Getting Sloppy...

As I have gotten older, I find that I have become less and less pessimistic. I realize that most people tend to become more cynical with age, but where, as my mantra once was, "I try not to expect too much so I won't end up disappointed," nowadays I am more inclined to say, "Everything will work out just fine." I'm not sure how this happened, other than an overall improvement in mood that has come with the end of puberty and the balancing out of my hormones that came with it, but the change has made me a happier person in general.

This sense of hope that I have developed, however, does occasionally get me in trouble. For example, I recently purged my magazine rack of nearly a year's worth of Bon Appétits and Food and Wines by going through all of them and pinning the interesting recipes to my savory and sweet recipe boards on Pinterest. While I was filing all my inspiration recipes for later, I came across one from chef Ming Tsai, for Asian Sloppy Joe Sliders. I have been watching Ming on television since he was on the Food Network with East Meets West back in the 1990s, and I continue to watch him on Simply Ming on PBS, and yet I couldn't remember ever trying one of his recipes. It seemed like the right thing to do.

Nevermind the fact that I hate sloppy joes. As the name suggests, they are messy and hard to eat, which has always bugged me, but I've always attributed my disdain to the fact that sloppy joe sauce reminds me of barbeque sauce, and I can't stand that either. However, as an adult, my palate has expanded since childhood, and I hoped that this Asian-inspired sauce would be the thing to change my mind about sloppy joes and open my eyes to a new genre of sandwiches.

The ingredients seemed promising: garlic, ginger, sriracha, hoisin sauce, ground pork and ground turkey -- all things that I enjoy in other recipes. Except that as I was cooking it, and smelling it, all I could think about was, "I wish I were making those bahn mi burgers with this ground pork instead, because this looks gross." I'm not even sure what my hang-up is, because I am fine with ground meat in other scenarios, such as in spaghetti sauce, or tacos. As I spooned the filling onto my sandwich, my stomach turned. 

All things considered, the sandwiches weren't terrible; in fact, Justin liked them. The meat tasted good, but as the bun disintegrated and the meat started falling all over my plate, I thought back to all those sloppy joes I've eaten in my life, and I just could get past my disdain. Though I'd had high hopes that I could bring myself to enjoy sloppy joes by changing the flavor profile, it just wasn't going to happen for me. 

If sloppy joes are your thing, then by all means, go for it with this recipe. As long as you enjoy Asian flavors, you'll probably enjoy this unique twist. As for us, it's a good thing Justin liked these sandwiches, because he'll be polishing off the leftovers all on his own.

Asian Sloppy Joes

adapted from Ming Tsai

2 tablespoons canola oil
2 medium red onions, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped celery
3 tablespoons sriracha
2 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound ground pork
1 cup hoisin sauce
1 cup drained canned diced tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
hamburger buns
Shredded iceberg lettuce and spicy pickles (optional), for serving

1. In a large, deep skillet, heat the canola oil until shimmering. Add the onions, celery, sriracha, garlic, ginger and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 8 minutes. Add the ground chicken and pork and cook, stirring occasionally to break up the meat, until no pink remains, about 5 minutes. Stir in the hoisin, tomatoes and lime juice and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Spoon the sloppy joe filling onto the bottom half of each bun. Top with shredded lettuce and pickles and serve.

Burgertime Deluxe...

You would think that after our three day burger extravaganza back in July, that we would have moved on around here, but with warm weather on the wane around here, we wanted to squeeze in just a few more dinners on the grill before we head back indoors for the winter.

I still had some andouille sausage kicking around my refrigerator from the stash I used to make those stuffed pork chops and the soup with greens, and I had one last recipe from my Pinterest queue for which I wanted to use it, even though it would mean facing burgers again for dinner. Then again, burgers are one of my favorite meals. I could easily eat one every day, if I wanted to weigh a thousand pounds. 

Plus, when we went through our last round of burgers, I experimented with pretty much every form of ground meat except beef. There was pork, lamb, and turkey, but I don't think a regular beef burger has every left my kitchen. The burger recipe I found that called for andouille paired it with ground beef, and those two things were novel enough for me to want to give it a try.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed the spicy kick provided by the andouille, and the extra bit of chewiness from the sausage casings. However, the bits of sausage made it difficult for the patties to maintain their shape. If I make these burgers again, I'll either have to cut them smaller or even put the sausages through a meat grinder to make the texture of the burgers more homogenous, though the meat grinder option may destroy the pleasant toothsomeness created by the casings. The burgers did utilized finely chopped pecans in the role occasionally played by breadcrumbs, as a binder for the meat. Though they added a nice je ne sais quoi in terms of flavor, they didn't really do much to hold the meat together.

