2:12 PM Rice Cooker Udon Noodle Soup

This is my recipe for rice cooker udon noodle soup. Since I make this soup at my office where there is no sink to wash dirty dishes, I have managed to put this recipe together with very little utensils and measuring devices. This kind of soup is well adapted to changes. You can add just about whatever you want to it, although the base of the soup should stay comprised of Bonito and some sort of seaweed as that is the classic Dashi stock used in many Japanese soup recipes.

This is the small rice cooker I use in my office. I have used it to make regular Ramen as well as to steam veggies and dumplings for my lunch. Thanks to this little rice cooker, I don't have to rely on the microwave.


The first step is to measure out some water for the stock. I use one of those large latte mugs for my soups because they are big enough to hold the noodles and soup contents. They also have a handy dandy little handle which saves your hands from burning when you transport the soup from the cooking area. Fill the mug up to about a 1/2 inch from the top.


Pour the water from the mug in the rice cooker bowl. At this time, you will want to turn the rice cooker on. Go ahead and switch it on to cook as opposed to leaving it on warm.

After you have gotten the water settled, it's time to put in the stock ingredients. For classic Dashi stock, Bonito flakes and Kombu seaweed is boiled together. But then the Dashi is drained so that the Bonito and Kombu are filtered out. I use Wakame seaweed instead of Kombu and leave the Bonito in the soup. It's a personal preference because I want to eat the seaweed and I don't mind eating the Bonito. You can use the traditional Dashi recipe if you're making this at home and want the clean broth.


I measure the ingredients in my hand since I don't have any measuring tools. You can adjust the measurements to taste. Keep in mind that the Bonito will compact, and even some will dissolve, when wet. Additionally, the Wakame will expand quite a lot when re-hydrated.



I use one medium to large sized Shitake mushroom for the broth. I like the depth that it adds to the Dashi. After wiping the mushroom with a little damp cloth, remove the stem. Removing the stem is easy, just hold the cap gently in one hand and the stem firmly in the other, and twist the stem off of the cap. Sometimes you'll have to pull while twisting to make it happen.


Then slice up the mushroom like so.


You can slice the mushroom thinner and leave the pieces long, or you can cube them like I have below. I eat my noodle soup with chopsticks, so I prefer thicker mushrooms.


Then put the mushrooms in the water along with the Dashi ingredients.


I've used a couple of different kinds of noodles for this soup. I've used regular Ramen noodles; I've used soft Udon noodles which are packaged similarly to Ramen; I've used a smaller flat asian noodle that comes in a little nest (I don't read Chinese so I have no idea what these noodles are); and finally I've used these flat Udon noodles. My favorite noodles were the soft Udon noodles, but those come individually packaged at $1/package. So there's extra plastic waste plus the waste of the unused flavor pack. For this blog, I used the flat Udon noodles pictured below. I do like them, however I just found a store nearby which sells the round Udon noodles packaged similarly to these. I will be trying those next time because those soft Udon noodles I liked so much were also round. I like the round ones because they are more dough-ey than the flat noodles.

For this package, I had to measure my own noodles. All the previous noodles had their own portioning methods, this one didn't. So I remembered that the Soba noodles I've purchased before in a similar package had three portions in it. Thus I divided this package into thirds and placed the noodles in the bowl to cook alongside the Dashi ingredients. You don't have to cook the Dashi first, it can all cook together to save time.


The Cons of using this kind of noodle is that they don't fit in the bowl all at once. However, as the noodles cook, they will droop and end up completely submerged. You don't have to cover the soup for it to cook, so not only can you just walk away from the soup until it is done, but that makes one less item you have to take home to wash.


You'll want the soup mixture to cook until it comes to this slight boil. The soup is ready when the noodles are cooked to the desired consistency.


Once everything is done, pour the whole soup into your mug and Enjoy! Sometimes I'll also add a topping of Furikake or a dash of soy just to make things a little different, but it is not needed.

