Maven's MacGuyver'd "Thai" Chopped Chicken Salad

This is my high protein reinterpretation of Panera's Thai Chopped Chicken Salad.

Mind you, my diet is more top heavy in proteins, so there isn't all that much greenery here. This is basically the recipe for the tasty bits, the bits you put on or in or with salad greens.

This makes roughly one 8-9 oz serving (not including salad greens). Calories are roughly >300 and approximate protein value is roughly 27-30 gm.

Dressing:

1 Tablespoon Trader Joes peanut satay sauce
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1-2 packets of splenda (or 1-2 tsp of your favored sweetener)
Additional salt for balance
Red pepper flake for kick

Salad Ingredients:

3 oz Trader Joes brand "Just Chicken" (cubed up, skinless, boneless, white meat chicken)
1 oz Trader Joes brand (are you sensing a theme here about where I shop?) Edamame
1 oz red onion or scallions, minced
1/2 oz Shredded carrots
1 oz minced up bell pepper (red or green, tho Panera's salad has red)
5-6 sprigs cilantro, rough chopped
1/2 oz chopped, roasted, salted peanuts

Note: When I make this again, I think I will cut the edamame amount in half, add a smidge of toasted sesame, and then add some La Choy or other brand crunchy noodles to this.

Sunday Photo Dump

Things here are all out of sequence, and I'm okay with that. You're smart, aren't you? You can figure things out. :)
Sweet potato/potato/beet cutlets which were doctored up from the subzi in the next photo. I love things that do double duty... I'm lazy like that. Looks impressive, but really, not much more effort was expended.

The main event for lunch (and lunch for tomorrow for him too, I think): Dahi Methi Murgh.
Recipe can be found here:
http://www.ecurry.com/blog/curries/gravies/dahi-methi-murgh-chicken-curry-in-fenugreek-and-yogurt-sauce

I made subtle alterations to the recipe, i.e. I tempered about a tsp of fennugreek seeds along with the other spices being tempered, and rather than use corn starch to thicken and stabilize the yogurt, I sprinkled a little xanthan gum powder into it, which of course renders out a glossy, picture perfect sauce.

The thing I found appealing about this recipe was the absence of turmeric and tomatoes. I felt like I was in a rut, making too much yellow and red based Indian dishes, and of course too many south Indian dishes, which after a while, taste all the same to me, tempering pretty much the same spices and dals over and over again.

Then of course, while I'm sitting, relaxing a bit, I come upon this tute on how to do farmer's cheese at home, and I had to try it. Incredibly easy and fool proof.
http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2008/06/you-dont-have-to-be-cheese-whiz-to-make.html

Then I used the whey from making that pitifully small amount of cheese (mind you, it was half the recipe, I just wanted to fart around and see if it would work--and it did), and made a spongey foccaccia type bread, which this recipe was the inspiration (though I did not follow it... I eyeballed amounts, which amounts to baking blasphemy: http://makeyourturdshere.blogspot.com/2009/06/another-rainy-day-project-homemade.html

More pictures and details to come, such as:

My mayo-free slaw;
My pernil (yes, another one, this time I got a big assed bone-in pork shoulder);
Marscapone and parmesan crusted chicken tenderloins
My foccaccia which used up the leftover whey from the cheese experiment
Pistachio pesto pasta
A lasagne/angelhair Timpano hybrid thingy
Leeky bacon butterbean soup

Pre-Valentine's Day Noms

My precious first attempt at a pernil, which I made as a fine counterpoint to all the south Indian cooking I've been doing as of late.

Delicious "cake pop" cherry bombs I made, kind of like a fist full of Bavarian Chocolate Cake. NOM!

I have a cocktail too, which I was going to share. A cocktail I think no one else has done yet. But perhaps I'll save that for another day. Perhaps.

Chia: Day Four (and Food Prep)

Blue snapper filet stuffed with a mousse of shrimp, chorizo and blue snapper, onion, garlic, shallots, bell pepper, red chile. Dusted with panko bread crumbs and baked...
Oh? And yes, I put chia seeds in the mousse just for good measure!

The mise a place for my pernil. That's the pernil, front and center, in a ziplock bag, marinating in
a paste of garlic/shallots/onion/scallions, red pepper, apple cider vinegar and olive oil (and Adobo).

The potato/cauliflower/kale/leek Colcannon I plan on serving the first night of the pernil. I just want to lick the screen to get at those bits of bacon.

The "mise" for the Colcannon. Making use of lots of leftovers: the leftover cauliflower, 1/2 a leek, and the kale (that for whatever reason, "keeps on going" and hasn't gone bad yet).

What to do with all the leftover stuffing from the blue snapper? FISH CAKES! Pan fried and now in freezer, awaiting their night with destiny (subtext: destiny = our bellies). Eventually.

