A CSA Dinner

I was pretty proud of myself here... I baked the breadsticks, and made the pasta... just about everything is fresh, local and/or organic.

Anyway the caprese salad is what I wanted to share here-- the pasta was good, but not great.

Ingredients:
Heirloom tomato (1 tomato per 2 or 3 people). Be careful with them, they have really fragile skins and break really easily.
Basil
Fresh mozzarella
Spinach
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Wash the basil and the spinach. Mix them together in roughly equal amounts, and lay out a bed of greens on a salad plate.
2. Cut the tomato into slices through the middle, removing the tough core if it is in any of the slices. Lay the slices in the center of the bed of greens, one or two slices per person. Lightly salt the tomato slices.
3. Slice the cheese, and add that to the plate.
4. Grind black pepper lightly over everything.
5. In a separate bowl, mix equal parts olive oil and balsamic. Whisk together completely just before serving. Drizzle over the plate at the table, and enjoy.

CSA Veggies: Chard

So, as I blogged about before, I joined a CSA this summer. Today was my first produce pick up! It was very exciting. And since my CSA partner is out of the country at the moment, I have more food than I know what to do with right now...
Anyway, I of course had to cook with something new tonight: Chard.  I don't believe I'd ever had occasion to try chard, so it was all new. Plus we were in a hurry to make a late dinner tonight, so I referenced this Martha Stewart recipe and made my own version.

Ingredients
Pasta, a good swirly kind seems good
Protein (optional), diced. Sweet Italian sausage was awesome, but spicy sausage or chicken (etc) would be good too...
olive oil
onion, 1/4 to 1/2, chopped
garlic, 1 or 2 cloves, chopped
tomato, diced, 1 or 2
Chard, stems removed and chopped into smallish pieces
cheese (I had fresh mozerella on hand so I used it!)

1. Cook the pasta. (When you drain it, keep some of the pasta water)
2. Cook the sausage/protein. When partially done, toss in olive oil, onion, garlic, and any spices you want to add.
3. When the sausage is mostly done, add the chopped chard. If it looks dry, toss in a bit of the pasta water or more olive oil. Add the tomato at some point, according to how cooked you like tomatos. (Note: this would also work with a can of diced tomatos for the winter-- but add them earlier so they heat up and meld with the other flavors.)
4. Toss with pasta. Add cheese. Serve with salad, bread, whatever.

Pesto, with apologies

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted here. Many apologies-- but I've survived exams and a summer field season in Egypt! Yay!
Upon arrival in the US, one of my first stops was the farmer's market to stock up on fresh produce. Honestly, the selection was poor but I did find a great deal-- a bunch of basil practically as big as I am for $3. Of course, that meant I made pesto.
I don't have photos, since we ate it all... but it looked as good as it tasted.

Pesto is really easy to make, especially if you happen to have a food processor. If not, you can do it in a blender or by hand, but it takes longer. Do not be intimidated.

First, wash and dry a bunch of basil. I didn't come close to using my whole bunch, but that's ok because it'll make a lovely caprese salad later. The drying part is pretty important, so don't get lazy and skip it. If you're blending, throw the basil (just leaves, no stems) and a bit of olive oil into the food processor with a clove of garlic. As it gets started, you can add more olive oil until it gets to the right consistency.

Pine nuts would be good in it too, but they're so expensive! So you can use almonds or something else if you want that toasty, nutty quality. You can add them whole, chopped, or blend them in. Salt and pepper to taste.

Grate up a big bunch of parmesan cheese, quite fine, so it'll mix in well. Finally, add the cheese after you're otherwise done. And just add the cheese to the part you're serving-- anything you're refrigerating or freezing should get cheesed when it's ready to be served.

If you want, you can thin the pesto with some nice starchy pasta water to make it spread over pasta better, and don't oil your pasta before you add the pesto, or it won't stick.

I tossed the pesto with some cubed chicken and halved cherry tomatos, and it was divine.

