This is an expansion on the chickpea noodle soup I learned about from 101 Cookbooks. It was so good and basic, I realized, beans are good, nooldes are good and broth is good, so what's stopping me from putting it altogether? Usually bean soups have thick texture, more like hot pureed bean dip with a little broth mixed in than brothy soup. I like bean soups, but they don't fit the one-pot weekday meal I'm generally looking for. The texture is so thick and the taste so strict and beany, it's hard to eat a big bowl at once. When made with just beans, they're better as first-courses or a quick cup for a snack (which isn't a bad idea when it comes to snacks, beans are filling and healthy). But add some more broth and noodles and suddenly you have real one-pot, rib sticking comfort food! the chickpea noodle soup blew my doors, and the simplicity is a winner for the most harried of week-nights. I made a few variations of the soup with different beans and minor changes in flavors - all with things you will typically have in your pantry. The beany noodle soups are now a staple in our house. I hope you enjoy!
If you like the soup thicker with beans than noodles, add two cans beans. The best part about these soups is that they are so easy to customize; Two cans of beans or one, a whole lemon or lime or a half, spicy or mild, it's all managed by starting with less and adding more later if you want.
Base Ingredients - for two, double for four
2 cups chicken broth (Swanson's organic is my favorite bang for the buck)
up to 1 cup water for thinning
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup small egg noodles or spelt noodles
Chickpea Soup
1 14 oz can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
1/4 cup tahini
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 - 1 T paprika
1/4 t or to taste cayenne
1 T Olive oil
1 t salt
fresh ground pepper to taste (optional)
Heat pot, pour 1/2 T olive oil, saute garlic 30 sec-1 min. Add broth, lemon, tahini and chickpeas, salt and stir. Bring to a boil. Smash chickpeas with a potato masher. This step is optional, but it allows for some of the chick peas to stick to the noodles, better mixing the flavors. Add noodles, paprika and cayenne. Drizzle with olive oil and pepper if using before serving. Repeat, substituting different beans and ingredients.
Pinto Beans
1 14 oz can pinto beans
1/4 - 1/2 cup enchilada sauce
Juice of 1/2 - 1 lime
1 t salt
1/2 T chili powder
1 t cumin
cayenne to taste
cojita cheese or sour cream in place of olive oil if you want. If not, olive oil is fine
White Beans
1 14 oz can white beans (canellinni)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 t white pepper
1 t salt
1 T butter
1 t mustard powder
1/2 cup fresh parsley (or dill would probably be good too)
olive oil
sprinkle with fresh parmesean cheese before serving
Now you have three soups that can all be made out of cans from your fridge and pantry plus a few spices. Only the White Bean recipe has fresh parsley, although it would also be good in Chickpea and Cilanto good in Pinto. But sometimes we can't get to the store and we don't always have fresh herbs on hand, especially in the winter. Beany Noodley soup comes together in well under half an hour and the flavor gets better with age. I love it for lunch the next day so I usually double the recipe whenever I make it. The soup also freezes well and when you double it to make four servings you're using a whole lemon and lime so you don't have to package up and protect an errant half-lemon for later use.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Chickpea Noodle Soup - Hummus if it were soup!
My inspriation:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001540.html
I stumbled across this website when I was googling "how to print your own recipe book," for Christmas presents. She's a San Francisco based vegetarian food writer and photographer with a very practical approach to food buying and cooking. I have barely scratched the surface of her website, but her simple recipes with economical rather than outlandish ingredients seem very appealing. Especially since we're trying to eat less meat. And she has separate categories named kale, chickpea, yougurt, soba noodles, tomoato, egg and just about every other favorite ingredient of mine. I'll be checking in regularly to be sure.
Last night we had plans to meet friends at the Portland holiday brewers festival at 5 pm. At 3 pm I decided to take the dogs for a run/walk (we run up the hills and walk down them). I returned at 3:30 with plenty of time to shower, dress and meet the friends, until, halfway through my shower my stomach growled and I realized I hadn't eaten anything since the two small blueberry pancakes at 10 this morning and a) didn't want to deal with trying to eat at brewfest and b) didn't want to drink heavy, heady, holiday brews on an empty stomach, I winced in anticipation of the headache. Luckily, just that morning I found this website and this particular recipe for chickpea noodle soup. Broth, chickpeas, noodles, garlic, all things I always have in the pantry. I was out of the shower and in the kitchen by 4:00...in my bathrobe, but with my hair at least blown sorta dry (I have low maintenance hair). By 4:20 the whole thing was simmering and the noodles cooking. At 4:30 the noodles were done and I turned off the heat, leaving the noodles to cook some more and the broth to cool. I did my make-up and figured out at least which jeans I was wearing. At 4:40 still in a sweatshirt I went back downstairs to stuff my face. Texted friends that we were running late. It's a quick meal, not a miracle. Friend texted back "me too, meet up at 6?" Ah, small favors. Poured the soup into a bowl and sat with it for awhile, letting the scents waft up my nose - I'm recovering from a cold so the steam bath felt lovely. Lemon, olive oil, garlic, paprika, four indespensible flavors for more than one culture, they danced so comfortably together as I sat there drinking them in. 32 oz of broth, $3.00, 1 can chickpeas, $1.10, 2 cloves garlic 0.14 cents, 1 T paprika 0.10 cents, lemon juice .50 if real lemon, noodles .50, total, $5.20. $5.20 for a fantastic meal cooked in 30 minutes (and eaten in 45). This one is a keeper. Someday I will make the website version with fried noodles and high quality fresh pasta, but for cupboard staple soup, this is amazing.
My variation, cooked and eaten in less than 45 minutes
1 32 oz box chicken broth (or homemade if you have it)
2-4 clove garlic depending on how garlicky you want it, minced or pressed
2 T olive oil
1 14 oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups small egg noodles (1/2 more if you like it extra noodley)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 T paprika
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme (or dill, or cumin or use your imagination)
1 small or 1/2 bay leaf
Heat olive oil over medium heat until it sizzles, toss in minced garlic and saute 30 sec-1 min until garlic is softened and aromatic. Add chick peas and saute 30 more secs. Add broth, lemon juice, bay leaf, paprika, cayenne and thyme, bring to a boil and let simmer 15 minutes. Use a potato masher to lightly mash the beans so they are just broken up. Add egg noodles and cook according to time on package. When noodles are al dente, remove from heat and let rest 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve with tobasco sauce, pita triangles, yogurt or tzatziki sauce.
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001540.html
I stumbled across this website when I was googling "how to print your own recipe book," for Christmas presents. She's a San Francisco based vegetarian food writer and photographer with a very practical approach to food buying and cooking. I have barely scratched the surface of her website, but her simple recipes with economical rather than outlandish ingredients seem very appealing. Especially since we're trying to eat less meat. And she has separate categories named kale, chickpea, yougurt, soba noodles, tomoato, egg and just about every other favorite ingredient of mine. I'll be checking in regularly to be sure.
