Roasted Chicken with Cranberries and Potatoes

I love buying cranberries during the fall, especially since it used to be hard to find fresh cranberries. Sometimes I get overzealous and find myself with a few extra packets of cranberries when the season is over! So what to do but continue to cook with them? I usually throw the packages in the freezer and pull them out as needed.

I love using the baby tri-colored potatoes shown above, simply because they're pretty. The medley of colors in this dish is insane and would make a great presentation for an dinner party, or just a cozy dinner with your family/friends. The fact that it's one pan is also helpful!

Roasted Chicken with Cranberries and Potatoes
adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Serves 4

4 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 1/2 Tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp butter
1 lb tri-colored baby potatoes, halved
4 carrots, chopped into 1" pieces
1 cup white wine or chicken broth
3/4 cup fresh cranberries
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Trim extra fat/skin from the chicken. Rub with 1 Tbps olive oil, thyme, rosemary, garlic and lemon zest. Really get in there with your hands and make sure everything is evenly and thoroughly coated. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large oven-safe skillet, heat remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sear chicken skin-side down until golden, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook 5 minutes more. Remove from skillet.

Add butter, potatoes, carrots and a pinch of salt/pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Pour in wine and deglaze. Scrape around for all the pan bits and flavors. Simmer for 5 more minutes, until reduced slightly.

Remove from heat and nestle in chicken. Squeeze lemon juice all over.

In a small brown, toss together cranberries, sugar and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle cranberries over the chicken and transfer pan to oven. Roast for about 20-25 minutes, until chicken is cooked and potatoes/carrots are tender. Serve hot.

* if you are me and love flavors AND your chicken is a bit on the oily side, you can make ANOTHER dish for the next day. We ate the chicken and veggies but didn't use any of the "sauce" at the bottom of the pan because the chicken fat, butter and oil combination made it a bit greasy. I scooped out the chicken and veggies, leaving as much of the sauce behind as I could.

I bought another pound of tri-colored potatoes (halved), 10-15 brussel sprouts (halved), 3 carrots (cut into 1" pieces), and 1/2 onion (sliced) ... and tossed all those together with the flavor bits and chicken fat at the bottom of the skillet. There should be plenty to go around but if you need to, add a couple more tsp of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, then roast in oven for about 30 min or until tender, stirring once halfway through.

Two dishes for the price of one, and just as pretty. I loved it! Feel free to use whatever veggie combinations you would like, including cauliflower, turnips, butternut squash, etc. OR my other new favorite thing to do is roast leftover crudite platters from parties! Most of the time, there is so much food that the crudite platter is barely touched. Everything is already basically cut up so you can just throw and roast. But feel free to cut into more manageable pieces for stuff like baby carrots, celery and radishes (which I've also discovered is great when roasted).

Portuguese Kale Potato Soup

I haven't been here forever!! But I just made my own spin on the traditional Portuguese soup (caldo verde) and it's too good not to post. What makes it awesome are these tiny Korean Berkshire sausages. There are a few brands out there and I cannot seem to find a picture of the one that is my favorite, but it basically looks like this:

The sausage I prefer has a happier cartoon sausage on it but they're about the size of Vienna sausages. I like them because the skins/casings are really crisp and have a great snap when you bite into them. Sometimes it's easy to also just pan fry up half a package. No oil needed, just a hot pan over medium high heat - shake the pan until the sausages brown.

Portuguese Kale Soup
Serves 4 as main course

2 Tbps butter
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 bunch kale, curly or lacinato, shredded
2 large russet potatoes, quartered lengthwise and 1/4" sliced
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 package Korean Berkshire pork sausage, cut into 1/4" coins

Melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook for about 10 minutes, with a large pinch of salt, stirring occasionally.

Once the onion is translucent and sweated out, add kale, potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer and cover. Cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring a few times. As the potatoes cook down, they'll break up and make the soup creamy.

