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!

Cooking, recipes 3, 4, and 5 (Portobello steaks with glazed carrots and pistou)

I think I should number things by recipes rather than days, since I'll have days where I'm skipping and such.  Today, I made 3 different things, so 3, 4, and 5 it is.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to have to modify my cooking schedule to cook less frequently, maybe 5 out of 7 days.  Partially, this is because even though it's only been 3 days, I'm already not sure I want to keep this up for a whole month.  The other, more practical, consideration is that I'm not good at cooking reasonably small amounts.  I'm aiming for 4 portions each night -- 2 for dinner and 2 for lunch the next day. Two of the meals I've cooked so far have been 5-6 portions, though, which means leftovers are hanging out in the fridge.  Now, I don't mind eating leftovers at all, but I don't want so much that they go bad.  So, I'll see how the rest of this week goes and if I can adjust my portions, or if it makes more sense to adjust the schedule, instead.  Part of me feels like it'll be a more manageable project if I adjust the schedule, but part of me feels like I'm giving up and I've barely even begun!  We'll see.

I made two more recipes from the Fresh 20 site, and they were much more successful.  The other one was adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which has become my go-to book for veggie advice and recipes.

Portobello steaks with glazed carrots and pistou
Ingredients

Shrunken, but not too much

Portobello steaks (adapted from the Fresh 20 site)
4 portobello caps, no stems (recipe originally suggests 6, with a serving size of 1.5 cap per person.  This seems ridiculously large to me, especially given that they also include a side recipe that I didn't end up making)
olive oil
salt and pepper
paprika (well, they actually said thyme because they seem to have a thing for thyme, but I do not)

Quick-glazed carrots (adapted from Mark Bittman's book)

Not all the liquid has yet boiled off

1 pound of carrots
1/3 cup white wine or stock or water (I used wine and water)
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
salt and pepper
paprika (that's my addition, I was on a paprika kick today)
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
Note: I ended up doubling the recipe and it worked great, though took longer

Pistou (from the website)
2 cups arugula
2 cups basil leaves
2 garlic cloves (I used 4)

Small tupperware!

1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1 plum tomato (medium-sized)
salt and pepper




Preheat the oven to 400 F.  The carrots take the longest, so get them going first.  Peel and cut the carrots into sticks or coins (I did coins because the food processor has an attachment for that, weee! Or, rather, Mu did coins because he peels carrots for me (I hate doing it for some reason) and then continued helping.  Yay, Mu!).  In a medium-sized deep pan (mine was too big), combine carrots, butter, and whatever liquid you're using.  Heat until it boils, season if you're not using stock, cover, and adjust the heat until the whole thing simmers.  Cook more or less undisturbed until the carrots are tender and there is less liquid, 10-20 minutes (longer if you have more carrots).  While that's going, brush the portobellos with olive oil and season on both sides with salt, pepper, and whatever other spice you're using.  Put them on a baking sheet cap-side down and cook until they've shrunk a bit and released some liquid, but aren't totally scrunched up (very technical, I know), 10-15 minutes.  In the meantime, make the pistou (or make it way ahead of time and store in the fridge).  In a blender or food processor, pulse the arugula, basil, and garlic into a coarse mixture.  Add olive oil slowly and blend.  Add the parmesan and tomato and blend some more until it's pretty uniform (it'll still be a little grainy).  Salt and pepper to taste.  At this point, uncover the carrots and allow the rest of the liquid to boil off.  Add the lemon juice and adjust the seasonings as needed.  Top each portobello with pistou and serve with carrots on the side!

Meal summary
Time: About an hour total, though Mu was helping with peeling carrots while I was grating the parmesan.  Carrots were probably 40 minutes total, with prep. Mushrooms were super easy, about 20. The pistou was also easy (especially if you don't grate your own cheese), about 5 minutes after the grating.
Serves: Mushrooms are for 4, carrots are 7-8 as a side, and the pistou is probably for 4-6, depending how much you want as a garnish/sauce.

Yay, colors!

