Tag Archives: dinner

Savory Bread Pudding with Peppers, Mushrooms, Chard, and Feta

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I love savory bread puddings for so many reasons.  This one is packed full of vegetables and has all four food groups in one baking dish (you know how I love a casserole).  You can make it ahead of time and have it cooling on your stovetop when your brunch guests arrive.  The texture contrast between the crisp browned top and the savory custard within is lovely.  And it’s a thrifty way to use up bread that’s past its prime.  Actually, let’s just call that bread that’s in its bread pudding prime.

This is not a terribly pudding-y bread pudding.  It’s hearty fare, not a delicately quivering cream custard (those make good bread puddings too, but you’ll need a different recipe for that).  As always, you can vary the ingredients here, but I think the essential thing is to make sure that the eggs and vegetables are well-seasoned with salt and pepper and/or herbs, since a plain bread adds more texture than flavor to the finished dish.  (Or you can use your leftover beer bread, as I did, or another strongly-flavored bread, in which case it adds a flavor of its own.) Continue reading Savory Bread Pudding (click for recipe)

Roasted Broccoli Pizza with Feta

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I know we all made no-knead bread for a while there, and I saw the no-knead pizza dough recipe in Bon Appetit last month.  But it wasn’t until today that the recipe began to really intrigue me.  Because today, the “Genius Recipes” feature that I love on Food 52 proclaimed that “not-kneading pizza is even simpler than not-kneading bread.”  What the…?

If anyone has made both the no-knead bread and the no-knead pizza dough, can you please explain to us how not kneading one is easier than not kneading the other?  Thank you.  And, hey, if you’ve made the pizza dough, how was it?

I did not, obviously, make the no-knead pizza dough.  I made my same old pizza dough, with a bit of whole wheat flour, and topped it with crispy broccoli, creamy feta, garlic and spice, and the zest of a lemon.  And about that crispy broccoli?  It’s not like fresh-crispy.  It’s like roasted-to-a-crisp-crispy.  Continue reading Roasted Broccoli Pizza with Feta (click for recipe)

Dal with Curried Red Onion Jam

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Like many enthusiastic cooks, I have a bit of a cookbook collection. Some books I use mostly for reference, some I keep only out of nostalgia (or, more embarrassingly, because hey-I-might-need-THAT-Sri-Lankan-recipe-someday!), and others are in heavy rotation.  Also, I just love books in general.  I always have a cookbook or two on my bedside table, which I occasionally read as bedtime stories.  But the cookbooks I like most are the ones that inspire me to branch out in my preparations of the humble vegetable.

I think I have mentioned before that Seattle is graced with five months of springtime, which means greens galore in the garden.  Arugula, chard, kale.  Radishes, turnips, peas.  Repeat.  Springtime all the way through until August, when we may (or may not) see a little flourish of zucchini and cherry tomatoes to end the growing season.  We belong to a couple of CSAs to fill in the gaps.  So I’m always looking for ideas to churn through the produce while keeping both the cooking and the eating enjoyable around here.

This year I am going to be brandishing a new cookbook in the kitchen.  I just got my copy of Ripe today and I’m smitten.  It’s an homage to fruits and vegetables as much as a cookbook, really.  It’s written by Cheryl Sternman Rule, the witty and eloquent voice behind the 5 second rule blog (she’s the one who brought that Quick Whole Wheat Spice Bread with Brown Sugar, Orange Zest, and Walnuts into our lives, bless her heart).  It’s gorgeously photographed (click here to see some of the pretty pictures).  Each fruit and vegetable gets a few pages: a glam shot, a few irresistible descriptive paragraphs, a featured recipe and a few “un-recipes”–my favorite part, of course–such as this one for carrot salad: “wide carrot ribbons + harissa + yogurt + green olives + parsley.”  Yes!

And if the first recipe I tried is any indication, the flavors pop as brightly as the colors in this book.  A simple gingery dal, a plain pot of brown rice, diced red onion jewels glinting at first in the wide pan, then melting into a sweet and tangy and black-pepper-spiced chutney that transported us to some mad place where we wished winter weren’t so close to over.  Oh, well, I’m looking forward to trying the radish recipes. Continue reading Dal with Curried Red Onion Jam (click for recipe)

Green Salad with Smoked Salmon, Tomatoes, and Crème Fraiche-Dill Dressing

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J and I meet up with a lovely group of friends every few months for dinner and an evening of playing cards.  I wish I could say that we play an intellectual game, like bridge.  Or a hip game, like poker.  But we don’t.  It’s euchre.  It’s so much fun.

Last night, I lost spectacularly.  But it was still a gold-medal evening, thanks in large part to the excellent company and thanks in small part to the fact that it brought a great new salad into my life.

