Master Quench Chicken and Pasta

A few years back, I was enjoying an evening of music and friendship at the Lion's Den in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.   They always have a wonderful choice of local brews and high end wines.  That's what I usually drink.  I was drawn to a specialty drink on the menu called a Master Quench.  One of the ingredients is maple syrup, the real stuff of course.  I had to try it!  Maple syrup is one of my addictions.  It was made with vanilla vodka, ginger beer (not ginger ale), maple syrup, and a dash of cayenne pepper.  Yes, it sounds strange!  But MY OH MY!  It is so good.  The sweet of the maple syrup takes some of the bite out of the cayenne pepper and the blend of those flavors is awesome!

My favorite REAL maple syrup

Fast forward to today.  I decided to make a marinade/sauce for my chicken and pasta based on those flavors.  I melted 2 ounces of butter and added 1/3 cup of Sriracha hot sauce, 2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger, 3 tablespoons maple syrup and a cap full of real vanilla extract.  I let it warm slowly until I could smell all of the flavors had melded.

I cut up 1 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs into bite sized chunks and put in the bottom of my rice cooker.  I poured the melted butter mixture over the chicken.  I add 1 pound of elbow pasta and 4 cups of chicken broth. I mixed with tongs and put into the rice cooker base.  I cooked on the white rice setting until done.  I checked it after 12 minutes and stirred to be sure there was enough liquid for the pasta.   

It was AWESOME!!  My husband had 4 helpings.  It was so colorless though.  Next time, I will add diced sweet green and red peppers.

Northern Italian Spaghetti in Rice Cooker

My heritage is Italian.  When I tell people that, they picture pasta, lasagna, lots of meatballs, lots of seafood and spice.  Not in my family!  The truth is, I am northern Italian. 

Picture the Italian landscape and right away you might notice that there is no where in northern Italy for grazing cows; therefore there is not much beef.  The cows that exist in northern Italy are milking cows for the plethora of cheeses that come from that area. Also, with no flat lands there is little room for large farms of wheat.  Therefore, not much pasta either!

My grandmother was a great cook.  We ate lots of pork, veal and chicken.  We ate quite a bit of fresh vegetables.  Pasta, when it was served, was a side dish like potatoes or rice.  OH!  RICE!  Yes, we ate lots of risotto too!  The flavors of porcini mushrooms and spicy sausage (from the aforementioned pigs) permeated the air, along with lots of cheese.  I didn't even taste lasagna until I was 16 years old.  And, the tomato gravies that are well known in most Italian, read southern Italian, kitchens and restaurants were only an occasional gravy.   Butter and cheese sauces along with herbs like basil were the sauces of choice.

Ahh, the word sauce!  Well, in my family if it has meat in it, or flavoring it or is served with meat, it is a GRAVY!

So, this leads me to my recipe today.

1 pound bulk Italian sausage meat; hot or spicy or a mixture
1 onion, diced

6 ounce can tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, minced

handful of dried porcini mushrooms

4 cups water
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 pound spaghetti

In a skillet, or the browning setting of rice cooker, brown the sausage meat with the onion until onion is translucent and sausage is granular.

If using a skillet, pour the entire amount into the rice cooker.  Add the tomato paste, oregano and garlic and stir to coat everything with the tomato paste.  Crush the porcini mushrooms and add to the rice cooker.  Add the water and tomato sauce and stir well. 

Break up the spaghetti into three and add to the rice cooker.   Stir to separate the pasta and close cooker.  Cook on white rice setting.  Open cooker and stir to keep pasta from sticking 2-3 times during the cooking time.

Serve with plenty of Parmesan cheese.

July is National Ice Cream Month!!

Ice Cream! 

Those words alone make me happy!  Ice cream is its own food group to me.   I like it all ways, but mostly I like it plain.  I don't need syrups or sprinkles.  I don't like chocolate so hot fudge is not on my list.  Just give me the ice cream, with perhaps some whipped cream on top!  After all, the whipped cream is just ice cream that hasn't been churned yet.

I have many fond family memories involving this frozen creamy concoction.  One that I will recall is going out to a Carvel ice cream stand on Oregon Road in Cortlandt Manor.  I was about 7.  Aunt Lee was with us and sitting next to me in the back seat of our 1960 green Chevy.  Now, Aunt Lee was a "special" lady.  She could tease and taunt without mercy.   So, she began by saying "I think I will have some vanilla and some chocolate and some butter pecan and some strawberry."  Her list went well beyond those four.  And then, she looked at me and said "You, can only have a small one with one flavor though!"  What a thing to tell a child!

Since that day, I have made it my mission to eat as much ice cream, as often as I can!  So, tonight, I think I will have a full pint of some exotic flavor in her honor!