Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Chicken and Broccoli Cheese Soup

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It's Christmas time here and "Baby, It's Cold Outside".  So if you have no place to go, make some soup and "Let it Snow".   Yes, I have been listening to too many Christmas songs while I cook in the kitchen. 

Soup is one of my favorite parts of winter.  Well to tell you the truth, I can eat a big bowl of soup even in the middle of a scorching hot summer.  But when it's cold and miserable outside... Soup Rules!

I like to buy a big bag of broccoli florets from Costco almost every week.  Broccoli doesn't last too long in the fridge so I'm always finding ways to use it up.  This soup was a winning idea because I used one pound of broccoli and the kids couldn't tell and asked for second helpings. 

I also decided to poach some chicken breast to start the process.  Poaching the chicken breast first really gives a nice texture to the chicken.  It also gave me some great stock to combine with box stock.  I love being able to stretch a buck. 

The final touches are sliced American cheese and some milk to make this soup nice and creamy.  Yes, I said sliced American cheese.  Hey, there are places for fancy cheese, but if you want a easy and quick melting cheese... it's the best. 

So, if you are experiencing some chill in the air... grab a bowl and ladle up some soup today.  You will be warm from the inside out in no time.


Ingredients:
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breast poached (see instructions below how to poach)
1 lb broccoli florets (divided)
1 medium onion chopped
2-3 red and yellow sweet peppers (can substitute 1 small red bell pepper chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
salt and black pepper to taste
red chili powder or red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
4 cups strained poaching liquid (substitute chicken stock if you don't have 4 cups remaining)
4 cups chicken stock
7-8 slices American cheese
11/2 cups milk or half and half



Directions with Step by Step Photos: 

Step 1: Poach chicken breast.  To poach place chicken breast with water (1 inch above chicken),  some sliced onion, salt and black pepper.  Bring water to a boil then lower to medium heat and simmer until chicken is fully cooked through and tender.  Remove chicken and cut into large chunks/cubes when cool enough to handle.  Strain poaching liquid for soup. 

 
Step 2:  Chop onion, peppers and 1 cup of the broccoli and set aside.  

Step 3:  In a large soup pot place the remaining broccoli with the strained poaching liquid and chicken stock.  Season with thyme, poultry seasoning, red chili powder, black pepper and garlic powder.   

Step 4: When broccoli is tender puree until creamy.

Step 5: Then add the chopped broccoli, onion and peppers into the creamed broccoli soup.  


Step 6:Simmer Until broccoli, onion and peppers become tender.   Then add the cubed chicken, sliced American cheese. 

 Step 7: Finally add 11/2 cup milk and simmer on low for 2-3 minutes.  Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.  Serve hot.  Enjoy.



 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Acorn Kisses

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I love cute food ideas.  I can't take credit for coming up with these because I have seen them all over Pinterest, Facebook and a variety of other places on the internet.  I just know they are adorable and so much fun to make with my kids.  

All you need is a handful of ingredients and some melted chocolate to have fun making these acorn kisses.   I love that you can just decorate a fall dessert table with these or even a dessert as shown on top of the cake below.  

My son liked them with the plain Hershey's Kisses and my daughter liked them better with the Hershey's Almond Kisses.  So, you can really customize these to what you like.   If you cannot find the mini Nutter Butter cookies, you can try to substitute with mini Nila Wafer cookies (another version I have seen out there).

They truly are fun to make and eat... you may just squirrel some away for the winter too.




Acorn Kisses

by Curry and Comfort
Prep Time: 10
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips melted in microwave
  • Hershey's Kisses
  • Nutter Butter Mini Cookies
  • Chocolate chips
Instructions
1. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave 20 seconds at a time until fully melted. Careful not to burn. This will be the "glue" that holds everything together.
2. Dip the flat end of the unwrapped Hershey's Kiss into the melted chocolate, remove any excess chocolate and slowly place on top of a mini nutter butter cookie. Allow chocolate to set for 5 minutes. Repeat for as many acorns you want to make.
3. Next dip the flat end of a chocolate chip into the melted chocolate and remove any excess. "Glue" the chip to the other end of the cookie as shown in recipe photos. Allow chocolate to set.
4. Serve as they are on a platter or decorate any fall dessert.
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Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Halloween Treats

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 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 
 Hope everyone has a safe and happy day full of treats and no tricks! :)

Here is my Halloween Treat round up....

