Easy as Pie Test Kitchen

Okay, I couldn't really get enough of the sesame oil and spinach last time

I like spinach almost as much as I like chocolate. Weird, I know. But it's so crisp when it's fresh and so melty when it's cooked... And it's good with almost anything. I just throw it in with whatever else I'm eating sometimes. Spaghetti, fajitas, sandwiches, you name it. It's so much better than lettuce. One of these days, my biceps will suddenly bulge out and sprout anchor tattoos. Don't worry, though. I know not everyone shares my spinach obsession, so I don't just add random spinach to the recipes I post here! It goes particularly well with garbanzos and, of course, garlic. This is a great side dish or light meal on its own.

 

Garbanzos & Spinach

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon sesame seed oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 bag spinach (6 ounces)
1 can garbanzo beans (12 ounces), drained
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (optional)

Directions:
Heat oil in a skillet over medium low heat. Saute the garlic and onion in the oil until onion is tender. Stir in the spinach, garbanzo beans, cumin, chile powder, and salt. Cook until thoroughly heated. Serve topped with chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

Getting some sage advice

A few weeks back, I got an email from a woman named Heather who has food issues similar to mine, who also loves to cook (and is probably way better at it than I am). Turns out she went to college in my home town AND she lives right down the street from our new place. We got together for tea last week, and she showed me some neat little places in town that I never would have found on my own. She also brought me some pineapple sage from Heavenly Acres Farm. I'd heard of pineapple sage, but I'd never actually tried it. I always thought of sage as kind of a savory seasoning that I just couldn't imagine with pineapple. Well, one whiff of the herbs told me I was in for a pleasant surprise. To get the old creative juices flowing, I've been trying to cook with what I have in the kitchen instead of planning my meals. I basically had pork, some two-buck-chuck white zinfandel, and the usual kitchen staples, so I decided to make some breaded pork with pineapple sage and wine sauce. It turned out fabulously, getting a rare "this is REALLY great" from my husband not once, but twice. The sauce went pretty well on rice, too. I'm now a huge fan of pineapple sage. I even saved a cutting so I can try to plant it in my container herb garden. Heather also informed me that ghee (a prepared butter from India) doesn't have the milk protein in it that bugs my tummy, so I'll be trying that soon and blogging about it, too.

 

Breaded Pork Loin with Pineapple Sage Sauce

1 pound pork loin, sliced in 1/2" thick pieces
1/4 cup flour, (wheat or rice depending on your diet)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup white zinfandel
3 sprigs pineapple sage, chopped
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Seal pork in a ziploc bag and pound it to tenderize it. Add flour, salt and pepper to the bag and shake until the pork is coated with a thin layer of flour. Once the butter has melted, add the pork to the pan and cook until it is golden brown on both sides, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove pork to a plate and cover it to keep it warm. Keep the burner on medium high. Add the sage, rosemary, and wine to the remaining butter in the pan and scrape the remnants of the pork from the bottom of the pan. Cook about 3-minutes, then add the lemon juice. Cook one minute more. Pour the sauce over the pork to serve.

Why ask why?

Today is my mom's birthday, so this post is dedicated to her. I grew up learning how to do all kinds of things you would normally think of the Pilgrims doing, like making butter in a jar, crafting oil lamps out of milk jug lids (okay, maybe the Pilgrims didn't do that), and making applesauce by squeezing apples through a giant metal grinder. We grew our own pumpkins and popcorn in the back yard a few times. As a result, I often have an irresistible urge to do things myself. I see something at the store and think, "Psh. I could do that better myself. And cheaper, too." This inclination has been proven wrong more often than not, but for some reason I feel more satisfied when it's done anyway. Maybe the reason is as simple as enjoying working with my hands. As part of this inclination, I have inherited my mother's love of gardening, as well as what she calls her "black thumb" talent for it. In spite of our black thumbs, we have both managed to grow some passable edibles. I have always had some kind of herbs growing on my porch, they just tend to have a shorter life expectancy than they might have elsewhere.

Since we have a nice big new porch, I'm getting really ambitious. Today I planted about a dozen varieties of seeds to germinate, including some stevia. Faithful readers will remember that I blogged about growing my own stevia, oh, well, awhile ago. I'm finally doing it. Or trying to. Here's my box o' seeds, soon to be a box o' plants. I put them in a box in case we have more cold weather or torrential downpours, so I can bring them inside.

The box says gifts because that's what it used to hold, not because I am getting some kind of unrealistic, grand view of my gardening capabilities.

I also have a compost bin complete with worms, and I get a kick out of thinking of myself as a worm wrangler. (Thanks, Miranda, for the worms! See below.) I have some pots, some dirt, and a spreadsheet for keeping track of all of the soil, sun, and water needs of my plants. Wish me luck!

Open, sesame!

Sesame seed oil is probably my favorite kind of oil. It's so fragrant when it's cooking, with such a nutty, sunshiny flavor.

Pan-Fried Sesame Chicken with Spinach

Ingredients:
4 chicken breast halves, boneless, skinless
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 bag spinach, (12-ounce)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
salt
pepper

Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat until smoking a bit. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken, and place the breasts in the skillet. Cook until browned on both sides and no longer pink in the middle. Remove from pan and cover to keep warm. Add a little extra oil to pan if it is dry. Lower heat to medium-high. Add onion and cook until onion is beginning to get tender. Add spinach and cook it with onions until it has shrunken quite a bit but is still green. Remove from heat. Serve chicken and spinach together sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Ghosts of tuna past (more appetizing than it sounds)

This recipe is a little reminder of summer for all my snow-bound friends. Heck, it’s even been a little wintry here in southern California. By “wintry” I mean a little rainy and below 60 some days. Please don’t throw snow at your computer screen.

 

A few months back, a co-worker wrangled this tuna off the California coast, and I ran home and cooked it ASAP. Fresh tuna deserves to go from ocean to stomach with as little cooking as possible in between. I am not brave enough to prepare my own fish completely raw, however, so pan-seared was the way to go. Fresh caught fish is an occasion at the Walton household, so I bought some of these decorative-looking mini mixed greens from Trader Joe’s that always remind me a little of alfalfa. Turns out they’re not just pretty, but yummy, too. I seared the tuna and made some pickles to top it with rice vinegar, as well as a little horseradish sauce I made. (Trader Joe’s didn’t have wasabi, which probably would have been better.)

 

Pickles

1 cucumber, cut in small cubes or slices

1 very small red onion, or 1/2 a medium red onion, chopped in small pieces

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Mix ingredients in a metal or ceramic bowl. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (I just whipped this up and stuck it in the fridge the night before.)

 

Sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise (I can’t eat eggs, so I use vegan mayo, which is better than the real store-bought stuff IMHO)

1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon hot chili sauce (I prefer Sri Racha, but I’m sure Tabasco would do)

2 tablespoons horseradish

1 tablespoon lemon juice

 

Tuna

Tuna

Sesame seed oil

 

Pat the tuna dry and sprinkle with pepper. Heat a skillet over medium high. Add the oil, then the tuna. Cook the tuna on each side until it is golden—usually under a minute.

 

Serve tuna topped with pickles and horseradish sauce.