Crockpot Mac & Cheese (with real cheese)

I don't have a picture for this one. I assembled it yesterday morning, let it cook during church, and by the time the potluck was over, the mac and cheese was gone. Which is why I'm posting the recipe.

It's from a healthy cookbook, but they made this recipe healthy by using fat-free cheese. I refuse to use fat-free cheese. What on earth is it made out of, anyway? My guess is that it tastes like cardboard. However, I was able to lighten this recipe in other ways. I lessened the amount of cheese and doubled the amount of pasta (the original wanted 4 cups of cheese for 1/2 pound pasta, which is insane).

My mom tells me that macaroni and cheese has to have at least some Velveeta in it to make it creamy. I think Velveeta is really gross (and she does too, even if she does use a tiny bit). I was glad this recipe didn't call for any, because I didn't want to pay way too much money for just a tiny amount of it. (Yes, I know they sell slices of it. I also know that one package of slices costs the same as a 2-pound block, and even if it does keep for eight weeks--ick!--how on earth would I use the rest of it?)

Here's a helpful hint. When testing to see if pasta is done, use a slotted spoon. Dip out a couple pieces of pasta, bring the spoon to the sink, and run cold water on the pasta before you taste them. I am so glad I can do this now that I have a slotted spoon! I've been looking at thrift stores for a slotted spoon with no luck (nothing that looked decent enough to buy), but I saw a good one in the $1 bin at Walgreens the other day, and I was delighted to have it. On Saturday night, after I cooked the pasta, I accidentally dropped a fork on my toe, tines down (ouch!), and I remember thinking, "Well, at least I have a slotted spoon."

By the way, why on earth do manufacturers keep making plastic cooking utensils with metal on the handle? They're always in the really-cheap bin, because the metal will burn your hand if you use it near the stove. I learned my lesson five years ago, but apparently the manufacturers haven't learned theirs yet. You would think they'd have figured it out by now...


Crockpot Mac & Cheese (with real cheese)
adapted from the Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly cookbook

1 pound of elbow macaroni (or other small shapes), cooked al dente
1 can fat-free evaporated milk
1 cup skim milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray (do not omit this step).
2. In the slow cooker, mix together everything except the parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup of the cheddar cheese.
3. Top with parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese.
4. Cook on low 3 hours.

Nutty Quinoa Salad and Seitan Cutlets

I got quinoa last week, mainly because it was a complete protein, and I've been wondering what to do with it. Last night I looked it up in The New Basics Cookbook, which is a fantastic cookbook that I think everyone should have. It describes all the vegetables, grains, types of rice, etc, and how to cook them and what they're best used for. Anyway, it had a recipe for Nutty Quinoa Salad, and it looked good, so I decided to try it.

When I opened the quinoa, it smelled a little strange, so I decided it would be a good idea to rinse it--except that it was too small and would go through the holes in my colander. So I lined a bowl with a clean dishrag, put in the quinoa, then the water, and then lifted the quinoa out using the dishcloth. Rinse and repeat.

 
 
 

Then you cook the quinoa and water, add the raisins, and cook a bit more until the water's absorbed. My stove is a bit finicky about coming to a boil if the saucepan is big--after all, it's only a 6-inch burner--but it did pretty well. It took a little longer than the recipe, but that's normal. Then it looks like this:

 

It said to remove from the heat and spread it in a thin layer on a baking sheet to cool. I completely disregarded this instruction, because I didn't want to have to wash the baking sheet, and I had nowhere to put the baking sheet anyway. So I put it in a bowl and added the green onions (so they would cook a little with the steam). Pretty soon I learned why they want you to spread it out: otherwise, it sticks together in a big glob. That's okay by me. After all, it's The Modest Kitchen.

I started in on the Seitan Cutlets, which I made like the Chicken Cutlets Mom used to make. I was a little dubious about the lump of seitan I was using, because it had been in the fridge a few days, but I tried a little bit and it tasted all right, so I kept going. I sliced the seitan:

 

Then I dipped the slices in egg and bread crumbs and sauteed them in the pan.

 

 

When I was done, I didn't want to waste the egg, and it hadn't been contaminated by raw chicken or anything, so I scrambled the leftover egg with some of the leftover breadcrumbs.

 

Back to the quinoa salad. I added the peanuts, mandarin oranges, and some toasted sesame oil. The recipe calls for regular sesame oil, but it wasn't available at either of the nearby grocery stores, except an extra-virgin sesame oil (???) that cost more than $8. I was planning to add some canola oil if I needed a little more oil, but I don't like oily food, and a couple of tablespoons of toasted sesame oil seemed like plenty.

 

Then I sat down for dinner, and I soon realized that I hadn't added the mint or the orange zest. I was too hungry to go back to food prep, so I just added a little mint and orange zest to the portion on my plate. The quinoa salad was good--it really tasted gourmet. Unfortunately, most of the seitan had gone bad. A couple of the slices tasted ok, but most of them tasted like chewy fish. Ick. The egg, however, was fantastic. I have to do that again sometime.

