Faster but not as good veggie lasagna

Hey to all you Yeti lovers, and the less adventurous among you. This is a similar but easier and faster veggie lasagna than the version I just posted. I really like the other one much better in terms of texture and overall presentation (it holds together better, etc.), but this one is good too. And faster. And easier. This way you can spend more time with your snowdogs.

Veggie Lasagna

1 package of lasagna noodles (12 or 16 ounces), or you can use ready-to-bake ones too.
½ cup of julienne carrots
1 medium onion, small dice
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 bell pepper, small dice
some good tomato sauce (I like Prego brand, organic, or Parmalat, but use your favorite plain marinara)
about 1 to 1 ½ lbs of shredded cheese – I prefer a blend of provolone, mozzarella, asiago, parmesan and romano)
2 tablespoons good olive oil
optional – fresh basil and oregano
even more optional – a good, quick and basic tomato sauce for this can be made from a 16 ounce can of plain chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp of garlic powder, 1 tsp of onion powder, some basil and oregano, a pinch of dried rosemary, a small pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper, allowed to simmer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-low heat. Sauté together the onion, carrots, garlic and bell pepper until the carrots are softened. Add the thawed and drained spinach and about 1 cup of the tomato sauce. Bring to a low simmer and then remove from the heat and allow to cool. This is the filling for the lasagna. If you are using lasagna noodles that need pre-cooking, then start a pot of lightly salted water boiling for the pasta.

After the vegetable and tomato sauce mixture and everything else is prepared, partially cook the lasagna noodles. They should only be cooked until flexible, not until done or al dente, as they will finish in the oven. They should be drained and rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Lightly oil a deep pan (either 9 x 9 or 9 x 13 or something like that, preferably at least 2 inches deep) or spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. This will prevent the lasagna from sticking.
Spoon a thin layer of the vegetable and sauce mixture on the bottom of the oiled pan.

Lay a single overlapping layer of lasagna noodles over the top of the mixture, and then sprinkle liberally with cheese. This is also a good time to add the optional fresh basil and oregano. Add additional tomato sauce, veggie mixture or cheese where desired. Repeat the layering until within a ¼ inch of the top of the pan and finish with a tomato sauce and cheese layer. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes. This can also be frozen before baking and placed directly from the freezer to the oven but the time needs to be increased to and hour and 15 minutes.

This feeds a couple of Yeti, or two to three couples with salad (about 6 people). This doesn't feed any snowdogs because they can't eat onions, it's bad for them.

Well, it's the best vegetable lasagna I've had.

Ok. If my formatting looks strange that's because I pasted this in from an already typed up version. This is the best veggie lasagna I've had, ever, hands down. Not vegan though. If you want lacto-ovo veggie you also need to take out the Worcestershire sauce as it has anchovies in it. I've made some different versions of this, and I have written down some versions that take less time and effort but they're not as good. But they are faster. Sometimes faster trumps better. Just ask me about that after I chow down on a fast food double cheeseburger sometime. Snowdogs also want cheeseburgers, but they can't have them. It would interfere with their delicate constitutions. I'll post the faster but not as good version later. Maybe this weekend.

Also, we made this version of the best veggie lasagna ever for a visiting wendigo this weekend. She's small but feisty. We had a good time talking about stuff. My Yeti wife needed the brain stimulation.

Best Vegetable Lasagna I've had. Even Lasagne.

8 oz Fontina or whole milk mozzarella, shredded
1 cup Romano or Parmesan cheese, preferably fresh, shredded
6 oz or so medium or sharp Provolone, shredded
4 oz good feta, crumbled
2 large carrots, grated on a box grater
2 thawed packages of frozen chopped spinach, reserve the liquid
2 ribs of celery, grated on a box grater
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced very fine
1 ½ medium onions, your favorite variety, grated on a box grater
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Black pepper, salt
teaspoon paprika
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 lb lasagna noodles
about 26oz of your favorite marinara sauce, I like the organic Prego or Parmalat for this dish
Optional: 1 ½ to 2 oz fresh basil, shredded, added to sauce
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a deep and heavy bottomed saucepan or stock pot, add the tablespoon of olive oil. Place the saucepan over medium high heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, add all the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, spinach, and associated water from the shredding or thawed garlic. Also add the Worcestershire sauce, oregano, a heavy pinch of salt, and about a teaspoon of ground black pepper. Make sure you add that liquid from the shredded veggies at it has a lot of good vitamins in it you don't want to lose. Sweat the vegetables and reduce the liquid. This will take probably 20-30 minutes on medium to medium-high heat. Stir it every once in a while too or the mix might burn. You'll want just a thin layer of water remaining in the bottom of the pan when you're done. The veggies should have a bit of body to them when you're done. You're not making mushy veg, unless you want it. I usually test the carrots and as long as they are sort of al dente that's fine for me. If you're not sure about how much liquid you have left, or if you have a lot more and you think your veggies are quite done, remove the vegetables and reduce the liquid down. Remove this mix from the heat and allow it to cool.

Add the paprika and optional basil to the sauce and stir it through. Add the crumbled feta to the cooled vegetable mix and stir that through. After all that stirring you're ready to assemble. Follow the diagram below. Bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to sit for 15 before cutting and serving. Enjoy.

