recipe: roasted chicken breast with black beans and saffron rice

Summary: This is roasted, split chicken breast and a Spanish style accompaniment. Prep time is minimal, probably less than about 10 minutes: stage the ingredients - then start cooking. Total time from start to plating is about forty-five minutes.

 

 

Rinse the chicken breast and place rib side up (and skin side down) on a pan lined with aluminum foil. Lightly season with soy sauce, season salt, and garlic salt. Use the soy sauce first so it doesn't wash away the dry seasonings.

Start the black beans first. They will take about thirty to forty minutes. Heat the pan to medium high heat. For up to ten minutes, sauté in butter: no less than half a small white or yellow onion, no less than half a green pepper, and some minced garlic. Add a bit of salt and pepper when you place everything into the pan. Drain about half the liquid from the can, pour the remaining beans and liquid into the pan, then fill up half the can with water and pour that in, too. Stir every so often as the liquid reduces. At about fifteen minutes before serving, add a quarter cup of water and lower the heat to medium. At this time, liberally squeeze some lime juice, stir, shake a few drops of Tabasco into it, and stir again. As it continues to reduce, it takes on a paste-like quality. This is what you want.

To roast the chicken, place rib-side up in a pre-heated oven at 500 degrees (or higher). At fifteen minutes, remove the chicken from the oven, flip it over using tongs (do NOT pierce the chicken to flip it), season again with soy sauce, season salt, and garlic salt, and place it back in the oven to roast for another fifteen minutes. This could optionally be done in a broiler. and may shave a few minutes off the cooking time. All gas and electric ovens and broilers differ in temperature control and efficiency; just know you should cook the bottom side of the chicken first for about half the time, then the top. Cooking the breast side up for the second half produces a really nice salt encrusted coating on the skin.

For the rice, I love Vigo saffron yellow rice. For a two person dinner, go with the five ounce package. The package suggests one and a quarter cup of water and I found that works well. Boil water, drop rice, add one or two tablespoons of butter (I use one), stir for a minute until boiling again, cover, lower the heat, and no peeking. At about twenty-three minutes, it's ready and should be served right away.

Final summary: Prep the items, start the beans, then the chicken, then the rice, and it will all end at the same time.

filed under: recipe

recipe: seared tuna with haricot vert and jasmine rice

Summary: This is seared tuna with steamed green beans and rice. Prep time is minimal, probably less than about 10 minutes: portion the tuna, optionally trim the ends off the beans, make some sauce. The tuna marinates for about thirty minutes and cook time is no more than twenty minutes. Total time from start to plating is about an hour.

 

Start with the sauce: it's one third each peanut sauce, soy sauce, and ginger sesame. Make one cup if feeding two to four people.

Rinse the tuna in cold water and place the portioned tuna is a tupperware container with tall sides. Drizzle sauce over the top, invert the tuna, repeat so you get both sides. Refrigerate covered for about fifteen minutes. Unrefrigerate for about fifteen minutes. Times can vary, but don't let it marinate for more than an hour or sit unrefrigerated for too long. It's good to have it not super cold when you go to sear it.

For me, the jasmine rice takes exactly twenty minutes, but follow the instructions on the bag. Mine suggests one cup of rice to one and half cups of water. Boil water, drop rice, stir for a minute, cover, lower the heat, and no peeking. At twenty minutes, it's ready, but it can sit for at least another five if off the heat and kept covered.

 

Haricot verts are skinny green beans and sound way cooler than pole beans, but they’re generally interchangeable. The time to steam the green beans will vary depending on the size of the pot, the amount of beans, and how crisp you like them. In all cases, it's less than twenty minutes from start, so start the beans after the rice is going. You can season the beans with salt and pepper, I prefer to steam them without seasoning and simply drizzle some of the sauce on them right before serving.

Bring the pan for the tuna up to medium to medium high heat. The tuna is seared in a pan, flipping it every two minutes, liberally drizzling the sauce on it after each flip. If your tuna is like mine and thick cut, sear up to five minutes for rare, nine minutes for medium rare, and twelve minutes for medium well. Drizzle the sauce on it one last time at plating.

 

For a nice touch, toast black and white sesame to garnish the rice. Toast them in a frying pan over medium heat. For me, the white ones brown after roughly nine to twelve minutes of pan time. You have to keep an eye on them or they'll burn. Stir them around every few minutes. When toasted to how you want them, remove them from the pan and place into a small container until the rice is plated.

Final summary: Prep the items, start the rice, then the sesame seeds, then the beans, then the tuna, and it will all end at the same time. Enjoy!

filed under: recipe

turkeynado

We have Tornadoes in Atlanta. Again. This one looks like a giant turkey when rendered in 3D. The software is probably the coolest weather software I’ve ever seen.

 filed under: parody, weather