Thursday, December 13, 2018

Creamy Sweet Potato Bake with Chile

I was recently at K's house, and she's currently busier than most of us have ever busied.  I've decided to be a meddling little sister and post recipes on her behalf, because at this moment any expectation of her blogging might need to be put off until retirement. ;) She made these for us along with flank steak, some delicious lemon garlic spinach, and cranberry sauce for a lovely meal before we had a glitzy evening at the Nutcracker. This is my best memory, but it was very ad-hoc so if you follow your instincts, I'm sure they'll turn out just fine.

Ingredients
3 sweet potatoes
1 russett potato
2 cans diced green chile
1/2 cup (?) of cream
Thyme
Smoked Paprika
Salt
Pepper

Peel and slice all potatoes into 1/2 inch slices.  Layer in a 9x13 pan.  Mix in green chiles and spices.  Pour cream over top until it soaks all the potatoes, but you don't want any puddle of cream in the pan. Bake until soft, about half an hour.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Guest Post: Summertime Salmon Peach Salad


Summa summa summa time! 

You know those hot summer days where nothing sounds good but a popsicle and all you want to do is lay in front of a fan (no AC in Seattle) and sip a fizzy cocktail? Me too. 

I am a grill 'o' holic in the summer, but the same routine of protein and grilled veggies starts to get me down come August.  Enter in PEACH SEASON!  This salad is the perfect combo of protein, healthy fats, fiber, and greens to make you feel satisfied and full for hours after.  It feels like a cheat meal - but it's not! 

Ingredients: 
Salmon - I used salmon steaks, but you can get whatever is fresh. If Salmon is not fresh, do the same thing with Shrimp or any other seafood
Peaches (can swap any stone fruit - plums, cherries, etc)
Salad greens - 6 cups for two people
Farro or any hearty grain - 1 cup for two people
Mozzarella 
Avocado
Some sort of cream - either mayo or greek yogurt
Brown Sugar - 2 tablespoons
Cumin - 1/4 tablespoon
Chili powder - 1/4 tablespoon (more if you like kick!)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cherry tomatoes (I like the yellow ones for sweetness) - about 6 per person
Basil
Red onion - 1 tablespoon 
Almond slivers (if desired)


Cook the farro according to instructions. Make a salmon rub from the brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Rub the salmon with the mixture and throw it on a hot grill. (about 5 min each side - salmon should blacken with the sugar)

Meanwhile make the dressing: 1/2 an avocado (or whole if you are cooking for more than two people); a small spoonful of mayo or greek yogurt, a squeeze of lemon (more to taste) Salt and pepper

Slice up your peaches and tomatoes

Finely dice some red onion - I don't love a lot, but enough for taste
Dice some basil - about two tablespoons 
In a large bowl, add your salad greens and mix in the dressing - coat really well. add in the basil, and red onion. I also added some almonds, but they weren't necessary

Build your salad: 
Faro - about half a cup
Greens with dressing, onions, and basil mixed in already
Top with salmon, tomatoes, peaches, and mozzarella

Delicious!

Guest Recipe: Granola Template

My roommate Lili makes granola on a regular basis to prepare for the week ahead, and after a couple weeks of our house being filled with toasty warm coconut smells, I begged her for the recipe.  She typed up the recipe - more of a template, so it's flexible - via text, and I've written it out here to save it for myself.  I've since been making it regularly myself, and love having it in the morning with any mix of kefir, fruit, milk, yogurt, or nut butter.

Dry Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 - 1.5 cups nuts (sliced almonds, pecan pieces, walnuts, etc)
1/2 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients
1/2 - 3/4 cup honey, molasses or maple syrup
1/4 - 1/2 cup oil (coconut, olive, etc)

Optional Add-ins
1 -2 cups seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, chia, etc)
1 cup Coconut
1-3 tsp. spices (Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Other Spices)
1/4 - 1/2 cup pumpkin (warm in saucepan before adding if using)
1/4 cup cocoa or 1 cup chocolate chipes
1/2 tablespoons uncooked quinoa

Preheat oven to 350.  Cover baking sheet with foil or baking mats. Mix all dry ingredients in bowl (including add-ins).  Add wet ingredients.  Mix, taste and tweak to preference. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes total, stopping to stir 15 or 20 minutes in. Stop when looks toasty brown and smells incredible!

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Spicy Shrimp Pineapple Fried Rice

A lesson in utilizing this blog better for saving even the quickest recipe I came up with: I clearly remember utilizing this NYT recipe for Hot Honey Shrimp to make something REALLY good last summer, with several tweaks.  I can't remember for the life of me what that was, but at least my attempts to remember resulted in this recipe.

I recently learned that fried rice is incredibly easy to riff off of, and also to hide an assortment of veggies in.  For best results, use at least day-old rice - a little bit drier is better.

This recipe is super quick if you buy already-cooked shrimp, and can easily be packed for lunch.  The shrimp and veggies each have a kick, but the sweetness of the pineapple and coconut rice counter it nicely.

For shrimp (adapted from NYT recipe above):
1/2 lb pre-cooked shrimp, defrosted if needed
2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon honey
A pinch cayenne
¼  teaspoon lime zest
¼  teaspoon grated or minced ginger
1  clove garlic, minced
¼  teaspoon salt
¼  teaspoon ground pepper

For rice:
1 cup coconut rice (replace half of the cooking water with coconut milk)
1 bell pepper or three sweet mini peppers
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup of corn kernels
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
3 Tbsp. oil (I used coconut oil)
Sambal Olek hot sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 eggs
1/2 pineapple. cut into bite-size pieces

First, cook rice in a rice cooker (it's best if it's about a day old).

In a medium frying pan, melt butter.  Add honey, shrimp and the rest of the ingredients.  Continue to cook until shrimp is opaque white, about 8 minutes. Set aside when done.

Meanwhile, saute bell pepper, garlic, corn kernels, and carrots in 1 T coconut oil until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add rice and addition 2T coconut oil to the pan.  Mix well with vegetables, then press rice against the bottom of the pan and let sit for a few minutes.  You want it to get nice and crispy, but not to burn - if you have a lid for your pan, that will help.

Once rice has some nice crispy bits, mix it in the pan again. Clear a space in the side of your pan, and break the eggs into the cleared space. Scramble them with a fork or spatula a bit, then once mostly cooked mix them in with the rest of the rice.

Add shrimp, season with Sambal Olek and lime juice to taste.  Mix in pineapple and serve.



Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Guest Post: Mandarin Tart

Here's a guest post by my lovely friend and fellow pie baker, Jess. She intros our friendship quite well, so I'll let her take it from here - but you should know observing her tricks as she rolls out pie dough has improved my pies by leaps and bounds. She's a pie expert. 

(Please note that due to my own procrastination, she sent me this lovely winter citrus recipe while Boston was still weathering winter storms, but I am posting it in the high heat of June because I didn't want to delay any longer). 

While I’ve met and appreciated all the sisters associated with this blog, the sister I’ve eaten still-too-hot pie with at midnight is Annalise. We had one class together our first semester of grad school, and spent the next two years fantasizing about crust-filling pie combos to procrastinate writing our papers until the last possible moment.
Annalise has my back by sending me food essays when I max out my quota of news articles. One of the food writers I’ve found on my own is Dorie Greenspan, an American baker and writer who lives half the year in Paris. For a Francophile, she is decidedly not foofoo. Her vibe reminds me of Marion Cunningham, another great American food writer who is not foofoo in the least. (Marion Cunningham edited the modern version of Fannie Farmer Cookbook and has a bonkers recipe for a yeasted waffle I’ve been making too frequently.https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/raised-waffles-40050/amp)

I was reading a Dorie recipe for lemon tart, and decided to do a mandarin orange version. Winter citrus like mandarin is how I’ve survived 3 Nor’easters in 11 days here in the greater Boston area, with one more on its way. Before making this tart, have your husband ease the baby into a miraculous 3-hour nap, and happen to have all necessary ingredients on hand. I found those to be key factors to my success.



Aiding in my success was the friendliness of this dough. It was easy to form into a disc and easy to flute the edges, which held perfectly when baked! My pie experiences have taught me how much better a pie crust baked with shortening or lard holds a shape than one baked with butter, because butter has a lower melting point. So I was surprised and delighted and how well this held its shaped edge. It smelled wonderful, like a sugar cookie that isn’t overly sweet. One more small note is that I baked in a pie pan instead of a tart because my tart pan was too large, and the only downside was I couldn’t pop my tart out of it once it had cooled. So pie pan or tart-either are good options for you.



The main difference between my mandarin tart and Dorie’s lemon (her recipe here: https://www.pannacooking.com/recipes/lemon-tart-recipe-dorie-greenspan/) is that using the whole mandarin, skin and all, didn’t work the way it did for lemon. I suspect that because the skin of the mandarin is thinner, it wasn’t captured and puréed as easily by the food processor. I ended up straining out the many small bits of skin and then zesting mandarin skin back into the mix. I also really pulsed the food processor for a while in an attempt to break down the mandarin skin, and this whipped more bubbles into my filling. You want to avoid bubbles because when baking they pop and mar the surface of your tart. Learn from my mistakes—go straight to zesting and juicing! I sifted powdered sugar onto my tart when it was cool to hide the bubble scars, though they really weren’t too bad.

My final important observation is that this tart is pretty jiggly when you take it out of the oven. Embrace the jiggle. You have my word it sets nicely as it cools. While it was cooling, I made use of my fruit leftovers. Because I had to zest 5 additional mandarins, I had these mandarins that needed to be used soon or their scraped bodies would get hard. So I poured myself a glass of lime seltzer and cut the remaining skin off, and used it as a juicy garnish. Beautiful and tasty.

If you also need a break from the news and love food writing, may I suggest these two gems from Dorie.

https://www.saveur.com/dorie-greenspan-new-years-eve-menu

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/25/magazine/food-issue-dorie-greenspan-paris-dinner.html

Ingredients:
For crust:1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter cut small
1 large egg yolk
Additional butter for aluminum foil and pie plate/tart pan

For filling:
5 mandarin oranges
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Additional confectioners’ sugar for decoration of desired.

Instructions:

Begin with the crust: Put the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse in short bursts so the butter is pea-sized lumps. I added the butter half at a time to avoid it becoming a clumpy mess, but pulsed until the pieces were much too small, and it worked out totally ok. Add egg yolk and pulse til combined. When the yolk is in, process in 2-3 10 second pulses until the dough forms slightly larger clumps.

Pour your dough crumbles out and knead to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing. Dorie would have you smear the butter into the flour with the heel of your hand. Revel in this tactile sensation.
Flatten dough into a disc, and then roll out until it is slightly bigger than your pan.

Butter your tart pan (if using one) to help your tart pop out cleanly. Drape your dough into the pan. If using a pie plate, feel free to flute the edges for decorative purposes and to help hold your filling. Prick the dough with a fork and freeze for 30 mins.

While dough is chilling, begin the filling: zest and squeeze the juice of 5 mandarins into food processor. Add sugar and pulse til combined. Then add remaining filling ingredients and pulse on low until evenly mixed. Take food processor bowl off its stand and tap it a few times on the counter to pop bubbles that may have been whipped into your mixture.

Remove chilled dough from freezer. Butter a piece of aluminum foil and drape over crust,being sure to cover the edges of your pie so they don’t overly brown. (I got a little over-browning, myself.) Fill with rice, uncooked beans, or ceramic pie weights and bake for 30 minutes at 350. At that point, remove aluminum foil and pie weights and cook for additional 10 minutes to finish setting the bottom and to brown crust. Remove crust and allow it to cool.

Decrease oven temp to 325. Carefully pour your filling into your crust. If you spill filling on the crust that will remain visible, it will look sticky when baked. If you see bubbles in your filling, you can pop them with your finger or a toothpick. Bake for 20 mins. Up temperature to 350 and bake for additional 30 mins. Remove from oven and allow to cool, either to room temperature or in the fridge.

If desired, sift additional confectioners’ sugar on top of your tart. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Smoky Sweet Potato Chorizo Bowl

I don't think I've yet extolled the virtues of the CRISPY. FRIED. EGG. on this blog, but you should go learn about it from Deb and put it on top of every other meal, like I did for roughly February - June of last year.  True story: prior to the crispy egg, I did not like eggs (Sam-I-Am!). Then one afternoon, Deb's writing about a crispy egg atop spaghetti a pangratatto was so good, I tried it on the spot - now here we are.

I threw this bowl together with some leftover chorizo from a birthday dinner. It is a defining Parady trait that we buy too much food for parties, or pretty much any time we feed others, but at least we know how to make the most of leftovers! These sweet potatoes are a smoky, spicy dream, a perfect weeknight meal that doesn't skimp on flavor.

I made this just for myself, but adjusted below for a rough recipe for two.

For two bowls:
1 sweet potato
Cumin
Smoked Paprika
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Olive Oil
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 sweet onion
1/2 cup chorizo
Greens - arugula or spinach
Cotija or Feta
Aguacate or verde salsa
2 eggs


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Poke sweet potato skin with a fork.  Place in a microwave on high for 4 minutes, or until it starts to soften. Cut into bite-size pieces, skin included. Spread across a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and add cumin, smoked paprika, salt and red pepper flakes to taste. Place in oven for 20 min, but keep an eye on them.

Meanwhile, cut bell pepper and onion into thin strips. Add a tablespoon of oil to a frying pan and add bell pepper and onion.  Cook on medium until onion starts to get transclucent and bell pepper starts to soften, about 5 min.  Add chorizo and continue to cook over medium heat until chorizo has browned and is cooked through.  Drain fat and discard, setting aside chorizo and veggies.

Once sweet potatoes are nice and browned, remove from oven.  Layer bowl with sweet potato, peppers, onions, greens, salsa and cheese.

Heat frying pan again, over high heat.  THEN add olive oil, heat over medium high heat until shimmering.  Once the oil is hot, take a deep breath and crack an egg into it, moving quickly away from the splattering oil. Watch as the egg whites bubble around the yolk.  Let it sit for longer than you think, until the bottom of the egg starts to get crispy brown.  Pour some of the hot oil from the pan over the whites - not the yolk - to speed things along but help the yolk stay runny. Remove and repeat with the other egg.

Top each bowl with a crispy fried egg and a dab of yogurt & salsa. Dig in!



Sunday, January 21, 2018

Breakfast Apple & Egg Chop

This is a thing I like to eat for breakfast. 



It's a small apple and a hard boiled egg, chopped up with other things that may include hard white cheese or avocado, pepitas or nuts for crunch, and topped with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, and a little salt (or in this case salt I made ages ago that was mixed with crushed toasted nori).  

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Instant Pot Dal Makhani

Here is another delicious instant pot find.  I'm writing the recipe up here so I remember to make it again, but it's straight from The Instant Pot Indian Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre.  The dal here retains its shape and the sauce is wonderfully creamy (probably because it includes, um, cream).

With a salad and Heidi's Instant Pot Chickpea Cauliflower Korma (except I was with non chickpea eaters so we did potato cauliflower):  


Group One: 
1/2 cup whole black urad dal, rinsed
2 bay leaves
1 TB chopped garlic
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 1/2 cups water

Group Two: 
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup cream
1 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp each turmeric, coriander, garam masala
1/4 tsp each cayenne, cumin

Group Three: 
2 tsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds 
1 TB tomato paste 

Put Group One in the instant pot and pressure cook on high for 30 minutes, then release naturally (I lost patience and eventually did quick release and it was fine).

While that is cooking, whisk together Group Two in a bowl and set aside.  For Group Three, heat the ghee in a small pan, add the cumin seeds, and when they sputter, stir in the tomato paste until it absorbs the ghee. 

Mix Group Three into Group One, then mix in Group Two as well.  Serve with chopped cilantro and fried garlic.  Yum.  

Instant Pot Split Pea with Spinach, Lemon, and Ethiopian Spices

Tonight I made this soup in the Instant Pot (which, when you're a vegetarian trying to get protein, is a pretty lifesaving legume-cooker).

I subbed split peas for lentils because that's what I had, and served over rice with yogurt on the side. Pressure cooked a little extra (13 mins instead of 10) because of using split peas, although I bet they would have been fine after 10 - they were pretty liquified.  I did find it needed more lemon juice and salt than called for.  It was delicious!


Friday, January 12, 2018

Chicken Soup With Jalapeño and Lime

Years ago, I worked at a shelter for kids who'd crossed the border without an adult.  Not only were the kids from many different countries, the staff were as well. I would have a steaming cup of cafe con leche set in front of me while I worked a night shift, or walk into a staff meeting to find the largest soup pot I'd ever seen perched on the stove top and filled with posole. But there was no day of the week that I looked forward to more than chicken soup day, where inevitably a chicken soup spiced with jalapeño and cumin bubbled on the stove.  I never could pinpoint which country it originated from, and failed to ever get a clear recipe from the several cooks who'd make it.  I searched and searched the internet, to no avail.

A few things were consistent - the chicken legs would be left on the bone, perched in your soup bowl with the meat tenderly falling off.  The rice wouldn't be cooked in the broth, but separately, then passed around for you to add as you please. Sometimes there were large slices of jalapeño nestled amongst the veggies, but there was always a kick to the broth. And besides the bowl of rice, other toppings would be passed around the table as well.  Cilantro, more onion, avocado, more jalapeno - which the teenagers would pass behind me, laughing about how I couldn't handle the heat. Lastly, there was lime or lemon to squeeze over the top of it all, brightening the flavor and bringing the dish over the top.

K helped me recreate the recipe based on the tips I'd been given and the strong memories of the nose and the tongue. It's the kind of soup that feels healing, somehow, and that warms you to your core on a cold winter's day. Below, our best attempt.




3 large carrots
5 stalks celery
2 large yellow onions
2-4 cloves of garlic
2-3 jalapeños
3 to 5 pounds bone-in chicken legs
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Water or Stock

To top:
Lime/Lemon Wedges
Avocado
Cilantro
Yogurt
Cooked Rice
Radish
Cheese
Tortillas

Chop and peel carrots, celery and onion into large, bite-size pieces. Dice the garlic finely. De-seed and chop jalapeño, taking note of how spicy they appear to be.  Add celery, onion, and carrots to a large pot with a few tablespoons olive oil.  Saute in the bottom of the pot until the onions are translucent. Add the jalapeño and garlic, to taste, and saute a bit more.

Add chicken legs and saute a bit to brown the skin. Cover with roughly 8 cups of water or chicken stock. Bring entire pot to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Skim foam continually as it rises to the top.  Taste occasionally, adding more jalapeño or cumin as personally preferred. Simmer the soup for at least an hour, until the chicken is tender and falling off the bones.

While the soup is simmering, cook rice and prepare toppings.  Set tables with toppings in bowls to be shared around the table.  Serve soup with lime, cilantro rice, and yogurt at the least, in addition to any other desired toppings (other suggestions above).