We had a soup which I made last weekend for the express purpose of serving it as leftovers during this week’s freezing, rainy weather.
Beef and vegetable soup: chunks of blade pot roast, carrots, rutabaga, string beans, mushroom, onions and peas. It was in a stout broth made of Progresso beef stock, tomato, red wine, Worcestershire and a little browned roux.
It was terrific and warming.
Sunday night we had a beef stew that I had cooked most of the day.
Monday my wife made a chicken-bean-salsa concoction. Very nice.
Hot and sour soup with prawns and mushrooms.
The cat begged and pleaded for a taste, so I gave him a taste. He sneezed mightily. (The soup was a bit hotter than intended).
And this was cooking at the same time as the cranberry chutney, so the smells in the kitchen were deliciously culturally confused.
Homemade roasted garlic and basil tomato soup and grilled cheese.
Ok, I’m going to attempt to produce a Guinness braised pot roast chunk stew with peas and carrots topped with a fat dollop of garlic mashed in the middle - kind of a Shepherds Pie in a bowl idea. I’m going to make as much as humanly possible, but I’ve never tried the Gunniess braised thing.
I can tackle grilled cheese no problem, but would you mind sharing the soup recipe? I know a certain person at my house that would go nuts for that.
Last night made up my own version of goulash.
Char-fried 1 lb cubed steak, then threw in one large-diced onion and fried. Added 2 pints water, 1 glass red wine, 1 can chopped tomatoes and brought to the boil. Added 2 chopped carrots and 3 diced potatoes. Added 4 tsps paprika and 1 tsp cinnamon. Salted to taste. Simmered for 30 minutes, then chopped three Hungarian white peppers and added them. More salt and a tube of hot paprika paste. Reduced the heat then added 1/2 cup sour cream and stirred in.
Very, very good, though I say it myself.
Sunday night my sink was backing up with dirty dishes I was this close to ordering pizza, then changed my mind to grabbing steaks out of the freezer. Instead grabbed a brick of ground beef and proceeded to make three main course’s with it.
It started because I wanted mango chutney, I had an unopened bottle of hot mango chutney and I needed to taste it! First up was fried wontons (can be stuffed with just about anything) I had the wraps, oil and fired up the fry daddy. We munched on hot wontons dipped in chutney while we kept cooking. Took a heavy cleaver to an acorn squash, browned the ground beef with onions, mixd in cheese cubes stuffed that in the squash and baked. Last thing was…oh yeah, used up some leftover jalapeno’s peppers. I cleaned and then stuffed them inside mini meatloaves.
Not a freaking clean pot, pan, spoon or knive left in the room!
Grilled chicken breast and steamed vegetables. This has been my dinner every night for at least a week. It’s not that I can’t cook, but no other dishes have occurred to me, lately.
If anyone has a simple recipe for chicken stir fry (can you believe I’ve never made stir fry) or a winning fajita marinade, you would bring me such joy if you shared it here. I know my way around the kitchen and have all the utensils, but my tastes are simple…if there’s more than half a dozen ingredients, I usually won’t bother with it. Thanks.
I had home made navrattan korma (it means 9 jewels, which is a euphamism in this recipe for vegetables, though I guess it was really 7 vegetable korma instead of 9 because I ran out of snake gourd and french-cut green beans) and methi (fenugreek) parathas. I was going to make a dahl (lentil) dish, but I got lazy. And tired. I usually cook for the entire week on Sunday or Monday. If I’m doing Indian dishes, it can get kind of time consuming, so I tend to just do one. Though I might make some rava uppuma for breakfasts tonight. It’s this really good spicy veggie dish made with semolina, onions, peppers and whatever else happens to be available. It’s one of the less involved south Indian dishes I can think of and it translates nicely to an evening meal.
Tonight we’re having roasted veggie sandwiches with goat cheese and a green salad on the side. Unless we wind up eating rava uppuma.
I dont use a marinade. you need
onion, chopped as fin or coarse as you want,
bell pepper of your favorite color also cut up any way you want I usually do long skinny strips though,
you could use other peppers for more heat easily enough.
cooking oil (olive for me)
salt and pepper to taste.
