Corned Beef and Rice Stir Fry

One of the basic tenets of motherhood is this: Serve Baby Corn. When all else fails and your kids refuse to look a vegetable in the eye, let them eat baby corn.  

So when I don't feel like fighting with them to eat their dinner, I serve baby corn. (Usually with some protein. I'm not a complete failure as a mother.) 

This dish is nice because it puts leftover cold cuts to good use. Of course you can buy them fresh too, but it sure feels good to use leftovers! 

Corned Beef and Rice Stir Fry

20 minutes prep, assuming you have the rice cooked ahead of time

Serves 6

Cook the rice well ahead of time. You want it very comfortably settled at room temperature for this dish. If it's warm, it'll clump. (Leftover rice from last night's dinner is fine too. Just let it come to room temperature for an hour or so, if you have the time.) 

4 tablespoons canola oil, divided

4 scallions

1 red bell pepper, julienned

3 stalks celery, sliced about 1/2 inch thick

1 can of baby corn

about 1/2 pound of deli sliced corned beef, cut in strips

3 cups cooked brown rice, at room temperature (this is important!)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup dry white wine (use sake if you have it)

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the scallions and saute for a minute or two, till fragrant. 

Add the pepper, celery and baby corn, and cook for a few minutes till heated through. Add the corned beef and cook for another few minutes, stirring, till heated. 

Remove the vegetables and meat from the pan and set aside. 

Heat the remaining oil. When the oil is nice and hot, add the rice and cook for a few minutes, stirring often. Let it start browning and warm through thoroughly, but take care not to burn it. 

When the rice is nice and hot and beginning to brown, add the soy sauce and wine, along with the vegetables. Cook for another few minutes till heated through. 

Serve immediately. 

Linking this up to Frugal Follies and Let's Do Brunch.

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Sweet Cooked Latkes (a.k.a. Chremslach)

If there is one food that is off limits in our home during the week, it's Latkes (Jewish potato pancakes). Don't get me wrong, I like them just as much as the next person, but they're just completely out of the question for an ordinary weeknight.   

The potatoes have to be grated fresh. Whether I grate them by hand or use the food processor, I get exhausted just thinking about doing that after a day of work. 

They have to be fried fresh, on the spot, immediately before eating. (At least in my opinion. Otherwise I just don't think they're worth the effort or calories.)

But these Latkes (known in some families as Chremslach) are different. They require no grating or washing of the food processor. You can make the batter ahead of time (!). You can even fry them in advance and serve them rewarmed or cold. They make for a special treat for my kids, and are manageable even on a non-Chanukah weeknight.

Sweet Cooked Latkes

These are very different than typical latkes, which are made with raw grated potatoes and onions. They are sweet and mild, but very delicious. And manageable on a weeknight because so much of the work can be done ahead of time!

3 large Idaho potatoes

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

about 1/2 cup canola oil, for frying

Peel the potatoes, cut them in chunks and put them in a saucepan covered with water. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 1/2 hour, till they are nice and soft. You want them to mash easily. 

Drain the potatoes and mash them well. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. (This part can be done up to a day ahead of time. Just refrigerate the batter till you're ready to use it. Bring to room temperature, if possible, before proceeding.)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil's good and hot, spoon the potato batter in to form about eight roundish pancakes. Each one should be about an inch thick. 

Cook the pancakes for about 10 minutes on the first side. When you spot some nice brown crispiness underneath, it's time to flip them. (This part's easy - they are not at all runny and should flip nicely!) Flip them and then let them cook on the second side for another five minutes or so, till nicely browned. 

Serve immediately, or put aside for later. If you're going to serve them later, you can eat them cold, at room temperature, or rewarmed in the oven. 

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Garlicky Vegetarian Stew

This is embarrassing. In telling you how this stew came to be, I'm going to have to admit that I ran out of onions. What self respecting housewife runs out of onions? At the beginning of the week?

Well, I did. I could pretend that I intentionally came up with an onion-less stew recipe. That I thought it would be an interesting challenge to prepare a stew without onions. But the truth is that I simply ran out of this very basic staple. And since onions forms the basis of almost every cooked item I prepare, I had to think outside of the mesh bag box. So I thought garlic. Lots and lots of garlic.

