melting your mouth

I know you’re all thrilled to hear we are back in town and finally getting to do some cooking again! The food on our RAAM trip was actually pretty good thanks to the hard work of Anne, our resident chef, but it still feels good to get back in the kitchen.

I’ll readily admit that this is not the most photogenic side dish in the world — but it sure is delicious. Matt and I bought The South Beach Diet Cookbook several months ago, with a plan to try to eat along those lines. The diet didn’t last long — instead we decided to start a food blog! But, we have enjoyed a few recipes out of the cookbook, particularly this one for edamame, which we make all the time. It goes well with stir fry, as in the picture, but it’s often just a go-to vegetable side dish for us, since we can keep everything on hand. It is definitely quick, easy and healthy, and it’s surprisingly delicious, especially considering how little there is to it. I urge you to give it a try!

Sesame Edamame

adapted from The South Beach Diet Cookbook

12 oz frozen shelled edamame
1 T light soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 1/2 t sesame oil
Dash of hot pepper sauce (we use either Tabasco or Crystal, depending on how spicy we want it)

Combine edamame, soy sauce, and water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce to low and simmer for about 12 minutes, until tender. Continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated and the beans get a little bit shriveled-y and caramelized. (I think it’s best if they seem to almost be getting dried up. They seem to have more flavor that way.) Stir in the sesame oil and hot pepper sauce.

This recipe comes from my grandmother Pat, my dad’s mom. I think of these marinated carrots as one of her specialties. They’re great because they don’t take too long to make, and they will keep for a couple weeks in the fridge. Pat always seems to keep them on hand, and they often appear as a side dish at lunchtime. I especially think of eating them at my grandparents’ house in Blowing Rock, NC, so they remind me of summer. The perfect accompaniment to a Memorial Day hot dog to kick off the start of the season!

Marinated Carrots

I keep these in a jar in the fridge, just like my grandmother. But we don’t actually preserve them or anything, so they do need to be refrigerated. They’ll keep for a couple weeks.

2 lbs sliced carrots
1 onion sliced thin
1 c chopped celery
1 can tomato soup
1 t prepared mustard
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 c sugar
1/2 c salad oil
3/4 c vinegar
salt and pepper

Boil carrots until almost done but they still have a nice crunch (less than 5 minutes). Drain and cool. Mix in onion and celery.

Combine remaining ingredients and pour over carrot mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate at least 12 hours. Drain to serve.

Heidi at 101cookbooks recently made this beautiful spring tabbouleh, which Matt and I copied the other night. We changed it up a little — Heidi had used mostly chives instead of the traditional parsley, but I love parsley, so I decided to use it instead. Also, we have this crazy jungle of mint growing outside our kitchen window, and it needs to be tamed a bit, so we we chopped up some of that to add to the mix as well. We also replaced the walnuts with pine nuts.

I had never tried bulgur before, but I keep thinking I should branch out and try different whole grains, so here’s a first step in that direction. This was a wonderful, quick, healthy but fulfilling one dish meal — the perfect thing when we got home from the gym Tuesday night. And so pretty, too!

Spring Tabbouleh

adapted from Heidi Swanson

1 cup fine bulgur
1 bunch of asparagus, cut in 1″ pieces

1 garlic clove, crushed with a couple pinches of salt
1 lemon
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil

1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
handful of mint, finely chopped
handful of chives, finely chopped

1 c of pine nuts, toasted
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped

Boil some water (~4 c or so). Put the bulgur in a medium bowl and pour water up to the top of the grains. Let sit until just tender (Heidi says 15 minutes, but it took a little longer before it was tender enough for my taste).

Return the water to the stove, salt it, add the asparagus, and blanch for about a minute, just enough to take the edge off their bite. Or, do what I did, and put the asparagus in a microwave safe dish, pour the water over them, cover them, and microwave for about a minute.

Once the bulgur is done, press out any remaining water and add the asparagus to the bulgur.

Meanwhile, whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Taste the dressing, and season more as necessary.

Add the herbs, half the pine nuts, and a generous splash of dressing. Toss, add more dressing as needed, and adjust the seasoning. (I ended up using not quite all the dressing, and adding a bit more olive oil.) Garnish with remaining nuts and chopped egg.

