Fresh Bean and Tuna Salad (p. 78)

I have a lot of trouble with the difference between beans and peas. What is it? I've looked it up (I actually devoted about an hour of research time to this the other day) but I still don't get it. So, I was supposed to use shelled fresh beans for this recipe. I researched beans, went to the store, and still came home with peas. Sugar snap peas, to be exact.

Whatever, I decided to deal with it and make the recipe anyway. I cooked the shelled peas for about 15 minutes in boiling water and then drained them and transfered them to a bowl. While still warm, I dressed the peas with olive oil and red wine vinegar as well as salt and pepper.

I flaked tuna (just the canned kind, drained of its oil) on top of the peas as well as very finely sliced red onion. The recipe also called for capers and parsley but I was tired of chopping, so I left them off.

The salad can be eaten hot or cold -- I chose cold, as my lunch. And it was delicious! Light but filling and with great flavors, I would definitely eat this again. Maybe by next time I'll figure out what a bean is.

red onion -- $1.13 (I have half left)

peas -- $8.05

Total Cost of Fresh Bean and Tuna Salad: $9.18

Falafel (Crisp Bean Fritters) with Tahini Sauce (p. 74)

We went to supper club last night and needed to bring the main vegetarian dish, but for supper club it's easier to have finger food, so I wanted to do something that would be easy to serve and eat. Enter falafel. 

I started soaking the white beans (I couldn't find fava, which are actually what's called for) and chick peas overnight. When I got home yesterday I drained the beans and threw them in the food processor briefly, just so they began to crumble, and then added the rest of the ingredients -- minced onion, parsley, and cilantro, a crushed garlic clove, baking powder and spices -- salt and pepper, cumin, and ground red chili pepper.

I processed all of these together until it was gritty in texture but seemed like it would hold together pretty well. I heated a lot of olive oil up in a sauté pan until it was super hot and then added smooshed balls of the mixture; they were basically small flat disks. 

Once one side was browned and crispy, I flipped the falafel, cooked the other side, and placed them on paper towels to drain some of the oil off. 

With this I made a tahini sauce, which is just tahini mixed with minced garlic, lemon juice, salt, and a little water. And I forgot to take a picture of it, sorry.

These should really be served immediately, but I had to make them in advance and bring them to supper club, where I reheated them in the microwave.

I really enjoyed these, and it seemed like everyone else did, too since there were no leftovers. I wish the sauce had been a little thinner than it was -- it would have been nice to just be able to dip instead of needing to spoon the tahini sauce onto the falafel, but the flavor was great.

onion -- $.76

lemon -- $.79

garbonzo beans -- $1.79 (I only used a half cup of these.)

Total Cost of Falafel (Crisp Brown Fritters) with Tahini Sauce: $3.34

Turkish Beans with Potatoes and Celery Root (p. 252) and Andalucian Spiced Mini-Kebabs (p. 101)

So this Turkish bean recipe is actually entitled Turkish Beans with Potatoes, Celery Root, and Carrots, but by this point I think we all know how I feel about carrots in any form other than raw raw raw. So I ditched them and decided that would be okay.

I started soaking the dried white beans last night so that this evening after work I just needed to drain them and start simmering them on the stove. The beans take about an hour to cook, but they're only alone in the pot for the first half hour. During that time I sauteed garlic and onion in olive oil. Once they were soft, I added in the peeled and chopped potato and celery root for about 15 minutes.

At this point the root veggies were starting to soften but not yet browning. I tossed them into the pot with the beans along with some salt and left them to simmer together for the last half hour.

When the bean dish was removed from the heat and ready to go I stirred in chopped parsley and served.

This is a really hearty and filling dish, and I liked the little bit of sweetness that the celery root brought to it.

The mini-kebabs are really more of an appetizer and are also called Pinchos Morunos. The only prep work they require is mixing together some spices for the marinade; minced garlic, salt, coriander seeds, cumin, turmeric (which I had to buy), and paprika combined with olive oil and lemon juice. Stir this all together, first grounding the garlic into the salt with a pestle, and then add the pork, cut into small pieces. Make sure all the meat is covered in the marinade and set aside in the fridge for about an hour.

I cooked mine under the broiler of the oven, but it could also be done on a grill. Thread the meat onto skewers that have been soaked for about a half hour.

Cook for 6 minutes, flipping once, and serve immediately.

These were incredibly delicious. I would make them again in a heartbeat, though I might leave out the coriander seeds because I don't love their flavor. Still, everything else -- exactly the same. The pork was cooked perfectly and it was super good. Make this one.

beans -- $1.29

celery root -- $4.99

potatoes -- $1.17 (CSA price)

Total Cost of Turkish Beans with Potatoes and Celery Root: $7.45

turmeric -- $1.82

pork -- $4.49

Total Cost of Andalucian Spiced Mini-Kebabs: $6.31

Linguini con Zucchini, Patate, e Parmigiano (p. 205)

This reminds me of the Linguini al Pesto recipe I made last month in that the veggies are cooked in the same water that the pasta is boiled in.

First, drop peeled and cut potatoes into lightly salted boiling water. Leave them for 8 minutes and then add in the pasta, broken into two-inch pieces. Put a lid on the pot, leaving it slightly ajar, and boil for 8 more minutes. Add the zucchini and let it go another 4 minutes (uncovered) before removing the pot from the heat.

Drain the pasta and veggies but reserve some of the cooking water. This is added back in, along with olive oil and black pepper, and mixed thoroughly. Top with parmesan and serve!

This is simple and rustic, and I could imagine eating it with a hearty bread on a cold day. It's also so easy to make that you could just throw it together in a half hour with whatever veggies are available in your fridge.

potatoes -- $.39 (CSA Price)

zucchini -- $.78 (CSA Price)

Total Cost of Linguini con Zucchini, Patate, e Parmigiano: $1.17

Mita's Tuscan Sugo (p. 201)

I was all alone this weekend while Matt was at the beach with his parents and sister, but I still wanted to do some cooking. Pasta has always been a comfort food of mine -- we ate it at least once a week growing up, so I chose Mita's Tuscan Sugo, a tomato sauce with a little bit of ground meat poured over a long, thin pasta.

With olive oil at the bottom of my sauté pan I slowly cooked chopped parsley, celery, and onion until they were soft. I accidentally left out the garlic. Whoops. If you make this -- add garlic.

I added a small amount of ground pork to the pan and kept if over the heat until the meat was thoroughly cooked. A little white wine was poured in and boiled down, just for flavor, and then I added chopped tomatoes (juices included) and cooked until the majority of the liquid had been absorbed and the tomatoes had lost most of their form.

I mixed in some slivered  basil (which is growing like gangbusters in my herb pot) and salt and pepper and then spooned the sauce over linguini.

I also forgot to put parmesan on top of the pasta, but I was okay with that. The dish didn't blow me away, but it's a very solid pasta dish and relatively easy to to make. I liked how it had meat in it, but the meat didn't overpower the rest of the tomato sauce in any way, it just added a nice flavor. I wouldn't necessarily make this again, just because there are so many delicious pasta sauces out there, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the leftovers!

parsley -- $1.69 (tons left)

celery -- $1.69 (tons left)

onion -- $ .94 (half left)

ground pork -- $.42

tomatoes -- $1.57 (CSA price)
linguini -- $1.99

Total Cost of Mita's Tuscan Sugo: $8.28

Kourabiedes (p. 451)

Kourabiedes are Greek Butter-Almond Cookies and they're the perfect treat for a warm summer night in North Carolina sitting around a campfire with your buds. Which is exactly how I ate them last night.

I first roasted sliced almonds by spreading them in a cookie pan and heating them for about 15 minutes in the oven until they were golden brown. Half of them I tossed in the food processor with granulated sugar until they were finely chopped. The other half I hand-chopped so that they had a little more texture but were still fairly small.

The cookie dough is pretty similar to more traditional cookies -- butter, egg, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt, and confectioners sugar. And cognac, which led to a long conversation with my dad about whether brandy from Cognac, France is actually cognac or not. Anyway, it was the only brandy I had, so I used it.

Both sets of chopped almonds were mixed in with the dough until it was uniformly mixed. Then its off to the oven, where they took about 15 minutes to cook. I scattered more confectioner's sugar over the tops of the cookies while they were cooling on racks, and then packed them up to take to last night's party.

