Fairbanks Sherry

Plans to try a new chicken recipe meant a trip down the wine aisle on the hunt for sherry. My choices were this Fairbanks brand or another brand that was a cream sherry. Having gone shopping without doing my homework and thus not sure if it mattered which way I went, I stuck with the plain "regular" sherry.

Though I only needed one tablespoon, the available options were limited to full-sized bottles. If it's good though, I'll be able to use it in other recipes, one I already have in mind.

Fairbanks Sherry, available in a 750-mL bottle in the wine aisle at Ralph's for $5.99.

Baked Chicken Risotto

Here's the recipe I tried once long ago, pre-blogging, that turned out not to be very good because of mushroom grit. Thankfully, I was much more thorough in my dried mushroom preparation this time around and was able to focus on the food rather than the dirt!

Baked Chicken Risotto

adapted from Cooking Club of America

click to print

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, cut into 1-inch pieces (1/2 cup)

1 c hot water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 oz. ham, diced
1 medium tomato, seeded, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 c Arborio rice
3 c reduced-sodium chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Place mushrooms in small bowl; add hot water. Let stand 20 minutes; strain through cheesecloth or coffee filter, reserving liquid. Rinse mushrooms to remove grit.

Heat oven to 425°F. Heat oil in Dutch oven until hot. Add chicken; cook over medium-high heat 2 to 3 minutes or until browned on all sides. Place on plate.
  
Sticking to 2-3 minutes per the recipe instructions didn't make my chicken very brown. I might've added my chicken to the pot before it was hot enough.

Add bell peppers and onion to casserole; reduce heat to medium. Cook 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables soften. Stir in ham, tomato, garlic, parsley and paprika; cook 2 minutes.


Return chicken and any accumulated juices to the pot; add mushrooms. Stir in rice; cook 1 minute.

  

Stir in broth, 1/2 cup of the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, salt and pepper; discard remaining mushroom soaking liquid or save for another use. (Risotto can be made to this point up to 8 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

 

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; boil 5 minutes, without stirring.
 

Place casserole in oven; bake, uncovered, 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is no longer pink in center.

Remove from oven. Cover; let stand 5 minutes before serving.
 


Chicken and rice are generally a good combination anyway but throw in some smoked paprika and ham, you're going to want seconds. This dish has very nice ratios of each ingredient. While one pound of chicken seemed a little skimpy to me, it turned out to be just right. I used 1/4 of an ounce more mushrooms than the recipe called for, but they weren't overwhelming. While not a necessity, this is really good when splashed with something to give it a little spicy kick such as some Louisiana Hot Sauce or Chipotle Tabasco.

I'm always concerned that a rice dish like this is going to be too soupy or worse, really dry, but it worked out perfectly for me with the minimum cooking time at each step. The rice was tender but not mushy and the entire dish had a nice consistency. Because it's cooked in a Dutch oven, it seems like it's going to take a really long time going in, but dinner is on the table fairly quick, in about an hour, hour and fifteen minutes. If you practice your mise en place, it goes along at a decent clip allowing some time to clean up as you go.

It's so much better too when it doesn't feel like you're eating sand! Definitely rinse your reconstituted mushrooms -- it's worth the extra couple minutes.

Cost:

• dried porcini mushrooms: $3.99
• chicken thighs: $1.50
• red bell pepper: $1.13
• onion: $0.24
• ham: $1.71
• tomato: $0.23
• garlic: $0.25
• parsley: $0.15
• arborio rice: $2.50
• chicken stock: $0.48

TOTAL: $12.18. While the recipe says you'll get four servings (which would be $3.05 each), I found those servings would be enormous. I yielded about six servings coming out at $2.03 each.

Gourmet House Italian Arborio Rice

Extra starchy to yield yummy creaminess, arborio rice is the way to go for risottos. Each risotto I've made thus far was done with arborio rice, though not necessarily this brand, and it doesn't disappoint.

I was happy to find this package in my cupboard. I remember being pleased with this find when I bought it (a year ago) since previously I was forced to buy a much more expensive option.

Neglecting to collect an image of the nutritional facts, you can find it at the manufacturer's website.

Gourmet House Italian Arborio Rice, available at your Ralph's among the other rices for $2.99/12-oz package.

Looking up arborio rice in my old copy of Larousse Gastronomique I was a little surprised that among all of the types listed, arborio was not. Does anyone know if the latest edition includes it?

