Saturday, October 13, 2018

Saturday Night After-Theatre Supper

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Usually, we do recipes on Sundays here at JRW, since that's the day where most people a) have the time to dabble in something new or b) need a recipe to get dinner started right now because you have to watch Dr. Who/help the kids complete a project they've just sprung on you/jumpstart that plan for total domination of your office.
 

However, this Saturday, most of the Reds are offline and unavailable, so a recipe that doesn't require much conversation on the back blog is just the ticket. What's going on, you ask?


Well, on the east coast, Lucy, Hallie, Hank and I are attending the 2pm performance of SHERLOCK HOLMES' LAST CASE at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. Afterwards, we're doing a roundtable discussion on mystery writing of yesterday and today. Tickets are still available, and you get $10 off with code JRW, so if you're near Beantown, come by and join us!


On the west coast, Rhys Bowen and Charlaine Harris will be speaking at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego at 3pm, an event sponsored by the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime. The event is free and open to the public AND they're serving nibbles and sweet tea, which is pretty hard to say no to.


If you want to see Ingrid or Jenn, you'll need to travel to Seattle or Phoenix and stalk them. Sorry.


So what are we making today? This is a new dish for me, based on a couple recipes I found Googling chicken + delicata squash, which I had received in my CSA box and had no idea what to do with. I wound up making a delicious curry with one chicken breast, but you could substitute already-cooked meat from a roast bird and it would be just as good. I served it on pearl couscous, but it would work equally as well with rice or quinoa.



Chicken and delicata squash curry - serves 4 or 2 with leftovers

1 chicken breast (or 1 - 2 cups leftover chicken meat) diced
1/2 delicata squash, cut lengthwise and seeds scooped out, then cubed. Leave the skin on! (It freaked me out to do this, but it turns out fine.)
1 onion, diced (I had several stalks of green onion I wanted to use up and put that in, finely chopped, instead )
3 cloves minced garlic or 2 t pre-minced garlic
2 t ginger
2 t curry
1 t cumin
2 - 3 c leafy greens, torn or chopped. I used kale (ubiquitous) but you could add spinach, beet or turnip greens, etc.
1 c chicken broth, enough to cover squash and veggies 
1 can cream of - soup. I used cream of celery to mix it up, but mushroom or chicken would be great as well
oil for sauteeing 

Heat the oil in a skillet on high heat. Add the garlic and the diced chicken breast, stir quickly. Add 1 t ginger and 1 t curry, stirring on high heat until the meat is cooked through.

Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon. Add more oil if needed, then put in diced onions, cubed squash, and the remaining spices. Stir fry until the onion is limp, then add greens and cook for another five minutes. 

Pour in enough chicken broth to just cover the veggies, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the squash is fork-tender. Return the chicken to the skillet and stir in one can cream of something soup. Taste and adjust seasonings - remember, I don't use salt when cooking, so you might miss that.

Serve over the aforementioned rice or couscous. You can fancy it up with pita bread and cucumber-yogurt salad, but it's a meal in and of itself. It holds well in the frig if you're headed out to the show, and it tastes even better the next day.

26 comments:

  1. I’m always happy for a new something to do with chicken and this sounds delicious, Julia . . . thanks for sharing the recipe.

    Your play and roundtable discussion sounds like an amazing way to spend an afternoon. Hope you all have a wonderful time . . . .

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  2. This should have been with yesterday's comments. But I only saw it this morning. This one was professionally produced. Most of their earlier videos seem to be homemade. For English look for ONE DAY written by Matisyahu.

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  3. Enjoy the play. Hope the panel goes well too! Sorry I can't be there. I'll be covering a comic convention in Framingham.

    And kudos on the Doctor Who mention1

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  4. Hmmmm . . . sounds like a great way to fancy up leftover chicken. I'm pretty much down with anything I can serve over rice in a single bowl.

