Sasha's Kitchen: Pecan Chicken with Spiced Apple Chutney

I've now made this chicken dish several times, and it is always a hit.  It serves nicely with chutney, one of my all time favorite types of sauces.  As a kid, I first learned to make chutney from a book from a long-gone restaurant in Ithaca, NY, called Chutney, Relishes and Tablesauces, By Jay Solomon - a great book on the subject.  The key to a good chutney is always the same - getting it to jam to just the right consistency by using a combination of brown sugar and vinegar, while lovingly simmering the mixture.  They have a combined acidic and sweet taste, and are also perfect for preserving for that reason.  The first time I made this dish, I served it with mango chutney.   This time, I tried out a great new recipe for spiced apple chutney from my new Preserving cookbook, by Sheri Brooks Vinton, Put Em' Up.   The spiced apple chutney was delicious and  perfect for the start of fall apple season here in New York.

Sasha's Pecan Crusted Chicken
three or four skinless and boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup ground pecans
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1 tsp pasilla chile powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs
canola oil for breading

To prepare the chicken, pulverize the pecans in a food processor, or chop them finely in a nut chopper if you prefer more texture.  I've done it both ways.  Combine with the bread crumbs and spices.  Coat the chicken with the two eggs (scrambled) and then dip in the breadcrumb/pecan/spice mixture.  Cook in canola oil until browned, and then finish in the oven to cook through.


Spiced Apple Chutney (from Vinton's recipe)
2 cups apple cider vinegar
4 apples, cored and peeled (use local New York apples for the best result, in my opinion!)
2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup finely diced onion
1 cup raisons
1 T freshly grated ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 T mustard seed
2 T mild curry powder
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt

Pour the vinegar into a large saucepan and dice the apples, adding them to the pot as you go to prevent browning. Add the brown sugar, onions, raisons, ginger and garlic and bring the mixture to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the mustard seed, curry, allspice and salt, and simmer for an additional fifteen minutes.

Photo of the same pecan chicken recipe from when i made it with mango chutney over the summer

Sasha's Kitchen: Pecan Chicken with Spiced Apple Chutney

Sasha's Kitchen: Grilled Lamb Kebabs with Mango Chutney

Kebabs - perfect for the start of summer grilling season. I made these indoors on a grilling pan rather than on a regular grill, but it still worked out beautifully. I decided to make lamb kebabs this time, though of course there's a million and one ways to make kebabs. This time I decided to do pretty traditional kebabs, and used good quality lamb from Fresh Direct, which I prepared using a somewhat Indian styled yogurt based marinade. I served the kebabs with two kinds of chuntey - cilantro mint chutney and my favorite mango chutney recipe that I have been making since I was a kid. The mango chutney was fabulous with this dish, and hence I decided to share that recipe. Happy Grilling!


Sasha's Lamb Kebabs
2 cups of lowfat Greek yogurt
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
1/4  tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 to 1/2 lbs of lamb, cut up into chunks for kebabs

Mango Chutney (recipe loosely derived from this cookbook)
4 francine mangos (you can use 2 regular mangos if you prefer), skinned and cut into small pieces
2 gala apples, peeled and diced
3/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (you can use a whole pepper if you prefer to add more heat)
1 T minced fresh ginger
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cloves
pinch of Kosher salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Mix the ingredients for the marinade with the yogurt.  Mix with the lamb and allow to chill for about an hour.

To make the chutney, combine all of the ingredients in a large saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer for about 25 minutes until the mixture has a jam-like quality. Allow the chutney to cool before serving.

All ready for the grill!

Using kebab skewers (I used wooden ones, but you could also use metal), prepare the kebabs by alternating the meat with onions and cherry tomatoes and grill away, rotating as you grill so everything cooks evenly.

Sasha's Kitchen: Grilled Lamb Kebabs with Mango Chutney

Sasha's Kitchen: Saffron Risotto Balls with Tomato Chutney

Risotto balls are one of my husband's favorite treats, and this was no exception. This recipe is loosely based on a recipe I found in a cookbook, which called for coloring the balls with yellow food coloring. I figured it was much better to use saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, which creates a wonderful flavor for the rice, as well as a lovely yellow color. I served the riceballs with some spicy tomato chutney (leftovers from serving with chicken for the night before) and the combination was so perfect, that I am sharing the recipe for the chutney as well. However, just about any chutney would be perfect with these.

