Turkey Sliders

Many things have happened since I last posted. As you can see, the name of the blog has changed. Maybe it's because... I PASSED THE BAR! I've been sworn in and now I'm a real attorney, admitted to practice law in North Carolina. More on that later. I also went to Thailand after taking the Bar exam. There was some serious food and some serious eating done there. More on that later too. I've got some catching up to do on some things I previously cooked [and some unloading of my iPhone photos]. These turkey burger sliders are from Bon Appetit, see the recipe here. They've got onions and spinach inside them and I put them on Hawaiian rolls, so they were really tasty. Also, you can eat about 3 and experiment with different toppings depending on what you have. These turkey sliders were great with pesto, tomatoes, more onions, brie, mozzarella, cheddar, and of course mustard and ketchup. I'm sad that we ate so many before taking pictures of all the possible toppings.

Charlie got really creative with the brie. And how appetizing does that melted cheese look? Wow.

I followed that Bon Appetit recipe pretty much exactly. No scallions, so I just used regular onion. Below you will see photos of most of the steps. Again, we ate a few before I took the pics.

Combine chopped spinach, onions, garlic, and cumin in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper. I used the mini food processor on the spinach, onions, and garlic, obviously...

 

Blend all that.

Mix in the ground turkey. Only until blended. Who wants to touch raw turkey more than they have to anyway?

Form 1/2" patties. Mine were about 4-5" in diameter. It's really hard to keep them thin, but they'll plump up in the pan. Also, I made mine about 2 hours ahead of time and refrigerated them to let them get a little firmer.

Cooked up! Really juicy, as you can see from my really clean plate...

My combination of toppings. Mozzarella, tomatoes, onions, pesto, and a little ketchup on the side.

I was impressed by these and so was Charlie. They feel relatively healthy with all that spinach, using lean ground turkey and all. The addition of the Hawaiian rolls and the fact that we ate nearly all of them probably decreases the healthy factor. Those turkey sliders that were leftover did make for a good lunch later on that week though. I believe I'll recommend this recipe.

Thai Red Curry

I love Thai food. Love it, could eat it probably every day, always want it on Sundays, like takeout, like to make it, God I love it. I love it so much that I'm going to Thailand in 8 days. That and that it's beautiful and the exchange rate there is awesome. I love red curries, yellow curries, green curries, and Indian curries, but that's beside the point. I'm not even really sure which kind I like the best. When you get them at Thai restaurants, you have to get them with the vegetables that they come with. Yellow usually has potatoes and onions, while green has bamboo shoots and bell peppers and a lot of Thai basil, kind of like red. But when you make them yourself, all you need is the paste and then you can just add what you like.

For this red curry, I went to the Oriental Market in Goldsboro, NC to get my Asian supplies. If there's a place like that in eastern North Carolina, then there's probably one near any decent-sized city. It's a lot cheaper than buying curry pastes and rice noodles or Thai basil in the regular supermarket. This red curry paste was $1.25. While I was there, I read the back of the can of curry to see what that recipe suggested I add to it. It said "eggplant." I took this to mean Thai eggplant, however, I had no idea what it looked like and didn't bring my iPhone in so I couldn't Google image it. I ended up buying just huge zucchinis, not Thai eggplant, but whatever, it worked. I got some nice Thai basil too- it's sweeter and smells different than regular basil and has purple in the leaves and stems. It really makes the dish. I'm making a green curry this week and I'm sad I don't have anymore.

 

 

This red curry was delicious, but a little crazy spicy. So I didn't thoroughly read the recipe, so maybe I added one of my homegrown cayenne peppers before tasting it, so I didn't add a second can of coconut milk, but Charlie and I still ate the whole batch of it and I ate the rest for leftovers. Oops.

Thai Red Curry
3-4 servings, at least

• One can curry paste (or buy in the jar and use about a tablespoon per can of coconut milk depending on how hot you like it)
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• Chicken breasts, thinly sliced (shrimp would be good too)
• Thai basil (regular basil would do in a pinch, though sometimes I have neither)
• Salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• Fish sauce
• Other vegetable options include bell peppers, carrots, and bamboo shoots

- Stir fry curry paste in skillet or wok until fragrant. Not too long or it will burn, less than 30 seconds.
- Add can of coconut milk and blend thoroughly on medium-high heat. Let it bubble and thicken.
- Add raw chicken to mixture and stir occasionally for about 4 minutes, or until almost cooked.
- Add chopped onion (or vegetables of your choosing that take longer to cook, like carrots) and cook for three minutes. 

