Bacon fried rice

My friend Joyce had come upon some homemade bacon. I don't mean the thin strips of bacon. Oh no, we're talking about the fatty slabs of pork, smoked in-house. So Sunday night, we decided to do bacon night. She brought over a delicious portion of the bacon that is apparently Schezwan-style. And what better way to cook this than in a Chinese-style fried rice dish?

And that is what we did. And boy was it delicious.
What you need:
2 eggs, lightly scrambled, seasoned with salt/pepper
green onions (enough for a handful or two when chopped)
half a tomato, chopped
half an onion, diced
bacon (as much as humanly possible)
2 cups of cooked rice (day old rice cool. Mine was a month old--frozen for a month, I mean)
peas, carrots, corn to assuage the guilt of too much bacon fat
soy sauce

What to do:
Dice up your bacon into manageable, bite-size pieces. In a frying pan, cook the bacon. Reserve the fat.

In a wok, lightly scramble/cook the eggs with some of the bacon fat. Remove from heat. Cook the onions with some more of the fat.

Add in the tomatoes, peas, carrots, and corn.
Once the onion is getting translucent, add in the eggs. Now, the bacon! Give it all a good mix.
Now, rice. I recommend you make a little space in the middle so you can slowly drizzle some soy sauce. You don't need much since the bacon will be salty enough.
Now mix, mix mix until the rice is brown, your stomach is grumbling.

Eat right outta the wok.

Simple lunch

I have a few posts brewing about NY eats but I just want to preface/post this entry first to tell you that I rarely go out to eat. It's expensive, I'm lazy and a homebody, and I can control my portions at home.

This is a meal that I make that is very versatile. You can exchange the beef for another protein (I also added tofu for heartier fare), you can add veggies, and you can make do without tomato sauce and eat it with rice (which I will also do).

I cooked three portions: one for lunch today, one for a meal some other time (also with pasta and sauce), and one without sauce to eat with rice.

Ingredients
(note: Since I just eyeball everything, the measurements are definitely not professional)

• Olive oil, salt, savory spices (I used Trader Joe's 21 Spice Salute)--to your liking
• Half an onion, diced or sliced--depending on your preference
• Ground beef--however much you want. I added more than I would eat because I was making three meals!
• Chopped tofu
• Pasta of your choice (I used fusili)
• Store-bought tomato sauce (I used Prego's Roasted garlic and Parmesan sauce to make it more flavorful and fragrant).
  

Directions:
1. Heat up pan and drizzle olive oil. In the meantime, chop onions and boil water for pasta. When the pan is hot, cook the onions until they are slightly brown (sprinkle some salt and seasoning).

2. While the onion is cooking, make little balls from the beef. Add these to the pan (Again, sprinkle some salt).

3. Add sliced tofu to the pan, mix gently.

4. When everything is cooked, you can either remove from heat and eat as is (with rice, optional) or keep it on the stove and add a little bit of tomato sauce to the pan. Stir until everything is coated.

For another meal!
5. Add cooked pasta and stir until your pasta is completely covered with sauce.

6. Add a side of salad or garlic bread if you choose.

Fusilli Pasta, Veggies, and Prosciutto over an Onion and White Wine glaze & Roasted Potatoes with Mozzarella

The third and fourth dish of my Mother's Day dinner. The first recipe is adapted (heavily--the pasta) from Epicurious.

Fusilli pasta with broccoli, tomato, bell peppers, mozzarella, and prosciutto, drizzled in an onion and white wine glaze.

What you'll need...

• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for drizzling
• 1/2 pound spring onions or green onions (dark green parts discarded); white parts cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, pale green parts cut into 1/2-inch-thick slice
• Coarse kosher salt
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1 1/2 head broccoli, cut.
  
• 1 tomato (or more, depending on your taste) and half a red bell pepper, chopped
  
• fusilli pasta--enough for 4 people (2-3 handfuls)
  
• 1 cup finely grated Mozzarella cheese plus additional for sprinkling
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips

What you'll do...
1. Melt butter with 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onions. Sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Sauté onions until tender (do not brown). Add wine and increase heat to medium-high. Simmer until liquid is reduced to a glaze, about 3 minutes. Add broth and bring to simmer; set aside.
2. Cook broccoli in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender. Strain and put in onion glaze.
3. Return water in pot to boil (the pot used to cook the broccoli). Cook pasta until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking liquid.
4. While cooking the pasta, reheat the onion and white wine glaze. Add tomatoes and bell pepper. Stir until heated through.
5. Add pasta, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and parsley to skillet with vegetables. Toss, adding reserved pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Transfer pasta to large shallow bowl. Sprinkle prosciutto over; drizzle with olive oil. Serve, with more grated cheese to pass along!

