Lovely Lentils

Honestly, I just love lentils and could eat them everyday. Last night we had an old standby - Lentils with sausage and kale. It's pretty quick and inexpensive and is perfect on a cold night, though I would eat it no matter the temperature. By the way, I used the Healthy Choice Smoked Sausage and didn't taste a difference from other store-bought smoked sausages (my check better be in the mail).

olive oil
1/2 smoked sausage loop, cut into 1/2-inch slices
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup lentils
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
3-4 big kale leaves, ribs removed and leaves cut into long slips

Cook sausage in medium pot in 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from pot and drain on a paper-towel lined plate. Set aside.

Reduce heat to medium-low on pot and add onions and garlic, and saute, using more oil if needed. Cook until soft and add the lentils. Cook for 2 minutes. Add stock and cook, uncovered, until lentils are soft and cooked through, about 30-40 minutes. Add kale and cook for 5 minutes. Feel free to add salt or pepper, but I found it was plenty salty from the sausage and stock I used.

Serves 2.

Asian Noodles with Chicken

We had a great dinner tonight - it was quick and very tasty. The recipe is from the December 2006 Gourmet, and I've also pasted it below. Only downside, I thought it was just a little bit salty. There's no added salt, but the oyster sauce clearly had a lot of salt. I might use a little less next time, or a little more cooking water to tone it down. Anyway, tasty tasty.

ASIAN NOODLES WITH CHICKEN AND SCALLIONS

Take a tip from Asian home cooks and use bottled sauces to your advantage.

1 lb chicken tenders (not coated or cooked)

1 lb fresh or frozen broccoli florets
1 lb dried udon (thick wheat noodles)
1/2 cup premium oyster sauce (preferably Lee Kum Kee)
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (preferably Lee Kum Kee or Koon Chun)
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
2 teaspoons Chinese chile garlic paste (preferably Lan Chi), or to taste
1/2 cup chopped scallions (from 1 bunch)
2 teaspoons roasted sesame seeds (optional)

Cook chicken in a 6-quart pot of boiling unsalted water, covered, until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl with a slotted spoon.

Add broccoli to boiling water and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to a colander to drain, then transfer to another bowl. Return water to a boil and cook noodles until tender (check often; cooking time on package may not be accurate). Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain noodles in colander and rinse under hot water.

While noodles cook, tear chicken into chunks.

Add oyster and hoisin sauces, sesame oil, chile garlic paste, half of scallions, and 1/3 cup cooking water to chicken and stir to combine.

Divide noodles, broccoli, and chicken mixture among 4 bowls and sprinkle with sesame seeds and remaining scallions. Serve immediately, stirring just before eating. If noodles become dry, moisten with some of cooking water.

Cooks' note: If you have to substitute an Asian chile paste without garlic for the chile garlic paste, start with 1/2 teaspoon and add to taste.

Makes 4 servings.

Woohoo! More Shrimp!

Still using up this shrimp I was given. Yay! Last night we had quick and easy spicy shrimp with spaghetti in a chunky tomato sauce, along with some garlic bread.

olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tspn red pepper flakes
2 medium cans diced tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tspn dried oregano
salt

1/2 lb dried spaghetti

10 medium shrimp, fresh or frozen, peeled and deveined

In a large skillet, heat 1-2 tbsp oil. Saute garlic, onion and pepper flakes over medium to medium low heat - don't burn the garlic! Cook until onion is soft. Add tomatoes, herbs and black pepper. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for approximately 30-35 minutes, stirring occassionally.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in boiling salted water.

When pasta is just shy of al dente, add shrimp to tomato sauce. Stir gently and cook until shrimp is pink - about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste.

When pasta is cooked through, drain and transfer to large bowl. Pour sauce over top of pasta and toss. Serves about 3, or 2 with leftovers.

Thanksgiving Inquiries

A few people have asked me what I am making for Thanksgiving. To be honest, we are doing Thanksgiving at my Mom's and it's pretty difficult to find anything to fit in with all the dishes that are already made. I smiled when I read this comment in a New York Times article last week: "After filling out an application in triplicate and pleading my case before the committee, I received probationary approval for a dish of string beans..."

We have so many dishes on our table, and tinkering with them is just not allowed. Mom and Dad make the turkey, Mom makes stuffing, gravy, cranberry relish and mashed potatoes, along with homemade bread and hot cross buns; Dad makes brussels sprouts; and Grandma makes green beans with ham and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. For dessert, Drew is making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie, and Mom is making creme brulee.

I have lots of thoughts of how we could update some of these dishes, make them lighter, etc., but tradition will not allow it (at this point). So, what else can I fit into this meal, particularly something healthy that can be made ahead so I am not using up kitchen space? I thought about a salad, but, unless it is served ahead of the dinner (which it wouldn't be), I just don't think it fits in.

So, in the end, I have decided to make a couple of snacks for before the dinner. I am going to make this Camembert mushroom dish from Food and Wine. Also, I got ahold of a lot of shrimp, so will probably make some sort of cold shrimp appetizer.

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving, and please send me recipes, comments or pictures of your Thanksgiving.

Update

Yup, ended up making the cheese/mushroom appetizer from Food and Wine. I also made a shrimp salad of shrimp, tarragon, celery, green onion, cayenne, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of mayo. I served them with french bread toasts. Both were a hit, especially the first one - who doesn't love melting, gooey cheese?

