Lainey-style Gumbo

That's right, I have a pretty sweet cutting mat at work.

Full disclosure: I've never had gumbo anywhere else but my own home. For all I know, this recipe tastes NOTHING like the real deal. But it's loosely based on a gumbo recipe I found online, that also mentioned that everyone's gumbo is different, depending on the ingredients you like to use. So I'm going for it.

Call it what you like, it's definitely tasty. So here we go!

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup oil

1 large onion, diced

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup veggies (I used a turnip)

3 bay leaves

1/3 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

6 sausages (I used chorizo), sliced into rounds

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (but use whatever beans you like)

3 cups or so chicken stock

1 can/jar diced tomatoes

Let's do it!

1. Heat up a soup pot with oil until it moves around the pot really quickly if you tip it. Add flour and whisk/stir with a wooden spoon for at least 25 minutes in low heat until it gets nice and dark. This is the roux that will thicken the gumbo.
2. Add all veggies into the pot and stir until onions are translucent. 
3. Add spices.
4. Add sausage and let them cook in the bottom of the pan for a few minutes.
5. Add beans, tomatoes and enough chicken stock to cover everything. Bring to a boil and let simmer for an hour or so.
6. Serve over rice.

Makes about 6 servings.

Easy? So easy. Yummy? SO YUMMY.

Barbecued Chipotle Chicken and Mashed Potato Salad

First, apologies for taking FOREVER to write a new post. It's been an insane two months with new projects and our first-ever home purchase. Lunch Lady Lainey and the Hubster are now homeowners.

Due to the deliciously unseasonable weather, I was able to barbecue a couple of days ago and came up with an amazingly tasty recipe for spicy chicken.

Chipotle Chicken Thighs
24 chicken thighs (I had guests over. Scale the recipe down as you need to. This fed six people, plus leftovers for a couple of day's lunch and dinner. I'm sure you could freeze them after they're cooked as well.)
1/2 7 oz. can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
3-5 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp vinegar
3 tbsp or more orange juice

Let's do it!
If you're cooking on a grill, it's important to trim the excess fat off the chicken, otherwise, the grease will drip down and catch on fire, resulting in less tasty, burnt chicken.

Put the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. You may need to add more orange juice to keep things spinning.

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss to mix. Let this marinate for at least 20 minutes. The longer, the better.

Turn on the grill, let it heat up and clean it. My grill gets incredibly hot, so I keep it on the lowest setting. Splash some water on the grill to see if it's hot. If it sizzles, you're good to go. Place the chicken on the grill top, skin side down. Cook for maybe 5 minutes, close the lid, then turn over and cook for another 5, with the lid closed. If the chicken is sticking to it, it means that you need to let it cook a little longer. Cut the chicken along the bone to see if it's cooked. If not, keep it on for longer. I tend to undercook things, so I'm not really the best judge of cooking times. If you're not sure, cut open a piece and take a look.

The chicken came out tender, really juicy with a spicy kick to it. If you can't handle hot wings, then this recipe is too spicy for you. If not, yachtzee! The marinade will probably also work great with pork, in a slow cooker or oven. But that's a recipe for another day.

This chicken reheats well and is also amazing cold (if you like eating chicken cold), which means it will probably make an appearance at quite a few picnic pot lucks this summer. The Hubster took the meat off the bone and ate his in a wrap with veggies, which he raved over via text. Clearly, this recipe is a crowd pleaser.


Mashed Potato Salad
4 potatoes, washed, skin on
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 onion, minced
2 sundried tomatoes, diced (I used the kind that comes in oil, not the dried variety)
1 tbsp relish

Let's do it!
Cut the potatoes into thick slices and cook in boiling water until easily pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside to dry a bit.

In a large bowl, combine the mayo, onion, sundried tomatoes and relish. Add the potatoes to the mixture and toss to combine. The potatoes will start breaking up on their own, giving it a mashed consistency. Leave it as lumpy as you like. I find this less stressful than regular potato salad, where I really try to keep them in cube form. Yes, I realize how ridiculous it is to get stressed out about the consistency of potatoes.

This dish tastes great warm or cold, making it my go-to for BBQs. It's also dead easy. You can put whatever you want in it: capers, olives, fresh herbs. I always use mayo and relish as the base and add whatever I have on hand for extra flavour.

Slow-cooker chili

Holy cow, I've finally done it! The worst food photo ever seen by human eyes!

Hearty, filling and warm, this is the easiest thing to make in the world. All you need is a few ingredients, a slow cooker, 15 minutes to prep the stuff and 6 hours to let it cook by itself. And you will be happy. SO HAPPY.

