New World Pumpkin and Chorizo Soup

(based on a recipe at lowcarbdiets.about.com)

2 c pumpkin puree, or one 15 oz can of pumpkin

10 oz fresh (Mexican) chorizo, or substitute other spicy sausage

1/3 c minced onion

3 cloves garlic, put through a press or minced fine

1/2 t pepper

1 t mild ground chilies, such as ancho, or a small amount of a hotter chili

1 t dried oregano

1 T olive oil

1/3 c dry white wine (optional)

1 c half and half

2 c chicken broth or equivalent chicken flavoring such as a base

1/2 c minced cilantro, and extra leaves for garnish

Put onion in saucepan with olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and break it up. Cook until the sausage is browning. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, 30-60 seconds. Add pepper. Add wine or some of the broth and stir to loosen everything up. Add the rest of the ingredients except the cilantro, ending with the chicken broth. Add as much broth as you need to make it the thickness you want. Salt to taste. Just before serving, stir in the minced cilantro, and put a few leaves on each bowl of soup for garnish.

Chorizo and Eggs

10 oz chorizo

12 eggs

1/4 c cream

Brown the chorizo and drain off some or all of the grease. (Save the grease to cook eggs in the next time.) Meanwhile, beat the eggs and cream together. When the chorizo is almost done and you’ve drained it, add the eggs and scramble it all together.

Taco Salad

20 oz chorizo, either pork or beef

1 head lettuce

1 lb fresh tomatoes

2 c shredded cheese (cheddar, Colby jack, pepper jack, whatever)

1 c sour cream

Brown the chorizo and drain the fat. Save the fat to cook eggs in later. Or anything else that needs a kick of flavor. Meanwhile, chop, tear, or shred the lettuce and chop the tomatoes. Divide the ingredients among four bowls, in whatever order you like. I’d make it lettuce, meat, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream, but do it however you like. These are going to be huge salads. You can probably get six salads out of this if you want to.

Carrot Ginger Soup

From Super Foods: 300 recipes for foods that heal body and mind, by Delores Riccio

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 slices fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced (1 to 1 ½ tablespoons)
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced (about ¾ pound)
• two 13 oz cans of chicken or vegetable broth (better yet, make your own! Use 26 oz)
• 1 cup of milk
• minced parsley (optional)

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the ginger until it’s sizzling. Add the carrots and stir-fry them for about 3 minutes. Pour in the broth, and simmer uncovered until the carrots are quite tender, 10-15 minutes.
2. In a food processor, blender, food mill or with an emersion blender, puree the soup in 2 or more batches (hot food expand when beaten, so don’t fill the blender or food processor bowl too full). If you are using an immersion blender, you can simply blend the soup in the pot, in one batch.
3. The recipe may be prepared to this point, and refrigerated for later use.
4. Whisk in the milk and reheat the soup, but don’t boil or it will separate. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley on top, if you have some.

Truly a vegetable for all seasons, the carrot will still be fresh in winter when all the good tomatoes have disappeared and also perky in the summer when pumpkins and butternut squash have faded from the scene… The rich, deep orange color that is synonymous with carrots is also a clue to the presence of beta carotene, a plant form of vitamin A that is particularly effective in helping to prevent cancer.  Older people with high levels of carotenoids in their blood are less likely to develop cataracts than those with low levels. Raw carrots also reduce blood cholesterol. Ginger can help with motion sickness, morning sickness and is known generally as a soothing digestive aid.  [notes taken from Super Foods].

Better BBQ Sauce

(bbq.about.com)

1 c ketchup

1/4 c white vinegar

1/4 c brown sugar

2 T paprika

1 T olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Allow to simmer for 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely before using.

Balsamic BBQ Sauce

(from Giada de Laurentiis at foodnetwork.com)

1 c balsamic vinegar

3/4 c ketchup

1/3 c brown sugar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 T Dijon mustard

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and stir until the mixture is smooth. Simmer over medium heat 15 to 20 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced by about a third. Brush the sauce on the chicken, then keep it warm while you brush the chicken frequently until the chicken is done. Pass the leftover warm sauce with the chicken.

Cornell Chicken Barbeque Sauce

This has been famous since it was invented in about 1950. Also known as State Fair Chicken.

