It’s easier than you think to soften this tough guy. Meet the kabocha.
You know how I love to keep a hard squash or two around. Why? Along with root vegetables and cabbage, they will happily wait in your refrigerator until your other more perishable produce has been consumed. So, what can you do with a pumpkin such as this kabocha? It can provide you with many simple meals as you develop your skills of intuitive cooking without recipes.
In this case, I decided to slice it and bake on a cookie sheet with some grapeseed oil at 350 for about 40 minutes until tender. Flipped over halfway through cooking time. Yes, you can even eat the skin! You can certainly eat it just like that. Seasoned with soy sauce is how my mother used to serve it frequently at dinner.
How About With Pasta?
I decided to add some of this to some penne pasta for its first appearance. From my treasure chest of freezer gems, I retrieved about an inch of bacon that I chopped and browned in a skillet. Then added some diced onion and cooked until golden. Tossed in some leftover chicken breast along with some stock and white wine, seasoned with garlic powder, sage, French thyme and nutmeg. After the sauce reduced a bit, I cut some of the squash into chunks and added to the skillet. Then I decided the sauce should have a little more substance, so I peeled some more of the squash, smashed it with a potato masher and whisked into the sauce. Tasted, added salt and mixed in the cooked penne. Topped with grated parmesan.
Do I have any squash haters out there? Try this one out on your kids and tell me if you have any leftovers.
What do you do with leftover kabocha slices? I put some into some ramen with tofu and carrots the next day. I really enjoyed the unexpected texture of it in the soup. I’m thinking of frying some tempura style next…What else would you do with it?
For another idea on using kabocha squash in a protein filled vegetarian stew, please read Squash Your Prejudice next.
Rockfish with spinach, lentils and rice with kabocha slices
Pair a healthy homemade salad dressing with your ballpark sides.
I don’t mind a quality hot dog once in a while: 2 dogs on one bun for me. Topped with mustard, onions and sauerkraut is divine. However, I have trouble calling it a meal unless I serve a vegetable or salad on the side. I just can’t help myself. So, what’s a natural side for hot dogs? Potato salad, of course. But not just any potato salad. Make this healthy homemade salad dressing for it.
While the rest of the plate goes all-American, a side of Middle Eastern potato salad satisfies my diverse palate
I discovered this boldly flavorful potato salad as a teenager and it changed my view of potatoes forever. No bland spuds here. If you think of parsley as only a garnish, think again my friends!
Ingredients:
boiled potatoes
crushed garlic
salt
lemon juice
olive oil
parsley
green onions
Cut the scrubbed potatoes of your choice into bite sized pieces. You could peel them if you prefer, but I had some beautiful organic gold potatoes here and didn’t find that necessary. Boil until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and toss with this healthy, homemade salad dressing while still warm so the flavors meld.
Again, I use my mortar and pestle for this because I like the resulting texture the best, but you could use a food processor.
Putting salt into the mortar with the garlic helps break it down when you crush it with the pestle. Whisking in equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil works for me. Lots of chopped parsley make this salad sing. I usually put green onions in here, but I didn’t have any and with enough garlic, I didn’t miss them terribly. If you have some, they add another dimension of texture and flavor. I could eat the whole bowl of these potatoes myself, but I guess I will share some with Michael…
By the way, this is even better the next day if you have any left over. Serve it either cold or at room temperature. What’s your favorite side dish with hot dogs?
Patience and a few quality ingredients are worth it if you want an authentic bolognese sauce.
While I was ordering porcini and every local specialty that I had read about while in Italy, my husband ordered bolognese at dinner on several occasions. I laughed and said, “You’ve been eating spaghetti your whole life! Why do you keep ordering bolognese? Don’t you want to try something new?” Not until our trip was ending in Rome did I decide to try it. Wow! I had completely missed the boat on this one in my ignorance. An authentic bolognese sauce is not your mother’s American-Italian spaghetti sauce. It is in a league of its own.
