Eating411

"Mojito" Pork Loin Roast

2008-07-23T02:30:48Z

Not sure this qualifies as cheap, per se, but the pork loin was on sale. And I'll be set up eating variations of this for a while. Yum!

Pork Loin Roast with "Mojito" pesto

Cooking the Pork Loin
1 lb pork loin
oil
spices- I used dried orange peel, cumin, a little bit of cardamom and liquid smoke

rub oil over pork loin, rub with spices, put in metal pan, and cook in 450 degree oven for 25-30 mins, or until thick part of loin is beige, rather than pink. I should invest in a meat thermometer one of these days.

While it is cooking, puree these in your food processor:
lime juice
mint leaves
basil leaves
(ratio of about 3:1 mint to basil)
3 cloves garlic
2 generous spoonfuls crushed ginger
a tiny bit of sugar

After loin cooks, let it rest. Spoon some pesto over the roast before serving, and serve with black beans and rice. And perhaps a glass of white wine

Baked Oatmeal with Fruit

2008-07-22T03:48:34Z

File under: "turning the oven on in a heat wave makes me a crazy person, but--- so yummy!"

Amish Baked Oatmeal

(4 servings)

2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar (wound up too sweet for me, BUT I have next-to-no sweet tooth)
1 egg
1/4 cup butter (tastes like a lot- will use less next time)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 a teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup dried fruit (I used cut up dried apricots, and also fresh blueberries)

Mix all ingredients and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 30 minutes.

Add a little milk, and zap in microwave to reheat for breakfast!

My new favorite easy food...

2008-07-08T21:06:04Z

1 c. chicken broth
1 c. instant brown rice

Microwave for 8 minutes

Mix in canned, diced tomatoes; sour cream; bacon bits.

Raw Kale Salad, NY Times and Squirrel Style

2008-07-03T23:34:37Z

Got this recipe from a friend who works at the NY Times. And, because I didn't have all the ingredients, I improvised - my improv is in italics.

1 bunch Tuscan kale (also known as black or lacinato kale)

1 thin slice country bread (part whole-wheat or rye is nice), or 1/4 cup homemade bread crumbs (coarse) I used breadcrumbs from a canister. Italian-style pre-seasoned

1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped A spoonful, minced from a jar

1/4 cup finely grated pecorino cheese, more for garnish used parmesan/romano

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for garnish

Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon a healthy splash of bottled lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt omitted, because cheese made it plenty salty

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes omitted, because, echhh

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

1. Trim bottom 2 inches off kale stems and discard. Slice kale, including ribs, into 3/4-inch-wide ribbons. You should have 4 to 5 cups. Place kale in a large bowl.

2. If using bread, toast it until golden on both sides. Tear it into small pieces and grind in a food processor until mixture forms coarse crumbs.

3. Using a mortar and pestle, or with the back of a knife, pound garlic into a paste. mortar and pestle? Whatever, NY Times! Transfer garlic to a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup cheese, 3 tablespoons oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper flakes and black pepper, and whisk to combine. Pour dressing over kale and toss very well to thoroughly combine (dressing will be thick and need lots of tossing to coat leaves).

4. Let salad sit for 5 even more delicious after 7-8 minutes, then serve topped with bread crumbs, additional cheese and a drizzle of oil.

Yield: 2 to 4 servings. I ate the whole bowl for dinner. The totally killer garlic breath will be worth it.

Zucchini Yogurt Bread

2008-07-02T12:52:51Z

This is called- I had to use up a bunch of yogurt and zucchini before going away for the weekend. Found it on the Stonyfield Yogurt website. Verdict: Delicious!

Still looking for more zucchini recipes, though.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup oil
2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (almost all of a big container. what's left will be about enough to eat with some fruit for breakfast)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups grated zucchini
3 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Beat eggs until foamy, add sugar, oil, yogurt, cinnamon, zucchini and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add dry ingredients slowly to the yogurt mixture and mix until moist. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9x5x13-inch loaf pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Loaves should be golden brown on top.

Yields: 2 loaves

1_eats_cheap @ 2008-07-01T21:13:00

2008-07-02T05:18:04Z

I'm massively in love with dairy and I'm trying to basically eliminate all cow products from my diet, focusing on beans and poultry. In particular, I'm especially interested in bean/lentil recipes, not including garbanzo, that are quick and easy, and include little or no tomato. I love soups. I've looked at some recipe books, but thought that some here might have some good ideas.

Onion soup experiments

2008-06-27T15:00:41Z

On vacation last week, I tried all manner of exciting new things. Learned some tips for homemade sushi and homemade pizza, learned that Ulu knives are not actually necessary for Alaskan chefs, and learned that salmon jerky is awesome (tastes like bacon, but made of healthy fish!). But the first thing I wanted to experiment with when I got home was recreating an onion soup that was good, but fell short of its potential.

Onion Soup with Beef Ravioli and Dry Parmesan

Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion
1 tsp olive oil
1 package onion soup mix
5 cups water
1 lb beef ravioli (the smallest you can find--beef ravioletti would be best)
Parmesan cheese (block form, not the dried, grated kind)

Chop up the onion. Put it and the olive oil into a stockpot on low heat. Cover and let cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. The onions should get very soft and fragrant. Add water, turn heat to high, bring to boil. Turn heat back to low, add onion soup mix, re-cover, simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Cook pasta as directed. Grate the cheese with the wide holes of a cheese grater, or you can even cut it into very thin slices.

