Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Braised Tofu

Recipe Source: Song, Young Jin.  The Korean Kitchen.  Anness Publishing, London, 2010 p. 138

Here's another recipe for which pictures are completely lacking.  Again, I remember taking them.  I think they must be on someone's phone.  I guess that's okay.  The important thing is that I still have the notes from this recipe.  I write my notes down on these little pieces of paper which works fine when I'm in the kitchen - as long as I can transcribe them or write up the recipe very quickly.  If I cannot write up the recipe for, say, a month, the piece of paper either gets lost or gets eaten by the dog (no joke) or ceases to make sense.  After all, what does "1 bx ps" really mean?

Anyway.  Vegetarian dining doesn't have to be a penance and tofu doesn't have to taste like whale snot.  Done correctly, and by "correctly" I mean "in a way where it is not pretending to be some sort of animal product" tofu can be an excellent source of protein.  Unfortunately almost all tasty vegetarian and vegan food seems to come from points east of Italy, starting with Greece and really picking up momentum in India.  Tofu, of course, comes to us from East Asia where they have many dishes that in no way, shape or form involve "chicken" or "beef" or "cheese" or any other "food."  It's tofu, it is what it is and it's good.

I made a few changes to the original recipe.  I used light tofu here because I am very anxious to lose weight and I will take whatever help I can get at this point.  I used vegetable broth in place of seafood stock to keep the dish vegan.  I also omitted the honey.  I added a habanero because I intended to serve this just to my husband, although that's not what actually happened.  Finally, I added peas.  An entire 1 pound bag of peas had been thawed for my daughter, but no 2-year-old needs to just eat a 1-pound bag of peas for dinner.  I took the leftovers and added them to the pot so they wouldn't go to waste, and I think that while that's not necessarily the most authentic way to present the dish it was still delicious.  I'd like to point out that our dried kelp actually came from Maine, which makes it much more local than some of the imported dried kelp I've seen on the market.

Braised Tofu (serves 4; approx. $1.16/serving)

1 block firm light tofu, diced

1 cup vegetable stock

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 sheet dried kelp, chopped

8 garlic cloves, crushed

1 onion, finely chopped

1 serrano chili, sliced

1 red chili, sliced

1 habanero, sliced

1 tablespoon chili powder

8 ounces frozen peas, thawed (approx.)

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Combine the tofu with the stock, 1 cup water, the soy sauce and the kep.
2. Add the garlic and bring to a boil.  Cover and boil 5 minutes.
3. Add the onion, chiles and chili powder.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes further.
4. Serve.

 

Recipe: Creole Lamb Shanks

Recipe Source: Fitzmorris, Tom.  Tom Fitzmorris' New Orleans Food.  Stewart Tabori & Chang, New York, 2010 pp. 190 - 1.

The first time I went to New York City I dined with my now-husband at a restaurant called Molyvos.  It's probably still there - it's been ages since I've been for anything but Thanksgiving dinner.  Anyway, I had a dish called youvetsi, which involved slow-cooked marinated lamb shanks.  I fell in love with it.  I still get cravings for it.  That's not important right now.  The only reason I'm mentioning it right now is because that was the first time I'd ever encountered lamb shanks.  To this day they are my favorite cut of lamb.  Yes, yes, I like lamb roasted, and grilled.  I like lamb chops.  I like ground lamb.  I like leg of lamb, I like lamb steaks.  I like all sorts of lamb.  But there is no cut of lamb that I like better than or even as much as lamb shanks.  As lamb goes, they're some of the more affordable cuts.  This may be because lamb shanks are mostly connective tissue and require long, slow cooking in order to reach their full potential.  Whatever, I don't care, I love them and I'm always happy to find a new and different use for them.

