Peanut Chicken Soba Salad

 Adapted from Peanut Chicken Soba Salad Cooking Light 2004

 This is a great idea for a delicious chicken salad when it's hot outside.  I've adapted the original Cooking  Light recipe to work with what you've got and to include more veggies.  Serve 2 generously

•  6-8 oz cooked chicken
  
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey or 1 tablespoon Kotterin Mirin 
• 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee or Siracha) or more to taste
  
• 2 cups cooked soba noodles (about 4 ounces uncooked)
• 2-3  cups thinly chopped cabbage and/or grated carrot
• ½ cup thinly sliced green onions (oh shoot, I forget these)
• ¼ cup minced red onion (maybe a bit more since I forget the green onions above)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (mint, thai basil and cilantro are great additions here and more of all is ok)
• 2 tbs chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts 

Directions:

Acquire 6-8 oz of cooked chicken.  This could be leftover roast or rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken breast or thighs (my favorite is 9-10 oz of chicken thighs, seasoned w/ salt and pepper and grilled).  I reckon it could also be firm crumbled tofu, though I haven't tried that yet.

Put shredded cooked chicken (by whatever method) in a bowl.  Combine vinegar, oil, soy, Mirin/Honey,  chili sauce in a bowl (add more or less of any of these condiment to taste).  Pour over shredded  chicken and let stand at least 5 minutes.  

Chop cabbage, grate carrot, chop onion and herbs as you are using.

Put peanuts in plastic zip loc bag and smash lightly with meat mallet.

Cook soba noodles according to package directions.  When done, rinse briefly with cold water and add to bowl with chicken.  Add veggies and herbs (shredded cabbage and carrot, basil, mint and onions) and toss to combine). 

Portion between two bowls, garnish with smashed/chopped peanuts.

A pic or two:

When you forget the peanuts:

 

When you remember the peanuts:

Cool as a cucumber

So it's hotter (and humider) than heck outside, so here's a nice cool recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, Takeout-Style Sesame Noodles with Cucumber.  Cold noodles are heaven when it's a furnace outside. I added some cold poached chicken for some extra protein, and the recipe made enough for dinner for two and at least two lunches for me.  I made it pretty much as written, but made a few mods:

1. I did not have Chinese sesame paste so used regular tahini
2. I did not have Chinese rice vinegar so I used regular rice wine vinegar (unseasoned).  I want to find the Chinese rice vinegar as I've read it has a stronger taste - Super G here I come!
3. I added Thai basil to the mint and cilantro suggested for the chopped fresh herbs garnish.  I could have added even more.  
4. As I mentioned above, I added about 3 oz of cold poached chicken, sliced to each serving.  You could also use shredded leftover rotisserie chicken.  I bet some cold boiled/poached shrimp would be good too.

I used the same "rice sticks" Deb describes in her post (like what you might use for pad thai) which I've always struggled with cooking - they're either underdone or overdone and stuck together in a gluey ball.  I think I found a method that works well for me:  Place the rice sticks in a large bowl.  Bring enough water to boil to cover the rice sticks, and pour over.  Let the rice sticks soak 8-10 minutes, testing starting at 7 minutes or so for doneness.  Once they're done, drain the water and rinse w/ cold water to cool.  I even threw a couple of ice cubes in there to help cool down the noodles faster. Perfect and  I didn't even need to add the extra sesame oil to keep them from sticking.

I bet this would be good with soba noodles too!

I've made a few things..

What have I made over the past few weeks?
Here's the week 5 basket:

What all did we get?

• carrots
• beets (I've got to do something with all of these I'm accumulating!)
• kale
• fennel bulb w/ fronds
• rainbow chard
• cucumbers
• garlic scapes
• two heads lettuce (hidden under the fennel)
• a tomato!

The week 6 basket I forgot to take a picture of, but the Guilford College Farm posted one on Instagram so here's a link.  You should follow them @guilford_college_farm on the 'gram.  What was in it?

• carrots
• beets (I have a problem here)
• fennel bulb (the fronds were not quite as nice on this one so I tossed them
• collard greens
• cucumbers
• garlic scapes
• two heads lettuce
• pt cherry tomatoes (several types)
• 2 tomatoes!

