Fire Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup - This is a Delicious Recipe
Ingredients you will need:
1.5 lbs of Red Peppers
l lb Fresh Tomatoes
1 large Onion
4 cloves Garlic
1 tablespoon Tomato paste
1 1/2 quarts Chicken stock
1 teaspoon Fresh Basil
1 pinch of thyme and 1 pinch of oregano
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tablespoon Olive oil
Salt and Pepper T.T. = ( to taste )
If you do not have the metal grates use a roasting pan, but remove the moisture from the veggies often so you will not braise them in the oven. Roast in a 200-250 degree oven for about 20- 30 minutes, if you are using larger vegetables it may take longer than the suggested time.
Cook them until the tomato and pepper skins start to wilt and brown. If the garlic and onion start to get too brown remove them and let the tomato and pepper continue to roast. Remove from roasting pan, and put the vegetables into a bowl, cover with saran wrap and allow to rest for about 10-15 minutes.
The steam from the roasted veggies will make them easier to peel.You will want to peel and puree your roasted veggie mix at this time. An immersion blender works the best but a stand alone blender will work also. Puree the mixture well to end up with a better finished product.In a soup pot you will add chicken stock, herbs, your pureed vegetables, and cook at a simmer for about 30-45 minutes to allow all of the flavors to bloom.
Before you are ready to serve add the grated Parmesan cheese and stir it to a smooth consistency. If you have fresh herbs you may add them for garnish when you place the soup into your serving bowls. You may serve hot or cold. If you wish to serve cold chill for several hours in the fridge or create an ice bath to set your hot soup into to chill it down. You will need to adjust the seasonings reguardless of how you serve them right before you serve yourself and or guest.
You may also add heavy cream and a pinch of sugar for extra flavor if you don’t mind the calories.
This is a great recipe and it is fairly easy to make. If you do not feel like roasting your vegetables you can use canned. It will not be as delicious, but it will work in a pinch / time crunch.
Chef Shelley Pogue, a Cum Laude, Le Cordon Blue graduate and research and development chef for Vertical Sales and Marketing, San Ramon, CA.
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Big Mama’s Soulful Jambalaya & Hot Water Corn Bread
1 pound diced chicken breast
1 pound smoked sausage
3 large chopped onions
2 bell (green) peppers, chopped
1 chopped celery stalk
1 (6 ounce) can stewed or diced tomatoes OR 2 fresh tomatoes and 1 green Chile
1 (6 ounce) can tomato sauce or puree
1 clove garlic, minced
3 ¼ cups water
2 cups white rice, rinsed
3 green onions, chopped
Seasoning salt and black pepper to taste
1 pound shrimp, peeled and de-veined
½ teaspoon seafood seasoning
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper, optional
Cook chicken breast and sausage in a skillet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil for 15 minutes. Drain. Put chicken and sausage into large pot on medium heat. Add to chicken mixture–onions, bell peppers, celery, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and garlic. Mix well. Bring to a boil.
Add water, rice, green onions, salt, and pepper. Cook on medium heat until rice is almost done, then add shrimp, seafood seasoning, Creole seasoning, and red pepper. Continue cooking until rice is done stirring occasionally. Yield 10 to 12 servings.
Big Mama’s Hot Water Corn Bread
2 cups self-rising white or yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons sugar, (optional)
1 - ½ cups hot water
Vegetable oil
Combine cornmeal, flour, egg, sugar, and hot water in large bowl. Heat vegetable oil in skillet until hot. Place about 2 heaping teaspoons of cornmeal mixture for each bread patty in skillet. Fry in hot oil over medium heat until light brown on both sides, about 3 to 5 minutes. Cool patties on paper towels. Yield: 10
TIP: Make sure the water is boiling hot and not lukewarm–its makes better bread.
Cassandra Harrell is an avid soul food lover. She recently owned a soul food restaurant and catering service and is editor of Soul Food Lover’s Newsletter. She has created a great website Soul Food Advisor.com where you can find great family soul food recipes and homemade desserts.
