The HI Cantina Cookbook

Maybe we can put this as a sticky at the top of this forum so we don't have to look so hard. I've tried some of these and they are good. Thanks for bringing it back up.:thumbup:
 
Thanks for this thread! Bookmarked immediately. I can't wait to try this stuff out!

Chris
 
Time to add some new recipes! I'm wanting to try some new things in the kitchen, so let's see some of the stuff you like to cook and eat. I'm particularly interested in new things to do with boneless skinless chicken breast.
 
Josh,
Sorry it's not chicken, but it's really good and (don't tell the kids) reeel healthy. Pronounced "keen wa", btw.

Quinoa a la Peruna

4 Tbl olive oil
2 cups quinoa, rinsed
2 ea red onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, cut into dime-sized slices
2 ea medium potatoes, peeled, cut into ¼ in. cubes
1 ea sweet red pepper, seeded and chopped
2 ea hot chili peppers, seeded and chopped
salt to taste
pepper to taste
chicken stock or water
8 oz goat cheese, soft (queso fresco), cubed (optional)

1) Warm oil over medium heat
2) Saute onions and garlic until golden brown
3) Add potatoes and saute for 5 minutes
4) Turn heat to medium high
5) Add quinoa and saute for 5 minutes more, stirring constantly
6) Cover with about ¾ inches chicken stock or water.
7) Add salt and pepper to taste
8) Simmer on low heat, covered, for 30-40 minutes. Add more stock or water if the mixture dries out.
9) Remove from heat.
10) Stir in cubed cheese, if using.
11) Serve immediately.
 
I'm not so great with the cooking. I like baking (mix stuff, put in oven, ignore for an hour == presto, baked goods), but anything that requires my attention for more than 15 minutes tends to catch fire at some point in the process. This is because I will cheat and do stupid things like try to cook at a higher temperature if the recipe is taking too long == whee, flaming grilled cheese sandwich.

Here's one that I stole from a cooking site and adapted for maximum slackage:

YOU WILL NEED:
- Some chicken (cooked or uncooked, I usually use 2 boneless skinless breasts)
- Colorful bell peppers (I usually use 3)
- Kalamata olives
- Rosemary and chopped garlic
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil

1. If the chicken isn't cooked, cook it. Cut it up (or don't) & fry it in a pan with olive oil or roast it. It doesn't really matter as long as you don't end up with raw chicken (I'll get the precooked roasted chicken at the store if I'm feeling really lazy). Sprinkle some chopped garlic and rosemary over it if you feel like it.
2. Chop up the bell peppers into whatever size pieces you like. I usually use kitchen shears.
3. Put the bell peppers into a pan with some olive oil and cook them over, well, "Medium" or "Medium-High" is probably safe. If you want, put some garlic and rosemary on them too. Is there such a thing as too much garlic? Probably not.
4. When the peppers look more "cooked" than "not cooked", add the chicken. Actually, if the chicken was still in the pan while they were cooking it's not such a big deal either. I've done this both ways and it doesn't seem to matter as long as you don't burn the chicken.
5. Pour a bunch of balsamic vinegar over the chicken and peppers. If you're me, add yet more garlic.
6. Throw some olives in there. Stir it all and let sit for a few minutes so the balsamic vinegar soaks into everything. Mmm, balsamic vinegar.
7. Consume.

This recipe takes maybe 15 minutes with precooked chicken, and I haven't yet managed to make a batch that I didn't love. Considering that I've cooked things that have prompted comments like "you're not actually going to eat that, are you?" (from geek boys, even), I give this recipe my cooking-impaired stamp of approval. :thumbup:
 
Chicken Marengo:

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 large onion, finely chopped
* olive oil
* 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds chicken pieces or 1-1/2 pounds boneless chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces
* 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) canned Italian plum tomatoes, drained
* 1 cup chicken stock
* 1/2 cup dry white wine or dry sherry
* 3 parsley sprigs
* 1 tablespoon ground thyme
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 bay leaf
* 2 cloves of crushed garlic
* butter
* 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
* juice of 1 lemon
* 2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley, for garnish

