Chicken Drumsticks With Onion & Zucchini

This recipe is easy to make and requires minimum effort. Just a bit of preparation, as it is best to first marinate the chicken drumsticks in a sauce. You can do this over night or just for an hour before you pop the whole thing in the oven. It's an all year round recipe. Everybody will like it What's not to like: baked glazed chicken drumsticks, delicious garlicky zucchini slices and sweet caramelized onion sections. Delicious!

INGREDIENTS (serves 3):

• 7 chicken drumsticks;
• 2 medium zucchini (or one large);
• 1 large yellow onion (or 2 small);

FOR THE SAUCE/MARINADE:

• 1 tbspoon soy sauce;
• 1 splash worcestershire sauce;
• 1 splash vinegar (regular or balsamic);
• 2-3 tbspoons olive oil;
• (can use 1 cm finely chopped ginger, 1 teaspoon honey, dijon mustard, whiskey, hot chilly pepper)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or grated;
• salt, pepper, dry time. 

HOW TO MAKE:

First mix well together the ingredients for the marinade, and use depending on your preference, more or less of the sweet or spicy ingreds. Wash well the chicken drumsticks and coat well with the marinade. Save some of the marinade for the vegetables, later. Let the chicken sit for at least one hour, up to overnight in the fridge. When you are ready, cut the zucchini in one inch thick slices and the onions into bits about the same thickness. Mince one clove garlic and rub it on the vegetables along with some of the sauce that you have marinated the chicken in. Put them all in a baking tray lined with tin foil or with damp backing paper (for easy removal at the end). Bake in the preheated oven at 200 Celsius for 30-45 minutes covered with tin foil. Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and caramelized onion bits. Enjoy with salad!   

All Green Turnip & Courgette Salad

This salad is an ode to green. It is fresh, it is crispy, it is stylish!

Just cut up some fresh medium sized courgette into long thin ribbon style slices, and for this you best use a "econom", a vegetable peeler.
The turnip, not too large, you peel clean, wash and slice thin slices with a sharp knife. Assemble and season with the best extra virgin olive oil you can find , salt, pepper (I used green) and maybe some bits of green chilly pepper and chopped parsley. You can stain the corner of the plate with a little lemony mayonnaise.
Enjoy!

Pennette with Green Onion & Zucchini

“Pennette” means little penne pasta in italian. For this recipe I used the “grano duro” (course grain) pennette pasta from Barilla.

The dish is inspired by spring and by the fact that I have got some fresh garden green onions from my father.

INGREDIENTS:

• Pennette pasta (or use whatever shape you like);
• 3-5 tablespoons olive oil;
• 3-5 green onions;
• 1 clove garlic;
• 1 small or ½ big zucchini;
• ½ cup cooking heavy cream;
• a cup of parmesan cheese;
• salt, pepper, fresh parsley.

HOW TO MAKE:

Boil pasta in a lot of salted water (rolling boil). In the mean time prepare a pan with the olive oil on high heat. Slice the zucchini into finger thick slices and start frying them in the oil. After aprox. 5 minutes chop up the onions and throw them in, along with the sliced or crushed garlic clove. Turn the heat to medium or low. Sote the veggies for another few minutes, then poor in the cooking cream and bring to a boil. 

Immediately throw in the pasta, after you’ve drained it (do not wash it, unless you absolutely don’t want the salt or you must stop the cooking process of the pasta). Stir well and let the pasta absorb the cream and scented oil sauce. If it gets too dry, feel free to add a few spoons of the pasta water. Season with the salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt (pasta is already salty). Chop the fresh parsley and add. Add the grated parmesan cheese. Stir and serve immediately. 

For best results use heated plates and add some more parmesan cheese and parsley to each serving. Enjoy!

St. Constantin and Elena BBQ

Last weekend we went to my fathers to celebrate St. Constantin and Elena (orthodox celebration of the people with the saints names). Of course, the usual BBQ was in order along with some other stuff. All and all, some quality time with friends and family.

Stuffed Bell Peppers (No Meat Version)

For the fasting Wednesdays and Fridays of fasting before this Easter of 2011, I've tried to treat my family to meals as good as I could, so they wouldn't miss animal products at all. So, I made a stuffed bell peppers recipe with no meat, only with a rice and mushroom based filling. They turned out very tasty.

