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Main Dishes

Main Dishes

Delicious, Versatile Salad as Meal!

August 5, 2019

This dish is easy and delicious as well as versatile, to wit: it can be served cold or warm, and as a main or a side dish. Remove the shrimp and replace with tofu and, it’s not only vegetarian but vegan!  Because the ratio of rice to vegetables is high on the veg, it’s also a pretty low-carb and also gluten free!

My version here has some shrimp, but you can replace that with more vegetables, a vegan protein, and more quinoa to rice.  Play with it. It’s forgiving except, when making a salad with rice, you do NOT want warm or hot-off-the-stove rice. So read on to see what I did here.

A.  PREPARE YOUR RICE

  1. Prepare 1 cup of Jasmine Rice with 1 to 1-1/2 cups of stock. See my notes just below:Rice preparation can be personal. If you use a rice cooker, great! Just make your rice as always.I a mix of Quinoa & Jasmine rice, rinsed. Then I steam it up in a pot with 1-1/2 cups of stock to 1 cup of rice. For added flavor, I use chicken or vegetarian stock and also, I usually add about 7 hot pepper flakes and dried onion flakes.


    I steam my rice for about 15-20 minutes  — then just turn off the stove and let it sit while I continue prepping other foods.

  2. IMPORTANT: Spread your cooked rice out in a shallow pan & cool it off in the fridge or freezer. By the time you have chopped up the rest of the salad, your rice will be cool enough to add! You do not want to use warm rice when you add it to a salad. Ditto, by the way, for Chinese Fried Rice! Use cooled rice.

B.  WHILE YOUR RICE IS STEAMING UP, CHOP THESE & TOSS INTO A LARGE BOWL:

  1. 1 Large, ripe, red, tomato
  2. 1/2 Sweet, Vidalia onion
  3. 1/2 Cup Fresh Cilantro
  4. 1-1/2 Cups finely shredded cabbage (my supermarket sells it in bags)

C.  IF YOU ARE NOT A VEGETARIAN, DO THIS:

  1. Sautee 24 small to medium shrimp in a bit of olive oil  & butter with a bit of spicy Creole or other spicy salt.  Sautee ONLY about 3 minutes, or until your shirmp are opaque, not clear and gray. Pull off the stove and cool. (Vegetable-based eaters can add Soy or other protein products.)

D.  THE FINAL PRODUCT!

Into your LARGE SALAD BOWL where you already have your chopped ingredients, ADD:

  1. The now-cooled rice
  2. 2 cups of fresh Arugula
  3. Juice of 1/2 a Lemon or Lime
  4. 1  or 1-1/2 Tbsp. of Rice Vinegar
  5. 1 Tps. of Sesame Oil (Sesame Oil is powerful, be careful!)
  6. 1 Tsp.  of Thai Fish Sauce (Don’t worry if you haven’t any!)
  7. DASH of Soy Sauce (Too much will brown your salad.
  8. Greek or Creole Salad to taste!

Toss all ingredients with clean hands or spoons.
Serve cold or warmed.

Comfort Food

Flourless Pizza Crust!

January 5, 2019

Ah…good people…this one comes to you with lots of pictures!

My friend,  Susan,  mentioned, that cauliflower crust is labor-intensive. Well, I recently discovered that making pizza from store-bought dough is quite time-consuming.  With store bought, ready-made dough, you still have to knead it, rest and proof it so you can work it into shape without it springing back on you.  Not exactly a time-saver!

NOTE: Cauliflower crust is super easy to form and, to make it easier on you, many grocery stores offer bagged, “ready-riced” cauliflower in both the fresh and the freezer sections. Obviously, this saves a lot of  and mess!  Also, I found that if  prepare a bunch of  cauliflower in advance, I can freeze some and have my own ready-made cauliflower. It really makes the process quite fast!  I do recommend the fast route!

For those of you who own a fancy food processor, it won’t take long to grind down your cauliflower into rice-sized bits. You do have to chop the head into pieces! Believe it or not, the only food processor I own is a $12 mini chopper so I riced my cauliflower in batches.  Also, you can use an old fashioned cheese grater.

Obviously, from these photos, I did not make anything close to a vegetarian pizza.
But that would be so easy. It is only a matter of selecting veggie toppings.

My crust came out great! It was so good, I made another the next day, using pesto in place of tomato sauce.

