Italian Lentil Salad

Ok, time to catch up on my Giada recipe adventures. Last Tuesday, I decided to make the Italian Lentil Salad. Obviously, it has lots of lentils in it.. So I cooked those up in a sauce pan. Then, you chop up and add all of these things:

 Back to front, left to right, grapes, hazelnuts, cucumber, scallions, bell pepper, and then the lemon you use for zest and juice. You mix all of this with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then you serve your cold salad. Easy enough, right? I hadn't counted on this..

 Hazelnuts. Apparently, they are the biggest pain in the behind EVER. I never knew this. I saw hazelnuts in the recipe and I thought back to my fond memories of cracking hazelnuts, almonds, and whatnot and eating them from the shells. We only pulled out the nutcracker at Christmas, so I had this warm Christmasy wave of nostalgia wash over me.
I went to Trader Joe's and bought a large bag of hazelnuts, thinking of all the fun things I would do with the rest of the nuts. I only needed half a cup for this recipe. Visions of hazelnut risotto and hazelnut cookies danced in my head.
As I looked over the recipe, I noticed that these hazelnuts should be skinned, roasted and chopped coarsely. Still naive, I googled 'skinned hazelnuts' and that is where the madness started. Apparently, there are 2 ways you can skin hazelnuts. And also apparently, hazelnuts are terribly bitter if you leave the skin on. Believe me, my lazy self considered this option.
One way to skin hazelnuts involves boiling them in hot water and a few tablespoons of baking soda for a few minutes, then rinsing them individually under cold water and 'popping' the skins off. Then, since the hazelnuts have absorbed so much moisture, you put them on a pan and roast them in the oven.
The second method is to throw the skinful hazelnots on a baking sheet, roast them, and then put the hot hazelnuts between 2 towels (that you don't care about) and rub them together until the skins come off. According to my sources, this method is time consuming and less effective than the first.
I chose the second method. Laziness aside, I just couldn't quite face boiling nuts in baking soda. The picture above is the aftermath. As you can see in the first picture and the picture below, though, I think I did a fairly decent job.

So this is the finished product. I would give it a thumbs-middle. It was ok and the grapes and hazelnuts made it really interesting texturally. Bu, I kept getting bites that tasted like a mouthful of vinegar. And there was no vinegar in it! I'm thinking it might have been the scallions. Maybe if I try it again, I would use red onions instead.
Oh, and hazelnut risotto? Suddenly sounds atrocious.

Chicken Tacos

I am taking a quick break from Giada to share one of my favorite recipes. It came about through a lot of trial and error and picking bits and pieces from lot of food network shows. This is another recipe that I think Keith would have me make every day if he had his 'druthers'.

I start out boiling the chicken. I like to use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, because they are pretty cheap, but still only white meat. I've never been much of a dark meat fan.

 In the pan with the chicken, I add a quartered onion, a few garlic cloves, peeled and halved, a bay leaf, dried chipotle peppers (1 or 2), salt, cumin, and whatever else I happen to feel like adding. I add enough water to cover most of the chicken, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for an hour or so.

This is what it looks like after it has simmered for awhile. At this stage, I take the pan off the heat and let it cool enough to put in the refrigerator. You can either go ahead with the chicken tacos right away, or save this little concoction in the refrigerator to make the next day, if you're planning ahead.

 When I decide I'm ready for tacos, I fish the chicken out of the broth, strain the broth and save it for soup, and shred up the chicken. In a frying pan, I sautee about half an onion in olive oil and then add the shredded chicken. To the chicken, I add some of Lawry's chicken taco seasoning. I usually use about half a packet since I am only cooking for 2. To this I add some water and let it cook for a few minutes, then I chop up about a cup of cherry or grape tomatoes and add them to the chicken mix, just cooking until they are heated through.

I couldn't figure out how to flip this picture, so you'll have to turn your head sideways for a minute. The picture below shows the real secret ingredients that help make these chicken tacos amazing. The green package is ducal refried black beans. They are from Guatemala and they are amazing. You can actually find them in the US now, at some Mexican grocery stores. Along with these beans is an avocado and some fresh cilantro from my garden. Ok, true confession- this is actually parsley, because it was what I had handy on my counter when I was snapping the picture. I would never put parsley on tacos, though. Cilantro is much better.

