First: I had my knee surgery Monday. It went well, although my knee is pretty sore. It seems I had two meniscus tears because the little bone spurs I'm developing as the result of arthritis actually tore into the meniscus when I was hit by the truck. The doctor cleaned the whole mess up, including a floating object. The knee hurts a lot, but I can walk on it and am not nearly as incapacitated as I was after the tendon surgery. Time will tell whether this works. I still have a lump on my hip, although it's a lot smaller than before. It probably needs to be drained again. But overall I'm doing pretty well.
Whenever I'm feeling sad or nervous, I like to cook. I also like to cook when I'm happy, so I suppose it's an all-purpose outlet. I've put together a few recipes here that I made in the run-up to my latest operation. They're all pretty easy and they're quite tasty too. I had a lot of fun taking the pictures because Rob and I just went out and bought some square white serving plates, which really frame the food well.
It all started when Rob wanted to get one plate for himself -- one plate that he would use and NO ONE else could touch. So he went into the local Vons and came out with four square serving platters. I mentioned that these weren't the actual dinner plates (dumbass) he wanted and the quest was on. The square white plates had been on sale at local Vons and Rob was determined to get a set, again that only he could use. After he actually found the dinner plates, I decided we needed the salad plates and the square bowls. It's not like we actually needed new dinnerware, but once we started, we had to keep going until we had the whole set. We've found that food looks fabulous all arranged on the plates, so we're happy with our new purchases as we sit around pretending we're fine dining. Rob still insists he's the only one allowed to touch the plates, but I ignore him -- as I always do. After all, how much crediblity do you give a man who doesn't know the difference between a platter and a dinner plate?
Here is a trio of recipes that are easy, inexpensive and tasty. And they all look great on square white dishes.
The first is a standard recipe for me. I've been making some form of beef stroganoff since I was a kid and made it with hamburger. It's super easy and I just love how it tastes. The trick is to make sure not to boil the sour cream and to use a good quality white wine and sweet Hungarian paprika.
Beef stroganoff
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 pounds inexpensive beef -- whatever's on sale -- cut into two inch-long strips, 1/2 inch wide and 1/4 inch deep strips
garlic powder
1 large onion chopped
1 pound sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 cup sour cream
hot, buttered egg noodles
Heat oil in a skillet. Add beef strips, sprinkled with garlic powder to taste, and cook until browned. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until starting to become soft. Add wine and cook until sauce thickens and is reduced. Sprinkle with paprika. Turn off heat and add sour cream. Serve over hot, buttered noodles.
The second recipe is the result of having passed by gorgeous heads of escarole each Sunday at the Ojai farmers market and coveting them. I saw some recipes for escarole soup and decided to make my own version. This is easy, delicious and super healthy.
Escarole and bean soup
1 head escarole, rinsed and coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 quart chicken broth
1 can white beans, rinsed
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Parmesan cheese
Rustic Italian bread, sliced, sprayed with olive oil spray on both sides and sprinkled with garlic powder and broiled until browned on each side.
Heat olive oil in Dutch oven. Add escarole and stir over medium heat until the escarole starts to wilt. Add about a third of the broth and cook until the escarole softens completely. Add the rest of the broth and the beans and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes. Serve over pieces of toasted rustic bread. Top with cheese and red flakes to taste.
Finally, I'm a sucker for braised red cabbage. It's so easy and healthy and it can be made up a million ways. This version pits the sour/sweet brightness of cranberry against the pungent cabbage and the sweet, earthy apples. With such strong elements, I didn't want to muddy the taste with anything else. You could remove the pork chops when they're browned and cooked through and make the cranberry glaze separately, but I had more fun making the pork chops bright red and liked how the flavor permeated them.
Red cabbage with cranberry glazed pork chops
For the cabbage
1 small head red cabbage cored and chopped into one-inch pieces
2 large apples, cored and chopped into half-inch pieces -- I used pink lady apples from the local farmers market
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cranberry juice
salt and pepper to taste
For the pork chops
2 large pork loin chops
3 tablespoons canola oil
4 springs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper
1/2 cup cranberry juice
3 tablespoons butter
Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Add cabbage and apples and stir until beginning to wilt. Add cranberry juice and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Heat canola oil in a second skillet and add pork chops. Add thyme leaves and salt and pepper. Brown on both sides. Add cranberry juice and cook until reduced and thickened. Add butter when sauce is thickened and remove chops. Serve with cabbage.
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