Ghirardelli Chocolate Caramel Turtle Brownie & Red Lentil and Leek Soup

Today I made soup. It was Red Lentil and Leek Soup. It was good but it reminded me of Oliver Twist. Except I did not hear from either of us, "Please sir may I have more?"

I had planned on making cookies but the afternoon flew by so I looked in the cabinet and I had a box of my favorite Brownie mix, Ghirardelli Chocolate Caramel Turtle Brownie Mix.

This has to make up for the soup.

Steak Pizzaiola

I was looking around the freezer and noticed 2 Porterhouse steaks. I had gotten them on sale, regular price was $30.67 and I paid $15.32. Not bad. So I made Steak Pizzaiola. I used my mom's recipe and the steaks were ridiculously big. Fred Flintstone big. Once the steak was on the plate there was barely room for the sides.

Directions
Spray baking pan with cooking spray (this make the clean up much easier). Take your steak and place in the pan. Top the steak with marinara sauce. I used Paul Sorvino's Marinara Sauce. It was good. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, we like our meat medium (me) to medium well (Chris). And that is all there is to it!

I made Mashed Potatoes and Chopped Spinach as side dishes. We had a bottle of Coppola Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 that we picked up for Christmas Day. Quite a delicious meal. And there were leftovers from the steaks.

Zuppa Di Cipolle and Quiche

This was the first time I have made Onion Soup since back when I was working at New Haven Restaurant as a prep cook. There we made 25 gallons of onion soup at a time... it was one of their signature dishes.

This on the other hand was a much smaller batch of soup. The recipe came from the La Cucina Cookbook. This recipe is from the Piedmont region of Italy.

Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 lb. onions, sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tbsp. flour
6 cups beef broth
slices of stale bread
Shredded Swiss Cheese

Method
Melt the butter in a large pot over low heat. Add the onions and slowly saute them until golden. Add the wine and let it evaporate. Sprinkle the flour over the onions, stir then slowly add the broth, creating a creamy but not too thick soup.

At this point I toasted 2 pieces of homemade French bread. We ladled the soup into our bowls and put the toast on top. Then we sprinkled the toast with shredded Swiss Cheese. It was delicious. I think it was the wine that added the flavor. I don't know why I haven't made this before now. Chris really liked it.

I also made a Quiche with Ham and Swiss Cheese. For some reason I thought the soup would not be enough. The quiche was quite good and so simple to make. I just made a Pate Brisse for the crust and filled the shell with Rosemary Ham and some Swiss cheese.

Pate Brisée, from The Silver Palate Cookbook
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
pinch granulated sugar
5 1/2 tbsp. (2/3 stick) sweet butter, chilled
3 tbsp. vegetable shortening, chilled
1/4 cup ice water

Method
1. Sift flour, salt and sugar into a bowl. Add butter and shortening. Cut them into dry ingredients with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture is like coarse meal.
2. Sprinkle on and blend in enough ice water to make a workable dough, mixing water in lightly with a fork.
3. Turn dough out onto work surface and, using the heel of your hand, smear the dough away from you, about 1/4 cup at a time. Scrape up the smeared dough into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
4. Unwrap dough, place on a floured work surface, and pound it a few times with your rolling pin to soften it. Roll it out 1/8 inch thick, or to desired thickness.
5. Drape dough over quiche pan, ease it into the pan without stretching, pat into place. Trim off excess, and crimp edges. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Remove chilled dough from refrigerator and prick the bottom and sides well with a fork. Line the bottom of the pan with foil and fill with beans to weight the crust. Bake for 10 minutes, until dough is just beginning to color.
7. Remove from oven, remove weights and lining and cool slightly.

For filling place cheese and diced ham in crust. Beat 3 eggs and mix with 1 1/2 cups milk or cream, I use low fat milk. Season with salt, nutmeg and fresh ground pepper. Pour filling into crust. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until filling is set.

