Stacking Up the Week

You know there's enough cheese when there's a nice coat of oil on the top.

As of late, I actually haven't felt like experimenting with any new recipes; my drive for the unknown seems to have stalled due to a lack of energy and money. Unfortunately, my appetite doesn't always follow these lulls in my creative endeavors, and thus I am forced to create vast quantities of old standbys to last me through weeks of meals at a time, at least until my spare time catches up with my ever-expanding list of stuff to make (such as a frozen yogurt recipe that I've been informed I'm attempting). Enter: lasagna.

Pasta is an unquestionably uber dish if for no other reason that for about $1, one can buy enough of it to last an entire week, utilizing whatever appears to be lying around the house to supplement it. While lasagna doesn't represent the pinnacle of pasta's flexibility, it does represent the blessed union of two culinary greats: meat and cheese. And my version of it uses lots of both. Of course, the best part of this recipe was simply that aside from the noodles, I had all the other ingredients on hand and waiting to be united in harmony just in time to be chilled or frozen to take the dish to that next culinary level that is leftovers, which pasta lends itself to even better than most things.

But my ramblings aside, I present the recipe itself. As always, it didn't turn out exactly as I would've hoped, but I still ate every last bit of it (and it only took a week!).

Lasagna
(as adapted from my mom's recipe, designed for a 9x13 pan)

Ingredients
1 Package of Lasagna noodles
1lb Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1lb Cheddar cheese, shredded
2lb Ground meat*
2 Medium yellow onions
6 Cloves garlic
1 32oz Jar of tomato sauce
1 12oz Can of tomato paste
Parmesean as desired

*Any type of ground meat can be used, of course; my mom always used ground turkey. In this instance, I used 1lb ground beef and 1lb pork sausage, as they were both cheap.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Procedure
1) Gather all your ingredients into one compact location, preferably with a large cutting board and knife at hand.

Ok, you may have to move the ingredients aside to actually do any cutting...

2) Start a large pot of salted water to boil.

3) Mince the garlic and dice the onions. Their respective consistencies can vary according to your individual taste or how lazy you're feeling when chopping.

4) Heat a medium-large saucepan over medium heat and add the ground meat. After it has started to brown, add the onion and garlic.

Use a spatula to try and spread the meat around for even done-ness.

5) At this point, your water should be boiling, so add the noodles and stir to ensure they get completely submerged.

6) Cook the meat until the onion is translucent and the meat has become entirely brown.

7) After the desired color has been reached, remove the saucepan from the heat and drain off the excess fat. Stir in the tomato sauce and paste and set the aside for now.

8) When the noodles have reached the desired consistency (they don't have to be completely done yet, as we're baking them in a sauce anyway), drain them into a collander and allow to air out for a bit.

9) In the 9x13 pan, spoon a light coating of the sauce onto the bottom of the pan. This step prevents sticking.

10) Layer some of the noodles over the sauce; note that you don't want them too thick, so just use a single layer. Then cover the layer with more sauce.

You can see from my sauce that I was particularly lazy when dicing the garlic!

11) Add a layer of mozzarella and cheddar on top of the sauce. Don't skimp now! If desired, add parmesean to the mix as well.

12) Repeat steps 10 and 11 until the pan is full. Be sure to save the thickest coat of cheese for the top.

I only managed two layers of noodles, it appears. Next time I'll have to use a roasting pan.

13) Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, or until heated all the way through and the cheese has melted.

Lessons Learned
I've made this fairly frequently in the past, so there wasn't a lot of experimentation here. However, completely forgot to add any herbs to the sauce; normally I'd add basil and oregano after it has finished cooking. I also added salt to the meat out of habit, since just about every recipe calls for salt at some point or another. Resist this urge! The cheese adds plenty of saltiness, especially if ample parmesean has been used. Plus, more cheese can always be added afterwards.

Great Cukes of Fire

As my recent salsa post demonstrated, this Labor Day was a celebration of all things spicy (but not too spicy, as hot things make me cry like a little girl), and if you're anything like me, when you hear spice, you think "cucumbers"! No? Just me? Whatever.

