Chipotle Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 whole vidalia onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 bottle good beer
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2-3 whole chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced 
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup masa harina
• 1 lime
• sour cream
• grated sharp cheddar cheese
• lime wedges

Directions:

Dice (or mince) the onion.  Mince the garlic.  Cut the chicken into pieces the size of large dice.

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat then add the onions and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the onions soften. Add the salt, chili powder, and cumin and continue cooking until the spices begin to smell strongly.  Add the chicken and cook until lightly browned.

Unless you have a really spicy tongue, open the can of chipotle peppers and use just three of the large ones.  Maybe four tops.  I recommend using a bit of the bear to wash off the adobe sauce from the peppers you are discarding and then use that small amount of liquid in a mini-processor or blender to purée the chilis, adobe sauce, and the onions in the can.  Pour the purée in with the chicken.

Pour up to 8 ounces of beer (including what you used to rinse the peppers) in with the chicken, reserving 4 ounces for later use.

Drain and rinse the beans.  Add them, the tomatoes (plus juice), beans, chili powder, cumin and salt to the pot. Stir to combine, then cover the pot and cook for one hour.

Combine the masa harina with the rest of the beer and stir to make a paste. Add this into the chili, along with the juice of one lime. Stir and cook for 10 more minutes or until thickened.

Serve with sour cream, cheese, and another squeeze of lime!


Myrtle's Note:  This is so good I am utterly torn between my favorite chicken dish, now: Vietnamese Curry with Sweet Potatoes or this!  Update:  I have been learning to cook the spices as a part of recipes, so I started doing that with the cumin and chili powder and subsequently altered the recipe above.


Yield:  8 double-ladle servings

Source:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/11/chipotle-chicken-chili/

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Feta and Sumac

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 2 ounces (or a bit more) feta
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• a pinch of coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon McCormack® Peppercorn Medley
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• sumac

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Directions:

Wash sweet potatoes, cut off sharp pointed ends (if desired), and prick all over with a fork. Put sweet potatoes on small roasting pan and bake 50-60 minutes, or until the sweet potato is easily pierced with a fork.

While sweet potatoes are cooking, crumble the feta into a bowl. Mix in the coriander, garlic, pepper, and and olive oil and let the feta mixture marinate in the fridge while the sweet potatoes bake.

When sweet potatoes are soft, remove from oven and cut a long slit in the top of each sweet potato. Use hot pads to gently squeeze the sweet potato to soften the flesh, then scoop out carefully into a small bowl. Mix in about half the feta mixture with the sweet potato flesh. Use a spoon to fill the sweet potato skins with the mixture, then divide the rest of the feta between the sweet potatoes, piling it on top.

Put sweet potatoes back in the roasting pan and put in the oven for 10-15 minutes more, just until the cheese has started to melt. Sprinkle with sumac and serve hot.


Myrtle's Note:  I plan to make this again, but feel like it would be better to mix all the ingredients into the sweet potatoes after cooking, but leave the feta as is.  My thinking behind this is that the feta did not melt the way it has in other recipes when served warm.  I very much liked the sumac and am looking forward to trying other recipes that call for it.

Yield:  2 servings

Adapted from:  http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2011/04/recipe-for-twice-baked-sweet-potatoes.html

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup of minced fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Directions:

Grease a muffin tin and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix in egg, milk, butter, almond extract.  Hand mixing is fine.

Slice and then mince into small pieces enough strawberries to fill one cup.  Fold into the batter.  Fill the tins and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve with butter while warm.

Myrtle's Note:  I had enormous muffins, because I kept trying to get all the batter into 12 muffin tins.  And I will not admit just how much batter I ended up licking out of the bowl.  So, I would plan for more than twelve muffins.  I wish I knew how to adjust down the recipe ever so slightly.  I think it would work well to do two batches, so that you are not cooking 2 or 3 muffins by themselves.  The taste, however, was sublime!

Yield:  14 muffins

Source:  http://thesouthernladycooks.com/2014/01/25/strawberry-muffins/

Vietnamese Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
• 2 pounds skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped shallot
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce
• 3 tablespoons Golden Mountain® Seasoning Sauce
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 3 dollops Gourmet Gardens® Lemongrass 
• 2 dollops Gourmet Gardens® Ginger
• 1 1/2 cups fresh chicken stock 
• 24 baby carrots cut on the diagonal 
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges
• 2 medium-large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

Directions:

Combine 2 tablespoons of the curry powder and the salt in a bowl. Cut the chicken breasts into thigh-sized pieces. Add to the bowl, turning to coat evenly. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a medium pot over moderate heat. Add the shallot, garlic, chili sauce, and the remaining 1 tablespoon curry powder. Stir until fragrant, Braise the chicken in batches, approximately 2-3 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Place on a plate and set aside.

