Sometimes, you don't really know what lurks in the depths of your freezer. I admit I'm a bit of a list-maker (read: crazy person) so I have a list of all the meats and quantities magentized to my freezer door. But, I don't write down the random things in there, like pesto "cubes," walnuts, tortillas, phyllo cups, or in this case...artichoke hearts.

Tom and I have been out of town a decent amount, and we're going out of town again Saturday through Wednesday (which, as you may have guessed, translates to no blogging for me). So, rather than buying tons of groceries like I usually do, I've been trying to use up what's in the freezer and my cabinets, buying some fresh produce when necessary. When I saw the artichokes, I knew they needed to be used up soon.

This Greek dish is most commonly made with lamb. And, of course it's better with lamb because lamb is better than chicken. Duh. But "lamb" was not on my magnetized freezer list, so chicken it had to be. But no worries--this is a really tasty meal with chicken, too. It's sort of like eating an avgolemono stew, rather than a soup, with artichokes in it. I personally prefer using a dark meat chicken for this because 1) it tastes better and 2) it holds up better to poaching/braising/etc. without drying out. We had this with a salad, and some rice to soak up all the egg-lemony goodness.

Have a great weekend and early week, all!

Kota avgolemono (1)

Chicken with Artichokes and Egg Lemon Sauce (Kota Me Aginares Kai Avgolemono)
Serves 2

1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 pieces bone-in chicken (thighs, leg quarters, etc. I skin them because to me, skin is worthless if it's not crispy from roasting!)
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1.5 cups chicken broth
Dill, to taste
1 cup artichoke hearts
1 egg
1 lemon, juiced
a little cornstarch
salt and pepper

Heat a pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and then brown in the hot oil. Remove the chicken, and add the diced onions to the pan, cooking until translucent. Stir in the garlic until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, being sure to scrape up all the browned bits as you deglaze, and bring to a boil. Add the dill, chicken, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Add the artichoke hearts and continue to cook, this time uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the artichokes are tender. Season to taste if necessary.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, lemon juice and a little cornstarch. Slowly add a couple ladels full of the broth from the pan (I find it easier to plate the chicken first, so you don't have to maneuver around that) to the egg-lemon mixture, whisking constantly so your eggs don't scramble. Then, slowly add that mixture back into the pan, again whisking constantly. Stir until thickened. Pour the avgolemono sauce over the chicken and artichokes (and rice!)

Kota avgolemono

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Or, a fancy schmancy Greek way of saying spinach-'n-rice. In Greek, "spanaki" is spinach and "rizi" is rice.  I hope you're paying attention to some of the Greek tidbits you're learning from my blog because you never know when you may need them. Maybe your next Cranium question is going to ask what a spanakophobe is, and of course you're going to know right away that, obviously, it's someone who fears spinach.

[Okay, I just did about 20 seconds of googling and was not able to confirm that a person who is scared of spinach is called a spanakophobe or anything remotely close to that. So let's not use that example, but it could come into play somewhere, I promise. Maybe not with spanakophobe or rizophile, but some time.]

At any rate, spanakorizo is a very common Greek side dish. The flavors are very typical of other Greek dishes and they taste great when combined. The bonus is that this can double as your vegetable and your starch side. Normally, I am not one to do that (veggies are important and most veggies incorporated into starches tend to be in very small quantities), but here I am giving you the go ahead. About 1.5-2 lbs. of spinach are put into this rice, and the amount of rice you eat is actually less than the serving (how often can you say that about a starch?) but don't worry, the portion is still plenty.

Traditionally, spanakorizo has quite a bit more olive oil to start, but I like to make a healthier version. I suppose using brown rice would make it even healthier but for some things, even I just say no to brown rice. Some Greeks add tomato paste or fresh tomatoes to their spanakorizo but I am not one of them. I don't believe that there's anything wrong with that, but I like the combo of the dill, spinach and lemon as it stands.

In case you're wondering, we had this with a very Greek-flavored pork tenderloin that I quick marinated in fresh lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and oregano and then seared and roasted.

Spanakorizo

Spanakorizo
Serves 4

1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2/3 cup long grain white rice
1-1/3 cup water
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 bunches or about 1.5-2 lbs. fresh spinach, chopped (and remove any stems that don't seem very tender)
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped (or about 1 T dried)
salt and pepper 

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Once heated, add the onions and saute until tender. Add the rice and stir to coat it in the olive oil, "toasting" it for a minute or two. Add the water and lemon juice and bring to a boil.

