A Dip for the Desperate

I think I have been stalling a bit on posting today, mostly because this is my one-hundredth post and I was hoping that I would have something wonderful and insightful to share. But alas, I do not. I am amazed that I am 100 posts into my blog, as it seems like a bit of a milestone to me. Incidentally, the children just celebrated a milestone of their own; the 100th day at school, with Zero the Hero racing around in costume to delight the younger grades. I'd like Zero the Hero to come and help me write this post, or better yet, I'd like him to race around my kitchen scouring the sink and cooking dinner. Hmmm.....

Unfortunately for me, I think Zero is otherwise occupied and since I'm faced with another night of shuttling the children to this and that, I think rotisserie chicken is in order. I'm actually a huge fan spit roasted anything, and some of the best turkey I have ever eaten was cooked on the rotisserie at my sister-in-law's house. Rotisserie chicken has kind of become a stand-by in American kitchens for good reason; it is convenient and delicious and can be turned into any manner of delicious meals in minutes.

I like to shred up the rotisserie chicken meat and use it in soup, enchiladas, salads, or pot pies, but the best, most simple way to serve it, is to carve it up, and dip it in the most glorious sauce of fragrant ginger and sharp green scallions. This easy to make, yet vibrant sauce has become a fall back meal for me both when I am in a hurry and when I am needing something soothing and comforting (ginger aids in digestion, after all). My husband calls it the salt lick, because it is kind of salty, but it is meant to be a condiment; a little goes a long way. Serve it with rice and a salad, and you have the perfect meal. Of course, I have eaten it standing up at the counter, literally picking the chicken carcass clean and it was still the perfect meal. It is that good.

Ginger Scallion Dipping Sauce

1 thumb of ginger, grated

2 scallions, slivered

1 t salt

2 T vegetable oil

Stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Serve over rotisserie chicken with rice.

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli

Unfortunately I have a backlog of photographs on my computer, waiting for their day in the spotlight, and too little time to catch you up on all we have been eating. You see, baseball season has started for my two sons. And two nights ago, my dear husband sat down with the calendar and wrote down all the dates we will be at the ball field for games (starting this Saturday). It's thirty four, from now through the end of May, plus playoff games. That does not include the three nights a week of practice which lasts from four until dark.

Right now, I am suffering from shock, I think, and fearing that we will have to subsist on frozen meals from Trader Joes, or that awful snack shack fare (think canned chili and deep fried everything). But I can overcome this obstacle, I know I can. I just think that it will require some serious meal planning and creative use of kitchen appliances, namely the crockpot.

But that is not what I am posting about today. Today I will tell you about the dinner we ate last night; roasted broccoli with shrimp and saffron rice. I had never roasted broccoli, but know that other vegetables take very well to this method (like carrots, cauliflower, brussels sprouts) and was game to try it after reading several blogposts about it and the recipe that started all the fuss in the NY Times. While I appreciated the concept, I did not care for the author's choice of spices, so I altered the recipe a bit to suit my own tastes. But most recipes are like that; they can be altered quite easily with much success.

So I tossed some broccoli and peeled, de-veined shrimp with olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and threw in some of my preserved Meyer lemons. She started her broccoli first, and added the shrimp after 15 minutes (cooking everything for a total of 30 minutes), but I found that the broccoli was done after 15 minutes (I like mine crisp tender) and the shrimp only took about 8 minutes total. I served the pile of roasted goodness with some saffron rice, which looks and sounds impressive, but is so very easy to make and looked so lovely with the green and pink of the broccoli and shrimp. The meal was easy, only dirtied one baking sheet (plus the rice pot) and tasted pretty good too. If my version doesn't sound good to you, please feel free to experiment with your own!

Roasted Broccoli and Shrimp

1 pound peeled and de-veined, wild-caught, local shrimp (I like jumbo...16 count)

2 crowns of broccoli, cut into sections

1/2 t red pepper flakes, or to taste

4 T olive oil

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

4 slices of preserved lemon (pulp discarded), chopped (or the zest of one lemon)

juice of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss broccoli together with the red pepper flakes, olive oil, salt, pepper and preserved lemon. Roast in a large baking sheet for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven, and toss shrimp with broccoli mixture, taking care to coat the shrimp with the seasonings. If it seems a bit dry, drizzle on some more olive oil. Spread shrimp and broccoli out into a single layer. Return pan to oven and continue to roast for about 7-8 minutes more, or until shrimp is cooked through and broccoli is crisp tender. Squeeze over fresh lemon juice and serve with saffron rice.

