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Browsing Tag: lemon

Sous Vide Greek Chicken

Last night’s dinner comes compliments of The Daring Gourmet where I tweaked her Slow Cooker Greek Chicken recipe by making it sous vide. Using her Greek Seasoning as the flavor driver, I figured making this dish sous vide would create a vibrant result. As suggested in the original recipe, I served this dish with rice, but not just any rice dish. I went fully international and paired this dish with a Caribbean rice – Puerto Rican Arroz con Gandules. Sounds crazy, huh?  I had a feeling the flavors would compliment each other rather than compete, which they did! So setup the water bath and get cooking – this tasty Greek inspired chicken dish is simple to prepare and uniquely flavorful to enjoy!   Save Print Sous Vide…

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Cherry Almond Compote

Today’s breakfast was a pairing for these two recipes – Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Waffles and Cherry Almond Compote . These two together made a wondrously tasty breakfast I just had to share, especially with cherries being in season. I omitted the blueberries in the waffle recipe and just made pancakes with the batter for a silky and tangy result. The compote would be great on cheesecake as well just in case you are heading to a picnic or summer barbecue and want to treat your friends to a delicious desert. Putting the two together resulted in a flavor explosion to start our Saturday. Here’s the photos of our scrumptious repast… and don’t forget the recipes are in the links above. Enjoy…

Simple Hummus

With the heat recently, I just have not felt like cooking. These are times when simple appetizers satisfy best and this hummus recipe is easy to prepare and delicious to enjoy. The recipe is based on this one from Inspired Taste and it produces a wonderfully creamy hummus that can be tweaked as you see fit. Roasted red pepper, no problem. Roasted garlic, again easy to add. Only your imagination limits you when it comes to this Mediterranean staple. My favorite add is the simplest – lemon zest. I like the increased ‘zing’ from the lemon in contrast to the cumin. So enough babbling on, let’s make some hummus! Save Print Simple Hummus Prep time:  10 mins Total time:  10 mins Serves…

Elder Aviator

How about a summer Saturday evening tipple to tantalize your taste buds?  This riff on the violet imbued Aviation cocktail swaps in St. Germain elderflower liqueur for the Creme de Violette. But don’t be fooled, gin is the star here so choose it wisely. Different gins will provide you with different flavor profiles, some of which may not be particularly palatable. Just think of how a string juniper forward gin would pair with elderflower –  probably not well in my humble opinion!  So I kept my concoction solidly in the floral range by using a softer gin like Old Tom or Citadelle, which produced a satisfying sweetness with floral character and the freshness of a gentle sea breeze. I would call that a perfect way to…

Cherry Almond Compote

In making the Greek Yogurt Pancakes, I wanted to switch out my usual maple syrup for something a bit different and unique. Seeing that I had fresh cherries, I thought why not make a simple fruit compote. I must admit I think this simple fruit topping is under rated and over looked. So let’s rectify that right now with this versatile recipe – especially with cherries plentiful this time of year. Not only can you drape this tasty sauce over pancakes and waffles, but it makes a beautiful addition to cheesecake, ice cream, and other desserts. Give this compote a try, your taste buds will appreciate it! Save Print Cherry Almond Compote Prep time:  1 min Cook time:  20 mins Total time:  21…

Brandied Smoked Cherries

Here is one of the recipes I am asked about regularly when I mention ‘smoked cherries’. The process is simple – wash, stem and pit the cherries, heat up the barbeque or smoker, make a simple syrup, and squeeze a lemon for the fresh juice. Smoke the cherries and combine them with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and brandy. Then transfer the cherries and brandy mixture into mason jars and cool thoroughly before topping the jars. Refrigerate the jars for 4 to 6 weeks before using in cocktails or adding to desserts. That last step is the toughest part of the whole recipe – the waiting to enjoy these smoky, sweet gems in your Manhattan or other cocktails or in a thickened fruit topping for cheesecake…

Paper Plane

I recently had this cocktail at a restaurant near my office. Yeah, it was happy hour so I thought, “What the heck?”  Well, I liked it a lot even though this establishment made every effort to ensure I would never return! Anyway, I thought I could tweak this beauty a wee bit and share it with you. This cocktail, created by New York’s Sam Ross (of Penicillin fame), uses equal parts of 4 ingredients (Bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon juice) to produce a beautiful and delicious drink. Given that one of the essential ingredients is difficult to get in my area (Amaro Nonino), I am going to make a substitution and an addition to compensate. The result is an interesting interpretation which I…

Bee’s Knees

Created during the Prohibition when adding citrus and sweeteners helped make ‘bathtub gin’ more palatable, this cocktail is ‘the bee’s knees’. That slang term means ‘the best’ and this easy sipper is perfect for a warm Friday night on this first evening in June. For those curious about honey syrup, it is simply 1 part honey dissolved into 1 part hot water. This thinned honey probably contributed to the cocktail’s name and being thinned,the honey is much easier to mix with the gin and lemon juice.  I like to think of this drink as a sibling to the recently posted Gimlet – and each are easily interchangeable to satisfy your tastes with a minimal number of ingredients…

Sous Vide Chicken and Artichokes

Tonight my experiment was to make a simple chicken and artichoke meal sous vide – something with tender and juicy chicken and a delicious sauce. This dish does just that – flavorful sous vide chicken with a silky, savory, citrus tinged sauce. I like this type of dish in various other incarnations – chicken piccata, chicken marsala, etc.  And I enjoy the subtle flavors added by the artichokes and sun dried tomatoes into this simple sherry and lemon sauce. I paired it with orzo and roasted Brussels sprouts, a delightful combination all around and the sides are just as simple to prepare as the main dish. Give it a try and enjoy this tasty chicken dish – easily prepared using your sous vide cooking device! Save Print Sous…

Billionaire

Tonight’s cocktail is a riff on the Millionaire that I believe is aptly named since it is a step above. The key ingredient in this drink is the pomegranate syrup and while it is only a small amount, it is necessary. Of course, I did not buy any of the commercially available pomegranate syrups you can find at the store (although you can, but be aware that they may just be high fructose corn syrup with red food coloring!), I made my own.  And I skipped the whole process of dealing with the actual pomegranate fruit to get the juice laden arils. How you ask?  Simple, I reduced a small amount of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice which is 100% juice. The results… nothing short of…