Add the spinach, dill and some salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture down to a simmer. Cover tightly and simmer about 15 minutes or until rice is cooked.  

Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 205 / Fat: 6g / Carbs: 33g / Fiber: 4.5g / Protein: 7.3g

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Much to my husband's dismay, I am not the biggest fan of fish. It's not that I hate it, but I would just prefer to eat something else...so, I do. This means Tom typically only eats fish at a restaurant. When we were in Seattle, I tried more seafood, thinking I would like it more because it was so fresh. Eh. It was better than I'm used to, but still, try as I might, I am not crazy about it. However, since my husband ate cabbage from the dolmades last night, I figured it only fair that I eat fish tonight.

I went with tilapia because it is a mild, non-fishy fish. But the thing about tilapia is that I actually find it a little too mild, so, I pretty much just use it as a vehicle for adding flavor. I have recently seen a couple recipes for fish roasted alongside tomatoes, like one Cara made and one from Food Network. I love roasted tomatoes so I decided to go that route with the fish. In addition to the roasted tomatoes, I decided to make a lemon pesto, instead of just using basil. I had some leftover pesto in the fridge and the way I see it, if something is topped with pesto, it's got to be good right?

Right. This was some tasty, tasty fish. Even I thought so! The great taste (not to mention the juices) from the oven roasted tomatoes, with the nice garlicky-lemon taste of the pesto made the fish taste delicious. If you are one of those people who, like me, is trying to ease your way into fish, this is your recipe.

Pesto and roasted tomato tilapia

Tilapia with Lemon Pesto and Oven Roasted Tomatoes
Serves 2

1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
5 cloves garlic, peeled/smashed
2 tsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. pesto
1 lemon
2 tilapia filets, about 6 oz.
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425. Toss the tomatoes and the garlic with the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Roast for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, juice the lemon and reserve both the juice and the juiced lemon. To the juice, add the pesto and stir to combine. Season the tilapia with salt and pepper and then spread the pesto mixture on top of the fish.

Take the pan of roasted garlic and tomatoes out of the oven and nestle the cut lemon into the pan. Place the tilapia on top of the lemon and tomatoes and put back in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the fish is flaky and no longer opaque. Spoon the tomatoes over the fish.

Nutritional Information per Serving: Calories: 282 / Fat: 13.5g / Carbs: 10.6g / Protein: 33.8g 

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For as much as I enjoy food, I can pick what are probably my two favorite dishes with little hesitation: Greek-style stuffed cabbage with egg-lemon sauce (lahanodolmades avgolemono) and roasted lamb with tomatoes and orzo (arni youvetsi) with lots of grated myzithra. But, I tend to not make these dishes at home and wait for my yiayia to make them when I visit Michigan (she takes requests, of course). Tom is not that crazy about cabbage, so I usually make youvarlakia, which are almost the same thing as the dolmades but without the cabbage. And roasting lamb just doesn't make much sense when there are only two people in the household. So, unfortunately, I don't eat my two favorite meals all that often.

But, lucky for me, Tom *will* eat anything. In fact the only thing he doesn't like is Grape Nuts cereal, which he professes tastes like gravel. He likes almost everything else, and things he feels just sort of "eh" about (like cabbage), he will still eat. And hey, I can always eat the cabbage from his plate if he doesn't want it (much like I did with my dad's plate, when I was younger).

I have been majorly craving some lahanodolmades (LA-hah-no-dole-MAH-thes) lately, so I decided to make these. In general "dolmades" refer to stuffed grape leaves whereas "lahanodolmades" are stuffed cabbage (lahana = cabbage). I much, much, much prefer lahanodolmades with avgolemono over the tomato sauce many versions of stuffed cabbage tend to have. Plus, it's really the only way we made them in my family. These are really easy to make vegetarian by simply removing the meat. Normally I don't thicken my avgolemono with flour or cornstarch but that's because generally I am making something more soup-like whereas this is more sauce-like so I do add the cornstarch here.

