Slow-Cooked Pumpkin Turkey Chili

Yesterday was the first cold and rainy day of fall--a perfect day for being indoors and for curling up with a good book, an ornery two-year-old, and a warm bowl of chili. Pumpkin and turkey might sound like odd choices for chili, but believe me, they are the perfect counterpoint to a gray, autumn day. And the results were simply amazing!

Slow-Cooked Pumpkin Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes with liquid or 6 small to medium sized Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 lb. ground turkey

2 cups pumpkin purée (1 small baking pumpkin provides around 3 cups)

1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder

1 to 1 1/2 cups water

Desired amounts of marjoram, oregano, sage, ground cumin, salt, and pepper (I used small amounts of the marjoram, oregano, and sage, and added more of the ground cumin.)

Desired amounts of shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Method:

If using a real pumpkin instead of the canned pumpkin purée, cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out and discard the seeds and dark, orange-colored flesh. Scoop out the remaining pumpkin, and purée until you achieve the consistency of a soft, creamy paste.  (I found out later that it's easier if you cook the pumpkin halves first--for 20 minutes in a steamer or 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven--before pureeing.)  Set aside 2 cups of the pumpkin purée. The remaining 1 cup can be used to make mini pumpkin pie cups.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and sauté the onion, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey, and cook until evenly browned. Pour the meat mixture into a slow cooker. Mix in the tomatoes and the pumpkin purée. Add water, and season with chili powder and desired amounts of the remaining spices. Cover and set on low for 4 to 6 hours. If using fresh tomatoes and pumpkin that is not from a can, allow for the full 6 hours of cooking time.  

Ladle generous servings of chili into soup bowls, and top with cheddar cheese and sour cream. Serve with the bread or roll of your choice.

Serves 4 to 6.

        Two of the several pumpkins we got at Schaake's Pumpkin Patch in Lawrence.

                   
                     Topped with sour cream and cheddar cheese, and served with a ciabatta roll.

Fried Tofu with Asian Slaw

I've always liked the idea of tofu as a meat alternative. However, I often thought the taste could be rather bland. With a little work searching for good recipes as well as some practice cooking tofu, I've found that it can be really tasty! It absorbs flavors easliy, and serves as a great meat alternative in a variety of meals.

While I was searching for vegetarian recipes online, I came across the following recipe for fried tofu on the about.com website. I love this recipe! The tofu is so incredibly tasty! This would also be fantastic served as an appetizer. The original recipe called for nutritional yeast. I couldn't find it in the grocery store, so I used Parmesan cheese instead. Nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast with a nutty cheesy flavor. It's commonly used in vegan recipes to add flavor.

I found a recipe for a spicy cilantro sauce on the allrecipes.com website. I used it as a dipping sauce for the tofu. The sauce has great flavor and can also be used as a dip for raw veggies. I made a minor change to the recipe by adding a small amount of hot chili sauce. I also used Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil instead of Mayo alone. It turned out really tasty! 

The tofu and dipping sauce were served with a delicious side of Asian slaw topped with a peanut dressing. (See recipe below.) You could add rice as a side dish as well.

I've already made this meal quite a few times during the last month. It has become a favorite in our house. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Happy eating!


Fried Tofu

Ingredients:

• 1 block firm or extra firm tofu
• 3 tbsp finely shredded Parmesan cheese*
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil

* If you are a vegan, use 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast instead of cheese.


Method:
Slice the tofu into 1/2 inch cubes.*

In a small bowl, combine the tofu with the remaining ingredients, except the oil, and toss gently to coat the tofu well. Or, place all ingredients in a zip-lock bag or covered container and shake well. 

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the tofu. Cook for 4 to 6 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown and lightly crispy. 

*If the tofu is packed in water, drain the water and place the tofu on a cutting board or cookie sheet. Place paper towels on the tofu and lay a flat weight on top to get as much of the liquid out as possible. After 20-30 minutes, cut the tofu into pieces.
  