8:51 PM Lamb Penne Bake

I love casseroles about as much as I love soups. And when either of those includes pasta I'm about as happy as it gets! So this week when I needed a cheap meal I could cook for the week that wasn't bean soup, I turned to a classic pasta bake. There's about a million pasta bakes that this could be based on. This is my take based on my love for adding veggies to spaghetti and my obsession with subbing lamb for beef.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
Onion
Zucchini
Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Red Pepper flakes
splash of merlot
Ground Lamb
Whole Wheat Penne
Tony Chacherie's/Emeril's Essence
Garlic salt
Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
Mozzerella
Italian seasoning

Method:

Start out in a skillet with olive oil. Slice onions thinly and stir into skillet coating with the olive oil. Salt onions so that the onions sweat.


Now add the zucchini to the skillet. Salt, pepper and add the red pepper flakes. Stir and saute until they just begin to carmelize.


Now I LOVE garlic, so I put in 4 cloves. You can certainly decrease that to taste. Chop the garlic and add to the skillet. The trick here is to not burn the garlic. Many recipes tell you to add the garlic to the onions as they are sweating. The problem is that garlic burns easily and once garlic burns, it is bitter. So I add my garlic nearer the end. In this case, once I noticed the onion an zucchini carmelizing, I stirred well and added the garlic to the top of the veggies. I did not stir. I just let the garlic hang out on top and kind of steam. Then when it was time to stir because the mixture had carmelized more, that's when the garlic started saute'ing.


This is what the carmelization should look like. Once everything looks like this, it's time to transfer the veggies to the glass pan, so we can use the skillet for the lamb. Once the veggies are in the glass pan, splash a little red wine in and stir. And I really do mean just a splash. Ordinarily you would put the wine into the skillet and use it to deglaze the pan, but I'm using cast iron. I don't want to deglaze my pan. So I added it as a touch after the transfer.


After you've transferred the veggies, you are ready to cook the lamb. Don't wash the skillet, use whatever is left in the skillet to flavor the meat. Add more oil and then the lamb. Salt, Pepper, garlic salt, and Tony Chacherie's is added. Then the lamb is browned.


While the lamb is browning, bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until Al Dente.


This is how the lamb looks as it is browning. You can stop here, but I prefer to cook until some pieces have a crust.


See how browned these pieces are? This is a personal preference. Play with the dish and cook to your taste.


Once the lamb is browned to your satisfaction, mix penne and lamb with the zucchini, onions and garlic in a glass baking dish.


Now it's time to add the spaghetti sauce. I cheated and used jarred. But next time I want to use homemade.


Grate the fresh mozzerella and mix into the dish like so.


Then grate more mozzerella onto the top and load into an oven preheated to 350 degrees. Then bake until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted.


This is what the bake looks like once all the cheese is melted. I would have finished the dish off in the broiler to get a good brown on the cheese, however, the pasta pieces sticking out were beginning to over cook, so I went ahead and took it out.


I was hoping this would set up and allow me to cut out my serving like a lasagna. But I don't think I put in enough cheese for it to do that. On one hand, that means my portions don't present solidly when served, but on the other, tons of cheese means tons of extra fat. And more expense since cheese isn't exactly cheap.




As is, my serving just kind of glopped out on my plate. But Man was it good! It didn't need any extra cheese. The only thing I think I would change is I would add some sliced portabella mushrooms to the mix and I would probably add a little more cheese to the top so the pasta is covered. Then I could either leave it in longer or finish it off in the broiler for browning the cheese topping. This is one of those dishes, like lasagna, that will get better as it sits. It was lovely right out of the oven, but as I sat and took my time with it, the flavors seemed to get more prominent near the end of the meal. I think it will be absolutely Heavenly by tomorrow!

To accompany my dish, I had this Castle Rock Merlot. This particular Castle Rock was perfect with the meal. It was subtle and yet hit all the right notes to compliment the tomato sauce and spice. And in fact, it was also the wine I splashed into the dish once the veggies went into the glass dish so it was utilized on both sides of the meal.


