North African Meatballs with Couscous

I have to give credit where it's due. I had help with this one. I'm a little ashamed to say where it came from though. Ok...I was bored and channel surfing when I came across Melissa d'Arabian making "North African" meatballs in this tomato based sauce, and it looked pretty tasty. I've never watched her show because the terrible title, Ten Dollar Dinners, really puts me off. That particular episode was interesting though, so of course I had to give it a shot. With my excellent instruction-following skills, I pretty much used her recipe as a guide. Besides the general no measurement of everything, I made the following adjustments.

Sauce:
More onion and garlic
Red wine, not white
Turbinado sugar instead of brown
Waaaaaay more cinnamon. That was an accident, but I have no patience for measuring so I just dumped lots of red pepper and cinnamon in. That was before I saw it was supposed to be a pinch. Oops.
Cumin
Bay leaf

Meatballs:
Lamb instead of beef
No tomato paste
No cinnamon (too much in the sauce)

I topped the whole dish with pistachios and I have to say, it was pretty awesomely delicious. The sauce wasn't too heavy on the cinnamon at all and the lamb meatballs were really tasty. I want to try this again with fresh tomatoes and more olives. Oh, just a note, this was definitely over $10 bucks to make. I don't know what food prices this lady is using.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/north-african-meatballs-recipe/index.html

Dinner: Chinese Edition

Chinese food is a good go-to for me when ever I have lots of left over chicken or when I'm out of ideas for something to make for dinner. One of my childhood favorites is a dish my grandma came up with. It's a simple mix of stir fried beef, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and green onion. It may sound like a strange combo, but it tastes delicious and is perfection over rice.

Another simple, always-tasty dish is chicken stir fry. It is pretty much what is sounds like: marinated, diced chicken with green beans, red pepper, and carrot. (Pardon the picture. It was half eaten with I took it.)

HOW TO (Beef):

Thinly slice steak against the grain in 2 inch or so length pieces. Marinate in a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, pepper, a bit of cornstarch, and a liiittle brown rice vinegar and set aside. Meanwhile, dice 6 to 8 scallions, keeping separate the white parts from the green. Chop 4 medium to large tomatoes into inch size pieces. 

Start by scrambling 5 eggs in a large pan. Remove when almost cooked through. Turn the pan on high and add the marinated beef. Also remove when almost cooked through. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the chopped tomatoes, the diced scallion whites, a small spoonful of turbinado sugar, and some soy sauce. Let cook for 5-10 minutes until the tomatoes melt into a sauce. Add the beef and egg back into the pan letting everything simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Remove from pan and garnish with scallion greens.

HOW TO (Chicken):

Marinate diced chicken in a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, a bit of cornstarch (see a pattern?). Roughly chop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, thinly slice 3 or 4 scallions on a long diagonal, setting aside the green parts, and prepare 3 or 4 slices of ginger. Also slice 2 carrots, blanched green beans, and a small red pepper into similar size strips.

On medium heat, start by frying the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites in a little oil until fragrant. Add some hot chili paste, turn up the heat and stir fry the chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, add the carrots, green beans, and red pepper. Stir fry slightly until just cooked. Add the chicken back in along with a slurry of corn starch, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, sugar, and brown rice vinegar. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Garnish with scallion greens.

Chicken Noodle Stew

I came back from a long vacation, and after a long flight on a smelly airplane I was feeling a tiny bit sick. As hokey as it sounds, I was craving some chicken noodle soup. So out I went to the store to buy some chicken, carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, garlic, pasta, and chard. The soup was rich and filling, and I'm happy to say I never got sick.



HOW TO:
To prepare the chicken for stock, wash and dry the chicken and remove the meat from the legs and breasts leaving all the skin and bones attached. Cut the chicken meat into small pieces and set aside. (There will be leftover meat. A later post will provide a potential use.) Add the chicken to boiling water and bring back to a boil. Dump the water and rinse the chicken and pot from any residue. (This is a Chinese tactic to keep the stock clear and clean tasting.) Add enough cold water to cover the chicken and bring the pot back to boil. Add a couple of carrots, celery, chunks of onion, garlic cloves, and a bay leaf. Simmer for hours and hours and hours.

Marinate the diced chicken in a little flour, salt, pepper, a little sugar, white pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and set aside. Finely dice a carrot, a celery stalk, a few cloves of garlic, and one small onion. Also chop a couple of carrots and potatoes into 1/2 to 1 inch size pieces and set aside. In a large pot, sauté the chicken until mostly cooked through. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the finely diced vegetables to the pot, scraping up any chicken pieces. Cook until soft and fragrant. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the chopped carrots and potatoes and simmer until just cooked. Turn up the heat and add some bite-sized pasta and chopped chard. Cook until pasta is al dente, and serve hot.