Roasted Vegetables and Grains

First, I would like to offer my apologies for my lack of productivity concerning DCBN. I've been super busy pretending to do schoolwork and posting on this other gig I do for the Josef Korbel School. Please learn more about that here: http://jksisadmin.wordpress.com.

Anyway, with the weather starting to cool down (Indian Summer aside), I've been roasting a lot of vegetables. Butternut squash is in season, and I'm a big fan of that, so I've been combining that with a few tubers, chenopods (not chopped, rather roasted whole with the skin on) and selections of the cruciferous variety for a pretty tasty treat.

 There's no real recipe for this, but a few tips: what I do is try to cut everything to a similar size to ensure that it all cooks evenly. Once chopped, I mix all the veggies in a bowl with olive oil and garlic. You can play with the spices you add, but last time I also threw in some chopped ginger, cardamom, coriander, garlic salt and pepper. I roast at about 425 degrees for about 45 minutes, stirring halfway through. Make sure that you put foil down on a cookie sheet and spray it with some PAM to reduce the stickage. Also, if you have inherently thinner ingredients, like onions or corn, make sure they aren't hanging out on their own on the periphery of the sheet; they'll burn if they aren't touching the slower-cooking ingredients. With these methods it will come out pretty delicious, especially with a little lemon juice drizzled over the top right out of the oven.

For a healthy, balanced meal you can lay the veggies on a bed of grains, like quinoa or brown rice. If you roasted potatoes with your veggies, you might be okay with just those, but of course it never hurts to have all kinds of complex carbs. They make you happy. This is definitely a meal that is conducive to all kinds of experimentation: with the vegetables you use, the spices you add, the grains you cook, etc. It's a surefire way to something quick and easy with some of your favorite ingredients.

Look at me, studyin' and eatin'

Experimenting: Indian Cauliflower Puree Rotini

 Without experiments, we wouldn't know how things work. Or if they work. I will spoil the surprise in this one: I failed. Indian Cauliflower Pasta does not work. Although the name pretty much suggests an epic fail, it was mostly a dramatic spice imbalance that jacked this up. Here's what I used:

• half a head of cauliflower
• about 3-4 servings Rotini pasta
• milk
• margarine/butter
• Spices: Cayenne Pepper, Ground Cumin Seed, Ground Coriander, Ground Cardamom Seed, Turmeric, Ground Cloves and Garlic Powder

 I started with the cauliflower puree, which on its own is actually pretty good. You boil the cauliflower for about 15 minutes until it's really soft, then drain it.

 
To make the puree, put the cauliflower in a blender/food processor, add some margarine/butter and a little milk. Blend it together, and add a little more milk as needed until it's a smooth consistency. If you want to eat it at this point as a side dish or something, good call. It's a good replacement for mashed potatoes if you are trying to cut back on those.

Here's where I lost my marbles. I just kind of threw the spices in willy-nilly. In Indian food, a masala is a spice mixture. Good Indian food involves by a really flavorful but balanced masala. This masala was definitely unbalanced. Like, Fox News unbalanced. Just sayin'.

Cost Plus has really good, affordable spices

  It didn't taste bad in the pot, but when I mixed it with the pasta my tongue cried. It wasn't heat spicy, just overwhelming spicy. I put in way too much Cloves. Pretty sure I put in way too much overall, and that it all just meshed into a cacophonous mess. Don't try this at home.

It didn't even look good

Oven Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto

This is the perfect dish for a cold, rainy day when you need something to counteract the misery outside. Also: any other day. The roasted butternut squash gets caramelized on the outside and soft on the inside, and adds a hint of sweetness that matches up nicely with the richness from the butter and vanilla. Here is what you need:

• half a butternut squash
• olive oil
• about 2-3 tbsp butter
• 4 c chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c Arborio rice
• about half a white onion, diced
• 1/2 c white wine
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c grated Parmesan
• salt
• chopped green onion
 

First things first, heat your oven to 350 degrees. Peel the butternut squash and cut it in half. Scoop out the seed with a spoon and scrape off all the gunk in the seed cavity. You can roast the seeds later with some salt if you want. Dice the squash into about one inch squares or whatever size you'll be comfortable spooning into your mouth, just as long as they're even. Lightly coat the squash cubes with olive oil and spread them out on a cookie sheet; sprinkle some salt over the top. Put them in the middle rack of the oven and leave it there for awhile while you make everything else, just check on it periodically to make sure the squash doesn't over-caramelize. That means burn.

Melt the butter in a large-ish pot over medium-high heat. In a separate medium-size pot, bring your broth to a boil, reduce it to a simmer and add your vanilla extract. If you happen to have a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds into the broth and leave the bean in to steep; you can take the bean out later. We'll come back to this in a sec. Get your onions in the melted butter and stir them until they get soft; you don't want them to get brown. Once they soften up, add your rice. Use a wooden spoon to mix it with the onion and keep stirring it until the rice gets pearlescent around the edges. Toasting the risotto with onions and butter is the traditional way to make this creamy beast.

