Tag Archives: celery

Wild Mushroom and Farro Soup

13 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by in Healthy, Main Dish, Soups

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wild Mushroom and Farro Soup

This was the first recipe I made from Ina Garten’s new cookbook, which so far is just as amazing if not better than her previous ones. This is a perfect make-ahead meal, since the soup tastes better the next day.

Wild Mushroom and Farro Soup

I was tempted to add a whole cup of farro, but I’m glad I didn’t since the farro soaks up some of the liquid overnight. You can substitute sour cream for creme fraiche, as make mushrooms substitutions depending on what you can find at the store. Another substitution I made was I used 10-minute farro instead of pearled farro.

Farro Soup

This was a great winter soup, it’s perfect for lunches during the work week!

Recipe
Wild Mushroom and Farro Soup
adapted from Make It Ahead
serves 6

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces dried wild mushrooms (I used porcini and cremini – morels are expensive!)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 ounces pancetta, 1/2 inch diced
  • 2 cups chopped yellow onions (about 2 onions, depending on how large)
  • 2 cups (1/2 inch diced) carrots (3-4 carrots)
  • 2 cups (1/2 inch diced) celery (3 to 4 stalks)
  • 4 tsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
  • 3/4 cup farro (I used Trader Joe’s 10 minute farro, although Ina prefers special pearled farro)
  • 12 – 16 oz fresh mushrooms, cleaned, stems discarded, 1/4 inch sliced. Ina uses cremini, I used regular white button mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp dry marsala wine
  • 4 cups canned beef broth
  • 3 large sprigs fresh thyme, tied together with kitchen twine
  • salt and pepper (about 1 tsp, or to taste)
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp butter, at room temperature
  • 4 ounces creme fraiche or sour cream
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Place the dried mushrooms and 6 cups of water in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, cover, and set aside for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heath the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven. Add the pancetta, onions, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper and saute over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and farro and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the fresh mushrooms and the 1/2 cup Marsala and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the mushrooms have released some of their liquid.

Meanwhile, strain the dried mushrooms through cheesecloth, reserving the liquid. Coarsley chop the mushrooms and add them to the pot, along with the strained soaking liquid, the beef broth, and thyme. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer partially covered for 45 minutes, until the farro is tender Discard the thyme bundle.

In a small bowl, mash together the flour and butter and stir into the hot soup. Simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in the cream and remaining 2 tbsp of Marsala, and taste for seasonings. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve hot.

Cajun Guinness Chicken Pot Pies

21 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Chicken, LuLu's Classics, Main Dish, Weeknight Meals

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Pot Pies

I knew I wanted to try to switch up my mom’s classic pot pie recipe (the original blog post is old and not the most beautiful) – and for some reason Cajun Chicken came to mind. I decided to add some fresh jalapenos from our garden and swap out some Guinness (or any other stout beer) for cream sherry.

Pot Pies

The Cajun-seasoned chicken and Guinness definitely gave the pot pie a darker, more robust flavor – Jordan loved it. I think I am partial to my mom’s way – the use of white wine or cream sherry definitely gives off more of a comfort food factor for me.

Cajun Chicken Pot Pies

This time around I used Trader Joe’s canned biscuits as my crust. I rolled out the biscuit dough on a lightly floured surface until they were about the right size to go over the ramekins. Notice from the above photos it was a tad hard for me to cut vent holes – these biscuits were a lot thicker than the canned ones I have used in the past. I probably will stick to frozen puff pastry in the future as I like the thin, flaky crust that bakes up on the pot pies.

biscuit dough

Recipes revamps are always worth a shot – I like the original, husband likes this one…guess I just started an ongoing pot pie debate?

Pot Pies

Recipe
Cajun Guinness Chicken Pot Pies
Makes 1 large pie, serves 8 in (4 inch) ramekins
a wingin’ it recipe (estimation on measurements)

Ingredients

  • Cajun Chicken
  • olive oil and butter for the pan
  • 1 1/2 cups onion (about 1/2 of a large yellow onion)
  • 2 cloves minced garlic (optional)
  • 1 1/2 cups diced carrot
  • 1 1/2 cups diced celery
  • 2 medium jalapenos, cored with seeds removed, and diced
  • 1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms (optional)
  • 1 cup frozen peas (optional)
  • cajun seasoning
  • poultry seasoning
  • thyme
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • (12 oz) Guinness
  • Chicken broth ( a few splashes)
  • heavy cream or half and half (a splash)
  • Pre-made dough – Options are endless (frozen puff pastry, frozen pie dough, pizza dough, crescent roll dough, etc).

