Carbonara-esque Fried Rice in 10 minutes or less

bMarch is my least favorite month in Yankee Land.  A few warm (50+) days melted the remainder of our 7 feet of snow and made everyone think spring was imminent... but today it never got above 39 and snow flurried all afternoon. [Actually, I appreciated the snow. If it's gonna stay cold, it may as well snow.] I mean, I love my jaunty red thrift-store puffy coat, but I'm getting tired of wearing it, know what I'm saying? 

These plants are all supposed to come back to life "in the spring"

My real problem is that it's so gray without the white snow or green trees. The trees will start budding in a few weeks and blooming in another month, but I'm not supposed to replant my fire escape until after the last freeze in May. [I think greens like arooogula can start sooner, since back in Texas they're a winter crop.] My poor kitchen herbs are all leggy and dying to get away from the grow light and back in some real sun [and I brought half of them from Texas with me, so they know what they're missing.] Sigh.

Anyway, my winter malaise doesn't inspire creative or complicated cooking.  To wit:  Carbonara-esque Fried Rice 

I think I've mentioned leftovers fried rice is a staple at my house, but this time I didn't have anything but the [brown] rice left over.  I did, however, have some prosciutto that was a little on the dry side, so I diced a few slices and pan fried them in a teaspoon of olive oil 'til crispy while I nuked some frozen peas for  a minute to warm them up*, then stirred still-cold rice in with the meat and let it sit for ~ 1 minute, untouched, to let a crust to form, stirred it, let it sit again, stirred in the peas and let it sit long enough for me to beat a couple eggs in a bowl and pour it over the top.** 

Stir until the egg is no longer runny [but not dry] dump in a serving bowl and top with some cracked black pepper and maybe some hot sauce.

Note: A real carbonara would have some kind of hard cheese like pecorino or parm grated into it, and the eggs would be added off heat to make sure it stayed creamy... and there's nothing wrong with either of those things as far as I'm concerned. 

You could add frozen peas with the cold rice, but the peas can get a little starchy where they touch the pan directly too long, and I'm just not a fan of starchy green peas unless I'm turning them into soup.

** That may be an excessively long sentence, but that's how the recipe works: once you start you just keep going 'til it's done.

Healthy Food in 5 minutes?

Last week, a commenter who knew me before I could cook* asked about healthy meals for toddlers... to be consumed within 5 minutes of the parent arriving home from work.  She said he's so hungry when she gets home that she usually just microwaves something quick -- boo her.  Here are my thoughts [I apologize if it's a little disjointed and rambling, but I wanted to respond before the question got too old]:

First, I've got nothing against microwaves and reheated dinners... it's just a matter of what you're reheating.  Whole grains win every time for having more vitamins, minerals, and protein than their white/refined counterparts, and if you make them part of your diet, you'll have them around to reheat in a jiffy.  Some of them do take 20-50 minutes to cook, but they can also be made ahead and kept for a week in the fridge or months in the freezer. 

Stewed lentils with Indian spices

My basic wholesome dinner includes:
Whole Grains:** brown rice, polenta, whole-wheat pasta,  and corn tortillas are my go-tos but wheat berries, whole-wheat cous cous, bulgur wheat, and quinoa are good to mix it up
Lean Proteins: BEANS,*^ lentils, chicken, fish, tofu, egg, lean chorizo, plain yogurt
Veggies: canned tomatoes, hearty greens like kale, and frozen green peas, broccoli, and green beans are my winter staples.  Salads are good as long as you don't drown them in dressing.
Optional Toppings: hot sauce/salsa/fresh herbs/cheese/fried egg

[BONUS: Bean and lentils -- which are a subset of the bean family -- count as BOTH lean proteins AND vegetables, but are lacking certain aminos, which is why they require a grain to make a complete meal. Beans & rice is my #1 weekday meal, and with so many varieties of beans and spices available, it never has to be the same meal twice. If you make your own hummus or bean dip (to control the fat content) and serve it with raw veggies and whole-wheat pita, that's a perfect meal, too.]

Microwave Polentta

or Eggs:
As I mentioned in my initial response, eggs are always a solid option.*^* They cook in just a few minutes and can always be topped with a little cheese, if that's a selling point.
Scramble eggs with thawed frozen veggies and serve with whole-grain toast or corn tortillas.
Stir veggies into polenta and top with a poached or fried egg and mild-enough salsa  or serve that egg over beans and corn torillas
Turn your wholesome leftovers (grains included) into a Leftovers Frittata that can be served hot or eaten cold [leftover's leftovers].
Leftovers fried rice can be done with any grain or pasta, and probably makes for less messy toddler eating since it clumps the grains together.
... and it's a great idea to have some hard-boiled eggs on hand for my next option:

Fried eggs over polenta with roasted wax beans and fresh tomatoes (summer produce)

Stall for Time When You Need It! 
A few slices of hard boiled egg, a single stick of bumps-on-a-log, a small handful of nuts, a glass of whole milk, a little wedge of whole-wheat pita with a smear of thick hummus, a low-fat string-cheese stick... anything with good protein takes a bit of time to digest and should take care of immediate hunger pangs to give you a little more time when you get home... even if that means just sitting with your toddler for a few minutes to collect yourself before starting the 5-minute dinner reheat.


A Caveat:
I do not have children. I have one in the making that feeds on my dinner through an umbilical cord with no conscious effort on my part. I do not speak from experience about feeding toddlers. I don't know if any given toddler will eat these things I've listed -- particularly if they've gotten used to pre-packaged foods that always taste a certain way -- but I don't believe in feeding children entirely separate meals based on what they prefer and if you encourage picky eating of limited foods you're doing both their growing bodies and their palates a disservice.... but check back in a few years and see if I managed to maintain my ideals.

