Do We Make You Hungry?

Upright Brewing No. Six

2011-06-02T09:10:00.000-10:00

Sarah and I are members of a couple of the K&L wine clubs and every month they send us a pamphlet with that month's news and recommendations along with the wine. Included in every issue is a beer recommendation. It only takes up about half a page in the 20 page volume and there are only one or two recommendations given, but they're always gems.

This bottle here was one of those recommendations...

Upright Brewing's No. Six - Rye, 6.7%

From Upright's website: "Six is a dark rye beer with earthy hop flavors and caramel malts lending an initial full palate that finishes semi-dry. The overall balance of the Six makes it easy to pair with richly prepared meats along with many harder cheeses."

I remember this being nice and smooth with very little bitterness and just a little bit of a sour finish. We had it with the fava pizza and it was great.

Fava Bean Puree Pizza with Green Garlic, Chevre, and an Egg

2011-05-23T13:04:00.002-10:00

Fava beans have been making their way into our CSA box lately. The past few weeks I've noticed an extra bag in the swap box along with the other typical swap items (leafy greens) so have gladly accepted the (obviously) unwanted beans. Whoever is leaving them behind doesn't really know what they're missing out on.

Granted, fava beans can be a pain. After you've finished shucking, blanching, and peeling the beans, there's not much left over to brag about. A busy family on the go may not have the time or gumption to sit down for a good half hour and work through a pile of beans. I imagine some people might get a little antsy in this situation.

The fava bean is a cover crop, as far as I can tell, used to help fix nitrogen in the soil in the times between other plantings. Our friends Megan and Kelly took us to their place of employ, Filoli gardens in Woodside near Palo Alto, where they have a patch of favas growing in a section of the vegetable garden there. Typically they would just plow everything back into the ground as compost, but we had the chance to take out five or ten pounds of beans a couple weekends ago before that happened. Which is great, the more the merrier.

This fava bean abundance has afforded Sarah and I the chance to try out an excellent fava bean puree recipe that Sarah found last year. We've worked out that the best application for the puree is to either spread it on toast or use it in place of sauce on a pizza What you see here is the result of our efforts...

Fava Bean Puree Pizza with Green Garlic, Chevre, and a Backyard Egg

Fava Bean Puree

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Fresh Rosemary

2 Cloves Garlic, or more, finely diced

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

2 Cups Fava Beans, shucked, blanched, and peeled

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 Tbs. Olive Oil, for pureeing

Lightly saute the garlic, rosemary, and red pepper flakes in oil for about a minute. Throw in the shelled beans and saute until heated through. In a food processor puree the sauteed beans with salt, pepper, and more olive oil to the desired consistency. The beans can take on a lot of oil at this point, though I usually use water if I need to smooth out the mix after I've added the first bit of olive oil.

For the pizza:

Heat the oven to at least 450F an hour before baking time. Roll out a single recipe of the pizza dough on a well floured surface and transfer to a peel or pan. Spread liberally with the fava bean puree, top with finely diced green garlic (shallots would work well here too) and crumbled chevre. Crack an egg whole over the middle of the pizza and toss it in the oven. I like to cook my pizzas about 8 minutes in a 450 degree oven with a pizza stone.

Eggs on Toast

2011-04-27T15:27:00.001-10:00

Sarah relayed to me one day that she had heard Nora Ephron say on a podcast something along the lines of, "Part of becoming an adult is letting go of the dream of either owning a restaurant or owning a bookstore." Sarah joked that becoming an organic farmer should also be on that list too. "Boo," I thought, "I kinda want to do all of those things".

Needless to say both Sarah and I have vague dreams of owning a business. We've talked semi-seriously about opening a dine-in theater or moving away somewhere and opening a B&B. It usually comes up during breakfast when we're munching on our favorite dish trying to figure out what we would serve people if we were tasked with making something. Invariably there is always one solid stand-by that we would serve to anybody and always be proud of. This thing is the Eggy Sandwich, or just simply Eggs on Toast.

This is perhaps the most simple thing. An egg, fried or poached, on toasted bread with butter or cheese (or both!), and sometimes a few apple slices. Nothing fancy, just really good.

The Eggy Sandwich is of course a staple of the fast food breakfast industry and along with burnt coffee has fueled the sad little morning fires of destitute office workers everywhere. Though having it handed to you luke-warm, squashed, and wrapped in crinkly paper just makes you feel a little worse off once you get a good look at it. Not a great way to start things off.

Instead, take five minutes and make it for yourself at home. Toast, check. Poached egg microwave style, check. Slice of cheese, check. An apple for the road, and we're done.

How to Poach an Egg in the Microwave

I used to poach eggs in the microwave when I worked at the old Beckmann's Bakery coffee shop in Santa Cruz. This is how it was done:

Crack and egg into a microwave safe bowl, pour in about 2 Tbs.of water. If you like your egg whites more firm add about 1/2 tsp. of white vinegar as well. Cover the bowl with a small microwave safe plate before putting it in the microwave. Cook everything for about 60 seconds at 80% power. Check the egg. If it is not as done as you'd like it, microwave it at 80% power in 15 second intervals until it's finished. Spoon the egg out of the water and enjoy.

I've noticed that the egg yolks end up overdone when the whites are well finished. So to get the runny yolk like you're supposed to you'll have to have whites that are a bit more squishy than is ideal.

Tofu Egg Salad

2011-04-19T11:53:00.002-10:00

You'll notice that we've changed the title of our kitchen's menu for this (last) week from "The Ugly Ducking Specials" to "The Dweed Diner". The reason for this is because of our monthly tradition of having our friends Megan and Kelly over for dinner. We call the event "Dweener" when we have it at our place and "Kegener" when we have it at their place. You know, "Dwiggins-Reed Dinner" or "Kelly-Megan Dinner" depending on the location...

The compound noun "dweed" comes from the combination of Sarah's maiden name, Dwiggins, and my bachelor name (?), Reed. Early in our engagement Sarah and I discussed whether or not she should change her name from Dwiggins to Reed. As we had just finished our academic careers we knew it was common for published researchers to not bother changing their names when they get married to reduce future confusion. So not changing her name at all was one option. Hyphenating her name, Dwiggins-Reed, was also an option. I mentioned half jokingly that we should just combine the two and then we could both change our names to Dweed. Big joke, ha ha...the family gave us funny looks whenever we brought it up. Anyway, Sarah and I adopted it informally just between the two of us.

This week we will be using up some of the bread hunks in the freezer as well as the turnips we got from the CSA to make another panade. We'll be making a pizza with roasted garlic, egg drop soup with green onions, carrots, and spinach and will also be making Tofu Egg Salad for our weekly potluck with the Olins. Despite the fact that we get a ton of eggs every week, we still make fake egg salad to cut back on the cholesterol. This stuff is great:

Tofu Egg Salad

16 oz. Block Extra Firm Tofu

1/4 Cup Mayonnaise

1 Tbs. Dijon Mustard

1 tsp. Lemon Juice

1/2 tsp. Turmeric

Salt and Pepper

Finely Diced Veggies (I like carrots, celery, and dill pickles)

Anything else you might like in egg salad...

Wrap the tofu in a paper towel and weight it to drain. When ready mash the tofu into little bits using your hands (I've tried using the stand mixer with the paddle attachment to do this, it doesn't work out that great). Mix in the mayo, mustard, lemon juice, turmeric, salt, pepper, and the diced veggies. Taste for seasoning, adjust as necessary. Enjoy.

Spaetzle with Lentils and Spicy Tomato Sauce

2011-04-07T08:41:00.000-10:00

My brother's wife Monika turned Sarah and I onto spaetzle when we visited them in Portland last year. Spaetzle is a type of fresh pasta that you cook by spooning dollops into boiling water. They're similar to gnocchi except that it's so much easier. I've seen spaetzle makers that look a lot like potato ricers; I'm assuming they work well though I haven't tried this method yet.

The recipe we're using is one we found in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Spaetzle with Lentils and Spicy Tomato Sauce

Cook the lentils in advance if you can. Having a jar full off cooked lentils in the fridge makes and easy side or a good addition to a salad or pasta dish. Rinse the lentils thoroughly while watching for rocks, then cover with about an inch or two of water in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add a bay leaf. Reduce the lentils to a simmer once they come to a boil and check them in about 30 minutes. They should be soft but not squishy when done, add more water if necessary. Add olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and remove the bay leaf before serving.