This is one of those new and different uses.  It's a low-and-slow recipe like youvetsi, but it is flavored very differently from my Greek favorite.  According to the source it's a popular daily special in New Orleans restaurants.  I've never been to New Orleans and the chances that I'll ever make it down there are minimal so maybe someone with more direct experience can confirm that statement.  I can't find my notes from this cook, which dates to the day the Patriots made it into the Super Bowl.  I think I can remember most of the changes I made though.  I reduced the olive oil on general principles.  I omitted the salt because my guests that day were very sensitive to salt.  I replaced it with chili powder because, well, just because.  I substituted parsnips for carrots because carrots are the Devil's food and not in a good chocolate way.  I increased the celery mostly to use it up and get it out of my fridge.  I increased the garlic because garlic is good for you.  I increased the marjoram, which I used fresh, and I increased the rosemary as well.  The orange was a blood orange.  The wine was not Gewurztraminer, but it was white.

This recipe was very well-received by my guests, my husband and by me.  I could have wished that it was less well-received by the guests.  Then I could have sneaked into the kitchen late at night and finished off the leftovers when no one could see me.  (I'm not in the habit of doing that, the recipe was just that good.)  It also made the kitchen very inviting on a cold, dreary, soggy day.

Creole Lamb Shanks (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available.)

4 lamb shanks

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 onions, chunked

2 massive parsnips, cut into thick coins

8 celery stalks, cut into pieces

15 cloves garlic, crushed

2 bay leaves

4 sprigs fresh marjoram, leaves only, finely chopped

3 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 blood orange, cut into eighths

1 1/2 cups white wine, plus more for the cook if desired

Equipment:

• Large oven safe skillet or roasting pan
• Large, deep skillet

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.
2. Heat the oil in the skillet.
3. Season the lamb shanks and brown on all sides.  Remove the pan from heat and reserve.
4. Transfer the shanks to the roasting pan.  Add all the other ingredients except for the wine.
5. Add the wine to the skillet in which you browned the shanks.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Whisk constantly to dissolve the pan bits - these have a fancy culinary term and are very important.
6. Boil 2 minutes, then pour over the lamb shanks.
7. Add water, if necessary, to bring the liquid about 1/3 of the way up the sides of the shanks.  Cover and roast 90 minutes.
8. Turn the shanks every 30 minutes.
9. After 90 minutes remove the cover.  Turn the shanks and roast, uncovered, another 30 minutes.
10. Continue to cook uncovered until the meat is falling off the bone when lightly touched with a fork.
11. Serve and enjoy.

Recipe: Stuffed Cabbage

Recipe Source: Holmin, Dalal A. & Maher A. Abas, M. D.  From the Tables of Lebanon.  Book Publishing Company, Summertown, 1997 pp. 86 - 7

Growing up I worshipped my grandmother - my mother's mother.  She was the best cook in the whole world, and the best human being at least as far as I was concerned.  (I've never met anyone who had anything to say to the contrary either, so as far as I'm concerned I was right.)  She was not a fancy cook - far from it, she prided herself on the simplicity and "ordinariness" of her cooking.  Of course nothing ordinary ever came out of her kitchen, but she wasn't the kind of cook to experiment with the exotic or unusual.  She knew what she wanted to make and she knew exactly how to make it happen.  Her house always smelled divine and I used to spend hours upon hours in her kitchen, wrapping myself up in the smells of Paradise.

There was one dish she never liked to make, and it was stuffed cabbage.  She never liked to make it and I was never even really encouraged to eat it.  Not that I can remember anyway.  My mother liked it, though, and every once in a while she would make it to gratify her daughter.  What I remember most about those times was the smell.  The perfumes of Paradise were exchanged for the stink of Hell, and if I go to Hell when I die I am certain that it will smell like cooking cabbage.  That smell turned me off cabbage for decades and until I started this website I would not permit cabbage in my home.  I've been working my way toward the stuff slowly but surely.  When I was entertaining relatives for my daughter's birthday party I decided that maybe I would try to serve them stuffed cabbage.  My mother, at least, would probably like it.

As it turns out, everyone liked it.  Everyone but me, that is.  I've figured out what it is besides the hideous smell that I don't like about cabbage.  It is sweet.  I do not do sweet.  At least now I know, right?  I made a few changes tot he recipe as you might well expect.  I used brown rice instead of white because that's what I keep around.  My husband is allergic to mint so of course that was right out; instead I used dill.  I couldn't get my hands on white onions so yellow were used and I increased the garlic on general principles.  My mother cannot eat cinnamon so that was left out too, and I reduced the amount of olive oil on general principles.  I didn't have tomato puree.  What I did have was my own home-canned tomatoes, which I pureed myself.  If I used a little more than originally called for, well, lycopene is good for you.

