Cheesy vegetable orzo & chicken

Orzo. Seems very exotic and difficult, but it is simply pasta that resembles a long-grain rice. You can find it at your grocer with the pasta (go figure) but if you're like me and kind of have blinders on in the store and can't see what isn't typically on your grocery list.... You mat have to look a little.

Ingredients:

2lbs chicken thighs (bone-in)

1lb orzo (uncooked)

2 shallots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup celery, thinly chopped

1 cup fresh green beans, chopped

1 cup carrots, grated

4 cups homemade chicken stock (or store bought, low sodium)

2 cups shredded cheddar

1 TBSP adobo seasoning

Black pepper

Salt

Olive oil 

Heat your oven to 450.

Heat an oven safe sautée pan (I used a cast iron skillet). Toss chicken with black pepper and adobo seasoning. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in your pan (I didn't with my cast iron skillet) and put chicken in skin side down. Crisp 5-6 minutes. Flip and pop into the oven for thirty minutes.

While chicken is cooking, heat olive oil in pan. Add shallots and sautée until tender. Add garlic, celery, and green beans. Sautée until you can smell the garlic through your kitchen (about two minutes).

Add the stock and bring to. A boil. Add orzo and boil 10-15 minutes until orzo is tender and stock is fully incorporated. Remove from heat and stir in carrots and cheddar. Salt and pepper to taste.

Remove chicken from oven and serve.

Gyoza (potstickers)

I have to admit I was in a huge rush when I made these tonight, I had to beat my husband's deadline. He got to be up at 2am tomorrow and has planned to hit the sack at 8pm, which meant dinner needed to be ready at 6pm so he could shower, shave, read the kids a bedtime story, and be done for the night.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground beef (pork, chicken, and shrimp will all work as long as it is ground)

1/4 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

4oz mushrooms, diced

1 medium carrot, grated

1/2 cup bok choy or cabbage, diced (incuding white of leaf)

1 TBSP grated ginger (now, I love ginger! I'm a ginger baby. I will eat pickled ginger straight so I double this)

1/8 cup shoyu (soy sauce; I use low sodium so I add a bit more salt to taste)

1 tsp white pepper

2 cups flour

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup boiling hot water

Olive oil 

In a saucepan, sautée onion in a bit of olive oil until translucent (about 8 minutes). Add ground beef (if you're doing shrimp you can skip this step as they will steam at the end to cook but make sure you dice it finely or pulse it through the food processor). Add onion and meat to a mixing bowl. Stir in garlic, mushrooms, carrot, bok choy, ginger, shoyu, and white pepper.

In a separate mixing bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer and paddle attachment) combine flour and salt. Create a well and add water to the center. Incorporate water until a smooth dough forms. If it is too fry add a bit more water. Too tacky add a bit of flour. Knead dough on a well-floured surface & incorporate as much additional flour as possible while kneading to form a stiff dough.

Divide dough in four and cover three portions. Roll out the fourth portion about 1/16 of an inch (I used my pasta roller attachment for my mixer to setting 3).

Again, I was in a rush so I didn't cut the wrappers how I would usually, which is round. I just cut them square. Spoon 1 1/2 - 2 TBSP of mixture in each one slightly elongated. Next, gather the wrapper up around the mixture as if to fold it in half and fold the ends together all the way down to seal the wrappers. 

Heat some olive oil in a sauce pan on medium. Put the gyoza in the pan in batches and brown 2-3 minutes. Don't try to move them, the reason they are called potstickers is because they STICK on purpose. Now add about 1/8 cup water to the pan and cover with lid to steam 3-5 minutes until gyoza release from the pan. If you used shrimp you'll see the orange color enhance to indicate it is cooked.

I hit a speed bump trying to pricematch my olive oil today so I sprayed my steamer with non-stock spray and steamed them for 7 minutes.

With the leftover dough I made some tortillas to be used at a later date:

Spinach Gnocchi

I had a 10lb bag of russet potatoes I snagged for under two bucks last month and decided to do some pasta tonight for a meatless meal. I read somewhere that its a good break for your digestive system so I've been trying to remember to do it once each week (my husband is a steak and potatoes guy so sometimes he's not trying to hear that).

Gnocchi is a potato pasta. If you've ever had potato bread, you know that it has a very light, airy, and fluffy texture. It is absolutely divine. If ever in doubt, potato out. Anyway, gnocchi has a similar light and fluffy texture. You can do a simple gnocchi but in the spirit of trying to get through my frozen stockpile I decided to use some frozen spinach.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 - 3lbs potatoes (red, good, russet, it's all good)

1/2 TBSP olive oil

Salt

9oz frozen (or fresh) spinach, thawed

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 egg yolk (I used leftover egg I had from making baguettes, using whites doesn't matter, it's just the moisture content that requires yolk only)

5 TBSP flour

Heat oven to 400. Thoroughly scrub and dry potatoes. Pierce with fork. Rub with olive oil and generously salt. Bake 45 minutes to an hour until fork tender. Remove & let cool.

Drizzle olive oil in a pan on medium low and sautée onion until translucent (6-8 minutes). Add garlic and sautée an additional 1-2 minutes until your kitchen smells like garlic. Add spinach and sautée unit wilted (if your spinach is frozen, sautée it until slightly warmed through).

Put spinach in a mesh strainer and use the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put in blender with yolk and pulse until almost smooth.

Cut each potato in half and scoop out the meat. Discard skins. Add flour and mash together with a potato masher or back of a fork (you can also do this in a mixer with the paddle attachment). Create a well and add half of your spinach mixture. Mix together and add the other half. If your dough is too tacky add additional flour, half a tablespoon at a time.

Divide the dough in fourths and roll out each fourth about 1/2 inch thick on a well-floured surface. Use your finger and make indents down the snake about an inch apart. Then cut them to form small pillows with the indents in the center. Put each pillow onto a lightly floured cutting board or cookie sheet. 

Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add one snake of gnocchi to the pot and boil until they float to the top (1-2 minutes tops). Remove gnocchi and top with sauce. If you want a slight crunch, heat a sautée pan with a bit of olive oil and add gnocchi after boiled and sautée a couple of minutes then serve with sauce.

Quick basil Alfredo/pesto Alfredo

4 TBSP of chopped basil (or 4 TBSP of pesto)

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Bring whipping cream to a bubble, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and immediately stir in Parmesan cheese and basil/pesto.

I used frozen basil/olive oil from my windowsill garden. I simply put them in a covered saucepan on low until they melted, added in a jar of Alfredo, added a bit of Parmesan. Removed from heat and added clove of fresh minced garlic. Topped with chopped walnuts and Parmesan when I served it so it had the flavors of pesto and the walnuts added a great crunch, which is needed with such a soft dish.

If you have any leftover dough (I used about half) finish making the gnocchi & simply freeze it on a baking sheet, then store it in a freezer bag. Same cooking process, just add them in frozen & boil until they float to the top!