Spinach Mushroom Phyllo thingies

Just wanted something I could make with stuff I already had, to go with leftover Lentil soup.  I had the mushrooms because I was intending to add them to the Shepherd's Pie (but it seemed unnecessary once I saw how much filling there already was).  And the spinach and cream cheese were from the enchiladas.  Add some Feta- which I often have on hand for salads and such- some scallions and dried dill...

I was lucky to get a good batch of Phyllo.  It can be hit or miss with that stuff.  2 layers, brushed with butter, then rolled up burrito style, and baked at 400' for 15 - 20 minutes.

I made 3 pastries and no leftovers!

Shepherd's Pie

I had some frozen tri tip steaks from Trader Joe's and I wasn't sure how to cook them (sometime I'll have to tell you why I have so much frozen meat from TJ's).  So I hedged my bets and minced it in the food processor for Shepherd's Pie.  

The meat is browned; celery, carrot, and onion are added and softened, then some green beans, beef broth, and a spoonful of leftover tomato sauce go in.  After all is tender, the gravy is thickened by a flour and water slurry.

I had help mashing the potatoes!

Ready to bake for about 20 minutes at 425' - just until lightly browned and bubbling.

Enchiladas with Green Sauce

I don't really know how to classify this dish.  I wanted to use some homemade tomatillo sauce I had in the freezer and make plain chicken enchiladas, but it wasn't going to be enough. Then I saw someone at the store put spinach into her cart and I thought "if I was a good mom I'd give my children spinach tonight as well,".... and also, a cheese craving struck.

It's a petty complicated recipe unless you happen to have some homemade tomatillo sauce, too...so let me just say the sauce was tangy and creamy, the filling was spinach, cream cheese,and  rotisserie chicken shreds.  Rolled up in corn tortillas...I finally gave up on trying to make decent enchiladas without frying the tortillas in a little fat before rolling them.  My fat of choice?  Dare I tell?  It's actually lard leftover from frying carnitas.  It is unbelievable. Use in moderation.  You can get it at the meat counter at El Rey.

Here they are covered in the sauce and Monterrey Jack cheese,

And on the plate with frijoles refritos and a saute of corn, zucchini, and red pepper with some scallions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

Protein Fix

Most of the time I don't even come close to the  recommended 30% of daily calories from protein.  Tonight I far surpassed that.  The 3 most important factors to great steak at home are (duh) great steak to start with, using a well seasoned cast iron skillet, and letting them rest for at least 5 minutes before you cut them.

These strip steaks actually were not that great because they had been frozen.  But they started out pretty good.  I like to season steak liberally with Montreal Steak seasoning to get a really flavorful crust.  Then they're just seared in a hot (and I'm talking about preheating your pan on high for 2 minutes hot) pan- turn on your fan- left undisturbed until they have that nice char, then flipped for a total of maybe 6 minutes for rare/med rare.  This probably goes without saying but take them out of the pan to rest.

One big sweet potato, honey roasted.  And escarole.  That would be 'scaROlay if you're in my favorite Italian restaurant in Queens. I wanted to show how to cook it because I know a lot of people are unsure, and it's really tasty.  Below is the head of escarole.  Escarole resembles lettuce more than it does than sturdy greens like kale.  Just cut it into pieces the same way you would cut leaf lettuce for a salad, if maybe on the larger side.  Make sure the escarole is as clean and dry as possible. Then, it needs quick cooking over medium high heat in enough olive oil or butter to "dress" it.

Heat the pan, add good olive oil and a clove of minced garlic.  Cook until the garlic loses its raw smell, about 20 seconds.

Then add  the escarole.  This is that whole head.

Toss it around with tongs for no more than 2 minutes, until it is wilted but not browning or completely withered.  This is how much it cooks down.  Only salt it at the very end because salt draws out the moisture and instead of having a nice juicy dish of  lightly dressed wilted green, you'll have soggy lettuce water running all over your plate.

The finished product.  Now way did we finish all that red meat- there was almost a whole steak leftover!

Eggplant- finally!

I finally got to make the Eggplant involtini- slices of tender eggplant wrapped around creamy ricotta and napped with a quick fresh tasting tomato sauce, then topped with sharp provolone and browned in the oven.

