Sep/100
Mücver
This isn't quite mücver, but I don't know what else to call it. You basically shred up a bunch of vegetables, mix them with egg, flour and feta, and bake the whole thing in a shallow baking dish. You might recognize this dish by its more familiar form - a fried zucchini patty served with garlicky yogurt. It is delicious that way as well, but I don't enjoy frying things at home.
This is a pretty forgiving recipe. I make changes depending on what I have around. I got it from Almost Turkish, and so I'm just going to provide the link. Again.
Baked Vegetable Fritters (Fırında Sebzeli Mücver) from Almost Turkish
I promise I'll start putting up my own recipes again soon. I've been really busy at work and at home lately, so I haven't had time to make anything interesting. My schedule has shifted back to 9-6 (instead of the 9-5 schedule I had during the summer), so I have to adjust a little. New stuff will come soon, though. And if it doesn't, I encourage harassing comments to make sure I get off my ass and cook something.
Aug/100
Eggplant and Lentil Stew
I really suck at cooking eggplant. For the longest time, the only thing I could make successfully with eggplant was babaghanoush. I had a really terrible vegetable terrine/lasagna happen once. Then there was also a bland, undercooked eggplant pocket dish I tried to make filled with tomatoes and mozzarella. I successfully made one of my favorite Chinese dishes, di san xian, using eggplant, but it used so much oil that I couldn't bear to make it myself again.
At some point I had decided it was the end of the road for me and eggplant. We were just mismatched. Nothing to be done. Unfortunately, that didn't stop me from my habit of buying eggplant at the grocery store.
Two weeks ago there was so much eggplant at the farmers market that the vendors looked to be almost ready to give it away. So I said screw it and bought two large containers of small, slender eggplants. Then I commenced cursing myself for doing so.
Thank god for simplyrecipes.com. Elise posted a Turkish eggplant and lentil stew that has cured me of my eggplant aversion in the kitchen. I'm not even going to post my slight changes to her recipe, but rather link to her original one because it's pretty much perfect as is. (I used a different kind of eggplant than she did and chopped it up differently, and I subbed a jalapeno from my garden for chiles, but I don't think it matters much.) Do yourself a favor and make that dish. It is delicious. And if I was able to make it good, you definitely can.
Aug/100
WARL PSA #1
Just thought I'd give a little update on work here. Robert and I did 2 PSAs for the Washington Animal Rescue League a few months ago, which, if you recall, is how we ended up with our lovely puppy Benny. They put up one of the PSAs on YouTube yesterday, so I'm sending it around to people. This one features Eleanor Clift and Tony Blankley. The other PSA, featuring Ana Marie Cox and Tucker Carlson, should be going up sometime today.
Aug/100
Mint Julep
I will admit up front that I do not like whiskey. I don't care if you call it bourbon or scotch, I'm just not a fan. And I can't have caffeine and I don't do HFCS, so don't bother masking it with Coke. I didn't like it in college at Whiskey Fridays (which I'm sure landed me as a designated driver on a number of occasions), and I'm still not into it.
That said, I have wondered about the mint julep for some time. Robert and I spent this past weekend cleaning and came upon some cute ceramic cups in the house with recipes on the side, so we thought we'd give it a shot. There's more mint than we know what to do with in the garden, and one can only drink so many mojitos before it's time to try something new.
I can say honestly that this drink wasn't bad. I don't think I'd necessarily have it much, but as I said above, whiskey's not my thing. It might be yours, though. I personally added more simple syrup and some club soda and subtracted some whiskey. (Looks like I want a mojito after all.)
Recipe from the cups:
1) Boil down 1/2 sugar and water and crushed mint leaves to make simple syrup.
2) Place 2 tbsp simple syrup in bottom of julep glass.
3) Add crushed ice and 2 jiggers* of fine bourbon. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
*After googling, I found out that 1 jigger = 1.5 oz. Don't drive after this one!
Aug/100
Red Beans and Rice
One thing I had been meaning to do since returning to meat-eating was to make a batch of red beans and rice with andouille sausage. I always wondered what it would taste like. I spent some time working on a vegetarian version a year ago, and it was quite good. I just couldn't shake the idea that I might be missing something.
So here you have it. It's good with the andouille sausage, but it's also good without it. (Full disclosure, though: I used a chicken and turkey andouille sausage, so I might still be missing out.) You can make this either way, and the result will still be a little sweet, a little salty, and a good bit spicy. It will be a little smokier if you use the sausage, but I suppose you could add a couple of drops of liquid smoke if you want to make it vegetarian. Regardless of how you make it, you'll have leftovers. I'm still eating these beans for lunch three days later.
