Magnificent (and Healthy!) Stuffed Peppers #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Before I talk about food, I wanted to acknowledge what a difficult week it's been for those in the path of Hurricane Irma. This included my beloved Florida Keys, though Key West itself sustained less damage than the islands further north. (And also in the Caribbean islands further south.) My heart is down there with the workers who are trying to restore phone, electric, water, and sewer service--and with all those anxiously awaiting news of their homes and businesses. I'm hoping and praying that life can return to something like normal soon on that magical spray of islands...

Now back to food...Two things happened this week that led me to this particular post. First, our green peppers began to ripen in the garden. Aren't they gorgeous? And second, in my quest to slowly clean stuff out of my closet and drawers, I found an old cast iron frying pan that came from my dad. He worked for International Nickel Company his whole career, and he was very proud of the nickel plating on this pan. I did not take care of it the way my sister does with her cast-iron pans, which is to say, don't wash them with soap. Instead, clean them with water and then oil them. You can see the logo on the back of the pan testifying that it came from the Griswold company in Erie Pennsylvania. Apparently they stopped making these in 1957, and it seems as though I have a collectors' item. So I thought I better start using it! (Even if I've possibly ruined the finish.)

I have a recipe for stuffed peppers which both John and I have loved. Unfortunately it's fairly high in sodium because of the sausage and the spaghetti sauce that I used to choose. And don't forget the cheddar cheese! If you're not concerned about sodium, you can find that recipe here. It was also a favorite of my mother-in-law. 

Meanwhile here are the instructions for this updated version, which was also delicious. 

Ingredients

5 to 6 large green peppers
One large or two smaller onions, chopped
One hot pepper, diced
Handful of fresh basil, shredded
24 oz spaghetti sauce (Mine came from a local store, Bishops, and has only 140 mg sodium per quarter cup)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Half cup rice (I use brown)
Half cup water
1 to 1 1/4 pounds ground beef

Brown the beef and set it aside to drain. Add a dollop of olive oil to the pan and sauté the chopped onions, Hot pepper, and rice for a few minutes. Add the sauce, the water, the beef, and the Worcestershire sauce, and sliced basil, and simmer this until the rice is soft, half hour to 45 minutes depending on the brand you use.

Slice the peppers lengthwise, and take out the seeds and webbing. 

Place them in a greased 9 x 13 hand. When the beef mixture is ready, fill the pepper shells with the sauce and top with a little grated Parmesan if you desire.Bake at 350 for half an hour or until the peppers are soft and the stuffing bubbly. Here's the whole photo review:

chopped peppers, onions and basil

Everything is browning

simmering in my father's pan

Stuffed and ready to bake

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries--find them wherever books are sold! Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest--Instagram too...

Maple Chipotle Chicken Sandwich #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ve told you how I love love love my new slow cooker. Here’s one of the first recipes I tried with it, found on Pinterest and adapted for low-sodium eaters. Now we’ve made it several times and served it to guests too, with good reviews! And it's perfect for winter, even in Key West.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 ½ pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 14-ounce can crushed or diced tomatoes, fire roasted
• ½ cup real maple syrup
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon coarse ground mustard (I use Kozlik’s)
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming
• 1 dried chipotle pepper

Directions

Brown the chicken on both sides, then add the onions to the pot and let those brown a little too.

Mix the tomatoes and water with the maple syrup and spices and add all this to the crockpot.

Cook on low for four hours. Shred the chicken (using two forks) and return it to the pot. Remove the pepper and discard. 







Serve on crusty rolls or a nice baguette to catch all the yummy juice. Maybe a little cole slaw piled on top? We happened to have my sister’s homegrown broccoli in the fridge so we used that for our greens.

Honestly, it's like magic to drop all that stuff in the crockpot and come back hours later to--a meal!

