THE SWAP

There was no swap this week.  We had to cancel since I had a conference in Maryland.  I brought Dave and the kids along and we spent a good part of the week down there.  After four days of eating out, we are now back home and (happily) eating in.

So in place of the swap, I’m offering a recipe for our favorite Sunday lunch (favorite for the last month or so):  Udon with Vegetables.  I’ve made this several different ways; below is the most basic version….very fast (so fast it could easily be a weeknight dinner) and much liked in our household.

Basic Udon with Vegetables

– 3 packs of Udon noodles (from local grocery store)
– 1 & 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
– 1/2 onion, chopped
– 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
– ~1 cup of broccoli florets (bite-sized)
– 3-4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
– 1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce (depending on taste)
– Dash of sriracha sauce (optional)
– Good handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
– 1/2 lime

Directions: Cook udon noodles according to directions.  Retain udon broth. Heat oil and toss in onions, bell peppers, and broccoli. Sautee for a couple of minutes, add mushrooms and garlic. Sautee for a few more minutes. Add soy and sriracha sauces. Mix and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Toss in noodles, mix and then add 3-4 ladels of the udon broth (more or less of the broth, depending on how soupy you want the end product). Add in cilantro and juice from lime. Remove from heat and serve.

To make this with slightly more Thai flavors (mixing metaphors, I know), I tried a simple modification last week:  Replacing the soy sauce with a combination of soy and fish sauces and the cilantro leaves with basil leaves.  Worked liked a charm.

This week was Naanwiches! & A Barefoot Contessa Dinner

The Meal:

– Naanwich with Tandoori Chicken, Tandoori Vegetables and a Pea Sauce
– Spicy Thai Chips

This week I’m going fusion…the Naanwich!  It’s my husband’s invention, from early in our fusion marriage.  Back then, there were no naanwich recipes online…now there seem to be a few, which I think is awesome and one day, I’ll definitely try them out.  But for now, here’s our rendition.

Basically, you need to get hold of good quality naan, which is an oven-baked flatbread from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.  I actually have a good recipe for naan that I’ve used in the past and had I made this swap meal during the summer (and not during a week in which I had an NSF proposal due), I would have definitely attempted fresh naan.  But alas, I had to resort to my favorite frozen naan from my local Indian grocery store.

In addition to (buying the) naan, I baked some chicken in tandoori masala and sauteed some veggies, again in a bit of tandoori masala, and made a sauce for the sandwich (this time I’m trying a pea sauce).  That being said, I really don’t think that Indian flavors are required to enjoy a good Naanwich.  You could just as well slice up your your favorite roast chicken and sautee some veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper…and then stack ‘er up…may be toss in some cheese…smother on a sauce of your liking…perhaps throw it all in a panini maker…honestly, the possibilities are endless and endlessly delicious.

Tandoori Chicken

A “tandoor” refers to a cylindrical clay oven in which naan is typically made.  Tandoori chicken is also usually cooked in a tandoor with a special blend of spices known as tandoori masala.  Of course I bake my tandoori chicken (and naan, on the rare occasions that I actually make it at home) in my much less exotic KitchenAid convection oven.  And as for the special spice blend, I purchase that from my local Indian grocery store as well.  Here’s my recipe for tandoori chicken (for 8):

– 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
– 3/4 cup yogurt
– 2 teaspoons garlic paste
– 2 teaspoons ginger paste
– 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
– 2 tablespoon tandoori masala
– salt, to taste
– 1 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional, if you like heat)
– 1 teaspoon fresh garam masala (optional)

Directions: Repeatedly pierce chicken breasts with a knife. Toss in all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix and marinate for 1-2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking tray with foil and bake chicken breasts for 25-30 minutes. Turn pieces over and bake for another 10-12 minutes, this time at 375 degrees.

Veggies Sauteed in Tandoori Masala

– 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
– 6 oz. portabello mushrooms, cut in half and sliced
– 1 medium red onion, chopped
– 1 medium yellow bell pepper, cubed
– 1 medium red bell pepper, cubed
– 15 asparagus stalks, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
– salt, to taste
– 3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
– 1 teaspoon tandoori masala
– 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
– handful of baby spinach

Directions: Heat oil in pan and add mushrooms. Sautee till about half done and then spoon out all the mushrooms from the oil and keep aside. Return oil to heat (a bit more oil might be needed at this point). Add onions and sautee for a minute and add both red and yellow bell peppers. Sautee for 2-3 minutes, add asparagus and salt. Sautee for another 2-3 minutes, add garlic and tandoori masala. Sautee for another few minutes. Remove from heat. Toss in cilantro and mix. If you have having this fresh (not swapping that is), toss in baby spinach at this point. Otherwise, wait till reheating.

Pea Sauce

– 1 (12 oz.) packet of frozen peas, thawed
– 3/4 cup yogurt
– 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
– 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
– salt, to taste
– pepper, to taste
– zest of half a lime
– 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions: Blanch the peas (I like to use the microwaveable bags of frozen peas and just cook them in the microwave, straight out of the freezer). Toss the peas in a blender. Add yogurt and blend till a paste forms (might need to help it along with a sprinkle of water). Mix in rest of ingredients and blend some more.

To Prepare Naanwich:

– Thinly slice the chicken breasts.
– Reheat chicken (stovetop, preferrably…might need to add some oil to ensure it doesn’t stick to pan).
– Reheat the vegetables. At the end toss in a handful of baby spinach and mix.
– Thaw naan (can use microwave) and heat both sides of naan on a non-stick pan.
– Use two pieces of naan to make a sandwich using chicken, vegetables and sauce.
– Might want to put cheese in the sandwich as well and heat the sandwich on a panini maker.
– Serve with chips.

Enjoy!

The Verdict:

Tuesday:  Naanwich night.  Here’s the thing, though…my local Indian grocery store had only two packets of the frozen naan that I like.  So, I gave both packets to Heather and purchased two packets of frozen Tandoori Roti for myself.  Tandoori roti is usually made with whole wheat flour, it’s thinner than naan, and usually it’s round.  Because of the thinness of the roti, we ended up having our chicken and vegetables on the roti, soft taco style (instead of sandwich style)…..a tacoti, as it were.  Regardless, the dinner was a hit on our end.

