Maple Soy Marinated Tofu

I finally broke down and bought a tofu press.   After reading about this one on Milk Street, I decided I needed to get this one, and it didn't disappoint me.    I absolutely love the marinated baked tofu we have in the deli and the Keweenaw Co-op, and after much googling, I found the recipe in one of our old editions of Circumspice, our newsletter.   

It is so delicious!  And this tofu press makes it really easy.   I just put the block in it, turn the knob and put it in the fridge and forget about it.   I like my tofu really firm, so I start with extra firm and then press it.   When I get around to it, I bake the tofu.  Here's how I do it:

Maple Soy Marinated Baked Tofu

1 block extra firm tofu

1/2 c soy sauce

1/4 c water

2 T maple syrup

juice of half a lemon

1 t. sambal oelek, or whatever chili sauce you have.

Press the tofu at least overnight.   Remove it from the press, dry it off with a paper towel and cut it into planks.  Mix marinade in a ziplock bag and put the planks in it and allow to marinate overnight.  Preheat oven to 350F and grease a cookie sheet.   Remove planks from marinade (which can be used for another dish) and bake it for 45 minutes, turning several times, until crisp.

Marinated Tofu

 

This is the recipe for the marinated tofu they sell at the Keweenaw Co-op.   It is so good!

Green Pasta with Shrimp

For as long as I can remember, I wake up most every night between 2 - 3 am.  These days, I use that time to watch things on PBS.   It's really the only time I watch TV, so at least it's educational.   When I was pregnant with Jane, I did stray from PBS to watch reruns of thirtysomething on the Hallmark channel.   I loved that show so much when I was a twentysomething.    Wonder if I can stream it from somewhere?    Anyway a couple nights ago, my insomnia led me to watching Jamie Oliver's Quick and Easy Food, and he made this vegetarian pasta dish with kale in in it that looked fantastic!

I found the recipe online, but decided to make some changes to it and put it into units we Americans can understand.    I decided to add shrimp to it, too.    Here's how I made it:

Green Pasta With Shrimp
serves 2 people

8 oz. bucatini
1/2 a large bag of chopped kale
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 oz. grated parmesan cheese
3 T. olive oil
lemon juice from half a lemon


In a large pot, cook bucatini according to package directions.  Drain, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water. In a large dutch oven, fill half full with water and bring to a boil,  add kale and garlic and cook for 5 minutes,  drain.   Add reserved pasta water, kale, garlic 2 T olive oil and cheese to blender,  and liquefy.    In dutch oven, add remaining oil and saute shrimp until pink, remove from pan.    Add kale sauce to put and season with salt and pepper to taste.   Finish with lemon juice.   Add cooked pasta, top with shrimp and more parmesan cheese, if desired.    Great Lent friendly meal! 

One Part Plant

Za'atar Sweet Potatoes and Garlicky Kale

One of the great things about having a food blog is that occasionally, I get to review cookbooks.   The good people of TLC books sent me a copy of the book One Part Plant to review.    This cookbook was written by Jessica Murname, and she advocates eating one meal per day that is plant based.    She had success with her endometriosis by modifying her diet to exclude  what she calls "inflammatory foods".  A quick Google search tells me that there are no hard and fast rules regarding what is and isn't "inflammatory".....in fact, there is a lot of pseudoscience out there in this space.   I did find a source I could trust in Andrew Weil.   So I approached this cookbook with some trepidation.   I just cooked a meal for 70 people yesterday at church and was overwhelmed at the special requests.  It seems everyone is looking for a magic bullet these days.   

 
However, if this mode of eating helped the author with her health issue, I'm fine with that.   I think the book would have been better if it just focused on the concept of eating one plant based meal per day (and skipped the gluten free) message because eating more fruits and vegetables is good for everyone, not just women with endometriosis or people that want to dabble in the gluten free space.

