Green Peas in Dill Cream Sauce-Eating the Alphabet

The letters for the Eating the Alphabet Challenge hosted by Brenda at Meal Planning Magic are P, Q, and R.  I had planned to make a pea salad.  However due to recent extensive dental work, I am needing to eat soft food.  Fortunately, I had a pea recipe in my drafts that I have not yet posted

Adding a cream sauce is one of my favorite ways to fix many kinds of vegetables.  I used dill as the main flavoring ingredient this time, but I have also used curry powder and many other herbs, spices and spice blends.  The seasoning is limited only your the imagination.  I love having a good basic, easy changeable recipe on hand to use when making vegetables.

Cooked fresh or frozen vegetables or drained, canned vegetables are interchangeable in this recipe.  Some people prefer one over the other.

Green Peas in Dill Cream Sauce
1 (12 oz.) pkg. frozen peas or about 3 cups
2 T. butter
3 T. flour
1 c. milk
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. dill weed
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. salt

Cook and drain peas.  Set aside.  Melt butter in a medium saucepan.  Stir in flour and cook, stirring for a minute or two.  Slowly add milk, stirring well with a whisk.  Stir in garlic powder, dill weed, pepper and salt.  Mix well.  Add peas and heat through.  Makes 4 to 6 servings

There are still a few letters left.  You can find all about how to join in the fun by visiting Brenda's Eating the Alphabet information page.

Oriental Fried Ramen-Starving Student’s Survival

My granddaughter calls Oriental Fried Ramen Starving Student’s Survival.  That is because this recipe can feed four people for less than $2.00, and she is a starving student in California.  It is a "go-to" recipe for her.

I like to have fried rice as a side dish when I make something Oriental.   Since hubby doesn’t really care for rice, I often make this dish instead.  Use your favorite ramen noodle flavor in this.

Like all recipes for fried rice, you can use whatever veggies that you want in this dish or whatever you happen to have in the fridge.  I rarely make this exactly the same way twice in a row.  I do almost always use onion and red pepper.  This particular time I used carrots and snow peas.  I also sometimes add chopped nuts.

Although I include eggs when I make this, they can be left out, and almost any kind of cooked meat (even bacon) can be used to make it more of a main dish.

The recipe is loosely based on a recipe I found at  - http://busycooks.About.com a number of years ago.

Oriental Fried Ramen
2 pkgs. Ramen noodles, flavor of choice
3 c. boiling water
1 T. vegetable oil
1 t. sesame oil (optional)
1/2 c. chopped onion (regular or green)
1/2 c. chopped red pepper
1/2 c. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch matchsticks
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c. frozen peas (or chopped snow peas or sugar snap peas)
2 T. soy sauce
2 eggs, beaten
1 to 2 c. chopped cooked meat or poultry

Break ramen noodles into six or eight pieces and place in a medium mixing bowl.  Sprinkle with the contents of the seasoning packets.  Pour boiling water over noodles and let set while preparing rest of ingredients.  Heat vegetable oil and sesame oil in a medium skillet.  Add onion, red pepper, carrots and garlic.  Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until tender-crisp, about 7 minutes.  Drain noodles well and add to skillet.  Add soy sauce and mix until well blended.  Cook and stir noodles 1 or 2 minutes.  Push noodles to the side of the skillet and pour eggs into the center.  Cook eggs, scrambling and cutting into small pieces as the eggs cook.  Mix eggs with noodles.  Add meat or poultry if using and heat through.  Serve as a side or main dish as desired.  Makes 4 servings.

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Pork Stew with Dill Dumplings

Happy Monday.  Welcome to my new followers.  Thank you all for stopping by my blog and reading my posts.  It is so nice to have you here.  Hope that you find the information I post useful.

Although it is still warm here, I recently was hungry for stew.  Pork is more tender than beef so it cooks more quickly.  This makes it a good choice for making stew in the summer.  Pork Stew with Dill Dumplings fits the bill.

Either pork shoulder or loin may be used, but the shoulder will be slightly more flavorful.  As with all stews, the vegetables can be changed to suit personal preferences.  Although I usually use frozen peas for this dish, the stew in the photos has drained, canned peas in it.  I had some of those left over in the fridge that needed to be used up.

Pork Stew with Dill Dumplings
1 to 1 1 /2 lbs. boneless pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 c. flour
1 t. paprika
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper, coarse ground if possible
2 T. or more vegetable oil
3 medium/large potatoes (about 1  1/2 lb.) peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 c. coarsely chopped onion
2-3 medium carrots (1 c.) cut into 1x1/4-inch matchstick pieces
1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch bias slices
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (14 oz.) low-sodium chicken broth
1 c. frozen peas
Dumplings
1 c. flour
2 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. dried dill weed
1/3 c. milk
2 T. vegetable oil
1 egg

Place flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a plastic bag and shake to combine.  Add pork cubes and shake until the cubes are coated.  Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven.  Add pork cubes, but do not let them touch.  (You may need to do this in two batches.)  Brown cubes on all sides.  Remove and set aside.  Continue until all cubes are brown, adding more oil if necessary.  Return pork to Dutch oven and add potatoes,  onion, carrots, red pepper, celery, bay leaf and garlic.  Stir in remaining flour.  Pour in chicken broth and stir well.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.  While stew is cooking, prepare dumplings.  In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and dill weed.  Stir to mix well.  Combine milk, vegetable oil and egg in a small bowl.  Add to flour mixture and stir just to  moisten dry ingredients.  Add peas to stew and bring back to a low boil.  Drop dumpling mixture by tablespoonsful into hot stew.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve.  Makes 6 servings.  Store dumplings and stew separately if there are leftovers.

