Shrimp & Garlic Pasta

Do you ever get cravings that you just can't explain?  Yeah, me too.  I think all foodies go through it in different ways.

Last week, my soul was crying out for shrimp and garlic.  I also really really wanted some parmesan cheese, so that means pasta.

I made enough to last a few days, so I'm going to tone down the proportions a little from what I did.  These are approximations, so you'll have to use your best judgment and trust your instincts when you make it.

I've had a glass of wine tonight, so please understand that in the Directions section I'm assuming you know how to cook.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat spaghetti  (I don't use any other kind these days), enough for two people.
1/2 pound of raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed
4 garlic cloves
1/4 of a large onion
Parmesan cheese

Directions:

This dish doesn't take long, so right away start the water for your pasta.  Add the pasta when the water comes to a roiling boil and put in tablespoon or so of salt.  Cook til al dente.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large non-stick pan.
Finely chop the onion and garlic.
Put the onion in the hot oil, and stir til it's softened.
Add the garlic and spinach, sprinkle with some freshly ground black pepper.
Stir 1-2 minutes and add the shrimp.
Stir until the shrimp is all pink, and turn the heat off.
Add the cooked spaghetti and toss to mix thoroughly.

You can add the parmesan at the table per serving, or toss 1/4 cup or so with the whole thing, that's up to you.  Ordinarily I'd use fresh grated parmesan, but I was out used the dried stuff.  I think for this purpose, it worked better than fresh grated would have.

Serve with a glass of white wine and a salad, and dinner's done.

Bon Appetit!

Everyday Wheat Bread

Bread is one of those things we take for granted, especially if you’re a big toast or sandwich eater.  But have you noticed lately that a lot of the bread is costing up to $5 per loaf?  That is a LOT of money for something that really isn’t that hard to make.

You’ll need about 3 hours really for this.  Most of that time is sitting around and waiting, the actual time you’ve got your hands on it is about 20-30 minutes.  I’m doing this by hand, not using any machinery that you may not have.  I have cut the recipe in half and just made one loaf, and it works just fine.

So you’ll need 2 loaf pans, measuring cups, microwave, a sturdy spoon, a nice big bowl, and the ingredients listed below.

Ingredients

2 cups of water

¼ cup of melted butter

¼ honey

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 envelopes active dry yeast

4 to 4 ½ cups whole wheat flour

(the following are optional)

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

½ cup wheat germ

Directions

Put the water, butter, and honey in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds on high.  You want it warm but not steaming.  If you can put your finger in it comfortably and it feels warm, you’re good.  If it is uncomfortable, let it cool off for 2 minutes before proceeding.

In a large bowl, mix the warm liquid, all-purpose flour, salt and yeast with a whisk until there are no lumps, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the seeds and wheat germ if you’re using them.  Now add the wheat flour one cup at a time until you’ve got all 4 cups in.  If it’s not really sticky, you’re ready to move forward, otherwise add a tablespoon or two more of wheat flour.  Use the remaining wheat flour to dust a large cutting board so you can knead the dough.  Wipe out the bowl after you put the dough on the floured board, and then grease the bowl with soft butter.

If you’ve never done any bread dough kneading, what you need to do is push the big lump a little flattish and then fold it over towards you and push it away from you with the heel of your hand.  Do this for about 5 minutes, rotating the dough so it turns into a smoother shape.  By the time the dough is ready, it will be smooth and elastic – trust yourself, you’ll recognize it when it happens.  Put the dough into the greased bowl, and turn it over so it’s got a greasy side facing up.  Cover with a cloth and let it rest in a warm place for an hour.  Wash your hands, clean things up and go relax.

At the end of the hour, grease 2 loaf pans with soft butter.  Punch the dough down (put your fist in it, you don’t have to use the same force you’d punch your ex with).  This will release some of the air.  Divide the dough into 2 equal portions, shape into vaguely loaf-like shapes and put in the greased loaf pans.  Cover and let rise another hour, wash your hands and clean the bowl out, and get back to your relaxing.