 We use whole wheat tortillas from Trader Joe's. Some day I might dedicate a whole section of this blog to the products I love from Trader Joe's. Keith likes crunchy shell tacos, so he usually has those. Here is the finished product:

The Christmas plate is a whole other story for another day. Looking at this picture is making me so hungry, so I had better sign off and go find something to eat. More Giada coming soon. I have already made 2 more recipes, but I need to find where I stored the photos on my computer..

Blueberry Mascarpone Turnovers

On Saturday morning, I decided to try this recipe from Giada: Blueberry and mascarpone turnovers. My life will never, ever be the same. The comment next to the date on this recipe says simply "ridiculous".

First, you mix together mascarpone cheese, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice and add some blueberries. Then, you cut circles out of a piecrust. I cheated and used ready made piecrust, complements of Pillsbury.

To each circle, you add the filling, brush beaten egg around the edges and seal with a fork.

Then, you heat some oil to about 375 (this was as close as I could manage). and deep fry each turnover for 1-2 minutes.

Then, you let the turnovers drain on paper towels and sprinkle sugar on top. Arranage them nicely on a stolen IU plate that appeared among your wedding gifts (?!) and enjoy. The filling is beautifully balanced and the crust turns out flaky and delicious. Keith wants me to make them every day.

This is the one thing that I have noticed so far about the Giada recipes. The flavors are all so well balanced. I thought I cooked well before, but I can tell that I still have a lot to learn.

The Babysitter

By the way, I think I should give some props where props are due. The only way that I was able to make fish stew on a weeknight (I made it on Tuesday (?)) was because of the babysitter.

We read in our poodle handbook (from the breeder) that one chew toy that is good for puppies is pig ears. So, being the new puppy parents that we are, we went out and bought what the book said (unfortunately, we couldn't find any lamb lung..) and thusly discovered the most impressive trick in the book. Now we call these her babysitters, because she will sit and chew on these pig ears for hours and only stop when she needs to potty. So not only does she stay out of trouble, but she also gives you a very clear sign of when she needs to be taken outside.

Oh, and apparently black poodles get green eye, not red eye in photos. Who knew?

Ligurian Fish Stew

Due to several life circumstances, involving a little terror of a puppy, a sick husband, and a trip to Costa Rica, I never got around to making those apricot cookies. Instead, my first attempt at a Giada recipe was to make her Ligurian Fish Stew. Now, for those of you who know me, you will know that fish stew would be probably last on my list of things that I would ever want to make. I have never been much of a fish fan because it's, well, so fishy. And spreading that fishiness around in a stew? No thank you. But Evie e-mailed and told me that she was making this recipe and I should too. So I figured, might as well get it over with.

The stew started out pretty tame- potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, olive oil. But from there you add white wine, crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, white fish (I used orange roughy). Now I have never cooked with wine before and I always thought that I HATED wine in things. Just hated it. But, just like all strong, baseless convictions, this one fell apart. The wine added just the right.. something.. to balance out the fishy-ness. And the red pepper flakes made it spicy. Under the date that I wrote in the margin of the cookbook, I also added this little note: Changed my opinion of fish stew!

So, fish stew, you have my official apology. I am sorry I hated you for so long.

Giada at Home

Final decision- Giada at Home. It's her newest cookbook. Evie has decided to cook with me through the cookbook and Jen had mentioned it, but I haven't heard anything recently. (Jen?) It will be a little crazy and nontraditional, because we're all very busy this summer. For this week, though, we will be making Apricot and Nut Cookies with Amaretto Icing. I will try to post pictures before I leave for Costa Rica.

New puppy

We finally got our puppy that we have been talking about for a few years now. We ended up with a black toy poodle and she is ADORABLE. She is actually a really good puppy. She has already been potty trained to go on newspaper, so we'll just need to transition her to going outside. She plays by herself really well. She wants to chew on everything, but is pretty good about being redirected to chewing on her toys.

The only problem is that she is so dark that it's hard to take pictures of her. Sometimes, when she is lying down, I can't tell where her head is because she is just a ball of fuzz. I was ready to give her back after a night of whining, but after today I guess I'll keep her. She just follows me around and then plops down on my foot whenever I stop and then stays there until I move next. We'll see what I think tomorrow morning..