Simply Recipes: Low Carb

Chicken Pozole

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:18:27 -0800

]]> I've been begging my friend Arturo to teach me how to make pozole for months now. The problem is that it is sort of like asking someone to make you "taco night". Pozole is a big production, not in the making of it, but in all of the wonderful garnishes you can add to it. Pozole is a traditional soup or stew of Mexico, from pre-Columbian days. The name is derived from the Nahuatl "potzolli" and the stew is made with hominy and pork or chicken. This particular version of Arturo's is made with chicken, and is called "pozole blanco" in his native state of Guerrero, Mexico, where pozole is practically the state dish. While in New Mexico posole is traditionally served on Christmas eve, in Guerrero it is served every Thursday and Saturday, all year long. Light and healthful, pozole is also a common Mexican cure for a hangover, ironic in that it is also traditionally enjoyed with mezcal.

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Shrimp Ceviche

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:40:17 -0800

]]> From the recipe archive for the hot days of summer.

With the warm days of summer upon us, a great way to cool off is with ceviche. Ceviche is typically made with red snapper that is "cooked" by the acidity of lime and lemon juice (see this ceviche recipe.) This version is prepared with shrimp, which is first lightly cooked, and then marinated in the citrus juice. My father, who generally doesn't really like shrimp that much, loved this ceviche. (Gotta love it when they eat it up and ask for more.)

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Ginger Chicken with Almonds

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:45:42 -0800

]]> From the recipe archive.

My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken and claimed that it was one of her all time favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he can avoid it, so when I made it I just warned dad ahead of time that he might have to settle for yesterday's leftovers if he couldn't bring himself to touch it. Well, everyone loved it, even dad. Strips of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are briefly marinated in ground coriander, ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they are stir-fried with scallions and julienned ginger. The are mixed with a little mango chutney and sprinkled with toasted almonds before serving.

The whole dish can be made in half an hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep while the chicken is marinating.

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Red Chile Marinated Grilled Chicken

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:42:22 -0800

]]> This is some of the best chicken I've ever eaten - grilled, roasted, baked, whatever. Juicy, spicy, tender, lipsmackin' good. Here's the deal, there are two ways to make this recipe. One way entails making your own red chile sauce from scratch, using dried ancho and guajillo chiles that you can usually only find at a specialty Mexican market. Even our local Whole Foods doesn't carry these dried chiles. The second method starts with a base of canned red chile sauce, which is a little easier to find in a regular supermarket, and saves quite a few steps. I've made this recipe both ways. As you might expect, if you have access to the dried chiles and can make the time to make your own sauce base, it's totally worth it for the extra intensity and depth of flavor. The good news is that if you can't get a hold of the dried chiles, or you don't have the time, canned red chile sauce works fine as a base for this sauce. Red chile enchilada sauce works too, though you may need to add some chili powder to it to increase the heat. In any case you are going to pump up the sauce a bit with ground cloves, cinnamon, and cumin.

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Chicken Salad with Tarragon

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:11:06 -0800

]]> From the recipe archive, a cool salad for hot days.

Inspiration for good food can be found anywhere, even Starbucks, where I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich recently. The key ingredients other than chicken? Cranberries and tarragon. French tarragon is a distinctive herb, with a slight anise or licorice aroma. We don't use it that often; I grew some last year and don't think we used it more than once or twice the whole season. But it does pair well with chicken. The dried cranberries add some sweetness to the chicken salad, and the lemon juice just enough acidity to brighten all the flavors.

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Quick and Easy Pan-Fried Flank Steak

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:58:46 -0800

]]> Flank steak is a lean, flavorful cut of meat that is probably best prepared marinated and cooked over a grill. But sometimes you just don't have time to marinate the meat or deal with the grill. My mother raised 6 kids (all born within 8 years) on my dad's teacher's salary. (Her favorite TV show is John & Kate plus 8, wonder why?) Which means she is the master of efficiency in the kitchen. This is her favorite method of preparing flank steak. The trick is to put little knife pokes in the meat, breaking up some of the long muscle fibers. When I asked about the juices running out of the meat, it's not really an issue as the meat is cooked rare, and whatever juices do come out get reduced in the pan and served over the meat.

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Sautéed Zucchini with Gruyere

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:57:22 -0800

]]> After several years of observing the results of my feeble gardening attempts, my next door neighbor Pat (76 and still going strong) graciously responded to my pleas for help and has been guiding me this spring with soil amendments, starter plants, seeds, and all around gardening advice. As a result, here it is early June and I have a zucchini plant that is growing with wild abandon (amazing what a little water, sunshine, and organic fertilizer can do). The plant produces almost one zucchini a day and has been for about a month. Blessed with this new bounty, we now have a very good reason to try out new zucchini recipes, so be warned, you may be seeing more zukes on this site the summer than usual. (Have a favorite zucchini recipe? Please let us know in the comments.)

