Spaghetti Coup d'État

Living in Thailand, an essential survival skill is adaptability. A case in point is my first coup d'état. It was February 1991 and Chatchai was just overthrown. I ran out of cooking gas and the shops weren't selling any, apparently on the principle that housewives might be tempted to make bombs out of fish sauce. My mother-in-law said starchily, you should have stocked up. The minute I knew it was a coup, I sent the driver to the gas station to fill up the gas tank. Oh, well, I said, meekly,  can I borrow your electric skillet? I managed to survive that coup and two more coups after that. In the process I learned that a cook needs to be nimble. A good lesson learned regardless of the political situation.

It's March 2010, 19 years after my first coup,  and 16 prime ministers later, and I'm facing another domestic crisis. In the stores, sugar is fast disappearing from the shelves, a sure sign, not of a coup to come, but of a price hike in the making. (In the background, the Red Shirts are waiting to assemble this weekend.) I have stocked 3 kg of superfine sugar in my pantry so I can keep baking for Cake Mondays. With a sugar shortage looming, I will have to hunt for low-sugar recipes.  Adding to the kitchen challenges is the heat of the Thai summer. It was  93 degrees today, and I'm crazy to cook in a hot kitchen. Anyway, come heat or sugar shortage, we must eat. For dinner, today, I made our favorite marinara sauce--with two adjustments. The guys balk at anything meatless so I added meatballs and sausages to the sauce. But cooking it requires about 25 minutes of standing in front of a hot stove (and oven while the meatballs were baking). If you can't stand the heat...!

 

Making the marinara sauce begins with cooking onions, tomatoes, and garlic (I never do what the recipe says with garlic. I use a free hand.). While it was cooking, I made the meatballs. I seasoned 1/2 pound ground chicken with a tablespoon of Italian seasoning and about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.  I scooped the meat onto a tray sprayed with cooking oil and popped the meatballs in a 400˚F oven.

 

The meatballs took about 10 minutes to cook up. Meanwhile, I set a griddle on the stove and grilled the sausages. I used garlic and pepper sausage since I couldn't find sweet Italian sausages in casings. In Bangkok, one must improvise or dinner doesn't make it to the table.

 

Glen gave me this Braun blender when I moved to Illinois and it has been an essential part of my kitchen equipment ever since.  It still works fine attached to the Franzus converter that I got when we came to Thailand in 1989. I added the reserved tomatoes and processed the sauce in eight two-second bursts to make it chunky. 

 

I returned the sauce to the skillet and added the meatballs and sliced sausages.

And there you have it!  Spaghetti with marinara sauce, meatballs, and sausage.

This recipe for marinara sauce came from ATK. It cooks up in less than 30 minutes but tastes like it's been cooking all day!

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Thursday Night: Green Chile Porkburgers

What do you do with leftover green chile sauce? Inspired by a recipe from America's Test Kitchen I made Green Chile Porkburgers. I served the burger with oven-fried potatoes and chopped fresh tomatoes.

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My Limits to Multitasking

This morning I baked a cake. After lunch, I started the Cherry Garcia cookie dough and put it in the fridge to get firm. Between the cookies and making dinner, I took AJ to see the doctor. Tonight's menu included bacon wrapped pork medallions with apple cider sauce, green bean casserole, and mashed cauliflower surprise. Invariably, when I do too many things I forget something. That's why there aren't any photographs.

While the cookie dough was chilling out, I decided to take AJ to the hospital. He's had a cough for 2 weeks and this will be his second visit to the doctor. It was 3:30 p.m. At this time we'd have to take whoever is available. We got to the hospital, he saw the doctor, and he left the pharmacy with a mister, another course of Ropect, and mysterious instructions to stay out of the sun.

We get home around 5 p.m.  AJ takes Gigi for a walk. I take the ironed clothes from Boong to put away, which interrupts Andy's Scrabble game on Facebook. Do we eat in or go out, he asks. Eat in, I say and I go downstairs. I mentally shift into overdrive. I used to do this so well at 36 but 56 is another story.

Preheat the Sharp Healslo convection oven to 180 degrees Celsius and set timer for 12 minutes. Saute' the bacon but not crisply. Trim and cut the pork tenderloin into eighths. Wrap the bacon around the medallions and pin them with toothpicks. Season with white pepper and fry medallions. Line baking trays with baking parchment and take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator. Heat apple cider and chicken bouillion in 10 inch skillet on medium high heat. Add red wine vinegar and one whole cinnamon stick to the sauce. Turn medallions. Put 12 scoops of cookie dough on each tray and return extra dough to refrigerator. Turn medallions again. Preheating cycle over; pop cookies in oven.

Wash bowls and utensils in sink. Stop to turn medallions. Apple cider mixture is reduced to one cup. Supposed to put in a granny smith apple but forgot to peel, core, and chop it. Put apple back in fridge. Cookies are done. Transfer to racks to cool. Stop to take out medallions and put on plate to drain on paper toweling. Cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Continue putting cookies on rack to cool. Put cookie trays on unused burner to cool. AJ comes back in and goes upstairs to shower.

Remember the green beans and cauliflower. Move cookie trays to counter. Fill a dutch pot one-third full of water and set on burner to boil. Wash cauliflower and separate cauliflower florets. Snap ends off green beans. Cut green beans into 1 1/2 inch lengths. Chop onions. Decide to add minced garlic and stir-fry the green beans instead of making the casserole. Water is boiling; add cauliflower and forget them.