Wednesday:  What a fancy meal for a Wednesday night!  Kavya really liked the rice and carrots…in fact she asked that I pack her the leftover rice for lunch the next day.  Alex loved the chicken and the raisins   Kept putting a raisin on top of each morsel of chicken that he ate…very cute.  Dave and I felt so grown up giving our kids this delicious, proper meal in the middle of a crazy busy week.  (I had a cold by Wednesday night, which I am still nursing…so the swap was a lifesaver this week!)  It was a pleasure to see our kids chowing down on wild rice pilaf and goat cheese infused chicken…wow!  Granted they both didn’t love all parts of the meal but to seeing a two year old enjoying roasted chicken with goat cheese and basil…oh, the wonders of the swap!  Thanks, Heather!

So, I’m a little bit of a cookbook junkie. Or, at least, I used to be. I used to regularly buy cookbooks for pleasure reading. I’d lie in bed at night reading cookbooks, cover-to-cover, as if they were engrossing works of literature, while Braydon would lie next to me actually reading engrossing works of (non-cookbook-genre) literature. I still love cookbooks and still do buy one here and there, and read them in that same way from time-to-time, but not nearly as much as before we had kids. Over the years I’ve been pretty good about getting rid of coookbooks that I don’t actually use, and keeping only the ones that I genuinely love, but still I have quite a few cookbooks. My favorite cookbooks –by far—have always been, and still remain, Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. For this week’s swap I decided to pull one of the Barefoot Contessas from the shelf – Barefoot Contessa At Home – and choose recipes I hadn’t tried before. Although I doubt I’ll ever use the recipes again (the meal was decent, but they weren’t outstanding “keepers”), I had a lot of fun getting the chance to really use one of my tried-and-true-oldie-but-goodie cookbooks. And here’s the funny thing…   while sitting down with Barefoot Contessa At Home in planning for the swap, I was inspired to try an additional recipe for our dinner on Monday night (outside of the swap). It turned out to be absolutely fabulous and an instant favorite for all five of us – a definite outstanding “keeper.” So, ironically, I’m not posting the recipes for my swap dinner here this week. But instead I am posting the new favorite recipe. Note: The only reason I didn’t use it for the swap in the first place was because it involves pine nuts and Alex is allergic to them. I am sure that Dave and Shalinee would love this recipe!!!

Swap meal:

• Roasted Chicken with Herbed Goat Cheese & Basil
• Orange-Honey-Ginger Glazed Carrots
• Wild Rice with Dried Fruit and Fresh Apple

The J-M’s New Favorite Salad:

This is the Pesto Pea Salad from Barefoot Contessa At Home. Here I’ve just slightly modified the ingredient list to make it easy to throw together on a moment’s notice. I served this with blackened tilapia and rice. Super easy and super, duper delicious! Owen had three huge servings of it and Kyle and Meera weren’t too far behind him. Braydon and I would have eaten more of it but there was none left by halfway through dinner. Next time I’ll probably double the recipe—no joke!—it is that good!

Toss first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt to taste, add pine nuts, and toss again. Yum!!!

O.k., now, about Shalinee’s “Naanwiches”….

All I’ve gotta say is WOW! WOW! WOW! My first thought was, “oh my gosh! naanwiches!!?! this is the next big thing! I can see naanwich shops springing up in every major city, suburb, and college town! we must patent this ASAP!!!!!!!!!!” Upon trying them, my reaction: “AWESOME!” This is a great, great idea. So fun, so tasty, so simply great. We all really liked this dinner. Owen and Meera went a little berserk for the mushrooms in the veggie mix. They started picking them out and eating them up like little crazy people. This bothered me because the mushrooms were my favorite part, too, and my children stole them all before I could eat them all. Kyle, on the other hand, was not thrilled with the veggie mix but went crazy for the chicken instead. Braydon and I just loved the whole entire “naanwich” package. And the pea sauce?! In my opinion, that’s what really pushed it over the edge to give it that wow factor!! So good! A very fun fun fun meal for our family. It made for a great J-M Tuesday dinner time. The swap…  weeknight dinners around here are not like they used to be! In more ways than one!     Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was Spaghetti Squash with Marinara Sauce & Eggplant and Zucchini Couscous Rolls

This week was full of swap coincidences (it is bizarre how often these sorts of swap coincidences occur!): 1) We both made meals that were blasts from the past for us– things that we used to make way back when, but that we hadn’t made for years, and that our kids had never tried. 2) We both made meals that were totally vegetarian. 3) We both made meals that involved marinara.

The Meal:

– Spaghetti Squash with Marinara Sauce
– Basic Salad with Ranch Dressing

So, I’m experimenting this week.  When we were first married, Dave and I used to have spaghetti squash quite frequently.  For some reason, I haven’t made it in years and as a result, the kids have never had it!  Well, given that it’s gourd season (and my local grocery store is practically giving the stuff away), I had to revisit this old favorite of ours.  Plus, my younger one loves spaghetti…..so, I’ll give him “spaghetti”…worth a try!

Also, as far as swaps go…this is a really easy one to prep!  All I had to do was make the marinara sauce and chop/pack the salad items!  Heather will have to cut and bake the squash before dinner (detailed instructions below).

Marinara Sauce

This is my standard way of making marinara sauce.  I’ve made it like this for years and years. I’m 100% sure I got the recipe from a book…can’t remember which one!

Here’s my recipe (serves 4-6):

– ~2 tablespoon olive oil
– 1 cup finely chopped onions
– 1 cup finely chopped celery
– 1 cup finely chopped carrots
– 3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped
– 1 medium tomato chopped
– 1 2 lbs. can of peeled, chopped tomatoes
– 1/2 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
– 1 bay leaf
– 3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
– 2 tablespoons chopped basil
– Salt, to taste
– Pepper, to taste
– 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1) Heat olive oil and add onions, celery and carrots.
2) Sautee till brown at the edges.
3) Add garlic and sautee for a minute or so and then toss in the chopped tomato.
4) Sautee for two minutes and then add the canned tomatoes.
5) Lower heat and cook for a few minutes (5-7).
6) Add sugar and simmer for another 4-5 minutes.
7) Add herbs and remaining seasonings and cook for another 8-10 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat.