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Moroccan Spiced Grilled Chicken Breasts

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:46:09 -0800

]]> What I love about this recipe is that with just the barest of preparation, you can have a tasty meal within minutes. The yogurt-based marinade is only mildly acidic, so you can leave the chicken in the marinade all day, while it gently tenderizes the meat and infuses it with the spiciness of cumin and paprika. Just put the chicken in the marinade before leaving for work in the morning, come home, heat the grill, chicken is done in less than 10 minutes. Simple. Easy.

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Franks and Sauerkraut Paprikash

Wed, 14 May 2008 20:28:15 -0800

]]> When my father told me he had made "weenies and sauerkraut", all I could think of was, not another pork and sauerkraut recipe. My dad must have sauerkraut juice running through his veins by this time, given how often he eats it. But this recipe, adapted from a 25-year old McCalls recipe, really is worth reporting. It's sort of a paprikash version (sour cream and paprika) of hot dogs with sauerkraut. It's easy to make, cooks up in little more than half an hour, and wonderfully flavorful. Use your favorite hot dog, frankfurter, mild German sausage, or even tofu-dog if that's your preference.

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Lemon Chicken

Thu, 01 May 2008 23:03:26 -0800

]]> Overheard at the market, "I'm a breast girl." "Really? I'm definitely a thigh girl," pause..."dark meat, so much more flavor." Had to laugh, I'm so so so much a thigh girl myself. Here is the secret to fabulous lemon chicken - use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (or legs, but thighs are easier to eat). Lemon is acidic and greatly benefits from the balance of the stronger flavor of the dark meat in thighs and legs, and the fat from the chicken skin. You don't have to eat the skin (my father doesn't, he gives them to me, score!), but cook with them on for the flavor.

What we most love about this recipe is that it is a classic American lemon chicken recipe without being too lemony. In other words, it doesn't make your lips pucker, it has just the right amount of lemon flavor to it.

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Roasted Asparagus

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:23:05 -0800

]]> Have you ever had roasted asparagus turn out tough and stringy? Here's a tip from my friend Alanna: use the fat spears, not the skinny ones, for roasting. This is a quick and easy recipe for beautifully roasted, tender asparagus.

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Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:38:05 -0800

]]> "Your website readers are going to love this," my father exclaimed when he finally finished his plate of chicken smothered in creamy mushroom sauce. Mom found the recipe from one of her favorite cookbooks* now long out of print. The note in the cookbook regarding this recipe is "Brides might well add this to their kitchen repertoire. It is easy to fix and never fails to make a hit." We all agree. Our six thumbs up on this one.

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Chorizo and Eggs

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:55:58 -0800

]]> Growing up, we had some of the standard American foods for breakfast - cream o' wheat, oatmeal, waffles, fried eggs, pancakes (no sugar coated cereals in this household!) - and a couple things I never saw in any of my friends' homes - huevos, and my favorite chorizo with eggs. My mother is hispanic by ancestry and looks, and even though she doesn't speak a drop of Spanish she still cooks what she was taught by her mother, grandmother and relatives, growing up in Tucson, Arizona. Thus we alone on our block had chorizo, or Mexican sausage scrambled up with eggs. I didn't even know that chorizo was the name of the sausage and not the dish until I was in my twenties. What is chorizo? A spicy pork sausage. While the Spanish version is usually spiced with paprika and garlic, Mexican chorizo is spiced with chile peppers. I've seen chorizo served in Mexican restaurants most often as a side sausage, like bacon. We cook ours up with the eggs and add some raisins as well, the sweetness of which provides some balance to the spicy chile in the chorizo.

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Asparagus Soufflé

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:33:40 -0800

]]> Have you ever attempted to make a soufflé and it just didn't live up to your expectations? That's when it pays to have friends who actually know what they are doing. After trying unsuccessfully to recreate a fabulous soufflé I enjoyed at a brunch given by chef, and fellow food blogger, Brett of In Praise of Sardines I broke down and asked him for help. Thank goodness for talented friends who are generous with their advice!

Here is what Brett had to say when I asked him for some tips to making my soufflé light and fluffy:

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Turkey and Bacon Rolls

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:54:11 -0800

]]> Wandering around the web the other day, I encountered this recipe for gorgeous looking rocamboles de volaille, basically a poultry roll, on a French-language website about Portuguese food. In Brazil apparently rolled foods are called "rocamboles"; if there are Brazilians in our midst, please correct me if this isn't so. This particular roll starts with a thin turkey breast cutlet, to which layers of Provolone cheese and ham are added. The cutlet is rolled up tight, wrapped in bacon, and baked until done. It reminds us a lot of our favorite chicken bacon roulades recipe, but easier to make, and with turkey cutlets.

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