How To Cook Anything

This is just too cute not to post a link to.

SuperCook

How often have you stumbled home after a long day, exhausted and starving, and wished you could only find a delicious recipe that only used ingredients you already had lying around the house?

Last night I was stumbling around the internet when I happened upon what appears to be a rather ingenious website, SuperCook. Register an account and enter the ingredients that you currently have on hand in your kitchen. The site will then build lists of entrees, desserts and hors d'oeuvres that contain the ingredients you've listed! Talk about handy! The site will also list recipes that you have almost all the ingredients for and will suggest a future shopping list.

There does seem to be a problem or two with the site. For instance, there is no way to specify things like vegetarianism or food allergies, which would really help to make the shopping list feature more personalized and accurate. Still, it seems like SuperCook has strong potential to be a really helpful website. You should definitely check it out!

Tofu Jambalaya with Mississippi Red Beans

Tonight Eric was craving creole food, so I looked up the ingredients for a tofu jambalaya and found a fabulous recipe at Fat Free Vegan. In order to make it a whole meal, I also improvised a recipe for Mississippi Red Beans. The whole meal was really easy to make, filling, and super tasty and good-smelling.

Caroline's Mississippi Red Beans

1 c. dried kidney beans (or probably 2 cans of kidney beans)
4 c. H2O (or 2 cups h2o, 2 cups veg broth)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped and sauteed
1 bell pepper, chopped and sauteed
1 tsp. liquid smoke (or to taste)
2 tsp olive oil
cayenne to taste
cajun spice to taste
salt to taste

To start, I used dried kidney beans so I had to sort through them to remove any split or damaged beans. Here are my pretty red beans on a plate:

Next, I rinsed them and put them in the pressure cooker with a dash of olive oil and seasoned the water with liquid smoke, salt, bay leaves, and set it to pressure cook for 25 minutes. In the mean time, I chopped up one medium onion, one green bell pepper and 4 cloves of garlic:

Which I then sauteed until soft. As soon as it was ready, I set it aside with a lid to keep it warm and waited until the beans were done to set them aside to de-pressurize.


Next, I worked on the jambalaya. Here's the pretty lineup of the ingredients:


It was a very simple recipe which involved chopping up a giant onion, orange bell pepper, and 2 ribs of celery and then sauteeing them in a stock pot. Here's the veggies:



I added one cup of white rice (the recipe even specifies that brown rice is not very good with the jambalaya... I ALWAYS use brown rice but the white rice was the perfect texture when all was said and done) and four cloves of chopped garlic and fried the rice a little bit with the veggies. Finally, I added 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1/2 a cup of vegetable broth, and some liquid smoke. Then I added this delicious mountain of chopped tofu:


Let this whole mixture simmer on low heat for over 30 minutes until the rice is soft. Then you get this delicious combination in my bowl, all ready to eat:


...tofu jambalaya and Mississippi red beans! It was a definite hit!

Chilaquiles with Soyrizo

This is a modified version of the chilaquiles recipe found on page 253 of my trusty Laurel's Kitchen cookbook. Nate made it for the first time a few weeks ago, adding some soyrizo for added flavor and protein. I liked it so much, I asked him to make the same thing today for a late breakfast!

Ingredients:

• 12 Corn Tortillas, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 2 T Vegetable Oil
• 10 oz. can Enchilada Sauce
• 1 and 1/2 cups Cottage Cheese (lowfat is a-ok)
• Grated Cheddar Cheese
• Chili Powder
• 1/2 pack of Soyrizo
• 4 Radishes, sliced
• 1/4 Onion, chopped
• Cilantro, coarsely chopped

Heat oil in cast iron skillet. Add tortillas, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, place enchilada sauce and cottage cheese in food processor. Blend until smooth.

Once the tortillas appear soft and lightly coated with oil, pour the enchilada/cottage cheese mixture over them. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and chili powder as desired. Cover and cook over medium heat until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.


Meanwhile, heat some oil in a small skillet. Add Soyrizo and cook until preferred crispiness is reached. Or, cook according to directions on package.

Serve chilaquiles topped with soyrizo, cilantro, onion and radish, with a side of rice and beans.


Enjoy!