I even followed the recipe's suggestion in caramelizing onions for a topping. They suggesting adding garlic to the onions as they caramelized, and I was skeptical that it wouldn't burn, but it ended up being a nice touch. I did not, however, enjoy the extra sugar that the recipe called for, which made the onions too sweet. When I caramelize onions, I usually omit this shortcut, in favor of allowing the natural sugars in the onions to caramelize, which takes much longer than adding additional sugar, but the flavor is much improved. In the future, I would stick to my technique, but leave the garlic in the mix.

Overall, I would be happy to add this to my burger oeuvre. The recipe needs a few further tweaks to improve the cohesiveness of the patties, but the flavors were spot on, especially with a few pickles added for garnish. I was past due for a beef burger recipe, and now I'm happy to report that I have one, even if it's still a little unconventional, not unlike me...

Andouille and Beef Burgers with Spicy Mayo and Caramelized Onions

adapted from Epicurious

Spicy Mayo

3/4 c. mayonnaise

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco, or hot pepper sauce

Burgers

1/2 lb. andouille sausage, cut into scant 1/4-inch cubes

3/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef chuck or ground beef (20% fat)

Caramelized Onions

2 large onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

For mayo:

Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Cover and chill.

For burgers:

Toss first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add beef; blend gently. Shape mixture into six 1/2-inch-thick patties. 

Brush grill rack with olive oil. Grill until burgers are cooked to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium. Place some onions, then burger, on each bun bottom. Top each with pickle slices, if desired. Spread caramelized onions on top of burgers. Serve with spicy mayonnaise. 

For caramelized onions:

Toss onions and garlic in large skillet with oil over low heat. Cook until onions are golden, stirring often, about 45 minutes. Remove from stove; season with salt and pepper.

Burger Bash - Day Three

Sadly, my week of burgers ended not with a roar, but with a whimper. Clearly, I used up all my new recipe luck for this endeavor with the Asian pork burgers, because today's attempt at turkey burgers was almost the most disappointing of the bunch, even if they were technically tastier than the lamb burgers. As it turns out, I am the kind of person that can't resist messing with a good thing when it comes to the kitchen. I already have a turkey burger recipe that I've been making for years that I absolutely love to pieces (and Justin does too; it is one of his favorite meals now.)  It combines many of the classic flavors (cranberry, apple, celery, onion) that one associates with turkey during Thanksgiving, and it never fails to please. 

Nonetheless, when I spotted a different turkey burger recipe on a blog a few weeks ago, I was intrigued. It had a Martha Stewart pedigree, and it combined a lot of flavors that I love: green onion, mustard, and Gruyere cheese. Maybe I would be able to add a second turkey burger recipe to my repertoire for a little variety, I thought. After all, isn't variety the spice of life?

Wrong. This recipe proved to me that occasionally, it is better to stick to what you know. The addition of Gruyere to the patty imparted an odd, and to me, unnecessary additional savory element that also bordered on the over-salted. The mustard and onions were nice, but with the cheese, and my two favorite burger toppings already folded into the burger, I was at a loss for what to put on my burger, since it was crying out for a little extra moisture and textural interest. I ended up with cranberry mustard, my go-to sauce for turkey burgers, but it was a bit of mustard overkill.

Mostly my biggest problem with these burgers was the addition of breadcrumbs to the meat mixture. I know some people add breadcrumbs as a binder for homemade burgers, but to me, they always impart an unpleasantly smooth texture, like meatloaf or meatballs. I don't mind that homogeneous texture in those dishes, but to me, a burger should have a coarse toothsomeness that reminds you that you are eating meat. I should have just left them out when I saw them on the ingredient list, but I wanted to heed Martha's wisdom and follow the recipe as written. Predictably, I ended up with burger patties that had an unnatural texture, unbecoming of a burger, in my opinion.

