Recipe 17: Chickpea Cucumber Salad

Yes, I actually cooked something here in Kabul. Friends invited us over to dinner and I volunteer to bring a dish. I can't do any proper grocery shopping (i.e. markets or stores with lots of goods and produce) but we have a couple little shops that I can access relatively easily and combined with the canned goods collection that we brought from Italy, it's not so bad. Now the bad news is that I suspect I won't make my 2010 resolution of 52 new recipes from actual sources. This chickpea salad was thrown together and loosely based on several different internet recipes but since I lacked some key ingredients, I just threw caution to the wind. It turned out pretty decent but I really could've used more spices (my Penzey's shipment is en route).

Now I'll address the food situation while I'm here. We have a cafeteria that serves three meals a day. They always have a salad bar, popcorn, sandwiches and some fruits. They also have a hot buffet with all kinds of different foods included a dedicated section to fried foods (ranch bites, buffalo chicken bites, onion rings, crummy pizza, etc). The non-fried section is hit or miss but usually not too bad. How can you really complain when you don't have to cook, anyways? The heavy foods don't really appeal to me (especially in summer) but it certainly inspires creativity. Sometimes, when there's something good and simple like grilled chicken, I'll grab an extra piece to throw on a salad the next day. There's a cafeteria for the local Afghan staff also (well, not "for" them but targeted to them) that prepares Afghan food on workdays (Sun-Thurs) for lunch. I haven't been yet but will definitely go soon since I'm eager for a change.

Chickpea Salad:
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed
4 medium tomatoes, diced
3 medium cucumbers, diced
olive oil and white wine vinaigrette dressing, to taste

Recipe 14: Rosemary Bread

One of the very important items I am bringing to Afghanistan is my new bread machine. After two years in Lagos with no cheap and decent bread options, I am determined to avoid white-bread-only options in the future. So I get a bread machine and what do I make? A white bread.

To be fair, I was about to have the movers come and had run out of whole wheat flour and other baking goodies. I also lacked the dry milk that so many of the recipes in the included Cuisinart recipe book called for (I have since found out that you can substitute with normal milk as long as you're not baking on a delayed cycle). So - rosemary bread!!!! I used fresh rosemary grown from the pot in my living room. It was fragrant and delicious. While I look forward to trying chapati and noni Afghani, it'll be nice to have a back-up in my own apartment since I won't be able to just "dash out" to the market myself.

Recipe 13: Mashed Cauliflower

Is it even fair to call something this easy to make a "recipe"? To accompany our tilapia with a breaded parmesan crust, mashed cauliflower was the perfect mixture between light and substance. I used my hand-held potato ricer so obviously the texture wasn't as smooth as in the linked recipe's photo. I imagine you could get it really creamy and smooth with an electric hand-mixer.

Recipe 12: Mac N' Cheese

Despite having blogged photos for the past month, I actually have been keeping up with my new year's resolution...kind of.

I made this mac and cheese in early March, when it was still kind of cold and rainy. Perfect antidote to the weather. I used the recipe in my trusty favorite cookbook - Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's a great cookbook, easy recipes for novice cooks with tricker add-ins for those that would like to experiment. Luckily for anyone who might want to make this macaroni and cheese, the recipe is also online here. I didn't have quite enough milk and my sauce was already pretty thick so I thinned it out with a 1/4 cup-ish of white wine. Yummy.

(Please excuse the photo, I need to take a photography class or something to help resolve my lighting issues - or maybe I should stop trying to take food photos at night in my dark dining room!)

Recipe 11: Spinach Casserole

As a gift for my bridal shower, my female relatives and family friends all wrote down one (or two) of their favorite recipes to serve as my culinary trousseau. Two years later, I'm embarassed at how few I've attempted but in some cases, why bother when I can taste that relative's own version!

This spinach casserole was for a time, the only spinach I liked. Naturally, it's filled with cheese and terribly unhealthy. I love fresh spinach now but that doesn't mean I can't be fond of this frozen spinach cheesy deliciousness. Credit to Mrs. R (mother of my best friend growing up) for the yummy recipe and making sure I wasn't too biased against spinach at the tender age of ten.

A couple other notes: I halved the recipe (and that's what's pictured above) but the full recipe is below. Also, I substituted mozzarella, fresh onions (used one) and skim cream cheese.

Spinach Casserole
2 (10 oz) boxes frozen spinach (cooked)
1 (8 oz) cream cheese
1/4 bag frozen onions (cooked)
3/4lb chedder cheese grated

Combine spinach, cream cheese, onions, and 2/3 of cheddar cheese. Place in casserole and sprinkle the rest of the cheddar on top. Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese melts.

This is one of those comfort foods that can help cheer you up when it seems like spring is just NEVER going to come!

