Let's Talk Turkey!

I've been a baaaad kitten when it comes to  this blog.  First there was the fallout from the holidays; I was so full for so long that I didn't want to eat or cook, let alone write about food.  Then I started a new business teaching cooking classes, and I was too tired to blog.  But my friend Janice texted me today and said that she keeps checking for a new blog post, and if I didn't get to it, she was going to start posting mean messages.  She's too nice to actually do that, but just in case I'm a bad judge of character....

Are you ready to talk about turkey again? We're well past the holiday meal leftovers, and I'm ready to look at turkey once more.  These Asian Style Meatballs have been such a hit with everyone who's had them - from catering clients to cooking classes - that I felt it would be a perfect "redemption recipe" for those faithful readers who I have neglected... and the Peanut Dipping Sauce will make everyone forgive me.

Asian Style Turkey Meatballs
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons milk (use water if dairy intolerant)
1 1/2 lb ground turkey (preferably organic)
4 scallions, thinly sliced and chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon tamari
2 teaspoons Sriracha (or other hot sauce)
2 teaspoons agave nectar
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
Juice of one lime
1+ tablespoon coconut oil (or olive oil)

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large bowl, combine breadcrumbs and milk and let stand 15 minutes. Add turkey, scallions, cilantro, vinegar, Sriracha, agave, garlic, ginger, sea salt and lime juice.  Gently mix all ingredients - try not to over mix as it makes for less juicy meatballs.  Form into 12 - 18 meatballs.  Melt coconut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add meatballs (you want to hear a sizzzle when you add them).  Don't overload the skillet or your meatballs will steam rather than brown; work in a few batches.  Brown meatballs on all sides, approximately 10 minutes.  Transfer to a baking sheet and bake until cooked through to 165.  Continue browning meatballs in skillet adding more oil as needed.  Serve with Peanut Dipping Sauce.

Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Peanut Sauce

1 cup smooth peanut butter

¼ cup tamari

2 teaspoons red chili paste

1 tablespoon agave nectar

Juice of 2 limes

½ cup hot water

¼ cup chopped peanuts

Combine peanut butter, tamari, chili paste, agave and lime juice in a blender.   Puree to combine all ingredients.   With motor running, slowly add the hot water to thin out the sauce; use more or less water to get the consistency you want.

This sauce is soooo good that you'll be trying to find new ways to use it... one easy fix: cook some whole wheat spaghetti, saute thinly sliced red bell pepper and scallions, toss with peanut sauce and top with chopped, toasted peaunts - good hot or cold.  People in my Thai cooking class last week are still talking about this sauce like it's some dirty little secret....so go on, get dirty.

Tropical Envy

My friend Janice is vacationing in Hawaii this week.  My sister's vacationing in Florida.  I'm stuck here with nothing but rain every single dingle day, dreaming about sunshine and the sand between my toes. So if I can't go to the tropics, I'll bring a little of the tropics here....a sweet Caribbean-inspired chicken and banana dish.  May sound weird, but believe me it is delish!  Made me do the happy dance after the first bite...feeling a little full of myself right now.

First I heated about a teaspoon of coconut oil in a skillet over medium high heat and browned four quartered bananas. It takes just a minute or two per side.  Remove them from the skillet, and when they're cool enough to handle, give them a rough chop. And try not to eat all of them while you're preparing the rest of the meal.  That's the tricky part.

Add a bit more coconut oil to the same skillet and saute one pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are seasoned with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and cinnamon - give both sides a good rub of the spice mix.  I pound the heck out of the chicken breasts (before I season them, of course) so that they are about 1/4" thick and they cook much faster - just 4-5 minutes per side.  When they're cooked through to 165, remove them from the skillet to cool and then shred into bite-sized pieces.

Add just a smidge more coconut oil to the skillet and saute two diced jalapeno peppers (remove seeds and membrane if you're afraid of the heat), 1 diced red bell pepper, and 6 thinly sliced scallions.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes then add the chopped banana, shredded chicken, 3 cups cooked brown basmati rice, 1/3 cup chopped peanuts, the juice of one lime, and one tablespoon tamari.  Garnish with a little of the scallion greens or chives and call it a day.  \Another one pot wonder - fuit, veg, protein, whole grain...you've got it all.

