lara – Page 30 – Feed Your Kids

Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage and Escarole

Well, it’s only the first day and I’m already off the schedule…
I decided to flip Monday and Tuesday, so we had this lentil soup for dinner tonight. It was absolutely wonderful; all four of us loved it. I served it with Baby Bam croutons (cut your favorite bread into appropriately-sized chunks, drizzle with melted butter and/or olive oil to lightly coat, sprinkle with Baby Bam, bake at 250 degrees – 20 to 30 minutes – until crunchy.)
Note: If you live in Austin: Escarole is difficult to find at most stores. My in-laws’ farm grows it (seasonally), or it is also available at Central Market. I haven’t seen it elsewhere.

Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage and Escarole
Some things came up early in the day today and I knew that I would be getting home (and hence, starting dinner) later than I planned, so I prepped the veggies and sliced the sausage ahead of time and put them in containers in the fridge. I also pulled all of the other non-perishable ingredients (stock, vinegar, olive oil, bay leaf, etc.) out and set them by the stove, so that when I got home, I would be able to get right to work. So, from the time that I started to the time we hit the table, this dish took about 35 minutes. Perfect!

Browning the Italian sausage meatballs

Sauteeing the vegetables (my kitchen smelled AMAZING when I threw this in the pan)

Chopped escarole, waiting for its turn in the soup
I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Girl ended up coming home sick today, and will likely still be sick tomorrow, so I plan to use the leftover 1/2 head of escarole (the head that I bought was HUGE) to make her some escarole and meatball soup. We’ll plan to have the salmon for dinner tomorrow and fish makes her miserable. Normally, I would just tell her to “get over it”, but since she’s not feeling well, I’ll probably give her a pass…stay tuned for that recipe.
In case you haven’t used lentils before, this is what they look like before they’re cooked; they’re VERY small.

Lentils are VERY easy to cook, are VERY inexpensive, have a mild flavor that nicely absorbs the taste of other ingedients in the dish. Lentils are LOADED with iron, fiber and folic acid, so they are a WONDERFUL food for pregnant women. If you haven’t tried them before, give them a go.
Here are two other great recipes to get you started:
Lentils with Bulgur and Onions from Gourmet magazine

Salmon with Lentils and Mustard-Herb Butter, also from Gourmet magazine

Fabulous New Food Blog

Holy moley, boys and girls! In the course of some idle searching today, I came across a wonderful new (to me, anyway) food blog that you MUST go check out. It’s called Smitten Kitchen and you can check it out by clicking here.

Menu Planning

I don’t always plan menus a week at a time, but instead just usually have a folder of recipes that I’d like to try in the next couple of weeks and then will decide, day by day, which one to pull out and then thaw (and/or shop) accordingly, each morning. The good news, though, is … Continue reading “Menu Planning”

I don’t always plan menus a week at a time, but instead just usually have a folder of recipes that I’d like to try in the next couple of weeks and then will decide, day by day, which one to pull out and then thaw (and/or shop) accordingly, each morning.

The good news, though, is that when I see a recipe I know I’m going to try soon, I’ll grab the non-perishable ingredients that are necessary for it, so that I have them on hand. Yes, I do end up having to grocery-shop just about every day (and yes, I hate shopping, too), but I usually only have to grab two or three things each time. I usually do one “gigantic run” about every week to ten days, for non-perishable and staple-things.

I do find it nice, though, when I have the time, to actually plan out menus in advance. It gives me the ability to look ahead and see which nights will be busy and can prep some things in advance, as I’m cooking during the week, so that I can have less work to do on those busy nights. Sometimes, if I have one cooking-at-home night, but know that the next night will be insane, I’ll make a casserole that can be prepared ahead, so that it’s ready to go for the next night. Baked ziti is a great one for this. I won’t tell if you use bottled sauce – just use a good one – although I usually make my sauce in advance and have it ready to go in the freezer when I need it and it’s not that troublesome. Baked spaghetti casserole is another one that’s make-ahead friendly.

Anyway, to make a long story short, this week and actually am planning menus ahead and thought I would share them with you, in case you want to play along at home.

Yes, I know, this menu is a little heavy on soups, Italian greens, orange winter vegetables and Asian noodle salads, but, hey, that’s what I felt like…

Monday:
Smoky-Spicy Turkey Tamale Pies (double the recipe, which specifies two servings)
Fresh Orange Sorbet

Tuesday:
Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage and Escarole

Wednesday:
Asian Salmon and Crunchy Noodle Salad from Ina Garten’s show this morning
I may or may not make the accompanying Lemon Yogurt Cake with Blueberry sauce, depending upon how much time I have. We happen to have a lot of desserts already in the house right now (thanks, Girl Scouts!)

Thursday:
Golden Winter Soup with Gruyere toasts
(I will add a little poblano pepper, as the online reviews suggested.)
Flaky Blood Orange Tart with Salted Caramel Sauce
I already have this prepared and frozen and will bake it and make the sauce that night. I made it with Cara Cara oranges instead of the blood oranges, which I may regret. The color is not as impressive and I’m afraid that the Cara Caras will be too sweet. We’ll see.

Friday:
Grilled Chicken Thighs (with very simple seasoning, maybe just some Baby Bam, because the gnocchi are VERY rich and flavorful and I want them to be the star of the show)
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

Saturday:
Garlic-Miso Pork Chops with Orange Bell Pepper and Arugula
and some sort of soba noodle salad that will likely be a combination of these:
Chilled Soba with Tofu and Sugar Snap Peas
Cold Soba Noodles with Vietnamese Pork (without the pork)
Sesame Soba Noodles with Cucumber, Bok Choy and mixed greens
Soba Salad with Soy-Wasabi Vinaigrette

Sunday:
Marinated London Broil, sliced and served atop a mixed green salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Cauliflower Soup with Pecans and Rye Croutons

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Split Sandwich

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Split Sandwich, a.k.a. “Dinner for a Boy who’s had a long, busy week and whose sister is away at a dance, so he’s getting his parents’ undivided attention and getting spoiled a little.” I ran across this recipe (here) on Cooking Light’s website. It looked interesting, but I probably wouldn’t … Continue reading “Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Split Sandwich”

I ran across this recipe (here) on Cooking Light’s website. It looked interesting, but I probably wouldn’t have tried to make it if the reviews didn’t look so good (just a little “weird”). I made this for Boy tonight, because he’s had a very busy week. Hubby and I will likely eat later and polish off leftovers and Girl is away at a school dance, so I wanted to serve something easy and fun for Boy, who is already is full-on relax mode, wearing his pajama pants and ready for some Mario Kart!

Boy really liked the sandwich and finished the whole thing before he even touched the accompanying chips (highly unusual). I didn’t taste it, but if you’re thinking of making this, you should read the website reviews. It sounds like it really (for an adult) can be more of a dessert or sweet snack, rather than a real “meal” type of sandwich. It definitely interesting, though, and can be made out of things that most folks usually have around the house (at least in strawberry season – I just happened to see some beautiful early-season ones at the store the other day.)

Sweet Vermouth Chicken, Spinach-Rice Casserole, Flaky Blood Orange Tart

OK, so this isn’t exactly a menu I would put together if I were planning it from scratch, but I still have a TON of that leftover rice around here, so as I was searching through my recipe files *(see photo below), looking for a recipe that called for pre-cooked rice, I came across this … Continue reading “Sweet Vermouth Chicken, Spinach-Rice Casserole, Flaky Blood Orange Tart”

This stuff was a great big hit. Almost all of us had seconds. It was EASY. Not gourmet or even particularly healthy, but easy. It would be a little more complicated if you didn’t already have pre-cooked rice on hand, but not too bad. I used onion powder, instead of onion flakes and also added a little Baby Bam. If I make it again, I would probably use a little fresh, minced onion, sauteed in butter.

I’ve been planning to make this chicken for a while and already had the ingredients on hand. It’s adapted from this Cooking Light recipe.

The tart recipe was a timely find from last January’s Food & Wine magazine. I try to cook seasonally, but am frequently so far behind on reading my cooking periodicals that I end up using recipes from the same month of the previous year. Makes no sense, I know, but I recently did a HUGE clean-out of my recipe files and came across this one. An opportunity to make citrus supremes into a dessert? Perfect timing – see? – it’s January. Again.

Anyway…

We are huge fans of the seasonal Cara Cara oranges that are out right now. I’ve been making them into supremes for the kids’ lunches almost daily (her friends fight over any leftovers); I’ve used them in a rice pudding, I’ve baked them into cookies and Parisian macaroons, I’ve stirred them into cocktails. They are DELICIOUS. The tart calls for a TON of blood oranges and, while Cara Caras aren’t an EXACT substitution for blood oranges, they are close enough.

The tart has to freeze overnight, so we’ll have it tomorrow. Stay tuned for more info, but here are some photos from the tart prep:

My sink, after peeling 9 oranges. Hubby said it looked like some sort of weird “Top Chef” challenge.

