My First Post / Cashew Chicken

My first post over at The Jew & The Carrot, that is!

I just posted my recipe for Cashew Chicken, which I have to say is really delicious and easy to make. When I start to crave Chinese food (which is often), I grab my trusty iron skillet and some eco-kosher chicken and whip out this recipe.

I am so thrilled to be blogging over at The Carrot -- it's a really wonderful blog and I'm so honored to be a part of it. I had to screw up my courage and get over my intimidation that everyone else blogging over there was "more Jewish" than I am and had "more eco-kosher" food cred than I do. So I just posted my recipe and now I'm a long way over that intimidation. Someone even left a comment! :-)

Dena's Cashew Chicken & Snow Peas

I am lucky enough to live in Eugene, Oregon. I’ve got it pretty good here – great weather, great outdoors, great Jewish community, great abundance of local organic food. But Chinese food? Not so much here in Eugene.

As a Bay Area transplant, I crave Chinese food. I often feel like I literally NEED it. After months searching for something that would quench my Chinese food tastebuds – and realizing that to keep my version of kosher (which is eco-kosher: less about what is and what is not treyf and more about eating only meat that is ideally organic and pasture-raised – and if not, is absolutely free-range, never given hormones or antibiotics, and was humanely slaughtered) – I came to the conclusion that I’d have to make it myself. For both taste and my personal kashrut reasons. Which is some kind of a life lesson right there, I’m sure.

I stumbled upon a recipe for Cashew Chicken from the inimitable Martha Stewart and decided to give it a whirl – and my own flair. And to tell the truth, it is delicious and happily graces our Friday night Shabbat table pretty often.

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James' Root Cellar Smash

My dear friend James is a fantastic cook. The kind who doesn't even really have to work at it, you know? Who just like throws stuff together and it looks and tastes divine. Someday I'll get there. Til then, I keep working at it.

So of course I had to ask him for a recipe to share during this crazy month of NaBloPoMo. And he responded with a great little recipe that will likely come in handy next week as our nation prepares to eat as a way of giving thanks.

Reading it through, YUM is all I can say. I might need these to show up on our Thanksgiving table!

James' Root Cellar Smash

• Three white sweet potatoes (sometimes called Japanese sweet potatoes at the grocery store)
• One large, orange sweet potato (any more and it would be too sweet)
• A couple of your favorite potatoes (Dena's note: russets always work great in mashed potatoes)
• A large turnip would be exciting as well, but I haven't tried that variation yet

This recipe is very forgiving -- you can make changes to the ingredients as you see fit and based on what you might have in your root cellar.

Peel and cut up into similar-sized chunks all of the above. Boil them until they are fork-tender.

When done, smash it all up -- I like things lumpy.

Pour in that stick of butter and cup of half & half you've been heating up in a small pan on the back of the stove. Season liberally with salt and pepper (taters need gobs). Here's the totally inspired part -- add a goodly dash or two of cinnamon.

Papi's Aji

So in many northern Latin American countries, there is a condiment that's on every table, restaurant or home, no matter what: aji (pronounced "a-hee"). Sometimes it's spicy, sometimes not. But it is always there in a little container with a spoon in it, and it goes on anything and everything.

My Colombian dad always had a bowl of this on our table, and it never went empty, no matter how much I spooned onto my rice (mmmmm).

I thought of it the other day and HAD to make some. It's super easy and super-delish, and very customizable. It's kinda like salsa....but different. There are no tortilla chips involved, though of course you could do that if you're into that kind of thing. ;-)

Dena's Papi's Aji Bogotano 
(aka Aji, Bogota-style)

• 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 3-4 scallions, chopped
• As much cilantro as you like, chopped
• Some glugs of extra virgin olive oil
• A few tablespoons of red wine vinegar

Combine in a bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes. You want to make sure there's enough vinegar for the acid in the vinegar to make everything yummy, but not so much that it's overpowering.

Spoon it onto your rice, your beans, your platanos fritos, avocado, chicken, beef.... anything savory. Makes a great meat marinade.

Add diced hot pepper (like jalapeno, minus the seeds) or some Tabasco if you like heat, but it will then cease to be Bogota-style. Which is fine and still yummy!

When I was young, I used to just eat rice with aji on top. Makes a fantastic snack, let me tell you. Makes a great bachelor dinner, too, by the way.

This keeps for a few days in your fridge. Make a batch and try it out!

Hubby doesn't like cilantro (did you know that's genetic? Bizarre. So glad I got the gene that makes it taste delicious) so I left it out on the side. MORE FOR ME!

Buen provecho!

A Quick Garlic Spear Pasta Recipe

Here's a yummy pasta dish I cooked up last night, recipe requested by Katie* in a comment on my last post, who got garlic spears in her CSA and is wondering what the heck to do with them. (See? This is a full-service blog: you ask for it, we serve it right on up.)

