Menu Mates - BBQ Chicken

Whenever I'm planning my meals for the week, I try to plan meals that use similar ingredients. I hate buying special ingredients (not the basic things I always have on hand) and then watching half of it go to waste because I didn't need the whole thing for the one meal I prepared. I also like to prep as much as I can at one time (so, for instance, I'll cut up all the onions I need for all my meals that week) which saves me on prep time each day. Zara is often rather fussy around dinnertime so anything that saves time during mealtime is an all-around good idea.

I'm still trying to perfect this menu planning method, but I thought I might share some of my favorite "menu mates" as I call them.

First up: BBQ chicken.


On Saturday night, it made excellent BBQ chicken tacos.


And on Sunday, it tasted delicious as BBQ chicken pizza.


I got the recipe for the BBQ chicken tacos from this website. Four chicken breasts is enough to last for both meals but I double the BBQ sauce. You could, of course, use store bought BBQ sauce which would probably be cheaper and easier. Since the BBQ sauce in the recipe calls for espresso powder (which I don't use), I modified the recipe. My BBQ sauce recipe looks something like this:

BBQ Sauce:
1 1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I don't double the vinegar because it's very strong.)
2 tablespoons brown mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients and let simmer in a pot on the stovetop for 7-10 minutes or until it thickens.

For the pizza, I use the pizza dough recipe for my pizza magherita which makes two pizzas. I then top the pizza with BBQ sauce, leftover chicken, mozzarella cheese, diced red onion, and leftover queso fresco or cotija cheese. I bake it at 500 degrees for about 10-12 minutes and then top with chopped cilantro. It makes for two very delicious meals and all my ingredients get used.

Food Candy: Pizza Magherita

You can't live in Italy for four months without coming away with an almost sacred reverence for the true Italian pizza with it's delicately thin crust and fresh mozarella. I'd never found a pizza (either homemade or restaurant-produced) that came close to the wonder of a real pizza magherita, until my sister (my recipe provider) sent me Cook's Illustrated's "Italian Favorites" collection. This pizza has quickly become one of David and my favorite meals. So quick, simple, and delicious. Almost, almost as good as the real thing. So it must be shared.

Pizza Dough

1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup water, room temperature
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons sugar

In a liquid measuring cup, whisk yeast into water to dissolve. In food processor fitted with metal blade, process flours, salt, and sugar until combined, about 5 seconds. With machine running, slowly add liquid through feed tube; continue to process until dough forms satiny, sticky ball that clears sides of workbowl, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. (Add more dough or water as needed.) Divide dough in half and shape into two smooth, tight balls. Place on floured counter or baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Here's my dough after rising for about 4 hours. I think the mixture of regular flour and cake flour really allows the dough to retain it's delicate silkiness without becoming too heavy.

Pizza Topping

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I prefer Muir Glen organic tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Table salt
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

In clean bowl of food processor, process tomatoes until crushed, 2 or 3 one-second pulses. Transfer tomatoes to a fine-mesh strainer set over bowl and let drain at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to release liquids. Just before shaping pizza rounds, combine drained tomatoes, sugar, garlic, some of the basil, and 1/4 teaspoons salt into bowl.

Here are my tomatoes draining into a bowl. Straining the tomatoes helps prevent the topping from becoming too liquidy and making the crust too soggy, especially in the center. Could this topping be any easier? It's awesome.

Okay, so now we're ready to shape the dough and get to cooking. Set your pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. (It takes my oven about 15 minutes to get hot enough.) Dust dough liberally with flour and transfer balls to well-floured work surface. Press one ball into 8-inch disk. Using flattened palms, gently stretch disk into a 12-inch circle, working along outer edge. (I often use a rolling pin as well.) When the oven is hot enough, remove the pizza stone and place the dough onto the stone. (This is made significantly easier if you have a pizza peel, but you can make do without it too.) Spread a thin layer of half of the topping onto the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Put in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and top pizza with half of the cheese chunks, spaced evenly apart. Return pizza to the oven and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and started to bubble.

Here's all my ingredients getting ready for the pizza making.

When the pizza is done, transfer to a cutting board, sprinkle with fresh basil and 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Slice and serve immediately. Repeat with the second pizza.

Doesn't it look fantastic? And it's so quick and easy too, especially if you make the dough in the morning and it's already risen and ready to go when you get home from work.

Here's David all excited for his first bite of pizza. (Excuse his cheesy face....he likes to be silly.) Despite its thin crust, the pizza is quite filling. David and I generally only eat one pizza between the two of us (unless we're feeling especially hungry) and save the second one to make for lunch (or dinner) the next day. Two pizzas is more than adequate to feed 2 adults and some children.

Enjoy!

Food Candy: Gnocchi with Tomatoes, Bacon and Spinach

Remember how I'm pregnant? Remember how I also live in Korea? It's sometimes not the greatest combination, especially when I'm craving the things that can only be obtained in America. I do crave normal things which can typically be purchased at the Commissary (like ice cream, Doritos and corn dogs.....yes, corn dogs) but what I fantasize about are In & Out cheeseburgers, Chipotle's chicken burritos, Olive Garden's chicken con broccoli, and El Ranchito's rolled tacos.

But since I cannot have these things, I have to turn instead to what I call food candy. Food candy are those few meals that I make on a regular basis that I ALWAYS enjoy eating. It doesn't matter what time of the day it is or how hungry I am, these meals always satisfy and always sound delicious. So, in an effort to minimize my fantasies about In & Out and Chipotle, I'd like to do a series of posts about my food candy recipes.

