Chicken Peanut Stew

I've been seeing this recipe a lot over the past couple of years and wanting to try it. But it seemed like one of those things that my family might not like. No real reason, just a feeling. So I kept putting it aside.

Well, let me tell ya, I wish I had tried it a lot sooner! It was SO good!

This recipe is very slightly adapted from JungleFrog Cooking.



Chicken Peanut Stew
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeño, seeded & diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 in piece ginger root, grated
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
chopped peanuts, if desired
skinny chile pepper slices, if desired

Cut the chicken (breast or thighs, whatever you prefer) into bite sized pieces.
Chop the veggies.
Heat oil in a dutch oven. Add onions and jalapenos. Cook until onions are slightly translucent.
Add chicken. Cook and stir a few minutes. Add ginger, garlic, tomato paste, curry, coriander. Cook a few minutes until spices are really fragrant.
Add chicken broth, peanut butter, brown sugar and sweet chili sauce. Stir and cook until well combined. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Stir.
Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 60 - 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Garnish with chopped peanuts and chile slices. Serve with crusty bread.
Enjoy!!

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Cut up your chicken. I used boneless skinless breasts.


Cut up your veggies.


Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes




Heat the oil in a dutch oven.

Add onions & jalapenos and cook until onions are a little translucent.


Add chicken.


Cook a few more minutes.

Add ginger root, garlic, tomato paste, curry and coriander.


Stir and cook a few minutes until spices are really fragrant.

Add chicken broth.


And peanut butter


Stir until peanut butter is totally mixed in.

Add brown sugar.


Sweet Chili Sauce


And tomatoes.


Stir and add potatoes & sweet potatoes.


Stir, cover and simmer for 60 - 90 minutes or until potatoes are tender.


I had fully intended to garnish this with chopped peanuts & chile slices, but totally forgot to buy them!


Tear off a nice crusty piece of bread and enjoy!!


I didn't tell Jon what was in this, because I thought he'd say that the ingredients didn't 'go together'. That way he had a less biased mind to try it. He is really good about trying everything I make, well... except Rappie Pie... anyway...

We both LOVED this. Bob didn't care for it, but I really didn't think he'd like it. Tawny and Lilly weren't home, and they didn't get to try it, because Jon & I just finished up the leftovers for lunch!

This is a really hearty, thick, flavorful, satisfying stew and I wish I had tried it sooner! I'll definitely be making this again. Give it a try and don't wait as long as I did!

Potato Leek Soup

Do you ever plan meals around a small component of the meal?

Yesterday, my pulchritudinous friend, Erin posted on Facebook that she was making Beer Bread. Wait, what? What the heck is pulchritudinous? Well, sometimes I worry that I use the same words over and over, so I consult the thesaurus to mix things up a little and occasionally learn a new word in the process. I was going to call Erin my lovely friend. Which she is, inside and out. But for fun, I decided to peruse other words for lovely. There's quite a selection actually and most of them would have been perfectly acceptable substitutes for lovely. I knew all of them, except pulchritudinous. Ya know how your brain kinda picks out letters, even when jumbled and can come up with the right word? Well, since my brain had never come in contact with the word pulchritudinous, I think it converted it to putrid. Not very flattering, when you're looking for a substitute for lovely. So I had to look it up. It means physically beautiful. Erin is more than that, but I decided to use it today anyway, because maybe some of you don't know what pulchritudinous means, and if you read it somewhere, I wouldn't want you thinking it's putrid, since it's quite the opposite. Ok. English lesson over.

So my lovely (yeah, I went back to lovely, it really does describe her better than pulchritudinous) friend Erin, posted on Facebook that she was making Beer Bread. This was kinda late to mid afternoon and up until that time, it was looking like dinner was going to be FFY (Fend For Yourself) at my house. But Beer Bread wormed its way into my brain and I HAD to make it. But I couldn't just make Beer Bread for dinner, could I? Well, I'd be totally cool just eating it for dinner, but if I'm going to claim I'm making dinner, I should make more than just beer bread right?

So I was trying to decide what would go great with Beer Bread. Someone had mentioned Broccoli Cheese Soup. That sounded kinda good, but it just wasn't clicking. So I was in my car, on my way home trying to think of what to make and Potato Leek Soup popped into my head. That did sound good. But I'd never made it before so I wasn't really sure what goes in it. I decided it couldn't be much more than potatoes, leeks, maybe some chicken stock, a little cream... I'll just wing it and headed to the grocery store.

Making Beer Bread from scratch is wicked easy and wicked delicious. But I had a mix in the cabinet that was a gift that I wanted to use up. So I grabbed the Beer Bread Mix & Penn Brewery St. Nikolaus Bock.



You know when you shake a beer and then open it, it kind of explodes? Well, that didn't happen with the beer. But it DID happen with the Beer Bread Mix!!! I opened it and was the floury mix sprayed all over me and the kitchen! I think it was only a couple tablespoons worth. But what a mess!! I still just added the whole bottle of beer and baked according to the directions and it came out fine. It was tasty. But homemade is definitely the way to go. I thought I already had beer bread on Spryte's Place, but I can't find it anywhere! I know the recipe I've used in the past is from that little minx, Donna over at My Tasty Treasures. Her recipe does not disappoint!

