Good Real Food

 I was in Chicago this past week on vacation with my husband. We had to eat out for all of our meals. I hate paying money for meals I could make myself! After paying too much again for dinner, we went to an amazing concert at Hot House where an old friend of D’s was eating a great looking soba noodle salad in a to go box. What a brillient idea! Healthier and cheaper than our meal, I was still thinking about this salad the night we were back home. After a week of on the road food I was craving fresh veggies and a simple meal eaten alone at my own table. I wanted something really easy as I was tired from the long drive, so on a whim I thought to use pre made dressing to go with the noodles and steamed veggies. The result was so good that I must reccomed it.

What to do:

1. Cook the soba noodles for 5-6 minutes in boiling water.
2. Steam the veggies you want to use ( I also added fresh cherry tomatoes and cilantro to the cooked noodles right before eating)
3. Add Annie’s Goddess dressing, toss and eat!

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In response to a request for this recipe:

You need: 1 pound carrots, julienned; 2 cloves garlic; 1 scallion, minced; 2 tbsp. fresh parsley; 2 tsp. dillweed; 2 tbsp. lemon juice; 1 tbsp. olive oil; 1/2 tsp. ground cumin; 1/4 tsp. paprika; 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. red pepper.

Steam the carrots and garlic 5 minutes, until crisp. Transfer to a large bowl and add scallions, parsley and dill. Whisk together lemon juice, oil, cumin, paprika, cinnamon and red pepper. Pour over the carrots and mix well. let the salad sit in the fridge for an hour before serving. That’s it!

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no pictures of this one as it went too fast to catch, but this one is super easy and pretty inexpensive too:

What you need:

• as many veggies you think you need. I estimate around 1 cup of chopped veggies per person per serving. I used:

• one large golden beet
• one medium celeriac
• 2 medium parsnips
• 4 carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 1 small onion
• enough garlic to make you happy. I used 6 cloves for this recipe, and was pretty happy. 8 may have made me happier
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• cumin seeds
• coriander seeds

What you do:

1. turn on the oven to 450 to pre-heat
2. deal with your veggies: wash what needs washing, peel what needs peeling (NOT the carrots, okay?) and chop into 1 inch pieces using your judgment about the relative sizes of the veggies based on their firmness and your sense of your oven.
3. roughly mash and chop your garlic - not too small ‘else they’ll burn
4. gather your chopped veggies and garlic in a large bowl and drizzle on olive oil and ground up salt, pepper, and your cumin and coriander seeds. You want enough olive oil to coat your veggies, but not have them drowning in oil. Start slow, add if necessary. Also, I crushed my cumin and coriander in a mortar and pestle which gave me pretty fine cumin power and the occasional kind of chunky coriander seed. We liked it, you may have other ideas. a note on seasoning: this is going over couscous, so you’re flavoring that too. Once you think you’ve added enough spices, add some more and you should be okay.
5. toss well using whatever method you deem appropriate. Me, I use my hands.
6. If you used your hands and you’re hungry, allow the thought “hmm, my hands look pretty tasty” to cross your mind, but don’t actually allow it to derail the cooking process. Go wash your hands to make sure you’re not distracted again.
7. Put your veggies in a baking dish, stick it on the lower rack of your oven, and wait. Depending on the size you cut your veggies, they should take around 40 minutes to cook. You will need to stir them occasionally while they cook.
8. Measure out your couscous into a heatproof bowl. I have no idea how much you should plan on, some folks love couscous, others don’t. I made 1.5 cups and we had enough for 2 adults and one ravenous child for both dinner and lunch, and probably one more lunch depending on how ravenous the child is later.
9. Boil water - what you’ll do is add enough water to our bowl of couscous to cover it by about 1/4 inch. Guesstimate on the water, you’ll have some left over, and can make some tea.
10. once your water comes to a boil, pour over the couscous, covering by about 1/4 inch and then cover the bowl with something that will help hold in the heat.
11. Once you’ve finished with the couscous (did you remember to make your tea with the left over water?) give your veggies a stir, if you haven’t already.
12. If your veggies are taking on some nice color, but aren’t cooking through, you could over the pan with some foil. Its up to you. I did.
13. In what you think is the last five or so minutes, you could add some cooked beans if you have any around. I had chickpeas. They were a nice addition.
14. When its all done, top your couscous with your veggies and enjoy.

