Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Arugula Saute

I made this dish as a side dish, and my primary intent was to get the extra half bunch of arugula out of my refrigerator.  However, there was another motivation.  My husband had really enjoyed the Leeks, Arugula and Olives with Goat Cheese dish I'd made previously.  Why not build on a good thing?  I didn't want to make it too similar, though, in case people got bored.  (By people I mean you.)  So I started to think about what other things I could include.  Sun-dried tomatoes are a great favorite in our home, thanks in large part to the Yuppie Nachos at Christopher's in Cambridge, and I had a jar with lots of them in it.  I decided to go ahead and use them.  The wine was to keep the arugula from burning.  

I really liked this dish.  The day was cold and rainy, but the sun-dried tomatoes really brought a little taste of the sunny Mediterranean into my kitchen for a few minutes.  It would probably make a decent vegetarian main dish too, although for two rather than four.

Arugula Saute (serves 4; approx. $1.41/serving)

1/2 bunch arugula

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped

2 onions, chopped

3 tablespoons reserved oil from the sun-dried tomatoes

1/3 cup white wine

2 ounces feta, crumbled

Equipment:

• Saute pan

1. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
2. Add the onions.  Saute gently until softened.
3. Add the tomatoes.  Cook another few moments.
4. Add the arugula and the wine.  Cook until the arugula is wilted slightly.
5. Remove from heat.  Add the feta and mix until well incorporated.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Salted Turnips and Radishes with Scallions

Recipe Source: Wise, Victoria Jenanyan.  The Armenian Table.  St. Martin's Press, New York, 2004 p. 42. 

My reason for choosing this recipe was very, very simple: my husband loves turnips and he loves radishes.  I'm not overly fond of either of them, but I don't have any strong objections to them either.  I figured that he would like this, and he did.  I only made one real change: the original wanted this to be served atop softened Armenian cracker bread with butter.  We didn't have any cracker bread, and I wanted this to be specifically a vegetable dish.  Furthermore, we're not into butter.  Not on bread, anyway.  Otherwise, there were really no changes to be made.  It's a really amazingly simple dish, and if someone else hadn't already published this in a book I'd feel really silly posting it as a recipe at all. 

Salted Turnips and Radishes with Scallions (serves 4; approx. $0.65/serving)

3 small turnips

1 bunch radishes

Kosher salt

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Equipment:

• No special equipment is required for this recipe

1. Peel the turnips and cut them into thin wedges.
2. Trim the radishes and slice thinly.  Leaving a little bit of the leaves at the top will help greatly as you try to slice the radishes thinly.
3. Arrange the turnips and radishes on the serving platter. 
4. Sprinkle the vegetables with kosher salt to taste, then top with the scallions.
5. Serve. 

Recipe: Rhubarb and Feta Salad

Recipe Source: "In Season: May."  Everyday Food, Anna Last, editor.  Issue 62, May 2009, p. 19.  Find the original recipe online here. 

Until I made this recipe, I had never tasted rhubarb before.  I'd seen it in the store, but I had no idea what to do with it.  I knew vaguely that pie was supposed to be involved somehow, but here's the thing: I'm not hugely into pie.  Sorry.  So I'd always kind of ignored it.  A friend once tried to cure this problem by baking me a pie with rhubarb in it, but she left it at my house when we had a lot of people, and a lot of food, and it... well, I never got to eat it.  So when I got my first issue of Everyday Food, and I found this article on rhubarb, I decided to give it a shot. 

I did make a few changes.  First, I didn't have walnuts.  What I did have was macadamia nuts, and this is a large part of the reason that the cost per serving is so amazingly high.  I also halved the recipe and used feta in place of the goat cheese.  The result was a really tasty salad.  As it turns out, rhubarb is actually pretty good - especially if you're like me and like sour flavors. 

Rhubarb and Feta Salad (serves 2; approx. $7.30/serving)

3/8 lb rhubarb, cut into 3/4" pieces

1/8 cup honey

1/2 cup macadamia nuts

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt and grains of paradise to taste

1 1/2 bunches arugula, rough ends removed

1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced

1/4 cup feta, crumbled

Equipment:

• 2 baking sheets

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees with the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
2. On one of the baking sheets, toss the rhubarb with the honey. 
3. Put the rhubarb on the upper rack of the oven and the macadamias on the lower rack.
4. Bake 5 minutes.  Remove both from oven.
5. Put the arugula in your serving bowl. 
6. Add the fennel. 
7. Top with the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. 
8. Add the rhubarb, nuts and feta.  Toss to combine. 
9. Serve. 