The smoky chicken, the sweet, gooey carmelized banana, the crunchy peanuts, the fiery jalapeno peppers; suddenly I don't care so much that it's raining... and raining and raining. Well sure, the umbrella drink helps a little. 

It's Appetizer Season!

Well, my blogging "with a vengeance" wasn't so vengeful after all. Things have been a little busy, with the holidays and all, so I thought I should share a little of what I've been up to..

Given the choice of appetizers or dessert, I will always opt for appetizers.  In fact, I would opt for appetizers for dinner, too.  And lately I have been sharing the love.  I've catered two appetizer parties in the past couple weeks,taught a Holiday Appetizer class, and have brought an appetizer to every dinner I've gone to lately.  I'm clearly not alone in my love of the small plates. 

It all started with Thanksgiving, the official start of Appetizer Season.  For the second year in a row I brought a Kahlua Baked Brie (sorry no picture, because it was significantly attacked by the crowd in the time it took me to get my camera out of my purse).  One woman who I had given the recipe to last year told me that she  pulled the recipe out of her coat pocket the next day, staring at it longingly like it was the phone number from a cute guy she met in a bar the night before, complete with that old "oh, what did I do last night?"  Yep, it's that good, folks:

Kahlua Baked Brie

1 6oz wheel of Brie

¼ c chopped toasted pecans or walnuts

2T Kahlua

1T agave nectar

Preheat oven to 350◦.  Cut the rind off top of brie, leaving 1/4” at edges.  In a bowl combine remaining ingredients.  Place brie on an oven-safe dish, preferably one with a lip. Top with Kahlua mixture.  Bake for 5-8 minutes until soft. Serve with baguette, crackers, or apple and pear slices.

Last weekend I prepared 5 appetizers for a wine tasting party...

We had Caprese Kebabs, Wild Salmon Spread with Cucumber Rounds, Proscuitto, Fig & Arugula Roll-ups with Lemon Chevre, Spinach Stuffed Red Bliss Potatoes, and Asian Style Meatballs with Peanut Dipping Sauce.  You're probably saying, "Wow, that sounds delicious."  And you would be right. I made much more than necessary, and the small group ate every single dingle thing, much to the chagrin of the hostess who was hoping for leftovers later in the evening.

After that party I came home and got ready to go to a holiday party of my own.  I never like to come empty handed, and since I was hopped up on appetizer energy I decided to make yet another.  This was completely on the fly, which I think is why I liked it so much.  When I throw something together with ingredients I have on hand and it comes out this delicious, it makes me do the happy dance (no picture of that dance either, sadly).  This Pear, Proscuitto & Gorgonzola Crostini will be making the rounds at a lot of parties in the next couple weeks. 

Start by melting a tablespoon of unsalted butter in a skillet.  Add 1 pear, diced and 3 slices proscuitto, chopped.  Saute for a few minutes until the pear is slightly softened.  Hit it with a pinch of salt and pepper and a little sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves.

While the pear is cooking, drizzle olive oil over thinly sliced baguette slices (this recipe will make about 24 crostini) and pop them in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes until slightly toasted.

Remove the bread form the oven and top with the pear mixture.  Place a few crumbles of gorgonzola on top of the pears and bake again for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted.  When you pull them out of the oven, think about how many guests there really are going to be at the party and then determine how many of these you can eat in advance and still have enough for everyone else...my count was three.

I'll share more of the other appetizer recipes with you later; writing this and looking at the pictures made me hungry.  Got to pop into the kitchen and see what I can come up with now.....

Try Something New

I went to the farmers' market to get inspired today.  We're moving into that less colorful season around here, the one I call the "101 Things to Do with Kale" season.  Winter markets are less exciting for me, so I was pleased to find something I had never tried before: feijoas, also known as pineapple guava.  And I am in love!

