I am definitely getting behind with all the things involved with Christmas, like wrapping presents, planning menus, and buying food. So I am posting Thursday’s dinner which was a lightened up shrimp scampi . I got the recipe off the internet from Food Network and we followed it pretty much except we used only 2 teaspoons of oil and added some pasta water at the end. We did not bother cooking the shrimp separately but just put them in the sauce to cook. Oh, and we subbed in capers for olives. It came out really tasty and it was quick and easy to make. We will definitely make this one again.
We have really been into legumes this week with split chickpeas, chickpeas, and now lentils for dinner. Tonight was supposed to be shrimp scampi but we got an invitation to watch a Zoom choral concert earlier in the day and decided we needed a quick dinner rather than tackling something new. Lightened shrimp scampi is switched to Thursday!
Lentil stew with turkey sausage, carrots, mushrooms, and spinach
To make our dinner go faster John and I employ a kind of tag team format to prep and cooking. We take turns cutting up various components and cooking. Chop, chop, turn around and stir, chop some more, stir, turn down the heat, etc. We managed to get the stew totally underway in less than half an hour and then there was maybe an additional 15 minutes of simmering to get the lentils thoroughly cooked.
This is a perfect winter dish. You can change the vegetables to your liking, you can add pork sausage if that is what you crave, or omit the meat entirely for a vegan dish. It is warm and comforting with the additional bonus of being good for you and inexpensive!
Chicken and chickpea tagine over couscous with broccoli
Chicken and chickpea tagine is a recipe that I found on NYtimes Cooking site. If you have a subscription you can find it here. We, of course, made some changes to lower fat and sugar and to pare down several ingredients for 2-3 servings. We made ours spicier by adding canned tomatoes with jalapeños and soupier with some additional chicken stock so the couscous could have something to sop up. Fewer raisins and only 2 teaspoons of oil made sense to us as well.
Our tagine came out really good tasting! It was slightly sweet and slightly spicy and using boneless skinless chicken thighs meant that the longer, moist cooking left the chicken pieces juicy rather than dried out. We will definitely make this again and maybe substitute a piece of cod dropped in to the simmering broth for a much shorter time.
Of all the dishes I make in the Instant Pot, I like Chana dal the best. I think it would be totally makeable on the stove top too but it would take longer and would need some watching.
Split chickpea stew (Chana dal) with green beans
You can buy split chickpeas in a well equipped supermarket or in and Indian market. I usually get mine at Wal-Mart grocery. We had some rice to serve with it that John ate but I am just as happy eating the Chana dal beside a vegetable. The green beans I made were delicious. First I sautéed mushrooms and shallot in a little olive oil spray. Then I added the beans and about 1/2 cup water and cooked them with the lid on until they were crisp-tender. Lid off I added a tablespoon of faux butter and let the whole thing cook down until the beans blistered a little. Give your vegetables some love! They will repay you by tasting great.
In case you missed it in November, here is my recipe for Chana dal –
Here is the recipe that we use. The canned tomatoes with chiles lends a nice mild spiciness.
Chana Dal
1 cup Split Chickpeas
2 cups Water for soaking
2 tsp. Oil
1 tsp Cumin seeds
3/4 cup Onion diced
1/2 tbsp Ginger minced
3 cloves Garlic minced
1 can petite diced tomatoes with jalapeños (or plain)
1.5 cups Water for cooking
1 tbsp Lime juice
Optional greens
Spices
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
1/2 tsp Red Chili powder (Mirchi powder)
1 tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
Cilantro
Instructions
Soak split chickpeas in the water for soaking for 30 minutes.
Start the instant pot in sauté mode and heat oil in it. Add cumin seeds.
Once the cumin seeds start to change color, add the onions, garlic, ginger and saute for 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes and spices and stir them well. Drain split chickpeas and add along with water for cooking. Stir it all up. Set to pressure cook for 15 minutes and close the lid with vent in sealing position.
After the instant pot beeps, let the pressure release naturally. Add lime juice and give a good stir. If you are using greens (spinach, kale, etc,) stir them in now, cover the pot, and wait 5 minutes before serving.
I just noticed I got the dates wrong. The menu should read December 14-20, 2020. Since last week got messed up with my birthday, the new dinner, chicken tagine, got moved to this week along with two new takes on shrimp and salmon.
Since John always seems to get such pleasure out of making his Breakfast For Dinner omelets, I thought I would try one tonight. My filling was minced shallots, sliced cremini mushrooms and Swiss cheese. When John makes his he just plops the omelet on a plate and that is his entire dinner, not so for me.