Dolmades

Stuffed Cabbage with Egg Lemon Sauce (Lahanodolmades Avgolemono)
Serves about 4

1 cabbage
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup white rice
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, finely diced or grated
fresh dill, to taste--but don't be stingy!
fresh parsley, to taste--again, don't be stingy! 
1 tsp. salt
ground pepper to taste
2--2.5 cups chicken broth or water (I use a combo)

Avgolemono
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. cornstarch

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add some salt. Meanwhile, peel the outermost leaves of the cabbage off and then, with one hand on the cabbage to steady it, use a small paring or utility knife to cut around the core of the cabbage. Pop the core out with the tip of your knife (basically you will have a hole in your cabbage). Then, add the cabbage to the boiling water and boil until the leaves are tender, about 10-12 minutes. Carefully peel the cabbage, layer by layer, reserving the leaves. If they are big, feel free to cut them in half.

In a pot or dutch oven (I just use the same one as I did for the cabbage), put some sort of layer of vegetables on the bottom. You can use some of the leftover cabbage leaves, onion, lemon slices...today I did a combo of all three because my onion was too large to use all  up in the meat mixture and I had some torn pieces of cabbage.

Lightly mix your ground beef, rice, beaten egg, onion, dill, salt and pepper until the ingredients are incorporated. Lay a cabbage leaf flat on your work surface and place about a tablespoon or so of the meat mixture at one end of the leaf. Tuck in the sides of the leaf and then proceed to roll it up. Place the rolled up cabbage seam side down on top of bed of veggies. Continue stuffing/rolling the remaining cabbage and placing them next to each other in the pot. When you have one layer completed, make another layer of the stuffed cabbage.

Dolmades stacked

After you have made all your rolls, pour water or broth into the pot. The cabbage rolls shouldn't be submerged completely, but you should be able to see the liquid coming up from the sides. I also place an inverted plate on top of the rolls, to keep some pressure on them so they don't open during cooking. Bring the broth to a boil and then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 60-75 minutes, until the cabbage is very tender.

To make the avgolemono, mix together the eggs and lemon juice and then add the corn starch to make a slurry. Take a few ladles of the broth from the cabbage rolls (I like to take out all or most of the rolls before doing this, just because it makes it easier on me and you can also pull out things you don't want to eat, like if you used lemon slices), and slowly add it to the egg-lemon mixture, beating continuously. Then, add the avgolemono into the pot, again stirring continuously. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Dolmades 2

Nutritional information per serving (using extra lean ground beef): Calories: 324 / Fat: 13.5 / Carbs: 18.2g / Protein: 33.5g 

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Zaatar chicken

Tonight's dinner came together in no time. In fact, if I hadn't marinated the chicken (which honestly isn't really necessary, but does help), dinner would have been on the table in well under 20 minutes.

A while back I made some za'atar mix, a popular Lebanese spice mixture made of thyme, sumac and sesame seeds. I decided to use the leftovers on some chicken thighs. I always have chicken thighs in my freezer. I LOVE dark meat chicken. It is so much more moist and flavorful than white meat and it holds up so well in braising and in broiling. And, if you skin the chicken, it's really not a whole lot worse for you than chicken breasts, just a little higher in fat.

I was planning on serving this with couscous until I realized right before dinner that we were out of couscous. D'oh! Luckily, I did have some quinoa on hand so I used that instead. Quinoa is a very healthy seed, though it's treated as a grain in cooking. It's a little larger than couscous in size with a nutty flavor somewhat similar to brown rice. Thankfully, it takes a lot less time to cook than brown rice, too, so I wasn't scrambling TOO much when I realized we were out of couscous. Plus, Tom prefers quinoa to couscous, so that's a bonus.

In addition to the quinoa, I served these with a simple cucumber and feta salad. This was a really simple, easy meal that turned out great. The chicken was so moist and flavorful, especially considering the extremely short list of ingredients.  

Zaatar chicken 2

Broiled Za'atar Chicken Thighs
Serves 2

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 lemon, juiced
1 heaping Tbsp. za'atar
salt and pepper (optional)

Mix lemon juice with za'atar mix. Rub the mixture onto the chicken thighs and refrigerate for half an hour.

Preheat the broiler and spray the broiler pan with some cooking spray. Sprinkle the chicken with a little salt and pepper if desired. Broil for approximately 6 minutes per side, or until done.

Nutritional Information per serving (2 thighs); note: I found a few different calorie counts for boneless/skinless chicken thighs. I went with the higher amount, just to be on the safe side. Calories: 233 / Fat: 11g / Carbs: 2g / Protein: 27.5g

Simple Quinoa with Pine Nuts
Serves 2

1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender. Stir in the garlic and cook for about one minute. Add the quinoa and the broth. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed and the couscous is cooked, about 12-15 minutes. Top with toasted pine nuts.  

