Thai Beef + Veggies + Coconut Rice = Yummy!

February 24, 2011 · by ·
I love Thai food. If I knew how to insert a heart symbol, I would insert it somewhere into this sentence. Did I mention I love Thai food? Somehow when you throw in fish sauce, lime juice, sriracha, and basil into a dish – magic happens. For real! Try it sometime!

I am not a ground beef fan or a Martha Stewart fan, but I came upon this recipe that intrigued me. Thai ground beef over coconut rice sounded good. It was also looked easy enough that I was able to amp up the flavor and stretch the ingredients to make it work for us. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, plus some veggies that I thought would only add to the dish. If you want, you could substitute tofu, turkey, or soy crumbles in place of the cow.

For the Coconut Rice:

2 cups jasmine rice
1 can coconut milk
1.5 cups of water
salt

Put the rice, milk, water, and salt in a saucepan on medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low and cover. Cook until the liquid is absorbed.

For the beef dish:

1 tbsp. vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tbsp ginger, chopped
2 chili peppers, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
10 oz. container mushrooms, sliced
snowpeas – a bunch
chinese broccoli, choped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
baby corn, sliced
scallions, chopped
red pepper flakes
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. sriracha
1 tsp. sugar
chopped basil
lime wedges

Combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, sriracha, and sugar in a small bowl. Let it sit for a bit.

Add oil to your wok and add the garlic, ginger, onion and chilis. Cook for about a minute. Add the meat and brown it. Add in the vegetables and cook some more. Add in the tomatoes. Add in the fish sauce mixture, chili flakes, and the basil. Cook a few more minutes.


Serve this over coconut rice with a good, healthy squeeze of lime juice. It’s soooo good! You will want to keep eating and eating this dish. I wish I had doubled this recipe – it was that good.
Filed Under: Dinner, Gluten Free · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

African Peanut Chicken

February 24, 2011 · by ·
This chicken was so good that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it. Well actually it tasted good, but looked pretty awful. It was also shabbat. So really no chance to get a good shot of it.


I love trying new ideas. The weekend is really my canvas to play with flavor. What I love most of all though, is experimenting with my dinner guests.

I love Asian style peanut sauces on foods, but had never ventured into the African peanut realm in food making. I often come upon recipes for African peanut soups and chicken dishes, but have held back on messing with them. The dear hubster has never been a fan of the asian peanut sauce – so I always assumed that an African peanut dish was off limits.

I decided to ignore his opinions and work out a recipe for me. I was really in the mood for a chicken dish that popped with flavor. I was in the mood for something different. A colleague has often mentioned a traditional African peanut sauce that she makes for her husband. I thought I would try my hand at something.

In searching through cookbooks and various blogs, I came up with a recipe that worked with what I had on hand. It came out amazing. Even the hubster loved it. To prove it, he devoured all the leftovers.

African Peanut Chicken with Vegetables

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of creamy peanut butter (not the sugary kind)
3 cups of vegetable broth
1 chicken – cut up
1.5 tbsp vegetable oil
salt
pepper
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, diced (optional)
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 can diced tomatoes
2 large turnips, cubed
3 carrots, sliced
1 potato, cubed
1 sweet potato, cubed
cilantro, chopped (about a handful)

Preheat your oven to 325°F.


In a small bowl, whisk the peanut butter with 1.5 cups of the vegetable broth.


Wash and dry your chicken. Season it with salt and pepper.


In a large dutch oven, brown the chicken in the vegetable oil. Transfer the chicken to a plate.


Add the onion, garlic, and peppers to the pot. S

auté a few minutes. Add in the cayenne and coriander.

Once the onion mixture has softened, add in the chopped root veggies.

Stir in the peanut butter mixture as well as the tomatoes and the remaining broth.

Add the chicken to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer and cover the pot. Transfer the chicken to the oven and cook for another hour.

After an hour – take the chicken out of the oven and place on the stove on medium heat. Transfer the chicken and veggies to a serving dish. Simmer, and reduce the sauce on the stove. Should take about 15 minutes. Mix in the cilantro.


