Lee Kum Kee’s prepared sauces are about the same price (often less expensive, depending where you go) as the super-salty-low-on-flavor LaChoy selections, but here’s the difference: great big in-your-face flavor. The Spicy Garlic Eggplant sauce is one of my absolute favorites for restaurant-quality food at home AND, unlike many LaChoy products, is MSG-free.

Plus, it’s so easy to make! I like to peel my eggplant first (not a fan of the skin), but leaving the skin on adds a cool purple color to the dish. I also add onions, whatever pepper I have in the house, and this time the rest of some broccoli rabe that I bought for stir-frying a couple weeks ago.

I’ve made this with pork and, as I did last night, with chicken and tofu, and it never disappoints. Stick with the American brands if you’re cooking for kids or those without a sophisticated palette, I suppose. But if you’re cooking Chinese, buy the brands the Chinese use.

If you’re just learning to cook, write this recipe down. If you’re trying to impress a dinner party full of friends or a date, write this down. It’s brilliant.

Okay, it’s not brilliant, but it’s easy and seriously, everybody loves it. Chicken cacciatore is one of the first fancypants recipes I ever made and one of the things that convinced me that I might actually be good at this cooking thing.

So remember the baby bottles of wine I told you about? The ones that cost about $1 apiece at my local grocery store? Well, they’re back, this time with a yummy cabernet sauvignon.

You can use any red wine, and if you’re really into wine (I’m not), go ahead and buy a fancier bottle. But this will do the trick nicely, I promise you.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 14oz of stewed or diced tomatoes. (I prefer no-salt added so I can have more control over the seasoning)
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (Classico Florentine’s my favorite)
  
• 4lb chicken parts. (Bone-in breasts are great, but if you’re looking for cheap this works great with drumsticks or thighs)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced (use whatever veggies you like. Carrots are great in this dish too)
• 4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
• Generous amounts of Italian Herbs, salt and pepper to taste. (I will never tell you how much to spice something. Just remember that the flavor will intensify as the sauce reduces, so beware of over-salting)
• 1 mini bottle of cabernet sauvignon
• 1 tube of prepared polenta. My favorite is San Gennaro, and many grocery stores carry this. Scared of polenta? Serve this over noodles…chicken.
  

Season your chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Drizzle about 2 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the bottom of a high-walled sauté pan and turn the heat on medium. Give the oil a minute or two to heat up, then add the raw onion, garlic and vegetables. Sauté until the onions are translucent and the vegetables begin to soften. Place the chicken parts skin-down in the pan amongst the veggies and cook until the skin is browned. If you’re using drumsticks, brown them all around.

Pour the little bottle of wine over the chicken and sauté for 2 minutes before adding the tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle generously with Italian herbs…

QUICK TIP: Basil’s hard to screw up. Oregano’s easy to screw up. When in doubt, be generous with basil and take it slow with the oregano. Too much oregano will make your sauce bitter. If that happens, try adding some tomato paste to your sauce. The sweetness of the tomato will help balance it out. Also, salt’s about the easiest thing to screw up, and most shortcut dishes (because they start with canned veg or sauce) don’t require any extra salt. [Follow the cut for the rest of the recipe]

Anyway, back to the recipe. Turn the heat to low and cover your pan, leaving the lid a bit off-kilter to allow for some steam to escape. After 15 minutes, check, stir everything and flip your chicken. Repeat this once. When you repeat this a third time, remove the lid entirely. Your chicken should be cooked enough by now to start tasting your sauce. Season as needed. After another 15 minutes, the sauce should be plenty thick, super flavorful and the chicken will be cooked through.

If it’s not? Remove the chicken and turn the heat on high, stirring often, which will encourage the sauce to reduce.

So about the polenta… Slice your polenta into 1/4″ thick slices. If you’ve got a grill pan, oil it and heat it up. If not, just use a regular frying pan with a little bit of olive oil. Grill or sauté until browned, then flip it over. A few slices creates a great bed for this dish and it’s so much more fun than regular pasta!

These enormous shrimp were so cheap it was amazing they were still fresh and delicious, but their seafood’s never done us wrong. Shrimp scampi is actually incredibly easy to make. I like cooking it with the shells because there’s so much flavor in the shells.

