Jerk Chicken Pasta

While I don't have pictures of this dish, this is really good. Invest in some good, but mild jerk seasoning. I suggest mild so you can use more of it for a richer flavor.

Gather together:

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (cut in to bite sized pieces)
  
• 1 teaspoons jerk paste (more if you like it really spicy)
  
• 1 package of your favorite paste
  
• 1 tablespoon canola
  
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (rough chop)
• 1 red bell pepper (sliced)
• 1 small box of frozen spinach (thawed and drained of juice)
  
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• juice from 2 limes or about 2 tablespoons of lime juice
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil, cook the noodles until al dente, and drain. Lightly oil the pan. Cook chicken with the juice of 1 lime until fully cokked. Remove from pan. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and cook the garlic, onion red pepper and spinach until the onion is just translucent. Mix in the chicken stock, 1 tablespoon jerk paste, juice of 1 lime, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and stir in the heavy cream. Cook and stir until mixture is thickened, about 5 minutes. Do not allow it to boil. Add the chicken back to the pan. Serve sauce over noodles.

This stuff was good. I used jerk seasoning powder on the chicken while it was cooking--I like things spicy, but like I said, if you can find a mild jerk seasoning, you can add more or less if you don't like things as spicy.

It hurts so good.

My new love in life is Sriarcha. Most people close to me know that I love my food spicy. The more pain, the better. I had this sauce before in the Lower 48, but never purchased it. Then I met Samara and she had some at her house. It was then that I discovered my love for it. It is hot but has the most amazing flavor. Some hot sauces just taste like hot (if that makes sense). This one actually has a Thai sort of flavor about it. The ingredients include things such as hot chilies, vinegar (I also love vinegar), salt, sugar, and garlic. It's simple but comes together to make the best hot sauce ever. I almost literally eat it on everything savory. Now that I think about it, you could probably do something with Sriarcha and chocolate cake. 

If you like spicy foods I highly recommend this sauce. Just look for the bottle with the rooster on it. I purchased two giant bottles at Sam's Club for $6. What a deal! So much food happiness for $6. I also snuck it into a Mexican restaurant once when we went to Anchorage.

Mole sauce with chicken or tofu

I kick my self in the butt every time I think about all the times I dismissed my grandma when she was cooking. To this day, I still have a rough time making tortillas from scratch. So it seems only natural that I should try my hand at making mole (moll-lay). Grandma did it. I should be able to do it. This is not a sweet dish. I know it has chocolate in it, but this is a savory dish.

I used the crock pot to cook the chicken in. It just seemed easier. I used 3 pounds of chicken thighs, added a bay leaf, salt and garlic. Cook it on high for about 4-5 hours. It will take some time if you want to make a good mole. I once again did not measure things, just do it until it looks & tastes right. And I always run in to the problem of not finding exactly the right ingredients that I need. So here is the list of ingredients that I used:

• ground cumin
• ground coriander
  
• pumpkin spice--it has both cinnamon & clove in it so it works out
• red pepper flakes
  
• salt
• canola oil
• toasted pine nuts--not needed, I just used what I had
  
• toasted almonds
• tahini paste (I am lucky that Ann sent this to me, b/c there is no finding this here)
  
• unsweetened bakers chocolate
• sugar
• 1 can of green chilies--diced
  
• ranchero salsa (I needed Ancho chilies, but there was no getting those here)
• 2 cans of tomatoes--crushed or what ever you have on hand
  
• 1 jar or roasted red peppers--diced
• 1 medium onion-small diced
• 2-4 cloves of garlic (or if you have any of that roasted garlic left you could use that)
  
• Raisins (I didn't use any, I have no excuse other than I just forgot)
• vegetable bouillon base
• water
  

This is going to take some time. This is not a 30 minute meal! Not at all. If you haven't roasted or toasted your pine nuts & almonds do this first. Just a simple toasting in a dry pan over medium high heat. Do not over toast, meaning don't burn them. Keep moving the pan around to keep them from lingering in one spot for too long. Once, they are toasted, pulse in a food processor or blender until it is powdery...if you do it too long, it will turn to paste. This does not ruin anything so just go with it.

In a dutch oven or large heavy sauce pan, add about 2-3 tablespoons of oil on turn it to medium heat (use can use lard, my grandma would have used lard, but the vegetarians would not have eaten it) . Next add the cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, and pumpkin spice. Add enough to make a bubbling, liquid goo, but not a thick paste. Let this cook for about 10 minutes stirring constantly. It will get darker, let it get dark, but don't let the spices burn. Next add the onion and garlic. Let those get coated in the spices and get tender. Next add the roasted red peppers, tomatoes with juice, chilies, ancho peppers (if you have them--if not add the rancho salsa) and raisins. Let this simmer so all the flavors can combine, about 10-15 minutes.

