Give me something cold for dinner

I saw this simple recipe from the Southern Living magazine, and it immediately captured my attention. I have been wondering what to do with the fresh tomatoes I got from the farmer's market the past weekend. Normally, they would inevitably end up in pasta,my usual and not-so-creative salad or sandwiches. I mean, what else can you expect a humble tomato to do in spite of its many supportive roles in various cuisines.

Perhaps everyone deserves to be put under the spotlight once in awhile. And for the same reason, tomato was put on the spot, at the center of our dining table not many nights ago.The vines that bear all these tomatoes would be proud,if only they could see how pretty the bright, succulent tomatoes was, basking in the equally delicious peach and basil vinaigrette. And the smile and satisfaction they brought to their eaters' lips. It was a new taste to our palate, but a welcoming one. We ate simply that night, with only this salad and some sliced sourdough. The bread was the perfect vehicle to soak up all the remaining juice on the plate. Do we miss the meat? Not me. But I guess OCT probably thinks that another meat dish won't hurt...

I am submitting this anti-oxidant packed recipe to Cate's weekly ARF 5-A-Day. Be sure to check out the roundup later tonight!

Tomatoes with Fresh Peach and Basil Vinaigrette
adapted from Southernliving

1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large peach, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Whisk together first 5 ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Whisk in olive oil. Stir in chopped peach and basil. Serve immediately.

Yield
Makes about 1 1/4 cups (serving size: 1 tbsp.)

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Korean Enoki Pancakes

This is a recipe I chanced upon on a chinese blog. Not only is she talented in baking and cooking, this blogger has also stayed at some interesting foodie capitals like Paris, Seoul and Taiwan. As much as I enjoyed drooling at her delicious-looking creations, I never attempted any recipe from her blog.

This Korean Enoki Pancake is indeed the first recipe I made from her beautiful blog. Because I absolutely adore mushrooms of all kinds, I figure I would give this interesting pancake a try. The moment I took a bite of the addictive appetizer, I was sold. It is unfathomable on why the simple combination of enoki mushroom, minced carrot, green onion, egg and flour can be so tasty. And more importantly, why didn't I think of this myself? Although the recipe makes 4-6 serving, I almost finished eating the whole plate on my own! Because certain ingredients that she used are not readily available in US, I took the liberty to make some adjustments.

Over the weekend, I have bought a packet of enoki mushroom from the Asian grocery store again, and there will be no doubt of where it will end up.

Korean Enoki Pancakes

1 pack enoki mushroom
1-2 tbsp minced carrot
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2tbsps finely chopped green onion (or more)
2 tbsps all purpose flour
salt and pepper, to taste

Remove enoki mushroom from its packaging and cut off the root. Rinse under water and pat dry. Cut the mushroom into half, lengthwidth.

Add carrot and green onion to enoki mushroom in a wide, shallow bowl, and sprinkle flour on top of all ingredients. Pour in egg and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a non-stick pan and add one tablespoon of olive oil. Divide the batter into 6 parts, and pour one part into the pan. Spread it out, like a fan until it's as thin as a piece of paper. Fry till one side become golden yellow, then turn and fry the other side to the same color. Do the same with the rest of the batter.

Serve immediately with asian chilli sauce. Or tartar sauce. (I haven't tried this out yet but figure it should taste lovely).

makes 6 portions.

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Good stuff

I am talking about the Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant we ate last week. It was our weekly vegetarian night, and I needed a substantial all- in-one vegetarian dish.

Flipping through my pile of "to try list", the stuffed eggplant recipe jumped to my attention and begged to be made. Since OCT and I love eggplant, I decided to grant eggplant its wish.

I must say that making the stuffed eggplant is quite a joy, if you have a lot of time on hand. For there are quite a number of steps to follow. Not to mention the hollowing, baking, cubing and stirfrying it required. Having said that the end result totally justified the effort. All the veggie goodness stuffed to the brim in the eggplant shell topped with feta and panko have us groaned in pleasure.

