Erika Lipe Recipe: Chicken Skewers with Lemon Cucumber Salsa

A great recipe for backyard grilling this summer, Erika Lipe from Lenora’s made Chicken Skewers with Lemon Cucumber Salsa on Saturday at this weekend’s Oxford Craft Beer Festival and paired them with Velvet Rooster, a Belgian-style tripel, from Tall Grass Brewing Co.

Chicken Skewers with Lemon Cucumber Salsa from Erika Lipe at Lenora’s

• 4 lemons
• 2 Cuties oranges
• 1 English cucumber, finely diced
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 1 fresh cayenne pepper, seeded and minced (may substitute garlic chili sambal)
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• ¼ c. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 1.5 lbs chicken thighs, cut into 1” cubes
• ¼ c. plain Greek yogurt
• Cracked black pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp. cracked coriander seeds

Salsa:
Cut away all peel and white pith from lemons. Slice segments between membranes with a sharp knife, releasing them into a mixing bowl. Peel Cuties and chop, adding them to the bowl with lemon segments. Combine cucumber, green onions, cayenne pepper, and season with salt and sugar. Add a tablespoon of your chopped cilantro.

Chicken:
Place cubed chicken in a large mixing bowl. In a blender, add cilantro, yogurt, black pepper, vegetable oil, garlic and coriander. Process until smooth and pour over chicken, tossing to coat. Allow to sit for at least 20 minutes, or as much as 24 hours (refrigerated) ahead of time. To cook chicken, thread 4 pieces onto a skewer and lay on lined baking sheet. Broil, turning halfway through, until chicken is cooked through and browned on all sides. Alternatively, you can grill the skewers. Serve topped with lemon cucumber salsa.

 

The Oxford Beer Fest’s VIP Chef/Beer Pairing area was organized by EatingOxford.com. If you’d like information on how to hold a similar event at your venue, contact Liz@EatingOxford.com.

St. Patty’s Cabbage Recipe

For St. Patrick’s Day, Beth Ziegenhorn from YAC submitted a story and cabbage recipe for EatingOxford.com readers.

Tradition – Shmadition

 By Beth Ziegenhorn

How to be Meatless on the Greenest Day of the Year.

I’ve recently challenged myself by becoming a vegetarian, but just for the span of the next 40 days. St. Patrick’s Day is my dilemma because it just doesn’t seem like March 17^th without corned beef and cabbage. Then I got to thinking about it: What made corned beef and cabbage popular in the first place, anyway? How does one eat cabbage without corned beef? Why would someone want to eat cabbage?

Well, for one, corned beef and cabbage is an Americanized version of the St. Patrick’s Day meal. Brief history lesson: corned beef was made popular in New York bars when it was offered as a “free lunch” to Irish construction workers who were building NYC in the early 20^th century. To get this “free lunch” you had to buy a couple of beers or shots of whiskey. That’s how corned beef became known as an Irish food.

Since corned beef and cabbage is now this staple to Americanized-St. Patty’s Day, it still feels necessary to at least eat some cabbage. The good thing is, cabbage is a great source of vitamin C, fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It’s also great for weight loss. The only cabbage recipes that I would use come from community cookbooks, and Square Table Cookbook has a smashing Red Cabbage Casserole that’s beyond easy to make and could double as a wonderful accompaniment to corned beef.

Red Cabbage Casserole

(Makes 6 servings)

• 1 medium red cabbage, shredded
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• 2 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except butter. Place in a large buttered casserole. Dot with butter. Cover and bake for two hours.

*Permission to use the Red Cabbage Casserole recipe granted by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. Square Table Cookbook is a community cookbook and a fundraiser for the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and can be ordered at www.oxfordarts.com/shop. For more recipes check out: aroundthesquaretable.blogspot.com.

Apple Season

photo: Andrew Crowley

The following story and recipe was submitted to EatingOxford.com by Beth Ziegenhorn, operations coordinator for The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council:

CRUNCH

It’s officially fall. So what’s so great about fall? Apples! It is absolutely apple season. We all feel it, the brisk cool air that hits your nostrils on a fall morning. That certain dampness that makes you grab your sweater on your way to work, even though you know it will be a high of 98 degrees later on because of the Mississippi sun. I am thankful for it every day I wake up, mainly because that brisk air in the morning reminds me of that crisp taste of my favorite fruit.

I’ve told at least six of my friends by now that it’s apple season and they just look at me and say, “oh?” and shrug off, what I felt, was stimulating news. Apples are something to be excited about; healthdiaries.com says that a medium sized apple contains only 80 calories. That’s 80 calories containing fiber, antioxidants, water and sugar. Be picky if you want, because there are 2,500 varieties of apples grown in the United States every year. We’ve apparently been eating them for a long time anyway; Archaeologists actually have evidence of people eating apples as far back as 6500 B.C.

So since it’s apple season, and it is absolutely worth celebrating, I’ve decided to reach out and share my favorite apple recipe with you. Using my community’s Square Table Cookbook, I was able to quench my crunch with its Crunchy Apple Walnut Salad. If you ask me–apples are the only way to bring in the fall season.

Crunchy Apple Walnut Salad*

DRESSING

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons apple juice
• 2 tablespoons balsamic white vinegar
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

 SALAD

• 2 Braeburn or Fuji apples cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6 cups red leaf lettuce or other salad greens
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts
• Parmesan cheese, grated

For dressing, in a jar, combine ingredients and shake well.

For salad, in a serving bowl, combine apples, salad greens and walnuts. Pour dressing over salad and toss. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6-8 servings 

*Permission to use the Crunchy Apple Walnut Salad recipe granted by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. Square Table Cookbook is a community cookbook and a fundraiser for the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and can be ordered on their website http://www.oxfordarts.com/. For more recipes from Square Table Cookbook check out: aroundthesquaretable.blogspot.com

–Have an Oxford food story or recipe you’d like to share with EatingOxford.com readers? Contact me at foodie@eatingoxford.com.

Oxford Recipe: Mama Jo’s Rotel Chicken Spaghetti

I thought it would be fun to periodically share recipes from the restaurants around Oxford. You might want to try your hand at some of your favorite Oxford dishes and impress your friends on a Sunday evening or at a potluck.

I’ll start with a dish I saw recently in The Oxford Eagle—Rotel Chicken Spaghetti from Mama Jo’s Country Cookin’ on North Lamar.

If you know a local restaurateur who would like to share one of their recipes, please have them contact me at foodie@eatingoxford.com.

Rotel Chicken Spaghetti

Recipe by Jo Ester Egerson Brassell (Mama Jo)

• 4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
• 24 oz. spaghetti
• 1 26-oz. can cream of chicken soup
• 12 oz. Velveeta
• 1 large can Rotel
• 1 oz. American cheese
• 1 1/2  teaspoons pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped

Preheat oven to around 350 degrees. Cook spaghetti, drain and set aside in a buttered casse­role dish. Using the spaghetti pot, mix soup, cheeses, Rotel, onion, peppers, celery and salt and pepper and cook gently until vegetables are crisp-ten­der and cheeses have melted. Pour this mixture over the spaghetti in the casserole dish, add chicken pieces, and stir together. Sprinkle bread crumbs or cheddar cheese on top. Bake just a few minutes until cheese melts or crumbs begin to brown.