No Empty Chairs

October 16, 2009 · 1:22 pm

Roasted Green Tomato Salsa

The weatherman is predicting snow for Western Pennsylvania sometime over the next few days, with nights dipping into the low-30’s. So it was time to finally bring in all of the green tomatoes on our vines. With a super wet, cool spring and summer, I wasn’t sure if we would get any tomatoes at all this year. Leaves started turning yellow then brown much earlier than usual, and I didn’t get nearly the volume of tomatoes as most years. And since they ripened later, we have an extra surplus of green tomatoes about to be killed by frost.

Unfortunately, my kitchen countertops are all on interior walls, and I have very shallow windowsills, so trying to ripen all of these green tomatoes indoors is going to be difficult.

So I decided to try making my Salsa Verde using the green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. I will admit that I prefer the taste of tomatillos to the green tomatoes, but this salsa still tastes great! It should also make some great enchiladas verdes.

Start by washing the tomatoes and removing the stems. I left the really small tomatoes whole, but cut the rest in half. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet brushed with olive oil. Brush tops of tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil as well.

Place onions, garlic and hot peppers on a second roasting pan. Brush with olive oil. NOTE: There are more onions and garlic on this pan than I actually used in the salsa. The rest I used in another dish.

Roast at 475°F (using a convection oven, if available) until tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers just begin to blacken, about 10-15 minutes.

Place tomatoes, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic, and the hot peppers in a food processor. There is no need to peel tomatoes or peppers. (The onions should have been peeled before roasting)

Pour salsa into a bowl and add 1 cup packed cilantro, finely chopped (I did this in the food processor as well).

Stir in 1/3 cup fresh lime juice, 1 ½ tsp salt, and some fresh ground pepper. Add additional green tabasco sauce, if desired, for more heat.

RECIPE:

Roasted Green Tomato Salsa (or Salsa Verde)

3 lb green tomatoes (about 12 tomatoes) or tomatillos for real Salsa Verde
2 onions, red or yellow, peeled and cut in half
3 hot peppers, seeded and cut in half
4 cloves garlic, peeled (or roast whole garlic head and then just use 4 cloves)
1 cup packed cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 ½ tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper, to taste
Green tabasco sauce, for additional heat, to taste

Preheat convection oven (if available) to 475°F.

Wash the tomatoes and remove any stems. Cut tomatoes in half (I left the really small ones whole). Place tomatoes, cut side down, on a baking sheet brushed with olive oil. Brush tops of tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil as well.

Place onions, garlic, and hot peppers on a second roasting pan. Brush with olive oil.

Roast at 475°F (using a convection oven, if available) until tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers just begin to blacken, about 10-15 minutes. If you are not using a convection oven, switch oven to Broil for the last 5 minutes, or until slightly blackened.

Place tomatoes, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic, and the hot peppers in a food processor. I did this in 2 batches: tomatoes in the first batch; onions, garlic, and peppers in the second batch. Pulse until coarsely chopped.

NOTE: I like a thicker salsa so I do not use the liquid from the bottom of the roasting pan, but you can if you like a thinner salsa. Also, there is no need to peel tomatoes or peppers.

Pour salsa into a bowl and add chopped cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Taste. Add green tabasco, as desired, for additional heat.

This salsa can be easily frozen in plastic containers or plastic baggies. Because it does not have a high acid content, however, it should not be canned in a boiling bath canner.

NoEmptyChairs.me

11 Comments

Filed under Appetizers, Canning/Freezing, Condiments/Sauces

Tagged as green tomatoes, salsa, salsa verde

October 14, 2009 · 5:52 am

Pesto Stuffed Chicken

We have been trying all sorts of new recipes with the Basil Pesto that we made this summer. One of our favorites has been this Pesto Stuffed Chicken, adapted from Kayln’s Kitchen. Everyone loves it except BigA, who hates cheese in all of its varieties. But I make a cheese-less version for her, and while I think her version seems pretty dry, she is happy with it. This can be prepared with either homemade or purchased pesto. If you do buy it from a store, I recommend draining off some of the oil on top before using it.

