Two Meals in One

A couple of weeks ago, Jon and I took advantage of the early spring by dusting off the grill. Since the weather seemed too good to be true, we thought we'd better do enough grilling for two meals while we had the chance.

Jon was in charge of meal #1, and he made grilled fish wraps with a yogurt sauce and some grilled asparagus. Everything was delicious, and went immediately into the "Make Again" file.

While he was working on that night's dinner, I put together some simple veggie skewers. I used peppers, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and a zucchini, and brushed everything with olive oil. After sprinkling some salt and pepper, they were ready to hit the grill. By the time Jon had assembled the wraps, the skewers were also done. They went into a glass bowl and then into the fridge for the next night's dinner.

When it was time to make dinner the next day, all I had to do was boil water for pasta. I took the veggies out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature while the pasta cooked. After I drained the pasta, I put it back in the hot pot and added the grilled veggies, plus a little red wine vinegar and some Pasta Sprinkle from Penzey's. Toasted pine nuts and feta cheese finished off the dish.

I think pretty much everything we cook is yummy, but this was seriously one of the best easy dinners I've made. Simple and perfect, and ready in the time it takes to boil water. Try it!

A Tale of Two White Bean Salads

I'm not sure why, but I've been loving white beans lately. They, like other legumes, are are great way to get some extra protein and fiber into your diet. Plus, they're tasty. I made two white bean salads within the past couple weeks--one was my own recipe and one I found on 101 Cookbooks--and I've shared them with you below.

Greek Tuna and White Bean Salad
I made this salad after work one day when I needed something quick to round out some leftover vegetable soup. It took me less than 15 minutes to make, and was delicious!

1 - 5 oz. can of tuna, drained (packed in water, no salt added)
1 - can of white beans, drained (cannelini, great northern, navy, or white kidney)
a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
a slightly smaller handful of kalamata olives, halved
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 Tbs. chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, combine the tuna, white beans, tomatoes, olives, feta, and oregano. In a smaller bowl, combine the olive oil and lemon juice. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.

Carrot, Dill, and White Bean Salad
The second white bean salad was devoured by my book club before I had a chance to photograph it. OK--actually, I forgot. But there's a lovely photo here, along with the recipe. I was in a hurry and also forgot the brown sugar, but didn't miss it. This would be a lovely side dish with grilled fish or chicken, or it could be a main dish with a green salad and fresh bread.

Enjoy!

Jon's Stir-Fry Tips & Tricks

I've only been cooking for a few years now so there aren't many topics on which I feel qualified to give advice, but tonight I put together my best vegetable stir-fry yet so I'm going to ride this wave of confidence and provide a list of tricks that helped me put it together. [/run-on]

1. What You Got?
Stir-fries are your friend when it comes to getting rid of vegetables you've got lying around. It's hard to go wrong when assembling ingredients to heat up in a pan with some sauce. I always have onions and garlic handy as a base, but tonight I included cabbage, carrots, and broccoli to provide most of the volume in my dish. Other suitable veggies include bell peppers, cauliflower, fennel, celery, mushrooms, pea pods, green beans, frozen California mix, or those tiny little ears of corn.

2. What's Your Angle?
Pick a flavor profile. Sesame ginger? Kung Pao? Szechuan? I often steal a sauce recipe from the internet. It usually doesn't matter if you don't use the whole recipe. You're just looking for some ideas for ingredients. Tonight I decided on "Spicy Peanut with Shrimp" and found a recipe that included these basics: 3 parts soy sauce; 2 parts peanut butter; 1 part rice vinegar. For the 2-3 servings I had I chose Tablespoon as 1 part, adding a little chili garlic paste and brown sugar to the mix for fun. Make sure your sauce tastes good on its own before starting the cooking, though it should probably be extra salty (soy sauce does that) or you'll end up adding extra salt or soy at the end.

3. Get It Together
I like to chop all my veggies ahead of time so I'm not scrambling to get things ready as I'm cooking. I often put them in their own little bowls like I'm on a cooking show or something. It's especially handy when you're adding things at different times and the timing is crucial.

4. Hot Hot Hot!
The hotter your pan the better. I use a small wok, which is designed for this kind of thing. Before I had a wok I used a basic non-stick pan and that worked pretty well too. Regardless, when veggies contact hot metal it makes them awesome, so keep everything moving to maximize contact. It's right there in the title: "stir" + "fry" = ____________.

5. HOTTER!
I like spicy food, so I included a few chili peppers with this. I usually remove the seeds from spicy peppers before cooking them. I think it's easier to control the level of heat that way, plus you get more of the flavor of the peppers. Tonight I used three serrano peppers and some red thing that I picked up on a whim. It was shaped like a jalapeno but it was quite a bit hotter. I can't remember the name. The result was a great slow-burn spiciness that went really well with beer.

6. Who's On First?
It took me a while to learn that it really matters what order the ingredients go in. Tonight I started with sesame oil, then I let some fresh garlic and ginger swim around in that until it got smelling good. I would normally add onion at this point but tonight I had green onions instead of my usual yellow. Next I put in the carrots and broccoli because those have to cook longer than most other vegetables. In fact, to get those cooking faster I added a couple splashes of water and put the lid on for a minute or two, effectively steaming the veggies. Later came the cabbage, peppers, and green onions, none of which take long to cook. Finally I put on some pre-cooked shrimp and my sauce, only long enough to get it all hot before removing from the heat. (actually I added a dash of cornstarch in the last minute to soak up some of the liquid)

7. Finish It
Always have a garnish. It's a chance to add something to round out your flavor profile, and it makes you look like you know what you're doing. To go with my spicy peanut stir-fry I added both chopped peanuts and cilantro. To chop the peanuts I just put them in a ziploc and went at them with a rolling pin. Other fun garnishes include lime wedges, any fresh herbs, bean sprouts, crunchy chow mein noodles, etc.

That's about it. Here's how it looked served over brown rice...

More Meals from March

We finally finished uploading the backlog of photos, so here are a few more from the past few weeks.

If I remember correctly, this risotto ruled. It might have been the best one I've ever made. But for the life of me, I can't remember why I made it with what appears to be green beans. Seems like a strange risotto choice. This is why I need to write things down!

This was a delicious but time-consuming cabbage casserole. Sounds gross, I know. It really was good, though, but it took forever to put together. Not sure I'd make it again because of that.

We do love our cabbages, large and small. This brussels sprouts recipe was super simple and super yummy. It was basically just the sprouts sauteed with garlic and lemon zest, topped with toasted hazelnuts and feta, over quinoa. Loved it!

Jon made this halibut with yummy sauce over wild rice. Mmmmm, creamy winey capery sauce.

Jon's potato leek soup. Simple and satisfying!