Fried Rice

I am going to Yosemite for the weekend and next Wednesday will be gone for another week so now I am busily trying to eat down the refrigerator.  Last night was fried rice; a fast easy dinner that uses up whatever you have around.  As long as two of those things are rice and eggs.  I always have eggs and conveniently also had half a carton of basmati rice from takeaway Indian last weekend. 

I try and get my fried rice to be flat, like a crepe or pancake.  I don’t want a pile of scrambled eggs with rice but that is just personal preference.  It doesn’t always work out quite like that but it’s a goal I aspire to with every pan of rice and eggs.

Here's the recipe:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 clove garlic – chopped fine
1-2 tsp ginger – grated on microplane

½ cup cooked corn

1 cup leftover rice
2 eggs – scrambled in a bowl

Heat sesame oil in your favorite egg cooking pan over medium heat; add garlic and ginger.  I slice the end off of a branch of ginger and then peel about ¼ inch of the sides then grate that bare end right over the pan.  Allow this to cook together for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Until you can smell the garlic and ginger warming.

At this point add your vegetables.  If raw, cook until desired doneness.

Add rice and using a spatula spread it so that the rice covers the bottom of your pan.  Allow that to cook for about 5 minutes.  My goal is to get that nice and crispy and sticking together. 

Meanwhile scramble the eggs with a fork in a bowl.  Once the rice is nice and crispy pour the egg over the top.  Using the spatula spread the egg around so it covers all the rice.  Cook until the eggs are set.  If the rice formed a nice pancake you should be able to flip in one piece.  I usally end up flipping in 2-3 uneven pieces. 

Sprinkle with soy sauce and devour.

The eggs and rice are your base, you can add whatever you like to make your version.

The sesame oil can be replaced with other oils such as peanut, grapeseed, or olive oil.  You can also use butter. 

The vegetable can be any vegetable.  I wasn’t sure of the corn would work with the dish but it was delicious.  Other good ones are peas, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, green beans.  Whatever you have leftover in your refrigerator and if no leftovers shake some frozen peas out of the freezer and toss those in. 

I don't usually include meat but if you have leftover chicken or ham or pork chops go ahead and dice them and include when you add the vegetable. 

My Basic Spaghetti Sauce – Marinara/Red Sauce/Gravy

This is my basic sauce.  I have been making spaghetti sauce for years and this is the version I am currently using.   I use it in eggplant or chicken parmesan, in baked ziti, on top of spaghetti with meatballs, as the sauce for sausage and peppers.  You can sauté a giant pile of greens and then stir some of this though it.  You can put a small amount in a frying pan and crack an egg into it and cook it up.  Pretty much anywhere you might consider using a jar of pasta sauce, you can use this and it’s almost as convenient and tastes a whole lot better.    

This is what I do:

Put a couple glugs of olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.  When the oil looks shimmery add half a yellow or white onion cook until the onions soften.   If you don’t know when the oil is shimmery use your hand to push the air above the pan toward yourself.  If you can smell the olive oil it is ready. 

Reduce the heat to medium low and add 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper and 3-4 garlic cloves depending on their size and again how you like it.  Stir this around for about 30 seconds it does not take very long and you do not want the garlic to burn. 

Add one 28oz can of whole tomatoes.  If you want to speed the process along you can chop these before adding them to pan.  If I don't want tomato juice all over the cutting board I will pour the juice into the pan and then use my hand to break up the tomotoes right in the can. 

If you have it, add a glug of red wine.  About ½ cup of whatever you have.  Ideally I would use a Chianti Classico or Sangiovese (FYI, same grape) but realistically it’s usually Pinot Noir.  Now, pour yourself a glass too. 

Add 1 tsp of sugar

Stir it all up and leaving the heat on medium-low let cook it for about 30 minutes or so.  You don’t want it to boil, it should be simmering.  It should reduce somewhat but you don’t want the sauce to start drying out. 

Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture to desired chunkiness.  This depends on personal preference and uses.  If you are cooking up some shells or ziti you might want it a little chunkier.  If you are going to use it for pizza you want it very smooth.  I prefer smooth.

Finely chop a large handful of parsley and toss that in.  Add about 12-15 basil leaves torn up or stacked on top of one another and sliced. 