Upon returning home, I sought to replicate that sauce by trying all kinds of recipes…and falling short. Why? I was attempting to make a leaner version than what the instructions told me. Lean ground sirloin just will not cut it in this case. This sauce is really all about the fat…and slow simmering all afternoon. You really can’t skimp on either one. Do you want an authentic bolognese sauce?
Once I realized the error of my ways, I began buying chuck roast at the supermarket and asked the butcher to grind it fine. That was a turning point. Chuck has the right amount of fat, which equals flavor. Principles matter in cooking without recipes. That’s how you develop your intuition in the kitchen.
Today I decided to use some ground meats that I had in the freezer: 2 pounds of ground beef (15 % fat) and a pound of ground wild boar, which to my surprise was rather lean. The boar meat that I had purchased previously was much fattier, so I imagined it would work well in this sauce. No matter. It’s all good.
I also took out of the freezer a couple of chicken livers and an inch of bacon. Pancetta is traditional, but I really like the smokiness of bacon and I usually have some in the freezer.
Chop Ingredients
If you have a food processor, it is very useful for making this dish because you want everything to be chopped up very small in order to create a very silky texture. So, here’s what I chopped and put into separate bowls first:
one huge onion
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots
6 cloves of garlic
2 organic chicken livers
one inch of bacon
1 2/3 cans of tomatoes (28 ounce cans)
The Rest of the Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (15% fat)
1 pound ground wild boar
butter
olive oil
milk
dry white wine
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
less than 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt
Why these amounts? Because it’s what I had on hand. Another carrot or stalk of celery or a couple more chicken livers would have been great, but I was using up what I had in the refrigerator/freezer. I usually use a tiny bit less tomato too, but I had part of a can open, so why not finish it?
How To Make the Sauce
So, here’s how I do this in my favorite big pot: Melt a tablespoon of butter and add the ground chicken livers and bacon. Trust me on this. The flavor is great and no one will say it tastes like liver.
Once that mixture is no longer pink, add the onions and let them help you scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Cook those for a few minutes before adding the carrots and celery and a little olive oil. Keep stirring and cook for a few minutes.
Then, add the meat and continue to cook while stirring. Pour a cup or so of dry white wine into the pot at this point, which Lidia Bastianich says helps to break up the meat into smaller pieces. Although I used to put the wine in later, I think this makes more sense. Additionally, you can better eyeball the necessary amount. The wine should just cover the meat. Let that cook down a bit and add the garlic.
Then add about a cup of milk. For this dish, I specifically buy whole milk. It’s the only time I do so. Don’t tell my husband, but I used 1 % this time because that’s what I had…so that’s why I used so little in comparison to the other ingredients. If I had whole milk, I might have used up to another cup. I decided there was enough going on between the bacon and the butter and a little extra tomato…
Grate a little nutmeg in there and add the tomatoes and about a tablespoon of tomato paste. Season with salt. Reduce heat to simmer and stir frequently for 4 hours. Yes, it really does need that long, in my opinion. If you don’t have all afternoon to devote to this, don’t bother. Don’t worry. It’s totally worth the investment of time and it freezes well, so you won’t have to do this again for a while. The amount of sauce I made here would easily serve 10 people.
Make sure you have a good red wine with this dinner!
To Serve
You could serve this with any pasta that you desire, but we like a fresh, eggy tagliatelle if we can get it. Otherwise, dried is fine, but I think it must be eggy. Dried egg noodles will even do if you can’t find anything else. We might toss the cooked pasta in butter before combining it with the sauce. Yes, it’s not a low-fat meal…but it’s worth the calories once in a while…especially if you don’t eat a heaping plate full. I know that it’s hard to exercise self-control when an authentic bolognese sauce is this good, but in Italy pasta was merely the first course of our dinner. Can you believe we actually lost weight there? That’s what happens when you walk everywhere. Note to self: walk a little extra tomorrow…
Ready for another authentic pasta sauce I learned about in Italy? Read Skillful With Shellfish next for another simple meal idea.
