Category: Fruit
Clementine-Soy Chicken Thighs
| January 22, 2012 | Filled under Asian, Chicken and Poultry, Fruit, Light, Winter |
Happy (Chinese) New Year!
For some reason, we always celebrated Chinese New Year when I was a kid. I don’t know why, but I always looked forward to it. It was so fun, and we didn’t eat Chinese nearly as often back then as we do now. Mom would take out the electric wok and cook dinner right on the table – usually a chicken stir fry. The next night, we’d wrap the leftovers in tortillas and eat them as fajitas. Yum.
I made this clementine-soy glazed chicken a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect Chinese New Year post. But then I started researching and apparently I had it all wrong. The holiday has all sorts of food traditions, like eating noodles to bring long life and dumplings to bring wealth. And apparently serving a chicken or duck whole represents health, but serving it cut – like these thighs – is the opposite. Oops.
Oh well. This dish is delicious any time of the year, and you should definitely make it (if you’re superstitious or prefer to celebrate the New Year more traditionally, just wait until tomorrow.) Read More
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Watermelon Gazpacho {No Tomatoes!}
| July 24, 2011 | Filled under Fruit, One Pan, Quick Weeknight Meals, Soups and Stews, Summer, Vegetarian or Vegan |
Like most of the country, New York has been suffering through a heat wave for the past week. Quite frankly, it’s too hot to cook or even to eat anything very substantial. For the first few days I was content eating salads for dinner, but after more than two or three days of salad I start to get cranky so I tried to think of something that would satisfy my raving for real food without requiring me to actually cook (since the minutes I spent over the stove sautéing onions last night left me so hot that I couldn’t even enjoy the steak that Shawn grilled for me).
An ice-cold gazpacho seemed like it would hit the spot, but that suggestion was met with a resounding, “No way!” My effort to convince Shawn that gazpacho is basically just pureed salsa (the only way he’ll eat raw tomatoes) didn’t get me anywhere. Luckily, I had this recipe up my sleeve — a sightly spicy watermelon soup without a single tomato.
Watermelon Gazpacho
Prep time: 15 Minutes; Chill time: 1 Hour
Yield: 4 Servings
- 3 pound Watermelon, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch cubes
- 1 Cucumber, peeled and chopped
- 1 Yellow Bell Pepper, seeded
- 1/4 cup fresh Cilantro
- 12 raw/unroasted Almonds
- 1 Jalapeno, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbs. Olive Oil
- 1 Lime, juiced
- Black Pepper, to taste
- Bitters or Sherry Peppers Sauce plus additional watermelon for garnish, if desired
Add the watermelon and cucumber to a food processor or blender, working in batches if needed. Blend until smooth — about 30 seconds in a food processor.
Set a mesh strainer over a large bowl. Pour the watermelon and cucumber puree through the strainer to remove the seeds. Press down gently to extract as much liquid as possible — don’t worry if some pulp seeps through.
Add the pepper, cilantro, almonds, jalapeno, and about 1 cup of your strained liquid back into the food processor/blender. Blend until a smooth pesto forms — about 1 minute. Stir the pesto into the reserved soup base. Whisk in the olive oil and lime juice. Season with black pepper.
Chill at least 1 hour or until ready to serve.
If desired, garnish with additional diced watermelon and chopped cilantro. Allow each diner to season their bowl with bitters or sherry peppers sauce.
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Congratulations to the winner of my Back to the Roots giveaway, Kristen! I’ll be emailing you to get your shipping info. For those of you that didn’t win, don’t forget about the 10% off code (mushrooms4me10). Check out how great my little garden is doing! I can’t wait to cook them up… they have about 5 more days to grow and are at the stage where they double in size every day (I can literally see them getting bigger over the course of the day. It’s amazing!)
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I’m submitting this post to Souper Sunday and Wanderfood Wednesday.
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