Fire roasted red peppers are a staple in my kitchen. They are high in vitamin C, low in calories, and add interest to almost any dish. I love their silky texture and how they manage to taste bright and smokey at the same time.
I usually buy glass jars of fire roasted peppers from Trader Joes at a bargain $3 per jar. But, you can also roast your own, if you have a gas stove or BBQ.
Wash and dry the whole pepper. Turn on your gas burner to medium heat. Turn on the fan. Place the pepper directly on the grate. The skin of the pepper will begin to bubble and dry up and then will scorch black. Using metal tongs, turn the pepper as it becomes blackened on each side. It will take a few minutes to get scorched all the way around. When it is sufficiently scorched (at least 75% of the skin is black - slightly more than in my photo), remove from the heat and place immediately in a plastic bag and seal the bag.
Allow to sit for about 5 minutes. The bag will steam up and the skin of the pepper will soften. Remove the pepper from the bag and rub off all of the skin. Cut the pepper open and remove the seed pod.
Need some ideas for your roasted peppers?
Make a tuna salad sandwich with celery, capers, roasted peppers and parsley, all chopped together.
Roast cauliflower in a 425 degree oven with a little olive oil and add capers and sliced roasted peppers for the last 5 minutes.
Toss in a green salad with garbanzo beans, onion and salami, served with Cesar dressing.
In a small saucepan, heat one tablespoon olive oil and cook minced garlic and the peppers until heated through. Toss with hot spaghetti, a generous amount of chopped parsley and a few ounces of cubed feta cheese.
Sometimes a hankering for a certain food gets into your mind, and nothing else will satisfy. You can try to eat something else, but at the end of the meal, your stomach will be full and your mind will be hungry still.
I had all the ingredients at home for a perfectly fine spaghetti bologanse dinner. I came home from work and flopped down on the couch to watch a little food network tv before cooking dinner. Anthony Bourdain was on the streets of Singapore, with his usual sardonic and entertaining commentary. He grimaced at the bowl of "stinky tofu," fermented and topped with hot sauce. Then he moved down the street and found a food vendor selling meat dumplings. They were lined up in perfect concentric circles in a bamboo steamer basket as big as the arm span of the cook, steaming hot and glistening. As Anthony Bourdain doused them in soy and chili sauce and tore through the top revealing the hot meat, the smell filled my livingroom. My eyes rolled back in exasperation and I thought, "Oh great! I guess I'm not having spaghetti tonight."
I knew that my pasta plans had been ruined as my tummy growled to be fed Chinese dumplings. I ran to the kitchen to get the dough mixed and kneaded and let it sit while I jumped in the car to buy chicken. It may have been a big hassle, but worth it in the end.
How to make Chinese Dumplings (Pot stickers)
Dough:
Set up a food processor with the short plastic blade (as opposed to the sharp metal blade), place two cups of flour and a teaspoon of salt in the processor. Heat some water to boiling. Start the food processor running and slowly pour 3/4 cup of boiling water down the spout while the blade is running. The dough will form into one or two large balls. If it doesn't, add a little more water.
Turn out the dough onto a floured board or counter top and kneed for about two minutes, incorporating whatever flour your dough will take. Cover and let rest for half an hour.
Filling:
1/2 pound of boneless, skinless, chicken thighs (you can use ground pork if you prefer) 2 cups of spinach or nappa cabbage, roughly chopped 1 teaspoon of minced ginger 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 bunch of green onions, chopped 1/4 cup cilantro, minced 1 tablespoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon rice wine 1 tablespoon soy sauce dash of salt and pepper
Place the meat and the spinach or cabbage in the food processor and pulse about 8 times or until the meat is at a rough grind (don't turn it into a paste). You could also use pre-ground meat, although grinding your own is cheaper and controls for quality of the meat. Mix the meat and greens with the remaining ingredients.
Preparing the dumplings:
Break the dough into two or three pieces and roll each piece into a snake. Cut the dough snake into pieces a little smaller than a "bite sized" candy. Keep the dough you are not working with under a cloth. One at a time, roll the dough into a circle using a rolling pin and a floured surface. Once rolled out, it should be slightly larger than the palm of your hand.
Place the rolled out dough on your left palm and place a heaping tablespoon of filling in the center of each dough circle. Fold it in half to make a half moon shape. Pinch the edges closed to seal, trying not to trap any air inside. Then create four or five crimps along the folded edge, pinching closed. See my video for a demonstration.
When you have the dumplings all folded, heat a large skillet over medium high heat with two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Place the dumplings in the pan with the crimped edge facing up. The dumplings should not be too crowded in the pan. Cook until the bottoms are dark golden in color.
Add enough cold water to the pan to rise half way up the sides of the dumplings. Cover, bring to a simmer, and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the water has just evaporated. If you continue to cook after the water has gone, they will stick to the pan.
Voila! You can create a dipping sauce by mincing one clove of garlic and mixing with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and a teaspoon of chili sauce.
Pagliacci Pizza has been making the kind of thin crust - seasonally inspired - light on cheese - fancy on flavor - pizza that snobby Seattlites all all kind love, for 30years now. To celebrate their long run in Seattle, they are offering a 30% discount on all whole pies, starting today, for the next 30 days. The discount is good at all of their locations.
Just in case you were thinking about feeling guilty for eating pizza a few times in the next 30 days, I wanted to offer my perspective on pizza as a health food.
Consider the food pyramid. It is like a slice of pizza. They are triangle in shape. At its most basic, they both have a carbohydrate base, which is then layered with cooked tomatoes and a serving of dairy. If you choose, you can add meat and more veggies. See? No guilt necessary. Also, Cornell University says that cooked tomatoes are better for you than when they are raw. Cooking releases their antioxidant qualities.
So, enjoy your antioxidants on your pizza this month, courtesy of Pagliacci's discount.
A dear friend of mine claims that she doesn't eat anything that you can't find at 7-11. I had to think about that for a minute when she told me this about her. I think I don't eat anything that you CAN find at 7-11. Okay, maybe except for funyuns, I do find a guilty pleasure in eating those salty onion flavored crispy nothingness.
When this 7-11 eating friend came over to my house for the first time I offered her a snack of roasted vegetables and homemade hummus. "Oh, I don't like hummus," she said without missing a beat. I considered her claim and thought about what I knew about her food adventureness and asked, "Have you ever HAD hummus?" No, she had not. Now she claims it is one of her favorite new foods. It is my goal to feed her something new every time she comes over to my house. When she was putting on her shoes to leave the last time I asked her, "When you try new things and realize you like it, does it make you want to run out and try all the things you have never tasted before?" "No... not really," she said. Hmm. That is how I would feel.
Here is my version of hummus. If you really want to make it ultra-fabulous, use Meyer lemons and smoked sea salt. If you don't have smoked salt, its really worth buying. I like a particular brand of Welsh smoked salt called Halen Mon that you can read about here. Do an Internet search to find the best price. Once you own it, it is best used for recipes with simple flavors so that the smoked taste doesn't get lost.
HUMMUS 1 14-ounce can of garbanzo beans 2 cloves of garlic, peeled 1/4 cup of tahini (roasted and ground sesame seeds) 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil the juice of one lemon 1/4 cup of water dash of pepper a pinch of salt
Drain the can of beans and rinse well. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor. Process for a full minute. Check the texture to be sure that it is smooth and light. If the texture feels grainy in your mouth or on your finger, process longer.
Hummus can be eaten with many different things. Try eating it with cheese and crackers, as a dip for roasted vegetables, on a bagel with cream cheese, or with chips like you would a bean dip.