That being said, once I got into the recipes, I was really pleased with the book!  It came to me just in time for Lent, as I don't eat meat on Fridays during this time.    I tried out her recipe for Za'atar Sweet Potatoes and Garlicky Kale (see picture shown above) and it came out delicious.    I loved the combination of sweet potato and kale - never thought to put them together.   Her recipe for za'atar isn't my preference, but I included it here in case you can't get your hands on the good stuff.   The author is from Charleston, SC, so my guess is she doesn't have access to the great Arabic food I have in the Dearborn area.      Also, I streamlined her recipe to make it quicker by precooking the sweet potatoes in the microwave instead of boiling them and improved the recipe by adding the garlic after cooking the kale to insure better flavor.

Za'atar Sweet Potatoes and Garlicky Kale
makes 4 servings

2 c. peeled and chopped sweet potatoes
1 T. za'atar (or use her recipe below)
6 c. kale, destemmed and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
Olive Oil
kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400 F. Put sweet potatoes in a microwave safe dish and cover loosely and cook on high for about 5 minutes until tender.   Coat potatoes with oil and spread out on a cookie sheet.   Roast them for 10 minutes or until slightly browned. Sprinkle with za'atar.

Meanwhile, add some more olive oil to a skillet and saute kale until soft, about 5 minutes.   Add garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant.  Mix potatoes and kale together and add salt and pepper if needed.  


Za'atar

mix together
1 T. toasted sesame seeds
1 T Sumac
2 t. dried thyme
1/4 t. sea salt (I used kosher)

If you want to check out this cookbook, you can at do so at HarperCollins.

Lent 2012: Punjabi Chickpea Stew

I'm Catholic, and I guess you could say I am devout, but that term seems so "not me" I hesitate to use it.   So let's just say that I do my best to practice my religion.   Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, and so it's a day of fasting and abstinence, which means only one full meal and two smaller meals which together are not greater than a full meal and abstinence from meat.  I wasn't perfect on the abstinence part, because for breakfast I had yogurt and granola before I even remembered it was Ash Wednesday, and I had plans to go to Hamtramck at lunch today with some coworkers, so I ordered sauerkraut pierogi and potato pancakes, which isn't exactly a "small meal".  So for dinner, I needed to make something meat free for my family to eat, and I decided to go totally vegetarian instead of using seafood to try to make it be a "smaller meal".   While in Hamtramck, we visted beautiful St. Florian's Church.  I can't wait to attend a Mass there. 

I just recently read a great book of essays about eating locally (and it has some excellent recipes interspersed) by Michigan native Robin Mather called The Feast Nearby.   I have always loved Robin's food writing - she was an early inspiration to me long before I started this blog, when she wrote for the Detroit News.   She was a casualty of the Detroit Newspaper Strike of 1995 and then she went on to do other things.   But she recently came out with this book and I loved that she took on writing about eating local food on a budget. My whole gripe with the Slow Food movement, until very recently, didn't give a rip about affordability.    Because in this economy, anything talked about these days must include the bottom line.  So yes, I eat local whenever I can, but that doesn't mean I need to subsidize every local farmer, no matter how far fetched their business plan is or how inefficient they are at what they do.   The Slow Food movement was right when they changed their approach - local food shouldn't be a privilege of the rich.   It should be for everyone.

I found the idea of this recipe on Robin's blog, but I made some significant changes.   First,  I much prefer using dried chickpeas instead of canned.  They have better flavor and a better texture and no sodium.   Canned chickpeas contain HUGE amounts of sodium - one cup accounts for 30% of an adults recommended daily value.   Making dried chickpeas is easy - just put them unsoaked in a crockpot with plenty of water on low for 8 hours.  I make them this way and freeze them for later use.    I added some kosher salt to add flavor, as well as more cayenne pepper and the juice of 1 lemon to brighten the flavors.  I also simplified some of her techniques and used a more traditional method of  Indian cooking which is heating all the spices first.

