This dinner was planned for Friday, but my cousin Kiran was a little impatient. So I switched things up just for her! So here it is, Smothered Chicken over Mashed Potatoes.
10/13/2011
10/11/2011
Ever-flexible Stir-fry
This plate only vaguely resembles the original recipe in Going Solo in the Kitchen. But it sure was tasty.
The original recipe is called Beef with Peppers, and called for 3/4 cup sliced onion, 1 cup red peppers, 1/2 cup green peppers, stock ,and soy sauce. Well, I hate green peppers, and had other ideas.
2 t vegetable (or canola or peanut) oil
4oz steak (I had sirloin on hand), sliced thinly on the bias (diagonally)
3/4 cup sliced onion
3/4 cup diced red bells (that's all I had, pre-chopped)
1 carrot, sliced thinly
handful of sliced mushrooms
pinch of cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup stock (beef or chicken--I had chicken on hand)
1 T soy sauce
squirt of sriracha
Heat oil in a pan until nice and hot. Add steak strips and cook for about 30 seconds. The steak is so thin, it should cook very quickly. Remove steak using a slotted spoon to another dish. (I just used the bowl I would eventually eat in.) Add in onions, bell pepper, carrots, mushrooms and cook until a bit tender. I added a pinch of salt. Add stock and soy sauce and cook until vegetables are done to your preference. Add in sriracha, mix. Add beef, and then finally add in the chopped cilantro.
With most of the vegetables pre-sliced, this done in less than 10 minutes. Serve over rice. Enjoy.
As someone who's always been a raging carnivore, it's interesting to see that I don't need a lot of meat to be thoroughly satisfied.
10/09/2011
Basta Pasta
I can't believe it's only 8:30. It feels like the middle of the night. After all the prepping, I just wanted to go to bed. But it was only 6pm. Bears are so much smarter than we are. Why can't we hibernate, too?
ANYHOW. This Asian Peanut Chicken Noodle recipe is from the CIA cookbook, and was really quick and easy. Omitting the chicken would make this an easy vegetarian option! Also, very easy to double or triple this recipe.
2 oz soba or whole wheat noodles
1 1/2 t sesame oil
4oz chicken thigh, boneless, skinless--cut into strips
1/2 cup sliced scallions
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper (I had some chopped left over, so that's what I used)
1 heaping T peanut butter
1 T soy sauce
1 t rice wine vinegar
1 t sriracha (i.e., rooster sauce)
1 T cilantro, chopped
more scallions for garnish
rough chopped roasted peanuts for garnish
Boil water and cook noodles. When noodles are al dente, reserve 1 cup of pasta water and drain noodles.
Heat sesame oil in a pot until it shimmers and then add the chicken thigh. Sautee until cooked, then remove chicken to a plate.
Add scallions, ginger, and garlic to the pot and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add red bell pepper, cook another 30 seconds. Add peanut butter and soy sauce and mix into vegetables. Add 1/2 cup of pasta water and mix until creamy. Add vinegar and sriracha. Add back the chicken and noodles, combine. If sauce is too thick, use pasta water to thin. Toss in cilantro, stir, and then transfer noodles to bowl, garnish with scallions and peanuts.
It didn't take very long to cook, and it was very satisfying. I used angel hair whole wheat noodles. The only thing I would change is that I would salt the initial veggies next time. The soy sauce is almost salty enough, but not quite.
Also as someone with a bottomless appetite for pasta, I just stopped making it at home.This pre-portion-controlled recipe is a really exciting way for me to have pasta again. And the whole wheat noodles makes the thing feel as nutrionally sound as a bushel of kale.
Love and Hate; Garlic and Onions
I'm sure every cook has random things they hate doing. For me it's peeling anything. It's just a nuisance that makes me yearn for a sous chef. I especially hate papery things like onions and garlic--the building blocks to 90% of what I cook.The nice thing about a prep day is that there isn't much more effort in peeling 10 garlic cloves than there is in peeling one. Ditto onions. And then you don't have to think about it EVER AGAIN. (Well, for the week at least.)
And this week's menu is planned. Some repeats from the first week which ended in a blaze of late work nights and desperate food scrounging at the office. (And then I've been a bit sick and living on Pho.) I'm also going to have to watch the pot pie intake. It is a little bit too exciting to have weekly.
And a week's worth of prep work is finished:
It's such a small pile that represents half a Sunday's efforts: planning, shopping, cleaning, peeling, slicing, dicing, chopping, packaging. But as someone who wants to cook every night that she can, it's most definitely a labor of love. There's also a cucumber-tomato relish to eat with a naan/keema-muttar (ground beef/pea curry) soft taco and raita sauce for lunches this week.
The other massive bonus, which is obvious but still caught me by surprise, is how much less money I'm spending on groceries as well as how much less food is being wasted. My fridge is less packed, but everything is more accessible and relevant.
I think it'll take a few months to really see the difference in my expenses, but so far I'm spending about 1/2-1/3 the amount I usually spend at the market.
More money for shoes! I mean, for my savings account...
09/28/2011
Pot Pie Salvation
I'm sure everyone's had a day like this. Things start out crazy and skid downhill.
Work is insane. Freaking zombie documentation--I keep killing it, but it just comes back uglier. Trying to release three products, two of which are new, by Friday. Cannot wait for this week to end already.
Time kept passing, and I knew there was no way I could make dinner tonight. 7pm. 8pm. 9pm. I felt petulant. Screw dinner, I thought--I just want to go to bed.
