Recipe for Black Eyed Pea Hummus

This recipe was in the group of "top recipes" for 2011 based on page views.  I posted it after New Years but thought I would re-post again this year before the holiday since it was a popular recipe.  


Growing up in the South, black eyed peas, usually with some greens, were a staple on New Years Day, served to bring us all good luck.  They are also recorded as being served on Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year, also to bring good luck.  Honestly, I was never a big fan of black eyed peas.  But I love hummus and this one is really delicious.  If it brings us good luck, even more reason to try it!

Here is the original post and recipe:  Black Eyed Pea Hummus


I'm also working on a post recapping some of the other top recipes from 2011.


Have a SAFE and Happy New Year.  See you in 2012!

Recipe for Salsa Turkey Pasta

Mr. ELEB is training for a half marathon and wanted a bit more carbs in some of our meals.  We both like whole grain pasta so I created another baked pasta recipe inspired by my December Secret Recipe Club recipe.

This time, the flavor palette is more in the Mexican/Latin realm and I added in some spinach and black beans to really make it a one pot meal.  This is another really easy, no fail recipe.  I hope you will try it and let me know what you think.


Yield: 6 hearty servings
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ lb. ground turkey breast
• 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed in paper towels to remove extra moisture
• 1 ½ cup shredded pepper jack cheese, divided
• 8 oz. whole grain rotini pasta
• 32 oz. thick and chunky salsa
• 3 TBSP taco seasoning
• 2 tsp olive oil
• Cooking spray

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente.
• Season turkey with taco seasoning and heat olive oil in skillet.
• Cook turkey in hot oil until no longer pink. 
• Stir in the black beans, spinach, and salsa and heat until bubbling.
• Stir in the cooked, drained pasta and ½ of the the cheese.
• Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and pour in the pasta/meat mixture.
• Top with remaining cheese.
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until bubbling and cheese is melted.

I hope you have a safe and happy New Year-be safe!

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Recipe for Squash, Apple and Bacon Pizza

Hope you enjoyed a wonderful Christmas!


Here is a pizza with an amazing combination of flavors. I could (and did) literally eat the sauce of pureed squash/apples/onions, sour cream and bacon with a spoon.  That combination will be featured soon as a stand alone casserole!

Doesn't that look delicious?!

A little blurry. Here is the pizza as it was going in to the oven.  Homemade whole wheat pizza dough, spread with the squash puree, then topped with more of the roasted squash and apples, caramelized onions, and bacon.


I got the inspiration from a recipe for a squash and apple galette from Cheryl and Adam over at Picture Perfect Meals.  I enjoy their blog-they are recipe developers and food photographers.  I thought the combination would be great for a different twist on pizza.  


Pizza needs some sort of sauce (or that is a belief held in our household).  I originally thought about a thin layer of sour cream but decided it needed more than that.  I started with pureed squash and just started throwing stuff in the food processor.  The sauce ended up being divine, and as I mentioned, it could stand alone as a squash casserole.


The caramelized onions look carbonized in the photos.  They tasted fine but next time, I would add them on for the last few minutes of cooking time.


Yield: 3 servings (depends on the size of your pizza crust)
Time: 45 minutes


Ingredients:

• Your favorite pizza dough (I used the whole wheat one from Hertzberg and Francois' Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day)
• 2 cups cubed butternut squash
• 1 cup cubed Granny Smith apple
• 1 cup thinly sliced onions
• 3 TBSP plus 1 tsp olive oil, divided
• 3/4 tsp dried sage
• 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 TBSP pure maple syrup
• Salt and pepper
• 1 TBSP butter
• 6 slices bacon
• 1/3 cup low fat sour cream

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Mix squash and apple with 2 TBSP olive oil, sage, nutmeg, syrup and generous sprinkle of salt and pepper.
• Spread squash/apple mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.
• While veggies are roasting melt butter in 1 TBSP olive oil over medium low heat and cook onions until soft and lightly caramelized.
• Also, cook, drain and chop bacon.
• Adjust oven for pizza crust (for me, 500 degrees).
• Add 1/2 of squash mixture, 1/2 of onions, and the sour cream to food processor and puree until smooth.
• Stir in 1/2 of bacon.
• Prepare pizza dough (spread/roll on a cornmeal dusted parchment on a pizza peel).
• Spread about 1/2 of puree over dough (or more if making a large pizza; save any leftovers!).
• Top with enough of the reserved squash/apple mixture to sparsely cover (you don't want to "over top" it).
• Sprinkle with remaining bacon and onions (or reserve onions and drop on for the last few minutes of cooking time).
• Brush rim of crust with 1 tsp of olive oil.
• Bake for 5 minutes on the parchment on a pizza stone then carefully remove parchment with the help of a large spatula and continue cooking for a total of 12-15 minutes.

We really enjoyed this pizza and I can't wait to make the casserole as a side dish.  How can you go wrong with bacon and caramelized onions after all?


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Merry Christmas from Maui

Mr. and Mrs Claus arrive on Maui!  Merry Christmas to everyone.

Recipe for Lemony Salmon and Dill Toss

I've been determined not to gain weight over the holidays and so far so good (**I've actually lost a couple of lbs**). We've been eating a lot of meals like this one with the occasional treat/big meal thrown in. I've stayed away from most of the baking and treats that are prevalent in the cooking/blogging/magazine/recipe world right now. Honestly, we haven't missed them and if we have to have a little bit of a treat, I still have some of the Sans Rival cake in the freezer!


I've been instructed to tell you first off that this gets the Mr. ELEB seal of approval.  OK, done, now I'll share the recipe with you!  I was inspired by a recipe from Prevention Magazine to make this dish.  They used canned salmon though and I wanted to use fresh. I also used whole wheat pasta where their recipe called for regular white pasta.


I think this would be fine with canned salmon but if you can get fresh, why not?  My grocery store had some beautiful sockeye salmon so that's what I used.

I love putting tasty healthy food on the table in under thirty minutes!

Yield: 4 servings

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• ¾ lb. fresh salmon (I used sockeye)
• 1 ½ cups white wine (or broth)
• 1 ½ cup chopped fresh asparagus pieces
• 3 TBSP lemon juice
• 3 TBSP chopped dried dill
• 1 ½ TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP capers
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 8 oz. whole wheat penne pasta
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Lemon slices for serving.

Method:

• Cook pasta according to directions on package.
• While pasta cooks, poach salmon in white wine for 4-5 minutes until just cooked and beginning to flake.  Remove from wine and cut in to bite size pieces.
• In a separate pan, steam asparagus until slightly tender, about 4-5 minutes.
• Combine lemon juice and zest, dill, olive oil, capers, drained pasta, salmon, cheese, salt and pepper.
• Serve with lemon slices.

Despite being a pasta dish, and whole wheat at that, this turned out nice and light.  The lemon and capers really made the dish.  I wish I could have found some fresh dill as the dill flavor didn't come through as much as I would have liked but it was still good. I'd just up the amount next time if using dried dill.

Hope you'll give this a try and let me know what you think.

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Original recipe

Recipe for General Tso's Chicken

Have you found the terribly addicting website "Pinterest"?   If not, I suggest one of two things:  If you're a visual person and have some time every day to dawdle and browse around a really fun website, check it out.  If you're a super busy person who already wastes too much time on-line, stay away!  Seriously though, it is a great place to see all sorts of things from food and recipes, to ideas for decorating, funny pictures and sayings and so much more.  I found the inspiration for this recipe there.

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 45 minutes


Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
• 1 1/2 cups cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup peanut oil, plus 1 tsp
• 1/4 tsp dried red chili flakes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp white sesame seeds, for garnish
• 1 scallion, green parts thinly sliced, for garnish

Marinade

• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1TBSP sherry
• 2 egg whites

Sauce

• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 1/2 TBSP tomato paste
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP rice vinegar
• 1 tsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tsp chili paste
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Method:

• Mix the marinade ingredients together and marinade chicken for 15 minutes.
• Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.
• Heat 1 cup of peanut oil in a hot wok over med-high heat.
• While oil heats, drain chicken from marinade and toss in cornstarch to coat.  Shake excess cornstarch off and add chicken in batches to hot oil in wok.
• Cook chicken until well browned and cooked through, about 4 minutes.
• Remove chicken-drain on paper towels, and discard oil.  Wipe wok out with paper towels.
• Add 1 tsp peanut oil, garlic and red pepper flakes to hot wok and stir fry for 30 seconds until fragrant but don't burn garlic.
• Add in sauce (stir first if cornstarch has settled) and stir fry for 1-2 minutes until thickening.
• Add chicken to wok and cook until well coated and warmed through.
• Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds.

We don't have any really good Chinese restaurant here (I know this probably isn't authentic Chinese but...) so I was happy to find a relatively easy recipe reminiscent of good Chinese restaurant food.  Do you cook "Chinese" at home?