Recipe: Lamb in Yellow Spice Paste

Recipe Source: Trang, Corinne.  The Asian Grill.  Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2006 p. 134

Here's a fun one.  I started this on Friday night, when my sinuses were troubling me and we thought it was just going to be us for dinner.  The instructions said to marinate the lamb for 4 - 6 hours.  Well, after about 3 hours, we decided to invite a friend over for dinner.  This friend cannot have spicy food.  So we decided to hold off and serve it the next day.  Much to our surprise and delight, the extra day did no harm at all to the meat. 

I did make a few changes, as I am wont to do.  The first change was to halve the recipe, since we did not need to serve 6 - 8 people.  The spice paste, which can be found on p. 52 of the above-mentioned book, called for seven red Thai chiles.  I didn't have Thai chiles.  I had habaneros, so I reduced the number of chiles to four.  I couldn't find kaffir lime leaves or fresh galangal, so I omitted both and substituted ginger for the galangal.  I also found myself unexpectedly out of tamarind concentrate, although I did have tamarind chutney of unknown origin in the fridge.  I used that instead.  I also omitted the shrimp paste.

The result was surprising.  It was very good, which was not surprising.  What surprised me was the complete lack of heat in the dish.  The flavorof the habaneros came through well enough, but not their heat.  So we could have fed Troy anyway!  Oh well.  Anyway, we really enjoyed this dish. 

Lamb in Yellow Spice Paste (serves 3 - 4; approx. $4.69/serving)

2 tablespoons palm sugar

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

4 habaneros, chopped

8 garlic cloves, crushed

3 shallots, chopped

2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed and peeled

1/4 cup ground toasted macadamia nuts

3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1/2 cup tamarind chutney

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb lamb steaks, cubed

1/3 cup coconut milk

Equipment:

• Big Green Egg or other grill (you can use a grill pan in a pinch)
• Food processor
• Plastic zip-top bag
• Saucepan
• Bowl
• Metal or bamboo skewers

1. Put the garlic, chiles, shallots and lemongrass in the food processor and process as smooth as you can get them.
2. In the bowl, combine the contents of the food processor with the palm sugar, coriander, nutmeg, turmeric, nuts, ginger and chutney.  Mix well.
3. Heat the oil in the saucepan. 
4. Add the spice mixture to the pan and cook until darker but not burned. 
5. Let the spice mixture cool.  Return it to the bowl.
6. Add the coconut milk and mix well. 
7. Put the lamb cubes in the zip-top bag.  Pour the bowl mixture over the lamb and refrigerate 4 - 24 hours.
8. Before you are ready to cook, bring the lamb up to room temperature.  Prepare your grill for medium heat, direct cooking (450 or so.)  If you're using bamboo skewers, soak them for 30 minutes before cooking.
9. Thread the lamb onto the skewers. 
10. Grill about 4 minutes or until done to you desired degree of doneness.  Serve. 

Recipe: Rice with Grilled Halloumi and Tomatoes

When I bought the halloumi for this recipe, my intent was to make it as a vegetarian entree for a guest at one of our Sunday open houses.  Unfortunately, because of a series of minor disasters relating to said Sunday open house, I didn't get around to making the vegetarian entree.  A week later I found myself still with the halloumi.  I also had a bunch of tomatoes that were about to go off.  My husband said he was particularly hungry that evening, so I decided to add the rice.  And that's how this dish was born. 

I sauteed the rice first with a pinch of salt, some garlic powder and some cumin.  I thought that those flavors would compliment the halloumi nicely.  I tried not to use too much salt, though, as halloumi can be really salty.  We both liked this a lot, and it was incredibly easy.  This would be a good dish to offer a vegetarian who shows up to a weekend barbeque.

