The Happy Brussels Sprout

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Coconut Rice

This stuff is great. I’ve started making it like once a week. It’s all rich and filling. I’ll have some with my curry or whatever, then I have plenty of leftovers to nibble on. It goes great with Siracha on it’s own, or random leftovers like these spicy black beans. The other day I heated up some of the Beyond Meat Chicken Strips, diced them up, tossed it on top of the rice, and of course covered in Siracha. Awesome.

1 can coconut milk

2 cups water

2 cups rice

1 Tbsp. Salt

 Rinse rice until water runs clear. I like to use calrose rice, but you can use something like jasmine rice. Combine rice, coconut milk, water, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and cover with lid. Cook 22 minutes. At 22 minutes check to make sure all liquid is cooked out. If not cook about three minutes longer.

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Tater Tot Casserole

I remember someone told me once how cool it is that I can’t eat gluten, because I can’t eat anything unhealthy. They were sure the same held true for my vegan friend. Yeah… that isn’t true. Here’s a great example of gluten free fat kid food. I refuse to make this more than once a month. It is anything but good for you. Also, Swedish Fish, ice cream, and potato chips are great examples of junk food that’s gluten free. And just in case you’re wondering, Oreos and all of the Marie Calender’s fruit pies are vegan. Yay!

 1 package Beyond Meat Beef Crumbles or 1 lb hamburger meat if you don’t care about it being vegetarian… Alternatively, last time I made this, I had to get the Beyond Meat Hamburger patties that you find in the refrigerated section. Something about the company not being able to keep up with the demand meant no beef crumbles. Whatever. It worked.

 2 cups tater tots

2 cups cheddar cheese

2 cups milk

3-4 Tbsp. cornstarch

8 oz. mushrooms

3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Bragg’s Amino Acid

1 can (15 oz.) green beans

¼ cup diced onion

3 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp. olive oil or butter

Salt

Pepper

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

 Dice onion and mince 2 of the garlic cloves. Heat 1 tablespoon oil, or butter in frying pan. Add onions and garlic. Cook on low until onions are translucent and sweating. Add beef crumbles and cook as per instructions. If using the patties cook longer then instructions and use spatula to break up meat. Either way, season with salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.

 Remove from pan and put in 8 or 9 inch casserole pan.

 To make the cream of mushroom soup, mince one clove garlic. Rinse mushrooms and slice.  Cook in saucepan until mushrooms reduce in size 50%. Add Worcestershire sauce to mushrooms.

 Separately whisk milk and cornstarch together.  Then add milk and cornstarch mixture to mushrooms. Stir over medium heat and bring to boil. Boil for one minute and remove from heat.

 Pour soup over meat in casserole pan.

 Drain liquid from green beans. Make green bean layer in casserole pan. Salt and pepper the green beans.

 Sprinkle the cheese to make an even layer covering the whole pan.

 Layer tater tots over cheese. You’ll still see some of the cheese poking through, that’s okay.

 Bake 35-40 minutes or until tater tots are golden and cheese is melted.

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Lemon and Garlic Chicken Breasts

1/4 cup good olive oil (whatever that means. I used trader joes. maybe not the nicest, but it worked)

3 tablespoons minced garlic (about 9 cloves)

1/3 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay. Unfortunately I used Bogle Chardonnay; it was fine for cooking but unpalatable for drinking. So, my usual procedure of drink half/ cook with half was a fail. I would recommend getting a slightly better chardonnay than I did.)

1 tablespoons grated lemon zest (I used one, because I only had one and wasn’t about to run out to the store)

 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp thyme (recipe calls for fresh leaves minced, I used dried crushed)

kosher salt and ground black pepper

juice from one lemon, freshly squeezed (you can use this one for the zest too)

a separate lemon cut into 8 wedges (maybe zest this one too? why not. Point is, two lemons total, both “zested,” one juiced, and one sliced. Or you could do three if you want your sliced lemon to have a pretty rind on it, that might be nice. Your call.)

