Daily menu

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Pasta Two Ways

I wanted a thick rich mushroom sauce for tonight’s pasta, but knew that 2/3 of the kids wouldn’t eat it. So I made two sauces at the same time. I was able to make both sauces while the water boiled and the pasta cooked.

Portobello Mushroom Sauce

  • 3 large portobello mushroom caps, chopped
  • 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 3 Tbs. butter
  • 1/2 cup half and half
  • 1/2 cup 1% milk
  • 1 Tbs flour

Saute the mushrooms in the butter with lots of coarsely ground black pepper, and a little salt, until soft and the liquid comes out. Stir in the cheese and flour, and then the half and half and milk, keeping the heat low and continue stirring as the cheese melts.

Alfredo Sauce

  • 4 Tbs. butter
  • 2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped fine
  • 1/2 cup half and half
  • 1/2 cup 1% milk
  • 1 Tbs. flour

Saute the garlic in the butter, stir in the Parmesan cheese,  parsley and flour; then add the half and half, milk, keeping the heat low and continuing to stir as the cheese melts.

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Apple-Topped Meat Loaf

I wanted a lighter sort of meat loaf, so I mixed in some ground pork with the beef, soaked some bread in apple sauce, mixed in plenty of chopped apples and onions, and the result was superb. We ate it with some roasted new potatoes and fresh green beans. A great meal.

Apple-Topped Meat Loaf

  • 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 2 medium onions, chopped
  • 2 medium apples, chopped
  • 4 slices whole wheat bread, soaked in 1/2 cup apple sauce and 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1 Tbs. salt
  • freshly ground pepper

This makes a huge meat loaf. Our family of six will eat it tomorrow as leftovers. Mix everything together, top with sliced apple rings, and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees. During the last 10 minutes, if you like, you can spread on a mixture of 1/3 cup ketchup, 1 Tbs. brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. dry mustard.

Roasted new potatoes, lightly coated in olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and rosemary. Bake in the oven with the meat loaf, but they only take about 45 minutes.

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Bharathi Shares Her Kitchen

My first attempt at Indian cooking included cholae and fried rice.

Indian food is one of my favorites, but the spices are a mystery to me. On Friday, AJ and I were invited to our friend Bharathi’s kitchen for an Indian cooking lesson. Bharathi is eager to learn some American recipes and suggested that we exchange some native recipes and cooking tips. She taught us fried rice with mint, cloves and cumin; cholae — a dish with garbanzo beans, tomatoes and about a dozen wonderful spices; and toor dal, again made with 6 or 8 lovely spices.

I love how Bharathi’s kitchen is filled with containers of legumes and, of course, spice after spice. She taught me the names of the spices, and let me hold them and smell their fragrance. Although her ingredients are somewhat different then mine, her cooking style is very much like mine. She does not measure, nor does she follow a prescribed recipe. Her cooking is a work of art, dappled with exotic spices with names like hing, amchur and chana masala.

My hand-scrawled notes with the names and procedures are a bit ragged and I was anxious to give some the recipes a try while the instructions were clear in my head, and the memory of the taste was vivid. So today, Doug and I visited the Indian grocery store and bought the ingredients, and then I made up a batch of cholae and fried rice for dinner. The spices and flavors are so complex — I’m quite beside myself that I’m learning to create with a new palette of flavors!

Do you want to learn a new cuisine? Is there someone you know who cooks something that you admire? Invite them to participate in a cooking exchange with you. Next week I plan on teaching Bharathi my brownie recipe, from scratch.

Fried Rice (Indian Style)

  • 3 c. basmati rice
  • 2 Tbs. butter
  • 2 Tbs. oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 tsp. cumin seeds
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. ginger, minced
  • 2-3 c. mixed vegetables, frozen or finely chopped fresh
  • 8 whole cloves
  • 1 tsp. salt, or to taste
  • 6 c. water

Heat butter and oil, add onion and saute until soft. Add garlic, ginger, cloves, and cumin seeds. Stir for one minute, then add rice and stir 2-3 minutes. Add salt, vegetable and water, and cook as you normally do for rice, for about 45-50 minutes.

Cholae (a spicy, flavorful, garbanzo bean and tomato stew)

  • 1 Tbs. oil
  • 2 medium onions, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tsp. grated fresh ginger
  • 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
  • 5 c. cooked garbanzo beans
  • 1 28-oz can chopped tomatoes (use the juice as well)
  • 1 15-oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 Tbs. amchoor powder (dried mango powder)
  • 2-3 tsp. channa masala (cholae masala) seasoning
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 4 whole bay leaves

Heat oil, add onion and saute until soft. Add garlic, ginger, cholae masala, turmeric, bay leaves, tomatoes and tomato sauce. Heat over medium heat for a few minutes and then stir in garbanzo beans, amchoor, salt and a little water (to adjust consistency). Heat over low heat for 30 minutes or more.

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Very Veggie Stir Fry

Stir fry with asparagus, green beans, chard, broccoli and cauliflower.

After eating pancakes for dinner last night our bodies were screaming out for some vegetables.

Here’s a very simple method for a quick stir fry:

  1. Marinate the raw, cut up chicken in some soy sauce and garlic and/or minced ginger for as much time as you can before cooking.
  2. Cook the chicken and marinade in a little oil along with a handful of chopped green onions, until cooked through, then take it all out of the pan and put it aside in a bowl while you cook the vegetables.
  3. Add a little more oil to the pan, cook the vegies in order of how much cooking time each requires.
  4. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and let them steam for a minute or two.
  5. When they’re cooked how you like them, put the chicken back in the pan, sprinkle on a bit more soy sauce and another handful of green onions. Add some red pepper flakes if you want it spicy.
  6. Heat through and serve with some sticky rice.
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Strawberry Short(pan)Cakes

With a nod to my Swedish friends, we had pancakes for dinner tonight, topped with vanilla yogurt and heaped with strawberries.

