Tag Archives: cooking

Saved! Burnt Banana Bread!

4 Feb

I hate my oven. I hate my oven. I hate my oven.

Okay, so it beats having to gather wood and light a fire every time I want to bake something, but it is just not good. I usually use my parents’ oven for baking, because my pint-size one heats so unevenly it is diabolical.

But, I used it the other night because I was too lazy to go anywhere and sure enough, our double batch of banana bread was burning on the outside before cooking on the inside.

Then I remembered a reader tip I saw in Cook’s Illustrated magazine (I do not remember the issue date or who submitted it!). I lowered the heat and cooked them through and the next morning, when the loaves were fully cooled, I used a medium cheese grater and grated off the burnt bits! Then I sliced and wrapped some up for Leandro’s wonderful caregivers and no one was the wiser.

Victory is mine!!!!!

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Tuna Salad (With two secret ingredients)

2 Feb

As a sandwich filler or a salad topper, tuna is a star. Open the can, drain, and mix with a couple of staple condiments and you are good to go.

So, this is not a rocket-science post. But the way I make tuna salad is better than average. There are two reasons. One is a tip I learned in high school from one of my longtime besties — who is now Leandro’s godmother– and one is a secret of my own.

The first is ketchup, which cuts some of the fishiness with a bit of sweetness and zing. I got that one some after-school afternoon in the early days of MTV, when Marianne’s family had cable (an “A-ha” moment, for those of you who remember. Or it ” Buggles”  the mind to think about?) so we’d dash home to snack and watch the same three videos in endless loop…

The second secret is replacing half the mayo with nonfat plain yogurt which lightens it up and gives it a nice tang (I also do this with potato salad).

These days sustainabilty and food safety are big issues, so I don’t eat as much tuna as I used to (the sustainable kinds being comparatively expensive). But I’ll stray from cheap on this one and let you know I buy Wild Planet which is troll- and pole- fished and got a passing grade from Greenpeace rankings in Canada (I couldn’t find U.S. rankings). Wild Planet says it has more Omega-3s and less mercury that other brands; I choose to believe it, because that is the most convenient thing to do.

UK readers can visit MongaBay.com for ratings of tinned tuna.

Additionally, for American readers, the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Pocket Guide is a printable wallet-guide to good seafood choices that I find invaluable.

Tuna Salad (two servings)

5 oz. can tuna packed in water, drained

½  medium onion (white onion is very nice here), chopped fine

1 celery stalk, minced

1 Tbs mayonnaise

1 Tbs nonfat (or lowfat) plain yogurt

1 tsp prepared mustard

½ tsp ketchup (or to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

(Additional optional ingredient suggestions – ½ tsp minced sundried tomatoes in oil, 1 small carrot, minced, hard-boiled egg chopped; ½  tsp tiny capers; 1 tsp minced olives; ½ tsp minced pickles)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Serve on salad or in sandwiches.

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Feta, Avocado and Sun-Dried Tomato Snacks — Use ‘Em While Ya Got ‘Em!

30 Jan

I’m in a Use-It-Up frenzy at the moment; bought more fresh food than Leandro and I could consume during a week in which we were unexpectedly invited to dinner at other people’s houses and even if I could afford the waste, I have a really hard time throwing out food.

(For more on the food we throw away  visit Jonathan Bloom at Wasted Food; or the E.P.A. — where you’ll find out that Americans generate 34 million tons of food waste each year; or this NYTimes article from 2008 which says “As it turns out, Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study” ).

So, no real recipe today, but a serving suggestion of flavors and textures that worked well in a “scrappy” snack…horrid pun intended.

I took half an avocado left over from the previous day, some slices of feta that needed using up, and some sun-dried tomatoes in oil that have been lurking in my fridge. I just sliced fairly thin, laid them on woven wheat crackers and called it a light lunch.

It was delicious and satisfying and effectively utilized my natural resources! Pretty too, don’tcha think?

 

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Mango-Orange Chicken Thighs

28 Jan

Life in the kitchen has become a lot easier, now that Leandro has graduated to grown-up food.

Until recently, right about 5 p.m. I was getting flustered into throwing something fast and easy (and heavy on the carbs/cheese) in front of my imperious, hungry and persistent child. While he was already eating, I’d throw together a basic and boring salad or just cut a slice of cheese for myself or eat his leftovers and never actually sit. I’d perch on my chair in short spurts, just long enough to tell him to put his butt on the chair, use his fork, don’t wipe your hands on your shirt…blah, blah, blah, nag, nag, nag. Who would want to have dinner with that? Not me. And not him either, really.

