Artichoke Cream Pasta

Chris recently brought a regular sale to my notice through Amazon.com. You can get subscriptions to lots of magazines, many times, for $6-$10 for the whole year (or sometimes two years.) I treated myself recently to a dirt-cheap subscription to Cooking Light. I really like it. I've read many foodie periodicals over the years, starting with my father's old addiction to Gourmet magazine. Cooking Light is one part lifestyle mag (like Gourmet), and the second half has most of the recipes. I've already tried several, and they've all turned out well.

This one is an artichoke, lemon zest and pea pasta that is based on a recipe that they had. Of course I took my usual cursory look at the recipe, but I put onion and garlic in a liberal amount of oil first. Then I added drained and rinsed artichoke hearts, and peas, a little white wine and the zest of a whole lemon. Then I seasoned the mix. Lastly, you add cooked pasta and about a half-cup of ricotta cheese, and just stir until mixed.



It was good, but I must say, I have never eaten a dish that so BEGGED for bacon. I think if I had started the mix with a little diced pancetta, it would have been so much better. As it was, it tasted a little flat. Either that, or leave out the ricotta, and I think the zippier flavors (like the lemon) may have come through more. Quick way to make a cream pasta, though!

Easy Galumpki Bake

Recently, I was at my friend Beata's baby shower. She and her husband are Polish, and they had lots of Polish friends, who brought quite a bit of Polish food. And when I say, "they brought quite a bit," I mean in the way that Sitting Bull brought quite a bit of Cheyenne to a small party with Custer. It was astounding. After we all ate our fill, Beata announced, "And now, we eat dinner!" Holy crap. That's when the meat really came out. Dear lord, the meat! If meat makes for a healthy baby (and I think I'm a testament to that), then this kid is gonna be Herculean.

One of the many tasty, meaty items was galumpki, which I think most people have had at one time or another. They're also called cabbage rolls, and that's just what they are: rolled cabbage leaves with rice and pork in the center, and tomato sauce on top. All through my childhood, my father made them, and mistakenly called them "pigs in a blanket," which they are not.

They're great, but not so easy to make. The cabbage leaves have to be blanched, and the rice pre-cooked, and then of course there's all the rolling. I made a sort of "deconstructed" galumpki in the slow cooker, which is also a bit healthier because it uses turkey. It tastes great (much like the original), and utilizes a much simpler "open package, dump contents" sort of technique.



Ingredients:
1 carrot, peeled and broken up
1 celery stick with leaves
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
(if you made the Turkey Chili Mac, then you already have these in your fridge)
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 bag of cole slaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
1 lb. ground turkey
1 cup water
1 29 oz. can tomato sauce (puree)
salt and pepper

In layers, place half the bag of cabbage mix, then half the mix of the first four veggies, which you've pulsed to a fine chop in the food processor. Add half the rice, then tear half the turkey up into chunks to complete the first layer. Make sure you season the meat. Then repeat each layer once more, and season again. Add the sauce to the top, and the water. Cook on low for six to eight hours.



Serve with crusty bread, with parmesan cheese on top. Mm!

Turkey Chili Mac

This was super quick and easy, and I even made it a "deluxe" way. It was sort of a cross between a bolognese sauce (which has carrot in it), and regular chili mac. A bit of extra work to just pulse up the mirepoix (carrot, celery, and onion - in this case, I also added garlic) in the food processor, yes, but I doubled the mix of the four veggies, stuck half of it in the fridge, and then threw it into the Crockpot for "Easy Galumpki Bake" the next day. So you're saving time!



Ingredients:
2 carrot, peeled and cut into big chunks
2 celery sticks with leaves, cleaned and "chunked"
1 onion
2 clove garlic
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 glass red wine
1 cup frozen peas
1 large can chopped tomatoes
mexican seasoning
salt and pepper
shredded cheddar
whole wheat pasta

Pulse the first four ingredients in the food processor until finely chopped (note: if you're only making the chili mac and not the Galumpki Bake, cut the amount for the first four veggies in half). Sweat the veggies until they are just translucent. Add the ground turkey and brown it, then add your seasonings, then the wine and tomatoes. Add the peas at the last moment just to warm them through. Serve over pasta with lots of cheddar!

Country Steak and Beef Stroganoff

I saw Alton Brown make country-style cube steak, and I had to get me some of that.



