A few good meals

Had a few more recipes this week that were good enough to share:

Saturday we had Indian food: Matar "Paneer," which wasn't really paneer because paneer is a kind of cheese (which Luke and I are going to make sometime soon), and this recipe uses tofu. So maybe Matar Tahu? I'm not sure. Anyway, I like making Indian food because we get to use all those spices that taste and smell so good, but that we don't use very regularly- curry, garam masala, turmeric, coriander. This recipe had all of 'em, and the mix of flavors was very good (if you're from Utah: this reminds me of something from Curry in a Hurry). If you look at the instructions, you'll see that this was an easy meal to make; my only addition would be to the instruction about letting all the spices absorb: after adding the spices, let them cook together for at least ten minutes. The texture and flavor will be better because of it. I kept tasting every couple minutes, and the longer they cooked together, the better. Oh, and don't skip the step about pressing the excess water out of the tofu- it makes a big difference.

(My broken camera has an especially hard time with browns and yellows. You know how Indian curries look. This was like that.)

On Wednesday, we had a southern meal: catfish po'boys, okra, and baked yam wedges. I chose the meal with Luke in mind- this is the sort of comfort food he loves- and I knew it was a good choice when he talked about it for days before we made it and kept telling me, while it was cooking, how excited he was. The po'boys were a recipe from the Martha Stewart cookbook I got for Christmas from Marina, my mother-in-law. The okra was like I've never had it before, with a very interesting flavor (halfway between southern and Indian), with none of that okra slime (which really ain't so bad, but I know some people hate it). Luke, who doesn't really like okra, was crazy about it. The yam was just cut up and shaken up with a little oil and some salt and pepper and then baked at 450 for twenty minutes, stirring a couple times. The whole meal was very good. "It's not the best meal we've ever cooked," said Luke, "but it was just perfect." And then all night he kept telling me how happy I make him.


On Thursday we had broiled black pepper tofu and soba noodles with vegetables (we left out the mint). In years of eating tofu fairly regularly, I don't remember ever eating it like this- as a simple main dish, not just a part of a sauce or curry. I liked it! The lemony dipping sauce was good enough that Luke later used it as a sort of au jus sauce for a sandwich. The noodle salad was good for dinner, and then again for leftovers the next day. This dinner convinced me that we need to find more recipes that use sesame oil.


There were some recipes we planned but didn't try because stuff came up (I spent a couple days with my mom and sisters, and went out with Barbara, a mentor/friend/professor). So this weeks meals will be easier to plan!

Week of dinners:

Luke and I are continuing with our goal to spend $35 on a week's worth of meals. It's become sort of a weird obsession, not because we couldn't afford to spend more on groceries, but because the challenge is really fun. On Friday nights I spend almost an hour planning the menu for the next week, including an estimate for how much each item is going to cost, and then we go to the grocery store to buy everything at once (I remember a time when I'd get kind of sad if I didn't feel like I was being social enough on my weekends. Things've changed). It's become one of my favorite weekly activities (aside from Wednesday night quiz night) of the week.

This week was an especially good one for meals, so I thought I'd share the recipes:

On Saturday we had black bean soup with coconut milk and cilantro. My friend Drew had made it for a potluck last week, but ours turned out differently because we had the time to blend it and let the flavors simmer (he was in a hurry because all the potluck guests had arrived). Both ways were good. A creamy, spicy, vegan soup with a nice blend of flavors (would be good without the cilantro, too, for people like Whitney who don't like the taste).

Picture from Fab Frugal Food

On Sunday we had Asian chicken noodle soup, which was instantly a family favorite. We left out the mint, because we didn't want to detract from the lemongrass, ginger, and lime. Don't skip the sriracha- it makes the soup perfect!

Picture from Martha Stewart

On Monday we had caramelized salmon with mango salsa. So fresh and summery tasting, and not heavy. We ate it with tomato rice (rice + tomato bouillon in the rice maker), and it was a hearty (and very orange) meal.



