Weekly Dish

Couscous is an unusual food. It is often referred to as a grain, but in the U.S., it is usually made from semolina, which makes it more akin to pasta. From my understanding, couscous originated in northern and western Africa and appears often in Moroccan cuisine.

I first learned about it through circumstantial necessity and the Barefoot Contessa. I needed a side dish salad to bring to a function at church, and I had less than an hour; as I was frantically flipping through cookbooks, I happened upon this recipe and ran to the grocery. Thanks to the quick-cooking nature of couscous and having most of the other ingredients on hand, I arrived in time and the couscous was a big hit. I’ve made it a number of times since then, and unlike many other recipes that tend to evolve as I make them more often, I tend to stick with the basic preparation for this one. I have slightly adjusted the seasonings and substituted pine nuts and dried cranberries for the almonds and currants called for in the original recipe.

The colors are lovely, the green onions and carrots provide a nice, fresh crunch, and the dressing is light and flavorful without overpowering the tiny granules. This is a great dish to take to events because it can be served at room temperature; plus, it’s even better after sitting for a few hours. At home, I serve it as the main course for a light lunch or as a nice bed for grilled or curried chicken for dinner. It would also make a wonderful dish to take on a picnic.

Curried Couscous
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

1 1/2 cups couscous
1 T. butter
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 t. cider vinegar
1 1/2 t. curry powder (I use hot madras curry powder)
1/4 t. turmeric
1/4 t. allspice
1 t. Kosher salt
cracked black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1/4 cup pine nuts

In a saucepan, toast the pine nuts over medium heat until fragrant and beginning to turn golden. Remove to a large bowl. In the same pan, pour in the couscous, butter, and water; bring to a boil, and cook for about 5 minutes and turn off the heat. The water should be absorbed; cover and set aside. In the large bowl, pour the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, and spices over the pine nuts. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the carrot, cranberries, green and red onions, and toss to coat with the dressing. Dump in the couscous and toss again. Serves about 4 in main dish portions, 6-8 as a side.

To celebrate our Mardi Gras vacation from school (we’re off until Thursday!), I decided I should make a meal using the rich culinary heritage of southern Louisiana. Crawfish season is well underway here–they usually become widely available in January–so they seemed an obvious choice. Having already learned how to make the more traditional etouffee, I wanted to try something a little different.

When I worked at the Brick-Oven Cafe in Jackson, we served a crawfish pasta dish that was one of our most popular. The sauce was laden with cream, butter, and cheese, and I didn’t want anything quite that heavy, but the distinct Louisiana flavoring, I remembered, came from the combination of the crawfish and the Cajun-spiced ham called tasso.

After finding tasso in the deli at my neighborhood grocery store, David and I set out for the famous fish market here in town, Tony’s. This was our first trip there, and it was quite an experience. We entered a loud, concrete-floored room and met a tank of fresh lobsters on our left and catfish swimming in water-filled troughs on our right. On the back wall are two counters–on the left side you can buy already-prepared dishes like crawfish pie and jambalaya, and on the right, you buy crawfish, shrimp, and other fresh fish. I wanted to buy the crawfish live, so that we could boil them ourselves, but only the already-boiled ones were available.

To make the pasta, I peeled the crawfish, tossing the heads and tail shells into a large stockpot, and the tail meat into a separate bowl. I boiled the shells with a lemon and salt to make stock, and then gathered the other ingredients to make the sauce.

Two tricks make this dish full of flavor: the first is that you cook the tasso in a little olive oil in the pot you are going to use for the roux. The ham gives off its spicy flavor and provides a little bit of fat so you don’t have to use so much butter. The second trick is to boil the pasta in equal parts water and crawfish stock. The stock is rich with the spice from the crawfish shells and imparts that flavor to the noodles.

The results were delicious, if I do say so myself. The ridges in the rigatoni provided the perfect place for the sauce to stick, and the consistency of the sauce worked well to evenly coat the crawfish, ham, and noodles. Add a piece of crusty bread and a glass of dry white wine. . .and we had ourselves a very happy Monday-before-Mardi Gras indeed.

Cajun Crawfish Pasta

3 pounds crawfish, cooked
1 lemon
1 pound rigatoni
1 t. olive oil
1/2 pound tasso
2 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1 yellow onion
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
1 T. Kosher salt
2 cups stock

For the stock: Shell the crawfish, piling the heads and shells into a large stockpot. (Reserve the tail meat). Add a quartered lemon and a palmful of salt and cover with water. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for at least 20 or 30 minutes (the longer you simmer, the more flavorful the stock will be). Strain off the liquid and discard the solids.