The following recipe is for 6 large chicken breasts, but it can easily be adapted for fewer (or more) servings. To begin, the chicken breasts need to be thin so that they will be easier to roll and will cook evenly. The 4 chicken breasts that I used were extremely large, so I just cut through them cross-wise, giving me 8 pieces of chicken. With normal-sized chicken breasts, I flatten them in a large ziploc bag. Place the chicken (one at a time) in the bag; leave the zipper end open (so your bag doesn’t explode) and pound the chicken with a mallet on the back side until it is uniformly thin.

The pesto stuffing is a mix of prepared pesto, sour cream, and grated cheese (mozzarella, Monterey Jack, and Swiss all work well).

Spread pesto mix on the ragged side of the pounded chicken breasts. Roll up each piece, beginning at the widest end. Secure each chicken roll with a toothpick or two. Place chicken rolls in a greased 9×13″ pan or a large casserole dish.

This recipe has a simple Parmesan cheese coating. It is too much work for me to individually dip each chicken roll in egg and then cheese, and I have found that it doesn’t really make it any tastier (or prettier), and I often end up wasting cheese. So now I just brush the chicken rolls (while they are in the pan) with an egg wash and then sprinkle shredded Parmesan over each one. And add a little Parsley for color.

Pour a small amount of chicken broth (about ½ cup) in the bottom of the pan. I try to use a low-sodium chicken broth, or else it ends up overly salty with all of the Parmesan. Cover with foil and bake at 375°F for 30 minutes. Then increase temperature to 425°F, uncover, and bake 15-20 minutes longer, until nicely browned and cooked through.

You can strain the drippings and make a sauce, but we prefer to just spoon the cheese and pesto laden drippings over our chicken (and vegetables and rice/couscous/noodles).

RECIPE:

Pesto Stuffed Chicken

Servings: 6
Print

6 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup prepared pesto
1 cup grated cheese (Mozzarella, Swiss or Monterey Jack)
1/3 cup sour cream
1 egg + 1 tsp water, mixed
about 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs chopped parsley
½ cup chicken broth (low sodium, or slightly diluted with water)

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Pound chicken into thin, flat pieces: Place the chicken breasts (one at a time) in a large Ziploc bag; leave the zipper end open (so your bag doesn’t explode) and pound the chicken with a mallet on the back side until it is uniformly thin. If your chicken breasts are really large, you can cut them in half crosswise and then pound, if necessary.

In a small bowl combine pesto, sour cream, and mozzarella (or Swiss or Monterey Jack) cheese. Spread each chicken breast with about 2 Tbs of the pesto mixture. Roll up each piece of chicken, beginning with the widest end. Secure with toothpicks. Place chicken rolls in a greased 9×13″ pan or casserole dish.

Mix egg and water. Brush over chicken rolls. Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan. Sprinkle with parsley. Pour the chicken broth into the bottom of the pan (but not over the chicken rolls). Cover with foil and bake at 375°F for 30 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 425°F, uncover chicken and bake 15-20 minutes longer, until chicken is nicely browned and cooked through.

Serve with drippings from the bottom of the pan.

Adapted from Kalyn’s Kitchen

NoEmptyChairs.me

4 Comments

Filed under Main Dishes

Tagged as cheese, chicken, pesto

October 13, 2009 · 9:15 pm

Green Beans with Toasted Garlic Almonds

Green beans are one vegetable that everyone at our table will eat. That and broccoli. So I try to change up the presentation every now and again, so that it doesn’t look like we are eating the same vegetable every night. This is a simple to prepare side dish that pleases even my picky eater (she’s the one helping out below!).

Start with enlisting the help of someone to wash and snap your fresh beans (even if she won’t look at you when you are holding a camera).

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Wash beans and put into a pan with a small amount of salted water.

Cover and cook until just barely crisp-tender. Drain beans and set aside. In the same pan, melt 1 Tbs butter. Add about 2 Tbs sliced or slivered almonds.

Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle almonds with a small amount of garlic powder. Continue cooking (and stirring) until garlic powder just begins to brown (don’t overcook). Add beans back to the pan and stir to reheat.

RECIPE:

Green Beans with Toasted Garlic Almonds

Servings: 4-6
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1 lb fresh green beans
1 Tbs butter
2 Tbs sliced or slivered almonds
Garlic powder

Wash and snap beans. Place in a pot with a small amount (about ¾ cup) of salted water. Cover and cook until just barely crisp-tender. Drain and set aside.