Last night we had plans to meet friends at the Portland holiday brewers festival at 5 pm. At 3 pm I decided to take the dogs for a run/walk (we run up the hills and walk down them). I returned at 3:30 with plenty of time to shower, dress and meet the friends, until, halfway through my shower my stomach growled and I realized I hadn't eaten anything since the two small blueberry pancakes at 10 this morning and a) didn't want to deal with trying to eat at brewfest and b) didn't want to drink heavy, heady, holiday brews on an empty stomach, I winced in anticipation of the headache. Luckily, just that morning I found this website and this particular recipe for chickpea noodle soup. Broth, chickpeas, noodles, garlic, all things I always have in the pantry. I was out of the shower and in the kitchen by 4:00...in my bathrobe, but with my hair at least blown sorta dry (I have low maintenance hair). By 4:20 the whole thing was simmering and the noodles cooking. At 4:30 the noodles were done and I turned off the heat, leaving the noodles to cook some more and the broth to cool. I did my make-up and figured out at least which jeans I was wearing. At 4:40 still in a sweatshirt I went back downstairs to stuff my face. Texted friends that we were running late. It's a quick meal, not a miracle. Friend texted back "me too, meet up at 6?" Ah, small favors. Poured the soup into a bowl and sat with it for awhile, letting the scents waft up my nose - I'm recovering from a cold so the steam bath felt lovely. Lemon, olive oil, garlic, paprika, four indespensible flavors for more than one culture, they danced so comfortably together as I sat there drinking them in. 32 oz of broth, $3.00, 1 can chickpeas, $1.10, 2 cloves garlic 0.14 cents, 1 T paprika 0.10 cents, lemon juice .50 if real lemon, noodles .50, total, $5.20. $5.20 for a fantastic meal cooked in 30 minutes (and eaten in 45). This one is a keeper. Someday I will make the website version with fried noodles and high quality fresh pasta, but for cupboard staple soup, this is amazing.
My variation, cooked and eaten in less than 45 minutes
1 32 oz box chicken broth (or homemade if you have it)
2-4 clove garlic depending on how garlicky you want it, minced or pressed
2 T olive oil
1 14 oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups small egg noodles (1/2 more if you like it extra noodley)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 T paprika
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme (or dill, or cumin or use your imagination)
1 small or 1/2 bay leaf
Heat olive oil over medium heat until it sizzles, toss in minced garlic and saute 30 sec-1 min until garlic is softened and aromatic. Add chick peas and saute 30 more secs. Add broth, lemon juice, bay leaf, paprika, cayenne and thyme, bring to a boil and let simmer 15 minutes. Use a potato masher to lightly mash the beans so they are just broken up. Add egg noodles and cook according to time on package. When noodles are al dente, remove from heat and let rest 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve with tobasco sauce, pita triangles, yogurt or tzatziki sauce.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Scrambled eggs, Veggies and Quinoa
This one is great when you need something really fast - with the added benefit of a comfort food element, even though it's healthy. Also one a 10-year old could prepare all by themselves if you have a young cook in the house. This of this as a veggie stir fry with scrambled eggs, served over quinoa. Americans tend to eat eggs only for breakfast, but they are so versatile and economical, I encourage thinking about the egg beyond the breakfast table. The veggies can be anything you have in the fridge. I'll give a few examples of what I've tried.
Serves 4
Scrambled eggs
4 eggs, lightly beated with a wisk (1 egg per person)
1/2 tsp salt and pepper
1/2 T butter
Veggie options
-1 leek, 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 2 cups loosely packed greens (spinach, mustard or chinese broccoli)
-1 1/2 cups coleslaw mix, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped onion - extra additions can be 3/4 cup frozen corn, chopped cilantro, lime juice, tobasco
-Peas, corn, carrots and lima beans (with freezer veggies, add fresh onion and garlic to liven the flavor, cilantro, mustard greens and other fresh herbs are also nice kicks to frozen veggies)
-Leftover roasted cauliflower and sweet potato
-Leftover green beans and mustard greens
Quinoa
Cooking quinoa is about a 2-1 ratio liquid to solid. A single serving is about a 1/4 cup. To make 4 servings, 2 cups chicken broth or just salted water, 1 cup quinoa.
I'll use the coleslaw, bell pepper veggie mix for the instructions. First get the broth boiling for the quinoa. When boiling rapidly, stir in quinoa, add about 1/2 T olive oil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook about 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is light and fluffy. Meanwhile, heat saute pan or wok over med-high heat, add 1 T oil (veggie or pure olive, not extra virgin). Add onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes, add coleslaw mix and pepper and saute for about 5 more minutes. Turn off heat and stir in chopped cilantro and a few dashes of tobasco if you want a little kick. Squeeze half a lime in too if you want. If you don't want to use three pans, here you can move veggie mixture to a plate or bowl and set aside. Heat 1 T butter in pan, when brown and bubbling, pour in eggs. Let set over medium heat, about 2 minutes. Stir slowly. Let set again about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir again. Repeat until cooked. Add eggs to veggies. When quinoa is ready, divide into four bowls and divide veggie and egg mixture evenly over each heap of quinoa. Season with salt and pepper, tobasco, soy sauce, sesame oil, whatever you want. Enjoy!
Serves 4
Scrambled eggs
4 eggs, lightly beated with a wisk (1 egg per person)
1/2 tsp salt and pepper
1/2 T butter
Veggie options
-1 leek, 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 2 cups loosely packed greens (spinach, mustard or chinese broccoli)
-1 1/2 cups coleslaw mix, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped onion - extra additions can be 3/4 cup frozen corn, chopped cilantro, lime juice, tobasco
-Peas, corn, carrots and lima beans (with freezer veggies, add fresh onion and garlic to liven the flavor, cilantro, mustard greens and other fresh herbs are also nice kicks to frozen veggies)
-Leftover roasted cauliflower and sweet potato
-Leftover green beans and mustard greens
Quinoa
Cooking quinoa is about a 2-1 ratio liquid to solid. A single serving is about a 1/4 cup. To make 4 servings, 2 cups chicken broth or just salted water, 1 cup quinoa.
I'll use the coleslaw, bell pepper veggie mix for the instructions. First get the broth boiling for the quinoa. When boiling rapidly, stir in quinoa, add about 1/2 T olive oil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook about 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is light and fluffy. Meanwhile, heat saute pan or wok over med-high heat, add 1 T oil (veggie or pure olive, not extra virgin). Add onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes, add coleslaw mix and pepper and saute for about 5 more minutes. Turn off heat and stir in chopped cilantro and a few dashes of tobasco if you want a little kick. Squeeze half a lime in too if you want. If you don't want to use three pans, here you can move veggie mixture to a plate or bowl and set aside. Heat 1 T butter in pan, when brown and bubbling, pour in eggs. Let set over medium heat, about 2 minutes. Stir slowly. Let set again about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir again. Repeat until cooked. Add eggs to veggies. When quinoa is ready, divide into four bowls and divide veggie and egg mixture evenly over each heap of quinoa. Season with salt and pepper, tobasco, soy sauce, sesame oil, whatever you want. Enjoy!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Greens!
Eat dark, leafy greens. You have definitely heard that before. Seems like a good idea too, but you don't know where to begin, save for the weekly spinach salad. The Greeks are great at greens, they serve them with every meal, boiled in nothing more a little salted water and flavored with olive oil and lemon juice. I have been experimenting with various recipes and trying all kinds of ways to get more greens into our diet. In the US, I've found that mustard greens, kale, collard and swiss chard are the most abundant and economical. Arugula, chickory, watercress and others are fun to try if you want, but they are more expensive. I am also very lucky to live close to a giant Asian grocery store filled with gorgeous produce, including all kinds of greens never seen in typical American grocery stores.
Basic Boiled Greens - serves 4
1 1/2 pounds leafy greens (most often, I do a mix of kale and mustard greens with this)
sea salt
fresh pepper
olive oil
fresh lemon juice
Trim greens, removing stems from the middle and chop leaves. Bring about 1 inch of water in a pot to a boil, add salt and greens. Boil uncovered for about 5-15 minutes until dark green and softened (kale will take 15 minutes, spinach will take 5 - time depends on the delicacy of the green). When done, squeeze water with tongs and drain in a colander. Toss with olive oil and lemon juice to taste.
