Chicken Paprikash...and Awards!

Whenever I crave for something that is a perfect comfort food that I know my entire family will like, I tend to turn towards my Hungarian favorite, which really does not need a recipe... knowing that I learned to make this delicious sauteed chicken in a rich paprika-sour cream sauce from my Hungarian "roots" from my mom, who was actually born in Transylvania (yes there is such a country, not just a myth)...it is and has been part of Romania for nearly a century now, after World War 1.
This special and true Hungarian dish is known world-wide to be an authentic Hungarian "staple" dish that is now just tossed aside in the culinary world...so sad! The way I see it in the "new wave" cooking, it doesn't even get listed as a "top 10".
I learned to make it the authentic way...even before I knew how to cook. Normally I would add the hot Hungarian wax pepper, which here in the states called "banana pepper?"...wonder why? Sure doesn't taste like a banana, it sure doesn't look like a banana, just because it's long and yellow?...that is absurd...again also...why do they even call it Hungarian wax pepper?...Do they wax it?...just the thought of that grosses me out!
At any rate, this is a simple, and easy way to make it...as long as you use authentic imported Hungarian Paprika, hot, or sweet...it's your choice!
I did not bother to do a step-by-step instructions on this...was not even going to take photos of this because I made this in a hurry, with my family telling me "we're starving"...so typical!

Do check out my friend Angie' blog @ Angie's Recipes, her delicious version of her Paprika Chicken. While you're there, browse through her blog and marvel at her many beautiful and yummy line up of entrees, and desserts, and do say hello!

I love to serve this awesome chicken paprikash with spaetzle...which is a little tedious to make so I usually serve it with wide egg noodles, or in the case with orechiette pasta. This was so delicious and we even had it for lunch the next day!

Chicken Paprikash
my own recipe

5  chicken drumsticks
5  chicken thighs
1 medium onion chopped
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 cup tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 Tbsp. Hungarian paprika, hot, or sweet

For the sauce

2 Tbsp flour 
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 to 2 Tbsp. sour cream

In  a large pot saute onions till they get translucent. Add the chicken pieces and saute on medium high heat for a few minutes. Add the paprika, and the 1/4 water, and stir together carefully. Cook for about 15 minutes with lid closed. Add the tomato sauce, salt and pepper and simmer for about 45 minutes. Check for doneness. Chicken should be tender, but don't let it fall off the bone "tender."

Pull pot aside from the heat, and add the 2 Tbsp. flour mixed into the 1/2 cup chicken broth, and the sour cream, in a large mixing cup. Stir together till smooth, without lumps. Lower the heat to low setting, add the sour cream mixture by carefully folding it in the pot not breaking the chicken pieces. Shake the mixture in the pot carefully and put back on the burner on low heat to gently heat up the sauce carefully not to heat to a boil...just to a gentle simmer, and turn off. It's ready to serve over noodles, rice, potatoes, or shell pasta.
Generously serves 5, and you will have sauce left over for leftover pasta.
Delicious and a perfect comfort food for all year round!

...and now, for the Award(s:)

I received 3 awards but for now, I am posting one.  Not had much luck posting all 3...so copy and paste...pass it on!!!

I want to share these beautiful award I was honored with from a talented blogger...
Purabi, @Cosmopolitan Currymania

Thank you Purabi, I really appreciate these lovely awards!

I have compiled a list of 15 blogger friends from my comment section...will post another 30 later...according to the 3 awards I received. Please accept these lovely awards, and pass them on who you feel should receive it, and as many as you want to...at least 15!
Congratulations, you all are so talented, and deserve it and so do all who I have not listed. 

Kati  

Roxana @A little bit of Everything

Rosemary @Sprigs of Rosemary 

 

Becky

 

Ami

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Toa  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nami @Just One Cookbook  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trinity @Zamat és Illat

 

 

 

 

 

 

Betty @scrambledhenfruit 

 

 

 

 

 

Marsha @The Harried Cook

 

 

 

 

 

ping

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mia maria

Mina @Angellove's Cooking

 

 

 

 

Lyndsey 

  

Italian Restaurant, at the Breakers Hotel

First things first! This is a restaurant review that I want to share with you...no, I didn't make this amazing Shrimp Scampi, gigantic shrimp, served on a bed of fresh steamed baby spinach, and fresh diced tomatoes, in a delicious wine and butter garlic sauce. This was my choice for the entree!