Prepare the tomato sauce. For this recipe we just used some of our pizza sauce from the freezer; great in a pinch.

For the Spaetzle:

2 cups Flour (all purpose or a mix)

~3/4 cup Milk, more if needed

3 Eggs

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 tsp. Salt

Pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until well mixed. Add more milk to make a smooth batter if necessary. When the water is boiling spoon tablespoon sized dollops or smaller into the water. Depending on your pot size you may be able to fit in six or seven at a time.

The dumplings are nearly ready when they pop up from the bottom of the pan; once this happens give them another minute or two so the insides are well done. Some of the dumplings may stick to the bottom, use a slotted spoon to detach them so they float to the top.

When the dumplings are done, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water to a separate bowl. Coat with olive oil so they don't stick to each other. Continue cooking the rest of the dumplings.

For the dish, mix some of the lentils in with the spaetzle and serve topped with tomato sauce and grated cheese.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

2011-03-25T12:34:00.000-10:00

I believe (I don't remember 100% because it's been a few years) that this soup was introduced to us by our friend Bridget Piculell (we miss Bridget, she's now in Mississippi getting her Ph.D. in Biology, we hope she comes home someday) way back during our college years. It's the nuttiest thing because this soup has a green apple in it and that just weirded me out back then. Now I know better: apples can go with everything.

This soup is super easy, especially if you roast the butternut in advance some night when you're already using the oven for something else. Sarah has been making a habit of roasting one or two big ones before cutting them up and freezing them. We really need a bigger freezer, ours is bursting and it's a pain to get things out of the back when we need them. If we had the space I'd get one of those chest freezers. Maybe we should really take up canning instead, we've been meaning to. So much to do.

Anyway, the soup:

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Olive Oil

1 large Onion, diced

2 cloves Garlic, diced

1 Green Apple, diced

1 tsp. Curry Powder (more or less depending on your taste, or use your own mix)

1 large roasted Butternut Squash, seeded and peeled

2-4 Cups Stock (or a mix of stock and water)

1/4 soft nuts like Pine Nuts (expensive!) or Cashews

Salt and Pepper to taste

Cilantro or Parsley for garnish

Caramelize the onion in olive oil over low heat until well browned and soft. Add the garlic and the apple and continue to cook until the apple begins to soften. Work in the curry powder, the squash, and the stock. Bring to a boil and cook until the apples are good and soft, maybe five minutes. Everything is pretty much cooked already so the soup doesn't have to go for long.

Add the nuts and puree with a stick blender. Salt and pepper to taste before serving. Garnish with parsley or cilantro.

Chickens (1)

2011-03-13T13:26:00.000-10:00

I have had this sitting on the back burner for months and months. And now, sitting at the computer, on the weekend, watching it rain, I am ready.

We have chickens. That is to say that Sarah, myself, and our landlords Ken and Celise have chickens. We got them almost a year ago, back in April 2010.

I believe I remember it being Sarah that first mentioned the desire to begin our journey into chickendom but Celise was immediately on board. Ken had reservations; thinking back on it I think he thought that we were just going through a phase, as if we were like children asking for a pony or a giant dog. We would get the things and then about 6 months in would say something to the effect of, "Ok, we're bored, you take care of them now". Heck, I've done things like that to my parents in the past, I wouldn't have put it past me if I were him.

Eventually though, successful arguments were made and the project was begun.

This was to be the site for the main run and the hen house. It's just on the other side of the fence separating our small back yard from our landlords much larger back yard. Originally Sarah and I were committed to putting the whole mess in our yard, but Celise was so excited about the prospect of having chickens that she and Ken agreed to put the bulk of the living space in their yard. All of us came to the agreement that there would be a pathway for the chickens to get through the fence and into our yard, a portion of which we would block off for the chicken's use.

The arrangement was to be that Ken and Celise would provide the living quarters (supplies and space, etc.) while Sarah and I would provide upkeep (feed, bedding, and cleaning). We would both share in the spoils (eggs!). This more or less has been the case. We all ended up sharing in the cleaning however. Chickens are prolific poopers and diggers and it's a lot of work trying to keep everything in ship shape on your own.

While the hen house was coming together, Sarah and I went to find chickens. It's not hard to find just any chicken, pet stores will usually have something. But finding a particular breed of chicken can be a challenge. Sarah wanted a New England Red and two Plymouth Barred Rocks. This isn't what we got. Instead we got a New England Red and two Black Sex Links (we think). Still cute though...

Asian Style Noodles with Kale and Cashews

2011-03-10T18:39:00.001-10:00

Sarah, wishing to stick with our new massaged kale discovery was rifling through our ream of loose recipes and pulled a variation of this dish out of the pile.

I believe the recipe is from one of Molly Katzen's many cookbooks. After preparing this dish we came to the realization that the dressing for this is fantastic on things like grain or bean salads or on top of other noodle dishes. It's super tasty.

Also, I'm not a fan of nuts. Raw walnuts in particular make me itchy and cut my tongue to pieces. Cashews however, I like. They're soft and just melt when you chew on them. So we've been trying cashews on different things because Sarah really likes nuts and wants to eat them.

Kale with Cashews and Noodles

1 lb. Asian Style Noodles (Soba, Udon, Rice noodles, etc.)
1 bunch Kale, Massaged with salt
1/4 cup toasted Cashews
1 Tbs. Honey
1 Tbs. Soy Sauce
1 tsp. Rice Wine Vinegar
1 tsp. diced Ginger
1 tsp. Miso Paste
1/2 tsp. toasted Sesame Seed Oil
1/4 tsp. Chile Oil or Red Pepper Flake, or to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste
Sesame Seeds (if you like)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt liberally. While the pot is on the heat prepare dressing by whisking together the honey, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, miso paste, sesame seed oil, and the hot oil or red pepper flakes if you decide to use them. I've found that microwaving the honey briefly makes it much easier to bring the dressing together. Set aside when finished. Cook the noodles according to their directions while you prepare the kale. Toast the cashews either on the stove in a dry pan until just beginning to brown, or in a toaster oven (much easier). Drain the noodles and mix in the kale, cashews, other optional additions like sesame seeds, and the dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This is great either hot or cold the next day for lunch.

Pappa al Pomodoro

2011-03-03T17:03:00.001-10:00

This weeks menu is all about being simple. Because I've busted my foot and have a harder time getting around the house than I usually do Sarah has been looking for recipes that are easy to make and are not too time consuming.

The broccoli and mushroom soup is super straight forward: just some onion, garlic, red pepper flake, sauteed mushrooms in olive oil and steamed broccoli in stock, liquefied with a stick blender and seasoned with salt and pepper. Have this with some toasty buttered bread and you're golden.

In previous posts I've mentioned that we take part in a CSB through IRise Bakery. Of course as it's just Sarah and me it's difficult to get through a full loaf of bread in week and we're left with a good hunk of old bread come delivery day. Pappa al Pomodoro is a soup based mostly on stale bread, tomatoes, and stock, and is delicious hot off the oven. Sarah adapted this recipe from one found in the Il Forniao Baking Book.

Pappa al Pomodoro

12 Oz. Crusty Bread

Olive Oil

4 cloves garlic

Oregano & Basil, fresh or dried

2 15 Oz. cans Crushed Tomatoes

4 Cups Stock

Salt & Pepper

Pesto or more Olive Oil for Garnish

Preheat the oven to 450 Degrees. Cut the bread into cubes and lay out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven at 5 minute intervals until crisp and toasty.

Saute the garlic, oregano, and basil in the olive oil briefly before adding the tomatoes and stock. Bring this to a boil then add the toasted bread. Return to a boil, then reduce the heat so the soup simmers gently. Allow the soup to cook until the bread is well softened and the soup has thickened. If the soup gets too thick, add more water to maintain the proper consistency. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with pesto or olive oil before serving.

Lavender Snickerdoodles

2011-02-21T16:31:00.001-10:00

These are the Lavender Snickerdoodles referred to in the previous post. They are always a crowd-pleaser and are quickly devoured at parties.