Ok, in all honesty, I chose to add this recipe to my repertoire for two reasons:
1) I'm a cucumber fanatic. Cucumbers are almost as high up as corn on my list of things placed on this planet as proof that we are meant to be happy.
2) I saw a recipe for an enhanced version of the traditional boring cucumber salad that seemed suitable to my tastes.

Now since no stolen recipe would ever be complete before I have a chance to completely tweak the hell out of it, I stole the concept from the aforementioned recipe and then modified it with what I felt were improvements at the time. In retrospect, the original might be better in some regards, but I stand by my decisions. For those who are interested, compare the original recipe with my own; the alterations are rather apparent.

Better Cucumber Salad
(adapted from the Flexitarian Menu)

Ingredients
2 Medium cucumbers
2 Medium carrots
1 Bunch green onions
1 Medium yellow onion
4 Cloves garlic, minced
2tsp Sugar
1 Lime's worth of juice (about 1/3c)
2tsp Rice vinegar
1tsp Cayenne pepper
1/4c Chopped mint leaves (fresh, if at all possible)

Procedure
1) Slice the carrots and cucumbers into rounds as thin as possible (doesn't have to be translucent; just try to get them thin).

I like using a ridiculously large knife for such exercises.

2) Chop the yellow onion into half-circles (i.e., chop in half, then slice thinly) and soak the sliced results in cold water for about 10 minutes. This process reduces the harshness of the onion flavor; you can omit it if you don't mind the bite they bring.

3) In a large bowl, mix the sugar, lime juice, vinegar, pepper, garlic, and mint.

4) Add the carrots to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

I did the carrots first in hopes that the acids in the liquid would soften them a bit. This didn't work, of course.

5) Slice the green onion and add it along with the cucumbers to the bowl and mix again.

6) Strain the yellow onion slices and add them to the bowl. Mix thoroughly to get all ingredients coated with the flavorings.

Lessons Learned
My guests loved the flavor of the salad, but mentioned that the carrots were a bit tough to manage. In my next attempt, I'll try to lightly sautee the carrots in some butter until they *just* start to soften, and then use them as I did above. The idea is to get them to be only slightly crunchier than the cucumbers themselves. Still, I consider this recipe to be a great success, and it will indeed be repeated in the future.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

Labor Day: That last hurrah before summer closes. Not that I'm ever particularly attached to summer, mind you; by the time September finally rolls around, I'm generally all-too ready for some pleasant fall weather (fall being my favorite season, but we needn't get into that here). However, I *am* always in support of getting a day off of work, and what better way to celebrate such a day than by having a few friends over with a large complement of snacks and grilled food?

This year being no exception, I had a strong craving for my favorite Mexican "dips": guacamole and, of course, salsa. I've never been terribly drawn to the salsas I've had made with cooked tomatoes, as I like the chunky fresh style. As such, I decided to see how easily I could put together a whole mess of it. As you may have guessed, it wasn't difficult, and yes, it was tasty. Now you may wonder exactly how much of a "recipe" there is to salsa, and I'm inclined to agree; that's why I simply referenced Simply Recipe's version for a basic shopping list before twisting things in my own way.

Fresh Tomato Salsa
(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients
5 Medium tomatoes (romas work great for this)
1 Red onion
3 Chiles (any type you desire)
3 Cloves of garlic, minced
1 Lime's worth of juice (about 1/3c)
1tbsp Olive oil
1/2c Chopped mint*
Salt to taste

*I use mint because I can't stand cilantro. Judge me if you will, but this actually turned out rather nice. Of course, purists will want to use cilantro instead. To each their own.

Procedure
1) Gather all your components together to make for quick and easy knife work.

Yes, I used 6 tomatoes. It was too many. Always use less than you think you'll need, as it's easier to add than remove them.

2) Dice all the vegetables to the size desired. Since individual tastes may vary, use your own judgement on the size of the chunks.