INGREDIENTS (serves 5):

• 3-5 tablespoons olive oil;
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups of round grain rice;
• 5 medium to big bell peppers (any color, I used light green);
• a can of sliced champignon mushrooms (~ 300 gr.);
• one medium zucchini;
• one large yellow onion (or two medium);
• salt, pepper, fresh parsley;

FOR THE SAUCE:

• a can of pealed whole or cubed tomatoes;
• 3-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil;
• 1 clove garlic;
• time, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, pepper (all or just the ones you like best).

HOW TO MAKE:

First it is best that you make the tomato sauce, to have it cool later when you put the peppers in the baking dish. It is pretty much the basic pasta or pizza sauce, with the spices that you like. I made mine in a pan with some olive oil, one minced garlic clove and a can of pealed tomatoes, that I crushed roughly with a wooden spoon directly in the pan. I let it simmer for about a quarter hour adding a little water so it wouldn't get too thick. I put in all of the herbs mentioned in the ingredients section, most of them dry, with the exception of the parsley.

Then you have to prepare your peppers. Just use a thin knife to cut off the tops and the seed veins while leaving them whole, like little jars of goodness. Put them aside and start on your filling.

The filling you also make in a pan, starting with some oil, on top of witch you throw the finely chopped onions. Stir them for a minute or two with salt to sweat good then throw in the mushrooms. It you use canned mushrooms (like I did) make sure that you drain them well first. Immediately throw in the zucchini, cut into small, half inch cubes.Stir everything in for a 5 minutes, then add the rice. Coat the rice with the oil for a minute and then add some water (or vegetable stock, if you have some), just to cover the contents of the pan. Bring to a simmering boil and cook until the rice grains are almost tender, "al dente" (you can feel the center if the grain still hard to the tooth). Season well with salt and pepper and set aside. The water must be almost evaporated completely by now.

Next you take a narrow spoon and carefully stuff the peppers with the filling from the pan, nearly to the top. You can cap them off with a slice of tomato. I didn't. Place the stuffed peppers in a tall baking dish up straight. Put them next to each other to keep them standing. Then poor the tomato sauce on top of the peppers. It must be a little runny, and it must cover at least 3/4 of the height of the peppers in order to cook them well in the oven.

Put the dish in the oven and bake on medium heat until the peppers get nice and brown on top (half an hour to an hour, depending on the oven). Serve them hot with a lot of sauce and fresh chopped parsley on top.

Chicken & Yellow String Beans

I've noticed lately that fresh yellow beans are a fashionable side dish for (grilled) meats. I stumbled upon the yellow things in the local vegetable market. It seems that they are in season and they sold them from whole sacks full, by the kilo.

So, I got a half kilo and got into the kitchen. I portioned up a chicken and shoved it into the oven with some potatoes and zucchini slices, one sliced onion, salt and pepper.

Separately, I washed the yellow beans and snapped off the little ends (with the stem). Then I heated up some extra virgin olive oil in a medium skillet and chopped up two cloves of garlic. Oh, how adding a little bit of garlic makes any food much nicer, at least the smell. Stir and take care not to burn the garlic. It literally takes seconds. Then throw in the beans and stir some more. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep steering for another few minutes as the veggies release some moisture. Then, if needed, add some water. It also helps to cover the skillet and steem for a few minutes. Try not to overcook, as they turn limp quickly. They still taste good, but it's better if they stay a little crunchy (like the asparagus, for example).
Note that there are more types of yellow beans (mainly the flat ones and the round ones). Some types take a bit longer to get tender (the round ones). I somehow managed to get them just wright: tender enough to eat but just a little firm "al dente" (to the tooth). It took three tablespoons of water and about ten minutes of cooking in the skillet.

After I threw a serving of chicken, potatoes, zucchini and yellow beans into the plate, I couldn't help but add some more garlic, crushed in some olive oil and salted. Delish!

 In the oven:

• 1 chicken (portioned into 8 pieces);
• 4 medium potatoes (peeled and cut to cubes);
• 1 meium zucchini (sliced into 2 cm thick slices);
• 1 sliced onion; 
• 2-3 tbspoons e.v. olive oil;
• salt & pepper to taste, herbs.

On the cooker:

• 1/2 kilo fresh market yellow beans;
• 2 tbspoons e.v. olive oil;
• 3-4 cloves of garlic;
• salt and pepper to taste.