Lucy writes the Key West food critic mysteries.  Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

Herbalicious Spaghetti and Meatballs #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Some days I simply crave good old-fashioned spaghetti and meatballs. But most traditional versions are loaded with sodium and thus off-limits to me. But this enormous basil plant was calling to me: Lucy! Lucy! spaghetti! spaghetti!

How could I refuse? I've tried a few other recipes, but this one really stood out. (And my hub loved it too!) I happened to have some low-sodium corn muffins in the freezer, but you can improvise if you're not so lucky.)

Ingredients for the meatballs

1 pound good quality ground beef
Two low-sodium corn muffins (or 2 slices bread)
one egg
1/4 cup milk
One half onion, chopped finely
One clove garlic, ditto
One half teaspoon dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper
Half a teaspoon Jane's Crazy mixed-up pepper

 

Mix all ingredients together and fashion the mixture into meatballs, size of your choice. Place these on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Turn them halfway through so both sides have a chance to brown. Set these aside on paper towels to drain.

 

For the sauce

24 ounce jar unsalted crushed tomatoes (I love the local Bishop's Orchards brand)
One onion, chopped
One large clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Three-quarter teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
4 to 6 large basil leaves, shredded
1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste

 

 

Sauté the garlic and onion until soft, and then add the oregano and pepper. After a few minutes of simmering, add the tomatoes. Cook these ingredients together for about 30 to 45 minutes, then add the basil and simmer again. 

 

Taste the sauce to see if it's to your liking – I added a teaspoon sugar.

This amount of sauce is appropriate for about half the meatballs, so add the balls to the sauce and simmer again. (I froze the remainder for another day.) If you were serving a larger crowd, you might double the tomato sauce and add all the meatballs. 


The flavors will meld together nicely if you make this a day ahead. Serve on good-quality pasta with fresh grated Parmesan on the side. And something green of course.

The seventh Key West mystery, KILLER TAKEOUT, is on bookshelves everywhere. What about yours?

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Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta #recipe #giveaway @LucyBurdette

 
LUCY BURDETTE: Yet more lemons—yikes! But lemons are a low-sodium diner’s friend, besides being delicious and chock full of vitamin C. This recipe is fast (except for peeling the shrimp) and perfectly suited for company. I found that I didn’t miss salt at all in the finished dish. You can increase or decrease the garlic to your taste, and add grated lemon zest if you like a stronger flavor.
Ingredients:

  1 pound pasta, good quality please
  5 or so Tablespoons of unsalted butter
  3 cloves garlic, chopped
  1.5 pound large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
  freshly ground pepper
  1/4 cup lemon juice
  1 lemon, cut into slices, then slices halved
   handful of chopped parsley

Directions:

Once all the ingredients are prepared, put the pasta water on to boil. When the pasta is about 5 minutes away from al dente, prepare the shrimp.
Melt the butter over medium heat. Saute the garlic until soft but not brown. Add the shrimp in one layer, grind the pepper over top. About a minute in, flip over. Cook until pink and beginning to brown, maybe 3 minutes in total; don't overcook or shrimp will become rubbery.

Add the lemon juice, optional lemon zest, parsley and sliced lemons, and stir to combine. drain the pasta and place it in a big serving bowl, then scrape the shrimp and seasoning over the top and mix. Serve with a green salad.

To celebrate its publication next Tuesday, I have one copy of the forthcoming KILLER TAKEOUT to give away. To be entered, please share this post on Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest and then leave a comment here with your email.

Here's an easy tweet:

Tweet: Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta! #recipe #giveaway @lucyburdette http://ctt.ec/5nN61+

You can order this wherever books are sold--it will be published on April 5! 

My Tweaked Version of Jane Brody’s Stuffed Cabbage, #lowsodium @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I've been making Jane Brody’s stuffed cabbage from her Good Food Cookbook for years. It takes some time to put it together, but it makes a huge pot that can be eaten for several meals. Or eat some now and freeze the rest for later. 

