Bulgur and Lamb Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

So my math test is over. I have no clue if I passed or not, but it would have helped if I remembered the area of a circle. The Father's Day full of barbecues are also over. And I can finally get back to posting on a regular basis. Well, working around the little Ford Focus that had to be towed today (thanks to yet another common calamity with it). And Wilma the Knee being ornery. And my new Donut Fryer job that starts at 1am tomorrow.

But enough complaining. Tonight, I bring you a healthy dinner of Bulgur and Lamb Meatballs in Tomato Sauce. The lamb just adds a hint of flavor to the bulgur flavored meatballs. There's also a pinch of cinnamon that reminds me of Lebanese cooking and growing up in Michigan. They really were tasty. They weren't quick or easy, but I felt good eating them and most of the time was spent chilling the meat/bulgur mixture and meatballs. So yeah, I'd make these again.

But now I have to go take a long nap before I can hop out of bed at midnight and say "Time to make the donuts!"

Bulgur and Lamb Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
adapted from Cooking Light

Meatballs:
2 cups water
1 cup uncooked bulgur
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground lamb
2 large egg whites
2 garlic cloves, minced

Sauce:
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

To prepare meatballs, soak bulgur in 2 cups water for 2 minutes; drain through a fine sieve Combine bulgur and next 7 ingredients (bulgur through 2 minced garlic cloves). Cover and chill 30 minutes. Shape lamb mixture into 18 meatballs; cover and chill 30 minutes.

To prepare sauce, heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 minced garlic clove; cook 3 minutes, stirring often. Add red wine; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes. Stir 1/2 cup water, cinnamon, and diced tomatoes.Add meatballs; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Steven's Perfect Dungeness Crab Cakes

So last weekend I received a lovely package from the truly amazing Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Peabody had a contest celebrating her new blog Northwest Noshings that I was lucky enough to win. Unfortunately, the package arrived on a very hot Saturday and we were out of town at a beautiful wedding in Fort Wayne (where incidentally I met the guy who makes flies for urinals. Yeah, you read that right. Apparently boys need something to aim at. You can use them at home too. Check it out here.)

So in this beautiful package was some super delicious honey, the most amazing thick caramel sauce, a chicken rub that I'm itching to try out, and some half melted chocolates that despite not being at all photogenic by the time I got them were damn ass tasty. Peabody also sent me a great little cookbook called I Love Crab Cakes! Now, I live in rural North central Ohio. The closest crab is a long long long way off. So I called the Queen Geek and she was nice enough to bring down almost a full pound of canned crab meat. Surprisingly, the Detroit area has many many fish markets. Maybe next time I'm up there I'll pick up some fresh stuff. I was eyeing the Etta's Crab Cakes, but Peabody made those for one of her first posts.

Frankly, Peabody can make just about anything look a bazillion times better than I can. So I flipped through the book and decided on Steven's Perfect Dungeness Crab Cakes. I also have to confess here that I altered the recipe a little bit. The recipe calls for a full pound of crab meat and I only had 12 ounces. And after I almost chopped my finger off chopping the chives I decided that I was neither going to chop the herbs very fine, nor was I going to measure them. Actually I was fairly bad at measuring because I was in a wee bit of a rush. I had just taken a practice math exam and was on my way to my very first spin class since Wilma the knee made her debut, and I knew that I would pretty much be coming home from spin only to head for the shower, get dressed and leave for what counts as ballet in Nowhere, Ohio. Nowhere, Ohio is apparently a fairly cultured place. There was a surprisingly huge turnout for the local ballet school's recital. Fortunately these crab cakes were perfect. Just like the name. They were quick and lite and perfect for a quick afternoon dinner. I served them with some mashed avocado and tomato.

