Let me start by saying that I think this is the juiciest chicken I have ever made. Wow. The flavor was excellent as well. This goes great with couscous, polenta or crusty bread. This recipe comes from the Tastes of the Pacific Northwest cookbook and I came across it as I was researching my WCC#9 recipe.

I found another dish from this cookbook that I will be posting about next Monday for that Weekend Cookbook Challenge but this chicken definitely deserves its own post! Plus, the bay leaf is from our backyard — that’s pretty damn regional!

Baked Chicken with Caramelized Sweet Onions
3-4 chicken breasts (skinless & boneless) you could also probably use a combination of 2 breasts and 2 thighs
flour for dredging (about a cup or so), seasoned with a little salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 large sweet onions (Walla Walla if you have them), halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
4 cloves garlic, halved
12 cured black olives (I used about 15 little nicoise olives, as that’s what I had on hand)
1 tsp fresh thyme, minced
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper
2 lemons, cut into wedges
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the chicken breasts first and then dredge them in the seasoned flour. Heat the olive oil and butter in a big frying-type pan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken on each side. Set aside on a plate or large bowl when browned. If your pan can not go into the oven, transfer the chicken to a baking dish instead of a plate or bowl.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Turn the burner heat down to medium and add the onions. Cook until a little brown and soft, about 15 minutes. Remove and add to the chicken plate and continue to set aside. Deglaze the skillet with the wine and stock. Boil and scrape up any brown bits and let simmer for about 5 minutes.

If you are using your pan in the oven, add the olives, bay leaf, garlic and thyme to the pan and then bring back the chicken and onions as well. Scatter the lemon wedges on top and put in the oven for about 30 minutes.

If you don’t have an oven-proof skillet, pour the wine/stock from your pan into the baking dish over the chicken and onions. Add the thyme, bay leaf, garlic and olives. Scatter with lemons and bake the same as above.

It will smell really amazing. When you remove the chicken from the oven, it will look delicious as well. Dig in because it’s exceptionally tasty to boot. And the crusty bread, if you choose tthat route, will definitely be useful with the chickeny-lemony-wine sauce. Not to mention the pieces of baked garlic!

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In Kitchen floor news, we are getting bids now and hopefully will have a contractor in the next week or so. Exciting! The contractor that I think we’ll be going with is booked until the end of October so I’m not going to give any details until we get on his schedule. Or who knows, we may end up with someone else completely.

This whole thing is becoming slightly epic (and more than a bit frustrating) — I’ll recount it all once it’s a done deal.

Is it Italian? Is it Asian? I dunno. It was good, though.

You could just as easily serve this over some basmati rice (and omit the cheese) but I really like the huge rigatoni we had with this and of course, the Parmesan. It was a fusion, as the kids call it.

Ginger-Garlic-Cilantro Shrimp
Originally, from Bon Appétit magazine, with 6 tbsp of butter instead of 3.5.
3.5 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh cilantro
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 pound uncooked, peeled and deveined shrimp (large — 26-30 ct)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small white onion, diced
1 orange or yellow bell pepper, cored and diced
Lime wedges
1 pound rigatoni or other large tube-like pasta of your liking
salt and pepper

Mix the first six ingredients in small bowl until well blended; alternatively, throw in the food processor and process until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Also, add a little lime juice from one of your lime wedges, just for fun. See, it’s fun! Set aside.

I used a food processor, so it’s all blended-like.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan and saute the onion and bell pepper over medium heat until soft and they start to get a little color, 5-6 minutes. Turn up the heat a bit and add the shrimp and the herb butter and cook until the shrimp are about done and pink (3-4 minutes).

When the pasta is just barely al dente toss into the pan with the shrimp and veggies and let it all cook together for about a minute more. Serve into bowls and top with grated Parmesan cheese and some lime wedges.

And now, as I am still catching up on my sleep from our trip and recovering from our garage sale this weekend…to bed!

*snore*

I’ll start with the cheese ball, as that is usually the best place to begin. I have been telling my mom about the awesomeness of this cheeseball for about a year now, when I first made it last year before the holidays. This outing in Montana was the perfect opportunity to share in its greatness.

My aunt, who doesn’t even like tomatoes, ate as much as everyone else.

Also, it looked much prettier than the title picture above. That’s all that was left from the trip, the picture taken after the poor cheeseball had been in a cooler for 11.25 hours on the drive home. We put him to good use back in Portland.

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the cheeseball-making. Therefore, I will intersperse this post with pictures from the trip.