Next time I'm craving a turkey burger, I'll return to my tried-and-true recipe. Not that that will be any time soon -- now that we've worked our way through the pile of hamburger buns on our kitchen counter, I think I've had more than enough grilled meat patties for a while...

Burger Bash - Day Two

Yesterday, I kicked off my mini-burger bash with a recipe so good, it is destined to become an instant classic in my household. After such a resounding success, it was almost inevitable that today's attempt would at least be somewhat of a disappointment. For a protein, I chose lamb, because I've seen lamb burgers on television for ages now, and I was always curious about them. Since the grocery store put pretty much all ground meats on sale after the major grilling holiday of the Fourth had passed, I was able to score some reasonably-priced ground lamb, since it's primarily its usual expense that has kept me from trying lamb burgers up until now.

I selected a recipe that called for traditional Greek spices, such as oregano, marjoram, cinnamon, and garlic, but despite all the seasonings that went into it, the meat itself emerged strangely bland. Sure, it was juicy, and the lamb-y flavor came through, but the meat was so completely innocuous that the patty mostly served as a vehicle for consuming tzatziki sauce. Perhaps a larger number of condiments might have fixed the situation; after all, I didn't elect for any besides the sauce and some slices of raw onion. Slices of tomato and some crumbled feta may have livened things up some. Still, I wouldn't want to waste my money on another batch of lamb burgers to find out. Clearly, this is a meal that is better left to professional chefs.

On the other hand, at least my tzatziki sauce was a hit. I've been making the same recipe since I was in college, when I saw it on an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown made gyros from scratch. I wasn't about to attempt that feat then or now, but I did have a pretty tasty Greek chicken recipe that was practically begging for a condiment at the time, and I gave Alton's recipe a try.

These were the days before Greek yogurt became a ubiquitous grocery store staple, and I remember straining regular plain yogurt through a cheese cloth to make this recipe happen. It was worth the effort then, and I still make it today (albeit with a lot less time and energy expenditure), whenever I make a dish with Mediterranean overtones. It's even good by itself on pitas as a snack, for those days when I want to relive my 2007 trip to Greece, where I had tzatziki as an appetizer at practically every meal. Seriously, give it a try!

Tzatziki Sauce
adapted from Alton Brown

8 oz. Greek yogurt (I recommend Fage for this particular application)
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled and finely grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
pinch of salt

Holding over the sink, squeeze the grated cucumber to remove as much excess liquid as possible. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the Greem yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

Burger Bash - Day One

Though potlucks are a great way to minimize the stress and preparation of hosting a big get-together, they do have one downside -- no matter how much you plan and coordinate with your guests, you're going to have too much of certain things, and not enough of others. For instance, the guest who had volunteered to bring beer to the party ended up blowing off my gathering all together, and we ended up with only a few bottles from a friend who is into home brewing and wanted to share his work.

On the surplus side of things, as I mentioned yesterday, not only did we end up with two entire watermelons, but we also had an insane surplus of hamburger buns. I'm not sure if all my friends are secretly on the Atkin's diet or what, but the vast majority of the meat consumed at the party was eaten without the accompaniment of bread. As a result, I've decided to have a mini-burger festival this week, not only to use up the mountain of buns currently cluttering my counter, but also to work my way through some of the burger recipes that have been languishing in my recipe queue.

First on the docket was a recipe for Asian-inspired pork burgers that I'd spotted months ago when we tried a new, albeit unsuccessful fried rice recipe that called for ground pork. The fried rice only called for a couple ounces of the meat, so we froze the rest, and I ultimately ended up using it to make meatball banh mi, but I kept that burger recipe in the back of my mind. Since we ended up loving the banh mi so much, I decided to use the burger recipe as a springboard for creating a banh mi-inspired burger recipe that would capture the flavors of our beloved sandwich in a format that would be easier to replicate.

To accomplish this, I stole many of the flavorings from our meatball recipe, with the addition of extra green onions, as called for in the burger recipe. I lifted the sriracha mayo directly from the banh mi recipe as well, but left out the pickled daikon and carrot salad in favor of a slaw dressed with a simple soy and sesame oil vinaigrette straight out of the original burger recipe. Thankfully, my experimental mash-up worked out marvelously. The burgers it produced were so good, Justin was asking me when we could have them again before we were even done eating. 

