the things we eat

mat cooks!

2006-09-05T18:06:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I run around on amazingly annoying errands for work. When that happens, beautiful things like this happen:

Mat's Japanese Fantasy Teriyake Recipe

Ingredients (for two):
2 thin-sliced chicken breasts
2 portobello mushrooms
1 egg teriyaki sauce (low-sodium recommended)
package of fettucine-like rice noodles
clove of garlic
onion
olive oil

Procedures:
(1) Cut up garlic into thin slices. Add garlic slices to 1/2 cup or so of teriyaki sauce. Let it marinate over night if possible.

(2) Cut chicken in thin strips and fry in olive oil. Pour teriyaki sauce on chicken once it starts to brown. Put chicken in side dish.

(3) Start boiling water for noodles

(4) Cut portobello mushrooms in thin slices and repeat procedures in #1

(5) Cut onions and in thin rectangular shapes or use pearl onions and repeat procedure #1 (preferably at the same time that mushrooms are cooking)

(6) Boil rice noodles (4-8 minutes)

(7) Beat 1 egg

(8) Strain noodles when cooked

(9) Poor egg onto noodles over frying pan while in strainer and mix

(10) Put egg-soaked noodles into frying pan and let egg cook around noodles.

(11) Add teriyake marinade sauce and mix in

(12) Add chicken, mushroom, and onion and mix until all is warm

(13) Serve and enjoy!

This was extra good, and not only because it was cooked for me after the ridiculous errands, but because it IS very good, even if I hadn't run around all evening. Mat's right on the low-salt teriyaki - the regular stuff is much too high in sodium; the food will taste good but you will be thirsty ALL night.

fish and other good things

2006-08-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

and still, we are off. i'm posting not what i cooked tonight (fried shrimp, couscous with pine nuts and herbs, and a cucumber/tomato salad). but i did cook this! hmm, abt 2 nights ago, i'd say. i've fallen a little behind (i'm always a little behind. this is what makes me charming) but i've been cooking all week and want to share! and robina is back! and she is excited that i too have recipes, so i'm on it. i ran into her, by the way, quite randomly this afternoon - i stopped in to visit helena getting a tattoo (on the INSIDE of her arm even though i warned it hurt worse than almost anything else in the WORLD. she is brave, and maybe a little masochistic. but i'm not going to go there. ahem) and robina was there visiting too! now we are all in the same city again, the weather is finally beautiful, and even though i have 8 million things to do and the prospect of having to wake up at FIVE AM twice a week very shortly (don't even ask. yikes) i'm feeling quite lovely at the moment. and so, food for you!

Baked Cod

the list (for 2 people):
1 lb cod (abt a pound; i usually get a bit more, maybe 1.25 lb, because i am always worried abt not having enough food)

olive oil
butter (a very little)

lemon juice (1/4 cup? like half a lemon's worth)
chives, just a little
oregano
black pepper
red pepper flakes (just a bit)
salt

the stuff:
pour a little olive oil in a baking dish, then add cod. to the cod add spices, a little more olive oil and tiny slivers of butter (you can skip the butter part if you want!). pour the lemon juice on top. bake at 450° for abt 15 minutes, then put under the broiler for another 5 minutes (maybe... depends how thick the fish is - it should be a good white color, firm but flaky).

i really also love this dish with the spices mixed into breadcrumbs - mix all the spices plus olive oil, parsley, and paprika into breadcrumbs and top the cod with the mixture before you bake.

A Mushroom, Carrot and Jicama Dish I Made Up: a little tangy, a little sweet

the list:
abt 1lb of mushrooms, whatever kind you like (i used baby portobellos - i forget what they're called, but they look like white button mushrooms with the color of portobellos)
2 good-sized carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
half a small jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks

onion, chopped into fine half-rings
garlic, chopped

red wine vinegar
olive oil

salt
black pepper
red pepper flakes
parsley
tarragon (just a little - it will bring out/complement the sweetness of the jicama)

the stuff:
saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until they start to turn soft and translucent (btw whenever i'm sauteing onion and garlic i usually add a little salt and pepper to start). add the carrots, cook for a bit. add the mushrooms, cook for a bit. add the jicama (this shouldn't cook long - it's more often eaten raw but will hold up fine to a little sauteing, and it'll absorb the flavors really well). add the vinegar and the spices, stir well, cook a bit more to the doneness you like. serve hot or cold!

lentils! and asparagus, and tomato. not all in the same plate.

