Lunchbox #1: Potato Salad Salad

After getting happy hour sushi for the second time in less than a week, I had no reason to cook a big meal tonight. However, I still had to think about lunch for Monday at work. I suppose it would have been easy enough to go out to eat tomorrow, but the closest places to my work are Chipotle (too intense) and Panera (too gross and expensive).

So I threw together a healthy potato salad and paired it with spinach and a small green pepper (pepperoncini). That's why its Potato Salad Salad. For the potato part, I basically just boiled about ten small red potatoes for ten minutes. Melt a couple tablespoons of butter and add that to the cut up, boiled potatoes. There were also sandwich sized packets of mayo and mustard in my fridge, so I threw them in. A cup of plain non-fat yogurt completed the sauce. Sliced scallions give it a nice zing, while 10 chopped olives and some parsley make it taste homey and familiar. Of course, I added one diced green chili as well.

I'll be having this for lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday too...

Mexican Green Chicken

Earlier this week, I went to the grocery store without a plan. Normally, this can be dangerous for me, but this time I was on a schedule because I had to go watch a football game. This was the only whole football game I've ever watched. Seriously. And they lost.

Anyway, tomatillos were on sale at the grocery store. I've never cooked with these before and I know that they are out of season. But SALE! Come on, cheap tomatillos in the middle of a Minnesota winter. Anyway, they make a damn good salsa (that's sauce, not dip, in Spanish).



Ingredients:
About a pound of tomatillos
1/2 medium yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
5-7 green chillies
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 cup cilantro, no stems
3 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

First, boil you're tomatillos until the skin splits (about 10 minutes). Strain them. Put them in a blender with cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, onion, some salt and pepper. Blend well until you reach "salsa" consistency.



Cut your chicken into strips. Make a breading from the crumbs, paprika and a little salt. Toss the strips in the breading and fry in 1 tablespoon of the butter until you have browning on all sides. Place chicken in baking dish with remainder of butter. Pour 3/4ths of the salsa into the dish and bake at 375 degrees for forty-five minutes. Stir occasionally. Take out and cut chicken to make sure it's well done. Mix in the remainder of your salsa for a fresh taste. Serve with rice.

Usually, I don't go for extra steps, like this breading and frying. But it made a difference tonight. This was really good. Sort of like curry, but a different bunch of flavors. I could have gone for a jalapeno, but I had a lot of chillies sitting around.

Coconut Curry

I'll be honest. This isn't the most authentic tasting curry I've ever made. Still, it's pretty damn good. Basically, this was intended to be Coconut Green Curry, but ended up being a semi-Americanized curry of sorts. I blame the lack of authentic ingredients on Minnesota winter. Thai basil is nowhere to be found, and lemongrass is a long drive away. Whatever, I supplemented with actual lemon and some Indian curry leaves.

The good: This recipe was very tasty and completely vegan. The red potatoes were also perfect, because they were small and tender and cooked fast. The bad: A little too much starch. Potato plus rice equals a lot of starch and no protein...

Ingredients:
1 16 oz can of coconut milk
5-6 green chillies
8-10 curry leaves
1/2 large white onion, chopped
10-15 baby carrots, sliced
1/2 bag frozen peas (standard sized bag...)
1 small red bell pepper, sliced thin
7 small red potatoes, quartered
1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1 tablespoon Thai curry paste, green or red, store bought or homemade.
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
3/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon sugar (if desired)

Saute your onions until translucent. Add chillies, curry leaves and coriander seeds. Saute for another two minutes and reduce heat. Add ginger-garlic paste, curry paste and coconut milk. Mix well. Add carrots, peas, potatoes and red bell pepper. Simmer at a low heat.


Add turmeric, chili powder, peanut butter and lemon juice. Taste and add salt and/or sugar to taste. Once the vegetables are done (15-20 minutes), add the cilantro and cook until it's just a little soft. Remove from heat and serve with long grain rice (such as basmati).

Potato Artichoke Gratin

This was an extremely fruitful experiment. Really, this was one of the most delicious things I've made in a long time that wasn't a curry. I mean, I guess it's hard to screw up cheesy potatoes, but still, this was really tasty.