Preheat the oven to 350, and when it’s ready uncover the loaf pans and put the pans in the oven.  Set your timer for 35 minutes, and come back to look at it when the timer goes off.  Because it’s wheat bread, it may be hard to tell when the loaves have achieved a “golden” state.  Open the oven and pull the rack out so you can tap the top of the loaf.  If it feels sort of hollow when you tap them, they’re ready.  If not ready, check again after 5 minutes, keep doing that until you feel they are ready.  Take them out, close the oven, turn it off, and turn the loaves out to cool. 

I know, I know, you’re tempted to cut into it immediately.  Don’t do that, give it at least 10-15 minutes before you cut it, it’s still coming down from 350 degrees and finishing the last of the baking inside and firming up its structure.  Because this bread is more dense, it’s not as full of fillers as what you buy and less likely to have the same spongy texture as store-bought bread.  You’ll have to slice it thinner as a result, but hey if it turned out right then it’s going to be crazy good and that just means you get more of it, right?  Try the end piece with just some soft butter spread on it to see how it is.  You'll notice that less of it fills you up more than store-bought bread does.

And there you have it – homemade bread good for sandwiches and toast.  I may throw some oats into it next time for even more fiber and texture, but even if you don’t add any of the extras I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

If everything went right and you’re feeling great about your bread making experience, you may also want to try this recipe - Honey Oatmeal Bread

Scottish Oatcakes - Attempt #1

Part of my ethnic heritage is Scottish, and lately I've been thinking about what folks eat in the countries my ancestors came from.  The oatcake comes to mind, and there are various different versions of them.

The thicker, dense variety are also called bannocks.  I've tried those in the past and just didn't care for them, but there's a version that's similar to a crepe so I went looking for recipes.  I found this charming video on YouTube about them:

http://youtu.be/_oaikgG-pNg


Well, after watching THAT and the gentleman talking about eating them with bacon grease dribbling down his chin, I was totally wanting some right away.  I probably shouldn't have watched it without having eaten first, but que sera sera.

I experimented with my own version of a recipe since I didn't have any oat flour on hand and didn't want to try making my own oat flour in the food processor this time.  Here's what I did....

1 cup water and 1 cup milk, warmed in the microwave.

1/2 teaspoon yeast dissolved in the liquid and stir in 1/2 tablespoon sugar.

In a large bowl, mix together 3/4 cup wheat flour, 3/4 cup white flour, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Pour the liquid and yeast mix into the dry ingredients and whisk together.

Cover, and let sit in a warm place for an hour.

Now mind you, I was looking at 3-4 different recipes at the same time, trying to come up with something that would work.  At this point, you were supposed to stir in a tablespoon of melted butter and start cooking them.  It was supposed to be thin like crepe batter (or a very thin pancake batter) but something went a little wild... it was thick as oatmeal and bubbling.  I added a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and drizzled water in while stirring to get it thin again.  It wound up taking another 1/2 cup of water to get it right.

At this point, I heated up a large nonstick pan, threw a little butter in and used a big soup ladle to pour batter in the pan.   Cook til the bubbles firm and flip, brown lightly on that side and it's done.

I made a stack of about 12 of these babies up.  Fortunately, one of them broke on me so I could nibble at a few fragments while I continued cooking the rest of the batter.  After one bite, I grabbed a little strawberry jam and tried that too.  Then some butter with the jam.  It was awesome.  I was sad that I'd only had 1/3 of an oatcake, and I still had 5 more to cook before I could stop.

I had cooked some breakfast sausage up, so the other 2/3 of the broken one wound up with a bit of maple syrup on it and wrapped around the sausage while I continued to cook.

It was *very* satisfying.   I had a really full day of housework ahead of me, so after they'd cooled I wrapped all but 2 up and put in the freezer.  I figured that if I couldn't freeze and reheat them, they were useless to me for something quick on the go.  To be honest, I can't remember how I ate the 2 I'd held out, but I remember being happy with it.