Anyway... I put that into the oven and started on the soup!



Potato Leek Soup
2 leeks, sliced
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 qt chicken stock
1/4 C butter
2 C half & half
salt & pepper
chives (to garnish if desired)

Slice & rinse the leeks very well, they're good at hiding sand! In a stock pot, saute the leeks in the butter. Add grated garlic and cook a minute or two. Add chopped potatoes, chicken stock salt & pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in half & half. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with snipped chives and enjoy!

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This is what you need.


Saute those beautiful (pulchritudinous) leeks in butter.


Add grated garlic.

Add chicken stock & potatoes and salt & pepper.


Bring to a boil.

Add half & half & simmer for about 30 minutes until potatoes are tender.


Blend with immersion blender until smooth.

Ladle into bowls, garnish with chives and enjoy with a nice thick slice of beer bread!


This was a really tasty and delicious soup!


Bob wasn't interested in trying it, but Jon & I really enjoyed it. I definitely prefer thin soups, but this had a creamy silky texture and a savory delicate flavor. It was the perfect vehicle for my beer bread!

Go Steelers!!

Miso Soup

I LOVE Miso Soup! It's total comfort food for me. One sip and my eyes close, my lips curl into a smile, I say, "mmmmmmmm" and all the stress of the day melts away.

Miso Soup is also super insanely easy to make!!

This recipe is slightly adapted from Michelle Chen's recipe on allrecipes.com.



Miso Soup
2 tsp dashi granules
4 C water
3 TBLS miso paste
1 (8 ounce) package firm tofu, diced
1 sheet of nori (dried seaweed), cut into strips
2 green onions, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
additional water to hydrate nori

In a small bowl combine nori strips with enough water to cover them. When they are re-hydrated, drain off excess water.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine dashi granules and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and whisk in the miso paste. Stir in tofu and dashi strips. Add green onions to the soup. Simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes before serving.

This is what you need


I cut a sheet of nori into strips and just put it into some water to rehydrate it. I didn't want it to soak up all of the broth of that soup by placing it in still dry.


A quart of water & dashi granules


3 tablespoons of miso paste


You can get this in the refrigerator section in your Asian market. It keeps forever in the fridge!

Whisk the miso paste into the dashi broth and bring to a boil.


Add tofu, green onions and seaweed and simmer a few more minutes.

It's ready to enjoy!


This would have also been great with a very thinly sliced mushroom or two!

Comfort food that only takes a few minutes!

What are your favorite comfort foods?

Kale Soup

So I'm trying to go meatless a couple days a week at our house.

When this recipe landed in my inbox I decided I would definitely be making it.



I made a few changes and this reflects them.

Kale Soup
1 TBLS olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 large stalk of celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups vegetable stock
1 cup white wine
3 potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh sage
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 (16oz) can cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
1 (16oz) can diced tomatoes (unless you have nice fresh ones!)
2 cups finely chopped kale leaves
1 - 2 TBLS red pepper flakes
ground black pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot. Add onion and celery and cook until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a couple minutes more.
Add red pepper flakes and heat through.
Next add vegetable stock and white wine; stir in the potatoes, rosemary, sage, thyme and kale. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add the cannelini beans and tomatoes. Add black pepper to taste, and simmer, covered, for 30 more minutes.

Enjoy!

And now for the pictures!

I rarely have natural light in my kitchen, but this wicked snowy Saturday I had an abundance. I'm not sure if I like the natural light pics. What do you think?

Anyway... step by step...

Chop your veggies

(natural light)

Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil.

(blurry LED light)

Add garlic & red pepper flakes.

(more LED light)

I ended up adding a good bit more red pepper flakes for a nice spicy kick.

Add veggie stock and wine.

(more LED light)

Since I don't drink wine, I like to buy little four packs. They're recipe sized so none goes to waste.

That's what I had on hand.

All of the liquid is in there... not very pretty is it?

(yup... LEDs)

Time for nice fresh herbs.

(all that natural light reflecting all over the place!)


(LED)

Nice fresh healthy kale!

(natural light... but the kale looked so much green than this pic)

You want to wash that really well... I let it soak in cold water to be sure to get all of the dirt out of those curly leaves.

Into the pot with the potatoes.

(LED)

Bring it to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Time to add the cannelini beans and tomatoes and some black pepper.


(LED)

Take a little taste of the broth. Is it spicy enough for you?

It wasn't for me, so I added a bunch more red pepper flakes.

Cover and simmer for 30 more minutes.

Soup's on!


(compact fluorescent)


(regular compact fluorescent light... doesn't that look nicer?)

This soup was a HUGE hit at my house. I've already made another big double batch of it, which is also gone.

It's spicy and hearty and so satisfying. It's also very healthy! Win/Win!