Corsican slow cooker chicken with sun-dried tomatoes

Corsican chicken with sun-dried tomatoes

From “The French Slow Cooker” by Michele Scicolone

Ingredients

3 to 4 pounds cut-up chicken (I used 8 chicken thighs), bone in, but skin removed (save for stock later if the idea of parting with it is too frightful)

2 minced garlic cloves

½ cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

½ cup thin strips of roasted red peppers

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

½ cup broth

1 tablespoon cornstarch blended with 2 tablespoons water

¼ cup chopped fresh basil for garnish

Method

Put chicken in the bottom of a large slow cooker. Sprinkle with garlic and some salt and pepper. Add tomatoes, drizzling chicken with a little bit of the tomato oil. Top with red pepper strips, rosemary and broth. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.

Remove chicken, tomatoes and peppers to a platter and tent with foil to keep warm. Transfer the cooking liquid to a pan on the stove top. Whisk in cornstarch and simmer until sauce thickens a bit. Season with salt if needed. Pour over chicken and garnish with basil.

Rating: This may well be the best chicken I’ve made in the slow cooker. It’s really, really tasty, falling-off-the-bone tender but still juicy, and takes very little prep time. Dave said "Wow." Definitely a keeper.

Apple pudding with rummy sauce

Dessert for breakfast, anyone? I suspect this dish is meant to be a dessert, but it made a wonderful warm winter Sunday breakfast. It's like having apple bread pudding with maple syrup, only with rum sauce instead.


Apple pudding with rummy sauce

Adapted from “Favorite Recipes from Great Midwest Cooks,” a Midwest Living cookbook that's a source of several favorites.

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1¼ teaspoon nutmeg, divided

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, divided

1½ cups sugar, divided

1 egg

4 cups chopped apples, about 4 medium

¼ cup chopped pecans

¼ cup light cream

1 tablespoon rum (I used a deep golden variety)

½ teaspoon vanilla

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, ¾ teaspoon nutmeg and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat ¼ cup butter for 30 seconds to cream it. Add 1 cup sugar and beat until well combined. Add egg and beat well. Mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in apples and pecans. 

(At this stage you will look at the mixture in the bowl, double check the recipe, then look doubtfully back in the bowl, and triple check the recipe, because it looks fairly implausible that it can turn into something. It’s more apples than anything else, and there’s very little moisture evident. But relax, those apples release their moisture and somehow it all turns out.)

Spread into a greased 9-inch square baking pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until golden. This is a pudding, so it will be moist; the toothpick test doesn’t apply here.

Meanwhile, melt remaining ¼ cup butter in a small sauce pan. Add ½ cup sugar and the cream. Cook over medium low heat and bring to a boil. (Make sure your pan is has at least twice the capacity as your ingredients, as it will boil up like candy.) Reduce heat and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and whisk in rum, ½ teaspoon nutmeg and the vanilla.

Serve pudding warm with rum sauce over the top.

Rating: This could be called apple pudding with yummy sauce. By itself, I don’t know that the pudding is anything much to write home about. But the warm, moist pudding in combination with that sauce is outstanding. I’m pretty sure that sauce is going to have to make an appearance this summer over some homemade vanilla ice cream. And it would make a killer stand-in for maple syrup over French toast.

Drink and a nosh: Pear martini and pear crostini

I tried this cocktail during a cozy evening out with friends at Marin's bar and thought I'd see if I could replicate it at home. The bar menu listed the ingredients, so that was a good start, and the St. Germain site gave further clues. To go with it, I tried the pear appetizer so I could have a pairing of pears. (And no, I can't help that kind of thing.)

Peartree martini cocktail
Adapted from St. Germain's website.

Ingredients

1 ½ ounces pear vodka

1 ½ ounces St. Germain

½ ounce fresh lemon juice (about ½ a lemon)

½ ounce simple syrup

Method

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Rating: Wondrous. Quite possibly the best cocktail I've ever made. The St. Germain site used a dash of bitters instead of simple syrup, which I might have to try next for comparison purposes. Now if only my basement was as cozy as the book-shelf lined nooks of Marin's lower level bar. Or if it least it didn't inspire me to drink.