Sasha's Saffron Risotto Balls (makes about 18)

1/2 lb arborio rice

1/6 cup cream

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup freshly grated hard mild goat cheese

1 T sugar

pinch of saffron threads

1/4 cup bread crumbs

canola oil

Cook the risotto according to the package instructions, along with the pinch of saffron threads. Then combine the cooked risotto rice with the egg, cream, grated cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Divide the mixture into one inch balls. Place the breadcrumbs on a plate. I used the bread crumbs that ShopRite sent me and they worked perfectly for these delicious treats. Next, heat 4 T of canola oil in a skillet and cook, turning occasionally until completely (and evenly) browned on all sides. Drain the excess oil on paper towels.

Below is the chutney recipe, loosely based on the cookbook, with several modifications (including about half the amount of sugar as recommended).

Bengali Style Tomato Chutney (loosely based on the recipe in the cookbook At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, a terrific Indian/regional cookbook)
2 T olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp fennel
2 cups canned tomato puree
1 small can cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3 T raisons

Combine the oil with the cumin, fennel, tomato puree, cherry tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, pepper flakes and salt. Stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook on low, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. Add the raisons and cook for another ten. The chutney should be thick and have a glazed appearance when done.  I found multiple uses for this chutney, both on chicken and with the saffron rice balls. Yum!

Sasha's Kitchen: Saffron Risotto Balls with Tomato Chutney

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Curried Egg Salad

Sometimes the best inspirations come randomly. I was at my parents looking for a quick lunch on the way out shopping with my mother. I decided on an egg salad, but wanted one with some pizazz! I started adding flavors I thought would taste great together and they did, to my great satisfaction.

Curried Egg Salad

1 boiled egg, whole
1 boiled egg, white only
1 tbsp fat free mayo (I used fat free Miracle Whip)
1 tsp chutney (I used Mrs. Ball's)
1 tbsp carrot, chopped fine
1 tbsp cucumber, chopped fine
1/4 avocado chopped
1/4 sprig green onion, chopped fine
1 tbsp raisins, reconstituted in hot water for about a minute
1 tbsp chopped toasted walnuts
1/4 - 1/2 tsp turmeric, depending on taste
salt to taste

Mash the egg, mayo, chutney, turmeric and salt until it is the desired consistancy to your taste. Fold in the other ingredients and enjoy!

Yield about 1 cup

I put this on crackers but it's great on its own or spread on a sandwich. I made enough for two people, but feel free to increase the amounts as needed.

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Curried Egg Salad

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Cakes With Green Apple & Beets With a Spicy-Sweet Green Apple Chutney

For our dinner last night, I experimented with a new crab cake recipe that turned out to be quite delicious.  For the crab cakes, I used a number of fruits in the actual crab cake that I feel go well with crabs.  The idea was to have the crab be one of many flavors, and not necessarily a dominating flavor.  The fruits that I selected to incorporate into the crab cakes were mango, green apple and beet.  However,

I was not looking to create an overpoweringly sweet dish, so I incorporated a fusion of Indian spices and a little bit of smokiness into the crab cakes to temper the heat from the mango and green apple.  It worked - the crab cakes were flavorful, but not particularly sweet, though they did have little pockets of sweetness here and there (mostly when you bit into an apple), but as a whole, they were not sweet.   The chipotle puree adds a smokiness that tempers the sweetness, but does not add any heat.  The crab cakes also had a beautiful magenta color, thanks to the beets.

Every time I cook with beets (which isn't all that often, to be honest), I forget the reason I do not normally cook with beets.  They turn everything in their path magenta.  This is something to keep in mind when you make this recipe, for sure.  Even one beet has its way with turning everything in your kitchen magenta if you are not careful.  

