher salt. Bring chili to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid slightly ajar, and simmer gently until beef is just fork tender, about 2 hours. Cool 1 hour, then chill uncovered until cold. Cover; chill overnight.

Spoon fat from chili (there will probably not be much). Bring chili to simmer over medium heat. Stir in tomato paste. Sprinkle corn meal and stir, simmer uncovered until thickened and beef is very tender, stirring often, and adding more water if too thick, about 30 minutes.  Season with 1 teaspoon chile powder, salt, and pepper. Serve with garnishes.

The Beer Files- Bitches Brew

The wonderful thing about beer is the human input to it. While wine does rely on some, the majority of the variety is region. With beer, region does matter for ingredients, but more than that are the additive ingredients the brewery will put in the beer to achieve different flavor profiles. This can be fruit, honey, spices, sugar, and many other varying ingredients that give specific beers such different tastes. One of the breweries on the forefront of this is Dogfish Head, one of my current favorite breweries. They also have a good documentary style show on Discovery called Brewmasters that I have been enjoying.

The other night I tried Bitches Brew, a beer that tributes the anniversary of the Miles Davis album of the same name. The beer is a combination of stout and honey beer (3:1) that is quite aggressive in its flavor and not something to be enjoyed quickly. This is probably my largest appreciation of Dogfish, they make beer because they want to challenge the boundaries of brewing and make you enjoy something truly different.

The beer goes down smooth with a pretty heavy finish, thanks to the stout part, but also remains mild and sweet due to the honey and gesho root in it. Sounds complex? It is, and that's the goal! Just like the album, the beer is different every sip you try. I suggest this to all beer lovers out there looking for something a little bit different and funky.

Just Kale Me Know

I seem to be on a soup kick lately.  Perhaps it’s the winter, or the snow, or the fact that I just don’t usually make a lot of soup.  Consider it a New Years resolution.  Also, I seemingly have a knack for leftovers.  Little by little I'm starting to break outside the confines of direct recipes and instead pull inspiration from places and make my own dish.  This soup started with a trip to Cape Cod over the holidays, where I had a delicious kale soup at Land Ho!, a great local seafood restaurant. 

Bold and determined to use my leftover turkey from Christmas dinner that was not turkey noodle soup, I settled on making a kale and turkey soup.  It's really yummy and warm.  This recipe is slightly different than the one I actually made because of ingredient choices, but it's going in the folder of regulars at my house.

If you really want to stretch your leftovers and dollar, I recommend making your own turkey stock for this soup with the leftover bones.

Kale and Turkey Soup

½ pound spicy Italian sausage or kielbasa, chopped

1 large onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks celery, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves
1/4 cup tomato paste

1 teaspoon red pepper flake
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 cup white wine

1 large bunch kale, chopped and bottom stems trimmed

1 pound cooked turkey, shredded

10 cups chicken or turkey stock

1-15oz. can red kidney beans
1 pound bowtie pasta, cooked and drained

Salt and pepper

In a large pot over medium heat, brown sausage about 3-5 minutes.  Remove sausage with slotted spoon and set on plate.  Add onion to remaining drippings in man, scraping up the bottom and cooking onions about 2 minutes.  Add the celery and carrots and cook until just beginning to soften, about 3 more minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, followed by the bay leaves, red pepper flake, rosemary, tomato paste, some salt, and thyme.  Add wine to pan to deglaze.  Add in the turkey (and a leftover bone if you have it), stock, sausage, beans, pasta, and kale.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper (and more red pepper flake if you want more heat).  Serve and enjoy.

Land Ho!

You can find this and other food reviews from me at Yelp

I found this place in the local news on a recent trip to Cape Cod.  A local hangout, this place was PACKED in the middle of the winter with my favorite people, New Englanders who have lost all ability to pronounce the letter "R".  They have the normal variety of New England food, meaning lots of fish, grinders, and beeah (yes that's a word.  I think).

I started with the kale soup, which was highly recommended and ohmygosh was it good.  Sausage, beans, veggies, it was fantastic.  So much in so that I tried to replicate it at home a few nights later.  But that's another post.  I had fish and chips for my lunch, which were quite tasty, and though most fried fish tends to taste the same, I could tell this fish was extremely fresh.  It tasted like fish, not batter.  Emily had fried clams, which were great, and her mom had a really nice pastrami sandwich.  Her dad had flounder which was just alright, but the soup we all had more than made up for it.

