Poor Man's "Beef" Stroganoff

Adapted from Joy of Cooking, serves 4
Date made: February 13, 2011

1 lb ground turkey
3 1/2 Tbsp butter
1 c chicken stock
1 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp sour cream
1 Tbsp honey dijon mustard
12 oz pkg wheat noodles
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced*
1 tsp dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Cook wheat noodles in per package directions.
Season ground turkey with salt and ground pepper to taste.
Melt 1 1/2 Tbsp butter in small saucepan over medium heat.
Add flour and stir with a whisk until smooth.
And chicken stock and whisk constantly to prevent lumps from forming.  Heat slowly and allow to simmer until smooth and thickened.
Set aside and keep warm.
Melt remaining butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Add turkey and crumble into small pieces.  Add onions and cook until turkey is browned.
While the turkey is cooking, heat olive oil in a skillet over high heat.  Add mushrooms and toss constantly until mushrooms begin to color.
Add garlic and parsley and cook for another minute.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Remove onion from meat and discard.

Transfer meat onto a warm dish and set aside.

Stir in sauce with juices from cooked meat and heat without boiling.
Stir in sour cream and mustard, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Add meat and mushrooms to the sauce and mix well.  Serve over the wheat noodles and enjoy!

This recipe follows the 1997 version of the Joy of Cooking cookbook.  I ended up saving the onions and using it to make a soup with the leftover chicken stock and some barley from the Winter Borscht.  In hindsight, I would have done something more along the lines of what's posted on the The Joy Kitchen, but it still turned out well considering it was my first time making this.  It's one of those dishes that I associate with my childhood, although I remember not really liking it much until I started liking mushrooms.  Also, I'm a huge fan of the Mix 'n Chop, courtesy of Pampered Chef.  I think that every kitchen should have one.

Brown Butter Pasta with Tatsoi

Adapted from Appetite for China, serves 4
Date made: 2/8/2011

1 box wheat penne
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 bunches of tatsoi, stems removed*
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbsp dried sage
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta al dente in salted water with a tablespoon of olive oil.
When pasta is almost done, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
Swirl it in the pan as it foams.  When it begins to brown, add pasta and coat well with the butter.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Add tatsoi and sage and cook until slightly wilted, about 3 minutes.  Add parmesan cheese, mix well, and serve.


"What the hell is _______?"  I find myself saying that to myself every now and then when I go to Hollygrove, and last week I filled in the blank with tatsoi.  Some Asian green or something or other, but it's pretty tasty.

Also, I found my first produce bug ever in the tatsoi leaves.  Another cooking adage I've learned to heed: always wash your produce before using.  I became a little squeamish, but I was reminded of Kristin Kimball's The Dirty Life and the little anecdotes about eating produce with the dirt still clinging to the skin, unwashed, but fresh from the earth from which it matured.  Often we are so disconnected from our food and where it comes from, we don't realize that it is processed and handled to the point that it no longer is the food that was harvested from the ground.  This probably sounds tree-huggerish, but I began to see the bug as a reminder of that connection to the land that nurtured this food that came to my kitchen.  So I simply rinsed the little guy off of the tatsoi leaf, inspected and washed the other leaves, and went along my merry way.  I'm still alive and didn't come down with any GI issues, so no harm, no foul.

Radish (and Turnip) Saute

Adapted from Hollygrove Market, serves 4
Date made: 2/9/2011

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 bunch of radishes, quartered and greens washed*
1 large turnip, chopped*
1-2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil is skillet over medium heat.  Add radishes and turnips and cook, stirring constantly, until tender, but still crisp.  Transfer to a bowl to cool.
Place greens in a skillet with wash water still clinging to the leaves.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to wilt.
Turn off heat and add vinegar and radishes and turnips to skillet.
Stir well until combined and season with salt and pepper.


I'm starting to learn how to apply that adage of "use what's in your cupboard/fridge/freezer".  Since we didn't have any lemon juice from the original recipe, I substituted it with white wine vinegar.  And I got four huge turnips in my box last week, two of which were used in the mustard greens recipe, and the remaining have been sitting in my fridge, anticipating the day I'd find a culinary reason to take them out.

Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice

Based on a lot of experimentation, serves 4-6
Date made: 2/7/2011

1 lb red kidney beans, sorted*
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
Cajun brown rice*
Salt, pepper, Tony's, cumin, thyme, to taste
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced or chopped, optional

Place beans in a pot and cover with water.  Soak overnight.
Add more water to cover the beans and bring to a boil.
Boil for about 10 minutes and then transfer to crock for the slow cooker.
Add veggies and herbs/spices.  Cook on low heat for 10 hours.
Add sausage about 20 minutes before serving (while you're cooking your rice).
You know how to do the rest...


Before I got this new Crock-Pot for Christmas, I'd been using my mom's old slow cooker from, like, 20 years ago.  The first time I made red beans and rice in the Crock Pot it turned out disastrous since I cooked it on low and the beans didn't cook through AT ALL, even though they were there for 12 hours.  Mind you, I also consulted several slow cooker recipes online that made no indication that this might happen.

I thought the culprit was a defective low setting since I tried to make slow cooker corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day, which yielded similar results.  Thus, I've been making red beans and rice on the high setting to avoid further culinary embarrassment.  When I got this new Crock-Pot, I figured my low heat setting woes were a thing of the past, so I attempted to make chili a couple weeks ago over low heat.

This story is probably predictable, so I'm sure you can guess what happened -- crunchy chili.  Lo and behold, when I consulted my handy-dandy Crock-Pot manual (which I had the foresight not to throw out, though I guess there's always the internet), it explicitly states that you have to boil the beans beforehand, especially if you're adding any acid (aka tomatoes) since apparently it acts as a hardening agent.  Thank you, internet home cooks for not bringing this to my attention.

At least I got a sweet Crock-Pot out of it.  Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Mustard Mustard Greens

Adapted from Hollygrove Market, serves 2 (main course) or 4 (side dish)
Date made: 2/6/2011

1 bunch mustard greens, washed, destemmed, and torn into large pieces*
1 pint small shiitake mushrooms*
2 large turnips, sliced*
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp honey dijon mustard
1 Tbsp sugar
salt, pepper, and Tony Cacherie's to taste
water
Cajun brown rice*

Saute turnips on medium heat in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until they start to become translucent.
Add mushrooms and continue cooking until mushrooms are tender.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, saute garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil in a pot.  Add greens and enough water to cover the bottom of the pot, 3-4 tablespoons.
Add a tablespoon of sugar and season with salt and pepper.  Add Tony Cacherie's, if desired.
Cook until wilted.  Remove greens and squeeze as much liquid as possible into the pot.  Reduce liquid by half and add butter and mustard.
Add greens, mushrooms, and turnips to pot and mix well.
Serve over a bed of Cajun brown rice.  Can also be served as a side dish alone with some sort of protein.

Trying to cook mustard greens has been the bane of my existence.  For some reason, they'd always turn out bitter to the point of being inedible.  I guess I should have done some reading first: apparently, wilted greens = bitter greens.
http://www.naturalchoice.net/articles/cookinggr.htm.

From Mimi's cooking lesson on collards and okra, I always add a little bit of sugar to my greens, and I'd like to think that it cuts the bitterness as well.  I cooked these greens that day after I got them, and by following the source recipe and tweaking it a little, the greens turned out pretty well, the only bitterness coming from the dijon mustard.  Although I chose the honey dijon because it was the first mustard I found in the fridge, I kind of like the slight sweetness it brings to the dish.