Here is the full dinner:

Along with the marinara sauce, there are three spaghetti squashes, a container full of good Parmesan cheese, some salad items and a (store-bought) ranch dressing.

How to Prepare the Dinner:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Cut the squashes in half (lengthwise)….seriously, this is the hardest part!
3) Scoop out the seeds and pulpy middle.
4) Line baking tray with parchment paper (or foil) and lay the squash halves (flesh side up) and drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper.
5) Turn the squash halves over (so hard skin side is up) on the parchment paper.
6) Bake for ~40-45 minutes.
7) Towards the end of baking serve salad.  Also towards end of baking reheat marinara sauce in microwave.

Once done, place each individual squash-half (flesh side up) on each serving plate.

Now you have two options:

Option A: Use a fork and scrape the insides of the squash to get the spaghetti strands. Top with marinara sauce and sprinkle parmesan cheese. Serve.

or

Option B: Serve the squash on the plate as is and let the kids scrape out the noodles themselves and let them top with marinara & cheese.

In either case, enjoy!

The Verdict:

Tuesday:  We mixed things up a bit this week and had Heather’s dinner first.  Even though this was not a kid-tested meal, it actually went well!  Kavya was complaining of a tummy ache before dinner so she didn’t really eat much but Alex ate the whole thing up (eggplants, zucchini and all!).  My mom was over today and she enjoyed the dinner as much as Dave & I did..which was a lot!  This is one of our favorites!  Thanks, Heather!

Wednesday:  They both liked the spaghetti squash!  Kavya (my self-proclaimed paleontologist) found the “digging for noodles” to be JUST like “digging for dinosaur bones” so she was delighted with this meal and ate as much of it as Dave and I did.  Alex wasn’t pleased with the marinara sauce (I had a suspicion he might not be so I gave him little bit only).  He really liked the “noddle” part and ate that up really well.  Hope it works out for you, Heather…have a backup just in case!

A fully vegetarian meal this week for the swap:

• Eggplant & Zucchini Couscous Rolls
• Hummus, with pita and baby carrots for dipping (I’ve posted about this hummus before– for my recipe, click here)

I don’t know about you, but we have more mint than we could ever know what to do with. Mint is so invasive. It has totally taken over a good portion of our front garden. I cut it and put it in vases in the house (it smells so good!). We make some rockin’ mojitos. And I try to cook with it whenever I can. Still, there is a huge over-abundance of it. In trying to think of a good way to make use of at least some of this mint, I remembered this good old dinner that I used to make years ago. I had not made it since Kyle and Owen came home (it is a relatively labor-intensive meal), so I had never tried it out on the bambinos, but I decided to give it a whirl this week for the swap.

Very good friends of ours from Boston, Jeff & Angelica, first introduced this to me. Angelica was/is a great cook, and we used to love going over to their apartment for dinner. She (Angelica) is Chilean, and would often make dinners inspired by her roots in Chile. She was also health conscious, and would often cook straight out of Eating Well or Cooking Light magazine. It was always delicious, and was inspiring– to say the least. Anyway, one night, she made this meal for us and we absolutely loved it. I can still vividly remember sitting at their table and tasting it. Isn’t it funny how food can flood your memories like that? Soon after that dinner, I ended up buying the cookbook that she found the recipe in– The Eating Well Rush Hour Cookbook— and have since made lots of recipes from it, but this one is still my favorite. I used to make it a lot for dinner guests when Braydon and I were a childless, fun-loving, fancy-free couple throwing dinner parties every-other-weekend. (ancient history!). Anyway, over the years I’ve tinkered with this recipe quite a bit. The original version was using just eggplant, but since zucchini (in addition to eggplant!) is spilling over at the same time of year as mint (!), I like to include it too. Here is my version (swap style! i.e., enough for two families!):

I am really excited about going live with you all and finally revealing our “new” blog! The part of this newness, though, that I’m most excited about is the category “The Swap.” Be sure to click on the right-hand sidebar to read “About the Swap.” I think that you’re all going to agree that this is an awesome idea–especially (but not exclusively, by any stretch of the imagination!, for working moms)!

Shalinee and I started The Swap (that’s just what we’ve come to call it) six months ago. I’ve often wanted to blog about it, but conscientiously didn’t. Honestly, it has been so good that I was afraid that I’d jinx it if I were to write about it. But I also wanted to be sure that it was a real-deal, set-in-stone, fully-functioning thing before I started going all goo-goo and ga-ga about it in the blogosphere. But, I’m here now to attest, folks, that this is the real-deal. Shalinee and I have been going strong with The Swap, every week, since March. And it has – literally – changed my life. For the better. This is the best thing that’s happened to our dual-career, never-a-dull-moment, fast-paced-but-good-food-loving family in a long, long time.

The pragmatics of this are brilliant and all I can think is, “How come we didn’t come up with this earlier?” and, “Did we really come up with this?!” (we’ve researched it and found that some other people are doing kind-of-sort-of-similar things, but nothing quite exactly like what we’re doing). But, I mean, really… if you’re going to take the time to make homemade salad dressing, why not make two batches instead of one? Right?

And really… the nights that you most need a home-cooked, lovingly-made, warm meal, ready-in-minutes are on those week-nights when life feels like pure chaos and you don’t even have 20 minutes to get dinner on the table. Those are, precisely, the nights when you are least likely to manage to pull off that good and lovely home-made meal. Unless… of course… you made it on Monday night in preparation for the long week ahead. And made double to swap with a friend. And when, on earth (on earth!!!), would you ever be able to make grilled shish-ka-bobs and revved up loaded-with-fruits-and-veggies couscous unless it were for something like The Swap?

