Aji Verde Sauce and Peruvian Roast Chicken

Dinner came in the form of a fresh, spicy green sauce, roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. This meal takes a little planning. I recommend letting the bird marinate overnight. This recipe came out of the Nom Nom Paleo book, and it was a winner with the boys. A very manly meal as one of my friends called.

I like to do things in an order that makes the most time sense. Since the chicken takes the longest to do, prep and marinate wise. Lets start there. Mix up the ingredients.

Split the bird, then pat dry.

Get under the skin and rub this sauce all up in there, and over it. Cover and marinate over night. Clean everything up. Disinfect. Make sure all the gross raw chicken-ness is gone. Then lets start on the SAUCE.

Olive oil on low heat and garlic. Let it bubble a little. There’s infusion going on up in there. Don’t brown it. You smell it? It’s ready. Remove from heat then set aside.

Time to bust out my beloved Vitamix. Put in the fresh green ingredients and mayo. Mix it up to coarse. Slow drizzle in the olive oil/garlic mix, then turn that baby up.

Stick it in a jar and in the fridge until ready to serve. So lets say the chicken is done marinating. Bring it to room temperature for an hour, and preheat the oven to 400F. Stick in the oven for about an hour or more, until the skin is crisp and the chicken is cooked!

While you are letting that baby roast. Prep your sweet potatoes. I like to boil them until fork tender before I stick them in the oven. After I boil them, I drain, then toss in olive oil and season, then spread it out on a baking sheet.

Serve them all together and enjoy a pretty healthy, filling dinner!

Peruvian Roast Chicken and Aji Verde Chili Sauce
(Adapted from Nom Nom Paleo)

Roast Chicken Ingredients

1 (4 lb) Whole Chicken
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbs melted ghee or olive oil
1 tbs kosher salt
1 tbs freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs ground cumin
1 tbs smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 small lime, zested and juiced

Aji Verde Chili Sauce

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
1 scallion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup Paleo mayonnaise
1/3 cup fresh basil
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1/3 cup fresh mint
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp white vinegar

Directions:
For the sauce, heat olive oil and garlic in small skillet over low heat for about 3 minutes, until garlic is fragrant and oil bubbles. Remove from heat and set aside. In a processor, grind the rest of the chili sauce ingredients until mixed. Add the garlic oil and bend until smooth.

For the chicken, stir together the ingredients. Cut open the chicken down the backbone with kitchen scissors and flatten it out. Rub the marinade all over and under the skin. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bring out the bird an hour before cooking. Preheat the oven to 400F. Cook for about an hour, until fully cooked!

Serve with sauce on the side and anything else you’d like, sweet potatoes for instance!

Posted on May 19, 2014 by miemo 0

Dewey Beach Recap: Mother’s Day Weekend

My maman wasn’t buried in the ground. She was cremated, and her ashes were spread in the ocean in Dewey Beach, Delaware, where she first got on a surfboard. She wanted to be scattered in the ocean because she loved traveling. She didn’t want her body and spirit buried in the ground, but free to travel where the waves take her. Because of this, we feel her presence the strongest at large bodies of water. And because we can’t leave flowers at a grave, we release flower petals in the ocean.

Posted on May 16, 2014 by miemo 0

Dad’s Birthday Recap

I’m a Daddy’s girl. For the longest time, I was his little tomboy princess. Now it’s my little sister’s turn to have the crown. She’s 4.

We love him so much, that we went to his house, 2 hours away, after work during traffic, to celebrate his special day with him. And he’s lucky because it’s always crawfish season when it’s his birthday. So we do how any cajuns would do a birthday. With a crawfish boil!

So he’s been 21 for over 30 years now I’m sure. But we’ll let him have it.

Since my brother and I don’t drink anymore, he made us take shots of frosting. Disgusting. But that’s love.

Posted on May 14, 2014 by miemo 0

Soy Honey Chicken with Broccolini

The packaging lied. When I bought the broccolini, it was labeled as broccoli rabe. Upon googling, I found out the truth, as evidenced by wikipedia and google images. There is a difference! As you probably noticed from the lack of cooking posts on the blog, that I haven’t been cooking much lately. Because macarons are taking over my life. Since I have a nice break before I roll out a new mac flavor, I decided to do some SIMPLE cooking.

First up, a soy honey chicken, braised broccolini and quinoa. I’ve never cooked broccolini before. I’ve had it, and it can be bitter, but braising it in chicken stock helped. Lets start there!

Trim the ends, and cut it into about 3 inch pieces. Added zest of a whole lemon. Set aside 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled. I like to trim off the hard end.