On Tuesday we had tacos with homemade tortillas. For the tortillas, mix corn flour (buy a big bag of the Maseca brand for three dollars in the hispanic foods aisle of the grocery store) and water together until it's the texture of playdough. Roll out (I found it easiest to put a little patty between to pieces of seran wrap, and then smash flat (as opposed to actually rolling) with a cup), and grill. These simple tortillas are good with stuff in them, but if you wanted to eat them plain, you'd want to add salt to the dough. Soon we'll invest in a tortilla press, so we we can have round, perfectly uniform tortillas. I know it doesn't make them taste any better, but for some reason it matters to me.

Picture from Adventures in Shaw

On Wednesday we had grilled chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce. Rather than using pitas, we used a naan recipe my mom gave us (a favorite since our experiment with indian food). This dish was so good. So good!!! We changed a few things: 1) We didn't marinate the chicken for as long as we were supposed to, because we figured if we were cooking the chicken in the sauce, that was good enough. And it was. 2) We didn't remove excess water from the cucumber for the tzatziki sauce. We kept it wet, and eliminated the oil in the sauce. 3) we used cucumbers instead of red onion (partially because Luke doesn't really like onions much, and partially because the cucumber sounded better). This is one of those kinds of meals that if you ordered it at a restaurant, it would become the only thing you'd ever order there.


And last I didn't have dinner. I went to make dinner (at 11:30 p.m.)* and realized that I'd forgotten to get tofu.** Luke was getting off work at midnight and said he'd pick up some DiGiorno, but he ended up having a work meeting that kept him until two. I fell asleep around one thirty, waiting for pizza.

*One thing I find myself loving about it just being me and Luke is that we can eat dinner in the middle of the night if we want.
**Actually, I didn't realize it. I called up Luke at work, annoyed that the tofu had mysteriously disappeared (just like a can of black beans had earlier this week), and he reminded me that I actually hadn't gone to get it.

Elderflower syrup

My mom took my sisters and Luke and I up the canyon in search of elderflower. We should've gone a week or two earlier, but we were able to find enough. I've been googoo gaga about elderflower since I first tasted a fizzy elderflower drink from the British store, and wished that it wasn't seven dollars for a liter. So I decided to make my own elderflower syrup, which I'll mix with soda water for practically the same drink for pennies, rather than dollars. (I hear that IKEA makes an elderflower syrup like this, which I will see if I can find next time I'm there, since I don't think I'll have enough to last me until next elderflower season).

I think this an awesome picture of Luke. I like how he wouldn't miss out on the flower-picking action just because he was smoking.

My sisters

The process is a bit time consuming, because you have to get all those tiny little flowers off the stems and into a bowl (the bark and leaves of elderflower plants are mildly poisonous), but it was a good thing to do while watching a movie.

I used about twenty heads of flowers. I put the flowers in a bowl with the juice and zest of two lemons. Then I dissolved four cups sugar in four cups water over medium heat, and poured the simple syrup over the flowers.

The mixture sat steeping on top of the fridge for five days with a towel over it, and then I strained and put it in the fridge.So that's it! Mix two ounces of syrup with two cups of sparkling water, and you have a refreshing, flowery, sweet-but-not-too-sweet elderflower soda!

Stock

I used the leftover bones from those game hens for homemade chicken stock. There are plenty of reasons to make stock, rather than buying it: Prepared stock at the grocery store is too expensive for what it is, and stock made from bouillon cubes doesn't taste as good. A homemade stock will give a richer flavor to the soups or sauces it's used in (when I was little I was always grossed out by the turkey simmering on the stove for the whole day after Thanksgiving, but the resulting turkey noodle soup was delicious), and will give the stock minerals (calcium, magnesium, and other stuff good for the joints/bones) and gelatin (which is good for digestion).