At this point, double check your squash to make sure it's not smoking. No? Good. Start adding your simmering broth to the rice a half-cup at a time, and make sure it's fully absorbed before you add another. Keep going until all that broth is gone and the rice gets super thick. The extra starch in the Arborio rice is what gives risotto its unique, creamy texture. Now gently stir in your squash and Parmesan.

Go on ahead and spoon out a heaper into a bowl. Top it off with some diced green onions and just a little more butter. Grate a little more Parmesan over the top....because you can, that's why. Now look at the nasty weather out the window and be glad you're inside eating butter and cheese.

Brrr...it's cold out there

Eating Out: Carrabba's

I know, this doesn't count. It's corporate. Jessica and I were supposed to go to a Thai place in Parker but the Groupon wouldn't print and it was far. So we kept it classy at this slightly overpriced Italian joint of Iliff and 225. I would like to start by emphasizing my commitment to reducing my carbon footprint, and as such I took the light rail from DU to Aurora. Plus, gas costs money.

Jess got a Cabernet Sauvignon that tasted like vinegar. The bottle may have been old? Who knows. I don't remember what it was. Anyway, we started with Pumpkin and Butternut Squash Ravioli in Brown Butter Sauce. That's one of my favorite dishes, and it definitely wasn't too bad here. A little pricey at $2 per ravioli, but it's seasonal so I figured what the chuck. It's nice, there's sweetness from the squash, richness from the butter and tang from the parmesan. A good balance of flavors.

Next we had some salad. It comes with every pasta dish. You know, it was salad. Mine was Mediterranean, which pretty much just meant it had tomatoes and olives. Carrabba's gives their customers bread, too, which was really nice of them. It comes with herbs that are mixed with olive oil at your table into which you dip it. I ate a lot of that.

For an entree, I had Spaghetti with Meatballs and Jess has Penne Franco. My spaghetti was a little dry and I had to order a little more sauce. The meatballs were tender, though, and had a pretty good flavor. I liked Jessica's Penne Franco quite a bit. It had sun-dried tomatoes, olives and artichoke hearts. These are a few of my favorite things. It also had something called 'ricotta salata.' I have no idea what that is, but I'm guessing something cheese-related. It was pretty tasty.

And that is pretty much it. It was a good Wednesday night meal, nothing to write home about. This does not count as writing home, okay? They had a lot of desserts I wanted to try, so if you go, you should try one. Try to get the waitress whose name rhymes with 'waitress.' She was fun.

Duh-licious: Pasta with Sauteed Vegetables

It's statistical common knowledge that 108.5% of Earth's population loves spaghetti. It's easy to make and it's delicious, and if you're like a lot of people, it's a comfort food staple. This is a little variation that adds some vitamins or whatever it is in vegetables that you need. Pay attention, this is a really complicated ingredients list:

• 1/3 box of spaghetti (or just, you know, some kind of pasta)
• half jar of marinara sauce
• vegetables for sauteeing
• freshly grated parmesan

Fill a large pot halfway fall and salt it to ocean water status. Bring it to a boil and add the spaghetti. I used whole wheat spaghetti because it's got lots of fiber and I like the way it tastes. It's nutty. Cook it to al dente, drain it and set it aside for now.

Next, lower the heat on your pot to medium or medium-high and add coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil. Finely dice whatever vegetables you like, add them to the oil and sprinkle a little salt on top to help them sweat. I used garlic, onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms and asparagus. Cook them until they're soft and add the marinara sauce. I like to add the pasta to the pot and re-heat it with the sauce, but obviously you can just pour the warm sauce over the pasta on the plate if you prefer. Grate some parmesan over the top and eat it. I think the vegetables, beside being healthy, add some extra flavors and textures.

Apparently, there exists a show on Nickelodeon called "iCarly." I don't really know much about it, except that on the show something, something Spaghetti Tacos. Now, there is some huge craze over it. Just for fun, I made it. It's not the greatest thing I've ever eaten, and I am fairly sure I'll be okay keeping my spaghetti separate from my tacos in the future.

Your 8 year-old is jealous

Lemon Avocado Nachos

Nachos, I will venture to say, are probably one of the best things ever conceived. They're crunchy, gooey, warm and delicious. Even though they're often relegated to the drunken bar food category, I think they're pretty fantastic in any setting. Since they tend to be heavy, I added some lighter-tasting ingredients to brighten the dish up a little. Here's what you need:

• a bag of chips, duh (I mow down on Mission Tortilla Triangles)
• a bag of Mexican shredded cheese, duh
• black refried beans
• a jalapeno
• black sliced olives
• chopped white onion
• corn
• minced garlic
• an avocado
• a tomato
• a lemon
• sour cream
• cilantro (for garnish) 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop up the jalapeno, onion and garlic. Mix it all together with the corn and olives, and sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.

