Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

I am not a vegetarian, nor will I probably ever be one. But over the last two years, I have been cutting down on my meat consumption (reasons: health, money, the negative societal and environmental impacts of the meat industry, etc.) and in that time, I’ve discovered that canned chickpeas are amazingly versatile and tasty in just about everything I’ve made with them. This recipe is no exception — these chickpea cakes have the consistency of a crab cake (not as dense as a burger) and have a nice Indian spice flavor which pairs well with the cucumber sauce.

This is again an adapted recipe from Test Kitchens’ The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook. In this case, I think their recipe is really a ‘cooking for one’ serving size.

Shrimp and Grits

This recipe is brought to you by me finishing my first year of grad school and finally A) having free time to cook real things and B) remembering that this blog is run by more than just my brother. One of my goals for year 2 is to try to be better about posting recipes, so without further ado, Shrimps and Grits from Test Kitchen’s ‘Complete Cooking for Two’ (which is a godsend cookbook for anyone living on their own who’s tired of having to figure out how to resize recipes meant for 8 people. 1/4 of a egg is real hard to measure.) These were legitimately delicious grits, though I am admittedly a Yankee and not qualified to comment on how authentic Southern they are.

Shrimp and Grits

Makes 2 Servings
Ingredients

8 oz. medium or large shrimp, peeled and de-tailed
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
Pinch of cayenne pepper (Can sub chile powder)
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1 1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup whole milk (original recipe calls for cream)
1/2 tsp hot sauce
1/2 cup grits/polenta
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 green onion/scallion, chopped

How to make:

1. Set oven to 375 degrees. Toss shrimp with oil, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper in a bowl and the refrigerate while you cook the grits.
2. Melt butter in a large oven safe pan (I used cast iron). Cook minced onions over medium heat until soft (about 5 minutes).
3. Stir in water, milk or cream, hot sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and bring to a boil. Note: I used sriracha as the hot sauce since that’s what I had in the house and I don’t think it changed the flavor much not to use classic hot sauce.
4. Whisk in grits, reduce the heat to low and cook until creamy, for about 5-7 minutes. Stir frequently.
5. Remove from heat and fold in the cheese.
6. Lay the shrimp on top of the grits, spiralling out from the center of the pan. Place in the oven and cook until the shrimp are pink and opaque, about 5 minutes.
7. Sprinkle witb scallions and serve.

Spinach and Jack Cheese Bread Pudding

It’s been a while since I posted here. I’ve still got a few recipes in the backlog that I never wrote about. An unfortunate side-effect of waiting so long to write about something is that I forget a lot of the details. That results in boring posts like this one.

Peanut Butter Hipster Cookies

Some time in the last three years, everyone in my generation decided that they’re either gluten-sensitive or lactose intolerant. Some of them probably are. A lot of them are probably hypochondriac hipsters who don’t know what gluten or lactose even is. Anyway, I stumbled across this flour-less, dairy-less recipe for peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies online and it was so weird I just had to try it. Surprisingly, it’s really good.

Yet Another Mac and Cheese Post

I know I’ve already posted about macaroni and cheese—twice–but this is a completely different type of recipe than the last two.

Double Chocolate Butter Cookies with White Chocolate Icing

I made these chocolate cookies as Christmas cookies and decorated them with melted white chocolate. The recipe is based on this one from King Arthur Flour. Those cookies are fancy stamped cookies with molded white chocolate medallions on top. I get it King Arthur, you want to sell me fancy cookie stamps and chocolate molds, but I OUTSMARTED YOU. How? By making these as regular cookie-cutter holiday cookies and piping white chocolate on with a pastry bag. I also replaced their blend of bespoke cocoa with Hershey’s Special Dark.

Latin Chicken with Black Beans and Sweet Potatoes

This hearty, sweet, and spicy (but not too hot) slow-cooked chicken dish is from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook (125 Anniversary Edition), which is rapidly becoming my favorite cookbook. The recipes I’ve cooked from it tend to be pretty easy, and they don’t call for too many exotic ingredients. Most importantly, the recipes work the first time, without having to change things around or guess at vague instructions (looking at you, Mark Bittman).

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I’ve been making sandwich bread lately, and I think I’ve finally got at least one recipe that’s worth sharing.

Grilled Tuna Tacos

Ahi tuna steaks were on sale this week, so I decided to buy a tuna steak and do some improvisation. I’ve messed around with tuna steaks a bit in the past, and I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re a lot like beef steaks. Season them simply, and grill them hot, fast, and rare. Like, still-raw-in-the-middle rare.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wasn’t going to do a post about these because they’re so simple, but then Lynn, who almost never likes double chocolate cookies, said they were “sooooo good.” I figure that means I have to share.