With Christmas a week away, many folks may be planning on turkey for their big holiday meal.  And with our entire nation in need of a little comfort food, a dish that is both comforting and incorporates leftover turkey hits the spot.  Bonus — this version is much lower in calories and fat than the traditional pot pie, without sacrificing any of the flavor.  We adapted the original recipe (found in Cook’s Illustrated’s magazine “Light & Healthy 2012“) by using leftover cooked turkey rather than poached chicken breasts.  Calling this dish “pot pie” is a bit of a misnomer, considering that the recipe calls for a crumble topping — made with flour, Parmesan cheese, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, cayenne, buttermilk and butter — instead of the usual pie crust.  Rather than “turkey pot pie,” think of it more as “turkey cobbler,” in terms of the consistency of the finished dish.  The filling is similar to the traditional version — with turkey, mushrooms, onions, carrots and celery (no peas – I hate them) in a rich and creamy (but butter-free!) sauce.  It doesn’t get much better than savory comfort food that warms your soul, without increasing your waistline.

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We typically don’t eat Indian food.  Dan has a love/hate relationship with the curry powder used in a lot of Indian dishes (he loves it but it hates him, gastronomically-speaking), and I haven’t ever been all that intrigued by trying much Indian cuisine, so it’s never really been on our radar.  Until now.  Several months ago, we had dinner at Samar, a tapas (small plates) restaurant that serves food inspired by the cuisine in Spain, India and the Eastern Mediterranean.  It was the perfect opportunity to try little portions of new-to-us dishes without having to commit to an entire meal that we may or may not like (and may or may not like us back.)  One of the small plates we tried that night was “tandoori chicken butter masala.”   We liked it a lot (it liked us just fine too), and it inspired us to try making something similar at home.  We’re not really sure what the difference is between tandoori chicken and chicken tikka (some sources say tandoori involves a whole chicken or chicken parts, while tikka refers to smaller bits of chicken), but we found a recipe for chicken tikka masala that sounded good, and we adapted it into a dish that we love even better than the one we had at Samar.  It’s easy to make, although it takes some time since the chicken needs to marinate in the yogurt-based marinade for about an hour, then the chicken simmers for about half an hour in the tomato-based sauce.  But the final dish is worth the effort, with complex spices and flavors that you can easily adjust to suit your own preferences (add more cayenne and/or another serrano pepper if you like it more spicy, or increase the amount of cinnamon, sugar and/or garam masala if you prefer a more warm/sweet flavor.)  We’re happy to report a love/love relationship with this Indian dish and we’re so glad we tried it.

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It’s almost Thanksgiving, so here is another recipe transforming leftover turkey into a new dish.  In the original recipe, the turkey flavor comes from turkey stock.  We didn’t have any stock (nor any turkey bones to make it), so we used chicken stock and added leftover turkey meat for turkey flavor and a variance in texture in the creamy risotto.  This isn’t exactly a quick dish (risotto requires a lot of stirring and patience), but it’s pretty easy to make with a few, simple ingredients:  butter; a shallot; mushrooms; garlic; fresh sage; Arborio or other “risotto rice;” chicken stock; leftover turkey; pecorino cheese (Parmesan would also work) and salt & pepper.  If you’re tired of turkey sandwiches (but not tired of spending some time in the kitchen), this dish is a richly decadent way to use your leftover turkey.  And if you’ve got a lot leftover, here are some other recipe options:  turkey barley soup,  tex-mex turkey soup, turkey tetrazzini, king ranch, enchiladas, paella and stuffed shells.  We hope you and yours have a very Happy Thanksgiving, with an abundance of good food, cheer and counted blessings!
Continue reading “Turkey Mushroom Risotto (w/ leftover turkey)”

Wearing their “throw-back” jerseys, the Steelers played the Washington Redskins this week.  Despite looking a bit like bumble bees dressed in prison inmate costumes (or maybe because of it), the Steelers made a strong showing and won with ease.  Finding a culinary specialty from the D.C. area for the Steeler Opponent-City Challenge was not quite as easy.  Our nation’s capital may be known for partisan politics, cherry blossoms and American monuments and memorials, but the district doesn’t seem to be famous for any particular food item or cuisine.  After considering (and rejecting) an Obama vs. Romney favorite-food-face-off and briefly entertaining the culinary possibilities for donkey or elephant (not really), we settled on a D.C. “carryout” specialty — wings and “mumbo” sauce.  According to our sources, D.C. has an abundance of Chinese carryout restaurants, and a staple of those eateries is a tangy, sweet sauce with a bit of spice that is typically served with fried chicken wings.  A lot of our research described mumbo sauce as a cross between BBQ sauce and Chinese sweet & sour sauce, which didn’t really sound all that appealing at first.  But we persevered and the mumbo sauce beat our expectations, much like the Steelers beat the heck out of the Redskins (unfortunate jerseys and all.)

