07.12.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Greek, Leftovers, Seafood, Shrimp at 2:39 pm by julie
I’ve never been too enamored with cooking magazines, other than perhaps Cooking Light, but I was offered a free subscription to Bon Appetit from Amazon.com a few months back, so I said what the heck. It’s alright so far, but I’m not overly impressed, and I haven’t gone out of my way to make any of the recipes.
The other night we tried a recipe for shrimp skewers with tzatziki and spinach from the most recent issue. As I had hoped, it was a fast, tasty meal—hard to go wrong with those flavors, and most of the ingredients are ones I always have on hand. Not only that, but it made a lovely and fairly healthy plate of food. The problem came when we sat down to actually eat, though: it was impossible for us to eat this neatly. Of course Jeremy was eating over WoW, and Nolan was awake at the time, so I had to hold him with one arm and eat with the other. But there were the skewers and tails to deal with, and the tzatziki, while delicious, was too thick to scoop up easily either with a bite of shrimp or a forkful of spinach.
I found myself wishing I had just removed the tails from the shrimp up front and sauteed them in a little oil and garlic, then tucked them in a pita with the spinach, feta and tzatziki. The portability and one-handed operation of a pocket sandwich would have been more than worth an extra trip to the grocery store or a few hours spent waiting for pita dough to rise. Considering all the other pluses to this recipe, it may happen yet.
Incidentally, I couldn’t bear to toss out the leftover tzatziki, but had nothing to eat it with. So for lunch the next day, I mixed a can of tuna with a few tablespoons of strained tzatziki, a bit of mayo and some feta cheese. It made one of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve had in quite a while.
Shrimp Skewers with Tzatziki, Spinach and Feta
1 C Greek yogurt
1 C 1/4″-cubes English hothouse cucumber
3 T chopped fresh dill
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T chopped shallots
1 tsp chopped garlic
Olive oil
1 lb uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 C baby spinach
3/4 C crumbled feta cheese
Mix yogurt, cucumber, dill, lemon juice, garlic and shallot in small bowl; season generously with salt and pepper and chill until ready to serve.
Prepare grill with oil. Thread shrimp equally onto 4 skewers and brush with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill just until shrimp are opaque in the center, about 3 minutes per side. Divide spinach between 4 plates, and drizzle lightly with lemon juice and olive oil. Top each with one shrimp skewer, a dollop of tzatziki, and a sprinkle of feta.
Source: Slightly adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2008 (p. 45)—and will be more firmly adapted next time.
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03.07.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Greek, Seafood at 11:35 pm by julie
We’ve been eating lots of fish around here lately. I keep wanting salmon, but all we keep finding is farmed Atlantic salmon, and that’s just a no-go since we’ve been spoiled by wild Pacific Northwest salmon. So Pacific cod and farmed tilapia have been on the menu instead.
While unsuccessfully trying to track down a recipe for Greek lamb chops (the very same I just wrote about the other day) in my Food and Wine of Greece
cookbook, I instead came across psari plaki, a baked fish recipe first called to my attention by Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries. I was intrigued and decided to give it a go, with a few adjustments for what I had on hand, namely half an onion, some scallions, and canned tomatoes. It was pretty tasty, but I am still tempted to try Barbara’s variation, which calls for slices of lemon and appeared to pack a bigger punch flavor-wise. I served it with some garlic-olive oil couscous, tossing a handful or two of torn baby spinach leaves into that as it steamed, as a way to sneak a few more veggies into the meal.
Once the cod was eaten up, we promptly went back out and bought an even bigger package of tilapia fillets, which turned out to be fodder for a good three meals. For a start, I did a simple pan-saute with a mushroom-mustard sauce and served with pancetta peas (courtesy Marcella) and a wild rice blend. This was a quickie meal, which I am really appreciating at the moment. Jeremy liked it a lot, and tried to come back for seconds, but I stuck his plate in the dishwasher while he was feeding the pup her dinner. Oops. (I blame it on preggo-brain. At least I didn’t put his dirty plate in the fridge and the leftovers in the dishwasher… yet.)
