Warmin' up from the inside out (Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup)

My birthday and Christmas are in the rearview mirror and I'm so ready to be done with fancy holiday fare. 

It's Soup!

Don't get me wrong. We had some amazing meals and delicious treats with friends and family over the past two weeks. But all I wanted on this chilly December day was a big bowl of soup. 

I had a package of cubed butternut squash in the fridge and a can of light coconut milk in the pantry. Perfect inspiration for a silky smooth coconut curry butternut squash soup!

We like all things spicy, so this version uses hot Madras curry powder. Feel free to swap it out for a milder "regular" curry powder if heat is not your thing. I also use light coconut milk, but can only imagine how decadent it would be with the full-fat variety. Maybe we'll try that after the holiday food hangover has subsided!

Here's how I did it:

Pretty simple ingredients -
keeping' it clean

Ingredients:

• 1 package pre-cut butternut squash (about 6 cups, or 1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed)
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 can unsweetened light coconut milk 
• 1 cup onion, rough chopped
• 1 medium carrot, rough chopped
• 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, rough chopped
• 1 TBS coconut oil
• 1 TBS + 1/2 tsp hot Madras curry powder (or regular curry if you don’t like heat)
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• Roasted, salted pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Heat the coconut oil a large pot over a medium/high heat, then add the onion, garlic and carrot until the onion is translucent. Season with the salt and sprinkle in the curry powder, string to combine and warm the spices through.
2. Add the butternut squash and broth, bring to a boil and then cover the pot and lower the heat to low. Simmer for 7-8 minutes, or until the squash is fork tender. Then turn off the heat and cool for 10 minutes.
3. Time to puree.  I use a stick blender, but you can also puree in batches until smooth in a food processor or high powered blender. If you used a blender or food processor, add the puree back to the pot when done.



Leftovers!

4. Now shake the can of coconut milk to mix the contents and pour into the puree. Stir well to combine, add a bit more salt if needed. Warm over a low heat and serve with a scattering of pipits and crusty bread.

Enjoy!

New Years Resolutions in November (Cast Iron Roasted Salmon with Dill Yogurt Sauce)

A little over a year ago, I was asked to contribute monthly recipe for Southerly, a community magazine for the neighborhoods in the Croasdaile area of Durham, NC. It’s a sweet little magazine, with stories about local families and businesses and a recipe from yours truly. It’s been a fun addition to my recipe writing hobby, and I’ve learned quite a bit in the process. 

Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside

It may be November, but our January deadline is looming. So today, I put pen to paper and did a measurement test and photo session (i.e. open the shutters and pray for good light - photographing food is REALLY difficult!) of one of our favorite weekday dishes, oven roasted salmon in a cast iron skillet. I gussied it up a tad with a yogurt dill sauce. Perfect for our readers who want to stay true to their New Years resolutions, come 2019.

The best part of this little project was the tasting - this salmon is so moist, the skin so crispy and the dill sauce is down right relish. I can't wait to finish this blog post so I can enjoy the rest of it!

Here’s how you do it:

Cast Iron Skillet Salmon with Yogurt Dill Sauce

Ingredients:

For the fish

• 1 salmon portion for each person to be served - get the thick rosy pink salmon portions from Trader Joes or Whole Foods (not the thin dark orangey red ones)
• Olive oil (to coat both sides of each portion)
• Kosher salt (a good pinch per portion)
• Fresh cracked black pepper (about 6 grinds per portion)

Yogurt Dill Sauce 

• 1 6 oz container of fat free strained plain Greek yogurt
• The zest and juice of a lemon
• 1TBS finely chopped fresh dill
• 1/8 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp onion powder
• 10 grinds of black pepper

Method:

• Put a cast iron skillet large enough to fit the fish without crowding into a cold oven. Set the even to 450 degrees and turn it on. 
• As the oven and skillet come up to temp, blot the fish dry with a paper towel and drizzle both sides with olive oil. Smear the oil around a tad and sprinkle the flesh side with a good pinch of salt and about 6 grinds of black pepper.
• Also use this time to whisk all of the ingredients for the yogurt dill sauce together in a small bowl and set it aside.
• When the oven comes to temp, put on two kitchen mitts and CAREFULLY take the skillet out and place it on the stove, with the gas burner* set to a medium high heat. Place the fish in the skillet, flesh side down. Set a timer for 4 minutes and let the fish sear. Do not touch or move it. Trust me, it won’t stick or burn. 
• At the end of four minutes, use a metal spatula flip the fish so it’s skin side down and put the skillet back into the oven. Set the timer for 5 minutes.  (Note:  I wear a kitchen mitt on one left hand and hold the spatula in the other, to make sure I don’t touch the hot pan when turning the fish, and then put both mitts on to put the skillet in the oven)
• AT the end of 5 minutes, put those mitts back on and remove the skillet from the oven. Immediately move the fish to serving plates so it won’t continue to cook in the hot pan.
• Serve with the dill sauce and enjoy!

*This recipe has only been tested using a gas stove. Consult the manufacturer of your electric cooktop before placing a hot skillet on the glass surface, to ensure that it does not crack.

Come-on Fall! (Tart and Tasty Waldorf Salad)

Ready to balance any rich holiday meal, my version
of Waldorf Salad is heavy on the lemon, and includes
pecans, dried cranberries and raisins. Yummy.

I've got a deadline for the November issue of Southerly Magazine coming up, so Thanksgiving is has been on my mind.  It was nice and cool today so I thought I'd get ahead of the game and test / photograph a Billings-Barnett family favorite, Waldorf Salad.

Waldorf Salad has been a Thanksgiving staple for my family since the “Cranberry Scare of 1959,” when just days before our favorite food-based holiday the US cranberry crop was reportedly unsafe. In the end, no one got sick, but families all over the country had to come up with a different side to replace their beloved cranberry sauce. For my family, a crisp and tart Waldorf salad made the cut. And it’s been on the table on the fourth Thursday of November ever since. 

I’ve fiddled with this quite a bit since taking over the reins for Thanksgiving years ago. The original featured walnuts and raisins. Since moving to North Carolina, I’ve swapped for pecans for the walnuts, added dried cranberries and, because I’m homesick for my lemon tree in SoCal, a pumped up the citrus flavor with a healthy dose of lemon zest.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Tasty and Tart Waldorf Salad

Serves 8

• 4 large apples, peels left on and cut into bite-sized pieces - I like a mix of  1 Red Delicious, 1 Pink Lady and 2 Granny Smith or half and half Red Delicious and Granny Smith
• 1 large lemon, zested and juiced (If you think your lemon might be a bit on the dry side, pierced a couple times with a sharp knife and microwave it for 20 seconds before juicing)  
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise 
• 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup of raisins, plumped by submerging in a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes and then well drained
• 1/2 cup pecan halves toasted for a few minutes in a dry pan to bring out their flavor and then roughly chopped.
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Method - 

1. In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, lemon zest, 1/2 of the lemon juice and salt until well combined. Set aside
2. Put the remaining half of 1/2 of the lemon juice in a large mixing bowl, and drop the apple pieces in as you cut them, tossing as you go. 
3. Once the apples are all cut, add the mayonnaise mixture, celery, cranberries, drained raisins, and nuts, toss well to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving; however this can be made earlier in the day.

Enjoy!

Y'all Come! (Carolina Taquitos with SoCal Slaw)

Carolina Taquitos with SoCal Slaw 

Makes 12 taquitos - 4 entrée servings or appetizers for 6-8 people

We love having folks come to visit. Full stop. It’s like combining the best of two worlds - our wonderful area here in Durham, with friends and family from SoCal, work friends from around the world, our son (who now lives in Florida). You name it. We’ll take it. We love having company.

A taste of home - both SoCal and North Carolina

With this as a backdrop, you’ll understand how happy we were when our SoCal friend Sheryl (and my BFF from Cal State Fullerton) decided to come for a long weekend. This was her fourth trip in the nine years (!) we’ve live here, so she already knows the drill. But as Durham continues to evolve, we continue to have new places to go, areas to explore. It’s a blast.

