Sis and Mom were thrilled with the dinner party. “You can do this anytime,” they cooed conspiratorially, and they began plotting holiday schedules. “Thanksgiving, Christmas…no, Mom will still do Christmas…Easter….”

I hadn’t hosted an event of this magnitude before. A bit over a month ago my sponsor, Foodbuzz, contacted me with the offer to host a pasta and wine-pairing dinner party using free coupons supplied by Buitoni Riserva. That shit’s expensive, so I jumped at the chance.

the asparagus mistake

I picked up 5 packages each of fresh pasta agnolotti, which is is a jumbo half-moon shaped ravioli. One was wild mushroom, and I planned to toss it with roasted asparagus and chives, drizzle it with olive oil, and top it with freshly ground black pepper and goat cheese. Unfortunately, I didn’t consult my sister the asparagus roasting expert, and left it in the oven about 20 minutes instead of the 5 she said was correct, and the asparagus came out limp and mushy.

My aunt, Linda, brought over a bunch of chives she snipped from her patch, some blooming with crunchy-oniony flowers atop them. They were too pretty to ignore, so they got put out on the table.

The guest list: Mom and Dad, Jennifer and Dale Javier (he said he wanted to be called Javier), Mom’s best friend Leeann and her daughter (and my friend) Angie, and Linda. I asked Leeann which wine she wanted to drink. “Oh, I love all white wine,” she said, so I poured her the La Noble chardonnay I’d picked up and a teeny glass of fino. Fino is very dry sherry that I drank a lot in Spain and it always makes me think of briny olives, tapas, dancing sevillanas, and walking home through the Parque de María Luisa at seven in the morning.

Not everyone was into the wine thing, though. Dad and Javier mixed themselves up some massive bloody marys.

Check out this spread! Angie made that vibrant salad, Mom brought the relish tray, and there’s the wild mushroom agnolotti along with the four cheese (Quattro Formaggi) agnolotti, and the red sauce I mixed up for the latter.

where’s my two dollars?

There’s Linda and the view from the other side of the tablecloth. That’s right, tablecloth. Cloth napkins. Frawnch fries. Frawnch bread. Kwissssmassss. Pardon me, I’m channeling Better Off Dead.

The top is the wild mushroom agnolotti with the asparagus/chives/black pepper/olive oil/goat cheese topping I mentioned. The left/bottom is the four cheese agnolotti with a roasted red pepper and kalamata olive sauce, topped with fresh basil. And supposed to have grated parmesan on top, but I forgot to get it on there for the pic. That sauce was the bomb.

Jennifer posed for an action shot! You can see a glass of red wine, which would be the shiraz Angie brought. I’d originally planned on cabernet to pair with the wild mushroom agnolotti, but we ended up breaking that out later. The red paired really well with the four cheese as well. Personally, I drank a little of the chardonnay and the shiraz and liked them both with both pastas. Maybe I’m just easy. Don’t answer that.

Dad warned Javier early on, “You’re not going to be getting any meat here tonight.” Of course they were going through that theater to tease me, but their little plan backfired. They chowed down and made happy noises just as much as everyone else did.

Notice how I ran out of serving dishes and dug into the storage containers. I’m so not prepared for this big party thing.

bring out your desserts

Linda made the coolest. Dessert. Evar. Think peanut butter pound cake. Slice it. Spread with peanut buttercream and blackberry jam. Top with another slice of pound cake.

That’s right. Linda made pound cake pb&j. Awesome.

Jennifer dipped strawberries in chocolate and served them on an appropriately-themed playing cards plate. Did I mention this was dinner and games night?

Mom and Leeann have been best friends for like 40 years, since Leeann moved in next door to Mom and Dad. <suckup>Did I say 40? I meant 20, because they couldn’t be a day over 40 themselves.</suckup>

euchre tournament!

Time to get our game on. With 8 of us present, and everyone liking euchre, we drew numbers, paired up, and had a little euchre tournament. To my chagrin, I was paired with Dale Javier, but he only fucked up once so I didn’t get to yell at him.

Jennifer and Mom were the winning team (never put people with shared DNA on the same team) and suddenly when it was over people began joking, “Where are the prizes?”