Honestly, I didn't need a recipe to do this, though I glanced at this and this before starting. Mostly, I just wasn't sure how to go about getting my artichoke hearts. Both of these recipes suggest starting with fresh artichokes, but I couldn't bare to waste all of that leafy goodness just to get to the heart. I also could not bare to spend $4 per artichoke at Lunds. So I ended up buying a couple of packages of frozen artichoke hearts, which were perfect.

Ingredients:
2 packages frozen artichoke hearts
3 large baking potatoes
About 2 cups grated cheese ( I mixed Gruyere and Parmesan)
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup bread crumbs
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or put through a press
Paprika, salt and pepper to taste

Grease a large baking dish with olive oil. Mostly peel your potatoes and slice them real thin. Prepare the artichoke hears according to instructions on the package. Strain them. Line the pan with about a third of your potato slices. Cover with a thin layer of cheese, which you can see pictured below.



Cover this with a layer of artichoke hearts. Then another layer of cheese. Then another layer of potatoes and then more cheese and more artichokes... you get the point. Do this until you run out of artichoke hearts and potatoes.

Cook your cream, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika in a pan at a low heat until it is sufficiently fragrant. Pour this mix evenly over your potato-artichoke-cheese layers. Top with the bread crumbs and one last layer of cheese. Cover the whole thing in tin foil and bake for about 40 minutes. Remove the tin foil and broil until the cheese on top is lightly browned. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes.

Honey Mustard Tilapia with Red Potato Salad

The creative juices were definitely flowing today. I had a craving for fish but a ton of extra ingredients lying around. Some kind of compromise was in order.

I ended up buying couple fillets of white fish and making a good dent in my other supplies. I would recommend you make the salad first, then move onto the fish. The salad can be eaten warm or cold. The fish should be served hot.

Also, I should note that there are not small red potatoes in the Red Potato Salad, and that recipe is actually a variation of one my favorites by Mark Bittman.

Red Potato Salad
Ingredients:
2-3 medium sized beets, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
4 green chillies
3 cloves of garlic
The juice of one lime
1 can pinto beans, rinsed
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop up the beets and potato into half-inch cubes. Toss them in olive oil, and add cumin seeds, salt and pepper. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, use a food processor or blender to turn your chillies, garlic and lime juice into a sauce. I even added a little onion to the mix.

Remove the beets and potatoes from the oven. Add your sauce and the can of pinto beans. Bake for another 10 minutes or until all vegetables are soft. Serve warm or cold.



Honey Mustard Tilapia
Ingredients:
About half a pound of tilapia fillets (other white fish are acceptable)
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium yellow onion, quartered
Salt and pepper to taste
Diced parsley for garnish
1-2 sheets of tin foil

Spread a sheet of tin foil out in a large baking pan. Spray with cooking spray. Arrange tilapia and top with slices of the butter. In a bowl, mix the mustard, vinegar and honey. Here would be a good place to add the salt and pepper too. Top the fish with the sauce and then arrange the quartered onions. Close the tin foil around the fish. Use a second piece if necessary. The fish should be completely sealed.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees. Wait for it to cool, and drain some of the sauce if necessary. Garnish with parsley and serve with Red Potato Salad.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

It was about time for me to bust out my cupcake pan, a Christmas gift from my brother, Will. I've been dreaming about cupcakes for weeks now. But I knew I wanted to make them myself, not buy them at the grocery store. After all, who even knows what they put in them to get that delightful texture and tasty sweetness. It's probably whale blubber or unicorn tears, right?

Regardless, this was the first time I have ever made cupcakes. So I went with a fairly easy recipe for pumpkin cupcakes. I don't have an electric mixer, but I suppose I didn't really need it.

The results were quite tasty. Since I followed the easy recipe almost verbatim, I won't be typing it all out here, but I will tell you a few changes I made.

Fist, I substituted a half cup of the white flour for whole wheat flour. It made me feel a little better and I could not taste anything unusual. The actual health benefits of this are negligible. Second, I added a few drops of yellow and red food coloring to the frosting, which gives it that nice peach color. Finally, I skipped the candy corn because its not fall, and that is by far the grossest candy ever. Worse than Swedish fish.



A few notes about the frosting. Maybe I added a little too much canned pumpkin, but the yield was way too much. I wanted to eat the half cup of frosting I had leftover, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Also, the recipe calls for a full tablespoon of vanilla, which was too much.

All in all, this was a good experience. Although I had some icing issues, the batter and cakes themselves turned out well.

Icing with issues

Fruit Cake

Like many of you, I have been getting a little sick of sweets. But tonight I decided to get back on that horse one more time...and the results were better than ever.

A friend has told me about this specific cake several times. He calls it a Plum Cake, but I've seen many recipes simply call it a Fruit Cake. The cake usually calls for dried plums and many other kinds of dry fruit, so I'm sticking with Fruit Cake.

Anyway, this is nothing like the Fruit Cake many of us are accustomed to eating around the Holidays. You know, the one that never spoils and gets regifted multiple times before being thrown out? I guess they eat this kind of fruit cake in India during the holidays...and it's delicious. Its got loads of dry fruit, a fluffy texture and a pleasant spice to it. If that's not enough, it's got brandy too!

Although I made some changes and conversions, this is a recipe I relied on heavily for this cake.

Step One
Ingredients:

1 cup prunes, chopped
3/4 cup figs, chopped
2 cups assorted sweet dry fruit, chopped (I went for a tropical mix sold at the grocery store)
2 cups assorted nuts, unsalted
Zest of a large orange
1 cup brandy or golden rum

Anywhere from a day to a week before you plan to bake the cake, prepare these ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients with the brandy and let it soak in your fridge. I waited two days and the fruits tasted great.



Step Two
Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons of powdered spiced (nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, clove etc.)
2 sticks of butter
5 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp brandy

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine fruit mixture with flour and baking powder. Mix well. Toss in your powdered spices. In a sauce pan, make a simple syrup using 1 cup of the sugar and a few tablespoons of water. You'll know it's done when it looks like caramel. Careful not to burn anything or overcook the syrup.

Whip butter and remaining two cups of sugar together. I used my hands, which was fast and easy. Add you're eggs with a few tablespoons of flour and mix well. Add the flour-fruit mixture to the butter and mix well. Add in vanilla, orange juice and brandy. Fold in syrup. Add the whole mix to a baking dish or two. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 and then lower the temperature to 250 for 10 more minutes. My yield was two cakes, and one will certainly be gifted!

Whole Wheat Gnocchi?

On a recent trip to a Festival Foods, I noticed a package of "whole wheat gnocchi." Given my infatuation with gnocchi and anything whole wheat, I immediately and impulsively threw them in my basket. It wasn't until later that I realized this gnocchi was made from sweet potato and potato pasta can't really be whole wheat. Actually, you can make gnocchi from many things (pumpkin, spinach, etc.) I was just disappointed that these were not as healthy as I had hoped. A third of the package only has one gram of fiber!

No matter. I made them anyway and they were just as delicious as plain old white gnocchi. The mere idea of a healthy gnocchi actually inspired me to forgo my usual cream sauce and create something less fatty. I made a nice sun dried tomato sauce, and topped the dish with Parmesan. Here's the recipe for my sauce.

Ingredients:
1 can tomato sauce
10-12 sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup parsley, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup black olives, sliced

First, soak you're dried tomatoes in hot water for about 15 minutes. Strain and chop the tomatoes, reserving the liquid. In a small pot with some olive oil, saute the onion and pepper flakes until onion is clear. Add tomato sauce, dried tomatoes and garlic. Cook at medium heat until tomatoes soften a little. Add olives and parsley. Continue to cook this at a low heat, while adding the liquid little by little until you reach a nice consistency. Puree if desired.

Boil and strain your gnocchi. Serve with sun dried tomato sauce, and top with Parmesan and parsley for garnish.