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Ingredient Spotlight-Oriental Pasta

I really like Oriental food and try to prepare something Oriental at least once a month.  Although he will eat my fried rice, hubby is not a lover of rice so I was very happy to come across today’s recipe. I found it on a package of Italian Chef Fancy Egg Noodles which is a bit of a strange place to find an Oriental recipe.  I have made this a few times now as an alternative to fried rice, and hubby really likes it.

Of course, I  had to play around with the basic recipe.  I sometimes replace part of the water with a couple of tablespoons of sherry and am thinking about using at least part chicken broth if I am serving this with a chicken dish.  I have made this with noodles, spaghetti, and angel hair pasta.  The pasta in the Oriental food aisle at the grocery story would be good also.  I use sesame oil for part of the vegetable oil and sub frozen green peas for the snow peas most of the time since I always have the green peas on hand.  I am thinking about adding very thin matchstick cut carrots and maybe some chopped red pepper the next time I make this.

Oriental Pasta
adapted from an Italian Chef Noodle package
12 oz. pasta (noodles, spaghetti, angel hair, etc)
1/2 c. water (part sherry if you like)
1/4 c. low-sodium soy sauce
2 t. vinegar (I use rice vinegar)
2 t. sugar
2 t. cornstarch
1  1/2 T. vegetable oil (part sesame oil if you have it)
1/4 c. scallions or green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. dried ginger
1 c. frozen green peas or 1/2 lb. snow peas, trimmed

Cook pasta according to package directions only until al dente.  While noodles are cooking, combine water, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Stir until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved.  Set aside.  When pasta is done, drain well.  Heat oil in small skillet.  Add scallions or green onions, garlic and ginger; cook and stir over medium heat about 30 seconds.  Add the peas or snow peas.  Cook, stirring until peas are warmed or snow peas are just beginning to change color.  Place pasta back in the pan it was cooked in.  Add  pea mixture to pasta and mix until pasta is well coated.  Return pan to burner.  Add water/soy sauce mixture and mix well.  Heat and stir over medium heat until sauce is thickened.  Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.  Garnish with sliced green onions and slivered almonds if desired.  Makes 8 servings.

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What Works for Me

Curried Green Pea Soup/Side Dish

Here is a little soup or side dish that I dreamed up because I wanted to combine green peas and curry flavor. I created it as a soup, but it can be a curried, creamed pea side dish by halving the amount of milk.  The 1 teaspoon curry powder gives the soup a bit of a bite so it might be wise to start out with 1/2 teaspoon.

I like to see the whole peas, but the soup can be put in a blender or food processor and blended until smooth if desired.   One-half to one cup cubed cooked ham may be added to make this more of a main dish soup.  

Curried Green Pea Soup/Side Dish
1/4 c. butter
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/3 c. flour
1 can (16 oz.) green peas, undrained
1/2 to 1 t. curry powder
1/2 T. instant chicken bouillon
1 c. milk
1/4 c. crumbled, crisp cooked bacon pieces
1/4 c. finely chopped dry roasted peanuts

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring and watching carefully.  Add flour and stir and cook for 1 minute.  Add peas, curry powder and bouillon.  Stir and cook until liquid in mixture smooths out.  Add milk, cook and stir for 5 minutes or until heated through.  Ladle into serving bowls.  Top each bowl with 1 T. bacon pieces and 1 T. chopped peanuts.  Makes 4 servings.

Fried Rice-Japanese Style

Everyone probably has their own recipe for this, but I thought I would share mine.  This is loosely adapted from the Benihana Japanese Fried Rice recipe in "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes".  I use more ingredients in mine.  I don't know if there is much difference between Japanese and Chinese fried rices, but I am going to call this Japanese.  I sometims garnish this with toasted, slivered almonds.  Diced, cooked meat, poultry, or even seafood could be added to make this a main dish.

Fried Rice-Japanese Style

2 c. well-chilled cooked rice (1 c. rice cooked according to package directions)

1 1/2-2 T. butter

1/4 c. minced or grated carrot

1 bunch green onions, sliced or 1/2 c. diced regular onion

1/2 c. finely diced red pepper

3-4 T. low-sodium soy sauce

2  eggs, beaten

1 c. frozen peas, thawed

Melt butter in medium-sized frying pan.  Add carrot, onion, and red pepper.  Cook until tender, stirring often.  Add rice, cook and stir for a few minutes.  Add soy sauce and mix well.  Push rice to ide of frying pan.  Pour eggs into frying pan and scramble quickly, breaking egg up into pea-sized pieces.  Mix egg and rice together, blending well.  Add peas.  Cook, stirring often, until peas are heated through and everything is hot.  Makes 4 servings.