Tag: barefoot contessa

Thank You Ina!

On By HanneIn Food, Sunday FeastLeave a comment

In exploring many of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, it’s rare to find a recipe that I’m disappointed in. Tonights try was no exception.

The mustard-marinated flank steak was off the chain… Seriously. Make this.

bfcThe marinade was simple and took two minutes to throw together:

* 1/3 cup of dry white wine
* 1/3 cup of good olive oil (she always says good olive oil… like, nah… think I’ll use the shitty stuff for this one?)
* 1/3 cup of dijon mustard
* Salt/pepper
* Minced garlic
* Chopped shallots
* Tarrigon

Score it with a sharp knife, work the marinade in, let it sit overnight and bam. Throw that puppy on the grill, five minutes on each side and then cover and let sit for ten minutes while you wipe the drool from your chin and serve!

Disclaimer, this pic is borrowed from the book. But it’s exactly how it looked.

Sunday Feast

On By HanneIn Food, Health, Sunday Feast2 Comments

This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about this recipe, but since it’s the first time I’ve cooked in weeks, I thought I’d share it again.

With having been sick for so long, making anything with more work than poppingbread in the toaster or heating up kelp noodles with pesto in the microwave, the effort just wasn’t worth it. I’ve finally finished my prednisone (can my voice come back now? thx), I’ve been starting to feel better. Still tired, slow and my back/ribs are on fire, but it’s been forever since I’ve created anything in the kitchenand I was feeling inspired.

Roast chicken with lemon, onions and croutons is my go-to recipe for an easy, filling and relatively healthy photo 11meal. The ingredients are simple: a whole chicken, 2 lemons, 2 onions (sweet in this case, though I’ve used yellow and red), 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, salt/pepper, a nice loaf of bread (I used a rosemary sourdough) and plenty of olive oil.

I washed the chicken first and empty the guts (ew, who uses the neck and whatever other goodies they stuff inside?) and then pat the chicken dry. Sprinkle the inside with a bit of salt and pepper and then stuff it with lemon wedges. Brush the butter over the dry chicken and then sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. I don’t eat more than a bite of the skin (*trying* to be healthy), but the salt and pepper creates a nice crust that I then brush off onto the meat and onions – gives it a nice bit of spice. Then spread the onions all around the chicken and put in the oven at 425F for 1hr 15 min.

photo 3Then, just before the chicken is done, I start with the bread. Chop it into large chunks and put in a frying pan with plenty of olive oil. Cook on med-high to toast the bread, adding more oil as needed. This recipe is absolutely, without a doubt, one of my favorites. It smells great long before it’s done, and it doesn’t disappoint. Squeezing the lemon juice from the cooked wedges over the croutons adds a nice little zing.

Does anyone have any chicken recipes to share? I don’t do a lot of red meat (pork, beef), and it seems like there are a billion different ways to cook chicken. What’s your favorite?

Sunday Feast

On By HanneIn Food4 Comments

Tonight was probably one of my most favorite recipes from The Barefoot Contessa.

Lemon Chicken with Croutons.

Oh my Lord.

CameraAwesomePhoto2Like the rest of her recipes, this is super easy and oh-so-delicious. I’ve made it twice by the book, so this time I added a few variations – one, I quartered some red onions, and two, I added some lemon zest to the red onions. I love lemon on just about anything, so I shove as many slices in the chicken that I can. I think the best part is squeezing the cooked lemon over the croutons.

The skin on the chicken becomes super crispy and almost spicy with the amount of salt and pepper that I cake on with the melted butter. You shouldn’t eat the skin (but let’s be honest, a little nibble won’t hurt), so I peel it off and sprinkle the baked salt/pepper over the meat for a little added taste.

A feast isn’t complete without roasted vegetables. Todays mixture included: carrots, yellow beets and CameraAwesomePhoto3celery root. I’ve been trying to check out different veggies beside the standard carrots. I did a little research and found that celery root has some wonderful health benefits, so decided to give that a try. It’s pretty starchy (and a little sweet), so it’s a good alternative to potatoes.

