March Photo a Day: Fruit

Fruit

For a snack today, I made one of my favorite side dishes: Sautéed brussels sprouts. I put a little olive oil in a pan (1-2 tsp.) on medium-high heat (like a 6 or 7). While the oil is heating up, I cut the bottom of the brussels sprouts off, cut it in half laterally and then thinly slice it. I sauté it in the oil for maybe 7 minutes until it is tender and gets a little browned. I season with another dash of olive oil, salt, pepper and the juice from 1/4 lemon (and maybe a little more since I have a bit of a sour palette).

The finished product:

Delicious.

Martha, You Are One Crazy Lady

I'm not sure where in the world I found this recipe.  I was going to blame my friend CR, but she didn't pin it on one of her boards.  So I guess the only person I can blame is myself.  Do NOT attempt this recipe unless you have a lot of time on your hands.  Seriously, I was up cooking until 11:30pm and ended up not being able to cook my other planned meal for the week (Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup).  That one may be from CR, but I'm not going to go to Pinterest to find out for sure right now.

In case you didn't click on the link, the recipe is for a White Bean and Vegetable Stew.  Sounds easy and not too time intensive, right? WRONG.  First off, I will never commit to a MS recipe without reading the entire recipe first.  The ingredient list looked easy enough (minus the radicchio - had to google it and the baby artichokes - just went with the big 'uns since Safeway didn't carry the babies).  But the step by step instructions included some tidbits of pure insanity.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces (1 3/4 cups) dried cannellini, or white beans
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 small onion (about 4 ounces), thickly sliced
• 1 tablespoon salt, plus more to taste
• 2 lemons
• 12 (about 1 3/4 pounds) baby artichokes
• 1 bunch (4 cups loosely packed leaves) fresh basil
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large leeks, white and light-green parts only
• 2 teaspoons minced (from 2 large cloves) garlic
• 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 3 (about 1 pound) radicchio
• I should note that I added chicken sausage in an artichoke and garlic flavor.  Erik needs some meat in his meals so I thought this would be nice way to add it in while keeping with the flavor profile.  I sliced it into thin circles.

Directions:

1. Pick over beans, discarding any stones or broken beans (Where is Martha getting her beans?!), and rinse. Place in a large saucepan, cover with cold water by 2 inches, and bring to a strong boil. Remove from heat, and let stand 1 hour, covered. (Alternatively, beans can be placed in a bowl, covered with 2 inches of cold water, and soaked overnight, or alternatively, you could buy canned beans and chicken stock and save yourself the next 2 hours of prep).)
2. Drain beans, place them in the saucepan, and add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Tie peppercorns in a small piece of cheesecloth, and add to beans along with bay leaves and onion slices. Return the mixture to heat, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer until beans are very tender, 35 to 40 minutes, adding 1 teaspoon salt about 10 minutes before beans are finished cooking. Remove from heat, set aside, and let beans cool in their liquid. (Why?!!?! Needless to say, I did not do this.  In fact, I just dumped them into the soup as soon as they were soft.) They can be cooked and refrigerated in their liquid up to 2 days in advance. (Now you tell us!)  This is also the point where I browned the sausage.  The chicken sausage is technically cooked but I find that browning it in a skillet gives it a nice caramelized taste and a good texture for stew.
3. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with cold water. Cut lemons in half, squeeze juice into water, and add lemon halves. Trim about 1/2 inch from tips of artichokes, and pull off tough outer leaves. Trim stems to 1/2 inch, and trim off dark green outer layer of stem. Slice artichokes in half lengthwise if small or in quarters if large. Use a small sharp knife to remove the purple choke from artichokes -- if the choke is not purple, it is not necessary to remove it. Place prepared artichokes in the bowl of lemon water. Set aside. (Nothing offensive here.)
4. Remove basil leaves from stems, discard stems, and wash leaves thoroughly. Drain and lay leaves out on paper towels, blotting away as much water as possible. Place basil in the bowl of a food processor, add 4 tablespoons olive oil, and process until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer puree to a small bowl, cover immediately with plastic wrap to prevent discoloration, and refrigerate until needed. (I skipped this step entirely.  I just used a basil puree from the squeeze tube at the grocery store.  Seriously, those squeeze tubes are life savers sometimes.  We use them in limited circumstances for those items that we use every now and then, but if we bought these things fresh, they would go bad before they were entirely used.  We use them for basil, cilantro and ginger.)
5. Cut leeks into 1/2-inch rounds, and place in a large bowl of cold water. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to rid them of any dirt and sand. Lift out of the water, and drain in a colander. (Do NOT do this.  The best way to clean leeks is to cut off the white bottom and then make a bisecting cut lengthwise.  Then you clean each layer individually and then cut up.  Sounds more time consuming, but this was just terrible and a waste of water and a clean bowl!)
6. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and cook until fragrant and tender, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Drain artichokes, discarding the liquid and lemons (What?!!? I'm throwing away two whole lemons!?!  Those suckers are expensive! What the heck! If I had known this, I would have use one of those pre-squeezed lemon juice concentrate things (another way Erik and I cheat -- mostly because citrus is rather expensive right now)), and add to leeks along with wine. Cover, and cook until artichokes begin to become tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover, and cook until liquid evaporates and artichokes are tender, about 5 minutes more.
7. Meanwhile, cut radicchio heads into 1-inch wedges without removing the core; it will hold the leaves together. (You should go ahead and cut into thin strips.  It'll be easier to eat with a spoon later.) Drain cooked beans, reserving cooking liquid. Remove and discard bay leaves, onion slices, and peppercorns. (Again, I'm wasting the onions?!  Also, looking at the cooked bean mixture, it would have been a HUGE pain in the ass to sift out the onions.  I just added the whole kit and kaboodle to the leeks and artichokes.  Tastes fine and is not as wasteful. This is also the point where I added the sausage.)  Add beans, 2 cups of the cooking liquid, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper to leeks and artichokes. Cook until beans are heated through and liquid has thickened, about 15 minutes. Stir in radicchio wedges, and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the basil puree (or the basil from a tube). Serve immediately with the remaining basil puree on the side (or don't because you didn't make it.)