And here is your construction diagram. Read this from the bottom up. I'd use an oven-safe pan with at least 2 inches of depth.
Layers
_________ etc. going up.
_________ pasta
_________ cheese
_________ mozz slices
_________ sauce
_________ veg
_________ pasta
Some small amount of sauce (it keeps the bottom noodles from sticking. Just ask Lidia Bastianich)
Deep sided oven-safe baking dish

Feeds about 3 Yeti with salad. Or 6 people. Or 2 very hungry snowdogs that are being very bad and standing on their hind legs and eating off your counter. My snowdogs are very well behaved and don't do that. Do yours?

Preserved lemon chicken tagine, also with preserved lemons. Mmm, like braising with a pointy hat!

There aren't a whole lot of different cooking techniques, but there are sure a lot of ways to make cooks feel intimidated with different pots, pans, and specialty apparatuses. Take for instance the tagine. People that are not familiar with it are often confused about the wide shallow bottom and hat-like top. Well, once you know it's just a fancy and efficient braising dish, life gets a whole lot easier. My Yeti wife and I got a tagine as a wedding present and I like to use it occasionally. Here is one of my favorite dishes for the tagine. It's North African in inspiration, even if the ingredients aren't fully authentic. Enjoy! I know the snowdogs like it when they see the tagine come out, as that usually means they get to sit around with me and hang out for a few hours.

If you don't have a tagine you can also do this in any braising dish setup, including transferring things to a crock pot after browning, or using a dutch oven on your stovetop. It will still turn out just as good, but it won't be as cool looking.

You can also do this with lamb, preferably shanks. Just make sure they fit in your tagine.

Also, if you don't want to go to the trouble of making preserved lemons about 4-8 weeks ahead of time for this dish, you can substitute the rind of 2 lemons, but you'll be missing some of the interesting bitter undertones in the dish that come from the preserving process.

Chicken and Preserved Lemon Tagine (Preserved Lemon recipie below)
5-6 chicken thighs, bone in, but you can take the skin off if you want.
2 tablespoons of high-smoke point vegetable oil, like canola or peanut
1/2 large onion, yellow or red, sliced into strips (rings that have been halved)
3 cloves of garlic, either minced, crushed, or sliced thinly
1 preserved lemon, skin only, sliced into thin strips, recipe follows; if you don't have preserved lemons you can use the rind of 2 lemons plus 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
salt
pepper
3 cloves
1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
heavy pinch dill
1/2 cup or so of broth, preferably chicken or vegetable, not beef though
2 teaspoons of ground sumac berries (optional, available through specialty spice houses)

Ok, if you don't have a tagine don't worry. You can easily substitute a dutch oven or other stove-top safe braising apparatus (heavy bottom saucepan with tight fitting lid, etc.) for the tagine. If you want to use a crock pot, you'll have to do this in two steps, browning and sauteeing in one pan and then transfer to the crock pot for the long time braising. The rest of my instructions will refer to the tagine only, but you should be able to figure out how to do this in another pan. If not, post a message and I'll get back to you.

First, put the two tablespoons of oil into the tagine and heat over medium high heat. Clean your chicken thighs and remove the skin if you desire. Pat the chicken dry and season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper. When the oil starts to shimmer add the chicken, skin side down. Don't move the chicken for about 5-6 minutes. Turn the chicken over and allow to brown on the other side for 5-6 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside in a bowl. This chicken is not fully cooked, you were just browning it for flavor and appearance later.

Keeping the bottom of the tagine over medium-high heat, add your onion and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium and stir, trying to loosen the bits on the bottom of the pan. When the edges of the onion start to become translucent, add the thin strips of preserved lemon, cloves, and tumeric and stir. Don't use the flesh or pith of the lemon as it's really salty and bitter. The magic is in the rind. Keep stirring gently for about 5 minutes, being careful to keep the spices from burning. Increase the heat to high and add the saffron, oregano and dill and stir them in. You'll need to stir this over high heat for about 1 minute. Then carefully add the broth (it should boil pretty vigorously), stir in most of the sumac, place the chicken on top of the onion and spice mixture, and sprinkle the chicken with the rest of the sumac. DON'T STIR at this point. Reduce the heat to low and cover the bottom of the tagine with the top (the hat, as my Bigfoot friends sometime call it). If you're not using a tagine, this is the time to put your snug-fitting lid in place.

Allow this to slowly cook over low low heat for 1 hour. DON'T PEEK. Don't lift the lid off. You'll lose a lot of heat and some of the essential oils from the spices.

After one hour, take off the cover and serve. I like this with jasmine rice or, even better, couscous. This feeds 2 Yeti, or 4 people with a nice salad.


Ok, here's the Preserved Lemons recipe. You need to make these about 4-8 weeks before using. Don't blame me if you didn't read this before starting the tagine recipe above. It's your own fault, silly person.

Preserved Lemons
3-4 lemons
4 tablespoons salt
hot brine solution (2 cups hot water with 2 tablespoons of salt dissolved in it)
clean jam / preserving jars

Cut each lemon into quarters. Press 1 tablespoon of salt into each lemon, about 1/4 tablespoon per quarter of lemon. Put each piece into a clean preserving jar. When finished, pour the hot brine solution over the lemons, making sure the lemons are submerged. You can submerge the lemons if they float with a crumpled bit of clean parchment paper if you need to. Screw on the lids for the jars, allow to cool, and store them in the fridge for at least 4 weeks before using.

See, wasn't that easy? When you use the preserved lemons, you'll want to only use the rind, trimming off and discarding the flesh.

Enjoy!