Our hosts made a delicious potato soup for dinner in observance of St. Patrick’s day, and I came up with this salad to go along it.  It turned out very well, if I do say so myself.  I hardly ever make a creamy salad dressing, but it was a winning combination with the smoked salmon and potato soup.  A little lemon, a little dill, a lot of tiny sweet tomatoes.  Crunch, zing, sweet, salt, smoke.  Are those the food groups or what? Continue reading Green Salad with Smoked Salmon, Tomatoes, and Crème Fraiche-Dill Dressing (click for recipe)

Vegetarian Taco Salad

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I hear that some people get tired of leftovers.  I am not really one of those people.  To me, leftovers equal free time because the cooking is already done!  Nevertheless, your pots of Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime and Quinoa with Corn, Green Onions, and Feta are probably starting to dwindle, now that you made those Black Bean Tacos and snuck a scoop of the beans for your Huevos Rancheros.  This week’s leftovers have their last hurrah in this taco salad, which could be dinner on a busy night or could just as easily travel to work for lunch.

Of course, you can make make this salad with any cooked or canned beans and grains you have on hand.  Or substitute a good handful of broken tortilla chips for the quinoa–I won’t tell. Continue reading Vegetarian Taco Salad (click for recipe)

Quinoa with Corn, Green Onions, and Feta

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Quinoa has a great flavor and all kinds of nutritional benefits, sure, but that’s not why I love to cook with it. I love it because it cooks so quickly.  Bring it to a boil, simmer 15 minutes, let it steam off the heat for a few more, and it’s ready to go to the table.

Here the quinoa is dressed up a bit with a quick saute of scallions and corn that is ready to add to the pot by the time the quinoa’s 15-minute simmer is over, even if you start with whole ears of corn.  Which you should definitely do in summertime.  We often make this dish to serve as a warm or cold salad alongside a grilled summer dinner of fish and vegetables, but at this time of year using frozen sweet corn brings a bit of sunshine to the table.  Pair this quinoa with Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime for a delicious meal, perhaps topped with a bit of salsa, sour cream, and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro.  And once you taste this dish, you’ll probably find yourself making it often to serve as a side in place of bread or rice. Continue reading Quinoa with Corn, Green Onions, and Feta (click for recipe)

Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime

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Did you make your big pot of black beans?  Do you have a few quarts stashed in the freezer?  Good.  This week we’re going to use them.  Or if not, this recipe is also a great way to doctor up canned beans.  In fact, that’s how I first got started using this recipe–nudging my canned beans toward deliciousness before I started cooking my own from scratch.

Busy home cooks know not to be afraid of leftovers.  This week’s recipes will include these beans, a pot of quinoa, and ideas for combining the two into black bean tacos and a taco salad.  Cooking this way (using flavors you love and don’t mind eating a few times in a week!), you will reap the benefits of big-batch cooking.  In a week, you’ll go through a this pot of beans, another pot of grain, some good salsas, your entire bunch of cilantro, and maybe even a little tub of sour cream that won’t be left molding in the fridge after a single use.

These beans can be served as a side dish with any Mexican food (like these fish tacos, for example), as a component of a recipe (try them layered into huevos rancheros), or as a main course, preferable nestled alongside some flavorful rice (or quinoa) and topped with a good salsa.

Continue reading Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime (click for recipe)

Purple Potato Frittata, with or without Cod

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Are you a sweet or savory breakfast person?  I like both.  (Sometimes at the same time.)  But in spite of having a huge sweet tooth, the savory breakfast usually trumps for me.

Either way, you’re covered this weekend.  If you’re a sweet person, you have that French toast to make.  And if savory is your thing, here’s the plan.

Pick some potatoes.  I know I’m being a little preachy here, but let me just gently suggest that if you have never bought a potato from your winter farmers’ market, you should give it a try.  I buy plenty of supermarket produce in addition to supporting my local farmers when I can, but there are a few things that are just so much more flavorful when I buy them from the farmers’ market that they seem like different vegetables.  Potatoes are one of those things.  But I should also say that I am no potato snob.  Potatoes are one of my favorite foods and I always have a 5 lb. bag of grocery store potatoes lurking in the basement just in case.  (Is that weird?)  And I love them.  Just like I love the even more flavorful fancy ones.

I had a bag of purple potatoes.  You can use whatever potatoes you have or choose to acquire.