4/5 Sheepdogs

Food Reviews

Good news!  I'm expanding!  Well, by expanding I mean I'm writing about new things.  This is more for local flavor and my travels, as I'm bringing back restaurant reviews.  I go out to eat and find myself analyzing and critiquing the meal from all points of view.  Probably comes from working in restaurants for many of my young adult years.  Along with my good friend and coworker Aaron Atkinson, creator and proprietor of GLdineonline.com, I will be detailing my restaurant adventures over the coming months.  We in Lafayette, Indiana are seriously lacking a good true food critic.  The local paper never got back to me about writing for them (and I even offered it pro bono!), so I'm going to assume that role and hope it helps.  I consider it releasing my inner Tony Bordain, and while I have no great illusions of ever matching his writings and musings (or foul mouth), I do consider myself a pretty honest person when it comes to food.  Hope you all enjoy!

Also, since I'm a dog nut, my value system will be given off of sheepdogs such as these:

The Gage

We went to Chicago this past weekend for the auto show, as we do almost every year, and afterwards dined at The Gage.  The Gage is a gastro-pub, which basically means it serves really good food in a casual, almost bar-like atmosphere.  I enjoy a fancy meal sometimes, but casual is much more my cup of tea.

I have eaten at The Gage many times, and never once have I been short of amazed.  Their menu is outstanding and constantly changing, the beer list is rotating and impressive, and I'm pretty sure everyone who works there loves their job.

We usually start with their poutine, French fries and cheese curds covered in gravy.  This along with their beer and cheese fondue is probably two of the best items on the menu.   We also tried the escargot bon-bons for the table, which were served with a very nice goat cheese sauce and were extremely tender and flavorful.

I can go on and on about how good the rest of the meal was (the local sausages, chicken, or whitefish for a main course are great choices), but I figure I should focus more on the end of the meal.  Make sure you get dessert.  This place serves some of the best dessert of any restaurant I have ever been to.  I would recommend something, but it changes almost weekly. 

So the next time you are in Chicago, I would recommend this be one of your first stops.  It's a very popular place, as it should be from it's great food and drink.

Baked Pasta

As I was sitting in Kansas City last week, snowed in up to my eyeballs, I made the resolve to blog a lot and get caught up on recipes I have had written down since July. Well, that didn't turn out according to plan, as I was either a) pooped or b) drinking beer once the sun set. What do you want from me? Happily, I can report I found a fantastic restaurant in KC called Blancs Burgers and Bottles, which serves not only really good burgers but also has a pretty impressive beer selection.

Also big on my list lately, easy food. Between myself and Em traveling lately, we barely had a together meal over 2 weeks. Not my idea of a good time, but I also try (TRY) to prevent ordering out when I'm by myself. That's a slippery road. I instead turned to my dear friend pasta to help me through the cold nights.

I started making baked pasta about a year ago, and it has evolved into a simple weeknight meal and something I can always make with what I have on hand. Since I made a lot of tomato sauce this summer, 1 bag of that out of the freezer is all I need to get this dish going. If you don't have that handy, you can always use jarred sauce, but try to stick to just the tomato variety (like Ragu).

Baked Pasta

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 cups tomato sauce (preferably home-made, if you don’t have it, use a jar of tomato pasta sauce)
¾ cup Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon red pepper flake
Salt and pepper
1 pound tube pasta (rigatoni or penne)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook pasta in well-salted water by package directions, undercooking by 1-2 minutes. Reserve about 1 cup of pasta water when draining.

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat melt the butter. Once melted whisk in flour and cook for 30 seconds until well combined. Whisk in milk (it will cook faster if the milk is at room temperature) and cook until thickened and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Add ½ cup of the Parmesan cheese, red pepper flake, nutmeg, and some salt and pepper. Turn off heat and add in tomato sauce. Season to taste.

In a 13x9 baking sheet add pasta. Add sauce over top and fold in to combine. If the sauce is too thick, add pasta water to thin it out. It will thicken as it bakes. Top with remaining Parmesan cheese, cover with foil, and bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and hot. Enjoy.