cooking on mondays

it hasn't been very hot this summer and we're just now getting tomatoes. enter easy monday night dinner. you're welcome.

chicken
thyme
salt
olive oil
garlic
large cherry tomatoes
butter

preheat oven to 350
heat olive oil (a good amount) to medium high in cast iron skillet
generously season chicken with salt

sear chicken at medium high for 4 minutes on each side

after the chicken is seared on the second side add a handful of peeled garlic cloves and thyme (couple of sprigs worth of leaves) into skillet. put the skillet in oven. bake for 10 minutes


take chicken out of skillet - cover with tin foil to keep warm. leave oil, garlic and thyme in skillet. heat skillet to medium heat and melt 1 tablespoon of butter.

add tomatoes to skillet (as many will fit in a single layer) and couple more sprigs worth of thyme leaves.

continue to cook tomatoes until they burst and caramelize - creating a thick tomato gravy. (15 minutes?)

pour over chicken breast.


enjoy

xx

chicory endive

actually, i like all veggies. when i was younger, sure, i steered away from brussel spouts but i adore them now. so when i'm in the amazing - and overwhelming - Berkeley Bowl West and i see something that i haven't cooked before, i buy it. yesterday it was chicory endive. it's bitter raw. it reminds me of the bitterness of radicchio meets mustard greens. certainly, most people have encountered this 'curly endive' raw but i wanted to try cooking it. bravo, me.

it was amazing.



wash it
cut into pieces
boil water (salted)
throw chicory into water for no longer than 5 minutes
drain



heat some high quality GARLIC olive oil (try Rinaldo's Organic Gold Garlic....gooood)
add the drained chicory to the oil
salt
red pepper flakes
cook ~2-3 minutes



enjoy!

pizza

yes, i like pizza but who doesn't? last night i made a pizza that was super good so i thought i'd share the recipe. i forgot to take a picture of the final product so here's a picture of it before it went into the oven.

wondering what to do with the buy 3 for $1 sweet white corn? look no further.

base/sauce: saute corn (from 2 corns) in garlic (a clove) for about 4 min (until they are just starting to get tender). core, then roast ~4-5 small heirloom tomatoes in the oven at 375 until the skin start to peel. peel them (once cooled, of course). in a food processor put corn, peeled tomatoes, 1/4-1/3 cup of pepitas (raw shelled pumpkin seed), 1/2 fresh cilantro and 1/3 + cup fresh grated Romano cheese. blend until mostly smooth. add cayenne, lime zest, hot sauce, salt & pepper to taste (and more cheese?).

topping: kenrals of 2 cobs, juice of 1 lime, fresh cilantro, red pepper flakes, salt pepper. let marinate.

i bought some trader joes dough (i was feeling lazy!). follow dough instructions then put the base, then some mixed salty cheese, parm, romano, mozz, etc, then the fresh corn topping. bake until cooked and golden. add some more cilantro and lime if you like and enjoy!