Half Moon Enchiladas

I wanted to do something with black beans, but not the usual burritos. So I came up with what Miriam aptly named Half Moon Enchiladas.

I started with sautéing a whole red onion sliced. Softened, then caramelized a little on low heat. Added four cloves garlic, minced and a whole jalapeño pepper without seeds or veins, minced.

Added two 15 oz. cans organic black beans, rinsed, and about two tablespoons cumin. Heated on high for maybe two or three minutes, then added about two cups diced organic tomatoes from a can. Heated through, added salt and pepper, then reduced to simmer for probably fifteen minutes. Chopped up a bunch of cilantro and added half to the sauce at the end. Adjusted salt and pepper.

Meanwhile turned the oven to 300 and put in three 10 in. flour tortillas. I grated leftover cheese, using up about 1/4 c. of a smoked cheese and ¼ c. of a sheep’s milk cheese. Also took out leftover cream cheese. Found a jar of prepared mild salsa in the fridge.

When the tortillas were warm but not stiff (maybe three minutes), I took them out. In a lasagna pan, I put one and folded in down the middle. Spooned three heaping cooking spoons of the bean mix in the middle, then folded in half. On top, I spooned about 1/4 c. of the prepared salsa, then layered on a third of the cheese and then topped with 4 pats of cream cheese—maybe a 1/4 in. think and a half inch square. Repeated this for a total of three tortillas.

Put in the over at 300 for about 8 minutes, then turned on the broiler and put in there for 2 min. Too long actually. 1.5 min. would have been better, but the cream cheese did brown nicely on top and the tortillas were crunchy on the edges. Removed and garnished with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro.

Served one each and a bowl of deliciously sweet (local) snap peas.

Basil Covered Tilapia

I had a lot of fresh basil from the farmer's market today, and Miriam came home from the Reading Terminal with two gorgeous fillets of Tilapia (probably from Israel). I also had some incredibly looking local onions from the farmer’s market as well. Here’s what I cooked up—one of the best Tilapia dishes I’ve made.

Salt and peppered the fish. But oil on the bottom of my glass lasagna pan. Coated the fish in the oil. Then I moved it aside and laid out a sort of “ bed” of large basil leaves for it to go on.

I put down one fillet, and then layered the other on top so the thin parts were on top of each other. This made a fairly uniform thickness all across—much better for even cooking. First time I did this. (Also put basil leaves between the overlap.)

I sliced up one half on one of the star onions and chopped of the pretty long green top. Arranged these around the fish in the pan. But it in the broiled for probably ten minutes. Kept checking.

When the onions were getting fairly black on top, took it out and layered basil leaves on top of the fish. After another two minutes, took in out and spooned a small amount of the great tomato sauce from the other day on top. (Had heated it already.)

The onions were so incredibly delicious, we could have eaten just them, but the fish was also wonderfully moist, cooked evenly through, and infused with the sweetness of the onions and basil. Will repeat (with more local fish I hope).

Increadible Tomato Sauce!

This doesn’t look like much, but it was the best tomato sauce I’ve ever tasted. I bought about ten pounds of tomatoes (at $1 a pound!) from a local farmer at our Rittenhouse Farmer’s Market on Saturday. They were cheap because they were extra ripe—perfect for sauce.
Started with three large (not local) onions (couldn’t find them at the farmer’s market), sliced and sautéed for a LONG time to get the sweetness—probably 25 minutes. Browned them a little at first too. Added dried oregano and thyme and about 10 cloves minced garlic (not local). Cooked 10 minutes more. Then added the chopped up tomatoes. Cooked down for maybe an hour. Added a little (1/4 cup?) red wine. 10 minutes more. Then added a whole bunch of basil chopped small with the heat off.
Simple and so good.

Roasted Beets and Arugula Salad

This was a fabulous salad from Jack Bishop’s Year in the Vegetarian Kitchen (page 130). It’s roasted beets, arugula, and feta cheese. I got incredible local beets and splurged on local organic baby arugula ($3.50 a bag) at a stand in the Reading Terminal. Worth every cent. I also did not need as much arugula as I thought. Said 12 cups, but less was better. I roasted the beets—red and golden—in tin foil as directed but finished them on the grill to keep the house cooler. I had been grilling a pork loin from Trader Joe’s which I served with a honey (local) – mustard sauce I made. I also served the salad with slivers of a toasted multi-grain flat bread that was coated in a garlic oil made per Jack’s cookbook. The garlic, though, was amazing—local and very young. The toasted bits in the oil were so delicious I just wanted to eat them all. Jack said to strain out the garlic and throw it away but I couldn’t do that. Instead, I mixed the roasted beets into the garlic bits after they (beets) were cut up. Amazing taste combination. Will definitely do this one again.

Back At It

I took a break from this blog because it was getting a little overwhelming--like spending more time writing than cooking.
I also got a bit "cooked out" and took it easy with food prep. Unfortunately I also took it easy with tracking the food in my fridge and ended up with an odd allotment of vegetables so that I ended up throwing some away--something I hate to do.
Also have started reading Kingsolver's new Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and am really interested in cooking local. So I’m going to start trying to blog on that to learn more about how a kitchen for a family in a city can really work with the local focus—something I believe in very strongly from a political and cooking standpoint.

Cleaning the Fridge

No dinner entry yesterday because I went to a pot-luck party. Brought a cold asparagus soup recipe—“Asparagus-Orange Veloute” from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette. This is a fabulous soup book. The major flavors in this one are the asparagus, white wine, fresh orange juice and crème fraiche. It’s refreshing and very springy.

Tonight there seemed to be no room in the fridge because of odds and ends and things that should have been thrown out.

No real plan for dinner and got home after late yoga. We had some ground beef that needed to be used up and a lot of herbs left over from the red onion vinaigrette the other night. I also needed to make a salad to use up greens and lettuce. I had a small head of cauliflower and what I thought was polenta. So I got an idea for a sort of weird summery kind of Sheppard’s Pie adaptation.

I started by putting on 6 cups of water to boil and then slicing half an onion. Started the onion in the 14-inch pan and chopped 4 cl. garlic. I put about a cup of water in a large pot and set it to boil. Chopped up the cauliflower into smallish pieces. Put them in the large pot, covered it, and turned down the heat (water boiling) to steam somewhat. Added the garlic and then shortly about 2 lb. ground beef, s & p.

I got out half a red onion left over and chopped it fine. Put in small fry pan with 2T olive oil and cooked till almost soft but not. Removed to a small ceramic container and added 3T olive oil.

Meanwhile, the cauliflower was just barely soft, so I removed it with a slotted spoon. Measured out the liquid left and added it to the boiling water pot, then added leftover chick broth (TJ’s) to make 8 c. liquid.

I removed the cooked beef and onions from the pan.

Chopped up and added the following to the vinaigrette: about 2T tarragon, 1T basil, 1t chives, 1T parsley; also juice from ½ lemon, 1T sherry vinegar. Also chopped remaining tarragon—about 2T.

Measured out 2c of what turned out to be corn meal, not polenta. Added it to the boiling broth and water—too fast and it was lumpy; stirred like crazy with a whisk. Was disappointed to be making corn meal much instead of polenta—but it did turn out well (and smooth). Let simmer a little.

In a small bowl, I combined about 3 heaping T of white flour, the 2T tarragon, salt, pepper, and about ½ t of a Cajun Mix spice blend. I heated the fat from the ground beef pan, then coated the pieces of cauliflower in batches and put them in the oil on high heat to cook some more. When they were browned and a little charred looking, I turned off the heat.

Turned off heat from corn meal and added about ¼ c. fake butter and about 1 c. Paragon cheese.

Put the corn meal in a serving bowl as a based. Topped with a layer of the ground beef and onions. Topped that with the cauliflower and garnished it all with the red onion vinaigrette and few sprigs of parsley.

Prepped a greens salad—had some green leaf lettuce already prepared. Washed and sorted (It was on its way out.) a half bag of spring mix. Balsamic dressing.

Two bowls on the table. A little odd, but everyone ate it and liked it pretty well. It seemed the red onion vinaigrette got lost in the corn and meat flavors, but it added a little zest to the tastes. Good for getting rid of things that needed to be eaten.

Trader Joe's Delight

All of the guests had gone home.
I did not feel like cooking.
So it was Trader Joe's Chicken Nuggets (in the toaster oven at 425 for ten minutes--so the kitchen's not too hot), our favorite TJ sauce for the nuggets, chopped red and green peppers with baby carrots, reheated garlic pasta from the other night with a littel fake butter and salt, and TJ frozen peas. We started with some of the leftover curried squash soup from the other night.
Just three of us, and just right.