“Prizes?” I said, and a light bulb went on. An opportunity to divest myself of some excess goods! I got out some packaged rice/pasta sides I’d been planning to hand off to Linda, some product samples I’d received randomly in the mail, and some decks of playing cards from an estate sale I went to last week. Jennifer chose this lovely rice side dish to take home with her.

For her parting gift, Angie selected “stars of country music” playing cards and some instant coffee samples.

Then we played Perudo, or Liar’s Dice, and after that midnight was approaching, so the parent types and Jennifer and Javier left before they all turned into pumpkins. This left Linda, Angie, Bill, and me, and we broke out the Pictionary.

how to draw siamese twins in pictionary

how not to win at ingenious

Even with the adults gone, the wine kept flowing. We finished the La Noble and the Oak Leaf shiraz. Then we finished the Red Truck varietal red, and broke into the Clos du Bois chardonnay and Ravenswood cabernet, and Linda finished her Funky Llama chardonnay.

Wits and Wagers made an appearance, and then we closed out the night with Ingenious. Angie couldn’t remember if she’d played before and Bill was new to Ingenious, so I played with a handicap — I picked my tiles to play randomly. I got trounced as the newbies quickly picked up on the strategy and scored one Ingenious after another. I’m never believing Cranky Angie again! (Cranky Angie: I don’t think I like this. I don’t know if I want to play this. I know and understand Cranky Angie, because Cranky Amy always makes an appearance with new games too.)

what did i learn from all this?

I can put on a grownup party.

I can sip wine without getting too drunk.

Having smokers around leads to more smoking.

The Buitoni Riserva pastas are really good. The Quattro Formaggi Agnolotti was the hands-down favorite.

Good wine goes with anything.

Euchre needs to be more than a regional game.

roasted red pepper and kalamata olive pasta sauce

This sauce was the hit of the party. Salty, piquant, and complex, it goes well with simple pastas like cheese ravioli or agnolotti. I hesitate to post it as a recipe because it’s so simple, but it’s so good that it must be shared.

1 (28 ounce) jar red pasta sauce, like marinara
1 small (7 ounce) jar roasted red peppers
¼ cup kalamata olives

Purée the roasted red peppers and kalamata olives in a blender. Pour sauce and pepper/olive purée into a 2-quart pan and warm over medium heat. Serve over pasta.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: asparagus, basil, cheese, chives, olives, pasta, sweet peppers, tomato

Rhubarb with caramelized onions? Rhubarb salsa? Rhubarb and lentil potage? I can hear you now, the ornery ones of you that is: What the hell, woman…rhubarb’s for pie. Crisps. Crunches.

For April’s Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 event, I decided to explore the savory side of rhubarb, since there’s a ton of it growing about 50 feet from my front door. As rhubarb is technically a vegetable/herb, why not try some recipes that utilize rhubarb as a vegetable?

Hey, salsa has a tangy bite. I bet rhubarb could work in salsa. So I tracked down a viable candidate in The Joy of Rhubarb: The Versatile Summer Delight. It’s a classic Mexican salsa, with fresh cilantro, green onion (which made me happy; I can’t stand regular onions raw), lime juice, jalapeño for a bit of bite, barely-blanched rhubarb, and lots of sweet peppers and more sugar than salsa normally would have, to counteract the rhubarb’s bite.

Dad’s verdict? “It would be great on hamburgers. By the way, we’re having hamburgers tonight….” Subtle hint there, Dad. Yeah, he went home with some rhubarb salsa. Linda thought it had a bit of a bitter rhubarb taste to it and suggested more sweetener. I loved it. Fresh, crisp, clean salsa taste with the rhubarb adding uniqueness without overpowering it.

Overall verdict for rhubarb salsa: Two snaps up.

Jump to the rhubarb salsa recipe now or continue reading.

balsamic-rhubarb reduction

I swear, this was some fancy-pants shit I made. Asparagus with balsamic-rhubarb reduction (recipe here). It was dead easy, too. You cook down some balsamic vinegar and chopped rhubarb — along with a good little heap of sugar — until most of the liquid has evaporated and you get a thickish sauce. In this preparation, it’s served with roasted asparagus. You could really impress some guests with this stuff.

Dad’s verdict: Tasty, but the roasted asparagus was too soft. He grabbed a stalk of raw asparagus from the 10-pound bag I’d just picked and dipped that in the reduction instead. Linda’s verdict: “Too strong for asparagus. Would be really good with pork or something.” I liked the contrast between the tangy, balsamic-flavored reduction and the mild roasted asparagus, but I see her point. Comme-ci, comme ça.

