Week Five: Hoisin Sloppy Joes

There are just some things that I never ate as a kid. Sloppy Joes are at the top of the list. My mom never made them and the toxic offerings in school cafeterias never won me over.  But, when I ran across a version of this Asian influenced recipe online, I was intrigued. I'm always searching for dishes that can be cooked on the stove top, particularly if the pan doesn't need to get scorching hot (which my electric double burner doesn't... oh how I day dream for a gas range...). The original version had fewer ingredients: no vegetables and less spice, so I punched it up just a bit. This dish is pretty healthy and also done (from chopping to putting it on the plate) in under 30 minutes. It also developed some extra flavor overnight and was particularly tasty for lunch leftovers.

Hoisin Sloppy Joes

Fresh Ingredients
One pound ground turkey
One medium onion, diced
One small green pepper, diced
One small red pepper, diced
Two carrots, peeled and diced
Two cloves of garlic, smashed into a paste
One inch or so of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Hefty handful of Cilantro, chopped
The juice of one lime
Four fresh rolls


Pantry Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1/4 cup hoisin
Cayenne Pepper
Sriracha 
Salt

1. Start by heating some olive oil in a pan and sweating down the onion. After a few minutes of the onion cooking, add the carrots. A few minutes later add the green and red peppers, garlic, ginger and the cayenne (I used a few dashes- but I don't like food that is really spicy). Add a dusting of kosher salt and sweat down with the lid on until all the vegetables have softened. (About 8-10 minutes from the time you start with the onion.)

2. Add the ground turkey and brown, stirring frequently to break up the turkey. Cook through and then add the tomato sauce, hoisin, and sriracha (again, this is a taste thing- start with a little and then add more if you want more heat). Cook down for about 5-7 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

3. Remove from heat. Stir in chopped cilantro and lime juice. Serve over a roll (toasted or untoasted! your choice).

* This dish is pretty easy to make gluten free if you happen to have GF Hoisin sauce and can use a GF roll. It was also easily become a vegetarian or vegan dish by subbing in textured vegetable product, tofu or maybe even some canned beans in the place of the turkey.

Since some of the flavors in this dish are close to that of a bahn mi sandwich, I think a little pickled vegetable salad or a nice vinegary slaw could help round out the sweetness and give this sandwich an even fresher taste.

Week Four: The Immersion Blender

Side note: In the spirit of transparency, I should mention that I only actually ate two bowls of the detox soup I posted last week.  Sure, it was super healthy, but after more than one serving, I got a little queasy just looking at it. So yeah. 

On to this week... Since I don't have what most people would consider a real or functional kitchen, I have to be really careful about what electronics will take up the least amount of counter area and use the least amount of power (since space and voltage are both at a premium). The immersion blender is, in my humble opinion, the perfect handheld appliance. (Trust me, I have given several as gifts and when I accidentally melted mine about six months ago in the great toaster oven fire of 2012, I was Amazon and ordering a new one before the smoke alarm could simmer down.) To that end, both recipes this week (yes, there are two!) feature an immersion blender. If you have a full size blender, go for it. All it will mean is that the blending process will probably take you half the time.

Broccoli and Leek Soup (Adapted from a recipe in Fine Cooking Magazine)

The bacon garnish really makes it.

Fresh Ingredients:
Two large leeks (washed and cut into small rings)
Half a medium onion (cut into thin slices)
One large bunch of broccoli (1.5 to 1.75 lbs.) **
Two cloves of garlic (minced)
1/4 cup Light cream
Squeeze of lemon juice
Crumbled bacon (optional, but delicious)

Pantry Ingredients:
2.5 cups of chicken stock
A quick pour of white wine
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

** The florets of the broccoli should be roughly chopped, but the thicker and more fibrous stems should be cut into thin slices.

1. Heat a few turns of olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot and add the leeks, onions, garlic with a pinch of salt. Cover and sweat the vegetables, stirring often, until softened (about eight minutes or so).

2. Add the cut up broccoli, stock, white wine, and 2.5 cups of water to the mixture. Cover and bring to a low boil. Remove the lid and simmer until all the vegetables are very tender.

3. Working in small batches, blend veggies and stock and pour into another bowl. (Note: be careful, to only fill blending containers about half way. Hot liquid will splatter and burn!) 

4. Rinse the soup pot and pour the puree back in. Slowly reheat and add the cream, the juice of half a lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and garnish with crumbled bacon (if you like that kind of thing, which I do).