Sharp and savory sage butter noodles - great with lamb

Ok, when the Yeti wife and I were on vacation a while ago, we ate at a restaurant that had some sage noodles on the ala carte menu. I thought that they looked interesting and I tried them. Well, boy, was I disappointed. Everything else on the menu was pretty good, and also since this was a classic-style French bistro I expected the noodles to follow suit. But, alas, poor me! No good buttery sage noodles for this Yeti. The noodles were very tough and overworked, and the taste of the buttery sage sauce was very underwhelming and disappointing. Oh, woe is me! Ahem, well, ok, they were disappointing but the rest of the meal was pretty good.

Now, when I got home, I decided that I could do much better. So, here is a sauce for egg noodles that is delicate, savory, and just a little sharp thanks to a little acid from some lemon juice. And the snowdogs didn't go with us on vacation that time, but they would have liked it. Instead they went to snowdog spa.

Sharp and savory sage butter noodles

Ok, you'll want to make the sauce before cooking the noodles otherwise your noodles will probably be overcooked. This makes enough for coating about 12-16 ounces of pasta.

2 medium shallots or 1/4 white onion, small dice. Preferably the shallots.
1 tablespoon of butter for the shallots / onion. You can use olive oil if you want but the texture and flavor won't be quite the same. If you use olive oil, use the cheap stuff and not your virgin first cold press good stuff.
heavy pinch of salt, about 1/8 teaspoon
1 tablespoon of butter
2 teaspoons of flour
3-4 fresh sage leaves, slightly bruised and chiffonade (cut into ribbons) or 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves, crushed
1/4 cup dry white wine or light stock, chicken or something similar. I prefer wine for this, but you can use something else if you don't want the residual alcohol.

1/4 cup of water from cooking your pasta
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 more teaspoon or so of butter
white or black pepper, to taste, optional
couple of tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley, optional

12-16 ounces of packaged egg noodles or, preferably, a batch of your home-made noodles rolled thin and cut into 1/2 inch wide ribbons. Mmm, yummy.
Salt for your pasta water.

Ok, this recipe takes a little bit of coordination so you may want to read through this before starting it. Choose a heavy bottomed saucier or saucepan big enough for your noodles that is big enough for holding all your cooked noodles with the sauce. In your saucepan or a saucier place one tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the shallots / onion and sweat over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Also add your heavy pinch of salt, about 1/8 teaspoon, at this point. You want the shallot to be translucent and soft, but not to have any color. You're not sauteeing here. Then add the other tablespoon of butter and the flour. You're going to make a thin roux. Whisk this flour and butter/shallot mixture over medium heat until the flour is well incorporated in the butter. Keep whisking this mixture over medium heat slowly but steadily for about 4 to 5 minutes.

Add the sage and mix. Add the 1/4 cup of wine or other liquid and bring to a boil. When the mixture reaches a boil, whisk one more time and remove from the heat.

Cook your pasta to your preferred doneness. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the pasta water and then drain the pasta without rinsing it. Add this pasta water and the lemon juice (here's your acid tangy sharpness) to the sauce, return to a boil, and allow to boil for about 30 seconds and then add the final teaspoon of butter for a nice smooth texture. If you want your sauce to be thicker, allow it to boil for another 30 seconds or so. Toss your pasta with the sauce and serve. You can crack black pepper (or use a pinch of white pepper if you want to be all Frenchified fancy with it) over it to taste. Just a little though, as this is all about the sage and butter. Toss with parsley if desired and serve.

Serves 1 hungry Yeti, or 2 Yetis as a side dish, or 4 people.

Stuffed Chicken no more! At least not today. Red meat!

Everybody likes chicken. Well, some Yetis and people don't like chickens, and therefore eat lots of chicken. Stuffed chicken seems to be very popular. For instance, see my post about a bunch of different ways to stuff chicken from October in 2007. Well, too bad for you. Today's post is about meat. Meat meat meat meat meat. Red meat of the beef variety that comes from cow type animals. Yetis like the occasional meat dish. Not too often, but once in a while is nice.

I will share with you one of the simplest and best ways to cook a steak. Or at least I think so. So did James Beard. No grills needed, only a iron pan of some sort and a few other ingredients, including red meat. Oh, and the snowdogs like red meat. But they prefer sheep kind of red meat to cow kind.

Pan-fried steak in butter. Just like the French. Yes, the French are pan-fried in butter.

You'll need a nice steak. Preferably at least choice if not prime, perhaps a rib-eye or strip steak, or mmm, T-bone with both the Porterhouse and filet pieces still intact. You could even age them in your fridge, but I'm not going into that here. I'm assuming a 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick steak.
1 tablespoon butter. Or olive oil, but the recipe title says butter.
salt
fresh cracked black pepper

Prepare your steak. Trim off excess fat, rinse, and pat dry. You don't need to go nuts with the trimming of the fat if you have a nice piece. Place your cast-iron or other heavy bottom pan over medium high heat. If it's not a heavy bottom pan this won't work well as a thin pan will not hold enough latent heat to keep the steak cooking evenly. Allow the pan to reach a high temperature. Season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper. Add the butter or oil to the pan and as soon as either the butter begins to foam or the oil shimmers, add the steak. Now, you're probably going to want to move the steak around. DON'T MOVE THE STEAK. Just leave it there for a few minutes, 3-4 for a medium rare 1/2 inch thick or 5-6 for an inch-thick steak. Using tongs, not a fork, shame on you for reaching for that fork, flip your steak. Allow to cook for 3-4 minutes more or 5-6 minutes for a thicker piece.