    I'll bet the theatre trip will be a lot of fun. I hope you have a great time. I'm planning to meet a friend and attend an artists' reception at one of my favorite art galleries tonight. What about the rest of the Red Readers? Have you got anything exciting on the menu?

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    1. Nice, Gigi! I love going to galleries with friends.

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    2. Me, too, although I really love this artist's work, and I have a lot of walls, so it could be dangerous.

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  5. What fun, for joint Reds events! You are all so funny and charming, and downright joyful, when you're together. I'll be imagining your fun all day today.

    Thanks for the recipe. It will come in handy, since it's certainly changed to soup weather here in Cincinnati, literally overnight. We went from humid high-80's to chilly and gloomy. My husband actually turned on the furnace without me begging him, glory be.

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    1. Karen, I can take the high 80s, but not when it's humid as well. I went from A/C to furnace from one day to the next!

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  6. I understand the play SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE will remind us of the movie SLEUTH which was one of my all time favorites. Twisty turny plot. Nice way to spend a Saturday, at the Huntington Theatre plus a Reds reunion! See you there, Julia.

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    1. Thanks for the reminder, loved SLEUTH. Also, check out THE ROMANOFFS on Prime. Each episode is a stand alone, hour and a half, featuring characters who think they are descendents of the Russian royals. We saw the first one last night and thought it was excellent.

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  7. And... if you're using 'chicken broth' and cream of-soup you've got plenty of salt! (I do love the nuance it adds.)

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    1. Ah, but I make my own homemade broth with no salt! But, yes, I'm sure the cream of soup has a zillion grams of sodium. I don't have to be as careful with it as I used to - Ross was the one with high blood pressure. For me, it's more a matter of taste now.

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    2. Julia, if you google online, you can find an easy recipe to make homemade condensed cream of chicken soup. Doesn't take long to do, tastes great, and you can control the salt content.

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  8. I would love to be spending the afternoon at the theatre with the Reds, sounds like it will be an event to remember! Enjoy!!

    And thanks for the recipe--we are always looking for something new--and the fact that it contains household staples (we always have kale, couscous or quinoa or rice) will make it an easy dish to try.

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  9. Julia, that sounds like such fun! I wish we could all come. I'm afraid I'm out of luck on the soup recipe, however--dearest hubs won't eat anything with any kind of squash... But it is chilly and rainy here and I'm making chili tonight!

    Other than that and a quick trip to the supermarket, staying in and writing.

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  10. Sunny but chilly day up on the tundra. Soup is a staple in our house, usually made from whatever is on hand and whatever is wilting in the fridge. Last week it was cream of broccoli and also Manhattan Clam Chowder. Plus my neighbor brought us a pot of minestrone. This week it will be butternut squash I think. And maybe chili. And possibly I will do something with the roast chicken carcass after we've picked it almost clean.

    Deb, if you season that curry well enough, he won't recognize any of the ingredients!

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    1. But he might get out his jeweler's loupe and do a forensic analysis . . .

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  11. I wish I could be on both coasts to see everyone at their events today! But, my husband and I went to pick up our Brittany Spaniel rescue dog today, just an hour away. Coco is her name, and she comes from Georgia, but the rescue people have a wonderful transport system, which is why we only only had to travel an hour away to pick her up. She is 11 1/2 years old, as senior, so she fits in well with us, but she seems to have lots of energy and very strong at pulling on the leash (something we'll have to work on). She is a beautiful chocolate and white, and we are already besotted with her. The nice, expensive bed I ordered for her was waiting on the porch when we got home, but I've yet to convince her it's a great place to rest.

    I do wish I could see that Sherlock production.

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    1. If she is anything like my dogs, she’ll insist on a thousand dollar mattress, on which I have squatter’s rights.

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    2. Congratulations on your new rescue girl, and a blessing on your house for taking in a senior.

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    3. Ann, she does indeed seem to like the expensive mattress here, too. Hahaha! Gigi, thank you, and I'm hoping she has some really good years yet ahead of her.

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