And if you're wondering if my friend the Queen Geek brought the crab while she was down here about 2 weeks ago, and if you remember seeing the contest on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody oh almost a month ago, why did I wait so long to make the crab cakes? And if you are wondering about the fairly sporadic posting that has been going on here, and what the hell is it with all this math? Let me fill you in. After a year and a half of being unemployed in a county that has an 11% unemployment rate and not really wanting to commute over 50 miles each way to work in a city, and some serious soul searching, I've decided to go back to school. I am going to be a high school math teacher. I figure I may just be warped enough to get kids' attention and share the joy of math. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have an undergraduate degree in Statistics and the school has offered me a deal. If I take the Praxis II content test for math and pass it before December, I don't have to take any more math classes (a savings of over $8,000). The test is tomorrow morning and if anyone has any tidbits of math advice, please leave a comment. It's been almost 20 years since I've taken most of this math and I'm a little skittish about it. So that's why I've been distant. Why I've been horrible slow at answering emails or responding to comments. Why the Brain might just get stuck with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner tonight. And after tomorrow morning I'll know if I need to keep studying and take the test again in September. Oh yeah. And I got a job at the local IGA as a "Donut Fryer". This could be fun.

So for now, enjoy the recipe for crab cakes and go check out Peabody's new blog Northwest Noshings it's pretty amazing, and if you haven't already, peak at her old blog Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I'm going to continue writing SOHCAHTOA over every piece of paper I can find and I'll be desperately trying to remember matrix algebra.

Steven's Perfect Dungeness Crab Cakes
adapted from I Love Crab Cakes! by Tom Douglas

12 ounces Dungeness crab meat
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light mayonnaise
the zest from one lemon (about 2 Tbsp)
2 Tbsp minced fresh dill
2 Tbsp thinly sliced chives
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup panko plus more for dredging
about 4 Tbsp butter

To make the crab cakes, put the crab meat, mayonnaise, lemon zest, dill, chives, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix everything together gently with a rubber spatula. Add the 1.2 cup panko and mix again. Pour some more panko into a shallow container.

Form the crab mixture into 8 patties. Pat them gently into shape without pressing them too much. Drop the patties into the panko and turn them to coat both sides, patting to shake off the excess. If you have time, cover with plastic wrap and chill the crab cakes in the refrigerator for 1 hour or more before frying.

When you are ready to fry the crab cakes, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Put 2 large nonstick ovenproof skillets over medium-high heat and add about 2 Tbsp butter to each pan. As soon as the butter is melted, add 4 crab cakes to each pan. Leave the pans on the burners for about a minute (the butter should not start to brown), then place the pans in the oven. Cook the crab cakes until they are heated through and golden brown on both sides, about 12 minutes, carefully turning them with a spatula about halfway through the cooking time. Remove the pans from the oven and transfer the crab cakes to plates, serving 2 crab cakes to each person. Garnish with a dill sprig and a lemon wedge.

(If you are like me and are only feeding two people, you can freeze the crab cakes before cooking and then thaw in the refrigerator and cook at a later date.)

Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice

For today's installment of Legume Wednesdays I turned to Cooking Light's Annual Recipes 2008 and their oh so delicious Cuban Black Bean Patties. That's what they named them, although I'm not exactly sure what makes them so Cuban.

I worked with a Cuban woman while bartending in Chicago. She was a tiny little coked up dynamo that had an eerie similarity to Yzma from the Emporer's New Groove. She could be downright scary. But when you're all of 5 feet 3 inches I guess that's how you maintain control of a big noisy dive bar. I'm not sure she would agree with the assessment that these are Cuban tasting.

They are delicious though. A little slimy to put together and they took a bit of effort. But darn tasty. They are also very nutritious and pretty cheap to make. Pineapple happens to be on sale this time of year and I picked mine up at 2 for $5. A can of Great Value (the Walmart brand) black beans is less than a dollar. Although the recipe calls for boil in the bag white rice, a cup of regular white rice would work just fine. My cilantro plant decided to die on me and I had to substitute Italian parsley. I think cilantro would have tasted better.

The only problem I had was that the recipe was that it called for one 15 ounce can of black beans and that should hold 2 cups of beans. I measured my beans three times and although I had one bean make a run for freedom and I had to throw it out, my beans did not equal two cups. I had a touch more than 1 1/2 cups.

Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice
from Cooking Light

Rice:
1 (3 1/2 ounce) bag boil-in-bag long grain rice
2 tsp butter
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp salt

Patties:
1 1/2 cups rinsed, drained, canned black beans (contents of one 15 ounce can), divided
1/2 tsp bottled minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg white
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup cornmeal

Prepare rice according to package directions, without salt or added fat. Drain, place rice in large bowl. Melt butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pineapple and saute for 4 minutes or until pineapple just begins to brown. Add pineapple mixture, cilantro, and 1/4 tsp salt to rice in bowl. cover and keep warm. Wipe pan clean with paper towels.

To prepare patties, place all but 1/2 cup beans in a bowl with garlic, cumin, and 1/8 tsp salt; partially mash with a fork. Place 1/2 cup beans and egg white in a food processor; process 30 seconds or until well combined. Add bean puree to bean mixture in bowl, and stir until combined. Divide bean mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2 inch thick patty. Place cornmeal in a shallow dish. Dredge both sides of each patty in cornmeal. Heat pan over medium high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add patties; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned.

Spoon about 1/2 cup rice onto each of 4 plates; top each serving with 1 patty.

Per Serving: Calories 294, Fat 8.7g (sat 5.4g, mono 1.7g, poly 0.2g); Protein 10.2g, Carbohydrates 45g, Fiber 3.5g, Cholesterol 28mg, Iron 2mg, Sodium 532mg, Calcium 155mg

Buffalo Chicken Salad

It is hot. Any piece of exposed skin sticks to anything it touches. Any skin not exposed is getting kinda sweaty. Lately the whole motive when planning dinner is minimizing the amount of time adding to the already sweltering temperatures inside the house. Partly this is my fault. I've been so far successful in keeping the air conditioning unit out of the window. You know keeping our energy usage down and being green and all that crap. Besides, this third day of weather over 90 degrees is just a heat wave. It's supposed to end tonight. Or tomorrow morning. Call me an optimist.

So today's effort to make dinner without resorting to raw food, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, is a delicious Buffalo Chicken Salad. Total cooking time is about 6 minutes of broiling. It also involved opening and closing the fridge a bunch of times. So I think it evens right out. And it was very healthy and delicious to boot!
Now if we could just get these thunderstorms that are looming on the horizon to cut the humidity. Then things would be just fine.

Buffalo Chicken Salad
adapted from Ellie Krieger and the Food Network

2 (8ounce) boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves
3 Tbsp Frank's Hot Sauce
2 tsp olive oil
2 hearts Romaine, cut into 1-inch strips (about 8 cups)
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 carrots, coarsely grated
2 scallions, green part only, sliced
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing (recipe follows)

Preheat the broiler. Thinly slice the chicken and toss in a large bowl with the hot sauce and oil until the chicken is well coated. Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet and broil until it is cooked through, about 6 minutes.In a large bowl, combine the Romaine, celery, shredded carrots and scallions. Divide the greens between 4 plates. Top with chicken and serve with Blue Cheese Dressing and more hot sauce

Blue Cheese Dressing

2 Tbsp Hellman's Canola mayonnaise
1/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup plain fat free yogurt
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
salt and ground pepper

Fold a full sheet of paper towel into quarters and put it into a small bowl. Spoon the yogurt onto the paper towel and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to drain and thicken. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk and thickened yogurt into the mayonnaise until smooth. Add the vinegar and sugar and continue to whisk until all the ingredients are well combined. Stir in the blue cheese and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce on the Grill

Today, while sitting and sweating and studying Trigonometry (I've moved on from the Geometry) I was wishing a lot of things. I was wishing they could make a knee brace that wasn't hot and itchy. I was wishing I was 10 and could run through the sprinkler. I was wishing that maybe it was less than a million percent humidity and maybe a little cooler. But mostly I was wishing for an idea of what to cook for dinner without turning on the oven or the stove. The grill of course leaps to mind, but we just had grilled chicken thighs the other day and I didn't want to do anything elaborate.