Like I said, everyone liked it but me, but it didn't turn out the way I envisioned.  The cabbage rolls did not stay rolled.  They mostly fell apart.  That's why I'm listing this as a "fail" even though it was well received.  I guess appearance counts for less than some writers would have us think!

Stuffed Cabbage (serves 6; approx. $1.99/serving)

1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice

1 large bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 bunch fresh dill, finely chopped

1 bunch scallions, finely chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground allspice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cabbage, leaves separated and deveined

8 more cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 cups canned whole tomatoes with their juices

Water

Equipment:

• Large deep pot
• Large bowls
• Immersion blender
• Heat resistant plate

1. Rinse the rice and drain.
2. Combine the rice with the herbs, onion, first 8 cloves garlic, spices, lemon juice and olive oil.  Mix well and set aside.
3. The original recipe called for the cabbage leaves to be briefly blanched.  I tried that.  It made me curse and didn't work for the purpose intended.  So I stopped.  It's your call.
4. Spread the cabbage leaves out on a work surface of some sort.  Fill with some of the filling toward the middle-bottom of the leaf.  Fold in the sides and roll up.  Put it in the pot.  Stack in layers.
5. Combine the remaining garlic with the tomatoes in the other large bowl.  Use the immersion blender to puree.
6. Cover the layers of cabbage with the pureed tomatoes.
7. Add water to the pot.  The water should come up 1/2 inch taller than the tallest layer of cabbage.
8. Weight the leaves down with the heat-resistant plate.
9. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.
10. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes.
11. Serve.

Recipe: Turkey and Bean Chili

Recipe Source: Bonom, David.  "Food: Recipes."  Better Homes and Gardens October 2011 p. 180

Okay, I cannot think for the life of me where this photo might be.  I guess that's what I get for waiting so long to write up the recipes!  I knew I wanted to make this recipe as soon as I read through this issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Unfortunately for me, it kept being put off.  Then I did make it and at the last minute we decided to go out instead, so I froze it.  Whatever.  We did eat it.... eventually.  And we took a picture of it because I remember talking about taking its picture.  The picture is not on my phone and it is not on my computer.  I'm sorry but I just can't find it.  I'm not going to let it go to waste just because I can't dig up the recipe though.  This was a great chili and you deserve to know about it, even if you can't see what it's supposed to look like.  That's okay.  Chili isn't really very pretty anyway.

I made some changes to this recipe.  I used ground turkey instead of ground beef as part of my attempt to lighten my recipes.  I added 6 serranos to the 4 jalapenos called for in the original - we were only supposed to be eating this amongst ourselves so I felt free to go to town.  Then we brought it over to a friend's house.  I had run out of cumin - shocking but true - so I substituted ground coriander.  I also added one teaspoon of ground turmeric because I really, really like it.  I increased the beans because they'd been taking up a lot of space in my freezer and they just had to go - this meant using frozen white kidney beans instead of canned beans, but that's not a big deal.  In fact it's probably healthier because I froze the beans myself so they had nothing but beans going in with them - no salt or whatever.  I increased the garlic.  While the original called for jarred tomato sauce I just can't stomach that stuff, so I used some tomato juice I had on hand instead.  We omitted the corn chips on general principles.

Like I said, I really enjoyed this dish and I think my guests did too.  Sorry you can't see it, but your imagination can probably make up the difference.  Some of my Texan friends may object to the use of beans in chili (or turmeric, for that matter.)  I'm sorry.  The beans add fiber and flavor while the turmeric adds turmeric.  All of these things felt necessary, but if it's any consolation at least I'm not presenting it as authentic Texas chili.

