Bok Choy

Ok I have to admit I was not excited to try another new vegetable after the beet incident. But after doing some research I figured I’d give the bok choy a shot. Bok Choy (also called Chinese cabbage) is often served steamed or stir fried. I can also be chopped and mixed in with salad greens or cole slaw for a slightly tangier flavor.
My head of bok choy had wilted a bit since last Wednesday when I picked it up because my refrigerator is turned up too cold and the leaves that where not completely in the Ziploc bag froze a bit. So starting out I was worried. I really thought this was going to be disaster number two. But then I thought about how often I use frozen vegetables in stir fry and thought “what the hell I’ll give it a shot”. So here’s my recipe

1 head bok choy (including stems) – chopped
½ sweet onion – chopped
1 green bell pepper – chopped
3 chicken breasts – cubed
½ c vegetable oil
½ c soy sauce
2 tbs honey
3 tbs red wine vinegar
½ tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

Sweat the onion in a pan large enough for all your ingredients. As the onion is sweating start the chicken. Add ¼ c oil (enough to cover the bottom of another skillet. Cook the chicken through. Add ¼ c oil to the onions. Add the peppers once to the onions when the onions are soft but not limp. Add the chopped bok choy to the onions and peppers (you should have 2 pans on the stove, one with chicken and one with vegetables). Turn vegetables over so the hot peppers and onions are on top and the bok choy is on the bottom. Cover and let steam until tender stirring occasionally.
While all that is going on mix your sauce. Add the honey, soy, red wine vinegar and pepper to a bowl and mix.
When the bok choy and chicken are both cooked through add the chicken to the bok choy and stir to combine. Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables and mix to coat.

** I’m not exactly sure on the measurements of the sauce. I eyeballed it as usual, sorry! It’s worth tasting it to make sure it’s not to sour, sweet, salty or spicy.

Now! (We all used to stand at attention when my Mom would say that because she wanted us to do something, usually cleaning) Plate and serve. I used a really neat oblong deep serving dish.
I served this with rice made with chicken stock and a little bit of soy sauce instead of water.

I found the boy choy to be a nice hearty green with a solid crunch even when cooked; the stems are like biting into a stem of celery without the stringy woody texture. It however tastes nothing like celery; it’s more like normal cabbage. I can see this being good in a salad with baby corn, cucumbers, oranges, and bean sprouts or bamboo shoots. Throw a little Asian vinaigrette on it and that sounds like a pretty good lunch to me! I’d probably add some protein too, maybe a lime chicken or shrimp.

Verdict: I’ll buy bok choy. And it got the thumbs up from the man of the house! I think he was a little concerned when I said “I’m just making this one up” about the recipe. But I’m learning. Balance is the key. Balance salty (soy), sour(red wine vinegar), and spicy(red pepper) with sweet (honey). And don’t add too much, too many ingredients, too much sweet or salty. I’m also learning not to over spice. I tend to add too many different ingredients and make the flavor profile too complex so you miss out on the beautiful simplicity of a sauce.

One more note: If you’re going to buy bok choy before the day you need it (as most of us in the States do) put the whole head, or as much as you can fit, in a Ziploc bag with a moist paper towel at the bottom. This will keep the bok choy fresh for about a week in the refrigerator. Just be careful if your refrigerator is too cold like mine. You might want to put it in the vegetable compartment if you have one.

**Special Thanks to Don and Lois for the awesome serving dish.

Awesome... Just awesome

I read an article last week that I really need to share. As you know I love to garden so this article caught my eye from the beginning.
Basically this woman started a garden and before long her husband lost his job and they were able to make ends meet by growing their own vegetables. And now she's started a foundation called Dinner Garden to get seeds to families who are in need and are willing to grow their own food. I'm going to try to get in touch with them and see what I can do to help. How could I not? I love food, I love to garden, and I feel that it's really important to help when you can in whatever way you can. I know I won't be a "big donor" or on anyone's special list for giving but that's not what it's about. There are people who aren't able to feed themselves and their families and if I can lend a hand I'm all for it. And if they need help and questions answered on how to cook something they've grown or how to grow seeds that they've received through the program I'm all in!

How wonderful to be encouraged to be self sufficient and healthy. Plus it's another reason to get your hands dirty!

Pot Roast!!

I am in love with pot roast. It is so easy and so good. How can you go wrong?? Saturday night (too late for dinner but we’d already eaten dinner so no loss) I started with 3 ½ lbs of beef eye round. This is a very lean cut of meat so I decided to roast it covered with some juices to help it along.
Pre heat your oven to 325 degrees. Add oil to a 4 to 6 qt stock pot, enough to cover the bottom. With the heat on your burner up to medium brown the roast on all side. My only problem was that I didn’t brown the meat as much as I should have. That didn’t matter too much for the taste but it would have looked better.
After you brown the meat drain off the oil and fat. Add Worcestershire sauce, oregano and ¾ cup of water to your pot. Cover and roast for 1 hour.
For vegetables you’ll need:
1 lb carrots --> peeled and cut into 1 inch slices
4 medium potatoes --> peeled and cut in quarters or eights
2 medium onions --> cut into slices
2 celery ribs --> cut into 1 inch slices
All your vegetables should be about the same size.
After cooking your roast for 1 hour add all the vegetables and cook at 325 for another 45 minutes to an hour. Your roast will be done when the internal temp is about 160 and your vegetables are fork tender (You don’t have to try hard to push the fork in).
Because I finished at midnight. I wrapped up the meat in tin foil and put the vegetables in a Corningware oven safe dish and put them both in the refrigerator for the night. I also drained the juices left in the pot into a gravy strainer and refrigerated that.
Sunday I sliced up the roast and made gravy with the juices and ¼ cup of flour and ½ cup of cold water (whisk them together before adding to the pot juices). Heat on medium until the gravy is thick and bubbly. Cook for 1 more minute. Tadaa! You have super fast and easy gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Because I started with a 3 ½ lbs roast and there are only 2 of us here we now have sliced pot roast for lunch this week!
I experienced a first today. I had someone drooling over my lunch. Pot roast sandwich and vegetables are even better than I thought! It was “better than [his] peanut butter sandwich”. Why yes you’re right… my pot roast sandwich is much better than your peanut butter sandwich. And my vegetables taste as good if not better than they smell.

