Grilled Chicken with Tomatillo Roasted Poblano Cream Sauce

Here in Florida we have so many options for great produce any time of the year. I found lovely poblano peppers at Roosters Produce on Palm Beach Blvd near us in Fort Myers. Sunday mornings there is a terrific selection of most everything IN SEASON in Florida at the Babcock Ranch's Sunday farmer's market. The grocery stores are hit or miss, but I found great tomatillos at Winn-Dixie. Our refrigerators are full here with everything I've packed in for the month we will spend at the end of 2023.

I found this recipe on joyfulhealthyeats.com and didn't change much up except for a few things such as using a few more garlic cloves and using the lime zest and all of its juice. I also grilled skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts. Next time I'll use boneless thighs or breasts so that we can slice the chicken before serving it.

Grill:

1 poblano pepper, cut in half

2 large tomatillos, husked and cut in half

Use a pastry brush and paint the peppers and tomatillos with olive oil. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Marinade:

Place chicken in a bowl with olive oil, all but 1 T. lime juice and salt and pepper.

Zest one lime and juice it. Set the zest and the juice aside.

Grill (or roast) the pepper for 5 minutes until charred. Place it in a small bowl covered in plastic until it is cool (while the tomatillos are grilling or roasting.) Grill the tomatillo cut-side down for about 3 minutes. (We use our indoor IR grill.)

Blend all until creamy in  a blender (or use a Ninja or immersion stick):

1/4 cup (or up to 3/4 cup) chopped cilantro

1-2 garlic cloves cut into pieces

5.5 oz plain Greek yogurt

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 T fresh lime juice (see above)

salt and pepper

the grilled poblanos and tomatillos, cut into chunks

Cook a few cups of rice of your choosing. If cooking in a rice cooker, add 1 T butter, 1/4 tsp. paprika and lime zest.

Grill the chicken on both sides until it is done. Slice before serving with the rice. Generously drizzle or spoon the cream sauce on all and serve the remainder of the sauce in a serving container on the table.

Ceviche Salad with Grilled Shrimp

 

When we are in Fort Myers, we visit the Babcock Ranch on Sunday mornings, mostly on our bikes to ride 12-15 miles safely on the bike paths and roads. We always stop at the farmer's market in the Town Square and stuff as many yummies we can fit into our bike bags.

This October we are here for a month and our bike rack is at home in Massachusetts so we drove to the Ranch knowing we could bring home any goodies we wanted to. We bought olive bread (and a few pastries to eat there), cheese, olive oil, guacamole, a great beef cheek dog chew for Oreo, granola and some fresh ceviche.

I decided to unfreeze a small bag of large shrimp I found in the freezer here at home. I sliced them down the back (butterflied) and simply grilled them on the stovetop gas grill with some olive oil. I cooked some thin Vietnamese noodles and left them to drain and cool.

The ceviche had a lovely clear sauce that I used as a dressing.

I layered chopped romaine lettuce in individual bowls and placed thinly sliced cucumbers and sliced multi-colored small peppers around the edge. I topped those with the ceviche and the noodles. I garnished with chopped fresh cilantro and sesame seeds. Delicious.

Slow-cooked Lamb with White Beans and Gremolata

Last night I pulled out the crockpot to cook eight very thick frozen lamb chops that I knew had been in the freezer since last year or before. We love Costco lamb chops and I wasn't worried about the quality having been in the freezer, but it seemed like a nice fall day to fill the house with some great aromas.

I also wanted to make some sweet potato stacks (I admit, I fell for one of those Reels on Facebook). So I served those with the lamb and just a handful of green beans left from this week's dinners.

I pulled three of my cookbooks off the shelves (I'm trying not to use the Internet!) The Chef and the Slow Cooker, The Italian Slow Cooker and Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Fast and Slow and chose the simple one by Michele Scicolone. It really was for lamb shanks (as shanks usually take the slow cook method), but I knew this would work well with the thick chops from the freezer.

Rinse and fully dry the chops. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sear them on all sides in a skillet or Dutch oven in rosemary olive oil. 

Chop one or two medium carrots, one medium onion, one or two celery ribs and 4 garlic cloves. Place them in the slow cooker with a a sprig or two of rosemary on top. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of an infused balsamic, such as Neapolitan (or even maple, chocolate or one of the dark fruity ones.)  Place the seared chops on top of the vegetables. 

