Meal challenge (and jumpstarting the blog?)

Another long hiatus, sorry.  It's...a little crazy here, with internship madness and other grad school stuff.  But, I'm hoping that now that we're actually not traveling all the time, I can set some sort of posting schedule (well, and cooking schedule, honestly) and stick to that.  I'm thinking bi-weekly to start.

The lack of posts is not totally reflective of a lack of cooking, but it's true that I haven't cooked as much as I've wanted to.  So, the other day, I decided that we'd play a game to remedy this.  I asked Mu to buy whatever ingredients he wanted, and then I would use them all (as well as anything additional we already had at home) to create a meal!  It was sort of like the mystery box challenge on MasterChef, for anyone who watches that show -- essentially, mandatory ingredients plus access to a pantry.  I went with him to the store and was allowed one additional ingredient after he picked out all of his, and then got home and cooked.  It was really fun to have this challenge -- I thought a lot about what to make, ended up adjusting some things as I went, and then ended up with a yummy meal at the end!  So, I figured I'd share it with you all as a way to get back to blogging.

Mystery box!

So, we went to Sprouts, which is sort of like Whole Foods but cheaper and less pretentious, and Mu got the following ingredients: broccoli, portobello mushrooms, peaches, walnuts, corn, roasted tomatoes (from the olive bar), greek yogurt, blue cheese, smart strips steak strips (a meat substitute), and very dark (87%) chocolate.  I added salad greens as my additional ingredient, since I wanted to use a bunch of those things in a salad.  I wasn't sure what to do with some of the ingredients, especially the corn (I never cook with corn) and the dark chocolate, and I had a variety of ideas for others (salad for sure, and maybe stir fry with the other veggies).  I also was allowed to use my recipe books, which I ended up not needing, but it was good to have the option to even skim through them.


Once we got home and I was able to look through our fridge and pantry, I chose my additional ingredients and created a plan!  Here are my recipes and instructions, with the challenge ingredients highlighted.


Portobello steaks (similar to the ones I wrote about here)
2 portobellos (this was how many Mu got, if I were doing this on my own, I'd double this recipe)

2-3 tablespoons greek yogurt

dijon mustard to taste (I used about 1 tablespoon)
1 head garlic
salt and pepper to taste
paprika to taste



First, make the sauce.  Peel and mince the garlic and combine all the ingredients except mushrooms in a bowl.  Mix well and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes so that the garlic permeates a bit.  Preheat the oven to 400.  Clean the mushrooms, then brush on both sides with the sauce.  I let them sit with the sauce on for a bit, though I don't know if that's necessary.  Cook cap-side down for 10-15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have reached a medium scrunch level. :)  That's all!


Broccoli, carrots, and smart strips saute

1-2 heads of broccoli

1-2 regular carrots, or about a dozen baby carrots (that's what I had in the house)
1 medium onion
1 head of garlic
1 hot pepper (optional)

1-2 oz roasted tomatoes

2 oz smart strips (or real meat would work, too...)

olive oil (I used a basil-infused oil to go with the Italian theme)
salt and pepper (I used lemon pepper, it worked well)
Italian seasoning, or some sage, rosemary, and thyme (or whatever you like, really)


Chop up the onion, garlic, and hot pepper.  Saute in olive oil until the onion is getting soft, 10-15 minutes.  Chop broccoli and carrots and add those to the pan.  Add spice, cover and saute until carrots and broccoli are soft.  Uncover, add smart strips and tomatoes, and cook another 5-10 minutes until all the flavors are melded.

Mushroom and veggies

Sweet salad

Salad greens (I had a 50/50 spring mix and baby spinach combo)

1 peach

1 ear sweet corn

walnuts to taste

blue cheese to taste

1-2 dark chocolate squares

olive oil and balsamic vinegar (I used a blood orange olive oil to go with the sweetness)


Fry the walnuts for about 10 minutes to give them some crisp.  Slice the peach and the cheese.  Cut the corn off the cob (if it's pretty fresh, no need to cook).  Combine the salad greens with the peach, cheese, walnuts, and corn.  Shave some chocolate on top, season with olive oil and vinegar, mix and enjoy!