Special thanks to: Julie and Jason for the gravy separator (awesomely helpful if you’re making gravy, surprising given the name right??)

Off- Beet

I’ve had my first failure as a new wife and it reaffirmed my childhood dislike of beets. They really are not very good. Plus they stain everything. The only reason my finger tips aren’t red is because I held the stupid things with a plastic bag over my hand, a lesson I learned while cutting jalapeños (capsaicin doesn’t feel good in your eyes and I have a bad habit of touching my eyes).
You may be asking why I tried making beets even though I thought I didn’t like them. Well they were part of my food share package last week and I thought I’d give them a try. The whole reason I did the food share was to try vegetables I don’t usually eat.
I am assuming there has to be some redeeming quality about beets that makes people want to eat them. All I’ve found are vague claims of anti-oxidant power and anti-inflammatory and my favorite “detoxification”. What does that mean? How is it supposed to detoxify your body? The only “detox” methods I’ve ever heard of do about the same for your system as Draino does for your sink.

Recipe: (not recommended)
1 bunch red beets including greens
2 cloves garlic
1/3 c oil
1 lb pasta
Parmigianino or ricotta selata

Bake the beets in a 475 degree oven for 50 to 70 minutes, until tender, let them cool. Remove the stems and hard center veins of the beet greens. Blanch in boiling water until tender (about 5 minutes). Remove from hot water and chill in iced water, when the greens are cool drain and chop, set aside. Cook the pasta according to the box instructions and set aside.
When the beets are cool peal and chop them.
Add garlic and oil to a large skillet (large enough to hole all the pasta plus beets and greens). Cook until the garlic becomes fragrant and starts to brown, but not burn. Ad the beets and beet greens. Cook until warmed through. Add the pasta and stir until the pasta is evenly red. Add the cheese and stir.

So here’s what I think went wrong, beets are nasty and I didn’t have cheese to mask the crappy flavor. But at least I didn’t waste good parm on a crappy dish. Unfortunately I have a whole big thing of beet pasta. While the beets were soft and juicy they tasted as though they should be gritty. They had a distinct sandy/clay flavor that I could not get over. If I were to make this again I would not add the beets, just the beet greens, so you would get something like pasta with spinach and cheese. (Which sounds really good right now).

Hardware: I used a new pot and a new knife! The 8 qt Calphalon stock pot is great for pasta and blanching greens. Plus it’s pretty!! I love stainless steel. It’s so much easier to clean because you can scrub the daylights out of it and it still looks pretty and functions properly.

My new knife is a Wusthof 8 inch chef’s knife. It’s a thing of beauty. It is well balanced and light. It is a German style knife which means that the blade is a little thicker than a Japanese knife and the bevel is a little more shallow. The curve of the blade is also different. The German style knife is easier to push away from the body using the heel of your hand for most of the power (good for pushing through tough vegetables like potatoes or carrots).Starting with the tip of the knife in a potato and the blade about 45 to 55 degrees from the board push the knife down and away and see how nicely your knife glides though that though root.

Special thanks to: Bill and Libby for the Calphalon and Ryan for my knife (he's a very trusting husband, he gave me a knife as a gift!)

Omelet Pans

So today I learned that my Staub 10' cast iron pan is not a good omelet pan. My omelet stuck and became scrambled eggs. They were tasty scrambled eggs but not quite what I intended. I made two omelets with tomatoes, candy red onions, and mushrooms. When making an omelet go with an actual omelet pan.

First we’ll talk food:

Candy red onions are amazing. I have a new favorite onion. I used to love Vidalia onions because they are nice and sweet when you cook them down. The candy red onions taste great whether they are cooked or raw. They live up to their name. I threw them in a salad last week with butter lettuce, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and gouda cheese. Topped off with a nice balsamic vinaigrette, awesome.

Next we’ll talk tools:

The Staub cast iron skillet is just that, it’s an awesome skillet. We sautéed peppers and onion to the perfect tenderness to match with sweet and spicy sausages Amaroso rolls. Happy dinner! The reason for this is the even heating of the heavy pan. This does not help in making an omelet though. The cast iron pan does not have a smooth enough surface to release the egg when it is cooked. A good omelet pan is one that is small (8 to 10 inches, I personally like the 8 inch for a 2 egg omelet) with a smooth bottom. I’m currently using one that has a Teflon coating however I will be getting an uncoated pan. I will get back to you about which I prefer.

Special thanks to Alan and Renee for the Staub frying pan.