Second Breakfast

My husband has been raving about this, another Epicurious suggestion with some of my modifications. The sopes shells (the Epicurious recipe calls them gorditas but at least one commenter complained the the name was inappropriate) are a little bit of work at first, but very tasty and worth the extra little bit of effort.

You can serve these shells with anything you wanted in them. This is my suggestion.

Items

Sopas

• 1 14oz can creamed corn.
• 1 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp softened butter
• 1 cup Jack cheese

Filling

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• few dashes of hot sauce (Cholula brand is my favorite)
• juice of 1/2 lime
• salt and freshy-ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups of meat pulled from a store-roasted whole chicken
• chopped cilantro and scallions
• more Jack cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Combine the corn, salt, and broth in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cornmeal and cook for a minute or two to combine until the liquid is absorbed (this happened immediately for me so I’ve adjusted the amount a bit above).
3. Remove from the heat and add the butter and cheese, stirring to incorporate.
4. Grease two 6-cup muffin tins and divide the mixture between them, pressing it into the bottom and up the side to make thin shells. You probably won’t get a full dozen but I’ve adjusted the amounts slightly above.
5. Bake until crisp, 25 minutes. Let cool for five minutes.
6. While the sopas are cooking, heat a couple of Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until softened for five minutes.
7. Add the garlic and cook another minute, stirring so the garlic does not burn. Now add the black beans and cook another 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
8. Add the cumin and hot sauce. Using a potato masher mash up some of the beans gently in the pan.
9. Add the chicken meat and lime juice. Adjust the seasoning, and cook over medium heat a couple more minutes until heated through. Do not overcook the chicken.
10. Serve the chicken and bean mixture in the sopas shells, topped with cilantro, scallions, and some of the cheese.

Serves 4.

This is based off of a recipe that Alan found on Epicurious, but with my inevitable modifications. The addition of polenta to the chicken breading makes it very crispy, and pounding them thin allows you to cook them quickly enough to get them tender but not overcooked. I adjusted the proportions in the sauce from the original recipe to make it a bit more balanced for my tastes. My husband gave this two thumbs up.

Items

• 1.5lbs boneless chicken breasts, trimmed
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup polenta (quick-cooking is best), or stone-ground cornmeal, or just plain cornmeal
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup olive oil (for frying), plus additional olive oil
• paprika, salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbsp capers
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2/3 cup water or chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp butter
• A couple of handfuls of baby spinach

Method

1. Pound the chicken breasts to 1/2″ thickness between sheets of plastic wrap with a heavy saucepan.
2. Beat the eggs with some salt, pepper, and paprika in a small bowl, with a little olive oil for good measure.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and corn meal/polenta, with 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, and paprika.
4. Dip the chicken breasts in the egg mixture, letting the excess drip off. Then dredge in the cornmeal mixture until well-coated. Let rest for 10 minutes on a cooling rack to give the coating time to adhere well to the meat.
5. Heat the vegetable oil and olive oil in a cast-iron skillet or other heavy pan over medium-high heat. Fry the chicken in batches, 3 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature reaches 165F.
6. Let the chicken rest on a paper towel covered loosely.
7. Discard the oil from the pan and wipe gently with a paper towel. Return the pan to medium heat.
8. Heat a couple more Tbsp olive oil in the pan. Then add the tomato paste, whisking to break the tomato up and fry for a minute.
9. Add the vinegar, capers, sugar, and broth or water, and cook, whisking occasionally, 5-8 minutes until the sauce is reduced and thickened.
10. Adjust the salt, add some freshly-ground black pepper, turn off the heat, and whisk in the butter.
11. Pour a little of the hot sauce over spinach to wilt it slightly. Serve the chicken breast over some of the spinach, with more of the sauce on top.

Serves 4. Mashed redskin potatoes are a lovely accompaniment.

Both my husband and I remember watching Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet, on public TV when we were kids. I don’t know what that says about the both of us and our future compatibility, but we still both joke about his quips such as “So when you’re in Turkey (you’ll GO! you’ll GO!), you can pick up this cheap coffee grinder and use it as a pepper mill.” Anyways, I liked watching him, and it gave me a window onto a larger world that I didn’t know anything about in Monroe, MI.

We like to eat at the Grizzly Peak Brewery in Ann Arbor, and they have a great Cheddar and Ale soup. Alan remembered such a recipe from the Frugal Gourmet show, so we resurrected it and it has become a favorite at our house. Ours is a bit lighter than the restaurant version I think probably because there are two ways to solve the problem of how to add cheese to a soup. One approach is to add enough fat in the form of cream, butter, etc. to the broth to ensure the “sauce” doesn’t break and the cheese doesn’t curdle. The other approach is to buffer the grated cheese with AP flour, which also prevents the fats from coming immediately out the cheese and curdling. My addition is to include some ground mustard with the flour as it is important for the flavor and is a good emulsifier as well.

This can be made as a vegetarian soup, but also works very well with some sliced kielbasa tossed in and simmered at the end.