So the boy’s new-found love for beef, chicken, and fish means I can spend a bit more time playing around with something we will both eat (and can make enough for next day leftovers.) do a quick veggie side and get to sit together in peace to eat and chat about the day.

Those succcessful family dinners are the moments — fleeting, but fulfilling — that I actually feel like I have a handle on life, the universe and everything, or at least I am not such a mom failure after all!

And this easy and cheap chicken thigh recipe is pretty representative of our new direction in dinner. It’s not much more involved than pan frying a couple of chicken pieces, but the mango-orange juice and sriracha makes it a tiny bit special.

You can leave out the corn starch if you don’t have any, but it does give the surface of the chicken a nice texture, sort of the avian equivalent of pasta al dente. You could also use chicken strips from breast, but thighs are the cheaper parts of the bird, and I find them to be more flavorful!

Mango-Orange Chicken Thighs

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbs flour

1.2 tsp cornstarch

¼-1/2 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

1 egg

1.5 lbs boneless chicken thighs

1 medium onion, chopped fine

2 cloves garlic chopped fine

½ Cup mango-orange juice (or orange juice or mango juice)

1-2 Tbs cilantro, chopped

1 tsp sriracha or other hot pepper sauce

Heat olive oil in a pan big enough to hold all at medium until fragrant.

In a bowl, mix, flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper.  In another  bowl, lightly beat egg. Dip thighs in egg, then in flour mixture and coat.

Place chicken in pan and cook five to ten minutes on each side, until cooked through. Remove thighs and set aside.

To the same pan, add onion and stir to coat. Add garlic and stir to coat. Cook for a minute or two to soften, then add mango juice and cook until thickened slightly, about five minutes. Stir in cilantro and sriracha. Salt to taste.

Return chicken to pan, coat in sauce and cook for another five minutes (or until chicken is fully cooked). Cook longer and slower, adding water, for a shredded result.

Serve with rice, noodles, or on top of salad. Or shred for quesadillas.

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Cranberry-Nut Mini-Muffin Scones

24 Jan

Nothing like getting halfway through a baking recipe and realizing you don’t have one of the critical ingredients.

Leandro and I were experimenting with a new muffin recipe on the eve of the spring semester and I had laid out all the ingredients beforehand (a critical strategic move when baking with a four-year-old boy and a secret pleasure because I pretend I am on my own prepped and pretty cooking show).

Then the “1/2 Cup milk,” bit, which I swear was not there when I was playing next Food Network Star in my own head five minutes previous, suddenly loomed into view. Milk!?! I hate milk! Leandro hates milk! Ick! We never have milk in!

And baking? Well I suddenly hated baking too, because it is so precise, so unforgiving, so anal, so not me….

But, Leandro and I do like yogurt and we always have plain nonfat organic on hand for my breakfast and his dip for apple slices. So, seeing as we were well into the process of these muffins (which started with a recipe from Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread by — I kid you not — Crescent Dragonwagon, an Arkansas chef and innkeeper), I bunged in 1/2 Cup of yogurt instead and hoped for the best.

The result was some really fun mini-scones. They were nubbly and attractive, studded with ruby cranberries. Instead of my usual muffin sponginess, the texture had that dense fluffiness that makes scones so lovely with tea or coffee, punctuated with nutty bits. The craisins took on an orange-y candied peel flavor that was perfect for a winter day.

Leandro did not like them at all. “I told you not to put that smelly powder (nutmeg) in,” was his shrugging response.

My colleagues, however, were a different story. I brought them in for a first-day-of-school snack for our kitchen and they moved quickly and got lots of compliments. So….as they used to say in hockey “kick, save, and a beauty!” I guess I like baking again.

Here’s the recipe…enjoy!

Cranberry-Nut Mini-Muffin-Scones

1 ¼ Cup unbleached all purpose flour

½ Cup sugar

2 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 Cup nonfat plain yogurt

½ Cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ Cup dried craisins (sweetened dried cranberries)

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts (you may sub 1/4 cup walnuts with ¼ cup unsalted sunflower seeds)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease or line with paper cups 48 mini-muffin tins.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar to taste, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In a second bowl, whisk together milk, butter, egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine gently into a soft dough (crumbly is fine) with as little handling as possible. Gently fold in cranberries and nuts.

