gone fishin'

The kitchen is closed for a few days while we reorganize things a little.

ameri-mex

Last night, we had burritos again. It all started with a ripe avocado, bought on impulse, and a request that Mr. P take over the kitchen. Mr. P reported that the avocado was perfect in all ways; the guacamole he made came out creamy and wonderful. I know there was fresh cilantro and salt in there, not sure what else. It helps that mother P was raised in West Texas and makes some of the most outrageously delicious guac I've ever tasted. It's so automatic for her that she can't even tell me what she does. Somehow, Mr. P has picked up the technique through osmosis.

The beans were yummy -- left whole (not mashed), with onions, freshly ground cumin seeds, and probably other secret ingredients. We had whole wheat tortillas, chopped celery (for crunch), chopped black olives, smoky spicey chipotle salsa, grated cheese, and more fresh chopped cilantro, with blue chips on the side.

Oh, and because there was extra cilantro left over, I put it and some olive oil in the food processor, ground it up, and made a paste to freeze for some future project. Maybe we'll put it on top of fresh tomatoes, or mix it with toasted walnuts, or add some hot spice to it. We'll see when the time comes.

lazy night

Another pesto night last evening. To steamed broccoli and mushrooms (add vegetables and a splash of water, cover, and microwave for a few minutes), we added home-made pesto and cooked whole wheat pasta. Stir and serve. Yum.

We probably have six more servings of pesto, which I hope to finish before this year's crop of basil comes in. Mr. P is at bat tonight.

multicultural collaboration

OK, it may sound a little weird, but tonight we had this dish:

I sauteed onions, added paneer (that Indian cheese) and browned it, then added asparagus, covered the pan, and turned down the heat. Meanwhile, I cooked 9-minute whole wheat linguine. About 4 minutes in, I added chopped ginger and garlic to the veggies and covered again. Served the veggies over the pasta. It was a good mix of flavors.

Za night!

I occasionally buy a whole grain pizza crust and then go to town. Trader Joe's sells 'em, as does the grocery store and the local natural food store.

Tonight I brushed the crust with olive oil, opened a can of diced tomatoes (I buy Muir Glen tomatoes--they're delicious) and put on a thin thin layer. Then I added sauteed onions, chopped garlic that I'd marinated in olive oil and salt, rinsed capers, chopped mushrooms, and grated mozarella cheese. I baked the whole thing for about 12-15 minutes, until the crust was done.

Mr. P nearly inhaled his first slice. I will admit that it was quite tasty.

For dessert, we had sliced strawberries -- from California, but still tasty -- topped with non-fat yogurt that I'd beaten into creamy submission, mixed with vanilla and maple syrup. Perfect.

cooking class with Nyep!

One of our favorite restaurants is the Elephant Walk, which serves French and Cambodian cuisine. Happily, they also offer cooking classes. Today, Mr. P and I took a vegetarian and vegan Cambodian class.

The classes at EW are some of the easiest of all the cooking classes I've taken. They often prep, and even measure, most of the ingredients before the students get there. They even wash the dishes for you. So you come in, have delicious coffee to get going, get a run-down of how to make each dish, learn about some of the special ingredients (and you get to see them, too, so you know what to look for in stores). Then you split into teams, do the rest of the prep and start cooking.

Of course, we were in one of the restaurants, so we got to work in a professional kitchen, which made it even more fun. The founder of the restaurant and an assistant watched over us, answering questions, demonstrating what size to chop each item, helping with cooking temperature, and adding final touches.

In these classes, Mr. P and I usually join different teams so we can have twice the experience. I worked on a delicious dish that started with a paste made of dried chili peppers, shallots, galangal, ginger, lemongrass, cilantro, and probably a few other ingredients. Then we heated oil, poured in the paste and unsweetened coconut milk, which made something like a red curry. To that, we added vegetables -- king mushroom, bamboo shoots, sugar, salt, lime juice. It was delicious and the taste stayed with me for hours (a good thing).

Mr. P worked on a tofu dish made with cubanelle peppers, tomatoes, minced garlic. There was a caramelized sauce with quail eggs and bamboo shoots. And there was a salad made of tomatoes, English cucumber, rice stick noodles, and a simple dressing.

When all the dishes were done, we plated them and served the food buffet style with wine -- basically having a big old dinner party for 16. I'm always astonished that I'm able to produce food that's so tasty and attractive.