Turkey and Bean Chili (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 pounds ground turkey

2 onions, chopped

10 garlic cloves, minced

4 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped

6 serrano chiles, finely chopped

2 tablespoons hot chili powder

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

32 ounces tomato juice

45 ounces frozen cooked white kidney beans, thawed

1 ounce dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Equipment:

• Dutch oven

1. Brown the turkey in the Dutch oven.
2. Add the onions, garlic and peppers.  There should be enough fat to cook them without burning but turkey can be pretty lean.  If you need to you can add about a tablespoon of olive oil.  Either way, cook until almost tender.
3. Add the spices.  Cook until fragrant.
4. Add the juice.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
5. Add the beans and return to a simmer.  If you want to mash some of the beans as called for in the original go ahead; I didn't bother.
6. Cook 5 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and add chocolate.  Stir until melted.
8. Add the cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Duck with Olives

Recipe Source: Clements, Carole & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen.  French.  Anness Publishing, 2006 p. 141

So I've been trying for some time to lose weight and that has meant restricting certain parts of my diet.  I've been trying to reduce the amount of meat in my life, for one thing.  When I do eat meat I try to make sure that it's a lean protein - fish or turkey or something along those lines.  Even red meat, such as beef or lamb, can be lean if you play your cards right.  Of course, I've had absolutely no success whatsoever, and this is frustrating to me.  Every once in a while, I admit it, I lose patience, let my frustration boil over and eat something that is firmly on the no list.  I don't do this very often because frankly my system can't handle it all that often, but sometimes you just have to let go and indulge a little.  It makes it easier to be good the rest of the time.  One food that is very firmly on the "no" list is duck.

Duck just isn't healthy.  I've never found a duck that hasn't been just full of fat.  In fact, that's been an ongoing problem in our attempts to cook duck.  Still, if I'm going to indulge I might as well go all the way, right?  I decided a few weeks ago that we were going to enjoy some duck and that was all there was to it.  I found a recipe that worked for me and I went with it.  This one looked simple enough, but it needed a few additions.  I added two small zucchini because I had them left over from some other adventure and I didn't want them to go to waste.  Besides, adding vegetables to a dish is always good, right?  I added some garlic.  Rather, I added quite a lot of garlic.  My bouquet garni was sage, rosemary and thyme.  I'm very much aware that that is not a traditional bouquet garni but that's what I had on hand.  I had it on hand because that's what I like.  I also used vegetable broth because that's what I had on hand.  Finally, I only used one duck.  There are only three of us, and duck is plenty rich without overindulging.

The end result was a pretty tasty dish if I do say so myself.  I certainly enjoyed it.  My husband ate quite a bit of it and the daughter declined to share it with the dog, which is about as much as you can ask of a kid that age.

Duck with Olives (serves 6; approx. $6.02/serving)

1 very large duck, cut into pieces

1/2 pound pearl onions

14 garlic cloves, whole

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups red wine, plus extra for the cook if so desired

2 cups vegetable broth

2 small zucchini, sliced

about a handful of a combination of sage, rosemary and thyme, tied together with kitchen twine

1 cup green olives with pits

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large Dutch oven

1. Put the duck pieces, skin side down, in the saute pan.  Cook over medium heat until well browned, turning frequently.  Work in batches if you need to - I did.
2. Pour the fat off the pan and reserve.
3. Return 1 tablespoon of the duck fat to the pan and reserve the rest for another use.  (You'll see what I did with it tomorrow.)
4. Add the onions and garlic.  Cook over medium-low heat until browned.  You should cook this in a covered pan but still stir frequently to prevent burning.  I know it sounds fussy and it probably is but it is definitely worth it in the end.
5. Sprinkle with the flour and cook uncovered another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Add the wine.  Bring to a boil.  (Be careful here!)
7. Add the duck pieces, broth and your little bundle of herbs to the pot.  Return to a boil.
8. Reduce heat, cover and simmer VERY gently about 40 minutes.  Stir from time to time.
9. Add the olives and zucchini to the pot.  Continue cooking another 20 minutes.  The duck should be very tender.
10. Transfer the duck pieces, olives, garlic, onions and zucchini to a plate.
11. Discard the bouquet garni, strain the cooking liquid and skim off as much fat as possible.
12. Return the liquid to the pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce by 1/3.
13. Return the duck and accompaniments to the pot and heat through.
14. Serve.