Use a spoon or fingers to fill muffin cups a half to two-thirds full. Bake until lightly golden, 12-15 minutes. Cool for a minute, remove and then cool completely on a wire rack. Will keep three days in an airtight container; no refrigeration.

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Lentil Soup/Sopa de Lentejas (with vegetarian/vegan option); Snuggly, Spicy Winter Soup

22 Jan

If you do not have a bag of dried lentils in your larder at all times, you’ve got some explaining to do. These little cuties are about $.80 a pound, keep for a year, are full of good stuff for you and don’t need to be pre-soaked. They are fast, convenient, filling and ever so tasty. How could you not?

Lentil Soup has got to be the best comfort food ever. It is rich and hearty and slurpy and — this version at least – just a bit spicy. You can use whatever scraps you’ve got around. You can give it a Middle Eastern flavor or Italian flair by varying the spices. Use a different type of sausage – like kielbasa – and some sage or rosemary for a more Eastern European style. Use no sausage at all and a dash of liquid aminos or veggie steak sauce and some red hot pepper flakes or chipotle for a vegetarian/vegan version. It will keep in the fridge for several days and packs up really nicely for an office lunch that will make you feel loved and valued.

This is a slightly modified version of a previous lentil soup recipe…I make this all the time and I vary it to my mood. This time I included celery and just added a teaspoon of oregano; the vegetable stock I used (Nature’s Promise Organic, from Stop and Shop) really punched up the flavor so much that it didn’t need much added seasoning.

A dollop of plain nonfat yogurt or sour cream or creme fraiche makes it creamy!


Lentil Soup (Sopa de lentejas)

2-3 Tbs olive oil

1 baseball size onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced or diced to fingernail size (approx 1 Cup)

2 stalks celery, chopped

(1/2 cup chard stems, chopped – optional – I just happened to have some left over from a previous chard leaf dish)

3-4 oz chorizo (Spanish dry hot sausage), peeled and sliced into 1/4-1/2 inch rounds (I use Palacios Hot; vegetarians can omit it entirely and add liquid aminos, steak sauce or snoky chipotle to taste)

1 medium potato, peeled (if you like) and chopped into 1.2 inch cubes (approx. 1 Cup)

1 Cup (8 oz) dry lentils, rinsed, picked through and drained

4 – 8 Cups chicken or vegetable broth (you may use water as well)

15 oz can diced tomatoes (optional)

1 tsp each – ground cumin, turmeric and oregano OR 1 tsp each – oregano and marjoram OR Tbs dry Italian herbs

Heat oil until it runs quickly and is fragrant. Add onions and stir to coat. After a minute, reduce heat to low. After five minutes start adding, garlic, then carrots, celery and optional chard, then chorizo. When chorizo begins to release its color,  stir in lentils, potatoes, broth/water and tomatoes, if using. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for 20 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are tender, adding water a cup at a time, if desired. Add spices at the end and salt to taste.

Serve as soup with crusty bread, or over rice. Finish with a dollop of plain yogurt, sour cream or creme fraiche!

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Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers (Baked!)

20 Jan

In my other life I am a full-time college professor teaching intensive academic English to immigrants and foreign students who need a bit more English to be able to make it in the mainstream of our local community college.

I don’t make a whole lot of money (although there are other perks to living the higher education life!) and until my son enters kindergarten, I have a big fat daycare bill every month, so I am not dropping $10 a day on going out to lunch. No WAY.

I try, as much as possible, to prepare three wholesome, homemade meals a day for me and my son (and they are not always the same meal  — my kingdom for a dishwasher….) and do it on the cheap. I triple recipes and freeze portions for greater efficiency. And I am always searching for new takes on standard ingredients.

So here is a new recipe for black bean burgers, inspired by Vegetarian Times. This addition of quinoa — a super-grain that is super-easy to prepare — creates a phenomenal texture and you can really substitute whichever spices you like; here I used adobo powder to good effect. ATTENTION VEGANS: the quinoa holds everything together, so there are NO EGGS needed!

You can also freeze the extra; a great plus. I did them from dry beans, soaked overnight with a bit of salt, then simmered for a couple of hours, but I include the measurements for using canned beans too.

Full disclosure: Leandro loved the texture and did not like the taste AT ALL. So I will get to pack them for my lunches for the next few weeks and next time I make these, I will fiddle around with flavors. VegTimes suggests steak seasoning (which is vegetarian) so maybe I will go that route.

Here’s to a delicious and healthy Spring Semester, starting now at a college near me!