Spicy Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (Use more if you like it hot) 
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 whole green onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 fresh jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise (I used the Mayo with Olive Oil)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Place lime juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Sriracha sauce, cilantro, green onions, and jalapeño peppers together in a blender or food processor. Process until well blended and smooth. Add sour cream and mayonnaise. Process again until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the container as necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. 

                                                                Ingredients

                                                            Frying the tofu.

Asian Slaw 

Ingredients:

• 5 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
• 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
• 2 cups shredded napa cabbage
• 2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, julienned
• 6 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

*NOTE:

Instead of slicing the cabbages and carrots you could use a precut bag of red cabbage, broccoli, and carrots. This works just as well. :-)  

Method:

In a large bowl, mix the green cabbage, red cabbage, napa cabbage, red bell peppers, carrots, green onions, and cilantro.


                                               The slaw is ready for the dressing.

Peanut Dressing

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

Method:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar, oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic.  Pour over slaw when plated.


                                                           Dinner is ready!
                                     Fried Tofu with a Spicy Cilantro Dipping Sauce 
                                       & Asian Slaw topped with a Peanut Dressing

Delicious Yet Simple Filipino Treat Part 2

Well, I finally found some time to let everyone know how the Turon turned out.  First, these are very easy to make.  Second, I can't wait to make them again!  I added a little chocolate syrup on top for extra sweetness.  I'm not sure that I needed the additional sugar, but I was extremely satisfied with the taste.

                                              Dip bananas in water before placing on wrapper.

                                          



                                   Sprinkled with a mixture of brown and white sugar.

                                                    



                                            Rolled and tucked under the bananas.

                                                           



                                                 Ready to close this wrapper up.

                                                



                                        And done! Seal the edges with a little water.

                                                    All ready for the frying pan.

 

                                                         



                                                The finished product. Delicious!

Delicious Yet Simple Filipino Treat

My latest project, Turon, is a sweet and delicious Filipino treat.  Traditionally, Turon is made with lumpia wrappers (spring roll wrappers), but I plan to try using egg roll wrappers too.  I've had them both ways, and they are equally tasty.  

There are many different ways to make this Filipino snack.  Some variations include bananas with langka slices (jackfruit) or bananas with cheese.  I'm not too sure about the combination of bananas and cheese.  But hey, I love bananas, and I love cheese so I'm going to give it a try!  As a little experiment, I may also try bananas with some chocolate and/or peanut butter and maybe some with bananas and honey.  If you have suggestions, please feel free to comment below.  

Turon 

Ingredients:
Bananas, ripe (saba bananas or plantains)
Spring Roll Wrappers
Brown Sugar
White Sugar
Vegetable Oil
Water
*Optional: Jackfruit (Should be able to find this canned in syrup in most Asian markets.)

Directions: 
1.) Quarter long bananas by first cutting them in half and then lengthwise. 
2.) Dip each slice of banana in water. 
3.) Mix golden brown sugar and white sugar together and sprinkle over the top of the wet banana slices.
4.) Wrap in spring roll wrappers. (one slice of banana per spring roll should work well.) Add the jackfruit slices or other ingredient of choice.
5.) Add a touch of water on the spring rolls and sprinkle sugar mixture over top. 
6.) Deep fry until golden brown and transfer to a paper towel on a plate to absorb the oil.

I've eaten these many times but have never made them.  I'll be back to let you know how they turn out.

Chinese Chicken Spring Rolls Part 2

I ended up making these springs rolls two different ways.  Thanks to the advice of my good friend, Joan, I tried baking these spring rolls instead of deep frying them.  A few suggestions-- finely shred your ingredients and don't sauté your cabbage mix before putting the mixture in the wrappers.  The extra moisture will make your spring roll wrappers too soggy.  I brushed the tops with olive oil and baked them at 375 for 20-25 minutes.  I would have liked these to come out a little more crispy-- maybe I need to brush them with a different type of oil to achieve the crispiness that I would like.  Overall, I really liked the taste.  I will definitely try the baking method again.  I just need to figure out how to make them more crispy.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this, please comment below. 