If you are feeling decadent and have some handy add grated parmesan.  About ½-1 cup.  I don’t usually have grated parmesan and am too lazy to grate that much.  I will generally just grate some right over the top when I am done cooking and then add some to the final dish as well.

This makes enough to eat in a couple of meals if you want extra for freezing, double the recipe. 

*if the sauce ends up too dry you can add a little water from the pot of cooked pasta to it, add about half a cup and then cook it all together.  If you have added too much pasta water, continue to cook it as the starch in the pasta water will thicken the sauce back up. 

Chicken Stew Provencal

I have been trying to work on the amount of food I am buying and cooking.  In the past I would ambitiously purchase food for a few different meals in one week then I would cook up one of the recipes and end up with piles of leftovers and still have all the food I had purchased for other recipes.  I eventually realized I will realistically cook at most two new meals in a week and sometimes only one depending on the current status of food in my house and what I have going on in any given week.  But, I also needed to cut down on the amounts I was cooking for each meal.  Most recipes are meant for a group and I went through a period of cooking way too much of every dinner.  I would end up with baking pans full of food and then I’d either force myself to eat it for days and get bored with it or throw it out and feel guilty.  Oh heavens, the waste! 

Now I spend a lot of time halving recipes and even quartering.  I still cannot make a small batch of red beans and rice and get the proportions right.  I also bought the book "The Pleasures of Cooking for One" by Judith Jones and never cooked one thing out of it.  It was a good one to flip through so maybe I will revisit and see if there is anything I want to make.  It’s a slow process but I am slowly getting better at making an amount that I want to eat and not wasting food.

I got this recipe for Chicken Stew Provencal from the Washington Post Cooking for One column. 

It’s a good column with some handy tips for cooking for one person but unfortunately there are not enough of them, columns or tips. The columnist, Joe Yonan published his own cookbook about cooking for one so when I have some money to spend I will definitely check it out.  “Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One”.  Another thing I like about this recipe is that the author claims the mix of carbs and protein is good for a post workout meal.  I work out a good bit so I definitely liked the sounds of that. 

Herbes De Provence was new to me.  I’d heard of it but never tried it, luckily my roommate had some.  I didn’t measure that so there might have been more than a tsp in there. 

Here’s the recipe:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 (about 10 ounces) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise in half, then each half cut into thin strips
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
1 stalk celery, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium carrot, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 cup low-sodium, nonfat chicken broth
14 ounces canned no-sodium diced tomatoes, plus their juices
2 medium skin-on red potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning the pieces occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes or until they have browned on all sides.

Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft.

Add the broth, tomatoes with their juice, potatoes, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper, stirring to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are fork-tender. Serve hot.

I used one large chicken breast, I don’t own a kitchen scale so don’t know the weight. I also only used half an onion.  Next time I make this I will cut the potatoes smaller. They were a little large for my preference. Probably bite sized, but a big bite with only potato and I like getting everything into one bite. Other than that it was really tasty and nice to add something new to the repertoire.

Here’s the link: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2008/10/15/chicken-stew-provencal/

Quinoa Patties

I bookmarked this recipe from 101cookbooks.com soon after making salmon sweet potato pancakes.  It seemed along the same lines and used one of those good grains I am trying to use more of.  Then I cooked up some quinoa and got some of the ingredients so was committed.  I don’t usually cook with chives or dill and don’t especially like dill so I ended up getting parsley and basil instead.  Then after another review I wasn’t sure about basil with feta.  I ended up halving the recipe and making it with parsley only.  Half way through I added basil just to see how it worked.  As suggested in the recipe the patties didn’t hold up too well while I was forming them but to be honest I couldn’t figure out if they needed more dry bread crumbs or more wet egg.  On reflection they might have needed more quinoa because there was a lot of other stuff in there; I don’t think anyone can make a patty out of a pile of greens. 

Even though the patties were hard to form they cooked up great and kept their shape.  I enjoyed the patties and ate all of them but can’t say I was overly impressed with them.  I don’t know if it was my switching up the herbs or what but it just didn’t wow me.  But, as I type this up I realized I did eat all of them and they were tasty so I guess a decent snack to try.  One issue was the feta, warm I didn’t like it at all and cool it was jarring to the rest of the ingredients.  That is probably from me switching up the herbs.