- Then add zucchini and softer vegetables, like bell peppers or peas, and cook for another four minutes, letting the curry mixture thicken.
- Taste for spice level. If too hot, slowly add the second can of coconut milk or water that you've rinsed around in the empty coconut milk can. If you want to light yourself on fire, add fresh chiles or peppers or even more curry past but make sure to blend.
- Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and blend. Taste. If you prefer your curry sweeter, add the second tablespoon.
- Let simmer until all vegetables are tender and curry has thickened.

- Add about a tablespoon of fish sauce, or just a few dashes if you're not a fan.
- In the last minute of cooking, add the Thai basil.
- Serve over rice (or just beside it).

Beware the cayenne pepper.

Thai basil is the bomb

Just reduce a little more... I like it thicker.

Serve it on top of rice.

This made my nose run and my eyes water, but it was worth it.

Curry is really a matter of blending and constant tasting. In Thailand, they were constantly telling us to add more coconut milk, palm sugar, or fish sauce until the flavor and consistency was to our liking. This is even more fun in the jungle heat, outdoors, cooking over a fiery wok!

Roasted Vegetables

You can make anything more delicious by roasting it. Even cabbage. It costs like 57 cents at Walmart. I tried to follow Martha Stewart's recipe for roasted cabbage wedges, however, I was in a bit of a hurry hungry. So I cranked up the oven a bit, like maybe 25 degrees extra, so it took less time. They are sweet and crunchy, and the burnt bits are the best. You can eat them like candy, for dessert. And sometimes, when you aren't finished cooking the cabbage but you are finished with the main course, you have to eat them for dessert.

Looks just like Martha's pics- check it out.

How to roast cabbage:
enough for 4 people (or 2 very hungry people)

• 1 head of cabbage
• olive oil
• salt
• cracked black pepper
• garlic powder or garlic salt (optional)

- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil if you like easy clean-up.
- Spray aluminum with non-stick spray of your choosing (I use spray olive oil).
- Cut cabbage into whole round pieces, with stem in tact, less than an inch in width (3/4")
- Place on the baking sheet and brush pieces with olive oil.
- Throw loose leaves of cabbage on there too (they get the crispiest)
- Sprinkle salt and cracked black pepper over cabbage, and garlic salt/powder if you desire.
- This is where you must eyeball it. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. But I'd check it occasionally.
- It is done when there are some blackened pieces, some golden pieces, and the stem is soft. It shouldn't look greasy.

Like this.

Furthermore, you can roast broccoli. And potatoes (obviously). If you're feeling fancy, you can toss on some balsamic vinegar in the last five minutes... Yeah, think about it.

Broccoli doesn't take as long. I break it up into little pieces, despite what the Pioneer Woman says.
These taste like little popcorns.

Zucchini Fritters

The other day I got my Birchbox and my Bon Appetit magazine in the mail at the same time. Jackpot. Talk about the little things! I dog-eared the page for these Zucchini fritters as soon as I saw them [while reading my magazine on the treadmill in the gym]. These were really good, crispy on the outside, super hot and moist on the inside. The dipping sauce they recommended was excellent too.

The recipe- here- is really simple. I was so proud of myself when my pictures turned out exactly like those in the magazine. The grating of the zucchinis was the only step that required more than minimal effort. Don't forget to let the grated zucchini drain and then squeeze out the excess liquid... which maybe I forgot to do until the last minute. I grated 2 zucchinis, let them sit in a colander while I went to the pool, squeezed them with a paper towel, then threw in the cornstarch, flour, salt/pepper, and egg. I mixed it all up with my hands and heated up the vegetable oil over medium/medium-high heat. Then I messed around making various sizes of fritters and frying them up. The dipping sauce was made with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and brown sugar. Dankness.

Le Inspiration

 

 

Grated Zucchini. Add salt and let drain. Lots of liquid will come out. Surprisingly tasty just like this.
PS- Don't peel the zucchini.

Just like the magazine. I'm telling you, I impress myself.

And yes, these are easy enough to make after a few beers.

These are a definite party food. Mmmm.

Mario Batali's Gnocchi all'Amatriciana

I love gnocchi. I really like homemade gnocchi. But hey, when you can get a package of gnocchi  for less than $2 and save like 30 minutes, why not use that on a recipe you've never tried before... you know, just in case it's not that good?