Cannellini dip

Other Resources:
I looked for other blogs and websites that might be useful to you, but most seemed healthy but not super speedy (nothing under 30 minutes) or speedy but not healthy at all.  I thought this site might be useful.  They have a Toddler nutritional guide and a few recipes to make ahead and freeze.
 

My pantry bean supply.  I'm not necessarily advocating Goya, but they're usually the cheapest beans in Beantown.

Beans and rice are infinitely adaptable with whatever you have on hand, but it's nice to start with recipes. I just realized I've only posted a couple for beans and one for lentils, but Google'll give you a million and this page has some nice variations.
 ___________________________________________________________________________________

The commenter and the blogger, circa 1984

*HISTORY:
Our first forays into cooking were scrambled eggs which occasionally [always?] had too many additional ingredients to hold together properly and probably would have been too dry except we smothered them in melted American cheese. We would make them for the hosting parents whenever we spent the night at each other's house -- pretty much every weekend -- and were very proud of our culinary skills.


**WHOLE GRAINS:
Cooking times for stovetop, unless specified otherwise.  You can make a big batch one night or weekend afternoon and it'll keep all week, or you can freeze any grain (not the pasta) in smaller portions and switch up your grains from day to day. 
Whole-Wheat Pasta - 8minutes
Whole-Wheat Cous Cous - 5minutes
Bulgur Wheat - Pour boiling water over and let site 10 minutes
Polenta [corn grits] - 10 minutes in the microwave.  
Quinoa -  20-25 minutes... the same as white rice, except it's a complete protein
Brown Rice (short grain Japanese rice is much tastier than long grain) - 50 min
Wheat Berries - 50 min 

*^BEANS:
I keep dried beans on hand, but almost always use canned for convenience  If you have a problem digesting beans, it's because your body isn't producing enough of a certain enzyme that breaks down the beans in your gut.  [same goes for cabbage, but different enzyme, I think] Keep eating them and you'll stop getting unpleasant side effects... and maybe take Beano in the interim.

*^*EGGS:
My grandad's entire family lived off eggs for the most part during the Great Depression [his mother worked at an egg factory and she got to take home the fertilized eggs they couldn't sell] and it didn't stunt him in any way-- he still grew over 6 feet tall, played football on scholarship, became a rare earth chemist, and is still mentally sharp as he approaches his 90th birthday.  If that's not an ad for eggs, I don't know what is.

Superfast Elote Asado... with a Caveat

The polenta was almost finished when I remembered I had a couple ears of corn languishing in the fridge. It's not like me to neglect sweet corn, but we went out of town for a wedding and sometimes these things happen.  I thought a little roasted corn flavor might be nice in that polenta, but there just wasn't enough time to make elote asado before everything else was ready for dinner, so I gave it the chile pepper treatment and held with tongs over the open flame of my stove burner.  The kernels spit as they charred, making these wacky little bursts of sparks [It's not as scary as that may sound.]  As soon and they were spotty all over,  I transferred them to a cutting board, gave them a minute to cool while I checked the polenta, then cut the kernels from cob and stirred everything together.  The texture of the kernels was a little chewier -- it's definitely not a replacement for stand-alone elote asado* -- but it had the desired flavor and made the polenta dish taste like super gooey, whole-kernel cornbread.  It was good.

 

I topped it with fried eggs and scattered raw yellow tomatoes and roasted wax beans around the plate. It was supposed to be a textural and tonal dish, harkening back to the early days with JG when I'd regularly make an all-yellow meal of blue box macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, and canned corn [I've come a long way, baby]. Aesthetically it wasn't much prettier than that meal from the old days... I could have scattered some bright green cilantro over the whole thing and it would have been lovely, but I didn't garnish back them and I was overly committed to the theme.  At any rate, it tasted great with a few splashes of [tonally acceptable] Cholula hot sauce and was a _bit_ healthier than my yellow dinner of yore... and at ~15 minutes of total cooking time, the new, whole grain/fresh produce version might have even been faster.

*that's the caveat

Simple Polenta [Grits]

Polenta has a bad reputation as a very fussy starch, but it may help your confidence to think of it as "corn grits" -- a simple, salt-of-the-earth sort of dish.  The name polenta is derived from pulmentum, the Latin word for "porridge."  In practice, the big difference between "polenta" and "grits" is that the former is traditionally adulterated with cheese and butter [and sometimes milk] while the latter makes use of bacon fat [and cheese on occasion, but those are usually called "cheese grits"].  Despite these conventions, a plain mixture of cornmeal, water, and salt can rightfully go by either name.

Polenta making is often seen as hot and tedious, requiring a long simmer with constant stirring to prevent the dreaded clumps... but this, my friends, is completely unnecessary.   Clump-free polenta can be made in your microwave in 10 minutes or less with a minimum of stirring!
[I sound like an infomercial, but wait! There's more!]

Actually, there's not.  You can certainly get fancy with your polenta, but its glory lies in its simplicity -- you don't have to do much at all.... and that makes it a regular guest at my weeknight dinner table.

Recipe: Microwave Polenta [Grits]

Steel-Cut Oatmeal, a Whole-Grain Breakfast Favorite

The weather's turning crisp up here in Yankee Land.  Right now the days are sunny and warm, but the pumpkins and winter squash are appearing in the farmers' markets and the floor feels chilly against my
bare feet in the morning.  Hence, it's time to resurrect the oatmeal breakfast.

