We made Chana dal (dried chickpea stew) on Friday and then had it for leftovers on Saturday. On Friday we ate it on top of raw kale and rice with a garnish of mango salsa, cilantro, and sriracha.
Chana dal on top of raw kale and rice garnished with cilantro, mango salsa, and sriracha
On Saturday we made a mixture of leftover rice and Chana dal with kale stems and heated the whole thing together in the microwave which wilted the kale underneath. I love the color of the wilted kale and actually liked it better than the raw. It only took a minute in microwave to wilt the kale.
Chana dal/rice mixture over wilted kale with sriracha
Usually I try to place the leftovers I am going to eat on Saturday a little further away from its original day. I like Chana dal so much, though, that having it two days in a row was a bonus rather than a hardship.
This colorful plate was as good as it looks. The real stars were the mango salsa and the perfectly cooked salmon.
John brined the salmon in 1 quart of water with 2 tablespoon of salt that was stirred thoroughly to dissolve it. He sprinkled the bottom of a non-stick skillet with kosher salt and ground pepper. Next he dried the fish and put it in the pan skin side down on medium low. John cooked the salmon without moving it for 8 minutes (depends on the thickness of the fish) and then turned it over and cooked it for two minutes more. Before serving he removed the skin which slid off easily.
I made the mango salsa. It consisted of two mangoes, peeled and chopped up, the zest and juice of one lime., 1/4 chopped red onion, 1/4 cup chopped mint, and a half of a jalapeño, minced. It came out great!
John made the rice in his painstaking manner which includes a lot of steps that I never bother with. I am a put it in the pot with some salt and maybe oil, boil it for 20 minutes, and the end product is cooked rice. But John’s rice turns out great and he likes to do it so I am all okay with that.
I cooked the asparagus in a little water probably too long. I guess I thought the fish would be quicker. I added a teaspoon of butter at the end and the stalks tasted good but could have used a little texture.
In other news, yesterday was cookie making day with our daughter as baker. She is having a get-together with her friends to celebrate Christmas that everyone was home-bound for due to the pandemic. Our kitchen is awash with cookies that she gives as gifts. I can resist them when I just look at them but the aroma is too tantalizing for me to pass up. I ate too many cookies yesterday which is no good for my diet!
My kitchen table holding (l. To r.) anise cookies, spice cookies, and two bags of chocolate chip cookies (Parental units are allowed to eat the chocolate chip cookies in the small bag.)
Whole grain penne with chard, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and chickpeas
When I came across the recipe for this pasta it sounded like something we would really like. What I really did not like was the amount of oil in the recipe so I worked on slimming that down. I have a link to the original recipe with my adaptation below in case you’d like to use a lot of oil.
I like to use whole grain pasta and I have not been able to find orecchiette in that form so I went with penne. As you can see by the number of chickpeas, I used a whole can instead of a cup. It’s a little too much. Also another way to do the chickpeas would be to roast them. My chickpeas ended up not being crispy but they were tasty.
I think you can play around with this recipe. You can try different pastas, different greens, all chickpeas, no chickpeas. If you have no cherry tomatoes, I am sure canned tomatoes would work fine. This is one of those recipes where you really can make it your own!
1 bunch of Swiss chard, stemmed, leaves coarsely chopped (or any greens that you prefer)
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cut into 1/2 inch cubes
8 large basil leaves, torn
Olive oil and parmesan (optional)
Put a pot of salted water on to boil.
Spray a high-sided skillet with olive oil spray. Add chickpeas and roll them around until they are brown. Slide out and season with salt, black pepper, cumin and coriander. Wipe out pan.
Add pasta to water and cook according to package instructions.
Spray the wiped out pan with olive oil spray. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook briefly until garlic is fragrant. Add tomatoes and cook until softened, about 3 minutes.
Add chard or greens and cook stirring until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
At this point the pasta should be al dente. Reserve ½ cup pasta water and drain the pasta then add it to the vegetable mixture. Stir together adding some of the reserved pasta water to create a little sauce. Take off the heat and add the mozzarella and basil.
Divide the pasta between two bowls and sprinkle the chickpeas over top.
John cut the chicken breast into thirds longitudinally and pounded out the pieces to the same thickness. These pieces he pan-fried. I was on mashed potato and broccoli duty.
He was also in charge of the sauce. I had come up with an idea for a super easy way to make the sauce and he executed my vision perfectly. While I sauteed some mushrooms and shallot, John made a packet of McCormack chicken gravy. When the gravy thickened up (just add a cup of water and bring to a boil, boiling for one minute until thickened) he added 3 tablespoons of Marsala and boiled the mixture for a couple of minutes to let the alcohol burn off. We tasted it and decided it needed more Marsala and some acid. John put in another 3 tablespoons of Marsala and a squeeze of lemon. After another quick boil it was perfect! He added the sautéed mushrooms and shallot and, voila, our fancy sauce was ready to be ladled on to the chicken and mashed potatoes.