Recipe: Salmon in Mango Sauce

As is pretty typical of most American women, I've got an awful lot going on.  I've got this website.  I've got some other things I'm trying to start up.  I've recently become the chief administrator for a local non-profit.  I've got the house.  I've got a daughter who is turning two right about now.  I've got the dog.  I've got appointments here, and deadlines there, and so on and so forth.  I almost never get a chance to write up recipes the same day that I create them.  I'm aware of this, so I've got quite a lot of scrap paper in the kitchen.  I write notes on the scrap paper and set it aside until I get to actually write them up.  The problem with this, of course, is that paper gets lost.  It gets blown off tables in a toddler-inspired breeze.  It gets coffee spilled on it.  It gets burned.  The longer I have to put off recipe-writing the more likely it is that my notes will disappear.  In this case the dog ate it.  The dog actually ate my notes.  I am not making this up.  He ate my notes.  I screamed and yelled and despaired.  Then my husband, wonderful man that he is, found some clear tape and re-assembled the notes.

This dish was inspired by a chance discovery in my freezer.  At the beginning of baseball season... in 2010... I pureed a large quantity of mangoes to be used for daiquiris if my team were being blown out.  (This is a silly tradition of ours.  Read more about it here, if you really want to.)  I found one three-cup container of mango puree in the freezer.  It was not freezer-burned in any way.  I thought, hey, this sounds like fun.  So I defrosted it, and a couple of salmon fillets along with it.  It is a very simple dish to make, and a very flavorful dish.  I would have to insist on using pureed mango, preferably mango that you pureed yourself, and not mango nectar, mango juice, mango slushee, mango sorbet, or any other kind of commercially available mango product.  Those will all contain added sugar if not additional preservatives.  These are calories that few people living in the West need, and makes the dish far too sweet anyway.  I mean, it's up to you, they're your taste buds and you know what will please them, but for me just the mango is sweet enough.

Salmon in Mango Sauce

2 salmon fillets, cut into pieces

3 cups mango puree

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons ginger paste

2 tablespoons garlic paste

4 green chiles - I like serranos but you know your family's tolerance better than I do - diced

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the ginger paste and garlic paste.  Saute about 2 minutes.
3. Add the chiles.  Saute about 2 minutes.
4. Add the mango.  Bring to a boil and reduce for about a minute.
5. Add the salmon.  Cook until the fish is cooked through.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Chickpea and Delicata Squash Stew

Whenever we host Sunday dinners I try to have at least one vegetarian entree on offer.  I'm not a vegetarian and I have limited patience for other people's food choices, but people have different reasons for going vegetarian and not all of them are matters of personal choice.  I know a couple of people who are actually allergic to meat, and a couple of people besides myself who are allergic to certain types of meat.  A vegetarian entree offers them something, and if no vegetarians show up then we can all enjoy a healthy side dish.  After all, vegetarian food shouldn't be a penance.  If the dish acknowledges the actual, natural flavor of the ingredients without pretending that it's meat then there is no reason to feel deprived by a lack of meat.

Right.  Soapbox away.  This was not intended to be an original recipe.  When I set out to make it I had an issue of Better Homes and Gardens open in front of me.  Then I realized that the author wanted me to jump through an awful lot of hoops to make this dish.  She wanted the squash to be roasted.  She wanted the beans to be cooked a certain way, and she wanted a certain type of tomato, and so on and so forth.  All of these things took time.  I did not have time.  What I had was squash, chickpeas, hungry diners and a knitting lesson waiting for me to finish cooking.  I looked at the recipe again.  I was coming down off a nasty head cold and was in a mood, and finally I just ran out of patience.  "(Author's Name) can bite me," I said, forgetting that I had a kitchen full of hungry diners.  "Twice."  And then I went ahead with my recipe.

This amused the crowd to no end.  The dish was a satisfying and flavorful accompaniment to the main meal.  Even my daughter liked it and she's not a huge fan of chickpeas.