Cook the pasta in equal parts stock and water (I used 2 cups of each for a pound of rigatoni). Drain when al dente and set aside.

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large pot or skillet over medium (I used the same pot I cooked the noodles in). Add the ham and cook, stirring until the pieces are a golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the ham, but reserve the fat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter. When the butter has melted, stir in the flour. Cook over medium-low, stirring, until the roux turns a light brown. This step took me about 10 minutes. Add the chopped onion and stir to coat with the roux. Cook over medium until very soft, 15-18 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for another couple of minutes. Season with salt.

Stir in 2 cups of stock and cook, stirring, until smooth. Stir in the crawfish tails, the ham, and the pasta. (Note: If you want the pasta to be saucier, you can always add more stock; I wanted a thick consistency that would coat the noodles and meats rather than a thin sauce.) Cook for about a minute until everything is nicely blended and warmed through. Serve immediately.

I’ve decided to take my battle with the cold weather to a new level. Making hearty food that warms me and standing in front of a hot stove are certainly tactics worth their salt. There’s nothing quite like the sensation of being warmed from the inside out, as hot or spicy food fills you up and radiates its magic.

But, what if, instead, I asked myself, I simply pretended it wasn’t cold at all? What if I channeled the warmth of spring by cooking springtime food? This sounds crazy, you say. You can’t trick yourself into a season!

Usually I wouldn’t be in favor of such trickery because it would probably mean cooking with out-of-season vegetables, which I don’t like to do (mealy tomatoes, anyone?) But perhaps it’s no accident that citrus is in season in the dead of winter. Perhaps the lemons and oranges on the trees this time of year are meant precisely to coax us out of our cold-weather slumber, to give us a glimpse of the light, bright flavors of spring, to tide us over until warm air returns.
Springtime in Mississippi has always been my favorite time of year. The whole green world seems to come to life in a matter of days, and the temperature is balmy and pleasant, not too hot like summer. This coming spring will be my first in Louisiana, but I’m already a bit disconcerted. The Japanese magnolias and pear trees have already bloomed out, and the azaleas are starting to show their vibrant pinks in full flower. And it’s 40 degrees outside!

Well, instead of complaining about it, I decided to channel the warm spring air from my kitchen. Last spring, as soon as it was warm enough, David and I spent many a Sunday afternoon with our friends Jerrod and Jessie and Lydia in a park not far from our neighborhood. We packed whatever food we had on hand that seemed appropriate, tossed a blanket in the trunk, and headed outdoors.

This pasta salad recipe is one Jessie gave me a long time ago, and it reminds me of springtime, picnics, and most of all, good friends.

Jessie’s Pasta Salad
I made this with leftover chicken from one of David’s Roasted Birds; it comes together in a snap and tastes even better the next day.
1/2 cup sour cream
juice of 1 lemon
6 T. olive oil
2 T. Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
1/2 T. lemon pepper
3 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped (I don’t think I use quite that much)
Olives, either a small can of the sliced black ones or a handful of your favorite fancier ones (I used Greek ones this time because I had them)
4 green onions, sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced (I omitted this, but I bet the color would be nice)
12-ounce package bow tie pasta

Cook the pasta until al dente; drain and set aside. Mix up the dressing in a large bowl by whisking together th sour cream, lemon juice, olive oil, and seasonings. Toss in the pasta and stir to coat. Add the chicken, green onions, olives, and bell pepper if using. Mix well, until everything is coated with the dressing. Eat immediately, or refrigerate until you’re ready for your (pretend) picnic.

Pasta is such a staple around here that it’s hard for me to remember whether I’ve shared certain pasta recipes or not. Several are good solid stand-by dishes–I’ve made them so often no recipe is necessary, and I know they will turn out to our liking.

This sausage pasta is one such dish. But before I convince you of how good it is, I have to tell you something about it. Are you ready? Here comes my confession:

The original recipe for this pasta comes from Rachael Ray (gasp!)

Are you still with me? Okay, so the food community seems to love Rachael or hate her (and my southern aunts are among the hate crowd), but I am completely ambivalent. Do I like some of her cooking ideas? Yes. Do I dislike some of her cooking ideas? Yes. Do I think she’s a culinary genius? No. But I don’t remember her ever claiming to be one.

In all fairness to the 30-minute meal queen, I picked up several useful tips from watching her show when I was a new wife, working a stressful full-time job, and trying to learn to cook edible meals. This pasta dish comes from that phase of my life, and I still really like it. For those of you who count yourselves among the Rachael-loathing readers, I’ll try to write my recipe instructions in such a way that could not possibly come across as obnoxious, and I’ll try to leave out measurements like “a big glug.” But I must give credit where it’s due. Love Rachael Ray? Hate Rachael Ray? I really don’t care. But this pasta is good, fast, and super easy. So there.

