Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Since we are in the process of moving, I've been trying to use up things in the cabinets (i.e. less to move).  I threw together a vegetarian tortilla soup based on the ingredients we had lying around.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of diced tomatoes
  
• 1/2 cup of kashi pilaf (essentially brown rice and some grains)
  
• 4 cups of water
  
• 1/2 a bouillon cube
  
• 1 can of black beans
  
• 1/2 an onion, diced
  
• 1/2 a green pepper, diced
  
• dash of Cholula hot sauce
  
• salt, black pepper, cumin, chili powder
  
• lots of cilantro, chopped
  
• lime juice
  
• a few swigs of beer
  
• 3 corn tortillas, sliced in strips
  

I cooked the pilaf, as per the directions.  Once it was almost cooked, I added the diced tomatoes, a few dashes of hot sauce and some chili powder and cumin. Once the tomatoes had heated up, I added the black beans and let the mixture heat through.  Next I added the 4 cups of water and the bouillon.  Once this was close to a boil, I turned the heat down to low and a few splashes of Blue Moon beer (because that's what I had opened up to drink) and the onions and peppers.  I basically let it all simmer until Nicole got home (maybe half an hour).  

While waiting, I sliced up the corn tortillas and fried them in about 1 tablespoon of oil, until they were crispy.  Right before we were ready to eat I added a little splash of lime juice, salt and peppered to taste and added lots of cilantro.  Each bowl gets topped with the tortilla strips.

Ten Minute Couscous Soup

Nicole saw this recipe for couscous soup on www.101cookbooks.com and decided to give it a try. It was really easy and came out so good, she actually made it twice.  The recipe was tweaked to our liking; we left out the sun-dried tomatoes and put in less couscous and added peas and shrimp.

Ingredients:

• 7 cups of water
  
• 1/2 to 1 cube of Rapunzel Vegetable Bouillon with Sea Salt (the amount you use depends on how salty you want it...this bouillon is pretty much the best tasting I've ever had, we got it from Whole Foods)
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup of whole wheat couscous
  
• 1 1/2 cups cauliflower florets, cut into small pieces
  
• 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
  
• 1/2 cup of green peas
  
• 4 green onions, chopped
  
• ~20 shrimp, shelled and deveined (we used frozen cooked ones, optional)
  
• 4 pinches of crushed red pepper flakes
  
• garlic powder
• grated romano and/or parmesan cheese
  
• chopped sugar snap peas (optional)
  
• bean sprouts (the mung bean ones, like you get to put in pho, optional)
  

In a large pot, heat the water, bouillon,  red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and olive oil.  Once it has come to a boil, add the couscous and turn to low heat.  After two minutes, add the frozen shrimp (if you are having shrimp in it).  Wait about 1 minute, then add the broccoli, cauliflower, green peas, and green onions.  It will probably take about 2 more minutes for the vegetables to cook (you don't want them mushy, just no longer raw).  The final step is to put it bowls, top with the cheese, and if you'd like, the chopped sugar snap peas or bean sprouts.

We've also made this with red cabbage and cilantro instead of green onions.  It's pretty versatile and quick.

From YummyFood

From YummyFood

Salmon With Cauliflower Puree Revisted

Nicole came and spent a week of vacation with me in early November (we were in Ann Arbor for a a day before heading out to Philadelphia for the aiche conference I was attending). As a result of all the traveling, I really haven't cooked much lately. I did have some excellent food while on the east coast: a meal of mushrooms, lobster, and sole all stuffed with crab, shrimp fra diavolo, and a giant bucket of mussels steamed with garlic, jalapenos and beer...just to name a few. However, I did make a great meal for Nicole and Carp while we were in Ann Arbor.

The store was still full of a lot of fresh, locally grown cauliflower, so I decided to whip up and old favorite, Salmon with Cauliflower Puree. For the puree, I basically followed my second revision, substituting milk and romano cheese for the goat cheese, but also added a dash of soy sauce, sesame oil, and roasted garlic (basically the sauce I have below), which was great tasting.

Since I decided to bake the salmon, I wouldn't have to worry about a sauce charring on the outside (like I would if I were to pan sear it). I made up a marinate that consisted of:

Marinade ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon pickled ginger, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder
• 1 squirt of rooster sauce
• a few grinds of black pepper and sea salt directly on the fish itself

I bake the salmon at about 375°F in the toaster oven for around 25 minutes (I had a 1 lb filet that was pretty thick in the middle). While the salmon was baking, I made a sauce to serve with the fish (and, as I mentioned before, tastes awesome with the cauliflower puree).

Sauce Ingredients:

• 3 cloves of garlic, roasted
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of pickled ginger, minced
• a few grinds of black pepper

I took the skin off the garlic and roasted it at 450°F for about 10 minutes (until the cloves were mushy). I then mashed up the garlic with a fork, mixing in the ginger, soy sauce, and oil.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I bought a huge head of cauliflower from Whole Foods the other day and was trying to figure out what do with the rest of it before it went bad. I was thinking of making the cauliflower puree, but decided to try something new.

Ingredients

• A head of cauliflower (probably equivalent to 1.5 - 2 bags of cauliflower)
  
• 1/2 cup of diced onion
  
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 1/2 cup of milk
  
• 1/4 cup of yogurt (although sour cream would work too)
  
• 1 tablespoon of butter
  
• 1 tablespoon of flour
  
• salt, black pepper, white pepper, parsley, ginger
  
• 1/2 cup of water
  
• 1/4 cup of grated romano/parmesan
  

I chopped the cauliflower up into small pieces and added these pieces to a pot of boiling water. I added about 2 tablespoons of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, garlic, and a teaspoon of ginger. I let this boil until completely soft (the frozen stuff works well because it gets tender really fast). Once this was done, I threw the cauliflower in the food processor and blended it until it was smooth...unlike in the cauliflower puree, a thinner consistency isn't a bad thing, so I added a bunch of the water from the pot to make it easier to get the puree smooth.

I next sauteed the onions in the butter (in a large pot), and once the onions were translucent, I added the flour and combined. I turned down the heat, added the milk and yogurt and whisked together. I next added the cauliflower puree and some water to get to the right consistency. Last I mixed in a pinch of white pepper, a few dashes of parsley and the grated cheese.

From YummyFood

Black Bean Enchiladas

This is a recipe I make pretty often; it is pretty quick and I generally have all the ingredients on hand. This makes about 6 enchiladas.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of black beans (mostly drained)
• 1/2 a medium onion (diced)
• 1/2 a bell pepper (diced)
• 1/2 a zucchini (diced)
• 1 hot pepper
• 1 can of of tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• cilantro, salt, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, Adobo
• 6 corn tortillas
• shredded cheese

I started by sauteing the onion, zucchini, and bell pepper (I actually used a cubanelle pepper). Once these were softened, I moved them to one half of the ban, and then added the black beans to other side, with most of the water drained out. I seasoned the black beans with a little salt, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, and about a teaspoon of chopped cilantro. I let the beans heat and soften up over medium heat.

I heated the vegetable oil in a sauce pan, and added a diced hot pepper to the oil. Once the pepper was cooked, I added the flour and stirred to make a roux. I cooked the roux until it was light brown, stirring constantly. To this I added the tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, Adobo, and more cilantro, stirring until well combined and heated.

Once the enchilada sauce was ready, I mixed the veggies and beans together, added a few spoonfuls of the enchilada sauce, and added a few sprinkles of shredded cheese. Assembly is easy: first I heated the corn tortillas in the microwave; next, I put a few spoonfuls in the middle of the tortilla, folded each side, and then flipped it over on the plate. Once several were assembled, I topped with the sauce and some more cheese, and then broiled the enchiladas to melt the cheese.