The quiche and the soup combined made a wonderful dinner.

Kielbasa, Onions and Peppers

We have not had this for dinner for quite some time. This may be why it tasted so good. Or could it have been the white wine I added?

Slice 2 red peppers (I paid $1.39 a pound while the organic red peppers were $4.99 a pound) and slice 1 onion. Slice the kielbasa into 1/2 slices. Heat olive oil in pan and add onions and peppers. After the vegetables have cooked through add the kielbasa and cook until heated. Add 1/2 cup white wine and cover the pan. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

We had a side of jasmati rice with dinner. It was a satisfying winter meal.

Bacon and Onion Pizza

This was the best pizza I have ever made. It is the crust. The recipe is from the Jim Lahey's My Bread cookbook. I had pizza sauce in the freezer. Added thinly sliced onions and bacon to one half of the pie. The other half I left with just sauce and cheese. It was delicious. There is one piece left which I am looking forward for lunch tomorrow.

Lenore's Chicken Noodle Soup

I finally made my sister's recipe for chicken stock. It tasted as good as hers!

Lenore's Chicken Soup
Cover a stewing (fowl) chicken with about 4-6 quarts of water. Add celery stalks, whole carrots, & whole onions. (You don't have to peel anything if you wash it well; it just makes the soup darker and you retain more vitamins.) Add salt, pepper, 2 bay leaves, and basil and parsley. Bring to a boil, lower heat and allow to simmer, covered, about 3 hours. Strain & toss vegetables. Bone and dice up chicken. (There is usually a lot and I use some for chicken salad.) (This is a good place to stop if you want to do this in 2 days. You can put the broth in the fridge and take off the fat.) Put the chicken back into the broth with any vegetable you want--carrots, celery, peas. Simmer another hour. If you want to add rice with the vegetables, remember it will absorb some of the broth. You can cook pasta separately and add at the end.

I ended up with 5 ziplock bags each containing 2 cups of chicken broth. And that was after I fixed a pan of soup that we ate last night and tonight. Well worth the time.

In the pan of soup I made I added sauteed onions, carrots, and celery, fresh thyme, frozen spinach and noodles. Delicious!

Chicken with Leeks and Bacon

This is such a fast meal to put together. Last time I made this was November 20, 2009! Interesting that I can remember that... actually I used the search button on the blog.

Anyway I had all the ingredients in the house. First clean and slice the leeks. Next saute butter and olive oil. Dredge Chicken breasts in flour. Add to pan and saute turning occasionally.
Add bacon, I used pre-cooked bacon. Then I added 1/2 cup of white wine and covered the pan and reduced heat to low and simmered for about 5 minutes, until the chicken was cooked.

I was catching up on my emails and found one from the Salt to Taste blog referring to the Tried and Tasted challenge they did with the Closet Cooking blog. I had made the Lentil and Chestnut Stew. The recipes Closet Cooking blog always sound so good and all the ones I have tried have been delicious.

Tilapia and Mashed Yams with Pancetta-Sage Breadcrumbs

Tonight's recipe comes from the local newspaper, The Source. But actually the newspaper's recipe comes from the January Bon Appetit. I missed it when I looked at the magazine. The Tilapia was one special this week.

Tilapia and Mashed Yams with Pancetta-Sage Breadcrumbs
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 oz. thinly sliced Pancetta, chopped
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (from French or sourdough bread with crust, ground in food processor)
1 tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh sage
2 pounds medium red skinned sweet potatoes, pierced all over with fork
3 tbsp. butter, divided
4, 5- to 6-ounce tilapia filets or 8, 2- to 3-ounces filets

