Greek Salad (p.248)

We felt like a light lunch today. We had some cherry tomatoes and romaine, and my mind went to a Greek or Turkish salad. Since it was Saturday, a trip to the farmers market in Del Ray sounded like a good solution. We found some fantastic Persian cucumbers that were perfect for this. We think we like them even better than hothouse cucumbers. No seeds, no waste, delicious. Add feta, kalamata olives, and a fresh herbed dressing and yum!

I admit that I did not follow the recipe exactly. I did not have roasted red peppers packed in oil, and I opted to use some shallot instead of red onion because I knew the flavor would be mild. Because it’s early in the season, I used some fresh oregano from the herb garden but opted not to take too much off the plant. I added some dried oregano to taste to the dressing to get it to the right place. We microplaned the garlic, which was great. There was nothing particularly tricky, and it’s a very typical dressing. But if you don’t have a Greek dressing in your head, this does the trick. I think the secret ingredient was mint.

Oh. And Bruce wanted radishes (good addition) and a cornichon (bad choice).

Smashed Potatoes (p.310) & Sautéed Snow Peas (p.311)

Playing catch-up here. We made two more dishes a week ago: Smashed Potatoes (p.310) and Sautéed Snow Peas with Lemon and Parsley (p.311). They were both excellent. Nothing tricky to report. The potatoes really would serve 4. The snow peas we thought should be made with a pound of peas. Also, the peas were good cold to snack on; wonder if they would be a good salad portion as a leftover.

This is the finished meal with a freshly baked chicken (spatchcocked, of course).  Mmmm.

Potato Vindaloo pp. 63-4

Hey bloggers, how’s it going?  It’s been pretty quiet here on the boards.  I challenge us all to post once more in April!  

I made yummy vindaloo last night.  It has onions, sweet potatoes, and red potatoes in about equal portions.  Mmm, onions. 

The recipe asks for paprika, but I used a medium-hot chili powder I had

 from Penzey’s.  It ended up at a good heat level for me.  

You add canned tomatoes and the spices and let it simmer.  I think the magic comes from adding red wine vinegar, and then later finishing with chopped cilantro.  It was warm and savory and just tasty. Perfect for when it’s sleeting in April.  Some yogurt is nice to contrast with the heat.  

Zucchini Quesadillas p. 368

Not fancy but fast and tasty, that’s the story here.  This literally took less than 15 minutes start to finish.  You slice and sauté the zucchini, then add a little garlic and cumin.  Then you add that to the cheeses and sauté the quesadilla.  I used cheddar instead of Monterey Jack because cheddar is my friend.  

So, really simple, but the zucchini tasted great in the dish and the spices add something so that it’s not just cheesiness.  I will make this again as a quick lunch or dinner, and not just because I have ingredients left! 

It’s Spring Break so maybe I’ll find the time to make another recipe this week.  Or maybe grand-nephew #2 will be born... 

Stir-Fried Tofu and Bok Choy (p.58-59)

I had Tofu and Baby Bok Choy out a restaurant last week and decided that I wanted to try it at home.

Above is the restaurant's version.

I cooked the rice (sushi rice) using our Zojirushi rice cooker.
I bought baby bok choy instead of 1 big head.

I let the tofu sit for longer than 20 minutes - but that certainly didn't hurt anything

 

As suggested, I made the sauce and combined the scallions, garlic and ginger before I started cooking

I cooked everything in a 12-inch skillet - but not nonstick - at it was still okay

 I liked it a lot and will make it again (I served it over the rice - which is a bit hard to see)

Shakshuka! p. 390

Raise your hand if you’ve made or eaten shakshuka before!  Me neither.  But it sounded like fun.   It is apparently Tunisian.  I made a half recipe - the full recipe has 8 eggs. You sauté onions and yellow peppers, then add diced tomatoes and jarred peppers.  It’s flavored with garlic, cumin, and turmeric.  

So you cook the sauce for a bit, then purée about half of it in the blender.  After returning the sauce to the pan, you make wells and crack eggs into them, then cover and simmer until the whites are cooked.  It said 5-10 minutes, and it was definitely more like 10.  Then you sprinkle with cilantro and a bit of feta cheese.

I served it over a toasted English muffin.  Kind of like a messy eggs Benedict.

It was yummy.  Lots of flavor in the sauce, and the egg was cooked just right for me (i.e. just barely runny). I’m excited for the leftovers and will likely make this again.  Couple of action shots below.

Eggplant Involtini (page 35)

Made this on Sunday during the snowstorm - the authors think of this as a summer dish, but I think that it is a great winter dish.

The idea is to bake the eggplant and then fill it with cheese (no eggs) and just finish it in the broiler.  You brush the eggplant with oil - I used olive oil.

