Wrap for Dinner

We were craving a quick, light dinner the other evening, but also something with a high, zesty flavor profile. Oh, and totally satisfying. I think we did pretty good by going back to a previous recipe.

Greek Chicken Wraps

Start with a quality wrap or tortilla that you like. These were sun-dried tomato and basil. Good flavor components with what we were looking to accomplish. Add some mixed greens of your choice.

Here's the one area I really wanted to play around. I used some shredded mozzarella. I did the same the last time I made these. I really want to try some feta, but I'm a little gun-shy with feta. For me, there is a fine line between enough to taste and too much that I can't eat it. Oh, and I don't really want to buy feta from my cheap-0 grocery store. I just don't trust it. Well, one of these days I'll get up the nerve and try..

Previously & Meanwhile, marinate some chicken with olive oil, lemon, oregano, garlic, salt & pepper. Saute or grill until cooked through. Dice. You can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for ease. I used some chicken thighs for flavor. Very tasty. Saute or grill some peppers, shallots and tomatoes as well. Toss with chicken and some reserved marinade. If you have some toasted pine nuts, add those. Pile on the mixed greens and wrap up.

Enjoy!

Greek Casserole

The other night before the fridge collapsed and died in front of us, I went grocery shopping. I came home with bags and bags of stuff to get us through about 10 days. Sadly, we lost a lot of that food. However, I did manage to squeak out one amazing recipe. This is a keeper and I look forward to making it again!

Greek Pastitsio
with "meatloaf" mix instead of lamb (I don't like lamb!)

Brown the ground meat. Season with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Add some onions, red wine and tomato paste. Simmer and bubble until delicious.

Mix the ground meat mixture with cooked pasta, in this instance I used ziti. Tubular pasta would be best.

Keep the pasta mixture in an oven proof dish. I used my Dutch oven. Top the pasta with a cheesey, cream Béchamel sauce.

Bake until golden brown and delicious.

Serve hot! Enjoy.

A quick note, I cut the recipe in half. That was enough for two people to have two hefty servings each and I believe there was one left over for lunch the next day. Also, as noted, I used a package of "meatloaf" mix from the store (beef, pork and veal). This worked great and had a wonderful flavor. If you don't like lamb, try it. Also, I'm sure you could use ground turkey, chicken, beef...whatever. It's a great dish and versatile.

Pastitsio
from Everyday Food

This is the ultimate Greek comfort food, a hearty casserole of cinnamon-spiked ground lamb baked with penne and a Parmesan cheese sauce.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 8

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound penne, cooked and drained
2 pounds ground lamb
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 cup red wine
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 TB butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3 cups milk
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta, and drain; reserve. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over medium heat, cook lamb, breaking apart pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 6 to 8 minutes. Add onions; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Transfer to a colander; drain fat, and discard. Return lamb to pan; add wine. Cook over medium heat until almost all liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in tomato paste, cinnamon, and 2 cups water; simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 15 to 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (***This step only took about 3-5 minutes, I probably had the heat too high, but there were no adverse affects...save yourself the time, when the mixture has thickened, move on...no need to force it to simmer for 20 minutes!)

4. Make Parmesan Cheese Sauce while mixture is simmering: In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; whisk in flour until incorporated, about 30 seconds. In a slow steady stream, whisk in milk until there are no lumps.

5. Cook, whisking often, until mixture is thick and bubbly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in cayenne, if desired, and Parmesan.

6. Add pasta to lamb mixture; transfer to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Pour sauce over the top, smoothing with the back of a spoon until level. Bake until browned in spots, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool 15 minutes before serving.

Wrap It Up

Last night's dinner was easy and delicious. Can't ask for much more than that. Over the weekend we picked up some giant chipotle tortilla wraps from the Cheverly Community Market. We've had these before and really enjoy them. They have a subtle heat that plays very nicely without overpower the little kids.

I decided that we'd use the wraps for a variety of meals this week. For the first one, there would be chicken and it might be kabobed. In the end...not really...I decided to Greek it up. Let's get started:

First up...a marinade for chicken and veg. Juice of one lemon. 1-2 tablespoons of freshly chopped oregano, 2 minced garlic cloves, salt, pepper and olive oil. Whisk together until emulsified. Spoon a little of the marinade into a bowl for vegetables and into the remaining, add your chicken. In this instance, I used one package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips.

For the veg, I used what was in the kitchen. An orange pepper, a sweet banana pepper, cherry tomatoes and shallots. Cut them all to a manageable sizes and toss with the marinade. Allow the veg and chicken to soak up the flavors for about an hour. Note that the lemon juice in the marinade will make the chicken appear opaque. This is a chemical process similar to cooking with heat. It's ok, as long as you don't let it sit for several hours, or overnight.

Either grill the chicken or saute in a non-stick pan. I wanted to grill, but it was too hot and muggy for me outside, so I sauted the chicken. Also, I wanted to saute the vegetables as well. The chicken took about 8 minutes.

The veg took about 4 minutes. After the chicken was removed from the pan, all the vegetables were tossed into the pan, along with any remaining marinade that they were soaking in. After two minutes, the pan "dried out", so I added about 1/4 cup of water. This helped steam the veg, bring up any fond/chicken bits from the pan and otherwise finish the cooking. The tomatoes will just start to burst open. Don't let them cook too long or they will break down completely.

I decided on a base of green leaf lettuce that was dressed in a simple lemon vinaigrette (lemon juice, finely diced shallot, salt, pepper, pinch of sugar, pinch of oregano, olive oil). Lightly toss the lettuce in the dressing, then lay down a bed of it on the wrap. Add some of the chicken.