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F. Season chicken with some Cajun seasoning, plus a little salt and pepper (I used a cajun seasoning with no salt added). You can use any kind of chicken you want, for this particular recipe I had some frozen chicken tenders laying around so I thawed those out. Skin on, bone on chicken works great too. After seasoning the chicken, put on a sheet pan and cook in the oven until done. Remove from oven, shred chicken, and set aside.

Meanwhile, dice the onion,  garlic (if using), carrot, celery, jalapenos, and mushrooms. Add a tbsp of olive oil and about a tbsp of butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and let cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic (if using), carrots, celery, and jalapenos. If you are using the mushrooms, I like to sauté them in a separate pan with some butter, chicken broth, and thyme. Add a little bit of salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and thyme to the onion and vegetable mixture. If everything seems dry feel free to add a small splash of chicken broth. Stir.

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of flour over the mixture and stir constantly until the flour is dissolved. The mixture will be thick. Add the beer, a little at a time, until you start getting to the thickness of pot pie that you like. Add a splash of cream and more chicken broth. You don’t want your mixture to be too thick because the crust will soak up some of the liquid.

Once your pot pie mixture is the way you like, add the mixture to ramekins or a large pie dish. You don’t want to fill your ramekins up to the very top, you need to leave room for the crust. I almost always make pot pies in ramekins, and depending on what type of pre-made crust I am using (crescent rolls, puff pastry, frozen pie dough, etc) I just roll out and shape pieces to fit the mold.

Place ramekins on a large baking sheet and bake pot pies at 400F for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are nice and browned.

Curry Chicken Wraps

18 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Chicken, Main Dish, Sandwiches

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Curry Chicken WrapsThese curry chicken wraps are a total family fave. Every time we make them, people just can’t get enough. They are one of my favorite things to bring on picnics, road trips, or just to eat for dinner! You could definitely have the curry chicken mixture over a bed of greens, but there is something about having these in wrap form that makes me not want to have them any other way.Curry Chicken Wraps

Recipe
Curry Chicken Wraps
Adapted from Ina Garten
Makes 6 – 8 wraps

Ingredients

  • 3 chicken breasts, (bone in, skin on is optional)
  • Olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup chutney (recommended: Major Gray’s)
  • 3 tablespoons curry powder
  • 1 cup medium-diced celery (2 large stalks)
  • 1/4 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
  • 1/4 cup raisins (or golden)
  • 1 cup whole roasted, salted cashews, chopped
  • 6 Spinach or Sundried Tomato Tortillas (I used the big Mission Brand ones)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in pieces.

For the dressing, whisk the mayonnaise, wine, chutney, curry powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a large bowl until smooth. If you want a smoother mix, you can put ingredients in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process.

Combine the chicken with enough dressing to moisten well. Add the celery, scallions, and raisins, and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cashews to the chicken.

Fill the center of each tortilla with the chicken mixture. Fold the 2 sides of the tortilla over the filling so that the sides overlap. Roll the tortilla from bottom to top, and cut in half diagonally.

Curry Chicken Wraps

Split Pea Soup

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Healthy, Main Dish, Pork, Soups

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Split Pea Soup

I have a lot of reservations and anxiety about the photos I post on this blog. Food photography is hard – especially when you are using bad lighting and your phone to take pictures. Many recipes never make it on here because I am not satisfied with the photos I took, or we were just too hungry to stop and take a picture. Looking at other food blogs, it is easy to feel like a failure – but then I remember why I am actually here…to post my favorite recipes in one spot and share tidbits of my life. That should be good enough for me.

Split Pea Soup

So now we are here – Split Pea Soup will never be renowned as a beautiful looking dish – but hot damn it’s good. This recipe for split pea soup was so f*&$ing delicious and life changing, I can’t even begin to tell you. Yes, it takes some time, but it’s just so humble and worth it. I Love it so, so much. I slightly adapted the recipe from Emeril, and it just makes me love him even more.

