My ruminations on my life, my family, cooking, baking, and whatever else comes to mind
Lots more tomatoes this week, and some more great plums and peaches as the fruit season starts to wind down. Some kale that I’m going to braise with bacon and mushrooms for a nice fall side dish sometime this week too. 🙂
This week’s haul:
A light late summer / early fall meatless meal for dinner tonight. If you’d like to make this vegetarian, just use veggie broth when making the polenta. This was inspired by a couple recipes: one from Fine Cooking, and another from Better Homes and Gardens. If the fresh corn doesn’t look so hot, thaw out some frozen kernels. Similarly, a large can of diced tomatoes would work well in the winter.
Fresh Corn Polenta with Poached Eggs and Veggie Saute
Serves 2
For the polenta:
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
3/4 cup corn kernels (from 1 medium ear of corn)
1/2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
For the veggie saute:
2 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise then sliced into half moons
1 small yellow or orange bell pepper, julienned
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt
For the poached eggs:
4 fresh large eggs
1 tbsp white distilled vinegar
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Season the broth with the salt. Whisk in the cornmeal and continue to whisk for 1-2 minutes, or until the polenta begins to thicken. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook, uncovered, stirring frequently. After about 15-20 minutes of cooking, stir in the corn kernels. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes, or until the polenta is tender and thick enough to hold its shape in a mound on a plate. At this stage, remove the polenta from the heat and stir in the butter and Parmesan. Set aside and let cool for a few minutes.
While the polenta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the zucchini and bell pepper pieces and season with salt. Saute the veggies until tender, about 15 minutes. Add the diced tomato and toss to combine. Turn the heat off and cover to keep warm.
In a large saucepan, add 3 quarts of water, the vinegar, and the salt, and bring it a boil. Crack each egg into a separate small bowl. When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low to maintain a bubbling simmer. With a spoon created a small vortex by rapidly stirring in one quarter of the pan. Pour an egg into the center of the vortex. Repeat with the remaining 3 eggs, with one egg in each quarter of the pan. Poach the egg to your desired doneness – 2 minutes for runny yolks, 4 minutes for firmer yolks, 6 minutes for set yolks. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate and trim any scraggly ends of the whites.
Divide the polenta between two large bowls. Top each with the half the veggie saute and 2 poached eggs.
I did my weekly weigh-in this morning, and I’m at 198.1 pounds. I made my goal of under 200 before my birthday! Yahoo! In celebration, we’re making hom bao today, and I got myself a full dozen of some of my favorite Kusshi oysters.
Onward!
A couple days late because I forgot to upload the picture until tonight. 😛
More tomatoes this week, and trying an eggplant for some ratatouille 🙂
This week’s haul:
A friend of mine, Shannon, recently started selling Wildtree food products. I purchased a few items from her starting party, the Texas corn bread mix, the pumpkin quick bread mix, and the “garlic galore” seasoning mix.
I tried the garlic mix on some chicken thighs tonight, just drizzling with a touch of olive oil, sprinkling the seasoning mix on, and baking them at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes with some sliced summer squash and little german yellow potatoes from my CSA box. The seasoning mix contains:
INGREDIENTS: Minced Garlic, Minced Onion, Garlic Powder, Sea Salt,
Chives, Citric Acid, Parsley, Basil, Black Pepper
The seasoning mix was well balanced, and it re-hydrated and then browned up very nicely on the chicken.
This was an incredibly easy and quite tasty meal, especially for almost no effort. 🙂 Both Shaun and I enjoyed it. I’ll definitely buy some more Wildtree things from Shannon. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality so far.
Some other recommended uses for the seasoning from Wildtree are making a creamy veggie dip with sour cream, using it in mashed potatoes, and using it on pot roast. I’ll have to try a few of those in the future.
Today Emma and I visited Howarth Park up in Everett for the first time. The park is right on the Sound and contains the city’s original swimming beach, as well as many great paths, picnic areas, a playground, and a native plant garden. The off-leash area for dogs is right next to the swimming beach. We had a bit of a tough time finding it, as there is no signage at all noting where it is. We took a lap around the main park area first and enjoyed the view.
When we saw a group with some dogs heading down the road a bit, we started that way. We couldn’t catch up with them, but we headed in the direction we saw them going. We came to another little parking lot and a path headed towards the water (with Naval Station Everett there in the background).
This lead to a steep set of concrete stairs that had me wondering if we’d missed something, but then another group with a dog came by and headed down the stairs, so we followed. There was only one set of the really steep stairs, then we crossed a trestle over some railroad tracks and turned onto a very large spiral staircase heading down to the beach itself. There were large landings in the center of each of the three levels, and the stairs were a fair bit shallower, so Emma and I had an easier go getting down them.
Once we made it down, we headed right to the off-leash area.
Emma promptly made friends with everyone she passed, and was especially fascinated by a retriever who was joyfully chasing a floating toy into the water. Emma wanted that toy soooo badly, but not enough to get submersed! She’d run up to the water’s edge and then turn around. Sometimes she’d put her paws up on a bit of driftwood to watch the retriever better, but this often backfired as she’d miss seeing waves come in and she’d get splashed pretty good. 😀
She also enjoyed hopping up on larger driftwood logs and trotting along them for a ways.
