hornian
1,000+ Posts
Ok, Loop(y)'s hodge podge meals thread got me in the mood to get creative with what I had in my fridge and pantry. It wasn't a whole lot actually, good thing I'll have left overs for a few days because this was scraping the bottom of the barrel. After gather my ingredients, I figured I could make paella-esque dish (but not really, as I had no saffron or seafood - hence the 'poor man's" moniker).
Here's what I gathered up provisions-wise:
-1 link of Alsation-Style venison sausage (this is spicy itself, which helps with the whole dish)
-1 frozen chicken breast (boneless, uncooked, etc.)
-Some mushrooms (wish I'd had more, but only had about a 1/4cup)
-1 bunch of green onions, chopped
-some celery
-Minced garlic
-Capers
-4 Artichoke hearts (quarted)
-1 can of diced tomatoes
-1.5 cups brown rice
Herbs:
-Fresh Rosemary
And the spices:
-Paprika
-Crushed Red Pepper
-Ground Cloves
-Sea Salt
Here's what I did:
First, I chopped up the sausage (uncooked) like so:
Then I also chopped up the chicken breast and threw that in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil to start cooking it:
After the meat had cooked for about 5 minutes, I added the mushrooms, garlic, green onions, celery, artichoke hearts, and capers + all the spices (not sure how much I added, lots of paprika and crusehd red pepper, not as much of the cloves, and just a bit of salt)and cooked them until the chicken was cooked through (the sausage wasn't cooked through yet, but no big deal):
Then I added the can of diced tomatoes and then water (just filled up the empty tomato can and dumped it in), and threw in some rosemary I picked from my front flower bed - the leaves just fall off after cooking and you take the wood part out, it's easy and tastes/smells great. I let all that simmer for a few minutes to combine flavors:
Then I added the rice:
Hey, where'd the rice go? I just stirred it all together, but trust me, you'll see it again. Covered the pan and let it cook for about 45 minutes. I had to add a couple more cans of water because I couldn't find the proper lid and I lost too much of the water to steam, but other than that I left it alone:
And the finished product:
All in all, it was pretty freaking allsome. Nice and spicy, the sausage plus the crushed red pepper gave it a great kick. I could have used a few more mushrooms, and some shrimp or something to add at the end would have been awesome, but for a bottom of the barrel scrounged up meal it was great. The only downside was the aforementioned ill-fitting lid. I had to add water to the dish halfway through, and the rice didn't get as fluffy as it could have, but still, taste wise, this was a home run. Not really Paella since there's no saffron, but great nonetheless.
I'll be making this in the future.I love it when I just pull something together and it turns into a dish I cook again and again.
Here's what I gathered up provisions-wise:
-1 link of Alsation-Style venison sausage (this is spicy itself, which helps with the whole dish)
-1 frozen chicken breast (boneless, uncooked, etc.)
-Some mushrooms (wish I'd had more, but only had about a 1/4cup)
-1 bunch of green onions, chopped
-some celery
-Minced garlic
-Capers
-4 Artichoke hearts (quarted)
-1 can of diced tomatoes
-1.5 cups brown rice
Herbs:
-Fresh Rosemary
And the spices:
-Paprika
-Crushed Red Pepper
-Ground Cloves
-Sea Salt
Here's what I did:
First, I chopped up the sausage (uncooked) like so:
Then I also chopped up the chicken breast and threw that in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil to start cooking it:
After the meat had cooked for about 5 minutes, I added the mushrooms, garlic, green onions, celery, artichoke hearts, and capers + all the spices (not sure how much I added, lots of paprika and crusehd red pepper, not as much of the cloves, and just a bit of salt)and cooked them until the chicken was cooked through (the sausage wasn't cooked through yet, but no big deal):
Then I added the can of diced tomatoes and then water (just filled up the empty tomato can and dumped it in), and threw in some rosemary I picked from my front flower bed - the leaves just fall off after cooking and you take the wood part out, it's easy and tastes/smells great. I let all that simmer for a few minutes to combine flavors:
Then I added the rice:
Hey, where'd the rice go? I just stirred it all together, but trust me, you'll see it again. Covered the pan and let it cook for about 45 minutes. I had to add a couple more cans of water because I couldn't find the proper lid and I lost too much of the water to steam, but other than that I left it alone:
And the finished product:
All in all, it was pretty freaking allsome. Nice and spicy, the sausage plus the crushed red pepper gave it a great kick. I could have used a few more mushrooms, and some shrimp or something to add at the end would have been awesome, but for a bottom of the barrel scrounged up meal it was great. The only downside was the aforementioned ill-fitting lid. I had to add water to the dish halfway through, and the rice didn't get as fluffy as it could have, but still, taste wise, this was a home run. Not really Paella since there's no saffron, but great nonetheless.
I'll be making this in the future.I love it when I just pull something together and it turns into a dish I cook again and again.