Overall, the recipe took longer to type than the cooking did. Our one note for next time is that this needs a bit more of a sauce. If you’ve got some tomatoes, I’d consider chopping them and add them in toward the end, maybe with the beans.

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It took me quite a few years of buying organic boneless skinless chicken breasts at my local co-op that cost me an arm and a leg before I started to face my fear of the (gasp) whole chicken. I now am getting in the habit of roasting a chicken every week, and using every part in some way for meals throughout the week. When the opportunity came along to order chickens from my local CSA and pick them up in person I jumped at the chance. I also hear that there are deals to be had if you help with the chicken harvest (is harvest the right word for killing chickens??). So more to come on that adventure this summer when I visit the farm. In the mean time, I thought I would try to list some of the ways I use (or hope to use) the whole chickens I have been roasting. Leave me a comment and let me know if you would like me to post the full recipe for any of the meals I list below.

1. roasted chicken stuffed with quartered lemons, garlic and fresh tarragon

2. home made chicken stock

3. chicken soup with mini pasta, carrots and cellery

4. chicken quesadillas with mole sauce

5. chicken and black bean chilli with red peppers and winter squash

6. old fashioned chicken salad (the kind with mayo)

7. risotto with any left over veggie in the fridge (using the chicken stock)

8. paella (like risoto except you use saffron to spice it, and add clams, mussels, or choriso sausage with the chicken legs)

9. chicken pasta (so many options here)

10. jerk chicken and rice

11. curried chicken and rice

12. chicken spring rolls

13. chicken calzones

14. Vietnamese chicken salad with rice noodles
 

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I was starting to feel fed up with loaves of the no-knead bread, so when this recipe for pita arrived in my RSS reader, I jumped at the chance to make it. It went perfectly with tonight’s Spicy Sweet Potato and Pea Curry. I’ve linked the recipe, so the only other thing I should address is this:

You don’t need a baking stone! Or rather you don’t need a fancy expensive one. As you can see from this picture, I use unglazed ceramic tiles in my oven and they do a fantastic job. Give ‘em a whirl - I think I got box large enough to cover my oven a few times over for $5 at my local home improvement store. Just make sure that you get UNGLAZED ceramic tile. From what I understand, the glazed stuff is none too good for your health in a food production setting. Thanks to Sourdough Home for that tip.

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sometimes things just come together, and today was one of those days for me - at least in the kitchen.

When planning the menu this week, C. told me to up the veg intake, so I planned a week of Indian vegetarian food - I’d been feeling like I was slipping in my ability to make the food of my memory and childhood, so this was a good excuse to delve into some of the recipes a bit. I did however freelance a little here and there, as in tonight’s dinner.

One of my cookbooks, Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen by Vasantha Prasad had a recipe for Spicy Potato and Sweet Pea Curry which sounded okay to me, but need some modifications. Namely, it required sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, and it needed some modifications in the recipe/methodology. This was one of the first times that I’ve take a recipe and made a bunch of modifications, so I happy to see that my family loved it. It was pretty darn good if do so say myself. So, here you go, my take on spicy sweet potato and sweet pea curry: Continue Reading »

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in the last two weeks I’ve managed to cut myself twice while slicing food in the kitchen. In both cases, the accidents happened because the knives I was using weren’t properly sharp and skipped off the item I was cutting into my hand.

Ouch.

So, do yourself a favor and keep those knives sharp, it really does make cooking a less painful experience

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One of our favorite relishes to put up in September is Corn Relish, using u-pick or home-grown vegetables. Combine in a large pan or preserving pan:  6 cups uncooked corn, 1 large red pepper, diced, 1 green pepper, diced,, about 1 to 1 1/2 darkk brown sugar (turbinado or other chunky variety), 2 T kosher sallt, 2 T dry mustard, 1 1/2t ground celery salt, and three or so hot chilis (remove before canning).  Stir in 1 3/4 Cups of cider vinegar.  It’s OK to add other ingredients to taste—turmeric, curry powder, etc.. Bring to a buil and simmer, while chopping 2 Cups diced onions (don’t add these yet). When the misture begins to cook down, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes, add the onions. If you add the onions at the end they stay crunchy.  ladle into sterilized jars, seal with two-piece lids and put into a boiling water bath up to their necks for about fifteen minutes. Any kind of corn will do, but if you use home-grown vareties you can control the crop a little better/  Now is the time to flip through your local seed catalogues for small, tender corn appropriate to your region’s climate. Territorial Seeds and Nichols Garden Nursery are both good sources for the Northwest.

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