The Anisette or Pernod is probably not something you normally have on hand, but I can find it pretty cheap, so I just keep a bottle just for this dish. The flavor enhances the sweet licorice of the fennel in a way I can’t imagine anything else would. Oh, and if you’ve never cooked with fennel, please try it. I don’t much like it raw–too bitter–but it has a lovely sweetness when cooked that I find fresh and unique. It’s actually fennel month over at A Veggie Venture, so if you’re in the mood to try this feather-topped vegetable, head over there for Alanna’s round-up of fennel recipes. And, of course, if you’d prefer a slower, less committed introduction, this pasta might be just the thing to win you over. It did me.

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Noodles are clearly a staple around my house. Experimenting with pasta is one of the earliest ways I learned to make dinner both fast and good, and my love of the noodle is one of the reasons I could never join the low-carb craze. I like my noodles saucy or plain, thick or thin, hot or cold–in truth, it would be difficult for me to think of a noodle dish I don’t like. So when Amy announced that noodles were to be the theme of this month’s Is My Blog Burning event, I wondered how I would choose just one pasta dish to contribute.

This fettucine is certainly not the fanciest of pastas, but it is one of my favorites to fix. If you toss it properly, each bite is packed with a bit of tart tomato, creamy avocado, and crispy bacon, accented now and again with the fresh clean taste of cilantro, the crunch of a green onion, or the sweet mildness of a pine nut. With fresh ingredients and minimal prep work, this pasta dish is, in my estimation, the perfect quick, light supper. We have eaten it often at the end of a long school day or on a Sunday evening when I didn’t quite feel like cooking. The recipe is also highly adaptable: any nut would do in the place of the pine nuts (or none at all), and more vegetables would probably also work nicely in the mix (red bell pepper comes to mind).

Avocado and Sun-dried Tomato Fettucine

based on a recipe from Intercourses by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced (the dehydrated ones, not packed in oil)
1 pound fettucine
5 slices bacon
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 avocados
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in 2 cups boiling water for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain; setting aside the tomatoes and reserving the soaking water. Pour the water into a saucepan, return to a boil, and add the fettucine (you may need to add water to make sure the noodles are covered). Cook the pasta until it’s firm to the bite, but not mushy. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a small skillet. Remove the bacon slices when they’re cooked through and set aside to cool. Drain off the grease from the skillet, and toast the pine nuts until golden brown. Dice the avocados and sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt. Set one aside for topping. In a large bowl, combine half of the tomatoes, the pine nuts, green onions, one of the avocados, and the cilantro. When the pasta is done, toss it immediately with the avocado mixture. Drizzle the whole dish with the vinegar, olive oil, and lime juice. Toss again. Serve topped with the crumbled bacon and the reserved avocado and tomatoes. Serves 4 for dinner.

Tagged with: IMBB # 22 + Noodle

What I Make for Dinner when I’m Dead Tired at the End of the Week, or What to Do with that Jar of Spaghetti Sauce in Your Pantry

Yes, dear readers, it’s true. Sometimes I buy pre-made spaghetti sauce at the grocery store. As a matter of fact, I usually keep a jar on hand for nights just like last night. I may seem like a great big food snob on the surface, but deep down, I really just want to get dinner on the table and have it taste good. And sometimes in the midst of this life I live, that just has to happen with premade stuff. Please don’t tell the foodie police.

Oh, sure, at the beginning of the week, I planned to make my own slow-roasted tomato sauce for the pasta. But by the time 7:00 rolled around last night, I had just walked through the door, ended my first full week of teaching and going to class, and I just didn’t have the energy for anything else. I post this recipe not because it’s some great feat of culinary prowess–it isn’t. I post it just in case you just ever find yourself staring into the deep dark corners of your pantry and you need a quick, hearty way to satisfy your need for dinner. If a jar of Ragu or Bertolli or Prego or whatever catches your eye and you also happen to have pasta and some mushrooms on hand, then this is the recipe for you.

