Soccer Season Scrambled Tofu

With soccer practices and karate lessons and homework filling our evenings, the past six weeks felt like a whirlwind of activity. Not so much a whirlwind of creative recipe creation, but I thought other people might be interested in this highly-flavored version of my kids' favorite scrambled tofu with soy sauce. Steam a vegetable and some rice while cooking this and you have a simple healthy meal ready in under a half-hour. 

Soccer Season Scrambled Tofu

Oil for sautéing

1 medium or ½ large onion, chopped

Fresh ginger, grated, about 1 teaspoon

Garlic powder, several shakes (1/2 tsp)

Chinese Five spice powder, 2 shakes (1/8 tsp)

Ground coriander, several shakes (1/2 tsp)

Ground lemongrass, 2 shakes (1/8 tsp) 

2 lbs tofu, drained (I used extra firm, but medium would be fine)

¼- ½ tsp kosher salt (depending on how much soy sauce you use)

¼ cup dry vermouth

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

Small pour of fish sauce (1/2 tsp?) *** This ingredient is not vegetarian. Technically. ***

About 1/8 cup water

Heat oil in large skillet/dutch oven/wok over medium heat. (Note – it seems to me that tofu needs a little fat to taste hearty. I wouldn’t use a pan spray, but 1-2 tablespoons of oil.) Add onions to oil.  While onions are sautéing, add the ginger and dry spices.  Saute onions until about half-cooked, stirring. Crumble tofu in your hands and add to onion mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tofu starts to brown a bit (I turned up heat to medium high.) While tofu is cooking, mix the vermouth and other wet ingredients in a measuring cup. The water is just to dilute the strong flavors so there’s enough liquid to soak into all of the tofu without making the mixture too intense.  

Once the tofu has started to brown, whisk the vermouth/soy sauce mixture and pour over the tofu, stirring to mix flavors. Keep cooking/stirring as tofu continues to cook (about 10-15 minutes all together).

Serve over rice. Top with chopped green onion or some red bell pepper for color. Good served with steamed broccoli or green beans.

Mardi Gras Red Beans and Rice (vegetarian)

I’m kind of food-holiday agnostic, or maybe the opposite (whatever that word would be), since I’ll glom onto anybody else’s yummy holiday tradition. This morning we made our usual pilgrimage to the Oak Park Bakery for paczki doughnuts.

For dinner Tom took us to the bayou, vegetarian style, with his red beans and rice. It’s a simple dish, but I love the piquant sauce and the creamy, well-cooked beans. The boys like it garnished with sour cream.

I swear this was better than it looks in this photo!

There will be more paczki for dessert. We've got party beads. Bring it on, March. We’re fortified for your bluster now.

Red Beans and Rice
(Tom gives a nod to the heavily-adapted Frugal Gourmet Cooks American recipe he started with)


2 cans red beans, drained and rinsed
Olive or vegetable oil for sauteeing
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped (or substitute more onion)
7 gloves garlic, minced
About ½ cup of red wine (or water) for deglazing
3-4 ribs celery, chopped
14 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy saucepan, dutch oven, or large skillet, sauté onion, peppers and celery until soft and starting to brown. Add garlic and green onion and continue to cook until mixture is starting to get quite brown (for flavor – don’t let the garlic burn, though.) Deglaze pan with wine or water. Add all other ingredients. Cover and cook on low or medium low for at least an hour. Remove bay leaf. Using a potato masher or back of large spoon, mash about half of the beans. Mix beans. Serve over rice. (serves 4)

Fun with Legumes

My husband enjoys cooking for adventure. He’s an explorer of flavor, ascending new culinary terrain "because it's there." Or just to say “I did that once.” (ahem, haggis). 

I don't cook for adventure, but there is definitely an emotional satisfaction in being the kitchen. As I stewed and stirred last week during our blizzard snow days, I felt a connection with people in other times and places who have cozied up in a steamy, fragrant kitchen on a cold winter day.  I like the feeling that I'm just another link in generations of cooks creating comfort food across continents and centuries: a legume, a grain, some root vegetables, dried fruit or canned tomatoes, local seasonings and time over the fire.

Here are three of the dishes our family enjoyed during the recent blizzard season. Most of the ingredients are things that can be kept on-hand in the pantry, and these are cheap, hearty foods. I don't think any of these cost more than $5 to make.

Lentil Soup
You knew there would be a lentil soup during Cheap Eats month, right? I am still looking for the perfect lentil soup recipe, but this is pretty good, and pretty easy. At this point this soup is a “whatever I have and what I’m in the mood to throw in” recipe, but I have to give credit to the Daily Soup Cookbook which (as it often does) provided the original recipe that I've tweaked over time.

1 head roasted garlic, cooled, skinned and pureed.

wrap whole head of garlic in foil. Roast in oven for 20 minutes until tender. Allow to cool. Peel and puree in food processor (or with immersion blender – doesn’t work as well, but I hate washing the food processor.)

