Rice and milk

In a bowl, combine leftover rice, whole milk, a pat of butter, cinnamon, and some maple syrup, and warm it up. Mmm.

Adventures in saffron, #2

Last night I improvised a pork curry couscous.

Couscous

1 c dry couscous
1 c water
1-2 t butter or olive oil
1-2 t curry powder
1 c frozen veggies — I used peas and carrots

Put all ingredients, except couscous, in a covered saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add couscous, cover, and remove from heat. It will be ready in five minutes.

Pork curry

3 boneless pork chops, sliced into thin strips
1 T olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1-2 T curry powder
1/2 – 1 t rosemary
2-3 T yogurt
2-3 T milk
Pinch of saffron steeped in a little boiling water
1/3 -1/2 c beef or chicken broth

Cook the spices in the olive oil in a skillet to release the flavors. Add the strips of pork and cook through. Add other ingredients, including the prepared couscous, and heat through.

It was very tasty.

Some recent food

Corn pudding in squash:

I left out the aniseed (didn’t have any), and the cheese.

Apple cake. Used Busy Day Cake recipe from New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, with half the sugar. Tossed apple slices with some more sugar and cinnamon, then layered batter and slices for this cake. It took longer to bake, I guess because of the moisture content of the apples.

The start of some tomato soup. Sauteed garlic in a little butter or oil, then added the quartered tomatoes from the garden. After it’s all cooked down nicely, I put it through a fine mesh strainer to remove the peels and seeds.

Food adventures

I’ve been thinking lately about vegetables. Part of it was the health screening — said I need to eat more fruits and vegetables and I realized I really don’t get as many servings as I’m supposed to. Part of it is Amy’s changing tastes, and frequent rejection of vegetables. I’m thinking variety — in kinds of vegetables and in recipes and presentation — will help both of us.

For example — she will eat her veggies if I give them to her first while I finish making the rest of the lunch.

Also, I should put some on her plate whether she wants them or not, and not bug her about eating them or not. Calm persistence is more persuasive than irritated insistence, and if I don’t give them to her because she says she doesn’t like them, she’ll never change her mind and try them anyway.

On Friday, I made tomato green bean couscous. Sauteed garden green beans in minced garlic and butter. Cooked couscous according to package directions, in water with a slice of butter. Cut up garden tomatoes and drizzled them with olive oil and basil. Mixed it all together — easy and delicious.

Today I made this lentil soup — yes, I even bought saffron. I made it with spinach. The soup is interesting — much more bright / tart than I usually care for. Some of that is likely the yogurt, and a lot of that is probably that I used frozen garden tomatoes, rather than canned — garden tomatoes seem more tart and bright tasting than store canned tomatoes. I think crumbled bacon and beef broth would improve the recipe, but then again it wouldn’t count as meatless then.

Saffron is interesting. I’m not sure yet that it’s a flavor fabulous enough for the price, but now that I’ve got some I’ll try some other recipes here and there.

Amy ate her soup and asked for more. Mark didn’t care for it but ate it.

We had it with the egg bread from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook — with 3/4 whole wheat flour, 1/4 white. First time I’ve used the dough hooks on my hand mixer, and they did quite nicely until the last bit of flour, and by then it was ready to knead.

Another one I want to try is this corn pudding in acorn squash.

Recipe meme

The idea is to choose one ingredient from your tagger’s recipe, and post a new recipe with that ingredient. Nick tagged me with a chicken recipe. His recipe just happened to have pepper in it, so I’m going to be a little silly and post about the Czech goulash we make.

2 pounds of stew beef, cut up in small pieces.
Half a Vidalia onion
1 T Olive oil
1 c beef stock
1 t paprika
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t salt
2 T flour

Brown the onion and beef in the oil. Add the other ingredients, except the flour, and stew slowly. At the end, make a thin paste of the flour and some water and stir it in and cook until nicely thickened.

We usually serve this with potato or bread dumplings. Here’s the bread dumpling recipe I used last night.

1 slice of bread, torn up or pulverized in the food processor.
1 c flour
1 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 egg
1/4 milk

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the egg and milk. Shape into two logs and let rest about an hour — less works if need be. Cook in boiling water about ten minutes each side. Slice. Put several slices in each bowl or plate, and ladle goulash over the slices.

I’m a non-tagger most of the time, but feel free to play if you’d like — link here so I can see your post.

A new sourdough bread recipe

I tried a new recipe for sourdough bread.

I started in the morning making two cups of starter — in the afternoon it seemed bubbly enough to start the bread dough. I made it with half whole wheat and half regular flour. Amy helped me a little here and there, and we decided to make a little loaf out of the piece she was kneading. Hers came out prettier than mine — I think I needed to slice the top of mine more deeply.

It’s pleasantly sour, but not too much, which is fine because it’s not the sour that interests me in sourdough, but the health benefits.

The crust and crumb are both quite nice — this would make good sandwiches as well as breakfast toast or dinner bread.

Chocolate cutout cookies

Made these cookies today.

I used one cup of sugar instead of one and a quarter, which gave it a darker chocolate taste — they’re still plenty sweet.

Let them sit a minute out of the fridge — less likely to crack while rolling them out.

Don’t overbake — they’re best when still a bit soft. Not gooey, just soft.

They’re wonderful broken up in ice cream — would likely be great for dipping in milk, coffee, or hot chocolate — or for dipping in chocolate fondue or coated with melted chocolate. I could see a mint or orange icing being nice, too.

Pumpkin zucchini muffins, mmm.

Adapted from Fitsugar’s recipe.

3 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1 c pumpkin puree (unsweetened, unspiced)
1 c melted butter
1 T vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t each baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves
1 c grated unpeeled zucchini
3/4 c oats (I used regular rolled oats)

First combine eggs and sugar. Then add butter, pumpkin, and vanilla. Mix the dry ingredients and then add to the pumpkin mixture. Finally fold in the zucchini and oats.

Makes about 30 muffins, but 24 would probably be better — you can fill the muffin cups almost full. Bake at 350 about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These were tasty right out of the oven.

I think they’d be even better with coconut added — and / or walnuts or pecans.

Spinach chicken alfredo skillet

Tonight’s dinner was a successful improvisation.

I put some frozen spinach and a hunk of butter in a skillet, and stirred it over medium heat until the spinach was thawed and the butter melted.

Then I added some milk, leftover chicken chunks, a generous pile of grated parmesan, some basil, oregano, garlic, and pepper, stirring until the cheese was melted. Dusted with flour and stirred again.

Meanwhile, baked some Jiffy cornbread.

Amounts are very much approximate:

1 c frozen spinach
2-4 T butter
1/3-1/2 c milk
1.5 – 2 c leftover chicken in chunks
1/8 t pepper
1/8 t garlic powder
1/4 t dried oregano
1/4 – 1/2 t dried basil
1/2 – 1 T flour

Black Bean Chili

A little improvised, with help from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.

Soak 1/2 cup dry black beans overnight, or: boil for two minutes and let stand an hour or so.

Saute half an onion and two cloves of garlic in some olive oil.

Add a pound of ground beef and a little salt — brown.

Put beef, onion, garlic, into pot with beans, 8 oz tomato sauce, 16 oz diced tomatoes (with their juice), maybe 2 tablespoons chili powder, a dash of cayenne, and a little black pepper.

Simmer several hours, covered. Uncover for the last fifteen minutes or so, if you want it a little thicker.

This is the first time I’ve ever made chili, and it might be the best I’ve ever tasted. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t like green peppers or kidney beans.