2006-08-10T17:51:00.000-04:00

tonight i will make shrimp. but, you say, the title of this post is lentils. with an exclamation point. tonight i will make shrimp, but last night i made lentils, and because i didn't get a chance to post, tonight you will read abt lentils and i will eat shrimp. and at some point, we'll be all caught up and have our fill of both reading abt and eating shrimp and lentils. but not together, for methinks shrimp and lentils should not sit in the same dish.

this dish is, i must admit, not my own. it's an adaptation from madhur jaffrey's world vegetarian, which i love love love. i use this book all the time. but, being the kind of cook i am, i am almost never quite able to bring myself to make any dish exactly as she sets it out, except maybe the first time i make it, and sometimes not even then. this is not abt jaffrey's recipes (i repeat, i love love love them)! i try, i do, to follow the plan, but i have rebellious (i like to hope intuitively brilliant... ahem) streak that forces me to stray. so what i'm giving you here is my adaptation of jaffrey's lentils with rice. and actually, what differs here are not which ingredients, but how much of each ingredient. i've halved some parts of the recipe (the lentils and rice part), as half of her amounts are MORE than enough for me and mat; but i've kept her original numbers (well, actually, i upped the lemon and garlic) for everything else (onion, salt, olive oil) so it's actually half a recipe with double the ingredients, sort of. hmmm.

to go along with the lentils i made a chilled asparagus and tomato salad. i had only one tomato left (i thought i had more!), so it was really an asparagus-and-one-tomato salad, but when you make it, you will use more tomatoes! very lemony, very yummy (mat said so, so i feel okay abt saying that. well, he didn't say the actual word yummy. but that's what he meant).

Madhur Jaffrey's Lentils with Rice
*via claudia!

the list:

1 cup lentils (rinsed)
1/2 cup rice (i use medium-grain; jaffrey recommends long-grain)
1 1/2 tsp salt (i always, by the way, use kosher salt)
1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (i like a LOT of lemon - just use 1/4 if you you are not a lemon freak like me)

7 tbls olive oil (i've never actually measured this out, but this is what jaffrey suggests. i say use a good lovely amount, as it really adds something to the dish - since the lentils and rice are cooked without ANY fat, the olive oil is a super good thing here. and it's good for you!)
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (or however many you like. not only a lemon freak, but a garlic freak as well...)
1 medium onion, peeled, cut in half length-wise, and then cut into fine half rings (these are jaffrey's words exactly. i do as she says. you should too.) this time, i used vidalia onions because they were what i had - i thought they were a bit too sweet for this particular dish, but mat loved them, so go for whatever you like!

the stuff:
combine the lentils and 3 1/2 cups of water (or vegetable stock, or a combination of both) in a wide pan. bring to a boil, cover, turn the heat down to very low, and cook 25 minutes. add rice and salt. bring to a boil again, cover, turn the heat down to very low, and cook another 25 minutes. take off the heat (it should have a risotto-like consistency, maybe a little more or less depending on how much water/how high the heat was/etc. you can adjust each time you make until you get the consistency the way you want it. and remember, as it sits off the heat, it will get a little thicker, as the rice and lentils absorb more of the liquid). gently stir in lemon juice, cover again and keep warm.

now - well, actually, a little bit, maybe 10-15 minutes before now (now being the end of the lentil/rice cooking time) - you need to prepare the onions and garlic. get your olive oil very hot, then saute garlic and onions until they are golden/medium brown. (to let you know, i have not yet had the patience to actually let all the onions come to a good brown - i'm usually starving at this point and after a little while i just take everything off the heat; they still taste delicious, so if you too are too impatient, go right ahead! but do be sure they are really well cooked, soft and translucent - you don't want them raw at all.) once they're cooked, pour and stir oil, onion, and garlic into the lentils and rice, and voila! you are done.

jaffrey says she sometimes adds parmesan cheese right before serving; i tried it this time and found the cheese to be too strong for this dish, which is pretty mild.

serves two with leftovers!

p.s. i made this dish one afternoon for robina, what feels like a long time ago now. she came to my house when i'd first moved in here and my then-roommate was still unpacking and had boxes all over the place. also, my sister was here with her boyfriend, and they were having quite a loud and silly discussion of some sort within earshot. robina and i ate our lentils on the couch, watching what is likely one of the weirdest movies of all time - "the saddest music in the world." now, i am a HUGE isabella rossellini fan, but oh boy is this a weird one. we spent most of the movie laughing out loud and looking at each other with a "what?" kind of expression. as lentils are themselves a bit weird (as in, who first discovered that we could eat these things? they don't look like we should be able to eat them. i blame mat for this line of thinking. you should ask him to explain sometime), a weird movie is a good way to enjoy this dish. robina and i did. even though - another p.s. - when i made it that day, i didn't use quite enough cooking liquid and it was a little too thick. robina ate it anyway, and this is why we are friends. :)