There's an app for that

So, I went grocery shopping today, and while I was at the store I was using my iPod touch for a few different things.
Mostly, I use it on the go because I can keep my shopping list handy with ziplist, and it works on the iPhone platform with Martha Stuart's Everyday food. Now, whatever you think of Martha herself, you can't really fault the quality of her recipes, and her "Everyday Food" recipes are more normal and call for less outlandish ingredients than her entertaining or holiday food-impressario recipes.
Ziplist will keep your list online, and on your iPhone, or text it to you (and you can text additions too). It categorizes things by department, and sometimes even knows what stores you shop at and how they're laid out, which is neat if it works for you.
Martha Stuart's Everyday Food  is handy, and gives a new recipe everyday as well as access to your ZipList and an extensive selection of searchable recipes. It's a good value for 99 cents.

But my favorite food app is actually the Monteray Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch app. With it, you can select the region you're in (for me, oddly enough, it's Southeast), and it will help you make sustainable seafood choices. For example today, I had thought I'd do a good environmental thing and buy farm-raised salmon. As it turns out, wild-caught Pacific or Alaskan salmon are actually much better for the environment than the polluting fish farms, especially because Pacific salmon are" among the most intensively managed species in the world, with excellent monitoring of both the fish populations and the fishery."Here's the info on salmon, if you're curious.
I've used this app at the store and at restaurants, and try to make good choices about what I eat. It can be tricky sometimes to get the staff to tell you where a fish comes from, but if you ask they will usually make a genuine effort to find out.

Thai Red Curry Salmon

When I was home last weekend, my family went out for Thai food. We almost didn't notice the Salmon Curry special, but I'm so glad we did. It was amazing, and it inspired me to make my own today. This recipe was fast, easy, amazing, and both delightfully tasty and delightfully healthy.

Note: When shopping for salmon, look for a cold piece of fresh fish, from close to the ice. For environmental reasons, choose wild-caught Pacific or Alaskan salmon, and stay away from Atlantic if you can. For more info, see the Seafood Watch, or tomorrow's post on apps.  Get it home right away, and use it the same day if you can. Don't let it sit in the car, and pack in in the bags with frozen food if you can. It really doesn't take too much to spoil a nice fish.

Ingredients
Salmon fillet/s
red curry paste, 1 to 2 T
coconut milk, 1 can
fish sauce, 2T
brown sugar, 2T
jasmine/white/brown rice
crispy veggies (I used fresh asparagus and green beans, because I got them at the farmer's market this morning. This would also be good with bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, etc. Things that have a nice crunch to them!)
1/2 red pepper, sliced thin, optional

1. Make some rice. Start the rice as you're cutting and washing veggies, depending on how long your rice cooker/stove takes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350. Place your fish, skin side down, onto a greased baking dish. Add a little oil or butter to the flesh of the fish, and bake 10 minutes or so per inch of thickness.
3. In a pot, start to simmer the coconut milk. When it's nice and warm, add the curry paste and whisk to blend. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
4. Add the fish sauce, brown sugar, and 1/8 cup of water. Whisk, bring to a simmer. Add the veggies, and simmer until they're warmed/soft (depends on the veggie!)
5. Pull the fish out of the oven. Serve veggies and sauce as a bed for the fish, and add more sauce on top. Serve with rice on the side.

Pantry Essentials

Plenty of people are ready to tell you what you need to have on hand to cook with. And while my pantry is usually well stocked, I don't even abide by lists like this or like this. In part, because I don't like or use some of those things all that often, so I don't feel the need to keep them on hand at all times. And, any list like this is necessarily subjective and based on how you cook.
That having been said, I'm still going to attempt it! I've already attempted a partial spice list, which you can find here, so those aren't on this list.

