Hot-Sweet Shrimp Skewers and Minted White Bean Salad

This meal, like many that happen in my apartment, began with a recipe from EatingWell.com. And, like almost all of those meals, I edited a few things.

 The bean salad recipe calls for fresh sage and oregano, which besides being difficult to locate (understatement) in our local grocery store, I didn't imagine I would have much later use for. So I made the bean salad with some fresh chopped mint leaves, left out the tomato, and added a chopped radish instead. You could use chickpeas instead of the cannellini beans, or a mix of the two. This really couldn't be easier. My recipe serves two:

Ingredients:

1 can cannellini beans, or about 1 1/2 cups cooked beans

1 small handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1 large rib of celery, finely chopped

1 radish, finely chopped

1 tsp. lemon juice

Olive oil

White wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Mix everything in a large bowl and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, or as long as overnight.

For the shrimp (I cooked about 25, 5-per skewer), I made a sweet-spicy sauce. These measurements are all approximate, so definitely tweak it as you see fit.

Ingredients:

1 tsp dried cilantro

2 tsp sesame ginger salad dressing

1/2 tsp lemon or lime juice

Sriracha, to taste - I used about 1/2 tsp

1 tsp honey

25 shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions:

1. Combine all, and mix with shrimp. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.

2. Skewer shrimp and grill until cooked through.

 I used my George Foreman Grill, which was a little awkward with the length of the skewers, but it all worked out fine. I did have to rearrange the skewers to make sure they were cooking evenly, but the whole grilling process only took about 6 minutes.

I served the bean salad and shrimp with some warm bulgur wheat. The shrimp came out nicely spicy-sweet, the bean salad was light and summery, and might even be better the day after. There were no leftovers tonight, so I can't say for sure!


Quote of the Day: Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. ~ Marcelene Cox

Last Night's Dinner: Mexican-ish Frittata & HotHot Salsa

Last night I got home from class around 8:45 feeling the way I often do after class: Exhausted, starving, and very tempted to order a pizza. But thankfully I had lined up an easy (though admittedly not as quick as I would like) dinner. I could lament that I was too tired to remember to add the can of diced tomato with green chilies to the frittata, but there would be no point. I think it turned out better the "mistake" way. And anyway, I'm not sure there would have been room!

As much as I am irked by the task of defrosting and (endlessly) straining frozen spinach, I do think it makes a great addition to frittatas. Last night, the concoction included:

1/2 a yellow onion, chopped

1/2 of a green bell pepper, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

About a 1/3 cup of zucchini, chopped (it had to be used for something)

10 oz package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and strained. Endlessly.

6 eggs, beaten, with a little water added for fluff and beaten some more

3.5 oz package (two small sausages) of chorizo

Small handful of shredded "Mexican" cheese

In a 10 inch round cast iron pan (or you can use any oven-proof pan) over low heat, I lightly caramelized the onion in olive oil, about two or three turns of the pan worth. Then I added green pepper, zucchini and garlic, and cooked the veggies until they were just barely tender.

Then I added the chorizo to the pan, to cook for another two or three minutes. This is probably around the time that I preheated the oven to 400 degrees.

I find it is easiest to mix the spinach with the egg before adding the egg to the pan. I'm not sure if this is "right," but it works! You just have to work kind of quickly here: Add the egg to the pan, sprinkle in the cheese, and combine to be sure that the cheese, vegetables and spinach are distributed evenly throughout the frittata. 

                          

                                           Before:

This is around the time I realized I forgot about the tomato and chilies.

Then I thought, it's basically salsa already, why not heat it up and reduce it a bit, and have it be a spicyhot-temperaturehot* sauce. Obviously I couldn't resist adding some Sriracha, also. Honestly I wasn't sure, but it turned out to be a good idea! A nice balance of tomato and spicyness brought out the slight heat of the chorizo in the frittata but didn't overwhelm the other flavors. I might actually do this on purpose next time.

The actual cooking of the frittata remains somewhat of a mystery to me, in that I seem to do it differently every time. Generally, though, I leave it on the stove over low heat (so the bottom doesn't burn) for about 5 to 10 minutes, then stick it in the oven until it passes the "run" test. That is, it is done when tipping the pan does not cause an avalanche of goop and runny egg matter. (Sounds delicious, right!?). This usually takes about 10 minutes. Personally I find there to be something remarkably disgusting about even slightly overcooked eggs, so I watch it pretty closely.

  

                                           After:

A nifty thing about many dutch ovens, like the Lodge one that I have, is that the lid can be used as a shallow pan, which is what I used for this dish. It is also great for baking, although my one brush with Pineapple Upside Down Cake was a sticky-sweet disaster. Still, it's a useful thing to have on hand, and I find that I use it much more than I expected I would. Just note that the first few times you cook eggs in it, they will stick no matter what you do, even if it claims to be "seasoned" already. No pain no gain!

