Category Archives: Recipe

Kitchen – Chicken to the Garlic with Farm Fresh Tomatoes for #SundaySupper

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Whether your tomato plants are going gang busters or you just can’t help but get that extra basket of heirlooms at the farmers market, you might be running out of fresh ideas for fresh tomatoes here at the end of August.

Earlier this week I had a package of chicken thighs, market tomatoes that needed using and no recipe that really called to me. I dug out my Le Creuset covered deep covered saute pan (a very appreciated gift via a family member working at Sur la Table last year) and riffed on a few recipes I’ve cooked over the summer.

I served the creation over Trader Joe’s brown Jasmine rice and we each had a fresh ear of buttered Jersey corn. The velvety cooked tomatoes, tender chicken and juicy fresh corn made the perfect late-summer dish. Sunny flavors but comforting with the breeze outside blowing a little cooler from the north. Fall is heading our way.

Neal loved it, fondly saying it reminded him of one of his dinners in Spain, Pollo al Ahillo, and the awkward but accurate English translation on that long-ago menu: Chicken to the Garlic.

So, with that, and a thanks to Family Foodie bringing back #SundaySupper, I present:

Chicken to the Garlic with Farm Fresh Tomatoes

Serves 2 – 4, depending on appetites and side dishes. Recipe easily doubles.

Ingredients:

- 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

- 1 or 2 TBS olive oil

- 1.5 – 2 cups chopped fresh heirloom or garden tomatoes (grape or cherry tomatoes are great, slice in half) you can mix your favorite size/shape/variety of tomatoes

- 1/3 cup shallot, minced

- 1 head garlic, cloves peeled and chopped

- 1/2 tsp ground cumin

- 1/2 to 1 tsp fresh thyme

- salt (sea or kosher) and ground pepper

- 1/2 cup water

- 1 TBS salted and roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) optional

Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and set aside while prepping the other items.

Toss tomatoes and shallots with a few pinches salt and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Let sit while prepping the garlic. This gives the salt a little time to release the tomato flavor.

In a heavy-bottomed pot with a well-fitting lid (a dutch oven is ideal), heat 1 – 2 TBS olive oil over medium-high heat and brown the chicken thighs, 4 – 7 minutes per side. Remove the thighs to a plate and reduce heat to medium low. Add the garlic and cumin, stir until fragrant – about a minute.

Add the tomato and shallot mix, stirring to deglaze the pot to get that rich chicken flavor. Add the water, stir, then nestle the browned chicken thighs down into the mix. It’s alright if they aren’t covered by the tomatoes.

Sprinkle the thyme over the thighs, cover and simmer on medium-low until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

When the chicken is nearly cooked through, if the mixture seems too watery, finish cooking uncovered, spooning the liquid and tomatoes over the thighs every few minutes. Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer and let it thicken slightly. Do not let the pot cook dry – you want the tomato garlic mixture to remain very moist, easily filling a spoon with liquid alone. Add more water if your chicken isn’t cooked through but the tomato mixture is no longer juicy.

Serve over your favorite rice or shaped pasta, generously spooning on the tomatoes, garlic and lovely juices. Sprinkle the pepitas over top. Pairs wonderfully with fresh corn.

A Few Notes:

- You can easily substitute drum-sticks for chicken thighs. Whichever you use, you only want a single layer of them in your pot. (Or brown in batches and, later, switch top layer with bottom layer halfway through cooking with the tomatoes so they cook evenly.)

- The chicken’s bones and skin, cooked at a medium-low heat with the lid on, give the tomatoes, shallots and garlic a velvety texture. Using boneless/skinless cuts will change the dish.

- Do not use chicken stock or broth. By only adding water you let those fresh, local tomatoes shine! Browning the chicken first, setting it aside, then making the dish in the same pot will carry plenty of great chicken flavor.

- The leftovers reheat fantastically the next day!

- I take the worst food pictures on the planet. I mixed yellow and red tomatoes to beautiful effect, you can too!

- A tried-and-true Pollo al Ajillo recipe is here if my version with fresh tomatoes seems a little fast and loose.

Enjoy!

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Kitchen – Glazed Young Beets via Julia Child for #SundaySupper

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Beets.  They’re what’s for dinner.

Recipes are flying between garden bloggers as seeds sown turn into dinner.  The #SundaySupper movement came my way earlier in the week and I will likely feed one post a week towards it.

