Tag: Cheese

Christmas Tamales and Holiday Pozole 2016

Christmas Tamales and Holiday Pozole 2016

That’s the way the holiday starts! Another year of Tamales and Pozole. I am so grateful that I could continue to share these amazing little delicious packages of yumminess with my family. It’s pretty amazing how many tamales I made and always make but when 

Unrivaledkitch Tamales 2012

Unrivaledkitch Tamales 2012

The year flew by and I hope each and everyone of you had a great set of holidays. I’ll be catching up on my blogging in the next week so please stay tuned.  Thank you for your support and a healthy and happy 2013 to 

Maleeya’s First Birthday Celebration and Catering

Maleeya’s First Birthday Celebration and Catering

My niece, Maleeya, just recently turned one on Easter, which was April 8th, so we decided that it would be a good idea to celebrate Easter with our family, including a small birthday celebration for her and then, the following Sunday, have her huge birthday celebration at the park. First birthdays, and birthdays in general, are a huge deal for the Fujitaki family, so we knew it was going to be a big production to get everything together; naturally, I was in charge of the food. As the number of guests grew and grew as we approached the party date, I knew that I was in for a good weekend full of catering and cooking, which felt nice because I haven’t done a large event in a while, but boy did my body feel it after cooking for 14 hours, not to mention the countless hours in preparation, shopping, organizing and sourcing. Needless to say, I slept a lot the next day and took a completely necessary yoga class to get my aching back and feet back to normal. 
I didn’t have time to make the cakes but these are pretty darn cute!
The final count for Sunday was about 65 people and I think there seemed to be even more people than that. I have no problem making a lot of food for a lot of people, but with space limitations, refrigeration limitations and my new time limitations (aka Yoga Teacher Training), I found myself planning a different sort of menu.  One person cooking for 65 people in a residential kitchen can be a tricky thing, but with a little patience, a lot of intuition, and a calm demeanor, anything can happen.  I want to thank my sister, my parents and our friend Valinda for helping me put the last minute touches on everything and hauling it over to the park. The whole party was such a success with everyone’s help and I’m so grateful to be a part of such an amazing family and extended family and friends. It’s such a beautiful feeling to see how much love is surrounding this amazing little girl and how it shapes and molds her lovely little soul. Happy Birthday Maleeya! Auntie loves you so much.
Menu

Roasted Chicken, Sundried Tomato, Mozzarella and Spinach Basil Pesto Sandwich on Rosemary Garlic Bread
Chinese Spiced Pork Tenderloin (Char Siu) Sandwich on Toasted French Roll with Spicy Asian Mayo, Cucumbers, Pea Shoots and Carrots
Roasted Salmon Lettuce Wraps with Cherry Tomatoes, Arugula, and Quinoa
Sliced Turkey Pinwheels with Hearts of Romaine and CheeseScallion, Black olive and Celery Potato Salad
Rainbow Pasta Salad with Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes, Red Onion and Colby Jack Tossed in Red Wine Vinaigrette
Orzo Salad with Stripped Beets, Broccoli, Cranberries and Fresh Spinach Tossed in Sherry Vinegar Dressing
Purple Cabbage Coleslaw with Honey, Peanuts, Carrots and Granny Smith Apples
Vegetable Platter And Fruit Platter

Cheers

-Unrivaledkitch

Follow Your Heart

Follow Your Heart

A delicious grocery and dining establishment, Follow Your Heart adorns the streets of Canoga Park on Sherman Way. Amongst the dollar stores, small antiques marts and other dining establishments is a valley landmark for Vegans and Vegetarians alike. A store unlike many, it’s a one-stop 

Mammoth Eats: Giovanni’s

Mammoth Eats: Giovanni’s

As we entered town after the long drive from Los Angeles, we decided we needed to kill a little bit of time before we were able to get into the condo and unload all of our things. So we made our way up to Twin 

Christmas Tamales and Morning Traditions

Christmas Tamales and Morning Traditions

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. This whole holiday season has been the most amazing, honest experience I’ve had in a long time. I love Christmas! It truly does bring out the best (and the worst) in people, but I think that it’s not necessarily Christmas that brings about the worst, it’s our misunderstanding of what is really important: togetherness, happiness, tenderness, contentment and compassion. I hope you carry these things with you always, through theses sometimes strenuous times, and into the new beautiful year of 2012.