Put the pasta in a bowl and ladle the onion broth over it. Top with cheese. Enjoy. Makes 2-3 dinners, or 4-5 first courses.

(I'm currently experimenting with small noodles and mini-meatballs as a replacement for ravioletti, too. Kinda like an Italian Wedding Onion Soup.)

Cookbook reviews

2008-06-24T19:11:42Z

I kept thinking I ought to do a post with reviews of my cookbooks - and I finally got around to it - YAY!

General

American Heart Association Cookbook, 5th edition

This is a surprisingly decent and solid cookbook - dieting or not. The first time I ever made black bean soup it was from this cookbook, and even though my mother had sworn she'd never met a black bean that was worth eating this soup turned out full of flavor and delicious. It has standard foods and ones with twists that appeal to me - like the mexican rattatoie.

The Best Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated

Aww! This was a birthday gift from moot, and it was a wonderful gift. This is the book that finally comforted me about my inability to make tasty beef stock (in that it takes almost as much beef as you want stock). This it the book I go to if there is a common recipe that just keeps giving me trouble because these are the people who have taken common recipes and made them over and over again with tiny variations until they come up with a "perfect" version. Now my aesthetic does not always agree with theirs, but they tell you what they are aiming toward and exactly how each modification altered their results, so I can still extrapolate how to tweak my recipes to get the results I want. This is the shortcut to avoid wasting a lot of ingredients on your own.

Better Homes and Gardens (Plaid) New Cook Book (2002 edition)

So I grew up with this cookbook, and I always considered it a staple of a good household. So when my sister and I moved into our own places, my mother bought each of us our own copies of this cookbook and the Joy of Cooking. Only I have discovered that the only recipe I ever used this cookbook for was the banana bread, and the new edition changed that recipe! So it pretty much just takes up space. I does have some good conversion charts, but I have an internet for that, too. So I think I'll be getting rid of this cookbook as soon as I remember to do so.

Cooking with the Seasons: A Year in My Kitchen by Monique Jamet Hooker

I love the idea of this cookbook, and I even am rather fond of some of the recipes, but I wish it were more a list of tasty foods you can make with seasonal foods instead of trying to offer me organized meals. Nonetheless, I love the idea of certain foods being late summer foods and tailoring one's menu around that.

Going Solo in the Kitchen by Jane Doerfer

I picked up this cookbook from the library after a post on 1_eats_cheap about cookbooks for eating in smaller households. It's a good, solid book with not only simple (but not too boring) recipes, but also a lot of good tips on shopping, meal planning, budgeting, and cooking techniques. And it has a lot of quotes and discussion about how it really is better to get to eat alone ~~without that bastard of a husband who just left you for some bimbo~~, and you get a sneaking suspicion that the cheerfulness is a bit forced... which I found pleasantly amusing. YMMV. Most of the tips were things I had already discovered, but they were often the things I was the most proud of having figured out because they were things other people don't always get (like homemade stock and co-ordinating lunches with leftovers).

Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker (1964 edition)

This was the other book I got from my mother when I got my own apartment... only this one, I ended up deciding that I really had liked my mother's enough that when the modern version proved not as useful, I gave it back and we hunted through used books for an older edition that still would tell you how to skin a squirrel and other such handy things. This is the book I use if I want to know the oven temperature for a roast. This is the book I go to when I have a new (not too regional) ingredient or an ingredient I want a new way to cook. There's an amazingly tasty asparagus recipe (in which the advocate roasting at a much higher temperature than you'd expect, but the results were lovely). Most of the recipes are very simple and necessary. This is a good book for basic sauces - when someone says, "Let's just whip up a hollandaise sauce," and you don't have a packet mix for that, you go to this book. And it tells you how to butcher a pig, dress a squab, and - most importantly - skin one of those pesky squirrels that keeps trying to break into my apartment.

Weight Watchers - Favorite Homestyle Recipes

I haven't opened this one recently, but I should. The recipes in it were pretty good. I got it back in the days when I studiously went through and made little postiit tabs to index every recipe that looked promising, and this one has a lot of post-its. It is, however, one of the diet cookbooks that stupidly confuses spaghetti squash with a spaghetti alternative - and really, it's much tastier if you let it just be a stringy squash instead of trying to top it with marinara and meatballs.

Appetizers / Parties

Cocktail Food Deck

This is a fun format, but it's not as useful as I'd hoped. Most of the recipes are duplicated elsewhere. BUT - and this is a big one - it is the place where I get most of the recipe for my homemade pita chips, which are awesome, if I may be modest for a moment. :)

Finger Food by Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen

This is my quintessential book of appetizers and party food. The author appreciates the sexiness of heavy cream and dainty presentations, but the techniques are rarely all that complicated - and there are a lot of options here that travel well. This book has stuff for the gluten intolerant (Mmmm - wild rice pancakes topped with smoked salmon, and cucumber cups filled with smoked trout) and encompasses a wide variety of flavours and techniques. I have been using this book rather hard for several years now, and there are still some tempting and simple recipes I haven't gotten around to trying (partly because the ones I've tried have all worked so well they have become reliable standbys), and it's only 96 pages.