Yum! These were delicious. They're super crumbly (probably from the amount of butter in them) and the almond flavor isn't overpowering. I loved these.

butter -- $1.75

egg -- $1.02 (I only used one of the 6)

almonds -- $4.90

Total Cost of Kourabiedes: $7.67

Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives (p. 412)

Another recipe using preserved lemons!

Take one small chicken (4 pounds was about the smallest I could find, though the recipe really calls for two 2.5 pound birds) and rinse her out with cool water. Give her a nice rub down of salt and lemon juice and stick her in the fridge for at least a half hour. Set aside her packet of giblets and livers for later use.

Now for the sauce part; mix together minced parsley, garlic, cilantro, ground ginger, black pepper, and a chopped preserved lemon. Add in some water.

After the bird has sat for long enough, rinse her out again and give her another rub down, this time with the mixture above. Put her in a heavy duty stock pot and set over low heat.

Add lots and lots of thinly sliced onions and some olive oil and let the bird and giblets simmer for about half an hour. Then add in the livers and paprika, cover, and let cook for another hour to an hour and a half.

When the bird is thoroughly cooked, cut the meat off and arrange it on a platter.

Continue thickening the sauce left in the stock pot by turning up the heat. Remove the livers, chop them up, and return them to the sauce. Add olives and ladle the sauce over the bird.

This was kind of a pain to cook, as is any time you need to deal with the entirety of an animal. We both really liked the flavors of the marinade and I would totally do it again, but only with boneless pieces of chicken.

chicken -- $4.20

lemon -- $.69

olives -- $2.15

Total Cost of Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Olives: $7.04

Mediterranean Vegetable Soup (p.119)

I've had a ton of fresh and beautiful veggies in my fridge from my CSA and received another box today, so this veggie soup (minestrone, basically) was the perfect way to use them all up, as well as the veggie broth I made earlier this week.

This morning before work I got the process started by setting white beans to soak in a bowl of water so that by the time I got home in the afternoon I could start actually cooking. I drained the beans and simmered them for about an hour in vegetable stock over low heat.

I slivered Savoy cabbage, rinsed it thoroughly, and steamed it for about 10 minutes in a pan, and then set it aside to use later in the recipe.

In the bottom of my stock pot, I sauteed a huge minced garlic clove, minced pancetta, and chopped parsley and onion in olive oil. I left these for about 15 minutes on low heat, and they smelled heavenly.

Once they had softened I added the rest of my vegetables, which were all diced. You can pretty much use whatever you have in your fridge for this portion of the recipe. I used: 1 butternut squash (peeled), 2 stalks of celery, 1 small green zucchini, 2 small yellow zucchini, 2 red potatoes (peeled), and 4 Roma tomatoes (peeled.) I added more veggie broth and simmered this for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables had become tender.

I poured the beans as well as their cooking liquid into the stock pot and added the cabbage, arborio rice, and salt and pepper.

The soup cooked for about another 20 minutes and then was served with parmesan sprinkled on the top.

This was really good -- I added a little more salt and pepper to mine but then ate a huge bowl of it. I made the whole recipe (I normally halve all recipes) so we each have some for lunch tomorrow set aside and the rest is in the freezer for a rainy day.

With this we ate Cheesy Potato Herb Bread, which also came from my CSA box but was baked by Great Harvest Bread Company. It was light and fluffy and a nice addition to the soup.

I had also received some really spicy poblano peppers and wasn't sure what to do with them. Since I already had pancetta for the soup, I made Bacon Cream Cheese Jalapeno Peppers following the recipe exactly except, of course, that mine were actually Pancetta Cream Cheese Poblano Peppers. These were delicious. We worried that they would be too spicy since the peppers were ridiculously hot, but they weren't. They were perfect.

onion -- $1.15 (only used half)

pancetta -- $4.99 (only used a few slices)

squash -- $3.14

zucchini -- $2.36

potatoes -- $1.57

tomatoes -- $1.57

Total Cost of Mediterranean Vegetable Soup: $14.78

Tunisian Fish with Preserved Lemons and Olives (p. 373)

My Moroccan Preserved Lemons have been ready for use for a week or so, so I've picked out two recipes this week that will use them. I made the first last night using tilapia as my fish because Harris Teeter was having a sale ($3.99 a pound!)