I was never a fan of oatmeal as a kid unless it was rolled oats in cookies (surprise).  My mom never made it for breakfast, but for some reason we had packages of the instant, stir-in-hot-water stuff in the pantry that I tried a couple of times and found the texture extremely offputting.  Somewhere in my quest for tasty whole grains I discovered steel-cut oats and the difference is stark.  Steel-cut oats have a nice toothy bite, nutty flavor, and tons of soluble fiber that sticks to your ribs on brisk bike ride to work.  They do, however, take a bit longer to cook (~25 minutes) and I have two appliance-base ways around that:

1) Throw it in a rice cooker when I first get out of bed and go on about my morning business until it's ready.
2) Put it in a slow cooker with a "keep-warm" function the night before and it's ready when I am.  Mini crockpots are perfect for this, but I just use my giant Cuisinart and nuke the leftovers on subsequent days.

With both appliances, use 1/4 cup steel cut oats, 1 cup water, and a pinch of salt for each serving. There will be a gooey layer on top and maybe some crusty bits on the bottom by the time it's finished.
Just stir it to combine before serving.

My favorite oatmeal: raisins, pecans (sometimes toasted), maple syrup, and a splash of half & half.

Kansas Report

No offense to any native Kansans; I'm sure it's a lovely place to live, but the drive through kills me.  On the way out I hit Kansas City at sunset and wasn't sure I'd be able to give a report on the grain content of the state.  Coming back from Colorado, however, I got to see Kansas in all of its interminable glory. 

So here's what I learned on I-70: 
Western Missouri= more soy and corn
Eastern Kansas = even more soy and corn
Central Kansas = high plains, no crops... just like the big buffalo hunt in Dances with Wolves

Western Kansas = what I think was recently harvested winter wheat [the color was wrong for hay, but it may have been oats],  sunflower fields and a few fields of milo [the mother of sorghum].
Eastern Colorado = corn, winter wheat, some soy

 

[photo courtesy of JG]

Central Colorado = pine and poplar

I enjoyed visiting family, learning to skin chipmunks [yes, there're pictures, but not a lot of meat], and eating gooey butter cake [we'll revisit that soon], but I'm also very happy to be back in my own kitchen, sweltering though it may be.

Where's the Wheat?

I've just driven through over 700 miles of Missouri and Iowa and have seen nothing but endless fields of fuzzy golden corn and velvet green soybeans [plus occasional bales of alfalfa--now there's a fun word!].  This strip of the nation's breadbasket is decidedly gluten-free.
So where do they grow wheat? Or oats? I'm hitting up Kansas over the weekend.  We'll see what we see.

[I also hit an insane rain storm outside of Des Moines.  The sky went deep twilight at 2pm, the wind started flattening the corn, and the gauge on my {borrowed} car told me the outside temperature dropped almost 25 degrees in the ten minutes before the rain hit. I was sure I was going to have a cow fly by me, Twister-style,  but all I had to dodge was a giant Rubbermaid-type trashcan in one lane and the giant lid in the other.  Frankly, that's as close to cow-dodging as I need to get... You may recall I haven't had a car since I moved to Yankee-Land last year -- and my former cars were stick-shift, so I tend to use both feet in danger-reflex situations.]

Bulgur Salad Lettuce Wraps [aka Mediterranean Tacos]

I needed to cut back all of my herbs and lettuce before depositing my garden in the bathtub and skipping town, so I made this pretty little no-heat salad for dinner.  

 

I salted the remaining tomatoes and left them to drain over a measuring cup, then combined that with the juice from my 2 remaining lemons, stirred in 1/3 cup of fine bulgur (parboiled cracked wheat) and let it sit until the grains absorbed the liquid ~ 15 minutes.  

Then I tossed it with my herbs (mostly the cilantro and burnet, which were bolting), diced my remaining queso seco as a feta cheese stand-in, threw in a few pinches of salt and pepper,  drizzled it with olive oil, and served it with lettuce leaves, taco-style.

I was pleased with the result.  It was a nice dinner for two, but I imagine it'd make a nice side dish with shish-kebabs.  A diced cucumber and chopped kalmata olives would have added some nice texture, but I didn't have the first and I didn't think of the second until later.

Red Lentils & Yogurt

I'm trying to make more Indian/South Asian food because up here in Yankee Land it's a lot easier to find the ingredients cheaply than it is for my Mexican staples. There are three Indian and Pakistani grocery stores within a three-block radius of mi casa and I've found them to be the best-priced purveyors of bulk spices around town, so I decided that this week I was switching from beans and rice to their South-Asian split-lentil counterpart: dals.

[Side note: I've heard that people in the food scene here don't consider Mexican cuisine to be a viable food trend, which hurt my heart a little... and gave me a serious jonesing for some homemade corn tortillas... and made me think they need to visit Berlin for a little enlightenment.]

On this particular night worknight, I wasn't up for any real effort [like blooming whole spices in oil], so I decided to try a super simple [Americanized?] version of a red lentil recipe I'd printed from the New York Times. I didn't have any sweet potatoes, so I just skipped them and added a whole 15oz can of diced tomatoes (with juice) instead. The ginger in my vegetable bin was, ahem, fuzzy so I doubled the dried ginger. I didn't have a Thai chili so I used a serrano, half-seeded. I actually had a fresh coconut, but didn't feel like splitting it and I also had a jar of dried, unsweetened coconut chips in the pantry [gotta love a well-stocked pantry], and I'd somehow used all my fresh cilantro, so I put a big dollop of unsweetened, fat-free yogurt on top.

