Pancakes IV: Ugnspannkaka

Possibly the worst food name ever, but otherwise a somewhat straightforward Swedish baked pancake:

Recipe

2 eggs
2 1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 c flour

Beat eggs with 1 c of the milk, then whisk in the salt, sugar, and flour.  Stir in the rest of the milk until you have a smooth batter.  Let it sit a few minutes (10 if you have the patience of a 50's housewife), then pour into a buttered baking dish.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and puffy.  Serve with jam or fruit puree.

Here's mine, with Ikea-classic lingonberry jam!

Sausage and Cabbage

The title sums it up pretty well, actually...  An unsurprisingly British dish courtesy of The New York Times...

Recipe

1 large cabbage (about 4 lbs, green or Savoy), cored and shredded
2 lbs Italian sausage
butter, salt & pepper

Boil the cabbage in salted water for about 3 minutes; drain and run under cold water.  Butter a baking dish (they recommend 9x13x2) and layer a third of the cabbage, then half the sausage.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dot with butter.  Repeat with another layer, then top with the rest of the cabbage (and more butter dots).  Cover the dish with parchment paper and tin foil and cook at 300 degrees for 2 hours.  If there's still a lot of liquid, uncover.  Cook another 30 minutes.

Notes

Easy enough!  The cabbage step got a little messy - that's a lot of ruffage to cut and boil (even at about half size)!  Could use a bigger baking dish too, but the old reliable one did the trick:

They recommend serving with crusty bread and mustard, but I found it goes really well over mashed potatoes!

Roedspaette og Spinat

...Or, more intelligibly/less authentically, Danish flounder and spinach casserole!  Courtesy of gramma's Scandinavian cookbook.  (Although, Google Translate confirms that they mistakenly swapped the labels with "roedspaette med loegsovs," flounder with onion sauce.)

Recipe

1 lb flounder fillets
1 9 oz package frozen creamed spinach
3 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c bread crumbs
butter
salt & pepper

Dust the fillets with flour and sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Dip in the beaten egg and dredge through the flour; brown on both sides in a couple tbsps of butter.  Meanwhile cook the spinach as per directions.  Make it the first layer in a casserole dish, followed by the fish, then the shrooms on top.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Notes

Authentic Danish cuisine meets the modern 1950's kitchen!  Really, this could be a super easy dish, using nothing but fish sticks, frozen creamed spinach, and canned mushrooms...  Thought about going that route, but King Soopers is apparently too classy for frozen creamed spinach.  Found a simple enough preparation here, bought some fresh sole in place (plaice, heh) of flounder.  Took a bit more effort and cooking utensils, but turned out very tasty!

Two pics: I like the fresh out of the oven one, but you can't see the delicious creamy (and oniony/garlicky) spinach!

Pork & Tomatillo Stew

I'd had this recipe saved for a while.  Seriously, it's been number 2 in my Gmail draft (I need a better system) for years (long enough for the host of number 1 to go out of business?).  Why did it take so long?  There's nothing too out there about it, but it takes the right combination of ingredients (tomatillos may not be easy to find), equipment (dutch oven), time (2+ hours), and appetite (doesn't scale down too well).

What are tomatillos, you may ask?  I kind of assumed the full name was "tomatillo pepper," but apparently it's a Mexican tomato wrapped in a cool husk.  Easy to find at your local Colorado Whole Foods.  Onward!

Recipe

2 lbs pork shoulder (or loin if it's way cheaper...), chopped into big-ish chunks
1 lb tomatillos, de-husked and quartered
1 bottle dark beer
12 oz orange juice
28 oz diced tomatoes
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped
1 can black beans
oil, salt & pepper
sour cream, lime (optional)

Boil your tomatillos and tomatoes in the beer and OJ, then simmer while other stuff goes on.  Season your pork chunks with salt & pepper.  Heat about a quarter cup of oil in a sturdy dutch oven, toss in your garlic, and brown the pork in batches.  Once that's out, in go the onions, cilantro, and jalapeno, then the pork and tomatillo mixture.  Simmer for 2 hours (or pop in the oven at 300).  Last, add in your black beans until heated (and mash up your garlic cloves if you can find them).  Serve with your fixings of choice.