The Best Cheeseball Ever
Based on Paula Deen’s Pesto Cheese Blossom recipe
1 (8-ounce) package sliced provolone cheese
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup toasted walnuts (you could also use pistachios, pecans — really whatever nuts you like)
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 3 oz pkg dried, sundried tomatoes
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
boiling water

Driving to Montana on I-90

Line a medium glass bowl (the smallest “mixing bowl” if you have a set) with plastic wrap, leaving enough overhang to cover the top. Now, you want to line your bowl with provolone. When I did this, I did not use the whole package of provolone. I used, perhaps, 7 slices total. One on the bottom, five around the sides, then, I folded the provolone lining the side down to cover the cream cheese, then finished with one more slice in the middle.

Interesting mosaic tulip fence across the street from the house we were renting.

But, start with just lining it with the 5-6 slices, in the bottom and around the sides.

For the cream cheese layer, process the cream cheese, nuts, Parmesan and 2 of the garlic cloves in a food processor until blended; scrape the mixture into a bowl and set aside.

For the pesto layer, process the basil, pine nuts, salt and pepper, and the remaining garlic clove in the food processor until blended. With the machine running, add the oil in a fine stream. Scrape this mixture into a second bowl and set aside.

jwa and I.

For the tomato layer, heat up a few cups of water until it is boiling. Add the tomatoes to a heat-proof bowl and cover with the water. Let set about 10 minutes and then drain. Squish the tomatoes with your hands a little to get out a bit more of the liquid. Then, add those to the food processor with the balsamic until they are paste-like.

Yeah, the one big pain about the recipe is that you need to use a food processor three times and clean it twice between uses. It’s worth it though!

My cosmo at 2nd Street Bistro — in the background, my aunt reaches for a bistro fry.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can:
* buy pesto at the store and just drain it a little before using to remove a little of the oil
* Crush the nuts and just whisk them and the minced garlic into room temperature cream cheese
* Chop the rehydrated sundried tomatoes very fine and then mix with the vinegar

When I made this in Montana, I just did a brief cream cheese layer, then the pesto, then the tomatoes, then the rest of the cream cheese. You can also layer it more like this — spread about 1/4 of your cream cheese mixture over the cheese slices lining the bowl. Next, layer the pesto mixture, half of the remaining cream cheese mixture, the sun-dried tomato mixture, and then remaining cream cheese mixture in the bowl. Fold down any overhanging provolone from the sides and cover with provolone as needed (after folding down, I needed one slice).

Walking around downtown Livingston.

Bring the edges of the plastic wrap together over the top. Refrigerate until firm (overnight works well, but 2-4 hours will work if it has to). Remove the plastic wrap and invert the mold onto a serving platter. Serve with crackers, bread or chips. A little of the pesto oil might leak out — no big deal. To serve, I would cut a slice out (like a pie piece) so that others won’t be afraid to dig into it and also so everyone can see how pretty it is inside.

Paula Deen says that this will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. I have not been able to test this theory out.

What to do with leftover cheeseball?
Well, the night after we got back, I mixed some of our leftovers into some polenta for a sundried tomato/pesto polenta. It was quite good.

We had the polenta with leftover meatloaf (I made it the first night in Livingston) and some braised brussel sprouts (scroll down for recipe).

Hello! I am back from Montana and will post about that soon. But, Sugar High Friday is due so that will have to come first. Oh, well — I can’t resist, here’s a quick picture.

Yellowstone River, Livingston, MT.

Okay, fine. Twist my arm. One more.

jwa and I in Sacajawea Park.

It was a great trip and it was nice to see my mom and my aunt. We ate at 2nd Street Bistro one night and I made Paula Deen’s insanely good pesto/sun dried tomato cheese ball (my name for it, not hers).

Now for the creme brulee…

This month’s Sugar Hight Friday is hosted by A Veggie Venture and the theme is a surprise inside. I came across this Emeril recipe and thought rice (in this case brown rice) in a creme brulee was a bit of a surprise. The surprise is also inside. Ha!

In addition, I am on a bit of a creme brulee kick lately, so that really sealed the deal when picking a dish to make for this event.

SHF23: Cinnamon & Brown Rice Creme Brulee
This recipe makes four creme brulees — double it up for eight.
2 cups half and half (or heavy cream)
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cinnamon stick
2 dashes of ground cinnamon (not more than 1/4 tsp)
1 cup cooked brown rice
4 tsp sugar (I used my trusty vanilla sugar)

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the half and half (or heavy cream) and the cinnamon stick. Stir bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and let sit 15 minutes and then remove the stick. The original recipe said to dissolve the sugar into the cream and mix the cinnamon into the yolk, but I assume they mixed those up as I don’t really know how you would mix a cinnamon stick into egg yolk. Do you?