(I saw the same recipe several places, so I’ll just credit Dr. Robert Baker and Cornell)

1 egg

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 c cider vinegar

*5 t coarse salt 

2 t poultry seasoning

1/4 t pepper

5 lbs chicken pieces (whole chicken, half chicken, leg quarters, thighs, and/or breasts)

In a large bowl, whisk the egg. Add the oil and whisk until the mixture gets thick, homogeneous, and a bright yellow, approximately 2 minutes. Whisk in the cider vinegar, salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper. (I’m guessing you could make this in a blender or a food processor instead.) Place the chicken in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour the prepared sauce over the chicken and let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours (the longer you marinate, the better). Cook over indirect heat (This is different than most recipes I saw, that said to start over high heat and then move to indirect heat. I assume it’s because of the egg.), basting frequently, and dousing any flare-ups. If you make the sauce ahead of time, refrigerate it. Discard any remaining sauce, which has raw egg and also raw chicken germs from marinating the chicken.

*This will probably be too salty, so you might want to cut it down and let people add more at the table. About 1 tablespoon of table salt equals 5 teaspoons of coarse salt.

Easy Grilled Chicken

CAJUN TURKEY SEASONING

(bbq.about.com)

4 T salt

4 T onion powder

2 T garlic powder

2 T red pepper flakes

2 T paprika

1 T ground oregano

Mix ingredients together. Rub over the surface of the turkey (or, in our case, chicken), inside and out. Try to work the rub in under the skin. Let sit for about two hours before cooking. Can be used on all poultry (like chicken leg quarters) no matter how it’s prepared, but the recipe comes from the bbq page of the site. Store in a cool dark place.

MOROCCAN RUB

(parade.condenast.com)

1 T ground cumin

1 T paprika

1 t onion powder

2 t turmeric

Pinch of cayenne

Pinch of garlic powder

1 T dried parsley

2 t dried coriander

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

Mix all ingredients. Store in a cool, dark place. Use within three months. Use on chicken, beef and fish.

CARIBBEAN JERK SEASONING RUB

(parade.condenast.com)

2 T brown sugar

2-1/2 t salt

2 t allspice

1 t cayenne

1 t pepper

1 t onion powder

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t dried thyme

Mix all ingredients. Store in a cool, dark place and use on chicken within three months.

GREEK GRILLED CHICKEN

Just add Greek seasoning to oil and lemon juice and marinate chicken in it for about an hour. Bring the marinade to a boil after you take the chicken out, then brush it on the chicken as it cooks.

ITALIAN GRILLED CHICKEN

Same thing, just use Italian seasoning instead of Greek seasoning.

Chicken Stock

 adapted from Nourishing Traditions

1 whole free range chicken or 2-3 pounds of boney chicken parts (necks, backs, breastbones, wings)

Gizzards from one chicken (optional)

Feet from the chicken (optional)

4 quarts cold filtered water

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 carrots coarsely chopped

3 celery sticks, coarsely chopped

1 bunch parsley

Cut chicken parts into several pieces.  (If you are using a whole chicken, remove neck and wings and cut into several pieces).  Place chicken or chicken pieces into a large pot with water, vinegar and all vegetables except parsley.  Let stand 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Bring to boil and remove scum that rises to the top.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6-24 hours.  The longer you cook the stock, the richer and more flavorful it will be.  About 10 minutes before finishing the stock, add parsley.

Remove whole chicken or pieces with a slotted spoon.  If you are using a whole chicken, let cool and remove meat.  Reserve for other uses, such as chicken salad, chicken in noodles, enchiladas, sandwiches or curries.  Strain the stock into a large bowl and reserve in your refrigerator until the fat rises to the top and congeals.  Skim off the fat and reserve the stock in covered containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves (no stems), packed

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds)

½ cup grated parmesan or romano cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

This can be made quickly with a blender or food processor, and it can also be made into a chunky pesto by hand with a lot of chopping.  Combine basil, nuts and garlic in the blender.  Add the olive oil until blended and then add the romano cheese in small pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Serving: Add this pesto to cooked pasta, cooked potatoes, spread it on a sandwich, or use it on pizza. 

Freezing: If you want to freeze the pesto you make, omit the cheese (it doesn't freeze well). Line an ice cube tray with plastic wrap, and fill each pocket with the pesto. Freeze and then remove from the ice tray and store in a freezer bag. When you want to use, defrost and add in grated Parmesan or Romano.

