Chickpeas, cumin and fresh herbs patted into tasty little cakes, sautéed and served with a cucumber, tomato and feta topping. The original recipe appeared in Vegetarian Times in 2009…shows you how long I’ve been making (and eating!) them .

Sometimes I skip the Greek salad topping and go with sriracha + mayo, my favorite all-purpose sauce, but I do love the briny feta, cold crunchy cucumbers and tomatoes, and the acidity of the lemon juice…mmmm, I want some more right now!

Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salad Topping

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 cucumber quartered and sliced (1 cup)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes – quartered
• 2 green onions – chopped
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese – optional (Omit for vegan)
• Croquettes
• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 15-oz. can chickpeas – rinsed and drained
• 4 green onions – chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic – minced (2 tsp.)

Directions

To make Topping:

Toss together cucumber, tomatoes, green onions, lemon juice, and oil in bowl. Gently stir in feta crumbles. Season with salt and pepper, if desired, and set aside.

To make Croquettes:

1. Whisk together chickpea flour, cumin, chili powder, and salt in bowl. Whisk in 1/3 to 1/2 cup hot water. Stir in remaining ingredients, and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

2. Coat nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Scoop 4 ı/4-cup dollops of chickpea mixture into skillet, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until golden.

3. Flip with spatula, and cook 3 to 4 minutes more. Repeat with remaining chickpea mixture. Serve each Croquette topped with 1/4 cup Topping.

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These are also fun to do for parties – serve with just the protein in the pepper, kept warm in a chafing dish or just a covered casserole, and then set up a toppings bar for guests to add what they like.

Taco Stuffed Peppers

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Their “Keep It or Toss It?” engine lets you type in a food and find out how long it should stay fresh in the fridge or freezer – and, most importantly for personal chefs, it differentiates between raw and cooked foods, which many other resources like this don’t.  For instance, I typed in “pork tenderloin” (I’m plagued by spoiled pork) and found that all cuts of pork will stay at their best quality when frozen raw for 4-6 months, but once cooked, are best eaten within 2-3 months.   (And it always notes that food properly stored at 0 degrees Fahrenheit will keep indefinitely, in terms of being safe to eat – it’s the taste and/or texture that will suffer past the recommended dates.)

Another cool thing:  the “Your Questions Answered” section, where it addresses such often-pondered questions like “Can You Safely Drink Milk After the Sell-By Date?” (sure, for up to a week usually) and “I Left Pizza Out Overnight – Is It Still Safe to Eat?”  (they say no; I say yes provided you sizzle the hell out of it in a covered skillet til it has reached 165 degrees to kill off any nasties…or maybe I just hate wasting pizza, and having never had food poisoning am willing to risk it – until I get food poisoning, after which I’m sure I’ll change my tune.)  They source their data mostly from US government sources, research studies and food manufacturers, and they do a nice job of balancing an abundance of caution with a healthy dose of common sense.

For personal chefs, this expiration date info is great to point clients to, in case they have questions about the expiration dates on meals you prepared eons ago that they’ve just discovered in their freezer. And the “3 Ways to Defrost Food Safely” is worth referencing too, so they know it’s not just you telling them the best way to thaw meals is overnight in the fridge.  (And I guarantee that food-obsessed people will be unable to tear themselves away from the site without reading the entire “Your Questions Answered” section.)

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Chicken Yakitori – boneless chicken marinated with a blend of (mostly) soy sauce, sugar, ginger and garlic – is one of my favorite things to eat on a stick. I use chicken thighs, which have more flavor and fat than breasts, and therefore superior taste and tenderness.

A quick soak in the marinade and then threaded on skewers with bell pepper and scallions = yum. Nice with Jasmine rice and a green veggie on the side.

(I’m pretty sure the original recipe came from Food & Wine: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-yakitori.)

Chicken Yakitori
Description
Skewered boneless chicken, red bell peppers and scallions, brushed with a lightly sweet soy glaze and broiled.
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1/4 cup tamari (gluten-free soy sauce – or use regular if that is not a concern)
2 tbsp mirin (Or rice- or white wine- vinegar)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs, Cut into 2″ pieces
1 bell pepper, cut into chunks
8 scallions – cut into 2-in pieces
Wooden or metal skewers

Directions
1. To make the sauce, bring the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, ginger and garlic to a boil in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until the sauce thickens and nicely coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.