From YummyFood

Seafood with linguine

Nicole and I were feeling a bit lazy after an afternoon out in the sun with Conner at the dog beach, so we decided to improvise some dinner, have some wine, and watch a movie.  We made a linguine dish with onion, red peppers, shrimp, scallops, and calamari in a garlic, wine sauce.  It was good, easy, and quick.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
  
• 1 red pepper, diced
  
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced
  
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  
• 1 pad of butter
  
• 1/2 pound of linguine
  
• 1/4 cup of diced tomato (or tomato sauce)
  
• 1 teaspoon of capers, optional
  
• 1/3 cup of dry, white wine
  
• 2 tablespoons of white vinegar/lemon juice
  
• salt, black pepper, oregano, parsley, paprika
  
• an assortment of seafood
  
• parmesan/romano cheese
  
• 2 tablespoons of flour
  

I started by putting the water on for the pasta and  diced up the onion, pepper and garlic and then put a marinade on the seafood. The marinade was my standard seafood one, where I added a tablespoon of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, salt, black pepper, paprika and oregano.  

After I added the pasta to the water, I sauteed the onion and pepper in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and pad of butter.  After the onions and peppers were about half cooked, I added the garlic.  Once the peppers and onions were fully softened, I added the seafood.  I sprinkled a little oregano (and parsley, if we had it) on the mix at this point too.

Once the seafood was mostly cooked, I added the 2 tablespoons of flour to the oily mixture of vegetables and seafood.  After the flour was combined, I added the white wine, tomatoes and capers (technically, I added tomato sauce with capers that we had left over). I let the wine cook down and and the sauce thicken...which happened almost exactly when the pasta was ready. I added salt and black pepper to taste.  I tossed this with the linguine and served it topped with the parmesan/romano cheese.

I actually roasted up half of the red pepper over an open flame before chopping.  Marinated, roasted red peppers from a jar would be equally good, and properly even more flavorful.  In that case, I would add those once the onions and garlic were mostly cooked and cut back on the total amount of oil just a bit.

Banana Zucchini Bread

I learned a little from my first experiment with Banana Muffins. The banana muffins came out good, but needed a little more sugar.  This time, I was feeling too lazy to clean muffin tins, so I made version 2 in loaf-form.  This was more or less improvised from what was in Nicole's kitchen using my last batch as guidance. It seemed to work well, although it didn't rise as much as I would have liked (more baking powder next time I guess).

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
  
• 1/2 a zucchini, peeled
  
• 1/3 cup of plain yogurt
  
• 1/4 cup of milk
  
• 2/3 cup of whole wheat flour
  
• 1/2 cup of oats
  
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon of molasses 
  
• 1 teaspoon of honey
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 teaspoon of oil or melted butter
  
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  
• pinch of salt
  
• a dash of cinnamon 
  

I put the zucchini in the food processor and chopped it up.  To this I added the yogurt and bananas and blended.  I then added all the ingredients together in a bowl and mixed.  I baked at 350°F until cooked (i.e. a toothpick inserted in the center came out dry).  I made sure to make the batter a little bit sweeter this time because the sugar does mellow when you bake it (thanks mom).  

Next time, I think I'll use a whole zucchini as it wasn't over powering.  A teaspoon of vanilla would probably have been good too.  Obviously, banilla or vanilla yogurt would have also worked well, and brought some additional flavor to the party.

From YummyFood

TVP Stuffed Peppers

Trader Joe's used to carry stuffed peppers that were stuffed with TVP.  They were really good and pretty healthy...Dre was smart enough to stock up on them before they disappeared (they have yet to make a come back in the last 6 months either in MI or in CA).  I whipped up my own version for Nicole.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup onion
  
• 1/2 cup of diced bell pepper
  
• 1/2 a zucchini, diced
  
• 1/2 can of refried black beans (I get the healthy ones with no lard, or mushed up black beans would work)
  
• 1/2 can of pinto beans
  
• 1/2 cup of TVP (I used the Boca crumbles this time)
  
• 1/2 cup of rice, cooked
  
• 1 cup of diced tomatoes
  
• 1 can of tomato sauce
  
• 1 small hot pepper (optional)
  
• Cholula hot sauce
  
• cheese (I used pepper jack)
  
• cilantro
  
• cumin, salt, chili powder, black pepper, oregano
  
• 3-4 bell or Anaheim peppers
  
• 1/4 cup of crushed tortilla chips
  

I sauteed the onion, bell pepper, garlic, hot pepper, and zucchini together.  Once softened, I added the refried and pinto beans and heated.  I also added a few dashes of chili powder at this point.  Once this was heated, I added the the diced tomatoes and about 1/2 of a small can of tomato sauce.  Again, I let the mixture heat.  The cheapo, bland canned tomato sauce, despite being something I wouldn't normally eat, actually works really well in the filling.

I added the crushed tortilla chips, cilantro, a dash of cumin and a few dashes of hot sauce.  I let the mixture simmer together for a while before adding some salt, black pepper, and more chili powder.  Next, I added the rice and finally the TVP.  I've discovered that it's better to go a little light on the TVP...too much can be overwhelming.  I used about 1/2 a cup which seemed about right.  

I took the rest of the tomato sauce, added a few dashes of Cholula, cumin, chili powder, cilantro and a few dashes of oregano and mixed.

I cut the tops off the peppers and steamed them in my steamer basket to soften the skin.  The first time I made stuffed peppers, I didn't steam them and the skin never got fully cooked into the oven.  Once soft, I filled the peppers with the bean, TVP, and rice mixture.  I topped with the tomato sauce mixture and cheese. 

If you were going to eat them immediately, I would just throw them under the broiler to melt the cheese.  These freeze pretty well and take about 5 minutes in the microwave to defrost.

Tomato, cucumber, and basil salad

It's finally tomato season in Michigan...last week at dinner, Sami brought a tomato salad (tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers from his garden with some fresh mozzarella in a balsamic vinegar dressing) and my sister made the same thing last night (except her version had marinated mozzarella....hmmm good stuff, wish I could get it out here).  This has always been a favorite of mine, so I decided to make my version for dinner with some additional lettuce...it's similar to the cucumber, tomato and avocado salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 large tomato, diced
  
• 10 basil leaves, cut into slices
  
• 1/2 a cucumber, diced
  
• 2 lettuce leaves, cut into slices
  
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
  
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  
• salt, black pepper, thyme
  
• 1/4 cup of almonds
  
• 1/3 cup of diced mozzarella
  

I mixed up the olive and vinegar with a little salt, thyme, and black pepper and then tossed with the rest of the ingredients.  It's nice when something that tastes so good only takes like 2 minutes to make.

Grilled tomato and chicken

Over the weekend, two people mentioned grilled tomatoes, which got me wanting to make a grilled tomato sauce.  I grilled up tomatoes and chicken and had them over whole wheat spaghetti (Full Circle Organics whole wheat spaghetti tastes almost like normal pasta, I'm a big fan).  The following recipe makes enough for about 2 servings.  This was really easy.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound chicken breast
  
• 1 large tomato
  
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• olive oil
  
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
  
• 1/4 cup Burgundy wine (or a sweet, red wine)
  
• grated parmesan/romano cheese
  
• basil, oregano, thyme, salt, black pepper
  

I marinated the chicken in some olive oil, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, and thyme.  I sliced the tomato into 1/4 inch slices.  I put a little salt and black pepper on the slices.  

I grilled the chicken and when it was mostly done, added the tomatoes to the grill. I grilled the tomato for about 3 minute a side, until they were just about to fall apart. I diced the tomato up, put it in a pan with oil and garlic and sauteed.  I added about 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, and thyme.  I then added the wine and about 1/4 cup grated cheese.  I then sliced up the chicken and added it to the pan and adjusted the salt.  I topped with some more cheese on top of the pasta.  

Avocado Hummus

Last time I visited Nicole, we had gotten some avocado cilantro hummus from the hummus guy at the farmers market.  It was awesome.  I decided to make my own version of it...it came out great.

