Za'atar is my crack

Za'atar. It's a beautiful spice mixture. My best friend is Lebanese+ and she introduced me to this amazing spice. We call it dirt, since it does look like it. It's an amazing mix of thyme, sesame seed, sumac and other things.

This will probably be a post that is good for some regions, not so much for others. Living in Los Angeles, I have a ton of ethnic markets around me, so I have access to this.

My local international market has "jordanian thyme." Which is basically thyme, sesame seed and some other stuff that if you add sumac to it, it's za'atar. I buy the shit out of this all the time. My favorite snack is a hot pita and some olive oil to dunk it in before the za'atar.

Tonight's snack supper is super simple. I just wanted some chicken. I put some sumac on the chicken, then some dirt. I cooked it up on my Foreman grill and grubbed. My man added sun dried tomatoes + oil, I added more sumac. Yum and super simple.

Shrimp Scampi with pilaf and asparagus

I love love love shrimp scampi. I'm trying a super easy version of it. I haven't made this in ages, but I remember it being super simple.

Season 1 lb medium shrimp with salt and pepper after ripping their legs off. Heat a few tablespoons butter in a pan until it's bubbly and close to brown. Cook the shrimp a couple minutes on the first side. Flip them (just shake the pan around then flip the individuals that don't want to turn - way easier than turning each one) and cook a minute. Add two cloves chopped garlic and saute for about a minute. Pull out the shrimp and as much of the garlic as you can with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Add in 1/4 cup whine wine and juice of one lemon. Cook until it reduces a bit and add in a tiny bit of zest and 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley. Pour it over the shrimp and poof: scampi.

I'm pairing this with a super easy pilaf. Saute 1/2 cup orzo in 2 tbs butter. Stir in 2/3 cup of rice and three cups chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce and cook for 25 minutes.

Throw in some asparagus and you're golden. Here was a thought - I threw the asparagus in boiling water for 2 minutes and then threw it in ice water - blanch. Once I pulled the shrimp that was sauteed, I threw in the asparagus for a minute and then pulled it out before I added the wine etc. Beautiful. Yum!

The only misstep. Add some bouillon or some salt to the pilaf. It's incredibly boring.

Lemon Paprika Chicken

This is one of my all time favorite one pot easy chicken dishes and I'm trying it a bit differently this time. I use the same marinade for the chicken as I do for the potatoes and the veggie. This works super well with brussel sprouts.

Start with the marinade. Combine the following:
1 tbs paprika
1 tbs oregano
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine or pressed
2 tsp white pepper
A few shakes of red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil

Then the rest of the prep. Chop three gold potatoes (I used russets tonight, I was out of gold) into inch or slightly smaller pieces. Put in a bowl. Take 8 large or 12 regular brussel sprouts and chop off the stem, then slice in half. Dump the leaves that fall off and put the halves in a bowl. Clean two chicken breast halves and put them in a bowl.

I put a bit of the marinade on the potatoes, enough to lightly coat. The brussel sprouts get a bit more. The chicken goes in the rest. I usually prep this an hour before and then cook, but you can always prep and marinate the chicken the night before then throw the rest together when you're ready to cook.

This is a one pot dish in three parts. Heat the oven to 375. Pull out the chicken and the brussel sprouts if they were in the fridge so they can rest and lose the chill.

Dump the potatoes with the minimal marinade in a roasting pan, spread out. Hit with another glug of olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Sprinkle with a bit more white pepper if you're into that. Cook the potatoes for twenty minutes. Pull the pan, stir around the potatoes and corral them in one half of the pan. Add the chicken to the other side after dripping off most of the marinade. Sprinkle with kosher salt, cook for 15 minutes. Pull the pan, flip the chicken, add the brussel sprouts with marinade in between and sprinkle the chicken and sprouts with kosher salt. Cook for 12 more minutes. Once you pull it out, let the chicken hang out for at least five minutes before you dig in.

I realized tonight what I was doing wrong with this. I used to put it together with lots of marinade in the pan and that was killing it. The potatoes won't get crisp with too much marinade and the chicken looks and feels super weird cooked in that much liquid. The sprouts add just enough to get a nice barely there sauce on it. But damn, the chicken was overcooked. Cut their time down by at least five minutes. Also, when you pull it out to let it rest, put another pad or something under the potato side to make sure any excess liquid drains to the other side. Soggy potatoes = no bueno.