Italian-American Chana Masala

That’s right, you heard me. This is probably the best improvised dish I’ve ever made.   I had some very nice, very sweet tomatoes from Pike Market (where does that vendor get tomatoes that good in December?), mushrooms, celery and green onions.  My newly-stocked pantry is loaded with chick peas.  I thought I wanted to make a pasta primavera, but then, the chick peas don’t really fit, and I’ve got this baguette that’s gonna turn into a rock so pasta isn’t really the right idea and…

Calorie Estimate: 750

Ingredients

• 5 plum tomatoes, quartered
• as much mushroom by volume as tomato
• 1 stalk celery, 1/8″ slices
• 2 green onions, 1/4″ slices
• 1 15 oz can chick peas
• 2 T olive oil
• anchovy fillets (about 1 oz)
• garlic powder to taste
• salt to taste
• black pepper (lots! chick peas love black pepper)
• red pepper
• italian herb blend

Preparation

1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add the chopped mushrooms and let them cook a couple minutes.  While the mushrooms get going, slice the celery and green onions.
2. Add celery and green onions to the pan.  Quarter the tomatoes and add them to the pan.
3. Add the anchovy fillets.  Break them down with your stirring spoon and mix them thoroughly through.  These provide a lot of savoriness, but don’t actually make the dish taste like anchovies unless you use too many.
4. Add the rinsed chick peas.
5. Season to taste.  Salt generously and use lots of black pepper.  For chick peas, I like to be able to see flecks of black pepper on the beans in the finished product.  I also realized garlic couldn’t hurt, but it was too late in the game, so I added a little garlic powder.  Any aromatic herbs will probably work, but the standard basil, parsley, oregano mix was just right.  And I like a little heat, so some red pepper flakes round it out.
6. Cook a few minutes until the peas are fully warmed and any liquid has thickened up and brought the dish together.

The flavor here was excellent: deep, warming, and very satisfying, especially served with that baguette.  The eating experience really was like a chana masala and so, the name!

Chicken Paprikash

Edit: this recipe gets and “ehh” from me.  It smelled wonderful as the chicken browned, but the taste was pretty boring–sorta like cheap italian red sauce that happened to have chicken in it.  I’ll have to do more research before I try it again, especially given the smell of the browning chicken.

Stolen almost verbatim and slightly repentantly from chow.com. I got my hands on some excellent hot paprika from my friend’s visiting German boyfriend awhile back.  So far, I’ve only used it to good effect in polenta, but here’s a traditional-ish recipe.  The only major changes I made were to use 6 drumsticks instead of a whole chicken and to leave out sour cream because I really have almost no place for that stuff in my life.

Calorie Estimate: 2400 (without noodles or sour cream)

INGREDIENTS

• 6 chicken legs (1.75 lbs)
• Kosher (coarse) salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Garlic powder to taste
• Dried oregano to taste
• Sweet or hot Hungarian paprika
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium-size onions, finely chopped
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped, juices reserved
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (if using sweet paprika)
• 2 large green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
• 1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup nondairy sour cream (optional)
• Hot cooked egg noodles, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Season the chicken on both sides lightly with salt. Then lightly sprinkle pepper, garlic powder, and oregano over the chicken. Finally, season with the paprika—very liberally if using sweet, a light sprinkling if using hot. Set the chicken aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cook, stirring, for 1 minute more, and then transfer the onions and garlic to a plate.
3. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the pot. When the oil is quite hot but not smoking, add the chicken pieces and brown them on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
4. Remove the chicken from the pot. Stir the tomatoes with all their juices, tomato paste, the reserved onion/garlic mixture, and the red pepper flakes (if using sweet paprika) into the pot. Return the chicken to the pot, making sure to cover all the pieces with the sauce. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add more paprika if desired too.
5. Add the bell peppers and mushrooms and continue to simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Just before serving, remove the chicken from the pot and keep it warm. Add the sour cream, if using, to the sauce and heat it over medium-low heat, being careful not to let it boil. Serve hot, spooning the sauce over the chicken and noodles.

http://www.chow.com/recipes/27903

Sausage and Tortellini soup

Calorie Estimate: 1800

Ingredients

• 1 lb italian sausage meat, broken into bite-sized pieces
• 9 oz package tortellini
• 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1/2-1/3 lb mushrooms, brown/portobello, bite-sized pieces
• 1 zucchini, 1/3 inch dice
• 1 carrot, 1/3 inch dice
• 1 green bell pepper, 1/3 inch dice
• 1 onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups beef broth
• 1 T olive oil, if needed
• salt, pepper, italian seasonings to taste
• splash of balsamic vinegar

