Grilled Chicken and Peaches

The time had come to really cook something in my new Brooklyn kitchen.  It didn't have to be super-fancy or difficult, but it had to involve more steps than throwing hot dogs into the grill pan for the Fourth of July. But, since it is summer and I am deeply enamored with my grill pan, I wanted to make something in it.

Enter Bon Appétit.  I have a strange relationship with this magazine, since I want to dislike it because it replaced my Gourmet subscription after Gourmet went under, but it is simply TOO GOOD for me to maintain ill will.  Plus, the recipes are significantly more user-friendly than Gourmet's ever were.  Not that it means I will forgive Condé Nast for the death of Gourmet, but it softens the blow.

So, to make a long story short, I made one of the recipes out of Bon Appétit's July grilling issue and it was easy, tasty, and quick.  Now I'm going to share.

A quick note: For the apartment-bound without a grill, a grill pan is an amazing alternative.  Basically, it's a heavy cast-iron pan with grill-like ridges.  I have a Cuisinart model that was about $30 and it's one of the best investments I've made, kitchen-wise.  Cleaning it is a little bit of a trick, but a wet paper towel and some elbow grease will handily get off the caked-on burned stuff.

Canning Party Carrot Salad

My good friend Kirsten invited me along yesterday to a canning party at her sister-in-law's house in Kensington.  At first, I was a little dubious (canning?), but the party was fun, informative, and delicious.  The guests were in charge of all the chopping and prep work for a strawberry jelly, sour cherry and currant jam, and fresh salsa.  I had a little bit of a bad run-in with some jalapeños (I'd never encountered one in real life before), but it was a great chance to meet some lovely, interesting ladies and have a demonstration in case I ever feel the urge to can (I admit this seems unlikely, since I like to eat what I make as soon as I make it, but you never know).

After the food prep, a delicious afternoon tea party spread was set out, including banana bread sandwiches (genius!), brown bread baked in a coffee can (deliciously moist), chicken salad, scones, homemade sangria, and stuffed grape leaves.  My own humble contribution was a cold carrot salad, which was one of the lesser impressive items, but it's the recipe you're going to get.  I also neglected to take a photo (tsk tsk).  But it is tasty, simple, and extremely portable, so let's get cracking:

You'll need:

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 cut white onion, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp. parsley, minced
salt and pepper, to taste

Bring a small pot of salted water to a rolling boil, then add carrots.  Cook in boiling water for about 8 minutes, or until tender.  Be sure not to overcook—mushy carrots are gross.  Drain in the sink and then rinse with cold water for about 4–5 minutes to stop the carrots from cooking with residual heat.

Meanwhile, combine all the rest of the ingredients, except the parsley.  Stir well.  Once the carrots are cool, put them in a bowl and drizzle the marinade over top.  Mix well and stick in the fridge for at least 8 hours.  Right before you're ready to serve, toss in the minced parsley.  This keeps it from wilting and maintains the nice crunch.

And you're ready to go!  You can even walk two miles to the party with your tupperware in your bag and it will still be delicious!  Not that I know about that from experience or anything...

Meanwhile, our sous chef was:

Yeah, big help.

Strawberry-White Chocolate Muffins

Honesty, I've been told, is the best policy.  So I have to confess: I had an ulterior motive for baking these muffins.  Mainly: Bribery.

Yes, bribery.  To convince my New York roommate-to-be that I would be the best roommate ever.  And to sweeten the deal for a friend to look after Rizi Bizi.  Both of these situations, I might add, turned out quite well and while they might have done so anyway, the muffins sure didn't hurt.

So if you find yourself needing a baked good to tip the balance in your favor, I'll vouch for these extra-moist strawberry-white chocolate muffins (with a streusel topping), based on the decadent muffins at the C-Shop and this recipe.

You'll need:

3/4 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup diced strawberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Combine brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl.  Add eggs one at a time.

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt incrementally to the wet batter.  Then add diced strawberries and white chocolate chips.

Equally portion batter into the 12 muffin cups.

For the streusel topping:

2 tsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine the ingredients together, cutting the butter into the mixture.  I used a fork for this process.  You should get a crumbly-looking mixture.

Sprinkle streusel on top of the batter in the muffin cups.

Bake muffins for 25 minutes, or until a knife stuck in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.

They ain't healthy, but they sure are tasty.

If you store them in an airtight container, they should last up to 5 or 6 days.

Word to the wise: When I was making these muffins, I was really concerned about the dryness of the batter.  But worry not!  When you add the strawberries to the mix and stir them around a bit, their moisture will make this into a surefire, true muffin batter.

