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Indonesian stir fry

11 March 2010 By 3 Comments

Indonesian Stir Fry

When I looked at that meatballs in spicy peanut sauce recipe, it reminded me of a stir fry I used to make: Indonesian stir fry.  My original recipe for that particular dish included lots of garlic and two tablespoons of peanut butter. I searched the web for something to refresh my memory, but no luck. So my recipe on Tuesday went something like this.

  • 4 Scallions (large green onions)
  • 1 Red pepper
  • 1 Yellow pepper
  • 1 Orange pepper
  • Handful of green beans. If you cup your hands together to make an “O”–about that many.
  • About an egg-size piece of ginger (peeled)
  • 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
  • Sesame oil
  • Soya sauce
  • Turkey breast
  • Peanut butter
  • Chili pepper (I bought a small bottle of chili pepper sauce because I couldn’t find the chili peppers.)
  • 250 ml of warm chicken broth. I use Knorr cubes. (I have a story about Knorr I’ll have to write.) Add a teaspoon of soya sauce, a teaspoon of chili pepper sauce, and about two  tbsps of peanut butter. Mix it all up.

Slice the turkey breast into stir-fry strips.  Put in a bowl and season with a round or two of sesame oil and soya sauce. When I say a round or two, I mean once around the bowl. Or twice. However much you think you need.

Add a spoonful or so of chili pepper sauce. To taste. Not too much, but enough so the turkey breast is marinating in something palatably spicy.

Set the marinating turkey strips aside.

Slice the scallions into about 3 cm lengths. Then quarter the lengths.

Slice the peppers in the same fashion-about 3 cm lengths by 1 cm or less.

Same with the green beans.

I chopped up the ginger and the garlic with my chopper. Like the slap chop. Except it’s not a slap chop. It’s just a regular chopper. It might have a Swiss accent, but it essentially works the same.

Heat up a wok and go once around with some oil–just enough to coat the bottom. Toss in the turkey strips.  Stir-fry until the strips are lightly browned. Remove from the pan. If you have help in the kitchen, make sure they have a glass of wine in one hand and discuss, in general, what you think the desired outcome should be. Just so everybody is on the same page. Discuss the general order of cooking. And listen to the person who suggests a figure-eight stirring motion — I think it was the key to our success.

Add another round of oil. Add the veges including the garlic and ginger. Stir for a minute or two to cook. Add the 250 ml of the chicken broth mixture.

Stir. Cook. Stir. Cook.

Add the turkey back into the wok.

Stir. Cook. Stir. Cook.

Pay attention and don’t over cook the veges. It’s nice when they are just the right amount of crunchy.

We opened a bottle of Ludo’s Chateau Neuf de Papes and sat down to eat this concoction over a wild rice mixture. I think it turned out really good. So good, that I didn’t even get a picture–and I should have. I would won a lot of points for colour.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Ma vie en Suisse, Recipes

Turkey cubes in spicy curry peanut sauce

10 March 2010 By 4 Comments

Meatballs-in-spicy-curry-peanut-sauce

Last night, a friend came to dinner. I thought I’d try to make something simple. I’d seen a recipe in the Fine Cooking magazine last week that I wanted to try out: Meatballs in spicy curry peanut sauce.

This spicy meatball recipe called for ground beef. I couldn’t find ground beef in my grocery store. I usually shop at the small(ish) MIGROS in the bottom of the building. The meat department  full of individually-packaged cuts of meat–so I bought some turkey breasts instead. I cut them into one-inch cubes. I think they worked fine.  Here is the recipe (modified by me).

  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • two or three deboned turkey breasts cut into one-inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp of oil, more if needed. The original recipe called for vegetable oil. I used olive oil. I don’t know the difference. Olive oil worked for me.
  • 4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped (Redd, I used my chopper :-) ).
  • 1 tbsp red curry paste, more to taste. (I used more).
  • 1 cup canned coconut milk (refridgerate the can, don’t shake it. Use the cream from the top). I just used the whole thing.
  • 2 tbsp chunky peanut butter. I used some peanut butter that I found at the MIGROS. However, I am now on a mission to find a brand of peanut butter here in Switzerland with just peanuts. Just peanuts in my peanut butter please. And maybe some salt. But that’s all. When it comes to peanut butter, less is definitely more.
  • Some freshly-chopped basil for garnish.