Preparation

1. Heat a deep soup pan over medium heat.  Dump the sausage meat in and break it up into bite-sized pieces with a wooden spoon.  Brown for a few minutes.
2. Dice all the veggies while the sausage is browning.  Add in onion and garlic, and extra oil if needed.  Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add in the mushrooms, the rest of the veggies, the canned tomatoes, and the broth.
4. Season a bit.  About 1 T dried basil, 1/2 T oregano, 1/2 T black pepper, etc.  Don’t overdo it now, tweak it later.
5. Cook for about 3o minutes until veggies are tender.
6. Add in tortellini and cook for 10 minutes.  Adjust seasoning during this time.
7. Take it off the heat and let it rest.  Perhaps in the bowl, add in a little fresh parmesan or pecorino cheese.  Also add in a splash of balsamic vinegar for a special touch of sweetness and tang.

Winter Squash Ratatouille

Just had a great Sunday dinner with my friends Jon, Diane, and Sharri and her housemates.  Jon and Diane made a nice salad, sunchokes, and a great apple pie (not too sweet, and Vietnamese cinnamon?!).  Sharri made a chicken–a delicious free-range bird with a garlic, apple cider, and other wonderful things glaze.  And I made this take on ratatouille.  This is the first recipe I’ve come up with prettymuch from whole cloth in a while, and it was quite a success, with the help of a fortunate mistake (adding the eggplant “too early”, or so I thought) and my friends (“lots more garlic!”).

One thing I’m starting to learn about vegetable dishes like this one is taste very often!  The amount of vegetable matter and it’s native variability makes it hard to get the seasoning just right.  Taste often and season slowly.  Add salt and pepper slowly over the course of cooking, as the flavors develop.  When you’re close, stop, wait awhile, and taste again.

Calorie Estimate: 1900 (lots of improv was going on, check this next time)

Ingredients

• 1 really large onion, diced
• 12 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 can tomato paste
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, 1/4″ dice (about 2 lbs worth)
• 2 very small eggplant (about 1 “italian” eggplant), 1/3″ dice
• 1/2 lb fresh chanterelle mushrooms, bite size pieces
• 1/2 oz dried lobster mushrooms
• 6-10 T diced celery
• 2 cups water
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 T or so fresh rosemary, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• truffle oil to taste (less than 1 t, added slowly and tasting often)

Preparation

1. Make a mushroom broth.  Rehydrate dried mushrooms in 2 cups of water (I used lobster ’cause they’re awesome).  In the simmering liquid, add a diced slice of onion (thumb-width wedge), finely-diced celery, and 1 finely-diced chanterelle.  For this dish, add red wine vinegar since the acid will help counter the sweetness of the squash.  Some salt and pepper, a bay leaf if you’ve got it (I didn’t), and simmer slowly for an hour.
2. Dice the onion, garlic, and veggies before you start cooking.  To a big pot over medium heat (an enameled cast iron dutch oven would be awesome), add the butter.  Then, add the onion and garlic.  Soften, but don’t brown for 5-7 minutes or so.
3. Add in the tomato paste about 1/2 can.  Mix it around until it coats everything.  Try to brown it a little, 5 minutes or so.  Later on in the cooking, if it needs more paste, it’s okay to add it then.
4. Add in the squash, eggplant, and mushrooms, then the broth.  Stir everything together.  Salt lightly at this point to help pull the moisture out of the vegetables.  I thought adding the eggplant this early was a mistake, since it really broke down by the time the squash finished 45 minutes later, but it turned out to be key to the velvety texture.  Unlike regular ratatouille with zucchini, the butternut squash is much sturdier, and so the broken down eggplant binds this dish very nicely.  If the eggplant had some texture left, it may have conflicted with the toothsome squash.
5. I kept stirring for most of the cooking time, since we were hanging out in the kitchen, but it could probably cook covered with the occasional stir.  Pretty early on, I added about 1 T of chopped fresh rosemary. More wasn’t necessary later on, although it might’ve made a nice garnish if I was serving the food plated instead of family style.
6. Toward the end of cooking (about 45 minutes), add truffle oil, slowly, stirring and tasting often.  You want to stop the instant you become aware of its presence.  Truffle oil is a secret that adds a lot of character, but it can quickly dominate.  Also, dial in the salt and pepper at this point.
7. A few minutes before letting it rest, add 1 T of balsamic vinegar for a touch of color and the flavor.
8. Be sure to let the dish rest for at least 15 minutes so it really comes together.

