Experimental Cooking: Chunky Spaghetti Sauce

Growing up, my mom made the BEST spaghetti sauce. It was just the right blend of sweet and salty, and was chunky enough to feel like you were getting a decent meal. When I started living in places where I had my own kitchen, I got the recipe from her and started making it. But over time, the canned sauces and tomatoes that she used have vanished from the grocery store shelves. I've been trying to recreate the recipe using different things for a while now, but I've finally got it to where I think I like it... at least until these things vanish...

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce (makes at least 10 servings)
1 large can of diced tomatoes (I'm not sure on the size of this can, but I'd estimate it around 24 oz or more)
2 15 oz of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
3 Roma tomatoes (skins still on, diced)
8 baby sized sweet peppers or 2 regular sized sweet peppers (diced)
1/8 of a sweet onion (diced)
1 cup of water

Spices:
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
2 Tbsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

Put all of this into a large pot, bring to a boil, and then turn down to simmer for 3-6 hours.

Commentary: Depending on how hot your "simmer" setting is on your stove, this should cook for at least 3 hours, but can cook much longer. Just keep a close eye on it, because it will start to cook down. You'll want to stir it regularly, and you can add tomato juice or water if it starts getting too cooked down. I usually make this on a Sunday, starting around noon, and letting it cook until dinner time. The leftovers freeze REALLY well, so I portion those into 2 serving containers, which makes it easy to reheat for another meal!

Variations: They are many.

• My mom always browned a pound of ground beef and mixed it into the sauce before she started cooking it. Italian sausage would be another good choice. It does make it a more filling meal.
• You can add more raw veggies of your choosing to the mix. I added a pint of crimini mushrooms to it once (only let them cook for about an hour, unless you prefer mushy mushrooms). I added about 2 cups of shredded carrots the last time I made it, and you couldn't even tell they were there! When you're cooking it for as long as you do, you lose a lot of the flavor of the veggies, but they're still delicious!
• If you added a bit more water, this would almost work as a chunky tomato soup, with a bit of an Italian flavor to it.

Experimental Cooking: Easy Rice Noodles

Seattle is in the throes of another Snowpocalypse (the third one since I've lived here, and I've only been here five years!), so we're doing a lot of cooking with what we have on hand. I've pretty much determined that getting my car out of the subterranean garage it's currently parked in isn't going to happen until the snow on the parking lot thaws at least a little bit. I don't look forward to driving up the hill that leads out of the garage until my car can have some traction!

Last night, looking for a starch to add to our meal, I grabbed a bag of gluten-free brown rice pasta that I had bought for a writer's retreat. We don't usually eat that sort of pasta, and I wasn't entirely sure how it would cook up in small quantities (I made a whole bag the first time I made it and it was a sticky mess!). And thus, Easy Rice Noodles were born. My hubbie liked them so much that I made them again tonight!

Easy Rice Noodles (serves 2)
2 servings of brown rice pasta
about 3 tablespoons of Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce

I started out by breaking the noodles into thirds. This is partially because I was brought up always breaking spaghetti noodles in half before you cook them. But especially with brown rice pasta, you want to make sure the whole noodle is underwater all the time. So unless you have a monster pasta pot, break the noodles.

Then you just cook them up according to the directions on the package. My experience thus far has been: longer is better. 7 minutes left us with noodles that were still a little solid in the center, and 9 minutes was much better.

Drain the water off the noodles, and then pour about 3 tablespoons (give or take, I didn't measure it) over them. Stir it all up, and serve.

Commentary: So the very act of pouring the Soyaki on the noodles renders them not gluten-free (wheat is involved in most soy sauces). If you're wanting to make this a gluten-free dish, I recommend replacing the Soyaki with some sort of gluten-free teriyaki sauce.

So far, this has gone great with coconut shrimp and gyoza (hey, we can't go grocery shopping in the Snowpocalypse!). It would probably also make a nice addition to a sweet stir fry.

Experimental Cooking: Black Beans and Veggies

Finally, a cooking post with a picture! This is a pot full of the start of black beans and veggies, which is a great meal that cooks up a large amount, and works perfectly as leftovers. This is what I make for lunch pretty much every week for the hubbie and I, cooking it in a large batch on Sunday afternoon (sometimes for Sunday dinner too), and then portioning it out for our lunches to take with us to work.

Black Beans and Veggies (8-10 servings)

• 3 cans black beans, rinsed thoroughly
  
• 2 Roma tomatoes, cut into bite sized chunks or smaller
  
• 3-5 mini bell peppers OR 1-2 regular sized bell peppers, cut into bite sized chunks or smaller
  
• 1 cup frozen corn
  
• 1/4 onion, diced (usually a Vidalia onion)
  
• 2 cups water
  
• 2 tbsp Taco Seasoning

Mix all of the ingredients into a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Serve with rice. Add salsa and shredded "Mexican" cheese if you like.

Commentary: This stuff smells AMAZING while it cooks, and it tastes great too. Rinsing the black beans helps cut down the sodium content that canned beans tend to have.