Salt and pepper the cubed turkey breast.

Toss lightly in flour. Enough to lightly coat the cubes.

Heat some oil in a wok or fry pan. Just coat the bottom of the pan.

Fry the garlic for about one minute–until it is lightly brown. I used the stopwatch on my iPhone. I seem to use my iPhone for everything. It worked just fine. It got a bit gucky from the kitchen, but I just cleaned it later.  Remove the browned garlic from the pan and set aside.

Fry the coated, cubed turkey breast for about 5 minutes until they are lightly browned and just nicely done- that is, the meat isn’t dry.  I fried my cubes in two batches. When the first batch was done, I removed them to drain on a paper towel. Then repeated everything with the second batch.

When you’ve finished with the turkey cubes, if there is no oil left in the pan, add a wee bit more. Add the curry paste and cook that for a bit in the pan. Stir it to prevent sticking.

Add the garlic that you’d set aside earlier. Keep stirring.

Add the coconut milk. Stir.

Add the peanut butter. Stir some more.

Keep stirring and cooking until you the sauce is uniformly consistent.

Add more curry paste to taste. Stir it in.

Return the cooked, cubed turkey breast to the pan and simmer over low heat until everything is warmed up.

Transfer everything to a serving dish and garnish with the chopped, fresh basil.

WARNING: Don’t let things simmer too long. The sauce will curdle. SO PAY ATTENTION. When the sauce is smooth and consistent and uniform, TAKE IT OFF the burner and put it in a serving dish.

We opened a bottle of Ermitage from Caprice du Temps (shameless plug) and ate this dish as an appetizer.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Ma vie en Suisse, Recipes

Ratatouille

29 November 2009 By 3 Comments

I made ratatouille last night. I’d been thinking about making it for over a month. But yesterday, I found a recipe in one of my Mum’s Prevention magazines. It looked quite easy. So I made it.

Here are the ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 med yellow onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green bell peppers, sliced in 1/2″ strips
2 med zucchini, sliced in 1/2″ rounds
2 sm eggplant, sliced in 1/2″ rounds (about 1 lb)
4 lg tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 can (28 oz) tomatoes, drained
2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Yesterday, when I was in Whitehorse, I bought a zucchini (courgette for my European readers) and a chinese eggplant (aubergine). It is lighter in colour than a regular eggplant and it seemed like it would be less bitter. Anyway, here is my version:

I chopped up half a yellow onion into chunky pieces. I also sliced up a leek (the recipe didn’t call for leeks–I just like them). I sliced the leek lengthwise, then I sliced up the halves horizontally into cross-sectional strips. I chopped the pepper, the zucchini, and the eggplant into half-inch widths (I guess that’s approximately one centimetre). I made them all approximately the same size so they would cook evenly.

This recipe also asked for three cloves of garlic. My parents have this huge jar of minced garlic preserved in olive oil. I used about a teaspoon and a half.

I heated a fry pan and a scootch of oil on medium-high heat until the oil reached temperature. Then, I added the onions and the leek for about five minutes, stirring so they didn’t stick or brown too much. I added my teaspoon and a half of minced garlic for about a minute–until it was aromatic. 

Then, I reduced the heat to medium and added the vegetables until they began to soften. Oh. I’d forgotten to cut up the tomatoes when I cut up the other vegetables, so I rummaged in the fridge and found four tomatoes in the bottom drawer. I cut them up into the half-inch chunks and added them too. 

