Good Cooking

Every once in a while, it's clear that mixing flavors is a lot like mixing colors in a sweater design.  You either have an aptitude for it, or you need to follow specific rules.

Intuitive Cooking
I've never had a very strong aptitude for combining colors in a knitted garment, nor for mixing different flavors into a dish  So, to compensate, I've practiced both color-combining and cooking, and created a number of successful rules about how to do both, that usually work when I follow them.

Thaddeus, on the other hand, has a great sense about mixing flavors, so it's a joy to get home to a weekend of his cooking.

This past weekend, he started with his version of chcken fricassee (he calls it simple braised chicken with gravy).  Then on Saturday, he made his incredible creamy, chipotle chicken.

Then, Sunday, he made a meatball/potato soup that his dad used to make, and it's like nothing I've ever eaten before...and incredibly good.

The basic recipes for the creamy chipotle chicken and the meatball/potato soup are below (although I have only gotten them by hearsay...Thaddeus may make changes while he's cooking that he doesn't think are important enough to tell me about).

Current Knitting
Just so that this doesn't turn into a food blog, I did get a couple more stripes of knitting done on the Milano Blanket.  I'll post a photo next time.

I also started getting regularly scheduled deliveries of Madeline Tosh yarns, and my first installment of a sweater's-worth of yarn arrived this past week.

This is her DK weight yarn, in colorway, Bitterroot (deep brownish reds and tints of greens and oranges).

Chipotle Chicken

Ingredients

• 4 Boneless Chicken Thighs
• Goya Adobo Seasoning 
• 4 oz. Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce 
• 8 oz. sour cream
• Chicken stock (about 8 oz.)
• 1/2 Red Bell Pepper, cut into 1/4 inch strips
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

  Directions

Sprinkle chicken thighs liberally with Adobo seasoning and cook them either on a barbecue grill or under your broiler for about 12-15 minutes on each side.
While chicken is cooking, put about 4 oz.of chipotle peppers,  and 8 oz. of sour cream in a food processor and blend on high, adding chicken stock as needed to create a creamy sauce.
In a large skillet or sauce pan, heat vegetable oil on medium-high and add bell pepper.  Sautee for about 2 minutes and then add the chicken thighs.  Pour cream sauce over chicken and peppers and heat for about 10 minutes, reducing heat if the sauce starts to boil.

Serve over rice, with flour tortillas.

Meatball Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 2 lb of ground meatloaf mix (1/3rd ground beef, pork and veal)
• 16 oz. plain bread crumbs
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large, grated onion
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Tbls vegetable oil
• 64 oz chicken stock
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery
• 1 pound small potatoes (fingerling or cut-up larger potatoes will work)
• 8 oz. sour cream

  Directions

Boil the potatoes until they are still firm and set aside.

In s large pan, bring the chicken stock and celery to a boil, while you prepare the meatballs.

Combine meatloaf mix, bread crumbs, eggs, onion and salt and pepper in a bowl and knead together all ingredients until blended.  Form into small meat balls (smaller than golf balls...and they can be irregular in shape - makes about 24 meatballs).

In a skillet, heat the vegetable oil on medium-high heat and brown the meatballs on at least two sides, cooking them for about 10 minutes each side.

Mix about a cup of the hot chicken stock into the sour cream (to avoid having it separate when you add it to the hot stock), and then add the tempered sour cream, the meatballs and the potatoes into the stock.  The soup should be milky, not creamy or thick.