This is from Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother’s Tokyo Kitchen which I’ve been enjoying.  I just used one small Japanese eggplant and half a green pepper because I was only feeding two people, and I cut back a bit on the sauce ingredients as well. It came out quite good. Well, I liked it. My youngest wasn’t so crazy about it but then she likes neither eggplant or green peppers, so I didn’t have high expectations!  I’ll post her quantities below since I winged and eyeballed my adjustments.

Oh, I just realized I forgot to garnish mine with the sesame seeds and oil!  Still tasted good.

• 1 pound Japanese eggplant
• 2 Tbs mirin
• 2 Tbs red miso
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sake
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 green pepper, cored and seeded, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 tsp toasted white sesame
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Soak the eggplant in some salted water while you prepare the sauce.

In a small bowl, mix together the mirin, miso, sake and sugar. Set this aside for the end of the recipe.

Start the oil heating in a wok if you have one. I used a medium saucepan so I could get by with using less oil and still having some depth. Drain the eggplant and blot dry with a paper towel. You want the oil about 350. If you drop a cube of bread in, it should sizzle.

Gently slide some of the eggplant pieces in and fry a few minutes until golden brown and cooked through. (A fork or skewer should easily go through.) Remove and drain on paper towels as small batches are done.

Now if you’re not frying anything else, drain the oil from the pan and reserve for another use. Since I was also going to fry some chicken, I just added a small bit of oil to a small frying pan.

Cook the pepper until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the eggplant back to the pan, then stir the miso sauce over it all and cook while stirring a few minutes to blend flavors and coat the vegetables.  Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the sesame seeds and sesame oil.

You can see my whole menu here.

Last year a client gave me some Penzey spices for a holiday gift and I’m just getting around to opening some of them. Last night we tried the Sate seasoning, which has salt, brown sugar, garlic, onion, coriander, shallots, ginger, tumeric, sweet paprika, Ancho pepper, galangal, cayenne red pepper and lemon grass in it! Whew!  Much easier to use a blend for sure, although I rarely buy them myself.   You could just sprinkle this stuff on some meat for some excellent flavor but I followed the recipe in their catalog and it was awesome!

I didn’t feel like going out and lighting the barbecue as I had just put the cover on it, expecting rain tonight or tomorrow.  I thought I’d try the George Foreman Grill for this and it worked great! (Note: I do not have the one with the removable plates but I would get that one were I to get a new one.)

• 2-4 Tbs Penzey’s Sate seasoning
• 2 Tbs water
• 3 Tbs soy sauce
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 2 Tbs rice vinegar
• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in 3/4″ cubes

Mix together the water and sate seasoning and let sit a few minutes to blend.

If you’re using wooden skewers, throw those in the sink and cover with water and let soak. This is probably less important on the George Foreman grill but very important if you grill them with a live flame.

Add the rest of the ingredients except the chicken to the sate seasoning and water, mix well, then stir in the chicken. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour, preferably two. I only did an hour.

The chicken will only take a few minutes to cook, maybe 4-5, so estimate how long it will take you to skewer the chicken and start some rice going at some point. I made saffron rice in the rice cooker and it came out great.

Put the chicken chunks on the skewers while the grill is heating. Cook 4-5 minutes.

Serve with some dipping sauces if you’d like. I used a bottled Thai peanut sauce that I had around.  This one would probably work good:

• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 3 Tbs hot water
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 2-3 tsp plum sauce

These would work well as appetizers at a party but we served them for dinner, with saffron rice and a green salad.

Pesto from homegrown basil

I am going to freeze some of this pesto, so I left out the cheese in the main batch, following my former mother-in-law’s rule as well as Mark Bittman’s advice in How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, one of my favorite go-to cookbooks. I’ve added some as I went using this on some chicken breasts the other night but will freeze the rest without the cheese.

My basil this year is the best I have grown yet. It is flavorful and produces plenty of leaves! I’ve used in Thai curry, tomato caprese salad, pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil, etc.   But somehow I hadn’t yet made pesto!  So I will be making lots of pesto over the next few weeks. The plant is starting to flower a lot and I don’t want to lose it all!

homegrown basil

I picked a huge branch of it and trimmed the leaves off, not worrying about the smaller stems but definitely discarding the woody thick ones.  I left a few flowers in.  After trimming, I rinsed them all off in a salad spinner and then spun them dry.

• 2 cups of loosely packed basil leaves, rinsed and dried
• a bit of salt, to taste
• 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 Tbs pine nuts (you could lightly toast but I skipped this)
• 1/2 cup olive oil, maybe more
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, if you’re using immediately

I used my food processor, first blending the basil, salt, garlic, nuts and half the oil. I had to stop and scrape the sides down a few times.  Then I added the other half of the oil and finished blending it all together, tasting to adjust the salt.  As I said, earlier I did not add the cheese yet since I was planning on freezing.