To make shrimp scampi, all you need is butter and a little fresh garlic (though a little Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic can make a great substitute!). Here are some QUICK TIPS for making awesome shrimp scampi:

• Don’t forget to devein your shrimp! And yes, you CAN devein your shrimp with the shell on!
• Be generous with the butter! For ten of these jumbo badboys I used about 3/4 stick of butter
• …and the garlic!! Three huge cloves of garlic and a squeeze of lemon juice rounded out the flavor
• Keep the shells on! Makes them harder to eat, but
  • the shells hold in flavor and add flavor to the butter sauce
  • you can save the shells to make a delicious stock!

I served this over some leftover Chinese takeout rice with a little bit of roasted corn. I tossed the browned butter and garlic with the rice for an outstanding flavor!

Also, a handful of shrimp shells goes a LONG way! I saved these garlic-soaked babies and tossed them in a quart of water to boil for about an hour and a half with a carrot and half an onion to make an amazing seafood stock that I froze to use later (perhaps in a delicious Jambalaya?).

CONFESSION: I love cookbooks. Like LOVE cookbooks, even though I rarely use the recipes as described. I like browsing through for fun, getting ideas, learning new techniques I can apply elsewhere. Sure, I use the internet to find recipes on occasion, but my first stop is almost always my shelf of cookbooks. And that’s where I found this recipe.

Looks pretty foul, doesn’t it? If you don’t eat Indian food regularly I’m sure it does, but after the discovery of an adorable little Indian grocer I needed to try to make my own version of one of my favorite Indian dishes. QUICK TIP: Don’t make substitutions when cooking a cuisine you’re not experienced with. Since I’m still learning the subtleties of cooking Indian food, this was a recipe I needed to follow to the letter. Which I didn’t. Which is why it was kind of meh, but I’m going to try it again. Moral of the story: Don’t replace the tomatoes with tomato paste. It won’t work.

This (very slightly modified) recipe came from The Best Ever Indian by Brian Wilson, which has a thousand and one delicious things I’m DYING to try. It’s a beautiful book and I recommend it highly.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bag fresh spinach leaves (about 1/lb)
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil (I used considerably less, but I don’t think that had an effect it)
• 8 oz paneer, cubed (Indian cottage cheese—if you don’t have it, you can use chicken as well if you brown it first)
• 1 sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger paste (I use The Ginger People ginger paste… YUM)
• 7 oz (about half a can) canned tomatoes, drained (yeah… I skipped this part because I lacked the ingredients and used tomato paste instead. Don’t skip it.)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• *Penzey’s Garam Masala to taste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 stick butter

*I found the recipe pretty bland as far as spice with these teensy amounts, so I seasoned the heck out of it with Garam Masala curry powder.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the spinach leaves and blanch for 4–5 minutes. Drain well and reserve some broth. Add the tomatoes and, using a hand blender (I use the KitchenAid Immersion Blender given to me by my friend Angela) or food processor, puree the spinach.

Heat the oil in a skillet and add the paneer, tossing frequently until lightly browned. Remove and drain on a paper towel.

Add the onion to the same skillet and cook until softened. Add the ginger paste and cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach, spices, lemon juice and butter and cook, stirring constantly. If mixture’s too dry, add a little of the reserved broth from blanching the spinach.

The intensity of the flavor will increase overnight, but let it sit at least 15 minutes to let the flavors meld together.

Would I make this again? Absolutely. That said, I still think the Palak Paneer from Kitchens of India is far superior, and also cheaper to make.

The Bandai Futomaki Maker has arrived, and as expected it’s kind of fun, kind of a pain in the ass, and going to feature quite the learning curve, but it was a start. We made the “it’s almost a heart” sushi (the purple in the picture) and figured out how to make it actually a heart, but I only made enough rice for dinner. This will require rice for experimentation.

I did, however, discover the sheer awesomeness that is colored sushi, featuring rice tinted with McCormick Neon Food Coloring. HOLY CRAP IT’S AWESOME. I learned that by putting the colors half & half (I had  a little more green than purple left) you get a sort-of-but-not-really-a-yinyang shape, and that purple and green sushi might be the coolest thing ever.