The recipe below is an adaptation of the normal snickerdoodle recipe (in which ground cinnamon is used). The difference is that ground lavender has been substituted into the recipe on a 1:1 basis. So, if you don't like lavender, sub back in the cinnamon and you have the standard classic.

Lavender Snickerdoodles

3/4 Cup granulated sugar
2/3 Cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 Cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground lavender (grind lavender flowers in a clean blade coffee grinder, works wonders)
1/4 tsp. salt

For Rolling:
1/3 Cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground lavender

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cream together the granulated sugar, the light brown sugar, and the butter. Ideally an electric mixer would be used as the creaming method takes a lot of elbow grease if done by hand. You are looking for a consistency of something approaching cake frosting, and it should take a good while, probably around 5-10 minutes of constant mixing.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until well incorporated. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and ground lavender. Add this mixture to the butter/egg mix until just combined, do not over work it.

Sarah and I prefer to chill the dough at this point as it makes it easier to handle, but it isn't completely necessary. Roll bits of the dough into 1 inch diameter balls and roll in a combined sugar/ground lavender mix until completely coated. Lay out on a lightly greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for about 10 minutes until the bottoms are just lightly browned. Remove and cool on wire racks.

Note that it is a good idea to cool the cookie sheet slightly between bakings. This way the hot cookie sheet won't start heating your cookies through before you're ready to put them in the oven.

Don't be afraid to try other seasonings. The generalized recipe always produces cookies with a consistent crumb so mix it up. Maybe try lemon and rosemary, or cinnamon and cayenne pepper, maybe cardamom and nutmeg. Lots of different options.

Superbowl Sunday's Menu - A little late

2011-02-17T17:21:00.001-10:00

The week of Superbowl Sunday's menu is a combination of some staggering successes.

The lavender snickerdoodle is one of Sarah's more brilliant cookie creations. We have always been fans of snickerdododles in general but Sarah had a brain wave when we experienced 515 Kitchen & Cocktail's drink called the Norma Desmond, which has a lavender sugar rim. It was a simple enough step to apply the same lavender sugar to the surface of snickerdoodle cookie dough. Amazing.

The other wonderful success was the Broccoli-rabe pasta carbonara with truffle Romano cheese. Broccoli-rabe isn't my favorite vegetable, I think it's too bitter. But it worked well in this pasta.

Broccoli-rabe Pasta Carbonara with Truffle Romano Cheese

1 bunch Broccoli-rabe

1 lb. dried pasta

3 small eggs, lightly beaten

Olive Oil Vinaigrette

-Olive Oil

-Lemon Juice & Zest

-Green Garlic

-Salt & Pepper

Truffle Romano Cheese (or Truffle Oil & Romano Cheese)

Bring a substantial amount of water to a boil and salt liberally. Add the pasta. When there are about 3 minutes left on the pasta cooking time, add the broccoli-rabe and cook with the pasta until the pasta is finished. Strain both and return to the the pot. Slowly drizzle in the beaten egg while stirring the pasta. Drizzle in the Olive Oil Vinaigrette to taste and serve with grated Truffle Romano.

Massaged Kale Salad, Carrots and Arame, and Pepper Rice

2011-02-11T07:07:00.000-10:00

I have always considered kale to be a horribly ill flavored and ill tempered vegetable. I've found it bitter and chewy, and it loves to roll around in the dirt and come home filthy. However, Sarah has discovered that if you douse the stuff in salt and give it a good rub then it just melts. It's whole rough and spiky exterior falls away and leaves behind a tender and pleasant salad green. Flavored with a little bit of lemon juice and sesame seed oil and it's practically scarfable.

Lay the kale salad over a bed of rice heavily seasoned with pepper and top with stir fried carrots and Arame (seaweed) and you end up with a hardy vegan meal.

Massaged Kale Salad

1 Bunch Kale

About 1 Tbs. of Salt

Olive Oil

Sesame Seed Oil

Salt & Pepper

Lemon Juice/Mirin/Rice Wine Vinegar

Red Pepper Flakes

Sesame Seeds

Wash the kale thoroughly to get off all the dirt and grit. Put the kale in a large bowl and douse liberally with salt. Rub it between your hands and work it with your fingers until it begins to soften and release water. You're going to want to rinse it after it is soft to get all the salt off so you can start with a "fresh" green.

Flavor with olive oil, sesame seed oil, salt and pepper, some kind of acid (lemon juice, mirin, rice wine vinegar, or a little of all three), red pepper flakes if you like it spicy, and a good helping of sesame seeds. This is all by taste of course so if you want to mix it up and make it taste like something else, go for it.

Deborah Madison's cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone introduced Sarah and I to a dish humbly labeled "|Carrots and Hijiki". It is just a simple stir fry of carrots and sea weed flavored with ginger and sesame seed oil. It was great the first time we had it. When we tried to make it the second time we ran into a bit of a problem: when we had first bought the Hijiki at our local grocery store the cost per ounce was about two dollars (pretty expensive already, I know) but when we went back the second time we didn't notice that the price had been increased to $10/oz.! Bah! We tried to get half a pound of the stuff.

It wasn't until we got to the register and the cashier rung the seaweed in at a total of $80 that we noticed. It catches your eye when your grocery balance jumps from $20 to $100 after having rung up a single item. Needless to say we were a bit put out. Luckily there is a different type of seaweek called Arame that works just as well. The flavor isn't as smoky as the Hijiki, but for the price I think it's not something to get worked up over.

Carrots & Arame

1 Cup Arame or Hijiki

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

2 Julienned Carrots

2 tsp. freshly diced Ginger

1 Tbs. Soy Sauce

1 tsp. Sesame Seed Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Soak the Arame in cold water for about 5 minutes until soft. Drain. If using Hijiki soak the seaweed in boiling water for about the same amount of time, until soft, and drain.

Stir fry the carrots in oil for about 2 minutes. Add the ginger and stir fry for a minute more. Add the seaweed along with the soy sauce and stir fry until the soy sauce has been cooked off. Take off the heat and season with sesame seed oil, salt, and pepper.

Lay down a bed of rice seasoned well with black pepper. Stack the kale salad on top of the rice and top it all with some of the carrot and sea weed stir fry.

Strawberry Vanilla Sorbet

2011-02-02T19:34:00.001-10:00

I am tempted to talk about the differences between Ice Cream, Sorbet, and Sherbet; so I will. Ice Cream is essentially Creme anglaise frozen while agitating; cream (or cream and milk, or just milk) and sugar heated until sugar is dissolved, combined with egg yolks via liaison, heated again until thick, flavored and frozen in an ice cream maker.

Sorbet of course does not use dairy; in this dessert the flavoring compound (fruit, fruit juice, melted chocolate, etc.) takes center stage and makes up the bulk of the ingredients. I've found that pureed fruit is the easiest to work with. Sorbet is sugar heated in water until dissolved then blended with enough flavoring (fruit, etc.) to make a thick pourable liquid and frozen in an ice cream maker.

Sherbet is half way between the two and uses no egg. Sugar is heated in milk until dissolved and is combined with flavoring as in sorbet to make a thick liquid that is frozen in an ice cream maker. All three variations are of course delicious.

Sarah and I have had a couple bags of frozen strawberries in the freezer since summer time and felt it was prudent to make a sorbet. Our friend Jackie gave us the idea for the strawberry vanilla combo and also provided the whole vanilla beans.

Strawberry Vanilla Sorbet

1 Vanilla Bean, split and scraped

2/3 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Water

2 pints Strawberries, fresh or frozen, stems removed

Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the insides using the edge of a knife. Add the vanilla (both the insides and the bean hull) to the sugar and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Hold the syrup at a boil for up to 4 minutes. If using frozen berries strain syrup into a blender. If using fresh berries strain the syrup into a separate container and chill.

In a blender combine the strained syrup and berries until well blended. Chill the mixture before placing in the ice cream maker. This step is greatly reduced in time if using frozen berries to begin with.

Once chilled freeze in an ice cream maker according to the directions. Place in the freezer and let chill and extra 12 hours before serving.

This Week's Menu

2011-01-26T18:54:00.001-10:00

This is last week's Menu as planned by Sarah:

Sarah has taken to writing out our weekly meal plan on a chalk board hung in our kitchen. Partly it's because I kept asking her, "what's for dinner tonight?", even though she had already told me about three or four times that same day. The chalk board helps me remember when I get home from work.

