Category: Chef Lane

Chef Lane

Two-Bite Meatballs and Veggie Pasta Sauce

the outside lane

I am working hard at cooking what is available to me in my kitchen, without buying excess at the store.  It forces some creativity, but I don’t feel wasteful.  Last night I threw together a dish with meatballs and a saucy sauce.  I call it Two-Bite Meatballs because it takes two bites to eat them politely.  You could just pop a whole one into your mouth, but that would be rude.

First, you make your meatballs.  I make my meatballs differently every time, just depending on the taste I want, but in this case:

  • 1lb ground lamb
  • 1 Tbs garlic paste
  • 2 Tbs diced onions
  • 1 tsp Allspice
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Mix all that together, then use a spoon to measure out equal amounts of meat, per the size of the meatball you want.  A melon baller will also give you tidy sizes.  Stick those in the broiler for 10 minutes, then flip them and broil to your preferred level of doneness.  (I used a regular spoon for these and netted myself 16 two-bite meatballs.)

While that’s working, make your sauce.

  • 1 can of unsalted diced tomatoes with basil
  • 1 zucchini chopped into teeny, tiny cubes–think The Borrower’s sized
  • 1/2 onion finely chopped
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • Dash or more of cinnamon

Let those ingredients simmer until your onions are tender.  By that time, your meatballs should be out of the oven, and you should have some nice fatty juices sloshing around.  Pour your sauce into the pan with your meatballs and fatty broth, stir and let sit for about five minutes.  This will make you a really delicious, fairly healthy sauce that compliments the meat well. 

Serve over rice, pasta, zucchini pasta, orzo…whatever.  Pretty simple.  Very tasty.

It played well to the family.  All the meatballs were eaten, and a good bit of the sauce.

Chef Lane, Food

In a Jam

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On the advice of my friend, Laura, I bought an Oster bread maker about a year ago.  I’ve made exactly one loaf of bread, and it was lovely.  Unfortunately, it did not come with a bread slicing fairy, so I lost interest quickly.  Laura had told me she used her bread maker to make jellies and jams, though, so when I started eyeing with distress my 8lbs of plums from Bountiful Baskets, I decided it was time to haul it out from under the sink and get down to business.

Oster bread maker.

 

Basically, you throw a cup of sugar, a tablespoon of powdered pectin, two teaspoons of lemon juice, and a cup and a half of the fruit of your choice into the bread maker pan.  You let it mix for 5 minutes, then you set it to bake for an  hour.  Et voila, jam!

You pour that into heated jars, pop on the lids, then process them in hot water until the jar lids sea.  Then let the jars cool before putting them in the fridge to set the jam.

I made both plum and strawberry jam last night.  Thor and I ate the plum jam for breakfast, on toasted sourdough bread from Bountiful Baskets, with my favorite butter, Kerrygold–an Irish butter.  Thor ate both his pieces without a word, but tells me now that it would have been perfect, had I not let the butter and jam mix together.

Plum jam on toasted sourdough. Mmmm.

I’m pretty pleased with the result.

 

Chef Lane, Food

Chef Lane: Some Lamb, Some Radishes and Some Kale walk into a kitchen…

the outside lane

You all know I got a haul from Bountiful Baskets, and that I had no idea what to do with some of my produce.  Namely, I had two huge bunches of kale and a bunch of radishes, and not a clue what to make of them.  I’ve been hunting down recipes and making them my own, and so far, I’m having a lot of fun and success.  Tonight, I made a dinner of grilled lamb (cooked on The Griddler, thanks Dad and Barbara!), sauteed kale, and grilled radishes.

Sounds disgusting, doesn’t it?  Surprisingly, it was delicious!

Lamb, kale and radishes. Surprisingly delicious.

You will need:

  • 6 boneless Lamb chops (They come 3 to a pack at Kroger)
  • 2 bunches of kale
  • 1 bunch of radishes
  • 3 large cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup veggie/chicken/beef stock (you pick)
  • 3 Tbs Sesame Oil
  • 2 Tbs Sesame Seeds
  • 2 Tbs butter
  • 2 Tbs garlic paste
  • 1 tsp Miso
  • 1 ice cube
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Herbal Sea Salt to taste

I love this herbal sea salt by Caber, called Seasonello.

I use this all the time. I love it for seasoning lamb.

My dad and his nifty wife, Barbara, bought us The Griddler the last time they were here.  They use it in their RV for a lot of cooking, and after telling me how easy it was to use, and to clean, I told B I wanted one for Christmas.  Dad and Barbara brought us one the next day.  It is amazing!  I love it!  I love it most because it is so easy to clean.

Anyway, while your Griddler or grill, or oven are pre-heating, salt your lamb with the herbal salt and set it aside.

I have a really cheap vegetable slicer that I bought at Kroger.  I call it the Slice-o-matic.  It looks something like this:

It slices your vegetables into wafer thin pieces! Just watch your fingers.

Use your Slice-o-Matic, or whatever you have handy, to slice your radishes into very thin rounds.  Do the same with your 3 garlic cloves.  Cut up your butter into tiny pats in a small, broiler safe baking dish, put your radishes and garlic in the dish, drop the ice cube in the center, then cover with foil.  Broil for 25 minutes.  (You can skip the baking dish and just put all of this in foil, edges wrapped up so as not to leak butter everywhere, and put this on the grill for 20 minutes.)

