Indian Night In

Around 5pm I decided that all I wanted for dinner was beer bread and hummus. I had ingredients to wing a hummus but not enough flour to make the bread. I could a. walk across the street to the corner grocery and get some flour or b. fork over a little more cash for the real stuff at Lebanese Taverna conveniently next door to the grocery. It took me 15 minutes to come to the conclusion that I didn't want to leave the apartment at all, my kitchen was actually fully stocked, and I probably need to have a little more caloric discression after a week of binge eating. After a conversation with someone this afternoon about being fiscally responsible, I decided to use what I had in the kitchen.

I opened the fridge and was completely uninspired. Kale. Tomatoes. Butternut Squash. Mushrooms. Yuck. I couldn't come up with anything remotely interesting and could only see each ingredient in a silo when, out of nowhere, I had a flash of inspiration. I opted to make a kale/chickpea concotion and did a little Googling for some assistance. Apparently I wanted to make something similar to Balti. Evidently my strange concotion has probably been made many a time by many a generation. Does that make me brilliant for discovering something on my own that had already been discovered? Yes.

My yearning for whole wheat bread something was consuming me, so I rememered that I could make Roti. Jennilicous and I were just talking about roti as we shared her first Indian feast in which we both tried to see how much we could shove into our bodies before our stomachs would explode. And then we added a little more.

So it nicely came together for me. I mixed a cup of whole wheat flour with some water (maybe 2/3 cup? I started with .25 cup and added more until it was firm/stiff). Once I made it into a dough ball, I added in some chopped garlic and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes with a moist cloth atop. It must be amazing if it has to freaking rest.

Meanwhile I sauteed a large red onion in some olive oil (1TBish) until transparent, then I added some garlic for a minute or two. I cut up 7 plum tomatoes, which are my favorites, and added them in along with some of the liquid from a can of chickpeas. I threw in some salt, curry powder, the chickpeas (sans liquid), and a gigantic 16oz bag of fresh kale and cooked until the kale was done. My brother inspired me to buy the kale since he mentioned it several times while I visited him last week. Good job, bro!

While that was going I made 3 little balls out of the dough and flattened them out into little circles that were not thick but not really thin. I am a chump and can't succecssfully use a rolling pin, so I used the palm of my hands. And it worked like a charm. I put the last remaining drops of garlic olive oil into a frying pan and put it on medium. Then I realized that this was pretty stupid because olive oil has a low smoke point and I really needed the temp on high. Oh well. I turned the heat up a little more but not all the way and cooked both sides of the roti until they were brown. It's much more fun to make them when you have a gas stove because the next step is to put the roti on the open flame for a few seconds per side. But, considering my history with heat sources, it's probably better that my kitchen is lame.

The kale mixture made 3 large servings- more than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I can't wait to try it reheated when the curry has had time to mingle more with the other ingredients. And the roti were the perfect accompaniment. The garlic chunks inside it were super amazing. I'm now delightfully full and overpoweringly odorous.

Christmas Recap

Since my grandmother is still recovering from her April cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment, I spent Christmas in Georgia with her and my parents. To ease my mom's constant burden of being her caregiver, I thought I'd cook dinner. Little did I realize, however, that I'd have no access to internet or cell phone because I was back in 1955 rural Georgia. Let's just say my improvisational skills were really tested.

I settled on:
Stuffed acorn squash- I cooked barley and lentils in some veggie broth and added some cranberries, cilantro, and hot Mexican-style chili powder, then stuffed it into the squash. The colors were delightful and very Christmas-like
Pecan stuffing- I made stuffing with a little extra margarine for flavor and some pecans since my grandmother has a pecan orchard and they were fresh off the trees
Sweet potatoes- I added roasted garlic, chives, and margarine to some boiled (w/skins) sweet ptoatoes
Sauteed spinach with caramalized onions
Beer bread

I also wanted to make some gingerbread cookies, but alas, no blog access for the recipe, and I didn't want to buy molasses because I knew no one else would ever use it and it would just get tossed. So I searched my computer and found this recipe for Chocolate Chip Walnut Pumpkin Cookies that I luckily had saved. I omitted the eggs, forgot the baking soda, subbed unsweetened apple sauce for the oil, used pecans instead of walnuts, and added a cup of cranberries. I think it had too much chocolate (blasphemy!) and I'd probably leave it out altogether if I was going to make it again.

I ate these damn things left and right as if I was going to die if my stomach wasn't completely full with cookies. Every 10 minutes I'd scarf down 2 more to the point where I wanted to vomit. Yet I kept eating...

Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup

In the past I have professed my love for the sweet potato. Sometimes I struggle with moderation, and I overdosed on the poor tasty tuber a few too many times. I was running out of new ways to enjoy it and reverting to my regular fallback recipes.

