Bourbon chili and bourbon cornmeal muffins

 

Just add vodka. A few years ago for Christmas, my sister gave me some flavored frozen drink cubes that came with that simple instruction. For these two recipes, it's more like just add bourbon.

Kentucky bourbon chili

Adapted from “The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook,” which in turn got the recipe from Tom Hoge’s “Bourbon Cookbook”

Ingredients
¼ cup butter
½ cup chopped green peppers
1 large onion, diced
1½ pounds ground beef
2 (15-ounce) cans red kidney beans
2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup bourbon

Method
Melt butter in a large Dutch oven. Saute peppers, onions and ground beef until beef is browned. Stir in beans, tomato sauce, ketchup, chili powder, chocolate, salt, pepper and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for about a half hour. Remove lid, add bourbon and cook for another 10 minutes.

Rating: The bourbon-chocolate combo gives a nice fudgy-sludgy texture and flavor component. This comes together pretty quickly for a chili. I'd make this one again.

 

Kentucky bourbon corn muffins

From “The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook,” which in turn got the recipe from Tom Hoge’s “Bourbon Cookbook.” Makes 10 muffins.

Ingredients
¾ cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cornmeal
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 eggs
½ cup milk
¼ cup bourbon
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Method
Preheat oven to 425. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add cornmeal and lemon zest.

Blend eggs, milk, bourbon and butter. Stir into dry ingredients.

Put greased muffin tins in the oven for 2 minutes to preheat. Scoop batter into muffin tins; it will fill 10 muffin cups almost to the top. Bake for 10 minutes until it passes the toothpick test.

Rating: They’re cornmeal muffins. Both the lemon and bourbon aren’t particularly detectable. But as always, they make a good carrier for butter.

Fish with crunchy Ritz-panko crumbs

 

As a kid, I really liked fish sticks. All that breading, no doubt, plus an excuse to slather on tarter sauce. This recipe needs none, but it has some of that same crust crunch factor on top. A white wine/lemon pan sauce elevates it from just kid fare.

Baked cod with garlic and herb Ritz crumbs

Adapted from “Modern Comfort Food” by Ina Garten, as published in the Star Tribune Sunday Taste section

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1½ to 2 pounds cod fillets
½ cup Ritz cracker crumbs (grind 15 crackers in a food processor)
⅓ cup panko
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh garlic
Zest of half a lemon
3 tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Select a baking dish that’s just large enough for your fish. Pour in the olive oil and tilt it to coat the pan. Place fish in pan, turning to coat fillets. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 10 minutes.

While fish bakes, in a small bowl combine cracker crumbs, panko, parsley, garlic and lemon zest. Mix in melted butter to moisten. Set aside.

Remove fish from oven. Pour wine and lemon juice directly over the fish. Press crumb mixture onto fish. Return to oven and bake an additional 12 minutes until fish flakes easily. Serve with pan juices.

 Rating: Super fast, super tasty, absolutely repeatable. I made it for Sunday supper, but it's a perfect weeknight quick-prep. I'd say you can serve it to guests without chagrin.

Mozzarella pesto red pepper panini with pesto, sun-dried tomato bean soup

 Pandemic pesto. That's what happens when you can't get your usual supply of herb plants early in the season in the middle of a pandemic, so you just combine whatever is in need of trimming that week and make pesto.

I've always made a variety of pesto types, mostly based around one herb type, or at most a combination of two. But necessity led me to discover that basil, dill, parsley and a small amount of volunteer coriander yield a spectacular pesto. It varied a bit each time, but it was always so tasty.

Whatever we didn't go through in a week went into a small container in the freezer. As we slog through winter and I dip further into the freezer reserves, it was time for this pestolicious meal.

 

Pressed mozzarella sandwiches
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Everyday Food November 2003

Ingredients
Sliced country style bread
Fresh mozzarella, sliced ⅜-inch thick (an 8-ounce ball yields about enough for 2 sandwiches
Roasted red peppers, drained and sliced in strips (figure about half a pepper per sandwich
Pesto or tapenade (½ tablespoon or so per sandwich)

Method
Lightly oil one side of each bread slice. Place oil side down on a plate. Spread a single layer of mozzarella on the bottom bread slice. Top with pesto, then red peppers, then another layer of mozzarella. Top with remaining bread slice, oil-side up. Heat in a panini press until cheese has melted. (Lacking a panini press, you can cook sandwiches in a skillet, weighing down the top with a smaller skillet and then flipping over to brown the other side.)

Rating: Fast, tasty, very repeatable. Amazing what a half tablespoon of really good pesto can do for a sandwich.

 

Bean, sun-dried tomato and pesto soup
From the "Cook’s Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking" by Joanna Farrow. If you're only using four ingredients in a recipe, it's best if each one of them pulls their weight. But in this recipe, the pesto pretty much does the talking.

Ingredients
2 cans cannellini or other white beans
3 ¾ cup broth
4 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste
3 tablespoons pesto

Method
Put beans, broth, tomato paste and pesto into a medium sauce pan and heat through. Transfer 6 ladles’ worth of broth/beans into a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Return to pot and cook until warmed through.