In terms of seasoning, I added rosemary, thyme, parsley, and salt and pepper. I might have added Italian seasoning if we’d had it, but my Mum grows and dries her own herbs and seasonings. We didn’t have it-per sae, just the rosemary, thyme, and parsley. After I tasted it, I think I could have added a touch of cumin–but I was keeping with the Italian theme. 

For protein, I grilled three Italian sausages. I left the ratatouille cook for about half an hour, then I turned it into a casserole dish and topped it off with grilled, cut-up Italian sausage. 

I wish I had taken a picture. It was yummy.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Recipes

Tomato, mozzarella ball appetizer

12 September 2009 By Leave a Comment

I made this appetizer for a neighbourhood deck party last night. It is simple, but effective.

  • cherry or grape tomatoes
  • marinated mozzarella balls
  • fresh basil
  • lime juice
  • cracked pepper

As usual, I left it to the last minute to make. I should have got my tomatoes from Dan, the tomato man last Tuesday at the Healdsburg Farmer’s Market. But I didn’t. I wasn’t thinking this far ahead last Tuesday. I just bought both the tomatoes and the mozzarella balls from Trader Joe’s half an hour before I needed to leave.

I did however, harvest fresh basil from my friend Carol’s garden. Then, I cut the mozzarella balls in half, added a basil leaf and a grape tomato and skewered them onto a toothpick.

I guess it is something like my tomato, mozzarella ball salad, but this summer, when my nephew Jorden made that salad, he’d added lime juice and cracked pepper. And something that he won’t tell me. But it definitely added a palatable zing.

So, as a finishing touch on these appetizer sticks, I decorated the plate with the extra basil leaves, squirted lime juice over the plate, and cracked some pepper.  Jorden, what did you add that gave the salad that zing???

Easy. Tasty. Fast.

We headed over to the party.

A few years ago, one of our neighbours organized to install a secure mailbox to help address the problem of mail that was getting stolen.  A few of us pitched in for the cost and in return, have a secure mailbox up here on Fitch Mountain.

Having mail that didn’t get stolen has more benefits than you might imagine. One of my favourite benefits is a few times a year, we get together and have a mailbox party. Sometimes, it’s a galloping dinner between neighbours. Sometimes, like last night, it was a simple deck party (and it was a good night for it too!).

Last night was a special night. The original organizer of the secure mailboxes had recently passed away. We honoured him with a plaque which will be installed beside the mailboxes. It says: Dedicated to Mike Barbie. Our neighbourhood advocate.”

Thank you Mike. For making our neighbourhood a safer place.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Life in Healdsburg, Recipes

Peanut butter menu

1 September 2009 By 6 Comments

I can’t tell you how exhausted I am.  As most of you know, I’ve been traveling–since May 15. Hard to move around all the time. Fun though. Family. Friends. Fun. Now I am back in Healdsburg at the moment. Collecting myself as I get ready for the next chapter of my life and I thought I might write a post about peanut butter.

I like peanut butter. I like the just peanuts kind. In fact, I like the just peanuts, crunchy kind. Except, EXCEPT, the crunchy in the butter has to definitely be crunched peanuts. You can’t have peanut butter with whole peanuts in it. This summer at my parent’s, I went looking at the Superstore for the just peanuts kind and all I found was something that said it was just peanuts. When I got it home, it was smooth goo with whole peanuts in it!

What kind of peanut butter is that?

Anyway, if I had my own cafe or something, I would have a peanut butter menu. Here are a few things I’d start with:

  • Peanut butter on toast with slices of cucumber
  • Peanut butter on toast with slices of apple or maybe even pear (I haven’t tried the pear combination yet).
  • Peanut butter on celery sticks
  • Peanut butter on slices of apple
  • And for those who like sweet instead of savory, peanut butter and jam sandwich

That’s a good start. Anybody have any other suggestions?

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Recipes

A little crock

8 March 2009 By Leave a Comment

I made a crock pot last night. It didn’t take much time, and it cooked while I was trying to work on my Intuit project. It was easy, and delicious.