Mix together one cup of beef broth, one cup of dry red wine, 2 T. tomato paste (I used 1 tablespoon each of tubed tomato and vegetable pastes). Pour on top of the lamp and vegetables. Turn to high (8 hours).

Rinse and drain four cups of white beans (I used both Northern and Cannellini beans.) Set them aside.

Make the gremolata by chopping 1/4 cup fresh parsley and mincing two garlic cloves. Add 1 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest. 

When done cooking, remove the shanks to a serving platter. Mix the beans with the sauce. (The recipe actually calls for skimming the fat from the sauce. If using shanks, this would be necessary. It wasn't with the chops.)  Put half the gremolata in the sauce and garnish the dish with the other. Serve. 

Serve with Herbed Sweet Potato Stacks.

Of course, serve with a rich red wine. This one was Barrel Heist Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet Sauvignon from Lodi, California. 

Herbed Sweet Potato Stacks

Served with Slow-cooked Lamb

These were yummy.  The combinations for these stacks are endless and can be savory or sweet. This recipe was savory and used grated parmesan, and rosemary and thyme herbed oils.  And they are cooked in a muffin pan at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes until a fork can easily pierce them.

Peel three skinnier sweet potatoes (really big ones won't fit into a regular muffin tin. However, you could try a tin for a larger muffin or a popover pan.

Cut the sweet potatoes into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Place them in a bowl (or bag if you are leaving them and cooking later.) Season with salt and pepper and rosemary, butter and thyme olive oils - or some of the dozens of other oils that will complement the other dish(es) you are serving. Let the slices sit until you are ready to fit them in the pan(s) and bake them.

Place one oiled slice in the pan, using the smaller of them first. Sprinkle with a bit of parmesan cheese (or other finely grated cheese) and layer them as you go. Season with combinations of dried herbs or mixed spices - or not. Layer them until you have reached the top. Dot with butter and top with Panko crumbs.

Bake and then gently lift them out of the tins. 

 

Asian Noodle Soup with Peanuts

Photo: Trader Joe's Wheat Noodles with serving suggestion

I found the Trader Joe's wheat noodles during my last TJ shopping trip and thought they'd be convenient to add to a simple Asian dish. Rather than tuck them into the pantry, as I do so many times and then discover it months or years later, I left them on the counter as a reminder to make something with it THIS week.

I also found boneless pork chops and boneless country-style ribs on sale at Shaw's, so I got out my KitchenAid and meat grinder attachment and ground about 5 pounds, putting 1 pound each in the freezer in small Ziploc bags. (Three of them I seasoned with sausage seasoning right on the spot.) I  am determined to empty our freezers BEFORE we leave for the winter this year.

So here's the recipe I adapted from my own tastes and a simple Asian noodle soup I found online. Gerry loved it!

Brown 1 lb. of ground pork in a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven in 2 T sesame oil (I used 1 T sesame oil and 1 T Cilantro-Roasted Onion olive oil.) You can also substitute some peanut oil. Add 1/4-1/3 cup of chopped sour pickles. (I used the rest of a jar of cornichons and also tossed some of the vinegar into the pan.)

Make a peanut sauce and add it to the meat in the skillet.

Peanut sauce:

Mix all of these ingredients, whisking together.

3 T peanut butter (I only had chunky on hand, but I will use creamy next time)

3 T soy sauce, fish sauce, aminos or a combination 

3T roasted sesame oil

3 T sugar (less if using any other ingredients that may have sugar)

2 T rice vinegar (I used Honey-Ginger balsamic vinegar)

1 tsp red chili flakes (I had some chili-garlic crisp in a jar from making Chili-Crisp Butternut Squash Dumplings and used a heaping tablespoon. I could have used more.)

Add 4 cups of chicken stock and 2 cups coconut milk (or half if you want less broth) to the skillet. 

Open two of the wheat noodle packages and massage them to separate from the block of compressed noodles. (There are three packages in the TJ box.) They are fully cooked. Drop into the soup with some sliced (lengthwise) baby bok choy.  Cover and heat for a few minutes until everything is hot and the bok choy has wilted and serve.

Serve hot in bowls, garnished with chopped roasted and salted peanuts, sliced green onions, chopped cilantro leaves and toasted sesame seeds.