4 chicken breasts-- not ridiculously large ones

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Warm the olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Add the garlic for one minute and cook the garlic a little, stirring constantly. Don’t allow the garlic to brown. Remove from heat and add the wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 tsp salt and pour into a 9 by 12 inch baking pan.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up in the baking dish (if there’s skin on them, mine didn’t have skin). Brush with olive oil then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut your lemon and and tuck it around the chicken.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken, until chicken is done and skin is slightly browned. If the top of the chicken isn't browned enough but it’s cooked all the way through, broil for 2 minutes. Remove from oven and cover pan tightly with aluminum foil for 10 minutes so chicken can rest, then serve with pan juices. 

I served over brown rice, cooked with butter and some chili pepper flakes. Something green would have gone well with this but I was too damn tired that night.

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Saag Paneer

One of my favorites, it makes me feel like a badass in the kitchen. Somehow I always thought it would be more difficult than it is, or at least more difficult than all the other curries I was making, but no. Curry is curry is curry. At least Indian curry. Make this and impress your friends. Also, you can feel healthy while doing so. Seriously, when was the last time you put three pounds of spinach in a single dish?

3 bunches greens (spinach, kale, fenugreek, whatever portions you like)

12 oz paneer cubed (omit the paneer to make it vegan)

1 onion

6 cloves garlic minced

1 inch piece ginger minced

1 chile pepper

Vegetable or canola oil

2 teaspoons garam marsala (or a little more until it smells right)

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ cup heavy cream or coconut milk (I usually use half & half to because I already have it on hand and it cuts down on calories, but heavy cream will make it super thick and creamy. I imagine coconut milk will do the same. Next time I’ll try that one and tell you how it works.)

 Rinse and coarsely chop the greens. Bring large saucepan of water to boil. Cook greens until wilted, about 3 minutes. Drain well and transfer to food processor or a bowl and take an immersion blender to it. Puree until finely chopped.

 Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry paneer cubes, stirring constantly, until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Try not to snack on too many.

 Heat 2 tablespoons oil in the skillet and fry the cumin seeds until lightly toasted and they smell right, about 3 minutes. Add onion and pepper; cook and stir until onion begins to soften and starts to change color, but before it becomes translucent, about 7 to 8 minutes. Stir in ginger, garlic, garam masala, turmeric, and cayenne pepper; cook and stir until onion are translucent, about 8 to 10 more minutes. Also, add in a little water as needed. Don’t worry about thinning it down. The recipe I got this from called for tomatoes which added a little bit of moisture at this point, so you need to replace that, hence water.

 Stir in greens, cream, paneer cubes, and salt to taste. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 Serve over rice and with naan if you want. When you cook the rice remember to throw in a decent amount of salt and a few cloves of garlic.

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Ginataang Kalabasa (what is this magic?)

Never made this, never even heard of it before tonight, but I just saw this recipe and this needs to happen in my kitchen now. Well, maybe not now, but sometime this week for sure. 

I’ll get back to you after all and tell you how it turned out. I’m excited for the future.

http://blog.junbelen.com/2013/12/11/how-to-make-ginataang-kalabasa-at-sitaw-butternut-squash-and-yard-long-beans-in-coconut-milk/

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Polenta Done Right

If you’re counting calories, you should probably skip this recipe. You’ll just be sad. If you aren’t, well, don’t make it too often anyway. I especially like it in the winter because it’s so hearty and filling, but it can be a little heavy. 

I like to make pot roast with lots of onions and mushrooms to go over the top, but pairing it with some crookneck squash and zucchini or maybe even some eggplant could be good too.

1 pint half and half

1 pint milk

1 stick butter

1/4 cup olive oil

a few cloves of garlic

fresh rosemary

crushed red pepper

salt and pepper

3 cups chicken stock (or vegetable if you specifically want it vegetarian)

2 cups white corn meal or polenta

parmesan cheese

Melt butter and oil together in a pan. Add spices, stir them in for a moment. Add liquids; bring to a boil then turn way down. Add cornmeal slowly while stirring. Once all cornmeal is added turn off the heat. Keep on stirring until it’s the right consistency (smooth, a little thicker, you know? If you aren’t sure have a little bite. If it’s all gritty then keep on stirring.) Fold in cheese.

The leftovers will turn into this kind of hard block, just add a little bit of water and stir well when you heat it up. Alternatively, you can cut off pieces of it and fry it up day after, that could be tasty too. Something I haven’t tried yet but always mean to.

