Serving of Twice Cooked Thai Chicken and Tropical Fruit

This recipe takes a little effort but the rewards in flavor makes the effort worthwhile.

First Cooking

• 7 or 8 chicken thighs
• 1 tbsp Thai Kitchen Thai Seasoning

1. Season Chicken Thighs evenly with Thai Seasoning
2. Place in a 1/2 size aluminum steam table pan lined with non-stick aluminum foil
3. Cover pan with foil and bake in a 300° F oven for 1 to 2 hours. Remove cover for last 1/2 hour.
4. Allow to cool. Then remove skin from thighs and discard.
5. Shred the chicken meat by hand and place in a large bowl.

Seasoned Chicken Thighs for Twice Cooked Thai Chicken

Shredded Chicken

Second Cooking – Curried Coconut Sauce with Shredded Chicken

• 3/4 cup Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
• 1 tsp McCormick Chinese Five Spice
• 1 tbsp Thai Kitchen Thai Seasoning
• 1 tsp McCormick Fancy Paprika
• 1/4 tsp Gilroy Farms Minced Garlic
• 1 15.25oz can Tropical Fruit
• 1 small can pineapple chunks, diced if desired
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted lightly in a frying pan
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup water

1. Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan (large enough to hold ingredients plus chicken).
2. Heat and blend Curried Coconut Sauce.
3. When well blended, fold in the shredded chicken, and stir to blend well.
4. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring often.
5. Serve 1 cup Twice Cooked Thai Chicken over 1 cup of fresh cooked Honey Cumin jasmine or basmati rice (recipe below).

Honey Cumin Rice Recipe

• 2 cups Jasmine or Basmati Rice
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp McCormick Ground Cumin

1. Bring water to boil. Add rice, cover, reduce heat and cook until water is absorbed, about 20 minutes (less time for basmati)
2. Remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
3. Sprinkle ground cumin evenly over top of rice, and drizzle with honey.
4. Stir well

Dole Tropical Fruit Blend

Tags: Twice, Cooked, Thai, Chicken, and, Fruit, Recipe

Serving of Crispy Potato Pancakes

So, we found the trick to making delicious, well formed, simple to make Crispy Potato Pancakes is to cheat a little, and buy the Simply Potato Hash Brown Potatoes in the dairy section of your grocery store. The peeling is done and there is no extra water. This makes our recipe for Crispy Potato Pancakes a snap. From start to finish in about 10 to 15 minutes, just about the same time to cook those pork chops and a vegetable to square out your lunch or dinner. Plus these Potato Pancakes keep well in the refrigerator after being cooked and make an excellent leftover. Just zap them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to warm them up.

Recipe for Easy Crispy Potato Pancakes

• 1 store bought package of Simply Potatoes Hash Brown Potatoes
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions or onion [we prefer scallions as the green tops add some color]

1. Combine the scallions and potatoes in a large bowl.
2. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the potatoes and scallions (or chopped onion).
3. Beat the egg in a small bowl and pour over the potato mixture.
4. Mix well by hand. Latex or nitrile gloves work well as the mixture is sticky and sticks to your hands.
5. Form into 4″ pancakes about 3/8 – 1/2″ thick. Place formed potato pancakes on wax paper.
6. Heat a large lightly greased (with heart healthy olive or canola oil) non-stick skillet add 2 to 3 potato pancakes, depending on the size of your pan (ours pictured is about 14″ in diameter).
7. Cook over medium heat for 3 – 4 minutes (until lightly browned, lift and peek underneath if required).
8. Cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes.
9. Remove to a warm plate and cover to keep warm while cooking a second batch.
10. Serve plain, with low fat sour cream, ketchup or season with Old Bay French Fry Seasoning.

Makes six 4″ potato pancakes.

Crispy Potato Pancakes Cooking in Pan

Crispy Potato Pancakes, Turned Once

Tags: Easy, Crispy, Potato, Pancakes, Blynai

French Toast with Strawberry Jam and Maple Syrup

Looking to have something different for breakfast other than the standard eggs, potatoes and ham/sausage, today we had French Toast. This is a fairly simple breakfast that can be made from start to finish in about 10 minutes. What you need:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• McCormick Cinnamon Sugar (or 2 tsp Cinnamon blended with 1/3 cup confectioners sugar)
• 4 slices bread (we used whole wheat)
• Strawberry Jam or Strawberry Jelly (as a garnish)

Beat the eggs in a bowl that is wide enough for the bread to fit across, but not to wide as you want the bread to soak up the liquid. Add the milk, and pure vanilla extract. Beat together well. Heat a large frying pan or griddle over medium heat and melt a small tab of butter in the pan or griddle.

