A lot, I'll bet. There is an amazing variety of lettuces out there, not to metion everything else with which a salad can be made. And, with all the dressings available these days... but lettuce and dressing does not a proper salad make. It takes... love... feeling... understanding the greens, the accoutrements, and above all, the dressing. The flavors must meld together perfectly, creating a balance of sweet, savory, sour, and salty. The texture should be varied - soft, crunchy, smooth, rough.

You know I'm totally full of shit, right? Salads are like the easiest thing to make next to pouring a glass of milk. While not necessarily something one would serve to guests at a non-vegetarian-un-hipster-non-minimalist dinnerparty, this first salad offering is easy to make and effing lovely to eat. I persent to you Steak'n Salad:

What you need for the salad:
Steak (this isn't called Steak'n Salad for nothing, yo)
Salad greens (1 bag or 1 whole head of something)
Avocado
2 (or more or less) green onions
Some medium-sweet dressing, such as Annie's Naturals Papaya Poppy Seed dressing

What you need for the steak marinade (if you so choose to do this part):
1C soy sauce
1/3C lime juice
1/3C Rice vinegar (or other white vinegar)
¼C Molasses
2Tbsp Grated orange rind
1Tbsp Onion powder
½Tbsp Red pepper flakes

If you haven't cooked the steak already, the above marinade is fan-fucking-tastic. Made it up myself. At least I think so. Mix all ingredients, pour over meat. Marinade up to overnight, depending on the cut. If it's something like a shoulder or rib cut, marinate up to 3 hours. Any longer, and it will overpower the steak.

Cook the steak however you like. I love grilled steak, but we don't have a yard, nor a bbq, so I have a handy 2-burner grill. It's not as good, but better than nothin'.

If you're cooking the steak right before making the salad, let the meat rest off of the heat for at least 15 minutes before slicing it up. While waiting, toss the greens in a bowl with the dressing - just enough to cover the lettucy stuff - you don't want salad to get too heavy with dressing. That = gross! Slice the avocado into... slices. Cut the green onion into 1/3" pieces. Once the steak is all nicely rested, slice it thinly against the grain, cutting off as much fat as possible, and add everything to the bowl. Toss it v. v. gently (avocado will try to be mushy. Don't let it!).

Eat it and bask in the awesomeness.

Posted at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continuing with the streak of cooking as little as possible, I present to you Cucmber Soup with Wasabi-Avocado Cream:

The soup is adapted from a recipe I found on Epicurious, linked here. I say adapted, as after reading all of the reviews on the site, I added a little more "oomph" to the soup itself in the form of some red onion. Also, I didn't want to spend $4 on organic chives when I had green onions in the fridge already. Close enough, I say (at least for this particular recipe). Since I don't reprint Epicurious recipes (as per their User Agreement), you can follow along on their site while I do my stuff here. It's all about teamwork, see??

First off, I didn't get the prescribed english cucumbers called for in the recipe. There aren't any around currently that are organic, and because I'm a quasi-yuppie that shops at the local Co-Op (mostly out of convenience and the belief that in-season organic fruits and veggies taste better than the chain-supermarket alternatives), I didn't go to the proper grocery store to get them. So, (write this down!) I got 4 regular cukes instead. I know they used the english versions to cut down on seeding and all that, but really? Seeding cucumbers is easy. However, before I did anything else, I cut the cukes in half, and doused with a crapton of kosher salt to remove some of the water. I let those sit in a bowl in my fridge for about an hour before I went along with the rest of the recipe.

Once the cukes were done, I rinsed off the salt, seeded them with a spoon, and tossed them in the blender (I added the vinegar here, but not the extra salt). Huh? Didn't I peel them? Hells no. It's going to be puréed anyhow. What's the point? Plus, I think it has better color that way. And I'm lazy. However, the blender method proved futile. I didn't chop up the cucumbers before I put them in there, and didn't feel like taking them out to do it, so I sloughed the whole bit into the trusty Cuisinart and hit the on button. BAM! Cucumber soup!

Take a look at that, why don't you? Beeeeuuuutiful!