Overall verdict for rhubarb-balsamic reduction: Two snaps sideways.

lentil and rhubarb potage

The original title of this Mark Bittman recipe is “Lentil and rhubarb stew with Indian spices,” but it’s too thick for a stew. So I did some Google-fu and discovered it was more of a potage, which also sounds fancier.

And man, it may be one ugly mofo of a dish, but damn, lentil and rhubarb potage is tasty. I was shocked. It had no added sugar. I was certain it would be inedible. But I had to try it, because it has cardamom in it, which is my new favorite spice ever.

Linda’s verdict: Really good and interesting. Nice balance of complex flavors. I’m transling from “Mmm” here, by the way.

Overall verdict for rhubarb and lentil potage: Two snaps up.

caramelized onion and rhubarb compote on herbed yogurt cheese

Hey Aunt Geri, I finally broke in the yogurt cheese maker! And all was good. This recipe, heavily adapted from one for caramelized onion, beet, and rhubarb compote, made me nervous. For one, it was another fancy-pants recipe. For another, I was adapting the living hell out of it. I’m not good at that sort of thing. Usually my adaptations tend to turn out more like the rhubarb mistake below. And for yet another thing, I was winging the whole herbed yogurt cheese thing. Entirely.

If you want to adapt the recipe like I did, simply make it without the beet purée, and add more maple syrup when you add the rhubarb, about 2 tablespoons worth. Trust me, you’ll need it. For the herbed cheese the easy way, go with a slightly sweet prepared cheese spread like Aloutte…because that was what I was shooting for. I put them in baked wonton cups, but they’d be better on small squares of puff pastry.

Dad’s verdict: “I really like the cheese and compote filling, but those wontons are like chewing on glass.” Linda’s verdict: “I love that filling!” Me? Shocked. And happy it worked. :p Cue the Smiths.

Overall verdict for caramelized onion and rhubarb compote: Two snaps way up.

rhubarb mistake

Since I had Mexican, Indian, and vaguely Italian (in the form of the caramelized onion and rhubarb compote), I decided to try incorporating rhubarb into a Thai curry. I’m not even going to link to the recipe I worked from, because the experiment was an utter disaster, and I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, so I don’t want to impugn the blogger who posted it.

Suffice it to say: disaster. Coconut milk wasn’t enough sweetness to balance rhubarb’s astringency, the rhubarb became gloopy, and it tasted awful. Oh well.

The experience did cement my dedication to you, the reader: You will never be subjected to a recipe I don’t absolutely love. I want everything you try to be something well-tested and well-liked before it ever hits this page.

Overall verdict for rhubarb mistake: Two snaps way down. Let’s forget all about it and move on to the rhubarb salsa recipe.

rhubarb salsa

Adapted from The Joy of Rhubarb: The Versatile Summer Delight by Theresa Millang.

2 cups finely diced fresh rhubarb
½ cup sweet red pepper, chopped
½ cup sweet yellow pepper, chopped
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3 green onions, tops only, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar, or to taste
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Blanch rhubarb in a saucepan of boiling water for 10 seconds. Seriously. Ten seconds. No more. Remove rhubarb promptly from heat, dump into a strainer, and rinse under cold water until rhubarb is lukewarm or cool. This is to stop the blanching process.

Place rhubarb in a glass bowl.  Add remaining ingredients, and mix well. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving to allow flavors to develop.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: balsamic vinegar, cilantro, lentils, onions, rhubarb, sweet peppers

This baked penne recipe is entirely vegetarian, yet it’ll keep carnivores happy with its fennel-scented tomato sauce and meatless Italian sausage crumbles.

And it’s “baked penne” because I’ve never been able to replicate Italian restaurants’ baked ziti. I suspect their secret is oil and cheese in much more copious amounts than one can bear to consider under home kitchen conditions. Maybe it’s a hotter oven, or a shove under the broiler when it’s done. You know, if anybody knows the reason, inform me. I’m mostly pretty bumbling when it comes to reverse engineering.