The eggplant cut on the bias into 1/2 inch thick slices,

Rubbed with olive oil and lightly browned in a hot (450') oven for about 10 minutes, 

Topped with the ricotta mixed with salt, pepper, and Parmesan.  I LOVE the Grande brand ricotta.  It's a local company and the cheese is fresh and delicate but flavorful.  I smeared the eggplant slices with some pesto and put a slice of leftover roasted red pepper on top, too.

Rolled up, topped with with sauce (just a can of tomatoes simmered with some garlic and onion cooked in olive oil), and sprinkled with Grande Aged Provolone- a super awesome cheese that is smoked ever so lightly, sharp, and creamy.  Don't drown these in sauce- it's better to keep some sauce hot in the pan fir the pasta than to have the involtini drowning and overwhelmed.

Ready to pop in the oven for around 20 minutes at 400'  I served it with penne and a salad.

Lentil Soup

My husband has issues with soup for dinner.  I guess he automatically envisions a slosh of pallid broth with perhaps a meager crust of bread, then being sent to bed hungry.  This is unfortunate, as I love soup.  But old demons die hard.  I can get away with chowders or bean/ pea soups, though.  I decided to make Lentil soup because I found a bit of ham in the freezer (from a party ham) and I also had about 1/2 cup of corn from the other night that I could fold into some cornbread batter.  It's not really so much about using leftovers as it is getting an idea from somewhere.

Here's the fixin's for plain old Lentil soup...

First, the celery, carrots, garlic, and onions get "sweated" (that means salted and cooked in a little fat until they soften but don't brown).  Then the ham and some chopped tomato are added...

Then, the lentils, water, and a bay leaf...and the soup simmers for about an hour, until the lentils are tender.  I used half a bag of lentils and got about 6 large serving of soup.

I added a cubed Idaho potato during the last 15 minutes, then pureed a few batches of the soup in the blender to make it smoother.  Sometimes I feel like a soup full of whole beans or pulses is just a little too unappealing.  Call me a prima donna but chewing your way through an entire bowlful can feel like health food penance.  I like a base of silky smooth puree with lots of chunks of vegetables.  One could cook the lentils long enough that they would just disintegrate, but then your other vegetables are mush as well. 

One word of caution....don't fill your blender over 1/3 full with hot liquids.  Ever.  They tend to explode out the top and make a big mess.

I made a small batch of cornbread to serve with the soup.  I love the recipe off the Quaker cornmeal box as a guide....I happened to use buttermilk and I added that leftover cooked corn, too.  I find that half a recipe (for a 9 x 9 pan) bakes up perfectly in a 9 x 5 loaf pan.  It's only about 2 inches thick, and my family can eat the whole thing...no leftovers!

Now the leftover soup is another matter....

Arroz con Pollo

There's a gazillion authentic ways to prepare this popular dish.  I used to work with a lot of people from the Caribbean- especially Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.  They taught me how to make Arroz con Pollo their way.  Normally I use chicken thighs, but breasts are lighter.   

I tried another shortcut last night.  Ideally, I would use a medium grain rice and a seasoning product called "Sazon Goya con Azafran," but the store had neither...it did have this Vigo Yellow Rice Dinner stuff, which I bought and used and it was pretty much OK.

This is the cured "Spanish" Chorizo, which is very different from raw Mexican Chorizo. The texture is more like pepperoni than, say, bratwurst. Look for Goya brand if you're not sure what to buy.  You need to peel it and then slice it thin.  It's more of a flavoring than a meat item in your dish.

I browned the 3 chicken breasts, then sauteed a red pepper, half an onion, garlic, and 1 chorizo link in the same pan:

Then the rice got added, the liquid called for on the package, and the chicken was tucked in there and it was covered to cook through.  I removed the chicken when it was done (about 7 minutes into the 20 minute cooking time).

Rice is cooked- a final garnish of fresh cilantro and green olives gets incorporated...

The chicken sliced and added back to reheat for a few moments...

That's it.  The whole bag of rice was a bit much for 3 chicken breasts and 2 adults/2 kids, but other than that, it was a good old favorite dinner for a chilly evening.

Spaghetti with Rapini and Scallops

I had no idea what was going to be for dinner last night when I sent the kids down to the basement so I could cook it.  I was confounded by the ruination of my plans to make eggplant involtini- there were no eggplants at Sendiks.  So I grabbed a big zucchini instead and figured I'd come up with something using that and the fresh ricotta.

