Results tagged “parsley” from Bodacious Girl

The weekend after I moved into my MASSIVE apartment in Chicago, Lollapalooza came to town. A weekend of lewdness and drunkenness and bawdy lascivious women and I decide to leave for the weekend. NICE HUH? Who makes these plans for me?!? I had this massive kitchen in which to cook and create... and here I was leaving.

Yes, YOU DO remember what my kitchen looked like right?

Seriously - it is THAT small. That is a real penny. Was my change from laundry. The laundry room is bigger then my kitchen.

Actually it is bigger then my apartment. But I still lurve it.

I decided after I got back from my weekend (which, I may add contained some debauchery, some bread, a few beers... did I mention debauchery?) that I wasn't going to let such a small kitchen scare me into a life of carry out. I could still cook and boil and maybe even saute' in my lil kitchen. Ooh and maybe even bake! Oh yea, this winter mah teeny little apartment is so going to smell like fresh baked bread and cookies and cupcakes all season long and it is so going to RULE! (But it won't ever smell like cranberry walnut bread. I'm just saying...)

However tonight, I craved a nice & healthy light dinner for myself. Something tasty and satisfying, and not to heavy. So over carryout from Jimmy Johns - I retro-fitted my lil kitchen, and chopped my way into Tabouleh heaven.

In case you were wondering, tabouleh is a bulgur and parsley salad, that is not only yummy, but rather healthy as well. It fills you up and is chock full of fiber and antioxidents - it was just what I needed after the two beers I enjoyed with my #12 unwich.

Here are your required ingredients:

2 bunches of fresh parsley (1 1/2 cup chopped, with stems discarded)
(Traditionally curly parsley is used here, however I prefer flat leaf Italian.)
2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup bulgur
3 - 4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 - 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 t salt (to taste)
1/2 t pepper (to taste)
dash of cayenne (again... TO TASTE)
optional - left over cucumber (diced) from last nights peanut butter and cucumber pop tart swammich. (I so ROCK the eating for one adventure!)

First - soak the bulgur in cold water for 1 hour.

Drink a beer or 5 while waiting... then,

Chop the parsley:

(I propped my cutting board over my mini-stove top to make room for all the ingredients. It didn't quite work.)

Then chop the mint, the tomatoes, the onion, and you get where I am going here right? It is tabouleh - not bioengineering.

Toss all the chopped goodies with the drained bulgur. Top with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the cayenne and stir to incorporate. You can serve it immediately with pita or leaves of romaine, but I like to chill it for at least an hour. Mmm yum!

My kitchen is Tabouleh friendly! Yay! Next up little kitchen - chateaubriond. Chateaubreoind? Chateaubriand!! Ah screw it. Chocolate Chip Cookies!...

Be afraid.

We have had some cold, dreary weather here in the dessert. It is so welcomed! It washes away all the sandy grit that has an annoying tendency to coat everything. It makes everything so GREEN (a rarity in the desert in Summer...) and it makes me want soup. Some savory and spicy chicken noodle soup. Warms you up and clears your head on cold dreary days. And the best part? It is SO easy. But prep does take all day, or at least overnight.

Spicy Chicky Schnoodle Soup

Ingredients

Broth

1 whole chicken
6 cups of water
2 cups chicken stock
1 onion quartered
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
small bunch of fresh parsley (5-6 sprigs)
5 cloves garlic, smacked (translation: one hit with the mallet is fine. Don't pulverize them.)
1 T peppercorns

Soup

1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 jalapeno pepper, diced finely
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Al dente ditali noodles (optional)

Rinse chicken and place in large stock pot. Cover with water and broth. Add quartered onion, roughly chopped celery, 5-6 sprigs parsley, 5 smashed garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon peppercorns. Bring to boil, and simmer uncovered for 90 minutes. Liquid will reduce. Remove from heat. Remove chicken from pot and reserve in the refrigerator. Strain solids from broth through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate broth till fat solidifies on the top. (WARNING! Do not attempt to freeze to speed up the process. It is ineffective.)

Note: I usually either boil the chicken in the morning and make the soup at dinner. Or I roast the chicken for dinner, and boil down the carcass (Mmm, yummy!) that night for soup tomorrow. It is really about whatever works for your schedule.

Fast forward - broth chilled. You will see a layer of fat has solidified on the top. Remove carefully. You are not removing flavor, just most of the fat.

In large stock pot, could be the same one - I don't know your methods, melt butter, and saute diced onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Add reserved broth, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes and parsley. Then add as much of the chicken (shred or dice first) you would like. Let simmer for about 15 minutes, then taste. Salt and pepper to your liking. Serve with ditali and top with Pecorino Romano cheese, if you like.

Ok, it may seeeeem a lil more complex then easy, but really it's not. And the taste, mmm, is well worth it. 

Where recap = what do you mean its Monday TUESDAY ALREADY?! This weekend I was supposed to work on my redesign. Instead? LUNCH with friends. I was supposed to work more on my redesign. Instead? DRINKS with the neighbor. I was supposed to wrap up and upload my redesign. Instead? Watch the CARDINALS whoop some Seahawk boo-tayyy... anyway, you get my drift. Where drift = drifted far away from my responsibilities and closer to the cold cervesa in the chilled mug. The good news is football Sunday = time in the kitchen making some home made Italian sausage.

Initially I had no intention of making sausage this weekend. Can you tell scheduling does not seem to have its desired effect on me. I had one task - finish site redesign and instead I am watching football, drinking and making sausage (Talk about debauchery huh?). Truth be told, I went to the grocery store in hopes of getting some bulk Italian sausage from the local sausage-er (Sausage-er? Whuuu?) and found that they were all sold out and all that was left was the nitrate-laden, fat-packed blechhhhh inducing sausage links. (Yes I am looking at you rhymes with Millage Varket)  Then it hit me. Hey Lazy - make it on your own. You are from Chicago - that knowledge was given to you at birth. So I did. I strode right past the pre-packaged links of hell and right to the butcher. Three pounds of pork shoulder please - and make it snappy - I have sausage that requires my attention. (Wait. I said whuuuuut?!)

Back home, armed with pork shoulder, my well stocked herb cabinet and my Kitchen Aid at my side, I started down a path I could never turn back on again. The joy of home made sausage. I chose to not stuff it in casings. With the holidays approaching - I knew I would be busting them open anyway so that extra step was not a necessity. I took the 3 pounds of pork, cut them up and ground them with that handy grinder attachment... and there is no good photo of grinding meat with this thing that does not conjure up some horror movie, so here is just a gratuitous pork shot.

Beautifully marbled, yet not too fatty. I learned that when making fresh sausage you don't need to add that extra pork fatback if you have a leaner cut, as it lasts about 5 minutes after you are finished cooking it anyway. I also used the following herbs and spices:


1 Tablespoon of paprika
1 Tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes
2 heaping teaspoons of fennel - lightly toasted
2 heaping teaspoons parsley
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons of onion powder
2 teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt.

I used my mortar and pestle to crush the fennel with the herbs rather then pulverize them. I like to see whole fennel in my sausage and I love it when they pop in my mouth. After I ground the pork, I added the spice mixture and blended thoroughly. Wah-lah! Fresh Italian sausage. I pan fried some up immediately to satiate my curiosity and my belly. It was spot on. The rest I froze for future recipes like sausage apple puffs and sausage bread and pasta with sausage and onions...

Oh looking for a photo of the sausage? Yea well un-cased sausage does not photograph very well. Nosirreebob not well. At. All. 

And that site redesign? NEXT monday - did I mislead you and say that is was supposed to be on the 17th? Oops...