Meatless Monday: Cauliflower Marranca

It's not particularly photogenic, but it tastes really good!

A recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook. Made a few changes - added tomatoes, used quinoa, measured the added fat, and added the crunchy topping. I'm not against fat but it does carry a heavy caloric punch. You need some to carry flavor and give richness but I see no point in gilding the lily, as my mom would say. The original gave no amounts for the fat (butter in the original) at all.

This is a good recipe to use up bits of cheese. Two cups is enough, but you can add a bit more, if you want to use up what you've got.

Cauliflower Marranca
(serves 6-8)

non-stick cooking spray
1 pound mushrooms, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 ½ Tablespoons oil, divided
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
½ teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets and core cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
black pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh or frozen chopped basil
3 cups cooked quinoa or brown rice
2 - 2 ¾ cups grated cheese (jack, mozzarella, cheddar, manchego)
¼ cup dry bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Heat 1 ½ Tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and onion. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice, and the oregano. Cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Pour all this into a large bowl.

Wipe out the pan, add 1 ½ Tablespoon oil, and heat over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, cook for 30 seconds, then add the cauliflower and 2 Tablespoons water. Cover tightly and reduce the heat to medium. Steam cauliflower until tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into bowl with mushrooms. Add chopped basil, cooked quinoa/rice, and cheese. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if needed.

Pour into the prepared dish, cover, and bake for 25 minutes (35 minutes if the grain is cold). Combine the bread crumbs with ½ Tablespoon oil and mix until all the crumbs are moistened. Raise the temperature of the oven to 425°F. Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the top of the casserole. Return to the oven, uncovered, to bake until top is browned and crunchy, about 10 minutes.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It is very hot right out of the oven and it's easier to serve if allowed to set up.

Best if reheated in the oven to keep the topping crunchy but it reheats OK in the microwave too.

Adapted from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, Ten Speed Press, 1977.

Chinese Ground Meat and Rice Casserole

I made this one with cooked leftover leg of lamb.

This recipe was inspired by one for Lamb Crepes Oriental. Just a hunch...most people reading here are not going to make crepes. I simplified things by using rice and making this a layered casserole. This is a delicious way to use up all sorts of cooked meats: beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, pork. If you don't have 2 cups of cooked meat, you can substitute 1 pound of ground meat. See the instructions for changes if you start with raw meat.

We don't usually think of cooking lettuce, but romaine is hardy, holding up to some gentle cooking, and adds some nice crunch here.

Chinese Ground Meat and Rice Casserole
(serves 4)

non-stick cooking spray
4 cups cooked rice (brown or white)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (if using cooked meat only)
1 onion, minced
2 cups of cooked chopped meat or poultry
OR
1 pound ground meat
¼ cup beef broth
½ large head of romaine lettuce, shredded
½ teaspoon black pepper


Sauce:
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon dry sherry, sake, or rice wine
1 cup beef broth

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 9"x11" baking dish with cooking spray. Spread the rice in the dish and set aside.

If using cooked meat, heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauteacute; for 5 minutes. Add in the cooked meat and beef broth. Simmer until meat to warmed. Remove from heat, mix in lettuce and black pepper.

If using raw ground meat, heat up a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the meat until no longer pink. Drain off most of the fat, leaving about 2 Tablespoons. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook the onion for 5 minutes. Add beef broth and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, mix in lettuce and black pepper.

Pour the meat-lettuce mixture over the rice.

Make the sauce: Combine the cornstarch, soy sauce, ginger, dry sherry, and beef broth in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Spoon the sauce over the meat. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.

Adapted from a recipe for Lamb Crepes Oriental in Cooking with Cornelius: The Corning Cookbook by Cornelius O'Donnell, Random House, 1982

Turkish (or maybe Greek?) Stuffed Peppers

Turkish cooks are experts at stuffing all sorts of vegetables. This recipe is a mash-up of a classic Turkish vegetable stuffing and some Greek flavors. It's not so crazy; they are neighbors.

The filling itself is easy. Stuffing peppers isn't that hard either. But, it all takes a while, particularly the cooking of the peppers. You need to braise them a long time until they are tender. The great thing is they reheat well so you can make a panful and have a quick meal by throwing a pepper in the microwave.

The filling contains short-grain rice (such as sushi rice) which is stickier. It holds together as a stuffing better than long-grain rice.