Dip one piece of bread in the egg/milk mixture, quickly turn over and dip the other side. If you have a cookie rack handy, place the rank over a dinner plate, a place the dipped bread on top of the rack to allow any excess egg/milk mixture to dip off. Repeat for the other 3 slices of bread.

Brown the bread in the pan or griddle, and flip to brown the other side. You want to make sure to toast the bread will so that the egg is completely cooked (i.e. the finished French Toast should be firm and not damp). Place a tablespoon of Strawberry jam or jelly on the plate as a garnish and to dip the toast in when eating. I like to cut my French Toast up into about 3/4″ square pieces as I eat it.

Sprinkle the Cinnamon Sugar over top of the Toasted French Toast finally pour over a little warm Maple Syrup. Serve alone or with bacon, ham, or sausage as you desire.

Makes 2 servings, 2 slices each.

Alternatives:
Use 1/4 tsp Imitation Rum Extract in place of Pure Vanilla Extract.
Cut 1″ thick slices of bread from a whole loaf, cook thoroughly, and use 1 slice per serving.

McCormick Cinnamon Sugar

Tags: Classic, French, Toast, Recipe

Upside Down Lasagna

This is a break from the typical lasagna and is 10 times easier to make. With the standard “right side up” lasagna it takes a good bit of effort to cook the lasagna noodles, the meat sauce and mix the cheeses, and then layer them all together before baking the meal. This recipe leaves out several of those steps and doesn’t use lasagna noodles at all. This Lasagna is made in two steps, first the noodles and cheese are baked, and then a meat sauce is made while the pasta & cheese are baking. Finally the meat is place over top of the baked noodles and cheese forming the “upside down” lasagna.

Lasagna
1 lb of Your Favorite Vermicelli or Fettuccine Pasta
1 lb Ricotta Cheese
1/2 lb Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 lb Provolone Cheese
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions to al dente. Drain and rinse with cool water. Meanwhile, mix the cheeses together in a large bowl. Add the cooked pasta, and mix well using your hands. Bake in a 350° F oven for 30 to 40 minutes until top is browned. We use an aluminum disposable baking pan because after baking the cheese and pasta a regular baking pan is hard to clean.

Lasagna right out of the oven

Prepared Upside down Pasta and Cheese In Pan

Meat Sauce
1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 15oz can tomato sauce
3 tbsp Spatini Seasoning
1/2 cup water

Cook the ground beef or turkey in a 3 quart sauce pan, mixing around and breaking up the ground meat into fine chunks. Add the chopped onion and cook for 1 to 2 more minutes. Then add tomato sauce, Spatini and water. Mix well. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Assemble the Upside Down Lasagna
Cut a 4″ x 3″ piece of the cooked pasta/cheese and place on serving plate. Top with 1/2 cup of meat sauce. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan Cheese. Serve with Garlic Bread.

Dill omelets are a favorite in Southeast Asia. While this omelet might look a little bit different to the Westerner, we assure you it tastes simply delicious.

3 eggs
1 tsp fish sauce* (from Asian Grocer)
Pinch of Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or 1 tsp dried dill weed)
1 spring onion (aka scallion), diced

Whisk the eggs well with a hand whisk until light and frothy. Add the fish sauce, Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper, and dill. Mix together well.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Stir fry the spring onion for 1/2 minute. Add eggs, and using the bottom of a fork swirl the eggs around until they start to set. Then let cook until firm and push to one side of pan to form omelet.

Note that this is a French style omelet and light and fluffy unlike the typical American style omelet that is cook firm and then stuffed with a filling. The trick to getting this omelet cooked just right is to have the pan medium hot and the mix the eggs around with the fork until just about set, and then simply pushing the eggs to the side of the pan. It’s not hard to do but might take one or two times for you to get the knack of the French omelet cooking method.

*If you don’t happen to have fish sauce in your pantry you can omit it completely or substitute 1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese from to umami flavor it imparts. If you’ve never cooked with fish sauce and are interested in trying this recipe as directed, don’t be concerned about the smell of the fish sauce. It completely disappears in the food and gives the omelet a delicious flavor.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Break out that rarely used Waring Blender to make this quick and easy Salsa for your chips. This recipe is an absolute ease to make. No cutting and dicing just a couple whirls of the blender does the trick.

Here’s what you need:
2 Medium/Large Fresh Vine Ripe Tomatoes
1 Large Red Onion
1/2 bunch Fresh Cilantro

Grill the tomatoes and red onion until blackened. Use care with the tomatoes because they will become soft as they cook. Handle the tomatoes with tongs and have a plate handy when you pick them up because if the tomatoes become too soft they might fall apart. So you may find it best to simply roll the tomatoes from the grill to the plate instead of risking the consequences of having the tomato fall through the grill.