In the same pan, melt 1 Tbs butter. Add about 2 Tbs sliced or slivered almonds. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle almonds with a small amount of garlic powder. Continue cooking (and stirring) until garlic powder just begins to brown (don’t overcook). Add beans back to the pan and stir to reheat.

NoEmptyChairs.me

Apple Pie

Monday nights at our house are “Family Night”. This is a definite No Empty Chairs event in our home. We work very hard to keep everyone’s schedule clear on Monday nights. Family Night is a time when we gather together for some good old fashioned family fun and bonding. Everyone has an assignment on Family Night and it rotates weekly. Assignments include everything from saying a prayer, to choosing a song, giving a short lesson or message, choosing the family game, to everyone’s favorite: making a treat. This week it was Brian’s turn to make the treat, but he is usually pretty good at delegating this responsibility (for which everyone is grateful, or we would be eating microwave popcorn whenever his turn came around). As he is also still recovering from the effects of swine flu, I took on his treat responsibility this week.

I recently bought a bushel of apples from a produce auction (many thanks Cynthia!), so we have been trying out some fun new apple recipes. The recipe for this pie comes from Dawn Viola, a winner in this year’s Crisco National Pie Championship for her Vanilla-Vanilla Bean Roasted Apple Pie. (Which is kind of funny, because she uses no shortening in her recipe!) I simplified and modified it some for the dessert I made tonight (I will try it again another time when I have whole vanilla beans). The resulting pie was wonderful: a filling of cinnamon spiced apples that was not too runny and an especially flaky all-butter crust.

The secret to making the dough flaky is to keep your ingredients and equipment as cold as possible. Dawn suggests putting your ingredients, bowls and food processor blade in the freezer for 15 minutes before starting.

To make the pie crust, combine the chilled flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-sized pieces of butter. Add the vinegar (cold) and vanilla extract and pulse to mix. Add one tablespoon of water at a time (make sure it is ice-cold), pulsing until the mixture begins to hold together. If you pinch some of the dough, it should stick together in your hand. Add more water if necessary. Dough should be slightly crumbly, but hold together when pinched.

Divide the dough into two equal parts and shape into two round discs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

I got a lot of help with the apple filling. LittleJ loves to help out in the kitchen! She is now my official apple peeler.

Peel and slice about 12 apples (8 cups of sliced apples). Preheat your broiler. Place apples, cinnamon and 2 tablespoons brown sugar in a roasting pan; toss apples to coat.

Broil until the apples begin to brown. Watch carefully so that your apples don’t burn. Stir once or twice. Remove apples from the oven when they have begun to brown, but are not completely cooked through. Stir in the remaining sugar, flour, Clear Jel and salt. Add the vanilla extract, apple cider and cream; stir. Set aside.

To assemble the pie, place a 9” pie plate into the freezer. Remove the pie crust dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5 – 10 minutes, or just long enough for it to become easy to roll, but still chilled. Roll dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface. Place in the bottom of the chilled 9” pie plate. Return to the refrigerator to chill. Roll out the second piece of dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface.

Remove pie plate from the refrigerator. Fill with apples. Dot top of apples with 2 Tbs butter. Place top crust on top of the apples and pinch the top and bottom edges together to seal. Flute edge, if desired, and make a few air vents around the top of the pie. I used a cute little maple leaf cookie cutter to make my vents.

Lightly brush the top and sides of the pie with an egg wash. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 400° F for 30 minutes. Cover edges with aluminum foil or a pie shield if edges are browning too quickly. Cook for another 15 minutes. Check pie every 7-10 minutes, cooking until the crust is golden brown and flaky.

Cool pie for at least two hours before cutting and serving. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

RECIPE:

Apple Pie

Servings: 6-8
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All-Butter Pie Crust (for double pie crust)

Filling:
8 cups peeled, cored, sliced apples (about 12 Granny Smith)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbs flour
2 Tbs Clear Jel (or 1 additional Tbs flour)
1 tsp salt
½ cup apple cider
1 tsp vanilla (or seeds from 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped)
1 Tbs heavy cream or ¼ cup sour cream

Egg Wash:
1 egg
1 Tbs cream

Coarse sugar

Prepare pie crust as directed for a double crust.