New Vegetarian Entertaining by Jane Noraika

This one looked a lot like finger food in the way the recipes were presented, but they really aren't very similar cookbooks. I hardly ever find something I decide to make in this book, but I keep it around because I do run into a decent amount of vegetarians and you never know.

Winterthur's Culinary Collection compiled by Anne Beckley Coleman

This is a book I bought after having looked through the copy at the library. It has several recipes that I were common around the town where I grew up (e.g. proper Chadd's Ford stuffed mushrooms), and is full of tasty food, but it's in the appetizer category in my head because those were the one's most familiar and evocative.

Soup

Betty Crocker - Soup, Stew, and Chili (Feb 2004 magazine, #205)

This little pamphlet is so wee that I keep forgetting I have it when I want to make soup. And then I find it and go, "Hmmm, I should use this someday." And so the cycle continues.

Glorious Stew by Dorothy Ivens (1976 edition)

This stew is, indeed, glorious. I looked through a copy at the library and liked it so much that I bought my own copy. Okay, so that's a lie: I still have the library's copy, but I talked my mother into buying the book. It has a recipe for goulash that it the closest I have seen to traveller's authentic recipe picked up in a little place in Hungary (I think - I didn't go back and check her entry on it to confirm). It separates stews by main meat product and then by whether it it browned first or cooked unbrowned. This cookbook makes the winter pass more easily.

New England Soup Factory Cookbook by Marjorie Druker and Clara Silverstein

On the other hand, this cookbook does not impress me. My mother bought it for me because she knew I made a lot of soup, but (and I may be judging it too harshly here) I already have all the soup recipes I need, and this one didn't seem to have anything particularly new or interesting to contribute. At some point, I might give it another chance.

The Soup Bible by Debra Mayhew

THIS! This is the best soup cookbook ever. Actually, this is the best / most-used cookbook I own. Every single time I go to this cookbook, I find a couple things I want to make. There are recipes that will use up random extraneous ingredients (green bean soup - which I have not yet been bold enough to try). There are light soups and heavy soups, exotic soups and homey ones. There are exotic homey soups (garlic soup!). This is the best cookbook ever - and I found it randomly on the clearance rack of crappy books at Barnes and Noble.

Miscellaneous Food Types

The Cook's Encyclopedia of Chicken contributing editor: Linda Fraser

All chicken all the time. I'm really not short of things to do with chicken, but every now and then I am so hungry that nothing sounds right and I'll turn to this book. This is where I started when I wanted to experiment with coronation chicken and needed a recipe from which to start.

Filo! by Jan Nix

MMmmmm! I want to use this cookbook more often, but I'm not usually willing to go to the effort to clear space to work with phyllo. But still, I like that I have this book ~~checked out from the library~~.

Great Bread Machine Baking by Marlene Brown

It's a good book with clear directions, and I think I might get better results from it now that I know how important it is to check the temperature of the water... only now I'm kind of dieting a bit, so I haven't been making bread. But for special occasions, yeah.

World of Dumplings by Brian Yarvin

Includes: Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Uzbekistan, Georgia, the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Ashkenazic traditional, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Great Britain, Brazil, Mexico, Jamaica, United States, and Canada. I saw this book in the library and coveted it. And then a friend got it and was experimenting with it a bit and having issues with the author, so I was thinking of not getting it... and then my mother bought it, so I stole it from her. And, yeah, the author is talking our of his ass rather frequently, but if you skip the storytelling sections and go straight to the recipes, it's pretty decent. I'd love to use this cookbook more, but like Filo!, it's more effort than I usually spend. Hmmm... maybe I could have a dumpling stuffing party sometime (I did have one friend over to make things in phyllo before, and I got a whole pirogi lesson when I visited another friend, so it's not inconceivable). But in the meanwhile, I have discovered the joys of frozen dumplings bought from the asian grocer.

Chinese, Thai, and other countries in eastern Asia

Classic Chinese Cuisine by Nina Simonds (1994 edition)

I love this cookbook. It has clear directions and beautiful pictures and a confidence about the recipes that makes me think that cooking from these recipes will produce foods with authentic flavors... now the reviews on Amazon keep praising the availability of the ingredients they call for, so that might be a delusion, but it's a delusion that makes me happy. There are very few true vegetarian dishes - most vegetable heavy dishes still have meat incorporated, but that makes me perfectly happy. This has become my primary Chinese cookbook, and it might stay that way.

Madhur Jaffrey's Far Eastern Cookery

Includes: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan. This cookbook is so over the place that it's hard to predict what will be in it and use as a reference. Instead, I have to be perusing the cookbook and construct meals around it. On the other hand, this has one of the best section on ingredients that I have found - lots of pictures and clear descriptions and storage instructions - and it is very good at disambiguating similar sauces across cuisines. From this book, I learned how to easily find the right kind of rice to make sticky rice. This was (I think) a gift from the moot people as well, but if I am wrong, it has been a very long and useful loan.

Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking by Nancie McDermott

YAY! I looked long and hard for a Thai cookbook that would appeal to me, and this is the only one I have found. It is a lot of text and no pictures, and it is broken down by region. The only problem with this cookbook is that right at about the same time I found it, I also found wonderful canned Thai curries that had wonderful fresh flavors that made it unnecessary to make the pastes from scratch. Still, this is a very good cookbook, and I have made several of the recipes. Oh, and this is the source of the recipe for an awesome Sweet Hot Garlic Sauce.

Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller

This is a big heavy book that looked quite promising. Now, I just go to it if I can't find the answer elsewhere just because this book has so many recipes - but the recipe it has is not guaranteed to be good.

Indian

Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking by Julia Sahni

Found this recently at the Free Library's book sale, and it looks very useful, but my other Indian cookbook is so good that I haven't even really cracked this one yet.

Indian Epicure: Classic Recipes from North India by Meera Taneja

The grumpy guy surrounded by spices on the cover looks so trustworthy that I was completely suckered into this book (which was totally not written by the random guy pictured on the cover). This book completely reshaped my taste in cookbooks to the standards I have been talking about above. It's all text, and very reliable. This, and the cooking class on the Bend It Like Beckham DVD, has taught me how to make Indian food that is decently passable as possibly authentic. Also, I am lucky to have plentiful access to good Indian groceries. I love the eggplant recipe. From this cookbook, I successfully made a five course Indian meal for my parents' vegetarian house guests (plus a small family recipe beef curry for my emphatically non-vegetarian father). Good times.

Mediterranean

The Food of Greece: Cooking, Folkways, and Travel in the Mainland and Islands of Greece by Vilma Liacouras Chantiles

My kind of cookbook - all text, convincing backstory, and divided by region... but I just haven't found myself using it much.

Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

So I kinda like cooking shows, but not usually for the recipes (more for the warm fuzzy glow of people being dynamic in the presence of food: +4 to charisma) (But not Emeril - for some reason, he annoys me no end). But Lidia's show had me wishing I had written down the recipe because it was something I really wanted to eat, thought I could make decently easily, and could not remember how to make it - Eggplant Rollatini (or something like that). So I started watching her show whenever it was an option, and I really enjoy the foods she makes. Just last weekend, I watched a show where she made olives look tasty to me. So I love this cookbook and use it a decent amount relative to how infrequently I eat Italian food.

Mexican

Complete Book of Mexican Cooking by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz (1976 edition)

Here's another book from the library that I liked a lot. The authorship is somewhat suspect, as she's a rich diplomat's wife spending her time in another country learning to cook from the help, and having them make fun of her for wanting to do this herself. But despite that annoyance, this is actually a good cookbook that has gotten me several steps closer to authentic-tasting food. Which is fairly impressive. I love how different it is from what I grew up calling Mexican food. I use this cookbook in fits and starts because most of the recipes I have tried have been pretty heavy and required washing a lot more dishes than usual (i.e. required using a food processor or blender). Still - yay!

Middle East

The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos

Includes: Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf States (Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman), Yemen, Egypt, Iran, and Afghanstan. This one is also hard to use as a reference because even though this is a thick book rather full of recipes, I keep feeling as though there should be more. That said, it does a nice job of showing (perhaps too simplistically, but it ackowledges the problem) how these different countries treat similar foods without creating too much duplication of similar recipes. This book really makes me want to make egg and lemon soup someday. It's also a library book.

(Cross-posted to my journal)

Sunday Breakfast for One

2008-06-24T00:46:00Z

Breakfast for one!

I like my pancakes with raspberry jam. :-)

I woke up Sunday morning early, and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I made a quick run to the supermarket for traditional Sunday breakfast fare (normally I just have cereal).

I made the pancakes from the store mix (just add water) because unfortunately, the little Bisquick jugs, while tastier, have transfats in them. *sad* But, along with the eggs they were quite tasty. And I had leftovers for lunch.

Cutting the grocery bill

2008-06-08T18:28:31Z

So, there have been some alarming news headlines recently about skyrocketing gas and food costs. Yahoo ran a good article on cutting food costs this week here.
For me, there's a time issue. I work pretty hard hours sometimes. It really does take some time to implement some of the changes outlined in the article. Or, you know, not shopping in the 30 minutes before the store closes while sleep deprived. Now, back when my grocery store was in the same parking lot as Walmart, I did a lot of price-comparisons. Walmart really wasn't always cheaper for everything, because the brand selection isn't quite as good. Interestingly, I noted that when a new Walmart cum grocery store opened up, they had a huge selection of items, some of which are gone now, one assumes to test what would sell and what wouldn't. Something to keep in mind if a new one opens up near you.

At any rate, I've come up with the following chart :

Homemade > microwave meals > microwave snacks that represent at least one food group > granola bar/ceral/powerbar > eating out

What is your favorite microwavable food item that represents at least one food group?

Recipe: Zucchini Tomato Casserole

2008-05-14T11:07:37Z

This one's easy, really fast to make (though you'll have to wait for it to get ready, the actual cooking only takes 10 minutes, tops), doesn't need a lot of ingredients, is tasty, healthy and cheap (especially in summer!).