This year I decided to offer my “tamale services” to my friends and family. I was both lucky and fortunate to share these amazing tasty morsels with others this year. It’s a new tradition that I decided to take on because the prices, quality and distance I had to travel to buy decent tamales, seemed to not be worth the hassle in the last couple of years. I love being able to decide what to put in  my tamales, from the beautiful homemade sauces: slowly simmered broths from roasted bones, vegetables and lots of toasted coriander and cumin, to the freshly braised varieties of meats, roasted chilies and luscious cheese, which all combine to make the perfect melding of flavor and freshness.  This year I exceeded my previous year’s number by over 100, making around 250 tamales of several varieties for friends and family. It was one of those things where I was able to create without recipes, but with just feelings and intuition: my favorite type of cooking.
Here’s a little photo journey of my cooking adventure.

I also made traditional pozole (you can find that recipe here) for my family for Christmas morning and tested out a new idea for menudo; both were a smashing success.  I want to thank my sister and brother-in-law for allowing me to proceed with my madness in our home through all hours of the night and my little niece for bringing a smile to my face even when I was thinking at 4:00 a.m., “What did I get myself into?” But it was all worth it! I hope you put some of your favorite traditions on the plates of your loved ones this joyous season.
Happy holidays to you and yours and a wonderful 2012!
Love Kimberly
Cheer
-Unrivaledkitch
Chicago; Friday The Dog Joint, Navy Pier, Churro Factory, Harry Caray Tavern, The Gage, BuddieGuy

Chicago; Friday The Dog Joint, Navy Pier, Churro Factory, Harry Caray Tavern, The Gage, BuddieGuy

As we got our stuffed together to exit the Belden Stratford Hotel, I looked out to the beautiful view of Lake Michigan with a happy feeling. This was by far one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed. I’m very glad that we stayed outside 

Shattered Cauliflower Farfalle

Shattered Cauliflower Farfalle

Shattered Cauliflower Farfalle with kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes and spicy garlic rosemary olive oil Shattered cauliflower is just boiled cauliflower till it melts off of its stems. I kinda wack it with the back of the knife and it shattered into small pieces. I 

Dinner… Ricotta, piselli, di pollo cannelloni con pana

Dinner… Ricotta, piselli, di pollo cannelloni con pana

Ricotta, piselli, di pollo cannelloni con pana
Ricotta, peas, and chicken filled rolled pasta with cream

This is a super lush fantastic way to have filled pasta.
I used a bunch of crap i had at home
and made is snazzy

Italian my go to under pressure…

So here’s whats inside

3/4 bag frozen peas
1/2 lg container of ricotta cheese
about 1 1/2 cups of grated mozzarella
3 cups of heavy cream
2 chicken breast cut in half
1/2 box of lasagna sheets
about 2 tablespoons of dried parsley
about 2 tablespoons of dried basil
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of onion powder
1/2 white onion minced
1 tablespoon of red chili flake
salt
black cracked pepper

this is what you get when your done

okay here’s the deal kiddies
get a big pot of water boiling away add some salt to it so that you can taste it in the water
preheat oven to 400 degrees
Clean up the chicken breasts so there’s none of that nasty connective chewy stuff on them or fat. Then slice them across the center not down the middle but length wise so you have flat pieces of chicken this will help you to cook the breast more evenly and faster
looking like this

now season the hell out of em
use the basil, parsley onion powder and garlic powder as well as some salt and pepper and get those babies lookin coated but not too much salt there’s enough salt in the cheese and both sides mind you

okay now i always sear my chicken in a pan 1st getting those nice juices locked into that chicken. so you get a real hot pan put enough extra virgin olive oil in the bottom to just coat it a bit. and place the chicken in the pot. you should have 4 pieces don’t crowd the chicken or it will cool the pot down too much and you’ll get white chicken that looks boiled not what you going for.

so you can do 2 at a time if your pots not big enough. Okay good now cook each breast about 3 minutes each side. They should still be kinda raw your gonna put them on a sheet tray or you can use a casserole dish cause your gonna need it anyway. so one less dish and put them in the preheated oven   cook for an additional 5-6 minutes till cooked through out.