With a response like that, I know we'll be making these again before grilling season is over. The only thing I'd do differently, at Justin's request, is double the recipe so we'll have leftovers. With a dinner this tasty, you definitely want enough to eat it twice...

 

Banh Mi Burgers

Sriracha Mayo

2/3 c. mayonnaise

2 green onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon sriracha

Asian Slaw

3 c. coleslaw mix

3 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

scant teaspoon sesame oil

scant teaspoon sugar

Burgers

2 pounds ground pork

5 green onions, finely chopped

1/4 c. fresh basil, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon salt

ground pepper to taste

Light the grill.

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the burgers. Mix gently until incorporated but not overmixed. Form into 6 large patties or 8 small ones. 

2. Grill the patties approximately 8 minutes, turning once, or until cooked through.

3. Meanwhile, stir together the ingredients for the sriracha mayo in a small bowl.

4. In another small bowl, stir together the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar for the Asian slaw. Toss dressing with cole slaw mix.

5. Assemble burgers on toasted buns with Asian slaw and sriracha mayo.

Slip Slidin' Away...

Though I try to avoid dining ruts, more often than not it seems likes we have some sort of sandwich on Friday nights. In large part, I think this stems from the fact that sandwiches are usually quick to prepare, even if you aren't making them out of cold cuts or peanut butter and jelly. We usually do our grocery shopping on Friday nights after work, since the new weekly sales start on Thursdays, and I can typically carve out some time on Thursday night to make a grocery list. Coming home later than usual from the store, coupled with a week's worth of pent up exhaustion makes sandwiches an appealing dinner option.

Continuing in this week's theme of recipes that I selected based on Justin's taste preferences, I opted to try a sandwich recipe that combines two of his favorite flavors -- mustard and apricots. Apricots are Justin's favorite fruit, something he seems to have inherited from his family, where his grandma preserves her own apricot jam, uses it in her famous Sachertorte, and bakes them into a few of her other most popular desserts. Unsurprisingly, apricots are Justin's father's favorite as well, and the apricot rugelach I brought over to their house once was a big hit.

This recipe calls for grilling the fruit, and then turning the lightly-charred apricots into a tangy chutney with mustard (of which Justin is also exceedingly fond), and vinegar. Apricot is not the dominant flavor of the sauce, but it adds a nice body and sweetness to the mix. The chicken itself is nothing to write home about, as it is simply grilled with a quick pepper dry rub. I think you could easily replace the meat with store-bought rotisserie chicken and no one would know the difference.

When combined, however, the two components of the dish played together very nicely, creating a nice harmony of flavors. Plus, there is something about the petite size of sliders that just makes them more fun to eat than regular sandwiches, and who couldn't use a little more whimsy in their lives? Though it would make the recipe less simple, I feel like this dish could use another component, such as caramelized onions, or a bit of cheese, in order to bring more complexity to the table. Other than that, I could definitely see giving this recipe another try.

Grilled Chicken Sliders and Apricot Chutney

adapted from Cooking Light

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs

3 apricots, halved and pitted

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 cloves of garlic, minced

8 mini-sandwich buns

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle chicken with pepper mixture. Place a large grill pan over medium-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 5 minutes on each side or until done. Cool slightly; shred meat.

2. Recoat pan with cooking spray. Place apricots, cut sides down, on pan; cook 6 minutes on medium-high heat or until tender and lightly browned, turning after 4 minutes. Place apricots and next 4 ingredients (through garlic) in a food processor; process until smooth.

3. Spread apricot chutney over cut side of each sandwich bun half. Place about 1/3 cup chicken on bottom bun; cover with top half of bun.

Goodnight Saigon...

Rounding out our week of post H-Mart visit Asian meals (that included some stuffed cabbage leaves that I disliked so intensely that I'm not bother to blog about them, even though Justin loved them), was tonight's dinner of banh mi, the increasingly trendy Vietnamese sandwiches. Bahn mi vendors have been popping up all over the city in the past couple years, fueled by the rising popularity of street-food and global street-food-inspired fare, and Justin and I have checked them out on several occasions.