You can use canned beans or dry beans for this recipe, though I'd suggest starting from dry. Everything will have longer to simmer together. I've been using all dry beans for my bean recipes because I make a lot at a time. The dry beans are cheap in bulk, and the pressure cooker makes fairly fast business of cooking them. I'm writing the recipe below for how I made them this last time, but if you used canned beans, you just won't cook the whole thing for as long.
Recipe:
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped finely
1 green pepper, chopped coarsely
6 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 link cooked andouille sausage, sliced (optional)
1 lb dry red beans, soaked overnight (or brought to a boil and soaked 2 hours)
2 tbsp cajun seasoning (I use Penzey's Hot Cajun Seasoning blend)
1 tbsp thyme
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce, more to taste
2 tbsp hot sauce, more to taste (Crystal is good)
1.5 - 2 tsp flaked kosher salt
1) Heat a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Warm up a little olive oil, and then sauté the celery, onion and green pepper until almost translucent. Then add the garlic and cook another minute.
2) Discard the soaking water from the beans, then add the beans and the sausage to the pot. Fill with enough water to just cover, then add the spices, worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Add 1 tsp of salt. Stir to combine.
3) Bring the beans to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for around 3 hours, checking occasionally and stirring. Taste occasionally. If after the first hour it isn't salty enough, add more of the salt. You can also add more of either sauces to the mix.
4) Serve with the rice of your choice and some greens. (We made mint juleps to go with ours.)
Notes: Test beans for texture occasionally. They should be soft, but not too mushy. You'll be reducing the water down as you go along, but if the beans still need more cooking, add more water. Make sure you are stirring every so often, especially toward the end. The beans will stick the bottom of the pan and burn. A little caramelizing isn't bad for this dish - you can stir that back in - but you don't want it to burn.
Aug/100
Vacation
I'm back from my blogging and work hiatus. We took our annual trip to Cape May this past weekend, and it was wonderful to finally get some beach time in. Lots of family, sun and waves. I definitely needed that.
I'll be back to food blogging soon! Until then, here's a glimpse of the vacation.
Jul/100
Basil Pesto Flatbread Pizza
I would make pizza more often if it weren't for the dough. I like the taste of home made crust, but pizza seems more like a "right now" food to me. Not a "make the dough and wait an hour for a rise and then bake the crust and then put the toppings on and then bake it again" food. It's no surprise to me that pizza has done so well as a take-out food. Plus, pizza places have those 900 degree ovens that most people don't have. It makes sense.
But when you're trying to only eat two meals out per week, you've used up one day, and you're trying to save the other day for the weekend, you've got to come up with another way to satiate the pizza craving.
Enter the pita.
If you can find large, flat pita bread in a store near you, you're all set. I'm not talking about those fluffy pocket-style pitas. These are some street-food, roll-up-some-falafels-and-get-to-work pitas. You just top these with whatever you want on your pizza and broil them for a few minutes. This is what I made the other night after our power was restored.
Recipe for the flatbread pizza:
2 large whole wheat pitas
1 cup fresh basil pesto (make it yourself, see below)
1 yukon gold potato, sliced thin
sliced red or white onion
2 roasted piquillo peppers, sliced thin
feta cheese, crumbled
extra virgin olive oil
1) In a large frying pan, heat some oil (preferably a high-heat oil like safflower) over medium heat. Add the potato slices and fry until vaguely browned. Remove and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil.
2) Assemble the pitas on a large baking sheet. Divide the pesto and spread on each pita. Layer the potato slices on. Arrange slices of onion and roasted peppers on top. Sprinkle the crumbled feta on top.
3) Broil for 3 minutes, and check the pitas. You're just basically heating them up and crisping up the pitas. Remove when they're at your desired level of doneness.
4) To serve, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on top.
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Recipe for the basil pesto (vegan):
1 cup fresh basil, packed
1/2 cup pinenuts
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp flaked kosher salt
generous grinding of black pepper
juice of 1 lemon
Process in a food processor. Taste to adjust salt and pepper.
Jul/100
Stormy Weather
I know it's egocentric to think that I attract natural disasters, but I sometimes can't help it. I've now experienced (thankfully minor versions of) fire, earthquake, flood, and now wind beast. What's a wind beast? It's not quite a tornado, but it does have 80 mph winds, and it knocks down trees.
This is 2 blocks away from our house, one of many scenes of wind damage around where we live. We were lucky to not have any trees come down, but our neighbors across the street have a tree sitting across their lawn. There's a lot of police tape and orange traffic cones lining the nearby streets.
We also lost our power, along with over 400,000 other people in the DC-MD-VA area. As of yet, there are no estimated dates for restoration. Did I mention that we've been seeing days with temperatures over 100 F? Fortunately today is much cooler than other days have been.
