One Dinner At A Time

Bacon and Eggs with Buttermilk Biscuits

2009-07-06T21:11:00.009-04:00

Well, it's all over. Now that I know I can make buttermilk biscuits from scratch at home with very little effort or ingredients and achieve fantastic results, I may never leave the house again.

When my family relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina, when I was in high school, I was hostile about it, to say the least. My knee jerk reaction was to hate everything Southern in order to differentiate myself from the locals. Cute accents? Lame! Mild weather? Boring! Local TV show that covered Friday night's high school football "action" and pre-empted David Letterman by 30 minutes every week? THE END OF CIVILIZATION! The very first thing that won me over was the food. Of course.

I was at the Bojangles on Western Boulevard with my sister and our friend Lauren (may she rest in peace) on a Friday night. "Try the cajun filet biscuit combo with sweet tea," they told me. "But my ulcer...I don't want to get heartburn," I weakly protested. "It's not that spicy, just try it!" Worn down, I ordered. Oh. Mah. Gah. Of course, the chicken was delicious, but the biscuit! I had never eaten anything like it. Light and fluffy, yet toothsome, with a mild flavor and buttery finish. It was my bread-y nirvana, everything I had been searching for but didn't know how to put into words. It has been almost 13 years since that night, and I still feel the same way. So when I saw Adam Roberts' recent post about buttermilk biscuits the other day, I knew I was looking at my destiny.

I followed his recipe exactly, so I'm not going to re-post it here. The finished product was just perfect. As good as any biscuit I have ever had in a restaurant, but even better because I made them myself! I cooked the bacon in the oven in my broiler pan for the last 15 minutes of the biscuits' cooking time. The bacon came out a little crunchy at the edges, but otherwise fine. The eggs were just simply scrambled, nothing fancy.

Rating: This is awesome.

I ate 3 biscuits, and now I'm feeling a little on the wrong side of full. Oink. Be careful--they are rich! I'm going to try freezing the leftovers for quick, re-heated breakfasts in the future. Wei ate his split open with some strawberry jam smeared on the tender interior, and he said it was tasty. I have no need for such flashy adornments!

Brined Pork Chops with Polenta and Sauteed Mushrooms

2009-07-05T22:49:00.015-04:00

I was very excited to use these crimini mushrooms tonight! They really do look like mini-portobellos, no?

I don't know if I can write about this dinner in my normal way. I think it is more suited to narrative. I had this image in my head, of a pork chop sitting on top of a fluffy cloud of polenta with mushrooms scattered around. I set out to create it, never mind that I had never made polenta before. Or eaten it. Whatever. I was just all about trying my hand at a cheap side dish!

I have no idea if my polenta turned out well, since I have nothing to compare it to. How does it look to you? I didn't use any particular recipe; I just read a few and took components from each one. The method was basic: bring a mixture of chicken broth and water to a boil, add the cornmeal a little at a time and whisk like hell. I threw in some Parmesan at the end.

The flavor was good, but I didn't like the texture very much. I can be weird about textures, though, so it might just be my weirdness. It felt...I don't know...gakky. I think I would have preferred it creamier; we'll see if I can get it there with subsequent tries!

I brined the pork chops for about 4 hours before cooking. The brine was super simple: 4 tablespoons kosher salt and 2 tablespoons sugar dissolved in 4 cups of water. I poured it over 3 boneless pork loin chops, each about an inch thick. I was not sure if it would make a difference in the final juiciness factor; I was skeptical due to the short brining time. However, I think it really did help keep the chops moist and flavorful! They were the simplest, tastiest pork chops I have had in a long time.

To cook the chops, I patted them dry with a paper towel after taking them out the brine and trimmed off some of the fat around the edges. I sprinkled each side with a small amount of grill seasoning--a very small amount since I didn't want to risk having them be overly-salty after their brine bath--and quickly seared them in my grill pan for a couple of minutes per side. Then I put them in a 350 degree F oven and left them there for 15 minutes. I don't have a good meat thermometer, but they were firm with a little bit of bounciness to the touch and light pink in the middle when I took them out. Perfectly done pork in my opinion!

The mushrooms were very easy. I cut 8 ounces of creminis into quarters and threw them in a hot pan with some olive oil and a bunch of minced garlic. I seasoned with some kosher salt and sauteed them until they had cooked down and released their juices, about 7 or 8 minutes. I added a splash of dry sherry and 3/4 cup of chicken broth to the pan and let them simmer at low heat until all of the liquid evaporated. They sat on the back burner while I was fussing with the polenta and chops, so it must have been about 40 minutes until all of the liquid was gone. They were the perfect accompaniment to the polenta: concentrated and rich with a lovely deep, almost meaty flavor.

Rating: This is awesome. It was a hit with me and the hubs.

Hook me up with some polenta secrets, y'all!

Salmon Fish Cakes

2009-07-03T10:50:00.007-04:00

I have blogged about these once before here so I won't post the recipe again.

My husband and I kicked off the holiday weekend last night by going to see The Hangover. As you can probably guess, it wasn't Chekhov or anything, but it made me laugh a lot, which I really needed! We also had a coupon for a free popcorn and Coke--score!

We were still feeling hungry when we got home, so I whipped these up for a late night nosh, using the leftover mashed potatoes from the night before.

I think the roasted garlic in the mashed potatoes got a nice meld going on in the fridge overnight, because the garlic flavor was much more noticeable in the fish cakes than it was when I ate the potatoes the first time. In my opinion, that made them even more delicious!

Rating: This is awesome (again)

Crunchy Garlic Chicken Breasts

2009-07-01T21:40:00.006-04:00

Or, what to cook if you live in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and you want a quiet night to yourself.

First off, I will say that my roasted garlic mashed potatoes in the picture didn't really turn out how I wanted. One would think that since I had never made mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, I might look up a recipe as a reference point to make sure I got the garlic to potato ratio correct. I did not. So I will not be posting a recipe for the potatoes!

The chicken was inspired by this recipe for Moist Cheddar-Garlic Oven-Fried Chicken Breast on RecipeZaar.Com. The end result was fantastic--tender, sharp, and crunchy. It reminded me a bit of the Shake 'n Bake that I mastered as a child, but so much tastier!

2 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons very finely chopped garlic (I just pushed the garlic through my garlic press)
1 tablespoon grill seasoning (or a teaspoon each of salt and pepper)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs
Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place a metal cooling rack in a rimmed cookie sheet or baking dish.

Mix the butter, garlic and seasoning or salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Smear one side of each of the chicken breasts with about one-quarter of the butter mixture. Spread out the bread crumbs and cheese in a shallow plate, tossing with your fingers to disperse the cheese evenly.

Press the buttered sides of the chicken breasts into the bread crumbs, and smear the other side of the breasts with the rest of the butter mixture. Turn the chicken over and dredge in the bread crumbs, patting all over to ensure a good crust. Lay the chicken on top of the cooling rack and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil to make the top extra crispy. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Rating: This is awesome.

So delish and easy. I'll definitely be making it again!

Meal Plan

2009-07-01T21:06:00.003-04:00

It has been a while!

I feel like I have been losing my mojo in the kitchen a bit lately. I just haven't felt motivated or inspired. Two days ago, I came home from work really tired, and my husband said he would make dinner while I snoozed on the couch for a little while. How sweet! I woke up hungry and wandered into the kitchen to see what he had made.

Y'ALL!! HE MADE STIR-FRIED CHICKEN HEARTS!

I am not joking! This is what I get for being lazy with dinner ideas!!

For the record, I ate them. They tasted intensely, deeply meaty. Not bad! But after a while, the texture started to creep me out and then I was like "Uhmm, I am biting into an entire heart right now" and I had to stop. I think I could have hung in there longer if they had been chopped up, not whole.

Today I made a meal plan and shopping list for the next week. I have to get back with the program--no more surprise organ meat nights!! I'm hoping to post all of these as I make them:

Wed: Crunchy garlic chicken breasts with garlic mashed potatoes
Thur: Salmon cakes with stir-fried broccoli
Fri: Steak and bell pepper stir-fry with rice
Sat: Brined pork chops with polenta and sauteed mushrooms
Sun: Chicken curry with rice
Mon: Bacon and eggs with buttermilk biscuits
Tues: Salisbury steak with egg noodles
Wed: Pork Dumplings
Thur: Chicken satay with peanut sauce and roasted carrots

I've blogged a few of these on here before, but I will post pictures of the finished dish anyway. My husband recently got a fancy new camera, and I want to get some practice taking food pictures with it.

Stay tuned!!

Salmon Fish Cakes

2008-09-25T20:20:00.007-04:00

I got this wonderfully comforting recipe from Nigella Bites, and it is a delicious way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. She suggests using canned salmon instead of fresh, so I bought a can of the stuff for the first time tonight.

Man, it was a great deal! 14.5 ounces of wild salmon for $1.50. I'm not suggesting that it's an adequate substitute for a freshly grilled salmon filet, but if you need some cheap protein and a quick hit of omega-3 fatty acids I don't know if it can be beat for the price.

Nigella uses matzo meal in place of bread crumbs to fry these fish cakes, but I used panko instead since I had it in my cabinet.

For the fish cakes:
1.5 to 2 cups cold mashed potatoes
14.5 ounces canned salmon, drained
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled (optional--only use if the mashed potato hasn't got any butter in it)
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
Salt and pepper (season cautiously--remember that the canned salmon will be salty and the potatoes have already been seasoned!)

For coating and frying:
2 eggs
3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs or medium grain matzo meal
scant 1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large bowl, mix together all of the fish cake ingredients with clean hands.

Cover a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Form palm sized patties of the mixture, and place on the baking sheet. I got 7 cakes out of my mixture, but I think it will vary on how much potato you have. Set the baking sheet in the refrigerator and leave the cakes to firm up for however long you can wait--at least 20 minutes. To save time in the evening, you can mix up the patties first thing in the morning and leave them to sit in the fridge all day until dinner time.

Even with this time in the fridge, you will have to handle the fish cakes very delicately during the dipping and frying process. I had one fall apart on me!

Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl and spread out the breadcrumbs on a plate. Dip each fish cake into the egg and then into the breadcrumbs, coating evenly. Warm the butter and oil in a large pan over medium high heat. When the butter is melted and starts to fizzle, fry the fish cakes on each side until golden brown and the centers are warmed through.

Rating: This is awesome

Leftovers rule! Even though the fish cake mixture smelled like cat food before I cooked it, it tasted fantastic once it was done: crunchy exterior, mild and soft interior. It wasn't overly fishy or potato-y; everything melded together nicely.

My Omnivore’s Hundred

2008-09-25T15:51:00.004-04:00

Yes, I know that I'm very late to the party on this. No, I don't expect this to be of interest to anyone but me.

For the uninitiated, the rules are:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (I did a wine tasting at Florida Orange Groves and Winery in St. Petersburg during my senior year spring break. I forget what all I tried, but it was tasty!)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (We had a blackberry bush behind my house in Maryland when I was growing up.)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~ (I think the heat would make me insane in the membrane. I am such a wimp with spicy food.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. ~~Cognac with a fat cigar~~ (I don't see this happening. Not for any particular reason; I just don't see it happening)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. ~~Phaal~~ (Again, the spiciness and I don't mix)
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. ~~Fugu~~ (No food is worth dying for, especially since I've read that fugu doesn't even taste very good)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. ~~McDonald's Big Mac Meal~~ (Not out of snobbiness; I just hate their special sauce!)
56. Spaetzle
57. ~~Dirty gin martini~~ (I'd rather have a dry vodka martini, thank you very much)
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. ~~Kaolin~~ (Maybe if I were starving?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. ~~Eggs Benedict~~ (I hate hollandaise sauce)
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (I wish. I did eat lunch at one though.)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

49 out of 100. Ohhh, I've got a lot of livin' to do...

Chicken Quesadilla

2008-09-24T19:32:00.006-04:00

Me and quesadillas, we go way back. I'm not sure when I started making them for after-school snacks, but it was pretty early on. Back then, I would slap salsa and cheese together in a tortilla and microwave it without further adornment. I was just interested in the melted cheese! Then I decided that I wanted the outside of the tortillas to be crispy, so I started browning them under the broiler. This led to many burned quesadillas, but I still loved them. It wasn't until I saw one of my roommates in DC making hers by letting them sit in a dry frying pan over medium-high heat until lightly browned on each side that I realized her method was the way to go. What can I say, I'm slow sometimes!

They are also my favorite thing to order in bars or other low-to-mid priced restaurants. The woman who worked the grill at the deli across the street from my last job did a damn tasty quesadilla; it was pretty much the only thing I would get when I had lunch out. The best quesadillas I have ever had were from an unlikely source: the student cafe at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. I worked on a campaign out there for a short time in 2002, and our office was about a mile away from SBC. I ate lunch at the Bistro as much as possible. Greatest 5 weeks of my life? Possibly. I wish I knew what their secret was.

I won't insult your intelligence with a recipe for quesadillas! These were pretty basic: just salsa, co-jack cheese, and shredded leftover roast chicken. Sometimes I'll saute some onion slices, pepper strips, and chopped garlic to include in the filling. Adding fresh cilantro is always a good idea.

Rating: This is awesome

Frugal Thoughts

2008-09-24T10:29:00.006-04:00

Frugality is on everyone's minds these days. With our crazy economic situation and the government's current band-aid-on-a-gaping-wound response to it, it seems like we'll all be standing in the bread line sooner or later! Am I the only one who is totally ready for the new TV season and end-of-the-year glut of movie releases? I need some good escapism right about now.

I've been re-evaluating my lifestyle quite a bit over the past several months to try to cut corners. The most-repeated frugality tip out there is to cook your own food; eating out tends to be the biggest portion of the average person's discretionary spending. I consider myself pretty lucky that I know how to cook AND I enjoy doing it. Since I already know the basics, I've been thinking of ways to challenge myself to cut the grocery bill even further.

I set a goal for this week: make a Sunday Night Dinner and use up the leftovers in other dinners before next Sunday. I bought a 6 pound chicken to roast, since chickens were on sale, and made it with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. I even made gravy from the pan drippings, which I hardly ever bother to do! After dinner I discarded the chicken skin (it does NOT reheat well) , pulled the uneaten chicken into strips for later use, and boxed up the rest of the stuff in separate containers.

My plan for tonight is to make chicken quesdillas. That will use up the chicken. If there's anything left after tonight, it should be easy enough to throw it into a stir-fry or curry or something later in the week. Tomorrow night I'm going to make salmon fishcakes with the mashed potatoes, using budget-friendly canned salmon. I'll probably serve the leftover broccoli as a side with this. So that just leaves the gravy. I have no clue what to do with it! Any ideas? I could always just freeze it and use it the next time I roast a chicken, but that seems like less fun than coming up with a way to recycle it now!

Since we're on the topic, here are a few of my favorite frugal links:

http://www.home-ec101.com/
http://frugalupstate.blogspot.com/
http://getrichslowly.org/blog/
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm

That last one scares me a bit, but it's nice to know that it can be done, right?

Nom Nom Nom

2008-07-14T22:04:00.004-04:00

I spent the past week at Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina with my extended family. We rented a beach house and packed in 18 people. Oldest age: 79. Youngest age: 3. It was good times!
I know this blog is supposed to be about dinners, but I really want to share this picture that Wei snapped of my lunch the day we ate at the Giggling Mackerel:

A succulent yet crispy, utterly delicious soft shell crab sandwich. Perfection on a bun. I removed the pickle and onion, but I ate pretty much everything else on the plate. Ahhhhh, vacation.

In other news, someone came to my blog today by googling: Mike wants to make meatloaf. His recipe uses a total of 5 pounds of meat. If he uses a 3 to 1 ratio of beef to pork, how much pork will he use? I was the first result; I have no idea why.

Leave the answer in the comments and I will send you a super special prize! Math isn't my strong suit, and my brain doesn't want to work out the answer right now. I am more interested in the finding out who this Mike guy is and discovering why he is making a FIVE POUND meatloaf. Also, does Mike accept dinner guests?

Stay in school, kids.

Stir-fried Pork with Green Onions and Noodles

2008-07-13T13:29:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, Wei and I drove up to the Baltimore/DC area for his brother's wedding. We had an excellent time celebrating and hanging out with his family! While we were over at his parents' house one day, my mother-in-law gave me a copy of Chinese Cuisine by Huang Su-Huei.

If you're interested in learning authentic Chinese cooking from a beginner's standpoint, this book is a great resource. It has a lengthy "how-to" section with tons of pictures depicting different cooking techniques and ingredients. Most of the recipes don't seem terribly difficult, and each page has a large picture of the finished dish to point you in the right direction. The author also notes in which region the dish is found. I'm really looking forward to cooking my way through it!

Last night I chose to make this simple stir fry from Beijing. Since I didn't feel like making rice, I boiled up some spaghetti noodles and tossed them into the wok at the end. You could leave the noodles out and serve this over rice instead.