QUICK TIP: If you’re planning on making a sushi dinner on a work day, make your rice before you leave for work. It’ll be JUST FINE in your rice cooker all day and when you get home you’ll have already cooled rice ready for mixing.

Want my sushi recipe? Check it out here. I shall reserve judgment on the Futomaki maker for when I actually get some time to play with it properly.

My lunch tomorrow is going to be so badass… In reality it’s at least a lunch-and-a-half, but still…

CONFESSION: I just can’t keep anything simple. Even something as basic as sloppy joes I have to play around with, find a way to make it more interesting, usually by adding more vegetables and some herbs to a prepared sauce.

That said, I also make the best sloppy joes on the planet. My secrets?

• Sauté an onion, a red pepper and a green pepper in some olive oil and set aside. Add it in when everything else is done cooking for the strongest vegetable flavor
• Penzey’s Northwoods Fire seasoning blend adds a great smokiness
• Gouda cheese. I buy mine at Aldi and keep it handy for shredding on random things, but for some reason Gouda+Sloppy Joe is like magic!
• I always serve it up with Milwaukee Midget Dill Pickles, hands down the best pickles in the galaxy. Seriously, there’s nothing better, and I’ve tried many to compare. Buy them online from the Willy Street Co-Op in Madison. and try them yourself!

QUICK TIP: Don’t skimp on the fish! Spend the money and get high-quality fish, because there’s nothing worse than fishy-tasting sushi. If you can find one, go to an Asian grocer. I won’t make sushi with fish from anywhere but Mitsuwa for my sushi fish and other Asian ingredients.

There are lots of ways to make su-meshi, sticky sushi rice. This is my method.

INGREDIENTS: TIARAMAKI (Tiara’s maki rolls)

• 2 cups Calrose Rice, Sushi Rice, or Brown Sushi Rice. I swear by Kagayaki Brown Sushi Rice.
• Rice Vinegar, 3 tbsp
• White sugar, 7 tsp
• Sanrio Hello Kitty Furikake … wait, what?

I came across this at first because it was adorable. Then it became what I consider my signature ingredient that makes my Tiaramaki special. The Hello Kitty brand includes dried bits of 7 different vegetables in all: broccoli, tomato, radish, green pea, spinach, pumpkin, seaweed and carrot. You can also use the seasoning packet that comes with most brands of roasted nori, the seaweed for rolliing.

I prepare my rice with my Black & Decker Handy Steamer, adding a little extra water. Mix the rice vinegar with the white sugar and set aside. When the rice is cooked, put into a mixing bowl. Add the vinegar and sugar with two packets of the vegetable furikake.Put in the fridge until cool, at least 30 minutes.

More on the recipe behind the cut…

To make the rolls, you will need:

• 1-2 small pieces of sushi-grade fish; I use tuna or salmon for my dinner parties
• 1 package roasted seaweed nori
• 1 small zucchini, sliced julienne style
• 1 small carrot, sliced julienne style
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1 avocado, sliced (how to slice an avocado)
• Mayonnaise
• Sriracha Thai Chili Sauce
• Pickled Ginger
• Penzey’s Wasabi Powder
• San-J Premium Tamari Soy Sauce (don’t skimp on the soy sauce… this is by far the best I’ve tried)
• Sushi mat

Slice the fish thinly across the grain and set aside. Mix 3 tbsp mayonnaise with a small squirt of the chili sauce. This will be your spicy mayo, so make it as mild or spicy as you’d like. Mix the fish with the mayonnaise until coated.

You can find many YouTube videos and step-by-step instructions for making maki rolls; this is how I do it. Lay your sushi mat in front of you with the slats laying horizontally. Place a piece of nori on your sushi mat, the shiny-side out. Using a rice paddle or wet fingers, take a bit of rice and put it in a thin layer across the entire piece of nori. This is the part that takes the most practice, so don’t be alarmed if it seems like your first few rolls are too thick or skimpy. About 1″ from the bottom, layer in a thin line some fish, one line of julienne carrots and one line of zucchini, 1–2 spring onion segments, a slice of avocado and a layer of coated fish. Using your mat to help you, begin rolling the nori by folding the first bit over and pressing down. Continue rolling the sushi, keeping pressure on the roll. Again, this will take practice. Set aside and make the rest of the rolls.