After the class, we decided to stroll around the neighborhood before heading home. The day had started out slightly damp but turned beautiful while we were indoors. It was wonderful being in the sun, taking in the urban scene.

A very nice day indeed.

omelet

We had theater tickets last night, so we needed a quick dinner. At the last minute, Mr. P called to tell me of a crisis at work. He thought he could make it to the show but I'd be dining solo.

I made a one-person omelet -- sauteed onions and mushrooms, cleaned out the pan, cooked two beaten eggs, flipped, grated cheese right onto the cooked side, added onions and mushrooms, and eventually folded the omelet in half. Served with some warmed rice and a tiny serving of steamed broccoli with Bragg's and toasted sesame oil on top. It was what I was planning to serve to the two of us anyways, but I just halved everything.

I got to the theater on time. Mr. P slid into his seat less than a minute before the lights went down.

lazy comfort food

Tonight was busy and time to prepare dinner was short. A few weeks ago, the Boston Globe reported on a gnocchi test and concluded that Trader Joe's is best. So we bought two bags and had one left in the freezer.

I started some pesto thawing. I boiled water, chopped broccoli, and put the gnocchi and broccoli in the water for about four minutes. (The instructions say to cook until the gnocchi floats.) Then we drained off the water, combined all three ingredients, mixed, and served with a little grated romano cheese on top. Heaven.

weird asparagus dish, vaguely Moroccan

Mr. P thought that tonight's dinner was Moroccan because of the combination of toasted cumin and tahini. It all started out with a recipe and took a left turn at the asparagus, which wasn't even in the original recipe (green beans were, but we often use asparagus instead).

I had half a brick of tofu left from another dish, which I cubed and marinated in soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, and Chinese hot oil (I've labeled its jar HOT HOT HOT and keep it in the fridge -- you use tiny amounts at a time. Oh, and it's bright red and not artificially colored, so far as I know.)

Meanwhile, I toasted cumin and mustard seeds in oil, then added and sauteed strips of onions, followed by carrots that I'd cut into tiny matchsticks, and a little later, the tofu and its marinade. Eventually I added asparagus cut into 2-inch lengths, stirred, and covered, letting the asparagus steam itself.

While that was all happening, I made a sauce (told you it got weird) of tahini, toasted sesame oil (from a chinese store -- I don't like Trader Joe's attempt), a dash of soy sauce, and juice of half a lemon.

When the asparagus was cooked, I put the veggies in a bowl, and stirred in the sauce. We served it over brown rice, so now we're down to just a quart of rice for the rest of the week.

And despite its strange mix of flavors, it was really good and there were no leftovers. Mr. P thought it would be especially tasty over soba -- Japanese buckwheat noodles. We could also try it over whole wheat spaghetti.

Not sure if I can ever reproduce this one, of course, but I'm sure I can at least make variations on the theme.

Tomorrow night, kitchen's closed while I go off to a professional meeting. Mr. P is invited to eat leftovers, but it's more likely that he'll indulge in hummus and chips, one of his favorite bachelor meals.

simmer sauce

The kitchen was closed Friday and Saturday for our weekly dinners out. Friday, we journeyed to the not-very elegant town of Billerica to try a new Indian restaurant that's replaced a favorite old Indian restaurant. The place has been spiffed up with cloth tablecloths and actual design intent -- looks great.

The service is meant to be all sorts of fancy -- wooden carts to bring the food -- that sort of thing. The actual people service is still a little rough. For example, when the waiter came over three or four times before we were ready to order and I said we weren't ready, he'd just stand there waiting until I ordered. Several times I'd smile sweetly and say "You'll have to come back when we're ready" which seemed to get through. In their favor, I think English was not their strong suit.

But the food is quite good. Everything tastes like it's made from scratch, and the tastes are a little different from, and a little more delicious than, what we're used to. We learned a few years ago that Chinese food with an Indian flavor is very popular in India as fast food, and this restaurant serves several Indo-Chinese dishes. So we had a sweet-and-sour dish over vegetable patties -- a nice marriage of two cultures. I'm sure we'll go back and try more of the regions represented.