Omelet, garden salad, and English muffin
They say you eat with your eyes first so I needed some color on my plate which I achieved with a salad. Plus I have to have my favorite food group, carbohydrates, in the form of an English muffin with some faux butter spread. You will notice that my muffin is not quite round. That is because on the WW food plan a whole English muffin is 4 points (so much!) but 7/8 of a muffin is only 3! I thought about just not eating it all but it is much safer for me if I throw that 1/8 out before I have the opportunity to reconsider!
This is a very delicious, very healthy, very orange plate of food! Our Saturday leftovers dinner plans ended up with only rice and carrots left over so we decided to make a fresh dinner by adding a couple of pieces of salmon. The real stars, though, were the Vichy carrots. I used these small carrots so they would cook quickly, I could roll them around in the glaze, and they look cool on the plate. Here is the recipe adapted from a Jody Williams via Sam Sifton at the NYTimes recipe. My recipes are always adapted for ease of use and lower amounts of sugar and oil.
Vichy-style carrots Serves 2, about 20 minutes
10 small, young carrots or sliced larger ones
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, divided
1 heaping teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small shallot, finely diced
1 sprig of thyme, leaves only
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
Put carrots in one layer in a sauté pan, season with salt and add a 1/2 tablespoon of the vinegar. Add cold water (or for more flavor, chicken stock) until it reaches halfway up the sides of the carrots. Set pan over high heat and bring liquid to a boil.
Turn heat down to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots are just cooked through, about 15 minutes. (If pan appears about to dry out while cooking, add a splash of water.)
Once carrots are cooked through, discard any excess liquid in the pan. Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon sherry vinegar to pan, along with the sugar, olive oil, shallot and thyme, and cook, rolling the carrots around in the pan, for about 2 minutes to glaze the carrots. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley.
Cracked wheat is like the bulgur you use for tabbouleh. This is a new recipe and one that we will not be making again. You are supposed to put everything in the Instant Pot and cook it for 5 minutes on high pressure. Then we were told to let the pressure come down on its own which we did not do but rather let it come down partially on its own and then release the rest of the steam. It would not have mattered if we had released the pressure right away instead. It was mush. The vegetables were mush and the cracked wheat was mush. I figure if we want some dish with those spices and vegetables we will make it with dried chickpeas or lentils. Never put vegetables that you do not want to have come out like a purée in the pressure cooker for 5 minutes. They were so sad (especially the broccoli.)
It happens. You try a new recipe and you try to learn something from it if it doesn’t work out. This time I learned never to make this recipe again!
John, who is the Jewish member of our family, always makes potato latkes on the first night of Hanukkah. He takes our electric wok out on the patio and heats up the oil and fries his potato latkes. They are so delicious. This is his super recipe –
5 medium russet potatoes (about 2.5–3 lbs total)
1/2 medium onion
1 Tbsp table salt (technically 1/2 tsp salt per potato, but we rounded up)
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp flour or matzoh meal
1 tsp baking soda
Lots of vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup olive oil for frying
kosher salt
sour cream or applesauce to serve
Important tools are an electric fryer and a food processor with coarse shredding disc.
Wash and dry potatoes; leave skin on. Shred potatoes in food processor. Shred onion in food processor.
Mix potato, onion, salt, pepper, garlic, 2 Tbsp olive oil and flour (or matzoh meal) in large bowl. Add baking soda and stir to combine.
Pour the 1/4 cup olive oil and however much vegetable oil you need in your frying vessel. Heat oil mixture to 375 degrees F. While the oil is heating, occasionally press down on the potato mixture and drain the resulting liquid into another bowl (to discard later).
Take a blob of potato mixture and press out liquid to make a 3-inch disk. Slide carefully into hot oil. Make a batch of 6. Fry until golden brown and delicious (this is an eyeball estimation), turning them occasionally in the oil to cook both sides. Remove to a rack on a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with kosher salt, then move the sheet to a 275 degree oven while you fry the rest of them.
Let oil temperature recover between batches.
This should make 3 batches of 6 latkes each. Serve with sour cream or applesauce. _________________________________________________________
As far as I am concerned sour cream as an accompaniment is the way to go. I do not understand this fascination with applesauce.
For my part I made a mess of Brussels sprouts which are cooked cut side down in some water, butter, sugar and salt. At the end when they have used up the water I add dry sherry. It gives them a nutty overtone.
Chilean sea bass with parsley tartar sauce, rice mix, and broccoli
It is back to basics today after my birthday celebration. My week has gotten entirely off the menu I had planned so I am just going to make bits and pieces from the plan and push some of the dinners to next week.
John roasted the fish in the oven and I made a loose parsley tartar sauce to go with it. The rice is a mix of long grained white rice and cauliflower rice. The broccoli I simply steamed. Although it looks like a pretty no frills kind of dinner, the Chilean sea bass is so delicious that it makes any dinner special (and easy!)
Omnivore 