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

1.5 Cups cooked quinoa (prepared according to package directions)

1 small onion, chopped fine (about 1 Cup)

6 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained indifferently and finely chopped

1.5 Cups cooked black beans (or 15 oz. can black beans rinsed and drained, divided in half)

3 cloves garlic, minced (about 3 Tbs)

2 Tbs adobo

(Optional: Burger fixings – buns, sliced onion, cheese, mustard, ketchup, sliced avocado, etc)

Saute onion and tomatoes in a large nonstick skillet and cook over medium heat (you probably won’t need additional oil as the tomatoes will have enough).  Cook 5 minutes, until onion is well-softened. Stir in black beans (half if using canned), garlic, adobo and 1.5 Cups water and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and the beans are softened (you may need more water if using beans from dry). Season with salt and pepper if necessary and allow to cool.

Transfer bean mixture to food processor. Add half the quinoa and process until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and mix in the remaining quinoa (and remaining beans if using canned).

Preheat oven to 350°F and coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape bean mixture into ½ Cup patties (8-9) and place on baking sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes on each side until both sides are crisp and brown and serve with fixings of your choice.

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Inside-Out Guacamole

16 Jan

I invented this recipe for my beloved Single Mothers by Choice support group; we meet up once a month at someone’s home and our kids go mental playing, while we bring snacks — often home-made — drink tea and coffee, and discuss — among other momentous questions — whether a date for Valentine’s Day is possible, do-able or desirable (Some women have married out, so the answer might just be yes).

I joined the group when considering embarking on single parenthood and started going to the local meetings when I got pregnant(!), so it’s been about five years, and let me tell you, there is nothing better than a supportive and understanding peer group to help you navigate your ups, downs, and angst. Leandro considers some of the kids among his best friends and we share times with them outside regular meetings, so it is really important to us.

So thus inside-out guacamole – a speedier way to the same great flavor.

And this guac without the mashing is not just for single chicks…It’s got NFL cred…try it on Sunday when Big Blue shows that team from San Francisco where they can put that candlestick….

Inside-Out Guacamole (can be doubled or tripled)

2 ripe Haas avocados (unpeeled flesh should give a bit when pressed with a finger), peeled and chunked

Juice of half a lime

½ Cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

¼ red onion, sliced very thin

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

¼-1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/8-1/4 tsp salt (to taste)

Place avocado chunks in a bowl and sprinkle with lime (for flavor and to prevent browning)

Add the rest of the ingredients, mix gently and serve with large tortilla chips or tortilla scoops.

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Pasta al Tonno – tuna, olives, and capers in red sauce

14 Jan

Back in the 90s, pasta was the staple food of single women and gay men. “The Italians don’t get fat and they eat it every day,” was part of the reasoning (not getting fat being one of the particular obsessions of single women and gay men for reasons that are probably obvious).

Then there was the speed and efficiency of pasta; if you can boil water and saute garlic (or open a jar), you can probably put together a pre-club, pre-booze meal even while doing your pre-club ablutions and outfit selection (and mixing a pre-club cocktail — or two — while blowdrying).

Finally, pasta was a perfectly acceptable dish to serve guests for a dinner party; if you grated your own Parmigiano Reggiano and the sauce included mushrooms — and there was plenty of wine –, why you were practically a gourmet chef! What could be more right?

Pasta al Tonno – one of the fastest pasta dishes known to man. Tuna and olives (green or black!)

Then The Dark Cloud of Carbohydrate Catastrophe descended upon single-woman-and-gay-mankind.

The devious Italians had tricked us by using less sauce, lighter sauce, only having one serving, and actually walking places to stay thin. We flocked to the safety of sliced steak and mesclun salad to contain our belly fat.

Now that I am a mom, pasta is back in my life. The aforementioned speed and efficiency is critical, the leftovers-for-lunch potential unparalleled, and so is pasta’s ability to be the receptacle for so many healthy vegetables that might otherwise languish on the side of a little kid’s plate, a line in the sand of Who-Is-Really-In-Charge-Here Beach, a combustible place where any parental victory is likely a Pyrrhic one.

But for a long time I was pretending not to eat the pasta I was making for Leandro. I say pretending, because, as so many moms, I was tasting to the point of having no meal left to serve at the table and finishing whatever he left on his plate – you know, all the bad little mommy habits that lead to the dreaded belly fat and the matronly figure before one’s appointed time.

