Chicken with fruit preserves, cranberry, and wine

There are two things I love adding to chicken: a good marmelade/homemade preserve (cranberry, mixed-fruit, anything) and wine.

So I combined those two things a few weeks mixed in with some of my favorite spices and heaven came out.  This week, I decided to add leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving (see recipe below).

Even the beginner can wing this one.

Prep time: like 5 minutes

Cook time: 1 hr

Ingredients: 

Chicken breast

Fruit preserve

White marsala wine ($3.00 at stores- you can cook with it every week for a yr and not run out)

Touch of powdered ginger (1/2 tablespoons)

Salt n Pepper

Paprika

Cranberry sauce (or fresh cranberries) << not necc. in an addition to preserves, can do either/or. 

Directions: 

1. Combine fruit preserves, wine, spices

2. Let the chicken marinate in the sauce as long as you can

3. Top cranberries and throw it in the oven 350 for an hour

- You can also cut the chicken into cubes and cook it over a stove for 30-40min (20 min on med, 10 on sim)

So simple. So good.

Miso Salmon with Stuffed peppers

My sister gave me this recipe for miso glazed Salmon- its the reason I bought Miso paste in the first place (haven't looked back since).  The stuffed peppers is a beautiful result of what happens when my roommate Kim and I combine our ethnic forces.  The peppers were stuffed with a mix of rice, corn, white chedder cheese (GASP- my traditional self cringed, but trusted my roomy- so worth it) and eggplant, thrown in the oven, then simmed in a lightly seasoned curry cinnamon sauce- my mom's recipe.  Yes, it was an orgy of sorts. And it was delicious.


Ingredients:
disclaimer: all measurements are estimates- trust your tastebud


Salmon - 5 pieces in our case
Miso paste - 2/3 tbsp
Brown sugar - 2 tbsp (to taste)
Rice vinegar - 2 tbsp
White wine- 1/4 cup
Soy sauce- 2/3 tbsp


For the stuffed pepper, you can literally stuff it with anything, vegetables, beef, generally you want to cook in slightly and mix it all up


Fresh bell peppers- 4
White rice  (about a cup or two)
Corn (1 can)
Pre-fried eggplant (or sauteed zucchini)
Cumin
Salt n' Pepper
Dash of Thyme
Red pepper flakes


Sauce: Cinnamon, Curry (dash of each), 3 TBSP Chicken stock/bouillon cube or whatever they call it in this country, Salt n' Pepper


Directions: 
Mix all the ingredients for the salmon together, whisk until brown sugar is crushed
Let sim for about an hour (essentially, however long you can)
Place salmon on sheet, drizzle miso sauce (and leave some on the side for when the dish comes out of the oven)
You can also grind some fresh pepper and drizzle some sugar over the Salmon right before they go in the oven
Broil on 400 + for 8-10 minutes on each side


For the peppers:
1. Cook rice
2. Saute vegetables (not all vegetables need to be sauteed- we didn't cook our corn, for example)
3. Mix the rice with whatever your ingredients are
-----> preheat oven :) 350-ish
4. Add spices
5. Stuff the peppers with said vegetables/beef/cheese
6. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the stuffed pepper (my roommate suggested this, I was skeptical, but it came out genius, the crunch has such a nice texture with the soft pepper).
7. Throw em' in the oven 20-30 min should do.


For the sauce:
Saute onions, add one cup of water, and spices


8. Take peppers out of the oven, put them on a lightly oiled pan
9. Drizzle sauce over pepers
10. Let cook 15-20 more minutes


Et voila!
The mix of these two dishes was extraordinary.  Any wine or light beer compliments this well.
Post additions, changes, concerns!


Oh, and as my mom says to her 3-yr old culinary students: Don't forget to drizzle some love
:)


Happy holidays.

Coconut Curry Chicken with Butternut Squash and Chick Peas

I found butternut squash on sale (I'm a sucker for sales) and for some odd reason the first and only thing that came to my head was this dish.  I've never heard of it.. but figured it sounded good.  And let me tell you, delicious! (And ask my friends, despite this blog, I'm pretty critical of my cooking).

Anyway, it was really easy, and I limited my use of spices.. well, in respect to my normal use... I also made a pretty big serving.  Also, I don't put measurements because I never measure

Ingredients:
Coconut milk- (1/2- 3/4 can)
Chicken Breast (3 medium size)
Butternut squash (1/2 of one)
Chick peas (1 small can)
Onion (1 med-large)
Curry (2 tbsp)
Paprika (1/2 tbsp) - or a dab of chili powder (or both why not)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dab of sugar
... I think that's it... but by the end I thought it was missing just a lil' something, so I added a bay leaf..

1. Defrost, wash, and cut off fat of chicken breasts
2. Marinate the chicken in 1/2 can coconut milk and spices (for however long you can- 30min-1hr)
3. Cook on med/low butternut squash with 1/4 of coconut milk for 15-20 min
4. Throw in the chicken (cook on Med for about 15 min)
5. Stir, taste, add more spices if need be
6. Sim for about an hour for best taste

Serve over rice. (Oh, yeah, cook the rice, too.  I'm not your go-to person for cooking rice.  Ever since I read an ethnographic book where Iraqi women in a rural village judge each other based on their rice, I decided my rice could never be as good, and if I'm going to learn it might as well be from one of them.)

Serves: 4
makes for killer leftover too!