A quick note about garlic spears/scapes: you really can use them as you would asparagus. They have a different flavor, of course, but they do well in any dish where you would use asparagus. Cook them for a little longer than you would asparagus, however: these guys take a little longer to get tender.

Hubby feeling up the garlic spears

Garlic Spear (or Garlic Scape) Pasta with Prosciutto, Shallots, Pine Nuts, and Goat Cheese

• 1 or 2 heads garlic spears, bottom inch or so trimmed, then chopped into ~ 1-inch or so long pieces, leaving the buds at the top intact. (But if the buds have looooong green parts coming off their tops, I chop that too.)
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• As much minced garlic as you and your family can handle (for us, that's a lot)
• 3 thin slices prosciutto (you could easily omit this for a delicious vegetarian meal)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted in your toaster oven or in your pan -- just until they start to get fragrant
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup good quality dry white wine
• EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)
• Goat cheese if you'd like it a bit creamy; omit if you don't want a creamy-type pasta
• 1 lb pasta of your choice (we always use organic whole wheat)

While your pasta is cooking, heat your EVOO in your pan on medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer -- add your shallots and let them get fragrant. Then add your prosciutto and let it cook up til it's nearly crispy. Then add your garlic and let it get fragrant and nice and yellow-ish.

Add your white wine -- you'll get a moment of divine smells from the wine hitting the hot pan. Then toss in your garlic spears, give it a stir, and let it cook a bit. If you need a bit more wine to keep the pan just a little wet, go ahead and add it.

Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, then toss with your drained pasta, as much goat cheese as you like (I use about 1/2 cup for 1 lb of pasta), pine nuts, and top with a little grated parmesan and salt and pepper.

YUM!

* Katie Kent, is that you?

Sesame-Soy Soba Noodles

I promised a delicious summer evening dinner, and boy do I have one: Sesame-Soy Soba Noodles.

Full of flavor, really easy to make, and not too hot to eat on those summer nights when it's so warm and lovely, you're still in tank tops, skirts, and flip-flops at 9:30pm as you take the dog out for a night-time constitutional.

I got the original inspiration from a quick little recipe for Sesame-Soy Broccoli from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine (one of my all-time fave magazines, as you know). Add some noodles, tofu, and scallions, and you've got a delicious complete meal.

Dena's Sesame-Soy Soba Noodles

• 1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets and stalks chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 package soba noodles
• 1/3 cup+ sesame seeds (use more if you like; hubby LOVES toasted seeds so I am very generous with these)
  
• 1 bunch scallion
• Raw firm tofu, baked and marinated tofu, or store-bought pre-marinated and baked tofu to save time
• 1/3 cup+ Toasted Sesame Oil
• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp (or more or less, depending on how spicy you like things) Sriracha Sauce

First, get the broccoli going: turn your oven to 400 and start chopping your broccoli. Spread chopped broccoli on large baking sheet with sides (my fave is my industrial-grade Chicago Jelly Roll pan), drizzle with olive oil, and toss so it's all mixed. Pop it in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Set water to boil and cook soba noodles according to package instructions. Don't overcook -- when you drain them, run them under cold water so they stop cooking. Let them sit to drain water.

Spread sesame seeds on baking sheet for oven or toaster oven sheet. Pop them in the oven or toaster oven for about 5-10 minutes, depending on how hot it is. You want them to brown and toast, but not burn -- when they start popping, remove them! They will be fragrant and so delicious-smelling.

Chop your scallions thinly at an angle -- you want a lot, so use the whole bunch, even though it seems like too much. They balance out the other flavors really nicely.

Slice your tofu into bite-size pieces.

Toss all of the above together in a large bowl, mixing well. Add the toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, and sriracha sauce, and mix again to coat everything. Give it a taste and if it needs a little more of the oil or soy sauce, go for it.

Serve in big bowls with forks, chopsticks, or whatever works for you. Enjoy! Happy Tummy, Happy Summer.

Menu Plan for the Week (belated)

So remember when I mentioned I travel to San Francisco regularly for work? Well, guess where I am this week. :-)

But I still have a menu plan -- in order to cut costs while I'm gone, I always cook up a storm of food to leave in the fridge for hubby. The trick with these menu plans is coming up with meals that make a big batch and that last for a few days in the fridge. In fact, ideally, they get better with a little age! I look for the recipes that are even better the next day after the flavors have melded a bit.

So this week, hubby's eating the following while I'm gone:

• Chili (made with turkey instead of beef)
• Quinoa Pilaf with extra veggies

What are your favorite make-ahead recipes that make great leftovers and last for a while? I'm particularly interested in any casserole recipes you might know of....