Martha Stewart is making everyday food faster and easier this month, spinning off her “Everyday Food” magazine into a second cookbook and an iPhone application that offers recipes, daily dinner ideas and automated shopping lists.
The app, called “Martha’s Everyday Food,” lets iPhone and iPod touch users access thousands of recipes from the magazine. Its introduction accompanies the release of “Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor fast,” a compilation of 250 recipes from the magazine that aims to land tasty meals on the table in an hour or less.
The book includes recipes that promise relatively healthy, flavourful, fuss-free meals, such as beef and scallion stir-fry and pasta with sausage, Swiss chard and pine nuts.
Oven-baked peanut-crusted chicken breasts promise a richly textured main course without the mess – and calories – of frying. Grated ginger, lime juice and curry powder should deliver a pungent kick to the crispy ginger-lime chicken thighs. and pork chops with bulgur stuffing conjure up Morocco with their combination of apricots, almonds and cumin.
Think-ahead moves – like roasting a second pork loin for future meals while preparing pork loin with figs and port sauce – really cater to the busy home cook. Low-fat raisin bran muffins take the stress out of breakfast. They’re like a bowl of cereal you can eat in the car. and recipes for the building blocks of great meals – pizza dough, pie crust, tomato sauce – mean dinner is always just waiting to happen.
Many healthy alternatives to fried favourites, such as the oven-baked fries made of parsnips, sweet potatoes or polenta, are about as easy as opening a bag of the frozen stuff. and nutrition-conscious cooks will appreciate the calorie, fat, fibre and carb information for each recipe.
And you don’t even have to decide what’s for dinner until you’re standing in the grocery store. The “Everyday Food” app will let you search and download recipes, add the ingredients to your shopping list, then let everyone in the family know what’s for dinner via email.
“Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor fast,” Clarkson Potter, 2010
“Martha’s Everyday Food” app, 99 cents from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/
Beef and Scallion Stir-Fry
Start to finish: 25 minutes
175 ml (3/4 cup) water
30 ml (2 tbsp) hoisin sauce
30 ml (2 tbsp) rice wine vinegar (unseasoned)
15 ml (1 tbsp) cornstarch
2 ml ( 1/2 tsp) red pepper flakes, plus more for serving (optional)
15 ml (1 tbsp) plus 5 ml (1 tsp) vegetable oil, such as safflower or canola
625 g (1 1/4 lb) flank steak, cut diagonally across the grain into 1-by-7.5-cm ( 1/2-by-3-inch) strips
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 bunches scallions, trimmed, sliced crosswise 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) thick, white and green parts separated
Cooked rice, for serving (optional)
In a small bowl, whisk together water, hoisin sauce, vinegar, cornstarch, 1 ml ( 1/4 tsp) salt and 2 ml ( 1/2 tsp) red pepper flakes.
In a large skillet over high, heat 15 ml (1 tbsp) of the oil. Pat steak dry with paper towels. in 2 batches, cook steak until lightly browned, turning once, about 2 minutes per batch. Transfer meat to a plate.
Add remaining 5 ml (1 tsp) oil to skillet along with garlic and white parts of scallions. Cook, tossing often, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Whisk hoisin mixture to combine, then add it to skillet along with scallion greens.
Return meat to skillet and cook, tossing to coat steak with sauce, for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Serve immediately over rice and sprinkled with more red pepper flakes, as desired.
Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 278 calories; 109 calories from fat; 12 g fat (3 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 48 mg cholesterol; 9 g carbohydrate; 32 g protein; 1 g fibre; 502 mg sodium.
Source: Recipe from “Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast” (Clarkson Potter, 2010).
Martha Stewart is making everyday food faster and easier this month, spinning off her Everyday Food magazine into a second cookbook and an iPhone application that offers recipes, daily dinner ideas and automated shopping lists.