Risotto

Prep time: 1 hour

Risotto is not lazy-man friendly, but it’s very satisfying and much more decadent than its reasonable calorie count suggests.  Once every couple months, in exchange for stirring a pot for 40 minutes, you get to eat something that very few restaurants have the patience to do a decent job of.  You can make it as a side or as a meal in itself, and the character can easily be modified by featuring different ingredients.  It’s worth the work.  On the other hand, it’s apparently so much work that I was too exhausted to take a picture…

Tools

• knife and cutting board
• big pot
• wooden spoon

Calorie Estimate for the base: 1900

Ingredients

• 2 C arborio rice (necessary for maximum creaminess)
• 6 C chicken broth (+ water to finish)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large shallot, diced
• 1 C grated parmesan (or pecorino)
• olive oil to just coat the bottom of the pan
• 1 C wine (I prefer white, but there’s no real rule other than nothing too tannic)

Extras, depending on the day and purpose:

• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced (I prefer crimini to white)
• 2 oz dried mushrooms (lobster, porcini, etc) (reconstituted for about an hour, mix the liquid in with the broth)
• truffle oil (at most 1 t per pot)
• sausage, partially-cooked and sliced
• roasted red peppers, slivered
• eggplant, cubed
• spinach, shredded
• tomato paste
• etc…

Method

1. Dice the onion and garlic.  With a little olive oil in the bottom of a pot big enough to hold everything comfortably, soften the onion and garlic over medium heat for a few minutes.
2. Toss in the rice, mix and toast for a couple minutes.  Then pour in the cooking wine to deglaze the bottom of the pan.  Stir until wine is taken up by the rice.
3. Now, the work begins. Over medium-low heat, add about a 1 C of broth to the mix.  Keep stirring.  After the broth is taken up, add another cup.  Keep stirring.  Keep adding broth cup by cup, each time waiting until it’s mostly taken up before adding another, and stir always.  The stirring helps draw starch out of the rice, and adding broth cup by cup ensures you don’t put in too much liquid.  If the rice is still a little crunchy after the 6 cups of broth have been added, finish it with water, using the same method.During this stage, add in other base ingredients, depending on their cooking time. I usually add sausage with about 20 minutes left.  Reconstituted dried mushrooms, I add as I take up the liquid/broth mixture.  Light veggies like spinach or green onions get added at the very end of cooking.
4. Before serving, mix in the parmesan cheese and any ready-to-eat veggies if you’re using them.  Serve hot and enjoy.

Even without the cheese, the risotto is creamy from the starch.  That’s the big secret: it’s rich as if it was loaded with cream, but there’s none.

Ratatouille

Taken from Cooking for Engineers.  This is hearty and delicious while also being very healthy and low calorie for the flavor and volume of food.

Calorie Estimate for the batch: 1500

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 T tomato paste
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 C chicken broth
• 1 large zucchini, 1/4 inch dice
• 1 large eggplant, 1/4 inch dice
• 1 large green pepper, 1/4 inch dice
• 2 large portobello mushrooms, 1/4 inch dice
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 T (+) Herbs de Provence
• fresh basil if you’ve got it
• salt (1T ish) and pepper (1-2 T)

Preparation

1. Heat oil in large soup pot.  Add garlic and simmer for 1 minute.
2. Add onions and simmer for 4-6 minutes
3. Add tomato paste, stir around until it coats onions.  Toast until paste starts to darken, 2-5 minutes.
4. Pour in broth.  Stir well. Bring to a simmer.
5. Stir in eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and mushrooms.  Simmer for 12 or so minutes, stirring often.  Eggplant will release a lot of tasty moisture.
6. Add can of tomatos.  Add in seasonings at this point.  Stir in and cook for a minute or three more until it looks like you want it to.

Filet mignon with port-cini redux

The method was inspired by Mike’s success with broiling steaks inside since I am usually a fan of grilling.  Except in the middle of January.  

1. Get a cast iron skillet hot as hell.  Make sure the steaks are about room temperature and well coated with olive oil and a little salt.  Also preheat broiler to 400 degrees and throw the broiler pan in there to heat up.

2. Put the steaks on each side for about two minutes.  Transfer to broiler pan and forget about the steaks for about 15 minutes for medium rare.  After this pull them out and cover briefly with foil as the sauce finishes.

3. Add about a Tbsp of butter to the skillet and brown up a chopped shallot and one garlic clove chopped finely.  As these get translucent, add a handful of porcini chopped finely.  Deglaze with about a third cup of port.  Reduce by about half with a half cup of the mushroom soaking liquid (or bullion if you used fresh).

4. This makes a very thin pan sauce, if you wanted something thicker adding a little bit of cream just before pouring over the steaks would be a rich touch, or stirring in a standard flour and oil roux.  Just be sure to whisk the hell out of it.

Villa Antinori Toscana 2004 was a great accompaniment (you want “earthy” with this one) and braised greens a good side dish as well.