Pour the sauce over the chicken. Serve over rice.


Enjoy!

Filed Under: Dinner · Tagged: , , , ,

On Being a Foodie When Food Hates Me

February 24, 2011 · by ·

So I know I have been gone a while. I have a good excuse.

I have Crohns. A disorder of the gut. I won’t go in to all the gory details, but to sum it up – when it kicks me in the ass, it really kicks me in the ass. Food doesn’t like me.
With the gut acting up, I wasn’t really eating – mostly keeping to a liquid diet. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about food. The whole time I was sick, I was watching food network and ingesting all the lovely food porn in the blogosphere. My cooking habits turned into pathetic mode. Feeding my family quick and easy meals likes mac & cheese, fish sticks, eggs, and such. Really pathetic. Of course the kids loved it! What kid doesn’t like food out of a box? Now I am back -thank goodness. Back to eating, back to cooking. So here I am. I promise to cook more, feed my family better meals, and tell you about it.
Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: ,

Vegan Green Bean Casserole -Thanksgiving Redux

December 5, 2010 · by ·

I never had a casserole growing up. Not even a bite of one of those canned french fried onions! Imagine that!


Casseroles always piqued my curiosity. These four ingredient dishes that look so easy and convenient. What could be wrong with that? Of course the ingredients scared me. A can of this with a bag of that and throw in some can of cream soup. Yikes! MSG + Fat + unidentified objects. Seriously? I’m supposed to eat that?

This year was the first year I was hosting Thanksgiving. I wanted to do it right. Wanted to bring in some of that “traditional” American Thanksgiving that I didn’t grow up with.

One of the iconic dishes that comes with tradition is the green bean casserole.

How could I make it kosher and tasty and healthier was my question.

Here is what I came up with.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole (adapted from a recipe on vegweb.com)
Ingredients:

1.5 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped
1 cup baby bell mushrooms, chopped
1 carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
basil, a few leaves, chopped
oregano, a bunch of leaves, chopped
sage leaves, a few – chopped
thyme, a few sprigs, chopped
salt
pepper
cayenne
2 tbsp. corn starch
3 tbsp. cold water
16oz. cut green beans (I used frozen)
1.5 cans of those crunchy french fried onions (I found them at whole foods and trader joes)
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a saucepan, heat the soy milk and broth.

In another pan, saute the onions, garlic, mushrooms, and carrots. Add the herbs. I like to add a teaspoon or two of cayenne to bump up the heat a bit, but it’s purely optional. Saute on medium until everything is soft.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with the cold water. Add it to the broth mixture to thicken it.

Add the green beans and sauteed veggie mixture to the broth mixture. Mix in a half a can of the fried onions. Pour the mixture into a baking pan. I used a 9×9 pan, but I could have used something slightly larger. Sprinkle more fried onions over the top.

Bake for 20 minutes.

To be honest, I was surprised that I actually liked this. It had some sort of comforting taste to it. I probably won’t make it again for at least another year. It’s not bad though. Just not what we are used to eating. You have to make it once, though. Enjoy!
Filed Under: recipes · Tagged: , , ,

Playing Recipe Catch-Up with Thanksgiving

December 5, 2010 · by ·

I know I could totally go back six months to play catch-up. I’m awful, awful, awful. Three times! I have many valid excuses as to why I haven’t been posting, but I won’t bore you with any of them. I will simply back up to Thanksgiving and post some highlights of the meal.

I am not so gung-ho on Thanksgiving to begin with. It never rung true as my holiday. Aside from a day off from work, I don’t get anything out of this. I have fond memories of the family we used to share Thanksgiving with each year as a kid, but once I moved out and moved on, I was never sure how to include Thanksgiving in my family’s life.

