Tempeh Time!

Tempeh. The word itself even sounds a little weird, I realize. But it actually tastes good, and that is what's important. And is full of protein. And easy to cook. And I needed tasty, protein-packed, simplicity after my workout. I was beat. This getting in shape business is hard.

Stir fry is an easy way to pack in a lot of veggies in a short amount of time. Cook times are relatively short (in fact the most time you spend is the prep time to chop all those veggies) but the payoff is big. If you're tired of chicken or pork or tofu, tempeh does provide you with a different flavor and texture and works well in stir fry. Don't be scared, tempeh won't hurt you. And especially after kicking your own ass at the gym, you need lean proteins and veggies to feed those battered and bruised muscles!

Tempeh Stir Fry
--TBSP seasame oil
--2 TBSP canola oil, divided
--2 TBSP soy sauce, divided (I use the low sodium kind)
--8 oz. package of tempeh (found in the refrigerated section with the tofu), sliced into strips
--small onion, diced
--large shallot, diced
--ginger, minced
--garlic, minced
--medium jalapeno, sliced in rounds
--medium red bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced into strips
--small yellow squash, sliced into strips
--small zucchini, sliced into strips
--medium carrot, peeled and sliced into strips
--small package button mushrooms, sliced
--1 bunch red chard, stems removed and cut or ripped into business card sized pieces
--1 pear, core removed and sliced into thin slices

Heat the sesame oil, 1 TBSP canola and 1 TBSP of the soy sauce in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the tempeh strips until browned on all sides. Remove from heat and set aside.

Add remaining TBSP of canola oil to the skillet. Sauté the onion, shallot, garlic, and ginger for a few minutes until fragrant and tender. Add the jalapeno, bell pepper, squash, zucchini, and carrot pieces and sauté for several minutes, stirring regularly. When the veggies begin to soften add the mushroom pieces, again stirring regularly.

Add the remaining TBSP soy sauce and stir to combine into the veggies. Add the tempeh back into the mix and also add the chard pieces at this time. Mix it all up and sauté for a few minutes to allow the tempeh to get warmed up and the chard to begin to wilt. Remove the stir fry from the heat and stir in the pear slices. The cold, crisp pear will provide a nice flavor and texture contrast to the warm, tender veggies!

Serve! This is not a meal that re-heats well so adjust ingredient quantities as needed to avoid leftovers.

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 35 minutes (most of it prep time)
Serves: 4 bowls
Calories: 300 per bowl

I'm Not Julia Child, But Who Is?

In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child writes, "As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good bouef bourguigon." I've never actually cooked any of Julia's famous recipes nor do I own any of her famous cookbooks (though Christmas is coming up *wink*wink*) but I absolutely appreciate her approach.

You see, there isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to cook necessarily--many good dishes come out of different styles. If following a recipe exactly isn't for you (and trust me, it's not for me) then think of each recipe as more as a guideline. The changes you make, the ingredients you add or remove, the ideas you glean, these all make the dish your own by putting your very own personal stamp on it. (And for those of you who think you're hopeless cooks, following the recipe step-by-step does NOT make you a bad cook. Some follow rules, others like to break them.)

Beef Burgundy (or bouef bourguigon to Julia) is a rich dish of wine soaked beef, carrots, onions, noodles, carrots. Part stew, part pasta, it is an excellent cure for the winter blahs or to warm cold bones. It makes enough for a feast to feed a large crew or to freeze portions for later.

Beef Burgundy
--6 pieces of bacon
--1/2 cup flour
--salt & pepper
--1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat
--1/2 small onion, diced
--garlic, minced
--2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
--3 dry cups assorted sliced mushrooms
--bottle dry red wine
--1 heaping spoonful of tomato paste
--14.5oz can of diced tomatoes
--thyme
--oregano
--1 small bag of frozen peeled pearl onions
--egg noodles
--beef broth

Cook the bacon strips in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. I use scissors to cut mine up into smaller pieces before sautéing. Once the bacon is mostly cooked (crisp but not too crisp), use a slotted spoon to remove it from the pan, leaving as much of the bacon grease/drippings in the pan as possible.

Season the flour with salt and pepper. Dry the beef with a paper towel and then toss in the flour to coat. You want the beef nice and dry so it will sear beautifully. Working in batches, sauté beef in the bacon grease until browned on all sides. Remove and set aside.

In the same pot, saute the onion and garlic for a minute or so until it is fragrant. Add the sliced carrots and saute a minute before adding the mushrooms. Saute until both are tender but not soggy. Add the meat back in to the pot. Dump in the bottle of wine, add some tomato paste, the diced tomatoes, and the spices. Cover and simmer for one hour, stirring only occasionally.

