Greek-style braised green beans

Ooooh you absolutely have to try these green beans! They are just so good. The recipe is from The Kitchn, a great blog.

1 pound green beans, washed and snapped in half
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
Olive oil
1 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and pepper
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Wash and snap the green beans, then chop the onion and garlic. Heat a little olive oil in a heavy lidded pan and fry the onion and garlic gently over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until they are soft. Add the red pepper and tomatoes and fry for another five minutes, gently.

Add the green beans and wine. Add a little water if it seems too dry. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 45 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Stir in the cinnamon, and season with salt and pepper. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Couscous with swiss chard, raisins, and feta

This recipe came from an unlikely source: Rachel Ray's website! This is not a website that I normally look at, but one of my favorite cooking blogs linked to this recipe, and it turned out to be delicious.

This is not the best picture, because I'm not a professional food photographer, but you can see some of the key points here: this dish is wonderfully colorful and filled with wonderful delicious ingredients. My bunches of swiss chard are apparently large, and the greens swamped the couscous a bit, but that was totally fine.

This dish takes about 15 minutes to make, and the end result is both tasty and nutritious.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups israeli couscous
• One 14-ounce can vegetable broth
• 2/3 cup golden raisins
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bunch swiss chard, stems and leaves chopped separately
• One 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
• 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add half of the garlic and the couscous and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the vegetable broth; bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer until the broth has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. Stir in the raisins; season with salt.

2. Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the remaining garlic and the swiss chard stems and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the swiss chard leaves, chickpeas and 1/2 cup water, cover and cook, turning, until the chard is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Serve on the couscous and top with the feta.

Serves 4

United Noodle

Today I went to United Noodle for the first time in a long time.  I love going there.  So much food that I didn't even know existed in the world, have no idea how one would cook it, and (half the time) can't read the packaging to find out how one would cook it.  Love it. love it love it love it.

So, today I went to get some Indonesian ramen noodles that Ferry gave to me, which I loved.  These were not your typical Manchuran Ramen noodles.  They had the same dried wavy noodle block (is this a requirement for ramen noodles?), which you toss into a pot of boiling water for three minutes, but instead of the dried, supposedly "chicken" "shrimp" "beef" or "oriental" flavored powder that you toss into the water with the boiling noodles to create some sort of salty soup with flavorless noodles, this had a series of packets that you mixed up on a plate.  The flavor of this particular package of ramen noodles was "Spicy."   "Spicy" flavoring consists of a packet of powder, a packet of spicy oil, a packet of soy sauce, and a packet of "fried onions" (which seemed more like puffed rice than friend onions, but whatever...).

Anyway, I couldn't actually FIND the particular brand of noodles (Indo Mie -- Mi goreng Pedas, in case you are wondering), but I came home with lots of other good stuff.  I got some "dried black fungus" which I'm preparing for dinner right now; soybean sprouts; bok choy; tofu,  canned bamboo shoots; two Japanese sodas that, for some mysterious reason you push a glass ball into the bottle before drinking it, and some lavender tea for The Bean when she goes to bed.

So, I'm going to make a stir fry using the bok choi, dried black fungus, and bamboo shoots, as well as some peppers that I already have, some onion, rice, and maybe some chicken if I remember to take it out of the freezer in time.

mmm.... fooood

After-work bulgur special

This is from Molly Katzen's Vegetable Heaven. She has some other bulgar recipes as well that I like even better, but this one has the advantage of being super easy and quick. She recommends microwaving the end product for 2 minutes, but you could just as easily put it in the oven for a bit.

1 cup coarse bulgur
1 3/4 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon dried dill)
3 scallions, finely minced
1/2 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
A small handful of currants (I used golden raisins here, because I had them on hand)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
Black pepper to taste
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or to taste)
2 or 3 medium-sized red or yellow bell peppers (optional) (probably necessary for turning it into a full dinner)

Before you go to work: place the bulgur in a large bowl. (Make sure it's large enough for the bulgur to expand, which is will greatly do.) Pour in the boiling water, cover tightly with foil, and go to work.

When you come home: remove the foil; fluff the bulgur with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients; mix and serve. It's good at room temperature, but you can also reheat it, covered, in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or in a microwave.

Optional presentation: halve and hollow out 2 or 3 medium-sized red or yellow bell peppers and fill with the bulgur mix. Cover and place in the microwave (high power) for 2minutes. Voila! Dinner.

Yield: about six servings

Moroccan Green Bean Tagine

Ok, ok.  Finally updating!

I am playing a lot with this cook book I just got.  I'm trying to find easy recipes that I can either make ahead of time and heat up (this is made slightly difficult by the lack of a microwave in our house), or can throw together in no time.  Especially with Zoe getting home from school so late (around 5:30), and Jack sleeping later because he has to stay up to take her to the school bus in the morning, it's becoming more difficult to have time to make dinner before she needs to go to bed.

This recipe is from Lynn Rossetto Kasper's cookbook "How to Eat Supper."  It serves six, but it can easily be cut in half, or more.

I made it on Sunday and stuck it in the fridge until tonight.  Jack and I will eat the left-overs for lunch for the rest of the week! mmm...  It's great hot and cold -- perfect for a warm comforting dinner, or a quick lunch stored in the fridge!

No fancy links today -- I want to eat and curl up with my book!!!

Moroccan Green Bean Tagine
The Saute:
2-3 tbs of good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
2-2 1/4 lbs of green beans, trimmed
2 medium to large onions, coarse chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Spice Blend
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp pure chili powder (or to taste)
2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp dried basil
2 generous tbs sweet paprika

Liquids
1/3 cut red wine or cider vinegar
1/3 cup dry red or white wine
1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes
Water as needed

1. In a straight-sided 12-in saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add the green beans and onions.  Sprinkle them with the salt and pepper, and saute for 10 minutes , or until the vegetables are browning.  Stir in the garlic and all the ingredients in the spice blend.  Cook until the spices are fragrant, no more than one minute.

2. Pour in the vinegar and wine, and boil them down as you scrape up any brown glaze on the bottom of the pan.  When there is no moisture left, stir in the tomatoes and their juices, crushing them with your hands as they go into the pan.  The vegetables should be barely covered with liquid.  Add a little water if necessary.

3. Bring the liquid to a gentle simmer, cover the pan, and cook for 10 minutes (check for sticking), or until the beans are tender.  Uncover th pan and turn up the heat so the liquid is at a fast bubble.  Cook off the excess liquid, stirring the stew often to protect the beans and spices from burning.  you want the sauce to be thick an rich-tasting.  Don't worry about overcooking the green beans; they will not cook much further.

4. Season the stew.  Serve it hot, at room temperature, or reheated.