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This week’s menu:

• Monday: Paneed tilapia with spicy lemon spaghetti
• Tuesday: Flank steak with cilantro pesto and roasted acorn squash
• Wednesday: Fish cakes with red and green tomato tart
• Thursday: Butternut squash soup with spinach salad

This week marks my post-holiday return to regular meal-planning and dinner-cooking. In thinking about the new year and our diets, I like to think of things I can include in the menu, not things I should take away. For instance, I tried to do the low-carb thing a couple of years ago, but I found myself imagining pasta dishes and big loaves of homemade bread all day, and I went through a phase where I really didn’t want to see meat at all. It’s purely psychological, I’m sure–I was probably one of those kids who never wanted to touch the stove until my mom told me not to. (Over at Sweetnicks, she’s encouraging food bloggers to participate in the same kind of logic by including more Antioxidant-Rich Foods in our diets on Tuesdays. I don’t think this recipe qualifies; maybe next week!)

The two things I have decided we need to eat more of (which automatically means we will eat less of other things, right?) are fish and vegetables. Last night’s menu was a stab at the former; the rest of the week, I’ll concentrate more on the latter.

In the past, I have had a difficult time with fish in my kitchen. I’ve tried different kinds and different preparations, but rarely liked the fish that I cook. For this dish, (armed with inspiration from Beyond Salmon, a delightful blog about fish) I followed all the rules: I bought very fresh fish, cooked it the same day I bought it, seasoned it well but simply, and didn’t overcook it. I’m happy to report that it was a success! Paneeing the fish gives it a nice, brown crust, and leaves bits of the crust stuck in the pan perfect for a deglazed wine sauce. I paired it with a simple lemony garlic pasta topped with toasted Parmesan and finished the whole plate with the wine sauce.

By using the same skillet to cook everything, the vegetables that you cook to flavor the pasta will also flavor the oil for the fish, giving everything a nice consistency. The toasted Parmesan is optional; it’s a trick I’ve been wanting to try and thought the cruch might be a nice complement for the pasta (I’ll use the leftovers to garnish the soup later this week). It was…but definitely not necessary.

The trick to paneeing is to get the pan really hot–the fish will cook quickly, especially if you have thin fillets, so make sure your pan is hot enough to brown the crust before adding the fish. I also use mostly olive oil with a tiny bit of butter for color and flavor, but any combination of fat will do the trick. You have to be careful if you use all butter because it will burn easily if you get the pan too hot.

If you are trying to watch your carbs, this fish would also sit nicely on a bed of spinach, which I imagine you could wilt and flavor with the garlic, jalapeno, and lemon zest in the same manner as the pasta. Maybe I’ll try that next time and hit both the fish and vegetable in the same night!

My favorite part about the dish is that once you get the prep-work done, it cooks very quickly. I’ve written the recipe for the fish and pasta out in steps because that’s how I had to think it through in order to have everything ready at the same time.

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There are so many different versions of curry that you really never know what you’re going to get if you order it at a restaurant. What kind of restaurant helps–Thai curries are generally made with coconut milk, Indian ones with yogurt–but even then, some Thai curries contain potatoes, some contain eggplant; you really just never know. Which is part of what I love about ordering them–always a surprise.

A bowl of curry on a cold night is a richer, heartier version of chicken soup for me: comfort food. I like mine with coconut milk, which gives the broth a silky, creamy texture, and David likes it with beef to give the dish some protein-based substance. I’ve tried a number of different recipes, and this one is based on the Chiang-Mai Curry recipe from Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford’s lovely book Hot Sour Salty Sweet. Many of the ingredients their original recipe are difficult for me to find on a typical Saturday shopping trip, so I’ve adapted the recipe for what I can easily buy from my local grocer. My version is quick and easy, but I often wish that I made my own curry paste–I haven’t been able to find a store-bought version that I really love. Maybe in another life. If you’re interested in making your own, you should check out Thai cook extraordinaire Chez Pim; she has many versions with excellent instructions for the pounding of the curry.

If you’re looking for an Asian dish to try, this might be a good choice–it’s not any more difficult than chicken soup, and it’s much more flavorful. The fried noodles on top are completely optional–Duguid and Alford’s recipe calls for them, and I like the extra crunch. Also, you may need to adjust the amount of curry paste depending on how spicy you like your food and how hot the curry paste you use is. A good way to decide is to start with less and taste; you can always add more later. Here’s the method:

Curried Noodles

12 ounces egg noodles, 1 cup reserved if you’re frying them

1 T. peanut oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 serrano chilies, minced (seeded if you don’t like your food too spicy)

1 t. turmeric

1 T. sugar

3/4 pound beef, small-diced (meat cut for a stew works fine)

1 1/2 T. red curry paste

14 ounces coconut milk

1/2 cup water

3 T. fish sauce

2 limes

Cilantro, for garnish

Other optional garnishes: bean sprouts, slivered ginger, shredded cabbage, crushed peanuts

Cook the noodles until tender; drain, and set aside. In a very large skillet, sauté the garlic, chilies, and turmeric in the oil until the garlic is tender but not brown, about 4 minutes. Add the beef, sugar, and curry paste, stirring frequently until the beef is coated with the paste mixture and begins to turn brown. Add the coconut milk, water, and fish sauce. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Stir in the juice of 1 lime before serving. While the curry is simmering, you can fry the reserved noodles in 1 cup peanut oil for about 1 or 2 minutes, until they turn golden brown. Salt immediately. To serve, fill bowls with egg noodles. Ladle the curry on, top with cilantro and fried noodles, and garnish with lime wedges and any other toppings you like.