1 big zucchini (or 2 small ones)
tomatoes - I use 6 cherry tomatoes, or 3 of the bigger ones
1 clove garlic
1 tsp olive oil
some olives, pits removed (black or green, both work; black ones look nicer)
some feta cheese
salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, rosemary

Preheat oven to 200°C (400° Fahrenheit).
Crunch garlic into olive oil and coat casserole dish with it.
Wash and slice zucchini and tomatoes. Put them into a bowl and add seasoning. Then pour them into the dish. (You can also do layers of zucchini/tomato/zucchini/..., but that's too much work for me.)
Quarter olives and dice (or crumble) feta - add to the top.
Put into the oven for 25-30 minutes.

If you can think of something to use instead of cheese, it's even vegan, I think. (I've never cooked vegan, so I have no idea. Suggestions are very welcome!)

Kitchen Improv: Chicken, tomatoes, feta

2008-05-08T01:35:09Z

Kitchen improv time! And, despite everyone's tasty suggestions, it doesn't involve mint!

Preheat oven to 350.
Put a chicken breast and a thigh in a little glass baking dish with
A can of sliced tomatoes and their juice
A little white wine
some capers
a bunch of oregano
a few basil leaves (my basil is fractionally less sturdy than the mint)
Cook for about 40 minutes until the chicken is done. At the 30 minute mark, put slices of feta over the chicken, and a few next to it, if you like.

While the chicken is cooking you can: make rice and watch a sitcom. Or do it over steamed spinach.

Delicious!

Mint recipes needed! Non-alcoholic preferred

2008-05-07T15:32:34Z

My mint plant is getting so big I'm going to start charging it rent and ask it for help with the cable bill. But a girl with a day job can only drink so many mojitos/juleps during the work week.

What have you got for tasty uses for fresh mint? Foods, beverages, cheap, easy and suited for one.

Vaguely Tex Mex Turkeyburgers

2008-04-29T00:35:39Z

This is from a cookbook called Dinner Tonight that will be VERY hard to find out of the Tri-State area of the US, but if you find a copy, pounce on it! Otherwise, be patient while I work my way through it and post recipes I'm trying. :-)

Turkey, Bean and Cheddar burgers
Makes 7- 9 one-inch-thick patties, depending on how big your hands are. The ones you're not eating right this second can be frozen.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup diced sharp Cheddar
1 1/2 pounds lean turkey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 15 oz can black beans, mostly drained
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup chopped onion (1 small onion)
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, chopped
2 egg whites, lightly beaten.
Hamburger buns

1. preheat oven to 475. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Note- use actual cooking spray, as I was cocky, and used vegetable oil, and now I have nasty clean up to do.
2. Combine all the ingredients, except the buns, of course, making sure they are evenly dispersed throughout the mixture. Shape the mixture into 9 1-inch thick patties.
3. Bake the patties for 13 minutes or so, or until they are cooked through.

Serve on buns, topped with mild salsa or tomato and onion. Make a tomato-y salad to go on the side. Mmm good!
Could be spicier, though, for those who like that. Might also work with pepperjack cheese.

Asian-ish food fortnight

2008-04-25T18:15:23Z

So it all started when I was hosting a bridge night at my house, and I thought that a nice low-work thing to serve would be various frozen dumplings steamed and fried. Turns out - this was an amazing plan!

And I made several dipping sauces to go with:

From The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller

Mustard Dressing (p.717)
1 Tablespoon powdered chinese mustard
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
a few drops of sesame oil

1. combine in a jar, cap tightly, and shake well to blend
2. refrigerate 3-4 hours to develop the flavor.

**verdict: nasty! Despite vigorous shaking, the mustard rose to the top and the whole thing tasted mostly of vinegar. This one got one taste and then wasn't served that night.**

From Real Thai by Nancie McDermott

Nahm Jeem Gratiem
Sweet-Hot Garlic Sauce (p.189)
official proportions:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 Tablespoons finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon chili-garlic sauce (tuong or toi sauce) or coarsely ground dried red chili

how I made it -
Brought to a boil:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
And then added:
2 Tablespoons finely minced garlic
2 generous pinches of salt
Once it hit a rolling boil, reduced the heat and simmered until it thickened to a thin syrup (longer than the 20 minutes the recipe called for, but I didn't make it too thick because it still had too cool and be dip-able).

Then I poured it into a jar already containing:
and the tail end of a bottle of sambal olek (I guessed there was about 2 teaspoons there, but I could have been off)
And stirred. Then I tasted it and said, "Oh, god!"

So I mixed up another batch of syrup:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water>
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon finely minced garlic
2 generous pinches of salt
and added that to the jar and stirred.

**Verdict: This sauce is amazingly tasty! It was also amazingly hot served the day I made it. Oddly, two days later, when I went to steam up some leftover dumplings, it no longer seemed so hot. So either the sauce mellows, or I just like spicy food and don't have to notice how odd that is when no one is looking... la la la! Still, even the people who didn't like spicy agreed that it was an awesome sauce**

From Classic Chinese Cuisine by Nina Simonds

Dumpling Dipping Sauce II (p.112)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
1 Tablespoon chili oil
(plus a pinch of sugar)

**Verdict: I thought it tasted amazing and made a double recipe, but I was promptly informed that while it was tasty, it was too hot. So I sliced some scallions in this one to differentiate it and went on to make...**

Dumpling Dipping Sauce I (p.112)
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 Tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
(plus a pinch of sugar)

**Verdict: So this was judged not to be the dipping sauce found in every chinese restaurant, but it was still found to be quite acceptable and very tasty.**

But even after eating up all of the tasty dumplings we hadn't gotten through at bridge and after giving away about a third of the sweet-hot spicy sauce, I still had a ton of these dipping sauces left over.