At first I thought they were limes, which I needed to get, but as I got closer I could tell they were something different...the sign poking out of the box that read "Pineapple Guava" helped a bit.  Twin Girls Farm has samples out of all their fruits, so I picked one up as I walked by, and it literally stopped me in my tracks.  The flavor and the scent of the fruit are almost intoxicating - a beautiful blend of pineapple, pear, lemon, guava, kiwi and pinot griggio...seriously, it's THAT good.  And it's so nice to know that there is a "tropical" fruit grown here in California, so I can satisfy my "local and seasonal" sensibilities and  my desire for tropical fruit.  I'm bummed I only bought 5 of them; I only have one left.  I'll be hitting the Civic Center Market on Sunday to scoop up a bunch before they're all gone.  They will only be around for a couple more weeks, so do yourself a favor and get out to your local farmer's market before they disappear (unless your local market is also the Sunday Civic Center one; then stay home, it's supposed to rain Sunday and I'm concerned you'll catch a cold). 

Look for ones that are dark green, give a little (like an avacado), and are free of bruises.  The skin is a little bitter, so I don't eat it, but according to the farmer, you can.  I just cut them in half and scoop out the flesh.  With the next batch I buy I'll get a little more invested:  put them in salads and smoothies and make a tropical salsa (with kiwi, satsuma, shallots and red pepper flakes) to put over a nice piece of fish.  If you are a baker, I think these would be fantastic in muffins...and then bring them on over to my house!

I've got to go eat that last one.....

Tip of the Day

It's always a good idea to wash your knives immediately after cutting something.  That way you avoid eating a piece of kiwi that tastes like onion! You know I looove onions, but that is a flavor combination that's not so tasty...

Shepherd-ish Pie

I was housesittiing for a friend the past 11 days and away from my computer, but I am back with a blogging vengeance.  The weather had turned cold here in the Bay Area, and that makes me want to cook warm, comforting foods.... like my version of a shepherd's pie.  Mashed potatoes may very well be my favorite food, and I'm a huge fan of one pot meals, so years ago when I first heard about this dish with meat and veggies topped with mashed potatoes, I was in!

Now, friends have told me I should never tell this story (it doesn't really instill confidence in my cooking), but it was years ago, and it's a good one, so here goes... my first crack at Shepherd's Pie.

I think it was Real Simple magazine that had a recipe each month that was a kind of "cheat" version, a short cut of a more complicated dish.  I should have known it wouldn't end well because A) every time I've taken a "short cut" to avoid traffic, it ends up taking me much longer than if I had just stayed on the highway and B) the recipe called for boxed mashed potatoes, which shouldn't be consumed by anyone not living in a dorm.

I'm still going to maintain that the recipe could've been written better, but even my friend Jacqueline who admittedly doesn't cook, started laughing so hard that she was crying when I said that since the recipe didn't say to cook the fake potatoes first, I just sprinkled them on top...the whole 4 cups of them!  So that was a disaster and went right into the trash.   I think I ate cereal that night.

A couple days later I decided that this recipe was NOT going to get the best of me, so I tried again.  This time I cooked the potatoes first, but again I maintain that the recipe wasn't written well... what I eventually figured out was that they were going for 4 cups of cooked potatoes.  The reicpe, however, just said "4 cups instant mashed potates", so I cooked 4 cups of the flakes, which yielded a boatload of cooked potatoes.  And, you guessed it, I went ahead and threw them right on top of my meat and veggie mixture, all the while saying "this just doesn't seem right."  The weight of the mountain of potatoes reduced the rest of the food to about 1/4 inch.  While that attempt was edible from an "at least it won't make you sick" standpoint, it was pretty much inedible.  So I threw out the recipe and the idea that I would ever make shepherd's pie again.

But today's a new day, and I'm a much better cook.  Sorry guys, this is one of my no-recipe dishes - I think I'm categorically opposed to writing a recipe for it given my history.  But it's super simple and adaptable; just remember to taste as you go when you start seasoning.

I start with baking about 4 large sweet potaotes (you can use the traditional russet potatoes, but sweet potaotes give it a nice flavor and are full of antioxidants.  Best of all, they help stabilize blood sugar levels and inprove the body's use of insulin.  I have a nephew with Type 1 diabetes, so I am always looking for good food to help him out.  If you are caring for anyone with diabetes, get sweet potaotes on your menu.

