I'm always looking for ways to cook fish. This recipe calls for catfish but i've used tilapia and it works great. Original recipe can be found here at "slap ya mama" seasoning.
Method: 1. Saute carrots, onion and celery in oil until soft and starting to brown. 2. While veggies sauté, make the meatballs: mix beef, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan, salt and pepper in a separate mixing bowl. Form into ½ inch balls, and set on a baking sheet. 3. Cook meatballs on the baking sheet in 375F degree oven for 12-15 minutes. 4. Stir in the spinach to the sautéing veggies and let it wilt. 5. Add chicken stock to veggies. 6. Let the mixture reduce on high heat. 7. Add pasta to soup to cook. 8. When meatballs are cooked, add them to the soup. 9. Boil 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper. This recipe comes from the amateur gourmet and is a wonderful way to use all of the chicken instead of just the breask, thigh and legs. Enjoy.  It’s cheap and easy to have homemade chicken stock on hand: all you really need is time. And thyme. But mostly time. Sure, it can be expensive–I still can’t get over The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe which calls for not one, not two, but THREE whole chickens that you boil for three hours and discard. That seems extraordinarily wasteful, don’t you think? I’ve played around with lots of stock recipes, but my latest foray into stock making was a pretty happy one. The recipe comes from Molly Stevens and it’s simple and straightforward and cheap, cheap, cheap. What makes it so cheap is that you use chicken backs. I bought 5 lbs of chicken backs from Key Food for less than $5. I was slightly hesitant, at first, because unlike the chickens I normally buy–which are either organic or free-range or both–they only had generic chicken backs (along with generic chicken feet, chicken necks, and gizzards.) Here’s how I rationalized my purchase: the economics of chicken production are such that companies don’t make their money from selling chicken backs, feet, etc. They make their money from whole chickens, chicken thighs, and–most definitely–chicken breasts. So buying generic chicken backs, while not ideal, most likely doesn’t affect much in the factory farmed chicken industry. In fact, if you want to put a positive spin on it, you’re ensuring that this chicken–which may have been a tortured, unhappy chicken–didn’t die just for its breast and thighs. You’re honoring the animal by using all of its parts. Anyway, I got sidetracked. You’re here for a stock recipe, right? Ok, here’s what you do. When you buy your backs (4 lbs), also buy 1 medium onion, 1 medium carrot, 1 celery stalk, 5 thyme sprigs, 5 parsley sprigs, 1 bay leaf and 6 black peppercorns. (Ok, I doubt you can buy just 5 parsley sprigs, but you get the idea.) 
Now the cooking. 1. Heat the oven to 400F; wash and pat very dry the chicken backs. Place in a single layer in a roasting pan… …and roast, turning hafway through, for 35 minutes until golden brown. 2. Now transfer the chicken pieces to a deep stockpot; pour off the excess fat from the roasting pan and put the pan on two burners on medium heat. Pour in 1/2 cup of water (enough to cover the bottom) and scrape up all the bits and drippings. Pour this seasoned water into the stock pot and add the chopped yellow onion, the chopped medium carrot, the chopped celery stalk, the peppercorns and all the herbs tied together (so you can fish them out later.) Now fill the pot with cold water to cover the bones by about 1 inch (it’s about 10 1/2 cups of cold water), GENTLY bring to a simmer over medium heat and let it simmer gently–GENTLY! (“Princess Bride,” anyone?)–for 3 hours. Skim the surface as it goes and never, EVER let it boil or you’ll have greasy cloudy stock. (Confession: mine boiled for a brief second, but I quickly took it off the heat to rescue it.) 3. Three hours later, you’re basically done. Strain the stock–get rid of all the solids–and refrigerate. The next morning, remove all the fat from the top and you’ve got stock, baby. I measured out 4 cup portions which I put in Tupperware and stored in the freezer. This recipe yielded 12 cups of stock; so I have 3 containers ready to go. Isn’t that pretty cool? $5 worth of chicken backs yielded 12 cups of golden chicken stock that’ll make my food taste restaurant quality. And that’s chicken stock for ya, 1, 2, 3.  Taken from the website www.thekitchn.com
Along with the arrival of summer squashes this season are their dainty, edible flowers. The bright orange blossoms sold at farmers' and specialty markets are generally from zucchini plants, though the flowers of other summer squashes may be eaten, as well. The blossoms are often served fried – a dish we will never turn down, but there are several other ways to fully enjoy the beautiful color and delicate texture and flavor of this summer ingredient. |  ArchivesMay 2012 CategoriesAll |
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