chicken and sweet potato stew

[lagilman]

Riding report update: Ow, my knees!. Everything else feels fine. Guess I'm in better shape than I thought. Or we didn't work as hard as we're gonna...

And, because I promised varkat:

Sometimes I walk into the kitchen with a recipe, or a plan, or an idea. And some days, I have no idea what I'm doing. Last night was one of those totally improvisational nights, where I started with chicken, and everything else got thrown together out of the pantry.

As usual I didn't write anything down, but this is an approximate reproduction...

1 lb chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized bits
2 sweet potatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 white onion, diced
1 lime, juice of, and some zest
3 c. chicken broth
1 glass dry white wine
double handful french-cut green beans
handful of farro
teaspoon of sifted flour

Season the chicken with cumin, corriander, kosher salt and white and black pepper. Saute the onion, garlic, lime zest and a splash of the broth in a dutch oven, then add the potatoes and the rest of the broth. Simmer for a few minutes, then add the chicken and the wine. Let cook for about 10 minutes, add the farro and the beans. Add the flour in the last minute, stir well, and let thicken.

Next time I'd probably add more spice to the mixture about halfway through the cooking (maybe red pepper flakes?), but mmmmmm. Light enough to serve in warmer weather, but hearty enough to take the edge off a chill night. Serve with more of the white wine used in the cooking. Yummy.

Feeds 3-4, deepending on level of hunger.


And now, 2500 words or bust!

Comments

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

OMG. ::not worthy:: You are the foodiest foodie of all my friends. That looks lovely.

Slightly related: A conversation in, of all places, the hot tub at the Escher Hilton. We hot-tubbies (heh) were having one of those wide-ranging fannish discussions that of course drifted around to food and cooking at one point. One of the guys said that in his experience, there are two kinds of food-making people: Cooks and bakers. Cooks (his definition, btw) fling things together and experiment and have a lovely creative time. Bakers follow recipes with absolute precision and do not deviate from what is written. I'd beg to differ, and say there are plenty of pastry chefs out there who are damned creative and have lovely fun flinging things together... but as much as I can fling something together for a quick meal, I find that I tend to stick to what's written. So I cook, I bake, but I'm not so sure I'm at all a foodie.

Hmm. Sorry, longer than I meant it to be!

[lagilman]

If you're making it to share with Himself, you could eliminate the garlic and add some steak or soy sauce, to perk it up a bit. Or jerk seasonings...hrmmm...

*shakes self* Sorry, got lost in thought there for a moment.

As to the cook vs baker debate, it's nothing to do with creativity, yeah, and more with improvisation of ingredients. It's very difficult and often dangerous to improvise when baking (things fall, taste off, or just Don't Work) while cooking often rewards informed yet off-the-cuff improvisation.

(me, I think baking is harder. I have a friend who can make a 3-tier torte without flinching and yet shirks from trying a meatloaf who would say differently. Like Mac vs IBM, it's a matter of personal opinion)

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

What is farro?

[lagilman]

It's an Italian grain, sort of like spelt but firmer, and requiring longer cooking time. Although the recipes that say you have to soak it 8 hours before using? Not so much. Really.

I like it because it absorbs the flavor of the broth it's cooked in, but doesn't get mushy. I'm told it makes an excellent polenta, although I haven't tried that yet.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

épautre. I didn't what either of them were. I looked it up on the internet and discovered they are both a species of wheat. Triticum dicoccon for farro and Triticum spelta for spelt. (I'm not as decorative as Neutronjockey, so I have to be more informative. ;-) )

[lagilman]

épautre.

And I have a new vocabulary word! :-)

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

Oooh, except for the sweet potatoes (ewwwwww, sorry :}) that looks lovely.

Would that work with regular potatoes instead, do you think?

[lagilman]

The taste would be different, but any root vegetable would do the job (parsnips? parsnips are goooood). If you wanted to keep the sweetness, I'd suggest adding a pinch of brown sugar or a teaspoon of molasses?

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

(hanging my head in shame) what does a parsnip taste like? Is it high in carbs? How do you cook it and when do you know it is done?

In one of his shows, Anthony Bourdain says he can't bake and envies people who can. He then took us on an extensive tour of bakeries. I nearly died of lust. I am on a very low carb regime. (diabetes)

[lagilman]

a parsnip is... sort of nutty-flavored, like faint hazelnuts (to me, anyway) and not as sweet as a yam but moreso than a white potato. It's much better for you than a white or russet potato, too.

Still carby, though, like all root veggies.