Chinese style greens - replace salt with soy sauce and olive oil with sesame oil, no lemon juice but if you want you can toss a 1-inch piece of peeled ginger in with the boiling water and greens. Remove before serving.
Greens with Tomatoes and Garlic
2 cloves garlic, minced or pushed through a press
1 can diced tomatoes
1 pound greens
olive oil
lemon juice
salt and pepper
Heat 1T olive oil in a pot, add garlic and saute about 30 seconds, just to release the flavor, add tomatoes with their juice and 1 inch water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil, add salt and greens and cook 5-15 minutes. Season with lemon juice, pepper and olive oil. Crushed red (hot) peppers are also a good addition to this style.
Green Beans with Mustard Greens
I discovered this when I needed to use up some mustard greens and had a fresh batch of green beans to cook up. The good folks at Cook's Illustrated came up with a way to make excellent green beans in one pan without parboiling them first. This not only means less dishes to wash, but the beans also retain their full nutritional value as nothing is drained. I'm going to try this recipe with broccoli and cauliflower too, we'll see if it works!
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 cup chopped mustard greens
2 T butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1t dried thyme
salt and pepper
lemon juice
Heat 1 T butter in pan, add beans, salt and pepper and toss to coat and saute until browned, stirring a few times, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and saute about 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup water to pan, bring to a boil, add mustard greens, reduce heat, cover and simmer about 5 minutes until mustard greens are bright green and soft and beans are cooked through. Add remaining T butter, thyme and lemon juice and stir until butter is melted completely. Serve immediately.
Basic Boiled Greens - serves 4
1 1/2 pounds leafy greens (most often, I do a mix of kale and mustard greens with this)
sea salt
fresh pepper
olive oil
fresh lemon juice
Trim greens, removing stems from the middle and chop leaves. Bring about 1 inch of water in a pot to a boil, add salt and greens. Boil uncovered for about 5-15 minutes until dark green and softened (kale will take 15 minutes, spinach will take 5 - time depends on the delicacy of the green). When done, squeeze water with tongs and drain in a colander. Toss with olive oil and lemon juice to taste.
Chinese style greens - replace salt with soy sauce and olive oil with sesame oil, no lemon juice but if you want you can toss a 1-inch piece of peeled ginger in with the boiling water and greens. Remove before serving.
Greens with Tomatoes and Garlic
2 cloves garlic, minced or pushed through a press
1 can diced tomatoes
1 pound greens
olive oil
lemon juice
salt and pepper
Heat 1T olive oil in a pot, add garlic and saute about 30 seconds, just to release the flavor, add tomatoes with their juice and 1 inch water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil, add salt and greens and cook 5-15 minutes. Season with lemon juice, pepper and olive oil. Crushed red (hot) peppers are also a good addition to this style.
Green Beans with Mustard Greens
I discovered this when I needed to use up some mustard greens and had a fresh batch of green beans to cook up. The good folks at Cook's Illustrated came up with a way to make excellent green beans in one pan without parboiling them first. This not only means less dishes to wash, but the beans also retain their full nutritional value as nothing is drained. I'm going to try this recipe with broccoli and cauliflower too, we'll see if it works!
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 cup chopped mustard greens
2 T butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1t dried thyme
salt and pepper
lemon juice
Heat 1 T butter in pan, add beans, salt and pepper and toss to coat and saute until browned, stirring a few times, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and saute about 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup water to pan, bring to a boil, add mustard greens, reduce heat, cover and simmer about 5 minutes until mustard greens are bright green and soft and beans are cooked through. Add remaining T butter, thyme and lemon juice and stir until butter is melted completely. Serve immediately.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Day 2- Leftover Roast Chicken
After meal 1 of roast chicken, fresh from the oven. I shred the leftover chicken from the bones and put in a lidded pyrex container in the fridge. There it's accessible for an easy sandwich or tacos or whatever else you want to do with it. Here's a few new ideas you can try.
Easy Vietnamese-influenced sandwich - Nothing beats a real Bhan-mi, a sandwich of pate, pork, pickled veggies and spices on a baguette. I don't tend to have pate or baguettes handy, which I suppose is a travesty, but I manage.
Chicken, Broccoli & Quinoa or Couscous - Quinoa, how's that for healthy! It's actually pretty rib-sticking good too and as easy to make as a pot of spaghetti. Couscous will also work with this if quinoa just isn't your cup of tea. With both, a little goes a long way, so 1/2 cup will easily feed 2+ people.
1 cup chopped broccoli, stems too
3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1 leek
1/2 cup couscous or quinoa
3/4 cup shredded chicken
1 T butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1T olivie oil
1 T dry sherry or lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste
Melt butter in saute pan, add broccoli, leek and mushrooms. Saute about 5 min, cover and cook for about 5 min more or until broccoli can be easily pierced with a fork and mushrooms have softened and shrunk. Meanwhile bring 1/2 cup broth to a boil, add olive oil, if quinoa, add, cover and simmer approximately 10 minutes until fluffy. If couscous, add, cover and remove from heat. Remove cover from broccoli & mushrooms and add chicken just to heat it up. Add sherry or lemon juice, salt and pepper and stir. If veggies are stuck to the pan you can add 1 T of water. Mix veggies and chicken with quinoa or couscous. Serve immediately.
Lime Chicken Enchiladas - I use yogurt instead of sour cream, but you don't have to. These are actually made without cheese and still taste awesome. You can add cojita cheese if you want to the top before you add the yogurt. You're call.
Serves 2
4 corn tortillas (or small 8-inch flour, whichever you prefer)
1 Tveggie oil
juice of one lime, + 2t lime zest
juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup yogurt
1t cumin
1/2-1t cayanne pepper
1/2 t chili powder
1 cup shredded chicken
Preheat oven to 350. Mix orange juice and lime juice together, pour 2 T over shredded chicken and toss. Add cumin, cayanne, chili powder, yogurt and lime zest to remaining juice and mix thoroughly. If using corn tortillas, heat veggie oil in a non-stick pan until barely smoking. Add tortilla and fry, about 30-secs per side. Place on paper towel. Fry remaining tortillas placing a paper towel between each one to remove excess oil. Lighty grease baking pan. Place 1/4 cup chicken on each tortilla and roll tightly, placing in pan, edge-side down. Top with yogurt mixture. Bake for about 20 minutes, until yogurt mixture is bubbling slightly.
Easy Vietnamese-influenced sandwich - Nothing beats a real Bhan-mi, a sandwich of pate, pork, pickled veggies and spices on a baguette. I don't tend to have pate or baguettes handy, which I suppose is a travesty, but I manage.
2 pieces of bread - any bread will do. My favorite is Oregon local Dave's Killer Bread.
Mayonaise (low-fat if you want)
Suriacha sauce
Pickled Veggies (I do carrots, cabbage and raddishes)
Shredded Chicken
Chicken, Broccoli & Quinoa or Couscous - Quinoa, how's that for healthy! It's actually pretty rib-sticking good too and as easy to make as a pot of spaghetti. Couscous will also work with this if quinoa just isn't your cup of tea. With both, a little goes a long way, so 1/2 cup will easily feed 2+ people.
1 cup chopped broccoli, stems too
3/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1 leek
1/2 cup couscous or quinoa
3/4 cup shredded chicken
1 T butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1T olivie oil
1 T dry sherry or lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste
Melt butter in saute pan, add broccoli, leek and mushrooms. Saute about 5 min, cover and cook for about 5 min more or until broccoli can be easily pierced with a fork and mushrooms have softened and shrunk. Meanwhile bring 1/2 cup broth to a boil, add olive oil, if quinoa, add, cover and simmer approximately 10 minutes until fluffy. If couscous, add, cover and remove from heat. Remove cover from broccoli & mushrooms and add chicken just to heat it up. Add sherry or lemon juice, salt and pepper and stir. If veggies are stuck to the pan you can add 1 T of water. Mix veggies and chicken with quinoa or couscous. Serve immediately.