• flour
• sugar
• rice
• pasta
• canned tomatoes
• frozen veggies
• onions
• chicken broth/stock/boullion
• vinegar (I keep rice wine for Asian recipes, and red and white for others.... but you can probably get away with white, and add more styles according to your taste)
• olive oil
• vegetable oil
• butter/margarine
• cooking spray-- not necessary, but darn handy
• dried beans, dried lentils (or canned, if you prefer. they don't take as long to cook, but are often salty, more expensive, and you have less control.)
• GARLIC
• hot sauce
• soy sauce
• lemons or lemon juice can be very handy
• Cooking wine: you can get little bottles for cheap (i.e. Holland House) to keep in the pantry to whip up a quick wine sauce or add to almost anything
• Frozen chicken (or protein of choice)
• optional, but I adore sesame oil
• Italian dressing-- the normal, cheap stuff. Makes an amazing, quick, easy, cheap marinade for chicken, pork and fish!

If you bake, you will also want to have:

• brown sugar
• vanilla
• baking powder
• baking soda
• yeast
• cornstarch

Plus, it's always nice to have:

• potatoes
• carrots
• peppers (hot, bell, sweet)
• tomatoes
• seasonal produce
• salad
• seasonal veggies

Happy cooking!

Whoa there, it's been a while

Sorry for the long long delay since I've posted! Things have been a wee bit crazy, and will continue to be crazy until I get back from Egypt in June. I'm going to try to post as well as I can (and I'm really hoping I can share some Egyptian recipes) but in the meantime, hang in there while I try to navigate finals and travel and the flu and moving and and and...

But I am going to try for another post soon-- one which Carly requested, on pantry essentials for quick cooking. Stay tuned!

Curry Mee

So, another post without a recipe. Sad, I'm sorry.
But another photo of complicated food I made, and this time, the link the recipe I used.
I've been more than a little obsessed with replicating the Malacca Laksa at a local place, and this recipe from the NYT is the closest I've been able to come. The recipe is pretty involved, but the soup turned out great! I would add a bit more sugar than I did, and then adjust from there.

Dumplings

I'm not going to write down the recipe here (unless you really want it). But I am going to post photos of my afternoon project: Pork Dumplings

Chicken cutlets

Mm. Chicken.
You know how you get breaded chicken sometimes? Like chicken nuggets, or Chicken Parmesan, or on a Wenzel? (shout out, yeah!)
You can make these at home! I will tell you how.

First thing: Chicken. Thin chicken breasts, fresh or well defrosted. Pound them (gently) with a food mallet (or roll them thinner with a rolling pin or a bottle of wine or... be creative). The thinner they are the faster they cook and the less you will burn your gorgeous breading. Lightly salt and pepper your chicken.

Second thing: breading!
I like to use a 4-part method. Some people might tell you that simply dredging the chicken in flour or breadcrumbs is enough. This is a lie. A dirty, evil, vile lie.
So, in comes my tested 4 part method. Get out four bowls, shallow if you can. Or plates work well if they've got a decent rim. Fill them with:

1. Milk. The layer of milk can be shallow, you just want to coat the chicken quickly.
2. Flour
3. Egg, beaten. If you're doing a few, one egg might be enough. 4 large chicken breasts should take about 2 eggs, and more accordingly. 
4. Breadcrumbs. If you've got old bread, you can use it, but make sure it is very very fine. I use a can of store bought crumbs... it seems silly, but they give a great fine texture to your breading.

 So, in the order above, coat each chicken breast. Your fingers are going to become full of *stuff*, I promise. You may even have to rinse your hands occasionally to keep from having your fingers pick the breading off the chicken. But when you're done, you will have goodness. I promise.

Once everything is breaded, throw away everything that isn't the chicken. Don't try to cook with any of the stuff you just dragged raw meat through, please.

Then heat up a frying pan with some olive oil and some butter. This is the tricky part, because if it's too hot, you will cook the crust up fast, then it will burn as you wait for the meat to cook. If it's too cool, then the breading will soak up all the oil and get sort of soggy. Anyway, depending on the temperament of your stove, you probably want something between medium and all-the-way-up. Cook each one for a minute or two on each side, depending on the thickness of the chicken. Add more oil if you need it.

Pull them out when they're done-- golden on the outside, nice and white on the inside. Serve with any number of amazing sauces or sides. Yummmmm.

Pro tip: if you don't lose much breading in the making, you can deglaze the pan and make a nice sauce, like the chicken piccata I made tonight.

Maple-mustard pork

Ok. This may be a "Fall" recipe. But it's amazing, and I just sort of made it up. And I'm so pleased with myself, I have to share.

Ingredients
Boneless pork chops, or pork loin, or something. I use thin cuts because I like how they cook.
Flour + salt + pepper
thyme (dried is fine)
one lemon
white wine vinager
grainy mustard (NO FRENCH'S WILL NOT WORK)
maple syrup, real strongly preferred
chicken or vegetable stock (I may have been using my homemade stock... but you can use whatever)
olive oil
butter
1/2 small red onion, chopped

1. Dredge the pork (defrosted if it was frozen) in the flour +s+p. About 1/2-1 cup of flour should be enough depending on how much pork. You can opt out of dredging the pork, but it makes it brown up really nicely. Cook the pork in a skillet with some butter, until cooked through. Take it out of the skillet, and leave it aside for now.

2. Deglaze the skillet with something like 1 cup of broth, and a little bit of olive oil. Toss in the chopped onion, and let it simmer for a while. Make sure you get all the brown bits off the bottom.

3. While that's reducing... in a small bowl, add:

• 1 big glob of mustard
• 2 tbsp of vinegar
• the juice of one lemon
• something like 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• a good sprinkling of thyme

4. Whisk together! Taste; if it is too sweet, add more vinegar or mustard. If it's too tart, add more syrup or some brown sugar. When your broth and onions are looking nice and thick, add the maple-mustard mix. Simmer until it's fairly thick.

5. Spoon over your pork, serve and enjoy.

Maple-mustard pork served with roasted squash with chickpeas and feta, and fresh bread. I meant to make steamed asparagus too, but I forgot. The bitterness would be a great complement, or a bitter greens salad....

White Chicken Pizza

Premise One: Pizza is delicious.
Premise Two: Pizza makes a great meal, and great leftovers.
Premise Three: Frozen pizza isn't nearly as good as delivery (except in extreme circumstances, such as finding oneself in the rural south).
Further: So many places sell and deliver pizza!
Therefore, it must be hard to make...

Well, no. In fact this week, when my department has been throwing everything they've got at us, I come home and make pizza. (No, this is not a Chicagoan's stress reaction.)

I do cheat a little and use a prepared crust. It saves a lot of time and energy. If you want to make your own, try this.  But a pizza needs only a few things.

1. Crust. Like I said, I usually buy mine. 
2. Cheese. Indispensable. If you know what you like, use that. If not, go for a bag of the pre-shredded Italian Blend for quickness. (Shredding your own is fun, but not quick.) 
3. A base. Usually, tomato sauce. But there's no pizza sauce on the market that I actually like. So I make white pizzas. 
4. Toppings. Do what you want. 

My favorite is here.

Ingredients
Bobali or similar pizza crust.
Shredded Italian cheeses
chicken, cubed and cooked
1/4 - 1/2 red onion, chopped into small pieces or slices
3-5 cloves of roasted garlic. Do this the night before, please. See yesterday's post! And don't substitute fresh! The acidity might kill you if you don't know what you're getting into. Roasted garlic makes it warm and soft and sweet, while fresh garlic is much more acrid. If you want, toss a little fresh garlic in with the chicken while you're cooking it.
Olive oil
Red pepper flakes, dry Italian seasoning mix (optional but recommended)

1. Cook up your chicken, chop your veggies. Preheat your oven, following the recipe for the crust.
2. Drizzle some olive oil on the crust. Resist the urge to smear it around until you've also added your red pepper flakes/oregano/Italian seasonings. Squeeze your roasted garlic (3-5 cloves does nicely) onto the crust. Then smear it all around. If you're squeamish, use a spoon, otherwise, get messy! Use your fingers.
3. Top with toppings. Cover with cheese. Bake.
4. Eat.

Roasted Garlic

Garlic just might be my link with God.