But I’m zen about it, because the approximations to restaurant baked ziti are pretty good on their own. They might be missing the goat dandruff secret ingredient or whatever, but it’s hard to go wrong with pasta, mozzarella, a rich tomato sauce, mushrooms, and fake Italian sausage crumbles.

We don’t have ziti. We have penne. I’ve never seen a package of ziti. I suspect it doesn’t really exist.

While I was Googling to see if ziti pasta really existed (trust me: it doesn’t), I came across another baked ziti/penne recipe that used half provolone and added sour cream. Damn. Think I should try that next? I could make variations on this recipe forever.

I just wanted to show you some more mozzarella. Who doesn’t love cheese? The lactose-intolerant, that’s who. Ship them out onto ice floes.

There’s two ways to go about this dish. The time way and the dishes way. The time way, you cook the pasta al dente first, then drain it and use the same pot to sauté your celery and mushrooms, dump in (or make) the tomato sauce, and drop in the fake Italian sausage crumbles. The dishes way, you have two pots going and maybe even a sauté pan too, saving time but making more dishes.

So you got your pasta, your bulked-up sauce thanks to the fake sausage, and your grated cheese. Then you layer them in ze dish.

Repeat layering three times, and sprinkle parmesan on top, because who doesn’t want more cheese? I do not know why I’m affecting a French accent. This is Italian-themed food.

cheesy baked penne with fake italian sausage

I prefer to grate my own cheeses when possible. The coating on pre-shredded cheese seems to inhibit its melting properties. You’ll notice the difference in taste and gooeyness if you try grating your own. Meatless Italian sausage crumbles are found in 12-ounce packages in the freezer section. Morningstar Farms is one brand.

servings: 6–8
oven: 350°F
prep: 45 minutes
total time: 90 minutes

1-2 teaspoons olive oil (not extra-virgin)
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced or chopped into chunks
½ cup chopped celery
1 recipe i-can’t-believe-it’s-meatless tomato sauce or 1 (26 ounce) jar prepared pasta sauce
1 (12 ounce) package of frozen meatless Italian sausage crumbles
12 ounces whole wheat penne pasta, boiled al dente and drained (about 8 to 10 minutes)
12 ounces whole-milk or part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Heat olive oil in a 2-quart or larger pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and celery and cook until mushrooms have released their juices, about 5 to 10 minutes (translation: until the mushrooms are cooked).

Add i-can’t-believe-it’s-meatless tomato sauce or the jar of prepared pasta sauce to the cooked celery and mushrooms. Add the meatless Italian sausage crumbles. Heat through, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

In a 3-quart baking dish, layer ⅓ of the penne, ⅓ of the sauce mixture, and ⅓ of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layering two more times, and top with the grated Parmesan.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350°F, until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2010. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cheese, meat substitute, mushrooms, pasta

How about a nice bowl of cheery orange-colored soup to warm your tummy on a cold winter night? I only recently began to appreciate soup, having been too lazy to properly appreciate it in the past — soup isn’t often stick-to-your-ribs fare and I’m pretty side-dish impaired, as far as getting out bread or making a salad to go with the soup.

There are two kinds of soups that tickle my fancy. If they meet one of these two criteria and are vegetarian, I’ll likely try them, no matter what the ingredients. One is the all-day kind. Prep everything in the morning or the night before, and the whole lovely melange of vegetables and broth putters away in a crock pot or on a stovetop all day. The other is the quick kind. From cookbook to table in an hour or less, the quick soup earns its flavor not from slow simmering infusing the vegetables with flavor, but more from shots of spice that deliver a quick punch.

This winter soup is of the latter variety; a thick purée resembling nothing other than a carrot or sweet potato baby food, it’s chock full of grown-up flavors like ginger and cumin that blend together in silken bliss. You’ll certainly get a perk-up of summery beta carotene from this soup, whose vegetables straddle an epicurean line between apples picked from autumn trees and carrots pulled from warm late-summer soil, and hearty ingredients pulled from winter storage.