This dish is quite a simple one to make, however, it did take quite a bit of time seeing as how I insisted on using the same skillet for the lamb and veggies. Had I used two separate skillets, my time would have been reduced quite a bit. I am not a fan of dishwashing, though, so I much prefer to use as few dishes as possible!

Pasta bakes, like casseroles, make great leftovers. They also freeze well. This is one of those dishes that you could cook in bulk over the weekend and freeze in small portions for when you just need a TV dinner because you don't feel like cooking.

8:12 PM Pasta with Mushrooms and Lima Beans

Tonight was a new dish made of items I needed to use out of the fridge. My portions are for one and I didn't measure anything, so you'll need to adjust for how many you are feeding.

2 slices of red onion
2 mushrooms, sliced
handful of frozen Lima beans
one clove of garlic, chopped
tablespoon of pesto
1/2 teaspoon of tomato paste
olive oil
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese
small handful of whole wheat spaghetti

Prepare spaghetti noodles as directed on the package. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet. divide slices of onion into quarters and begin saute. Salt onions to sweat. Once onions are beginning to go clear, add sliced mushrooms. Stir and salt again to sweat. Add Lima beans and saute until mushrooms are carmelized and lima beans are cooked. Add garlic and stir. Cook for about 30 seconds and turn heat off of burner. Garlic will continue to cook, but won't burn.


Once pasta is cooked al dente, drain and place in skillet with saute. Stir until noodles are coated. If skillet has cooled down, bring back up to low until finished stirring noodles.

Transfer noodle and veggies to a plate and add pesto and tomato paste.

Stir until coated. Season with pepper and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.


This dish was extremely satisfying. It was a nice easy comfort meal. I accompanied the dish with Meridian Chardonnay and some green olives. The whole dish can be made Vegan with the omission of Parmesan and subbing a Vegan Pesto.

7:59 PM Pasta with sauteed zucchini and sundried tomatoes

Today was an especially lovely day for recipe blogging. I bookmarked A Lot! Tonight I decided to try out this Pasta with Zucchini and Chickpeas I saw on Cheap Healthy Good. The only problem was that I was missing a key ingredient-Chickpeas!

Actually, that's not entirely accurate. I always have chickpeas on hand. It's just that the chickpeas I keep on hand are dried and I don't have the kind of time needed to soak, and cook those chickpeas. I do buy the canned version often, but I don't always keep cans on hand. I generally will purchase what I need plus one extra can so I can save precious space in my cabinets. Apparently, I used up the last can I bought.

So in the absence of one key ingredient for a pasta dish, I did what I normally do, I subbed sundried tomatoes! Otherwise, the dish was prepared exactly as instructed in the recipe. Plus a dash of lemon. And I forgot to put the crushed peppers in while sauteing so I just left them out altogether.

The result was pretty good! It would probably have been better with the chickpeas and with grated Parmesean instead of the powdery kind. The kind I have on hand is real parmesean, but there's just something different about that grated consistency that makes a difference.



Tonight I'm having Meridian Chardonnay with my meal. Newmarket has had it on sale lately and I've taken a liking to it over Barefood Chardonnay.

4:38 PM Is the Food Network hindering our desire to cook?

Today on La Vida Localvore Jill Richardson discusses an assertion made by Michael Pollan that watching cooking shows on TV may be part of causing the opposite reaction than we would think.

Like Richardson, I was a little surprised by this idea that people who watch the Food Network aren't actually cooking. I remember very well a recent Thanksgiving where the Blessing was said and then immediately after the "amen" I pointed out that the prayer was missing an important Thank You to the Food Network for without their programming much of the bounty on our table would not be possible. I got a good laugh out of the family for that joke, but it was really the honest truth. I personally had made one dish derived from a recipe I saw on Food Network and one of my mother's crown jewels in the annual feast is Rachel Ray's Pumpkin Soup with Chili Cran-Apple Relish. That particular soup has jockeyed to the top of the Favorites list. I've even negotiated a favorite dessert omission just so we could keep the soup in one year when Mom said she had too much to make and threatened to take it out!