For some reason while I was making these I kept thinking of eggplant parmesan (probably the basil) so here’s what I want to do next time.  Skip the feta and use mozzarella, maybe even a little bit of ricotta.  Use the basil and parsley again and the kale.   Then you have a healthyish snack with the delicious flavors of chicken or eggplant parm.  I would serve them with homemade marinara sauce for dipping. 

Here’s the original recipe from 101cookbooks: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/baked-quinoa-patties-recipe.html

Ok, I just reread Heidi’s post on 101cookbooks and she made these for a flight. I’m pretty wowed now, because I could definitely snack my way through these on a long flight. Hmm, I’m headed back east next week so may try this again sooner than I had anticipated.

Greek Lentil Salad

I eat lentils in soup and straight up (shout out to Trader Joe’s cooked black lentils) but this was my first lentil salad.  Inspired by my friend Sarah who mentioned she was going home to eat one and listed a few of the ingredients.  Since there was feta and cucumber I went the Greek route.  I only had red lentils and figured as they turn to mush in soup they would not be ideal; so I went out and got ahold of some standard brown lentils. 

Here’s what I did:

Cook your lentils:
I added 1 cup of lentils to 1.5 cups of boiling water.  I cooked for 2 minutes and then reduced the heat so it would simmer and cooked it for another 45 minutes.   

Prepare Dressing:

In a large bowl or tupperware that will hold the entire salad slice up some shallots (garlic or onion works too) and sprinkle with oregano and salt.  Juice half a lemon over this and a little bit of red wine vinegar; whisk together.  Continue whisking while drizzling in about 3/4 cups of good olive oil.  Taste.  if it tastes too sour, add more olive oil.  Likewise if it is too oily, add more lemon juice. 

Prepare vegetables:      

Slice up most of a pint of grape tomatoes and add to bowl with dressing.  Seed and slice a medium sized cucumber and add along with 2 sliced carrots and a good handful of crumbled feta.  I went for equal amounts so ideally each bite would include every ingredient.  I'm not a huge fan of raw onion so did not include it but a little red onion might be good too.  Stir all the vegetable so they are well coated with the dressing.

Add cooked lentils and stir again.  Refrigerate and enjoy!  It was darn tasty and only improved with some refrigerator time. 

I love a Greek salad wrap so next time I make this I will try it in a wrap with romaine lettuce and whole wheat pitas or tortillas.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Cumin

This was a new recipe for me that I found through a circuitous route from The Wednesday Chef to the NY Times Magazine.  I don’t remember how I got to the Wednesday Chef one of those internet worm holes where you start off in one space and click, click, click your way to somewhere new.  Anyway, I really enjoy roasted butternut squash with lots and lots of garlic.  It’s one of those vegetables that I buy every time I go to the produce store in the fall/winter/spring months, along with sweet potatoes, and then roast and eat non-stop.  The cumin and cayenne was something new and I always like to have soup around so I was intrigued.  Not quiet intrigued to make the complete recipe; I opted to halve* it because I find squash or carrot or one vegetable soups to be kind of a one note bore.  I can eat vegetable soup over and over but on my third bowl of squash soup I’m wondering how much more I am really going to have to eat before I can toss it without feeling guilty. 

This recipe suggests you toast the squash seeds in cumin and then top each serving of soup with them.  I did that and found the squash seeds overly chewy and not worth it so tossed them into the compost.  I guess if you are inspired you could get the pumpkin seeds…I was not, and will not be in the future.  I just can’t imagine them adding that much to the soup to make them worth the added hassle.  I also used half and half instead of buttermilk or cream because that is what I had on hand. 

This soup improved greatly after a day or so but still, I was glad I did not make the full amount.  I enjoyed it and would make again but was not sorry to see the end of it.  It made the perfect amount for one person. I would hesitate to freeze it because of the cream, not sure if it would separate.   

Here’s the recipe:

Roasted Squash Soup with Cumin
Serves 4

1 large (about 3 pounds) butternut squash
3 teaspoons vegetable or olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or simply use the squash seeds from the butternut)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
Small pinch of sugar
Generous pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup buttermilk or cream

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. With a large knife, split the squash in half (scoop out and reserve the seeds, if you plan on using them). Brush the cut side of the squash with 2 teaspoons of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place cut side down on the large baking sheet and roast until very tender, about 35 minutes.