Stuffed Peppers

(serves 6)

6 large bell peppers, whatever color you like

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons raisins or dried currants, soaked for 5 minutes in hot water

1 10-12 oz. package frozen chopped spinach

1 ¼ cups short grain rice

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ cup chopped parsley

¼ cup chopped fresh dill

4 oz. crumbled feta cheese

juice of 1 lemon

stock or water

Cut off the top of the peppers as high as you can to leave a large cavity. Remove the core and seeds. If the peppers won't stand up straight, you can take a very thin slice off the bottom to make them flat. Then they won't tip over in the pan. Set aside the peppers.

Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a large covered skillet or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes until onions are soft but do not brown them. Drain the raisins. Add raisins and spinach and raise the heat to medium. Cook until spinach has thawed. Add the rice, ¾ teaspoon salt, pepper, and 1 ½ cups of water or stock. Stir to mix, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat. Mix in herbs and cheese. Taste the filling and add more salt if needed. If the filling is bland, it will be even blander after steaming for nearly an hour so season well.

Season the insides of the peppers with salt. Fill each pepper with stuffing. When you have used up all the stuffing, wipe out the pan and place the peppers in the same pan (you don't want to have to do more dishes, do you?). Pour enough stock or water into the pan to cover the bottom of the pan. If you are using water or unsalted stock, add ½ teaspoon of salt to season it. Drizzle the lemon juice and the remaining olive oil over the peppers. Put on their tops. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, just enough to maintain a simmer. Cover the pan and steam the peppers for about 50 minutes until quite tender. If you pierce one with a knife, it won't resist at all.

Serve hot or at room temperature. A little bit of extra virgin olive oil, chopped fresh parsley and/or dill, or crumbled cheese are all nice garnishes. I also like it for breakfast, topped with a fried egg.

Spinach and Rice Casserole

Another recipe for my Greek class. It draws from the very popular Spanakopita which is a Greek spinach pie. Spanakopita is made with phyllo dough but that's not the easiest thing to deal with for beginning cooks. Here, we make it easier by mixing the spinach filling with some brown rice. This is a stick-to-your-ribs vegetarian entree.

Frozen spinach comes in packages ranging from 10 oz to 16 oz. Use whatever you can find. You do need to thaw it and drain it, but no need to squeeze out the water, as is usually done with spinach filling recipes.

Spinach and Rice Casserole
(serves 6-8)

about 5 cups cooked brown rice*

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

4 eggs
1 cup low fat or whole milk
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, about 4 oz.
1 cup crumbled feta cheese, about 4 oz.
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons chopped dill
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
½ teaspoon black pepper

non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and spinach. Cook for a few minutes until heated through. Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl, and allow to cool for a few minutes, so you don't scramble the eggs when you mix them into the spinach. Spray a 9" x 13" baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Beat the milk into the eggs. Add this and the remaining ingredients into the spinach and stir to combine. Spread into the baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature; refrigerate any leftovers.

*Cook 1 ¾ cups raw brown rice in 3 ¼ cups water to yield 5 cups of rice. Depending on the rice, they take 40-50 minutes to cook. If you cooked the rice ahead and it is cold, zap it for a minute to warm it up. Precooked brown rice cooks up in less time than white rice and is a good option if you want this dish in under an hour. Check the box for how much rice you need to cook because the yield is different than for raw brown rice.

School of Eating Good, Inc. officially a not-for-profit charity

Sorry about the lack of recipes here lately. It will be picking up shortly. The School is giving a class on Greek food tomorrow evening at CU and those recipes will be up this week. I've been traveling quite a bit, so no time for testing and posting. Don't worry - we haven't gone away.

In fact, great news came our way from the Internal Revenue Service - how often does that happen?! School of Eating Good, Inc. was granted tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3). Which means that we do not have to pay income tax and you can make donations to support our mission and your donations are tax-deductible (if you pay US income taxes). This is a big step because it makes our mission as an educational organization more legit. We can start planning some interesting new initiatives, raising money for these, and bringing food education to even more people.

To get you primed for the Greek recipes coming later this week, here's a recipe that jazzes up plain white rice in a Greek way: with the addition of dill and lemon. I am not a fan of dried dill. Like its cousin cilantro, it loses most of its flavor when it is dried. I recommend you buy a big bunch (it's in season right now), chop it, and freeze it. You'll have fresh dill all winter long.