I decided to serve these crab cakes with a sweet, but also spicy chutney.  In the past, I have made Tabla's green apple chutney, using the recipe from the New York Indian-American fusion restaurant in the cookbook, One Spice, Two Spice.  For tonight's recipe, I used Tabla's chutney as a reference, but modified the recipe (also using a variety of indian spices) to create my own green apple chutney.

I actually don't eat a lot of Indian food.  I generally find the dishes too heavy.  However, I love cooking with Indian spices in my own cuisine, for a fusion of Indian and American traditions.  My approach to American cooking often incorporates this fusion approach with other ethnic cusines.  I actually consider this to be true American cooking since America really is a melting pot of its cultural influences; so is American cooking.

Sasha's Green Apple & Beet Crabcakes

2/3 pound of Lump Crabmeat

1/2 cup diced green apple

1/2 cup diced mango

1/2 cup diced onion

1/2 cup diced beet (cooked first, by boiling)

1/2 tsp curry

3 tsps chipotle puree 

2 eggs

2  tsp pistachio oil

2 tsp canola oil, plus more for frying

1/2 tsp cumin

1 T diced chives

About 2 cups panko bread crubs

To prepare the crabcakes, saute the apples, mango, onions beets (which need to be cooked by boiling in a pot of water for about 25 minutes first), pistachio oil and spices in a tablespoon or two of canola oil, until all of the fruits and onions are soft.  Take off the heat and beat in two eggs.  Mix in the crab meat.   Then dredge and coat the crab cakes in the panko bread crumbs.  The next step is to cook the crab cakes by frying them with canola oil.  Cook them for long enough on both sides so that they are cooked through.

Sasha's Green Apple Chutney (Adapted From Tabla's Original Recipe)

3 green apples, peeled and diced

1 1/2 cup apple cider

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

cinnamon stick,  1 T dried pomegranate seeds, and 1 star anise (put in a tea bag or cheesecloth sachet)

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/8 tsp black salt

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp lemon juice

I love making chutneys, ever since I discovered tropical chutneys as a kid (my first was jerk chicken with a mango chutney).  They always have a jam-like consistency and every chutney that you will make includes the basic ingredients of a fruit, a sugar and vinegar.  To prepare this chutney, simply combine the apples, apple cider and vinegar.  Add a sachet bag with the additional spices and bring to a boil.  Then add the other ingredients and simmer for abut 30 minutes until the chutney has a jam-like thickened consistency.  Add the lemon juice at the end when you take it off the heat, as this helps balance the flavors.  

Black salt is an Indian salt (you can find it at an Indian Market) called Kala Namak that was a carry-over from the Tabla recipe in this dish.  It is actually pale pink in color.  It is often used in chutneys and other Indian condiments to balance out the flavors, even though it has a pungent oder prior to incorporating it into the dish.  Dried pomegranate seeds are also available at most Indian markets.

Serve the crab cakes with the chutney on the side, with diced chives.  This dish paired nicely with a beer called Domaine DuPage from the Two Brothers Brewing Company, a Chicago-based brewery, that we picked up at Bierkraft.   This beer is a French-style country amber ale with hints of caramel and a light floral finish.

Crab is one of the ingredients of the month on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.  For another crab cake recipe, click here.  For my crab couscous, click here.

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Cakes With Green Apple & Beets With a Spicy-Sweet Green Apple Chutney

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto: Zucchini Patties

This recipe was a total fluke one day last summer when I was still in Vancouver. I had been shopping at the Granville Island Market. In the summertime, they have the most amazing local organic farmers who come and set up in front of the market proper on certain days. Anyway, one of them had the most delicious-looking zucchinis, and I bought way too many for just myself to eat. That week, everything I cooked had zucchini in it, and this was one of the superstars that emerged!

Michelle's Easy Zucchini Patties

1/3 c flour
1 egg
1/2 - 1 c milk (depending on how liquid you like your batter; pancake, or crepe)
2-3 tbsp parmesan cheese (I used fresh shredded, but as you like)
1 1/2 - 2 c zucchini, grated
salt to taste
olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan

chutney for dipping (My favorite is Mrs. Ball's Chutney, either Original or Peach)

Mix salt, eggs and flour together in a bowl. Add milk until the batter is the consistency you want it; I like mine like slightly loose pancake batter. Add the parmesan and zucchini. Heat the oil in the pan at medium heat. Add batter by the tablespoon or two, as you like the size. Fry each side until golden brown on the outside and cooked through. You may need to add more oil as the cooking progresses. Makes about 12 patties, depending on size.