 So there are some salads, gazpacho and beets (roasted and pickled) my future.

A few things I've made recently, from least complicated to most:

Grilled Garlic Scapes
Put garlic scapes in a 1 gallon ziplock bag (you may need to cut them in half).  Add a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and shake/massage the bag until the scapes are evenly coated.  Grill 5-10 minutes until a bit charred.  Serve as a side (like asaparagus) or how ever you like.

Tzatziki (cucumber yogurt sauce)

Ingredients:

• Cucumber, shredded and squeezed dry in a clean dish towel)
• Greek yogurt (I usually use 2%)
• 1small garlic clove, pressed
• 1-2 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

 Peel the cucumber (or not, I usually don't) and shred using the coarse holes on a box grater.  Pile cucumber in a clean dish towel, wrap up and squeeze to get out as much moisture as possible.  Place cucumber in bowl, and add greek yogurt to roughly equal the amount of cucumber (this is usually about 1/2 - 1 cup cucumber to 1/2-1 cup yogurt).  Stir to mix.  Press a clove of garlic into the mixture (or grate it in w/ a microplane).  Add 1-2 tsp of lemon juice, mix.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Hey, remember that head of red cabbage from a few weeks ago?  I finally got around to doing something with it!
Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Cabbage and Bacon (adapted from Serious Eats)
Ingredients:
    2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (4 thighs; 1.15kg)
    Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
    4 ounces chopped pancetta
    1 medium onion, thinly sliced (about 6 ounces; 170g)
    1 pound finely shredded cabbage (about 1 medium head; 450g - I used red cabbage here)
    2 tablespoons (30ml) whole grain mustard
    1/2 cup (120ml) apple cider vinegar
    3 cups (700ml) homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock
    3 tablespoons sugar
    2 bay leaves
    6 sprigs thyme
One of the ways I adapted this was to substitute pancetta for the bacon called for, and to use less of it. I also didn't use any of the oil or butter called for, because between the pancetta and the chicken there is plenty of fat in this dish.

Directions

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350°F
2. Season chicken with salt and pepper, set aside (even better if you can do it the day before)
3. In a 5 qt cast iron dutch oven, heat 1/2 cup water and pancetta over medium heat.  As water evaporates, fat will render.  Cook until pancetta is browned (about 5-10 min?).  Remove pancetta from pan w/ a slotted spoon, leaving fat behind.  Remove (pour or spoon out) fat until there is only 1-2 tbs remaining in the pan. 
4. Place chicken skin side down in the pan. Cook without moving about 8 minutes until skin is crisp (reduce heat if it starts smoking).  Flip over chicken and brown on opposite side, about 3 minutes.  Remove chicken to a large platter or plate and set aside.
5.  Add onion to pan and cook about 4 minutes, until softened and starting to brown.  Add cabbage to pan and cook about 4 minutes, until softened and starting to brown.  Add mustard and vinegar and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan. Add chicken stock, sugar, bay leaves, browned pancetta and thyme sprigs and bring to a simmer.
6. Nestle chicken back into the pan, leaving the skin above the liquid but submerging most of the meat. Transfer pan to oven and cook, uncovered, until chicken is totally tender and liquid has reduced by about half, about 45 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and transfer chicken to a serving platter. Season cabbage mixture to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, spooning cabbage and sauce into shallow bowls and topping with chicken.
   
   I also served this with some mashed potatoes to soak up the juices.  Some pics!
   
   The browned pancetta
   
   
   Cooking the chicken
   
   
   
   Cooking the onions
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Cooking the cabbage
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Ready to go in the oven
   
   
   
   All done
   
   
   
   Plated up!
    
   

Asian Chicken Salad/Wraps

Wut?  I haven't posted this yet?  A quick search tell me no.  So for folks trying to use up all the salad greens we're getting in the CSA right now, this is for you. This is one of my favorite recipes.  It's designed to be eaten as "lettuce wraps" ala PF Changs (or Phoenix Asian Cuisine if you'd like to go local) but I find that the lettuce wraps fall apart so I just like to serve it as a salad.

