Lemony Chicken and Orzo Soup Bento

Lemony Chicken and Orzo Soup Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I got this chicken soup recipe from Bon Appetit magazine and it went over pretty well. I substituted chicken breast meat since that was what I had, and the meat was tender. It made a pretty big pot of soup, and the family completely slurped it all up. Good thing I reserved some for the Hello Kitty thermal. The little side box holds: blackberries, strawberries, Okinawan sweet potatoes, and the usual pickled stuff. This time I added sliced kiwi in with the bittermelon, and the sweet fruit actually helps cut the intense bite of the bittermelon, if you eat both together. Unfortunately, the kiwi gets soft and falls apart in the solution, so you have to add it upon serving. I think it looks pretty. If you don't think you'd like bittermelon, I suggest you try it this way. It's not bad!
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Lemony Chicken and Orzo Soup (from Bon Appetit)

1 T olive oil
1 medium leek, white and pale green parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise 1/2" thick
1 celery stalk, sliced crosswise 1/2" thick
12oz. skinless, boneless chicken thighs
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup orzo (I used whole wheat orzo)
1/4 cup chopped dill (I omitted)
Lemon halves (for serving)

Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add leek and celery and cook, stirring often, until vegetables are soft, 5-8 minutes. Add chicken and broth; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate. Let cool, then shred chicken into bite-size pieces. Meanwhile, return broth to a boil. Add orzo and cook until al dente, 8-10 minutes. Remove pot from heat. Stir in chicken and dill. Serve with lemon halves for squeezing over.

Gluten-Free Adventures: Lemon Coconut Bread

Gluten-Free Lemon Coconut Bread, homemade, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Remember my gluten-free banana bread? While that one still reigns as my biggest triumph in GF baking, this one isn't bad. I was looking for a quick sweet bread to make using the last of the Meyer lemons, and I came across this recipe in the book "125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes", by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. I got the clafoutis recipe from this book as well, and even though they seem to tout a certain brand of GF flour mix (which I didn't buy and which I successfully substituted with my own mixture), I'm pretty happy with the way these two recipes came out. This one has a bright lemony flavor, and if you like coconut, there's a nice texture from the shredded coconut flakes as well. Although it's a short loaf, I found the density to be nice and moist, and the bread held together well (there is xanthan gum in this recipe). A nice bread, all around. If you like lemon and blueberries, you might want to check out the lemon blueberry bread I made here. It was delicious as well.

Lemon Coconut Bread (from 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes, by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt)

1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 T lemon zest
3/4 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice

Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients together in a medium bowl. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Spoon into greased loaf pan, let stand 30 minutes. Bake at 350F for 60 minutes. Poke holes in the hot loaf with a skewer as soon as it comes out. Spoon glaze over hot loaf. Let cool in pan 30 minutes before removing loaf, and remove to wire rack.

Gluten-Free Adventures: Lemon Bars!

Lemon Bars (gluten-free), a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Since we were gifted with a couple of bags of Meyer lemons recently, I thought it would be a good excuse to try out some gluten-free lemon recipes. I used some of them for the lemon blueberry bread I posted about here, and this time I decided to try lemon bars. I'm not a big fan of lemon bars; neither am I expert at crust-making, but that said: these lemon bars were pretty darn good! I found a recipe at Serious Eats that seemed easy enough, and I followed it very closely. It requires a bit of muscle (and talent) to make the crust well, but if I'm not mistaken, it's really the buttery crust that MAKES the lemon bar. I mean, the rest of it is just lemon, sugar and eggs, right?

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Gluten-Free Lemon Bars (Serious Eats)

Ingredients

yield: makes 12 bars, active time 30 minutes, total time 3 hours
For the Crust
2 ounces (1/2 cup) white rice flour
1.25 ounces (1/4 cup) sweet rice flour
1.25 ounces (1/4 cup) cornstarch
1.25 ounces (1/3 cup) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, cold and cut into small pieces
For the Filling
5.25 ounces (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
Zest of one lemon, about 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons white rice flour
Non-stick cooking spray
Confectioners' sugar for dusting, optional

Prepare the crust: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray eight-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Line pan with two pieces of parchment paper. (Paper should crisscross in the pan and overhang the edges by about two inches.)
In bowl of food processor, combine white rice flour, sweet rice flour, cornstarch, and xanthan gum. Pulse to combine. Add butter. Pulse until no large pieces of butter remain. Add water. Pulse until water is absorbed and dough forms, about 45 seconds of long pulses. (At first dough will be sandy. Keep pulsing until it comes together.)
Turn dough out onto counter. Press into a ball.
Press dough evenly into prepared pan. (To make this easy, I divide my dough in four pieces and place one piece in each corner of the pan. I then press the dough down and toward the center of the pan until the pan is evenly covered by the dough.) Chill for 15 minutes.
Bake crust until golden brown, about 40 minutes.
While crust is baking, rub sugar and lemon zest together in medium bowl.
When crust is golden brown, remove pan from oven. Set aside on a wire rack. Add eggs, lemon juice, and white rice flour to granulated sugar. Whisk until smooth. Pour over crust. Return pan to oven. Bake until filling is set and does not jiggle, about 12 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Chill bars for two hours, or overnight, in the refrigerator. Lift bars, using parchment paper as an aid, out of pan. Dust with confectioner’s sugar, if desired. Cut into squares.

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Oh, and is this really a gluten-free recipe? Who can tell? I could've eaten the whole crust by itself, lemon or not. But of course, the lemony part was just sweet and eggy enough. My crust was a bit uneven and lumpy in sections, and the lemon part not uniformly thick, but I'll tell you the kids didn't care. And the lemon zest sugar? I couldn't stop inhaling that. This one was a hit. Definitely one to repeat!