So, yes, this took seemingly forever for a seemingly easy soup.  The initial taste though? Fabulous.  It had to just be a taste because I wasn't going to have ANOTHER meal (Erik make skirt steak tonight) at 11pm.  I put it right into tupperwares.  We got 7 meals out of this recipe.  I think my portions were a little heavy handed, but I'll adjust for me.  They were probably just right for E.  

Oh, I should also note, that I really paid no mind to the salt and pepper suggested amounts.  Since I was adding the sausage, I wasn't sure how it would go and I'm really salt intolerant.  I would like to think of ways to make this a slowcooker meal or other ways to cut down on prep/cooking time.  Maybe jarred artichoke hearts? Canned beans would probably be best.  Anyway, the end result was fabulous.  Erik got asked a bunch of questions about it at work the next day.  And the homemaker in me was pretty proud. :)  That being said, I want to make it again; however, it may just be more than I can do right now.

Fresh Plate Project: Mediterranean Week

A good friend of mine Colleen and her friend started this really cool blog called Fresh Plate Project.  They also have a facebook group.  It's closed but you can ask to join.  So far, everyone has posted some really great recipe ideas.  The way it works is that every week there's a theme and everyone shares their culinary endeavors or recipes they want to try.  So far the group has 28 people!  No more need to feel uninspired in the kitchen.

So, because work is not insane and I actually had time, I went to the grocery store and cooked tonight!  Past times that I've cooked I've been staffed on something crazy almost immediately afterward so I've avoided cooking for a little while (no joke).  Anyway, without further ado:

The recipe I wanted to do was Mediterranean Chopped Salad with Shrimp.  HOWEVER, Food Emporium had other plans.  The shrimp in the case look sketch-y, there weren't any English cucumbers (yes, there's a difference—apparently), the only pita/ pita chip-like item was onion and I'm pretty sure it had high fructose corn syrup!, and after all that, didn't quite seem worth it, right?  SO.  I made my own salad inspired by the Real Simple recipe linked above.

Meaghan's Mediterranean Inspired Salad

Ingredients:

- 1 15.5oz can of chickpeas rinsed (or 1/2 cup dry chickpeas, soaked and cooked)

- 1 container grape tomatoes halved or quartered depending on size (I love heirloom ones)

- 1/2 jar of pitted kalamata olives (coarsely chopped)

- 2 bunches of basil

- 1/4 medium yellow onion

- 1/2 cucumber (chopped)

- Couscous (any ol' box/ container will do)

- 3 tablespoons olive oil

- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

- Romaine lettuce

- Feta Cheese

- Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Start the couscous cooking on the stove following the box/ jar directions.
2.  Combine chickpeas, tomatoes, onion, cucumber, kalamata olives and basil in a medium bowl with the olive oil and red wine vinegar.
3.  Mix it up! and add salt and pepper to taste.
4.  Place lettuce on plate and then dish out the goodness.  I placed about half a cup of the couscous on one side (I used pinenut couscous by Near East) and then the salad on the other.  I spooned some remaining liquid from the bottom of the bowl over the couscous and salad.  Top with crumbled feta cheese or sliced pressed feta cheese.  Voilà!!