Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Delicious Marinade

We have four huge rosemary bushes in the garden and they are thriving here! So every once in a while, Daniel has to cut them back and consequently we have rosemary all over the house. It smells so good!!
On Sunday, we decided to use some of it and grill some chicken. We made this delicious marinade from James McNair's Grill Cookbook. Many years ago, when we lived in California, we collected all of his cookbooks and we still use them all the time!
I thought you might enjoy the marinade recipe as well, which is great for chicken breasts or fish:

Herbed Olive Oil Marinade
from James McNair's Grill Cookbook

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice or white wine vinegar (I use a little more lemon juice, probably 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup minced fresh herbs such a s flat-leaf parsley, oregano, thyme, or rosemary, alone or in combination (I used rosemary and oregano this time around)
2 teaspoons minced or pressed garlic
salt
freshly ground black pepper
ground cayenne pepper (optional)

In a nonreactive bowl, combine all ingredients, including salt and peppers to taste. Blend well.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

****************

The smell of the marinade is heavenly and the taste of the grilled chicken was wonderful! I probably let it marinade for four hours or so, but I'm sure you could marinade it all day and it would be even better!

With the chicken, I made a salad and our favorite sweet potato fries. For those, I preheat the oven to 425℉, peel and then cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise into 8 pieces and toss those with some olive oil and salt and pepper (or some spice rub or paprika - whatever sounds good to you). I then bake them in a single layer for about 25 minutes, turning them once after 15 minutes. At the end I turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to get them nice a crispy.

Delicious!!

P.S. If you have any great recipes for using rosemary, would you consider sharing them? We have so much of it and don't cook with it nearly enough...

13 comments:

  1. LOVE ROSEMARY!!!
    Thanks for sharing your recipe.
    Apparently...Rosemary is great for headaches. Put a couple of sprigs in a bottle of red wine and sip when you have a headache.

    I do grilled veggies...similar to how you do your sweet potato but with onion,garlic,red and orange peppers,zucchini,aubergine(egg plant)...drizzle olive oil,salt and pepper over the veggies...and add 4 or 5 sprigs of Rosemary to it.Roast evrything in the oven for 40 minutes on 400.

    Have a great day...and enjoy your Rosemary!
    hugs
    Char.x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Silke, the marinade looks great but I sure would like Daniel's recipe for the scones. Boy they look good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Silke. Ah, Rosmarinus Officinalis, such great scent and studied it in ag class. It's high in iron and calcium. We have drunk it as a tea since it is said to be good for memory, but it can also be toxic if taken in large quantities. We also have a lot growing and use it for chicken as well. Marinades are the best with Rosemary and also drying it for later use works just like with most herbs. In fact today is a good day to pick some Rosemary. Thanks for reminding me. Sounds like a great dinner.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I put dried rosemary in biscuits at the rate of a tsp per cup of flour. I also like to eat rosemary fresh. It is a common yard shrub here in western Oregon, so I pick it where it overhangs sidewalks and munch it as I walk along.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can just smell it. This sounds so good and I love rosemary too.
    Rosemary potatoes are wonderful too.
    You could use that marinade.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You two are always cooking something good. Can I come over for dinner?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ich liebe mariniertes Fleisch. Rosmarin duftet einfach herrlich.
    LG Sabine

    ReplyDelete
  8. i so love rosemary! we have a couple of pots of it in our dining room window and use it all the time. especially on chicken and potatoes! have a wonderful day! xo

    ReplyDelete
  9. This sounds oh so delicious!! And if there is one thing I need it's cooking inspiration!!
    I'm glad you enjoyed my Easter eggs!! I have a great time doing them every year. My mom and my son used to help and we would do dozens!! But even without my mom and my son (he thinks he's too grown up) I still have fun!!
    I haven't had a chance to find any of the books you recommended but I did just quickly read a book by Stephen Hawking called "The Grand Design" and it was very interesting!! While I can't grasp all the phyics what I took away from it is that the processes starting back billions of years of ago, that have resulted in us being here as living beings is so fine tuned that it is really like one long chain of miracles!! Some people might call them coincidences but I stopped believing that things were just "coincidence" a long time ago! I guess I should have put this in an e-mail!!! Hope you are having a great day!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful post Silke..lovely recipe..i love Rosemary..and use it for many things..including shampoo ..it is great for brunettes. I eat it on many things..and create herb bunndles/smudge sticks too..and I used to use to for a cleaner too( but id rather eat it ).Wonderful post! oh and sweet potatoes are one of my faves..so nourishing!
    Have a beautiful week!
    Victoria~

    ReplyDelete
  11. Liebe Silke,

    sonnige Grüße aus Bochum

    Angela und Elisabeth

    ReplyDelete
  12. These posts are wonderful! The sunday musings, the birdies, and ahhh... rosemary. I have a tip. Rosemary and patchoulli oils keep away mosquitos, at least in Wisconsin, I don't know if you have prehistoric size ones, but, it is a natural bug repellant for our family. We will be at swim team practice and all the parents waiting will be swatting the mosquitoes and spraying off! spray and I just sit content. I gave the tip to friends and they love the results! Hope this gives you ideas for soaps, oils, etc. Blessings friend.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I do so love rosemary. :) Thank you for sharing this marinade recipe - I'll bet it's great for fish, too. :) Theresa

    ReplyDelete