So I thawed a pork loin roast.

After one evening in the fridge, it was thawed enough that I could take it out of the plastic back and score it with cross-hatched knife cuts. I put it back in the back and added some marinade:

a couple ginger slices
some 5 spice powder
and about half a cup of the two dipping sauces combined (I just dumped the two containers together after people left, since I didn't mind the heat)

And I left it for another night.

It still wasn't completely thawed, but I went ahead and roasted it anyway - with three cloves stuck in the crosshatching on the fatty side, a light dusting of powdered thyme, and salt over the fat (because it's tasty!).

I cooked it according to the directions in my Joy of Cooking. Pre-heat oven to 450F; insert roast and turn down to 350F; cook 30-35 minutes/pound. I was generous in my time estimate because it was still a bit frozen in the middle, but I ended up with thoroughly a cooked roast I would not have wanted to have in the oven all that much longer.

So that first night, I just cut off bites and ate it slathered in the sweet-hot garlic sauce to finish that off - they went together perfectly.

But now I have the rest of the (cooked) roast in my fridge. So I took a few slices of pork, cut them into strips and made wraps/~~quesa~~dillas/soft tacos with them.

In a bit of olive oil, I grilled down

half an onion, cut into short strips
2 jalepeno peppers with just the flesh (no seeds or white part) diced
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
a little less that a tablespoon of pickled ginger, ripped into smaller pieces
a fistful of baby carrots cut into matchsticks
pork strips
shredded napa cabbage
and sprinkled over with black vinegar and some of the dipping sauce

Then I warmed a tortilla, piled on some lettuce from an oriental mix that had been on sale at my supermarket, and then put the pork/veggie mixture on top - and ate it. With a bit of homemade chinese mustard. Yum yum yum.

So last night, I not only still had leftover pork in my fridge (which I'll get to next week), but also I had leftover wrap filling. So I put it on a salad.

Pretty much just more of that same salad mix, the rest of the filling popped into the microwave for a bit, and a salad dressing (made from a quarter of a teaspoon of chinese mustard, some plum sauce, some black vinegar, some more of the dipping sauce, and a dallop of honey).

The only thing I could have done to make it any better was slice up some more napa cabbage to refresh the cooked-down cabbage in the filling.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the roast (though sandwiches, with mayonnaise on white bread, are high up on the list).

(cross-posted to libitina)

Pasta recipes

2008-04-20T08:37:49Z

There were a couple of really tasty sounding pasta recipes in the magazine I picked up today. The first two serve four, but you could store the extra sauce or cut back the ingredients easily enough. Plus they're all super cheap to make.

Lemon, Chilli and Garlix Spaghetti

2 tbs finely grated lemon rind
3 long red chillis, finely chopped
1 small red birdseye chill, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped drained capers (optional)
2 tbs lemon juice

Cook pasta. Drain and return to pan.
Meawhile combine the lemon rind, chillies, garlic and parsley in a bowl.
Add chilli mixture, capers if using and juice to pasta. Season with freshly ground black pepper and gently toss til combined.
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve with lemo wedges (optional)

Red Lentil Bolognase

1 cup red lentils
2 tbs oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
800g can no-added-salt tomatoes
2 tbs no-added-salt tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs basil pesto

Bring large saucepan of water to the boil. Add lentils and boil 8-10 minutes or until soft. Drain.
Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and pesto. Stir in lentils and simmer for 15 minutes.
Serve with pasta.

10-Minute Salmon Pasta For One

100g penne
1/2 cup frozen peas
100g can salmon
2 handfuls rocket or baby spinach
mint and basil leaves (optional)
1 tbs grated parmesan

Cook pasta. Drain.
Microwave peas for one minute or until cooked through.
Toss pasta with salmon, peas, rocket and herbs. Top with parmesan.

Mango salsa for fish

2008-04-20T03:54:01Z

one very ripe mango or canned/jarred mango in light syrup from Trader Joe's
small red onion or half of a large one
big handful of cilantro, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Juice of two limes
half of a yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
Minced fresh ginger, to taste
1 small cucumber, finely chopped
Either: Thai chili sauce OR Penzey's Thai spice blend OR dashes of: crushed red pepper, lemongrass, black pepper, chilis, a little basil (dried)

Mix everything together in a bowl, cover, and ignore for several hours. Serve over grilled salmon.

Oatmeal Shortbread

2008-04-19T10:16:36Z

For the first time ever, I baked shortbread.

[Click for bigger pics & my photo album)]

Because I am constitutionally unable to follow a recipe to the letter ("That's a pretty reci...ohh, look, a jar of honey! And fresh lemons!"), I may have modified what isiscolo recommended as the best shortbread recipe ever:

Oatmeal Shortbread

SERVINGS & SCALING: Had I formed actual shortbreads, this would have yielded 13 of 'em.