Cumin and chili powder about a soup spoon of each kinda heaping
a pinch of Cinnamon.
crushed red pepper flakes if you want some heat.
2-3 pounds of chicken
oh yeah a lemon and or vinegar
basically dump everything (not the lemon/vinegar) in a large skillet and start cooking and mixing, once the chicken starts to cook its very easy to cut up with a stiff spatula so I dont bother cutting it up before hand. I usually just cook on medium til its done, and just before its done I squeeze half the lemon over the skillet and mix it up, if you dont have a lemon vinegar should do a couple spoonfuls.
I dump it into a bowl and use the skillet to heat up tortillas and its really good and freezes well.
Here’s my recommendation. Keep in mind that this is very basic and you may need to tweak the ingredients. I rarely measure ingredients unless I’m baking, so the sauce ingredients are just estimates.
Ingredients:
1 bag broccoli-wokly (or similar pre-cut stir fry veggies; you can also use frozen, but fresh is best and easiest)
1 pound chicken tenders
3-4 large garlic cloves
1-2 T ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 T sugar
2 T water
2 T vinegar (rice vinegar preferably, but most vinegars other than balsamic will do)
2 tsp roasted or dark sesame oil
1 bunch coriander/cilantro
1 pinch cracked red pepper flakes
Keep in mind that my husband and I like a LOT of sauce to mix into our rice. We also like our chicken really tender, so we don’t just stir fry; once everything is seared, we simmer in the sauce, too. Not traditional by any means, but it produces some great results.
Directions:
Sauce: Mix the ginger, soy, sugar, sesame oil, vinegar and pepper flakes together. Set aside.
Chicken & veggies: Chop up the chicken and toss it into a hot wok or deep pan. Stir fry about 3 minutes. Toss in the garlic for about 30 seconds followed by veggies for about 1-2 minutes. Dump in the sauce, stir and cover for about 5 minutes. Check the chicken to make sure it’s white in the middle. When it is, throw in a handful of chopped coriander leaves. Serve over rice.
If you’re having guests, you might also toss in some sai fun or bean thread noodles into the dish. They’re clear, angel hair-like noodles that a lot of people don’t use often, so they can be a novelty. They come in packages with bunches of three. All you have to do to prepare them is toss one bunch into boiling water, turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. I usually then run some cold water over them and cut with kitchen scissors and only then toss into the dish. They’re very long. In my experience, these go best in “yellow chicken,” or chicken with coconut milk, curry powder and lemongrass.
Last night was homemade pan-fried pizza. I made the crust with about 25% whole wheat, used fresh mozzarella for the first time, and topped with basil, onions, and mushrooms. I was surprised how much liquid the mozzarella released during cooking, but overall it was pretty good. I try not to do too many heavily refined carb-type meals, but we have pizza once every six weeks or so as a treat, or if we have a few friends over.
Tonight is a Moroccan root vegetable stew over whole wheat couscous. Saute 2 chopped onions and 1 chopped red bell pepper in some olive oil until softened, then stir in salt, pepper, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, a pinch of saffron, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 cloves, and 1 teaspoon coriander. Add four chunked carrots, a pound of chunked butternut squash or sweet potato, and about a pound of the vegetable of your choice (tonight it’s green beans), along with a cup of stock or water, and cook for about 20 minutes until the veggies get just tender. Add a can of chickpeas and half a cup of raisins and cook for another ten minutes, and serve over couscous. Awesome stuff, one of the heartiest vegetarian recipes I know.
Rucciface, I don’t follow a strict recipe for stir-fries, but a basic outline for a stir-fry for one a la Gila:
A tablespoon or so of oil
1 piece boneless chicken, cubed
soy sauce to taste (use good stuff, not La Choy - I like Eden or San-Jay. It should smell like something other than salt.)
1 onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch cube of ginger, minced
2 scallions, chopped
Several cups of the vegetable(s) of your choice, chopped
About 1/4 cup water/stock, optional
Five spice powder or hot pepper flakes, optional
A few drops of toasted sesame oil, optional (it’s strong - you don’t need much)
Other sauces like hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, chili-garlic paste, etc., optional
Technically, that’s at least nine ingredients, but I hope it’s not too complicated.