Jones Ham Steak

Sometimes a recipe calls for plain ol' simple ham. Fortunately there are companies like Jones Dairy Farm that packages ham in little packages like this one. I have an inkling that ham packages like this one are in Every Store in Everytown, so you don't have to drive around all over your city looking for it, like I did for coppa only to find that it's available in another city.

Jones Dairy Farm ham steak is certified Gluten Free if that means something to you.

Here's the nutrition facts and ingredients statement as well as heating instructions. You can also see the info on the company's website.

While seven ounces is a couple more than my next recipe calls for, the remaining will go very nicely wrapped in a cheesy omelet.

Jones Dairy Farm Ham Steak available near the packaged bacons in the meat section of Ralph's in a 7-oz package for $2.99.

Monterey Dried Porcini Mushrooms

Once, pre-blogging, I made Baked Chicken Risotto. It was one of the first "hard" recipes I'd done and I distinctly remember why it wasn't great. It was the mushrooms. Rather, it was my poor preparation of said mushrooms. I'd forgotten about that until just now. Let me show you what I should've done so you don't wind up with gritty food should you use dried porcinis.

First, let's check out the mushrooms themselves. Monterey brand porcini mushrooms come in a clamshell package sort of like so many of the fresh herbs I get. When you open the package, you get to check out the dry, wood-like mushrooms. Each one looks so different from the others, I'd speculate if they really were the same type of mushroom had I not known.

Under the mushrooms is the package insert.

In case you can't read tiny print even after clicking on the photo, this is what it says:

PORCINI MUSHROOMS: (Boletus Edulis) are a very popular mushroom throughout Europe and the United States. The flavor of a Porcini spreads quickly to the taste buds; it is a strong flavor with subtle undertones. The flavor can be almost addicting. Dried Porcini are very economical as the flavor is much more concentrated than the fresh variety. Porcini is graded by size, color, aroma, and variety. Our Porcini Super Grade are the largest, lightest in color and truest in aroma we have found.

SUGGESTED USES: Porcini are delicious in soups, sauces, stuffings and stews. Dried Porcini can be substituted for any mushroom in any recipe; typically a smaller amount of dried Porcini can be used in recipes than other mushrooms because of the intense flavor of the Porcini. A recipe suggestion is located on the reverse side of this card.

STORE: Store in a cool, dark place. Shelf life is 6 to 12 months, or can be extended by freezing.

RECONSTITUTION: To reconstitute, blanch in boiling water for 2-5 minutes, or soak 30 minutes in lukewarm water, wine or consumme. 1 ounce of reconstituted mushrooms equals 4 ounces of fresh Porcini Mushrooms.

So here is essentially the first step of the next recipe I'm going to execute.

Microwave one cup of water until it is nearly boiling; add the entire package of mushrooms.

They'll float. Stir them around a little bit so each one is wet. Let stand 20 minutes so the mushrooms get fully saturated.

Meanwhile, prepare your filtering system, such as a coffee filter placed on top of a fat separator.

Transfer the mushrooms and liquid to the filter, in batches. The filter might get clogged with grit and you'll need to change it out once or twice.

After filtering, I reserved the 3/4 cups of filtrate per the recipe instructions.

And then, now this is key, I transferred the mushrooms to a colander and rinsed them very well to ensure there was no grit left. Chewing on grit sucks. A lot. Especially when you have a full pot of what would otherwise be delicious.

That's that, your mushrooms are reconstituted and ready to roll.

Monterey Dried Porcini Mushrooms, available in the produce section at Ralph's for $3.99/1-oz container. That beats the price of the organic porcini mushrooms Ralph's used to carry.

Blue Ribbon Zucchini Carrot Apple Muffins and Bread

The two recipes I've tried from Costco Connection have been killer good. When I saw a recipe for a quick bread jammed with vegetables, my mind immediately assumed it would be good and then equated the bread to breakfast. For the sake of convenience and to test the versatility, I chose to use half the batter to make muffins and the other half in a loaf.

Blue Ribbon Zucchini Carrot Apple Bread

adapted from Costco Connection, Feb 2012

click to print

2 c sugar

1 c unsalted butter, melted

3 eggs

1/4 c fresh orange juice

2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of cloves

2 c shredded carrots

1 c shredded zucchini (unpeeled)

1/2 c golden raisins

1 c finely diced, peeled apples

1/2 c walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease one 8.4x4.5" loaf pan and line a muffin tin to allow for 12 muffins. Or you could

• grease two 8x4" loaf pans or
• grease one Bundt pan or
• line muffin tins to allow for 24 muffins.