Serve with chutney for dipping.

This is one of the most versatile, fridge-cleaning recipes I make. You can add almost anything to it, as per your tastes. I like to add onions, garlic or chopped spinach as well. I also it mix up with spices like cumin or coriander.

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto: Zucchini Patties

Sasha's Kitchen: Carribean and Tropical Cooking - Two Great Fish Recipes

When I first started to cook, I took an old cookbook from my mom called "A Taste of the Tropics" by Jay Solomon. We got this cookbook at a restaurant we ate at in Ithaca, NY in the late 80s and early 90s. The restaurant is no longer there and I'm pretty sure the cookbook is out of print, but it is a wonderful book which taught me a great deal about Caribbean, tropical and pacific rim cooking, as well as many wonderful ingredients used in cooking from this region. In addition, it is from this book that I learned what a chutney was, how great chutneys are with almost any food and how the possibilities for making a chutney with almost any fruit are endless.

At any rate, some of my favorite recipes from this book are Jay's fish recipes.

On page 49 of this cookbook, Jay has a recipe called "mahimahi with papaya salsa." When I first made this, I could not find mahimahi, but made it with Chilean sea bass. I was sold - this recipe tastes perfect with the soft flakiness of a good Chilean sea bass. Plus, it is super-easy:

Chilean Sea Bass With Papaya Salsa
Marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup mirin or sake
2 T sesame oil
2 T lime juice
2 T minced ginger
1 T lemongrass
1 tsp red pepper flakes
several fillets of Chilean sea bass

Marinade from about 4 hours. Then top with papaya salsa:
1 ripe papaya, diced
1/2 Chile pepper
1/4 cup minced red onion
3 T lime juice
1 T cilantro
dash of salt

It's perfect. This dish is great when served with a nice homemade risotto, which is one of my husband's specialties.

Another great recipe from this book, which Jay says originates from the pacific rim, is red snapper with pineapple-tamarind salsa. Tamarind is such an interesting thing to cook with - I absolutely love it. In fact - it's so tangy and delicious that it's great to just nibble on. I once had a wonderful drink at an Indian restaurant (Indian cooking also often uses tamarind) that was a tamarind cocktail that was amazing. The recipe below is unchanged from the recipe in Jay's book, "A Taste of the Tropics."

To make the red snapper basically only requires making the tamarind-pineapple sauce, which is really no more than a chutney. First you must extract the substance from the tamarind. Tamarind can be bought in blocks, generally at an Indian market or specialty grocery store. First, take an 8 oz block of tamarind and combine with 1 1/23 cup water and simmer for 5-10 minutes, breaking apart the tamarind pulp. This will make a tamarind-juice which you will keep, and discard the remaining pulp.

The add the following ingredients to a saucepan with the tamarind:

Red Snapper With Pineapple-Tamarind Chutney

tamarind juice (see above)
2 cups diced pineapple
2 T butter
1 onion, diced
3 scallions
1 tomato, diced
2 T brown sugar
dash of pepper and salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice

Cook for about 15 minutes over medium to medium-high heat until it thickens to the consistency of a chutney (very jam like). The add about 1 T of cilantro, or leave it out if you don't like cilantro.

Now all you need to do is cook the red snapper and top the fish with the chutney and your trip to the pacific rim is complete.

These recipes are great because they do remind me of trips I have taken to the Caribbean and to Hawaii and I love the tropical and exotic flavors. Perhaps they are not 100% authentic (one of the contributing bloggers grew up in Hawaii and may write about some traditional Hawaiian cuisine at some point) but I love them and they do transport me to a wonderful, tropical place. Which reminds me - I so need a vacation.

Sasha's Kitchen: Carribean and Tropical Cooking - Two Great Fish Recipes