Saffron Rice

2 c jasmine rice

3 1/2 C chicken stock

large pinch of saffron

Heat stock and saffron together in a saucepan. When they come to a boil, add rice, turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 18 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes more. Uncover, fluff with a fork and serve.

A Super Bowl with Super Eats

A stone, cold groove, is what our friend calls it. Good times with great friends would be another way to put it. But any way you say it, it's what makes life worth living, or at least a heck of a lot more fun. As we jostled for seats around the large wall-mounted TV, some of us were entertained by the sport, and some were watching just for the commercials. Whoops, laughter and even jeers peppered the loud and often rambunctious crowd. New friends mingled with old ones in conversations that lasted well past the trophy ceremony, and the huge buffet of food took us through two mealtimes and managed to feed about eighteen hungry kids and their parents (well, the brownies disappeared pretty fast).

With Mexican being the official theme of this pot-luck gathering, I decided on a recipe I had spied in the Los Angeles Times' Food section the week beforehand; Chicharrones de queso with radish tomatillo salsa. Chicharrones are those huge sheets of crispy fried pork cracklings that can be found in Mexican markets, but the chicharrones of this recipe are made from cheese, cooked in a skillet until crisp. My kids agreed that they did taste an awful lot like bacon and couldn't believe that I had made these huge curled chips out of cheese. But that is exactly what they are....it's like the cheese that oozes out of a grilled cheese sandwich that I eat out of the pan after it has become brown and crisp.

My in laws, once both on the Atkins Diet, avoided carbohydrates for quite a long time, and my mother-in-law used to buy the most amazing chips made entirely out of Parmasan cheese. Although not low in fat, they had zero carbs and were quite delicious. These are much like those, although they are made from jack cheese and served with the most interesting and fresh tasting salsa I have ever tasted. Wrapped up in a corn tortilla and topped with the salsa, these cheese chips were not low carb or low fat, but what the heck! It was Superbowl Sunday!

Chicharrones de Queso

adapted from LA Times Food

2 pounds jack cheese, grated with a food processor or the large holes on a box grater

Grease a large non-stick skillet or griddle (I used both, they were both cast iron). Place a loose 1/2 C of grated cheese onto a hot griddle. Cook on low heat, spreading gently with a spatula to create a 5-6 inch disk, for about 6 minutes or until cheese begins to turn golden. Gently pat dry with a paper towel, and cook for about another minute or so. When golden all the way across, run a spatula underneath to loosen and lift off the griddle so that half of the cheese disk is on the spatula and half is hanging over the edge. Quickly grab it with a paper towel and pinch into a loose, free-form triangle or pyramid shape. Alternately the cheese can be draped over a rolling pin to make a rounded shape. Work quickly, because the cheese will harden once off the heat. The shape doesn't matter at all, it is meant to be kind of rustic looking. Place all your chicharrones on a large tray, lined with paper towels to finish drying. Serve with radish tomatillo salsa and warm corn tortillas.


Radish Tomatillo Salsa

This salsa is so chunky and rich with vegetables that it tastes like a chopped salad. Everything should be diced to be about the same size.

1 bunch of radishes (I like the Easter egg variety), diced

1 large cucumber, peeled and diced

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and de-veined and diced

1/2 large red onion, diced

5 tomatillos, husked, washed well and diced

1/2 C fresh cilantro, minced

zest and juice from 2 limes

2 t olive oil

1 t kosher salt

dash of cayenne pepper

Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to develop. Tastes great with the chicharrones, but would also be fantastic in a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs.

It's a Wrap

I realize it is Friday and we are supposed to be having pizza, but I simply could not commit to it. I don't know why, really. I suppose it is fatigue of some sort...but we did have a fantastic dinner anyway of Thai beef lettuce wraps, which I declared, was the best meal I had made in...like ever! I had seen a picture of something like these in a magazine article I read earlier this month (which one I could not tell you now). But they seemed easy enough to make even though I could not find the recipe.

