Productive Food Evening

Last nite was a productive food evening. I made dinner and soup, all while getting home at 8ish. Dinner was easy...dijon mustard crusted pork tenderloin w/ cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and artichokes. For the pork, I basically slathered in the mustard then coated it in breadcrumbs and rub of garlic, salt, peppercorns and other spices. Seared in in a skillet on both sides to both the crust on, then added about 1 cup of chicken broth and some extra water, onions and garlic and covered and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Then I heated the oven to 400 degrees and threw the dried cranberries into the pan and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. Done...easy enough.

Mashed potatoes were easy - just boiled them with salt and pepper, drained them, added fresh chopped garlic, skim milk, salt, and smart balance butter. I used just a regular old potato mashing device and they came out great. The artichokes were $1 a piece at the grocery!!! Completely unheard of in these parts. A quick way to cook the whole artichoke is to trim the top of the artichoke off (gets rid of spikes), then cut if in half, sprinkle with seasoning of your choice (I used salt, roasted garlic/pepper seasoning - my mom uses adobo) and drizzle olive oil into a pan to coat the bottom and place artichokes cut side down. Once oil starts to absorb, add some water and cover. Water acts to steam the artichokes and the leaves come out nice and tender. All in all - this was a pretty good meal that was made in under hour.

While everything was cooking - I made my own version of Indian Inspired Red Lentil Soup. I only tasted it last nite, but will let you know for sure tomorrow how it is. This is what I threw in the pot:

1 whole onion diced
2 carrots diced
6 stalks of celery diced
1 can of whole tomatoes
3 tomatoes roughly chopped
tumeric, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, red chili powder, garam masala, 2 bay leaves, and ginger (i ran out of the fresh stuff)
red lentils
1 can of chick peas
1 bag of collard greens
handful of fresh cilantro

Directions:
Drizzle a but of olive oil in a stock pot and add onion, celery, and carrot - saute for about 5 minutes - then add the spices listed above and collard greens - i just sprinkled around the pot a little of each, but you may want ease up on the chili powder. Allow spices to become fragrant, then add about 12 cups of water and the lentils and bring to boil. I allowed this to simmer for about an hour. Then I tasted the soup and added more salt and spices and then added the can of whole tomatoes and used the hand blender to puree the soup. Next I added the chopped cilantro and tomato - allow to simmer for another 1/2 hour. I added the chickpeas at this point because I did not want them to lose their texture, but you could add them earlier.

I think this is going to come out well, hopefully not too spicy.

Spicy Shrimp, Arugula, Tomato, and hint of clams pasta dish

So this dish came together quite well - unfortunately it has been confirmed that I do have some issue apparently with peeling raw shrimp and having an allergic reaction. So, I guess its time to invest in some latex gloves. Anywho...here is what I came up with...

Half can of anchovies
1 whole onion sliced
5 cloves of garlic
Couple good shakes of red pepper flakes
8 oz. of crushed tomatoes
1 bunch of arugula
1 can of chopped clams
fresh parsley
1 lb. of fresh Louisiana Shrimp
Long Pasta
Pecorino Romano Cheese

Directions:

In a deep saute pan, add anchovies and break up with a spoon. I promise you that you cannot taste them, even if they smell kinda fishy at first. They just lend a saltiness to the dish and a flavor. Once the anchovies have disintegrated, add onions and garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Once onions are translucent, add crushed tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the clams and simmer for another 10 minutes. Bring water for pasta to a boil, while pasta cooks - add the shrimp and arugula to the tomato and clam mixture. By the time the pasta should be cooked, your shrimp should be pink and plump and the arugula wilting. Make sure to taste the sauce and add salt and more pepper to taste. Drain pasta and add fresh snipped parsley to the mixture. Toss the pasta w/ the seafood and veggies - serve in bowls and top with grated pecorino cheese. Serve w/ a nice crusty garlic ciabatta bread to soak up the leftover juices.

I got a "this is really good" from the BF and he dislikes canned clams...hehe but I didn't even want to tell him about the anchovies...

I even ate the leftovers - cold of course because i despise re-heating pasta and seafood - and it was still fantastic.

Menu This Week

In an effort to update this blog more often - I am going to try to give you an idea of what I plan to make this week.

