Yellow Split-Pea Dal March 14, 2008

I made Everyday Dal again but this time used yellow split peas and more spices. I think the flavor was much closer to what I’ve had in Indian restaurants before, a bit spicy but nothing scary. I loved the yellow split peas, but make sure you boil them for as long as needed so they get nice and soft. I always want to jump the gun and then end up with semi-cooked peas.

I won’t re-post the whole recipe, just go back and follow the directions from there. Instead of the lentils, cook the split peas in 3 cups of water for at least an hour. Bump up the spices as well, basically double it. If you don’t like spicy food, cut back on the cayenne and it will still be flavorful without too much heat.

Bean and Cheese Pita March 13, 2008

After an event downtown on Tuesday I took the train home and read my April Bon Appetit.  I knew that I’d be getting home around 7 and I would not want to make a meal that took more than a half hour, because I was hungry. Flipping through the first section, reading the recipes that readers request from their favorite restaurants, I stumbled upon what initially sounded kind of gross. A bean and cheese sandwich.  Hmmm. Bean and cheese sandwich? But I read the recipe, thought about what I actually had on hand and decided to try it but instead of a sandwich, I’d make it on a pita. Less carbohydrates and sounds way better. I would link to the recipe but I can’t find it online.

1 onion – diced
1 t. cumin
3 cloves garlic – minced
1 can black beans
1 can garbanzo beans
4 pieces of pita
sliced manchego cheese
salsa

In a saute pan, cook the onion and garlic in a bit of oil. Add cumin along with the drained and rinsed beans. Cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the beans have been warmed through. Season with salt and pepper. Using a potato masher, mash the beans thoroughly into a spreadable paste.

Heat the oven to 350 and warm the pita bread on the rack for about 4-5 minutes until slightly crispy. Spread the bean mixture onto each pita (you will have left over beans). Place them all on a cookie sheet and top with grated manchego cheese. Turn the oven to broil and cook until the cheese is melted and slightly brown. Cut and top with your favorite salsa.

Notes: We ate this with a salad and some steamed green beans and it made for a very healthy, filling and fast meal. They were like mini pizzas of beans and cheese!

Servings: 4 pitas with extra beans left over

Bean Salad with Tuna March 12, 2008

Lovely lovely salad, that’s what this is. I took the first bite and couldn’t help but go “MMMMMMMMmmmm!” to Chris. It’s got a really great, slightly sweet dressing of lemon and shallots, add the beans and a little cheese and it’s a great meal all in itself. I added some tuna that I had on hand (which I over cooked, sad) and it was a very nice dinner. I this recipe here and changed a few things to use what I had on hand.

Dressing

1 t. olive oil
1 small shallot – diced
3cloves garlic – minced
1  t. lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 t. Dijon mustard
1/2 T. honey (I used agave nectar instead. It’s better for the ‘betes!)
1 T.  white wine vinegar
pinch of salt
a few grinds black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salad

1 1/2 bag of lettuce
1 bunch basil
1 can white beans – drained and rinsed
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
a few slices of red onion

In a small skillet, heat the oil and saute shallots for 1 minute, then add the garlic and lemon zest for just another minute. Add the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce the juice for about 5 minutes, or until it turns into a syrupy sauce. Pour into a bowl and mix with the mustard, vinegar and agave nectar. Season with salt and pepper and then slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking.

Mix the lettuce, basil, beans, onion and cheese. Pour the dressing on and coat evenly. Take a bite and go MMMMMMMMmmmmmm!

Notes: I cooked two pieces of tuna to go with our salad. I coated them with oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and baked for 20 minutes at 350. Too long! It was a little dry, but edible. Next time I’ll skip the fish and just eat this amazing salad as the full meal.

Servings: 4 big servings

Rice and Beans with an Egg March 11, 2008

It was Sunday afternoon. Our fridge was nearly empty and we only had cans and boxes of food, which lead me to the Goya brand box of rice and beans. I made some little additions to try and make this more than a meal from a box, but I was only moderately successful.

1 box rice and beans mix
1 package mushrooms – sliced
2 eggs

Put a pot of water on to boil as directed by the directions on the box. Add more water and toss in the sliced mushrooms. Simmer until cooked, making sure not to burn the bottom or let it dry out.

When the rice is almost finished, fry two eggs in a non-stick skillet. Top each serving of rice and beans with an egg. Consume.

Notes: I only buy these things because I know that sometimes, I just won’t feel like cooking. I’ve also added a can of extra beans or sliced up chicken sausage to this mix. It’s always just okay, as the mix has far too much sodium and additives.

Servings: 2 servings with leftovers (which I tossed). Glowing review, I know.

Edamame & Carrot Salad March 10, 2008

This was my first disaster (or near disaster) recipe! I salvaged it and turned it into an edamame and carrot salad, but originally it was supposed to be a soba noodle and edamame dish. But see, I didn’t have soba noodles, I had some other kind of noodle I’ve used in an Asian style soup before. Delicate, thin little noodles.

Those delicate, thin little noodles work great in soup, but boil them with edamame and they turn into MUSH. Clumping, mushy noodles. It was gross. I tossed the noodles and ended up with a nice edamame side dish, as follows.