My family and I enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Breakers Hotel, in Palm Beach...our favorite little Italian restaurant on the premises, at the gorgeous hotel. Kids friendly...they have a play room for the little kids, and also a fun arcade that even the bigger ones enjoy so much
.
http://www.thebreakers.com/restaurants_lounges/the_italian_restaurant/

Steamed Mussels...my son Joe's favorite, that we all shared...this was an appetizer...great choice!

A personalized pizza for my d-in-law, Cara...asparagus, shrimp, and olives...yummy pizza with such a great crust! The girls had their kids menu..their favorite, chicken fingers, made with chicken tenders, and fried crispy, and golden, with their favorite french fries.

For dessert, Cara chose the caramel apple tartlet, with almond ice cream and crunchy pieces of almonds.

My choice was the fresh berries with zabaglione...so perfect with the fresh berries..yumm!

My granddaughters favorite choice was the Brownie Sundae...just look at the perfect fudge brownie and creamy vanilla brownie...drizzle with fudge sauce...a chocolate lover's dream dessert!

So we arrived just about 5:30 PM to meet with Cara who works at the Breakers Hotel. She was going to meet us at the restaurant. The sky is a dull grey...almost ready to rain, as it has been every single day for the past 3 weeks...a welcome for the terrible drought we have been getting.

The entrance to the restaurant is like a tropical paradise with lush green plants and various other ones all typical Florida plants. It's a very casual atmosphere, jeans, and flip-flops are permitted.

When "daddy" says pose for pictures...the "attitude" comes out...Sophia loves the camera...and Mattia is a little shy!

Getting closer to the entrance...it is not just like a tropical paradise...it is a tropical paradise...a total relaxed and gorgeous atmosphere!

Well, here we are...the entrance of the Italian restaurant, at the Breakers Hotel...tucked away in a tropical setting!

I love this handsome chef LOL...holding the sign "welcome to the Italian restaurant"

You can enjoy your meal on the terrace entrance...or

you have a choice of the main dining room...(we were "early birds")...first to arrive!

We chose to eat in the smaller section ...close to the bar, where we had some nice "wine tasting"...as well!

A special little section for kids to hang out...

By the time we were ready to leave...about 8:00PM...the rain came down in "buckets"...you can see the drops of the rain...it was pouring. Good thing they had huge umbrellas that they let us borrow! An eventful evening of great enjoyment. Also getting employees' discount also helped to pay for the dinner! (It wasn't overly expensive...but it wasn't cheap, either)...as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for!"...so true!

Eggplant Parmesan...and a Beautiful Garden!

I'm sure you are all familiar with eggplant Parmesan...so I will not go into a lengthy recipe with this, other than my simple "tried and true" method, and somewhat a step-by-step direction. Last week, I decided to use up my much needed "attention" eggplants that were just sitting lonely in the fridge box...looking almost sad after more than one week. Don't get me wrong, they were not spoiling or anything else, but I'm not like my daughter Lora, piling up on veggies, and day after day making something healthy out of them like she does.
That's why she stays skinny...LOL even when she will be returning from Italy, maybe she gains about 5 lbs. and every time I travel, I come back gaining 15 lbs. and it takes several months to get rid of it.

I'm linking my Eggplant Parmesan to:
Foodie Friday # 16 @Little Brick Ranch


So while I'm house sitting, I hope Lora sees my post on her I-Pad that I really took care of her basil that Teresa planted...aren't they gorgeous...but wait, there's more!

With all the drought we had, we've been literally praying for rain here, in South Florida, but now, for the last week it's been raining every single day...prayers do WORK for positive results. This little rosemary plant nearly died, now I'm going to plant it in a bigger pot, or in the ground so it could flourish, and grow bigger.

