Month: October 2006

You can’t have a family-friendly cooking website without a cream-of-something soup recipe, right?

I truly can’t believe that I made this dish tonight. I’ll try to explain:
A million years ago (well, OK, 15 1/2 years), when we were first married, some friends introduced us to this dish. Hubby liked it and I did, too, I’m embarassed to say. We actually ate this once a month or so back then, but our tastes have matured and I haven’t made it in at least 8 years. Our children, ages 9 and 11, had never had this dish, indeed, I could probably count the number of times that either of them has had Doritos on one hand. Anyway, Hubby’s birthday was yesterday and his joking response when I asked him what he’d like for his birthday dinner was “Dorito Chicken”. He assured me, later, that he really WAS joking, but I decided to call his bluff and make it, anyway. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what we thought of it now – and to see what the kids thought of it. Our friend, Staci, actually was brave (misguided?) enough to serve this the first time that she invited Robert (her future husband) over for dinner. This dish, when executed according to the recipe, actually looks like vomit. In spite of this, Robert and Staci are still married (about 15 years later?) and have 2 beautiful, sweet, smart children. I actually still have the original recipe, written in my friend Staci’s handwriting, with her warning that if I try to add sour cream, salsa or cilantro (or anything else not offically sanctioned by the original recipe), the recipe would have to be forgotten and returned.

Dorito Chicken

1 large bag Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos chips (you won’t use all of them!)
4 chicken breasts
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
2 or 3 (you decide) small (4.5 oz) cans chopped green chiles
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Cooked rice or pasta

Simmer chicken breasts in water in large stockpot until cooked through. (I couldn’t resist the temptation and added all of the necessary ingredients to make chicken stock: carrot, onion, celery, parsley, peppercorn, thyme, bay leaf, a little white wine. I might as well get SOMETHING gourmet out of this meal!) Remove chicken from pot, reserving broth. Allow chicken to cool and then dice it into small pieces. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slightly crumble enough Doritos to make about 3 cups of Dorito “pieces”. Spread these on the bottom of a baking pan (9 X 13 or so). Mix together diced chicken, soups and chiles and 1 cup of reserved chicken broth. Pour mixture over Doritos and bake, covered with foil, at 350 degrees for 30 – 45 minutes (until cheese is completely melted and mixture is heated through). Remove from oven, stir completely and serve over cooked rice.

Dorito Chicken after being baked (I used natural white cheddar, so you can’t see the bright orange cheese like you could when I made this as a newlywed.)

Dorito Chicken after being stirred

The verdict, after (re-)tasting? It’s actually not bad, for a comfort-foody-type casserole. It would be a great meal to prepare for an evening when you’re going out and want to leave something home-made for your kids and the babysitter. It’s also not bad for a super-busy weeknight, when you need something that can be pulled out of the oven after soccer practice, a volleyball game, piano lessons, etc. For grown-ups, you’d want to add a pretty salad or nice fresh veggie, but it’s actually quite palatable and VERY easy. It could, obviously, be prepared ahead and baked later. Hubby, who has a cast-iron stomach, doused the dish in Huy Fong Sriracha, as he does EVERYTHING, but he did seem, in spite of his protestations that he was joking, pleased that I had made this for him.

One of my family’s favorite restaurants is The Melting Pot – a truly great fondue place. It is actually pretty family friendly, for a fairly nice place – assuming that your kids are well-behaved and open to dining experiences that don’t involve ketchup packets. It is our restaurant of choice for ALL birthdays, but it is expensive and time-consuming for day-to-day dining (not to mention that the only location in my town is at the OPPOSITE end of the city), so I thought it would be wise to come up with some sort of at-home substitute. This is my first attempt at the cheese course; we just made a dinner out of cheese and veggies (and leftover banana cake!). The recipe that I started with said to take one garlic clove, rub it on the inside of the cooking pot and then discard it. Hah! I would never do that and frankly just don’t understand why anyone would. If you want garlic in something, put it in…..but rub it on the pot and throw it away? That just seems silly. We LOVE garlic around here. I’d find a way to put it in dessert if I could (Candied Garlic Cheesecake with Sweet Balsamic Glaze?, Garlic Creme Brulee with Basil Coulis?, Roasted Garlic Mousse with Pinon Tuile?), so I just sauteed it and threw it in. If you’re not a garlic lover, feel free to ignore my recipe and rub your garlic anywhere you want……

