Fall Roasted Vegetable Medley

To take a break from my Portland re-caps (and there are more to come), I wanted to share a dish that I made on Monday night.  As I mentioned last week, the folks at Le Creuset very generously gifted me with my very first French oven.  I didn't get a chance to use it before I left for Portland so utilizing it was at the top of my priority list when I returned home.

On Monday morning, I took out two boneless chicken breasts out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge during the day.  I had a lot of great vegetables in the fridge, freezer and pantry that I wanted to utilize and decided to make a simple yet seasonal roasted vegetable medley to go along with my chicken.  After a long workout at the gym that evening, I was excited to get to my hands dirty in the kitchen.  Since Bret wouldn't be home until 8:30 PM, this would give me plenty of time to slowly prepare dinner and utilize my French oven.

First, I took out some Brussels sprouts out of the freezer.  I had purchased them last week at the farmers' market and put them in the freezer for future use.  I removed the outer leaves, gave the sprouts a quick rinse and let them thaw out while I prepared the rest of the ingredients.

I had the last of my sample dehydrated mushrooms (lobster and black trumpet mushrooms) in the pantry from Marx Foods and I decided to rehydrate them with a cup of hot chicken stock.  I put a dishtowel over the bowl and also set that aside.

I then halved and sliced one small zucchini that had been sitting in my fridge.

I also halved and sliced two medium white onions that I purchased from the farmers' market that day during lunch.  I had about six cloves of garlic left from a garlic bulb in the fridge and I also roughly chopped those up.

When I was done preparing my vegetables, I sprayed the French oven with cooking spray and also added a little olive oil to the bottom of the pot.  I warmed the pot up over the stove at medium heat while I got to work on my proteins.  I had four thick slices of smoked bacon in the fridge and I roughly chopped the bacon up.

I also trimmed and seasoned my now thawed chicken breasts with salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and cayenne.  

After all of this preparation, I was finally ready to get cooking!  I preheated the oven to 300 degrees while I dropped the chopped bacon in the pan and let the bacon slowly crisp up.

I kept an eye on the bacon and turned the pieces from time to time.  I wanted the bacon to start to crisp up but not cook all the way through.  When the bacon was ready, I removed it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set the bacon aside in a bowl.

Using the fat from the bacon along with the olive oil that I had previously added, I put my chicken breasts in the pan.  I didn't want to actually cook the chicken on the stove top but just give it a nice sear.  When the chicken was seared on one side, I turned it over and also added the chopped onions and garlic to the pan.  In addition to cooking the vegetables down a bit, I want to meld the onion and garlic flavor with the chicken breasts.  After the chicken breasts had been seared on all sides, I took them out of the pan and set it aside.

I returned my attention back to the onions and garlic in the French oven.  I seasoned the vegetables with salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and a healthy tablespoon of cayenne.  While I love roasted vegetables, I often find them to be bland so I like to add a little kick to it when I can.

I slowly added the zucchini, Brussels sprouts and back to the pan while repeatedly mixing the vegetables up.

I finally added the rehydrated mushrooms to the pan with the remaining chicken stock and gave everything a good stir.

I added the chicken breasts back into the pan and also added a small can of chopped tomatoes to add some color, sweetness and moisture to the dish.

I put the lid on the French oven and put it in the oven for thirty minutes.  After thirty minutes, I turned the chicken breasts over, covered it again and cooked it for another twenty minutes.  I checked the temperature of the chicken breasts and they were just a few degrees short of 170 degrees.  I turned the temperature of the oven up to 350 and put the pot back in the oven without the lid for another eight minutes.  I wasn't worried about overcooking the chicken, which would result in a very dry chicken, because there was a lot of moisture in my roasted vegetables.

Since the chicken breasts were thick, Bret and I decided to just split one.  We piled our plate full of the roasted vegetables, which turned into an almost ratatouille texture (in a really good way).  The chicken breast had a nice sear on the outside yet was still so moist.  But the vegetables, of course, stole the show!  The resulting sauce from the vegetables had such a sweet and smoky flavor yet had just a little bit of spice from the cayenne.  We couldn't help but feel really healthy while eating these hearty roasted vegetables.

Bret and I split the other chicken breast for lunch and of course took lots of vegetables too.  We ended up having a lot more sauce and vegetables leftover so we found a way to utilize them for dinner the next night by pouring it over spicy seasoned rice mixed with smoked turkey sausage.

My first attempt at cooking with my new Le Creuset French oven was definitely a success.  I'm thinking that my next attempt may be jambalaya...but I'd love to hear some of your recipes if you'd like to share!


Do you own a Dutch oven?  What do you like to cook with it?


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Adventures with Quinoa: Quinoa, Black Bean & Zucchini Salad

I've heard a lot of great things recently about quinoa.  It is a high-protein grain that is highly recommended as an alternative to white rice.  I have to admit that I was always hesitant to try quinoa because of its resemblance to couscous and I absolutely cannot stand the texture of couscous.  But when I tried a delightful quinoa salad at the Clover Food Truck, all fears disappeared and I was immediately a fan.

On Saturday, after the Bloodypalooza event, Bret and I ran some errands in the Back Bay.  We stopped at Trader Joe's to stock up on a few of our staples when I saw a box of quinoa and decided to throw it in our shopping basket.  I was really excited to give quinoa a try so I decided to play around with it the very next day.

I read the instructions on the box and saw that there were three different methods of preparation - stove top, rice cooker and microwave.  I decided to go with the method that sounded easiest to me and threw in two cups of quinoa with four cups of water in my rice cooker.  While the quinoa was cooking, I put a pot of water to boil to cook some corn on the cob, which I planned to use in my quinoa salad.

While the quinoa was cooking and the water was boiling, I got to work on my other ingredients.  First, I drained and rinsed a can of black beans.

I then chopped up one jalapeno pepper.  I kept about half the seeds of the pepper because I wanted to add a nice heat to my salad.

I then diced up one small zucchini and also added that to the bowl.

When my two ears of corn were almost done cooking and were a perfect al dente, I gave it a quick cold rinse to cool it down and then stripped the corn from the cob.  My quinoa was done cooking in the rice cooker just a few minutes later and when I opened the lid of the cooker, I was shocked.  There was a LOT of quinoa.  I had definitely made way too much and only used about half of the quinoa in my salad.

I added some black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes and cayenne to the large bowl of quinoa salad and gave it a stir.  The salad had a lot of nice crunch from the zucchini and peppers, along with a good level of heat from the jalapeno, cayenne and red pepper flakes.  Although I could have eaten this salad on its own, I decided to use it as a filling in a whole-grain sandwich wrap.

I'd have to say that my cooking adventure with quinoa was definitely a success.  Quinoa is so easy to cook and you can't help but just love the nutty aroma it gives off when it is cooking.  I definitely made way too much quinoa and had a lot of salad leftover (which made for a great lunch).  As for the rest of the quinoa that I didn't use in my salad, I made a risotto-like dish last night by cooking it in chicken broth, butter, garlic and Parmesan cheese.  Yum!  Since it is so versatile, I'm definitely looking forward to using quinoa again in my kitchen.

Have you tried cooking with quinoa? If so, please share your quinoa recipe with me!

ZUCCHINI

How to pick: Choose brightly colored squash that has a nice firm feel to the touch. Freshly picked squash will still have some prickly fuzz on it. Also try to choose smaller sized squash, which will tend to be sweeter and have smaller seeds.



How to store: In a plastic bag or container, wrap the squash in paper towel and store in your refridgerator's crisper. The paper towel will absorb excess moisture, keeping the squash nice and firm.