Well I didn't- but I did have some cooked rapini that I had decided not to use for book club crostinis- and some frozen scallops (from Trader Joe's- surprisingly good).

Rummaging around in the freezer I came up with a few slices of pancetta, which I cooked til crisp.  Added garlic and the rapini, a little pasta cooking water and spaghetti:

The I seared the scallops in olive oil, deglazed the pan with white wine and a small splash of balsamic vinegar:

Like the sexy boudoir lighting?  Oooh, succulent....I need to work on these photos :(

Anyway, it was pretty good, considering it was seat-of-the-pants cooking!

Book Club Goodies

The book was "Mudbound," set in rural Mississippi right after WWII.  Thumbs up on the book. 

The most popular munchie was Cherry Almond Phantoms (recipe at bottom):

I also made Bourbon Apple Strudel,

Mini Brie and Apricot Mustard panninis,

And Prosciutto Parmesan Palmiers.

The Phantoms are really delicious cookies.  The recipe was given to me by a very excellent pastry chef who used to work at the Hotel Metro.  They are extremely fudgy and creamy in the center with big chunks of nuts, chocolate, and dried fruit.  The exterior is a shiny, thin, melt in your mouth crust that barely holds all the goodness in.  You can definitely switch up the chunks (for example- craisins, white chocolate, and walnuts).  I've always liked this combination of flavors. though.  Don't think it will be better to chop up the chunky stuff.  Normally I'm not one for big chunks (like whole almonds) in cookies, but this recipe creates an awesome synergy between the ganache-like creaminess of the dough and the large chunks of nut and fruit.  The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  

Phantoms

 2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 t vanilla

8 oz good chocolate semi or bittersweet

1 oz butter

3 T flour

1/4 t baking powder

pinch salt

1 c chopped chocolate

1 c toasted blanched almonds

3/4 c dried cherries (if they are not moist, plump in hot water for a minute, then drain)

Melt 8 oz chocolate and butter.  Cool to lukewarm.

Whip eggs and sugar with a mixer until thick and pale.  Add vanilla, then melted chocolate.

Sift flour, bp, and salt, add to batter.

Fold in the chunky additions.

Chill batter about an hour.

Scoop onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheet by rounded tablespoonfuls.

Bake at 350" 7-9 minutes, until cookies look dry on top.

Freeze if keeping longer than one full day.  If you want to serve these at their peak on a busy day, try to just make the batter the day before, then scoop and bake the day of serving. Or, freeze as soon as they are cool.  They freeze really well, actually.  

Here's what beaten thick eggs and sugar look like.  When you lift the beater, it forms a ribbon that dissolves slowly back in:

Variation on a Chicken Sandwich

Whole wheat pitas with marinated chicken, roasted red pepper, tomato, lettuce, and a Turkish influenced yogurt sauce.

The sauce was Greek Yogurt (one of my favorite staples), cilantro, parsley, lemon zest, honey, salt, pepper, a touch of garlic, and freshly toasted and ground coriander and cumin seeds.  Those last two are in the mortar there.  I can practically see you rolling your eyes....but it's not that big a PITA.  I have a little pan I only use for toasting spices so it only really needs to be wiped out, and my mortar and pestle are stored within reach.  And it honestly makes a big difference in a simple sauce like this!

  Chicken thighs (boneless and skinless)  marinated in a bunch of stuff I threw in the blender (like olive oil, a pepperoncini, a few cherry tomatoes, garlic, shallot, wine...).  They stay nice and juicy under the broiler:

Cheap, easy, pretty healthy...fo' real, baby.  Peace out.

Butternut and Mushroom Lasagna

Deliciousness accomplished.

I had some leftover cooked butternut squash that I decided to turn into a lasagna along with mushrooms, cheese, and bechamel sauce.

I sauteed white mushrooms in oil (I use Crisco oil rather than olive or butter so I can get the pan really hot and brown the shrooms), added some crushed garlic, sherry, and Penzy's Poultry seasoning- the sage and marjoram are great partners for winter squashes.