The other day a friend asked me what to do with lentils. A more relevant question is, I think, what can’t you do with lentils? They are very versatile as well as a nutritious and delicious addition to your pantry. Lentils are inexpensive and don’t require soaking or long cooking like beans and work well with all kinds of herbs and spices. Do you like Mediterranean flavors? Indian? Middle Eastern? Then lentils are for you! Cooking lentils is so easy.
One of my favorite simple meals is mujadara: lentils and rice with olive oil, onions and salt. Yup. That’s it, folks! Just 5 humble ingredients will take you to lentil paradise. I ate this 3 times a week when I was single and I still love it.
Mujadara with baked sweet potato slices
The most important thing to know is that having the patience to cook the onions long enough will make all the difference in the flavor. Skimp on that and the dish will just be so-so. In this case, I had some leftover brown rice in the refrigerator that had been cooked with turmeric. Once the lentils were ready, I sautéed some garlic in a skillet and reheated the rice. Then stirred the cooked lentils in.
Cooking Lentils
To begin, I chose a huge onion and cut one half into slices and the other half I chopped up into smaller pieces. I started cooking the chopped onions in a saucepan with olive oil and the sliced onions in a skillet with olive oil. Beginning with high heat, I stir continually until they start to get a little golden and then reduce heat to the lowest setting to cook low and slow until they are brown because that’s when they impart the desired depth of flavor.
I cooked the chopped onions about 40 minutes before adding 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sorted and rinsed lentils. Let that boil, then reduce heat to simmer for about 20 minutes until done. Once tender, scoop out the desired amount of lentils with a slotted spoon and mix with cooked rice.
Cooked lentils
I let the sliced onions cook for about 50 minutes in a skillet to get nicely caramelized as a topping for this dish. Is it absolutely necessary to do a topping of onions in addition to what’s in the cooked lentils? No, but I consider it minimal effort yielding maximum flavor and textural benefit. Michael agrees. He thinks of it like fried onion rings.
Caramelized onions
Variations
If you were using white rice, you could even cook it together with the lentils in one pot. What kind of spices could you add? Sometimes I make this with a combination of red pepper flakes, cardamom, cloves, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and coriander. Choose one or two of those and experiment to see what turns you on. Allspice is great too. Salt to taste, of course.
As I often do, I prepare the first meal with limited ingredients because it gives me more versatility in using leftovers. In this case, I made a fast and fabulous soup the next day by adding chicken stock to the lentils along with some chopped spinach, garlic and lemon juice.
Lentil soup with spinach and lemon
Guess what! I still have leftover lentils. What will I do with them? Maybe I will add a couple of other ingredients, mash them up and fry them like burgers? Or maybe I will eat them just as they are! Paired with fish and vegetables, I have another simple meal that’s ready in no time.
Rockfish seasoned with cumin, coriander, ginger and garlic accompanies mujadara, spinach and squash
Lentils and rice are “must-haves” for my pantry. We used brown lentils here, but there are so many other varieties with their own unique qualities. Try some red ones in a colorful stew with squash and chickpeas. How do you like your lentils?
Try this recipe and learn to make southern chicken and dumplings the way your family likes best.
Who likes southern chicken and dumplings? There are so many variations on this recipe, so you probably have your own preference and opinion about which way is best.
After experimenting with various ratios of ingredients over the years, I decided that less is best on leavening agents because we prefer our dumplings on the denser side. Michael’s favorite chicken and dumplings was at Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch, a soul food restaurant in Marina Del Rey, CA. Sadly, it is no longer there, but in its heyday, it was in his weekly rotation. I don’t think I ever had their dumplings, which appeared flatter than mine; but my mother also made them rather dense and I always enjoyed them.
If you like a fluffier dumpling, your recipe will differ from mine. (Use more baking powder) To each his own!