Chopped vegetables in the bottom. I had carrots, red potatoes, celery, and a turnip in my crisper. I chopped until I felt good about the amount of veges in the bottom of the pot.

I layered on skinless chicken thighs after I’d cut the extra fat off. Sprinkled with Knorr chicken broth mix. Two cans of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, some water for the vegetables, and Worechestershire sauce. I grabbed some fresh rosemary from my plant out back.

Stuff it all in. Turn on the crock. And just let it go.

Today, I would have added cracked peppercorns if I’d had them.

It was just tasty. And comforting. And I think, just taking the time to make myself dinner did wonders for my sense of being.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Recipes

Foie Gras

16 October 2007 By 1 Comment

Somebody recently wrote and told me he and an his familial entourage are taking a tour of Napa Valley. He forwarded me their itinerary and asked if I knew anything about the wineries on the list:

So, even though I know nothing about these wineries nor the wines, I wrote a long and convoluted email back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hhmmm….

Carneros is an appellation that is known for their Chardonays and Pinots. I’m guessing they capitalize on the hot days and cool breezes…but I don’t know if they get the cool breezes from the Bay or from the Petaluma Gap.

…quick google search says from San Pablo Bay.

I know about the Carneros Inn because the lady at PlumpJack Cafe wanted me to send Bush-Field there. …now a google search indicates that the Carneros Inn is part of the PlumpJack family and probably resides in the Carneros appellation…and has nothing what-so-ever to do with Domaine Carneros except the proximity. So–you’re going to have to let me know what you think. Judging by their website, you’ll be suitably impressed.

Rubicon…that’s the sister winery (or parent winery?) to Rosso & Bianco Winery. Rubicon is the original FFC (Francis Ford Coppola). My little intern–Cindy–has just spent the last three months at Rosso & Bianco. She toured Rubicon in late August for a day. She says it’s much nicer than Rosso & Bianco .. except Rosso & Bianco is pretty damn nice (see: An Afternoon at Rosso & Bianco Winery).

Oh. Side note—Francis Ford Coppola apparently started a community concert band in St. Helena. He plays the tuba.

Other than that…I know nothing about their wine. I do know, however, that I don’t like the new Rosso & Bianco label….it doesn’t pop. The label is red and sits on a red bottle. Nothing to make it stand out on the shelf.

From left: Evan, Virginia, Marty, Cindy, SandyI have attached a picture of the winemakers from Rosso & Bianco winery in my back yard. We had them over for dinner! Cindy (my housemate until this Saturday. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her because she’s made a huge difference in my life–but I digress yet again). Cindy has been the winery intern at Rosso & Bianco for the past three months. About a month ago, she made an evening of French cuisine local to her region in France. She invited her colleagues. That was a funny story.

She’d brought over some homemade preserves. Her family are farmers–so everything is grown and preserved right on the farm. One thing she’d brought over was her Mum’s foie gras.

Marty, Cindy, SandyEverybody was tasting a bit of this and a bit of that and somebody asked her how she made the foie gras. (Keep in mind, that when she arrived, she spoke in broken English–she now speaks in less broken English–but she has greatly improved).

She said:

At my parents, we have ducks.
In the spring, we start to feed them a lot of mais…What is mais?
Corn–we piped up.
Ok. So. We feed them corn. A LOT of corn. Maybe three of those bowls a day. She pointed to a dish on the table.
Ok. We said. So you feed them a lot of corn.
Yes. She continued: They eat a lot of corn for two or three months then…bup! She motioned with her hands like she was cutting off their heads. Bup! We harvest them.
What? We exclaimed. That’s it? You harvest them?
Yes. She nodded her head. We harvest them. We kill them and take their liver…and…Voila! Foie gras.
Don’t you do something to their livers? You know, before we eat it? We asked.
No. She shook her head. Harvest the liver. Put it in the jar. Cover it with oil and Voila! Foie Gras.

Nobody ate the rest of the foie gras. We just let it sit on the table while we ate the gratin and salads and prunes—even though they were harvested in much the same fashion.

