The contents of our dry goods cabinet (well, the main one). We have one of those corner cabinets with lazy susans in it, and it's a little busted. So Eric took all the stuff out to look at it but it's not fixed yet. All stacked up like that it's sucking up counter space and blocking the microwave, but it looks cool, so I took a picture, which I'm following up with my top ten dry staples.

1. basic short rice, of course. I'm lumping white and brown together as number one. It's a rare week that we don't eat this, usually several times. Plus I think it's better the next day than basmati, which gets dry really fast.
2. other rice--basmati, arborio, wild rice, jasmine. I once did a presentation for Relief Society on vegetarian cooking and food storage, and when I said I had several kinds of rice, several ladies were surprised there even were several kinds. *sigh*
3. wheat--I don't actually use the wheat, but Eric makes bread with it every couple of weeks, so I reap the benefits of his wheat usage, mostly in the form of toast.
4. quinoa--when I feel like we've eaten nothing but rice all week, I make quinoa instead. It's cute and round, so you've gotta love that.
5. pasta--I like different shapes because they fool me into thinking I'm eating different foods. Yay!
6. lentils--these are pretty much the only 'beans' I cook from their dry state because I am too lazy for other beans. Lentils usually means green lentils to me (or cute French blue ones) but I also use red lentils sometimes. I make a pretty tasty lentil salad, maybe I'll post the recipe later on.
7.peanuts, for cooking and snacking.
8. millet--I only have one recipe for this, but it's got a great, nutty flavor so I'd love to expand my millet use.
9. split mung beans (moong dal)--I also only have one recipe for these, but I also throw them into soups.
10. barley--you can cook this up like rice and put stuff on it, but I rarely do that. But I throw it in crockpot soup to add texture. It keeps its chewiness even with long cooking.

Brownie mix

I don't bake very much. Only when I can't avoid it. Recently it became unavoidable to make brownies: our local supermarket back in Somerville carried some brownies we were addicted to, and our local supermarket here doesn't have anything to compare, so we finally started looking at brownie mixes to see if anything would fill the void, since making brownies from scratch wasn't in the cards.

The upshot: we like Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate brownie mix. Rich, even gooey, but still with a cake-like fluffiness, and a firm, almost crisp surface. And of course like the other brands it takes like two minutes to mix it up.

So there you have it.

Recipe Generator

I discovered this a few weeks ago and thought it was funny, and I just remembered it again now. It's a recipe generator with a junior high sense of humor. The recipes don't look like links, but they are.

Warning, this website contains foul language and may literally insult you. ;)

What the fuck should I make for dinner?

Vegetarian Chili

This is what we had for dinner tonight. We've had it a few times and every time it's super awesome.

ingredients:
1 tbsp canola oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 (15.5 oz) cans red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 (15.5 oz) cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 10 oz package frozen corn
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 oz semi-sweet chocolate

directions:
heat the oil in a large saucepan over med-high heat. add the garlic, onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno pepper; cook, stirring often, until veggies begin to soften (4-5 min). add the beans, tomatoes, corn, chili powder, cocoa powder, oregano, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring often to prevent scorching, until beginning to thicken slightly, about 15 minutes. remove from heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted.

Mattar Paneer

We made Taryn's mushroom and peas masala and it reminded us of this. And a while ago Taryn was experimenting with tofu (which we usually use instead of paneer) so we figured we'd post it for inspiration and contrast. :) This has a lot of spices, clearly, but it's not spicy.

1 large onion
1 1/2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
1 15-oz can tomato sauce (the super plain kind) or crushed tomatoes
2 tap ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
10 ounces frozen peas
3 Tbs sour cream (optional)
1/4 tsp sugar
8 ounces paneer or firm tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes

1. Puree onion and garlic in food processor
2. Heat oil in large-ish pot on medium and add oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin and bay leaf and cook about 1 minute, until they start smelling good and/or the mustard seeds start jumping.
3. Add onion and garlic and saute 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce and all other spices except the sugar and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the sauce gets too thick add up to 1/2 cup water.
4. Stir in peas, sour cream, and sugar. Simmer 5 minutes or so until peas are hot.
5. Fold in paneer or tofu and cook 3 more minutes. Remove bay leaf and serve hot with rice or bread.


We generally use tofu because it's cheaper and easier to find around here and it still tastes fine, if not super authentic. Eric likes the sour cream in the sauce but I like it with or without.

Cuban pork chops

At least that's what the Betty Crocker cookbook I got this from says. I've made them four or five times now, and I've worked it out the way I like it. It's a good recipe.

Ingredients:
boneless pork chops (the amounts below make enough rub for five or six)
3 limes' worth of grated lime peel
1 tbsp cracked pepper
1 tbsp cumin seeds
half teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Grate your lime peel. I tried it with a zester, but found it works better just to rub the limes against a cheese-grater (the smaller holes); it's much quicker than a zester, if you're going to do 3 limes. BTW, the recipe calls for 2 tbsp grated lime peel, and 3 medium limes makes more than that, but I think the more lime peel the better for this recipe.

2. Crack your pepper. The first few times I made this I cheated and used ground pepper, but now I know that the cracked pepper makes all the difference. Put your peppercorns in a ziploc bag (squeeze all the air out) and pound on them with a mallet until they're cracked. If you don't have a mallet the bottom of a saucepan or skillet will work just as well. It's tastier if you don't crack them all the way to dust - the crunch of the pepper is important.

3. Mix the pepper, lime peel, olive oil, salt, garlic, and cumin seed together.

4. Rub this mixture into both sides of your pork chops.

5. Grill or broil the pork chops until done. We don't have a barbecue grill, so we broil them in the oven; takes about 5-6 minutes per side, depending on thickness.

We served these with Taryn's Hopi corn salad and some wild rice, and it was a hit with our guests.

Mushroom rice (a.k.a. kinoko gohan)

Ingredients (makes enough for 4 people):
rice, 3 cups
dashi liquid, 540 ml
mirin, 2 tbsp
cooking sake, 3 tbsp
soy sauce 3 tbsp
mushrooms of your choice (this evening I used shiitake, maitake, lion's mane; if you can find matsutake that's the best; fresh mushrooms are better than dried, but if you use dried reconstitute them first), however much you like (I used maybe 3 handfuls tonight)
vegetable oil
green onions

1. Make the dashi: this is the bonito-based soup stock. You can find shiitake-based dashi sometimes now, which would probably be really good with this. Anyway, make 540 ml of it.

2. Wash the rice and put it in your rice cooker, then instead of filling it with water up to the 3-cup mark, use the dashi liquid. Let it sit (don't turn it on yet) while you do the next couple of steps.

3. Mix the mirin, cooking sake, and soy sauce together and put aside. If you don't cook with alcohol, you can skip the sake and buy non-alcoholic mirin.

4. Cut your mushrooms into bite-size pieces (with shiitake and other large-cap mushrooms it works best to cut them into strips, like you see with dried shiitake).

5. Sautee the mushrooms in the oil until they get tender.

6. Add the mirin/sake/soy sauce to the rice and dashi and stir.

7. Put sauteed mushrooms on top of the rice. Make sure they're submerged in the liquid, but don't mix into the rice.

8. Turn on your rice cooker and cook normally.

9. When it's done, mix the mushrooms into the rice.

10. Serve with chopped green onions to taste.