Five Spice Beef Stir Fry

We've been on a tight budget lately and I've been having to rummage through the freezer, pantry, etc finding things to cook that will work well, or at least OK, together.  This is no easy task even though we have two freezers full of food that we somehow manage not to eat otherwise.  Today's concoction was one that turned out to be really good.  Not mind-blowing but definitely worth making again.  Best of all, I used a lot of the remaining CSA chard and get this....radish tops from my own vegetable Square Foot Garden!  Matt ate the radishes this past weekend but I couldn't bring myself to throw the greens away.  They were not enough for a soup but I knew I was going to use them in something.  This was perfect for them and I still have some left.

Five Spice Beef Stir Fry


6 oz beef, thinly sliced
Chinese Five Spice powder to taste
salt taste
2 tsp peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 cups green chard, stalks and greens separated and sliced into strips
1 large handful radish tops, sliced into smaller pieces if necessary
1 1/2 tbs soy sauce
1/2 sweet sherry (or other sweet wine)
4 oz Pad Thai noodles, soaked as per package instructions

While the noodles are soaking, season the beef with the five spice powder and the salt.


Heat 1 tsp of peanut oil in a wok or frying until very hot over high heat.  Add the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds.  Add the second teaspoon of oil, heat for 30 seconds, remove the garlic from the wok and add the beef.Stir fry for 3 or 4 minutes.  Add the chard stalks and stir fry for an additional 2 minutes.  Add the noodles and toss well to mix. Stir fry for 1 minute.  Add the chard greens and the radish tops, toss and stir to mix well.  Stir fry for one minute.  Turn off the heat under the wok and add the soy sauce and sweet sherry.  Toss well and serve immediately.


Serves 2

That's pretty much it! The five spice powder works beautifully here and you can definitely taste it.  Yummy, yummy in my tummy!  I think I'll be making this one again.

The Black Zapotes Get Their Day

As I've mentioned before, the problem with the CSA box is that we often find ourselves with a refrigerator full of produce and no idea how to utilize it.  We don't cook every day, as we should, and that makes the problem even worse.  The first black zapotes we got rotted because they became ripe while we were out of the country.  This time around we have about 7 zapotes sitting around, 3 of them REALLY needed to be used so I started researching ideas.

I had never had black zapote and for those who know, it is often called chocolate pudding fruit because its flesh has the same color and consistency of, you guessed it, chocolate pudding.  I tried one a few weeks ago and to me it tasted like avocado.  Very strange, turns out that in larger quantities (sweets, shakes, etc) it tastes a lot like mamey zapote, the kind of zapote I AM familiar with.

I had ice cream in mind but I didn't have any  eggs in the house.  I immediately thought of kulfi.  Again, for those who don't know, kulfi is an Indian frozen dessert much like ice cream with a few differences.  I did some research into how kulfi is made and the varieties of ways is astounding!  They all end up the same way though so they are just means to an end.  I only had condensed and evaporated milk so I came up with my own recipe based on my research.  I was not expecting much to be honest but I felt like I had do something, anything, with the black zapotes because I couldn't let them go to waste.

As soon as I put the mixture into the ice cream churner I knew I had done good.  GOOD.  Yum.  I'm so glad I gave it a chance!

Black Zapote Kulfi


6 oz black zapote pulp (approximately 5)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
6 oz 2% (low fat) evaporated milk


Blend all the ingredients together in a blender or with a hand mixer.  Pour into an ice cream churner and churn for about 15 minutes.  Pour into popsicle or kulfi molds and freeze until solid.  If  you don't have a churner pour the mixture straight into the molds and freeze.  The kulfi will just be denser.

Easy peasy!  No cooking, no custards, no mess.

What is the difference between ice cream and kulfi, you ask?  Well, the main difference is that kulfi is not whipped like ice cream is.  The result is a much denser consistency which makes kulfi very, very slow melting.  I personally find kulfi much creamier than ice cream, even the custard based types. 

Kulfi is traditionally served on sticks but there is no law that says you can't just freeze it in a plastic tub!

Enjoy....I know I will!

PS.  There is some debate in the Thyme For Food household as to whether the correct spelling is zapote or sapote.  Spanish is my first language and while I admit that I have not had to write that particular word often before the CSA box came around, I am pretty sure it's zapote.

Naughty Giveaway!

Valentine's Day is coming up in less than a month.  While I'm sure you don't need an excuse to bake your valentine some cupcakes or even a cake, I'd like to give you one!  I am giving away a brand new copy of Debbie Brown's Seriously Naughty Cakes!  Can't find it on Amazon? Of course not, it's not available in the US!  This book is a compilation of the content from the naughty cakes books Naughty Cakes and Xtra Naughty Cakes.