Chill the rolls for at least 10 minutes. You will cut this into pieces using a VERY sharp knife. Wet the knife first, then use a slicing motion with as little pressure as possible. Cut it into 3/4 inch segments.

Serve well-chilled with pickled ginger, tamari sauce and wasabi.

There are lots of methods for making this dish, but I love a nice crispy coating on my eggplant, serving the rounds on the side and saucing it with each bite rather than coating the fried pieces in sauce and letting them get soggy. I also prefer a nice thick cut of eggplant, which gives the meal more substance than thinly sliced pieces. That said, I’m not sure there are any shortcut secrets about Eggplant Parmigiana; other than using a quality sauce (like Bertolli’s Premium Pasta Sauces) that don’t require a lot of doctoring to get going, it’s kind of a hurry up and wait dish.

But while there aren’t many shortcuts available for such a meal, I do have some QUICK TIPS.

• Make of mix of about 50% flavored breadcrumbs and 50% quality grated parmesan. And don’t you dare use the cheese from a green can. Spend the extra buck and get the good stuff in a plastic tub or, better yet, stop by an Italian deli if you have one nearby.
• Use a light oil like vegetable or sunflower oil for frying the eggplant. Olive oil taints the flavor and gets a little bitter.
• The jury’s out on salting eggplant and letting it sit so the juices can drain. I’ve made it both ways and find the “drained” eggplant is simply, well, saltier.

The best part about this dish? The price.

$1 for 1 humungous eggplant
$1 for Bertolli Premium Pasta Sauce with coupon
$1 for Aldi Whole Wheat Spaghetti
>$2 for bread crumbs, oil parmesan cheese, 2 eggs for egg wash, and herbs

Under $5 to feed three with at least three servings of leftovers. Whoever says eating cheap means eating crap is out of their minds.

Tonight I made the Cheesy Ranch Burger Hamburger Helper, but of course I added my own special touches to make it my own. I sautéed sliced onion and diced poblano pepper in olive oil until slightly charred. I then  added some sweet white corn and a diced roma tomato and let that sit.

I prepared the Hamburger Helper according to package directions (except the added fat) with 97% lean ground beef (worth the extra cost). When it was done, I tossed in the sautéed veggies and mixed it all together.

QUICK TIP: Cook your vegetables separate from the Hamburger Helper. This goes for any boxed meal that you’re modifying. Don’t just toss the veggies in with the water, milk and sauce mix. That will make the veggies soggy and flavorless. Sauté them in a separate pan and toss everything together right before serving.

I’ll add some other recent goodies too. It’s good to be back on track.

I’m not sure if I’ll do it again.

My discouraged attitude comes from the fact that I’d already been burned by the frozen discount salmon I pulled out of the fridge yesterday, all fishy and questionable. A stop at the grocer on the way home from work fixed that, so victory was close. I sprinkled the salmon with some Penzey’s magic, their Trinidad Lemon-Garlic Marinade and some dried dill, then broiled it for about 15 minutes, and it was simply perfect.
QUICK TIP: Place a layer of wax paper on your baking sheet before baking or broiling salmon. It keeps the pesky skin from sticking to the pan, making cleanup infinitely easier.

The artichokes were another story altogether. I prepared them according to Mark Bittman’s instruction in How to Cook Everything, and I did everything right…Until I didn’t. Instead of steaming the artichokes for the full 45 minutes, I removed them with about 15 minutes to go, figuring I’d just sauté the quarters with the leftover pasta, butter and garlic that would become my side dish. Bad idea. The artichokes that were fully cooked were remarkable and tender; the ones that weren’t (most of them) were a little on the spiky side and a disappointment.

But boy were they pretty!

Sticking them back in the steamer helped, but still: giant pain in the ass. However, the flavor is very different from canned artichoke hearts, and that’s pretty spectacular. Worth making again? Oh, who am I kidding; probably.