You can make this with couscous the same way but of course couscous only takes a couple minutes to cook.

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Courgette risotto

Nicole at For the Love of Food hosts this really great blogging event called Taste&Create.  She pairs up bloggers and then they each make a recipe from the other's blog and...what else? Blog about it!

I was paired with Abby over at Eat the Right Stuff. This was great for many reasons, including the fact that I had never visited Abby's blog before and now I have a great new blog to add to my reader. As a bonus, Abby tends to eat pretty healthfully as I also (try to) do. Not that I picked an overly healthy recipe, because I didn't :)

I had a lot of fun poring over all of Abby's great recipes and while it was tough to pick just one, I landed on her courgette and lemon risotto. I definitely enjoyed this dish. I love the combination of lemon and basil so I knew I would like this. I would probably add more lemon next time around (the zest from the whole lemon, perhaps) as I tend to like things pretty lemony. I admit I don't use zucchini IN things terribly often and tend to have them as a veggie side, instead. It was nice to put them in something so hearty. In summary: a fresh, light take on a comfort classic!

Courgette and Lemon Risotto
serves 2

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed/minced
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/3 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)
2 cups hot vegetable stock (I used chicken stock since that's what I had)
juice and zest of half a lemon
2-3 courgettes/zucchinis, grated
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
handful of shredded basil
salt and pepper

Wrap the grated zucchini in a clean towel and squeeze out all the extra liquid. A lot will come out and that's important so don't skip this step!

Heat the oil and butter in a medium pan. Add the onion and cook until it has softened. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute. Stir in the rice and make sure it is coated with the butter/oil. "Toast" it for a bit. Increase the heat and add the wine, stirring while it reduces.

Add a ladle of the vegetable (or chicken) stock to the rice and stir continuously until the liquid has almost all been absorbed. Continue adding the stock by the ladle until the rice is cooked (risotto should still have a little bite to it, just like al dente pasta).

When the rice is done, add the zucchini, basil, lemon, lemon zest, parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

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Avgolemono

Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody fame has recently moved into what is probably one of the cutest houses I've seen. She has asked people to bring a dish to her virtual housewarming party, and I've been trying to figure out for a few days now what to bring. Since a lot of Peabody's blogging friends are bakers, I figure many of the dishes brought will be desserts, so I decided to "bring" something savory. The decision was made much easier by the fact that baking is not what you would call my "strong suit." In fact, you'd probably call it my weakness. So, no need to try and compete with all those wonderful bakers!

I ended up picking avgolemono (egg-lemon rice) soup, not only because I love making soups and it's Greek, but because Seattle has had its first snowfall, and I figure something warm and comforting is good. I am "serving" the soup in mugs so it's easier to eat at a potluck, and it's even served on a special trivet, just for Peabody...a hockey puck. I considered using my Lidstrom jersey under the mug, but I don't think self-proclaimed Red Wings hater Peabody would like that much. Or, maybe she would, in hopes that the soup would spill all over the jersey ;)

Avgolemono is probably the easiest soup in the world to make; not that it tastes that way. The thing is, because it has so few ingredients (4, if you're not adding chicken), you really want to use homemade stock for this soup to make sure it has good flavor. I suppose you could use a good quality store bought stock, but I'm going to be a little Ina Garten here and strongly suggest homemade stock.

Soupa Avgolemono
serves 6

8 cups homemade chicken stock or good quality store-bought stock
1 cup rice (I prefer short grain because it's starchier and will help to thicken the soup but if you don't want the rice to be as soft or the soup to be as thick, use long grain)
1 cup cooked, shredded chicken (optional)
3 eggs
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (more or less, depending on how tart you want the soup)
salt and pepper

In a stockpot or dutch oven, bring the stock to a low boil and add the rice. Simmer until the rice is cooked, and then stir in the chicken just to heat through. Season to taste. Take the dutch oven off the heat.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs together with the lemon juice. Slowly drizzle some of the broth from the soup into the egg-lemon mixture, whisking constantly so as not to scramble the egg. Do about 2 ladles full of broth. Then, slowly pour the whole mixture back into the stockpot, again whisking constantly.

Sprinkle the soup with fresh ground pepper and serve with lemons, if desired.

