Filed under: DINNER, LUNCH, SIDE | Tags: chicken, corn, jalapeno, onion, soup, tomato
I have finally used up our roasted chicken from the other night. I was shocked at how much meat was there was. I shredded it and slow baked it to make a nice, crispy, lightly salted garnish for our soup. This soup is a combination of several recipes I perused online. If I make it again, I’ll definitely blend it more. The only food processor i have here in Guate is this tiny thing that barely chops stuff up enough for pesto. Otherwise, I think the flavors were really good, especially with the garnish.
[Serves 4-6]
Soup
- 4 corn cobs
- 6-7 medium sized tomatoes
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion, quartered
- 1 jalapeno, halved and seeded
- 3 T evoo
Garnish
- 3 T coarse chopped cilantro
- 1 avocado
- 1 1/2 C roasted chicken
Method
- Husk the corn, chop off all the kernels and set them aside. Place the cobs in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and let the cobs steep for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400F. Arrange tomatoes and garlic so they’re spaced evenly apart on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes start to wrinkle.
- Once the corn stock is finished, strain it into a medium sized pot (or large if you have another large one). Add tomatoes, onion, halved jalapeno, garlic and the extra evoo from cooking. Simmer for 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Then add reserved corn kernels and cook another minute or two.
- While the veggies are simmering, turn the oven down to 350F and bake the shredded chicken on the same baking sheet that the veggies were on for 20 minutes, stirring after 10.
- Working in batches, transfer soup to a food processor and pulse to desired consistency. At this point I wanted to cook off more of the liquid, but you can also make the soup ahead of time and just refrigerate till you’re ready to serve.
- Garnish each bowl with a quarter of the avocado, chopped, crunchy chicken and cilantro.
Cherry tomatoes were 2lbs/ $1 last week at Haymarket! I have been using them in practically everything lately. Normally we can’t afford them, and they are one of my all time favorite foods, so it has been a big treat! The other night i was loooking to make some comfort food for dinner, and this recipe really hit the spot. We had leftover tofu from out sandwiches the other night, broccoli rabe pesto frozen from a couple weeks ago, and PLENTY of tomatoes.
Here is a link to the recipe. The only difference is that tonight i roasted the tomatoes (tossed in olive oil, salt, and brown sugar) for 45 minutes at 425°F. I will definitely use this roasting technique again!
We braved the mosquito-y back deck at my parents house (well, Joe did) to grill up some GREAT blue cheese burgers. We are crashing with my rents for a week, and then Joe’s for a week before heading up to Boston. I made sweet potato fries using Joe’s recipe and discovered that the taste can vary considerably using someone else’s spices. My mom’s taco seasoning was a lot heavier on the red pepper than ours and needed to be balanced out by more cinnamon.
Joe wrapped the corn in foil and cooked it on the (hot) grill for 12-15 min. The kernels practically fell off into your mouth and yet were not too soft. The brown areas were nicely caramelized and sweet.
Sweet Potato Fries for 4
- 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into fries
- 3 T canola oil
- 3 T taco seasoning
- heavy pinch of cayenne powder
- heavy pinch of cinnamon
- 1 t salt
- toss the fries together with all the seasonings in a large bowl.
- spread out as far apart as possible on 2 baking sheets.
- preheat oven to 425° and bake for 25 min, then flip them and bake another 20 min, until brown on both sides.
- serve with ketchup!
Thank you 101 Cookbooks! (click link for recipe). I would have never thought to make this otherwise. I didn’t have any jalapenos on hand, and we are moving in a week so i didn’t want to go buying anything new. I just added a couple of dashes to substitute the spiciness.
Honestly, though, i had a little trouble executing this recipe properly. I think. When i poured the buttery-lime mixture over the bagged popcorn, it got almost immediately absorbed by the pieces on top. When shaking the paper bag, the remaining pieces only got moderately moistened when they brushed against the soggy top pieces. The pepper mixture distributed pretty well. Baking at 350 F for 7 minutes didn’t even come close to drying out the soggy pieces.