 

Pear crostini with honeyed ricotta
Adapted from cookingforkeeps.com

Ingredients
1 mini baguette
2 ounces ricotta (I used Calabro's)
½ tablespoon honey, plus more for drizzling
1 pear
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted

Method
Slice mini baguette into 3/8-inch slices. Toast for about 5 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Set aside.

Mix ricotta with honey. Spread a generous amount on each crostini.

Peel and core pear. Slice in half lengthwise, then crosswise into thin slices.

Heat butter in a large skillet. Add pear slices and saute over medium heat until pear is tender and has picked up color. Place pear slices on top of ricotta. Sprinkle on nuts. Drizzle with honey.

Rating: I tend to think of appetizers as having at least some savory component, so it's a different sort of appetizer. But whatever you want to call it, it is highly tasty. Paired with the pear martini, it would make a fabulous post-concert drink/nosh, because it has sort of a dessert element. And if you gave me one of these and a Bellini as part of a brunch buffet, I might never leave.

Play along: To match the spirit of things, put on "Get Happy" by Jenny Lin, et al, a recording of jazzed-up versions of classic show tunes, somehow appropriate as we lead up to a potential "La La Land" Oscar fest.

Puttanesca beans and greens

Another week, another new lunch option. This also could make a very nice side dish, or if you left out the anchovies, a meatless main dish.

Puttanesca-style beans and greens

Adapted from “Anti-Inflammatory Eating Made Easy” by Michelle Babb

Ingredients

1 cup dried lima beans, soaked overnight and drained

3 cups water

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives

½ cup pitted green olives

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes (oil packed)

1 small onion, chopped

2 teaspoon capers

2 anchovy fillets

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups shredded sturdy greens such as kale, chard or beet greens

2 garlic cloves, sliced

Method

Cook pre-soaked beans in the 3 cups of water until tender, about 40 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In food processor, combine olives, sun-dried tomatoes, onion, capers and anchovies. Pulse to coarsely chop.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add olive mixture and cook about 5 minutes to cook onion. Stir in greens and garlic and cook another 5 minutes. Add beans, and heat through if serving warm. Can serve at room temperature.

Rating:Nice flavors in what's essentially a tapenade mixed with beans and greens. Very substantial. Probably works out to about 4 lunch type servings if it's your main course. I packed up some for Dave for a lunch and he enjoyed it. Repeatable.

Drink and a nosh: Damn the Weather and rosemary apricot goat cheese spread

I had to make this drink, because I love irony. The weather today is AMAZING for Minnesota, hitting above 60 degrees in February. Face it. We love anything above 30 in February. Restaurant patios everywhere opened.

Damn the Weather
Adapted from "The New York Bartender's Guide" by Sally Ann Berk

Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1 tablespoon sweet vermouth
2 teaspoons orange liqueur such as Triple Sec
½ fresh squeezed orange juice

Method
Combine gin, sweet vermouth and orange liqueur in an ice-filled shaker. Shake well. Pour into a cocktail glass. Gently stir in orange juice.

Rating: You know how some cocktails are really packed with alcohol but hide it in a dangerously drinkable form? This is not that kind of drink.The alcohol hits you front and center. But aside for it being a trifle boozy, overall it's a fairly well-balanced tasty cocktail. Given the number of cocktails I've tried, thought were OK, but wouldn't make again .... well, this is a step above that. So not a ringing endorsement, but it helped take the edge off after a day filled with calls from confused users who got a computer upgrade.

Note: Under no circumstances would I try this recipe with bottled orange juice, since the fresh juice gives it a delicate edge to hedge the heavy booze.



Rosemary apricot goat cheese spread
At Christmas this year I encountered this spread at our local Kowalski's. It listed the ingredients, although of course not the amounts. This is my attempt to approximate it, with the liqueur as my embellishment.

Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 ounces goat cheese, softened
½ cup dried apricots
2 tablespoons orange liqueur, optional

¼ cup toasted chopped pecans

1 green onion, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

Method 
Let dried apricots soften in liqueur for about 20 minutes, if using.

Combine cream cheese and goat cheese until well blended. Mix in soaked apricots, pecans, green onion and rosemary.

Spread over toasted crostini or crackers.

Rating: This is at least as tasty as the stuff from Kowalski's, and that was plenty fine. Definitely a keeper.