In my own life, I watch food oriented shows sparingly. This is not to say that I don't enjoy them. I enjoy them immensly. I most especially enjoy the PBS foodie programming. PBS is where I first met Michael Chiarello and Lidia Bastianich, two chefs from whom I have learned a great deal. Those shows specifically presented recipes that made me want to run right out and get the ingredients to cook that meal for dinner That Day. And as much as I would like to be able to say "oh, he's talking about the reality competition type shows, " even they serve as stimulating inspiration, or a provocation for research into new ingredients, tools, and techniques.

But time has slipped away from me as well. And I do understand Pollan's point that today's families just don't seem to think they have the kind of time to cook that their parents may have had. However, I find that instead of running to fast food or packaged frozen foods on a daily basis, I enjoy the challenge this time issue presents. Some days I do succumb to the spell of the frozen pizza, but most days I am able to throw together something interesting with little active cooking time, lots of taste, and that is Healthy. I have found that the lack of time issue has presented me with an interesting food puzzle. And interestingly enough, I know I am eating cheaper by home cooking, than I am by going the convenience route.

6:46 PM Same old collard greens, different mushrooms

I've made a couple of variations on this recipe before. Last time I made this recipe, I wasn't exactly happy with the sausage. This time the dish was Fantastic! The addition of shitake mushrooms was the big difference I think.

Ingredients:

Yellow onion
carrots
shitake mushrooms
sausage
collard greens
garlic
olive oil
lemon juice
salt, pepper, tony chacherie's

9:59 AM This is why Fresh food is important to me

I would like to point your attention to a blog that I read this morning on My Brown Thumb. The author's blog says most everything I want to say, so I won't rehash it.

More reasons not to eat processed food, as if you needed them

One thing I pride myself upon in my home is that I cook a good 80% of my meals from Breakfast to Dinner. I do have the occassional TV dinner or fast food bite when I just don't feel like cooking, and chips and crackers are my prepared food guilty pleasures. But for the most part, when I made the commitment to live a healthy lifestyle, it was primarily commitment to prepare the vast majority of my meals myself so that I could be responsible for what I was putting in my body.

While I'm happy I made this decision, it's not exactly easy business. Between the job, cat fostering, caring for my elderly dog, costuming, and joining in making the occasional short film, I'm basically running on near empty a lot. Thus my meals need to be trouble free cooking. I can't waste time slaving over prepping 30 ingredients. I can't "stir constantly" to make that perfect risoto. I have to cook things that I can either set and come back to in 10 minutes or it has to prep and cook in 5. And that's where the TV dinners get me. I can turn on the oven, take the dog out and feed the cats, then put the food in, and do some other chore for 18-30 minutes while the dinner is cooking. That's a pretty efficient deal! I will often cook soups and casseroles in bulk on a weekend when I have a weekend to cook, but those have been few and far between lately.

As much as convenience really does rule the way we eat, we have also come to find out in recent years that eating conveniently has a price. Mostly that price is our health, but in addition, convenience foods have begun to change the places we eat as well as the manner in which we eat. Thanks to convenience foods, family meals around a dinner table are a different story if they even happen at all. But I digress, the point is that if we want to be healthy, it is up to us to take charge of our own health and the contents of the food we are putting into our bodies. As is indicated by the linked blog, food companies are now trying to wash their hands of responsibility so that they can carry on as usual and just point the finger at us. So this begs the question, if we are now being hung out to dry with no one to be our health advocates, When will we stop buying this crap? And where can a person find easy, healthy, recipes to be prepared at a decent cost, especially for a single income home?

This is always my quest. And to my surprise this month I was greeted at the grocery store with an interesting new magazine prospect. I have to admit that the first thing which caught my eye was the Beautiful chocolate cupcake on the cover. After that I noticed the name of the publication, Clean Eating. Upon seeing the name, I was Immediately intreagued. Most people I've come across who "Eat Clean" are pretty serious into exercise and nutrition, so that cupcake Must be a healthy version. Holy Crap it looked fantastic! Then I looked at the cover again and saw the point which made me actually buy the magazine.