I've been collecting vegetables in the freezer for the past few weeks. Whenever there was a little left over after using what I needed for a meal, or I could tell I wasn't going to eat all of something before it went bad, the extra got put in a tupperware in the freezer. Celery, onion, potato, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, tomato (just a little, so it wouldn't overwhelm the flavor of the stock), etc. all got saved, instead of being thrown on the compost pile.


I read that raw chicken will make a better stock, but I don't ever buy whole chickens and cut 'em up for parts (though I probably should), so I just used the cooked ones, which works fine. I put the whole carcasses in the stock pot with the vegetables, covered them with COLD water (different flavors come out at different temperatures, so you start with cold to so every flavor gets expressed), and added some fresh rosmary, a few bay leaves, salt, and pepper (peppercorns would've been better, but I didn't have them). Then I brought it to a boil, turned it down to a simmer, and let it sit on the stove for six hours.


After that I strained out all the vegetables and bones, and separated the stock into tupperwares with one or two cups each, so it's easy to use when it's time to cook, and froze all but the stuff I am planning to use in the next week. Two game hen carcasses and leftover vegetables- all stuff that would've gone to waste- made me thirteen cups of chicken stock that I can use in soups, sauces, and for seitan.

Sur La Table = pretty food

For my birthday, Luke's sister Rachael gave me a gift certificate to Sur La Table. It was my first time going there, and it was basically my version of heaven. I spent forty minutes wandering up and down the aisles, picking up wonderfully unnecessary cooking tools and imagining all the things I could make (Shortcake cups that look like baskets? Molded shortbread? Properly funneled pies? (and if I'm ever rich, I would love to buy myself this)). I could've even stayed longer, but Luke got anxious to leave (he'd already gone to the Apple store, played with the new iphone, and come back). Before leaving, though, I was able to grab a couple not-needed-but-loved things that I've been wanting to get for a while- one thing I like about myself is how little stuff like this makes me so happy.

First, a tart pan. Pie tins work as just as well, but don't turn out as pretty. And it's impossible (for me) to cut a slice and get it onto a plate without messing it up a little. With a tart pan with removable bottom, you get beautiful looking quiches and tarts that look just as nice after being cut.


We usually try new things when we cook, but quiche is one of the few things we make on a regular basis. It's so cheap, so easy, and so yummy! And for a meal that lends itself to so many variations, we almost always have it the same way: spinach, mushrooms, and cheese. This quiche was good (after his first bite, Drew started swearing. In a good way), but what I'm really looking forward to is making tarts with light, flaky crusts and brimming with bright fruit.

My second purchase was a fluted ravioli cutter. Who needs it, right? But I've wanted to make ravioli for a while, haven't, and saw this as a way of getting me excited and motivated. And it worked. Tonight Luke and I made butternut squash ravioli with a browned sage butter drizzled on top. It was much easier than I thought it would be, and after eating huge platefuls, Luke and I leaned back and complimented ourselves on what good cooks we are.



The recipe (makes about 30 ravioli):

For the filling:
1 small butternut squash
salt
pepper
cinnamon
nutmeg
about 1/4 c mozzarella

For the dough:
3 C flour
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
About 3/4 flour

1. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Brush the cut sides with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
2. When the squash comes out of the oven, let it cool while you make the dough.
3. Sift together flour and salt. Make a well in the flour mixture and crack the eggs into the well. Lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Mix the eggs and flour together, and slowly add water until a stiff dough forms.
3. Knead the dough til smooth, and then cover and let it sit fifteen minutes.
4. Scoop the squash out of the shells, add dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and add the cheese.
5. Divide the dough in half and roll out each half as thin as you can get it- between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch.
6. Put the filling in little globs (about 1 t) about 1 1/2 inches apart on the dough. Cover with the other rolled out sheet, and press the sheets together around the filling to create little pockets. Cut with the ravioli stamp.

7. (Looking at recipes now, after the fact, I've learned that you should let the cut ravioli dry for an hour. We didn't do that, and it turned out well, but I will try that next time to see what a difference it makes).

