Leftovers! Menu, Week of Jan 27

Su: left-over lemony lentil soup; bread
M: pasta with red sauce (made Sunday)
T: Beef Rogan Josh; Naan (made by frying peach-sized lumps of bread dough in ghee, 2-3 min per side)
W: Mexican Corn Chowder
R: omelet with left-over wild-mushroom ravioli filling (...still need to write up the original recipe)
F & Sa: out

flu

The last week has pretty much disappeared in a haze of Nyquil for me - I did manage to go to work for 2/3 of the work-days last week, but I'm lucky they like me there because I wasn't good for much. And I collapsed when I got home both days. So we ate a lot of leftovers and delivery; Victor also whipped up several of his go-to dishes (fried rice and omelets). Before I got sick, I did manage to make one meal, though. It's quickly become one of my favorites, mostly because (assuming you've pre-made the dough), it comes together in a snap and requires pretty minimal ingredients.

Margarita Pizza
from the wonderful new Smitten Kitchen cookbook

• ~ 1/2 C strained and pureed tomatoes (I literally strain them to get excess liquid out so it doesn't make the pizza soggy, though I'm not sure that's what she intended)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• pinch red pepper flakes
• few drops red wine vinegar
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 3/4 lb ball pizza dough (recipe follows, or use your own favorite)
• 4-5 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
• some basil leaves, torn or chopped (or use fresh oregano)

Heat your oven as high as it goes (ours goes up to 550F, which works wonderfully). Sprinkle a rimmed baking sheet (9x13) or a medium-sized pizza pan with cornmeal or spray with that cooking-spray-plus-flour stuff I'm so fond of.

Blend the tomatoes and seasonings together. Stretch the dough to cover your baking sheet/pizza pan - no worries about holes or whatever, you can always pinch them together. Spread the mostly-flat dough with tomato sauce, sprinkle with basil leaves, and arrange the cheese slices to more-or-less cover your pizza. Bake for 7-11 minutes (in my oven, it always takes the full cooking time). The cheese should be very bubbly and even a little blistered.

serves 2 generously

"Leisurely" Pizza Dough
also from the new Smitten Kitchen book; she has a "rushed" pizza dough, too, but I've never made it; instead, I make a double batch of this one and freeze the second half. The day before I want to make pizza, I move it to the fridge and then proceed with the recipe as written. The book also has directions for hand-kneading the dough.

• 1/2 C warm water
• 1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp dry yeast
• 1 1/2 C (190 g) AP flour (or a combination of AP and whole-wheat flour - I generally do about 50/50)
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt 
• little bit of olive oil

Combine water and yeast in the mixer bowl; let stand for a few minutes if that's a thing your yeast needs. Add the flour and salt and mix with the dough hook until you have a craggy mass. Reduce the speed to low and let it bang around for about 5 minutes, until it is a smooth and cohesive ball. Take the dough out and coat it with a little olive oil; then put it back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours and up to 24.

When you're ready to use it, remove from the fridge and allow to double in a warm spot (I put mine on top of the kitchen radiator).

makes about 3/4 pizza dough, enough for a medium pizza

piroshki eat you!

Saturday: piroshki!

Since Victor was the one who first introduced me to piroshki (as opposed to pierogies, which I grew up eating), it seems only fitting that he was the one to decide that we should make our own piroshki. Although Seattle has some kickin' piroshki options, we both miss St. Paul's funky-yet-awesome Russian Tea House, so this is something of a nostalgia thing for us, I guess.

Victor also was the one who ended up making them from start to finish. He combined two recipes to begin to approximate the Russian Tea House ones, which are somewhat doughy and beefy. The filling is from this recipe; the dough from this one (we were skeptical about the "sunshine sauce" and skipped it entirely).


They were delicious and made the house smell wonderful. Seattle's on track to have its warmest January ever recorded, so we didn't really need this hearty winter fare, but it was comforting nonetheless.

Raspberry Borscht

This recipe wasn't really a resounding success. Victor and I both thought it was odd, and more than a little "dessert-y." Actually, I'm pretty sure that without the onion (but including the vinegar) it would be a delicious dessert soup. With a touch more sugar, I suspect it would also make a good sorbet. It is tasty, and it was refreshing, but I doubt we'll be making it again... at least as a main course.

I also baked some bread. Because it was hot, I baked the bread in my bread machine (bless you, craigslist!). The bread machine definitely turns out more "sandwich bread" than artisan loaves, but it's easy and - most importantly right now - doesn't heat up the kitchen.

Raspberry Borscht
adapted from The New Vegetarian Epicure

• around 2 lb beets (2 bunches)
• pinch of salt
• 1 pint raspberries
• 1/4 C minced red onion
• 1/2 C lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 sugar

Cut the tops off the beets, reserving for another use if you like beet greens. Scrub them, and put them in a pot with enough water to cover by an inch or so. Throw in a pinch of salt. Simmer until tender (about 45 min for large beets; perhaps 30 min for smallish ones.)