Lime Chicken Enchiladas - I use yogurt instead of sour cream, but you don't have to. These are actually made without cheese and still taste awesome. You can add cojita cheese if you want to the top before you add the yogurt. You're call.
Serves 2
4 corn tortillas (or small 8-inch flour, whichever you prefer)
1 Tveggie oil
juice of one lime, + 2t lime zest
juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup yogurt
1t cumin
1/2-1t cayanne pepper
1/2 t chili powder
1 cup shredded chicken
Preheat oven to 350. Mix orange juice and lime juice together, pour 2 T over shredded chicken and toss. Add cumin, cayanne, chili powder, yogurt and lime zest to remaining juice and mix thoroughly. If using corn tortillas, heat veggie oil in a non-stick pan until barely smoking. Add tortilla and fry, about 30-secs per side. Place on paper towel. Fry remaining tortillas placing a paper towel between each one to remove excess oil. Lighty grease baking pan. Place 1/4 cup chicken on each tortilla and roll tightly, placing in pan, edge-side down. Top with yogurt mixture. Bake for about 20 minutes, until yogurt mixture is bubbling slightly.
Serve with Mexican confetti Rice: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mexican-Confetti-Rice-3091 I make this with Mexican tomoato sauce instead of regular to give it a good kick. If you don't want a kick, try adding some oregano or cumin along with regular tomato sauce.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Day One - Dinner
Start on a Sunday. An icky, rainy Sunday when you have some time and everyone is inside the house and smelling it up with cooking sounds appealing. If I have nothing better going on, I love to do my big grocery shop on Saturday evening. It's not the zoo that is Sunday at the grocery store and by evening they've put out most of the fresh produce in anticipation of the Sunday shoppers. And by "love" I mean "loathe a whole lot less than spending an hour at the grocery store with the crowds on Sunday or after a long day of work on Monday."
Let's start with the traditional Sunday roast chicken dinner. This sounds ambitious for the novice cook, but seriously roasting a whole chicken is nowhere near as daunting as it sounds. Also, the economic cook should get beyond the lame boneless, skinless chicken breast purchase that has been spoon-fed to us via the billion-dollar diet industry. The price of a whole, "fryer" chicken, bones, giblets and all is about the same as a package of two, butchered boneless, skinless breasts. And a whole chicken can become sandwiches, soups and stews after the original dinner has long been gobbled down. Keep portion sizes down and veggie factor high and try to erase that notion that eating a slice of dark meat will directly increase the size of your thighs by fourteen inches overnight. This will also come in handy when you learn that smearing real butter all over the chicken is involved.
Julia Child provides us with the most no-nonsense, easy recipe for roast chicken I've come across, which is entirely un-shocking. Get some butter, some herbs, some salt, pepper and a lemon and learn how to make your own roast chicken just like you used to have at your Grandmother's. Oh, and be okay with touching the damn thing. I've encountered a few cooks that have a hard time touching the raw stuff. If you're going to eat it, you need to touch it. Don't touch it like its a gross science project, touch it with respect for the animal that donated its life to your stomach. Then wash your hands.
Click on the link below for Julia's recipe on Epicurious.com, for once I didn't alter a damn thing...
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/JULIAS-ROAST-CHICKEN-WITH-LEMON-AND-HERBS-102264
Let's start with the traditional Sunday roast chicken dinner. This sounds ambitious for the novice cook, but seriously roasting a whole chicken is nowhere near as daunting as it sounds. Also, the economic cook should get beyond the lame boneless, skinless chicken breast purchase that has been spoon-fed to us via the billion-dollar diet industry. The price of a whole, "fryer" chicken, bones, giblets and all is about the same as a package of two, butchered boneless, skinless breasts. And a whole chicken can become sandwiches, soups and stews after the original dinner has long been gobbled down. Keep portion sizes down and veggie factor high and try to erase that notion that eating a slice of dark meat will directly increase the size of your thighs by fourteen inches overnight. This will also come in handy when you learn that smearing real butter all over the chicken is involved.
Julia Child provides us with the most no-nonsense, easy recipe for roast chicken I've come across, which is entirely un-shocking. Get some butter, some herbs, some salt, pepper and a lemon and learn how to make your own roast chicken just like you used to have at your Grandmother's. Oh, and be okay with touching the damn thing. I've encountered a few cooks that have a hard time touching the raw stuff. If you're going to eat it, you need to touch it. Don't touch it like its a gross science project, touch it with respect for the animal that donated its life to your stomach. Then wash your hands.
Click on the link below for Julia's recipe on Epicurious.com, for once I didn't alter a damn thing...
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/JULIAS-ROAST-CHICKEN-WITH-LEMON-AND-HERBS-102264
Eating my Words
Saturday my cupboards were bare. I hadn't set foot in a grocery store in two weeks and my supplies were less than minimal. No boxed chicken broth, no chick peas or other canned beans, no diced tomatoes, none of the so-called pantry essentials that allow me to whip up something out of nothing. Then B had to go and ask me what was for lunch. I had exactly four frozen, nitrate free chicken hot dogs left and four, bordering on stale, slices of bread. I also still had ketcup and mustard. And given that I like to take things a little further than most people, I also had a few jars of pickled cabbage and raddishes. So, lo, we had vegetables too! I'll get into pickled veggies in another post and try to pump your enthusiasm into making a few jars. I also hope you realize it's still perfectly okay to eat a hot dog even if you're not kids and aren't feeding any either.
I hit up the grocery store later that day knowing it was going to be a huge haul. I needed to replenish pretty much the whole kitchen. This happens about once a month, maybe less. It costs about $300. I'm at the store again 2-3 more times during the month, just getting the basics, veggies, milk, meat, eggs, stuff that spoils. I try to keep those trips around $150. So all in all our grocery bill hovers around $600 a month. This also includes beer, wine, toilet paper, toiletries and cleaning supplies, the other life essentials. I should also note: We drink cheaply. Sorry Oregon wine makers, I know your product is fabulous, but $25-and-up a bottle is a luxury for people fancier than me.
So, now that my pantry is all filled up again, I plan to follow my own advice here and make sure to make stuff that is a part of my regular pantry line-up. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with nary a pizza delivery in between (that at least is the easy part, the delivery in my neighborhood blows). From main dish to leftovers, I'll walk you through my weekly kitchen. If it works for you, then maybe I'm onto something for you non-cooks out there. If it doesn't, well, I'll still blog my recipes. They work for all the people I feed at least!
I hit up the grocery store later that day knowing it was going to be a huge haul. I needed to replenish pretty much the whole kitchen. This happens about once a month, maybe less. It costs about $300. I'm at the store again 2-3 more times during the month, just getting the basics, veggies, milk, meat, eggs, stuff that spoils. I try to keep those trips around $150. So all in all our grocery bill hovers around $600 a month. This also includes beer, wine, toilet paper, toiletries and cleaning supplies, the other life essentials. I should also note: We drink cheaply. Sorry Oregon wine makers, I know your product is fabulous, but $25-and-up a bottle is a luxury for people fancier than me.