It satisfies winter’s comfort-food cravings while delivering a whisper of the autumn just lost.

winter soup of carrots, lentils, apple, and sweet potato

I use an immersion blender for in-the-pot puréeing. It’s a zillion times more convenient than the conventional method of pouring the soup into a blender in batches and puréeing that way. However, If you don’t have an immersion blender, feel free to purée it in a blender or try it chunky. Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

prep: 20 minutes
to table: 60 minutes
servings: 6
special equipment: immersion blender

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) salted butter
2 large sweet potatoes
3 large carrots
1 apple
1 onion
1/2 cup lentils, any variety
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
4 cups vegetable broth
plain yogurt, for garnish (optional: destroys the vegan-ness, of course)

Peel and chop sweet potatoes, carrots, and apple. Chop the onion. You’ll be puréeing this later, so it’s not necessary to be super-precise.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook five minutes, until translucent or nearly so. Add chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, and apple and cook another five minutes.

Now dump in everything else (except the yogurt, of course): Stir in the lentils, ginger, black pepper, salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer about 30 minutes, until the lentils and vegetables are soft.

With an immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth. Serve garnished with a healthy dollop of plain yogurt. You may garnish with sour cream if you like, but I’ve tried both and the yogurt tastes better and melts into the soup better when stirred in.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: apples, carrots, ginger, lentils, sweet potato

Neat, this made Foodie Views of the day! They gave me a pretty button to go with it:

Have I ever mentioned that the last thing I gave up when going vegetarian was bacon? Beef: I never liked it anyway. Nearly the same with chicken. Fish: next to last. I like me some canned tuna.

I’m not going to wax poetic about bacon, though. That’s so 2008. Are you as tired as I am of candied bacon, bacon smoothies, bacon popcorn, and bacon ice cream? I’m sure they’re wonderful, but all of the swooning over bacon is becoming a tad unseemly. Let’s be seemly, shall we?

Suffice to say bacon tastes good and its namesake sandwich, the BLT, is too. The salty bacon, the pretty ruffles of leaf lettuce, the earthy, full flavor of heirloom tomato slices — slap them between a few slices of toast slathered with a condment of your choice, usually mayonnaise, and you have one mother of a sandwich.

Everyone knows how to make a BLT.

But have you ever had one with basil-garlic mayonnaise?

It elevates the humble BLT to a thing of beauty. The fresh basil complements the tomato, the garlic enhances the bacon, and a few drops of hot pepper sauce add little heat but a lot of flavor.

Now, the nice people at Nature’s Pride sent me a couple loaves of bread: 12-grain and 100% whole wheat. Since they sent me free stuff, I’m likely to say nice things about it, so be forewarned. They make their bread with all natural ingredients and no HFCS, which is a big plus for me. When my cousin and I were making the sandwiches, he asked what kind of bread I had, and stipulated, “No whole wheat.” I gacked, because I don’t keep anything but whole wheat around. He had to get whole grains anyway, in the form of the 12-grain loaf.

He survived, and said the 12-grain was really good. Whether he was being polite or not I’m not sure. Either way, I don’t care. My sandwich got validation.

Mine was on whole wheat. It was quite tasty as well. We used Black Krim heirloom tomatoes from my garden, and some really lovely curly generic leaf lettuce from the store. It was quite tasty as well. I have to say that overall, I prefer the bread I make myself, but if I had to buy some, I would choose this Nature’s Pride stuff. Again, remember, I’m predisposed to being nice about the bread though.

basil-garlic mayonnaise

1 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash or two of tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
3/4 cup mayonnaise

In a food processor, whirl the basil leaves and garlic until the basil is finely chopped. Add salt, hot pepper sauce, and mayonnaise. Pulse until mixed together. Chill 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.

basil-garlic mayonnaise BLT

Black Krim is a Russian heirloom variety tomato. It’s considered a beefsteak, but the tomatoes are smallish, about 2-1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. They have a rich flavor, not quite as “smoky” as some of the other black varieties, but more robust-tasting than most reds. I love growing them; like Stupice, they’re the perfect size for a sandwich, and they grow perfectly round and nearly blemish-free. They grow well in cooler climates like we have here in Michigan — it’s one of the few varieties I got a good number of tomatoes off of this cold summer.

4 slices whole grain bread, toasted
4 slices of cooked bacon
2 Black Krim tomatoes
2 large leaves curly leaf lettuce
basil-garlic mayonnaise (recipe above)

Slice the Black Krims. You should get 4 slices from each tomato, about 3/8″ thick. Slather basil-garlic mayonnaise on the toast. Build the BLT in layers: first, break the bacon into halves, laying out 4 halves on the bread. Then add the tomato slices, and the leaf lettuce on top of that. This ought to provide some decent protection for the bread from the tomato’s juices.

