Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Fried Rice)

 I prepared an Asian chicken recipe last night and cooked extra chicken to make dinner tonight. I've created a week's menu and I'm determined to stick to it. I'm trying to cut down on grocery costs and I'm also trying to make less work for myself. I'm getting older. I'm getting lazier. I am not even ashamed to admit it.
Anyhow, I read several recipes for a Peruvian version of fried rice. This is right up my alley. I can make a pretty mean fried rice, if I do say so myself.

This is what I came up with and it also uses up some of the random things rattling around in the produce crisper drawer.

As usual, with any recipe that has an Asian inspiration, make sure to prep all of the ingredients and have them ready to go. I cooked the rice this morning and chilled it down in the fridge. Rice cookers, I now feel, are a necessity. The funny thing is that I refused to use one until we bought this fifth wheel. Now, I can't imagine not having one. I just add everything in, set a timer and forget about it.

When I chopped the green onions, I separated the white parts from the green parts. This recipe starts out frying a bit of bell pepper (color doesn't matter, just use what you have) and onion. 

As long as carrots are not boiled into a mush, I don't mind them. I added in a small grated one so that I could get more veggies into Bob.He did get his new dentures, but, after going through those radiation treatments, he's left with an overactive gag reflex. So, they are making him gag. He's going to make an appointment and go in and have them fixed. 

After everything (yes, this fried rice has hot dogs in it) gets added in, hit it with a tablespoon or two of soy sauce. Don't judge for the hot dogs. Once in a while, I just crave one.

Top with a sunny-side up egg. Make sure it is crispy on the bottom. 

See? Perfectly crispy. Perfectly cooked. Perfectly delicious. The perfect thing after getting stung by a yellow jacket today...hence, the hot dogs comfort food addition. It's fried rice. It is a dish that you can put anything in and it will taste delicious.

Arroz Chaufa

2 tablespoons avocado oil
4 green onions, sliced, separate the white parts from the green tops
1/2 bell pepper, diced (use whatever color you like, it doesn't matter)
2 hot dogs, sliced
1 cup cooked chicken, cubed or shredded (whatever you like to do)
2 beaten eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
3 cups cold cooked rice
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 sunny-side up fried eggs with crispy edges

Prep all the ingredients and have them ready to go.
In a large wok, or skillet, over high heat, stir fry the white part of the onions with the bell pepper for 2 minutes. Add the carrot. Continue to stir fry for another 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and hot dogs. Cook for another minute or so. Add the rice. cook until everything has a slight coating of oil and is hot completely through. Add soy sauce. Toss to coat. Drizzle with sesame oil and garnish with the green part of the green onions. Set aside until you've cooked the sunny-side up eggs. Place a sunny-side up egg on top of each serving. There will be leftovers if you're making this for 2 people. Just reheat the leftovers in the microwave and top with a freshly cooked egg.

Enjoy!

Cod Mappas & A Bonus Tikka Curry Paste Recipe

 We're getting yet another atmospheric river. We ran into the laundromat to get that weekly chore done and out of the way and I stopped by the store on the way home. It was sunny when we walked in and raining when we walked out. We weren't in there very long, either. Anyhow, it's supposed to be rainy and windy for the next few days, at least. I figured it would be a good day for a lighter fish dinner. I had a nice filet of cod and this recipe just fit the bill nicely.

This dish gets served over Basmati rice. You could do this with halibut, too. It would be delicious!

First, before you do anything, make the Tikka Curry Paste. This is super simple and it blitzes up in a few seconds in a food processor.

Tikka Curry Paste

2 cloves garlic
1 red chili pepper with seeds removed
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro
Pinch of sea salt

Process all in food processor until everything is smooth and no big pieces remain.

You'll want to set this aside until the recipe calls for it.

You'll want to baby the onions along until they get some really great golden color on them. This part, you can't rush it. It takes time.

It really starts to turn into something special once you add in the Tikka Masala Paste.

Then it gets hit with coconut milk. I let it simmer for a bit. 

Once it simmers for a few minutes, I added in the cod chunks. These simmer for about 5 minutes or so, until they are cooked through.

This is what it looks like before you garnish with some chopped fresh cilantro. 

