Baby Artichoke Risotto

Baby artichokes are so cute, how could you resist them? I hadn't made a risotto in at least a year, so it was time to remedy that. I used this recipe from the NY Times with no alterations.

Pretty, huh?

Unfortunately, I didn't trim the chokes well enough, and ended up with some tough leaves. Oh, and this recipe makes a LOT of risotto, so you'll probably have leftovers. If so, make arancini. Fried cheesy rice? Yes, please.

Pseudo Filipino Breakfast

My husband was raised by his great-grandfather, who was Filipino. He grew up eating things like this - delicious, filling, cheap, and did I mention delicious?

The basic formula is mostly rice, a couple eggs, and a little meat. Garlic rice is preferred, where you take day-old cold rice, and fry it with garlic (think Chinese fried rice, but without the soy sauce). But you can just as easily mix fried garlic chips into the rice. Cook your eggs however you want. I like over-easy. Husband likes scrambled. But not really scrambled - pour the eggs into a skillet, poke the yolk, let it cook slowly, chop and flip a little. You want the separate areas of white and yolk, not a homogeneous concoction.

For the meat - the best would be longanisa. Or tocino. If you don't have access to either of those, cube some Spam and fry it in a hot skillet. Or, even better (IMHO), although it does sound strange at first, cube up some hot dogs, and fry in a skillet with a little bit of mustard (plain yellow is fine) and black pepper. Seriously. Something about the mustard and pepper makes it taste...not like a hot dog...

For garnish, add sliced green onions, some Sriracha or other hot chile, soy sauce, a splash of fish sauce, fried garlic chips. Whatever you add, it will be good.

Bacon Fried Rice

Who could ever get sick of fried rice? Not me. It's so versatile - you can make it a clean-out-the-fridge meal, or add specific ingredients (like shrimp and pineapple). This, my friends, is of the clean out the fridge persuasion.

I though about using Spam, given some online conversations I've been having, but I saw the package of thick cut bacon in the freezer, and decided to go with that. Here's my mis en place: clockwise from top left, carrot, red onion, chiles de arbol, ginger, garlic, jalapeño, cilantro, bacon, and scrambled egg. Not pictured is the rice and the peas I added at the end.

Normally I use canola or peanut oil to fry the rice, but looking at the bacon fat left over in the skillet, I thought, Why not?

Husband said this was one of the best versions of fried rice, not only that I've ever made, but that he's ever had. Score.

Japanese Curry with Ghost Chiles

Have you heard of ghost chiles? I've also seen them called bhut jolokia and naga jolokia. They're hot. Really hot. Hottest pepper in the world. They come in at about 1,000,000 on the Scoville scale, or 3-10 times hotter than a habañero.

I was lucky enough to get a sample package of fresh ones (only dried have been available until now) from Marx Foods*. I opened the package, and was immediately assaulted by their fragrance - they even smelled hot. I was a little apprehensive - what could I possibly do with a chile that's so strong? Well, first off, I gave a few away to coworkers. (None of the Americans wanted any, so they went to Mexicans, a Laotian, and a Korean.)

I realized I hadn't made Japanese curry in a while, and that sounded like a good (and easy) place to start. Armed with my package of S&B Golden Curry (mild), I chose the smallest pepper in the package.

Aw, how cute. What wasn't so cute was that I could find only one glove. So my knife hand went gloveless. While mincing, a piece of chile touched a cut on my hand. Ow. Burn. Ow. Yikes! Experiencing firsthand what this little monster chile could do, I decided to only use half of it in the curry. I used about 1.3 pounds of pork, and an equal amount of veggies (carrot, celery, green pepper, onion). So 2.5 pounds of stuff, with a piece of chile the size of my fingernail.

And you know what? It was good. Really good. Ghost chiles have an awesome flavor. I could've even added the other half of the chile, and it wouldn't have been too hot. (Husband called this a "3" on the hotness scale.) Maybe it's because it was simmered for a while, maybe because it sat overnight, but the heat definitely mellowed out.