Variations: I have a lot of suggestions for this one:

• If you aren't opposed to raw veggies, just put the onion and corn in while the beans are cooking, and save the tomatoes and peppers to be tossed on the top. My hubbie doesn't like raw tomatoes or peppers, so I cook them with the rest.
  
• If you're a meat eater, you could add some taco meat or spicy sausage to this. Cook the meat separately, and then add it when you serve up the finished meal. We found a nice spicy chicken sausage at Trader Joe's that is delicious with this recipe.
  
• The recipe itself is vegan and super low fat, but then we toss cheese on it, which changes both of those factors. I suspect it would taste just fine without the cheese, or with a vegan or low-fat cheese.
  
• If you don't have my version of Taco Seasoning on hand, you can definitely substitute store-bought taco seasoning. You'll have to experiment with how much to add, but I'd guess about half a packet would do.
  

Experimental Cooking: Taco Seasoning

Taco seasoning is great for dishes other than tacos. It's an essential part of the lunches that I make for us just about every week. But I don't like buying pre-packaged taco seasoning, because it's filled with sodium and preservatives. Instead, I've started making my own taco seasoning. I mix up a decently large batch of it and store it in a plastic container in the cupboard, so it's always easy to scoop out a couple of tablespoons when I need it. I even have measurements for this one (though they are approximate).

Taco Seasoning

• 1 Tbsp chili powder
  
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
  
• 1/2 Tbsp dried onion
  
• 1/4 Tbsp cilantro (optional)
  
• sprinkle of garlic powder
  
• sprinkle of cayenne pepper
  
• sprinkle of ground sea salt

Mix all ingredients in a plastic container with a snugly fitting lid. Keep in a dry cupboard. Use a couple of tablespoons to season main dishes.

Commentary: Yup, it really is that easy. It doesn't taste quite the same as packaged taco seasoning, but all of the essential elements are there. You can, of course, increase the quantity that you're making (I normally do). Just use the recipe to get the proportions: 4 parts chili powder and cumin, to 2 parts dried onion, to 1 part cilantro.

Variations: The cilantro is optional because I know a number of people who think cilantro tastes like soap. The hubbie and I do not, so we use it. :) I have also been known to put a dash of cinnamon in the mix, because we regularly use this with black beans (recipe coming soon), and black beans with cinnamon is surprisingly good!

Experimental Cooking: Peachy Pork (and general caveats about my cooking)

I've been trying to expand my cooking repertoire and steering away from pre-packaged meals. I won't say everything has been an unqualified success, but I'm discovering that a little bit of experimental cooking can turn out pretty well. So I thought I'd try sharing a couple of recipes that have worked well for me.

A couple of caveats:
1) I don't really measure ingredients, especially spices. So if you're looking for precision, this is not the place to find it.
2) Even though I'm working towards less prepared foods, I use some because they're easier. So most of my spices come from jars, and I often use bottled marinades or whatever alcohol is on hand. It's the combination of ingredients, I hope, that will be of interest.
3) Our meals usually involve meat. If they don't involve meat, they involve cheese. I don't think I could get away with a vegan meal. :) But there may be some meals where you can make substitutions to fit your dietary preferences.
4) I can't always promise pictures. But I'm going to try to start taking some! :)

So, first up on the menu is:

Peachy Pork (serves 2-3)

• 1 lb. pork tenderloin (or another boneless cut)
  
• 1 Fuzzy Navel wine cooler
  
• ground ginger (or fresh)
  
• garlic powder (or fresh)
  
• 2 peaches, sliced thinly
  
• brown sugar

Start by trimming the fat off the pork, if desired. Put it into a container that can be closed with a lid. Pour the wine cooler over the pork, and then sprinkle generously with ginger and lightly with garlic powder. The goal is to have ginger be the predominant flavor, with garlic just barely there. Marinate in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably more like 12.

Heat up a large frying pan over medium-high heat. You shouldn't need any cooking oil. Just toss the pieces of pork into the frying pan and let them start cooking. I usually let the pork cook for a couple of minutes on the first side, flip it to the second side for a couple more minutes, flip it back to the first side for a couple more, and finally the second side for a couple more. Each side gets about 4-5 minutes of cooking, which makes it done, but not overly dry.

After each side has cooked for a couple of minutes, add the sliced peaches and a sprinkling of brown sugar (maybe around 1/8 cup). Let the brown sugar get on both the peaches and the pork. It will start caramelizing a little bit in the pan, so you may want to move things around to minimize that.

Serve with brown rice or another grain of choice, and some sort of green vegetable--we like steamed french cut green beans lately.

Commentary: My hubbie laughed at me when he found out that I used a wine cooler to marinate the meat. I marinate most of the meat we buy in some sort of alcohol, and at the time, the wine cooler was the only thing on hand that made sense. Fortuitously, the day I made this also happened to be the first day that peaches were available at the farmer's market near his office, so I sent him down to buy some. Worked out perfectly!

Variations: I'm planning on trying this again using a hard cider for the marinade and with apples or pears as the fruit. I will likely skip the garlic for that variation. I also think sprinkling some raisins across the top when it's done would be delicious for either version.