Soup Dumplings

I LOVE making dumplings, ravioli, etc. -- they are like little gifts that you bite into for a surprise of ground meat, cheese, beets, whatever. With so many types of wrappers sold today it can be relatively quick and easy. You also can make them ahead of time and pull them straight from the freezer and into whatever you are cooking them in.

I'd love to hear about any type of stuffed goodie any reader out there likes to or wants to make. Send in a comment!

Last night I tinkered with a dish I've made a few times before -- shrimp dumplings in broth, sort of a seafood take on wonton soup. Previously I have added some mushrooms to the broth, but last night I went a step further and really made it a deep mushroom-flavored broth. It was a very satisfying hot soup on a chilly night. The recipe is pretty simple, though the dumplings can take a little time assembling. It makes enough for soup for two, plus dumplings left over that make terrific appetizers. Who doesn't like dumplings?

1 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 green onions, chopped
1 egg
4-5 water chestnuts, diced
1 tspn soy sauce
1 tspn sesame oil
1/4 tspn chili garlic sauce*

Put three-fourths of the shrimp and all the other ingredients in the food processor. Pulse until blended and transfer to medium size bowl. Chop the other 1/4 lb of shrimp into 1/2 inch pieces, add to bowl and mix thoroughly.

Fill a small bowl with cold water. On a clean surface place one wonton wrapper (Cover the open wonton wrapper package with a towel to keep from drying out). Place one heaping tablespoon of shrimp mixture on the wrapper, slightly toward one side. Brush edges of wrapper with cold water, and fold one side over the filling, to create dumpling. Press down on all sides to seal, and make sure to get all the air out or the dumplings will open when cooked. Place dumpling on a lightly floured cookie sheet, and cover with a wet towel (not terry cloth). Continue making dumplings until all the filling or wrappers are used up. Cover tray (sans towel) with plastic wrap and place in freezer.

1/4 cup dried mushrooms
8 ounces mixed mushrooms, sliced or roughly chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
2 green onions, finely chopped
pinch of salt

In a small bowl, pour one cup boiling water over dried mushrooms. Let sit for 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms and finely chop. Pour water in small bowl through a paper towel into another small bowl to remove any grit or dirt.

In a medium pot, heat one tablespoon vegetable oil over medium heat. Add fresh mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes. Add stock, chopped reconstituted mushrooms and liquid from small bowl and simmer for 30 minutes. Add green onions and salt.

Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil. Carefully put 10 dumplings into water. Using a slotted spoon, remove dumplings when they float to the top and place 5 into each soup bowl. Spoon mushroom broth and mushrooms over dumplings.

Yum!

Pasta carbonara

I thought I loved carbonara but had just never found the perfect recipe. My attempts were either too dry, too greasy or too heavy. The latest Food and Wine edition has a recipe I thought looked simple, and even better, I had almost all the ingredients in my kitchen.

It was very easy and only took about 30-40 minutes to make. I made only two changes: I used a combo of linguine and fettucine (what I had in the pantry), and I used half and half instead of heavy cream (same reason).

The results? Well, it was very tasty, not dry, not greasy, but still heavy. I guess that's just the nature of carbonara. Next time I might do something blasphemous and add some cherry tomatoes at the end to lighten it up.

Shrimp and White Bean Salad

It's probably a little summery, but who cares! Last night we had a cold white bean salad and a couple of shrimp skewers with some pancetta sprinkled on top. It was tasty and relatively light (except for the pancetta of course). It also only took under 30 minutes to make the entire meal. We had it with a nice bottle of Pouilly Fuisse.

Here's the recipe:

1 medium can white beans (canellini, great northern, etc)
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
dozen calamata olives, pitted and hlaved
one celery rib, washed and finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

20 medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
olive oil
half a lemon

3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, roughly chopped

Drain beans in a strainer, and run water over them to get rid of as much of the juice as possible. Transfer to a bowl and mix well with the remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

Heat ridged side of grill pan over medium heat. Skewer shrimp (I put about 4-6 on each skewer). Brush each skewer with olive oil and squeeze lemon juice on top. Grill each skewer 3-5 minutes per side, until pink and cooked through.

While shrimp cooks, heat 2 tbspn olive oil in small pan or skillet. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Add pancetta and cook until pancetta is just starting to get crispy.

Plate skewers and white bean salad and sprinkle pancetta/garlic on top. Serves 2.

Frugalicious!

You can make so many meals out of just one chicken. Last week, I had to cook a whole chicken for a catering job, but I still had about half of the meat and the carcass left over. So, tonight I made some chicken noodle soup. I covered the carcass with 5 cups of water, a chopped-up onion, two celery sticks chopped, 4-5 peppercorns, a bay leaf, a tspn of thyme and a tspn of salt. I brought this to a boil, then reduced it to a simmer and covered it. I cooked it for another hour, skimming scum (that white frothy stuff) off it every once in a while. Then I strained it into another cooking pot, added two more chopped celery sticks and about a cup and a half of shredded cooked chicken. Last time I made this, we found it to be a little too sweet, so instead of adding diced carrot, this time I just put in two carrots peeled and cut in half, to get just a little of the flavor. Also, normally I would add in some parsley, but the chicken was originally cooked with a lot of parsley so I already had plenty of that floating around. If you want to add some, add about 2 tbspn chopped parsley at this point. I cooked the soup, covered, about 20 minutes, or until the celery was soft. While the soup was cooking, I boiled some salted water and cooked about a cup of pasta I had on hand. Once cooked, I strained the pasta and add it to soup. Finally, I adjusted the salt and pepper seasoning. This made 2 tasty large portions.

Tomorrow - chicken salad!