UnRecipe: Mostly Meatless Monday

Nobody's perfect, least of all me. I would even say I aspire towards tragic imperfection, given my familiarity with so many Epic Fails. But one thing I've been making attempts towards is cutting back on meat consumption. Meatless Mondays are a great mnemonic reminder, but sometimes my no-meat days end up being midweek or even on a weekend. And sometimes, I make great vegetarian strides and suddenly smack myself on the head with a Homer Simpson "doh!" moment, realizing I just un-meatless-ized a dish with a quick splash of fish sauce. And so our story goes thusly...

At least these little quinoa-chickpea fritters were meatless! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe (sort of): I Just Like to Look at the Pictures

You know how it goes... you get the mail, a particular magazine shows up, you thumb through it, ignore all the wordsy articles and just ogle the photos. No... not that magazine, you naughty bugger. What did you think I was talking about, Willis? I am referring to the handy-dandy Martha Stewart/Omnimedia concoction, Everyday Food. Snark if you will, my mom gifted me the subscription and you never want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially if it's from Mom. It leads me to today's post theme, which is similar to my logic behind Ikea furniture -- I often don't even read the instructions, I just look at the picture and throw stuff together. Don't you?? 

Recipes are overrated, just copy the picture - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Regardless of the fact that it was a nice gift from Wasabi Mom, I'm not dropping any hatorade on Everyday Food. The magazine title doesn't lie -- these are all dishes you could make every day, with nods to time constraints, availability of ingredients and a fairly even-handed balance on nutrition and budget. I especially like the little grocery checklist they put in every issue, and its small size makes it handy to bring to the store, check things off, and Shazam-wow, you're set for more than a week's worth of meals plus desserts and snacks. It's for the people who want to eat well with home-cooked meals, but not fuss, likely because they're balancing a schedule of a full time job, plus being a taxi for all the kids' activities and playdates. For as many food nerds that are out there, they are outnumbered by Everybody Else, so no, a truffled poached quail's egg on a velvet puree of parsnips probably won't show up in the magazine, but that's okay, there's other magazines for that. As least I hope so. That actually sounds kinda good for being made up on the fly.

And the pictures are great! I rip out so many food photos in all magazines, just to keep a collection of things to inspire me. The signature Martha Stewart minimalism is a clean look I appreciate, and I like seeing the little food props they use, especially for the cookie issues, where it's tissue paper and baker's twine galore. And you can't have too many of those Asian soup spoons -- they make such darn good props for small bites, especially sitting on a stacking of small, completely impractical tasting dishes. Even though no one really eats like that, who cares, it makes the food look real purdy-like for the camera.

Sometimes you just want pineapple and green beans. Apparently,  I did - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Speaking of pictures, it was the shot of the Beef and Pineapple Red Curry dish in the fall issue of Everday Food made me go, "Dag, yo -- I wanna make that!" I think I had an odd craving for tart pineapple. Or perhaps my scurvy was acting up again, compelling me to make something with a large dose of vitamin C. I remember scanning the recipe at one point, putting it aside, then deciding a month later I would make it, and just starting to chop up vegetables and ingredients willy-nilly. It wasn't until I had the wok sizzling away with some sliced pork that I saw, oh, it's a beef recipe. And there's a need for curry paste, which I don't have. About the only two things I had from the recipe were pineapple and green beans, because the picture clearly showed those ingredients. Think of it more as not cooking by recipe, but by inspiration, of a photo showing these luscious chunks of pineapple mixed with shreds of meat and big pieces of green beans. Martha Stewart and the minions you probably brow-beat to come up with this dish, you are my muses.To marinate the pork-that-was-supposed-to-be-beef, I used the seasonings I had on-hand, which included some soy sauce, a splash of fish sauce, chili paste, rice vinegar, and some sugar to balance out the acid. I'm sure red curry would have been a knockout, but I didn't have it and I don't think the dish suffered, because I had my food-heart set on something with beans and pineapple, and I prepared them the way I interpreted the photo, with a bit of savory heat, but not too strong a seasoning so that you can't appreciate the ingredients.