Kale Pesto

1 cup fresh kale leaves, chopped

2 garlic cloves

2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup sunflower seeds

¾ cup olive oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

Combine kale, garlic, cheese and sunflower seeds in a blender or food processor, and blend. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil. Season to taste with salt an pepper, process to desired texture. Enjoy over pasta, on toast, in scrambled eggs…etc.

Arugula Pesto

2 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed

1/2 cup of shelled walnuts

1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves, unpeeled

1/2 garlic clove peeled and minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.

Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. 

Food processor method (the fast way): Combine the arugula, salt, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

Mortar and pestle method: Combine the nuts, salt and garlic in a mortar. With the pestle, grind until smooth. Add the cheese and olive oil, grind again until smooth. Finely chop the arugula and add it to the mortar. Grind up with the other ingredients until smooth.

Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.

Serve with pasta, over freshly roasted potatoes, or as a sauce for pizza.

Yield: Makes 1 heaping cup.

Cinco de Mayo, and Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Nothing great when it comes to sales again this week. As frequently happens, the best deals are at Aldi on fruits and vegetables. Which is nice, and we need fruit and vegetables, but I keep waiting for a good price on something different in the meat department. Like filet mignon for $1.67 a pound. I’ll be sure and let you know when that happens! In the meantime, here’s the sales for this week.

Aldi has avocados for 69 cents each. Mangoes are 49 cents each. Strawberries are $1.49 a pound and cantaloupe are $1.49 each. Eggs were $1.19 when I was there on Thursday but were $1.89 when I was there on Wednesday.

Marsh has ten-ounce packages of jalapeno peppers two for $4.00, or $2.00 each. I have no idea how many peppers are in a bag. Three bunches of fresh cilantro are $2.00, or 67 cents each. The flier shows Mexican ingredients like taco shells, Mexican cheeses, etc., but I have no idea how good the prices are.

Kroger has cantaloupe and “personal size” watermelons two for $5.00, or $2.50 each. Five-pound bags of Idaho potatoes are $1.77, or about 35 cents a pound. Purnell breakfast sausage is two one-pound rolls for $5.00, or $2.50 a pound. Roma tomatoes are 99 cents a pound. Chicken leg quarters are 69 cents a pound in ten-pound bags, or $6.90 a bag. Sweet corn is ten ears for $3.00, or 30 cents an ear. Green beans are 99 cents a pound. And Kroger’s flier includes some Mexican ingredients, too.

As I said, there aren’t any great deals on meat this week, so we’re back to Walmart’s chicken leg quarters for $6.90 for ten pounds, or 69 cents a pound. Or Kroger’s chicken leg quarters for $6.90 for ten pounds, or 69 cents a pound, if you prefer. It’s the regular price at Walmart and a sale price at Kroger.

You know by now that you can take the leg quarters apart and do different things with different parts. Like pull the skin off and roast it to make CHICKEN CHIPS or GRIBENES. And cut the leg quarters into drumsticks, thighs, and bits of back. That way you can fix the drumsticks one way and the thighs another and you don’t have so much chicken that’s all the same. And save the backs and the bones to make bone broth. I’ve talked about all that several times now (or at least it seems that way to me) so I won’t tell you how to do it again. You can scroll through old columns on the website to get instructions.

Cinco de Mayo is Monday, so I’m going to give some recipes that are at least vaguely Mexican or at least vaguely Tex-Mex. Avocados and cilantro are on sale, and a lot of prepared “Mexican” ingredients and we might as well take advantage of them while we can.

This first recipe, EASY SPICY MEXICAN AMERICAN CHICKEN, calls for half a cup of Mexican-style hot sauce and a tablespoon of cayenne for just four thighs! Yikes! I looked online for a price for the brand recommended in the recipe, and it looks like it’s something different than I was expecting. I was thinking hot sauce like Tabasco sauce, and two tablespoons of that per thigh, plus almost a tablespoon of cayenne would be explosively hot! The Mexican-style hot sauce comes in 12 ounce bottles, though, instead of the 2 ounce bottles that Tabasco sauce comes in, so I’m assuming it’s not as potent. At any rate, use as much or as little as your taste buds demand. It was interesting reading the reviews of the original recipe. Apparently it makes a huge difference what kind of hot sauce you use. If you use Frank’s hot sauce and the full tablespoon of cayenne, you’d better have a cast-iron mouth and gullet. Adjust the heat to suit your own taste. Someone suggested dipping the chicken in ranch dressing to cool it down a bit, and a few other folks said that the chicken reminds them of Buffalo wings. I’m saying to remove the skin from the chicken, because several reviewers said that the fat from the chicken made the sauce too runny. Leave it on or take it off; it’s up to you. Just be sure to make CHICKEN CHIPS if you do remove the skin!