I followed my basic hummus recipe and added some lime juice and cilantro and went a little lighter on the garlic.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chick peas
  
• 1 ripe avocado
  
• 2 tablespoons of tahini paste
  
• Juice of 1 lime
  
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
  
• 2 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
  
• sea salt
  
• 1 clove of garlic
• cayenne 
  
• hot paprika
  
• 1/4 cup of water

I put everything into the food processor and blended. I ate it on some tortilla chips with grape tomatoes. Mmmm.

Banana Muffins

Buschs had really ripe bananas on sale for baking. This worked out perfectly, as I've been wanting to make some banana muffins. These muffins aren't very dense or overly sweet and have a very hardy flavor and texture. They also freeze well.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
  
• 1 cup applesauce
  
• 1/2 cup Banilla (or Vanana) yogurt
  
• 2 cups of white flour
  
• 2 cups of wheat flour
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 cups ripe banana, mashed
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar <- okay so this probably not enough
  
• 1/2 cup pea, potato and spirulina protein powder (it is almost tasteless so it's good to cook with, tastes almost like apple if anything)
  

Simply combine the ingredients and bake at 350° F until the center is cooked. This made a little more than 18 muffins.

Edit: They game out good, but there was something a little off about them...Stephanie said they needed more sugar...the batter was pretty sweet when I tasted it, but it seems as though this sweetness was not enough when cooked.

Turkey Meatballs with Pesto

My basil has doubled in size over the last 2 weeks when I was gone, so I decided to make some pesto. Ground turkey was on sale, so I decided to make some turkey meatballs in pesto sauce with penne. I added capers and balsamic vinegar to the pesto to give it a sharper flavor.



Ingredients for meatballs:

• 1.25 lbs of ground turkey (93% lean works well)
• 8 oz of mushrooms, finely minced (optional but highly recommended)
• 1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, finally minced
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan and/or romano
• basil, oregano, cayenne, thyme, salt, black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

This is easy, combine all the ingredients (add a few dashes of each of the herbs), form into small balls and cook. I fried them up in some olive oil...I usually bake meatballs, but the turkey is pretty lean as it is, and I didn't feel like making the house really hot by running the oven. I forgot to get mushrooms; this was the first time I made turkey meatballs without them and found that the texture was a little grainy...they weren't bad but the mushrooms definitely help the texture and the flavor.

I made the same pesto I normally make, but with pine nuts, a teaspoon of capers, and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

I put the pesto over the meatballs and penne. I topped it all with another teaspoon of capers and some more grated parmesan. Next time, I think I will roasted up some red peppers and other vegetables to have with the pasta.

Shrimp Gumbo

I was watching Good Eats over the weekend and the theme of the show was gumbo. The recipe looked good, so I decided to give it a try. I made some modifications based on what was on hand, and overall it came out pretty good. The original recipe can be found here.



Ingredients:

• 15 raw, shell on shrimp, de-veined (I used 31-50 count)
• 2 andouille sausage links
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup of bell peppers, diced
• 1 rib of celery
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1/2-1 cup of zucchini, diced
• 1/4 cup tomato, diced
• 1 teaspoon of garlic, diced
• 4 ounces of flour
• 4 ounces of vegetable oil
• salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, bay leaf

The first step is to make the shrimp stock. I placed all the shells in about 3 cups of water, and began heating. To this I added about 1/8 a cup of diced onion, half a rib of celery, diced carrot, a few black pepper cloves, and 1 bay leaf. I let this simmer for about half an hour.

While this was simmering, I chopped up all of the veggies into 1/3 inch pieces. Once the stock was done, I strained out the shells and vegetables and set the liquid aside. I made a simple roux in the pot over medium-low heat (I didn't make it in the oven like in the recipe because I was lazy); I added the oil and flour to the pot, making sure to keep it moving (I used a wisk). Once the roux was almost at a brick red color, I added all the diced vegetables (minus the tomatoes), again, keeping the whole mixture moving to avoid having the roux burn. I cooked until the onions were translucent.

I then added the tomatoes, a little cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, thyme and a bay leaf, and stirred to combine. I next wisked in the shrimp stock, and let the mixture simmer for about 30 minutes.

I browned the sausage (cut into 1/4 inch thick slices) in the pan before adding them to the soup. This cooked out a lot of oil. I turned off the heat and added the sausage and raw shrimp, and let the gumbo sit for about 5-10 minutes (which should be enough to cook the shrimp). Last I adjusted the level of salt and gave a few more grinds of black pepper.

I cooked up some rice and mixed it directly into the gumbo, rather than just serving gumbo on top of rice...this was easier for leftovers. It came out a little soupier than on the show, mostly because I left out (i.e. didn't have) file powder which is a thickener, but still it had a great flavor.

Strawberry tea sorbet

It's hot and humid in Michigan right now, so I decided to make up some more frozen treats. I've been wanting to make a tea based sorbet, so this was my first attempt.

On a side note, when I was a little kid (and apparently too young to be left unsupervised) I would go with my father to the health club when he would work out. I would usually spend the time unattended (instead of being at home unattended, myself and the other unattended children would play with the wooden swords and rubber knives that were left out in the karate/self defense room). Afterward, I would often get a strawberry FrozFruit bar from the juice bar (it had chunks of strawberries in it...it was great). A few years ago I bought myself a box of them and was really disappointed; they just didn't taste the way I remembered. While I was out in LA with Nicole, she bought me a box of the 365 brand strawberry fruit bars...they taste the way I remember the FrozFruit bars tasted as a kid. I would recommend getting a box from Whole Foods.

Onto the recipe...

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of water
• 1/4 -1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 pints of strawberries (it was the bigger plastic container, not the small sort of mesh one...I think this is 2 pints)
• 2 tea bags (I used Orange Pekoe, because that's what I had on hand, green tea would probably be good too)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice

I heated the water to a boil and added the sugar. I sort of forgot about it, so it probably reduced by about half a cup. Once the sugar was dissolved, I turned off the heat and let the two tea bags steep for about 3-5 minutes...if you were using green tea, you'd probably go more like 1-3 minutes. I let the mixture cool before taking care of the strawberries.

I pureed the strawberries in my food processor. I processed about 1 pint really smooth and made the other pint a little chunkier, because I found this to be a pleasing texture and flavor in the previous batches. To the strawberries I added the lemon juice, then combined this with the sugary tea.

Last step is to throw it into the ice cream maker! The strawberry flavor is more prominent in the strawberry orange or strawberry tangerine I've made in the past. It almost tastes like the frozen fruit bar, but with a nice, subtle flavor from the tea. I think green tea would be a better choice next time, since the black tea tends to have a little bit of a bitter flavor in the finish. I was going to substitute a little honey for some of the sugar, but I forgot....

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Also for a freezer meal, I made a roasted red pepper sauce for pasta. This comes out like a really light tomato sauce. The recipe made enough for about 2 people. I put the sauce on top of penne rigate, roasted cauliflower and red onion, and sauteed shrimp, scallops, and calamari.

Ingredients:

• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1 slice of roasted red onion
• 2 teaspoons of capers
• 1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove of garlic
• 10 leaves of basil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• juice of 1/3 lemon
• salt, black pepper

I sliced the red pepper into large pieces (basically cut the faces off), and then threw these on the grill. I removed them from the grill once the pepper was nice and soft, and the skin had started to peal from face. I also grilled a slice of red onion. I rinsed the red pepper under some cold water and peeled the skin off.

I added the garlic, red pepper, red onion, capers, olive oil and about 1/4 cup of water to the food processor. I added enough water to easily process the ingredients into a smooth mixture. I then added 1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and the basil leaves and processed again. I added a dash of salt and a few grinds of black pepper to taste.

