Collard Greens and Mushrooms

My friend Jon is my city-foodie-friend. We meet up for meals and talk about the merits or Meyer lemons and shiso leaves. Recently he was working in my hometown and picked up kale from my local supermarket. "What's it like?" I asked. "Its a green leafy vegetable, sometimes sweet, sometimes a little bitter" he replied. So when kale was on sale at my local supermarket, I decided to give it a try. ...Except I bought the wrong thing! I picked up collard greens! I really like them actually - its not as sweet as spinach, but not as bitter as some Chinese leafy greens I've had. It strikes a good balance, and at 79 cents a pound, is hard to go wrong. (Kale's not bad either, but I think I like collard greens more!)

Kale and Mushrooms with white rice and leftover barbecue chicken.

Collard Greens and Mushrooms - for one


4 big leaves of collard greens
5 mushrooms (I used baby bella)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp butter
pinch of salt

1. Chop the greens. The stems should be diced, the leave cut crosswise into strips. Separate the stems from the leaves as the stems will need to cook a little longer. Mushrooms should be cubed into bite sized pieces.
2. Place your saute pan on medium high heat. Let it warm up a little.
3. Drop in the butter and swirl the pan to let the pan get an even coating. Reduce heat to medium (butter has a low smoking point, so you don't want to cook it too fast or too hot)
4. Drop in the garlic and saute until fragrant.
5. Add stems. Let them saute for about 3 minutes, until bright green.
6. Add leaves and mushrooms. Saute until leaves are bright green and shiny and mushrooms are darkened.
7. Add pinch of salt - you really don't need a lot. And remember you can always add more, but never take away - its better to add a little at a time. 

Enjoy! x3 Suanne

Sweet Potatoes with Fresh Ginger

A little while ago, I was exhausted after a very long day at work. I desperately wanted comfort food, but I really didn't have much energy. So, after surveying my fridge, I discovered a huge sweet potato that I'd bought a few days earlier. Eureka!

I had visions of Thanksgiving - the ultimate comfort food holiday. Incidentally, I missed last Thanksgiving entirely because I had Swine Flu - ugh! I decided to reclaim at least part of my lost holiday and make this awesome, entirely satisfying dish.

Sweet Potatoes with Fresh Ginger
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes
1 tbs. freshly grated ginger
2 tbs. butter
1/4 cup ginger tea (or water, but ginger tea gives it a really good flavor)
2 tbs. brown sugar
2 tbs. sour cream (optional, but makes the dish a little creamier. And no, you don’t taste it!)
A few pinches of salt

1. Toss sweet potato, ginger, butter, tea, and brown sugar in a two-quart, microwave-safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.
2. Place bowl in microwave for 8 - 10 minutes, stopping to stir the mixture every two minutes or so.
3. Once all of the sweet potatoes are softened, mash the bowl ingredients together.
4. Blend in sour cream (either with a fork, a potato masher, or an electric mixer - it depends on whether you want them to be lumpy or smooth). Taste.
5. Add salt to taste. **Remember: A little bit goes a long way! The goal is not to make salty sweet potatoes, but rather to bring out the subtlety of the other flavors.**

Makes about four to six servings, depending on how you portion it. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for four to six weeks.

AH-mazing Tuna Salad

While I normally pride myself on having a well-stocked kitchen, today was one of those rare days when I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. So, as dinnertime crept ever closer, and my tummy started grumbling, my mind struggled to come up with a way to combine the odd items in my pantry and fridge into some semblance of a real meal. "Protein," I thought, "I want protein." But, alas, having not purchased groceries in almost two weeks, both my fridge and freezer were devoid of meat. As I rummaged through my pantry, looking for something - anything - that appealed to me, I found it: tuna!

"Tuna?" you say, "Really?" Oh. Yeah. Within seconds, I had a game plan and my final results were simple and delicioso! Read on for my recipe!

AH-mazing Tuna Salad

2 - 5 oz. cans tuna, drained
1.5 tbs. mayo
1.5 tbs. horseradish sauce (which I ALWAYS keep on hand)
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 tbs. red onion, minced
1/4 tsp. dill
salt
fresh ground pepper


1. Place tuna in a non-reactive bowl.

2. Add mayo, horseradish sauce, and lemon juice. Mix until well-blended.

3. Mix in onion.

4. Add dill. Taste. (It's always good to taste as you go; otherwise, you're cooking blind!)

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve as is, over salad greens, or on toast. Store leftovers in the fridge for two to three days.

Helpful hints:
- Use a non-reactive (like glass or plastic) bowl. When you mix high-acidity foods (such as lemon or tomato) with metal, your dish can take on a metallic taste - bleh!
- Normally, I'm not a fan of lemon (neither is Suanne, for that matter); however, it does have some helpful uses. I add a touch of lemon just about anytime I use frozen or canned seafood. It seems to restore some freshness to the meat. And if you only use a small amount, it's usual undetectable.

