Rice-stuffed peppers

I made some stuffed peppers. The stuffing is basically risotto, but made less fussily than we usually do. The measurements below are approximate, but they should give you an idea of what we did. When I make them again I will cook them with plenty of space and rotate occasionally so the whole pepper gets roasted and not just the top. And I'll add some fresh herbs.

Rice-stuffed peppers

Green peppers cored, with seeds removed

1/2 tbsp butter

1 cup Arborio rice

3 cups broth

1/2 large onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tomato, chopped

2 leaves swiss chard, chopped

1/2 ball mozzarella

Heat the broth. In another pot put in the rice with some butter over a low heat. Add one cup of broth to rice, stir and simmer. As the broth gets absorbed add about 1/2 cup of broth at a time to the rice to keep it just submerged. Stir occasionally.

Saute onions about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook about two more. Add tomato and cook until done, about 5 more minutes.

When the rice is done mix with the chard to help wilt the chard slightly. Mix in the sauteed vegetables and mozzarella.

Stuff the peppers.

Cook on 400 for about 30 minutes.

Swiss chard red wine risotto

We had a partial bottle of undrinkable red wine (it was drinkable at one time, but we did not drink it quickly enough), a bunch of red-veined Swiss chard, and plans for making some sort of rice dish. What else could happen but a Swiss chard red wine risotto? I have a history of being fussy about purple non-dessert foods. They just look unnatural to me. (Except beets. I'm down with beets.) There was a red wine cream sauce incident: Jon made a red wine cream sauce for pasta, and I just couldn't get past the weird (to me) mauve color and eat it. I'm sure it was very good, but I eat with my eyes too, and they were having none of it. I was reluctant to try a red risotto, but after googling and seeing that both Giada and Mario have recipes for red wine risottos, and noticing that the red stems of the chard would likely pinken the risotto anyway, I threw caution to the wind and decided to go for it. The dish did have more of a purple cast than the photo above reflects, but it was not too off-putting.I decided just to use my basic risotto recipe, adding the chard stems with the onion and the leaves about 3/4 of the way through cooking. I guess I should have used red onion in the recipe, but I don't usually keep those around because I don't like raw onions and I don't like the color of cooked red onions.

Anyway, this was a great risotto! The wine gives such a nice depth of flavor, and the chard and lemon zest were very yummy. I have been neglecting chard for its cheaper and heartier cousin kale, but I really do enjoy it. We've got half a bunch left, so I might try making chard-wrapped risotto balls out of the leftovers. We have tried it before with some success, but we don't quite have the cheese-melting right yet.

Swiss chard red wine risotto

2 tbsp butter

1/2 large onion, diced

3 large Swiss chard leaves, stems separated, both stems and leaves chopped

1/2 cup red (or white) wine

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

5 cups vegetable broth

Zest of 1/2 lemon

Asiago or parmesan cheese

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and chard stems and cook until onion is translucent. Add rice and stir to coat with butter. Add red wine and cook until it is basically absorbed. Add broth 1/2 to 1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition and waiting until broth is absorbed to make next addition, until rice is done. When rice is nearly al dente, but still too hard, add chard leaves and stir. The leaves will cook and wilt as the rice cooks the rest of the way. When rice is done, stir in lemon zest and cheese.

Peanut stir fry

This is not a buttermilk recipe, it's a dinner we made several weeks ago. This has a nice stir-fry sauce. The ingredients of the stir-fry are entirely flexible. We have made it with noodles or rice, and with all manner of veggies. I have made this with varying success a few times. This time I measured (and did not lose where I wrote it down). It is at worst the second best of the incarnations.

The sauce:

2 Tbsp peanut butter

1 Tbsp soy

juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 in ginger finely minced

1 clove garlic finely diced

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

bit of sriracha

1/2 tsp corn syrup

Combine.

The base:

Rice

The add ins:

Mushroom

onion

broccoli

(extra)-firm tofu

carrot

tomato

Cook the add ins a little under your preference. I did not cook the carrots or tomato at all at this stage

Now, combine the rice and add-ins in a hot skillet. Pour some sauce over it. Stir-fry. Serve. (Wait a few minutes before eating to avoid burning your mouth.)

Acorn squash with wild rice stuffing

Blogger is formatting all weird right now. If I get a chance, I'll try to go back and fix the weird font changes and the fact that I can't seem to center the pictures.

A lot has happened to us since our last post. The big news is that Evelyn finally defended her thesis and will be graduating in May! We traveled a lot in December, and Jon has been traveling a lot this month too. We are getting back in the swing of this food blog. We've been making lots of food, trying new things, and even getting some good pictures (and some mediocre ones), but it's just been hard to get them on the blog. Here's a recipe from the beginning of the year, developed by Jon.

Evelyn and I were away from the 13th to the 31st of December, and as usual, travel meant not eating as well as normal. When we got back we were craving our usual food. I figured a stuffed squash would be a nice combination of not too rich and winter appropriate. Evelyn impulse-bought a bunch of wild rice when it was on sale, and we haven't been using it nearly quickly enough. We prefer to eat it with brown rice in a 1:1 ratio, so we always buy the two separately. A lot of blends you get skimp on the wild rice.

These were good, but we do have some ideas for next time. We think celery and nuts, particularly pecans, would be really good additions. We also tried topping one with a bit of cheddar, and that would be nice to try next time. We might also pour some apple juice or cider into each squash along with the stuffing to add some liquid and sweetness.

Acorn squash with wild rice stuffing

Makes two squashes with some leftover filling. Each squash is a nice dinner, but it's extra nice with a salad on the side, of course.

Two acorn squashes

1/2 cup wild rice

1/2 cup brown rice

2 cups vegetable stock or water

1 tbsp butter

1/4 onion

6 white mushrooms

1/4 cup dried cherries (preferably unsweetend)

Make the rice.Preheat oven to 400. Chop off the tops of the squashes and remove the innards.

Pour the rice and vegetable stock into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, and cook until rice is tender, adding more water or stock if necessary.

While the rice is cooking saute the the onions and mushrooms in butter until soft and onions are translucent. Chop the dried cherries.

When the rice is done, combine cherries, onions and mushrooms and place mixture in squash. Re-top squashes and place stuffed squash in a pan with a 1/4 inch of water. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or longer if necessary to cook squash through.

Brown butter and corn quinoarborio risotto

I think that sometime in college or grad school I must have had some disappointing corn on the cob, because I was convinced that frozen corn was pretty much as good as fresh. Well, this summer, Jon has convinced me to get fresh ears, and I can't believe what a fool I was! This dish came about as an idea of how to use a corn broth if we were to make one with the leftover cobs. While I was making it, I discovered that I only had 2/3 of the arborio rice I needed, so I supplemented with some quinoa. The risotto was still nice and starchy, and I think the extra taste and texture from the quinoa was subtle but interesting. We put corn into the risotto while it cooked and garnished with fresh, raw kernels to get two different corn experiences.

We really loved this risotto. The brown butter base was rich, but it also allowed the corn flavor to shine. It made very comfy Sunday dinner.

Brown butter and corn quinoarborio risotto

3 ears corn, kernels separated from cobs

6 cups water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp basil, divided

4 tbsp butter

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Cover corn cobs with water in a medium to large saucepan. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp basil and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. Drain broth into another saucepan, squeezing liquid from cobs if possible. You can make the broth in advance. Just heat it up before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

Place butter in another medium to large saucepan, perhaps the one you just made broth in. Melt over medium heat and let cook until light brown, stirring or shaking pan occasionally. Add onion and 1/2 tsp basil and cook for about five minutes. Add 2/3 of the corn (about 3/4 cups) and cook until onions are soft. Add rice and quinoa and stir to coat with butter. Add about a cup of corn broth to the pot, stirring to combine. Let simmer. When most of the liquid has been absorbed, repeat until rice is tender. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Garnish with raw corn kernels.

Jerk miscellany

I gave away most of our pantry foods before leaving Houston, but spices are small and expensive enough that it was worthwhile to bring them up to Chicago. While I was cleaning out my spice cabinet, I discovered this jerk seasoning blend I had made, used once, and forgotten about, so when I got up here, I wanted to use it. We made this last week as a fridge clean-out meal. We had half a butternut squash leftover from an excellent risotto, some cooked rice from making burritos, and part of a bunch of kale that was on its last legs. Without the rice, I think this would also make a good filling for a savory pie. I've never actually had Jamaican meat or veggie pies, so I don't really know, but it seems plausible.

Jerk miscellany

1 tbsp oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 lb butternut squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
3/2-inch piece ginger, minced
5/4 tsp jerk seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1 can black beans, or 2 cups cooked black beans (if using non-canned, add more salt)
1 cup cooked rice
5 leaves of kale, hard stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped

Saute the onion, squash, and pepper in the oil until the squash is almost tender. Add the garlic, ginger, jerk seasoning, and salt, stir to combine, and cook for one minute. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until squash is done and kale is wilted.

Christmas Eve dinner

We decided to make the Persian layered pilafs from Vegetable Heaven by Mollie Katzen for dinner yesterday. The idea is that you make three different rice pilafs, one with beets, one with carrots, and one with onions (to which we added some cooked beluga lentils), and layer them. Your adoring husband, mother, or other guests ooh and aah as they take slices of this spectacular tower of rice. You can eat the layers separately or mix them together. The problem is the layering (and my hubris). Our first idea was to press each layer into a small ramekin and then turn them out onto a plate, one on top of the other. Jon tried to do this. Much to my surprise, the second layer was perfect. I snapped a picture, just in case.

And it was a good thing, because the third layer ended up like this.

Then I, in my hubris, decided that it would be better to layer them all in a large ramekin and turn them out onto a plate all at once. I pressed the rice into the ramekin really tightly, found a big plate, and turned it over. As I slid the ramekin off, I told Jon to get the camera quick. He snapped the first picture mere seconds before the second one.

I tried in vain to scoop up the pink layer as it fell, but it was useless. Then the other side started crumbling. I whisked away the precarious tower of rice and took it back to the stove where it wouldn't continue to get the table dirty. Then I went back and gathered as much rice from the table as possible. My plate ended up looking kind of like Rainbow Brite vomited on it.

(Sorry so blurry. It looked clear on the camera screen.)

After eating, I did my best to separate the rice back into three pilafs. They stacked much better like this.

I think next time I do this, we will put the pilafs into ramekins to shape but have them sitting next to each other on the plate rather than trying to stack them. We think it might make a nice base to some cooked bok choy, or a simple piece of chicken or fish (if we ate that). I have hope for this, but I don't think it's ready for prime time yet.

Tonight we're having friends over for dinner. Jon is making his delicious mac and cheese and kale, our friends are bringing a salad, and for dessert we're having leftover cranberry upside-down cake my mom made for us when we were in Dallas earlier this week.

I leave you with a Christmas miracle.

We had been having a dickens of a time finding a good avocado. The ones that felt right tended to be black and hard inside. Then Jon found this. With hummus, sprouts, and veggies, it made an epic sandwich. Merry Christmas!

Asian Risotto

This idea came to me when I added some of Ev's wonderful spicy spiced oil to leftover mushroom risotto. We don't do much fusion food, but here is our contribution to the genre.

Just a warning: all ingredient measurements are approximate.

Risotto ingredients:

1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms

1/2 cup white mushrooms

2 oyster mushrooms

1 small onion

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp oil

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup white wine

1 1/2 cup arborio rice

Broth ingredients:

5 cups water

2 tsp Better than Bouillon mushroom base

2 star anises

1/2 tsp whole szechuan peppercorns

1/4 tsp black pepper

3 slices dried ginger

For serving:

Sauteed kale or (baby) bok choy

Spicy spiced oil

Soy sauce

Combine the broth ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a simmer and keep on low heat.

Reconstitute the dried shiitakes in about 1 cup of hot water. Drain and put the liquid in the broth.

Dice the onions and mushrooms. Heat the oil over medium heat in a wok or deep pan. Add mushrooms and salt. Cook until they have given up their water. Add the wine and rice. Cook until the wine is absorbed. Add broth to the risotto. Cook until the broth is mostly absorbed and add more broth (1/2 a cup at a time). Repeat until the desired consistency is reached.

Finish with some spiced oil and serve on a bed of greens. Season with salt or a little soy sauce to taste.

Braised tofu in caramel sauce

This was one of those recipes that seemed so unusual that I just had to try it. It comes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I am not very familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, but he says that this sauce, which is caramel with lots of black pepper, is typical Vietnamese fare. It is really good! The caramel is sweet but a little bitter, and the salt from the soy sauce balances out the sweetness. 1 teaspoon of pepper is quite a lot. We aren't used to pepper being so integral to the taste of the dish. It's really nice.

The one thing I plan on changing next time is to add some vegetables. I am a vegetarian in part because I love to eat vegetables, and a meal of rice and tofu with brown sauce is not veggie-laden enough for me. The first time I made this, I made a side of kale, and it was really good. We had some spinach on the side last night when we had it, but while we were brainstorming, we decided that next time we're going to add some cubed eggplant to the sauce itself while it's cooking. I also think carrot and broccoli might stand up well to the sauce and be good additions. We'll let you know how it turns out.

Braised tofu in caramel sauce

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tsp dulse, optional (makes the soy sauce taste a little more like fish sauce)

1/2 cup diced onion

1 tsp ground black pepper

Juice of 1 lime

1-2 lbs. tofu, pressed if you have time, and cut into 1-inch cubes

Cooked brown rice for serving

Put a large, deep (we used a Le Creuset pot) skillet over medium heat. Add the sugar and 2 tbsp water. Cook, occasionally shaking the pan and/or stirring with a wooden spoon, until the sugar liquefies and darkens. Turn off the heat.

Combine soy sauce, dulse, and 1/2 cup water. Very carefully, add the soy mixture to the caramel. It will bubble furiously. Don’t let your skin be too close to it. It’s a little scary. When it has stopped bubbling, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook, stirring, until caramel has all dissolved into soy sauce liquid. It should only take a minute or so.

Add the onion and cook until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add black pepper, lime juice, and tofu. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tofu is heated through and seems to have taken in a lot of the caramel mixture. If you can’t tell, five minutes should be about right.

Serve over brown rice with a side of kale or other veggie.

Sushi!

I made sushi for the first time on Saturday for an Olympics-watching party. Everyone picked a country and made a dish from that country's cuisine. I chose Japan because I've been wanting to give sushi-making a whirl and figured this would be an incentive to try it. I had so much fun that I made another batch of sushi rice yesterday and had sushi for lunch and dinner. Sushi is my one vegetarian "cheat," so I was planning on getting some high-quality tuna, but I decided that it would be easier and safer just to go veggie with it. I think if you don't mind messes, this would be a really fun build-your-own dinner with your kids. They can choose their favorite fillings and go nuts.
I won't give a recipe here for making sushi rice because I followed a very complicated recipe and while it worked well, it's also a little confusing. So use whatever guide you have for making sushi rice dressed with a sweet vinegar sauce. Then get out your nori sheets* and a bamboo sushi-rolling mat. I got a little creative with the fillings, and they all turned out pretty tasty. I had some trouble at first getting the rolls to seal up, and I'm still not great at cutting them without losing the contents, but it was actually way easier that I thought it would be, and the results are certainly worth it. I might update periodically with new sushi filling combos. I might not even bother with fish. These were all made with white sushi rice, but I'm going to buy some brown sushi rice and try that too. I also want to make rolls with avocado and/or cucumber on the outside. Those are always pretty when I get them at sushi restaurants.
Small rolls:
Avocado
Cucumber
Cucumber and pea shoots

Large rolls:
Asian pear, avocado, and pea shoots
Sauteed spinach, tofu, and shiitake mushrooms
Avocado, carrot, cucumber, shiso (Japanese herb) leaves
Carrot, daikon, and pea shoots

Tower of sushi

*Funny nori story: I bought nori sheets over a year ago and never got around to making sushi until Saturday. When I opened the package, the dessicant packet in there was way swollen up. Ah, the joys of living in the moist air of Houston!

Sweet and sour cabbage salad

When Jon said he was making sweet and sour cabbage for dinner one night, I naturally thought Asia and suggested we serve it with sesame oil-seasoned rice noodles and bok choy. It turns out this cabbage recipe is much more German than Asian, so that was kind of a weird meal. Contemplating the cabbage during dinner, I came up with this rice salad recipe with a hard-boiled egg. It's a good simple lunch. We used this recipe from Bon Appetit for the cabbage, modifying it slightly to be vegetarian and subsituting cider vinegar for balsamic because we thought it made more sense. To have a vegan lunch salad, you might try substituting some tempeh for the egg. I wouldn't recommend just the rice and cabbage unless you want to be hungry 45 minutes later. FYI, one red cabbage made at least four batches of sweet and sour cabbage, and it also lasted in the fridge for a couple weeks, even after being cut.

Sweet and sour cabbage salad

Sweet and sour cabbage (see next recipe)
Cooked brown rice or bulgur
One hard-boiled egg

Put some rice in a bowl. Put some cabbage on top of it. Heat for about 45 seconds in the microwave so it's warm. Cut hard-boiled egg in eighths and arrange artfully on top of cabbage. Warning: the cabbage will discolor the eggs somewhat, so be prepared for some unnatural-looking blue egg whites.

Isn't it beautiful?

Sweet and sour cabbage

Vegetable oil for sauteeing
3 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1/3 cup thinly sliced onion
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar

Heat oil over medium in a large saute pan. Add everything else. Cook until cabbage is the texture you want and sauce is slightly reduced, about 10 minutes.