Notes

Really interesting combination of flavors!  To be honest, I was not hopeful smelling the initial tomatillo mixture - all OJ, didn't seem to get much other than foam from the beer.  Meanwhile, I didn't handle the pork quite right - probably should have been bigger chunks, and gotten the oil much, much hotter and crowded the pan less to really let it brown.  (Also added a can of corn with the beans, why not?)  In the end it came together nicely!  Thanks to King Sooper's almost suspiciously-good pork deal, I got like 4 meals-worth of meat- and veggie-rich food for like $10!

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

New apartment, plus reunited with the big ol' dutch oven - time for chili.  I was originally looking up bison recipes, but the Whole Foods website had another intriguing recommendation (notwithstanding the nearest location's limited meat selection lacking a pretty key ingredient...):

Recipe

1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb ground turkey
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
1 c water
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 can (14 oz) kidney beans
corn (optional)
olive oil, salt & pepper

Heat some oil medium-high, and add the onion, green pepper, jalapeno, and garlic.  Once that's soft, brown your turkey.  Then add the tomatoes, pumpkin, water, and spices.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, and add the beans (and corn if you want).  Simmer 30 minutes or so.

Notes

Solid chili option, feels like it could plausibly be healthy...  The pumpkin really didn't come through much, which was a little disappointing when I was hoping for a nice hearty fall meal.  Overall a nice mix of sweet and spicy though!

Chipotle Quinoa Pilaf

The trouble with vegetarian recipes is that everything tastes like a side dish to me.  This one may actually be best used as a side...  From America's Test Kitchen:

Recipe

1 1/2 c quinoa

2 tbsp butter

1 onion, chopped fine

1 tsp chipotle chile powder (I assume this is different from normal chile powder but went with the one I've got handy)

1/4 tsp cumin

13/4 c water

2 oz queso fresco

1/2 c roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped coarse

2 scallions, sliced

4 tsp lime juice

Toast the quinoa in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring, about 5 minutes (until popping and smells nice).  Set aside.

Melt your butter in the saucepan (medium-low now), and add the onion, chile powder, cumin, and a sprinkle of salt, until onion is soft and golden.

Heat back to medium high, add the water and quinoa, cover, and simmer about 20 minutes.

Garnish with cheese, peanuts, scallions, and lime juice.

Sesame Night: Sesame-Crusted Salmon with Green Beans

If tonight were a super-amateur, no-time-limit episode of Chopped, the subtitle would be "Open Sesame"...  and that pretty much gives away what the not-so-secret ingredient was.  I gave myself a pass through the appetizer round, and never made it to dessert - does that mean I chopped myself?!  In any case, here's tonight's main course:

Sesame-Crusted Salmon (via ATK)

2 salmon fillets - skinless (didn't notice until now :/ )
1/4 c sesame seeds (or more...)
2 scallions
1/2 lemon, zest & juice
2 tsp tahini
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
cayenne pepper
oil, salt & pepper

Make a brine: 1 quart of water, 2 tbsp salt.  Soak your sesame seeds in just enough brine, salmon in the rest.  After 5 minutes, drain and toast your sesame seeds in a skillet until golden brown.

Mince the scallion whites, combine with lemon zest, and mix in with the lemon juice, tahini, ginger, and a sprinkle of cayenne and salt.  Coat the bottom of your salmon in the paste, then coat in seeds, then do the same with the other side.  Heat some oil in your (wiped) skillet and cook your salmon skinned side up until seeds start to brown, then turn off heat, flip salmon, and pop in the oven at 325 for 10-15 minutes.  Sprinkle with scallion greens before eating.

Sesame Green Beans (via Reddit)

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice (half a lemon?)
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sriracha
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
oil

Toss your green beans with some (neutral?) oil and roast at 450 for 10-15 minutes - should see some carmelization.  Mix the sauces, then toss in the beans.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.