FOR (BUSY) PEOPLE WHO LOVE GOOD FOOD
Soup season is just about over, but I wanted to squeeze in just one more. I tried Hungarian Mushroom Soup from Eating Well, with plenty of mushrooms and potatoes in a vegetable broth thickened with milk and flour. The combination of dill and paprika worked well both for flavor and color, but I still think the soup was missing something. Some rye croutons might have been nice? I’ll figure it out in the fall, but for now we’ll move on from hearty winter soups!
Katie from The Small Boston Kitchen tried my recipe for Eggplant Meatballs months ago, and was inspired to come up with some vegetarian meatballs of her own. She made these quinoa veggie meatballs, and I tried the recipe this weekend. I just left out the red pepper and substituted in walnuts for pine nuts.
Look here to see my post on the Sargent Choice blog! It’s all about the awesome granola they serve on the Boston University campus, and how you can make it in your kitchen. Plus, you’ll want to check out the other great recipes on the site. They will make you wish you could eat in a college dorm again. No really, campus dining has changed so much!
I know I haven’t been very chatty lately on the blog, so let’s try a question for today. What is your most memorable campus dining experience?
My answer: Eggplant Parmesan made with slices 2-3″ thick with the skin. Ugh! That was NOT my idea of Eggplant Parmesan.
My Mom has been raving about this shaved asparagus pizza for a while. It’s another gem from Smitten Kitchen. She kept asking, did you try that asparagus pizza yet? I am so glad I finally did! She didn’t mention that I’d have asparagus shreds all over my kitchen counter, but that is a minor annoyance compared to the taste of this pizza. You literally shave the asparagus with a peeler and toss it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. This process takes asparagus from a stalky vegetable to a far more delicate one. And with two different kinds of cheese and a crispy crust, this pizza was just about perfect!
I received this sample of Jasmati Rice quite some time ago. I generally prefer to use brown rice for it’s firm texture and nutty taste, plus it’s a whole grain. But brown rice isn’t traditionally used for Indian dishes, so when I made the Red Bean Curry I also cooked up my rice sample. As the name implies, it’s a hybrid of jasmine and basmati rice.
Maybe I’ve been eating brown rice too long, but I forgot just how good white rice can be! It was soft and fluffy, and perfect for soaking up leftover curry sauce. While I will still choose whole grains the majority of the time, I really did enjoy this rice. And there’s nothing wrong with that once in a while, so I think I’ll be stocking this in my pantry.
This curry has the kind of rich and spicy sauce that drew me to Indian food in the first place. I tweaked this recipe from Smitten Kitchen slightly, to tone down the spice a bit and allow more time for the flavors to blend together. After so many recent misses in my kitchen, this dish was right on. It was spicy enough but didn’t make me cry. And although I love Chana Masala, the kidney beans here were a nice change of pace. As for that fluffy white stuff right under the curry, I also traded in my usual brown rice. Details tomorrow in a product review.
1/4 c. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 T garlic-ginger paste
1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and diced
8 oz. tomato sauce
1 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1/2 t cumin seeds
1/4 t cayenne pepper
2 (15 oz.) cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes in juice
Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion, ginger-garlic paste, and pepper, and fry for 5-10 minutes, until browning. Add tomato sauce and spices, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add kidney beans and tomatoes, and simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Serve over rice, or with naan.
It’s crunch time folks, and I’ll be breaking out a lot of convenience foods. I needed a quick dinner (and lunch for the following day) so I pulled out these Cumin and Chili Chickpeas along with a package of pre-cooked brown rice. The chickpeas required 90 seconds in the microwave, and the rice required 60 seconds.
While the microwave was going, I put together a speedy salad of Romaine and cucumbers. Less than 10 minutes after I walked in the door, dinner was served with a glass of seltzer. (By the way, my new water glasses are simply recycled jars of Teddie Peanut Butter. I feel very green.)
Here are the chickpeas close up. They are spiced very well, but for some reason I expected more sauce. This isn’t like a package of curry. I really enjoyed the chickpeas, but they might have been better served on the salad itself or scooped up with a cracker. The dish itself was a little dry, but it was still a fast sort-of-home-cooked meal. The chickpeas are vegan and gluten free, and they better not be sold out because I need to go buy another bag.
When we decided to have freshly made ravioli for Easter dinner, my sister wanted to try a different recipe for tomato sauce. She used the Jamie Oliver Tomato Sauce recipe from Parenting Magazine, which packs a ton of vegetables right into the sauce including onion, leek, pepper, zucchini, carrot, and butternut squash! She added more garlic, 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 small cans of tomato paste to balance out the flavor. And she even got to use one of her favorite kitchen tools, the immersion blender!
Finally, a truly Easter themed recipe! I originally wanted to make Cake Pops for Easter, but with everything else going on, we decided to move that project out and make these Easter Basket Cupcakes instead. The recipe starts with a fairly basic vanilla cupcake. If you don’t have cake flour, feel free to substitute all purpose flour and cornstarch as suggested here in the Joy of Baking. Then you make a powdered sugar icing, which we chose to leave white. Finally, you add green tinted coconut, and some type of egg shaped candy. We had a cupcake assembly line going so it didn’t take long at all. They came out so cute, and tasted great although the frosting was almost too sweet. But not so sweet that I couldn’t finish the cupcake of course. It was the perfect little treat to end our meal!
We were having an Italian dinner for Easter this year, and I wanted to try some homemade bread. I chose these Lemon Thyme Focaccia rolls from the NY Times, because they sounded so springy. They are like Italian rolls with the addition of lemon zest, freshly chopped thyme, and ground black pepper. The recipe is a little time intensive, but the time passes quickly when you’re just playing on the swings. (My nephew wasn’t feeling very well this weekend, and this is the only picture I got of him smiling!) Everyone liked the rolls, and my Dad felt they would be great to accompany a seafood meal, so we’ll have to try them again this summer.
Recipes that Fit 