Oh, the restaurant is Pongal, which is the name of another dish we had -- transporting. If you go to the web site and read the "About" page, you'll see what I mean about the English -- charming and ineffective, but as they say, the dish is very good.

~~~~
Anyways, last night, we used some Trader Joe's simmer sauce as the base for our dinner. I put some brown rice on to cook. Then I sauteed onions and paneer* while chopping mushrooms, cauliflower, butternut squash (confession: I sometimes buy the shrink-wrapped peeled, seeded kind just because we don't use it all up fast enough). Potatoes would have been good but we didn't have any.

Then I put the veggies in the pan with the onions, along with a block of frozen tomatoes I had from last summer. I added the simmer sauce (I think it was the Punjab spinach variety), lowered the heat, and covered.

When the rice was done and needed to sit for 15 minutes, I threw in some frozen peas, chopped garlic, turmeric (I have some fresh -- it looks like ginger root on the outside but not on the inside), and chopped ginger and covered and simmered until the rice was done. At the end of the 15 minutes, I stirred everything thoroughly.

It was very tasty and we had lots of leftovers. However, for some reason, we ended up eating so much rice that I made another batch after dinner. Now we probably have more rice made than we'll go through this week. Oh well.

* Paneer is that delicious chewy Indian cheese. We buy it at an Indian grocery store, cut it into cubes, and freeze it so that it's ready to use when inspiration strikes us. We probably use a quarter of a block in any given two-person meal. The paneer holds up well to heat -- it doesn't melt. It's become a favorite staple because, through lack of planning, I find it hard to anticipate when I'll want to use it.

Chinese-like broccoli

We finally got to the broccoli tonight.

Prep:
. Chop an onion.
. Slice four cloves of garlic.
. Cut broccoli into bite size pieces and put in a bowl with a splash of water.
. Chop tofu and marinate in brown rice vinegar, tamari, and olive oil, cover with toasted sesame seeds.
. Chop mushrooms.
. Boil 1/2 cup water; soak "dried black beans" (which are salty, from a Chinese food store) and dried shitake mushrooms (from Costco).
. Put cooked rice in another bowl.

Cooking:
. To an oiled pan, add tofu, but not the liquid. Stir frequently until brown and hot; set aside.
. Sautee onion. Meanwhile, microwave broccoli for a couple minutes.
. Add mushrooms. Cook a bit.
. Microwave rice.
. Add the other ingredients including soaking water, but not rice or broccoli water.
. Cook, stirring, until (as Moosewood would say), the ingredients are well-acquainted. These being friendly ingredients, the final cooking took almost no time at all.

Serve vegetables over rice, topped with more toasted sesame seeds.

This came out well. The garlic was cooked enough not to taste raw but still had a nice nutty flavor. The tofu added some body. The broccoli was still bright green -- not overcooked at all.

fried rice

Somehow, I got confused about the company meeting. It was scheduled for today. As an aside, it was the most professional meeting of this type that I've ever attended. They even flew a customer out from Los Angeles to talk to us. Then they served a huge dinner which I tried to sample lightly. Our company lawyer is retiring to Montana, so the whole theme was country-western (music, boot-shaped balloons, horse-shaped balloons, plastic saloon doors, a Montana flag) and barbeque. The trimmings were good.

When I got home, fried rice seemed like a good dish to make because you don't have to take a pre-set portion. I was a little hungry, but not dinner-sized hungry.

I chopped and set aside onions, garlic, ginger, cilantro, napa cabbage, carrots, a tomato, and six small mushrooms. We opened a small can of sliced water chestnuts. In a small bowl, we beat two eggs with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. I got out the rice that I cooked last night.

Then cooking went fairly quickly. Over medium heat, I added vegetables in this order: onions, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, water chestnuts. Then I dumped in the eggs and some cracked pepper and made sure the eggs cooked up (scrambling them) and then threw in the rice, garlic, and ginger and cooked until warm. At the last minute, I stirred in the cilantro.

It came out well, a little nutty, perhaps because of the ginger and cilantro combination. And the dish is good comfort food.

bachelorette

Mr. P is working late tonight, so I was on my own. To barely defrosted frozen peas and corn, I added the leftovers from last week's pasta & pesto and some leftover chopped tomatoes from the Sunday-night roll-er-burritos, then microwaved til warm. I topped it off with grated Romano cheese (a great find from Costco). This would have been good with artichoke hearts, which I didn't have (but Trader Joe's sells them frozen -- yum) and some grated pepper, which I didn't bother with. At least I ate at the table, not over the sink.

