Table Talk - Vegetable Lo Mein

This week for our dinner group we made pasta - I love pasta!   The recipe was for Vegetable Lo Mein.  Traditionally lo mein is made with spaghetti.  I was sure I had some... I was wrong.  So I used eggs noodles instead.  Plus I decided to throw in some leftover chicken too, so I don't think you can call what I made Vegetable Lo Mein... :-)

I started by prepping all the veggies - mushrooms (I bought sliced, so no work there), cabbage (sliced), red peppers, scallions and garlic.

Then I put the sauce together - chicken broth, soy sauce, oyster-flavored sauce & cornstartch.

Then I started the water for the noodles.  While that came to a boil I cooked everything else. 

Mushrooms first, then the cabbage & red peppers.  Finally the scallions and the garlic.  I was supposed to put in some ginger but I don't like it, so I left it out. 

 Once all the veggies we cooked I added in the sauce and let it simmer for a bit.  The final step was to add the noodles.  I decided to throw in some chicken I had leftover so it was a bit heartier.

 The last step was to add in a bit more seasoning - cilantro, toasted sesame oil and sriracha sauce.  I only added the sriracha sauce.  Even though it was really, really hot on it's own I decided to try it. 

I liked the dish.  I wish I'd had the spaghetti noodles.  I think they would have absorbed the sauce better.  But the egg noodles were more aligned with the size of the veggies so it was actually easier to eat.  I didn't pick up a lot of heat from the sriracha but I think that may be because I didn't mix it in very well.  I'm probably going to come across one or two bites that blow my mouth apart, with my luck. 

Check out Talesha's blog for the complete recipe. 

Table Talk: Breakfast Strata

I had a crazy busy April... May is looking to be about as bad.  Since it's my turn to host I made this well in advance to make sure I didn't miss my turn.  But then I postponed writing the actual post... now it's been so long since I made this dish I'm worried I won't remember enough about it to actually write anything!  Hopefully the pictures will help.

Step one - toast the bread, low and slow...

 

 

Next melt the butter

Then cook the onion until soft.

I used dry onions... that way I don't have to dice it.  :-)  Then you add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then you stir in spinach

and heat through... not sure why since you set it aside for a while and ultimately chill it for up to 24 hours...

I transferred the spinach/onion/garlic mixture to a bowl and added apple juice to the pan to reduce.  I don't drink so I figured apple juice would work instead of the white wine.

I let it boil it away until it had reduced by half.

Now it was time to assemble everything.  I used my handy magic bullet to mix up the eggs and other liquid ingredients.

 

Then I dumpped the liquids and bread crumbs into the bowl with the onions, spinach and garlic.

Opps... I need a bigger bowl.

After I got everything into a bigger bowl I got it all mixed up and moved into a greased 8x8" pan.

I covered the dish with plastic wrap and weighted it down.  The recipe says to use a gallon ziploc bag full of sugar.  I didn't want to deal with sugar everywhere, because I was sure to spill, I went looking for something else that would work.

 

I had two full bags of Calcium Chews - I figured that would work.  I put the whole thing in the frig overnight.

The next morning I topped it with the leftover feta and cooked it for about an hour.

Unfortunately I didn't remember to take any pictures of it after it was cooked... 

I was expecting this to taste more like a frittata or souffle, but the main flavor and texture was the bread.  I liked the taste and it was reasonably filling with the eggs and feta.  Overall it was good, but I probably wouldn't make it again - too much bread, not enough veggies. 

If you want to try it out here's the complete recipe.

BREAKFAST STRATA

SERVES 6

Do not substitute oil for the butter in this recipe as it provides important richness. Do not substitute lowfat or skim milk here.

½      loaf supermarket French or Italian bread (about 6 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about four cups)

2       tablespoons unsalted butter (see not above)

1           onion, minced

1           garlic clove, minced

10     ounces frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, and chopped coarse

½      cup dry white wine (or apple juice)

          Vegetable oil spray

6       large eggs

1 ¾   cups whole milk (see note above)

1           teaspoon salt

¼      teaspoon pepper

1 ½   cups crumbled feta cheese

 

 

1.         Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 275 degrees.  Following the photos on page 24, spread the bread cubes out over a rimmed baking sheet and bake until thoroughly dry and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes.

2.         Melt the butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in the spinach and cook until the spinach is heated through, about 2 minutes.  Transfer the spinach mixture to a bowl.  Add the wine to the skillet and simmer over medium-high heat until it has reduced to ¼ cup, about three minutes; set aside to cool separately.

3.         Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with vegetable oil spray.  Whisk the eggs, reduced wine, milk, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.  Stir in the spinach mixture, 1 cup of the feta, and the dried bread cubes until well combined.  Pour the mixture into the baking dish and cover with plastic wrap.  Weight the strata down with a large zipper-lock bag filled with sugar.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

4.         When ready to bake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.  Meanwhile, remove the weight from the strata and let it stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup feta.  Bake until the surface is puffed and the edges pull away slightly from the dish, 50 to 55 minutes.  Let the strata cool slightly before serving.

 

PER SERVING:  Cal 340; Fat 18 g; Sat Fat 10g;  Chol 255 mg; Carb 23g; Protein 16g; Fiber 2g; Sodium 1050 mg