Homemade Frozen Meals

Yup, that hooked me. I cook a lot. I collect a lot of recipes. But I've yet to come across a healthy recipe designed specifically for freezing with freezing instructions. Except soup. I know all about freezing soup. There were only a few recipes for freezing, but I'm itching to try out the quesadilla recipe and now I may have a better idea on how to freeze what and for how long, etc. An added bonus is that the rest of the magazine was fabulous as well! I found many recipes that I am excited to try out soon and most of them use readily available ingredients which don't cost an arm and a leg. This is still not discount, recession menu planning, mind you, but it does fall into the price range that a single income family can afford on occasion. And the double bonus is that because the entire magazine is based on a Clean Eating diet, the recipes are as little processed as possible. Most recipes are completely made from scratch. Hallelujia! Finally a magazine with recipes that aren't half canned!!!!!

I already have a commitment towards cutting down processed foods. It sure would be nice if I could find the nerve and the will to cut out chips too!!! For now, I think I'll call this new magazine subscription my step towards upping the ante on my commitment. Maybe one day I will be entirely processed foods free, but for now I'll just to the best I can by making myself responsible.

8:23 PM Chickpea, Cannellini Bean, and Wheatberry Soup

This is one of my favorite recipes from the magazine La Cucina Italiana. It is Incredibly Cheap to make and also just as easy. It's one of those soups that you really don't need to use measurements for and while cooking can walk away from and return just to check on things. It also freezes well and since it has zero meat or fat product in it, it keeps safely as a leftover for quite a while. Thus it's my Favorite kind of soup!

Chickpea, Cannellini Bean, and Wheatberry Soup

Start out with dried chickpeas, wheatberries, and cannellini beans (navy or great norther are also good). Soak cannellini beans in water overnight or for 8 hours. Soak chickpeas and wheatberries together in water and 1/8 tsp baking powder for the same length of time.


After soaking, bring water to boil and cook each pot around 30 min. You want the beans starting to soften, but stop before they are al dente.

See the froth in this chickpea/wheatberry pot? You want to skim All of that off the top. That's the stuff that causes a good portion of the infamous Bean Gas. Get Rid of it! So keep checking both pots to skim. You can stir after you've skimmed, don't stir before you skim. That reincorporates the gasiness into the liquid.

Once the beans are starting to soften a little, remember don't cook to al dente yet, combine both contents in the larger pot and continue to allow to boil until beans are desired softness.

Serve in in a bowl piping hot and drizzled with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, pepper, and dried herbs (I like a good Italian mix).

12:42 PM Must Have Gadget for my Kitchen!

Jazz Cool Touch Oven Rack Guards



You laugh, but I'm serious. I'm Notorious for bumping my arms on the racks in the oven. I blame my careless "reach in the mini oven and Run" ways from waiting tables at Outback Steakhouse years ago. People are crazy about that brown bread and there was times I had to grab the last loaf in the Very back of the oven quickly. As a result, I have scars up and down my arms from burns. And to this day I'll kamikazee reach for something way back in the back of an oven if I'm not thinking.

And it just plain makes me feel all smiley inside that I'm not the only dolt in the world who does this.

8:26 PM Collard Greens and Lentils

At this year's local SCA Twelfth Night Feast, one of the items of the feast was boiled lentils. The lentils were very simply prepared just in water with salt and pepper and possibly a small amount of animal fat. The dish could have used more flavoring, but I enjoyed it enough that I was inspired to modify it for one of my regular super cheap home recipes. And then while I was thinking of how I would improve the dish, I decided I needed to add something to it to make a more substantial meal. The lentils would be best as a side for something more hearty. At that point, I knew I needed to finally try my hand at making some collard greens. I'm southern, but nobody in my family ever made collard greens. They are one of those vegetables that I have been a little afraid to try until recently. But I had heard some wonderful things about sauteeing collard greens the European way, and I was determined to try it out. What follows is a pictorial of my experiment.

