If you're looking for that perfect accompaniment for a roast, sandwich, soup or pasta, try this. I found it on the food network while searching for ways to enhance a prime rib roast. Not that it needs any help, but I wanted my prime rib roast to be "special" for the Christmas dinner. This is where Tyler Florence came to the rescue.
After gathering up all the ingredients, I realized most were already in my pantry. What luck! I observed a few raised eyebrows when I began to prepare the onion side dish. All I could say was "trust me". Roasting vegetables is one of my favorite ways to prepare them. The flavors are intensified, much better than steaming or microwaving. And how can any vegetable taste bad smothered in butter and honey?
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (I used pomegranate infused)
1/2 cup honey
several stocks of fresh thyme, leaves removed
salt and pepper
3 - 4 red onions, halved and some quartered (I used 3, but they were quite large)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, combine the butter, vinegar, honey, thyme, salt and pepper, on medium heat. Bring to a quick boil and then reduce after simmering for a minute. Have the cut up onions ready in a baking dish (single layer). Drizzle the butter honey mixture over the onions and roast until caramelized, about 45 - 50 minutes, basting throughout the roasting time. Delicious! I had leftovers that went into prime rib/avocado sandwiches and my shepherd's pie from a previous post.
Thanks, Tyler Florence, your prime rib roast and side dishes rocked!
Roasting a chicken is a great way to experiment with your favorite spices of the world. It's also a way you can feed your family for a couple of days. Consider all the options for meals during the week. Enchiladas. quesadillas, chicken sandwiches, salad, and maybe, soup. As the economy "tanks", people are looking for ways to make their dollars go a little further. Enter the versatile chicken. Make that an organic chicken...one that has smaller breasts because they're not pumped full of fluids, aka, sodium solution. You've all seen those packages of plump chicken breasts displayed in the supermarket. Seriously, do you think those chickens grow that big on their own?
As I climb down off my soapbox, here's a beautiful way to roast a chicken, using a new addition to my herb garden, lemon balm. If you don't have or can't find it, substitute lemon thyme.
Ingredients:
4 lb. roasting whole chicken, preferably organic
salt & pepper
herb de Provence, about 1-2 Tbsp
1/4 cup olive oil
about 6-8 whole lemon balm leaves
For the glaze:
1/3 oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp zest of ginger
1 tsp lemon balm chopped
Set oven to 325 degrees.
After cleaning and removing giblets from inside of the chicken, place it in a roasting pan. With your fingertips, loosen the skin on both sides of the breastbone and slide the lemon balm leaves in there. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the bird. Pour the oil onto the bird with the lemon balm and start to massage the spices in. Put the bird into the oven to roast and make the glaze by just mixing the oil, leaves, honey and ginger together in a bowl. Bake the 4lb chicken for approximately 2 1/2 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the glaze and pan juices. You could even throw in some cut up potatoes and/or carrots during the last 45 minutes. So good!
As the weather finally warms up I gently steer away from the comfort foods of Winter such as soups, and pasta. My eyes lit up when I saw this beautiful piece of sushi grade ahi tuna at Trader Joe's. I actually went there to get unsweetened cranberry juice. (I'll explain in a later post; It has something to do with slim down plan, revisited!) If you've been reading this blog at all, you know that I love fish and seafood. So I was going to pull out all the stops for this meal and then savor every bite!
I purchased a piece just under one pound. That fed the two of us, plus a tuna salad the next night for me.
Ingredients:
For the glaze:
1/4 c honey
1 Tbsp thinly sliced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T pomegranate infused balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp light reduced sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
juice from 1/2 lime
Place all these in a small pan. Heat to boiling, stirring for about a minute. Remove from heat and reserve.
To prepare the tuna, I cut it into 4 oz size pieces. Lightly dust with five spice powder (optional) and spray with pan spray (otherwise it will stick as you sear it).
I served the tuna with roasted bok choy brushed with cilantro butter alongside portobella mushrooms, garlic and onion.
For the Bok Choy side dish:
2 baby bok choy
2 portobella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 onion
cloves of garlic, as many as you want.
Arrange in a roasting pan and drizzle with about 1 Tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees in the oven, turning once, for about 15-20 minutes. Soften or microwave 1 Tbsp butter. Add 1 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro. When the veggies are done, remove and brush with the cilantro butter.
Back to the tuna. In a skillet, preferably cast iron, heat the pan on high heat. Add the tuna and sear on both sides to your degree of done. I like mine rare in the middle but I cooked this longer so hubby would eat it.
When done, plate it up and pour the glaze on top and serve with the vegetables. This meal was full of flavor and light, but satisfying. I'll definitely have this again, soon! It would be great with salmon or halibut, too!
