Home cooking

Made bacon-turkey soup last night based on the generous servings of turkey, potatoes, and corn from a local restaurant in my home town, plus bacon, onion, and green veg. from around the house. It was quite acceptable.

Random thought: The first recipe was probably barbecued meat, but the second was probably stew, closely followed by soup. What do you think?

Curry-potato soup

We had one of our rare nights out at a local pub. I had curried chicken, which I found a bit spicy — more than the usual tamed-down version and I soon powered through all the underlying rice. To dilute the heat, I ordered mashed potatoes, which were really nice with the curry. I took my leftovers home: half the curry, half the potato, and half of a green salad.

The next night I re-mashed the potatoes with about a cup of water, added the curry, chopped and mixed in the salad, and heated it all in a saucepan. It made a nice, smooth curry soup with greens.

Brunch

Mmmm. Just made a substantial brunch with celery, onion, and bok choy frittata, baked beans, bacon, and toast. I’ll be full at least until supper time.

Meat loaf

I used a pan something like a cupcake pan t(for six little bundt cakes) to make mini-meat loaves that would cook quickly while I microwaved some potatoes and stir-fried some bok choy. The meat loaf rings were so tender that they fell apart when I was lifting them out but they were delicious. It was a very satisfying meal.

Baking pan for fluted bundt-muffins

Colourful potato pancakes

Colourful potato pancakes:

1. Roast a beet, grate it. (I wonder if microwaving would do?)
2. Grate a carrot, an onion, and a potato.
3. Mix it all together.
4. Squeeze all the moisture you can out of the veggies.
5. Add eggs for stickiness and flour to absorb excess moisture.
6. Form into patty shapes and fry. Oh and  before adding eggs and flour.

Stir-fried meat with squash and couscous

Vegetables must be ready before you start cooking. You have to watch closely to prevent burning. There’s no time to prepare ingredients once you start.

Butternut squash: use spoon to remove seeds

Ingredients:

* meat
* marinade
* various chopped vegetables
* cooking oil
* couscous (tiny pasta beads)

Vegetables:
* one onion, chopped
* wedge of cabbage, chopped
* 1/3 of a small butternut squash, de-seeded & coarsely chopped
* fresh mushrooms, sliced
* several carrots, shredded
* 1 1/2 yellow zucchini, coarsely chopped

Overview:
1. Marinate meat.
2. Chop vegetables.
3. Boil water for couscous.
4. Cook meat with vegetables
5. Cook couscous.

Variation: My meat was already well marinated, so I varied the workflow and pre-cooked it in an iron pan that didn’t need watching while I chopped vegetables.

Work flow:
1. Cut about 8 oz. steak into short strips, then marinate it (e.g. in 1/2 soy sauce, 1/2 mild curry sauce).
2. Chop the vegetables and have them ready in little bowls or piles
3. Heat some cooking oil (olive oil is good) in a wok or large saucepan deep enough so that you can stir the contents without scattering them.
4. Brown the meat. Stir to prevent burning.
5. Add the squash, which takes longest to cook.
6. If you’re having couscous, start water boiling, you’ll want two cups.
7. Add the onion, stir it in, and let it soften
8. Add the shredded carrots. Stir often and add more oil if necessary.
9. When the water is boiling, put one cup of couscous into a container (I use a Pyrex beaker) and pour 2 cups of water over it. Stir and let sit for five minutes.
10. Add the rest of the veggies. Keep stirring to mix and coat with oil.
When the squash is soft and the cabbage is bright green, it’s done.
11. Serve with couscous.

Can anyone tell that I’m using up a cabbage?