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Original Recipe

Favorite Sandwich Wraps

We all have our "go to" products.  Here is one of my new favorites:  La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Soft Wraps in the Multi Grain variety.  They are also available in whole grain, white whole grain, and various other varieties (read more here).  

I've only seen the multi grain and white whole grain here on Maui and of the two, I preferred the multi grain (although both were good).  These are made in California so I'm not sure if they are available where you are.  If they are, they are definitely worth a purchase.  As you can see by the wrapper, they have a good dose of fiber, only 100 calories per wrap, low in fat, and not mentioned on the front-only 1 gram of sugar.  Oh, and they taste great room temperature or, my favorite, pan toasted a couple of minutes per side in a dry skillet.  La Tortilla has no idea I'm featuring their products by the way, I just like them so much I wanted to share!

Here is the wrap out of the package-you can see the flecks of grains and flax seeds.

And here is only one of the ways I enjoy them:  wrapped around some spinach, left over Greek Chicken, some tzatziki sauce, and slightly melted feta cheese.  Mmmm, mouth is watering as I type!

So what are some of your pantry favorites?

Recipe for Char Sui Bao - Daring Cooks

Do you love dim sum?  We do and always try to go to our favorite dim sum restaurant when we get back to San Francisco (Yank Sing-a top 100 SF Restaurant in 2011).  They call it deem sum...they probably know better than I do, but I've always seen it written as dim sum, except on their website.  Anyone know the correct spelling?  Anyway, I digress.  I love the steamed pork buns-Char Sui Bao-but never gave a thought to trying to prepare them at home.


Turns out they are a challenge to make, but not an insurmountable one.  That's why I really enjoy participating in The Daring Kitchen challenges.  The challenges so far have pushed me in to culinary experiences I wouldn't have picked on my own and are presented with very detailed instructions, priming the pathway to success.  Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from BellyRumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

Pork for the filling

Filling for the buns

Three stages of buns:  front-dough balls after rising; middle-dough patted out; back-filled buns

Buns ready for steaming

Before I go any further I will admit that one area of this challenge that I didn't feel much success in was the bun making.  They tasted great but are sort of ugly-Char Sui Bow Wow.  I did try. I even watched some U-Tube videos but, meh, just not pretty.  Now, this lady-she knows how to make buns!


Yield: 20 buns
Time: 3+ hours including rising time for the buns; does not include overnight marinading time for the pork


Ingredients:
Char Sui (pork)

• 1 pork tenderloin (1-1.5 lbs)
• 4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 TBSP peanut oil
• 3 TBSP honey
• 2 TBSP hoisin sauce
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 TBSP oyster sauce
• 1 TBSP sherry
• 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
• 1 TBSP sesame oil

Pork filling

• 12 oz char sui, finely diced
• 2 green onions, finely diced
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 3 TBSP oyster sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil

(The original recipe was for 1 TBSP soy sauce, 2 TBSP oyster sauce, 1/4 cup chicken stock and 1 tsp cornstarch but I felt the filling was too dry so I added additional quantities as per the list above)

Bun Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup of milk, scalded
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp dried yeast
• 3 cups plain flour
• Parchment paper
• Steamer (original recipe called for bamboo but I used metal in my wok)

(The original recipe called for 1 cup of milk but my dough would not come together so I added another 1/2 cup as per the list above)

Method:

Char Sui (Pork)

• Trim tenderloin of fat and silver skin.
• Cut into 4-5 equal pieces.
• Mix remaining ingredients together.  Reserve 1/3 of mixture-place in fridge.
• Marinate pork in remaining mixture overnight or at least 4 hours.
• When ready to cook, preheat grill to med-high and clean and oil grates.
• While grill heats, remove pork from marinade and pat excess marinade off with paper towels. 
• Remove reserved marinade from fridge.
• Grill for 2 minutes each side to get a slight char and then reduce heat to medium, baste with reserved marinade.
• Grill for an additional 10-12 minutes until center is just barely still pink.
• Remove and rest/cool while preparing dough and filling.

Pork filling

• Heat vegetable oil in skillet over med-high heat.
• Saute the green onion for 2 minutes until soft.
• Add diced char sui and stir to combine.
• Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil; cooking stirring constantly for one minute.
• Mix cornstarch and stock together and add to the meat mixture, stirring well until mixture thickens, about 1-2 minutes.
• Remove from pan and allow to cool.

Buns

• Stir sugar, oil and salt in to scalded milk and allow to cool to lukewarm.
• Once cooled, add yeast.  Set aside until frothy, about 10 minutes.
• While yeast develops, sift flour into a large bowl then add milk/yeast mixture.
• Mix together briefly with hands and turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.
• Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover with damp cloth.
• Let dough rise until doubled (1-2 hours).
• Punch dough down and divide in to 20 equal pieces.
• Roll or press with hands each piece in to 2-3 inch circles.
• Drop 1 TBSP of cooled filling in center of a dough circle, gather the edges together and twist to seal. Repeat with all dough pieces.
• Cover and let rise for 15 minutes.
• Place each bun on a piece of parchment paper slightly larger than bun (buns will enlarge as steamed) and place a few at a time in steamer over boiling water in wok (don't crowd them).
• Cover wok and steam for 12 minutes.
• Serve warm.  They keep well in fridge and freezer.  To reheat thawed buns, steam for 5 minutes (or as Mr. ELEB did-nuke in microwave for 15 seconds).

The filling is delightful and the buns have just the right hint of sweetness and a good texture.  Even though they were ugly when I made them, the steaming sort of softened everything up so they didn't look so bad. Once we bit into them, we didn't really care what they looked like!  Do you like dim (deem) sum?

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Recipe for Sweet Potato Wrapped Fish

This dish was inspired by one of my favorite dishes, potato wrapped sea bass, at Isa Restaurant, San Francisco. That dish is smothered in capers, tomatoes, olive oil and herbs-it is really good.  This is different, simpler, sweet potatoes instead of regular, but just as delicious.  

The initial step of pan searing puts a little crunch on the outside of the sweet potato and then the oven finishes cooking them and cooks the fish inside perfectly.

Use toothpicks to hold potatoes

Yield: 2 servings
Time: 20 minutes


Ingredients:

• 10 oz firm white fish (I used Mahi-Mahi)
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced into long thin slices (I used a mandoline set at 1/8 inch)
• 1 TBSP canola oil
• Salt and pepper
• Toothpicks

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Add oil to an oven proof skillet and warm over med-high.
• Season fish liberally with salt and pepper.
• Wrap slices of sweet potato around fish pieces, securing with toothpicks.
• Sear wrapped fish on both sides, about 1 1/2 minutes per side.
• Remove pan to preheated oven and cook just until fish is cooked, approximately 10 additional minutes (depending on size of fish pieces).
• Carefully remove pan from oven, remember that the handle will stay hot!
• Remove toothpicks gently and serve.

What restaurant dishes have inspired you?

Printable recipe

Here's another favorite fish dish (click on link for recipe):

Fish Cakes

Recipe for Whole Wheat Pita

In my "to try" file are about a dozen naan recipes.  So, of course I can't seem to get going on making some-just keep looking at the recipes, thinking about the best attributes of each one.  Help!  I have naan paralysis!


However, I came across a recipe for pita and just jumped on it!  No messing around.  No saving many versions and trying to come up with "the best".  It is a recipe with mostly whole wheat which I like.  Is it "the best"? Who knows?  But it made lovely pillows of whole wheat goodness just begging to be stuffed with spinach, ham and cheese.  So different than the cardboard texture of the whole wheat pita I buy at the store.

I made very few changes!  The original recipe calls for a tad of OJ which I left out and adjusted the water accordingly. I also used white whole wheat flour because that is what I had. I brushed the tops with olive oil and sprinkled on some organic, no-salt seasonings (Kirkland Brand from Costco) to finish them off while they were still warm.


Yield: 8 pita (whole)
Time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour 40 minutes rising time


Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 2 TBSP olive oil plus more for brushing tops
• Organic no-salt seasoning (or other mixed herb/spice blend) for topping

Method:

• Combine flours and salt in a bowl.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook, add yeast and 2 TBSP olive oil to water.
• Start mixer on low and pour in flour mixture.
• Turn to medium and knead for 5 minutes (if by hand, 8-10 minutes).
• Remove bowl from mixer and cover with kitchen cloth/towel for 1 1/2 hours or until dough has doubled.
• About an hour in to the rise, place pizza stone on bottom rack of oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
• When dough has doubled, turn out on to floured surface and divide into 8 portions.  Re-cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Roll each portion into approximately a 6 inch circle.
• Using a floured pizza peel, slide pitas into oven, cooking 2 at a time (keep others covered).
• Bake for 3 1/2 minutes, then flip for an additional 2 1/2 minutes.
• Remove and wrap in kitchen towel to cool while others cook, adding cooked to pile in kitchen towel as they come out.  
• When cooled slightly, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning mix.