Use your tongs to take the steak out of the pan and let it rest on a nice warm plate before serving. You can also always make a nice sauce out of the pan juices, but that's a different story. Ok, well, you can add a teaspoon of butter, stir it in the pan with the juices and oil, add some pepper and a pinch of salt, stir constantly and cook for 3-4 minutes, then add 1/2 cup of red wine or beef stock and have a nice pan sauce, but that's just an option. Or sauté some onions or mushrooms. Or top your steak with a nice bit of herbed butter or blue cheese. You get the idea.

This serves about 1 Yeti per 3 steaks, or 1 steak per person. You may want to have about 4 ounces of steak per person as a reasonable portion size, but lots of people eat more steak than that even if it's not good for them to do so.

Yetis have to catch their red meat, so we work for it. Snowdogs too.

Roast your bird for shredded sandwiches - easy cooking, good eating

Ok, so this week I was hankering for a roast chicken. Lots of Yetis like roast chickens, with some nice new potatoes, and some roasted asparagus... A nice plump chicken with a slightly golden brown herbed skin, with maybe a sliced lemon put inside for some nice tartness and additional taste. Mmm, that would be good. The snowdogs always drool and ask for some when I make a roast chicken. Snowdogs don't get any though.

However, since I have not made roast chicken in a while, but I have made barbecue duck sandwiches, I think I would share a technique for making pulled poultry that can then be mixed with your favorite barbecue sauce for amazing sandwiches. Or for anything else (tamales, enchiladas, quiche, tossed with pasta, confit, etc.) that you can think of. Also I think this recipe is easier to post tonight anyways. Yetis can be lazy.

Generic pulled poultry (duck, chicken, hens, etc.)

1 bird of your choice, not frozen. I am assuming a 5-6 lb bird for this preparation, you may need to increase your time with a larger piece of meat.
1 deep roasting pan
1 roasting rack that will hold your bird of choice
salt
pepper
1 onion
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery

Preheat your oven for 200F. Not any hotter than 220F. Check this with a thermometer as if your oven is too hot it will make the bird very dry.

Cut up your onion into large chunks, about 1 inch or so. You don't have to peel the onion. Also cut up the carrot and celery into similarly sized pieces. Place the vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan. Clean your bird and pat it dry. Season the inside and outside of the bird with salt and pepper. You can be pretty liberal with the pepper, but just use a little salt. You don't want the bird to really dry out. Truss your bird if you want, but since you won't be serving it whole and you'll be cooking it for a long time trussing really doesn't do too much. I usually don't bother trussing for this preparation.

Put your bird on the roasting rack, put the roasting rack in the pan, and put your bird in the oven. You'll be roasting the bird at 200 to 220 F for about 6 hours, or for those of you who are totally addicted to internal temperature, until the internal temperature of the bird has been 180F or higher for at least 2 hours. It may reach 200F.

When the time is up, take the roasting pan out of the oven and allow the bird to cool. If you want, you can reserve the drippings for a nice sauce or stock or broth later.

Once the bird of your choice has cooled, carefully remove the bird from the roasting rack. The bird may fall apart a bit. This is OK since you'll be shredding the meat anyways.

Remove and discard the skin. Remove the meat from the carcass (save this for some nice broth if you want) and place in a bowl. Shred the meat by hand or with two forks. You can then heat the meat with some barbecue sauce, or do whatever you want with it. Chicken salad is always good with some nice diced fresh celery, or in a pot pie, or all those other suggestions I put at the beginning of this post.

Enjoy!

This serves about 1 Yeti to 1 bird, or 4 people per bird if served as pulled poultry barbecue sandwiches, etc. You can figure the usual proportions of people per bird yourself.

Maybe I'll post my barbecue sauce sometime. That has a lot of ingredients though.

Summer flavors, but it's winter. Oh well, you do what you can.

The Yeti wife was out of town this week which means I usually experiment. I would then normally post results of experiments here. That is the crustimony proceedcake, as my bear friends would say. However, I did not really do any experiments (except for the lamb and beef cheeseburgers, east coast style, but I'll post that some other time). Instead I've opened up the legendary hairy Yeti archives and will share this dish with you. And the snowdogs did get to go somewhere every day this week too, including into the creek at the park even though I told them not to. Silly snowdogs.

I know that this is really a summer dish with the tomatoes and all, but since "bulletproof" tomatoes are available in the market year-round nowadays, this should be possible for people in general to do anytime. The texture of "bulletproof" beefsteak tomatoes are actually well suited for this recipe, but the flavor is lacking as you would expect. I like to use large heirlooms that are often available in late summer. If you want to use vine-ripe or other smaller tomatoes, try using about double the number of tomatoes (8 or so) or you can cut and stuff a bunch of larger cherry tomatoes and substitute feta for the softer chevre goat cheese for appetizers.

Tomatoes stuffed with couscous

4 large tomatoes, preferably nearly ripe, but still with some firmness of body
couscous, about 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup dry instant, or about 1 cup when fully prepared. That would also be about 2/3 cup of Israeli couscous if you wanted to use that. For this I like the texture of the smaller grained couscous.
Some goat cheese, about 4 ounces
Salt and pepper
about 2 tablespoons diced onion
1 clove of garlic, crushed
no more than 1/4 cup of additional herbs and veggies, such as curly parsley, cilantro, dill, diced bell pepper, as desired.

Prepare couscous as you would normally. Mix prepared couscous with the onion, garlic, and optional ingredients and set aside (for at least 20 minutes, this is about as long as it will take you to prepare the tomatoes).