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of excess fat and silverskin
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 really fat green onions, or 6 normal sized green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Soy sauce
Sugar
Rice wine or sherry
Corn or peanut oil
6 to 8 ounces spaghetti noodles, cooked
Ginger oil (or other flavored oil), optional
Sesame oil, optional
White pepper, optional

Cut the pork into 2/3-inch slices. Cover the meat slices with a piece of plastic wrap and bash them around a bit with a meat mallet to tenderize. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the garlic, cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and 1/2 tablespoon each of rice wine or sherry, water, and sugar. Toss the pork slices in the soy sauce mixture and stir to coat the meat well.

Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in a wok over high heat. Add the pork and stir-fry until both sides are golden brown. Move the meat to one side of the wok and toss the green onions into the middle; stir fry until the onions are fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar to the contents of the wok. Stir in the noodles and keep stirring until everything is mixed together. Finish off with a couple of dashes each of ginger oil, sesame oil, and white pepper. Remove and serve.

Rating: This is awesome

Though very simple, this dish was a satisfying dinner. I loved how it came together so quickly, and having all of my different bottles on the counter next to the wok made me feel like a witch concocting a potion!

Turkey-Zucchini Burgers

2008-06-26T20:18:00.006-04:00

These burgers are based on this recipe that I found on RealSimple.Com. I was pretty skeptical about using grated zucchini in burgers; how could that be good? I was afraid they would turn out like Eddie Murphy's momma's welfare green pepper burgers. However, I decided to go for it, since the recipe had good reviews and I had a zucchini that needed to be eaten. Also, I was strangely attracted to the idea of having all of my meal elements--meat, vegetable, and carb--in one hand-held package.

The burgers turned out to be very tasty--juicy, light, and earthy. Definitely better than the McDonnnnalds!

1 pound ground turkey (I used an 85/15 mix)
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 green onions, minced
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 and 1/2 teaspoons grill seasoning
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Wrap the grated zucchini in the middle of a clean dish towel, and wring out the excess water over the sink.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix lightly but thoroughly with clean hands. Form the mixture into 4 equal patties. You can cook these in a large skillet, grill pan, or over an outdoor grill; being an apartment dweller, I chose the grill pan. I spritzed it with a little nonstick cooking spray and let it warm up for a couple of minutes over high heat. When the pan was sizzling hot, I placed the burgers on the pan's ridges and cooked them for about 6 minutes per side. If you're crazy like me, you can cut one open to make sure they are no longer pink and fully cooked through before eating.

Toast a bun (whole wheat is my preference) and serve the burger clamped inside with whatever burger toppings you choose. I have condiment phobia, so I ate mine plain ; it was very good regardless!

Rating: This is awesome

I found that Pringles Select Honey Chipotle Sweet Potato Chips were the perfect accompaniment to this simple summertime dinner.

Slow Cooker Pork Spare Ribs

2008-05-05T20:24:00.006-04:00

Or, another in a series of cooking cheap meat that was on sale at Publix!

Having never made spare ribs at home before, I needed some guidance. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.Com. I was a little wary of using canned soup in the slow cooker; it reminded me of something a certain semi-ho would do. However, I decided to go for it because (a) it wasn't cream of crap soup, (b) the recipe had a lot of good reviews., and (c) I had everything else I needed in my pantry. I tweaked it a little bit, but not much.

I was worried that the sauce would be too greasy. To remedy this, I decided to cook the ribs overnight and chill them in the fridge during the day. I scooped off all of the day-glo orange hardened grease that was floating on top of the sauce when I got home from work tonight and re-heated everything in the slow-cooker for an hour while I went for a run. It worked very well! The sauce was savory and sweet, not fatty.

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Tabasco sauce (as much or as little as you want, or none at all)
1 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds pork spare ribs

Bring copious amounts of water to boil in a pot large enough to hold the ribs. Drop the ribs in and let them cook for 15 minutes. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and remove the ribs from the water. Lay the ribs in the slow cooker and pour the sauce over top. Flip the ribs over a couple of times to coat them with the sauce. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or overnight.

Take the ceramic insert out of the slow cooker and place it in the refrigerator for several hours. When it's totally chilled, use a spoon to scoop off the hardened grease puddles floating on top of the sauce. Place the ceramic insert back in the slow cooker and heat on low for an hour. Shred the meat off the bones and serve with rice, plenty of sauce and, if you feel like it, a little chopped cilantro on top.

Rating: This is awesome

It took some planning and time but hardly any effort. Just the kind of trade-off I like :-)

Aussie Meat Pies, Made Quick

2008-04-20T21:06:00.004-04:00

This afternoon found me scanning the Publix weekly ads online, trying to think of stuff to make for the week. Ground chuck was on sale, so I decided to pick some up, even though I usually shy away from fatty ground beef. I found this recipe for faux Aussie Meat Pies after a quick flip through Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats and decided it was worth a try for two reasons: (a) I could cook the beef and drain off the fat before commencing with the rest of the recipe, and (b) it uses luscious, delicious puff pastry for the pie component.

Since I've never been to Australia, I have no idea if this bears much similarity to a real Australian meat pie; considering that it is courtesy of Rachael Ray, probably not :-) There actually is a place called Australian Bakery Cafe in East Atlanta that specializes in meat pies. I need to check it out sometime!

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 and 1/3 pounds ground chuck
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon grill seasoning
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, or whatever your package of puff pastry calls for.

Lay out the sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured cutting board. Cut it into 6 roughly equal sized rectangles and arrange on a cookie sheet. Season the pastry pieces with a little salt and pepper, and bake according to package directions or until golden brown all over, about 12 minutes. Cool on a cookie rack for 5 minutes.

Warm up a deep-sided pan over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add the beef and break it up well as it browns. When the beef is no longer pink, drain it in a colander suspended over a bowl to catch the grease. You can dispose of the grease in your trash can when it has cooled down a little. Place the drained beef back in the pan and add the onion and garlic. Saute over medium-high heat until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and let cook for a couple of minutes. In a small bowl, combine the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and brown sugar, then whisk in the beef broth. Pour the broth mixture into the pan and stir to incorporate. Sprinkle the grill seasoning over the beef and turn down the heat to low. Let the contents of the pan simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

To serve, gently pull apart one of the puff pastry pieces in half, like a hamburger bun. Place the bottom piece of the pastry in a shallow bowl. Spoon over roughly 1/6th of the meat mixture and crown with the bronzed, puffy peaked top piece of the pastry. Dig in!

Rating: This is awesome

This was a true 30 Minute Meal (I usually find that RR's concoctions may take 30 minutes in theory, but not practice), and it was very satisfying. She wrote that it tastes like "a ritzy version of a sloppy joe." I can't put it any better than that!

Moroccan Chicken Stew

2008-04-16T20:45:00.004-04:00

This recipe is both an "-ish" and a MacGuyver. I don't claim that it's actually Moroccan; I simply rummaged through the spice cabinet and added anything that seemed vaguely north African. I don't know how authentic the other ingredients are either. I was just using up some random stuff I had laying around. That being said, it turned into a very tasty and fast meal!

The pictures that I took of the finished product came out horribly, so I won't post any.

1 medium onion, finely sliced into half moons
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium potato, unpeeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons raisins
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Warm up the olive oil in a deep sided pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions to the pan and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the coriander, cumin, turmeric, and a few healthy shakes of salt and pepper and stir to coat the onions with the spices. Toss in the potatoes, garlic, and raisins. Pour the chicken broth over everything and crank the heat to bring it up to a boil. Add the cardamom pods and bay leaf then cover the pan with a lid. Bring the heat down to low and let simmer for ten minutes.

Season the chicken breast chunks well with salt and pepper. After the pan has simmered for ten minutes, add the chicken and stir. Place the lid back on the pan and let it simmer for another ten minutes. When the time is up, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Fish out the cardamom pods and bay leaf. Dissolve the cornstarch in an equal amount of water to make a slurry. Pour into the pan to thicken the sauce and let it bubble away for another minute.

Serve the stew over freshly made couscous or white rice.

Rating: This is awesome

I never post without pictures, but I still wanted to write up this one so I wouldn't forget it. It was that good!

Char Siu Fried Rice

2008-04-08T20:35:00.003-04:00

When Wei and I first started dating, he made me fried rice. Hah, those were the days when he cooked for me. The fried rice was great, but I asked him where was the roast pork. "You know, the little red pieces of pork that Chinese restaurants put in fried rice." "Oh," he said. "You buy that at the Asian grocery store."

Hm.

Well now, years later, I've found a way to make a pretty close approximation of char siu at home. The recipe comes from the Low-Fat chapter of How to Eat; it uses lean pork tenderloin instead of the traditional, but more fatty, pork shoulder. Nigella says that it "is not quite char siu, it's just char siu-ish." I agree; the flavor is almost perfect. It was a great addition to the fried rice. Speaking of, the rice can take more vegetables besides those that I've listed here; this is just my basic list. Some of my favorites are frozen peas and shiitake mushrooms, but you can really use whatever suits your tastes.

For the char siu:

One pork tenderloin, trimmed of silverskin and excess fat
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons honey
2 scant tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Thai chili sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

For the fried rice:

2 eggs, beaten lightly with a little bit of salt
1 onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into thin coins
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups of cooked rice, at least a day old
Soy sauce
Chicken broth
Peanut oil
White pepper (optional)

Cut the pork tenderloin in half lengthwise. Whisk together all of the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Place the tenderloin pieces in a large plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Squish everything around to coat the pork. Leave in the fridge for 24 hours or overnight.

To cook the pork, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Take the pork out of the marinade, reserving the marinade. Line a baking dish with tin foil and place the pork in it. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F. Take the pork out and brush over some of the reserved marinade. Bake for another 15 minutes, brushing more of the marinade over the pork at 5 minute intervals. Remove from the oven and let the pork cool before cutting it into bite sized pieces for the fried rice.

Warm up a tablespoon of peanut oil in a large wok over high heat. Pour in the beaten eggs and leave them to cook for about a minute--do not touch them! The idea is to make a rough omelette, not scrambled eggs. Flip the egg over to cook the wet side for another minute. When the egg is fully cooked, remove it to a plate.

Warm up another tablespoon of peanut oil over high heat and toss in the onion. Cook until soft, a few minutes. Add the carrot and garlic to the wok and stir fry until the carrot loses its bite, 4 or 5 minutes. Break up the rice into small clumps and put it into the wok. Add a couple of splashes of chicken broth and a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce. Cover contents of the wok with your largest lid and let the rice steam for a couple of minutes. Uncover and stir to combine everything. Add the chopped pork and cooked egg and stir to combine again, breaking up the egg as you do so. Taste and add a bit more soy sauce if you think it needs it. Sprinkle over some white pepper to finish.

Rating: this is awesome

I am really excited about the char siu-ish recipe! It would be great in soup or a noodle dish. I'll definitely be making it again.

Lemon and Parmesan Breaded Chicken Cutlet with Roast Potatoes and Nutmeg'd Spinach

2008-04-07T21:37:00.008-04:00

My apologies for the wordy title! I swear I'm not putting on airs.

If I was pressed to name one, I would say that this is currently my favorite dinner. The spinach takes about 3 minutes to cook, while the chicken and potatoes involve very little heavy kitchen labor. The final creation is almost effortlessly satisfying and tasty. It's not haute cuisine, but I love it on a Monday night.

The chicken is a basic breaded chicken cutlet, jazzed up a bit with lemon zest and Parmesan cheese. The roast potatoes are how I make them when I have no fresh herbs on hand--very rushed weeknight, dahhhling. I got the preparation for the spinach from the vegetable chapter of Delia Smith's How to Cook. If you've never seen it, she lists almost every vegetable that you can buy in the grocery store and gives a couple of ideas for simple ways to prepare them. It's a great resource for the days when you don't care how, you just want to get a vegetable on the table.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
Zest of one lemon
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg

3 medium russet potatoes, unpeeled and cut in 1/2 - 3/4 inch dice
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 10-ounce bag of washed and trimmed spinach leaves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Olive oil
Salt and pepper

You should start the potatoes first, since they take the longest to cook. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the cut-up potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle some olive oil over them--anywhere from 1 to 2 tablespoons. Season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle the dried thyme on top, making sure to rub it between your finger tips while doing so to release its herb-i-ness. Using clean hands, toss the potatoes with the oil and seasonings, making sure all pieces are coated. Bake for 20 minutes, then take the baking sheet out. Using a sturdy spatula, toss the potatoes around so they brown evenly. Bake for another 20 minutes.

You will need two dinner plates and a pie plate (or cake pan) for coating the chicken cutlets. Place the flour on one plate and sprinkle in about 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Toss with a fork to distribute the seasonings. On the other plate, spread out the breadcrumbs. Using your finger tips, toss the lemon zest and Parmesan through the breadcrumbs. Crack open the egg in the pie plate. Add about a tablespoon of water to the egg and whisk lightly but thoroughly.

Cover the chicken breast pieces with a piece of plastic wrap and pound to a uniform thickness. (Note: the world will not end if you skip this step--it just helps the chicken to cook evenly) Take off the plastic wrap. In a large skillet, warm up 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. One at a time, dip the chicken pieces first in the flour, shaking off excess. Coat with the egg, and then press the chicken into the breadcrumbs, using your fingers to help them adhere to the egg. Lay the chicken in the skillet and let cook for about 4 or 5 minutes on the first side, 3 minutes on the other side. Times will vary based on the thickness of the chicken and the heat of your pan. The chicken is cooked when it feels unyielding to the touch. Set the chicken pieces on a paper towel-lined plate to blot off the excess oil.

For the spinach, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a soup pot over high heat. Throw in the spinach leaves, season with salt, and cover the pot. After one minute, uncover the pot and stir the spinach around, getting the unwilted pieces on top to the bottom. Cover and let cook for another minute. When all of the spinach is totally wilted, remove it to a colander. Press down on the spinach with a wooden spoon to drain the excess water out of it. Put the spinach back in the pot and season with a little more salt, some pepper, and the nutmeg. Stir to distribute the seasonings and let the spinach sit in the warm pot for a minute or so.

Plate and serve! It's nice with a bit of fresh lemon juice squeezed on the chicken and spinach, but it's not mandatory.

Rating: This is awesome

You know how I feel--this is an excellent basic, hunger-killing dinner.

Rosemary Roast Chicken and Potatoes

2008-03-01T11:15:00.011-05:00

I love having roast chicken with potatoes for a weeknight dinner that feels like a feast. As long as you're not too ravenous to wait out the cooking time, it's very easy to put together and low stress. You can't help feeling like royalty when you have a bronzed bird like this to carve up:
I decided to flavor this one with some of the leftover rosemary I had from Monday night's cacciatore. I always make a baking sheet full of potatoes when I roast a chicken, too. I didn't bother with a "real" vegetable this time, but sometimes I'll olive-oil-and-salt a panful of cut up broccoli and stick it in the oven to cook while the chicken is having its post-roast rest. It only needs 10 to 15 minutes.

1 whole chicken, giblets removed, weighing around 4 pounds (preferably at room temperature, but this isn't always possible on a week night)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (I place it on my counter before I leave for work in the morning to soften it)
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped and divided
1 teaspoon celery salt
2 whole sprigs of fresh rosemary
Olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.5 - 2 pounds russet potatoes, unpeeled, cut into roughly 1/2" dice

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F and place your chicken breast-side up in a roasting pan. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, 1 tablespoon of rosemary, the celery salt, and a drop of olive oil. Carefully massage the butter mixture under the skin of the bird's breasts and thigh joints. You can see in the picture above where the butter ended up on my chicken--it's the darker brown patches of skin.

Drizzle a small amount of olive oil oven the chicken to help the skin crisp in the oven. Season the entire bird liberally with salt and pepper. Place the whole sprigs of rosemary in the chicken's cavity. Roast for 70 minutes, or 15 minutes per pound, plus 10 minutes overall. This is Nigella's method from How to Eat, and it hasn't failed me yet!

Once the chicken is in the oven, commense with chopping the potatoes. Spread them out in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet (aka, cookie sheet), and drizzle with a few glugs of olive oil. Sprinkle over the rest of the chopped rosemary and a couple of teaspoons of salt. With clean hands toss the potatoes to evenly coat with the oil and seasonings. Place the pan of potatoes in the oven when the chicken has about 50 minutes left. About halfway through their cooking time, toss the potatoes with a sturdy plastic spatula to ensure that you don't end up with any burned pieces.

When the cooking time is finished, remove the chicken from the oven. Check for doneness with a meat thermometer, or pierce one of the thighs with a knife tip to make sure the juices run clear. Remove the rosemary sprigs and leave the bird to sit for about 15 minutes. While annoying, this step is necessary for the meat to re-absorb its juices before you cut into it. Take out the potatoes and place in a covered bowl to keep warm while the chicken rests.

I'm not a very good carver; when it's just Wei and I eating, I will cut the chicken into quarters only, since he'll eat the dark meat and I'll eat the white. This is my method: place the chicken on a large cutting board. Bring your knife down cleanly through the thigh joint, releasing the leg quarter. For the white meat, slide your knife vertically along the breast bone. Cut the breast meat into 5 or 6 widthwise "chunks" once it's off of the carcass. Eating the crunchy, salty skin from the breast is a must for me, so I try to keep it attached while I'm carving. Pile up your plate with the meat of your choice and some of the potatoes. For a cook's treat, don't forget to flip the bird over and pluck out the chicken oysters from the back for yourself!

