Saturday Dinner: Turkey and Broccoli Goulash

Saturday night dinners are officially being changed to Friday night dinners. It's so we can be just like Lorelai and Rory on Gilmore Girls. Ha! No really, as much as we love them, and as much as we are tickled to be able to say that we have Friday night dinners just like on GG, it's a scheduling change to better suit our (or more specifically, my) needs. We made this decision too late to do anything about this week, so tonight we made yet another (relatively!) healthy recipe. Perhaps not the most visually appealing thing we've ever made, but once you taste it and know how little work went into making it, I guarantee you'll be a fan.



The original recipe (I don't have a link for it) was called simply "chicken and broccoli pasta" and involved a slow cooker. It sounded good, even though I generally don't like ground poultry (it's just so watery). After reading the recipe I could not really picture what it was supposed to turn out like -- what was it? After having made it, it seems very like what one of my friends calls "goulash," so I've elected to call it that as well. I also made a few adjustments to the recipe, and it came out really great, so I'm going to stick with the tried and true.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that it utilizes the slow cooker, which is one of the greatest inventions ever. Throw a bunch of stuff in, then come back hours later to find perfectly cooked and yummy food? What's not to like? This recipe requires a little bit of pre-slow cooker work, but not much. And best of all, I think the leftovers will be just as good -- if not better -- than the first serving.



Turkey and Broccoli Goulash

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lb ground turkey (or chicken breast)
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large shallot, minced (optional)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 12 oz frozen broccoli flowerets
• 14 1/2 oz canned Italian-style tomatoes, undrained
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 7 oz rotini pasta, cooked and drained
• 3 1/2 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

Method

1. In a large skillet, cook turkey, garlic, shallot if you're using, and onion until turkey is no longer pink.
2. Mix in basil and oregano.
3. Transfer mixture to slow cooker. Add broccoli, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Mix well.
4. Cover and cook on low for four hours.
5. Stir in tomato paste, pasta, and cheese.
6. Cover and cook on high for an additional 30 minutes.

Note: You can use lowfat/low sodium versions for each ingredient if you wish; I don't think it would make a big difference, flavor wise. As for the tomatoes I used stewed whole tomatoes, but I think diced might be even better. About 4 1/2 oz of dry rotini pasta was used to make the 7 oz of cooked. I don't think the shallot would make a big difference, but I threw it in because I had it. Also, Jade used ground chicken instead of turkey, so the choice is really up to you. Despite the fact that I don't usually like ground poultry, it worked really well in this dish.

Oh also -- today is apparently National Bundt Pan Day, so I made a quick white cake using an easy peasy Betty Crocker mix. Hey, it's been a very cold autumn and my open kitchen with its hardwood floors isn't my favorite place to be!

Saturday Dinner: Feta Burgers

It's time for another Saturday night dinner, but once again it's a special edition as we did it for lunch instead of dinner. On the menu today: Feta Burgers! Actually, it was supposed to be lamb burgers, but ground lamb isn't exactly easy to come by. (Plus I'm just not a huge fan of lamb in general; it has to be extremely fresh and cooked perfectly so that the gamey aftertaste isn't as strong.) Instead I used beef and Jade used chicken.



Other than the lamb, I followed the recipe exactly. It was super simple, took less than 15 minutes to prepare and make. I know because I had misjudged the time, and got home from the supermarket (and Starbucks) with only 15 minutes to spare until we were supposed to meet up. I mixed up the meat and slapped the patty in a cast-iron pan to cook. Instead of serving with rice or bread on the side, I decided to eat it as a real burger with a sesame bun. I sliced up a Roma tomato and spread some mustard on one side of the bun. If I'd had more time I would have lightly toasted it. Though I waited awhile, the feta cheese refused to melt on the meat. :/ I even covered it for about 30-45 seconds to encourage the steam to melt it, but it was stubborn. Finally I gave up and just took the patty out of the pan with chunks of feta cheese sitting on top. It was still tasty!



Jade was a little fancier with hers. She sauteed some spinach and added it to the ground chicken along with some marjoram, then formed patties. She also added some sliced portabello mushroom to the sandwich.



Using some spray oil, she made some corn tortilla chips to go on the side (as well as a salad). I've made my own corn tortilla chips before, but always by deep frying in oil. If just spraying the pan with a bit of oil works just as well, I might try that and save myself some calories.