I added parmesan and romano after mixing the sauce with the pasta and other ingredients. The sauce is light and a little bit sweet. To make the sauce a little richer, you could add a small amount of cream. I topped this over roasted vegetables and seafood, but I imagine this would be really good over top sausage, peppers, and pasta.

Cauliflower puree revisted

For dinner last night I made Nicole and I grilled red snapper with a cauliflower puree. I followed the same basic recipe from last time with a few changes (Salmon and Cauliflower puree recipe). This time around I used fresh cauliflower (I'm in CA right now and the produce is great!), bouillon cubes, and goat cheese.



Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 cups of water
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 1/2 a bouillon cube (I used Rapunzel Vegetable bouillon with sea salt and herbs from Whole Foods)
• 1/4 cup of goat cheese crumbles
• 1 pad of butter
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• lemon juice
• ginger, black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder (or fresh garlic)

I diced the carrots and celery into small cubes and added them to about 2 cups of water. I added a few grounds of black pepper, about 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 2 teaspoons of ginger and 1/2 a bouillion cube to the water and brought it to a boil. I let the carrots and celery soften a little (about 10 minutes simmering) before adding the cauliflower. I chopped the cauliflower up into about 1/2 inch pieces before adding them to the water. I then cooked the cauliflower until it was soft (probably about 10 minutes).

Once soft, I transferred the cauliflower and other veggies into the food processor. I added about 1/4-1/3 cup of the liquid, basically enough so that I could create a smooth puree. I next added the butter and milk and continued to puree, adding more cooking liquid if needed. The first time I made this, I didn't process enough and the result was good, but a little chunky. I kept pulsing until the mixture was nice and smooth. I added a dash more ginger, a squirt of lemon juice, and the goat cheese crumbles and processed one last time. The goat cheese added a nice creaminess to the puree, but isn't necessary--it tasted great without it.

The bouillon cubes added a really well rounded flavor to this, rather than just the slightly "salty" flavor in my first attempt at it.

Black Bean Veggie Chili

Also along the line of making food for Nicole's freezer, I made up a small batch of chili.

Ingredients

• 8 oz of diced tomotoes
• 1/2 cup of diced red pepper
• 1 small onion
• 1 cup of diced zucchini
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/3 cup of rice
• 1 cup of textured vegetable protein
• 1/4 cup of crushed tortilla chips
• 8 oz of black beans (or refried black beans)
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt, black pepper, cumin, crushed red pepper, oregano, cilantro, chili powder, paprika

I diced all the veggies and sauteed them in a little olive oil with a dash of crush red pepper. Once the veggies were soft, I added the black beans. The other day, we had opened a can of refried black beans (the super healthy ones not made with lard), so I threw these in instead of whole black beans. If you use whole beans, drain them first, then add about 1/2 cup of water and let them simmer with the vegetables a little to get soft. Once they are soft, mush them up a little with a fork.

After the bean and veggie mixture was warm, I added a dash of chili powder, paprika, and cumin and a grind of black pepper. Next I added the tomatoes and the let the mixture simmer. While this was going on, I cooked the rice. When I've made this for myself, I've used whatever rice I had on hand--basmati, sushi, or even the kashi pilaf. Once the rice was cooked, I added it to the mixture, and then added in the TVP, to avoid overcooking the TVP.

Once the TVP was heated through, I added the juice of a lemon and the crushed tortilla chips. I readjusted the seasoning at this point and added a few tablespoons of of fresh chopped cilantro.

It tasts great with topped with pepper jack cheese and a tortilla chip.

TVP Vegetable Ragu

I've been out in LA for the last week or so, visiting Nicole. I've been stocking her freezer with different meals (residency does not allow her a lot of free time and the food at the hospital is crap). Since it freezes/reheats well, I made her baked ziti, but added in textured vegetable protein (Boca brand this time). This was my first time actually cooking with TVP, but the result was pretty good.

I followed the basic sauce recipe for the Pork Ragu (or the one in the baked ziti), but left the ground pork/sausage out. Like in the other recipes, I sauted onion, garlic, carrot, red pepper, and zucchini, and added in about one stalk of celery (because I had it this time). I also had a variety of cherry tomatoes, which I also added to the mix. I used 1 cup of TVP for 16 oz of crushed tomatoes; this ratio seemed to work well, as the TVP wasn't overpowering and didn't give the sauce a strange texture. Nicole says she has made the mistake in the past of adding too much TVP...less seems to be better.

Chipotle Salmon Burgers

Continuing along the line of making good burgers for summer, my roommate and I made salmon burgers. This was a variation of a recipe from Cooking Light; we mostly changed the recipe because we were missing a few ingredients. They came out good with a nice spice to them.

Mayonnaise Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon of pineapple
• 1/8 teaspoon of lemon juice

Burger Ingredients:

• 1-1.5 pounds of salmon fillet
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup of chopped green onions tops
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Cholula hot sauce
• black pepper
• an egg might be necessary as a binder

We first mixed up the mayo in the food processor...the next time I make this, I would consider adding a teaspoon or so of the green onions and a little of the adobo sauce. We didn't bother cleaning out the food processor since the mayo wouldn't be bad in the burgers.

For the burgers, we added the cilantro, peppers, green onion, and lemon juice into the food processor and chopped then up. We transferred this to a separate bowl. We chopped the salmon up into about 1-inch sized cubes, and then chopped these in the food processor. We added these to the bowl and mixed to combine. We added a few dashes of hot sauce and a few grinds of black pepper. We were out of eggs so we didn't add one as a binder...the patties stayed together pretty well without it, but it sure would have helped.

We had these on multigrain english muffins...my 1-cup measuring scoop was pretty much the perfect diameter. We packed it a little more than half full to form the perfect sized patties. I grilled these on the charcoal grill...I oiled the grate first and let the patties cook almost entirely through before flipping...using this procedure I had no problems with the burgers falling apart.

Top with the mayo and some greens (we had spinach) on a toasted bun. These were really tasty. They had a nice little bite to them and a great cilantro flavor. These were way better than any salmon burgers I've ever purchased.

Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

My mom makes the best black bean soup. She starts with a ham bone, makes her own stock...it's great. It's a nice, thick and flavorful soup. Since I don't feel like cooking an entire ham (and nicole has that whole issue with pork), I decided to try a veggie recipe of it (hence making the vegetable stock). My mom starts with dry beans, but for this first attempt I just went for canned.

Ingredients

• vegetable broth
• 2 cans of black beans
• 1/2 a medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 hot pepper
• 1/2-1 cup of bell peppers
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 piece of soy bacon (Morningstar Farms is what I used)
• cilantro
• cayenne
• cumin
• chili powder

I sauteed the onions, garlic, hot pepper, and bell peppers in a little oil. I chopped up the fake bacon and cooked it in the veggies. I chopped up the carrots and celery and added them to the mix (I used the ones from the vegetable stock since they were really soft which decreased the cooking time). I added the black beans and heated the mixture; I then added about 2 cups of vegetable stock. I added a few dashes of cumin, cayenne, and chili powder and then a handful of chopped cilantro. I let this cook for 30 - 60 minutes (I was on the phone asking my mom about her black bean soup at the time).

I pureed the mixture in the blender until it was smooth.

Vegetable Broth

I wanted to make black bean soup, but realized I needed some stock first. I looked through a few recipes for vegetable stock...some called for roasting the veggies first, others told you just to throw them in water. I decided to go the route of roasting the vegetables first. The veggies I used were those that were on hand -- carrots, onions, garlic, red pepper, celery -- many recipes recommend leeks, potatoes and apples. This was good...next time I may try this recipe (it's similar but is flavored with herbs de provence).

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 carrot (about 5 baby carrots)
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 small red bell pepper (or Italian frying pepper)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 12 black peppercorns
• a few sprigs of thyme (optional)

I chopped the vegetables up into approximately 1 inch pieces. I put a little oil in a pan, threw in the vegetables and roasted them for about 30 minutes. I actually did this on the grill over medium-high heat rather than using the oven...for the oven use 450°F. I dumped the vegetables into a small pot, filled with water, added 2 bay leaves, a teaspoon of salt, and about a dozen black peppercorns. I didn't have any fresh thyme, but that would be a good addition. I let this boil for about an hour. I strained out the vegetables.