Rating: This is awesome

I like to pull any leftover meat off the carcass into strips and stash it in the fridge to use for some other delicious preparation later in the week. I'm partial to chicken quesadillas, but the possibilities are endless. I also break up the chicken bones and leave them in the freezer to make stock once I have 3 carcasses saved up.

Pollo alla Cacciatora

2008-02-25T20:53:00.014-05:00

Nigella Lawson came into my life when I needed her very much. I was studying abroad in London in the Fall of 2000, but living in a town in the northern suburbs called Harrow. The majority of the kids from my school in my program were living in flats in the city--I had been duped into volunteering for a new home-stay arrangement that the study abroad office at my college wanted to try out. At the time I agreed to it, I thought that I would be living in the city also, so I was very disappointed that summer when I got a letter from the home-stay agency and realized that it was not to be. I pushed myself to be social and go out every night possible, but the truth was that most weeknights I ended up back home before the tube stopped running. Luckily, the family with whom I stayed was really cool, and I had a room all to myself with my very own TV. I spent many an evening curled up on my cozy bed, studying, drinking tea, and exploring British television.

Nigella Bites had just started that autumn, and she was getting a lot of press attention. My house mother had a copy of How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Foodsitting on the huge sideboard in the kitchen. The first time I caught her show on Channel 4, it was like taking a pleasant, mild sedative. I was stressed out with work, school, friend drama, and missing my boyfriend back in the States. I loved my temporary home, but I felt little peace there. It was wonderful to watch Nigella moving around on the TV screen, bringing elegance and order to her kitchen and family. I was soothed, knowing that in at least one corner of London, someone was leading a calm, beautiful life, or so it seemed!

Suffice it to say, I was very excited when Food Network started carrying her shows in 2006. I love her books, but watching her is the true Nigella experience. I think that her new series, Nigella Express, has been good, but not great. Her persona and presenting style are a little over the top now! I'm sure it's a purely marketing-related decision, but I miss the more subdued and witty Nigella of the Bites days. In the episode I caught this weekend she made an "express" version of chicken cacciatore that looked very tasty. Having most of the ingredients on hand, I decided to give it a shot tonight. I deviated from her notes a little bit, so here's my version!

1 tablespoon olive oil
5 strips of bacon, cut or snipped with kitchen shears into bite-size pieces
6 green onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 cup chicken stock or broth
1-14 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper

Put the oil in a dutch oven or soup pot and warm over high heat. Put the bacon, green onions, garlic, and rosemary into the pot and fry for a couple of minutes. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and add to the pot, stirring well. Sprinkle in the celery salt. Cook for a few minutes until the chicken starts to brown a little.

Pour in the chicken stock and bring up to a bubble. Stir in the tomatoes, bay leaves, and sugar. Put the lid on the pot and let the contents simmer for 20 minutes. When the time is up, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Remove the bay leaves and serve over rice.

Rating: This is awesome

It was a quick, comforting dish, just the thing for a chilly Monday night!

Szechuan-Style Pork & Bell Pepper

2008-01-30T20:25:00.000-05:00

I got this recipe from a book that I found in the bargain section of the bookstore a couple of weeks ago, Perfect Chinese. It turned out really well; the rice vinegar gave the sauce a tangy note that complimented the spice of the crushed red pepper flakes. I loved that it had 4 different kinds of vegetables in it! It makes me feel better about the ice cream I'm going to have for dessert in a little bit ;-)

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of excess fat and silverskin
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons soy sauce, plus 1 tablespoon for marinade
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chicken broth
Peanut oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
1 zucchini, cut into long matchsticks
1 carrot, peeled and cut into long matchsticks
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (use more if you want it spicier!)
White pepper

Slice the tenderlion against the grain into roughly 1/4-inch thick slices. Cut each slice into 2 or 3 strips. Place the pork in a bowl and pour in 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce and sprinkle over the crushed red pepper flakes. Stir to coat and let the meat marinade while you chop the vegetables.

Combine the rest of the soy sauce, cornstarch, rice vinegar, chicken broth, and garlic in a small bowl. Whisk to dissolve the cornstarch, then set aside. Warm up one tablespoon of oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. When the oil is smoking, add the pork and marinade mixture and stir-fry until the pork is no longer pink, 3 or 4 minutes. Remove the pork to a plate with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Warm up another tablespoon of oil in the wok or skillet over high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until they soften, 3 or 4 minutes. Throw in the zucchini and carrot and continue to stir-fy until the carrot loses its bite, about another 4 minutes. Add the pork and any accumulated juices back to the pan and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Bring it up to a boil and let it bubble and thicken for a minute. Give everything a final sprinkle of white pepper. Serve over freshly made rice.

Rating: This is awesome

It was very easy to make: a lot of chopping, but I'm coming to love my spacing-out-while-chopping time every evening. It was a very tasty result for not a lot of work!

Soy Braised Chicken Thighs

2008-01-27T10:37:00.000-05:00

In an effort to cut down our grocery bill, I bought a big package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, rather than our usual, more expensive, big package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Like most female, white Americans of a certain age, I have an unfounded fear of dark poultry meat. I'm not sure why, but the gobs of fat and reddish, fibrous meat on thighs are spooky to me. I've read enough to know that all chefs prefer the flavor of dark meat to the non-flavor of white meat, and I have to agree with them there. I still don't love prepping thighs (breast portions are so much easier), but I'm determined to get more comfortable with them and make dark meat the rule, with white meat becoming the occasional exception.

One way to learn to love the dark (meat) is to cook it in ways with which white meat simply would not work. Braising is one such technique; the lengthy cooking in liquid would turn white meat dessicated and rubbery. Dark meat stays flavorful and moist, and its natural juiciness turns the braising liquid into a tasty, savory sauce at the end. After much googling last night, I came across this recipe for an Asian-inspired chicken braise. The flavor of the salty-sour cooking liquid is enhanced by whole star anise, a cinnamon stick, and strips of orange peel.

The star anise and cinnamon are best bought at your local Asian grocery store. Such "exotic" ingredients are marked up at chain groceries, while at an Asian store, you can buy big bags of the stuff for under $2 each.

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup chicken broth or stock
1- 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
Peanut oil
3 green onions, white and green parts separated, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon of minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
5 short strips of orange peel, removed with a vegetable peeler
2 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, honey, and chicken broth. Set aside for later.

In a dutch oven, warm up a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. When the oil is hot, add the chicken to the pot in an even layer to brown. You will probably have to do this in 2 batches, unless you have a very big pot! Let the chicken cook for about 5 minutes on each side, until golden and seared. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Pour off all but about one tablespoon of fat from the pot. Return it to medium heat, and throw in the white part of the green onions, garlic, ginger, and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir around for about half a minute, until you can smell the garlic and ginger. Pour in the reserved soy mixture. Top off with more chicken broth and soy sauce if needed to reach a depth of about 1/4 inch of liquid. Stir to combine, and add the orange peel, cinnamon, and star anise.

Add the chicken thighs back to the pot, adding any accumulated juices from the plate. Cover with a lid and place in the lower third of the oven. After 15 minutes, turn the chicken pieces over with tongs and top off with more chicken broth if needed to maintain the 1/4 inch of liquid. Replace the lid and let cook in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until fork tender.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a serving platter and cover with tin foil to keep warm. Remove the orange peel, cinnamon, and star anise from the pot, place over a medium high heat, and bring the liquid up to a simmer. Skim off any surface fat if desired. Stir in the green part of the green onions.

Make a slurry out of the cornstarch and a tablespoon of either chicken broth or water. Pour into the pot and stir to thicken. Let it bubble up for a minute and taste for seasoning. If it's too salty, add a bit of vinegar. If it's too sour, add a bit more soy sauce. Take the foil off the chicken, and carefully pour in any juices from the platter.

Spoon the sauce over the chicken. Serve with rice or egg noodles.

Rating: This is awesome

I tried to refrain myself from slurping the sauce out of my bowl when the chicken and rice were gone. No such luck.

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

2008-01-22T21:04:00.000-05:00

Hmm, let's see if I can remember how to do this :-)

I can't make homemade pizza and not think about my father. He was very proud of his pizza, and he used to make it almost every week when I was growing up. He would always make it on a Saturday, starting during the afternoon, which made me think that it was labor-intensive. In truth, this was a really easy weeknight dinner! I used this recipe for a make-ahead dough. With the help of my stand mixer, it came together in under 5 minutes this morning. Even if you don't have a mixer, I think you could still make it in 10 minutes.

I let the dough rise for an hour while I got ready for work and punched it down just before heading out the door. It sat all day in the fridge. When I got home this evening, all I had to do was saute the sausage and mushrooms, roll out the dough, assemble the pizza, and bake it off. Less than 45 minutes after I came in the front door, I had a hot, fresh pizza to chow down!

Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 envelope (1/4 ounce) dry active yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for coating bowl

Pizza
1 pound hot Italian turkey sausage
8 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup tomato sauce, homemade or jarred
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
Olive oil for drizzling
Sea or kosher salt

Stir the yeast into 3/4 cup of warm water (105 degrees F - 115 degrees F) and let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Put the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour over the water-yeast mixture. Stir together until the dough is a shaggy mass. Sprinkle a work surface with flour and knead the dough until smooth and springy, about 1 minute. Alternatively, use the paddle attachment on your stand mixer to do the initial mixing, and switch to the dough hook for the kneading.

Lightly coat a medium sized bowl with olive oil and place the dough in it. Cover with a dish towel and let rise for an hour. Punch the dough down and transfer it to an airtight container. Leave in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

When you're ready to make the pizza, take the dough out of the fridge. Punch it down again and let it sit while you get everything else ready. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Take the casings off the sausage and place in a large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, breaking the sausage up into bite sized pieces, until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Place the sausage on a plate and set aside. Warm up a tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet and saute the mushrooms until they release their liquid and turn brown.

Dust a work surface with flour and roll out your pizza dough until it will fit your pan. Drizzle olive oil over the rolled out dough and brush or smooth with your hands over the surface of the dough. Gently place the dough in your pan, oiled side down. You could also spread the olive oil out in your pan first and then flop the dough into it (I can't do this because my pan has holes in the bottom to keep the crust crisp!). Press the dough into the sides of your pan to form a crust.

Spread tomato sauce over the dough with the back side of a spoon and sprinkle with sea salt. Evenly place the sausage, mushrooms, and garlic over the pizza. Top with the mozzarella cheese and basil and scatter over the parmesan cheese for the final touch. Bake for 15 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes after taking it out of the oven. Cut into wedges and serve!

Rating: This is awesome

The great thing about pizza is that you can change it up to totally meet your tastes and what you have in the fridge. The dough is your canvas!

Minute Steaks

2007-12-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

This is another dish from my childhood; my father used to make it often. Minute steaks, also known as cube steaks, aren't steak at all; they're tenderized cuts of top round beef. They're fabulously inexpensive (sometimes you can even find them less per pound than ground beef), which make them very attractive when you need a cheap red meat fix. However, you have to braise them for a good length of time to break down the connective tissue. Your patience will be rewarded with fork-tender meat and a tasty, savory gravy.

1 - 1.5 pounds cube steak
1 medium onion, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups beef broth
2 cups water
1 tablespoon grill seasoning
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)

Warm up one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep sided pan. Add the onions and cook gently until they start to turn translucent and soft, about 10 minutes. Throw in the garlic and cook until fragrant, another 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and pour the onions and garlic into a small bowl.

Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and warm up over high heat. Season both sides of the steaks liberally with salt and pepper. Spread the flour out in a plate, and sprinkle in about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Toss the seasonings through the flour, and dredge each piece of steak in it, shaking off the excess. Lay the steaks in the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side to get a nice sear. Once both sides are browned, pour in the beef broth, water, and the onion/garlic mixture. Stir in the grill seasoning. Let the liquid come up to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and clamp on a lid. Let the steaks simmer for an hour, flipping them over half way through.

When the hour is up, taste the cooking liquid for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Dissolve the cornstarch in two tablespoons of cold water and pour into the pan. Give it a minute to thicken, and if it's not thick enough for you, feel free to add another slurry, using only 1 tablespoon of cornstarch this time. Stir in the parsley if you have it.

Serve a piece of steak and plenty of gravy in a shallow bowl over rice, mashed potatoes, or egg noodles.

Yep, I still don't have any flat leaf parsley on hand--I forgot about buying it at the store the other day. I'm sure the pretty flecks of green would have made this picture look less, well, poo like!

Rating: This is awesome

It ain't pretty, but it tastes really good on a cold night in December.

Shrimp Scampi Pasta

2007-12-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

(Dinner for one)

This might be my ultimate dish for solitary dining: it's fast, easy, somewhat decadent and full of garlic. Just what I want when I'm not trying to impress anybody! Of course, you can increase the amounts to feed as many people as you want; I'm a firm believer that heavy garlic consumption at dinner doesn't matter as long as both you and your date eat it.

10 medium (41-50 count) shrimp, shelled and deveined
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 ounces linguine
A spritz of lemon juice or a splash of white wine
1-2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
Salt and pepper

Get a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta, and cook the pasta for about a minute less than it says on the package, since you'll be finishing its cooking with the shrimp.

In a large skillet, warm up the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onion and gently saute until soft and golden, about 15 minutes. Throw in the garlic and saute for another few minutes. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and add to the skillet. Cook until pink on both sides.

Drain the pasta and add to the skillet. Toss thoroughly and stir in the lemon juice or white wine. Let everything simmer together for 2 or 3 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Stir in the parmesan and some chopped flat leaf parsley if you have it (I did not). Take off the heat and serve. You might want to light a nicely-scented candle in your kitchen at this point since it will be reeking of shrimp and garlic!

Be careful not to add the shrimp too early; overcooked shrimp are the worst. If the onion and garlic have to cook a little bit longer on its own while the pasta finishes, that's fine.

Rating: This is awesome

Just lovely :-)

Sesame Chicken

2007-12-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to make a good sesame chicken dish at home for a very long time, but it has eluded me so far. I tried one preparation several months ago that just tasted like flour. Blech! When I saw this recipe on Culinary in the Desert, I thought it would be worth a try. Instead of using a heavy flour coating on the chicken, it is dipped into a mixture of cornstarch and egg whites to give it a faux deep-fried crust. I changed a couple of things in his recipe, so here's mine!

For the sauce:
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch length of fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

For the chicken:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken tenders, cut into bite-sized chunks
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 egg whites
Peanut oil
Salt and pepper

Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. If you didn't buy toasted sesame seeds, dry fry your seeds in a small skillet over medium high heat until they start to change color. Give them a flip every now and then to prevent them from burning.

Season the chicken pieces well with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and egg whites until thoroughly combined. Dip the chicken pieces in the mixture to coat. Warm up a tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over a medium high flame.

Swirl the oil around the pan and add about half of the chicken pieces. DO NOT stir fry the chicken--just let them sit there and cook until golden on the underside, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken over and let cook for another 3 or 4 minutes. The pieces will be sticking together by this point because of the egg whites. Gently break them apart from each other with a wooden spoon and turn out onto a plate. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and repeat with the rest of the chicken.

Once the second batch of chicken is cooked, throw the rest of the chicken into the skillet. Pour over the sauce, and stir to coat. Let it come up to a bubble to thicken slightly.

I served my sesame chicken over white rice and steamed broccoli.

Rating: This is not awesome

It didn't blow me away. Back to the drawing board... :-(

Spicy Orange Pork

2007-11-06T19:22:00.000-05:00

This is a variation of a recipe I saw posted on the What's Cooking board this morning (sorry...I don't remember who posted it!). I really wanted to make something new and exciting tonight, since I haven't written in here in a while, but I had no idea what the lucky dish would be; all I knew was that I wanted to use the pork tenderloin and green beans that I had in the fridge. This recipe met my criteria and is a super fun retro nod to the chinese restaurant classic of my childhood memories. Score!

1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed of visible fat and silverskin
Zest of one orange
Juice of one orange
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small onion, sliced into half moons
3/4 pounds green beans, ends trimmed
2 tablespoons peanut oil
Salt and pepper
White pepper (optional)

Get a pot of rice started first thing.

Slice the pork tenderloin into roughly 1/2-inch thick rounds against the grain, and cut each slice into 2 or 3 strips. Place in a medium sized bowl with the orange zest, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, and about 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Toss well to coat. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch, chicken broth, orange juice, soy sauce, sugar, and red pepper flakes.

Heat one tablespoon of oil on high in a wok or large, deep sided skillet. Add the pork and stir-fry until cooked through, 3 or 4 minutes. Remove the pork to a plate. Wipe down the inside of the wok with a paper towel, and add the final tablespoon of oil, warming over high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Throw in the green beans and garlic and stir-fry until tender crisp, another 4 minutes. Pour in the OJ/broth mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes up to a boil and thickens, about 1 minute. Add the pork, along with any accumulated juices, back to the wok and stir around for another minute, coating the meat and green beans in the sauce. Sprinkle a bit of white pepper over everything. Serve over rice.

