Food Cart Curry Chicken

Another wonderful, family favorite from Ruth Reichl.  This jumped immediately into our rotation as a flavorful, fast easy weeknight meal.

Serves 6

Food Cart Curry Chicken
adapted from Ruth Riechl's My Kitchen Year

1 1 /2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 onion, sliced into rings
1/4 c olive oil
2 T lemon juice
fat 1/4 t coriander seeds
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 T curry powder
2 sprigs fresh oregano (or 1/2 t dried), leaves removed and coarsely chopped
fat 1/4 t paprika
3/4 t cumin
1 t salt

white rice
mango pickapeppa sauce

Using an immersion blender or small food processor, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, coriander seeds, garlic, curry powder, oregano, paprika, cumin and salt to make a paste.

Put the onions and chicken pieces into a large bowl or plastic bag.  Pour the curry paste over top and coat each piece of chicken thoroughly.  Marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight (true confession time--sometimes, this only marinades for 15 minutes, it's still great).

When you are ready to eat, heat up a wok and add 2 T vegetable, grapeseed, canola, or sunflower oil.  Add the onions and garlic to the hot wok and stir fry for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve over white rice with some spicy sauce if desired (my favorite is the Mango Pickapeppa Sauce--however, that is not Curtis's favorite).

Pork Tinga Tacos

Once upon a time, I made crockpot meals.  I'd put things in at noon, do kid driving/practices and end up with a tasty dinner when we all made it home.  These days, that is just a fairy tale-at least when I need make ahead meals most.  I've had challenges getting things in the crock pot before school (partly because I am too exhausted the night before) and 7 am to 4 pm is too long to leave most anything in the crockpot (at least my crockpot who's low temp works more like a high temp).

This summer though, I've made an amazing discovery.  Getting a meat dish in the crock pot in the mornings before we go to swim meets means when we return, our house is fragrant and I have supper ready.  I usually let the meal cool a bit, then put it in the fridge until supper time (reheating it right before eating).  Perfection.

It's been the summer of the taco.  We're eating tacos about once a week, mostly because they're easy, I found mixta (a mixture of corn and flour) tortillas we love, and everyone loves tacos.  It's a fix your own meal kinda meal so if I am wanting more veggies, I load more cabbage salad on mine.  The boys can skip the cabbage salad entirely and just have meat and cheese.  

This serves 6 - 8

Pork Tinga Tacos 

adapted from Everyday Mexican by Rick Bayless

1 lb potatoes (red or yellow--not Russet baking potatoes), cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 lbs boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into 1-inch cubes

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 -2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and thinly sliced

1 T chipotle canning sauce

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 t died oregano

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick

tortillas (corn, mixta, flour--your preference, but corn is best)

queso fresco, crumbled

avocados, flesh cut into 1/2-inch pieces (avoid pit and skin)

salsa

guacamole (unnecessary if you're using avocados)

Spread the potatoes over the bottom of the slow cooker.  Cover with pork.  In a large bowl (or if you're lazy, just dump everything straight into the slow cooker), combine tomatoes, chipotles and chipotle sauce, Worcestershire, oregano, garlic, onion and 1 1/2 t salt.  Pour the mixture evenly over the meat and potatoes.  Cover and slow-cook on low for 6 hours (Know they slow cooker!  The original recipe said cook on high, but I know high for 6 hours would ruin my meat).  Taste and add more salt if necessary.

To serve, put a spoonful of pork and potatoes in the center of a heated tortilla.  Top with queso fresco, avocado chunks, salsa, guacamole or whatever else you desire.

Hot Fudge Sauce (to beat all other hot fudge sauces)

We have favorite brands of products.  I am rather devoted to those which I love and often I would rather by none at all rather than a different brand.  Thus, I found myself without the promised chocolate sauce for Madeleine's birthday angel food cake.

I knew I had made Dorie Greenspan's chocolate sauce before and loved it, but this is the summer of Ruth.  I turned to my summer cookbook and found a hot fudge recipe.

After one child guest told us it must be made out of all fake things because it had corn syrup in it (someone asked how I made it), I took a deep breath and went to my happy place.  I didn't have to wait long for her (and everyone else) to get over the "fake stuff" and talk about how wonderful the sauce was.