Ingredients
2 tbsp chili powder (make your own or buy it ready-made. I suspect the ready-made stuff is full of food colouring and stuff, though)
1 large can (about 3 cups) tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
1 can kidney beans, or whatever beans you like. Rinsed and drained
1 onion, diced
1 lb meat. I used ground pork but you can use whatever you like.
salt to taste
hot sauce/peppers
Optional: any diced up veggies.

Let's do it!
Put your slow cooker to medium and throw in the chili powder, tomato sauce, bay leaf and beans. Stir it together.

In a pan, saute the onions in a bit of oil until they're translucent. Transfer to the slow cooker.

In the same pan, brown the meat and transfer to the slow cooker (drain it out first if you don't like fat in your food.)

This is a good time to add any other veggies you want to put in there. Chili is a great way to use up leftover veggies or meat provided they don't have a ton of other spices/flavours in them.

Let it cook while you do something else for a few hours. You know, like your job.

Taste, add salt. This recipe isn't very spicy since I made it with my entire family in mind. If you like spicy, you can add some fresh chili peppers when you're putting everything in the slow cooker.

Split pea soup with bacon, if you're into that sort of thing

Even though it's unseasonably warm for December (low of -1ºC on December 15? Really?) I'm already craving soup like crazy. This is something I threw together with a bunch of ingredients from my house.

Ingredients

1 cup dried split peas, rinsed very well

Water

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp dry mustard powder

1 medium onion (peeled)

1 medium carrot (washed and peeled)

1 medium potato (washed, unpeeled)

4 cloves garlic (peeled)

dash of summer savoury

salt to taste

dash of balsamic vinegar

Optional: 1/2 cup chopped up raw peameal bacon (Canadian bacon, for you non-Canadians)

Let's do it!

After rinsing the peas VERY WELL (otherwise they'll be bitter), throw them in a soup pot with a well fitting lid with enough water to cover it, plus an inch. Add the bay leaf and mustard. I didn't measure the water because you will keep adding it as needed throughout the cooking process. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for 20 minutes, slightly covered, stirring every few minutes or so.

While that's going, prepare your veggies and chop them coarsely. Put them in a food processor and chop as finely as possible. If you don't have a food processor, buy one. Or chop them finely by hand. Or grate them on a cheese grater. Put a little oil in a pan and fry up the bacon, then add the veggies and fry that up for a few minutes. You don't need to cook it through, just enough to deepen the flavour. Or something. Hey, maybe this whole process is unnecessary. I don't know.

Put the veggie and bacon mix into the simmering soup, add a dash of summer savoury (maybe 1/3 tsp?) add enough water to cover everything plus a bit more, then cover and let it simmer for an hour or so. Make sure you check every once in a while to stir it and add water if it gets too thick.  

Season with salt and a bit of balsamic.

Lunch it up!

The husband is not a fan of soup, so I have this stuff all to myself! Mwahahah!!

After letting this cool in the fridge overnight, I separated it into three containers, containing about 2 servings each. Two of the containers are meant for the freezer, and one is meant for lunch. In the freezer ones, I put cling wrap tightly on the surface of the soup and pushed out any air bubbles. This will help it keep from being freezer burnt. Then I wrote in dry-erase marker* what it was and the date. If you're lucky enough to have access to a freezer at work, these are great to have in a pinch. If you're unlucky enough to have coworkers who steal food, maybe write "special diabetic meal" or something on it. Either way, ready to eat soup in the freezer can be a real godsend.

I know this says "ham", they're close enough for this purpose, nerds.

The soup would go well with some toasty bread or a salad. Or nothing. It's really good on its own.

*If you have wet-erase markers, use those, as the dry erase rubs off too easily.

Less lazy Vietnamese Sub

As promised, here is a recipe for a less-lazy Vietnamese sub, otherwise known as Banh Mi. If you live in a city that has Banh Mi, you are very lucky. When I was a kid, my mom used to be able to get them for a dollar each from Chinatown. She would buy them by the grocery bag full so that my brother and I could stuff our little faces when we got home from school. From my understanding as a non-Vietnamese face-stuffer, it seems that these subs have a few key ingredients: Vietnamese-style bun made with both wheat and rice flour, liver pate, mayonnaise, protein of some sort, pickled vegetables and fresh cilantro You can also hit it with some sriracha if you like it spicy.

I've decided to make mine with roasted pork belly as the protein.