2. If using the squash seeds, remove any orange fibers from seeds and rinse them under running water. Drain and place on paper towels to dry. Toss the squash or pumpkin seeds with the remaining teaspoon of oil and 1/2 teaspoon of the cumin, and season with salt. Place in a small but heavy pan and toast over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until fragrant and golden-brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.

3. Scoop the flesh from the squash shells or peel off the blistered skin, using a sharp-edged spoon to help it along, and place the flesh in a pot. Add the chicken stock, garlic, vinegar, sugar, cayenne and remaining cumin. Bring to a boil, lower and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. Using an immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth and creamy with no lumps. Stir in the buttermilk and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve garnished with the squash or pumpkin seeds.

Here’s the link to the NY Times recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/26/magazine/food-basic-instincts.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Here’s the Wednesday Chef’s post on the same recipe:  http://www.thewednesdaychef.com/the_wednesday_chef/2011/11/molly-oneills-roasted-squash-soup-with-cumin.html

*I typed that word as halve and then had to go check that it was actually correct.  It is (it means to divide into two equal parts).  I wanted to use the past tense halved which I was confident was a word but couldn’t work it into my sentence.

Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Delicious!

I bought some broccoli rabe on the spur of the moment when I was shopping.  I had a couple recipes lying around that called for it.  Then I talked to my sister who suggested I cook it up with some chicken and whole wheat pasta.  I was on my health kick so had no kinds of pasta around so took myself off to the store in a hungry mood; problem 1.  Problem 2; I decided I wanted Orecchiette (little ears) pasta but my store was not offering that in wheat.   Problem 3; I couldn’t remember which of the whole wheat pastas I like because really I don’t especially like any of them.  I opted for regular durum wheat (white?) Orecchiette.  Time for the chicken; I wandered over to the organic chicken and looked at a few packages thinking that I can’t really cook chicken breast in dishes like this.  I always overcook it and it turns out tough and gross.  Solution; pork sausage! If I had not been so hungry I probably would have remembered turkey or chicken sausage but at this point my usual bulk sausage was in hand.  Plus I have made this dish before so the hunger led me down a familiar and delicious path.

Here’s what I did.

Boil up some salty water and cook your Orecchiette. I used half the box for 1 lb of bulk sausage and one bunch of broccoli rabe. 

Cook the sausage in frying pan over medium heat, breaking it up with a spatula as it cooks.  When the sausage is done I put it on a plate with some paper towels to drain a little bit (see, healthy!) 

Next sauté the chopped broccoli rabe in the sausage fat, add a little olive oil if you just drained all the fat off.  (it’s health-ier).  When it’s all wilted down; throw in a couple cloves worth of chopped garlic and some red pepper flakes. 

Next, add a little chicken broth, or Better than Bullion and water, to the broccoli rabe and then put the sausage back in. You could probably use white wine here too, or even skip it.  I would if I didn’t have any broth. 

When the pasta is done scoop out about 2 cups of pasta water and then drain.  Do not rinse, add the pasta to the sausage broccoli rabe mixture.  Pour in about 2 cups of the pasta water.  Cook together about 1 minute and then turn off the heat.  You want everything to meld together but you also want some moisture to remain in the pasta so you can heat it up tomorrow.  Unless you plan to eat it all in one sitting; it’s that good so you might.  But, it tastes even better the next day.

Vegetable Barley Soup

Easy, Healthy and Delicious

I mentioned the Vegetable Barley Soup in my post yesterday so feel compelled to write about it today.  This was a definite winner for me.  I probably made the original batch over a month ago.  Part of my quest to eat more healthfully is to incorporate different grains into my diet.  Out with the pasta and white rice; in with the Quinoa and, in this instance, Barley. 

I first attempted barley years ago with a bag from the supermarket I don’t remember quite what I did with it but I know I ended up with some mush that I didn’t eat.  Time for round 2; if you do a search for Vegetable Barley Soup you will find that they are all pretty similar.  I guess when you have a winner you leave it be.  I pretty much followed Granny’s Vegetable Barley Soup posted on Care2 in 2004.  The only change was that I used chicken stock because that is what I usually have around.