Sweet and spicy, light yet satisfying, and completely easy to throw together, it was a perfect meal to end a very, very long week. Tender strips of sirloin were marinated in a soy, rice vinegar marinade, then quickly sauteed. Thin rice noodles were simply soaked in boiling water then tossed with chopped cilantro and green onions. Wrapped in lettuce and topped with sliced mango (I know so not local, but everything else was) and that amazing sweet and spicy Thai chili garlic sauce, this is a recipe I know I will make over and over again, and you should too. It would also taste great with chicken, or even tofu.

Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps

Marinate 1 pound of sirloin or chicken breast (organic preferable, thinly sliced) in 1/4 C soy sauce, 1/4 C rice wine vinegar, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 t dark sesame oil, 1 T grated ginger (I no longer bother to peel, just use a microplane grater) and 1 t sambal oelek (or chili garlic sauce) for 30 minutes. Heat 1 T vegetable oil in a large skillet, and saute beef, stirring frequently until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

While meat is marinating, make the sweet Thai chili garlic sauce.

Heat a kettle of water to boil. Pour boiling water over one package of thin, dry rice noodles to cover (they look like angel hair pasta, but made from rice...check your Asian section of the supermarket). Let soak for 10 minutes or until tender, then drain in a colander. Toss with 1/4 C chopped cilantro and 4 scallions, cut diagonally.

Wash several leaves of lettuce (romaine or butter lettuce is good). Slice mango into long slivers.

Layer lettuce leaves with beef, noodles, and mango and top with sweet chili sauce.

Dainty Delight

I'm off to Grandmother's house today for our weekly visit, which I love. She always has the most interesting stories, like how I learned last week that she can knit (or used to be able to) but never really had the patience for it (sounds like me). Evidently, her mother was quite the avid knitter and used to knit all sorts of wonderful things for her children to wear, like the beautiful knit wool sweater suit my grandmother had when she moved to California from Canada. Though very lovely, it was quite inappropriate for the warm and sunny California weather, but she had to wear it, because it was one of the only articles of clothing she owned. I may never complain that I have nothing to wear again....well, for a while at least.

I always like to bring my grandmother something sweet to eat because she has a wicked sweet tooth and when a person is 90, why not indulge a bit? But unfortunately I have no flour because I haven't had a chance to get to the market yet this week due to unforeseen circumstances. But a post on another fantastic blog caught my attention. Have you heard of Palmiers or elephant ears? They are cookies that are light, crisp and sweet, a perfect treat to go with coffee or tea. And because they are made from puff pastry (which I will probably NOT ever make from scratch) I can pull the dough right out of my freezer; it's an easy and delicious solution to my bare pantry, much like my cinnamon roll recipe.

It is so important to use quality ingredients if you are going to fake it instead of making it from scratch. So make sure that the puff pastry you buy uses real butter, not some nasty emulsified oil stuff. The ingredients on my Trader Joe's puff pastry are as follows: wheat flour, butter, salt, sugar, water. That is as close to homemade as anything!

Palmiers

Remove one large or 2 small sheets of puff pastry from the freezer. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes (or as long as the package directs).

Set dough on a lightly sugared board, sprinkle the top heavily with sugar, about 1 C total, and roll dough out to 1/8 inch thick.

Roll each edge towards the center, jelly roll style until they meet in the middle. Place the rolls in the fridge to rest for about an hour, or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove from refrigerator and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay on a greased cookie sheet, or one that is lined with a silicone liner or parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and baked through. Remove to rack to cool.

At Market...Japanese Bok Choy

I was so very happy to find my favorite vendors back at the farmers market after a two month's long absence (I guess everyone needs a vacation occasionally). Luckily, their tables were packed high with the most beautiful selection of winter produce one could lay eyes upon, so their absence was almost excusable, after all, they were still obviously working hard tending their crops. They had Chinese spinach, cilantro, dill, lemongrass, carrots, sweet potatoes, ginger, bok choy, scallions, leeks and more. I settled on what they called Japanese bok choy, mostly because it was so beautiful and I had never seen it before.