Special Dinner for Nathaniel

This was not a simple meal--about 2 hours in the making.

The first part was Cold Curried Yellow Squash Soup from Jane Laties' recipe collection. I made a double batch. The single calls for 1.5 lb. yellow summer squash, 1 med. onion, 1T gingerroot, 3 cl. garlic, 2t curry powder, 6c. veg. broth, 1 med. potatoe. It also includes a cilantro-lime puree as a garnish, but I left this out.

Naturally, I was behind on time and hadn't made the soup ahead (It's supposed to chill for 4 hrs.) so I did an adaptation to fast-forward it. Here's how. . .
I started the oil (3T) heating in the 14-inch All-Clad and sliced then chopped the onion. Put it in and while it was getting soft (high heat) sliced the squash. (I got some beautiful organic yellow summer squash at the market.) Put that it and let it go about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I minced the ginger and garlic. When the squash was soft, put in the garlic, ginger, curry powder. Put in two boxes (8 cups) vegetable broth (Trader Joes--heavy on the carrot). Since I was making a double, I needed 12 c. liquid, but I was going to use less since I'd be adding water and ice to cool it later. Put an aluminum rectangular cake pan in the freezer to cool while it was simmering. After about 10 minutes when the flavors had blended, I took it off. Put it in the blender a few cups at a time. Put this into the cold cake pan (for lots of surface area.) Added 4 cups of mostly ice and some water. Stirred it in and put it back in the freezer. The whole thing was quite cold in about 40 minutes when I served it. (Prep time for the whole soup was near an hour.)

Back to the main meal--I had already gotten the charcoal grill going while making the soup (while the squash was getting soft.) It was pretty well flaming by the time I put the soup to cool. Went out and dumped the coals from the top rack where I started them to the lower rack where they're supposed to be. (I just use newspaper to start up.) I wanted to grill the beautiful Orange Roughy I had gotten at the market that day--enough for 7 (7 fillets--just under 3 lbs. I started the red onion vinaigrette that was going to go on top of the fish.
This is from a great recipe for "Broiled Sole with Red Onion-Herb Vinaigrette from a wonderful cookbook called Great Fish Quick by Leslie Revisin. There are dozens of recipes my family loves in there.
The vinaigrette recipe calls for 5T olive oil, 1 c. finely diced red onion, 2T rice wine vinegar, 1t lemon juice, 2t chives, 2t dill, 1T basil, 1 ½ t tarragon. I chopped the red onion and sautéed it to not quite soft in 2T oil. Removed and added remaining oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. Let sit. Chopped herbs for the vinaigrette and about a quarter cup chopped dill for the potatoes.
I went out and smoothed the charcoal and added a new layer of charcoal on top to get it a bit hotter. Put on a big pot of water for boiled potatoes.
I had people helping me so I had them clean the potatoes (skins on, nice organic small brown skinned potatoes—forget what type),prep fresh green beans, just cutting off ends, and prep salad vegetables—red and green peppers with cucumber.
I prepped the fish. Washed and dried it, then folded each fillet over so that narrow end fold under, and it makes a rough rectangle of nearly uniform thickness. Put on s & p and brushed on olive oil—both sides.
Put potatoes in boiling water.
I went out and put on the grilling rack I have that goes on top of the grill’s regular rack. This is a rectangular piece of stainless steel with small holes in it. It makes flipping easier and is great for doing vegetables or other things that would fall between the bars of the regular grill rack.
Went inside and put water on to steam the beans, then prepped the lettuce—red leaf and spring mix—for the salad. Put the beans
Now the grill was just right. Took the fish out in a large pan and put each piece on the grill. Covered it.
Went inside and took potatoes out and drained; added fake butter. Put the salad together and dressed it (regular balsamic and olive oil). This took maybe 4 minutes.
Went out and flipped the fish—still pretty firm. Made sure cooler sections were closer to the fire. Left the top off for hotter heat.
Inside, added the chopped herbs to the vinaigrette and stirred it up.
Went out with a platter. Took the fish off, center pieces first. It was just a bit browned on both sides.
Brought fish in, topped each piece with the vinaigrette, garnished the plate with chives WITH FLOWERS I had seen at the market that day. (Very fragrant—phew!—in the fridge after, even in plastic.) They were perfect for the dish. That’s the photo.

