When time is of the
By Betty Shimabukuro
essence, you can't beat a
one-dish meal
Star-BulletinToday's cooking lesson is for Soccer Mom. Soccer Mom is actually a composite person, incorporating Little League Dad, College Student with Night Job, Corporate Couple and everyone else who reaches the end of the day with little time to cook and less time to clean up.
Soccer Mom, for example, rushes the kids to practice at 4 in the afternoon, then rushes back at 6:30 to get dinner on the table in time to have the kids fed, showered and in bed by 8.
She tries to do this without relying on take-out meals or convenience foods, and with her eye on the food pyramid.
We offer as a solution the one-pot meal, also known as dinner-in-a-dish.
The old-fashioned synonym might be "casserole," but we were looking for something besides the usual high-fat, cream-or-cheese-based dish.
Here's the idea: The dishes had to include protein, vegetable and starch, all cooked in a single dish. No precooking of noodles or rice (this creates extra dirty dishes). No fussy stirring or constantly adding more ingredients (this ruled out such old standbys as paella).
Ideally, you'd throw everything in a pot, turn on the heat and walk away. In a couple hours you'd come back from soccer practice and dinner would be ready.Enter James Huang, a culinary student at Kapiolani Community College, who recently conducted a cooking class at Liberty House on just this topic.
Among the recipes he designed was one for Chicken Pilaf, which combines diced chicken with vegetables and rice, with everything thrown in a rice pot. Twenty minutes later, it's on the table.
If you have a rice pot with a warmer, you can make this ahead and it will stay hot several hours. Or it can cook while you're out.
Perfect for Soccer Mom, or for Working Mom, who can prepare the ingredients the night before, then entrust the simple cooking process to whoever gets home first, such as Teen-Aged Kid.
It's a style of cooking and eating that fits in with Huang's own busy life. Along with a full-time college career, Huang works nights at Dixie Grill. "Usually I cook Chicken Pilaf in the morning and I come back and eat it at lunch and then go to work."
His recipe can be adapted to other meats and vegetables, Huang says. Basically, use slightly more liquid than raw rice, and keep vegetables in uniform sizes so they cook evenly. Add them in the last 10 minutes, or they'll get mushy. "Or, if you like your vegetables big, like me, you can put them in with the meat in the beginning," he says. This also saves a step.Or use frozen vegetables. Rinse in warm water first, then toss in after the rice is cooked.
He advises avoiding cabbages and broccoli, which release acids when thrust into a hot, sealed environment like a rice pot. This leads to bitterness and discoloration. Stick with red, white, yellow or orange vegetables.
Huang's pilaf recipe follows, along with one for Mushroom Dirty Rice, which is based on a Dixie Grill recipe that uses chicken and goose livers.
He thought liver might be a turnoff, though, and turned to mushrooms. "It has that dirty look to it, but it's much healthier."
This vegetarian dish actually violates one of our one-pot standards (no pre-cooking), as it calls for cooked rice, but in Hawaii lots of people have leftover rice, so we can let this slide. Besides, Huang says you could use uncooked rice and throw it all in the rice pot, with a matching amount of water.
Chicken Pilaf
1 cup rice, uncookedWash rice, drain and place in rice cooker. Add the next four ingredients and turn on cooker. After 10 minutes, turn off the rice cooker and add the next four ingredients. Mix well and turn cooker back on.
1-1/4 cup chicken broth
1-1/4 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup ginger, sliced
1 pound chicken thigh meat, boned, skinned and diced
1 teaspoon garlic
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
2 ounces melted butter
Soy sauce, salt, pepper to tasteAfter the rice is cooked, mix in soy sauce, salt and pepper, while fluffing the rice. Serves 4.
Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving with 2 tablespoons soy sauce, no salt: 420 calories, 15 g fat, 8 saturated, 80 mg cholesterol, 520 mg sodium.*
Mushroom Dirty Rice
2 ounces butterMelt butter in a pan and add vegetables and parsley. Saute until golden brown. Add mixture to the rice, add half the green onions and mix well. Garnish with the rest of the onions. Serves 4.
2 ounces each green bell pepper, celery and mushrooms, minced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
1 teaspoon parsley, minced
Salt, white pepper to taste
1/4 cup green onion, diced
2 cups cooked rice
How's this for one-dish, hands-off cooking: Throw stew ingredients in a casserole dish, put it in the oven on low heat and go to work. Come back 12 hours later to a warm, hearty lamb stew. You won’t stew over this
Stephen Byrnes, a doctor of nutritional therapy, offers this recipe as an easy dinner choice. He suggests using New Zealand lamb, or as an alternative Maverick Ranch stew beef (available at Foodland) because they are hormone- and pesticide-free.
Byrnes will be among the speakers at this weekend's wellness fair at the Waikiki Community Center, meant to offer alternative ways of staying healthy.
Byrnes will speak on nutrition and natural therapies; Kimo Ah Nee will speak on the use of aloe to heal. There will also be free blood-pressure screenings and lomi lomi (Hawaiian massage). Other types of massage, tai chi and yoga are among the demonstrations planned. Lunch will be sold.
All-Day Lamb Stew
2 pounds stew lamb, in 1-inch piecesPlace all ingredients except the last three in an oven-proof casserole and cook at 250 degrees for 12 hours. Add potatoes, carrots and onion in the last hour.
3-4 cups beef or vegetable stock
1 can tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
6 whole garlic cloves, optional
2-3 pieces orange peel, optional
1 tablespoon sea salt
8 small red potatoes
1 pound carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and choppedNote: If you're nervous about leaving your oven on all day, try a crock pot.
Wellness/
Life Enrichment Fair
