Spicy Turmeric Chicken

I've been reading about the healing properties of turmeric- so I thought I'd give this a try. I found this recipe in the Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Entertaining and here on line. It has been suggested that you wear rubber/plastic gloves. However, you can always use a brush to brush the marinade on.

Turmeric Marinade:

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 ½ teaspoons red chile powder

½ to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or red chili pepper

1 to 1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 ½ teaspoons of salt

2-3 cloves of garlic, mashed

6 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice  

One 4 to 4 ½ pound chicken 

Coat the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.

Making the marinade is easy in a glass or stainless steel bowl that will not stain. Turmeric will stain everything, so use caution. Simply combine all of the spices along with garlic and lemon juice. Stir.

Coat the chicken with the marinade mixture covering the entire surface of the chicken. Place in the crock pot (it will also stain a lightly colored crock). Cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or cook on LOW for 7-9 hours. Chicken is done when the meat falls easily away from the bones.

**OK- the top photo doesn't look that great, especially since both legs had already been taken off. (ha ha). And there is one of the legs on the picture below with the roasted vegetables! Very easy dish, very tender chicken.

Kielbasa simmered in beer with onions and cabbage

I used to make this dish without the cabbage when I first got a Martha Stewart cookbook. I couldn't find her recipe online attributed to her, but I found this one from cooks.com that is identical. I have amended the recipe below to how I cooked it.

2 T butter

2 T olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cabbage, sliced
2 Kielbasas
2 (12 oz.) bottles beer (I used Rio Grande with green chile)

1. In a large heavy skillet melt the butter and saute the onion over medium heat until translucent.

2. Add the Kielbasa to the pan and brown it 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

3. Add the cabbage on top. 

4. Pour the beer over the top. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the cabbage is how you like it.

**Cooking it this way in beer makes the dish a bit sweet. Nice for a change although my daughter said the dish tasted 'beer-y'. hmm.

Cranberry Nut Bread

I was able to save the cranberries we received for our Thanksgiving box until now! I love cranberry nut bread and made some this morning. I juiced 2 oranges to make the 3/4 C of juice.
Recipes abound on the internet for this. I used a recipe I found on allrecipes as my base. Below is the recipe amended a bit.

2 cups spelt flour (half wholemeal, half white) 1 cup sugar (organic) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 6 T butter

1 egg 3/4 cup orange juice 1 t grated orange peel 2  cups fresh cranberries- coarsely chopped 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse to combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Pulse in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Put into another bowl. Beat egg, orange juice and peel; stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Pulse the cranberries ever so slightly. Add them and the chopped walnuts to the bowl and mix gently.

Spoon batter into a greased and floured 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

 **Delicious! Crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside. Great balance between the tartness of the cranberries, the crunch of the walnuts, and the orange juice and zest.

Roast Chicken with Herbs

This recipe comes from a cook book I received as a wedding gift, many moons ago. It is published by Sunset, called Easy Basics for Good Cooking. I used to make the roast chicken as a meal for new mothers. I'll try it again and see if the reality of today matches my memory of it. My intention is to put the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan and fill the pan with vegetables for roasting. If you don't want to do that, then save the drippings and use them as a base for your roux for chicken pot pie.

1 frying chicken (3-4 lbs)
3 cloves garlic, halved
2 bay leaves
3 T butter, melted
1/4 t each salt and pepper
1/4 t each ground sage, dry basil, thyme, oregano, and marjoram leaves
2 bay leaves

Remove giblets, etc.

Rub skin of chicken with 1 clove garlic; then put all garlic and bay leaves into the body cavity. In a small bowl, stir together all other spices with the butter. Spoon 1 T of this mixture into the cavity. Truss now (if you want to.)

Brush skin generously with the rest of the butter mixture. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake uncovered, in a 375 oven for 1 to 1/1/2 hours or deep thigh reaches 185.

Baste occasionally with any remaining butter mixture or pan drippings during last half-hour of roasting. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

 **Delicious and so easy! You can see I added potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots to the roasting pan  as well.

Swiss chard and potato soup

This looked like an easy recipe- one I have been carrying with me for several years, but have never tried it. Tonight is the night! I have amended the recipe below as I made it. The original recipe is on the NY Times site.

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound slab bacon, diced (I used country ham, but next time I'd use bacon)
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick 
• 3 C vegetable stock
• Salt
• 6 eggs, optional
• 1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 can, drained
• 5 cups, packed, very finely shredded Swiss chard leaves (about 1 bunch)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Start chickpeas in the pressure cooker. Presoak for one minute. Change water, then cook for 21 minutes. Quick release using cold water on the lid. Drain and set aside.

2. Place bacon in a heavy 4-quart saucepan. Sauté until lightly browned. Drain, leaving 2 tablespoons fat in pan.

3.Add onion and garlic to oil in pan and sauté over low heat until soft and barely golden. Add potatoes and 3 cups water and 3 cups of vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, season with salt, and cook until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.

4.Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon to a large mixing bowl, and roughly mash them with a fork or a potato masher. Return potatoes to liquid in pot, and stir to dissolve them.

5.Add chickpeas, and chard leaves. Bring to a simmer, and cook about 2-5 minutes, until leaves wilt. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to warm soup plates. If using the eggs, fry or poach them and add one to each bowl. 

 ** I liked the soup more than my family did. You can see my broth is a bit red due to the type of chard I used.

Buttermilk Pecan Pie

I remember eating a buttermilk pecan pie and loving it. I found this recipe before Thanksgiving and thought we'd give it a try. Next time, I'll use a mixture with brown sugar. I baked it on top of a gluten free pie crust. I have amended the recipe below as I made it (more pecans and tapioca for flour)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tapioca
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 9" unbaked pie  shell 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar, adding 1/2 cup sugar at a time.
3. Blend in vanilla. Stir in eggs one at a time. Combine flour and salt; add a small amount at a time.
4. Stir in buttermilk.
5. Sprinkle pecans in bottom of pie crust, pour custard over the pecans, and bake 1 hour and 30 minutes.
6. Best served at room temperature.

**Careful not to overbake this pie- it will get too dry. Yummy!

Gluten Free Pie Crust

I scoured the web and finally decided on trying this recipe. Unfortunately, I could not find sweet rice flour so for the two crusts I made- one I added more sorghum flour and the other I added more white rice flour. I found this recipe via the blog called glutenfree goddess. However, you find the actual recipe on Epicurious.

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
3 tablespoons sweet rice flour
3 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon strong cinnamon (I use Saigon cinnamon from World Spice Merchants)
8 tablespooons (or, one stick) cold butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 ice-cold water, or enough to make the dough stick together

Mix together all the dry ingredients, including the sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into little pieces, about 1/2-inch thick and drop the pieces into the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter or fork, meld the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter has crumbled into pea-sized pieces.
Make a well in the dry ingredients. Drop the egg and apple cider vinegar in, then stir them in, gently, with a fork, stirring from the center out. Once they are incorporated into the dry ingredients, slowly drizzle the ice-cold water into the mixture, a little at a time, then stirring to see if it has become dough yet. You do not want this dough to be too wet. Add water only it all coheres together.

At this point, drop the ball of dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. (Prepare this ahead, unless you want to wipe dough off the box of parchment paper later!) Place another piece of parchment paper, the same size, on top of the dough. Gently, smoosh the dough outward, equally in all directions, until it is a thick, round cake of dough, about the size of a pie plate.

Preparation

Refrigerate the ball of dough, for as long as you can stand. Ideally, you would prepare the dough in the evening and refrigerate overnight. Take the dough out of the refrigerator at least twenty minutes before you want to work with it.

Leave the dough in the parchment-paper sandwich and roll it out. By rolling it, gently, between the pieces of parchment paper, you will not need to add more flour to the mix. Roll it out as thin as you can, then strip the top piece of parchment paper off the dough. Gently, lay your favorite pie plate on top of the dough, then flip the whole thing over. The dough should sag into the pie plate. You can crimp the edges at this point. If some of the dough falls off the sides, don't worry. Simply re-attach the pieces to the crust-to-be by pressing in with your fingers.

You can pre-bake the pie crust, if you like.

For both my pies, I simply added the ingredients into the raw crust and baked it.

**Easy to make the whole thing in a food processor.