A note about cast iron in general: If you own it, don't make yourself crazy reading every article you can find about how to "season" your pans, like I did. The rules are simple. Remove crusty stuff with a metal spatula, DO NOT use dish soap, wipe clean with a lightly-oiled cloth (vegetable oil or, disgustingly, lard is best), and set it over medium/low heat for a few minutes after use. Sometimes a little oil in the pain over medium heat is necessary to dislodge all the crusty bits. If you ABSOLUTELY MUST use dish soap for some reason, stick it on the stove over low heat for 10 minutes to make sure it is completely dry. If you put cast iron in a dishwasher... Just don't do it. The Gods will cry, and so will I.

*My Italian grandmother was famous for the funny way she said "spicyhot!," which my mercilessly hilarious brother used to get her to say at every opportunity. A holiday meal wasn't complete without it.

Quote of the Day: "Love and eggs are best when they are fresh." ~ Russian proverb

Semi-Asian Rice, Veggie & Tofu Bowls

Last Saturday afternoon, Brady and I happened upon a new and different-looking restaurant on the edge of the UPenn campus. (Apparently its so new that I can't find a decent photo online yet.) We were planning to go to our local Pho restaurant for some deliciously spicy Vietnamese soup, but because of a family emergency, it was closed that day. 

Giant. Bummer. 

Next on the agenda after lunch was an event at the UPenn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, so we walked farther in that  direction in hopes of finding something to snack on. There is not a lot to choose from in the area - a pizza place, a frat-boy infested Mexican place, and a Salad Works - so we were surprised when we saw T-Bowl: Passionate about Food at Tea. Since we are both interested in both food at tea, we decided to give it a try. When we first walked in, we were both a little confused. Was it a salad bar? A stir-fry place? Well as it turns out, it's the best of both, if you ask me. 

The concept is this: First you choose white or brown rice (brown rice all the way, I say), then you have your choice of a multitude of veggies, each added for about $1 each. Choices for proteins include egg, chicken, shrimp, tofu, various types of nuts, and beef. Then comes the sauces, which were numerous, and very difficult to choose just one. For my brown rice, edamame, green onion, carrot and shrimp concoction, I chose an African chile and garlic sauce, which was fantastic. Like, really awesome. So awesome that I tried to recreate some fraction of its deliciousness to go with dinner tonight.

Once you've designed your meal, it is "grilled" (lightly sauteed, really) in organic vegetable broth and your sauce of choice and brought to your table. Though I think their prices are a bit high, the flavors were so bold and distinct that I can't help but try it at home.

So here is my game plan for doing it at home: 

Lightly seasoned brown rice topped with (sauteed) snow peas, shredded carrot, green onion, and some cubed, pan-fried tofu. I am planning on using a low-sodium chicken stock, since that's what I have on hand, and cooking the tofu in sesame oil. The part that I was less certain about was the sauce. 

There is something you should know about me. I don't really measure, as such. Unless I'm baking, everything in my kitchen is subject to my (fallible) artistic license. I recommend reading my recipes the same way: Unless it is a tried and true bread recipe (coming soon!) don't take anything as gospel truth. Make it your own. That said, some combination of the following ended up in the sauce:

1.5 tsp Sriracha, or "Rooster Sauce"

2 tsp Grated ginger root

1 tsp Orange zest

2 tsp Lemon juice

a few shakes of Curry powder

a few shakes of Cumin

1 more-effective-than-expected shake of cayenne pepper

1 clove of Garlic, peeled and smashed

2 tsp Tahini

a hefty drizzle of Sesame oil

a less hefty drizzle of Soy sauce

              ... And a bit of cilantro.

I used a small blender (a 2 cup Ninja food processor) to make the sauce.

First I started the rice, then I fried up the tofu, and set it aside. Sometimes it seems crazy to me that brown rice can take 40 minutes to cook, but in favor of the dubious contents of those microwaveable rice bags, I don't mind it so much.

After draining the excess sesame oil from the tofu pan, I mixed about a tablespoon of the sauce above with about 1 cup of the chicken stock, brought it to a boil, and reduced it by about a third. After that I tossed in a couple handfuls of snow peas and some sliced carrot, which I cooked as LITTLE as humanly possible.*

When the veggies were done I plated the rice, tossing tofu and veggies on top, and topped it all with a little chopped scallion.  Of course, I poured a large amount of the sauce/stock juices on the rice, and the extra sauce I served along side. Yum!

I can't really say that this turned out just like our tasty lunch at TBowl, but it was definitely a tasty adaptation. And if you use vegetable stock instead of chicken (someone correct me if I'm wrong) it is also a vegan dish.

*As a kid, I used to watch The Frugal Gourmet on TV with my Dad fairly often. I recently read a quote from the chef on the show, Jeff Smith: “Please understand the reason why Chinese vegetables taste so good. It is simple. The Chinese do not cook them, they just threaten them!" So, I threatened my vegetables, and it paid off big time.