Since I was in a hurry I didn't have anything to accompany my burger. Jade's plating puts mine to shame!



Feta Burger

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 500g (roughly a pound) lean ground meat (your choice of lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, etc.)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp rosemary (or 2 minced tsp if using fresh)
• pinch of ground black pepper
• 6 tbsp crumbled feta cheese

Method

1. Mix the meat, salt, garlic powder, rosemary, and pepper. Shape into 4 patties.
2. Cook the patties in a pan, using spray oil, until browned, for about 5 minutes. Flip once during this process so both sides get brown.
3. Sprinkle with cheese and cook until the cheese melts (or burger is done and you are tired waiting for the cheese to melt).
4. Serve on hamburger buns, or eat as a meat entree with some rice and veggies on the side.

Notes: You can jazz up the meat any way you like -- add additional herbs and spices, or even sauteed spinach as Jade did. And as with all burgers, you can add condiments to your preference. If I'd had time I might have fried up some bacon or sauteed some mushrooms and onions.

Saturday Dinner - Rotini Pasta with Vegetable Marinara, Banana Cake, Miniature Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (Special Edition)

Tonight was a special edition of Jade and I's Saturday night dinners, being that it's Friday. That's because tomorrow is my birthday! And I'm going to my cousin's for some fresh boiled crab. Mmm.

But back to tonight! We made a version of a dish that I used to make a lot when I was a poor legislative correspondent on Capitol Hill, making peanuts. This was a favorite meal because it was fast, cheap, filling, and had some nutritional value. But back then I only ever used pasta sauce that came in a jar, and usually made it with long pasta such as spaghetti or fettucini. Tonight, however, I made my own sauce, and as I was out of long pasta, used rotini -- which actually might have been a better choice.



We each made different desserts -- I made what was supposed to be a low-fat banana cake, except I didn't have milk, so used canned coconut milk instead, so the low-fat thing kind of went out the window, which is okay for me since I'm not restricted to having 10 grams of fat per meal, as Jade is. Predictably, the cake was soft, moist, and delicious, which means I'll probably have to continue to make it with the coconut milk! Still, I think it would still be great with the nonfat milk the recipe originally called for. Jade made miniature low-fat pineapple upside-down cakes, which looked so yummy I wish I could have had one! They were made in honor of her mother's birthday, which happened to be today.





All in all, a very simple, satisfying meal that was good and low in fat! Well, more so if you were at Jade's house instead of mine.

Rotini with Vegetable Marinara

Ingredients

• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 8oz can tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 cup dry red wine (I used Merlot)
• 1 zucchini, cut into 1/4" rounds and then cut in half
• 1 celery rib, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 5-6 white button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp marjoram
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups cooked rotini
• 8oz fresh broccoli
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, divided

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan or Dutch oven.
2. Toss in the diced onion and stir to coat. Add the sugar. Cook onions until they're translucent and getting soft. If it seems there's not enough oil for the onions you have, add a little more -- you don't want them to turn brown and burn.
3. Carefully pour in the red wine, and cook for a few minutes until it's reduced a bit.
4. Add the can of tomatoes, juice and all. If you're pressed for time, mash the tomatoes a bit so they're not quite so chunky. If you plan to let this simmer for a couple of hours, you can skip that step.
5. Mix the tomato paste with the water, and add to the sauce. Bring it to a boil.
6. Toss in celery, zucchini, and mushrooms, and stir to coat. Let that cook for a couple of minutes.
7. Add the garlic, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste.
8. Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 hours on low heat, stirring once or twice. The resulting sauce should be chunky, but the vegetables should be soft and there should be plenty of sauce.
9. About half an hour before you're ready to serve, make the pasta as directed on the package.
10. In another saucepan, heat 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. When it's hot, add the broccoli and stir fry until the broccoli is bright green and just about done. If you need to, add more oil as you definitely don't want the broccoli to burn.
11. Add cooked rotini and stir a bit, but don't actually cook as it'll stick to the pan.
12. Ladle in the vegetable marinara sauce and stir until all the pasta is coated. Add more if your preference is for more sauce.
13. Cook for a minute or two, then ladle into a pasta bowl and serve. We left out the cheese to keep this low fat, but you can sprinkle some parmesan on at the end.