Punjabi Chickpea Stew
6 servings as a main dish

2 hot peppers, split and deseeded (I used jalepenos)
2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use safflower oil)
3 large onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
4 cups cooked chickpeas
1 14.5-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups water
2 t. kosher salt, or to taste
Juice of 1 lemon

For serving:
chopped cilantro
yogurt

Combine the peppers, ginger and garlic in the blender and puree.  Set aside.

In a large Dutch oven  heat the oil over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the onions and cook, stirring, until the onions’ juices have cooked away and the onions begin to sizzle in the oil, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the chile-ginger-garlic paste and cook, stirring, until the mixture is fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the cumin, coriander and cayenne and heat for another 2 minutes or so.  Add chickpeas and tomatoes,stir to mix and then add the water. Give it one more generous stir, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 15 to 30 minutes.

Add salt to taste and lemon juice Serve in bowls with a dollop of thick yogurt and a scattering of chopped cilantro.

Robin's note: If you have leftovers, the chickpeas will drink up the broth. Add a little water to reheat them to regain the stew-y consistency.

I plan on eating the leftovers Friday for lunch, when I have another day of fasting from meat.    For Lent 2012 I am hoping to walk for an hour per day and to blog about as many Lent friendly recipes as I can.    Happy Lent!

Clam Fritters

In my efforts to increase iron in my "no meat" diet this last week of Lent, I tried to buy a box of frozen breaded clams at my nearby Meijer, but they didn't have any. The store is never my first choice for grocery shopping - they don't give a reusable bag discount and I hate the bag carousels at the end of each checkout lane. Worse yet, they are making over my current nearby store to be a "foodie destination", which I suspect means increasing prices. The only reason why I go there is on the days when I need to buy groceries and toilet paper or shampoo, because they have good prices on those household type items. Last Sunday, it took me 10 minutes to find where they put the frozen seafood, and there were no clam strips. I asked at the seafood counter if they had fresh clams, but they were sold out. The stress of shopping was incredible! I couldn't find anything I needed. It will be a cold day in hell before I return there.

In the process, I ended up in the canned seafood area, and decided to give canned clams a shot. At my house, no one but me is going to eat linguine with clam sauce or clam chowder with too many clams in it. I figured a deep fried clam is the best shot I had at anyone eating anything. I found a can of whole baby clams and it had this recipe on the back of it. Why not give it a shot?

Clam Fritters
1 10 oz can whole baby clams
1 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
vegetable oil for frying

DIRECTIONS:
Heat 1 inch dept vegetable oil in a cast iron frying pan if you have one, if not, use whatever kind of frying pan you've got. I think cast iron works really well for deep frying. Do not drain clams, and combine them with remaining ingredients, Drop batter by tablespoon into hot oil. Brown 4 or 5 minutes, turning once. Serve with tartar sauce. Makes about 12 fritters - serve 3 fritters each.

These fritters were a hit! One can of baby clams contains a whopping 47 mg of iron. This is the food Popeye should have been eating. Each serving is 12 mg of iron. A woman should get 18 mg per iron a day, so clam fritters really help boost my iron intake yesterday. And everyone in the family liked their mild taste.

Lent friendly recipes that taste good

Protected by ADT, prayed for by BVM

I am thrilled that I won the photo caption contest on the blog called A Nun's Life. Even if you are not Catholic, I highly recommend you check out this blog - it's very interesting and thought provoking. In the Catholic spirit of things, I'd like to list some of my favorite meat free recipes for you to try that I have blogged about prior to this Lenten season. There's 2 more Fridays in Lent left to experiment with a few meat free recipes, although these are so good, you might want to try them year round.

• Curried Lentils - so good with Major Grey's chutney, and for the meat eaters you could serve it with kielbasa
• Seafood Packets - tastes like a New England Crab Boil, you make them in foil packets on the grill.
• White Bean Soup with Tomatoes - make this recipe with vegetarian stock to make it Lent friendly.

