We have this family favorite recipe — one pan pasta. The sausage goes into the pan first, then garlic, then pasta with broth, then spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, and Parmesan. From start to finish, amazing dinner is on the table in under 20 minutes with one pan to wash.

On the kitchen windowsill, there was a bowl of dried beans saved from the summer garden. Time to use them. My original thought was that Tuscan soup with sausage and escarole.

Then, the two ideas merged.

Here’s one pan of beans and sausage. The process was the same as pasta, only beans were precooked the night before, escarole replaced spinach, and peppers represented red instead of tomatoes.

Oh, and I added red onions. Why not?

Success.

#food #cooking #beans #escarole #sausage #onepanmeal #easydinner #kitchenlife #coldweather
#cookingtherapy

Lamb flaps — popular street food in Papua New Guinea. Unwanted in the Western world inexpensive cuts became a delicious PNG classic.

With my recent discovery of fry bread in Arizona, its history and meaning, parallels with flaps are obvious — people are making silk purses out of sow’s ears all over the world.

No mumu or oil-drum on a snowy afternoon in the northern US of A.

We spiced up the bits with chili, curry, turmeric, soy sauce and stewed them with corn, carrots, green plantains, and kaukau.

Served PNG street style with loads of green herbs they presented a nice dichotomy with the snowflakes dancing outside the window.

Working on the bones warmed us up. Tasty and interesting!

#food #cooking #lambflaps #streetfood #papuanewguinea #inmykitchen #cookingtherapy

Pasta is not my favorite thing which makes my restaurant trips easier — I skip huge sections of menus without looking. I don’t like how pasta fills me up so fast leaving no room to try things.

One exception is pappardelle rolled to a certain width and thickness. Rarely I can find it at the store or even a restaurant the way I like it. With that, if I want pappardelle I have to make it myself.

My favorite things to go with drapery slippery ribbons are squishy charred mushrooms in Madeira or Marsala creamy sauce. During colder months, addition of sausage doesn’t hurt either.

#food #cooking #pasta #pappardele #cream #madeira #mushrooms #sage #inmykitchen #cookingtherapy

I have no idea what this is. But, boy, was this good! So so good! As if someone else made it and not me.

Crazy day between spread apart work appointments and errands in between.

My man came home first and put his feet up in the office. Legitimate — he’s been up since 4 AM.

In the middle of the kitchen, I’m scratching my head — it’s dinner time:

— in the freezer, there are two pints of some broth left over from poaching chicken for summer salads;

— a box of konjac noodles and half a bag of bean sprouts left from Christmas hot pot;

— a handful of bok choi from… don’t remember;

— a couple of celery stalks — why not;

— leftover poached chicken my friend sent us home with after the incredible dinner she prepared;

— some minced ginger, Thai dragon, scallions, and garlic — flash them with smoking hot oil to top the broth;

— chopped cilantro to finish.

Am I a good wife or what?

#food #cooking #homemade #noodles #soup #fridgeraid #cookingtherapy

A few weeks ago, from a friend, I learned about the existence of yóu miànjīn, fried golden balls of gluten. Light and brittle when in the store bag, once cooked they acquire springy and bouncy Q texture.

This recipe of yóu miànjīn sāi ròu, fried gluten balls stuffed with meat — 油面筋塞肉 — comes from the Woks of Life.

Twelve balls slightly larger than golf ones are stuffed with a mix of 1/2 lb ground pork, 1/2 lb chopped shiitake flavored with ginger, garlic, scallions, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper. These are basically meatballs wrapped in a jelly like coating of gluten film, if you’re into texture experiments.

The recipe is interesting to test your dexterity. It recommends to fill the balls twice to let the inside settle after the first round. As a first timer, for a first timer, I would suggest to go even slower — it took me four times but the entire meat mixture fit in. To the last drop.

Unable to eyeball anything even if my life depends on it, I weighed my filling and divided it equally in twelve — there were twelve balls in the bag. To fill the balls I used a handle of the baby spoon that is about 1/3” wide with a little scoop shape. When cooked in a wok, none of the balls collapsed, none teared. Beginner’s luck?

They paired beautifully with rice and a smashed cucumber salad. And great lunch for the next day.

#food #cooking #chinesefood #youmianjin #meatballs #gluten #smashedcucumbers #homemade #onmyplate #cookingtherapy

My mom’s work commute was an hour and a little bit each way. The lunch hour she used for dinner food shopping of that day. On public transportation during the evening rush hour, she would carry home two gigantic grocery bags. Every day.

That’s why the idea of carrying home groceries from Flushing didn’t seem ridiculous to me. Unlike her, I would always be able to get a seat on the subway and on the bus.

This dinner is a result of my Flushing catch. The idea of it pushed off the Restaurant-Style Cauliflower Dry Pot recipe from The Woks of Life and took on a life of its own.

In the original recipe, quickly stir-fried sliced small red onion and cauliflower are mixed with the fat rendered from an optional tiny piece of pork belly flavored with garlic, ginger, and chilies. Then, there are doubanjian, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar, and scallions. And some red bell pepper for extra crunch and color.

I bought the correct — Chinese — cauliflower. Its florets are not as dense and sop up sauces better than the traditional ones. That cauliflower triggered our dinner plans.

In my version, small red onion became large, optional tiny piece of pork belly became a mandatory pound and some. Instead of 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper, I added 1 lb of sliced fresh broad beans. Six dried chilies turned into a cup of chopped — sort of Chongqing style. Of course quantity of all the aromatics went up. And — cherry on top — I added a full bag of an amazing fried tofu from the New World Mall on Roosevelt Ave.

How’s that for a Chinese Nonna freeform cooking?

And what about the decor where Chinese cauliflower is settled atop Mexican placemats next to Russian napkins and served with an Italian tomato spoon? We’re dining in style.

#food #cooking #chinesefood #cauliflower #onmytable #cookingtherapy #homestyle

Sunday night and Georgia is on my mind. Not the one Ray Charles was singing about.

Lamb lyulya kebab with satsebeli sauce, the best sauce in the world.

Not sure what initiated what. Did I make the sauce because I always crave grilled ground lamb? Or did I make kebabs because I needed a vehicle for the sauce?

Ossetian Khabizdzhin — potato and cheese pie — to round things up and because it is so good for breakfast!

#food #cooking #backyardbbq #georgianfood #lyulyuakebab #cheesebread #cookingathome #cookingtherapy #fooddiary

Might not be the best wrapping technique due to the lack of practice but they held hand to mouth and that’s what counts.

Pork and shrimp garden rolls inspired by Angela Nguyen’s The Pho Cookbook with nước chấm and peanut dipping sauces. Light but filling, crunchy and aromatic with all the fresh mint and cilantro inside — not a bad dinner solution for a heatwave night.

#food #cooking #ricepaper #vietnameserolls #summerrolls #cookingtherapy

Usually not a fan of Persian cucumbers — they seem to be too watery, missing the crunch, and go bad in the refrigerator in the matter of hours. But they seem to work well for smashed cucumber salads prepared to be eaten immediately.

This is a spicy Asian version of smashed cucumber salad from Xi’an Famous Foods:
— garlic puree
— salt
— sugar
— soy sauce
— Chinkiang vinegar
— sesame oil
— chili oil with a nice sediment
— longhorn peppers

…and a nice chef’s knife to create uneven nooks and catch the spices that would otherwise slide off the neat and even traditional slices.

#food #fooddiary #foodie #cucumber #salad #smashedcucumbers #chinesefood #homemade #cookingathome #cookingtherapy