** This soup could easily made vegetarian. Skip the bacon and sub in veggie stock.



Mango Lhassi
(downsized from a Fine Cooking Magazine recipe)

Whenever I go to Indian restaurants, I ALWAYS want a mango lhassi. Sometimes I indulge. Sometimes the cheapskate in me can't bring myself to spend the four dollars on a beverage that I will slurp down in under thirty seconds. Over the last few summers, I have made a lot of mango smoothies, but they never quite tasted the same. Five minutes under guidance of a recipe by Susan Feniger (a frequent TV chef face and Top Chef Masters competitor) showed me the error of my ways. I was missing a key ingredient: Kesar Mango Pulp. I had to take a trip to West Philly (don't worry, I had GPS) to find an Indian grocer who stocked it, but one whiff of the magical mango nectar inside this beat up can, and I knew I was on my way to lhassi heaven.

Best $2 I ever spent.

Fresh Ingredients:
One ripe mango diced
One quart of plain yogurt

Pantry Ingredients:
1.75 cups of Kesar Mango Pulp
Pinch of salt

1.) Puree the diced mango, pulp, salt and 1.5 cups of cold water. 

2.) Whisk the mixture with the yogurt, pour into a pitcher and chill for at least one hour.

I'm not kidding. That's is.  The restaurant version of this drink is usually served somewhat sweeter, which could easily be achieved by continuing to add the pulp until it has reached the desired sugar level. 

Week Three: Not Quite a Detox Veggie Soup

Confession: I don't detox. I'm not sure I even believe in detoxing, but I do LOVE vegetables and I have been eating like a BEAR preparing for hibernation lately. The cooler weather always sends my hunger into overdrive and I have been pulling long hours since the holiday, which has often meant poor meal decisions. (How many cheesesteaks can a girl eat?)

Over the weekend, I was listening to The Splendid Table, one of my favorite NPR programs. Lynn was interviewing a chef who was talking about making a greens based detox soup. I didn't exactly follow her recipe (to the letter, or really even in spirit), but I kind of liked the results. Check out the end of this post to see the adjustments I would make next time around.

WARNING: This soup definitely has an earthy flavor. If that's not your thing, I get it. I really do. But you should never ever make this soup.

Not Quite a Detox Soup

Fresh Ingredients:
Half a Yellow Onion thinly sliced
Five cloves of garlic smashed
Two inches of ginger cut into coins
One large broccoli crown chopped
One large bunch chard chopped
One bunch kale chopped
Handful of parsley

Pantry Ingredients:
Two cups chicken stock or broth
Three cups water
Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup milk
Cumin 
Salt
Pepper
Red wine vinegar
Sherry vinegar (optional)

1.) In large soup pot, sweat onions, garlic, and ginger in olive oil until softened.

2.) Add the broccoli, chard, kale, parsley, chicken stock, and water. Bring to a boil and then lower to strong simmer. Let cook until all the vegetables have cooked through and wilted down. (This took about 30 minutes for me.)

3.) Puree mixture until smooth. (I used an immersion blender.) Add milk and blend again. Then season with salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, and cumin. (I just kept slowly adding each of these until it tasted right.)

4.) I served with a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of sherry vinegar, and some fresh cracked black pepper. (Another great garnish would probably be a hot sauce. I'm thinking sriracha.)

** If I were to do this over again, I think I might swap out the chard and swap in spinach. Or reduce the amount of chard and increase the broccoli. The chard taste is a touch dominant and it's actually my least favorite veggie of the group. I am also thinking that a touch of plain yogurt might also help the texture of this soup.  

Under all the kale is chard and broccoli!

Everyone in the pot!

All wilted.

Week Two: $2 Bok Choy

One the things I like best about living in an urban area is the access to all kinds of food sources, especially Asian stores. Last weekend, I stopped in quickly to pick up some cilantro (a mere fifty-nine cents!) and I became enamored with the idea of braising bok choy, which looked so fresh and appealing in contrast to the cold winter that has set in.

This week I gave it a try to somewhat mixed results. But since all the ingredients together cost under two bucks ($1.38 for bok choy, $0.09 for the ginger, $0.22 for the bullion, and pennies worth of garlic, crushed red pepper, and olive oil), it will be worth it to try again with a few tweaks.

Braised Bok Choy

Fresh Ingredients:
About a pound and half (or six smallish) bok choy
An inch or two of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into coins
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

Pantry Ingredients:
Extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
One bouillon cube

1.) Bring two cups of water to a boil. Add bouillon, ginger, garlic, and crushed red pepper flake and remove from heat. Let steep for a few minutes.

2.) Wash and half the bok choy. Coat the bottom of the pan in the olive oli and gently brown the cut side of each bok choy half. Unless you have this in a huge pan, you will have to do this batches.

3.) Once all the boy choy is lightly browned, strain the braising liquid and add it to the pan with the bok choy. Knock the heat back to a simmer, cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until the cabbage is softened all the way through. Remove lid and turn heat all the way up to reduce the cooking liquid a bit.