From a food standpoint, I am the total anti-Thanksgiving. I really dislike turkey. Aside from the smoked turkey that comes sliced at a deli counter – I stay away from the big behemoth of a bird. I have never liked the taste of the cooked bird. Don’t get me started on the look of the raw turkey as it sits in my kitchen. The bird, at twice the size of my daughter when she was born, scares the living daylights out of me. To make things worse, I am supposed to stick my arm up it’s ass to stuff herbs and stuff into just to make it taste better.

That being said, I promised to host Thanksgiving this year. After a 7-year hiatus, I also promised that the feast would include a big honkin’ turkey and all the proper customary Thanksgiving fixings.

I came up with a traditional menu, with flavor added (of course):

Herbed Roasted Turkey
Cranberry Sauce
Big Green Salad
Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Sweet Potato Dumplings
Rutabagas
Rice Pilaf
Roasted Asparagus
Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie

What am I missing? Will be posting the recipes to the stars of the feast.

Filed Under: recipes · Tagged:

Coffee Oreo Ice Cream

May 21, 2010 · by ·
coffee-oreo-ice-cream

The title says it all. How could you go wrong with coffee oreo ice cream? It was a dairy holiday, with the weather warming up. Ice cream had to make it on the menu. I first sampled this flavor either at Sebastian Joe’s in Minneapolis, or Max & Mina’s in Queens. Either way, it’s the perfect flavor combo and I was determined to make it my own.

Around 5 years ago, I received this handy dandy Cuisinart ice cream maker as a token of appreciation for doing some product research stuff. I used to do various focus groups and product testing in my “free time.” My love of kitchen appliances brought me this baby. I think I can count on my hands the number of times I have actually used this appliance. It averages out to two times a summer. Making ice cream is so easy. Not necessarily cheaper than buying it though. Still, it’s wonderful when it’s homemade and Shavuot calls for yummy, delicious, homemade ice cream.

Coffee-Oreo Ice Cream
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert, Ice Cream, Frozen
Ingredients
  • 1 cup milk
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 3 teaspoons instant espresso powder
  • ¼ cup very strong coffee/espresso (ice cold)
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extra
  • broken up sandwich cookies (I used Trader Joe's chocolate Joe Joe's) - About 20 or so, maybe more.
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, whisk the milk, sugar, coffee, and espresso powder to combine.
  2. Whisk in the heavy cream and the vanilla.
  3. Pour into the ice cream maker. Turn the machine on.
  4. Let it run a good 20 minutes.
  5. Watch it thicken up and turn into ice cream.
  6. Toss in the cookie pieces. Let it run another 5-10 minutes.
  7. When done, it will be like soft ice cream. Think Carvel. You can enjoy it now, or you can let it freeze and harden a bit more. Enjoy!

coffee-oreo-ice-cream

Filed Under: Dessert, ice cream · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Oreo Cheesecake

May 21, 2010 · by ·

What do you do when you can’t find a recipe or have trouble with a recipe? Do you look to the cookbooks? Do you look to Chef Google? No! We turn to social networking! Really! We tweet our kitchen nightmares, or blog about it. Or we updated our facebook status with the latest. It’s instant. My cookbooks get old and dusty and sit on my bookshelves until I am bored and just need a hint of an idea to run off of. Google is nice and all, but not necessarily trustworthy like tried and true resources. It’s so much more gratifying to get that instant response in the form of a comment to my kvetchy status update.

So it was the case a few nights ago, when my facebook status made mention of my troubles in the cheesecake department.
Shavuot is one of my favorite holidays. I love having some sort of extra salute from above to stick to a vegetarian menu. Of course, part of that whole Shavuot dairy thing, is the essential dessert – the cheesecake. I love most things dairy and vegetarian – except for cheesecake. I have never felt the cheesecake love. Maybe it’s that whole sensitive stomach thing. Who knows. Cheesecake doesn’t love me back. It’s mutual. I’ve made peace with it. I’m still supposed to make it. Gotta keep up with the customs, right? So I have attempted cheesecake a couple times in the past 10 years of Shavuot cooking. The first time I tried, it’s just fell apart. No love lost. A few years ago, I was determined. I googled “easy cheesecake recipe.” That was probably my first mistake. The second mistake was the recipe I chose. It was some “no bake easy cheesecake.” So many things wrong with that stament. Anyhow, facebook pulled through for me this year. My status eluded to my past cheesecake failures. An old camp friend (and culinary genius) came through and quickly sent me a tried and true cheesecake recipe that I quickly adapted to work with what I had (lots and lots of JoeJoe’s cookies). As promised, the cheesecake came out great and everyone was happy. Thanks, Matt! The recipe is below.
Oreo Cheesecake –
only slightly tweaked from my friend, Matt, who adapted it from someone else