This is definitely a dish we will serve for our vegetarian guests in the near future.

Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant
Adapted from Coookinglight

3 medium eggplants
Cooking spray
4 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
6 plum tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium summer squash, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1 1/4 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), divided
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)


Preheat oven to 350°.
Cut each eggplant in half lengthwise. Scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick shell, and reserve pulp. Place eggplant halves, skin sides down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; bake at 350° for 15 minutes.

Chop the reserved eggplant pulp into 1/2-inch pieces. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add reserved eggplant to pan, and sauté 8 minutes or until eggplant begins to brown. Place eggplant in a bowl. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, and sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in red and green bell peppers and the next 7 ingredients (through squash); sauté 6 minutes. Return eggplant to pan. Stir in 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and black pepper; sauté for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in feta cheese and 1/4 cup panko. Cool slightly. Spoon about 1 cup eggplant mixture into each eggplant shell.

Combine remaining 1 cup panko, remaining 1 teaspoon oil, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle panko mixture evenly over stuffed eggplants. Lightly coat with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated and tops begin to brown. Sprinkle with parsley, if desired.

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 1 stuffed eggplant half)

note: I halved the recipe and used one huge (about 1 pound) eggplant. It served us well for 3 meals with other side dishes.

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Just dinners

I better blog about what we had for dinners before I totally forget about them. Not that any of them were memorable or spectacular, but I just want to leave a record of what we have been eating lately. And hopefully be able to trace the culprit/s of my recent weight gain!

With the abundance of asparagus this time of year, we couldn't resist another meal of asparagus pesto melts. It's a new favorite for us. OCT thought it's fancy enough to entertain friends with these. But I am not sure. It's always messy when we eat them. (Think asparagus rolling down from the sourdough everytime OCT had a bite) Maybe I should try to add more sauce or cheese to glue the fillings together. But I am hesistated to do that.



Our little endeavour to go meatless once a week went well. This week, we had pasta primevera on Tuesday night. It wasn't as nice as the meatless meal we had last week, but it was ok. With lots of broccoli (OCT's fave), asparagus (my fave), among other green veggies, we had a filling and guilt-free dinner.



Thai Shrimp Cakes, is one of the recipes I attempted as I am cooking through my Thai Cookbook. If it's not because these cakes had to be deep-fried, I would have made them ages ago. The perfect opportunity arose when we had friends over for dinner last week. I guess sometime I just need a little nudge to go the extra mile. I would never have the motivation to make this dish just for the two of us.


Coming back to the Shrimp Cakes. Eventhough I have never ordered this appertiser from Thai restaurants, I liked how it turned out nonetheless. The taste of curry and shrimp in every bite was just fantastic. However, OCT thought it was a waste of fresh shrimps, as the curry taste has overpowered the fresh shrimps. The shrimps could taste better in other dishes, he reasoned. Maybe he's right, I will just use smaller shrimps when I make these again.

Pasta Primavera
Adapted from Cookinglight

2 cups green beans, trimmed and halved crosswise
2 cups broccoli florets
1/2 cup (1-inch) slices asparagus (about 2 ounces)
6 ounces uncooked fettuccine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved (omitted)
2/3 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (used flat leaf parsley)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Cook green beans in boiling water 1 minute. Add broccoli and asparagus; cook 2 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove vegetables from pan with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl. Return water to a boil. Add pasta; cook 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and add to vegetable mixture.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 cup onion, and sauté for 2 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper; sauté 3 minutes or until onion begins to brown. Add peas, and sauté 1 minute. Add tomatoes; sauté 2 minutes.

Combine half-and-half and cornstarch, stirring with a whisk. Reduce heat to medium. Add half-and-half mixture and salt to pan; cook 1 minute or until sauce thickens, stirring constantly. Pour sauce over pasta mixture; toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with basil and cheese. Serve immediately.

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Lasagna : Two ways

We had lasagna twice last week. First was a simple roll up version, recipe of Rachael Ray and the second one- Asparagus Lasagna, was devoured on our weekly vegetarian night.

