The Spice is Right #1: Ancient Spices - Curried Chicken in Boston Lettuce Cups

Curry Powder is based largely on four spices: coriander, cumin, fenugreek and turmeric, with the possibility of many other ingredients including: Cloves, Garlic , Curry Leaves, Fennel Seeds, Ginger, Chillies, Mustard, Red Pepper, Salt, Cassia, Black Pepper, Poppy Seeds, Anise, Bengal Gram, Cardamom, Cassia buds, Celery Seed, Cinnamon, Dill Seed, Mace, Nagkeser, Nutmeg, Onion, Trifala, and White Pepper

Reasons for chosing curry powder - #1
I love the absolute smell of this spice. The second you smell it, you know what it is, and one never forgets the smell. It really is so unique, and has the power to completely transform the foods with which it is working. I don't consider it a spice that enhances, I consider it a spice that defines.

Reasons for choosing curry powder - #2
A July 11th article on Forbes.com titled Curry Spice Shuts Down Melanoma states that “Curcumin, the ingredient that gives curry its yellow hue, blocked the growth of melanoma tumor cells and even stimulated their death in the laboratory, researchers report.” The article then went on to highlight all the research that has been conducted about the spice and its documented cancer fighting abilities.

There have also been a number of articles describing the link between curry and decreased incidents of Alzheimers disease. Curry powder is largely composed of turmeric. Turmeric is the source of Curcumin, among many other compounds. The other spices and herbs in curry powder, almost every one, are known from early times for improving mental functioning. This may help explain why India has one of the lowest rates of Alzheimers disease in the world.

It seems that right now, all signs point to including curry in your diet. Some unpleasantness may be noticed if one suffers from advanced gall bladder trouble, since curry powder stimulates the gall bladder. But if you do not suffer from gallbladder ailments, load it on and help your body fight disease in more ways than one. It seems this ancient spice is a wonder drug in and of itself.

Curried Chicken in Boston Lettuce Cups
I watched Dave Lieberman make this recipe and thought that it looked extremely easy and delicious and it is. I use the left over stock from cooking the chicken thighs to cook rice, cous cous or orzo. It gives more flavor than if I just used water, and it’s a great alternative to just throwing away the stock pot.

4 whole chicken thighs
1 lemon, quartered
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro stems
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 scallions, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
3/4 cup halved seedless red grapes

Boston Bib lettuce leaves, for serving

Put the chicken thighs, lemon, cilantro leaves and stems into a skillet or saucepan. Fill with water just to cover the chicken and season generously with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer. Cook until the chicken is tender and falling from the bones, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid and allow to cool. When cool, remove the skin and strip the meat from the bones, discarding the skin and bones. Reserve the meat.

In a bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, curry, honey, and lemon juice. Stir in the scallions, celery, and grapes until combined. Add the cooled chicken meat and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve heaping portions of the salad in butter lettuce leaves.

Want to play along in the next Spice is Right Blog Event? See information at Tigers and Strawberries website. http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/03/05/announcing-the-spice-is-right-1/

Armoniche with Prosciutto and Spinach

I've been traveling for work and spending time in our new condo doing renovation work, so my opportunities to cook have been sparse. It was such a relief to come home last night and be able to pull together a wonderful and easy dinner. Move over Rachael Ray - I've got a 30 minute meal here that is sure to please.

When I first started cooking about 4 years ago, I was literally a novice in the kitchen. In order to cook the easiest of dishes, I needed to follow a recipe strictly outlining ingredients and directions. I knew that I was becoming a better cook when I started to pull dishes together sans recipes. I love spending time in the kitchen now and just putting ingredients together and seeing how they work.

This particular dinner came about because we had a ton of proscuitto left over after a party last week where my mom and I made a crap ton of scallops wrapped in prosciutto - which literally flew off the tables into peoples mouths, it was amazing. Anyway, the whimsy recipe is as follows:

1 lb Armoniche pasta (or whatever pasta you so desire)
3 cloves garlic
1 half red onion
proscuitto thinly sliced and chopped
1 lb organic spinach
1/2 c dry white wine
Butter and olive oil to coat bottom of saute pan

I heated the onion and garlic for a few minutes over low heat then added the proscuitto and let cook for a few minutes. When the pasta was half way done I added the spinach to the sauté pan, poured in the wine and covered until the pasta was done. After draining I added the pasta to the sauté pan and mixed together.

I sprinkled the top with parmesan cheese. Everything tastes better with a little sprinkling of the parmesan.

30 Ain't So Bad

The day has been approaching for some time now. The day I leave the carefree twenties behind and forge into the world of the unknown. That world being the world of people in their thirties. A world where I wake up in the morning and inspect the landscape of my face for newly created lines, forage the strands of my brown hair for flickers of silver and white, and begin to think that every pain is the onset of arthritis. You know, it didn't sound so fun to me and I have not been looking forward to it.

That was until I realized that my life is awesome. I have somehow surrounded myself with the most amazing people. Beginning with my husband, who I was convinced could not surprise me for my birthday, who pulled off the most amazing weekend in the Berkshires. A weekend that I was lead to believe was going to be just the two of us, relaxing, but turned out to be a weekend filled with the company and laughter of my friends.