Prepare tomatoes:
Cut off the top of the tomatoes. Taking care not to puncture the sides or bottoms of the tomatoes, remove the core and seeds. I use a melon baller. Season the inside of the tomatoes liberally with salt and pepper and place upside-down (open side down) on a rack above a tray or other container for the tomatoes to drain off excess liquid. You'll want to let the tomatoes drain for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 325F.

After tomatoes are drained, stuff each tomato with 1/4 of the prepared couscous mixture. Place 1/4 (about 1 ounce) of goat cheese on top of the tomatoes. Bake for about 15 minutes, then place under a broiler for about 5 minutes or until the goat cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Serves 2 Yetis, or 4 people as a large side dish. This is great with some garlic bread and broiled fish or fresh green beans.

Quick no-chicken chik'n soup

OK, here's a fully vegetarian post. Pretty much. And it's easy. And quick. And full of vegetables. Yetis eat vegetables. Sometimes we eat things that also pass for food, but that's a whole different story. This is a dish that the snowdogs don't really go for as it is lacking in the meat parts, but it is wonderful on cold nights with a nice piece of dill bread (to be another post). Here is Quick No-Chicken Soup, or QNCS in acronym land. This soup only has rough amounts for ingredients as the exact contents usually depends on what you have in your fridge at the time you make it.

Ingredients, in rough quantities:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
a carrot, small dice or halved and then cut into thin slices
a stalk or two of celery, small dice or thin slices about the same thickness as the carrot
some finely diced onion
a garlic clove, minced
about 4-6 cups of no-chicken broth, mushroom broth, or other veggie broth (you can use a meat or poultry broth, low sodium please, instead for meat)
some nicely diced fresh herbs. I like tarragon, or thyme, or cilantro, or parsley, or even some slivers of sage, but not all at once.
a handful or two of cooked egg noodles, probably optional.
You could also add leftover barley (yum!), rice, diced or sliced mushrooms, a pinch of red pepper flakes, etc.

Put a large saucepan, one large enough to hold the entire contents of the soup, over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the veggies and saute for about 3-4 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a low boil. Add the herbs, stir through, and serve. Told you it would be easy.

Feeds 2 Yeti with bread. Feeds 4 humans with bread. Feeds 1 college student. Students can't afford bread.

It's more assembly than cooking. It's Chicago-style hot dogs or soy dogs!

I decided that today I wouldn't cook much. But instead, I'm going on a Yeti assembly-line spree! I'm going to post information that will allow you, the reader at home, or at work, or slacking off at school, to make your very own, authentic, Chicago-style hot dogs and soy dogs. All of the ingredients are the same for both versions, except for the hot dogs vs. soy dogs. And the cooking techniques are a little different, but I'll get to that in a minute.

For those of you Yeti not familiar with the Chicagoland area food specialties, there are a number of well-known ones. Deep dish pizza and eye-talian beef are two of them. But every Chicago Bigfoot knows how to make a Chicago hot dog. Don't be intimidated by the ingredients list. If you are going to make a bunch of these, it's just like setting up an assembly line and doing the same thing over and over. You'll see. By the way, the snowdogs don't get to eat these at all because raw onion is toxic to snowdog metabolisms. And you can never put ketchup on a Chicago dog, soy or animal. It's just wrong. Never. Nope, not even now.

Chicago-style hot dogs (or soy dogs) or "a salad on a bun"

Ingredients:
yellow mustard, not Dijon or brown
sweet pickle relish, the bright green kind if you can find it
yellow onion, small dice
2 cucumber slices per dog, quite thin
2 tomato wedges per dog
celery salt
sport peppers, or tabasco peppers, or pepperocini if you can't find the others and you're desperate (the peppers are optional)
dill pickles cut into wedges lengthwise, one per dog
Kosher beef franks for regular dogs
soy dogs (I prefer Yves brand Good Dogs) for soy dogs
hot dog buns

Preparation:
Put all your vegetable ingredients in easy-to-handle containers, like small bowls for the chopped onion and tomato slices, etc.

Kosher beef franks should be steamed or boiled until heated through. Soy dogs require some sort of grilling to have the nice external texture required for a Chicago-style dog experience. When the dog of your choice is heated through (but not snowdogs), place the dog inside one of your hot dog buns. Traditionally, the buns are slightly warmed, either on a steam table or in the oven briefly, but it's not necessary. Once you have your hot dogs safely in the bun, you can start assembly. Put a single line of mustard down one side of the dog, and an even spoonful of relish down the other side. Not too much relish, only about a teaspoon full. Put about a half teaspoon of chopped onion in a line on top of the mustard. The mustard will help hold the onion in place. Slide two cucumber slices down one side of the bun next to the dog. They would look like OO next to each other. Tuck the tomato wedges in, pointy-side down, next to the cucumbers on the same side of the dog. Sprinkle a small amount of celery salt on the dog, add 2 peppers per dog if desired, and put a dill pickle wedge on top.

There you go, an authentic Chicago-style experience. You'll be the envy of the neighborhood and all the Cubs Yeti fans and White Sox Sasquatch fans and Da Bears Bigfoot fans and Orange and Blue will flock to your door to pet the snowdogs behind the ears and eat a Chicago-style dog and say Hey! Hey! Holy Cow!

Feeds about 6-8 dogs per Yeti or Chicagoan, 2-4 dogs per normal person.

Sushi! Or not! It's all up to you.

Ok, lots of people like sushi. Lots of people don't like sushi. Lots of people don't like Yetis either, but I don't hold that against them. This is a recipe that basically uses stuff that I talked about earlier, but in other variations and with sushi rice instead of jasmine. If you don't want to make maki (rolls) that's fine, I've got some alternatives down below.