Add sausage and heat through (should only take a couple minutes). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Substitutes:
* vegetable broth and omit sausage to make this vegetarian
* use any sort of garlic-y sausage, diced into 1/4" cubes

Chicken Breast with Mushroom Sage Sauce

So the Superbowl tonight huh? Unlike my undying love (though this season, it's more like undying anger) for the Lakers, I don't have a football team that I root for. Since Boyfriend is a Patriots fan, I generally just root for them, but since the Patriots weren't playing this time, I could take the "west coast team" and root for the 49ers. Though there was a marvelous comeback, the final score just fell a bit short. Sorry for all my friends that are TRUE 49ers fans. *sad emoticon*

The above dish was not something I made for the Superbowl but something I threw together one night after I went spinning at the gym. Umm, there probably shouldn't have been all that cream (or actually, I made a substitute for heavy cream) in it, and I probably shouldn't have given in to the Boyfriend's request for white pasta, but the sauce was oh-so-good. I would probably recommend mashed potatoes next time, as there was not quite enough to coat a bunch of pasta. Or just doubling up on the sauce.

Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce
adapted from Simply Recipes
serves 3-4

3 Tbsp butter

1/2 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

8 ounces button mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine

2/3 cup heavy cream (or substitute)

3 Tbsp chopped fresh sage

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken tender pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Additional fresh parsley

Melt butter in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onions and garlic, sauté for until fragrant. Add mushrooms and parsley, and sauté for 5-10 more minutes, until mushrooms are a deep brown and the liquid has evaporated. Add vermouth to deglaze, scraping up any bits that may be sticking to the bottom of the pan (that's where all the flavor is). Stir in the cream thoroughly to incorporate. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium and cook the sauce down until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (about 10 minutes).

In the meantime while the sauce is cooking down, heat olive oil in another large sauté pan on medium high heat. Sprinkle salt and lots of pepper over both sides of the chicken breast cutlets. Add cutlets to pan and cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Make sure you don't overcook, as dry chicken breast is all rubbery and gross.

Stir sage into sauce and season to taste with salt/pepper. Pour sauce over chicken to serve.

Serve alone, with mashed potatoes or pasta, or steamed vegetables. I think broccoli would have been great. Garnish with additional chopped fresh parsley. It'll look fancy.

The Walking Dead S3E7 - Grilled Tuna with Potato-Tomato Gratin

I'm so behind in blogging that I'm ashamed of myself. The Walking Dead has been over for weeks! Well, two weeks ... but still. And this is still for the episode before the midseason finale. And what a midseason finale it was. Hopefully they get rid of unreasonably angry women in the second half of the season.

Dinner was from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. It took a bit of preparation ahead of time but for the most part, everything came together pretty quickly. The gratin had to bake for almost three hours so definitely prepare for that if you want to make this dish!

Maybe I did something wrong but the gratin was a bit more watery than I would have liked. Anyone know what I did wrong? I think the tomatoes just have a lot of juice. Maybe I need to bake everything longer or seed the tomatoes first or just use less tomatoes.

The hunt for ahi tuna to sear was also an adventure. I first went to Whole Foods and ahi tuna was on sale for ...wait for it ... drum roll please ... $39.99 a pound. I almost fainted. Then I went to Trader Joe's and they were being sold for $16.99 a pound, which was a lot more reasonable. But the tuna wasn't too tender after being seared. I guess the more expensive quality does make a difference!

gratin onions being caramelized

onions caramelized

tomato, potato, onion and basil layering in progress

layered and ready for baking

Potato-Tomato Gratin
serves 6

5 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
6 cups thinly sliced onions
1 Tbsp thyme leaves
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 1/4 lbs ripe tomatoes
1/4 cup sliced opal basil (I used regular)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large sautee pan or Dutch oven over high heat for 2 minutes. Swirl in 3 Tbsp olive oil, and add the onions, 1 Tbsp thyme, 1 tsp salt, and some pepper. Cook 6 minutes, stirring often, and then turn the heat down to medium, Add the butter, and cook 15 minutes, stirring and scraping with a wooden spoon, until the onions start to caramelize. Turn the heat down to low, and continue cooking for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are a deep golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350degreesF.

Use a mandoline to slice the potatoes into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Toss them with the cream, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp salt, and some freshly ground black pepper.

Cut the tomatoes into 1/4-inch-thick slices, arrange them on a plate, and season them with 1 tsp salt and some pepper.

Place half the caramelized onions in an even layer in a 9x9 inch gratin or baking dish. Arrange one layer of alternating potatoes and tomatoes on top of the onion layer. Drizzle with 2 Tbsp of the cream from the potatoes and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Season with 1/4 tsp salt, a healthy pinch of pepper, 1/2 tsp thyme and half the basil.

Scatter the rest of the caramelized onions over the potatoes and tomatoes.