This is a riff on the Smoky Cauliflower Frittata to the extent that I used the smoked paprika and smoked cheese combo again.  I was using up leftover baked cod, but I think this recipe would also be great if you used a smoked fish instead and left out the paprika.  Or you can leave the fish out altogether, of course.  We roll with a lot of vegetarians, so we made one frittata with the fish and one without.Purple Potato Frittata, with or without Cod: Dice a few potatoes into small cubes and saute in olive oil over medium high heat with a large diced onion until the potato is edibly tender.  Meanwhile, whisk 6 eggs with 1/4 c. Greek yogurt, 2 tsp. smoked paprika and salt and pepper.  Mix two handfuls of smoked cheese and one of sharp cheddar into the eggs, along with the cooked potato and onion mixture.  Flake some cooked or smoked fish into the bowl if you’re using it.  Mix gently to combine everything.  Heat a little more oil in the same pan you used to cook the potatoes, then pour in the egg mixture and cook about 5 minutes over medium heat until the edges are set.  Scatter one last handful of cheese on top of the eggs.  Transfer to the oven and bake at 375 for another 10-12 minutes, until nearly set, then turn on the broiler for a carefully attended minute or two to brown the top.  Serve with toast and fruit for breakfast, or with a salad for any other meal.

Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup

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There was a thoughtful post today on The Yellow House that asked whether cooking has become so fetishized that it has begun to seem inaccessible to home cooks.  It reminded me of the brouhaha over models’ bodies: if you see too many airbrushed glossy spreads, do you forget what normal looks like, and maybe start to doubt yourself for not looking so perfect?  I don’t think it’s crazy to think that TV cooking shows and perfect Pinterest culinary glamshots might similarly intimidate novice or busy home cooks.

For my part, I try to remember that it can be easy to get nourishing food on the table quickly, and I try not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  Use what you have. Make it easy for yourself.  While I have been trying to include a few photos of my recipes so you know what you’re getting yourself into, none of the food we love to eat is magazine-good-looking aside from the natural beauty of vegetables themselves.  And if I zoomed out, most days you’d see photos that look a bit like Mama Nervosa’s This Is Not A Lifestyle Blog series.

Home cooking is messy and sometimes unglamorous.  Home cooks don’t use mise en place unless everything has to go into the pan at the same instant.  We’re clearing space for the cutting board on messy counters.  And we sure don’t have dishwashers tidying up after us as we go.  If you’re me, you might even burn three separate pots in one night trying to make one simple soup.  (First: the butter.  Second: the onions.  Third: half the croutons.)  Oh, well.  Luckily I only set the fire alarm off once.  To enjoy home cooking is to embrace these moments and circumstances.

And the soup was delicious.

Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup, adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day:  Heat a knob of butter in a pan over medium-high heat (don’t burn it).  Add a chopped onion and a couple of chopped shallots with a big pinch of salt and saute until the onion softens.  Stir in a peeled, finely diced potato, cover, and cook for a few more minutes (check and stir your pot, don’t burn it).  Uncover and add 2 minced cloves of garlic and 3 1/2 c. water or stock.  (I was in a hurry so instead of defrosting stock I used boiling water and 1 cube of Rapunzel herb and sea salt bouillon.)  Raise the heat, and once it boils, taste a potato.  When potatoes are tender, stir in a small head of chopped-up cauliflower (or half of a big head) and cook about 5 more minutes until cauliflower is tender as well.  Puree soup, then stir in 1/2 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese and 1-2 Tbsp. dijon mustard.  Taste and adjust flavors with additional salt, cheese, and/or mustard.  Serve garnished with more cheese and butter-toasted croutons (don’t burn them!). I made my croutons from this Whole Wheat Spice Bread with Brown Sugar, Orange Zest, and Walnuts, of course, but if you weren’t able to save any of that I certainly understand.  The croutons in the original recipe look great as well: 3 c. cubed bread bathed in 2 Tb. each melted butter and olive oil, whisked with 1 1/2 Tb. dijon and 1/4 tsp. salt.  Bake 10-15 mins at 350, turning occasionally.

Baked Fish with Coconut Curry Rub

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Sometimes you need a recipe.  Like that bread we all made yesterday, that recipe was good.  Sometimes cooking requires precision.  But often it just requires inspiration.

I have had some comments recently about my recipe-writing style on this blog.  I often call for a pinch, a dab, a scoop, a handful.  Meaning: use the amount that seems right to you, you know your tastebuds best.  So far, all the comments I’ve received about this approach have been positive.  It seems that many of you, like me, enjoy reading recipes because they spark a good idea about technique, or flavor combinations, or because they remind you to use up that cauliflower that’s languishing in the back of the fridge.

It is in that spirit that I bring you the “recipe” below.  It’s just an idea, and not even my own original idea (how many recipes are really original?).  I saw this idea somewhere recently, I can’t remember where, and it stuck with me and came to mind when I needed it.  And it was absolutely delicious.  To me, that’s a good recipe.

Scoop some coconut oil and Thai curry paste into a bowl.  (I used yellow curry paste, but red or green would also be great.)  Warm briefly in the microwave to melt the coconut oil–and because, wow, doesn’t that smell GREAT?  Spoon thickly over fish and bake at 450 until the fish flakes when you cut into it.  Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the fish.