Kale and Sausage with Couscous

I just discovered Kale during the growing season in 2015 and it has become one of my favorites. I love it! It's delicious and I discovered that you can eat it raw, add it to pesto, roast it, stew it etc etc. I came up with this very delicious concoction that comes out so good, you'll make it again and again. I know I have. The beauty of this is that you can adapt it easily to be vegetarian or not. 

How did I come about this recipe? Well I made it up. My friend had given me bags of kale this summer and after pesto and kale chips with roasted veggies, I still had tons of it left. So now what? I had seen on TV that kale holds well to cooking and also noticed that sometimes it's a little bitter. 

So I started off by caramelizing some onions. Thought that will balance out the bitterness and looked into the freezer and saw this Jimmy Dean pork sage sausage and I was like that might work and in it went with some veggies. I was also into Israeli couscous at the time so I thought it would be perfect accompaniment and it was. 

This comes out amazing! And is so versatile. The one time I was out of onions and had too much kale (again!) and some sausage in the freezer. Too lazy to go out shopping, I was watching Chopped and drinking some Seagrams. Dinggg! (That's the light bulb in my head going on)...cooked the kale in the sweet alcoholic drink instead of onion. Hah! Worked! 

Ingredients:

Kale 

Onions (2 medium or 1.5 large)

Garlic (ofcourse!)

Jimmy Dean Sage sausage

Veggies (carrots, peppers, mushrooms or combination of your favs)

Chicken broth flavor base

Israeli couscous 

What I did:

- Add oil and tons of onions and caramelize it for 10-15 mins (until it turns Amber/light brown)

- Add Kale and sauté 

- Cover and cook until kale is darker green in color. Add chicken broth or water to prevent it from sticking. 

- Add veggies, sausage and chicken flavor base and cook until sausage is cooked 

- Add couscous (cooked separately according to package instructions). Toss! And YUM!!!

Friendsgiving!

A thanksgiving meal inspired by lots of fall veggies that I got from a friend. Away from home, friends are like family that you choose! You know who you are... This meal is for all my friends near (who got to eat some) and far who can just look at pictures. I am thinking of you guys!

      ...I wish they could tag themselves

So it all started with tons and tons of turnip! Yup apparently no one likes'em but I have always liked them. Called "gyante mula" (small radish) in Nepali, these were not so gyante! Take a looksee...

                       ...whaat?...

Other veggies she gave me were sweet potatoes, cabbage, butternut squash, kale (next post on those) and of course turnips! So my menu for Friendsgiving:

- Sweet potato hash (with turnips and hot Italian style turkey sausage)

- Stuffing

- Stuffed turkey breast

- Rumbledethumps (Scottish cabbage and potato mash)

- Gravy 

- Berry sauce 

 

Most of the recipes are mine except for rumbledethumps. I googled that so please do so too :). And here are the rest:

Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes (boiled and cubed fine) 2

Small potatoes (boiled and cubed fine) 3 tiny ones 

Turkey sausage 3

Turnip - 1 small or half of medium. Cubed fine

Salt and pepper

Thyme (2 sprigs) and rosemary (1 sprig chopped finely)

What I did: Add about 1 tsp oil and brown the sausage (casing removed). Remove from pan, add additional oil and add turnip and deglaze pan with wine (I had some in the fridge but use water or stock... Whatever u got) and some water. Turnips take a while to cook so after abt 15 mins when they are soft and water dries, move them to the sides so that there is a well in the middle. Add oil, add thyme and rosemary and add onions and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 2 mins and then add the boiled veggies and the browned sausage and salt and pepper for taste. Coon for about 10 mins so that flavors merge and done!

Stuffing

Ingredients:

Celery stalks abt 3 finely chopped

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 large carrot finely chopped

5 slices white bread cubed

1 slice wheat or multigrain(coz I did not have enough white but use whatever you have)

Thyme and rosemary 

Poultry seasoning

Italian turkey sausage -3 

Chicken stalk or water (about 1/2-3/4 cup)

Salt and pepper to taste

Garlic finely chopped abt 2-3 cloves

1 small turnip or 1/2 of medium finely chopped 

What I did: Brown sausage with oil in a cast iron skillet. Take out an reserve. Add extra oil + a pat of butter and fry thyme and finely chopped rosemary. Add onion, celery and carrots and cook until onions are tanslucent. Add garlic, poultry seasoning and cook for a minute. Add cubed bread, and add stock. Salt and pepper to taste and the reserved sausage. Cook until a little dry. Done!

Berry sauce: Everything I was making was salty so I thought it needed something sweet. Totally a great decision. I didn't buy any cranberry so now what? 

Fridge to the rescue. Found some frozen berries (raspberry, strawberry and blueberry) so I put about cup and half with juice is 1 lemon + zest + 1/2 lime juice with about 2 cups of sugar.

Taste and adjust sugar and I strained it because the raspberry seeds were not pleasant. Delicious! 

Stuffed turkey: 

Didn't want to do whole turkey so I got 4 piece turkey breast cutlets 

What I did: Preheat oven to 375 F. Pound it thin and salt and pepper both sides. Put in a piled baking dish. Add the stuffing and hash and cover with the other cutlet. Use toothpicks to close and add about tbsp of butter cut into small pieces on both. Bake for about 25-30 mins. 

 

Gravy: Take the turkey out of the baking dish, add a little butter and whisk in about 1-2 tbsp of flour. Add

Stock or water to thin it out. Add to a pot on the stove and cook until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Yum!

 

Next day feast and overstuff yourselves. We found out older it gets, the better!

Quinoa Egg salad with Wasabi dressing

OMG a new friend made this smashing salad recently and it was uhhmazing! So obviously I had to try and replicate it. 

First, boil quinoa and eggs. Well I like my quinoa flavor packed so I added a little salt and cumin in the water. Ratio is 1:1 i.e. Cup water : 1 cup quinoa. Increase or decrease accordingly. 

Eggs, boil in cold water, once it starts boiling 6-9 mins depending on how hard or soft you want 'em.

Sauté veggies of your choice in a little oil. I did spinach, mushrooms, and maybe carrots and green beans when I had it in my fridge. 

Wasabi dressing: now here comes the interesting part. Wasabi dressing was a bit tricky because I didn't have any wasabi handy and didn't want to buy any just for trying a dish, so... Checked what I had in my fridge. Ooh horseradish, wasabi's cousin? Works! So here's what I did:

Stir together - Horseradish mustard+ horseradish sauce to kick it up a bit + soy sauce + some water to thin it out a bit+ some lime juice + Olive oil and a little bit sesame oil for flavor! 

To put together the salad mix all salad ingredients + dressing. Serve topped with avocado which makes it even more delicious. Don't add avocado in the main salad in case there are leftovers! Old squishy and black avocado? So not appetizing! 

Trust me... Try this one!

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji is one of the popular street foods in North India and roughly translates to bread (Pav) and vegetables (bhaji). This past weekend I went to visit some friends and I was really inspired to recreate this treat that friends mom made for us. 

It's a delicious way to use up any leftover vegetables. I used whole wheat burger buns so that's a bit more healthier ;) 

Ingredients:

Any veggies that you have. I used the following:

Potatoes (boiled and mashed) abt 5 small

Tomatoes (boil with potato and then remove and purée) - abt 4 medium

Carrots (grated and pressed to remove excess water) - 3 skinny ones 

Green peppers -1

Green beans - couple 

Frozen peas - 1/2 to 1 cup

Onions -1 medium or half of large

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

Ginger - 1 to 1.5 inches

Pav Bhaji Masala (found in Indian stores) - 2-4 tbsp 

Whole wheat burger buns

Butter 

Oil for cooking

Salt to taste

Note: I can see cauliflower or broccoli also being great in this!

Preparation:

Prep all the veggies and chop beans, pepper, onions into small pieces. 

In some evoo sauté peppers, beans and carrots until they are no longer raw. Take them out and add some oil. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook for about 2 mins. Add the Pav bhaji masala and cook for a few mins. Add some water if it looks too try. 