Ingredients
1 Vietnamese bun
1 heaping teaspoon of liverwurst (the only pate in the store without dairy)
1 heaping teaspoon of mayonnaise
3 slices of pork belly (recipe to follow)
some pickled daikon and carrot
handful of fresh cilantro

Pork belly ingredients: 
a piece of raw pork belly that was maybe 12" x 6"
1 tbsp 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp salt

Let's do it!
Pork belly takes about an hour and a half - two hours to cook. It's worth it.

Take the pork belly, rinse and dry it with paper towel. Cut off some of the fat from the bottom (meat side) if you want. There is a ton of fat on the skin side, but we need it.

With a sharp knife, score the skin in a 1" criss crossed pattern, but don't cut into the meat. Make sure your knife is sharp, you probably want to use a chef's knife, not a serrated one. This is a really annoying process, but necessary if you don't want a big piece of hardened skin you can't eat. Mix together the salt and spice powder, then rub into the meat.. all around it, into the crevices... Just get it in there. Place the meat on a pan and roast in the toaster oven (or oven). If you have the option, set it on broil (only the top burner going) at 400ºF. Roast for one hour. After one hour, check with an instant read thermometer to see if the meat is at 160ºF. If not, roast it for another 30 minutes at 350ºF. Keep doing this until it reads 160ºF.

Let it cool on the counter, then cut it into slices.

Lunch it up!

Cut the bun in half and take some of the inside bread out to make more room for deliciousness. Spread pate on one side, mayo on the other. Fill with cilantro and wrap up in foil. Put the pickled daikon and carrot into an airtight container. Put the pork in another container. I like to heat up the pork a bit before putting it in the sandwich. By all means, you can put this all together if you like, but I sort of like to keep things separate. I also only made pickled daikon because I'm not a huge fan of pickled carrots.

Enjoy!

A poor excuse for an entry... a link to someone else's recipe!

So lately I've been too busy to make anything spectacular. I've been pretty much falling back on all the recipes I've already put on this site.

So here's something interesting that someone else did that is perfect for the busy person:

Salad in a jar. 

Make a bunch at the beginning of the week, grab and go.

Genius!

Dairy-free butter chicken

Okay, I used actual butter. I try not to think of butter as dairy. To me, it's a fat. A non-dairy fat. If you are serious about your dairy allergy, you can use butter-replacer.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, fat removed and separated by drumstick and thigh

Marinade:
1/2 cup plain, unsweetened, non-dairy yoghurt (I used Wildwood Soyogurt)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne/red chili powder
1 tsp tandoori masala
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
a few squeezes of lime, I just squeezed half a lime a bit. I didn't completely squeeze it dry.

Sauce (separated by steps):
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, chopped roughly
1 tbsp garlic, chopped roughly
1 tbsp ginger, chopped roughly

1 can whole tomatoes, drained and seeds rinsed out (rip each tomato open with your hands and pull/rinse out the seeds)
1 tbsp tomato paste

1-2 bay leaves
2-3 cloves
2-3 cardamom pods (crushed a bit)
1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Demerara sugar (you can use any non-white sugar)
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
black pepper
salt to taste

Let's do it!

To make the marinade, buzz all the spices and salt in a spice grinder until it's powdery. If you're old school, use a mortar and pestle. Mix all the ingredients together and put it in a container with the chicken, stirring well to incorporate. Put this in the fridge and let it sit for at least an hour.

To make the sauce:
Melt the butter in a big pot under medium-high heat. Add the onion and cumin seeds. Let soften for maybe three minutes, then add the garlic and ginger. Cook for another couple few minutes, then transfer in a slotted spoon to a blender and blend. Try to leave as much butter in the pot as possible. This is your onion paste. Put it aside.

Add the tomatoes to the pot and let them saute in the butter for a few minutes. When they look softer (they're already cooked, really) transfer them with the slotted spoon to your blender. I didn't wash it in between, so it still had onion paste in it. I don't think this is a problem. Blend it into a puree.

Add the bay leaves, cloves and cardamom pods to the pot. There should still be plenty of butter in there. This is NOT a healthy recipe. Fry for about a minute, then add the chicken, reserving the marinade. I tried to brown it a bit, but I lost my patience and just dumped the rest of the chicken in there, and covered it with the remaining marinade, onion paste, tomato puree and the tomato paste. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes.

Add the turmeric, red chili powder, cinnamon and sugar and let cook for another 15 minutes, covered.

Swish the almond milk in the marinade container, the blender and the thing you put the onion paste in to get every single little bit of the marinade and pastes, and pour it into the pot. Stir and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

Hit it with some black pepper at the end. Salt to taste.

Serve with rice.

I am RIDICULOUSLY pleased with this dish. It may be one of the most indulgent, delicious things I've made in a while, and it's (mostly) dairy-free!!  Wheeeee!!!