Chickpea and Delicata Squash Stew (serves 8; approx. $1.38/serving)

2 delicata squash, peeled, seeded and diced

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 very large jar canned whole tomatoes (a couple of 28-oz cans should do just fine)

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon chile powder

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 large bunch dill, chopped

Equipment:

• Large deep saucepan

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onions and garlic.  Saute until the onions are soft.
3. Add the spices and the bay leaves.  Mix well and saute until fragrant.
4. Add the squash.  Saute about 3 minutes, or until coated in the pan juices.
5. Add the chickpeas and the tomatoes.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until the squash is tender.
7. Add the dill.  Cook about a minute.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Halibut Chowder

Recipe Source: King, Shirley.  Williams-Sonoma Fish.  Simon & Schuster, New York, 2002 p. 14

It's funny how some things get ground into your psyche.  I hail from upstate New York.  Geographically it's a lot more like New England than downstate, but it is still 100% New York.  The language is New York.  The sports teams are all New York - I see more Yankee hats there than I do in Manhattan - and the attitude is New York.  You would think, therefore, that it would be the Manhattan version of chowder that would be pre-eminent there.  You would be wrong.  I didn't even know that more than one type of fish chowder existed until I was well into my twenties and living in New England.  By that point the New England version of fish chowder had become canonical for me, and I can't think of the Manhattan variety without a shudder.  (I strongly suspect I would prefer it if I didn't know it was supposed to be chowder, but there you go.)  Of course, I also grew up in a Southern Italian family where the combination of dairy and fish was always kind of viewed with suspicion at best, but somehow these concerns were laid aside for Chowder.

Now, I love chowder but I really have to be extremely careful about where I buy it.  Traditionally chowder is made with bacon.  Not all manufacturers make chowder with bacon, but that's the traditional recipe and omitting it kind of makes for a vastly inferior product.  Also, the tendency toward food allergies is supposed to be inherited.  (How this explains me when no on in my family has a food allergy I don't know.)  The pediatrician therefore wants us to hold off on introducing certain common allergens until she's older.  One of those common allergens is shellfish.  I've usually seen chowder as clam chowder.  Clams are shellfish.  I'm trying to avoid cooking with things that my daughter cannot eat, since she often wants to try our food.  That means I've had to hold off on making my own chowder... until now.  I finally found a chowder recipe that wasn't written for shellfish!  And it had been lurking in my library the whole time!  I just had to go with it.

I made a few changes, of course.  I used beef bacon instead of regular bacon.  This increased the cost per serving but kept me from dying so I'd call that a win.  Halibut was cheaper than cod that week so that's what I used.  I didn't have seafood stock - they didn't have it at the grocery store that week, and clam juice is expensive.  I used vegetable stock that I already had on hand.  I wound up having to freeze it and serve it at a later date but that was okay.  I knew I'd done well when I smelled it.  "Smells right," I said to myself.  When I tasted it I was beyond delighted.  It tasted exactly like I wanted it to taste.  It was also very filling - we didn't need any side dishes, not even bread.

Halibut Chowder (serves 4; approx. $6.02/serving)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 package beef bacon, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 cup half-and-half

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups vegetable stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

3/4 pound small potatoes, diced

1 lb halibut fillet

Equipment:

• Large, deep saucepan
• Slotted spoon

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the bacon.  Fry until crisp.
3. Evacuate the bacon with the slotted spoon and set aside.  If your bacon is very fatty (which, frankly, is the nature of bacon) pour off all but two tablespoons.  Mine was not terribly fatty so I skipped this step.
4. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and saute until soft.
5. Add the flour.  Cook for 30 seconds.
6. Add the half-and-half, milk and stock.  Bring slowly to a boil.
7. Reduce the heat to low.  Stir in the cornstarch mixture.
8. Mix well, then simmer 1 minute.  Season to taste.
9. Add the potatoes.  Simmer, uncovered, until nearly tender.
10. Add the fish and the bacon.  Cook until the fish is thoroughly cooked.  This shouldn't take long.
11. Serve.  Wallow in the deliciousness.  Go ahead.  You know you want to.