I had to wait for the steam to dissipate to take this photo -- and even then some remained. I didn't want it to get totally cold, though, since I still had to eat it!

Banana Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (or nonfat milk for low-fat version)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Prepare a 9" square baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine bananas, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
6. Spread batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (If you use nonfat milk, it may only take 25 minutes as originally directed, so watch the cake to make sure it doesn't overbake!)
8. To prepare glaze, combine honey and cinnamon in a small bowl. Mix well. Drizzle over warm cake.

If you make the low-fat version, you can check out specific nutritional information here, which is the recipe I adapted.

Miniature Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 15oz can's worth of drained pineapple juice (see topping)

For the topping:

• 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter
• 7 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 1 15oz can of crushed pineapple, drained (save the juice)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
3. Slowly stir in the eggs and milk to the dry ingredients. Add some of the crushed pineapple to the batter if desired.
4. To make the topping, melt butter in a sauce pan.
5. Slowly add brown sugar until you get a nice-looking glaze. Pour the glaze into a pan (or distribute evenly among mini pans, if making small cakes).
6. Add the crushed pineapple, spreading it evenly in the pan(s).
7. Pour the cake batter over the glaze and pineapple.
8. Bake for 35 mins if making a large cake, 15 to 20 if doing minis. You can slice and serve directly out of the pan(s), or turn over so that the pineapple glaze is on top, for upside-down cake!

Note: To make low fat, use 1% low fat milk, and substitute 4 egg whites for the eggs -- it makes the cake a little heavier than is ideal, but the fat to taste ratio remains intact.

Miniature pineapple cakes, with a cell phone to show size.

Saturday Dinner: Broth-Boiled Kale with Fried Egg on Toast, Apple-Pear Tart

Tonight's dinner was inspired by Orangette, who recently blogged about boiled kale and an apple tart. The boiled kale recipe was actually adapted from The Zuni Café Cookbook, which I probably need to get at some point soon.

In any case, Jade and I were going to make a similar dinner, then sit down and watch the first episode of Gossip Girl S1 together. We plan to do this every Saturday. Except we won't watch the first episode very time, obviously, but continue in the series. She will be at her house and I will be at mine, 1,100 miles apart. Ah, the wonders of technology. The challenge we've imposed on ourselves is that Jade is currently on a restricted diet, due to recovering from surgery, and has to have low-fat meals. So we try to choose meals that are low in fat, or at the very least, easily made into a low-fat version.

Tonight she made a version of the dish that required less oil, and I pretty much stuck to the letter -- but even so, it's a pretty light, healthy meal.

I wasn't actually going to make the tart, except I realized that I had a frozen puff pastry sheet in the freezer that I've been meaning to use, as well as an apple and a pear that needed to be eaten. And since it sounded simple enough to make (made even simpler by the fact that I didn't make the pastry part myself), I decided to go for it.

First I went to the store and bought some chicken and celery for the stock (I had the other ingredients on hand), as well as the kale and some chard for another night. I threw all the stock ingredients into a large pot and let that simmer away for a few hours. In the meantime I prepared the vegetables and made the tart.


Here it is right out of the oven, pre-glaze.

When it came time to prepare the kale, I first sauteed some onions:



Then added the kale, garlic, and pepper flakes:



Finally, I added chicken broth (not pictured). While that was boiling merrily away I finished up the glaze for the tart and cut a generous slice of my sourdough rye to pop in the toaster. When that was golden brown, I rubbed a clove of garlic on both sides (it actually 'grates' it like cheese, even though you can't see the garlic on the toast!):



The instructions called for a "wide soup bowl" and what I used was clearly too big -- I'd say that a saucer or any dish that has uplifted sides would work just as well as a bowl, because it's not actually soup -- you just don't want moisture trickling off a regular plate.

When the kale was nearly ready I fried an egg -- unfortunately a little too well done, but I have plenty of leftovers so I can make sure it's runny perfection next time -- and assembled the whole thing together.



Now, this recipe had obviously sounded good to me or I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of preparing it. But I wasn't sure if it was going to be one of those things that sounded good in theory yet fell flat in practice. So plain and unpretenious -- it was either going to be blah or amazingly good. It was, I am happy to report, amazingly good. It might look homey and plain like peasant food, but it's fit for a king (or queen)!