Get your pan really, really hot. Add the oil (I like peanut or a neutral oil like canola for stir-fries), then toss in your chunked up chicken that’s been marinating for ten minutes (while you chop up the veggies) in a few drops of soy sauce and some spices of your choice, and cook it, stirring, until it loses its pinkness all the way through. Move it to a separate bowl. (You can cook your chicken with everything, but I like to make sure that all the chicken is all the way cooked, since underdone carrots are just crunchy, but underdone chicken can be salmonella.) Add a little oil if you need to, then toss in one onion, sliced up. Cook it until it’s maybe halfway done cooking, although this depends on what else you’re putting in with it. Add some chopped scallions, garlic, and the vegetable of your choice. If the vegetable is particularly firm (like broccoli), you might want to steam it in a covered bowl in the microwave with a couple of tablespoons of water for two minutes or so first, just to get it partway cooked. Carrots, zucchini, peppers, and bok choi don’t need any pre-cooking in my experience. Snap-pea pods, canned water chestnuts, and nuts like cashews only need a minute or so of cooking at the very end, just enough to get heated through. When things are very nearly finished, you can opt to add some water or stock and let it bubble away for thirty seconds or a minute, which will create a bit of sauciness and change the texture. Add soy sauce to taste, and one or two of the flavorings listed above as optional if you like.
Serve over rice, or else make some Asian-style noodles (thin rice noodles, fresh Chinese egg noodles, whatever) in a separate pot, then drain and throw them into your main stir fry towards the end, right before you add the liquid of your choice and whatever extra flavorings.
On preview, several others have posted stir-fry recipes that look pretty different from mine. It just goes to show you that it’s a powerful technique that’s very flexible, so once you get the basic idea, you can vary it almost infinitely.
Thanks, Critical1, overlyverbose, and GilaB for your posts. Very informative and Way cool of you! I look forward to trying your suggestions, as they sound delicious and healthy, too. Looks like I’ll be buying some garlic and some ginger pretty soon, as I have most everything else in the pantry. Thanks again.
not a problem, I love these threads because I always come away with at least one new recipe that rocks. there are a few in here I will try in one form or another. my biggest problem is my food issues usually mean I have to massacre a recipe to make it edible for me. (no wheat/soy/dairy hurray food hates me) the link I posted in the op turned out perfect because I had that sheep milk cheese that wasnt getting eaten because it tastes weird…but its a lot like Parm, you wouldnt eat it plain but shredded on food? heck yeah.
I’ve been living on bean and cheese quesadillas for a few days but I’m getting a craving for either beef stew or beef pasties.
Monday night: baked salmon filet marinated in soy sauce and crusted with sesame seeds. I meant to have it Sunday night but I forgot to take it out of the freezer early enough.
right now:
Lamb Korma, lamb stuffed Naan, Samosa and Pakora sampler, and Roti.
Why yes, someone ordered out tonight 
Last night: Armadillo Willy’s smoked sausage plate w/beans ‘n’ slaw, and a half order of onion rings.
Tonight: Broccoli coleslaw salad with tomatoes, onions, 'shrooms, TJ’s “just teriyaki chicken”, jalapeño ranch dressing–all wrapped up in an oven-warmed lavash.
(Both meals washed down with an unpretentious but rather tasty shiraz.)
Convenient Burritos.
Every now and then I cook 1 pound of hamburger and mix in 1 can of refried black beans (with lime) and 1 can whole black beans. What I don’t eat that day gets frozen and provides burritos for a couple of months when I feel like them.
Tonight I finished off the container. Heat and spread on a large burrito shell. Pour on taco sauce, microwave for 50 seconds to heat shell and ensure bean/meat mix is hot. Add shredded Mexican four cheese blend and sour cream.
Fast, cheap, simple, good.
Tomorrow I’ll probably have the Convenient Spagetti. (Two jars sauce, preferably different flavors, 1 pound ground beef, one can mushrooms; freeze leftovers and have as desired for the next month or so)
I’m broke, so I haven’t had some of those other meals in quite a while (several years). But boy, do they look good.