Top with the other slice of bread, cut sandwich in half, and serve.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bacon, basil, lettuce, tomato

Shrinkage. It’s not just for George Costanza anymore. Thanks to rising costs and a disinclination towards outwardly raising prices, food manufacturers are selling less for the same price. Everything comes in a smaller package these days, and not all of it is due to chilly swimming pools.

And in the process, mucking up loads and loads of recipes. Jerks.

But I’ve got a present for you. Spring tuna wraps uses 5 ounce cans of tuna, yay! Well, that’s because I sort of just wrote down the precise measurements today, but you didn’t read that, did you?

But it’s not spring anymore, I hear you complaining. Too bad. Up here in Michigan, it’s been a cruel cool cool summer, and peas, lettuce, radishes, and green onions are still going strong in the garden. Confession: my peas are sugar snaps, so I use frozen in this recipe, shh. Don’t tell anyone!

gah, someone get this cat off my countertop

Oh, wait. Hold up. My dad’s cat, who likes to come in my house at night, keeps jumping up on the counter to lick the measuring cup that had mayonnaise in it.

So annoying. I hate getting hints that it’s time to wash the damn dishes.

Okay, tossed the cat outside, now back to the wraps. I’ve always liked canned tuna, and missed it when I eschewed fish in the strict vegetarian phase. Even as a kid, a tuna sandwich was always a special treat and change from the normal peanut butter and jelly sack lunch. I would have had it in every lunch if I could. As a grownup, I finally found out how tuna is supposed to taste, via tuna steaks in good restaurants, but canned tuna still holds a special place. I don’t know why, because it bears about as much resemblance to tuna the fish as canned salmon does to salmon the fish, and I hate canned salmon.

Now, updated for grownups: brighten up tuna salad with tangy lemon, sweet peas, and crunchy bits of radish. Toss in some toasted almonds, splash on a bit of Thai chili sauce, tuck it all into whole wheat tortillas with leafy lettuce. Yes, there’s still mayo in here, and celery, and some green onions and…you get the point. A melange of springy vegetables ready for sandwich noshing.

Oh wow. Even at six servings, each tuna wrap is 242 calories apiece! Sounds pretty good to me.

spring tuna wraps

Thai chili sauce is spicy and a bit sweet, meant more for adding flavor than heat, though it can be a bit fiery. You may have seen the Vietnamese version, a bottle with a prominent rooster on it, which is the same thing. The version I have is from an Asian market, Shark Brand (Sriracha), and if you’re curious, it contains 35% chiles, 25% water, 20% sugar, 10% garlic, 5% salt, and 5% vinegar.

prep: 15 minutes
servings: 6 to 8

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced, or 1/2 teaspoon jarred minced garlic
1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce (optional)
2 (5 ounce) cans of tuna, drained
1 cup peas, fresh or thawed from frozen
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup green onion, sliced green tops
1 radish, finely chopped
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted
ground black pepper to taste
lettuce leaves
whole wheat tortillas (recipe here) or other wrap

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, and Thai chili sauce.

Add tuna, peas, celery, green onion, radish, and slivered almonds, and mix well. Add black pepper if desired (salt too, if you want).

To serve: Scoop about 1/2 cup of tuna mixture onto a whole wheat tortilla. Top with lettuce and roll up tightly, and enjoy.

Alternatively, you may skip the wrap and have the salad on a bed of lettuce. Less pretty, though.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: almonds, green onion, lettuce, peas, radish, tuna

Hey, look, another super simple recipe that is super yummy.

I know. Fried rice is intended as a leftover-user. Day-old rice? Make fried rice with it! Unfortunately for the rice, fried rice is so good on its own that it gets made a lot on purpose here and never makes it to day-old status.

In fact, I make it so much it seems I’ve begun doing that thing where you tweak. I’d heard of this, where people don’t follow recipes directly and instead, like, change them. How odd.