Recipe 10: Butter Chicken (slow cooker)

Butter chicken is my favorite food when ordering Indian take-out. Unfortunately, a lot of the traditional recipes called for slabs of butter and cream. Not terribly healthy. Also unfortunate? The cost of Indian take-away here in Milano. It's easily 20-30 euro (including naan) which is way too much for me! So I was excited to try this recipe which seemed lower fat and a whole lot cheaper. Would it pass muster for anyone who really knows Indian food? Doubt it. Did it satisfy a craving (at a lower nutritional and monetary cost)? Yup - it hit the spot.

We pretty much followed the linked recipe, substituting chicken breast for thighs/drumsticks and using a little extra yogurt (2% Fage Greek) in lieu of so much cream. Obviously we also threw in some frozen green peas during the last hour.

Recipe 9: No-Knead Bread

Nothing goes with soup quite as well as fresh bread. Problem is, I'm not that great a baker. However, when I read the instructions for Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread, I was pretty sure that I could handle it.

I used my large oval dutch over (perfect size) and substituted active dry yeast for the instant yeast. If, like me, you need to make that substitution, use 1/3 teaspoon of active dry yeast instead.

This was ridiculously easy to do but probably best paced for a weekend job. So delicious - I'll definitely be making this again!

Recipe 8: Cauliflower Soup

I'm not usually a soup-eater but when I do, I crave a creamy, smooth, rich soup. Tomato, usually. But when I came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, I knew what I had to do with my homemade chicken broth and the giant head of cauliflower in my fridge.

The silky cauliflower soup lived up to it's name. It was garlicky, smooth, flavorful and creamy (despite having no cream in it). My only substitution was two shallots for an onion since that's what I had on hand. It was A-freaking-MAZING. I'm almost scared to make it again since I'll almost certainly use store-bought broth the next time and don't want to be disappointed. We'll see if it holds out. It went great with my little bread-making experiment....

Recipe 7: Chicken Stock

After last weekend's stop at my nearby market, I decided to make the most of my roast chicken and try my hand at chicken stock for the first time. I knew before starting that I didn't have the four pounds of carcass that most recipes called for so I substituted the missing chicken with two pounds of veggies. In general, I worked off the chicken and vegetable broth recipes found in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.


In my large oval dutch oven, I heated up a drizzle of olive oil. As it got warm, I chopped and started throwing vegetables on top. A half dozen ribs of celery, five big carrots (cleaned but not peeled), four shallots, three cloves of garlic, and the white part of a leek. I then added eight cups of water and the chickens (with some meat still on the bone). I worked slowly since I didn't want to fill the pan too much but realized quickly that I could add the remaining eight cups of water. I snipped some rosemary off my plant and generous shook in some pepper, herbes de provence, salt, and coriander. From everything I've read, broth is pretty forgiving so you can pretty much use whatever hearty vegetables and savory spices that you'd like!


Bring to a boil and then lower the flame so that it simmers for 2-3 hours. I used a pasta strainer at first and then went through multiple cycles with a small mesh strainer. Refrigerate and check multiple times to skim fat off the top. Now, I'm getting ready to use the 7 cups that cooking yielded in some homemade soup! Recipe for that coming tomorrow!

Recipe 6: Steel Cut Oatmeal Cookies

My husband had a hankering for oatmeal cookies but all we had in the house were steel cut oats. For those who haven't eaten steel cut oats, they're basically the less-processed sibling of traditional oatmeal. They're lower on the glycemic index and while they take much longer to cook, the taste is much more substantial.

So anyways, back to the cookies. There aren't a lot of recipes for cookies using steel cut oats. They're tough little oaties and need cooking to soften them up. However, I found one recipe that I was able to manipulate a bit. The comments on the recipes posting indicated that it was a little to tough, unsweet, and crunchy for some so I'm just going to put my revised recipe below. They're only a little bit sweet and definitely still crunchy but still pretty good. Probably the perfect biscuit to go with a cup of tea on a snowy day - I hear there have been some of those lately on the east coast.

What you need:

• 1 cup Splenda
  
• 1 cup eggbeaters (OR 4 eggs)
• 2 cups applesauce
  
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 3 cups Steel cut Oats
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 4 heaping tsp. cinnamon (I ran out and used 1 tsp cinnamon, 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
  
• 2 cups raisins
• 1/3 bar of dark chocolate, chopped

How to put it together:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

1. Mix applesauce, eggbeaters, vanilla and sugar together in bowl to dissolve sugar.
2. Add dry ingredients. Stir in raisins.
3. Drop by spoonfuls on non-stick or sprayed cookie sheets
4. Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees.
5. Delicious while still warm but cool and store.
   

Recipe 5: Beef Stroganoff

Winter is the time for comfort food and what better comfort is there then a bowl of beef stroganoff? I used a Cooking Light recipe to make it tasty and not-too-unhealthy. Paula Deen's recipe called for sour cream AND cream of mushroom soup!

I stuck to the recipe and it turned out pretty delicious. The only sour cream I had was defrosted so it didn't stir and thicken as well as it was supposed to but there was no difference in taste. Next time, I might swap in some yogurt for part of the sour cream to ensure a thicker sauce.