One of my favorite fast, quick, and easy recipes is Eating Well's Gnocchi with Tomatoes, Pancetta, and Wilted Watercress. Except that I can't find pancetta, so I use bacon instead. And there's no watercress to be had either so I use spinach. And the Commissary here, to my ever-lasting consternation, does not carry gnocchi, so I make my own. Gnocchi are Italian potato dumplings and they are divine (when done right). You can generally find them fresh, frozen, or packaged in the regular pasta aisle. But if you want to try making your own (which is a bit time consuming), Eating Well has another great guide to making homemade gnocchi.

Here's my gnocchi getting ready to be boiled. Whenever I make gnocchi, I make several batches which I then boil and freeze so I always have gnocchi on hand whenever a new craving kicks in. Now onto the recipe (which I've changed a bit to suit my tastes and available ingredients):

Gnocchi with Tomatoes, Bacon, and Spinach

2-4 ounces pancetta, chopped (I use 3-4 slices of bacon)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, chopped (I find regular tomatoes break down too much and make the pasta a little soupy, so I use cherry tomatoes instead which keep their shape and juices in tact.)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound gnocchi,
4 ounces spinach
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil.
2. Cook pancetta/bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, sugar and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, until the tomatoes are almost completely broken down, about 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar and salt. Remove from the heat.
3. Cook gnocchi in the boiling water until they float, 3 to 5 minutes or according to package directions. Place spinach in a colander and drain the gnocchi over the spinach, wilting it slightly. Add the gnocchi and spinach to the sauce in the pan; toss to combine. Serve immediately, with Parmesan.

So I gather up my ingredients.

And chop up the tomatoes, bacon, and garlic. By the way, that garlic zoom thingy (in the right hand front corner) is amazing. So fabulous at mincing garlic.

Then I brown the bacon, add garlic and tomatoes until they break down. I boil the gnocchi and then strain it through a colander filled with the spinach and then add it back to the pan with the bacon and tomatoes and top with Parmesan cheese.

And voila! A tasty, delicious, and health(ier) meal. And it takes less than 30 minutes to throw it all together. Plus, it makes the perfect amount to feed both David and me. If it weren't 7am right now, I'd be getting mighty hungry.

Good ole home cooking....ethnic style!

I always find it interesting the foods I crave when they are most difficult to find. After a few months in Italy, surrounded by the most delicious fresh (and cheap) ingredients for Italian food--mozzarella balls, gnocchi, spinaci, cheeses, etc.--we suddenly grew desperate for anything that wasn't pasta. We made our own handmade flour tortillas. We mashed our own refried beans. We went to Hard Rock Cafe just to have real cheddar cheese on a massive hamburger. I hoarded my jar of Skippy extra chunky peanut butter like it was the most sacred truffle oil in the world. We bought a bottle of maple syrup for an exorbitant fee and drizzled it conservatively onto French toast. After a lot of the same stuff, anything that wasn't Italian was a much needed culinary break. Now, of course, I'd cut off my right hand to find fresh mozzarella balls for only 5o euro cents or delicate gnocchi for a euro a pound.

As Americans, we've adopted the cuisines of many other nations, and have one of the most varied palates in the world. One thing I loved about D.C. was the sheer variety of ethnic restaurants. My American Studies buddies and I would frequently try out different cuisines--Thai, Lebanese, Indian. There were always a lot of different choices for each group and we were always guaranteed to find excellent food. Hawaii has its own unique culinary style here--macaroni salad, poi, taro, and fish--not to mention the rampant over-infusion of Asian foods. It's generally not so bad, but lately I have been craving different foods...most especially Indian.

My sister took me to my first Indian restaurant in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London where you can find some of the best Indian cuisine outside of India. Through the years, Indian food has become one of my favorite exotic food pleasures....the aromatic spices, the creamy curries and long-grain rice, the buttery naan bread and flavorful scorch marks from the tandoori oven. My absolute favorite Indian dish--chicken tikka masala--was supposedly created in England in the 1950s or 1970s (it's origin is heavily debated); the recipe is always different, but no matter where you find it, chicken tikka masala is absolutely delicious. So, after scouring the internet to find a simple yet seemingly authentic recipe, I decided to try it for myself. It was no small undertaking. For those who might be interested, the recipe I used can be found here: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=4526&bdc=54312#topOfPage.

I tried to find a recipe that gave enough instructions (I'm always surprised by recipes that just assume you know how to do something) and didn't utilize too many hard-to-get exotic or expensive ingredients. The most difficult item to find was garam marsala (which McCormick makes and is sold in the spice aisle). I couldn't find it at first, but the recipe also helpfully provides a substitution and I had all the ingredients to make it except for cardamon. So I went to the Safeway across the street (which I never shop at because it's so dang expensive) only to discover that a bottle of cardamon costs $14, but that they had the garam masala mixture for only $3.50, so that's what I ended up purchasing. The recipe is not terribly complex but it did require a lot of time, as most new and untested recipes often do. I did not include the peppers because I do not like really spicy foods but I added more of the other spices to add more flavor. The tikka masala came out really well and was very tasty, if I do say so myself.

The chicken tikka masala simmering in its pan.

I also attempted to make naan bread. Unfortunately, this endeavor did not turn out as good as the main dish, but some of the pieces were still okay and I know what I did wrong so that in the future, I can improve on it. Naan bread is so tasty. My rooommate Erin used to cook hers in a hot pan which works just as well as a pizza stone. I tried both methods. I haven't decided which I like better.

The dinner spread.

It was an absolutely delightful and delicious meal. As always with new recipes, I learned what I did wrong, what can be improved for next time, and how to make it go much quicker in the future. I'm glad I have all the spices I need now for making this dish again and again. I have a feeling I'll be craving it again in the near future. Once all the leftovers are gone.... Now if I could just find some tamarind paste, I can set about re-creating my other favorite ethnic meal--pad thai. It's such comfort food.