Skinnytaste has some amazing recipes, and this is one: https://www.skinnytaste.com/asian-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

I almost always make it with 2x the chicken called for as well as extra mushroom. Multiply the sauces accordingly.   I've also used excess water chestnuts (because what the heck are you going to use with the rest of the can?) as well as more mushroom.  In addition to having used more dried shitake than might be called for, I've also used a good amount of fresh, especially if available through the CSA.  But really, this recipe is all about using up the lettuce.

You'll need to make a trip to Super G to get all the different ingredients, but once you have them, they last FOREVER in your fridge.  I substitute korean gochuchang for the "white pepper" called for in the main recipe, and the same for the sauce (or siracha if you don't want to try and dissolve the gochuchang).

 So, long story short, the easiest way to do this is to cook up the chicken after marinating in all the sauces/spices, chop up the lettuce, and scatter the former over the latter (with a few good spoonfuls of rice).  And then add a good drizzle of sauce, with extra siracha or hoisin as you like.  Eat it up.

Here's a pic:

Enchiladas Verdes w/ homemade salsa verde

Last week we got tomatillos in the box, and I've had jalapeños from the last two boxes, so it was time to make some salsa verde and enchiladas verdes.

The Enchiladas Verdes recipe is adapted from a Cooking Light recipe from 1999.  It's also great w/ leftover rotisserie chicken and a jar of your favorite tomatillo salsa instead making your own.  It's easy to put together ahead of time, and makes good leftovers.

The salsa base is from Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen, and I've written about another tomatillo salsa from the same book here.  This is a simmered sauce, and one he recommends for enchiladas.  I made a double batch and froze half for enchiladas later (because I might have still had tomatillos from last week's CSA box).

Essential Simmered Tomatillo-Serrano Sauce (CSA ingredients are marked w/ an *)


*1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
*Fresh serrano chiles to taste (3, 1/2 oz total - I ended up subbing two of the jalepeños from the CSA, they weighed about 1 oz and I took the seeds out of one of them after roasting.
1 tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion (6 oz) roughly chopped
*2 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cups chicken stock (you could probably sub water here to make it vegetarian, but we're making chicken enchiladas so...)
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro.

1.  Lay the tomatillos and chiles on a baking sheet and broil about 4" from the broiler for about 5 minutes a side.  The tomatillos and chiles should start to soften and blacken.  Transfer the vegetables and any accumulated juices to a blender or food processor.

2.  Heat 1/2 tbs of the olive oil in a 5 qt dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until deep golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and stir a minute longer.  Scrape the mixture into the blender or food processor. If your using a blender, take out the "stopper" in the cover and cover loosely w/ a kitchen towel while blending to prevent a massive cleanup of your kitchen becoming necessary.  Pulse the whatever your using a few times to reduce the vegetables to a rough puree.

3. Add 1/2 tbs of oil to the pot and heat over medium high.  When it's hot enough to sizzle when a drop of puree is placed in it, pour all of the puree in and stir constantly for 4 or 5 minutes.   The sauce base will reduce and become thicker and darker.  Stirr in the broth, return to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer briskly until thick enough to coat the back of spoon, about 10 minutes.  Stir in cilantro and season to taste w/ salt.

Some pics!
The vegetables ready for their tan:

In the blender:

The "rough puree"

Final product, ready to go in the fridge to wait for enchilada assembly:

Enchiladas Verdes Adapted from Cooking Light

1. 12 oz shredded cooked chicken (I usually use white meat, but whatever you like)
2. 2 oz shredded asiago or asadero cheese (you could also substitute mexican shredded cheese blend if you can't find those)
3. 1/3 cup finely chopped onion 
4. 1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
5. 1/3 cup chicken broth (If I'm fancy and have planned ahead, homemade, butI will use bullion here, or Better than Bullion) 
6. 1/3 cup low fat sour cream or greek yogurt
7. 1 tbs fresh lime juice
8. 1/2 tsp ground cumin
9. 1/4 tsp salt
10. 1/8 tsp black pepper
11. 8-10 small corn tortillas
12. 2 cups tomatillo salsa (a jar is fine if you don't want to mess with homemade, Harris Teeter has a good one)
13. 1 oz shredded asiago or asadero cheese

