Pan-Seared Tilapia with Fishy Spinach

New apartment, new grocery stores, new appliances... well, the ingredients of this one are some of my old stand-by's - was hoping to do one of my simple favorites - but stupid Avanti "Elite" oven won't work so we need a new method of preparation.  Using this as a general guide, I decided to see if I couldn't make a few tilapia fillets that had been sitting in my freezer/fridge for (more than) a couple days edible.

Recipe

The Necessities
tilapia fillets
~3 tbsp butter
spinach
salt & pepper

My Supplements
garlic, chopped
jalapeno, chopped
1 anchovy
lemon (wish I had it)

So to start, you melt your butter and add the garlic, jalapeno, lemon, and/or whatever herbs and spices you want infused in everything yet to come.  Sprinkle your fish with salt and pepper and put it in the pan.  Let it sit for about 2 minutes and change either side.  Take it out, (add in and break up your anchovy,) and put in some generous handfuls of spinach.  Stir it around until it's all a bit wilty and the initial seasoning elements are all mixed in.  Scoop the spinach onto your plate and serve the fish over it.  Like so:

Oh man.  This was another improvised stovetop dish where I might not ever go back to the oven.  Maybe (definitely) it was a bit on the salty side, but a lighter touch sprinkling the fillets would do fine there.  Fast and easy too!

Pumpkin & Sausage Pasta

I got a (premature) jump on the fall with this recipe, earmarked a while ago in the old Rachael Ray cookbook (which actually only required me to buy the sausage and Parm):

Recipe

1 lb pasta (e.g., penne, rigatoni, rotini)
1 lb Italian sausage (bulk, or removed from casing)
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
4-6 sage leaves, slivered
1 cup dry white wine
1 can (14 oz.) chicken broth
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup heavy cream
sprinkle of cinnamon & nutmeg/allspice
Parmesan cheese
olive oil, salt, pepper

Heat some olive oil in a deep pot or skillet over medium and brown the sausage.  Remove, add a little more oil, and saute the onion and garlic.  Add the wine, bay leaf, and sage; reduce the wine for a few minutes.  Next in goes the broth and pumpkin, stir together, and bring to a bubble.  Return the sausage, reduce heat, and add cream.  Season with a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and simmer five minutes.

Meanwhile, somewhere in there, start cooking the pasta.  Once everything's done, pour the sauce over the pasta and let mingle for a few minutes over low heat.  Serve with Parmesan.

Notes

First of all, Rachael recommends sweet sausage, but I got spicy because I like to live on the edge.  It was strong but delicious.  Also, I reverse-substituted allspice for cinnamon and nutmeg.

I was a little skeptical looking at everything, but it turned out delicious.  The sauce didn't really thicken, but it still worked perfectly in a nice deep bowl of pasta.  With a generous sprinkle of cheese, it's a bowl of gooey delight:

"Firecracker" Chicken

I'm not sure if there's a more official/ethnic name for this dish.  The literal description would probably have something to do with little spicy chicken dumplings.  Anyway, I thought it was worth a try, something a little different.  Sure, there's not really much wrong with just sauteed chicken with no cornstarch/flour and egg coating, but all I actually had to buy was the chicken.

The Recipe

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup cornstarch (possible substitution: flour)
2 eggs, beaten

for sauce
1/3 cup hot sauce
1 cup brown sugar (!)
1 tbsp water
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
sprinkle of salt

rice (optional)

Cut the chicken into 1" pieces.  Season with salt and pepper, toss in a plastic bag with the cornstarch/flour, and dip in the egg.  Cook a couple minutes per side in a well-oiled skillet to brown.  Then put in a layer in a baking dish.  Mix the sauce together and pour over the chicken.  Cook for an hour at 325 degrees, stirring up halfway through to re-coat.

Notes

Due to technical difficulties (i.e., dropped my phone), no picture.  Mine wasn't as gorgeously orange as the original website because of my Chipotle Tabasco sauce, but still pretty good, a distinctive way to do chicken.  A little messy...

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Tenders & Zucchini Chips

Double duty here.  I wanted to try the entree (who wouldn't?), and thought this side would go well.  And yes, that first dish is from Martha Stewart.  Is that really any more embarrassing than Gwyneth Paltrow or Rachael Ray?  Yes, probably :(

The Recipes

chicken tenders
bacon
sage

Put a sage leaf on each chicken tender, then wrap in bacon.  Heat some oil over medium-high and add tenders sage side down.  Cook until the bacon is browned, then flip and do the same on the other side.

1 zucchini, sliced into 1/4" disks
1/4 c bread crumbs
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
1 egg white
1/4 tsp each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and any other spices you want

Mix the bread crumbs, cheese, and seasoning.  Dip the zucchini slices into the egg and then coating.  Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook at 450 degrees, 15 minutes, flipping halfway through - until nicely brown.