Then add mashed potatoes and add some puréed tomatoes. Add peas and the carrot/pepper mixture that we sautéed before. Keep mashing the potatoes and add tomato purée and about an inch or so of grated ginger. Let it cook until the spices and veggies mix together and its almost the consistency of mashed potatoes. Keep adding water if as necessary. Top with cilantro. 

To serve:

- Butter the buns and toast in a pan (you ban skip the butter and use oil or even dry roast)

- Serve both and top the hot bhaji (veggies) with a pat of butter

- Can also cut up some red onions and wedge of lime/lemon and serve it on the side. 

Crepes

Although I have been cooking a lot lately, my laziness has stopped me from writing it down. This past weekend, I wanted crepes. Badly. Although I have not yet mastered the art of dosas (Indian version of crepes usually savory)... I am glad to say French dosa works forme. Every time. And if I have Nutella with some sort of fruit (usually strawberry or banana) for me, that works out beautifully. And oh don't forget the coffee.  

So here is the basic recipe which I hardly changed. I just used amaretto instead of brandy and it came out yummy as always. Also, I don't have a crepe pan and probably never going to but a non stick works best for me rather than thick cast iron skillet. 

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/breakfast-crepes-108134

Sesame Chicken

Saw this recipe in the newspaper. It looked delicious and it boasted to be super budget friendly as well! Tried it and glad I did! 

Here's what I did:

Ingredients-

For sauce:

Sriracha or preferred hot sauce - abt 1 tsp(this was my addition so can be skipped)

Soy sauce 2tbsp

Vinegar 1 tbsp (called for rice I had red wine -worked beautifully)

Brown sugar abt 2 tbsp

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Ginger 1 inch (crushed or grated fine)

Garlic 3 cloves (crushed or grated fine - original recipe called for only 1 clove)

Cornstarch 1 tbsp

Water 2 tbsp

For chicken:

Chicken - I used thighs 1 lb packet 

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

Cornstarch 1-2 tbsp

Oil for shallow frying abt 2 tbsp

Make the sauce first: 

My Sriracha was all gone and I had some remnants left in the bottle. So I added all the sauce ingredients to that except cornstarch and water and shook the bottle to mix everything. Then made a slurry of cornstarch with water and added to the bottle. This can be made way in advance and even stored in fridge.

Now the fun begins:

 

- Toast the sesame seeds

- While the sesame is toasting, clean and cut the chicken into bite size pieces 

- Take sesame out and add oil in the pan at medium low heat

- Add cornstarch to the chicken and make sure all the pieces are coated. Add salt and pepper to taste

- Beat egg in a bowl, add to chicken and mix to coat all pieces evenly

-Fry in oil and take out on a paper towel lined plate until all pieces are done.  

- Drain excess oil from the pan, add all the chicken back into the pan, add sauce and cook until it thickens. 

- You can add 1 tbsp of water at a time if you want to cook longer. 

- Top with toasted sesame seeds and scallions 

- Serve with white rice

Delicious Cream Sauce -pasta

This is the quickest most delicious pasta sauce that I have come accross. The recipe is something I saw on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives". I just base the measurements roughly coz I didn't measure anything. Here's what you do:

Set water with salt to boil for pasta.

Chop quarter of an onion, 1/2 roasted red pepper.

In a pan with medium-high heat, add oil (abt 1-2tblsp). When the oil is hot, add onion and let it cook without stirring. 

Toss the pan or stir when onions start browning a little bit, add half and half (which is what I had but use cream , milk etc.) (about 3/4 c) and any bottled marinara or Ragu (abt 1/4 to 1/2 cup). Mix well and add the roasted red peppers. 

If you added milk, you can also add some béchamel if you have any to thicken it. Add salt and pepper to taste. The Ragu I added tasted a little sour so I added about 1 tsp of sugar too. Stir well and it should thicken a little bit. 

By this time pasta (I used raviolis) shoul be done. Drain and add to the sauce. Add some parsley on top (can be skipped)

Grate some fresh Parmesan and serve! Yummy!

This is so delicious but at the same time quick! By the time pasta is done, this sauce is done as well!