Southwestern Risotto

As I mentioned yesterday, earlier last week I picked up a few pints of roasted hatch chile peppers intent on making two creative recipes with them. The first was the Hatch Chile Chicken Salad, and the second was this Southwestern Risotto. I have never before thought to use peppers of any variety in a risotto, having previously associated the dish with subtler flavor profiles such as mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, and the like. Thursday, however, as I was walking around the produce section at Central Market, Hatch peppers in hand I knew I wanted to see how it would taste in risotto.

So I picked up some corn and cherry tomatoes that I knew would complement the peppers well and picked up a chicken breast to bake and I was ready to give it a whirl. I decided to grill the corn to give a smokiness to the kernels and to go along with the roasted flavor of the peppers. Additionally, I roasted the tomatoes, largely because I much prefer the taste of tomatoes when they are cooked as opposed to raw. I baked a chicken breast half to add, but you could easily use meat from a rotisserie chicken or leftover baked chicken from the night before to simplify the process.

The result was absolutely delicious! The sweetness of the corn and tomatoes was the perfect contrast to the slight heat of the peppers. The chicken added a nice bit of protein, an essential component for any meal for my husband!

One quick note before the recipe. I recently purchased a jar of chicken bouillon for a recipe and it saved me from disaster on this meal! You see, I was well into the risotto process when I discovered I only had half of the chicken broth I needed for the recipe. When I remembered I had chicken bouillon on hand I mixed some up with water, heated it in the microwave and I was ready to go! Crisis averted! So all that to say, it's a good idea to keep some chicken bouillon on hand just in case you find yourself in need of chicken broth at the last minute!

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Southwestern Risotto


Ingredients
1 cup arborio rice
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 yellow onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Chardonnay
4 cups chicken broth, heated
1/2 cup chopped Hatch peppers, roasted and peeled
2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
Salt and Pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions
You will want to have the corn, chicken, tomatoes and peppers ready when you start the risotto process. Start with grilling the corn, I used my grill pan on the stove top to stay out of the heat. Heat the grill or grill pan over medium high heat and place the cobs directly on the grill.

Cook, turning every 2 minutes, for about 8-10 minutes until fully cooked.

Remove from the grill and cut the kernels from the cob. Place in a bowl and set aside.

While the corn is on the grill, cut the tomatoes in half and drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

If you purchase your hatch chile peppers already roasted, simply remove the skin and stem, chop and set aside. If you need to roast them yourself here's some great instructions.

Now that all the star ingredients are prepped, it's on to the risotto!
Melt a tablespoon of butter in a heavy bottomed large pot over medium- high heat.

Add the onions and saute until softened and browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the minced garlic and saute until fragrant, about 2 more minutes.

Season with a little salt and pepper then add the cup of arborio rice and stir to coat with the oil.

Pour in the cup of Chardonnay and stir until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid.

 Add a 1/2 cup of warmed chicken broth at a time, allowing the rice to absorb the liquid before adding the next 1/2 cup. Repeat until the rice has reached the desired texture, not mushy but with a little bite like al dente pasta.

Add in the corn,

 hatch peppers,

 chicken,

 and tomatoes,  Stir to combine.

Serve in a bowl and enjoy with a glass of Chardonnay.

Summer Corn Muffins

Supposedly summer is coming to a close. I know it is September first, but as I write this post, it is currently 102 degrees. Dallas is in line for a cold front this weekend...95 degrees here we come!

I ventured into the land of Central Market today. I hardly ever go there. I am honestly a bit overwhelmed by the whole idea of the store. It is an intricate and incredibly detailed maze of the most fascinating food products you could ever imagine, and many products you never knew existed, let alone, how to use them! The last time I went was on a weekend around Christmas time. Worst decision. I vowed never to return due to the ridiculous number of people, the inability to move around, the huge check out lines and just my overwhelming sense of frustration. Anyways, I went there today (a Thursday afternoon) for two reasons. One, because I am grilling salmon this evening, and wanted a wonderfully fresh piece, and goodness, Central Market is indeed a great place to go for fresh and gorgeous seafood. I also constantly hear about how people just love this place, so I decided to give it another try. What a refreshing visit! The people are beyond helpful and friendly, things are actually laid out for an easier shopping flow, they had everything (and more) on my rather intricate shopping list, and I did not have that same feeling of claustrophobia. So, I suppose the secret to Central Market is to go on a weekday (ideally in the middle of the day), and avoid it at all costs around the holidays! 