Tilapia in Mustard Cream Sauce
I pretty much followed the recipe this time, though I made sure to really oil my skillet because I know how delicate fish can stick to the stainless. I used rehydrated chopped mushrooms for convenience, and whole grain mustard because I just like it better. It made the most sense to me to finish cooking the tilapia—which didn’t take long at all—and remove it before adding the broth and mushrooms to start the sauce, so that’s what I did. This sauce could certainly be used with chicken also, or even pork, I would imagine.
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Cooking spray
3/4 Cfat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 oz portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 T whipping cream
2 T Dijon mustard
Sprinkle fish with thyme, pepper, and salt. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add fish; cook 1 minute on each side. Add broth, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, uncovered, 1 minute or until mushrooms are tender. Remove fish from pan; keep warm.
Add cream and mustard to pan; stir with a whisk until well combined. Cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Serve sauce over fish.
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.
We still had like 2 pounds of fish to eat up after that, and of all things, Jeremy requested fish sticks for dinner the next night. I based mine on a straightforward recipe from Eating Well. I must admit we ate slightly less “well,” however, because I used fresh pugliese bread crumbs instead of whole wheat ones and omitted the whole wheat cereal flakes. I dredged them in whole wheat flour, at least. I also used my own blend of spices, but no longer recall what all I threw in. Remember, as you’re dredging, to keep one hand for dry operations and one for wet—it cuts down on the need to scrub gooey crumb build-up from your fingers! To go with the fish sticks, I microwaved some small russets and made twice-baked potatoes with bacon, cheddar and broccoli. They went in the oven just before the fish and completed our finger-food dinner nicely, especially since they served as a vehicle for vegetables.
Tilapia Fish Sticks
Canola oil cooking spray
1 C whole-wheat dry breadcrumbs (see Shopping Tip) or 1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
1 C whole-grain cereal flakes
1 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 large egg whites, beaten
1 lb tilapia fillets, cut into 1/2-by-3-inch strips
Preheat oven to 450°F. Set a wire rack on a baking sheet; coat well with cooking spray. Place breadcrumbs, cereal flakes, lemon pepper, garlic powder, paprika and salt in a food processor or blender and process until finely ground. Transfer to a shallow dish.
Place flour in a second shallow dish and egg whites in a third shallow dish. Dredge each strip of fish in the flour, dip it in the egg and then coat all sides with the breadcrumb mixture. Place on the prepared rack. Coat both sides of the breaded fish with cooking spray.
Bake until the fish is cooked through and the breading is golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes.
Source: Loosely adapted from Eating Well.
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11.05.07
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Greek, Meats, Poultry at 5:20 pm by julie
I must be feeling more myself, because yesterday I cooked not once, but twice. We’re low on inspiring ingredients at the moment, so I pulled some chicken breasts out to thaw, and tried in vain to come up with something interesting to make of them for several hours before inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning: I could make something with ground chicken. I ended up giving Jeremy the option of chicken patties with rosemary and pancetta or Greek-style chicken meatballs with lemon and dill. Of course he ended up choosing the latter, which was definitely farther from my comfort zone. (I tried to dissuade him by letting him know they would be nothing like our favorite lamb kefthedes, to no avail… the chicken patties will have to wait for another day, I guess.)
I was totally prepared not to like this meal. Lemon isn’t my favorite, and I’ve consequently been studiously avoiding anything involving avgolemono in my Greek cookbook and at restaurants. I wasn’t thinking about the nature of the sauce when I offered it up as a meal option, and that’s probably a good thing, even though I don’t believe this is a traditional sort of avgolemono. At any rate, I was surprised to find that the lemon in the sauce was light and not overpowering, complementing the dilly chicken meatballs nicely. Maybe avgolemono isn’t so scary after all…
I ended up adjusting the original recipe slightly due to the amount of chicken I thawed, which ended up giving me just over 1.5 lbs of ground meat. My saute pan wasn’t quite large enough to hold all the meat mixture; I ended up having to toss about 3 meatballs’-worth because I didn’t want to overcrowd them. Instead of shaping beforehand, I used my little cookie scoop and dropped the meatballs right in the sauce; quick and convenient, and just the right size. I served with farfalle and completely forgot about adding the garnishes (not that I had olives anyway). Some feta would have been a nice touch, but as I said, we liked it perfectly fine as is.
