Chicken Curry Salad with Red Cabbage

My new favorite way to use leftover chicken is in a curried chicken salad served over a bed of wilted red cabbage. This recipe is full of flavor and color, making it very satisfying. I got the idea for how to wilt the cabbage from someone who was telling me how they prepare coleslaw. Curried chicken salad has been done before by many, which is why I was inspired to make it. I like the mixture of savory and sweet in this dish.

Chicken Curry Salad with Red Cabbage

1 head of red cabbage, washed and shredded
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
meat of a whole cooked chicken, cooled and chopped
1/3 c raisins
2 ribs celery, finely diced
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
enough mayonnaise to hold mixture together
1 to 2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In a large bowl, sprinkle the cabbage with sugar and salt.
Allow cabbage to sweat, covered, in the refrigerator overnight.
Mix chicken, raisins, celery, apple, onion, mayonnaise, curry powder, salt and pepper.
Allow chicken salad to chill for at least 1/2 a hour to blend the flavors.
To serve, place at least 1 cup of cabbage in a bowl and spoon chicken curry salad over the top.

Black Bean and Chicken Stew

After returning from the holidays late in the day, I made this simple stew from what I had in my kitchen. At first it was only going to be a black bean stew, but the flavor was lacking, so I added a bit of cut up chicken to it.

2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 1/2 tbsp Indian curry powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp chili oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 c water
1/2 a cooked chicken breast, chopped

Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
When oil is hot, add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add curry powder and chili oil and cook until fragrant.
Add black beans, water, and chicken breast.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, adding water if necessary.
Serve hot (with rice if you'd like).

Rockin' Homemade Pizza

I have come to learn that you can learn good recipes from even the most unexpected sources. Recently I discovered that my younger brother has become quite a good cook. I don’t think he gets into quite as much experimentation as I do, but he cooks everyday. (I think it’s cool that both of my brothers have become the main cooks of their relationships, rather than falling into the gender roles that would put the “burden” of cooking on their significant others). He shared a recipe for Thai Chicken Pizza with the family, and I must say it’s pretty tasty. Our only disappointment in making it was our inability to find a decent crust.

Actually, a decent homemade pizza crust has been the holy grail of my family’s cooking adventures; it was always out of reach and sought for. As it turns out, my younger brother had found a great pizza crust recipe and I have it in my possession now. I will now add the disclaimer that my family likes thin, cracker-like crusts. That way, the toppings take the front seat in the flavor-mobile and the crust doesn’t sit in your stomach like a lump of clay.

With the new crust recipe in hand, I embarked on the adventure of making a great pizza. I winged the sauce recipe, knowing that too much of a good thing (oregano) can make for a bitter sauce, that I like sauce that is just a touch sweet and with a slight sting, and that onions and whole tomatoes were a must. We also decided to slightly cook the pepperoni in a skillet before placing on the pizza. This allowed the pepperoni to release some of its oil and increased the likelihood that it would crisp on the pizza, despite the short baking time. I venture to say that the resulting pizza was practically perfect in every way.

Rockin’ Homemade Pizza

1 pizza crust for a 9x13 inch jellyroll pan
pizza sauce (below)
½ c sliced black olives
1 ½ c shredded mozzarella cheese
enough pepperoni to cover pizza to taste

Sauce:
¼ c olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 rounded teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 rounded tablespoon oregano
1 c portabella mushrooms, finely diced
16 oz canned whole tomatoes, with juice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot.
Add olive oil.
When oil is hot, add onion and sauté until soft and slightly golden.
Add garlic, red pepper, and oregano and cook until fragrant.
Add portabella mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they have shrunk to half their original size.
Add tomatoes, salt, and sugar and cook, stirring, until reduced to a good sauce consistency.
*You don’t want the sauce to watery, or it will make your crust soggy.

Crust:
1 ¾ c flour
½ tsp salt
¾ c water
¼ tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Heat the water in a microwaveable dish for 2 to 3 minutes, until hot but not boiling.
Add sugar to the water and stir until dissolved.
Add yeast to the water mixture, stir, and let sit for 8 minutes.
Pour ½ of the water mixture into the flour and stir.
Add remaining water mixture and stir until just combined (you can use your hands to finish the mixing).

To prepare the pepperoni:
Starting with a cold cast iron pan, add pepperoni in a single layer to the pan.
Turn burner to medium heat.
Once the pepperoni has bubbled up, remove from pan.
If you still have more pepperoni to prep, add another single layer and cook until bubbled up.
Repeat until all pepperoni has been precooked.
Drain pepperoni on paper towel until ready to use.

Pizza assembly:
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
Oil a 9x13 inch jellyroll pan and place pizza dough in the center.
Using your fingertips or a small rolling pin, gently press or roll the dough to fit the pan.
Pre-bake the crust for 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove crust from the oven and spread with pizza sauce.
Add olives, cheese, and top with pepperoni slices.
Place bake in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and slide the pizza out of the pan onto a cutting board.
Cut into pieces and serve.

Green Salad and Roasted Pears with Warm Apple Bacon Dressing

The other day I had a friend over for dinner. It was a Christmas present wrapping party that lacked in the wrapping department; problems being she only had a few presents to wrap and I ended up too buzzed to wrap adroitly. In my defense, I was using tissue paper, a material that is difficult to maneuver in the best of circumstances.

I was leaving in a few days for the holidays, so dinner was “what’s in the house?” again. Thankfully I had a whole chicken in my freezer, so I thawed that and baked it with just a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper. It would have been perfect had the wine not induced a short bought of forgetfulness. It was just this side of a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation turkey jerky. Oops. My faithful friend declared it still delicious. What a sweetheart!

I roasted the half of a butternut squash that was sitting in my fridge to go with it and made a green salad with warm apple bacon dressing and roasted pears. While the food was cooking, we snacked on rosemary crackers and habanero cheese... and of course slaked our thirst with wine, yummy, yummy wine.

The next day I found out that I had been secretly sabotaged – since my friend had to drive home, she kept pouring more wine into my glass every time she topped them off. Whether due to the amount of food or the length of time or my voyage into becoming an... well, let’s just hope it was the food and time, because I wasn’t hung over at all the next day.

Green Salad and Roasted Pears with Warm Apple Bacon Dressing (for 2)

1 head of green leaf lettuce, washed and dried
3 pears, peeled, cored, and halved
1 tbsp bacon grease
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp apple cider
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Once the lettuce has been washed and spun dry, place it in a bowl in the refrigerator to crisp.
Place the pear halves in a shallow baking dish, face down, and roast until browned well (1/2 hour to an hour... I can’t remember... and not because of wine, I swear!)
Heat the bacon grease in a small cast iron pan.
Add onion and saute until golden.
Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit.
Add olive oil, white wine vinegar, apple cider, salt and pepper and stir well.
To serve, put lettuce in individual serving dishes, top with three pear halves each, give the dressing a stir and pour over the salads.

Good wine to try: 2006 Maipe Malbec (Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina)