Plague Dinner # 5

Brussels Sprouts Soup and a Kind-of-Jamie Oliver Pasta

Makes enough for 3. Took a leisurely 40 minutes. 

What can I make with left-over Brussels sprouts, rice and frozen spinach pucks?

This was a very green meal, but the greener the better, right?

To make the soup:

This soup was very similar in flavour to a main dish I made the other day, so therefore it was yummy.

So I fried some garlic in butter and added 10 tailed left-over Brussels sprouts. Then I tossed in some left over rice (with turmeric) that I made yesterday. (Rice adds a thickness to the soup and will be undetectable once I puree it.) To this, I added my friends lemon zest and mustard. Stirred it about and added 3.5 cups chicken stock. I brought it to a boil, then simmered for 20-25 minutes. Does it need salt? Then I pureed it with an immersion blender. 

The pasta I made used up some thawed spinach pucks. 4 or 5. Steamed.
Once cooled I put the steamed spinach in the "Oscar" blender that I've had since I was 21. I added 1 cup cottage cheese and a healthy dash of sea salt and about 1/2 a cup white cheddar. Parmesan would have been better but I didn't have any.  Then I "blitzed" it for about 10 seconds. 

I boiled the spaghettini for the required time and I added one peeled of garlic to the salted water. I drained the pasta, and rescued the garlic. I added the garlic to the spinach puree and pureed it again for a couple of seconds. 

The pasta goes back in the pot, the puree of spinach goes on top, and I stirred it about until all the pasta is green. 

(Jamie makes this with Savoy cabbage, ricotta and parmesan, but I had none of that). I also forgot to take good photos. 

The guys liked it and give it a 8.2 out of 10. 

Next. It's Saturday, so it has to be Spaghetti. Too much pasta perhaps? We'll see. 

Plague Dinner # 4

Chicken Torpedoes and Tangy Lime Chips

What to do with left-over 6-layer dip, ground chicken and 2 tortillas.

Made for than enough for 3. Took 45 minutes. 

I found this  tasty, however ground chicken is pretty bland and hard to spice up. Without going into too much detail I was going to make torpedo-shaped chicken patties and put them in tortilla wraps. However, unbeknownst to me, we had only 2 wraps left. So I had to improvise.

I took one pack ground chicken, mixed it up with 1/2 cup 6-Layer Dip,(it's gone now),  half a green pepper and about a tablespoon of minced onion, some mysterious chili spice Noah brought home from work and salt. I formed them in to 7, yes 7 torpedo shaped  patties and baked them at 400 for 25 minutes. 

While this was going on I toasted the tortillas in the oven on one side for about 4 minutes to firm then up a little.

I added 1 tsp lime zest to about 1 tb mayo and a squirt from my plastic lime. My lime is from Italy so I feel somewhat better about not using fresh! No Realemon here and added  salt and fresh pepper to taste.

Spread on the cooled tortillas. Put back in the oven for 5-6 minutes. 

When cool enough, scissor into equal-sized triangles. 

In the interim, I boiled some rice, added turmeric for colour and boiled some broccoli. 

The meal wasn't bad, but the guys were less than thrilled with the meat. They gave it a 70.5 out of 100. 

Tomorrow: Can I make soup out of the left-over cauliflower? Can I replicate a Jamie Oliver pasta?

#thePlague #PlagueDinners 

Plague Dinner # 2

The 2nd installment in my light-hearted escapade to eat well using left-overs, pantry items and what fresh food I can find, during the time of Coronavirus. Psst...it doesn't always work. 

Obviously, missing something as a food stylist.

Fresh Salmon and 1 left-over beet. 

Serves 2 well and takes exactly 1 hour.

Ingredients

1 left-over pre-cooked beet, cut into 1 inch chunks
2 carrots, peeled and trimmed and cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces
1 orange cut into 8 wedges
dash of sea salt
sprinkle of oregano
5 dashes of tabasco
1 tb olive oil
1 tb honey
Salmon fillet - .275 kilos or .6 of a pound
2 or 3 cardamom pods
A little lime zest or a squirt from a plastic lime
1 peeled garlic
another smidgen of olive oil
3 large potatoes

Ok. Mix the first 8 ingredients in a bowl until the honey and oil gets everywhere. Put in a rectangular casserole, oranges slices up. (See reviews below)
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Boil the potatoes. Mash after 20 minutes

Place the salmon in a pan or casserole

Smoosh cardamom pods, oil, lime and garlic together
Rub onto salmon.

Put the salmon in the oven at the same temp as the beet/carrot mixture for the remaining 25 minutes. (Rule of thumb is 25 minutes per 1 inch of salmon)

Family reviews.
Meh. My guys gave it a 6.6. The orange slices were weird, hard to eat and bitter. It would have been better if the orange had been peeled. I thought that even after 40 minutes the carrots were too hard. Parboiling would fix this but add to the time and complication.