There are usually ten chicken leg quarters in a ten-pound bag from Walmart (I think they were a bit smaller when I got them from Kroger a year or so ago, so a few more in the bag) so they’re about a pound each. That’s 69 cents per leg or $2.76 for the four of them. Let’s figure $1.00 for the seasonings; it will depend on what brand of hot sauce you use. That’s $3.76 for the whole batch, or 94 cents each.

Let’s have a salad (half a head of lettuce and four ounces of Roma tomatoes) and a cup of ranch dressing to put on the salad and to dip the chicken in. That’s another $1.70. You can finish it off with a diced avocado or wedges of cantaloupe. The avocado brings the total to $6.15, or $1.54, which is 4 cents per person over my goal of $1.50 per person. Maybe the hot sauce will be cheaper than I'm estimating. A third of a cantaloupe, cut in four wedges, instead of the avocado will bring it to $5.96, or $1.49 per person. Or have corn on the cob to go with it. Four ears will be $1.20. The corn plus the chicken will be $5.00, and you can have an avocado and some ranch dressing for dipping the chicken and still keep it to $6.00 total.

I’m counting CHICKEN CASSEROLE WITH GREEN CHILIS as quasi-Mexican because of the green chilis and the cumin. At any rate, it’s more Mexican than the tacos Mom used to make for us back in the 60s and 70s. The filling, as best I can remember, was a mixture of canned chili and corned beef hash! But it was served in taco shells with lettuce and cheese so it was Mexican. That was way back in the days when about the only “ethnic” food was chop suey or Italian spaghetti and pizza. We are so lucky these days to have so much ethnic food available, some of it authentic and a lot of it more influenced by than real.

I have to guess at how much the chilis cost. Using a cost of $1.00 (and it seems to me that I looked into that some time ago and they were pretty cheap), this will cost about $6.85 and will make eight servings, or about 86 cents per serving. Let’s call it 90 cents, shall we? That makes it $3.60 for four servings. How about a pound of frozen broccoli to go with it, for another $1.00, and two avocados for $1.40. That comes to a total of $6.00 for four servings, or $1.50 per serving. Or one avocado, thinly sliced so everyone gets three or four slices, and half a head of lettuce, a sliced tomato or two, and some dressing. That’s still right about $6.00. Or some cantaloupe instead of the broccoli or salad, which still keeps it about $6.00. Or corn on the cob.

The introductory info on the recipe for CHICKEN WITH CHIPOTLE says that it is “a true Mexican chicken recipe,” for whatever that’s worth. It sounds good, though, regardless of how true it is. The chicken will cost about $4.15, or about $1.05 per serving for four servings. Serve it with SPICY MEXICAN COLESLAW for a total cost of about $6.00, or $1.50 per serving.

I have to be really vague about the cost of the coleslaw, because I don’t buy jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice or orange juice. But I’m pretty sure it will cost less than $2.00. I guessed at the prices and came up with $1.55. Will you let me call it $1.85 so that the coleslaw plus the chicken comes to $6.00 for four servings? Thanks!

Here’s another side dish, SOUTHWESTERN ROASTED CARROTS, you could serve with any of these chicken dishes. It’s cheaper than any of the sides I’ve suggested so far. A batch of these will cost about 60 cents.

And a final recipe. Or more of an idea than a recipe. You’ve probably heard of this or some variation on it. There are lots of recipes for SALSA CHICKEN. Basically, you just season some chicken (taco seasoning is easy, or sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and cumin) and then cook it either on top of the stove or in the oven until the chicken is done. Pour some salsa (you pick the heat) over the top of the chicken and sprinkle some shredded cheddar over the salsa. Cook it for about 10 minutes more or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Assuming four leg quarters, a cup of salsa and a cup of cheese, you’re looking at about $4.20 for four servings.