So, experiment #1 with ghost chiles complete and successful. I wonder what's next...

*The chiles were provided free of charge from Marx Foods. I didn't promise to blog about them, and they didn't ask me to.

Fruit Sushi

A while back, I saw Wandering Chopstick's post on Fruit-shi, or Dessert Sushi. How cute! Mangoes, apples and watermelon cut up to look like fish, placed atop coconut rice balls. And the "California roll"? Adorable. Rice, fruit roll-up, fillings, made to look just like the "real" thing.

So off I went on my fruity adventure.

I cooked the sushi rice, substituting half the water with coconut milk. After it was done, I thought it needed more coconut flavor, so I added some chopped up dried flaked coconut. And some sugar, since I thought it needed to be a bit sweeter. The watermelon nigiri turned out pretty well. The rice didn't hold together too well, but it was better than I've had in some sushi restaurants out here, so I wasn't too upset. The watermelon looked kind of like fish, but I was disappointed that my mango wasn't ripe, it would've looked much better.

















The "California roll"? Don't really want to talk about it. My rice was still too warm, and it ended up melting the fruit roll-up. Which, by the way, had stupid cartoons all over it. Does nobody make plain, unadorned fruit roll-ups any more? Guess not.

Even when I let the rice cool off, there was no way this monstrosity was going to slice up nicely. One, I blame the HFCS packaged crap that I bought. Two, I blame myself, because I totally suck at rolling sushi.

In the end, however, it did make a pretty good dessert chirashizushi, of sorts. Coconut rice, watermelon, cucumber, honeydew melon, and crushed peanuts. Oh, and melted fruit roll-up fragments. It was even kind of pretty, with the rice being dyed green from my bunk fruit leather. But a picture? No way. Too embarrassing.

Jambalaya

OK, I totally cheated. I used a box of Zatarain's Jambalaya mix. Sliced and dry-skillet-fried some (turkey) smoked sausage, spiced up with garlic powder, paprika and black pepper. Added it to the barely simmering jambalaya about halfway through the cooking time.

And then I made burritos with some shredded cheddar and MIL's chile sauce. About 5 minutes of active time, 25 minutes of simmering. Spicy, cheesy, filling.

Oh, and this:

This is what happens when Hubby forgets that he's "warming" a tortilla over the gas flame.

Frugal Friday Jambalaya

A while back I got a sample kit from McCormick of a bunch of Zatarain's products. I was expecting a box or 2 of stuff, but I ended up with 2 boxes of Jambalaya, 1 microwave pouch of Jambalaya, 1 box of Dirty Rice, 1 box of Red Beans and Rice, 3 boxes of Fish Fry, and 1 box of Crispy Southern Fish Fry. Awesome, no?

Tonight I was feeling lazy and a little broke, so I grabbed a box of Jambalaya, and a pound of smoked turkey sausage from the freezer. I cooked the jambalaya according to the package directions (except I fried the sausage ahead of time, and added it halfway through cooking the rice), and topped it with chopped tomatoes and green onion, and shredded cheese left over from taco night.

Verdict? Very good. A little too much liquid, I think I'll use 2 cups instead of 2.5 next time. Toppings were nice, but probably unnecessary.

How frugal was it? Let's see if I can break it down - one tomato ($0.40), 1 green onion ($0.07), handful of shredded cheese ($0.50), 1 lb smoked turkey sausage (don't remember, probably $4?), 1 box of Zatarain's Jambalaya (free, this time). I fed 3 people, plus leftovers for 2 lunches, for under $5. Nice.

Peppers Stuffed with Jambalaya

So I was the lucky recipient of a whole boxload of stuff from Zatarain's, courtesy of a tip from The Passionate Eater.

I was also lucky enough to have 2 Italian frying peppers from the farmers market. So I deseeded the peppers, stuffed them with the jambalaya mix and some colby-jack cheese, toothpicked them closed, and simmered in tomato sauce until tender.

No pictures, sorry. Only 2 peppers, and we ate them before I thought of the camera...

