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.

Lasagna

Who doesn't love lasagna? I make a classic version with ricotta, mozzarella, and homemade sauce. I'm able to get local, fresh ricotta at the Whole Foods here, which I think makes a difference in taste and texture. It's definitely more creamy and less cottage cheesy. I made my own meatball-based meat sauce for this recipe. By meatball-based, I mean I prepped the ground meat the same as I would if I made meatballs, but instead browned the whole batch and made sauce. I think it makes for extra flavorful lasagna without being too greasy like sausage can. This is definitely not diet food, but it's great for leftovers.

HOW TO:

Sauté diced onion and garlic until softened in a large pot. Remove half and add to ground beef, pork, and veal in a separate mixing bowl. Add grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, soaked bread or bread crumbs, fresh chopped parsley, one egg, salt, and pepper. Mix until combined and set aside for at least half and hour to marinate. Add the meat mixture back into the pot with the onions and garlic and brown. Deglaze with a cup and a half or so of red wine. Pour in two jars or cans of good crushed tomatoes. (I use jarred to avoid BPA in cans.) Toss in a handful of ripped basil leaves. Simmer for at least 45 minutes.

To a pound-ish of ricotta, add chopped parsley and basil, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, one egg, salt, and pepper. Mix until well combined. Boil a box of lasagna noodles until slightly under-cooked. Remove and add a little olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. Now it's finally time for the fun part. Add some sauce to the bottom of a large baking dish. Layer noodles, ricotta, sauce, and shredded mozzarella until the pan can't hold anymore. Then top with one last layer of noodles and sauce. I added some basil leaves to the top of my lasagna because I love basil and I think it looks pretty, but it's a totally unnecessary step. Finish with mozzarella and parmesan. Bake for 45 minutes at 350ºF or 375º being careful not to burn the cheese. After removing from the oven, try really really hard to not eat it right away. It's better it sits for 20 or 30 minutes.

Ribs with Spicy "Pickled" Cucumber, Red Cabbage Slaw, and Sesame Paste Green Beans

Um, what can I say. The ribs were rubbed with almost every spice in the pantry and finished with some barbecue sauce from Whole Foods. I regret not making my own sauce, but Monday night is not the ideal time to be experimenting. The cucumber was marinated with brown rice vinegar, turbinado sugar, salt, garlic, chili paste, and sesame oil. The slaw was red cabbage, red onion, and carrot in a light dressing of lemon juice, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard seed, mustard, and a little mayonnaise. The green beans were simply blanched and served with a sesame paste dipping sauce (sesame paste, sesame oil, garlic, brown rice vinegar, turbinado sugar, salt, and soy sauce). It's probably my favorite way of eating green beans...totally reminds me of my childhood.

HOW TO:

Start with a rub. I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, turbinado sugar, curry powder, a little cinnamon, cayenne, and cajun seasoning. I probably forgot something. There may have been a little chili powder as well. Marinate overnight in a ziploc. In the morning, add some barbecue sauce and marinate until dinner time. Bake at 325ºF covered with foil for two hours, flipping and basting halfway through. Raise the temperature to 475ºF, remove the foil, baste one last time, and bake for 15 minutes.

Grilled Rib-Eye

I love steak, but since my stove is, oh maybe 15 feet from my bedroom and I don't have a range hood or any real ventilation system for my "kitchen," I don't make it at home that much. This weekend was special. I was able to use a real, four burner grill, so I went all out. The steak was grass-fed, bone-in rib-eye, cut about two inches thick. I usually like dry aged, but there wasn't any available this time.

For those that don't know, grass-fed is the way to go for heath and the environment. Here are a couple links for some basic information:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/grass-fed-beef/AN02053

http://www.eatwild.com/

HOW TO:

Let the steak sit at room temperature for an hour or so. It's important to have the meat not be right-out-of-the-fridge cold. Preheat the grill (or pan, or grill pan) on high. Rub both sides with a gently crushed garlic clove and softened butter, and heavily salt and pepper. Throw those bad boys on the grill. Cook for 6-8 minutes a side, and either close the grill or put into a 425ºF oven for another 6-8 minutes for medium-rare. The times are extremely variable though, so use the touch test to determine how done the steak is. Serve with amazing red wine. I have an example below.

Lunch: Ham Sandwich

This isn't just any ham sandwich. This is a sandwich made from the best deli ham I've ever had. I don't know what kind of magic or crack the people at Fra' Mani use, but their rosemary ham is SO GOOD. This sandwich is: Fra' Mani rosemary ham, white cheddar, lettuce, tomato, red onion and avocado on buttered and toasted French boule with a little mayo and grain mustard. Looking at this picture is making me hungry. I wish I had some of that ham left...