When I worked at the Brick-Oven in Jackson, Pad Thai was one of my favorite pasta dishes. The chefs made the peanut sauce from scratch, and if they would have let me, I could have eaten it by the bowlful all by itself.

Even after I stopped working, David and I still ate there pretty regularly. Often, we went just because their Pad Thai was the best in town. When I ordered it, I never called it Pad Thai, and it took me a long time to realize that the reason our server chuckled when I ordered was that I still referred to the dish in kitchen-speak: I asked for “shrimp pad” instead of “Pad Thai with Shrimp,” as it was listed on the menu. I’m sure it sounded funny coming from the wrong side of the table.

Once, when I first started waiting tables, a restaurant reviewer and his wife sat at one of my tables, (I didn’t know who he was until later) and he ordered Pad Thai with Chicken. A little while after I brought it to him, I went back to the table to see how they were doing and found him flicking the green onions from the top of his pasta onto the table in front of him. When I asked if something were the matter, he went into this tirade about how much he hated green onions and insisted that he had ordered the Pad Thai without them. I didn’t argue–the customer is always right, after all–and asked if I could bring him something else. He declared that he’d solved the problem himself; I needn’t worry about fixing it. When I returned with the manager on duty, I found empty chairs around their green-onion-decorated table and cash in the middle–not even enough to cover the cost of the meal.

I was horrified that any grown man (he was probably my grandfather’s age) would act so ridiculously about something so trivial, but when I found out he wrote restaurant reviews, I was certain I would be fired. My manager was nice, but he did ask me numerous times if I was sure that he hadn’t asked for the Pad Thai without green onions. I have never been so sure of anything, but by then it seemed a bit irrelevant; the damage was done.

The following week, an anonymous food column appeared in the local paper giving the restaurant a glowing review; the writer was especially complimentary of the service. I will never be certain that he wrote it, but whenever I make this dish, I always wonder, and I cover my Pad Thai in green onions, just for good measure. And, I call it whatever I like.

Here’s my recipe:

Pad Thai, or Chicken Pad, or One Chick’s Pad

2 cups cooked chicken, diced (I had more leftovers from the Tandoori Chicken, but any grilled or sauteed breasts will do)

1 1/2 cups peanut sauce (see the recipe below in the Tuesday’s post)

A handful of snow peas

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped finely

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

3/4 pound flat rice noodles or linguine

Cook the pasta until tender; drain and set aside. In a large skillet, heat the peanut sauce over medium-low. Add the chicken and snow peas and stir to coat. Cook just until the snow peas are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Pile a nest of noodles on each plate, and pour the sauced chicken over. Top with bean sprouts, carrot, green onions (as many as you like!), and crushed peanuts.

I did not know this pasta would turn out to be purple. The recipe, graciously sent to me by Jonathan, a kind reader in Florida, calls for a specific kind of gorgonzola cheese (dolce or Saga Blue), and I could only find the already-crumbled inexpensive kind. Perhaps there is a difference. Or maybe it’s the ham I added. At any rate, don’t let the color dissuade you from making it–it is quick, easy, and the sauce is smooth and delicious. Even if it is purple.

Penne with Gorgonzola and Walnuts

1 pound penne, with ridges

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup ham, diced

2 shallots, chopped

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped finely

8 ounces Gorgonzola cheese

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

2 ounces Parmesan, plus more for garnish

Cook the pasta in boiling water until firm but tender. In a large skillet, heat the butter and oil. Add the ham, shallots, and walnuts, and cook over medium until the ham begins to brown and the shallots become tender and translucent. Add milk, cream, and gorgonzola, and stir and cook until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add the nutmeg and Parmesan, and toss with cooked pasta. Top with more Parmesan. Oh, and Jonathan’s recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of fresh sage, thinly sliced to be cooked with the ham and shallots. I didn’t have any, but I bet it would add a nice herbal flavor to the dish. Thanks for the recipe, Jonathan!