Yesterday we took fresh farmers market beets and made sister dishes of glazed beets and sauteed beet greens with garlic and mustard seed (prepared exactly like sauteed kale with garlic and mustard seed).

Beets snuck into our kitchen a few years ago through our weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box and I’ve never looked back.

After a few reminders from the husband that he “doesn’t really like beets” I finally fell into two cooking methods we all love: roasting and glazing.

I’ve been glazing carrots as directed by Julia Child and recently applied it to beets.  Score 1 for the home cook.  It’s easy, you can adjust the sweetness while cooking, you can cook them firm or tender, they reheat nicely and they’re an easy sell to reluctant beet eaters.

Disclaimer:  I am not a food writer nor a food photographer.  My food pictures are incredibly bad and I cook daily but rarely write about it.  As such, the recipe below is nearly verbatim from the source with my comments preceding and following it.  I encourage you to play with the recipe, make it your own and share your results.

The Set-Up

The following two recipes are adapted from “The Way to Cook” by Julia Child, copyright 1989.  The master recipe is for a variety of root vegetables and the carrot recipe is what I use for beets.  A few weeks ago I glazed a medley of young beets and turnips to great success.

Following the recipe I note what I do differently and successful substitutions I use for butter, water and sugar.

BOIL-STEAMING: BRAISING (Master recipe)

Rutabaga, carrots, turnips, and beets as well as green peas and onions

Peel the vegetables, and leave them whole or cut them into neat pieces or chunks, depending on your final intentions.  Boil-steam them in a covered pan with water, salt and optional butter.

Fill the saucepan with enough water to come halfway up the vegetables, bring to the boil, and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the optional 2 Tbs butter.  Toss up once or twice, cover the pan, and boil 8 – 10 minutes – adding more liquid if needed, until the vegetables are tender.  If it is done and liquid remains, uncover and boil it off.  (Cooked this way, no flavor escapes: it is all reabsorbed into the vegetables.)

BOIL-STEAMED CARROTS

And braised and glazed carrots

For 6 servings

6 – 9 carrots 8 inches long, peeled and cut into long wedges
Salt

For glazed carrots
3 Tbs butter (2 for initial cooking, 1 for glazing)
1 1/2 tsp sugar

Preliminary cooking.  Boil-steam the carrots in a covered saucepan with water to come halfway up them, and salt, as described in master recipe; add 2 tablessppons of butter if you are to glaze them.  When tender, and the liquid has evaporated, the carrots will begin to saute in the residue of their juices.  Correct seasoning.

Glazing.  Just before serving, add the additional butter and the sugar.  Toss gently over moderately high heat to glaze them with a buttery sheen.

My notes:

1. This cooking method is extremely forgiving.  You can vary nearly everything as long as you bear in mind that you are cooking the liquid off as the veggies boil-steam.  You want a little fat remaining in the pan at the end to add sheen and keep them from scorching.  That fat can be any cooking oil or butter (or combo).  If using butter alone, add more at the end as directed above.

2.  I use a 9″ enameled cast iron skillet instead of a saucepan with a light loose-fitting saucepan lid.

3.  You can cut your beets how you like but try to make the resulting pieces similar in size for uniform cooking.

4.  Cut the greens off entirely off, sacrificing a little beet meat, to ensure sand isn’t carried into the pan.

5.  Trim the stringy root tip and any other root strings.

6.  You do not need to peel baby beets.  I did not peel the beets pictured, which I would call young but not baby.

7.  I don’t use sugar but do add something sweet when I add the water.  A little maple syrup (about 1 Tbs) or substituting apple juice or apple cider for the water will make it sweet enough.  I also finish the dish by turning the heat down to low towards the end and caramelizing the beets slightly, letting their natural sugars develop.  Keep a close eye so not to scorch or burn them.

8.  I start with about 2 Tbs olive oil in the pan first, add the beets, then add water until halfway up the beet chunks.  I often add about a pat of butter with the salt.

9.  You can skip the sugar entirely by making a strong tea with fenugreek seeds and adding with the water in the recipe.  Simply place 1 Tbs fenugreek seeds into a mug and fill with boiling water.  Let steep while you prep the beets (at least 10 minutes).  Use the tea but not the seeds (they are hard and bitter) – it tastes and smells like maple syrup.