Recipe
Split Pea Soup
adapted from Emeril
8 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dried split peas
  • 1 ham hock
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 cup finely chopped yellow onions
  • 1 cup finely chopped celery
  • 1 cup finely chopped carrots
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 pound ham, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 8 cups water (I used some of the leftover ham hock water)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 teaspoons fresh or dried thyme

Directions

Place the peas in a large pot or bowl, cover with water by 2 inches and soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain the peas and set aside.

Score the ham hock. Place in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 1 hour. You can drain and set aside, but I saved the water for my soup stock. I think it was a good decision.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the celery and carrots and cook, stirring, until just soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.

Add the ham hock and ham and cook, stirring, until beginning to brown. Add the drained peas, salt, pepper, and pepper flakes, and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add 8 cups of water, the bay leaf and thyme, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the peas are tender, about 1 hour. (Add more water as needed, if the soup becomes too thick or dry.)

Remove the bay leaf and ham hock and discard. Adjust the seasoning, to taste, and serve immediately.

Chicken Pot Pies.

10 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Chicken, LuLu's Classics, Main Dish, Uncategorized, Weeknight Meals

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicken Pot Pies, Pre-Oven

Chicken Pot Pies, Pre-Oven

Recipes where you truly can just “wing it” are kind of hard to explain. I know my mom probably hates it when I make her dig up an old one she has memorized, or heaven forbid write every detail out in an email to me.
After making these Chicken Pot Pies, I get it. They are really easy, and you totally should wing it every time you make it, because regardless they will probably turn out good. My description, however, is quite long and upon first glance it probably does not seem easy because it takes me about 3 paragraphs to explain it. Note to Self: writing out a recipe from scratch like Ina is probably never gonna happen.
Pot Pies
BUT alas, once you make these, you are set on chicken pot pies for life. You can choose to get as fancy or frivolous as you want, I suppose I will make variations on this in the future (buffalo chicken pot pies perhaps?) but for now, this satisfies me and the future-hubs-to-be. Remember, all amounts in the recipe below are relative. you just have to go for it. You may also have round ramekins instead of rectangular ones like me, or you may want to just make it all in a giant pie dish (I however, prefer my own damn personal pie).
Pot Pies
Mom – thank you for writing everything down for me, and explaining it in a way you knew I would understand. Because, if you didn’t write it all down and expected me to do it from memory off that time we made these together, I definitely would have forgotten the chicken  broth, cream, and sherry…AKA the ingredients that hold the recipe together!
Pot Pies
Recipe
Lulu’s Chicken Pot Pies (A wingin’ it recipe)
Serves 4
Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked Chicken
  • Olive Oil
  • Butter
  • 1.5 cups Carrots
  • 1.5 cups Celery
  • 1.5 cups Onion, diced
  • (a few) splashes Chicken Broth
  • 1/4 cup Flour
  • splash Half and Half or Heavy Cream
  • splash Cream Sherry
  • 1 tbsp (ish) Thyme
  • 1 tbsp (ish) Poultry Seasoning
  • Salt, Pepper to taste
  • Sauteed Mushrooms (optional)
  • Pillsbury Grands, Pie Dough, or Puff Pastry
  • egg wash
Directions
Preheat Oven to 400 degrees F.
Use any kind of chicken you like, such as a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. I marinated boneless chicken tenders in some olive oil, white wine, thyme, salt and pepper. I cooked the chicken over medium heat in a large skillet on the stove. After cooking, I shredded the chicken into bite sized pieces, and set aside.
 Chop a small/medium onion and start cooking it on the stove in a bit of olive oil and butter.  Add some chopped celery and carrots. Don’t forget to add some salt and pepper and a bit of thyme and even some poultry seasoning.  Let the mixture cook down until veggies are soft.  If they seem to get too dry add a little chicken stock, but not too much.  *NOTE: At this point you can  cook some sliced mushrooms in another skillet with butter and add them a little later.
 After the veggies have cooked down a bit, add about 1/4 cup of flour and mix it around until it is absorbed.  It will seem very thick and dry at this point but make sure that the flour is fully mixed in before slowly adding some more chicken broth.  This should be on low heat so that you don’t burn the mixture.  You will slowly see the veggie/flour mixture thickening up and keep adding the chicken broth slowly to get the right consistency.  Don’t let it get too thin because you also want to add a SPLASH of sherry and some heavy cream or half and half to the mixture. You don’t want it to be too dry because the crust will absorb some of the mixture. At this point you can add your cooked mushrooms that are already seasoned and the cut up chicken.  Mix this all together and see how it tastes.  You may have to add some salt and pepper or even a little butter and mix it up.
 Place the chicken mixture into ramekins and then roll out a biscuit, puff pastry sheet, or pie crust and place it over the chicken mixture. You don’t want a huge amount of dough on top so it is best to roll it out.  Make some vent holes for the steam on top of the crust, and feel free to place a little egg wash over the dough so it browns up nice. Place ramekins on a baking sheet and into the oven at about 400 degrees.  Cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Chicken and Dumplings