Aside from all these positively practically-perfect pragmatics, though, perhaps the most awesome side-effect of The Swap has been that my family has had the privilege of being recipient to a whole other world of cuisine… food lovingly prepared, from scratch, and with care, by our really good friend. And we’ve been gifted this gift of being able to eat Shalinee’s home-made food. My kids are exposed to good-food-x-2… which just means that their palates are expanded exponentially. Which, like I said, is an awesome side-effect. (Photos below = J-M’s weeknight dinners 1st week of June… Indian food prepared by Shalinee one night and Cali-Mexi food prepared by Heather another night). Awesome times two. And… just for the record… never would have happened(not even close!) if it weren’t for The Swap.

In truth, however, what has turned out to be the #1 best part of the swap – by far – has been the fusing of the friendship of Shalinee and I. We have so much in common (don’t even get us started!!!!!), but this Swap thing has really cemented it for us. When you’re a working mom, with a big career to foster and maintain, and young kids who make your heart pitter-patter, the thing that often flies out the window first (in my and Shalinee’s experience, at least) is good close nearby friends. The Swap has pulled us as tight as tight can be. And that is great for us (great!!!!!). But, going even further, an unintended result has been that it has been great for our families as well. We are not “alone” in our dinner plight (or life plight) any longer. We are totally entwined with Shalinee and her family. And that, my blog-reader-friends, is very cool. K, O, and M see – every week – not just that Mommy has a really, really good friend (!), but they see, first hand, what it means to be a really, really good friend to — and with — another.

I love this picture (above), not because it is a good picture (it isn’t; it is a terrible picture!), but because it is so symbolic. There we are, Shalinee and I, sitting on the playground of our kids’ Waldorf School, discussing life in its entirety. I love that the contrasts are so clear—she’s wearing dark and light, I’m wearing light and dark; her hair’s black, my hair’s blond; she’s Indian, I’m Scandanavian. But we’re both ‘young’ tenured female professors at a top-tier research university; we’ve both got our kids at that crazy school; we’ve both got ridiculously over-achieving husbands; we’re both committed to trying to feed our families well; and we’ve both got our hair in ponytails. That picture was taken right at the end of Spring Semester 2010. We were both exhausted from an academic year that was full of challenge and joy times two. But there we were – talking about The Swap and everything else in our worlds.

I’m so excited to share The Swap with you. I hope you enjoy following along each week as much as I think you might. And I hope that you’ll find some inspiration in this so that there will be a ripple-effect-of-goodness from this thing. Just like some of the family meals that Shalinee and I have been making these past six months… The swap seems too good to not share it.

Enjoy!!!

P.S. In anticipation of the “new” blog going live, Shalinee and I have been doing blog posts re: The Swap for the past three weeks. So, if you click on “The Swap” tab at the top of the blog, you’ll see three weeks worth of Swap already ready for reading!

KIDS’ COMFORT FOOD FOR FIRST WEEK BACK TO SCHOOL

Shalinee~~

So, the big kids start school this week. I’m so happy our kids all go to the same crazy school! My contribution to this week’s swap is comfort food for our kiddos’ first week. What could make a kindergartner happier than mac-n-cheese for dinner? My meal was on our table for our “Back To School Dinner 2010.”

The mac-n-cheese:

I haven’t made homemade macaroni and cheese for at least a couple of years. This is mainly because K & O love Annie’s so much, that it makes life simple to just buy the boxes of the stuff (and boxes and boxes and boxes!!!). But I’m so glad I made this mac-n-cheese from scratch because it is amazing!!!!!! Seriously the best mac-n-cheese we’ve ever had. In the past, if making homemade mac-n-cheese I always made my mom’s recipe (which is great in its own right). But I knew about this recipe in Barefoot Contessa Family Style (Ina Garten’s cookbooks = my absolute favorites), and had always wanted to try it. One word: Gruyere. That should say it all! It was awesome, and just different enough to make it worth the while. We had never had tomatoes on our mac-n-cheese before, but it seemed like the perfect September (back to school and tomato season!) thing to do. K & O have officially named it “Fancy Macaroni” — I hope you guys love it as much as we do! To prepare the mac-n-cheese:

• I’ve put the actual mac-n-cheese in a tupperware so that it doesn’t spill. warm it in microwave a bit just to ‘melt’/soften it, and then dump it into a shallow baking dish. (or, split into two dishes and freeze half for another time– there is a LOT).
• slice tomatoes and lie on top.
• sprinkle *generously* with the bread crumbs (the amount I’ve given you is the amount that the recipe calls for).
• Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes ’till bubbly and gooey and mac-n-cheesey!

Here’s the recipe, from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Family Style:

The salad:

This french salad dressing was my favorite when I was a kid. My mom used to make it all the time. I have no idea where it originated. It is now my kids’ favorite (this and store-bought ranch!). I didn’t know if you wanted to make an actual ‘salad’ or if your kids would like it better as a dip for veggies… so I just gave you a few salad ingredients and you can do whatever your kids (and you) will like best. FYI– my favorite way to eat this dressing is drizzled on a big salad with diced sharp cheddar cheese and a scoop of tuna salad on top; Owen’s favorite way to eat this dressing is as a dip with plain cheese quesadillas (instead of sour cream and salsa) –weird mix, but I gotta say: the kid’s got taste!–it actually is a great combo.

Here’s the recipe:

The bread:

Braydon’s from-scratch-sourdough! He’s on another bread-making-kick! and you’re on the receiving end with us!

ENJOY!

