Meatless Monday: Stir Fried Bok Choy and Lettuce with Shiitake Mushrooms

It's just another Manic Monday right?  Not when dinner is a quick and easy stir fry!  I don't know about you, but my job sure isn't getting any less busy, and recently, I'm never sure what time I'll be home.  This recipe, from start to finish, took less than an hour and was filling without being heavy.  

 

Knowing that my local farm, Hydro Harvest Farms, has an abundance of bok choy and lettuce, I scoured the internet in search of inspiration and happened upon this recipe from Cooking Light magazine.  I tweaked it a bit to my tastes by adjusting the sauce and using fresh mushrooms and ended up with this stir fry.  I was intrigued, and I am kinda getting tired of salads. You may say that stir frying lettuce sounds crazy, but apparently there are other ways to eat lettuce!

 

Combine soy sauce, wine, and sugar in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Heat your wok over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil and ginger to pan; saute 30 seconds. Quickly add your sliced mushrooms and saute for 1 minute. Add one cup of broth and bring it to a boil. Cook until your mushrooms reduce in size and take on a shine. 

Combine the oyster sauce and cornstarch in a small bowl and stir the mixture until the corn starch is mixed in well.  Stir your oyster sauce mixture into the mushrooms in the wok and bring it all to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook it all for about a minute or until thickened and then remove the mushrooms from the heat.

To your wok, add the remaining oil and heat until shimmering.  Then, add your garlic and stir fry it for 10 seconds. Add your bok choy to the wok and the rest of the broth. You may have to add the bok choy in batches but stir fry it all for about 2 minutes or until the bok choy begins to soften.

Add the lettuce, again potentially in batches, and stir fry for about 2 minutes or until lettuce wilts. Add the mushroom mixture and the soy sauce mixture to the wok and continue cooking 3 minutes or until bok choy is tender.

To serve, I used our rice cooker to make some brown rice and just spooned the stir fry over top.

Ingredients:

2 cups sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms (about 20 total)
2  tablespoons  low-sodium soy sauce
1  tablespoon  Shaoxing (Chinese rice wine) or dry sherry
1/2  teaspoon  sugar
4  teaspoons  canola oil, divided
1  teaspoon  minced peeled ginger
2  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
4  tablespoons  vegetarian oyster sauce, or regular if you have it
2  teaspoons  cornstarch
3  large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
8  heads baby bok choy, halved lengthwise (about 6 cups of greens)
1  medium head romaine lettuce, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups)

Verdict:  I am so looking forward to lunch tomorrow.  I was hesitant about stir frying lettuce, and was pleasantly surprised. 

Mahi Mahi and Tomatoes with a Lemon, Garlic, and Oregano Sauce

Everyone needs a meal in their back pocket that looks fancy, and tastes like you cooked all day, without really needing you to do so.  Everyone needs a recipe that will impress without really trying.  Everyone needs this recipe!

It may not look like much, but we've eaten it twice in a week!  Simply put, it's fish covered in tomatoes, and baked with a lemon, garlic and oregano sauce.  But it is just so much more than that.  It's fresh and light and a meal that you can for cheap that you make out of foods that your market may just have year round. 

First, mince your garlic and then slice your tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices. 

Don't mind the bok choy in the back of this picture, you'll see it in another recipe soon!  Back to the fish.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Pat the fish fillets completely dry with a paper towel and season them on both sides with the salt and a few "grindings" of pepper.  Juice enough fresh lemons to make a 1/2 cup of lemon juice - about 1 1/2 lemons.  Combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano in a small bowl.  Stir lemon juice mixture until the ingredients are well blended. Then add the fillets to a small casserole dish, pour the lemon juice mixture over the fish fillets and turn them over to ensure that the mixture has a chance to cover both sides evenly.

Place the tomato slices over them and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of oregano on top.
Bake in middle of oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until fillets flake easily when pressed gently with a fork. Serve the fillets at once directly from the baking dish. 