Wash skillet for frying medallions to clear the sink and stove area. All the brown bits go down the drain to collect in the sink drainer at the bottom. Consult recipe for pork medallions that are now cozily tented under aluminum foil. Pour off any fat in the skillet and add 1 tablespoon butter. Too late. Add any juices from the plate the pork is resting on. The paper towel has soaked up the juices. Don't have any apple brandy, shallots, or fresh thyme either. Sigh.

On the principle that garlic makes up for a lot of omissions, I chop up 6 cloves of garlic instead and throw that in the sauce. Sauce now thick and a deep ruby red. Haven't tasted it yet. Remember the cookie dough in the fridge. Preheat convection oven again. Remember to check cauliflower. Not tender enough. Cookie trays cool to touch. Take out remaining cookie dough and scoop 7 cookies out of the bottom of the bowl onto one tray. Put tray in oven. Lick spatula. Yum.

Check cauliflower and decide it is tender enough. Drain. Set up food processor and throw in cauliflower. Drop in a tablespoon butter and dump in about 4 tablespoons milk, salt, and pepper. Process until it looks like mashed potatoes, only greener. Oven beeps; cookies are done. Remove cookies from oven and transfer to rack to cool. Add salt and pepper generously to the apple-cider reduction and put the medallions in the sauce to heat up. Exhale. The guys meander downstairs; somehow they know, without being called, that dinner is ready.

The pork was tender and the bacon crisp. The sauce was interesting; sweet, sour, salty, and slightly peppery. The green beans were crunchy, the mashed cauliflower smooth and creamy. We also finished some leftover tabouleh.

Afterwards, the guys did the washing up.

I went upstairs to write this blog.

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Midweek Meal: Skillet Chicken with Rigatoni, Broccoli, Tomatoes

Thursday night and I'm looking for an easy dinner recipe. How about a one pot meal? This one is adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Skillet Chicken, Broccoli, Ziti and Asiago Cheese. I didn't have sun-dried tomato so I substituted fresh tomatoes, seeded and sliced into strips. No ziti so I used rigatoni. Andy wasn't too enamored of the rigatoni and I'm inclined to agree with him. Next time I'll use penne if ziti isn't available. I didn't have any heavy cream either so I used milk. No Asiago so I used a mixture of cheddar and Gouda. In other words, I used whatever was on hand in my pantry and refrigerator!


Ingredients

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch squares

table salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or olive oil)

1 medium onion , minced (about 1 cup)

3 medium cloves garlic , minced (I love garlic so I added twice the amount)

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

8 ounces ziti or penne (2 /12 cups)

2 3/4 cups water

1 2/3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

12 ounces broccoli florets (4 cups)

1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes , rinsed and chopped coarse

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 ounce grated asiago cheese or parmesan cheese(1/2 cup), plus extra for serving

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add the chicken in a single layer and cook for 1 minute without stirring. Stir the chicken and continue to cook until most, but not all, of the pink color has disappeared and the chicken is lightly browned around the edges, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Transfer the chicken to a clean bowl and set aside.

2. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the skillet. Return the skillet to medium-high heat and cook, stirring often, until the onion is softened, 2 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add the ziti, 2 cups of the water, and the broth. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the liquid is very thick and syrupy and almost completely absorbed, 12 to 15 minutes.

4. Add the broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, and the remaining 3/4 cup water. Cover, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the broccoli turns bright green and is almost tender, 3 to 5 minutes.

5. Uncover and return heat to high. Stir in the cream, Asiago, and reserved chicken broth.Simmer uncovered until the sauce is thickened and the chicken is cooked and heated through, 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, passing more Asiago cheese at the table, if desired.

Midweek Treat: Skillet Pizza

Thanks again to America's Test Kitchen for this mah-velous recipe! Andy and AJ loved it and it was so easy to make, even after a long day of teaching.


Toppings
4 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped, and tough core removed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup thinly sliced and shredded pepper ham (my addition)
Black pepper (my addition)

Dough (makes 2 disks)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup beer or water
7 tablespoons olive oil, divided

To make the topping: Toss the tomatoes in a large bowl with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels and let it drain for 15 minutes. Combine cheeses and basil in a medium bowl, then refrigerate while preparing the dough.

To make the dough: Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a food processor. While the motor is running, slowly pour the beer or water and the oil down the side of the tube so it mixes into the dough. [Note: If a dough ball doesn't form, pour in more water or beer a tablespoon at a time while the machine is running. When the dough starts to form a ball and pull away from the sides, stop pouring water. This step is crucial to getting a nice soft dough ball. ] Process until the dough looks like a shaggy ball and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, about 1-3 minutes. [Note: You may need to stop the machine to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure proper mixing.] With floured hands, form dough into a tight ball and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 10 minutes. (Dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen for up to 1 week.)

To make the pizza: Divide dough in half. On a lightly floured board, roll the dough into a 9 inch disk. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large non-stick skillet until just smoking. Transfer the disk to the skillet and cook, poking any bubbles that form with a fork, being careful not to scratch the non-stick surface. The bottom should be golden brown and crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Flip dough and sprinkle half the cheese, tomatoes, and ham and black pepper (if using) on top. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the second side is brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer pizza to a plate and slice into wedges. Wipe the skillet, and repeat with the second disk.

I'm going to make this again, and, besides-- I can think up so many other ideas for toppings:

• Minced onion
• Minced sweet peppers
• Sliced Italian sausage, cooked and drained
• Cooked ham cubes
• Shredded or cubed cooked/smoked chicken breast
• Pepperoni
  
• Salami