I'm trying to stop being so cranky about this. I have to remind myself that I have lived without air conditioning and internet before, and that I can do it again. Though, oddly enough, while I was laying on a mattress on the floor of the living room last night, thoughts of "Beijing was so much worse, suck it up," didn't make me sleep any better. Go figure.
The weather is much nicer today, so I'm on my way to being less of a curmudgeon. I also was reminded by my mother that I can still use the stove top of the gas stove, so not necessarily everything I bought at the grocery store yesterday is destined to rot in a slightly-cooler-than-room-temperature refrigerator. And Benny loves the mattress on the floor. He seems to think we got him a bed of his very own. And finally, I got a bacon, egg and cheese bagel from Pumpernickel's this morning for breakfast; I can't knock that.
Jul/100
Cucumber and Avocado Cold Soup
When the heat climbs to 102 F (and it feels like 110 F due to humidity), I can't say I have too much of an appetite. But if I don't eat, I fall over. So this afternoon, I figured I could just swallow some vegetables and be done with it.
I ended up liking this soup, so I ate it more slowly than merely gulping it down and laying back on the cold floor. This is an easy one - no heat involved - just throwing veggies and some spices in a food processor and blending until it's liquid.
Recipe:
1 large cucumber, cut into large chunks
1 avocado, scooped from halves, seed removed
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup almonds
1/4 cup parsley, packed
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp paprika (half-sharp)
1/4 tsp aleppo pepper or crushed red pepper
generous grinding of black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
Put everything in the food processor and blend until liquid. Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.
(I imagine that if you wanted to make this vegan, you could omit the yogurt and add 1/4 cup plain soy milk.)
Jul/101
(Slightly Nutritious) Mac and Cheese
I generally don't want people to piss me off, but there are some times that are worse than others for it. This particular week was the wrong time to get my hopes up and then dash them away. I'm not getting into the details here, but I'll just say this: I remember these things, people. I might be nice and remain helpful, but I remember. Is this holding a grudge? I'll let you decide.
Anyway, my goat having been gotten today, I decided that I needed comfort food. I've been hitting the gym consistently for the past several weeks, and I've been very pleased with that. Exercising makes me more conscious of my overall health, which usually isn't a bad thing. But it's a conflict when I want some seriously bad for me macaroni and cheese. We're not talking the box kind, which I love despite how disgusting it is. No, we're talking about the homemade kind with butter, cream, cheese, and anything else I can find to put a grown man into cardiac arrest.
I don't usually have a lot of the stuff I need for that particular mac and cheese in the house, and I wasn't about to unleash my mood on the grocery store last night. So I decided I'd compromise and make a slightly healthier version, and hope that it would still taste good.
Thankfully, it was a success. I replaced butter with olive oil and cream with greek yogurt. I used skim milk and a multi-grain penne (whole wheat, amaranth, and quinoa). I even added some broccoli and other bits of greenery. I still wouldn't call this healthy, but it was more nutritionally dense and satisfying in a way that I wasn't expecting. Plus, Robert won't let me make the box stuff, so I had to make it work. (I don't see how he can object. Who doesn't love powdered cheese?)
Recipe:
3 cups multi-grain penne
4 tbsp olive oil (get a heavier tasting one for this, not extra virgin)
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups skim milk
mix of 1 cup grated cheddar + 1 cup grated asiago
1 cup fat free greek yogurt
florets from 1 small head of broccoli
1/4 cup parsley, chopped finely
1 green onion, chopped finely
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp sage
1) Cook the penne in boiling water, but undercook it slightly. Think really al dente. Drain, and put in a large bowl. Add the broccoli, parsley and green onion to the bowl, and set aside.
2) Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onions for about 5 minutes, or until translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and mix to incorporate.
3) Gradually add the milk to the mix, stirring constantly to prevent burning and sticking. When all the milk has been added, continue stirring until the mixture has thickened, about 10 minutes. Then add the yogurt and 1.5 cups of the grated cheese (reserve the other 1/2 cup). Continue stirring until the cheese is melted, then turn off the heat.
4) Add the thyme, crushed red pepper and sage while the mixture is still hot, and stir to incorporate. Taste the cheese sauce, and add salt and pepper to taste. Then pour the cheese sauce into the bowl of penne. Stir to incorporate.
5) Preheat the oven to 375 F.
6) Spray a casserole dish (or baking pan large enough to hold the mixture) with olive oil, and pour the penne in. Spread it out so that it's even, and then sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top.
7) Cover the dish with foil, and put in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and cook another 10 minutes (40 minutes total).
Let this cool for a few minutes before you dish it up. The liquid inside will be quite hot.
(Next time I post a mac and cheese recipe, I'll post the yummy one with cajun spices and lots of fat. Look forward to that probably when the weather gets cooler, if that ever happens.)