Lemony Chickpea Stir-fry

A few weeks ago Dianne suggested we have more vegetarian dinners. That's kinda hard to do given the small number of vegetables that we both like. I ran across a recipe for a chickpea stir-fry at the 101 Cookbooks site that fit the bill nicely. The photo on the right shows my dish. It turned out well. The lemon balances out the bitterness of the kale. I think maybe some ginger might be a nice addition next time. Dianne suggested adding almonds for some extra crunch.

What is your favorite vegetarian dish? I'm always looking for ideas.

Thai Cooking Class

Last night I went to a cooking demonstration class given by Helen Chen. Helen is the daughter of Joyce Chen whose cookware you've probably seen in stores. Helen has written a couple of cookbooks and now has her own line of cookware. She's a very high energy, down to earth person that made the class a lot of fun. Helen prepared 5 different Thai dishes that we got to taste.

The class was held at Cooks'Wares at Harper's Point. It's close by and they have a small, but nice area where 24 people can watch a cooking demonstration. Mirrors above the counter/stove let you see exactly what the chef is doing. It's small enough so you can interact with the chef and ask questions along the way about recipe substitutions, favorite brands of ingredients, cooking techniques, etc. Check out their course offerings here. It's worth the price and you get a 10% discount at the store when you're attending a class. I picked up a couple items like a new, large flat bottomed wok and a Japanese mandolin. Can't wait to try some of the Thai recipes I learned about.

Seasoned Skewers

I’m not a huge marinade fan. One reason is that marinades usually have a lot of salt. That’s a big killer for me. Also, many of them have onion bits which is a killer for Dianne. Aside from the ingredient limitations, another reason is marinades take planning and time in order to get a good flavor from the effort. That’s tough to do during the work week.

Apparently the folks at Callison’s Fine Foods spent some time thinking about these problems and how to address them with a new product. I just read about their new Seasoned Skewers. They are skewers with seasoning embedded in the wood. They come in various flavors and the product claims the meat is seasoned from the inside out in 15 minutes. The nutritional information looks good with zero salt. Their ‘where to buy’ section says they’re available in the Cincinnati area at Cooks’Wares at Harper’s Point and Sur la Table at Rookwood. Anybody out there given them a try? I’m curious how well they season the meat. Seems like something you could use not only for traditional grilling but also for broiling or on the George Foreman grill.

Lentils and Ham

I like Alton Brown’s show Good Eats on the Food Network. He puts a light-hearted spin on culinary topics that makes the show educational and fun to watch. Along the way he gives lots of interesting tips.

His recent show on lentils got me inspired. He took lentils out of their traditional soup role and into other dishes – including lentil cookies. Well…I wan’t THAT inspired. But I took his basic guidance and came up with a nice ham and lentil creation.

I used his approach to preparing the lentils described towards the bottom of this page (minus onions for Dianne). While the lentils were boiling, I fried up a package of small diced ham cubes in some grapeseed oil. When they were cooked through, I deglazed the pan with some white wine and seasoned the mix with thyme (~1+ tsp), one fresh ground clove, parsley, ground pepper, and a dash of lemon juice. After the lentils were drained and the bay leaves removed, I tossed about 2/3 of the lentils together with the seasoned ham and served with some corn on the side. I thought it turned out pretty well for a first try.

Tastespotting

I stumbled on the Tastespotting website today. It's a photo based site showing pictures of food and food related gadgets. The photos are links that take you to blogs or websites showing recipes or describing the kitchen gadget. It's not an efficient way to find a recipe, but it's a great site to browse. The photos show some awesome creations.

An example of a gadget item is the Mr. and Mrs. Bento Box shown at right. A set of stackable trays (4 for Mr. and 2 for Mrs.) that fit inside the insulated jar. It's rare I pack a lunch, but these are pretty cool.

Cooking with Monkey

I stumbled across a creative website called Cooking With Monkey. The site has collections of photographs that follow a stuffed monkey making various dishes from start to finish. The idea of a stuffed animal holding kitchen utensils and operating appliances to cook something struck me as very funny. The picture at the right shows Monkey making cupcakes. You can see Monkey making all kinds of recipes. I think it’s a cute, clever idea for a website – although a lot of work.

I must be in the target audience, because when I showed it to Dianne she didn’t think it was that cute. I thought the stuffed animal would enhance her interest, but it didn’t work. Maybe if the monkey rides a motorcycle she’ll get sucked in.

