Roasted Chicken with a Middle Eastern Stuffing (p. 406) and Spinach with Onions and Black Olives (p. 309)

It's been over a week since I've last posted -- the holidays make for a busy time! I've done very little cooking over that week, but I did make a big Christmas dinner for me, Matt, and my dad. I wanted to do something semi-traditional, so a roasted chicken seemed the perfect thing.

On  Christmas Eve my dad and I hit up the Fresh Market in Asheville to get all the necessities. The recipe calls for a 5 pound chicken but all the was left was 3.5 pounds, so I had to make do. I think the guy who helped me was just filling in at the counter, because the chicken was wrapped ridiculously.

Also, when I unwrapped it, the giblets were nowhere to be found. No giblets? What's up with that? They were supposed to be cooked down to become part of the stuffing, but I had to skip that step.

I rubbed down the bird with a mixture of garlic, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice and let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours.

While the bird was getting itself all juicy and flavorful in the fridge, I made the stuffing -- sauteed onions, toasted pine nuts, ground beef, pepper, cooked rice, currants, cinnamon, cumin, and saffron sounded like it would make for a pretty amazing combination. I filled the bird up and cooked her for about an hour and a half altogether, adjusting the oven temperature and basting as needed.

The chicken was amazingly moist and delicious.

We all really enjoyed it, especially the crispy skin that the marinade had coated. I was kind of bummed about the stuffing, though. It was good, but with all that stuff in it I had thought it was going to be the best part of the meal. Maybe it was the lack of the giblets?

With this, I prepared a simple spinach side. Just steam down the spinach until it is super tender and then chop it up. In a skillet, sauté sliced scallions in olive oil until soft and then stir in chopped olives and add the spinach back in.

Add black pepper and red wine vinegar, keep over the heat until the vinegar has mostly cooked away, and then serve.

Matt and my dad were kind of dreading this because neither loves cooked spinach, but this dish was surprisingly good -- I think olives can make pretty much anything delicious. This was actually the first part of the meal to disappear.

All in all, a very successful Christmas dinner.

chicken -- $6.59

lemon -- $.89

onion -- $1.20

ground beef -- $2.59

currants -- $2.75 (only used 2 tablespoons of a bulk container)

saffron -- $7.40 (used a large pinch, still plenty leftover)

Total Cost of Roasted Chicken with a Middle Eastern Stuffing: $21.42

($4.28 per serving)

spinach -- $2.50

scallions -- $.88

olives -- $3.30

Total Cost of Spinach with Onions and Black Olives: $6.68

($1.33 per serving)

Herb-Crusted Fish Fillets (p. 375) in Greek Domata Saltsa (p. 267)

I didn't think I'd have time to do any cooking before heading to Asheville for Christmas festivities with my dad, but we ran out of food at the house last night so I searched through my cookbook to find a recipe that wouldn't leave me with left over ingredients that would go bad while we're out of town.

I decided to cut down this fish recipe so that it would just make enough for the two of us to eat for one night, and I already had a bunch of herbs that needed to be finished up anyway, so this recipe was ideal. 

The fish calls for a basic marinara sauce, but the recipe for Greek Domata Saltsa says that it can be used "in any Greek preparation for tomato sauce." I wasn't sure if my fish recipe was Greek but decided to give it a go anyway.

The sauce came together pretty quickly; I put chopped tomatoes through the food mill and then sauteed the pulpy liquid with olive oil and chopped onion, sugar, a cinnamon stick, and a bay leaf. 

After it had simmered for a bit, I poured in red wine along with salt and black pepper and kept it over the heat until it came together in a chunky sauce.

While the sauce was simmering, I started working on the salmon, which was surprisingly simple. Cut the fish into serving size pieces and dip the pieces in flour, then beaten egg, and then a blend of chopped parsley, dill, and basil mixed with bread crumbs. 

(Side note: my coworker Cynthia's chickens starting laying eggs a few weeks back, and I got my first dozen this morning. They're beautiful, and the egg yolk is a really vibrant color that made my end product here look really pretty.)

Once the fillets were completely coated, I sauteed them in a little olive oil for about 4 minutes per side.

Then I just ladled a little of the sauce onto each fillet and served!

We both really enjoyed this and I would totally make it again, or at least the fish part. I liked the lightly fried texture and the flavors of all the herbs. Next time I might serve it with a little green sauce on the side instead.  Or I might even just serve the fish on top of some mixed greens and have a light but filling meal!

canned tomatoes -- $.95

wine -- $2.99 (a small container, with enough left for two glasses of wine -- perfect!)

onion -- $.28

salmon -- 6.08

Total Cost of Herb-Crusted Fish Fillets in Greek Domata Saltsa: $10.30

($5.15 per serving)

Bean and Farro Soup (p. 136)

I've been eyeing this recipe for a few weeks because I had pretty much all the ingredients for it at home -- all I need to purchase was a tomato.

Since I don't work until noon on Mondays, I whipped this up this morning to be able to take for dinner tonight.

In a stockpot, cover your pre-soaked and drained beans (I used navy, but any light-colored bean would do) in an inch of water and add in chopped onion, celery, and garlic as well as a bay leaf, a few fennel seeds, and black pepper. Let this simmer until the beans are tender, about 40 minutes.

Separately, put pre-soaked and drained farro in a pot with boiling water and cook until not-quite-tender.

Remove most of the beans to a food processor and puree them, then pour them back in with the whole beans remaining in the pot.

Add in chopped tomato and cook until the tomatoes have basically melted into the soup, then pour in the drained cooked farro.

Add salt and pepper and serve with bread and a little bit of parmesan on the side.

This was good, but definitely not my favorite of the soups I've been making lately. I think this would have better flavor in the summertime, when the tomatoes are at their peak.

tomato -- $1.64

Total Cost of Bean and Farro Soup: $1.64

($.55 per serving)