Cabbage mixture

 

 Getting ready to roll the wrappers

 

 

All ready for the oven

 

The second way I made these rolls is by wrapping them in egg roll wrappers instead of spring roll wrappers and frying them in a pan. I put more filling in these wrappers which is why they don't have a round shape to them.  If you decide to use this method make sure to sauté the mixture.  I think I like these better in the egg roll wrappers and fried.  I'm not ready to give up on the baking method.  I just need a little more practice.

Egg roll version

The homemade sweet & sour sauce turned out to be delicious!  The only changes I made to the recipe is adding some red Chile pepper, shredded carrots, and fresh garlic. I also used Splenda instead of sugar.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

  Sauce simmering on the stove 

On the side, I served rice and spinach soup.  I got this delicious yet easy soup recipe from my sister-in-law, Nanako. Bring water to a boil, add a chicken bouillon cube, a small bag of organic spinach, and desired amount of soy sauce.  I used just a couple shakes of low-sodium soy sauce.  Let boil for one minute, remove from heat, and serve.  

Baked spring rolls with sweet & sour sauce sauce, and a side of rice

Spinach soup

Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken Spring Rolls w/Sweet & Sour Dipping Sauce

I found the following recipe for Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken Spring Rolls on the Food.com website.  This recipe was featured on the UK television series Rhodes Across China with chef Gary Rhodes.  He was taught to make these spring rolls by local executive chefs in Hong Kong.   

Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken Spring Rolls 
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 medium carrot, shredded
1 small cabbage, shredded
100 g mushrooms, thinly sliced (about 6 medium size Baby Bella mushrooms)
200 g cooked chicken, shredded (about 1 small boneless, skinless chicken breast)
pinch of white pepper
3 teaspoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornflour
30 spring roll wrappers
vegetable oil for frying

Directions:
1.) Heat the peanut oil in a wok or large frying pan.  When hot, stir fry the carrot for 1 minute.  Add the cabbage, mushroom, and chicken and fry for another minute, stirring all of the time.

2.) Season with a little pepper; add the sugar, both soy sauces and the sesame oil.

3.) Combine 2 teaspoons of the cornflour with about 3 tablespoons of water and stir into the filling while still on the heat.  Any juices will soon thicken.  Remove from heat and leave to cool.

4.) Combine remaining cornflour with enough water to make a thin paste.  Lay out a spring roll wrapper and put 1 tablespoon of filling across one end.  Brush the edges of the wrapper with cornflour liquid to help it stick.

5.) Fold the two opposite edges of the wrapper over part of the filling and roll it into a tight cylinder.  Pinch the edges together to form a good seal.

6.) Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.

7.) Heat the vegetable oil in a pan or deep fryer, and cook rolls in batches until golden and crisp.

Sweet and Sour dipping sauce can be found in just about any grocery store, but in a moment of hubris I decided I would to try making it from scratch.  After searching online for what I thought would be the best sauce, I found a recipe on the allrecipes.com website.  This recipe looks promising, but I think I will probably make a few changes--possibly adding shredded carrots and using Splenda instead of sugar, for example. 

Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
2 cups water
2/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits, drained
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix together water, distilled white vinegar, white sugar, tomato paste, pineapple tidbits, and cornstarch.  Cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes, or until mixture reaches desired color and consistency.

I'm really looking forward to chowing down on these spring rolls.  I'll let you know how the rolls and sauce turn out in my next post. 

Greek Spinach Pizza

My husband, Paul and I have never been great fans of homemade pizza, which is why we never ventured into making one of our own.  We found the following recipe for Greek Spinach Pizza on the Taste of Home website and in spite of our misgivings decided we would give it a try. I am so glad we did.  This pizza is delicious!  The crust is thin and crunchy and the flavors incredible!  

We made only minor changes to the recipe adding some mushrooms and fresh garlic. The next time we make this pizza we'll probably add some grilled chicken as well.   

This recipe is for a 12-inch pizza.  Our crust turned out to be around 18 inches so we added extra of each ingredient to make up for the difference in size.  There are plenty of frozen pizza crusts available in grocery stores, but I highly recommend giving the following pizza dough recipe a try.  We found the recipe on the Food Network website.  It makes enough dough for 2 18-inch pizzas.  You can freeze the leftover dough for another time.

Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

4 cups bread flour (we used organic all-purpose flour)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups cold water

1 tablespoon olive oil

Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet  

Directions:

In a bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar.  Stir to combine.  In the food processor, combine flour and salt and pulse.  Add the yeast mixture, cold water, and oil.  Pulse until a ball is formed: this will happen quickly, be careful not to overwork the dough.  Scrape dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for several minutes until dough is smooth.  Allow dough to rest for 2 to 3 minutes.  Place dough in oiled bowl and allow to rise at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Punch dough down, divide into 2 to 4 balls, let rise another 30 minutes.  Heat up pizza stone in a 500 degree F oven. Form a 10 to14-inch pizza crust and place on a piece of parchment paper sprinkled with yellow cornmeal.  Place topping on the crust and place the pizza, with the parchment paper in the oven on the pizza stone or on a hot inverted cookie sheet (not aluminum).  Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.  NOTE: We don't have pizza stone, so Paul and I prebaked our pizza crust directly on the pizza pan and it turned out fine.  

  Pizza dough rising:

 

                                                        Prebaked pizza crust:

Greek Spinach Pizza

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh baby spinach

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 prebaked 12-inch thin pizza crust

2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup chopped pitted Greek olives  (we used kalamata olives)

2 tablespoons chopped sweet onion

Other possible ingredients:

mushrooms

garlic

grilled chicken

                                        Organic veggies purchased from The Merc:

Directions: 

In a small bowl, toss the spinach, oil and Italian seasoning. Place crust on an ungreased 12-inch pizza pan. Arrange spinach mixture over crust to within 1/2 in. of edge. Place tomatoes on top; sprinkle with the cheeses, olives and onion. 

Bake at 450° for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and edges are lightly browned.  Yield: 6-8 slices.

                                          Toppings added and ready for the oven:

                                                        The finished product:

Journey to the Greek Islands Part 2

The Garides Saganaki turned out to be amazingly tasty! I made a few changes to the recipe-- added organic oyster mushrooms from the Wakarusa Valley Farm in Lawrence, kalamata olives, and a little Greek oregano. I didn't have Aleppo pepper so I used crushed red pepper flakes as the recipe suggested. It did give it a little heat but it seemed to blend really well with the other ingredients.

The majority of the ingredients I used were from The Merc and are organic.

On the side, I served organic wheat pita bread made at the Jerusalem Cafe & Bakery out of Kansas City. I topped it with organic Tzatziki (yogurt cucumber dip) made at the Mediterranean Market & Cafe in Lawrence, organic tomatoes, kalamata olives, a few slices of organic red onion, and a little salt and pepper.

Give Garides Saganaki a try. You won't be disappointed!

Journey to the Greek Islands

Garides Saganaki (Shrimp Baked in Tomato Sauce with Feta) is a recipe from The Foods of the Greek Islands By: Aglaia Kremezi.  You can find this cookbook as well as some of my other favorites in my Bookshelf on the side menu. 

The author explains that this recipe is not a traditional dish of the Greek islands and was probably created in the 1960's when large numbers of tourists were visiting the Greek islands.  It became a favorite of the Greeks and tourists and is being served in tavernas throughout Greece.  

I'll be back to let you know how my journey to the Greek islands is progressing.

Garides Saganaki

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/2-1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or 1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails left on

1/2 cup finely diced tomato, drained in a colander for 5 minutes

Salt

2/3 cup coarsely grated hard feta cheese (see Note)

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method:

Preheat oven to 400° F.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and sauté the onion over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until soft.  Add the pepper or pepper flakes and the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.  Add the shrimp and sauté for 2 minutes, or until they start to become firm.  Add the tomato and salt to taste and cook for 2 minutes more, or until the sauce begins to thicken.  Transfer to a baking dish or four individual gratin dishes.  

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly.  Sprinkle with the cheese and bake for 2 to 3 minutes more.  Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

NOTE:  If you leave feta cheese uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, it will dry a bit and can then be easily grated.  

Makes 4 Servings