Rating: If you've got a really good pesto, you'll have a good, quick-fix soup that's pantry friendly. I probably wouldn't serve it to company just because it's not the lookiest soup, but it's flavorful. It's got a good blend of chunky beans and creaminess from the pureed beans. Pairs perfectly with the panini.

Note: If you don't have a tube of sun-dried tomato paste on hand, you can make your own with drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and olive oil.

Greek vegetable soup

 

No, I have no idea if this is authentically Greek, but the author of the cookbook is, so it's possible. If you're in the market for a substantial soup without resorting to meat, this might work for you.

Greek Vegetable Soup

From “Eating the Greek Way” by Dr. Fedon Alexander Lindberg

Ingredients
¼ cup olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 cups shredded green cabbage
3 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
6 cups broth
1 15-ounce can chopped tomatoes
¼ cup fresh parsley
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over low heat. Add onions and garlic, cover, and let cook until soft but not brown, about 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, recover and cook for another 5 minutes. Add carrots, celery and chickpeas and cook for another 5 minutes or until vegetables are starting to soften.

Add broth, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add tomatoes and a bit of salt and pepper. Simmer for another 20 minutes.

(If you’re making this ahead, go ahead and store it at this point before reheating later.)

Right before serving, stir in parsley. Top bowls of soup with feta. Serves 10.

Rating: Perfectly fine, and filling, which is handy for days like today when you decide that really, the logical solution is to don the third hoodie. It didn't blow me away, flavor-wise, so on reheating it over a period of days, I tried doctoring it a bit. Red wine vinegar didn't really move the needle. Dried marjoram helped a bit. The thing that finally made it really tasty is when I added a bit of bacon fat, which really defeats the recipe author's point. But when it's just so cold, you need a nice warm bowl of really tasty soup for lunch. And a third hoodie.

Goat cheese-stuffed chicken breasts, two ways

 

I had stocked up on goat cheese before Christmas, but a few plans fell through, so I was left with inventory to redeploy. I decided to try a new recipe, the version with mushroom sauce, which then led me to haul out a former stand-by recipe from back before boneless, skinless breasts became nearly mandated in culinary circles. 

This one would make a perfectly admirable Valentine's dinner entree, especially since you can do the bulk of the prep work ahead.

Chicken breasts with goat cheese and rosemary

From Bon Appetit, December 1995, a recipe attributed to Dave Tyson of Kingston, Wash.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons butter, divided
2 tablespooons chopped shallots
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
3 ounces soft goat cheese
½ teaspoon pepper
2 large chicken breast halves with skin and bones

Method
Preheat oven to 425. Melt 1 teaspoon butter in a small skillet over medium low heat. Add shallots and rosemary and sauté until shallots are tender. Remove from heat. Stir in goat cheese and pepper, and season to taste with salt.

Loosen chicken breast skin enough to create a cavity. Stuff each breast with half of goat cheese mixture. Seal edges of skin down with toothpicks.

Rub remaining teaspoon of butter over chicken skin. (At this point, you can refrigerate chicken for a day before proceeding if you’re trying to make this ahead.)

Arrange chicken on baking sheet or roasting pan. Bake in preheated 425 degree oven until cooked through, about 25-30 minutes. Serves 2.

Rating: Tasty, fast to fix, advance prep option. No wonder it used to be an easy go-to party entree from back when I did that kind of thing.That goat cheese stuffing? I was reminded how amazingly good that stuff is. I'm pretty sure that's going to have to be made on its own and smeared on some crostini very soon.

 

Chicken breast with herbed goat cheese and wild mushroom sauce

Adapted from the “Sexy Forever Recipe Bible” by Suzanne Somers. Any source of a plausible recipe is fine.

Ingredients
3 ounces goat cheese
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
2 teaspoons fresh marjoram leaves, or ½ teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or ½ teaspoon dried, plus leaves from 2 sprigs, divided
2 chicken breasts with breastbone removed, skin on
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 clove garlic, thickly sliced
1 cup fresh wild mushrooms
¼ cup white wine
½ cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter

Method
Mix goat cheese with parsley, marjoram and 2 teaspoons thyme leaves. Pull back an edge of chicken skin to form a pocket. Stuff half of goat cheese mixture under skin and smooth back down. Season chicken skin with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat olive oil in an ovenproof skillet. Brown chicken skin side down over medium high heat. Flip chicken over and brown the other side for about 3 minutes. Put pan in oven and roast for 10 to 12 minutes until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add mushrooms and leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme. Sauté until mushrooms are golden brown. Add wine to deglaze the pan and cook until reduced by half. Add chicken broth and cook until reduced by half. (This took longer than I expected, so plan accordingly.) Whisk in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sauce over chicken.

Rating: Separately, the sauce and the chicken are fine, although I give the edge to the first stuffed chicken recipe from Bon Appetit. The sauce has merit as a quick mushroom sauce -- on something else. The two just didn't seem to go together, somehow. They were fine, but  the chicken didn't really need a sauce, and if it did, it needed a different one, preferably without mushrooms. So a fine enough meal, but I'll stick with the top recipe.