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Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Cream Cheese, Spinach, Artichokes, and Roasted Red Peppers - Yum!
Stuffing chicken breasts is a labor-intensive process. However, you can do most of the work ahead of time. Since I was volunteering at the library in the afternoon, I pounded the chicken, stuffed it, precooked it, and refrigerated it until later. When my sister and brother-in-law arrived I baked the chicken in a very hot oven.
You can run into trouble if you have never pounded poultry before. It is easy to pound too much in one place and punch a hole in the chicken. Flattening thick pieces takes longer than flattening thin ones. Your pounding technique is also important. I put the breasts in a heavy, zipper-type plastic bag. To keep the chicken from sticking to the sides of the bag, I moisten the inside with a little water.
Place the bagged chicken on a surface that can withstand pounding. (I don’t put it on my granite counter top.) Pound the breasts with a tenderizer that has a flat bottom or use a heavy pan. Push your hand towards the edge of the chicken as you pound to achieve an even thickness.
When you spread the stuffing on the chicken, leave a half-inch border so the stuffing has somewhere to go as you roll it up. This dish is fancy enough for company and a special treat for family. I served it with wild rice, a salad of leaf lettuce, sliced pears, toasted walnuts, Roquefort cheese crumbles, and homemade dressing.
My sister-in-law and brother-in-law loved the chicken. I felt the result was worth the work. Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Cream Cheese, Spinach, Artichokes and Roasted Red Peppers is a unique way to serve poultry and a tasty combination of flavors.
Ingredients
8-ounce carton cream cheese with spinach and artichokes
10-ounce package chopped spinach, defrosted
7-ounce jar roasted red peppers (use half and save the rest)
4 chicken breast halves
1 1/2 cups lower salt chicken stock
2 tablespoons Wondra flour
Method
Place room temperature cream cheese in a bowl. Drain spinach in a strainer and add to cream cheese. Take half of the peppers from the jar and drain on paper towels. Chop the peppers and add to spinach-cream cheese mixture. Pound chicken breasts until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Spread each breast with filling, roll up, and secure with tooth picks. Place breasts in an oiled skillet and cook over medium heat until the chicken starts to turn white. Transfer skillet to a 400-degree oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove chicken and tent with foil to keep warm. Add chicken stock to skillet, whisk in flour, and cook over medium heat until sauce thickens. Place chicken breasts on plates and spoon some sauce over each one. Makes four servings.
Copyright 2010 by Harriet Hodgson
Harriet Hodgson has been an independent journalist for 30+ years. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of Health Care Journalists, and Association for Death Education and Counseling. Her 24th book, “Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief,” written with Lois Krahn, MD is available from Amazon.
Centering Corporation has published her 26th book, “Writing to Recover: The Journey from Loss and Grief to a New Life” and a companion journal with 100 writing jump-starts. Hodgson is a monthly columnist for the new “Caregiving in America” magazine and a contributing writer for the Open to Hope Foundation website. Please visit her website and learn more about this busy author and grandmother.
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Grilled Sirloin Steak With Harvest Vegetable Salad
By Tom Lingle
Extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, onion and garlic powders, dried oregano and basil combine to make a powerful marinade imparting wonderful Mediterranean style flavors. Steak is grilled over direct heat to create grill marks and quickly sear in flavor. The fresh sliced vegetables are grilled and removed as they finish cooking. Plate the steak and vegetables over torn Romaine lettuce pieces.
Grilled Sirloin Steak with Harvest Vegetable Salad
Ingredients:
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar
2 teaspoons Onion Powder
2 teaspoons Garlic Powder
2 tablespoons Dried Oregano
2 tablespoons Dried Basil
Coarse Salt, to taste
Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
2 pounds 1-inch thick cut Beef Top Sirloin Steak
2 pounds of Mixed Vegetables:
Asparagus Spears
Eggplant cut in 1/4-inch lengthwise slices
Zucchini halved lengthwise
Sweet Onions, quartered
Red Bell Pepper, seeded and cut in strips
Beefsteak Tomato, sliced thin
Portobello Mushroom Caps
20 large Romaine Lettuce Leaves
Preparation:
1. Add the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder to a large bowl. Whisk briskly to combine.
2. Add half the marinade to a resealable plastic bag or baking dish. Reserve the other half of the marinade in the refrigerator for basting later.
