Pantry Raid

My pantry can become a little overrun with dry goods on occasion.  I do so love my glass jars full of pasta, beans, rice, and other handy, non-spoiling items.  The time comes, naturally, when I need to do a little inventory and clean out. 

Here's a list of stuff I need to make use of:

• Cornmeal - I really should make cornbread from scratch, but often wind up using Jiffy brand mix.  Shame on me.
• Pearled barley - Used in beef stew in wintertime, but needs other applications, too.
• Couscous - I'm sure there's something interesting I could do with this.
• Rye flour - Purchased with the intent of making rye bread, which never happened.
• Wheat bran - Purchased for whole wheat bread recipes.  Still searching for a perfect recipe combo of flavor and texture.
• Tricolor spiral pasta - Used for pasta salad, needs other uses.
• Ditalini pasta - Used for pasta e fagioli soup, needs other uses.
• Canned beets - Purchased originally for including in smoothies.  I love beets, but nobody else in the house will eat them.
• Brown rice - Bought with the intent to eat more healthily.  We love rice in this house, but the brown just doesn't do it for us.  Maybe there's some interesting method of preparation that could change that.
• Black eyed peas - Bought for making cowboy caviar, have some left over in the freezer.  Again, I like them- nobody else is a fan.
• Lentils - I occasionally use them to make soup for myself, but would love to make them for the family without receiving grimaces.
• Split peas - See above.
• Self-rising flour - Purchased for a particular recipe that called for a couple of cups.  Not sure what to do with the rest.
• Bulgur wheat - Used to make tabouli.  Not sure what else you can do with it.
• Pinto beans - Need to eat more pintos.  Love them.
• Chickpeas - Used for hummus, which is well-received.  Something makes me think you can make blondies with these.  I'll have to look into that.
• Orzo - I make a Greek orzo side dish with Cavender's Greek seasoning, minced onion, and chopped green olives.  I'd like to do other things with it.
• Navy beans - Every time I cook navy beans, there's something to the taste that I'm not fond of.  Am I doing something wrong?

If anyone has any suggestions for an item, holler at me!  I'd love some ideas.  Meanwhile...to the Pinterest!

Day Eighteen: Spring Vegetable Couscous and Steak Kebabs

Day eighteen of Operation: Expand Horizons offers one new recipe from the May 2010 issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, Spring Vegetable Couscous, as a side dish to some tried-and-true steak kebabs.

I've never tried couscous before, and it was super quick to prepare. The dish itself is simple- asparagus, green onion, frozen peas, parsley, couscous, and water. I really liked it, but my husband, who is season-weary of asparagus, complained about it and also said it had too many peas. I think I might make a variation of this dish as a cold salad, using tabouli wheat (bulgur) instead of couscous. I may even spring it up further by adding some shredded spinach!

The magazine version calls for lemon zest and fresh lemon juice. Knowing our tastes (asparagus may well pair with lemon according to traditional cooking lore, but I find it has too much bitterness), I omitted the lemon and added two small cloves of garlic. The magazine also calls for adding shredded rotisserie chicken to make this a main dish, but that sounded weird to me and I opted instead to make it as a meatless side.

I like to keep frozen peas in the fridge at all times. For one, I got lucky with a youngin who will literally eat peas as a snack. Secondly, the frozen variety are infinitely more tasty than the canned variety. I learned my lesson buying the cheap store brand frozen veggies. There is a noticeable difference in flavor and texture- I now buy either Green Giant or Birds Eye exclusively.

Here's the recipe as it appears in this month's Everyday Food, with my changes noted in italics. I halved the recipe to make it a side for two adults and a 3 year old, and had about a serving left over.

Spring-Vegetable Couscous with Chicken

Serves 4

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

4 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced crosswise

2 wide strips lemon zest plus 1 tbsp. lemon juice (I omitted in favor of 2 cloves garlic, minced)

coarse salt and ground pepper

1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2" pieces

1/2 c. frozen peas

1 cup couscous

leg and thigh meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, turn into bite-size pieces (I omitted.)

2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high. Add scallion whites (and garlic) and cook, stirring constantly, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add lemon zest and 1 1/4 cups water and season with salt and pepper. Cover pan and bring liquid to a boil, then add asparagus and peas. Return to a boil and stir in couscous. Add chicken and remove pan from heat; cover and let sit 7 minutes. Add lemon juice (I omitted), scallion greens, and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Fluff with a fork and serve.

I have a well-worn recipe my husband found online for a dry rub for steak. It's purported to be like that used by Outback Steakhouse, but whether that's true or not, it's a good mix.

Steak Rub

Makes about 1/2 cup. Mix the following in a small bowl. Sprinkle generously over steak or pork chops about 1/2 hour before grilling. Store leftovers in a sealed container with your spices.

4 tsp. kosher salt

4 tsp. paprika

2 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder (I use garlic granules, which I think have a more potent flavor.)

1/2 tsp. cayenne powder

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. ground turmeric