Apples, Cider, Chicken and Rice

I'm sure I've lamented before that fall is our absolute favorite season, more than Christmas, more than summer. My darling hubby's birthday is in the fall, our wedding anniversary is in the fall and our favorite holiday is in the fall - Halloween, of course. The other thing that we love about fall is the food. Turkey and pumpkin pie, apple cider - hot, cold or used as an ingredient in preparing seasonal dishes; how could things get any better?


This afternoon I couldn't help but think about the last of the Adrian Orchard's first press apple cider sitting in our fridge. It's on the edge of being drinkable as it's starting to turn hard, and though hard cider is one of the few things left that I can enjoy, hard cider from my own fridge leaves me with an unsettling feeling in my stomach. So, I decided to build dinner around this favorite of fall ingredients.


I dove into this inspiration head first. Fortunately, the freezer held a packet of chicken thighs, the fridge produced the remaining cider, chicken stock, carrots, celery, red onion and some white wine. In the pantry, I found cranberries, acorn squash and brown basmati rice. After some careful consideration - and a perusal of fall chicken recipes on the internet - dinner became Cider Braised Chicken Thighs accompanied by Flavors of Fall Rice Pilaf and oven roasted acorn squash. 


The result of my efforts were even better than expected. I readily admit that I'm not a very good rice maker, but in this case, the end result was pretty yummy. Additionally, though the chicken only spent 20 minutes braising in the cider, it absorbed just the right amount of flavor. And, well, roasted winter squash, regardless of the specific variety, is delicious on it's own, so combined with the other ingredients rounded out dinner nicely.


I hope you try this menu, it's that good. If you don't have all of the ingredients on hand, sub what you have in your freezer, pantry or fridge. As long as you stick to the fall and apple themes, you'll be golden!


Apple Cider Braised Chicken with Flavors of Fall Rice Pilaf


For the Rice Pilaf, you will need:

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 Cup brown basmati rice, rinsed well and drained
• 1/2 of a small onion, diced small
• 1/4 cup carrot, small dice
• 1/4 cup celery, small dice
• 1/2 a small green apple, small dice, skin intact
• 1/2 a small yellow apple, small dice, skin intact
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 2/3 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup good quality chicken stock

Place a heavy bottom pot with a tight fitting lid over medium heat. Add butter. When melted, add the rice that has been rinsed and well drained. Stir to ensure the butter covers each grain of the rice. 


Add the onion, apple, celery, carrot and cranberries to the pan, stir to combine with the rice. Allow the mixture to cook until the rice appears to have taken on a golden hue. Add the wine, cider and chicken stock and turn the temperature to medium high. Allow the mixture to come to a boil, stir, reduce heat to low and cover with the lid. Check the progress of the rice after 30 minutes. If the rice is not yet tender, allow to cook in 10 minute intervals until rice is tender, but not mushy. 


When rice has finished cooking, remove the lid and set the pot off the heat. Stir rice and serve. You can top the rice with chopped toasted walnuts if you'd like.




For the Chicken, you will need:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil (not extra virgin)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups apple cider
• 1 Tbsp corn or potato or tapioca starch mixed with enough cold water to create a slurry
• 1/2 cup milk or cream or half & half (I used 2% as that's what I had on hand)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a heavy bottom skillet over medium heat. Add the butter and oil. When the butter has melted and the foaming subsides, but before the butter browns, add the chicken thighs that have been seasoned with salt and pepper. Allow chicken to brown, undisturbed, until golden brown. Turn the chicken and allow the other side to cook until brown. Remove the chicken to a plate to rest while you deglaze the skillet.

Pour off all but 1 tsp of the oil and butter and return the skillet to the heat. Add the cider and scrape the golden bits of chicken from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil and add the thighs back to the skillet. Cover the skillet with  a tight fitting lid, foil or a piece of parchment. Place the skillet in the oven and allow to cook for 20 minutes, checking after 15 minutes to determine doneness. Cook until thighs are cooked through.