Bechamel is white sauce- you know, equal parts butter and flour cooked together, milk added, brought to the boil.  I made about 4 cups with say 1/3 cup flour, for a 7"x 11" pan.   The sauce for baked pasta dishes needs to be both more liquidy and more abundant than you might think.  Here's the proper consistency:

The no boil lasagna noodles are great.  Better than the regular kind, even without the convenience factor.  I do always wet them with warm tap water before layering, so they soak up a little less sauce (because they do soak up sauce, you need to account for that in your layering).  They expand, too...I never overlap them in the dish.

Layer 1:  Sauce, pasta, squash, Parmesan, more sauce...

Layer 2:  The mushrooms and some Fontina cheese, then more sauce....repeat...

Ready to bake.

The broccolini all nestled in the steamer.  And then I ducked out and went to Zumba, leaving my husband to serve dinner to the children.  I love Zumba nights.  Sometimes a mom just needs to get the heck away, ya know?!?

When I came home there was plenty left.  This lasagna was very, very tasty.  I mean, throw enough cheese at anything and it's going to be good, but still... the squash gave it an extra creaminess and  sweet flavor, while the mushrooms added an earthy tone and toothsome texture.  The austere and slightly bitter broccolini was the perfect foil, on the side.  You should make this. 

Black Bavarian Beef Stew

Carbonnade a la Flamande is a traditional Flemish beef stew cooked in Belgian Ale.  The first time I ever made this dish I was living half a block from the old Lakefront Brewery in Riverwest, and at that time they didn't bottle East Side Dark, only sold it in kegs.  I walked over to the brewery with a plastic pitcher and they filled it up for me, poured me a few samples of their other wares, and chatted about food and beer for a while.  What a bunch of nice guys, and though East Side Dark is still my favorite for this stew, any good dark beer will work.  You can make it with Guinness for St Patrick's day.

I love to serve it with gnocchi (another convenience product I scorned back in the day).

This is a 1.4 lb Chuck Roast.  You would never "roast" this in the oven.  It's for pot roast and braises.  The chuck is cut from the shoulder and it needs long, slow cooking to tenderize it.

I just cut into a few pieces to remove those large fat deposits, seasoned and floured it, and browned it well in a little oil.

Then the meat is removed and a whole large onion, thinly sliced, is added to the pot and deeply caramelized.  This takes a while.  You can add a bit of water if the onion begins to stick too much.  Try not to add much excess oil since it's a pain to skim it off the top later.  Salt the onions as they cook.  They really do need to get that dark to add the proper sweet flavor, and then  they pretty much dissolve into the sauce as it finishes cooking.

Then the beef is reintroduced, a whole bottle of Sprecher Black Bavarian is added along with a few allspice berries and half a bay leaf, and it gets simmered, covered, for 2 hours, or until the meat is quite tender.

Here it is.  While the beef rested, I got all the fat off the top of the sauce, and I added some shredded carrots for a little extra sweetness and some beta carotene.  They only needed a few minutes to cook.

It's so easy to pull it apart into large chunks.  Then it gets added back into the sauce...

The cooked gnocchi is mixed in...

Oooh, don't you wish you could smell that steam?

Passed the kid test:

Yes, I do have 2 children, and I love them both equally.  You will see the other one on this blog when she actually eats her dinner with anything approaching the enthusiasm of the little one.

And best of all- no leftovers!

Poached Cod with Beet Vinaigrette

The vinaigrette is rather a shocking pink...

I had a wonderful beet vinaigrette with swordfish at Le Cite in NY (ages ago).  I've also had a lovely halibut dish at Le Bernadine that was presented as a poached filet topped with dilled creme fraiche, then the server poured ruby borcht all over the dish at the table.  So fish with beet sauce is not something I just made up.  In fact the concept of light vegetable based vinaigrettes was pioneered by Jean Georges Vongerichten (of JoJo, Vong, the SPice Market) in NYC in the 90's.  And that's probably more than you ever wanted to know.

I also made some healthy Kale and some end of season corn.  

The vinaigrette was merely homemade pickled beets and a spoonful of mustard pureed in the blender, with a bit of vegetable oil drizzled in.  It had a nice earthy, sweet and sour flavor.

The cod was poached in a light broth, flavored water mostly, with some wine, lemon, onion, parsley, pickling spice, salt, and some shrimp shells.