Halloween Witch's Hat Cookies

 

Decorated Pumpkin Cake






Ghoulish Cake Pops



Frankenstein Rice Krispies Treats 

 

Shrunken Head Halloween Punch

 

Ghostly Pears




Chocolate Covered Apples with Nuts, Candy and Coconut



Pumpkin Rice Krispies Treats

 


Monster Party Halloween Cupcakes

 

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Sri Lankan Pittu (Rice Flour and Coconut Dish)

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Sri Lankan Pittu

Traditional Sri Lankan food always makes me very happy, hungry and ready to eat.  Most of it involves very simple ingredients like rice and coconut.  

One dish that is made from coconut and rice flour is called Pittu.  My mother says that Pittu is her favorite dish to eat and will gladly eat it every day.... I am totally ready to do that as well. 

Pittu comes to Sri Lanka from the Kerala region of India and is known as Puttu or Putu there.  The recipes I have read about the Kerala version is made with slightly different ingredients, but this recipe is how Sri Lankans make and eat Pittu.

Pittu is traditionally eaten for breakfast in Sri Lanka. Now a days it is also eaten for lunch or dinner since people are off and rushing to work and school in the morning and cannot eat a leisurely long breakfast. 

The process of making pittu is simply mixing coconut with the rice flour to form a "crumbled texture" mixture.  Then that mixture is placed in the cylinder tube of the Pittu steamer and steamed for about 5-6 minutes and it comes out as a solid Pittu tube.  You can use either red or white rice flour to make pittu so it is a wonderful gluten-free dish.   

The pittu is then eaten with warmed coconut milk, lunu miris and any spicy meat, fish or vegetable curry.    I love that such simple ingredients can create beautiful and delicious food.  Now that's something to really celebrate!



Ingredients:

5 cups desiccated coconut
1 (15oz) can coconut milk
1 can hot water (use the coconut milk can to measure)
2 tsp salt
8 cups rice flour

Directions:
Step 1: Place the desiccated coconut in bowl and pour coconut milk and can of hot water over it.  Mix well and allow coconut to soak for 20-30 minutes. 
 
Step 2:  Sift together rice flour and salt.  Set aside. 

Step 3:  Set up steamer with hot water and bring pittu steamer to a boil until you see the steam coming out of the top of the steamer.   
 
Step 4:  In a new bowl, take up cup of sifted rice flour/salt mixture and mix with 2/3cup soaked coconut mixture.  Use fingers to create a "crumble texture".   

Note:  This texture is really important. It should be a dry crumble so sprinkle a little flour mixture to make sure you get the right texture.
Step 5: Take the steamer tube and place the piece that separates the tube part from the steamer part.   It's the little metal circle in the photo shown here that has holes.  These holes allow the steam to go up through the pittu mixture and steam it all together into a tube.   

Note: We recommend that you wash this round metal piece between each steaming because it will get pittu residue on it and that will prevent the steam from going through the holes.  I simply placed a small bowl of cold water to dip it into and clean off quickly before resetting it in the pittu steamer.   

 Step 6: Then fill the tube with the dry crumble mixture of the rice flour and coconut until you get to the top.  Place the  lid on the steamer tube and back on the base that is full of boiling water. 
Step 7: Steam pittu for 5 minutes until you see steam coming out of the top of the pittu steamer.  Then allow it to steam for about 1-2 more minutes.  That means the steam has worked it's way through all the pittu ingredients and steamed everything together.  Take the pittu tube off  the base and use a wooden dowel/pole to push the pittu out of the steamer. 