Cod Mappas
Serves 2

1 tablespoon avocado oil
2 small red onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound (2 large) roma tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoon Tikka Masala Sauce (see recipe above)
1 (15 ounce) can coconut milk
1 pound cod, cut into bite-sized chunks
Chopped cilantro

In a skillet, over low heat, cook onions in avocado oil, until very soft and golden brown. This will take quite a while. Add garlic and tomatoes. Cook about 5 minutes. Add Tikka Curry Paste and cook for 4-5 more minutes. Add coconut milk, bring to a boil.
Add fish and gently simmer for 5-8 minutes or until  fish is  cooked through. Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve over Basmati rice.

Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

 Bob has an upcoming medical procedure that I won't go into on a cooking blog. Anyhow, tonight is the last night he can eat a regular diet. After this, for a few days, he goes on a low fiber diet and then a straight liquid diet. Anyhow, he shoveled a yard and a half of soil for me today and filled several raised beds. He deserves a tasty dinner on his last night of normal food for a while.

I ordered the shoyu sauce from Amazon. Here is what I ordered. It's not the cheapest stuff on the planet, but I don't think you could really make Shoyu Chicken without it.

 

This recipe is made using skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces. You'll want roughly 2 pounds. What pieces you use is entirely up to you. I chose thighs. I'd make this recipe using wings, too.
You want to brown them in a tablespoon of oil. I use canola as it is a heart healthy neutral flavored oil. Again, in your kitchen, use what you want. I probably wouldn't use olive oil, though. Thoroughly brown the chicken on both sides.

While the chicken is browning, mix up the sauce (see recipe below) and prep the ginger and the garlic. 

Definitely make sure the chicken is browned. It will make a difference later on. Be patient. Don't rush it.

After the chicken is uniformly golden color, add the sauce, ginger and garlic. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn each piece over, cover, simmer another 10 minutes. 

After 20 minutes, the chicken will be a dark brown color. This is when you remove the lid and turn up the heat a bit and start cooking down the sauce. 

As the sauce reduces, it coats the chicken pieces and turns them mahogany. Keep boiling until you have a sauce that is the consistency of syrup.

This is just damn delicious, no matter how you want to look at it.

I served this with some coconut rice and some Hawaiian Mac Salad.

Aloha!

Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

2 pounds chicken pieces
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup shoyu soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoon rice vinegar
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Brown chicken in a skillet, over medium heat, in a tablespoon of oil. In the meantime, in a medium bowl, whisk together shoyu sauce, water and sugar. Set aside.
When chicken is golden brown, add the sauce mixture along with the garlic and ginger. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn chicken over and repeat.
When chicken has simmered for 20 minutes, remove lid and turn heat to medium-high and reduce sauce until it is the consistency of syrup, continually basting and turning the chicken pieces to coat.
Serve with rice.

Pork Brauhaus Goulash

For dinner, last night, we needed some good ol' fashioned comfort food. I'm not really into the stuff that quite a few Americans think of as being comfort food. To me, comfort embodies European peasant food. It's filling. It's hearty. It utilizes few ingredients while maximizing on flavor. This goulash recipe checks off all of the boxes.

I used a pork tenderloin to make this dish. It was tender. It was succulent. Bob was, easily, able to eat it.

I cut the pork tenderloin into bite sized pieces. It gets browned in a few tablespoons of butter. While that is going on, you'll want to...

grate up a large carrot (or 2 small ones), dice up an onion and mince a clove or two of garlic. Just put it onto a plate and set it aside for a few minutes until you need it. 

Do you see that liquid in the bottom of the pan? You want to cook the pork until that all disappears. 

It will look like this once that happens. This is when you add the vegetables and garlic, mustard, tomato paste,  along with the salt, pepper and smoked paprika. 

Cook that all for around 3-4 minutes. Then add...

a cup of German beer. I used a nice German stout. If you don't have a German beer available to you, try a Black Butte Porter or a Guinness would work really well, too.  Don't use a domestic American beer. That would not taste good at all. It actually wouldn't taste.
Cook until the beer evaporates.

It will go from this to...

this. What you are doing is concentrating the beer flavor. That's why I do not recommend using an domestic American beer. They do not taste good and they wouldn't have enough flavor to hold up to this recipe. You really need to use a stout.

