Polenta Lasagne

I've been really enjoying these big casserole-type dishes where I can do all the prep and cooking on Sunday and then have great meals throughout the week. It certainly helps that A and I have no problems with leftovers, especially when they're dishes we really enjoy.

I don't usually go for recipes with this many steps but I couldn't resist the sound of this (maybe because it has 3 types of cheese in it??)

I subbed arugula in my version as I think it has a lot more flavor than spinach. I also omitted nutmeg as I didn't have the energy to seek out nutmeg for the tiny pinch needed. And I definitely added the red pepper flakes to give just the tiniest kick, as I didn't want this dish to be too bland as it was already full of soft textures. 

And for whatever reason - I struggle to find polenta in my local grocery store so have been subbing coarse ground cornmeal lately. Still tasted oh so fine.

Polenta Lasagne

Adapted from the NYTimes

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups polenta (not instant) or coarse-ground cornmeal
• 5 ounces arugula (about 5 cups)
• 2 cups grated Parmesan
• 1 pound whole-milk ricotta (about 1 2/3 cups), preferably fresh
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (25-ounce) jar good-quality marinara sauce (3 cups)
• Large pinch of red-pepper flakes
• 1 pound shredded mozzarella (about 4 cups)

Method

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees and butter an 13-by-18-inch rimmed baking sheet pan. Grease a rubber spatula with butter.
2. Prepare the polenta/cornmeal: In a large pot, bring 6 cups water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, then slowly pour in polenta/cornmeal, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking often, until polenta/cornmeal thickens, 8 to 12 minutes. Whisk in 4 tablespoons butter until melted. Whisk in arugula until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in 1 cup grated Parmesan.
3. Scrape polenta/cornmeal onto the prepared baking sheet. Using the greased rubber spatula, spread the mixture into a thin, even layer to cover the entire pan, all the way to corners. Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated Parmesan on top. Bake until polenta is firm and cheese has melted, 12 to 18 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack until completely cooled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or place in refrigerator until cool to touch, about 40 to 50 minutes. (Polenta can be baked the day before and refrigerated until needed.)
4. When ready to bake the lasagna, heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
5. Prepare the ricotta filling: In a small bowl, mix ricotta, parsley, basil, egg, black pepper, nutmeg and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix until well combined and set aside.
6. Taste the marinara sauce. If it needs some zip, stir in any or all of the optional ingredients.
7. Assemble the lasagna: Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut cooled polenta in half widthwise, creating 2 pieces roughly 9-by-13 inches each. Using a large spatula, gently place one half in prepared baking dish. (It is important for polenta to be completely cooled and firm; otherwise, the pieces may break when transferring to baking dish. If anything breaks, just reassemble it in the pan. It won’t make much of a difference once it’s covered in sauce and baked.)
8. Spread about half the ricotta mixture in an even layer on top of polenta. Pour about half of marinara sauce on top of ricotta, sprinkle with about half of the shredded mozzarella. Repeat with remaining polenta, ricotta, marinara and mozzarella. Once assembled, sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan on top.
9. Place baking dish on top of a rimmed sheet pan in case the lasagna bubbles over. Bake until cheese melts, about 30 minutes. If you like the top of your lasagna more brown, broil it for 2 minutes after baking until it develops brown spots.
10. Remove from oven and let lasagna stand for about 15 minutes to firm up before serving. 

Baked Falafels

My friend V inspired me to try making falafels at home and they've quickly become a favorite. The biggest drawback for me is that I don't have a food processor. I have a blender. So it's definitely a little bit more effort, but the end results have really been worth it. The other thing that held me back in the past is that I really don't enjoy deep frying at home. Enter V's solution of baking the falafels. They're still crispy, and I expect they're a tiny bit healthier too. So here's my mashup of two recipes to create my new favorite baked falafels. I often double the recipe below since they get eaten so quickly. Note: the chickpeas need soaking overnight, so don't try and make this if you're tight on time!