It's perfect for early March, a hearty dish not quite ready for spring. Of course I made my low-sodium tweaks, using no salt tomatoes and low salt sodium chicken broth, but it was really pretty darn good. 
The only tricky part is the cabbage leaves. My advice is to boil the whole head of cabbage until the outer leaves get soft. Then cut them off, return the head to the simmering water, repeat. To make the rolls behave, cut out the vein. You don't have to worry  about making the rolls perfect, as they'll all come together in the end.

 
Ingredients

one head green cabbage
2 onions, one half finally chopped, the other 1 and 1/2 thinly sliced
16 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 pound ground beef
3 Tbsp uncooked rice
3 Tbsp water
1 egg
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup honey

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to boil and drop the cabbage in. Cut off the leaves as they soften, returning the head to the pot each time. 


Combine the ground beef, uncooked rice, egg, finely chopped onion, water and mix this together well. Take about two tablespoons of the meat mixture and roll it into a leaf. 
 





Continue until the stuffing is gone, and then chop any remaining cabbage. 


Meanwhile, sauté the onions until soft, and then add the tomatoes and broth and bring to a simmer.

Nestle the rolls in sauce along with any leftover cabbage and simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Add the lemon juice,honey, and raisins and simmer another half hour. Serve in soup bowls. Mmmm, I've made myself hungry!

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And don't forget (how could you?), KILLER TAKEOUT will be in bookstores of all kinds on April 5, but is available for pre-order today!

Shrimp Boiled Dinner, Key West Style but #lowsodium

LUCY BURDETTE: Sometimes it's frustrating to try to make my old favorite recipes work in low so sodium versions. Some of them, I confess, don't work at all. But I had a feeling that my favorite Key West shrimp boil could be tweaked.

I certainly couldn't use the Tony Cachere's Creole seasoning that I loved in the recipe as it stands: 350 mg sodium per 1/4 teaspoon. And the recipe wants 5 tablespoons! The math makes my head spin.

So I determined to make a Creole-like seasoning that would be salt free.

Ingredients for Key West Boiled Dinner

• 1 lemon, quartered
• 5 tablespoons low sodium Creole seasoning (See below)
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
• 1/2 to 1 pound fingerling potatoes (we used multicolored)
• 1 package sausage of your choice, cut into 2-3 inch lengths
• 1 package frozen corn on the cob
• 1 1/2 pounds large Key West pink shrimp in shell (Be careful with using frozen or non-local shrimp, as they are often soaked in brine)

Ingredients for low-sodium Creole flavoring 1 tablespoon onion powder One tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon oregano 1 tablespoon basil 1 tablespoon thyme 1/2 tablespoon black pepper 1/2 tablespoon white pepper 1/2 tablespoon cayenne 3 tablespoons Paprika (I used smoked) 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard Mix all the spices together. That's it! If you want to make enough for more than one recipe, just double the amounts and save the extra in a cool dry place. (Don't miss Tonka's cameo:) Everything else can be prepared normally. Just leave the sausage for the guests. Oh, and I replaced the ketchup in the cocktail sauce with no-salt ketchup and upped the horseradish along with a splash of Tabasco. And I served no-salt mustard. From the looks of the leftovers, no one even noticed. Instructions for the dinner:

Bring a gallon of water to boil in a big pot. Squeeze the lemon into this, and drop in the lemon pieces, the garlic, the bay leaves, and the Creole seasoning. 
Simmer this together for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, wash the potatoes and rinse the shrimp. Add the potatoes to the water, simmer until almost soft. (About 10 minutes, depending on the size.) Add the sausage and corn, simmer a few minutes. Finally, add the shrimp, simmer until they turn quite pink--another 2-3 minutes.

Dump the whole pot into a colander, drain, and serve on a large platter.

Serve cocktail sauce (2/3 ketchup to 1/3 horseradish) and Dijon mustard on the side, along with a green salad or vegetable.

Everyone takes as much as they want and peels their own shrimp as they go.
 

KILLER TAKEOUT is coming April 5, but it's available for pre-order today!

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