Verdict? Tasty, perfectly acceptable alternative to beans, and clearly adaptable to my whims. I served it over brown rice for dinner and ate it swirled with yogurt [2:1] for lunch the next day.*

I do have one Indian cookbook, and though it is the source of my favorite recipe for mattar paneer [spicy peas w/ fresh cheese], I don't really love it for some reason and rarely reference it. If you've got recommendation for a book or blog on the subject, let me know in the comments.

*... actually it was breakfast, but it was great, and it would have been great for lunch, too.

Spinach Risotto with JG's Tangy Tomatoes

I don't know that this is the best thrown-together meal I've ever had in my entire life, but it's definitely up there. This hot mess is comprised of earthy spinach [brown rice] risotto, tangy vermouth-glazed tomatoes and onions, crispy kale leaves, and a perfectly fried egg. Any of these are tasty by themselves, but the combination is killer.
You have no idea what this tastes like. I had no idea what it would taste like until it was in my mouth... it's really, reeeeally good. It does get a couple bowls, 3 pans and a baking sheet dirty, but it's totally worth it. [Methodology is in the header notes after the jump.]

Recipes: Spinach Risotto and JG's Tangy Tomatoes
Start with the risotto. Do the tomatoes while the rice is cooking and the kale once the tomatoes are finished. Scatter kale on a plate, mound risotto and then tomatoes, and then, once everything else is ready, fry up the eggs and place on top. JG always fries the eggs; I have no idea how he makes them so perfectly.

Spinach Risotto

1 recipe Brown Rice Risotto
1 lb block of frozen chopped spinach
1/2cup frozen lima beans (or edamame, different but good)

Thaw spinach in microwave or on stove. Save as much liquid as possible, pressing the greens into a strainer over a bowl. Include the spinach juice in the cooking liquid.
Add 1/2cup frozen lima beans to the onions at the beginning. Stir in thawed spinach at the end with the cheese, make sure rice is back to near boil before removing from heat.

JG's Tangy Tomatoes

olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced pole to pole in 1/8th" strips
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half, pole to pole
1/2 cup vermouth (divided use)
1/t tsp ground coriander
salt and pepper

Sautee onions with ~1/4 tsp salt over medium high heat until just translucent. Add tomatoes, coriander and 1/4 cup vermouth and reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally and adding a splash or two at a time to keep the pan from going dry, reserving a tablespoon for the end. Cook until tomatoes are soft and pan liquids are viscous. Adjust salt, add pepper and final splash, stir, and turn off heat.


Crispy Kale

3 leaves of kale, ribs removed and torn into ~1 1/5" pieces
spray oil
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 500F. [I use my toaster oven for this] Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with oil. Spread kale pieces in a single layer on pan. Spray with oil, the sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake ~3 minutes or until sizzle-y and edges are beginning to brown.

Flourless Oatmeal Cookies

These oatmeal-raisin cookies are crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and gluten-free without a special flour mix if you use GF oats.* They have 5 key ingredients, and three of them are endlessly adaptable.[For the record, I'm not on the gluten-intolerance bandwagon. I know there are some genuine diseases and allergies -- and I'm concerned that the genetic modifications that make our grain crops withstand bad weather and long storage may also make it more difficult for our guts to break down and digest -- but I also think people eat too many rich bakery goods and put a lot of junk bewteen the halves of their fluffy white, low-protein/gluten sandwich rolls and then blame their indigestion on the bread.
I think going the other way and embracing whole grains and hearty breads is a better way to go but, that said, I have a limited audience and an significant minority have expressed a desire to cut gluten... and I like a baking challenge.]
The inspiration for this cookie came from a tuile/macaroon hybrid in Ginette Mathiot's I Know How to Cook [Je Sais Cuisiner] that used only nuts, chocolate, egg, and sugar. While I love exotic cookies, I also like reengineering classics. The thought that someone with Celiac's disease simply cannot have an oatmeal cookie is unacceptable to me.

Herewith, the Recipe: Flourless Oatmeal Cookies
You can substitute up to a cup of the oats with nuts and use any dried fruit you like... or chocolate chunks. I buzzed everything in my food processor because smaller bits hold together better, but you could use quick cooking oats and roughly chopped raisins and squeeze everything together by hand. Salt, cinnamon, and vanilla are optional flavorings.

Makes ~3 dozen 2-inch cookies

3 cups rolled oats [gluten free, if desired]*
1 1/4 cup sugar [I used 3/4 white, 1/2 cup brown, you could also replace 2 Tbs with honey or sorghum]
1 tsp kosher or sea salt [ or 1/2 tsp table salt]
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Water for flattening [or booze, but it'd be wasteful]

Preheat oven to 375F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment.

Combine dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse ~5 times to crush the oats. [See header for by-hand instructions.] Add raisins, egg, and vanilla and pulse until mixture clumps together.

Use a tablespoon or #60 scoop to make walnut-sized balls and space them evenly across the 2 sheets. [You should be able to fit 20 on one large cookie sheet; they won't spread much.] Dip a flat-bottomed glass in a shallow bowl of water and flatten cookies until they are ~1/8-inch thick and 2 inches across, rewetting the glass before each cookie. [Twisting the glass as you pull up helps it release from the cookie.]

Bake ~14 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Slide parchment onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Once cool, cookies should peel cleanly from the parchment. Store in an airtight container.