Hainanese Chicken Rice

I had come across numerous recipes for Hainanese Chicken Rice, touted by Wikipedia as a national dish of Singapore, also very popular in Malaysia, and originally from the Hainan province of China.

Having absolutely no clue what I was doing, I followed Chubby Hubby's recipe, except for the rice. The chicken, poached in water but never allowed to boil, turned out moist and tender. The chillie and ginger sambal was a winner, made with serranos from my garden.

The rice, however, I wasn't too impressed with. I used a shortcut, Hangchong Hainanese Chicken Rice Mix, that I got from AsianSupermarket365. I used my jasmine rice, which is supposedly the same thing as the Thai fragrant rice called for on the jar, and it cooked up okay, but I just didn't dig too much on the texture. The rice had an almost slimy-mushy coating of what tasted and felt like chicken fat (the ingredients of the mix include soybean oil and chicken powder). Maybe I should have followed Chubby Hubby's recipe for the rice, but I don't know what a pandanus leaf looks like, let alone where to find one.




















That being said...here's how I served it: Put a mound of rice in a bowl, pour some broth (from poaching the chicken) around the rice, sprinkle with sliced green onion, and top with some poached chicken slices. Serve with dishes of soy sauce and chilli ginger sambal on the side, along with diced cucumbers.

I would have loved to have a picture of the finished dish - but there's no way in hell I could get a decent picture of white rice and white chicken in a red bowl to turn out.

When the rice was mixed into the broth, it lost some of the texture that I found unpleasant. The soy sauce and sambal livened up the deliberately mild-flavored chicken. All in all, I was pleased with the dish, but I wouldn't go through all the work again. Chubby Hubby's recipe uses a 1kg (2.2lb) chicken - I couldn't find a chicken under 4 lbs to save my life! Granted, it was a sustainably raised, antibiotic free chicken on sale for 77 cents a pound, but that sucker weighed 4.64 pounds! So instead of poaching for a hour, it was more like 2 hours, having to reheat more than once. I'm sure if there were such a thing as a decent-sized chicken around here, I could've done it in a hour.

Then there was the whole carving-the-chicken thing, something which, to be blunt, I suck at.

So I guess what it comes down to is: try this dish if you make the rice from scratch, have a small chicken, and don't suck at carving.

Fried Rice (Again!)

It was a clean-out-the-fridge kind of day. Therefore, fried rice.















Cook bacon. Crumble. Drain grease.
Heat skillet on high. Add vegetable oil. Saute red onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, and a few chiles de arbol.
Add cold leftover rice. Mix, stir, let sit, etc. Add soy sauce, and my secret ingredients, a little Chinese black vinegar and some oyster sauce. Mix, stir, let sit, repeat.
Add frozen peas, green garbanzos and cooked bacon. Mix some more. It's ready when you get some crusty rice bits, or when you're too hungry and it's too hot and you can't stand to be over the stove any longer.
Serve with additional soy sauce and Sriracha.

Rice with Edamame and Egg

Once again, I didn't feel like cooking for real. So I made a batch of white rice, defrosted/heated some shelled edamame I found in the freezer, and made an omelette like you would for fried rice.

Scoop of rice, scattering of egg and edamame, some soy and sriracha, and a sprinkling of furikake. I don't know what's in the stuff 'cause it's all in Japanese. But it's tasty.

Three Ladies Rice

We buy rice once every 8 months or so, in 50# bags. Our preferred "everyday" rice is Three Ladies brand, imported by Vinh Sanh Trading Corporation.




















The last time we bought rice, it was $20. This time? $38.

Want eggs? $3 a dozen, unless you're lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe's (at least the one near me, they sell local eggs for $1.49).

Flour? Same thing. Bread? That too. Milk? I wish I was lactose-intolerant.

Gasoline? $4.11 $4.15 is the cheapest I can find right now.

What can we do?