Filling: Preheat the broiler. Add apples, cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar to a roasting pan; stir. Broil until the apples begin to brown. Watch carefully so that your apples don’t burn. Stir once or twice. Remove apples from the oven when they have begun to brown, but are not completely cooked through. Stir in the remaining sugar, flour, Clear Jel, and salt. Add the vanilla, apple cider, and cream (or sour cream); stir. Set aside.

To assemble the pie, place a 9” pie plate into the freezer. Remove the pie crust dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5 – 10 minutes, or just long enough for it to become easy to roll, but still chilled. Roll dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface. Place in the bottom of the chilled 9” pie plate. Return to the refrigerator to chill. Roll out the second piece of dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface.

Gently whisk the egg and cream in a small dish. Lightly brush the egg wash over the top of the pie and along the edges. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 400° F for 30 minutes. Cover edges with aluminum foil or a pie crust shield if edges are browning too quickly. Cook for another 15 minutes. Check pie every 7-10 minutes, cooking until the crust is golden brown and flaky. Cool pie for at least two hours before cutting and serving. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

NoEmptyChairs.me

All Butter Pie Crust

Servings: Makes a double pie crust
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2 ½ cups flour
3 Tbs sugar
2 tsp salt
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, cut into ½” cubes
1 Tbs white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract (or seeds from 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped + 1 Tbs vanilla powder)
6-8 Tbs ice water

Chill ingredients, bowls and food processor blade in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-sized pieces of butter. Add the vinegar (cold) and vanilla extract and pulse to mix. Add one tablespoon of water at a time (make sure it is ice-cold), pulsing until the mixture begins to hold together. If you pinch some of the dough, it should stick together in your hand. Add more water if necessary. Dough should be slightly crumbly, but hold together when pinched.

Divide the dough into two equal parts and shape into two round discs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Remove the pie crust dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5 – 10 minutes, or just long enough for it to become easy to roll, but still chilled. Roll dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface. Place in the bottom of a chilled 9” pie plate. Return to the refrigerator to chill. Roll out the second piece of dough into a 12” circle on a lightly floured surface.

Fill with desired filling and bake as directed in pie recipe.

Adapted from Dawn Viola

NoEmptyChairs.me

Sweet & Sour Pork Stir-Fry

Tonight was one of those “Oh no, what I am going to make for dinner tonight!?” nights. You would think that after 20 years of marriage, dinnertime would not come as such a shock to me. But, alas, sometimes it does. I try to be organized and have a list of meals and available ingredients so that dinner preparation is a little easier. However, there are many a night when 5 o’clock rolls around and I have yet to even consider what we are going to eat for dinner. When those nights happen, one of my favorite fall-back recipes is a stir-fry. I can usually scrounge up enough ingredients, fresh or frozen, to pull something together in a fairly short amount of time.

Tonight, the meat of choice was pork. I had a nice pork tenderloin in the freezer that would not take too long to thaw in the microwave. Vegetables included fresh onions, carrots and celery, frozen broccoli (I wish it had been fresh, but it still worked out fine) and a can of water chestnuts. The sauce: sweet & sour (not too sweet, however: I do not enjoy overly sweet stir-frys).

If you are tackling this last minute like me, put the pork in the microwave to thaw and start chopping vegetables. Put the yellow onions, carrots and celery in a bowl, and have your water chestnuts and broccoli handy. If you have green onions, place these in a separate small bowl. They are added at the very end.

Stir together sauce ingredients and set aside.

When the pork is thaw, cut it into bite-sized thin strips. Once everything is chopped, it is time to start cooking. Don’t try to cook and chop at the same time when making a stir-fry. It is easy to overcook the vegetables and end up with a really soggy stir-fry. It is worth the small wait to have all of your ingredients cut before you start cooking.

Heat 1 Tbs peanut or coconut oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add yellow onions, carrots and celery. If you have fresh broccoli, add it now too. Or any other fresh vegetable you have with a slightly longer cooking time: like red or green peppers, mushrooms, green beans, Chinese cabbage. Wait until later to add quick-cooking vegetables like green onions, snow peas. When vegetables are crisp-tender, remove them from the wok and place them in a bowl.

Add one additional tablespoon of oil to the wok and add your pork. Stir-fry on high heat until pork is cooked through and begins to brown.

Pork tenderloin is often a high water content meat, so if you have a large amount of liquid in the bottom of your pan, drain it off. You want to stir-fry the meat, not boil it.