1 bag frozen edamame (I buy 4-5 bags when I go to Trader Joe’s)
3 T. Soy Sauce
1 T. rice vinegar
1 T. sesame seed oil
1 T. water

2 carrots
3 T. sesame seeds – toasted

Prepare edamame as directed. Mix up the sauce in a bowl and whisk together before pouring over the edamame. Scrub the carrots before slicing and tossing into the salad. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan for a few minutes on the stove. It should make your kitchen smell wonderful. Toss seeds in and mix together. Serve with Asian Marinated Salmon.

Notes: I’d like to try this with soba noodles sometime. This as a salad was great though and made for some tasty left overs.

Servings: 5-6 servings

Asian Marinated Salmon March 9, 2008

A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of frozen fish from Trader Joes, a couple of salmon steaks included. I made a lovely meal Friday evening with the salmon. We started with a little miso soup and then had salmon and edamame salad for our main meal. The salmon was delicious. I found the original recipe on Je Mange la Ville.

2 salmon steaks

Marinade:
2 T. mustard
1 T. honey
3 T. soy sauce
5 T. olive oil
1 clove garlic – minced

In a bowl, mix the marinade together. Use about 3/4 of the sauce to marinade the salmon for about 10 minutes. Save the rest for a sauce to pour on the fish when it’s done.

Heat a pan (grill pan if you have one) and cook the fish, about 4 to 5 minutes on each side until it’s cooked through. Serve warm with some sauce on top.

Notes: Yum. I love salmon and this marinade was perfect. I will make this again.

Serving: 2 servings

Chicken & Dumplings March 5, 2008

Smitten Kitchen is a blog by a New York woman. She makes these beautiful, perfectly precise dishes, and lots of desserts. I’m always afraid to try any of her recipes though, because I am not precise. I’m haphazard in my cooking. But then she posted this recipe for chicken and dumplings, something I’ve never made before, and I decided to give it a try. Reason one, dumplings don’t have to be precise. Reason two, it’s still disgustingly cold and gross outside, perfect time for a hearty meal.  I made some minor adjustments to the recipe but did go out of my way to buy organic free range chicken from Whole Foods. They were not scary large, which is good.

Stew:

2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
Salt and ground black pepper
4 teaspoons oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 medium leeks , white and light green parts only, cut in half lengthwise and then into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion – diced
2 carrots – diced
6 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup red wine
4  cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup frozen green peas

Dumplings:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat (or unsalted butter)

Start the stew by patting the chicken thighs dry and seasoning with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a big pot. Place four chicken thighs, skin side down, into the pot and brown each side. Should take about 10 minutes total. Take the chicken out and do the same to the next batch until all the chicken has been cooked. When I did this, oil splattered all over. Use a splatter screen. When done, pour out fat into a cup and save for later.

Next, add the butter to the pan and melt. Toss in the leeks, onion and carrots with some salt. Cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in the flour. Add the red wine and scrap up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the milk, broth, thyme and bay leaves. Take the skin off the chicken thighs and place chicken into the stew. Add the raw chicken breast at this time too.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until chicken is cooked through.

Once chicken is done, take out and shred the chicken on a cutting board. Put shredded chicken back into the stew after removing any fat that has come to the top.

For the dumplings, mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix milk and fat and microwave for just 1 minute. Mix milk into the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until mixed.

Return stew to a simmer and add peas. Now you are read to add the dumplings. With two soup spoons, use one to scoop up a small quantity of dough and use the other to push it of into the stew. Repeat, leaving space in between each dumpling, until you’ve made about 18 dumplings or the stew is full. I had a little extra dough left over I tossed. Simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes. I’d never made dumplings before so was unsure if it was done. I just pulled one out and cut it in half to make sure the inside was cooked. It was.

EAT.

Notes: After the dumplings had cooked, they expanded and basically covered the whole top of the stew, but they came apart just fine. We both really enjoyed this meal and Chris ate an obscene amount of food. I will make this again.

Servings: 7-8 big heart servings

Egg Drop Soup March 3, 2008

I was home sick today and needed a bowl full of brothy warm soup. I threw together this quasi egg drop soup and it was perfect.

2 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
1/2 cup broccoli
1 tsp + cornstarch
1 tsp + soy sauce
Pinch dried ginger
Pinch white pepper
1 egg – whiped

Heat broth with broccoli, cornstarch, soy sauce, ginger and pepper. In a bowl, scramble egg with a bit of water. Once broth is heated, slowly pour egg into the pot while whipping quickly with a fork. This should create a creamy broth more so than an actual egg drop soup.

Notes: Perfect for soup for a person with a cold and super fast and easy.

Servings: 1 serving

Favorites: Scanpan March 3, 2008

I have a full on cold and was out of town this weekend, attending my perfectly hilarious nephew’s first birthday. He went face first into the cake several times. Perfect.

So I haven’t been cooking, but I’ll fix that tonight. For now, let me share my favorite, all purpose pan. My beloved Scanpan.

This 10 inch non stick fry pan does everything for me. Caramelize tofu, saute spinach and brussels sprouts, cook cauliflower and peas, make the best skinny egg omelet and so on.

I vaguely remember the chefs at the Chopping Block telling me something about the Scanpan coating, and how it’s different and better than others. Non-toxic comes to mind and no teflon… But I can’t remember the specifics and only remember “Scanpan is better than others!” Hurray for Scanpan!

It’s not cheap, but I consider it an investment that will be in my kitchen for a long time and that won’t need replaced every few years.