How To Do the Chicken
You could start the chicken in all kinds of ways. I have a friend who says that her favorite way to eat chicken is boiled and she calls it “stupid”. If it’s your favorite, what’s stupid about that? There’s a reason why so many cultures make chicken soup!
So, in a big pot, I put a whole deskinned chicken and enough water to cover more than half of it. I added some vegetable ends from the freezer and brought it to a boil, covered and reduced to simmer for about an hour until it was done. I flipped the chicken a couple times to cook it evenly.
Meanwhile, Some Vegetables…
In a big, deep skillet that I recently learned is called a “rondeau pan”, I heated some olive oil and added a chopped sweet potato. Once it was a little golden, I added half a chopped onion, a couple of chopped carrots and a couple stalks of chopped celery. Seasoned with dried sage and French thyme. You could experiment with all kinds of vegetables and herbs. Thicken up the stock in the end with some flour if you want it more like gravy. It’s up to you!
Ingredients for Dumplings:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
First, sift the dry ingredients through a strainer to remove any lumps. Then cut up the butter into small pieces and smash it with a fork into the flour mixture. Once the flour/butter combination looks a bit crumbly, add an egg beaten in a measuring cup along with the milk. Stir to combine and with wet hands, form the dumplings. I made 8 big ones with this amount.
Finishing Up
Remove the chicken from the pot and once cool enough to handle, pick off the pieces that you want to eat. Pour the stock through a strainer into the rondeau pan with the vegetables. While boiling, drop dumplings in, cover and reduce heat to simmer for about 15 minutes or until done. I flipped the dumplings over about halfway through cooking time and added the chicken pieces that I wanted to use. Resist the temptation to stir, especially when starting the dumplings because they will disintegrate into a mess resembling egg drop soup. Simply drop them in and let them to do their thing.
What’s your favorite way to do chicken and dumplings?
Ready for more comfort food inspired by Aunt Kizzy’s? Please read Keen On Beans and Greens next.
The first time I really enjoyed an eggplant dish was when I had something like this in Japan. Japanese eggplant is a long, skinny variety with less seeds than its more rotund cousin. Served with ground pork, carrots and a sweet/sour soy sauce, it’s delicious. Here’s one way to learn how to eat more vegetables even when you think you don’t like them.
Ground beef with Chinese eggplant, carrots and sauce served over rice with kale and mushrooms
At my local supermarket, Chinese eggplant is easier to find than the Japanese variety. It has a similar shape, but a lighter color. So, cut into finger sized pieces, that’s what I used here. I had a little ground beef in the freezer, so that’s what I used instead of pork.
In Japan, meat is not the main event. For the most part, it’s a little something added to a vegetable dish. Ground pork is what’s most readily available and 1/3 of a pound would be plenty for a dish serving more than 4 people. So whatever beef I used here was more than enough. Ground turkey would impart a milder flavor. Use whatever you have or make a vegetarian version if you prefer.
Making the Sauce
The sauce that I originally sampled and used to use comes from a box. I try to use as few prepackaged ingredients as possible these days, so here’s what I experimented with before adding the vegetables and meat to the skillet:
It’s been a long time since I had the boxed sauce, so I don’t recall its exact flavor. I think it was labeled as a Chinese sauce in fact. In any case, I tasted and adjusted seasonings until I thought I had achieved a pleasing balance before adding the raw vegetables and meat that I had already cooked. Adding a touch of liquid as needed and a pinch of sugar near the end finished this simple meal. As I recall, green bell pepper was in this original dish, but I didn’t think about it while preparing this and it was fine without. Variety and experimentation are essential to finding out how easy it is to eat more vegetables when you previously hadn’t liked them.
I like serving stir fried vegetables like this over rice. I often have some leftover rice to use on such an occasion because I make double what we will use for one meal so that I can whip together something fast with it over the following days. It simplifies my life. Pictured above, my brown rice had been mixed with mushrooms and kale and all these flavors married well.