My apologies for the blurry picture!

Rating: This is awesome

I loved this stir-fry preparation; it was just the "something different" I was looking for! This could easily be made with a different protein if you're not a pork fan; it would be killer with flank steak! I would probably swap out the green beans for a different veggie if I make this again. It's pretty hard (for me at least) to cook green beans just right in the wok. Maybe some bell pepper strips instead.

Shrimp Frittata

2007-10-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

I had neither eaten nor cooked a frittata, an Italian open-faced omelet, before tonight. I needed another dinner for one idea, so I gave the frittata a whirl. Now I can say that I am a huge fan!! It turned out so tasty, savory and filling, and it was quick and easy. The possibilities are endless, too; you can use any filler ingredients and herbs that you want. Here's mine--it looked so pretty when it came out of the oven:

7 large shrimp, peeled, devenied, and chopped
2 green onions, finely sliced
1/3 of a red bell pepper, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon butter
3 eggs
1 ounce parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 tablespoon fresh basil, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Milk or half & half

Preheat your broiler at its highest setting, and adjust an oven rack directly below it.

Melt the butter in a 10-inch nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper, green onion, and garlic to the pan. Season with a little salt and pepper and saute until the bell pepper is softer, about 5 minutes. Throw in the shrimp and cook until it turns pink. Whisk together the eggs, parmesan, a splash of milk or half & half, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Pour into the pan and scatter the basil over top.

Don't touch the pan and just let the eggs cook for a few minutes. When the eggs have set for the most part, but are still wet on top, take the pan off the heat and place it under the broiler. Leave it there for a couple of minutes until the edges are browning and the top sets completely. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!

Take out from under the broiler and let the pan sit for 5 minutes. Flip the frittata out onto a plate, cut into quarters, and serve.

Rating: This is awesome

This is a great dinner for when you don't feel too creative and you need to use up random ingredients, especially some bits of expensive cheese you want to stretch, or a handful of herbs about to go bad. I just love finding new budget-minded dinner options :-) It warms my cheap heart!

Taco Casserole

2007-10-23T20:46:00.000-04:00

Subtitle: In which I put together a bunch of stuff that Wei hates on a night he's not home

Wei has a job that's much cooler than mine, the perks of which include client dinners at Atlanta hot spots from time to time. I spend these nights eating a dinner that he would hate! Hah! Take that, cool job haver! Tonight, I decided to throw together a taco casserole, involving two of his least favorite foods: cheese and black beans. I don't pretend to claim that this is actual Mexican food, by the way; this is my version, based entirely on my tastes! Feel free to vary the spices however you want.

1/2 pound ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
3 large flour tortillas
6 tablespoons prepared or homemade salsa
3/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used a Mexican blend)
1 15-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed
Olive oil
Non-stick cooking spray

Warm up a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Throw in the cumin, oregano, and chili powder and stir to coat the onion in the spices. Add the ground turkey and garlic to the skillet and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the heat up and cook until the meat until no longer pink. Take the skillet off the heat and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spritz the inside of an 8-inch square baking pan with the non-stick cooking spray. Lay one tortilla at the bottom of the pan and spread 2 tablespoons of salsa over it. Layer half of the turkey-onion mixture, half of the beans, and 1/4 cup of cheese on top the tortilla. Place another tortilla over the cheese and repeat the layering process with 2 tablespoons of salsa, the rest of the turkey and beans, and 1/4 cup of cheese. Place the last tortilla on top and spread the remaining salsa and cheese over it.

Bake for 20 minutes, until everything is warmed through and the cheese is melted. Take out of the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Cut into big squares and serve. You could garnish with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, chopped cilantro, etc.

Rating: This is awesome

I ate this on the couch while watching Arrested Development - Season One--another thing Wei hates! Best night ever.

Chicken and Tomato Soup with Rice

2007-10-16T20:35:00.000-04:00

This is another recipe born from the desire to use up shit that we already had without having to go to the grocery store. It was a success! Wei was pretty dubious about using rice in a soup, and in fact, I came up with the idea based entirely on the song "Chicken Soup with Rice" from Really Rosie. But hey, you can't find out what works without taking risks!

1 onion, chopped finely
1 carrot, chopped finely
1 celery heart, chopped finely
3 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
8 cups chicken broth
6 cups water
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 2 cups of leftover cooked chicken, shredded
1 cup of leftover cooked rice
The juice of half a lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

If using raw chicken, bring a medium pot of salted water to boil. Add the chicken breasts to the boiling water and poach until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Warm up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat, and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth and water and bring up to a boil. Toss in the tomatoes, stir in the rice and let everything simmer together for a few minutes.

Take the chicken out of its cooking water and sit to cool on a cutting board for a few minutes. Shred the chicken with two forks or your fingers and add it to the soup pot along with the lime juice. Taste the broth for seasoning and add salt and pepper to your taste. Stir in the cilantro and serve.

Rating: This is awesome

I told you once, I told you twice
All seasons of the year are nice
For eating chicken soup,
Eating chicken soup with rice!

Spaghetti with Turkey Meat Sauce

2007-10-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

The weather has finally got chilly here. I'm actually having to put on a coat when I take the dogs out in the morning. Woo! I thought the humid air would never leave. Now I can start making some of my cold weather favorites! I looooove winter cooking like nothing else. There's something so primally satisfying about creating a warm, filling meal when the cold wind is whipping at your front door.

This tomato sauce is a variation of Giada's from Everyday Italian. Hers was the first homemade sauce I had ever made, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven after the first bite. I just didn't know it could taste like that--it's so bright and flavorful! Last night was the first time I tried making it with ground turkey instead of beef. I loved it; I think its light flavor actually went better with the sauce than beef's meatier taste does.

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery heart, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/2 pound ground turkey (preferably a mixture of white and dark meat)
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Warm up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Put the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in the pan and saute until the onions are soft and translucent, about 15 minutes. Turn up the heat, add the ground turkey, and season well with salt and pepper. Break up the turkey with a wooden spoon and saute until it is no longer pink.

Pour in the can of tomatoes and stir to combine. Sprinkle in the oregano and basil and add salt and pepper to your taste. Bring the heat down to low and let everything simmer and thicken for 20 to 30 minutes. Serve over spaghetti (or whatever type of pasta you want) with a little bit of freshly grated parmesan on top.

Rating: This is awesome

Thai Shrimp Soup with Lime and Cilantro

2007-10-09T21:27:00.000-04:00

Another night, another soup! This one is a variation of a recipe I got from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook. I first ate this earlier this year, when I did SBD in an effort to lose weight for the wedding. It was dinner on my first night of the diet, and I remember that it tasted so good that I thought the whole dieting thing wouldn't be too bad. The original recipe calls for 3 cups of thinly sliced napa cabbage in place of the bean thread noodles I used here.

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 inch length of fresh ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, thinly sliced into half-moons
6 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
5.25 ounces bean thread noodles
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon sugar or sugar substitute
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

To start, reconsititute the noodles. Place them in a large bowl and cover with hot water straight from the tap. Let them sit for 15 minutes, then drain the noodles and set aside.

Warm up the oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Throw in the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and cook for about a minute. Add the chicken broth and water and bring up to a boil.

Stir in the bean thread noodles. Add the shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice, lime zest, and sugar and cook just until the shrimp turn pink, about one minute. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Turn off the heat and scatter the cilantro into the soup. Serve hot.

Rating: This is awesome
The flavors are sharp and intense, but they all come together well. The noodles are tricky to catch, since they're so long. Try eating with a soup spoon in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other--grab some noodles with the chopsticks, transfer them to the spoon, scoop up some of the broth in the spoon, and slurp the whole spoonful down.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2007-10-07T22:49:00.000-04:00

After a weekend of excess, I wanted something simple and true for dinner tonight. I also wanted something I could make without going to the grocery store. A quick inventory of the kitchen proved that a pot of rustic chicken noodle soup was the way to go!

3 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 celery hearts, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 inch length of fresh ginger, grated
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
6 cups chicken broth
6 cups water
8 ounces egg noodles
2 tablespoons fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped finely
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over a medium-high flame in a large soup pot and add the carrots and celery. Saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Season the chicken pieces well with salt and pepper and add to the pot, along with the garlic and ginger. Stir the chicken around until it is evenly browned.

Add the chicken broth and water to the pot and bring up to a boil. Throw in the egg noodles and simmer until they are cooked through. Taste the soup liquid for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in the parsley and serve.

Rating: This is awesome
I sometimes use an onion in this soup too. Just chop and saute with the carrots and celery at the beginning. What are your favorite herbs for chicken noodle soup? I never know what to use, but I tend to go with just flat leaf parsley since I always have some around.

Chicken Marsala

2007-09-30T19:18:00.001-04:00

I got the preparation ideas for my chicken marsala from Thousandthdish on xanga. He hasn't posted new recipes in almost a year, which is a shame--I miss him! Oh well :-( So, here's my version, which borrows very heavily from his:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Olive oil
1 small yellow onion, sliced into half moons
1/2 pound crimini (aka baby portobello) mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup dry Marsala wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
8 oz Linguine pasta
Parmesan

Get a large pot of salted water on to boil for the linguine. You will want to drain the pasta when it's about 2 minutes away from being done, since you will be letting it cook in the sauce for a couple of minutes before serving.

Add one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan and warm up over medium-high heat. Throw in the onions, mushrooms and garlic. When the mushrooms first start to release their juices, season the contents of the pan well with salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes from the start. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

Butterfly cut the chicken breasts open, and cut lengthwise down the middle, leaving you with 4 pieces total. Place the chicken pieces between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and pound to flatten. Liberally season both sides of the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Spread the flour out on a plate and dredge each piece of chicken in it, shaking off the excess.

Add another tablespoon of butter and another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Once the butter is melted, lay the chicken pieces in the pan and don't touch them for 4 to 5 minutes. Flip them over, add a splash of Marsala to the pan, and don't touch them again for another 4 to 5 minutes. Remove to chicken to a plate.

Add the last 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan and melt. Add a tablespoon of the flour that you used for dredging the chicken and stir into the butter, making a roux. Pour in the Marsala and chicken broth, and, working quickly, scrape up all of the burned bits from the pan with a wooden spoon to incorporate them into the sauce. Let simmer for a few minutes, then toss in the rosemary and parsley.

Add the mushrooms and chicken back to the pan and stir to coat with the sauce. Add the Linguine, and toss to incorporate. I know it seems a bit daunting, but the pasta will all fit, just keep stirring and tossing. Leave the pan alone for a couple of minutes to let the pasta absorb some of the sauce. Garnish with a bit more parsley and some freshly grated parmesan. Plate and serve.

Rating: This is awesome
It was seriously tasty; September ends well.

Thai Style Pork

2007-09-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

This dish is basically the same thing as the Thai Chicken with Basil that I made last month from Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats, except with pork tenderloin in place of the chicken. I think I prefer it with the pork! It added a rounder flavor to the dish that you just can't get from chicken breast. I used one pork tenderloin, about 1 pound, and trimmed it of the visible fat and silverskin. I sliced it into thin rounds against the grain, and then cut each round into 2 or 3 strips. It cooked up tender and juicy, not overcooked in the slightest. I used a yellow bell pepper in place of the red, only because the yellow ones looked better than the red when I was at the grocery store!

Rating: This is awesome

Bacon & Waffles

2007-09-27T19:56:00.000-04:00

Ah, breakfast for dinner. I remember my ninth grade English teacher telling us once about how his mother made breakfast for dinner once a week when he was growing up (he told a lot of random stories!). He said that, at the time, he assumed she did it because she knew how much he liked breakfast food. When he got older, he realized that it was to save money. Therein lies the main attractions of breakfast for dinner: it's delicious and cheap!

For the first time tonight, I tried cooking bacon by baking it, and I am a convert! It has so many advantages over frying: no grease everywhere, no watching while it cooks, and no guesswork about when it's done. This method made perfectly done bacon: slightly chewy, not crunchy, with enough fat rendered out that you don't feel too bad about eating it! Just preheat your oven to 400 degrees and set a cooling rack inside of a baking sheet. Lay 8 slices of bacon on the cooling rack and bake for 15 minutes. Drain the cooked bacon on paper towels and enjoy the deliciousness!

This is the recipe I use for waffles; I got it from my Betty Crocker Cookbook. One batch makes 5 or 6 waffles in my Belgian Waffle Maker.

2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Start by heating your waffle iron. Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a wire whisk until light and frothy. Beat in the remaining ingredients just until smooth. Spray the inside of the waffle iron with nonstick spray and cook the waffle batter according to the manufacturer's directions. Serve immediately with your favorite topping!

Rating: This is awesome
The waffles were crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, and so tasty with maple syrup.

Chicken and Bean Thread Noodle Stir Fry

2007-09-27T10:02:00.000-04:00

Wei threw a package of bean thread noodles into our cart the last time we went to the Asian market. After doing some research to find out what they were, I decided to try using them in a stir fry. On tasting the final product, he said that it reminded him a lot of a dish that his mom used to make. Woo! I guess I'm getting better at this cooking stuff after all.

Bean thread is reconstituted the same way as rice stick--put the noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot (not boiling) water. Let stand for 15 minutes and voila!

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
5.25 ounces bean thread noodles (half of the package we bought)
1 yellow onion, cut into half-moons
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch length of fresh ginger, grated
1 head nappa cabbage, cut into strips
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Peanut oil
Soy sauce
Thai fish sauce
Rice wine
Cornstarch
Chicken broth
Salt and pepper
White pepper (optional)

Put the bean thread noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot water. Set a timer for 15 minutes. When the time is up, drain the noodles and use a pair of kitchen shears to snip them randomly a few times to shorten the strands. Toss the chicken on the cutting board with about a teaspoon each of cornstarch, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

Warm a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok over high heat. Add the chicken and stir fry until cooked, about 4 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and set aside. Heat another tablespoon of oil in the wok, and add the onions. Toss around until they start to turn translucent and are softer, about 5 minutes. Throw in the shiitakes, garlic and ginger. Cook until the mushrooms are darker and have started to release their juices, about 5 minutes.

Add the cabbage to the wok. I know it looks like you have a massive amount of cabbage at this point, but trust me, it will cook down! Add about 1/4 cup of chicken broth to the wok--this will create a steamy environment for the cabbage. Toss the cabbage around with the other ingredients the best you can until it has wilted, about 6 or 7 minutes.

Add the bean thread noodles and chicken to the wok and toss to incorporate. Stir in about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, and a splash of rice wine. Taste for seasoning and add more of the sauces if necessary. Thicken with a slurry of 1 tablespoon each of cornstarch and chicken broth. Finish with a sprinkling of white pepper.

Rating: This is awesome
I loved the texture of the bean thread; it was very different from any noodle I had eaten before.

Pork and Beef Ravioli

2007-09-25T21:48:00.001-04:00

Ah, ravioli made with wonton skins. I've been wanting to make this since I first heard of it. It's perfect for me because I (a) am too lazy to make fresh pasta and (b) have a shitload of wonton skins in the freezer. So now that I have finished my first batch of them, I have to say, I don't think that dealing with the non-flavor of the skins is worth the convenience! Making the ravioli is still fairly time consuming, with the stuffing and the cooking, so why not just take some extra time to make the pasta by hand? Fresh pasta would taste much better. Of course, I say this having no clue how to make pasta and most definitely lacking the necessary kitchen hardware! So yeah, I'll probably keep making ravioli with wonton skins again anyway :-)

I made my ravioli by pressing two wonton skins together to make a big square ravioli with a lump of meat in the middle. I think that was a bad idea. My stomach is really annoyed with all the excess pasta that is in it right now. If I could do it again, I would form each one from a single wonton skin in a triangular shape like this guy did. So that's the method I recommend to you. If you still want to use the method with two skins, trim some of the excess pasta around the edges of your ravioli pieces at the very least--you don't need it, and it doesn't add any flavor.

I chose to serve mine with marinara sauce, but you could use any sauce you like, or even float them in a simple broth. For the meat filling, I used the 3 to 1 ratio of beef to pork because those are the amounts I had on hand. Feel free to vary the ratio however you want.

1 package square wonton wrappers
3/4 pound ground beef
1/4 pound ground pork
2 eggs
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Add the meats, bread crumbs, basil and parsley, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg, parmesan and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper to a medium bowl. Lightly beat one of the eggs in a coffee mug (or similar vessel) and pour over the other ingredients. Mix everything together thoroughly.

Crack the other egg into a bowl and beat it with about 1/8 cup of water to make an egg wash. To assemble the ravioli, place one wonton skin, floury side down, on a cutting board. Place a scant tablespoon-sized lump of filling in the middle of the dough. Using a pastry brush, paint the edges of any two consecutive sides of the square wonton skin with the egg wash. Fold the skin diagonally in half over the filling and press to seal. Be sure to coax out any bubbles. Repeat until you run out of filling or wonton skins. If you run out of skins first, like I did, put your leftover filling in the freezer and save it for another time!