Top with the sauted veg, some toasted pine nuts and some cheese. Feta would be a perfect choice here, but I didn't have any, so I used some mozzeralla.

Wrap the wrap, cute and eat. You might need a fork for all the goodies that may or may not fall out. The filling was fragrant, herbal and wonderfully lemony! The chipotle wrap provided just a tiny bit of heat/warmth. And again, it played very nicely with the lemon and veg. A very good meal. Nearly perfect!

Festival Fun

Today J-lo, The Sommeliatrix and I went out for a little Greek Life!

After a little mis-guided driving on my part, we arrived at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on 16th Street in Washington, DC.

Food, treats, crafts, icons and fun!

In line for food! So many choices. We wanted to try them all...and we didn't even go all the way down the line...

Souvlaki, Kielbasi and Orzo. The souvlaki (pork skewers) was perfectly tender and full of flavor. The kielbasi were cook with lemon and some other spices. Great! Orzo in tomato sauce (manestra). Funny thing that orzo...it tasted like Chef Boyardee...and I loved it! It wasn't Chef BD, it was fresh and it was delicious. I've done a little web work...sounds like it's just cooked in a some broth and tomato sauce, with parm or romano grated in at the end...which seems like what we had.

We must have treats. Baklava that makes your mouth water. And a funny little cookie...cinnamon butter cookie soaked in honey and topped with walnuts. Interesting...I think the honey was a darker variety, maybe buckwheat (we had that for the past year in the cupboard, it was almost the taste of molasses)...a little too 'dark' tasting for my tastes.

The Sommeliatrix got into a conversation with some of the sweet ladies making Greek coffee. Having tried to make it at home and wasn't successful, the Sommeliatrix was asking questions, when the ladies invited her back to have her make the perfect cup! And it was heaven. Rich, dark, thick and tasty. I want my coffee like that every day. Hmmmm? Might have to invest in one of those little pots and get the right coffee.

Not shown, but tasted: Dolmades (stuffed grape leaves...which J-lo says are the best he's had, ever), Pastitsio (baked pasta & Bechamel sauce) and Moussaka (eggplant casserole) , Oreganato Chicken (roasted chicken with herbs and lemon). And a final tasting of rice pudding to top of a great days worth of food.

Braised Greek Chicken

And we're back...with Kara's Greek Chicken Throwdown.

This was a pretty simple recipe that can easily take some alterations for personal preferences.


Braised Greek Chicken

I started with:
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
2 TB olive oil
2 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped into large pieces
1/2 large onion, medium dice
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, medium dice
1 TB tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine (only use 1/2 cup next time)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 lemon, sliced (omit next time, perhaps a squeeze of juice when serving?)
1 small bunch fresh thyme
1/3 cup fresh oregano leaves
Salt/Pepper

Serve with rice

Start by preparing all your ingredients. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

In a medium, oven-safe sauce pan, skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat, sear the chicken breasts in the olive oil until golden brown. You are not cooking the chicken through, just browning. About 4-5 minutes skin side down and about 2-3 minutes on the flip side.

When the chicken is browned, remove to a plate or bowl. Lower the heat to medium and add your onions. If the pan is pretty dry, add a drizzle of oil. Allow the onions to sizzle and saute for about 4 minutes, until they begin to become translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the tomato paste and allow to caramelize for about 30 seconds. Add the peppers.

After the tomato paste has caramelized, deglaze the pan with the white wine. Stir up all the bits on the pan and allow to dissolve in the wine. Turn the heat to high. Allow the wine to reduce by about 1/3.

Add the chicken broth and lemons (if you use them.)


Nestle the chicken into the sauce.

Add the herbs, tomatoes and more lemon. Cover the pan and place in the hot oven for 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Done! Remove the chicken to a plate and scoop out the lemons and thyme sprigs; discard. Put pan with broth over high heat, allow to simmer and boil down by about 1/2; about 5 minutes.

Serve on a bed of rice and spoon extra sauce and simmered vegetables on top of the chicken. Garnish with a sprig of oregano.

This was delicious. The chicken was tender and moist. The vegetables absorbed the flavors of the wine and herbs. And the rice soaks up that great broth. Why do I want to omit the lemons next time. My first taste of the broth right out of the oven; it was slightly acrid, probably from the lemon rind. The wine brings enough acid to cut through the richness of the broth and tomato that the extra lemon really isn't necessary, except maybe a drizzle of juice just prior to serving to brighten the flavors.

Now The Kara's challenge had olives and feta in addition. If I were to go that route, I would add the pitted olives along with the tomatoes and herbs prior to throwing this in the oven. The feta; I'd probably crumble it and sprinkle over the top when serving?

So Kara, does this seem like what you had? Or am I completely off base?

The Kara Throwdown Challenge

About to go in the oven...

A week ago or so I received a culinary challenge from The Kara. She has been reminiscing about a dish she had in Greece and couldn't remember the name of it and wasn't sure how to prepare it. With a few bits of conversation I found what it might have been in a book I picked up in Greece a few years ago and thought I'd give it a try.

Stay tuned for more Braised Greek Chicken.

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Please have a little patience with me...all of a sudden the computer is completely acting up and causing me much grief. Anyone have any tips on how to get rid of a file that won't delete?!! It's not a program file, but a data file. Every time I try to delete it I receive a message saying the file is in use by another person. A quick virus check says the file is clean. No matter what I do, I can't remove the file. No virus, no problem, don't worry about it right? Except it keeps causing my system to freeze up. So anyone have any ideas?