It was extremely colourful. I would repeat this without the orange.

See what I can do next time with half a packet of gnocchi and half a packet of salami.

#Plague, #PlagueDinner #CoronavirusMenu

Off the Rails Pasta

truccis.com

Off the rails only because it wasn't gluten free. It does make a difference unfortunately. Like most of the things I create in the kitchen this one came off the top of my head. This recipe was SO good I have to write it down for posterity. 

What I needed:. 

Olive oil
Onion
Yellow pepper
Package of prosciutto
Spaghetti
Fat-free sour cream
Chevre
Cream 10%
Pico de Gallo - prepared
Salt
Parmesan

So, I fried half a chopped onion in olive oil for about 12 minutes. Adding 1/2 chopped yellow pepper after 6 minutes. Then I tossed in 1/2 package of prosciutto also chopped into inch-sized pieces. I stirred this about while I started the pasta. 225 grams or 8 ounces of spaghetti was perfect for the amount of sauce. 

Okay, then I added 3 large dessert spoons of zero fat sour cream to the frying pan, one 1/4 inch medallion of chevre, and 1/3 cup cream (10%), and one tablespoon prepared pico de gallo salsa. Then I added a generous pinch of salt. 

I added the spaghetti to the frying pan which was now on low. Stirred the noodles around in the goodness and grated about an inch-sized cube of Parmesan over the top. 

In total this meal took less than 25 minutes to prepare. It was amazing. 

I didn't photograph the event. But the above photo from Truccis.com hints at the idea. 

Dinner in Fifteen - It Can Be Done!

I've gone gluten-free. I've had something wrong with my muffler for some time now and going GF seems to help.

But I really miss pasta and continue to search  for ways to replicate the mouth appeal of the noodle. Luckily for me, there's a vendor at my local farmer's market who sells prepared spiralized yams and sweet potatoes.






Tonight's dinner for one was:

half a small onion, fried until translucent, around 7-8 minutes.
plus some spiralized yams thrown in the pan after steaming for 3 or 4 minutes.
plus 1 tablespoon sheep's cheese
then some crumbled blue cheese
then  1 tablespoon mild  pico de gallo
and half an avocado and some salt.

There, that wasn't so bad. What is bad is my food photography skills. Here are some photos anyway.

Eat - Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

picture thanks to hungrynovelist.wordpress.com

It was called the C't Mang and they offered it at Terroni, Toronto's duo of traditional southern Italian restaurants. I was disappointed to see they weren't serving it any longer. The sweet and savory C't Mang is easy enough to replicate at home. It's a white pizza with mozzarella, prosciutto, thin slices of pear, gorgonzola, walnuts and a drizzle off honey. Throw the ingredients artfully on some prepared pizza dough and bake for about 25 minutes at around 400 degrees. Slice of this pizza make a really interesting appetizer when you're having people over.

So Who Says You Can't Cook?!

I suppose a lot of people think it's odd that I can't drive or play a musical instrument or hold down a steady job. I think it's odd that I'm running into a lot of women these days, my age and older (48), who admit to not being able to cook. You know, "I don't know how to turn my oven on." " I can't remember the last time I cooked." etc., and they admit it as if this lack of knowledge was something to be proud of. Personally I find this admission to be akin to not being able to wash your hair. Good  Heavens, I'm a bitch.

I'm a homebody and I've always had a lot of time on my hands but here's a great meal that I was able to throw together in 50 minutes. Anybody can do it.

I had a pre-marinated boneless pork loin. It was sold that way.

I preheated the oven to 425 degrees.

While the oven was heating up I seared the pork loin in a little olive oil in a oven-proof skillet. 5 minutes. Flip, flip. I sprinkled it with the modicum of sage that I had left over from the holidays. In went half a cup of cranberry sauce left over from the holidays. Then some rosemary which looked a lot like the pine needles also left over from the holidays. Then I poured in about 3/4 cup of water and scraped the goodness of the bottom of the pan.

I put the lid on the skillet and put it in the hot oven for 35 minutes.

Now I peeled the potatoes and let them boil for 20 minutes. Drained them, then mashed them with a little milk and cream cheese.

Oven mitt time. The pork, when done, needed to sit for 10 minutes on a board. I took this time to boil some broccoli and I added a little corn starch and water to the liquid left over from the pork and made a pork-y, cranberry-y gravy over a low heat. With an oven-proof skillet, I find it very wise to put an oven mitt over the handle when done to avoid singed palms.

I sliced the meat and was done. Less than an hour, boom, boom, boom.

There was enough food for 4 and cost averaged out to 3.70 per person. We don't eat like this every night - that would break the bank, but good, quick food for relatively little can be accomplished. And you know what, out of all this the only garbage I had was the plastic wrapper the meat was sold in.

It is so important if you have children to sit down to a meal with the family as a whole. But that rant is  for another time.

Image from www.bigflavor.blogspot.com