When I’m not culling through my old recipe files (collected over the past 20 years or so from newspapers, cooking magazines and online sources), I’m scouring through my cookbooks:

Indian Cashew Chicken and Indian Bread Pudding with Cardamom Sauce

I mentioned (here) that I was going to be making these recipes a couple of days ago, depending upon the open-mindedness of our Saturday night dinner guests. Well, the dinner guests were game, but I hadn’t read the recipe thoroughly enough and didn’t notice that the chicken had to sit overnight with the tomato-cashew mixture, so…. as I was beginning to prepare the meal, I realized we would have to go with a “Plan B” and ordered pizza. We ended up having our lovely, planned Indian meal on Sunday instead. Good news? It was a big hit and we will definitely be making both dishes again. The kids loved them both (the chicken was a tad spicier than Girl normally likes, but she just added more rice and it was fine.) Boy even asked “Is there any more of that toast dessert?” after dinner the next night (there was.)

So, here are the recipes again:

Indian Cashew Chicken

I added about 1 cup of frozen, thawed green peas to this dish, just to get a veggie in the meal. If I make it again, I wish add a few whole, toasted cashews at the end, just to make it a little bit more obvious what the composition of the dish is.

Indian Bread Pudding with Cardamom Sauce

This dessert was delicious – as is – I wouldn’t change a thing. It was very good and pretty quick and easy. It makes a lovely presentation on the plate, too; it would be great for a dinner party. I don’t usually keep plain, white bread in the house (ewwww…), but it’s worth it to tolerate some for this dish!

Cara Cara Rice Pudding

Yet another use for this massive amount of leftover rice that I have hanging around here…. Cara Cara Orange Rice Pudding 2 cups leftover cooked white rice 1 Tbsp unsalted butter 3 cups milk (any kind) 1/2 cup sugar small pinch salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Spice Blend finely grated rind (be … Continue reading “Cara Cara Rice Pudding”

Yet another use for this massive amount of leftover rice that I have hanging around here….

Cara Cara Orange Rice Pudding

2 cups leftover cooked white rice
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups milk (any kind)
1/2 cup sugar
small pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Spice Blend
finely grated rind (be careful – no pith!) of one Cara Cara orange

Combine cooked rice, butter, milk, sugar and salt in a medium-sized heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Stir in the vanilla. Cook until almost all of the milk is absorbed (about 30 to 45 minutes). Stir in the cinnamon spice blend and orange peel. Portion the pudding into individual serving dishes. Serve immediately, if you like it warm or chill overnight and serve cold.

Makes 4 large servings or 6 small ones.

Pork Fried Rice

Boy’s 5th grade class had a “Far East Fest” yesterday. They have been studying Asia in Global Studies and yesterday was the culmination of weeks and weeks of learning. There were presentations, demonstrations, decorations, libations, and, um…food (I can’t think of a word for food that ends in “-ation”, so we’ll just let that little … Continue reading “Pork Fried Rice”

Boy did a presentation on Samurai Warriors with some buddies. There were demonstrations on origami, abacuses (abaci? abacusi? what’s the plural of that darned word?) and lots of other cool topics. Lots of parents banded together and brought TONS of food. There was Teriyaki chicken, fried rice, lo mein, egg rolls, sushi, potstickers, cool Japanese soda with a marble in the lid, almond cookies, fortune cookies, Korean pears, ginger candy and on and on…. Well, I was tasked with bringing massive amounts of plain, steamed white rice (for the Teriyaki to be served over, etc. and for the kids that are too picky to try the other things.) I took this responsibility VERY seriously. I brought in both my rice cooker (which is large) and my mother’s (which is GIGANTIC) and cooked a whole, large bag of Thai Jasmine rice (over 10 cups). Well, Boy’s fancy school has some pretty adventuresome eaters: the eggrolls were gone; the potstickers were decimated; the sushi was inhaled; the Lo Mein was dispatched (welcome to “Feed Your Kids, the thesaurus edition”), but the plain white rice, well, it was just too plain. Kids took a sampling, but I was left with an AMAZING amount left over. I momentarily considered making the family of raccoons that are currently living under my deck VERY happy, by leaving it for them (they LOVED our gingerbread houses this year), but decided that I didn’t want them to get too friendly and figured I would use the leftover rice (about 15 cups, I think) to make something creative.