Since I buy garlic in bulk at Costco, there's (almost) never a shortage of it in my home. I peeled and peeled and then chopped and chopped. And guess what? It worked! Fifteen cloves later, this stew was amazingly rich and flavored. I recommend it even if you have a bag full of onions at hand (as every housewife should).

Indian Inspired Vegetable Stew
This was perfect served with plain Greek yogurt and tortilla chips. But then I'm always looking for any excuse to eat yogurt and tortilla chips at meals. It feels sinful. 

2 tablespoons olive oil
10-15 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon black or aleppo pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
an entire head of celery, chopped coarsely
6 carrots, peeled and chopped coarsely
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks (I like them nice and large)
1/2 cup barley
2 cans chickpeas, or 1/2 bag dried chickpeas soaked overnight

Heat the oil in a large pot (I used my Le Creuset stock pot) over medium-low heat. Add the chopped garlic and mustard and cumin seeds. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly until your kitchen is smelling lovely and the seeds are beginning to pop.

Add the remaining spices and the salt and cook for another minute, stirring, to incorporate all those lovely seasonings.

Add the vegetables, barley, chickpeas and enough water to cover. If you're using canned beans, cook for about 2 hours. Dried beans may need longer to really soften up (I cooked mine gently for close to four hours).

Serve as a main dish with some plain yogurt and tortilla chips.  Oh, did I mention that it freezes really well? Freeze anything you have left for another time. It's great a as a side dish next to meat or fish.

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Fried Rice with Vegetables

If you are reading this post in the hopes of finding a beautiful photo of Fried Rice, you are going to be disappointed.

You'll find a pretty picture of raw rice.

A picture of cooked rice.

And, if I do say so myself, some pretty appealing photos of veggies being chopped and then sauteed.

But you will not find a single picture of the finished dish. Nope. Not a one. And I'll be honest with you. I didn't even photograph this dish, because it just wasn't attractive.

It looked oh-so-pretty in the prep stages. All those pretty colors and shapes. Peppers. Celery. Mushrooms. But when it was done, it just didn't look oh-so-pretty anymore.

The saving grace was that it was scrumptious, and we scraped every last bit out of the pan. (Come to think of it, I should have photographed the empty pan. That was a pretty sight.) So, I'm sharing the recipe here. I hope you'll make it. Preferably not on a night when you're having company. Or planning to take photos for your food blog.

Fried Rice with Vegetables
Vary the vegetables if you like. Bok choy, water chestnuts, and baby corn would make a truly Chinese dish. Frozen or fresh corn and peas or red/yellow/orange bell peppers would be really pretty too. If you don't have any leftover rice, make some fresh, but plan in advance so it has a chance to refrigerate for at least a few hours or even overnight. You don't want to start with warm fresh rice for this recipe. 


3 tablespoons canola oil
1 onion, sliced in rings
1 bell pepper, sliced
4 scallions, white and light green parts only, sliced thin
a few button mushrooms, sliced
3-4 stalks celery, sliced

4 cups of leftover brown rice (start with about 1 1/2 cups raw)

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the onion and saute for about 10 minutes on medium heat, till soft. Add the remaining vegetables and cook for another 10 minutes or so, till warmed through and softened. 

Add the rice and mix well (or break it up with your hands). Cook, stirring from time to time, for about 10 minutes or until the rice is warmed through. 

Remove the rice from the heat and stir in the soy sauce and sesame oil. Serve immediately.

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Alphabet Vegetable Soup (and my secret to rich stock every week)

Be honest here. When you eat alphabet soup, do you check your letters before you eat them? Do you eat them one at a time? Try finding words on your spoon (extra bonus points for your name)? Saving all the vowels for last?

It doesn't matter how old you are or how many bowls of soup you've eaten in your lifetime. Alphabet soup is ageless. It brings out the kid in all of us.

Here's a recipe for a super doubly nutritious soup made with a nutrient- and flavor-rich stock. Yes, the stock is an extra step. But it is so worth it. You get double the nutrients and double the taste.