Hope this helps! I am eating meat free meals for the entire 40 days of Lent, which I think ends on Good Friday but I am not exactly sure. Anyway, I am celebrating Easter with my family on Holy Saturday, so that's the day I will break my Lenten meat fast with ham and a smoked beef brisket. I can't wait!

Falafel

I bought some falafel mix out of the bulk food bins at the People's Food Coop in Ann Arbor when I started on my vegetarian odyssey 25 days ago. I like falafel, but I have never made it at home. I decided to make Olga bread to go with it. I mixed equal parts falafel mix and water and formed 2" diameter balls. To cook them, I heated about 1/2" vegetable oil in a cast iron frying pan, and placed the balls in the hot oil. I smashed them down a little with the spatula, and then cooked both sides until they were a nice toasted brown color.

I really loved the sauce I made for them...I have no idea what is in the traditional falafel sauce, so I improvised. I don't want to forget what I did, so I had to blog it ASAP. I served my falafel patties in the Olga bread with slices of cucumber, red onion, tomato and fresh cilantro leaves. I made some grilled chicken for everyone else to eat in the family, and no one ate it. Even my meat and potatoes husband loved this dinner!

Mother's Kitchen Falafel Sauce

1 c. Greek style 2% fat yogurt
4 cloves garlic, minced in a spoonful of kosher salt
4 inches or so of an English hothouse cucumber, grated
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
Kosher salt, to taste

Mix all ingredients together and add more kosher salt until it tastes great. You will know it when you taste it that you've added enough.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Another one of my early blogging attempts was curried cauliflower soup. I love this soup - it is easy to make, and made with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, it fits my Lenten friendly bill. I have yet to find any brand of vegetable stock I like on it's own...anyone know a good brand to try? Most taste boring to me, or taste like dirt. But in this soup, the curry powder really makes a not so hot tasting stock taste great, so no worries about what kind to buy. Just use what you have. I originally read about curried cauliflower soup in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, and that's what inspired this recipe back in the day.

Beet Salad

One of the hardest things about my 40 meat free days is lunch. I need to plan ahead in order to make sure I have something good to eat for lunch, or I tend to get really bummed out. There is nothing worse than facing the workaday world without lunch to look forward to....

Last week, I made up a batch of beet salad, which got me through a couple days of work. Usually, I make this salad in the summer time when I have a ton of fresh basil around. The fresh basil is a must in this recipe, so I splurged for one of those little plastic containers that you can find in the produce section that cost an arm and a leg. I sure wish my kitchen window got enough sun to sustain a basil plant! I put the pot of beets on while I was making dinner last Sunday and then let them cook for a long time in their skins. I let them cool and diced them - I bought both golden and purple beets, which made the salad look exceptionally lovely. Definitely a great addition to my work day!

Macaroni & Cheese

I've been a bad blogger....I need to catch up on my blogging. I was supposed to blog a meat free recipe every night but I got behind. I'll catch up this weekend, but I have stayed meat free. Going without meat has been really hard for me this Lent. Not a day goes by where I don't crave it. Tonight for dinner I made macaroni and cheese (plus some sausage for the kids) and the sausage seemed so tasty looking. But the mac and cheese was good, too. I made this with Barilla's high fiber elbow macaroni, which makes it a much better nutritional proposition than the Kraft version. I also had some left over pasta from dinner from another night and I mxed that in, too. It's a great way to use up leftover pasta.

Macaroni and Cheese

3 T. butter
3 T. flour
2 c. milk
salt and pepper
1 lb. grated cheese - I used 2% cheddar
3 c. cooked pasta
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 c. grated smoked cheese - I used a smoked Swiss

Melt butter in a sauce pan, add flour and stir. Gradually add milk and stir until thickened and unlumpy - you now have a veloute. Add salt and pepper until it tastes good, and then add grated cheese and stir until melted.

