carrots – Page 3 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Happy New Year Hoppin’ John

When I first moved to Boston I lived with a girl from Texas. She was the first Texan I knew and from her I learned that Texans are a bit unlike the rest of us. There are things about living in Texas that you just don’t get anywhere else, and Texas food is a big part of growing up Texan. There were special brands of beans in the cupboards of the house I shared with her, and jars of bacon drippings in the refrigerator, and spice blends I’d never heard of. And on New Years day, she made a big pot of black eyed peas and rice and collard greens. She called it Hoppin’ John and told me that it is very important to eat Hoppin’ John on New Years day, for luck.

I never got a recipe from her, and when I decided to make Hoppin’ John this New Years day, thinking that perhaps I need all the luck I can get, I found a pretty wide disparity in recipes online. So I decided to go ahead and make my own. It is, after all, really the black eyed peas that matter here. Eating black eyed peas for luck is a tradition that might date back as far as 500 CE. Much like lentils in Italy, the peas are meant to be symbolic of coins, and eating them should bring prosperity in the coming year. So I’m eating black eyed peas and hoping for a little more prosperity for all of us.
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Scallops and Couscous

New England made a permanent impression on me, as evidenced by my linguistic and culinary relationship with scallops. Before moving to Boston, I had never eaten a scallop. I had no interest in scallops. As you can probably tell by the near complete lack of seafood recipes on this site, I’m not much of a fish eater, though I do continually vow to introduce it into my diet more often. And I thought scallops were some of the grossest of the gross in the aquatic world. They just looked like slimy blobs, and who wants to eat slimy blobs? Well, thanks to Boston’s seafood-heavy culture, and to Mr. X, I now want to eat slimy blobs, as long as those slimy blobs are scallops.

And yes, I cannot help myself from pronouncing this word as “scaw-lops,” in true New England fashion. And for this I blame one of my favorite library school professors, who had an old school Cantabrigian (as in, Massachusetts) accent, and liked to use scallops as an example in data modeling lessons, for reasons I will never really know.
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Lentils with Tuna and Caramelized Shallots

I will be the first to admit that this is not the most attractive meal. However, it is so darned tasty and easy that, from its first accidental inception in my kitchen it has rapidly become one of my favorite easy, inexpensive weeknight dinners. The lentils, cooked with a bit of Worcestershire sauce, are rich and silky and delicious on their own, but paired with good quality Italian tuna and crispy, sweet caramelized onions, they feel positively indulgent.

The trick to making this really, very good is to use good tuna, packed in olive oil. Mushy, watery Chicken of the Sea simply will not do. I’m sure that a pan-seared tuna fillet would be excellent, but part of the ease of this dinner lies in the canned tuna, which is, for me, a pantry staple.
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Chicken Marbella, Three Ways

I have been saving this recipe to post to my new blog, but setting up the new blog has been taking longer than I anticipated, and this chicken was so good, and so versatile, that I decided I couldn’t wait to share it any longer. The recipe comes from The Silver Palate Cookbook, and was apparently one of the first dishes to be offered at the Silver Palate food store. I discovered it only after reading about the death of Sheila Lukins, one of the founders of The Silver Palate, and I’m glad I did. I had the impression that The Silver Palate Cookbook was a throwback to the 80s and had never thought to pick it up. Now that I know better, I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy and try more.

I also can’t wait to cook more with prunes. I know, sounds crazy, but I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet richness they added to this chicken. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover prunes are nothing more than dried plums. I suspect if they were called dried plums instead of prunes they wouldn’t have such a geriatric reputation.
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A new kind of Rice and Beans

This post is especially for my brother, Patrick, who is newly independent, and who loves cooking as much as I do.

I have been making and eating rice and beans for a long, long time. It’s probably the first thing I learned to cook. It is comfort food, it is day-before-the-paycheck food, with a little meat thrown it is day-after-the-paycheck food. It can be healthy or over the top and indulgent. I suspect it is the endless versatility of rice and beans that makes me love it so, and come back to it at least once a month.

For a long time I made rice and beans using packaged mixes, like Goya or Mahatma. And I’ll be honest, sometimes I still do. But making rice and beans from scratch is one of the least expensive, easiest dinners around, so the box mixes aren’t really worth it, unless you need the sodium fix. And it is great for college students. You can make a big pot for about $5 and it will last you all week. The rice and beans together make a complete protein, so you don’t need to splurge for meat. And you can add all kinds of vegetables to be sure you’re getting your greens.
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Black Bean and Wild Rice Soup

In my attempt to eat less meat and more plant life, I’ve been experimenting with vegetarian soups for the past month or so. I make a big pot of soup every Sunday and bring a bowl to work every day for lunch, and I’ve got my soup-making skills down now. I’ve become quite fond of lentils, and should probably start making my own vegetable stock because I’m going through the stuff like crazy. What I love about making soup is that you have so many opportunities to be creative. Once you have a basic formula down you can add and subtract and experiment, and make something completely new just by using different herbs and spices.

Black bean soup has always been one of my favorites. When I was in college I was addicted to Progresso’s Hearty Black Bean soup and probably ate it at least once a week. When I realized that I was four weeks into my soup experiment and hadn’t made black bean soup yet, I knew I had to rectify the situation, so I came up with this: Black Bean and Wild Rice Soup.
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Creamy Vegetarian Minestrone

I’m not sure if it’s entirely fair to call this a soup. It turned out much thicker than I intended, but in this case that only made it better. This is a very hearty, warming, comforting winter meal, and its creaminess totally belies the fact that it’s pretty darned healthy. In my quest to eat more like a vegetarian or a vegan, this soup is a winner.

I’ve made minestrone many times, so I’m surprised I’ve never written about it. Minestrone is the simplest soup, made up of whatever bits and odds and ends are leftover in the pantry or refrigerator. It usually includes beans, pasta, and tomatoes as a base, but there is no set recipe, and the word minestrone has become a synonym for “hodgepodge” in Italy. It’s a great soup to make on Saturday night, before you go to the grocery store, when your refrigerator is mostly bare, and you need to use up the last of whatever is on hand, and it’s an especially excellent winter soup, because it takes well to all those winter vegetables. Yes, I love minestrone and turn to it often, and yet I’ve never seen the results I saw from this most recent minestrone making.
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Barley, Lentil, and Swiss Chard Soup

Here it is, week two of the new year and soup two in my impromptu series of healthy, vegetarian soups. When I told Mr. X I was making barley, lentil, and swiss chard soup he made a face that clearly indicated it sounded in no way appealing, which made me a little worried. And I will admit that the soup is more interesting the day after, when the flavors have had a chance to meld a little more. Which makes it an excellent choice for a week of lunches. And I believe that barley and lentils combine to make a complete protein.
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