Chilled Asparagus and Tomato Salad

the list:
2 good sized tomatoes, cut into small pieces or slices, however you like them
1 bunch asparagus

fresh lemon juice, a little less than 1/4 cup
olive oil
salt
black pepper (lots!)
garlic powder (just a little)

steam the asparagus; drain, cut into smallish pieces (if you want; they can be left whole if you prefer them that way) and set in a bowl with the tomatoes. in a separate small bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, and spices; stir really well. pour (you might not need all of it) over the tomatoes and asparagus, stir well. chill until ready to eat! my apologies on not knowing the proportion of oil to lemon juice - i was totally winging it and just eyed it. how much oil you use will depend on how lemony you want it, really. if you come up with a good ratio, let me know!

italian night

2006-08-05T22:17:00.000-04:00

when i woke up this morning (well, really, after i'd had coffee and some toast after actually dragging my lazy saturday self out of bed - which took, by the way, something like a whole hour, from waking to arising; it was a long week), i had the idea that i might make a lentils and rice dish i took from madhur jaffrey's world vegetarian cookbook, but mat felt like italian, and i was easily swayed. since tomorrow we're going to Annette's house for dinner (lunch? is 3pm lunch or dinner? this is the big question), mat and i won't do our sunday italian (just like my mom. yikes), so today it was. mat suggested pasta and meatballs, but i felt like seafood, so i suggested fried calamari instead, and he was easily swayed.

we've made this dish a bunch of times, twice for my parents because my dad loves it and actually requested it the very next time they came over after having it the first time. what my dad really loves abt the dish is the calamari itself, seasonings aside - his comment always runs along the lines of, "it's not rubbery!" if you've ever had fried calamari at a restaurant, you will understand this comment. the tricks for not-rubbery calamari are two: first, buy good fish! totally simple. (true of most dishes. if you've got excellent ingredients, you're halfway there. unless you burn things, or go crazy and add every seasoning you own. which is quite possible. i am no stranger to spice-shelf-madness...) second: don't cook the calamari too long! resist the temptation to overcook - it will be done way before you think it will - and all will be well. usually.

mat and i always make this meal together - he's got the monopoly on the calamari-making, and the rest is mine (including, actually, the frying of the seafood. mat's the prep man on this one). the meal consisted of the fried calamari, penne with tomato sauce, a salad, and bread. and wine! white, because it's summer and it's seafood. and also because it's what we had. beggars shall not be choosers. usually. we did not have dessert tonight, but we did have godiva liquer drinks (with vodka and milk over ice). whoo-ee!

Mat's Fried Calamari

the list:
1lb calamari, cleaned and cut into rings (1lb serves 2-3 as a side dish, depending on appetites)
breadcrumbs - mat usually uses a mix of panko and italian (buy unseasoned and add spices yourself), but you can use one or the other if you like
2 eggs
milk, sometimes
flour

salt
garlic powder

the stuff:
in a bowl, season the breadcrumbs with salt (a very little bit!) and garlic powder (however much you want). in another bowl, mix a little milk into the eggs if you want (mat goes back and forth, whichever way the mood strikes. or whichever he remembers to do.) set out yet another bowl with some flour, and a final bowl (well, a flat dish would work at this point) for placing breaded calamari. then: lightly dredge the calamari rings in flour, coat the rings in egg, then coat really well in the breadcrumbs. *you can actually skip the flour part if you want a lighter dish. the calamari are very light themselves, so using just breadcrumbs will make a nicely light, more summery dish.

once you're all done with the breading: coat the widest shallowest pan you have (i use a pancake/griddle pan) with abt 1/4 inch of olive oil - i prefer not to deep-fry; you can, if you like. turn heat to almost medium and let the oil get REALLY hot (as in, when you drop a bit of breadcrumb into the oil, it sizzles immediately and loudly). once the oil is hot, place the rings in a single layer and cook - abt 2 minutes or so on each side, until light-to-golden brown (the second and third rounds will get more golden, as the oil gets hotter) and cooked through (they should look brightly white). remove to a dish lined with brown paper (for soaking excess oil) and lightly salt. repeat process until all the calamari is cooked! you will prob. need to add more oil by the third round, if you've got that much calamari.

et voila!