INGREDIENTS

* 250 g butter
* 150 g raw cane sugar (or brown sugar)
* 200 g pure flour
* 100 g rolled oats

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Cream butter and raw cane sugar. Add [most of, see below] flour & oats. Mix well.
3. EITHER THE HEATHEN METHOD
Rip off pieces a little smaller than a golf ball, roll them in your hands, and press them into cookie-shape.
OR THE METHOD THAT DOESN'T MAKE POTENTIAL SCOTTISH ANCESTORS ROLL OVER IN THEIR GRAVES
Sprinkle board with the remaining flour. Knead for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into
3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork.
4. Place on ungreased baking sheets; I used those newfangled rubber ones.
5. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. (Watch out; the last minutes have them brown very quickly!)

PREP TIME: 15 minutes tops if you use my heathen method & don't count the time these puppies are sizzlin' in the oven.

TASTE: Yummy!

Really tasty...

2008-04-14T11:01:22Z

I needed to come up with an easy, interesting recipe for a student to cook for a solo home ec lesson. I hobbled this together. It makes four big satisfying burgers, and would probably be delicious taken cold in a lunch - by themselves or broken up over a salad - or just, you know, eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner fora day and a half. :)

I had my student caramelize two small onions to serve on top of the burgers, and we ate them, open-faced, on a focaccia roll prepared with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and mustard. Total cost for JUST the burger ingredients was under $8 - and unless you have a voracious appetite, that's a pretty good deal for four meals.

Goat Cheese and Spinach Turkey Burgers

1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
1 c. chopped frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
1 T. garlic, chopped
1/4 t. black pepper
olive oil

In a medium bowl, mix (by hand is the best method) all ingredients until incorporated. Form into four patties, no thicker than an inch. Place patties (which will be gooey) in fridge for half an hour to ease handling. In a large skillet, heat a sheen of olive oil over medium high. Add burgers. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 5-6 minutes. Flip. Cook another 5-6 minutes or until cooked through. Refrain from squishing down the burgers with your spatula - this expells the juices and will give you a dry final product.

An interesting concept

2008-04-09T18:37:52Z

http://www.serve.com/marbeth/high_heat_turkey_long.html

I realize this isn't quite within the bounds of the community, but I thought it was a neat cooking trick, and someone might get use out of it.

Oatmeal-Apple-Coconut Muffins (With Fresh Organic Lemon & Nuts)

2008-04-08T16:00:46Z

Oatmeal-Apple-Coconut Muffins (With Fresh Organic Lemon & Nuts) ~~aka "I put everything yummy in them!" muffins~~

oatmeal-apple-coconut muffins, with s'more ingredients

So, here you go. Original recipe found on this site as "Lemon Apple Oat Muffins." I always find recipes by entering the preferred ingredients in the Google search field, adding the name of the dish I'm going for, and sift through the recipes that pop up.

Here's the one with my modifications:

Oatmeal-Apple-Coconut Muffins

(~ 12 muffins)

1 egg or egg substitute
1 cup coconut milk
2 big tablespoons fresh organic lemon juice
some organic lemon peel
1 cup quick-cooking oats (although I think others would work, too)
1 cup flour
3/4 cup honey (I tend to use more; perhaps less if you add icing)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup (about 1 medium) finely chopped Golden Delicious apples
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Obviously, this is vegan if you substitute the egg. Conversely, if you look up the original recipe, you can go for the dairy version (that also has measurements for healthy vegetable oil or butter). It's all good; trust me, there's not much you can do wrong with muffins as long as the ingredients are quality ingredients. & :-)

[Lemon Icing:
Combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon melted margarine or butter. (makes about 1/4 cup).
I'm not a big icing fan and did forgo this part, but hey.]

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In medium bowl, beat egg; stir in milk, oil then lemon juice. Add to oat mixture with apples and nuts. Mix only until moistened (batter will be thick). Spoon into greased or paper baking cup-lined muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes or until golden*. [Spoon Lemon Icing over muffins.] Remove from pan.

* I'm taking the original recipe's values because mine cannot be measured: My oven, as I said before, is old: The previous owner rubbed off all the numbers, so I am left to wonder what the temperature is and can only bake on "holy Molly this is as hot as it gets," "medium-ish," and "are we sure the thing is even on?"

At first, I thought these were great if not as stellar as those, but on the second and third day, these are really quite heavenly: moist and delicious, both the light citrus flavour and the spices having suffused the whole muffin. Surprisingly, the coconut aroma is very subtle--I don't think the colleagues whom I gave the rest of them as a gift even noticed.

While the coconut milk doesn't exactly contain the healthiest oils around, the nuts definitely do, and together with the oats this should have quite a bit of fibre -- it's quite a satisfying breakfast or snack, especially accompanied by a piece of fruit. I always forget to buy whole grain flour, but that'd definitely be worth a try (although you may then have to adjust the recipe accordingly). And of course, this is vegan, namely dairy-free and egg-free as soon as you substitute that one egg.

Admittedly, the organic lemons aren't super-cheap, and the coconut I only paid so little for due to my Asian store next door, but the rest shouldn't overextend a budget.

I stored these, packed tightly, in the fridge after they cooled off, but I remember muffins can be frozen quite easily, too.