Bring a large pot of salted water to a fierce boil. Add the ravioli to the pot in batches of 6 or 8. Stir around for the first minute each batch is in the pot so they don't stick together. Leave the ravioli in the boiling water until the pasta and filling are both fully cooked, which took me about 5-7 minutes per batch. Using a slotted spoon, remove the ravioli, one by one, to a baking sheet. If needed, top off the pot with fresh boiling water from a tea kettle or microwave between each batch.

At some point during this, make your serving sauce of choice. I sauteed a chopped yellow onion with some garlic in a large pan until it was soft, then added a jar of store bought marinara and a splash of dry sherry. It simmered away on the stove while I was cooking the ravioli.

Sorry for another blurry picture!

Rating: This is awesome
I loved the filling! But just...too...much...pasta. All...blood...in...stomach...not...brain.

Italian Wedding Soup

2007-09-24T21:31:00.000-04:00

Italian wedding soup doesn't actually get served at weddings in Italy. It's a mistranslation in English of the Italian name for the soup, which originally connoted that the flavors of the greens and meat go well, or marry well, together. I agree completely! This is one of Wei's favorite dinners, and I've grown pretty fond of it too over the past year as I've perfected my recipe. It's a great one pot meal, with lots of veggies, pasta, and tender meatballs.

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 cups spinach leaves, chopped into strips
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup orzo pasta
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 ounce of parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Put a couple of tablespoons of the olive oil to a large soup pot and warm up over medium heat. Add the onion and carrot to the pot and saute until soft, about 10 minutes.

For the meatballs, combine the ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, herbs, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Form the mixture into bite sized meatballs and set aside.

Add the garlic to the pot and saute for about a minute, until fragrant. Pour in the chicken broth along with 4 cups of water and bring up to a boil. Add the orzo and meatballs and simmer until the orzo is cooked, about 15 minutes; stir frequently to keep the orzo from sticking together. Throw in the spinach and let cook until wilted, 2 or 3 minutes. Taste the broth for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

Rating: This is awesome
It was a perfect hearty soup for the first full day of autumn (even though it was still in the 90's here today)!

Menu Plan for the Week

2007-09-23T18:04:00.000-04:00

Monday: Italian Wedding Soup
Tuesday: Pork and Beef Ravioli
Wednesday: Thai Style Pork
Thursday: Breakfast for dinner--Waffles, Bacon, and Eggs
Friday: Chicken Stirfry
Saturday: Pot roast
Sunday: Chicken Marsala

Fried Shrimp Cakes

2007-09-20T21:01:00.000-04:00

I made a chicken-noodle stir fry last night, but it was so similar to the Chicken Lo Mein that I made earlier this month that it didn't seem worth writing about. I used rice wine this time, but I think I over did it; the final dish was a bit too acidic.

Another dinner for one tonight! I got this recipe from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat; she states in turn that she got it from Leonie Palmer's Noosa Cook Book. How can I get a job where I write cook books using other people's recipes?! Oh well; I'm very glad that she included it, because these little fuckers are delicious and perfect for eating gluttonously by yourself.

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 green onions, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons dry sherry
Olive oil

Place all of the ingredients except for the olive oil in a bowl. Mix together, adding enough water to make a thick batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Warm up 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Drip the batter in the hot pan, in drops of about one tablespoon each. Fry each cake for 4 or 5 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Nigella suggests eating them with a "fierce mayonnaise." Uhm, no thanks. I just squirted some lemon juice over them, although I would have used lime if I had any.

Sorry for the blurry picture; it was really hard to get a good one of these!

Rating: This is awesome
I ate mine with my bare hands, while enjoying a Bass Ale and Michael Palin's Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years. Ahh, solitary pleasures!

Mozzarella in Carrozza

2007-09-18T21:24:00.000-04:00

It was dinner for one tonight, as Wei had a work thing to attend. I decided to make this recipe from Nigella Bites; I remember watching her make it on her show a looooong time ago and thinking it looked fantastic. Sadly, it wasn't. The outside of the sandwich was crispy and delicious, but the inside of the bread was all soggy. The overly moist texture was enough to make me not want to eat it. I don't know if I did something wrong. Maybe this could be saved by toasting the bread before frying it? It was quite a letdown after years of anticipation :-(

4 slices of white bread, crusts removed
2 boccioni of fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch slices, then strips
1/4 cup milk
3 heaping tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 egg, beaten with salt and pepper
Olive oil
Marinara sauce for dipping

Make sandwiches out of the bread and mozzarella, leaving a little margin around the edges unfilled with cheese, and press the edges together with your fingers to help seal. Pour the milk in one shallow bowl, the egg in another, and spread the flour on a plate. Warm a few tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Dunk to sandwiches, one by one, very briefly in the milk (use a really light touch with the milk), then dredge in the flour and dip in the beaten egg. Fry in the oil on each side until crisp and golden and remove to a paper towel. Cut in half and serve with some warmed marinara sauce for dipping.

Rating: This is not awesome
I really, really wanted to love this too. I think I need to go eat something crunchy to get the memory of that soggy bread out of my mouth!

Sauteed Stuffed Chicken Breasts in a Mushroom Cream Sauce

2007-09-18T05:48:00.000-04:00

I am notoriously picky about creamy sauces. When I was younger, I wouldn't even consider eating any sauce or condiment that was white. However, part of this whole blogging experience is to force myself to experience new things (except for mayo--I'll always hate that!), so I thought I would give this recipe from my Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition a try. What do you know? I loved the sauce for this dish! It was rich and flavorful, not dull and thick as I had feared.

This was my first time stuffing a chicken breast. It went well, except that there was the slightest dot of pink in the center of the thickest part of the breasts when we cut into them. Obviously, we cut that part out and didn't eat it! I think I either need to use thinner breast pieces next time, or devise a method of sauteing them to start, then finishing them off in the oven. The only major change I made to the recipe was to use mozzarella to stuff instead of gruyere. No real reason except I didn't feel like waiting at the deli counter for gruyere, and I love mozzarella!

2 chicken breasts
2 slices prosciutto
1 boccioni of fresh mozzarella, sliced
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
Marsala wine
2 small tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
Rice or egg noodles

Cut a slit into the thicker side of each chicken breast--kind of like butterfly cutting them open, except you don't cut the whole way through. Stuff each with one slice of prosciutto and half of the mozzarella. Season each side of the breast well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Warm up the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When the butter is melted, add the chicken breasts and cook through, about 8 to 10 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken pieces to a plate and cover with tin foil to keep warm.

Add the mushrooms, shallots, and garlic to the skillet. Saute until the mushrooms have turned darker and started to release their juices, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth, a splash of Marsala, and the chopped tomatoes. Bring up to a boil and let simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the heavy cream and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Taste the sauce for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Return the chicken pieces to the skillet, and add any accumulated juices to the sauce. Turn the pieces in the sauce once or twice and let them warm through for a couple of minutes. Scatter the flat leaf parsley over everything. Serve over white rice or egg noodles.

Rating: This is awesome
I'm definitely going to try to perfect the stuffing technique and get it right next time!

Pork Tenderloin in Prosciutto with Baked Couscous

2007-09-16T19:28:00.000-04:00

This was a nice recipe to make after a few nights off, and it was a excellent bounce back from Wednesday's so-so chicken cutlets! I got this from Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy, which is a great little cookbook. It comes with a helpful DVD of Ramsay making 5 of the trickier recipes in the book; I wonder how many of the celebrity chefs will do something similar in the next few years.

This recipe comes from the "Posh" chapter. While it is fairly posh tasting, it's much easier to make than you might assume from its wordy name! I had to scale back the amounts a bit since it was just Wei and I eating it (the original recipe says it serves 6). If I did it over again, I would probably make the whole thing so we could have had some tasty leftovers!

4 thin slices of prosciutto
1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of silverskin and most of the fat
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
4 springs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped
3/4 cup couscous
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons of chopped, fresh, flat leaf parsley
Marsala wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or broth

Lay the prosciutto slices on a cutting board in two rows of two each, overlapping them slightly, then lay the pork tenderloin across the middle. Wrap the prosciutto over the tenderloin and season with pepper. Lay out a sheet of tin foil that is large enough to accommodate the tenderloin, drizzle some olive oil down the middle and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Place the pork on top, bring the edges of the foil up, and fold together over the pork, then roll to enclose, twisting the ends to seal. Stick in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the couscous in a bowl, and pour over 3/4 cup of boiling water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand for 10 minutes. Add the Parmesan and parsley and fork through. Season with salt and pepper, about 1/2 teaspoon each. Spray the inside of two large ramekins with a nonstick spray, and spoon the couscous evenly into each, pressing down with the back of the spoon as you go.

Place the pork package and the couscous-filled ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pork and turn the oven off, leaving the couscous cakes inside.

Warm about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Carefully unwrap the pork from the tin foil, reserving any cooking juices in the foil. Place the tenderloin in the skillet and sear for 3 minutes on all sides until the prosciutto is browned and crisped. Remove to a plate and place back in the oven.

Add a splash of Marsala to the skillet along with the reserved pork juices, stirring to deglaze. Add the stock and boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Cut the pork into thick slices. Unmold a couscous cake into a shallow bowl and surround with pork slices. Spoon over the Marsala sauce.

I probably should have made a green veggie to go with this, but whatevs :-)

Rating: This is awesome
Yay for pork wrapped in pork!! You can't go wrong with it.

Almond Encrusted Chicken Cutlets with Rice Pilaf

2007-09-13T07:14:00.000-04:00

I was watching Food Network on one of the mornings last weekend. I saw Rachael Ray make these chicken cutlets, and I thought they looked pretty yummy. I gave them a try last night, making my own little changes to the recipe.

They did not turn out great. If you want to try making this, I suggest you use her method, because mine obviously didn't work. I can't say if hers will be good, although the picture on her website looks a LOT better than mine!

I will give the recipe for my rice pilaf, because that actually turned out well. I wasn't feeling the rice dish RR suggested, so I came up with my own.

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup long grain rice
2 cups chicken broth or stock
1 can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and chopped (optional)
Olive oil

Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in the rice and garlic, and keep stirring until each grain of rice is coated in the oily, oniony juices in the pan. Add the chicken broth and bring up to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and put a lid on top. Let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Check the rice after 15 minutes. If there's still liquid in the pan, give it a few more minutes simmering with the lid on. When all the liquid is gone, stir and fluff the rice and add the artichoke hearts if you're using them. Put the lid back on and let the pan sit for at least 10 minutes; 15-20 minutes is better if you can manage it.

Rating: This is Not Awesome for the chicken, This is Awesome for the rice!
I think I'm done with RR recipes for a little while. I declare that next week will be an RR-free zone!

Beef with Peppers

2007-09-11T22:48:00.000-04:00

I don't usually go for exact stir fry recipes; I think they're much better when the cook is adding a little of this, a little of that, with no set plan. However, I have a phobia about stir frying beef. It goes back to the first time I tried it a few years ago when I severely overcooked it. It was like eating a shoe leather stir fry. I saw this recipe in the Washington Post food section last week and thought I'd give it a try. Since it seemed very saucy I thought it would be forgiving of an accidental overcooking incident.

It turns out that I didn't have to worry. The beef cooked perfectly; the end product was tender and flavorful!

For the marinade and steak
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1.5 - 2 pound piece of flank steak, trimmed of excess fat

For the seasoning sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons sugar

For the stir fry
Peanut oil
1 inch length of fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, sliced into half moons
1 green onion, minced
2 bell peppers (any color, but I prefer red), seeded and thinly sliced
White pepper (optional)

Get a pot of rice started first thing.

Slice the beef against the grain into roughly 1/8-inch thick strips; then cut the strips in half lengthwise. Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a medium bowl and add the beef strips. Stir to coat the beef and marinade for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the ingredients for the seasoning sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large wok or deep sided pan over high heat. Add the beef to the wok and season with a few dashes of white pepper. Stir fry until the outside is seared, but there is still a little pink inside, 3 or 4 minutes. Remove the beef to a plate and set aside.

Wipe down the inside of the wok with a paper towel and add another tablespoon of oil. Throw the onions in and stir around until they are soft and becoming translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, green onion, peppers, and ginger to the wok and stir fry until the peppers are slightly charred and softer, 3 or 4 minutes. Put the beef and any accumulated juices back in the wok and toss thoroughly. Pour the seasoning sauce in the wok and stir fry for a minute or two, until everything is evenly coated in the sauce. Finish with a couple of sprinkles of white pepper and serve over the rice.

Rating: This is awesome
This was a very tasty (and easy!) stir fry. I think I'm going to have to start using rice wine all the time in my stir frys--I loved the little kick it gave in the background of the sauce.

Pork Fried Rice

2007-09-10T20:52:00.001-04:00

Wei cooked tonight! Yay for me having a night off!!

His method is pretty basic. He stir-fries together scrambled egg, onion, green onion, garlic, carrots, bean sprouts, roast pork, leftover rice, and lots of soy sauce. Using leftover rice is key for fried rice; freshly cooked rice will get mushy and clumpy. If you don't have a stash of old rice lurking in your fridge like we do (and who does?), just make a pot of rice the night before you want to make this and leave it in the fridge overnight.

You can buy chunks of roast pork at an Asian market or BBQ place. Obviously, you could also use another meat or shrimp or tofu, or choose to leave out a protein completely.

Bay Scallops with Orecchiette

2007-09-09T20:03:00.000-04:00

This is a bit of a MacGyver dish. I bought the scallops yesterday when we were at the Asian market with the intention of using them for a different recipe, but I never made it to the grocery store to pick up the other ingredients I needed. I didn't feel like going shopping this evening after spending all day cleaning the house. However, I was not going to mess around with letting the scallops sit in the fridge for too long after my turkey meatball incident! I came up with this tasty little pasta dish using ingredients that were already in the kitchen.

A note about the scallops: I specify bay scallops, but you could easily use the bigger sea scallops instead. You should be advised, though, that the bay scallops fit snugly inside the bend of the orecchiette, which makes for a very cute forkful!

3/4 to 1 pound bay scallops
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 small tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 cup chicken broth
Juice of half a lemon
8 ounces orecchiette pasta
1/2 teaspoon each of dried basil and oregano
A pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, deep-sided pan and warm over medium heat. Add the onion to the pan and saute until it is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and garlic, and season with about 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook until the tomatoes start to break down a bit, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth, sugar, and lemon juice and bring up to a bubble. Let it simmer away until the liquid thickens somewhat, about 10 minutes.

Warm up a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the scallops to the skillet and cook on each side for 2 minutes. If you bought frozen scallops, like I did, you won't get a good sear. The heat will just cause the liquid to cook out of the scallops, preventing them from browning. Fresh scallops are preferable for flavor, but ehhh, do what you've gotta do. Remove the scallops to a plate.

Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle in the basil and oregano and stir to combine. Taste the sauce for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary. Add the scallops to the pan and let everything simmer together for a minute or two. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan on top.

Rating: This is awesome
Not bad for a MacGyver meal!

Menu Plan for the Week

2007-09-08T12:31:00.000-04:00

Monday: Pork fried rice
Tues: Beef and pepper stirfry
Wed: Almond-encrusted chicken cutlets
Thurs: Dinner out
Fri: Shrimp cakes
Sat: Prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin
Sun: Stuffed chicken breasts with a mushroom cream sauce

Meatball Confidential

2007-09-06T21:37:00.000-04:00

We're not going to talk about how I made a batch of turkey meatballs with bad meat tonight. We're not going to talk about how I should have trusted my nose, not the use-by date on the package. We're not going to talk about how I wasted a whole jar of tomato sauce. We're not going to talk about how Wei and I ordered Chinese food after dumping the pan of meatballs down the drain.

We're just not. Tomorrow is another day.

Five Spice Chicken Burgers

2007-09-06T07:42:00.000-04:00

I was pretty disappointed with this recipe. I got it from good ol' 365: No Repeats, and it was very heavy on sodium. Part of the problem might have been my fault; I don't think I used the full 1 and 1/2 pounds of ground meat that the recipe called for, so the finished burgers might have tasted overly salty to me. Even so, when I look at the sodum content on the various items in the recipe, I'm a little shocked that Rachael Ray would include so much of them. I guess I learned my lesson: always read the labels before you start dumping shit in!

She suggested serving this with pineapple chunks and "exotic vegetable chips." We used unexotic potato chips that we had leftover from our football party instead.

