Honey Ginger (Lemon) Chicken

"WHAT!?", you ask, "Another new blog post? Does this make three in the same week? After months without one?!"

"Yes, Dear follower. It is true."

Last night, after nearly choosing to order pizza, I regained control of the need to eat everything in the house before we go to San Diego next Tuesday impulse and made a delicious, and huge, fall dinner.

On the menu:
Homemade "harvest grain" bread (see crusty boule recipe on this blog)
Roased Local Carrots and Local Celeriac with Maple Syrup (below)
Garlic Mashed Local Red and White Potatoes
Spicy, Garlicky Local Collards (below)
Honey Ginger (lemon) Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemons (below)

The Recipes: 

Honey Ginger (lemon) Chicken Breasts (adapted from this recipe from Simply Recipes)


Marinade

• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp sherry
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns, ground

Chicken

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tbsp Sugar, to sprinkle

1 Preheat oven to 390°F. Warm the honey, stir in the sherry, ginger and pepper. Place marinade and chicken in a ziplock bag, coat chicken with marinade. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2 Heat olive oil in a large frying pan at medium high heat. Sear the chicken until golden.

3 Place lemon slices in a roasting pan. Lay the chicken pieces on top. Brush with the marinade. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and bake until done, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle sugar on top of chicken breasts and broil for 5 minutes, until sugar is carmalized. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Pour drippings from pan over chicken breasts. Serve with some of the lemons and preserved lemons.

Roasted Carrots and Celeriac (Recipe adapted from Notes from a Maine Kitchen (2011) Kathy Gunst)

Carrots, Peeled and ends removed
Celeriac, Peeled and cut into rods
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
maple syrup

Arrange carrots and celeriac rods on baking sheet. Drizzle oil over vegetables, season, and toss.
Roast at 400 for 15 minutes. Toss
Roast another 10 minutes. Drizzle maple syrup over vegetables. toss
Roast another 5-10 minutes.

Spicy and Garlicy Collards (Recipe completely made up)

Collards, washed and roughly chopped (remove tough stems through leaves)
2 tbs. bacon grease, butter, or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 tbsp. red pepper flakes
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1/2 C. white wine
salt and pepper

Add fat (grease, butter, or oil) to large saute pan. Heat to medium high. Add collards and cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, ginger, and wine. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until wine evaporates or reduces. Season. Remove from pan into serving bowl using tongs, slotted spoon, or fork (to leave any extra wine in the pan).

Roasted Potatos, Carrots, and Parsnips

Thanksgiving is fast approaching so here is a Thanksgiving-esque recipe I tried this week when we had dinner at Matt's parents house with my parents, also.

I was trying to decide what to make that I would be able to bring to their house and also something that would compliment the meal Matt's mom was preparing: Cream of Celery Soup and Chicken Pot Pie. I decided on a potato dish, since we had so many left over from our CSA. I looked up a bunch of recipes online and let Matt have the final decision. He picked a simple roasted potato dish, so I decided to add carrots and parsnips, since we also had these left over from the CSA. We eat roasties pretty often, usually in salads in lieu of croutons. Often, when I am putting my lunch together in the morning I will chop a couple of small potatoes, toss them with olive oil and garlic salt, and then bake on a cookie sheet while we eat breakfast. I looked online at suggestions for how to travel and serve roasted potatoes and then adapted the recipe as seen here:

 Roasted Potatoes, Carrots, and Parsnips

2 lb. Potatoes (I used yellow, white, red, and blue) 

6 Parsnips

6 Carrots

1 head garlic

6 Sprigs Thyme

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare Vegetables: Cut all of the vegetables so that they are a similar size. Since most of the potatoes I used were small I left some whole, halved some, and quartered the larger ones. I cut the carrots and parsnips into thirds then left the skinny end whole, halved the middle part, and quartered the large end. Separate the garlic cloves from the head but leave them in their paper. 

Boil water in a large pot. When it is boiling add potatoes and carrots and parboil for 5 minutes. Add the parsnips and boil for 4 more minutes. Drain in a colander and allow to steam dry. 

Meanwhile, place a fair amount of oil in baking sheet, add the garlic, thyme and some salt and place in a hot spot, like where the heat vents from the oven through the back burner on your stove, to infuse the oil with the taste of garlic and thyme.

 Remove the carrots and parsnips and "fluff" the potatoes. Really bang them around in the colander.

Mix all vegetables, garlic, and thyme in baking sheet (in a single layer so it doesn't steam) and season with salt and pepper (I had to use two baking sheets).

Cook about 40 minutes, stirring once in the middle, or until potatoes are tender.

Like I said earlier, roasties are one of our favorite things! Parboiling the potatoes and other veggies allowed the outside to crisp while the insides stayed tender and fluffy. I cooked the veggies on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes at home and then moved them to a deep dish to travel with and then once at Matt's parents house I returned them to a baking sheet and planned to baked them for about 10-20 minutes. Our timing got a little messed up with the multiple course dinner and the veggies ended up baking for much longer so they ended up a little over cooked and dry-- the garlic was way overcooked. However, the veggies had amazing flavor! Allowing the oil to become infused with the garlic and thyme really allowed the veggies to soak up the flavor.