Recipe: Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage

A good while ago - maybe the end of November, maybe early December - I found myself needing to cook.  I didn't want to.  If I remember correctly I was feeling very poorly, and I had a lot to do and less time to do it in, and I was in a truly foul mood, and I didn't want to dirty the kitchen, and so on and so forth.  This happens from time to time and that's okay, I think everyone feels that way sometimes.  For whatever reason - I think that by the time we got done discussing going out to eat all the local restaurants were closed - I found myself forced to cook despite my inclinations.  I grabbed some ingredients - whatever I had on hand - and threw some pasta on the stove.  I literally just threw it together in a very angry fashion.  I didn't even take a picture of it, because I had no intention of posting it.

I loved it.  I loved it so much I wanted to make it again.  Again and again and again.  It was an incredibly simple dish to make, but it was so delicious that it actually cured my mood.  Well, the next time I had mushrooms on hand I did make it again.  And it was just as good as it was the first time.

Soujouk is a kind of dried sausage made from beef.  It is commonly found in Islamic countries, or in Middle Eastern (or Turkish) markets here.  The nearest common American equivalent would probably be pepperoni.  If you cannot find soujouk and you are able/willing to eat pork pepperoni is probably an adequate substitute, although the seasonings will be different.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage (serves 4; approx. $2.96/serving)

1 box whole grain pasta, cooked according to package instructions

1/3 soujouk, sliced very thin

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ounce grated pecorino pepato

2 1/2 10-oz containers mixed mushrooms - I used a mix of cremini and white button mushrooms - chopped

Equipment:

• Pasta pot
• Slotted spoon or spatula
• Colander
• Frying pan

1. While the pasta is cooking, heat the frying pan over medium heat.  A non-stick skillet is probably your safest bet here.
2. Add the soujouk pieces and fry until crisp.  They will release a small amount of fat.  This is fine.
3. Use the slotted spatula to evacuate the pieces of soujouk to the serving vessel and try not to snack on it while you proceed with the rest of the recipe.
4. Add the olive oil to the frying pan.  Use more or less depending on how much fat the soujouk has given up.
5. Add the mushrooms.  Reduce the heat a bit and cook until the mushrooms are tender.
6. Transfer them to the serving vessel.
7. By this point the pasta should be done but still hot.  Drain it, put it into the serving vessel and add the cheese.
8. Toss well and serve.

Recipe: Mushroom and Bok Choy Fried Rice

A while ago I found myself with some leftover rice.  I think I'd made a batch of rice for a meal that we wound up skipping at the last minute - some friends had just gotten some less-than-stellar news and we figured we'd go be supportive or something.  I didn't want to waste the rice so I decided to go ahead and make fried rice the next evening.  I've made fried rice I think a thousand times before, but usually I've made the rice special for the fried rice.  This is the first time I can remember where I've actually made fried rice for its intended purpose: using up leftovers.  Maybe it did give me a little thrill of pride.  So what?  I'm allowed.  Anyway, I used some other leftover vegetables and came up with a tasty side dish that would do just as well for a main dish.  If you want to make it vegan omit the eggs.

Mushroom and Bok Choy Fried Rice (serves 4; approx. $1.42/serving)

3 - 4 cups cooked, cold brown rice

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

4 celery stalks, diced

4 baby bok choy, washed and chopped

10 ounces baby bella mushrooms, washed and chopped

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon garlic paste

2 tablespoons ginger paste

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the garlic and ginger pastes.  Stir-fry until fragrant, probably not much more than 30 seconds.
3. Add the celery stalks.  Stir-fry about 3 - 4 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms.  Stir-fry until the mushrooms are tender and have started to give up some of their moisture, about 3 - 4 minutes.
5. Add the baby bok choy.  Stir-fry until wilted.
6. Add the rice.  Mix well and stir-fry until thoroughly heated.
7. Make a well in the center of the wok.  Add the beaten eggs.  Let sit without stirring until the eggs begin to set up.
8. Mix thoroughly into the rice and continue to stir-fry until the eggs are thoroughly cooked.
9. Serve hot.