Lentils

Sometimes I just end up craving lentils.  Not sure why or how, but it just has to happen.  This time of year that means a more western lentil soup; in the spring for whatever reason that tends to be dal instead.

This time I just went 'sperimenting (again based on what I had around the house).  Worked like a charm, kept in the refrigerator, and reheated perfectly.

Any good lentils should start with bacon.  In this case, six slices, chopped and then crisped in a stock pot.

To that, add about six stalks of celery, chopped and the same amount of carrot.  Onions would be traditional here but, well, I didn't have any.  Or any garlic; powder had to do there.

And then the fun starts: melt all that together along with two diced jalapenos and one red bell pepper (slightly larger bits are fine here).

In a separate pan, brown a pound of kielbasa and add to the stock pot when maillarded properly.

Retain the fat, though, and roast another sliced red pepper (and two more jalapenos; why not) in it before adding that all in together.

Add:

• about 3/4 pound of lentils
• chicken broth
• water if needed
• balsamic vinegar
• one can of tomato paste

Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh parsley or mustard greens on top and a dense bread on the side.  Perfect for a slightly chilly day.

Chili con carne take 2

It's that season again.  And when the pantry is relatively empty it's easy enough just to go with what you have.  This worked out fine and basically proves that con carne is just one of those things you can do just about anything to without messing it up too badly.

This time, sweat two smallish white onions in olive oil until nice and tender.

Add in one to 1.5 pounds ground beef (70-30 if you can get it of course; 80-20 works though I wouldn't go much lower than that).  When that's mostly cooked through, throw in (of course) cumin and oregano along with cayenne in relatively equal parts.  Don't worry, the bulk of the heat will come later.

To that, add:

• 1 can black beans, half drained
• 1 can pinto beans, half drained
• 1 can great northern beans, half drained
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 1 can chipotle in adobo, chopped

Mix that together adding water as needed.  Garnish with cilantro (or parsley as that's what I had and it worked fine) and cheese of your choice.

Relatively quick, dead simple, and quite hardy.  Plus, well, hot.  Chipotle in adobo tends to lend itself to that quite well.

Simple bean/chicken salad

Well, mostly simple.  The actual prep is just a tiny bit time-consuming (if half an hour counts) but it's very good.  Especially for coming out of a can.

Basic idea: throw together some beans.  Make them taste good.  Make sure you have plenty of protein going so it's a full meal or more.  And make sure it's a complete protein or two.

Basic salad

And I mean really basic.  Five cans.  Oil.  Vinegar.

First, drain a can of diced tomatoes; retain the sauce in a bowl.  You're going to have the colander out anyway; just drain the juice into the bowl.  Crush the tomatoes by hand a bit.

Combine in a large bowl:

• 1 can black beans, drained and washed
• 1 can great northern beans, drained and washed
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and washed
• 1 can corn, drained (no washing needed)
• 2 celery stocks, finely cubed
• Chopped parsley; flat leaf if you have it
• Tomatoes without the juice
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar

 And that's your basic bean salad.  Get that in the refrigerator.

Chicken

I used two breasts to balance this and it seemed to work.  Marinate in:

• Red wine vinegar
• Orange juice
• Red pepper flake

After about half an hour, toss that in a pan, cover, heat, and more or less poach it.  When done, cube/shred and add to the salad, tossing well.

Rice

Prepare rice as normal, except:

• Use the reserved tomato juice to replace some of your water
• Add coriander
• Add one bay leaf

Very hearty.  Best served cold.  Makes a great summer meal.

BLTs

Sometimes simplicity wins out.  For me, this often has to do with it being before noon (aka breakfast time), but it can obviously carry on throughout the day depending on your priorities (and the ingredients, of course).  And some classics just call for it.

So, BLTs.  Two versions here, both dead simple in their basic form.  They're definitely toaster oven fare once you get past the bacon itself (and I don't actually object to resorting to a microwave here even if it does come off better in a cast iron skillet every single time).  But the idea remains the same: pick a flavor profile, add a minor twist, and enjoy.