Debating the merits of getting the pernil cooked off tonight.

Dinner tomorrow: Blue snapper.
Dinner Tuesday: Dining out, it's Valentine's Day!
Dinner Wednesday: Pernil & Colcannon
Dinner Thursday: Knit Night
Dinner Friday: Friday night take out (it's our household tradition!)
Dinner Saturday: Pernil leftovers & possibly peas and rice (possibly!)

Food-speriment: Meshugeneh Masala Vadas & Dahi Vada

For those that might not know what meshugeneh means...
"Crazy, mixed up."
It perfectly describes this item!

All the players in this morning's "food-speriment":
Prepared vada dough, w/leftover upma waiting to be mixed in;
Tamarind sauce, dahi, and boondi for the dahi vada presentation.

Meshugeneh Masala "Vadas" to be eaten w/
Maggi Hot & Sweet.

"Vadas" in their post-frying plunge into dahi...

The dahi presentation (minus the boondi--
I plated this up to snap a photo now; however
the husband won't eat until later, and I didn't
want the boondi to get mushy).

As it all appears on my counter, awaiting for his lunch later.

Now it's time for me to shower up and head out
to get some pork shoulder & some shrimp.
Pork shoulder for pernil (I *NEED* to make this today--
will serve it tomorrow, but it takes about 6 hrs to cook
better to do that today than a weeknight), and
some shrimp for tonight's dinner:
Shrimp & chorizo stuffed blue snapper.

Chia: Day Three (or is it four?)

Been tired and lazy and haven't posted anything else I've cooked or
otherwise prepared with chia, because I haven't
cooked or otherwise prepared anything.

Like I said, I cook in spurts of productivity.
I vacillate wildly between the productivity level
of a two toed sloth, and of a crystal meth
"tweaker" with an OCD house cleaning
addiction.

The above picture was today's mash up:
Matcha powder and chia seeds
in an otherwise vanilla shake.

Taste was okay, I think next time
might amp up the matcha and actually
blend the seeds.

Tomorrow, I hope to do a mash up
I prefer to name
"Meshugeneh (Masala) Dahi
Vada.

Hey, don't judge me or my process.
I'm thrifty. Hate throwing food away.
I'm an American who is learning about
TamBram style cooking, and while I'm
all for "authentic" food preparations,
I'm also fond of syncreticity of mixing
ideas and foods together to create something
even MORE interesting.
Bottom line to me is:
Was it tasty?
Was it healthy?
Yes?
Then fuck off:)

You cook your way, I cook my way.
You can enjoy and reap the rewards of
my food-speriments, or not. It's all good.

Note to Self

Try this, this weekend, perhaps.
http://365daysveg.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/khadi-the-soul-food

Chia Challenge: Day 2

I've been a bit remiss. Didn't manage to post a pic or recipe of what I made for the second day's dish containing chia seeds. I managed to make a basic mixed vegetable upma, using quinoa (and a bit of split moong for the grain), and some cauliflower florets, shred carrot, edamame, capsicum, and a little leftover zucchini for the veg.

Between the quinoa, moong, edamame and peanuts I added, I feel fairly certain it can stand alone as a perfect meal on its own. Plenty of fiber, low-glycemic type carbs, high protein, and full of flavor. I added the chia seeds at the last minute so they still had some crunch.

I doubt I'm going to reinvent the wheel by taking the time to peck out my recipe, as the internet is chock-a-block with others who post similar material. However, if you're interested in a great upma recipe, you cannot go wrong by checking out Indian Cuisine's recipe (which, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to imbed the link. What the hell?):http://thecuisine.blogspot.com/2012/01/mixed-vegetable-broken-wheat-upma.html


The husband, of course, scoffs a bit when I make things like upma or kichadi, as traditionally they are food which is served to either folks who are sick, or the elderly. That, notwithstanding, upma can be a delicious, nutritious and quick item to be made for dinner itself or served as a side dish.

In my microwavable rice cooker (Progressive brand, seriously, well worth the $8 I spent for it), I put the quinoa, moong, cauliflower florets and turmeric, with enough salted water and nuked it for 12 minutes.

While the quinoa cooked, I prepped what I needed. I get a lot of my groceries from Trader Joes, and as of late, I've gotten a lot of veggies in ready to go form. My carrots were already shredded and I got a pack of onion/shallot/garlic already chopped. This just left me to dice up the capsicum and the zucchini, and take a handful of peas out of the freezer. And the only other thing I did in my recipe is "finish" the dish with a tablespoon of coconut oil, much in the way the French finish a dish with a pat of butter.

From beginning to end, it took me less than one half hour to get dinner on the table. I served the upma with some watermelon (gah, won't buy watermelon again until warmer months, no good can come from melons in the winter!) and a handful of Trader Joes curly chip things which are made of potato and lentil, and remind me, taste-wise, of papads.