Also, watch out for the snowdogs on this one, as they love tuna and fish.

Raw or seared tuna maki sushi! Or not!

You need to have prepared ahead of time about 2 cups of sushi rice, which is often about 1 cup before cooking, including seasoning with rice wine vinegar and anything else you want. The rice should be cool. I usually put some lemon or lime rind in with the rice when it cooks for a nice citrus flavor.
2 shallots, small dice
bean sprouts, very fresh, washed, and patted dry
red pepper flakes (optional)
sushi-grade ahi tuna, probably about 1/4 pound or so
seasoning mixture, described below. About 2 tablespoons or so of this mix, depending on how much tuna you have.
about 2-3 sheets of nori (seaweed sheets for sushi, available in many supermarkets) for maki, or you could have this sashimi or nigiri style
Optional: wasabi, pickled ginger as garnish / condiments

For the marinade for a seared tuna version of this see my November 9, 2007 entry. The leftovers work really well in this roll. If you are making this fresh however, read the following.

To use raw tuna (assuming your tuna is of excellent quality and impeccably fresh) you'll want to mix up ahead of time a seasoning mixture. I prefer a tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar, a tiny pinch of salt, preferably sea salt, and teaspoon of tamari. Or, if you like it spicy, replace the salt and tamari with a few dashes of Tabasco or other hot sauce of your liking. You can also replace the vinegar with lemon or lime juice and a small pinch of sugar. You'll want to set this mixture aside for use when you are ready to assemble your sushi.

DO NOT MARINADE THE TUNA more than 10 minutes or they will over-cure in the acid in the seasoning. You'll just want to briefly dip the fish in the seasoning before making your sushi.
For maki, cut quarter-inch square, but long (like a square cylinder) slices of the raw tuna.
For nigiri, cut nice thumb-sized, 1/8 inch thick sections of tuna.
For sashimi, cut the widest, but still 1/8 inch thick sections of tuna.

Maki: open up your nori, shiny side up. Spread enough rice on the nori to enclose the tuna and other fillings. Season your raw tuna in your pre-made mixture. Place a single thickness (depending on the length of your tuna you may need to trim to fit or use multiple square cylinders) of seasoned tuna along the rice, with a small sprinkling of shallots, some bean sprouts parallel to the tuna, and some red pepper flakes if you want. Roll. Repeat. Cut. Put on a plate with optional condiments. Enjoy.

Nigiri: Don't use nori. Form some thumb-sized cylinders of rice. You can place a small dab of wasabi on the rice and then place the seasoned tuna strip on top, or just place the tuna on top. Repeat until all tuna or rice is used up. Put on a plate with optional condiments. Enjoy.

Sashimi: season the tuna, and then place on a plate. Have some rice with it. Put on a plate with optional condiments. Enjoy.

This serves about 1 Yeti that likes sushi, or 2-4 as an appetizer, or 2 humans that are hungry, or so. It depends on how many pieces you make and how much the individuals like sushi. Watch out for the snowdogs though. They like fish.

Whiskey chicken

Sometimes in the cold barren wastelands you want something extra to warm up the Yeti in you. Sometimes you want vegetarian chili (to be posted later). Perhaps you want some French Onion Tart (again, to be posted later). Or maybe you want some chicken. With rice. And booze. Boozy chicken with rice. Mmmm, sounds warming. Here is how I make my boozy whiskey chicken. It's got the Yeti stamp of approval. This can also be an appetizer if you stick toothpicks in the chicken and put them on a plate for individual consumption. Eating kind of consumption, not the other kind. And watch out for the snowdogs on this one. They like the booze.

Whiskey Chicken

Prepare 1 batch of your favorite rice. I use that long grain white rice recipe that I posted back in October. I'd prepare it while the chicken is marinating.

For the chicken:
3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cleaned of any tendons or fat, clean and patted dry
3-4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, also cleaned of any tendons or fat, clean and patted dry

For the marinade:
1 1/2 ounces of good whiskey
2 tablespoons of oil, canola or corn or peanut, not olive oil
1 tablespoon of rice wine or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
about 1/4 cup of chopped chives, optional

Additional ingredients
1 1/2 tablespoons of canola or other high smoke point oil
1 teaspoon of honey

Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a leak-proof container that is big enough for all the chicken. I use a gallon size zip top bag. Cut the chicken up into about 1 inch cubes. Place the chicken in the marinade for about 1 hour, turning over or stirring after 30 minutes to make sure the chicken has good contact with the marinade. Do not marinade more than one hour or the flavors in the chicken will be too strong and slightly bitter.

Now is a good time to make the rice. Not later, as the chicken will cook really quickly. Also why don't you have some nice steamed veggies? Like some broccoli or green beans? Those would go well with this. Or maybe sautéed and tossed with some oil, soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, and a pinch of sesame seeds. Mmm, wouldn't that be nice?

Heat up one and a half tablespoons of oil in a heavy bottomed pan or a wok over high heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade, drain, and pat dry. Discard the remaining marinade. Carefully add the chicken to the hot oil and toss frequently. The chicken will express some liquid during cooking. Drain and reserve this expressed liquid for the final sauce. Keep stirring or tossing the chicken until the chicken is fully cooked and browned nicely. Now is the time to add the reserved liquid and honey and stir through, making sure the liquid reaches a full boil. Remove from heat and serve.

Serves 2-3 Yetis with rice and veggies, or 6-8 people with the same side dishes.