I imagine you could make this sauce with a jar of chicken gravy and that would be even more simple. You would still need to boil the gravy after adding the Marsala or you would end up with a boozy tasting sauce.
Spicy black bean cakes with roasted cauliflower, cabbage, and leek
This was a new recipe for us on Meatless Monday. I have adapted the recipe and added our tweaks below. John and I have never made a veggie patty before and we were pleased with how they came out. Usually veg patties have a long list of ingredients that make them seem daunting from the get-go but this recipe is less complicated.
You can use any kind of bean you want or even chickpeas for this. (I am thinking that chickpeas would be really good!) It is important to let the mixture set in the refrigerator for fifteen minutes to firm up a little. We were still a little concerned that the patties were not going to hold together because the mixture was really gloppy. By the time that they had cooked 15 minutes they were pretty firm and turned over easily.
Another plus is that you can roast vegetables at the same time because the oven is set at 425F, a good temperature for roasting vegetables. The vegetables that I used, cauliflower, leek, and cabbage were tender and nicely browned after being in the oven for half an hour.
All in all, spicy bean patties were a success. I am sure we will try making these again with a different bean in the future.
We have an ambitious week ahead of us. We are trying two new plant-based dishes. Plus we are having a party on Sunday to celebrate Memorial Day with our entire family here! It is the first time we will be getting together since the lockdown started in March, 2020. We are all healthy and vaccinated in our family and we will take some time to remember all the people the world has lost and is still losing.
When I am making a recipe for the first time I try to stick pretty close to the original recipe before putting my own spin on it. Making Saturday’s red lentil stew, I knew I would need to make at least one major change. The recipe called for 1.5 tablespoons of Berbere spice. The Berbere that we have is from Penzy’x and it is mega-hot! John and I, especially John, like spicy food but even though we reduced the Berbere to 1 teaspoon he thought we should maybe cut it back a little more next time. So start slowly adding the Berbere or else you might not be able to eat your finished dish.
Other changes we made were to add a teaspoon of cumin seed which we cooked first in the oil until it started making little popping sounds. I used half of a large onion which I think made more like a cup and a half of chopped onion. Finally we served this over raw kale greens rather than rice. The kale wilts under the heat of the lentils. I picked out the hard stems and let them cook with the lentils. Portion-size-wise I think the recipe is good for 2 rather than 4. Maybe if you are having rice with it, you can stretch it further.
I thought our dinner was good, not great. If I am using red lentils I really prefer the Afghani dal that we make. It has more depth of flavor. I think we might try this again but add some more flavor instead of just heat.
The hardest part to making this clam chowder is cleaning and cutting the leek. Leeks are notorious for trapping dirt between their leaves. I cut off the dark green parts first and then cut the leek into quarters lengthwise leaving the root intact. Then I cut it thinly crosswise.
In the recipe below you will see that I use bottled clam juice and the juice that the canned clams come in as my soup stock. There are lots of much more complicated ways to make this soup. You could use actual clams and make your own stock but this recipe works for me.
I have slimmed the recipe down a good deal. Two tablespoons of heavy cream is not much. We put in at least twice as much last night. More cream makes it so yummy!
Yesterday we met up with some old friends whom we have not seen since pre-pandemic. We went to a restaurant overlooking SF Bay and enjoyed the company and the view. From our seats we could see the Oakland Bay Bridge, the skyline of SF, and the Golden Gate Bridge.
From left, Oakland Bay Bridge, San Francisco skyline, Golden Gate Bridge
As you would imagine restaurants on the water specialize in seafood and I ordered Togarashi ahi tuna, with pickled radishes, shishito peppers, and rice. In my excitement to eat, I forgot to take a picture. But it looked something like this.
Togarashi ahi tuna (photo from good food.com.au)
It was pretty good, not great. But we were there to visit with our friends and the food was pretty secondary even for me. Everybody else had salads and an appetizer. I kind of felt choosing the tuna was a healthier selection.
Due to eating a big lunch we decided on just having our usual lunch for supper so I made myself a open-faced chicken sandwich with lettuce and a pickle with blueberries and yogurt for dessert. And I forgot to take a photo of that too!!
We will get back to our planned menu on Friday with the Rhode Island clam chowder. Instead of having leftovers for dinner on Saturday we will make the Ethiopian lentils then.
Pasta two days in a row!? It makes me so happy! This delicious dish which I like to call Lightened Up Shrimp Scampi is an example of how to take a recipe with too many calories and pare it down so it can be a weeknight dinner.
Lightened up shrimp scampi with whole grain spaghetti and broccoli
You will notice that the broccoli takes up more than a third of the plate. Smaller portion size helps to make the spaghetti manageable as well as fill you up. I included the recipe the last time we made it and you can find it here.
Omnivore 