Week-end meals.

Once again, we'll have recipes that some may consider elaborate or time consuming, but let me assure you, the result is worth the trouble, if you consider a little more time spent preparing your meal trouble.

As a rule, I try to simplify my ways of cooking, and this is what I usually call week nights meals. But sometimes you have to accept the fact that a dish needs a little bit more time to prepare. These are the dishes I try to make on week-ends. They are not difficult nor exceptionally elaborate, they simply need more time to cook, not your usual 30 or 45 minutes.

STUFFED POTATOES

I don't remember when or where I first had this dish, I only know that I love it. But since it requires some effort, I don't make it as often as I should. In fact, I made it once, and it immediately became a favorite in our home. When I make it, people feel they are getting a special treat; and I like to make it because it's a one dish meal, all I have to do is serve it with a salad. Also it's basically meat and potatoes which everybody loves, but everybody agrees that we should not limit ourselves to meat and potatoes and should try to diversify our meals, eating more vegetables and less meat. But, hey, this is meat and potatoes with a twist, it has tomato sauce and ground meat.. so maybe it's healthier? Yeah, maybe.

Some people boil the potatoes first before frying them, I think that's an extra step I can do without. Maybe we can boil them and not fry them at all, but that will make them very mushy when cooked in the sauce and they will not hold their form. If we ultimately have to fry the potatoes, so be it, and this is enough treatment.

You'll need:

About 30 small white potatoes (the size of a ping pong or golf ball)

3 cups browned ground meat

1 (15 0z) can tomato sauce

2 tbsp tomato paste (1/2 of a 6 oz can)

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegetable oil for frying

If you cannot find the small potatoes, or just happen to have bigger ones at home, no problem: just cut the potatoes in pieces as big as a golf ball, this will also help keep them in place when you arrange them in your pan, since their base will be flat. Get a big bowl, fill it with water and add some salt to it. This will keep the peeled potatoes from turning brown while you carve them. With a vegetable peeler, the one like a knife with a slit in it, not the large one, carve each potato from the top to get a big enough cavity that you will fill later with meat (if you used bigger potatoes, you'll have something  shaped like a mini volcano). You will also get small cones of potatoes, keep them, they will be used as well. Just be careful not to pierce the potato while carving it.

I always keep some browned ground meat in my freezer or refrigerator, and we've done it before: mix ground meat with 2 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mix, add salt and pepper and cook stirring with a wooden spoon to separate the meat chunks until it browns and all the liquid is absorbed. Set aside for later.

Heat the oil, drain the potatoes and fry them until they become light yellow. Don't over cook them. Keep them on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the extra oil. Make sure that you empty the cavity of the potatoes from the frying oil before you remove them. Also fry the small cones, they are a nice snack or you can add them to your dish.

In a large pan, pour the tomato sauce, rinse the can once with water, add it to the pan, add the tomato paste and dissolve it in the sauce over medium heat. When it comes to a boil, turn off the heat.

Stuff each potato with meat and arrange in the pan. You can arrange them in 2 layers. If you have some leftover meat, sprinkle it around the potatoes as well as the small fried cones to fill the spaces in your pan. Cook over medium high heat, covered at first, and then remove the cover. They don't need too much time, since all the ingredients are already cooked.
TIP: This dish is traditionally cooked in the oven, so if you choose to do that, simply assemble the potatoes in an oven safe dish big enough to hold them in one layer, putting some sauce on the bottom, then arranging the stuffed potatoes in it, and finally covering the whole thing with sauce. Bake in a 350 degrees oven until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

THREE CHEESE PASTA

                                                           

There is maybe a thousand ways to make pasta al forno, or baked pasta. Some people make it with beshamel sauce, which is already an elaborate step, others add more cheeses. You've definitely heard of 5 cheese pasta. They are all good, but sometimes I feel that this is overkill: because either you choose cheeses that have somehow similar taste, which is redundant, or completely different taste, and risk that they may clash. Being an "accidental cook" which means that I don't necessarily stick to the rules, assuming of course that I know them  all, I opted for the middle road to get a cheesy, creamy and delicious result. It's basically fat free, since there is no substantial amount of extra fat added. The cheese is enough. You get the good result because you'll give it some time to properly mix the ingredients, that's why I tend to make it on week-ends. You'll need:

1 and 1/2 cup parmigiano cheese, grated

1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/3 of a 48 oz  tub of ricotta cheese (I buy in bulk and freeze it)

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 2 oz can anchovies in olive oil

3 garlic cloves 

1 lb penne rigate cooked according to package directions

In a nonstick skillet cook the drained anchovies on medium heat  to dissolve them (the drop of oil that is left in them is enough). Use a garlic press to smash the garlic into the pan. The pulp will come out of the holes on one side, and it is easily dissolved in the sauce. Add the tomato sauce and cook until it bubbles. Remove from the stove. Start adding some of the ricotta cheese to the sauce and stir. Keep adding until you have no more ricotta. In a baking dish, pour some sauce, add some of the cooked pasta and some parmigiano. Mix. Keep adding sauce, pasta and parmigiano and mixing until all the pasta is mixed with the sauce and 2 cheeses. Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella on top. If you still have some sauce left in the skillet use a spatula to pour it in the center of the dish over the mozzarella. Bake in a 375 degree oven until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.                                                        

                                                  

THE REFRIGERATOR MADE ME DO IT

It's a man thing. It must be. Have you ever noticed that men open the refrigerator door looking for something, and immediately declare that it's not there? Of course it's not there. If the item is not on the first shelf, halfway on the edge, almost falling off of it, it's definitely not there. This is our daily problem: when I ask my husband to hand me something from the refrigerator, it's almost never there, unless I give him the right coordinates, or I go get it myself. For this reason I must take inventory of the contents of our fridge every couple of days. It's just to make sure that there are no "hidden treasures" here or there, or that an item that I thought was consumed or in the freezer, is still lingering around. This inspection is very helpful: what I find in our refrigerator helps me determine what we are going to eat tonight.

FRAGRANT RICE

                                              

                                             

The easiest side dish you can make may come from what you have in your refrigerator. In my last raid of the refrigerator I came out with a box of brown rice from Chinese take out and a bunch of fresh herbs. As I told you last week, I had made a good amount of chicken Milanese to keep for the week, so my find will be the best side dish for it. It's very simple, all you need is some fresh herbs to reinvigorate the leftover rice you have. You'll need:

Brown rice, cooked

Fresh herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro

Scallions, about 3, white parts and some green 

1 carrot

1/2 tbsp canola oil

In the food processor, or the small chop chop, pulverize the carrot, then add the scallions and after a few pulses, the herbs. There is no rule for these: I used what I had, and actually what I like. You can do the same, and it's safe to assume that you have around some fresh parsley and dill that you used in a previous dish and still have some sprigs left. They become fragrant when you cook them and give a nice aroma to your dish. In a non stick pan cook the mix of herbs, scallions and carrot in the 1/2 tbsp oil until tender and fragrant. Add the cooked rice, stirring frequently to make sure that there are no lumps and that all the veggies are incorporated. When the rice is heated through, remove from heat and serve.

GARDEN PASTA

                                                    

We had some guests yesterday. I had a nice menu prepared, but something unexpected happened. The day started with a storm that brought us torrential rains flooding my kitchen and basement. Luckily I had some help for the cleanup, so it was done quickly and efficiently. But I had no time to cook for the guests. The only solution was to order some Italian food from the neighborhood restaurant. It came quickly, was good and plenty, and everybody was happy. Today, my husband declared that there was no need for me to cook anything and that we had enough leftovers for dinner. Yes we had a couple of pasta side dishes that nobody touched, but I was sure that, with all good intentions, my husband and mom, will eat a couple of penne and that's it. I told him that we are going to have pasta, but my way. I knew that I had all the necessary ingredients in my fridge to make a new dish out of the pasta that the restaurant sent as a side dish for the main course. You can choose what you like, and what you have in your fridge, and the ratio to the pasta that you have. You'll need:

2 cups broccoli florets

1 medium zucchini

1 carrot

1 whole turkey kielbasa

About 3 cups of cooked pasta with marinara sauce

1/2 tbsp canola oil

Bring two small pots of water to a boil. Salt the water. Peel the carrot and cut it the size of the pasta (I had penne, if you have spaghetti for example, you can cut it in bite size cubes). Cook the carrot in one of the pots. Cut the broccoli florets, if they are large, to a size closer to the pasta and cook in the other pot, covered, for 3 minutes. Slice the turkey kielbasa in 1/8 inch slices and cook them in a non stick pan in the !/2 tbsp oil. While the turkey slices are browning (about 3 minutes), slice the zucchini also the size of the pasta. Add the zucchini to the browned turkey slices and stir until tender. Drain the broccoli and carrot and add them to the pan. Stir to combine and to make sure that all liquids are absorbed. Add the pasta with its sauce. Mix and stir until completely reheated. You can serve it with some grated cheese on the side.

                                                 

WEEK NIGHT DINNER MADE EASY

When I cook for the week I have to make sure that the food does not seem "old" or reheated to my family, they would never eat it. I always end up eating the leftovers, if I cannot find a way to serve them in a new form, in a way that they seem to be just cooked today. This made me think of  many ways to cook for the whole week, especially when I am working. The only rule is that the food must seem freshly cooked. The best way to achieve this result is to prepare the meals, cook them, but stop just before the last step.

The easiest example is pasta: you can prepare the sauce and even cook the pasta in advance, refrigerate them, then assemble and finish cooking the dish when you need it. This is why I always keep some tomato and meat sauce in my fridge or freezer to be able to whip up a quick pasta dish when I need it. I mix the pasta with the sauce, add some ricotta cheese and grated mozzarella and/or Parmigiano, mix and put the dish in the oven until the cheeses melt and form a nice golden crust. Another safe bet is chicken Milanese: Sunday, you marinate the chicken cutlets, bread them and keep them refrigerated in layers separated by wax paper. I usually keep a meal worth of breaded chicken in the freezer, get them out in the morning before I go to work and fry them as soon as I get home. While they are frying, I make a salad or a pasta dish, or both. In minutes I have a home cooked meal that everybody saw me cooking from scratch!

Of course I noticed that this kind of chicken is one of the family favorites, it's one of the rare dishes that they can eat at any time, fresh or day old, even longer. So I always make extra.

                                   

CURRIED CHICKEN

                                                        

When you serve a lot of chicken, you have to be creative, you have to be always prepared to serve the chicken in so many different ways that your family will love and avoid the feeling that you are serving the same things over and over again. I also noticed that, because I cook with very little salt and fat, from time to time it's mice to have something out of the ordinary, maybe something spicy to shake things up a bit. When I do that, my mom finishes her plate, which is really rare. Today is one of those days: I needed something extra. I thought of going Indian. The spices and curry will be a good departure from the same old chicken dishes. I use little curry, and no hot pepper at all. You may use more and make it as hot as you like. You'll need:

5 Drumsticks and 4 to 5 thighs (I used skinless pieces and the thighs boneless)

2 tbsp onion/garlic frozen mixture

1 tsp Garam Masala (Indian spices)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp curry powder (more to taste)

A dash of cumin

1/3 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk

1 cup chicken stock

1 tbsp Canola oil

1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp water

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped parsley for garnish

Marinate the chicken pieces in the onion/garlic mixture with salt and pepper. In a non stick skillet large enough to hold the chicken pieces in almost one layer, start cooking the chicken in the tbsp oil. When the chicken is well browned, add all the spices and stir until fragrant, on medium heat. Add the stock, bring to boiling, cover and let simmer to reduce. If you are cooking this dish for later, you should stop now, let it cool and refrigerate for when you need it. Add the coconut milk to the pan, stir to combine. The liquid should be a bit thick. If not, add the corn starch dissolved in water and stir until the sauce is thickened. Transfer to the serving platter, sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with white rice. I had some fried cauliflower,  so I added it to my plate.