Apparently you don't have to go through the trouble of using stock at all and can use plain water to boil the kale, but I would strongly advise against this. It's the kale that makes this dish interesting -- otherwise what you have is a fried egg on toast -- and the broth makes the kale rich and flavorful, and livens up the entire dish. Use pre-made broth if you must (if time constraints are an issue, it's definitely a decent alternative, though store-bought stock never tastes the same as the homemade kind), but use broth, not water.



The bread soaks up the broth and provides a hearty contrast to the soft leaves and egg. I opted not to drizzle with olive oil and cheese -- I don't think they would have added that much except a lot of extra calories. :-)



I finished with a slice of apple-pear tart, which was surprisingly good. Light but flavorful, just like the entree that had come before. Though I definitely could have had seconds of everything (happily), I was full without feeling like I was going to burst (as happens all too often with me!), and decided not to put the "too much of a good thing" theory to test.

Broth-Boiled Kale with Fried Egg on Toast (adapted from Orangette)

Ingredients

For the dish (serves 2)

• 8oz kale, washed, de-stemmed, and sliced into 1/4" ribbons
• 3-4 cups chicken stock (homemade or store bought)
• 2 thick slices of toasted bread
• 2 eggs
• 2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• 1 onion, diced
• a pinch of red pepper flakes
• salt to taste
• olive oil to stir fry (about 3 tbsp)

For the stock

• 2lb chicken parts (I used leg quarters)
• 2 quarts of water
• 1 carrot, quartered
• 1 celery rib, quartered
• 1/2 onion, cut in two
• salt to taste

Note: I doubled this because it's cheaper to buy chicken in bulk -- as a whole fryer, for instance -- and chicken stock is always welcome! But it does make a lot of stock.

Method:

For the stock

1. If you're making the stock, throw everything together in a large stockpot and bring to a slow boil. Simmer for at least 45 minutes. I like to eke out every last bit of chicken essence, so if I have the time I will usually let this go for about 3 hours. Salt to taste.
2. Remove the large solids as best as you can. Unless you used only chicken bones, save the meat for later use (like sandwiches or chicken enchiladas -- half of mine will be mixed with dry dog food for Talis).
3. Transfer the stock to another stockpot or large bowl using a strainer. The trick I like to use here is to line the strainer with cheesecloth so that all those little bits stay out of the final broth, and I don't have to strain twice. Now it's ready!

For the final dish

1. Heat up olive oil in a large saucepan (I used my wok).
2. Saute the onion until tender and nearly translucent.
3. Add kale, sliced garlic, and red pepper flakes. Saute until the kale is completely wilted.
4. Pour chicken stock into the kale until it's covered by about 1/2" of broth. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the kale is tender. Salt to taste.
5. When the kale is nearly done, toast the bread and fry over easy eggs.
6. Place one slice of toast into each dish. Top with a generous portion of kale, without being too fussy about wringing the broth out (but don't let it get soupy either). Place the egg on top and serve.

Apple-Pear Tart, the super easy version (for pastry dough recipe, see Orangette -- also creates a larger tart)

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
• 1 large apple, peeled and cored (save the discard) -- thinly sliced
• 1 large, firm pear, peeled and cored (save the discard) -- thinly sliced
• 1 apple core
• 1 pear core
• 1/4 cup + 3 tsp sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and place the puff pastry on it.
2. Lay slices of fruit on the puff pastry, overlapping each other. You should have 3 rows.
3. Sprinkle 3 tsp sugar over the fruit, 1 tsp per row. Use more if you run out, or like it sweeter.
4. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the pastry and fruit are golden and just beginning to turn brown. Let cool right on the pan.
5. While the tart is baking, put 1/4 cup sugar, water, and cores/peels into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until it's reduced to a thick syrup. Remove from heat and strain out solids. If you're not serving right away, you can heat it up again later.
6. Slice the tart into thirds -- a pizza cutter works well. Then slice each third in half, so you have 6 portions.
7. When ready to serve, place a tart slice onto a plate, then drizzle with warm syrup.

You could obviously do this with just apples or just pears; I used what I had on hand. The puff pastry doesn't absolutely need to be fully thawed. It's usually folded into thirds, and since you'll be cutting it into thirds anyway, if you unfold it while it's slightly frozen it will probably break at the seam, which would be fine. If you're not paying attention when making the glaze and it's suddenly been boiled down to nothing (this might have happened to me), just add more water and keep boiling it.