Lemon-Dill Rice
(serves 4-6)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped
1 cup white rice
zest of ½ a lemon
juice of ½ a lemon, about 1 ½ Tablespoons
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ¾ cups water

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, a couple of minutes. Add the rice and sauté for another minute. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low to maintain a simmer and cover. Cook for 18-20 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from Lemon-Dill Rice, #250959 at food.com

Illustration: "Illustration Anethum graveolens0". Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Lox Sushi

Another nice piece of sushi rolling from one of my students

Last "recipe" from this week's class: hand rolls stuffed with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and typical bagel & lox condiments. We used capers but you could use thinly sliced red onions, strips of cucumber, diced tomatoes, or diced avocado. Use what you have, use what you like.

You can find instructions on how to make a hand roll in the tuna poke post. You can find instructions on making a sushi roll like the one in the photo all over youtube. I like this succinct video best but you don't need to wrap the roll in plastic to cut it. Make sure to dampen your sharp knife before each cut and wipe off the blade after each cut.

To make a lox roll, you'll need:

• thin strips of smoked salmon
• small sticks of cream cheese (see below on how to cut it) 
• sushi rice
• sheets of nori
• toasted sesame seeds

Beyond these, you will want one or more tasty accompaniments:

• capers
• thinly sliced strips of red onion
• strips of cucumbers (peeled if you like and seeded if not an English cucumber)
• diced avocado
• diced tomato
• strips of pickled jalapeño (not traditional but very tasty)

It can be hard to cut up cream cheese. It's very sticky. The trick is to slightly freeze it before trying to cut it. Put a chunk of cream cheese in the freezer for 20 minutes before you want to cut it. If it softens up while you are trying to cut it, stick it back in the freezer for a few minutes and try again. Also, don't try to use reduced-fat cream cheese; it's much too soft and sticky to cut. 

Sushi Rice

Class this week is simple sushi. Sushi is about the rice, spiked with a little bit of rice vinegar,  sugar, and salt. It's important to use a rice that says "sushi rice" on the bag. Some common brands are Calrose,  Kokuho Rose, or Nishiki. Sushi rice has enough soluble starch to stick together. No one wants a hand roll that self-destructs before you get it to your mouth. It's also important to rinse sushi rice well because it is coated in starch when packaged, but this starch is supposed to be removed before cooking.

You can buy sushi vinegar - rice vinegar premixed with sugar and salt. But, you can easily make your own. I have discovered sushi vinegar is easier to find in supermarkets than natural rice vinegar - the vinegar without the salt and sugar - so don't fret too much if you have to use the premixed variety. There is also lots of variation in the proportion of vinegar, sugar, and salt to rice in homemade recipes. This recipe is a proportion that I found tasty but it isn't the only way to mix it. It's more tart than sweet and not very salty.

The rice is cooked, then the sushi vinegar is sprinkled over the hot rice and mixed so that every grain is coated with vinegar. This also cools down the rice. To speed the cooling, you can fan the rice. If you are coordinated, you can mix while you fan but it works if you alternate mixing with fanning. Or you can enlist a friend to fan while you mix. Sushi is a great dish for a party, after all, so get your friends to help you.

You want the rice to be at room temperature when you roll it up. You can make it a few hours ahead but don't refrigerate it. It will get too hard and crunchy if it's cold.

Sushi Rice
(makes about 3 cups of rice)

1 cup raw sushi rice
1 ¼ cup water
¼ cup sushi vinegar

Rinse the sushi rice well with cold water until the water runs clear. Let the rice sit for 30 minutes. Place the rice in a medium saucepan and add water. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring gently until it boils. Once the water reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to steam for 5 minutes. Gently spoon into a large bowl (wood is traditional, but plastic or glass will do) and sprinkle on frac12; of the vinegar. Gently mix and fan until all the liquid has been absorbed. Add the rest of the vinegar, and continue to mix and fan until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooled to room temperature. If you aren't ready to roll the sushi , you can cover the rice with a damp towel (to keep it from drying out) and let it sit at room temperature for up to 3 hours.

Sushi Vinegar
(makes 1 cup)
1 cup natural rice vinegar
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt

Combine vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. Heat until sugar and salt dissolve. Let cool before using. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for about 1 month.

Lime Rice and Salsa Beans

One more recipe from my last class. This is is really simple. You can serve it as a hearty side dish or as a meal in itself. We used the Salsa Fresca we had made during class, but you can use any salsa you have.