In a straight edge skillet, I heat up a little olive oil, then throw in the garlic. Saute until fragrant (don’t burn!) then I added the broccolini and tossed it around with the tongs until coated with the oil. I add about a cup of chicken stock, and a pinch of salt. Bring to boil, then let simmer until tender. This takes about 8 minutes. When they are ready take the broccolini out of the braising liquid, and onto a serving dish. Squeeze a slice of lemon and top with fresh ground black pepper.

For the chicken breast, I just cut into tenders and seasoned with black pepper. In a separate small bowl I whisked together soy sauce and honey to taste. In a skillet, heat up olive oil, toss in a sliced garlic clove, then brown the chicken. Then I poured in some of the sauce and called it a day. When the chicken is done, remove from skillet and discard the sauce. It can get a bit salty if you leave it.

With the leftover braising liquid, and some water I cooked some quinoa and added to my meal. It’s so simple I don’t have a recipe. Sorry!

Posted on May 12, 2014 by miemo 0

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Via google)

Though mine is no longer with me, I think about her even more than usual today. I was lucky to spend one last Mother’s Day with her, before she passe (the next day). You may not always get along, but your mother is still your mother. Whether she gave you life, or maybe it was someone who raised you. Think of them and make them feel extra special today!

Posted on May 11, 2014 by miemo 0

3 Years.

I contemplated whether or not to write this post, like I do every year. There really isn’t much to say. It does get a little easier to “deal” with the sadness, but of course it will never go away. The sadness that is. But you can only hope that the happiness of her being in a better place will overcome your own selfish sadness. I say selfish, because that’s what I would be if I wanted to her to stay here, even though she was suffering.

Three years has past. Three years of changes, and life passing, moving forward. I never thought I’d be the type to marry, or want kids. And after losing my maman so young, I couldn’t even imagine doing things without her, like getting married, and having babies. Yet here we are, a mere three years later and what has happened? I bought my first home. I fell in love. I got engaged. We’re planning a wedding, and babies.

I can only hope to share my memories and love from my mother to my future children.

Posted on May 9, 2014 by miemo 0

Happy Birthday Dad!

Posted on May 7, 2014 by miemo 0

Boxerfest 2014

Another weekend, another car show. This time, ALL THE SUBARUS. Out of all the shows I’ve been to, this so far has been my favorite. Maybe because it was limited to subarus. They had LOTS of vendors, that were giving away GREAT stuff. I put in all my raffle tickets for a Cobb Tuner, and gift card to subimods dot com. I did NOT win.

However, I did win their instagram contest. Which was funny because I wasn’t even trying. Or knew that there was one going on!

This was my wining shot. Car limbo. This Forrester was called “Forest Gump”. I love it! He didn’t win but he gave it a great try.

It was a lot of funny hanging out with friends, making new ones, meeting the people I talk car stuff with from the internet. Boxerfest was definitely a hit. They even had an autocross track!

My favorite part of car shows though, is rolling with all your subie brothers, and breaking necks.

I got super sunburned. But it was kinda worth it. On to the next!

Posted on May 5, 2014 by miemo 0

Beach Bully BBQ

Say that three times fast. Okay, that didn’t do anything. Anywaaays. After a traffic filled trip on 95 South trying to get to Virginia Beach, the honey and I needed to get lunch. We wanted to stay fairly close to the convention center, so we chose to go to Beach Bully BBQ. I always, want ribs.

We opted for the Queen Platter, which is a rack of ribs, and two choices of sides. We went for their version of baked beans, and potato salad.

Verdict? I’d come again. Very straight forward, tastes good, and quick! There weren’t many people there, for a Friday during lunch. The potato salad, has dill in it, which isn’t what I am used to, and I’d pass on that if we were to go there again. But the beans and the ribs in general were good. Fall of the bone tender, and their bbq sauce wasn’t that bad. Is it something I will crave and have to have again? Probably not. But if I am in the area, and want ribs, this will do.

Posted on May 2, 2014 by miemo 0

Stand Mixer Stories: Homemade Ice Cream

I haven’t written about the stand mixer in awhile. I think because it’s such an integral part of my baking, that it’d be too much for me to talk about every little thing that I do with it. BUT. I have a new attachment! ICE CREAM MAKER!

The first ice cream I tried to make, was Green Tea ice cream. First I have to whisk some milk and cornstarch. Then matcha and whipping cream.

It thickens up. I set aside. I learn later…that I need to use LESS matcha powder.

Slave over a hot dirty stove. Mix it up.

Let it chill.

Churn baby churn!

It comes out soft serve, but then you put it in an airtight container for a few hours. Then you can scoop and eat.

Verdict? It was fun, and simple enough. I do like the flavor, BUT when I make this again, I will use LESS matcha. It left a strong tea after taste on my tongue. So now I have a quart of this ice cream…any takers?

Posted on April 30, 2014 by miemo 0

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