I rinsed and patted dry the tilapia fillets, salted and peppered each side, and then set them aside while I made the sauce. It's pretty basic -- garlic and onion sauteed in olive oil until they're soft, and then an addition of strips of sweet pepper (I also threw in some spicy, because they were in my fridge) and shortly after that finely diced tomatoes. I also tossed in some dried red chili flakes for an extra kick.

I cooked the sauce down until it was jammy and then made room for my fish pieces. They cooked pretty quickly -- maybe about 8 minutes, with a flip to the other side halfway through.

Once they were cooked through, the fish was removed so that I could finish the sauce. I threw in chopped black and green olives, chopped capers, and a preserved lemon that was rinsed and cut into small pieces.

Have you ever worked with preserved lemons? They're crazy. They're kind of gooey and gross and you chop and eat them with the peels included, because they're so soft by that point.

A little white wine vinegar and cumin finished the sauce, which I poured back over the fish and served.

The fish was nice and flaky and the flavors of the sauce were pretty good. Matt's starting to feel like all these fish dishes that are cooked in and then topped with a sauce taste the same, but at least that same taste is a good one!

tilapia -- $4.04

olives -- $2.00

onion -- $1.14

Total Cost of Tunisian Fish with Preserved Lemons and Olives : $7.18

Escalivada (p. 65)

Escalivada is a dish of Catalan roasted peppers, eggplants, and tomato, and not my favorite thing ever. I just don't love cooked vegetables -- I almost always prefer them raw.

I roasted my veggies in the oven; sweet red peppers, tomatoes, and scallions all tossed in in olive oil and left in a hot oven for about 45 minutes.

Once I pulled the veggies out of the oven I left them cool a bit and then chopped all the veggies up (pulling the seeds and membranes out of the peppers.) The veggies were mixed with garlic, olive oil, and vinegar and could either be served hot right away or cold later. I took mine for lunch so I ate them cold, and wasn't thrilled at all.

Someone else might love this, but it's not for me.

tomato -- $1.83

red pepper -- $5.98

callions -- $.89

Total Cost of Escalivada: $8.70

Vegetable Broth (p. 107)

There's a couple yummy looking soups I want to make soon but most of them call for vegetable broth, so it was time to try out the recipe and have some homemade broth on hand.

To start I roasted veggies -- quartered onions, chunks of celery stalks, and slightly crushed garlic cloves were doused in some olive oil and put in a hot oven.

I added quartered fresh mushrooms after about 15 minutes and then continued cooking. The veggies are dumped in a stock pot and the recipe calls for wine to be added to the glass oven dish and cooked over the stove top until the wine reduces.  Remembering the time my beautiful oven dish cracked while being used on the stove top I skipped this step and added the wine directly to the stock pot. I can't afford to lose any more oven-proof dishes.

I added a lot of hot water as well as a chopped fennel bulb, dried thyme, and a cinnamon stick, and let the stock simmer over medium heat.

I meanwhile soaked dried porcini mushrooms in very hot water for about 15 minutes and then added those, coarsely chopped, to the stock pot, along with the water that they had soaked in (after it was strained.)

Once the broth finished cooking (about an hour),  I strained it through a paper towel-lined colander with a bowl underneath. The veggies and any grit were discarded and the broth remained! It's in a couple of jars in my fridge waiting to be used up.

fresh mushrooms -- $.14

fennel -- $1.99

onions -- $2.34

dried mushrooms -- $2.49 (3/4 of the bag is left)

Total Cost of Vegetable Broth: $6.96

Lentil and Green Olive Salad (p. 79)

It's very rare that I'm home during the day to make lunch for myself, but yesterday I was and wanted to make something light and healthy but also filling. The last time I made a light lunch I used the Lentil and Walnut Salad recipe, so this time I opted for a variation -- a lentil and green olive salad.

The preparation for this one was pretty similar to that of the previous salad -- the lentils are cooked in water with a whole onion and garlic clove, as well as salt and pepper.

Once the lentils are cooked (about half an hour) they are drained and the vegetables are removed and discarded.

While the lentils were cooking I sliced a red pepper into thin strips and tossed them with coarsely chopped pitted green olives.

