Spring Stir-fry

Spring is here, and it's time to leave behind all the stews, soups and roasts. Summer fog will roll in soon enough, so we need to take advantage of this window of lovely weather and saute quick meals over the stovetop.

Stir-fry

Basic Ingredients:

1 large section of ginger root (peeled and minced)

1 small green garlic bulb

1-2 tsp. soy sauce

2 spring onion bulbs (quartered)

jalapeno olive oil

sesame oil

1 meyer lemon (juiced)

Other Ingredients:

1/2 package of firm tofu (cubed)

1 red bell pepper

oyster or shitake mushrooms

carrots

snow peas

tomatoes

asparagus

What's for dinner?

I've been keeping track of every book I've read since 2004. I might as well try to keep track of everything I've attempted to cook. I suppose that from now on this blog will serve as my list. Here's everything else (that I can think of) that Tim and I have attempted to prepare since the beginning of 2009:

Roasted whole fish with vegetables and sausage (Saveur)
Ancho chili-rubbed braised pork shoulder (A. Waters)
Panko-crusted pork chops
Bean chili (NYT)
Oshitake (NYT)
Lamb and lentil stew (NYT)
Assorted roasted vegetable experiments - potatoes, acorn squash, eggplant, etc.
Huevos rancheros
[Plus everything else posted on the site so far]

I keep a book journal to keep track of books I liked enough to recommend or gift to others and books I didn't like and shouldn't purchase or borrow again by accident. This cooking journal may have similar uses, but mostly I hope it will help me figure out what I want to make for dinner.

Sesame Beer Chicken

This is my favorite recipe from Mom, with a few twists.

Sesame Beer Chicken

Ingredients:

2-4 chicken legs

1/2 bottle IPA beer

1 handful of somen noodles (boiled for 2 minutes)

1 large ginger root (peeled and sliced)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bunch green onions (white sections chopped, green sections reserved for garnish)

1 slice of bacon (or olive oil)

ground black pepper

Serve with:

sesame oil

lime slices

chopped green onion

raw bean sprouts or chopped red cabbage

Cook:

Brown bacon in cast iron french oven.  Remove bacon.  Brown chicken (11 minutes skin side down, 4 minutes skin side up).  Remove chicken.  Saute green onions, ginger and garlic for 8 minutes.  Deglaze with beer.  Add chicken, skin side up, in one layer.  Bring to a boil and skim foam.  Simmer for 4o minutes.

Roast Duck Breast

When I visited my parents in Michigan last year, Mom made an excellent roast duck.  I love duck, but Tim and I generally don't need a whole duck for just the two  of us, so sometimes we'll just share a roast duck breast.

Roast Duck Breast

Night before:

1 duck breast (crosshatch skin and then pierce all over with a knife, and then cover with salt and ground black pepper)

Cook:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Fry skin side down for 10 minutes on medium low heat in cast iron pan.

Flip over and bake for 10 minutes.

Let rest for 3 minutes, then slice thinly and serve with optional sauce.

Sauce:

Soak sundried tomatoes in hot water, drain and chop.

Deglaze pan with balsamic vinegar and sundried tomatoes.

Moroccan Chicken

I've never liked Bobby Flay as a Food Network celebrity, but after going to his (now closed) Spanish restaurant in the Flatiron District, I've recognized that the man can cook.  This recipe is informed by his Chicken and Chickpea Tagine recipe on the Food Network site.  (My favorite part of his recipe is where he tells you not to check on the food while it's in the oven.)

Moroccan Chicken

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs (seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil the night before)

1 red onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp. ras al hanout spice mix (plus an extra shake of cinnamon)

1 pinch of saffron (soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water)

1 can (16 oz.) of chickpeas

3/4 cup of raisins or chopped prunes

1 bay leaf

olive oil

Serve with:

chopped almonds

chopped parsley

Cook:

Preheat oven to 400F.  Heat oil in cast iron french oven.  Brown chicken legs skin side down for 11 minutes, skin side up 3 minutes.  Remove chicken and pour off fat.   Brown onions in olive oil in same pan for about 8 minutes.  Add garlic, spices and bay leaf and cook for 2 minutes.  Add saffron (in its water), tomatoes, chickpeas and dried fruit.  Deglaze with a little water.  Add back chicken (skin side up), all in one layer.  

Bake in oven, covered, for 40 minutes.  Don't check on it until the 40 minutes are over.

Notes:  

Try adding collard greens?

Fall Minestrone

This is the Alice Waters recipe that inspired me to cook again.  I've made a few adaptations to save time.

Fall Minestrone

Ingredients:

2 bunches of kale (deveined and chopped)

1 butternut squash (roasted whole at 350F for 25 minutes, peeled and chopped)

1 sprig of fresh sage

1 large yellow onion

1 bag of baby carrots or equivalent (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 large leek (white section chopped)

1 32 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes (drained and chopped)

1 chunk of parmesan rind

1 bay leaf

2 cans of cannellini beans (or 8 oz. dried beans, pre-cooked)

salt, ground black pepper

olive oil

Serve with:

lemon slices

grated parmesan

Heat oil in cast iron french oven.  Saute onions and carrots until softened (about 10 minutes).  Add garlic, sage, salt, pepper, cheese rind, bay leaf, leeks and cook another 10 minutes.  Deglaze with water, add tomatoes and bring to a boil.  Add kale and stir until wilted.  Add squash.  If the liquid doesn't cover the vegetables, add more water.

Simmer partly covered for 30 minutes (or bake covered at 375F for 30 minutes).  If using canned beans, add them during last 5 minutes.  Let soup rest for 10 minutes.