• Buy local. Supporting your local farmer helps him keep his prices lower. Plus you usually get organic veggies and humanely-raised animals from small farms.
• Combine driving trips. Need to pick up milk, your daughter from her job, and a prescription from the pharmacy? Do them all at once.
• Recycle. Duh. And not just in your blue bins. Some states give you a cash refund for glass, plastic and aluminum. Even if they don't, why make stuff from scratch that's already mostly-made? (This only counts for recycleables, not cake mix or mac'n'cheese. Please, make that from scratch.)
• Plan your meals for the week, or at least for a few days at a time. Buy only what you need. Americans throw away 10% of what they buy at grocery stores. If you can't plan your meals? Get a dog. He'll eat what you don't.
• Have unwanted books? Donate them to a library or sell them to a local used book store. It'll save people from buying new books, and save the fuel costs associated in shipping them.
• Get rid of cable TV. WTF, you say? Our TV died 2 months ago. I haven't replaced it, and haven't missed it. I read the news online. Instead of wasting time sitting mindlessly watching The Next Top Whatever, I'm doing more constructive things (reading, sewing, gardening). And I'm saving $40 a month by not paying for cable. Although I'm going to run in to a problem when football season starts...
• And lastly, in the words of Michael Pollan, which I'm sure you've all read before: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
  

This has been your Public Service Announcement for the day.

We now return you to your regular programming.

Spinach and Rice Soup

The next cookbook in line on my shelf is More Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. I don't know why it was so difficult to choose a dish to cook from this book. Ms. Hazan is, after all, one of the foremost authorities of Italian cuisine.

So I narrowed it down to the following:
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Frittata con le Patatine Fritte (Open-Faced Omelet with Pan-Fried Potatoes)
Carciofini Gratinati (Gratin of Artichokes)
Crocchette di Patate all Romagnola (Potato and Ham Fritters)
Spinaci e Riso in Brodo (Spinach and Rice Soup)

The ingredients for all of the above were readily available, so that wasn't a factor. I've already made a frittata, so I nixed that one. We just recently had steamed artichokes for dinner, so the gratin was out. I'm not sure I trust the freshness of my eggs, so no carbonara this time. And my last attempt at anything fritter-like was a disaster. So I went with the soup. Can't screw that up, right?

You start by sautéing spinach with a pinch of salt, and just the water left on the leaves from washing, until barely wilted. Drain, reserving the liquid, pressing as much of it out of the spinach as possible. Then you sauté some chopped onion in butter, add the spinach and raise the heat, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add in broth and the reserved spinach liquid, and bring to a boil. Add arborio rice, cover and simmer vigorously until the rice is al dente. Adjust salt and pepper, and serve with parmesan.

Verdict? Meh. I wasn't expecting anything earth-shattering. It's just spinach and rice soup, after all. The arborio gave a subtle velvety-ness to the broth, but I wish I had chopped the spinach instead of leaving it whole - it's rather difficult to get one cooked spinach leaf on a spoon without getting a big massive clump.

So, not a disaster, but nothing to get all excited about either. Therefore, this book gets a 2nd chance, and can stay on the shelf until the next cycle through.

Chicken & Rice

For dinner last night, I made Chicken Legs in Achiote Sauce (Ben's recipe), accompanied by Green Rice, from Trini Gourmet.

The marinade for the chicken reminded me of the cochinita pibil I make (recipe courtesy of Roberto Rodriquez, director of Once Upon a Time in Mexico). The main difference is lots of ancho powder in the chicken, compared to habañero in the puerco.

My kitchen smelled amazing while this was cooking! The chicken was tender, flavorful...everything chicken wants to be but so rarely is.

The rice...was ok. I undersalted (a problem of mine, although easily fixed), and I think my long grain rice is old, because the center of the grains stayed hard for way too long, and by the time they were soft, the rice was breaking apart. The flavor, however, was very good. Cilantro, parsley, jalapeño, onion, garlic...of course the flavor's good!

Family dug on the chicken, the rice not so much. However, all three of them could live on plain white rice with soy sauce, with a pork chop thrown in once a month. So their opinion on "different" rice dishes doesn't really count in my eyes.