Stir in pasta and pour into a buttered casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and cheese and bake for 350 F for about 20 minutes or until browned.

Mom's Tasty Portobello

My friend Ann and I have gotten into many kitchen capers together in our lifetime, some of them reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory. She now lives in upstate New York, but when she lived in Ann Arbor, we did lots of cooking projects together. We'd can salsa together every summer. We'd make corned beef and cabbage together on St. Patrick's Day - no one in her family or mine likes it, so we'd eat it together. If I made a soup that no one else would eat in my house like curried cauliflower, I'd send some up to her house because she'd eat it and love it. We took a class to learn how to tap our own trees and make our own maple syrup. Our "sugar shack" was a hot plate plugged in on her front porch and we boiled sap there for days to make about a pint of syrup. I'm sure the other neighbors thought we were insane!

Another project we did was raise funds for our neighborhood playground. One of the fundraisers for it was to compile a neighborhood cookbook entitled "Favorite Recipes of Loch Alpine". In the book, Ann submitted a really good recipe for marinated flank steak called "Mom's Tasty Flank Steak" which was her mother-in-law's recipe. The marinade is equally good with portobello mushrooms.

Mom's Tasty Portobellos

Marinade
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. lemon juice - bottled is fine for this recipe
1 T. thyme
3 green onions, sliced - save some for a garnish

2 - 4 large portobello mushroom caps
Hot buttered noodles

Place marinade ingredients in a plastic bag, and add caps. Marinate for at least 8 hours, remove caps from marinade and gently squeeze them to remove excess marinade (they are like sponges). Reserving marinade, grill or broil caps until heated through. Heat reserved marinade in a small pan. Serve mushrooms over buttered noodles with reserved marinade - garnish with green onion slices.

Fish Fry

One of the tenets of Catholicism is the Friday Night Fish Fry. Tonight, we partook of the Dexter Knights of Columbus Fish Fry. Here's a list of all the local ones that I can think of:

Dexter Knights of Columbus
St. Mary's Chelsea
The famous fish fry at Old St. Pat's, Whitmore Lake
St. Mary's Pinckney
St. John the Baptist Howell

I had my dinner at the Dexter Knights of Columbus this evening.

Tuna Pan Bagnat

Cooking without meat is requiring more prep than I realized. This morning, it dawned on me that I would have to prepare the tuna casserole for dinner at 5 am, and then put it in the fridge so my daughter could put it in the oven before I get home from work. We only have an hour from the time I get home until it's time to leave for piano lessons. My husband commented how he so loves tuna casserole (I'll blog about that recipe on another day), but how sick of it he will be when Lent is over. I never make tuna casserole during ordinary time.

For lunch, I also had tuna. I made a sandwich based on a recipe in this month's Cook's Illustrated. I love tuna, but too much tuna is a bad thing. Have you seen the Environmental Working Group's Tuna Calculator? Evidently I can only safely consume 3 cans of chunk light tuna per week or I am at risk of too much mercury exposure. Who knew? The original recipe called for premium tuna - I spent $4 on a can of Italian tuna packed in olive oil and was underwhelmed. Probably the biggest calorie offender in a sandwich is the bread - this recipe uses a really good baguette hollowed out to minimize calories and maximize the flavor.


Tuna Bagnat (inspired by this month's Cooking Light)

Filling
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
Juice from half a lemon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (6-ounce) can chunk light tuna in olive oil, drained
1 hard-cooked large egg, chopped


1 (8-ounce) whole-wheat French bread baguette
1 garlic clove, halved
1 cup thinly sliced plum tomato (about 1)
About 12 fresh basil leaves

Preparation
Combine filling ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut bread in half horizontally. Hollow out top and bottom halves of bread, leaving a 1-inch-thick shell; reserve torn bread for another use like the topping for a future tuna casserole. Rub cut sides of garlic clove over cut sides of bread; discard garlic. Spoon filling on bottom half of baguette. Arrange tomato slices and basil leaves over tuna mixture. Cover with top half of baguette. Wrap filled baguette in plastic wrap, and let stand for 20 minutes. Cut filled baguette into 4 (3-inch) equal portions.