I did the soup in 2 batches. Once I tasted the first batch, and had the same complaint that someone else had on the (Epicurious) site that there was v. little flavor. So, in the second batch, I tossed in some S&P, plus half a small red onion. I may have added some garlic powder, too. Once that was all soupified and mixed in with the first batch, it tasted yummy. Like I could eat it without the Wasabi-Avocado Cream. Of course, I still made that part, so I put the soup into the fridge until I was ready to serve it.

For the Wasabi-Avocado cream, I used green onions instead of chives. I think I used only one green onion, but it was a big one. I mashed up the avocado, green onions, lime juice, yogurt, and wasabi together with a fork.

I tasted the cream, and sure enough, like the soup, I could have eaten it just by itself. But I didn't. Except for maybe a couple of spoonfuls. But I'm not really going to admit to that.

Just before serving, I tossed the soup back into the Cuisinart and added the 4 ice cubes I had on hand. After whirring that about for a while, I couldn't tell any difference in coldness at all, so it probably wasn't even necessary. I served up the soup like this, instead of in the tiny little bowls shown on Epicurious, since this was pretty much our dinner.

The husband wasn't really into it, but I loved-loved it. The leftovers I ate the next day, and then again at home on Saturday. I thought it was really damned good, so whatever on my husband. He's not all that into "funny" recipes like this, though. Anyhow, enjoy! The soup nice and cool for a hot hot summer day.

Posted at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The weather here in sunny Boise Idaho has turned for the worse. For the past 3 days, the heat (95°F!!!!) has been leaving me ignoring the kitchen, prefering to eat out than to deal with the heat. It looks like gazpacho and multitudes of cold salads are in my future, starting with this one.

The only "cooked" part is a piece of chicken, and one totally doesn't need to be in the kitchen to watch chicken cook in the oven. The finished product was exactly what I was hoping for, and I'm thinking about making the exact same thing tonight. So awesomely good!!

What you need for the salad:
1 Boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 Head preferred lettuce (though I suggest not using iceberg - yuck!)
2 Spring onions
1 Large carrot
½lb. Flat snap peas
Other misc veggies - mushrooms, red pepper, etc.

For the dressing:
½C Soy Vay Chinese Chicken marinade OR
¼C Molasses
¼C Soy sauce
2 Tbsp Sesame oil
1 Tbsp sake (rice wine)
4 Tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame seeds (toasted or non-)

Take that chicken, wash it off, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a baking pan with some oil, toss the chicken in, and sprinkle the following on it (or whatever you want, really - it's your chicken):
S&P
Garlic powder
Ginger powder
Curry powder

Rub it all in and toss the chicken in the oven. Lay down in the bedroom (or whichever room is coolest in your abode), read for a 1/2 hour. Take the chicken out of the oven, turn the burninating offender off, and leave the chicken out to cool. After another 20 minutes in the A/C breeze, put the chicken into a ziplock bag and toss in the fridge. I highly suggest doing a bunch of chicken like this at once so you don't have to do it over and over again and deal with the stupid oven and heat and ungh.

When you're ready to make the salad, get all of your ingredients together, wash 'em up, and get pull out one large bowl or 2 medium-large bowls in which to make the salad.

Wash your dirty dirty hands and get the cooled chicken out from the fridge. Shred the crap out of that chicken. In the meanwhile, get the significant other or cat to mix up the dressing for you (add all ingredients to jar and shake). If necessary, redo dressing once the cat gets its paws into it.

Slice your lettuce up small, then spin it about in your salad spinner (or dry carefully before cutting with a towel). Slice the green onions the same way and toss into the bowl(s) atop the semi-dry lettuce.

Chop the carrot into matchsticks and cut the pea pods into squares.

With all of the veggies in the bowl, pour enough dressing over the top to just lightly coat everything - you will probably not have to use all of it. Toss with your hands (I'm a big fan of hand-tossing stuff. Screw the salad forks - it's so much easier manually!). Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and ramen bits, if you're into ramen bits. Eat with chopsticks, fork, or fingers. No spoons allowed. Enjoy with a few Tsing Taos.