Drain, reserving 2 C of the cooking liquid. Allow to cool. (I went ahead and cooked the beets to this point while it was still cooler early in the week, since I knew it would be blazingly hot yesterday.) Peel the beets and cut into chunks. Puree the beets and berries with the reserved cooking liquid. If you prefer a smooth soup, strain out the raspberry seeds. Add the onion, lemon juice, vinegar, and a bit of the sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Taste, and add more lemon juice, vinegar, or sugar as needed. Chill until you're ready to eat.

serves 4 as a light entree

Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Friday: soba noodles with peanut sauce

I think many people have a version of this recipe. It wins on pretty much all counts for me: a little sweet, a little salty, easy to make, contains whole grains, can be modified endlessly, plus it is good both warm and cold. The original recipe came from a magazine article; in the many many years since I first encountered it, I have altered the original recipe somewhat. I also make it slightly differently every time.

Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce

• 8 oz package soba noodles
• 8 oz package frozen sugar snap peas or a similar amount of fresh snap peas, strings removed
• 1 small red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 C chopped green onions
• 1-2 handfuls fresh herbs (basil, mint, Thai basil, or a combination of some or all of those herbs), chopped
  

For the sauce:

• 1/4 C + 2 Tbsp lemon or lime juice (or a combination of half lime & half lemon)
• 1/3 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 C creamy peanut butter

Make the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients excpet the peanut butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Whisk in the peanut butter and set aside.

Cook soba noodles as directed. Two minutes before noodles are done, add the snap peas and boil until noodles are just cooked. Drain the noodles and peas; transfer to a large serving bowl. Add bell pepper, green onions, and herbs.

Pour sauce over noodles and toss to coat them. Serve warm or cold.

serves 4

Side-Dishes for the Fourth of July

Saturday: Fourth of July Potluck

We went to a lovely Fourth of July party at a friend's house. There was an overwhelming assortment of tasty food there. We brought some quick pickles and a dried cranberry-bulgur salad.

The salad was a new one to me, but since it's got that sweet-salty thing going on, I was pretty sure it would be delicious. And it was! (I originally intended to make it with fresh cherries, but they proved to be irresistibly delicious, so I ended up making it as written, with dried cranberries.) Cooking the bulgur used up the very last of my supply of chicken stock from the freezer.

The pickles, from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites, are one of my favorite summer sides. They're fast, easy, and very refreshing. Plus they combine two of my favorite flavors - vinegar and sugar!

Cucumbers Vinaigrette
(adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites)

• 2 medium cucumbers (completely peeled if waxed; otherwise, peel in strips for a decorative variegated appearance)
• 1/4 C cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground dried mustard
• black pepper to taste

Slice the cucumbers into rounds. Combine remaining ingredients (except for pepper) in a serving bowl. Toss with the sliced cucumbers and add pepper to taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.

Make-Ahead Picnic

Monday: Barbecue Baked Beans; Grandma's Coleslaw; Cherry Brown Butter Bars

I've been on a mission to use up the, let's say, older items in my freezer. We had a 10+ hour power outage last weekend, for one thing (thankfully, we had almost nothing in the refrigerator just then), but I need to clear the space for some fresher items. And so that I can have more room for ice cream!

To that end, I made baked beans on Saturday, using my favorite lentil recipe (Barbecue Baked Lentils). I had a whole bunch of white northern beans I cooked in February, froze, and then basically forgot. So I used them instead of the lentils, and put in a bunch of bacon (8 slices or so) that needed to be used after the power outage. (It had been in the freezer, so it didn't get very warm - I just didn't want to re-freeze it after it had partially defrosted.) I baked the bacon in a 400F oven for about 20 minutes, then drained it, chopped it up, and added it when I mixed the sauce for the beans.

I also had a cabbage (an impulse purchase from the previous week's visit to the farmer's market), so I shredded it up for coleslaw. I used my grandmother's cabbage preparation method: layer the shredded cabbage with a small amount of salt in a colander; let sit in the sink for about an hour; squeeze out all the water. The key is using your hands to individually squeeze small amounts of cabbage. My grandma says this method is similar to partially cooking the cabbage - it gets out some of the "raw" taste and texture.

To the drained cabbage, add:

• a shredded carrot
• 1/4 C. vinegar diluted with about a Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp sugar
  
• 1/2 C. mayo
• pepper to taste (and salt if the salt you added to drain the cabbage isn't enough for your palate)

Finally, because we have some tart cherries, too (ah, the bounty that is the PNW!), I made smitten kitchen's Cherry Brown Butter Bars.