Tag: side dish

Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Moroccan Spiced Vegetable Couscous

Throw together a deliciously spiced and super healthy dish in no time flat.  This recipe is great as a side dish or vegetarian meal.

 Prep Time 15 minutes
 Cook Time 15 minutes
 Total Time 30 minutes
 Servings  people
 Calories 472 kcal
This vegetarian recipe from Erren's Kitchen for Moroccan Spiced Vegetable Couscous is delicious on its own or makes a delicious accompaniment to a tagine and any other Moroccan style dish.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium red onion chopped
  • 1 yellow bell pepper chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped into cubes
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • ½ teaspoon ground coriander
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • ½ teaspoon celery salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • cayenne pepper optional, to taste
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1 14oz can chickpeas drained
  • 6 Peppadew Piquante peppers chopped, mild or hot
  • 1½ cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
  • A good handful fresh parsley chopped
  • 1 cup instant couscous

Instructions

  1. In a medium-size skillet heat the oil over medium heat.

  2. Add red onion, yellow pepper, and carrot sauté 10-15 minutes or until all the vegetables are your desired tenderness

  3. Add the garlic, sauté another minute.

  4. Mix in the salt & pepper, paprika, ground coriander, turmeric, celery salt, cumin ground cinnamon and cayenne pepper (if using). Stir fry until fragrant (about a minute).

  5. Add the frozen peas and cook briefly. Stir in the piquante peppers and chickpeas.  Followed by the stock.

  6. Add the chopped parsley and stir in the couscous.  Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.  Fluff and serve.

Recipe Notes

This recipe calls for instant couscous.  Instant couscous is cooked by covering it with water and leaving it to sit for 5 minutes.  Read the package instructions for your couscous.  If the directions and measurements, do not match my instructions, just adjust the liquid measurement accordingly (to the amount of couscous in the recipe), add the spices and follow then follow the package instructions.

Nutrition Facts
Moroccan Spiced Vegetable Couscous
Amount Per Serving
Calories 472Calories from Fat 90
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 10g15%
Saturated Fat 1g5%
Sodium 780mg33%
Potassium 621mg18%
Total Carbohydrates 77g26%
Dietary Fiber 13g52%
Sugars 10g
Protein 17g34%
Vitamin A70.3%
Vitamin C111.4%
Calcium8.9%
Iron28.5%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

A Trio of Japanese Vegetable Side Dishes

Loren made these…
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Daikon-Carrot Salad
Am easy recipe from FoodNetwork.com
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds daikon, peeled
Kosher salt
1 pound carrots
1 tablespoon grated peeled ginger
1/8 of a Napa cabbage (optional)
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 1 3/4 teaspoons black sesame seeds
Directions:
Shave the daikon into ribbons with a vegetable peeler. Toss with 1/4 teaspoon salt in a colander; let drain in the sink, tossing occasionally, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, shave the carrots into ribbons with the peeler and slice cabbage into thin pieces.
Make the dressing: Whisk the ginger, vinegar, lime juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the vegetable oil and sesame oil until blended. Toast the sesame seeds in a skillet over medium heat, tossing occasionally, until the white seeds are golden, about 5 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon seeds to the dressing. Toss the daikon, cabbage and carrots with the dressing and season with salt. Top with the remaining sesame seeds.
attachFull7152
Cucumber Sunomono
Ingredients
2 large cucumbers, peeled
1/3 cup rice vinegar
4 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
Directions
  1. Cut cucumbers in half lengthwise and scoop out any large seeds. Slice crosswise into very thin slices.
  2. In a small bowl combine vinegar, sugar, salt and ginger. Mix well. Place cucumbers inside of the bowl, stir so that cucumbers are coated with the mixture. Refrigerate the bowl of cucumbers for at least 1 hour before serving.
SPINACH WITH SESAME SEED DRESSING #2 (HORENSO NO GOMA AE)
PREP TIME: 10 mins TOTAL TIME: 12 mins
SERVES: 4
ABOUT THIS RECIPE
“The first version of this salad that I ever made, from “The Japanese Cooking Class Cookbook”. I think it’s still my favorite version. If you don’t have 2 tbsp. of dashi on hand (and who does?), or want a vegan version, use vegetable stock or water instead. NOTE: Sesame seeds love to pop right out of the skillet; I’d recommend using one with high sides or even a medium saucepan for toasting them.”
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dashi
1 quart water
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 ounces spinach
DIRECTIONS
Heat sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium-high heat, stirring or shaking pan constantly, until seeds are light brown and first popping sound occurs, about 2 minutes.
Reserve 1 teaspoons (5 ml.) of the toasted sesame seeds. Grind remaining seeds in a mortar and pestle or grinder until smooth. Combine ground seeds, sugar, soy sauce, and dashi in a small bowl to make dressing. Set aside.
Heat 1 quart (1 liter) water and the salt to boiling in a 2-quart saucepan; add spinach. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until spinach is tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain spinach. Rinse undeer cold running water; drain. Squeeze spinach to remove excess moisture. Cut into 1-inch pieces.
Combine spinach and dressing in a medium bowl and toss lightly until thoroughly mixed. Divide evenly into 4 small bowls and garnish with reserved sesame seeds.
Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Caesar Salad

BY COOK'S ILLUSTRATED
PUBLISHED JANUARY 2011

Caesar Salad

WATCH EVERY STEP

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

A combination of extra-virgin olive oil and canola oil gave our Caesar Salad dressing a neutral base. We used a rasp-style grater to turn garlic into pulp, then steeped it in lemon juice. To get all of our recipe’s ingredients to emulsify, we beat the yolks, anchovies, and Worcestershire sauce into the lemon juice and garlic, then slowly whisked in the oil and half of the cheese. For our Caesar salad’s croutons, we used ciabatta. Sprinkling the bread cubes with a little water and salt preserved their moistness and ensured they were perfectly tender at the center and browned around the edges after we toasted them.

