Quick pasta

This is hardly a recipe, but I've been digging bowtie pasta with homemade pesto, some white truffle oil, and pink Himalayan sea salt. I don't think the kind of salt matters, nor do I think it needs to be homemade pesto, although homemade pesto is lovely. Bowtie pasta, pesto, white truffle oil, and salt = yum.

Popcorn experiments

Those who know me know that I pride myself on making good homemade popcorn. None of that microwave or airpopper bullshit; honest to goodness in a pan on the stove homemade popcorn. And not to toot my own horn too much, but it is damn good. Ask anybody who has had it.

I'm not gonna go into how to make popcorn here. It's hard to explain verbally and I imagine you can look it up on YouTube if you don't already know how to do it. But last night I made a triple batch and separated it. I left one-third of it as my standard butter and salt (still Beej's favorite). The other 2/3 were an experiment. A lovely one, at that.

On 1/3 of the already popped popcorn, I drizzled white truffle oil and then salted it. It was very good. It was even better, though, when I added some melted butter, too. I needed more truffle oil than I thought I would, so you'll want to keep tasting it. I do think it needs a bit of butter to sort of bring out that taste, and maybe for texture. And, as I sit here eating left-overs, I'd say it might be better the second day.

The real gem, in my opinion, was rosemary-chipotle popcorn. Clearly I'm on a bit of a rosemary kick, but who can blame me? And really, who would complain? For this one, I chopped maybe 4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary and added that to melted butter, then poured that mixture over the popcorn. I then sprinkled maybe 1/8 tsp of chipotle powder and a generous amount of table salt.

FanFREAKINGtastic. As I said, Beej still prefers the classic, and it is darn good, but the rosemary-chipotle is a wonderful discovery.

Spicy Rosemary Cashews

I got this recipe from my friend David (& then tweaked it a bit) and they've been a favorite Christmas present idea. They're best warm, it's true, but they certainly don't have to be served warm. Even so, they tend to work best if you warm the cashews in the oven first, as it seems to help the mix adhere. In a pinch, though, just throw the cashews into the coating and mix. Done!

Mix about 1 lb cashews (whole or pieces) with

• 3 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp chipotle pepper
• 2 tsp dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp melted butter

* If you're not big on spice, cut down on the chipotle pepper, or just use just under 1/2 tsp cayenne and no chipotle.

If you're warming the cashews:
Preheat oven to 375. Place about 1 lb of cashews nuts on ungreased baking sheet & bake about 10 minutes, or until warmed through. Meanwhile, combine the mix in large bowl. Toss warm nuts with rosemary mixture until completely coated. Adjust salt & spice levels to taste (if too spicy, add a smidge more brown sugar). Serve warm, if possible.

Rosemary simple syrup

Thanks, Braden, for this idea.

Rosemary simple syrup:
Add 1 C. sugar (white works better than raw)
to 1. C water
and add 6 fresh rosemary sprigs (rinsed)

Bring to a boil & dissolve sugar into water. Let simmer for another minute or so. Then take the pot off the burner and let it sit for a good 20 minutes. Remove rosemary sprigs and any stray rosemary.







I used this to make rosemary lemonade for summer beer. I wish I could give you the recipe, but I was eyeballing. Something like the juice from 10 lemons with some of the pulp, maybe 1/4 cup of this rosemary simple syrup (more to taste?) and a 1/4C - 1/2 C water (or you can use 3/4 can of lemon sparkling water), almost all of a Corona Light and a 1/2 C. vodka or so. Just mix these things, adding more of some stuff or other until it tastes good. :) Oh, and serve over ice.

Grilled pizza

I think I posted about this before, but, if not, we've been making grilled pizzas. I use the olive oil bread dough from this book. Generously oil a large sheet of aluminum foil and spread dough out to flatbread shape/size. Oil the top of dough generously as well. Prep your toppings. Then you'll put the dough directly on the grill. Wait for it to start to bubble on top at which point you should be able to flip the dough with tongs and a spatula. Top the pizza and close the lid to help the cheese melt.

A few photos:

The dough on the grill, pre-flip.

This is Beej's: fresh cherry tomatoes, red onion, fresh mushrooms, green & kalmata olives, fresh basil (with pesto as the sauce) and fresh mozz. It got a bit on the crispy side, but was very good.

And here's mine. Pretty much the same as Beej's, sans tomatoes.

Peruvian chicken update

Sorry, no pictures. Should have taken some, though, as it was a glorious sight on the grill's rotisserie. And holy o'golden was it wonderful. I mean, really really wonderful. I think the 20 hour marinade was key. I wonder if we could inject the rub into the chicken? Honestly, though, we didn't actually need to do that as it had good flavor all the way through and the rotisserie made it really (I hate this word, but it's true) moist and juicy. The skin was, of course, the best part, as skin always is.

And the chicken went really nicely with the cilantro rice. When I do the rice again, though, I think I'll cut back just a smidge on the lime. I tripled the recipe (for at least 3 cups of rice) and I think I could double the recipe for 3 cups of rice.

Plus, we made summer beer: rosemary lemonade, vodka, Corona light, and rosemary simple syrup (over ice). Sound weird? Maybe, but it's delicious.

Overall, a stunning meal. We will a) absolutely make this again and b) use our rotisserie on the grill more often.

Oh, also, I wasn't a huge fan of the dipping sauce. It wasn't bad and, as Lisa mentioned, it would probably be a good veggie dip, but it didn't really enhance the chicken much, nor was it needed. I'd skip it.

Peruvian chicken recipe

We still haven't technically tried the Peruvian chicken recipe. I did, however, make the rub for the chicken so I'm posting a quick picture of the rubbed chicken, as well as the recipe.

Messy? Sure. Something a smidge dirty looking about this picture? Kinda. Fun anyway? For totes.













Here's the recipe, ala Cooks Illustrated.

Peruvian Chicken with Garlic and Lime
Combine in a food processor or blender until paste forms, 10-20 seconds.

• 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 C. lightly packed fresh mint leaves
• 2 Tbsp kosher salt
• 6 medium garlic cloves, peeled & roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp finely grated zest and 1/4 C. juice from 2 limes
• 1 tsp minced habanero chile

Using fingers or handle of wooden spoon, carefully loosen skin over thighs and breast of a 3.54 lb whole chicken. Rub 1/2 of paste beneath skin of chicken. Spread rest on entire exterior. Tuck wingtips underneath chicken. Place in gallon-sized zipper-lock bag and refrigerate for 6-24 hours. 

The rest of the recipe calls for roasting the chicken b/c the authors wanted an alternative to rotisserie. We're trying it on the rotisserie on our grill. But here's the roasting recipe. You'll either need a vertical roaster or a half empty beer can sprayed on the outside with cooking spray.

2. Adjust oven rack to lowest position & heat oven to 325 degrees. Place vertical roaster on rimmed baking sheet. Slide chicken onto vertical roaster so chicken stands upright and breast is perpendicular to bottom of pan. Roast until skin just begins to turn golden and instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of breast registers 140 degrees, 45-55 minutes. Carefully remove chicken and pan from oven and increase oven temperature to 500 degrees.

3. When oven in heated to 500 degrees, place 1 C. water in bottom of pan and return pan to oven. Roast until entire skin is browned and crisp and instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees inserted in thickest part of breast and 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, about 20 minutes (replenish water as necessary to keep pan from smoking), rotating bird 180 degrees halfway through cooking. 

4. Carefully remove chicken from oven and let rest, still on vertical roaster, 20 minutes. Using kitchen towel, carefully lift chicken off vertical roaster and onto platter or cutting board. Carve chicken and serve, passing Spicy Mayonnaise separately.

Spicy Mayonnaise? Here you go

Process in food processor until finely chopped, about 5 seconds. 

• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp minced onion
• 1 Tbsp juice from 1 lime
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp canned pickled jalapeno, minced
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed through garlic press
• 1 tsp yellow mustard
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Wish machine running, slowly drizzle in 1 C. vegetable oil in steady stream until mayonnaise-like consistency is reached, scraping bowl down as necessary. 

Moroccan Chicken

I've posted Lisa T's Moroccan chicken recipe earlier. Here's a not-very-good picture of the chicken on jasmine rice. So freaking good.

Peruvian chicken and cilantro rice

When I was visiting Billy and Anna in Madison, we ate a few times at the food trucks on campus. I had this Peruvian chicken and cilantro rice that I LOVED. When I got home, I noticed that there was a recipe in my Cook's Illustrated for Peruvian chicken, so I'm going to try it tomorrow night. I don't have the recipe in front of me (I'm at a coffeeshop), but I'll post it soon, especially if it turns out. I'm also going to try this cilantro rice recipe that I found online:

Make rice as usual. I'm going with basmati.
Blend in food processor (or blender)
2/3 cup cilantro, loosely packed
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped scalions
1 jalapeno (or to taste)
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp olive oil


This is for each cup of rice, so I'll need more than this, but I like the idea. I'll post after we try it. 


I've also been doing basmati with basil butter and it is, just fyi, very good.

Jerk rice

One of our favorite things in the summer is jamaican jerk salmon. We made it on Monday night with some wild sockeye (and it was delish). We had rice on the side and, as will happen, some of the jerk topping mixed with the rice. It got me thinking that the jerk seasoning intentionally mixed with some basmati might be wonderful. I haven't tried it yet, but I mixed some of the left over salmon in with some basmati tonight and think this has great potential. I'll update when I actually do try it.