Grown-Up Mac and Cheese (Sort-Of)

This is delicious and fast…highly recommended!

Pasta with Butternut Squash

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/recipe-of-the-day-pasta-with-butternut-squash/

Melt-in-your-Mouth Indian Eggplant

eggplants, sliced thin, salted and dried on a paper towel to remove bitterness

For frying:

8 whole fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp whole fennel seeds
1/4 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp kalonji

To garnish:
salt
tabasco sauce
lemon juice
sour cream

Take the prepared eggplants, and fry them in the spiced oil until golden and crisp.  Garnish with salt, lemon juice and a dash of tabasco sauce, and serve with sour cream.

Delicious!  You won’t be able to find an eggplant big enough to make as many as you’d want to eat.

-Emma

Mom’s Easy Chicken in Vodka Sauce

My mom made this for me when I came to visit for a weekend; it tastes like you spent hours slaving over it, but only takes about 15 minutes to make!

2 chicken breasts (Mom cuts them in half width-wise to make them cook faster)
flour to coat chicken
a pat of butter
2 tomatoes, cubed
a splash of vodka
a splash of cream

Lightly flour the chicken, and pan fry it in the butter.  If you cut the chicken breasts in half, this will only take about 2 minutes on each side.  When the chicken is cooked, remove it and turn off the heat.  Deglaze the pan with the vodka.  Turn the heat back on, and add the tomatoes.  Now add a splash of cream, and pour the vodka-tomato-cream mixture over the chicken breasts.  Ta-da!  That’s it!

Enjoy!
-Emma

It’s not Easy Eating Greens

Actually, it is with this tasty and simple recipe!  Try this to avoid any Kermit the Frog related complaints at the dinner table.  You can use any kind of greens: kale, chard, collard greens, spinach, brocolli leaves…they’ll all have their own flavor, but will be tasty.  Keep in mind that the greens will melt down to practically nothing, so you need to start with quite a lot to get a decent serving.

For approximately 1/2 pound of greens

2 tbsp. olive oil
a pat of butter
3 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
chili flakes or cayenne pepper to taste

Warm the olive oil and butter (the blend gives a wonderful flavour, but isn’t necessary) over medium heat and add the greens.  Once the greens are approximately half their original size, add in the chopped garlic and let it sautee, now is also the time to add the spice if you’re using any.  After the garlic has been sauteed, add in the balsamic vinegar, and let it carmelise.  Now turn off the heat and serve.

The result is a wonderful medley of sweet, sour, and spicy flavours.

Enjoy!
-Emma

This city deserves a better class of turkey sandwich…

To be perfectly honest, I don’t usually like sandwiches (yes, I know that’s weird).  But I’m working full-time at an unpaid job, so packing a lunch became a necessity, and I am without the lovely thermos that I used in school to bring myself tasty leftovers. It seemed that some creative thinking was in order.  After a few sad days of PB&J and a chat with my housemate, I discovered an easy addition to a basic turkey and cheese sandwich to make it wonderful: Pesto!  I just take my slices of bread (I’m a big fan of Trader Joe’s Tuscan Pane, a nice all-purpose sourdough), and plop on a few slices of turkey and cheese (provolone, brie, and havarti have all worked nicely for this).  Then, on the top slice of bread, I spread on a teensy bit of mayo, and a spoonful of pesto.  Delicious!
-Emma

Haruki Murakami’s stir-fried beef

No photo, because I actually made this recipe about three months ago and only remembered it today. It’s delicious and has a wonderful provenance to boot. I was reading Haruki Murakami’s elegant ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ and at one point the narrator makes a dish for his wife with onions, beef and green capsicum with some soy sauce and beer. It sounded simple and delicious, and, overcome with a strange craving for this very dish, I threw together something based on it (sans beer and using mixed capsicums, not just green). Served with rice, it’s not only lovely but literary.

Haruki Murakami’s stir-fried beef

500g beef, diced into chunks (or indeed cut into fine strips…those will cook faster, of course)
1 onion, sliced
Capsicums, sliced. I used about two and a half, I think: red, yellow and green. I think using multicoloured capsicums here is lovely for visual purposes, but if you prefer the taste of one or the other, please use that instead.
A dash of soy sauce, about a tablespoon or two, to taste
Spring onions, chopped into rounds, optional
Vegetable oil

In a frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the beef. Brown on all sides and then cook for a few more minutes, then add the sliced onion. Stir occasionally. Cook until the onion is lightly browned, then add the capsicum, stirring. Cook until soft. Add the soy sauce and stir it through. Check the beef. You may need to add a little water or stock if it’s not yet cooked through. If you do, cook it until it bubbles away.

