This is a weekday lunch staple. Since jwa and I both bring lunch to work pretty much everyday, if I do any cooking at night during the week, it’s most likely something to bring to lunch the next day. The original recipe was for beef, but I usually make it with chicken. The other night I tried some shrimp (about 3/4 of a pound) and that works really well too! In theory, you should really be able to use any one pound of protein that you want to here, but I can just vouch for chicken and shrimp so far.

Do all your chopping and dicing at once — mise en place! — before you start cooking anything (or while you are marinating).

You can make it have as much spice or as little spice as you like. I usually use 3 dried chilies and it comes out medium spicy. And a good substitute for Szechwan pepper is some hot chili oil, which can be drizzled in at the end to adjust the heat.

Kung Pao Shrimp or Chicken (or Beef!)
Adapted from a recipe by Tyler Florence
1 pound shrimp (shelled & cleaned & detailed) or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine or sherry
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp peanut oil
3-5 dried red chiles, split (I used Thai red chiles)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp Szechwan pepper, toasted and crushed (or 1/4 - 1 tsp hot chili oil — mine was hot peppercorn chili oil — this kind)
2 green onions, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
1 red or orange bell pepper, cut in pieces
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice wine or sherry
2 tbsp Chinese black vinegar or balsamic
1 tsp sugar
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1/3 cup roasted peanuts

Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine/sherry, egg white and salt in a glass bowl. Add the shrimp or chicken and stir to coat. Marinate for 30 minutes, covered in the refrigerator.

Place peanut oil in a wok, swirling to coat the sides, and place over high heat. Add the chilies and cook until they begin to darken.

Add the garlic, ginger and Szechwan pepper (if using chili oil, add that at the end) and continue to cook to infuse the oil.

Add the green onions and bell pepper. Remove the shrimp or chicken from the marinade and add it to the wok, (discard leftover marinade). Stir-fry the shrimp for 2 minutes until almost cooked through. If using chicken, cook for 4-5 minutes.

Blend in soy sauce, rice wine, Chinese vinegar, sugar and chicken broth.

Dissolve the cornstarch slurry and add it to the sauce, stirring, to thicken.

Sprinkle in the peanuts and stir to coat. Add the chili oil to taste.

Serve over rice and enjoy. Or pack up for lunch the next day.

We had this meal over New Year’s Weekend because I believe lentils are lucky to have around that time. Of course, I opted to not use lentils because I had some Christmas Lima Beans that I needed to use. I hope Christmas Lima Beans are still lucky. I soaked my beans for about 8 hours before I used them in the recipe, so make sure you do that if you are using larger dried beans. You could also just use lentils, like the original recipe calls for and skip the soaking all together. I think that’s what I’ll do next time.

That said, this meal was fantastic! The tomato salsa is really fragrant and good and I have discovered Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage at Trader Joe’s. Wow — it was so tasty in this. Feel free to use the sausage of your choice — chicken, turkey or traditional pork sausage. Note: If your sausage is not raw, I would just cook briefly in the pan, not bake in the oven too.

This will feed a lot, so invite people over or have lunches and dinners for the week to look forward too.

Sausages and Legumes with Tomato Salsa
Adapted from a recipe in Jamie’s Italy
8 medium-sized good-quality Italian sausages (my package of chicken Italian sausage only had 5, so that’s how many I used)
Olive oil
1 pound broccoli florets
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A small handful of chopped thyme

For the tomato salsa
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 small stick of cinnamon
1-2 small dried red chilies, crumbled
2 tbsp red wine vinegar, plus extra for dressing
2 (14 ounce) cans of good-quality plum tomatoes (I used Italian stewed tomatoes)

For the lentils (or beans)
14 ounces lenticchie di Castelluccio or Puy lentils (or the equivalent in pre-soaked beans)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
A handful of fresh flat–leaf parsley, leaves chopped, stems reserved
Red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Start the salsa: Heat the olive oil in a pan, then add the onion and sliced garlic, cinnamon stick and a the chili, saute on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft. Turn the heat up and add your red wine vinegar — stand back.

Then turn the heat down to low and add the canned tomatoes. Break them up with a wooden spoon and simmer while you work on the rest of the meal.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the beans into a pot, cover them with water, and add the 2 whole cloves of garlic, the bay leaf, and some tied-up stems from the parsley. Simmer for around 20 minutes for lentils, up to an hour for larger beans. Make sure that you’ve got enough liquid covering the lentils or beans.

Toss the sausages in a little olive oil and sear them in a pan, then put them in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden and crisp. It helps if the pan you seared them in is oven safe.

Toss your broccoli in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and add it to the oven too, roasting for about 15-20 minutes. When done, toss in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon juice and some extra virgin olive oil.