* * *

well, your dinner was one of our favorites yet.
Meera kept saying “More Bawk-Bawk!” (i.e., “more chicken”—-  ‘bawk bawk’ = the sound a chicken makes)  Kyle was enthralled with the rice. I think he had 5ths or 6ths of it….  with spoonfuls of “sauce” (the sauce from the chicken dish) on it.  Owen couldn’t get his mind off the mac-n-cheese and just kept begging for leftovers of that! LOL!
Honestly, Braydon and I *love* and *appreciate* everything Indian that you make us. We feel like it is such an incredibly special thing for us to get to have that…  I can’t even explain how much we love/appreciate every bite.
xo
hbj

DESI COMFORT FOOD

The Meal:

– Makhani Chicken

– Potato Bhujia with Green Beans

– Pulao with Carrots and Beans

Swap did not go according to plan this week.  Instead of cooking Monday night, I was home nursing a sick two year old.  When he is healthy, Alex’s favorite person in the world is his father; when Alex is sick, no one else but me will do.  So, Heather and I swapped our swap from Tuesday to Wednesday this week, which worked out fine.  We still ate our own prepared meals on Tuesday night and each others on Wednesday.

Now, for what I cooked:  Heather and I usually don’t always exchange emails about what we plan to cook for the swap, but this week we did.  Given that it’s back to school week for our kids (our kids attend the same school), we both thought to cook comfort food for them.

For most Indian (or half-Indian) children, comfort food often means chawal (rice), chicken, and aaloo (potatoes)….well for the non-vegetarian ones at least.  So, that’s what I’ve made…Desi comfort food.  (Loosely translated “desi” means from the homeland…it’s the word that Indians regularly use to refer to all things Indian.)

Makhani Chicken

Indian restaurants usually serve makhani chicken, which (not surprisingly) tastes very different when cooked in an Indian home.  This is my rendition…very mild and moist, which usually goes over well with the kids.  It’s a modified version of a recipe by Pushpa Bhargava in her cookbook From Mom with Love (awesome collection of authentic Indian recipes).  Recipe below serves 8.

Ingredients

– 2.75 lbs boneless, skinless chicken, chopped

– 1 lime

– 2 teaspoons garlic paste

– 2 teaspoons ginger paste

– 2-3 teaspoon garam masala (store-bought is fine, though I use a homemade mix)

– 1 cup yoghurt (I didn’t have any, so I used 3/4 cup of sour cream instead)

– ~4 tablespoons butter (comfort food ingredient #1)

– ~1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder

– 3 cups of tomato puree

– 1/2 pint of heavy cream (comfort food ingredient #2)

– 1/2 pint of whole milk (comfort food ingredient #3)

– 1/4 cup of chopped basil leaves

– Salt to taste (approximately 2-3 teaspoons)

Directions

– Mix yoghurt, ginger & garlic pastes (1 teaspoons each), 1 teaspoon of garam masala, zest from lime and juice from half the lime.  Mix in about 2 teaspoons of salt. Add chicken and marinate for ~1 hour.

– Set oven to broil. Put chicken on a greased baking sheet and dab with some more butter. Broil chicken for ~8 minutes.  Save juices from broiling for later use.

– Heat 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.  Once melted, add 1 teaspoon each of ginger and garlic paste. Stir and cook for a minute or so.

– Add tomato puree, red chilli powder, and any leftover juices from the broiling.  Cook at low heat for about 7-9 minutes.

– Add salt (approximately 1 teaspoon, or to taste).

– Add cooked chicken and cook for another 7-9 minutes at low heat.

– Add heavy cream, milk, and 1-2 teaspoon of garam masala and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.   Remove from heat.

– Garnish with chopped basil leaves.

Potato Bhujia with Green Beans

Bhujia is awesome!  It usually refers to potatoes cooked in the style described below.  I toss in green beans, because I’m a mom with little kids.  Again, the recipe below serves 8.

Ingredients

– A little over 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

– 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

– 5-6 medium red potatoes, skinned, halved and sliced

– Salt, to taste

– 1 cup of green beans chopped

– 3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

– 1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder

– 3/4 teaspoon turmeric

Directions

– Heat oil over medium heat and add cumin seeds.

– Once the seeds start to sizzle, add potatoes.  Reduce heat, cover and cook for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally.

– Once potatoes are 1/2 cooked, add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric.  Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.

– Add garlic and green beans.  Cover again and cook for another 5 minutes (stirring occasionally) or until potatoes are completely cooked.  Remove from heat.

Pulao with Carrots and Peas

K loves carrots and A loves peas, so this rice dish is meant to make them both happy.  The recipe below serves 8.

Ingredients

– 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

– 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

– 2.5 cups of basmati rice

– 1 teaspoon salt

– 3/4 to 1 cup chopped carrots

– 3/4 to 1 cup peas

Directions:

– Wash rice (3-4 times) and place in water for about 1/2 hour and then drain the water.

– Heat oil over medium heat.  Add cumin seeds.

– When seeds start to sizzle, add rice and stir.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring.

– Add salt, 5 cups water and carrots.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook till rice is completely cooked.

– Toss in peas, mix and remove from heat.

And we are done!  Here’s the full meal:

Reheating Instructions:

–       Microwave the rice and potato bhujia.

–       Reheat chicken on stove top (I’m not a big fan of microwaved chicken).  If you have some fresh basil, please chop and sprinkle on top.

–       Serve chicken on rice with side of potato bhujia.

ENJOY!

The Verdict:

Tuesday:  I cooked this Desi comfort meal and served it hot off the stove.  Thankfully, Alex was feeling better and had an appetite.  Both he and his sister ate well.  We had frozen yoghurt for dessert (Blue Bunny’s White Chocolate with Raspberry Swirls and Chocolate Chips….a favorite of ours).  A nice end to an awesome summer!

Wednesday:  Thanks for the great macaroni and cheese, Heather !  It went over really well here too.  Alex is pretty picky with his mac-n-cheese and even he liked it!  But I have to say the French dressing was probably the biggest hit!  Kavya filled up with the veggies so much that she was sad to discover that dinner was macaroni and cheese, which is a favorite of hers.  Her reaction: “I wish I didn’t eat so many carrots!”  Thanks, Heather!