I'm now wondering if the leftover upma could be incorporated into a vada batter or even make very flavorful koftas in a subdued gravy. That's me, always thinking of ways to use up leftovers. Not sure if it's a carry over from my Scottish lineage, as the Scots are known for their thrift. But why waste money? I'll just transform this stuff into something else, equally delicious.

Stay tuned.

Chia Challenge: Day One

I'll try pretty much everything once... and it appears I might be trying it 21 times this month (if I can keep up with it).

So. I broke down and bought a bag of Chia seeds. A friend (can't remember which one at the moment!) was extolling the virtues of it a while ago and I've been on the fence about trying it (for a whole host of reasons, the least of which is that I can go for long stretches of time without cooking a fucking thing, and stuff languish in the pantry and the potential is there for things to either go rancid or buggy before I get around to using [insert item or product name here].)

So I'm at the health food store to get some other items, saw the chia seeds, and thought, WHAT THE FUCK, I'll buy it.

My second thought of course was to seize a blogging opportunity, "Hey, I'll do a month of using this shit every day."

My third thought was, "February is a short month, too! Yay! [pause] Oh fuck. Here it is, day 7 of the shortest month of the year..."

Which brings me to RIGHT. THIS. MOMENT. thinking, I'll at the very least attempt to use the chia seeds in everything I manage to cook for the remainder of the month.

In the mornings, as of late, I've been hooked on running a few things in the blender: 1 cup of skim, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder by Nectar, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, a fistful of blueberries and two ice cubes. Which, I must admit, is pretty fucking delicious. So this morning, I added 1 tsp (1/3 the serving... or is it "dose?" size on the pouch) while the blender whirrrrred.

No change in overall taste, texture is a little bit more fibery (the blueberries offer up a bit of fiber, too), and appearance wise, it's a little darker (whereas without the chia, it appears more creamy).

An American Does Aviyal

Sapteengla (Chop-teen-gla)? Have you eaten?

Little did I realize until my trip to India, which spanned the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, did I realize that one of the dishes I make regularly, aviyal, is actually a Keralite dish.

This has everything in it that I love about Kerala (well, minus the seafood they are so very famous for); but flavor wise, it's all in there: curry leaf, coconut, and chile.

Tho my mode might be different than a traditional recipe, it was one of the first dishes I fed my mother-in-law, who promptly informed me she had nothing more to teach me in the kitchen.

This is a dish that is traditionally served with addai, which is pancake of sorts made from a mixture of several different pulses/legumes which is ground, and unlike dosas, addai batter does not need to be fermented, and can be used immediately. (Tho to be honest, I think the batter sets up better if you let it sit a bit.)

Now for the ingredients I used for today's aviyal:

First, the "sauce".

Into a blender I put:

1 Cup plain yogurt
1/4 tsp cumin seeds (not toasted)
The stems of 1 bunch of cilantro
1 big pinch of salt
1/4 Cup dessicated, shredded coconut (unsweetened)

I grind this until everything is incorporated and the "sauce" (or whatever this is called!) is a vibrant green. Set aside until ready.

Then the veggies:

1 russet potato, peeled and diced
1 dozen tindal (they look like little cucumbers), sliced into 1/4 inch thick disks
1 handful of shredded carrot (I had a bag on hand I've been using in salads)
1 handful green peas (I use frozen)
1/2 Zucchini, cubed.

First, I boil the potatoes in salted water with about 1/2 tsp of turmeric. Once the potatoes are fork tender, I add everything else and let simmer until tender. In the meantime, get the "tadka" or savory garnish-y thing started. Drain veggies, but reserve the cooking fluid, you might need it!

Tadka:

In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and temper:

12 Curry leaves (dry or fresh)
1 green (I used red, but these recipes always call for green), chile (I cut mine into fine rings)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (see what I did there? unroasted gets ground in the sauce; more gets tempered in the oil--I love the taste)
A pinch (or a few shakes, if you like it) Asafatoeida (or Hing as it's known in Hindi; or Perungaya in Tamil)

Let seeds and leaves and chile splutter and fry in the oil until fragrant.

At this point, add the boiled veggies to the tadka and stir to cook about two minutes or so. Don't brown, but keep stirring, trying not to mash up the veggies too much. Cook for another minute or two. If things look too dry or starts to stick to the skillet, add a tablespoon or two of the cooking fluid, stirring the veggies well.

The end result is not a curry where veggies are swimming in gravy, but more a fragrant veggie "mush" (not mashed, but you can still make out the individual veggies). So if your veggies look a bit soupy or more wet than not, cook a minute or two more until excess water cooks off.

Serve warm or hot with addai, or with other dishes such as a Travancore styled chicken curry or a Curry Meen.

So very glad to have eaten this very dish IN Kerala, and even gladder to know that my version is a reasonable facsimile thereof!