So enough of the bullshit and the pretending. I am making pasta dishes that I like and eating them with my son like the civilized human being that I am (and hoping to once again have that slim, single-pasta-eating-woman of the 90s figure).

This is one of the fast dishes I learned to make in Italy (where I lived for two years, acquiring pasta skills for the 90s), slightly modified to reflect my Latin pantry. I made it for Leandro for the first time this week and he loved it and I loved it and BASTA! Enough talk – here’s the recipe!

Pasta al Tonno I (serves four; cooking and prep 20 minutes)

1 lb. pasta of your choice (this sauce clings and is also chunky, so most medium shapes – long or short – will suit)

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

½ Cup onion, chopped fine

(2-3 anchovies packed in oil, optional; use paper towels to sop up excess oil)

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

10 pimiento-stuffed green olives, drained indifferently and sliced

2 tsp capers, drained indifferently

5 oz can tuna packed in water, not drained (you should drain it if using tuna packed in oil)

Salt to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a medium-large saucepan at medium high until oil is fragrant. Add onions, stir to coat, then lower heat to medium-low. When onions are translucent, add optional anchovies, breaking up with your spoon. Add crushed tomatoes and stir to mix. Stir in olives and capers and simmer for five minutes. Add tuna (with water from can), stir to combine and break up. Simmer for an additional five minutes. Add cooked pasta to saucepan and stir to combine. Salt to taste and serve. This dish doesn’t really require grated cheese, but go ahead and try it with Parmigiano Reggiano if you like! Serve with crusty bread for dipping.

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Breadfruit – Panapén – High Seas History (and a rant)

13 Jan

Fried Pana – Nirvana!!!!!

We are just back from almost three weeks in Puerto Rico with my parents at the home of my late grandmother, during which I ate loads of classic Puerto Rican Christmas food — perníl, pasteles, morcilla, arroz con gandules — O.M.G. I am fat and happy to have my food fixes fixed!

However, I did not do a lot of cooking! I thought my dad and I would take the opportunity to mash it up in the kitchen for the duration, but….my dad, who has a history of embarking on new eating plans that — for better or worse — consume the rest of us, chose THE HOLIDAYS IN PUERTO RICO TO START THE CRAZIEST DIET OF THEM ALL!?! Did he have to purge now!?! Are you kidding me!?!

It’s okay that he became a vegan overnight, it’s okay that additionally, sugar and things like bread, rice and pasta are not allowed, but in this version of vegan there is a whole ‘nother complication: you can’t mix food grown under the earth in the same meal as food grown on top of the earth. So you want to saute garlic with your leafy greens? No. You want onions in your chayote salad? No. It’s a big old pain, and while this diet has had great effects for our cousin and other people we know and I hope it resolves whatever my dad hopes it resolves, I just wish he could have put it off until we had had a lot more fun in the kitchen. And I did guilt the churrasco recipe  out of him finally!

Rant over.

Let’s talk about my single most favorite starchy produce item in the whole wide world: breadfruit, or panapén or pana (as we call it in Puerto Rico).

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a very tall, lusciously-leafed relative of the mulberry. It originates in Southeast Asia and it prolifically produces canteloupe-size green-peeled starchy fruit that is denser and sweeter than potato. It can be boiled, roasted, fried…anything.

Credits to Wikipedia for this image!!!!

Remember The Mutiny on the Bounty? Well Captain Bligh was trying to bring breadfruit to the Caribbean from Tahiti (as a way to feed the increasing numbers of slaves) when he was set adrift by his mutinous crew. He eventually succeeded — but legend has it the slaves refused to eat it.

Anyway, breadfruit was not supposed to be in season during this holiday, but my admirers (yes I have some) — the LeBron brothers of the Plaza del Mercado of Mayagüez — managed to obtained some for me and in their desire to please, peeled and sliced it for me before I had a chance to photograph it (thus the borrowed image).

Anyway, the recipe is simple:

Salt an abundant amount of water in a large pot, bring to a boil (either with or without the peeled, sliced breadfruit already in), reduce heat and boil gently for about 15 minutes until tender. Drain and serve with olive oil and salt (and salt cod in vinaigrette, if you’ve got, but that’s a recipe for another day).

I mash mine up on my plate with abundant oil, but the pictures didn’t come out very well so a I could not include them.

The following day, I took the leftover boiled pana and sliced it into flat squares that I fried in a small amount of vegetable oil. The insides were so creamy…just thinking about it makes my mouth water…And that you can indeed see in the picture.

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