10.  I don’t time how long the lid is on since I end up with different sized beets and chunks each time I cook this.  I start poking the beets with a fork, checking for tenderness, after about five minutes.  Once they start to soften I ditch the lid and let the liquid boil off, keeping the heat medium-high.

Now go get beets and get glazing!

Kitchen – Sautéed Kale with Garlic and Mustard Seed

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#SundaySupper

That explains this recipe.

Our farmers market saw its second Sunday today and we brought home two different kales for dinner.  One was very tender and tasted like mustard greens, the other had slender tear-drop leaves that grew from a stalk.

A few days ago Bren, from BGgarden, turned me onto #SundaySupper and Family Foodie on twitter.  The mission is to get families around the table for Sunday sinner.  Family Foodie asked me to share what we made from the farmer’s market tonight.

Behold – My go to kale recipe.  I can do this blindfolded now.  It always comes out tasty.  Some nights it’s stunning.  I tweak it, use multiple kales (sometimes together, as in tonight), multiple mustard seed varieties, more liquid, less liquid, sometimes cook it very quickly, sometimes stretch it out a bit with the fire low at the end, I reheat it the next day and I make it at least once a week throughout market season.

Recipe: Sautéed Kale with Garlic and Mustard Seed

  • Bunch or two kale: remove stems, tear or chop greens
  • 1 – 2 TBS olive or peanut oil
  • Salt: 1/4 tsp kosher or coarse
  • Garlic: Few cloves peeled and chopped (do not mince, should be pea-sized or larger after chopping)
  • Mustard seed: 1 or 2 tsp, any variety
  • Optional: 1/4 cup liquid (broth, water, apple juice/cider) see below
  • Heavy bottomed skillet over med-high heat:  Heat oil and mustard seed until seeds sizzle (tiny bubbles form around mustard seeds).  Add kale and toss with a pair of spatulas/wooden spoons until well-coated with oil and mustard seed seems distributed.  Sprinkle with salt and garlic and toss again.
  • If you want tender kale:  Add about 1/4 cup liquid (water, broth, apple juice/cider, etc) and immediately cover losely with lid.  Let it steam a minute or so then toss kale in the skillet.  Cover for another minute if you desire more tender kale.  Uncover and let liquid cook off, tossing kale with a pair of spatulas to move what’s on the bottom of the skillet to the top.  Before the skillet goes dry, turn kale out into wide shallow bowl.  Top with garlic, mustard seed and any liquid from bottom of skillet.
  • If firm kale is desired:  Loosely cover with lid for 30 – 60 seconds to let steam with its own moisture.  Remove lid and toss kale until cooked to desired doneness.  Keep the kale moving as you finish – use a pair of spatulas/wooden spoons to move what’s on the bottom to the top and mind the garlic, trying to keep it moving with the kale.  Turn out into wide shallow bowl.  Top with garlic and mustard seed from bottom of skillet.
  • Can’t decide:  Shake  you kale after washing but don’t let it dry.  Cook as firm kale above but be careful – the hot oil will spit and sputter.  It’s manageable, just be warned.  The water droplets help steam the kale just enough.

The times are not exact.  You can’t really mess it up, you can add more oil and liquid (if using) as needed.

You can wash and prep the kale the day before.  It stores best if you salad spin it, pat it dry or air dry before bagging it.

Don’t mince the garlic – it will cook too quickly, burn and taste bitter.  You don’t really want the garlic to even brown (the browner, the more bitter).  I’ve cooked the garlic to a crisp many times – it’s fine.  Try not to, tenderly cooked garlic refines the dish and lets the kale flavor shine.

If overcooking the garlic makes you nervous, cook it in the oil over medium heat first, until just tender and still white.  Remove the garlic, add the mustard seeds to the oil and proceed as above on med-high heat.

The mustard seed adds a wonderful nutty flavor and looks nice.  You can add a little flaked red pepper while cooking if you want to make it spicy.

If you cook you kale the firm method (without adding liquid), a few edges may brown or crisp.  This adds great texture.  However, don’t let all the kale brown and crisp in the pan or the dish will end up tough and chewy.

I’ll update this post if I ever find the original recipe.

The only way this dish could be easier is if the kale washed and prepped itself.  Or if another family member did it.

Post-publishing note: Antsy over posting a recipe for something I cook on the fly, I’ve refined a few lines above.  Please share how your kale turned out!