Chile Verde Soup

This dish is sort of a mash-up of Chicken Tortilla Soup and Chile Verde. I experimented by taking ideas from a few different recipes, and ditching the measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into small pieces (you can use chicken thighs if you want to impart more flavor, moisture, and fat)
• 1 chopped onion
• 3-6 cloves chopped garlic
• 2 diced anaheim chiles (or poblano/pasilla chiles)
• 10 tomatillos - husked and chopped
• 1/2 or 1 Bell pepper (I like red for contrast and flavor, green works well too in keeping it verde. If you feel bold, go with yellow or orange)
• 4 cups or so chicken broth
• Olive oil
• Oregano
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Paprika
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cinnamon (2 sticks preferred, but a few dashes of ground cinnamon is fine too)
• 1-3 zucchinis (depends on size)
• Cilantro
• Tortilla chips (or Fritos)

Cooking instructions:

1. Chop everything in advance, except for the zucchini (that comes at the end)
2. Season the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Heat a wok or skillet on high heat with olive oil.
4. Add chicken and toss and stir for a couple minutes. This is to give the chicken some color. You may want to do this in two batches to get good color - don't crowd the pan.
5. Transfer to a slow cooker, crock pot, or cooking pot [hereby called the "chicken pot"]
6. Add more oil to the pan and add chopped onion and garlic for a few minutes, then transfer to the chicken pot.
7. Add more oil to the pan and add bell peppers and chiles and saute for a few minutes, then transfer to the chicken pot.
8. Add the tomatillos and chicken broth to the chicken pot along with oregano, chili powder, cumin, paprika, additional salt and pepper. 
9. Stir everything around in the chicken pot to mix in the seasoning and various ingredients. If you are using ground cinnamon, put a few dashes of that in before stirring, if you are using cinnamon sticks, add that in after stirring and submerge it in the mixture.
10. Slow cook that bad boy
• If slow cooking or crock potting, set it on low and slow for at least 4 hours. If you have a high setting, maybe 2.5 hours is enough, but generally longer and lower the better.
• You can alternatively simmer over the stove for a couple hours, stirring occasionally.
• If you're pressed for time, just bring it to a boil then set on medium for 15-20 minutes.
11. Add chopped zucchini with about 30 minutes remaining to avoid getting it too mushy.
12. Serve in a bowl with cilantro and crushed tortilla chips.

Some other tasty tips:

• Add canned corn at some point for extra goodness and color.
• Since I use a slow cooker and am a firm believer in low-and-slow, I like to do steps 1-9 the night before and throw it in the fridge. In the morning, I put it in the slow cooker and set it for the maximum 9-hours so its ready when I get home.

Closing Time at Le Cheval

One of our favorite restaurants, Le Cheval in Oakland, is closing its doors after 25 years. Apparently they were forced to move out of their location at Clay St. and Tenth St. due to an unwarranted eviction by the building's jerkstore landlord, Monica Ung, who's company is under investigation by California State Attorney General and Alameda County District Attorney.

Tracy and I were fortunate enough to be there for Le Cheval's last dinner service -- salty calamari, lemongrass chicken, and their famous beef cubes.

Tracy inquired with an employee from Le Cheval about their closure, and we were pleased to learn that they would be opening a new location at Clay and 11th Street where China Wok Restaurant used to be (underneath Arsimona Bar and Grill). The new location will be significantly smaller (about 100 person capacity compared to 285), and may offer a slightly different menu. Inside Scoop SF's Paolo Lucchesi reports that the new location may be a wine bar called LCX.

So its bitter sweet that they are leaving, but on the bright side, the new location will be opening, and their other locations in Berkeley and Walnut Creek will continue to be open for business.

Chicken Nugget Experiment

By popular demand to my friends that missed this when I posted it in Facebook (seriously guys, social media - its gonna be a thing). This is a video clip from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC, in which he shows and explains to a group of kids how chicken nuggets and chicken patties are made.

I'll admit, I used to really like chicken nuggets, and those cheapo $1 McChicken Sandwiches when I was in a rush, but I doubt I'll eat them anymore after watching this. Enjoy.




So, would you still eat it?

Saturday Morning Flapjacks

Woke up this Saturday morning and felt like making some pancakes. We had some Kodiak Cakes whole grain flapjack mix leftover from when the girls (Tracy's kid-cousins) stayed over on Labor Day weekend. So here we have some flapjacks, nothing special, but added some fresh nectarines.

I'll be making my own pancakes from scratch one of these days. I watched a video from Food Mob on making pancakes and poached eggs. So I'm excited to try that soon. Its essentially just Flour, Eggs, Milk, and a little baking powder.

Banana Bread

I bought a big bag of bananas from Costco, and for some reason they got ripe really quick. Tracy, our primary banana eater, likes her bananas on the green side. I don't mind a yellow banana, but I don't eat a lot of bananas, and certainly couldn't put down 7 extra bananas, especially when they start getting those brown spots. So when you're in such a situation where you've got more bananas than you can eat, try making some banana bread. Its an easy and delicious way to put them to use.

I used a modified version of Aunt Holly's Banana Bread from Epicurious. A relatively simple recipe that uses minimal ingredients.

• 3 to 4 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour*
• 1 teaspoon baking soda*
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• Chocolate chips (as many as you want!)
• Mixed Raw Nuts**

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mash the bananas in a bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon. Bake in a buttered loaf pan until a toothpick stuck into the bread comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes. Slice and serve.

* I used self-rising flour in lieu of regular flour and baking soda. My baking soda has been in my fridge absorbing odors for the last several months, so i thought it unwise to use it. And my alternatives were in the freezer and shoe closet doing the same.

** Walnuts would probably be recommended for a more traditional banana bread, but given what I had available in my pantry, mixed raw nuts is what I used. I think some crushed or sliced almonds would be great, as would a handful of any trail mix.