Lean, Green, Indian Machine

I have a ton of recipes I need to catch up on. Too much cooking plus too little posting equals food picture overload on my camera. Thanksgiving dishes ended exceptionally well. I was in charge of the turkey this year (first time ever!) and I decided to brine it. Let me tell you, best idea ever. You will get the most juicy and moist turkey you could ever imagine. More on that later. I also made a pumpkin cheesecake and a pumpkin spice bundt, both turned out spectacular.

But now onto something completely not Thanksgiving related--Saag. I love Indian food. It has to be in my top 5 favorite ethnic food groups (Japanese and Chinese at the top for obvious reasons). The food is always so flavorful with so many complex spices. I usually never attempt these dishes in my own home mainly because I don't have an extensive Indian spice cabinet, so I know I could never do the dishes justice.

My all-time favorite dish is lamb saag. I think it's a mix of the creamy spinach and the gamey lamb that make an absolute perfect flavor combination, not to mention the dish is a beautiful, vibrant green. Saag is one of those dishes I could probably eat everyday for the rest of my life (along with tempura udon, my grandmother's chow mein, and a few other select dishes). It really does warm you up right to the core. Moreover, this is packed with those dark green leafy veggie (cruciferous veg) nutrients and the power packed super spice turmeric. Serve with some hot basmati rice and crispy garlic naan, and you're set.

This is my version of saag. I must admit it still does not live up to what you'd get at some of the good Indian places in town, but it's not terrible for an Asian girl cooking in a tiny kitchen. I used a mix of mustard greens and spinach, though you could make the dish completely out of just one. I like to use lamb, because let's face it, lamb is bomb-dot-com, but you could use any kind of meat or paneer that your heart desires. This dish doesn't require many oddball/hard-to-find spices, which makes it very simple for the everyday cook. Though I'm sure if you were able to track down some authentic Indian spices, it would make this dish even better. I ended up adding a couple teaspoons of Penzey's Spices Sate Seasoning which is a blend of coarse flake salt, brown sugar, garlic, white onion, coriander, purple shallots, ginger, turmeric, sweet paprika, Ancho pepper, galangal, cayenne red pepper, and lemon grass. I thought this mix added a nice touch to the flavor, but it's definitely not necessary. Really all you need is some cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and ginger and it will taste just perfect. I'm not completely sure on the measurements of all of the spices, just add to taste and how you enjoy it.

Lamb Saag

• 1-2 bunches mustard greens
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter or ghee
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small can diced green chiles
• Cumin
• Turmeric
• Cayenne pepper
• Ground ginger
• Salt and pepper
• 2-3 Tbsp heavy cream 
• 1 lb. lamb, cubed

Wash the mustard greens and place in a pot of boiling water. Add the frozen spinach and boil for a few minutes, until the greens are soft and vibrant green. In the meantime, heat the olive oil and butter in a pan. Add the onions, garlic, and green chiles and saute until the onion are soft and translucent. Strain the greens and squeeze out most of the water. Add to the onion pan and stir to combine. Place contents of pan into food processor. Run until smooth. Add spices to taste and add cream to desired creaminess. In a separate pan, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil and add cubed lamb. Cook until done and then mix with the greens mixture. Serve with basmati rice and naan.

Perfect Pre-Feast Dinner

I have never thought about this before, but what should you eat the night before a huge feast? What is the most appropriate dinner before Thanksgiving? You don't want to have too many leftovers because your fridge will be overflowing tomorrow. Also, I need a meal that works well with throwing in lots of odds and ends to try and empty out the fridge. Lastly, I want something that is so completely not in the realm of thanksgiving and turkey, because you are bound to be completely turkey-ed out by 5 PM tomorrow. Solution: Wonton Soup.

This is a wonderful go to recipe for a chilly night in. It's surprisingly filling though quite light and flavorful. Find a buddy to help fold wontons, it's super fun to makeup new shapes and a great activity to do with someone/some friends. Overall, this is a really easy recipe, but can be a bit time consuming if you don't have help assembling the wontons.

You can virtually add whatever you like into the filling. Just go through your cabinets and see what you have that sounds delicious. I didn't in this recipe because I didn't have any on hand, but these are also great with some chopped shitake mushrooms and chopped shrimp. Also, I don't really measure when I'm making this recipe, just kind of throw things in until it looks good, so I'll do my best to estimate in the recipe.

One other super important tip: make sure you get good quality wonton skins. Do not get those crap skins you can buy at your normal grocery store, I guarantee they will fall apart in your soup. Then you'll end up with a noodle meatball soup rather than wontons. You need to go to your Asian grocery store (my favorite is LeeLee up on orange grove) and get some real wonton wrappers. We went with Peking Brand wonton wrappers and they came out just perfect (only a couple broke that were already very poorly folded by me). Another thing is to make sure you know the difference between wonton and gyoza wrappers. Wonton wrappers are thinner and used for boiling dumplings for soup or frying. Gyoza wrappers are slightly thicker and used for dumplings you want to pan fry. In general, I usually like to use gyoza wrappers because I love nice chewy dumplings. But if you prefer dumplings with a thin skin, you need good quality wonton wrappers.