8. Cook the ravioli by boiling it in salted water for 10-15 minutes.

9. Meanwhile, melt 2-3 T butter a pan, add sage (about 1/2 t), and brown.
10. Drizzle butter over the ravioli and serve.

It was so good!

Lemonade

The weather still feels like spring in Utah right now (and I love it!) but I've been hankering for some summery drinks (and using the reamer I just got). Last night I made some lemonade concentrate. I juiced six lemons, and brought the juice to a boil with about 1 1/2 cups each water and sugar.

(Then I did it all over again, because after filling the mason jar with the hot lemon concentrate, I stupidly decided to rinse it so it wouldn't get sticky, and the jar broke in my hands. Even though it was one in the morning, Luke could tell I had my heart set on morning lemonade, so convinced me that we really should go back to the store for six more lemons.)

This morning, I filled the glasses a little less than half full with the concentrate, added some muddled basil and strawberry purée, a couple ice cubes, and filled the glass to the top with cold water (I think next time I'll try sparkling water, because a fizzy lemonade would be good, too). It was, seriously, the best lemonade I've ever had.

Best part? I still have enough concentrate to make it a couple more times.

You can do it, Brucey!

Remember that part in Matilda when Ms. Trunchbull makes Bruce Bogtrotter eat that entire chocolate cake? This weekend, for my brother JB's birthday, Luke and I made (what I think of as) Brucey's cake. It was a double layer cake with dark chocolate frosting, and was really moist and delicious. And because JB is a guy who appreciates pretty things, we put a ring of crystalized flowers around the top.

The recipe:

12 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
heaping 3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans. In a bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Beat in vanilla.
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape bowl as needed.
4. Pour batter into pans.* Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before inverting cakes onto rack to cool completely.

*Our pans overflowed a little, so I'd suggest using all but about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of the batter.

For the frosting we used this recipe from Martha Stewart.


What I didn't know until today is that there is a recipe for Bruce Bogtrotter's cake in Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes.

Experiment with Indian food

Tonight Luke and I tried one of my very favorite Indian dishes, Saag Aloo (or Palak Aloo). We used the recipe that I found here, and it was good, but not quite what we've gotten in restaurants. We'll have to try again sometime, with a few changes.

We also tried naan for the first time, which I think turned out as well as it could have without a tandoor. We'll definitely be making that again, and Luke's already looking forward to trying peshwari naan.


The real hit for the night, though, were the monastery lentils (a name that came, I just read, from a time when poor catholic monks would eat lentils as a substitute for fish on Fridays or during lent). The recipe is my mom's, and it's such a simple recipe with no really exotic spices or anything, so I'm always surprised at how good it is. The recipe:

1/4 C oil
2 C onions, chopped
2 carrots, choped
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t marjoram
3 C chicken or vegetable stock
1 C lentils
1 lb tomatoes, chopped

1. Fry the onions and carrots in the oil until limp.
2. Add the thyme, marjoram, chicken stock and lentils and bring to a boil. Turn down to a high simmer and cook until lentils are the desired consistency (about 15-20 min).
3. Add tomatoes, heat through, and serve.

Makes tons- we'll be (happily) eating this for days.

Yesterday Luke and I made an asparagus tart for my family, a recipe we got from the Martha Stewart book I got for Christmas. We baked a puff pastry sheet for about ten minutes. Then the pastry is covered with asparagus shaved using a vegetable peeler to make long, thin strips, then tossed with a little oil and salt and pepper. After baking for about ten minutes, the tart is sprinkled with cheese (we used an Italian mix, rather than plain parmesan, as the recipe called for) and baked for five more minutes. All of us liked it quite a bit. It was easy, fast, and simple.


Then last night, at Fab Frugal Food, the Meatless Monday idea for this week was a spaghetti using that thinly-sliced asparagus instead of spaghetti noodles. After peeling them, the asparagus is steamed for a minute to make it soft. Sounds good- we'll have to try it sometime soon. Asparagus is one of my favorite spring foods!

Spring!

Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox. I wish I would've been outside planting cold crops and turning the compost and enjoying fifty degree weather (and otherwise celebrating the change in seasons as a representation of future food, flowers, and babies); instead, I was inside at work all day, spent the evening at Whitney and Scott's house for the Three Best Friends Saturday Triple Feature!!: Volume 3, and have a newly broken foot, so probably wouldn't be too productive shoveling compost anyway.

However! I did plan ahead enough that we were able to share a bottle of Sima, a Finnish spring mead, for the first day of spring. My mom lived in Finland for a year and a half when she was twenty-one (trying to convert Finns to the LDS religion, which is apparently almost impossible). While she didn't make a whole lot of foods from Finland when I was growing up, we did usually have this fermented lemonade in the spring.

To make it, you put the peels of two lemons in a gallon bowl/jar, cover them with boiling water, and add 1/2 C brown sugar, 1/2 C sugar, lemon slices (pith removed), and 1/4 t yeast (I used a multi-purpose yeast for sparkling wine, but regular baking yeast works fine, too).

Let the sima sit, covered, for one or two days on the counter. The yeast will start doing its work, making carbonation. After a couple days, bottle the sima, and add a five or six raisins to each bottle. Cork the bottles. As the drink gets more fizzy, the raisins start to float.


When the raisins are floating, put the drink in the fridge to cool before drinking (or just drink right away. Sima's good lukewarm, too). I didn't put the bottle on the left in the fridge soon enough after the raisins starting floating, and so much CO2 built up that the cork popped off and hit the ceiling.


If you drink right away, the fermentation is little enough that it's okay to serve to kids- like kimchi, vinegar, etc. If you let it sit longer, it will quickly become as alcoholic as other wines. We're considering trying a batch like that, but it's so good this way, I don't know if I can wait long enough.

The number of raisins you get when you pour the sima into your class is a sign of how many kids you're going to have: three for me, six for Luke (uh-oh!)


I'm spending this first spring Sunday hanging out in sweatpants, drinking sima in front of the picture window in the livingroom, and updating my Netflix queue. Luke's on the couch next to me on his computer, and we're not really talking, but just doing that being-together-without-doing-something-together thing. So pleasant.

Happy Spring!

Yummy recipe

My friend Len gave me a copy of this month's Real Simple, which has tons of ideas for Christmas presents, wrapping, and recipes. Last night I made one of those recipes, a caramelized onion tart, and I think it was one of my favorite things I've ever cooked. Top ten at least.


And it was so easy!

Ingredients:
1-2 T butter
a medium onion (I used a white one)
medium red apple, chopped in small pieces (I used Gala)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
one sheet puff pastry, thawed
1/4 C sour cream

-Preheat oven to 400
-Caramelize the onion in butter on medium heat for 10-12 minutes
-Add the apple, salt, and pepper and cook another 3-5 minutes so the apples get soft
-Prick the puff pastry all over with a fork
-Spread pastry with sour cream, leaving 1/2 inch border on all sides
-Spread onion/apple mixture over the sour cream
-Bake until pastry is puffy and golden- 15-20 mins

Month of pictures: Day 1

So I was thinking that for the month of September (or these last 28 days of it), I want to post a picture a day, as I've seen and enjoyed in other blogs. For today:



Usually Luke and I do all of our cooking together, but one day I wanted to cook for him. I wanted a summery meal that we could eat on our porch with a bottle of white wine. I made this, a baked salmon with a sweet chili citrus glaze. It was super easy and very yummy. The recipe:

2 fish fillets (salmon halibut, tilapia)
alt to taste
1/2 t finely grated orange zest
1/2 t finely grated lemon zest
1/2 t finely grated lime zest
2 T freshly squeezed orange juice
1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 T freshly squeezed lime juice
1/3 C Thai sweet chili sauce

Preheat oven to 425
Put the fish in a single layer in a baking pan. Season with salt.
Combine all the zest and juices with the chili sauce in a small bowl.
Spoon over the fish.
Bake 12-15 minutes, or until cooked through.