Pad Kee Mao

I had my suspicions when Mark Bittman claimed this would “give Pad Thai a serious run for the money,” but I’m sold. This is super delicious, super quick and easy, and satisfied even our somewhat picky almost-4-year-old. We did omit the chilies to keep it kid-friendly, and next time we’ll have sriracha on the side! I’m sure chicken or turkey would sub in fine.

Blogging it so I don’t forget!

Pad Kee Mae (source)

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark sweet soy sauce(kecap manis)
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 6 cloves garlic
• 5 bird’s eye chiles
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ½ cup sliced onion
• 1 pound ground pork
• ½ cup sliced bell peppers
• 12 ounces fresh rice noodles
• 2 handfuls of holy basil leaves (or Thai basil, in a pinch). [Okay, Mark Bittman… regular basil works fine here!]

PREPARATION

1. Whisk together the fish sauce, soy sauce and vinegar, and set aside. Roughly chop the garlic and 3 of the chilies together. Smash the other two chilies with the flat of a knife, and set aside.
2. Put a wok (or a large frying pan) over medium-high heat; when it’s hot, add the oil, the garlic-and-chile mixture and the onion. Cook, stirring constantly, until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the pork and a splash of the sauce. Cook, stirring to break up the meat, until the pork is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the peppers and noodles. Turn the heat to high, and add almost all of the sauce (save a spoonful or two to add later if needed). Cook, tossing everything together and separating the noodles if necessary, until the noodles are coated in sauce and take on a slightly charred flavor from the wok. Taste, and add more sauce if needed. Toss in the basil and the smashed chiles, and serve immediately.

Couscous with Broccoli and Walnuts

File this one under that rare trifecta of “quick, cheap and healthy.”  Mark Bittman’s recipe involves dry roasting walnuts and cooking the couscous with the broccoli in olive oil before adding broth or water to properly cook it.  This recipe is remarkably easy and requires very little at the store, assuming you have a well-stocked pantry.  It won’t take more than 20 minutes to cook and for a dish as healthy as it undoubtedly is, it’s damn satisfying.

Hot, Sweet, and Sour Chickpeas with Eggplant

Quick. Easy. Healthy. Cheap. Tasty. It’s rare that all five of those descriptors find their way into one meal, and I’m happy to report that this one does the trick. It does require a few unique ingredients, but we had most of them on hand already – so, yay!

This will definitely be a regular recipe for us on weeknights. So many great things about it! It really does have a nice spice, a bit of sweetness (maybe a bit too much – next time I might reduce the sugar a wee bit), and the sourness is a really nice touch. A truly great blend of flavours for an interesting dish worth making again.

Artichoke Soup Provençal

Our collection of Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks were extremely good to us in our early days of cooking as apartment dwellers, but it wasn’t until we had been living in the house and were looking for something a little different that we stumbled upon this recipe for Artichoke Soup Provençal.

Although it seemed almost too simple to even be worth trying, the delicious blend of citrus, sherry, saffron and vegetables won us over at first taste and made it a household favourite.

Here’s the recipe:

Acorn Squash Soup

Not a whole lot to say about this one – but it’s got all the right things for a weeknight meal: It’s super simple, it’s really tasty, and it’s quite filling.

The full recipe is here.

We did a few substitutions but it still worked out… no granny smith apples on hand, so we just used a red one we had on hand. Not as tart as it would’ve been, I suppose. Also we only had one acorn squash so we sort of cut it into a third, which ended up with the right quantity for two people.