So, now that my pantry is all filled up again, I plan to follow my own advice here and make sure to make stuff that is a part of my regular pantry line-up. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with nary a pizza delivery in between (that at least is the easy part, the delivery in my neighborhood blows). From main dish to leftovers, I'll walk you through my weekly kitchen. If it works for you, then maybe I'm onto something for you non-cooks out there. If it doesn't, well, I'll still blog my recipes. They work for all the people I feed at least!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sausage, Lentils, Leeks and Rosemary
My mom gave me Cooking with Shelburne Farms for my birthday last year. The author is a parent of one of her students. Shelburne Farms is a specactual public, working farm on the Webb estate right on Lake Champlain, in Shelburne Vermont. The Webb's were rich, probably still are, but at some point, I'm sure taxes were heavy and keeping up the land was tough and so a large portion of the estate has been opened to the public so every Vermont kid in a public school can go there for a field trip three times a year to pick apples, milk cows and watch maple sugar be boiled down into syrup. The main house is now a bed and breakfast and is a true relic of the robber baron era in this country in its opulence, yet it does have a subtle charm that the Vanderbilt mansions at the Breakers in Rhode Island lack. Although immense and no detail overlooked, the house meshes well with the landscape rather than overpower it, a typical Vermont display of wealth. Flashy, but not too flashy. You want to show off your sixteen cars and chandeliers, go to the Hamptons. Vermont is where people have always come to get away from hectic city life, not re-create it with hectic summer party lists and masses of mansions to visit.
The cookbook is what one would expect in a Vermont-themed cookbook. Cheese, butter, cream, cow meat, ham, lamb, apples, standard rural northeastern fare. I was flipping through it yesterday looking for a recipe for apple butter when I inadvertantly opened to a recipe for lamb sausage and lentils. My cupboards were down to the bare bones, almost all my can goods needed replishing, the only veggies I had were a wilted carrot that I could actually bend in half without breaking and half a leftover giant leek. Wondering what in the heck I would do for dinner that didn't involve ordering a pizza here was this recipe with exactly four ingredients, all of which I happened to have. Minus the lamb sausage. I had chicken sausage in th freezer. I do like lamb, but typically only eat it when I'm at a restaurant that specializes in it. It's also wicked expensive. And lamb is a baby sheep. That's also hard on the old conscious.
This nice surprise of a recipe turned out to be a piece of cake. I made it in batches. I finished the lentils and sausage, took a break to play a few games of dominoes with B then we decided to play a few tunes, so I popped it in the oven where it finished to perfection while we rocked out to some Pixies songs.
I didn't switch a thing in this recipe except for the chicken sausage for the lamb sausage. The rest of it is taken right from Cooking with Shelburne Farms p. 88 I'll write the original portions because it serves 4-6, I halved every ingredient successfully, which made about 3 portions.
2 cups small French green lentils
6 cups water
1-2 t kosher salt
2 springs fresh rosemary plus 2 t finely minced
1 pound sausage (the book recommends Merguez lamb sausage, I used hot Italien chicken)
2 medium leeks, white and ligh green parts only, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced and rinsed
2 T olive oil
1 T stone ground mustard
2 T cider vinegar
4 slices bread chopped into coarse crumbs (recommend crusty, country-style bread, I used whole grain, sliced sandwich bread and it still tasted fine)
optional: yogurt to stir into dish just before serving
Place lentils in the water with rosemary springs and salt. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20-25 minutes until tender (they'll cook more in the oven). While lentils are cooking, preheat oven to 400. Split sausages open and remove casings. Pour 1 T oil in a saute pan over medium heat, add sausages and cook until brown. Discard all but 1 T of fat in the pan and add leeks. Continue cooking until sausage is browned and leeks are golden. Add cider and mustard and stir. Remove from heat. Drain the lentils reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Add lentils and sausage mixture to baking dish. Mix bread with remaining T olive oil and minced rosemary. Sprinkle over the top and bake about 20 minutes.
Serve with yogurt or sour cream if you want.
The cookbook is what one would expect in a Vermont-themed cookbook. Cheese, butter, cream, cow meat, ham, lamb, apples, standard rural northeastern fare. I was flipping through it yesterday looking for a recipe for apple butter when I inadvertantly opened to a recipe for lamb sausage and lentils. My cupboards were down to the bare bones, almost all my can goods needed replishing, the only veggies I had were a wilted carrot that I could actually bend in half without breaking and half a leftover giant leek. Wondering what in the heck I would do for dinner that didn't involve ordering a pizza here was this recipe with exactly four ingredients, all of which I happened to have. Minus the lamb sausage. I had chicken sausage in th freezer. I do like lamb, but typically only eat it when I'm at a restaurant that specializes in it. It's also wicked expensive. And lamb is a baby sheep. That's also hard on the old conscious.
This nice surprise of a recipe turned out to be a piece of cake. I made it in batches. I finished the lentils and sausage, took a break to play a few games of dominoes with B then we decided to play a few tunes, so I popped it in the oven where it finished to perfection while we rocked out to some Pixies songs.
I didn't switch a thing in this recipe except for the chicken sausage for the lamb sausage. The rest of it is taken right from Cooking with Shelburne Farms p. 88 I'll write the original portions because it serves 4-6, I halved every ingredient successfully, which made about 3 portions.
2 cups small French green lentils
6 cups water
1-2 t kosher salt
2 springs fresh rosemary plus 2 t finely minced
1 pound sausage (the book recommends Merguez lamb sausage, I used hot Italien chicken)
2 medium leeks, white and ligh green parts only, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced and rinsed
2 T olive oil
1 T stone ground mustard
2 T cider vinegar
4 slices bread chopped into coarse crumbs (recommend crusty, country-style bread, I used whole grain, sliced sandwich bread and it still tasted fine)
optional: yogurt to stir into dish just before serving
Place lentils in the water with rosemary springs and salt. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20-25 minutes until tender (they'll cook more in the oven). While lentils are cooking, preheat oven to 400. Split sausages open and remove casings. Pour 1 T oil in a saute pan over medium heat, add sausages and cook until brown. Discard all but 1 T of fat in the pan and add leeks. Continue cooking until sausage is browned and leeks are golden. Add cider and mustard and stir. Remove from heat. Drain the lentils reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Add lentils and sausage mixture to baking dish. Mix bread with remaining T olive oil and minced rosemary. Sprinkle over the top and bake about 20 minutes.
Serve with yogurt or sour cream if you want.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Hummus
Some friends came over last weekend with their kids aged 3 and 5. We were helpful friends by introducing the kids to the drum set, keyboard and guitars in the basement. Now the 3-year-old girl's favorite phrase is "I want a drums at my house." The 5-year-old boy, a natural front man, noticed the microphone and asserted, "This is where you sing. Turn it on please!" An inspiring songwriter apparently, he shouted, whispered and tried various voice contortions while saying "rock and roll" over and over again.
This type of hard-core rawking certainly works up an appetite. Given that 3- and 5-year-olds shouldn't be suppressing their appetites with Jack Daniels and cigarettes just yet, I prepared kid-friendly and adult pleasing simple finger food, hummus and pita with falafel balls with salami, crackers and chedder cheese and a dish of a mix of kalamata and green olives. We washed this down with cold apple cider, which sounds like a completey weird drink to serve with a mostly Mediterranean meal, but the sweet apple cider nicely rounded out the garlicky hummus and went great with the cheese, crackers and salami.
It was one of those classic fall days where the air felt crisp but warm and the bright sun glowed spectacularly against the golden leaves. We filled up on healthy food then went to Washington Park, which has to be one of the most spectacular city parks in the country. There's a giant kids playground with a rubbery, flexible ground and about 100 kids can easily slide, swing, climb, crawl and sit in a box and pour sand on one another. Above the playgound is a park train which winds though old growth forest, an arboretum, rose garden and ending at the Oregon Zoo. The vegetation is true Oregon, exploding with gigantic flowers, immense trees, vibrant colors and hundreds of different shades of green. It's quite a treasure. It also has ice cream, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our small companions. So we all had chocolate-caramel-vanilla sundae cones and topped them off with a bag of M&M's. Oh well, they're not our kids.
