Robyn's Recipes: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Smothered Burritos, Take 2

I've been asked to share my smothered burritos recipe from my week in food last week. I was looking through my older posts and discovered that I did write up a recipe for smothered burritos, but the ones I made last week were quite a bit different. The basic idea is the same: meat, rice, and beans. However, I tend to change it up every time I make it depending on what I have on hand. Unfortunately for those of you who like to know exact amounts, I don't usually measure. That's kind of the great thing about burritos though, you can put in pretty much whatever you want (within reason of course), and in the ratios that you want or have, just taste as you go.

Last week, I used my leftover rice pilaf, which already had some onion and garlic in it. I also used leftover roasted chicken, shredded or chopped into small pieces. I then cooked up some black beans. If you want a vegetarian version, just leave out the meat. For the black beans I used about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of dried black beans, soaked overnight. Drain the beans, and place in a saucepan or pot. I like to add Mexican type spices to my beans while they cook (this time I put in a couple dried chilies, about 1 tsp cumin seeds, a couple garlic cloves, and a cinnamon stick). Next time I'll leave out the cinnamon stick, I thought it was a bit too much. Cover the beans with a couple of inches of water, bring to a boil for a few minutes and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for a couple of hours, or until the beans are soft, then drain. Of course, if you don't have time to cook the beans, you could always use canned black beans.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the rice, chicken, and beans. Add some of the "enchilada" sauce (which you can find the recipe for on the first burritos post), and some plain yogurt if you like (about 1/2 cup or so). Season to taste with chili powder, cumin powder salt and pepper. Add anything else you think it might need (minced onion, green onions, olives, grated cheese, fresh tomatoes). Last time I added onion and fresh tomatoes. One time I even added so chopped avocado (which was good, but didn't freeze very well). Be creative, but taste as you go, and you can't go wrong.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The rest of the week

Okay, so I must have gotten busy. Lets see if I can even remember what we had the rest of the week.

Tuesday: I'll get back to you on that one, but I'm sure it was good :)

Wed: Paul made Pasta Carbonara, or as my boys call it "Cheesy Pasta with bacon and peas."

Thursday: Using leftover rice from Sunday, leftover chicken from Monday, and black beans I soaked overnight and cooked that day, I made smothered burritos. Also had a green salad and fruit salad.

Friday: Leftovers from Thursday.

Saturday: Kept it simple, and vegetarian. I made Kitcheree, an Indian style rice with red lentils and potato, along with spices and onion. I also boiled some carrot slices adding a tiny bit of brown sugar. Very simple, very tasty.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Monday: Roast Chicken and Veg, and Carrot and Nettle Soup

I took the boys to the park today, and finally harvested some Nettle that grows along the creek near the playground. Stinging Nettle grows everywhere in England. Although it's something you want don't want touching your bare skin, once cooked, it's apparently quite delicious and very nutritious. It loses it's stinging quality once cooked. It's similar to spinach, but with a peppery kick.

So with gloves, scissors and a bag in tow, I trimmed the tops off of several nettle plants. I discovered that the cheap disposable plastic gloves are not strong/thick enough for this job (but at least I knew I was picking the right thing). Next time I'll bring my rubber washing up gloves.

Since I had the nettle, I decided to make a soup to go along with the roast chicken I had planned for tonight. (I bought a whole chicken at Tesco for £1.59!) Even though I don't write out a weekly menu for the week, sometimes I am organized enough to plan ahead, especially when I have leftover food I need to use up. I had a ton of rice leftover from dinner last night, and knew I would have leftover chicken from tonight. So I plan on making burrito/enchiladas later this week using those two ingredients. Because I wanted some Mexican type flavours for the burritos, I decided to go that route with the roast chicken as well.

Verdict: The soup was actually really good. My two-year old ate it right up. Although a bit wary at first, Paul really enjoyed it too. My three year-old took one look at it and declared he didn't like green soup. I made him try a couple of spoonfuls, and he still declared he didn't like it. The chicken turned out great, and the oven chips were good as usual.

Carrot, Nettle and Coriander Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and diced

Bunch of Nettle leaves, about 1 cup packed (handle with gloves!)