Remove skillet from the oven, remove the chicken thighs to a serving tray. Place the skillet back on the stove top over high heat. Allow the cider to come to a boil. Add the milk, cream or half & half. Stir to combine. Add the slurry of starch and water, stir again. 

Remove the skillet from the stove top and pour the sauce over the chicken thighs. Serve along side the rice and roasted squash.

~Enjoy!

Gluten Free Mexican Food - What could be better?

In the past, my darling hubby and I have often defaulted to dinner at any one of our local Mexican restaurants on nights when making dinner at home seemed like a chore. I will even admit that at times, Taco Bell served our purposes. I know, I know.... you've never heard of foodies eating at Taco Bell. However, my darling hubby will be the first to tell you that gourmet food and cheap eats all have their respectable place in one's life. Sometimes you want the 5 year aged Gouda with the well formed salt crystals and other times you want the string cheese from your childhood. 


Going gluten free has made this tradition a bit more of a challenge. Apparently a corn tortilla isn't always as it appears. Taco Bell is the first to admit, via the nutrition information on their company website, that their products are not appropriate for those who are gluten free. I've quickly learned to heed their warning and have found that the more I know about the food I eat, the more my symptoms are controlled. Since controlling them is my immediate goal, I'm making nearly all of our meals at home.


This evening, I was still in my post vacation stupor didn't really feel like jumping into the kitchen to whip up a three course dinner for my loving family. Still, we had to eat, and our beautiful toddler was asking for cheese - her favorite standby for a "snack", which is fine except that it was dinner time. So, feeling the pressure to provide a tasty and somewhat healthy dinner for my family, I again turned to my pantry.


Fortunately, I found there a new package of corn tortillas (that really are made with corn and little else), a can of black beans, a can of "hot" tomatoes with chilies and an onion. In the fridge, I found a pound of mild ground chroizo and a variety of cheeses. Inspired, I created the filling described below and used it to make quesadillas. However, you can use this tasty filling for tacos, one component of a hearty taco salad or add a little taco sauce and create a lose interpretation on huevos rancheros. Finally, I've made a similar mixture in the past, added it to a pizza crust covered with taco sauce and then covered the mixture with a Mexican cheese blend to create a pretty yummy taco pizza. By now, you're probably beginning to understand that this is one simple pantry recipe that you can use multiple ways. It also freezes well, so if you have leftovers and are no longer in the mood for Mexican food, just place it in a freezer bag and freeze for up to six months.


Recipe 
To a heavy bottom skillet - approximately 10" - over medium heat, add the following:

• 2 tsp olive oil (not extra virgin)
• 1/2 lb ground chorizo (or other ground meat of your choice)
• 1/2 of a medium onion
• 1/2 of a medium green pepper (may substitute a colored pepper or a can of green chilies)

Allow mixture to cook until the meat is cooked through and the onions and peppers are soft. Then add:

• 1 15 oz can black beans, drained
• 1/2 15 oz can diced tomatoes with chilies added (mild, medium or hot)*
• 1 tbsp gluten free taco seasoning (I use Simply Organic)**

*Note:  Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon so as to not make your filing too wet. If you are using the filling for huevos rancheros, you do not need to complete this step and may want to consider adding the entire can of tomatoes.

**Note:  If you use another ground meat - beef, chicken, turkey, pork - you will want to use the entire packet of taco seasoning. I only added a little to this particular mixture as I was using the highly flavored chorizo.

Turn the heat to low and allow the mixture to cook and the flavors to meld for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and use as you wish.


~Enjoy!

Gluten Free Apple Cobbler

Tis the season for fresh apples harvested from the tree only a few hours, minutes or days before we get to consume them, which is not the case for the remainder of the year. I learned this year that different apples come on at different times. I guess if I'd thought about it, I'd have known this, but having never had an orchard this was a new one for me. 