Version one

1. Cook your bacon
2. Toast a split bagel under a broiler, tossing on a grated hard italian cheese halfway through
3. Add either sliced or diced tomato
4. Add bacon, chopped works well here
5. Add a green of your choice; I like spinach but an actual italian green would do very well
6. Layer on alfalfa sprouts (or whatever bean sprouts you happen to have around; mung is particularly nice for the added crunch)

Asiago bagels are an obvious choice here, but onion, garlic, everything, etc all work fine.  As does plain, really.  Just make sure you crush down the top once you're done layering; they become quite unwieldy without some manual encouragement.  Cut in  half and enjoy.  Maybe make two if you're hungry or, ahem, want to use a whole tomato.

Version two

Closer to my heart, of course.  This is the simple version.  If you just happen to have fresh-roasted green hatch this might be the best BLT in the entire history of mankind.

1. Again, cook bacon, slice or chop it
2. Toast a fairly hearty bread
3. Melt a thin layer of cojack on the bread; again, using a toaster oven is easiest here
4. Add sliced, canned green chile
5. Layer your tomato, in this case chopped probably is better
6. Add your choice of lettuce; again I like spinach but romaine isn't bad

Slice.  Eat.  Make another.

If you wanted to go crazy you could, I don't know:

1. Replace the bread with a sopapilla, stuff the ingredients, make sure you're using good chile, and smother in a red sauce.  But then, that would be complicated, wouldn't it?
2. Just  use a tortilla to wrap said ingredients, making sure to chop the bacon, and call it a BLT burrito.  Maybe even add a salsa or guacamole to finish it.

But now we're straying back into complicated, aren't we?

(For the sake of completeness, I should link to a post from Farmgirl Fare on pita in general and another great option for BLTs that I've always wanted to try.  Baking at altitude, especially if you're inept in the first place, has proven a problem.)

Pseudo-minestrone

This is truly not seasonal, but it came up in my archives and I don't want to lose track of it.  Back to risotto shortly, I'm sure.

To start, sweat one large red onion in a, oh, cast iron pot.  Crush and peel garlic and add halfway through the sweat.  Near the end, add four or five chopped, but not diced, carrots.

When said sweat is done, add:

• 2 cans diced tomatoes with liquid
• 2 cans garbanzos (liquid optional; the flavor really varies if you add it or don't)
• 2 cans chicken broth
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Parsley (dried)
• Rosemary
• Red wine vinegar

Bring to a boil.  Add:

• Eightish baby red potatoes

Simmer for 45 minutes.  Add:

• Two zuchinis all sliced and diced as you'd like them.

Let that go for ten minutes.  Serve, adding some greens (mustard worked great on my first try).

Lots of leftovers but it reheats like a dream.

Black beans

This one's easy.  And tasty.  You can modulate spice if need be, and they're slightly (but only slightly) on the unusual side for just standard black beans.

Chop:

• One half white/yellow onion.  Pretty small bits.
• Four or five cloves of garlic

Sweat in olive oil.  Add:

• About 1/3 of a 7oz can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, rough chopped, with some of the sauce itself.  This stuff is potent, as it turns out.  Save the rest for another day.

When that's all nicely combined, add:

• Two cans of black beans, one of them without liquid
• One can chicken broth

Bring all that to a boil and reduce it down until the liquid is just covering the beans.  Cover, reduce heat, add some salt.  You can hold that warm as long as you need and beans will just get softer and mushier, which can be desirable.

Very basic pasta

So many pasta dishes get so complicated so quickly.  This isn't one of them.

Boil water; don't forget to salt it.  It really is better that way.  Eventually add, say, angel hair or some other thin version of spaghetti.  Cook that through.

In the meantime, get to chopping.  Mostly garlic.  Lots of it.  And parsley.  Lots of it.

Add olive oil to a saute pan and lightly toast the garlic.  Once the pasta is ready, add that as well.  Once the pasta is well-coated in oil, kill the heat and add the parsley.  A little red pepper flake at this point wouldn't kill anyone.  Toss further. 

And you're done.

Grate a hard cheese over the top upon serving.

And yes, this compliments the salmon perfectly.

Basic salmon

Perfect summer dish.  Light, doesn't too much overheat the kitchen; can't go wrong.

Basic idea:

• Melt a patty of butter and add about as much olive oil in a small saute pan
• Add two salmon filets, skin up
• Finely chop a whole ton of parsley
• Juice half a lemon
• Flip the salmon to finish
• Drizzle the lemon on top and let that reduce a bit
• Add some parsley at the last minute

Serve with the rest of the lemon and parsley.  Preferably with pasta.