Next, if you have an immersion blender, you can use that. I have the old style blender, so I had to do a few batches and dirty up another bowl, then transfer it back to the pot. With everything blended, start adding the almond & pine nut crumbs/paste. Next add a couple tablespoons of tahini paste and the veggie bouillon and about 2 cups of water. Now, coarsely chop the chocolate bars and add them to the pot. I used all 8 squares. Keep stirring the pot, you don't want the chocolate to settle on the bottom and burn. Keep stirring. Look at the bubbling goo and keep stirring. This will take about 15 minutes. It will turn from a red-ish orange color to a dark brown color. It will also thicken up as you go. Taste the sauce, it will need salt. It might need a bit of sugar. I added about 2 tablespoons of sugar and you know, enough salt to make it not taste like it need salt. Let this simmer for a few minutes more and you are done with the sauce.

(I know what you are thinking, but this really is good. Even if it is dark brown...just keep thinking about the chocolate in it)

Now assuming you had the chicken in the crock pot, you can take it out (de-skin and de-bone it if you used bone in chicken) and shred it a bit. Mix the shredded chicken with the sauce. Serve this with rice and tortillas.



I had enough sauce to give Erin some for her tofu, some for the chicken and about a quart to freeze for later. THIS WAS FREAKING AWESOME! I realized about 1/2 way through with this, you can't really screw this up too bad. You can add anything you like. You blend everything. And the chocolate makes it all better. I realized that this dish is not for everyone. It's a spicy, savory, chocolate sauce. Aaron even ate seconds. I was impressed.

Erin made her's with tofu. I went home with my sauce before she made her tofu, so I have no idea how it went.

This is Erin:

The mole sauce was awesome! Anthony doesn't even like tofu and he ate a bunch of it. Tofu is pretty much a blank slate, so it soaked up a bit of the sauce and was so tasty. All I did was fry the tofu until it was a little browned with some red pepper. This took about five minutes (a perk to vegetarian cooking!). Then I put some mole sauce in the pan and heated it up with the tofu. We ate this over rice. It was so good! Like Samara said, probably not for everyone (it has a unique flavor), but we really enjoyed it.

Faux Chicken Etouffee

I like spicy food. Ok, I really like spicy food. And after a week of not being able to taste anything due to cold medicine I wanted something flavorful and spicy. It also helped that I spent 2 days at home instead of going to work and watched the foodnetwork and the travel channel. After watching Anthony Bourdain's show, "No Reservations" about the restaurants in New Orleans (after Katrina), I just had to have me some etouffee. Since I have never been to New Orleans and have only had cajun food at Bourbon and Toulouse in Lexington, Kentucky, I figured I would do the best I could. What I came up with was a bastardized version that resembled something like what I imagine a real etouffee to taste like.

The previous night I cooked some bacon and reserved the grease. (It had not been sitting around for days and nothing makes things taste better than a little pork fat.) Every good southern girl keeps her bacon grease even if she is in the public health profession. I figure if hot bacon grease doesn't kill it, nothing will.

Gather together:
1 lb of chicken boobs (cut up in to strips)
some flour (enough for the flour and to make a roux)
1 can of beer (I used the finest American Lager I had...the beast)
3 stalks of celery (diced)
1 small onion (diced) I also added 1 shallot
1 red pepper (diced)
2 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)
2 bay leaves
blackening seasoning (I use salt free)
Butter

Dredge the chicken in seasoned flour (enter blackening seasoning). Cook in bacon grease on medium heat. Do not burn the oil or the flour on the chicken, so keep it on medium. After the chicken is browned and throughly cooked, remove and set aside. If you need to add some butter at this point to make about 2-3 tables spoons of liquid please do so. Remove your hot pan off the burner while you add flour one tablespoon at a time until you get a brown roux. It will resemble liquidly brown sugar (not paste). Put back on the burner on low medium & cook this until it is a milk chocolate brown, but not burnt. If it smells burnt, do not use. Add the veggies and coat in roux. Let the veggies get soft in the roux then add the can of beer and about 1/2 cup of chicken stock or water. Add bay leaves and seasoning. Add Simmer this for about 15-20 minutes until thick. Add the chicken back to the pan and cook for another 10 minutes adding water if the gravy needs to be thinner.

When this is finished it should be a brownish color gravy with chicken bit and vegetables in it. Served over rice with garlic bread.


This is really good. I know it's not the real thing. I think the real thing has tomotoes or milk or something else in it. It seems like a spicy chicken fricassee to me. My husband was even happy to eat seconds. It was filling (but not over filling) and it felt like home. I can imagine I would like New Orleans if it tastes anything like this.