Quick Meal Friday: Shrimp & Veggie Curry

I'll be back with more on all the goodness found in this book:

But for now I'll share a delicious dinner from this informative resource. If you need to cut costs and the grocery bill is the next item on the chopping block, check out this book!

Shrimp and Veggie Curry
(adapted from Family Feasts for $75 a Week)
Serves 4.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound medium-sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and potatoes, until they start to soften, 6 to 8 minutes. If vegetables begin to stick, add a little slosh of chicken broth to the skillet.

Add garlic and curry powder; cook, stirring until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add rice, broth, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add shrimp; stir, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally until shrimp are opaque and rice is tender, another 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro to serve.

Nicoise Dinner

This is not quite a "quick" meal. There will be preparations involved. Boiling some eggs, prepping veggies, mixing up a vinaigrette, and - brace yourself - cracking open a couple cans of tuna or salmon. Easy stuff. All the ahead-of-time steps can be done the day before. Or even a couple days ahead. Little challenge with beautiful results. I call this a nicoise dinner: Turn it into a salad, stuff it in a pita pocket, or lay the vegetables and fish on a platter and let your kids make their own plates. Lots of freedom here.

I love using Ina Garten's potato techniques. In this case, a splash of chicken broth (or veggie broth) on the warm, cooked potatoes makes a delicious difference.

Nicoise Dinner
Serves 2 to 4.

4 large eggs
1 1/2 pounds golden potatoes (about 5 medium), washed and cut into 1-inch cubes
8 ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch slices

2 tablespoons chicken broth (or vegetable)

1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 small cans of tuna or salmon
one 15-ounce can of olives
handful of greens, washed (optional)

Place the eggs in a medium-sized saucepan and fill with water to cover eggs by an inch. Set the pot to boil over high heat. Once the water reaches a boil, turn off the heat leaving the pot on the hot burner and cover. Let eggs cook in the hot water for 11 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, immediately transfer eggs to a bowl of ice water.

Meanwhile, boil water in a large saucepan. Once boiling, salt the water and add potatoes. Lower the heat to a gentle boil and cook for 12 to 15 minutes. Add green beans to the potato pot and continue to gently boil for 4 minutes. Drain potatoes and beans. Place in a bowl and toss with chicken broth. Let potatoes and beans sit for a few minutes to absorb the broth.

Meanwhile, combine vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste in a jar. Seal the jar and shake. Pour in oil, seal, and shake again to emulsify. Add salt and pepper as necessary.

Refrigerate the eggs, potatoes, beans, and vinaigrette if using later. Otherwise, toss everything together in a bowl and serve as a tossed salad. Alternatively, serve items separately on a platter for make-your-own salads or pita pocket fillings.

Quick Meal Friday: Fish Pita Pockets

This is a refreshing take on the old make-your-own taco night than I'm sure many of us had as kids. Remember opening the box of El Paso hard corn tortillas? The sheer delight of choosing your own fillings? Hmm... were yours like the ones I recall? Ground beef sauteed in a seasoning packet? Shredded cheddar or American cheese? Shredded iceberg lettuce? Jarred salsa? Possibly tomatoes?

{BTW, Trader Joes attempted a little comeback on this classic family dinner, selling its own boxed pre-formed tortilla shells and a meat seasoning packet (incidentally we found the seasoning to be far too spicy for our wimpy taste buds). Just in case you need to revisit your past...}

Here we made our own lightly battered, fried fish fillet slices, and served these with baby spinach, sliced purple cabbage, and a yogurt sauce in homemade pita pockets. I'll get to those in a future post. Go ahead, buy your own pita and you could get this on the table in under 30 minutes.

Fish Pita Pockets
Serves 4.

one pound whitefish fillets (we used frozen tilapia)
1/2 cup panko crumbs
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and ground pepper
2 eggs
1/4 head of purple cabbage
4 ounces baby spinach leaves
8 ounces nonfat Greek yogurt
zest and juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley or cilantro or dill
1/4 cup canola oil, plus extra as needed for frying

Pat dry fish fillets with paper towels and slice crosswise into one-inch-wide strips. Combine panko, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a shallow dish, such as a pie plate. In a second shallow dish, whisk eggs gently. Slice the cabbage and place in serving dish. Rinse spinach and place in serving dish. Gently whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, herbs and salt and pepper in a third dish.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Check temperature by flicking water from your hands into the pan; when the bubbles jump, the pan is ready. Dip fish strips into egg dish and then into panko mixture, shaking off extra. Turn heat down to medium, and gently lay fish into pan ensuring that each piece has space surrounding it. Fry gently until underside is browned, about 2 minutes per side, turning down heat if needed to prevent browning too quickly. Flip and brown other side, about 2 minutes. Place fish in another dish and serve with vegetables, yogurt sauce, and pita pockets.

Bread Baking Continues

The adventures in bread baking continue over here. Here is the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from this book. Our favorite version of this recipe uses white whole-wheat flour and soy margarine. The latter ingredient was new to me since I headed on a non-dairy path. (Incidentally, my willpower could only go so far, and after 2 1/2 months I am back on the dairy wagon - and lovin' my cheese!) The texture of this bread is smooth, and it toasts beautifully. I love the nutty smell of toasted whole wheat bread. It goes so well with a spread of Bonne Maman strawberry preserves. Note that this is not a 100% whole grain bread; about 1/3 of the flour is white. This dough is also enriched with eggs and sweetened with honey. We love this but some may find that too rich or too flavorful for an everyday sandwich bread. King Arthur offers an alternative 100% whole wheat recipe without eggs, which I haven't tried yet.

I am still taken with the master bread recipe from this book. As of today, March 12, we still haven't bought bread at the store, other than bagels. I've even done a few calculations to make sure I'm not going underwater in this bread madness, and it's certainly working in our favor. I typically make 3 loaves from one batch of the master recipe (rather than the four suggested - we burn through this quickly). Each loaf costs me approximately $.30 to make. A similar loaf at Trader Joe's costs $2.99!

Here I shaped mini-boules of the master dough to make rolls for salmon cakes.

Salmon Cakes

adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

3 slices of whole wheat bread (I use homemade, but the fresher the better)

2 7-oz cans salmon

1 large egg

2-3 scallions, chopped

1/2 red pepper, finely diced

ground black pepper to taste

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

With a food processor, whir the bread to fine crumbs (should be moist). Stir together flaked salmon, egg, scallions, red pepper, black pepper and bread crumbs until well-combined. Shape into 6-8 patties (my kids like little ones).

Warm the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook the patties for several minutes until slightly browned and crisp; flip to brown the other side.

Serve on buns with mayo or tzatziki or over greens.