A Chilly, Wet Evening...

Warm and filling seemed a good choice. I made a big pot of Iranian bean-and-noodle soup. A thick pot of white beans and egg noodles, onions, turnips and Swiss chard, flavored with fresh scallions, cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, and tarragon, along with a little turmeric. A little yogurt, at the end, to add a little creaminess. It was just what was called for on a night like this. The tarragon was a substitution for fresh dill, and it seemed a good choice, as the Iranians use an anise-flavored basil.

Pasta with Seasoned Butter...

The "simple" theme is still in place. Tonight, we had a simple dish of pasta, cheese mini-ravioli, tossed in a seasoned butter sauce and topped with a little more grated Parmesan cheese...

PASTA WITH SEASONED BUTTER

1 pound pasta, cooked according to package directions
Seasoned Butter Sauce -

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 small shallots, peeled and minced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• A pinch of dried sweet basil
• A pinch of cayenne pepper
• Salt, to taste
• A spoonful of the water from cooking the pasta

Grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. About 8-10 minutes before the pasta has finished cooking, melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the extra-virgin olive oil.
3. When the butter and oil are hot, add the minced shallots and garlic, sage, black pepper, sweet basil, and cayenne pepper and stir, to mix well. Begin sauteing everything, stirring periodically. Reduce the heat to medium-low if the shallots and garlic are browning to quickly.
4. When the pasta is finished, add a spoon of the cooking water to the sauce and stir well.
5. Drain the pasta well and add to the seasoned butter. Toss thoroughly and serve, topping individual servings with the grated parmesan cheese. Makes 4-8 servings, depending on appetites.

Cooking Dinner (KISS Method)...

Gina's not feeling well, but neither am I, so dinner needed to be something simple. Here's what I came up with. I listed the onion as optional because I forgot to cut it up and put it in the stew...lol. Thing is...we didn't miss it. Include it if you want, but it was still super-flavorful and savory without it.

EASY SOUTHWESTERN-STYLE BEEF AND HOMINY STEW

1½-2 pounds beef round steak, thinly sliced across the grain
8 cups canned, drained hominy
1 27-ounce can mild green chilies, chopped
2 14.5-ounce cans petite diced tomatoes
1 large onion, peeled and chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 cups beef stock
1 cup dry red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Grated Cheddar, Monterey jack, or jalapeno jack cheese, for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a large pot or Dutch oven, mix well, and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until the meat is tender, 45-60 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Garnish individual bowls of stew with grated cheese. Serve with hot, buttered flour tortillas.

Easy Creamy Thai Pumpkin & Coconut Milk Soup...

I'm sick and Gina's ankle's been hurting pretty badly. Yes, we're a fine pair right now...lol. So meals have been SIMPLE. Today is drizzly and gray, a day for soup. And between the two of us, we put together this soup, made mostly from cans, some of the sweet soy sauce and curry pastes I've always got hanging around, and some basics...onions, garlic, ginger, etc. Its quite yummy, not very traditional (from what I can tell...most Thai recipes leave the pumpkin in cubes), and we're serving it with toasted bagels...but it'll hit the spot. Good, comforting, and quick.

EASY CREAMY THAI PUMPKIN AND COCONUT SOUP


2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, peeled and minced
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 1-inch piece of fresh or frozen ginger root, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons Mussaman curry paste
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar
6 kaffir lime leaves
1 30-ounce can pumpkin
1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sriracha hot sauce, to taste

• Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or other large pan over medium heat.
• Add the minced onions and garlic, grated ginger, and curry paste to the pan.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the mixture becomes aromatic.
• Add the stock, sweet soy sauce, sugar, and lime leaves to the pot. Bring to a boil.
• Add the pumpkin and stir until fully integrated. Return to the boil, reduce heat to low and let simmer 10-15 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk and stir to mix. Bring nearly to the boil.
• Season to taste with salt, freshly ground black pepper and hot sauce. Serve.

Makes 6 good-sized servings.

Satiated...

I love good gyros, schwarma and doner kebab, but reproducing them at home...well, that's another story. Gina was wanting some meat today, and when I dropped by the grocery store, there were a couple packages of very thinly sliced beef top round on sale (30% off). I snatched them up. I coated the meat with my Turkish-style baharat, and marinated it in a simple mix of vegetable oil, onion, garlic and a little salt, that I put through the food processor 'til it was almost liquified. Sadly, it was too late in the day to cook the meat on the grill (I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for grilling in the dark), but it cooked quickly and well in the electric skillet, with just a little bit of oil. We ate the meat in pita bread, with shredded cabbage, and a sauce I made from labnah (a tasty, sour Arab cream cheese, made from yogurt), tahini, garlic, cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, and some spices. The sauce was tasty to begin with, but really made the sandwiches pop. We are very pleasantly full...dinner was sooo good!...and we have enough left over for another meal.

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year...

I shot my wife several options for tonight's dinner. She picked out the one that sounded best: tangerine beef. We used to get tangerine beef at a restaurant in Agua Fria, back when we lived in the San Bernardino Mountains. Orange chicken has always paled in comparison. Very thinly sliced, tender beef stir-fried (no crunchy batter here) in a not-too sweet sauce redolent of tangerines and a bit spicy with chilies. I found a recipe we thought looks good. I'll also fix some green beans stir-fried in a soy sauce-, garlic- and sesame-based sauce, and some sticky rice. Should be good.

Beef Rendang...

When it comes to their cooking, the Minangkabau of Sumatra are known for a dish called Rendang. I cooked up a batch tonight. Chunks of beef cooked for hours with coconut milk, a spice paste (made from shallots, garlic, fresh galangal, ginger and turmeric, dried Ancho and New Mexico chilies, toasted coconut and spices - nutmeg, coriander, cumin, black pepper and allspice), lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, daun salam leaves, and cinnamon sticks, until the sauce has almost completely evaporated, leaving a thick and luscious coating on the tender cubes of meat.

To accompany it, I cooked up some rice and made a batch of salad, acar. Shredded cabbage, carrots, cucumber, and onions tossed with a simple dressing of vinegar, water, sugar, salt and fresh ginger. Very tasty stuff.

Necessity is the Mother...

...of invention. Its one of those weeks where we are poverty-stricken a couple or three days before payday and we are having to work with what we've got in the cupboards and fridge. So...

I made a lovely red salsa this afternoon...tomatoes, onions, garlic, some of the juice from a partial can of chiles chipotle en adobo and some additional smoked paprika, red wine vinegar, and some of my homemade chile powder. We were out of hot sauce, which is a veritable crisis in our household.

I've got enough dough proofing to make (according to the recipe) about thirty homemade flour tortillas. Running out of tortillas is BAD around here...and homemade really are so much better than storebought. And we have a big batch of my homemade beans. With the tortillas, life will be good.

Some oven-baked steak fries tossed in olive oil and a simple rub of mine are finishing in the oven right now. We're going to top 'em with some cheddar cheese.

We often do some of our best cooking just before payday. Lol...

A Need to Simplify...

I started out with good intentions opening multiple blogs: My Den (for personal stuff, humor, etc), Kitchen (cooking, obviously), Garden (plants, obvious again), Training Hall (for my martial arts practice), and one for my interest in political, social, economic and environmental issues.

The first one to fold was the last one I listed. I absorbed it several months ago into The Sun Bear's Den. Since then, I opened another blog with Jonty Kershaw entitled Footsteps Along the Jade Road. In concert with my increased martial activity and the waning of the growing season, my blog, The Sun Bear's Garden, has been sitting idle. Its just too many blogs, so I am going to absorb it into my Kitchen and Den blogs: issues of growing food going to the Kitchen, other gardening issues moving into the Den.

Kebabs and Brats...

We just finished a really tasty Turkish dinner of adana kebabi and cacik on pide, with a side dish of patates bastisi. The kebabs are simple - ground beef flavored with a kofte spice mix (paprika and cayenne, black pepper, cumin, oregano and mint) and more mild-to-medium ground chile pepper, held together with egg whites. The cacik is that familiar Middle Eastern salad of yogurt, grated cucumber, mint and garlic. In this instance, I made it with labneh, the rather sour, creamy Middle Eastern cheese, which really took it up to another level. A whole-wheat pide bread was a great foil for the two. Patates bastisi is a baked dish of potatoes, onions, garlic, olives, parsley and tomatoes flavored with olive oil, vinegar, oregano, and cumin. We are nice and sated.

The other night, we had beer-soaked bratwursts on whole wheat buns, with quick-pickled onions flavored with dill, and some lovely boxty cakes, or patties, made with mashed potatoes, cabbage, scallions and bacon and pan-fried 'til nice and brown. Good comfort food. Gina and our son have both decided brats are a new favorite.

Good For What Ails You!...

The cure of mothers all over the world...chicken soup. Gina has been sick today, so I decided to make her some. I decided on Soto Ayam, the chicken soup of Indonesia. When it really comes down to it, many of the most common seasonings in SE Asian cooking are powerful phytomedicinals, and this soup is full of them.

For my version, I browned chicken thighs in vegetable oil, then added water, coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, half of an onion, half a fresh lime, some thick slices of ginger and galangal, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and let it all simmer for a while. In the meantime, I prepared a rempah, or spice paste, from shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and fresh turmeric, almonds, coriander, cumin, and caraway seeds, and white peppercorns. This got put through the processor and fried in oil for a few minutes, then dumped into the stock. I shredded the chicken thighs, and put them back in the broth with a bunch of fresh, very thin egg noodles. To serve it, each diner places a selection of accompaniments in their bowl then pours some broth, chicken and noodles on top. I had a selection of fresh bean sprouts, shredded napa cabbage, chopped celery and scallions, fried onions, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), and Sriracha hot sauce, for us.

The broth was rich and savory, and everything worked very well together. Yummy! And its already breaking up Gina's congestion a bit, has her breathing more freely, and just generally feeling a bit better. I suspect we'll be having this soup again. It'd be great for entertaining, too.

Xmas Dinner...

Dinner was good. The company has gone. We are sated and tired. Everything was tasty. I basically used the sauce from my macaroni & cheese recipe for the Au Gratin Potatoes, and the cheesy topping browned beautifully. Gina decided this batch of BBQ Beans was her favorite of the ones I have made. I thought beans with a bit of a peach overtone would go well with the peach-glazed ham. They were really simple...

Easy Peachy BBQ Beans

3 36-ounce cans pork & beans, drained

1-1/2 to 2 cups BBQ sauce of choice

3/4 to 1 cup peach preserves

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

A handful of bacon odds & ends, or scraps

Combine everything well in a crockpot, turn on high heat, and cover. When the beans reach a boil, crack the lid so that moisture can gradually escape. Cook for several hours, or all day, until the beans have thickened. Serve.