Rice with Grilled Halloumi and Tomatoes (serves 4 as a side dish; approx. $3.56/serving)

1 cup basmati rice, washed

1 tablespoon olive oil

Very small pinch kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 package halloumi, cubed

17 cherry tomatoes

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Equipment:

• Saucepan with lid
• Kettle of boiling water
• Big Green Egg or other grill (you can use your broiler in a pinch, but I strongly advise against it.)
• Metal or bamboo skewers.  If you're using bamboo, try to soak them in water for 30 minutes ahead of time.

1. Skewer the halloumi cubes on the skewers, alternating with the tomatoes.
2. Prepare the grill for direct, medium heat cooking.
3. Heat the oil in the saucepan. 
4. Add the rice, salt, garlic powder and cumin.  Saute until the rice becomes mostly translucent and is well coated in the pan mixture, about 1 minute. 
5. Pour boiling water over the rice to cover.  Return the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Cover the rice and turn the heat off.  Let sit, covered, 25 minutes. 
7. Just before the rice is done, grill the skewers on the grill.  Just grill it long enough to get those characteristic grill marks on the cheese; the tomatoes are kind of delicate and may collapse if overcooked.
8. When the skewers are done, add their contents to the serving bowl with the rice. 
9. Mix well.  Splash with the vinegar and serve. 

Recipe: Pork and Pineapple Satay

Recipe Source: France, Christine and Steven Wheeler.  Barbecues and Salads.  Anness Publishing, London, 2002 p. 70

There's nothing like a good outbreak of an unpleasant disease to re-set all your well-laid plans.  After the Pork Fest we held in April, I promised myself that pork would never be allowed in my home again.  It took over a week to get the scent of bacon out of my library - which is on the other side of the house!  Well, I was doing okay on that promise to myself until the H5N1 Influenza outbreak (aka "swine flu.")  I understand that people are afraid of this disease.  People have died from it, after all (of course, people die from plain old regular flu every day too.)  Still, I think a lot of people have been panicking without really learning the facts.  You do not get "swine flu" from eating pork.  Really.  I have it on very good authority.  If you want to avoid pork for religious reasons, or health reasons, or even just because you don't like pork, fine, whatever, I really don't care.  But please don't show up at your local emergency room because you just ate a pork chop and think it's given you flu. 

Sorry.  I try not to rant like that - I prefer Fearless Kitchen to be a positive place.  I think that a lot of the hysteria is waning, to be quite honest, and I should be able to get back to avoiding pork really soon now.  In the meantime, try these tasty skewers some nice evening soon.  I made a few changes, as I usually do.  I used boneless pork chops instead of tenderloin.  I omitted the lemon rind, more because I was running short on time than for any other reason.  I added a bit of cayenne pepper to the rub.  I increased the amount of garlic, left out half the sugar (because I don't like sweet food) and used crunchy almond butter in place of crunchy peanut butter.  This was less because of my (admitted) fondness for almonds than because of my peanut allergy, so if you'd rather have the peanuts go right on ahead. 

Pork and Pineapple Satay (serves 4; approx. $4.04/serving)

1 1/4 lb boneless pork chops, cubed

1 small onion, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, crushed and divided

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon raw sugar

1 small pineapple, peeled, cored and cubed

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

3/4 cup coconut milk

6 tablespoons crunchy almond butter

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 teaspoons soy sauce

Equipment:

• Food processor
• 4 long metal skewers
• Big Green Egg or other grill.  Your broiler will also do in a real pinch.
• Small saucepan
• Put the onion, 4 garlic cloves, soy sauce, spices and sugar in a food processor. 

1. Add two of the pineapple chunks and process to a mostly -smooth paste.
2. Add the paste to the pork and toss well to coat. 
3. Thread the pieces of pork onto the skewers, alternating with the pineapple pieces.
4. Prepare your grill for direct cooking over medium-high heat.
5. To make the sauce, combine the coconut milk and almond butter in the small saucepan. 
6. Add the remaining garlic clove and the 2 teaspoons soy sauce and heat gently.  Stir constantly until smooth. 
7. Grill the pork and pineapple skewers until done. 
8. Serve immediately, with the sauce on the side.  You can either dip your pork into the sauce or spoon it over the pork. 