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in Bloggerific, Chicken, Main Dish, Soups

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Ok. Chicken and Dumplings are good. Really good. Even when you kind of screw up the recipe…

This is one of the only pictures I got. The dumplings are boiling to their death...

I went off of an awesome recipe from Culinary Cory – but I should have stuck to it more. I decided I was going to add more veggies, but not add more broth to the recipe…

the mound of extra veggies that I thought was a brilliant idea.

Everything was looking good…I added a splash of cream sherry to liven things up a bit…

Looks amazing right now, right?

Things went downhill as soon as I added the dumplings and brought everything to a boil. First of all, the dumplings soak up a lot of broth while they are cooking, so having enough is important. Then, while the mound of veggies were suffocating under the dumplings, I kind of burnt the bottom of the pan…sigh.

This was the end product. More of a stew than a soup...not the most gorgeous photo or dish. But I swear it still tasted great!

Luckily, the end product still tasted good besides a few burnt chunks that were encountered. The pot I used is pissed though. Thank God the friends that ate this didn’t mind a chicken and dumpling stew…We have coincidentally nicknamed the dish “chicken and dumps.” Not because it was bad – just because it’s hilarious.

Despite my mistake, this all got scooped up pretty fast. I didn't have time to take a picture after it had stopped boiling...mmm doughy chunks.

This is just one of those things I guess – a learning experience. “Winging it” and adding tons of extra veggies wasn’t the greatest idea ever. So, here is the lovely recipe below, and for the love of god, either follow it or DOUBLE it or TRIPLE it…Don’t wing it like I did!

Recipe

Chicken and Dumplings

adapted from Culinary Cory

Serves 2 (with leftovers)

Chicken and Dumplings
Soup:
1 Tbl. olive oil
2 uncooked chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
½ tsp. dried thyme
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. garlic powder or garlic salt
¼ cup butter, unsalted
¼ cup celery, small diced
¼ cup yellow onion, small diced
¼ cup carrot, small diced
3 Tbl. flour
2 (15 oz. can) chicken broth, low sodium
¼ cup frozen peas

splash of cream sherry (optional)

Dumplings:
1 ½ cup baking mix, Bisquick
2/3 cup milk

In a small Dutch oven or heavy stock pot, preheat the olive oil on medium high heat. Dice the chicken breasts into medium sized pieces and slowly add them to the oil. Add the thyme, salt, pepper and garlic powder to chicken. Sauté for 2 – 3 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked though, but not brown. Remove and set aside.

To the same Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the celery, onions and carrots to the butter. Stir occasionally for 4 – 5 minutes or until the onions are slightly translucent. Next, add the flour and stir for 1 minute until the flour has completely absorbed the butter. Stir in the cooked chicken and slowly add the chicken stock. Make sure you stir while adding the stock to prevent the flour from causing lumps.  Add the frozen peas to the broth.

In a separate bowl, combine the baking mix and milk until well incorporated. Bring the broth to a boil. This is important for the dumplings to steam properly. Drop large tablespoons full of the dumpling batter into the boiling broth. Continue to boil for 10 minutes, uncovered. Cover the soup and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes, covered.