29. Fish Right Meow (spaghetti with sardines)

First: an apology for lack of food photos. When we sat down to dinner tonight I was (a) hungry and (2) unimpressed with the aesthetic value of tonight's dish, but once I started eating, I realized that even though this pasta is just something I threw together with pantry ingredients, I'll probably make it again. It takes 10 minutes to make and is cheap as hell. 

I eat sardines rarely as a quick lunch with a schmear of hot mustard or hot sauce on crackers. I knew it was healthful to eat and a pretty responsible choice as far as fish consumption goes, but I didn't know just how nutritious: they contain B vitamins, tons of vitamin D and more omega-3 fat than salmon. They're also super low in mercury and other contaminants because of their low place on the food chain. So stick that on your cracker and eat it.

Better yet, eat THIS!


Spaghetti with Sardines

Enough spaghetti for 2
1 can of sardines packed in olive oil (I removed the center spiney bone from mine)
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 dry chili pepper, crushed (sub with red chili flakes)
1 tsp capers
1 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes (Or diced, if you like tomato chunks)
lemon wedges

Boil spaghetti in salted water until al dente. To a pan on medium heat, add the olive oil from the can of sardines. Once heated, throw in garlic, pepper, pine nuts and capers. Stir until garlic and nuts are light brown. Stir in tomatoes and cook for a minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add hot spaghetti and toss. Serve with lemon wedges (next time I might add some lemon zest to the sauce).

28. Corn This Way (corn cakes)

Let's celebrate my 28th post with corn cakes! As much as I like pancakes with maple syrup and jam and cheesecake and sweetened condensed milk and chocolate and Mars bars, I usually prefer a savory breakfast. Now that I think about it, this explains my quickly taking to eating noodle soup, curries and brothy rice porridge for breakfast in Thailand. Lately, I've added a savory pancake to my repertoire.

I started with a basic pancake recipe and added corn kernels, cheese, bacon and green onions. You could experiment with these, using cornmeal for some of the flour, different cheeses and herbs, or even cutting out the bacon, cheese and onion and adding a little sugar for a simple, sweet pancake. 

1 fresh ear of corn

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of cayenne

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

2 strips cooked bacon, chopped

1 green onion, sliced

1. Cut kernels off ear of corn (or use about 3/4 cup frozen kernels).

2. Mix the things together, and fold in the other things.

3. Make them like pancakes.

TIP: I cooked these at medium heat until they were brown and crispy on either side but probably still gooey in the middle, then held them in a 350 degree oven while I did the dishes. By the time I was done and had fried two eggs, they were perfect. 

Makes six pancakes if you fit 'em three at a time in the pan. 

We had them with salsa and sour cream, but I don't think butter and maple syrup would be too weird on them. They weren't bad with crushed sour cream and cheddar potato chips, either:

27. DOUBLE FEATURE!

Here's a bonus post cause it's Sunday. And on Sunday, He said, Apply Thine Leb Food to Thine Face. Check out the spread I made the other day:

Baked Kibbe, Hummus, Tabbouleh, pita (ok, I bought this)

You all know how to make hummus so I'll not go into detail. I will say that if you can't find good pita bread, this recipe that Geoff sent me makes the meal infinitely better.

I used a lemon and a lime in the tabbouleh and it was delicious! We both had seconds. Mami tip: no fresh mint? Open a mint teabag and keep it with the bulghur wheat on the bottom of the bowl while you chop and add everything else.

I feel pretty comfortable making hummus and tabbouleh, but kibbeh isn't something I've had a lot of experience with (in fact, this is only the second time I've made it myself). The first time I followed a recipe (that I can no longer locate) and it was perfect! This time I winged it and added a couple of unusual ingredients to the filling. I thought larger chunks of onion might add tasty hits of sweetness, which it did, but it came out almost too ugly to justify. Here's how I made a little dish of it (the same 2-quart baking dish that I used for the strawberry-rhubarb crisp). I'm thinking of trying it again, substituting ground turkey for the beef.