Will there be posts this week? Maybe. Maybe not. Spinach and phyllo and feta! It must be spanikopita.

Yetis can be awfully busy between the end of November through the beginning of January. It's time to start thinking about harvesting snow for the long summers, the snowdogs come out of their hibernation and want to play, and sometimes there are Yeti relatives that want some Yeti food. And sometimes the Yeti friends come over for a party. Here is a good party dish in small servings, or you can fancy it up and wrap the filling in individual layers of phyllo for some appetizers or small bites.

Easy Spanikopita

3 boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out or 36 oz fresh spinach, trimmed, washed thoroughly and drained, then chopped just a bit.
1 medium onion, as finely chopped as you like it.
1/2 cup chopped parsley (optional) – I usually don’t do this.
8-10 oz. feta cheese, grated or crumbled
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil ¼ cup butter (1/2 stick) (or equivalent amount of olive oil – do not use margarine, it won’t work well. Butter works better than olive oil, but olive oil is acceptable)
Salt and pepper
”Enough” phyllo dough – I use store bought dough already in sheets from the freezer section, usually about ½ a package. Also optional – a small amount of grated parmesan cheese (about 1 tablespoon)

Before starting - preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Make sure the phyllo dough is thawed. Pregrease a 9 by 12 inch pan that is at least 1 in deep, or something similar in size, with a light coating of olive oil. Pam or a similar spray would work well.

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Start the onions sautéing, and add a 2 small shakes of salt. After the onions start to sweat (become slightly translucent, about 3-5 minutes) add the spinach. Stir until the spinach is wilted and cooked – this will take about 5 more minutes. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Break up the feta in a large mixing bowl. Add the 1 egg and mix thoroughly. When the mixture of spinach and onion is room temperature, combine with the egg and feta mixture. Mix well. Melt the ¼ cup of butter or just use an equivalent of olive oil. Unroll the phyllo dough. Take one sheet of the phyllo dough and brush one side lightly with butter or oil. Place this sheet in the bottom of the baking pan butter side up. Repeat with 3-5 more sheets of phyllo dough, each buttered on 1 side. Take the entire cooled spinach – feta – onion – egg mixture and spread evenly on the top of the phyllo layers. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese over the spinach mixture. Now, layer again with phyllo dough buttered on the top side. Use at least 4 layers more on top of the mixture. Bake the spanakopita for 40-45 minutes. The top layer of phyllo should be golden brown. Wait for 10-15 minutes after removing from the oven to slice and serve. Leftovers should be reheated in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 300F, not in the microwave unless necessary – it will be not as crispy.

Serves about 2 yeti, or 4 people, maybe 6-8 at most with salad or as a side dish. This is pretty filling.

General Sun Tzu's Chicken or NotChicken. He flanked Tso with the help of Sun Pin.

I made some General's Tofu, or if it was chicken, jeung bau gei kau the other day. It wasn't chicken as my Yeti wife does not eat the fowl nor the flesh, except for fishes and other sea-sonal things. I did some research, or rather searches on Google which substitutes for research for the lazy, into what is typically called General Tso (or other spelling variants such as Zuo) chicken dishes, and I didn't like what I saw. My favorite version of this Americanized Hunan dish had exhibited citrus floral scents, had that unami element that is often missing, and was not sickly sweet with too much sugar. It was also fairly spicy and flecked with lightly toasted sesame seeds. I tried to reproduce that and it was fairly successful.

Purists may think that this is just a version of orange chicken, but that traditionally has preserved orange peel, is based on a chili sauce, and is not sweet. This was one of the few experiments that I tried when the Yeti wife was home instead of trying it out by myself first and then reproducing a more successful version later.

Technique:
First prep the sauce ingredients but do not cook or add to the wok. Then prep and cook the chicken or tofu. I recommend using 12-16 ounces of protein for the amount of sauce this makes. Reserve the chicken or tofu, prepare the sauce, and toss the cooked protein in the finished sauce. I love to serve this with crisp, steamed vegetables tossed with lemon juice and a pinch of salt such as broccoli, asparagus, green beans, or sliced root vegetables.

General Tzu's flanking manuver sauce
Mix thoroughly in a bowl:
1 tablespoon hoisin
juice of 2 large oranges or about 1/4 cup of good orange juice
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, crushed or minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce or, preferably, tamari
1 teaspoon fresh chopped ginger or ginger powder
1 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
(optional if want additional heat) a few dashes of vinegar-based hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Durkee

have handy, but not mixed together:
about 4-6 dried pepper pods or fresh Thai chilies
1 heaping teaspoon of sesame seeds
2 teaspoons of canola oil or peanut oil
1 green onion or scallion, diced pretty thin (optional)
1 teaspoon of corn starch slurried in about 1/4 cup of cold water

Get everything else ready as once the sauce is cooked the dish is basically finished:
Cook some rice. I recommend my sushi rice or jasmine rice (earlier posting). Prep and have your veggies cooked and ready.
Cook your chicken or tofu as you like. I like to cut the protein into small pieces and then lightly bread the pieces and shallow-fry until golden brown.
Set the cooked protein off to the side until sauce is ready.

Add the canola oil and pepper pods to your wok over medium high heat. Allow the pods to flavor the oil. This takes only a few minutes. If you want spicier General Tzu, leave the peppers in at this point. If you want milder Tzu, take the peppers out or don't use them at all. Add the sesame seeds, but be careful as they will start to pop and dance and may exit the wok at a good velocity. As soon as you hear the first few pops, add your hoisin mixture and stir through. Bring this mixture to a boil and slowly add a few dribbles of the corn starch slurry until just before your desired thickness. Stop adding the slurry early (you may need to add a touch of plain water if you get a bit thicker than desired) as adding the protein back in usually causes the sauce to thicken a little more.

