Pulled Chicken on Pan Fried Corn Cakes with Pickled Radishes

I spend a frightening amount of time watching Diners, Drive Ins and Dives on the Food Network.  Visions of pulled pork, fresh tacos, salsas and things haunt me into the night.  This is my take on a “Triple D”, crave-worthy dish.  This recipe will leave you with extra pickled radishes to keep in the fridge and use as a topping on meals throughout the week.  You can make the chicken and the pickled radishes a day ahead to save time.  Or you can make just the chicken and prepare it the way you want (see IDEAS below for…well…ideas).  Enjoy!

Lemon Parmesan String Beans with Crispy Shallots

You never knew string beans could taste this good!

Quinoa Feta Salad

I came up with the idea for this salad during a period of heavy quinoa addiction.  I ate it for a month straight and recently I’m right back on it.  This is a great dish to pack up and bring to the office.  It’s easy and healthy.  I recommend not slicing the tomatoes until right before serving, otherwise they’ll get mealy and lose their juiciness.  Feel free to add in more quinoa for a carb-heavier meal, or toss in some chopped arugula or chopped fresh spinach for a more leafy green kind of meal. 

Drunken Zucchini Capo-NOT-a

Caponata is traditionally made with eggplant, onions, olives and capers or some slight variation of those main ingredients which is why I call this Capo-NOT-a, because it’s not quite caponata but it has the same tomato and vinegar zing to it.  After work one day I looked in the fridge and saw celery and a zucchini sitting there.  I’m always looking for ways to use up leftover celery and I didn’t have many of the ingredients at home that are usually used in caponata, so I improvised!  Thankfully it worked.  This is a great version of caponata for people who don’t like eggplant or olives, which is many people surprisingly!  Be sure to check out the IDEAS section below for tips on ways to enjoy this stuff.

“So Much Parsley” Sauce

Did you ever make a dish that called for a few springs of parsley?  Did you let the rest of that parsley go bad and then throw it out because you’re like “what the heck am I gonna do with all this parsley”?  I have the same problem.  So here’s a recipe for a delicious and easy sauce that will do wonders for an ordinary piece of chicken, fish or meat (shown here over salmon, yum).

Spicy Carrot and Celery Slaw

Whenever I make a dish that calls for a couple carrots and a couple sticks of celery, I end up with a big leftover bag of celery and a big leftover bag of carrots in my fridge.  It‘s kind of annoying.  I’m forced to go buy ranch dressing and eat carrot and celery sticks for days.  So I figured out an interesting way to use these lonely veggies.  This slaw is a great side salad or exotic condiment for hot dogs, tacos, burgers, you name it.  I like things nice and spicy so I used a chili infused sesame oil, but you can use plain sesame oil if you don’t like spicy.

Risotto Leftover Patties

If you had the chance to make any of the Brooklyn Salt risotto recipes, you might have some risotto leftover, especially if you didn’t invite a group of friends to help you eat it.  No fear, Risotto Leftover Cakes are here.  This is such a simple way to repurpose your risotto into amazingly creamy pan fried patties.

Bacon Pea and Leek Risotto

Chewy bacon, delicate onion-y leeks and plump green peas make this a risotto to drool over.  It makes for really tasty Risotto Leftover Patties.

Mushroom Risotto

Some lovely friends of mine gave me a gift recently of a Back To The Roots Mushroom Kit which is a sustainable just-add-water garden-in-a-box kit which yields tons of fresh oyster mushrooms in less than two weeks!  I decided to make a mushroom risotto with a mixture of my home grown Back To The Roots Oyster Mushrooms and some local market cremini mushrooms.  It was very rewarding eating mushrooms I grew in my own kitchen!  Back To The Roots is a great company; you can find more info about them here: backtotheroots.com.

Basic Risotto

Ah, risotto...nothing like it.  Risotto is way easier than you think and there are many versions to choose from.  There are also great ways to re-purpose your leftovers (see IDEAS below), so don’t be discouraged by the serving size if you're cooking for one.  Risotto is also a great dish to make for a dinner party.  I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t like creamy rice!