Newyearnewme 2025 Cooking Endeavors - January

One new year's resolution I am holding to is to cook more at home and also try out new recipes.

Not going to invest a lot of time writing out blow-by-blow for each meal but rather just document what I've done, by month.

So here goes, January:

1/5, 1/7: Osso buco (1/5) and roasted red pepper farro (1/7)

This was a recipe I got from a Portland Community College in-person class I took the year before.  I was originally going to make this for thanksgiving dinner (for 3) this past November, but I am glad I ended up going a different direction and instead trying this out solo dolo (for first time making on my own).

Would def make again, but I'd (1) make the farro the day before serving -- flavor was SO MUCH better after a day) and (2) allow the osso buco itself to cook for way longer than the recipe calls for, like another full hour, in order to fully render down.

I learned this for the fact that I froze back two separate portions and for warming them up weeks later, I cooked low and slow in the oven and the meat was much more tender.

 

 

1/12: Bolognese sauce w/ rigatoni, garlic bread

This has been a go-to meal to make at home for years now, but it had been a few full years I think since I made it last.

A few fresh lessons (re-)learned: less crushed tomato, and stick to recipe for amount of ground beef.  Otherwise was great for a good 4-5 meals, with garlic bread (also homemade).

 

 

Carne Adovada + Red Chile Sauce (October 2024)

I made each the carne adovada and the red chile sauce recipes from the 2009 book Tacos: 75 Authentic and Inspired Recipes, by Mark Miller, chef-founder of the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico and original creator of modern Southwestern cuisine (per the back cover of the book).  

This book was one of my June 2024 scores from the first-time-ever Powells Books warehouse sale here in Portland.  I left with 20 different books that I only paid $5 for (as in $5 for the entire bag of books).

Since that June haul, I haven't spent much time on exploratory cookbook cooking. But, I am aiming to get more regular about it.

So, I had each 2 lbs and 3.5 lbs of cut up pork shoulder that had been in my freezer for many, many months (as in like, a full year).  I decided to take a chance on still using it to cook with, and landed on this carne adovada recipe as the one to use it with.

First I had to make the red chile sauce from scratch.  That involved seeding and stemming 24 New Mexican red chiles, then each toasting and the rehydrating them.  There were other steps and other ingredients, but the chiles were the most time-consuming ingredient to work with.

I made the red chile sauce one weeknight, and it was a later weeknight that I actually cooked up the pork to make the carne adovada (with the red chile sauce).  Per the recipe book, the sauce lasts 8-10 days in the fridge, so I had time.

As an intermediate step and meal, I first used the red chile sauce to make chilaquiles, using the last of the tortillas chips I had from a local market.  Fried eggs on top, and some sour cream, made for a tasty bowl and meal.

Finally, days later, I got to making the carne adovada.  As it turned out, making carne adovada was not nearly as involved as making the chile sauce.

Basically I needed to further cut up my pork shoulder into small cubes, fry in oil, then add chile sauce plus a few other ingredients.  Then into the oven for 45 minutes, stirring at least 2x.

Overall, came out really good.  Flavor is mild (not spicy at all) and maybe a little more muted than I'd expected from the ingredients.

Still, made for some good tacos, with cilantro and queso fresco crumbled on top, and some Guerrero white corn tortillas (king size).

Chicken Provençal

So I'm a day late in starting the new year off with some cooking.  I had planned to make Chicken Bouillabaise from a new slow cooker recipe book I got for Xmas, but even with shopping on NY day I didn't secure all the ingredients.  Who knew boneless, skinless chicken thighs were hard to find?!

So in looking for a recipe alternate that used the bone-in chicken thighs I had on hand, I decided on Chicken Provençal.  I remember having had this dish years back at a local restaurant chain, before they took it off the menu.

So my new recipe books says Chicken Provençal represents "the best of French peasant cooking."  And let the peasantry begin.

As I got started by taking out my food processor, I managed to nick my hand good with the food processor blade.

Thankfully, I had gloves on hand.

And thankfully, the second glove did not rip immediately like the first.

So, I got to getting my veggies ready:

The onions got food processed down to minced status.

Interestingly, the recipe called for microwaving the onions, for about 5 minutes.  I did two onions instead of the 3 the recipe called for.