After dinner, I added the mint and orange zest to the rest of the salad. Here's the final version:

 

Nutty Quinoa Salad
from The New Basics Cookbook

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup sesame oil (I used a tablespoon or two of toasted sesame oil)
3 green onions, white bulb and 3 inches green, sliced
1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
1/2 cup canned mandarin orange sections, drained (I used an entire small can, because I didn't want to waste the leftovers)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves (I used much less, probably 10-15 leaves)
2 teaspoons grated orange zest

1. Combine the quinoa and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the raisins and continue cooking until all the liquid has evaporated, 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and spread the mixture out on a baking sheet. Let it cool completely.

2. In a large bowl, combine the quinoa and raisins with all the remaining ingredients. Toss gently and serve.

4 to 6 portions


Seitan Cutlets

Egg(s)
Italian style bread crumbs
Sliced seitan
Oil

Put egg and breadcrumbs in separate bowls. Beat egg. Dip slices of seitan in egg and then breadcrumbs to coat.

I think this would have been good, if I hadn't used too-old seitan, and if I hadn't cooked the seitan too long when I first made it (see previous post about seitan). I'll chalk that up to experience and try again, because this really is promising.


Scrambled Egg(s) with Breadcrumbs

Scramble egg(s) as usual, but add Italian-style breadcrumbs when you add the egg. Yum.

Making Seitan

What a mess! (But it was a lot of fun.)

I've been reading a vegetarian cookbook lately--it's called 366 Healthful Ways to Cook Tofu and Other Meat Alternatives--and I came across something called seitan. It's a meat alternative with a decent amount of protein, and you can make it yourself pretty cheaply, and apparently it can substitute for meat so that people hardly notice. You can make things like Seitan Cutlets (like Chicken Cutlets--breaded and sauteed--but no chicken) or Seitan Bourguignon (like a beef stew). It seemed worth trying, so I set about making seitan this afternoon.

You start with wheat flour (I used 6 cups), and then you add a little less than half that amount of water, and make a ball of dough which you knead for 5 minutes. Don't flour and water make paste? That's what it felt like. It definitely wasn't like dough, so I'm not sure how you really knead it. Mostly I ended up squishing it through my fingers. I tried to scrape the last bits of dry flour out of the bottom of the bowl, but my hands were so coated with paste that I didn't have much success with that.

I would have taken a picture of the process, but if I had tried, I would have ruined the camera.

The next step was to run water over the dough, which also allowed me to get all the goop off my hands, and leave it alone (covered with water) for 15 minutes. Now it looked like this:

 

The 15-minute interlude gave me time to get out the stove and the pot . You fill the pot with water and add some seasonings. I didn't have most of what the book recommended, but I did have half an onion and half a clove of garlic, and I also added some soy sauce and a dash of powdered ginger to approximate what was recommended.

Back to the dough. You stick your hands in the water and start kneading (or squishing) the dough again. The water will turn white. When it does, you pour it down the drain, add more warm or cold water, and knead some more. Rinse and repeat until the water doesn't turn white any more. This took me about 20 minutes. As I kept doing this, the dough got stranger and stranger.

First it held together in a lump:

 

 

Then it started to look like brains:



Then it got too stringy to look like brains, and too stretchy to knead, so I had to pull it apart to knead it:



Finally I decided I was done and I drained the last bit of water. Now it's raw seitan:



Then I cut it into four pieces:



Apparently seitan should be poached right after you make it (cooked over low heat for an hour), and then you can cook it for whatever you want to use it for (or freeze it in liquid). I had the cooking liquid ready, so I turned the stove on. A few minutes later, I realized that it didn't do any good to turn the stove on when I hadn't plugged it in yet:



Finally I got the cooking water heated to almost boiling, added the raw seitan, put on the lid (not because of the recipe, but because my stove works better that way), and decided it was time for dinner. Leftovers!

After dinner I finally decided it had cooked enough, so I took it out of the pot:



Then I bagged it and left it out to cool, and later I'll put it in the freezer. Tomorrow I'll decide what I want to make with it.

I also started thinking about my poor sink. The kneading underwater process gets out the starch and bran from the dough, so a lot of starch and bran went down the drain. I really did try to wipe some of it out, but there was so much of it! I think I'll give the sink a dose of baking soda and vinegar tonight. That should clear out the drain, and besides, it's so fun to watch it bubble.

Tabouleh

This is my favorite summer meal. I made this recipe as a copycat of the Near East boxed version, which might not be authentic, but it tastes awfully good. It's best with tomato and cucumber from the garden or from a farmers' market. Amounts of tomato and cucumber are approximate--make sure to use plenty!



1 cup bulgur wheat
3 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 T. lemon juice
3 T. olive oil
1 T. chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, or 2 T. and 2t. dried parsley
2 small cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t. onion powder
Salt, pepper, sugar, to taste

1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped, seeds removed (or a few small cucumbers, chopped--no need to peel or remove seeds)
2 large tomatoes, chopped and drained (cut off ends, squeeze out juice and seeds, then chop)
6 oz. feta, crumbled
Toasted pine nuts, optional

Heat water to boiling. Pour over bulgur. Cover and let sit on the counter for an hour or so. Drain.

Mix lemon juice, olive oil, mint, parsley, and garlic. Add onion powder, a bit of salt and pepper, and a pinch or two of sugar. Pour over bulgur and toss well. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Add cucumber, tomato, and feta. Toss well. Refrigerate until serving (at least 1 hour). Add pine nuts, if using. Serves 4 as a main dish.