PREPARATION:
Saute the onions in olive oil till translucent. Add pieces of chicken, saute until brown on all sides. Add the tomatoes, the chicken stock and wine. Add the parsley sprigs, thyme, salt, pepper, bay leaf, and garlic. Simmer covered for 1 hour. Melt butter in a saucepan and saute the mushrooms until tender. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Remove the chicken pieces from pot and arrange them in a dish. Strain the sauce. Add mushrooms to the sauce and pour over the chicken. Garnish with minced parsley and bread crumbs. Serve with hot cooked pasta or rice.
 
Chicken Marengo!!! I love it! :D

Ooh, while I'm posting recipes, here's another super easy one. We all call it "drawer meat". This is because the Indonesian guys my best friend learned it from kept it in a kitchen drawer instead of the refrigerator. This was back in Hawaii, where anything you leave out for more than fifteen minutes either 1) spoils or 2) is eaten by roaches, so she was pretty horrified when they asked her if she liked chicken and then opened up this drawer with this thing of chicken sitting in it. Anyway.

YOU WILL NEED:
- Canned chicken
- Garlic chili sauce (I like the stuff with the rooster on the bottle)

1. Dump the chicken into a pan and turn on the heat.
2. Pour a bunch of garlic chili sauce into the pan with the chicken. I like to use 2-3 cans of chicken and a large (18 oz.) bottle of chili sauce. Adjust for your own comfort level.
3. Cook on low-ish heat until most of the moisture has evaporated. You should end up with a panful of bright red shredded chicken.
4. Serve over ramen noodles or rice (or eat plain, but I don't recommend doing this unless you are prepared to face the consequences).
 
I call it the Rooster sauce. Goes great on pizza and italian food.
Everything with the rooster lable is good.


munk
 
Yep. Rooster sauce. That particular brand, IMO, is the best. Other brands utilize the rooster iconography as well, no doubt hoping to garner sales through consumer confusion with Huyfong's well-deserved reputation. Exercise caution, and accept no substitutes.
 
Ah, the Sriracha. (I think that's the name.) Now that is good stuff. Try some in your tuna/ham/egg salad sometime. It adds kick, improves the flavor, and creates a dramatic visual effect.

Since my move to swing shift I've been cooking quite frequently; I'll prepare my dinner in the morning and take it to work with me so that my coworkers can suffer while they eat canned soup and Top Ramen.

I don't normally work with recipes and just sort of wing it but since we're talking recipes, here's a very easy one that I use with lousy meat or briskets that are on sale:

- A couple of pounds of beef. Old/cheap/freezerburned/expired is fine.
- A bottle of barbecue sauce. Don't skimp, use good sauce.
- 1-2 good onions. Plain yellow onions are not good. Red is okay, Walla Walla sweets are perfect.
- Some mushrooms. Whatever's cheapest.
- A few cloves of garlic.
- Salt, pepper, and cane sugar to taste.

Slice up the onions and mushrooms. Throw everything in a crock pot and place in the refrigerator. When you first wake up in the morning, immediately put the crock in the heater and set it on LOW. It should be perfect by dinner.

That's it, really. Serve with baked potatoes and turnip greens. If you can't be bothered with doing things the old fashioned way, microwave the potato for 13-15 minutes on high and use canned greens. I honestly can't tell the difference. Neither can my dinner guests, evidently.

BTW, Nova, what you need is a crock pot. Chili, soup, stew, barbecue, anything you want...just throw it all in and turn it on. The only hard part is the waiting.
 