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Claudia's Sauce*
*well, my sauce sort of. my mom taught this to me, and my grandma taught my mom. interestingly, none of our three sauces taste the same. yours, if you try the recipe, will also taste different. everyone figures out her/his own way with the spices, the tomatoes, the cooking time, all the stuff that goes into the cooking. it changes things. and this is good - and this is why i'm going against certain traditions that say you should never give a sauce recipe out to anyone outside the immediate family. as usual (i can hear my mom sighing...), i cannot do what i am supposed to do.

for four people with some leftovers, probably, or two people with even more leftovers. (sauce freezes really well!)

the list:
2 280z cans of tomatoes - crushed, pureed, diced: it depends how thick you want your sauce. i tend to use crushed or diced when it's hot out and puree when it's colder. you can also always use fresh tomatoes but it's a bigger process, as skins have to be removed first... i am not a lazy cook - except when it comes to tomato sauce.
1/2 small can of tomato paste - if you're using diced or crushed tomatoes - puree really doesn't need it

1 small onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
olive oil

black pepper
tiny sprinkling of crushed red pepper
parsley (lots!)
basil (lots!)
oregano (just a little bit)
onion powder
garlic powder
1 tbls of sugar (it cuts the acid. you can taste your tomatoes before you start cooking to test how sweet they are - super ripe tomatoes will only need a very little bit of sugar)

the stuff:
in a large pot over mediumish heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until the onions start to soften. add the tomatoes and tomato paste (make sure you really mash up and mix well the paste) and let all begin to cook. *if you're using puree and it seems too thick, add anywhere from 1/2 to 1 can of water (the tomato can, i mean). after a few minutes, add all spices and sugar. stir well and let come to a boil. skim the orangey stuff off the top, turn the heat to super low, cover and simmer for abt 1/2 an hour. *time varies - it depends on the tomatoes and how thick/reduced you want your sauce.

and again, voila!

the best way for this kind of meal to go is: start by drinking wine as you're cooking (make sure there's music!). when everything is done, eat lots, drink more wine, clear away dishes. bust out the dessert. and the espresso. switch to an after-dinner drink, like brandy or some such thing (which may not be technically dessert liquers but are definitely not dinner liquers). smoke cigarettes (shush! i don't want to hear it, all ye healthy ones). drink another round of espresso and/or after-dinner drink, eat more dessert. smoke more cigarettes. or cigarillos, or cigars. this, dear readers, is the italian way. it is indulgent, it will make you very full, and you will be blissful when it is all over. (and the next day, run, swim, or do yoga. seriously.)

sorry abt the nutty font sizes

2006-08-04T14:51:00.000-04:00

i am not a computer whiz. not even on a simple program like blogspot (though i suspect it is blogspot is wreaking havoc, not the other way around...). at any rate, i've noticed that the font sizes are ALL OVER the place. that wasn't my intention! who knows... will post more recipes soon. -c

in the beginning, and all that

2006-08-03T23:31:00.000-04:00

It's late (ish... abt 11:30pm) and my eyes are weary with all the computer screen and i'm quite HOT with all the MASSIVE HEAT we've been having around here (i don't even want to talk abt it). but! thunderstorms are coming (i can hear the thunder, far away) and there are crickets outside! Two of the best summer sounds going, and i've FINALLY gotten my act together (it does happen occasionally!) so i'm going with the momentum and getting it out there.

Recipes! With a slight caveat - these recipes are for those who already cook, or the brave. Brave not because the recipes are extraordinarily weird or strange (though I know my sisters will think so at least some of the time, but that's okay, I love them to death anyway) but because, dear readers, I'm a TERRIBLE note-taker and an even WORSE organized cook. Meaning? I almost never - like 95% of the time - measure anything I cook. (Unless of course I'm cooking someone else's recipes. usually.) So. This is an experiment for me, and likely for you as well, if you're up for it. The thing with spices is that everyone's taste is different, so each cook really should decide how much. (Okay, okay. Really the thing is that i just kind of eye spices and toss them into dishes. I will say this, though - I tend to use LOTS of black pepper and very very little salt (kosher), if at all.) Post your comments, tell me what you think the measurements are! Like a Dada experiment, we'll collaborate. An apology to my vegetarian friends - I don't cook a ton of meat dishes, but they do show up. Also lots of fish and seafood. But hopefully you'll be able to take the basic ideas and readjust to non-meatness. At least I hope so!