Last week we had a Chard and Onion Panade based on the recipe in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. We get a full loaf of bread every Thursday delivered to Sarah's work from iRise Bakery up in Ben Lomond. They're big loaves and we don't always finish them off in a week. The leftovers go into a freezer bag and once we have enough we usually make a break pudding. The Panade is a variation that we finally tried out.

Borscht is on the menu, a good standby. The black bean burgers we made ourselves based on a recipe from the Veganomicon using some of the left over rice meal from homemade rice milk. We only got about 5 burgers out of the recipe, which isn't great, but it can be scaled up. Ravioli didn't happen but we did make crepes for breakfast on Saturday with the blueberry peach sauce and we did end up finally making Strawberry Vanilla Sorbet, which I will post soon.

All in all, a good week.

Sour Beer Tasting

2011-01-21T14:27:00.003-10:00

Sour beers are Sarah's favorite. Our first introduction to this style of beer was at the 14th (?) Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Fest. It was a rainy weekend and we got pretty muddy and pretty sloshed. It was a good thing there was a shuttle to take us from the fairgrounds to our campsite a few miles outside of town, I don't think we would have been able to make it back otherwise. I think I may have pictures from the fest somewhere, I'll have to pull them up and post them for posterity.

Anyway. In celebration of this oft misunderstood beer style, our friend Renny put on another beer tasting geared specifically to sour beers. The format for the event was the same: everyone brings a bottle and something to eat, and we all share.

This tasting was back this last Summer or early Fall (2010, ages ago) so I don't quite remember the order of the tastes, but that's ok. I have a vague memory of us all having pizza to go along with the beers. A good choice I feel.

Brouwerij Fonteinen Oude Geuze (6%) - Blended Lambic

From Fonteinen's website (translated from Dutch, and changed to make sense): Oude Geuze is a completely natural geuze comprising an assembly of 1, 2 and 3 years old lambic beer aged in oak barrels. This Geuze is a natural, unfiltered beer, which is bottled and undergoes spontaneous fermentation in the bottle for at least 6 months. Fonteinen's Oude Geuze can be stored in cool cellar for 10 years after bottling while it's acidity softens and it becomes more complex.

This was one of my favorites. Reviews on Beer Advocate describe tastes of lemon, straw, and tart apples.

Jolly Pumpkin Artizan Ales' Oro de Calabaza (8%)

From Jolly Pumpkin's website: Oro de Calabaza (The Golden Pumpkin) – Brewed in the Franco-Belgian tradition of strong golden ales. Spicy and peppery with a gentle hop bouquet and the beguiling influence of wild yeast.

Brasserie Cantillon's Rose de Gambrinus (5%) - Raspberry Lambic

From Cantillon's website: I was preparing a barrel of raspberry beer. The beer coming out of the small hole in the middle of the stave was marvelous. "It has the colour of onion skin", said a voice behind me. It was Raymond Coumans. He was admiring the colour of the raspberry lambic reflecting in the red copper of the buckets used to empty the barrels. At that time (1986), "Raspberry-Lambic" already was synonymous with a sweet, artificially flavoured beer. This is why we decided to distinguish our beer from the other raspberry beers. Raymond proposed to call it a rosé, dedicated not to Bacchus but to Gambrinus. The process to make this beer is identical to the one to make Kriek. When young, the Rosé de Gambrinus will still present its full fruity taste. Later on, the lambic taste will become dominant at the expense of the fruit taste.

This thing is crazy. Supper fresh raspberry aroma and amazingly tart and zingy on the palate. It is almost, almost, too sour.

Rodenbach Grand Cru (6%) - Flanders Red Ale

From Rodenbach's website: It is claimed that "character matures over time". This wisdom applies in every respect to RODENBACH. Since 1821 RODENBACH has been brewed according to a method that requires passion and time. Just like fine wines, RODENBACH develops its unique character and unrivalled taste range through the two-year maturation process in oak vats. RODENBACH, the unique Flanders Red-Brown beer.

(The above is more of a sales pitch than a description. One reviewer on Beer Advocate says of the Grand Cru, "Grand Cru is probably the most famous of the West Flanders red ales. It's made with Vienna malt and 5 yeast strains. It's then aged in massive unvarnished oak casks for over 2 years. Then, it's blended with other 2 year old ales, no young ale addition. There's no fruit in this beer. All fruit flavours are imparted by its unique house blend of yeast strains.")

Mmm. The Grand Cru is nice and caramely without being too sickenly sweet. And at only 6% you can drink a lot of it without being knocked for a loop. This is one of my and Sarah's favorites.

HaandBryggeriet's Haandbakk (8.5%) - Vintage Flanders Oud Bruin (2006)

From HaandBryggeriet's website: This is our new Haandbakk Vintage 2006 (our sour ale) and it was bottled 22 march 2008. This is an historic moment for us as this is the first time for more than hundred years or much longer that a brewery in Norway has made a sour beer using wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. This beer was brewed in sept. 06 and has since then been aged in oak barrels until bottling day. The beer is blended for roundness but is still very sour and a little bit acetic. We think our first attempt has been a great success and we will definitely try this again. 8.5% alc. 20 ibu. Serve at 8-12C. This beer is not pasteurised and will develop further with aging. Haandbakk is a beer with a rustic style rather than a smooth and polished product.

I liked this one the best out of all we had that night. Similar to Grand Cru in that it is not too sour and not too sweet but is much more complex. Deep caramel and balsamic vinegar aromas and flavors. Yum.

Russian River Brewing Company's Consecration Ale (10%) - American Wild Ale/Oak Aged Belgian Style

From Russian River's website: ...not much to say for itself.

Consecration was the beer that convinced Sarah that she wanted to carpool up to Anderson Valley, sleep in a wet campsite, and spend the day with a bunch of muddy beer guzzlers. Russian River brews this and ages it in oak barrels for up to six months with currants. It is distributed locally (100 miles or less) so is difficult to get a hold of it in Santa Cruz. We typically have to go up to the City Beer Store in San Fransisco to get any, or hope that Renny has made a weekend trip up to Sonoma and is willing to share a bottle.

Brouwerij Fonteinen Oude Kriek (6%)

From Fonteinen's website: (translated again) Oude Kriek results from ripening cherries (both the flesh and the pips) in young Lambic. This process takes between 6 to 8 months after which the beer matures for at least another four months in bottle where spontaneous fermentation occurs. The head of Oude Kriek is very sensitive to the concentration of oil in the cherry pits, and its color may vary from year to year.

This is not really similar to Fonteinen's Oude Geuze; the cherry just pops out of this one.

Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille (6%) - Blended Lambic

From Oud Beersel's website: Oud Beersel Oude Geuze is one of nature’s miracles. Oude Geuze is a blend of lambic from different years. One year old lambic is still readily fermentable. Two year old and three year old lambic main contribution is to the taste. Blending the lambic produces a sparkling beer that is made in accordance with time-honoured traditions. Oud Beersel Oude Geuze notable hop and fruit character is much appreciated by beer fans. The taste of the Oude Geuze of Oud Beersel combines from way back a pleasant bitterness with a sour yet smooth character. The first mouthful refreshes the tongue and opens the way to the wondrous world of the spontaneous fermentation with its complex subtleties.

Blahdy blah...I don't remember much about this. Middle of the road maybe?

Leireken Wild Berries Belgian Ale (5.2%) - Belgian(esque) Ale

From Leireken's website: Leireken Wild Berries has a unique, slightly hazy, raspberry red body with a long-lasting foamy tan head and a racy nose packed with fragrant wild berries. (among other statements).

This one was unpleasant. As one reviewer on Beer Advocate says, "Ew." First, beer should not be made with "natural flavors" as is stated on the bottle. In the food industry this usually means that some kind of synthetic chemical is being used; because "natural" doesn't mean anything legally. Once you look at the ingredient's list you notice that they're not using "natural flavors", they're using fruit juice (fruit juice?). I'm all for putting fruit into beer during aging, but fruit juice? All you get is the sticky sugary sweetness, none of the tannin. Bleh. And they put sacharose in as well (extra sugar!). Needless to say, this was sickeningly sweet and was just unbearable. On top of all that it smelled like feet, rank and heavy, which was awful.