Mushrooms and Polenta

Some of my favorite ladies came over for dinner tonight.  It was a hot, sunny day in Chicago, so I wanted to spend most of the day out, not cooking up something over-elaborate.  So, using only things I had in my cupboard, I whipped up a little meal of a mushroom-and-onion saute and herbed polenta.  It was simple, quick, and quite delicious (If I do say so myself).

Here's the final product:

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Earlier this week, I promised someone carrot cake cupcakes.  Yesterday rolled around and it was time to deliver.  I found it surprisingly difficult to find a recipe that I liked (something that used butter instead of oil, had traditional carrot cake ingredients), so I based my recipe off of this one, but with some pretty serious tweaks.  These are almost "hummingbird" cupcakes, but not quite.  One quick note: I didn't make my own icing, and for that I am sorry.  Next time I make a cake-like item, you can expect an accompanying icing recipe.

You'll need:

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp. honey
2 eggs
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tbsp. apple juice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a dozen muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and honey until the mixture is smooth.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then add grated carrot (you can grate right into the bowl—that's what I did).

Stir in flour, baking soda, and baking powder in two parts.  Stir smooth, but don't overbeat.  Add apple juice and stir.  Add walnuts and raisins.  You should have a smooth, moist batter at this point.

Spoon the batter into the twelve muffin cups approximately equally.  Bake until golden and risen, so that when you stick a knife in the middle, it comes out clean.  This takes about 25 minutes.

Cool on a rack, then remove from pan.  Let cool thoroughly before icing (This was a mistake I made because I was in a rush).

When you're done, you'll get some sweet cupcakes like this:

And your friends will be happy and look like this:

I warned you, Alex.  Now it's on the Internet.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

The Oscars last night were a bit of a disappointment (no dark horse winners, no amazing dress disaster, a shockingly unfunny Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin), but we still had a good time watching them at Rachel's house.  Rachel made some delicious zucchini boats and chickpea fritters.  Sadly, I couldn't compete with those because I was pressed for time this weekend, so I brought along some extra-simple appetizers, especially good for winter, when asparagus is extremely inexpensive.

You'll need:
About 1 lb. asparagus
Dijon mustard
4 oz. Prosciutto

Rinse asparagus and cut off the tough bottoms (about 1 inch).  Place in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil.  Simmer the asparagus until it turns a bright green and is slightly tender.  Don't overcook!  Soggy asparagus is a sad situation.

This is the sort of setup I'm talking about.

Drain the asparagus in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop any residual cooking.  Remember: No overcooked asparagus!

Cut the prosciutto into long, thin strips.  Each slice of prosciutto should make 3–4 strips.  You'll need a very sharp knife to do this.

Lightly coat the bottom of the asparagus with Dijon mustard.  You'll need to cover about 1 inch.  This will help the prosciutto stick, and also adds a little kick of flavor.  Incidentally, cooked asparagus just with Dijon mustard is delicious.

Wrap the prosciutto around the Dijon-coated portion of the asparagus.  And done.  Wow, that was easy.

The finished product.

I asked Rizi Bizi to help me, but she was too busy napping/snuggling on the couch.

She did, however, get up to eat a little prosciutto snack.  I have never seen her eat anything so quickly.

Braised Fennel

Fennel is one of those vegetables that rarely gets used in American cooking, which is a damn shame, since it is so delicious.  My grandmother used to make this dish, one of my go-to comfort foods.  And it is possibly one of the easiest recipes to make ever.  It's also a great way to kill a partially empty bottle of white wine.

You'll need:
1 large fennel bulb
1 tbsp. olive oil
About 1 1/2 cups of white wine
Lots of freshly grated black pepper

Remove the feathery stalks from the fennel bulb and dispose.  Roughly chop the remaining fennel into bite-sized pieces.

Cover the bottom of a small-to-medium saucepan with the olive oil.  Place over medium heat.  Then add the fennel and stir until it begins to make a hissing sound.

Pour in enough white wine to cover the fennel.  The type of white wine doesn't matter so much—I used a cheap Rhone varietal.  Grate in black pepper to taste and stir well.  Bring the wine to a boil.

It should look something like this.

Let simmer for 20–30 minutes, or until the fennel is tender.  Remove from heat.

This dish is delicious as soon as it comes off the stove, but I think it's even better after it marinates in the fridge overnight.  Just wrap it up in a bowl and serve it cold for a simple side dish.

I also made my first béchamel sauce at Erin's house last night (she made an amazing cauliflower dish from Mastering the Art of French Cooking that required it), but that's a story for another day.