ROSEMARY CHICKEN WITH LEMON BUTTER GLAZE

I just had a fairly huge grocery haul when I came up with this recipe. I had good finds at the supermarket and wanted to make use of the rare ingredients I got. So I came up with this dish.

What we need:

500g chicken legs

1 tbsp. rosemary

1 small container of plain yogurt

freshly ground pepper

sea salt, to taste

Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Canola Oil

juice from half a lemon

2 oz butter (around 1/4 of a regular brick of butter)

fresh basil, for garnish

 

Marinate the chicken in yogurt, rosemary, salt and pepper the night before and keep in the fridge out of the freezer.

 

On the cooking day, drizzle a fair amount of extra virgin olive oil on a skillet to prevent the chicken from sticking on the pan plus adding more flavor to the meat. On medium high heat, sear the chicken until golden brown. For those new to cooking, the best indication any meat is ready for turning is when you lift it with a flat spatula, it easily gets off the pan surface.

 

After all the chicken is cooked, keep the pan in heat but put it on low. Deglaze the pan with the juice from half the lemon, incorporating the oil and juices left by the chicken on the pan by mixing it with the spatula. Then, add the butter and mix it well. You can add a teaspoon of mustard to thicken as well as add more flavor to the glaze.

 

Once the glaze is thicker and blended, pour it on the chicken and serve with fresh basil.

 

Eat it with rice, corn or a mix of different vegetables. Enjoy!



LEBANESE INSPIRED CHICKEN WRAP

Ingredients:

Pita Bread
Garlic Ranch Dressing (please see previous recipe)
Lettuce Leaves
3/4 cup Diced Tomatoes
1/2 cup Minced White Onions
1/4 kilo Chicken fillet
125 g Plain Yogurt
1 tbsp. Cumin
1 tbsp. Paprika
Salt
Pepper
Aluminum Foil

This was inspired by the popular Lebanese food "Shawarma." However, I can't easily find lamb in my area as well as Tahini Sauce to make an authentic copy. I don't want to call this dish as Shawarma because I did not use both lamb and tahini. I just searched for a better alternative in terms of ingredients; ones that are readily available to me.

I replaced lamb with chicken and instead of tahini, I made my own Garlic Dressing but with a twist.

To make the wraps, start with the chicken fillet. Put it in a bowl and mix in the yogurt, cumin powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Put it in the fridge and let it marinate for at least an hour ( the longer, the better).

Then get the frozen pita bred and thaw it a bit to room temperature and then warm it on a grill. Once you touch the top side while it's on heat, and it's warm, flip it and in seconds, it is ready.

Cook the chicken on a skillet or frying pan with a little bit of olive oil (extra virgin olive oil is healthier and tastier).

Place a lettuce leaf in the middle of the pita bread, shred the chicken and arrange on top and add the minced onions and diced tomatoes as shown in the picture. The amount of chicken, tomatoes and onions per wrap depends on how much you want them to be.

Generously pour the Garlic Ranch Dressing on top of the meat and vegetables. Generous because, it's what gives your whole wrap, the character and the zing.

Then slowly roll it like you're folding a shirt, three ways. Place aluminum foil on the bottom third part to secure the wrap.

The whole process in making the wrap is simple but the key ingredients here that will bring character to the food is the marinated chicken and the sauce or dressing. It has to explode in your mouth to be perfect.

Being prim and proper has no place when eating this food. In order to enjoy it, leave all your inhibitions behind.

Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY MANGO SMOOTHIE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

3 ripe mangoes
3/4 cup frozen strawberries
125 g of vanilla or mango yogurt
3/4 cup full cream milk
4-5 ice cubes
sugar (optional - if you want a sweeter taste but it's healthier without)

Put all the solid ingredients in a blender arranging them with the ice cubes at the bottom, frozen strawberries next and the mangoes on the top. Then pour all the liquid ingredients last. Having them in that order makes sure that the ice cubes and the frozen strawberries get blended fast and will mix well with the rest.

If you don't have frozen strawberries you can substitute it with frozen bananas. If you have leftover bananas that is going overripe, peel them and store in the freezer. Use them when you feel like having some rich and thick smoothie.

This will provide you your daily need for vitamin C plus calcium and fiber.

Enjoy!

Makes 2 generous servings.

GROCERY HAUL

Grocery shopping is just my favorite thing to do along with eating.

The supermarket is my favorite place. There is just a thrill in what kind of finds I would have at the end of the day. Of course I have my list all ready and I know exactly where to go. But then, there are times when you wonder if that carton of milk, brand of peanut butter or the kind of herbs and fruits you've been looking to get but has not been available for a while, would be there.

Well, for this particular haul, I found some items I've been checking on regularly in the past few months that I couldn't find. Maybe because during the holidays - Christmas and New Year, stocks have ran out and it's just now that the supplies have arrived and it's slowly being put back in shelves or freezers again.

Here are the finds that got me excited:

FROZEN STRAWBERRIES. For this particular item, it's been years since I last saw this in the frozen fruits and veggies section. In fact, the last time I was able to buy strawberries from SM Supermarket was years ago and they were fresh. But fresh or not, strawberries just give me the opportunity to make a tasty combo of mango and strawberry smoothie or as people commonly call it here - fruit shake. Tomorrow, at the top of my "To-Do List" is to make that.

HARVEY FRESH FULL CREAM MILK. This is just the best tasting milk I have tried in the country in comparison to local brands like Selecta, Magnolia, Bear Brand and Alaska among others; and imported brands which they sell locally - Dutch Lady, Meiji and Paul's. I used to buy warm skimmed milk from Café Bob's while working the mid-shift before and loved it so I asked what brand of milk they use and ta' da', it's Harvey Fresh. I just hope that  SM would be able to regularly carry that and make it available for people like me when I run out.

BOTTLED RANCH DRESSING. I have to accept the fact that there is not much of a choice when it comes to picking a good Ranch Dressing here. Last time I checked at the grocery, I did find a bottle of ranch dressing (among plenty of different kinds of dressings) and it was the Lady's Choice brand. It wasn't as good as my expectation of how ranch should taste. In fact, it almost tastes like their Thousand Islands and Caesar Salad dressing. So I'm glad that I found American Brand US Ranch this time and though it's not the same as Hidden Valley Ranch, at least it tastes better. But if you see in my grocery cart, I got some fresh parsley. I'm contemplating on making Ranch Dressing from scratch then maybe I'll get my craving for ranch satisfied. We run out of the dressing because we use it as a dip when we're snacking on carrot sticks. It's just perfect together.

PITA BREAD. I love Shawarma! But in my town, they don't have carts that sell that here. Thus, I'm glad I found Pita Bread at the supermarket because like the ranch dressing, I plan to make my own version of the Shawarma at home. I could use the plain creamy yogurt that I got as well as the tomatoes I have stored in my fridge.

DARK PREMIUM CHOCOBAR. I've been looking for a good reasonably priced block of dark chocolate that's primarily good for baking or making desserts. Before, I'd use Antonio Pueo but lately, I haven't seen that on the shelves of the stores. Bittersweet chocolate chips are good but they practically cost twice the price of this chocolate. This will be good for making chocolate fudge.

I could go on and on about grocery shopping and my haul but I'll save that for more posts soon.