Avgolemono-Braised Chicken Meatballs
Meatballs
1.5 lb ground chicken (from 4 breasts)
5 T uncooked long-grain rice
1 heaping T dried dill
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 extra-large egg
1 T dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
Sauce
1/4 C butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
20 oz chicken broth
1 large lemon, zest grated, juice squeezed
salt and pepper, to taste
Optional Garnish
1/2 C crumbled feta cheese
2 T chopped Greek olives
3 tsp chopped fresh parsley
To make the meatballs, knead all ingredients together with your hands—mixture will be soft. Refrigerate meatballs while preparing the sauce.
Preheat oven to 375F. In an ovenproof 12-in saute pan, warm butter over medium heat. Stir in flour until smooth, then gradually whisk in chicken broth, lemon zest and juice. Bring to a simmer and season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Using a small scoop, gently put the meatballs into the sauce and cover the pan. Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with feta, olives and parsley to serve. Serve over orzo pasta or rice.
Source: CooksRecipes.com
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07.10.07
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Greek, Italian, Lamb, Meats, Sides, Veggies at 8:50 pm by julie
My husband is a lamb fiend. Have I mentioned that before? When I don’t have a meal plan already in the works and ask what sounds good to him, the inevitable answer is “lamb.” Last week we went to the grocery store for some bread and came home with lamb chops. This weekend we went out to get milk and yogurt, and came back with ground lamb. I don’t think I had ever even tasted it before I met Jeremy, but I’ve been getting an awful lot of practice cooking it, and I’m finally coming to terms with its ideal degree of doneness, which is a lot less done than I typically want my meat to be. So here are a few “finger blistering” lamb meals we ate this weekend, Friday and Sunday, respectively.
Chopped and Choked
When I think of lamb chops, for some reason I immediately think of Rome and artichokes. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Molto Mario… Fortunately, I found some baby artichokes at the Lake Oswego farmer’s market, and snapped them up at 9 ‘chokes for $2. Quite a bargain, especially when you consider that there is less waste in prepping baby artichokes, as they’re all heart, so to speak, or nearly so. Not a prickly choke in sight. Mario has given me considerable confidence in the preparation of artichokes, which had previously been intimidating and unmanageable (they were never on the menu when I was growing up in Colorado, even in canned form). Now they’re no problem, and I keep wishing there was an artichoke stall at the Salem market. I got them prepped and floating in acidulated water (which Jeremy noted immediately; he’s been watching Mario too!), and decided to simply saute them a la Elise.
As for the lamb chops, which were nice and thick, I went the pan-searing route. After seasoning them with salt and pepper, I heated my cast iron skillet on the stove-top, and the oven to 350F. I quickly rendered some of their fat by rubbing the edges of the chops against the skillet, then pan-seared them to a nice golden brown. After that, they spent a few minutes finishing up in the oven while I sauteed the ‘chokes and put the finishing touches on some mashed potatoes. Somewhere in the vicinity of 10 minutes later, they were temping out at about 155F and approaching medium done. Jeremy thought I overcooked them a little, but I found them just perfect: tender and juicy, but without looking all raw.
Fresh from the Fat
A few months back, I tried my hand at a Greek meatball recipe, subbing in ground lamb for the pork and beef called for. The result was absolutely succulent meatballs, crispy and golden from frying, but moist and tender inside. It was definitely time to make more, and they were just as good as we remembered. Jeremy ate over a dozen of them, I think. And as a bonus, I now know a good way to get that unpleasant frying smell out of your house after making a batch of kefthedes: varnish your floors afterwards, and that charming scent with knock the fry smell right out the windows. 