It is very rare that my wishes come true, but today they did. See Courtney posted the other day about Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. Which really put me in the mood for some tasty barbecue. So I left a nice comment. One thing led to another and a package containing 2 bottles of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce and some recipes arrived at my doorstop today. Yes that's TWO bottles. I am a very lucky wish granted girl. Apparently Country Bob's also makes a spicy version of the sauce, a barbecue sauce, and seasoning salt. But let me tell you this All Purpose Sauce is amazing.

It has a real tangy and zesty smell. I tasted a little of it and it had a nice zingy taste. It's not thick like a barbecue sauce, but it seems a little thicker and smoother than A1 Steak Sauce. So I opened up the little recipe package and there weren't any recipes in it for pork chops (which I quickly pulled out of the freezer and was already thawing in the microwave). There was a recipe for a grilled pork tenderloin, so I used that as my inspiration. I whipped it together in a Ziploc bag and let those pork chops marinate for 2 hours.

You know it's hot when the Brain didn't want to grill. So I became the grill mistress. I decided while I was at it that I would grill those 2 leftover chicken thighs. (Costco thighs come in packages of 5 and that other grill recipe this week called for 8). So although our meal was heavy on the meat side, a chicken thigh and a pork chop each, we had a nice tossed salad and our house stayed nice and cool.

On the side of the bottle it says "Christ is our CEO". Does that mean that I can say GOD wanted me to grill today?

Grilled Pork Chops and Chicken Thighs

original Shazam recipe

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp ground ginger

2 scallions chopped

1 cup Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce

2 boneless pork chops

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Mix the garlic, soy sauce, oil, ginger, and scallions in a large zip top bag. Add the pork chops and marinade, turning occasionally, for 2 hours. Add the chicken thighs to the bag and marinate for another 20 minutes.

Prepare the grill. Turn the flame down very low and place the pork chops on the grill, leaving the chicken still in the bag. 5 minutes later add the chicken thighs to the grill. Basting halfway through, continue to grill until the pork chops are 170 degrees and the thighs 180 degrees.

Pyaaz Waale Sabud Masoor

Also known as Brown Lentils with Chunky Onion and Chiles.

So remember how I was saying the Queen Geek came to visit this weekend. Well yeah. And we had a fabulous time. And she stopped before coming down here at the Bombay Grocers in Ann Arbor. Queen Geek had never been in an Indian grocery store before. I think she was surprised at the tremendous deals she found there. So she picked me up some legumes.

From bottom to top she brought me: urid dal, red lentils, brown lentils, mung beans, and Horse gram. I am completely unfamiliar with Horse gram and mung beans. And urid dal. But I'm excited that she brought them to me. (with some Nigella seeds. Yay!) Because don't forget that I still have that 660 Curries excellent cookbook. And so I added all these legumes to the massive pile of dried legumes in my cupboard and an idea struck me.

Well so did a couple bags of dried beans.

I will be having a legume project. Legumes are ridiculously healthy. They provide loads of dietary fiber, and protein. And they don't have any fat. And most of the worlds cultures have bean dishes. And they're pretty damn cheap. Cheap is really good when the cost of food and gasoline are skyrocketing. SO, once a week, I'm liking Wednesdays, I'll be making a legume dish. Don't worry, they won't all be dals. (Although I do like various dals and will make more.) I also can't promise that they'll all be vegetarian, but I think most of them will be. I can promise there will be no soybeans. Curse those soybeans and my inability to digest them.

For the inaugural legume dish, we travel to India for Pyaaz Waale Sabud Masoor. And no I don't really know how to pronounce it. It's a lovely, hearty dish of brown lentils with big chunks of onions and slices of chiles. It has a very chewy texture and the sweetness of the onions is really surprising. And even though I put 3 Serrano peppers in it, it doesn't overwhelm with spiciness. Served with some Trader Joe's Tandoori Naan it was pretty tasty!