Finally, as things started to get a bit fuzzy, I stopped and decided that a day like this couldn't end in desperation and a frozen burrito. Not when I had the ingredients for a chicken pot pie prepped.
I could do this. I WOULD do this. And I did. (Queue "We Are the Champions.")
Dinner may have been at 10pm, but it was worth the wait.
Verdict: Will repeat. Possibly weekly.
It was pretty easy, really. Leftover chicken from last night's dinner. Some chopped and briefly boiled root vegetables (I omited the turnip because turnip is made of gross.) A quick roux and some homemade chicken stock. Sauteed onions, garlic, herbs. Peas. Because peas MUST be in all chicken pot pies. It is the law. Salt. Peppers--black and red.
I did use some premade dough, but I can't say I feel too bad about it. Maybe I'll get some homemade pie dough into the freezer, but really, for a weeknight meal--this was great. A quick egg wash and into the oven.
The things I'd change: more sauce, I would double the butter and flour and would have reduced the sauce less. And that's about it. Outside of wanting more sauce, this was a treat for any night. But especially tonight.
Adapted from Going Solo in the Kitchen
2/3 cup diced potato (1/2 inch pieces)
2/3 cup diced carrot (1/2 inch pieces)
1/3-1/2 cup onion, diced
1/8 tsp minced sage
1/8-1/4 tsp minced thyme
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp butter
2 tsp flour
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup cubed cooked chicken
Salt/Pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne to taste (optional)
handful of frozen peas
pie dough, cut to just a bit bigger than your baking dish
1 egg + 1 Tbsp water for egg wash (optional)
Preheat oven to 425.
Put potatoes in a small pot, cover with water, and heat until boiling. Reduce heat, boil gently for five minutes, then add carrots and take off heat. Let vegetables sit in water while doing the rest. (And basically make sure the potato isn't raw.)
In another small pot, melt butter and add onions, saute briefly. Add garlic and herbs, salt and pepper. Cook for another minute or two. Add flour, and stir, cooking for another minute or two. Add stock, stirring constantly--it should thicken, though not by a lot.
Add drained vegetables and frozen peas. Add cooked chicken. Stir and then taste the seasonings.
Pour everything into a 2-cup oven-proof dish. Cover with pie dough, cut a hole in the center and make a few slashes for ventilation. Brush with the egg wash. Place dish on a cookie sheet (to catch any spills) and bake for 25 minutes or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly.
Let sit for 5 minutes and try not to burn your mouth.
09/27/2011
Broiled, Not Roasted.
Outside of turning garlic bread to charcoal, I don't use my broiler much. There was that one time when my grill was broken and I broiled a flank steak, but other than that I tend to favor high heat roasting--complete with smoke pouring out of the oven.
But Judith Jones can't be wrong.
I'm most impressed with myself for remembering to defrost the half chicken I froze over the weekend, after disassembling it into the required parts for stock and meals later in the week. (I won't lie--that was not my most favorite activity ever.) Jones' recipe calls for roasting both chicken halfs, but I wanted to use my bird for other things.
With the grace of my lovely tiny food processor, making the herb-shallot-garlic rub was painless. Jones instructs one to make a garlic paste first and then mince things by hand, but during mid-week madness, I'm okay with garlic bits instead of garlic schmoo.
And then, we wait. I had the laughable thought that I would do the marinating in the morning before leaving for work so I could immediately cook upon returning home. But that can only work for mornings that start after 10am.
And then, voila.
09/26/2011
I don't care if Monday's blue
There are two things that are hard about plans:
1. Making the plan.
2. Executing the plan.
This is an utterly brutal week at work, so maybe it wasn't the best time to start on a new cooking plan. But then again, having an actual plan worked out rather beautifully for me tonight--something to look forward to. With everything prepped over the weekend, there wasn't much labor required for tonight's meal: pasta shells with sausage, peppers, and zucchini.
(Terrible picture, I know. I am so effing tired, though. I'll do better next time. I swear.)
I had the pasta cooked over the weekend, extra from another meal. I sauteed onion and bell pepper, then added the spicy Italian chicken sausage. Then, I added the chopped zucchini and a tomato (de-seeded). And that was largely it. Everything sauteed together and then I added the pre-cooked pasta. A healthy dose of Parmigiano-Reggiano at the end, and it was a really quick and satisfying meal. I thought I would miss having a more saucy-sauce, but I didn't miss the marinara at all. The recipe made enough for two meals and this way tomorrow's lunch is dealt with. (And I don't have to eat a vat of pasta all week long.)
For vegetarians, it would be easy to substitute some meatless sausage, too.
03/19/2010
Fresh Fish in Ballard
I can't believe I lived up the street from this place for several years and didn't know about it. Next to Larsen's Bakery on 24th/80th NW in Ballard is a terrific small fish shop.
So, I wanted to sample their wares, and called Pete to see if he was up for a seafood lunch. (He was, yay!)
03/17/2010
See Food
I'm really trying to eat fish a couple of times a week. It's hard, because I'm picky and want fresh fish the day that I prepare it, but I'm working on it.
I got this intriguing recipe from a friend, and just had to try it today. Off to Greenwood Market (while it still exists) and I ended up buying more than I expected.
Most days don't call for such a feast, but today just did!
I decided I had to have caramelized shallots.
But what to put them on? I bought a Tall Grass baguette and made some crostini, bought some chevre, and roasted some grape tomatoes. Voila! You can't see the shallots on the bread, but believe me they're there.
And next up, the main course. Parmesan-puffed Tilapia.
