Peanut butter stir-fry

I like to make more elaborate meals on weekends when I have a lot of time, but try to keep my weeknight dinners simple. There is a variety of such speedy dishes like sandwiches, pasta, soups etc., but one of my favorite quick and easy dinners is a stir-fry. Not only are stir-frys simple to make, but they could also be made healthy by picking the right ingredients. Also, there is a lot of room to play with different flavors, colors and textures by choosing different combinations of vegetables as well as sauces, and you can use as many ingredients as you want! Heres a recipe for a vegetarian stir-fry with a peanut butter sauce. Along with vegetables, I’ve also used seitan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_gluten_(food)), which is basically wheat gluten, so it is a good source of protein. You can use any vegetables you like, as well as other proteins including meat, fish, tofu. For the sauce, I used peanut butter and soy sauce as the base, with other ingredients that help enhance the flavor. But the proportions of all these ingredients can be adjusted according to personal preference.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp oil

1 medium onion, chopped (~1 inch pieces)

1 orange/green bell pepper, chopped (Try to keep the size of all the chopped vegetables approximately the same so that they cook evenly)

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1.5 cups broccoli florets

1 cup seitan

5-6 basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup roasted cashews

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 inch ginger, finely chopped

3 Tbsp peanut butter

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 Tbsp white wine vinegar (or lemon juice)

1 tsp honey

1/4 tsp paprika

1 tsp crushed red pepper

salt

water

Blanch the broccoli florets by dropping them in boiling water for about a minute and then immediately drain them under cold running water. If using other denser vegetables like cauliflower, carrots etc., blanch those as well.

To make the sauce, mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, honey, 1 Tbsp water, paprika, ginger, crushed red pepper flakes. Taste and adjust any ingredients to your liking. Add more water if required.

Heat a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add oil and swirl around.

Once oil is heated, add onions, chopped bell pepper and sauté for a minute. Add mushrooms, broccoli and seitan. Saute for another minute. Add roasted cashews and chopped basil.

Add the sauce and give a quick stir. Add salt according to taste (DO NOT add salt before the sauce since soy sauce is pretty salty).

If required, deglaze the pan (loosen and dissolve the bits of food stuck to the pan) with a little water. Remove from heat and serve hot. The stir-fry goes really well with rice, but is just as good by itself.

~Gayatri

Parlez-vous Français? Part II: Chocolate Mousse

After quite a long break from blogging, we are back with a recipe for another French dessert. It’s a rich, creamy chocolate mousse, which can be made with your favorite flavor. This dessert is perfect to be served in individual bowls/cups at parties and can be made a few days in advance. But more importantly, there is no cooking or baking involved, making it a super easy (and super fun!) dessert.

(Recipe source: http://homecookingadventure.com)

Ingredients:

150 g dark chocolate (~3/4 cup, melted)

3 eggs, whites and yolks separated

50g butter (just under 1/4 cup)

4 tbsp sugar

Your choice of flavor (raspberry, mint, rum, lemon zest, orange zest, coffee, etc.)

1. Melt the chocolate and add butter to it immediately so that the butter will melt as well.

2. Beat egg yolks and add your chosen flavor to it. You will have to adjust the quantity according to your liking. So far we have used raspberry (~10-12 puréed raspberries), and orange (~1/2 tbsp zest + 1/2 tbsp orange juice). It can also be made with just chocolate without any extra flavor.

3. Add the egg yolk mixture to the chocolate and butter mixture.

4. Beat egg whites until foamy, then add sugar slowly while whipping and continue till stiff peaks are formed.

5. Fold a few spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and then add the chocolate mixture to the whites and fold until completely incorporated. Make sure you do this gently. Do not whisk the mixture.

6. Pour the mixture into serving bowls (or a big bowl if you just want to scoop it out and serve) and refrigerate for a few hours. It can be stored in a refrigerator for up to a week, but it is so delicious that it probably won’t last that long :).

