Shish-ka-Scott

Okay, so we're on day 2 of spelunking in our overcrowded pantry. So, for some insight into how these dinners get made and decided on, here's Caitlin and my planning conversation over IM:

Scott: What do you want for dinner?

Caitlin: I don't know, something that won't make me feel gross. . .

Scott: hmmmmm

Caitlin: and not Mexican, I had that for lunch.

Caitlin: How about something grilled?!

Caitlin: shish kabob!

Caitlin: YES

Caitlin: with chicken

Caitlin: and tomatoes

Caitlin: and potatoes

Caitlin: and poblano

Caitlin: and green onions

Caitlin: and whatever else we have in the fridge

Scott: ok, I guess I'll look in the fridge

Okay, so it looks like the plan is set. I'll grab everything in our fridge veggie drawer that's not apples and some chicken and we'll grill the crap out of it! Eureka! Well, that's how you end up with Shish-ka-Scott (since I'm not named Bob, get it?!), though we didn't have any green onions or potatoes. So I thawed some chicken, and checked the veggie drawer and found some red onion, poblano peppers and roma tomatoes. Here's what you'll need:

2 Boneless Chicken Breasts

1/2 Red Onion, cut into 1 inch slices

1 or 2 Large Poblano or Green Peppers cut into 1 inch squares

2 Roma Tomatoes

1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce

1/4 Cup Teriyaki Sauce

1/4 Cup Lime Juice

So, first thing you'll need to do is cut the chicken into roughly one inch cubes and then place in a bowl. Add in the hoisin, teriyaki and lime juice and stir and let marinade while you cut the veggies. Cut the ends off the roma tomatoes and then cut them in half so you have 4 tomato cylinders. Cut the pepper(s) in half and remove the seeds in the center. Wash them off so all the seeds are gone and then cut the halves in half and then into 1 in squares. Take the onion and cut it in half and then cut off the top and bottom of one half to remove both cores at each end. Take the center piece and cut into quarters and then pull the layers apart and you have a bunch of onion squares.

Take some skewers (these are really handy for this) and thread on a tomato and then layer it with a pepper square, a chicken piece and an onion square until you get to the other end, and then put on another tomato. Keep threading until you run out of pieces and then place in a shallow dish and pour the marinade on top. While the skewers are marinading, go turn on the grill to medium-high. Let it heat up for a few minutes to get the grill grates nice and hot and then go throw the skewers on. Grill on each side for about 8 or 10 minutes or until the chicken starts to get grill marks seared in. Flip them over and finish the other side, and then serve with a little rice or some salad. It's delish and it clears out the veggie drawer!

Persian Saffron Chicken (Joojeh)

We had some greek yogurt in the fridge that we had to use up before it started to go bad, so that means one thing for me: Joojeh!  If you know me at all, you know that I love Moby Dick's House of Kebab more than anything pretty much.  Seriously, I could eat there every day.  So I found a recipe online a few years ago that will let me reliably make my own Joojeh (Saffron Chicken Kebab).  Here's what you'll need: (and you might want to make sure your grill is clean, the marinade/basting mixture will fall into the grill and possibly catch fire, so I learned the hard way to clean that out or you're going to have some very well-cooked chicken. . . d'oh!)

Joojeh (Persian Saffron Chicken)

2 lbs Chicken (either chicken leg quarters or boneless chicken breasts cut into roughly 1"-2" pieces)
4-6 Plum tomatoes

Marinade:
1 C Greek-style unflavored Yogurt
1 Large or 2 small White or Yellow Onion Diced
1/4 C Olive Oil
1/4 C Lemon Juice
4 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1 tsp Black pepper (8 to 10 twists of a pepper grinder)
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Saffron threads dissolved in 2 tbsp warm water

Chop the Onion and put into a food processor and pulse until Onion is chopped into a paste.  Pour into non-staining bowl (Metal is a good bet here, Saffron stains pretty much ANYTHING and it doesn't come out, so be careful. . .) and combine the rest of the ingredients and dump in the chicken.  Marinate in the fridge covered for at least 6 hours and as long as 2 days.

Baste:
1/2 C Butter (melted)
1/2 C Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Saffron threads dissolved in 2 tbsp warm water

Depending on the type of chicken there are two ways to cook this dish.  If you're using chicken quarters, then you'll want to bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes and then switch to the broiler/grill on medium for another 8-10 minutes to crisp up the skin. Put the Tomatoes on a skewer and grill/broil with the chicken when the chicken is done baking.  Baste every few minutes with the Saffron Lemon Butter mixture.