Dave I use my crock more in fall/winter for heavier gotta shovel snow kind of meals . The cut I got last night was proabably a bit better than what you described . (Some kind of blade roast called :Pot au feu :)
This is the season I like when the price of veggies is the lowest . They never do seem to lower the price of parsnips though . L:O:L
 
Garden fresh tomatos
bulb of garlic
chiles
Capers
sliced green olives
can Anchovy fillets
Olive Oil
Butter

1. drop whole tomatos into boiling water long enough to split skin. remove and put in cold water. Dice them up.
2. Mince garlic and thinly slice whatever peppers you can handle.
3. Melt butter and olive oil in skillet.
4. Add fillets to pan and smash down with spatula(you want them to dissolve).
5. Add garlic/chile mixture and green olives
6. Add tomatos and let cook on high for a few minutes.
7. Add capers and serve over any kind of pasta.

Ideally, the garlic and peppers will give a bite, the tomatos will be barely cooked.

The dish was made famous by Italian prostitutes. Allegedly, the uglier ones offered up a cheap, hearty meal to sailors, so they wouldn't starve to death.
Enjoy!
 
I've had a perpetual problem with edema because of my intake of salt. Salt is in every damned thing you buy from the supermarkets with the exception of products marked SALT FREE Even frozen peas have a small amount of salt.:(
My cardiologist chewed my arse out real proper and most definitely got my attention when he said my kidneys were going to fail if I kept eating like I had been.:eek:
We are forced fed salt in so many things that to eat without any salt at all is something that's very hard to get used to and food just doesn't taste as good without any salt at all, that is until you start getting used to it.:)

With all that said I have had to do a lot of investigating to find different flavorings to make food more palatable.
I told y'all about AlsoSalt some time back. It is the same potasium chloride that all other salt substitutes are But it also has lysine in it that kills the bitter flavor and whang that the other substitues have. Our local stores don't handle it so I get it off the Internet.
Mrs. Dash is a brand of seasonings that are salt free that also offer a ton of flavor.

Then there is the Black Truffle Oil which is and grapeseed oil that has had black truffles cooked in it thereby imparting the flavor to the oil.
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Perel also has several other flavored oils and vinegars but we haven't tried any of them as yet.

I had an epiphany the other day when Barbie asked me what I wanted for lunch and I told her a medium garden salad but that instead of the extra virgin olive oil I wanted the black truffle oil and the red wine vinegar.
When Barbie set the beautiful garden salad in front of me I gave it a very healthy shake of the Mrs. Dash Table Blend and a very hearty shake of the AlsoSalt and then drizzled on two measuring teaspoons of the Black Truffle Oil and a tablespoon of the Red Wine Vinegar.
This was Absolutely the most glorious salad I have ever eaten in my entire life. The truffle oil imparts a ton of delicate flavor that's out of this world and along with Red Wine Vinegar, the Mrs. Dash, and the AlsoSalt I couldn't tell I didn't have real salt in it at all!!!!:thumbup: :cool: :D
There is just no describing the flavor of the Black Truffle Oil but it also goes with desserts as well as the savory foods. All oil or fats have 120 calories in one tablespoon and when it has a ton of flavor a couple of teaspoons damned sure isn't going to hurt you!:thumbup: :D
 
Yvsa, you're right about the salt. Canned foods and prepared foods in general have insane amounts of sodium. I make a point to get the low- or no-salt canned goods when I can.
 
When I'm using canned veggies, I fill dump the liquid, refill with water, dump that, and repeat a few times. I can't give an exact figure for the sodium reduction but it's enough to taste easily. It's not a health thing for me...the stuff is just too damned salty.

If I'm actually trying to reduce the sodium in a dish, I increase the sourness. It seems to amplify the salt flavor for me. Don't ask me why. I think that it's because salt has a basically sour flavor to begin with.

Mrs. Dash = :thumbup: . The best croutons that I ever had were made by hand from stale bread on the Florida. They were salty as hell, as croutons ought to be. When I asked (somewhat frightened) about how much salt was in them, the cooks replied that they hadn't used any -- they were out of salt, so they'd dumped a bunch of Mrs. Dash on.

There's no way that I'm going to give up salt; I enjoy it too much. These days, though, I won't touch that ultrarefined iodized crap. Kosher salt tastes better for about the same price; sea salt and mined salt are considerably more expensive but taste even better yet and contain plenty of other trace minerals as well. Live's too short for iodized salt.
 
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