Lime Rice & Salsa Beans
(serves 8 as a side or 3-4 as an entree, costs $1.75)

Baked Lime Rice
1 cup rice
1 ½ cups water
juice of ½ a lime (or more if you like tart flavors)
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)

Salsa Beans
1 15 oz. can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
½ cup salsa
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In an ovenproof medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Cover and bake for 17 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. While the rice is resting, heat the beans in a small saucepan until hot. Add salsa, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. To serve, stir lime juice (and cilantro if using) into rice, and pour beans on top.

Risotto for Meatless Monday

Those are really chickpeas, black ones that I found at the Boulder Farmer's Market.

Risotto has a rather intimidating reputation. You must stir it, constantly! for 25 minutes or so. Or else! What, you'll end up with sticky rice? Which is really the point. Risotto is made with a short-grain rice called arborio which has lots of soluble starch. That's what makes it creamy (not cream or butter or cheese, though these things don't hurt). Fact is, you don't need to stir it constantly but you do have to stir it a fair bit to release the starch. It's also important to have enough hot stock to add in increments as the risotto cooks. Making risotto is a process - not a difficult one - but it will take you about 30 minutes. I think it's worth it, especially on Meatless Monday. The creaminess of the rice makes risotto so rich, even when no cream or cheese is added.

Risotto is adaptable to many additions: vegetables (some raw if quick cooking, others cooked), cooked meats, seafood, beans, mushrooms, and the ever popular cheese.

Arborio rice can seem a little pricey, but compared to meat, it's quite economical. You can find it now in many supermarkets, Whole Foods,  and gourmet shops. If you buy it in bulk, you will get the best price. Also check out Cost Plus World Marketplace, if they have stores in your area. They usually carry it and at the best price I've found.

In this recipe, I've used chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, and some greens. No cheese, no cream. Just a little bit of olive oil and butter.

Risotto with Chickpeas, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Greens
(serves 6 as a side dish, 4 as an entree)

3 ½ to 4 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
2 Tablespoons olive oil (can use the oil from the sun-dried tomato jar)
1 bunch of scallions or 1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ½ cups arborio rice
2 cups coarsely chopped greens such as spinach, escarole, or chard (about 2 oz.)
1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned are fine; rinse and drain them first)
½ cup coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil (about ½ a 8.5 oz. jar)
1 Tablespoon butter
leaves from 1 large sprig basil, chopped
1 large sprig rosemary, chopped
½ teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste, you may not need any if the stock is salty

Heat the stock in a medium saucepan and keep it at a simmer.

Heat the olive oil in a small stockpot or a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions and garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and stir in the oil until it is coated in the oil. At this point, you'll need to pay attention for about 20-25 minutes. Add ½ cup of the hot stock to the rice and stir it around. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir it every few minutes. When all the liquid is absorbed, add another ½ cup of stock and do it again. Keep doing this until the rice is just done, not mushy and not hard in the center. Just right!

Add the greens, chickpeas, tomatoes, butter, herbs, and black pepper. Taste it before adding any salt. Many stocks are very salty and you will not need to add any more.

If you must, you can stir in some Parmesan cheese or goat cheese. :-)

Rice with Spaghetti

One more Cinco de Mayo recipe - rice cooked with fried spaghetti. Angel hair pasta, vermicelli, or fideos (coils of very thin pasta for soup) work best but regular spaghetti is fine too. It's a great way to use up a little bit of spaghetti. The nuttiness of the fried pasta is delicious with the rice, and it gives it a nice texture. This is wonderful under our Cinco de Mayo Chicken.

This is entirely a pantry recipe - it has dried minced onions and garlic powder instead of fresh garlic and onions. If you want to use fresh, add 1 minced clove of garlic and ¼ cup minced onion when you add the rice.

If you prefer, you can use vegetable broth to make this a vegetarian rice.

Rice with Spaghetti
(serves 6, costs $2.25)

1 cup long-grain rice
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup spaghetti pieces
2 ¼ cups chicken stock or vegetable broth, hot
1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt (optional)

Place the rice in a bowl and cover with hot water. Soak for 5 minutes, pour into a strainer and set aside to drain.

Mix the stock with the onion, garlic powder, and black pepper. If stock is unsalted, add salt.

Heat up a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil. The oil should be nearly smoking and shimmer before you add in the pasta. Add the pasta and stir constantly for about 1 ½ to 2 minutes until the pasta is a rich brown. Do not burn - when the pasta is brown, add the rice to slow down the browning. Reduce the heat to medium, add the rice, and stir for about 1 minute. Add the stock (make sure to scrape out the flavorings that may have collected at the bottom), and stir to mix. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let rice sit, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.