For filling:
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lb ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp each salt, pepper, cinnamon, cumin
1 tsp pomegranate molasses

For bulghur part:
1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, chopped to preferred consistency
fine bulghur wheat (same grind as tabbouleh)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each pepper and dried mint

1 1/2 tsp butter


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking dish.
2. Brown pine nuts in a dry or olive oil-ed pan and remove. Heat olive oil and add onion and beef. Fry until brown. Add seasonings and taste to see if anything is needed.
3. Mix all other ingredients into a bowl until smooth, then add the wheat until it looks right. I don't remember how much I added -- maybe 3/4 cup?
4. Divide mixture in two, pressing one half smoothly into the greased baking dish, covering with the filling and then covering that with a thin layer of the rest of the bulghur mixture. Score the top in some kina triangley pattern, then dot with butter.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

26. Schpring has schprung (rhubarb-strawberry crisp)

Sorry I lied about bringing dessert breakfast "tomorrow," but I think this will make up for it. It's a good combination, the strawberry and rhubarb, but often a little sweet for a lover of acidity like myself. So when I found rhubarb at the market, I looked up recipes for a crisp and fiddled with the strawberry:rhubarb ratio.

This was pretty good. 

Unfortunately, even in recipes that had more strawberries (which provide a sweet counterpart to the puckery rhubarb), I thought the sugar content was way too high and there wasn't enough oat topping. Here's my recipe:

Filling:

3 cups diced rhubarb

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 tbsp flour

1/3 cup white sugar

Topping:

1 cup oats

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch allspice

1/2 cup melted butter or oil (I did half and half)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Chop fruit and add to a 2 quart baking dish. Mix in the sugar and flour.

2. In a bowl, mix together dry topping ingredients. Mix in fat fatty fat until the mixture is wet and evenly top fruit mixture with it. 

3. Bake 40-50 minutes, until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Smell the air. 

Serving suggestion: still warm, with a scoop of thick plain yogurt.

25. Who's--Havin' Sex--With the Chicken? (coq au vin)

You ever have people over for dinner and they bring a bottle of wine that tastes kinda like vinegar to you cause you have a narrow wine palate so you put it aside for cooking then forget about it then when you finally think of it again, it actually is vinegar but luckily vinegary red wine lends itself nicely to chicken braised with bacon, onions, carrots, mushrooms and herbs? That happened to me. This is the story.

The quintessential coq au vin recipe is Julia Child's. And while I'm sure the hours of prep are worth it, I also don't want to find myself eating dinner post-cannon. So I did my own thing:


1/4 lb sliced bacon
2 lbs chicken thighs and breasts, bone-in, skin-on
2 tbsp flour seasoned with a pinch of salt
1/2 lb button mushrooms, quartered
2 onions, quartered (mine were small)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon salty meat-paste (I used Better than Bouillon)
1 teaspoon tomato paste
red wine (I used most of a bottle of Malbec)
1 tsp dried thyme
parsley sprigs
3 tsp butter, divided
Salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Fry the bacon until crispy and all fat is rendered. Thick bacon would be best here. Remove to a plate.
2. Dredge each chicken piece in seasoned flour and place in the hot bacon fat, turning until brown. Remove to a plate when browned (but not cooked through).
3. Meanwhile, heat a large pot on medium-high with a teaspoon of butter and splash of oil. Add mushrooms and onions to the pot, careful not to crowd (or else they'll steam!) and brown. Add garlic and carrots and try to get some colour on them. Season with salt, thyme and parsley. Stir in flour, bouillon, tomato paste and bacon, and nestle in the chicken. Wine time! Pour it in and stir, then cover and simmer 25 minutes or more.
4. Stir in remaining 2 tsp of butter and salt more if needed. Serve with potatoes, bread or egg noodles. Or whatever. We had boiled baby potatoes and toasted french bread.

And here's the dinosaur portion:

It tastes even better the next day. Tomorrow I'll be back with dessert. Wait, I almost forgot!

24. The Mighty Garbanzo Bean (chickpea salad)

I'm here for a post equally as short as the time it takes to make this dish. It's a chickpea salad recipe I got from the celebrated blog Orangette, and one that I've enjoyed as a snack with pita chips and as a lunch side.

I also ate it with tomato-cheese toast, carrot sticks and black coffee for

breakfast one day.

The ingredients are so simple you probably have them on hand right now:

1 can of chickpeas (15 ounce; drained)

1/2 lemon, zested and juiced

2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

a good grating of hard cheese

I booted the salt from the recipe as my can was salty enough, and upped the lemon quantity and added the zest. I used parmigiano-reggiano as suggested but I think it would be equally delicious with an asiago or hard goat cheese. 

Eat this up. It's good for you.