If you've got the boneless chicken breast pieces, you'll want to put them onto metal skewers with a tomato at the end and broil them with the oven rack on the 2nd highest slot below the broiler or grill them on medium heat for 15-18 minutes flipping through the 4 sides every few minutes until the juice is no longer pink. Baste every few minutes with the Saffron Lemon Butter mixture.

If you can find it, shake on some Sumac as well, it really makes the dish.  You might be able to find it at an International Market, but it's tough to find. . . 

Basmati Rice:

Steam rice in a rice cooker before you start cooking the chicken and leave on the warm setting (or on the stovetop with the lid on).  Once you've flipped the chicken for the last time (or taken the chicken out of the oven for baking and started grilling/broiling it) put the rice in a large bowl and set 1/4 of the rice to the side.  Stir in 2-4 tbsp of butter to the remaining 3/4s of the rice.  Prepare some more saffron lemon butter baste and stir into the 1/4 set to the side and then top the 3/4s white rice with the 1/4 saffron lemon butter rice.  Pull the Chicken off the grill and serve with the rice and/or toasted pita/lavash bread.

Mother's Day Tuna Steaks

So for Mother's Day this year, Caitlin and I thought it'd be a good idea to have our Mom's over for dinner, especially since we've started getting the house set up, we finally got all of our place settings from the wedding, and frankly, because even though they live 5 miles apart, our parents hadn't seen each other since the wedding in September. . .
Unsure of what to serve, I decided to make a little recipe that I thought up after a dinner at Copper Canyon Grill:

Ginger Lime Tuna Steaks! I first made this as a salad, with chopped apple wood smoked bacon bits thrown in, but I thought that my dad would probably have a heart attack if he at any applewood smoked bacon bits, and well, it would probably work better with 6 people instead of 2 to have one big communal salad on the side for people to take what they want. Here's the recipe for 2 steaks, so multiply out according to how many you're going to serve:

2 Tuna Steaks (as fresh as possible!)

Marinade:

3 Tbsp Ginger Paste or Diced Ginger
3 Tbsp Cilantro Paste or Diced Cilantro
1/4 C Olive or Avocado Oil (the first time I made this I used Lemon infused Avocado Oil)
1/4 C Lime Juice
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Diced Scallions
1/4 C Diced Red Onions
Couple pinches each of Ground Black Pepper and Salt


Okay, so chop all this up and dump in a bowl and stir it up real good. If you want to be fancy and have to clean it afterwards you can use a wand blender or a food processor to chop everything into submission. It should yield a lumpy sauce/paste. Marinade the Tuna steaks in this for at least an hour (I'd recommend overnight if you want the most flavor), I usually just put the steaks in a ziploc bag or some tupperware with the marinade.

Salad:
(This is what I added, feel free to substitute or add in whatever you want with this!)
Baby Spinach
Crumbled Goat Cheese
Chopped Applewood Smoked Bacon (I used 2 slices per salad)
Shredded Carrots
Grape Tomatoes
Diced Avocadoes

Okay, to start off, pre-heat the grill to medium-high (or turn on the broiler in your oven).  While that's heating up, assemble your salad in bowls: A nice bed of spinach topped by everything else, then put in the fridge to keep cool.  Now that the grill/broiler is heated up, take the Tuna out of your marinade pouch, and place them on the grill or broiler pan.  Grill for 3 or 4 minutes and then flip (use tongs and grab the sides so you don't break the steak apart) and grill for another 3 or 4 minutes (I like to also put a dallop of marinade on top at this point so it can coat the Tuna a 2nd time).  Keep the remaining marinade.  If you're worried about the "doneness" of the steaks, cut one in half and see how it looks in there.  Don't worry, the tuna's going to get sliced before it goes on the salad, so you won't ruin any "presentation value".  I usually like the tuna to be about 1/3 cooked on the top and bottom with a third in the middle pink, but cook to your taste, if you know you don't like Tuna that way, then by all means, cook it through!

Once you're done on the grill, slice the Tuna and fan out on top of the salad, then drizzle the tuna(s) and salad(s) with the remaining marinade as a salad dressing (Optional add-in: sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds)

Enjoy!


For Dessert:


I made this delicious Dark Chocolate Mousse recipe by Bobby Flay.I used about a half a bag of the Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips and mixed it up in our Kitchenaid Mixer (hey, somebody paid $300 for that thing, I'd better get their money's worth out of it!) and topped it with some Whipped cream.