So yes, there's a recipe if you want it -- the link to the beef and pineapple curry recipe is above, but consider just throwing caution and recipes to the wind the next time you see a lovely photo of food that stirs your appetite. Sometimes it's not the dish that's alerting your craving, but an ingredient in it. Follow that desire and see where it leads, you might come up with something even better.

UnRecipe: Requiem for a Green Bean

I know, I know -- it's charred, brown and crispy. What the heck is it?? It's a heavy-handed take on the vintage green bean casserole, but instead of just sending the green beans on their merry way into the afterlife with a can of condensed soup, I gave them a Pyrex vesseled departure off to a bacon and  porcini cream sauced Valhalla.

Green bean casserole gone wild - Photo by  Wasabi Prime

The beans were freshly picked from the garden of our friend Wonder Russell's mom, and judging from the timing of this post, this was done a little while back, as there are no freshly picked green beans anywhere right now. Wonder was kind enough to give us her delivery of fresh-grown goods that week, as she was off doing something fabulous, so the Wasabi household was more than happy to take on this garden bounty.  In life, these green beans were a bright, vibrant green hue, happily sitting on a vine -- upon entering the threshhold of Wasabimus Prime, they were promptly accosted with a mix of caramelized onions, crisps of bacon and a mushroom and marsala cream sauce. I think some toasted walnuts were thrown in there too, just for the heck of it. Oh, Wasabi, can't you just let vegetables be themselves?

Garden freshness before being besmirched by bacon - Photo by  Wasabi Prime

This was one of those unhinged UnRecipe test nights, where I had the materials handy, maybe a few glasses of wine, and let all hell break loose upon a simple ingredient like these innocent beans. I toasted a handful of crushed walnuts, rendered some chopped up bacon and reserved the fat, hydrated some dried porcinis and mixed with fresh chopped mushrooms, while a pan slowly caramelized some onions to sweet, porcine fat perfection. I combined these ingredients into the equivalent of a flavorful roundhouse kick to the palate.

Fine, so the casserole didn't cause any bodily harm, but it wasn't bland, that's for sure. If this were the Octagon of flavors, the can of condensed soup and processed onion bits that usually accompanies this somewhat reviled side dish would have had their ingredient-asses handed to them by an ingredient-ass-handing machine. And even though the final roast in the oven killed a lot of the bright green color of the beans and resulted in a rainbow of earthtones, I don't care as this may be a contender for a holiday dinner side dish. Sometimes food doesn't have to be pretty as a picture to be darn-tootin'-tasty.

And on that holiday note, the Prime will of course be celebrating the Giving of Thanks-feast with much eating, napping, and eating again. Let this ridiculously overdone green bean casserole send us all off on our merry Turkeday way, and I hope you have a safe and tasty long weekend!

The slow, delicious corruption of fresh green beans - Photos by  Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Pantry/Freezer Raid Dinner

I said pantry, not panty, you perv-o's. Get your mind out of the gutter and back into the kitchen -- there's a meal to be made! It was another one of those weeks where I was feeling less than inspired, other than the basic need of hunger. But I don't want it to be boring or cause a major restocking of the fridge. So I looked at what we had on-hand and put together a tasty and somewhat unplanned meal from frozen items, pantry goods, and the weekly impulse buys at Costco. What came out of it was a Wild Mushroom and Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Gorgonzola Haricot Vert.

A deliciously unplanned meal for our weekly enjoyment - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I tend to squirrel away items, including food. Hello, producers of Hoarders TV shows? I think I'm your next candidate. When I'm at Costco, the power of bulk buying takes over, I inevitably make the rookie mistake every time, despite my frequent visits, and I wind up with something weird like a huge block of gorgonzola cheese or three pounds of baby green beans. Hey, it happens. I can be like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, and just sit on the couch and eat cheese all day, but everything else needs a purpose, lest it rot in our crisper drawer. I defrosted a pork tenderloin because again, I squirrel food, which includes buying meat on sale and wrapping/freezing it for later use. Digging through the pantry, I found a random bag of dried wild mushrooms. I can't remember why I bought it, but there they were. These seemingly unrelated items came together like a puzzle in my brain and I got cookin'.