The giveaway rules are simple.

1. Bake a cake (or cupcakes) and decorate it with a Valentine's Day and/or naughty theme
2. Post about it on your blog between now and February 15th.
3. Link back to this post on yours.
4. Email me a link to your blog post on or before February 15th.

The email address is (without spaces) thymeforfood @ jqhawkins . co . uk

On February 16th I will choose one winner at random and announce it on this blog.  Simple, right?  Don't miss your chance to be the owner of this cute, quirky and naughty book!

Get baking now!

Never Say Never

This meal is a perfect example of how we all too often say we don't like something and refuse to eat it without ever having tried it. Then one day, by whatever act of fate, we try it and love it.  I didn't grow up eating vegetables and thus never really liked them....but I never tried many.  Cabbage?  No way.  Broccoli? Nope.  Lettuce?  What am I, a sheep?  I could go on and on.  While living in the UK I was exposed to a lot of new (to me) foods and while I did take to many, I flat out refused others just on principle.  The particular example today is colcannon.

  For those who don't know what colcannon is, it's an Irish dish.  It's mashed potatoes with onions and kale, sometimes cabbage instead of kale. The reason I always refused to it was because of the kale/cabbage and my whole "I don't eat that stuff" thing.  We still had some kale from last week's CSA box and my husband REALLY wanted colcannon so I figured I'd indulge him.  He wanted to make it but I have a feeling his wouldn't have been anywhere near as good.  I looked in my cookbooks and found a good recipe in Gary Rhodes' New British Classics.  Gary never disappoints and this time it was no exception.  Of course, I didn't follow the recipe to the T, I did make changes that I think made it SO much better.  The colcannon was definitely the star of the show but the protein was fish, and it was good too!


Colcannon

3 cups kale, stalks removed and chopped

4 large Russet Burbank potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
3 tbsp butter

1/2 medium red onion,  chopped
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste


Fill a stockpot halfway with water, add salt.  Bring to a boil.  Blanch the kale in the boiling water for 3 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon and drain.  Add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook until fork tender.  Do not overcook the potatoes, they are starchy and will disintegrate.


In the meantime, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook, stirring, for about 7 minutes.  They will be soft and slightly caramelized.  Add the blanched kale and cook for a further 2 minutes.


Drain the potatoes and mash.  Add the remaining butter and mix well to melt.  Add the milk and mix.  Combine the mashed potatoes and kale mixture.  Mix well and season with salt and pepper to taste.


Serves 2 (hungry people)

Pan-Fried Fish


2 fillets of firm, white fish like halibut, mahi, etc
flour to coat
3 tbsp butter
salt and pepper
1 tbsp cooking oil
juice of 1/2 lemon


Dry the fish fillets well.  Dust with flour on one side.  Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and brush the floured side of the fish.  Season with salt and pepper.


In a skillet large enough to accommodate the fish, heat the cooking oil over medium high heat.  Place the fish on the skillet floured side down and pan-fry for about 5 minutes per side.  Remove the fish to serving plate.


Add the remaining 2 tbsp of butter to the skillet.  It will sizzle, melt and brown very quickly.  Add the lemon juice and stir until all the butter is melted.  Pour over the fish (through a strainer if you prefer) and serve.


Serves 2

 

This was one of the tastiest meals I've had in a long time.  The downside to being on a weight loss program is that you can't cook all this  yummy stuff.  I'd hate to think how many calories this meal was, but I guess calories are flavor's unit of measure ;)


If you've never had colcannon, or even if you had, I recommend you try this recipe.  It is amazing and I will never again say I don't like colcannon!  As someone once told me, "it's not that you don't like something, it's just that you've never had it made right!"  Truer words have never been spoken.

On a different note, my vegetable garden is doing great for the most part.  I'm having a hard time with the herbs but everything else seems to be doing OK.  The Square Foot Garden is doing is doing amazingly well. I harvested the radishes yesterday, all 25 of them.  I'm so happy with the turn out so far as I wasn't sure it was going to work.  I am ready to replant that square but I don't know whether to transplant the cabbage I have been growing in a peat pot or whether I should plant something else and plant the cabbage when I harvest the pak choi.

Click on the picture for more.

If You Can't Go to Dim Sum....

Let me first get this stupid sentence off my chest:  I find the term dim sum ridiculously hilarious.  Why?  Because I say dim sum and I think "stupid math".  Get it?  dim sum = stupid math?  Get it?  No?  I did say it was stupid! I guess that says a lot about me.

