Chana Masala

Posted on October 23, 2018 by jacky grace

It’s fall here in New York!

After the sweltering heat of the summer, fall makes me think of snuggling on the couch in sweatpants with a warming bowl of something delicious.

We’ve been trying to lean vegetarian most weeknights so I started looking around for new recipes to try. I kept coming across recipes for Chana Masala, which is a vegetarian chickpea stew. I kept looking at the recipes and shying away because it is an Indian dish and I typically don’t like certain Indian spices.

But then I realized, I’m making the dish myself. I can adjust the spices. The best part of cooking at home is the ability to modify recipes to suit your tastes.

So this is my modified Chana Masala. It’s actually vegan (if you leave off the dollop of yogurt we put on top), incredibly easy to make and one of the tastiest things to come out of our kitchen lately. Added bonus: it’s super cheap to make. Double added bonus: it’s made in one pot and the recipe makes enough for two dinners for the two of us. Major score.

2 cans chickpeas
1 can diced tomato (I have used fire roasted and plain. fire roasted adds a nice smoky flavor)
1 onion
an inch of fresh ginger
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon tahini
turmeric
cinnamon
coriander
salt and pepper

Roughly chop the onion, ginger and garlic and place in the food processor.

Blend until it forms a paste.

Pour the mixture into a large pot. We’re going to layer flavors now into the pot. Cook the mixture over medium for about fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the rinsed and drained chickpeas and the diced tomatoes. Cook for another ten to fifteen minutes on medium.

Add the tahini, salt, pepper, coriander, turmeric and cinnamon. It’s totally up to you how much to add. I’d say a teaspoon of each or so to start. The best part of cooking with so many spices is adjusting the amounts to match your flavor preferences. I go heavier on the turmeric than the other spices.

Give it a stir and let it sit for at least another thirty minutes.

We served ours over rice pilaf and topped with a scoop of yogurt.

Veggie Quesadilla

Posted on October 10, 2017 by jacky grace

We make tacos a lot in our house.

Usually once a week.

They’re easy. They’re versatile. And they can be made to be relatively healthy if you load ’em up with veggies.

As much as I love tacos, I kind of wanted to do something different.

Since it’s football season, I also wanted to do something that was a little more couch friendly and had a little more of a bar food vibe.

Quesadillas. Bingo.

Cheesy. Handheld. Packed with veggies. Satisfies the need for a healthy dinner that’s also Monday night Football friendly.

You can use a different combination of vegetables. You could also add, say, some shredded rotisserrie chicken or even leftover slices of steak if you wanted to add meat.

Here’s what I used for the filling:

Two green bell peppers, julienned
Two poblano peppers, julienned
One onion, julienned
One can of black beans, rinsed and drained
One can of corn, rinsed and drained
White button mushrooms, sliced

You will also need tortillas, taco seasoning and Mexican cheese blend. You can also add fixin’s like sour cream, salsa and guacamole.

You’re going to want to use a fairly large skillet for this.

Start with vegetable oil or avocado oil (I love this Avocado Oil from Thrive Market)

Add your peppers and onion to the pan and saute until soft.

When the peppers and the onion have softened, add the mushrooms.

Mushrooms are super absorbent so you may need to add more oil. Be sure to stir so everythign cooks evenly.

When the mushrooms have browned, toss in the beans and corn and add your favorite taco seasoning. Or add your own blend of seasonings and spices.

Give everything a stir and let it come together for a few minutes.

In the meantime, let’s get the Quesadilla assembly started.

Line a pan with foil. This is going under the broiler, so use a pan that can stand up to the broiler.

Lay down two tortillas and add a hefty layer of cheese.

Spoon on your veggie mixture

And add more cheese

Pop this under the broiler for a few minutes, until the cheese melts. Do not walk away from the oven. This goes from perfectly melted to burned rather quickly.

Add another tortilla on top and get into fourths. Quesdaillas cut into fourths is a requirement. I don’t even think you can call them quesadillas unless they’re cut into triangles.

Add whatever toppings you like. Guacamole, salsa and sour cream were our toppings of choice.

This amount of mixture ended up making four quesadillas, so for us that translated into two nights of dinners from one pan!

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Posted on August 22, 2017 by jacky grace

When it’s hot in New York, I sometimes start running out of ideas for dinners.

I want something that doesn’t involve standing over a stove forever.

I also want something that’s light, but still satisfying and filling.

For some reason, that leads me to noodles.

I love brown rice noodles. They cook in minutes and they are so versatilei. could happily just throw some scallions and sesame oil on them an call it a night.

But

1. That would only feed me.

2. That would only feed me tonight

3. That would leave me with a hungry husband

4. That would leave me with a hungry me AND a hungry husband come lunch tomorrow.

I don’t know about you, but when it’s hot, I like my cooking adventure to give me more than one meal.

So. A noodle-based dish that will leave us with leftovers.

I started googling and found a couple variations of deconstructed egg rolls or egg rolls in a bowl. I took some inspiration from those recipes and added a few of my own twists.

For this recipe you will need

8 oz brown rice noodles ( I love Annie Chun’s) or you can sub for brown rice
1 white onion, diced
1 pound ground pork
1 bag shredded cabbage (the dole coleslaw mix is always in my fridge)
2 shredded carrots (you can leave these out. I had them on hand)
scallions, chopped (up to you how much)
1 tbsp garlic chili sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice vinegar

The last four ingredients I’d say measure to taste. If you like really spicy, feel free to go heavier on the garlic chili sauce.

Get started with some sesame oil and the white onion in a skillet over medium heat.

When the onions are translucent, add the pork and brown, strirring occasionally.

Once the pork is brown, add the scallions and the garlic chili sauce. If you like, you can reserve some scallions for a garnish at the end.

When the scallions have wilted a bit, add in the carrots and the cabbage, stirring so the cabbage begins to wilt.

Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar and taste for seasoning. You may wish to add more soy or sesame (or even more garlic chili sauce, you heat seekers, you.)

This can sit for a bit while you boil your water and cook your noodles or rice to package directions. When the noodles are done, drain and stir into the pot of egg roll mixture.

Serve up in big bowls with a sprinkling of scallions and a drizzle of sesame oil.

We had a fairly large amount of this for dinner and a container each for lunch the next day.

I’d call that a win.

Three Ingredient Pasta Sauce

Posted on June 22, 2017 by jacky grace

It has been forever since I posted!

Work got busy.

We were travelling a bit.

And, we’ve been apartment hunting.

Which is incredibly time consuming.

Which has meant that I’ve been making really fast dinners.

And totally forgetting to take any pictures.

Ugh.

But this was so delicious and so easy that despite the lack of photos, I think you’ll still love it.

Three ingredient pasta sauce:

cherry tomatoes
Bacon
Red Wine

That’s it. And whatever kind of pasta you want to toss it with.

I was in a rush at the store and trying to grab a few things and get out when I saw this gorgeous carton of multicolor cherry tomatoes for $1.99. The price! The beautiful tomatoes! I had to do something with them.

So i brought them home, sliced them in half and then rummaged in the fridge.

We had 4 pieces of bacon left over from when we had BLTs. So I diced up the bacon and fried it in a pot.

When it was cooked, i tossed the halved tomatoes into the pot with the bacon and let them cook down in the bacon fat. You can drain some of the fat off, but really, why?

Stir occasionally. The tomatoes will start to burst open and the juices will mix with the bacon.

I wanted a little more liquid so I looked around and grabbed the open bottle of red wine on the counter.

A few glugs, lowered the heat and let the pot simmer.

The wine added a richness that made it taste like the sauce had been cooking all day. Reality:20 minutes.

Boil water, cook whatever kind of pasta you want and toss with the sauce.

Don’t be afraid to plan a meal around one ingredient that just looks incredible in the store. Trust your senses. If it smells good and lookgs good, it’s probably in season and probably will taste its best.

Shrimp and Grits

Posted on September 12, 2016 by jacky grace

When we were in South Carolina earlier this year, we were sure to eat our weight in that good Southern food that just isn’t quite the same above the Mason Dixon line.

With no trip to the South planned any time soon, though, and a craving for some shrimp and grits, we had a problem.

So, my husband and I put our heads, and our kitchen skills together, and tag teamed an awesome shrimp and grits dinner.

It’s actually a fairly simple recipe that you can tweak to fit your craving or flavor profile.

We kept ours fairly classic with cheddar, bacon and scallions, but this could easily take an Italian turn with Parmesan and garlic, or have more of a Mexican flair with some green chiles and pepper jack cheese.

So for this recipe you will need:

1 cup grits (or polenta)
3 cups water
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
3 slices bacon
1/2 pound shrimp (frozen works great. Cleaned, deveined, shell off, tail on)
scallions

Get started by preparing your grits according to package directions. Ours called for boiling 3 cups of water and then adding in the grits, stirring and leaving on the stove for twenty minutes with the lid on.

In the meantime, prepare your shrimp mixture. Start by placing your bacon, cut into small pieces, into a frying pan and cook until crispy.

Remove the bacon from the skillet, but leave the grease. Place the shrimp into the bacon grease. Hey, this is a Southern dish. We’re cooking with bacon grease y’all.

Cook the shrimp, turning to cook on both sides, until they are pink.

When the shrimp are cooked, add the bacon back in. Also add in your chopped scallions. Lower the heat and let everything warm through.

Meanwhile, add the shredded cheddar to your cooked grits and stir until it melts in.

Serve up a a few big spoonfuls of grits in each bowl and top each with half the shrimp mixture.

And there you have a five ingredient Southern Fix!

Ratatouille Over Couscous

Posted on August 23, 2016 by jacky grace

I was thinking about the name of my blog, and I was thinking about what really makes a dish Itty Bitty City Kitchen friendly.

And I came up with a few factors.

As the name implies, the kitchen is itty bitty, so dinners need to not need a lot of ingredients. They also need to not require a lot of pans or any fancy gadgets that can’t be stored in said itty bitty kitchen.

Also, as the name implies, this kitchen is in a city, which means that it’s probably in a bustling, crowded area that’s packed with people and noise. It also probably means that work hours are long and by the time you get home, what with the crowds and noise, meal prep has to be fast. And easy. You’re probably tired.

So, with all of that in mind, here is what I think is one of the most itty bitty city kitchen friendly meals, ratatouille. You can vary the ingredients, but think five vegetables and some seasonings. Also, one pot. Also, also, you throw said ingredients into said one pot and just stir it once in a while. Small number of ingredients, one pot, and super fast and easy.

Oh. And Delicious.

Ratatouille is basically a stewed vegetable dish in a tomato base. You can swap out the vegetable and the spices based on your tastes, the season, and what you have on hand, but a can of diced tomatoes is essential.

I used:

2 green bell peppers, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 medium eggplant, cut into one inch chunks
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes

You will also need vegetable oil, salt and pepper. I went slightly Middle Eastern and added turmeric, but you could do herbs de provence, thyme, Italian seasoning, anything really.

This is a throw everything in one pot dish, but you don’t want to throw everything in at the same time. We’re going to layer a bit.

Drizzle some vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add the peppers and onions and cook over medium until soft (10-15 minutes).

Add the eggplant, a drizzle more oil, salt and pepper and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Lastly, add the diced tomatoes, chickpeas and turmeric. Let this cook, covered, for another 10-15 minutes.

This can simmer for longer, but if you’re just home from work and starving because someone did not order lunch for the meeting you had from 12-3, then this is good to go.

This makes a great side dish if you wanted to have some grilled chicken or steak.

Or, if you want to make this the center of the meal, whip up some quick cooking couscous. This is sort of a small kitchen, busy cook staple. Bring water to a boil, pour in couscous, turn off burner, cover, and boom, five minutes later you have couscous.

So, to serve this over couscous, make the couscous and scoop a few spoonfuls into a bowl.

Ladle over your ratatouille.

And then to really bring the Middle Eastern flavor home, add a scoop of Greek yogurt.

This dish is delicious, but the best part about it is that it gets even more delicious as it sits in the fridge.

What’s more itty bitty city kitchen friendly than a one pot dish that serves up two dinners?

Enchiladas

Posted on May 18, 2016 by jacky grace

Every time my husband goes to Austin he comes home raving about the enchiladas.

We make quite a bit of Mexican food, but I had never tried enchiladas.

This was a decidedly team effort.

because he is the one who has eaten these fabled enchiladas from Austin
and two, because as you read on, you’ll see you need four hands for this one.

I decided to keep the filling fairly similar something we would make for tacos. So I went with

3 diced green bell peppers
1 diced onion
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
shredded rotisserie chicken

Preheat the oven to 400

Start by tossing the peppers, onions and beans into a pot with a drizzle of vegetable oil. Cook over medium until the peppers and onions have softened.

Toss in the shredded chicken. It’s already cooked so we’re just looking to warm it up a bit. Season with salt and pepper.

You can stop there and have some awesome tacos. Just scoop the filling into tortillas and add some cheese and guac.

To turn them into enchiladas you will need:

2 cans red enchilada sauce
shredded taco cheese
tortillas

You will also need a wide, shallow dish (like a pie pan) to dump the enchilada sauce in and a 9×13 baking dish to bake the enchiladas in.

Oh, and a partner. You definitely will want a partner for this one.

Pour some sauce into the 9×13 pan. Just enough to coat the bottom. Pour the rest into the shallow dish.

Set up an assembly station with the pot of filling, cheese, tortillas, dish with the sauce and 9×13 baking dish. (ignore the bananas in the picture. We have a small kitchen. I had nowhere else for them to go)

Fully dunk a tortilla in the sauce.

Hold the tortilla and have your partner spoon some of the filling into the center. Careful you don’t overfill- you need to be able to roll these.

Have your partner sprinkle on some cheese.

Carefully roll the tortilla, bringing both sides together

And place seam side down in the baking dish.

Repeat this process until you are out of tortillas or until the baking dish is full.

Pour the remaining sauce from the dish over the tortillas

Top with cheese and bake for about 30-40 minutes

Serve up with a side of guac.

By the way, we made a lot of enchiladas because my brother in law was coming for dinner. But I definitely recommend making a big dish of these because 1. it’s a messy process, so get messy for a big reward, and 2. they keep well in the fridge, so you can have leftovers!

Warm Brie Salad

Posted on May 17, 2016 by jacky grace

Remember last week when we were super French and made Croque Monsieurs and Ham and Cheese Quiche?

Also remember how we tried keeping the number of ingredients we had to buy to a minimum?

Well after a weekend in Atlantic City, we need some meals that don’t require a lot of ingredients (the slot machines are not always kind) and that are on the lighter side (there may have been a lot of drinks and 3am Taylor Ham sandwiches).

With the French theme from last week in mind, I kept turning to brie.

Now brie is not exactly light and healthy, but it packs a ton of flavor in a tiny amount. So used sparingly, and paired with fresh greens, we may be on to something here.

I’m a big fan of salads for dinner. And I’m an even bigger fan of cheese, so I thought about combining the deliciousness of brie with a salad. Then I thought, what’s better than brie? Exactly. Warm brie.

So for this dinner you will need:

greens, (I used a mix of baby spinach and spring mix)
some brie
some honey
I had walnuts on hand from the Mushroom Walnut Ravioli the other week, so I tossed those in as well.
Also added a handful of dried cranberries because I always have them in the fridge.

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Place your brie in an oven safe dish and drizzle with a bit of honey.

Bake for about 10 minutes, but don’t walk too far away from the oven. The brie goes from still coldish to melted like that.

You just want it to be a little soft and runny.

Carefully top your greens with the warm brie and walnuts. Add dried cranberries or whatever else you wish.

One Ham, Two Dinners, Part 2: Ham and Cheese Quiche

Posted on May 10, 2016 by jacky grace

Tuesdays are worse than Mondays.

I don’t know why. They just are. Mondays at least you can talk to your coworkers about what you did over the weekend, and somehow in retelling the weekend fun, you can kind of extend it beyond the two days. But Tuesday? Tuesday is like okay for real now, you have to work. No excuses.

So I’m even more excited about the ham we made Sunday being in the fridge and ready to be transformed into a super easy super yummy dinner than I was yesterday.

Yesterday was all about the Croque Monsieur. Today, we’re going to take the same ingredients (minus the bread) and make a ham and cheese crustless quiche!

So easy. If you made the Croque Monsieur yesterday, you’ll have all the ingredients on hand. If not, the shopping list is still super simple.

ham, cut into one inch cubes
cheese, shredded (any kind works- mozzarella, swiss, cheddar- whatever you have)
five eggs
splash of milk
butter, for greasing the pan (you can use cooking spray too)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter a pie pan.

To the buttered pie pan, add your chunks of ham in an even layer.

Then sprinkle over your shredded cheese.

In a bowl, crack five eggs

Add a splash of milk

And whisk until combined.

Pour your milk and egg mixture over your ham and cheese.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes, until the center is firm.

Slice and enjoy.

To continue the French theme, serve with a salad of greens topped with a mustardy vinaigrette. It will cut through the richness of the eggs, ham and cheese, like it did yesterday with the Croque Monsieur.

And there you have two meals from a few simple ingredients- eggs, milk, ham, cheese, butter and bread.

That’s two itty bitty city kitchen friendly meals from 6 ingredients!

One Ham, Two Dinners Part 1: Croque Monsieur

Posted on May 9, 2016 by jacky grace

So my favorite thing in the world is when I can cook one thing and get more than one meal out of it.

Okay it’s not my favorite thing in the world, but it makes me really really happy.

I had a ham in my freezer from an Omaha Steaks order from my aunt. I had kind of forgotten about it. Then I saw it tucked in the back and the wheels immediately started turning.

If I cooked that one ham on Sunday, we could have Croque Monsieurs on Monday and a Ham and Cheese Quiche on a Tuesday. Even better? All of the ingredients for both meals are essentially the same, so less to buy at the store. Score!

Croque Monsieur is basically the best ham and cheese sandwich you will ever eat. When we were in Paris, my meals largely consisted of Croissants, Croque Monsieurs and Steak Frites. Croque Monsieur is sort of like a ham and cheese, meets grilled cheese meets savory stuffed French toast.

The ingredients are super simple, like a lot of French cuisine. It’s really just about the execution.

You will need:

bread (any kind you prefer)
ham, sliced
swiss cheese, sliced
butter
eggs
milk

I cooked the ham on Sunday, let it cool, sliced it and popped it in the fridge. This way, Monday after work I only had to assemble the sandwiches and cook them until the cheese melted. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Start by placing a few slices of ham on one slice of bread.

Add the cheese and then add the other slice of bread.

In a shallow dish, add two eggs and a splash of milk

and whisk until combined (see, kind of like French toast.)

Next, carefully take the whole sandwich and place it in the egg and milk batter.

Press it down so it is fully coated and then flip so the other side is coated as well.

Repeat with your other sandwich.

Melt some butter on a skillet and place your sandwiches in the melted butter.

Cook on the first side until golden brown (maybe 5 minutes over medium heat) and then flip and cook on the other side.

The bread will be all golden and custardy and the cheese will be melting into the ham.

For a very French touch, and to cut the richness of the ham and the cheese, serve with a salad with a mustardy vinaigrette. The mustard and the vinegar is the perfect balance to the richness of the sandwich.

Enjoy your sandwich, and store the leftover ham and cheese in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner. We’ll keep it French again with a ham and cheese quiche.

Itty Bitty City Kitchen

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Category Archives: Weeknight, One or 2 Pot Wonders