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup oreo crumbs – about 24 cookies crushed
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter, plus an extra 2 tablespoons – also melted
16 oz. sour cream
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 lb cream cheese – 2 of those rectangular boxes
another dozen or so crush oreo cookies, plus more for garnish – and a few more for eating

Preheat oven to 350

Shove a bunch of cookies into a ziploc bag. With a rolling pin, crush the cookies.
Mix the cookie crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter in a bowl.

Press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased springform pan

In a blender, blend the sour cream, 1/2 cup sugar, eggs, and vanilla for a minute. Add in the cream cheese. Blend until smooth. This goes fast. Add the crumbled cookies at this point. Add in the melted butter. Blend a bit more.

Pour into the springform.
Garnish with the oreos if you’d like.

Baked in the lower third of the oven for 45 minutes.

When baking is finished, turn the oven to broil. Broil the cheesecake until the top begins to show some nice brown spots. Matt said that they should be “attractive spots of brown.” Hmmm. Have I ever met an ugly cake? I’ll give on this one. I hope my cheesecake was pretty enough.

Chill in the fridge for at least day before serving. Enjoy!
Filed Under: baked, Dessert · Tagged: , , , ,

Shavuot Run-Down

May 21, 2010 · by ·

Am I turning in to my parents? I never thought I would say that, but I think I am becoming them – in the way I relate to food…and guests. The whole concept of how much to serve when having guests – I totally get that from my parents. The whole fear that you just may embarassingly run out of food when you have company over. Yikes! It’s totally never happened – at their house or mine. The fear is still there, so we compensate, and we make entirely way too much food. Heaven forbid there should not be enough food options for anyone at the table…and you must please everyone. The vegan should have multiple food choices, the chick allergic to ten different foods – she, too, must also have multiple food options. It’s all there…it’s all cooked, by me. And don’t get me wrong. I am totally not complaining. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy entertaining. There is just way too much food in this house. And there is going to be more. We just finished Shavuot, and tomorrow I start cooking for Shabbat. More food? Yikes.

We had lots of food success over Shavuot. No misses. Suprising. During a long holiday, there is usually at least one food that doesn’t go over too well with more than one person. This time, except for my picky 8-year-old, just about everything went over well. In the next few blog posts, I will share with you some of the hit recipes.

Below, I present to you my Shavuot menu.

Tuesday Night

Hungarian Mushroom Soup – recipe to come
Salad
Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Baked Salmon
Asparagus Rice Pilaf – recipe to come
Oreo/JoeJoe’s Cheesecake

Wednesday Lunch (ate out – brought slaw)

Oriental Cole Slaw – recipe to come

Wednesday Night – Just us

Salad
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Thursday Lunch

Salad
Salmon Salad – using leftover salmon from Tues. night
Roasted Broccoli
Potato/Cheese Blintzes – recipe to come
Spinach Pie – recipe to come
Baked pasta dish with mushrooms – recipe to come
Oreo Cheesecake
Coffee Oreo/JoeJoe’s ice cream – recipe to come

Filed Under: recipes · Tagged: , , ,

Pad See Ew for You!