If the measure of a person is somehow quantified by the people who choose to share their lives with them, then I am truly a blessed person. I was so surprised that my friends drove three hours clean across the state, just to surprise me and spend time with me. Time that was well spent with multiple bottles of wine, good food and great conversation. There are certain times that you look around you and what your life has become, and you smile, because it is good. I love thirty, especially if it means that I get to grow old with these people, and experience life with these people. Especially CB, who will undoubtedly be the one to put the smile lines on the landscape of my face, because everyday that passes I am glad to be with him. To have someone in your life that can know your wants and needs without you ever having to verbalize them; that is truly amazing. That I have found that somone at the young age of thirty is the best gift of all.

Scones with Dried Cranberries and Pistachios

There is a Japanese bakery (I know, not the first thing I would have thought of) down the street from my house that makes the most wonderful moist and fluffy scones. I have tried in vain many times to make scones and what I usually end up with is a small starch like hockey puck. Yum.

I came across this recipe on Orangette and decided to give it a whirl. This was by far my best result with scones, but they were still a little dry, I think that is because I used skim milk instead of whole milk. I think that if I substitute whole milk or cream I will be a-okay.

They say that your metabolism slows down at 30; well, apparently not for my dear husband CB. That man is a garbage disposal. He is the type of person who in order to not lose weight simply from the efficiency of his basal metabolic rate needs to eat two breakfast a day, followed by lunch, a snack before dinner, then dinner, and then dinner must also be followed by dessert. Every night.

So these scones served the purpose of the easily transportable breakfast #2 everyday for CB. Scones equal easy to eat on trains and buses; cereal, not so easy. Yeah for scones.

½ c milk
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
3 Tbs sugar
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped pistachios

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar and whatever additions you choose, and stir or toss to mix. Pour the wet ingredients into the dries, reserving just a tad of the milk-egg mixture to use as a glaze. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.

Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat, if you have one. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce

Last month CB and I went to Sugarbush, VT with some friends for the weekend. One night we went to John Egan's Big World for dinner. Our meals were "good" not great and our service was less than stellar (a few times we thought our server forgot we were there.) Anyway, the night was all brought together by a quick viewing of the dessert menu and noticing that white chocolate bread pudding was on the menu. It was great, wonderful...on and on. I decided then and there that I would be making a vat of it when I got home. So above is my version of the Big World dessert.

I have always loved bread pudding, it just screams comfort food to me, and I for one have never, ever, tried to give up carbs at all in my life. Thank you marathon running for an excuse to eat ones own body weight in carbs and not feel pangs of guilt for days. I love you long distance training run, with follow up feeding fest.

I found this recipe after searching the internet. It seems this is a rendition of the recipe that is used on Carnival Cruise Lines. Huh!

White Chocolate Bread Pudding
5 large eggs
1/4 lb of butter
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups milk
1 loaf white bread
1-1/4 lb white chocolate
3/4 cup sugar

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 360°F (182°C). Remove the crust from the bread and soak it in the heated milk and cream. Beat the mixture by hand or in a mixer until the pieces of bread are reduced to the size you want. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler and incorporate that into the bread mixture.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until creamy. Add that to the bread mixture and stir until uniform. Transfer the batter to a buttered pan and place that pan in a larger pan of hot water in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the center is set. [Start checking the pudding after a half hour in the oven. Because this recipe is cut down so severely from the original, it may take a good deal less time to set.]

Raspberry Sauce
One bag frozen raspberries
Sugar

I simply put a bag of frozen raspberrys in a sauce pan and boiled them, adding sugar until I got the consistency that I liked for drizzling.

Crockpot Adventures: Beef Stew

Next month dear husband CB and I will be moving into our new condo and will soon be taking on the life of home renovations. Because most of the renovations will be taking place in the kitchen and there will be a long long long stretch of time where I am left without a stove or cabinets or other useful components of a kitchen I have decided to become oh so familiar with my crockpot.

Sunday was my first adventure, soon to be followed by lots and lots of slow cooked meals in a crockpot most likely plugged into a socket in the living room.

Now I don't eat beef, so this was especially tricky for me considering I had no idea what "beef for stew" would look like, nor did I know where to locate it in the market. CB assured me that I would find it in the meat department and that it would be clearly labeled for stew. And it was quite easy to find and the process of making this was super easy, I simply cut a bunch of crap up, threw it in the crockpot and blap-dee-bloo ten hours later my house was filled with the aroma of dead cow marinating in its own juices with potatoes and carrots along for the ride. I did wander from my dietary restrictions and had three whole spoonfuls of it and I must say, that crockpot is quite the little chef.

Recipe - definitely not exact

• 2 lbs. stew meat
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 1/2 c. beef broth
• Onion, diced
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 3 potatoes, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, sliced

Place meat in crockpot, mix flour, salt and pepper and pour over meat. Stir and coat meat with flour. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. Cook and cover. Low 9 hours. High 5 hours.

Note: I left out the worcestershire sauce because I forgot to add it. I also added a can of crushed tomatoes to the mix, you can use stewed if you want to more chunk-i-ness.