• Mix together the first 10 ingredients to make the filling.
• Spray a 9"x13" baking dish with cooking spray,  and pour 1/2 cup salsa in the bottom and tilt to coast the bottom of the dish.
• Heat each tortilla in a skillet or on a comal (I heat mine over a gas flame to get a little char), place the tortilla on a small plate, and scoop 1/3 cup filling down the middle of the tortilla, roll up and place seam side down.  Repeat w/ remaining tortillas until you run out of filling.
• Pour remaining salsa over enchiladas.  
• Sprinkle w/ remaining 1 oz cheese, cover w/ foil and bake at 400°F until thoroughly heated, about 20-30 minutes.

Some pics!
All the ingredients for the filling (some of the red onion from the CSA here!)

 Salsa in the dish

First enchilada off the assembly line

All enchilada-ed!

Time for dinner

Chicken Soba Salad

This Chicken Soba Salad is adapted from this recipe published  in Cooking Light in May 2004.  It's a nice dinner on a hot summer night.  From the CSA I used some carrots, purple cabbage and red onion.  If you've got cooked chicken on hand, it comes together pretty quickly!

Ingredients

• 8 oz shredded cooked chicken breast (see note).
• 1 tbs rice vinegar
• 1 tbs toasted sesame oil
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs mirin
• 1 tsp siracha or chili-garlic paste
• 2 cups of a mixture of grated carrot, shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw (see notes)
• 1/3 cup minced red onion
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped thai basil (can also use italian)
• 1 tbs chopped mint (optional)
• 2 cups cooked soba noodles (one 4 oz bundle)
• 1 tbs chopped dry roasted peanuts
• lime wedges (optional)

Instructions:
Whisk together the dressing ingredients (rice vinegar through siracha), pour over shredded chicken and toss to coat.  Let stand at least 5 minutes.

Add the carrot/cabbage slaw mixture, red onion, basil and mint to the chicken, toss to mix.

Cook the soba noodles according to package directions, drain and rinse with cold water.  Toss with the chicken and vegetable mixture.  Divide between two bowls, sprinkle with peanuts, garnish with lime wedges if desired and serve

 Notes:
The original recipe called for poached chicken breast, but I've used grilled chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken.  Now I use sous vide chicken breast I cooked at 150°F for 2 hours.

I will use a mixture of carrots and cabbage (more cabbage than carrots) or a bag of broccoli slaw.

Some pictures!
The cabbage and shredded carrot ready to go in:

All the veggies tossed together:

Time for dinner!

Dudley is exhausted from begging for chicken:

This week's CSA box and a melon smoothie

I think we're at week 7 or 8?  I've been traveling and last week's box went to my friend Sarah.  We've moved from the onslaught of greens to more summer veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers.   Here's the lineup from this week's box:

• 2 lbs purple potatoes
• 2 lbs tomatoes (one GIANT Cherokee Purple and a slicing tomato)
• 1 small green cabbage
• 3/4 lbs collard greens
• 4 red onions
• 1/2 lb radishes
• galia melon
• 1 lb zuchinni (one tiny, one enormous)
• 2 cucumbers

So far....

• I've already roasted the potatoes (wash well, cube up, toss w/ 1 tbs olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and roast at 400°F for about 30-45 min). 
• I sauteed the one of the tiny red onion and the tiny zuchinni (both chopped) and added a little bit of chorizo (< 1 oz) and an egg to make a breakfast taco filling.
• I used one of the cucumbers to make a chicken salad: peeled chopped cucumber, 4 oz leftover chopped chicken, 3 tbs greek yogurt, 1 tbs mayo, 1 tbs chopped fresh tarragon, salt and pepper.  Could have used some lemon juice or some other acid.
• The other cucumber and the tomato went into this gazpacho.

 The galia melon (like a honeydew) I already had peeled and cut up into chunks, and I may put some of those into one of these melon smoothies my friend Ara sent me the picture of and recipe for:

To quote "Very easy to make with cut up melons, ice, and agave in the ninja."  I'm hoping that my non-ninja blender will be able to handle it!  Also I'm assuming the Ranier cherry on top is optional (I love them, I just don't have any!).