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Chicken Fajitas

2 bell peppers

An Anaheim pepper would be good in this too

1 onion

Some chicken? I don’t know, it’s usually 2 breasts I think

Cumin

Paprika

Hot sauce

Maybe some chili powder

Corn tortillas

  Slice the bell pepper and onion into long, thin strips. Do the same to your chicken and set aside.

Heat up some oil or butter in a pan, you want it really hot. Throw in the peppers and onions. For a little bit you’re going to keep the heat on high and don’t stir it as much as you think you should. You’re trying to get a little bit of color on them and maybe get them a little crispy. Once this has happened turn the heat down to medium-ish. Add some cumin (make a little mound in your palm and dump it in), paprika (not as much as the cumin) about 5 shakes of hot sauce, oh and also some salt and pepper.

Let that cook at a lower heat for a little bit. When it looks like it’s almost done (after 10 minutes or so?) then add the chicken. The idea is to have cut it small enough that it cooks up pretty quick.

Add some more hot sauce, the chicken probably wants it. Stir, make sure the chicken is cooked all through.

Serve over warmed tortillas with cheese and anything else.

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Cheater Spaghetti Sauce

If you have fresh tomatoes, an onion, olive oil and some red wine you can make your own sauce from scratch. It’s super tasty and really simple. However, sometimes I don’t think about that, or I want a really hearty spaghetti sauce, that’s usually when I make this.

 ½ pound hamburger

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

1 bell pepper chopped

½ onion chopped

a few cloves of garlic

 In a separate pan cook the hamburger with salt and pepper. Drain and set aside. You can start the other things while this is cooking too; just remember to stir it once in a while.

 In a frying pan, heat up some olive oil and toss in the onion and bell pepper. This is on about medium, medium high heat. . Let it cook about 10 minutes, then add in the garlic, turn down the heat to low. Add in the hamburger and spaghetti sauce, let it simmer while you cook the noodles.

By the way, my favorite gluten free noodles are the Barilla brand. They are inexpensive, easy to find, and taste the best in my opinion. I serve them to non-gluten free people all the time and they never complain about the taste. Find them in the regular pasta aisle, not the special gluten free section.

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Cuban Black Bean

1 Green Bell pepper

1 onion

6 cloves garlic (not minced...)

1.5 Chicken bullion cubes or 2 cups chicken broth

Bay leaves

Splash of red wine or vinegar

2 cans black beans

ground cumin

  Heat a good bit of olive oil in a pot. De-seed and dice up the bell pepper and onion and fry in the oil for about 8 minutes. Coarsely chop the garlic, add to onions and pepper, and cook another 2 minutes.  Add the water and bullion or the chicken stock, a few bay leaves, a healthy splash of red wine, the cumin, and black beans. Cook as long as it’s reasonable, at least 15 minutes, then serve over white rice. If you have time to let it hang out longer do so.

When you prepare the rice, salt it well, and toss a clove or two of garlic in when you start cooking the rice. Like whole but peeled. Honestly you should start doing this any time you cook rice—but  it’s important with this.

Edit:

I started pulling out a bowlful of beans and mushing them up with a spoon, then returning to the pan to continue cooking. Do this halfway through. It’s super tasty. 

Also, I’ve added an anaheim pepper, in addition to the bell pepper. Because there’s more peppers I also added another can of black beans.

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Steak and Bleu Cheese Baguette Things

Technically these are hors d’oeuvres but they’re very filling. If you want to do something nice for yourself but don’t want to make a big production of it, go for these. I guess you could make them to share too, I suppose. This recipe used to impress guys on date night, maybe it will work for you too? If you want to make a meal out of it maybe make a salad too. 

 Steak (I think they use a tri-tip but I usually use whatever I feel like. What’s important is how you cut it)

Bleu cheese

A baguette

  Slice the baguette. Don’t over think it. Just slice it all up.

Cook your steak. You want to sear the outside, then reduce the heat and cook until it’s medium rare. The thing is you want to slice it after cooking, make it a bite size or little bigger, you’re going to put a slice of it on the baguette; little rectangles about 2” by 1 ½ inch.

Preheat your oven to a high broil

Put the steak on the baguettes, and then put crumbles of bleu cheese over it. Arrange them on a pan.

Place under the broiler; keep the oven door cracked and WATCH THEM. You want the cheese to get a little melty and maybe have a bit of color on the top. Then pull them out and feel accomplished.

