Kalyn's Kitchen

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Recipe Favorites: Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken

(Updated May 2008) Saturday night I had a wedding shower for my beautiful niece Kristen and I made this rosemary mustard grilled chicken, the same grilled chicken I've made for so many other family wedding showers. This is my *signature* grilled chicken recipe, something I've been making for years, so it's certainly time to make it a Recipe Favorite on the blog (not to mention a new photo!)

If you try this recipe, it's the kind of thing you'll make over and over again, and the recipe is pretty much foolproof. When I have lots of lemons sometimes I increase the lemon juice a little for a slightly more lemony tasting chicken. I've used dried rosemary or fresh rosemary. If you don't have Spike Seasoning or celery seed, no worries. If your family is lukewarm on Dijon, you could use regular mustard and it will still be good. This same marinade is also equally good on zucchini, or you can use zucchini and chicken and make kabobs. (Have I convinced you yet that this is a great recipe?)

(I first made posted this recipe when Alysha at The Savory Notebook had a blog event and the theme was My Most Requested Recipe; there was no doubt that this dish was the recipe I had to send.)

Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken
(8 servings, can be cut in half, but the leftovers are good on salad. I no longer remember where I originally found this recipe, but I adapted it from a cookbook.)

(If you're not that experienced at grilling chicken, you may want to read this post with step-by-step photos of how to make grilled chicken breasts.)

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Marinade:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. garlic powder or minced fresh garlic (fresh is best)
2 T crumbled dried rosemary (or use 3 T minced fresh rosemary)
1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
1 T Spike Seasoning (optional, but recommended)
1 tsp. celery seed

(To "crumble" rosemary, put the desired amount into a small zip loc bag and crush with your meat mallet or anything heavy until it is broken up and partially powdered.)

Trim all fat and tendons from chicken, then make small slits going crosswise down the length of each chicken breast. This is to help the marinade penetrate the meat better. Be careful not to cut too far into the chicken. Put chicken and marinade into large zip loc bag and let marinate at least 6 hours or all day.

Grill chicken over medium-high heat until well browned and firm (but not hard) to the touch, about 25 minutes. To get criss-cross grill marks, rotate 45 degrees after about 5 minutes on first side. You may need a spray bottle to squirt out the flames when you first put this on and the oil drips down. (Don't baste with the reserved marinade because it contains bacteria from the chicken.)

For zucchini you can shorten the marinating time, although I have marinated it all day when I was going to be out and it turned out great. Cut zucchini pieces into lengthwise slices about 3/8 inch thick. This is a great use for larger zucchini that has escaped you, as long as they are not too huge. Another great variation of this recipe is to make kabobs with chunks of chicken and zucchini alternating on skewers after they have been marinated separately.

This chicken could also be cooked in a stove-top grill pan with ridges or a George Foreman Grill with good results.

South Beach Diet and Low-Glycemic Suggestions:
This chicken is a perfect main dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet. In the photo I served it with Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro. For phase two or three you could add something like Farro with Mushrooms, Thyme, and Balsamic Vinegar.

More Ideas for Grilled Chicken from Kalyn's Kitchen:
Curried Chicken on the Grill with Cilantro Chutney
Very Greek Grilled Chicken
Grilled Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar (all phases)
Grilled Fusion Chicken
Grilled Lime and Chile Chicken with Mango and Red Bell Pepper Salsa
Grilled Chicken with Lemon, Capers, and Oregano
Grilled Chicken with Tarragon-Mustard Marinade

Warm Weather At Last - 2008 Garden Update #4

In late April when I posted my last Garden Update, I was excited to have vegetables planted so early in the season. Turns out I was overly optimistic about the weather, and I lost five of my tomatoes, plus a few cucumbers, squash, and peppers. About three-fourths of the plants did survive the freezing weather though, so I'll probably continue to be an early-season planter, especially since my garden has a fence on three sides and this is the first year I've ever had major frost damage. The healthy celebrity tomato plant above didn't seem bothered at all by the 26 degree temperatures, even though a plant right next to one this was completely dead.