Here is Kate McDevitt's opinion immortalized in color:

You said it.

Last up:

Brouwerij Verhaeghe's Duchesse De Bourgogne (6.2%) - Flanders Red Ale

From Verhaeghe's website: (translated) 'Duchesse de Bourgogne is a sweet, fruity beer with a pleasant fresh acid-oak finish. [Duchesse] is brewed with deep-roasted barley malt and hops perennial with a low bitterness level. After the primary fermentation and the second bearing the beer undergoes third bearing of approximately 18 months in oak vats. The tannins present in oak give the "Duchesse" the fruity character. After this bearing the "Duchesse" is blended with younger beer that is 8 months old. The result is beer with a full, sweet flavor and slight zing. A ruby red jewel of 6.2% vol. alc. that best served between 8 and 12 ° C. A perfect beer!

Definitely a dessert beer. It has the tangyness of of less sweet flanders red but the residual sugar in this is still really high. Some people may call it cloying, but I like it in moderation.

Sorry for the super long post. But I had to get it all in.

Roasted Zucchini Dip

2011-01-16T15:01:00.000-10:00

Sarah made this dish way back in summer time...when it was warm, and dry. We had gotten in a bunch of zucchini from the CSA and from Sarah's work and were looking for something to do with some of it. This is the result of that adventure. The recipe is a modified version of a Baba Ganouj (eggplant dip) recipe we've tried in the past and liked. It is also very similar to our standard Hummus recipe.

Roasted Zucchini Dip

3 medium or large zucchini or other summer squash, split and roasted
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
2 or 3 cloves Garlic
Lemon Juice to taste
1/4 Cup Tahini (sesame see paste)
1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Split the zucchini hot dog bun style down the middle and place into a roasting pan on onto a cookie sheet. Brush or drizzle with olive oil, dust with salt and pepper. Roast until tender and starting to brown on top.

Puree in a food processor the roasted zucchini, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, and cumin. Salt and Pepper to taste.

For a nice appetizer smooth some dip into a shallow bowl and mound slightly in the center. Drizzle olive oil around the outside and dust with fresh pepper. Serve with thin toasts or crackers.

Pfeffernusse

2010-12-31T15:19:00.000-10:00

These wonderful little packets of yummy goodness were introduced to me when I worked at a small coffee shop on the west side of Santa Cruz during my college years. The place was an offshoot shop affiliated with Beckmann's Old World Bakery who specializes in German breads, among other things. Pfeffernusse are a German spice cookie that shows up during Christmas and for the last two years Sarah and I have been making them for her family's annual cookie swap. They're delicious.

Some recipes I've seen call for candied citrus peel in the cookie dough, but I like to get my citrus in the icing instead.

Pfeffernusse

2 1/4 Cups Flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 Cup Butter

3/4 Cups Packed Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Molasses

1 egg

Royal Icing, for dipping

Sift together the dry ingredients. Cream the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. This should take from 5 to 10 minutes in a Kitchen Aide mixer using the paddle attachment. Once the butter and sugar are well creamed beat in the egg until well combined. Beat in the molasses next.

Work in the flour mix in stages until just combined. Don't want to overwork the dough here. Chill until the dough is firm, or until you can handle it without it sticking to your fingers.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. When then dough can be handled, roll the dough in to small rounds about 1" in diameter and lay on a cookie sheet. These shouldn't spread out much at all so if you need to cram them together it should be ok.

Bake each tray of cookies for about 14 minutes, or until the bottom of the cookie is lightly browned. Let the hot cookies sit on the tray for about a minute after they come out of the oven and then transfer them to cooling racks.

To make the Royal Icing beat one egg white until frothy. Beat in 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp. lemon juice, and the zest of one lemon until well combined. If the icing is too thick for dipping add in a little more lemon juice or water until you reach the right consistency. You're looking for something that will stick to the cookie and ooze all around it, not something you'll plop onto the top and have sit there like you want for sugar cookies.

When the cookies are cool, dip each one in Royal Icing and cover completely. Lay out on racks until dry. This could take several hours depending on how goopy you made the icing.

Serve with hot chocolate.

Fresh Goat's Milk Cheese

2010-11-08T14:12:00.001-10:00

I am a cheese novice. I want to make it perfectly clear that what I have undertaken here is an experiment and is by no means a normal occurrence in my household. Oh, but if I only had a cave, and several acres of open pasture, and a herd of goats, and a milking parlor, and a cheese making parlor, and some help...oh then, then would I make some cheese! To start along such a path one ought to begin with the basics, right? Fresh cheeses are that first step. They require no aging (i.e.: no cave) and can be eating nearly 24 hours after milking. This type of cheese is more commonly known as Chevre or Farmer's Cheese.

Right. For cheese-making 101 try either of these lovely sites: there's the New England Cheese Making Supply Co. (from which I got the starter culture and powdered rennet used to make the cheese), and the equally informative Frankhauser's Cheese Page (put together by a Bio Prof. in Ohio, go figure). The NECMS site is more giving in terms of the cheese recipes discussed but FCP goes more in depth as to why cheese happens. I'm more of a why person so the FCP is my pick, generally.

To make the cheese just follow the instructions:

We're using raw goat's milk here so you first have to heat the milk to pasteurize it (I think it's 116 F for 30 seconds), then cool to 86 F, which is a good starting temperature for the starter culture being used.

Stir in the packet of culture and rennet and let the cheese sit at room temp for about 12 hours. At the end of this waiting time the milk should have set up and if you plunge in a finger, hook it toward the top of the curd and pull you should have what's called the "clean break" on the FCP. This is the point where the culture has sufficiently acidified the milk and has allowed the rennet to set a curd to the point where if you run a blunt object through the curd it should break up instead of just mush apart. If it's too squishy (more like yogurt) let the culture and rennet work for a few more hours.

If everything is good, roughly cut the curd into chunks so the whey (the yellow-ish liquid that separates from the white curd) can more easily get away from the curd. Then dump the whole thing (slowly) into a flour-sack towel lined colander suspended over an appropriate container. A few layers of cheese cloth would work ok here too, but I like the much finer weave of something like cotton T-shirt material.

Hang the cheese to drain into a dish for at least 12 hours. This could be in the fridge or not. Remember, the thing's been sitting out in the open for 12 hours already, so it should be fine hanging out some more.

And what you see here is about 1 pound of fresh goats milk cheese. I think it's lost about 50 - 60% of its volume at this point, so a lot of what you're working with at the beginning comes out of the process as liquid. This liquid is of course chock full of proteins, live cultures, and nutrients. I would make biscuits out of it, or pancakes. Some people drink it...yech. You can always just dump it in your garden. Or feed it to the chickens.

Milk From a Goat

2010-10-29T11:43:00.000-10:00

I have dabbled in making my own dairy products in the past. Mainly my efforts have been directed toward fresh rennet-less cheeses (like panir) and yogurt. Fresh cheeses are great but you get so little cheese for so much cash. Yogurt is just barely cost effective but works best if you make big batches. As I don't eat a lot of yogurt this didn't really work to my advantage.

Of all the hand worked dairy products cheese is my best love. I've wanted to make cheese at home for years but have been hindered by 1) the difficulty in finding small quantities of rennet locally and 2) the slightly more bothersome need to buy milk from the grocery store (which when buying organic can be expensive) and putting hard time and effort into changing that product into something else that I could easily buy at the grocery store, often for less money than I would spend to make it myself.

As I understand it, cheese making used to be a way of preserving a relatively abundant resource (fresh milk) that would normally not last very long at room temperature (less than a day I figure). A healthy goat in a milk producing state (i.e.: one that was recently pregnant) will produce up to a gallon of milk a day over a 10-month period, that's about 300 gallons of milk to deal with, from one goat; imagine if you had two, which is recommended because they are social animals. A single cow may produce up to 8 gallons of milk a day in the same period. I don't know about you but I don't think I could drink 2 gallons of milk in a day without being sick.

It just so happens that I don't have a goat, or a cow, so I'm in no need of preserving large amounts of high protein, high fat, liquid food stuffs. I don't need to make cheese, so I don't make it. I want to, I think it's fun and interesting, but there is absolutely no need (economical or otherwise) for me to do so.

However a seminal opportunity presented itself to Sarah and I just a little while ago. One of Sarah's co-workers lives on and often cares for a small farm/school facility in the Santa Cruz Mountains. One of the benefits of of this arrangement is that she gets to milk the two goats every once in a while, which of course leaves here with more milk than she knows what to do with. We were invited to participate in the goat milking process in exchange (?) for a gallon of milk.

Sarah was of course much better at it than I was, even though the goat didn't appreciate her chilly hands. My apprehension is palpable.

It took us 20 minutes to get a little more than a quart of milk, which we promptly threw out because we got it all over our hands before it made it into the bucket. Bacteria strikes again. It was a fun experience but it wasn't something I'd like to do two times a day with multiple animals on a long term basis.

In the interest of keeping this post relatively short I'll post the cheese making that took place next time.

Samosas - Four Variations

2010-10-08T13:17:00.002-10:00

I haven't too much to say about samosas in general. They're really just savory turnovers and are made by folding some kind of tasty filling into pie crust and baking it until finished. Nearly inexhaustible variations present themselves; perhaps the easiest thing to do is start with a base ingredient.

Four Samosa Variations:

Maybe you're going for something starchy. Choose potato with onions, carrots, leeks, and combine with some type of green (chard, kale, spinach). Caramelize the onions with garlic then add the potatoes and carrots til brown. Lightly braise with stock to generate a type of sauce in the pan. Add in the greens and flavor with rosemary, thyme, red pepper flake, and butter. Mix it all together and taste for salt and pepper before forming the samosa.

Or choose rice or some other grain with any type of cooked bean (black, red, white, garbanzo, lima, fava) or lentil and caramelized onion. Cook the rice using stock instead of water; caramelize the onion, de-glaze with stock, add the beans and flavor with oregano and thyme before mixing it all together and forming the samosa. Remember to taste for salt.

Try either of these using curry spices and flavorings instead of the Franco/Italiano variations. For the first gently fry cumin and mustard seeds in the pan until the mustard seeds pop (use a lid) and then add the onions with maybe garlic and ginger and slowly brown (30-40 minutes). Add in the potatoes and carrots and lightly brown. Then add in some curry powder and cook briefly before adding the braising liquid. Lightly braise before adding the greens. Top the samosa with a yogurt sauce or raita.

For the rice dish do about the same thing: fry up cumin and mustard seeds, add the onion with garlic and ginger, add a little curry powder and de-glaze the pan with stock. Cook the rice with a bit of turmeric to make it a very bright yellow. Mix it all together before forming the samosa.

Any of these should bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Rolling out the Pie Crust:

For samosas, rolling out the dough is easy. Take a full recipe of pie dough and break it into about 12 (?) pieces. Press each of these out using your fingers onto a liberally floured surface until almost flat. Liberally dust the top of the dough with flour before going over it a few times with a rolling pin. You should have a disk that is about six inches in diameter and about 1/8" in thickness, give or take. As long as you keep things well floured you should be fine; the rounds are small enough that handling it not going to rip holes all over the place and make a huge mess.

For pies everything is completely different. The round ends up so big and the dough is so delicate that trying to handle to dough by itself can often lead to disaster. What I've found through trial and error is that wax paper/parchment can work wonders.

For a top and bottom pie crust take the full pie dough recipe and break it in half. Take one of the halves and throw it onto a piece of wax paper that's about 10" x 10"; press the dough flat using your fingers and the palm of your hand until you have a disk that is about 6 inches in diameter and about one half to three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Then take another equally sized piece of paper and place this on top of the disk. Use the rolling pin to methodically work the dough out from the center of the round toward the edge of the paper. We're shooting for a disk that is about 12 inches in diameter and about 1/8" thick. You may find that flipping the whole thing over and rolling from the other side about half way through is helpful.

Now remove one piece of paper, drape the dough over your pie pan with the remaining paper facing away from the pan, and gently remove the second piece of paper. You may experience ripping of the dough, it's ok, it could be much much worse.

Do the same thing for the top of the pie once the filling is in and you're good to go.

A Simple Pie Crust

2010-10-04T13:14:00.000-10:00

I've been making pies since I was little. I believe it was pie that started me in on the path to enjoying time in the kitchen and introduced me to a hands-on experience with the food that I eat. The crust of course forms the basis for any pie and is the most difficult and finicky part. A good pie crust takes patience and a good feel for what you're working with. It cannot be too wet and it cannot be overworked or the result will be a disaster.

This is the recipe I use. It uses 100% unsalted butter but you can do 50% butter and 50% vegetable shortening or lard if you feel like having a crust that is a little more chewy. I've been trying to stay away from the semi-solid vegetable oils as they're stuffed with trans-fats; not to say that the cholesterol in the butter is much better for you, but I like the taste of butter, and it's pie, so who cares? Let go a little.

A Simple Pie Crust (makes enough for 1 9in pie, top and bottom):

2 Cups White Flour
2/3 Cups Cold Butter, cubed
1 tsp. salt
Ice Water

Work about 2/3 of the butter into the flour and salt either using your hands or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Work it in so that it forms very small crumbles. Work the remaining butter into the mix so that you are left with larger pea sized hunks. The larger pieces will melt and spread through the rolled crust during baking and add to the flakiness of the crust.

Once the butter is worked into the flour to your liking, dribble one or two tablespoons of ice water over the flour/butter/salt mix. Take a fork and use it to dig down into the bowl from the side all the way to the base of the container, then lift the fork through the mix so that it turns and more comes in contact with the water. DO NOT PRESS. If the dough is pressed into the water to make contact strong gluten strands will form and the dough will become difficult to roll out. Instead continue the dig and lift motion a few times until the water has been absorbed. Add more water a tablespoon or two at a time and continue the dig and lift motion until some of the dough starts to come together. What we're looking for here are large clumps of moist dough almost equally interspersed with smaller dry crumbles.

At this point gently gather the dough in to a rough ball using your hands. If the dough holds together well enough (it should not be smooth) transfer it to plastic wrap or waxed paper and then to the refrigerator for a rest. If there are still a large amount of dry crumbles in the bowl, add a little more water and gently incorporate the crumbles into the dough mass before wrapping and refrigerating.

Once you get the hang of it a pie crust might take five or ten minutes to put together; it has taken me years to get to this point and I still have trouble every once in a while. Be patient and don't rush. A slow and gentle approach will yield dividends once you're ready to roll the dough. Rushing the formation of the dough and trying to force moisture into the flour will cause it to stiffen and become resistant. Be nice and enjoy you're time with it.

Beer Tasting

2010-08-29T15:01:00.001-10:00

Our friend Renny is a beer crazy man. It is actually he that got both Sarah and I excited about [some] beer and started us out along a beer loving path. Sarah and I are more wine people and don't usually think to ourselves, "OMG, I need a beer!" Typically we think, "hmmm, a crisp Sauvignon Blanc would be quenching at the moment, hmmm." Yeah, we're snobs.

In the spirit of encouraging us and our friends to continue enjoying beer and in preparation for the eventual opening of Ye Olde Santa Cruz Beer Shoppe (there is currently not a serious proposal in the works, so calm down) Renny got a bunch of us together for a beer tasting and food pairing. Each of us was assigned a style of beer to bring along with something that would pair well with that style. Renny was also generous enough to rummage around in his considerable cellar for a few gems to share with the group.

We started the night with a sour style and worked our way up and out in an ascending spiral to the barleywine. I don't have a lot to say about the beers, I was only taking the briefest notes on who made them and what they were and don't have much on what they were like. You'll just have to try them for yourselves.

Belgian Flanders Style:
Cascade Brewing Apricot Ale 2009 Bottling (9%)
Paired with bitter greens and vinaigrette.

From Cascade's Web Site: Brewmaster Ron Gansberg based this Apricot Ale on a Belgian Tripel, putting it through 16 months lactic fermentation and aging in French oak wine barrels. The apricots were allowed to slowly ripen before introduction into the beer; the beer then aged another four months on the fruit before bottling. The finished product features the intense aroma of fresh-picked, slow ripened Northwest apricots warmed by the summer sun.

Strong Pale Ale:
Mikkeller "It's Alive!" (8%).
Paired with apple cheddar bread.