~1 Tbs dried coriander leaves (cilantro leaves)

Vegetable stock or water

salt and pepper to taste

Sweat the onion and carrot in a bit of Oil until soft. Add the nettle leaves and cook until wilted. Add the coriander, seasoning and enough stock or water to cover the vegetables. Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Let cool, and puree the soup until smooth. Season to taste.

Roast Chicken with a spice butter rub

In a frying pan, (I used the saucepan I was going to use for the soup), dry roast about 1 Tbs Cumin seeds, 1-2 tsp Coriander seeds, and a dash of hot pepper flakes, on medium heat for a couple minutes, until you can smell the spices well. Remove from pan, and using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind the mixture into a powder. Add salt and pepper to taste, and some chopped fresh Coriander/cilantro leaves. Add to some softened butter (~1-2 Tbs), along with a squeeze of lime juice), and mix.

Using your finger separate the skin from the flesh of the breast on a whole roasting chicken. place about half the butter rub under the skin of the breast, and using your hand, push the butter to the end of the breast, and evenly spread it around. Do the same with the other breast. If desired, you could make a slit in the skin of the drumsticks and rub some butter under that skin as well. Season the cavity with a salt, pepper, ground cumin and paprika rub, and place a couple small pieces of lime inside as well. Rub the outside of the chicken with oil, and season with the salt, pepper, ground cumin and paprika rub. (You could also just season with Salt and Pepper. Cover the breasts with foil. Place chicken in a roasting pan, on a rack if possible, and bake at 350*F for about an hour, removing the foil after 30 minutes. The temperature of the meat should reach 170*F. Let rest for at least 10 minutes.

I also made some oven fries and roasted carrot sticks to go along with the meal.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Baked Sea Bream and Rice Pilaf

Although this may bore most of you, I've decided to try to make a log of every dinner I make this week. Instead of just giving the recipes that I've made up or I know are really good, I'm just going to document what I cook in a week. This anybody who's interested, which is probably really just me, can see what a typical week of food in my house might entail. Granted, this is just going to be dinners.

If you're interested in what we have for breakfast and lunch, it's not really that exciting. Most mornings we have cereal (dry for the boys), or maybe toast. For lunch, we are often on the go, and I'll pack cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks, some kind of fruit, and some type of snack (crackers or the like). If you're wondering what a cheese sandwich is, it's butter/margarine spread on bread, and slices of cheese in the middle. Very exciting, I know, but the boys like it.

Yesterday, they had Sea Bream on sale at the local supermarket. I've never had it before, but it looked good, and I wanted to try something new. I decided to keep the fish whole, and just had the fishmonger gut it for me, not knowing exactly what I was going to do with it. After looking at a couple of recipes, to see what might go well with the fish, I came up with the following recipe.

The Verdict: I'm really glad I tried something new. Sea Bream is really good. (Can you even get it in the states?) It's a smaller white fleshed fish, with a firm texture and mild flavour. It is, apparently, also high in Omega-3 fatty acids. My two-year old, who was watching me plate the fish, kept asking for "more bish please," and my three year old ate everything on his plate! So, this was a good meal, and a good fish

(Please excuse the pictures. Using a six-year old point and shoot camera with poor lighting does not always make the food look as appetizing and delicious as it actually is.)

Baked Sea Bream with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary

Clean a gutted and scaled Sea Bream fish, about 2 lbs. Season the inside with salt and pepper, place a few thin slices of lemon, 3-4 bulbs of roasted garlic (skin still on), a couple of sprigs of thyme and rosemary. Rub outside of fish with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and top with more lemon slices and a couple of sprigs of thyme and rosemary. Seal in a foil pouch, and bake in a 350* F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the eyes turn white and the flesh is firm.

Basmati Rice Pilaf

2 tsp Olive Oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

14 ounces Basmati rice

squeeze of lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil on medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add rice, and sauté for a minute or two until rice is glossy. Add 23 ounces of boiling water, season to taste, adding a squeeze of lemon juice. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer rice for about 10 minutes, until water is absorbed, then remove pan from heat, and let sit, covered for another 10-12 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and top with chopped fresh parsley before serving.

If you like, you can add broccoli florets to the top of the rice about 5 minutes after the rice starts it's simmer (at least half the water absorbed). Then you have steamed broccoli and rice all in one pot, but easy to separate.