After one hour, add the pearl onions and egg noodles. Pour in enough beef broth to cover the noodles and stir all to combine. Cover and simmer on medium heat for 20 more minutes. Remove the cover and, if necessary, boil to the consistency of sauce you desire (though the noodles should soak up most of the added broth). Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 2 hours
Serves: 6
Estimated Calories: 780 per serving

Fabulous Fall Colors, Fantastic Fall Vegetables

We're knee deep in Autumn; by now the leaves have changed to a rainbow of colors and are falling all around us. Halloween brought critters in costume, marching through piles of leaves and pumpkins, and wandering away full of sugar. It's my favorite time of year for many reasons, but not the least of which is I get a cheap thrill out of eating food that matches the landscape around me. The Fall food color-scape is a bevy of rich jewel tones--vibrant reds, brilliant yellows, energetic oranges.

Root vegetables and those that grow low to the ground thrive this time of year, so fill your plates with potatoes, beets, carrots, squashes, and onions. Today's recipe throws another fall flavor--apple--into the mix and gives this dish even more depth. I served mine with some roasted chicken over brown rice but you could easily make this a vegetarian meal or a Thanksgiving side dish as well. Even better, roast a chicken in the middle of this sea of root vegetables and baste with extra apple cider.

Apple Cider Roasted Root Vegetables
--5 whole garlic cloves
--1/2 large onion
--2 medium sized beets, washed and greens removed
--1 honey crisp or gala apple, cored
--5 small potatoes (or more if you use fingerling potatoes)
--3 medium-large sized carrots, scrubbed and greens removed
--fresh sage
--(optional) 4-5 small tomatoes
--2 TBSP olive oil
--salt & pepper to taste
--4 TBSP apple cider

Roughly chop all the vegetables (except for the garlic, leave that whole) and the apple into chunks. If you opt for small tomatoes, leave those whole (as pictured) so the skins come off easier. Using your hands, rip the sage into large pieces.

Place all the vegetables and the sage into a plastic bag. Pour in the olive oil and shake vigorously to coat all the vegetables. Sprinkle a little salt and crack a little black pepper into the bag. Again, move the items all around so the salt and pepper do a little disco on the mixture.

Pour the contents of the bag into a glass oven-safe dish. Pour the apple cider evenly over the mix. Bake at 400 degrees until vegetables are tender, tomatoes are soft and skins come off easily, and potatoes begin to get a lovely brown crust (45-ish minutes). It's okay if things are a little pink, that's just the beets sharing the love.

Eat!

Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 189 per serving

Summer Slaw

In making this slaw, I used the Catholic method of cooking--more commonly known as the "Pour & Pray."

Pause for the terrible joke to sink in... and... moving on!

Seriously though, I'm terrible at measuring things like this so the amounts of the liquids listed below are my best guess of what amounts of each dressing item was mixed together. Generally speaking I really do just pour stuff together and then pray it tastes good. My suggestion for you: Start with a little and add little bits of each of the items used to make the dressing. That way you'll end up with a combination that you like, befitting your tastes (more or less vinegar-y or soy-tastic).

Today's recipe is perfect to take to summer barbecues or potlucks. I made a big batch of this and then forced it upon my coworkers. It's not exactly vegetarian due to the soy sauce and the worcestershire, but you can make it vegetarian (or even vegan) by using fish-free substitutes. Okay, okay, this Asian thing is getting out of hand, I realize! But, uh, it's oh so tasty so how can I stop myself? It was made even more delicious by the fact that all my veggies came out of the garden of the house I was housesitting at!


Asian-Style Summer Slaw
--1 head of cabbage, roughly chopped
--1 large carrot, grated
--1 small sweet onion, vertically sliced
--1 bell pepper, chopped
--fresh cilantro, chopped
--fresh mint, chopped
--1 package uncooked ramen noodles (no flavor packet, noodles only)
--fresh ginger, grated
--fresh garlic, grated
--juice of 1/2 a lemon
--1/4 cup rice vinegar
--3 TBSP soy sauce
--1 TBSP olive oil
--1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients through the garlic.  In a separate container, whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire and olive oil. Vary the amounts of the liquids depending upon your tastes. Pour over the slaw mixture and stir to combine.




Dammit Jim, I'm a cook, not a doctor...
Time: 20 minutes
Serves: ???
Calories: There are about 1000 calories in the whole salad

Hello Stew, Meet Curry & Saffron

I tend to eat a lot of warm foods in the winter time. Winter just seems to loan itself well to soups, stews, and ragouts. The following is a modified version of one of my favorite recipes. It combines lots of veggies with two of my favorite spices: saffron and curry!

I made this while housesitting and just threw it together with what veggies were fresh on hand along with some from the freezer. Stews like this one can change throughout the year to reflect whatever veggies are in season.

Winter Vegetable Curried Stew
--olive oil
--yellow curry powder
--pinch of saffron threads--onion, chopped roughly into medium sized pieces
--garlic, chopped
--assorted chopped veggies (I used squash, kale, spinach, and carrots)
--1 can white beans
--1 package of chicken sausage, links chopped into 1/2" thick slices
--24 oz. container chicken or vegetable broth


In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Once the oil coats the bottom of the pot add in the saffron threads. Adding heat to the threads releases their flavor. Add several healthy shakes of curry powder. Add chopped onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent. The curry and saffron will coat the onion and garlic and make your stew taste delicious!