I was WELL into my 20s the first time I eve heard of dim sum and the first time I had it was at Oriental City in Colindale London.  My friend Kavey took me there one day and I was very hesitant at first since I'm somewhat picky but by the end of the meal I was ready to come the next day.  I loved it.  My favorite was the BBQ steamed pork buns.  YUMMY!  Oriental City is now closed, shame.

Miami has a lot of Chinese take out places but very few eat ins and only TWO dim sum restaurants.  One of them (the closer but by no means close to us) has subpar food at an OK price.  The other one, in South Beach, has great food at exorbitant prices.  Needles to say, we never have dim sum (OK we did twice and that's how we know what the food and prices are like).  That is really, really, really sad considering Miami is supposed to be a melting pot.  Sure, it's a melting pot....of Hispanic cuisine!  I can get that at home thank  you very much!

So, if you can't go to dim sum....what's a girl who is REALLY craving it to do?  Bring the dim sum to you!  I have had a couple of dim sum books for over 2 years now but had not gotten around to using them.  Making dim sum is an involved process and to make it worth your while (and be authentic) you really have to have more than one type of food.  So, in a nutshell, I was very intimidated by the thought of making dim sum.

I grew a pair today and decided that today would be the day I ate...no, MADE....dim sum.  I planned to make 5 different types; two chicken, one beef, one pork and one shrimp plus possibly a sweet one.  I defrosted the meat and got to work in the dough for the pork buns.  Halfway through assembling I said "screw it!, pork and beef plus dessert is enough!".  I spent the better part of 3 hours preparing the dim sum but it was worth it and I can't wait to do it again.  Next time though I will stagger the preparations over a couple of days so on the day I just have to prepare the yeasted rolls and cook the rest of the stuff.

Steam Fried Pork Rolls


Dough:
150g (1/3 lb) all purpose flour
23g (1oz) sugar
1/2 tbsp oil
3/4 tsp baking powder
75 ml water
6g active dry yeast


Filling:
150g (1/3 lb) cabbage
75g pork (raw)
1/4 chopped garlic chives (or any other chives/green onions)
1/2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar


1 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup water


Mix all the dough ingredients and knead until smooth.  You can do this in a mixer or food processor.  Allow rise in a warm place for 40 minutes.


Place the cabbage and pork in the bowl of a food processor.  Process until everything is well minced and mixed together.  Add the rest of the filling ingredients and stir to incorporate.


After the dough has risen, knead it lightly and divide into 12 equal pieces.  Roll each piece until they are approximately 3.5 inches in diameter.  Place 1 tablespoon of filling in each piece of though.  Gather the edges at the top and press to seal.


Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  Arrange the filled rolls in the pan.  Add one cup of water, cover then allow to cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.  After the water has boiled away, continue to fry the rolls until both sides are golden brown.

 

Beef Won tons



16 won ton wrappers


Filling:
100g lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped garlic chives (or any other chives/green onions)
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp baking soda
dash of white pepper

dash of rice wine vinegar


Mix all the filling ingredients well.  Place 1 tsp of filling in each wonton wrapper and seal.  To boil the won tons, bring a large pot of water to a full boil.  Add the wontons and cook for 8 minutes.


To fry the won tons, bring a large part of oil to 350°F over medium heat. Fry the wontons until golden brown turning to fry all sides.


Serve with a dipping sauce.

 

Fried Banana Won tons



3 rice but firm bananas, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon


10 won ton wrappers
Oil for deep frying
powder sugar


Bring the oil to 350°F over medium heat.


Combine the banana, sugar and cinnamon.  Fill the won tons wrappers with the bananas, seal the edges well.  Deep fry until light golden brown.  Remove from the oil and place them on a wire draining rack.  Dust with powder sugar and serve.

And this is what my kitchen looks like after this operation (NOT looking forward to the clean up!)

For dipping, we used soy sauce and my hot and sweet dipping sauce.  The hot and sweet dipping sauce worked beautifully with everything (except the banana ones!) and the more I have this sauce the more I like it!

Our favorites were definitely the pork rolls.  So good!  This was a very succsefull operation and I'm glad I took the time.  It is a lot of work but worth it, especially if you have no other dim sum options, like us.  Next time though I will definitely spread the work out!

That's A Lot Of Green!

I have been very bad at NOT cooking lately.  The CSA produce is not being used as much as we would have liked.  There was so much produce in the fridge that I was starting to worry it would just spoil.  Lucky those green bags do keep produce fresh for longer.

