Tomato Basil Chicken (and Shrimp) Orzo from The Flavors of Kitchen

Tomato Basil Chicken (and Shrimp) Orzo - made January 1, 2023 from The Flavors of Kitchen

1 1/2 cups orzo

500 grams boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

2 tablespoons oil 

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

4 tablespoons tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes

4 cups chicken stock, warm

1 cup fresh basil

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

1. Heat oil in skillet. Add chopped onion and minced garlic. Saute until onion is soft and transparent. Add cubed chicken breast and saute for 2 minutes on medium high heat.
2. Add tomato paste, chili flakes, salt and pepper; stirring to mix well. 
3. Add orzo and warm 3 1/2 cups chicken stock. Hold back 1/2 cup of chicken stock to mix in later if needed. Stir well. 
4. Once mixture begins to boil, lower heat and let cook slowly, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
5. Cook until orzo is done, adding reserved chicken stock if mixture dries or as needed. Once orzo is cooked, remove from heat and stir in fresh basil. Serve warm.

It's not exactly a tradition or even a New Year's resolution or intention but around every new year's, before I prepare for the new year of work, I try to do some cooking for the days ahead. As in do some batch cooking, portion into individual-size meals for the freezer and buy myself a few weeks' grace of prepared meals and no takeout. 

While home-cooked meals are instinctively more healthy than restaurant or takeout meals (at least where I go and based on what I order to go), I don't do it as often as I should. Except for the new year.

Since orzo has become my new favorite go-to pasta, this is also when I clear out my pinterest board of "real food" recipes to try. This has all the earmarks of what I look for in a recipe: easy to make, not to many ingredients, nothing too spicy and very do-able for me.

It also helps that I shopped at Costco for the big pack of shrimp and a multi-pack of chicken tenderloins. Then Trader Joe's for the win with fresh basil, orzo and the tomato paste in the tube. This only calls for 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and I didn't want a half-full can of tomato paste I had to worry about using fairly soon. Tube tomato paste to the rescue - who knew that was a thing? I do now.

I liked this recipe as it turned out pretty well. It does dry up a bit once it's cooled so don't let it boil for too long and it's better to err with a bit more sauce left before the orzo absorbs it all. Next time I would probably use more basil than I did, simply because I like basil. I'm glad I added extra protein so it felt more like eating a casserole than simply a plain pasta dish.

Instant Pot Chicken Adobo from Savory Tooth

Instant Pot Chicken Adobo - made December 31, 2022 from Savory Tooth 

2 - 2.5 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, patted dry and trimmed

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1/3 cup white vinegar

1 onion, sliced

5 gloves garlic, minced

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

salt and black pepper

2 green onions, tops sliced into small pieces, for garnish (I didn't have any so I left out)

1. Sear chicken: heat instant pot on saute mode. Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add olive oil to instant pot when hot. Sear chicken pieces in hot oil, cooking for several minutes on each side. Remove from instant pot and transfer to plate. 
2. Turn off saute mode. Add soy sauce, vinegar, onion and garlic, stirring well and scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add chicken. Top with bay leaves.
3. Secure and seal lid. Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes then do a quick release. Remove lid and set instant pot on saute mode. Bring mixture to boil and let boil for 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened. Remove bay leaves and serve chicken over rice, garnished with chopped green onions.

Are you sick of sugar yet? Never fear, I'm going to switch to "real food" for the next few posts. I need to catch up on the savory dishes I've been making and not just the baked goods I've been mailing out.

Chicken Adobo is probably one of the easiest dishes to make. There are multiple variations of it but essentially, all you need is vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves and peppercorns. You can add ginger if your taste buds prefer and you can play with the proportions of each to get the taste to your liking but that's essentially it. For extra flavoring, it's best to marinade the chicken overnight in the soy sauce-vinegar combination of your choice and cook it over low heat until the chicken is tender. I went the Instant Pot route for quick gratification and my taste buds aren't picky enough about it to care. This was a standard recipe and did quite nicely for a quick weeknight meal.