Begin adding in your vegetables one at a time. First I added my carrots and then stirred them all together so the curry/saffron mix coated them. Then I added my different squashes (I used 3 different types: delicata, yellow, and zucchini) and stirred the mix all together. Then I added my white beans on top and stirred together.


Pour the chicken broth over the veggies mix. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for at least 30 minutes. You can simmer for up to 2 hours, but if you intend to simmer for this long, please turn heat down to low.

While the soup is simmering it's time to cook up our chicken sausage. I buy the package of 4 links and am really fond of the chicken and apple sausages because they add great flavor to this particular recipe. Most chicken sausage links are already pre-cooked but we want to sear the sides and warm up the sausage.

In a small to medium sized skillet, heat the sausage over medium heat until seared and warm.
Then add it to the simmering stew!

Toward the end of your simmering period add in the spinach and kale (or whatever greens you'd like to use). I remove the stems and either roughly chop these or rip them into pieces by hand.


Once everything is nice and warm it's ready to be scarfed!

Family, Friends and Cafe Berlin

Good morning and Merry Christmas Eve! I love this time of year. The lights, the music and especially the food! This is the time when everyone pulls out all the stops, forgets the diets and just eats for pure enjoyment.

That being said, last night we went out to CAFE BERLIN for dinner--a perfect place to go on a cold and snowy night. It is a small German restaurant in downtown Denver with good a atmosphere, good libations and definitely good food. I have eaten here before and I am never disappointed.




I sipped a glass of dry Riesling, as I perused the menu. I usually order something different whenever I am in there, but last night I went back to my favorite, the Jagerschnitzel. A classic German dish of breaded pork in a creamy mushroom sauce. A good hearty meal after a 2 block walk in the snow.

I started off with a bowl of White Bean and Bratwurst soup, which was very good. It was a solid broth base with a nice blend of beans. diced brats and spices. After a decent time interval ( I hate restaurants that bring your entree before you even finish you starter!!!) my Jagerschnitzel arrived.

It was exactly as I remembered. A perfect blend of pork, mushrooms and sauce, nothing over powering the rest of the ingredients. I chose spatzel and the green beans with bacon as my sides. I like my vegetables on the crisp side, so I thought the beans were a bit overcooked but still very good. There was just a bit of bacon in the beans but they must have been sauteed in bacon fat because they were very flavorful.

Everyone at the table ordered something different and of course there was a bit of sharing going on, which is the way family meals should be. We ordered the apple strudel and chocolate cake for dessert and 6 forks. Both were wonderful, but since the chocolate cake had a hint of cherry to it, I stuck to the cake.

As we left Cafe Berlin, we were treated to a shot of Apple Schnapps and a Fröhliche Weihnachten! Overall a great evening.

I am including a recipe for Jagerschnitzel that I make. It does not have a heavy cream sauce, so it is a bit healthier. You can always make a sauce for it if you prefer. This recipe will serve 4 to 16 people depending on if it is the whole meal or one of several courses.

Mise en Place:
Sauce pot, meat mallet, plastic wrap, nonstick frying pan, a large plate, a small mixing bowl and a serving platter

Jagerschnitzel:

--6 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided into 2 and 4 teaspoons
--3 cups thinly sliced mushrooms
--3 cups coarsely chopped red bell peppers
--2 cups coarsely chopped onions
--1 cup thinly sliced carrots
--2 minced garlic cloves
--1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes undrained
--1 tablespoon all purpose flour
--1 teaspoon paprika
--2 tablespoons water
--1 lb Pork tenderloin
--1/2 teaspoon coarsley ground pepper
--1/4 teaspoon salt

Trim fat off of pork and slice crosswise into about 16 pieces. Place between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and flatten into 1/4 inch thickness with the mallet. (If you do not have a mallet, use a rolling pin or the base of a drinking glass). Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside on the large plate.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in the sauce pan over med-high heat. Add next 5 ingredients and saute for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until vegetables are tender.

While vegetables are cooking, Place the frying pan with 4 teaspoons oil on med-high heat. When hot ( splash a little water into pan, if it pops, the oil is hot) add pork in batches and cook 4 minutes per side. When each batch is done set it on to the serving platter, try not to overlap the cutlets.

In a small bowl, combine flour, paprika and water. Stir into tomato mixture cook 3 min until slightly thick. Do this while last batch of pork is cooking.

The serving of this meal is very versatile. I usually serve this with egg noodles, and either place the egg noodles, sauce and pork in different serving bowls and platters, or put the egg noodles in a bowl and the pork, with the sauce over it, on a separate platter. A third option is individual plates, egg noodles, pork then sauce.

Hope you enjoy!