Buffalo Chicken Risotto

Another in the list of Buffalo Chicken leftover recipes.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup rice
1/2 cup wine
Several cups chicken stock
1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 red bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
5-7 leftover buffalo wings
2 tsp Crushed red pepper
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Paprika
2 Tbsp leftover buffalo sauce (or 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp Frank's Red Hot)
4 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Procedure:
Set chicken stock on the back burner to simmer. You'll need to ladle it into the main pot soon, so keep them close.

Pour the olive oil into the main pot, and saute the onion until it's translucent. Add the rice, and move it around until you hear it crackle. Add the wine and simmer until it's absorbed. Begin ladling the stock into the main pan, one or two ladle-fulls (ladles-full?) at a time, waiting for it to be absorbed into the rice before adding more.

Add the chopped vegetables after about 7 minutes. Once the rice is almost done (2o minutes or so), add the meat from the chicken wings. Avoid the bones, obviously.

Soon thereafter, add the spices. My version wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be, so add more to taste.

When the rice is done, mix in the Buffalo sauce and the cheese. The butter and cheese make the whole dish creamy. Serve it as soon as the butter and cheese melt.

Tips:
I made double this recipe; it was totally unnecessary, especially since I ate by myself tonight. Oh well, I've got leftovers.
Also, I went to the liquor store this afternoon to get some white wine, and I found this cool juice box-shaped container of wine, on sale for $1. I was looking for a spicy white, but I really know my wines, so I accidentally got a red. In my defense, it's "Alice White" brand. I kind of liked the flavor, and I prefer red wine anyway. So, if you don't mind a brownish-purple risotto, go for red.
In final analysis, it could have used a little more flavor, but it wasn't bad.

In all, 3/5

Vegetarian Chili

I live with six girls, three of whom are vegetarians. This chili, from Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, is a house specialty of ours.

Ingredients:

• Oil for the pan (about 2 tbsp.)
• one large-ish onion, peeled
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• Chili pepper to taste
  
• 2 tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 10-12 oz. of firm tofu, drained and broken into pieces
• 30 oz. beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 30 oz. canned, diced tomatoes
  
• 1 12-oz. bottle of beer
• VT cheddar, sour cream, plain yogurt, etc. for garnish. Bishop also recommends lime wedges.

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot (like what you might cook spaghetti in) over medium heat until shimmering. Meanwhile, use a food processor or some kick-ass chopping skills to finely chop the onion and garlic, separately. When the oil is shimmery, add the onions and a few shakes of salt. Cook until translucent, a little more than 5 minutes. Add chopped garlic, chopped or ground chili peppers, chili powder, cumin and coriander; cook, stirring often, for about 2 minutes (until very aromatic).
2. Add the tofu, breaking apart any large-ish chunks with a wooden spoon, until well coated in spices (2 minutes). Add beans, diced tomatoes, beer and 1/2 tsp. salt and bring to a boil.
   
3. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. The remove the cover and continue to simmer until chili is thick, at least another half hour. Adjust spices to taste.
   

Tips:

• This meal gets better with age, so I like to make it on a Saturday or Sunday and plan to eat/share it all week. Sometimes I adjust the quantities of stuff to make a bigger batch.
  
• I'm kind of obsessed with cayenne pepper, which I buy crushed, in bulk. I usually add about a tablespoon to taste, though I've also used half a fresh, chopped habanero pepper, and I've also used canned jalapenos... Experiment.
• Bishop says to use kidney beans. I use at least one can of kidney beans, and I happen to love black beans, so I always add those. Use whatever kind you like.
  
• I usually use one can of tomatoes and one or two whole, ripe tomatoes, that I chop by hand, or with my roommate's choppy thing. Again, experiment.
• I just started using this awesome little choppy thing one of my roommates has, and I don't think I'll go back to chopping by hand.
• Bishop's book is organized seasonally, and this chili is under "Winter." It is a good winter food-- warm, fun to stay in and make-- but we make it totally appropriate any season with the beer. The first time we made this it was the Harvest Chili, and most recently, I used UFO Pale.

Cuban Sandwiches

This was my roommate's idea, but I was so impressed with the sandwiches, that I figured I needed to share. He got the recipe from the Food Network, but we simplified it and made it a little spicier.

Ingredients:
1 pound pork (the recipe called for a shoulder, but we used chops and they cooked faster. Just make sure to cut most of the fat off if you use chops)
Salt
Pepper
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup orange juice
Juice from one lime (or 2 Tbsp from one of those lime-shaped bottles)
1 cup chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 loaf french bread
Dijon mustard
Pepper Jack cheese
Bread and butter pickles
8 slices deli ham

Procedure:
Rub the pork on both sides with salt, pepper, cumin and oregano. Braise the pork by quickly browning both (or all) sides on a hot skillet. While it's cooking, put the garlic and crushed red peppers in the olive oil.

Once the pork is braised, remove it from the skillet and add the oil to the center of the pan. Warm up the oil (until it starts to smell like garlic and hot peppers), and add the onions until they start to soften.

Reintroduce the pork, and add the juices, stock and bay leaves. Cover the skillet and simmer until the pork is cooked (20 minutes for chops, longer if it's a real shoulder; the recipe calls for a pressure cooker, but nobody I know actually has one, so the skillet version is much easier.)