SEPTEMBER SOUP, BRAYDON’S BREAD, AND FALL SALAD

Shalinee~~

It is 10:01pm as I sit down to write this. I think this is a record for me (took me just shy of 2 hours!). This week Braydon helped, though, by baking bread for our two families (!), so that explains my early evening. Anyway, no matter, because, I am totally exhausted (I am going to try to not make that statement a weekly occurrence in these notes, but really… I am totally exhausted. I have another respiratory ‘thing’ going on (i.e., yet another chest cold… hoping to be able to finally conquer this one without antibiotics… HOPING for that… oh, and don’t worry, I was very conscientious not to cough into the soup while I was cooking tonight!). But, you know what? I don’t even care how exhausted I am, because, I have that awesome familiar Monday-night-post-swap-cooking-feeling: HALLELUJIAH!–we’re all set for the week!!!!!!!!

This week:

• “September Soup” (just warm it up)
• Homemade bread, made from scratch, by Braydon
• Fall Salad with Blanchard’s Balsamic Vinagrette

In mid-September of 2004, when we were just about halfway through our wait for Kyle and Owen, some of our friends through an amazing and elaborate (and huge) baby shower for us. Friends came from near and far for it, and it was really one of the most awesome and memorable weekends of my entire life. The actual baby shower was Saturday, and I had nothing to do with any of the details of organizing that. But many of our long-distance friends arrived on Thursday-Friday for the weekend. On Friday night we threw a casual dinner party for all of our out-of-town guests. Lots of people had been traveling that day, some flying in from as far as California, and a few would be newly arriving throughout the evening. I wanted it to be a light, casual, help-yourself ‘buffet’ type meal, but all homemade from scratch with love by me. I also wanted to showcase the local bounty of Bucks County in September. I decided on one of my favorite soups – a recipe originally from my Mom (although heavily revised over the years by me); a salad with fresh local fruit and blue cheese (Amish blue cheese from PA); and lots of fresh bread. Everyone loved it. Although I had been making this meal for years (and had even eaten the soup quite often growing up as a kid), now this soup reminds me – ALWAYS – of that baby shower weekend. I make this soup at least once, if not two or three times, each fall. Usually each time I make a batch I freeze half of it. This time, I just am giving half to you instead!

THE SOUP:

September Soup

(a rustic creamy soup perfect for September when the tomatoes are overflowing in gardens and farm-stands)

Place tomatoes in pot of boiling water until skins start to break and peel; place in ice bath to cool; remove skins and cores; chop and save until later. In bottom of large pot melt ½ of the butter with the olive oil over medium-high heat; add onions, garlic, basil, thyme, salt, pepper. Sauté, stirring regularly, until onions are very wilted and browned/caramelized. Add tomato paste and mix in well. Add broth. Add tomatoes. Heat together until simmering. In a separate cup, whisk together flour and 1 cup water. Add to soup pot. Simmer about an hour, stirring often. Add sugar, cream, and last ½ of butter.

THE SALAD:

The salad is our favorite in the fall. I love to use fresh apples and pears from our local orchards during this time of year. The fruit I gave you is from Bechdtolds Orchard—right down the street from us.

Thinly slice the apple, pear, and red onion. Place on top of a bed of salad greens. Top generously with crumbled blue cheese. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Dress with balsamic vinaigrette.  Note: usually I add toasted pecans to this salad, but I didn’t this time because of Alex’s nut allergy.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

From one of my top-3 all-time favorite cookbooks At Blanchard’s Table: A Trip to the Beach Cookbook by Melinda and Robert Blanchard

In a small bowl, whisk together everything except the olive oil. Gradually whisk in the oil until well blended. Store in glass jar. (note: you can keep this dressing in the fridge up to one week.) Shake well before serving.

THE BREAD:

Braydon is the Bread Master!!! He made the bread dough today/tonight, and it is rising overnight. He is going to bake it early tomorrow morning so that it would be as fresh as possible. 😉

It is now 10:41 pm and I’m calling it a day!

ENJOY!!!

* * *

So, this week the swap was a God-send for me. You know how I have that chest cold again… well… Braydon convinced me to go to the Dr. today and… sure enough… I’ve got another respiratory infections… on antibiotics AGAIN. Ugh. Anyway, the thing was, by the end of the day I was feeling so crappy and groggy and just plain horrible. If it weren’t for the swap just sitting there waiting in the fridge, this surely would have been a take-out-pizza night. And I am so glad that it was not (for my own sake, especially… imagine if I had to eat pizza when I’m feeling like such crap?). So, I whipped up your dinner and it was just a lovely evening despite my being sick. While I got it going Braydon and the kids ate the appetizer you packed while watching clips of Alexander Nevsky on YouTube (yeah, bizarre, don’t even ask!). When the dinner was set on the table all I could think was, “If it weren’t for the swap I could NEVER have pulled something like this off.” Owen went to town on the dumplings (seriously, I think he at at least 2/3 of the dumplings you gave us… which were a LOT of dumplings). Meera slurped up the noodles. And Kyle dabbled in it but then asked for yogurt (our stand-by go-to back-up food for when dinner just doesn’t fly for one reason or the other). So, I say, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. Braydon and I liked it all very much. I was totally, totally impressed with the dumplings— so, THANK YOU!!!

By the way, on a side-note related to the swap– I have to tell you that on Tuesday night, while we were re-heating the tomato soup, something UNPRECEDENTED happened here in our home. Dinner was all set to go (thanks to the swap) and the evening was already feeling leisurely and relaxed (prior to swap that was unheard of on a weeknight). On a whim, totally spontaneously, I decided that we’d make a dessert. I had all the ingredients ready to make banana pudding (Braydon — southern boy — loves banana pudding, but I had never made it, and hoped to some day soon, but had no idea when…). So, Owen and I (while Kyle paraded around the kitchen “serenading” us with a wooden flute, and Meera played with Braydon) made a big batch of banana pudding… that is now in our fridge this week, making this week feel special (because we so rarely have dessert… let alone during the week). I seriously don’t think we’ve ever made a “real” dessert on a weeknight before in my entire parenting experience to-date. So, this was big. And it was only possible because of the swap. Anyway, I wanted to share this idea with you because it was super simple and easy to make (and a great way to use up ripe-and-almost-over-ripe bananas). I made up this recipe, and surely the true Southern chefs would be appalled at it, but we five love it.