*As I understand it, the little gluten that exists in oats is not actually a problem for those with gluten sensitivities; it's just that oats are usually milled in the same place as wheat flour and pick up a lot of cross-contamination. The separate-mill requirement is also what makes GF oats more expensive.

Whole-Grain Overnight Waffles

My newest kitchen toy is a Belgian waffle maker, courtesy of JG's mom. It makes me quite happy... and meant I needed to create a new recipe for whole-grain waffles. I had a pancake recipe I liked from Cook's Illustrated, but their solution for fluffy multi-graininess was to grind muesli into a coarse flour, which tasted good but I'm opposed to heroic efforts before 9am... especially when I doubt their necessity.
Using yeast and an overnight batter method means I dump things together the night before and have a richly flavored batter the next morning. Using equal parts oat to whole-wheat flour means there's plenty of insoluble fiber without an excess of chewy gluten from the long sit. Nuts, milk (you could use soy or rice milk), and eggs round it all out on the protein front. Voila! Nutritious and delicious!

Recipe: Whole-Grain Overnight Waffles
You could swap baking soda for the yeast and make them right away, but they won't be quite as good. If you have a sourdough starter, add 1/2 cup unrefreshed to the batter and reduce the instant yeast to 1/2 tsp.

This makes 6 large belgian-style waffles... I usually do a 1/2 recipe for JG and myself.

2 cups warm milk (or soy milk)
2 eggs (separation optional)
2 tablespoons maple, honey, or sorghum
2 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup pecan meal (or other nut meal)
2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

If separating, collect egg whites into a small airtight container and refrigerate, then whisk together the wet ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Combine dry ingredients, then stir in to wet until no big clumps remain. [The low-gluten oat flour means you don't have to worry about over mixing] Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, pull batter (and whites) from the fridge and prepare waffle iron. It should have a foamy, bubbly appearance. Give it a quick stir to recombine or, if whites are separated, whisk the whites until foamy and fold into batter. Cook according to waffle iron instructions.

Pumpkin Risotto

Pumpkin risotto is an excellent use for one of those small pumpkins or winter squashes laying around everywhere right now... maybe even on your front porch. Each variety has a slightly different flavor, but they'll all work.In keeping with my "Components Matter" bent: Short-grain brown rice is much better in this recipe as it releases starches like the arborio rice does. It's usually the only type I keep in my pantry but I recently bought a popular long grain variety and now understand why so many people think brown rice is dry and unpleasantly healthy-tasting. I've found the Nishiki brand here in Yankee Land and back in Texas in the international aisle of the grocery store (Shaw's, Market Basket, and Fiesta) or in bulk at places like Whole Foods or Central Market.

Recipe: Pumpkin Risotto
You can roast the pumpkin at a higher heat if you're using a pressure cooker for the rice and want the gourd done faster, just be sure to check on it frequently so it doesn't burn. You could even use those tiny decorative gourds -- just slice in half and scoop the seeds -- but you may need more salt because they tend to be more bitter. Including the roasted skin gives a nice texture and extra fiber. Try it!

1 recipe, Brown Rice Risotto
1 small pumpkin or winter squash [2+ lbs]
spray oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Before you begin the risotto, preheat your oven to 350. [I used my toaster oven.]
Cut your pumpkin in half through the middle, scoop out the seeds, and quarter each half. Spray the chunks with a little cooking spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast for about 45 minutes -- while you make the risotto -- until edges darken and the flesh doesn't yield any resistance when pokes with a fork. Set aside to cool until risotto is almost finished, then tear the chunks apart [I keep about half of the skins and discard the rest] and stir them into the rice at the very end and adjust the salt to taste.

Microwave Popcorn

Did you know you can make popcorn in the microwave with nothing more than a paper lunch bag? The best part is that you can really taste the flavor of the corn and you can put exactly what you want on it; you need very little spray oil to make things stick. It's the fastest whole-grain, low-fat, high-fiber snack I know.
Recipe: Top-Your-Own Microwave Popcorn
The kernels can be sprayed and salted in the bag, but any herbs/ spices / cheese should be added after popping or they'll burn.

1/8 cup popcorn kernels* per person
Spray oil
Salt

Optional toppings:
pimenton [smoked paprika]
brewer's yeast
cracked black pepper
garlic powder
worcestershire powder
steak seasoning rub
dried thyme or oregano
queso seco [dry cheese, like feta]
american cheese, torn in pieces
shredded parmesean


Dump the kernels in a paper lunch sack, spray a little oil into the bag and sprinkle with salt. [The bag will absorb some of the oil; it's okay.] Fold over the top twice, pinching the fold tight each time and leaving as much air as possible in the bag. Hit the popcorn button on your microwave or nuke for ~3 minutes and stop when the kernels pop 10 seconds apart. Dump into a bowl and add whatever other toppings you choose. If you want to add cheese, return popcorn (in serving bowl) to microwave and nuke it for another ~20 seconds, watching to make sure it doesn't burn.
*I tend to use either standard yellow or black popcorn. The black popcorn pops up bright white and has very thin hulls that never get stuck in your teeth, but has less corn flavor.

Hatch Cookies

I'm one of those people who get obsessed with Hatch chiles right about this time every year. I didn't figure they'd be as excited about a specific New Mexican pepper growing region up here, but Whole Foods (again, Texas-based) actually has them and I'm buying them in 5 lb. increments. Anything I make right now has a pepper or three thrown in and my baked goods are no exception.