Wanting the comfort of a lasagna but not the work of putting one together, I was delighted to find a short cut from Rachael Ray's website. Instead of the usual layering method, the filling was simply placed on top of individual lasagna noodle and rolled up before putting in a baking dish. The individual lasagna rolls were then baked with a simple pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese for less than 10 minutes. OCT thought it was a pretty good, all in one meal. He has the leftover all by himself (as usual).

The second lasagna was a vegetarian version, featuring my favorite Spring asparagus. It was a perfect vegetarian meal; satisfying without feeling guilty. Instead of Bechamel sauce, this recipe used a pesto white sauce. The end result was significantly lighter than its cream/milk counterpart but tasted much nicer. Maybe because I never really like milk anyway.

Actually, I was thinking of making a seafood lasagna when I first bought the lasagna noodle. Who knows I would end up with two totally random recipes than the one I have first set eyes on. Typing this out made me feel a bit guilty, I think I will try to make the seafood lasagna before it goes totally covered by other recipes on my to try list.

Here's the original recipe, but I added in some chopped Kielbasa, and used pasta sauce insteads of Gorgonzola cream sauce, to cut down on time and fat.

Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna Roll-ups with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce
adapted from Rachael Ray

16 cremini caps, cleaned with a damp towel and finely chopped in food processor
1 small yellow-skinned onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) extra-virgin olive oil
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
Salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or the equivalent of freshly grated
2 cups part skim ricotta
8 curly edge lasagna noodles, cooked to al dente (12 to 14 minutes)
1 cup fat free chicken broth
8 ounces Gorgonzola, crumbled
1/2 cup (3 turns around the pan) heavy cream
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella

In a medium skillet over moderate heat, saute mushrooms, chopped onions, and garlic in oil until mushrooms give off their juices and darken and onions are tender, about 7 or 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; the salt will help draw water out of the vegetables as they cook.

Add dry chopped spinach to the pan and heat through for 1 minute. Adjust seasonings with salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg. Add ricotta and stir into mixture to heat cheese through, 1 minute longer. Remove pan from heat but leave in the warm skillet.

Heat broth in a small pan over moderate heat. Melt Gorgonzola into broth and bring liquid to a bubble. Stir in cream and thicken sauce 2 minutes.

Place cooked lasagna noodles on a large work surface or cutting board. Spread lasagna noodles with a layer of spinach-mushroom filling. Roll up pasta and arrange the 8 bundles in a shallow casserole dish. Pour warm sauce over roll-ups and top with mozzarella. Place casserole under broiler to melt cheese.

Asparagus Pesto Lasagna
adapted from Vegetarian Times ( I halved the recipe, and used a 9x9-inch baking dish)
serves 10

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups low-fat milk, divided
6 Tbs. pesto*, or more to taste
2 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional for garnish, optional
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. olive oil
1 1/4 lb. asparagus spears, tips cut off and reserved, spears trimmed and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 tsp.)
16 no-cook lasagna noodles (9 oz.)
2 cups shredded Fontina or part-skim mozzarella cheese (8 oz.), divided


Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk flour and 1/2 cup milk in saucepan until smooth. Gradually whisk in remaining milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, and boil 1 minute, or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in pesto, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Reserve 1 cup white sauce.

Warm oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped asparagus (not tips) and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes, or until tender. Add garlic; cook, stirring, 1 minute, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Coat 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Place layer of noodles in dish, overlapping slightly. Layer with half of cooked asparagus, 3/4 cup Fontina and half of sauce. Add another layer of pasta, remaining sauce, remaining cooked asparagus and 3/4 cup Fontina. Top with layer of noodles, then with reserved 1 cup white sauce. Arrange reserved asparagus tips over top and sprinkle with remaining Fontina.

Bake, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden. Let stand 10 minutes; serve with additional grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

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Thai Food again!