Fool-proof Barbecue Chicken

I grew up cooking with Mom and one of her weekly staples was barbecue chicken. Not very traditional for a Chinese mom - except for one super ingredient! Soy sauce.

Marinades help make your meat super yummy for a few reasons. Certain ingredients, such as soy sauce and vinegar, have enzymes that help break down meat. This allows the meat to absorb more liquid and make it more tender. Its activated by the contact to the ingredients and heat. (So if you have a big cut of meat, poke some holes in it to let the marinade get in better.)

Today's marinade is made of things that are usually readily available in your kitchen. Its not an exact art, so feel free to tweak as you like!

Fool-proof Barbecue Marinade (for four chicken thighs, or equivalent. Great for pork too!)

Marinade:
1/4 cup soy souce
1/4 cup cooking wine (today I used beer. I'm not going to drink it, so might as well cook it!)
3 tbsp ketchup
4 tsp mustard
2 coins of ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp cumin (optional)

Toss it all in a big bowl or tupperware. Stir well. Add the chicken and turn them in the marinade to coat well. I let my chicken marinate for about half an hour before it went in the oven. If you don't want to cook it all now, cover the rest and put it back in the fridge. It can stay marinating for another three days or so.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken in an baking tray non-skin side up (either glass or a roasting pan with a rack is fine.) Place in middle of oven for 20 minutes. Turn over, skin side up, and spoon and extra teaspoon of marinade over the top. Cook for an additional 25 minutes. Always check to make sure it isn't pink in the middle!

CAUTION - after you've had chicken sitting in the marinade, its not safe to use for a sauce. If you do want to use it, I would cook it on the stove at a boil for at least 10 minutes.

How to Poach an Egg

stalking people on Foodgawker (http://foodgawker.com/?s=poached+egg&cat=0) and seeing the beautiful pics of sunny eggs in their white pajamas made me smile! Now, little known fact about Suanne - I usually HATE eggs. Especially scrambled! But if I can get it fried or poached, well, gosh darn it, its pretty good with salt and pepper.

So today I whipped up some kale and garlic and set a pot of water to boil to poach the egg. Kale came out perfectly! (I've never made it before, but its like any other green veggie. 3 big leaves + tsp butter + 1 clove garlic. Heat butter n garlic first on medium heat, toss in kale when the garlic is fragrant, and sautee until bright green. No longer than that.)

Then the poached egg. How hard could it be? My water is boiling and I drop in the egg and POW! its egg drop soup  - but the yolk is still intact haha. And I'm trying to fish it out after a minute or two with a spatula, which makes it break apart. Where did my slotted spoon go? Silly me. Anyway, its tastes great but doesn't look as cute as I wanted.

So here are the directions for Poached Eggs, stolen from Epicurious



Enjoy!

Sidenote: There is a small risk of salmonella for raw eggs - about 1/20,000. I'll take my chances, but just FYI.

Because we're grammar nerds and source nazis

If its worth eating, its worth pronouncing.  http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/02/menu_minefields_how_do_you_pronounce.html

And after you're done reading and feeling cultured, go make some homemade butter: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Butter-2/Detail.aspx

Cooking Emergencies

Even though you imagine your menu, thoughtfully prepare your ingredients, and tie your apron strings just so, sometimes you make stuff that tastes like $#!*.

I know it happened with me this weekend! I tried a new recipe for Butter Chicken (but its a misnomer, I think it was more Chicken Masala like) and accidentally added too much cayenne. Whats a girl to do?

I fixed it the day after with a puree of nuts, milk, and some rice. Totally did the trick and made the dish uber rich tasting.

For other fixes, here's a fantastic link :)

http://www.cheftalk.com/cooking_articles/Cooking_Techniques/207-When_Things_Go_Wrong:_A_Guide_to_Fixing_Kitchen_Disasters.html

Tofu Stew

It was a cold day in New York. The wind whistled around corners and down alleys, chilling everything to the bone. After hours of frozen fingers and florescent lighting, there was only one hope:

Tofu Stew. Something so hearty, so full of stuff, so hot - it works miracles.

Yesterday we left our heroine with a big pot of chicken stock. What that really amounted to was 3 servings of pure chicken stock (as in clear, and with no stuff, about 1.5 cups each) and 3 servings of "stuff." In my opinion, the "stuff" is the best. Its all the leftover meat from the bones, the veggies, and the junk at the bottom of my hard work in a pot. The stock went in the freezer, the "stuff" to the fridge (if you freeze it, the veggies will only get mushier). Today's tofu stew uses 1.5 cups of "stuff."