HUMMUS
(recipe is adapted from epicurious.com)
Hummus is definitely something to experiment with. Try different spices, more or less garlic, make it with different beans even. No matter the flavor, hummus is smashed up beans mixed with garlic, lemon juice, sesame paste (tahini) and olive oil. No sugar, no butter, just healthy lean protein, fiber and good fat. And I have yet to encounter a kid that doesn't like it. Hummus is incredibly easy to make and given that a half cup at the grocery store is about four dollars, your dollar goes a lot further when you make your own. This recipe makes about 4 cups.
2 cans organic chick peas, drained and rinsed
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 t salt, to taste
up to 1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, more to taste
2/3 cup tahini
Smush the garlic cloves through a press into food processor, add lemon juice, salt, 1/4 cup olive oil, chick peas, tahini and 1/2 cup water and puree until smooth. Add water, salt, lemon juice or more olive oil to taste. There, you're done. And you actually have enough hummus to feed a bunch of people. And maybe even some leftover for tomorrow, because it just gets better with age.
Things to experiment with:
blend it with about 1/4 cup fresh parsley and 2 T pine nuts
add paprika, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, mustard powder
blend in about 1/4 kalamata olives
For the kids I made the simple version and added a few dashes of cumin. I sprinked the top with paprika when I put it in the serving dish. We all lapped it up with warm triangles of pita I had sitting in a low oven wrapped in foil while we were rocking out. Delicious!
There's a mid-eastern, Mediterrenean grocery store near my house so I have the luxury of purchasing frozen, pre-made falafel balls, which are great. Sometimes I make my own from scratch, but I don't like deep frying in my kitchen. It's too pretty for that kind of mess. I have baked them before with relative success. Traditionally the falafels should have been served alongside tzaziki sauce, a yummy cucumber-yougurt dressing that is pretty easy to make, if you want to wash your food processor twice in one day. You can buy it too. Or you can forget it altogether and tell the kids to dip the falafel in the hummus and call it a day. That's what I did.
The crackers were these fancy things called generic Triscuits, the cheese was white sharp cheddar (I am extremely biased toward white cheese. I simply cannot understand orange), the salami was decent quality from New Seasons (pork is a rarity in our house, so if I buy it, I buy quality) and the olives were whatever brand was on sale in the condiments aisle in the regular grocery store. Be sure to get pitted olives if young ones are coming over. Of course, if you didn't know that already maybe you shouldn't be hosting kids.
I prepared this feast in about 30 minutes, and had the kitchen cleaned up in about 15 minutes, this is a very low-mess meal. I did it all right before they showed up. Which I wouldn't advice, but that's just how things go sometimes. Hummus is one of those easy snacks to make if you kid surprises you with three hungry friends after school or you find yourself hosting an impromptu get together. Chick peas, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini are all part of my pantry staple list.
Have fun and share your hummus experiments!
This type of hard-core rawking certainly works up an appetite. Given that 3- and 5-year-olds shouldn't be suppressing their appetites with Jack Daniels and cigarettes just yet, I prepared kid-friendly and adult pleasing simple finger food, hummus and pita with falafel balls with salami, crackers and chedder cheese and a dish of a mix of kalamata and green olives. We washed this down with cold apple cider, which sounds like a completey weird drink to serve with a mostly Mediterranean meal, but the sweet apple cider nicely rounded out the garlicky hummus and went great with the cheese, crackers and salami.
It was one of those classic fall days where the air felt crisp but warm and the bright sun glowed spectacularly against the golden leaves. We filled up on healthy food then went to Washington Park, which has to be one of the most spectacular city parks in the country. There's a giant kids playground with a rubbery, flexible ground and about 100 kids can easily slide, swing, climb, crawl and sit in a box and pour sand on one another. Above the playgound is a park train which winds though old growth forest, an arboretum, rose garden and ending at the Oregon Zoo. The vegetation is true Oregon, exploding with gigantic flowers, immense trees, vibrant colors and hundreds of different shades of green. It's quite a treasure. It also has ice cream, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our small companions. So we all had chocolate-caramel-vanilla sundae cones and topped them off with a bag of M&M's. Oh well, they're not our kids.
HUMMUS
(recipe is adapted from epicurious.com)
Hummus is definitely something to experiment with. Try different spices, more or less garlic, make it with different beans even. No matter the flavor, hummus is smashed up beans mixed with garlic, lemon juice, sesame paste (tahini) and olive oil. No sugar, no butter, just healthy lean protein, fiber and good fat. And I have yet to encounter a kid that doesn't like it. Hummus is incredibly easy to make and given that a half cup at the grocery store is about four dollars, your dollar goes a lot further when you make your own. This recipe makes about 4 cups.
2 cans organic chick peas, drained and rinsed
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 t salt, to taste
up to 1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, more to taste
2/3 cup tahini
Smush the garlic cloves through a press into food processor, add lemon juice, salt, 1/4 cup olive oil, chick peas, tahini and 1/2 cup water and puree until smooth. Add water, salt, lemon juice or more olive oil to taste. There, you're done. And you actually have enough hummus to feed a bunch of people. And maybe even some leftover for tomorrow, because it just gets better with age.
Things to experiment with:
blend it with about 1/4 cup fresh parsley and 2 T pine nuts
add paprika, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, mustard powder
blend in about 1/4 kalamata olives
For the kids I made the simple version and added a few dashes of cumin. I sprinked the top with paprika when I put it in the serving dish. We all lapped it up with warm triangles of pita I had sitting in a low oven wrapped in foil while we were rocking out. Delicious!
There's a mid-eastern, Mediterrenean grocery store near my house so I have the luxury of purchasing frozen, pre-made falafel balls, which are great. Sometimes I make my own from scratch, but I don't like deep frying in my kitchen. It's too pretty for that kind of mess. I have baked them before with relative success. Traditionally the falafels should have been served alongside tzaziki sauce, a yummy cucumber-yougurt dressing that is pretty easy to make, if you want to wash your food processor twice in one day. You can buy it too. Or you can forget it altogether and tell the kids to dip the falafel in the hummus and call it a day. That's what I did.
The crackers were these fancy things called generic Triscuits, the cheese was white sharp cheddar (I am extremely biased toward white cheese. I simply cannot understand orange), the salami was decent quality from New Seasons (pork is a rarity in our house, so if I buy it, I buy quality) and the olives were whatever brand was on sale in the condiments aisle in the regular grocery store. Be sure to get pitted olives if young ones are coming over. Of course, if you didn't know that already maybe you shouldn't be hosting kids.
I prepared this feast in about 30 minutes, and had the kitchen cleaned up in about 15 minutes, this is a very low-mess meal. I did it all right before they showed up. Which I wouldn't advice, but that's just how things go sometimes. Hummus is one of those easy snacks to make if you kid surprises you with three hungry friends after school or you find yourself hosting an impromptu get together. Chick peas, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini are all part of my pantry staple list.
Have fun and share your hummus experiments!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Chicken Stovetop - with Tomato and Fennel
serves four (I halved every ingredient successfully to make a dish for two)
2 T unslated butter
3 T vegetable/olive oil (if using olive oil, do not use extra virgin, burns too quickly)
kosher salt
3 med-large cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 medium-large fennel bulb, stalks removed, some fronds reserved, cored and sliced
3 lb. skin-on, bone-in chicken legs and thighs
black pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 14 oz can diced tomatos in their juice
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves + 2 T reserved fennel fronds
1/3 cup heavy cream
In a 12-inch frying pan melt butter and stir in 2 T oil over med-low heat. Add garlic and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Transfer garlic w/ slotted spoon to plate and reserve.