3) Add the olive oil, garlic, and lime juice and mix in a large bowl until well-blended. Add salt as desired, keeping in mind that the chips will probably also be salted.

Lessons Learned
You might think it's hard to ruin salsa. You're partially right; it's hard to completely destroy, but it's also rather hard (at least for me) to get *perfect*. This version was not it; I went heavy on the tomato and light on the spice. Next time, I'd reduce the tomato a bit and add another pepper (and probably use something stronger than jalapenos for spice). As a final modification, after it sat for a bit, the juice from the tomatoes came out and left a lovely puddle at the bottom for all the components to marinate in. Next time, I'd probably remove the juicy interior of the tomatoes and use just the fleshy components for texture and flavor. That probably also would've enhanced the strength of the spice, making for a better balance and more stability on the chip. Still, I ate the stuff, so it certainly wasn't all bad!

Salmon with Brazilian Garlic and Lime Marinade

In my ongoing attempt to find random recipes to inspire my generally uninspired palate, I stumbled across Worldwide Recipes and signed up for their mailing list. The intent was for them to provide me with ideas, as I rarely come up with them on my own. This serves the dual purpose of pushing me to experiment with new flavors as well as preventing me from eating sandwiches 5 nights a week.

The recipes provided by the list so far have been surprisingly accessible and, perhaps more importantly, quite global in theme. Last week's theme was "marinades and sauces", and I copied at least two of them down for future use (more on the second coming soon). I made small modifications to the mixing of the ingredients, so my recipe is below. This version turned out very nice, but rather overpowering for salmon (or indeed, most any fish that I can think of; it might pair well with swordfish, or something with a *very* distinct flavor to it) as the lime comes through quite strongly. My roommate and I agreed it would go much better with a more "robust" meat--oddly, we both agreed that lamb would be the best choice, so I may give that a shot sometime in the future.

Brazilian Garlic and Lime Marinade

4-8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbs (15 ml) coarse salt
3/4 cup (180 ml) lime juice
1/4 cup (60 ml) dry white wine
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh parsley
2 scallions (spring onions), green and white parts,
finely chopped
1 Tbs (15 ml) chopped fresh rosemary
Cayenne pepper or hot sauce to taste (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a plastic zip-top bag or a bowl that has a lid and set the meat in it to marinate. For fish (fillets especially, as I was using), I'd suggest marinating no longer than 30-60 minutes, as the fish can get rubbery from the acids. For red meat, you could probably marinate for up to 6-8 hours, depending on the thickness of the cut and how tender you like the meat. I generally set steaks to marinate overnight anyway, so 18-24 hours might be OK, but I haven't tried it myself with this particular marinade.


After marinating the salmon, broil for about 20 minutes or until the color has changed from a solid pink to a somewhat muted peachish, depending on the thickness of the fillets (mine were about 3/4in. thick, and came out just about perfect) and salt to taste. I garnished it with remnants of the marinade as well as a sage chiffonade for a little extra zing.


The sage was probably unnecessary, as it got rather overwhelmed by the very strong lime flavor. I served the salmon with some garlic bread, which actually helped keep the lime from overpowering things, so it made a surprisingly good side dish. It would also pair well with other salty foods: perhaps some potatoes au gratin, asparagus simmered in butter, or wild rice.

Lessons learned:
Not a lot of lessons, so much as modifications for next time. Perhaps this would be better titled "future improvements". Regardless, I would probably actually cut the lime juice down to 1/2c and add 1tbsp of Worcestershire sauce for some added salt, but that probably detracts from the Brazilian theme. Also, as I mentioned before, I would definitely use this with a stronger meat, such as lamb or beef (or perhaps buffalo, but that's not really my taste, and I don't know how many buffalo are left roaming about the broad open plains of Brazil). As a final addition, I would add a bit more spice to the marinade; I was somewhat shy with my rooster sauce this time, and it didn't really come through at all. Cayenne pepper might have been a bit stronger.