There are lots of ways you can fold wontons. Here is a great site with all of the different varieties. We do the Taiwan style (Style 5). It doesn't really matter which way you decide to fold them, they'll still taste delicious no matter what you do. Have fun with this recipe, these little dumplings are delicious.

Wonton Soup

For the wontons:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp dry sherry
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
• 1 package GOOD wonton skins plus 1 egg for sealing
• Optional: chopped shrimp, chopped shitake mushrooms, chopped bamboo shoots

For the soup:

• 6 c. chicken broth
• A few handfuls of finely chopped chinese cabbage
• 3 cloves whole garlic
• 3 slices of fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
• salt and pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together for the filling. Assemble wontons and seal with beaten egg. Set aside. Heat a pot of boiling water. Drop the dumpling into the water and cook until cooked through. In a separate pot, mix everything for the soup. Once the dumplings are done cooking in the boiling water, transfer to the soup using a slotted spoon.

Spas and Sausage

I have been avoiding cooking this entire week. The sink was full of dishes and I didn't have the energy to clean them all. So instead, I have been enjoying a week of ZinBurger, B-Line, sushi, and Miss Saigon. Unfortunately, this means my precious CSA veggies have been sitting very patiently in the fridge waiting for me to use them. Sundays are my favorite night of the week to cook dinner. You can enjoy a relaxing day (or un-relaxing day of studying) and then have a nice, leisurely dinner. Best part is, you have leftovers to take for lunch on Monday.

I bought a Groupon a couple of weeks ago because it was advertised as "Unlimited Spa Services for 1-week for $20." How could I pass that up? I snatched up the deal and then started to look into the company a little more. It is for a spa called Planet Beach located in the Total Wine and More parking lot on Oracle. Upon further online searching, I came to realize the deal was really too good to be true. What makes this spa different is that none of the services are done by real people, everything is a machine. No real massages done by trained individuals--rather, they provide aqua massages and some sort of state-of-the-art robotic massage chair. No facials--rather, you slop a package of jelly on your face and sit under an infared light for 20 minutes. To say the least, I was a bit dissappointed. Regardless, I bought the Groupon, so I started my week last Wednesday. I went into the spa and made a promise to myself that I would get my moneys worth. I decided to try every single service--except for the "UV Therapy" aka tanning beds. They have a bed that you lie on and a heated "jade roller" moves up and down your back. They also have a bed where warm water shoots up and provides a massage. They also have a little sauna box and also this other thing called the Hydration Station. It's basically a capsule you lie in and it fills with hot steam to make you sweat. I'm down with that, open your pores, super. But then you can add these different colored light that are supposed to stimulate certain aspects of your body--red is for cellulite reduction, yellow is to stimulate lymphatics, blue is to target acne, purple is to prolong your tan. That seemed a bit hokey to me. Either way, I went back for my third visit today (like I said, I am going to get my moneys worth). I spent the afternoon getting an aqua massage and sitting in the sauna. To be honest, I don't know how I feel about Planet Beach. Getting a massage by a robotic chair is very different from getting a massage from a real person.

On to the food. After my "spa" day, I came home and wanted to make a nice hearty meal that would warm me up (it's freezing outside!). I decided to experiment with the rapini we received this week. I've never had the veggie before, but wikipedia told me it is similar to Chinese gailan. Normally the branches have flowers on them, but I think ours were harvested early in the season, so I just had a bunch of leaves. I did a little searching on tastespotting and saw there were a lot of recipes for rapini and sausage pasta. That was just what I was in the mood for and it seemed so simple.

I basically made up this recipe by throwing in whatever I had available at home. I bought turkey sausage and every time I do that I regret it. I always feel guilty getting the grease loaded pork sausage, so I give in a get turkey. I just can't do it anymore. The drippings from the pork sausage make a dish so much better! After cooking the turkey sausage, there was slim to no oil drippings at all so you don't get that yummy sausage flavor coating the pasta and rapini. I'm over my pork guilt trip. Sorry turkey, I'm going with the pork.

I decided to use orecchiette pasta because I thought it looked really cute with the sausage and rapini. The little cups are perfect to scoop up a little bit of meat and a little bit of veg. It doesn't really matter what kind of pasta you use, but I would suggest either a penne or shell. Really, whatever you have in your cabinet will be a-ok.

Enjoy this dish on a busy weeknight, it literally take 20 minutes to make. It's so easy and you don't need many ingredients. The dish has the bitter flavor of the rapini which is mellowed out by the savory fatty sausage.

Rapini and Sausage Orecchiette

• 1 lb orecchiette pasta, cooked
• 1 lb spicy Italian PORK sausage
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Splash of chicken broth
• Splash of white wine
• 1 bunch rapini, coarsely chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
• Fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt to taste

Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling salted water.

While the pasta is cooking, brown the sausage in a pan. After the sausage is done cooking, toss it with the cooked pasta and leave the drippings in the pan. Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic to the pan and saute until the onions are soft. Add the chicken broth and white wine and cook for a few minutes. Add the rapini and cook until wilted.

Add the veggie mixture to the pasta and sausage mix. Toss in the butter and cheese and stir until completely mixed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Top with a sprinkle of cheese and eat piping hot.