While it's cooking, cut the bread in half, sandwich style. Smear both sides with mustard, and put ham, pickles and cheese on the bottom side (make sure the cheese is directly under the pork so it melts everything together). Once the pork is done, slice it thin, put it on top of the cheese and close the sandwich.

Put the sandwich on another skillet, and press down on top of it with a baking sheet. Continue to press on the baking sheet until it gets hot, or you can't wait any longer.

Tips:
This isn't easy. It takes a good bit of time and effort, and you have to really be committed to eating Cuban sandwiches. That being said, it's definitely worth the time. These things were tasty.
Also, I'm not manly enough to eat one of these by myself. I got half way through, and had to stop. At least I have lunch for tomorrow.

In all, 4.5/5

Buffalo Chicken Pita Pizza

I made buffalo chicken wings for the big game last night (Yeah Saints!), but I failed to take a few things into account. 1. Two of my roommates don't like spicy food; 2. One guy was just coming from dinner with his girlfriend; 3. Nobody was bringing friends to our party. The three pounds of wings I bought (and prepared, again, not taking those above things into consideration) were way too much. So I have days' worth of leftover buffalo chicken. Be prepared for a bunch of buffalo recipes this week.

Ingredients:
1 Pita
Frank's Red Hot hot sauce
Mozzarella cheese
2-3 leftover chicken wings

Procedure:
Set oven temperature to 450F. While it is warming up, splash the pita with some water and throw it in for a minute or two. It'll get nice and soft. Put it on a baking sheet, and shake some Franks into the center (I like to leave only the outer half inch or so not covered with hot sauce, but that's your call).

Place a good handful of cheese in the center of the pita, and spread it towards the edge. Cut the chicken from the bones and place it haphazardly in the cheese. Cover with more cheese, and put the baking sheet (with the pizza on it, obviously) into the oven for about 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles and starts to turn brown.

Tips:
Pita pizzas are one of my favorite ways of getting rid of leftover anything: vegetables, taco meat, ham and pineapples, whatever. They're so easy to make, are always a perfect single serving for lunch, and they taste great. This buffalo chicken style pita pizza is restaurant quality, if I may say so myself. Delicious.

In all, 5/5

Healthy potato wedges

Ingredients:
Several large potatoes
Spray Olive Oil
Salt
Black Pepper

Procedure:
Wash the potatoes and chop them into 8ths, cutting out any imperfections. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400F.

Spray a coat of olive oil on the pan, and lay the chopped potatoes on it, with one of the white sides (not skin) down. Spray the top of the potatoes.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over potatoes. Bake for 15 minutes, flip onto other white side, and reseason.

Cook another 15-20 minutes, until they begin to turn brown and you feel like they're done (I trust you). Serve with ketchup or, might I recommend brown sauce?

Tips:
Really easy. Almost easier than going to the grocery store to buy frozen french fries. That being said, don't over salt them.
I just discovered this spray olive oil stuff. It's fantastic. You save calories (which is part of the reason I call them "healthy." The other part is that they're not fried.) and you save money because you're not using so darn much olive oil. If you don't have the spray handy, use regular olive oil, but try not to add too much.
Salt and black pepper is my standby potato wedge seasoning. From time to time, I'll post other different flavor combinations, but it's hard to beat the old standard.
Final thought: Do try the brown sauce. I lived in Ireland for a year and refused to try it because I thought it would be gross (who wants to eat brown ketchup anyway?), but it is quite tasty. Almost good enough to justify paying the $6 per bottle price in the imports isle of your local American grocery store.

In all, 4.5/5

Italian Sausage and Vegetables

Ingredients:
2 pounds sweet Italian sausage
1 biggish yellow onion
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 bunch broccoli
3 tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
Oregano
Basil
Pasta (I used angel hair, but regretted it. Rotini is the way to go)



Procedure:
Chop the sausage into 1 inch cubes and brown it. At the same time, put on a pot of water and begin to boil the pasta.

While the sausage is cooking, chop all the vegetables into pieces no bigger than 1 inch. Use just the crown of the broccoli, discarding the stalk (or snacking on it while you cook, like I do). Once the sausage starts to brown, add the onion. When the onion is soft add the other vegetables.

As the tomato starts to cook down (you'll be able to tell what I mean if you haven't cooked tomatoes like this before), crush the garlic into the sauce. Add the oregano and basil at the same time.

Serve over the pasta with parmesan cheese. Serves 4.

Tips:
Not too bad. This is a really easy way to make a tomato sauce, though it won't be as thick as your Italian restaurant-style sauce. I added broccoli because it's one of my favorite foods, but if you don't really like broccoli, you should probably leave it out; it doesn't exactly fit with the theme. Also, I got sausage-shaped sausages (you know what I mean), but ground Italian sausage would have been easier to break into pieces, and you wouldn't have the weird wrapper on some of the pieces. Finally, make sure your tomatoes are really ripe. Mine weren't and they didn't break down like I wanted them to. I might start using canned tomatoes (whole peeled) to make sure I don't have that problem in the future.

In all, 3.5/5