2. Spray the grill or broiler pan with nonstick spray; prepare the grill or preheat the broiler.

3. Thread the chicken, bell peppers and scallions onto each of 8, 10-inch metal skewers (or wooden skewers soaked in water for 1 hr). alternating the ingredients. Grill or broil the kebabs 5 inches from the heat, frequently brushing with the sauce, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Serve with rice.

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Pasta with Tuna, Tomatoes and Capers
Chunky pasta tossed with olive oil, Italian tuna, capers, chopped tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Both the capers and pepper flakes are optional, if you have eaters who object to them – but they are sooo good and really make the dish pop.
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 tbs oil
• 1/2 onion – chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes – 28oz — not drained
• 8 ounces pasta (half the box)
• 1/4 c white wine
• 1 can tuna in oil – 6 ounce
• 2 tbs capers
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• black pepper
• 1/2 c basil – chopped (or use a teaspoon of dried, or you can skip it entirely)

Directions

Cook onion in oil until soft, 3-5 min. Add tomatoes, cook over medium-low heat – they should be just barely simmering – until thick and saucy, 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta, reserving some cooking liquid. (I do this by sticking a Pyrex measuring cup or a coffee cup in the sink next to the strainer. Splash a little cooking water in to the cup before pouring the pasta into the strainer.)

Turn sauce to medium high heat. Add pasta, wine, tuna with oil, capers and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, another minute. Add some black pepper and the basil, toss well; add a little cooking water if it seems too thick. Adjust seasoning (this means: taste it and add what you think it needs – salt, pepper, herbs, a splash more wine, more capers or their lovely sharp briny liquid).

When it’s right, toss the pasta and sauce together and serve. We like to add grated Parmesan as well. Enjoy!

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Grouper with Salsa Verde

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So you want to make dinner rolls or conrbread as a side dish for a client entree, and you’re standing in the grocery store wondering if they have flour, cornmeal, baking powder etc.  Or you know you bought a big bag of brown rice on your first cook date with them, but don’t recall if you’ve used it all yet…do you go ahead and buy it, knowing you might be overbuying, or risk gong without and finding out you did in fact need it?  One of the many daily conundrums facing a busy personal chef…

Some chefs keep very detailed records of the items in their clients’ pantries, and I applaud this, while finding it completely impractical for me    Just keeping track of where I wrote it down, or making sure to find extra time in every cook date to do an update are things that  I find challenging.  (I did try doing this several years ago but gave up after I seemed to never note the things I had real questions about.)

So what do I do now?  I use the nifty Voice Memos app on my iPhone to leave myself little updates as I go thru the cookdate.  (There are undoubtedly many other similar 3rd party apps out there for all smartphones – just check the app store of you choosing.)  The cool thing about Voice Memos is that you can pause it and resume later – helpful when you want to keep one recording snippet for the whole cookdate (although, tragically, you can’t keep a recording on pause and use the iPod functions at the same time, so if you listen to music or podcasts while cooking like I do,  you have to make a separate recording if you need to add something to your reminder.)

Given the state of my memory, usually what I do is towards the end of the cookdate, I hit record and start talking to myself…”grab a new large bottle of olive oil next time…they have all sorts of rice and pasta so no need to buy any the next couple of times…pick up some Glad Press-N-Seal.”   Then, I hit the Share button and email the snippet to myself with the client name and date in the Subject line.  Next time I’m shopping for that client, I bring up the snippet, and there you have it – you, telling yourself what to do.  (Sometimes I also tell myself jokes to see if I’ll laugh when I hear them again, but mostly I think I laugh at the fact that I’m trying to make myself laugh.)

Happy Cooking!

—

Chefchick Says: A damp towel or a few wet paper towel sheets under your cutting board keeps it from slipping – and if you use the color-coded thin plastic cutting sheets, it makes for a much better “knife feel” under your blade.