I tend to like the idea of banh mi more than the reality, because they're traditionally garnished with jalapeños and cilantro, neither of which I particularly enjoy. However, I do love sandwiches and Vietnamese food, so I keep giving them a try anyway, since I can't seem to resist the banh mi's particular fusion of Asian and French influences. The crispy but soft baguette, the mix of European cold cuts with Vietnamese-inspired meats, and pickled vegetables provide a complex and well-balanced combination of flavors.After spotting this recipe on a slideshow of recipes showcasing sriracha, the Southeast Asian hot sauce that Justin adores, I thought perhaps if I tried making banh mi at home, I could create one more to my liking.

As it turned out, I was correct. These pork meatball sandwiches are one of the tastiest meals to come out of my kitchen. They were somewhat labor-intensive to make in one evening, especially on a weeknight, but many of the components can be made in advance if you plan ahead. Plus, I read a suggestion from one of the comments on Bon Appétit's website that they like to make a double batch of meatballs and freeze the extras to make the dish even easier to prepare on the fly. I didn't want to do that when I didn't know if I would like the result, but I'll certainly be doing that in the future, because these sandwiches were outstanding.

Justin and I took a tag-team approach to preparing this dish, as he stayed home and made the pickled vegetables, chili mayo, and the meatball mix while I was out doing a grocery run for some entertaining we have planned for this weekend.When I got home, he took a break and I formed and cooked the meatballs, then assembled the sandwiches. We've tried this divide-and-conquer approach before with cooking elaborate meals, and we've found that it works really well for us.

Whether you live in an area that has plenty of Vietnamese restaurants where you can sample banh mi, or you've never had Vietnamese food, I think you owe it to yourself to give these sandwiches a try. I think the meatballs would even make a delicious party appetizer, served with some chili mayonnaise on the side for dipping. If you can't find daikon radishes where you are (we had to go to H-Mart for ours), I think thinly-sliced regular radishes would probably fine as well.

Pork Meatball Banh Mi

adapted from Bon Appétit

Hot Chili Mayo

2/3 c. mayonnaise

2 green onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon sriracha

Stir all ingredients in small bowl. Season to taste with salt. (Can be made one day ahead; cover and chill.)

Meatballs

1 lb. ground pork

1/4 c. fresh basil, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 green onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons corn starch

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Line rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl. Using moistened hands and scant tablespoonful for each, roll meat mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Arrange on baking sheet. (Can be made one day ahead; cover and chill.)

Sandwiches

2 c. coarsely grated carrots

2 c. coarsely grated daikon radish

1/4 c. unseasoned rice vinegar

1/4 c. sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 10-inch individual baguettes

thinly sliced jalapeño peppers

cilantro leaves

1.Toss first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour, tossing occasionally.

2. Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat sesame oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of meatballs. Sauté until brown and cooked through, turning meatballs often and lowering heat if browning too quickly, about 15 minutes. Transfer meatballs to another rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven. Repeat with remaining meatballs.

3. Cut each baguette or baguette piece horizontally in half. Pull out enough bread from each bread half to leave 1/2-inch-thick shell. Spread hot chili mayo over each bread shell. Arrange jalapeños, then cilantro, in bottom halves. Fill each with 1/4 of meatballs. Drain pickled vegetables; place atop meatballs. Press on baguette tops.

Imagine Whirled Peas...

It's a well-known fact that I am no fan of vegetables. My mother accepted this fact years ago, and largely stopped trying to foist them upon me, after I would spend entire evenings at the kitchen table having staring contests with the peas that refused to disappear from my plate when I was told that I wouldn't be dismissed from the table unless I ate them. My significant other, however, craves healthy things in his diet, and has been waging an uphill battle to get me to introduce more vegetables into our shared meals. In large part, I've been trying to accommodate his tastes, and incorporating more vegetable side dishes and selecting more meals that have vegetable components.

That's why a heavily vegetable-laced chicken salad from the most recent issue of Bon Appetit caught my eye -- now that my antagonistic relationship with peas has cooled, I thought a three-pea chicken salad would make a perfect lunch for me and my vegetable-loving boyfriend. Luckily for me, I was able to pick up all two of the necessary types of peas (snow peas and sugar snap peas) for a song at H-Mart yesterday, and we had frozen peas and frozen chicken breasts on hand, so there were few barriers standing in my way.