Roasted potatoes with Mozzarella, oregano, and fresh basil.

What you'll need...

• 3-4 small red potatoes, sliced
• 1 cup mozzarella (grated)
• olive oil
  
• oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
• fresh chopped basil
  

What you'll do...
1. Preheat oven to 400°. Butter baking tray so potatoes don't stick.
2. Mix olive oil and oregano in bowl and mix in with sliced potatoes.
3. Place potatoes on baking tray. Sprinkle potatoes (both sides) with salt, pepper, oregano, and mozzarella.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
5. Garnish with fresh basil.

Chicken in White Wine Sauce

The second installment of Mother's Day dinner: Chicken with White Wine Sauce! I changed the ingredient list from this recipe over at Epicurious. Also, I added the white wine sauce at the same as I added the chicken broth, resulting in MORE sauce than I needed. SO, follow my directions below so that it's the perfect balance of white wine taste and broth!

Here's what you'll need...

• chicken thighs. I used three which was more than enough for 4 people.
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 10 garlic cloves, halved
• 2 handfuls of asparagus, chopped.
  
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
  

Here's what you'll do...
1. Wash and pat dry chicken. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Heat oil in heavy 12-inch skillet (medium-high heat) until oil shimmers. Sear chicken until golden brown (only on one side!), then remove from skillet.
3. Keep about 2 tb of fat from skillet and cook garlic and asparagus over medium heat. Stir frequently until veggies are just beginning to soften. Add wine and boil (uncovered) until the liquid is reduced by half. Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer.
4. Return chicken (raw side down) to skillet and simmer (partially covered) until chicken is cooked through. This will take about 25 minutes. Plate.

Classic Sole Meunière

Each day, I'll post one of the dishes I cooked for Mother's Day since putting all the recipes in one post may be too overwhelming.

This is the fish dish, the classic sole meunière. I slightly adapted it from Epicurious, changing the portion size and cutting out most of the butter.

What you'll need:
Fish:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 sole fillets (which is enough for 4 people when used in a menu and not as a main course)
  
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil

Sauce:

• small slice of unsalted butter; enough to cover the sauce pan when melted.
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

What to do:
Fish:
1. Rinse and dry fish. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Then, dredge fish on both sides with flour. Remember to shake off excess.
2. Heat oil on medium-heat until the oil is hot. Add fish and cook until golden brown on bottom (about 2-3 minutes). Turn over fish and cook until the center is opaque.
3. Plate and drizzle with sauce.
Sauce:
1. Place skillet over medium-high heat. Add butter and cook until golden.
2. Remove from heat. Stir in parsley and lemon juice. Spoon sauce over fish.

deliciousness fast and cheap

Partly due to some mislabeled chicken thighs at Ralphs, I was able to buy our groceries this week for 12 dollars. Awesome. This also allowed me to finally try the Rick Bayless creamy salsa chicken recipe I first saw over at Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations.

The dish is as simple as it gets to make. Brush the bottom of a 9x13ish baking pan with oil and line with one layer of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs, in this case). Mix your choice of chunky salsa and heavy whipping cream and spoon mixture over the chicken. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes on the bottom shelf.

The original recipe calls for one 16oz jar of salsa and 1/2 cup cream to make the salsa mixture, but this resulted in quite a bit of extra sauce. Next time I make it, I'll probably make only two-thirds or one half of the suggested amount.

I used about half Pace spicy chunky salsa and half Trader Joe's chipotle salsa. I loved the smokiness and complexity of the end result, but my husband found the chipotle a bit overpowering. Next time I'll likely use a more traditional salsa, but add jalapeños for kick.

For sides, I sauteed some zucchini with garlic and tomatoes, then topped with a little mozzarella cheese. We also had some mushrooms left over so I cooked them, also with garlic, in a little white wine. Finally, we still had some of that corn salad hanging around, and it was a refreshing and colorful addition to the plate.

My favorite thing about this meal is that it took only about 35 minutes to prepare. Yet it was flavorful and balanced. Yum. I am really starting to like this cooking thing.