All things got thrown in the slow cooker, and then the chicken thighs (bone in, but skin removed) were S&P'ed and placed inside.

I ended up letting the slow cooker go for 5.5 hours of the 4-6 the recipe called for -- I had visitors stop by to drop off their dogs for dogsitting, so I got sidetracked a bit.  Final finish for the dish was to remove chicken, wait 5 minutes and then add olives and parsley to sauce remaining in cooker.  Then ladle sauce over chicken, and plate o' chicken served.  Family style.

My single serving came with a side of roasted potatoes, and some sliced baguette bread.

Verdict:  It was aight.  Funny that the sauce kinda looks like salsa.  It doesn't taste like salsa, but it is still quite heavy on the onion content for my tastes.  There's also white wine adding to the flavor profile.  However this is nothing like the dish as I remember it from the local restaurant.  After I eat the other 5 servings of this (ha ha, #bachelorlife), I will try another, probably not-slow-cooker recipe for another take on this dish.

Red Lentil Stew

So, back at this after a LONG ASS hiatus. Woke up this AM with a tweaked back/neck which killed most of the day's plans. However so long as I am standing upright the pain is minimal, as I continue to gently strrreetttttccchhh the back, neck and shoulders. A good way to make a dead day a productive one: cook something new.

I've recently been trying to be more healthy and I wanted to make something today completely from goods that I have on hand. As it turns out, a quick recipe search for lentils (a package of red lentils has been sitting in my cupboard for ages) led me to a recipe for which I already have all of the ingredients.

Starting off by making 6 cups of vegetable broth from scratch.

(Had an accumulated bag of frozen veg cuttings sitting in my freezer, primarily from the not-so-great potato leek soup I made last month).

An hourlong simmer yielded me 4 cups of the six cups veg broth I need for lentil stil recipe -- that'll do.

Next I got my stew ingredients going:

Onions got initial simmer in olive oil, garlic added shortly thereafter. Once soft & translucent, tomato paste was added to complete the base. A couple minutes more simmering then the rest of the ingredients go in. Carrots, potatoes, spices (cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper), veg broth, and of course the cup of red lentils.

Turned the temperature up to high, threw on the lid and brough to boil. Reduced to simmer and let it simmer for 30 minutes. 

Added half teaspoon salt, took the initial taste test, and -- pretty good!

Removed from heat and served myself my very first bowl of red lentil stew. This is def going on the recipe rotation list. Fairly easy prep, tasty AND healthy. And my one initial misgiving about the recipe (an entire onion) is unwarranted -- I diced the onion extra fine and for the end result you don't even notice onion texture -- the lentils dominate. Def going to make this again.

Chicken Adobo

After being on an experimental cooking hiatus for quite some time, I decided to formally take up some new cooking endeavors. For this month of March, the final month of this semi-milestone year of my existence, I am intent on making the most of it.

So, night one of day one of the month of Marzo. Chicken Adobo, you're up. I actually wasn't going to try and make this until mañana, since I thought I needed to go to the grocery store for some ingredients. However, it turned out that for the recipe I decided on that I already had all of the ingredients.

There were also a few cloves of garlic that didn't make the picture, which were crushed and added to the pot along with the above ingredients. I'm following a Food Network TV recipe with the exceptions of (1) cutting the recipe in half, and (2) adding the brown sugar. Gotta have that brown sugar, babe ("I get high off ur love/I don't know how to behave"). Ha. I also plan to finish the chicken off in the broiler -- the better looking pics of other adobo recipes include this final step.

So, ingredients into my Dutch Oven, along with six boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

I am to let these marinate for 1 to 3 hours.

Marination for maybe an hour n 15 happened, then I fired up the stove, got the liquid to boil, and dropped the lid on top of the pot, dropped the flame to low, and let it simmer for 30 minutes (stirring occasionally).

Lid off and more simmer for 20 more minutes or so, so the sauce will thicken. At abt 20 and the liquid still looked pretty liquid.

I let the sauce continue to simmer on its own as I got the chicken onto the broiler pan to secure that crisp I seek.

Maybe 4 minutes total and them thighs were nice and brown. 