Toffee Bars from Alice Medrich

Toffee Bars - made January 5, 2023 from Cookies and Brownies by Alice Medrich 

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

Topping

6 ounces or 1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped almonds, lightly toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add brown sugar and whisk until combined. Stir in vanilla and salt then flour until combined.
3. Spread in an even layer in prepared pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes until well browned at the edges and middle is golden brown.
4. Sprinkle even layer of chocolate chips and return to oven for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from oven and spread softened chocolate into an even layer of topping. Sprinkle toasted almonds evenly over melted chocolate. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

When I made these bars, I thought the "toffee" just referred to the combination of a brown sugar shortbread base supporting a chocolate layer topped with chopped nuts but not actual toffee.

I was pleasantly if unexpectedly surprised to be wrong. This really is like toffee down to the crunch of the base. It's almost like an Almond Roca in bar form. 

The reason I didn't expect that is because of the flour in the shortbread base so I expected, well, shortbread. It's not even shortbread texture really but actually like toffee buttercrunch.

No complaints here as I love toffee but rarely make real toffee as I don't want to hassle with boiling sugar and water, getting to the right temp, letting it boil long enough and so on. If you don't boil (real) toffee long enough, it's more sticky and tacky with no snap. Boil it too long, it's hard to eat without breaking a tooth.

So here's a cheat version. You still don't want to overbake this or underbake it either. I baked it exactly 25 minutes in my oven and got the toffee-esque crunch.

Coffee Cake Cookies from The Palatable Life

Coffee Cake Cookies - made dough December 24, 2022 from The Palatable Life

Cinnamon Dough

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I added another 1/4 cup for 2 1/2 cups total as dough was too soft)

Streusel

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 - 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

Icing

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

splash of vanilla extract

1. Cookie dough: combine butter, oil and dark brown sugar, beating until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat to combine. 
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Add to butter mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.
3. Streusel: combine butter, brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl. The mixture should stick together when squeezed but also crumble when you run your fingers through it. If it's still too wet, add flour, one tablespoon at a time, until it crumbles.
4. Portion cookie dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Make an indent in the center of each cookie. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove frozen cookies and fill indents generously with streusel. Evenly space on baking sheets.
6. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Halfway through baking, check the oven and if your streusel is't enough because the cookies have spread, remove from oven and quickly add more streusel to the center of each cookie. Return to oven to finish baking, Remove from oven when edges are set and let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack.
7. Meanwhile, make the icing: combine the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a small bow. Whisk until smooth and runny. Drizzle over lukewarm cookies.

The original recipe mixed up as dough that was too soft and sticky for easy handling so I ended up nearly another 1/4 cup of flour. You want the dough to be pliable but not dry or too soft. Go by feel and see if you need to add more (or less) flour to yours.

Once I had it to the consistency I wanted, it was easier to form into dough balls and use my tart tamper (yes, that's a thing) to make the center indents. The dough did crack around the edges even though the dough wasn't too dry. If that happens, just pinch the cracked edges together to keep the indented dough disc intact.

I wasn't baking these right away so I froze them and baked them later. Above are the unbaked (still frozen) cookies filled as much as possible with the streusel. But when I checked the cookies halfway through the baking time, they had spread enough such that the streusel amounts looked miniscule. No problem - I took them out and quickly added more streusel to fill the gaps. Otherwise they would have looked anemic. 

As you can see, it mostly worked. I could've added more streusel and mounded it more on the top (the recipe makes plenty of streusel so no need to skimp) but I was trying to work quickly and not have them be out of the oven too long.

You can see they still baked up thick enough. If I hadn't added the extra flour and hadn't baked from frozen dough, I think these would have been flat cookies with the indents baked right out. 

If you want the icing to melt more into the cookie, drizzle over the cookies while they're still lukewarm.

If you want the icing to be more prominent, drizzle after the cookies have cooled completely.

Taste-wise I think these were good. Although I think I could've baked them a little longer for them to have a more cakey instead of dense texture. They taste amazing when warm so even if you serve them after they've cooled, pop them into the microwave for about 10-12 seconds and enjoy warm coffee cake in cookie form.