This is a recipe I created a couple years ago. They're spicy/sweet/tangy/crunchy and they've been a staple casual dessert at my fajita/taco parties. My only frustration is that I haven't been able to get a satisfactory texture without a higher butter content. I'm pretty sure the problem was the whey, so substituting yogurt cheese or fat-free cream cheese would probably work, but I had a deadline that needed to be met so I decided to "re-familiarize" myself with my recipe before I tinkered with it again.
Recipe: Hatch Cookies with Cornmeal and Lime
As always, you can just use all-purpose flour in lieu of both whole-wheat varieties. I tend to use whatever cornmeal I have on hand: yellow, white, stoneground, polenta, etc. Stone ground cornmeal will have a crunchier texture; blue cornmeal obscured the flecks of green and was my least favorite.
My mother thinks I just like to get things dirty* but I think it's best to use both the food processor and the mixer on this one because you want to make the lime bits as small as possible and the Hatch bits as non-pureed as possible. If you can't possibly wash both contraptions, try doing it all in the food processor and let me know how it goes.

1 Hatch chile, roasted, skinned, and seeded ~1/4 cup

1 cup cornmeal [yellow or white]
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup white or evaporated can sugar
zest (rind) of 3 limes, juice after zesting and reserve for divided use
8 tbs (1 stick) butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

~2-3 tablespoons remaining lime juice
~2/3-1 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Fine dice the chile and refrigerate to cool [you don't want it to melt the butter]. Whisk dry ingredients together [evenly distribute cornmeal and flour] and set aside.

Process sugar and lime zest in a food processor until sugar is uniformly green and only tiny flecks of lime skin remain ~2-3 minutes. Transfer to mixer bowl and add butter. Beat on high until pale and fluffy ~4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, and beat until fully incorporated ~1 minute, then drizzle in lime juice and almond while the mixer is running. Scrape down the bowl, add chiles, and mix briefly on low speed until dispersed [the flour will clump on them if they're not already mixed in].

Add half of the dry mix, mix on low until mostly incorporated, then add the rest. Dough should be soft and somewhat sticky. Chill no more than 20 minutes in the freezer or refrigerate at least one hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375F. Drop by tablespoons** onto parchment lined baking sheets, ~12 per sheet, and bake for 16-19 minutes or until cookies are faintly golden around the edges, rotating sheets after 8 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks.

While cookies are cooling, measure out remaining lime juice into a small mixing bowl and add 1/3 cup powder for each tablespoon of juice and a pinch of salt [2 T juice should be enough for 2 dz cookies]. Whisk with a fork until no clumps remain, or pass the mixture through a strainer. Once cookies are no longer hot, line them up as close together as possible and use a fork to drizzle/spatter the lime glaze over them. Once glaze dries, store in an airtight container.


* She's not wrong. I do.

** If you happen to have a portioning scoop, let the dough warm up a tiny bit before you scoop it. Higher-butter doughs get pretty hard and can bend the ratcheting mechanism and I now need to buy a new scoop.

Pantry Burgers

I've been exploring the capabilities of the rice cooker in our sublet this summer. It’s not a fancy model and it’s not supposed to do anything but white rice, but it did brown rice just fine… so I started throwing other grains and legumes in it just to see what happens. The lentils turned out mealy with tough skins [I think it was a bad water ratio], but I had a lot of them so I started going through my cookbooks for ideas. The Natural Foods Cookbook, has oodles of veggie burger recipes that are some combination of lentil, soybean, and bulgur and I happened to have a big bag of whole-wheat bulgur in my pantry tub from the old house.
The tricks to a good veggie burger are hearty flavor and firm texture (what else is there?). For flavor, I hit up my old friend umami, that savory flavor that separates deliciousness from old-timey veggie loaf. It’s mostly found in proteins, but not strictly in meats. Lentils have more than soy beans, but fermented soy (soy sauce) has a lot… as do onions and mushrooms and nuts and they’re all compounded by browning them and caramelizing some of their sugars. Kombu or sea kelp has more than anything else I know – it’s basically a natural form of MSG – and if I’d had some I would have thrown it in with the lentils, too. [If you try that , take it out before pureeing… the solids shouldn’t actually go in the burger.]For texture, I found the basic ratio of legume to grain wasn’t too variable across multiple cookbooks and internet sites. The big problem with most of them is that they’re too tender to hold together and have to be rather carefully pan-fried. [Commercial veggie burgers use various combinations of corn- or algae-based coagulants like dextrose or carrageen to hold it all together.] I noticed that most of the recipes called for the bulgur to be precooked, but I remembered a tabouleh recipe in Cook’s Illustrated that just soaked the grain in a few tablespoons of room temperature lemon juice. Since I was planning on adding soy and balsamic for flavorants, I figured I could just use them plus any cooking water that clung to the lentils to hydrate my bulgur. By adding a little egg to help gum it all together, I managed to come up with a base that was perfectly sturdy and sculptable.

JG and I have made these bad boys multiple times now and I think the recipe is a pretty good one, and it’s based entirely on what I consider pantry and fridge staples. You can throw other things in it.. mushrooms, shredded squash, etc... based on what you have on hand.
These should be sturdy enough to grill, but I’m not actually sure since my grill stayed in Texas, along with my little red picnic table... it was a great picnic table.

Recipe: Pantry Burgers
You can use a 15oz can in lieu of dried lentils and water. How easy is that? You can also add squash or carrots or whatever you have in your crisper drawer, but you may need to add an extra tablespoon or so of bulgur to soak up the extra juices.

