The 4 Tupps

The 4 Tupps is a group of people working in an office. We all appreciate good home cooked meals and after years of observation, we decided to share our food with each other. Each of the 4 members is assigned a day - each day a different member brings 4 servings of food. Friday is usually a grab bag day. Stay tuned for great collaborative lunch ideas.

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Better late than never? As much as I wish I could blame Sandy for our 4tupp blog slow down I might have to just suck it up and take the blame. It's tough stuff getting back into the blog groove. Anyhow- here is, from our mighty post-storm come back week, our thrid meal: CHICKICOCO. 

It was an asian inspired sweet and spicy chicken with coconut rice and seasame roasted cabbage. The recipe was a bit of a mash up between an old family recipe involving sweet thai chili sauce, garlic and lemon juice and leftover sauce from this divine creation from the folks at White on Rice blog. 

CMX

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Power Grain x Power Chicken

Hi everyone. Here's my long-delayed 4 Tupps blog entry. Who knew Sandy's destructive powers would extend beyond the physical world and into the virtual? Anyway, the recovery continues...

I made Food 52's one pot kale and quinoa pilaf (the recipe for which you can find here), with a pan roasted chicken breast.

Here's how I prepared the chicken:

1 ½ lbs chicken breast (preferably sliced thin into cutlets) ½ cup flour 2 lemons, juiced 3 garlic cloves, chopped 2 tbsp capers 2 tbsp olive oil ½ stick of butter ½ cup of white wine Salt and pepper Season the chicken breast liberally with salt and pepper and lightly dredge the chicken in flour. Set aside. Heat the olive oil, butter and lemon juice over medium high heat in a large pan. When the mixture begins to bubble lightly add the wine. Bring to a slight boil and turn the heat down to medium. Allow the mixture to simmer until about half of the wine has cooked down (7 to 10 minutes). Add the garlic and capers and simmer the mixture for another 3 minutes. Add the chicken to the pan and cook until both sides are golden brown and slightly crisp. Use a spoon or spatula to coat both sides of the chicken with the sauce/garlic/caper mixture. Serves 4.

- CG

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Return from Sandy!

       As you might have noticed the 4tupps has been defunct over the past few months. This was due to that jerk Sandy hurricaning all over the place and shutting down our offices for a prolonged period of time. But worry not friends, we are back as hungry as ever! 

For our triumphant return I made chicken mole stuffed poblano peppers and a side of fresh salsa.

Chicken Mole:

olive oil onion cumin cilantro cinnamon 2 dried ancho chilies 2 garlic cloves 3 cups chicken broth 1 tomato Goldin raisins Orange zest 2 lbs boneless chicken 1 ounce chocolate

Cook the onion in oil until its tender then add the spices, chilies and garlic. Let cook for a couple more minutes then add broth, chopped tomato, raisins and orange zest. Add the chicken to cook thoroughly (about 20 min). Then remove the chicken and shred it. Add the chocolate to the broth and let thicken for probably another 15 min.

 I stuffed the chicken in halved poblano peppers, poured the sauce over and cooked in the oven for 15 minutes.

 -KW

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Shroomin'

Get through your Monday on mushrooms.

This penne, pesto and sauteed mushroom dish by Chul, rather. The pesto was simple: two cups of fresh basil leaves + garlic + olive oil + shredded parmesan + salt + pepper. 'Shrooms were sliced and sauteed in olive oil and garlic with a dash of white wine. Everything gets mixed together with salt and pepper to taste, and a glug of cream for richness. Easy.

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Poop Soup

Ok, not poop soup but I was a little worried it would taste like that.  Although the color is a little off, the taste was spot on.  I took potatoes, leeks, celery, onion and garlic in a large dutch oven and sauteed them with the lid on for about 15-20 minutes.  Then I added 4 cups of chicken stock, salt, pepper and a lot of sprigs of rosemary and thyme.  I simmered for about 40 minutes and let cool.  A few days later I took the mix out of the fridge and blended a few cups at a time to get a creamy consistency. 