Mixing both puddings together, prepare according to the directions on the box (takes 5 minutes in the mixer!). Transfer to bowl. In same mixer (don’t even need to clean it out), whip cream, vanilla, sugar to make light and fluffy whipped cream (less than 5 minutes in the mixer!). Put a couple of handfuls of Nilla Wafers in a zip-loc bag and roll with rolling pin to crush the cookies; set this aside for use later. In serving bowl layer:

whole Nilla Wafers, banana slices, pudding, whipped cream. Repeat and repeat until bowl if fully layered and all of the ingredients are gone. Lastly, dump the crushed up Nilla Wafers on top and spread out to form a little layer of cookies on top. Store in fridge — it gets better each day it sits!!! YUM!

DUMPLINGS & NOODLES FOR A SPECIAL DAY

The Meal:

Appetizers:  Won-Ton Strips with Duck Sauce

Main Entrée:  Chicken Dumplings with Noodles

This meal might obliterate the “no pasta” rule of our swap.  Dave and I had a discussion about selecting this menu for the swap and he told me that I could blame him if this was in fact the case.  He thinks our reasoning for the “no pasta” rule is to avoid the “usual” pasta preparation, but this he says is “unusual” and therefore okay.  So, here’s my unusual meal for the week…

I made this for the first time two weeks ago.  Two Tuesdays ago was Rakhi, which is a Hindu festival that celebrates the bond between a brother and a sister.  On this day, sisters tie a rakhi (i.e., a colorful bracelet) on the wrists of their brothers and the brothers promise to always be there for their sisters and protect them from all harm.  Sweets are exchanged; brothers also usually give gifts to their sisters.

The brother-sister pair in our household celebrates it slightly differently…they both tie rakhis on each other and promise to love and protect each other always.  The rakhis are homemade; in the future, I hope they will make them for each other.  They feed each other sweets (this year, squares of dark chocolate…the only sweet that they both like) and exchange gifts.  I took Kavya shopping a few days before so she could pick out her gift for Alex and when Alex gets a bit older, I’ll take him to do the same.  I simply love this day…for what it celebrates, for the adorable (short-lived) promises they make to each other (“Alex, I will always love you and protect you and share things with you”…half hour later, they were fighting over the new toy), for all the hopes that we have about what they will always mean to each other.

So, to celebrate Rakhi this year, I decided to make a meal that would please both kids.  Kavya loves dumplings and Alex loves noodles.  This dinner is basically noodles with dumplings.    The kids absolutely LOVED this meal…Dave might have loved it even more than them.  It was immediately something that I HAD to make for the swap.

I had never made dumplings before; apparently, it’s not that hard at all!  I was inspired by a recipe posted on a pretty neat blog called momofukufor2:

http://momofukufor2.com/2010/05/spicy-wonton-noodle-recipe/

I’ve changed the filling and the style of folding the wonton wrappers.  I’ve also omitted the sesame oil (a swap rule that I refuse to break) and added mushrooms.  Here’s what I did…

Chicken Dumplings:

– 1 large onion, chopped

– 1 teaspoon chopped ginger

–  1 teaspoon chopped garlic

–  ~2/3 cup chopped carrots

–  1 cup (may be a bit more) chopped spinach

– 1 tablespoon 5 spice powder

– 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce

– 1 tablespoon soy sauce

– 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

– 1 package of ground chicken

– Wonton wrappers (50 if you want to use up all the chicken)

– Flour-water paste (mix 1 tablespoon of flour to a couple of tablespoons of water)

Directions:

– In a wok (or wok-like cookware), heat oil and sautee onions, ginger, garlic, carrots for a few minutes.

– Add spinach and sautee some more.

– Add five-spice powder, sriracha sauce and soy sauce.

– Remove from heat.  Check the flavor.  Should be on saltier side since it will get mixed up in chicken.  In my case, bit more soy sauce was needed.

– In a mixing bowl, add chopped cilantro, sautéed mixture and ground chicken.  Result: (uncooked) dumpling filling.

– Now, prep the wonton assembly line: filling, flour-water paste (to seal wontons shut, although I believe plain old water would also work), wonton wrappers, and a plate (to place finished product).

– Take a bit of filling and place in center of wonton wrapper.  Follow instructions on wonton wrapper package to fold.

– One dumpling complete.  Repeat over and over and over and over….yes, it’s a bit tedious but I find it strangely relaxing.

– One plate done!  Place the plate in the freezer.  Repeat till all 50(!) dumplings are done.

NOTE: If I was making this for myself, I would stop at about 16 or so dumplings and save the rest of the chicken for another night.  (Another use for the leftover chicken filling:  add some breadcrumbs, mix and make in to little balls.  Bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes and enjoy.)

The accoutrements:

1) I made a spicy soy sauce (sans sesame oil) by mixing together oil, soy sauce and Sriracha sauce.  Basically following the proportions on momofukufor2.

2) Then I sliced some mushrooms (two cups…all for Heather; I’ll make mine the night of) and sautéed them in oil (sprinkle of salt).

3) Finally, I chopped up some scallions (1 bunch…again, all for Heather).

And we are done!  Here’s the full package ready for the Johnson-McCormick Family:

Besides the dumplings, spicy soy sauce, mushrooms and scallions, I also packed (uncooked) noodles and for a snack: wonton strips with duck sauce.

To Reheat/Serve:

–       Get two pots of water boiling.

–       Serve wonton strips with duck sauce while doing the rest of the prep work.

–       In the first pot, put in dumplings (roughly 16-18).  Agitate the dumplings so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

–       In the second pot, add one pack of noodles.

–       Let dumplings boil till they rise and start to float.

–       Add a cup (may a bit more) of cold water (to dumpling pot) and return to boil, again with dumplings floating.

–       Dumplings should be done…just cut one open to make sure.

–       In serving dish, add noodles, dumplings, spicy soy sauce (add a bit at a time, to taste) and mushrooms and mix.  (If you want, at this point you can add a dash of sesame oil and mix.)

–       Garnish with scallions and serve.