Serves 4

Ash Wednesday - Fasting and Abstinence

Today marks the beginning of Lent, and so I fasted. According to the rules, the Catholic Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. So today I drank a lot of coffee, and at noon I had a bowl of vegetable orzo soup from the work cafeteria. I went to an Ash Wednesday service at lunch and the pastoral associate talked about fasting and how the hunger is supposed to remind us of our hunger for God in our lives. She also mentioned that Lent is an opportunity for us to do something different from our usual routine. I left the church thinking I sure must need God, because I sure was hungry! The vegetable orzo soup just made me starving. I should have just had more coffee!

The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of our own choosing. We must do some penitential/charitable practice on these Fridays. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste. I have decided to abstain from meat the entire 40 days and blog about it every day as my break from my usual routine. I'm wondering how this will turn out?

So for dinner, as it is every Wednesday night, it was take out pizza. No pepperoni today, which is a culinary bummer for me. We just had mushrooms on it, and I topped mine with Alpino Spicy Pizza Topping. This stuff is wonderful...it has all sorts of vegetables and olives and it is spicy enough to give your pizza a kick. I bought it at Meijer's....very good. So, no recipe for today, but check here often during the Lenten season.

Lent - My 40 days of meat free

Pardon me while I get religious for a moment....I haven't posted much about my religion on this blog, mostly because it's about food, but I've decided to "go there" from now until Easter. I am Catholic, and for Catholics, we are asked to abstain from eating meat on Fridays, and we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Here's a great article from a favorite blog of mine by a Catholic nun about Lent - it's called "Why Lent Rocks". It's about using the time of Lent to free us from the things that are bind us. Fasting and abstinence in the Roman Catholic Church is something that's confusing to many non Catholics, but what it means is that by abstaining from meat, it means no meat or poultry - seafood is allowed.

For this Lenten season, which begins this Wednesday, I am planning on abstaining from meat for the entire 40 days, and posting on this blog about what I am eating. I am hoping that I will gain some freedom in my cooking and that my "meat and potatoes" family will come to appreciate some other types of entrees. I will still cook meat for them, but it will probably be an add on to whatever vegetarian dish I'm making as an entree, or we'll have seafood at least on Fridays. This is going to be hard for me, as I love meat. Plus, I tend to get anemic unless I eat red meat several times a week, but I can take iron to make up for any potential shortfall.

Here's where I need your help. Can you send me a link to your favorite meat free entree recipes, or blog about them and send me the link? Thanks!

Curried Lentils, or being like Martha

It seems everyone is tightening up their spending these days - even Martha Stewart is preaching the gospel of frugality. I read an interview of Martha herself in last Sunday's Detroit Free Press. In the article, she described herself as a very frugal person - you know I never thought of her that way, but she really does espouse frugality. Long before it was fashionable, she was big into re purposing things, and making things yourself from scratch. I don't care if our president won't admit it, but we are most certainly in a recession and we should all be saving money. A great way to save money is by making food for your family yourself.

In the article, Martha has some words of wisdom for mothers and how we should all know how to cook. She said in the interview ".... I think mothers, especially, should know how to prepare variant, nutritious dishes for their families," she said. "I mean it's their obligation. Don't have a family if you don't know how to feed them." I agree - I think at least one adult in the family should know how to cook. It doesn't necessarily have to be Mom.