Her arrival also gave me an excuse to try out a recipe I’ve been writing, which transforms the vinegary and slightly sweet and spicy pork barbecue that is common here into crispy crunch taquitos like the ones we loved in SoCal, served up with a refreshing lime and cilantro coleslaw and guacamole. Oh yeah.

We made the dish last night. It earned a Steve Barnett “Home Run, Honey!” In fact, he said it might just be a grand slam! So here it is for you.  

Here's how you do it.

For the taquitos

12 corn tortillas (try to get fresh corn tortillas from a Mexican market, but packaged tortillas from the store will do.

1 pound of barbecue pulled pork (we get this from the barbecue place up the road) 

1/2 cup Carolina vinegar-based barbecue sauce (if your pork comes unseasoned with sauce)

Corn oil to fill a skillet to 3/4 of an inch

toothpicks for securing the taquitos while frying (2 per taquito)

Garnishes - take your pick, or do them all:

Guacamole - fresh or pre-made (for a quick guac, mash a ripe avocado with the juice of 1/2 a lime, about a TBS each of diced onion, and cilantro, plus a good pinch of salt and a bit of your favorite hot sauce or salsa)

Sour cream

Mexican queso fresco (dry white cheese that crumbles well) or shredded cheddar cheese f

Method:

• Break up the barbecue into thin bite sized pieces and mix in the sauce. Set aside
• For each taquito, 
• Warm a tortilla for about 10-seconds per side over a gas flame or dry frying pan to make them pliable and easy to roll. 
• Put about 2 TBS of the barbecue mixture on a tortilla, towards one side. Then working from that side, roll the tortilla over the barbecue like a cigar. Push two toothpicks through to secure, leaving long on one side.This will come in handy when frying.
• To fry, heat the oil in a heavy skillet until a piece of a tortilla that is placed in the oil begins to bubble. Then use tongs to carefully place 3 taquitos in the oil, seam side down and long end of the toothpick up, into the oil. Fry until golden brown (about 45 seconds) then pull out the toothpicks and flip to fry the other side until done (about 30 seconds). Remove to drain on paper towels. 
• Serve with a small pile of the slaw and garnishes of your choice.

For the slaw

1/4 cup sweet onion, quarter-inch diced

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 lime, juiced (about 2 TBS)

1 1/2 TBS jalepeno, seeded and diced

1/4 tsp kosher salt

15 grinds black pepper

1/4 level tsp coriander 

1/4 level tsp cumin

1 14 oz bag of tricolor coleslaw mix (red and green cabbage with carrots - no dressing)

2/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Method

• Mixture first eight ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. 
• Add the bag of cabbage/carrot slaw mix and the cilantro
• Stir well and chill at least 30 minutes

Enjoy.

No time for takeout (Chinese Chicken Stir Fry)

Slightly crunch veggies and tasty
 chicken, ready to be enjoyed!

Why do take-out when you can make your own Chinese Chicken Stir Fry in about the same amount of time it takes to call in and pick up an order? Prep the veggies ahead of time for a busy weeknight dinner. Great with shrimp or sliced steak as well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for going out to one of Durham's amazing restaurants or bringing in take out at the end of a busy day, or the night before a holiday. But given the option, we'll normally stay in. 

So what to do when you've got a hankering for Chinese? Stir Fry! I learned a long time ago that you really don't need a wok to make good Chinese food. I simply crank up the heat on my super large cast iron skillet with great results.

Here's the recipe for a super simple stir fry.Try it with shrimp or sliced steak -- or go crazy and combine multiple proteins for a real treat.

Chinese Chicken Stir Fry

Serves Four

Ingredients:

Marinade:

2 TBS soy sauce

1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice (look for this in the spice section of any grocery store)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Sauce:

3/4 cup chicken stock

1 TBS soy sauce

1/2 stp garlic powder

1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice

1 TBS corn starch

1/2 tsp dark sesame oil

Protein:

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces 

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

2 TBS light colored oil, like canola or vegetable oil

1 TBS dark sesame oil

Veggies

4 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

4 celery stalks, thinly sliced

1 small or 1/2 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced 

1 8oz package of mushrooms, sliced

3/4 cup onion, large dice

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 cups bean sprouts (sold loose or in a 5 oz package in the produce section)

2 think sliced green onions and 1 TBS sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Method:

• Mix the Marinade ingredients in a medium sized bowl, add the chicken and set aside 
• Combine the Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside
• Remove the chicken from the marinade, pat dry with a paper towel and sprinkle with a good pinch (about a half teaspoon) of Kosher salt and five or six grinds of fresh cracked pepper.
• Heat the largest skillet you have on high, add the two oils and heat until it shimmers. Then add the chicken and cook until browned and cooked through. Remove from the skillet with a slotted spoon, and keep it warm in a bowl covered with foil.
• Now begin cooking the veggies in the same pan and leftover oil used for the chicken. I like to push the veggies to the outside of the pan between batches to make room for the next veg — first the onion, celery and carrots for 2 minutes; then the mushrooms and bell peppers, bean sprouts and the cooked chicken for another 2 minutes.
• When the veggies are cooked but still slightly crunchy, push them to the sides of the pan and add the sauce mixture and cook until it starts to thicken, then stir to combine with the chicken and veggies.  
• Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds and serve with cooked white rice and more soy sauce to taste.

Enjoy!

It worked! (Chicken Green Burrito Casserole)

As a SoCal Expat, I LOVE a good burrito. Nothing fancy - beans, cheese, salsa and maybe some seasoned meat. A bit of rice is OK, but not requires. All wrapped up in a large warm flour tortilla.  Maybe dollop of sour cream and guac on the side. Or smothered in sauce and melted cheese. 

Hot and bubbly, right out of the oven

These were the memories that I had in mind as I came up with my new favorite make ahead dish -- a Chicken Green Burrito Casserole. Not overly saucy, but filled with all the flavors I love -- chicken, green salsa, cilantro lime rice, refried beans and cheese. All melty. Sublime.

I made one for dinner last night, and got a

Packed up for next
week's workday lunches

big thumbs up from Steve. Then, just to be certain that my recipe was spot on, I sent it to my BFF's daughter, Madison, and asked her to follow the directions and then give me the verdict. Four more thumbs up -- two each -- from Maddie and her husband Eric, who packed up individual servings for next week's workday lunches. 

And now, I share this little ditty with you. 

Enjoy!

Garnished and ready for dinner

Chicken Green Burrito Casserole

Everything we love in a green burrito in a quick and easy casserole. Perfect with a green salad.

Serves 4-6 

2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken (about 3/4 of a chicken, dark and white meat)

1 16 oz can refried beans heated with 1/4 cup of water

1 1/2 cups cilantro lime rice (see below)

2 cups cheddar jack cheese, shredded

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

3/4 cups diced red bell pepper

1/2 cup diced onion

1 1/2 cups salsa verde (green salsa)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs olive oil

Sour cream and chopped green onions for garnish

Cilantro Lime Rice

1 cups water

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 lime, juiced and tested (about 1/4 cup juice)

1/2 tsp salt

Bring the water to to a boil in a medium sauce pan, add rice, cover and cook 15 minutes. When done stir in the lime zest, juice and cilantro.

Method

Preheat oven to 350

Spray a deep casserole dish with cooking spray - set aside

Heat a large sauce pan on medium high heat; add the olive oil and sauce the onions and peppers until soft. Add the cumin, coriander and chili powder, stir to combine. Then add the chicken, stir and heat through. Set aside.

Layer the ingredients in the casserole dish

1) Beans topped with 1/2 cup salsa and a layer of 1/3 of the cheese

2) Chicken mixture topped with 1/2 cup salsa and a layer of 1/3 of the cheese 

3) Cilantro Rice topped with 1/2 cup salsa and a layer of 1/3 of the cheese

Cover with foil without touching the cheese; bake 40 minutes in a 350 oven, then remove the foil and continue another 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with sour cream and chopped green onions