Are some of these ingredients unfamiliar to you? They are items that I always keep on hand among other pantry items. Certainly you could make the sauce with fewer ingredients, but I encourage you to experiment with a variety of ethnic products if you can locate them. Especially with the abundance of online retailers, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Have you discovered miso paste yet? Look in the refrigerated section near the kimchee and won ton wrappers. Changing things up a bit may be just what you need in order to learn how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them.
Want to know how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them?
I am not going to lie to you. Spaghetti squash does not replace real spaghetti. I grew up eating it that way because I was gluten free for most of my childhood. I’m talking about before it was fashionable and there weren’t a lot of alternatives at the market. So, although I eat wheat these days, I do usually try to boost my ratio of vegetables to pasta whenever possible. Here’s one way to learn how to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them. Once this squash has been cooked, all you have to do is scrape out the flesh using the tines of a fork. The squash naturally comes out in thin strips like spaghetti. Thus its cute name…
Spaghetti squash with basil pesto, linguine, chicken and red bell pepper
I had some fresh basil, so I decided to make pesto with:
garlic
salt
basil
walnuts
olive oil
parmesan cheese
No food processor? No problem. Please read Nuts About Pesto for advice. Are you vegan? Leave out the cheese. I have made lots of pesto without it.
Looking for a little color to add to this dish, I found part of a red bell pepper to chop up and add to the pesto.
Cooking Squash
I baked a whole spaghetti squash for about an hour and a half until it was tender when pierced with a fork. Whole? Yes, why not? You can cut it in half and roast it cut side down in a baking dish with a little water. It cooks faster that way. But I just wanted it to be ready once I was finished with a video conference. So putting it into the oven whole worked just fine.
I had just a little bit of linguine left in a package. Not enough for a whole serving, so it made sense to mix it with the spaghetti squash after boiling. Slowly incorporating more vegetables in your diet is so easy.
I had some cooked chicken in the freezer, so after defrosting that, I tossed it into the boiling water with the pasta during the last couple minutes of cooking. Once they were done, I pulled them out with tongs and mixed with the pesto and red pepper in a bowl. Adding a little of the pasta water helps to complete the sauce.
Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple meals are the best.
Leftovers were even better served cold the next day with leftover homemade pizza.
What else can you do with left over squash? You can find all kinds of ways to use it, so don’t be afraid to buy a big one. I like to bulk up soup with it. It’s an easy way to eat more vegetables even if you don’t like them.
Miso soup with spaghetti squash, tofu, wakame and bok choy
Want to know more about making miso soup? Read Miso Adaptable next.
Who likes halibut? My husband always thought of it as a dry fish and therefore not particularly appetizing. Why? Because it had been served to him overcooked in the past. Halibut, like many other wild fish, is delectable when prepared correctly…dismal once overcooked. That’s the secret of how to prepare fish.
Baked halibut with roasted asparagus and scalloped potatoes
I think fish is just about the easiest thing ever because it doesn’t take long to cook and it’s so versatile. I decided to bake it because I had some leftover scalloped potatoes to reheat in a covered casserole. Then I decided I would put some asparagus in to roast on a cookie sheet tossed with some olive oil, garlic powder, thyme and salt. I love simple meals, don’t you?
Timing
At 350, the potatoes took about 20 minutes to reheat. Asparagus took about 15 minutes to get tender and get a touch of color. The halibut took about 12. Just keep an eye on things to see when they’re done. I really dislike overcooked asparagus and overcooked fish. I know the halibut is done once it is opaque and the layers of flesh just begin to separate.
The Final Touch
While everything was in the oven, I was free to look around for something fun to dress up the fish. I started sautéing some onions in a skillet with olive oil and then I tossed in some tri-colored bell peppers and half a cube of chipotle from my treasure chest of freezer flavor gems. I had a little chicken stock available, so I poured a touch of that in too. Let everything simmer until dinner was ready. Simple and delicious. You would never call this fish dry or boring! Don’t overcook and whip up a little sauce to accompany it. That’s how you can prepare fish everyone will love.