In the spirit of saving money, I'm including a recipe that's thrifty. I first had curried lentils in college, I think I may have made a recipe out of either Laurel's Kitchen or Jane Brody's Good Food Book. I had never tried lentils before, but I knew that I liked curry, since I had recently found I liked Indian food. My friend Ray said he loved them with Major Grey's chutney. I usually buy Patak's, but this winter when mangoes are in season, I might try my hand at preserving my own. The chutney, at over $3 for a small bottle, although you only need a spoonful per serving, is the most pricey ingredient. Otherwise, the recipe probably costs less than $1 to make, and it serves at least 8 people. This recipe isn't genuinely Indian, it is just what works out with things I normally have it my pantry.

Curried Lentils (aka Dal)

2 T. butter
1 1/2 cups sliced onions
2 cloves minced garlic
2 small red peppers, minced (pick the heat you like)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 lb. lentils
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons Garam Masala (I buy mine online from Penzeys)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 15 ounce can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cans low sodium chicken broth

In a large pot, heat the butter and stir-fry the onions just until wilted, do not brown. Add the garlic, peppers, cumin, lentils, ginger, curry powder, salt, pepper, and sugar. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes, until the herbs and spices bloom (aromatic). Add the tomatoes and deglaze to pot with their juices. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning with cumin, salt, pepper and sugar.

Serve over hot rice with Major Grey's chutney, and sausage or ham for the carnivores.

Pickled Eggs

After a bunch of really hot muggy days, I can feel a little bit of fall in the air, this fine Friday evening. Fall reminds me always of going back to school, and some of the fondest memories I have is my time spent at Michigan Tech, especially the pickled eggs. I'm pretty fussy about pickled eggs. I haven't been able to find pickled eggs served anywhere to my liking down here in the lower peninsula.

I did a quick spin through the "intraweb machine" to find out some more pickled egg recipes. The Ann Arbor Public Library has a terrific online collection of local cookbooks called Ann Arbor Cooks. Here's the pickled egg recipe I found that was featured in the Ann Arbor Cookbook, 1904 edition. Mark Bittman calls for pickling spices. If you are a fan of the pink pickled egg, you might want to try this recipe. Harold McGee himself suggests leaving the shells on and keeping them unrefrigerated for a year. Yikes! As for me, I'm sticking with my tried and true recipe which was rumored to be the very one made by the B&B Bar in Houghton, Michigan. Still my favorite after I've been gone almost 20 years from the place!

Seafood packets

I got this recipe originally from Everyday Food, but I modified it a bit. This is a terrific easy dinner item - in fact, you can make them the night before and put the packets in the fridge and throw them on the grill when you get home.


Serves 4.
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons dried dill - if it is summer and you have some, fresh dill is nice
4 small garlic cloves, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
8 ounces red new potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
1 pound skinless fish fillet, cut into four equal pieces (cod is good, tonight I am using sole)
8 ounces frozen uncooked medium shrimp (peeled and deveined), thawed
1 lemon, thinly sliced

Directions
Heat grill to medium. Fold four 14-inch squares of heavy-duty aluminum foil in half, forming 4 rectangles. Assemble packets: On one half of each of four folded pieces of heavy-duty foil, dividing ingredients evenly, arrange potatoes in a single layer; top with cod, then shrimp. If it is summer and you have some around, you could throw in a couple of 1 inch pieces of corn on the cob on the side. Add a dollop of the butter, sprinkle with garlic, dill, salt and pepper and two lemon slices. Fold foil over ingredients, and crimp edges tightly to seal.

Place packets on grill, with potato layer on the bottom. Cook, rotating the packets around on the grill (don't flip them) occasionally, until fish is just cooked through and potatoes are tender, 12 to 14 minutes.

White Bean Soup with Tomatoes and Basil

This soup is great this time of year; when the tomatoes and basil are so abundant. Thank you, SC!

2 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 19-ounce can of cannellini 2 cups chicken broth
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped and seeded
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Heat a medium saucepan. Swirl in the oild, then add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans and the broth. Heat, and then use a masher to coarsely mash up most of the beans.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for four or five minutes. Add tomatoes and basil, and heat through. Serve with cheese sprinkled on top.