Now place the tomato, red onion and cilantro in a Waring Blender and blend on high speed until the Salsa is chopped fine. Quite simply and delicious. Serve immediately with your favorite potato, tortilla, Doritos, or Tostitos chips. Refrigerate unused portion.

Prepared Cajun Dirty Rice in pan

This is an excellent recipe for Cajun Dirty Rice and what’s quite remarkable about it is that is had no seasonings in it. Plus, there is no added salt — it’s in the chicken stock already. We used this recipe as a base for the Spicy Old Bay Shrimp Recipe that we wrote about yesterday. This is truly a great taste treat. Be sure to spoon some of the extra sauce from the pan the Old Bay Shrimp was cooked in. The two recipes have flavors that simply complement each other.

3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup poblano chile pepper, diced
2 tsp Gilroy Farms minced garlic (jarred)
1/2 pound cooked chicken livers, chopped fine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
4 cups cooked Basmati rice, cooked
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

Cook the rice and chicken livers^* while chopping the vegetables. Melt the butter in a large skillet, then add the onion, celery, red bell pepper, poblano chile pepper and parsley. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 – 8 minutes until vegetables are tender.

Peppers, Onion, Parsley, Cooked. Ready to add Garlic and Chicken Stock.

Add the minced garlic, and turn up heat. Add 1/2 of the chicken stock. Let reduce by half, then add other 1/2 of chicken stock. Again, cook until stock has reduced by half — this doesn’t take very long, only a minute or two. Make sure you boil the stock enough. You want a little juice but not so much that you make the rice soggy.

Reducing the Chicken Stock - Note the Rapid Boil

To wrap up this dish, reduce heat, add the rice, and mix in well (this is 4 cups of rice so make sure you choose the right size skillet. Ours in the picture is 14″ in diameter.) Finally, add the finely chopped chicken livers and stir to mix well.

Cooks Note: We use Gilroy Farms minced garlic whenever recipes call for fresh garlic. Gilroy Farms minced garlic has a creamy texture and we find that we have a more garlic flavored taste than when we use chopped fresh garlic. We suppose that’s because of the very fine mince the Gilroy Farms garlic has — this might be reproducible using a food processor — but it’s so much easier to open up the jar and get delightful results everytime!

^*Cooking Chicken Livers
We cook the chicken livers in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain them and cool them by placing the cooked chicken livers in a wire mesh strainer and running cool tap water over them. Chop the chicken livers very fine (1/8″ crumbs) with a flat bladed knife.

Spicy Old Bay Seasoned Shrimp

This is an absolutely delicious recipe for shrimp. It’s among our “keeper recipes”. The picture shows the shrimp served over Cajun Dirty Rice.

2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup julienne onion
1 pound 26/6- shrimp, peeled, deveined
1/2 cup chili sauce
1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
1 cup chicken stock

Cook onion in oil until tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add cleaned shrimp, chili sauce, chicken stock, and Old Bay Seasoning. Cook, turning often for 4 to 5 minutes (or until shrimp are cooked and pink.

Hash Brown Potatoes with Jalepeno Dices

This is a great twist from the standard hash brown potatoes which are either plain potatoes or are mixed with some onions. Our Peppery Hash Brown Potatoes add some diced Jalepeno Peppers and are quite simple to make.

1/2 package simply potaoes
1/2 medium onion diced
1 jalepeno pepper, diced (no seeds — only the green part, this is breakfast!)
1 tbsp McCormick Santa Fe Seasoning

In a medium greased skillet, add shredded potatoes, onion, and pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Toss. Cook covered for another 3 to 4 minutes. Serve with eggs and your favorite meat such as sausage as shown below:

We’re on a breakfast theme for a few days. Today we’re making Buttermilk Pancakes with Vanilla Extract served with pure Maple Syrup. These are absolutely delicious, light and fluffy pancakes.

1 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup 2% buttermilk
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Oil your griddle and start heating it over medium heat. In a small cereal bowl, beat the egg. In a medium size bowl, mix the beaten egg with buttermilk, then add the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the Pure Vanilla Extract, mix in. Beat in the melted butter. Don’t worry about mixing the batter so muxh to mix in all of the flour. The lumps will work themselves out in the cooking.

Test your griddle for readiness by dropping a drop of water on top. It should sizzle and dance around if the griddle is hot enough.

Once ready, pour or ladle the batter onto the griddle. Be careful to take your time and not pour out too much batter — if you do you’ll have giant pancakes. Your looking for a nice 4 -6″ pancake.

Cook the pancakes until they bubble on top. If this is your first pancake experience, then left up a side and peak underneath the pancake. If brown, then flip the pancake over and cook the other side. Otherwise wait 20 seconds or so and peak again.

Serve with Pure Maple Syrup. I like to add an over-easy egg between the layers of pancakes and soak up the yolk with the pancake.