These were mixed, along with olive oil and lemon juice, into the cooked lentils. The lentils are laid on a bed of greens and topped with some strips of lemon zest.

I served this with leftovers from a couple of weeks ago -- shrimp with garlic, lemon, and olive oil that I had frozen raw in its marinade. This time I just prepared the shrimp by sautéing them over low heat.

This was a lovely and light little lunch. The salad wasn't as good as the previous one I did, but it still had nice flavors and was enjoyable. I probably wouldn't make it again, but I don't mind eating the leftovers. And the shrimp was just as good (and messy) the second time around.

lentils -- $1.39 (3/4 of the bag is left)

garlic -- $.59 (just used one clove)

mixed greens -- $3.09 (most are left)

olives -- $2.08

red pepper -- $2.99

lemon -- $.46

Total Cost of Lentil and Green Olive Salad: $10.60

Polenta with Teverina Dried Wild Mushroom Sauce (p. 243) with Sauteed Greens with Garlic and Oil (p. 299)

I was eating solo on Thursday night but still wanted to get some cooking in since it's been so long. This one looked tasty, so I ran to the grocery store after work to pick up some fresh meat and veggies (my fridge was completely empty except for pickles and beer) right after work.

I started by prepping dried porcini mushrooms by putting them in a bowl of very hot water. I left them for about 30 minutes to soften while making the rest of the dish.

Next up was the sweet Italian sausage, which I cut into small chunks and sauteed for about 10 minutes. The sausage is supposed to cook in its own fats instead of using olive oil, but mine didn't produce much juice, so it was a kind of dry sauté. Once they were cooked I placed the chunks on a paper towel to dry.

When the meat was pulled out of pan I added olive oil along with chopped onion, celery, and parsley. 

Once the veggies had cooked and softened, I stirred in chopped canned tomatoes (along with their juices), chopped rosemary, and some dried thyme. These were left to simmer for about 20 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.

After the mushrooms had soaked for 30 minutes I drained them through paper towels placed in a colander (I didn't have the sieve and cheese cloth that was required), reserving the water that they had soaked in. I rinsed and chopped the mushrooms and set them aside with the water.

Meanwhile, I boiled water and slowly added the cornmeal. This set over low heat for about 20 minutes until the polenta was creamy.

I added the mushrooms and water as well as the sausage back into the sauce and continued cooking them until the polenta was ready.

The polenta is spooned onto a plate with the sauce ladled over it and parmesan scattered over the top.

Yum! I don't even like mushrooms all that much, but this was delicious. I had no idea that polenta is so easy to make, and I'll definitely make it again. It absorbs flavors well, and all the ingredients in the sauce made a very flavorful blend. Yum! I'd do a rendition on this recipe again.

With all the poor eating in NOLA, I wanted to make a veggie side. This one is pretty easy -- it's just sauteed greens of your choice. I used kale, and before beginning the recipe I rinsed the greens and boiled them briefly just using the water remaining on the leaves.

Once the kale had become tender I removed it from the heat, tossed it on a paper towel to briefly dry, and then chopped it coarsely. In the meantime, I sauteed minced garlic in olive oil for only a few minutes until it was soft and then added a dried chili pepper broken into small pieces.

I added the kale back into the pan and let the greens absorb the olive oil. They only remained on the heat until they began to sizzle -- just a few minutes -- and then I added salt and red wine vinegar, mixed them together, and served.

I surprised myself by quite liking the kale. The combination of the dried pepper and the vinegar gave it a great flavor!

canned tomatoes -- $.99

corn meal -- $1.69 (with the majority remaining)

sweet Italian sausage -- $2.03

celery -- $1.69 (only used one stalk)

onion -- $.89 (half left)

parsley -- 1.99 (most left)

dried porcini mushrooms -- $3.99

shredded parmesan -- $2.65 (most left)

Total Cost of Polenta with Teverina Dried Wild Mushroom Sauce: $15.92 (with the recipe cut in half, this made three servings)

kale -- $.27

Total Cost of Sauteed Greens with Garlic and Oil: $.27 (for just one serving)

Eating Our Way Through NOLA

My dad, sister, husband and I just got back from New Orleans, where we mostly ate (a lot), drank (more moderately) and sweat a lot (it was over 100 degrees with full humidity all week.)