Recipe 4: Asparagus, Mint, and Lemon Risotto

My first new Italian recipe for the year actually comes from an Englishman and was cooked in Athens, Georgia. While visiting friends, we spent an evening in to cook risotto. The recipe came from the Jamie Oliver cookbook but I found it online here as well.

Verdict? Delicious. Of course we didn't follow Jamie's recipe precisely. He calls for basically cooking the whole risotto in advance but we started the "mixing" process a bit earlier and added some extra white wine. My friends had some homemade vegetable broth in their freezer that was fabulous. Also, Jamie calls for "a bunch" of mint. Our bunch probably wasn't big enough so I'd add more next time but the lemon and Parmesan was molto deliciouso in the creamy risotto.

Recipe 2: Turkey Stew

With 3.5 months left to go here in Milan, I'm diligently trying to clean out my freezer and pantry. That means my carefully homemade broths need to go. I put my turkey broth to good use in this stew but didn't have any actual turkey left so I used chicken instead.

Why did I choose this recipe? Two main reasons: 1. I still had my slow-cooker out from the Char Siu and 2. I wanted to use my broth.

The verdict? Meh. I'm not a real soup-eater and it was more soup than stew. Plus, I just didn't think the flavors melded together very well. I got the recipe from the Crockpot 365 blog again and just subbed two cooked chicken breasts for turkey. Mark liked it (he is a soup-eater though) but I probably won't make this again.

Recipe 1: Char Siu Beef

My New Year's resolution for 2010 is to cook one new recipe a week, all year. This means no falling back on old favorites, no easy (and random) stir-frys - all new stuff, baby. There will be some weeks where I can't cook anything at all (i.e. vacations, etc) so I'm going with averages and will be satisfied with 52 new recipes this year.

I'll pull my recipes from family, friends, cookbooks, and blogs. I may make some minor changes but the plan is to stick mainly to the written plan. This will be tough when I'm in Kabul but I plan on making it work. I'll link to recipes I find online and copy down (and cite) recipes found off-line.

The first recipe for 2010 is Slow Cooker Char Siu beef. A Chinese BBQ dish, the recipe was lifted from CookingLight.com but originally found on the Crockpot365 blog. I served it on brown rice with steamed edamame on the side. It was a little sweet for me - I'd probably add some Sriracha near the last hour or two of cooking next time. Overall though, it was pretty tasty and I got the husband's seal of approval. For those looking to make it, I mostly following the Crockpot365 recipe linked to above but threw in some ginger (just a couple shakes of the powdered kind) and a drizzle of sesame oil. I didn't marinate and used frozen meat - I think it turned out fine. The Cooking Light version calls for a separately cooked sauce but we just took a few spoonfuls of the cooking liquid and thought it was great. Very easy to throw together with pantry staples and a delicious winter meal.

Green Monster

Late last night, it occurred to me that I've owed a blog posting for awhile. Haven't done anything very interesting since our trip to the States last month but have a few things on the radar coming up.

In the meantime, I've mentioned a late night. There may have been alcohol involved. So what's the best way to perk yourself up in the morning (besides a cup of coffee)? My new favorite breakfast is the Green Monster smoothie. I originally was inspired by the recipe on the Oh She Glows blog but have since developed my own fool-proof favorite. Not only a hangover helper, this makes a great breakfast treat.

It may not look appetizing but it's chock full of goodness and my version tastes just like strawberries and bananas. So how to make it?

First, Freeze a peeled banana & strawberries. I use pre-frozen strawberries. Next, half a banana and 5 strawberries go into blender with a serving of plain yogurt (sugar and fat free). Blend. I then throw in about 2 teaspoons of flaxseed meal (or just go ahead and use flaxseeds). Flaxseed is rich in Omega-3s and doesn't impact the flavor of the smoothie. Add your own favorite nutritional supplement instead. I've tried a spoonful of peanut butter since I read that on the original blog but didn't like the taste.

Last but not least come the final two ingredients. A HUGE handful of washed and picked-through spinach (I tear the thick stems off) and a splash of milk to thin out the smoothie. You may be turned off by the spinach (and the green color it provides) but I swear you can't taste it.

Just enough fruits and veggies to make you feel virtuous after a long night of partying!

When life hands you peanuts...

Um, make peanut butter?

In any event, that's what I did this past week and it was so delicious and easy that I just had to share. Most commercial peanut butters are loaded with sugar and preservatives - plus they're pretty hard to find here in Italy. And natural based peanut butter? I'm sure I could track it down somewhere but I'd hate to see the price tag. So I had some celery sticks and was craving PB on top. After checking out some recipes on the internet, I put a simple combination together that made it really easy.


2 cups peanuts (plain or salted)
4 tsp canola oil

Put the peanuts in your food processor and drizzle the oil on top. Process until you have the desired consistency. I like it a little crunchy so it only took me about 4-5 minutes. If you used plain peanuts, taste and add salt if necessary. Then, you can just put it in some tupperware and store in the fridge! Delicious and way better than Skippy or Jiff.

Next stop for me is almond butter, following the same instructions as above.