Recipe: (Not Really) Ma Po Dou Fu

Recipe Source: Dunlop, Fuchsia.  Revolutionary Chinese Cooking.  W. W.  Norton & Company, New York, 2006 p. 193

This is a recipe I've been wanting to make for a very, very long time.  My dad was the first one to tell me about this dish and the legend behind it.  Of course, as a young kid, the story captured my imagination.  Bean curd distinctly did not.  Even in my vegetarian phases, I've always kind of found tofu to be a bit more challenging than I'd have liked.  I've gotten a lot better as I've gotten older and as a general rule I now quite like tofu.  (Tofu in its proper place, of course.  Not something like tofu pretending to be a steak.  That's just wrong.) 

Of course, since I've been wanting to make this for a long time, part of me is really frustrated by the number of changes I made.  Some of them were made because I couldn't find ingredients when I needed them.  This would have been avoided had I simply gone to Super 88 like I should have, but frankly I didn't feel like shopping in the first place.  Some of the changes I made because while I thought I had certain ingredients on hand, they were nowhere to be found when the time came to cook.  You can say that this is further proof that I can't organize my way out of a paper sack, but the fact of the matter is I've had Help organizing the kitchen, and now quite a few things are not where they should be.  Eventually, the next time I have an unpleasant and rainy day, I will go to the Asian market and stock up again. 

Anyway, while part of me is certainly disappointed in having to make so many changes, the rest of me (this would include the part that has the taste buds) really liked this version.  It cooked up VERY quickly, making it perfect for weeknight meals.  The spice level was exactly what I wanted, and the texture was pretty good too.  In fact, the only complaint I have is that I wanted more.  So I've decided to call this (Not Really) Ma Po Dou Fu, because of all the changes, but I'm still going to recommend that you make it sometime soon.  If pork isn't your thing, use ground turkey or even make it all tofu. 

(Not Really) Ma Po Dou Fu (serves 4; approx. $1.74/serving)

4 ounces ground pork

1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine

1 package extra-firm tofu (14 ounces), cubed

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms, soaked and squeezed dry, 1/2 cup soaking liquid reserved

2 tablespoons chili-garlic paste

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 habanero, chopped

1 teaspoon potato flour mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

3 scallions, sliced

1 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 1/2 tablespoons hot pepper sesame oil

Equipment:

• Wok
• Bowl

1. Place the pork in the bowl with the soy sauce and the wine.  Mix well and set aside.
2. Heat the oils in the wok over high heat until the oil is shimmery.
3. Add the pork and stir-fry until it is broken up and has changed color.
4. Add the garlic, mushrooms and chili-garlic paste and stir-fry until fragrant. 
5. Add the cayenne and the habanero.  Stir a few times.  Your vent hood will probably come in very handy right now, for a variety of reasons.
6. Add the tofu to the wok, along with the reserved 1/2 cup soaking water from the mushrooms.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
7. Turn up the heat and add the potato flour mixture.  Stir until the sauce has thickened to a gravy-like consistency.
8. Add the scallions, stir a couple of times and remove from heat.  Serve hot. 

Recipe: Leeks, Arugula and Olives with Goat Cheese

This is an original recipe.  I made it up as I went along.  However, it was not intended to be an original recipe.  I had intended to bring it to my friends' son's birthday party as something for the grown-ups to eat.  The dish was intended to be a Greek pie made from, among other things, phyllo dough and the affore-mentioned ingredients.  The recipe I was going to use for this prassopita can be found in Susanna Hoffman's book The Olive and the Caper.  However, the night before the party I was far too tired to be fussing around with phyllo dough.  I then decided to serve it on Sunday for our open house, but didn't have time.  Eventually I realized that I just didn't feel like fussing around with a pie and decided to make this instead. 

I liked this dish a lot, as I would almost anything with goat cheese.  My husband loved it.  He couldn't stop raving about it.  The goat cheese gives it a very, very sharp tang that might be a little surprising to someone who isn't expecting it. 

Leeks, Arugula and Olives with Goat Cheese (serves 2; approx. $3.38/serving)

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced

1/2 bunch arugula, roughly chopped

2 ounces pitted Kalamata olives, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Wok or large saute pan

1. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
2. Add the leeks and cook until softened.
3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
4. Add the arugula and olives and mix well. 
5. Saute until the arugula is wilted but not badly discolored.
6. Add the lemon juice and cook another 2 minutes or so.
7. Remove from heat. 
8. Add the goat cheese and stir until the cheese is melted.  It should form a creamy-looking sauce.
9. Serve and enjoy.