Notes:  This soup can be modified by replacing the sage with Moroccan spices (ras al hanout, cumin, cinnamon, saffron), replacing the butternut squash with sweet potatoes, or switching the beans with borlotti or vallartas.

Taiwanese Chicken Soup

Sometimes I cook because I want to eat something healthy, and sometimes I cook because I enjoy the process of cooking. But often I cook because I want to eat something that restaurants don't serve. In the winter, what I usually really need is good chicken soup, and often what I really want is Mom's Taiwanese herb chicken soup. Here's my California version of Mom's soup.

Taiwanese Chicken Soup

(revised on December 14, 2009)

Ingredients:

2.35 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or chicken legs)

1 handful of dried goji berries

2 bunches of green onions (white parts chopped, green sections cut into long strips)

1/2 paper bag of shitake mushrooms (whole, rinsed)

1 large ginger root (peeled and sliced diagonally)

4 garlic cloves (smashed)

1 bunch of collard greens (stems removed and chopped)

1 yellow beet

sea salt

ground black pepper

sesame oil

1 meyer lemon

Serve with:

green section of green onions.

Cook:

Heat oil in cast iron pot. Add chicken thighs, saute until browned (about 12-14 minutes, flip half way through) for each batch - probably 2 batches. Season with salt + ground black pepper while sauteing. Remove chicken.

Saute white part of green onions + ginger for 5 minutes. Add water + lemon juice to deglaze.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Put back chicken. Add mushrooms, garlic, goji berries, ground pepper, collard greens. Add water to cover mixture. Bring to a boil, turn off heat.

Place cast iron pot, covered, into the oven and leave it alone for 45 minutes.

Dinner party serving notes:

- After the soup is done, remove ginger and yellow beet and shred the chicken.

- Serve with a small bowl of rice.

Pasta with Asparagus and Sundried Tomatoes

When we first moved to San Francisco, we were amazed by how good the produce was at our corner store.  The produce at the corner stores in New York was always limp and flavorless, so when we found good, fresh asparagus at our corner store in San Francisco in March, I came up with this recipe so that we could cook it twice a week.

Pasta with Asparagus and Sundried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

Dried pasta

1 bunch of asparagus (woody ends removed and broken into bits)

1 handful of sundried tomatoes (reconstituted in hot water for 10 minutes, drained and chopped)

2-4 dried red chili peppers

jalapeno olive oil

Serve with:

ground black pepper

shaved parmesan or aged gouda

Cook:

Boil water with salt and cook pasta.  

Heat oil in large pan.  Saute asparagus 4-6 minutes (depending on how thick they are) with tongs.  Add tomatoes, chili peppers.  Add pasta with a little of the pasta water. Toss and serve with ground black pepper and cheese.

Turkey Chili

Back when Tim and I lived in the Phid house, I used to make a huge vat of turkey chili every week or so.  It was the perfect dish for law students - we could eat it for a week or share it with our housemates.  Unfortunately, I couldn't remember much about the recipe.   I just remember that my "secret" ingredient was sherry.  I also couldn't remember if my turkey chili was any good.  So when I decided to make this dish again last week, I came up with a new recipe (borrowing heavily from Bon Appetit's 1997 Turkey Chili with White Beans recipe).

Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

0.5 lb. ground turkey

1 yellow onion (chopped)

a large bunch of baby carrots (chopped coarsely)

1 large head of cauliflower (chopped)

1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes (drained and chopped)

8 oz. dried Vallarta beans (pre-soaked for 6 hours, pre-cooked for 1.5 hours)

1/2 bottle of IPA beer

jalapeno olive oil

Spices and herbs:

1 bay leaf

2 cloves garlic (minced)

2-4 dried red chili peppers

2 tbsp. chopped dark chocolate (or 1 tbsp. cocoa powder)

1/2 tsp. ground chipotle chili pepper

1 tsp. ground ancho chili pepper

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. dried epazote (or oregano)

1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Serve with:

fresh cilantro (chopped)

steamed corn

queso fresco or cheddar

red cabbage (chopped)

Cook:

Heat oil in large cast-iron pot.  Saute onions until light brown (10 minutes).  Add spices and herbs, stir.  Turn heat up to medium high.  Add ground turkey and stir until no longer pink. Add tomatoes, beer (and if using dried beans, add beans with bean cooking water).  Add cauliflower.  Add water if necessary to cover the mixture.  Bring to a boil, then simmer partly covered for 40 minutes.

Notes:  

Feel free to substitute the dried beans with 16 oz. of canned white beans, but don't add canned beans until the last 10 minutes of simmering.

If using dried beans, don't cook them completely separately, and don't add too many beans.

Don't add kale.  Don't add too much spice.  Don't use canned "fire-roasted" tomatoes.

Cioppino!

Updated on 6.26.2010

Fresh ingredients:
2 lbs of seafood (alaskan cod cut in pieces, bay scallops, calamari)
1 yellow onion (chopped)
1 fennel bulb (chopped)

1 lemon (peel + juice only)
2 lbs of roma tomatoes, chopped

4 cloves garlic (smashed)
optional: yukon gold potatoes (chopped)

Pantry ingredients:

1 bay leaf
2 dried red chile peppers (stems removed and ground)
4 saffron threads
ground black pepper
2 cups white wine
olive oil
optional: 1 anchovy filet

Serve with:

1 loaf sourdough bread

Cook:
Saute onion, fennel bulb, lemon peel, bay leaf, garlic, chile peppers, ground pepper, saffron for 10 minutes in olive oil.

Deglaze with wine.

Add potatoes, tomatoes and water to cover. If not adding anchovy, add Maldon salt.

Simmer 10 minutes.

Add fish and simmer covered for 10-12 minutes. Add bay scallops + calamari and simmer uncovered for 2 minutes or less.