If you don't usually make stock, try it. You'll thank me. Here's my technique: All week long, whenever I peel a fruit or vegetable, I put the peels/cores/leftovers into a large ziploc bag that I keep in the door of the freezer. I save onion and garlic skins; celery scraps; peels from carrots, potatoes, turnips and sweet potatoes; and apple and pear cores and peels. I make sure not to put in anything too strongly flavored (think broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage), and I also try not to put in too much of any one vegetable.  (I use a pareve knife so I'm not 'committing' to dairy or meat.) When the bag is totally full, I rinse the scraps really well in a colander and then I cook it up with some chicken bones, for meat stock, or on its own for a pareve stock. (I add a splash of soy sauce and some dried mushrooms for the pareve version.) For tonight's soup, I added chicken bones that were on sale for less than $2. The soup was so richly flavored. Each of us had THREE bowls and we still have some left for tomorrow!

Alphabet Vegetable Soup
You can make this soup with water instead of stock, but it's worth trying it with stock if you can. I know it takes just a bit more effort, but you'll love the rich taste. Stir the pasta into the individual bowls before serving, rather than into the pot. This way you can serve it again the next night, if you have any left, and the pasta will still be firm and tasty.


SOUP
1 onion
2-3 carrots peeled or scrubbed
3 stalks of celery
1-2 parsnips peeled or scrubbed
1 turnip peeled or scrubbed
1 large or 2 small zucchini, washed (not peeled)
1 tablespoon canola oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
paprika and/or black pepper, to taste
alphabet noodles

STOCK

about 4 cups of vegetable scraps, such as onion and garlic skins; celery scraps; peels from carrots, potatoes, turnips and sweet potatoes; and apple and pear cores and peels

about 2 pounds of chicken bones or necks
8 cups water
3 bay leaves

First, start the stock. Wash the vegetable scraps very well in a colander. Combine the vegetable scraps, chicken, water and bay leaves in a very large pot. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top. Reduce to a simmer and let cook for about 2 hours. (Less is okay, but the flavor does get richer as it cooks.)

While the stock is simmering, prepare the vegetables for the soup. Use the shredding disc of your food processor to grate the the onion, carrots, celery, parsnips, turnip, and zucchini. Heat the oil in a large soup pot (I use a Le Creuset) and warm the garlic for a minute or two, just till fragrant.  Add the grated vegetables and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the stock is finished cooking, strain the stock - discarding the vegetables and reserving the liquid. (I simply put the colander over the stock pot with the cooking grated vegetables. I pour the stock right through the colander, leaving the vegetables behind and putting the stock right in with the grated vegetables.)

Add the stock to the cooking grated vegetables and cook for another hour or so.

Stir the alphabet noodles into the individual bowls before serving.

Come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers


Linking this up to Kitchen Tip Tuesday. 

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Creamy Parsnip Soup

Today, I'm delighted to be a guest on Cooking Manager. 

I pride myself on my healthy eating habits. I eat loads of fresh seasonal produce, and build almost every meal around vegetables. I’m a good role model for my kids, setting an example of balanced and nutritious eating. I serve a wide range of vegetables and prepare them so many different ways. My kids see me and husband eating healthy at almost every meal.

As luck would have it, I have a houseful of picky eaters. Between the four of them, my children eat only four vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans, and baby carrots. (I refuse to count potatoes, olives or pickles as vegetables.) They will not eat mushrooms, spinach, cauliflower or broccoli. They balk at peppers no matter what color. Eggplant is completely off limits, and I won’t even tell you what happened when I tried convincing my son to try Swiss Chard. Suffice it to say that we had quite a cleanup afterwards.

But I’ve discovered that they will eat a really wide range of vegetables if I cook them up in soup! Now that winter is upon us, I make an effort to make one or two pots of soup over the weekend. If I make a double recipe, each pot lasts two or three nights, and most soups taste better when rewarmed. Here’s one of my recent favorites. It’s simple and a real hit with kids and adults alike. The kids love it because it’s so sweet, and, the best part is, the sweetness is 100% natural! A mother’s dream!

Please visit Cooking Manager to read the recipe! 