In trying to figure out what I was going to finish up in my fridge before the holidays, I stumbled upon some sweet potatoes. So I Googled "sweet potato soup" and found this recipe for Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup, which is kismet because I had all 3 of the titled ingredients. I didn't have celery or, gasp, onions, so I just sauteed some diced baby carrots until tender. I, of course, had no cumin, so I added some chipotle flakes and chilli powder along with grated lime and ginger leftover from my delicious homemade ginger ale. I added 4 med-large sweet potatoes (cubed) and boiled until done. Then I got out my favorite tool of all time, the immersion blender, and blended half of it (ladeled out the other soup into a bowl because I like chunks). I added the 1/2 cup of soy milk and swired it around so it looked pretty until it mixed in. Meanwhile, I boiled 3/4c lentils and 3/4cup quinoa. When it was done, I added some salt and lime juice.

It made 4 very large but low-cal servings. It really would have been fine doing .5c each lentils and quinoa, but I needed some extra protein for dinner, so tonight's bowl was a little fuller than the others.

I never would have imagined using these flavors together, but it was amazing. I could definitely taste the lime and the ginger but not in an overpowering way. It was just so unique. I think the lime turned my lentils and quinoa into crack, too, because they were amazing on their own. Next time, it gets some Better Than Cream Cheese instead of the soy milk.

Thanks, Puddin'!

I used this pudding recipe (that I've blogged about before), but I had no cocoa because I used it to make pudding last weekend.

So, I heated up 1c soy milk, added 2 TB cornstarch, and then once it gelled I removed from heat and added 1-2tsp maple syrup and 1TB peanut butter. Well, actually I added them all in at the same time, which resulted in some lumps. But I'm pretending that didn't happen because it was otherwise the tastiest thing I have ever eaten in my life. I'm not sure if it was the maple or what, but it was amazing. And I scarfed it down, so that's why you get no photo.

Did I mention this was the greatest food item of all time?

I've Been Waiting All Day to Make This Pizza

Because I haven't been feeling well (jetlag from my ridiculous LA overnighter), I decided to cheer myself up with food. I need to overdose on veggies since I am not feeling well, and I wanted to sneak in a little protein that is not peanut butter. What's better than pizza?

I used my onion-herbed beer bread recipe (3c flour, onion, herbs, 1 bottle beer) as the basis for crust. I flattened it out into 4 mini-crusts on a greased cookie sheet. I put it in a 375 degree oven for a few minutes while I assembled the sauce, which is strangely similar to my creamy tomato soup- 3 regular tomatos, 2TB tomato paste, 1 package of firm silken tofu, 4 cloves garlic, and salt/pepper- using my handy dandy immersion blender. I slapped the sauce on the pizza and put it back in while I made the other toppings- spinach (2pkg frozen), mushrooms (10 white), and thinly sliced red onion (.25c). I added those to the pizza and put it back in while I chopped up 2 roma tomatoes and 10 black olives. Last time out, I added the tomato slices, olives, and capers (the greatest ingredient ever). I let it cook a few more minutes then turned the broiler on for a few more so the tomatoes would roast a little.

I had to write the blog while it cooled, otherwise I'd have burned my mouth. It's pretty good- though the sauce could have been stronger (more salt/tomato paste maybe?. And I used frozen spinach, which made the crust a little soggy in the middle because I didn't strain it very well.

Still hit the spot.

Nuts!

I'm on my way out the door to see Patrick Dempsy, but I made some spiced nuts for Tara's sitter. Through the brilliance of Google, I found this recipe for spiced walnuts.

I liked the maple syrup aspect, but in the end, they weren't as flavorful as I'd hoped. Of course, I didn't follow instructions on measurement, so I could have added more cinnamon. We'll see what Tara's friend thinks. But I had a catastrophe with this measureless snickerdoodle recipe and came out with intensely spiced cake-like cookies. Minus the over-spicing (I followed the recipe and added more than I thought necessary) they would have been great...

Gingerbread Cookies

Although LBD sent me her gingerbread cookie recipe (thanks!), I'd already found one from the Post Punk Kitchen that I already actually had all of the ingredients for in my kitchen (except for cloves, which I won't buy because they seem ridiculously expensive).

I've never made gingerbread anything before so this seemed a little daunting. But it turned out easy and absolutely delicious. I also thought I'd ice some of them for no real reason. I did a little digging about found this easy Gingerbread Vegan Icing recipe from the Vegan Lunch Box. I made 2 batches of icing since I cooked half the dough the day I made it and then the other half a day later. For the first batch I used a good amount of vanilla and regular soy milk, and the second included less vanilla and soy nog. I liked the first better, but it was a little runnier.

No style points, but the taste makes up for my inabilitiy to prettify things.

Easy Meals for the Lazy Chef

Coming back from a long Thanksgiving and then preparing for another one-night stand with a celebrity in LA (relax, it's just an overnight dash from the East coast over to the West coast to play with someone famous), I hoped to minimize my time in the kitchen. So lunch the next 2 days is a strange concoction that somehow tastes fabulous:



Creamy Tomato Green Bean Soup

Boil .5 cup brown rice in 1 can veggie broth for about 10 or 15 minutes. Add 3 cups fresh green beans (and more water/broth if necessary) and cook until green beans are done. Meanwhile, using your handy dandy immersion blender attachment (or a blender), blend .5 block of silken tofu (firm), 2 TB tomato paste, and some canned chipotle in adobo sauce. When the green beans are done or almost done, add the creamy mixture to the pot and add salt to season. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Enjoy the strangest but most delightful concotion you've had in awhile.