Note: if you don’t have pine nuts, you can use walnuts or just leave out the nuts. My MIL used to just mix the basil, salt, and oil together, then freeze in plastic bags laid flat. She could break off a pinch here and there as she wanted some fresh basil flavor in a dish.

What’s your favorite use for pesto, other than on pasta?

The tomatoes are so good this time of the year!  And I could eat this sauce on practically anything. Serve it with tortilla chips for an appetizer or with quesadillas. Spoon on some black bean soup. Serve with grilled chicken or fish… the possibilities are nearly endless!

Tonight we used it on some burritos made with some leftover bbq’d steak, black beans, and sliced avocados.

• 2 large beefsteak tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
• a few good squirts of lime juice
• 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
• salt to taste

Stir and mix, taste and adjust seasonings as per your tastes.

I got the basis of this recipe from my niece’s boyfriend but I kicked it up a notch after tasting. Maybe he toned it down a notch, knowing I’m a gringo. Anyway, thanks to Daniel for the basis and encouragement!

Lots of tomatillo recipes I saw online called for starting with the raw tomatillos but Daniel uses the canned ones so that’s what I did.

2 small cans (12 oz) or one large can of tomatillos
a bit of liquid from the tomatillos
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 – 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
salt to taste
a pickled jalapeno or one fresh jalapeno, chopped
a squirt of lime juice

Pulse the tomatillos in your food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend till it has the consistency you like. Taste and adjust the seasonings. I added the onion (not in the original recipe) and upped the garlic and salt a bit. If it’s too thick, add a bit of the liquid from the cans of tomatillo.

This was fantastic with some chili verde that I made as the birthday dinner request from my youngest.  Then this morning for breakfast I scrambled up an egg with a bit of grated Cheddar cheese and topped with the salsa verde. Mmmm!

I somehow ended up with a great dinner (and then breakfast) based on two cookbooks based on fictional families, The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco and Food To Die For: Secrets From Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen.

First, was the Sunday Gravy from The Soprano’s cookbook, modified only slightly to make smooth sauce rather than chunky. I put the whole tomatoes in my VitaMix and blended them up. You could also chop with scissors or just leave them whole and let them fall apart a bit as they cook.

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 pound meaty pork spareribs
• 1 pound veal stew meat
• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 pound meatballs, preferably made from pork and beef
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 3 28-oz cans pureed tomatoes or whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 cups water (use the cans to rinse out all the tomato juice!)
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh basil, 6-8 leaves torn or chopped into small pieces

Heat the oil in a heavy pot large enough to hold everything. Brown the pork, turning now and then, about 15 minutes. Take the pork out and put it on a plate. Brown the veal, about 10-15 minutes, turning periodically, then take it out and add it to the plate. Brown the sausage, 10-15 minutes, then take it out and add to the plate.

Drain the excess fat, leaving about 1 Tbs in the pot. Cook the garlic one minute, flattening and turning now and then to flavor the oil. Take the garlic out and discard it.

Add the tomato paste, tomatoes, water, salt, pepper, and basil leaves. Stir until the paste is mixed in well.  Add the meats back in. Bring to a simmer, partially cover, and cook for 2 hours or so. Stir periodically.

Add the meatballs and cook another half an hour. If the sauce becomes too thick, add some water. If it’s not thick enough, take the cover off the last half an hour.

At this point, you can serve take the meats out and serve the sauce over cooked pasta, with the meat as a second course or alongside. Or make lasagna with the sausage and meatballs and sauce and save the pork and veal for another meal.

I made lasagna.

I hadn’t made pizza in a while and decided to try a new sauce last week. I started with this one, dubbed the  Ultimate Pizza Sauce.  It seemed like it would be way too thick as written but I was especially intrigued by the fennel seed. Unfortunately, after I started making the sauce I realized I had no fennel seed so I need to make it again. I bought the fennel seed my last trip to the grocery store but thought I’d post this as I made it, since it was quite good even without the fennel. I used way more sauce than the original recipe called for, but cooked it down.

• 2 Tbs oil
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1/2 an onion, chopped very finely
• 1/4 cup celery, chopped very finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 15-oz cans tomato sauce
• 2 6 ounce cans tomato paste
• 2-3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• (and 1 tsp fennel seed if you want to try that!)

Heat the oil and butter in a saucepan large enough to hold all the tomato sauce without spattering too much. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and saute 5-10 minutes over low until very soft. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth.

Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir while bringing to a simmer. Turn it down to a very low simmer or it will spatter all over. Cover partially and cook at least half an hour, longer if you’d like. (I think I ended up at about 45 minutes to an hour.)

Take the bay leaf out and spread the sauce over your favorite pizza dough. I like to prebake my pizza just a few minutes before spreading sauce.