The next step is to mix these veggies with half a can of black refried beans, so the amount of veggies you add just depends on how chunky you want it to be. I used a whole jalapeno, about 7 olives, a quarter of the onion, about 1/8 cup frozen corn and a clove of garlic. For extra goodness, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. I made these meatless, but if you cooked some ground beef you could add it to the bean mix right now. If you cooked chicken breast, I'd probably dice it up and add it on top before it goes in the oven.

Now put a sheet of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and spray it with some non-stick cooking spray. Spread some chips out in an even layer on the sheet, then spread out about half of the bean mixture over the chips.

Sprinkle as much cheese as you like on top, then add another layer of chips, beans and cheese. It's a double decker. We're not messing around.

I ran out of cheese, so this is a little skimpier than normal. I like a lot of cheese. It tastes pretty good. Throw this pile in the oven until the cheese gets bubbly, maybe like 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on it. While it's cooking, chop up the tomato and mash it together with the avocado. Add a little garlic salt and pepper to it.


When the cheese is melted, take the nachos out of the oven and spread the avocado mush over the chips. Add a dollop of sour cream on top. Zest about half the lemon over it, and squeeze some lemon juice over the whole thing. Take a few sprigs worth of chopped cilantro and pepper it over the top. I picked the whole thing up by the foil and transferred it to a plate.

Grab a beer and watch some T.V., just try not to eat the whole thing yourself. I did that, and I didn't feel super great for awhile. I mean, my mouth was happy, but I couldn't move for, like, 7 hours. Just invite a friend over or something.

Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Spicy Mustard Sauce

I'll preface this post by saying that my cooking style tends to be pretty lenient. Obviously. So this recipe kind of evolved from me just throwing things into a pan until it tasted good; in no way is this supposed to be authentic Asian cuisine. So now that I'm off the hook, here's what you need for some tasty authentic Asian stir-fry:

• 1.5 c rice
  
• 1 chili (I used jalapeno)
  
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger
  
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  
• 2 carrots
• half an eggplant
• half a yellow onion
• about 4 stalks red chard
• 1 c sliced mushrooms
• a few sprigs cilantro and lemon juice for garnish

 For the Spicy Mustard Sauce:

• 1/3 c spicy dijon mustard
• 1/4 c olive oil
• balsamic vinegar (nothing fancy)
• soy sauce
• garlic salt and pepper 

Whenever I make this, I make a ton of it so I have leftovers for days. Because, you know, reading and stuff takes up time. Anyway, I start with the rice. Put 1.5 c brown rice into the rice cooker. If you don't have one, I suggest a trip to Target to make that purchase. I can never make rice right on the stove, and these are cheap and foolproof. The rule with brown rice is two parts liquid to one part rice, thus 3 c water (or chicken broth if you're feeling dirty). It takes about 45 minutes, so you might want to start this a little ahead of time. Set it...and forget it.

Next, it's time to cook the chicken. I use a big, heavy skillet on medium-high heat with a little olive oil drizzled in. Cook the chicken for, I don't know, 7 minutes on each side, until it gets that nice golden brown color.

Juicy

Take the chicken off and set it on the floor for now. Just kidding. Use a plate. Lower the heat to low-medium and add a pretty generous amount of oil in the bottom of the pan for the vegetable sautee that's coming next. Peanut oil would probably be pretty tasty if nuts don't make your throat close. I like to use olive oil because it infuses really well with the garlic, chilis and ginger, plus I always have it. Speaking of, add those to the oil. It's on low because this allows the flavors to seep into the oil without cooking everything too fast, giving you time to chop up everything else.

I usually chop up the vegetables that take longer to cook first. That pretty much means the carrots, onions and the eggplant. Dice them how you like and stick it in there. Give it a little stir and turn your heat up to medium to medium-high so you can cook it all.

At this point, my pan was pretty crowded, so I put these veggies and the chicken into the oven in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 degrees. That helps cook the chicken and the eggplant a little further. It was only for a few minutes while I sauteed the other ingredients.

Here, I added more oil to the pan and sauteed the red chard and mushrooms. Be careful, since the chard just got washed off there's guaranteed to be some water on it and it will splatter when it touches the oil. Cook these until the greens wilt and the mushrooms get brown.

At some point, you'll want to make your sauce. Start with the spicy dijon mustard in a bowl. Add to that the olive oil, a couple glugs of balsamic vinegar and about 2 tbsp soy sauce. Totally authentic. Sprinkle in some garlic salt and pepper and whisk it all together. It's really good, I promise. You can make it as thick or thin as you like, but it will thin out when you add it to the veggies in a second. Now take your casserole dish out of the oven and slice the chicken. Combine the chicken, all the veggies and the sauce in the pan and mix it up real nice.

Brown food tastes good

 Spoon the rice into the bottom of the casserole dish, and layer the stir-fry mixture on top of it. Sprinkle some fresh cilantro on top and hit it with some lemon juice. Eat it, it's delicious. And healthy. Excellent.