May 11, 2010 · by ·
I love Vietnamese food first and foremost, but good Vietnamese is not as prevalent on the East Coast (surprise, surprise) as it is back home in Minnesota. So I have moved over to Thai food. Thai food is abundant in my corner of the world, and a good meal along with a good deal can be found fairly easily around these parts. One of my favorite noodle dishes at Thai restaurants is Pad See Ew. It is one of those dishes, that in my opinion, is the test factor as to whether or not the restaurant is worthy of my business. That dish more so than the Pad Thai. It is really basic comfort food, tastes great, and is very easy to make.
Pad See Ew
Ingredients

vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggs
1 container extra firm tofu, or seitan
2 tablespoons dark/black soy sauce
1 bunch Chinese broccoli, chopped
1 pound wide rice noodles
fish sauce

scallions for garnish

Make sure you have all your ingredients ready to go, as this dish cooks fast.

In a bowl, pour boiling water over the rice noodles. Set aside.
Heat a wok or large skiller. Add a drop of the oil. Beat some eggs into the hot oil. Scramble and set aside.

In the same pan, toss in your garlic. Add a drop more oil. Toss in your protein – tofu/seitan/dead animal option.


Toss in the Chinese Broccoli. Cook, stirring to get all the veggies cooked and in there. Strain your noodles and add to the pan. Stir and stir some more. Stir in the dark soy sauce. Stir in a tablespoon or so of the fish sauce. Stir in the scrambled eggs. Stir some more. See a theme?

Portion some onto a plate. Dress with a few chopped scallions. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Main Course, seitan, thai, Vegetarian · Tagged: , , , ,

Crunchy Granola and Proud

May 4, 2010 · by ·
My mornings are pretty routine each week. After waking up at 5:00, I only have eyes for my coffee. Breakfast is pretty distant in my mind. If I remember, I might just grab a granola bar, a Luna bar or something of that power/energy bar ilk. Once in a blue moon, I go high style and pick up an egg sandwich somewhere in Manhattan on my way to work. Between the coffee and the energy bars, my mornings can get expensive. I also feel guilty eating the overly processed granola bar products? I mean, really. I do love that whole coated in chocolate aspect of the Luna bars. At $1-2 a pop though, is it really worth it?
I started researching homemade granola, and homemade granola bars. To be honest, diving into this realm is not the best idea for me. My gut truly can’t handle most homemade granola bars. My gut should can only handle that processed stuff. Still, I wanted to try to make my own power/energy granola bar and feel some crunchy granola bar power.

I knew what I wanted in there: some combo of oats, flax, wheat germ, almonds, dried fruit, and chocolate chips. But what else goes into that perfect bar, and how much? There are many recipes out there. Using my math skills, I came up with what I think works for us. Even my picky 8-year-old, who prefers bars of the “Kudos” variety approved of this nutty good-for-you power bar.
There are some modifications I may make next time, aside from processing my ingredients, so it isn’t too nutty for me. I may go all honey and no sunflower butter. Also switch up the fruit. I would like to play with some nut combinations. Maybe throwing in a pecan or two.

Granola Bars
Ingredients

4 cups oats
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped, dried fruit
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sunflower nut butter
2 tbsp vanilla
4 tbsp butter
pinch or two of salt
Combine all the nutty stuff on to a baking sheet and toast at 350 for 15 minutes.

Stir the mixture around every five minutes. When done, dump in a large mixing bowl and cool down. Stir in the coconut, dried fruits, and choco chips in to the mixture. Turn the oven down to 300.

Get a 9×13 pan ready. Line it with parchment paper.
In a small saucepan, add the sugar, the nut butter, the honey, the vanilla, and the salt. Stir up until the brown sugar has dissolved. Just a few minutes. Let cool a couple minutes.

Pour the sticky mixture over the granola mixture and stir. Press the mixture into the pan. Press down so it’s all even.

Bake at 300 for around 25 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let cool on counter for a good 30 minutes or so.

Slice into granola bar shapes – anything goes really. Enjoy!

Wrap in plastic wrap. I prefer the “Stretch-Tite” brand. Saran is for wimps. Enjoy your bars.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Snacks · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
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