Saturday Date Nights with Yours Truly - Mushroom Stroganoff

Kevin had a man-date last Saturday, which meant I had a full Saturday night to myself.  Whenever I get a Saturday night on my own, I jump on the chance to make Mushroom Stroganoff since Kev hates mushrooms. 

This dish has been one of my favorites for years.  It was my birthday dinner with my dad since I was about 12 years old, and is my most-requested dish when I go home. My dad gets his recipe from no other than....Mollie Katzen (yes, her again - she's just SO GOOD!).  When I moved into my first apartment, my dad gave me one of my favorite gifts yet - a wooden recipe card box with my favorite recipes added in.  Stroganoff was one of those recipes. 

I cook this pretty much according to the recipe, though I do add moer wine and a little more dill than it calls for, just because I like it better that way.

Unfortunately, this recipe has the sauce cooked in a double-boiler.  I do not have a double-boiler, though at this point, I should probably invest in one. Normally, I work with what I have and put a sauce pan in a large multi-pot (8 qt. or so).  Unfortunately, I am working with less than a full set of pots and pans right now (we never bought new ones after the move, and didn't get a full set as a wedding gift, so we've only got random pots right now).  I first attempted to use my usual method using a saute pan and my 8 wt. multi-pot, but the saute pan was not large enough for all the stroganoff sauce I was attempting to make.  I also accidentally let the pot sink and got a little water in the sauce.  Oops.  I promise I'm not normally this bad with these sorts of things. Please keep reading anyways.  So I stopped cooking and started over with the pots.  This is what I came up with.

Pretty ghetto.  And since I was using a frying pan to hold the water and the pot, the multi-pot was resting on the bottom of the frying pan, which probably completely negated double-boil effect.  But I decided to ignore that and just go ahead with it anyways.

At this point, I needed a glass of wine more than the sauce did, so I opened a bottle of Skinny Girl Red.

I've never had it, and truthfully find all the Skinny Girl drinks I've had to taste a little watered-down, but I was curious about the wine.  It was actually pretty good, though it did taste a little watered-down. ;)
I will also note that I cheated a bit on this recipe.  I didn't actually steam any vegetables.  Sometimes, I just want the sauce and some noodles.  They ARE my favorite parts...

Let me tell you, with a glass (or two) of wine and last week's episode of Downton Abbey on the DVR, this stroganoff cannot be beat.  Happiness.
Enjoi!

The Thai In Me - Pad Thai

I had a craving for Thai food yesterday. I haven't had it since moving to Pittsburgh - I'm not sure if I've just been lazy in finding a good place, or if I am disdainful of any place other than Bangkok Bay in Solana Beach (Green Curry = Amazing).  But since Solana Beach is now :( thousands of miles away from me, I figured I was gonna have to figure something out soon.  Pad Thai seemed like one of the easier Thai dishes to make, and is certainly one of my favorites.  Having never made it before, I checked out a few recipes online and ran into a few issues: 1.) Most recipes seem to call for fish sauce; 2.) Most recipes seem to call for tamarind, and I have no clue what that is; and 3.) Most recipes seem to be either pretty complicated and long, or super short and don't come out as real Pad Thai. I really wanted to compromise on all these things, and I was surprised to find that I was able to pull it off pretty damn well.  I found my inner Thai as follows:

1 lb. Asian Rice Noodles
1 block Firm Tofu
1 medium Yellow Onion
4 cloves Garlic
1/2 Tbs. minced, Fresh Ginger (I actually used the prepared ginger paste from a tube, since fresh ginger in Pittsburgh is apparently ridiculously expensive - DUMB)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup Mung Bean Sprouts
4 Green Onions
1/4 cup chopped Peanuts
Chopped fresh Cilantro, to taste

Sauce:
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
2 Tbs. Sriracha or other hot sauce (use more if you like it spicy)
1/2 cup Lime Juice
meager 1/4 cup White Sugar

Press the tofu for about 30 minutes (I do this by wrapping the whole block in paper towels, leaving it in my kitchen sink and piling a bunch of plates on top of it) to get the water out of it. Once pressed, cut into cubes and spread out on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees, flipping the cubes over a couple times, for about 30-45 minutes, or until each side is lightly browned and crusted.
While the tofu is in the oven, whisk together all the Sauce ingredients in a bowl and set it aside.
Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions, rinse, and drain.
Slice the yellow onion.  In a wok or large skillet, saute the oinion, garlic, tofu, and ginger with a small amount of olive oil (or sesame oil, if you have that sort of thing) for a few minutes until the onions are soft.  Make a space in the bottom of the wok and pour in the beaten eggs. Scramble them and then mix them in with everything else. Add in the cooked rice noodles and pour the sauce over everything, mixing well.  Keep over heat for a few minutes so that the noodles are warmed and the sauce begins to thicken.
Remove from heat, and mix in the bean sprouts.  Plate the Pad Thai, and top with the chopped green onion, peanuts, and cilantro to taste.

This was so easy, and really, REALLY good.  I was pretty proud of myself, to be honest.  I mixed up a quick Thai Cucumber Salad to go with this - I like the balance of the heat from the noodles and the coolness of the cucumbers.
Enjoi!