(x-posted)

Crock Pot: Greek Chicken with Feta

2008-03-31T21:39:57Z

Cooker size: 3 Quart
Serves: 2-4
Cook Time: Low, 6-8 hours, cheese added in last 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 3 oz block of feta cheese, or equivalent amount pre-crumbled
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 boneless chicken thighs
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
Black pepper and salt to taste
1 14.5 oz can tomatoes, with juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Pinch of oregano.

If using a block of feta, place the feta in a bowl with cold water to cover, and set aside (this leaches out some of the salt) If using crumbled, omit salt as a seasoning.

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized skillet and brown the chicken on both sides. While the chicken is browning, grease the inside of the crock with oil or nonstick cooking spray.
Lay the onion and garlic in the bottom.
Place the browned chicken on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and add the tomatoes and paste and oregano.

Cover, and cook on low, 6-8 hours.

With 15-20 minutes to go: Add feta in slices, or crumbles, to the crock. Cover again, and allow to melt.
Serve over pasta, rice or cous cous, with a Greek salad.

Three Bean and Root Vegetable Soup

2008-03-25T22:31:07Z

I have discovered the joy of dried beans and root vegetables! I find the cheapest dry beans in the Mexican ethnic food area of my grocery store. I just made up this recipe today and it makes roughly 5qts of soup. But based on other soups I've made, this should freeze well.

5qt+ pot
1/2C each of dry: red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans (or 1 can each of the beans)
Generous amount of olive oil
2 small onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
6C water (if using stock, omit water)
2 turnips, wax peeled off and cubed
2 parsnips, wax peeled off and cubed
1/2-3/4C rutabaga, wax peeled off and cubed
1/2-3/4C celeriac, trimmed to flesh and chopped into roughly 1 inch square pieces
3 carrots, chopped into discs
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
3 cubes stock (I use CelifibR, its vegetarian with no MSG added. At my grocery store I find it in the natural foods area) or 6C chicken or vegetable stock.
1/2C red wine
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot pepper sauce when serving, if desired

Soak the beans according to the package in the 5qt pot, drain and set beans aside in a bowl. Pour in enough olive oil to fry the onions and garlic with. When oil is hot, add in the onion and cook for about 3 minutes or until the onion starts to go limp. Add the garlic and let the onion cook until it is limp, but not brown. Add water and beans and bring to a boil. When boiling, add the stock cubes and stir. Once the stock cubes have been disolved, add in the bay leaves and all the vegetables except for the carrots. Reduce heat to a simmer for about a half hour and add the carrots, tomatoes and wine. Season to taste with salt and pepper and let cook until the beans and vegetables are done.

Variation! I've made a similar version of this before using potatoes instead of root vegetables. Since the celery taste is nice, I'd probably chop up a couple ribs of celery and add them at the same time as the carrots.

Meatloaf recipes wanted!

2008-03-24T23:52:50Z

Got a favorite family, or cookbook meatloaf recipe? Please please please post here. I am hungry for meatloaf, and off to call my Mom for the recipe she always made.

Also, I have a theory. No two families make meatloaf the same way.

Any scaling-down hints, while we're at it? Since we're looking at solo eating.

Low-Fat Spinach Enchiladas (one-dish meal)

2008-03-22T00:54:23Z

This recipe is easy to make both low-fat and full-fat, depending on your diet. You can find the original here, but here's my version. I know this isn't an authentic Mexican dish, but it's delicious and very easy, with most of the flavour focused on the spinach rather than the cheese or the beans. I'm a disaster in the kitchen, yet these are so good they taste like something from a restaurant.

Servings: This makes 6-7 small enchiladas. Even though they're small, they're very filling. I eat two and put the rest away for later. If you use large tortillas, this will probably make 4 enchiladas.

Ingredients:
1 package of frozen spinach (or fresh would work too)
6 small flour tortillas
A handful of button mushrooms, chopped
1/2 can of black beans
1 tablespoon of chili powder (or according to taste)
1 can of diced tomatoes (or fresh)
1/2 onion, chopped (I use red)
A couple of spoonfuls of cumin (or according to taste)
Shredded cheese (I like Kraft Tex Mex mix)
Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your skillet

Directions:

1. In your skillet, cook the onions, mushrooms, black beans, frozen spinach, and chili powder until the spinach thaws. This takes about 5 minutes.

2. Put a few spoonfuls of the spinach mixture into the centre of a tortilla. Add a few sprinkles of cumin, a spoonful of diced tomatoes, and a pinch of cheese. Fold the top and bottom down, then fold the left and right sides so they close over the top and bottom flaps. This will give you a closed enchilada. You can fill the tortilla and roll it like you would a wrap, but i think the filling would come out. (I know this seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many people have never eaten a burrito or an enchilada before.)

3. Place each filled tortilla in a baking dish. My dish is 8x8, and I managed to fit all six in there. They should be tightly pressed together.

4. Cover the filled tortillas with the remaining tomatoes and a few more spoonfuls of cumin.

5. Bake at 350F/160C for 20 minutes.

6. Cover with cheese and put back in for 10 minutes.

Voila!

Garnish:
Chopped coriander
Sour cream
Gucamole
Freshly squeezed lime juice

Variations:
Corn torillas, different kinds of beans, more veg, different cheeses, salsa instead of diced tomatoes, garlic, different spices... There are tons of different things you can do with this.

[Crossposted to pollanesque, although I have a feeling many of us are members of both comms.]