Here’s the recipe:

1 onion, diced
Inner stalks and leaves of a head of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons oil
2 1/2 quarts good-quality vegetable broth or water
1 cup barley
1 bay leaf
2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
2 carrots, scrubbed and chopped
1 large can (30 ounces) tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with juice
1 1/2 cups seasonal greens–kale, chard, collards–coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil
Salt to taste

1. In a large soup pot, saute the onion and celery in oil until tender and starting to brown. Add broth or water and bring to a boil.

2. Rinse barley under running water and then add to boiling soup stock. Add bay leaf and simmer one hour, until barley is tender.

3. Add potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and tomato juice to soup. Simmer about 1 hour until vegetables are very soft. Add more water if necessary.

4. Just before serving, add greens and basil, cooking until greens are just tender. Add salt to taste.

Serves 10 to 12.

I did everything up to step 4.  At that point I let it cool and then froze 2 quarts leaving one quart to be eaten immediately.  So, this recipe makes about 3 quarts of a thick hearty soup. 

When I heated it up I added greens usually spinach because I always have that lying around but sometimes kale.  Also, when I thawed out the remaining quarts I was continually adding to it, some broth, some water, leftover canned tomatoes so it really lasted.  I usually grated some fresh parmesan on top when I ate it and a couple of times stirred some basil pesto through it. 

This soup was ridiculously convenient.  I should always have some around because it made it really easy to eat healthfully and it tasted great.    I was probably eating it for lunch or dinner for over a month and did not tire of it.  I got my barley at the local co-op which I think means it’s fresh and might result in a “creamier” soup than if you are using possibly old barley.  Really I have no idea as this was only my second foray into barley but I do know the soup was very thick and “creamy”.  That might be a result of the potatoes too.   I keep putting creamy in quotes because it had that mouth feel but no cream so can you still call it creamy? 

When (not if) I make this again probably the only change I will make is to include more carrots and celery.  I will also try and make my own vegetable broth as I have a bunch of vegetable pieces in my freezer waiting to be turned into broth.  Oh yea, I might also include chickpeas as I saw those in a couple of the soup recipes I was looking for.

Here is Granny’s Recipe:  http://www.care2.com/greenliving/grannys-vegetable-barley-soup.html 

Socca

This is a new recipe for me, I was going for more healthy.

I made Socca for the first time the other day and my conclusion is mixed.  It is a flatbread made using chickpea flour and I was anticipating something along the lines of my Mom’s delicious focaccia except healthier.  My Mom’s focaccia is not as thick and doughy as the focaccia I come across in sandwich shops.  It’s thinner and can be downright crispy depending on how long it’s left to bake.  It is also slathered in olive oil, kosher salt and rosemary and tastes delicious.  

Turns out, Socca is more of really, really flat, flatbread.  Mark Bittman went so far as to describe it as a pancake.  So, part of my issue was expectation.  A second issue might have been a merging of recipes.  I halved Neeta’s recipe from Neeta’s Healthy Plate but was referencing Mark Bittman’s.  They have similar measurements but the cooking temp and time are very different.

Here’s my version:

For the batter

1 cup chickpea flour

1 cup water

1 Tbsp Olive oil

Salt

I used another couple glugs of olive oil for the pan that was warmed in a 200 degree oven.  I then added some caramelized onions to the batter and cooked it for 15-20 minutes as directed by Neeta’s recipe.

And then I kept cooking it and cooking it because it never seemed finished and never got the crispy bottom that Mark Bittman mentioned in his recipe.  I’d cook, taste a piece and then cook another 5 minutes.  I did this 3-4 more times until I tired of it and decided the Socca was done. 

It was ok, nothing great. 

Neeta ‘s recipe said to cook for 15-20 minutes in a 200 degree oven.  Mark’s recipe called for 30-40 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  Otherwise the recipes are pretty similar.  They also both recommend that the batter “sit” which I skipped right over.

I have couple more cups of chickpea flour so I am going to attempt again. 

Next time:

Let the batter sit and use Mark’s recommended temp and times.

Skip the caramelized onions and use rosemary and salt.
Maybe use my Mom’s focaccia recipe.  I think it has yeast though which is a whole other world.

 Neeta’s recipe: http://www.neetashealthyplate.com/#!/2010/10/socca-with-caramalised-onions-zucchini.html

Mark’s recipe: http://content.markbittman.com/recipes/easy-whole-grain-flatbread