Chipotle Black Bean Stacks

We are planning a small cocktail party for this weekend... still trying to somehow come to grips with the fact that summer is nearing it's end and we are ushering in September grandly.

To celebrate, I've created a fun menu for a small gathering that will have multiple international influences-- some Greek spanikopita triangles, hummus and toasted pita, pesto pasta with chicken, and chipotle black bean stacks, which I'll talk about here.

 

I first made these for a neighbor's baby shower earlier this year, and nearly blew the brains out of one of the  guests at this otherwise tame little soiree. The chipotles pack a punch, that's all I'm saying. And I'm not a fan of baby showers. BUT... I digress.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans

1 small onion

2-3 chipotle peppers, in adobado sauce (see above)

1 bell pepper

Approximately two cups of chicken broth

dash of oregano, salt and pepper

Small, round tortilla chips (or, as seen in photograph, a package of phyllo dough)

1 C cotija cheese (or any nice dry mexican cheese, see previous post)

Cilantro and sour cream to garnish

Now, I started out making these just as I do my cuban-style black beans, when I realized I didn't have any bacon. Bacon is an integral part of the process here, as it adds that meaty-smoky-punch that really makes this stand out from just another black bean salsa. Sans bacon, I burrowed through my cupboard and came up with an even better solution-- chipotle peppers! A fantastic, smoky, spicy alternative that really took this over the top.

To get started, finely chop your onion and bell pepper,  and gently saute them both in a bit of olive oil with the oregano and salt & pepper. When they are both fairly well cooked (softened, onion golden and just browning in spots), toss in your black beans and your diced chipotles.  Stir it all together, and at this point you'll want to start adding the chicken stock about 1/2 a cup at a time, letting it cook down so the beans take on the liquid and start to dry ever so slightly. You want to cook in the nice flavor of the stock, which really just ties the sweetness of the onion and pepper, the spice and smoke in the chipotle, right into the black beans. It's really amazing. Once you have added and cooked down all your broth, your beans will be just a little dry but still clump nicely on a spoon. Pull it off the heat, cover it, and let it hang out until you're ready to start layering.

Now-- at this point, if you are using the phyllo, start by slicing layering two sheets of phyllo dough (with a little melted butter sprinkled in between) and cutting them into small squares (small meaning approx 3 inches square). These squares you can nestle right into a mini-cupcake tin and bake them up in a 350-degree overn until they start to just brown on the eggs and are crisp throughout; and here you have your own little cups for the black beans. Delightful, and flaky! To be fair, you can make the phyllo cups at any time, before or after.

However, if you want more of a corn-flavor this time (I'm already using the phyllo for my spanikopita triangles) you can also go with a flat, small corn chip. Dollop each chip with a bit of your black beans, pressing down slightly so you can have a little landing pad for your grated cheese. Once the cheese is on, and elegant little touch is a sprinkle of chopped cilantro, and you are done! I serve with a small side of sour cream, for those who might want to cool the heat.

Enjoy!

Grilled chicken with Greek salad

As promised... one of my favorite standbys, for any occasion. It's actually one of my favorite things to prepare in advance and take to work for a delicious lunch: grilled chicken with greek salad. Again.. I know we're not crossing any culinary equators with this one, but it's fast, it's fresh and it's really delicious, so I thought I'd share. Plus, we have all those lemons in the fridge, you know.

And, as a shout out to my cooking pal Shan, I'm going to try to include full recipes from here on out.

What you need for...

The Chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts or 5-6 tenderloins

1/4 C olive oil

lemon juice, from two lemons

1-2 t oregano

dash of cayenne (if you like a bit of kick!)

salt & pepper

The Salad Dressing:

1/4 C olive oil

1/4 C red wine vinaigrette

1/2 t dijon mustard

1/2 t oregano

salt & pepper

dash of sugar or splenda (optional)

The Salad:

a few leaves of romaine lettuce

half a cucumber (I prefer the long, skinny english kind)

tomatoes (grape or pear tomatoes are particularly delish with this-- sweet and tangy!)

kalamata olives

feta cheese

roasted bell pepper

To Do:

Basically you want to start with your chicken; if using full breasts, slice them in half lengthwise so you end up with two thinner filets. If you have tenderloins, you are good to go. Toss them all in a bowl or large ziploc bag. In another bowl (or liquid measuring cup) put the lemon juice, olive oil, and spices and whisk them like mad. You don't need to get full emulsification, but thickening it a bit does help it stick to your chicken. Pour it over your eagerly awaiting chicken, roll up the ziploc tightly or wrap your bowl, stick it in the fridge, and fuh-gedd-aboudit. For any where from 30 minutes to a few hours, anyway.

When you are ready to serve, warm up the grill and get ready to toss that salad. This is where I typically will put my husband on grill duty while I toss everything together, but you can multi-task. Just watch the chicken like a hawk: when it's sliced thin like this, it grills quickly and goes from a delectable, moist little morsel (thank you, lemon juice!) to a hard little bark bite in just a few minutes. I mean, literally, a few minutes per side. So if you don't have back up, get your salad all good and pretty and toss the chicken on when you can give it your full, undivided, and loving attention. Isn't that nice?

I like to pull together the dressing first-- emulsification is more important here, because you don't want the oil separating and making your salad all oily on the bottom and herby and wet on top. To help this along, the mustard is a miracle worker. Also, if you like a more smooth dressing, you can add up to 1/4 t of sugar (I use splenda) to just take the tang down a notch. Toss all the ingredients into a bowl, and once again, whisk like mad. Some folks prefer to drizzle the olive oil in while whisking, but frankly I'm not sure I'm that coordinated, so I like to just put them all in a liquid measuring cup and hover over the sink so I can splash away. Hey, it works.

Chop your lettuce up, and toss it with the dressing. I think doing it this way gets nice coverage of the lettuce and then you can layer all your ingredients on top-- feta, roasted pepper, cukes, tomatoes, olives, you name it.

Now... a few words on your salad ingredients. There are some things that are just really, really worth getting right, and I feel most strongly about that with things that you eat so close to their natural state. When it comes to feta and olives, I simply don't mess around. For about the same price, you can go to a nice middle east market or greek market and get drastically upgraded feta and olives. At Melita's on Lincoln, you can get feta from France, Bulgaria, or Greece, and it is NOT the dried out, salty and texturaly weird stuff you buy at the your regular grocery store. This stuff is soft, smooth, brined, and out of this world. It will make or break your salad. So next time you're cruising around town, and you see a greek or middle east market (try Colorado Boulevard, near Iliff) pop in and buy a half pound of the feta-- it will literally cost you just a few bucks, and it will rock your world!

So... there you have it. We've used up two lemons from the limoncello experiment, and created a quick and delightful meal that you can take to work tomorrow and be proud to stick in the fridge. Just be careful that somebody doesn't snag it!

And if you're not eating at work, who am I to suggest that maybe a nice little shot of Ouzo might wash it all down rather nicely? Or, perhaps a nice sparkling vhino verde from Portugal? Then again, you could always do a nice light Prosecco....

Raspberry Clafoutis-- a light delight

To be fair, this is more of a spring dessert... but let's face it, I've got some catching up to do. In 2010, we hosted the family for Easter dinner, and made a simple, French-inspired dinner of an herb-marinated lamb roast, fingerling potatoes, carrots, and... raspberry clafoutis.

Hailing from the Limousin region of France, south of Paris, the clafoutis is a traditional dessert from the 19th century, featuring black cherries dropped in a light, almost savory batter. This version, made with raspberries, makes an even lighter tart and is perfect for a spring meal.

Now, I realize that we just zested 17 lemons for our limoncello, and I promised some lemon recipes. But for this recipe, you're going to need more zest. It's just the way it is.

Ingredients:

1/2 C flour

1/4 C + 2T sugar

Dash of salt

3 eggs

3 T melted butter

lemon zest of 1 lemon

1/4 C + 2 T milk

1-1/2 pints raspberries (rinsed and dried)

powdered sugar

To Do:

Butter a 9" gratin dish (I used a great earthenware pie dish from Amish country, worked great!). Whisk the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt; whisk in the eggs, butter and lemon zest until smooth, and then add your milk, and whisk until light and smooth. Pour in your batter, drop in the raspberries, and bake for 30 minutes.

A light, delightful tart, finished off with a dancing dusting of powdered sugar and perfect for any season... quite frankly, a great light dessert for the dog-days of summer.

Enjoy!

Limoncello, Part I

When life gives you lemons... drink limoncello!

A spoiler alert: anyone who is a friend or neighbor may soon discover what I'll be distributing for Christmas. I'm just saying.

In mid-August, what better activity is there than to stand in an air-conditioned kitchen and play with lemons and vodka? I mean, really!

I was working with a colleague on planning our office Christmas party, and we decided to host it at one of my favorite Denver restaurants, Venice, home to some of the most authentic Italian food I have experienced outside of Italy. My husband I went there shortly after our honeymoon, met the owner, and proceeded to be whisked right back to the tiny restaurants of Rome and the secret roadside gastronomes of Tuscany.

While dreaming up the Christmas party, we came across the idea of handing out Limoncello to our guests. Before you plan on crashing the party, no, this was too cost-prohibitive to really consider. So I decided to take it on as a project for holiday gifts.

With all that said... bring on the vodka!

