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Tag: yogurt

n-layer dip for dinner

A plate full of dip

It’s hard cooking alone to go through an entire can of refried beans in one sitting, and I happened to have about 2/3 of a can left.

So the bottom later on this plate is about half a can of refried beans (yes, your math is correct, there will be more beans in my near future). I microwave it for about a minute. Then when I was stirring the beans, I also mixed in some fresh diced serrano pepper. And then it got microwaved for another 30 seconds.

The beans got topped with a layer of salsa (chipotle-flavor generic salsa from Aldi’s that I thought would be comparable to Giant’s, but it was not as good)

Above that – I had peeled and diced (slightly smaller than a centimeter dice) a small sweet potato. That was sauteed in oil for a few minutes, and then I added a diced half onion (white in this case, but whatever color). Near the end when I was pretty sure all the potato was cooked through and was just adding color, I added two minced cloves of garlic and Penzeys Southwest seasoning. Once the garlic was cooked and the potatoes had some brown edges, it became the third layer for the dip.

Then I minced some scallion greens and some parsley to top the sweet potato layer.

I finely diced (because I didn’t want to wash the shredder) some sharp cheddar cheese. Once that was on top, I popped the dip back in the microwave for another 40 second to get the cheese a little melty and the layers playing together.

I had a container of beet & cabbage shred in the refrigerator, and that was a good choice for the next layer.

So the seventh later was shredded lettuce. And then I had some strained yogurt that was more over to the side than an actual layer.

And I ate it with a fork and some tortilla chips.

Curried Collard Greens and Rice

Yet another delicious meal made out of scraps and leftovers in my fridge.

It all started with a text message to geeksdoitbetter asking: given that I have leftover rice and leftover raita in my fridge, how many more ingredients do you think I’d need to add before I could call it food?

Her reply was that all I’d need to do would be heat it up and add curry.

On further inspection, I noticed I also had some collard greens in need of attention, so a slightly more respectable meal was born.

Curried Collard Greens

Wash and cut up your greens (I went for roughly one inch square pieces).

Heat a teaspoon or two of oil in a pan. Add a Tablespoon of mustard seeds, and drape the pan with foil or a spatter guard because they goal is to have them pop.

Once the mustard seed start popping, add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and a generous sprinkle of asaphoetida.

After just a minute (or less) of toasting the spices, add the greens to your pan.

Sprinkle with a curry powder of your choice. I was hoping to make a dent in a jar of tandoori seasoning, but that ended up needing more fenugreek and turmeric to smell right.

Go ahead and throw the rice in, too, since this will add some moisture and heat to the leftovers (note: leftover rice can develop nasty food poisoning, so store/eat with care).

And then I added both leftover tamarind chutney (1-2 Tablespoons) and the leftover raita (1/2 pt container) and stirred them in until the collards had an even coating of a fairly dry sauce.

The end result wasn’t necessarily classy, but it was a decent and serviceably dinner. It ended up spicier than I was expecting, even.

Pita Chips & Tzatziki

The secret to my pita chips are the awesome thin pitas by local halal grocer carries. Really, extremely thin pitas result in light, crispy pita chips that are more addictive than potato chips.

The ones I buy are made by Soumaya & Sons Bakery in Whitehall, PA.

Pita Chips

So split the pitas open into two separate halves, and brush the bready side lightly with olive oil. And then stack them one upon the other so that both sides end up lightly greased.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cut the stacks into wedges and lay out a single layer of wedges on a baking sheet.

Mix together the following spice mix:

  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 3/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp powdered garlic
  • a dash of thyme or oregano
  • a dash of sumac (or zatar that has been ground smooth in a mortar)
  • a few grinds of nutmeg
  • a few grinds of pepper
  • just the tip of a knife of smoked paprika, it’s strong stuff

Sprinkle spices over pita wedges. And then sprinkle kosher salt over to taste.

Bake on middle rack of oven until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes.

Tzatziki Sauce

Buy any old cheap brand of plain fat free yogurt, and turn it into awesome yogurt by letting it drain for several hours.

Peel a cucumber. Now it can be any kind of cucumber – I have used the long, fancy seedless cucumbers; regular eating cucumbers; big, fat pickling cucumbers; and, most recently, small pickling cucumbers. Actually, I think my favorite so far has been the small pickling cucumbers because they had hardly any water content. But, honestly, I’ve had great results every time. And the only time I worried about seeds at all was for the very thick pickling one.

So peel the cucumber. Then slice it lengthwise just as thinly as you can. And then the other plane lengthwise, so that you end up with long, thin strips. And then mince all the way down, so that you end up with wee tiny cucumber pieces. Dump them all into the thick yogurt.

And then I will often add about a 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic from a jar. It’s better from ajar than fresh in this case because it has had a chance to mellow out a bit.

And then maybe a pinch of salt.

And that’s it. By the next day, everything is settled in and delicious.