~Gayatri

Parlez-vous Français? Part I: Madeleines

Our friend and labmate, Carrie, recently returned from a 4-month stint in Paris, France as part of her doctoral studies (we were insanely jealous the whole time =P). After she re-acclimated to life in the Midwest, the three of us got together to have a dinner-movie-cooking night, and made some delicious desserts while watching Disney's Beauty and the Beast - which, fittingly, takes place in France :) One of the desserts we made were little shell-shaped sponge cakes called madeleines. The recipe we used was originally in French, so here is the English translation - including some of those pesky metric conversions!

Ingredients (makes 9 madeleines):

50 grams butter (about 3.5 tbsp)

1 egg

65 grams sugar (about 1/3 cup)

1 packet vanilla sugar (about 2 tsp vanilla sugar*)

65 grams flour (about 2/3 cup)

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Soften butter and mix with sugar and vanilla sugar until well mixed. Add salt and flour and mix. Fill madeleine molds with batter and bake for 10 minutes, or until madeleines are golden brown. Remove from mold and let cool.

These little treats taste fantastic as they are, but we added a chocolate option to ours. Since we made a big batch of madeleines, we melted some dark chocolate and then coated about half the madeleines with chocolate - très délicieux!

~Karla

*If you can't find vanilla sugar, it can be substituted with a mix of regular sugar and vanilla extract: 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar = 1 tablespoon granulated sugar + 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. You can also make vanilla sugar at home: Place 2 cups granulated sugar in a container with an airtight seal. Cut one vanilla bean in half, scraping out the seeds into the sugar. Place the bean halves into the sugar, covering them well. Close the container and allow it to sit for about 2 weeks. Add more granulated sugar as you use the vanilla sugar - the beans remain effectively flavorful for several months. (Source: http://www.ehow.com/about_5332306_substitute-vanilla-sugar.html)

Spinach and Brown Rice Gratin

Although most people love rice, there are a few oddballs like me, who don’t! As a kid, I used to try to hide the rice from my plate to fool my parents into believing that I ate it all…but I don’t think that worked very well. Anyway, knowing the health benefits of rice, I do try to include it in my meals – but that requires a little bit of creativity :)

Heres a recipe for a brown rice - spinach gratin, which tastes great and is nutritious. Its a good way to use leftover rice and is also very easy to modify to include different veggies according to your taste. I only had bell peppers at home, so that’s what I used, but you can add peas, corn, olives, carrots etc.

Recipe modified from: http://www.101cookbooks.com

Ingredients

2 cups cooked brown rice (white rice will work as well)

1.5 cups chopped spinach

1 small green pepper chopped

1/2 medium onion chopped

2 eggs (I used egg beaters)

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (or Parmesam)

1/4 cup toasted almond slices (or chopped walnuts)

salt to taste

optional: 1/2 cup crumbled tofu

Preheat oven to 400 F. Set the rack in the top third of the oven. Grease a 9 inch round baking dish.

In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except eggs and 1/4 cup cheese. Adjust seasoning; add some herbs, spices if you like. Beat eggs well in a separate bowl and fold into the rice mixture. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and top it with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 25-30 min or until the rice is set and the cheese on top is golden. Remove from oven and serve warm.

~Gayatri

Vegetarian Thanksgiving (Tofurkey not included)

My parents came down to visit us last Thanksgiving, so we decided to cook them a feast, vegetarian style. We did have a few traditional turkey legs, but one of the main dishes was lasagna - only with zucchini slices instead of noodles! Low-carb! :) The original recipe came from a cookbook called Simply Delicious Vegetarian by Carla Bardi, and it was pretty tasty the first time we made it, but we decided to put our own (somewhat healthier) spin on it. This one takes a lot of prep time, but we think it's worth it!

Ingredients

4-5 large green zucchini, sliced length-wise (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick)

1/2 - 1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/2 - 1 cup asparagus, chopped

1/2 - 3/4 cups sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (soak in warm water for about an hour to soften)

grated Parmesan cheese

1 - 2 cups bread crumbs (we used finely crushed bran flakes instead)

skim milk, both powdered and regular

garlic, salt, pepper

shredded mozzarella cheese (low-fat or part-skim)

Prep the zucchini: It's best to slice the zucchini at least 4 hours ahead of time to help reduce the moisture in the slices. Lightly salt the slices and layer them in a colander, with paper towel between the layers of zucchini. Put something heavy on top (like a stack of bowls) to help press some of the water out of the slices. When you are ready to make the lasagna, broil the zucchini slices 5-7 minutes per side to further reduce moisture.

