Pili Pili with Chicken and how to use the last of your tomatoes

Still cooking from The Jungle Effect and it's awesome. The recipes have brought this whole new life to my kitchen. They make me feel like I'm traveling, or dating someone new, or smelling burned leaves in the fall... Someone else out there has to get it. (?)

   Pili Pili with chicken and rice. (If I had photoshop, would I edit the stray piece of rice off the left  side of this picture? It's bothering me a little, but I also find it cute.)

 Pili Pili is a Cameroonian salsa that can be used for basically anything. It has every bit of deliciousness you need in a salsa including ginger, garlic and onion, fresh tomato, lemon, molasses, chile... It's even amazing warmed.

Here pili pili was used to marinate the chicken, the chicken was broiled, the rice was cooked, and then I threw some more fresh salsa on top of the cooked chicken and rice. Holy moley! So tasty on a cool, fall evening. Throw me a blanket and let me enjoy it while watching Sleepless in Seattle. Boom, done.

Today I had a bit of the rice left over, and, as per the advice of our beloved Jungle Effect author, Daphne Miller, MD, I used the rice to make a savory, vegetable-filled breakfast.

Oh the glory. I am enjoying every last fresh tomato from 2012 that I can eat. Tomatoes, you were glorious this year, and thank you for still feeding me on a fall morning. This above dish is the leftover rice I cooked for the pili pili chicken the other night, and sauteed onions, garlic, big chunks of heirloom tomatoes, kale, and a tiny bit of fresh oregano, ground coriander, and cumin seed, salt, cayenne pepper flakes, a sprinkling of freshly ground peppercorn over top (double pepper action, always guilty of it).

EGG. Steamed. Over mediummmmm.

Savory breakfasts rock. If any of you come up with your own version of the savory breakfast bowl, please share. I'm officially obsessed with this idea.

Moving on to some pictures from the week... Recipe for the pili pili to follow!

                 
                         Fall is here. Walk to Alchemy Coffee on 4th East to do some studying.

   The giant pumpkin I always look for on this road. It is nearly big enough to hollow out and turn into a carriage.

                                   Pho Tay Ho on 17th south and S. Main. Get some!

   Tub of butterscotch pudding from Tulie Bakery. Obviously it was good. It was so good I almost made myself sick finishing it. At this point my friend, Thi, took it away from me and placed it in his shoe. Gross, climbers food stench. Gross. Still so gross, this combination.

                      Always placing eggs on top of the salt container. It stops them from rolling.


Pili Pili with Chicken and Rice
Recipe taken directly from The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller, MD.

2 cups diced tomatoes, either fresh or from a can
1⁄4 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of 1 medium lemon
1⁄2 teaspoon hot paprika
1⁄2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon brown sugar or molasses
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or 1 fresh
habanero chile, minced
1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Puree in a blender.

Marinate up to 4 breasts of chicken in the salsa for a few hours in the fridge. When ready, grill the chicken or broil it. To broil, place on a sheet and cook for at least 7 minutes on each side to ensure the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Serve with a little more pili pili, on top of rice.