If you make this, use the best chocolate you can.  We used our Chicago chocolate (from Blommer's--a chocolate factory who filled our Architectural boat tour with a wonderful aroma) and this sauce was amazing.  I may be hording it a bit in the fridge and hoping everyone else forgets about it so there is more to myself.  I don't think that's really possible though.

Makes about 2 cups

Hot Fudge Sauce
adapted slightly from Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year

2/3 c heavy cream
1/3 c brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cocoa powder (Dutch processed is preferable)
1/2 c light corn syrup
6 oz bittersweet chocolate (coarsely chopped or in chip form)
2 T butter
1 t instant espresso powder
1 t vanilla

Combine heavy cream, brown sugar, salt, and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat.  When the mixture has reached a smooth consistency, stir in the corn syrup.  Continue to stir frequently over medium heat and add the bittersweet chocolate.  Stir constantly and bring the sauce to a near (or slow) boil.  Once the sauce is thick and rippling, stir in the butter and instant espresso powder.  Once the butter has melted and is incorporated, stir in the vanilla.  Keep warm until ready to pour on ice cream (if it's soonish) or allow to cool and store in the refrigerator until you need it.  Microwave cooled sauce briefly to heat up and soften.  Pour over ice cream or angel food cake (and berries!).

Spanish Tortilla (or at least as Spanish as I get)

Some days, I leave space in my menu for an "Iron Chef" day.  I purposefully plan no meal and decide I am going to figure out something to cook just using the ingredients from my pantry/fridge.  

For this addition, I had a ton of potatoes and was hoping to avoid using meat (we have a meat heavy menu the rest of the week).  Spanish tortilla came to mind and I started googling recipes.  I decided quickly that I didn't want to make an authentic tortilla because of the amount of olive oil and flipping the entire tortilla and getting it back into the pan.  Amanda Hesser and food52 came through for me.

We topped it with salsa and we mostly liked it.  Curtis and I thought it should have Manchego with it, but that would have defeated the Iron Chef aspect (and involved a trip to the grocery store).  I had this the next morning for breakfast as well.  

Serves 4 - 6

Spanish Tortilla

adapted from Amanda Hesser at food52

2 lbs potatoes

salt

1 medium onion, chopped

3 T olive oil

8 eggs

1 t smoked paprika

1/3 c Parmesan, grated (or Manchego would be wonderful)

1 1/2 T butter

Boil the potatoes in a pot of salted water until they are just tender, about 20 - 25 minutes.  When they are cool enough to handle, peel and cut into thin, 1/8" slices.

While potatoes are boiling, heat 1 1/2 T of olive oil in a skillet (I used my all clad skillet).  Saute the the onions with a little salt until they are lightly browned, about 10 minutes.  Place in a large bowl and let cool.  Preheat the oven to 400.

In a bowl, beat the eggs until they are frothy and well blended.  Set aside.

Put a layer of potato slices over the onions in the large bowl.  Make sure each slice is separate.  Pour a little egg over top and stir gently to make sure each potato slice is coated.  Repeat the process until all the potato slices have been added and each slice is coated with egg.  Gently fold in 1 t salt and smoked paprika.

In the same skillet you sauted the onions in, melt the butter and add remaining olive oil over medium heat. When butter is melted, gently pour in the egg and potato mixture.  Even out the top with a spatula and sprinkle with cheese.  Cook over medium high heat until eggs are set at the edges.  Transfer the pan to the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until the center is set.

Remove from the oven, let cool for a bit, and invert on a plate if desired.  We took the easy way and serve it straight out of the pan (watch for the handle! It's hot).  Top with salsa with good green olives on the side, if desired.

Caramelized Vietnamese Pork

After a self-imposed cookbook moratorium for a while, I got a couple new cookbooks this spring.  I have been so thankful I did.  The first one was Ruth Riechl's My Kitchen Year.  Seriously folks, we have loved almost every recipe I've made from here (and I've made a few).

Last night, the recipe was a caramelized pork.  A brief disclaimer.  I ignored the advice Reichl gave at the bottom of the recipe which was to not double the recipe.  However, I had to.  The recipe served two and I have five hearty eaters.  My end product may not have turned out exactly like hers did, but we all still loved it.  At the end of the meal, I had multiple people telling me to make this again.

Serves 4 - 6.