To make the filling: chop the mushrooms, asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes, and saute them, seasoning them with salt, pepper and garlic. Pour about 1/4 cup skim milk into the pan and stir. Alternately add Parmesan cheese and powdered skim milk to thicken the mixture, until it is almost like a bisque. If you add more milk than cheese, be sure to also add more spices. (Note: if you don't have, or can't find, powdered skim milk, you can use 2% or whole milk, and add more grated cheese than milk to the mixture.) You can experiment with different filling ingredients, like spinach. The original recipe called for carrots, shallots and celery - which we though was a little boring :)

Put it all together: Heat oven to 350F. Layer the bottom of a baking dish with the broiled zucchini slices, spread a thin layer of filling over the zucchini, sprinkle with a layer of bread crumbs, then sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top. Repeat this process until all the filling is used up. Make sure to leave enough zucchini for a top layer to cover the last of the filling (making an odd number of zucchini layers). Sprinkle the top layer of just zucchini with bread crumbs, and instead of using Parmesan cheese, top with shredded mozzarella. Bake 15-25 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and/or browning slightly at the edges. Let cool, then slice and enjoy!

~Karla

Savory Cornmeal Muffins

The weather has been awful for the past couple days so Purdue had cancelled classes. I didn’t dare to venture out in the freezing cold to go to the lab, and there is only so much work that I could do from home. After watching The Office on Netflix for about 4 hours, I had to do something productive! Baking seemed like a good way to kill time as it generally takes a while to bake something and there is also a lot of cleaning involved :). We’ve had a packet of cornmeal in our freezer for a while, so I thought of experimenting with it and cornmeal muffins with soup seemed perfect for a snow day. They turned out really good and I’ll definitely be making more of these in the future.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.cooksimple.com

Ingredients (for 12 muffins)

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup wheat flour

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 egg (Didn’t have eggs, so I used Egg Beaters. Egg whites can be used as well.)

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

2 tbsp melted butter/margarine

~1.5 cups chopped vegetables (I used peas, carrots, green and red pepper and green beans. Any other vegetables can be used as well.)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix the dry ingredients (cornmeal, wheat flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper) in a bowl. In another bowl, mix egg, milk, oil and butter and then slowly add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Stir until mixed. Add the chopped vegetables to the batter and mix well. Grease muffin tins and fill each cup ~3/4 full. Bake for ~25 minutes until golden brown.

That’s the generic recipe, but it is pretty versatile. You can add your favorite spices, herbs or cheese to the batter. Enjoy the warm muffins with soup, chili, or just some butter.

~Gayatri

Chocolate Cups

Recently I bought a Cusinart ice cream maker, which has become my favorite kitchen appliance. And if you like ice cream as much as I do, you’ve got to have one. The ice cream maker bowl is kept frozen until needed, so it does not require ice, and makes ice cream in 15-20 minutes. It’s also very easy to clean! So far I've only used it to make vanilla ice cream (will post the recipe soon), but it can be used for making healthier alternatives like frozen yogurts and sorbets too. I’ve already tried out two different ways of making ice cream (with and without eggs) and I’m planning to do a lot more experimenting with the taste and texture….so if you love ice cream, let me know what flavor you would like me to experiment with ;-).

Although this post is not about ice cream, here is a fun way of serving it. These chocolate cups can be used to serve ice cream, pudding or any other dessert that goes well with chocolate. (Recipe source: Crazy for Chocolate, published by Bay Books).

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate chips (1 packet of 12 oz. chocolate makes about 18 cups).

1. Melt the chocolate chips.

2. Cut squares of plastic wrap and spread about a tablespoon of melted chocolate on the plastic wrap using the back of a spoon to form a circle.

3. Carefully pick up the plastic wrap holding the ends and gently place over an inverted styrofoam cup (chocolate side up).

4. Place the cup in the freezer for a couple minutes till the chocolate hardens. Remove from the freezer and carefully peel off the plastic wrap.

The chocolate cup is ready for serving your favorite dessert. The cups can be stored in an air-tight container in the freezer.

~Gayatri