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Posts Tagged ‘carrots’

Meatless Monday

Posted in Home Cooking, Meatless Monday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 13, 2009| 9 Comments »

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So, we just started with an idea Yuki had a while back which is to not eat meat at least one day of the week. This is a very difficult concept for me to digest seeing as beef is my favorite vegetable followed closely by lamb. However, after going through the Food, Inc. the movie website I started to get on board with the Meatless Monday thing. Last night was the first installment.

Taking a cue from Indian cooking I decided to do a sort of vegetable curry type of thing. I got some cauliflower, chickpeas, carrots, onions, potatoes, and spinach and threw them together.

I first steamed the potatoes for a few minutes before cutting them into cubes so that the cooking time in the pan would be reduced. I threw some garlic and ginger in hot soy oil for a few minutes. The dumped in the onions and carrots. About 5 minutes or so later I added half of the head of cauliflower broken into small florets. A few minutes later went in the potatoes and some salt. Once everything was heated up I added the sauce I made.

The base of the sauce was a cup of plain yogurt. I added some garam masala and mixed it in. I have absolutely no idea how much. I dumped some in, stirred it around, tasted it, dumped in some more. Just add however much you like. Then I added some finely grated lime rind, a tablespoon or so of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, the juice of one lime, and some pepper.

Once the sauce fully coated all of the veggies I threw in some spinach and turned off the heat. I only wanted the spinach to wilt a little. Then I sprinkled on some sesame seeds.

I served it with some white rice and a hard boiled egg. Since an egg was never a living bird it’s fair game for Meatless Monday’s.

I think it will be hard to cook vegetarian, but I’m up for the task. Tonight I have to do something with the other half of cauliflower and the yogurt. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

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Short Ribs

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2009| 1 Comment »

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It’s starting to get cold here in Chicago, that means less grilling and more braising. My first braise of the season was a batch of beef short ribs. One of the most flavorful cuts. Nice and fatty, lots of bone marrow, what could be better?

First, I browned them in a big pot with some olive oil to get some nice color then set them aside. Then I added onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. After about 5 minutes, when the veggies were translucent, I dumped in two cups of red wine and let it boil for a few minutes. I added three cups of beef stock, a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar, two bay leaves, a tablespoon of coriander seeds, and a bunch of thyme. Let it come to a boil and added salt and pepper. Then I returned the short ribs, covered the pot tightly, and put into a preheated oven at 250 degrees.

After 5 hours in the oven to took the pot out and removed the short ribs. The meat was tender that the bones fell right off, it sent tingles down my spine. I put the meat in a dish and tented it with foil to keep it from losing moisture and strained the braising liquid into a bowl and let it cool to room temperature allowing the fat to rise to the top. I scraped off the fat and returned the liquid to a pot and boiled for about 45 minutes so it could reduce. Then I added a little corn starch slurry to thicken it up to a more velvety texture and added a bunch of chopped parsley. There was my gravy.

I made some creamy garlic mashed potatoes along with quickly stir-fryed carrots, onions, and haricots vert to serve alongside.

Once everything was ready I put the short ribs back into the oven at 400 for 10 minutes to reheat them and then plated everything up. It was one of the best short ribs I’ve ever eaten in my life! The perfect thing for a chilly night.

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Gyu-don

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2009| 1 Comment »

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Here’s my first attempt at making Gyu-don, Japanese simmered thinly sliced beef with onions on rice. It’s surprisingly simple to make, yet full of flavor and easy on the wallet.

The trick is to get the beef sliced as thin as deli meat. You can get it at Mitsuwa, but I’m not sure where else to get good quality meat in this fashion. I’m sure it’s available. I do know that it’s near impossible to get such even thin slices at home with a knife no matter how sharp it is.

So, take put a little oil in a medium-sized pot and cook some ginger and garlic for a minute or two. Then add an onion thinly sliced and sweat it for a few minutes. Add a couple cups of water, a quarter cup each of soy sauce and mirin, a few pinches of sugar and let it come to a simmer. Then add your beef and let it cook until the liquid is reduced by 3/4’s.

All you have to do then is put some white rice in a bowl and top it with some Gyu-don.

I served it with a simple corn soup garnished with Thai basil and a salad that Yuki made. She tossed some mixed greens, julienned carrots, celery, and cucumber (I left the cucumber out of mine, vile phalis!) in a homemade hijiki vinaigrette. All washed down with a cold beer.

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Spaghetti a la Yukiko

Posted in Home Cooking, seafood, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2009| 1 Comment »

Spaghetti a la Yukiko

With all of this cold, wet weather we’ve had here in Chicago this summer I find less and less motivation to run to the markets as often as I like. With the need for a complete and satisfying dinner the other night and the lack of a market visit my wife told me she’d clean out the fridge and cupboards and cook up something delicious. I have to say, her spaghetti didn’t disappoint.

She found a can of tuna and always does something beautiful with it. So that was the protein. There were some pea pods, orange peppers, onions, mushrooms, and carrots in the fridge. She also found some heavy cream that we hadn’t used yet (she was going to make a quiche a couple of nights before, but cheesed out on it). We always have angel hair pasta on hand, so her dish was written.

She first cooked the tuna in a little oil to give it a little texture on the outside. After removing the tuna she cooked the veggies and then added the tuna back in along with the cream. Not sure if she added any alcohol or not, but whatever she did it worked. Toss it with the noodles and serve with cheesy garlic toast and a cold beer. Oh, and we had two little Juliette Tomatoes that were ripe from our porch garden, so we each ate one.

This dish was made using leftovers so it’s hard to figure what it cost. I would imagine that each plate probably cost us no more than $2.50.

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Grilled Halibut

Posted in Home Cooking, seafood, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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Here’s a simple grilled fish dish. I got some fantastic fresh Halibut at Isaacson’s for $12.50 a pound. My wife and I each eat about 6oz so that’s about $4.70 per person. I marinated it in soy, mirin, sake, garlic, ginger, and fresh thai basil from my porch. Also a touch of olive oil to keep it nice and moist when it’s grilled.

For veggies we got some mixed organic potatoes that almost taste like plantains when grilled with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I also olive oiled, salt, and peppered some fresh organic hericot verts, spanish onions, and carrots. All of the veggies came from the Farmer’s Market and Stanley’s.  In total, we each ate about $2.50 in veggies.

Some white rice with grated nori seaweed (the kind that wraps sushi rolls) and seasame and a glass of white wine completed the meal.

The best part is that there were no dishes to clean up since everything was cooked on the grill.

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Middle Eastern Chicken and Chickpeas

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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Here’s one of my favorites. It’s healthy, delicious, and cheap.

Season boneless, skinless chicken thighs with olive oil, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. Grill them!

Sautee onions with garlic, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, and a can of chickpeas. Season the veggies with cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper as well. Mix a little soy sauce (about 2-3 tbsp) with some chicken stock (about 1/4 cup) and dump into the veggies to add a little moisture as well as a little more depth to the flavor. If I had some fresh parsley I would have added it once taking the veggies off the heat, but I forgot to pick some up. I did squeeze a little lemon juice in it as well as on top of the chicken once taken off the grill.

Serve with white rice and you’re good to go. If  you want, you can also serve it with a salad. A simple lettuce and tomato salad would do the trick, as would something more Middle Eastern like Tabbouleh.

All in all, this dish costs about $4.50 per person ($4.75 with salad).

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