Category Archives: Damn Good Dinners

Pollo (Chicken)

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The mother of invention is necessity. My parents were in town and for many Indian dishes you serve a side of plain yogurt. It’s a cooling agent to all the Indian spices. Well, after they left I had a bunch of yogurt leftover so I decided to make a marinade for my chicken from the leftover yogurt. There was a need to finish it, so why not repurpose it? I rummaged around my pantry and found this amazing latin paste I had grabbed from my recent trip to Costa Rica and started whipping up this tasty delight. Hope you enjoy my latin inspired pollo!

  • 1 tbsp of achiote paste (blend of red spices from Mexico, available i grocery stores that sell Goya brand products or you can order any brand from amazon)
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 tbsp of crushed garlic or 4 cloves
  • 1 fistful or bunch of cilantro leaves
  • 4-5 green onions (both white ends and green portions)
  • 1/2 container or 1 lb. of plain yogurt
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1.5 lbs or 5 drumsticks of chicken (bone-in chicken thighs would be good too)

Combine in blender or food processor and coat the mixture over a dish of drumsticks. Marinade for 24 hrs and then bake in oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. To keep moist while cooking, baste with melted butter (or lemon juice if you want to be waist line friendly). Serve hot.

IMG_9726

Happy Eating, XO.

Pho Real

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I had pho for the first time in Philly last month. (Which I later learned is pronounced “fuh”. So now do you get the title?!) Anyway, moving on…my god it was amazing! Spicy, and savory, and filling. But not like “food baby” filling. It was so perfect I had to try to recreate it. Plus, it’s having a real moment, so naturally we want to give you a damn delish recipe for it. Have at it readers!

  • 8oz rice noodles
  • 1/2 of a large onion
  • 4″ of ginger
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms
  • 1lb chicken breast, cooked and shredded (for vegetarian style, don’t add this. Obvi.)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Toppings

  • 1 jalapeno
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
  • Sriracha sauce to taste

Prepare the rice noodles according to the box.  While the noodles are cooking, peel and slice the ginger and thin slice the onion. Remove the stems from the shiitake mushrooms and quarter the tops. Heat a large pot over high heat and add the ginger and onion for a few minutes. (Keep an eye on them to ensure they don’t burn.) Once fragrant, add in the chicken broth, cinnamon stick, fish sauce and shredded chicken. Top with salt and pepper to taste. Turn down the heat to medium and let the ingredients simmer. Add in the rice noodles.

To prepare the toppings, seed the jalapeno and thin slice. Pour the pho into bowls and top with a few jalapeno slices and fresh cilantro. Season with Sriracha for an extra kick.

Pho_damndelish

Happy Eating, XO.

 

Steak + Pizza = <3

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I’m sure we all have those days where you just really need to clean out the fridge or the cabinets. But you also really don’t want to waste the food. Our solution?  Throw it onto a pizza. Gone are the days of cheese and pepperoni pizza. Now’s it’s all about the fancy, “my pizza is better and has more toppings than your pizza” pizza.

This happened to me the other day – my husband and I had a some leftover steak and buffalo chicken wings. The steak was just “ok”, not super flavorful. It needed some life. And there weren’t enough wings for us to share. So? Make the dough from our previous pizza recipe, top with leftovers, and you have an amazingly filling, delicious, “best damn pizza you’ve ever had” pizza.

*Ingredients measured for 1/2 of a pizza.

  • 1 leftover steak, sliced
  • 1/2 of an onion, chopped
  • 2 tbsp salted butter
  • 2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup arugula (for garnish)

*If you have leftover buffalo wings, you can use it for the other side of the pizza. Pull the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go along. Spread on half of the pizza dough.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make the dough according to this recipe. While the dough is rising, melt the butter in a saucepan and caramelize the chopped onions. On a cooking sheet, roll the dough to all four corners. On one half (if you’re doing halvsies), layer the steak slices and caramelized onion. Top with the Gruyere and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar.  Cook the pizza for roughly 20 minutes, until the crust is golden. A few minutes before the pizza is done, toss on the arugula.

Steak Pizza_damndelish

Happy Eating, XO.

 

 

 

Asparagus Tart

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I wanted to pay homage to this amazing caramelized onion tartlet I had at a French restaurant (shout out to Benoit on the West side of Manhattan) with my boyfriend’s parents. Having said that I wanted something a tad quicker than having to sauté onions in wads of butter before hand. This is the perfect balance of that French decadence with the American need for quickness. I paired it with a seared sirloin and it just amped up the fancyness of the meal. Lovely side if you are ever looking for inspiration, hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

  • 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry
  • 2 cups of shredded Gruyere (I did a blend of caramelized onion cheddar from Trader Joe’s and Gruyere)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt & pepper to taste (I used truffle salt, again to amp up the bougie but also because Jess got me some for Christmas and what a better way to use it!)
  • 1.5 lbs. of thick or medium asparagus (the skinny stuff will just wilt)

The oven is at 400 degrees, bake the pastry on its own for 15 min. Remove from oven and then add shredded cheese. Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears so they fit cross wise inside the tart shell. Arrange in a single layer over the Gruyere, alternating ends and tips. Brush with the olive oil & sprinkle the s&p. Bake for about 20-25 min until the spears are tender.

Happy Eating, XO.

Bone Broth

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I know we don’t need to remind you that it’s below freezing outside. (Seriously, what happened to the 60 degree weather in December?!) I’m sure we also don’t need to remind you that’s time to do all of that post-holiday detoxing. That’s where bone broth comes in. Bone broth made a big splash last winter when it became more popular than tea due to it’s multiple “healing powers”, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.

Not only does it help clear up and moisturize your skin, it’s great for your digestive system (aka gut), and remedy a cold. This article from Natural New Age Mum gives you the breakdown of every possible health benefit. Plus, if you don’t want to drink the broth straight up, she gives you other ways to incorporate it into your cooking.

  • 3-4 pounds bones (chicken, turkey, bone marrow, oxtail, any leftovers you may have)
  • 2 inches of sliced ginger root
  • 2 whole onions, thick sliced
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped chives
  • 3 carrots, shaved and roughly chopped
  • 1/4–1/2 cup of fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, thyme or rosemary. Take your pick of 1. I used thyme.)
  • 3-4 bay leaves
  • 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
  • If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also use a couple dashes of turmeric. You know how we love that spice.
  • Enough water to cover it all in a crock pot

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop in the bones. This will clean off any excess meat. Place the bones in the crock pot along with all of the other ingredients. Cover and simmer for 8-24 hours. (I did the full 24 hours.) The longer it simmers, the more flavor you’ll get.

Strain the broth into jar(s) for storage and place in the fridge. Discard the bones and veggies. After a few hours in the fridge, you’ll notice the fat beginning to harden on the top. You’ll want to skim that off. You can then either place the broth back in the fridge (it can keep up to 4 days), or a more popular method is to use an ice cube tray. This way you can pop one out whenever you’d like. The broth will keep in the freezer for up to a year.

Bone broth_damndelish

Happy Eating, XO.