You are going to be disgusted by how much we ate. Here goes:

We got in super late Friday night, so Saturday was our first day of food. We started with breakfast at Cafe du Monde with beignets and cafe au laits:

These are covered with about a pound of powdered sugar, to the extent that all the guide books warn tourists not to wear black clothing there in danger of being covered with white specks all day. Still, once you knock off the majority of the sugar, these are simply delightful.

From there we killed a few hours walking around the French Quarter until lunch time -- muffulettas at Central Grocery.

You can't really tell from the picture, but this sandwich is HUGE. Matt, my dad and I split it and had leftovers. It was also DELICIOUS. I've never had a muffuletta before, but they're a wonderful blend of meat, cheese, olives, and flavors I couldn't even decipher. If you go to New Orleans, you must eat here.

Saturday's dinner was pretty fancy -- Commander's Palace, which is a kind of old-school New Orleans restaurant still trying to recover their business after Katrina.

As appetizers, Matt had the gumbo, which was incredible:

And my dad and I had their soup du jour, a crab bisque:

Which was also incredible, though probably had more cream and butter in it than I've eaten in the last six months.

We also got an appetizer for the table, Shrimp and Tasso Henican.

It's a Louisiana wild white shrimp with Crystal hot sauce, pickled ocra, and five pepper jelly. It's amazing. Also amazing is how every meal in New Orleans contains something pickled. Yum.

We're not even at entrees yet. Soft-shelled crabs are the bomb.

And then dessert, an incredible pecan pie with vanilla ice cream on top.

And so ended our first day of overeating.

On Sunday morning we had a reservation for a Jazz brunch at Arnaud's, which was not only delicious but featured great live jazz throughout the meal. I started with oysters on the half shell, because I felt like I should have oysters while in New Orleans.

Next up was an amazing eggs benedict.

And, since dessert is apparently a requirement with a New Orleans brunch, Matt and I split bananas foster, which was made table side.

YUM.

Later on Sunday we had drinks at American Sector, the new restaurant that is part of the D-Day museum (and yes, we saw that too, I'm just not blogging about it.) The drinks were lovely, as were the pickles they made in house.

Our second happy hour of the day was at Pat O'Briens, where we had the city's famous Hurricanes.

And then dinner at Mr. B's, which was our favorite meal of the whole trip (perhaps because of the Hurricanes before, but I don't think so.) We split a few appetizers to get a sample of all the tasty tastes: we tried their panko crusted jumbo shrimp, fried oyster on the half shell, duck springroll, and crabcake.

Next up was barbecued shrimp, which was beyond messy since the shrimp were still in their shell, but still amazing.

I actually had to wear a bib while eating that.

For dessert, I had the profiteroles.

Hello, deliciousness.

On Monday we started our day early and walked all around the garden district. On Magazine Street, we walked to Sucre, which is an incredible little shop of sweets. Despite the fact that it was about 10:00 a.m. I had gelato (have I mentioned how hot it was outside?)

Back in the French Quarter for lunch, we went to Johnny's Po-boys for lunch on the recommendation of a friend of mine. Matt got the French Fry Po-boy, which is basically french fries stuffed in a baguette. Heart attack on a bun? Yes. But Matt loved it.

I went with the classic Shrimp Po-boy, and was not disappointed.

Dinner was at Emeril's Delmonico, a steakhouse, and one of Emeril's three restaurants in town. They also have their own covers for their butter. When I start cooking with butter again, I want some of these printed up with my last name. Classy, no?

We all ordered steaks, and they were all ridiculously good.

Throw in a side of dirty rice, and you're ready to go.

And for dessert, a blueberry fruit cobbler with house made ice cream. Divine.

Tuesday we were mostly on the road -- we went to visit the plantation homes and got lunch at one of them. Mine was only ehhh and I didn't bother to take a picture. For dinner, though, we went to Mosca's, which is basically an Italian-style road-house with sweet feral kitties outside and tremendous portions inside.

We shared some tremendous spaghetti and meatballs followed by a (also shared) dessert of cheesecake hot out of the oven and "pineapple fluff" (neither had time to be photographed before being inhaled) and called it a night.

And thus ended our eating tour of New Orleans. I hope you enjoyed it half as much as we did.