Add the fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, ginger and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat. Add the carrots and cook for 10 minutes.

Add the coconut milk, onion, and sweet potato into the pot.  Then place the braised chicken on top, cover, and cook covered approximately 15 minutes.  Remove the lid and cook an additional 10-15 minutes.

[Optional:  Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with Asian basil, cilantro and scallions before serving.]


Myrtle's Note:  This is incredibly delicious!  Oh, my!  In order to accommodate my seafood allergy, I substituted Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce (after much Googling to determine the best substitute).  I also could not track down chili paste, so I substituted a Vietnamese Chili Garlic Sauce and cut the amount in half.  I doubled the sweet potatoes, because I wanted it to be a bit more hearty.  And, given my love of Gourmet Gardens®, I used their lemongrass and ginger products.

Yield:  6 servings


Adapted from:  http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Curry-with-Sweet-Potatoes-233843

Nutella Rice Krispy Treats

Ingredients:

• 6 cups Rice Krispy Cereal
• 1 (10.5 oz) bag mini marshmallows
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 teaspoon butter
• 2 cups Nutella
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:
Measure out Rice Krispies cereal into a large bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and marshmallows together until smooth.  Once marshmallows and butter have melted together add one heaping cup of Nutella and stir until well combined.

Pour marshmallow mixture over the cereal. Stir to coat evenly. Press into a greased pan (I used 10x15).

To make topping, heat one cup Nutella, chocolate chips, and the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-medium low heat until smooth. Spread over the top of Rice Krispy Treats.

Allow to cool in the refrigerator until set-up.  Cut and serve!

Myrtle's Note:  I swapped out the shortening for butter.

Yield:  24

Source:  http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/03/nutella-rice-krispy-treats/

Spicy Dr Pepper Shredded Pork

Ingredients:

• 1 large red onion
• 1 whole pork sirloin roast 
• Sea salt
• Cracked black pepper
• 1 can (11 Ounce) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 2 cans Dr Pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Directions:

Cut up onion in wedges, separate, and line in the bottom of a dutch oven.  Put the pork roast in the pot fat side down.  Salt and pepper generously.  Turn over and salt and pepper again.

Open the can of chipotle peppers and dump out into a 16 ounce measuring cup.  Pour about a half of can of Dr Pepper into the measuring cup and stir.  Once the Dr Pepper has "cleaned off" the adobo sauce from the peppers, pick out all but two of the plumpest peppers and discard.  [Feel free to keep more of the peppers, but two will be plenty spicy.]  Use a small food processor or a blender to purée the mixture, so as to more evenly distribute the remaining peppers in your pulled pork.

Sprinkle the brown sugar over the onion pieces around the pork.  Pour in the rest of the first Dr Pepper can and then the whole contents of the second Dr Pepper can.  Finally, pour the Dr Pepper chipotle pepper adobo sauce mixture on top of the porto.

Place in the oven and cook for 4 and a half to 5 hours, turning the roast over three times, basting as you do.  Take the pork out and allow to rest for a while, before using two forks to pull apart the meat.


Myrtle's Note:  The original recipe called for pork shoulder roast, but I accidentally got a pork sirloin roast.  The cut I used was extremely lean and tasty.  The original recipe also called for it to be cooked for six hours at 300 degrees, but I needed to compress the cooking time a bit, which is reflected above.  I substituted a red onion for a white one.  I also took out just under half the peppers, after "rinsing" the adobo sauce into the pot with the Dr Pepper.  All my guests agreed the pulled pork was extremely tasty, but very, very, very hot.  So, next time, I will probably leave no more than one or two peppers in the pot.  Finally, the original recipe also suggests serving as tacos, which I did, using Texas Flour Tortillas.


Source:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/spicy-dr-pepper-shredded-pork/

Sweet Potato Coins

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds small sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean and unpeeled
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 3 dollops Gourmet Gardens® Garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Directions:

Slice the sweet potatoes into thick rounds and put them in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk  together the lime juice, chili powder, garlic, olive oil, and sea salt.  Then add to the sweet potatoes and toss well.

Spread the sweet potato slices in one layer on the baking sheet (depending on the size of your sweet potatoes, you may need two baking sheets).

Roast the sweet potato slices about 40-45 minutes, turning them halfway through the cooking time. The sweet potatoes will be soft, slightly wrinkled, and glazed with the oil mixture. Remove from the oven and serve. The sweet potato coins are equally good hot, warm and cold.


Myrtle's Note:  I very much liked the marinade and the sweet potatoes, but I did not care for the peel. I left the instructions as is, but would peel them for myself.  I also increased the temperature, because I would like them a bit more browned.

Yield:  6-8 servings.

Source:  http://www.inerikaskitchen.com/2012/01/spiced-sweet-potato-coins.html