Recipe: Grilled Turkey Meatballs

We've recently started up our Sunday open houses again, but I'll admit to being horribly ashamed by my own performance at the first event.  My oven caught fire.  Honestly, it caught fire.  There were some whole almonds that got caught in a very odd location that ignited when I tried to pre-heat the oven.  I caught it in time - no damage to the house, or to the oven, and how they got there is a complete mystery, but the long and the short of it is that screwing around with the oven took time I didn't have.  There were only four dishes on the table.  Only two of them were vegetarian, and one of those was bread.  This was one of the dishes that I served, and I'm hoping that I'm remembering it correctly because I made it up on the fly and neglected to write things down. 

There are two relatively unique things about this recipe. The first thing is the basil.  I would usually use cilantro in this kind of a recipe, but one of our guests is allergic to cilantro so I used basil.  I think the basil actually worked out pretty well here, to be very frank.  The second thing is the binding agent.  Usually I would use breadcrumbs, and it was my full intent to use breadcrumbs here.  Unfortunately, as it turns out, I didn't have any.  I cast about for a solution when my eye caught the culprit in the Case of the Burning Oven: almonds.  I ground them up in my mini-prep and threw them in.  They didn't absorb moisture as much as I might have liked, but it was better than nothing and gave the dish a certain out-of-the-ordinary flavor.  I guess the olives might have been a little odd too; I was using them in another dish and decided to throw them in on a whim. 

Turkey Meatballs (Makes 8; approx. $1.29/per.)

1 lb ground turkey meat

3 ounces almonds, very finely ground

1 egg

1/3 bunch fresh basil, chopped

2 ounces pitted Kalamata olives, chopped

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Plate
• Ice cream scoop
• Big Green Egg or other grill

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Using your hands, thoroughly mix all the ingredients. 
3. Use the ice cream scoop to form the meatballs.  You can use your hands, but using the scoop will give you more uniform results, which will help them to cook evenly. 
4. Refrigerate the meatballs for about half an hour so they can firm up. 
5. Preheat your grill to medium - high and prepare for direct-heat cooking.  We used our Big Green Egg, which I feel yielded a more interesting flavor, but you can certainly use a gas grill, indoor grill pan, or even your broiler in a pinch. 
6. Grill the meatballs 4 - 6 minutes per side, using a spatula to turn them.  Don't use tongs; the meatballs are very delicate and may fall apart. 
7. Serve hot. 

Recipe: Cucumber and Radish Salad

I've never quite gotten into radishes.  We didn't eat them when I was a kid.  That's not to say that we didn't see them or know what they were.  My mom sometimes cut up a few radishes, put them in a bowl of water and had them on the table, but she was the only one who ever ate them that I can recall.  As I've gotten older I've started to regret this deficiency, but I still can't say that radishes really excite me.  My husband insists that they're supposed to be spicy, but I don't see it at all.  They crunch nicely I suppose, and they have this slight tang that kind of lingers at the back of the mouth, but not in an excitingway.  Still, my husband really enjoys radishes, so I'm trying to learn to enjoy them.  Hey, it's working with cabbage, isn't it?  I'm all the way up to bok choy now!  And I used to hate cauliflower. 

Anyway, I made this to go with the Orange Flavored Squid from yesterday.  I wanted something easy and something very, very light.  My husband and I were planning to go to our friends' place to help with preparations for their four-year-old son's birthday party, and neither of us really relished the idea of doing so with heavy stomachs.  It is a very simple recipe and for those of you enduring high temperatures, it is raw.  My husband really liked it, and since he's a radish fan I'm guessing that's a good thing. 

Cucumber and Radish Salad (serves 2; approx. $1.79/serving)

1 cucumber, sliced very thin

1 bunch radishes, trimmed and sliced very thin

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Kosher salt and fresh-ground grains of paradise to taste (black pepper works too.)

Equipment:

• Nothing arcane is required for this recipe.  A very sharp knife will be your friend, however.

1. Combine the cucumbers and radishes in your serving bowl.
2. Splash the rice vinegar over the vegetables. 
3. Sprinkle with salt and grains of paradise and serve.