I think there's no danger of more frost with the very hot temperatures we've been having, so most of the vegetables are looking pretty happy now. I haven't managed to get mulch around the raised beds yet so ignore the weeds that are starting to pop up! I'm probably going to invest in cocoa shell mulch, because I can't resist the idea of the garden smelling like chocolate. Anyone have experience with this? I've heard that it not only smells good and looks nice, but also deters snails, which have been a problem for me in the past. If you have any recommendations for different types of mulch, I'd love to hear them in the comments after you check out the rest of the garden.

The Roma tomatoes had lots of frost-damaged leaves, but they all seem to have survived and are recovering. After replanting to replace the frozen plants, the tomato varieties I now have are Romas (4), Celebrity (2), Marglobe, Moscow, Mr. Stripey (2) and Brandywine.

This was early morning, and it's kind of a fuzzy photo, but I hope you can tell the herbs are all happy, and I've already used rosemary, tarragon, parsley, and sage. In these two herb beds and along my fence I now have 2 types of sage, 3 types of oregano, 2 types of parsley, rosemary, tarragon, marjoram, thyme, dill, fennel, summer savory, mint, and lots of basil. I also planted 2 rows of green onions in the herb beds, but there are only a couple of tiny sprouts showing so far.

Bed #1 has 2 Poblano peppers, 2 Tomatillos, and 4 burpless cucumbers (which I'm growing in tomato cages so they don't over-run the other plants.) These beds are 4 feet by 10 feet, so they're longer than they look in these photos.

Bed #2 has 2 bush cucumbers, 2 bell peppers, 2 white eggplant, and 2 black beauty eggplant. The cucumber on the left (front) isn't happy though. I have no idea why, but I find cucumbers to be one of the hardest plants to get going every spring.

I'm excited about growing some things from seed, although I've used way too much seed and they all need to be thinned (I can't quite bring myself to do it yet!) From the front, I have short rows of radishes, chard, rainbow chard, chard, red kale, radishes, red kale, arugula, spinach, watermelon radish, romaine lettuce, and spinach. Some of these are early season crops which will get pulled out to make room for the other plants to get bigger. I'm completely new at this so I may have made some mistakes in choosing how to arrange the plants!

The fourth bed has straightneck squash, zucchini, and 8-ball zucchini. Along my back fence I have 2 plants of the Really Big Squash I was so happy with last year, and along the east side of the beds I have 2 spaghetti squash plants. The west end has a huge compost pile, which I'm hoping to make better use of next year if I can manage to keep it turned well enough that it makes good compost.

Finally, I'm very excited to be growing fennel, a completely new plant for me, and also something I've never cooked. I've eaten it and have no idea why it's never managed to land in my grocery cart, but I'm looking forward to trying it.

To see all my garden updates from 2006 and 2007, plus 2008 garden updates to date, check the section with Gardening Updates in the left sidebar of the blog. No gardening for me today, since there's been a lot of gardening but not much cooking going on around here, and I'm heading off to the kitchen!

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Vegetable Gardening

Labels: 2008 Garden Updates

Friday, May 16, 2008

Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Oso Fresh Food Storage Containers

The first time I saw this brand of Oso Fresh Fresher Food Containers in a big set at Costco, I was intrigued but highly skeptical. Made by a company called Lifestyle Innovations, the containers are EPA-registered and FDA-approved polypropylene food storage containers which have microscopic silver particles in the plastic. The silver particles reduce the growth of bacteria, so the containers keep food fresher three or four times longer than other containers.

I might never have gotten over my initial skepticism and purchased these if I hadn't been visiting my brother Rand in California when his friends Bill and Carie came to dinner. Carie brought some food in one of these containers, and I recognized it as being the same thing I'd seen at Costco. Carie raved about how the containers really did work to keep foods fresher, so the next time I was at Costco I bought a big 24 piece set. After I'd used them for a few weeks, I was completely convinced. (Thanks, Carie!)

The containers really do work to keep things like fresh herbs, fresh vegetables, cheese, and sliced deli meats fresh for a significantly longer time than if they were stored in normal plastic containers or plastic bags. I was hooked the first time I was able to use fresh cilantro that had been in the fridge for over two weeks (with a few brown edges, but more than 95% of the cilantro was still good.) One of my favorite uses is for cheese. Even though I have a FoodSaver machine which vacuum packs cheese and keeps it fresh fresh for months and months, that doesn't work for grated cheese, and this is much more convenient for cheese you're using regularly than resealing the bag each time.