3/4 cup dried brown or green lentils
3 cups water
2 slices dried porcini mushroom (optional)
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (divided use)
1 medium onion , chopped
2 ribs celery (large), chopped
2 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press
3/4 cup whole-wheat bulgur
1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup unsalted pecans (or walnuts/ cashews/almonds)
1 egg (or 2 tablespoons regular or vegan mayo)
Salt and pepper

1. In a medium saucepan, bring lentils and water to the boil over high heat; then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring once or twice, until lentils are tender, about 25 minutes.

2. While lentils simmer, combine bulgur, soy and vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, then add onions and celery and sauté, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and nuts and let sit until fragrant ~ 1 minute. Transfer veggie/nut mix and bulgur to a food processor [this will eventually be too thick for a blender] and puree until no large chunks of nut remain. (You can just wipe out the skillet and reuse it for cooking the burgers… no need to wash it twice.)

3. Once lentils are soft, drain them in a strainer or colander and shake out as much water as possible.* Add lentils to the other ingredients in the food processor and pulse until few entire lentils remain. Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper as needed. Add egg or mayo, pulse until combined, then let sit for at least 5 minutes to allow the bulgur to soak up more of the liquid. This is a good time to collect your burger toppings, slice tomatoes, etc.

4. Add remaining oil to the skillet and heat over medium-high. Shape patties and place them in the skillet (or use an ice cream scoop and drop them in, then flatten them with a spatula). Sear each side until golden brown and crusty ~3 minutes per side.

Store unused patties in an airtight container for a few days, or wrap individually in plastic and freeze in a zip-close bag.


* The liquid is pretty flavorful; I used it for baking a savory bread... which I then used for the "bun" in the picture. It could also be used for cooking another legume or grain.

Mole-Inspired Black Beans and Rice

Beans & Rice is my go-to weekday meal. I discovered it as dorm food. I previously had no idea those to things together could be a complete meal but there was nothing better after a stomach-roiling night. It's rather homely-looking, but it's just so good! I'm still unlikely to eat the lard-based refried beans and white rice that come as standard plate components at Tex-Mex joints... but sometimes I forget myself in their presence.
If I'm feeling lazy and have a bunch of leftover rice, I'll just open a can of beans -- usually black or pinto -- and heat them through with [maybe] a clove of garlic or can of diced tomatoes. Sometimes I start with dried beans, but I frankly don't taste much difference between the two, so I stock both and cook as I please. You can throw whatever veggies or spices you have on hand... like oregano and lemon juice with white beans for a mediterranian-ish variation.

July is cold and rainy so far in Boston and I'm missing the flavors of my former land, so I'm opting to share this spicy, mole-inspired variation of my comfort food.

Recipe: Mole-Inspired Black Beans and Brown Rice
Chipotles are dried, smoked jalepenos. You can buy them loose, or canned in what's called adobo, a thick, spicy tomato sauce. There's always at least one brand in the "Mexican Food" section at the grocery store, right next to the little cans of green chiles and the crispy taco shells. If I can find them in rural Missouri, I'm sure you can find them, too.

Brown Rice:
1 1/2 cups brown rice [I like Nishiki brand, medium grain]
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 cups water
Heat rice and salt over medium high heat in a saucepan, stirring occasionally, until grains start to pop and smell toasty ~2 minutes. Add water, cover, bring to the boil and turn heat to low. Simmer 50 minutes.

Beans:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 slices deli ham, diced [optional]*
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 32 oz. can of black beans [aka turtle beans]
1 tablespoon tahini [or 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, or a tablespoon of peanut butter]
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 chipotle en adobo, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup beer, preferably dark lager, preferably Negro Modelo or Bohemia

Optional toppings:
Queso fresco [or feta]
Hot pepper sauce
Cilantro
Minced raw onion
Fresh lime juice

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add ham pieces and stir fry until crispy ~1 minute. Add garlic, stir, then add beans and remaining ingredients. Stirring occasionally, simmer 10 minutes or until beans are thick but still pour out of a spoon. Adjust salt to taste.

Scoop rice into a bowl, top with an equal amount of beans, and top as desired.

*We used a little ham in this recipe, but you could swap it for a splash of soy to get meatless savory flavor.

Multi-Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm moving -- next week -- and packing up my kitchen makes cooking pretty awkward... but sometimes you've just got to make a soothing batch of cookies, especially when you need to use up some random pantry ingredients. These were surprisingly good. The oat flour makes them nice and crispy on the outside, but perfectly soft in the middle. Chocolate chip cookies are JG's favorite and he's always resisted my attempts to "healthen" them. These, he loves.

Recipe: Multi-Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies
As always, you can just use all purpose flour, but the oat flour is key to the texture and well worth seeking out.

7 Tbs butter (you could use 6 or 8, but I had 7 left)
1 cup sugar
2 Tbs yogurt [plain fat-free]
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs coffee liquour (I was out of vanilla extract, it worked really well)

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 cup oat flour (key)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I usually chop it, but I had a bag of Ghiradelli 60%)

[Optional step: In a small skillet, brown 3 tbs of butter until the solids turn the color of almond skins. Pour into a metal or shatterproof glass bowl and transfer to the fridge to cool. Once it's opaque but still soft, add it to the remaining butter and sugar in the mixer]

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine butter, sugar and yogurt in a standing mixer and beat on medium high until smooth (it won't really cream, but the color of the butter will get paler). Reduce speed to medium. Add whole egg and beat until combined, scrape down the bowl, then repeat with the egg yolk and the liquour.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until almost all of the flour is incorporated, then add the chocolate and mix in. [You don't actually have to worry about the cookies getting too tough because there's no gluten in the oat flour.]

