March is Coffers Clean Out Month

I am a lucky lucky gal.

I have a full (too full?) freezer. A full pantry and time on my hands while I continue to look for a job. I've deemed March as Clean out my Coffers Month. The bulbs are begining to bloom, the local CSA will start in a few months as will the farmers markets. Time to eat through what we've got!

I've been aiming to use as many ingredients from my fridge/freezer/pantry as possible in each meal. I am allowing the purchase of fresh veg/dairy when I absolutely need them. I had a good amount of veg in the fridge from social events I'd cooked for, so this has meant very little.

What's on the clean-out list:

Beany Egg Tortilla (my version of Huevos Rancheros)

Tomato-Onion Masala with Shrimp (Indian)

Potato-Bell Pepper Vegetable (Indian)

Three Cup Chicken (Taiwanese)

Quinoa with Asparagus & Black Bean Salad

Quinoa Tossed Salad

Sausage Minestrone

Strawberry Butter

Grammy's Date Bars

Asparagus (...is Easy and I used it in many dishes!)

Sour Cream Chicken Quiche

Spicy Parchment Hake with Mixed Vegetables

more to come...

I'll continue to add links to the above recipes as they are made.

I'm also lining up some teaching cooking classes over the next weeks, so keep an eye out for those reports!

March will continue to be YUMMY! Can't you just taste it?

Potato-Bell Pepper Vegetable

This is a wonderful and simple Indian side dish from Maya. (Thanks Maya!)

It's REALLY REALLY easy and everyone seems to love it!

I've served it along side Indian dishes of course, but it's equally as tasty with a piece of fish and some rice. After you've tried it, let me know how YOU served it!

Printable version of Recipe

Ingredients:

olive oil
3-4 medium potatoes,

peeled/washed and cut into 1" thick slices of 1-1/2" lengths
3 Bell Peppers, cleaned and cut into 1" thick slices of 1-1/2" lengths
2 Tomatoes, cut into 8ths
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp garlic paste*

1/2 tsp ginger paste*

1-2 fresh thai chilies or 1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chili powder

1/4 tsp garam masala

salt to taste

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

Medium pan with cover (Ideally cover will have a lip at the edge that you can put a little water in without it running off.)

Peel and cut the potatoes into 1" thick slices of 1-1/2" lengths. I place them in a bowl covered with cool water. Just prior to putting them into the pan I drain them. The water that sticks to them is helpful in the cooking.

In a medium pan over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp oil. When heated, add mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add the potatoes. Layer on the bell peppers, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Cover and cook on medium heat until potatoes are 3/4 done. (Stick potato with a fork and when still slightly tough, it's 3/4 done.)

Add ginger and garlic paste (and chillies/jalapeno if using) and stir to mix

well. Cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Add all other dry spice except for garam masala. Stir and mix well cook for 2 minutes. Turn heat down to a simmer once potatoes are cooked through.

Layer on the tomato slices. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add some water to the cover**.

Sprinkle on the garam masala and cilantro when done. Cover and let sit a few minutes.

** Tip: A trick Maya taught me. If you feel it may burn, put some water on top of the cover and keep cooking. This will keep the pot from burning.

*If you don't have these pastes, finely chop either garlic or ginger as called for. Garlic paste and ginger paste may be found at your local Indian market and at many specialty markets.

*** A note about Indian spices. You can play around with the spices in this dish. Beware that you may not want to increase the amount of turmeric as it can easily make a dish bitter.

Printable version of Recipe