Carrots and Dill

Carrots and dill have a natural affinity. They come from the same family (it's a big food family - cilantro/corinader, anise, fennel, and parsley all belong) and taste right together.

In this case, fresh or frozen dill is the best choice. Dried dill, like dried cilantro or parsley, doesn't have the vibrancy of the fresh. As I've mentioned before, you can freeze herbs to get the most from your purchase. Rarely do I use all the herbs in a bunch, but I always chop any leftovers and freeze them in a small plastic bag. They're just like fresh.

Carrots and Dill
(serves 4-6, costs $1.60)

6 medium carrots, peeled, cut into 3" lengths, then cut into ¼'s (see Note)
½ teaspoon salt + a little bit more
½ Tablespoon sugar (optional)
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the salt and the carrots. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until tender (try one - that's the best way make sure they are done to your liking). Drain the carrots and return to the saucepan and place over a low flame. If the carrots are not particularly sweet, you can add the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the butter. When it has melted, season with a little additional salt, pepper, and fresh dill. Stir and serve.

Note: You can use "baby carrots" which are actually full-sized carrots whittled down to baby size. They are usually cut into 3-4" lengths so you just need to cut them in quarters. You need about 5-6 baby carrots to make 1 medium carrot.

Stretching Shrimp: Shrimp with Onion, White Beans & Tomatoes over Pasta

Shrimp is not a cheap food. It's not lobster, but it's not exactly budget. Here's a recipe that takes some shrimp and stretches it with some canned white beans. It's based on an Italian dish from Tuscany, though that dish is not a sauce for pasta. I had some feta cheese so I crumbled it on top for garnish. This is a totally un-Italian thing to do. Italians think grated cheese on seafood is sacrilege for the most part (and they certainly wouldn't use feta). Hey, I'm not Italian and it tasted good!

For this dish, you will saute some chopped onions. This is what they will look like when you are ready to proceed to the next step. You don't want them to brown.

The timing in this recipe assumes you are using regular spaghetti, not angel hair. If you substitute another pasta shape, you'll need to tweak the cooking time.

Shrimp with Onion, White Beans & Tomatoes over Pasta

(serves 6, costs $12.65)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 large pinch crushed red pepper flakes

¾ pound chopped Roma tomatoes or 1 14-oz can chopped tomatoes, undrained

1 15-oz. can white beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup dry vermouth or white wine

1 pound medium to large peeled and deveined shrimp

1 pound spaghetti (whole wheat or regular)

salt

crumbled feta cheese for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet with a cover (see Note) over medium heat. Add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes. While the onions are cooking, get a big pot of water started for the pasta. When the onions are light golden (see picture), add the crushed red pepper, tomatoes, and white beans. Stir and cook until tomatoes start to soften, about 5 minutes. Use a fork or potato masher to break the tomatoes into small pieces.

By now, your pasta water should be boiling. If not, cook the tomatoes until the pasta water does come to a boil. Reduce the heat for the sauce to medium-low. Drop the spaghetti into the boiling water and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Set the timer for 6 minutes. When it goes off, add the vermouth and shrimp to the tomato mixture. Stir and cover the skillet. Set the timer for another 5 minutes.

When the timer goes off again, add about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to the shrimp and stir. This will make a sauce. If it doesn't seem saucy enough, add some more water; it will thicken up from the starch in the pasta and the beans. Check to see if the spaghetti is done. Continue cooking it another minute or two if it's still crunchy in the middle.  Taste the sauce and add salt if needed (shrimp is fairly salty so you don't need much). Drain the spaghetti and mix with the sauce. Serve with crumbled feta cheese, if desired.

Note: Don't have a cover for your skillet? Use a cookie sheet.

What's in Season Now: Blueberries

Blueberries, those tasty little packages jam-packed with nutrients, are in season right now. I got them this week for $1.49/pint. And, when they are that cheap, I snap them up and stash a bunch in the freezer for the winter. Out of season, they can be absurdly expensive, but they freeze beautifully. To freeze, give them a rinse, drain well and gently roll them on some absorbent toweling. Put in a freezer bag and label. They will be there when you want some home-made blueberry muffins. You can thaw them and mix them into plain yogurt with a bit of granola. Any place that you use fresh blueberries, you can use frozen berries. In most recipes, you don't even have to thaw them.

This blueberry muffin recipe can be made with either frozen or fresh berries. They are not very sweet but have a good hearty flavor. I recommend you use muffin cup liners because it's really annoying to lose the bottom of your muffins in your muffin tin. The liners are cheap and will save you a lot of aggravation. You can freeze the baked muffins, if you can't eat them all within a couple of days. Especially in the summertime, muffins will mold quickly so I freeze most of them after they have cooled completely.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins
(makes 10, costs $2.50)

1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour (regular or pastry)
2 Tablespoons wheat germ (optional)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (use 2 teaspoons at sea level)
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup skim or lowfat milk
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
½ Tablespoon fresh or frozen lemon zest, about ½ lemon
10 paper muffin liners

Place the muffin liners in a muffin tin. Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix together the flours, wheat germ (if using), baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork until well-blended. Add milk and oil and mix to combine. Pour the liquid mixture over the flour and mix until just combined and there are no big lumps of flour. Toss the blueberries with the lemon zest. Add to the batter and gently incorporate the berries, mixing only to distribute them in the batter.