1.5 pounds ground chicken or pork
2 teaspoons five spice powder
1 tablespoon grill seasoning, like McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
5 green onions, 2 finely chopped and 3 cut into thirds then thinly sliced lengthwise
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Olive oil
4 hamburger buns of your choice, split and toasted

Heat a nonstick skillet or grill pan over medium high heat. In a medium sized bowl, combine the meat with the five spice powder, grill seasoning, garlic, ginger, finely chopped green onions, soy sauce, and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix the meat thoroughly and form into four patties, roughly 1 inch thick. Cook the burgers for 6 minutes on each side.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add about a teaspoon of olive oil. Gently saute the sliced green onions until they are wilted, about 4 minutes. Serve each burger on a bun, topped with the warm green onions and any other toppings you want. RR said to saute some sliced shiitakes and cabbage with the green onions, and then toss the contents of the skillet with 3 tablspoons of hoisin sauce (more sodium!) to make a "Mu shu slaw topping." Since I didn't have any mushrooms or cabbage, I skipped that part.

Rating: This is not awesome
It tasted like a not-very-good chinese dumpling on a bun. I think it could be saved though; I would cut out the grill seasoning entirely. Its strong flavor doesn't go well with the other milder ingredients, and it contains a lot of sodium. With all of the soy sauce in the burger meat, it does not need more salt! Just add several good grindings of black pepper instead.

Side note: What is with RR and adding grill seasoning to everything? Does she own stock in McCormick's or what?!

Leftover Night

2007-09-04T20:41:00.000-04:00

Imagine my shock this evening when Wei suggested having a leftover night. "But you hate leftovers!" I cried. "Yeah, but your leftovers taste good," he said.

Hmm. Far be it from me to argue with such an intelligent man. He had lo mein and a crabcake; I had a couple of slices of the pizza we ordered on football day.

Chicken Lo Mein

2007-09-03T20:57:00.000-04:00

I make no claims that this is authentic lo mein; I don't even know what authentic lo mein would entail. I set out to make a stir fry that included noodles. However, my finished product actually tasted quite a bit like the flavor of the ubiquitous brown sauce that Chinese restaurants use for their lo mein, something I've never quite been able to replicate. Hence, it shall be known as chicken lo mein!

I used our wok to make this. I alternate between being scared of our wok and itching to use it. It's a huge carbon steel monster of a thing that we picked out of the piles and piles of woks in the back of our local 99 Ranch. Sometimes it can be too exhausting to even think about wrangling food in it, but tonight I loved it. Everything does cook quicker in it, and I get a much better flavor with searing than I do in our big, nonstick skillet. Maybe it was the holiday weekend that gave me strength to conquer the wok! If you want to give it a shot sometime, check out the selection of woks at your local Asian grocery store. You can usually buy them for less than $20. Remember to season it before using it to cook; do an internet search for "season a wok" and you'll find a bunch of different methods.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 onion, sliced into half moon shapes
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets with the stem cut into coins
8 ounces spaghetti
Soy sauce
Thai fish sauce
Peanut or corn oil
Cornstarch
Salt and pepper

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti.

While the chicken is still on its cutting board, sprinkle a teaspoon or so of cornstarch on top and season with salt and pepper. Toss the chicken around on the board with a spoon to spread around the cornstarch. Warm a tablespoon of oil in a wok or large, deep sided skillet on high heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry until it is cooked, about 4 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the wok and throw in the onion and garlic. Cook until the onions are soft enough to be cut from the pressure of a wooden spoon, about 7 minutes. Add the broccoli, red bell pepper, and mushroom and stir-fry for another 7 minutes, or until the broccoli florets are tender-crisp and the bell pepper is soft. Add the chicken and any accumulated juices back into the wok and stir to combine.

Drain the pasta and start adding it to the wok a little bit at a time, tossing to combine after each addition. Add 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce to the wok and stir around. Throw in a slurry of 1 tablespoon corn starch and 1 tablespoon water (chicken broth if you have some handy); stir until the sauce thickens up, about 30 seconds. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

Rating: This is awesome
Fresher, cheaper, and less greasy than the stuff from our local Chinese delivery place!

8 Things About Me

2007-09-03T16:36:00.000-04:00

Erika over at Bean's Bistro tagged me for the ever-popular "Say 8 random but interesting things about yourself" meme. Here goes!

1. I was born in the same hospital where my parents met. They both worked there in their teenage years.

2. I went to 6 different schools before I hit college: two elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. They were the consequences of both moving and new school districts being formed.

3. I've spent an afternoon inside a west London prison. I did an semester internship with a prison reform charity when I did study abroad there in 2000, and they held a fundraiser lunch inside Wormwood Scrubs. I went along to help out with making name tags and serving tea and cookies to the donors beforehand, and then we all got to eat lunch with the prisoners and tour the facilities. I ate a veggie burger patty with instant-tasting mashed potatoes and a cup of tea. Dear god, I do remember the shitty tea. I felt bad for the prisoners; it was all they had to drink!

4. I didn't know how to cook 3 years ago. I couldn't even chop an onion.

5. I attended the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. I was there with the fundraising firm I worked for at the time. Even though us staffers didn't officially have tickets, we managed to score passes inside every night. The after parties were the best part, though. I did so much dancing and drinking that week :-) Also, the whole experience made me fall in love with Boston a little. If it wasn't for the brutal winters, I would want to live there.

6. Wei and I adopted our first puppy the week my dad passed away in 2006. It was unrelated; we already had plans in motion to adopt when I got the bad news. The weeks immediately afterwards taught me a lot about how much a dog's love can help a person (i.e., me) in emotional need.

7. I took Latin for 4 years in high school. I still have a snobbish love of using Latin phrases and abbreviations (see above).

8. My ideal eating day would be breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, and dinner in Chicago.

Lion's Head Stew

2007-09-02T20:56:00.000-04:00

I didn't cook last night. We had some friends over to watch college football in the afternoon, which is always a vicious cycle for me. I like football okay, but I don't love it. I mostly just enjoy the novelty of it being socially acceptable to drink in the middle of the day (on my couch no less!), and I think it's cute to watch my husband and male friends get all excited about the games. After a while I get bored, which leads to more drinking. Then it's dinner time, and I'm too drunk to trust myself with a knife in the kitchen. We ordered pizza instead!

Even though this is a Chinese dish, Wei didn't teach it to me. Rachael Ray did. Yup, 365: No Repeats strikes again!

Does this look familiar?

Maybe a little like salisbury steak? Yeah, I'm not sure why I picked two balls-of-ground-meat recipes in a row. In actuality, they are very different. These oversized pork meatballs are braised with cabbage in a light broth and served with rice. Don't buy lean ground pork for this--the meatballs need a little fat to stay moist.

Peanut, corn or vegetable oil
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 pounds ground pork
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cornstarch
Salt and pepper
2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 medium head of napa cabbage, chopped into thin strips

Get a pot of rice started first.

Drizzle about a teaspoon of oil in a small skillet and warm over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook until the mushrooms are soft, about 4 minutes. Season with some salt, and remove to a large bowl.

Add the pork, soy sauce, egg, a teaspoon of cornstarch, and a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper to the bowl with the mushrooms and garlic. Stir to combine. Put a large, deep sided skillet or wok on high heat and add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Form the pork mixture into 8 or 10 meatballs, and add to the skillet when the oil is hot. Brown for 2 minutes on each side, then drain on a plate covered in paper towels.

In a deep soup pot, heat the chicken broth to a boil. Add half of the cabbage to the bottom of the pot, then add the meatballs. Finish with a layer of the remaining cabbage. The pot should be filled to the top at this point. Clamp a lid on top and let simmer for 10 minutes, when the cabbage will be wilted into the liquid. Remove a ladleful of the broth into a small bowl or coffee mug and dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in it, then stir it into the pot. Simmer with the lid off for a minute or two to thicken the broth. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Serve over the rice.

Rating: This is awesome
I'm a big fan of using cabbage; it's a vegetable that people seem to forget about a lot. It's so cheap, tasty, and packed with vitamins. It's perfect in this dish, paired with the flavorful pork.

Salisbury Steak

2007-08-31T22:39:00.000-04:00

One night back in college, I was having dinner in the caf with my friends Ty and Garron. Ty and I both got salisbury steak. Garron sniffed at us and said something like "I can't believe you're going to eat those botulism patties." I rolled my eyes. Ty said "Look, at least we know what we're eating. Salisbury steak is fuckin burgers in gravy. That's it. Do you know what that shit is that you're eating?" Oh Snap. Hippie got owned.

Yup, Ty was right: just burgers in gravy. But how is it so delicious?!

This is basically a fancied up version of my mom's recipe.* I have eaten her salisbury steak more times than I can count. We all have predominent tastes from our childhoods; this is one of mine. I have to say that I liked my version a little bit better, but only because of the inclusion of mushrooms in the gravy. My mom is a mushroom phobe, so they never show up in hers.

You will need a cup of already cooked rice for the patties. I used some that we had leftover from Chinese takeout. Seriously, we have ten of those cartons full of white rice stashed in our fridge, because God forbid my husband waste a single grain of precious, precious rice. It's so expensive and hard to find, right? To reconsitute leftover rice that's been sitting in the fridge for a while, put it in a bowl and add a splash of water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and cook in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Magically your old, dried out rice will be moist, fluffy, and ready to use in the beef patties (this trick never ceases to amaze me)!

1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup cooked rice
1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix
1 egg, beaten
1 onion, 3/4 finely chopped, 1/4 grated
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
8 ounces crimini (a.k.a. baby portobello) or white button mushroom, sliced
2 cups beef broth or stock
Flour or cornstarch
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet and warm over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Saute until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are darker and slippery, about 15 minutes.

While the onions and mushrooms are cooking, start making the beef patties. Combine the beef, egg, 1 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper, and the rice in a large bowl. Take the 1/4 piece of the onion and grate it directly into the bowl. Mix everything together, and form into 4 or 5 patties.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put the onion mixture into a medium sized saucepan. Mix in the Lipton onion soup mix, beef broth, and 2 cups of water. Bring up to a boil and let simmer. In either a large skillet or the vessel in which you will bake the patties, add a tablespoon of olive oil and warm over medium heat. Add the patties and brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. In the pot with the gravy, stir in a cornstarch or flour slurry to thicken. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

Transfer the patties into a deep baking dish or dutch oven if they're not there already. Pour the gravy mixture over the patties and cover. If your baking dish doesn't have its own cover, use tinfoil to tent the dish instead. Bake for one hour, checking halfway through to spoon some gravy over the tops of the patties. While the salisbury steak is baking away, make some rice, egg noodles, or mashed potatoes to serve with it.

Some people might want some sort of vegetable to go with this, but I say it's cool without. There's mushrooms and onions in the sauce after all!

Rating: This is awesome
Obviously I'm going to love it, but I do think that it's a classic.

*Edit: After talking to my mom yesterday, I found out that this is actually my paternal grandmother's recipe. She passed away before I was born, so let's consider this tasty dish and the fact that I'm still making it as a memorial to her.

Crab Cakes

2007-08-30T21:06:00.000-04:00

Wei and I are both sort of Maryland natives. We were born elsewhere, but we grew up there. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary that I made a batch of crab cakes before the summer was over!

A note about purchasing the crab: if you're more hard core than me, you could buy your own Chesapeake blue crabs, steam them, and pick them until you have one pound of meat. It's probably cheaper that way too. Instead I chose to buy just the meat. I got 8 ounces of jumbo lump meat (the most expensive) and 8 ounces of claw meat (the least expensive). I think it was a good compromise; the lump gave the cakes enough heft, and the claw meat filled them out well.

I found this recipe on a Chowhound message board; it was attributed to Blanche, the late grandmother of the poster's best friend, and a "true Maryland lady."

6 saltine crackers, crushed
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1 pound crab meat, picked through for pieces of shell

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Form the mixture into 6 or 8 patties and set on a baking sheet. Chill the cakes in the refridgerator for at least 45 minutes--this will help them firm up and keep them from falling apart when you're trying to cook them.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Carefully add the cakes to the pan when the butter is melted and do not touch them for 6 minutes. Flip them over and let cook on the other side for 5 minutes. Remove to a plate and pat them down with paper towels to absorb some of the oil.

I toasted up some French bread rolls to make crab cake sandwiches, but these are also just lovely on their own, with a little lemon juice squeezed over the top.

Rating: This is awesome
Many thanks to Blanche for the perfect no-filler crab cakes!

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

2007-08-29T21:42:00.000-04:00

Not long after Wei and I started dating, he made shrimp one night when I was hanging out at his place. We stood at his kitchen sink, peeling and eating. I matched him shrimp for shrimp. After a little while he said "Damn, I've never dated anyone who likes shrimp as much as me." I smiled and licked the Old Bay and shrimp juices off my fingers. So as you can see, when we got married last month, it was truly a marriage of soul mates :-) I share this story as a way of explaining why there's so many shrimp dishes in here. We love the crustaceans. Also, they cook really quickly, which make them perfect for weeknight cooking.

I took this recipe from Everyday Italian. I decided to use shrimp shell stock instead of recipe-stipulated white wine in the sauce, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I used the easy Mark Bittman method: throw all the shells in a pot, cover with water, and let it boil away. After only ten minutes of boiling, the stock was intensely flavored and fragrant. I would definitely make it again to use in any shrimp dish! I chose to serve this with fettuccine; you could also omit the pasta and eat it with slices of rustic bread to dip in the juices at the bottom of the bowl.

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined, shells reserved for stock
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use 1/2 teaspoon or omit entirely if you don't want it spicy)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup shrimp shell stock
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
6 ounces fettuccine or linguine

Start a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta, if you're using it. Put the shrimp shells in a small pot and cover with water. Bring it up to a boil, and let it simmer until you need it.

In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with 1 teaspoon salt and the red pepper flakes. In a large, heavy skillet, warm the oil over medium high heat. Add the shrimp and saute until they turn pink, 2 or 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to a plate and set aside. Add the onion to the same skillet and cook until soft and translucent, 6 or 7 minutes.

Drain the shells out of the shrimp stock and reserve a cup of the liquid. Add the tomatoes with their juices, 1 cup of shrimp stock, garlic, and oregano to the pan, and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Return the shrimp and accumulated juices to the tomato mixture and toss to coat. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed. If using pasta, add the drained strands to the pan and toss thoroughly. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the parsley and basil.

Rating: This is awesome
I love how this dish is elegant, but still very easy and delicious.

Menu Plan for the Week

2007-08-29T10:23:00.000-04:00

Wednesday: Shrimp Fra Diavolo
Thursday: Crab Cakes
Friday: Salisbury Steak
Saturday: Lion's Head Stew
Sunday: Chicken and Vegetable Stirfry
Monday: Five-Spice Burgers
Tuesday: Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs

This being a holiday weekend, I have a hunch that one of these dinners will get cut in favor of eating out!

Kung Pao Chicken with Tomato and Egg

2007-08-28T21:13:00.000-04:00

Tonight was a use-everything-up kind of night. Even though I've already made all the dishes I had in my last meal plan, I wanted to challenge myself to throw something together out of what I had on hand, specifically hoping to get rid of the green onions and tomatoes I had sitting in the fridge. I was triumphant! This was a damn tasty little dinner.

I took all of my inspiration for this from my husband. He has made a version of kung pao before; I came up with my method by remembering how his tasted and taking some tips on preparation from other recipes I found online. The tomato and egg are all him, though--it's a traditional Chinese dish, the sort of thing that everyone makes in their homes but don't sell in restaurants. It's beautiful in its simplicity and flavor. Even if you don't have the energy for anything else in your life, you can make a comforting batch of tomato and egg.

I decided to use 5 spice powder in the marinade for the chicken. I thought it added a nice sweet-smoky note to the final sauce, but don't kill yourself trying to find it if it's not easily available at your grocery store. You can omit it without worries. The only reason I even wanted to use it is that I bought a big pouch of it at the Asian grocery store a couple of months ago, and I feel like it's staring me down every time I open my spice cabinet--I don't think it's traditional for this dish.

Kung Pao Chicken
Soy Sauce
Rice wine or dry sherry
Cornstarch
1 teaspoon 5 spice powder
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1 chili pepper, chopped (feel free to use as much as you like if you want it spicier!)
3 green onions, cut into two-inch lengths, then cut lengthwise into thin shreds
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 celery hearts or 1 full celery stalk, chopped finely
1/8 cup unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
1 inch length fresh ginger, grated
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
Peanut or Corn oil

Tomato and Egg
3 small/medium tomatoes (I used tomatoes on the vine), cut into 6 pieces each
3 eggs, beaten with a little salt and pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Soy sauce (optional--only use if you like a little saltiness)
Peanut or Corn oil

First things first, get a pot of rice started.

In a bowl large enough to accomodate your chicken pieces, whisk together 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons rice wine or dry sherry, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, the 5 spice powder, and the sesame oil. Add the chicken and stir until all of the pieces are coated in the marinade. Leave the chicken to sit while you work on your prep. As a side note, if you're making both of the dishes, you might as well get all your chopping done at this point so you can cook straight through without having to take a prep break.

Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a large pan or wok over high heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and add another tablespoon of oil to the pan. When the oil is hot, add the green onions, red pepper flakes or chili pepper, garlic, ginger, and celery and cook by itself until the celery is getting soft and the green onions are wilted, 3 or 4 minutes. Add the chicken back to the pan, along with the peanuts. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry, and the brown sugar, stirring to combine. Let it sizzle away until the sugar is melted, 30 seconds to a minute, and stir in a small cornstarch slurry if you want a thicker sauce (you know I did!). Taste for seasoning. Pour everything out of the pan into a bowl and cover to keep warm while you make the T&E.