Will I make this again? The chicken, yes. The rice, I'll probably search for another recipe, or tweak this one til it's memorable.

Simple Baked Bass with Rice and Salad

Tonight's dinner:
Baked baquetta bass
Jasmine rice with furikake
Cucumber salad

Hubby picked up beautiful fillet of baquetta bass, so I seasoned it with s&p, paprika and garlic powder, placed it in a baking dish with a film of olive oil and a little butter, covered the dish tightly with foil, and baked. I think it was about 30 minutes to get the thickest part cooked, with the thinner side pieces removed as they were done.

As a sauce for the fish, I finely minced some garlic, and sautéed it over low heat in a little butter, sprinkled in some lemon juice, then drained off the liquid from the garlic.

Sides were my standard cucumber-chili-lemon salad, and white rice with soy sauce and nameshi furikake. I picked up the furikake from Owajimaya on my trip to Seattle. It contains "green vegetable", sugar, msg, miso, kelp extract and bonito powder. Green vegetable is further defined on the package as hiroshima nappa, kyoto nappa and radish leaves. I'm guessing that the first 2 ingredients are cabbage from Hiroshima and Kyoto, but I could be wrong, since I'm going from the English over-label on the package. I think I need to take it to work with me and ask my Japanese co-worker to translate. Bottom line, whatever's in it, it was a welcome addition to plain rice.



















Overall, I'm not complaining. The fish was meaty and moist, the salad was good as always, and the furikake rice was a good carb-side.

However, I'm not sure the 3 dishes complemented each other too well - the fish was "American", for lack of a better description, the rice had Asian overtones (obviously), and the salad was Mexican. Call me the queen of fumbled fusion.

Arroz con Pollo

My next challenge dish was Rice Simmered with Chicken and Chorizo (Arroz con Pollo), from Bistro Latino. Not like the arroz con pollo I usually make, this one has roasted red pepper strips, corn, peas, but most importantly, chorizo. This recipe calls for fresh chorizo instead of dry, which is good, because I've never found the dry type around here (although I'd love to know where to get some).

Sauté 8 ounces of sliced chicken, 4 ounces of chorizo, garlic and onion in olive oil. Add 1 cup of long-grain rice, stir to coat, then add 2.5 cups of broth, seasoning and sliced carrot. Bring to a boil, reduce to very low, simmer 15 minutes. Sprinkle with peas and corn, simmer 5-10 minutes more. Stir, season, and lay red pepper strips on top.

How was it? Different. The chorizo added a little spiciness that usually isn't present in arroz con pollo (at least not in my house). The amount of broth called for was higher than what I'd normally use, because when it finally all absorbed, the rice was a bit overcooked and starting to fall apart. So it was kind of half rice / half porridge, something almost risotto-like. It's got a comfort-food feeling to it, like what you'd eat if you were homesick or under the weather.

But, and here's the best part, we made burritos out of it the next day, adding a little soy sauce, a little sriracha, and shredded cheddar cheese in toasted flour tortillas. Absolutely amazing.

Highly recommended recipe, not for as it's originally intended, but for the burrito modification.

Post #98 - I Made Sushi!

I made sushi.

...

Oh, yes I did.

A big thanks to Soy and Pepper for helpful tips (like the bowl of water!). I think it turned out pretty darned good for my first attempt. The rolls didn't fall apart, and I got a nice rice-to-stuff ratio. But I think I could've seasoned the rice a little more.

Here's what I did:

Cook frozen sauced eel according to package directions. Let cool, then slice into 1/4" thick matchsticks.

Cook sushi rice according to package directions. Season with rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt.

Chop green onions into 2" lengths.

Spread rice on nori (shiny side down), add some eel and green onion, dribble some of the eel sauce on top, then roll. Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.

Post #94 - Rice and Beans with Stuff

Here's one of my favorite comfort-food dinners:

Start the rice first:

Rinse 1 1/2 cups of long-grain rice until the water runs clear. Let drain.