Just because I was able to acquire all the ingredients easily did not mean that I was able to throw this together in a timely fashion. The writers at Bon Appetit classify this as a quick meal, but they are sorely mistaken. This chicken salad is a test of one's knife skills the likes of which I have never experienced before. I spent what felt like forever thinly slicing the snow and sugar snap peas and green onion into fine ribbons, along with finely mincing the garlic and shallots. Sure, it was easy to chuck everything into a bowl and stir it up once it was all prepared, but I'm not sure the dish merited all the effort.

That's not to say that it wasn't tasty. If you like vegetables, like Justin does, I'm sure you'd enjoy this chicken salad as much as he did. For me, however, there were just too many raw vegetables and too little chicken. It was fresh, crunchy, and full of bright, spring flavors, but I couldn't ignore the voice of my inner child screaming, "Eiw! Veggies!" If you have some time on your hands, and access to a farmer's market, by all means, give this recipe a spin, you'll probably enjoy it. As for me, I'll be sticking with my much-beloved chicken salad recipe, that still has some fruit and vegetables for interest, but is more heavily skewed toward the meat side of the equation.

Three-Pea Chicken Salad

adapted from Bon Appetit

2 large shallots, 1 halved, 1 minced
2 garlic cloves, 1 smashed, 1 minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound thinly sliced stringed sugar snap peas
1 cup frozen, thawed peas
1/2 cup thinly sliced stringed snow peas
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh green onion
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon (or more) fresh lemon juice

Place halved shallot, smashed garlic, and chicken in a medium saucepan. Add water to cover by 1 inch and season with salt and pepper. Bring water to a boil; remove pan from heat, cover, and let stand until chicken is just cooked through, 15–25 minutes, depending on size of chicken breasts. Transfer chicken to a plate and let cool. Shred or dice chicken. 

Meanwhile, whisk yogurt, oil, minced shallot, and minced garlic in a small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper.

Combine all peas in a medium bowl. Add chicken, dressing, parsley, green onion, lemon zest, and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice, if desired.

Let's Talk Turkey...

It feels like a huge amount of my time is taken up with meal-planning now that I'm making a conscientious effort to prepare dishes that both utilize cost-effective ingredients and the items I already have on hand. So far, I'm enjoying it, but it's definitely an adjustment compared to the more spontaneous attitude I used to take. This week, for example, I actually drew up a table of ingredients in the fridge that need to be used before we leave this weekend for five days, and came up with a strategy for how everything would get used. The leftover chipotle chilies from last week's chicken tacos? They'd go into mashed sweet potatoes that I had originally purchased to try out as an unconventional pizza topping, but wouldn't have time to get around to before we leave.

Ground turkey was on sale this week, so I decided to dust off my much beloved, albeit underutilized turkey burger recipe in order to use up some celery that was starting to wilt. The leftover buns from the turkey burgers will get turned into garlic bread later this week, to accompany some refrigerated ravioli that I was able to find a deal on. Very little goes into my refrigerator these days without a plan.

The meal we ended up with was a delicious, quick mid-week dinner. Usually, I'm drawn to elaborate, complicated recipes that don't translate well to workday dining, but with Justin's help and a recipe from (I'm embarrassed to admit this, but she does have some good ideas on occasion) Rachel Ray, we had dinner on the table in under an hour.

I particularly liked the technique for making the mashed sweet potatoes, which came from Alton Brown. Instead of boiling, Alton recommends steaming root vegetables (and that goes for potatoes too) before mashing them, because they cook faster and absorb less excess water. The chipotle added a smoky, spicy note that Justin really enjoyed, so I think this side dish will definitely be entering regular rotation around here, especially in light of my recently discovered fondness for sweet potatoes. I kind of want to eat them all the time now...

Cranberry Bog Turkey Burgers

adapted from Rachel Ray

1 1/4 lb ground turkey

1 small red apple, finely chopped

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

1 rib celery, finely chopped

seasoned salt, to taste

dash of Worcheshire sauce

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix by hand until homogenous. Shape into four equal-size patties. Spray a grill pan or large skillet with Pam and place over medium-high heat. Cook the patties 5-6 minutes per side until completely cooked through. Serve on toasted hamburger buns with cranberry mustard and provolone cheese. 

Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

adapted from Alton Brown

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 chipotle chili, finely chopped

1 teaspoon adobo sauce from canned chipotles

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put cubed sweet potatoes in a steamer basket and place over a pot of simmering water that is no closer than two inches from the bottom of the basket. Allow to steam for approximately 20 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are fork tender. Add butter to sweet potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Add chili, sauce, and salt, and continue mashing to combine. Serve immediately.

Eggstra, Eggstra...

I must confess, my desire to dye Easter eggs this year was not entirely rooted in childhood nostalgia for the craft project, but also in a surprisingly nostalgic longing for the dish that always came after the eggs were dyed -- egg and olive salad. They say that as you get older, you begin to understand the wisdom of your elders, and in this case at least it's true. Egg and olive salad (a concoction that has no recipe but is just as it sounds: sliced hard-boiled eggs, sliced Spanish olives with pimento, Miracle Whip, and a sprinkle of sugar) is a seemingly unorthodox combination of flavors that somehow just works.


I used to love its unique combination of sweet, salty, and tangy flavors as a child, but the older I got, the more I found myself mortified by its presence in my lunch. My friends would make fun of me for the way it smelled and what they deemed the "gross" combination of ingredients. Eventually, I begged her to stop sending it in my lunch. As far as I can remember, she stopped making it all together as long as I was still living under her roof.

Now that I'm older and less prone to the whims of peer pressure, I've found myself thinking back fondly to the memories of that childhood egg and olive salad, particularly the multicolored batches that resulted from freshly-dyed Easter eggs. Hence, after spending all that time on Saturday decorating eggs, their beauty was not long for this world. Even without a recipe, and never having made it before, the egg and olive salad was just as I remembered it, and just as delicious. Funny thing, nostalgia...

The Hottest Spot North Of Havana...

It occurred to me tonight as I was sitting down to my supper that I've never blogged about what is perhaps the most common meal that I make -- panini. Studies have revealed that the most common dinner item in the United States is the sandwich, but I try to make the staple into something a little more special. I'm not sure how I got into making panini; some time ago I came into the possession of a panini pan consisting of a small non-stick grill pan and a heavy, metal weight for pressing the sandwiches. I had the pan a long time before I actually used it, largely because I am somewhat of a failure when it comes to the art of griddled food. To this day, I can't master grilled cheese (of the garden variety white bread-American cheese extraction). I end up with something that's either burnt on the outside and cold in the middle, or soggy on the outside with overly melted cheese. I also can't make pancakes to save my life. As a result, the panini pan was a little intimidating for me.

To the best of my recollection, the first panini I ever made was an ad hoc meal designed to use up some pesto I had made from some garlic scapes I bought at the farmers' market. Scapes (the shoots and blossoms of the garlic plant) had been the "it" food among foodies that summer, so I bought them and made a basic pesto from them, as many publications suggested. It was... not tasty. Garlic scapes were not for me. Eating it straight up on pasta was like eating pure, raw garlic. So to use it up, I decided to marinate some chicken breasts in the puree, accurately predicting that cooking would help considerably in removing some of its bite. I then had leftover chicken breasts, so I decided to pair them with some mozarella cheese and make hot sandwiches using my panini pan. The resulting panini was so crispy, full of delicious melted cheese, and quick that they soon went into my regular dinner rotation. Around Thanksgiving I came up with another variation that consisted of leftover turkey, thinly sliced apple, cranberry mustard, and munster cheese. It too was a success. On a more regular basis, I settle for deli turkey and munster cheese, toasted to a golden perfection. Then came the Cuban sandwich.

Maybe not the most attractive Cuban sandwich I've ever made, but it tasted mighty fine.

I've long been enamored of the Cuban sandwiches at Cafecito, a small sandwich shop near my apartment, and yet, even with a cheap, plentiful source nearby, I was still driven to try to recreate the sandwiches at home. The ingredient list is relatively simple: yellow mustard, pickles, ham, swiss cheese, and pork roast. The last of these was the problem for me -- I seldom cook meat, much less a large cut such as a pork roast. As a result, I only make Cubans when I can steal leftovers from Mom, who prepares pork roasts with far greater frequency than me. In exchange, she gets a perfectly crisp, well-balanced sandwich. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I think it's a pretty good deal for her. If you play your cards right, I might consider making a panini for you too some day...