The salad

All of this took me about an hour to do (not counting the thinking time) and was really super easy!  I had originally thought about doing a corn puree, but decided it was too involved and the corn would be great in the salad (and it was).  I also didn't want to have too many components on the plate.  I think it all worked pretty well, and Mu agrees!


So, a fun way to get back to blogging and to cook something new.  I think we're going to do a similar thing again soon!  As for the blog, the current plan is to post twice a week, Wednesday and (tentatively) Sunday.  Let's see how that goes!


Up next: comfort food, or Elaine's SF-upbringing-inspired version thereof.

Cooking, recipe 7 and Tuesday Tip (and the start of a new tradition?)

Since I knew I wasn't going to cook today, I saved yesterday's post for today.  And then realized I didn't have a photo of yesterday's recipe, mostly because I was feeling cranky and totally forgot.  But that's ok, because we have fanart again!  In fact, Cindy and I have decided that this should be a weekly tradition (though I just realized we haven't decided what day it should be, but that's ok).  In fact, today's picture is a warning: if you don't like the idea of weekly fanart, an elephant wizard might make you stick your head in a mushroom.  Like so:

 

I hope none of you meet this awful fate. :)

A note about the mushroom stock from the other day: it's really mushroomy! This is a good thing, but it also means that I wouldn't add this stock to a random soup unless I specifically wanted mushroom flavor.  I knew this when I was making the stock, but it's probably worth mentioning.

Anyways, yesterday, I went and made a bigger batch of food again.  On one hand, it's probably good, since I won't be cooking today and tomorrow.  On the other hand, dude, I'm really incapable of making reasonably-sized things.  In my defense, I had 4 portobellos I hadn't used, and I didn't want them to go bad! So there we are.  I also started a freezer bag of trimmings in order to make veggie stock sometime next week.  We'll see how that goes.  The recipe itself was pretty easy and didn't take a whole lot of attention, which allowed me to make the now-weekly batch of salad for this week while I was waiting for dinner to finish.

Quinoa with mushrooms, greens, and chili

Ingredients

1 cup of quinoa

2 cups of mushroom stock (or veggie stock or water)

1 onion

4 portobello caps (reserve the stems for stock if you want)

2 broccoli bunches (apparently, broccoli stems aren't good for stock, though)

4-5 medium tomatoes

1 bunch beet greens (this is the first time I used the greens before the beets!)

neutral oil

salt, pepper, and chili powder

In a medium pot, combine quinoa and stock.  Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so that the mixture simmers. Cover and cook until the liquid is gone, 15-20 minutes.  Set aside when it's done.  In the meantime, chop up an onion.  Heat a little bit of oil over medium-high heat and when it's hot, put in the onion.  Saute 'till tender, 3-5 minutes. Chop up the portobellos and add them.  Cook for about 10 minutes, 'till the mushrooms have given up juices and started browning.  Chop up the greens, broccoli and tomatoes and add them at this point. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add a bit of water.  Cover and cook until broccoli is tender, 15ish minutes. Uncover, add chili powder to taste, and cook until most of the liquid has cooked off.  Stir in the quinoa, adjust seasonings to taste, and cook for a few minutes to integrate everything. 

Recipe summary
Time: About an hour, of which about 20 minutes is hands-on
Serves: 6-8
Highlights/thoughts: Nice and easy recipe -- you can add pretty much any vegetables and have it turn out well.  It also helps to cook the quinoa in stock of some kind rather than water.  Water is fine, but stock really adds a nice flavor to the whole thing.
Would I make this again?  Definitely, though probably not with identical veggies, since I don't necessarily have portobellos on hand.

And, in relationship to the recipe, here's the Tuesday Tip.  It turns out that chili powder is instant yummy!  I was cooking this and feeling meh in general, and the veggies were turning out pretty meh, despite adding salt and pepper.  I stared at my spice rack for a while and decided, randomly, to add some chili powder.  I specifically used Penzey's Chili 9000, which is a blend, but I think straight-up chili powder would work just as well.  It instantly added a nice flavor and kick and really brought the dish together.  Yay!