As I said, great texture and the taste is waaaaay better than store bought!

In to the oven

See how they puff!

Now, on to that naan.


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King Arthur Recipe

Black and White Wednesdays-Coffee Break

Coffee Break-want one, now!

Submitted to Black and White Wednesdays

Recipe for Simply Baked Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

Mmmm.  Little pillows of ricotta cheese (no not mashed potatoes!) on top of whole grain pasta, sauce, pepper jack cheese, beef - what's not to like?  That's what I thought when I was browsing through Stacy's blog Every Little Thing and saw her "wing it" recipe for baked pasta.  She was in the midst of an exercise to eat on $60/week and threw this together based on what she had on hand.  Perfect-I do that a lot too, probably why I was drawn to this recipe.  It's Secret Recipe Club time!  

Stacy is a Social Worker who lives in Missouri and specializes in the areas of autism and developmental disabilities.   She has adapted a local, natural lifestyle and hopes to help others become closer to their community and our Earth.  Here's Stacy's recipe, with a few adaptations:


Yield: 6 servings
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients: 

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 tsp ancho pepper powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 8 oz. multi grain rotini pasta, cooked al dente
• 2 oz. pepper jack cheese, grated
• 12 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
• 12 oz. marinara sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Cooking spray

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Brown the beef and onions together.
• Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
• Combine the beef/onion mixture with the other ingredients except ricotta in the casserole dish.
• Drop 6 dollops of ricotta on the top of the mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly.  Serve with sprinkle of salt and pepper.

So simple and just the right level of heat for me.  If you like things really spicy, add more ancho pepper powder. This keeps well and reheats like a dream.  Check out Stacy's blog when you have a chance!  To see the other Secret Recipe Club participants, check out all the links below.

Original recipe

Printable recipe

Recipe for Blue Cheese, Pistachio, and Cranberry Turkey Burgers

It's only been a week since Turkey Day, I know.  Trust me, these turkey burgers pumped up with tangy blue cheese, salty pistachios and dried cranberries are worth a trip back to the turkey case at your grocery store. Or are you like me and always keep a package of ground turkey breast in the freezer?


Sometimes, ground turkey breast gets a bad wrap as being too dry, not flavorful, hard to work with.  Not true as long as you follow a few things I've learned after making lots of turkey burgers.  You do have to be liberal with the flavorings.  Add in various herbs.  Either mix in a small amount of your favorite healthy oil or small amounts of a flavorful cheese to add a little fat and flavor.  And, importantly, don't over cook.  I always cut into one burger once I've browned both sides and take them off the heat and out of the pan or off the grill when it looks "almost" done (slight amount of pink in the middle).  Like all meat, the burgers will keep cooking off the heat during the next couple of minutes.


The only debate over these guys was whether there was too much cranberry in them.  For me, they were perfect.  Mr. ELEB thought the cranberry should be dialed back.  It's a preference thing.  I love meat and fruit flavors together-not everyone does so use the taste preferences of those at your dinner table to decide!


This is the first time I have used coconut oil for cooking.  I've been reading how, once thought to be a fat to avoid, it is now believed to be an acceptable, some would propose beneficial, fat to use.  I mainly want to try it in baking but I saw it in the cupboard when going for the olive oil and decided to give it a try for pan browning. It browned these burgers nicely.

Yield: 4 burgers
Time: 15 minutes


Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lb. ground turkey breast
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 3 TBSP (or less) of dried cranberries
• 2 TBSP crumbled blue cheese
• 3 TBSP coarsely chopped roasted, salted pistachios
• Salt and pepper
• 1 TBSP coconut (or other) oil
• 4 whole grain hamburger buns
• Lettuce leaves for serving

Method:

• Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add oil.
• Combine all ingredients (except buns, oil, and lettuce) and form into 4 patties (don't over mix or over work the meat).
• Brown patties on both sides for 2 minutes per side (don't try to move the patties until browned-they will stick if you do-be patient).
• Turn heat to medium and cut to the center of one patty so you can see the center.
• Cook an additional 4 minutes per side or until just barely pink in center of cut burger.
• Remove from heat and rest for 2 minutes or so.
• Serve over lettuce on buns.
• If cooking on a grill, coat both sides of the patties with the oil and preheat and clean the grill thoroughly before cooking.

Here is another turkey burger recipe for you:

Inside out turkey cheeseburgers

What are you making on burger night?

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Linked up at Jane Deere