HA! Like this recipe from Mario Batali wouldn't be that good. I saw him make this Gnocchi all'Amatriciana on The Chew last week and he did it so fast that I figured it couldn't be too tough. It involves bacon and jalapenos and red pepper flakes, so how could it not be amazing? Strangely, when I tasted this dish, I realized that this is not a combination of flavors that I encounter often- salty, bacon-y, and spicy. It was great! I used 3 jalapenos from my own plants [because I'm fancy like that] and just regular bacon, though I'm sure it'd be even better with the Italian Guanciale that Mario recommends. I also used yellow onion because of course I didn't have red onions... There were [supposedly] 4 servings of gnocchi in the package, but Charlie and I ate all of it between the two of us. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Combine oil, bacon, and chopped onion until the bacon is browned a bit. Stir in a quarter of a cup tomato paste, 3 jalapenos and red pepper flakes and keep stirring. Don't forget to save some pasta water! If it seems too dry, add some of that and it will get all wet and awesome again and all the bacon bits can be scraped off the bottom. Makes much more sauce-y goodness

 

 

Add Parmesan of course. Of course!

 

 

Yet again, I didn't have something that Mario recommended- Parsley. But I did have a ton of fresh basil. So, in that goes.

Isn't she a beaut?!

Whatever, I went to the gym that day. I think.

Tortellini Soup

Man I've got so many good food pics that I haven't posted yet. This is a tortellini soup that, by actually following a recipe, turned out really awesome. You could change up the type of tortellini you use, but I like some meat. Previously I used a Trader Joe's fresh pesto and cheese filled tortellini, but this time found some at Harris Teeter filled with italian sausage. I'm pretty sure this is the recipe. I was in the grocery store already with an idea of what I wanted to make, so I just Googled to find a tortellini soup recipe similar to the one in my head to validate my ideas.

I've never really used stewed tomatoes before, but they are a great addition. They're already pretty seasoned and have celery and other things in the can with them. The tomatoes are also really soft and I broke them apart with my fingers so that they weren't in super big chunks when the soup was done. I also added some chopped carrots in early on so they would get soft too. And let's be real, you don't need to measure chicken broth exactly- just put in enough to have a pleasant amount of liquid (and soup to eat) and stop when it tastes good. Too much? Let it reduce. Duh. And add parmesan instead of salt for the most part. But honestly, you always need more salt. Yum.

Carrots, spinach, tomatoes, healthy?

 

Would be a much better pic without that little broken piece of pasta wasn't there... dangit

 

 

And then add as much Parm as you like. And I like a lot [more than this really, but ya know, it's for the pic]

Chicken Marsala

So I made this Chicken Marsala last week before heading to the beach, and it was pretty delicious. I found it on Pinterest because of its pretty picture and turns out it is from Saveur, a magazine that I can't really afford. Today I focused on Secured Transactions [still a day behind on Kaplan's schedule] and it was pretty straightforward but also awful since I never took that class in law school. Anyway, this chicken marsala- and the beautiful pics that came from it- really make me feel better about missing like 10 out of 24 questions on that checkpoint quiz...

Pound chicken flat- they recommend to a quarter inch thick, but that seems impossible with my tools.
Dredge chicken in flour and spices, heat butter and olive oil, cook about two minutes on each side. Remove
Add a bit more butter, saute mushrooms until golden, take em out and put them on the warm plate with the chicken.

I pretty much followed the recipe by Saveur. I didn't add very much of the flour that it calls for to thicken the sauce, but I also did not measure the flour that I dredged my chicken in, so I had kind of a lot leftover. I probably could have pounded the chicken a little thinner too, but the neighbors might have called the cops since I used a heavy-ish pot instead of a meat mallet [silly unnecessary thing to buy, but I will take one if you're making a list of potential gifts for me]. Of course, I subbed yellow onions for shallots, just because it's what I had. Other than that, yeah I followed the recipe.

Add oil (or more butter), onions (finely chopped), and garlic. Cook for a bit. Add some flour. Cook for a bit.
Throw in the marsala wine and reduce...

When the consistency gets awesome (a little thicker), add the chicken and mushrooms to the mix.

Then add the noodles of your choice (these are whole wheat penne). Mix around more.

Eat.
Man, so good.
 

And that is the most beautiful post ever on Chicken Marsala. You're welcome.