Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki

1 cup flour
2/3 cup water
2-3 tsp soy sauce
2 eggs
4 cups cabbage
2-3 green onions, sliced
1/2 loop kielbasa, sliced

Whisk together flour, water, soy sauce, and eggs.  Stir in cabbage, onions, and kielbasa.  Fry on medium heat until more than halfway cooked; flip and cook until center is set.  Serve with mayo, tonkatsu sauce, and benito flakes.

Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes

Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
3-4 medium potatoes, cut into 3/4" chunks
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp salt
olive oil

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Toss cauliflower, potatoes, cumin seeds, salt, and olive oil to coat in a medium bowl.  Spread evenly on baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

Saute onion in a little olive oil on medium high heat until lightly browned.  Add garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, and salt, and cook for a minute more.  Add water and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add cauliflower and potatoes and toss with onion mixture until water is mostly evaporated.  Add additional salt to taste.

Serve with basmati rice.

Ginger Chicken

Credit to Niccole Perrine for this recipe.


Ginger Chicken

serves 2

1/2 lb boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces

2/3 c sugar

1/2 c soy sauce

2 tsp ground ginger

crushed red pepper (optional)

1 c water

2-4 Tb cornstarch

peanuts (optional)

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan and add chicken.  Brown on all sides, turning occasionally.  Add sugar, soy sauce, ginger, red pepper, and water, and bring to a simmer.  Mix cornstarch with a tablespoon or two of water and add to the pan.  Simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened.  Serve over rice and top with peanuts.

Ginger Chicken with Bok Choi

serves 2-3

1/2 lb boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces

1 head bok choi, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

2/3 c sugar

1/2 c soy sauce

2 tsp ground ginger

crushed red pepper (optional)

1 c water

2-4 Tb cornstarch

peanuts (optional)

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan and add chicken.  Brown on all sides, turning occasionally.  Remove chicken from pan.

Add bok choi to pan with another drizzle of olive oil.  Saute, turning frequently, until slightly wilted.  Add sugar, soy sauce, ginger, red pepper, and water, and bring to a simmer.  Cook until stems are tender.

Return chicken to pan along with accumulated juices.  Mix cornstarch with a tablespoon or two of water and add to the pan.  Simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened.  Serve over rice and top with peanuts.

Apple Sharlotka

Apple Sharlotka
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Note: This is the way I wish I'd made it.  The original recipe had you pile the apples in the pan, then spread the very thick batter over the top and hope it sank in.  This resulted in a layer of apples topped by a layer of cake.

2 eggs
2/3 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 c flour
4 apples, chopped

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour the bottom and sides of an 8" springform pan.

Beat eggs and sugar until thick.  (If you beat too long, you'll have a meringue-like shell on the top of the cake.)  Beat in vanilla, then stir in flour with a spoon.  Stir in apples.

Scrape batter into pan.  Bake 55 to 60 minutes.

Pumpkin Coconut Peanut Soup

Loosely adapted from these sources:
Pumpkin, Peanut, and Ginger Soup
Spicy Coconut and Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Coconut Peanut Soup
serves 2-3

1 small onion, diced
1 inch ginger, grated
1 14 oz can pumpkin
1 14 oz can coconut milk
1/4 c peanut butter
dash cayenne pepper
salt to taste

1/4 c chopped cilantro

Saute onion in olive oil until soft and translucent.  Add ginger and saute for one minute more.  Stir in pumpkin, coconut milk, peanut butter, cayenne, and salt, and bring to a simmer.  Add water if soup seems too thick.  Blend if desired.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

Dijon Chicken

Dijon Chicken
Loosely adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 lb chicken thighs, trimmed
olive oil
2 shallots or 1 small onion, finely diced
1 c white wine
1 c heavy cream
2-4 T dijon mustard

Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat.  Add chicken in a single layer and fry until halfway cooked.  Flip and cook briefly on other side.  Remove chicken to a bowl.

Add shallots and more oil, if needed, and saute until soft and translucent.  Add wine and reduce.  Add heavy cream, mustard, and reserved chicken and juices, and simmer until reduced and slightly thickened.

Moussaka

This is a recipe from my lovely friend Kristen.

Moussaka

2 medium eggplants
olive oil
1 lb lean ground beef or turkey or lamb
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
15 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Cheese sauce:
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups cream
2 egg
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Peel and slice eggplants into 1/4 inch slices. Drizzle a cookie sheet with olive oil, place the eggplant slices on it, drizzle with more olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put them under the broiler and broil till soft and brown.

In a large sauce pan over medium to medium high heat, add enough olive oil to coat pan. Add chopped onions, garlic and meat. Cook until meat is cooked through. Add canned tomatoes and crushed tomatoes, oregano, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick spray. Place a layer of eggplant on the bottom. Spread about half the meat mixture on top of eggplant. Put another layer of eggplant on top of that. Spread the rest of meat mixture on top of that.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. To the melted butter, whisk in flour, cream, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add eggs and cheese and mix completely. Pour cheese sauce on top of moussaka. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Let it sit for 25 minutes after you take it out of the oven before cutting it.

Apple Cake

This is an amalgamation of four different recipes:
Ozark Apple Pudding
Patricia's Awesome Apple Cake
Teddie's Apple Cake
Easy Apple Cake

Karin's Apple Cake

3/4 c sugar
1/2 c melted coconut oil
1/4 c applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c chopped apples

1/4 c brown sugar
2 T butter
1 T milk

Whisk together sugar, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and egg.  Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Stir together wet and dry ingredients and then stir in apples.  Pour into greased 9x9 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees until batter is set.

Poke holes in cooled cake.  Cook brown sugar, butter, and milk together on stove until mixture bubbles.  Pour over cake.

Baked Orzo with Eggplant and Mozzarella

Recently I realized that the link for one of my favorite sweet potato soup recipes no longer worked, and I hadn't written down the recipe anywhere so it's gone forever.  So I'm going to try to write up recipes as I try them (including notes on modifications) so this doesn't happen again.  Don't count on much in the way of commentary -- the quicker I can write up a recipe, the more likely it'll actually happen again!

Baked Orzo with Eggplant and Mozzarella
Adapted via Smitten Kitchen

1 large italian eggplant, or 3 skinny asian eggplants, cut into 3/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 celery stalk, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced

6 ounces orzo, rinsed
1 teaspoon tomato paste

1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
1 small lemon's worth of zest
4 ounces mozzarella, cut into 1/3-inch dice
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cups water