Dinner in 30 minutes or less

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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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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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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.

 

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Very-Veggie Pasta with Cheese

DSCN0380pretty pasta w vegies sm

Don’t  buy boxed macaroni and cheese. Instead, make this from scratch in 30 minutes. It’s kid friendly and they get all of their vegetables right in the dish. This is one of the few dishes that all three of my children love, and even their pickiest of friends have asked for seconds.

  • 4 cups chopped vegetables
  • 1/4 onion, finely chopped
  • 4 Tbs. butter
  • 4 Tbs. flour
  • 2 cups milk (you can use soy milk)
  • 3 cups grated cheese (Use what you works for your crowd: – Kids like cheddar or cheddar-jack blend.  – Mix in some Swiss or goat cheese to suit your taste. – Tonight I used Havarti and cheedar.)
  • 1 large, fresh tomato, chopped.
  • about 1 pound of mixed pasta
  • 1 tsp. basil
  • salt and pepper

1. Get your water boiling.

2. Start the sauce:

  • Cut up the vegetables into little pieces. I like to use broccoli and/or zucchini, and mushrooms. I’ve also used thinly sliced kohlrabi, very thinly sliced carrots, cauliflower or chopped spinach. Use your favorites.
  • Saute the vegetables along with the onion in the butter until the vegetable are slightly soft. They’ll cook a bit more after you add in the milk and cheese.
  • Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir it around. It will be a little pasty.
  • Slowly add the milk, a little at a time.
  • Mix in the cheese and let it melt, and add the tomatoes.
  • Season with salt, pepper and basil.

Keep this over the lowest possible heat while you boil the pasta.

  • Pick 2 or 3 different kinds of pasta shapes (bow ties, rotini, etc.). One of them should be a long shape like spaghetti or linguine, which you’re going to break into about 3″ segments before boiling. That way all of the pasta pieces will be of similar size. Boil them all in the same pot of water, taking note of cooking times and adding them one type at a time with the longest-cooking pasta going into the pot first.

Get out your biggest serving bowl, and pour the sauce over the pasta.

 

I’m thrilled to announce that The Plate is My Canvas is now available as a book, and includes many recipes from this blog.
— The Plate is My Canvas: Recipes and Stories from My Family’s Interfaith Kitchen, 222 pages.

I’ve also published two books that are excerpts from “The Plate.”
—For just the Passover recipes, most of which are included in the “The Plate,” Essential Passover from Scratch: Recipes and Stories from My Mother’s Kitchen, 72 pages.
—For the very best of my baked goods—cookies, bread, coffee cakes, etc., You Can’t Have Dry Coffee: Papa’s Excuse to Have a Nosh And Nana’s Perfect Pastries, 86 pages.

These projects started as this food blog! From there emerged the iNosh iPad app (no longer available), and now the books. My goal in making printed copies of The Plate is My Canvas was to pass down my family’s traditions to my children, and I presented them each with the big volume in December of 2018. It’s taken a while, but now the books are available to others.

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Asparagus Soup

There isn’t much to do with 2-day old wilted, over cooked, cold and slimy asparagus, so I transformed it into an elegant cream of asparagus soup.

Saute up some onions with mushrooms, and after they’re soft put them in the blender along with the asparagus. Thin with some chicken stock and a little white wine if you have it. I made a cream sauce tonight using Matzo Cake Meal instead of flour. Whisk the white sauce into the asparagus puree, heat very gently and serve. Top with a little sour cream if you want to be fancy.

We had this with our Matzo Lasagna.