I follow the 1-1-1 recipe for making up pancake batter, as follows:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 Tbs. oil
  • 1 Tbs. sugar

From there it’s great to improvise. Tonight I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and also poured in some wheat germ. In place of 1/2 of the milk I substituted some yogurt. So even though it’s pancakes for dinner, it’s pretty healthy!

Another great variation is to add a whole grated apple and some cinnamon.

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20 Minute Pasta Sauce

Thick and chunky pasta sauce over tortellini, served with garlic bread and fresh green beans.

Wednesday is our busiest day of the week, which is why it’s pasta night. Boil some noodles, open a jar and dinner is done. I planned on tortellini, but didn’t realize that I was out of sauce until the water was boiling, so I mixed one up in less than 20 minutes. It was delicious.

20 Minute Pasta Sauce

  • 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used Trader Joe’s Organic Tomatoes, Diced in Tomato Juice, and they were exceptionally sweet.)
  • 2 cans tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 2 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. basil

Keep in mind that I never measure when I throw these things together. The fun is in imagining the flavor, adding something, tasting and adding until you like it.  When I was done I wrote down approximately what I put in the sauce.

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Salmon Patties

Yesterday I made one of the last comfort-food dishes of the winter season. Before the 80 degree weather made it’s way through the thick walls of our old house, I heated up a pan, whipped up some cream sauce and fried up some salmon patties for my dad. Allegedly, this is my father’s favorite dish. A throw-back to the 50’s, it really must be served with the white sauce thick with peas. I resisted the temptation to add a side of jello and canned peaches, and instead I served a nice green salad.

Salmon Patties (makes 3)

  • a large can of salmon
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 diced green onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Form into patties and gently heat in a pan with a little olive oil. Brown each side. Serve with a standard white sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper. Stir in a handful of frozen peas and heat slowly.

This is a plain recipe, and you can doctor it up with some dill or cumin or pepper.  Using canned salmon is not for the timid. I like to remove as much of the skin and bones as I can before mixing with the other ingredients.

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Cilantro Rice

Every time I taste cilantro I am startled by how good it is. And then I forget all about it. It’s not a flavor that made its way into my Jewish mother’s kitchen and it never became a habit. But tonight I wanted to do something different with our standard black beans and rice so I very purposefully purchased a fresh bunch of cilantro at the Mexican grocery store, and added some to the rice while it cooked. It’s nice living here in our little college town, a cultural oasis in the middle of the farmlands. We’re lucky to have the Mexican store with the fresh tortillas from Chicago; the Asian store with fresh sushi; the Indian market, etc.

Cilantro Rice

  • 2 cups raw rice prepared according to package directions, and to this add:
  • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 tsp. lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp. salt

Cook, and fluff in an additional 1/4 cup chopped cilantro before serving.

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Lamb Patties in Bacon with Dill Sauce

My mother-in-law and I recently bought half of a lamb from the University of Illinois meat science lab. The lab opens a meat counter three days a week, selling fresh cuts of the livestock they “harvest.” This is what a half lamb looks like:

Dorothy loves lamb the way some people love good chocolate, and she swears she would enjoy it three times a day.  She called me last night, excited to share a recipe she found in her old edition of the Better Homes and Garden cook book. I could hear her mouth watering over the phone, as she told me about the lamb patties wrapped in bacon. I made it tonight, and much to my surprise even my kids enjoyed it.

I served it with mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and a mixed green salad with home-made Caesar dressing.

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Easy Japanese Dinner — Gyoza (potstickers)

 

Mr. Sugiyama, the former Miss Gordon, Mr. Walker, Mrs. Sugiyama, Sept. 2, 1990, Glencoe, Illinois.

 

Mrs. Sugiyama, my karate teacher’s wife, taught me  Japanese cooking in 1989. I went to their house every Friday morning to help Mr. Sugiyama paste up his new karate book, 25 Shotokan Kata. This was in the dark ages when we used a waxer to coat the backs of the pages and an x-acto knife to trim the edges. After I arrived at 10:00, we would have some tea, and then Sensei and I would get to work on the pages, while gossiping about the people in the dojo. “Gordon-san,” he would ask me, “How do you think of Miss Fallon? Who would be a good match for her?” And so we would talk about good match-ups for all of his students. At around 11:00 it was time for a break, and my cooking lesson with Mrs. Sugiyama began. I would go into the kitchen where she taught me the art of stuffing and hand crimping the little dumplings, and frying-then-steaming the little pot-stickers or gyoza. She used fresh pork and cabbage, seasoned with green onions. They were lovely. I remember how to make them, and every couple of years I will go to the small effort, but the easiest way to capture that crunchy, chewy dumpling experience is to head to your nearest Asian grocery store, and buy a bag of the frozen. That’s what I’m doing tomorrow. I’ll post a picture after I fry them up. Go out tomorrow and buy a bag — you can get vegetarian ones as well — and we can enjoy them together (virtually). Also, pick up some soy sauce, rice vinegar and some chili oil so we can make the dipping sauce.

My most memorable gossip session with  Sensei Sugiyama was when I asked him what he thought about Mr. Walker. “As a boyfriend, Gordon-san?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“I can not recommend him. There is a certain sharpness in his eyes.”

While I respected Mr. Sugiyama, thankfully I did not follow his advice, and 20 years later Mr. Walker and I are still enjoying gyoza together. And, I should add, that when Mr. Walker announced our engagement right in the middle of a karate class, Sensei ran over to him and gave him a big bear hug.

 

Prepared, frozen gyoza. For the sauce mix 1 part soy sauce with 1/2 part rice vinegar and just a few drops of chili oil. Adjust to taste.