This came out really good, very nice and light, and a little sweet.

I really like to make risotto (which obviously needs some sort of stock)...mushroom stock really works well for risotto, so for that purpose I think I would add mushrooms into the mix.

Turkey and Mushroom Burgers

I biked over to the grocery store today and saw they had ground turkey on sale. The veggie burgers I made yesterday had me now also craving a turkey burger, so it seemed like everything was falling into place. When I make meatballs, I usually food process mushrooms and mix them into the ground meat; since I had about half a package of mushrooms left, I decided to include these into the turkey burgers. The overall result was pretty good.



Ingredients

• 20 oz of ground turkey (I used Jenni-o 93% lean, I've found this works the best; the white meat or anything leaner comes out way too dry)
• 4 oz of mushrooms
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of mustard (I used dijon and spicy brown)
• dash of hot sauce
• cilantro
• lime juice (or the chili and lime seasoning)
• chili powder, cayenne, salt, black pepper
• probably should add about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs or crushed cheddar crackers (Mmmm) next time
  

I put the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in the food processor and finely minced them. I put these in a bowl, added the ketchup, mustard, lime juice, and hot sauce. I added the ground turkey meat, a few grinds of black pepper and sea salt, a few dashes of chili powder and cayenne. I chopped up about 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro and added this to the mix. Last came the egg to act as a binder. Next time I will also added some bread crumbs to firm up the mixture.

These have a tendency to fall apart until the egg cooks, so I often cook them on the George Forman grill or start them on a piece of foil on the grill and then transfer them to the grate after they have stabilized themselves. They came out really moist and flavorful...the mushrooms add a great flavor.

I made mini burgers to match the small multigrain rolls I had purchased. I topped mine with a piece of grilled zucchini, a slice of tomato, avocado (yup still have lots left), lettuce, and a piece of Australian cheddar (which has a little of the same bite as parmesan, but not as strong/sharp as something like Dubliner Irish cheddar).

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

so, hello. nicole here. chris has been bugging me to post some of the things i make. i'm not as extravagant in my cooking as he is, and it seems I have 1/8th the time to cook (wow, i wish i could work from home.) let's also start out with a little disclaimer: i am not a vegetarian. however, >90% of what i eat and what i cook are vegetarian. i used to be a vegetarian, but, in reality, i just like seafood too much. ;) in any case, i felt the following would be the absolute best thing with which to start out my posting, as it's the thing (next to sautéed tempeh or a hearty bowl of cocoa pebbles) that i make most frequently.

that being said, i need to give credit where credit is due. this recipe is only a slight modification of a soup recipe i saw on 101 cookbooks. (as an aside, this is a great website for really healthy, creative, vegetarian recipes). i prefer yellow split peas to green and i always add the broccoli and/or spinach just before puréeing, as well. i like to add a handful of garbanzo beans, and i don't much like smoked paprika, so i use plain ol' paprika. i also tend to make a half-batch, given the whole cooking-for-one thing. so. without further ado, i give you a FANTASTIC vegetarian split pea soup.

• 2 onions, any variety (i like sweet yellows), chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fine ground sea salt
• 2 cups of dried split peas, yellow or green, sorted. (pick out the ones that look, uh, shriveled.)
• 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans, optional (canned)
• 5 and 1/2 cups of water
• 1 cup of chopped spinach, optional (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 cup of chopped broccoli, optional (fresh or frozen)
• splash of lemon juice
• drizzle of olive oil
• sprinkling of paprika

in a large pot, heat the olive oil, salt and onions for about 2 minutes, until the onions become translucent and soft. add the water and split peas (and, if you are using dried garbanzo beans, add them here. otherwise, if you use canned, like i do, wait until the peas are cooked before adding.) bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to let the peas simmer until soft but still al dente. (this takes me usually 20 minutes.)

once you've cooked the peas and onions, add in the chopped broccoli and spinach, as well as the garbanzo beans - if you're using the canned variety. let simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes until the entire soup is heated through.

remove the pot from the heat. ladle about 1/4 of the soup into a bowl and set it aside. for the remainder of the soup, use either a hand blender, a traditional blender or a food processor and purée everything together. return everything to the pot and mix in the 1/4 of the soup you set aside. this step is really key - leaving that little bit left really makes for a great texture. :)

serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of paprika on each bowl. a very simple recipe, a super-short ingredient list, and a fantastic soup to enjoy. everyone wins.

n.b.: this recipe also makes for great leftovers and freezes very easily. if you're like me and low on time and, often, energy, make a big batch and it will be fantastic every time you heat it up.

Veggie Burgers, version 2

Nothing really takes the place of a good beef burger, but I do really enjoy a good veggie or turkey burger. Over the years I've experimented with making my own veggie burgers with varying degrees of success. Last summer I made a batch that both tasted pretty good and didn't completely fall apart on me. This is my second version of the recipe, where I tried to refine the flavor and texture.


Ingredients

• 2-3 cups brown rice (I used a mixture of Kashi Pilaf and brown sushi rice)
• 4 oz of mushrooms
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 carrot
• 1 can of legumes (I used dark red kidney beans)
• 1/2 a medium onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of grated parmesan
• 1/4 cup of bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1 hot red pepper
• 3 tablespoons of ketchup
• 2 tablespoons of worcester sauce
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• hot sauce
• paprika, chili powder, salt, black pepper

I cooked up the brown rice (actually a blend of the pilaf and brown sushi rice). I chopped up the mushrooms, onion, carrots, and zucchini in my food processor. I sauteed the garlic and hot pepper in a little oil and added the rest of the veggies with a pinch of salt. When the veggies were soft, I added the ketchup, mustard, and a few dashes of hot sauce. I seasoned this lightly with a little black pepper, chili powder, and paprika. It's important to cook off as much of the liquid as you can otherwise the burger will fall apart.

I pureed the legumes in the food processor and added them to the veggies. I transfered this to a bowl, added the worcester sauce and grated parmesan. I added rice until the mixture had a good consistency (I didn't add all the rice I cooked, just enough until it seemed right...use your own discretion herE), then added salt and pepper to taste. After the mixture cooled a little I added the egg (I added 1 egg in this batch but two would probably work better) and mixed well.

I also added some pea, potato, and spirulina protein powder I had, about 1/4 cup. It didn't impact the flavor much in the cooked patty.

I covered a baking sheet in foil and sprayed it liberally with cooking spray (don't skimp otherwise they will really stick). I made a little ring mold and spooned out about an 1/8 of the mixture into each patty. I baked for about 30-35 minutes at 375°F. I decided the patties were done when they had a nice crust to the outside and were on the verge of starting to burn. My cookie spatula worked well for freeing them from the foil. This makes about 8 patties

I topped mine with cheese, avocado, Morningstar soy bacon, a pickle, lettuce, and salsa and ate it on some multigrain bread. My roommate had one and said they tasted closer to a real burger than any other veggie burger he has had. Next time, I may try adding a small amount of textured soy protein to round out the texture a little more. Obviously, I could add more/different veggies, like peppers and/or potatoes (and probably will). This whole batch was pretty cheap to make too, about half the price of buying veggie burgers (and I get to include a lot more veggies).

Shrimp and Avocado Sushi Rolls

So I bought a lot of avocados and shrimp and have been trying different recipes to use them, hence the last post of Shrimp and Avocado Summer Rolls. I really enjoy sushi and have gotten pretty good at making my own (thanks to some hints from Eric and experimentation over the last few years). I like the "hot & hot" roll from Miki a lot, I think mainly because the spicy sauce doesn't have mayo in it (although the roll has cream cheese in it...hmm). I've made a sauce that gives a similar flavor.