ENJOY!

The Verdict:

Tuesday:  To enjoy the fresh bread, we decided to have Heather’s meal first and save our dumplings/noodles for Wednesday dinner.  And let me start with said bread!!  Braydon…you ARE the BREAD MASTER!  That HUGE loaf was almost all gone in a matter of minutes.  All four of us loved it! We ask that we get Braydon’s bread more often!  Alex focused almost entirely on the soup/bread part of the meal, whereas Kavya decided to experiment with sliced apples in her soup and claimed “this is better than anything!”  As for Dave and I, we enjoyed the salad the most (after the bread of course!).  Thanks, Heather & Braydon!

Wednesday:  Our 9th anniversary.  We used to plan special outings for our anniversary…go to restaurants and places we have never been…have long elaborate meals…plan and dream about our future.  Now that those dreams are here (in the sprightly shapes of K & A)…no point going anywhere…we celebrate by staying home and enjoying a special meal.  So, this year our special meal was the kids’ special meal from two weeks ago.  Like before, Kavya gobbled up the dumplings and Alex slurped up the noodles.  Should have taken some pictures but was too much in the moment to remember.

SIMPLE “COMFORT FOOD” FOR DINNER: FIRST WEEK OF THE FALL SEMESTER

Shalinee~~

(Note: on your way home from work today (or Dave’s way home) you need to pick up vanilla ice cream…)

It is 10:32 as I sit down to write this. I am totally exhausted; I can barely think straight; and I cut my thumb with a sharp knife while peeling peaches for our swap so my left thumb is throbbing as I try to type this. Anyhooooo………..

Here we are. The first day of the first week of the new fall semester. Braydon and I came downstairs from getting the kids to bed at 8pm. After cleaning up the kitchen and the house, I then began to cook for our swap. It seems to take me about 2 hours each week, sometimes longer. Tonight was exactly 2 hours. I was going fast—and after a long day it just about kills me, every time, but then – when I’m done, like I am right now, I’m so glad I did it. Because now we’re all set for the week.

Here’s what you have this week:

• Curried “Haitian” Chicken Salad*
• Pita, Lettuce, Tomato for pita sandwich making with the chicken salad
• Decadent Potato Chips (I decided that we deserve this treat for the first week back)
• Peach (and Raspberry & Blueberry) Cobbler for dessert… I know, I know, I broke the ‘no dessert’ rule for this… but I decided that our kids and husbands deserve this treat for Mommy’s first week back (heaven knows this is just as tough for them, if not more so, than it is for us.) Anyway, it is also the height of peach season right now… the farm-stand baskets are overflowing with peaches… and these delights won’t be around much longer… so I took it upon myself to make us cobbler!  BAKE, UNCOVERED, FOR ½ HOUR, AT 375. Serve warm with vanilla iced cream!

*Re: the Curried “Haitian” Chicken Salad~~  After college, Braydon and I lived in Charleston, SC for one year while we applied to graduate school. Charleston has a pretty big food scene. We had a lot of fun eating there. Anyway, there was a little lunch place that we loved, called Doe’s Pita. At that point (1994-95) mainstream healthy-yet-yummy eating was still sort of just taking off. Doe’s was way ahead of their time. Their thing was fresh, healthy, interesting pita sandwiches. We became addicted to their Curried Chicken Salad. It was made with yogurt (not mayonnaise), which was downright radical at the time. In addition to chicken it was loaded with celery, apples, and raisins. My mouth is watering as I type this out. It was stuffed into a pita with lettuce. So simple and so good. After we moved to Boston for grad school there was nothing like Doe’s Pita anywhere to be found. We wanted that chicken salad so badly… that I took it upon myself to figure out the recipe (at the time I could barely boil water, but I was determined). I mastered it. And made it regularly for us. Especially in late summer or early fall… I think because the flavors just work for that time of year (and the weather then reminds me of winter in Charleston—oh, and this chicken salad makes a great tailgate/picnic food). So… fast forward… we moved for the Lehigh job… and 10 years after our love affair with Doe’s Pita we found ourselves in Bucks County and exploring our new “home.” We pretty quickly discovered our favorite area gourmet food shop/farm shop—Tabora Farm. Have you been there? You’ve gotta go sometime. It is lovely. So, one of the first times we were in there we decided to get sandwiches from their deli. They had something on the menu called “Haitian Chicken Salad” and of course we had to ask what that was (!!!). When they described it as “a curried chicken salad,” we knew we had to get it. At Tabora they serve it on whole grain bread with lettuce and tomato. It is basically the same as Doe’s except that I’m pretty sure it is made with mayonnaise (not yogurt). We order it pretty much any time we get sandwiches at Tabora. Owen, especially, is a HUGE FAN of it (he’ll eat a whole container of it – no sandwich, just the chicken salad) in one sitting. Over time I’ve come to sort of have my own recipe for it. And if truth be told, I’ll admit that I like mine the best of all. Mine is plain yogurt; curry; celery; apple; raisins; green onion; diced chicken breast (this time I bought rotisserie chickens because it made my life today so much easier… plus it gave me a good excuse to go to the beloved Wegmans [because I really only trust Wegmans for a good organic rotisserie chicken]), It is great for pita sandwiches, roll-up sandwiches, or just on it’s own (like Owen likes it!). It is also a great packed-lunch-for-work when you dollop a scoop of it on top of a green salad.

It is now 11:03 pm and I’m calling it a day!  I hope you guys like this!  Enjoy!!!

We had the enchiladas last night— AWESOME. Huge hit. ESPECIALLY WITH BRAYDON. I think he thought he had died and gone to heaven. He loves enchiladas (always orders them whenever we are at a Mexi rest.), particularly w/ tomatillo sauce… and I have never made them at home… ever…! So, it was a big huge deal to him and he loved it. We only ate half and froze the other half…. It was awesome. The salsa was great for B & I but the kids would not eat it. Who knows why? They don’t like feta (crazy I know!), and never have… we’ll have to work on that one because no child of mine could not like feta. Anyway, thanks! It was great!