New York Crumb Cake for the Bargain Box

Don’t know why this is called a New York crumb cake as opposed to a Los Angeles crumb cake.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 ½ tsp baking powder

1 egg

½ cup milk

2 Tbl oil

1 tsp vanilla

Crumb topping:

2 ½ cups flour

1 cup of packed brown sugar

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

1 stick of unsalted butter melted and cooled

Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Brush a baking pan (I used a 9 inch round pan) with oil and dust with flour.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl stir the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula mix the dry ingredients in with the wet until well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Combine the dry ingredients for the crumb topping and add the cooled butter and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle on top. Bake for approximately 40 minutes turning the pan half way through the baking.

Cool on a rack and cut into pieces.

Adapted from a marthastewart.com recipe.

Tabouli the Lebanese Way

Mint grows as a weed in my garden in Franklin. During the summer I make a version of tabouli that is heavy on the bulgur and mint. When I got to Lebanon, I learned that tabouli is actually a parsley salad with a hint of mint and a bit of bulgur. It is actually less of a production to make than my American version of tabouli.

Ingredients: These measurements are an approximation. You can use as much or little that pleases you.

1 small handful of bulgur

1 cup chopped parsley

¼ cup chopped mint

1 to 2 chopped scallions

1 small tomato chopped into ½ inch pieces

Juice of ½ lemon

2 Tbl olive oil

Pepper

Soak the bulgur in a small bowl of water for about an hour until softened. Chop the herbs, scallions and tomatoes and put in a bowl with the drained bulgur, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper.

Boneless Chicken Breasts with Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:

2 to 3 chicken boneless chicken breasts

½ cup bread crumbs

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 Tbl flour mixed with black pepper and ½ tsp cracked red pepper

2 Tbl olive oil

½ cup white wine

1 Tbl good quality mustard

Juice from ½ lemon

1 Tbl of soft butter

Chopped parsley

Wash and pat dry the chicken breasts. You’ll need three plates or flat soup bowls (sorry about that). Combine the bread crumbs and parmesan on one plate. Break up the egg with a fork and put it on the second plate. Put the flour and peppers on the third plate.

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Dredge the chicken through the flour and then the egg and shake off any excess. Put it into the bread crumb mixture. Make sure that the coating adheres to the chicken. Place in the frying pan and cook on both sides until golden and cooked through.

Remove the chicken breasts from the pan, add the white wine, and bring to a boil. Add the mustard and lemon juice and cook until well combined. Remove from the heat, add the soft butter, and swirl in the pan. Pour sauce over the chicken breasts and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

I serve this chicken dish with carrot salad(http://twolittlekitchens.blogspot.com/p/definitely-not-peanut-butter-and-jelly.html) and tabouli (http://twolittlekitchens.blogspot.com/2012/04/tabouli-lebanese-way.html) for an easy warm weather meal.

This recipe was adapted from a marthastewart.com recipe.

Couscous with Fennel and Chickpea

(c) Emily Ho and The Kitchn

I've been making variations of this dish for dinner and taking the leftovers for lunch quite a bit.  It's quick and easy, so perfect for late dinners on the fly.

Sometimes I do not have all the ingredients on hand so I substitute.  I generally use that larger couscous grain that in the US is called Israeli Couscous and in Lebanon is called Moghrabieh (or some spelling variation thereof) because I like it better than regular couscous.  Also, I almost never have orange zest so I usually go without that and use more lemon in its place.  I often add leeks or onions just to give it a little more bulk, and since it's me, I alway add wine.  Obviously.

Anyway, this would make a great side dish as well so enjoy!

(Recipe care of www.thekitchn.com)

Couscous With Chickpeas, Fennel, and Citrus

Serves 2-4
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 cups (or 1 15-ounce can) cooked and drained chickpeas
10 Kalamata olives, halved and pitted
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup instant couscous

1 large fennel bulb with fronds
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Cut trimmed fennel into 1/4-inch thick wedges.

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add fennel and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Add coriander, chickpeas, olives, and lemon juice to pan and stir to combine. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

(Then, optional) Juice the orange into a liquid measuring cup and top off with water to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Add liquid to a small saucepan along with 1 tablespoon olive oil, orange zest, lemon zest, and salt. Bring to a boil and stir in couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand for at least 5 minutes.

To serve, fluff couscous grains with a fork and spread on a dish. Spoon chickpeas and fennel over couscous and garnish with fennel fronds.

Swiss Chard Pie

Ingredients:

2 bunches of Swiss chard

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

½ cup crumbled feta

1 egg

Chopped parsley

Fresh dill or other herb

Ground pepper

Lemon juice from ½ lemon

1 tsp grated lemon rind

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ pound of phyllo

2 Tbl butter

1/4 cup olive oil

Wash, remove stems and veins of two bunches of Swiss chard. Wilt it in a pot of boiling water and rinse under cold water until. Chop and place it in a bowl.

Lightly sauté chopped onion and two cloves of garlic in olive oil so that it doesn’t brown too much and add to the bowl. Add crumbled feta, egg, parsley, dill, pepper, lemon juice, lemon rind, walnuts and mix it all together.

Melt butter and mix it with olive oil. Unpack a half pound of phyllo and lay it between two damp tea towels.

Brush the bottom and sides of a pie plate with oil mixture. Put in a sheet of phyllo and brush with the mixture and keep doing that until you have used approximately 8 sheets of phylllo. Do each sheet individually, by covering the phyllo you aren’t using with the tea towel. it can dry out easily.

Pour the filling into the pie plate and continue brushing each sheet on top folding it over itself using approximately 7 sheets of phyllo. Either roll up the sides or cut them off with a pair of scissors and brush the top with oil and butter.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Adapted from a recipe by Mark Bittman

Boneless Chicken Breasts with Artichokes

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts

2 Tbl flour

Ground black pepper

½ tsp crushed red pepper

1 Tbl olive oil

1 Tbl butter

½ cup white wine (you may need more)

Juice of ½ lemon

1 Tbl capers

½ cup of sliced frozen artichoke hearts (drained canned or marinated will work too)

Chopped fresh parsley

Cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise, put between pieces of plastic wrap, and flatten gently by slapping them with a heavy frying pan. Mix flour and peppers together on a plate. Lightly coat each breast with this mixture.

Place oil and butter in a frying pan over medium high heat. Brown the chicken breasts and remove from the pan. (I rinse the plate with the flour and dry it, but there is so little flour left on it, you can use it for the chicken.)

Add the wine, lemon juice, and capers and cook over medium heat until the bits come off of the bottom of the pan. Add the artichoke pieces and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Put the chicken breasts back in the pan and continue cooking until done, approximately 10 minutes. Remove chicken breasts to a platter and cook down the sauce for a few minutes. Pour the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with chopped parsley.