Tofu Stew - 1 serving, 1.5 bowls

1.5 cups of "stuff" which is mostly the soup veggies and chicken meat, with just enough broth to cover it.
1/3 block of silken tofu (I'm a big fan of silken. I told my boyfriend if he didn't like silken, we can't get married, that's how much I love it)
2 leaves napa cabbage
3 button mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon of salt
dash of pepper

1. Heat up your "stuff" in a soup pot.
2. Slice open the tofu package. There will be a lot of water in the package, so do this by the sink. Pour some of the water out and spoon out the tofu into the soup. (Doesn't need to look pretty). Leave the rest of the water, so the remaining tofu stays moist. If you don't, you get firm tofu :(
3. Cut the cabbage into inch long slices horizontally. Slice the mushrooms.
4. When the tofu and stuff is simmering happily, toss in the sliced veggies - these only need about 3-5 minutes to cook. Add more water if it isn't enough to cover everything in the pot.
5. Taste test! Add salt and pepper as needed. Tofu and veggies do exude a lot of water as well as absorb all the seasonings in the "stuff" so you will need more!
6. Enjoy!

Simple Chicken and Veggie Stock (Homemade Chicken Broth)

I bought a giant family pack of chicken thighs on Friday, anticipating that I'll be cooking next week. I buy family packs and divide the meat once I buy it into single serving portions. The majority gets deboned, skinned, diced, and into little sandwich baggies for the freezer. (all labeled neatly with the date of course) Its not a clean job, but that one hour of prepping the chicken saves me a lot of time come Tuesday night when I hate my job, my life, and all I want is stir fry and a pillow.

Like my mom (the master of penny pinching), I save the thigh bones in a nice big quart sized freezer bag. When the bag is full, I make chicken stock! Now homemade chicken stock is awesome for a few reasons: you save money, you can save the stock into the portions you need, and you can tailor the stock just how you like it! Personally, canned broth tends to be too salty for me and I actually only want half the can. Which means, I pour in a quarter of  a can, then a quarter cup of water, and then have to figure out how to save the rest. :-P I like my broth a little less concentrated, not too salty, and with a good round veggie flavor.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Olive oil
1 quart bag of chicken bones (no skin, remove as much fat as you can, defrosted!! Having leftover meat on the bones is cool.)
3 cloves garlic
2 coins of ginger root
1 big carrot
2 ribs celery
1 onion
1 parsnip (optional)
1 bay leaf (sorta optional)
salt, pepper to taste

The process:

1. Large dice the veggies (mirepoix, as the French say. Smash the garlic cloves with the back of your knife and cut two coins of ginger root, about a millimeter thick. This stuff doesn't need to be pretty, so no pressure to be exact about keeping things the same size.
2. Get a large stock pot (say 4 quarts?). Put it on the burner on high heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and let the pan heat up first for about 30 seconds.
3. Dump the chicken bones in. You're looking to sear/brown the bones. Sounds unnecessary, but definitely gives your stock a better flavor. The brown bits will stick to the bottom of the pan. Brown bits = yummy.
4. Dump in your onions, garlic and ginger and turn the heat down to medium high. Mix them around with your trusty wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the pan to "deglaze" the brown bits. The water in the onions will help the brown bits come off.
5. Add the celery, carrots, and parsnip. Make sure you've gotten as much of the brown bits off as you can.
6. Add water and the bay leaves. Add enough to cover the bone/veggie mix and then some. For me this ended up being 3.5 quarts. Don't fill to the absolute top of the pot or once it boils you have a mess.
7. Leave it alone for a bit (a good time to clean up). When the pot starts to simmer, turn it down so it stays at a simmer and does not boil. About 20 minutes in, you'll start seeing a lot of gray scum float to the top of the stock. Its totally normal. Start skimming off the scum with your ladle, being careful not to get too much stock with it. (This is a skill you'll have to practice). Dump the scum down the sink and run some hot water after it. As the stock continues to simmer, check back every 20 minutes or so, skimming more scum off each time. Eventually you'll get it most of it.If you don't get rid of the scum or accidentally let the stock boil in the scum, you get cloudy chicken broth. It won't kill you, but it looks pretty gross.
   
   
   
   
   
8. After you get most of the scum (say an hour after you add the water?) add the pepper and salt. I used about 2 teaspoons of salt and a teaspoon of pepper for my 3 quarts. Let the pot simmer for about three hours. The longer the better really. I let mine sit overnight. Taste it periodically and see how you're doing. 
9. Drain! I usually spoon just plain broth into ziplocs. As I get to the bottom of the pot and its hard to navigate around all the goodness on the bottom, grab a sieve and another pot or pitcher and drain the whole thing. While there's not much left to do with the bones, I personally love the veggies and I'll eat them right up. The chicken veggie mix is perfect to take it one step further for chicken soup, when you just add in a handful of rice or noodles and diced chicken.

How to store it:
ice cube trays
Ziploc sandwich sized bags (store it upright, lined up in a container. Break off pieces as needed.)

What to do with it: soup, flavoring veggies or rice, deglazing pans, making sauces.