3. Toss the sirloin steak in the marinade to coat. Seal the bag or cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
4. Preheat the grill to medium high heat.
5. Remove the steak from the marinade and discard the marinade.
6. Grill the sirloin steak and vegetables, turning once. Baste with reserved marinade after turning.
7. Remove vegetables from the grill as the they finish cooking, remove the steak when it reaches the desired doneness.
8. Allow the steak to rest about 5 minutes before carving.
9. Arrange the steak pieces and mixed vegetables in romaine lettuce leaves.
10. Serve salad warm or cold.
Check out our growing collection of the best, taste-tested eggplant recipes with cooking tips and techniques. Find the classic preparations as well as creative new ways to take an ordinary eggplant and turn it into an extraordinary dish.
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Easy French Recipes - How to Make Roast Chicken Provencal
Some French recipes are complicated but quite a lot of them are actually quite simple, including the following roast chicken Provencal recipe. Chicken is combined with tomatoes, basil, onion, garlic, wine, stock, and olives in this recipe and that is all you need to make a very flavorful dish. You can serve it with mashed or boiled potatoes, rice, or French fries.
This recipe serves four people and it is ideal if you are having a dinner party and you want to serve something classy but not too fiddly. So, what does Provencal mean exactly? Provence is a region in the south of France and a recipe, which is tagged with the word “Provencal” or “Provencale” means that it is prepared in the style of that region.
Herbes de Provence
You might have heard of Herbes de Provence, which is a combination of fennel, savory, thyme flowers, basil and more. Thyme is usually the strongest flavor but it depends on the manufacturer. Lavender is added to the American mixes but not the traditional French ones. This herb mix has been around since the 1970s and you can use it to flavor grilled meat, fish, or vegetables.
The cuisine from this region of France has always used a lot of herbs but the people living in the area have always added the herbs separately, rather than using Herbes de Provence from a mix.
The Recipe - Step by Step
What you will need:
- 3 lbs chicken
- 2 plum tomatoes
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 3/4 cup veal stock
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/4 cup Kalamata olives
- Salt and black pepper
How to make it:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Season the chicken with some salt and pepper and put it in a ten inch ovenproof skillet. Roast it in the center of the oven for twenty minutes.
While the bird roasts, chop the garlic and onion. Pit the olives and slice them finely. Chop enough basil to get two tablespoons and cut the remaining basil into thin strips. De-seed the tomatoes and cut them into quarter inch pieces.
Turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees F and cook the chicken for a further forty minutes or until a thermometer inserted into the center of a thigh reads 170 degrees F and the chicken juices run clear. Put the chicken on a cutting board and make a loose aluminum foil tent over it to keep it warm.
Pour all the fat except two teaspoons of it out of the skillet and saute the onion for half a minute, stirring it all the time. Add the garlic and saute for another half a minute. Add the white wine to de-glaze the pan, scraping the burnt bits off the bottom.
Simmer the mixture until it reduces by half, and then add the stock. Bring it to a simmer and add the olives and tomatoes. Simmer the sauce for three minutes or until it thickens. Stir in the basil strips and take the mixture off the heat. Cut the chicken into four pieces and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle the chopped basil over the top and serve.
Chicken is versatile and you can cook it in many different ways, such as finger-licking fried chicken or juicy grilled chicken. A classy chicken Provencal is great for a dinner party but a succulent and easy fried chicken recipe is sure to impress your family tonight.
SouthernFriedChickenRecipe.com When it has to be Real Fried Chicken
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