Week 3 - the beets

Ack!  Keeping up with this blogging thing is a challenge.  I feel like I've done a lot of really boring stuff with the box this past week, for example - I made a salad with all the greens or I put x in a fritatta.  So, sorry for being boring.  But, I missed one recipe last week that I really enjoy and want to catch folks up on, and also let you know what we got in week 3 and  cool recipe that used up a ton of greens.

Week 3 box:
1.5 lbs broccoli
1 bunch garlic scapes
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch turnips
1 lb salad mix (may be spicy? not sure yet)
1 head cabbage
1 bunch swiss chard
1 head lettuce (looks like green leaf lettuce)
1 bunch beets

Gorgeous photo:

Once again, the beets and turnips come with the greens attached which I saved and added to the greens from last week I haven't done anything with yet. No pressure.

So the recipe I made last week that's awesome .... from Skinnytaste https://www.skinnytaste.com/asian-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

Couple of things I change up - I usually put in more water chestnuts (because you might as well use the whole can) and more shitake mushrooms (b/c they are tasty).  I also sub in a tsp or so of gochuchang for the pepper in the main recipe and the Siracha in the sauce.  If you've never had gochuchang it's a great ingredient to get to know, spicy and sweet and keeps forever in the fridge.  The other thing I change is to serve it on a bed of chopped lettuce rather than a wrap (b/c they just fall apart and are hard to eat).  Didn't take a pic of assembly, but here's the final product:

oh.  So I didn't take a picture.  Imagine if you will, a mixture of sauteed chicken, water chestnuts, and shitakes on top of some gorgeous green salad.  With rice.  Not beautiful but delicious.  Next time (because I'll make it again before this challenge is over) I'll remember to take a  pic.

Last night I made a recipe called "Garden Greens Pasta" http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/garden-greens-pasta but I made a few changes.

1.  I used spinach  (last week's box, yay!) as well as changing up the second green, kale, for chard since surprisingly, there was NO KALE in this week's box (I know, right?).
2.   I subbed 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts for the walnuts
3.   I added some parmesan (about 2 ounces) because the recipe seemed to be screaming for it. 
4.   I only used 1 tbs of olive oil because 3 seemed like A LOT. 
5.   I used penne instead of spaghetti  

Here's my mise en place. I subbed garlic scapes for some of the garlic.

Once again not to many photos of the process, but here's the finished dish (minus the cheese for once!)

The verdict?  Pretty tasty, but the greens give my teeth that furry feeling that tells me they are underdone (to my taste). I'll cook them longer next time.  And the pine nuts and cheese were an excellent addition.

Oh, and the title of this post - well this week plus last week?  We've got the beets.

Yesterday I was in a workshop all day so hard to use up CSA items.  I was determined to tackle the worlds largest bag of salad last night for dinner.  Grilled chicken salad w/ vegetables it is!  But then of course I discovered that my grill was out of gas....

Ok, I just spent way too much time looking for a "sad trombone" gif.  And I don't even know how to put a gif on this blog.  Back to food.

Fired up the charcoal grill (because that's how I roll) and dinner was saved.

Grilled Chicken Salad
 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sprinkled with Goya Adobo and marinated in Goya Naranja Agria.
2 red bell peppers, sliced
1 vidalia onion, sliced
2 small yukon gold potatoes, cubed
Zesty Avocado Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing from SkinnyTaste
Salad greens, as much of that giant bag of lettuce from the CSA as you can fit in your bowl.

Grill chicken, about 6 min per side.  Let rest for about 5 minutes before you dice it up.

Saute bell peppers and onions (were supposed to be grilled, but ended up sauteed in a little olive oil)

Steam the potatoes until tender

Make the dressing

Plate it up!

Learn to to arrange food more artfully!

And then sometimes a friend comes by and relieves you of some greens:

 And now the giant bag of salad is officially 75% done (Yes, I weighed it. I'm a scientist).  To recap, what was in the box this week:

• 1 bunch swiss chard
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 pound salad mix (mixed lettuces) 75% gone!
• 1 bunch spring onions used 1 to make dressing
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1/2 pound mustard greens
• 1 bunch mint

Obviously there's  some work to do, but it the weekend and I've got ideas...