The next day, I cooked some bacon, 2 eggs (over medium) and sliced a little cheese while 2 oatcakes thawed out in the microwave, with my fingers crossed.   The texture held up to it, and they were slightly warm after about a minute on high.  So I put some bacon and cheese on half of each, egg on top and folded over to pick up and eat sandwich-style.  One would have been sufficient, I wound up skipping lunch that day because I was so full.  And the texture plus flavor made me blissfully happy.  I also tried them with some apples I'd sauteed with a little cinnamon, topped with ricotta cheese and a very thin drizzle of maple syrup over the top.  Again, pure bliss.


The rest - well, my roommate never got to try any.  I was completely selfish and didn't even tell him about them.  I'm calling my first attempt a huge success, but next time I will try with some oat flour and see how they come out.

If you decide to try these gems, do let me know how it works for you, or feel free to ask me any questions.  Bon appetit!

Real Men DO Eat Quiche!

I was going to make this for breakfast yesterday, but wound up going to the movies instead so Sunday morning quiche it was destined to be!

In my goal to balance healthy eating with good flavor, sometimes I get off on the wrong track, and sometimes (like this morning) the Tastebud Express glides into the station with a gentle whisper of culinary bliss.  Does that sound conceited to say about my own cooking?  Perhaps so, but man… it was really good!

The concept:  A quiche I could eat on for the rest of the week to avoid cooking in the summer heat.  I wanted it to have a whole wheat crust (for fiber), and enough veggies in it that I could feel good about the fat going into it.  All things in moderation, right?

The final outcome:  A quiche with a rather firm crust, filled with bacon, mushrooms, spinach, swiss cheese and the usual delectable custard.

Quick note:  This is a LARGE recipe, to fit my 11” quiche pan.  If you’re using a regular 9” pie plate then you’ll definitely have excess crust and filling. 

Planning:   Make the crust while your bacon is cooking and your oven is preheating to 425, then pre-bake the crust while you’re cooking the vegetables.  While the pre-baked crust is cooling, grate the cheese and beat the custard together. 

The ingredients:

(some measurements approximate, so use what you think sounds good)

Crust:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp garlic salt (yep!)

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

(at this point, mix it all together in a big bowl)

1 tbsp garlic butter (I had some from last night)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 tbsp cold water

As you can see, I threw some flavor into the crust.  I hate when you have just a little piece of crust on your plate and you eat it and it just tastes like fatty salty flour.  So, as with any pastry recipe, mix in the oil and butter with a fork until the flour is crumbly instead of powdery, then sprinkle over the tablespoons of cold water and mix until you get a ball.  Roll between pieces of wax paper to the right size for your pan, trim off any excess and bake at 425 for 10 minutes, after pricking with a fork to avoid bubbles.  Remove to cool, you do NOT want it browned at all.

Filling:

6 slices lean bacon cooked crisp

1/3 red onion, diced fine

1 cup diced crimini mushrooms

1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Pinch of dried thyme

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 dashes cayenne pepper

1 dash nutmeg

Cook the veggies until soft in the bacon fat (why waste flavor?), add the pepper, cayenne, and dried thyme and stir it in before turning off the heat.  You will be putting it in a colander to drain excess liquid out so it doesn’t make the quiche watery.

In a big bowl beat 4 eggs, add a cup of heavy cream and a cup of 2% milk  (or whole milk, though it will be richer.)

Assembly:

To your now pre-baked crust, add the cooked vegetables that you’ve mixed with your chopped crispy bacon and spread evenly on the bottom of the crust.  Top with about a cup of shredded swiss cheese, then pour the custard over.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 for 30 minutes.  You’ll wind up with a golden brown top that is the crust of cheese (nom nom nom) and just let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting into wedges to serve.  But, um, don’t serve for at least 5 minutes if you don’t want your guests (or yourself) to have their mouths scorched!  