Coconut Bars from Fat Witch Brownies

Coconut Bars - made January 2, 2023, adapted from Fat Witch Brownies by Patricia Helding

Crust

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar

Topping

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of cinnamon

2 cups sweetened coconut (I used flaked)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Crust: mix together butter, flour and brown sugar until a dough forms. Spread evenly in bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is light golden. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
3. Topping: Beat brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the sweetened condensed milk, mixing thoroughly. Add flour, baking powder and cinnamon, mixing until combined. Mix in coconut until well combined. Spread topping evenly over par-baked crust. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

I'm forever switching back and forth between the recipes I've pinned on Pinterest and the (guilty) call of my existing baking books calling me from my bookshelves to use them. I bought them whereas the pinterest recipes are free so why don't I actually use what I bought? (rhetorical question)

In any case, I've had this book from Fat Witch Brownies for donkey's years. Long ago, when I first discovered Fat Brownies, online brownie bakeries weren't as much of a thing as they are today and getting a recipe book from said online (and brick and mortar) bakery was a big deal. So I promptly bought the book, tried a few of the recipes of the brownies I'd ordered online then let same book gather dust over the years. Sigh.

Anyway, I tried this recipe from Fat Witch and thumbs up because I love coconut and brown sugar flavor together. This one was a tad too sweet though and it may be because I didn't bake it enough (the edges were perfect, the middle piece was a bit grainy). Still, the crust was perfection, not too hard but not dry-crumbly-soft either. It's a good shortbread base and you can't beat the chewiness of the coconut.

If I make these again, I'd bake a little longer than the 30 minutes the recipe suggests (at least in my oven) or, at a minimum, I'd use the recipe for the shortbread base in any other recipe that needs it.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Urban Apron

Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough January 1, 2022 from Urban Apron

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cup chocolate chips or chunks

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and shortening until well combined and creamy with no lumps. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat until well combined.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until just combined.
3. Add salt, baking soda and flour, mixing on low speed, until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

You may see me trying out different recipes for chocolate chip cookies more often again. It's partly because I'm trying to clear out my pinterest boards (a never-ending quest) and partly because chocolate chip cookies are the most popular and requested items from deployed military service members.

If I'm going to keep making them for military care packages, I need some variety in what I'm mailing out, even if the service members will neither know nor care what recipe I'm using, lol.

Fortunately, this one did not go the way of thin, flat, spread out with abandon cookies like some of my earlier tried and true recipes have done because of the more-water-in-the-butter issue of the past few months. I don't think it was necessarily the recipe as much as I'm now just adding more flour than the recipe might call for until I'm satisfied with the texture of the cookie dough. You don't want to add too much or it'll affect the final texture and flavor of your cookie but a couple of extra tablespoons doesn't hurt if your dough is too soft and sticky.

These came out fine and are your basic, good chocolate chip cookies with crisp edges, chewy middles and a nice caramelized brown sugar flavor. 

Crumbl Copycat Cinnamon Fry Bread from Lifestyle of a Foodie

Crumbl Copycat Cinnamon Fry Bread - made dough December 28, 2022 from Lifestyle of a Foodie 

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

Cinnamon buttercream, optional

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and cinnamon. Add to butter mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.
4. Portion into 8 equal-sized dough balls and flatten each ball slightly to thick discs, at least 2/3-inch thick. Evenly space on baking sheets, leaving cookies 2 inches apart.
5. Drizzle each cookie disc with about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon sweetened condensed milk. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets until lukewarm. Remove to wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
6. Make the buttercream: cream butter, sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon until smooth and fluffy. Top each cooled cookie with about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of cinnamon buttercream.

I didn't quite make this exactly like a Crumbl copycat as you know I'm not about the frosting and this is supposed to have a dollop of it. But I was intrigued by the idea of drizzling sweetened condensed milk over a cookie and wanted to see what that would add.

As you can tell by the picture above, I didn't drizzle so much as "envelope" the cookie dough balls. That was on purpose as I really did want to see how they'd turn out. During baking, it turns out the baked sweetened condensed milk obligingly did envelope the cookie, even down to the edges of the bottoms.

Which made removing them from the baking sheet a bit sticky-tricky but hence why I always use parchment paper. Don't try this at home without parchment paper. Not unless you want to be scrubbing your baking pans after.

The cookies might look more underdone than they actually are but you can see from the bottom of the cookie below that they're not. It's the sweetened condensed milk baked on top that gives them that appearance.

Taste-wise, I thought this was good. I liked the texture. The baked sweetened condensed milk over the top of the cookie makes it more chewy, not crisp, which isn't surprising. It's like a dense sugar cookie but not as sweet as one. The cinnamon isn't as pronounced but was still present. Not sure this will stand out later to me as more than a dense, chewy cookie but I liked it at the time. Oh, and in fairness, I can't say I've had fry bread before so I can't evaluate this well in terms of having the cookie version of it.