Avgolemono 2

 

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DSC02981

Youvarlakia! Youvarlakia are little Greek meat and rice balls in avgolemono, or egg lemon, sauce. If you've ever had avgolemono or chicken lemon rice soup, it's pretty much the same thing but, you know, with meatballs instead of chicken :)

This is a really simple dish, and pretty healthy, to boot. You can make this more or less soup-like depending on your preferences. Just reduce or increase the amount of broth accordingly.

And can you believe I  have now voluntarily tempered eggs for 2 days in a row? 

Youvarelakia

1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, divided
4 cups broth
1 lb. extra lean ground beef (and not just for the nutrition, but so you don't get a greasy broth!)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
3-4 Tbsp. fresh parsley or 1-2 T dried
fresh dill, to taste
ground pepper, to taste
4 eggs, divided
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2-3 lemons)

Cut the onion in half. Finely mince or grate one half and put in a medium sized bowl.

Dice the other half of the onion. Add butter to saucepan or small casserole/stockpot to melt. Add the diced onion and cook until translucent. Add the broth to the pot and bring to a light boil.

Meanwhile, make the meatballs. To the grated/minced onion, add the beef, salt, parsley, dill, ground pepper, uncooked rice and 1 beaten egg. Form the mixture into 1" meatballs (you will get around 25 or so).

Drop the meatballs into the broth. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20-25 minutes, until meatballs cook through and rice is done. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the 3 remaining eggs with the lemon juice until combined.

Slowly drizzle 2 ladles of the broth from the meatballs into the egg/lemon mixture, stirring continuously so as not to scramble the eggs.

Slowly pour the egg/lemon/broth mixture back into the meatballs, again stirring continuously as you do so. Season to taste again, if necessary.

Serve meatballs with a ladle of sauce (or as much as you want).

DSC02985

Nutrition info per servings (4 servings). Note: I used 96% lean beef, but this calorie information is using 93% lean. Calories: 261 / Fat: 11.2g / Carbs: 9.2g / Fiber: 0.5g / Protein: 26.4

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DSC02940

Another day, another pork chop.

We are pretty limited with both our freezer and fridge selections at the moment, so I needed something simple and with common ingredients for tonight's dinner. I decided to just use Giada's extremely basic, easy recipe for parmesan pork chops. I used romano instead of parmesan because that is the cheese I always have on hand (I prefer it to parmesan). These were great. Nothing absolutely amazing but they come together very quickly and are an extremely easy weeknight meal.

I made a really simple salad of baby romaine and grape tomatoes tossed with lemon vinaigrette. All I did for that was crush a clove of garlic, squeeze the juice out of one lemon, and add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. I let it sit while I made the rest of the meal to marry the flavors and plucked the garlic clove out before tossing with the greens.

DSC02938

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 UPDATE: See the Food in Film roundup here.

"Will someone please pass me the fucking asparagus?"

Asparagus

When I read that Susan over at the Well-Seasoned Cook was hosting a "Food in Film" blogging event , I didn't even think of basing my entry on what are probably obvious films, like the ones with food in their title (Chocolat) or the ones with food as a central theme (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, American Pie). My mind, for whatever reason, immediately went to the dinner scene in American Beauty where Kevin Spacey's character, Lester Burnham, throws a plate of asparagus onto the wall.

American Beauty is one of my favorite movies. In fact, I have actually written graduate level papers on this film. Don't worry--I had a media concentration, I wasn't writing economics essays on this film or anything. I think the second dinner scene is one of the best scenes from American Beauty for many reasons. I won't bore you with all of them, but I will say it is a turning point in the film where Lester really makes it clear that he is now living his life for himself, and not for anyone else. And, it's got some great humor ("I didn't LOSE [my job]. It's not like, 'Whoops, where'd it go?'") Bottom line, it's a great scene. So, for my entry in the event, I decided to go with a roasted asparagus with lemon vinaigrette.  

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Vinaigrette

1 lb. asparagus, ends trimmed
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
lemons, for serving

Vinaigrette
1/2 shallot, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400.

Make vinaigrette by combining all ingredients. Set aside so flavors can meld. If you do not link pieces of shallot or garlic, you can either strain the vinaigrette after flavors have combined, or puree the whole mixture in a food processor.

Toss asparagus with some olive oil to just coat all pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or to desired doneness

Spoon vinaigrette over roasted asparagus and garnish with lemon wedges.

Asparagus 2

We had this with some herb roasted pork tenderloin and mashed yukon gold potatoes, which I didn't take pictures of. As Carolyn Burnham would say, this meal was "nutritious yet savory."

For your viewing pleasure, the scene to which I am referring:

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