Archives for the 'spicy' Category
Soup…liquid love
Soup is all I want right now. I made a big batch of chicken noodle soup for the men and curried rice and vegetable soup for me and I’m content to eat it twice a day. Toast is also quite appealing, as is ginger ale over ice. Thank god we’re all on winter holiday and we have no where to go and nothing to do. Hours are literally swirling down the drain as we lounge about on the couch, surfing the internet, reading the paper, or playing mindless games. Of course we have managed to dress ourselves and go out to the movies; we saw Sweeny Todd and No Country For Old Men and loved them both for entirely different yet vaguely similar reasons.
Chicken soup needs no recipe, just homemade stock (the stock was in the freezer), noodles, and fresh chopped parsley.
Curried rice and vegetable soup
Printable version here
1 tbsp butter
1 onion diced
1 russet potato peeled and diced
1 acorn squash peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 can coconut milk
1 quart chicken stock
1 quart water
1 cup jasmine rice
1 tablespoon Penzeys Hot Curry powder, madras style
In a large pot melt the butter over medium heat and add the onion. Cook until tender. Add the curry powder stir into the onions and allow it to heat up. Add the water, stock, potato, squash, and carrot. Cook until tender. Add the rice and cook until tender. Add the coconut milk and allow it to heat through. Serve with basil and plain yogurt.
Fideo killed the radio star
The food blogosphere seems to be totally about cookies right now. I get it because I’ve been busy baking my own but right now I don’t feel compelled to contribute to the glut of cookie recipes. Instead I’ll offer you something quick, easy, economical, and deeply satisfying.
According to Wikipedia, fideo is the spanish word for a noodle of any type. I picked up a bag of fideo in the Mexican food section of Woodman’s and after checking out what the interwebs said about it, I decided to strike out on my own. I wanted a quick, easy dinner that everyone would eat and that wouldn’t turn the kitchen into a disaster area. My efforts yielded exactly that. Sure, it wasn’t very pretty, but it did have a robust spicy flavor, a comforting texture, and molten cheese….mmmm, molten cheese. I couldn’t help but think of it as the mostly organic, homemade version of hamburger helper. From start to finish it took less than 30 minutes, one pan, and no leftovers. What’s not to love?
Spicy fideos with ground beef and black beans
Click here for the printer-friendly version
1 pack age of fideos
1 pound ground beef
1 onion diced
¼ cup Penzeys spicy taco seasoning
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup water
1 jar canned tomato puree
1 can black beans drained
8 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded
Brown the ground beef in the skillet. Drain it if necessary. Add the onion and let it cook for a few minutes. Add the fideos and stir to combine. Add the seasonings, water and tomatoes and stir to mix it up. Let this bubble and cook for 10 minutes. The liquid should be mostly absorbed by the fideos. Add the black beans. Preheat the oven to broil. Top the fideos with the cheese and stick the pan under the broiler to melt and brown the cheese. Serve with a salad alongside.
Video Killed The Radio Star, The Buggles - 1979
End of the month round-up
I’ll admit it, I’m happy to see this month recede. Don’t get me wrong, I usually adore October, brisk chilly mornings, sun drenched indian summer afternoons, leaves turning brilliant reds, blues, and oranges, and good food to eat. But my cooking hasn’t been that interesting and there was this, which seems to be lingering to some extent. Also my appetite betrayed me. For the longest time all I wanted to eat were delicious falafel, crispy brown and tucked into a warm pita lined with tomatoes, chopped parsley, and yogurt sauce seasoned with garlic, salt, and lemon juice. Actually, I just had one for dinner tonight and I don’t see this obsession of mine waning at all. You’ll notice there are no pictures of falafels, too busy eating. But we have enjoyed eating these lovely pears from our CSA fruit share.
This club sandwich brought me right back to a road trip vacation with my parents and my brother. I must have been 9 or so and we drove west. Whenever we’d stop and eat in a restaurant I’d order a club sandwich. I thought it was so cool. Also I had a pair of cowboy boots that I wore all the time, a bad perm, an overbite, and cat woman glasses as thick as a coke bottle. Yes indeed folks, I was quite a beauty. But this sandwich is the real thing, beautiful, totally local and tastee.
This herb encrusted Icelandic lamb with purple potatoes, both from Jordandal Farm, were lip smacking good with great lamby flavor, and so much fun to eat. Those potatoes are another one of my obsessions this month. The first time I bought the potatoes I only got a few because our CSA keeps us well stocked in taters. But these were not typical spuds…on no my friends, these were potatoes of the gods. When I went back 2 weeks later Eric didn’t have anymore with him. I explained how much I loved these potatoes and what fine and awesome taters they were, and poor Eric took pity on me and said he’d see what he could do. Sure enough he wrangled me a good sized bag of them and now it’s all I want to eat. I cut them into a 1/2″ dice, steam them, and then toss them with shallot butter, coarse kosher salt, and some coarse pepper…ummm, I’m in heaven. They’re perfect warmed up in the microwave with leftover whatever on top. Again no photos, too busy eating.
Beef, eggplant, and mushroom stir fry is one of my favorite combos. I sauce it with some soy, siriracha, and a dash of rice vinegar. I always use dried shitakes for this because they have such a bold flavor and a great texture.
This was a huge pot of soup featuring diced french fingerling potatoes, squash, chard, onions, and carrots. Totally local too.
Another sandwich…this is made on a ciabatta and filled with Brunkow’s pepper-jack cheese, Jordandal’s beef summer sausage, olives, and those beautiful sweet and spicy red peppers from Whole Foods’ olive bar…I have no idea what they’re called but I love, love, love them on everything. I made this into a panini using my new electric griddle and and a cast iron skillet as a weight.
Another easy-peasy obsession of mine…stir-fried rice noodles with egg, sriracha, and topped with ribbons of fresh basil. I know it’s ridiculous, but I like it.
I can already hear the humming of the interweb as it gears up for the gluttonous holiday season. I’ll get there…after a few more falafels.
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