More Thai dishes turned up on our dining table this week. Before I return the Thai recipe book, I decided to make just one more new recipe from it. We are going to splurge before we bid farewell. By splurge, I mean in term of calories and fat. I have my eyes on a vegetable and tofu curry recipe, which the main ingredient is coconut milk.

Although I always keep a few cans of coconut milk in my pantry cupboard (just in case), I never really got around using them. Since I won't be keeping this book any longer, I should at least try one recipe that used coconut milk. For the uninitiated, coconut milk is a common ingredient used in Thai Cooking. It is used in soup, stew and meat dishes. Something I wonder why the Thais can stay in shape, having to eat all these sinfully delicious food all the time!



Anyway, I digress. The vegetable and tofu curry is a winner! Eventhough I have replaced a few vegetables the recipe required with something I have on hand. But I guess it doesn't matter, as the star for this dish is the fried tofu! Like many little sponges, they eagerly absorb the curry goodness from the coconut broth. So that when you bite into one, the broth it absorbed simply burst in your mouth. Maybe I exxagerate. But it is really really good. The only glitch though, is the addition of glass noodle. It somewhat absorbs all the broth, and leaves the dish dry. I have to add extra liquid to make up for the dryness in the end.



On the same vein, another Thai dish that we had sometime ago was the sweet and sour pork. A simple all-in-one dish. Simply looking at the pineapple chunks in the picture make me salivate.

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Spring is in the air!

Eventhough the weather we are experiencing in the mid-west suggests otherwise. But the abundance of asparagus that comes with Spring is unmistakable. This week, I have the good fortune of getting some reasonably priced asparagus from the grocery store. Oh, asparagus is one of the many reasons I look forward to Spring. If I could, I wouldn't mind eating them everyday.

OCT on the other hand, couldn't apprehend my passion for asparagus. He would be perfectly happy eating broccoli whole year round.... Well, I am fine with that too. It only means I get to eat most of my favorite veggie.

On Monday night, I decided to dress my otherwise simple roasted asparagus up with roast garlic aioli. My review maybe bias because of my liking for asparagus, but OCT thought that the dish was pretty awesome! I like the subtle, slightly smokey roast garlic in the aioli. The flavor of garlic wasn't as pungent and assertive as it was before roasting. Incidentally, the aioli also went well with the roasted cauliflower we had for dinner. Maybe I will try it on the roast green beans next.

Other than roasted vegetables, I made us some New England Chowder. Bad choice! Experience taught me that our one and only one soup pot is not suitable for sauteeing flour or rather anything in that matter. But sauteeing is the crucial part in my chowder! So I went ahead, and followed the recipe to saute whatever necessary in the pot. Everything seemed well, up to the point after I added the cod and scallop. Feeling like a patient who suddenly regain her sense of smell, I detected a fainted burnt smell in the air. It wasn't until we shovelled the chowder into our mouth that I was sure of what had happened. And dejected at the prospect of what lay ahead of me....In case you wonder, the bottom of the pan was covered with stubborn burnt flour. Such a thick layer that even the strongest detergent couldn't penetrate. Later, I poured in some vinegar, which the acid did the trick to dissolve most of the burnt stuff. However, it wasn't without some muscle work....

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Gochujang and Miso

Monday night dinner features a Korean condiment- Gochujang and a Japanese condiment- Miso.

A recent discovery of Gochujang has allowed me to include some korean meat dishes to my repertoire. The mildly spicy and sweet sauce pairs extremely well with pork. This time however, I want to try it with chicken breast, making it into Dakgalbi (marinated chicken stirfry in Gochujang sauce). I like the way in which many veggies can be incorporated into Dakgalbi, making it an all in one dish. For most Koreans, rice cakes and sesame leaves are added into the dish on top of slice onions, cabbage, carrot and green onion. Since I don't have rice cakes and sesame leaves, I simply add more cabbage to make up for it.


Another side dish- Corn with bacon and miso butter, is a nice twist on buttered corn. The flavour of miso in this dish is subtle, but we like the colour constrast of corn kennels and bacon. The combination of sweet corns and savory bacon is highly addictive. It keeps drawing me to go back for more. I now proclaim this one of my favorite side dishes in 2007.

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Balsamic Soy glazed Chicken Wings, Soup and roasted green beans

Thursday night, I was feeling a bit depressed,maybe because of the rain or because knowing what's for dinner later. But still, I decided to make the balsamic soy glazed chicken wings and roasted green beans with mushroom as planned earlier in the week. The idea of having some new side dishes along with the so-so pastitsio somehow lifted my spirit. It would be even better, if say, we can have a bowl of tummy and soul warming chicken soup!

So that's the plan for dinner. First, the chicken wings and green beans were sent into the 450F oven for a good 40 minutes, while I prepared for the nourishing Chinese Chicken soup. Since I can't find much Chinese herbs here, I have to make do with whatever I have. Instead of using a whole chicken like what my mum does, I find using the roasted chicken bones are far more efficient, not to mention budget friendly. Afterall, I am not interested to eat the chicken meat after it's been cooked for more than 2 hours. The flavor of the meat would have all gone into the soup.Not that it is a bad thing, but, the fact is: most of the flavor actually comes from the bones. So it was quite a waste of chicken meat in my opinion, to use a whole chicken for the soup. What I normally like to do, is to roast the chicken, with bones and skin on. Then skin and bone the chicken after it is cooked. While the meat could be enjoyed the way it should, the bones are reserved for another use, in soup!

For the chicken soup, I added some chopped carrots, onion, chinese dates, goji berries, an apple (cored, sliced and unpeeled)along with the chicken bones. Yes, apple! I tried chicken soup with apple once in a Singapore hawker center and remembered how sweet the soup tasted. Although I wasn't sure which type of apples were used, I took a leap of faith and added one granny smith into my soup. It turned out really tasty. In fact, the tastiest I have had so far, since coming to St Louis. It was a simple recipe, all you need is time and patience, for the soup has to simmer for two and a half hours. But I think it's definitely worth the time.

So much on the soup. Another winner was the balsamic soy glazed chicken wings. The high baking temperature had formed a crispy skin on the chicken wings, which continued to stay crispy for few more hours after they were done. A simple reduced balsamic and soy sauce was then poured onto the chicken wings, rendering them an interesting sweet and tangy taste. I like it a lot and will choose this over the deep fried chicken wings anytime!

The roasted green beans with mushroom was great too! I just like the way veggies caramelised after roasting. All the flavor from the veggies just intensify after roasting under high heat for half and hour or so. It's fool proof, and a delicious ways to eat our veggies!

Balsamic Soy Glazed Chicken Wings
(adapted from Gourmet Dec 2006)
4 lb chicken wingettes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Line 2 large shallow baking pans (17 by 11 inches) with foil. Put pans in oven and preheat oven to 500°F.

Pat wings dry, then toss with oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and divide between preheated pans, spreading wings in 1 layer. Roast, without turning, until golden and tender, about 35 minutes.

While wings roast, simmer vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 1/3 cup, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

Remove roasted wings from oven and let stand in pans 1 minute (to make wings easier to remove from foil), then transfer with tongs to a clean large bowl.

Pour balsamic mixture over wings and toss to coat well. Let stand 5 minutes, then toss again.

Cooks' note: To make wingettes from regular chicken wings, cut off and discard tips from chicken wings with kitchen shears or a large heavy knife, then halve wings at joint.

Makes 4 (main course) or 6 to 8 (snack) servings.

Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms
(Adapted from CL Sept 2006)
6 cups quartered cremini mushrooms (about 1 pound)
1 cup thinly sliced shallots
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed
Cooking spray
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450°.
Combine first 4 ingredients on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Drizzle with oil; sprinkle with thyme and pepper. Toss well to coat. Bake at 450° for 30 minutes or until beans are lightly browned. Sprinkle with salt; toss to combine.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 1/3 cups)

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