So if you want a veggie-intensive, keto-friendly, gluten-free pizza crust, follow these steps below.

MAKING CAULIFLOWER PIZZA CRUST

  • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  • Place 2 cups riced cauliflower (purchased, grated, or processed) a frying pan.
  • Keep on low heat, stirring so it does not turn brown. This removes liquid. You will see the steam rising. I stirred mine for 5 to 6 minutes.
  • Place your dried and heated cauliflower in a shallow dish and stick it in the freezer while you prepare the rest of your pizza.
  • Into a new bowl, add 1-1/4 cups grated parmesan cheese (not the powdered stuff from the cardboard carton, use the grated cheese from the cheese section).
  • Add to this 1 beaten egg and incorporate
  • When your cauliflower is cooled, add it to your cheese/egg mix and incorporate well.
  • Onto any sheet you like for baking pizza, place parchment paper. Place your crust mix into the center and press to form a nice round shape, about 1/8 inch thick.

  • Place your crust into your 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. You will see the crust edges beginning to turn brown.
  • Remove it from the oven and let it sit a minute or two.
  • Have your toppings and sauce at the ready.
    TIP: If you don’t want to use a tomato sauce, try using  Pesto Sauce instead!
         
  • Now, ladle on about half a cup of your favorite tomato sauce (or use Pesto!), covering your crust but not so much as to make it soggy.  (I used one from a jar. You can purchase pizza sauce as well, make your own, or simply spread on 1/2 a cup of Hunts plain old tomato sauce from a can. It’s your call! ) 
  • Next, sprinkle a generous amount of Mozzarella cheese.
  • Next come your toppings. Meat, no meat, as you wish. Pizza your way!
    I had Mozzarella cheese; sautéed  mushrooms; fresh oregano; sausage and pepperoni.
  • Last, a bit more cheese, for show.
  • Pop it in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes and… voila! You have flourless pizza!
Main Dishes

My Secret to Moist Chicken Parmesan

December 7, 2018

When I recently discovered that Chicken Parmesan is one of a friend’s very favorite dishes, I was dismayed. Traditionally, this is a chicken breast dish and when it comes to chicken, I am not a breast girl!  I find the breast cut dry and lacking in flavor. Then, I thought up a way to prepare it so it comes out of the oven moist,  tender and flavorful.

My trick? Instead of the breast, I used pounded, boneless chicken thighs.  I swear by this method!  The chicken comes out nearly fork-tender and juicy. Not only that, when you pound it just enough, you won’t need to divulge to any picky “white meat only” eaters that they are dining on the thigh. Trust me: they won’t even ask.

Here is what I did.

TENDER CHICKEN PARMESAN

Chicken Preparation:  Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

  • Place 4 – 6 boneless chicken thighs in a plastic grocery bag or between plastic sheets.  Be sure they are unfolded.
  • Using a good tool (I use a flat, river rock. But a mallet or the side of your rolling pin will do. If you have to resort to using a wine bottle, be careful not to break it!), gently pound and flatten each piece to about 1/3 of an inch. Do not over flatten!  You want to pound them just enough to make each piece tender and even in thickness.
  • Salt and pepper all sides of your chicken pieces before proceeding to the breading stage, below.

Breading:

  • Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil or butter in a large skillet on medium heat.
  • Immerse each piece of chicken into
    1. Flour (shake off extra)
    2. Egg wash (1 beaten egg per every 2 pieces of chicken, so 2 eggs for 4 pieces of chicken and so forth).
    3.  Panko. Be sure to press the Panko bread crumbs into the chicken, fullycovering it.
  • Sauté chicken a few minutes on each side, until the Panko crust is beginning to brown.

Baking:

  • Place chicken in a buttered baking dish, either side up.
  • Spoon on 2 – 3 tablespoons of bottled or home-made tomato sauce to cover chicken top.
  • Optional: Dab on pesto sauce if you have some handy, or add a few leaves of fresh basil.
  • Cover chicken with Mozzarella (whatever type you have, fresh, bagged, either way).
  • Cover chicken once again with grated Parmesan.
  • Bake 15-20 minutes and serve.

TIPS:
If you don’t have Panko crumbs, use any bread crumb. If you can add some crushed corn flakes to your bread crumbs, it will be extra crispy.

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