So there you have it, that's what I did for breakfast this morning before mowing the lawns.  I did snitch another bite after mowing to see how the flavors were when it was room temperature, and the flavor was fabulous.  Nothing overpowering, every ingredient making an appearance on the palate.

My “Worst Cooks” evening in the kitchen

I had this great idea when I was at work yesterday.  Red bell pepper pasta with a spinach parmesan sauce, and portabella mushroom caps stuffed with Italian-seasoned ground sirloin with some melted mozzarella on top.  In my head, it was beautiful and delicious.

In reality – well, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.  Lesson of the day – don’t try to do something new without writing a recipe guideline down first and don’t try to take shortcuts to save time.  Oh yeah, and don’t try to do something involving this much work on a night when I didn’t get home from work until 6pm.

It was definitely a lesson in humility.  But I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t post the failures as well as the successes, so here we go.

The pasta

The idea here was that I would use the juicer and run a red bell pepper through it so I could use the pulp and some of the juice in the pasta dough.  Still a good idea, I think.   My favorite book to help me learn to make pasta (because I’m still in the baby step stages) is Pasta Tecnica by Bruno Pasquale.  It’s seriously old, but a great resource.

So, I juiced a bell pepper, put 1 ½ cups of flour in a bowl with a generous pinch of garlic salt, 2 eggs and the pulp.  I got about ½ a cup of juice from the pepper, and put ¼ cup in the pasta dough and started beating the eggs into the flour.  As expected, it got a bit too sticky so I just added flour a spoonful at a time until the dough “felt right”, then rolled it out a little and let it rest while I got the mushrooms going.  So far, no mistakes really.

With the mushrooms in the oven and the dishes in the sink, I started rolling out the pasta dough after putting the water on to boil.  I have a Villaware Pasta Machine that clamps to my kitchen counter and is easy to work with.  Mistake #3 – not making the roommate help me.  With a manual pasta machine, you really need more than one set of hands.  Because I was alternately trying to feed dough into the machine and catch the resulting sheet of dough with my left hand while my right hand turned the crank, let’s just say it wasn’t nice smooth rectangles of dough.  I got impatient because it was taking too long.  If you’ve never done this, you start rolling the dough at the widest setting (7) and gradually make it thinner as you feed the dough through again.  Mistake #4 – I didn’t make the dough thin enough, I stopped at setting 3 and I should have gone down to 2.  Then I started feeding the thinned dough through the fettucine cutters.  Not bad, only a few strands broke off and hit the floor.  Mistake #5 – I didn’t get the pasta drying rack out.  I wound up draping the strands of noodle dough creatively on a bowl.  Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to dust with some more flour so the noodles wouldn’t stick to each other.  After getting half the dough noodled, I realized I hadn’t started the sauce and I was running out of time.  Mistake #6 – trying to make a creamy cheese sauce with spinach without even thinking about how.  I threw some olive oil in a nonstick pan while I finished rolling the other half of the dough out and turning it into noodles.

Frozen chopped spinach went into the olive oil when the noodles went into the boiling water.   Then I realized I was out of fresh garlic – I had to use the garlic in the jar in the fridge.  Urgh.   Here are my thought processes at this point: 

“ What goes in the sauce again?  Oh heck, I have some red bell pepper juice left, what could it hurt to toss that in?  Hey, milk would make it creamy, right?  Now where’s that fresh grated Parmesan.  Oh crap, it’s in the freezer.  Well, it’ll melt, I’m sure.  Um, it’s kind of orange and the noodles are already starting to float.  Why do some of the noodles look like octopus tentacles?  I’d better stir.  Hmm, there might not be enough water in the pot.  I’ll push them down in the water to drown them.  OK, cheese melted with the spinach, turning the heat down… wait, why do I have clumps of spinach?  The mushrooms are done and floating in liquid in there.  Well, that’s totally ugly gray in there, hopefully sprinkling mozzarella on top will help.  Oh no, I have mozzarella cheese sprinkles on the inside of the oven door now.  Got to get this pulled together.  Maybe the roommate isn’t hungry.  OK, looks like the pasta is done, the color got lighter and the noodles are all floating, to heck with it, it’s going in the nonexistent sauce and I’ll just add more parmesan…”

The mushrooms

I had 2 portabella mushroom caps and ½ a pound of ground sirloin.  The idea was that with the right mix of Italian seasonings I could simulate the flavor of sausage without all the fat that goes with it, and have some mozzarella on top.