While your radishes are going, put half your sesame oil in a large saucepan with all of the garlic paste.  Heat until the oil is bubbly, then add your cup of stock and Miso.  You will have taken the leaves of the kale off the stalks, and ripped those into smaller pieces.  Put those in your saucepan and mix until your leaves are all covered with the oil, garlic, and stock.  Cover and cook on high for 5 minutes.  Remove cover and reduce heat, simmering until the liquid is nearly gone.  Add in the sesame seeds and stir.

While the radishes are going, and the kale is cooking, throw your lamb on The Griddler.  5 minutes for rare, how B likes it, and 8 minutes to medium, how I like it.

Serve and be surprised!

The kale has a really nice texture and the miso and sesame oil give it a great flavor.  The radishes come out with a very potato-y taste.  I was hoping B would like it, and was thrilled when he ate all the vegetables.  That’s pretty rare.  When Mom came to bring Thor home, I had her give it a taste, and she especially liked the kale.

This recipe yields dinner for 2 adults, with 2 servings of leftovers.

 

Chef Lane, Food

Chef Lane: No Noodle Lasagna

the outside lane

I’m working out how to utilize all the produce from my Bountiful Basket order.  First up, today, was the eggplant.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do with it, but when I started to work, I realized that the bottom quarter of the plant was not usable.  So, I switched gears and turned it into a lasagna.

No pictures again, but this time because it smelled so good I kind of dove into it before I thought to take any.

You will need:

  • 1 small eggplant
  • 1 small sweet onion
  • 3 leaves of fresh basil (or dried)
  • 1/2lb of ground lamb
  • 1/4 cup egg beaters
  • 1/4 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 cup pasta sauce of your choice
  • 1 tsp Garlic Paste
  • 1tsp Cilantro Paste
  • salt & pepper to taste
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350
  2. Slice eggplant into paper thin rounds.
  3. Dredge the rounds in egg (I added a dash of salt to the egg), then coat with bread crumbs.
  4. Place the coated eggplant on a cookie tray and bake at 350 for 10 minutes, turning the rounds halfway through.
  5. Remove from oven and set aside.
  6. Finely chop basil leaves.
  7. Slice onion into thin rounds.
  8. Leave half in rounds, and finely chop the other half.
  9. Mix garlic, cilantro, and chopped onion into lamb, then brown in skillet on stovetop. While meat is browning, add half the basil leaves.
  10. In a small casserole dish, pour a small amount of pasta sauce and cover bottom of dish. Layer the bottom with the baked eggplant rounds. Add a layer of onion rounds. Use half the goat cheese and create a cheese layer.
  11. Pour in the entire meat mixture for the next layer.
  12. Cover with a layer of pasta sauce
  13. Add the rest of the goat cheese and cover layer.
  14. Cover with the rest of the eggplant rounds and the rest of the pasta sauce
  15. Top with parmesan cheese and the remaining basil.
  16. Cook at 350 for 35 minutes.

This makes about 6 heaping 1/2 cup servings, and works out to the following per serving numbers (according to MyFitnessPal):

  • 253 calories
  • 17 carbs
  • 15 fat
  • 14 protein
  • 4 fiber

Thor ate his up!  This means I got eggplant, onion, basil and cilantro into the boy without his knowing it.  Yay!

 

 

Chef Lane, Food

Chef Lane: Zucchini Pasta with Macadamia Nut Butter

the outside lane

Since I found this recipe for Zucchini Pasta with Thyme and Sage on Addicted to Veggies, I have been wanting to try it out!  I wasn’t sure if I would like it, or if it would be suitable for the family’s tastes, so I’ve waited until today to do a test recipe.  My own recipe is strongly based on the one from Addicted to Veggies, but I changed some major ingredients to suit my tastes.  I loved it!  I wish I had made more.

No pictures today.  I couldn’t get any shots I thought were pretty.  But go over to Addicted to Veggies and check out her photos.  Check out the whole blog.  It’s fantastic!

To do your own test recipe, you will need:

  • 1 zucchini
  • 2 Tbs EVOO
  • 1/2 tsp Miso (You can find this in the Asian section of the supermarket.  It is a paste, and is usually near the soy sauce.)
  • 1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
  • 1/4 tsp garlic paste (I use Gourmet Garden) or finely chopped garlic *this is optional
  • 1/4 tsp cilantro paste (also Gourmet Garden) or finely chopped cilantro *this is optional
  • 1 pinch of sea salt
  • 1 pinch of brown sugar
  • 5-10 macadamia nuts ground into powder, depending on how nutty a flavor you like.  I like it really nutty, so I did 10 (This is the only hard part.  I use a tiny nutmeg grater to grate the nuts down into powder–in between eating the nuts.)

Pre-heat your oven to the lowest set available.  Mine is 170 degrees.

Using a veggie peeler, peel away the outer skin of the zucchini.  Then, use the veggie peeler to make ribbons of zucchini.  Stop making ribbons when you get to the seeds.  You don’t want the seeds.  Set your ribbons aside, then make your butter.

You will have already ground your nuts into powder.  Add the rest of your ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to combine.  Then, drop in your zucchini ribbons and mix.

Put your “buttered” zucchini on a cookie sheet or oven safe platter and spread out so that it is fairly evenly distributed.  Place in the warm oven with the oven door open about 5 inches.  You don’t want to cook your zucchini, you want to wilt your zucchini.

Remove after about 10 minutes, or when warm and wilted, then eat.

Your zucchini will have the texture of a thin, flat pasta, and the butter is amazing!