recipe

A quick and cool meal for a hot summer night

in ,

Openers:
Tortilla chips and homemade guacamole
a bowl of chilled gazpacho soup

Main dish:
Tarragon chicken salad (deli) on slightly warmed pita bread
diced nectarine with squeeze of lime over the top.

Recipes:
Basic and Simple Guacamole, [i]:

1. Grind into a paste (5 minutes) using a mortar and pistil:

a. A heavy pinch or two of kosher salt;
b. 1 to 1-½  teaspoons of chopped cilantro;
c. 1 tablespoon of finely diced onions (usually white, but red works fine); and
d. 1 finely diced Serrano pepper*  

2. Prepare the avocado (1 minute):

a. Slice one small-medium firm but ripe avocado in half lengthwise;
b. remove the pit; and
c. slice the guacamole flesh in each half in a crisscross argyle pattern.

3. Mix the cilantro paste and avocado flesh. Add a squeeze of lime juice (1 minute)

a. Scoop the flesh out of the skins and mix with the paste in a bowl;
b. leave the guacamole slightly chunky after mixing; and
c. squeeze ¼ of a lime over the guacamole.

Guacamole
Click to enlarge

****

Gazpacho Soup (prepared two days ago; about 1 hour to prepare)  [ii]

1. Add 1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes to a large bowl including the liquid.

2. Reserve 2-3 of the whole tomatoes, chop into ¾ inch chunks, and store temporariy in a small bowl.

3. Add the following to the tomatoes and liquid in the bowl:

  • 1 cup of tomato juice;

  • 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar;

  • 1 toothpaste-sized or smaller squirt of Amore garlic paste;

  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil;

  • 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt;

  • ½ teaspoon of sugar (raw); and

  • ½ teaspoon of dried oregano (prefer Mexican oregano, but it's not important)

4. Puree these ingredients in large food processor. Set aside in a large bowl.

5. Add to the pureed liquid:

  • the previously reserved and chopped tomatoes;

  • 1 stalk of finely chopped celery:

  • 1 small green chile, seeded and finely chopped. Serrano or jalapeno peppers work fine:

  • ½ cup (72 gr) of peeled, seeded and chopped cucumber:

  • ¼ cup (37 gr) of finely chopped red onion;

  • ¼ cup (37 gr)of seeded and finely chopped green bell pepper; and

  • ⅓ cup (55 gr) of sliced pimento-stuffed olives.

6. Cover and chill for 8 hours to 3 days.

Add garnishments of sliced avocado or chopped cilantro sprigs, as desired.

Gazpacho Soup
Click to enlarge

Notes and acknowledgements

[i]  As found in the New York Times and several other publications, most recently on July 1, 2018.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1008-guacamole. I follow this recipe – sans tomato – and have for several years, having lost my original source for the recipe.

[ii] Basic recipe reference: Cooking A to Z, The Complete Culinary Reference Tool; California Culinary Academy; Horn, Jane, editor; The Cole Group; 1992.

An experiment with mint (and red peppers)...

in

I planted a small herb garden on the back deck this summer. The deck is on the south side of my house and is in one of the few sunny spots back there. The herb containers included basil, mint, oregano and tarragon. All are doing quite well with the sunny and warm summer we've enjoyed so far. Especially the mint.

I'm unsure why I planted the mint other than the smell of it on hot days. I have ready recipes and situations for the other herbs, but not mint — aside from a farro grain salad I only occasionally make. After a search on the web, I found a recipe for a mint-sweet red pepper marinade1 for using with chicken kebabs prior to grilling.

I decided to adopt and modify this recipe to suit the whole chicken breasts I already had in the refrigerator.

Click to enlarge...

Step 1. Creating the sweet pepper paste (photos 1-3)

The marinade called for Turkish sweet red pepper paste. Unable to find jarred paste in the grocery store, I looked online for a recipe. I found a few online and followed one2 from food.com. I modified this recipe slightly to account for my available ingredients.