Method
Saute pancetta in large, nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to small bowl. Add bread crumbs and 1 tbsp chopped sage to drippings in skillet; stir over medium-high heat until bread crumbs are almost crisp, 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl with pancetta. Cool. Reserve skillet.
Place sweet potatoes on plate in microwave on high until very soft, 5 to 8 minutes per side, depending on size of sweet potato. Transfer potatoes to work surface. Cut in half lengthwise: scoop out pulp and place in medium glass bowl. Discard skin. Add remaining chopped sage and 1 tbsp butter to potatoes; mash until almost smooth. Season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper.
Sprinkle fish filets with salt and pepper. Melt remaining 2 tbsp butter in same nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add fish filets and cook until golden brown on outside and just opaque in center, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
If necessary, rewarm sweet potatoes in microwave; divide them among 4 plates. Top each serving with 1 fish filet, sprinkle generously with pancetta-sage bread crumbs and serve.

I made sauteed zucchini as a side dish. Actually it was Chris that cooked the zucchini and cooked the fish... I did the prep work. Seems like I was the scullery maid...

We also had a nice bottle of wine which I received from my boss for Christmas. Estrancia 2006 Merlot. Very nice wine.

Baked Polenta with Vegetable and Beans

Tonight we had the leftover Hunter Style Chicken from last night with a baked polenta which was a combination of 2 recipes.

The first recipe came from La Cucina, The Regional Cooking of Italy cookbook, this week's featured cookbook. It was a recipe called Polenta and Beans which was from the Abruzzo region. The second recipe comes from a blog post on which I found on FoodBuzz. FoodBuzz is like FaceBook for foodies. The post was from Food o'del Mundo. It is a recipe from the Union Square Cafe's Second Helpings cookbook. I used this recipe but added pancetta and onion from the La Cucina recipe.

Polenta Union Square Style

Ingredients
1 Cup Polenta
In place of the water required for the Polenta use 1/2 Chicken Broth & 1/2 Bean Liquid reserved from the can
4 oz. Pancetta
1 Med Onion, chopped
1 Med Carrot peeled and chopped
1 Leek white part only cleaned and chopped
1 Celery Stalk cleaned and chopped
2 Cloves Garlic minced
1 1/2 Cups Cooked/Canned White Beans- Cannellini, Butter/Lima or Northern
1 Bunch Swiss Chard cleaned and coarsely chopped
1 tsp Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Method
Cook Polenta according to package directions. In place of water use 1/2 Chicken Broth & 1/2 Bean Liquid reserved from the can. When Polenta is almost cooked heat a saute pan and cook 4 oz. Pancetta until crispy, remove from pan and chop in to small pieces. Add some olive oil to the same skillet and saute the Onion, Carrot, Leek & Celery over medium heat. Saute for 5 minutes then add Garlic, White Beans and the Swiss Chard. Stir until the Swiss Chard wilts then add Salt and Pepper.
When polenta is cooked stir in the vegetable mixture and the Pancetta and stir to combine thoroughly. Add more Salt & Pepper to taste. Spoon into serving bowl and drizzle with Olive Oil.

We both loved this and understand why it the recipe is from a cookbook called Second Helpings. It was great with the sauce from the chicken.

Hunter-Style Chicken

Hunter-Style Chicken 1, Pollo All Cacciatora 1. Why the number 1? There are 3 versions of this recipe in the La Cucina, The Regional Cooking of Italy cookbook. This recipe was a winner. The sauce was great and it was very easy to make.

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sliced onions
1 lb. carrots, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
3 1/2 lbs chicken, cut in pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 lb, ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped (I used a can of diced tomatoes)
chicken broth, if necessary
salt and pepper

Method
Heat half of the olive oil in a large pan and add the onions, carrots and celery. When they have taken on color remove them and set them aside. Put pieces of chicken in pan with remaining olive oil and when pieces have colored add the white wine. When the wine has evaporated add the tomatoes and reserved vegetables. Continue cooking over low heat for about 40 minutes, adding a little broth if necessary. Adjust for salt and pepper.

The cookbook recommends serving this with polenta, but we went for the ziti. Tomorrow night we will have the leftovers with polenta!