Monday - Shrimp, Arugula and Tomato Pasta Dish
Tuesday - Pecan crusted pork/chicken w/ dried cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and summer squash salad
Wednesday - Possibly traveling to Lake Charles - so perhaps a restaurant review
Thursday - (if I'm back at a decent hour) - Vietnamese Noodle Salad or Fish w/ coconut rice and broccoli
Friday - ???
Saturday or Sunday - Ribs w/ whatever I pick up at the Farmer's Market

Also, in hopes of testing out some soups, indian inspired red lentil soup and possibly a cold cucumber asian soup.

Greens and Beans

The farmer's market has yielded some great finds lately - one happens to be broccoli rappi. Rappi is in the greens family and is very bitter. I grew up on the stuff and always loved when my grandmother made it, but I will warn you that bitter taste does not sit well with everyone. For me, greens and beans is comfort food and its so simple.

2 links of italian sausage (I used poultry version, but any will do)
1 bunch of rappi - roughly chopped (or you could use anything other green - i.e. spinach)
1 whole onion sliced
6 cloves of garlic sliced or chopped
salt & pepper
red pepper flakes
1 can of chicken broth
olive oil
1 can of white beans (drain them)

Directions:
Swirl the olive oil around the pan a couple of times and add onions, once them become fragrant add the garlic. Saute both and add salt and pepper. Next add the sausage. You can either cook the sausage in the pan with the onions and garlic or do it in a separate pan to reduce fat content. I squeezed the sausage out of the casings and crumbled it up. Once the sausage is almost done, begin to add the greens. If you add in layers, make sure to salt in between each green layer. Once, all greens have been added, add chicken broth and cover. Allow the greens to cook down and stir occasionally for about 30 minutes. Then add the beans to mixture and allow to cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the beans are heated through. At this point I added a bit of crushed red pepper flakes for some spice, but depending on your sausage you may not have to. I eat this just as is, but you could serve it over pasta, rice, or with some nice bread.

Sausage, Greens, and Roasted Red Peppers Calzones

I had the brilliant idea the other day to make calzones for dinner one nite this week. Thank god I decided to buy refrigerated pizza dough or else it would have been even more time consuming than it already was. The worst part was trying to form the dough into pieces I wanted, and a lot of prep. However I am stubborn and won't use bottled sauce as a condiment to my calzones, so I made my own - so you could save some time by using pre-made sauce. Anywho...here is what I did:

Ingredients:
2 links of sausage - out of casing (I used a lemon, garlic turkey sausage from Whole Foods)
1/2 onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic
1 small bunch of mustard greens (could use any type of greens)
1/2 cup of chopped roasted red peppers
1 cup of part skim ricotta cheese
3/4 cup of shredded cheese of your choice (I used a blend of mozzarella, provolone, and Parmesan)
salt and pepper, dried parsley and oregano
refrigerated pizza dough

Directions:
In a tall pot on medium heat, place the sausage in first. Once it starts to cook, use a spoon or fork to make it into crumbles. Once it begins to look cooked, add garlic and onions and saute until fragrant. Next begin to add the greens, and salt between each layer of greens added (if using fresh greens only). Once all greens have cooked down add roasted red peppers and shut off heat. Then remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and place into a large bowl and all it to cool. While the sausage mixture cooled I made my spicy tomato sauce and pre-heated the oven to 425.

Spicy Sauce
- saute your preferred amounts of chopped onion and garlic in the pot you just took the sausage mix out of. Add a bit of olive oil if necessary. Once onions become translucent, add 1 small can of whole tomatoes, 1 small can of crushed tomatoes, some red wine, and sliced cherry peppers (mine came from a jar - you should be able to find these at the grocery). I used a hand blender to puree the sauce, but you could easily use a regular blender. Once pureed, add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste and allow it to simmer. Right before serving I added about 5 stems of chopped fresh parsley.

Calzones:

Once mixture has cooled, add the ricotta and shredded cheese and mix well. Spread out your dough and divide into 4 square pieces or just do the best you can. Add about 1/2 cup of the mixture in the middle of the squares and fold over dough. Crimp the edges with your fingers or a fork. I spread some cornmeal on the bottom of my cookie sheet and placed the calzones on top of the cornmeal and made 2 slits on the top of each calzone. Place calzones into the oven and cook from about 14 minutes or until edges are brown.