Once the lentils or beans are cooked, remove the parsley stems and bay leaf and pour away most of the water from the pot. Mash the garlic cloves up with a spoon, mix in with the lentils or lentils, and dress them using 4 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil and 1 or 2 tablespoons of good vinegar. Throw in all your finely chopped parsley leaves, mix, and season.

Remove the sausages from the pan and pour away any fat. Transfer lentils or beans into your serving bowl. Remove the cinnamon stick from the salsa and discard it, then season well to taste and spoon it over your lentils or beans. Place the sausages, either sliced or whole, on top. Sprinkle with the thyme or parsley and serve with a big bowl of the roasted broccoli.

Starting this meal off? A killer antipasto platter I put together with — roasted red pepper, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, olives, prosciutto, mole salami, marinated mushrooms and aged provolone.

This is a kind of recipe mash-up. A lamb tagine recipe (with the wonderful & amazing spice-paste-rub stuff) and a chicken tagine recipe with the tomatoes and broth and oven cooking. And wow, good call to mix the two recipes togetther! This was WONDERFUL — all caps wonderful. I wrote it down right after dinner so I would remember exactly what I did.

Let’s see, what else? I did not make this in an actual tagine (*hint* *hint*) but a big, heavy, ovenproof, wide skillet. That worked well. I also used some of a spice mix I got at Penzeys — Rogan Josh. It has ginger, paprika, cumin, garlic, etc…so if you don’t have that specific blend, you can just add a little of those spices or omit it, it was only a 1/2 teaspoon. I was really just looking for an opportunity to use it. It smells so good. I wind up with so many little jars of spice blends from Penzey’s because they all smell so good!

Obscure ingredient alert: I actually had sundried tomato paste! If you don’t, I’m sure you could just use regular tomato paste. I’ve also included the recipe for the couscous I made to accompany the tagine and a harissa yogurt sauce below.

Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas & Golden Raisins
Adapted from two recipes by Bobby Flay — one for Chicken Tagine and one for Lamb Tagine
2 lb chicken thighs and drumsticks (I used about 1 lb bone-in, skin on drumsticks and about 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs — this was a good combination!)
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1 handful chopped cilantro
Pinch of saffron threads
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 white onion, diced
1 leek, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
Optional: 1/2 tsp Rogan Josh seasoning
2 cups chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup golden raisins

Mix together the garlic, honey, olive oil, cilantro, saffron, paprika, cumin and tomato paste in a large bowl. Rub the mixture all over the chicken and cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 5 - 8 hours. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or a tagine over high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides and place in the hot pan, in batches if needed; cook until golden brown.

Remove chicken to a plate or bowl. Make sure you get up all the garlic pieces and crispy cilantro bits.

Return the Dutch oven/tagine to the stove and add the onions, leek and Rojan Josh seasoning and cook until soft. Add the stock, tomatoes, cinnamon stick, tomatoes, chickpeas, and raisins and bring to a simmer.

Nestle the chicken (and any accumulate juices) down into a tagine or Dutch oven. Cover and cook in the oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Do not remove the lid to check on the chicken until after the 45 minutes.

Garnish with chopped clinatro and serve harissa sauce on the side.

Harissa Sauce
1/2 cup 2% fat Greek yogurt
1 tbsp harissa paste

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl and let stand at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator before serving. This is awesome stuff. Do not skip it!

Almond, Orange & Pomegranate Couscous
1 cup couscous
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
2 green onions, sliced
salt

Bring the chicken stock, pinch of salt and olive oil to a boil. Add the zest, green onions and couscous. Stir. Add the almonds and pomegranate seeds to the top. Turn off the heat and cover for 5 minutes.

Fluff with a fork and serve with the tagine.

While growing up Cream of ____ soups were always just something to make casseroles with — but not anymore! Wow, this was tasty! I tweaked it a little from the original by adding garlic, thyme, hot sauce and mushrooms and I was so pleased with the results. This is definitely what is going to happen to some of our leftover turkey and turkey stock next weekend. In fact, it’s a great recipe for that as I’ll probably have leftover cream, veggies and everything else. So will you, so you should definitely make this soup.

I cooked the mushrooms in a separate pan because I didn’t want them to soak up all the butter and I didn’t want to add more butter. I’m not sure you have to do that, but that’s the way I did it.

Cream of Chicken Soup
Adapted from a recipe by Food Network Kitchens
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 white Spanish onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 leeks, cleaned well, white part chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
12 cremini mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup AP flour
7 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
4 sprigs parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 3/4 cups cooked, diced chicken
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
A few dashes of hot sauce
Parmesan Cheese
Optional: 1 cup cooked brown rice

Roasted Chicken with Rosemary-Orange Butter — leftovers of which, became this soup! I highly recommend the roast chicken recipe too.)

Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, leeks, garlic, dried thyme and carrots. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 12 minutes.

While those veggies cook, in a separate pan, heat the olive oil. Saute the mushrooms with a pinch of kosher salt for 10 minutes or so, over medium heat, until they give off some liquid. Set aside.

Add the flour to the larger pot of veggies and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 2 minutes more.

Pour in the broth and bring to a boil while whisking.

Tie the parsley sprigs and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the soup.

Add the mushrooms. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Stir in the chicken and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the heavy cream, sherry, and salt into the soup. Taste and adjust salt and season with pepper and hot sauce to taste. Remove and discard the herb bundle.

Add the cooked, brown rice if desired. Divide among soup bowls, sprinkle the top of each soup with the chopped parsley, Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

The idea for this meal came from here — a recipe from Bon Appétit magazine in which a turkey is slathered (under & out!) with the butter mix of the title. It has been decided — this will also be our Thanksgiving turkey this year. So, of course we had to try (well, of course we did!) the butter mix on a chicken to make sure it was good.

The verdict: yes, it’s good. If you can’t wait for Thanksgiving, do yourself a favor and make a half recipe and apply it to a chicken.

Pancetta Sage Roast Chicken
1 3.5 - 4.5 whole chicken
olive oil
1 sprig rosemary + a few sage leaves
1/2 a lemon
Assorted root vegetables (we used potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and about 30 minutes before the chicken was done, I threw in some garlic cloves and a handful of walnuts)
Optional: your favorite brine recipe (mine is 1 gallon water + 1 cup kosher salt, with a few garlic cloves, a sprig of rosemary and a few peppercorns thrown in) if not bringing, salt & pepper

Pancetta, Parmesan, Sage Butter
double this if you are using on a turkey!
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 ounces thinly sliced pancetta (Italian bacon), chopped
2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small minced shallot
1/2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tbspn chopped fresh sage
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

If you are brining, do that for about 4-6 hours.

Make Pancetta Butter: With machine running, drop garlic down feed tube of processor and chop. Add pancetta.

Pulse to chop finely. Add all remaining ingredients. Pulse blending to coarse paste. Transfer to small bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

Roast the Chicken: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

If you brined, rinse the chicken, pat it dry and hoist it up on an oiled v-rack.

I used an upside-down bowl to keep my chicken under the brine while in the refrigerator.

If you did not brine, salt & pepper your chicken liberally. Scatter your root vegetables around the bottom of the pan.

Spread with a little pancetta-sage butter inside the chicken cavity. Then, starting at neck end, slide hand between skin and meat of breast, thighs, and upper drumsticks to loosen skin. Spread remaining butter over thighs, drumsticks, and breast meat under skin. Fill main cavity with herb sprigs and the lemon half. Drizzle with a little olive oil.

Turn chicken on its side and roast for 15 minutes. Turn chicken on other side and roast for 15 more minutes. Turn oven up to 425 degrees F and turn chicken breast-side up and drizzle with some olive oil. Add garlic cloves and walnuts to the vegetable area of the roasting pan. Continue to roast in this position until golden and temperature of the breast meat is 160 - 165 degrees, about 20 - 30 more minutes. This will depend on the size of your chicken.

I made a quick gravy by sauteing half an onion in 2 tablespoons of butter (over low heat) until brown and caramelized. Then I added 2 tablespoons of flour, cooked for a minute or two and added 1/2 cup of white wine and 3/4 cup chicken broth. I brought it to a boil and then turned off the heta and let it hang out until the chicken was done.

Remove chicken to a cutting board and tent with foil. Let rest 15-20 minutes. Transfer veggies, garlic and walnuts to a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm. If you’ve got gravy going, rewarm it and add some chopped herbs to it (I used rosemary, parsley, sage & thyme) and any non-oily pan drippings you can find. Before you carve the chicken, add any accumulated juices from the resting chicken, to the gravy. taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Eat the Chicken: Do you really need instructions for this part?

Thanksgiving! Okay, so while we’re on the subject of Thanksgiving — I think I have this year’s menu! It’s an Italian theme.

Appetizers & Snacks:
Rosemary cashews
Marinated mozzarella balls/olives/cherry tomatoes on skewers
Pumpkin seed pesto & veggies

Meal:
Pancetta-Sage Turkey with herb-wine gravy
Artichoke, Sausage, and Parmesan Cheese dressing
Roasted root veggies (shallots, fennel, carrots, red potatoes, and parsnips)
Delicata squash polenta w/ rosemary & goat cheese
Pan-Roasted Baby Brussels Sprouts with Buttered Pecans
Cranberry & fig sauce w/ port

Dessert:
Pumpkin Tart with Anise-Seed Crust, whipped cream