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the process of making the lentils. But the way I made them was the basic process of boiling beans with an animal fat. First, I soaked about 1 quarter of a package of dried red beans for 8 hours. Once those were finished soaking, I then placed them in a stockpot with two ham hocks and filled the stockpot with water until the ham hocks were covered. Then I set the water to boil. After the boiling point was reached, I let the pot simmer on Medium for several hours until the ham hocks were tender enough to pull from the bone.

By looking at the liquid in the stockpot, I knew that the flavor was going to be Incredibly dense, so I decided to take out all of the liquid, except what just covered the beans out of the pot, to reserve for later. Then I took the meat off the ham hock bones and put part of the meat in the stock pot and part in the reserved liquid. At that point it was getting late, so I simply set both containers of liquid out to cool before I put them away in the fridge for the night.

Tonight, I took the stockpot out of the fridge and put about half a bag of lentils and a quarter bag of yellow split peas in and then filled the pot up with water. I added salt and pepper and then set the pot to boil. Once boiling, I lowered the heat to Medium and simmered until lentils and peas were tender. During all of this it is important to not forget to skim the surface of the liquid of any foam or bubbles. This process reduces gas!



While the lentils were simmering, I started cooking the sausage for the collard greens. I used this Fabulous chicken sausage with sundried tomatoes!


I started with a very lightly oiled cast iron skillet with EVOO. I browned the sausage on both sides and then removed the sausage from the skillet. While the sausage was browning I sliced two baby bella mushrooms and a large garlic clove. I also thickly sliced the sausage link. Then more olive oil went into the skillet. I added the sliced ingredients and some salt and pepper and began sauteeing.


While that was going, I rolled and sliced the previously washed greens and then added those to the skillet.


At first, I thought that I may have put too much food in the skillet for me to eat on my own, but then as the greens cooked, they wilted and shrunk similar to how spinach does.


I don't know how long I sauteed everything. I just cooked until I figured the greens looked tender enough. Once I believed I was finished, I plated everything and squeezed some lemon juice and cracked some pepper over the top.


The bread you see on the plate is simply a Wheat slice toasted with butter, garlic salt, pepper and parmesean cheese.

This meal was So Good! It was actually satisfying enough that I would consider it Comfort Food. For the Collard Greens I wouldn't change a Thing. They were garlicky and the lemon and sundried tomatoes in the sausage elevated the whole dish to a fabulous other level. For the lentils, I may just boil those with a chunk of salt pork next time instead of the ham hocks. The reason being I would get more meat out of the salt pork and the cooking liquid would have a milder taste. The lentils are good as they are, but I think the taste of the actual lentils and beans would come through better with the salt pork. It's a thought for next time for sure.

9:30 AM Butternut Squash & Leek Quiche

One day last month when I was looking for healthy vegetarian dishes to present to my family for our Christmas meal (none of us is vegetarian, but each of us had prepared dishes which were either all meat, or a cheese dip or log of some sort by accident), I stumbled across this Beautiful looking recipe for Butternut Squash & Leek Quiche from the blog Girl Interrupted Eating. I won't bore you with the details of the recipe as you can find it in the link above. Just make sure you know how to convert the measurements into our American version, haha! Thank ye Gods for the Internets!

Anywhoo, the only thing I changed in the recipe was that I used phyllo dough instead of making her crust and I added just a dash of Emeril's Essence (or Tony Chacherie's) to the egg mixture. Here's the end product, I didn't take many pictures.




Unfortunately, the change of crusts wasn't a good idea. The quiche didn't hold up too well when cut. Ah well, you live and you learn. But, the quiche was GLORIOUS to taste!!!! I'm not kidding. I kind of wanted to abandon all constraints and eat the whole friggin' pie plate. I'm very anxious to see how it tastes after it's been refrigerated now.