Wipe down the inside of the pan with a paper towel, add 2 tablespoons of oil and warm over high heat. Add the beaten eggs to the pan and don't touch them until they are almost fully set, about 2 minutes. Drag a wooden spoon or chopsticks through the egg to break it up into smaller pieces. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and two tablespoons of soy sauce to the pan and stir fry until the tomatoes are softer and their skins are starting to pull away, about 4 or 5 minutes. And you're done! Serve over the rice.

You don't have to eat both out of the same bowl like I did--as my buddy Tony would say, it's a little "Mother and Child Reunion" creepy to eat eggs and chicken at the same time--but it was a nice break for my tongue to alternate bites of the spicy kung pao with the salty T&E.

Rating: This is awesome
I'm really proud of how both dishes turned out!

Honey-Hoisin Pork Tenderloin

2007-08-27T20:44:00.000-04:00

I got this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Culinary in the Desert. His recipes are always interesting, and he makes the most uhh-may-zing holiday treats every year. Check out his December archives if you want to drool!

I followed the recipe exactly, so I'm not going to re-write it. Check it out here! When you use a pork tenderloin, it's important to take the time to trim off all of the fat and silverskin. If you don't, the final product with be chewy and tough on the outside.

I served this with plain white rice and broccoli. For the broccoli, I cut up one head into florets and sliced the stem into coins. I stir-fried it with some garlic, ginger, salt and pepper, and a teaspoon of brown sugar for about ten minutes, until the florets were tender-crisp. It was perfect with the pork!

Rating: This is awesome
The pork was so juicy and tender, and the flavors in the marinade came together nicely. Also, I loved that it was a perfectly sized meal for 2 people. No leftovers!

Turkey Meatloaf with Mashed Cauliflower

2007-08-26T20:21:00.000-04:00

Sorry I missed last night! I ended up going out and didn't cook dinner. I'm going to make the originally planned honey-hoisin pork tenderloin tomorrow night instead.

I devised this dinner as a lighter version of that classic family meal, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I got the recipes from Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition. It turned out really well! The meatloaf was moist and flavorful, and despite acting like I was trying to poison him when he heard what I was making, even Wei enjoyed the cauliflower. Full disclosure: it definitely wasn't as good as mashed potatoes though.

Meatloaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ground turkey, preferably a mix of white and dark meat
1 large egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Ketchup or barbecue sauce

Mashed Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

Start with the meatloaf first. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onions are soft, about 7 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Pour the onion and garlic into a large bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients except the ketchup/barbecue sauce. Mix well with your hands or a long-handled wooden spoon. Lightly oil a loaf pan or spray with nonstick spray. Add the meatloaf mix to the pan evenly, and give the top of the loaf a retro squiggle of ketchup or barbecue sauce (this wasn't in the original recipe, but I couldn't resist!). Bake until the center feels firm when pressed, 40 to 45 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes.

While the meatloaf is cooking, place the cauliflower, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and chicken broth in a large pot and bring up to a simmer. Leave it to simmer until the cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. Add the milk and butter to the pot and mash, or puree in a food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in the parsley.

Rating: This is awesome
It was a nice, low maintenance Sunday dinner that was still filling and yummy.

Beef Stroganoff

2007-08-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't voluntarily eat beef stroganoff until I was 20 years old. I was really grossed out by creamy sauces throughout my childhood, and truthfully, they still send a shiver up my spine. However, this is one of Wei's favorite dishes, so I figured that I should experiment until I find a recipe that we can both like.

I got this one from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat. I wanted to try it, because she uses creme fraiche in the sauce instead of sour cream, which I hate. It took a bit of work to find the creme fraiche though. They didn't have it at Whole Foods, so I had to go to Star Provisions, a fabulous gourmet store in West Midtown, to pick it up. It was worth it for me, but it probably wouldn't be for everybody. You can definitely sub in sour cream if you want. This made a ton of sauce, which is probably why Nigella suggests serving it over white rice. I used egg noodles instead, at Wei's request.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
A few drops of olive oil
1 large onion, minced
1/2 pound white button mushrooms, sliced
Whole nutmeg
Paprika
Salt and pepper
2 pounds beef fillet, trimmed of fat (just the gobs of fat on the outside--not the inner marbling) and silverskin if any, cut into thin strips
Scant 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 8-ounce container of creme fraiche
Dry sherry (Nigella didn't include this, but I think it's key to cut through the creaminess of the sauce)
Cornstarch (optional)
White rice or egg noodles

Put 2 tablespoons of butter and a drop of oil in a large skillet, and warm over medium to medium-high heat. When the butter is melted, throw in the onions and saute gently, stirring frequently, until soft. Add 2 more tablespoons of the butter and add the mushrooms when it's melted. Cook for another 4-5 minutes. Grate some whole nutmeg over the pan (it's hard to measure, but I think I added about 1/2 teaspoon's worth) and season with salt and pepper. Stir well and remove to a plate.

Add the remaining butter to the pan with a couple of drops of oil and turn the heat up to high. Season the beef with salt and pepper while it's still on the cutting board. Stir-fry the fillet strips for a couple of minutes until it's seared on the inside but still pink on the inside. Return the onions and mushrooms to the pan; stir well. Add a splash of dry sherry. Grate over some more nutmeg and stir in the Dijon mustard and creme fraiche. Sprinkle in a pinch of paprika, add more salt to your taste. Thicken with a cornstarch slurry if the sauce isn't thick enough for you--it wasn't for us!

Take off the heat, and serve over white rice or egg noodles. If you're using egg noodles, put a pot of salted water on to boil when you start cooking the onions and they should be ready by the time you're done cooking. If you're using rice, start the pot before you do your prep. Sprinkle a bit more paprika over the individual servings.

I realize now that I should have snapped a shot of Wei's bowl, because I used as little sauce as possible on mine! Don't be fooled by the picture; this recipe produced a lot of sauce, and Wei informed me that it was fantastic. If you like your beef stroganoff swimming, it won't be a problem.

Rating: This is awesome
This was really tasty. It has a lot of simple flavors, but when they come together, yum! Next time, I might sear the beef first, take it out of the pan, and not put it back in until the onions and mushrooms are fully done. I might have overcooked the beef a tiny bit, because I wasn't working fast enough at the end. Hopefully cooking it first would prevent that. Also, I think I'll add a scattering of flat leaf parsley before serving, just for visual interest :-)

Sauteed Salmon with Spicy Fresh Mango-Pineapple Chutney

2007-08-23T20:51:00.000-04:00

Another RR recipe from 365: No Repeats tonight. I was a little gunshy about this one after last night, since pineapple and mango are both possible latex allergy triggers, but all seems to be well.

This isn't particularly groundbreaking, but I did love the flavor of ground coriander on the salmon. I might have to slap some on anytime I make salmon from now on! The outside of the fillets crisped up perfectly for me. And the skin on the underside...OMG...so tasty. Is it bad to eat the skin? Oh well, I don't care.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small yellow or red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and membrane removed, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 8-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained
2 tablespoons honey
2 salmon fillets, about 8 ounces each
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 ripe mango, diced
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3/4 - 1 pound green beans, ends trimmed

Heat up one tablespoon of the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan. Add the onion and jalapeno, season with a little salt and pepper, and cook for 8 or 9 minutes until the onions are soft. Add the pineapple, honey, and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil and then down to a gentle simmer.

If you want to serve steamed green beans with this, as I did, put a pot with a couple of inches of water on to boil, then get on with the salmon. Warm up the remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Season the salmon on both sides with salt, pepper, and ground coriander. Place the fillets in the hot pan, skin side up first (I don't know if there's a reason for it, but that's how I cook it). Saute until just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness.

While the fish is cooking, put the beans in a steamer insert and place inside the pot of boiling water. Season with salt and clamp a lid on for 5 minutes. To finish the chutney, add the mango lime juice, parsley, and cilantro, stir to combine, and turn off the heat.

Serve each piece of salmon with some of the chutney on top and with green beans on the side.

There are different theories about the best way to cut mango. The easiest way for me is to cut down each side of the large, flat pit in the middle so you have what resembles two halves of a sphere. Hold one half in your hand, take your knife and, being very careful not to pierce the skin of the mango , cut grindlines into the meat of the fruit. Flip the skin inside out, and voila, you have mango cubes! If you are a master of dexterity, cut the cubes free from the skin. If you're not (like me), just pull them off.

Rating: This is not awesome
It was fine, but I'm not wowed.

Poisoned Darts of Pleasure Avocado Pasta

2007-08-22T20:16:00.000-04:00

I got the inspiration for this dish from a chapter in Alex Kapranos' book Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand:

There's a wok full of pasta tubes glistening green on the stove. They're delicious. Jessica is cooking tonight. Her husband Bill is rewiring a 10-channel Flickinger pre-amp into Sly Stone's old mixing desk. Sly's old roaches still lie among the circuitry. Bill and Jessica own the Key Club Studio in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where we are recording for a few days.
I can't work out what's in the sauce that makes it taste so good. Jessica says that she just heated up some cloves of garlic in oil and then mixed in the pasta with mashed avocado: "It's an easy vegan version of macaroni cheese."

I made it un-vegan by adding chicken to the mix. I had planned on tossing in some cubes of fresh mozzarella as well, but the boccioni I had in the fridge from last week had gone sour. It didn't really need it, though; I think the cheese would have added too much bulk.

Unfortunately, I think I had an allergic reaction to the avocado. My tongue got all prickly and burn-y and swollen-feeling when I got half way through my bowl. I've had similar reactions to kiwi in the past, and both kiwi and avocado are triggers for natural latex allergies. The mushy green stuff has never bothered me before, but I've also never eaten so much of it at one time. I guess I won't be making this anymore, which is a shame. Really, it was as comforting and tasty as a big bowl of mac n cheese.

1 16-ounce box of medium length tubular pasta, preferably a variety with ridges on the outside (I used rigatoni)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, sliced
3 ripe avocados
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta, then do your prep. To time this right, you should start the pasta cooking at the same time as the chicken.

Pre-heat a grill pan on medium-high heat. Butterfly cut the chicken breasts in half like a book, then cut in half lengthwise so you have four roughly equal sized pieces total. Season with salt and pepper on both sides and cook on the grill pan until done, 5 or 6 minutes per side. Remove the chicken pieces to a cutting board and let them rest.

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Throw in the garlic slices and cook until they start to change color, 3 or 4 minutes. Keep them moving around in the oil to be careful that they don't burn. Drain the pasta and put it right back in the pot in which it cooked. Pour the oil and garlic over the pasta and toss together.

Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and hollow out the meat into a bowl. Mash with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper until it reaches your desired smoothness. Add to the pasta a large spoonful at a time, mixing after each addition. Chop the cooked chicken and toss in with the pasta. Finally, scatter the cilantro over and mix together. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if you want.

Rating: This is awesome
It was delicious, but I guess my lame body didn't like it. Boo.

Thai Chicken with Basil

2007-08-21T20:29:00.000-04:00

This dish is an fantastic blend of sweet, spicy, and salty. I got it from 365: No Repeats. I've made a different version of this before, but it was way too saucy and didn't have the honey and heat that makes this version such an interesting contrast of flavors. The only thing I didn't like about Rachael Ray's version is that she said to serve it over shredded iceberg lettuce; I did rice instead. If you don't want to serve it over rice, I think using shredded savoy cabbage, quickly braised in simmering chicken or vegetable stock, rather than lettuce would be a healthier, tastier option.

I had to make one change to the recipe. It called for a red bell pepper, which I bought. However, when I cut into it, I saw that there was mold all over the seeds inside. Nasty! The best laid plans, eh? So it went in the trash. I think it would have been great with the bell pepper--definitely try to include it if you make this recipe!

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into strips
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, quartered, and thinly sliced
4 green onions, cut into two-inch lengths, then cut lengthwise into thin shreds
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
20 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons peanut, corn, or vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Rice

Get a pot of rice on the stove first thing, before you start any prepping. If you need help making it, check out my tips in this post.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper while it's still on the cutting board. Heat up the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry until it's no longer pink. Throw in the garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and bell pepper strips. It will smell insanely good as soon as the garlic and ginger hit the hot pan; give yourself a moment to lean over and inhale the deliciousness :-) Cook for two minutes, then add the green onions and stir fry for another minute.

Whisk the honey into the soy sauce and add to the pan. Toss everything together. I added a small cornstarch slurry at this point to thicken the sauce, but I'm psycho about having a thick sauce--it's not necessary! Add the basil and stir until wilted.

Rating: This is awesome
It is so simple, yet SO yummy. The spiciness makes it great for the sultry summer nights we've been having here lately!

Menu Plan for the Week

2007-08-21T15:52:00.000-04:00

Tuesday: Thai Chicken with Basil
Wednesday: Avocado Pasta
Thursday: Salmon with Mango-Pineapple Chutney
Friday: Beef Stroganoff
Saturday: Honey-Hoisin Pork Tenderloin
Sunday: Turkey Meatloaf with Mashed Cauliflower

Shopping List

I'm trying something new this time: I'm tagging each item with the day of the week that it will be used. That way you'll know which item goes with which recipe!

Meat
2 pounds beef fillet (Fri)
1 pork tenderloin (Sat)
1 pound ground turkey (Sun)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Tue, Wed)

Seafood
2 salmon fillets, about 6 ounces each (Thu)

Dairy
1 cup creme fraiche (Fri)
2 medium sized boccioni of fresh mozzarella (Wed)

Produce
2 bulbs garlic (All but Thu)
3 yellow onions (Thu, Fri, Sun)
1/2 pound white button mushrooms (Fri)
1 bunch basil (Tue, Sun)
1 bunch cilantro (Thu)
1 bunch flat leaf parsley (Fri, Sun)
1 red bell pepper (Tue)
1 bunch green onions (Thu)
Fresh ginger (Tue, Thu)
3/4 - 1 pound green beans (Thu)
1 jalapeno pepper (Thu)
1 mango (Thu)
1 head broccoli (Sat)
1 head cauliflower (Sun)
1 lime (Thu)
3 avocados (Wed)

Inner Aisles
1 box of medium length tube pasta like ziti or penne, preferably one with ridges on the outside (Wed)
1 8-ounce can of pineapple chunks (Thu)

Staple Items (that you might already have)
Milk (Sun)
Parmesan (Sun)
Eggs (Sun)
Nutmeg (Fri)
Butter (Fri, Sun)
Dijon mustard (Fri)
Paprika (Fri)
Dried red pepper flakes (Tue)
Soy sauce (Tue, Sat)
Hoisin sauce (Sat)
Honey (Tue, Sat)
Olive oil (Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat)
Peanut, Corn, or Vegetable oil (Tue, Sat)
Ground coriander (Thu)
Dry bread crumbs (Sun)
Tomato paste (Sun)
Chicken broth (Sun)
Rice (Tue, Fri, Sat)
Sesame seeds (Sat)

Teriyaki Ginger Lime Noodles with Shrimp

2007-08-20T22:55:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to post about the slow cooker chicken tortilla soup I made last night. It was so not awesome that I'm not even going to write about it and tag it as "This is not awesome." Blech. Why is it so hard to find a good slow cooker recipe?

I'm going to post the weekly menu tomorrow. I went rafting all day yesterday, and I was too exhauted to work on the menu when I finally got home. Thus, tonight I had to throw something together from the odds and ends laying around. This is what I came up with!

1 pound shrimp
1 broccoli head, cut into florets, with the stem sliced into coins
2 carrots, sliced into coins on the bias
3 green onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
8 ounces spaghetti
1 lime, juiced
3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
Sugar
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons peanut, corn or vegetable oil

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti. You should probably do this while you're still prepping, since the dish doesn't take very long to cook. Add the pasta when the water is boiling, and drain when it's just this side of al dente.

Heat the oil in a deep pan or wok over high heat. Add the broccoli, carrots, green onion, and garlic. Stir fry until the veggies are soft, about 10 minutes. Throw in the shrimp and cook until they turn pink. Put the lime juice in a small bowl, whisk in a teaspoon or so of sugar (use more if you want!), and add the grated ginger. Pour contents of the bowl into your pan or wok and stir to combine.

Add the noodles to the pan, a little bit at a time. Toss everything together with the noodles as they're added. Add the teriyaki sauce and stir around. Add a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper. Taste to see if it needs salt--it probably won't as there's a lot of sodium in teriyaki sauce!

Rating: This is awesome

It was light, fresh, and tasty--an easy, summer-y weeknight dinner!

Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells

2007-08-19T06:24:00.000-04:00

The term "stuffed shells" is frozen in my memory as a nasty school lunch item that was on pretty heavy rotation at my elementary school. Whenever it was on the menu, I would opt for the tragic mini pizzas that were available everyday instead. I saw Giada De Laurentiis make these on her show when I was getting my teeth whitened several months ago for the wedding. I went to one of those fancy places where they zap you with light for an hour. Thankfully, they have little TV's you can watch so you don't go crazy. Her stuffed shells so changed my opinion of stuffed shells that I wanted to go home immediately and make them, despite the fact that I wasn't allowed to eat anything that would stain a white shirt for the next 36 hours.