Serve with a side of spicy tomato sauce.

Soup and Mortons Review

So the soup came out pretty good...I think it needs a bit more tweaking, but its tasty. I think allowing the flavors to meld overnight did wonders, plus I added some fresh cilantro to the cup, which added another great flavor element to it. The boyfriend enjoys it, however I think he agrees with me it needs some doctoring.

I had a great meal at Morton's Restaurant in Madisonville, LA yesterday. Morton's a casual seafood restaurant right on the riverfront, so it was packed on Sunday afternoon with boaters and those who drive to sit on their deck. John and I started by splitting a dozen raw oysters, and these little guys were GOOD. Plump and salty, good size - although there was one so big, we questioned whether to cut it in half or not, but that would be seafood blasphemy, so John put that one down. My only complaint was that the restaurant or our server was stingy with the cocktail sauce and horseradish. If your going to give us a ramekin, fill the damn thing up.

Next we each moved onto boiled crawfish, which had a great seasoning (nice and spicy) and I didn't get a bad one in the bunch. These guys weren't as big as the ones I had at the crawfish boil on Saturday, but were still of a the same quality. We then split a combination poboy (one half oyster and the catfish). You may be thinking to yourself, wow that is a lot of food, but really its not. Crawfish may look big, but the meat you actually get out of them is tiny and honestly even this little girl on a good day could put down 8 pounds of crawfish easy. I was disappointed in the poboy. The oyster half was fantastic - tasty batter, not greasy, plump oysters. The catfish half on the other hand was bland, and the piece of catfish the put on it was not a good cut.

At this point I was stuffed, but my sweet tooth of a boyfriend decided on Bread Pudding for desert. I am new at this whole bread pudding thing, and honestly I never thought I would like it from the name, but there are so GREAT bread puddings out there. The bread pudding at Morton's is up there on my list. It was layers of some fruit speckled bread, covered in a whiskey sauce. From the few bites I had, I had wished I had saved some room for dessert.

My only real complaint about our experience here was the service. The waiter wasn't particularly attentive and granted we were a table for 9 and he may have been overloaded, but that situation should be remedied by the front of the house. Drinks constantly had to be asked to be refilled, never asked how things were or if anyone needed anything. I always feel a little bad bashing a server, because he may have been having a bad day. However, even the kitchen seemed to be a bit off with the timing of when meals came out. All in all though, its a great place to bring friends and family - especially on the gorgeous days we are having down here right now.

New Idea...

Today, I kinda had an epiphany...one thing I love to do and do well is make soup...so I think over the next few weeks I am going to develop and perfect some more soup recipes and start selling them a the local market or to friends and family by word of mouth. It is going to take awhile, but if anyone else out there has done this or has any insights please let me know. So in my new soup venture this evening was inspired by the 5 stalks of lemongrass I had in my fridge and my craving for some thai.

Chicken and Lemongrass Soup

4 stalks of lemon grass (chopped into 3 inches pieces and bruise it with the edge of the knife)
2 serrano chiles
1 inch of ginger - roughly sliced
1 32 oz. container of chicken broth
1 lb. of chicken thighs
1 cup of spinach
1 bag of broccoli slaw
5 cloves of garlic
1 can of diced tomatoes with chiles
Few dashes of fish sauce and soy sauce
3 scallions roughly chopped
1 tsp. of crushed coriander



In stock pot fill with 32 oz. of water and the chicken broth add the lemon grass, chiles, ginger, and chicken to the pot and bring to a boil. Cook for 40 minutes. With a slotted spoon, pull out the chicken, chiles, and ginger. I left the lemongrass in longer this time, to see what kind of flavor I get, but you could pull it out now. Then, shred the chicken, add the garlic, spinach, broccoli slaw, and tomatoes, bring to boil, then reduce. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes, then add the fish sauce, soy sauce, coriander and scallions. Then allow it to simmer for another 20 minutes.

At this point you could serve this with some lime wedges, rice, fresh cilantro. I am going to chill the soup and have it tomorrow for dinner. So I will write yall later with the results and my boyfriend's critique.