Here's the kale...the ribs.....the cleaned leaves and then the chopped.  I sauteed it in a tiny bit of bacon fat, then added a little water and salt and slapped a lid on for about 20 minutes (on low).  Then, when the kale is tender, the lid is removed and the excess liquid boils off.   Sometimes kale needs a pinch of sugar to balance the bitterness.   Don't be intimidated by the sturdier leafy greens.  They're so good for you and really easy to cook.  Kale is especially good in soups, as it can stand up to long simmering.

Cioppino

Friday I got to go out to diner with a group of girlfriends!  We dined at Casa Di Giorgio in Franklin.  I had Cioppino, which is the San Francisco Italian community's answer to Bouillabaisse- a quick seafood stew with a tomato based sauce with wine and garlic:

This one was pretty good- the mussels, squid, shrimp and scallops were fresh and not overcooked.  Traditionally you would find fin fish (snapper, usually) in this type of dish...however, I stay away from menu items with chunks of random fish, it often turns out to be leftovers that don't really belong.  My only complaint is that the kitchen was a little heavy handed with the tomato sauce.  The mussels release so much flavorful juice that you don't really need a lot of added sauce, and in fact there was so much, and it was so thick and chunky, that the flavor of the seafood was too diluted and the sauce lost some elegance and refinement.  But these are quibbles- it was yummy and I scarfed it all down!

So-so Spinach Artichoke Chicken

I love spinach artichoke dip.  The hot melty kind, made with loads of mayonnaise and cheese.  I thought I would apply the concept to a topping for broiled chicken paillards (breasts pounded thin).  Unfortunately, I also thought I'd "lighten it up" a bit.  Well duh-  The charm of spinach artichoke dip is not in the healthy components.  What I wound up with was  not particularly light, not good enough to be worth it, basically pretty insipid dinner:

I still think this idea has merit, in a kind of populist, "Olive Garden" excess way, but you'd have to really embrace the gooey fatty aspect of the original dip.  I mixed frozen chopped spinach, canned artichokes, and cream cheese, and used that to top broiled chicken breasts- then sprinkled Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs on top of that, and returned it to the broiler (on low) to heat up the topping and crisp the crumbs. 

If you wanted to improve the dish: use fresh spinach sauteed with garlic in butter, add a generous dollop of mayonnaise to the filling, and make sure the ratio of vegetables to fatty goodness (mayo, cheese) in the filling was about 60-40 (mine was more like 80-20).  Then saute the chicken in a pan, deglaze with white wine,  put the topping on and stick it in a very hot oven, not broiler.  That would give you the gooey rich effect I was trying to achieve, foolishly, without the gooey rich ingredients.  

If there's anyone out there who has never faced down a butternut squash, here's the deal:

Cut off both ends, then use a good strong peeler to get all the skin and green fibers right under the skin off.  

Scoop out the seeds in the lower portion with a tablespoon.  It is one of the easier winter squashes to cut up because the neck is solid flesh.  I like to saute it in butter, salt it, then add a little water and cover to finish cooking by steaming in the buttery liquid.  Dry cooking can leave it a little too pasty in the mouth. 

Now I have a lot of leftover cooked squash....

Ravioli?  Risotto?  Autumn Vegetable lasagna?  Soup?  

What would you like to see me make?

Turkey Hominy Chili

I know.  Yawn.  Think of it as an early day of atonement- each serving had about 325 calories.

The two mildly interesting aspects of this chili are the use of a whole turkey thigh, and hominy.

That's one thigh, 1.5 lbs and $2.25.    I take the skin off and then actually render some of the fat in the pot while I dice up the meat:

Here's the fat all ready, as soon as I get that gross looking skin out of there...

The meat gets nicely browned (one of the CIA mantras is "color is flavor").  Then a good dose of Penzey's chili powder....

The chopped vegetables waiting to go in...

When the veggies are soft, I add tomato paste and cook it until it is almost ready to burn on the bottom (caramelize it a bit- pincer is the French term)...

See, I threw the bone in there as well, to give it as much flavor as possible.  At this point the liquid (broth) and tomatoes go in, and it simmers for a good 30 minutes or so.