This is best served with something that will soak up the delicious sauce.  My father is convinced that my body is about three fourths pasta, my choice is pretty obviously gonna be pasta, but you can go ahead and use rice or another grain if you feel so inclined.  We found Brussels Sprouts on sale and decided that they would be a great vegetable and steamed them.

Ingredients:
4 mild and firm fleshed fish fillets - we used Mahi Mahi
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cups fresh lemon juice, strained
2 tbsp. olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. dry oregano, crumbled
2 med. sized firm, ripe tomatoes, washed, cored & cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices

Verdict - I wasn't kidding when I said we've had this twice in one week.  The first was on Valentine's Day, if that gives you an idea of just how much we enjoyed this meal!

Carrot, Leek and Chickpea Soup

Some days just call for soup!  This was a clean out the fridge soup, and turned out so well I ate it all week.  

Remember this picture?

 I still have way too many carrots and am trying desperately to use them up!

Due to a camera malfunction, and by malfunction I mean I broke it, I am relying on my camera phone for blogging purposes.  Sadly, this is the only photo of the soup that survived the transfer. 

To make the soup, first chop two large leeks in half, and then in shreds.  Make sure to wash the leeks before you cook them, they do collect sand in between the layers.  Slice about 6 small cloves of garlic.  Peel and slice three large carrots into thin half moons.  Heat about three tablespoons of olive oil in a large soup pot.  Saute the leeks until they become softened and pliant.  Add the garlic and saute for one minute.  Add carrots and saute until they begin to soften and add about two quarts of chicken broth.  Bring the soup up to a simmer and add a bay leaf, a teaspoon of black peppercorns, a Parmesan cheese rind and 4 cups of chick peas.  If not using your own cooked chick peas, then add two cans of rinsed chick peas.  Simmer on low for about an hour.  If you would like to, add cooked pasta before serving.  If planning to cook the pasta in the soup, add more broth! 

Ingredients:
2 Large Leeks
6 garlic cloves
3 large carrots
2 quarts of chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 Parmesan cheese rind
4 cups cooked chick peas
2 cups cooked pasta

For a soup that eats like a meal, serve with cheesy garlic bread! 

Anti-Valentine's Day Chocolate Cupcakes

This Valentine's Day weekend, a friend is throwing an Anti-Valentine's Day party.  Being the glutton for punishment, I asked that special question - "what can I bring?"  This is not the time for light and refreshing.  Somehow, from that question, I ended up making ironically iced Anti-Valentine's Day chocolate cupcakes.  This decision comes from three girls on a lunch break debating the virtues of Anti-Valentine's garlic breath versus overly rich "why bother" foods.   Dessert is what my hubby calls a "no-brainer" and an "easy out" for invitations.  An hour later, and I can have made from scratch chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting ready for any event.  Besides, who can really turn down a chocolate cupcake? Especially this one!  This recipe comes from a blog, I follow called the Joy of Baking. 

 If you are easily offended, I put the more off color labeled ones towards the bottom and after a marker. 

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a bowl, add the cocoa powder to the boiling water and stir until smooth. Set aside and let the mixture cool to room temperature. 

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about two minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. 

Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full with batter.

Bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.  Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 

Chocolate Frosting:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. 

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. 

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy.  This should take about 2 -3 minutes.

The Final Product:

Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula, or like me, you can use the back of a spoon. If you are decorating, now is the time. 

Makes about 16 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup boiling hot water

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups confectioner sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Oh by the way, these are good. Really good.  Like, stealing a crumb and ending up eating the whole cupcake good.  

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Knowing that I have to work late this week, I wanted to make sure that I don't have a repeat of the last two weeks' funk fest and got ahead of the game with a slow cooker adaptation of a old family favorite.  My mom used to work in an Italian restaurant as a teen, so I had the strange childhood comfort food pairing of Italian foods and Eastern European Jewish foods.  At a favorite restaurant in the area, The Refinery, my hubby and I enjoyed a fantastic rendition of Chicken Cacciatore.  So good, I felt like I was back in grade school and sitting down to the table for a plate of my mom's cooking!  So good, I've been craving it ever since and felt the need to make a slow cooker version of my mom's Chicken Cacciatore.

With a nod to my mom, it's not cooking until there's garlic sauteing in oil. 

To me, chicken cacciatore is a braised stew of chicken and bell peppers in tomato sauce.  To adapt this to a slow cooker, I sauteed the onions, a red and green bell pepper, and a half pack of mushrooms with a small can of tomato paste and white wine with some oregano, salt and pepper to taste. 

After cooking this mixture with a can of tomato sauce to get all of the flavors to mingle before pouring this tomato love over chicken thighs. If you had the time, you should sear the chicken parts first. 

I just took a pack of chicken thighs I had in the freezer and put the tomato mixture over the top and stored it in the fridge until the next morning when I set the slow cooker up to cook for the day.

After cooking on LOW for 6-8 hours, here is the final result.

Ingredients:

1 package chicken parts, or thighs (skinless)
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1 medium sized yellow onion, sliced
1 red and green bell pepper, sliced
1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
1/2 package of white button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup of white wine
1 28 ounce can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons dried oregano

Recipe:
Saute sliced garlic in olive oil until tan.  Add onions and bell peppers to the pan.  Cook until the onions become translucent and the bell peppers brighten and lose their crispness. Add the tomato paste to the pan and saute it with the pepper mixture for one minute.  Add the white wine to the pan and cook until the tomato paste is cooked into the wine.  Add the tomato sauce, with oregano, salt and pepper, to the pan and cook for five minutes - while scraping the pan to ensure that no bits get left behind.  Pour this mixture over chicken parts and into the slow cooker.  Set on low for 6 - 8 hours and serve over pasta or with garlic bread.

Ginger Carrot Breakfast Muffins

My inspiration this week is clean out my kitchen!!!  As part of the last two weeks' worth of funk, I realized that my kitchen is so stocked, that I might not have to go food shopping to for meals for the entire week.  So for breakfast this week, I have decided I need to make these Ginger Carrot Muffins I found while figuring out a way to use up the carrots I have in my fridge.  

As part of a discussion with a friend around New Year's, my hubby and I decided we need to break out the juicer and start juicing more often. Or really, I asked hubby to bring home some juice when I was sick with a stomach bug and he brought home this:

Yeah, that's a 25 pound bag of carrots under there. I'm still staring down half of this bag, and I'm starting to get creative in my carrot consumption here before I start turning orange.  I love ginger and carrots, so this recipe was a no brainer for me.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup oat flour*
3/4 cup honey 
1/2 cup milled flax*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk - or in my case 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar to sour the milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated carrots

*Most people probably don't have this all on hand, but I'm weird.   To make the oat flour and to grate the carrots, make your life easy and use a food processor.  Do this separately! I use ground flax in my smoothies to give me extra fiber, and get it at any natural foods store.  Keep it in the freezer, as it's highly perishable.  Also, if you don't want to use honey, switch it out in equal portions for vegan cane sugar like the original recipe shows, but I have an unholy obsession with honey and try to use it in my baking whenever possible.
I'm not kidding about the obsession - here is the current honey survey of my pantry. Well minus the Queen LaBeeva brand that I just used up.

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan.  If you only have a six muffin pan like me, use that and prepare to do part of this recipe twice.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, including the minced crystallized ginger.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, honey and oil, and stir into the dry ingredients. Fold in the carrots. It does not look pretty at this stage, but just trust me on this one.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them almost full. Allow the muffins to rest for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. If you don't have a toothpicks, try using a piece of dry spaghetti.  It works!

Remove the muffins from the oven, and cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

These are so good.  One was sacrificed for testing purposes, but started out as a crumb test and somehow disappeared.  :)  I'll be having them for breakfast this week - split and topped with peanut butter and  Citrus Marmalade.

Penne with Arugula, Grape Tomatoes and Cannelini Beans

Last month's Pasta with-Sauteed Tomatoes and Arugula still fresh in my mind, and tomatoes still in season in Florida, means that this is a recipe that was begging for updates and remakes all season long.  This week, I used grape tomatoes left over from an impulse buy at Worden Farm stand at the St. Petersburg Morning Market last weekend and arugula from one of my favorite places, Hydro Harvest Farms.  This is a great Meatless Monday dish, but works for any night of the week. 

I did things just a little bit differently this time around.

Ingredients:

Water for Pasta
4 ounces of penne pasta

1/4 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups arugula, stemmed and cleaned
Pint of grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 can cannellini beans, drained with 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Grated Pecorino Romano

Recipe:

Prep all ingredients according to the above specifications to have by the stove ready to go.  Put salted water on the stove set on high to boil for pasta.  Set a large pan on the stove as well.  In the large pan, heat the oil on medium high heat.  When shimmering, add the garlic until lightly tan. It's just not cooking in my house until you can see this:

Add the tomatoes and cook until tomatoes begin to soften and blister.

By this time, the water should be boiling so add the pasta to the water and turn down the heat to medium high.  Add salt, pepper, beans and white wine to the pan.  When the liquid reaches a boil, add the greens to the pan and cook until the greens wilt and the liquids reduce by half.

Drain your al dente pasta and add it with a 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water to the pan.  Cook the pasta with the mixture for about 5 minutes, or until the liquid has thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Grate some pecorino romano cheese on top and serve.  

Yeah, I love living in Florida this time of year.  Tomatoes and 70 degree days in February is not a bad way to live. 

Citrus Marmalade

The last two weeks have not been kitchen friendly.  I'm an Adoption Case Manager which means I work with children in foster care whose parental rights have been terminated.  I am their legal guardian and I work with their foster parents to ensure they have everything they need, all while trying to find them "forever families."  Needless to say, this not an easy job!  Cooking is my way to decompress after a long day at work - wherever that may be and however many hours I spent doing it that day.  My job is not a 9 - 5 cubicle job too often.

The last two weeks have been difficult for me at work and as such, when I got home, I did not feel like cooking.  AT ALL.  I spent all of the last week eating leftovers from the freezer - latkes, spanikopita casserole, southwestern stew and channa masala.  Except for Sunday, when the beautiful sunniness of Florida citruses smiled at me from the produce section at Whole Foods.  All winter, I've wanted to try making marmalade from the many great citrus fruits native to Florida.  Needing a pick me up on Sunday, I decided to go for it.

Oh boy, oh boy was it worth it.  But this is not an easy recipe!  I adapted it from my canning guide - Ball's Blue Book Guide to Preserving.

This is a recipe for when you need to spend a few hour, on two separate days, in the kitchen and not thinking about what else you could be doing. This is your warning.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups minced organic grapefruit peel, about 2 pink grapefruits in this case
1 1/2 cups chopped organic grapefruit pulp, from those same 2 pink grapefruits
1/2 cup minced organic orange peel, about 2 small thin skinned oranges
3/4 cup organic orange pulp, about 2 small thin skinned oranges
1/2 cup thinly sliced and seeded organic lemon, about one normal sized lemon
3 quarts water, divided
Vegan Cane Sugar*
1 pouch liquid pectin
Ingredient Note: Even if you don't eat organic citrus, this is one time to do so.  Organically grown produce is supposed to be pesticide free.  Normally, organic citrus can be a waste of money since the pesticides accumulate in the peel which we throw away instead of consuming.  In marmalade, we do eat the peels so I took the time to find some organic citrus.  It was a bonus, since this week it was on sale at Whole Foods and grown locally.  Also, bleached white sugar is bleached using bone char, which I personally find gross, so I use vegan cane sugar. 

Recipe:
Cut the peel from the citrus fruits, working to leave as much of the citrus segments behind as possible.  With a sharp knife, separate the pith (white portion) from the brightly colored peel making sure to leave no pith behind.  Leaving the pith will make the marmalade bitter and will not help with the texture you are seeking here.  Cut the peels into very then slices, and then finely mince.  Put off to the side in a bowl.  Then, segment each fruit and thinly slice the lemon, placing them in another bowl off to the side.  Make sure that you cut the lemon as thinly as you can.  If you have a mandolin, here is your chance to put it to use. 

Combine the fruit peels and 1 1/2 quarts water, boil for five minutes.  Then add the fruit pulp, sliced lemon and the remaining water, and bring back to a rolling boil for another five minutes.  Cover and let stand for 12 - 18 hours in a cool place.  I put mine in a pitcher in the fridge.

The following day, place the fruit mixture back on the stove and cook in a large pot at a rapid boil until the peels are tender.  Use a pot that can hold at least double the amount of liquid you have, because as it reaches the right temperature, the liquid may expand a great deal before settling back down.  You should have about 3 quarts of fruit mixture.  Add 1 cup of sugar for each cup fruit mixture.  In my case, it was 12 cups of sugar because 12 cups = 3 quarts.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves and cook until it reaches the gelling point.  To determine your gelling point, add 8 degrees to the temperature water boils at your altitude.  For me, the golden number is 220 degrees.

When your marmalade mixture hits your gelling point, add your liquid pectin and once dissolved, remove the mixture from the heat.  Skim foam if necessary. 

Ladle your hot marmalade mixture into pre-heated and sanitized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace in each jar.

 
Place your two-piece caps (band and topper) on the jars as tightly as you can and process your jars for 10 minutes in a pot with boiling water covering the jars by at least an inch.  Cool your jars on a baking rack.

Don't be scared if your marmalade doesn't gel right away, it took mine 2 days to finally reach the consistency of what I would consider a loose set marmalade.

If you want to make citrus marmalade without pectin, drain the water from your peels in the first step and adjust your sugar accordingly.  There should be enough naturally occurring pectin in the citrus to eliminate the need for pectin following the altered recipe.

German Chocolate Cake

This recipe is another anti-produce recipe, but it's worth it. For my husband's birthday, all he wanted me to make was a German Chocolate Cake.  Before this, I'd never baked a cake from scratch and could probably count the boxed cakes I've made on one hand, so this was no small request.  I didn't even have a real cake pan - just glass casseroles and a hidden pie dish I never knew I had! 

 

 After contemplating the merits of many different recipes, I finally determined that for my first cake should be a tried and true recipe.  Baker's German's Chocolate to the rescue!  For a week night dessert, I could try a more adventurous approach, but not for a birthday and especially not for a birthday party.   Food history lesson - German Chocolate Cake is not a German recipe but is in fact related to the name of the chocolate company's owner.  German's Chocolate was later bought out by Baker's Brand who was later bought out by Kraft Foods. 

 

Due to  my lack of backing up the images, I can not share the in-process pictures I took, but hopefully the beautiful photo above of the final product will inspire you to make one of your own and see it first hand. 

 

Cake Recipe:

1 pkg. (4 oz.) Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate

1/2 cup  water

4 eggs, separated

2 cups  flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp.  salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups  sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup  buttermilk 

 

Filling Recipe:

1 can  (12 oz.) evaporated milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups  sugar

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine

1 package  (7 oz.) Sweetened Coconut (about 2-2/3 cups)

1 1/2 cups Chopped Pecans

4 egg yolks  

To Make the Cake:

Heat oven to 350°F.  Cover bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round pans with waxed paper; spray sides with cooking spray. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Beat egg whites in small bowl or with a stand mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form; set aside. Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl of your stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition.

Add egg whites; stir gently until well blended. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small spatula around cakes in pans. Cool cakes in pans 15 min.; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

To Make the Filling:

 
Beat egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Add coconut and pecans; mix well. Cool to room temperature and of desired spreading consistency.

To Assemble the Final Product and Achieve Bliss:

Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.

Verdict:  The waxed paper really does aid in the release of the cakes from the pans.  The cake was so good that several male friends of myself and my husband offered to take me in and/or marry me if my husband was ever foolish enough to let me go.  I even got an offer to build me the kitchen of my dreams - and I may take that friend up on that offer but only after hubby and I are ready to buy a house.