Recipe test: chicken sandwich

This modified chicken sandwich recipe was quite a success. You may ask, “Why do you need a stinkin recipe to make a chicken sandwich?” Well, you don’t need one, but this one rocked.

Officially the grilled chicken, tomato and onion sandwich by Grace Parisi, Food & Wine’s Test Kitchen recipe developer, our version also used some leftover guacamole relish from fish tacos the night before.

The veggies can be made ahead of time and you could use anything to top the sandwich with.  I used the tomatoes and red onions in the recipe–cook them over medium heat until tender.  Then pound out some chicken breast and cook it in a pan on high heat. We used some basic rolls from the store, toasted first, and layered the guac, chicken, and veggies to our liking.  Delicious and versatile.

Recipe test: fish tacos

We’ve made fish tacos before, but this recipe called for a very special creamy lime guacamole that I couldn’t resist. Kerry Simon of Simon and Cathouse created this elaborate recipe that we didn’t follow exactly but were still happy with the results.

The creamy guacamole, made with avocado, Greek yogurt, red onion, and lime juice, was the key. Without it, just a hum drum fish taco.

We pan fried some halibut, chopped up some tomatoes and hot peppers, and voila: yum yum taco yum.

Recipe Test: vegetable curry

Matt got his Food & Wine 2009 cookbook out last week for some dinner inspiration.  We tried a vegetable curry recipe contributed by Chef Vikram Sunderam from Rasika in Washington DC.

I was the sous chef, my favorite role (you’ll see my mild OCD kick in as sous chef).

I chopped green beans, carrots, ginger, garlic, onion, chili pepper, and tomatoes. Matt cut the chunks of butternut squash (not pictured). We sauteed the veggies with some oil, coconut milk, and turmeric to get the curry pictured below.  The basmati rice cooked well in our rice cooker.

The flavors were surprisingly mild–a bit too mild for my taste–but it was a nice mixture of ingredients.  Next time I will finely dice the ginger instead of julienne like the recipe called for.  It would have been nice to have the ginger flavor permeate more of the curry and not get it in large chunks.  For more kick, maybe next time we’ll add more hot pepper.  A nice dish, but we may only try making it once more.