Pyaaz Waale Sabud Masoor

From 660 Curries (also known as Brown Lentils with Chunky Onion and Chiles

1 cup whole brown lentils (sabud masoor) picked over to remove stones

1 medium sized onion cut in half lengthwise, and then cut into 1 inch chunks

2 Tbsp Ghee or canola oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

3 to 5 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or Serrano chiles, to taste, stems removed, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices (do not remove seeds)

Place the lentils in a medium size bowl. Fill the bowl halfway with water and rinse the lentils by rubbing them between your fingertips. The water will become slightly cloudy. Drain this water. Repeat three or four times, until the water remains relatively clear; drain. Now fill the bowl halfway with hot water and let it sit on the counter, covered with plastic wrap, until the lentils soften, at least 8 hours or as long as overnight.

Drain the lentils and transfer them to a medium size saucepan. Add the onion and 4 cups water, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Skim off and discard any foam that rises to the surface. Lower the heat to medium, cover partially, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, heat the ghee (canola oil) in a small skillet over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover the skillet, and cook until the seeds have stopped popping(not unlike popcorn), about 30 seconds. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and lower the heat to medium (to prevent excess spattering when the tomato paste hits the hot ghee/oil). Simmer, uncovered stirring occasionally, until some of the ghee starts to separate around the edges, about 2 minutes.

Scrape the lush red sauce into the cooked lentils. Transfer a spoonful of the dal to the skillet and stir it around to get every bit of flavor; pour this back into the saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the lentils have absorbed the seasonings, about 5 minutes. Then serve.

Grilled Chicken Thighs and Grape Tomatoes

I'm sorry about the long delay since the last time I blogged. I have a sort of big project I'm working on that I'll tell you more about in a couple months and it entails long hours of studying Geometry. I'm trying to remember things I learned in school over (gulp) 20 years ago. I also got to tour the NASA Plum Brook facility twice this past weekend. First when my mom came down and then when the Queen Geek came down. It was a blast. (hee hee hee get it?)

So I think I've eaten out more this past weekend than in the entire past month. And last night as I was frantically re-learning math and feeling sorry for 16 year old kids everywhere, I wanted something quick and easy for dinner. The humidity yesterday was brutal too. The thermostat inside the house read 76 degrees at 5:30pm. So really I didn't want to even think about turning on the oven.

Cooking Light to the rescue! I was leafing through the June issue and saw Grilled Chicken Thighs with Roasted Grape Tomatoes. The recipe is beyond easy. All it involves is marinating the chicken in a lemony marinade and grilling it. I altered it a little too because there was no way I was cranking the oven up to 425 degrees F. My little house would have retained the heat and I just can't sleep when it's 80 in the house. The Brain hasn't pulled out the window air conditioning unit yet, and I'm trying to delay that. So I wrapped those little tomatoes up in tinfoil and had the Brain grill them with the thighs. Probably we could have grilled them longer, but I really liked how they turned out. They were hot, but still were fairly firm. Be careful though. They're slippery. I had several of them go sailing across the room. The Brain says he's never seen anyone have a meltdown over flying tomatoes before. (It was kind of a long day. I don't normally go into histrionics that easily.)

Grilled Chicken Thighs and Grape Tomatoes

adapted from Cooking Light

Chicken:

1 Tbsp grated lemon rind

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves crushed

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Tomatoes:

2 cups grape tomatoes

2 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp grated lemon rind

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp capers

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Prepare grill.

To prepare the marinade, combine lemon rind, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a large zip top bag. Add the chicken, seal the bag and move the chicken around (squish the bag) so that the marinade coats all of the chicken. Marinate for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Place 2 large pieces of aluminum foil on a workspace. Place the tomatoes in the center of the foil. Drizzle them with the olive oil and toss to coat evenly. Wrap the foil up so it make a sealed pouch.

Remove chicken from bag and throw away remaining marinade. Salt and pepper the chicken and grill until done. While the chicken is grilling grill the foil pack of tomatoes. They should get very tender.

Combine tomatoes, parsley, capers, salt and pepper stirring gently. Serve with chicken.