I do like making my own barbecue sauces. The bottled ones are a) expensive and b) expensive. My prejudice is showing I suppose. I do buy the bottled ones now and then when they’re on sale at rock-bottom prices. I then keep them in the pantry “for emergencies” but I rarely have an emergency that doesn’t allow for 2o minutes of mixing up some homemade sauce. I’ve learned I like ones that start with ketchup, vinegar, and brown sugar. I don’t like liquid smoke seasoning. Perhaps if I wasn’t actually barbecuing the liquid smoke would be okay but it tastes and smells false to me.

1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar (firmly packed of course!)
2 Tbs butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp steak sauce (like A1)
2 tsp honey
1 tsp mustard (the liquid yellow kind, not the dry)
1/4 tsp or more cayenne

Mix everything together in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered to avoid horrid splatters on your stove, about half an hour, stirring frequently.

I cooked ribs to go with this, it being Memorial Day weekend and all.

I went looking for my rib recipe to link to and realized I’d never posted it. I like to do a dry rub of some kind on baby back ribs and then grill over very low indirect heat (less than 300 degrees F) for a few hours. I serve the sauce on the side, rather than risking burning the ribs.

Sometimes I make meatballs. Sometimes I buy those frozen meatballs. They periodically go on sale for a price that rivals the cost per pound for ground beef. But sometimes I also just make a meat sauce with loose browned ground beef. I vary the canned tomato products depending on what I have around. There’s almost always a chopped onion, a few cloves of garlic minced up, some parsley, oregano, and basil. I suppose you could use those pre-mixed Italian seasonings but you have to find a brand you like. I’ve had some really bad ones so tend to just use some mix of my own dried or fresh herbs, depending on the season.

Sometimes I use a large can of pureed tomatoes and an 8 or 16 ounce can of tomato sauce, sometimes a large can of tomato sauce and a small can of tomato paste, etc. You could even use a large can of whole tomatoes in puree if you like your sauce chunky. Just break up the tomatoes a bit with a wooden spoon. Usually I add a bit of red or white wine, whichever’s open. If nothing’s open or you don’t cook with alcohol, just skip this step. I’ll serve the sauce over various shapes of pasta, but did the old fashioned spaghetti tonight–always a hit!

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
28 ounce can pureed tomatoes
15 ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup white wine (didn’t actually measure)

This came out fantastic!

Brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic in a large saucepan (thinking ahead to all the tomatoes you’re going to add!), then drain any excess fat. Remember not to dump it down your sink! I always keep a couple of cleaned cans (from easy stuff to clean like tomato sauce) under my sink and pour any fat into there.

Add the basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper and stir in, cooking for another minute or so.

Add the tomato puree, tomato sauce, and wine. Stir in and bring to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or longer. If it simmers a long time, it might get a bit thick. Add some liquid (more wine or just water) to thin it out a bit.

This is a very forgiving recipe. If you’re having company and want to make the sauce ahead of time and let it simmer longer while you visit with friends, just leave it on very low heat and check it now and then. Add more liquid or cover it after 10 minutes or so, then uncover it when you put the pasta in the water. This can also be made a few days ahead and kept in the refrigerator and made a few weeks or months ahead and frozen.

Date night last night. My normal mode of shopping is to plan for the entire week so the idea of shopping for one meal that you’re going to cook in a few hours is a novelty. But I had company. The girls were gone so we could have fun cooking grownup food and sharing the kitchen.

We wandered the grocery store as we planned dinner, then went through and got what we needed: good steaks, shallots, mushrooms, a packet of frozen potatoes he likes, and some brandy and sangria for cocktails.

Cheap sangria by itself is a bit, uh, cloying. I like good sangria so had my doubts about this drink he had in mind. But add a splash of good brandy to the cheap sangria and it’s quite good! Refreshing and a nice change from my usual pre-dinner Chardonnay.

The steaks were seasoned with some seasoned salt and pepper, then cooked stovetop. I almost always grill stuff but these came out so tender and good I might rethink things. Of course, we started out with better meat than my normal.

The packet of frozen potatoes were easy and good. I could have easily made my own oven roasted potatoes but for a quick meal these are very good and easy. We added some asparagus tips to the pan and it made a wonderful combination.

The bearrnaise sauce. I haven’t made it in ages. It is so rich–but so good! He added some sliced mushrooms to the vinegar and shallots cooking, which made a good addition. Unfortunately, the sauce curdled at the end. We looked up two methods of “fixing” it but neither one worked. It still tasted good, but looked like…well, never mind what it looked like. So can someone tell me why it curdled? Did we cook it too long? Was it that the butter was cold when we added it? Those are the two things we came up with as possibilities. The steaks took just a few minutes longer than we’d thought so the sauce was on the heat a few minutes longer than we’d planned.

Anyway, a delicious dinner none-the-less and so much fun to cook with someone else!