I always cook my chicken this way it comes out much more moist. if you have an old ass oven or its not hot enough just make sure your chicken isn’t raw when you take it out.  check the thickest part of the breast, also it doesn’t have to be dry as a bone which most people believe chicken has to be which is disgusting so don’t do that… you want nice tender pieces of chicken so keep to the time table. take the chicken out and let it rest on the counter. the juices should run clear . when the chicken cools down so your fingers can handle it your gonna then shred it. I use two forks with a back and forth movement over the chicken that makes for nice shredded pieces. If you find a part of your chicken you think is still not cooked just throw it in that pan you used and cook it a little more. No harm, no foul…

if you already had chicken from a left over meal this is a good use for it as well just chop it up and use it

your pasta water should be boiling have a bowl with ice water ready along side of it and put the pasta in the water. Cook per instruction about 8-10 minutes and then drain the noodles and put them in the ice water so they don’t get over cooked


Tada noodles

So now the sauce. In the pan you seared the chicken in add just a tiny bit more oil if it seems like there is enough still left in the bottom of the pan to cook the onions in it then you don’t have to add anymore just use the chicken juice to cook the onions. so anyways add the onions to the pot cook till translucent add chili flake. more or less depending on if you like spicy or not. crack some pepper in that bad boy… now add the cream let the sauce simmer so turn down the heat and make sure you stir every once in a while or the cream will bubble over and thats not a nice mess to clean up at all…


oolala panna… this is what the sauce should look like. Its not supposed to be thick like Alfredo its supposed to be just a cooked cream so it should reduce about 1/4 its previous volume…

Now the pea mixture… easy get frozen peas and run them under warm water until they are no longer frozen… add the ricotta and peas together crack some pepper in that bad boy and add about a 1/2 of a cup of mozzarella


and this is what that looks like

So now you got noodles you got chicken cheese and peas

great
put it together

Alrite now to make the cannelloni is the tricky part and i made a video of how to do it but I’m to embarrassed to post it cause i sound like a chipmunk

So you’ll have to envision it
and to help you envision it i’ve made this ms paint horrible diagram hahahahahahaha!


you lay the pasta out flat on a board now take a tablespoon and a half of the pea mixture and place it 2 inches away from  the end of the pasta add a few slices of the shredded chicken on top

then as the picture clearly shows you fold over the pasta so that it covers the filling and do it on both sides till the meet in the middle
Keep going til you make them all and they fit in a 9 13 dish

PS if you aint got time or patience to roll em up just layer the fuck out of it and you’ll be fine

when their all done
add the sauce over the top of the noodles
then add reminder of cheese and if you have left over pea filling and chicken through it on top there too waste not want not


mmmmm

now put it back in the oven for about 15 minutes until the whole thing gets melty and delicious

and looks like this

holy fuck after all that you got yourself a boat load of pasta

get some bread and carb it up my good friends

Veggie it up with broccoli and eggplant or whatever else you’d like
have fun
and eat well…

oh i also figured out what the hell was wrong with me today

I hadn’t been cooking. and its like my crack i have to do it often and a lot of it in order to feel good about myself. 😀

Latest Meals

Latest Meals

Blue Corn tortilla, spanish onion, black olive, and colby jack cheese Chili Roja enchiladas with mashed pinto beans and cilantro onion white Spanish rice Chili Roja salsa re-hydrating peppers Red Cabbage and sweet white corn chowder simple yum! Chicken with pan gravy and biscuits roasted