Pasta for a Rainy Day

It's been raining here in the interior of Alaska...and I am thrilled! We had an early start to the wildfire season and the past week of rain has successfully put a damper on the smoke...for a while. Those of us living in Interior Alaska are generally spoiled with sun and hot weather this time of year (often into the mid to high 80's). So, I decided some hearty food was necessary to warm us up after a long weekend of working on our cabin in the rain.

(Alaskan) Chicken, veg, herbs and wine ready for pasta and cream

Chicken David really hit the spot - a warm, hearty dish that is also very quick to cook. I have to note here that I absolutely adore the creamy pasta recipes in the Fiddlehead cookbook. No messing around with slowly simmering a white cream sauce - just throw in the heavy cream and voil'a - delicious creamy pasta!

After serving up the hot pasta (should be served immediately for best results), I chastized myself for forgetting to add the sesame oil. I ran back to the kitchen and mixed the oil into the pasta - will have to wait to see how it tastes when I take the leftovers in for lunch.

There really is a lot of pasta on this very large dinner plate!

As summer really kicks into high gear, I am getting antsy to begin cooking with the fare from my garden, which I have been unable to do so far this year. Fortunately, there are a couple of places to purchase locally raised and grown meat and produce in Fairbanks. The available veggies are mostly leftovers from last year (onions, potatoes, honey), but I have found some produce (lettuce, herbs). Even better news - I got a call from Calypso Farm & Ecology Center, a local non-profit and CSA Farm (Community Supported Agriculture) - the first school garden shares are ready to pick up this week! Summer is here and I can hardly wait to start cooking with some delicious, local produce!

Teryaki Chicken With a Plan

This meal actually started almost a week ago. Regrettably, I am not the kind of cook who can rely on her instincts or instantly find inspiration in her fridge or pantry. I am a planner and oddly enough, it's enjoyable!

The planning: I wanted to first familiarize myself with the Fiddlehead cookbook - I only purchased it about a week ago. Reading, drooling and decision making ensued. All of this thought is actually very enjoyable for me - I like methodically thinking out each step and tracking down / selecting each ingredient. On day two of planning I settled on Chicken Teryaki (pg. 82) with Teryaki Marinade (pg. 210), buckwheat soba noodles and a mandarin sesame salad with the Oriental Vinaigrette (pg. 217).

The prep: With so much going on in my life (I know I'm not special in this arena), doing prep work the day before really helps get dinner served before nine o'clock at night. I cut up carrots, zucchini, green pepper, and broccoli. The recipe also calls for mushrooms and cauliflower, but I subtituted sugar snap peas (still in their shells) since my husband is not a fan of either. I mixed the sliced veggies, tossed them in a bit of lemon juice to prevent browning, and tossed them in the fridge in an air tight container.

Sliced veggies in Fridge coated with lemon juice

That evening I also mixed up the marinade. Before heading out to work the next morning, I chopped up the chicken and added it to the marinade. Here in Fairbanks we are fortunate enough to have an actual meat market where I'm able to purchase locally "grown" beef, goat, chicken, pork. They also import Alaskan seafood from the coast.

Marinade ready for fridge. Thanks for the applesauce pancakes honey!

The cooking! This is actually a really nice quick meal once the preparations are done. I sliced the onion and whipped up the oriental vinaigrette while the wok heated and the sesame seeds for the salad toasted.

Veggies in my tiny wok

The veggies cooked up nicely - I decided to cook them uncovered to prevent over cooking (love my veggies on the crispier side) and in two batches. I also browned the onions a bit before adding the pre-sliced veggies.

The teryaki chicken

While the veggies rested in a warm oven, I tossed the chicken into a hot wok. I strayed from the recipe a bit by adding the marinade liquid to the wok rather than leaving it out. I was glad with the result since there was plenty of liquid to coat the veggies when I put them back in the wok for the final mixing.

Final product!

The final result was absolutely delicious! I highly recommend the oriental vinaigrette - I ended up mixing it in with the soba noodles. There wasn't a lot of talking as me, my husband and a guest tucked into the meal and there were compliments to follow (Thanks Fiddlehead!). I would deffinitely recommend this meal and it would be easy to adopt it for a vegetarian/vegan diet.

P.S. As I get ready to post this, I want to make a small note. Today I took the extra soba noodles and veggies with a little bit of the vinaigrette in for lunch. It made a really nice little pasta salad that I didn't even have to heat up.