INGREDIENTS

CROUTONS

5tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½teaspoon garlic paste from 1 medium clove (see note)
½ – ¾loaf ciabatta, cut into ¾-inch cubes (about 5 cups) (see note)
¼cup water
¼teaspoon table salt
2tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese

SALAD

¾teaspoon garlic paste from 1 large clove (see note)
2 – 3tablespoons juice from 1 to 2 lemons
½teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
6anchovy fillets, patted dry with paper towels, minced fine, and mashed to paste with fork (1 tablespoon) (see note)
2large egg yolks (see note)
5tablespoons canola oil
5teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ounces finely grated Parmesan cheese (about ¾ cup)
Ground black pepper
2 – 3romaine hearts, cut crosswise into ¾-inch-thick slices, rinsed, and dried very well (8 to 9 lightly pressed cups)

INSTRUCTIONS

SERVES 4 TO 6

If you can’t find ciabatta, a similar crusty, rustic loaf of bread can be substituted. A quarter cup of Egg Beaters may be substituted for the egg yolks. Since anchovy fillets vary in size, more than 6 fillets may be necessary to yield 1 tablespoon of minced anchovies. The easiest way to turn garlic cloves into a paste is to grate them on a rasp-style grater.

1. FOR THE CROUTONS: Combine 1 tablespoon oil and garlic paste in small bowl; set aside. Place bread cubes in large bowl. Sprinkle with water and salt. Toss, squeezing gently so bread absorbs water. Place remaining 4 tablespoons oil and soaked bread cubes in 12-inch nonstick skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until browned and crisp, 7 to 10 minutes.

2. Remove skillet from heat, push croutons to sides of skillet to clear center, add garlic/oil mixture to clearing and cook with residual heat of pan, 10 seconds. Sprinkle with Parmesan; toss until garlic and Parmesan are evenly distributed. Transfer croutons to bowl; set aside.

3. FOR THE SALAD: Whisk garlic paste and 2 tablespoons lemon juice together in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.

4. Whisk Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, and egg yolks into garlic/lemon juice mixture. While whisking constantly, drizzle canola oil and extra virgin olive oil into bowl in slow, steady stream until fully emulsified. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan and pepper to taste; whisk until incorporated.

5. Add romaine to dressing and toss to coat. Add croutons and mix gently until evenly distributed. Taste and season with up to additional 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Serve immediately, passing remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan separately.

TECHNIQUE

A Better Kind of Crouton

Most modern-day croutons used in Caesar salad are crunchy through and through. We designed ours to be crispy on the outside but chewy in the middle, a far better complement to the crisp-tender romaine leaves.

1. MOISTEN Sprinkling bread cubes with water and then squeezing them moistens their interior.

2. CRISP UP Frying the dampened cubes in oil crisps their exteriors while the moist interior retains some chew.

Tempering Garlic’s Bite

In our Caesar dressing, every little detail counts—especially the strong flavor of raw garlic. In the past, we’ve found that cloves minced well in advance end up tasting harsh in the final dish. Would letting the grated garlic in our recipe sit for just 10 minutes while we prepared the rest of the salad ingredients have the same effect? And could steeping it in lemon juice for the same amount of time—a practice recommended by an old French wives’ tale—actually mellow it out?

EXPERIMENT

We made three batches of Caesar dressing: In the first, we grated the garlic and immediately combined it with the other dressing ingredients. In the second, we soaked the grated garlic in lemon juice for 10 minutes before proceeding. In the third, we let the grated garlic rest for 10 minutes on its own before combining it with the other components.

RESULTS

Tasters found the garlic grated in advance without steeping tasted the harshest of the three. The other two preparations—grated garlic soaked in lemon juice and grated garlic immediately mixed into the dressing—tasted markedly milder, with the lemon juice-soaked sample making for a particularly well-balanced dressing.

EXPLANATION

Raw garlic’s harsh flavor comes from a compound called allicin, which forms as soon as the clove’s cells are ruptured and continues to build as it sits. The citric acid in lemon juice hastens the conversion of harsh-tasting allicin to more mellow compounds called thiosulfonates, disulfides, and trisulfides—the same milder-tasting compounds that form when garlic is heated. And since soaking the garlic is easy to do while preparing the other ingredients, it’s a step we think is worthwhile.

GARLIC ON ACIDSteeping cut garlic in lemon juice mellows its flavor.

Make Your Own Anchovy Paste

START WHOLEThe deep flavor of good-quality oil-packed fillets is a must in this recipe. The fishier, flatter taste of commercial anchovy paste won’t do.

MASH UPEven small bits of anchovy can be distracting in Caesar salad. Finely slice the fillets and mash with a fork to create a paste that contributes savory – not fishy – flavor.