Enough talk. Oh! But one last thing - I have no recipe pictures yet! I will, shortly, I promise.

Here's a recipe I made last week, just before the giant and fierce heat no one wants to talk abt anymore. A really summery dish, light and bright.

Summer Vegetable Stew

the list:
2 mediumish zucchini, peeled and chopped
good portion of corn, off the ear. maybe two-three cups or so. more than your instinct - it's really really tasty. and also, corn has this mysterious quality of disappearing into a dish if there isn't enough of it, so put a LOT.)
2 mediumish carrots, peeled and chopped
cannellini beans, abt 4 oz

3-4 garlic cloves (or more, or less, depending on your feelings abt garlic), crushed and chopped
half a medium onion (or one really small one), chopped. or you could use shallots.
olive oil
vegetable broth (or water; it'll be a little lighter but will work in a pinch)

one bay leaf
salt
black pepper
turmeric (pinch!)
cayenne pepper (pinch!)
cilantro (fresh or dried, whatever you have), a good handful
a bit redundant, but: onion and garlic powders. adds an herby zest. trust me.

sharp/hard white cheese, like pecorino romano or white cheddar. or even not so sharp or hard, like Emmenthal or Gruyere.

the stuff:
In a large wide pan (like a shallowish Dutch Oven) over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until the onions start to soften. Add the veggies (carrots first because they take longer), and saute until all start to cook. Add beans. Add the spices, stir everything well so all veggies are coated. Add vegetable broth - a couple of cups, give or take, enough so the bottom of the pan plus a bit more are covered but not so much that the veggies are drowning - you want a stew, not a soup (or maybe you do. but it's kind of HOT for too much HOT broth right now, I say). I'd recommend mixing the vegetable broth with a little bit of water - most broths I've found to be a little too thick. Cover the pan and turn heat to very low, let cook for a while (15 minutes or so, not much more than that if even that much - it'll depend on how small you chopped the veggies. You're shooting for cooked but not super mushy. Unless you like your veggies that way, in which case, cook away!).

Serve over rice. Top with shaved cheese (as much or as little as your taste for cheese demands) and black pepper. (The cheese will get melty and divine.)

Serves two with plenty of leftovers! And as is the nature of a stew, the leftovers will be even better. (I've started to become quite good at remembering to pack lunches, now that I work an actual day job (nominally...))

___________________________

One more for tonight, before I fade away. The air conditioner has now been turned on, seeing as how the thunderstorms are taking their time arriving... it is also now 12:48am, having stopped to talk with Mat here and there and having had to spend much time mulling over my scrawled recipe lists (on tiny paper, no less) in an attempt to decipher.

Another summer dish! (Another stew, actually. What can I say? They work because everything cooks in one pot and they taste good!)

Shrimp Stew

the list:
1 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tomatillos, chopped
corn, off the ear (again, LOTS)
handful of green beans, chopped. you could also use snap peas, or asparagus, or even pepper. whatever green veggie you like!
one or two tomatoes, depending on size, chopped

3 or 4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
1 small onion or half a medium, chopped
olive oil
veggie broth or water
*this is, i know, the same base as the first stew. it's tasty and good for you. and it's the italian in me - i cannot help but use onion, garlic, and olive oil.

salt
black pepper
mustard seed, crushed
cilantro
cayenne (pinch!)
thyme
parsley
paprika, just a little bit
garlic and onion powders

the stuff:
pretty much the same deal as the veggie stew (see, this is the beauty of the stew!): in a large wide pan saute the onion, garlic, and mustard seed in olive oil over medium heat until onions start to soften. Add the veggies, spices, and broth; simmer (see summer veggie stew for more details!). When the veggies are just abt ready, add the shrimp - these will take MINUTES to cook, so don't keep them cooking for long AT ALL! Turn them once, and as SOON as they're pink/white on both sides and all the way through, take the pot off the flame. (Overcooked shrimp will get very rubbery).

I served this over quinoa (thank you Robina!) with buttered Ciabatta bread on the side. Serves two with leftovers. Though - with this recipe there is the problem of the reheated shrimp (heeding my earlier warning abt overcooked, rubbery shrimp). I've found though, that this stew is generally alright reheated because of everything else in it which quite makes up for a bit-overdone shrimp. And if it's really too much, take them out - you end up with a veggie stew in seafood broth. Try to eat most of the shrimp on the first round so there's little or no waste!

Okay! That is all for tonight. It's now 1:09am, and I am no longer seeing straight at all. But that's the fun of it, right? :)