Evenly divide the batter in the 10 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the tin and cool completely before freezing or storing in a plastic bag.

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of small breads by Bernard Clayton, Jr., Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Using up Cottage Cheese: Pancakes

I recently posted a quick pasta dish that uses cottage cheese. If you need a way to use up the remainder of that tub of cottage cheese, these pancakes are the ticket. They are light, somewhere between a thick crepe and a pancake. They are delicious with a pile of sliced strawberries or peaches, yogurt, and a drizzle of maple syrup. They are very puffy fresh from the griddle and then they deflate as they cool, becoming more crepe-like. They reheat well but they won't be puffy.

My advice, having made these many times, is to keep them small. That's actually my advice for most pancakes. Big pancakes are tough to flip and they can get tangled with their neighbors on the descent.

These guys are ready for flippin'

How do you know when to flip them? Bubbles will form and pop. If the hole from the bubble doesn't fill in, it's time to flip. Also, the edges of the pancake won't be liquid and sticky anymore.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes
(serves 4-6, costs $2.90)

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese (a little less or a little more is fine)
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk or ½ cup buttermilk and ½ cup skim or lowfat milk (see Note)
1 Tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons wheat germ (plain or toasted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

non-stick cooking spray

Whisk together the cottage cheese, eggs, milk, honey, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Stir together the flours, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the flour mixture to the large bowl and mix to just combine and there are not dry lumps.

Heat up a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Using a measuring cup or large cooking spoon, drop ¼ cup portions on the griddle. Leave a bit of space between the pancakes as they spread. When bubbles form, pop, and leave a hole, flip and brown on the other side. Don't be tempted to turn up the heat too high because these will over-brown before the inside is cooked. Respray the griddle with cooking spray between batches to prevent sticking.

Serve with sliced fruit, some yogurt (or whipped cream if you are being decadent), and a drizzle of maple syrup. Any leftovers can be refrigerated or frozen. Reheat in a 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes until hot. They lose their puff but still taste good.

Note: You can find powdered buttermilk in most supermarkets now in the baking aisle. It's a great way to have buttermilk on hand all the time without having to figure out what to do with the rest of a carton of buttermilk. Follow the instructions on the package to reconstitute.

Adapted from Jane Brody's Good Food Book by Jane Brody, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1985.

Caribbean Grilled Chicken

Here's a boldly flavored marinade/BBQ sauce. Most of the sauce is used to marinate the chicken. It's a quick marinade so you don't need to think far ahead to make this on a summer night. The rest of the sauce is drizzled on the cooked chicken.

You can use all lime juice, or substitute some lemon or orange juice for some of the lime juice.

Caribbean Grilled Chicken
(serves 4, costs $9.35)

¼ cup chopped fresh basil
2 Tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger
¼ cup fresh lime juice or ½ lime and ½ lemon, or orange juice
¼ cup oil
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
2-3 teaspoons Siracha or Asian chile sauce
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 to 1 ¼ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs

Combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a 2 cup measuring cup. Mix well to dissolve the sugar. If the chicken breasts are thick, cut into 2 thinner pieces by slicing the breast in ½ horizontally. This increases the amount of marinade in contact with the chicken and speeds grilling. Place the chicken in a glass dish or plastic bag. Pour on ⅔'s of the sauce, reserving the remaining sauce to serve with the cooked chicken. Marinate the chicken for 15-30 minutes, and no longer than 1 hour (the lime juice will make the chicken mushy). While the chicken is marinating, heat up the grill on high. Just before placing the chicken on the grill, reduce the heat to medium. Grill the chicken about 5 minutes per side. Serve with remaining sauce.

Processed food, you never know where it will turn up

They distract you with this prominent "Naturally Produced" while they add all sorts of things that don't "naturally" occur in cottage cheese

Went shopping for cottage cheese for this week's Meatless Monday recipe. I am a bit OCD about reading labels because sometimes you are surprised. Like the organic yogurt that is thickened with cornstarch and two other gums. What? Yogurt thickens on its own from the cultures but thickeners are used to keep it from separating. Also, this organic yogurt didn't say anything about live cultures, so there probably aren't any. The live cultures are the little beasties that are good for your digestion (you have probably seen the ads for a certain brand of yogurt and their "special" cultures which they claim are better for you). In this case, is organic better? I have my doubts.

Is all this stuff really necessary?

In the case of the cottage cheese, nearly all the low fat cottage cheese at my supermarket had a long list of ingredients such as:

• Malodextrin or food starch, 
• corn syrup or dextrose (sugar is just in everything), 
• titanium dioxide (a whitener),
• artificial flavors,
• extra salt (about 25% more),
• a host of gums and thickeners, and 
• preservatives. 

Here's what I bought. Pretty darn simple, isn't it?

The cost on the various brands was the same to within a dime of each other, which works out to a maximum difference of 2.5¢ per serving. For most folks, this is insignificant.

Read the labels. Seek out the brands that contain the least number of ingredients and contain things that you recognize as food. Avoid those that add a bunch of extra stuff. Be a savvy shopper.