Bastardized chicken curry thing

This isn't curry.  This is barely Indian.  This is not how you make Indian food.

It is, however, simple and quite tasty.

This was stolen and modified from, I believe, Food and Wine, although good luck finding it on their god awful website.  It literally took me 80 minutes the first time -- and I knew what I was looking for.

The link to the original recipe is here (and OK, the website has improved).

But like I said, it's been modified through much trial and error.

First, a side point that will become relevant later: garam masala is a finishing spice.  It is not one of those things you toss in and let stew for hours or some such.

Basic ingredients:

• Oil of some sort; standard vegetable seems to work fine
• Yogurt. In this case any plain variety is fine but I still like full fat.
• Red onion; sliced
• Four to six jalapenos.  Red if you can get them.  Seeded if you're feeling weak; otherwise leave them in as extra capsaicin on the tongue never actually hurts.
• Chicken breasts; probably three or four to serve four or five.
• Turmeric
• Curry powder -- I think hotter is better but moderate as you will
• Garlic, and naturally the more the better; finely chopped
• Naan or pita
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce of some sort
• Garam masala

Slice the chicken into something like 1/8 inch strips and toss those in a bowl.  Cover in yogurt and add sliced jpeps if you dare along with the curry powder and turmeric until the whole thing is nice and yellow and spicy.  Let that sit for a bit; at least until you're done with the rest of the recipe and preferably up to an hour.

Slice tomatoes to taste and chop the lettuce.

Slice the onion; heat the oil.  Sweat them a bit until just barely translucent.

Toss in the chicken mixture with the onions.  And keep tossing.  And tossing.  Otherwise the yogurt will separate.  This should simmer down nicely.

Drop the heat.  This is kind of important.

Start with your chosen bread.  Either toast the pita or tell whatever the naan package tells you to do.

Add more yogurt and garam masala to taste; both will sour the mixture but in a good way.

Serve the chicken/onion/yogurt thing with the tomatoes and lettuce plus the bread.  Really can't go wrong on this one though I really wouldn't call it Indian food.  Either stuff the pita or do the more traditional thing and just scoop ingredients from the plate.  In fact, this wouldn't go wrong with the Ethiopian method of serving everything on a platter and letting everyone scoop from there.

Sausage bread

I don't know if I'd even consider this a recipe.  Except for the fact that it has instructions and results in food; I guess that counts.

I end up craving this stuff on colder days in the spring and fall.  I have no idea why.  But it's a comfort food par excellence.

Basics:

• Store-bought pizza dough in a tube
• Melty Italian cheese mix
• Spicy Italian sausage

Optional:

• Red pepper flake
• Fennel seeds

Cook your sausage with the additives above if desired.  Make sure it's mostly done; it will cook a bit more in the oven but just make sure it's more or less ready to go.  Also make sure it's well broken up.

Crack the dough and spread it on a baking sheet.  In layers, add the cheese and the sausage.  Roll the whole thing up into a loaf and toss that thing in an oven at about 350 for, oh, half an hour.

Remove, let cool a bit, slice, and eat.  Try not to have too much.  It's really very easy.

Also, wonderful as a leftover for the next few days.  If it lasts that long.

Peasent food is the best

This seems to be a recipe I originally got from my parents and then modified significantly. It's dead simple, messy, delicious, and a great thing to modify for any range of people.

Six basic ingredients:

Bread
Garlic
Basil
Roasted red peppers (jarred is not only fine, it's basically ideal)
Goat cheese
Olive oil

For two people I like to use two heads (yes, you heard the right, heads) of garlic, two demi-baguettes (Costco does exceptionally well here believe it or not), a small loaf of goat cheese (the most expensive part by far), rrps and basil to match.

Heat the oven to 350. Toss the garlic on to an oven sheet, unpealed (well, maybe take off the outside layers of skin), and toast until very fragrant.

In the meantime, split your bread and lightly cover the inside with olive oil. Set aside. Also, rough chop the basil and red peppers.

Drop the oven to 250. Add the bread and keep it on until it starts to color and crisp just a bit.

Plate all items, including lumps of goat cheese, for all eaters. Have them combine ingredients on the bread, squeezing out individual garlic cloves (which should now be at most semi-firm and more likely quite squishy) on the bread, followed by peppers, followed by cheese, followed by basil.

While it's a decent appetizer, it can easily be a full meal (for two as described above).

Just trust me on this one.