Posted at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coming up with a pareve dessert can be taxing, to say the least. Since I was making a chicken curry for the guests on mother's day, I needed a sweet that was dairy-less, but didn't want to go with the Maneschewitz brownie mix left over from Passover and fruit. I remembered I had some puff pastry squares purchased a while ago with grand plans of a savory pot-pie-type of creation that never came to fruition (and all the better that it didn't, really). Coupled with some fresh strawberries, jam, and a tossed-together lemon-honey sauce, these turnovers turned out awesomely. The other great thing about then is that while they may be carbalicious, they're relatively low in calories (in comparison to many other desserts that are caloricful).

Hop!

What you'll need for the turnovers:
1 Pint ripe strawberries
2 Tbsp good-quality strawberry preserves (or jam - I like Bonne Mamman)
1 Package Indo-European (or similar) puff pastry squares (I like Indo-European because they're pareve)
½ C sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Egg
Water

For the sauce:
1½ C Good-quality honey
2 large lemons' juice

What to do:

Wash, de-stem, and coarsely chop 10 strawberries. Put these in a bowl and add the jam - mix it together well.

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and the vanilla extract well. It should be slightly sticky, but mostly dry. Stir the mixture occaisionally to help it dry out a bit while going through the rest of the steps.

Cover a large baking sheet in parchment paper, then carefully separate 5 sqares of the dough from the rest of the block. Wrap the rest in plastic wrap and put back into the freezer until you're ready for the next batch. Or, if you're lucky enough to have room enough for 2 full sheets of pastries in your oven, you can do this all at once (I somehow ended up with only 1 rack in my oven). The rest of the steps must be done pretty quickly, so make sure you have your setup all good to go (like the photo below). Beat the egg with some water in a small cup for the glaze. Have a small cup of plain water ready to use to seal the pockets.

For each turnover, wet the top and right edges of the pastry square with water, then place a tablespoon of the strawberry filling in the middle of the pastry. Make sure to get mostly fruit in the tablespoon - let some of the juice spill out while scooping so the pastry won't leak (good luck on this). Seal the edges very very well.

Lightly brush the tops of the packets with the egg mixture and liberally sprinkle or spread the vanilla'd sugar atop the eggwash.

Toss those puppies into an oven preheated to 370°F. If you don't know the exact temperature of your oven at this point (via an oven thermometer, etc), keep a close watch on the packets. The first batch I made when the oven was definitely too hot. I had to turn mine down to 350°F for the second batch, and those turned out lovely. If the seams split and a bit of the strawberry mixture seeps out, just make sure it doesn't burn too badly, or get under the turnovers themselves. Start checking every couple of minutes around the 20 minute mark. The turnovers should be a dark golden brown on top and puffed up nicely. Mine came out of the oven around 23 minutes perfectly.

Cool the turnovers on a cooling rack. In the meantime, put the honey and the lemon juice into a small nonstick pan (such as a butter warmer) and place on the stove on medium heat with a lid on. It should come to a fast simmer rather quickly. Don't worry about stirring it... Once it reaches a hearty simmer, take the pan off of the heat and let cool a bit. If the turnovers are to be served later in the day, they will keep well in a tupperware-type container. Before serving, warm the turnovers in the oven on low. Spoon the lemon-honey sauce onto a plate and place the warm turnover on top. Garnish with a fresh strawberry. If this to be served with a dairy meal (or you don't keep kosher), add some fresh whipped cream or creme fraiche to the side of the turnover.

These are wow-amazing. The honey-lemon sauce adds a bit more sweetness to the turnover, which itself (despite the sugar inside and out) isn't overly sweet. The lemon and strawberry flavors work incredibly well together - I would almost just dip fresh strawberries into the lemon-honey sauce itself.

Have you tried this out?? If so, comment below!

Posted at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I mentioned once before, the curry I make quite often is the one that I grew up with. My mom made almost this exact curry monthly, and when I left the nest, I craved it so badly I learned how to make it. And it was really stupidity that kept me away... this curry is incredibly easy to make, and it's so good, you can "wow" people with it. It is pretty appropriate then, to make this for the Mom on Mother's day. The only problem is I didn't get to spend the day with my mom, so the in-laws had to do. This actually worked in my favor, since neither of them had tasted this curry before, and were therefore even more impressed than my own mother would have been. So, ready your tastebuds and checkity-check the recipe after the jump:

Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken, cubed (breast or thigh, whatever)
1 large onion, chopped quasi-finely
4 carrots
6 C broccoli crowns and stems
3 C chicken/veggie broth (or water)
1 package S&B Curry mix (you can find this at most grocery stores in the asian food aisle - comes in mild, medium, and hot - I usually use medium)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Heat a large pot to medium-hot on the cooker and add the oil and onions. Sautee the onions until just translucent, then add the cubed chicken.

