Couscous with Italian Sausage

This dish is very similar to the Polenta dish I made a month or so ago, but I used the couscous instead.  Couscous is a rolled pasta that cooks very quickly by just adding boiling water to it.  I find that it's very versatile and can be used in many dishes.  I like to use it as a starch in Indian, Italian and Latin foods.  It's very common in Mediterranean and Moroccan dishes as well.  What I made tonight is very simple, quick, economical and yummy.  You will need 3 sweet Italian sausages (casing removed) and broken into bite size pieces, 1/2 of a red and green bell pepper med diced, 1/2 of a yellow onion med diced, 6 oz of button mushrooms thinly sliced, 4 garlic cloves chopped, 2 tbs of chopped flat leaf parsley, 2 tbs of olive oil, 1/4 - 1/2 C chicken broth, 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, S&P to taste,  parmigiano reggiano and couscous.  Add 2 tbs of the olive oil to med size skillet and heat over med heat.  Add all your vegetables and saute them, tossing them often for about 5-7 minutes and season with a little S&P.  Remove them from the skillet and add your sausage pieces and cook thru tossing periodically about 7-10 minutes.  While your sausage is cooking go ahead and cook your couscous following the directions on the package.  I made enough for 3 servings.  Add your vegetables back to the skillet with sausage add your chicken stock and red pepper flakes and let it simmer for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Once it's finished, remove from heat.  Fluff your couscous with a fork and serve into bowls with the sausage mixture.  Grate some fresh parmigiano reggiano over top and sprinkle with parsley.  Bon Appetit!

Herb Chicken & Sausage with Basil Couscous

Tonight I was inspired by Chef Giada DeLaurentiis not because it's her recipe, but because she is so beautiful and  I love to watch her cook.  So tonight we took boneless, skinless chicken thighs that had been marinated all day with fresh herb sprigs, garlic from the garden and some dry white wine.  The herbs I used were fresh rosemary, thyme, basil, and oregano.  I crushed 3 garlic cloves too.  I added the chicken, herbs, wine and garlic to large zip lock and let them marinate for about 6 hours in the frig.   You could marinate overnite too if you have more time.  What  you will  need for the dish:  marinated chicken thighs, 3 italian sausages casing removed and broken into bite size pieces,  3/4 C dry white wine, 2 tbsp duck fat (you could use EVOO too, but I've had this duck fat in frig for awhile, so I wanted to try it),  4 cloves garlic minced, fresh asparagus ( I only had 5 left from a bunch, so I cut them into 1/2" pieces, 5 mushrooms sliced, 1/2 C heavy cream, 1 C fresh spinach chopped, 3 sprigs of fresh thyme, 2 sprigs of oregano.  For the couscous, just follow the directions on the box, I added 1 tbsp EVOO and 10 leaves of chopped basil to the finished product.  I also cooked my couscous in chicken stock and I used the butter which is optional.  Now that we have our mise en place together lets cook.  I took a large skillet and added the duck fat and heated over high heat for 5 minutes.  I added chicken thighs and seared both sides for 2 minutes (be careful, the duck fat really pops and splatters),  I then added the sausage and let that go for additional 2-3 minutes, stirring periodically to brown all sides of the sausage.   I added the wine and let the pan deglaze and reduced the heat to med.  I added the asparagus, mushrooms, garlic to the skillet and mixed everything in.  I cooked this for about 3-5 minutes and then added the heavy cream and the spinach and continued to cook for another 2-3 minutes.  I then added the herb sprigs (which you will remove from the dish before serving).  I reduced to heat to med low and let this simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes.  I removed from the heat, covered the dish and let it rest until I served it over my basil couscous.  Not sure if the duck fat added anything special, but this dish was really really yummy, so give it a try and let me know what you think. Bon Appetito!!

Grilled Curried Chicken Thighs w/ Curried Couscous

Hey Folks! Wow my last food post was awhile ago. Been very busy w/ my family. My dad was placed in hospice care, which has been very stressful, yet it has also been a blessing. Hospice is a wonderful thing and they are taking great care of my dad. This experience has really brought the family together and it's just been really good all around.  I've cooked a few unusual dishes for my dad and I think he's been pleasantly surprised.  I made low sodium dishes for him and found that the dishes still were really tasty minus the salt.  Mrs Dash has become a good friend lately.  I'm working on a low sodium pizza, he's really been craving it.  Anyone out there have a yummy low sodium pizza recipe that you would like to share?  Did you know that the average slice of pizza with Mozzarella cheese has about 4000 mg of sodium?  OMG!!!  I also read that we should only consume about 1500 mg of sodium per day.  Read the labels on your prepackage food, loaded with salt!!!

Anyway, back to the food- tonight I took 4 bone in, skin on, chicken thighs, rinsed and dried them. I set those aside and I heated the grill, 1 side on high and one side on low. I prepared a rub of 1.5 tbsp hot curry powder, 1 tsp hot paprika, 1 tsp cumin, a dash of cinnamon and 2 tsp of Mrs Dash (we are cutting back on our Sodium). I placed the spice mix in a large bowl and laid the thighs in the bowl and just rubbed the spices all over the meat.  I then took 2 tbsp unsalted melted butter and poured that over thighs and massaged the mixture onto the thighs.  Once the grill was preheated I placed the thighs skin side down on the high heated side of grill. I let those brown and let the skin crisp up, then I turned them and let the other side brown as well. After about 3 minutes I moved them to the low side and continued to grill for 12-15 minutes turning occasionally until they reached a temp of 166.

While my chicken was grilling I prepared my couscous. I placed 1 c of low sodium chicken broth, 2 tsp hot curry, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp hot paprika and 1/2 c frozen peas in a med pot, brought it to a boil and then added 3/4 c of couscous. I stirred in the couscous and covered the pot, removed the pot from heat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards I fluffed the couscous with a fork and I served it with the thighs with a garnish of cilantro and cucumbers. I love this combination of flavors and textures: spicy, cool, crunch and chewy. Try it and let me know your thoughts. Good Eats!