First step, lemons. You'll need between 15 and 17 good sized lemons. You'll want lemons with skins as firm and unblemished as possible-- not too bumpy. I went to my local Costco and got a nice big bag of 15 hearty fruits for about 6 bucks.

Second step, alcohol. To be truly authentic, it is recommended that you use grain alcohol. I headed to another trusted Denver institution, Argonaut Liquors, and encountered that old college-party-fruit-punch staple, Everclear. To be completely honest, the warning on the bottle of the 190 proof alcohol's flammability made me a twee bit nervous... I sensed I would end up with a final product more akin to lemon Pledge than limoncello. They didn't have any of Everclear 151, so I opted for the next best thing, a bottle of grain-based, 100-proof vodka. You're going to need 1.5 litres for the amount of lemons listed above.

Brewing Day: This step is only as time-consuming as your water filter is fast. By that, I mean this: you are going to want to filter the vodka approximately four times... maybe I should say, at least four times. Why, I don't know. Quite frankly, at this point I should admit that I've never actually done this before; this is basically one big experiment at this point. I mean, I am working off some pretty solid sources, but everything thus far is based purely on the advice of others before me. So...proceed with caution, line up your water pitcher filter (Brita, Pur, or similar) and start filtering.

While your vodka is filtering, wash and gently scrub your lemons in warm water. You'll want to get any pesticides or wax off of them, as the zest is the only part of the lemon you use in brewing your limoncello. Once you've done that, get out your microplane zester and start zesting. You don't need to use much pressure, and it goes fairly quickly. Be sure to NOT get any of the white pith below the zest, you will risk having some very bitter limoncello. Now... keep those lemons! Just because they look a little naked, doesn't mean they are no longer useful. Bag them up in some gallon-sized ziploc bags, leave the bag cracked open a bit, and tuck in your fruit drawer in the fridge. Stay tuned for some delicious lemon-inspired recipes, this week.

Once you've got your alcohol filtered and your lemons zested, let the magic begin! Combine both in a pitcher that is at least 2-litres in size, and has a nice sealable lid. I like the hermetic jars for food storage in general, and think it's a perfect fit for this application. You can usually find them at the Container Store for about 8 to 10 bucks.

Now... once you've mixed your two ingredients, sit it on a shelf in your kitchen, and pick it up and shake it a little bit every other day for about a week or so. Once that week is done, head down to the basement and let it sit for at least 45 days. At this point, I'll put October 15th on my calendar... and publish Limoncello, Part Deux!

I'll keep you posted on how things progress from here; in the meantime, we'll do some fun salmon, chicken, and other lemon-based treats to use up our lemons.

Chicken Tinga!

For those of you who have never experienced Chicken Tinga, you are in for a divine treat. I first had it at a pretty decent Mexican restaurant here in Colorado, La Sandia. It's not your typical Tex-Mex-melted-cheese-and-refried-beans kind of place; more along the lines of high Mexican, where you can have a specialty sipping tequila while enjoying a nice roasty-salsa.

To be honest, I really wasn't even sure that Chicken Tinga wasn't something they made up to sound interesting and authentic, until I discovered it on my dear friend Stan's Facebook page. His master-chef-partner Brent (whose cooking I've been blessed to experience first hand when they lived in San Francisco several years ago) has a great website and blog and posted a recipe for said dish. I quickly printed it, jotted a shopping list, and was ready to blaze out of work and jump in front of the stove.

As mentioned before, my brother Scott is a perfect and willing guinea pig to my cooking adventures, and it just so happened he would be joining us for dinner on Tuesday. Perfect!

Chicken tinga is probably best described as Mexican barbecue, but it really doesn't do it justice. To make it involved a few simple steps (and a couple of minor modifications to the recipe, no offense Brent!). First, you pick a few of the biggest, roundest, most-delicious-looking tomatoes your local grocer has to offer. You take them home, slice them in half, and throw them under the broiler until they are nicely charred. While charring, take a few chicken breasts and cover them with water, add some onion and spices (don't forget the oregano and cloves) and poach until cooked through-- about 25 minutes. While the chicken cools, you blend up your tomatoes (charred skin and all, the best part, really!) and start to cook it up with some chipotle peppers garlic, vinegar, a bit of brown sugar (are you digging the barbecue influence) and a few other key ingredients (namely, onion and garlic) and cook it down into a delicious, thick and syrupy sauce.

Shred your chicken, toss it in with the tinga, let them hang out and marry a bit, and voila! Toss the chicken in there, and serve on gently toasted corn tortillas with some shredded cotija cheese. I promise, you will NOT be disappointed.

My hats off to the 'recipier', as my brother Scott says. Brent and Stan, if this is the Yucatan, better make some room in the guest room for us... we're on our way!!!