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Slightly Special Baked Ziti

Raise your hand if you're a mom. Now, keep your hand raised if you have found a dinner that your ENTIRE family will eat (yes, including you!). Is it an easy dinner? Can it be made ahead of time? Is it reasonably healthy and not likely to raise your cholesterol / BMI / waist size more than 5%? Bet there aren't too many of you with your hands still raised!

Today I came up with a recipe that comes pretty close to meeting all these criteria. It's easy. It can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for a couple of days. It's not too high on the calorie/fat scale. And almost everyone in the family enjoyed it.

I was hoping you wouldn't comment on the 'almost.' (I even shrunk down the font size in the hopes you wouldn't notice it.) I have to admit (please don't think less of me): I am not a real pasta fan. I have nothing against it. It's satisfying, tasty, and usually easy to prepare. But I think of pasta as an indulgence, and if I'm indulging, I'd rather have homemade bread. Or some dark chocolate. Or a piece of chocolate cake. Or maybe a good medium-rare steak. Pasta just isn't worth it to me.

That being said, five out of six is pretty good. Who cares about Mommy anyway? She can always just eat some yogurt or toast. (Seriously.)

This dish is nice because it's just a cut above the standard Baked Ziti. Maybe it's because it requires the use of a blender, or maybe it's the creaminess of the sauce, but I think this recipe is just a bit more elegant. The kids loved it and so did my husband Avi. So in my book, this was a real winner.

Slightly Special Baked Ziti
Use milk for a lighter recipe; cream if you aren't counting calories. To make it ahead of time, prepare the pasta but hold off on baking it. Refrigerate it for up to two days. Just let it come to room temperature for a couple of hours before baking, or increase the baking time by about 20 minutes. 


1 box of ziti or penne

1/2 of a 26-oz. jar of your favorite marinara sauce (I use Frescorti) 

1 cup ricotta cheese (I use part skim)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1 cup milk or cream (or less)

Preheat the oven to 350*.

Cook the pasta till it's done but still firm. Make sure not to overcook it.

While the pasta cooks, combine the marinara sauce and all three cheeses in a blender. Add up to a cup of milk or cream, as needed, just enough to get the blender working through the thick mixture. Blend for a minute or two until well mixed and smooth.

Put the pasta into a 9x13 glass or disposable aluminum pan. Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix well.

 Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes more. Serve immediately.

Cooked (naked) pasta

Doesn't this look
pretty? 

The blended sauce

Mixing the sauce in with the pasta

Pasta before baking

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Chickpea and Barley Stew

I discovered in the recent blizzard that I keep enough food in my home to stock a family of six for at least two months, probably more. I don't know if it's some kind of primal survival instinct, or just poor planning and budgeting, but I am not exaggerating when I say that we could go for MONTHS without a grocery trip. Right now, just to give you an idea, the top shelf of my pantry holds 11 boxes of pasta, 13 cans of tuna and 2 cans of salmon, 7 bags plus 14 cans of beans, 1 bag of split peas, 2 bags of lentils, 2 bags of barley, 2 bags of wheat berries, 4 cans of mushrooms plus a HUMONGOUS container of dried mushrooms, and 2 five-pound bags of flour. And that's just ONE shelf. (We have another four upstairs and three downstairs.)

It's rather scary.

Last week, I decided to do without any groceries, with the exception of milk, bread, and a few very basic fresh vegetables. We're cleaning out our pantry and it FEELS GOOD. This recipe is easy, healthy, and very economical.

Chickpea and Barley Stew
I have a plethora of dried beans at home, so I used those. You could easily use canned beans instead. Just add them along with the sweet potatoes instead of with the barley. I served some plain yogurt next to this dish (read more about my simple yogurt formula on my other blog) and called it a meal. 


1 tablespoon canola oil
1 yellow onion, minced
2 stalks of celery, chopped fine
1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 whole cardamom seeds (or use 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup barley

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained

1/8 cup soy sauce

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
6-8 large mushrooms, washed and sliced

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the onion and saute on medium for about 5 minutes. Add the celery, carrots and garlic and saute, stirring, for about 2 minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Add the spices and salt and continue to cook for another minute or two, stirring. Add the barley and cook for another minute or two, still stirring.

Add the chickpeas plus enough water to cover. Cook for about two hours, till the barley and chickpeas are tender but not mushy.