Serve scattered with spring onions and alongside some steamed rice. Some lightly blanched bok choi or kai lan would go nicely with this as well, I think!

Eat well…life is too short not to!
Chloe

Pico de Gallo: Fresh Salsa

Salsa doesn’t have to come from a jar at the store!  It’s delicious when you make it yourself, and is a good way to use garden tomatoes when an onslaught comes. 

You can obviously increase the quantity easily, but I’m giving proportions for one normal-sized tomato.

1 fresh tomato
1/2 onion (I prefer red) (optional)
1 clove garlic
1 TBSP cilantro
1 TSP salt
juice of 1/2 lemon (can use lime, too)
a dash of hot sauce or a chopped chipotle pepper

Cut everything up and throw it in a bowl.  Simple and tasty.  You can experiment with some additions for fun;  my mom sometimes adds mango, and it’s delicious.  Use it just like salsa from the jar; dip in tortilla chips, or add to tacos or burritos.

-Emma

Sicilian pasta

I didn’t expect this recipe to be as good as it was. I’d never eaten anchovies before, but I’ve resolved to be more adventurous in my eating habits, so I tried not to let my apprehensions stop me; besides, I was cooking for two, and this looked simple and quick… Still, when I was frying the anchovies and garlic, I was feeling nervous and started to wonder if my friend would be able to polish off most of the pasta…

I tasted it to check the seasoning and started eating out of the serving bowl. If not for the fact that I’d had two square meals prior, I could have eaten the whole bowl. Something about the combination of anchovy, parsley and parmesan drove me completely wild. This is delicious. This is beyond super-speedy. This is extremely, extremely cheap. This is based on store-cupboard staples and a bit of parsley. And it is wonderful.

Sicilian pasta

What I made would serve four (I have leftovers)

I used about 250g pasta
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped finely
50g tin anchovies, drained of oil and rinsed, chopped fine
About 1 cup breadcrumbs, preferably fresh (I didn’t measure; it was a couple of handfuls).
About 1 cup parsley, chopped finely
about 50g freshly grated parmesan, grated finely
4 tablespoons olive oil (didn’t have any; used vegetable oil and a little butter for flavour, which worked fine)

Cook pasta. While cooking, heat oil in a frying pan and throw in garlic and anchovies. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Smush up the anchovies as much as you can; they do something magical and seem to simply melt away…

Throw in the breadcrumbs. Take off the heat. Add the parsley. Toss.

Drain pasta, but not too completely (there should be a little cooking water included to prevent the breadcrumbs-sauce from becoming too dry). Throw pasta in frying pan and toss through.

Transfer to serving bowl. Scatter over parmesan and toss to distribute it evenly. I did this in a couple of batches so that it transferred evenly.

Eat well!

Chloe

PS original recipe here

South-American Fried Egg

This is honestly the only way I’ll cook eggs.  It’s a delicious recipe!

Adapted from ‘The First-Time Cook’ by Sophie Grigson 

Ingredients:
Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of a frying pan)
1 Egg
1/4 red chilli (diced), or chilli flakes, or ¼ tsp chilli powder, or cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 slice of toast
a splash of Balsamic vinegar
a pinch of salt
Chopped cilantro to garnish

Use enough olive oil to cover the base of the pan.  Heat over fairly generous heat and break the eggs into the pan once the oil is hot enoguh to sputter.  Spoon the oil over the egg white to help it set and get nice and crispy.  Start with the heat high and then turn it down to get crispy whites and a runny yolk.  When the egg is half-cooked, add the chilli, cumin and garlic to the oil and continue cooking and spooning oil over the egg.  Lift the eggs out of the pan and onto the toast, and spoon some oil onto the toast.  Drizzle the egg on toast with balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with cilantro and salt.

Buen provecho!
Emma

Soba Noodles with Peanut Butter

This is one of my ’sunny foods.’  I wouldn’t dream of having it in fall or winter, this is a spring and summer recipe.  I’ve cooked it and am posting it here in celebration of our nice spring weather! 

Ingredients:

Soba Noodles

Sauce:
2 spoonfuls peanut butter
1 TBSP Sesame Oil
1 TBSP Soy Sauce
a pinch of cayenne pepper
Optional:
diced ginger

Topping (optional):
Spring Onions
Vegetables (green beans and peas are both nice)
grilled chicken breast

Prepare the Soba noodles as directed on the package.  Make sure you rinse them in cold water after they’ve been boiled; this keeps them from clumping all together.  Mix the peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce and cayenne pepper together (to taste) to a molassesy consistency.  Prepare your chopping of choice, and mix it all together.  Simple as that; and delicious!

Let us know if you have any other great toppings!
-Emma