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• 8 ounces thin spaghetti (half a box)
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts *
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 medium red bell peppers – chopped or sliced
• 1 large English cucumber – peeled, seeded, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Toasted sesame seeds and more cilantro for garnish (optional)

For peanut sauce:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (plus more for drizzling on pasta)
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• 4 scallions, sliced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Asian chile sauce – such as sambal oelek or Sriracha (optional)

Place chicken on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or til just done.  Let cool.  Slice thin and toss with 2 tbs soy sauce and 2 tbs mirin.  (Mirin is a type of sweetened rice wine used in Japanese cooking. Most grocery stores will have it near the soy sauce. Add a little honey instead if you don’t have mirin). Chill.

*Optionally, you can use leftover cooked chicken instead, or from a store-cooked rotisserie chicken.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold running water; drain well. When the noodles are cold, toss with sesame oil (just use your clean hands to coat all the strands) and transfer to a large bowl. Set aside.

Meanwhile, make Peanut Sauce: whisk peanut butter, vinegar, sesame oil and rice wine in a bowl until smooth (or use a blender). Add scallions, cilantro, if using, soy sauce and hot sauce, and stir to blend.

Add the chicken, peppers and cucumber to the noodles. (Feel free to add any other thinly sliced veggies you have on hand – zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, etc). If serving immediately, add most of the dressing and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and add the remaining dressing if desired. Transfer the salad to a serving bowl. Serve garnished with sesame seeds and cilantro. (If serving later, or if unsure whether your crowd likes peanut sauce, you can serve it on the side.  I like the salad without it sometimes, perhaps with an extra drizzle of mirin.)

Enjoy!

The post Recipe: Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad appeared first on TaylorMade Meals.

The humble chickpea – simmered in a savory tomato sauce, topped with briny, salty feta and luscious farm-fresh eggs – becomes positively swoon-worthy. There is something about both feta and chickpeas; something that happens to them when you cook them even for a few minutes…the texture becomes a little bit chewy, and a lot of delicious. I’ve been saving this dish to make a for a while, waiting for a night when no one else but me was eating dinner at home, so I could avoid the chickpea suspicion that sometimes emanates from the other people that live here… so I made this dish “for 1” tonight. I prepared the the whole tomato/chickpea mixture, but then just added about 1/4 of it to a small baking dish, added some feta and one egg, and baked it.   I’ll have the rest of the tomato goodness for lunches etc for the rest of the week.  YUM!

My version (for one, so just one egg on top of 2 cups of the chickpea/tomato sauce):

PS: as in all cooking that isn’t baking – which is to say all FUN cooking, haha –  don’t sweat the details.  I used frozen diced onions (LIFE CHANGING), smoked paprika, fresh oregano & basil because I had it, and a box of Pomi tomatoes. If you have jarred marinara, just use that! Easy and super fast. Oh, and please stop buying feta crumbles and reward yourself with a block of good feta.  The salty, briny, clean and sharp taste; the firm, almost meaty texture – sooo much better than the crumbles, and it lasts for weeks in the fridge (you can change the water every so often if you feel like it; I’ve never had one last long enough to spoil though.)

Here’s what block feta looks like:

A brand I like, though there are others:

The flavor and texture are SO much better than the crumbles. It will cost you more than the crumbles, but you GET more, and it’s better.  So, you win.

Oh, and here’s the beautiful Bon Appetite photo from the original recipe:

Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas

The post Recipe: Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas appeared first on TaylorMade Meals.

Isn’t this lovely? Pretty much any time you combine a wealth of fresh veggies, herbs, olives etc, you get a beautiful and healthful dish.  This is kind of a “Hey, let’s see what’s in the fridge” type of dip; you may have all or most of the ingredients on hand right now.  I didn’t use exact amounts; I had most of a thing of cream cheese; “some” hummus; no garlic so I sprinkled in some garlic powder…like most dishes it lends itself well to improvising.

Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese – softened (I had a little bit of plain and a little garden veg – worked great mixed together)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• 1-2 cloves garlic – minced
• 1 1/2 cups prepared hummus
• 1 cup chopped cucumber
• 1 cup chopped tomato (I used roasted peppers)
• 1/2 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/3 cup sliced green onions (or not)
• Pita chips for dipping

Directions

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