I forgot about them until I saw the recipe in Everyday Pasta. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be making them again for a while, since Wei and dairy products aren't the best of friends (or fortunately, since this is pretty fatty and it probably shouldn't be eaten all the time!). This is a great "company" dish, since it makes a big pan-ful and is a crowd-pleaser. Giada recommends making a quick, slightly spicy Arrabbiata sauce to use in the dish. I decided to make it since it calls for pancetta and I had some leftover from Monday night's soup. It added a great flavor, but it's not necessary--regular marinara would work just fine!

1 12-ounce box jumbo pasta shells
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pound ground turkey, preferably a mix of white and dark meat
Salt and pepper
1 can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and chopped
1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup chopped basil
5 cups Arrabbiata sauce or marinara sauce
1 and 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

For Arrabbiata sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves
1 jar of store bought marinara or 5 cups homemade

In a large, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the ground turkey, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and continue to cook until the turkey is completely done. Add the artichoke hearts and stir to combine. Put the mixture in a large bowl and let cool.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta and, if you're using it, get on with the Arrabbiata sauce in the meantime. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan or soup pot over medium heat. Add the pancetta and saute until it turns deep red and starts to crisp, about 6 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and garlic and saute until tender, about 1 minute. Add the marinara sauce and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down to low and let it mellow on its own until you're ready to use it.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and partially cook until tender but still very firm, stirring occasionally, 4 or 5 minutes. Drain. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, eggs, basil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to the turkey mixture. Stir to combine.

Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish with 1 cup of the Arrabbiata sauce. Hold a shell in the palm of your hand and stuff it with a large spoonful of the turkey mixture, about 2 tablespoons. Place the stuffed shell in the baking dish. Continue filling the shells until the baking dish is full; you should have about 24 shells. Spoon the remaining Arrabbiata sauce over the shells and top with the grated mozzarella. Bake until the shells are warmed through and the cheese is beginning to brown, about 25 minutes.

Rating: This is awesome
I mean, just look at the picture up there.

Pork and Vegetable Stir Fry

2007-08-18T10:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't know how to cook before I met Wei, my husband. He didn't exactly teach me, but he did give me a lot of inspiration. When I saw how easy it was for him to throw together something delicious with fresh ingredients, like a stir fry, it made me wonder why the hell I was cooking meals that came out of boxes and pouches.

My stir fry technique has become something like this: Cook the meat first, then take it out of the pan so it doesn't end up over cooked. Cook onion, then throw in the rest of the veggies and garlic. Add the meat back when the veggies are cooked. Season with cooking sauces and stir in a cornstarch slurry to bring the sauce together. Done! It's an easy way to get something fairly healthy on the table in a short amount of time.

This was the first time that I made one with a pork tenderloin. I don't know if I'll do it again. I liked the flavor, but tenderloins are such a pain to prep since you have to remove all of the silverskin and fat bits. Also, you have to be careful to cut it into small pieces, otherwise they take a long time to cook. It just doesn't fit in with my vision of a quick and easy stir fry!

This isn't a recipe as much as a suggestion. Use whatever meat and vegetable combinations you like, or make it all veggie. The only ingredients that I consider to be absolutely essential are the onions and garlic. They are the flavor base, and it just wouldn't taste right without them.

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silverskin and cut into bite size pieces
1 yellow onion, cut into half moons
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, sliced (use a green bell pepper if you want, but I just can't stand the flavor!)
1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons peanut, corn, or vegetable oil (peanut is best)
Soy sauce
Thai fish sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cornstarch
Chicken broth
Rice

Start by making the rice. You probably have your own technique, but this is how I do it. Put one cup of white rice in a medium-size pot and rinse the grains several times to remove most of the starch. I do this by swirling water around in the pot, dumping the water out (being careful not to lose any rice grains in the process), and repeating until the water runs mostly clear--about 5 or 6 times.

Once the rice is rinsed, add water to the pot so that the water level is 2 centimeters above the level of the rice. Put a lid partially on the pot, and put on a burner set to medium heat. Set a timer to 14 minutes, and it should be done when the timer goes off. Sometimes there's still some water in the pot at that time, in which case keep checking at 2 minute intervals. Basically, when there's no more steam coming out of the pot, it's done. Turn off the burner, clamp the lid on the pot, and let it sit until you're ready to eat it. This "sitting stage" is essential; it needs to sit for at least 10 minutes.

While your cut up pork is still sitting on the cutting board, season it well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle a small spoonful of cornstarch over the meat and toss it all together to distribute. Heat one tablespoon of oil over medium-high or high heat in a wok or a large, deep pan. Add the meat and cook until it's done. Remove to a plate and tent with tin foil to keep warm.

Wipe the inside of the pan or wok with a paper towel, and add the second tablespoon of oil. Keep an open can of chicken broth next to you in case the pan gets too hot and you need to deglaze it. Throw in the onions and cook until soft, about ten minutes. My test is that the onions are done when I can easily cut through one by pushing on it with my wooden spoon. Throw in the garlic and the bell pepper and mushrooms. Stir fry until cooked, about another 10 minutes.

Add the meat and any accumulated juices back into the pan. Toss everything with two tablespoons each of soy sauce and fish sauce and a splash of chicken broth. Add several grinds of black pepper. Make a cornstarch slurry by mixing a tablespoon of cornstarch and a tablespoon of chicken broth in a coffee mug until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. Pour over everything in the pan and stir together until the sauce is glossy and thicker. Taste for seasoning.

Serve over the rice, and yes, chopsticks are a must!

Rating: This is not awesome

Yeah, this wasn't my best work. It was too salty and not enough vegetables in my opinion. Truthfully, I had cut up a head of broccoli to use as well, but I was impatient and didn't feel like waiting for it to cook. If you want to make it like I did, you should probably cut the amount of soy and fish sauce down to one tablespoon each. If you use another veggie to bulk up the amount of stir fry, you should be fine with two tablespoons each.

Breaded Chicken Breasts and Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Raw Tomato Sauce

2007-08-17T01:26:00.000-04:00

I took the inspiration for this dish from a few different recipes in my Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition. I wanted to create a summertime version of Chicken Parmesan, which was my absolute favorite thing to order at restaurants when I was a kid. I've branched out since then, but it was still really nice to make this for myself after a not so great day at work. I guess it's still one of my comfort foods!

To qualify this as a "summertime" version, I used a simple raw tomato sauce instead of a hot marinara, and I tore up a piece of fresh mozzarella instead of (ugh) turning on the oven and melting shredded cheese over the cutlets. To make the pasta a little more interesting, I used an aglio e oilo (or garlic and oil) sauce.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup dry Italian or plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
Salt & pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 egg, beaten with a splash of water
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
8 ounces spaghetti
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 large or 4 small tomotoes, seeded and chopped
2 medium sized boccioni of fresh mozzarella, torn or chopped into bite-size pieces

Get a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta.

Combine the chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon each of basil and olive oil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper in a bowl. Set aside.

Remove any fat around the edges of the chicken breasts, and butterfly cut them open (like a book), then cut in half lengthwise down the middle, so you have two pieces of equal size. Place the chicken pieces between two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap and pound each with a blunt object (mallet, rolling pin, heavy trivet, etc.) to flatten.

Combine the bread crumbs, parmesan, 1 tablespoon basil, 1 teaspoon salt (omit salt if you're using Italian bread crumbs--they already have enough sodium!), and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper in a wide, shallow bowl, pie plate, or round cake pan . Put the egg in another shallow bowl, and spread the flour on a plate. Coat the chicken with the flour and shake off the excess. Dip in the egg, then coat with the bread crumb mixture, patting with your fingers or tongs to make sure the crumbs adhere. Set aside on a plate.

Throw the pasta in the now boiling water, and heat 1/3 cup of olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes per side. The time will depend on how thinly you pounded the chicken. When it's done, drain the chicken on a plate covered in paper towels.

In a small skillet, heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until the garlic just starts to turn color, about 2 minutes. Be very careful not to burn it. Drain the pasta over a small bowl in the sink to capture the cooking water. Put the pasta back in the pot and toss with the oil and garlic, adding a ladle-ful of the pasta cooking water. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, place a serving of pasta in a shallow bowl or plate, and top with one of the chicken pieces. Spoon over the raw tomato sauce and pieces of fresh mozzarella.

Rating: This is awesome
It was a bit decadent with all of the olive oil going on, but it was very tasty. The only bad part is that I made such a mess making it! Time to go clean the kitchen I guess...boo!

Fiery Singapore Noodles

2007-08-16T00:46:00.000-04:00

I saw Ching He-Huang make this recipe in an episode of Daily Cooks! on BBC America about a month ago, and I knew I had to try it! Besides the fact that Singapore Noodles is one of my husband's favorite dishes, it has a lot of my favorite ingredients. Turmeric is amazing in its flavor, vibrant color, and health properties. It is like, Super Spice. I love getting the chance to use it :-)

One of the great things about stir fry is that you can customize it however you want. If you don't want this to be spicy at all, omit the chiles! If you want it extra spicy, leave the membranes in when you chop the peppers! Don't have any sesame oil? Leave it out! You get the idea. Never forget that you are the one in charge of what you're cooking, not the recipe. My only tip for making this dish is to get all your prep done before you start cooking it. By which I mean, have all of the elements sitting on the counter next to your range so you can grab them and keep cooking with minimal running around.

1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 pound thin, dried rice noodles
2 tablespoons peanut, corn, or vegetable oil (peanut is best)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 chiles, seeds and membrane removed, finely chopped
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled
2 teaspoons turmeric
4 green onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 egg, beaten
A couple of pinches crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (freshly ground black pepper is fine if you don't have white)
A few drizzles of sesame oil

Put the rice noodles in a big bowl and submerge in hot (not boiling) water for 10 minutes. I try to time this right so that the 10 minutes are up when I'm already cooking, so I can pull the noodles out of the bowl with a pair of tongs and put them straight into the skillet.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok or deep skillet over high heat. Throw in the garlic, ginger, and chiles and cook for a minute, until the garlic begins to change color. Add the mushrooms and shrimp and stir until the shrimp turns pink.

Add the turmeric and stir around until everything is coated. Add the noodles to the skillet and use a pair of kitchen shears to randomly snip them several times to shorten the strands--this will make them much easier to work with. Toss together with the shrimp and mushrooms so that everything gets combined.

Toss in the green onions and soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Stir to combine. Pour the beaten egg over the noodles, turn down the heat, and let the eggs set for 30 seconds. Stir gently.

Turn off the heat and sprinkle the crushed red pepper flakes and white pepper over top. Finish with a few drizzles of sesame oil.

Mark Bittman wrote an article in today's New York Times about using shrimp shells to make a simple stock to use in shrimp based dishes. I was going to make some to use in this dish, but I realized too late that I had bought the already peeled shrimp by accident. D'oh! I probably would have thrown in a 1/4 cup or so of the stock at the same time as the sauces. Maybe next time. Let me know if you try it!

Rating: This is awesome
Mmmm, so awesome. Simple cooking with tasty flavors, my favorite kind of food to make and eat. Definitely a keeper! My husband's verdict was that while it tasted good, it wasn't "greasy enough." Uhm, I can live with that, thanks!

Grilled Flank Steak and Orzo with the Works

2007-08-15T00:14:00.000-04:00

I have such a love-hate relationship with Rachael Ray.

I love that she encourages people to get in the kitchen. I love it when she creates recipes that boil down the essence of a classic dish so you get the flavor without all the fuss. I hate it when she throws way too many ingredients into a big pot and calls it a "stoup." I hate that in the book from which I got this dish, 365: No Repeats, she advocates feeding meals to dogs that include onions, which happen to be toxic to dogs. She says that her dog used to love the flavor of onions. WTF?! Her dog liked the flavor of death?

But I digress. This was one of her better recipes. Also, it included a vegetable that I had never used before: fennel! I had to modify it a bit; it originally called for skirt steak, not flank, but there was nary a piece of skirt steak to be found in Publix when I was there yesterday. She suggested using 1 pint of grape tomatoes in the orzo, but honestly, I think grape tomatoes are twee and overpriced. Regular seeded tomatoes worked quite well instead! Also, I had to omit the flat leaf parsley that she specified for the orzo because I didn't have any. I didn't really miss it, either.

1.5 - 2 pound piece of flank steak
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus some for drizzling
Salt and pepper
1/2 pound orzo pasta
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 fennel bulb, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced
A couple of pinches (or more if you like it spicy!) of crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup chicken broth
2 small tomatoes, seeded and chopped
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Marinate the steak for 10 minutes in the balsamic vinegar, a good drizzle of olive oil, and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Preheat your grill pan or outdoor grill to as hot as you dare.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and add the orzo. Cook until al dente, about 12 minutes.

While you're getting the pasta water started, preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat with the olive oil. Add the onions, garlic, fennel, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Season the steak with salt and grill for 5 -7 minutes per side. [Disclaimer: I don't know anything about using an outdoor grill, as I've never owned one. This time works on my stovetop grill pan to produce a rare steak. I highly encourage you to use the touch test otherwise: if the meat feels like your cheek, it's rare. If it feels like your chin, it's medium. If it feels like your forehead, it's well done.] Remove the meat to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

Add the chicken stock and tomato to the pan and bring it up to a bubble. Add the cooked orzo, basil, and parmesan cheese and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper until it's how you like it.

Slice the meat very thinly on a sharp angle against the grain. Plate and serve!

Rating: This is awesome
I totally didn't expect it to be awesome. I was iffy about using balsamic vinegar on steak, and I thought the orzo would be blah. But it wasn't! I would probably make it again.

Italian White Bean, Pancetta, and Tortellini Soup

2007-08-14T01:51:00.000-04:00

Having soup for dinner is still a relatively new thing in my life. When I was growing up, the only soup we had came from a can and was generally eaten with a sandwich for lunch. My husband introduced the concept of dinner-sized soups to me with his rustic versions of Chinese classics like wonton and chicken corn when we started living together a few years ago. Now I love making a pot of soup on nights when I want something filling but not overly engorging!

I had the ends of a big bag of cheese tortellini from Costco in the freezer, so I was psyched to see this recipe when I was flipping through Everyday Pasta! I modified it a bit, swapping her shallots for onion and increasing the amount of liquid.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 pound pancetta, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1-15 ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 bunch of Swiss chard, chopped
8 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1/2 pound of frozen cheese tortellini
Salt and pepper

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta, onion, and carrot and cook until the vegetables are soft and the pancetta is crisp, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic, beans, chicken broth and water and bring up to a boil over high heat. Throw in the Swiss chard and let it wilt, about 3 minutes.

Add the tortellini and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the tortellini are tender, about 8 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

If you've never cooked with Swiss chard before, don't be put off by its size! It's delicious, and it has so much good stuff in it. Take each leaf and run your knife along both sides of the thick rib in the middle to remove it. Chop the leaves coarsely and it's ready to put in the soup!

Rating: This is awesome
It was very yummy and relatively easy. I would repeat it, especially if we succumb to the allure of the big bag of tortellini at Costco again.

Menu plan for the week

2007-08-14T00:42:00.000-04:00

Monday: Italian White Bean, Pancetta, and Tortellini
Tuesday: Grilled Flank Steak and Orzo with the Works
Wednesday: Fiery Singapore
Thursday: Sauteed Breaded Boneless Chicken Breasts and Spaghetti aglio e olio with raw tomato sauce
Friday: Pork Tenderloin and Vegetable Stir fry with Steamed Rice
Saturday: Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed
Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup with Guacamole

Shopping List

Meats
1.5 - 2 pounds piece of flank steak
4 ounces pancetta
1 pound ground turkey (preferably a mix of white and dark meat)
1 pork tenderloin
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Seafood
1 pound shrimp

Dairy
1-15 ounce container of ricotta cheese
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Produce
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley
1 bunch of fresh basil
1 bunch of cilantro
1 fennel bulb
1 garlic bulb
1 piece of fresh ginger
5 yellow onions
1 bunch of tomatoes on the vine (at least 4 tomatoes)
1 bunch of swiss chard
1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms
2 small chiles, whatever variety you like
1 bunch of green onions
3 avocados
1 head of broccoli

Inner Aisles
1-15 ounce can of canellini beans
1-14 ounce can of artichoke hearts
1-14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes and green chiles
1-10.5 ounce can of tomato puree
1 package of jumbo pasta shells
1 package of thin, dried rice noodles
1 package of frozen cheese tortellini
Tortilla chips

Staple Items (that you might already have)
Olive oil
Peanut, corn, or vegetable oil
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Thai fish sauce
Oyster sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Parmesan cheese
8- 2 cup cans of chicken broth
Italian dried bread crumbs
Crushed red pepper flakes
Spaghetti
Orzo
Rice
Eggs
Turmeric