A couple of nights ago we decided that a stir-fry was in order.  We really needed to use the produce and I just threw something together using quite a bit of it.  I just winged it and it was actually surprisingly good (and SPICY!)  I wasn't going to blog it but I figured, why not?


Hot and Sweet Chicken and Noodles Stir-Fry


2 tsp canola or peanut oil
4 oz dried pad thai noodles
1 small piper betel leaf, julienned
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 medium bok choi head
1 cup komatsuma leaves (or spinach)
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded or diced
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp hot and sweet dipping sauce
2 tsp cornstarch

Fill a bowl with hot water, place the noodles inside and let it sit for 10 minutes.  In the meantime, separate the stalks and the leaves of the bok choi.  Tear the leaves into smaller pieces and cut the stalks into bite size pieces.   Combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, dipping sauce and cornstarch until smooth.


Place a wok over high heat, add the oil and heat up until VERY hot.  Add the garlic, ginger and piper betel leaf.  Stir fry for 1 minute.  Add the bok choi stalks and stir fry for 2 minutes.  Add the noodles and stir fry for 1 minute.  Add the chicken, bok choi leaves and komatsuma stir well to combine.  Add the chicken broth mixture and cook for 1 minute, making sure that everything is well combined.  Remove from the heat when the greens begin to wilt.


Serves 2

To be honest, I had no high hopes for this stir fry as it was a "throw stuff in and hope for the best" kinda cooking.  Much to my surprise, it was really good.  We used up all the bok choi, all the komatsuma and some of the piper betel leaves.  If you don't have piper betel leaves, don't sweat it, it will be fine without.

What gives this stir fry it's spiciness is definitely the sweet and hot dipping sauce.  I don't know where you can buy that commercially but coincidentally, you CAN buy some from my Etsy!  I may be tooting my own horn here but this dipping sauce is damned good.  I love it with just about anything and it hadn't occured to me to cook with it until this stir fry.

While I was cutting up the piper betel leaf we decided to try some.  Well, it REALLY does taste like smoked sausage.  I only used a small amount in the stir fry so it wasn't quite as obvious but I am thinking about using more of the leaves in something like a lasagna, spanakopita  or something along those lines.

Arroz Con Pollo.....On the Down-Low

Let me start by saying that this is one of the few instances when I'm glad my mom doesn't speak/read a lick of English and thus not follow this blog.  Heck, I don't think she even knows what a blog is.  But I digress.

I haven't made a meal plan in eons and that is horrible because most days 6:40pm comes around, Matt gets home and I get the million dollar question "So...what's for dinner?"  My answer is usually the same: "What do you want?" This does not normally translate into "I'll make whatever you want" but more likely into "Not a clue, can you just go to Burger King and get something?"  So yes, meal plans are really essential around here especially considering I am still trying to lose weight, I'm only halfway there.

Today I decided that was not going to be the case.  I had some freaking expensive organic boneless skinless chicken thighs that I bought for Liev at Whole Foods a few weeks ago.  They had been in the freezer ever since until I thawed them out and cooked one for him.  I could not let them spoil so today I had to cook the chicken.  I also didn't want to have to use a whole bunch of pots and pans or prep tools cause, quite honestly, my kitchen looks like a pigsty right now and pretty much everything is dirty (I'm working on it!). So, a one pot chicken meal it was. 

Now, this is the part I'm glad my mom isn't reading.  All my life I have sworn up and down I do not like "Arroz con Pollo" which is basically rice and chicken cooked together and tinted yellow with saffron or something similar.  I still say I don't like it and it's true, I don't like it the way most Cubans make it.  It's always greasy and they invaribaly use dark meat WITH bone, which I dispise.  So, guess what I made...Arroz con Pollo!  In my defense, I used the white meat part of the thigh, no bones and NO skin.  It was also very not greasy and it even had vegetables. 

It ended up being a two pot meal because I needed to brown the chicken but the best part of all is that the recipe is for the rice cooker!  It could not get any easier than that!  It turned out much better than I expected it to and all three of us gobbled it right up, even Liev.  If you don't have a rice cooker then obviously this recipe won't do you any good but if you do have one and it's just collecting dust on the counter or in a cabinet, pull it out and get cooking, most if not all of the ingredients here are pretty much pantry and fridge staples.

By the way, the only reason I have a rice cooker is because my mom left her old one behind when she moved out.  She claims it's a piece of crap, and I agree but it served me right today.  This recipe is very loosely based on a recipe from a book called The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook.  I've had this book since 2002 or so when I was stationed in Bethesda, MD and I thought I'd be doing some cooking in the barracks.  Turns out I couldn't be bothered so I had not made a single thing from it until today. 