Increase heat to med-high and arrange fennel in single layer. Season w/ salt and cook until well browned on each side (about 4 minutes per side). Transfer to plate and reserve.
Season chicken w/ salt and pepper. Add remaining 1 T oil to pan. When hot, put chicken in pan, skin side down. Brown on both sides, 12-15 minutes total. Transfer to plate.
Pour out all fat from pan into (this is where chicken fat tin can comes in handy) and set it over high heat. Pour in broth and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon scraping up the browned bits. Simmer until the broth reduces to about 1/4 cup (1-2 minutes). Add tomatoes wiht their juices and return chicken and reserved garlic to pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to med-low and cover pan. Cook for 15 minutes, turning chicken once. Add reserved fennel and sprinkle basil and fronds. Cover and cook another 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, turning once during that time.
Transfer chicken to plate. Increase heat to high and stir thecream into the sauce. Boil until slightly thickened, 3-4 minutes. Season to taste w/ salt and pepper, adding crushed red pepper if desired.
Here you may either pour sauce into a serving dish and nestle chiken in it, or as I prefer it, remove chicken from bone, shredding into bit-sized pieces and mixing chicken into tomatoes, fennel and cream like a stew. This is just me, but I believe it results in more servings. People are more inclined to eat a whole piece of chicken if it's on their plate. This way, serve up however much you want and there is plenty leftover for lunch th next day.
For dinner I served this with mashed potatos and a kale and grapefruit salad. For lunch the next day, I made half a cup of couscous and mixed it into individual tupperware containers with the stew.
Kale and Grapefruit Salad
Kale is an excellent, overlooked salad green, probably because it's kind of intimidating and most of us are used to seeing it holding an orange slice as a garnish we're not supposed to eat. You can eat raw kale within one-two days of purchasing it and if you let it marinate in a dressing for awhiel, you not only have a great dinner salad, you also have salad for lunch the next day that isn't wilted, gloppy and gross. Whatever you don't eat in one-two days, chop up and throw into a stew.
serves four
1/2 bunch supermarket kale, stems removed and leaves chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 grapefruit, peeled, and chopped into 1-inch pieces (the white pith is high in fiber, eat it)
2 T sliced, toasted almonds (optional)
Dressing:
Juice from 1/2 orange
2 cloves garlic, smashed through a press
2 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 T honey
1/2 T sesame oil
Mix everything together, shake, and pour over kale, grapefruit and almonds. Pour to desired kale/dressing consistency. This will last a day, dressing and all, unlike lettuce-based salads.
Enjoy!
2 T unslated butter
3 T vegetable/olive oil (if using olive oil, do not use extra virgin, burns too quickly)
kosher salt
3 med-large cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 medium-large fennel bulb, stalks removed, some fronds reserved, cored and sliced
3 lb. skin-on, bone-in chicken legs and thighs
black pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 14 oz can diced tomatos in their juice
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves + 2 T reserved fennel fronds
1/3 cup heavy cream
In a 12-inch frying pan melt butter and stir in 2 T oil over med-low heat. Add garlic and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Transfer garlic w/ slotted spoon to plate and reserve.
Increase heat to med-high and arrange fennel in single layer. Season w/ salt and cook until well browned on each side (about 4 minutes per side). Transfer to plate and reserve.
Season chicken w/ salt and pepper. Add remaining 1 T oil to pan. When hot, put chicken in pan, skin side down. Brown on both sides, 12-15 minutes total. Transfer to plate.
Pour out all fat from pan into (this is where chicken fat tin can comes in handy) and set it over high heat. Pour in broth and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon scraping up the browned bits. Simmer until the broth reduces to about 1/4 cup (1-2 minutes). Add tomatoes wiht their juices and return chicken and reserved garlic to pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to med-low and cover pan. Cook for 15 minutes, turning chicken once. Add reserved fennel and sprinkle basil and fronds. Cover and cook another 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, turning once during that time.
Transfer chicken to plate. Increase heat to high and stir thecream into the sauce. Boil until slightly thickened, 3-4 minutes. Season to taste w/ salt and pepper, adding crushed red pepper if desired.
Here you may either pour sauce into a serving dish and nestle chiken in it, or as I prefer it, remove chicken from bone, shredding into bit-sized pieces and mixing chicken into tomatoes, fennel and cream like a stew. This is just me, but I believe it results in more servings. People are more inclined to eat a whole piece of chicken if it's on their plate. This way, serve up however much you want and there is plenty leftover for lunch th next day.
For dinner I served this with mashed potatos and a kale and grapefruit salad. For lunch the next day, I made half a cup of couscous and mixed it into individual tupperware containers with the stew.
Kale and Grapefruit Salad
Kale is an excellent, overlooked salad green, probably because it's kind of intimidating and most of us are used to seeing it holding an orange slice as a garnish we're not supposed to eat. You can eat raw kale within one-two days of purchasing it and if you let it marinate in a dressing for awhiel, you not only have a great dinner salad, you also have salad for lunch the next day that isn't wilted, gloppy and gross. Whatever you don't eat in one-two days, chop up and throw into a stew.
serves four
1/2 bunch supermarket kale, stems removed and leaves chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 grapefruit, peeled, and chopped into 1-inch pieces (the white pith is high in fiber, eat it)
2 T sliced, toasted almonds (optional)
Dressing:
Juice from 1/2 orange
2 cloves garlic, smashed through a press
2 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 T honey
1/2 T sesame oil
Mix everything together, shake, and pour over kale, grapefruit and almonds. Pour to desired kale/dressing consistency. This will last a day, dressing and all, unlike lettuce-based salads.
Enjoy!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Pantry Stuffs
I happen to be quite good at pulling together a meal when we appear to have nothing to eat. Sure it would be lovely to swing by the farmer's market on my way home from work everday. But there's the fact that I work, the farmer's market is way off my bus route, the bus itself, and for pete's sake even someone who loves to cook as much as I do, doesn't want to spend all my free time shopping, chopping and cooking. Sometimes I just want to come home, throw on my sweats, pet my dogs and husband and curl up with my bowl of Kraft mac n' cheese and my DVR loaded with 30 Rock and Burn Notice episodes. So like most Americans (and unlike most Europeans), I hit the grocery store once a week at best. And I hate the goddamn grocery store. My savior in all these times of what appears to be a total lack of food, i.e. a refridgerator empty of perishables, is my (most of the time) well-stocked pantry, spice drawer and oils and vinegars and sauces. This well-stocked state of non-perishables (well, stuff that lasts a few months at least rather than a mere week), also comes in mighty handy whenever I do happen to have a stocked fridge and am ready to experiment. I have the random shit that random recipes call for. Not always, but at least a somewhat reasonable substitute on hand--even though I have probably profoundly insulted some glorious national dishes with my substitutions, they still tasted good!
The pantry stuffs and what those items actually are, confound the non-cook. This blog was partly inspired by my cousin-in-law, an intelligent, capable, hard working and oftentimes hilarious new mother, who also happens to be mystified by the art of cooking. But, she and husband and baby are trying to make the stay-at-home mom thing work so she realized that cooking will be a necessary skill. To her, the grocery store is a giant box of madness, the thousands of products all melting together in vulgar displays and the amount of choices are far too many to process. One time she went in with a $200 budget and came out with diapers, lettuce and white vinegar. I applauded her on the vinegar, you can make a lot of pickled veggies with that stuff. They're great on sandwiches.
So for my dear cousin-in-law and all the people like her, I'm going to try to teach the art of pantry stocking. I think it's the foundation for every decent cook and a lifesaver for times when you just got back from vacation and loathe the notion of the grocery store but you still need to eat (beer can at least be picked up on the way home from th airport). Here goes...oh and this is for a family of two. Huge.