When meat is cooked through, add the sauce with any frozen vegetables you are using and cook 3-4 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken and vegetables are crisp-tender. Return onion/celery mixture to pan along with water chestnuts and green onions (and any other quick-cooking vegetable you are using). Heat through.

Serve with white or brown rice.

RECIPE:

Sweet & Sour Pork Stir-Fry

Servings: 6
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2 Tbs oil (peanut or coconut), divided
2 lb pork tenderloin, cut into thin strips
1 red or green pepper, diced (I used broccoli instead this time)
1 large onion, chopped
½ cup julienned carrots
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1 bunch green onions, cut into 1″ slices

Sauce:
½ cup chicken broth
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup rice vinegar (unsweetened)
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbs toasted sesame oil
½ Tbs minced garlic
1 Tbs sugar or agave nectar
1 Tbs cornstarch

Combine sauce ingredients; set aside. Chop vegetables and pork. Heat 1 Tbs oil in wok or skillet. Add vegetables (except water chestnuts and green onion); cook until crisp-tender. Remove from pan. Add additional 1 Tbs oil to pan. Add pork and cook until pork begins to brown. Add sauce to pan and cook 2-3 minutes, until slightly thickened. Stir in cooked vegetables, water chestnuts and green onions. Heat through. Serve with white or brown rice.

NoEmptyChairs.me

Basil Pesto

Last month I got a half-bushel of basil from a local farmer’s market. It was fresh picked about an hour before I got there. It smelled divine in the car on the ride home! So what do you do with a half bushel of basil? Make pesto, of course. I love to grow basil at home, but I don’t have a large enough crop to make large quantities of pesto. So I watch this farmer’s market at the end of summer when they cut their large crop of basil and sell it cheap!

Actually, I only made full-blown pesto with about half of the basil. The other half I put into the food processor with olive oil (in the proportion of 1 cup packed basil to ¼ cup olive oil). This basil/olive oil mixture I spooned into ice cube trays and froze. Once frozen, I put the basil ice cubes into a Ziploc bag, then back into the freezer. I use them to season all kinds of dishes throughout the next 3 seasons, until I have basil growing again in my garden. The proportion above is also the same proportion of basil to olive oil in the pesto, so if you just want to freeze the basil/olive oil, then you can add the remaining ingredients later to make fresh pesto.

But I love being able to pull pesto out of the freezer and not worry about whether I have pine nuts ready to be toasted. To make fresh basil pesto, combine 4 cups of packed basil leaves (don’t use the thick, stiff stems; smaller stems may be used), 4 cloves of garlic and ¾ cup toasted pine nuts in a food processor. Blend well. Add 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan, processing just until blended. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream while food processor is running.

Pour pesto into jars, freezer containers or small Ziploc bags. If you are using jars or plastic freezer containers (like below), drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the top of each container. This will help keep the basil from darkening or becoming freezer-burnt. This container is obviously not full, it is one that I currently have open in my fridge. Pesto makes a great addition to so many things: pasta, pizza, sandwiches, fresh tomato salads, bruschetta.

When thawing pesto from the freezer, DO NOT MICROWAVE! It will melt the Parmesan and leave you with a gloopy mess (trust me on this one). Still tastes good, but looks pretty funky. Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight, or on the countertop for several hours.

RECIPE:

Basil Pesto

¾ cup pine nuts
4 cups fresh basil leaves, firmly packed
4 cloves garlic
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425°F. Toast pine nuts until lightly browned, checking and stirring every 4-5 minutes. Cool.

Using a food processor, blend basil, garlic, and pine nuts. Add Parmesan, processing just until blended. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream while food processor is running.

Makes about 2 cups

Notes:

Substitute toasted walnuts for the pine nuts.
Low on basil? Substitute fresh spinach for 1-2 cups of the basil
To Freeze: Pour pesto into jars, freezer containers or small Ziploc bags, leaving about ¼” headspace. If using jars or plastic containers, drizzle small amount of additional olive oil over the top of the pesto. Freeze.
Alternate Preparation: Blend basil and olive oil in proportions above. Spoon into ice cube trays or small Ziploc baggies. Freeze. Use to prepare fresh pesto later, or to add to recipes calling for fresh basil.

NoEmptyChairs.me

3 Comments

Filed under Canning/Freezing, Condiments/Sauces

Tagged as basil, freezing, fresh herbs, pesto