I altered his recipe a little. What I was really in the mood for were some mushrooms. Also, I don't yet have a dutch oven (but I have an Amazon rewards coupon currently burning a hole in my pocket). I sautéed some onions, celery and a package of baby portobello mushrooms (also known as cremini mushrooms). I set that to the side, and then continued with Alton's instructions in the same pan. (I was using my big oven-proof sauté pan, and that seemed to work just fine.)

I didn't use the bacon fat he called for (not something I have lying around), I just fried them suckers up, cleaned up most of the oil, and returned everything to the pan. I was also puzzled by the instruction to cut the steaks "with the grain." I couldn't get this to make sense in my head. so I cut against it. The steaks came out very tender, so I think I did right. Also, when they were all cooked, I tempered some sour cream and added that at the end into the sauce.

(Also, those are some sweet potato oven fries that I made. Toss them in oil and seasoning, place them all flat in a 400-425 degree oven, turn after 20 minutes, and cook for another 20. I added some BBQ sauce to some Hellman's Light mayo and served that to dip them in. Going up the country, good eatin' there.)

I got a lot of steaks rather cheaply out of this recipe, and let's face it: times is hard all over, baby. So that was great. Since it is just the two of us (there are three, but one of us is still eating oatmeal and formula), I broke up the leftovers, and served them over noodles as stroganoff.



I added frozen peas to make it a complete (and completely different) meal. I think this dish will turn out even better when I get my cast-iron dutch oven. Can't wait!

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Twice-Baked Potatoes

I know I've shared my recipe for BBQ chicken in the crockpot before, but oh lord, I'm getting good at this.



It's finally got that dark mahogany color and smoky flavor that I want it to have. Here's the new and improved recipe:

two cups of ketchup
one cup of mustard, any kind
two capfuls of liquid smoke
about a quarter to a half cup of molasses
one cup of packed brown sugar
as much Red Hot sauce as you think you’ll like
one dark beer, or a couple of shots bourbon for a thicker sauce
half a medium onion, diced finely
two cloves diced garlic
a heavy shake of cumin (don’t be shy) and a shake of coriander
salt and pepper (plenty of black pepper)
two small cans of tomato paste (this is the new part - my sauce was coming out too runny)

(This is the same recipe that I printed here for the beef ribs. You can really plunge any meat ya like into this sauce, and it'll come out tasty. Or in a pinch, use shoe leather.) In this case, I put two packages of chicken into it, and cooked it for six hours. When the chicken shreds very easily with a fork, shred it all up right there in the Crockpot. This recipe makes a ton of chicken. I freeze half for another time. You can use some in tacos, on buns as sandwiches, or on a pizza (great with goat cheese and thinly sliced red onions, and more cheddar on top).



I decided some would be great on top of some twice-baked potatoes. So I made up a recipe for those, and it came out great. First, bake four potatoes. Use the big brown russet or baking potatoes for this. Scrub them, pierce them with a fork in several places, salt them liberally and put a dab of butter on top of them inside some foil. Wrap them up and bake them for about an hour to 75 minutes at 400 degrees. (I've read some recipes since that insist you don't use the foil - I'll try this next time. But I didn't want the skins to shrivel, and they didn't doing this with the foil.) When they come out, vent them a little and let them cool until you can handle them. Then scoop out most of the insides into a bowl, leaving about a half-inch of flesh. You can't really scoop all of it out, because then the skin will be too thin.

To the potato flesh, add one brick of cream cheese (light is fine). Sauté one diced half-onion and one clove of crushed garlic in a little oil, and add that to the mixture, plus a little salt. Mix, and put the mixture back in the potatoes (I had returned them to the foil I used before). Then top with cheddar, and bake at 375 degrees for about fifteen minutes.



You can top them with bacon or anything else you like. I put the BBQ chicken on top, along with scallions and light sour cream (hey, every little bit helps.)



They were mounded so high, we ended up just eating a half at a time, so it made lots of nice leftovers.

Hey, love BBQ, bacon, swearing and hardened arteries? You have to check out this post on my brother's blog (he's the funny one in the family.) But don't go if you don't like the swearing. As a matter of fact, what are you still reading my goddamn blog for?

Mahogany Ale Shepherd's Pie

This isn't a traditional shepherd's pie, just something I made up. (Why do I even bother saying that any more?) I wanted to use ground turkey, and still come up with something that was dark and rich on the bottom layer, without being too fatty. It came out so well that I actually wrote it all down immediately so that I wouldn't forget what I did (and if you know me, you know that I never do that.)



Filling:
1/2-1 cup carrot
2 celery ribs
2 cloves garlic
1/2 white or yellow onion
1/2 cup parsely
1 package ground turkey, as lean as you like
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Abita Turbodog or other dark mahogany beer (Raison D'être by Dogfish Head is great, too)
1/4 cup or more red wine
flour (about 3 Tablesp.) and butter (about 2 Tablesp.)
1 large can of peas and carrots

Seasonings (about a halt Tablesp. each):
salt and pepper
celery salt
paprika
Jamaican allspice
ground mustard

Potatoes:
6 Yukon Gold potatoes
1 "brick" cream cheese, or 1 cup sour cream (light is fine with either)
chicken broth (about 1 cup)
salt and pepper

Directions:
Pulse the first five ingredients (washed) in the food processor until finely diced. Sauté them in a little olive oil, add the turkey and brown it. Add the seasonings (just a good "shake" of each.) Add about three tablespoons of flour, combine the mixture, add the butter, and combine it again. Then, add the ketchup, then wine, then the beer, letting each heat through before adding the next. Then add chicken stock or broth a little at a time. The mixture should be a thick, dark sauce.



Pour the mixture into a deep lasagna pan, and add the canned peas and carrots (rinsed and drained). I used canned vegetables here, because I wanted that English, "tinned" feel to it... Or maybe it just reminded me more of the school lunchroom. Anyway, you could certainly use frozen or fresh.

Clean the potatoes and dice them (I like to leave the skins on). Boil the potatoes, drain and smash them, using the rest of the ingredients on the list. Add chicken stock until they are the thickness you want (they should still form stiff peaks). Then dollop it into the pan and spread it out over the meat mixture. Top with shredded parmesan cheese, and bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, broiling briefly at the end to brown the cheese.



I really loved this, and I think Chris did, too. I didn't miss the beef a bit. Perfect for a cold evening, and a big serving of it made a nice lunch to take along the next day.

Grilled Vegetable Lasagna

I'm not doing a low-carb throwback to 2001 here, but a good veggie lasagna can be made without the noodles. It's kind of fun, and you can have big pieces of vegetables without grinding them into the sauce or the filling... I just use them instead of the noodles.

I cut the vegetables lengthwise and grill and season them first (I use a grill pan). Then, importantly, you have to pat them very, very dry with paper towels. Otherwise they will cook down further in the pan, and you'll have a soggy lasagna (which is still pretty good, actually, you just have to drain it somewhat.) Then you put a bit of sauce in your pan, and lay the veggies down as you would the noodles.



You can use any veggie you like: eggplant (which you don't have to salt and drain if you grill them), zucchini, yellow squash, even potatoes, which have starch and actually help thicken things up a bit. (I know, I should have cut these eggplant lengthwise, but I forgot. Still pretty good. Doesn't matter, really, as long as they are sliced thinly.)



You alternate the layers with the filling: a mixture of one medium tub of ricotta (again, drained very well), one egg, one cup of mozzarella cheese, a half cup to one cup of parmesan, a couple tablespoons of diced flat parsley,  a little salt and pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. Don't use too much filling, or you'll have the water problem again.

I top mine with smoked gouda or mozzarella, some more parmesan, and bake it at about 375 degrees for 45 minutes.



You can also add ground turkey meat or ground sausage to the sauce, or simply add tomato paste to the drained ground meat, and use that as a layer (which again helps it to stay undiluted). Or, go on your merry veggie way and skip the meat.



The smoky flavor adds a little interest to it. Just steer clear of Trader Joe's Light Smoked Gouda. Terrible. I'll never go the way of light cheese again. Remember the Friends episode where one of the guys compares how much he hates something to Monica's feelings on light mayonnaise? (She says, "IT'S NOT MAYONNAISE!!") Well, that's how I feel about light cheese. Plastic doesn't melt, folks. If you wanna go light, I say eat real food and try portion control instead.



Or not... It IS veggies, after all.