Items

• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, trimmed and diced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 48oz vegetable broth or chicken stock (Kitchen Basics and Swanson’s organic are good)
• 2TB butter or olive oil (your choice)
• 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 TB AP flour
• 2 tsp ground mustard
• 12oz beer, preferably a full-bodied ale
• Shot of tobasco and worcestershire sauce (to taste)
• 1-2 tsp dried thyme
• Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
• 8oz smoked kielbasa, sliced (optional)

Method

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large stock/soup pot.
2. Cook the onion, celery, and carrot over medium heat, 5 minutes, until softened.
3. Add the broth/stock, turn the heat up to boil, cover, and turn the heat down load and simmer for an hour or so. Use a stick/immersion blender if you have one to puree the soup a bit.
4. Meanwhile, in a plastic bag shake the cheese with the flour and mustard until well-coated.
5. Add the cheese slowly to the soup, stirring to incorporate. It will take a little time until it is completely melted. Keep the heat low.
6. Add the tobasco, worcestershire, thyme, salt, and pepper and simmer for a few more minutes.
7. Add the beer, and kielbasa if you wish. Adjust the seasoning and serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

This is a slightly modified version of this recipe courtesy of British Turkey. (Apparently the brits eat a lot of turkey, who knew?) The combination of curry and lemon is a knockout, and its easy to do. You could of course substitute cooked chicken breast if that’s what you had on hand.

Items

• 1 lb cooked turkey breast meat
• 1 red and 1 yellow pepper, seeded and chopped into 1″ pieces
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tsp red chili pepper flakes
• 1-2 cloves of minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp curry paste (your preference), or 2 Tbsp curry powder mixed with a little water
• Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 can (400ml) coconut milk
• 1/2 cup turkey, chicken, or vegetable broth
• 1 oz ground almonds (I had some sliced almonds and I smashed them in my mortar and pestle)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Method

1. Cover peppers with boiling water for five minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat, and sautee onions and chili flakes for 5-7 minutes until onions are soft and golden.
3. Add garlic and curry paste and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring often.
4. Add the coconut milk, stock, and lemon juice and rind, stir to combine, add the turkey, and turn the heat down and cover, cooking over low heat for 10 minutes.
5. Add the peppers and cook for 5 more minutes over low heat.
6. Remove from the heat, and add the almonds (to thicken) and the cilantro.
7. Serve over basmati rice.

Serves four.

I’ve been struggling to get my rice to be the right consistency for what I find in most Indian restaurants. Typically mine is too sticky, even if I rinse it. This time I tried not rinsing the rice, and adding the oil, salt, and spices (cumin seeds) and stirring that together and letting it sit for a few minutes before adding the water to the rice cooker. Adding the oil in this way kept the grains a bit more separate and improved the texture considerably.

This is a recipe my husband asked me to make after watching Mario Batali make it on his Molto Mario show.  Although Alan insists that Mario is my culinary nemesis (based on some offhand comment I made years ago…he has the memory of an elephant for these things), actually Mario’s philosophy on food has somewhat informed my own in that I try to cook based on what’s local, good, and in-season, and try to get the best quality I can afford for food.  I also cook mostly from scratch because its healthier and not that much harder.

This is essentially a risotto with peas and prosciutto, I made a couple of small changes based on practicality and our own preferences, and the recipe on food.com doesn’t actually quite reflect the cooking technique.

The result is quite satisfying, and well-balanced between the sweetness of the peas and the smoky/savory flavor of the pork.

Items

• 4 TB olive oil, or 2TB olive oil and 2TB bacon fat (yum!)
• 3oz prosciutto crudo (that is, the dried-cured ham available at most delis), sliced very thin,and cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
  
• 12 oz (1.5 cups) aborio rice
• 48 oz (6 cups) chicken stock, brought to just under the boil (I like Kitchen Basics chicken stock for this, as it is a lot richer in flavor than, say, Swanson’s Organic stock.  I don’t make my own, are you kidding?)
• 2 cups of freshly-shelled peas, or 2 cups frozen baby peas (they’re sweeter I think), thawed
  
• 4 TB butter
• 1oz (1 cup) freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat/melt the fat over medium heat in a large chef’s pan.  Sautee the prosciutto, shallots, and celery for 8-10 minutes, making sure that the mixture is very soft but not brown.
2. Add the rice, and cook, stirring, for two minutes.
3. Add enough of the stock to cover the rice, turn the heat up to high until it boils, and immediately turn down to low, just enough heat to keep the rice simmering but not boiling. The point here is to minimize the damage to the outer bran of the rice kernel, yielding a firmer grain with less “creaminess” in the final dish.  This is all about texture.  If you want a really creamy risotto turn up the heat.
4. Keep adding the broth in 1/2 cup increments to keep the rice just submerged in the liquid, stirring often.  Taste the rice for doneness at 15 minutes.  It should start to have softened but still be a bit hard.
5. Add the peas, and continue stirring and cooking for another 5 minutes.  The rice should be al dente:  not overcooked, with a bit of bite to it without being hard.  If not done, add a bit more stock (or water if you have to), and keep cooking, but 20 minutes is typically how long rice takes to cook.
6. Add at least 1 Tsp of salt and a few grinds of pepper, or to taste.
7. Add the butter, stir to combine, and add most of the cheese reserving a bit for serving on top of the rice at the end.

Serves 6.