The tomato sauce is from a 28-oz can of plum tomatoes.  I broke them up using my hands.

The filling....I used part-skin ricotta

I was worried that my cast iron fry pan would be too small (it's only a 10"), but it worked well.

Here is the finished dish:

M suggested that it would go well with pasta... I tried that last night - cooking some spaghetti.  It worked well.

Sheperd's Pie p. 235

I realize I'm posting this in March but actually made it first in February and then again yesterday (Mar 2.) Yes, I made it twice. Since I had leftover ingredients, I made it for a new mother in our neighborhood. BTW - 6 week old Violet is adorable.

I followed the recipe - almost to the letter because I cannot conceive of Sheperd's Pie without green beans. It was a staple of my weekly menus for many years!

All ready to go!

In progress -

Served the entree with green salad with blueberries and rice vinegar dressing. Everything was yummy!

I forgot to say that I made my own vegetable broth; threw ends of carrots & celery, half an onion, mushroom stems into a pot. Browned them a little then added water, garlic, peppercorns, thyme stem & parsley stems. Boiled then simmered as I chopped and cooked the veggies.

Oh, and I used some of the leftover mashed sweet potatoes from my previous venture.

This recipe was easy and delicious. I will definitely make it again (but always with green beans.)

Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Roasted Broccoli

Hi All - my first night home in a long time. I wanted comfort food and I wanted to use what we had in the fridge & pantry: broccoli and sweet potatoes. So I chose Garlic Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Coconut Milk and Garlic (p. 317) and Roasted Broccoli (p. 285.)

Each was easy prep - peel and chunk the potatoes, slice the broccoli and peel the stalks.

The potatoes were cooked in coconut milk, 1 minced garlic clove and a dash of red pepper flakes. The broccoli was tossed with EVOO, s&p, and a little sugar. (SUGAR!)

The broccoli did brown nicely but I thought I tasted sugar; Vaden didn't taste it. I thought the coco milk made the potatoes too sweet. Vaden didn't. Vaden's dinner was served with store-bought (gasp) meatloaf and mine was served with a Quorn chicken patty.

I would not make either recipe as written again.

And just for fun - here I am eating a Wellfleet oyster last night in Boston where I was visiting granddaughter Sarah.

Butternut Squash Risotto, pp. 172-173

We’re back again! This recipe called to us on a cloudy, rainy day. Start to finish it took about an hour and a half. Here’s the finished product:

It tasted delicious, with a really nice sage/cheese/squash combination. An interesting trick the recipe used was to cook the seeds and fibers from the squash with the vegetable stock, then strain, to add flavor to the dish. Bruce fried up some leftover sage leaves for a garnish.

Steps along the way included frying the squash

and frying onions and then browning the Arborio rice before deglazing the pan

I liked the straight-sided pan better for this dish, and myself would have used one with higher sides. But, it didn’t boil over so I can’t complain.

This definitely made enough for 6 servings. Happy cooking!

North African Vegtable and Bean Stew, p.103-4

Greetings!  I made this hearty soup as my first foray into the book.  Warm spices and nice and savory for a winter night.  I’m considering it a success.
I noticed that a lot of the recipes call for small amounts of tomato paste, so I bought a tube to keep on hand.

I also bought chard for the first time.   Other than all the chopping the recipe comes together really quickly.  This pasta wasn’t called ditalini, but I believe it’s close to being that.  

The soup took about an hour from start to finish, with about half an hour of active time.  I used 4 cups of broth and 3 cups of water and I don’t think this hurt the final flavor at all.  The finished project had a lot of flavor, not all just spice. 

I should have chopped the chard leaves smaller as some of the pieces ended up too long, like spaghetti noodles. This soup turns out to be vegan. But I ate it with cheese and crackers, which was a great counterpart.  The leftovers will make a great lunch.  Bam!

Cheesy Stuffed Poblanos - p.51-52

Well we begin again. This seemed like a good dish for a snow day. Our house smells fantastic now that the peppers are baking in the oven.

Prep was easy. The beans and onions and water cooked down just about as fast as they said; we were surprised. The peppers from the market were beautiful and glossy.  The recipe said to microwave the peppers for 2.5 minutes to soften them up a bit - a very good trick.

Don’t they look amazing?

The only frustration so far was the recipe pages themselves required turning back and forth (two sides of one page rather than facing pages); with wet hands kind of a pain. But the cookbook is getting that used look and feel, so that is good, right? 

And the finished dish. The tomato salsa helps balance the dish with an acid component (p.43).

Super yummy. It was a lot of food. Maybe I would eat just one big one next time. :-) They are way less greasy than chile relleno. 

Welcome!

We are cooking with America's Test Kitchen's "The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook."