Stir Fry Marinade

The grocery stores in Hawaii make and serve some pretty great food.  It's a great place to grab some lunch, especially if you like Asian food.  The other day, we picked up some pork hekka from the local store to have for lunch.  

Never heard of pork hekka?  Neither had I.  It was basically a stir fry with rice noodles.  The flavor was amazing though!  I knew what I was eating probably wasn't healthy, but darn it was delicious.  I decided to look up some recipes and try to re-create pork hekka at home.

We tried last night.  What we ended up with was basically nothing like what we had bought, but was probably slightly more healthy.  Essentially we just had stir fry with lots of veggies on rice noodles.  Pssst.  I love rice noodles!

What really stood out from the dish was the marinade for the pork.  I made it early in the day and the pork was sitting in it for hours.  Oh man it was good!  Next time you make stir fry or need a marinade, give this a shot.

1/2 c soy sauce

1/4 c brown sugar (sugar is bad, I know, but it's so good in Asian sauces)

2 T olive oil

1 T grated ginger (use more than 1 T, that's what the recipe calls for, but go nuts)

2 garlic cloves, minced (again, who are we kidding..2?  Amateur hour)

1/2 c red wine

pepper (no salt, the soy sauce takes care of that I believe)

Throw all that together and marinade whatever you want in it.  A yoga mat marinaded in this stuff would probably taste pretty good.

We cooked up the pork and threw in bok choy, celery, carrots, mushrooms, scallions, bean sprouts, a green pepper (random, but we needed to get rid of it)..etc.  It was good stuff.

Molly

Back in action! Turkey burgers and chickpea salad

Hey all!

Well after a hiatus of cooking for one and just not being terribly excited about cooking, I'm back and ready to go!  It seems as though my style of cooking will turn more Asian, simple, and/or summery.  Amazing how your style changes depending on where you live.

Anywho, last night I experimented and made a healthy, summery (unless you live in Hawaii..in which case it's just normal) dinner.  Here's what we had...

Spinach Chevre Turkey Burgers
I don't know what possessed me to make turkey burgers.  I think it's cause I'd never had one and wanted to try it and I imagine it's healthier than beef.  Didn't really follow a recipe, here's what I did.

1. Saute some onions, garlic, and greens.  Ideally I would have used spinach, but we have a huge bag of "power greens" from Costco that we need to use up.  It has spinach, kale, and chard.  You saute anything with garlic and onions and it's good though, so use whatever greens you'd like.
2. In a bowl, throw your ground turkey, greens, an egg, some chevre (could use feta, but again, we have a huge hunk of chevre from Costco), breadcrumbs and whatever seasonings call to you.  I put some lemon juice and sriracha (because we rarely have meals without it) in mine.  Oh, and of course salt and pepper.
3. Put them in the fridge and go for a run.
4. Cook 'em up however you'd like.  We both put extra chevre on our burgers and I had extra greens on mine.  Then of course, extra sriracha.

They were actually quite good.  I mean, I tend to believe that if it's not made of beef, don't call it a burger.  Right?  It's a veggie patty...it's not a burger.  But these turkey burgers...I might allow them to use the term burger.  They were tasty.

Chickpea Corn Salad (?)

So this was another new recipe for me that I didn't really measure for.  Just threw some stuff in a bowl and got lucky.  Here's what you need...

• chickpeas (I used one can for two of us and we have leftovers)
• corn (used one can)
• cucumber (about half of one)
• red onion (some?)
• tomato (the recipe called for cherry tomatoes but I couldn't stomach the price at the store so I just used a regular old tomato)
• green pepper (used about half of one)
• oil
• lime juice
• cilantro
• garlic

Chop the cucumber, tomato, red onion, and green pepper to similiar size pieces.  Throw them in a bowl with the chickpeas and corn.  Mix together your dressing of olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, and garlic.  Throw the dressing on the salad.  Done!  Right before we ate I made the game time decision to chop up some mozzarella and put it in there because...again..we bought some from Costco and so we have a ton to use up.  Plus it was delicious.

Anyway, that's a really simple salad, perfect for a weeknight.  I made everything ahead of time and then we went for a run.  Ahhh, the advantages of not working..

Go forth and cook!

Molly 

Indian cauliflower - aka the best cauliflower ever!

I got some Indian cookbooks last year for my birthday, and, as Aleks said, "This the by far the best recipe to come out of [those] books.  The official name is Gobhi Kari, or, Cauliflower and Scallions with Black Mustard Seeds.  The recipe seems a little complicated, but it's pretty simple in practice.  Definitely more work than just steaming your cauliflower, but the results are WAY better than normal and totally worth the extra effort.

1 1/4 pounds cauliflower, cut into small (1/2 - 3/4")
2 bunches of scallions, including green part, cut into 1/4" pieces
4 T light veggie oil, divided
1/2 - 1 t. black mustard seeds
1 - 2 t. urad dal (white split gram beans), optional (but I think they add a nice flavor and texture)
1/2 t. tumeric
1 -2 green chilies, chopped, or 1/2 t. red pepper, optional
1 - 1 1/2 t. Kosher salt
6-8 fresh or dried kari leaves, slightly crushed, optional
(I use the larger amount of mustard seed and urad dal, see no need for the hot pepper, especially since I'm feeding kids, and have never had the kari leaves to use).

Measure out the mustard seeds and urad dal.  Put tumeri.c, salt, and scallions, and chilis (if using) in a bowl. Measure out 1/3 cup of hot water and keep that, spices, and cauliflower next to stove.

Heat 3 T of oil, then add mustard seeds.  When seeds are spluttering, add urad dal.  When the dal turns light brown and the mustard seeds are gray, add the scallion and spice mix.  Saute briefly (15 s), then add cauliflower.  Stir to distribute the spices, then add water.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, until cauliflower is cooked to crisp tenderness.  Uncover, and increase heat to evaporate any remaining moisture in the pan and to lightly brown the cauliflower (~5-10 min).  Stir in remaining tablespoon of oil during the browning.  Add kari leaves, if using them, and serve immediately.

We had this tonight with rava dosas with potato chickpea masala. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rava-Dosas-with-Potato-Chickpea-Masala-356035

The potato chickpea masala takes a bit of time, but is delicious.  The dosas, which as far as I can tell are basically Indian crepes, but made without eggs, are wonderful, and worth making for other fillings as well.  We found that a combination of the potato filling and the cauliflower inside a dosa was phenomenal.
-Maggie