Toss your chicken or tofu into the sauce, stir through, and serve over rice. See, wasn't that easy? And it's better than those sugar-and-vinegar sauces you'd normally see Tso eating. Sun Tzu and Sun Pin pity poor Tso T'sung-T'ang's complexity-free and not as good chickeny concoction!

Serves about 2 Yetis, or 4 people with the veggies included, or 2 people with nice and well-microwaved leftovers for lunch the next day.

It's simple, It's seared. It's tuna. It must be not done in a teflon pan or you'll be sorry.

Ok, even though I've not made this in a while, I thought that I would post something that the more sophisticated Yeti and even some Sasquatches from Saskatchewan or Saskatoon may enjoy. But not a Bigfoot from Africa as that would be a succulent plant (Gerrardanthus macrorhiza) that wouldn't eat this. So anyways, here's one of my favorite fish dishes. You can play around with the marinade a bit, but don't let it sit too long as you're not trying to cure the fish, just impart some flavor. And nobody likes a fish that sits around too long. Except maybe Bigfoot. He'll eat grizzly bear leftover salmon filets. So here is my seared tuna over lime sushi rice recipe. Without the sushi rice. You'll have to go look at my post from October 29th, 2007 for the sushi rice recipe. I'm a sneaky Yeti.

Tuna steaks, about 1 per person, just as thick as you like it. I usually only do this when I find impeccably fresh sushi grade Ahi tuna at the market and I get a nice 1/2 inch thick piece per person or 3-4 per Yeti.

Marinade for tuna steaks for 1 Yeti, or 3-4 steaks
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed with a garlic press or minced fine
1 teaspoon tamari or dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar or malt vinegar
Lots of optional stuff: a heavy pinch of sesame seeds, some chopped fresh ginger or powdered ginger, a small squeeze of lime juice (teaspoon or so), a minced shallot, sliced scallions or chives, a pinch of red pepper flakes, lemon or lime rind, etc.

Take all marinade ingredients and place in a zip-style close able plastic bag. Mix well. Add the tuna steaks to the bag. Close the bag, removing as much air as possible. Coat the steaks with the mixture and place in your refrigerator or outside in the cold for about 1 hour, unless you live where most Yetis or Abominable Snowmen do and that'll freeze the meat. Don't do that. Frozen in this case is bad as you're not making fishsicles. Turn the tuna steaks in the marinade over after about 30 minutes to make sure you get a good distribution of ingredients.

Make your rice before you start to cook the tuna steaks as the steaks don't take long at all to cook. Remove the tuna steaks from the marinade and pat dry. If you don't dry the steaks you'll be boiling them, not searing them. That's not so good. Heat up your grill, or grill pan, or heavy skillet to very searing eyebrow-removing hot. Put a small amount of oil on each side of the tuna steak and put on the grill. When you see the mid-point of the side of the steak looking like it is turning color, that's the time to turn the steaks over. That takes about 1-5 minutes, depending on your steak thickness and grill heat, etc. I find for a 1/2 thick steak it's about 2 minutes. Turn the steak over and grill for about the same amount of time. Remove the steaks from the heat and allow to sit for a moment before slicing into 1/4 inch thick slices and arranging over the nice mound of sushi rice that you made earlier but kept warm. I sometimes sprinkle the final dish with some black pepper or toasted sesame seeds. Eat and enjoy!

Feeds 1 Yeti, would feed 2 abominable snowdogs but they don't get Yeti food, or as many people as you have steaks.

Chicken breasts stuffed with feta and spinach

This has been one of the dishes that we serve to first-time visiting monsters from other caves. We often have repeat visitors, but not leftovers.

4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
About 4 tablespoons good feta cheese; reserve a small bit for garnish. I like Athenos brand.
One 10 ounce package of chopped spinach, drained or one bunch of fresh spinach, washed well.
Pepper
Paprika

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a shallow baking dish with a little bit of olive oil.

Drain or wash the spinach as necessary. Crumble the feta and lightly press between 2 pieces of paper towel to remove some of the water. Place the dried feta into a bowl until the chicken is ready to stuff.

Trim the chicken breasts of fat and detritus. Place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and carefully pound to about a quarter inch thickness. Remove the chicken from the plastic wrap and spread out on a clean surface. Place either a tablespoon of drained chopped spinach or about 4-6 leaves of fresh spinach on the chicken. Top with about 1 tablespoon of the feta. Season the feta and spinach with a small bit of pepper. Carefully wrap the thin chicken around the spinach and feta mixture, taking care not to tear the chicken. Either using your hands or another piece of plastic wrap, form the chicken around the feta spinach stuffing into as tight a ball as possible. Make sure that all the feta and spinach is enclosed by chicken.
Place the stuffed chicken by itself in the baking dish and garnish each with a small amount of feta. Sprinkle each breast with paprika.

Bake in the preheated 375F oven for about 35-40 minutes.

Serve with your favorite side dish. I like roasted new potatoes (another post) or a good pasta or rice dish.

Variations on this theme include replacing the feta and spinach with a slice of sundried tomato, basil, and provolone; or mozzarella, wild rice and mushrooms; or gruyere and a thin piece of honey ham, etc.

Serves about 1 Yeti or 2-4 people.