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Fancy Mac n’ Cheese

I call this fancy, but it’s really lazy as fuck. It only looks fancy because it doesn’t come out of a box that says “Kraft”… that goes a long way.

 Elbow noodles

Cheese

           Sharp cheddar

           Some gruyere if you’re feeling snazzy

Mushrooms

A bit of onion, maybe half

Bacon (optional but delicious)

Some heavy cream if you have it, if not don’t sweat it.

Slice the mushrooms and onions. Pick a pan that eventually your noodles plus veggies will fit into, put some butter in the bottom and start cooking the onions. Give the onions a head start then add the mushrooms. Put in a little bit of salt and pepper and spices that smell good if you’re feeling adventurous. Just salt and pepper is fine too though.

If you want to use the bacon, start cooking that first. When it’s about halfway done pull out the bacon, chop it up into bit size pieces. Pour out the grease from the pan, put the now chopped bacon back in, then proceed with the onions and mushrooms as described above.

Have your pan with water and a liberal amount of salt waiting for you. You want to start cooking the noodles about the same time you start sautéing the onions, maybe a minute or two after. Just make sure your noodles don’t finish cooking before your veggies do, you’ll be sad.

 Now your noodles are done (they take like ten minutes, read the package) your veggies are done. Yay. Drain the water from the noodles but DON’T RINSE THEM. Instead dump them in the pan that has your veggies. If you didn’t add bacon, put some butter in now. Stir it lots so it melts and spreads around. Add cheese liberally, keep on stirring. Do all of this quickly so it doesn’t cool down, you want the cheese to melt on your noodles and stuff. If you have that heavy cream, pour a little bit in (like a tablespoon or so.) Enough to help things incorporate into a sauce but not so much that it gets runny.

You should have a gooey mess now. Awesome.  Go eat it.

Oh! Spinach can be good in this too. Add that to your veggies, around mushroom time.

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Red Lentil Curry

2 cups red lentils

1 large onion, diced


1 tablespoon vegetable oil


2 tablespoons curry paste


1 tablespoon curry powder


1 teaspoon ground turmeric


1 teaspoon ground cumin


1 teaspoon chili powder


1 teaspoon salt


1 teaspoon white sugar (I never add this)


1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

  1.     Wash the lentils in cold water until the water runs clear. It’s like rinsing rice; you just put them in a bowl and let water run over it. Don’t put it in a strainer, you’ll think you’re all clever at first but then it’s a pain in the ass to pull out and clean up. Put lentils in a pot with enough water to cover; bring to a boil, place a cover on the pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, adding water during cooking as needed to keep covered, until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain.

(If you aren’t cooking the lentils separately, do or don’t rinse them. Technically you should but I don’t always.)

2.     Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir onions in hot oil until caramelized, about 20 minutes.

3.     Mix curry paste, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, salt, sugar, garlic, and ginger together in a large bowl; stir into the onions. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

You should probably add some butter too, a tablespoon or so. You’ll thank me later.

4.     Stir in the tomato puree, remove from heat and stir into the lentils.

Now this recipe has you cooking the lentils separately and then adding in the butter/spice mix, which is tasty. However, I’ll usually skip step one and after step 3 I’ll put in some broth into the mixture, add the lentils then, and let it cook together. I do this because I want to add other tasty things to the mix, like spinach, yams, green beans, whatever sounds good. Okay, sorry, I’ll break it down a little for you.

Skip step one

Follow step 2 and 3

Add 1 ½ to 2 cups broth per cup of lentils. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook 20- 30-40 minutes… Depending on what you’re adding.

 Sometimes I like to swap out the tomato puree for diced tomatoes. Pour in the whole can, juice and all. You may want to reduce the broth some since you just added all that liquid.

 If you’re adding spinach, kale, or paneer, add it about 10 to 15 minutes before you think it will be done. Adding it too soon will make it all mushy. If you add things like yams, make sure it’s in little cubes. Add the yams, let it cook about 10 minutes then add the broth and lentils and proceed as normal.

If you want your curry more creamy and smooth add some coconut milk and tomato puree, I especially like doing this when I add yams.

If you’re going to add meat things as protein, cook it on the side and then add it in with your lentils and crap.