Caramelized Vietnamese Pork
adapted slightly from My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl

2 T rice vinegar
1 t sugar
1 medium to large cucumber, peeled, seeds removed, halved and cut into half moons
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1 1/2 - 2 lbs pork tenderloin, thinly sliced (easiest done if pork is at least partially frozen)
2 small onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 T sugar
1/4 c fish sauce
fresh mint, coarsely chopped (about 2-3 sprigs)
fresh basil, coarsely chopped (about 2 -3 sprigs)
chili garlic sauce or sriracha
crushed peanuts (optional)
lime wedges

cooked rice to serve 4 - 6

Pour rice vinegar in a bowl and add 1 t sugar and a pinch of salt.  Gently stir in cucumber and ginger  Allow to soak while you make the meat.

Heat a wok over medium-high to high heat.  A water droplet should dance on the surface of the wok and then disappear.  Add some grapeseed, peanut or similar oil and toss in onion and garlic.  As soon as the onion and garlic are nice and fragrant, add the pork and 2 T sugar.  Stir-fry, tossing every few minutes for 10 - 15 minutes, or until the pork has crisped into little bits (I never achieved this due to an overfull wok.  After the pork had cooked for a bit, I poured the extra juice off the bottom of the wok to give the pork a chance to brown.  I simply cooked the pork until it began to brown.  We were hungry, I was out of patience, and didn't want to burn the meat).

Take the wok off the heat and stir in fish sauce until it is absorbed.  Season with black pepper.  Remove the ginger slices from the cucumber.  Add the cucumber slices and the marinade to the pork. Stir.

Serve with rice.  Top with mint and basil (necessary for a more Vietnamese taste), chili garlic sauce if desired, lime wedges, and crushed peanuts, if desired.

Urad Dal

Summer vacation is one small week old.  It has taken me less than that week to catch up on my sleep, revel in unscheduled time, to forget how to jungle multiple events in close proximity in each other, and to flip through cookbooks excitedly because I have more than an hour to make supper and enough energy to try something different.

Summer vacation also means I am going to try to post as many recipes as possible.  I've learned this blog isn't so much for other readers as it is for me.  It's become a huge data base which has helped me immensely in meal planning.  When life gets harried in August and September, I'll probably need help remembering which recipes helped get me through this spring.

That said, there's a little bit of pressure about what recipe to post first after a three month hiatus.  Should it be one from one of my favorite new cookbooks or one that I've made all year and I just forgot to post.  I'm going for the latter--nothing terribly exciting, just delicious and comforting.

M doesn't like lentils any more.  Her comment tonight was "I feel bad for the people around the world who have to eat this all the time."  That was followed by, "You're lucky I'm hungry," which was uttered as she loaded heaping spoonfuls of rice and lentils onto her plate.  Sometimes I ignore what she likes and make what Curtis and I like.

This calls for black lentils (or urad dal).  Those are easy for me to find thanks to the close proximity of Whole Foods bulk section.  If you don't have an extensive bulk section with non traditional grains/legumes, just use regular lentils.  I'd recommend the green versus the red or brown because they tend to hold their shape better.

This serves 6 or so.

Urad Dal
adapted from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi

1 1/2 c black lentils
1/4 c butter (or ghee)
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 T garam masala
4 1/2 c water or chicken broth
5 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped (or 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes)
2/3 c coconut milk
2 T lime juice
1 - 2 c cilantro, chopped
rice to serve 4 - 6

1 - 2 oz crispy fried shallots (optional)
1 1/4 c coarsely shredded unsweetened coconut, the fresher the better (optional)

Melt the butter in a dutch oven or large saucepan over medium high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium and add the onions.  Cook for 15 minutes or until the onions are soft, brown, and deliciously fragrant.  Add the garlic, ginger, and garam masala and cook for 4 more minutes, stirring constantly to prevent  them from scorching.  Add the black lentils, water or broth, and 1 t salt.  Bring to a boil (turning up the heat if necessary) then simmer (turning down the heat if you just turned it up) for about 40 minutes or until the lentils are cooked but still hold their shape.  You are not going for mush.  Reduce the heat to low and stir in the coconut milk and lime juice.

Serve on top of rice with a generous sprinkling of cilantro and shallots and coconut if desired.