I served this in a bowl with some of the cooking liquid that made a bit of a broth.

Braising liquid

Bokchoyapalooza

Here are changes I might make:

1. This was way under seasoned. I thought the chicken boullion would take care of the need for salt, but both the cooking liquid and the bok choy needed more.
2. I might chop the bok choy and cook the stalks/stems a little longer than leaves.
3. I might find a different heat source for the broth. I think something like a Thai chili would have been a more complimentary flavor.

Week One (Point One): Holiday-Leftover Eggs

Admittedly, I am not a breakfast person. 

I am, however, a big fan of brunch. 

After the holidays, there was a wide range of seemingly disparate ingredients- shredded frozen potatoes from a failed latke experiment, many half eaten blocks of cheese, ham- left over in the fridge and freezer. I thought the best way to use them all up would be to make one egg dish thingy and call it a day. 

Really, you don't need the recipe. This is just a reminder that when you all kinds of weird odds and ends just mix them into some eggs and they will work it out.

For anyone interested, here's what I did:

First, I buttered the bottom of a small (toaster over friendly) baking pan. Then a put a layer of the frozen potatoes on the bottom of the pan, drizzled some melted butter over the potatoes and let them bake at 400 for about half an hour. (I should have left them in there for a while longer so they could have gotten crispier, but the edges were burning. Sigh.)

Then I sauteed a small dice of half a red pepper, half a green pepper, and half a medium onion. I combined these with some diced up holiday ham and a TON of leftover cheese. (I had sharp cheddar, gouda, and something without a wrapper- I am thinking it was very low end parmesan.) I mixed this all with six eggs, a few splashes of milk, some salt and pepper and then pour it on top of the potatoes. Back into the oven (now at 300) for about 40 minutes.  About half way through I added some of the reserved shredded cheese to the top. The eggs were already set up so the it formed an admirable cheese crust.

So yeah. Nothing fancy. But we had some brunch and now there is more room in the cheese drawer. Win win.

Take Two!

I have been remiss.

Like most people, I maintained last year's resolution until March and then abandoned it completely. I'm not going to make excuses or beat myself up.

I will try again.

So... each week, I will attempt and document one new dish per week. I am still working with... well... let's say... limited equipment (one convection toaster oven, two electric low power burners and a microwave) so I am working within a few restraints.

Eat well in 2013!

Week Nine: Chicken with Israeli Couscous

Last week, I bought chicken breasts in a bulk package so I decided to try and find another easy chicken dish. Months ago, Will picked up a box of Israeli couscous and put it in the cart. (It wasn't on the list, but that's a different story.) It sat on the shelf until the other day until the other day we found a recipe on The Bitten Word (http://www.thebittenword.com/). They had modified it from a Martha Stewart magazine and I modified it a little bit further. It's pretty easy to make and the couscous turned almost risotto like. Not bad for a midweek, one pan meal.

Chicken with Israeli Couscous

Fresh Ingredients

3 medium to large boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to even thickness

3 large plum tomatoes cut into large chunks

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

The zest of one lemon

Parsley (for garnish, optional)

Pantry Ingredients

1 cup Israeli couscous

1/2 cup white wine

1.5 cups chicken stock

1 chicken bouillon cube (I like the Sazon brand.)

Pinch of saffron (optional)

1 cup of frozen peas

Extra virgin olive oil

Morton's Nature's Seasoning

1.) In a heavy bottomed skillet, heat a thin coat of olive oil over medium heat. Add the couscous and toast until most pearls are light brown color. Remove from oil and set aside. Lightly season both sides of chicken breasts with the Morton's seasoning and add to the pan. (You may need to add a touch more oil.) Lightly brown both sides of the chicken breasts and remove from the pan.

2.) As the couscous is toasting and the chicken is cooking, heat the chicken stock to just under a boil in the microwave. Once it's hot, add the bouillon cube and saffron (if using) and let them disolve.

3.) Once chicken is removed from the pan, add the onion and cook for a few minutes until they have begun to soften. Then add the tomatoes, garlic, and lemon zest. Stir and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes start to break down and the garlic is cooked through. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Cook for three to four minutes and then add the chicken stock mixture.

4.) Once the liquid is hot, add the couscous and chicken back to the pan and cook until the chicken is done (about 15 to 20 minutes). When chicken is cooked through, remove from the pan and add the peas. Continue to stir until the couscous has absorbed the liquid and the peas have heated through. While the couscous is still cooking, thinly slice the chicken breasts. At the last moment, add the chicken back to mixture to gently reheat.

5.) Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon and some chopped parsley.

Eat Up!