My next popcorn endeavor will be salt and vinegar, which i sampled post-race at the Charlottesville Ten Miler this year… Hopefully those won’t be so soggy.
FINALLY! We had so much food at the beach that there was no need for corn bread. Now that i am back at home, it seems like the prefect timing. While i was away, Joe made a huge pot of chili. Tonight’s meal isn’t very summery, but simple and good. I think this may be the simplest bread recipe yet.
No offense to the book or anyone in the challenge, but after looking at the pictures online, i really didn’t want to put bacon on the bread. It just didn’t appeal to me. I am glad that i didn’t because the sweet corn muffins go so well with our chili. As you can see in my FLICKR photos, there are a LOT of corn kernels in this recipe. If i were to make this recipe again, i would use 1 1/2- not 2 1/2 cups of corn. Also, 30 minutes at 350 was just perfect for the muffins, but i think would not be nearly enough for a pan of bread. Once they were done, they stuck to their wrappers pretty badly. I suspect that this is because i used low-fat buttermilk, and maybe a scoch less butter than the recipe called for. Next time, i would forgo the wrappers and spray the tin.
See (part of) the recipe in googlebooks. Page 151.
This picnic got a little more creative than the last one. Sorry i forgot to bring my camera along! it was a pretty colorful meal. At least I took a few photos during prep. Here’s the menu:
- Baguette with nettle and Rembrandt cheese.
- Steam frozen edamame and chill. Toss with olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar, lots of chopped mint, salt, pepper, and Parmesan.
- Peanut sauce noodles. Sauce = (1/4 C peanut butter, 1/4 C soy sauce, 1 T C warm water, 1 t ginger, 1 T rice vinegar, 1 1/2 T Asian toasted sesame oil, 1 T honey, 1 t dried hot red pepper flakes)
- Toss 1 C cooked couscous with oil, chopped parsley, chopped black olives, capers, sun dried tomato, chopped onion, feta, salt and pepper.
- Brown fresh corn kernels in hot oil with chopped chili and garlic, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and toss with cilantro and lots of lime juice.
- Watermelon for dessert.
inspired by all the veggies on sale at the grocery store, we decided to make a bunch of them for dinner tonight!
salad: romaine lettuce with cucumber and blue cheese
corn: boiled for 5 minutes
squash casserole:
- 1 t lemon juice
- 1 yellow squash and 1 zucchini cut into 1/6th-inch slices
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 C oregano
- 1/4 C parsley
- 1 large garlic clove, chopped
- 1/4 t fine grain sea salt
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1/2 C evoo
- 1/4 C butter
- 2 C fresh (whole wheat) bread crumbs
- 3 small potatoes, sliced transparently thin
- 1/4 C grated Gruyere cheese + 1/2 C (fat free) feta
- Preheat oven to 400F degrees and place a rack in the middle. Rub a 9×9 gratin pan (or equivalent baking dish) with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with lemon juice, and set aside.
- Place the zucchini slices into a colander placed over a sink, toss with the sea salt and set aside for 10-15 minutes to drain a bit.
- Make the sauce by pureeing the oregano, parsley, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, red pepper flakes, and olive oil in a food processor or using a hand blender. Set aside.
- Make the breadcrumbs by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until the butter is wonderfully fragrant, and has turned brown. Wait two minutes, then stir the breadcrumbs into the browned butter.
- Transfer the squash to a large mixing bowl. Add the potatoes and two-thirds of the oregano sauce. Toss until everything is well coated. Add the cheese and half of the bread crumbs and toss again. Taste one of the zucchini pieces and add more seasoning (salt or red pepper) if needed.
- Transfer the squash to the lemon-juiced pan, top with the remaining crumbs, and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. You don’t want the zucchini to go to mush, but you need to be sure the potatoes are fully baked. Remove from oven, and drizzle with the remaining oregano sauce.
two skinny jenkins 