Highlights/thoughts: This was much quicker and easier than yesterday's recipe, so perhaps I can give The Fresh 20 another shot.  I was glad that I added extra garlic to the pistou, though, because it gave it a nice kick that it wouldn't have had.  The paprika/lemon combo was a nice one.  I'm glad I made extra carrots, since they're a pretty versatile side.
Would I make this again? Definitely.  I know portobello steaks are the overdone vegetarian thing, but I really like how they taste, and they were so easy!  And the pistou added a great bite to the whole dish.

Cooking day 2 and Tuesday Tip

I'm making another change -- instead of doing the carrots today, I'll do them tomorrow, post-CSA pickup (where I will get carrots).  Logical, right?

Today's recipe comes from a site I signed up for called The Fresh 20. There was a groupon for it a little while ago (groupons are gonna be the death of me, clearly), and I thought, eh, why not.  The site gives you 5 new recipes each week, along with step-by-step instructions and an organized shopping list.  Each meal is meant for about 4, which is perfect for us -- dinner and lunch the next day!  I signed up for the vegetarian version, of course, but there's also classic and gluten-free.  I haven't decided to cook an entire week of their recipes yet, but I may do that one of the next April weeks -- thus far, I've just picked out a bunch that I like and will try several of them for mushroom week.

Anyways, before I get to the recipe for today, have a Tuesday Tip. :)  We've been trying to figure out how to eat more salad and more fruit (though not necessarily together).  Having greens in the house doesn't always help -- we just don't do anything with them.  Some fruit is easier, such as apples (for me) or blueberries (for Mu).  For whatever reason, though, most other things fall by the wayside.  In experimenting, we've discovered a few things.  One, single-size portions help.  Two, variety really helps.  This is a little counter-intuitive -- if we have trouble going through a thing of berries, say, why would I get berries and mangos?  But actually, the variety, in combination with packing, gets us to eat more fruit!  Last night, for example, I packed a bunch of tupperwares with a few mango slices, a handful of raspberries, and a few strawberries -- and we've already started eating them.  Similarly, a salad with smaller amounts of more ingredients makes us eat salad.  Oh, and having small tupperwares of dressing to take along is great, too.  That way, the greens don't get soggy, and I also don't have to eat an undressed salad.  The only downside to this strategy is that it uses a large amount of tupperwares, but that's a minor issue to have.

Salad and fruit and dressing!

And with that, on to the recipe for today.  As I mentioned, this was from the Fresh 20 website.

Mushroom Pearl Barley Risotto
Ingredients
2 portobellos
1 cup dry pearl barley
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 cups veggie stock
1-2 cups water, if needed later
1/4 cup grated parmesan (I used more, probably about half a cup)
salt and pepper
thyme (I used pasta sprinkle, which has thyme and garlic and basil and oregano)
olive oil

Dice the portobellos.  They'll look pretty big, but they cook down a lot.  The recipe didn't say to remove the gills, so I didn't, but in retrospect, I probably should've.  It was nevertheless fine.  Saute the mushrooms in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, then add the barley and salt and thyme.  Saute for another 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid evaporates.  Stir in the stock in 1-cup increment, cooking until each batch evaporates.  If the barley still isn't cooked through when the stock is done, add water (I ended up adding about 1.5 more cups).  Once barley is ready, fold in parmesan and season with black pepper.

Recipe summary
Time: 1.5 hours, almost all hands-on.  Despite what the Fresh 20 thinks, this really isn't a weeknight recipe.  This made me kind of unhappy.
Serves: Theoretically, 4.  I think it'll be about 5 or 6 servings for us, though.

Oops, smear on the plate

Highlights/thoughts: I should've known that risotto takes a long time, but the recipe didn't have a time estimate, and given that it was meant to be a weeknight recipe, I was surprised at how long it took.  Also, the suggestion is to serve it with carrots, which would help the presentation -- it's very brown otherwise.  However, I can't imagine this serving 4 with a side!  I'm going to have to reconsider following their recipes exactly, since it looks like their portions are huge.  Also, watch the salt on this one.  My stock (which wasn't homemade) was pretty salty, and as it cooked down, I realized I should've added less salt at the beginning.
Would I make this again? Probably, or at least some variation of it.  It was really very easy, if long, and tastes creamy and rich without actually being too much so.