There seem to be various styles and colors of containers made by this company with the same germ-reducing properties. The containers in the photo above came from my local grocery store. They're slightly different from the ones I got in the set from Costco which have locking lids, but both seem to work equally well to keep foods fresh. (Edit: I've also seen them in Utah at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.) The 24-piece set has every size you'd ever want, but even if you can only find the two sizes I see at my local store, you'll find lots of uses for them.

If you Google Oso Fresh Fresher Food Containers you'll find many sites with customer testimonials from other people who are equally amazed at how well these work. Sometimes the containers are available at Amazon.com, but they seem to sell out quickly there. If you don't see them at your local Costco or grocery store, I found numerous other places to order them online. You can also order Oso Fresh Containers directly from the company. (And in case anyone is wondering, this company has not sent me any containers or paid me to write about this product.)

Has anyone else tried these containers, and if so, how did you like them? Please let us know about it in the comments if you have any experience with this product.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mango Lassi Recipe

Last summer I added *drinks* to a category in the recipe archives for Kalyn's Kitchen. Even though I mostly drink (far too much) Diet Coke with Lime and (not nearly enough) water, I figured that some day I'd want to post a drink recipe. Big drum roll for this Mango Lassi recipe, which came from The South Beach Diet Taste of Summer Cookbook, and was so delicious and refreshing when I was hot and dirty after working in the garden. Lately there's been a lot of gardening and not much cooking going on around here, which is another reason I'm posting a drink recipe! There should be a fun garden update coming this weekend.

Lassis are a traditional Punjabi beverage which blend yogurt with water, salt, and spices into a cooling summer drink. Wikipedia says the idea of making sweet lassis with fruit is a relatively recent variation, but the mango flavor was so delightful in this that I truly can't imagine the drink without it. Mangoes are native to India, and more than 50% of the world's mangoes are grown there. I shared a lot of information about mangoes when I posted Mango Salsa with Red Pepper and Mango Salsa with Black Beans, so you can read those posts if you'd like to learn more about this delicious fruit. This week's host for Weekend Herb Blogging is Gay from A Scientist in the Kitchen, and I'm curious if she's made other types of drinks using mango, since she lives in the Phillipines where I'd imagine there are lots of mangoes. If you're cooking with an interesting herb, plant, veggie, or flower this week, check the rules for Weekend Herb Blogging and how to send your entry if you'd like to participate.

I cut up one rather large (and juicy!) mango to make this, which gave me 1 1/2 cups of mango cubes.

Using a food processor to puree the mango really made it easy, but you could use a blender too.

Mango Lassi
(Makes about 4 servings, recipe adapted slightly from The South Beach Diet Taste of Summer Cookbook.)

1 large mango, peeled and cut into cubes (about 1 1/2 cups diced mango)
1 1/2 cups plain non-fat yogurt (I used Fage Total Greek Yogurt)
1/2 cup chilled water (or use skim milk for a creamier drink)
1 T Splenda, Agave Nectar, or sugar (use Splenda or Agave Nectar for South Beach Diet)
pinch of ground cardamom (optional, but it was a nice addition)
ice cubes (optional, I tried it both ways and preferred it without the ice cubes)

Peel mango and cut into cubes. (You might want to read How to Cut a Mango from Simply Recipes if you haven't done it.) Put mango cubes in food processor and pulse until pureed. Add yogurt, water, sweetener of your choice and cardamom (if using) and pulse until ingredients are well blended. Serve over ice, or chill in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

South Beach Diet and Low-Glycemic Suggestions:

Made with Splenda or Agave Nectar, and using non-fat yogurt, this would be phase two or three for the South Beach Diet.

Lassi Variations from Other Blogs
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Avocado Lassi from From Our Home to Yours
Rasberry Lassi from Fun and Food
Orange Flower Lassi with Saffron from The Spice Who Loved Me
Nimbu Lassi from Morsels and Musings
Coconut and Lime Lassi from Appetite for China
Watermelon Lassi from Rolling in the Dough
Strawberry Lassi from Baking Bites
Cardamom Lassi from Cook and Eat
Black Grape Lassi from Food-n-More
Banana Lassi from Vanielje Kitchen