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté (in vegetable oil) some chopped onion and a minced clove of garlic until fragrant and translucent. Add the drained rice and stir to coat the grains with oil. Toast the rice, stirring every now and then. When you notice that the color has definitely gotten darker, add in 1 can (drained) of diced tomatoes. Stir around a little. It'll soon try to stick to the bottom of the pan - when this happens, add 2 cups of chicken or veggie broth and a scant teaspoon of salt (table salt this time, not kosher).

Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to really-really low. Let cook until the rice is done - I think it's somewhere around 20 minutes, but I've never timed it. I usually stir once halfway through cooking. (How can you stir halfway through an unknown cooking time? Sorry.) When the rice is done, if there's still too much liquid, remove the cover, increase the heat, and flip-stir the rice gently so you don't break it.

While the rice is cooking:

Open a large can of pinto beans (Sun Vista is my favorite), pour off the top inch or so of beany liquid, and dump into a pot. Add a chili (jalapeno or serrano, slit or not) and a chunk of onion if you have it. Heat.














Chop/shred iceberg lettuce, and dress with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Chop up some cilantro, green onions, tomatoes, black olives. Shred some cheddar. Make some guacamole. Gather your hot sauces and sour cream.

To serve, plunk some rice in a bowl, and top with beans (free of liquid thanks to a slotted spoon). Sprinkle with some cheese. Mix it up a little to melt the cheese. Then add any or all of your veggie toppings and condiments. Mix. Eat as is, or scoop with chips.

Post #65 - Spam Fried Rice!

Jaden over at Steamy Kitchen reminded me of Spam's existence a couple weeks ago. Rather than be the object of everyone's ridicule at my normal grocery store, I donned dark glasses and a trench coat, and drove across town where no one knows me, and purchased a can of Spam.

In my defense, it was the less-calorie, less-fat version, so that means there's less overall Spam in it, right?

Anyway - Spam Fried Rice:

leftover cooked rice
Spam
bacon!
frozen peas
julienned carrots
dried hot chili pepper
sliced green onion
ginger (powdered this time, meh)
soy sauce
egg

Cook and crumble bacon. Dice Spam, and dry-fry in a skillet. Make an omelet and chop it up.

Heat canola oil in a wok, add in your carrots, fry a bit, then your green onion, bacon, Spam and dried chili. Mix it around, add ginger & some soy sauce. Let it sit for a bit to crisp up the rice, toss it around. Repeat the sitting and tossing a few times. Add some more soy, dump in your peas, and toss. Taste. Done? Then add the egg, mix, and serve with sriracha.

Oh, and don't eat the dried chili. Unless you like the feeling that you're going to die.

Post #53b - Stuffed Grape Leaves, Part II

I took the rest of the cooked Himalayan red rice I made earlier, and mixed it with diced tomato, cucumber, feta, s&p, lemon juice, olive oil & sumac. Best at room temperature.

For the remainder of my grape leaves, here's what we did:

1 jar grape leaves
1 lb ground beef (lamb would most likely be better)
1/2 c white rice
1 egg white
few T chopped parsley
1/2 t dried basil
1 1/2 t salt
pepper
garlic powder

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, drop in the leaves (don't worry about separating them), return the water to a boil, then turn off the heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. Drain, then refill the pot with cold water and add the leaves. Let them sit until you're ready.

Mix up everything else.

Trim the stems from the leaves, unless you like chomping on undigestible greenery.

Lay a leaf out flat, and place a heaping teaspoon of filling near the stem end. Fold up one bottom leaf-lobe, then the other. Then fold in the sides, then roll up like a burrito. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Fill a large pot with about an inch or so of water. Place a plate in the pot. Place the dolmades on the plate, making them snuggle together so they don't come unwrapped. More than one layer is ok. Cover with any remaining grape leaves, then with another plate. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until tender, maybe 45 minutes (I wasn't really paying attention to time).

We served these with hummus and pita. Next time I'd probably cut back on the filling a little, because at times the grape leaf flavor got lost, and it felt like eating a meatball.