While the potatoes are baking, saute 1 chopped medium onion in a tablespoon of olive oil.  After about 5 minutes add whatever veggies you like; I use chopped bell peppers, carrots and corn (frozen works, too). Peas are a traditional veggie in a shepherd's pie, but I'm not a big fan.

After another 5 minutes or so, add 1 1/2 pounds of lean ground turkey, and your favorite seasonings.  I like to use thyme, smoked paprika, garlic powder and sage.  Just sprinkle a little at a time and taste as you go.  Remember you can always add more, but you can't take it away.  Cook until turkey is no longer pink.

When potaotes are done, split them open and scoop out the flesh with a spoon.  In a large bowl mash the potatoes with a splash of milk, 1 or 2 tablespoons butter and a couple teaspoons of  pure maple syrup. 

Fill a cassetrole dish with the meat and veggie mixture and top with the sweet potaotes.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Who the heck needs a short cut?!

Ch-ch-ch-chia!

This week I'm working at the culinary school I went to, and it's re-energized my healthy eating commitment.  The school, Bauman College, focuses on a holistic and therapeutic approach to cooking.  Aside from the obvious: eat lots of fruits and veggies, avoid trans fats and sugar, the culinary program taught me about powerfully healthy "alternative" ingredients.  When I first started the program I referred to them as "weird foods."  The first one I was introduced to was chia.  One of my instructors, Chef Maria, shared her love of chia with us in the first week.  Every time she mentioned it, I couldn't help but picture the silly chia pets that I used to see advertised on TV.  I never understood why those were considered a cute gift; I had an even harder time imagining how they could be tasty and good for you to eat???  Come to think of it, my ex-husband gave me a chia pet for Christmas years ago (yet another reason why he's the "ex" husband), and while I may have contemplated making HIM eat it, I never would've taken a nibble myself.

So back to culinary school... one day at school our kitchen manager, Dana, made us a chia pudding for our snack. A) it was delicious, and B) it wasn't the green stuff pretending to be Abe Lincoln's hair; they were tiny dark seeds...

Now for the nutritional stuff.... chia seeds have more calcium that a glass of milk, are a good source of fiber, protein and omega 3's, and because they soak up 10X their weight in water they help to keep you hydrated and to retain electrolytes.

Dana soaked the seeds in coconut milk and added garam masala and cinnamon.  I was so in love with the taste that when I had a bunch of my college girlfriends over for a girls' weekend a couple weeks later I fixed it for breakfast, and, not surprisingly, they all loved it.  My friend Sue still makes it regularly and has developed her own concoctions using chia seeds.  Maybe she'll share some of her ideas with us...

I hadn't made Chia Pudding in months, but between being back at Bauman this week and seeing the new commercial for the Barak Obama Chia Head today, I decided to whip up a little chia love.

Coconut milk is sometimes a little heavy for me, so I tried something I had read about while at Bauman and made banana milk.  For people who are lactose intolerant (which I unfortunately am not), it's a nice alternative and super easy to make: put one medium banana in a blender with 1/2 cup of water and blend until smooth.  You can strain it if you want, but I don't.  It makes 1 cup of "milk."  I poured a little bit on my granola (yum) and then made a Banana Chia Pudding:

First put 1/4 cup chia seeds in a bowl and add 1 cup banana milk (always use 1 part chia seeds to 4 parts liquid) and a pinch of cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg:

Stir to blend. Let it sit for about 5 minutes and then stir well again.  Wait another 5 minutes and give it one more stir.  Trust me on this... the first time I made it I took a short cut on the stirring part, and the final product reminded me of a clumpy litter box (yeah, not so appetizing, so do it!).  Put it in the fridge overnight.  What you get is a super delish pudding, great for breakfast, snack or dessert.  I like to add berries and nuts, usually.   I was too excited to eat this one, so I forgot to add the nuts and didn't even take the time to defrost the frozen berries; just wanted to take the picture and dig in!

Give this one a try.  Just trust me; you'll love it, and it is sooooo good for you.  Not to mention, according to the Chia Head commercials running now, if you are "Proud to be an American" you'll get your chia on!!