Ingredients

• seaweed wrappers
• sushi rice
• seasoned rice vinegar
• sugar
• shrimp (I used 3 medium, 31-40 count, per roll)
• avocado
• carrots
• pickled ginger
• wasabi
• soy sauce
• rooster sauce
• sweet chili sauce
• ...and anything else you'd like to put in the rolls

I learned a great trick from Eric in terms of preparing the rice. Rather than heating up vinegar and sugar separately, just add the sugar and vinegar directly to the rice while it is still hot. This works out well because it gives you a chance to taste the rice and adjust the flavor. I added approximately 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/8-1/4 cup of vinegar to about 1.5 cups of dry rice (this made two large rolls). I put the rice in the freezer to cool down and cut the carrots into matchsticks and avocado into slices.

I minced a few pieces of pickled ginger, added about a teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of rooster sauce, 1 teaspoon of sweet chili sauce and 1/2 teaspoon of wasabi to make the sauce. I had previously purchased wasabi powder...but it always tasted off, I'm not sure if it was the brand or just because it was old. I got prepared wasabi paste (it was the only other brand at Busch's) and that stuff tasted the way I expected so I was happy.

I used shrimp leftover from last night when I made summer rolls (steamed shrimp marinated in soy sauce, ginger and rooster sauce). I sliced the shrimp in half length wise, and cut them in half width wise so they would fit in the roll.

I assembled the rolls in a normal fashion...rice spread on the seaweed, avocado slices, carrots and shrimp. Before I rolled it all up, I spooned a small amount of the sauce on the filling. Then I rolled, sliced and ate. The overall flavor was pretty good...the Hot & Hot roll from Miki is fried, so this wasn't quite as awesome, but still really good.

Shrimp and Avocado Summer Rolls

When Nicole was here, we made Summer Rolls with Carp that came out really good. I still had a bunch of rice paper wrappers left over, so I decided to experiment with a shrimp roll. Essentially I just substituted shrimp and avocado for the tofu, but also upped the ginger content. I forgot to pickup cucumbers and bean sprouts, but the rolls still tasted good without them. This recipe is anything but exact, just put in whatever.



Ingredients

• leafy lettuce (we used red leaf last time, I used romaine this time since that's what I had)
• rice wrappers
• shrimp (I used medium, 31-40 count, and put 2 shrimps per roll, but 3 or 4 would be better!)
• carrots
• avocado
• rice noodles
• cucumbers (whoops forgot those)
• bean sprouts (I walked by them twice and forgot to get them)

Sauce

• pickled ginger
• hoison sauce
• soy sauce
• mint leaves
  
• cilantro
• rooster sauce

Shrimp marinade

• white or rice vinegar or lemon juice
  
• dash soy sauce
• few grinds of black pepper
• squirt of rooster sauce
• dash ginger powder

I started by marinating the shrimp in the marinade listed above. It really only takes about 5 minutes for it to have a good flavor. I steamed the shrimp, then suck them in the freezer to cool off while chopping all the vegetables. I really liked how shrimp turn out when steamed, and they cook a little faster, so I would recommend trying it.

I next rehydrated the rice noodles (my package said 10 minutes in hot water) and cut the carrots (and cucumbers, had I remembered them) into match sticks. I sliced the avocado into small pieces and remove the sharp edges from the stems of a few lettuce leaves.

I then prepared the sauce...last time I would sometimes get a ton of mint in one bite and none in the next, so I decided to chop it up and add it to the sauce instead. I chopped a few pieces of the ginger, added a few dashes of soy sauce, about a teaspoon of hoison sauce, a squirt of rooster sauce, a few mint leaves diced and the cilantro leaves.

I assembled the rolls the same way as the last time (refer to other recipe)...I put down the lettuce first, topped it with the noodles, carrots, about 2 or 3 slices of avocado per roll, and 2 shrimps per roll (next time I would use 3 or 4)...I topped the ingredients with a drizzle of the sauce and few additional cilantro leaves.

They came out really good. The rooster sauce and ginger added a nice spice without being overpowering. I read a few recipes that recommend dipping these in peanut sauce, but that seemed like it wouldn't really fit too well...I used the same sauce as we made before with some pickled ginger.

Just like last time, I had this with a big glass of Oberon.

Half-Assed Lamb Biryani

I had lamb leftover from my kabobs last night. I had read a recipe from Food and Wine, that looked like it was pretty good (Food and Wine recipe via cooking.com). I modified the recipe since I was using up leftovers and I wanted to include some more vegetables.

Ingredients

• 12 oz of lamb (cooked)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 carrot, minced (or about 5 baby carrots)
• 1/2 cup of diced peppers
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 cups of basmati rice (I cooked brown and white and mixed them)
• 1/4-1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/4 cup of chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup of yogurt

Seasonings

• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon of coriander
• salt, black pepper, turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, cayenne

I sauteed the onions, garlic, carrots, and diced peppers. I diced my leftover lamb into 3/4 inch cubes. I mixed cumin, coriander, and cayenne into the yogurt and added the lamb to this. After the vegetables were soft, I added the lamb mixture to the pan. It took about 5 minutes for the lamb to heat through. At this point I added cooked rice, raisins and almonds. I used Greek yogurt, so I had to thin the mixture down with some water. I added a dash of cinnamon, a dash of cloves, and a few dashes of turmeric. I adjusted the flavor with salt and pepper. I added a dash of lemon juice, as the Greek yogurt has a little different flavor than just plain yogurt. I really liked the flavor the raisins added, so I would have added more next time. I topped this with fresh cilantro.

It came out pretty good for the minimal amount of effort and the fact I was using up leftovers. It wasn't exactly pretty, so no pictures. I think this would also probably come out pretty good with tempeh rather than lamb, I'll have to try that in a future go-around.

Grilled Zucchini

The weather has been pretty nice the last few days (well, really hot), perfect for grilling. Bello Vino had some local grown baby zucchini on sale...I grabbed a few to grill up and have with my lamb kabobs and red peppers.

I sliced the zucchini in long slices and coated them in a small amount of olive oil. I seasoned the slices with a few grinds of sea salt and black pepper, a few dashes of chili powder, dried oregano, dried cilantro, and chili & lime seasoning (specifically I used Cholula chili and lime seasoning...fresh lime juice would also work well). Then I grilled the zucchini...nothing too difficult, but the seasoning combination was really good.

Spam Musubi

The weekly dinner a Joe's often has a theme...everything from the simple "grilling" or "pasta" to "cupcake dinner" and "slurry night" (mac n' cheese, hotdogs and mixed vegetables pureed in the blender actually make an excellent pate).  Lisa sent Joe a "SPAM Musubi" kit from Japan, which includes a mold for shaping the rice and a can of SPAM.  The theme of this last week was "sushi"...we made a bunch of veggie, salmon, octopus, and mackerel rolls which were all great...and of course, the Spam Musubi.

And yes, we ate it all.  The whole album is here.

Pesto

A few years ago when I visiting my sister, she made a really good pesto that was very light. It turns out she substituted most of the olive oil for chicken stock. I actually prefer the version with stock over a very oily pesto. Stephanie and Eric came over for dinner tonight; since basil still is not really in season in Michigan, I cut my pesto with baby spinach. Pesto is easy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of baby spinach
• 1 cup of basil (or that's about what was in the package I bought...I would have used more if I had it)
• 1/4-1/3 cup of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/3 cup of grated parmesan and romano
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of pine nuts (optional)

I added the basil, garlic, olive oil, and about half of the chicken stock to the food processor and blended. Next I added the spinach and the rest of the chicken stock and blended. The cheese came next, after which I tasted it and adjusted the amount of salt. I was out of pine nuts, so this didn't include any, and wasn't lacking without them.