Baked Falafels

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen + Cookie and Kate

Ingredients

Falafels

• 1/2 pound (1 1/4 cups or 225 grams) dried chickpeas
• 1/2 a large onion, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley, if you’re measuring, or a big handful
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, if you’re measuring, or a big handful
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for blending if needed

To serve

• For wraps - we use fresh tortillas from HEB. For burgers, I love the potato hamburger buns. 
• Shredded cabbage, mixed with ranch dressing
• Finely chopped parsley and/or cilantro
• Hummus

Method

1. Put chickpeas in a bowl and cover with water so there's 2 inches of water above the top of the chickpeas. Cover the bowl and leave it to soak overnight in the fridge.
2. Drain soaked chickpeas and place in large bowl. Add onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, salt, red pepper flakes, and cumin. Mix to combine.
3. In small batches (I usually do about 1 cup at a time) - add mixture to blender and blend until ingredients are roughly chopped. Some larger pieces of things can remain, but it should look like couscous. You may need to add a little olive oil or water to get the blender to mix well, but don't add too much - you need the final mixture to hold together and shape into falafels. Scrape blended mixture into clean bowl and keep doing this until you've blended all of the falafel mixture. Give the mixture in the new bowl a good mix at the end to make sure everything is combined evenly. Let this mixture rest in the fridge for 30 minutes so it can firm up. (I often skip this fridge step because I am LAZY.)
4. Heat oven to 375F/190C. Add 1/4 cup olive oil to a baking sheet and tilt the baking sheet until it is completely covered in oil.
5. If making smaller falafels, I use my hands to scoop out a falafel-sized amount of mixture and then shape it into patties about 2-3 inches wide and about 1/2 inch thick. If making falafel burgers, I scoop out enough mixture to form a burger-sized patty. I drop each of these patties onto the oiled baking sheet, leaving some space in between them so I can flip them later. 
6. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping the falafels halfway through baking, until the falafels are nice and brown on both sides. 
7. For wraps: Warm a tortilla and smear hummus across the middle in a stripe. Place falafel patties on hummus stripe and top with cabbage, cilantro and/or parsley, if using. Fold it up like a taco and eat! For burgers: toast buns and smear hummus on bottom bun. Add falafel patty and cabbage, cilantro and/or parsley and any other burger condiments you enjoy.

Chicken Ginger Rice Soup

This is a cobbled together recipe using plenty of influences, including dak gomtang (Korean chicken soup) and also growing up watching my mom cook lots of delicious soups. Everything is to taste, so here's my version. This makes a huge amount of soup - I usually spoon it into jars for our lunches and it'll make 10-12 jars, easily, which is 5 or 6 meals for me and A.

Chicken Ginger Rice Soup

Serves 10-12

Ingredients

• Whole 5-lb chicken (the best one you can afford)
• A 6 inch piece of ginger root (or even more if you really like ginger)
• 1 large yellow or white onion
• 1 tbsp chicken Better than Bouillon (if using water to fill pot) or 1 carton chicken broth
• 1 bundle of green onions (usually 6-8 in a bundle, depending on the size of each green onion)
• 1 lb spinach or kale greens (or any other leafy dark green that you enjoy)
• 2 cups jasmine rice
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Chopped cilantro, to garnish

Method

1. Get a large soup pot that can comfortably hold your whole chicken and then some. Slice your onion into half-moons, and put in the pot. Cut off 2 inches of ginger root and bruise it with the flat edge of your knife and drop into the pot. 
2. Rinse the chicken and remove any giblets. If you like nibbling on the giblets, put them in the pot (I always do). If they make you squeamish, I guess you can discard them (sad!) Put whole chicken in the pot, breast side up. Add chicken broth if using, and then top off with enough water to cover chicken. If you're using water, fill pot to cover chicken, then add the chicken Better than Bouillon. Grind lots of fresh pepper into the pot too - whatever you think you'll enjoy.
3. Bring pot to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn down heat to a simmer and let it cook for 25 minutes. Then turn off the heat and flip the chicken so it is breast side down. Cover with lid and let it sit for 30 minutes.
4. Remove chicken from pot and put it on a plate to rest for 15 minutes. Remove the bruised chunks of ginger and discard. Once cool enough to handle, remove all of the meat from the chicken and chop into bite size pieces. If you don't like chicken skin in your soup, you can discard, but I tend to include some pieces in the soup for that lovely chicken fat richness.
5. Peel the remaining ginger and slice thinly (cross wise first, then into matchsticks). 
6. Chop green onion into small rings (I use both the white and green parts).
7. Add rice, ginger, green onion, and all of the spinach or kale greens to the chicken broth and simmer for 20-30 min. Rice should be fully cooked by the end of this time, and greens should be completely wilted. Take off heat when done.
8. Add chicken meat back into the pot and stir to fully combine. Taste and check if soup needs additional salt or pepper.
9. Serve in bowls with cilantro on top, if desired.