While on our fall vacation, my hubby told me that cobbler and pie is by far his favorite dessert. He'd said this a number of times before, but happened to be enjoying a bowl of mixed berry cobbler at the Inn and Spa at Cedar Falls, Logan, Ohio, on this particular occasion. Being newly gluten free (GF), I had the flourless chocolate cake, but I truly coveted his cobbler. So, I guess that's why it came to mind today as I was looking through my kitchen to determine what we had on hand in the pantry and fridge that needed to be used up as I set to prepared Sunday dinner.


Fortunately, our toddler happens to love apples and, therefore, as soon as local orchards began to harvest their apples, we were on their door step ready to purchase different varieties along with the perfect apple cider. Our first stop this year was Adrian Orchard on the south side of Indy. We brought home three varieties this first visit and found that some we liked more than others. What to do with those that we didn't care to eat out of hand? Make apple cobbler, of course!


In the past, this would have been a much simpler undertaking, but due to my new GF status, I had to do a little research. The recipe below was derived from a variety of sources, as well as past practice from my own kitchen. If you maintain a gluten free lifestyle, for whatever the reason, it's an easy one and uses things that are often found in a GF pantry. If you don't and just want a recipe that allows you to vary the grains and flours your family consumes, then it's a good one to try. 


As with most GF recipes, the gluten free flours are interchangeable, but do keep in mind that some work better than others in combination. This was my first use of quinoa flakes. I recently learned, through experience, that I can no longer tolerate oats. Or, at least, I have to purchase gluten free oats (which simply means that the oats are processed on equipment that processes only gluten free foods). I love quinoa as a grain, but in past uses have found the flour to have a very distinctive flavor that can permeate the overall flavor of your finished dish. Through this recipe, I found that by using quinoa flakes (like oatmeal, but made from the quinoa grain) and combining them with Almond Flour/Meal (made of ground almonds), the almond flavor offset the undesirable residual flavor from the quinoa nicely. This was also my first foray into using almond flour and I found it to be a nice addition to this recipe. I'm not sure I'd use it in all recipes that I convert to GF, but for baking, it may become a staple. 


GF Apple Cobbler
Prepare an 8x8 glass baking dish by coating it lightly with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place an oven rack on the middle rung of your oven.


Filling
Combine the following in the baking dish:

• 5 smallish apples any variety you like, washed and cored, chopped into 1" pieces
• few pinches of ground cinnamon, or to taste I like Frontier or Watkins
• small pinch of ground ginger
• fresh grated nutmeg to taste or a pinch of ground
• pinch of ground all spice
• 1/4 cup agave syrup you can reduce or eliminate this if your apples are sweet enough; you can also sub the syrup for any other sweetner you like
• 2 tbsp minute tapioca   
• 3/4 cup apple cider, reduced to 1/4 cup
• pinch of salt

Prepare the apples, adding them to the baking dish as you cut them. Add the spices and tapioca, including salt, and mix to combine. Add agave syrup and cider reduction and stir apple mixture once more to ensure even coating. Set aside while you prepare the topping.


Topping
In a small mixing bowl combine the following:

• 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
• 1 cup puffed rice cereal
• 1 cup almond flour 
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• pinch of salt

Add:

• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp butter, softened

Stir flours, cereal and salt to combine and distribute the salt. Add the vegetable oil and stir again to distribute oil. The flour mixture will begin to look like grains of sand. Add the softened butter and, with clean hands, cut the butter into the flour mixture until large clumps form. 


Retrieve the apple mixture and place clumps of the topping on top of the apples. Pat the clumps of topping to cover the entire top of the baking dish. Your topping will likely look more wet than a traditional crust, but will dry and form a crust when baked.


Bake the cobbler for ~30 minutes, checking after 25 minutes. Adjust baking time as necessary for your oven to create a golden crispy crust. The dish is finished baking when the crust looks like a traditional pie crust - golden and delicious with a nice crispy texture.


Serve alone, warm or room temp, or with vanilla ice cream. My darling hubby also likes his with a bit of whole milk or, gulp, half and half (few tablespoons) if he's in the mood to splurge. Reheat for a few seconds in the microwave for subsequent servings. 


This makes a great fall dessert, a good breakfast or a tasty snack. 


~Enjoy