After about 40 minutes on the beach, we were pretty tired, so we worked our way back up the steps and headed back to the car. We’re pretty tuckered out, but we had fun 🙂
This gumbo concoction is a conglomeration of many recipes out there on the web. It’s a great use for leftover chicken, and could easily be adapted to use fresh chicken as well. We really enjoyed this and will be repeating it many times in the coming fall and winter months, I’m sure!
This is a cross between cajun and creole gumbos, having a lighter roux made with butter and the addition of tomatoes as in a creole version, but also okra, chicken, and andouille as in the cajun versions. The thickness of the broth is not quite a stew, but much thicker than your average soup. Adding a few baby shrimp at the very end of the cooking time would be a great addition and another check in the creole column. 🙂 This has a little kick to it, but nothing overwhelming. Increase or decrease the hot sauce, black pepper, and cayenne to your tastes.
This is usually served over rice, but we had it on its own today. A low carb option would be to add a can of cannelloni beans along with the other veggies – a bit more body to an already hearty meal.
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
Serves 4
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups non fat low sodium chicken broth
1 can tomatoes with green chile (e.g. Ro-Tel; I used the original, medium spice)
3-4 cups leftover chicken, cut into bite sized pieces (I used a mix of light and dark meat)
2 small links andouille sausage (6 oz total), cut into bite sized pieces (I like Aidell’s)
1 10-oz bag frozen cut okra
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp hot sauce (I like Frank’s Red Hot)
fresh parsley for garnish, if desired
Heat the butter and oil in a soup pot over medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is are tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and whisk to combine completely.
Let the roux cook for about 1 minute, or until bubbling and turning a just a little bit golden. Add the chicken broth and whisk until the roux is completely incorporated. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the parsley and stir to combine well.
Increase the heat to medium high. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 30-35 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the okra to become tender and add some thickness to the stew. Discard the bay leaf, and serve hot, garnishing with fresh parsley if desired.
This past week I got some little golden beets in my CSA box. Tonight I sauteed them and their greens in a bit of olive oil with kosher salt. It was a great little side for the roast chicken we had tonight. 🙂
Sauteed Golden Beets and Greens
Serves 2
1 bunch golden beets with greens still attached
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Wash the beets and greens well. Cut the greens off about an inch from the tops of the beets and then cut the greens into 1/2 inch wide strips. Set the greens aside. Trim both ends from the beets and peel them. Cut the beets into quarters.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the beet pieces to the skillet and season lightly with salt. Saute for 3-4 minutes, or until the beets are starting to brown nicely. Add the greens and 1/4 cup of water and cover the skillet. Let steam for 3-4 minutes, then uncover. Saute for a final 1-2 minutes to boil off any remaining water and to slightly brown the greens.
Serve warm.
Yesterday evening I went to a fun cooking class in Lynnwood hosted by Culinary Events Northwest and Pranee Khrusanit Halvorsen of ilovethaicooking.com. Pranee led a tour of our local H Mart, with an eye to the ingredients we’d be using in dishes later in the evening.
After getting a lot of great info on thai produce, grains, and staples (including Pranee’s favorite brands for many of the condiments), and getting a couple minutes to make some purchase of our own, we reconvened at the Culinary Events Northwest studio down the street (inside Albert Lee Appliances, if you’re local and looking for them).
The menu for the evening was Yam Neua (beef mint salad with toasted rice powder), Gai Phad Med Mamueng (stir fried chicken with onion, pepper, and cashews), Gaeng Kari Gai (yellow curry with chicken, potato, and onion), Por Pia Sod (rice paper rolls filled with prawns and fresh vegetables and served with sweet chili dipping sauce), and Kuey Buod Chee (fragrant banana in coconut cream). Being centered on the freshest ingredients available, we ended up with peanuts instead of cashews, Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes for the curry, and fried tofu instead of prawns in the summer rolls. The class of 20 was divided into groups for the prep work and each of us got a chance to do some cooking as well, whether working with the stir fry, braising chicken for the curry, grilling beef for the salad, or simmering the bananas.
After all the washing, chopping, mixing, tossing, simmering, and frying, we were ready to eat! We all got to roll our own summer roll and go through and get generous samples of each dish. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed all of them – too much onion, so I took some excedrin migraine when I got home, but I even liked the yellow curry. I still don’t like red or green curries, though 😛 A dry reisling was also provided as a wine match, a 2010 Chateau Ste Michelle, and I tried a small sip. Still not a wine fan, but it was pretty tolerable as far as they go, and I could definitely see how it went well with the sweet/spicy/sour of Thai cusine. Other recommendations were a Gewürztraminer or a Pinot Gris, with fruity and floral notes but still a little on the dry side. I wasn’t going to have any more than a sip in any case though, given that I drove myself to the class!
All in all, a fun class, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more classes that catch my eye!
