Sunday Dinner Menu: Chicken with Fennel
By Brenda Hyde
Cold Melon Soup
Ingredients:
1 cantaloupe, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp. apple juice
1/2 honeydew melon, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. fresh mint, minced
mint sprigs, to garnish
Puree the cantaloupe with the orange juice, orange rind
and the sherry or apple juice. Cover and chill for 3-4
hours. Puree the honeydew melon with the lemon juice
and mint. Cover and chill for 3-4 hours as well. Pour
equal amounts of each melon mixture into chilled
serving bowls. Garnish with mint sprigs. Serve chilled.
Crockpot Chicken with Fennel
Ingredients:
3 pound whole roasting chicken
1 small fennel bulb and 1/4 cup leaves
1 pound baby carrots
1 leek, trimmed and chopped
1 quart chicken broth to cover
Remove giblets and discard or freeze for another use.
Rinse chicken and remove skin if you wish. Place in
the crockpot. Wash the fennel, leaving the bulb whole
and mincing the leaves.Place the fennel bulb inside the
cavity of chicken. Sprinkle the leaves around the chicken.
Chop leeks and carrots and add to the crockpot. Add the
broth to cover. Cook on high for 3 hours, then
cool in fridge. Once cool, skim off all fat and remove
chicken from bones. Chop the fennel bulb and add back
into the pot. Put meat back in crockpot and cook on low
for 4 hours. Serve over noodles or biscuits if desired.
Cornmeal Biscuits
Ingredients:
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
Cooking Spray
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a food processor or
large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the cornmeal with
the flour, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper,baking powder
and baking soda. Cut the butter into dry ingredients
until the mixture is about the texture of cornmeal.
Separately mix the egg with the buttermilk, and stir
all but 2 tbsp.of this liquid into the dry mixture. Mix
just enough to make a uniformly moistened dough.
Dust a clean board with half the remaining cornmeal,
and place on dough. Sprinkle the top with the remaining
cornmeal,and with floured hands, gently push the dough
into a circle about a 1/2" thick. Cut with a 2 inch biscuit
cutter, and place biscuits close together on a greased
baking sheet. Brush top of the biscuits with reserved
buttermilk mixture. Bake in the preheated oven until
puffed and brown, about 12 minutes. Serve warm.
Garden Fresh Green Beans
Ingredients:
1 pound green beans
1 medium sweet onion, sliced thinly
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 cup chicken broth
Snip ends off green beans; halve lengthwise, then
crosswise. Sauté onion in butter until soft in medium
sized pan. Stir in beans and toss. Add the remaining
ingredients, and heat to boiling. Cover and simmer for
10 minutes until beans are just tender. Serve.
Blueberry Upside Down Cobbler
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch salt
3 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Combine the blueberries and 1 1/2 cups water in a
non-aluminum pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes;
remove from heat and cool. Pour mixture through
a wire mesh strainer into a bowl; reserving the berries
and juice separately. Beat shortening and 1 cup sugar
in a mixing bowl at medium speed with an electric
mixer until smooth. Combine flour, baking powder
and 1/8 tsp salt, and add to sugar mixture alternately
with milk beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Pour batter into greased 11 x 7 inch baking dish and
spoon reserved berries over batter. Combine remaining
1/2 cup sugar, nutmeg and pinch of salt. Sprinkle over
berries. Dot with butter. Combine reserved blueberry
juice and lemon juice; pour over top. Bake at 375 for
35 to 45 minutes
About the Author
Brenda Hyde is a freelance writer and editor of
Old Fashioned Living. She lives in the Midwest
United States with her husband and three kids.