This time, instead of lemony Greek potatoes, I tried my hand at another recipe in my Greek cookbook: fresh green beans slowly simmered with tomato, onion and cubes of potato. While it cooked, I did some gardening (basil! cardoons!) and took the puppy for a brisk walk to dry her off (let’s just say she found the water I was sprinkling on my herb garden very refreshing).
I had about half a pound of green beans for the two of us, so I reduced the recipe accordingly, estimating amounts according to what I had available. There was part of a can of diced tomatoes and juice leftover from the gemelli shrimp dish, so I used that, crushing the pieces a bit as I put them in. I also used red potatoes, cut them in eighths, and didn’t bother peeling them. There was plenty of liquid the whole time, and I actually removed the lid and increased the heat near the end to boil off the extra.
Fassolakia Yiahni
(Fresh Green Bean Ragout)
1 1/2 to 2 lbs fresh green beans
1/4 C olive oil
2 medium to large white onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 to 3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 to 5 plump ripe tomatoes, peeled and cored (not chopped)
1 to 2 small hot red peppers (optional)
1/4 C water, or more if necessary
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Feta cheese (optional)
Wash and clean beans. Snap or cut off tips and remove stringy fiber along seams with a sharp small knife. Wash thoroughly.
In a large pot, heat olive oil and saute onion until translucent. Add green beans and potatoes and stir with a wooden spoon for 2 to 4 minutes, until vegetables are coated in olive oil. Add garlic and stir once or twice.
Squeeze tomatoes into pot. Add hot pepper and 1/4 cup water. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, adding a little water if necessary, until beans are very tender and potatoes cooked.
Serve warm or cold, topped with feta if desired. Yield 4 to 6 servings.
Source: Adapted from The Food and Wine of Greece, by Diane Kochilas
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06.18.07
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Greek, Italian, Veggies at 6:51 pm by julie
For those Salemites who have an interest in unusual or organic foodstuffs and mourn the lack of a nearby Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or Trader Joe’s, LifeSource is a great resource. Of course, we may have been about the last people in town to figure that out, but now that we have a car, we’re trying hard to make up for the neglect. This last week we were fortunate enough to find a pile of fresh fava beans in the produce section, which for me was a big deal, because I’ve never found them for sale before, despite hopeful scouring of the farmer’s markets in May. I decided to use them to make up a bit of fava bean ‘hummus’ from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.
I’d heard an awful lot about what a pain fava beans are to shell, so I decided to document the process, just for fun. The pods are big and velvety, containing just 5 or 6 beans if you’re lucky. Many of them were lined with cottony fluff, as if to cushion the precious contents. I had a heck of a time getting the beans out of the pods, though; most of them refused to split open along their seams and just tore willy-nilly instead.
When I was done shelling, I had a sad little pile of bean left, just enough to cover the bottom of my bowl. I got some water boiling and blanched the beans for 2 minutes, then chilled them off until they were cool enough to touch.
At this point, the outer skins needed to be removed from the beans, the extra step that is the source of so much complaint. It actually didn’t bother me at all, though, and I got a pretty good rhythm going. All they needed was a bit of a tear in one spot with my fingernail, and a gentle squeeze would pop them right out of their skins, very much like slipping the skins off of Concord grapes.
Of course, removing the skins reduced the volume of bean remaining pretty considerably, and I barely had a handful of beans left for my recipe. Since the two of us only needed a little bit of spread to go with our dinners, that still worked in my favor.
The spread itself was very easy to make: a quick simmer in some rosemary-garlic infused olive oil and then pureed and sprinkled with more oil and feta cheese. We had it with garlic-rubbed sourdough crostini.