After the beer cooks down, you add in vegetable broth and bring it all to a boil. Cover, put on low heat and simmer for an hour.
Five minutes before it's done, add...

the sour cream. Combine thoroughly. If you need to thicken it up, use a cornstarch slurry. That's simple to make. Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with a few tablespoons of cold water. Pour it in, stir until it's as thick as you'd like it to be. 

Serve over mashed potatoes and enjoy!

Pork Brauhaus Goulash

1 pork tenderloin, between 1.25-1.5 pounds, cut into bite sized cubes
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large carrot, grated
1 cup stout beer
3 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon sour cream

Brown pork in butter, in large skillet, over medium heat. Cook until all the liquid that is released from the pork has evaporated. Add onion, garlic, carrots, mustard, tomato paste, salt, pepper and paprika. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add beer. Cook until beer has evaporated from pan. Add broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. At the 55 minute mark, stir in the sour cream until combined. At that time, if you feel it's necessary, thicken with a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water). Serve over mashed potatoes.

Belgian Fried Chicken

 We're all moved! We moved exactly a month ago. A lot has happened. We went through a pretty bad flood just before we moved. Bob's car got flooded. Our insurance totaled it. Ten days later, we were fully moved out of the RV park. Good riddance to the drama and other nonsense. It's so peaceful up here and we're thoroughly enjoying it.
Here are some of the flood photos. We are sitting up on a bluff, 260 feet above a creek. I don't ever have to worry about going through a flood, like this, again. 

The water came up and receded all within an 18 hour time frame. I have never went through anything like that before and I hope I never go through anything like that again.

 
I'm not going to miss this at all. Nope. Never again.

Now, without further adieu, coming to you from Kelpie Kapers Farm, I bring you one of our most favorite chicken recipes called Belgian Fried Chicken.
First off, this is not a diet friendly recipe. If you're looking for something healthy, you'll want to cruise on past. We don't eat this all that often, maybe 2 or 3 times per year. If you can use decadent to describe a chicken dish, this one would fit the bill. 

First off, there's not really any measurements for this recipe. The only thing I really measure, and it's haphazard at that, is the butter. I just use 1/2 a stick of unsalted butter and it doesn't matter how many pieces of chicken I plan on making. Just know that you're going to be frying chicken, over a low heat, for a long time, in butter.
Do I have your attention yet?

You simply salt and pepper your chicken pieces generously. Then you shake in plain ol' flour. Don't add anything to it, just leave it plain.
You won't believe how tasty this is with such minimal seasoning. There's no herbs or spices in this besides salt and pepper. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

This is why I call this "Belgian" fried chicken. This is a sliced up Belgian endive. If you don't want to use an endive, you could slice up some mushrooms or whatever vegetable you like. I've done this with just onions and parsley and it was delicious.

After the chicken browns, slowly, over low heat, for 15 minutes on each side (a total of 30 minutes), covered, you scatter the endive around the pan, put the lid on and let it go for another 15 minutes. So, yes, 45 minutes being fried in butter. 

The endive cooks way down and the chicken gets really brown. This is when it gets hit with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. So, now, it's being fried in lemon butter. Let that cook for just a few minutes. And pour in roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream, depending on how many chicken pieces you're making. 

Delicious!

Belgian Fried Chicken
*serves 2

4 pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken
1/2 cup flour
Salt & pepper, to taste
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Belgian endive sliced
1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces generously. Coat each piece in plain white flour.
Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Fry the chicken, in the butter, for 15 minutes, covered. Turn the chicken over, cover, and fry another 15 minutes. Add endive, cover, fry for another 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and zest and cook for 3-5 minutes more. Add heavy cream and flip the chicken pieces around so that they are coated in the sauce and the heavy cream mixes in.

I turned these into bowls with rice and boiled asparagus. Bob really enjoyed these. He gets his final set of impressions tomorrow, so, hopefully, I can make something crunchy for dinner soon. Korean Honey Butter Chicken is on the top of my list!
Anyhow, if you need some comfort food, this Belgian Fried Chicken will fit that ticket, for sure.
Enjoy!

Smoked Bleu Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped In Bacon

 Last week, I wound up buying a container of smoked bleu cheese. I had initially thought that I would include this on Bob's requested charcuterie board for Thanksgiving, but I thought there was more than plenty to remake one of my published recipes on allrecipes.com, Gorgonzola Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped In Bacon. I used to prepare this recipe quite often, several years ago, but had gotten away from it. It's always nice to revisit (and revamp) one of your highest rated recipes, I think.