It still doesn’t compare to the Melting Pot – their service is always excellent and my cheese was missing some little “zing” that I couldn’t place, but this was still GREAT and surprisingly quick and easy to throw together for a busy weeknight (one volleyball game, one occupational therapy session, one Taekwondo class……….and a partridge in a pear tree).

I know this recipe has a considerable amount of alcohol in it for a “family” meal. My theory is that the cheese is hot enough that the alcohol boils out. If I’m wrong, the worst case scenario is that Boy and Girl will sleep REALLY well tonight! Feel free to simmer a little longer (the cheese can actually bubble a little once it’s all “done”, if you stir continuously and keep the heat really low), if you should have concerns about this and want to be sure that the alcohol is completely cooked off.

Hubby only likes red wine, not white, and refuses to drink out of a stemmed glass. Our Italian gourmand brother-in-law introduced hubby to the concept of drinking wine out of small tumblers and that’s his method of choice now – hence the glass disparity.

Cheese Fondue

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. kirschwasser (cherry brandy liqueur)
a dash of salt, white pepper and nutmeg

Your choice of “dippers”: bread cubes, baby carrots, cauliflower and broccoli florets, halved baby Roma tomatoes, Granny Smith apple chunks, etc.

Toss cheeses and cornstarch together (I used a Ziploc). Saute garlic in a very small amount of olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan until just barely softened. Add wine and bring to a VERY slow simmer over low heat (don’t let wine boil). Stir in lemon juice. Add cheese/cornstarch mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring in a figure-8 pattern, rather than in circles (this keeps the cheese from sloshing out of the pan or clumping into a ball), until cheese is all melted. Stir in kirschwasser, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Put cheese in your fondue pot and dig (dip?) in!

An adaptation from Jeff Blank’s (the chef at Hudson’s on the Bend) wonderful cookbook, Cooking Fearlessly. Our neighborhood Gourmet Club brought this recipe to my attention at the perfect moment: when I had some leftover roasted butternut squash. I decided to use what I had on hand, add some sausage to make it a one-dish meal and then add Chef Jeff’s creative garnishes. My version did turn out pretty thick, so if I attempted this again, I would probably add more liquid.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Sausage and Jerked Pumpkin Seeds

I am hesitant to even write a “recipe” here, since I’m sure that Chef Blank would think I butchered his recipe, but here’s the rundown, for anyone that wants to try it:

2 cups leftover roasted butternut squash (had been seasoned with a little cinnamon and curry)
2 peeled, cored, chopped Granny Smith apples
1 package sausage (I used Healthy Choice – it’s not the most “gourmet”, but it is arguably healthier)
about 3 cups chicken stock
about 1/4 cup half and half
1 more Granny Smith apple (peeled, cored and thinly julienned, for garnish)
3/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
about 1/4 cup of your favorite “Jerk” seasoning
(Jeff Blank has a really tasty recipe in his book, with more curry and sugar than most have. I’m going to try his Jerk seasoning on some oven-toasted cashews sometime for a fun cocktail snack. Mmmmm…..)
1 and 1/2 Tbsp. melted butter

You will need to prepare the pumpkin seeds ahead of time:
Pour the melted butter over them, add the Jerk seasoning and stir. Bake at 250 degrees for about an hour, turning and stirring about every 15 minutes.

For the soup:
Heat the stock and squash together in a large saucepan. Add the apple and simmer until soft. Puree in small batches in the blender. Put the pureed soup back into the saucepan. Cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces and brown in a separate pan. Add the sausage to the soup. Add cream and gently heat, stirring to blend. Ladle into bowls, topping with a “clump” of the reserved, julienned apple and then a sprinkle of the pumpkin seeds.