I grabbed my new spice grinder, put in a pinch or two of red pepper flakes for heat, some fennel seeds, some dried basil and oregano and then let the grinder go nuts.   It wasn’t quite powdered, but it was smaller pieces.  Mistake #1 – not measuring, so I couldn’t tell you how much of what I used.  I dumped the meat in a bowl, and the spices on top and smelled fennel overwhelmingly.  Oops.  Then I used the garlic press to squeeze 2 cloves of garlic on top, some garlic salt and black pepper and stirred it all together.  All I could smell was fennel, and I knew I was in trouble.  Luckily, I had a jar of prepared pesto in the fridge, so two spoonfuls of that and ¼ cup of parmesan cheese mixed into the meat and I’d managed to save it.   Scooped the gills out of the mushroom caps because there wasn’t enough room for stuffing otherwise, then stuffed them with the meat mixture and put them in a 350 oven.  Mistake #2 – forgetting that the meat and mushrooms would be giving off juices.  Luckily, they were on a jelly roll pan that had sides so the liquid didn’t get all over the bottom of the oven.  I had brushed the top of the caps with garlic butter so they wouldn’t stick to the pan, and I think that added to the flavor.  Set the time for 20 minutes and then back to the pasta.

The final outcome

So, by the time everything was done, I had a pan full of light orange noodles with clumps of cheesy spinach, and some gray blobs of mushroom underneath some melted mozzarella.   We ate it anyway, and I was thinking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was going to be the last resort.

In spite of the mistakes, including the ones I probably forgot to document, it wasn’t half bad.  Some of the noodles were cooked perfectly, some were still undercooked and doughy, and while the sauce was nonexistent there was lots of flavor.  With the leftover noodles (I made twice as much as we needed), I’m determined to get that spinach sauce right and make it work.

The mushrooms – well, the first bite was pretty amazingly flavorful and delicious.   The subsequent bites tasted mostly like ground beef, and I’m not sure why.

Would I try doing something like this again?   You bet.  I think the idea is still sound, my execution and planning just needs a lot of work.  The roommate was pretty happy with it, I personally gave it a B- overall.

Vegetables with breakfast

For some of you reading this, you just did a mental double-take.  That's OK, I did too at first.

But in talking with folks at work who come from other cultures, I found that it's quite common.  Sweet sugary things are an alien concept to them first thing in the morning, so I started experimenting a few months ago with throwing some frozen chopped spinach in a pan and then scrambling eggs with it.

It's fantastic.

After recently watching the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" I was reminded about micronutrients (vitamins) coming primarily from produce, and the macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, etc.) coming from animal products.  I know this is a generality and that you can find some in either grouping, and that vegans get enough protein, so simmer down.  It's just a generality.

What I've discovered through my own personal experimentation is that eating vegetables in the morning gives me more energy throughout the day.  Sometimes I'll juice fruits/veggies, sometimes I'll cook and eat them (see below), but I'm definitely finding a lift in my energy levels when I eat veggies in the morning versus when I don't.

Try it yourself, start out easy like adding sauteed mushrooms and peppers to your omelette.  Work your way up to broccoli and spinach, and note the difference in how you feel.  After all, if your morning meal makes you feel great, it sets a lovely tone for the start of the day!

Because my body needs protein in the morning, I do what I call a "healthier compromise", so here was this morning's breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 chipotle tortilla (from Trader Joe's, but you could use whole wheat)
2 slices lean bacon
1 egg
2 mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 slice of sharp cheddar cheese, diced

Directions:

Put the bacon in a non-stick skillet, and cook til crisp.  You're going to eat it on the side.