I got away from adding anything to the bleu cheese. I figured with the smoke flavor, it didn't need any added ingredients, like shallot or parsley. Also, with the bacon and the cheese, this definitely did not need any added salt.

This also differs from the original recipe in that I baked these on a rack this time.

I baked these on a lower temperature than I did with the original recipe. I found that lowering the temp, even though I had them in the oven for over an hour, resulted in a much juicier version. These were not dried out at all.

Dinner, last night, was a sheer pleasure.


Smoked Bleu Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped In Bacon

 

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup smoked bleu cheese
4 slices of pepper bacon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Penzeys Spices Parisien Bonnes Herbes blend
Cracked black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a pocket into each chicken breast, without cutting all the way through. Stuff 2 tablespoons of smoked bleu cheese into each pocket. Wrap each breast with 2 slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks, if necessary. Sprinkle each breast with 1/2 teaspoon of Parisien Bonnes Herbes blend. Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper.
Place in oven and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F on a food thermometer. Let stand for 10 minutes, remove wooden picks and serve.

Chicken & Dumplings

 I had Bob buy that rotisserie chicken yesterday. I made enchiladas with half of the meat. To view that  recipe, click here. Tonight's Chicken & Dumplings utilizes the other half of the meat and the carcass. This recipe took me all afternoon to complete and was worth every minute.

I boiled the carcass with all the vegetables that I had that were starting to dry out or look tired. I love that this is a great way to clear out the crisper drawers of stuff that I had just hanging around. I didn't bother to peel anything. I threw in bendy carrots, celery (that was way past its prime), half of a sweet potato. I let it cook down for about 3 hours. 

I strained it out and I was left with some fantastic looking broth. 

This is only the first part of this recipe. Congrats, you're advancing to level 2.

I wanted to do these two recipes to show how economical it can be to buy a rotisserie chicken, especially if you are feeding just 2 people. My sister always jokes with me because I'm not usually one who takes all this time to do things. I usually have several things going on at once. Anyhow, I was watching a YouTube video last night on how to make your food budget stretch and I got to thinking about just how much food is simply thrown away. It's appalling, if you think about it. So, I was determined to get every cent's worth from that rotisserie chicken. 

We just so happened to get our first storm of the year today. I don't think I'd really call it much of a storm, though. There was a bit of thunder and lightening and it did pour down rain a few times. I have to admire the grit of these two fishermen. They were dedicated there on the opposite bank of the river.

I salute them!

The next half of this recipe starts out by boiling the reserved chicken meat and whatever veg you like in the chicken stock that you just made.
There's no right or wrong way to do this because taste is subjective.
I used onion, garlic, celery, carrots and a parsnip. I thought I had another sweet potato, but it was purple and I didn't think that would look so nice. I wouldn't care but I knew I was going to take photos of this for this blog post and purple...not so much.

I let this come up to a boil with everything in it and cook until everything was soft enough to mush against the roof of your mouth with your tongue. 

This is sure comforting on a rainy day, I do have to say!

Chicken & Dumplings


1/2 of the meat from a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket
The carcass of the chicken
Any vegetables that you want to sacrifice to the stock pot
Enough water to cover
Salt and pepper, to taste

Boil all this together in a large pot and strain the solids out and throw those away. Put the rest back into a pot. Add the chopped meat, chopped vegetables, like celery, carrot, onion, garlic and parsnips. Add as many or as little vegetables as you like.
To that, add salt and pepper, to taste, 1-1/2 teaspoons Penzey's Bouquet Garni spice blend, 1 teaspoon dried parsley and some chopped fresh rosemary, optional. I grow it, so I always have it on hand.  Bring all to a rolling boil, lower heat to low and simmer until the vegetables are very soft. Add 3/4 cup of heavy cream to the soup.
Make dumpling dough.

Dumpling dough:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley

Mix all ingredients together until a dough forms. Drop by spoonfuls into liquid. Cover, cook about 20 minutes or until dough is cooked through.

*Please not that I am not compensated by Penzey's Spices. I just really like their products and use a ton of them.