Arrange another layer of potatoes and tomatoes on topl make this layer pretty, because it will be the top of your gratin. Pour the remaining cream (from the potatoes) and remaining Tbsp olive oil over the potatoes and tomatoes. Season with 1/4 tsp salt, a pinch of pepper, the remaining 1/2 tsp thyme, and the remaining basil. Press the vegetables down with your fingers. The cream and oil will come u p through the layers and coat the vegetables evenly.

Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake about 2 hours, until the potatoes are tender when pierced. Remove the gratin from the oven and uncover it, being careful of the steam.

Turn the oven up to 450degreesF and return the gratin, uncovered, to the oven. Cook another 25-30 minutes, until the juices have thickened and the top is nice and golden brown (as in "gratinéed").

grilled tuna over arugula

perfectly seared on the inside

Grilled Tuna
serves 6

6 tuna steaks, 5 to 6 oz each, about 1 inch thick
1 lemon, zested
1 chile de árbol, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 Tbsp thyme leaves
1 Tbsp sliced flat lead parsley
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp fleur de sel
1 Tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
2 oz arugula, cleaned
2 Tbsp super good extra-virgin olive oil

Season the fish with the lemon zest, chile, thyme and parsley. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Light the grill 30 to 40 mintues before cooking, and remove the fish from the refrigerator to come to room temperature. Alternately, use an indoor grill pan over high heat.

When the coals are broken down, red, and glowing, brush the fish with olive oil, and season on both sides with fleur de sel and cracked black epper. Grill the fish 2-3 minutes per side, rotating it once or twice. The tuna should be well seared but still rare.

Scatter the arugula onto a large platter and arrange the tuna on top. Squeeze some lemon juice over the fish, and then drizzle the fish with the super good olive oil. Dollop each piece of fish with rouille (I didn't make the rouille but the recipe is available in the book).

The Walking Dead S2E11 - Lobster and Braised Potatoes with Bay Leaves

Only two more weeks and then The Walking Dead is over. Moving aside for Mad Men, which I am also excited about. Don't want to give anything away for this episode, but man, the going gets good! I'm glad T-Dog appeared in the episode as well because I hadn't seen him in so long that I thought he was dead. He was in a couple scenes but don't think he said anything. He must be so pissed as an actor.

Look at that massacre. After reading that Ms The Roaming Belly (I never know whether to use people's real names) took part in Dungeness Friday on Twitter, I immediately responded and asked her where she got her crabs (haha). Asians specialize in cheap, live seafood - the cheaper and live-er it is, the better.

She directed me to Seafood Paradise Market close to the intersection of Rosemead and Garvey. BOOM. What a jackpot. The market is closing next week for some renovations (they will be closed for a week) so a lot of their items were cleaned out. Boyfriend and I grabbed a Maine lobster weighing in at 3 lbs ... for $7.99 per pound.

As it was delicately put, we ripped the head off the lobster while walkers were getting their heads ripped off on TV. It was amazing. We had a few leftover biscuits from dinner at Red Lobster on Friday (yea seriously) ... or Red Robstarr, as my mom pronounces it. Also, we stopped by Mitsuwa on the way home and picked up a few pieces of sushi in their refrigerated section. I braised some potatoes and we were good to go. Massacre never tasted so good.

Braised Potatoes with Bay Leaves
from All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking

1.5 lbs small new potatoes (I used baby yellow Dutch)
3 Tbps olive oil
1 cup water or chicken broth
2 bay leaves (fresh, if possible)
3 cloves garlic, bruised
Coarse salt and pepper

Scrub potatoes and cut them in half if they are larger than a golf ball. Test the skin by running your fingernail along it; if the skin does not break then use a vegetable peeler to peel away one strip all around each potato. Put the potatoes in a pan just large enough to fit them in a single layer. Turn heat on to medium.

Drizzle in olive oil and add enough water or broth to come halfway up the sides of the potatoes. Add the garlic and bay leaves. Season with some salt and pepper. Let everything come to a medium simmer, and then turn the heat to medium low, so it cooks at a gentle simmer. Cover with a tight fitting lid. If the lid has a tiny vent in it for steaming purposes, cover the pot with a sheet of aluminum foil before putting the lid on.