Drop by rounded tablespoons on a parchment-lined sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Slide onto a cooling rack and wait at least a few minutes before eating.

Beef Cake

I don't tend to do novelty cakes, but my mom asked me to make a cake for my little brother's graduation... I think she was thinking of a sheet cake with "Congratulations" piped across. I did this instead:
It makes a little more sense to know my brother majored in agriculture and he's working on a black angus cattle ranch. The cake turned out even better than I hoped. I achieved the look of fine-grain leather by not heating the fondant before I rolled it, a definite no-no with store -bought fondant, but my version was a little more pliable [and even pleasant to eat] ...
...as a bonus, the cake slices looked just like well-crusted brisket.

Recipe: Beef Cake
The individual components can be made ahead and chilled until ready to use. I should have done a triple recipe to fill my cake pans better, but I was winging it at the time. I don't have a low-fat frosting recipe, although adding the pureed dry fruit makes the filling marginally better for you. In my opinion, if you want a healthier cake, just dust it with powdered sugar or cocoa powder, or a super light drizzle of glaze. Frosting is frosting... and this frosting recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, which is an excellent resource for layer cakes. The "soil" in the picture is borrowed from a chef friend's dessert menu and I can't share it [but it was tasty!].

Cake:
2 recipes Rum Cake,
--replace lemon with amaretto
--add 1/2 cup cocoa powder to dry ingredients
red food coloring as desired

Pour batter into one 9x13 and one 8x8. After they're cooled, wrap the cakes in plastic wrap, stick them in the freezer until frozen solid, cut in half to form two layers, refreeze, then cut to desired shape and assemble on cake board [or refreeze until ready to use.

Frosting and Filling:
1 recipe Buttercream frosting
1/3 cup cocoa powder
8 oz dried plums [prunes]
4 oz dried dates
2 tablespoons amaretto
red and black food coloring

Add cocoa powder during mixing. Color 1/2 the frosting with black food coloring, and set aside. In a food processor, puree plums, dates, amaretto, and food coloring until mostly smooth add remaining frosting, a dollop at a time, until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Fondant:
1 lb Whiskey Marshmallows [substituting rum for whiskey]
1 to 1.5 lbs powdered sugar
black food coloring to desired color [I also added a tiny bit of green]

Spray mixing bowl with oil. Microwave marshmallows until soft ~1 minute then transfer to mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and beat until soft and pliable. Knead in food coloring, spray with oil, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assembly:
1-2 Tablespoons rum or amaretto
Corn starch

Spread a thin layer of the black frosting underneath the cake to adhere it to the cake board. Take off the top layer and spread all of the red filling. Replace top layer [and sprinkle with a little more rum if the cake feels a bit dry]. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the top and sides of the cake. It's fine if the crumbs come through, because this will all be covered by the fondant. Let it dry at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, remove fondant from fridge (still wrapped) and let it warm to room temp.

Thoroughly dust a counter with corn starch, unwrap fondant onto counter and sprinkle top with cornstarch. Roll out to ~1/4 thick in roughly the desired cake shape (plus a good 2 inches around to cover the sides, dusting as needed to keep from sticking. Gently lift the fondant to check for stuck spots and scrape with a knife to unstick (this will stay the underside, so it doesn't have to be perfectly beautiful. Bring the cake as close as humanly possible. Roll up the fondant onto your rolling pin [I actually had to roll around my arm] and transfer it to the cake. IMPORTANT: It's nearly impossible to adjust the fondant once it's on cake, so make sure you line it up before you put it down. Fold edges over sides without stretching and cut with scissors to fit the cake form. Use a pizza cutter to trim the base, then gently smooth all edges and seams with your fingers. Use the top side of a butter knife to indent the fondant with any desired details.

At this point, the cake should not be refrigerated again until after presentation as doing otherwise will cause condensation beads (and food color runs) on the fondant.

Confetti Pizza... The Magic of Color

Color can heighten your enjoyment of a dish. There's a reason lots of restaurants finish off dishes with a sprig or sprinkle of vividly green parsley. Now, this pizza would have been just as tasty if we'd only had red tomatoes, yellowish cheese and a deeply colored meat, but the contrast of what we did use was so fantastic that we honestly marveled at every bite. Our pleasure went beyond the anticipated flavor from visual cues ["That looks like it's going to taste good"] and beyond the (excellent) flavor of the pizza itself. It was pleasing on a purely aesthetic level, and that is immensely satisfying for the mind as well as the belly.
The components aren't revolutionary: a crust* topped with garlicky olive oil, tomatoes, arugula, mozzarella, Canadian bacon, and a few more tomatoes [maybe arugula is revolutionary for some, but I'd seen it done before I attempted it myself the first time].... but it was the colors that wowed us. The tomatoes happened to be orange and yellow greenhouse tomatoes JG picked up on sale. I'd thrown the pulp of the tomatoes into the garlic oil, which happened to turn the crust a nice golden color. The dark green arugula happened to be getting unruly in the garden. We happened to pick up ultra white fresh moz instead of a yellowish fontina. We happened to choose a bright pink Canadian bacon from the freezer instead of a maroon prosciutto... and the cumulative effect happened to be stunning.
I'm a fan of serendipity, but after this experience I'm re-committing myself to making whatever humble food I make as visually stimulating as possible.


*I used the water to flour ratios from my normal crust recipe, but I also happened to be totally out of wheat flour and ap flour, so I used bread flour and oat flour in a roughly 60/40 split.