The mushrooms were rehydrated in hot water and chopped up. The mushroomy liquid was reserved for a pan sauce. I took a leftover shallot and finely diced it, saving half for the sauce and the other for the pork stuffing. I wilted some fresh spinach that was already getting wilty in the fridge and added the mushrooms and shallot with some salt and pepper. The mixture became the stuffing for the pork tenderloin, laid down the middle and then tied it all up with string to keep it together. I salted and peppered the outside of the stuffed tenderloin, seared it in a hot pan to give it a bit of crust, and then let it finish off on a baking sheet in the oven. I deglazed the pan with the mushroom liquid, along with some marsala sitting in the pantry, added the last of the shallots, a bit o' seasoning, and let the sauce reduce.

The green beans were lightly blanched in boiling water, drained off, and then tossed with a little salt, pepper, some olive oil, and crumbles of the gorgonzola cheese. This made for a pretty side dish next to the slices of stuffed pork tenderloin. I think the point of these unplanned meals is to show that cooking doesn't have to be a labored, heavily-planned event. It can be inspired by whatever's available, and the flavors can be pushed and pulled to work together, even if on their own, the ingredients don't look like they'd play nicely in the sandbox.

OMG a Recipe: Still Hungover? Have Some Home-Roasted Coffee!

Nothing like partying down on a New Year's Eve and waking up missing teeth, a groom who's disappeared, and a Bengal tiger sitting beside you in a Las Vegas bathroom. Wait... was that New Year's Eve or was that the movie, The Hangover? Oh hell, I can't even remember anymore. All I have to say is... shhhhhh... you're surfing the in-tar-webs too loudly... keep it down...And must you blink your eyes with such deafening sound? There are folks still recovering from the year that was!

Damn fine cup of coffee, Diane - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OK, so that's a rotten lie; not a good way to start the the new year, I know. The Prime's rockin' New Year's Eve was a happily mellow and understated one -- absolutely no tigers or self-inflicted dentistry, at least that I'm aware of. But I can't assume that everyone is as fabulously boring as I am -- there's more than a few souls out there who have been wandering in an intoxicated haze since Thursday night, wondering why that raccoon stole their underwear. How about a cup of coffee to chase away the demons? Even better -- how about roasting your own coffee? Once the cinderblock metronome in your skull goes away, of course.

It's not as obscure a thing as one would imagine. Mr. Wasabi has been roasting his own beans for years. It's relatively easy, yields more flavor control, and can be budget-friendly. The basics behind roasting your own coffee is to find a method of dry, high heat, that helps circulate hot air around the beans so that they are continually moving and aren't burned during the roasting process. Brock had done some research and discovered that achieving this roasting method is as simple as using an old air popcorn popper. Check on Craigslist or rummage sales -- there are so many floating around and people seem more than happy to be rid of them, and more often that not, you may have one stowed away in some closet or atticspace. They roast up to a few handfuls of beans at a time and while averaging ten minutes of roasting time per batch, this roast time is variable, depending on the bean. This provides more options to push and pull flavors from the coffee beans.

Greenie Beanies - Photo by Wasabi Prime

As for the coffee itself, we've been purchasing our green beans online. There are several places that will sell green beans in bulk, which usually yields a cheaper price in the long run, and they keep for a very long time in a cool, dry place. Our longtime supplier has been Sweet Maria's, which sells a wide variety of green beans, plus provides handy advice and tips for DIY coffee roasters. Their green bean prices range from about over $5 to $8 a pound, plus some rare, more expensive varieties. They do sell small home-use roasters, but if you want to get all MacGyver about it, the popcorn popper works just fine.