By the way, the cooking area is just a small part of the photo documentary of Monkey. Go here to see him doing all kinds of things like going to the dentist (getting teeth x-rays is the funniest pic in that series), going to the eye doctor, doing origami, and traveling in Chicago.

Curious Cook

Thanks to the Blogger Buzz post on the Blogger dashboard, I found the News for Curious Cooks blog written by Harold McGee. He provides an interesting look at the interface between food, cooking, and science. His book as well as the blog explains the "why" behind cooking methods and food transforms. For example, this post gives some background as to why black teas should be brewed in very hot water whereas green teas need more gentle brewing.

Squirrel Melt

VH1's show "Web Junk 20" is back for a new season that started last week. The weekly show is a countdown of and witty commentary on the latest strange stuff from the internet.

My favorite clip from the first show answered the eternal question of "what's for dinner?" It's a video of a woman taking her son squirrel hunting and then cooking squirrel melt. Here is the whole clip. They claimed it was a segment from an actual TV series. Mmm...mmm...good!

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breast

A few weeks ago I was on a business trip to upstate New York. I stayed at Fred's Inn and had a nice dinner there of an apple raisin stuffed chicken breast. Today I tried coming up with my own version that was veggie and raisin safe for Dianne. It turned out pretty well.

The key was Jack Lalanne's power juicer. I juiced three apples (two Braeburn and one Granny Smith). I took all the pulp (about 2 cups) and added about a cup of bread crumbs and a few tablespoons of the juice, some sage, thyme, and parsley. That was the stuffing. I made a pocket in each boneless, skinless chicken breast, filled it with stuffing, and tied it shut. Dianne browned the breasts and then we finished them in a 350 degree oven until the internal temp was well above 165. It took about 30 minutes.

I deglazed the pan with about 1 1/2 cups of the apple juice and some white wine. I also added a bit of thyme, sage, and pepper. I reduced that down and added just a bit of cornstarch to thicken slightly. To balance the sweet flavor, I added a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I used that sauce on top of the chicken when plating.

With the chicken, we had sauteed green beans with lemon zest and a cheese hashbrown casserole. It was a good dinner -- the chicken had a nice, savory apple flavor. It was a pretty good imitation of the dinner I had at Fred's Inn.

Cheap Thrills Cuisine

Planning a meal but tired of reading traditional cookbooks? Do you like comic books or graphic novels? Time to check out Cheap Thrills Cuisine. CTC is a syndicated comic strip that presents illustrated recipes. If you don’t have CTC in your newspaper, or you don’t read the paper, you can check out the strip online at the United Media site. Thanks to the Foo Logs for pointing out this strip.

The Foodie Report

Thanks to Lauren for pointing out The Foodie Report blog. From the title, folks in the Cincinnati area might think it's related to Jungle Jims (note the foodie poll on the lower right of the JJ page). If you've been to the store, you know what I mean. But that's not the case.

The Foodie Report is a collection of food, restaurant, and recipe related items posted by several members of the staff at the Cincinnati Enquirer. With multiple authors, there is a nice variety of posts so you're sure to find something of interest -- especially if you are in the Cincinnati area. Although interesting in a train wreck kind of way, I was kind of grossed out by this Foodie Report post about an alternative recipe for stuffing a turkey. I've never had a slider so I hadn't heard of that stuffing recipe.

Check it out and be sure to leave a comment. Jim Borgman mentioned a while back that the paper's Big Brother tracks comment numbers as one measure of success. If that were the case here, I'd have closed up shop along time ago.

Crispy Gnocchi

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on the 101 Cookbooks site describing a recipe that incorporated crispy gnocchi. The term crispy jumped out at me since I've experienced some starchy messes when boiling potato gnocchi. The concept of frying a gnocchi sounded intriguing, although I wasn't sold on the whole recipe.

A couple weeks ago I tried preparing crispy gnocchi. I used olive oil and had a lot of sticking problems in the pan. They weren't crisping up well as the crispy parts were sticking to the pan. I was almost done making them when I realized I didn't have the pan hot enough at the start.

I tried the experiment again recently. This time I used grapeseed oil. The higher smoking point of the grapeseed oil lets you get the pan hot without breaking down the oil. As soon as I tossed them in the pan, I gave a quick toss to coat the gnocchi with oil. After a few minutes they had a nice golden brown crust without sticking to the pan. It only requires a couple tablespoons of oil. Give it a try as a side.