In a large bowl, blend the sugar, butter, eggs, orange juice and vanilla.

In a small bowl combine zucchini, carrots, apples, raisins, and walnuts.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet batter along with the shredded carrots, zucchini, raisins, apples and walnuts.

Spoon into prepared pan(s).

Bake until done, muffins about 19 minutes, a loaf about 1 hour, or until loaves spring back when gently touched with fingertips.

Fantastic warm, very good at room temperature, not bad when cold straight from the fridge! I'm definitely going to keep these in a regular rotation, to be kept in mind for those times when I overpurchase zucchini because I'm not sure if one is x number of cups. The muffins were tender soft and moist but not mushy. The loaf was a little dry, but I'm at fault waiting a full 60 minutes before checking for doneness.

Flavorwise, no single bite made me think, "hmm, zucchini", or "hmm, carrots" and only occasionally was there a distinct apple or raisin chunk. If you want chunks, by all means do a larger dice for apples and shred the zucchini and carrots coarsely.

Like any bread I've ever known, especially quick breads, these freeze very well. I really like the muffin option as they are convenient packages of to-go food. Throw a couple in a plastic container and snack on them instead of M&M's or have them for breakfast coupled with some easy-to-eat fruit on the road.

The sugar quantity seems high for what sounds like is super healthy (after all it's packed with vegetables!). Think of it as more of a banana bread without the gross bananas. The article was titled "Eat your veggies and have your cake too." Two cups of sugar or not, this bread still beats out bags of M&M's. If you really want to kick up the nutrition goodness, throw in some flaxseeds or wheat germ. I plan to next time.

And I'll stick to doing muffins. They bake in 1/3 of the time an entire loaf and again, they are convenient. If I was feeding a crew of people and 12 muffins would go in one sitting, I'd go for the loaves. You know someone is going to ask for butter and slices are just more butter-spreading friendly.

Oh, and if you're wondering what is going on with my sugar above, the white stuff is what was left of my non-organic sugar. What looks like brown sugar is actually this organic sugar.

Cost:

• sugar: $0.72
• butter: $1.15
• eggs: $1
• oranges for juice: $0.35
• flour: $0.48
• carrots: $0.25
• zucchini: $0.15
• apple: $0.46
• raisins: $0.50 SWAG
• walnuts: $0.46

TOTAL: $5.52 or $0.46 for each of 12 muffins and $2.76 for a loaf.

Food Plan and Grocery List, 021912

Last week I ate a lot of pork. Absolutely, every single bite was exemplary, but it's time to try a couple of chicken dishes in hopes of making up for the last one, which wasn't the greatest. Chickens on sale, I'm going to do a few recipes to increase variety. Maybe one of them will be worthy of multiple repeats. I'm optimistic! I'm also going to try a new bread recipe. It sounds really good.

• Baked Chicken Risotto
• Chicken in Mojo Pan Sauce
• Papas Bravas
• Shiitake-Stuffed Chicken Breasts
• Blue Ribbon Zucchini Carrot Apple Bread

Grower's Direct:

• fresh-cut pineapple: $2.38/3.01 lb
• small navel oranges: $0.35/1.75 lb
• lemon: $0.28/0.36 lb
• green bell pepper: $0.50/0.63 lb
• zucchini: $0.35/0.44 lb
• russet potatoes: $1.09/1.84 lb
• green asparagus: $1.61/1.08 lb
• red bell pepper: $1.13/0.76 lb
• onions: $0.73/1.87 lb
• ginger root: $0.11/0.11 lb
• shiitake mushrooms: $1.40/0.28 lb
• red cluster tomato: $0.23/0.23 lb
• Italian parsley:$0.39/bunch
• TOTAL: $10.55

Ralph's

• Chobani vanilla yogurt: $5.69/32 oz
• Dr. Pepper: $1.89/2L
• Ben and Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio: $4.99/pint
• Tostito's Pepper-Jack chips:$3.49
• sherry: $5.99/750 mL
• garlic: $1/2 bulbs
• dried porcini mushrooms: #3.99/1-oz
• cage-free eggs: $3.99/dozen
• whole chicken: $3.61
• whole chicken: $3.62
• Jones ham steaks: $2.99/7-oz
• Farmer John's bacon: $3.99/lb
• La Brea French bread: $3.49/loaf
• TOTAL: $49.34

Grand Total: $59.89
Total for the year: $342.20