Step 8:  Repeat until all the mixture is used and you have cooked your pittu.  
Note:  My mother says that once you are steaming the pittu, work on making the crumble for the next tube of pittu.  It's best to work in batches otherwise if you mix all the flour/salt with the soaked coconut at one time the crumbles mixture becomes too tough or soggy.

This amount of pittu will serve 6-8 people or more.  Eat it with, coconut milk gravy,  lunu miris and any spicy meat, fish or vegetable curry.

Note:  To make the coconut gravy just mix 1 can (15oz) with 1 tsp of salt. Stir well and this is poured over the pittu and eaten with the other condiments and curries. 





 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Friday, June 17, 2022

Chicken Tikka Kebabs

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Chicken Tikka is basically chunks of chicken marinated in spices and yogurt. Traditionally, they are cooked in a clay oven called a Tandoor.  But I simply cooked them on a griddle on my stove and it still came out delicious. 

The key to getting this dish right is the marinating process.  It's great if you can marinate for 24 hours or overnight.  If you are in a rush, four hours will be okay.  I marinated my chicken for 24 hours and each bite was full of flavor.



Ingredients:
3lbs Chicken
2 Tbs of canola oil
wood skewers

The Marinate:
2 inches of ginger peeled and grated
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 cup plain yogurt ( I used Greek Yogurt)
2 Tbs of gram masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 Tbs of paprika
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of salt (or to taste)
1 tsp of red chili powder

Directions:

Mix all the marinate together and then add the chicken.  Mix well until all the ingredients coats the chicken. Marinate the meat in a ziploc bag or a bowl that you can seal.

When you are ready to cook your Chicken Tikka, take it out of the fridge for 30-45 minutes to get the chill off the meat. I skewered mine on wooden skewers here.  Since I was cooking them on the stove top I didn't bother soaking the skewers and they were fine.  If you decide to broil yours in the oven, I would suggest you soak the skewers in water for 20 minutes before skewering up the chicken.


I used a flat griddle to cook the tikkas.  I oiled the griddle with about 1 Tbs of oil and allowed it to get heated on high heat. I placed the skewers down and lowered the heat to medium heat after about a minute. You want the chicken to cook on each side fully without burning the outside of the chicken. 


Apply oil on the other side of the skewers before you flip them over.   You will want to stand there and baby-sit the chicken skewers.  I did flip the skewers several times to make sure all the sides of the chicken got heated. Cook until the chicken is cooked through.

Serves 4-6 people.  You can eat this with rice, salad or even inside pitas with some yogurt sauce. Enjoy



 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Roasted Tomato Carrot Soup with Cheesy Bread Dunkers

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Ingredients for Roasted Tomato and Carrot soup:
2lbs fresh tomatoes cut into large chunks
2 large onion cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
7-10 cloves or garlic (you are roasting this so the flavor is mild)
salt and black pepper to taste
canola oil (about 2 Tbs)
6-8 cups chicken stock/broth
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp dried thyme
red chili powder (or cayenne powder) to taste

Directions:
 On a large baking sheet, add chopped tomatoes, carrots, garlic cloves, onion, salt, black pepper and canola oil.  Roast in a 375 degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Turn oven off and allow to sit in oven for 10 more minutes.

In a large soup pot, add the roasted veggies, chicken stock, dried thyme, cumin and red chili powder.  Simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt as needed. 
Use an immersion blender make the soup creamy.  This step is best done by an adult or teen.  Once soup is creamed, strain half of the soup through a mesh strainer.  I added the other half of the thickened soup to the pot for a nice consistency.  Taste for seasoning and serve hot.  Enjoy.

Ingredients for Cheesy Bread Dunkers:
1 loaf of french bread cut in to slices
butter or margarine as needed
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
1 cup cheddar or Colby cheese mix
dried parsley flakes (optional)

Directions:
 Slice bread (have an adult do this step).   Have the kids butter the bread on both sides.

Mix the cheeses and top each slice of bread with enough cheese to cover the bread and then sprinkle with a little dried parsley flakes.   Bake in preheated a 375 degree oven for 5-6 minutes or until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.  Serve with soup.  Enjoy.


 

 

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.