We have been away for a bit, busy with other things which we will tell you more about at a later date.  But, for tonight, I thought I would post a recipe we have been making for a few years.  I originally got this recipe from a Cooking Light magazine a while back but have modified it somewhat to more our liking.  This is one of our favorite stews ever, and what first introduced us to kale.  I hope you enjoy:

1 lb of chicken (breasts or thighs or a mix)

3 tblsp olive oil

6-8 cups of vegetable or chicken broth

2 cloves of garlic (chopped)

3 tsp dijon mustard

2 leeks (white and light green part only, chopped)

1/2 cup of white wine

1 russet potato or two medium yukon gold potatoes (chopped into small pieces)

5 cups of kale (chopped and loosely packed)

salt and pepper to taste

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you like)

Heat 2 tblsp olive oil in a pot over medium heat, when hot add the chicken.  Cook on one side for 3-4 minutes then turn and cook the other side until lightly browned.  Set the chicken aside to cool.   Heat the remaining tblsp of olive oil int the pot and add the leek and garlic to it.  Cook around 4-5 minutes until the garlic and leek lightly brown.  In the meantime, chop your chicken into smaller pieces to add to your stew.  When the garlic and leek are ready add to the chicken that has been set aside.  Use your 1/2 cup of wine to the pan you cooked the leek, garlic and chicken in and use to scrape off the brown bits.  Then add your vegetable or chicken broth as well as the dijon mustard to the pot.  Add the chicken, leek and garlic back to the pot along with the potato, salt and pepper to taste, and your cayenne pepper.  Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the kale to the stew and simmer for another 10 minutes. Adjust the seasonings if you need to.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did tonight!

Very Cherry Chutney

We are just at the end of cherry season here in Colorado.  Along with our vegetable CSA from Cure Organic Farm, we also purchased a fruit CSA.  Cure Organic Farm doesn’t grow the fruit themselves but partners with other farms mostly on the western slope of Colorado that do grow fruit.  So far this year we have gotten strawberries and cherries, and this week we are getting peaches.  The first couple of weeks of both strawberries and cherries Jeremy and I were very excited about the fruit and ate most of the 2-3 lbs a week right away.  However, now that this was our 4th or 5th week of cherries we weren’t digging into them right away like we had at first.

To use up our abundance of cherries in the fridge the past couple of weeks, I’ve been experimenting with cherry sauces for meat, and this week I wrote down what I did to share with everyone, and also so I can remember next year when we have a ton of cherries.  We’ve had this cherry chutney on both pork chops and chicken and it is delicious with both.  If you are a vegetarian it would also be great as a sauce for rice.   In fact we had grilled chicken with brown rice and this sauce and that alone felt like a pretty complete meal.  Last night we had grilled pork chops with this chutney, roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus as you can see in the pictures.

2 cups cherries (pitted, destemmed, and roughly chopped)

1/2 onion (chopped)

1 garlic clove (minced)

1 shallot (chopped, optional)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 tablespoon chopped basil (we used some cinnamon basil we are growing but regular basil is nice too)

salt and pepper to taste

dash of ground cloves

dash of cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

1 cup any combo of vegetable broth, chicken broth, white wine, water (i used vegetable broth this time, last time white wine, but whatever you’ve got would work)

Heat olive oil on medium high.  When it is warm add the onion, garlic, and shallot and salt and pepper to your liking.  Stir frequently until onion is translucent (about 4-5 min).  Add the cherries, and your cup of broth / water / or white wine.  Add a dash of ground cloves, and a dash of cayenne pepper (don’t overdo it, you can add more later). Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for about 20 minutes until cherries are soft.

Add 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and 1/2 tablespoon of chopped basil.  Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

We used about half of this for two people and froze the rest in an ice cube tray so we can heat it up in a saucepan in the winter.  Hope you enjoy!