It is dark leafed and ruffly with long, tender stems held together at its base. When I sliced them apart, I was pleased to find a little broccoli-type floret, hidden in a cluster of leaves. Raw, they tasted earthy, a bit like cabbage, and not overly bitter like some greens. But when cooked they took on a hearty, almost horseradish flavor, which quite a pleasant surprise for my taste buds. I made them into a little stir-fry with a bit of chicken and served it over rice. The recipe is one I adapted from Bon Appetite, and it tasted light and healthy with a burst of fresh flavor on the tongue. Regular bok choy can be used, but seek out the Japanese kind from your local farmers market for a real treat. This recipe would also work well with firm tofu or mushrooms instead of chicken, and can be marinated the same way.

Japanese Bok Choy Stir-Fry

2-3 bunches of bok choy (Japanese if you can find it), cored and washed

2 chicken breasts, cut in small chunks

3 cloves garlic

1 thumb of ginger, peeled and grated

8 scallions, in one inch slices

2 T vegetable oil

Marinate Chicken:

Toss chicken in a splash of soy sauce, a t of grated ginger and a t of dark sesame oil. Let sit for about 20 minutes.

Make Sauce:

Combine 1/4 C soy sauce, 2 T balsamic vinegar, 2 T dark sesame oil, 2 t cornstarch, 2 T honey in a small bowl.

Heat oil over high heat in a large skillet or wok. Add garlic and ginger and saute just until fragrant. Remove chicken from marinade with a slotted spoon (discard marinade). Add to pan and saute until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan. Add bok choy and scallions and stir just until bok choy is starting to wilt. Return chicken to pan and add sauce. Continue to stir until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Serve over rice or noodles.

Julia's Last Supper

My babies weren't very good eaters; that is to say, they were very good drinkers (they loved mama's milk) but baby food, not so much. In fact, I was very shocked when my second born son, reached over to my plate and grabbed a handful of mashed potatoes and shoved them in his mouth. He was about 6 months old, and never really had solid food before. Evidently, he wanted real flavor, and a little bit of texture too. I quickly discovered that he preferred "real" food to baby food and when I did try to feed him baby food, even the organic homemade stuff, he gagged and spit it out. So I wasn't very surprised that this same son, not much older, gleefully gobbled down the French Onion Soup that my mom and I often ordered at our weekly lunch date. He would actually scream, his little feet swiftly paddling under his highchair, until we put another spoonful in his mouth. I'm happy to report that in those 9 years not much has changed, and he is still my most adventurous eater.

Tonight, I decided to try an old favorite for dinner, French Onion Soup. Simple to make, yet exquisitely complex in flavor, it was considered poor person's food in days of old for good reason; the only thing it required was some stock (or bones to make it), and onions. Of course, topping it with crusty french bread with a slab of Gruyere cheese, elevates it to something special. The quality of the stock is important, however what really gives this soup its rich color and flavor is the caramelizing of the onions.

After perusing many variations of this recipe, I decided upon Julia Child's, mostly because I already had all the ingredients on hand. Afterwards, when I was doing a bit of research on the soup, I learned that French Onion Soup was Julia's last meal before passing away peacefully in her sleep (not from food poisoning, but rather kidney failure and old age). I also learned that it was probably invented by Louis XIV or XV and is a long-lost cousin of sop (a hearty bread soaked in broth that was eaten in the Middle Ages). Now that the history lesson is complete, on to the recipe!

French Onion Soup

adapted from Julia Child's recipe

2 1/2 pounds of onions, thinly sliced

4 T butter

1 T olive oil

1 t salt

1 t sugar

1 T flour

1/4 C Cognac

1 C dry white wine (something you would drink)

2 quarts (8 C) rich beef stock (or vegetable stock or a combination of veal and beef)

4 slices of sourdough bread

4 thin slabs of Gruyere cheese

Melt butter together with olive oil in a large, heavy stockpot over medium heat. Saute onions for about five minutes, covered, until they begin to soften. Uncover, add salt and sugar, and continue to saute (still uncovered), until onions are a deep walnut color, about 30 minutes. Add flour and stir well and continue to saute for a couple of minutes to make sure everything is incorporated. Add Cognac, wine and stock. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, cover loosely and cook for about 1 1/2 hours.

When soup is almost done, set oven to broil and toast bread for a couple of minutes on each side under the broiler. Ladle soup into oven-proof bowls and top with toasted bread, then cheese. Place bowls on a baking sheet and broil about 2-3 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. Make sure that the tops of the bowls are about 6 inches from the flames of the broiler.

Serve with a simple baby greens salad dressed in a French Vinaigrette, of course.