Marinated Celery Salad with Chickpeas and Parmesan

This was delicious. The dressing is not all that different from my usual salad dressing - after learning to make the dressing in the bottom of the same bowl I plan to mix the salad in, I've been far likelier to make my dressing at home since it doesn't dirty any extra bowls, and it can be quickly adjusted to go with whatever salad ingredients I'm planning to use. I'd say the croutons are really not optional in this, as they provide well-needed crunch so the salad isn't too one-dimensional.

Marinated Celery Salad with Chickpeas and Parmesan

Adapted from the NYTimes

Ingredients

FOR THE SALAD:

• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, more as needed
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon honey or maple syrup
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
• ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
• 4 cups cooked or canned chickpeas
• 4 large or 6 small celery stalks, with leaves, cut into large julienne
• 2 large scallions, white and pale green parts, thinly sliced on a diagonal, or 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1 to 2 cups loosely packed celery leaves, coarsely chopped 
• 1 pint small tomatoes, halved
• ¼ cup loosely packed basil leaves, rolled and julienned (optional)
• 2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, coarsely grated, or crumbled feta

FOR SERVING (OPTIONAL):

• 1 small loaf (or 1/2 large loaf) day-old, peasant-style crusty bread

Method 

1. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, mustard, honey/maple syrup and a large pinch each of salt and pepper. Drop in garlic cloves, stir, and set aside 15 to 30 minutes (or 5 minutes, in my case, as I'm still not sure I like raw garlic flavor) to let the flavor infuse.
2. (If you're me, you pull out garlic cloves now.) Gradually whisk in oil; dressing will emulsify. Mix in chickpeas, celery and scallions. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
3. Remove garlic cloves from dressing (unless they're already long gone...). Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil. Set aside to come to cool room temperature.
4. If desired, make croutons, for serving: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pull the soft bread out of the center of the loaf, leaving most of the crust behind, and tear bread into bite-size pieces. You should have about 3 cups. Spread pieces on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, until golden and crisp; let cool. (I often use bolillo rolls to make croutons - it's a good shortcut.)
5. Just before serving, mix tomatoes, basil and croutons, if using, into the salad, then top with cheese and more black pepper.  

Scallion Pancakes with Chili-Ginger Dipping Sauce

I have very fond memories of going to a Chinese restaurant on Sundays as a kid (not every Sunday, probably more like once every couple of months, but it was as close to a "regular" spot as we got). I think it was the previous iteration of Pao's Mandarin House - this would have been in the 80s and early 90s, and I remember it being in Central Austin. Anyway - two things were always ordered - pig ears and scallion pancakes. When I saw this recipe and realized I had all the ingredients in the house, I was so excited! It really brought back some nostalgic feelings for easier times.

Scallion Pancakes with Chili-Ginger Dipping Sauce

From Bon Appetit

Ingredients

Sauce
1 ½" piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce (I used dark soy)
2 Tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp. chili oil (I used chili flakes once, then sriracha the other time)
1 tsp. sugar

Pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup cornstarch
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup chilled club soda (I used lime sparking water since that's what I had on hand)
2 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce (I used dark soy)
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
10 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal (about 2 cups)
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Method

Sauce

Whisk ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, and sugar in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. Set sauce aside.

Pancakes and Assembly

1. Whisk flour, cornstarch, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk club soda, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a medium bowl to combine, then pour into dry ingredients and whisk until smooth (be careful not to overmix; it’s okay if there are a few small lumps). Fold in scallions.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high. Pour ¼ cup batter into skillet. Cook, moving pan around on the burner for even cooking, until bottom of pancake is set and golden, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook, pressing down on pancake to create direct contact with pan, until other side is golden, about 1 minute. Continue cooking, turning often to keep scallions from burning, until golden brown and crisp and cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer pancake to a wire rack. Repeat process with remaining batter and remaining 3 Tbsp. oil 3 more times to make a total of 4 pancakes.
3. Cut each pancake into wedges if desired and serve with reserved sauce on the side for dipping.