Hominy is corn that is treated the same way as corn for tortilla masa (dough) is.  It has that tortilla flavor and is very tender.  It is a key ingredient in Posole, and I like it a lot in chili.  I think it makes it more filling and although it is a caloric starch, it has a lot of fiber.  I add the beans and hominy for the last 30 minutes of simmering.

Almost done...

Just get that extra fat off the surface with a spoon...

Call it dinner. 

As usual, the 1 year old ate it all up while the 5 year old tried to get away with just shredded cheese and oyster crackers for dinner.  

Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz

Jip Jip Rocks 2006 Shiraz, Limestone Coast, Australia.  I think it was $12 at Binny's.

The wine was richly colored with a deep garnet hue -opaque in the center and translucent at the  edges.  Swirling the wine, it clung to the glass (nice legs, in winespeak- probably had something to do with the whopping 15% alcohol).

Right away I could smell spice, cranberry sauce, fig jam...it smelled like a Thanksgiving kitchen (without the turkey) or mulled wine.  It had a rich, full flavor that lived up to the nose.  On the palate it was clean, smooth, bodacious...almost jellylike without being cloying.  Tannins were there but not overly aggressive.

After the wine opened up a little you really got some pine forest aromas:  juniper, camphor (in a good way)...eucalyptus?  Very classic Shiraz flavor profile.  A nice expression of the Australian style with the grape (known in France as Syrah and in California as either Shiraz or Syrah).

I do like this wine a lot.  It would be a good partner for pasta bolognese (the meaty kind, not the glorified tomato sauce kind).  Maybe a bold poultry dish- turkey mole or jerk duck would bring out the allspice flavors as long as the dish isn't chili pepper hot.  Blue cheese.  Any combination of red fruit jam and strong cheese.  The classic pairing of the grape is with lamb, and although I am not a fan of lamb I concede it would be perfect with lamb cooked with rosemary to compliment the piney flavor.  Maybe a simple lamb kebab skewered on rosemary sprigs.  

Oh yeah, dinner....we ordered pizza!

Tasty Cuban

Oh yeah, we're international baby!

If you're ever in South Beach after bartime and you need a greasy, salty, starchy, delicious something to eat- get yourself over to Puerto Sagua on Collins, and ask for a "media noche" (midnight sandwich).  Or even a regular Cubano.  Mmmmm.  It's thin slices of well seasoned roast pork, ham, dill pickles, swiss cheese, and mustard (sometimes mixed with mayo) on a long, soft and airy roll, which is well buttered and pressed while grilling, like a pannini.

Which brings me to my leftover roast pork....

I use a Goerge Foreman grill for my paninis/Cubans.  Works great.  The Cuban roll is hard to find so I cheat on that - I keep a round loaf of Pan Turano in my freezer for paninis.

Yeah, THAT will help me drop the pounds...not!  I have an excuse.  Monday dinners have to be easy because I hit the gym that night.  And I did have a salad....

My Fan in Japan

Just look at this beautiful bacon and cheese etc. frittata made by a reader in Japan (ok, it's my sister).

Thanks Dr. Evans!  Any requests?  Gotta love this internet thingy ;-)

Black Bean Burgers

Rough night.  The girls were determined to be underfoot.  The 1 yr old tries to drag a dining room chair into the kitchen so she can climb up on it and either scald herself on the stove or fall off and knock her teeth out on the tile floor.  Good thing I had an easy dinner planned: Southwestern Black Bean Burgers in whole wheat pitas.  I don't have much for you in the way of photos, though, which is a shame, because I wanted to show how simple this healthy meal is to put together.

If you like falafel, you might consider giving these a try.  Unlike falafel, though, they have a smooth, almost  creamy interior which contrasts well with the pita and veggies.   Here are the ingredients I planned to use, but I made a few adjustments as I went along.   

Black Bean Burgers

1 slice of bread 

1 clove of garlic

1 small shallot, or scallion, rough chopped

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 c chopped cilantro (loosely piled in there)

salt

chipotle peppers or hot sauce

1/2 t cumin

3 T mayonnaise

1/2 c melty cheese like jack, mozzarella, cheddar

Fine, dry breadcrumbs

Oil or -Mmm, bacon fat -for sauteeing

For Serving:

Pitas 

Tomato slices

Lettuce

Salsa

Roasted peppers

               Sour Cream          

Get out your food processor.  Tear up the bread and run it in the processor until it's like bread crumbs.  Drop the garlic and onion in, and pulse until minced small.