Scalloped potatoes
Learn how to make the scalloped potatoes by reading this previous post where I also served them with fish. Why? Because the leanness of the fish suggests to me that I can serve a rich side dish with it. I might prefer a leaner accompaniment to something heavier like a beef steak. What do you think?
When I first met Michael, the only pizzas he wanted to eat were plain cheese or pepperoni. I can appreciate keeping it simple if you want to evaluate a real New York pizza…but I like variety. We have come a long way since those days.
Years ago on a trip to Carmel, California, we ordered a pizza without tomato sauce called “Cristina” from Il Fornaio. Michael suggested it because he knows how I love mushrooms and truffle oil. Guess what! It became one of his favorite pizzas and we make it frequently with a few minor modifications.
Prosciutto pizza with arugula and parmesan
Ingredients:
pizza dough (store bought works for us)
grapeseed oil (it won’t smoke at high temperatures like olive oil)
minced garlic
mozzarella
sliced sautéed mushrooms
prosciutto
arugula
shaved parmesan
truffle oil
Yes, our favorite pizzas begin with garlic minced in the food processor with grapeseed oil. No red sauce. The rest of the ingredients go on in stages.
Flour the board when you begin working with the dough so that it doesn’t stick
Michael patiently rolls out the dough until it is perfectly round and thin
Together, we move it to a preheated pizza stone and roll the edges, spreading oil and garlic over the crust
Sprinkle with mozzarella and sautéed mushrooms
Bake for about 10 minutes until golden in 500 degree oven
After removing fat from the edges, place prosciutto on top and…
Add arugula and cook for no more than 60 seconds
Top with shaved parmesan and bake for another 10 seconds to melt cheese slightly
Drizzle finished pizza with truffle oil
It’s worth the wait! Please read Pizza for another of our favorites and ideas on what to do if you don’t have a pizza stone or rolling pin.
Beef Stroganoff with yogurt is easy to make for dinner tonight.
I often don’t like to call dishes by a particular name because if you’ve had that dish before, you might be expecting it to be done in a specific way that is different from how I have prepared it. So we’re going to call this Beef Stroganoff for the sake of simplicity, but in this case I made a lighter version than what is typical.
I liked eating the vegetables separately as a kid
The Beef
You can use whatever kind of beef you like. Just adjust the cooking method to suit the cut. Longer, slow cooking for tougher cuts. Quick cooking for more tender cuts. You could use ground beef or turkey too.
I had some shaved beef here, so I thought I would cook it quickly at the end of the preparation. I think the texture and flavor would have actually been better if I had started with searing the beef, then removed it from the skillet before adding the mushrooms and onions. Live and learn. Cooking without a recipe means experimenting and making adjustments.
The Sauce
To this I added some white wine and let the sauce reduce. I would usually add some beef broth too, but in this case I didn’t. You could add some herbs too. I put some plain yogurt in there once the egg noodles were nearly done. (I don’t want to overheat my probiotics or curdle the yogurt.) Mixed everything together and served. I love simple meals.
Yes, usually this dish is made with sour cream, but I buy yogurt more often and it works fine for me. I often have trouble finishing an entire carton of sour cream unless I turn it into onion dip for chips…in which case I could easily eat the entire carton…and live to regret it. Yogurt is more versatile in my opinion. It can be sweetened up with fruit for a quick snack or plopped onto granola or oatmeal. It works in many savory dishes like this one as well.
The Tool
A spider that you will be happy to find in your kitchen
A spider is perfect for removing the noodles from boiling water to go into the sauce. Tossed some asparagus spears into the boiling water for a minute and retrieved them with aforementioned spider. I love using as few pots as possible…
Here’s how I roll these days: all mixed up. It was even more delicious this way
The Ingredients:
beef
onions
mushrooms
white wine
plain yogurt
asparagus
egg noodles
What else to do with yogurt? Please see No Boring Leftovers for one suggestion.
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