So…here’s the first use of this massive amount of leftover rice:

Pork Fried Rice

2 Tbsp dry sherry, divided
2 Tbsp soy sauce, divided
1 Tbsp (about 2 large cloves) garlic, minced or run through a press
1 Tbsp fresh, minced ginger root
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced green onion
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
about 2 cups fresh sugar snap peas
about 1 cup coarsely chopped carrot, blanched or steamed in water (microwave is fine) until slightly softened, and then drained
1 pound boneless pork chops, thinly sliced (loin or sirloin, your choice)
2 Tbsp oyster sauce or hoisin sauce
about 6 cups leftover cooked white rice
peanut oil (about 1/4 cup, but have more on hand, just in case)
a little fresh cilantro, optional

NOTE: This recipe is VERY adaptable. Feel free to use your favorite veggies – whatever you have on hand or whatever might be seasonal (suggestions: small broccoli florets, bean sprouts, snow peas, corn kernels, mushrooms, onion). I bought some canned water chestnuts (Girl’s favorite), bamboo shoots and baby corn, but forgot to put them in. They would have been a nice addition (make sure they’re very well drained and rinsed.) 13-year olds are SO polite when they’re disappointed that you’ve left out their favorite ingredient. Umm…yeah, no.

OK – a word on stir fries: it’s very important that everything is ready to go and “put in place/mise en place” before you get started; you need to be able to move fast to toss things in the pan.

OK – a word on pans. They should be big and wide and heavy (capable of holding lots of heat). Ideally, you would make this in a wok. Oddly, I don’t have a wok, even though I just had a birthday and dropped TONS of hints. Oh, well…

OK – back to mise en place. Here’s mine…

Yes, a cocktail is an essential part of the mise en place. We have used a “Cape Cod” cocktail here (for illustration purposes only, of course.) Cocktails substitutions are OK and will not impact the final flavor of the dish.

OK…let’s get started…

Toss the pork with 1 Tbsp of the sherry and 1 Tbsp of the soy sauce. Set aside for 30 minutes to let it marinate. Drain, discarding the sauce.

Heat about 1 Tbsp of the oil (use a little more if you need it to lightly coat the ENTIRE inner surface of your pan) over medium-high heat, until the oil looks a little “wavy” but has not started to smoke. Add the beaten egg and lightly tilt the pan until the egg makes a thin sheet over the surface of the pan. As soon as the egg has started to cook through on the bottom (do NOT let the egg brown), flip the entire “sheet” of egg over the lightly cook the other side. Err on the side of undercooking here; the egg will finish cooking off the heat and can cook a little more when you toss it into the rice at the end. You want it nice and golden, not brown at all. Remove the egg from the pan and set it aside on a plate.

Add a little bit more oil (1 to 2 Tbsp) to the pan and reheat it to medium-high. Add the pork and very lightly stir it until all of the pork pieces are lightly coated with oil. Keeping the pan on fairly high heat, let the pork pieces rest relatively still. *See note below. When they have browned on one side and are starting to cook in the middle, flip/stir the pieces over to brown on the other side. When the pork is lightly browned on all sides, remove it from the pan and set it aside. Pour the oyster sauce or hoisin sauce over it.

*As the pork cooks, cut the egg into small pieces.

Add a tiny bit more oil to the pan (1 Tbsp) and bring it back up to medium-high. Add the sugar snap peas, carrots, ginger and garlic. Stir to lightly coat all ingredients, making sure to not let the garlic burn. When all ingredients have heated through and peas are starting to turn a brighter green, quickly pour in the remaining sherry and let it boil off, stirring quickly to scrape up browned bits (from the pork) from the bottom of the pan.

Add the red bell peppers and peas and continue stirring until they are slightly softened. Add the pork and hoisin or oyster sauce mixture, stirring gently to warm and combine. *See note below.

Crumble in the rice, about 1/2 cup at a time, breaking up any large clumps with your fingers, until you achieve the desired pork/vegetable/rice ratio.

*This would be a GREAT place to add things like WATER CHESTNUTS, bamboo shoots and/or baby corn, if you want to make your 13-year old happy – but why in the world would you want to do that???

Toss in the egg and green onions.

(Feel free to make a donation to pay for desperately-needed photography classes.)

Pour in soy sauce, and sesame oil and toss gently to distribute. Sprinkle with cilantro, if using. Serve immediately.

Serving size will vary. Plan on a double portion for 11-year old boys. Serve with sriracha for any Hubbys that might be lurking around.

The ‘rents

Click here to see a photo of my parents, examining a piece of artwork up for auction at the Tibetan Aid Project fundraiser that I mentioned before here.

Ooops…

When a recipe tells you to watch nuts closely as you’re toasting them, they’re not kidding!