A picture of the pups from this spring...yellow flowers to match our yellow corn!

Anyways, in honor of summer coming to a close, I wanted to use my favorite summer vegetable, corn! Cornbread is a fun way to use fresh corn, and it also brings a sweet change to your dinner. I decided to purchase fresh corn on the cob, shucked it myself, and cut the kernels off the cob. This process is so easy, so when fresh corn is available you should really take advantage of it and go ahead and buy the fresh corn rather than the canned variety. This recipe is from Food and Wine. I added extra corn and salt, and omitted the jalapenos. 

So often I find cornbread to be dry and flaky and just dull. These muffins are the opposite in every way! They are fluffy, light, fresh, flavorful and overall incredibly tasty! I will always use this cornbread recipe from this point forward. I recommend eating these muffins fresh out of the oven, so that a touch of butter will melt just perfectly and serve as a complimentary salty balance to the sweet corn. Yum!

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Ingredients:
6 tablespoons of canola oil
1 cup of fresh corn (all of the kernels off of one corn cob, be careful with your fingers when cutting!)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of cornmeal
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 cup of buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Steps:
1. Gather all of your ingredients.

2. Use one teaspoon of the canola oil from the total 6 tablespoons to coat the bottom of a skillet.

3. Add the corn and a dash of salt and pepper to the skillet. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Remove the cooked corn from the heat and set aside.

5. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.

6. Add the buttermilk, the egg and the remaining oil to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.

7. Gently fold the cooked corn into the batter.

8. Distribute the batter evenly to make 12 muffins. Spray the muffin tin with cooking spray before and after you put the muffin liners to help avoid the frustration of stuck muffins!

9. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 16 to 18 minutes. You want just a touch of golden brown to the edges of the muffins.
10. Enjoy this summer treat with a small bit of butter!

Corn and Squash

As a child I had a healthy appetite for vegetables. In fact, if you were to ask 7 year old Staci what her favorite food was, I would have answered "Collard greens!" My mother also loves veggies and was very pleased to have a daughter who shared this interest, especially since my father did not. Whenever Dad was out of town for a weekend or week, at least one night Mom and I would declare to be veggie night and our entire meal would be based around the fresh veggies that we loved.

Corn and squash was always an essential component to those special mother-daughter veggie nights. This recipe is a Thrasher family original passed down from my grandmother to my mom and then to me. It's always made in a cast iron skillet (although a regular skillet will also work if a cast iron skillet is not available) and typically bacon grease is used in place of the healthier coconut oil listed in the recipe below.

As I made this dish to compliment a lovely rotisserie chicken purchased at Eatzi's the other night, the smells quickly brought me back to the days of my youth, standing by my mother's side as she prepared veggie night dinner for us both. Fortunately for me, Robert also loves vegetables and who can resist this delicous corn and squash side when made with fresh corn and squash direct from the farm in my produce share? Certainly not me, that's for sure.

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Corn and Squash

Ingredients
4 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob
4-5 small yellow squash, sliced
1 1/2 cup milk (I used 2% since it's what I had on hand)
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
1 teaspoon pepper (plus more to taste)

Instructions
Heat the coconut oil in the skillet over medium high heat.

Add the corn and saute until the kernels have absorbed most of the oil, about 5 minutes.

Add the squash,

 milk and salt and pepper.

Bring to a low boil.

 Cook, stirring frequesntly for about 20 minutes until the corn and squash have cooked through and the milk has reduced in half.

Serve with your favorite protein and enjoy. While this may not be the prettiest side dish, it is absolutely delicious.