I served this with cabbage salad, great way to use my CSA stuff (the bell pepper is also from the CSA box).  The salad, if you can call it that, is nothing more than thinly sliced cabbage with salt and olive oil.  Simplicty at its best and the only way I eat cabbage.

Arroz Con Pollo


4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into fourths
juice of 1 lemon
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 bell pepper (seeded), cut into 3 pieces
2 cups long grain white rice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 cup lukewarm water
2 packets Sazon Goya with Culantro and Achiote (Coriander and Annatto)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained and liquid reserved
12 oz chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas


Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper to taste and half the lemon juice.  Let it marinade for about 15 minutes.  


In a medium-sized skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over high heat.  When hot, add the chicken and cook, stirring often, until browned on both sides.  Remove from the heat and set aside.  Set the rice cooker for a regular cycle and heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the rice cooker bowl.  When hot, add the garlic and onion and cook, stirring, until the onion starts to soften (about two minutes) without letting the garlic burn.  Add the bell pepper pieces, rice and cumin.  Stir well to combine.  Cook until the rice is opaque, about 10 minutes.


In the mean time, dissolve the Sazon Goya packets in the cup of water and add the remaining lemon juice.  Add the tomatoes to the rice cooker along with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.  Add the chicken stock and Sazon Goya water.  If the reserved tomato liquid is less than 3/4 cups, add enough water or chicken stock to bring it up to 3/4.  Add to the rice cooker and stir to combine.  Add the chicken to the rice, stir.  Close the lid and set the rice cooker to full cycle (if it has gone into Keep Warm mode).  Approximately 10 minutes into the cooking, very quickly open the lid and add the frozen peas.  Close and let it finish the cycle.


Stir to incorporate the peas and serve.


Serves 4

You will need at least a medium sized rice cooker for this and it doesn't really matter if it's one with all the bells and whistles or one that you have to keep pressing the "Cook" button down because it keeps going into "Keep Warm" while you are cooking the damned onion.  Ask me how I know.  If the cooker goes into Keep Warm while you are cooking the rice without the liquid, it's OK, don't freak out, my did and the rice turned out delicious!

So, I would tell my mom about this, I'm pretty sure she doesn't know you can cook stuff other than plain white rice in the rice cooker, but I'd risk having to eat Arroz Con Pollo next time I go over for dinner.  Let's keep it between you and me, alright?

Produce and Plants That will Produce

This weeks CSA box had a mostly familiar things like lettuce, cabbage, parsley, tomatoes, and black zapotes but also had a couple of "mystery" items, beets and "Asian Mix".  I haven't had beets since they were force-fed to me in the 2nd grade (in all meaning of the phrase!) school cafeteria and I don't know what is in Asian Mix.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the beets, it's not something that's ever even crossed my mind to cook but alas, I'll have to play Iron Chef.  As for the mix, I suspect it will end up in a stir fry or something along those lines. 

I was reading Tinkering with Dinner and he mentioned the lettuce looks good to wrap things in.  I have to agree, the leaves are enormous but I was also thinking that maybe the cabbage could save the same purpose since we have two of them and have to get creative.  I don't like cooked cabbage.  I think it smells like a really stinky fart, I have thought this ever since I can remember.  My grandmother cooked cabbage in the house and made the whole place reek. 

There were other things in the box like dill and mushrooms but we traded them in for the parsley, the asian mix.  The extra cabagge was aslo for the extras box.  I just realized how greedy that was.  I guess the mushrooms make up for it :P

Now, to the thing dear to my heart....my vegetable garden.  It is full speed ahead in my porch!  The Square Foot Garden is sown and everything is sprouting.  The radish plants are big and we'll be eating radishes and bok choi in the next 2 or 3 weeks.  WOOT!  I'm so excited about this, really, I can't believe I'm actually doing it.  This is what I'm currently growing in the SFG and the rest of the containers: butterking lettuce, turnips. cherry belle radish, spinach, sweet onions, lettuce mix for cut and come again, toy choi (baby bok choi), scallions, butternut squash, carrots, cayenne pepper, three different peat pots with a hot pepper mix and I don't know what I planted so we'll see when they fruit, rosemary, Greek oregano, chives, dark opal and Genovese basil, thyme, Copenhagen Market cabbage, sweetie tomato and gartenperle tomato.  Phew!  I sure hope that harvest doesn't coincide with the same produce from the CSA box!

Here are some pictures of the plants.  For more check out my Flickr  Vegetable Garden Collection: