MarnKookery

Braised Goat Heart

2010-10-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Take 1 goat heart and slice thinly. Dredge slices in flour, add salt and pepper. Fry slices in lard until brown on both sides. Add half water and half wine to cover slices. Add 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp basil, and 1/2 tsp sage. Simmer for 1 hour, checking occasionally to be sure gravy is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Serve over slices of sourdough.

Civil War-era soft ginger cookies

2008-12-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

Bowl 1: Beat together 2/3 cup oil and 1 cup sugar. Add 1 cup molasses, mix well. Add 1 medium well-beaten egg and mix well. Add 3 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water.

Bowl 2: Sift together 5 1/2 cups flour, 3 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp salt, and then add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.

Chill overnight if possible, roll out 1/4-inch thick (on a floured and sugared table). Cut out and bake on a greased sheet for 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Survival Muffins!

2008-05-31T22:30:00.001-07:00

I have a slight breakfast problem -- I always roll out of bed about twenty minutes before I have to be out the door to catch a bus. Once I get to work, these muffins are useful, portable, extruded-soy-protein-free, healthy little breakfast-delivery-mechanisms, if light on protein. They also work for airplanes, long meetings, late nights and any other scenarios where a quick 275 calories would come in handy.

In bowl A, whisk together:
3/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1 cup oat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

The proportions of the floury part can vary enormously as long as it adds up to three cups. The choice and proportions of spices can also vary.

In bowl B, whisk together:
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup buttermilk, thinned yogurt, or milk soured with vinegar

The liquidy part can also vary as long as it adds up to one cup and is acidic. Be sure ingredients are at room temperature or warmer to prevent coconut oil solidification.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease 12 muffin cups.

Add the contents of bowl A to bowl B and mix with a wooden spoon. Fold in 3/4 cup chopped walnuts. Spoon evenly into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool in muffin pan(s) for 5 minutes, then remove and cool on a rack or plate. Enjoy when survival is at stake.

Provencal Tomatoes

2007-05-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, your dining and shopping companion fancies some juicy tomatoes that aren't even in season yet and before you know it they're in yr fridge, expectantly awaiting a suitable preparation. When that happens, pull out the old Provencal Tomatoes recipe and show your aforementioned dining and shopping companion who's boss (or at least, show him what you'll be forced to do if he purchases un-planned-for tomatoes).

For two large tomatoes (makes 4 side-dish servings):
1. Prepare 1.5 cups of either cooked quinoa or fresh breadcrumbs.
2. Mix the quinoa in a bowl with:
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp chopped shallot, green garlic or green onion
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp dried lavender flowers
1 tsp olive oil
3. Slice the tomatoes in half around the equator. Squeeze lightly over the sink to expel seeds. Place cut sides up in a baking dish and stuff with the quinoa mixture. Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes or until the stuffing begins to brown on top.

i heart pork

2007-05-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

I've decided bacon -- juicy, free-range, organic, salty, greasy bacon -- is my new favorite food. Possibly also guanciale or pancetta. Anyway, I've been playing with pig products lately and made some delicious things over the weekend:

First off was some yummy Carolina barbecue on Saturday. I adore Carolina barbecue, but I've always figured it wouldn't taste right if I tried to make it myself. Fortunately, I was wrong, and the stuff I made was delicious (though not identical to the real thing). I used the recipe in the Joy of Cooking, which calls for pork shoulder rubbed with something they call Southern Spice Rub and slow-roasted in a covered dish, then shredded and doused with vinegar sauce. The recipe works as written, with two changes: less cumin in the Spice Rub, and keep it well-covered -- any juices that collect in the pan should go right into the vinegar sauce. Very easy to put together and hard to screw up.

Next was a Pate Grandmere/Maison to use up the delicious pork liver in my freezer. I dipped into various recipes and freely substituted to come up with the following modernized approximation:

1. Keep all mixing bowls, implements and ingredients as cold as possible until the pate goes in the oven.
2. Combine about 1/4 cup pork fat with 1 pound pork liver in a food processor, pulsing until just pureed.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1 pound ground buffalo, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup cream (or whole-milk yogurt), 1 clove minced garlic, 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg, 1/4 cup brandy, 1 tbsp kirsch, 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, 1 tsp dried thyme, and 1 tsp dried marjoram.
4. Add the pork fat/liver mixture and stir until just combined.
5. Add 3/4 cup fresh raspberries and fold gently into the mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into a pyrex loaf pan and cover tightly with foil.
7. Place the loaf pan into a larger casserole dish and fill the casserole dish with hot water to halfway up the sides of the loaf pan.
8. Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until juices run clear. If, like me, you stab your meat thermometer into a buried raspberry, don't be surprised if the juices aren't clear.

The recipes I was looking at call for lining the loaf pan with bacon strips. I don't approve of this, myself; the pate is fatty enough on its own, and flavorful enough without the distracting smokiness of the bacon. Although I do love bacon (see above).

The only problem is that a whole pork liver makes much too much pate for two people to eat by themselves. I've been having it for lunch and dinner for the past three days and it's less than half gone. Save it for a party.

Italian Sausage Puttanesca Pasta Casserole

2007-05-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

Cook about 2/3 of a pound of organic whole-wheat penne.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Meanwhile, chop and saute an onion, some garlic, some green pepper if you got it. Add about half a pound of delicious hot Italian sausage made from a happy and delicious pig. (I used to find pork products so boring and would never buy pork in the store. Now that I think about it, I also used to find supermarket beef and chicken boring too. The only interesting meat for me was lamb -- which is often grass-fed, coincidentally perhaps. Anyway, this fresh, free-range, organically-grown, real-food-fed pork is a COMPLETELY different animal, with a completely different taste, from the Smithfield special.) Brown and break apart the sausage.

Add a 28-oz can of diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup chopped olives, 2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley, and a few mashed anchovies. Simmer for a bit but don't boil it. If your tomatoes were juicy, as mine were, I highly recommend pouring off the watery portion into a separate shallow pan and boiling it down into a delicious concentrated paste, which you can then return to the main event. This really didn't take long.

When the pasta's done cooking, drain and toss with the sauce. Put the mixture in a casserole dish and sprinkle with about half a cup of grated parmesan. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and some of the pasta on top is nice and chewy. Add a veggie or salad and serve.

Roasted Onion Tart

2007-05-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

The leftover leeks, spring onions, and green garlic from the farm tend to accumulate in the bottom fridge drawer, leaves turning brown, since they're my least favorite part of the box by far. I don't much care for the flavor of green garlic and I'd much rather have a solid workhorse of an onion that I can chop, saute and forget about than these green things that dry up and burn. Fresh green onions I can accommodate at the rate of about one every two weeks. Anyway, this is a great way to use up those lonely leftover alliums.

Roasted Onion Tart

1 pound assorted onion-family veggies (I used 1 large and 2 small spring onions, 1 medium leek, and 3 stalks green garlic, tough outer leaves and leaf tips removed)

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt

10 sheets phyllo (about 12 x 12 in. square)
1/8 cup melted butter OR olive oil

2 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

Chop up the oniony stuff into fairly even chunks. (I quartered the large bulb ends and chopped the long stems into 1-inch lengths.) Mix the next five ingredients together and toss with the onions. Roast at 425 for about 30 minutes or until softened and getting brown around the edges.

Layer the phyllo in an 8- or 9-inch pie pan, drizzling a bit of the melted butter or olive oil between every couple of layers. Blind-bake the phyllo crust by sticking it in the oven during the last 10-15 minutes of onion roasting, and remove when the edges look browned.

Scrape the roasted onions into the phyllo shell with their delicious juices. Sprinkle the fresh sage on top, then sprinkle the blue cheese over that. Put the assembled tart back into the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Slice & serve, yum.

The recipe on which this one is loosely based called for a can of refrigerated pizza crust dough, which I never have lying around, so I changed it to a phyllo crust. The phyllo worked fine with the freshly made tart but reheated the next day a bit soggy, so in this version of the recipe I recommend blind-baking the tart for a longer time.

Coeur de Porc au Vin

2007-05-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay. It's been a while since I both worked up a recipe worth talking about and then had time to post about it afterwards. But this one was pretty good:

Coeur de Porc au Vin

Melt a tablespoon of butter or lard in a saucepan with a splash of olive oil.
Finely chop one medium onion and cook over medium heat until softened, along with a bit of bacon.
Take one whole Clark Summit Farm pig heart, split and rinse it.
Brown the heart with the onions, then add 1 cup stock and 1 cup red wine, along with 1 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, 1 clove finely chopped garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer, but do not allow to boil, for about 1 hour or so or until tender.
Remove heart from stock and wine and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
In the meantime, make a roux and whisk into the cooking liquid. Reduce the cooking liquid to a sauce.
Slice the heart in thin slices against the grain, pour sauce over, and serve.
Serves 2-3 people who like heart and 4-6 who don't.

I served mine with steamed quinoa and a salad. The quinoa was tasty but the salad couldn't stand up to the heart's flavor. The heart itself was delicious, chewy and fine-grained; it reminded me of duck. Even the chief taster, who confessed he'd been dreading this dish, was favorably impressed (though he did doubt its palatability for children).

Greek Barley Salad (aka My new favorite way to make arugula)

2007-03-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

Arugula has always been hard for me, because we get big bunches of it, more than enough for a salad for two, but it's really too strong to have on its own unless it's perfectly fresh and perfectly spicy (i.e., not quite as spicy as the stuff we usually get). So it glares balefully from the fridge at me each night until around Sunday or Monday, when it starts to glare morosely and look jaundiced and there's nothing to be done but chop it up with the rest of the orphaned greens and have the usual Tuesday night soup. And that's a shame, because I love arugula. For this salad I wanted something that would use fresh arugula well without either souping it or leaving it nakedly fresh. A quick saute with garlic might work, except that it's boring and this arugula is slightly too bitter to stand alone. But match it with some nice sweet barley, and it's great.

1 bunch fresh arugula, washed and thick stems removed
1 cup pearl barley
2 cups water or vegetable stock
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt

Cook the barley in the water or stock. Mix together one (minced) clove garlic and the following five ingredients in a bowl. Throw the barley in and toss it around until coated. Very briefly, saute the other clove of garlic (also minced) with the arugula until the greens have just barely wilted, then add to the barley mixture. Dish out and top with:

1/3 cup diced feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped olives
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup chopped salami
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 avocado, cubed

Tamagoyaki

2007-03-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

This was an excellent, quick, healthy dinner that tasted yummy:

For tamagoyaki:
4 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp mirin or rice wine or white wine
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soy sauce

Mix everything together with a fork in a bowl, but do not beat air into the mixture. Heat a small saute pan and brush lightly with the end of a stick of butter. Pour in two or three tablespoons of egg mixture and cook until almost done, tear off a piece of nori and throw it on there, then roll up and off to one side with a spatula. Add two more tablespoons and repeat until mixture is all gone, then tip the roll of egg out onto a sushi mat and roll it up tightly for a few minutes.

For noodle salad:
Simmer a couple packs of soba noodles for 4 minutes or until done, then drain.
Saute together a green onion or two, some garlic, 3/4 tsp ginger or so, and a bunch of shredded carrot. Then add a pile of chopped broccoli or romanesco and a splash of white wine to steam it with, and cover. Toward the end, add some spinach and saute until wilted. Throw in about a tablespoon of miso and a tablespoon of soy sauce.

To serve, dish out the noodles, top with vegetable mix, then add slices of tamagoyaki.

My favorite way to cook calves' liver

2007-02-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

Slowly cook an onion or leek with a little salt until it begins to caramelize.
Throw in some chopped carrot and a healthy sprinkle of dried rosemary, maybe half a teaspoon.
While the carrot cooks, thinly slice a head of savoy cabbage.
Once the carrot has softened, turn the heat up to high and quickly saute the cabbage until wilted, along with a minced clove of garlic. Remove to a bowl.

Meanwhile, chop 1/4 cup pecans and toast in a dry pan.

In the same pan as the cabbage was cooked, melt a tablespoon of butter.
Over medium-high heat, cook 1/4-inch slices of liver for about 30 seconds per side, or until just cooked through.
Remove liver to a plate.

Add 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan. Bring to a boil.
Add the cabbage mixture to the pan and toss briefly to reheat.

To serve, place cabbage on a plate, top with a few slices of liver, then sprinkle with toasted pecans and another splash of balsamic vinegar.

My favorite way to cook rapini

2007-02-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

Very fast, very easy: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop in a pound or two of rapini and simmer for a couple of minutes, then pull it all out. Let the water come back to a boil and drop in a pound of whole-wheat pasta.

While that's cooking, add the following to a pot over medium heat, in this order:
Olive oil
Garlic
A sausage, cut up (optional)
The blanched rapini, coarsely chopped
Sundried tomato, coarsely chopped
Pine nuts
Salt and pepper

Cook, stirring occasionally, until rapini is tender.

After pasta has cooked, return to pot and grate several tablespoons of cheese over. Can also add a tablespoon or two of broth or cooking liquid from the rapini. Serve rapini mixture over pasta.

My favorite Meyer lemons

2007-02-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

I very much enjoyed the Lemon Confit Shortbread Tart from the New York Times, although it wasn't to everyone's taste. Although preserved Meyer lemons are delicious, it almost strikes me as a waste of their Meyeriness to salt them to death and then just cook them with chicken -- though now that I think about it, the Meyer aroma does come through.

The amount of shortbread seemed like a lot to me, but it's necessary in order to muffle the lemons, which tend to shout otherwise.

To make the crust, mix 3 cups flour, 1 tsp lavender salt, 1 cup sugar, and 2 sticks butter in a bowl, until it forms flaky crumbs. Throw in 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 2 tbsp lemon juice, and mix until it starts clumping together. Refrigerate.

Thinly slice 7-8 Meyer lemons, minus the ends, and toss with 3/4 cup sugar. Marinate for a couple of hours. Then bring to boil in a saucepan, and cook down until the lemons are candied and the remaining liquid is somewhat syrupy, about 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into halves and roll them out to a little over 9 inches in diameter. Place one in the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan. Pour the confit over and spread it around. Top with the other half of the dough. Bake at 350F for about 35 minutes. Dust the top with 1/4 cup sugar and return to the oven for about ten more minutes, until the top gets a bit brown. I threw mine under the broiler for a bit too long -- it got dark brown in spots, but the sugar turned out nicely crunchy.

My favorite baby bok choy

2007-02-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

Splash of olive oil, few drops sesame oil. Heat pretty high, then drop in a clove of crushed garlic and some baby bok choy and toss rapidly until bok choy starts to wilt. Throw in a dash of soy sauce and a dash of Tabasco sauce, then quickly pop a lid on and turn off the heat. The bok choy will finish cooking by steaming in the water from the soy sauce for the next few minutes, as long as you don't take the lid off too soon.

My favorite carrots

2007-02-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

Preheat oven to 400F.
Peel and chop carrots into 2-3 inch strips or fingers.
Toss with olive oil, rosemary salt and balsamic vinegar.
Roast for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and add more balsamic vinegar, then roast for 10 more minutes or until carrots can be pierced with a fork.
Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

My favorite turnips

2007-02-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Peel turnips and chop into 1-inch cubes.
Braise in the greasiest, savoriest, saltiest chicken broth you can find. If it happens to be next to a roasting chicken, that's great as long as there is enough broth to cover most of the turnips. Otherwise they tend to roast rather than braise, and I find them sort of hard and too chewy unless roasted to a crisp.
Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and serve.

My favorite quick butternut squash

2007-02-02T17:55:00.000-08:00

Chop an onion and saute it in olive oil with a pinch of salt in a large saucepan.
Peel, de-seed and cube one butternut squash.
Add squash to saucepan and add chicken broth to cover.
Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to maintain a simmer.
Add a tsp of dried thyme or other tasty herb.
Simmer until squash can be pierced with a fork but isn't mushy, about 15-20 minutes.
Puree in batches in a food processor.
While puree is still hot, add a tablespoon or two of butter and stir.
Serve with sour cream or chopped cilantro or chives.

Quick brown rice

2007-02-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

Add 1 cup brown rice and 2 cups water to a saucepan with a dash of salt.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute an onion or leek in olive oil in a separate pan.
Add 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp salt and a tiny pinch of cinnamon.
Add about 1/4 cup almonds and 1/4 cup water or broth and simmer uncovered for about ten minutes.

When the rice is done, mix together, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve.

My favorite sweet potatoes

2007-02-02T17:44:00.000-08:00

Preheat oven to 425F.
Peel sweet potatoes.
Chop into either fries or 1-inch chunks (fries cook somewhat faster but can be limp).
In a large bowl, mix 2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp fine salt, 1 tsp garlic powder if available, and 1/4 tsp fresh pepper.
Toss the freshly sliced sweet potato chunks, which should be ever so slightly damp, with the powdered spice mixture so that they are evenly coated.
Spread the spiced sweet potato chunks in a baking pan.
Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over them and toss gently to distribute.
Roast for 30-40 minutes or until soft.

My favorite quick spinach side dish

2007-02-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

With ungraded bunch spinach:

Dump spinach into a bowl of water in the sink.
Remove dead or bruised leaves from the outside of each bunch and cut off the root end to separate the leaves.
Change the water in the bowl at least once to remove mud and grit.
Drop washed spinach into a colander or salad spinner and let water drain away.

Heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium-high heat in a wok or large saucepan.
Mince 1 clove garlic and saute for about ten seconds.
Throw in spinach and stir briskly until wilted but still bright green, about 45 seconds.
Add a pinch of fine sea salt, a grind of pepper, and a squirt of lemon juice if desired and serve.

New series: my favorite ways

2007-02-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

Due to the way I've structured my grocery purchasing habits, I almost never go shopping with the intent of picking up the ingredients for a particular recipe. Instead, once a week an assortment of plant parts comes to me, the content of which I have no control over; once every week or two I pick up an assortment of plant parts that are in season; and once every four to six weeks I refresh my supply of frequently-used, long-keeping staples.

This means that when I come home at night and want to make dinner, I first look in the fridge to see which plant parts seem most eager to be eaten. Usually leaves are at the head of the line, then fruits (peppers and tomatillos) and buds (broccoli and cauliflower), then roots and durable fruits like winter squash when everything else has been used up. Once I've selected a victim, I poke around in a cookbook or online to find a new recipe that showcases the vegetable. This is a fun process, but lately I've started thinking it takes too long. Also, I rarely make the same thing twice, and this seems inefficient.

Instead, I want to amass a collection of short recipes that serve as the best quick way to dispose of any given vegetable. I'll still post other tasty recipes that I'm moved to test out, but hopefully over the course of a year I'll cover ways to prepare each vegetable as it comes into season (and other ingredients too).

Stout Gingerbread Cake

2007-01-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

I ran across this recipe in Sunset and made it for the aforementioned gathering. I made three changes, substituting 1/2 cup coconut oil for one of the three (!!) sticks of butter, switching in Bison Brewing's Organic Chocolate Stout for the Guinness, and using a 13x9 pan instead of the two 8x8s. It came out moist and dark and tasted reasonably interesting, though it's much better the day after it's made. Right after it comes out of the oven, before the flavors have mellowed together, it has a weird sort of bitter taste.

It's not difficult to make, despite the lengthy ingredient list. It requires three vessels: a pot for the molasses, beer and baking soda; a bowl for the flour, salt and spices; and a bowl for the sugar, butter, eggs, ginger, and lemon peel. Mix separately and then combine, very easy, and since the fat is melted it doesn't require the use of a mixer.

Escarole/Spinach/Cilantro Salad with Anchovy Vinagrette

2007-01-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

I picked up a lovely head of escarole on a whim Saturday, and promptly stumbled across a version of this recipe in Sunset magazine. Since I was cooking for five or six people on Monday, I added half a bag of spinach and a clump of cilantro to the escarole. It was just enough for five, though everyone wanted more.

1 head escarole, cored and roughly chopped
1/2 bag baby savoy spinach
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Dressing:
2 cloves garlic
4 anchovies, deboned if necessary
1/4 tsp salt (heaping)
1/4 tsp pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup good olive oil (you may not need this much)

Mash garlic, anchovies, salt and pepper in a mortar. Scrape into small mixing bowl and slowly whisk in lemon juice and some of the olive oil. Taste periodically to ensure the dressing doesn't get too oily. Toss leaves together and drizzle with some of the dressing. Toss, taste and add dressing as necessary.

I added the 1/2 tsp salt the recipe originally called for, but in combination with the anchovies this was slightly too much salt. I believe it also called for more olive oil, but I used less than half a cup and the result verged on unpleasantly slick (though still delicious).

I wasn't very familiar with escarole before I picked up this head at the farmers' market (because it was cheap and beautiful). Wish I could remember which stand it was. I was expecting something bitter, perhaps suitable only for braising, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it slightly nutty and almost sweet.

Delish Roasted Cauliflower

2006-12-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Roasted cauliflower is much better than basic steamed or boiled cauliflower -- slightly nutty-tasting, and the texture is much better. This recipe makes it very tasty:

1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower, broken into florets
2 tbsp melted butter
Zest from one lemon
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
Salt and pepper

Roast cauliflower in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes. Mix all other ingredients and pour over the cauliflower, then roast for about 15 more minutes. Terribly easy, very quick, tastes lemony and good.

Gumbo Aux Herbes

2006-12-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

This week's veggie box yielded five or six bags of assorted leaves. That's too many. I usually have a hard time coming up with interesting things to do with radish greens and beet greens and chard and such, and I'm tired of sauteeing them with sausage and garlic and pine nuts for the umpteenth time. So this week I finally bit the bullet and tried this recipe for gumbo z'herbes, despite the low ratings and its rather boring appearance. It turned out very well and tasted savory and filling. I made some modifications as usual. My version went like this:

Greens:
Half a bag of tired week-old arugula
1 bag mustard greens
1 bunch radish greens
1 bunch beet greens
1 bag assorted dandelion, radicchio, escarole, etc.
Outer leaves from 1 head savoy cabbage
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme

4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium yellow onion
1 medium carrot
2 tbsp paprika
A healthy dash of Tabasco
1 tbsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Cooked brown rice for serving

Melt the butter in a cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes or so, until chestnut brown. (Mine got to peanut-butter brown or so and then seemed to stall out. Worked fine anyway.)

In the meantime, heat the chicken broth and water to a simmer in a large pot. Wash and chop up all the greens and add to the pot in order of toughness, cabbage first, and including oregano and thyme. Add the kidney beans and a few cloves of garlic.

Chop the onion and carrot. When the roux is brown enough, saute the onion and carrot in the cast-iron skillet with the roux until softened.

Stir the roux mixture into the greens pot by spoonfuls. Add paprika, Tabasco, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Taste and correct seasonings if necessary. Serve over rice.

This took about an hour or so the first time, probably less with subsequent attempts.

Turnip Magic

2006-12-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

The only thing to do with turnips is braise them in salty liquid. I made an ersatz approximation of clay-pot chicken the other night, involving chicken and quartered onions and quartered turnips in a covered casserole dish in the oven, covered with a bizarre soy sauce/worcestershire/molasses/mustard/other stuff mixture (it worked okay, trust me). The turnips, which softened and tenderized and soaked up sauce and poached in chicken juice, were lovely, the best part of the meal.

Rice Cooker Magic

2006-11-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

The Chief Taster espied an orphaned rice cooker the other day on what I fondly call our local "sidewalks o' plenty," and in his immeasurable wisdom, made off with it (as well as a slightly outdated postal scale and a toaster oven). At first I was suspicious, having in the past observed rice cookers used solely to make plain white rice -- and white rice is just so not me, you know?

Tonight, however, I came home from work late. I had a craving for stuffed acorn squash, but I knew it would take forever . . . and yet, that rice cooker gleamed seductively on the table. What the heck, I thought, so I threw in:

1/2 cup wild rice
1 cup pearl barley
5 dried shiitakes, stemmed and broken into pieces
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
2.25 cups water

In the plastic veggie steamer insert, I placed:
1 acorn squash, halved and trimmed to fit

Closed the lid, plugged it in, did a load or two of laundry . . . dinner! (Some assembly required.)

This thing is going to revolutionize my late-working nights.

Roast Chicken Revised

2006-10-30T12:18:00.000-08:00

Came across a couple of new ways to roast chicken that promised to keep it juicy and succulent, so I combined a few techniques last night and came up with something really good.

1. Thaw whole chicken, remove giblets. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, lots of salt (1/2 to 1 cup), or soak in brine (~1 cup salt in 1 gallon water). Leave in refrigerator for a few hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 F or so. Chop up a few potatoes and sweet potatoes and heads of garlic or what-have-you, and toss them in a roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and thyme. Throw these in the oven 10-15 minutes before the chicken is ready.

3. Mash together garlic, oregano, sage, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil to form a runny paste. Spread the paste under the chicken skin all over and smear any extra outside the skin.

4. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes in the roasting pan, breast side down. Roast for 50-60 minutes (for a 4.5-pound bird) and check for doneness.

This version makes the chicken skin a dark, dark golden brown, which was somewhat scary for this timid roaster, but the relatively fast hot cooking of pre-brined chicken didn't make the meat dry out. The timing was perfect for the potatoes and other veggies.

Roasted Lamb

2006-10-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

Having done the roasted-Costco-boneless-lamb-leg thing three or four times now, I think I have my technique down pat (good thing, since there're two more in the freezer).

First thing is to pare off the fat layer. This is easier when the meat is still partially frozen (though not so cold that the de-boned leg can't be unfolded). I still don't know quite how obsessive I have to be about getting every last speck of surface fat, and I think I spent the better part of an hour paring the fat off the last one, so maybe next time I'll be less careful and see if everything still tastes pretty much the same.

Then the marinade. I use some combination of the following ingredients:

black olives (1/2 to 3/4 cup)
garlic (1 whole bulb)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
sage
cumin
basil
other dried green herbs

Slather this all over the meat, then fold it back up into a ball, stuff it back into the netting it came in (or tie it up with kitchen twine), and let it marinate for a few hours.

Then roast at 350 for 90 minutes or so. I usually take it out and make a cut somewhere near the middle to check for doneness.

Braised Asian Greens

2006-10-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Last week we got a few bunches of bok choy and tatsoi that I didn't get around to until last night. Some friends brought over an excellent and simple bok choy dish last week that I really enjoyed, but my preparation didn't turn out much like theirs. First, my bunches weren't quite as "baby" as theirs, so I separated the leaves instead of leaving them whole. Since there was plenty of dirt at the bunches' bases that didn't come out with soaking, this turned out to be a good idea.

I sauteed the leaves in a bit of olive oil over fairly high heat for a bit, then added a splash of water and a dash of salt and covered the pan. I let the leaves steam for a while, then added three drops of fish sauce, a dash of sesame oil, and a splash of rice vinegar. In deference to the chief taster's tastes, I steamed them a bit longer than I might otherwise have, and was worried that they'd be too limp, but they turned out just fine really.

The entire bag of bok choy and tatsoi turned out to be just enough for the two of us when prepared this way. This preparation is quick and doesn't mind if you don't bother to carefully measure ingredients or cooking time.

Weekend Waffles

2006-09-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

I've been relying on the basic Joy of Cooking recipe for waffles, but this morning I tweaked it somewhat and came up with a good recipe that fills up the two of us just fine, with nicely browned crispy-edged waffles. Without further ado:

1/2 cup fine-ground whole wheat flour
Heaping 1/4 cup all-purpose white flour
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp lavender salt

2 small eggs
1/2 cup milk
Heaping 1/4 cup yogurt
3-4 tbsp butter, melted

Whisk dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls. Pour wet ingredients into dry and whisk just until blended. Pour onto preheated waffle iron by 1/2-cupfuls and cook until nicely browned. Serve with jam or what-have-you. Quick, easy, seems to work for the chief taster fellow.

Meat cheat

2006-09-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

The other week at the farmers' market the Prather Ranch dude caught me cheating with the Marin Sun dude. So embarrassing! A smart meatdulteress would, of course, shop at each on alternate weekends . . . but my freezer is getting bare, and I wanted to fill it up with good meat before our every-six-weeks carnival of TJ's/Costco temptation, where I might otherwise give in and buy TJ's ground buffalo (grain-fed, alas) and other strange flesh at Costco. So I splurged at Marin Sun and picked up a roast and a couple of steaks, and skipped merrily over to PR for the regular buffalo and maybe a bonus steak. PR guy rang up my order, then peered over the counter suspiciously, spying my conspicuous bag of . . . someone else's meat. I turned scarlet with shame. In a fit of jealousy he insisted that I take a skirt steak and compare theirs with his.

So now I have two skirt steaks and two tri-tips. The prices differ by a couple of bucks per pound, but PR is pricier on one cut and MS is more expensive on the other -- a wash. As far as I can tell, Marin Sun is 100% grass-fed, whereas PR's is mostly grass-fed and finished on alfalfa hay, barley, and rice. Here's a quote from PR Steve on that topic: "Our beef is grass fed for the majority of it's life, then finished on a mixture of barley, rice and alfalfa, which allows for more intramuscular fat and marbling and that gives the beef a 'beefier' flavor. One hundred percent grass fed can be a little too lean and can be inconsistent because grass is inconsistent, when it's dry the beef may not be as good." (Follow the link for a picture!)

FirstI did up the Marin Sun tri-tip (having run out of time to marinate the skirt steak). I decided to broil it and make crepes.

While composing the rest, I briefly marinated the steak in a little dish of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, pepper, and rosemary salt:

Then, cherry tomato relish! I chopped up most of a pint of Eatwell's cherry tomatoes with a splash of balsamic vinegar, Eatwell's rosemary salt, dried oregano, a few sliced black olives, and a chopped green onion, also from (you guessed it) Eatwell. Later I added a pair of delicious ripe bell peppers that had gone under the broiler with the steak, peeled and chopped.

I made just enough crepe batter for two large ones. (Whisk together 1 small egg, 1 tbsp melted butter, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup flour, and 1/8 tsp salt. Pour into hot nonstick pan, swirl to coat, and cook briefly on each side until slightly browned.)

While making the crepes, I broiled the steak for a few minutes on each side. It turned out just about perfect -- medium rare.

And the finished crepe:

The steak in this was fantastic; juicy, tender, extremely flavorful. It tasted strongly of cow the way good goat cheese tastes like goat. I know that's a terrible analogy, but there doesn't seem to be a tasting wheel for beef. Salt, rust, blood, grass?

A few days later I marinated and broiled the Prather Ranch tri-tip in exactly the same way. While doing that I put together a massive salad nicoise:
I boiled some new potatoes, beets, and a couple of (beautifully orange-yolked) eggs, and simmered some zucchini and yellow carrots. Also in starring roles are cucumbers, olives, salad greens, tomatoes, radishes, fresh figs, red peppers, and probably some other things I'm forgetting. All dressed with a nice dressing of mustard, crushed garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Mmm!

And with the steak draped atop:

This steak, though also excellent, was not quite as cow-y in flavor. It was a tiny bit less tender, but the most noticeable fault, relative to the other, was the loss in rich flavor. It's conceivable that pairing the first steak with tomatoes, and this with mainly other veggies, gave the first an advantage. I'll have to test this theory with the pair of skirt steaks.

Deformed children of a twisted mind

2006-08-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

For every delicious quick enchilada there is a secret mutant evil twin carbohydrate-like substance locked in a closet somewhere, and in this case that would be Monday night's well-meaning but bizarre and unnatural pasta feast. I had a delicious tagliatelle dish the previous Friday at Citizen Cake. It was a lovely shade of deep but pleasant yellow, with a perfectly clingy, faintly cheesy, delicate savory sauce wending its way among luscious organic veggie bits and toothsome noodles.

On Monday, when I thought about making pasta, the only adjective that seemed important happened to be "yellow," and my primitive reptile brain leapt to the conclusion that if only I could make my pasta sauce the same shade of yellow as that wonderful stuff from last time, it would be just as good! But I wanted some tomato in there, and there were some mushrooms in the fridge. Following this train of thought to its logical conclusion, I created the most inedible dish of the year, whole-wheat pasta with turmeric-tomato-shiitake-olive sauce. I admit, it's difficult to add enough turmeric to overpower those other strong savory flavors, but in my single-minded pursuit of yellowness, I somehow succeeded. For future reference, it takes about a heaping tablespoon.

The result was bitter and disgusting, but I didn't give up. Proving that an alien with no taste buds had taken over my brain, I then remembered that a little sugar can sometimes correct and enhance the flavor of a sauce, so I added three or four tablespoons. Yep, although I don't quite remember through the haze of insanity, it's true that I may have added an entire quarter-cup of brown sugar to a small pot of tomato sauce. This officially converted the mess to turmeric-shiitake-olive ketchup.

I gave up and went out for crepes.

Quick Tomatillo Enchiladas

2006-08-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

All measurements are approximate:

8-9 corn tortillas
3/4 lb chicken breasts
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup tomato puree (NOT paste) (optional)

Sauce:
1 lb tomatillos
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup fresh basil or cilantro
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper, or 1 fresh jalapeno

Poach chicken in barely simmering water for about 5 minutes, then turn off heat and cover pot. Leave for 15 minutes, then remove chicken, drain and shred with a fork. If it's pink in the middle, throw it back in the water and return to a simmer for a couple more minutes.

Mix shredded chicken, shredded cheese, and (optional) tomato puree in a bowl. Divide mixture between tortillas. Place a cylinder of filling on each tortilla, roll up tortillas, and arrange tightly in an 8x8 baking pan.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Blend all sauce ingredients except tomatillos in food processor until pureed. Add tomatillos and blend until tomatillos are mostly pureed but a few small chunks remain.

Pour tomatillo sauce over and around rolled enchiladas and bake for about 20 minutes, or until sauce no longer looks terribly wet, or browns slightly. Actually I have no idea how long, the original recipe called for 1 cup cream instead of the yogurt and probably turns out a lot saucier. This version got sort of cakey on top, which was fine with me.

Garnish with lettuce and olives and sliced radishes and what have you.

Fresh out of the oven, this was way too lemony, but the leftovers were perfectly mellow. Next time I might cut back on the lemon juice and the tomato puree; I forgot how citrusy those tomatillos are. The tortillas get totally squishy. I don't know if toasting them or pre-frying them would help. Flour tortillas would not be as nice in this dish.

This is a quick recipe: in under an hour everything was ready down to the garnishes and I'd washed my hair.

Meyer Lemon Tart

2006-08-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

2 large Meyer lemons
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter

1 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup ice water

Make crust: Preheat oven to 400 F. Whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle ice water over and mix in with spatula until mixture holds together when pressed. Roll out on flat surface into a circle about 12 inches across. Press into 9-inch pie plate and crimp edges. Prick all over with a fork and bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes or until edges are brown. Remove and allow to cool.

Make filling: Zest both lemons. Juice both lemons into a separate bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugar and lemon zest. Add lemon juice and butter and heat over a double boiler, whisking constantly, until butter melts. Stir with a spatula, brushing down sides, until custard thickens. Continue stirring for a few seconds and then pour custard through a sieve into a bowl.

Test custard for sweetness and add powdered sugar if necessary. Pour into prepared crust and chill for four hours.

The original recipe called for only a tablespoon of zest, or the zest of only one lemon, or something like that. I wanted to use as much Meyery goodness as possible, so I zested both. I think this made the custard a tad too sour/bitter/zesty, so I had to add some powdered sugar after the custard was done.

Apple Walnut Cream Tart (quick)

2006-07-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

A few sheets of phyllo (6-12)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp melted butter
3-4 apples, thinly sliced
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup walnuts, ground in food processor until smooth
1/8 tsp salt, preferably lavender

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Toast the walnuts before grinding them if you like; I didn't bother and this turned out fine anyway. Whisk together the walnut butter, egg, milk, salt, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Set aside.

Saute the apples in 1 tbsp melted butter for about five minutes. Add 3 tbsp brown sugar and set aside.

Mix 1 tbsp brown sugar with cinnamon.

Layer phyllo sheets in 9-inch pie pan. Brush every other sheet with part of the remaining 1 tbsp melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Fold down corners that extend above the rim of the pan.

Fill pan with sauteed apples; top with walnut mixture. Bake in 350 F oven for about 50 minutes, or until center of topping is set.

I was pressed for time and skipped the apple-sauteing step, thinking the long baking would suffice. Because I used my spiffy slaw slicer from Lehman's, the apples were cut thinly enough that this worked. Sauteing them might have been a good idea if they were slightly thicker. It also would have cut down the apple volume a bit.

This turned out very tasty and creamy. The chief taster seemed to like it very much; I found it less satisfying than a plain old apple pie. This is still a good way to use up the end of a phyllo package, and it's quicker than making pastry.

Yay, it's Cabbage! (quick)

2006-07-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

1/2 large head red cabbage, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
2 links italian-style or other sausage, peeled and crumbled or sliced
1 apple, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
1 quarter lemon

Over medium heat, saute onion in olive oil until limp. Add sausage and cook for 2 minutes. Add cabbage and all other ingredients except the lemon. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes, or until cabbage begins to soften. Stir occasionally. Uncover, add lemon, and cook for 10 more minutes or until cabbage is soft, stirring occasionally. Taste and correct with a little bit of balsamic vinegar, salt, or sugar as necessary.

This is a fairly complete one-dish meal, especially with popovers on the side or some other bready thing. It's also a nice shade of deep pink, as are most of my experimental recipes for some reason. My theory is that there are too few good recipes for pink and purple foods like beets, beet greens, and red cabbage, and so I'm disproportionately forced to come up with such recipes on my own. Anybody can cook a normal-colored food, but it takes some doing to serve up something that invariably ends up looking like shredded yard flamingo.

Flamboyance notwithstanding, cabbage and sausage is extremely tasty and this recipe is extremely easy and quick.

Double-Crusted Berry Pie

2006-07-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

Crust:

2 1/2 cups flour (I use up to 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (if you use salted butter, omit at least half the salt)
1 1/2 sticks cold butter (can replace less than half with cold coconut oil)
1/3 cup plus one tablespoon ice water

Filling:
5-6 cups berries, fresh or frozen
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
4-5 tbsp cornstarch (I like a thicker filling and use more cornstarch)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in cold butter, but do not overwork the pastry; leave lumps the size of peas. Sprinkle ice water over and cut in with a spatula. Do not overwork; use water only until the dough just coheres.

Mix the filling ingredients. Place bottom crust in pie pan; add filling; dot with butter; add top crust. Bake at 425 F for 30 minutes, then at 350 F for another 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool for about four hours.

Almost always works out well. The more cornstarch the better; my pie failures usually have to do with runny fillings. Too much cornstarch will generate the gummy filling associated with McDonald's fruit pies and other crap, but I don't mind that problem so much if the fruit is good. Adding whole wheat flour to the pastry definitely brings it down a notch, but it's still more than edible.

Fabulous Roasted Lamb

2006-07-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

This recipe was loosely based on the Roasted Butterflied Leg of Lamb recipe in the Joy of Cooking, with the (also loosely interpreted) Tapenade Stuffing variation.

4.5 pound boneless leg of lamb

Marinade:
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
6 cloves garlic
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Remove as much fat and membrane as possible from the lamb, then unfold and flatten the meat as much as possible.

Mix marinade ingredients together in food processor and process until the mixture forms a smooth paste.

Spread the marinade over the inside of the lamb leg. Roll the meat tightly and tie with kitchen string. If any marinade leaks out during rolling, spread it over the outside of the roll. The roll will not look neat; mine was sort of an amorphous ball.

Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.

Remove from refrigerator about 1/2 hour prior to cooking. Preheat oven to 325 F. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and slowly roast the meat for about 1 1/2 hours. It is not possible to speed up this process; roasting slowly at a low temperature ensures that the meat remains tender and pink, but not rare, throughout. If you have a meat thermometer you might check the meat for doneness at this point. Having no such thermometer, I stabbed mine with a knife and peeked around for doneness; it seemed a little too juicy and pink in there, so I raised the temperature to 425 F and roasted for another 15 minutes to make sure.

This turned out perfectly. I was expecting more of a showing from the marinade/stuffing, but it kind of disappeared into the meat somehow. The original recipe called for two cups of olives, but I suspected that might be too powerful and salty a stuffing, so I pared it down substantially and added much more garlic, a significant hit of mustard, and some herbs that I liked. The very very center of this roast was still a tad rare, but the outside edges got only to medium well done, and remained very tender. It turned out to be the best lamb I've had in a while.

The 4.5 pound leg, after I removed at least a pound of fat, made about six servings.

Matt's Favorite Blondies

2006-07-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

These are adapted from some Sheila Lukins book:
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp hot water
2 eggs
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping cup chocolate chips

Grease a 9x13 baking pan.
Melt coconut oil, butter and brown sugar together over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Dissolve coffee powder in hot water; add to oil-sugar mixture and stir. Allow to cool.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, then beat into the rest of the ingredients in three additions.
Stir in the chocolate chips, then spread in prepared pan.
Bake about 25 minutes. Cool completely and cut into small squares.

These were pleasantly moist rather than cakey. The middle ones, slightly underdone, verged on gummy, but nobody other than me seemed to notice. With lavender salt, and with a bit of extra cooking to caramelize the sugar and oils together, these were unusually complex-flavored for mere cookies. They went well with an excellent V. Sattui red.

Japaneseiness

2006-07-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Argh, I haven't updated this blog for a month now! But now I'm back. Part of that month was spent off traveling anyway, so it doesn't count. I've been cooking Japanese food the past couple of days. Here are the favorites so far:

Zucchini and Onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 medium zucchinis, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
ground black pepper
Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onions, and cook 5 minutes. Add zucchini, and cook, stirring, about 1 minute. Stir in teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Cook until zucchini are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in ground pepper, and serve immediately.

Teriyaki Braised Chicken
4 chicken thighs
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 small dried pepper, seeds removed
Place all ingredients in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Increase heat, turning thighs frequently, and cook until liquid has reduced to a sticky glaze. Serve over rice.

Japanese Pumpkin Salad
1 small pumpkin or butternut squash, seeded and quartered
salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil for basting
8 oz frozen chestnuts (I used vacuum-packed)
Dressing
1.5in fresh ginger, grated
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Roast the pumpkin, sprinkled with salt and pepper and drizzled with oil, for 20 minutes, then add the chestnuts and roast for a further 15 minutes.
3. Leave to cool.
4. If using butternut squash, roast for 30 minutes before adding the nuts.
5. Scoop or chop the squash and chestnuts into bite-sized pieces.
6. For the dressing, whisk the dressing ingredients together, pour over the salad and toss well before serving.
(This was the chief taster's very favorite dish of all.)

Braised Japanese-style Mushrooms
6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water
1/2 tbsp sake
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
Remove the stalks from the mushrooms. Mix the sake with the soy sauce in a cup.
Heat a dry non-stick frying pan, then add the mushrooms, gill side down. Cook for 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Turn the mushrooms over and cook for about 2 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until water starts to come out.
Pour in the sake/soy sauce mixture and keep stirring for 30 seconds to 1 minute, turning the mushrooms over, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are shrunken and well-flavored.
Serve hot; or cool in pan and serve at room temperature. Can also be sliced.

Soba with Sesame Seed dressing
1/2 cup sesame seeds
8 ounces dried soba noodles
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 sheet nori, rolled and cut into thin ribbons
Cook noodles in boiling water for 5 to 6 minutes. Drain and rinse well with cold water.
Mix together the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil. Add the noodles, and toasted sesame seeds. Toss well, then stir in the nori ribbons. Let the dish sit for 30 minutes at room temperature before serving. If serving the chief taster, who hates cold noodles, toss it in the microwave for 1.5 minutes before serving.

Some recipes I'd like to try:
Black Moon's Japanese Recipe Page
Marinated Daikon and Carrot
Chicken Katsu
Just Hungry's Japanese Page
Kake's Japanese Page

Tarte Tatin

2006-06-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

For pastry:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter
1/3 cup cold sour cream or yogurt

For filling:
3 pounds or so of apples, peeled, quartered, and cored
1/2 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar

Melt butter and sugar together in a cast-iron pan. Arrange apple quarters on their sides in the skillet, packing them tightly together, as many as will fit. Cook over medium heat, boiling syrup until thick and medium brown, about 45 minutes. Watch pan to prevent burning.

Meanwhile, prepare pastry by blending flour, sugar, and salt; then cut in butter until pea-sized crumbs form. Add sour cream or yogurt and blend. Roll out pastry into a circle about the same size as the pan.

When the apples and caramel are done, lay pastry circle over the apples in the skillet and press down around the edges. Place entire skillet in a preheated 375 degree oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.

Allow to cool at least 5-10 minutes. Loosen edges of pastry by running a knife around the edges of the pan. Invert pan onto a plate and shake gently until the tart falls out. Allow to cool 30 more minutes and serve.

Frozen puff pastry is not acceptable!

Quick, Easy, Foolproof Cheesecake

2006-06-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

8-10 graham crackers
1/2 stick butter

2 8-oz pkgs cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs

For crust: Put graham crackers in a food processor and process until they form coarse crumbs. Melt the butter and add to the processor; process until the crumbs begin to stick together. Pat the crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie pan.

For filling: Blend cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt until the cream cheese is smooth. Add flour and beat until smooth. Add eggs and beat until well-combined. Pour filling into crust.

Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 45 minutes, or until edges are puffed and browning. Top with fruit.

This cheesecake seems relatively immune from overcooking. When I pulled it out of the oven and saw how brown and cracked the sides had gotten, I was sure it would be too dry, but it comes out as a pleasant, light custardy stuff. I have a detailed article in an old cooking magazine about how to make the perfect cheesecake and it discusses ingredient proportions and cooking time in great detail and depth. I couldn't find that article before cooking this cheesecake, but I'm fairly sure this recipe breaks all of those rules. It still comes out very nicely.

the left's answer to bacon

2006-05-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I am a bit slow, but I've just discovered for myself the joys of brown butter, or beurre noisette if you're one of those people. It is pure bliss. I might even say it is a better flavor enhancer than bacon, although I am admittedly biased against smoky flavors and in favor of caramelly sweet fat stuff. And brown butter is approximately as easy to make as it is to hack off a slice of bacon from the packet in the freezer.

All you have to do is plunk a stick of butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for about ten minutes. When it melts and simmers long enough to turn a medium to dark amber color, pour it through a thickness of paper towel over a strainer into a jar. Then bring the jar to your lips and take a long luxurious pull. Just kidding, you can just smell it. Mmmmmm!

I used this to dress some nasty bitter sauteed greens and they turned into nasty bitter greens coated with ambrosia. It was awesome, they were fabulous, yum, the end.

Honey Lemon Bars

2006-05-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

Found this recipe while looking for a way to use up the six pounds of honey that attacked me at Costco and wrestled their way into my cart.

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 stick butter

Mix flour and sugar. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form. Pat into the bottom of an 8x8 pan and bake for 12 minutes in a 350F oven.

Filling:
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs
2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon rind
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

While crust is baking, whisk together honey and eggs. Add rest of ingredients and whisk well. (The salt I used was too coarse and didn't dissolve.) Pour over baked crust and put back in the 350F oven for about 25-30 minutes or until filling is set.

Next time I'm going to put it in the oven a little longer at a little lower temperature. In my oven the edges and top of this got rather too caramelized and chewy while the filling was still too runny. Tasted great anyway. The honey makes this much more interesting than the usual plain sugary lemon bars. I also used lavender salt, which gave these a barely-perceptible boost. The chief taster agrees: they're good!

Spring Veggies with Lemon Vinaigrette

2006-05-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

This was so good, the chief taster requested a second round just as soon as the farm sends us more snap peas. I substantially modified this recipe from one found in Field of Greens, a vegetarian cookbook associated with Greens restaurant in SF. My version isn't vegetarian anymore, sadly, but I'm sure even the original version would have been good. It took about half an hour to assemble and cook.

4 or 5 potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 stalk green garlic, very thinly sliced
3 or 4 small young carrots, quartered and chopped
1/2 pound sugar snap peas, de-veined
1 strip cooked bacon, crumbled
3 canned artichoke hearts, sliced

Boil potatoes 15 minutes or until tender. Boil peas and carrots 2-3 minutes or until tender. Combine and toss with artichoke hearts, crumbled bacon, and sliced garlic. Add lemon vinaigrette:

Zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp wine vinegar
1/2 tsp rosemary salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tbsp bacon grease
2 tbsp olive oil

Whisk all together. Add a little mustard if desired. Pour over veggie salad and toss.

So tasty!

Caramel Popcorn

2006-05-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

To make good popcorn, heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a covered pan with four or five kernels until the kernels start to pop. Immediately add 1/3 cup popcorn and cover again. Shake the pan frequently to prevent burning. I did this twice and not a single kernel remained unpopped either time.

While the popcorn is popping, melt 1/4 stick butter in a small saucepan. Add 1/2 cup brown sugar (or maple syrup) and 1/4 tsp salt and boil for about 10 minutes. Throw a couple of handfuls of salted peanuts in with the popcorn and then drizzle the caramel over while stirring.

When I made this I had the proportions wrong -- too much butter and too little sugar. The result was good, in a greasy sort of way, but it wasn't very sweet and it seemed excessively buttery. It didn't need to be much sweeter, but less butter next time will be nice.

Spinach and Green Garlic Souffle

2006-05-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

This recipe was from the Eatwell farm newsletter last week. I modified it slightly to account for my lack of cream (I don't really make recipes involving cream anymore, except for special occasions and occasions for which I need to go out and buy specific ingredients).

Butter and flour (or dust with cheese) a 6-cup souffle dish and preheat the oven to 375 F.

1 cup minced green garlic (Cuisinarted)
3/4 cup milk
1/4 stick butter
1 sprig thyme

Combine in a small saucepan over low heat. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and steep for 15 minutes.

1 bunch spinach, stems removed, or about a pound spinach leaves (Cuisinarted)
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
4 oz goat cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
5 egg yolks
5 egg whites

Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, cook for 1 minute while stirring. Whisk in milk and stir until it thickens. Add salt, goat cheese, and Parmesan. Turn off heat, stir in egg yolks, spinach, and garlic-milk mixture from above. Season with pepper.

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form medium-firm peaks. Fold the whites into the rest of the mixture. Bake in prepared dish until set. The recipe called for 30 minutes but for me it seemed to take more like 45 minutes to an hour.

This got rave reviews from the chief taster, who was also very helpful in preparing it. I served it with popovers and it was a simple but rich meal. With a salad too, it would have been perfect.

Curried Cabbage With Toasted Peanuts

2006-04-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

This doesn't go with lamb all that well, but it's a great way to eat cabbage.

1 head savoy cabbage, finely shredded
1 small onion
1 tsp curry powder
1/3 cup peanuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
3 tbsp chicken broth
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme

Saute the onions in olive oil until softened. Saute the shredded outer leaves over high heat first, then add the more tender inner leaves and saute over medium heat. Add the broth and curry powder, then the thyme, and braise, partly covered, for about five minutes. Add the peanuts, toss, and serve.

Perfect lamb

2006-04-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Costco, I have a large number of lamb chops in my freezer that were a great deal but are too thick to do anything easy with, like grilling or broiling them. They're pretty standard loin chops, about two inches thick and three inches wide, but I guess I just don't know a good way to cook those. There are very few recipes out there for extra-thick loin chops, and cooking them as for thinner chops means they're burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. Until now! The way to do it is in a pan on the stove with a couple teaspoons of olive oil over moderately low heat, for a long time, flipping often and cooking on every side. Done this way, they were great -- pink but not bloody, tender and not tough. I spread rosemary salt over them just before cooking, which lent a nice peppery taste.

Braise at your own risk

2006-04-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

The other night I decided to improvise a chicken khoresh and learned some important lessons.

The recipe:
1 whole chicken
1.5 or 2 pounds small turnips
2 small onions
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
2 cups chicken broth
1 small bunch parsley

Cut the chicken into ten parts. Chop the onions and saute them in olive oil. Add the chicken and saute until browned. Add turnips and coriander and broth; bring to a simmer. Simmer, covered, on low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Add the rest of the spices, the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice.

Lessons learned:
1. Do not ever ever attempt to braise or stew chicken breast. It gets tough immediately and doesn't de-toughen at the same rate as the thighs and legs with further cooking. All the other meat in this dish was perfect, but the breasts were utterly blah. I know everyone else in the world loves to cook with chicken breast and they breed them with gigantic breasts now because that's what everyone wants, but I am frankly terrible with chicken breast, whether I'm frying it or grilling it or performing any of the accepted cooking methods. I frequently wreck it and this is no exception.

2. Turnips must always be peeled, no matter how tender and young and wonderful your local farmer claims they are. Do not believe him when he says they're so crisp and perfect that they don't even have to be peeled. It's not true.

3. If you don't want soup, use less water.

Innocent Chocolate

2006-04-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Where to get blood-free chocolate? Reports of child slavery and abuse on cacao farms led to an investigation by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in 2001, which found that child labor, some of it slave labor, was widespread on farms in the Ivory Coast, which in company with several other West African countries produces most of the world's chocolate.

Nestle, ADM and Cargill have already been sued, primarily over their failure to comply with the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which specified a phase-out of child labor on farms supplying major U.S. cocoa importers by July 2005. The Harkin-Engel Protocol was a voluntary industry initiative and the consequences for violating it may not be particularly great. Enforcement of pre-existing customs laws, such as Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (prohibiting importation of products made with forced or indentured labor), would prevent chocolate made with child slave labor from entering the country, but the Customs Service has pleaded a lack of enforcement resources.

Two major U.S. chocolate companies, Hershey's and M&M Mars, use large proportions of Ivory Coast chocolate in their products and claim that the supply is too homogeneous by the time they receive it to exclude cocoa produced through the use of child labor.

According to Global Exchange, Fair Trade certification standards prohibit abusive child labor. The standards only apply, however, to farms where "a significant part of the field or processing
work carried out by the producer organisation itself is done through hired labour." Small family farms of 12 acres or less, on which between two-thirds and 90% of the world's chocolate is grown according to some sources, may be permitted to employ children (their own, perhaps) without pay and receive Fair Trade certification anyway. This probably means that a Fair Trade stamp does not guarantee that the product was made without the use of child slave labor, but it may make child labor an unlikely ingredient.

TransFair USA, the organization that certifies fair-trade cocoa imports, maintains a partial list of U.S. chocolate companies that are supplied by fair-trade producers here. The list includes Dagoba, Endangered Species, Green & Blacks, Lake Champlain, Nutiva, and Sweet Earth.

A guy named Steven Millman has systematically inquired about the use of child labor in products from just about all of the major chocolate manufacturers and has compiled a list of those that seem to be child-labor free, including:
El Rey (uses only Venezuelan chocolate)
Clif Bar (does not use Ivorian chocolate)
Chocolove (does not use chocolate produced via exploited labor)
Cloud Nine (uses organic Mexican Criollo beans)
Recchiuti (uses South American beans, primarily Venezuelan)
Droste (uses Ghanaian cocoa and confirms that its sources are child-labor-free)
Dagoba (uses cocoa from the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia)
Green&Black's (uses cocoa from the Dominican Republic and Belize)
Newman's Own (uses cocoa from Costa Rica)
Rapunzel (uses cocoa from Bolivia and the Dominican Republic)
Scharffenberger (uses Ghanaian beans that are child-labor-free)
Teuscher (confirms that their bean source is child-labor-free)
Endangered Species (uses only Fair Trade cocoa)
Valrhona (uses only Venezuelan chocolate)

Unfortunately most of these confirmations date from 2001 and conditions may have changed. Scharffenberger, for instance, was recently purchased by Hershey Foods. There is nothing on their website that currently indicates where their chocolate comes from or whether they are still committed to slavery-free chocolate.

I have seen claims in several places that organic chocolate is always child-labor free because there are no organic cocoa farms in the areas where child labor is used. There is a useful table of organic, fair trade and slavery-free chocolate here. It includes, in addition to most of those previously mentioned, Sunspire, Terra Nostra, Mayordomo (Mexican-sourced), Whole Foods private label, Trader Joe's Fair Trade and Trader Joe's Organic chocolates.

For cooking, I will investigate Trader Joe's selection to see whether their Fair Trade and Organic department includes any cocoa powder, baking chocolate or chocolate chips. Droste, Newman's Own, Scharffenberger, and Valrhona are often found in supermarkets around here in various forms. For snacking, Chocolove, Dagoba, Green&Black's, and Rapunzel are pretty easy to find in any stores that are both slightly crunchy and slightly upscale (e.g. Pharmaca, Elephant Pharmacy, Rainbow Grocery, etc.).

Pasta with Cabbage and Sausage

2006-04-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

1/2 pound whole-wheat penne
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small savoy cabbages, chopped
1 bratwurst, peeled and sliced
3 leeks, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt to taste

Heat olive oil. Add bratwurst and saute while chopping leeks. Add leeks; saute while chopping cabbage. Add cabbage; saute while mincing garlic. Add garlic and saute briefly; add chicken broth and simmer while pasta cooks. Towards the end of cooking, add peas. When pasta is just short of being done, drain and add to cabbage. Cook for 1 minute; add lemon juice and stir. Add cheddar cheese and stir. Serve immediately.

This recipe got excellent reviews from the chief taster, and used up a good bit of the ever-overflowing leek and greens supply. I thought it had a good balance of savory and salty and slightly lemony. I was hesitant about the cheddar cheese, but the flavor worked really well.

Easy Squash Risotto

2006-03-30T12:08:00.000-08:00

I think I already posted about a good risotto with butternut squash that I made for a crowd last fall. Last night I made a different one and it was so quick and easy I figured I'd better write it down.

2 tbsp butter
2 leeks, cleaned and finely chopped
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and chopped into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/4 cups arborio or other short-grain white rice
2 tsp crumbled dried rosemary or 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 bagful washed stemmed spinach
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
3 1/2 cups chicken broth

Melt butter on medium-low heat. Saute leeks briefly to coat, then cook covered for five minutes. Uncover and saute, stirring, until some begin to brown. Raise heat to medium; add squash and garlic and saute 3-4 more minutes. Add rice and rosemary and stir for 1-2 minutes to coat. Pour in wine and simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated. Add 2 cups of chicken broth; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until broth is absorbed. Add 1 1/2 more cups of chicken broth; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until broth is absorbed. Turn off heat. Add spinach and fold into risotto until wilted. Add Parmesan and stir until well mixed. Serve immediately. Serves 3 or 4.

This took about an hour and fifteen minutes from start to finish, but there were long breaks in labor where I could get other things done. Tasted great.

Roast Chicken with Fennel

2006-03-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

I made this a week or so ago when I got home early one day. I post in order to memorandize a couple of useful facts: that it took almost exactly three hours from taking the chicken out of the freezer to sitting down to eat, and that if you stuff anything inside the chicken and roast it, it won't cook as nicely as the stuff roasted outside the chicken.

This recipe involved the usual chicken roasting procedure at 425 degrees for about an hour and forty minutes. The spice rub, which worked pretty well, involved a teaspoon or so each of fennel seeds, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, and sage, plus some salt and pepper, stuffed under the skin. The stuffing involved boiling quartered fennel bulbs for eight minutes and then mixing them with olive oil, whole garlic cloves, and some of the same spices, and rubbing this mixture on and stuffing inside the chicken. I put about half inside and half outside and supplemented with some cubed carrots and sweet potatoes and more garlic outside the chicken.

I don't really recommend this recipe. I had about four fennel bulbs slowly dying in the fridge (thanks, Eatwell!) and you can only eat shaved-fennel-and-parmesan-and-artichoke salad so many times a week, no matter how nouvelle it's supposed to be, so it was nice to find this recipe. I did discover that I enjoy fennel much more after it's been cooked, but I still have a limited stomach for the stuff and the combination of fennel bulbs and fennel seeds in the spice rub was overpowering after a while. The recipe I was sort of following called for stuffing some fennel and garlic in the chicken, but the garlic in there only got partially cooked and the fennel that ended up there was far inferior to the fennel that roasted outside.

To go with it, I whipped up some pasta with sliced sauteed portobello mushroom, leeks, and roasted red pepper. It worked out fine.

Pasta with Kale, Garlic and Sausage

2006-03-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

Once again, the principle that bitter greens are eminently lovable when combined with fatty spicy meat products is borne out. As a bonus, this dish is very simple and quick. I recommend pasta that's short and chunky rather than long and noodly because this didn't turn out very saucy, and it's hard to distribute little chunks of stuff among long strands of stuff.

1/2 pound whole-wheat pasta, preferably penne or rotini
1 bunch yummy organic kale
3 cloves garlic
2 bratwursts
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup wine or broth or what-have-you
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Bring a pot of water to a gentle boil or strong simmer. Dunk the kale in and leave it for five minutes or so, or until it gets a bit limp but not squishy. Remove the kale; bring the pot to a strong boil and add pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions (I hate this particular instruction, because half the time I find it in a cookbook and the referenced ingredient is something I pulled out of a bulk bin somewhere, or have otherwise repackaged in a handy glass jar or something, but I confess I actually have no idea how to boil pasta and usually just cook it until I suddenly remember that there's pasta on the stove, at which point it's either still crunchy or unappetizingly soggy (which is how CTM seems to like it best, so no harm done). So, you know, just cook it as per usual). Meanwhile, chop up sausage and saute in olive oil along with sliced garlic, thyme, and boiled kale with stems removed. Add wine or broth and steam, covered, for three minutes; uncover, turn up heat, and saute, stirring, until liquid is reduced to taste. Stir in grated Parmesan; stir in cooked pasta and serve.

MgSO4 Cream

2006-03-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

Not strictly food and probably not useful to anyone else, but I'm going to post it so I don't lose the recipe.

3/8 cup water
1/4 cup Epsom salts
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup regular body lotion
1 tbsp lecithin
15-20 drops lavender oil or other essential oil

Add water and Epsom salts to a small stainless steel saucepan. Heat to a low simmer and stir until Epsom salts are dissolved.
Add coconut oil and lecithin to a medium bowl. Add the hot Epsom salts mixture and blend with a mixer until homogenized and cooler. Gradually add regular body lotion and essential oil and blend, scraping sides of bowl, until the mixture is opaque, at room temperature, and resembles whipped butter. Pour or scrape into a jar and enjoy.

Next time I make this recipe I'll probably try using less lecithin, which makes the lotion yellow and stinky, and more body lotion, since the salts in this are very drying.

Calzones!

2006-03-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in SO long! Fortunately I made a dish last night that was good enough to be worth posting about: yummy calzones. Very easy if you have pounds and pounds of mozzarella lying around in your freezer, as I do for some reason.

The recipe I used, loosely adapted from some other recipes that were lying around the web:

Dough:
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups white all-purpose flour

Add warm water to yeast and stir briefly. Allow to dissolve for 5 minutes. Add olive oil and salt. Add whole wheat flour and then white flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until you have added about 3 1/2 cups. Reserve the final 1/2 cup of white flour for kneading in. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead in the last 1/2 cup or so of flour until smooth, about 10 minutes. Place in oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours. After the dough has risen, divide into fourths and gently pat or stretch each fourth into a circle about 10 inches in diameter on a floured surface.

Filling:
12 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
4-6 oz fresh spinach, stemmed, washed, and dried
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup olives
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Saute garlic in olive oil briefly; add spinach and oregano and saute until spinach wilts. Chop olives and tomatoes. Divide 1/2 of grated mozzarella evenly among the four dough circles, placing the cheese only on one half of each circle and leaving a 1/2-inch margin. Top cheese with equally divided portions of the spinach mixture, olives, and tomatoes. Cover with remaining cheese. Fold each calzone over the filling and roll edges up to seal. Place on cornmeal-dusted baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until golden-brown.

These were very delicious and very easy and satisfied my unquenchable pizza craving in a slightly less greasy and more savory manner than most commercial $2-a-slice pizza. They don't take long to prepare if you have time to mix the dough a bit ahead of time. Unlike much of my pizza dough, which has a habit of being heavy and dense and taking too long to rise and bake, this dough turned out chewy and flavorful and baked clear through without burning.

Butternut Gnocchi with Braised Green Sauce

2006-02-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is a combination of two recipes: Butternut Squash Gnocchi and Braised Mixed Greens. The gnocchi were not something I'd make again. The greens turned out just fine.

The original butternut gnocchi recipe called for a sage butter sauce, but I lacked fresh sage, so I elected to add a ton of dried sage to the braised greens recipe and throw it on top. As for the gnocchi themselves, I deviated from the recipe twice, in the following respects: I used the Cuisinart to mix the dough, and my white:wheat ratio was something like 1:2. After a lot of work, I ended up with chewy, raw-ish-seeming gnocchi, even after altering the size of the pieces and even after leaving them boiling for extra time. Not wonderful. The chief taster liked them, but I thought they definitely weren't worth all that work. The butternut soup is a much better way to use squash, and vastly easier.

Pasta with Savoy Cabbage, Peas and Lemon

2006-02-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

Original recipe is here. I started with a slice of bacon, then added two small heads of savoy cabbage sliced fine. Sauteed that, then added a couple little green garlics. I messed around with the sauce, adding some wine, some milk, some yogurt, some mayo, some thyme and dill. The milk curdled and didn't look good. I then added a cup of frozen peas, 2 tsp lemon zest, and salt and pepper. Turned out pretty well when I mixed it with the pasta. It was a little dry and could have used the creaminess from more mayo or yogurt or actual cream. The bacon was essential, it would have been too light and cabbagey otherwise.

Dijon Chicken Stew

2006-02-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

So this chicken stew was pretty good. I modified it a bit to account for ingredients that I had lying around.

My version:

Thinly slice 2 large leeks and saute in olive oil with 1 tablespoon mustard seeds. Add 1/2 cup pearl barley and saute briefly. Throw about four cloves of garlic on there for a minute or so, then remove to a bowl.

Dredge about 1 pound chicken thighs and 1/2 pound chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces, in flour and saute over high heat in olive oil until browned. Add about a cup of white wine to deglaze pan and a tablespoon or so of dried thyme. Add 2 tablespoons dijon mustard.

Mix a tablespoon of flour with water or broth and stir to suspend. Add to the pot along with the leeks, barley and garlic. Peel and cut up a rutabaga and add that to the pot. Simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes; add 1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped, and simmer for 10 or 15 more minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and about a tablespoon of paprika.

This was good, but the rutabaga stayed a little too firm. The flavor was great. The chicken turned out well, reminding me that the secret to chicken is to saute without water on high heat briefly and then simmer on low heat with water.

Artichoke and Cheese Puff

2006-02-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

This is adapted from a recipe in The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two, which, unlike Alice Medrich's magnum opus, you can pick up your very own copy of for a whopping 88 cents. Anyway, the recipe made a significant dent in the half-gallon jar of marinated artichoke hearts that I stupidly picked up at Costco because it was cheap and who doesn't like artichoke hearts? Everyone likes artichoke hearts, but not with every meal. And a half-gallon of artichokes takes up too much permanent space in my fridge, I've learned. Thus, interesting uses must be found for them.

For this recipe, chop up a medium onion and cook it by sauteing on medium heat, covered, for about ten minutes to release the juices; then uncovered for five more minutes to let the juices thicken; then add a splash or two of white wine and cook for ten or fifteen more minutes, stirring to prevent burning, until the onions are limp and beginning to caramelize.

Meanwhile, chop up about two cups of canned marinated artichoke hearts and strew them, along with the onions, on the bottom of a buttered casserole dish.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Separate five eggs. Mix yolks with a splash of milk, two tablespoons flour, a healthy amount of fresh pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Whip whites with 1/8 tsp cream of tartar until soft peaks form, and then fold gradually into the yolk mixture.

Fold in about a cup of grated cheddar cheese and a quarter cup of grated parmesan.

Pour the egg-cheese mixture over the artichoke hearts and onions in the casserole dish and bake for about 30 minutes or until the puff is browned on top and no longer liquid in the middle.

Along with a big salad, this made a good light dinner for two. Next time I'd add more herbs. A healthy dose of thyme would have made the onions much better.

Gai Galumblee

2006-02-05T21:45:00.000-08:00

I made this recipe tonight to use up some of my abundant bok choy, and it turned out pretty well. I did modify it kind of a lot to use what I had, though the basics are still the same.

1. Dump 1 can coconut milk in a saucepan along with several healthy grinds of black pepper, a teaspoon of coriander, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a gentle boil, then ease back until surface of coconut milk is not moving, but still hot. Coconut milk is thick enough to be simmering temperature without appearing to bubble at all.
2. Add about 6 chicken breast tenderloin strips, chopped into thumb-sized pieces. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or so, until done. Remove to a bowl.
3. Add 1 large bunch bok choy, chopped. Then add:
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white wine or rice wine
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon rind
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
4. Simmer very gently for 10 minutes or until bok choy is tender. Stir chicken back in and serve over rice.

Very easy, quick and tasty. I served it with mieng kum, CTM's favorite appetizer ever, and brown rice. Yum!

Cake 1 -- Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

2006-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

This is from page 34 of Cocolat. Oddly enough, I noticed that this cookbook, which originally retailed for about $35.00 in hardcover when issued in 1990, has since shot up to at least $100 and up to $200 on Amazon, even with "small chocolate stains inside" ($125). Guess that's the power of small print runs of very good books. CTM suggests that this demonstrates the pragmatism of his book-collecting hobby.

Cake took 35 minutes from beginning of assembly to oven.
3 bowls are required:
Bowl 1: 6 oz chocolate ( I used TJ's 70% dark chocolate Pound Plus. 6 oz is approximately 13.5 squares), 6 oz butter (1 1/2 sticks) melted in the microwave on 50% power. Starting with frozen butter, this took approximately 5 minutes (with intermittent stirring).

Bowl 2: Beat 4 egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until pale yellow and thick. Add contents of Bowl 1, 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts, and 1/4 cup flour.

Bowl 3: Beat 4 egg whites with 1/8 tsp cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat on high speed until stiff but not dry. Bowl 3 must be very clean and free of grease (I re-washed mine before use).

Fold 1/4 of Bowl 3 into Bowl 2 to lighten, then add all of Bowl 3 and fold gently until combined.

Pour into 9x2 round pan and bake at 375 F for 40-45 minutes.

Results: In my own oven at 375 F in a 9x2 round pan, this was done after about 38 minutes. Furthermore, she wasn't kidding about the 8x3 round pan in the original recipe (which I guess I'll have to pick up one of); the batter overflowed, though just barely, forming a funky lip all the way around the cake.

Taste: Because this cake is designed to stand alone rather than to be filled with creams and syrups, it has a fairly heavy moistness burden to carry. The edge of the cake is on the dry side, but the interior is sufficiently moist. The flavor is fairly bittersweet chocolate. Not much hazelnut flavor shines through, and the hazelnut meal adds a somewhat gritty texture that I don't entirely care for. More than good enough for company, but not perfect. The chocolate flavor is too dark to be a crowd-pleaser. Next time I would use chocolate chips or add more sugar.

Structure: This is fairly springy and resilient, though I'm not sure how it will hold up under five or six similar layers; the sides bow out when pressed too hard with the cake pan. Probably best on its own.

Verdict: No go. Flavor too dark, texture too gritty, and architecture too boring. My coworkers will like it, though.

From this cookbook, I also plan to test the Gateau Grand Marnier on page 76, the Lutèce on page 80, the Pavé D'Amour on page 91, and the Celebration Cake on page 120. All of these cakes involve layers of sponge and buttercream and syrup, which I may prefer to the simpler Chocolate Hazelnut Torte.

Recipes to remember this week

2006-02-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

Gai Galumblee
Bacony Bok Choy
Fennel, Artichoke, Parmesan Salad

Portobello and Toasted Barley Salad

2006-02-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

This is a liberal modification of a recipe that I found here.

For 2 people:
1 cup water
1/2 cup barley
6 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
1/4 cup chopped roasted red peppers
2 tbsp very thinly sliced green onion or shallot
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 large portobello mushrooms, stems removed
2 servings salad greens, dressed lightly in oil and balsamic vinegar

Toast 1/2 cup barley over medium high heat until very lightly browned and fragrant. Add 1 cup water and bring to boil in medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Mix barley, 3 tablespoons oil, parsley or cilantro, chopped red peppers, onions, vinegar, walnuts and garlic in medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Prepare broiler or grill (medium-high heat). Brush 1 tablespoon oil evenly over both sides of mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill mushrooms until tender, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes. Place mushrooms, gill side up, on platter. Spoon barley mixture atop mushrooms and garnish with salad greens.

Yum!

Napa Cabbage?

2006-02-01T15:34:00.000-08:00

Seems about as useless as spaghetti squash, so far. I ignored it for a week and a half or so and browsed through a couple of recipes for kimchi and other stuff I never ever eat. Finally last night I sliced it thinly and tossed it with a generous amount of kosher salt, then pressed it into a bowl with a plate on top and left it in the fridge overnight, hoping this would make it faintly slaw-y or a bit pickled or something. Today it's sufficiently salty, slightly more limp, and somewhat juicy, but has a strong, fairly unpleasant, cabbagey sulfury taste and doesn't work well as a side dish. Any ideas out there for the rest of my pile of salted cabbage?

Baklava

2006-01-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

I think the battered, dog-eared index card with my baklava recipe on it is gone forever. Fortunately I wrote it all out in an email to someone about five years ago, and that email is still in the outbox on my computer, so:

Baklava
1. Defrost phyllo. The sheets typically come in something resembling 11x17 size. Unroll the whole roll of phyllo and cut it in half parallel to the short sides, so you have two portions in roughly 8.5x11 size.
2. Finely chop about 3 cups of nuts. Walnuts work fine.
3. Add to the nuts about 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp lemon zest (or 1 tbsp lemon juice) and 1 tsp cinnamon, and mix well.
4. Melt 1 stick of butter.
5. Grease a 13x9 inch pan.
6. Preheat oven to about 325 F.
7. Place two sheets of phyllo in the pan and brush with melted butter. Repeat twice, for a total of six sheets in the bottom of the pan.
8. Spread half of the nut mixture over the phyllo.
9. Place six sheets of phyllo over the nut mixture, buttering every second sheet.
10. Spread the remaining nuts over the phyllo.
11. Place six more sheets of phyllo over the nuts, buttering every second sheet.
12. Cut the contents of the pan into diamonds or squares, using a sharp serrated knife. If I have leftover butter I like to drizzle it on top.
13. Bake for 30 minutes at 325 F, then reduce the temperature to 300 F and bake 45-60 minutes or until golden.

14. During the final 30 minutes of baking, combine about 1 cup sugar, 1 cup honey, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and the zest of 1 orange (or grapefruit) in a saucepan.
15. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
16. Pour evenly over the baked baklava.
17. Let cool 4 hours or so.

Preppy Salad

2006-01-25T21:58:00.000-08:00

So named because it's hot pink and fluorescent green. Wash and chop a couple servings of butter lettuce and place in a bowl. In another bowl, chop up a roasted beet or two. Add about a tablespoon of lemon juice, two tablespoons roasted garlic puree, and a teaspoon of mayonnaise. Mix well. Combine beet dressing and butter lettuce. Consume with WASPy gusto.

Pepper and Parmesan Popovers

2006-01-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

I modified this from the Joy of Cooking popover recipe. Makes 6 popovers because that's how big my muffin tin is.

0. Preheat oven to 450 F. Put the muffin tin in there to warm up.
1. Whisk together 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.
2. In another bowl, whisk together 1 egg, 1/2 cup slightly warm milk, and 1 tbsp melted butter.
3. Add the contents of the second bowl to the contents of the first bowl and fold together until just combined but still a tiny bit lumpy. Stick the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes.
4. Grate about 1/8 cup parmesan cheese and divide into 6 tiny little piles.
5. Pull the muffin tin out of the oven and quickly grease each cup. Pour 1/12 of the mixture (very approximately) into each cup, then throw a little pile of parmesan cheese into each one, then cover with more batter.
6. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes and at 350 for 20 minutes.

For some reason my popovers tend to turn out non-puffed and with a little pathetic hole in the bottom rather than a great glorious cavity in the center. I'm wondering if this is because cold batter doesn't interact well with a hot pan, though I read somewhere that cold batter + hot pan makes for poppier popovers. Maybe that was incorrect; maybe it's cold batter and pan + hot preheated oven, or something. It could also be that my muffin tin has pretty shallow cups and my popovers need big deep cups in which to maximize their potential. Maybe my popovers need a life coach.

Frittata with Mustard Greens

2006-01-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

I adapted this from a Frittata with Mustard Greens and Fontina recipe from Bon Appetit. I didn't have any fontina so I threw in half a cup of goat cheese instead. Everything in this recipe took longer than claimed; the mustard greens took a long time to wilt, the frittata took a long time to set under the broiler, etc. I also used five eggs instead of four and still didn't think that was enough egg to cover the greens, but maybe my bunch was too large. Other than the fact that I didn't like the taste, it's a good recipe, since it's very easy, uses up a bunch of hard-to-use greens, and the man-thing seemed to like it very much. Next time I'll use even more cheese, that might redeem it for me.

Mieng Kum

2006-01-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

Mieng kum is a do-it-yourself Thai appetizer that consists of spinach leaves wrapped around an assortment of fillings. For my mieng kum, I set out an array of little dishes containing the following:

1. Toasted dried coconut shreds, toasted over medium heat for a few minutes until brown
2. Dried fried garlic, the kind that comes in a plastic packet in the "ethnic" grocery section
3. Chopped organic lemon, rind and all, in tiny pieces
4. Chopped roasted peanuts
5. Finely chopped fresh onion, preferably red
6. Several washed and dried large spinach leaves
7. Finely chopped fresh ginger (optional, for me, because I never seem to have fresh ginger)
8. Tiny dried shrimp (also optional, since I never have these either)
9. Sauce: 1/4 cup honey, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, a couple drops fish sauce (to compensate for the missing shrimp), a dash of dried ginger (to compensate for the missing fresh ginger) and enough rice wine or white wine to make it runny when whisked together.

To assemble, put a little bit of everything on a spinach leaf, roll it up, and consume in one bite.

Kulfi

2006-01-22T22:19:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe here when I was looking for a way to use up the rest of the gallon of milk expiring in our fridge (scroll down to "Kulfi"). It didn't turn out much like I expected. The milk didn't evaporate fast enough and so the end product had too much water in it, I think, which causes too many ice crystals to form when it's frozen. The amount of sugar (8 tsp) was about right. I added about half a cup of chopped pistachios, since I had some that I wanted to use up, but this was a mistake. I also added about a quarter-teaspoon of rosewater, which was also a mistake -- the rosewater should be administered by drops. The result was a sort of half-frozen ice milk, which the chief taster seemed to like anyway.

Hanoi Noodle Soup

2006-01-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

This soup was based on a recipe I found here. I used chicken stock and added about six cloves of pressed garlic, a dash of ground ginger, a few thin slices of daikon radish, and the chopped stems from half a head of bok choy and a big bunch of tatsoi. I did not add cilantro at this stage, since it would have been cooked into oblivion by the end of the soup; I don't know why the original recipe adds the cilantro at the beginning.

Instead of bone-in chicken breasts I used chicken breast tenderloins from the freezer, thawed them, chopped them into cubes, and dunked them into the simmering broth with a sieve for about a minute. This cooked them through almost instantly, and I set the sieve-ful of chicken aside while finishing the soup. I then added the leafy parts of the bok choy and tatsoi, simmered them for a couple of minutes, then turned off the heat and threw the chicken back in along with a heap of chopped cilantro. To correct the broth I added a couple of dashes of soy sauce and a couple dashes of Tabasco. 4 ounces of dried rice thread is plenty for two people.

Cinnamon Rolls

2006-01-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

The man-critter confessed to a weakness for cinnamon rolls, so I had to come up with some. This recipe is loosely based on one from the March 2003 issue of Cooking Light, which has been reproduced here.

I didn't change the dough part much; I used 2 1/4 tsp of old yeast that I ought to replace, in 1/4 cup warm water, then added 1/2 cup warm milk, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup butter (melted rather than merely softened), 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 slightly beaten egg, and about 3 1/2 cups flour. I poured the warm milk and some other ingredients into the egg to warm it up so it wouldn't re-congeal the butter on contact.

I put the dough in a bowl to rise at 7 PM and then went off to a party, from which I did not return until 2 AM. The dough tripled or quadrupled, but still had enough oomph to raise the shaped-and-cut rolls a little bit overnight.

Instead of a pure raisin filling, I used about half a cup of raisins and half a cup of chopped walnuts, mixed with 2/3 cup brown sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon. I found these awfully sweet, though I was informed that they were on the less-sweet side relative to other rolls. Next time I'd cut the brown sugar down to about half a cup, probably. The filling, along with 2 tbsp melted butter, goes on the stretched-flat dough, which is then rolled parallel to the long side and sliced into about twenty 1/2-inch rounds. These rounds rise on a baking sheet for an hour or so in a warm place (or overnight in my chilly kitchen) and are then baked for 20 minutes at 350.

Instead of a basic vanilla glaze, I mixed about half a cup of powdered sugar with a splash of milk and a healthy splash of maple syrup. This gave enough glaze for each roll to get a little bit, which was enough for me, but probably a lot less than commercial rolls. Next time the rolls should cool down much more before being glazed.

After a few hours these rolls got a bit tough, but came back to life wonderfully with 30 seconds in the microwave. We'll see how they are the next day.

Butternut Squash and Prune Khoresh

2006-01-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from New Food of Life and is basically an interesting stew (like all khoreshes). To make it, brown a couple of large sliced onions and a pound of stew meat or chicken legs (I used lamb), and add salt, pepper and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Add water to cover; cover and simmer for 30-60 minutes or until meat is tender. Peel a squash and cut into cubes. Brown the squash for 15-20 minutes in another pan over medium heat. Add the squash, a cup or two of pitted dried prunes, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice to the meat. Cover and simmer over low for 30-60 more minutes, or until everything is tender. It's very good and reheats well.

Lemon-Glazed Persimmon Bars

2006-01-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

These were yummy and moist out of the oven, somewhat less so the next day. By the next day they had come to resemble a damply mediocre carrot cake. I used extremely ripe Hachiyas instead of Fuyus, peeled and mashed rather than sieved. Worked fine. I cut that cup of sugar right in half, the recipe doesn't need nearly that much with the dates and all. The lemon glaze makes the recipe stand out somewhat instead of just being a sort of boring coffee cake. But all in all, this recipe took too much time, too many bowls and spoons and things, and too much effort, and the end result isn't particularly worth it.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Gratin

2006-01-04T19:08:00.000-08:00

This tasted great, actually. I will never make it again. It was the ugliest critter I've seen on my table in a long long time. I had to mess around with the recipe a little bit, but I don't think any of my substitutions can be blamed. I replaced the Italian sausage with a half-pound of TJ's southwestern-esque turkey burger, which has been sitting in my freezer for way too long. I didn't seem to have any actual white wine, so I dropped in some rice cooking wine, and lacking apricot nectar, apricot preserves, or dried apricots, I hacked off a few chunks of tamarind paste and threw them in. The flavor remained very nice and savory.

But the end result was a miserable, non-sticking-together, blackened, pitiful pile of leek shreds and tater pieces and turkey chunks that came out of the pan in a graceless sort of heap. The blackness was from the potatoes oxidizing, rather than burning. I don't know why they darkened so fast, but I could hardly throw them in the pan fast enough. At any rate they came out of the oven pretty dark brown. As the royal taster said, "I wouldn't try feeding this to a two-year-old." I don't know which two-year-old he has in mind, but it sounds like good advice.

Looks Like a Soupy Week Ahead

2006-01-02T22:47:00.000-08:00

Some things to try this week:
Lemon-Glazed Persimmon Bars (assuming those persimmons aren't too far gone)
Shiitake and Bok Choy Soup
Sweet Potato and Sausage Gratin with Thyme (use turkey burger)
Potee Lorraine (this is ALWAYS good; needs pork shoulder though)
La Soupe de Louviers (if i make, i will sub in sweet potatoes for the carrot, celery and potatoes)
Portuguese Stone Soup (this is similar)
Sweet Potato Turnip Gratin (dunno about that cream)
Vietnamese Sticky Chicken with Daikon Pickle (can maybe use cabbage leaves?)

Kale, Chickpea, Butternut Squash and Olive Stew

2006-01-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

Slice thinly and saute three leeks. Add about a pound of butternut squash, cubed, and four cloves garlic, sliced thinly, and one sausage, sliced into disks. Saute for about ten minutes; add chicken broth to cover and simmer for about ten or fifteen minutes, until squash is tender. Add a big bunch of kale or a small bunch kale and small bunch turnip greens, sliced into ribbons, along with a nice bit of sage. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or until the kale is tender. Add one can of chickpeas, about 1/2 cup sliced olives, and a big handful of chopped cilantro, and simmer until cilantro barely wilts. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

This is loosely based on a similar recipe with squash, kale, olives, and white beans, but this is an improvement, I think. It follows the basic European/Mediterranean soup formula, which seems to be, in order:
1. Member of allium family
2. Something starchy
3. Optionally, something meaty
4. Broth
5. Something leafy
Asian soups seem to omit step 2 and sometimes step 5 as well, and step 3 seems to be less optional.

Fresh Herb Kuku

2005-12-26T21:35:00.000-08:00

This is from New Food of Life, a beautiful Persian cookbook that my friend Laila gave me recently. The recipe can also be found online here.

Instead of a cup each of chives, dill, parsley and cilantro, I used a cup of chopped cilantro and two cups chopped arugula, and went very heavy on the crushed garlic. Instead of advieh I used equal parts cardamom, cumin and coriander. Instead of the tablespoon of dried fenugreek leaves, I used a teaspoon of ground fenugreek. I cut the oil by about a third.

It's baking now. I wonder how it will turn out?

Update: It's hard to tell when something is done when you haven't made it before and don't know what it's supposed to look like. The version of the recipe in New Food of Life calls for adding half the oil, then the egg mixture, then baking for 25-30 minutes, adding the second half of the oil on top, and then baking for 25-30 more minutes. As it turns out, 20 minutes per half seems to be totally adequate. The kuku is firm all the way through, golden brown on the bottom, and ever so slightly too brown on the sides.

As for the taste, it's way too salty and greasy, but otherwise tastes good. It might seem less greasy if eaten cold, and the saltiness might be okay if served with bread or yogurt as the book suggests. Next time I'll cut the salt in half and cut the butter even more than I did.

This was relatively quick to put together and came out of the oven slightly more than an hour after it occurred to me to make it.

Double Walnut Cookies

2005-12-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

1. Mix in small bowl: 1 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt.
2. Cream in larger bowl: 1 stick butter, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and beat on low speed until a soft dough forms.
4. Add 1 cup of ground walnuts and 1/4 cup chopped walnuts.
5. Form into balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.
6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until balls are light brown on the bottom.
7. Roll in powdered sugar and allow to cool.

These are not very sweet, which is nice, but they're pretty high in fat. Next time I'll use less cinnamon and less salt. I made these for L&G, who seemed to like them all right, but the Chief Taster hasn't had the pleasure of trying them yet. I don't know if I'll make them again. They're okay, but not striking.

Italianate Greens and Pasta

2005-12-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

1 bunch chard, stems and leaves, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound pasta, cooked
Basil and oregano to taste
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
4 canned artichoke hearts, chopped
1/2 cup pitted black olives, chopped
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp olive oil

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add chard stems and saute three minutes. Add garlic and 1/4 cup water and cook until softened. Add chard leaves and another 1/4 cup water and cook, covered, until wilted. Add basil, oregano, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and olives and saute briefly. Add parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta, topped with parmesan cheese.

The best way to make lentils

2005-12-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe for salmon with beets and lentils, but I made the lentil part on its own.

Mix 1/2 cup lentils, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup broth, 1 clove minced garlic, a chopped sprig or two of fresh thyme, and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes or until lentils are soft and liquid is absorbed. Add 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and 1/8 tsp pepper and toss. Serve warm.

The Martha Stewart version involved putting in an excess of liquid and then draining the cooked lentils, and removing the garlic and thyme sprigs (left whole in her version). This seems like a waste of flavor to me, so I cut the liquid and left the flavorings in. It's very easy and tastes wonderful. The vinegar makes the dish.

Chief Taster, perhaps unaware of the illustrious history of lentils, derided them as just another of "your exotic grains," but they are in fact a very utilitarian legume, beloved by millions. Yes, Virginia, they do come in cans, but the wonderful thing about lentils is that they cook so quickly that the canned version isn't necessary, unlike your tough, nasty chickpeas and black beans (which must be soaked overnight prior to cooking, if not canned).

Lentils, the kinder, gentler legume, don't tend to cause the intestinal distress that other beans inflict. They are higher in protein, at 25%, than any other plant food except soy, and form a complete protein when combined with rice as in many Indian dhal dishes. They are full of calcium and folate and fiber, and are also a great source of that underrated mineral, molybdenum. What's so great about molybdenum? It's an essential cofactor for three human enzymes: sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase and aldehyde oxidase. Sulfite oxidase turns sulfites into sulfates, handy for metabolizing sulfur-containing amino acids (and possibly that red wine we had last night), and the other two are important metabolizers of drugs and environmental toxins. It's very difficult to have a diet that's short on molybdenum and most people routinely ingest more than the RDA. Excesses of molybdenum can deplete copper, but lentils, fortunately, also provide around 25% of the RDA of copper.

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Pistachios

2005-12-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

The recipe I used can be found here. The beets were very easy to roast in foil in the oven. I used only one color of beets since that's all I had. To dress them I used a couple of heads of garlic that I roasted in the oven at the same time as the beets, rather than shallots, which I didn't have (and which wouldn't have whisked as well). I used arugula instead of mache, which worked out fine. I didn't crumble the goat cheese, but formed it into disks instead. The pistachios didn't add much and I could make this again without them. I love beets dressed this way, and they seemed to go over well with everyone else, too.

Maamoul

2005-12-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

I used the recipe found here. These turned out a little bit like mini mince pies; the filling is kind of spicy and the wrapper is a lot like pie crust. If I do these over again I would make the crust sweeter, I would use less ginger, more other spices (cardamom, cinnamon) and add ground pistachios or almonds to the filling. They were surprisingly quick and easy to make, despite the fact that the food processor needed to be washed between steps. The only tedious part was the construction, but since this recipe only makes 20 cookies it wasn't so bad. They aren't quite the rich, exotic dessert I was hoping for, but the MarnKonnoisseur really liked them.

Update: They're awesome on the second day. They can be rewarmed in the microwave, but they're fine at room temp too.

Totally Awesome Pork Chops

2005-12-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

1. Dig four old 3/4-inch pork chops out of the back of your freezer. When you see that they are frozen together into a solid chunk of pigflesh, defrost them by soaking in hot saltwater.
2. Mix 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tbsp dried marjoram, 1/2 tsp allspice, and a shot of whiskey. Dab this onto each side of the defrosted pork chops with the back of a spoon and rub it in real good.
3. Chop up a couple of bunches of turnip greens and throw in some parsley or cilantro or what have you. Chop up half an onion and a couple of garlic cloves.
4. Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until the onion is soft. Throw in the chopped greens and cook lightly, covered, until the greens are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste and finish with a splash of cider vinegar.
5. Cook the pork chops on medium-high heat around 5 minutes per side or until juices run clear or until no longer pink inside or whatever. Remove to a plate.
6. To the pan drippings, add another chopped 1/2 onion and saute until soft.
7. Add 1/2 cup cranberries, 1 tsp thyme, and 3/4 cup wine. Bring to a boil and stir until reduced to a thick sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Pile a heap of greens on a plate, top with pork chop, and top pork chop with onion-cranberry sauce.
9. Soooo good!

Vestiges of planning

2005-12-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

Dinner tomorrow will be this.

Chicken Salad

2005-12-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

I needed a way to use up leftover roasted chicken from last Sunday, so I shredded the leftovers into a bowl and added chopped black olives, chopped sundried tomatoes, chopped cilantro and thyme, pine nuts, walnuts, and a sprinkle of dried cranberries. To dress it, I mixed 1/4 cup mayonnaise with a good splash of balsamic vinegar, a minced clove of garlic, a dose of dried basil and sage, and some salt and pepper. I put the salad on some lettuce and that was that. Next time I'll drizzle something other than chicken salad on the lettuce -- maybe some olive oil or something. I could have also used even more cilantro and maybe a tiny bit more mayonnaise.

I served this with the Braised Turnips, which it doesn't match at all by the way, and didn't really have any rice or potatoes or other carbohydrates at that meal. I was informed by the friendly local restaurant critic that carbohydrates are less important at dinnertime than at other times, so this lack was not missed - perhaps because there's less need for energy in the evening. Although this may be true, pilafs and pasta and other carbohydrate dishes are (1) cheaper than animal protein and (2) generally easier to prepare as one-dish meals than meals made of meat and vegetables. On the other hand, unsprouted grains (and especially non-whole grains) are probably the least healthy staple in the pantry, relative to the nice organic veggies and free-range chickens in there, so maybe I ought to cut back on the risotto. I'll think about it.

Braised Turnips With Leeks and Bacon

2005-12-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

Saute three chopped leeks in olive oil and butter for one minute, then add two or three cloves of minced garlic and a chopped strip of bacon. Saute for ten minutes or until leeks have softened. Add half a cup of chicken broth and a pound or so of turnips cut into matchsticks. Cook, covered, for about twenty minutes or until the turnips soften and turn slightly translucent, depending on the size of your matchsticks. Add two teaspoons chopped parsley and a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, then add salt and pepper and serve. The recipe is from the Joy of Cooking.

I thought this was going to be a colossal failure until I realized I hadn't given the turnips enough time to soften up. The Eatwell newsletter keeps saying that they're great raw, but in this dish half-cooked turnips are terrible. These need to be eaten hot; they quickly get cold and unappetizing if they sit for long at all. Next time I'll be very sparing with the broth; it didn't evaporate much and contributed to the chilly wetness. Turnips are really best roasted, although it takes longer to cook them that way.

Kale Soup

2005-11-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

Apply heat to appropriate amounts of the below-listed ingredients for appropriate amounts of time, in the following order:

1. Olive oil
2. Chopped onion
3. Minced garlic
4. Chopped kale
5. Chicken broth
6. Bay leaf
7. Chopped sausage
8. Chopped turnip greens
9. Kidney beans
10. Paprika
11. Marjoram
12. Cayenne pepper
13. Basil
14. Sage
15. Salt and pepper
16. Chopped cilantro and parsley
17. Cider vinegar
18. Shredded parmesan cheese

Pumpkin Cake Bars

2005-11-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

I used this recipe because it called for two whole cups of pumpkin puree, but it turned out way too sweet and a bit too moist. I left out about 1/4 cup of sugar and threw in some molasses to deepen the flavor, but I think I could have cut the sugar in half and it would have been fine. I also baked it in a 9x13 pan instead of a 10x15 pan, which may have something to do with the moistness, although I baked it for about 40 minutes instead of 20-25. Using olive oil instead of corn oil didn't hurt the flavor at all. Whole wheat flour could have been used without adverse effects, I think.

Barley and Wild Rice Pilaf

2005-11-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

This turned out just fine, though I deviated a bit from the recipe. Because I was using the non-pearled Ethiopian barley that never softened up the last time I cooked it, I soaked it for a couple of hours and boiled it for about an hour this time. That seemed to work. I used a cup of barley and a cup of wild rice for this dish. I sauteed the onion and the wild rice together and then added the precooked barley, the broth, a handful of dried cranberries, and a few crumbled shiitakes. I didn't get the timing right on the wild rice and it took a lot longer to cook than I expected, but it was all right in the end.

Winter Squash Stuffed Peppers

2005-11-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

This recipe was great. I roasted the peppers for about fifteen minutes in the toaster oven and stuck them in a paper bag to cool and peel. My peppers may have been on the delicate side, since they didn't hold up well when it was time to be stuffed, but filling wrapped in pepper shreds tastes just as good. I had no carrots in the house, but the stuffing was fine without them: just garlic, onions and a couple slices of bacon chopped up and sauteed, then thyme, wine, beans and a chunk of pumpkin puree. Next time I'd ease back a little on the bacon and a little on the beans, which made the stuffing seem a tiny bit dry. Really delicious otherwise. The Chief Taster seemed very fond of them.

Roast Chicken

2005-11-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

Whole chickens take up too much space in the freezer, so this one had to go. I used a combination of this recipe and this recipe to figure out what to do with it. To keep the breast moist I chopped up rosemary, lemon zest and garlic and mixed it with olive oil, then spread the mixture over the breast meat under the skin. For the rest of it I mixed mustard, rosemary and olive oil and spread it over the skin on the rest of the bird. I chopped up three turnips and cut the tops off two heads of garlic and tossed them into the roasting pan with a little oil, salt and pepper, and roasted the whole mess at 350-375 for an hour and a half or so.

After dinner the remaining carcass gets processed; extra meat goes in the fridge and everything else, skin, bones, innards, goes in a covered pot of water on the stove to simmer until bedtime. This gave me about three quarts of nice rich dark brown chicken broth. I should freeze it this time so it doesn't go to waste when I fail to make soup in the next couple of weeks.

I didn't decide to cook this 5-6 pound chicken for dinner until about 2 PM, so I thawed it in a tub of hot water in the sink. I changed the water two or three times and checked the inside cavity to make sure it wasn't icy and it seemed to be thoroughly unfrozen by 5:30.

The turnips were great roasted this way. I still don't understand why the garlic heads need to be cut open before roasting; the cloves that the knife missed always turn out fine. Next time I won't bother. The mustard sauce seemed a bit wasted since my household isn't big on chicken skin, but all that skin went into the broth and, I hope, added lots of flavor. It did make the skin a nice roasty brown. But next time everything goes under the skin and not on it.

Recipes using Squashes

2005-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

PUNKIN
How to prepare fresh pumpkin
Pumpkin Pie
More Pumpkin Pie
‘Nother Pumpkin Pie
Drunk Pumpkin Pie

NASTY SQUISHY SQUASHES
Winter Squash Rolls
Winter Squash Galette
Acorn Squash With Wild Mushroom Cranberry Stuffing
Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash
Spiced Winter Squash Stuffed Peppers

Bok Choy Miso Soup

2005-11-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

Thinly slice one medium-sized head of bok choy and two cloves of garlic. Bring 4-5 cups water or broth to a fast simmer. Crumble 4 dried shiitake mushrooms into the broth and add bok choy stalks and sliced garlic. Simmer bok choy stalks for 2-5 minutes or until they begin to grow tender. Add a large pinch or small handful dried arame, a splash of soy sauce, and the sliced bok choy leaves. When leaves wilt, turn off heat and stir in a heaping tablespoon of miso. Yum! Quicker and easier than the previous noodle dish with bok choy. Quicker than making macaroni and cheese, even.

Recipes using Greens

2005-11-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

Can't have greens without bacon. It's the law.

TURNIP GREENS
Fried Pork Chops with Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Caramelized Apples, and Southern Greens
Gumbo Z’Herbes
Cuban Green Soup
Chile-Vinegar Turnip Greens
Turnip Greens With Cornmeal Dumplings
Southern Braised Greens with Bacon

KALE
Caldo Verde! (needs potatoes)
Boerenkool Stamppot (needs potatoes)
White Bean, Butternut Squash, Kale, and Olive Stew
Spanish-Style White Bean, Kale, and Chorizo Soup
Hearty Portuguese Kale Soup

GOES WELL WITH GREENS
Pan-Fried Chicken with Bacon-Thyme Gravy

Recipes using Dates

2005-11-25T18:28:00.000-08:00

For some reason we bought the gigantoriffic economy-sized hogshead of dates at Costco, so I should make a few of the following.

Date-Walnut Rugelach (needs cream cheese)
Almond-stuffed dates (stupidly simple)
Maamoul (needs crystallized ginger, orange zest)
Chicken with Dates and Wine (needs sweet red wine)
Date Bar Cake
Indonesian Rice Salad with Fresh Dates
Canadian Date Squares
Fig and Date Bread
Date Squares

My pantry

2005-11-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

contains the following things, among others, that I'd like to use up in meal planning:

FRUIT
persimmons
pomegranate
apples
lemons
dates
figs

CARBS
pasta
rice noodles
bean threads
buckwheat
lentils
corn tortillas

GREENS
kale
spinach
lettuce
turnip greens

VEGGIES
tomatoes
pumpkin
acorn squash
butternut squash
bell peppers
peas
corn

MEATS
chicken
bacon
sausage
buffalo burger
pork
salmon

ROOTS
sweet potatoes
onions
turnips
leeks

ETCETERA
tapioca pearls
almonds
walnuts
peanuts
pine nuts
mozzarella

FLAVORS
sage
rosemary
thyme
cilantro
garlic
lemon juice