Chipotle Polenta with Lime Infused Spinach/Artichoke/Roasted Garlic

I'm fairly certain you can guess from the title what's in it. I boiled some polenta, salt, and chipotle powder (which I will use for chipotle brownies soon!) until creamy. At the same time I boiled one package of frozen spinach and one package of frozen artichokes, which I didn't know existed. I added some salt and roasted garlic and cooked until piping hot. I added the lime juice, stirred, then piled atop the chipotle polenta and added jennilicious' favorite plant- cilantro. Some of the bites were amazing...and some were just ok. I'm not sure how that can happen. Yes, that's my unsweetened homemade cranberry ginger ale.

Holiday Delight

Armed with new batteries for my camera that seems to run out of batteries once a month even though I only use it for food blogging, I am back with a vengence!

Tonight I was feeling especially merry as evidenced both by the excessive Christmas decorations adorning my apartment and by the seasonal delights I made. I've been wanting to make some sort of cranberry soda since I had a giant bag of berries leftover from my acorn squash stuffing. I did some googling and came up with this recipe, a combination of homemade ginger ale and cranberry juice recipes:

1 cup peeled, finely chopped ginger

3/4 bag fresh cranberries

2 cups water

Boil cranberries until the pop, add ginger for 5 minutes, then set aside for 20 minutes. Strain into container of your choice- I opted for a glass jar. Now, I suppose you should combine it with club soda, but I'm a huge fan of seltzer water and used that instead. I just mixed until I found what I liked. To sweeten, make a simple syrup by mixing 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of boiling water and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Add what tastes good to you.

For dinner I went for some stuffing, and when I looked up the recipe I noticed that on the same page was a recipe for Brussels sprouts, my favorite. So, from page 228 of the November 2006 edition of Better Homes and Gardens, I used this Old-Fashioned Bread Stuffing recipe. My only change was that I used fresh sage and fresh tarragon (left over from the squash stuffing) and I used vegetable broth instead of chicken.

Also on that page I found this recipe for Creamy Brussels Sprouts. I followed it for the most part, again subbing veggie broth for chicken, but it calls for whipping cream and cheese so I had to get creative. I creamed together a half block of silken tofu and about 1/4 soy milk to replace the cream, and I made no attempt to sub for the cheese mostly because I overlooked it when I was making my shopping list.

The stuffing was a little bland despite my addition of fresh herbs. I'm wondering if they cooked too long and lost their flavor. Or maybe I just prefer poultry seasoning. And I suspect the veggie broth was less than stellar because it wasn't high quality.

The sprouts were interesting but I enjoyed them. Nutmeg is the secret ingredient in everything and even though I don't particularly care for it, it made the dish what it was. Next time I'll use Better Than Cream Cheese instead of tofu/soy mlik and I bet it will taste even better.

And of course, they were both delightful chased down with my delicious cranberry soda.

The Blog is Back!

The past 3 months have been insane with travel taking up nearly 50% of my time. So now I've decided to go back to food blogging- but really only because I've been eating some good things and can't remember them. So, no, it's not about the 10 of you who actually read this. It's about my failing memory....



One of my greatest creations that saved me on 2 separate trips in November was lentils, green beans, and whole wheat pasta with some salt and garlic olive oil. I simply made it the night before (well, the 2nd time I made it the morning I left), let it sit and marinate, then enjoyed on the plane as everyone else was eating the crappy plane food. I even got desperate the second time and grabbed some canned green beans and it was still delicious.



This week I also experimented with stuffed acron squash and lentil loaf. Yes, I said lentil loaf. I followed this reciple for the squash, but made it my own so that it ended up being:



2 gigantic acorn squash

.75 cup wild rice, .25 cup brown rice

2 veggie bouillon cubes 2 cans veggie broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

a large yellow onion

2-3 stalks of celery

1/4 cup (or so) chopped walnuts

2TB each fresh tarragon and sage

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup fresh cranberries

salt

ground black pepper to taste



Then I followed the general cooking instructions, adding the cranberries at the same time as the walnuts and the herbs as close to the end as possible. I either undercooked the rice inititally or overcooked it when reheating in the oven because it was pretty crunchy, which was a little less than ideal. But it was still very tasty.



The lentil loaf was lentil, yes, but not loaf. I think some of my issues were that I didn't know if 2 cups of lentils meant 2 cups dry, cooked, or 2 cups of cooked lentils. Then I didn't have breadcrumbs so I substituted 2 pieces of stale bread. And I had no marinara sauce, so I added some tomato paste and chili powder. Looking back, I should have added more tomatoes and spices and let it sit in the loaf pan to cool. Instead, I wasted no time in turning it out onto a plate where it quickly became lentil mush. But I didn't touch it, mostly because my dinner guest had to postpone until the next night. So the next night I got it back in the loaf pan to heat it up (I'm scared of the microwave) and it was more loaflike, but less flavorfull than I hoped. I made a sauce for the top that consisted of 3 roma tomatoes, cilantro, chili powder, and 2 tb tomato paste blended together. It was alright the first night but inedible the second night. You know I still ate it though.