Add the beans and seasonings and pulse until the beans are in small bits.  Add the mayo and cheese and pulse just until well incorporated.  You want the beans to retain some texture, but overall not too chunky.

Heat a nonstick saute pan over med, then film it with your fat of choice.  Meanwhile, put some dry breadcrumbs into a dish and glop 1/4 of the bean mixture onto it.  Gently roll and shape it into a patty, and transfer it gently into the oil.  Repeat.  These are fragile, they seem to get softer as they heat up, and you may need to add more fat when you flip them.  The best is to get a nice crusty exterior and a creamy, melty interior.

Planning Ahead

Kind of boring tonight.  Roast pork loin with buttermilk mashed garnet yams and haricots vert (little green beans- sssh, they were frozen from Trader Joes).  I have ulterior motives for the pork.

I like Penzey's Bavarian seasoning for this.  Plenty of salt, too (kosher), then I brown the thing on all sides in my  beat up old restaurant supply saute pan, and throw it in a 400' oven for about 50 minutes.

Sweet potatoes ready to be mashed with butter and buttermilk.  The tang works well with the sweetness of the potatoes.

The frozen TJ's beans.  I blanch them in that pan in shallow water, then drain the water off, add some cherry tomatoes, more butter (but not too much!) and Mrs. Dash.  You know what I like about Mrs. Dash?  I have no aversion to salt, believe me.  But Mrs. Dash leaves all these appetizing looking specks of seasoning on your food.  I dig that.

Make sure you let your roasts rest before slicing.  This 2.25 lb roast (before cooking) needed about 10 minutes.

I just used the pan juices with a little white wine to dissolve them for a sauce.  Usually that doesn't make enough, but we were only eating half the pork tonight.  The leftovers I have in mind don't require sauce....

Teriyaki Glazed Salmon

This is a great way to prepare salmon fillets.  It's easy and flavorful- the salmon has a sticky, intense, sweet and salty glaze clinging to it.  It's not the kind of sauce you want to pour all over rice, so I served a nice warm potato salad and some steamed broccoli with it.  And yes, that IS a huge-ass serving of salmon.  I cut the fillet into 2 pieces to facilitate cooking it, then we cut the girls portions off the more done ends of ours (after this pic!).

This goes together fast so I have everything at the ready:

The vegetables?  That's boiled new potatoes, and thinly sliced fennel and scallions.  A little parsley waits on the side.

Right, that's a fennel bulb.  Just cut off the stalks, halve it,  pare out a central core which you will see, and the rest is fully edible raw or cooked.  The teriyaki glaze is simply about 3T each brown sugar, sake or water,  and soy sauce, and 1t each fresh garlic and fresh or ground ginger.  

The salmon is seared on the first side on med high heat, about 1 1/2 minutes.  With a good nonstick pan, you don't even need to add any oil: 

As soon as it is flipped, the glaze is added.  It will boil up violently.  Turn down the heat to med. You can control the outcome of this dish with 2 things-  a cover,and some water.  If your glaze is boiling away too fast, that is, before the salmon is cooked, either add water or slap a lid on it to both prevent evaporation and raise the cooking temp. 

Ideally the salmon should be a perfect medium rare just as the glaze is reduced to a deliciously syrupy consistency.  Plan on about 8 minutes total cooking time.  Flip the salmon over a few more times to really coat it with the glaze. 

Meanwhile, I browned the potatoes in butter, then tossed in the other veggies just until crisp- tender.  Steamed the broccoli- done.

Adults Only Pasta

This is my husband's favorite pasta, and since he had to work beyond the girls' bedtimes last night, I made it for him:  Cavatappi with Rapini, Italian Sausage, and Parmesan.

Rapini, AKA Broccoli Rabe, is a slightly bitter, sturdy green vegetable.  It's packed with good nutrition but I find it's at it's best when  not treated like a health food.  It needs plenty of fat and salt (much of which comes from the sausage and the cheese), and it's best when cooked beyond al dente.  On the left is the rapini with just the bottoms chopped off, the right has been stripped of the biggest, toughest, or bruised leaves.  It's ready to cook.

Boil a big pot of salted water.  Blanch the rapini for 3-5 minutes, until mostly tender.  Remove the rapini and cook the pasta in the same water to save a pot.