Butter or oil, about 2 Tblsp. (note: you need the richness of some kind of oil or butter for the lentils – don’t skimp)

1 onion chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 tsp. rosemary

1 tsp. thyme

2 bay leaves
1 bag (1 lb) lentils, rinsed and inspected. (I use regular brown lentils as found in the grocery store)

Salt and pepper

8 cups vegetable stock, or water + stock, or water and Penzey’s vegetable soup base, or just plain water

1 large (28 oz.) can whole tomatoes that you have drained and diced.

½ -1 small can tomato paste

1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or fresh lemon juice

(optional) fresh parsley for garnish

In a stock pot or big sauce pan, saute the onion, celery and carrots for about 5 minutes until starting to get tender. 

Add the spices and stir.

Add the bay leaves, lentils, stock or water, tomatoes and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover (leave lid slightly ajar or use a vented lid.)

Simmer for 1 hour. Check and add liquid if needed during the last half of cooking time.

At the end of cooking, add the roasted garlic and cook for a few minutes to blend flavor. 

Right before serving, add the vinegar or lemon and taste. Add more vinegar or lemon if needed. Garnish bowls with parsley if you like.

I like the heartiness of lentils a lot, and my kids like them too, but I find them to be kind of a one-note flavor, which is what the vinegar or lemon is for - to punch it up a little. Because the garlic and vegetables add sweetness, you will probably want to add salt at the table, and you should also put out vinegar and hot sauce for serving.

Serves 8

Curried Yellow Split Peas

I am going to be experimenting with yellow split peas in dahl more often – the flavor is rich, different from lentils. 

When the kids are underfoot and asking when dinner is, it's hard to get a decent photo!
It was delicious - much better than it looks here.

I followed this recipe from Viet World Kitchen http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2011/01/basic-yellow-split-pea-dal-recipe.html pretty closely, except that I left out the cayenne for the kids. We ate the dal with naan that I had in the freezer.

Arroz con Gandules (Pigeon Peas and Rice)

Halfway around the world again, back to the Americas and Puerto Rico. My friend David encouraged me to look for a pigeon peas and rice recipe when I was first exploring the world of legumes. It was the comfort food of his childhood, and I can see why – pigeon peas are a really yummy and easy ingredient to work with. 

Traditionally, this dish has ham or another smoky meat and I haven’t really tried to sub that. I feel like it has quite a bit of flavor without it.

1 tablespoon olive oil

¾ cup sofrito. You can buy sofrito (which looks to me like what I call “fresh salsa”) but I just make it by mixing:

Roma tomato, diced small

White onion, diced small

Bell pepper (green and/or red)

Fresh cilantro

(optional) fresh chile pepper (such as jalapeno, Serrano), chopped very fine

Salt and pepper

2 cups white rice (I haven’t tried brown, but you could use it – increase the water and cooking time.)

4 cups water

1 packet Sazón Goya, Sazón with Coriander and Annatto* (or, substitute seasoning of your choice – salt, pepper, garlic powder, and mild paprika is what I've used.)

1 15-ounce can Pigeon Peas (drained and rinsed)

               

*I confess: I used the MSG-containing Sazon this time. We had it in the house, and wow, it really does add that umami fullness to the flavor. If your kids, like mine, want the orange color, it is just annatto, which is a natural food coloring made from achiote seeds and you can buy it as a spice.

Heat olive oil in roomy skillet (I used a 10” cast iron frying pan).

Saute the sofrito briefly.

Add the rice, water, sazon and pigeon peas

Bring to a boil. Cover tightly and reduce heat to low. Cook for about 35-45 minutes, checking and adding water if needed, until rice is cooked and peas are soft. Serves 4.

Breakfast for Dinner: Stovetop Frittata

Breakfast for dinner – am I the only one who does this? (Don’t break it to me if I am.) For us, Thursday tends to be the night. Everyone’s tired from a week of work, the house has given up all pretense of the almost-clean it achieved the weekend before, and anything easy sounds good.

Last week I made this stovetop frittata, and French toast. I confess that the kids were not as interested in the egg dish as they were in the syrup-delivery dish. 

 
Frittata is a basic whatever-you-have-in-the-house dish. Add diced meat and cook the eggs sunnyside on top, and you have a skillet hash.