Meatless Monday Fried Rice. Or Maybe Not Meatless. You Decide.

Basic Vegetarian Fried Rice

Our last class of the academic year is coming up on Tuesday. We are doing home interpretations of take-out Chinese. Two of the recipes have already appeared on the blog: Chinese-Style Minced Meat Lettuce Wraps and Mu Shu Tofu.

The third recipe is an old stand-by: Fried Rice. It's a great way to use up leftover rice, either rice you made at home or extra from your last take-out buy. It's important to use cold rice. Freshly made rice is too sticky and the rice will clump together.

This can be vegetarian if you like. Or not. Another great way to use up some diced cooked chicken, thawed teeny cocktail shrimp or some leftover pork. Fried rice is a recipe that can take a lot of improvisation.

The fried rice at some Chinese restaurants is quite dark, suggesting they use a lot of soy sauce to flavor it up. This isn't true. The color comes from a browning agent like Kitchen Bouquet or Chinese Brown Gravy Sauce. In this recipe, we add a small bit of soy sauce for seasoning and then use table salt to add the salt, so the rice isn't very brown.

But speaking of brown rice, you can use cooked cold brown rice in place of white rice. Delicious change of pace.

"Make it Your Way" Fried Rice

(serves 4 as an entree, 8 as a side dish, costs $1.60 with 4 eggs, no optional ingredients)

If serving this as an entree, use 4 eggs. If serving as a side dish, use 2.

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 - 4 eggs, lightly beaten

¼ cup diced cooked chicken, shrimp, or pork (optional)

4 cups cold cooked rice

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon curry powder (optional)

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup thawed frozen peas (optional)
2 scallions, minced

Heat 2 Tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the eggs and scramble. Remove the scrambled eggs to a clean bowl. Add remaining tablespoon oil and add meat, if using. Reduce heat to medium, add rice, and stir fry until rice is soft and heated through. Add scrambled eggs, soy sauce, curry powder (if using), and salt. Toss to mix well. Add peas and scallions, give it one last toss, and serve.

Meatless Monday - Black-eyed Peas and ?

This is a riff on Hoppin' John, the New Year's Day tradition of serving black-eyed peas with rice. You could serve these with rice. Or pasta, or potatoes, or...up to you. Pasta is the quickest. I like it on rotini, corkscrew pasta.

As discussed in our Cajun Meatloaf, this is Louisiana Style because of the combination of celery, onion, green pepper, and garlic. The first three are called the Holy Trinity and garlic is the Pope, down in Cajun country. No wonder I love the food down there!

You can use a can of cooked black-eyed peas. They are OK. I like to cook them myself and unlike many other beans, they don't require soaking, and cook in under an hour. About 45 minutes, in fact. Instructions on cooking the beans are at the end of recipe.

Though obviously not meatless, this is also a great place to use up a little bit of cooked ham, sausage, or chicken. About ¼ - ½ cup is good. Add it along with the black-eyed peas.

Louisiana Style Black-Eyed Peas
(serves 3, costs $3.10 with canned black-eyed peas)

1 15 oz. can black-eyed peas, drained (use 1 ¾ cups if you cook them yourself)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
½ onion, chopped, about ¾ cup
½ large green pepper, seeded and chopped, about ¾ cup
2 stalks celery, chopped, about ¾ cup
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ to ¾ teaspoon salt, depending on saltiness of black-eyed peas
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2-3 Tablespoons of white wine, broth or water
½ to 1 teaspoon hot sauce (such as Tabasco)

3 servings pasta (6 oz. dry), cooked or 3 cups cooked rice
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
additional hot sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until onion is translucent. Add black-eyed peas, salt, pepper, the bay leaf, and a few Tablespoons of liquid. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook until black-eyed peas are hot. Remove from the heat, add hot sauce, stir, and remove the bay leaf. Serve over hot pasta or hot rice.

To cook 1 pound of dry black-eyed peas, rinse off the peas, removing any non-pea debris. Bring 4 cups of liquid (stock or water) to a boil in a 2-3 quart saucepan. Add the black-eyed peas and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer - gentle bubbling. Cook for 35-45 minutes until peas are tender. Try a few beans to make sure they are all done. If any are crunchy, cook for another 5 minutes. Drain before using. Since you won't need all the beans for this recipe, refrigerate the reminder, or freeze them. They freeze extremely well.