What finally made this tweak awesome was green onions and sesame oil. Oh, hay (sorry, got horses on the brain), there are green bunching onions in the garden! Look:

The green in this fried rice is the green onion, peas, and broccoli. I always use frozen for the peas and broccoli, though I’m sure fresh would be delicious. Fried rice just doesn’t seem the place to be putting garden fresh peas and broccoli, though, you know what I mean? Fresh broccoli is meant for raw crunching, or light steaming, or broccoli salad. Fresh peas are meant for chomping right out of the pod, or quick cooking with a teeny bit of butter melted in at the end, and maybe some chives. But frozen? Go to town in the grocery’s freezer section. Inexpensive and more nutritious than in the produce department and will keep forever. Well, forever-ish.

umami — what?

The green onions added that umami the fried rice was needing. And I figured out a while back that fried rice must have sesame oil in it. If you don’t drizzle some sesame oil into the mix, it’s going to taste bland, no matter what you do.

And apparently, technically green onions don’t have umami flavor. I don’t care. I’m proclaiming umami to be a generic term for “makes it taste awesomer.”

the fried rice trick

I don’t know the right way to make fried rice. I’m sure there’s some proper method that I’m too lazy to discover.

So here’s the trick I developed:

Start the eggs first. Just crack them into the pan and stir to scramble them. Now keep stirring. Quit complaining; you only need to do this for a minute or two. You’ll find that the eggs cook slowly, but develop this neat creamy texture. Keep stirring the eggs until almost cooked, like THIS close to done.

This is when you’ll dump in the peas, chopped green onion and broccoli. Add salt and pepper. The eggs, being almost done, will cling just a little bit to the vegetables. After stirring that for a little bit, you’ll add the rice, soy sauce, and then sesame oil, but that’s all described in the recipe below.

This method makes the egg, vegetables, and rice cling together a teensy bit, just enough so that it’s not all rolling about completely separately.

Hey, is fried rice even supposed to stick together? Am I doing it wrong?

green fried rice

prep: 10 minutes
to table: 20 minutes (when using cooked rice)
servings: 4
special equipment: rice cooker, if you want

2 cups brown rice, cooked, or 2/3 cup dry brown rice
1 teaspoon canola oil
3 eggs
2 green onions, tops only, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups broccoli, thawed if using from frozen, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
sesame seeds, for garnish

If cooking brown rice, prepare according to rice cooker directions, adding 1/2 teaspoon vegetable base to the water, if desired, to add a little flavor to the rice. Have the brown rice cooked and ready to go before beginning the rest of the recipe.

Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the skillet, break the yolks, and stir to scramble together. Stir eggs constantly to cook them without letting them set completely.

When eggs are nearly fully cooked, dump in the green onions, peas, and chopped broccoli. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir to coat the vegetables with the eggs, about 30 seconds. Add the cooked brown rice and soy sauce, and stir to mix everything together and finally finish cooking the eggs.

At the very end of cooking time, drizzle about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and mix in. Remove immediately from heat.

Garnish with sesame seeds, if desired. Serve with soy sauce.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: broccoli, brown rice, eggs, peas

Ohnoes. A pantry meal — in June!

It may be spring — almost summer — but the garden’s getting a slow start around here. A very wet spring kept us from planting until late May. We’ve already burned past the asparagus and rhubarb, and strawberries are due any day now, but normally at this time we’d have lettuce and radishes at the very least.

But it was not to be. The radishes are just about big enough to snack on, but there just isn’t a lot going on yet. I’m not in the mood for hot, heavy, stick-to-your ribs food now, though, so I turned to a main-course salad and dug out this black bean and couscous salad recipe.

Couscous is one of my favorite pastas/grains. I like whole-wheat couscous (obviously!) and it’s one of the whole-grain products that doesn’t seem any different from non-whole-grain variety. It isn’t even prepared differently; perhaps a touch more water or broth when making it, but it turns out fine without such watchfulness. Couscous also pairs amazingly with beans, and I’m partial to black beans. A lot of which goes to explain why I enjoy this salad so much.

You’ll notice in the picture that I used green pepper because that’s what was on hand, but it’s really yummy with sweet red pepper. Also, notice how white the corn is? That’s because it’s from the corn I froze last year, another good reason to have some now — I froze a lot of sweet corn!

The dressing is what makes it stand out, though. This is one of those malleable salad recipes where you can mix and match and swap ingredients to no ill effect, because the aromatic olive oil and lime juice mixture that’s holding it all together is what makes it sing.