Brown an Italian sausage in some olive oil, and break it up into small pieces.  I use a spoon to smush it flat, and then  I chop it with the edge of a wooden spatula.  Add a couple cloves of chopped garlic and a dash of hot pepper flakes.

Right when the garlic starts to brown, add a glug of white wine or Vermouth.  Then add half a can of chicken broth.  When the pasta is nearly done, add the rapini and thicken the sauce with a bit of cornstarch (approx 1 T) dissolved in cold broth or water:

Ready for the pasta.  Taste it.  You might need salt, and a grind of pepper would be good about now.  After the pasta is mixed in, you add a big handful of Parmesan and just let it soak up and get flavor- melded there in the pan for a minute or two.  Serve more cheese on top.

I love this little tool.  It's called a spider or a skimmer and it's so much more convenient than hassling with a big colander.  The one in this picture is old enough to get married, in most states.

Chicken Breasts Tonight

Tonight I made what I guess you could call a "Supreme du Volaille Nicoise" except for two things:  I used Kalamata, not Nicoise, olives- and nobody would know what you were talking about.

 I've never been big on naming my dinners.  This was based on flavors you might find in the south of France, as well as Mediterannean Spain, Greece, and Italy.  Or, as the case may be- kicking around the back of my fridge.

Chicken breasts

Olive Oil

Onion and garlic

Splash of white wine

Tomatoes

Stuff like- roasted peppers, artichokes, olives, sun dried tomatoes, capers, fresh basil.....

Chicken broth

I cut the chicken like this to get pieces that cook quickly and evenly.  They get seasoned and browned in olive oil.  Then they are removed from the pan, and the onions and garlic are lightly browned in the same pan.  Turn the heat down and salt them to help them get soft before they burn.  Then, you just pour in the wine and boil ot briefly, add the other stuff, and simmer about 10 minutes.  Add the chicken back and cook it another 5 minutes:

Do you like polenta?  It's such a tasty easy side.  If you can make oatmeal on the stovetop, you've practically already made polenta.  It's just a coarse ground cornmeal that cooks up in salted water to a kind of mush- but then you add butter and cheese (parmesan, here).  Mmmm. 

Make sure you cook it as long as the package says, and don't be afraid to add more water as it cooks.  

Maybe you noticed I seemed to have cooked way too much zucchini last night?  I did.  So tonight, I topped the sauteed slices with Panko bread crumbs, parmesan, and olive oil; and broiled them:

It was good :)

Speaking of leftovers, I took a lot of the veggies I used tonight and the grain mix from the other night, and got a head start on my husband's lunch for tomorrow.  I'll add some goat cheese and dressing before I pack it.

Hummus- don't buy it, make it!

You can make the best Hummus at home, as long as you have a food processor.  The secrets:  blend it long enough to make it really smooth and creamy, and add plenty of extra virgin olive oil at the end.

Hummus 

1 small can chick peas aka garbanzo beans

1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste, keeps months in the fridge)

juice of 1 lemon or to taste

1 clove of garlic or to taste, roughly chopped

1 t salt or to taste

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Drain and rinse chick peas.  Put them in the food processor with everything except the oil, and process for a minute or two until really creamy.  You may add about 2T warm water to get things moving.

Pour in the oil with the blade running and then turn it off.  Overworking olive oil can give it a bitter flavor.

If you're too skinny, or looking to impress someone, (not, and not) - you can drizzle more oil on the top of the plated hummus and sprinkle it with paprika, parsley, or chopped olives.

Often you see hummus in pitas with raw salad vegetables- lettuce, tomato, cukes.  I tend to prefer it with sauteed or grilled zucchini and roasted peppers.

To roast a pepper, those of you with gas stoves, put the thing right on the burner and blacken it on all sides:

When it's cool enough to handle, rinse the skin off under running water.  If a chef asks, tell them you just scraped the skin off with a paring knife so as not to lose any of the flavor (eye roll).
Again, I quickly heat any kind of flatbreads right over the open flame.  These pitas were in my freezer, and this technique really seems to freshen them up.  

Dinner is served:
This meal is healthy, but don't kid yourself that hummus is low cal or low fat.  It's not.  So load up on the veggies, too.