From Mikkeller's Web Site: It's Alive! is Mikkeller's answer and tribute to the trappist beer Orval. It's Alive is an easy-to-drink beer, with a lot of hops. The color is amber, the foam is high, white and dense. The potent Brettanomyces culture makes It's Alive continue to develop in the bottle.

Saison:
Fantôme Biere Artisanale sur lie (8%)
Fruity and skunky. Paired with Camembert and chutney.

Brown Ale:
Sierra Nevada Tumbler 2010 (5.5%)
Comes across as bitter and toasty. Paired with Gouda.

From Sierra Nevada's Web Site: As the nights grow cool, the leaves on the valley oaks begin to turn and fall. In honor of this yearly dance, we bring you Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale and invite you to enjoy the show. We use malt within days of roasting at the peak of its flavor to give Tumbler a gracefully smooth malt character. So pour a glass, and grab a window seat to watch as the leaves come tumbling down.

The Hop Bomb:
Devon's Double IPA 2010 (~8%)
Highly aromatic of hops; sweet start, bitter finish. Paired with aged sharp blue cheeses.

Devon says: It's good, huh?

Imperial Stout:
Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch - Weasel (10.9%)
Paired with aged Gouda and chocolate.

From Mikkeller's Web Site: This imperial Oatmeal stout is brewed with one of the world’s most expensive coffees, made from droppings of weasel-like civet cats. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. Workers collect the bean-containing droppings for Civet or Weasel Coffee. The exceedingly rare Civet Coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma.

English BarleyWine:
Valley Brewing Company Old Inventory BarleyWine (11.3%)
Paired with stinky blue cheese.

(photo courtesy of ratebeer.com)

Dessert:
Allison's Spic Cycle Buzz Mead 2005 (Unknown)
Made with Clover Honey and Champagne yeasts.

And that was the night.

Borscht: Soup as Practice

2010-08-24T18:35:00.000-10:00

Soup, I feel, is one of the easiest foods to make and the most forgiving thing on this good Earth. Some vegetables, a little bit of stock or water, herbs, spices, salt and pepper, and you've got yourself a cozy little bowl of heaven. The amount of each thing isn't even really that important as long as you taste along the way; in fact, I think it is probably a good practice to approach soup in this manner. If you have a recipe, plumb it for ideas and then set it aside. Use soup as a stepping stone to effective kitchen experimentation and enlightenment; try new combinations and new methods of adding and intensifying flavors. Have fun.

The worst thing that will happen is the dish might come across as bland or ugly, the first can be remedied with some salt and the worst of the second can be mitigated with a bit of clever plating.

Making soup in this way is like playing with blocks; if you mess up nobody gets hurt, it can all be put back together again, and through the process maybe you stretch your abilities a little bit and become more familiar with your kitchen and your ingredients. I wouldn't recommend this practice for something like pie dough or custard. A slap-dash approach to either of these is like driving over a mountain with your eyes closed; you're liable to make a huge mess of things and somebody is going to have their day ruined.

Borscht is a very simple soup that allows for experimentation while generally ending up tasting very good. This version of borscht is basically red cabbage, beet, and potato in stock underpinned with diced mirpoix (onion, celery, and carrots), tomatoes, herbs, and spices.

Simple Borscht:

Olive Oil or Butter

1 Onion, diced

2 Cloves Garlic

2 Celery Sticks, diced

2 Carrots, diced

Parsley

Other herbs or spices (red pepper flake, thyme, bay leaf, maybe some tarragon)

1 small head of red cabbage, cut into strips

1 or 2 red beets

1 or 2 waxy yellow or red potatoes (maybe do celeriac here, or parsnips, or parsley root, rutabega?)

1 lb. peeled and diced tomatoes (canned works well of course)

Vegetable Stock or water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sour cream for serving

Sautée up the onion in olive oil or butter until well browned (20 minutes). Add the garlic and other herbs or spices with the celery and carrot and sautée for a few minutes more. Add in the cabbage, beets, potato, and tomato all at once with a hearty helping of salt and pepper.

Add enough stock and/or water to get the soup to your desired consistency. If you like it more like a stew, add less, if you like a more brothy soup, add more. Bring to a boil then simmer covered until the beet is tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Sarah's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-08-13T11:03:00.002-10:00

Summer has come to Santa Cruz in its standard form: fog and heavy mist. "Welcome to Sunny California!": my bum. Needless to say, every once in a while during the summer months the slim possibility of sun on the weekend is just not enough to sustain us. For a little extra boost there are Sarah's cookies.

Sarah is the head cookie baker in our house. A lot of the cooking we share but when it comes to baking cookies she just has some kind of special touch. There's something about freshly made cookie dough and warm cookies right out of the oven that just turns me to mush. These oatmeal cookies are her standby when she's in a rush to whip up something for a party or group get-together.

Sarah's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 Cups Oatmeal (Quick Oats work best)
1 Cup Chocolate Chips (More or less depending on one's preference)

First, run the quick oats through a few pulses of a food processor so they are greatly reduces. This will allow the cookies some texture while not making them too crunchy.

Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs - one at a time - until well incorporated. Mix in the vanilla, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Work in the flour and oatmeal in stages until all incorporated then work in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for about an hour in the fridge will you head the oven to 375F (Sarah doesn't chill the dough...so there you go). Spoon cookie sized portions of dough onto lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Because our oven temp is wonky Sarah likes to turn the sheets about half way through so each side of the tray cooks evenly.

What we're looking for in a done cookie is a little bit of squish in the center with lightly browned edges. Once they come out of the oven let them sit on the tray for a minute or two to finish up, then lay them out on a cooling rack. They'll firm up once they cool down.

Don't eat too many, or you may get sick.

Carrot and Parsley Soup

2010-08-07T07:12:00.002-10:00

This week the CSA box presented us with carrots and parsley. Tons of both. Typically what happens is we'll use up the carrots, feed the carrot greens to the chickens (they're a little too bitter to use all at once and usually end up going south anyway) and pull our hair out trying to figure out what to put the parsley on/in before it gets wilty (which takes a while, but we don't usually use a lot of parsley).

This time we figured to just use up everything all at the same time in a soup. Ha! What follows is our successful attempt at delivering a tasty meal with what we had on hand.

Carrot and Parsley Soup

Olive Oil
1 Onion Diced
More onions if you've got 'em.
Herbs and Spices:
Garlic, Red Pepper Flake, Bay Leaf, Rosemary, Oregano
1 Bunch Carrots Roughly Chopped
1 Small Bunch Parsley Chopped
Veggie Stock
1/4 cup Rice (white works best for this soup, could also use red lentils, bulgur wheat, or another cracked grain)
Yogurt or Sour Cream for garnish

Saute the onion in the olive oil until browned slightly (15 - 20 minutes). Add the herbs and spices with some salt and pepper and cook a minute or two more. Toss in the carrots and the parsley and saute a few minutes to sweat the carrots.

Add in the stock and the rice and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer about 20 minutes, until the rice is tender. Taste for seasoning.

If you want to use brown rice instead of white don't add the rice with the stock into the soup pot. Instead, start a little earlier and cook the rice separately in stock or water until done then add it into the soup pot once it has had a chance to simmer and the carrots are tender.

You can have this soup rough like a stew or minestrone or you can blend it smooth. I like creamy soups so if given the choice I would blend it down with a stick blender (absolutely necessary in the kitchen if one likes creamy soups...a blender just does not cut the mustard).

Stir in some yogurt or sour cream into your bowl of soup before you serve it. Garnish with parsley to add some color.

Variation: Curried Carrot Soup
For the more ambitious crowd, one can forgo the French/Italian vein and exchange curry powder for the rosemary and oregano.