We ate this over farfalle, paired with marinated chicken. The chicken was marinated in olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and black pepper. After it was cooked, I topped it with some of the pesto. I often make this for Nicole, but use shrimp rather than chicken; the same marinade works well for shrimp.

Hummus

I really like hummus but I am not a huge fan of the stuff you can buy at the grocery store. The store-bought stuff just doesn't compare to freshly made hummus (I love the stuff from the Syrian Deli, but it's kind of spendy). It isn't very hard to make a really good, cheap homemade version.


Ingredients:

• 1 can of chick peas, drained
• 1-2 tablespoons of tahini paste
• 3-6 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 tablespoons of paprika
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• salt
• cayenne, hot Mexican chili powder, hot Hungarian paprika (optional)

This recipe is really easy. I first minced the garlic up in the food processor. I next added the chick peas to the food processor, 1 tablespoon of tahini paste, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and about 1/4 cup of water. I added just enough water to allow it to blend instead of chop. I then kept processing the mixture until it was smooth.

This next part was the tricky part, getting the flavors correct. I added a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of paprika, mixed it in, tasted, and added more salt if necessary. It is easy to put in too much tahini and get sort of a bitter flavor to the hummus. I always start on the low end (about 1 teaspoon -> 1 tablespoon) and add a small amount more during the tasting stage. I like it where I can just start to taste the bitterness of the tahini, but it still isn't the main flavor. I've found this varies a lot based on the brand of tahini and the consistency (the thicker it is, the stronger the flavor will be). Next, you'll want to adjust the lemon flavor; I like it very lemony so I usually go pretty heavy on it. I like it spicy, so I'll usually put in a pinch of cayenne, hot Mexican chili powder, and/or hot Hungarian paprika.

After transferring the mixture to a bowl, I topped with the olive oil and remaining paprika.

Variation (no tahini)
When I'm out of tahini (or not in the mood for it) and craving hummus, I'll substitute about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and about 2-3 tablespoons of plain yogurt. The yogurt makes it really creamy and gives a less-"in your face" bitter flavor.

Salmon with Cauliflower Puree

I was looking through the refrigerator, trying to figure out what to have with my salmon, and I saw that I had a bag of frozen cauliflower. Rather than just steaming up the cauliflower or grilling it, I decided to make a puree. It came out really good and was not hard at all; it almost tastes like mashed potatoes but not starchy. The recipe below was for a single serving of the puree (because that's all the cauliflower I had), so scale accordingly. I also included a recipe for seasoning the salmon that goes really well with the flavors of the cauliflower puree.




Cauliflower puree ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 - 1.5 cups of of cauliflower, chopped (frozen works fine since you're going to cook the hell out of it)
• 1 cup water (or enough to cover the veggies)
  
• 1/4 cup of carrots, cut into small slices
• 1/2 clove of garlic, minced
  
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• ginger, salt, black pepper, onion, powder, marjoram
• liquid smoke (optional)
  

Using a small sauce pot, I brought about 1 cup of water up to boil. To this I added a few dashes of salt, onion powder, marjoram, and ginger, a few grinds of black pepper, and the garlic. Next I added the carrots and cauliflower and cooked until all the vegetables were soft (about 10-15 minutes). The carrots were added mostly because I was afraid I didn't have enough cauliflower, but they added a really good sweetness. Halfway though I added a really small drop of liquid smoke. I really like the taste of grilled cauliflower, so I figured this would mimic it well...you could grill the cauliflower first to get the same effect.

I added all the veggies to my food processor, plus a little bit of the cooking liquid and blended. I added a small amount of sour cream and blended some more. If I didn't have sour cream on hand, I probably would have added a little bit of butter and milk. Finally, I salted and peppered to taste.

Salmon Seasoning
I did a really simple seasoning for the salmon. I started by putting a little olive oil, lemon juice, and soy sauce onto the fillet. In terms of spices, I made up a mixture of seasoning a while ago that consisted of:

• onion powder
• chili powder
• ginger
• lemon pepper seasoning (basically salt, dried lemon, and black pepper)
• Adobo (basically salt, garlic, black pepper, and thyme)
• cayenne pepper
• black pepper

I didn't really make this in any specific proportions...probably close to 1:1 for all the ingredients except the cayenne. I covered the salmon with the mixture, let it sit about 5-10 minutes before cooking. I pan seared it today, but cook however you choose (e.g. pan sear, grill, bake, or broil).

I served the salmon and cauliflower puree with Kashi pilaf.

A side note about the pilaf...I really like it a lot, but it's usually hard to find. It often is stocked with the oatmeal and cereal if they have it all. I ended up finding it at Whole Foods (in the cereal aisle) after ordering a bunch directly from kashi.com.

Chick Pea Curry

I was in the mood for something spicy and light for dinner, so I decided to tried to come up with a version of chickpea curry. The recipes I've looked up in the past have varied a considerable amount, so this is sort of an amalgamation of all the recipes (and heavily influenced by what I had on hand).

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chick peas
• 1/2 cup of green peas
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1/4 cup of finely diced (or shredded) carrots
• 2 tablespoons of diced cilantro
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon of red curry paste
• 1 tablespoon of red curry
• 1 tablespoon of yellow curry
• 1 tablespoon of coriander
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

I sauteed the onions, carrots, and garlic in a teaspoon of oil. Once the onions were translucent, I added the red curry paste, thoroughly mixing it in. To this I added the chickpeas; I didn't drain them, and added a little extra water so that the peas would be completely covered. I added the curry powder to the chickpeas and allowed the chickpeas to soften (about 5 minutes). I then added the rest of the spices, cilantro and green peas. When the liquid was cooked off, I salted and peppered to taste and served this with some garlic naan from Trader Joe's.

Baked Ziti

Last weekend, one of my roommates asked how to make lasagna, which consequently made me start craving lasagna. I actually prefer baked ziti over lasagna; the only real difference between the two is the shape of the pasta and the ordered assembly (and, technically speaking, baked ziti is in a more entropically favorable state..and if I'm being technical, I should appease my father, and note that I didn't actually make baked ziti, but rather baked penne). This is scaled down from my SnoDrift recipe...this makes about 8 servings as opposed to 80.

I made a sauce similar to the Pork Ragu I previously posted. This sauce works out well with or without meat, I chose to use about a pound of ground pork this time...Mmmm pork.



Baked ziti isn't very photogenic, but it sure is tasty.

Ingredients:

• approximately 1 pound of ground pork, beef, veal, and/or lamb or an equivalent amount of Italian sausage (optional)
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1 carrot, or about 5 baby carrots, finely diced
• 1 small yellow squash or zucchini, finely diced
• 1/4 cup of diced bell pepper
• 1/2 cup of diced mushrooms
• 28 oz of crushed tomatoes (1 large can)
• 1/4 of Red wine
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup parmesan/romano cheese
• 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded
  
• 1.5-2 cups of ricotta cheese
• basil, oregano, thyme, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, fennel seeds
• 1 lb of ziti (or penne, dad)

Start by browning the meat over medium heat. To this add garlic and onion, carrots, mushrooms, and bell pepper. Season with crushed red pepper, a few dashes of basil and oregano, and about 1/3 teaspoon of fennel seeds (if you're using Italian sausage, you probably won't need this).

Once the carrots soften up, add the finely diced summer squash and a few grinds of black pepper. To avoid having the squash turn to mush, I only cook saute them for about as much time as it takes me to open the can of crushed tomatoes. Next, add about half the tomatoes to the mix, a few more dashes of basil and oregano, and let it heat. After the tomatoes have warmed, add the rest of the tomatoes, red wine, balsamic vinegar, and the parmesan/romano cheese, stirring to combine. Let the sauce simmer for about half an hour. Salt to taste.

Mix about a tablespoon or so of basil and oregano into the ricotta cheese (for a simple variation, add chopped spinach). Once the pasta is cooked, combine the ricotta and tomato sauce...place in a baking dish, top with mozzarella. Bake at 375 until the top starts to get a little crispy (about 20 minutes).