Within minutes I had my plate prepared and the next days' leftovers separately cooling off. Sat down w/ my plate of first attempt at chicken adobo (w/ white rice, of course). Equipped with fork, knife... and spoon, of course... I dig in.

Verdict: Pretty tasty! 

I admit the dish was smelling very vinegar-y early on -- I am historically not a big fan of vinegar-based dishes. However I keep getting that preconceived notion proven wrong -- here, once again. Admittedly I've shied away from adobo in pretty much all instances where I get the opportunity to have Filipino food (which are few and far between -- I live in a Filipino food desert (yeah, I just made that up)), so I don't have much of a reference point for critique. 

I definitely taste the vinegar, but it marries well with the soy sauce. The black peppercorns give it that slightest kick. I am glad I added that TBSP of brown sugar. I'm inclined to add more next time -- play with ratios... Maybe try another recipe. At any rate, this IS pretty good as prepared... And I've learned that I like adobo 😎

Cream of Asparagus Soup

I had stumbled upon some "Cream of..." soup recipes awhile back online and bookmarked, planning to later revisit and possibly experiment with. Remembering that quite a few of the recipes used chicken stock, I decided to see what I could do with some of that previously-made homemade chicken stock which has been staring at me neglectedly every time I open my freezer.

After some quick browsing, I decided on cream of asparagus soup. However, I decided to look for a better recipe than what I had bookmarked. I ultimately decided on Sunny Anderson's cream of asparagus soup recipe, with some minor alterations.

The purchased asparagus was washed and chopped.

Next, my finger was chopped.

Oh wait, that wasn't part of the recipe. Right. So, I halved Sunny's recipe for my 1 lb of asparagus and did 1/4 cup chopped onion, and a small minced garlic clove. Part of my fingertip ended up somewhere in those onions y garlic. Anyway, I melted some buttah in a saucepan and got the savory goodness going.

Next, I added the asparagus. After 30 minute simmerdown, let it cool & then puréed the fragrant goodness to a thin ... Purée. Poured purée back in the saucepan, added salt n pepa plus 1/4 cup plain yogurt (variation from Sunny's recipe: she said sour cream. Turns out the improvisation worked, but w/ a few lumps...)

Aside from the lumps, this was really good. Definitely a more delicate flavored soup, but it really captures that asparagus goodness in a decadent way. I've historically never been much of a soup person, but I have recently been trying to expand my soup horizons a bit. This was a success. 

Also, a little human flesh seasoning never hurt nobody. 

...well actually, it did... but that's beside the point. 

Point being, this soup is G double-O -D good.

Chicken Piccata

I returned from my Xmas trip back home with a large sack full of lemons from my grandfather's tree. This isn't the first time I've been in such a lemon predicament, but I was again left with trying to figure out what to do with all the lemons.

One lemon-y dish that occurred to me and which I hadn't previously tried to cook myself was chicken piccata. As it turned out, I was able to get the 1/3 cup of lemon juice needed out of just two lemons, so this didn't turn out to be a particularly lucrative means to use up a lot of lemons. 

A quick trip to the store got me the capers I needed, as well as thin spaghetti which I wanted to serve it over. I had everything else (including chicken stock, frozen from prior December cooking endeavor). Thanks to Giada de Laurentiis for this C piccata recipe.

And can I make a comment on what a difference a good kitchen knife set makes?! I had to butterfly the BSCBs, and my new knife set made that act so effortless -- the knife cut through those BSCBs like buttah.

And speaking of buttah, this recipe calls for a lot of it. 6 TBSP in total. Along w/ the 5 TBSP of olive oil needed, this to a very booter n' aisle -heavy dish. Thanks, Italy.

I got my flour dredge plate ready, and heated up the B&O.

The breasts-es got nice and browned up in that B&O...

Once the chicken was going things went pretty smoothly -- I juiced the lemons, chopped the parsley, and rinsed the capers in prep for part 2 (where the sauce was made).

Capers, lemon J, and chicken S were added to pan, and brought to boil. Chicken was added back in for a 5 min simmer. After a few minutes of cool down while pasta finished up, the end result was... 

Grub as feeze. I doubled up on the chicken portioning cuz I was hungray. Two separate leftover plates await me.  I will make this again.