Potato Pancake with Broccoli and Curry

Yesterday I have received a fine shredding disk for my Cuisinart 11 cup Pro food processor (great for making pizza dough) and somehow got craving for latke. What a timing! I had baking potato so all I needed was egg and little flour. When I reached for egg carton I got glimpse of broccoli and decision was made. Since I always add little curry into my cream of broccoli soup I thought that it will go well in pancakes. Great decision! Since it is so quick to make now that I don’t have to grate by hand it is a weekly snack for sure.

To make 2 large or 4 smaller pancakes:

1 large russet baking potato, finely grated

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup broccoli, chopped

2 Tbs. flour

1 tsp. Malaysian or Indian curry

Salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbs. olive oil

Preheat non-stick frying pan on medium high heat with oil.

Mix grated potato with salt, pepper and curry.

Add egg and broccoli and mix till well combined.

Mix in flour and combine.

Pour 1/2 cup of potato mixture into hot pan and spread about pencil thin.

When golden brown on bottom, about 5 minutes, turn over and crisp other side.

Repeat till done.

Serve as is or with yogurt or sour cream.

Frittata with rice vermicelli leftover

I consider this the best way to recycle leftover of “Rice vermicelli with vegetables”. The ratio of leftover and eggs was about 2:1. I used 5 eggs and 2-1/2 cups of vermicelli, veggies and meat. Just beat the eggs with little salt, mix thoroughly with leftovers, pour in fairly hot non-stick frying pan and cover. Lower the temperature and cook till top of frittata is set. Now you have two options: slide it on a plate and turn over back to frying pan or slide frittata on steel preheated pie pan and place under broiler (my option, using toaster oven set at 450 °F broil). When eggs are cooked through it is ready to serve. As with any frittata this one is even better at room temperature.

Almost ready for broiler.

Rice vermicelli with vegetables

 

This is another Chinese restaurant and shopping mall food court favorite and now you can even find it in a supermarket deli counter. And no wonder. It is fairly healthy, depending on amount of oil used, and quick and easy to prepare. As with most Chinese dishes the hardest and most tedious part is julienning all the vegetables. If you want a decent looking dish it just has to be done by hand. If you don’t care what the dish looks like a grater does a decent job. I use my trusty super sharp 40 year old Chinese clever and have it chopped in no time. Again, use any vegetable you have on hand but every version should have carrots, green and cooking onions, ginger, garlic and scrambled eggs.

Ingredients in today’s version:

Chopped: Ginger, garlic, coriander

Sliced: Cooking onion, green onions, Napa cabbage leafs

Julienned: Carrot

Egg, sesame oil, peanut oil, Hoi sin sauce, soy sauce, stock (few tablespoons) sugar, hot sauce (optional)

Rice vermicelli

Method:

Soak vermicelli in very hot salty water for 15 minutes, drain, separate strands and sprinkle with sesame oil and toss to coat.

In a hot wok or non-stick frying pan heat 1 tsp of peanut and few drops of sesame oil. Pour in egg beaten with little salt and scramble. When egg is still moist remove to large preheated bowl and reserve.

Add another scant tsp. of oil into wok and stir fry carrots for 2 minutes then add cabbage or bean sprouts, cooking onions, half of coriander and half of green onions. Add Tbs. of Hoi Sin sauce, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 Tbs. soy sauce and 1 Tbs. stock or water.

When hot, add vermicelli and combine all ingredients. Stir fry till vermicelli are soft but still with a lot of bite. Add stock or water as required. Remove to bowl with egg and combine.

Serve and sprinkle with remaining coriander and green onions.

Pork Tenderloin Schnitzel with Potatoes

Another quick, no-pain meal. From prep to plating in under half an hour. For two of us I just peeled and cubed 1 Yukon Gold and 1 sweet potato and started boiling them while I halved Cremini mushrooms and sauté them in a bit of butter. Meanwhile I cut 4 slices from center part of pork tenderloin about 2” thick and pounded them to about 3/8” thickness for quick cooking. They were seasoned on both sides with salt, pepper and “Herbes de Provence”. Then they hit hot frying pan with grape oil, flipped over after 2 minutes and cooked another 2 minutes. Meal ready for plating. I could have done it with rice (more time) or even pasta like orzo, again, longer time to cook. This is very easy and tasty quick meal. It will come very handy on busy days.

Spaghetti con Vongole

Spaghettini with Clams and Shrimps.

More detailed description would read:

“Spaghettini with Clams and Shrimps in a wine, clam juice and cream sauce and finished with a dash of truffle oil, tarragon and nutmeg”. Basically, that’s the whole recipe and I make it in all seasons even though it does look like a comfort food. This is my version of “Spaghetti con Vongole”.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil

3 or 4 shallots, finally chopped

3 Tbs. chopped parsley

1 can of baby clams, drained and separated

1/3 cup shrimps, chopped

1 c. of white wine

1/2 cup 35% cream or whipping cream

Nutmeg, pinch

Hot pepper flakes, to taste

1/2 tsp. white pepper

1/4 tsp. dried tarragon

Truffle oil, dash (optional)

Process:

Start your pot for spaghettini.

Heat frying pan and when hot add olive oil and then shallots. Sauté for few minutes but don’t allow to brown. Pour in wine and cook off. Add clam juice and cook till only about 1/4 cup remains. Add clams and shrimps and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add cream and cook under medium heat till sauce starts to thicken. Add parsley, tarragon, nutmeg, white pepper, chili pepper flakes and truffle oil.

When spaghettini are cooked al dente, drain and toss with the cream sauce.

Serve on preheated plates. I do not grate cheese over seafood pasta but if you want to, go ahead.





Another Breakfast Idea

This morning when I opened fridge door and saw some asparagus, Swiss cheese and eggs I saw a breakfast.

So simple and utterly delicious. I just peeled bottom half of asparagus stem, nuked it in wet paper towel for 1 minute and then wrapped in 3 thin slices of Swiss cheese and broiled in toaster oven till cheese melted. While this was going on I scrambled 2 eggs plus 2 egg whites that I had leftover from other meal, toasted and sliced English muffins, plated it (on preheated plate as usual, of course) garnished with a sliced tomato and bingo! Breakfast done in about 5 minutes.

Next time I’ll wrap the asparagus in cheese and then slice of ham. My first choice would be prosciutto but no prosciutto for sale in our town.

Pork Loin with Sweet Potatoes, Asparagus and Tomatoes

Today, I have challenged myself (again J ) to come up with a meal that will include only ingredients I have on hand. First thing I touched in freezer were four small boneless pork loin chops, vacuum packed. Good start. Side dish was next and because in last few days we had rice, potatoes and pasta I felt for something else. Sweet potatoes, that Marjo bought just few days ago to keep our pantry stocked, filled the bill and since I had asparagus and tomatoes on hand as well the meal was done. At least in my mind. When I fetched the asparagus I noticed that I still had arugula that I have grown in cold frame and picked about four weeks ago before all the snow came down. It is still as fresh as when I picked it. Now I had a bed for my quickly sautéed chops. Next to chops I’ll plate steamed and then broiled sweet potatoes and then microwave steamed asparagus. Fresh small tomato wedges will complete the meal. I have to mention that this morning I broiled some hot Italian sausage ball in my toaster oven for snacks and knowing that I will broil/toast sweet potato wedges for dinner I left the fat in a pan. When wedges were nice and done I moved them on a paper towel lined plate to drain extra fat. Next, I poured a teaspoon of remaining fat into frying pan and used it third time to cook the chops. The taste was just incredible! I know it sounds like there was a lot of fat in this meal but there was no more then maybe 1 – 2 teaspoons for two people when plated.

Definitely a repeat, when I have the same ingredients on hand.

Chicken Thighs with Orzo and Peas

Another quick and painless comfort food. Just one pot for boiling orzo and frying pan for chicken thighs. The meat seasoning could be anything that you feel for, like Herbes de Provence, Italian seasoning or just plain ground black pepper, salt and paprika. As usual with poultry and pork I brine the meat for about 4 hours (1/4 cup salt to 2 cups water) and then pat dry on paper towel..

As usual, to serve 2 with leftovers (maybe J)

4 chicken thighs, bone and skin on

1-1/2 cup orzo

1/2 cup frozen peas, heated in boiling water

Seasoning to your taste

Olive oil, 2 T.

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350 °F.

Heat stainless steel frying pan, add oil and fry chicken thighs skin side down till golden (don’t move them), about 3-5 minutes. Turn over and cook for 3 more minutes. Remove them to pie pan if using toaster oven (my option) or place frying pan in preheated oven on middle rack. (The reason I use stainless steel instead of non-stick is that you will need those brown bits at bottom of pan to flavor the orzo.) It will take about 40 minutes for the chicken thighs to be fall-off-the-bone tender and skin nicely crisp and golden brown with very little fat, if any, left.

While the thighs are in the oven start cooking the orzo. Just boil salted water and when at rolling boil drop orzo in, lower the heat and cook for about 10 minutes or so. It should be just al dente, not mushy. Move chicken thighs to another hot pan and keep hot. Drain chicken fat from frying pan and/or pie pan from toaster oven. Add steaming orzo to pan and scrape all the fond (brown bits) with spatula and mix with orzo. Of course, the frying pan has to stay hot at all times. Add green peas and mix till well coated. Serve the orzo on plate with thighs on top and garnish with julienned pimentos, sectioned or sliced tomato and lengthwise sliced pickle.