Put the fish platter on the table, salad, put the beans in a dish and on the table, put potatoes in a serving bowl and topped with ¼ cup chopped dill and to table. Had some Spanish white wine to go with.

The fish was a big hit, and it had a subtle smoky flavor from the grill—great complement to the fresh herby flavor of the vinaigrette.

When we had eaten the entree, then salad, I served the soup, garnished with the chive flowers (again) and topped with some yogurt because it was very spicy. (I did add a little extra curry powder—maybe ½ to 1 t). Nice finish though.

For dessert, we I just put out a plate of washed organic local strawberries. Not incredibly sweet, but very flavorful and beautiful.

Nathaniel liked it very much, and everyone ate their fill. My father-in-law said it was the best fish he had had anywhere! Good meal. (About 2 hrs. total prep with help in the kitchen.)

A Light Supper of Salad and Bread

Since we ate a huge post-graduation luncheon at a restaurant, no one was particularly hungry. I went to the grocery story (since we were basically out of food) and got things for a simple supper of salad and bread.

Took five cloves of garlic and chopped them fine. Added about 2 tbs. of olive oil and the juice of one small lemon. Drained and broke up two cans of white meat tuna in water and mixed into the bowl with the garlic, etc. Let sit.

Tore, rinsed, and drained the lettuce—one head red leaf and one head green leaf. Chopped a half red pepper, half green pepper, and a whole cucumber. Also finely chopped fresh dill (about two tbs. chopped) and scallions (about ¼ cup chopped). Mixed all of the ingredients together with the tuna except a few pieces of red and green pepper, and some cucumber (for topping). Dressed with 2 tbs. sherry vinegar and 3 tbs. olive oil, salt and black pepper. Tossed. Sprinkled the peppers and cucumber on top.

Toward the end of this, I put a few pieces of Indian flat bread (Nan) in the toaster oven for about two minutes each to heat but not toast. This went on the table with prepared baba ghanoui spread I bought.

Put out some pan rustic bread with a few pieces of cheese we had left.

Cut up a very ripe cantaloupe that was bought today and stared the meal with this.

Salad, the breads, the dip, and cheese was just right.

Yesterday's Dinner--Pasta with Fresh Tomotoes

Getting home again around 7ish with a houseful (well 3 really) of relatives here for Nathaniel's graduation. Had to put together something quick.

I had bought 2 lbs. of fresh garlic pasta (fettuccini cut) at the market last Saturday. I was making a fresh tomato sauce to go with it along with steamed broccoli and salad.

Put a large pot of water to boil for the pasta.

Chopped one large Vidalia onion and got it softening in about two tbs. of olive oil in a 14 in. All-Clad pan (my favorite all-purpose pan). Peeled and chopped five cloves of garlic. Turned down the heat to let the onions caramelize a little. Set the garlic aside and rinsed the tomatoes. I had bought about fifteen plum tomatoes at the market and left them in a bowl all week ripening. They were reasonably soft.

Chopped the tomatoes by cutting off ends and then slicing lengthwise followed by slicing (both halves at once.) Ends up with nice half circles.

Added the tomatoes. Heat high for about two minutes then lower to simmer. Added about a half tsp. of thyme and a tsp. of oregano—both crushed in my hand first.

Chopped roughly one bunch of fresh basil, just breaking off the stems. Rinsed first.

Rinsed and cut up the broccoli. Set a pot with a steamer in the bottom with about an inch of water on high heat.

Tore, washed and rinsed about a head of red leaf lattice and a half bag of mixed greens. Sliced and put in half a red pepper, half a green pepper, and a whole cucumber. Did a standard dressing of 2 tbs. Balsamic vinegar, 3 tbs. olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder (maybe 1/8 tsp.)—all dumped directly on the salad and then tossed in.

Put the pasta in the boiling water.

Added about a cup of canned diced tomatoes I found in the fridge. Heated, then added about 2 tbsp. of a Spanish red wine I had open. Added salt and pepper and left to simmer.

Served a small bowl of Kalmata (sp?) olives from a jar in the fridge. Also served a small bowl of grated Parmesan.

Got everything on the table quick—maybe 35 minutes.