Cucumber-Tomato-Avocado Salad

I made this salad for Nicole when she was visiting and served it with a spinach salad and shrimp with peppers. The pictures are from the version Nicole made for herself last night (she totally didn't use red onion though :-P ), which she paired with garlic fried tempeh and Kashi pilaf. A good versatile dish.



Ingredients:

• 2 plum tomatoes, diced or about 1/2 cup of halved grape tomatoes
  
• 1/4 cup diced red onion, finely diced
• 1/2 an English cucumber, diced
• 1 ripe avocado, diced
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped

seasonings:

• basil
• oregano
• thyme
• salt
• black pepper

In an appropriately sized bowl, mix the two vinegars, lemon juice, garlic, and herbs (fresh would be best, but whatever). Add olive oil, onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers to the bowl; mix well. Add the avocado, mix gently, and salt and pepper to taste. This is delicious served over mixed greens and toasted Italian bread. Fresh mozzarella would be a good addition.

Vietnamese summer rolls

When Nicole was here, I made her take a look at one of my cookbooks, and when she the summer rolls, she knew what she wanted to make for dinner. This summer rolls contain lettuce noodles, cucumbers and carrots, with a hint of cilantro and mint, all rolled up in rice wrappers. I'm sure this would also be great with some steamed shrimp (I do have a delicious recipe for steamed veggies and shrimp). It was nice and warm out and was definitely a perfect spring/summer meal. We paired it with plenty of Oberon and sesame noodles.



Ingredients:

• rice paper wrappers
• extra firm tofu, cut into long rectilinear pieces
• bean sprouts
• carrots, cut into matchsticks
• cucumbers, cut into long rectilinear pieces
• rice noodles
• leafy lettuce (we used red leaf)
• cilantro leaves
• mint leaves
• hoison sauce
• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• ground ginger

We first rehydrated the rice noddles following the directions on the package and cut up all of the veggies. We mixed a small amount of hoison sauce with a dash of sesame oil, plenty of soy sauce, and a few pinches of ginger. This served as both our dipping sauce and marinade for the tofu. We spooned a small amount of dipping sauce onto the sliced tofu. We next rehydrated the dry rice paper wrappers by placing them in warm water for two minutes until they were pliable (one at a time though). We moistened a towel and laid it on the counter as our workstation for wrapping.



Wrapping...we placed the rehydrated rice wrapper on the moistened towel. We took a piece of lettuce and made sure to remove any of the sharp and pointy parts (as we found that they will rip the rice paper). We put the lettuce on the rice wrapper followed by a healthy portion of rice noodles, cucumbers, carrots, tofu, a few leaves of cilantro and a leaf of mint. The mint can be quite strong, so we split the leaves of mint in half (lengthwise) and equally distributed the two halves in the roll. We then wrapped it up tightly (we rolled half of it up, then folded in the sides, and finished rolling)

To serve, we sliced them diagonally with the a side of dipping sauce.

Strawberry-Tangerine Sorbet

I recently purchased an ice cream maker and have been making lots of great frozen treats. Nicole was quite interested in making some sorbet, but most recipes I found contained very little fruit and were mostly just sugar water and corn syrup. Here is my version of sorbet (two recipes, actually) that comes out quite delicious and at least contains minimal amounts of refined sugar.



Strawberry-Tangerine Sorbet

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of tangerine juice (works equally as well with orange juice)
  
• 1 pint of strawberries
• juice of a quarter of a lime
• 1 shot of vodka or triple sec
  

I pureed the strawberries in my food processor. I then mixed the strawberry puree with the tangerine and lime juice, added the shot of vodka, and poured the mixture into my ice cream maker. The lime juice really adds a lot to the flavor of the sorbet...the first batch was definitely lacking without it. The vodka helps keep the mixture easier to scoop after its been in the freezer a while. After the sorbet was roughly the consistency of softserve, I let it set up in the freezer for two hours before eating.

Strawberry-tangerine-apple-peach schnapps sorbet
The sorbet sets up really fast in the ice cream maker, so I tried making a second batch immediately following the strawberry-tangerine sorbet, but was out of strawberries. I grabbed what was in the refrigerator and made a pretty good tasting concoction. The mixture contained approximately...

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of tangerine juice
• 1/4 cup of apple juice
• 1 shot of peach schnapps
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  

As I added this to the ice cream maker, it melted the strawberry-tangerine sorbet that was frozen to the sides of the bowl which added a nice light strawberry flavor to the mix.

Pork Ragu

This is a pork based ragu full of lots of vegetables. Rather than the standard soffrito of onions, celery and carrots, I used onions, carrots, peppers, and zucchini.

Ingredients:

• 2 spicy Italian sausages (pork)
• 14 oz of crushed tomatoes (half a large can)
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup of diced peppers
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 carrot (or approximately 5 baby carrots), finely diced
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• basil, oregano, black pepper
• parmesan/romano cheese

I removed the 2 sausages from their casings and broke them up into small pieces as I browned them. To the browned meat I added the carrots, onions, peppers, and garlic. Since it wasn't pepper season yet here in Michigan, I used a blend of frozen diced red, green, and yellow peppers. These actually worked quite well since they become soft rather fast; the sauce really shouldn't have a crunch. After the onions were browned, I added a few dashes of dried basil and oregano followed by a few grinds of black pepper. When the carrots were mostly soft with just a little crunch left, I added the diced zucchini. I let the zucchini cook for about the time it took me to open the can of tomatoes. I added the tomatoes to the sauce, a few more dashes of basil and oregano, and allowed the sauce to simmer over low heat for approximately 15 minutes. Finally, I added about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar to the mixture and allowed it to simmer for about 10 minutes more.

I served it over linguine and topped it with a blend of parmesan and romano cheese.

Fish Tacos

When Nicole came into town, we both had a craving for some fish tacos. Below is our quick recipe for fish tacos with salsa, guacamole, cabbage, and a nice tasty yogurt sauce.

The fish:

We used a little over 1 pound of mahi mahi for 3 people. The mahi mahi was tasty, but any light, flaky fish would work well, such as tilapia or cod. We marinated the fish for about 10-15 minutes while preparing the sauces. The marinade consisted of:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  
• juice of half a lime
  
• a few grinds of black pepper
  
• a dusting of chili powder
  
• a few grinds of sea salt
  
• a few cilantro leaves
  

Salsa:

The salsa we made was very simple, just combine the following ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of diced or crushed tomatoes
  
• 1/8 cup of diced onion
  
• 1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
  
• a dash of Cholula hot sauce
  
• salt, black pepper, and chili powder to taste
  
• a pinch of cumin
  
• several cilantro leaves, diced
  

Guacamole:

Even easier than the salsa, the guacamole we made was super quick, easy, and tasty. Just combine the following ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado, diced up, then mashed with a fork
• about 3 tablespoons of the salsa from above
• several more cilantro leaves, diced
• salt to taste

Yogurt Sauce:

We made the sauce with plain yogurt, but sour cream would also work nicely. Blend the following together:

• 1/4 cup of plain yogurt (or sour cream)
• 1/4 teaspoon lime juice
• a pinch of each of the following: ginger, chili powder, cumin, salt
• several leaves of cilantro, diced

Cooking:

In the time it took us to put together the salsa, guacamole, and yogurt sauce, the fish had nicely marinated. It took less than 10 minutes to grill the fish. The mahi mahi held up nicely on the grill, but it might be good to have a piece of foil on had to flip the fish onto. After cooked, we flaked the fish into bite-sized chunks and juiced a few wedges of lime on top. We heated the corn tortillas on the grill for about 30 seconds per side. We topped each corn tortilla with a small amount of the flaked fish, salsa, guacamole, white sauce, shredded cabbage and cheddar.