Sautee the chicken and the onions for about 5 more minutes, then add the broth, water, or mixture of both. Increase the heat to high and wait for the mixture to come to a boil. Add the carrots (and other root vegetables, if using - potatoes are good in this, too), reduce the heat to medium, and cover the pot.

Let simmer for approx. 20 minutes, or until the chicken is pretty much done. Add the broccoli to the top of the broth and junk, recover, and let simmer for 7 minutes.

Once the broccoli looks at least somewhat steamed, add the curry cubes to the mixture and stir until melted. Bring the mixture up to a simmer again, and partially cover with a lid. Let bubble for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.

Once the mixture is thickened to the desired consistency, remove the pot from the heat and spoon the curry over (or next to, as done in Japan) a short-grain sticky rice, such as Neki-neki or Kokuho Rose (my fave).

Serve with chopsticks and sake, if you can get your guests to use both to their advantage, and await the praises.

Posted at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I originally made this salad for the dinner party I had a couple of months ago, but at that time, I didn't have a chance to pick up the camera due to the sheer volume of things I was making at once. It was requested of me to bring the said salad to a BBQ at Laura's house on Saturday, so I took the photos this time. This salad, originally called Purple Cabbage Salad (from the Kosher By Design cookbook) is now called "Speculum Salad" by my friends due to the salad tongs with which it was originally served.

Tongs wielded by Queen Alisha

Without further adieu, Purple Cabbage Salad, adapted from Kosher By Design:

Salad:
16oz Shredded red/purple cabbage (1 medium head)
1/3C green onions (2 onions)
3 medium carrots, grated
1/4C pine nuts
11oz. can of mandarin oranges, drained, juice reserved
1 handfull dried cranberries (can be sweetened)
1 handfull blueberries (can be sweetened)

Dressing:
1/2C vegetable oil
4Tbsp brown sugar
3Tbsp white wine vinegar or chapmagne vinegar
1Tbsp reserved mandarin orange juice from can
2tsp garlic powder
1 parve boullion cube (chicken or veggie flavor), crushed

For the cheapest version, get the head of cabbage yourself and choppity-chop it up. Slice the onions up and add to the cabbage. I suggest using a tupperware-type container in which one may toss the salad well.

Grate the carrots using a box grater or similar. Add these, the pinenuts and drained mandarin oranges to the container. Add the dried berries on top of these. I like the salad with both the cranberries and the blueberries, but taste-tests confirm that my friends prefer it better with just the blueberries. Do whatever you want - you're the cook, and no matter what, people will eat it. Because you will force them. Plus, it's good.

Now let's put together the dressing. Add all of the dressing ingredients to a cruet or a jar. You're going to shake this rather violently, so make sure the container has a tight-fitting lid. To crush the boullion, put the cube into a ziplock baggie and pound the heck out of it with the flat side of a meat mallet. Make sure the rest of the boullion cubes see you do this. Expect some whispering in the pantry later.

Shake the dressing until well-combined. Make sure it doesn't have time to seperate before you pour it. Like so:

Pour it over the salad. Put the top on the container and twirl-toss the whole thing. Then put the dizzy salad into the fridge for at least an hour, up to overnight. It could probably sit longer than that, but after a while, the purple from the cabbage soaks into everything else, and ends up making the salad look like something from Willy Wonka's factory.

Serve to your friends and watch them eat it up very quickly. Make sure you get some yourself. This will keep int the fridge for about a week, as long as your GI can control the amount of cabbage-induced issues you may or may not experience.

Posted at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I haven't made anything at home besides scrambled eggs and tunafish salad in the past week. Which is really horribly lazy, but the husband is out of town, and currently, it's not much fun for me to cook for myself. However, I plan on making something incredible tonight, which should be on here within the next couple of days, so be patient (Amychan, Fern, and possibly the 1 other person who is reading this). I promise I'll have something up soon. ^_^

Posted at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)