Stovetop Frittata with Spinach and Broccoli (vegetarian)

- 1 medium package hashbrown-cut potatoes, browned and kept warm (I used frozen, because we had some on hand, but any type of potato, browned, will do. Cut it into small enough pieces and it will cook quickly.)
- oil or spray oil for cooking
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
- ½ red or green bell pepper, diced
- About ¾c to 1 cup of frozen spinach, cooked about halfway done, drained and dried between paper towels. You want enough to make it green, but not enough to overwhelm the flavor
- About ¾ cup broccoli, cooked about halfway done
- Grated cheese, whatever you have on hand (mild chedder, Colby, etc.) You’ll just need enough to flavor the top of the frittata, about 1/4  cup. Low fat is fine (non-fat is an abomination.)
- 2 small or 1 large roma tomato
- 6 eggs (Egg beaters would also be fine, or a mix of both)
- (optional) meat substitute. I added about 2 oz. Gimme Lean Sausage, mostly for the flavor.
- (optional) seasonings of your choice, if you don’t use something like sausage substitute. I'd use marjoram and thyme. (I just realized that I use marjoram about 5 times a week. Not sure if other people love it the way I do, so suit yourself on this step.)
- Salt and pepper

In a large skillet (I used a 10” cast iron) sauté onion, garlic, and bell pepper until softened. Add the cooked, warm potatoes and stir. Add the well-drained spinach and broccoli. Stir together and add seasonings. Cover and allow flavors to blend for 2 or 3 minutes until mixture is bubbly and warm.

In a small bowl or mixing cup, slightly whisk the eggs, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Lower the heat to low or medium low, so that the mixture stays warm but bottom does not get too brown. Smooth the top of the mixture in the pan and pour the eggs on top. Cover and allow to cook for about 2 minutes, checking for doneness. (Note, if the eggs are not cooking through, stir eggs into the mixture, cover the pan, and wait another minute or two for eggs to set. biting into raw eggs = gross!)

When eggs are nearly done, add the sliced roma tomatoes in an attractive pattern on top and sprinkle cheese over that. Cover and cook until cheese melts.

Serves 4 with leftovers

Stuffed Acorn Squash

This is not technically a recipe, and I don't have a photo because it was just thrown together when I noticed squash was on sale. But Milo insisted, "Mom, put this on your list so you will remember to make it again." I have to admit, it was pretty good, inexpensive, relatively healthy, and if you have an hour to wait for the oven, only took about 5-10 minutes of actual work.

Easy Stuffed Acorn Squash

2 acorn squash (to serve 4 people)

1 box Near East rice pilaf of your choice (wild rice would be nice - I chose the classic)

a little extra water and rice (about 4 T/2 T)

bread crumbs

grated Parmesan cheese

olive oil, salt, pepper

Heat oven to 350. Cut acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds. (the "pretty way" across the middle). They will need to be able to sit cut-side up, so trim off stem if needed. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Put cut side down on a baking sheet and cook for about 45 minutes until super-soft.

About 20 minutes into the baking, cook the rice pilaf. Follow package directions, but I added a little extra water and extra rice to make sure I had enough to fill all 4 squash halves. (it also cuts down on the saltiness.)

When squash is soft, remove from oven and flip over in pan. Fill with the rice pilaf. Mix some of the bread crumbs and some parmesan cheese (about 4 to 1 ratio?) and sprinkle on top. You could also add some paprika for color. 

Return the squash to the oven to brown the bread crumbs, about 10-15 minutes (keep an eye on them.) If you have a broiler that is adjustable you can use a low broiler setting to gently brown the top.

Serve 1 squash half per person. This is a pretty substantial serving, not a side dish - it was a "one dish" meal for us that night. It would be good with ham or sausage on the side, but doesn't really need it.

New World Skillet (Cheap Eats)

Around the beginning of the recession, our grocery store started featuring $15 dinner specials. Buy these 4 items totaling under $15 and you have dinner for four. Of course like any cheapskate worth the label, I scoff at that. I can make dinner for four for $5 without breaking a sweat! (leaves more in the checking account for splurging on the $50 dinners.)

The following dish is improvised, mostly pantry-based, and cheap as heck if the squash is on sale. It’s also fast and simple to throw together after work. I called it New World Skillet because most of the ingredients (corn, squash, tomatoes) are native to the Americas. An interesting name encourages kids to give it a try (or at least provides some dinner conversation). We served over rice, but it could also be a burrito or enchilada filling. Actually, I had the leftovers for breakfast and that was pretty yummy too.

New World Skillet

1 tsp. vegetable oil

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into about ½ inch dice

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (if you don’t rinse, everything turns gray, ick.)

28-oz can diced tomatoes

Chili powder, about 1 tsp or to taste

Oregano, about ½ tsp

Cumin, about ½ tsp or to taste

Tabasco sauce or similar, to taste (2 shakes is good for my kids.)

(optional) red pepper flakes, for adult diners, about ¼ tsp.

Salt and pepper

Heat oil in large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium or med-low heat. Add squash and sauté about 3-4 minutes. Add onion, chili powder, oregano, cumin and oregano. Cook a couple of minutes more and add garlic. Continue to cook until squash is soft. Add corn, reserving the liquid to add moisture to skillet if needed, beans, and tomatoes. Add optional red pepper flakes. Cover and cook about 10 minutes until flavors are blended. Taste and add Tabasco, salt and pepper. Cook another few minutes to blend flavors.

Serve over rice or with corn tortillas. Kids may want to add sour cream.

Serves 4.