Was in a big hurry during all this because we were all so hungry. Wanted to get some frozen meatless meatballs (from Trader Joe’s) in a pot with canned sauce so there would be something for those who are not fresh tomatoes eaters. (I have at least one.) In my haste, I picked up a jar, unscrewed it, dumped it in the pot with heat, opened the bag of meatballs, dumped them in, then realized the sauce I was heating was not tomato sauce but Trader Joe’s mild salsa! – Ahhhh! ;-0 . . . ruined.
You can see here what a mess the kitchen was when I finished.a

The dinner was fine and everyone ate their fill anyway.

Dinner on Wednesday

Well I got home latish--around 7--from cycling home. No real dinner plans. Thought we'd eat some Trader Joe's. Miriam suggested eggs, so I got started on omlets.

I had done a Spanish egg dish last week (Tortilla de Cebolla) with about 3 pounds of caramelized onions in it, and it was unbelievable wonderful. I wasn't going to spend an hour cooking onions, but I found 2 leeks in the fridge (left over from a carrot and ginger soup I made earlier in the week) so I washed and sliced the leeks small--whites and greens, first with a lengthwise cut (then cleaned in water), then across thinly-- and started them sautéing in about a tablespoon of olive oil.

Meanwhile I got some Swiss chard going as a side dish with red onions that needed to be used up. Sliced them thin in semicircles and started them softening in some oil in my Dutch oven, my favorite for slow cooking.

I turned down the heat on the onions and left them to simmer for a while on low heat. I looked in the fridge and found eight eggs. This was for three of us, but the Spanish dish I used six eggs, and we could have eaten more. I broke all 8 into a bowl and then (because I was out of milk completely), I added about a quarter cup of water. I put in some salt, black pepper, about six drops of Tabasco, and about a teaspoon of an herb mix--Bouquet Garni. Beat the eggs.

I also took out the Swiss chard, rinsed it (though not well enough because some of the diners later found a little grit in it), chopped off and threw away the very bottoms of the stems, then chopped the leaves in four cuts across all of them. Added them to the pot with the onions, turned down the heat, and covered.

Toward the end of this, I put on my 10 in. omelet sauté pan on the stove (with ovenproof handle) and got oil heating hot. Dumped out excess oil so it was just coated. I let the oil head and, meanwhile, added the cooked leeks to the beaten egg mixture. With the oil about smoking, I added the eggs and let them set a bit. Used my favorite heatproof rubber spatula to lift the edges and tip the pan to let uncooked egg get under. While I did this, I put the oven on broil to heat up a bit.

Turned down the heat and let it set. Kept the chard turning with a stir every few minutes through all of this. While the eggs were setting, I grated a small amount (maybe 3/8 cup grated) Morbier cheese I had left over. It needed to be used up--had to cut off some of the outside. I also found some fresh sage that was on its way out soon. Chopped up about a half dozen of its leaves. (What a great smell.)

By this time, the omelet was pretty well set but for the top part. I put the pan in the broiler for maybe two minutes--closer to one--and took it out when the top was fairly solid. Then I took the whole omelet, loosened it from the pan with my red spatula, and slid it onto a ten-inch plate. I then took the pan (with potholder since the handle had gotten quite hot) and held it face down over the plate. Holding the plate against the pan, I flipped both together so the omelet ended up reversed in the pan with what was the part facing the pan now facing up. (I probably could have left out the broiler part since I did this, but I just thought of it as I was going.) I put in on the burner with low heat for about a minute to really set the soft part.

Checked the chard and added a little chicken stock from the fridge (the kind in a box from Trader Joe's) since it was getting dry, and turned off its heat.

I had turned oven to 350 now, and sprinkled the cheese on the omelet. Put the pan in the oven to melt the cheese--maybe two minutes plus. Set the table.

Took out the omelet and slid it off the pan and onto the ten-inch dinner plate. Topped it with the chopped sage.

Put the chard in a serving dish, and all was on the table. Served the omelet in wedges, using a pie cutter.

Start to finish about 30 minutes, I'd say. The diners liked it and we ate every bit (in spite of the sand).

For dessert, we had some very ripe kiwi fruit and some dried cherries. Turned out to be a good paring, I think, and I was imagining a sort of fruit salad with kiwi and dried cherries or maybe a custard base (or better yet, kiwi custard) with the cherries chopped on top. We'll see. . .

No carb with this meal, but Miriam was cooking cheese bread, and we all loved it when it came out of the oven about an hour after dinner. . . . Not bad for a Wednesday.