So I thawed some frozen corn, got out some whole-wheat couscous and black beans, chopped up the pepper and green onion (the only fresh ingredients) and mixed up the dressing, and had a refreshing spring pantry dinner.

black bean and couscous salad

prep: 15 minutes
to table: 20 minutes
serves: 8

1 cup whole wheat couscous
1-1/3 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or from concentrate
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 green onions, chopped, green tops only
1 bell pepper, any color, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro or 1tablespoon dried
1-1/2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained

In a medium saucepan, bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add the couscous and stir. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper. If using dried cilantro, add now as well. Stir in green onions, bell pepper, fresh cilantro (if using), corn, and black beans.

With a fork, fluff the couscous. Add couscous to the vegetable/dressing mixture and mix well. Serve immediately or chill.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | Leave a comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: black beans, corn, couscous, sweet peppers

After several years as an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I came back to fish. I love fish, particularly salmon. It’s pretty, delicious, and full of protein and omega-3s. There are a few things to watch out for when purchasing salmon, though, if you’re being conscious of where your food comes from and how it impacts our environment.

There’s “good” salmon and there’s “bad” salmon. This refers not to freshness but to whether it’s farmed or wild. Alaska has robust wild salmon fisheries and that is the kind of salmon to look for. Look for the terms “wild” or “Alaskan” when buying fresh or frozen salmon.

“Bad” salmon is farmed. They’re treated with pesticides and antibiotics, are low in omega-3s due to their diet, pollute their local environment due to so many being raised in a small area (sewage), and reduce the supply of other fish — salmon are carnivorous, and it takes 3 pounds of other fish to raise 1 pound of salmon. Farmed salmon will often say it is farmed, but usually more prominently displayed is “Atlantic.” If your’e buying Atlantic salmon, you’re buying farmed salmon.

Buy wild and/or Alaskan salmon. It’s no more expensive than farmed, and it’s much better for you and everyone else.

Right now is sockeye salmon season — it usually shows up fresh in markets in June. Sockeye eats only plankton, which gives it a richer taste than other salmons, and a deep reddish pink color. If you see sockeye at your market, snap it up.

This salmon recipe puts filets in an soy sauce-tinged, slightly sweet marinade for an hour, then on the grill or under the broiler. It’s my go-to recipe when I want really flavorful salmon. Served on a bed of broth-infused quinoa, it’s even pretty enough to serve to other people.

asian salmon on quinoa

Quinoa naturally forms a coating of saponin (a precursor to soap) which can leave an unpleasant taste. Rinsing quinoa removes this coating. Much of the quinoa you find in stores has already been rinsed, but it doesn’t hurt anything to rinse it yourself to be sure. While the recipe calls for fillets, you can see from the photo that I’ve made it with salmon steaks as well.

prep: 20 minutes
marinate time: 1 hour
to table: 90 minutes
servings: 4

quinoa:

1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth

Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer. Put quinoa in a medium saucepan. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until all broth is absorbed, 15 to 18 minutes.

asian salmon:

4 salmon fillets (1 pound)
1/3 cup brown sugar, divided
2 teaspoons lemon pepper, divided
1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons minced ginger root
1/3 cup orange juice

Mix lemon pepper and garlic powder in a small prep bowl.

Rub salmon with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Sprinkle with about half of the lemon pepper and garlic powder mixture, and rub into salmon.

Add soy sauce and canola oil to small saucepan. Stir in remaining brown sugar, remaining lemon pepper and garlic powder, and minced ginger. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and stir in orange juice.

Place rubbed salmon into a resealable plastic bag. Add marinade. Seal and refrigerate for 1 hour, turning over after 30 minutes.

Broiling instructions:

Heat broiler. Place marinated salmon in foil-lined baking pan.

Broil salmon, skin side up if there’s skin, for 2 minutes. Remove skin with tongs baste with marinade and broil 2 more minutes. If skinless, broil 4 minutes. Flip salmon over, and broil 4 minutes, until it flakes easily. Remove from oven. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Grilling instructions:

Heat grill. Place marinated salmon skin-side down on grill, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove skin with tongs, baste with marinade, and grill 2 more minutes on that side. Flip salmon over, and grill 4 minutes, until it flakes easily. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Spoon about 3/4 cup of quinoa onto a plate, place salmon filet on top, and serve.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: quinoa, salmon