Small Plates

For Kiran

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.

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.

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...