Quick Chicken and Rice

We're not pretending this is really chicken and rice, the kind that is made by Hispanic cooks and moms around the world. No, this is pretty darn basic. But, as quick and easy one-pot meals go, this is a winner.

You speed things up by using cooked diced chicken and frozen vegetables. You use the heat from the cooking rice to reheat the chicken and vegetables. What could be easier?

One Pot Quick Chicken and Rice
(serves 4, costs $4.30)

2 cups chicken stock in a box or reconstituted chicken bouillon
1 cup white rice (see Note if you want to use brown rice)
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 ½ cups frozen vegetables (peas, peas&carrots, green bean, chopped broccoli)
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
salt if needed

Bring 2 cups of chicken stock to a boil. Add rice, stir well and reduce heat to maintain a simmer, about medium-low. Cook, covered for about 12-15 minutes, until the level of the stock is below the top of the rice. Add chicken on top of rice, then veggies on top of chicken. Do not stir. The chicken and vegetables will steam and reheat while the rice finishes cooking. Cook, covered, for an additional 5-7 minutes, until the rice has absorbed all the stock. Remove from heat, stir in black pepper, re-cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Add more salt if needed and serve.

Note: You can use brown rice which gives the dish a nice chewy texture. Brown rice takes longer to cook, so plan accordingly. Increase the stock to 2 ¼ cups. Cook for 50 minutes, add the chicken and vegetables, then continue with recipe above.

Baked Rice

Here at School of Eating Good, we want to give you information that makes cooking easy. Like how to make rice, which isn't quite as easy to prefect as most people think. We previously posted an article on cooking rice in the microwave. It's pretty solid, but because microwaves have different power ratings, you need to watch it the first time and possibly tweak it. That makes it imperfect in our mind but if all you have is a microwave, it's great.

Most folks have an conventional oven, however. And baked rice is literally foolproof. You start it just like rice on the stove-top but you finish it in a very hot oven.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

For 1 cup of rice, bring 1 ½ cups water (or stock, if you prefer) to a boil in an ovenproof medium saucepan. Add the rice and stir. Cover and place in the oven. Bake for 17 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. It will keep warm for another 15 minutes.

Coconut-Ginger Rice

We love Thai food (in fact, our next class tonight is on Thai cooking) but one of the frustrations of making Thai curries is that ½ can of coconut milk that is often left over. As you can see in the photo, your typical can of coconut milk contains 14 oz. which is 2 ½ cups. (Someone out there is saying "Isn't 14 oz. just shy of 2 cups?" No, it weighs 14 oz. but it is 2 ½ cups by volume.* And yes, the can says 14 fl. oz. as my dear friend Deb has pointed out to me, but it's a lie. If you do the math, from the weight in grams per serving, it works out to 14 oz. by weight.)

School of Eating Good is here to help you with that pesky leftover coconut milk. I helped create a similar recipe for a Caribbean restaurant. It goes great with grilled fish or meat. It's pretty addictive stuff.

This recipe doesn't have a definitive amount of coconut milk. It's meant to use up what you have left over. So, if you use ½ a can, use the rest (about 1 ¼ cups) along with 1 ¾ cups of water to get to 3 cups liquid. We suggest you use at least 1 cup of coconut milk and as much as a whole can. We wouldn't want to create more leftovers trying to use up existing leftovers!

Coconut-Ginger Rice
(serves 6; total cost is  $3.10 if using all of a 14 oz. can of coconut milk)

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon grated or finely minced fresh ginger
2 cloves of garlic, minced
½ small onion, minced
1 ½ cups long-grain rice (jasmine rice is exceptionally good though more expensive)
1 cup or more coconut milk
enough water when mixed with the coconut milk to make 3 cups of liquid
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic, and onion. Saute for a few minutes until onion is translucent. Add the rice and stir well.

Add the coconut milk, water, and salt. Stir well. Bring to a boil. Stir again, cover, and reduce the heat to a simmer.

Cook for 20-25 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

* Three common ingredients have the same volume as weight: butter, milk, and eggs. That is, 8 oz. by volume of milk, butter, or eggs equals 8 oz. of these by weight. You can remember this with the saying: "A pint's a pound the world around for butter, milk, and eggs." It's true of water too. It is definitely not true for coconut milk.