I also made rice for our next dinner, which will probably involve brocolli, mushrooms, and garlic (we have a lot of those three vegetables) and I'm not sure what else.

Thursday, I have a late-afternoon meeting at work, after which dinner is often served, so I may have a nosh at work and cook something simple once I get home, maybe fried rice.

asparagus night!

But before I talk about asparagus, let me just mention that I was busted by an authentic Californian over calling last night's dinner "Mexican rollups." I checked with Mr. P and they were burritos. Phew.

So, asparagus. I have a guilty secret. Before the local stuff is ready to be picked, late spring supermarket asparagus is darned good. I rinse it off, then snap off the ends. They always snap to the place where the tenderness begins. I have some pyrex bread pans with glass lids -- I put the asparagus in a bread pan along with a little water, cover, microwave on high for a few minutes and they're good to go (or eat, in this case). And Miss Manners says that it's perfectly respectable to eat asparagus with your fingers, so it's fun food.

Tonight I cooked some asparagus and after it had cooled enough to handle, put it in a greased glass square pan. Into a bowl, I added bread crumbs (whole grain), shredded cheese, chopped ginger, chopped garlic. I tossed the mixture with juice from half a lime, olive oil, and Bragg's (which is a little like soy sauce but not fermented). I mixed everything up and put the contents of the bowl over the asparagus.

Then I cooked it in the oven at 350 degrees until hot, and put it under the broiler until it was brown but not burned. I served it over rice (from last week -- it's still good).

Delicious. Further improvements could involve the addition of chopped walnuts or pecans. It strikes me that this mix would be great over fish, holding in the moisture while adding a tasty topping.

This is one of those recipes that I thought up just before I left work. I jotted down a few notes, then enhanced it when I got home and assessed what other ingredients might work well in the mix.

Mexican rollups

Mr. P cooked last night. It was Mexican night -- whole wheat tortillas, refried beans, salsa, fresh chopped tomatoes, beaten yogurt, chopped napa cabbage. The idea is to put a little of everything in your tortilla, roll it up, and not have it explode all over the table cloth. I'm learning to be less gringo, which means putting less into my tortilla. So I dripped delicately over my plate.

I can make this dish, too, and it tastes fine to me, but Mr. P grew up in West Texas and knows what it's supposed to taste like. I can tell I never quite make it to his satisfaction, though he's very polite about it. His refried beans are more delicious than mine. He also said that the salsa wasn't quite good enough, so he added a bunch of cumin and something else, maybe cracked pepper or cayenne.

There was supposed to be guacamole, but the avocado was unripe, so he's marinating it all in lime juice, kind of a guacamole ceviche. We'll probably eat that in a few more nights. Oh, and there was fresh cilantro, but he forgot to put it on the table.

Taste of

The "Taste of" event was pretty fun. It was held in our huge, light-filled cafeteria. But beforehand, a friend and I attended a wine-and-food pairing seminar. A local caterer prepared the food -- we each got six tiny tastes of yummy dishes alongside six different types of wine. We all had slops buckets and plenty of bread and the food was delicious. Some of the wine was wonderful, some, well, the food helped a lot. I was able to eat half the dishes, but they brought me repeats when everyone else got duck and steak. The remarks were fairly interesting, though a bit over my head. Fortunately, there were handouts to study later.

Then, at the "taste of" part, local restaurants each prepared dishes and gave out small samples. Again, there was plenty I could eat. I had some nice cheeses, some delicious salmon, and a few tasty desserts. There was a lot of wine and some beer around the perimeters. Mr. P joined us and got to try a few single malt scotches, one of his favorites.

It was a fun event. I enjoyed bringing my friend and spending time with her and seeing other people I know.

The kitchen is closed for the next few days while I go off to dance camp and eat camp food, which is always *fine* -- not terrific, but not terrible either. Mr. P will fend for himself, which probably means indulging in hummus and chips. He's slated to provide dinner on Sunday evening; whether that means takeout or some homemade surprise remains to be seen.

Pesto, dumplings, and latkes, oh my!