Put the mushrooms and frozen chopped spinach in the bacon fat (there should be about 2 tbsp left in the pan), and sautee til it is defrosted and the mushrooms start to release their liquid.

Crack the egg into the pan, and stir until it's mixed well with the veggies and cooked.  Put the cheese on the tortilla, then the veggie/egg scramble on top of that, and the tortilla in the pan for about 2 minutes.  It will heat up and slightly crisp, then roll up and enjoy.

Because my tortilla had a nice kick to it already, I didn't feel the need to add salsa.

Alan's Greenlafels

A green what?!?  Greenlafel, you say?  Well, yes.  I wanted falafel, but I'm trying to come up with non-meat alternatives to add to my vast repertoire, and this seemed like a good idea.  Happily, "good" was an understatement.

I was inspired by Aarti Sequeira's Pea-lafel idea on her bellydance episode of "Aarti Party", but I didn't like the flavor combinations she used, so I didn't even look at her recipe to be honest.

Greenlafel “dough”

16 oz bag of frozen edamame, thawed

1 cup frozen peas & carrots, thawed

1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed

1 tsp ground coriander

1 cup cilantro leaves

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp fennel seeds, ground

½ cup chickpea flour (or whole wheat flour would work)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:

1 cup plain yogurt (I like greek yogurt best)

½ cup chopped cilantro

Garlic salt

Lemon pepper

Accessories:

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

Thinly sliced onion (be creative)

Cucumber, sliced about 1/8 inch

Pita bread

Bowl for yogurt sauce

Food processor for making dough

Pan with ½” to 1” of oil for frying.  (Use a deep pan like a dutch oven to reduce the splattering on your stove)

Tongs for turning balls in hot oil

Instructions:

Mix the yogurt with the chopped cilantro, and add garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste.  Set aside in the fridge, covered.

Take the greenlafel ingredients and put them in the food processor, blend until smooth.  It won’t get totally smooth, but it will reach a wet doughy consistency.  If still too wet to form into balls that you can handle, add more flour a tablespoon at a time until it’s right.

Form some dough into 4-5 small balls, a tablespoon should make something about the size of ping-pong balls while the oil heats in your pan for frying.

When the oil starts to shimmer in the pan, carefully place 4-5 balls in it being careful not to drop them and splash hot oil on yourself.  They’re ready to turn when you notice the edge turning a dark caramel color.  They cook fast, so don’t walk away!   As you remove from heat and replace with uncooked greenlafel balls, if they start to crumble as you’re turning or removing from the oil, they didn’t cook long enough to hold together, or the dough was too wet.  You can add some flour to the remaining dough to stiffen it up a bit more if needed for the next batch.  They’ll still taste great, so don’t fret if they fall apart on you, just hide them from guests.

When you’ve cooked all you need, or all the dough, you can turn the heat off under the oil and start assembling pitas.

With the pita cut in half, you’ll have 2 pockets.  Figure that each guest might want to eat two because they taste so good and it’s really just vegetables, after all.

Open one pocket up, put 2-3 greenlafels in (whatever fits depending on how big you made them), followed by a spoonful or two of the yogurt sauce, and whatever veggies you want in it.  You can use lettuce, or spinach, or small dice tomatoes in addition to what I listed above, it’s really up to you.  Radish sprouts might even be interesting and lend a little kick to things.

And as for that dough – feel free to experiment with spices.  What I listed came out pretty mild (by my standards), but the flavor was still great.  It was so good I would consider spreading it on bread as part of a sandwich!   The leftover dough I have is going in a container in the fridge to use again in a couple of days, it ought to hold up pretty well.

And in case your inner carnivore is asking where the meat is… chill out.  I still like meat too, but there’s a LOT of protein in this meal, PLUS lots of fiber and veggies, which means vitamins!  Parents might find this a good vehicle for sneaking veggies in on your kids (or spouse, or roommate).