The sweet pepper paste recipe called for blending two types of peppers: red capsicum peppers with red sweet peppers. I used five fresh Fresno red peppers for the heat (capsicum). These peppers are similar in size to jalapeno peppers but have less heat. After trimming off the ends, splitting in half, and removing the seeds (photo 1), I sliced the pepper halves crosswise into ¼-inch strips.

I chose jarred Peppadew piquante peppers for the sweet red peppers (photo 2). A local pizza chain uses these peppers on one of their pies and the results are terrific. These were ready to eat and were rather small. The online recipe calls for an equal number of capsicums to sweet peppers, but I selected about nine of the piquante peppers due to their size to balance the Fresno red peppers. I sliced these in ¼-inch strips as well.

I then combined the pepper strips with 40 ml of olive oil, 20 ml of water, and 1 teaspoon each of sugar and salt in a food processor and pulsed these ingredients to a oily, wet paste. The final step in making the paste was to simmer the mix until it thickened a bit. This took about 15-20 minutes on very low heat (photo 3).

Step 2. Creating the marinade (photos 4 & 5)

The modified ingredient list for the marinade included:

  • fresh mint (rather that dried mint), 2 tablespoons;
  • italian seasoning, dried (in place of dried thyme which I did not have), 1 tbsp;
  • red pepper flakes, 1 tbsp;
  • 1 tbsp of the sweet red pepper paste made in Step 1;
  • sun-dried tomato paste (in place of standard tomato paste which I was out of), 1 tbsp;
  • Aleppo pepper, 1 tbsp;
  • fresh ground black pepper, 1 tsp;
  • olive oil, 1 cup.

Simply mix and blend these ingredients with a whisk in a large bowl. Then pour over the chicken breasts and let them sit for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator.

I ran the grill on high. I cooked the first side for 7-½ minutes; then flipped them on the second side for 6-½ minutes (photo 6).

After starting dinner with a cool green salad on a hot day, I served a main course of the mint-pepper chicken breasts with roasted potatoes and several lemon slices for drizzling over everything.

Served here with grilled potatoes and lemon slices for drizzling over everything.

 

3. Results and thoughts...

This was a pretty good recipe. The chicken was a bit overdone on the exterior, but this was mostly the marinade becoming toasty on the hot grill. The chicken was extremely moist and tender on the inside, with juices running clear.

A few things I'll certainly try different next time:

  • I'll use boneless and skinless chicken breast. They will hold the marinade better and would be easier to slice and eat. I usually buy chicken in this form. For some reason, I had purchased fryer breasts. I like fried chicken but rarely make it. I'm not sure why I purchased chicken with the skin and bone in place.
     
  • I think serving the chicken sliced (after grilling) would work better as well.
     
  • I may try the marinade with less olive oil and try to make it more of a pasty rub. The olive oil was fine, but one cup of it left the marinade runny and, more importantly, a whole a lot of oil to clean up after eating. The recipe called for enough marinade to cover kebabs for 6-8 people. I should have adjusted the volume for less. This much oil is not something I wish to wash down the kitchen sink drain. I handled the excess oil by soaking it in paper towels and making a 'compost burrito'. After rolling, I tossed the burrito into the compost bin.
     
  • I'll back off the grill time slightly. Rather than a 7.5/6.5 minutes split on each side, I'll set the timer for 6.5/5.5 minutes.
     
  • I'll try the sweet red pepper paste tonight as a smear on a grilled sausage sandwich. I'll report later.
     
  • I'll try the marinade on a flank steak I plan to grill later this week. I think it would also pair well with grilled pork loin. Again, I'll report later.

Recipe Source Notes

  1. Saveur Magazine; Mint & Aleppo Pepper Marinated Chicken Kebabs (Tavuk Kebabi);  http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Tavuk-Kebabi-Mint-and-Aleppo-Pepper-Marinated-Chicken-Kebabs; date: May 20, 2013.
  2. Food.com; Turkish Red Pepper Paste; http://www.food.com/recipe/turkish-red-pepper-paste-294358.