As you can see more basil plant, more oregano, a different type, and some Mexican oregano....love it!

A beautiful aloe plant...planted by Lora's dad...that was a tiny plant...thanks to the glorious Florida climate for this wondrous plant that "cures all" it has so many good uses, including for your skin, and to drink a refreshing aloe juice that would cost so much to buy!

Another beautiful Sicilian plant...planted by Lora's dad (my ex-hubby)...he has the "green thumb" for plants, and so does Teresa...I just take care of these beautiful plants!

The Bougainvillea, we have to give credit to Fabrizio for! (Lora's hubby)...he plants them all over the house, and they just flourish...such happy, and beautiful plants....such a wonderful garden to relax, and enjoy!

Another Bougainvillea, in the back yard...also, one on the front, which I didn't even take photo of yet! A

bird of paradise tree behind it at Dr. Eric's yard...peeking through!

Just look at the swimming pool, Fabrizio will be proud when he sees that I make sure the pool gets well maintained. It has an automatic vacuum cleaner that cleans it every day...no chlorine used in this pool, it's salt added to the pool...automatically feeding in. Wouldn't you want to "house sit" under this kind of beautiful scenery every morning you wake up, "sunshine" greets you, birds singing, and such a quiet neighborhood!

This tropical beauty divides the property, from the back neighbor's yard...you can see a little part of the fence...otherwise it's all lush green!

There's no reason not to have beautiful herbs, plants, trees, when you live in a tropical climate as we do...it's a matter of taking care of them, and caring for them, as if they could understand that you do. Take care of

nature's glorious gifts...and you will be greatly rewarded by their abundance of giving you much more!

So Cara, who is more of a daughter than (d)-in-law, gave me yet, another huge eggplant, and I had no choice but to get my act together and make a nice batch of homemade sauce...mind you, this is still at Lora's house (cleaning out her cupboards)
found  a truck-load of canned tomatoes, and sauces that Teresa (Lora's m-in-law made before returning back to Italy to her home!




 

All you need is a nice large can of 28 oz. imported tomatoes, maybe 2 cans, and just pop it into the blender to blend for a minute. Home canned does the same, except the flavor is more intense!

I slice 3 med. large eggplants, not too thick, and soaked them in plain salty water for 30 minutes to get the bitter seeds out.

You don't have to do what I did, but I always have fresh parsley, and fresh garlic combined, in a jar with vegetable oil added to it to keep it moist. It has a lot of uses. All you need is a small or medium food processor to grind the combination up.
Strain the water from the bowl, and add a teaspoon of the parsley mix, and about 1 Tbsp of oil to mix the eggplant together, salt and pepper, and you don't need an egg batter to dip it in.

Add the eggplant slices, about 3 or 4 at a time to a mixture of equal amount of flour, and breadcrumbs. Have a large zip-lock bag ready and put the mixture of the flour and breadcrumbs in, and add your eggplant slices in the bag.







Just look, your hands don't even have to get dirty, give it a good shake.

Lift the eggplant slices out with a tong, and place them on an aluminum lined and vegetable sprayed baking pan.




Spray some more cooking spray on the tops of the eggplant slices, and bake for about 45 minutes on
375 degrees F. Do not turn over. I also added 
strips of green pepper to the batter, to bake alongside eggplants.

Now you are ready to layer the eggplant slices, the cheeses, and the tomato sauce. On the bottom of a lasagna pan, scoop 1 ladle of sauce, one layer eggplant, Parmesan, and mozzarella, than sauce, and repeat again.

Do not put mozzarella on the top when your are ready to bake it. Mozzarella should be under the layer of the sauce. Bake covered on 375 degrees F. for about the first 45 minutes, take off cover, and now you can add the grated mozzarella on the top and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until it gets nice and bubbly, and cheese will start to brown...but do not burn!

I have to admit, this was the best...ever, eggplant Parmesan I have made, eggplant NOT fried, but bakes, and it was light, and absolutely delicious with the homemade tomatoes...Grazie Teresa! ...thanks to Lora's m-in-law for canning all those beautiful tomatoes for us!