I love the purple carrots – not only do they add color to an otherwise boring bunch of veggies, they contain the same antioxidant that gives blueberries their colors and are good anti-inflamitories. The golden beets were also a new one for me. Much nicer to work with as they don’t stain your fingers the way the reddish/purple ones do.

The chicken takes an hour and 15 minutesand the veggies got an hour. I would’ve given them a few more minutes. The beets weren’t hard, but they weren’t as soft as they could have been. I just tossed them with a bit of olive oil and then squeezed some lemon on once they were on my place. Yum!

The croutons – the best part – are the easiest. Some cubed bread (I prefer a good sourdough) and some olive oil in a pan on med/med-high heat. Takes about 10 minutes and I toss frequently.

Does anyone else have a favorite recipe they continue to revisit?

Sunday Feast

On By HanneIn Food5 Comments

I actually did the cooking on Saturday and now the post on Tuesday, but…

I thought I would try a weekly post on a recipe that I’ve tried recently. First, just to get me back in the habit of blogging, and second… it’s been an interesting venture into cooking over the past few weeks.

I absolutely adore Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa). I would love to spend a day in her kitchen (or with her soothing voice she could just read me a story), but I think overall her recipes are very easy, great tasting and don’t take a whole lot of time. Cooking in general takes time compared to a microwave reheat, but it really isn’t that bad (and most the time is in the oven anyway).

So this weekend I decided to make Amelia’s Jambalaya. Partly because it looked absolutely delicious, but also because I miss New Orleans (and Memphis) something fierce. Not that I think whatever I cook can compare to some of my favorite places to grab a bite, but I could at least get a similar… flavor.

CameraAwesomePhotoLuckily enough this recipe calls for wine. And it only needs a cup, so since I’m not a fan of waste… first things first, pour myself a glass.

I tend to drink white most regularlyand I’m a big fan of something sweetsy – like riesling or a moscato. And because I’m cheap, I go with something like Barefoot (because really, who turns down a $5 bottle of wine that tastes like juice?). Other than a couple names/brands, I really don’t know much about wine. So when it called for a dry white like a pinot grigio, I went for a brand I knowand that didn’t cost much. I was pleasantly surprised – tasted pretty good. I’ve gone for unfamiliar, cheap wine in Denmark when my money went for trips to Prague or Paris instead of boring every day things like gas. And health insurance. I digress. Anyway, nothing worse than a cheap wine that tastes like vinegar.

The most time consuming part of this recipe was prepping everything. I feel like I was chopping, slicing, mincing, trying not to cry over the onions for what felt like photohours! Of course it was nice to just drop everything in when it was time without pausing to chop or slice something in between cooking, but…

I think that if I were to make it again (and I will), I would leave out a bit of the rice. The recipe says it makes 8 servingsand I think you’d need to be feeding 8 hungry lumberjacks if you were going to serve it all at once. I only did 6 chicken thighs (any moreand the pot would’ve over-flowed). Even with less chicken, we will have had three dinners out of the pot and likely one or two servings left over – so 11/12 servings? It’s a hearty dish.

I don’t actually have a photo of the finished product. Needless to say – it didn’t look like the photo in the book, but that’s okay, it’s rare that anything that I cook would even have a remote chance of looking like something prepped by a food stylist.

I would give this recipe stars – though I’m not too fond of that sort of rating. There  are a few things I’d change (less rice, maybe more red pepper) and things that were delicious (just enough spice for me and I made it with only one instead of two jalapenos). The sausage I used (Open Nature Smoked Andouille – chicken sausage)
added a bit of spice, but was pretty good. If my dad can eat it, than it’s not too spicy for just about anyone. Only downside of the sausage is that they add evaporated cane syrup (WHYYY)and they are a bit high in sodium.

Overall a good choice for a cold winter weekend. //BON APPETIT