Add two dashes of ground cinnamon to your sugar, (just a bit for an extra kick) In mixing bowl, whisk the sugar and cinnamon dashes into the yolks a little at a time, until all the sugar is absorbed and your mixture is nice and thick. Next, slowly whisk the hot cinnamon/milk mixture into the yolk. You can also temper it first but if you do it slowly, whisking constantly, you should be fine.

Stir in the rice and cool while you preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the ramekins in a large oven-proof rectangular pan. Ladle the mixture into 4 (8-ounce) ramekins. Pour in enough water to come up about 1/2 of the side of each ramekin. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until the center is firm to the touch, but still soft (and the custard is between 165-180 degrees).

Remove from the oven and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the sugar over the top of each custard. Using a hand-held torch, caramelize the sugar on top of each custard. Place on individual serving plates and serve.

You can also, like I did, use the broiler in your oven. Just don’t be watching The Soup and forget about the creme brulees for a couple of minutes while watching Joel’s tribute to Whitney and Bobby and their break-up. But, you know what? The darker spots on top were really very tasty! So, thank you, Whitney & Bobby!

The custard did get a little warm with the extra broiler time and thus became a little less firm, but the flavor was so amazingly good — almost like a cinnamony rice pudding with a hard sugar top (yep, it made a cracking noise when tapped with a spoon).

If you use a torch, your custard will not warm up at all and it will stay nice and cool while the sugar burns and hardens. If you do use your broiler, you may want to let it sit for a few minutes after coming out of the oven in case it does heat up a little — we just couldn’t wait that long before digging into it.

I imagine making this again in the colder months — so what if the custard heats up a bit then? I’ll just call it warm cinnamon rice pudding with a caramelized top!

Thanks again to Alanna and for hosting this month’s event at her blog A Veggie Venture!

Tagged with: SHF23.

Next week: Montana, a shrimp & pasta dish and more!

Lemongrass Chicken

Thai Basil
Corner of SW Oak & 2nd Ave
Portland, OR
503-330-1010

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I have a new job downtown and one of the nice benefits of that is the lunch choices. My last position was up on Skyline and my lunch option was…Pizzicato. I mean, that was good, but that was it. That was the only choice nearby.

But now…the possibilities are endless! So, I thought I would start a little review of lunch carts in downtown Portland. The first is Thai Basil, which is right across the street from my office building. How convenient!

Thai Basil Menu
Chicken or Tofu Curry — a red curry, green curry and a yellow curry
Chicken or Tofu Stir Fries — ginger, garlic, veggie lovers, spicy basil and cashew versions
Chicken or Tofu Noodle Dishes — pad thai and two other varieties
Chicken or Tofu Fried Rices — comes in pineapple, spicy basil and with extra chilis

They also have specials. These include Lemongrass Chicken, Pumpkin Curry with Chicken or Tofu, Spicy Mango Curry and Stir Fried Asparagus with Chicken or Tofu.

All of these menu items come with a salad roll and dipping sauce, and a drink (Thai ice tea or water) for $5.00. Oh and a weird little wrapped candy that I’m not crazy about (tastes like lemony caramel).

Yeah, all of this for $5.00!

I have had the pumpkin curry with chicken (excellent and spicy) and I just recently tried the lemongrass chicken, which is my favorite so far. The lemon grass gives it a subtle, Thai-ish flavor and it comes with a spicy peanut sauce, chili sauce and a heavy, molassesy soy sauce. So, so good. I was in dipping heaven. The vegetables with this dish include carrots, broccoli and bok choy (I think or maye some kind of cabbage).

Another nice thing about Thai Basil is that the portions are huge! I spend $5.00 and I have lunch that day, take my leftovers home add some coconut milk (in the case of my leftover pumpkin curry — that one I even had enough to split it with jwa and we both had some) and have a lunch to bring back to work a day or two later.

Chicken Pumpkin Curry

Thai Basil gets 3.3 bowls of rice out of 4.

Coming soon in the “What’s For Lunch?” series: a selection of lunch carts on SW 5th Avenue. Also, here’s a neat little lunch cart map of downtown Portland by Audrey.

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Je Mange la Ville is going on vacation next week. I’ll get my SHF post up next Friday but that’s probably about it, as we’ll be in Montana most of the week, celebrating my mom’s birthday.