Oh yeah, and there was also some delicious lamb souvlaki and garlicky tzatziki from The Food and Wine of Greece. Details…
I’ve never eaten fava beans before, and I liked them enough that we will certainly seek them out again, even if we’ll now have to wait a year for another opportunity. They had a very pleasant earthiness that was nicely complemented by the other flavors in the spread: olive oil, rosemary, garlic, and salty feta. I know favas are much more classically Italian than Greek, but I figured the olive oil and feta would bridge the gap nicely, and everything did taste good together.
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04.04.07
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Greek, Lamb, Meats, Sides at 8:43 am by julie
…are too good not to share. An example of this is the lamb kefthedes I made for dinner last week, which came out to be the best meatballs I’ve ever eaten, bar none. Wait… those Sardinian meatballs are pretty fantastic too, but in a very different, soft and saucy way.
The photo doesn’t do them justice: They were perfect fresh from the skillet (crisp and golden outside and succulently moist inside with a touch of pink), tasted just as good at room temperature, and held up admirably in the form of reheated leftovers, warmed in a 350F oven for 15-20 minutes. I served them with a mound of sauteed spinach and Greek roasted potatoes (which also reheated nicely in the oven).
A few more specific notes: There was no mint in the house, so I didn’t use any, and we didn’t miss it. I used my “coarse” microplane paddle, and the (unpeeled) potato came out closer to pureed, so I didn’t use as much as called for. I also started out with one slice of bread and added a second once I saw how much liquid the potato added to the mix. Playing it by ear can be a good thing.
I made the lamb mixture first and put it in the fridge, then started the potatoes. When they were down to the last 15 minutes of allotted cook time, I started heating the oil and shaping/dredging meatballs. I got the first meatballs in the oil about when the timer went off for the potatoes, so they stayed in the oven an extra 15 minutes or so. I did the meatballs in three batches, and started the spinach once I had dropped the last batch in the oil. (Spinach was olive oil and some minced garlic heated until starting to brown, as much baby spinach as would fit in my skillet, tossed on med heat with a bit of kosher salt just until wilted, then a splash of lemon juice just before serving.)
Lamb Kefthedes
1 lb ground lamb
1 tsp dried mint (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper
2 tsp kosher salt
1 large red potato, grated very finely
2 slices day-old sourdough bread, crusts removed
1 egg
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour for dredging
canola oil for frying
Dip the bread in water briefly, then squeeze out the excess and crumble it. Mix together with the remaining ingredients, lamb through onion, working with your hands. All the ingredients should be well combined and equally distributed, but do not overwork the meat. Leave mixture to rest for an hour or more in the fridge, to allow flavors to meld.
To form, spread out the flour on a large plate; have a second, clean plate ready. Take a tablespoonful at a time of the meat mixture and form into a small ball, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Roll in the flour and shake in the palm of your hand to remove the excess flour. Place the dredged meatball on the clean plate. Continue with the remaining mixture until all the meatballs are shaped.
To fry, heat about 1/2-inch of canola or extra-virgin olive oil in a 12″ cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Using a tablespoon or small spatula, gently place as many meatballs as will fit in the pan without crowding. Fry them, turning once or twice so that all sides are nicely browned. Remove, drain slightly on paper towels, and serve, either hot or at room temperature. The meatballs will be crunchy on the outside, and velvety smooth on the inside.
Patates Riganates
Roasted Potatoes with Garlic, Lemon and Oregano
2 pounds red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup (freshly squeezed) lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano, optional
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the potatoes in a single layer in a 13-x-9-inch baking dish and pour the oil over them. Add the garlic, dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste and toss well to coat with the oil.
Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes. Add the stock, toss and bake for 10 minutes more. Add the lemon juice, toss and bake for 15 to 30 minutes more, or until the potatoes are cooked through. If you like, preheat the broiler and broil the potatoes for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown.
Sprinkle with the fresh oregano and serve at once. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Variation: Dissolve 1 tablespoon tomato paste in the stock, and reduce the amount of lemon juice to taste. Substitute Aleppo pepper or crushed red pepper flakes for the black pepper.
Source: Epicurious
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