French press optional, as are Quantum Leap mugs - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I may have a Mr. Wasabi, but I do not have a Mr. Coffee. We have a large collection of Bodum French presses, but no coffee machine. We've no quarrel with the appliance, we just never bothered to get one. Given the small batches of roasts done in the popcorn popper, we only use a small amount at a time, which for quality's sake,  it's ideal to roast and brew the coffee within a matter of days. Once the oils from the beans are brought to the surface, they will start to deteriorate and the freezer only slows this process down so much. Because of the small-batch roasting, the French press is both a handy and delicious way to start one's morning, if you don't mind a few extra steps. We tend to brew up several cups' worth in a large French press and once ready, we pour ourselves a cup and then put the rest in an insulated thermos to keep it hot for seconds and thirds. Letting it continue to steep in the grounds at the bottom of the press will make the coffee bitter, plus having it exposed just cools it down. An insulated thermos does an amazing job of keeping the coffee hot for many hours.

Proof of coffee nerd-ness - Photo by Wasabi Prime

As to the other extra coffee-making tools we keep handy, we use a box grinder, and more specifically, a Zassenhaus conical burr grinder. They are not cheap, I realize this. I credit and fault Mr. Wasabi's coffee nerd obsession going into overdrive, but you can sometimes find these old burr grinders in antique stores, as this was the method of grinding coffee back in the day. The nice thing about them is they are not electric, few moving parts, adjustable, and they really will last a lifetime. The reasoning behind the box grinder is mostly because of the French press method -- electric grinders are so efficient, they pulverize the beans to such a fine grade that much of it will seep through the metal mesh filter in the presses, creating more sludge than coffee. If you embrace the power of technology, the 21st century, and have a coffeemaker like the rest of the modern world, this foray into bean grinding and French presses is unecessary. We're just the weirdos who don't have a coffee machine, yet own a pair of Quantum Leap mugs (I usually take Sam, and Brock tends to get Al, in case you were wondering).

You don't need to have all the extra brewing and grinding accompaniments to enjoy a home-roasted cup of coffee -- the main thing is the roaster and getting your hands on some green beans. If you have the chance to roast your own, I recommend it, as you will notice the flavor and freshness. It's a great way to start the morning, as well as the new year -- happy 2010, everyone!

Roasting Your Own Coffee (come on, you know you want to)

Tools needed:  air popcorn popper, kitchen scale for weighing beans, stopwatch or timer, large metal bowl, metal strainer, oven mitt or glove, airtight glass jar for storage
Ingredients: 50 grams by volume, green coffee beans


Start up air popper and let it run for a few seconds to warm the heating element. Pour the green beans in, start the stopwatch or timer, and shake popper to make sure the air is keeping the beans moving. They should be swirling around rapidly. Place a metal bowl where the popcorn would pop out to catch any of the chaff as it's burned off the beans. The beans should roast for eight to ten minutes, depending on recommended roast time for beans or personal preference. Ten minutes yields a dark and flavorful roast, but not as strong or burned as most commercial blends.


Around the fourth or fifth minute, you will hear a distinctive snapping sound coming from the beans -- this is called "first crack," and signifies the roasting is about halfway through. Clean out the burned chaff from the metal bowl as it fills; it's good to do this around a kitchen vent to clear out the burning smell. Keep an eye on the beans -- don't ever walk away from them. When the ten minute mark hits, turn off the popper and carefully pour the roasted beans into a metal strainer. Toss lightly to cool or lay out on a cold stone countertop to quicken the cooling process. Careful, they will be super-hot!


Once beans are cool to the touch, store in an airtight glass container. The batch should last for up to a week, but it's best to grind and brew it as soon as the beans are cooled. After having the first cup of your own home-roasted coffee, I'll wager it will be tough for the beans to even last a week!