So, now I’m laughing at my ADD. I’m sorry. But it was a funny story. It’s only one of many I have to put on my blog about my time with Cindy. But, now I’ve written it. I think I’ll post it.

Regardless. If you’re up as far as Calistoga, you might as well dine in Healdsburg. There are some pretty nice places to eat here. I have to make sure I go to Cyrus before I leave. When it’s in your own back yard, there is certainly no excuse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So. That’s it. That’s the story about how I know nothing about Domaine Carneros and Rubicon Wineries. But, I do know a little bit more about Foie Gras.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Life in Healdsburg, Recipes

Don’t Ham It Up on Valentine’s Day

14 February 2007 By Leave a Comment

I’m not much of a believer in Hallmark occasions–like today–Valentine’s Day. I am one of those people who is likely to forget the actual day on the day–but I do remember it–eventually. For example, I remember my neice and nephew’s birthdays–usually a few months either before or after the actual birthday, but I do remember it. I send them presents or I send them a card. I think they like to receive the extra attention on a day when it is not actually their birthday. When I was in university, I routinely remembered to send my parents their Christmas presents in March. And once, when I was married, I remembered my husband’s birthday far too late and ended up buying him a ham at the all-night grocery store. And now, you might smile and nod your head and think: “Ah Ha. Recipe for disaster. She bought him a ham. A ham for his birthday.”

But it was a funny story. It’s not a great story and I am kind of ashamed about it, but it is quite funny. I remembered that it was his birthday too late to get him anything special–and I was doing the grocery shopping. I bought him a ham. I thought I could get home and give it to him and say: “Hey Hubby–how ’bout we ham it up on your birthday?” And then we would laugh our heads off at the ridiculousness of receiving a ham for your birthday. I wasn’t even planning on preparing it in any way–I just thought it would be funny to give him a ham for his birthday.

Nope. A definite recipe for disaster: One husband. One birthday. One raw ham. Not quite the right ingredients and I don’t believe I ever redeemed myself. So–if there is one thing I can say to all those people out there who are thinking about last minute gifts for Valentine’s Day–don’t buy the ham. It’s not going to get you anywhere.

Filed Under: Bits and Bytes, Recipes

Hermaphrodite Moose Soup

19 December 2006 By Leave a Comment

We had moose soup for lunch yesterday. It was a soup my parents had made so I don’t quite know the recipe–except I do know about the moose.

It turns out that the last time my Dad went moose hunting, he shot a hermaphrodite moose. It looked like a bull moose with horns and everything–so he shot it. When he started gutting it, he realized it had both male and female organs. But, hey, it was a moose. Do you know how many families you can feed with a moose?

I’ve had lasagna made with that moose before. And now, I’ve had moose soup. Tomorrow, my Dad says, we’ll have spaghetti bolognaise a la hermaphrodite moose.

How’s that for interesting?

Filed Under: Life in the Yukon, Recipes

Christmas gifts

10 December 2006 By Leave a Comment

I spent all day yesterday making Christmas gifts. Mainly, I made Quebec-Martin’s famous Mango-Cranberry Chutney. My idea was to make small jars of preserves for gifts. I bought the jars, but I didn’t have the faintest clue how to make the preserves so I phoned my Dad for advice. Here is what he said:

  1. Boil a big pot of water.
  2. Turn off the burner and put the jars and the rims in the hot water.
  3. Don’t heat the lids with the rubber seal–they’ll melt.
  4. Put the hot jam, jelly, chutney (whatever) in the hot jars.
  5. Smooth out the air bubbles with a spatula.
  6. Put the lid with the rubber seal on the top of the jar and hold down with your fingers.
  7. Tap the jar firmly on the counter top four or five times (to get rid of the air).
  8. Put the rims on–as tight as you can. Then, tighten them more.

That’s it. Let them cool.

Wow. It was that easy. I now have eight little jars of Mango-Cranberry Chutney. I hope people like them.

Filed Under: Recipes
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