Notes

In the case of the bacon-chicken tenders, apparently simplicity does not equate to fool-proofing.  I'd maybe recommend using cheap, thin-sliced bacon, since my Boar's Head seemed to take forever to brown while the chicken was clearly done...  A few near the middle of the skillet came out nicely enough.  The others, though, I just unwrapped and put the bacon back in.  Obviously only the pretty ones made the picture below.

As unexpected as it was, the zucchini chips were really the star here.  I didn't even have parm, but even with a sesame/Asian turn they were delicious.  The zucchini becomes soft, but the crust gives a needed crunch to each bite.  It's more complicated than other veggie chips/sides I've done, but worth it.

Cider Beef Stew

Have you ever had a six-pack of hard cider and not wanted to drink it?  No?  Me neither.  But sometimes you want to mix things up and see what else you can do with that sweet nectar.  In one of those situations/moods, I was looking for some guidance for marinating a buffalo steak in cider, and happened across a list of Woodchuck-sponsored cider recipes.  This is the first one I had a chance to try:

Recipe

1 lb stewing beef
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp allspice
2-3 tbsp oil
1 bottle cider
2 tbsp ketchup
1-2 onions
1-2 potatoes
1-2 carrots
1-2 stalks of celery
mushrooms (optional; I had 'em so in they went)

Place the flour, salt, pepper, and allspice in a plastic bag, then add the beef a few pieces at a time and shake to coat.  Brown the beef in the oil.  Add the cider and ketchup, cover and cook for 1-1 1/2 hours.  Toward the end, chop the onion, potato, carrot and celery - no need to go too fine here - then add and simmer for 30 more minutes.

Notes

After this first test, I'll definitely hit that list of cider recipes again.  I wasn't always 100% sure on the recipe - it didn't seem like enough liquid to stew the meat and then soften all the veggies.  Not everything will be submerged, but even so the potatoes steam to a nice softness while the carrot and celery add some texture.  The end result was a  bit on the sweet side - maybe just from the special summer edition though, and a dryer cider might complement the allspice better in the meat.

In any case, beef stew seems to be a pretty simple concept overall.  It's definitely something I'd improvise with the liquid base and produce I have on hand.  Cider's definitely not a bad option!

Chicken & Chickpea Stew

Hmm, not much to preface this with.  Original recipe here.

Recipe

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 lb thin chicken breast, cut into 1/2" pieces
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp red wine (apple cider) vinegar
1/2 c water
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup spinach
instant grits
more butter, salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high, then add the chicken, carrots, garlic, ginger, paprika and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Saute for about 15 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste, then vinegar, water, chickpeas and spinach.  Cook about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare the instant grits, and top with the stew.

Notes

This recipe uses some good ingredients without a whole lot of work...  The instant grits help - and don't laugh, they're actually pretty solid!  Gotta say, though, as delicious as the chicken smelled with my generous servings of garlic, ginger, paprika, and all, some of those flavors seemed to disappear in the finished product.  Maybe it had to do with, I carefully halved most of the main ingredients in the recipe, but when it came time to add the chickpeas, I had a brain fart and dumped in the whole can.  Thus that iteration was a bit dominated by that component.  Still good, though:

Ale-Braised Duck Sausage

Sticking with the colonial cookbook, although this one had a distinctive French theme to it...

Recipe

1 lb duck sausage
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 medium shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 cups dark ale
1 tsp mustard
1/2 cup demi-glace

Cut shallow diagonal slices into the sausage and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes (if pre-cooked).  Meanwhile, cook the onion, shallot and garlic in a skillet with the butter, high heat for a few minutes.  Then add the sausage, then the ale to deglaze, scraping up bits from the pan bottom.  Cook at medium about 10 minutes, until the ale reduces to just coat the pan.  Remove the sausage and keep warm.  Add the demi-glace and mustard and cook about 5 minutes until reduced by half.  Serve over the sausage and whatever other elements you like.

Outcome

To be honest, this did not look promising at first.  I had trouble finding duck sausage, and when I did it was raw, not pre-cooked.  And I have no real idea what demi-glace is - I didn't copy that page of the recipe.  Then the big onion I had on hand was... really gross.  But I winged it - baked the sausage a while longer, used a small (backup) onion, and said forget that French demi-glace nonsense.  I also had some extra broccoli so I tossed that in there.

After all that, I was definitely pleased with how it turned out.  The end result was really rich and flavorful.  The sausage I used had, like, duck, duck liver, other animals, lots of good stuff.  Without the totally-avoidable complications, it's actually a pretty simple meal - all I had to buy was the sausage and shallot (although the beer I had on hand was more of the pale ale variety).  Served over cous cous.  Delicious and looking forward to leftovers!