Monterrey Chicken with Cilantro Cream Sauce

I've got a great new Atkins-friendly recipe.
I recently got some cilantro from Joe Bjorklund's garden, and used it to make a delicious cream sauce.

Sauce:
Gently warmed together are:
1/2 C. Sour Cream
Splash of half and half
4 T. finely chopped Cilantro
1/2 t. Sriracha Hot sauce

For the Chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sautéed in olive oil, seasoned with fresh ground coriander, black pepper, 2 T. of bread crumbs and sea salt.
Covered with shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese and finished in the oven.

Zatarain's Blackened Spices

I wanted to say how much I've enjoyed this Zatarain's Blackened Seasoning spice mix. It's pure wonderful flavor, rich and complex, it can make the ultimate spicy burger or chicken fillet. It does have a pretty good kick to it, but I wouldn't say its only function is heat, in fact you really have to be liberal with it's application for the recipe to become "spicy hot".

My favorite use for this is heartily seasoning a burger, then topping with a little more cracked black pepper and Maytag Bleu Cheese. Serve with a Kosher dill wedge over a bed of Romaine lettuce, and you've got a high protein low carb delicious lunch or dinner.

Japanese-Style Curry Beef

This hearty method for curried beef stew is great for a quick dinner. The S&B Curry Sauce mix makes just an excellent tasty meal, great for evenings when you don't have time to cook when you get home. This whole recipe can easily be done in a Crock Pot slow cooker in the morning, and you'll be rewarded with a hot, yummy meal when you arrive home.

Cubed stew meat such as a rump roast or round roast is perfect for this, as you'll cook it slowly. I brown a chopped onion and the meat in a little vegetable oil, at this point you could transfer it to a slow cooker, and continue, I chose to cook it slowly in a stock pot over low heat, but had I been gone for the day, I would've used my Crock Pot.

Add 3 cups of water and the curry sauce block. It very quickly melts to make a well seasoned, flavorful sauce. The block looks kind of like a big bar of chocolate!

I add potatos and baby carrots, cover and let simmer for 3 hours, In a Crock Pot, this is just fine to let simmer for 9 or 10 hours, you'll have very tender meat.

I added about a cup of frozen peas right before serving, and wanted just a touch more salt in it, so I added about 4 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce. From there, just serve it with some fresh bread, here's a loaf from my bread machine. A great meal, extremely simple and satisfying. It's become a staple comfort food in the winter for us, the mild curry spices warm you right up, and my kids really like it too.

Teriyaki Beef Stir Fry

Stir-frys are some of the most fantastic and healthy meals we can make in our kitchens. Tonight I made a Teriyaki Beef Stir Fry, as you can see, it turned out fantastic.

I don't overthink or even follow directions when stir-frying usually, but I kept track of what I put in this one to help out others as a guide.

If you're going to serve it with rice, it'll take 25 minutes for the rice, and this will be done long before then. I had it prepped and cooked in less than 15 minutes.

1 lb. Thin sliced Tri-Tip sliced against the grain
1 C. Broccoli Florets
1 C. Sugar Snap peas, strings removed
A can of water chestnuts
A can of baby corn
A large yellow onion
1/2 C. Shredded carrot
4 T. finely diced fresh ginger root
4 Cloves of garlic, pressed
1/2 C. Aji-Mirin (Sweet Japanese Rice Wine) for marinade
1/4 C. Dark Shoyu or San-J Tamari
1 T. Dark Brown sugar
Slurry of 3 T. Cornstarch disolved in 5 T. of Aji-Mirin
3 T. of Canola Oil

Let the beef stand at room temperature in the Aji-Mirin to marinate for whatever time it takes you to prepare the vegetables.

Cut the onion and broccoli to bite-sized pieces.

Heat the oil almost to smoking and add in this order:
Beef (wait till it gets a nice crackling coating)
Ginger, Soy Sauce and Brown Sugar at the same time
Onion (stir till starting to get translucent)
Garlic, Carrot, Corn and Water Chestnuts at the same time (stir fry 2 minutes or so)
Add the Slurry of Cornstarch, it should thicken almost immediately
Broccoli and Sugar Snap Peas at the same time, when the Broccoli is tender, the dish is done.

Some basic principals of stir fry:
Mise en place. That's French for "Everything in it's Place". Get all of your ingredients out in front of you, you don't want to be hunting for the broccoli in the back of the fridge while your onions are burning.

High Heat. You want that seared-in great flavor that only high heat and quick cooking can bring, it brings out the flavor in vegetables and brings the sugars out of meats, allowing them to carmelize.

Keep Stirring! There's sugars in many of these sauces and they can easily burn on the bottom of your wok.

Roasted Yellow Squash Soup

I just got some great yellow squash at my farmer's market today and I absolutely love them, they're great on the grill, sauté with some olive oil and some herbs as a side dish or as a hearty soup like this one.

Roasted Yellow Squash Soup
Take about 8-12 yellow squash, wash them well and slice in half lengthwise. Brush them with a little melted butter just on the top and salt liberally, pepper with fresh cracked black pepper. Roast them on a cookie sheet at 350°F for 40 minutes.

Remove them from the oven, cut into slightly smaller chunks, just so they fit into your blender.

Add a ½ cup chicken stock
1 C. half and half or light cream
½ tsp. sugar
½ tsp. nutmeg

Blend until smooth, use a strainer to remove any large fibrous pieces that may be left after blending, transferring directly into a saucepan. Heat over medium low heat stirring frequently to bring it up to serving temperature (there’s no need to bring this to a boil, you may scorch the bottom).

Garnish with some fresh chopped parsley, maybe a dollop of sour cream or just a sprinkle of paprika. I love this with Club crackers, the buttery taste goes so well with the soup.

Thai Coconut Curry

I'm always looking for something good and quick to serve, and this dish totally does it. Very difficult to botch, and just excellent.

Thai Coconut Curried Chicken
Fresh Kaffir Lime leaves or Thai Basil leaves as garnish
Fresh bean sprouts as a crunchy topping
Lime wedges to cut the heat a little, and give it a zing

1 Can bamboo shoots
1 lb. Chicken boneless, cut into strips: I like thigh meat best for this, but breast meat works too.
1 Can Coconut Cream
Red or green curry paste to taste, Thai Kitchen has a generally-available preparation (2 to 6 Tablespoons depending on how hot you like it)
Salt
2 T. Fish Sauce

Combine the curry, salt, and coconut cream then bring to a simmer, be careful how hot you get it, coconut milk can scorch.

Add the chicken and bamboo shoots, cook till chicken is done in the middle (breaks apart easy)

Add the fish sauce right before serving, garnish with basil leaves or Kaffir Lime leaves, drop some bean sprouts on the top all nice and crispy and squeeze a lime wedge over the dish.

Serve over sticky (Botan Calrose or equivalent) rice.