Down to hEarth

Many years ago, a friend gave me this recipe and its been a family favorite ever since. It was one of the dishes that my faraway child asked me to help her cook in Malaysia and it turned out to be very easy to get all the ingredients from her local market.  RECIPE: 1-2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil  2 medium onions 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 3 cups chicken broth 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) or 1/2 tsp dried/ground coriander seeds 2 Tbsp. lime juice - or more to taste 1 tsp ground cumin - I like to add a bit more but I wait for final seasoning taste 1 tsp dried oregano 1/4 tsp. red pepper sauce (peri peri sauce would work great) - optional salt and pepper  1 small can of corn kernals. In the USA white "shoepeg" corn or hominy works great too 1 can (15-16 ounce) great northern beans - or cannellini beans I can (15-16 ounce) butter beans 2 cups boneless chicken thighs - chopped into bite size pieces. 1/2 cup flour - might take more to coat the chicken. You can season

 I just have to write this down... because... wow... I went to roast a chicken in my dutch oven soup pot. I spatchcocked the chicken to save some time - and also because I could then make stock with the backbone and bits. With my handy-dandy new poultry shears, it was super easy, by the way. Feeling a bit lazy but also wanting to keep the chicken up out of the juices (fat) that would accumulate in the bottom of the pot - I sliced a whole onion into big thick rings, laying them on the bottom. In went the chicken, olive oil, garlic salt/pepper and - zatar spice.  Oven was at 350 with lid for about 30 minutes. I checked the temperature, removing the lid and left to roast another 15-20. The chicken was good - but the stuff in the bottom of that pot was pure gold. Caramelized onions, juices and fats from the chicken and spices. I added back in the raw back bone, water, loosely chopped up some celery and a few heads of garlic - and set to simmer. Those caramelized onions crafted such a rich

I love making stuffing. It is basically a savory bread dish served as a traditional side for Thanksgiving. I've found many types of bread dishes from a variety of cultures; and yet, this particular dish is all about the fall harvest. Wild mushrooms, vegetables, herbs with homemade focaccia and simmering stock. My local farmer's market is my guide - what are they selling at their last harvest market of the season? Onions, leeks, mushrooms, celery - all are available late November where I live in the PNW. I can get fancy and add in some of those oyster or chanterelle mushrooms - or just stick to everyday white mushrooms. It all works. The trick to good stuffing is to make each part of the dish tasty in its own way. Using a carton of stock? Simmer it with herbs and half a head of garlic. Try the stock - does it taste yummy? Buying bread from the market? Get a loaf of uncut sourdough and dry out big thick slices to cut up. No fresh herbs? Find dried sage and thyme in the spice aisl

* Updated April 2022 as I visited my faraway child in KL...  This is a family favorite and one of my daughters, my faraway child, is craving this soup. The challenge is to bring what is a fairly simple chowder recipe to her high-rise apartment in Kuala Lumpur. I'm crossing my fingers that she can enjoy this tasty chowder while abroad.  We found everything - except crab. There are small clawed crabs in the market - but not what you want to sit and pick apart to make chowder. So we used scallops and one lobster tail (that wasn't worth the cost). My hope is that my daughter will play with the recipe to find ways to make it her own. Different chilies for the pesto; fish or other seafood for a crab substitute. Homemade fish or chicken stock made with green onions and ginger - there are so many ways that she will be able to experiment and have fun. For now, however, she wants the 'taste of home' - so we tried to make it as close to our NW favorite as we could. Let's get s

My faraway child wants to recreate some of her favorites Thanksgiving tastes: Turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and the gravy that binds it all together.  As I go through my day of prepping these dishes for tomorrow's big gathering, I'm also trying to help her make these dishes in her small apartment kitchen in Malaysia. Luckily, this particular meal is one that can have fairly basic ingredients and can adapt to a kitchen with fewer pots and pans.  She's making chicken breasts in lieu of turkey. She's going to cover the chicken with prosciutto and add onions, garlic, herbs and wine/stock to the cooking dish.  GRAVY: Ingredients: Butter Flour Stock Salt and pepper 2-3 sage leaves Pan drippings * Ingredient amounts shift depending on how much gravy you want and, realistically, how much meat you are cooking. For Faraway child, I'd suggest 2 Tb (30g) butter and starting with 4Tb (30g) flour. A good rule of thumb is equal parts flour and fat by weight. 4 T

Alternative Title: How to shop when we shelter in place to avoid a pandemic JP asked over a video call - how to eat and cook ' from the pantry.'  I'll point her back to the first post I did on pantry basics a few years ago but her question yesterday had a different need behind it as we all try to figure out how to not go to the market every day and how to deal with the shortages that are beginning to show up in those markets. How can she eat well if she literally can't go to the market for a couple of weeks? In light of what is happening in the world, the pantry starts taking on a different - or really, its more original purpose: a place to store food items that will last for longer periods of time. Our refrigerators and freezers are part of this storage system and need to be maximized. Finally found that chicken you were looking for - buy two and divide them up for the freezer. Which fruit can go in the fridge and store for a long time? Apples and oranges are goo