Braise for 20 minutes, turning potatoes over once halfway through. They're done when a fork goes into them easily; try not to overboil. Uncover and then crank the heat to high. Shake the pan and let the broth/water evaporate. Soon all the broth/water will evaporate and you will hear the oil crackling. Shaking the pan will break down the garlic and coat the potatoes in a cream, garlicky sauce. Serve hot.

Asian Cinnamon Spare Ribs & Potato Salad

I went to 99 Ranch a couple Fridays ago and the meat section was ridiculous. Like, I thought they were giving away filet mignon for free, there were so many people. Turns out, spare ribs were on sale for $1.69/lb and people were buying them up like the apocalypse was coming. I saw people buying 10 lbs of spare ribs at a time! Who needs that much meat? Needless to say, since I had to wait for 30 minutes to buy my pork belly, I grabbed half a slab as well. And since Boyfriend has STILL not set up the grill that I bought almost a year ago, I had to piece together some recipes I found online to oven bake them.

Good thing these ribs were really damn good, otherwise I would have been super angry that I had to wait 30 minutes at the butcher to get them and driving in the San Gabriel Valley fills me with rage. Maybe it's bad for my blood pressure that I can go from calm and singing along to KOST 103.5 (soft rock with less talk, baby) (don't judge me cause sometimes it's comforting to listen to after work) to ENGRAGED in a millisecond. So I'm glad the ribs turned out meltingly soft and tender. Served them with potato salad and an easy salad with kalamata olives, feta cheese and avocado, dressed with balsamic and olive oil.

Asian Cinnamon Spare Ribs
Serves 4

3 lbs spare ribs, cut into strips
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Shaoxing wine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 300degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with layers of aluminum foil to avoid a messy cleanup. Boil a large pot of water. Rinse the ribs and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix together soy sauce, wine, sugar, cinnamon and black pepper in a bowl.

Remove ribs from simmering water and rinse off quickly to get the scum off. Place into pan in a single layer and pour the marinade over it. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for two hours. Uncover ribs, flip over carefully with tongs (they may be falling apart a bit), cover again and bake for another two hours.

To finish, remove foil and allow ribs to cook for 10 minutes. Flip carefully (they will be totally falling off the bone at this point) and bake for a final 10 minutes. This will thicken the sauce.

Potato Salad
Serves 4

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot, cut in bite size pieces
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Boil the potatoes until half tender and add in carrots. Once potatoes are completely tender, drain. Pick out carrots and crush potatoes slightly with a fork, leaving them pretty lumpy.

Combine crushed potatoes with carrots and mix in red onion, mayonnaise and red wine vinegar while potatoes and carrots are still warm. Salt and pepper to taste, adding more red wine vinegar if additional acidity is needed. Refrigerate until cool.

Sweet Potato Diet

Now that I'm going to the gym for the first time in my entire life, I've started thinking more about what I eat. Not because I'm becoming one of those crazy health-conscious fanatics, but because I've been going for about two months and haven't noticed any "changes." Basically, I don't look like Giesle yet, and that's just unacceptable cause I've put in a lot of hard work! Then my friend Jennifer tactfully (or bluntly) pointed out that in addition to increasing my activity/exercise, I've also increased my cake/pastry consumption. Hmm, this may be harder than originally planned.

However, in browing my weekly magazines, I came across a quick solution: the sweet potato diet! Through some basic research, I now know there is absolutely no merit to the "eat nothing but sweet potatoes for three days - it'll tighten everything up and you will look fab!" but every bit helps, right? Plus, sweet potatoes are packed with nutrients and fiber and at least it's not the baby food diet. So I went to the market and bought three different types of sweet potatoes, so there is variety. So far I've eaten one each for dinner and breakfast, then caved and had hot wings with fries during the Lakers playoff game.

Should you be inclined to experiment with me for this "diet", baking is the best way to get the full benefits. Boiling is good too, but then you don't get the fiberous skin; deep frying is definitely not an option at this time. Currently I'm eating them plain, since they are sweet by nature (about halfway though it gets slightly cloying), but feel free to add a pat of butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon - whatever you fancy.

Baked Sweet Potatoes
as many as you like

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly scrub the potatoes and prick all over with a fork. Place onto baking sheet with sufficient room in between them and bake for 75 minutes. The sweet potatoes will be soft on the inside and the skin will be crunchy with delicious caramelization. Split open immediately and fill it with bad-for-you goodies, or eat plain hot or cold.