Sticking to the fall theme, I cooked 4 ears of corn in boiling sugar-ed (yes, sugar not salt) and cut it off the cob.  Then I sauteed the corn with 7 spice, red pepper flakes, spicy paprika and turmeric.  The final touch to the meal was a fancy toasted cheese sandwich (French bread and brie).

-AP

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Lasagna Tuesday (by Chul)

The 4 Tupps are on a Fall weather food roll lately. Today lasagna with ground turkey and spinach was on the menu. I followed this recipe by M-Stew, doubling the parsley and basil components, and boiling my own lasagna noodles (I've never even heard of "no-boil noodles" before -- weird).

A tip: Make sure to drain the spinach well and season with salt and pepper before layering into the lasagna.

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Rainy fall weather on Monday & Tuesday and a lingering sickness from last week inspired my take on my mom's chicken soup.  I boiled bone-in chicken breast and thighs with parsnips, turnips, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme springs with water and some leeks (all chopped in large chunks).  I think sauteed carrots, celery, onion, leaks and garlic (small dice) for about 10 minutes and added a small box of stock and let it simmer on low for while.  After cooking for about an hour and half I took the chicken out of the stock pot, shredded it and added it to the veggie mixture.  I poured the homemade stock through a sieve and added a cup of cooked orzo.  The result was AMAZING chicken soup (sorry mom, mine is better).

The only thing better than chicken soup is chicken soup with grilled cheese - this time I used NY State white cheddar with rye bread. 

-AP

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Jambalaya Thursday

With a non-pork compliant teammate absent from the office today, I decided to give the ol' hog some action. Okay, that sounded weird. Ahem, anyway ...

My first attempt at a shrimp / Andouille jambalaya was mostly a success. I followed this recipe by Emeril Lagasse. It came out a bit salty, so if you decide to give it a go, I suggest making sure you use a low-sodium chicken stock and decreasing the amount of salt in the Creole seasoning mixture. Otherwise, I would count it as a delicious success!

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Tupptober!

For the first day of Tupptober, we had a nice semi-spicy stir fry. The inspiration for this was CSA baby bok choy. Also included are green peppers & green beans (both CSA as well) and a hearty dose of shrimp. For the sauce I used soy sauce, fish sauce, siracha and some hot pepper jelly. -KW

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so we all tried the hibachi heaven truck on friday and came away with some mixed feelings. the one thing we could agree on we have decided to express through a haiku: 

Hibachi heaven

Saltier than the ocean

Not so heavenly

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What a week. First you got nothing on Wednesday due to the Yom Kippur fasting and now there’s nothing again due to a rainy and busy week. Well –at least it gives us a chance to try some new foods in the neighborhood. We will be putting our $5.00-i-didn’t-bring-lunch-fee towards some Hibachi Heaven. We’ll report back! -cmx

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This tasted better than it looks...

Honestly!  This Semi-Homemade dish inspired by my favorite lazy boozebag, Sandra Lee, is chicken curry with cauliflower.  The "Semi" part comes from 1 packet of curry paste and a cup of water and the "Homemade" from chicken diced stewed in a Dutch oven for 30 minutes with onion and some garlic.

I also roasted cauliflower with turmeric, spicy paprika, salt, pepper, cayenne, garam masala and a little bit of sugar and mixed it with the chicken curry for a few minutes before packaging in Tupps.  The curry-concoction covered Basmati rice and was served with fresh baked (seriously!) naan from Diwanekhaas.

AP

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Fall Into Soup

Pat Kiernan tells us the New York Fall weather is imminent. While this is bad for tans and rooftop garden salads, it is good for sweaters and hearty soups. I previewed the latter today with a potato / leek / kale / roasted corn / chicken sausage combo. Recipe below.