Add the soy sauce and sweet potatoes. Cook for another 1/2 hour.

Add the mushrooms and cook for a 1/2 hour longer. Serve warm.

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Maple Oatmeal Bread: Night 2

Today started and ended with a throbbing headache. But the saving grace was sandwiched between the two headaches: a gratifying meal built around last night's leftovers that tasted like something right out of a gourmet cafe (if I do say so, myself!).

Over the weekend - anticipating a really hectic work week - I baked two loaves of fantastically soft bread. Amazingly, a half a loaf was leftover and it made for a wonderful dinner for me and my husband tonight.

I don't really have a recipe to share here. Here's how I built dinner.




First, a batch of Maple Oatmeal Bread. Really, any favorite bread will do but it's got to be homemade or REALLY good store-bought stuff. My Sandwich Bread or any favorite of yours is just fine.



Slice the bread good and thick. I made mine almost an inch thick. You don't want it to get dried out when you toast it.



Let the toast cool for a couple of minutes so it doesn't melt the cheese. Spread it with some mayonnaise (confession: I used store bought) and layer with your favorite sliced cheese. I couldn't decide between mozzarella and cheddar so I made one of each.



Top with sliced tomatoes or roasted peppers, or just serve it next to a simple salad. (I made a salad out of baby spinach, sliced grape tomatoes and a few jarred olives.) Sit back and enjoy immediately.

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Maple Oatmeal Bread

I promised myself I'd eat just two slices, but there is something irresistible about this bread. It's soft and chewy and has just the right amount of sweetness. Four slices and lots of butter later, I found myself staring at a cutting board piled with crumbs and a much smaller loaf of bread than it had started with. In short, this bread is wonderfully addictive. Try it!

Last week, I blogged about my homemade sandwich bread. A friend suggested I try an Irish Oatmeal Bread from Cooking Light. I tried it today - with a few changes (maple syrup instead of sugar, regular oats instead of steel cut) - and it was a big hit. Thanks, Ley! This is a really soft, mild bread that's wonderful fresh as well as leftover. Don't eat this bread too warm, though, or it'll fall apart. Here's my modified recipe for you to try.

Maple Oatmeal Bread
This is quick work if you have a stand mixer. Serve this bread with eggs, sliced cheese, or simply with some butter, honey, or jam.

2 1/4  cups  boiling water
1 3/4  cups  raw oats
1  tablespoon  salt
3  tablespoons  butter, margarine, or canola oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
a drizzle of honey
1 tablespoon dry yeast (a little more than one packet)
1/2  cup wrist-water temperature water
3 1/2  cups  whole wheat flour, divided 
3  cups  all-purpose flour

Combine the boiling water, oats, salt, butter, and maple syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix well with a spoon. Let the mixture stand for about 25 minutes until it comes close to room temperature. (If it's too hot, it will kill the yeast.) Meanwhile, make a sponge. Mix the honey and yeast with the 1/2 cup wrist-water temperature water. Let it stand for about 5 minutes or until foamy and then stir in 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.

Let this rest for about 25 minutes, too, while the oatmeal mixture does the same. 

Combine the oat mixture and the sponge and begin mixing in a stand mixer. Gradually add the remaining whole wheat and white flour and knead for about 5 minutes until well combined and elastic. (You may need a bit of extra flour. The dough shouldn't stick to the sides of the bowl.)

Place the dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top. Cover and let it rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.  Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Use a rolling pin or the palms of your hands to flatten each half into a rough oval shape about 8 inches wide in the center. Then, just roll the oval up jelly-roll style (lengthwise) and place each one, seam sides down, in a 9-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Let the loaves rise for another hour or so.

About 15 minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350* and bake for about 45 minutes, till the loaves are golden and sound kind of hollow when you tap them. Cool the loaves on wire racks (this is important; they will get soggy if you let them cool in the pans) for at least two hours before serving. Note that this bread freezes wonderfully. Just wrap the loaves well in foil after they have cooled thoroughly and freeze for up to a month.

See my post on Yeast Spotting.
I shared this post on Countdown to 2011!

Linking this up to Koab Recipe Exchange.

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