Sorry for the long hiatus, but the quarter is finally over and I should have a chance to blog a bit at least for the next couple weeks when things get geared up again. Everything has been so busy I’ve hardly even been cooking, much less taking pictures and writing something up. Matt’s been taking care of me very generously though, so I have been fed some pretty good meals in between working problem sets, exams, and grading. But I’m looking forward to getting back in the kitchen!

Here’s an easy side dish that always seems to impress despite its simplicity. We learned this from a friend when we were studying abroad in France a few years ago. I don’t have a real recipe and I always change it around a bit, but here’s the gist of it.

Stuffed Tomatoes

• small, round tomatoes, one for every two servings
• coarse breadcrumbs, preferably homemade, ~1/2 c per tomato
• fresh Parmigiano-Regianno, grated, a few tablespoons per tomato
• fresh chopped herbs, a tablespoon or so per tomato (rosemary, parsley, thyme, etc. … I use whatever I have on hand)
• minced garlic, about a clove per tomato
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut tomatoes in half. Place cut side up on a baking sheet. (You may need to cut a little bit off the rounded side so they will sit flat.) In a bowl, mix together breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add enough olive oil so the filling can be barely held together when squished. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes. Mound the filling on top of each tomato half. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes or so, until the top is a little browned and the tomatoes are cooked through.

Pictures to come next week, when I return from a trip to Long Beach. But this is so good, I didn’t think you should be without the recipe for any longer than absolutely necessary.

I have only a vague recollection of having brussel sprouts once before a few months ago. I don’t really remember having a strong opinion one way or another the first time I had them. So I didn’t grow up hating them the way I hear some people do, but they were just sort of off my radar. Then my parents went and took a fancy cooking class down in Wastonville, and since then, both Mom and I have been making brussel sprouts left and right. I think Matt and I have eaten them as a side dish at least twice this week. (And no, the second one wasn’t leftovers. There are never any leftovers.)

So as I was saying, I don’t know whether I like brussel sprouts ordinarily on their own or not, but I sure love them this way. This recipe is delicious, and except for being doused in olive oil, pancetta, sugar, and chicken broth, they’re pretty good for me, right?

They take a bit of time to cook, but don’t be tempted to pull them out too soon, no matter how hungry you might be, as the best part of these sprouts are the golden browned caramelized edges. Oh, and the crisped up pancetta. That’s pretty delicious too.

Yet another recipe adapted from my mom and dad’s class at Mugnaini Imports. I’m telling you, these folks are real winners.

Ingredients:

6-8 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Sugar
1/2 c chicken broth
6-8 slices of pancetta
A few handfuls of brussel sprouts, cleaned

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Drizzle olive oil generously over the garlic in a jelly roll pan. Roast in a low oven until barely golden, 10-15 minutes. (But check them often, you don’t want them to get too brown.) Sprinkle with sugar and add chicken broth. Cook for another few minutes. Take this out of the pan and mash up the garlic into the broth. If the garlic gets too brown or cooks too quickly so that it won’t really mash, no worries. Just stick it in the food processor or blender (or chop the cloves up by hand.) Set aside. Turn the oven up to about 400 F.

Meanwhile, parboil the brussel sprouts: add just enough salted water to cover (though you won’t really be able to cover since they float). Turn on the heat and boil for 5-10 minutes, until barely tender. (You should be able to stick a fork in them, but when you do you should still feel reasonably firm resistance.) Drain the brussel sprouts and set them aside until cool enough to handle.

Chop the pancetta. Brown it in the oven for a few minutes in the jelly roll pan.

Meanwhile, cut each brussel sprout in half along the same axis as the stem. When the pancetta is slightly browned (it doesn’t have to be completely done), mix the broth/garlic mixture, pancetta, and brussel sprouts. Cook in the 400 F oven about 15-20 minutes, stirring every five minutes or so, until the sprouts are nicely browned and the edges caramelized a bit.

Eat as soon as possible, as they are best when they’re hot. Though they are still good room temperature too. These are just delicious all around.