My friend J plans her meals to a T on 3x5 cards, shops to plan, and notices when she falls off plan. I think about what we have in the house, how much energy I have, and what we ate the night before. Sometimes I jot down ideas on a note pad. Sometimes I figure dinner out on my way home from work.

When I have too little energy to cook or way too much cooked food in the fridge, we have leftovers. When I have even less energy, Mr. P gets a call and is put in charge. On those nights, I'd be happy with grilled cheese but we usually have something surprising and delicious.

Here's what we ate the last few nights (all cooked by me):

Monday - Pesto night
We still have a lot of frozen pesto that I made from the pounds of basil we got from the farm last summer.

While boiling a large pot of water, I sauteed onions, threw in the last bit of a cauliflower, some napa cabbage, the second half of some tofu, mushrooms, and carrots, all chopped. I cooked uncovered for a while to brown, then covered to steam. Timing wasn't perfect, so I removed the sautee pan from the heat when the vegetables were done.

I boiled whole wheat pasta (favorite brand -- Bionature) for ten minutes, drained, and tossed with vegetables and pesto. We topped it off with romano cheese.

Basic pesto recipe: wash and trim basil, throw in a food processor with fresh garlic, olive oil, romano cheese, and pine nuts. I get the latter three ingredients from Costco. Puree, pop in a quart freezer bag, squeeze out air, and freeze in a rectangle. Then when ready to eat, cut a part of the bag off, peel plastic off pesto and chop it, set aside to melt. Put the unused pesto in another plastic bag and return to the freezer.

Oh, we cook brown rice ahead of time and then eat it over the course of several nights. One cup rice (or rice+wheat berries), two cups water, boil, simmer for 45 minutes, cool for at least 15, fluff. We didn't eat the rice on Monday, but we'll have it around for the week.

Tuesday - dumpling night
We often keep frozen Chinese vegetable dumplings, which we pick up at a local Asian food store. On Tuesday, I sauteed an onion and soaked some dried shitake mushrooms (yet another Costco find -- 1 pound for about $10). When the onions were cooked, I added frozen corn, edamame, Chinese dumplings, chopped garlic, and the mushrooms and their soaking water. Cover, turn down heat, and cook until dumplings are done and veges are unfrozen, stirring once or twice -- about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, put rice in bowl for reheating. Make ginger sauce: Chop ginger and scallions, add 2T tamari, 2T brown rice vinegar, 4-8T water. Let sit.

Served dumpling and stir fry over heated brown rice, add sauce at the table.

Wednesday - potato pancakes
Last night, I made potato pancakes. Using the food processor, I grated two small red potatoes, salted them, then set in a drainer, weighted down, and between two "Mr. Coffee" type filters. Then I grated a sweet potato, drained it, and grated an onion. In a bowl, I beat 2 eggs, added a few Tablespoons of whole wheat matzoh meal, and stirred in the potatoes and onions.

I fried in two non-stick pans, spooning in small amounts and flattening. I used very little oil. They cooked up fairly quickly in three batches.

We served them with beaten yogurt and a little cumin sprinkled on top. In the future, I'll try to grate the potatoes smaller; this might require either hand-grating or another food processor disk.

Tonight - kitchen closed
Tonight, we're attending a "taste of" event in a local town, where restaurants show off their wares. Tickets are courtesy of my workplace. Should be interesting or at the very least, fun.

Welcome to The Dinner Report

A recent book about blogging is called No One Cares What You Had for Lunch. If that is true, then this blog, No One Cares What You Had For Dinner, will have zero readers.

I'm an undisciplined and somewhat adventurous cook and decided to chronicle what we've been eating lately. I live with Mr. P and two cats. I'm fortunate that Mr. P and I have nearly identical tastes and diets. The cats have no interest in eating our food, though they always want to sniff it thoroughly.

Oh. We're vegetarians of the lacto-ovo variety. We eat fish but I've only cooked it a few times in my life. I've never cooked meat or chicken; someone I love a lot would have to be mighty sick before I started. Mr. P cooks sometimes and does a great job, but most of the cooking duties fall to me. In exchange, most of the washing-up activities fall to him.

We both work, so weeknight dinners can tend toward quick prep. We go out to eat about twice a week. I shop about once a week. And this summer, for the second time, we'll belong to a farm. Once a week, we'll get a box of whatever was ripe for the picking that morning. (And my shopping activities will fall off accordingly.)

Comments are always welcome. I'd be interested to know whether you've tried any of the ideas here, and if so, what variations worked or did not work.