Continue reading “Crispy Baked Wings in D.C. Mumbo Sauce”

In the Thursday game last week, the Steelers played the Tennessee Titans.  Coming up with a food for which Tennessee is particularly well-known for the Steeler Opponent-City Challenge wasn’t easy.  And apparently neither was playing the Titans, since the Steelers lost the game that they were heavily favored to win.  Since the Titans play in Nashville, we focused our search on that city and discovered Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, which is famous for, you guessed it, their “hot chicken” — fried chicken sauced with a very spicy paste.  Prince’s is also famous for the story behind the chicken.  The current owner of Prince’s explains that she had a great-uncle who was quite the ladies’ man and once got caught by his live-in girlfriend after cheating on her with another girlfriend.  To get back at him, the jilted girlfriend made him a breakfast of super spicy fried chicken.  Her hot dish of revenge backfired, however, because he loved the chicken so much that he started serving it in his restaurant (and reportedly continued sleeping with other women.)  The dish was a hit with the locals and became so popular that there is an annual city-wide festival and competition honoring it.  Understandably, the actual recipe for Prince’s Nashville Hot Chicken is a closely-kept secret, but we found this recipe, which we adapted by using coconut oil instead of lard to make it a bit more healthy and about half the amount of cayenne pepper to make it tolerable for our delicate constitutions. Continue reading “Nashville Hot Chicken”

Following a bye-week, the Steelers played the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.  Despite being located in the same state, there is no love lost between these two cities and their football fans.  Dan tells me that Eagles fans are so notoriously unruly that their former stadium actually had a jail and a courtroom in it, so that belligerent patrons could be dealt with immediately.  Drunken violence zealous team support aside, Philadelphians know their way around a sandwich — specifically, the cheesesteak sandwich.  Legend has it that the very first Philly cheesesteak was made by hot dog vendor Pat Olivieri in 1930, and became famous when a cab driver smelled the beef cooking, asked for a steak sandwich and spread the word to fellow cabbies.  Although the original and truly authentic cheesesteak is made with beef, we decided to try a healthier adaptation using chicken for this week’s Steeler Opponent-City Challenge, inspired by the chipotle chicken cheesesteak from this sub shop.  We used a chipotle cheese sauce also inspired by that sandwich, instead of the Cheese Whiz used in the authentic version.  The chipotle adds a spicy, smoky flavor that takes the cheese sauce to a whole new level.  Although different from the genuine Philly cheesesteak, we actually like the chipotle chicken version better.  Much as we liked seeing the Steelers beat the Eagles with a field goal in the final 3 seconds of the game.  Just don’t tell any over-served, hostile Eagles fans that our sandwich is better than theirs.

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One of Dan’s oldest (but still younger than him!) and dearest friends bought him the cookbook “French Classics Made Easy,” in honor of his birthday and our of-a-lifetime trip to Paris.  (Thanks Carrie!)  She’s the kind of friend who never forgets a birthday and always makes you feel like the funniest person in the room (even though she actually is the most funny person in the room at any given time.)  This chicken dish — “poulet au vinaigre de xérí¨s” — is the first recipe we’ve tried from the book, but it certainly won’t be the last.  Not only was it easy to make with simple ingredients — chicken thighs, butter, olive oil, onion, sherry vinegar, shallots, garlic, white wine, tomato paste, parsley and salt & pepper — but it genuinely tasted like a classic French dish, with rich, complex and buttery flavors.  This dish evokes the same qualities as a good, lasting friendship — satisfying and familiar, yet memorable and significant — all with minimal effort.

Continue reading “Chicken with Sherry Vinegar”

Birthdays just may be the ultimate special occasion.  The single day of the year with the sole purpose of celebrating your very existence.  Whether it’s a milestone entry into a new decade or simply the passage of another year, the day you came into the world is a cause for celebration.  And indulging in a favorite food — especially one you don’t allow yourself very often — is the perfect way to commemorate you.  This year for my birthday, Dan honored me with a rare treat — homemade buttermilk fried game hen.  He used the recipe found in Chef Thomas Keller’s beautiful book, “Ad Hoc at Home” (click the link for the book, then scroll down for the recipe.)  Not so coincidentally, Ad Hoc is one of our all-time favorite restaurants and the book, according to Chef Keller, is “a big collection of family meals and everyday staples, delicious approachable food, recipes that are doable at home.”  While the recipe is indeed quite doable at home, it is time-intensive and involves many steps.  Justifiably so, for a decadently delicious dish worthy of a birthday.

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“Hyperbole” is defined as “obvious and intentional exaggeration; an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.”  As self-proclaimed foodies, we tend to enthusiastically gush about favorite foods, recipes and meals (no, really, we do.)  And we have MANY favorites.  Possibly so many favorites as to cheapen the meaning of the word “favorite.”  But, all enthusiasm aside, it takes quite a lot for us to decree a particular recipe or meal to be The Best — a title we generally reserve for a recipe or dish that absolutely transcends all other versions we’ve ever tried.  Friends, we are happy to present — without even a hint of hyperbole — The Best Chicken Parmesan you will ever eat.  Period.  The End.

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