Anyway, roasted garlic is amazing. And amazingly easy. It has a soft texture, a little bit like room temperature butter. And it's sweet and mellow, and you can eat cloves whole quite pleasurably. (Note: do not eat whole raw garlic cloves. No one wins, ok?)

It goes great as an appetizer or as a complement to a whole host of dishes. It makes a good dip or snack, or a great spread on pizza, garlic bread, or added whole to pastas and other garlic-friendly dishes.

1. Cut off the top of the garlic cloves. That means the pointy top end, not the tough bottom. Cut off just a little bit, enough to see the inside of each clove, but not so much as to waste a lot of perfectly good garlic. This works for either a whole head, or just a few cloves at a time.
2. Make a little foil package around the garlic. Put the garlic, either whole or separated, into the foil. 
3. Top with a generous pat of butter. Seal up the top of the foil package.
4. Bake at 350-400 for 40-60 minutes. I like to put mine in a muffin tin, in case it leaks a little. But any baking sheet or dish will work fine. 
5. Let cool before using. To use, squeeze out the roasted garlic innards from the peel by squeezing the bottom of the clove between two fingers. Or, if you prefer, you can laboriously slice away the peel.

You can safely roast your garlic several days in advance, too, which is great for me, since I never have time to roast garlic and then cook. If I remember, I'll put garlic in at the same time I start dinner and use it later in the week. Just crinkle up some foil into a tightly sealed little package and refrigerate.

Roasted Squash

I FINALLY got to roast my squash tonight. And it was worth the wait because it was delicious. And also really simple.

1. Buy a butternut squash. It looks like this:


Cut it up into cubes. Here is very good advice for that. If you want, you can make vegetable stock with the skins and seeds. But if you're doing that, you probably don't need my help.

2. Rinse a can of whole chickpeas/garbanzo beans. They're the same thing. If you're picky, you can roll each pea in your fingers to take the skin off. If not, they'll be just fine with skin on. Promise. Preheat the oven to about 400.

3. In a roasting dish, combine your cubed squash, rinsed chickpeas, and a few glugs of olive oil. Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper. Add about a tablespoon of brown sugar. The best way to do this would be to put the brown sugar in your hands and roll it through your hands, dusting the sugar over the dish. Then dig in and toss, with hands or spoon.

4. Bake for 40 minutes or so. Top with crumbled feta cheese (goat cheese would also be nice), and serve with crusty bread.

So much yum.

Red Curry

I've been craving a good sweet curry for weeks now. And having no particularly good Thai places nearby, I took matters into my own hands. This did require a few special ingrediants, but I found them all at Safeway (ok, well the coconut milk is from Trader Joe's-- they have light and normal, while Safeway only has normal).

It was also pretty simple. Nothing more complicated than stirring and dicing.

Ingredients
Shrimp (I used shrimp because I had some; you could use chicken but you'd have to simmer it for much longer, or you could use tofu or just veggies)
Red Curry paste, 1 tablespoon, pictured above
1 14oz can of coconut milk
2 tablespoons fish sauce (not nearly as scary as it sounds!)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or regular if you don't have brown)
1/2 cup water
assorted veggies, fresh or frozen, I used carrots, onions and frozen peas. It'd be great with fresh bell peppers too, though!
rice or noodles to serve with the curry

Pro tip: microwave frozen peas in a little water for :30 to make them rehydrate before cooking.

1. Thaw your shrimp in cold water. Chop veggies.
2. Dump the coconut milk into a saucepan, and add 1 tablespoon of curry paste. The jar says to go easy on it, but I not very humbly disagree. I say go for at least a generous tablespoon, perhaps even 1 1/2! It's not all that spicy, really. Whisk together, and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Add everything except the shrimp and the rice (unless you're using chicken, then add it now). Mix it all together, and let simmer for 15+ minutes. Don't let it really get to a rolling boil, it'll start to seperate a bit.
4. Add the shrimp, simmer for 4-5 minutes, or until the shrimp are done. You may want to add a bit of cornstarch dissolved in water if the curry is too runny for your tastes.
5. Serve over rice. Enjoy.