Coffee roasting at home -- a better use for that Poppery II that no one's used for years. Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Holy Schnitzel, it's the Other White Meat

All this turkey talk with Thanksgiving coming up -- don't jive me, Turkey! What about the other white meat? Don't let H1 urban myths steer you away from the loving porcine arms of Wilburiffic deliciousness. In a belated theme of Oktoberfest and a continued theme of "we need to clear out our freezer," Wasabimus Prime put forth a Pork Schnitzel with an Apple and Beer Sauce, served with Gorgonzola and Pecan Green Beans.

That's some good schnitzel, man. - Photo by Wasabi Prime

The UnRecipe part of this meal was the fact that we had frozen pork chops and some random beers sitting in our mini fridge. The whole UnRecipe theme is slowly evolving from "throw everything together and see what happens," to "throw everything together, try and write stuff down, and see what happens." I'm not entirely sure if it makes much of a difference to readers, having the recipes listed below, as I don't think these dishes are exciting enough to inspire anyone to make them. But it is a peek into the life of a consummate pantry cook who just likes to MacGyver-it when it comes to meals.

Since this was one of those thrown together meals, I didn't take any photos of the making-of or separate ingredients, but given the basic nature behind it, I think the final, plated meal is pretty self-explanatory over what was used. I liked this meal because it's uncomplicated and appropriate for a weekday dinner, plus the ingredients are simple and budget-friendly. As everyone's in the midst of preparing for a big Thanksgiving feast, this is a simple enough thing to make prior to the Big Push next week, without having to give in to the siren song of the drive-thru window. Although damn it all if fries and a milkshake aren't tasty!

Holy Schnitzel, it's Oktoberfest! (with Gorgonzola Pecan Green Beans)
(serves 6)

schnitzel ingredients
3 large pork chops, trim excess fat, sliced lengthwise and pounded flat (stressbuster!)
1 large apple, cored and diced (whatever's in season, but I dig Fujis)
1 stalk of celery
1 cup flour for dredging
1 bottle of beer (Oktoberfest/seasonal brew, if possible)
1 shallot, minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp thyme and/or rosemary, finely chopped
salt + pepper to taste

side dish ingredients
2 lbs green beans
6 oz pecans, rough chop
4 oz gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp olive oil
salt + pepper to taste

To prepare holy schnitzel: Put a large skillet on the stove and heat to medium-high. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of pork and dredge in flour, dust to remove excess. Put vegetable oil in heated pan, enough to cover surface, and add dredged pork, two at a time to avoid crowding the pan. Cook until browned on both sides, cooking all cutlets and then setting aside on a platter when done. Tent with tin foil to keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium, keep skillet on stove, add diced apple, shallot, and celery. Cook until wilted, slowly adding beer to help deglaze pan and create a sauce. Add fresh herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper, tasting as you go. When full bottle of beer is emptied into pan, reduce sauce to thicken slightly and add pork cutlets back into the pan to coat with the sauce. Let the cutlets and sauce play nice for a few minutes before turning heat off.

Green beans time! You can start this while the sauce is reducing -- get a pot of water boiling on another burner. When water gets to a boil, add the green beans and cook until beans get to a bright green -- should only take a few minutes for them to be partly cooked, but remain crisp (that's what I like), but if you like them softer, feel free to let them suffer further in the bubbly cauldron of hot water. Drain the beans once they get to the doneness you prefer. Turn the burner off, but leave the beans in the drained pot. Add the olive oil, chopped pecans, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss mixture; the heat from the beans will melt the cheese and combine with the oil to create a sauce, and keeping it in the pan saves you from dirtying another bowl. But if you like doing dishes, feel free to toss mixture in another container, as I'm not the boss of you. :)

Holy schnitzel, let's plate up a cutlet, smothered in an apple/beer sauce, and a big heaping pile of nutty, cheesy beans and om nom it up while you're watching something awesome on TV. Having another beer in hand while eating this meal is not a bad thing either, so cheers to weeknight meals!