1 lb chicken sausage (I used one with spinach and garlic), chopped into ½ inch pieces 3 to 5 medium white potatoes, chopped into ½ inch pieces 1 bunch of leeks, chopped small 1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and chopped small 1 medium white onion, chopped small 1 lb of sweet corn kernels 4 cloves of garlic, minced 32 oz low-sodium chicken stock 2 cups of water Olive oil Salt Pepper Cumin Red pepper flakes In a large pot, heat about two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add leeks, onion and garlic. Saute until fragrant and just translucent. Add potatoes and season with salt, pepper, cumin, and red pepper flakes to taste. Cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 to 10 minutes or until potatoes just begin to soften. Stir in chicken stock and water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer until the potatoes are soft. Pre-heat oven to 400 deg. Place the corn on a baking sheet and lightly coat with olive oil. Roast the corn for about 10 minutes, or until just brown. In a separate frying pan, heat about one tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat. Add chicken sausage and saute until browned. Remove about half of the potato and stock mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. Add the pureed mixture back into the pot. Add chicken sausage, corn and kale to the pot, and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serves 4.

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The tupps are back in town...

With the return of our missing members, we were able to start another week with four full tupps. I was feeling a bit uninspired to come up with a menu for today, but luckily that changed when I went by the farmers market and found the biggest eggplant I'd ever seen. I sauteed this monstrosity with some chive flowers, roasted a red pepper from my CSA and then threw all that in a pasta bake with fresh basil, parmesan and even more CSA tomatoes (as I mentioned last week, I've had a bit of a tomato overload) topped with goat cheese. 

KW  

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To wrap up pork week...

Pasta with Bolognese sauce!  There are countless recipes for this delicious meaty sauce and all of them have variations on a similar theme - pork!  

I looked at a few recipes from Lidia's Italian American Kitchen to some in an article on lasagna in La Cucina Italiana and came up with my own sort of recipe:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs of ground pork and veal

1 large onion

3 peeled and diced carrots

3 stalks of celery

3 cloves of garlic

1 tiny tomato sauce can

tomato paste

beef stock

red wine

2 bay leaves

1 rind of parmiggiano cheese

I started by cooking down the veggies for about 25 minutes in olive oil.  After the cooked through I put them to the side and browned the meat for about 15 minutes in the same Dutch Oven.  Next, I drained the fat and mixed all of cooked veggies and meat.  I added a small can of tomato sauce, some tomato paste, 1 cup or so of beef broth and about the same amount in red wine.  I also included a rind of parmiggiano cheese that I kept in the freezer and added a couple bay leaves.  The recipe called for dry white wine and chicken stock but I had neither of those, so beef and red it was!  I cooked it down for about 2 hours and then reduced it for about 20 minutes.  This was served over fettucine and some pecorino romano cheese.

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All Pork all the time!

To continue our pork week challenge I made chorizo tacos. To be honest, I was a little lazier than my fellow tupper AP and only made one meal this week to extend over two days. On the other hand, this meal was worth eating twice! Anyway it is a pretty simple combo of chorizo and potato filling cooked with some onion and garlic. I also made a fresh salsa with the millions of tomatoes I've been getting in my farm share (seriously it's been like 3lbs/week the last 3 weeks) accompanied by some chips to help consume the hefty amount of salsa.

KW

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The first installment of Pork Week is...

Roasted pork tenderloin with roasted root vegetables!  This dish was based on Eric Ripet's recipe (found here) from Avec Eric.  The pork was seasoned and seared, then roasted in a Dutch oven for about half an hour with half a bulb of garlic.  Mushrooms were added at the end to make a sauce.  

Some alterations (based on availability of product in my house, not because I think Monsieur Ripert should change his recipe) like swapping white wine for red, chicken stock for beef and sage for rosemary were made.  The roasted veggies (carrots, turnip, fingerling potatoes) were tossed with salt, pepper, olive oil, rosemary and thyme.  Stay tuned for another delicious porcine meal coming from KW!

-AP