Spanish Style Garlic Chicken and Cous Cous Pilaf, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Ever since I cancelled my cable, I’ve been severely lacking access to cooking shows, with the exception of Kitchen Nightmares, a show in which an outspoken chef goes in and tries to save struggling restaurants.

I watched this one episode where he helped a Spanish restuarant in New Jersey. One of their signature dishes was something called Garlic Chicken. So of course, I looked up the recipe and came across this one. I gotta say, it’s pretty delicious.

Spanish Style Garlic Chicken

1 whole chicken, cut up into relatively same-sized pieces
All purpose flour for dusting, plus 1 tbs. for sauce
Sea salt
12 whole unpeeled medium size garlic cloves, lightly smashed, and 10 large garlic gloves sliced
1/2 dried small red chile, such as arbol, crumbled
2/3 c dry white wine
1/3 c chicken stock or broth
2 tsp best quality red wine vinegar or more to taste
3 tbs minced fresh flat leaf or Italian parsley

Place the chicken in a bowl and rub it generously with salt. Let stand for 30 minutes.

Pour olive oil to a depth of 1/2 inch in a heavy oven proof 12 inch skillet and heat it over medium high heat until almost smoking.

Lightly dust the chicken pieces with flour, shaking off the excess.

Add the 12 whole garlic cloves to the skillet and stir to coat with the oil, 1 minute.

Working in two batches, cook the chicken until somewhat crisp and richly browned all over, 8 to 10 minutes per batch, adjusting the heat so that the oil doesn’t burn.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the browned chicken pieces to a 12 inch earthenware cazuela or a baking dish of similar size.

Discard the whole garlic cloves. If the oil doesn’t seem clean enough, pour if off, wipe the skillet, and add 2 to 3 tbsp fresh olive oil. If the cooking oil seems fine, pour off all but 3 TBSP of it.

Heat the skillet over low heat, add the 10 sliced garlic cloves, and cook until very fragrant and just beginning to color, about 2 minutes.

Add the chile and stir for a few seconds.

Add the 1 tsp flour and stir for about 20 seconds.

Add the wine and chicken stock and bring to a boil., stirring.

Season the sauce with salt to taste and pour it over the chicken.

Bake the chicken until its cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Strawberries Romanoff Shortcake, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

I recently discovered the delightful Strawberries Romanoff dish at la Madeleine a few weeks ago: fresh strawberries covered in a sweet brandy-cream sauce. And after coming accross a blog post on strawberry cream cake, the food epiphany struck me: what about strawberry shortcake except use the brandy-cream instead of traditional whipped cream?

Ding!

Strawberries Romanoff Shortcake

For Shortcake

2 1/3 cups Bisquick baking mix
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbsp sugar

Heat oven to 425 F. Melt butter in the microwave. Mix Bisquick and sugar. Add milk and butter until combined. Drop shortcakes onto a cookie sheet to form 6 biscuits. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Brandy Cream Sauce

1/2 C regular sour cream
3 T sugar
1 T brandy

Mix sour cream, sugar, and brandy until combined.

To assemble shortcakes

Fresh strawberries, sliced

Slice shortcakes lengthwise. Put fresh strawberries on one half of shortcake. Spoon brandy cream sauce over strawberries. Top with other half of shortcake. Enjoy!

What Every Dinner Should Be Like, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Lately I’ve been in need of dinners that require few ingredients and little prep and/or cook time, but still taste delicious.

Tonight I made a ribeye steak on the grill pan served with a side of potato salad (prepackaged unfortunately, but still delicious nonetheless)–prep and cook time totaled 10 minutes tops. Nothing more perfect than a piece of cooked meat (and yes, I reserve my organic butter especially for steaks–it’s just delicious).

One of my favorite lunch spots is Al Amir in Addison. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays they have a wonderful little lunch buffet that gives you the opportunity to try a variety of middle eastern items both on and off their usual menu.

They have this lemon rice soup that’s absolutely delicious–creamy but tart with the flavor of fresh lemon juice. I’ve scoured the internet for similar recipes and the closest one I came across was a traditional Greek soup called avgolemono soup, basically lemon and egg soup.

The photo above does this soup no justice. What looks like a milky bland soup is actually a soup with the bright sunny flavor of lemon, the creaminess of egg, and the heartiness of homemade chicken broth.

The recipe below is a modified version of the Epicurious recipe, only because I was using ingredients I had on hand.

Avgolemono Soup

For broth:
5 cups cold water
3 chicken breast bones (and if it has some chicken meat on it, even better)
5 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon pepper

For soup:
1/4 cup orzo pasta or uncooked rice
4 eggs
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

In a large saucepan, add water, chicken bones, granulated bouillon, granulated garlic, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes until bones are cooked through. Skim off any scum that may rise to the surface. When bones are cooked, remove and set aside to cool on a plate. Strain broth into another pot, add orzo or rice, and simmer on medium heat until pasta is tender.

Remove any meat from chicken bones and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and lemon juice until smooth. Using a ladle, add a ladle of broth to the egg mixture to temper it. Turn down heat to low and gradually add to broth and whisk until incorporated and thickened, about 5 minutes. DO NOT cook for much longer, otherwise the eggs will curdle and separate from broth. Add chicken meat and cover. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Sausage and Cornbread Stuffing, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Somehow I was talked into making a dish for Jabari’s work part tomorrow. And since I was deprived of making this recipe for my work party last Friday due to an unscheduled illness, I told Jabari, “Ok, if I’m making something for your work party, I’m making this.”

This was Martha Stewart’s sausage and cornbread stuffing recipe. The recipe was pretty simple actually: just some sausage, onions, celery, and carrots (although I added those myself), cornbread, sage, eggs, and chicken broth. What you end up with is an incredibly moist, sweet, and savory cornbread stuffing.