STUFF IN CANS (or boxes) Organic you can afford!
The pantry stuffs and what those items actually are, confound the non-cook. This blog was partly inspired by my cousin-in-law, an intelligent, capable, hard working and oftentimes hilarious new mother, who also happens to be mystified by the art of cooking. But, she and husband and baby are trying to make the stay-at-home mom thing work so she realized that cooking will be a necessary skill. To her, the grocery store is a giant box of madness, the thousands of products all melting together in vulgar displays and the amount of choices are far too many to process. One time she went in with a $200 budget and came out with diapers, lettuce and white vinegar. I applauded her on the vinegar, you can make a lot of pickled veggies with that stuff. They're great on sandwiches.
So for my dear cousin-in-law and all the people like her, I'm going to try to teach the art of pantry stocking. I think it's the foundation for every decent cook and a lifesaver for times when you just got back from vacation and loathe the notion of the grocery store but you still need to eat (beer can at least be picked up on the way home from th airport). Here goes...oh and this is for a family of two. Huge.
STUFF IN CANS (or boxes) Organic you can afford!
- Chicken Broth - I buy Swanson's organic in 32 oz boxes, 4 at a time, lasts me at least two weeks
- Tomatoes - Diced, pureed, sauce and paste, I buy Muir Glen organic and typically have 4 cans diced, 2 pureed, 2 sauce and 1 paste. Optional Tomatoes: Look in the "Mexican" section of your grocery store for salas and tomato sauce. I buy El Pato or whatever is cheapeast, 4-6 jars at a time, you can usually buy the cans for about a dollar.
- Chick Peas, White Beans, Black Beans, Pinto Beans, any kind of beans you like. I buy organic because the taste tends to be less metallic for some reason. I generally have 4 cans of chick peas and 2 cans of white beans in the cupboard. I make my own black beans, but I realize that kind of madness isn't for everyone...it's a helluva lot chepaer though if you like beans.
- Chilis - diced, whole and in Adobo sauce. My husband likes 4-alarm, eye-watering, forehead-sweating spice. I like a little kick, but prefer to keep my mouth not on fire. Chilies in cans make this balance easier to maintain. The chilis in Adobo sauce come whole, I blend the whole jar in the blender, refridgerate and toss in teaspoons or tablespoons as needed. WAY easier than chopping up the individual slop. One jar will last me 6 months (I'm probably supposed to say 3 months here for FDA approval, but I still eat it at 6 months and I've never given myself food poisoning).
- Coconut Milk - if you like Asian food, keep 2-4 cans on hand
- Tuna Fish - Tuna packed in water is a load of dried out crap. Buy it packed it olive oil (a good-for-you fat) and you won't need to load it up with mayonaise (a not-so-good-for-you fat) next time you make a sandwich.
STUFF IN BOXES OR BULK
I admit, I am a bit wary of my big-box store bulk food aisle. I never see anyone in it and seriously, when was the last time they replaced the peas and peanuts? Bulk foods are the items you can feel economicaly good about when purchasing from the local co-op. The stuff that pours out of the bins seems like it was all individually polished and cleaned after it was harvested and dried last week. And it's the best bang (full tummy) for your buck you will ever encounter. I replenish my bulk aisle items about four times a year. You can handle four times a year in a hippie store. If it's any consolation I'm pretty sure patcholi is on its way out. I haven't smelled it in a long time and I live in a hippie hotspot.
- Rice - I buy Tilda Basmati rice by the bag. It's super easy to make. I don't do brown/wild rice, though I probably should.
- Pasta - I keep Spaghetti, Rotinni, Macaroni and Egg Noodles on hand
- Beans - Split Peas, Black Beans, Lentils, Red Lentils (red lentils are amazing, more on that later), French green lentils
- Grains - Barley, Bulger and Quinoa
STUFF IN JARS - Oils, Vinegars, Sauces and Condiments
- Red Wine Vinegar
- White distilled vinegar (this can be a big bottle)
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Apple Cider Vinegar - I buy the organic raw, unfiltered kind in the natural food section
- Sherry Vinegar
- Rice Vinegar
- Mirin (Sweet rice wine)
- Olive Oil for cooking (not extra virgin)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Canola/Saffola/Vegetable Oil (yes you need this kind of oil too, it can withstand higher temperatures than olive oil)
- Soy Sauce
- Tobasco Sauce (or any favorite hot sauce)
- Honey
- Sriracha (Thai hot sauce)
- Thai Chili Paste
- Hoison Sauce
- Dijon Mustard
- Yellow Mustard
- Mayonaise
- Ketchup (I hate ketchup, but no one else does, so I'm including it here
- Natural peanut butter - the no stir kind
- Tahini - Sesame paste
- Pepperoccinis
- Green Olives / Kalamata Olives
- Green and red curry paste if you want to make Asian dishes
- Real Vermont maple syrup grade B (optional of course, but I am a syrup snob)
- Yogurt - whole milk, plain with live cultures and Greek yogurt too (this is optional but Greek yogurt is as tasty as ice cream and better for you, so get into it if you're an ice cream person).
SPICES - I probably have more than anyone really needs, but I think a bit of an investment in a good spice selection goes a long way with flavor. I'll note the ones I consider optional.
Allspice, anise (both ground and seeds, can be called fennel and star anise), bay leaves, cayenne pepper, cardamom (optional), celery seed (optional), cinnamon, cloves, chili powder, cumin, dill (optional), ginger, herbs de Provence, marjoram (optional), mustard powder, nutmeg, paprika (keep in the fridge), pepper - black pepper corns and ground white pepper, thyme, tumeric (optional)
If you have a well stocked spice drawer a quick spice rub is a great way to get a lot of flavor when you don't have time to marinate anything for a few hours first. I'll post some of my favorite spice-rub recipes at some point.
FREEZER STUFF - not just for ice cubes!
I'll be the first to admit that I probably could make better work of my freezer, but I do tend to always have something in there that could contribute to a meal. Here's a basic list...
- pizza dough (I like Trader Joe's)
- peas, broccoli, corn, fava beans
- blueberries, cranberries
- salted and unsalted butter (did you know butter keeps best in the freezer?)
- a package of preservative-free, natural chicken hot dogs
- a 4-link package of hot Italien style chicken sausage
- homemade beef stock (hopefully! you might was well not even buy canned beef stock as it significantly pales in comparison. When recipes call for beef stock and you're not the kind of person to sit around making homemade stock on a Sunday then use canned chicken broth instead).
- homemade applesauce - my MIL and I make this every year together, it's fun, we both have apple trees and we make a truckload. If you're my friend you probably have some in your freezer right now too.
- mystery frozen leftover soup. I bring it to work and eat a surprise for lunch
Newbie
Hi there,
If, by some bizarre set of google search results you find yourself here, this is a brand new blog. Someday there will be content and it will be about cooking. I like cooking and realized it's probably easier keeping track of my recipes here than my epicurious.com recipe box. I tweak most of the recipes anyway because I don't regularly buy fancy, expensive ingredients, so I might as well keep track of my substitutions so I can make it again.
So, if that sounds interesting to you, come back someday, when I've actually written something!
If, by some bizarre set of google search results you find yourself here, this is a brand new blog. Someday there will be content and it will be about cooking. I like cooking and realized it's probably easier keeping track of my recipes here than my epicurious.com recipe box. I tweak most of the recipes anyway because I don't regularly buy fancy, expensive ingredients, so I might as well keep track of my substitutions so I can make it again.
So, if that sounds interesting to you, come back someday, when I've actually written something!
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