Traditional German Pumpernickel Bread

2010-07-29T18:14:00.007-10:00

Ok. So. The River Street Cafe and Cheese Shop in Santa Cruz makes a loaf of traditional German style pumpernickel that retails $10 for a full loaf (maybe 3 lbs.), which you can find here. Now, when you see the recipe below you'll get why this thing is $10, it takes forever to make correctly. But oh man...is it good. This is my first attempt at this style of bread and I have to say that I really did like how it turned out. I think it would be better if I could get my hands on some real pumpernickel flour, but it's really hard to find (even here in SC) so I've done what I can with what I'm allowed. Take a peak:

Traditional-like German-inspired Pumpernickel-ish Bread:

2 Cups Organic Rye flour (Organic is more likely to have the natural yeasts used to raise the bread; ideally this should be pumpernickel flour, which is more coarsely ground)
1 Cup white all purpose or whole wheat flour (if you can find pumpernickel flour then use finely ground rye flour here instead of white or whole wheat)
2 Tbs. bulgur wheat (bulgur is par-boiled cracked wheat berries, you could use any par-boiled grain here -- oats, buckwheat, rye)
2 Tbs. sunflower seeds
2 Tbs. flax seeds
1 tsp. salt
1 3/4 Cup warm water
1 tsp. olive oil

Sift together the flours, bulgur or cracked rye berries, seeds, and salt. Add in the water and the oil and mix all this together. You'll end up with something that is very sticky, this is ok. Lay down some parchment paper in the bottom of a medium sized bread pan and oil the sides so things are a little easier to remove later.

Spoon the dough into the prepared bread pan and smooth the surface. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and put the whole thing in a relatively warm place in the kitchen.

Let it sit for 24 to 48 hours. In the summer months you may find that after 24 hours the bread starts to push very insistently against the plastic wrap. If this happens before your two days are up pop the pan in the fridge and let it chill out there for the next day.

When you're ready preheat the oven to 225 F (very low) and place a pan of boiling water on the bottom-most rack. Unwrap the bread pan, re-wrap the bread in tin foil, and place it on the upper-most rack. This needs to "steam" for four hours (I know!). Raise the oven temp to 325 F and bake for another 40 minutes to brown the surface and the sides of the bread.

Let the bread cool slightly in the pan before you remove it. Peel off the parchment on the bottom and wrap the bread in a tea towel to sit overnight. DO NOT CUT INTO THE BREAD RIGHT AWAY. You've waited this long, you can wait a little bit longer.

After it's completely cool and has sat some more...cut in, spread some cream cheese all over it, and enjoy.

Chinese 5 - Spice Powder

2010-07-23T17:53:00.007-10:00

Ingredients

clove (dingxiang)
fennel (xiaohuixiang)
sichuan pepper (huajiao)
star ainse (dahuixiang)
cassia bark (rougui)

5 Spice powder is made from cassia bark (a variation of cinnamon), fennel, clove, Sichuan pepper, and star anise. Each of these spices are pictured above. Different books have different recipes, but from what I can tell you basically take equal amounts of each spice, grind them up, and mix them together. If you are using a mortar and pestle, as I do, sometimes it's useful to dry fry the spices until they become fragrant before grinding. This process removes any water from the spice and makes them easier to grind. This is especially relevant for the cassia, clove, and star anise.

Sichuan pepper (which is easily found in Chinatown markets, but not sure about where else), usually contains a seed which is very bitter and may effect your spice mix in an unpleasant way. My books recommend removing any seeds before grinding, which I can offer, is an annoying and slow process.

One thing I kind of messed up is that you're supposed to grind the whole star anise, not just the seed. I only ground the seed and then actually read my book where they say to grind the whole thing and that the pod is actually more aromatic. Interesting, huh?

Bechamel and some variations

2010-07-20T15:38:00.011-10:00

Ah...Bechamel. I love this stuff. It can either take no time at all and just be creamy and buttery or you can spend a bit more time and turn it into creamy, buttery, savory deliciousness. It is a pretty standard roux based sauce and can be taken in many different directions.

A roux is flour cooked in fat until it is a certain color (from "blonde" to dark) and is used to thicken hot liquids. What makes this sauce a bechamel (as opposed to an Espagnole or Veloute sauce, which are also thickened with roux) is the addition of milk (instead of some kind of meat stock).

Herb infused Bechamel:

1 Cup Milk (non fat is fine)
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
sprig of rosemary, thyme, sage, etc...
1 bay leaf
Roux: (More roux will make a thicker sauce, less roux will make a thinner sauce)
1 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. flour
Salt and Pepper to taste

First warm the milk in a medium saucepan until almost boiling. Toss in the onion, garlic, herbs, and the bay leaf and let all this steep in the hot milk for about 10 minutes.

In the mean time melt the butter in a separate pan until bubbly. Toss in the flour and whisk in to form a batter. This is your roux and forms the thickening agent for the sauce. Cook this however long you like while whisking nearly continuously. However, keep in mind that the darker the roux gets, the toastier your sauce will taste and the less efficient it will be at thickening your liquid. So, if you want a really dark roux, make a little bit more than you would otherwise so it thickens your sauce how you expect it to.

Pour in about half of the hot liquid while whisking (making sure to get into the corners of the pan). This will thicken very quickly; as it does add about another fourth of the milk. Do this one more time as the sauce thickens.

You're aiming for something like this. Season with salt and pepper and you're good to go.

Something I threw together:
This is a variation that I threw together for a crepe dinner I made Sarah for her birthday. Instead of using 100% milk as the liquid I combined 50% milk and 50% veggie stock. Before adding the flour to the butter I sauteed an extra clove of garlic and about 1 tsp. of red pepper flake. After the sauce had thickened I added an extra 2 Tbs. butter, about 2 Tbs. brandy, and 1/4 grated Romano cheese to finish it off. This went over a caramelized red onion, mushroom, and chard filled crepe. mmm.

Something Sarah threw together:
To go over some quick mushroom ravioli on one of our busier nights Sarah combined the leftover bechamel-y sauce from the crepe dinner with a few spoon fulls of our pizza sauce that we keep in the freezer. This was so much better than any marinara sauce we could have come up with.

Cream of Broccoli Sauce (soup?) over Homemade Pasta

2010-06-14T18:31:00.014-10:00

Ah...homemade pasta. Pasta generally is a fantastic vehicle for all the weird stuff we end up getting in our CSA box and you get to create all sorts of fun sauces and flavors. Lately I've taken up making fresh pasta on the spot and I have to say that I don't know why I didn't start sooner. Pasta is one of the easiest and least fussy doughs you could make and if you have a pasta roller on hand the whole process is a snap.

Every Day Pasta:

1 cup all purpose flour
generous pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 Tbs tasty olive oil

Start with the whole "sift the flour with the salt and make a well in the center" thing. Crack the eggs into that well and pour the olive oil in with the eggs. Using a fork (or your fingers if you feel like being dirty) whisk up JUST the eggs and the oil and then slowly (ever so slowly) start to incorporate flour into the mix from the bottom and sides of the well. Do not rush. If you rush then you'll end up with a big sticky mess, which is fine, you can work through it, but you shouldn't have to.

Eventually everything should come together and you should have (probably) a slightly sticky dough. You'll be needing to knead the dough at this point so if you need more flour now is the time to add a bit (I'm sorry, lots of homonyms there). It's about 5-10 minutes of working the dough to get it to the right point.

And then roll away. I like to start it out with a rolling pin so it kinda fits into the largest setting at the start. Then I work my way down through the settings until I hit the smallest on the machine. I hear tell that if you were lazy at the kneading stage, rolling the dough finishes the process for you.

Now do whatever the hell you want with the dough. Make big noodles, small noodles, square noodles, round noodles. Panda shaped noodles. It's up to you.

And the sauce (Cream of Broccoli): For 1 Cup Liquid

1 head of Broccoli

1 Tbs Butter, Olive Oil, or a mix of the two
1/2 large Onion
1 Garlic clove
1/2 tsp. Red Pepper Flake (or more, who am I to say)
1 tsp. Salt
1 Tbs. Flour
1 Cup Milk or Stock or a mix (near boiling)
Parmesan and Black Pepper for finishing

Start the onion in the butter and let saute on low for a little bit. In the mean time blanch the broccoli in boiling water for just about 5 minutes or until slightly tender (I used the pasta water in this case).

Add the garlic, salt, and red pepper flake to the onion and saute for a minute more before adding the flour to this mix. Just let it cook for a minute or two to let the raw flour taste work itself out. This isn't a standard roux as there are vegetables in the way so cooking it too long will burn the flour.

Add about 1/3 cup of the heated liquid to the onion/flour mix while whisking vigorously. Make sure you work the liquid into the corners of the pan and get all the flour up off the bottom. As it thickens add more liquid, then whisk, thicken, and add more liquid until you've got it all in. Toss in the broccoli and blender everything smooth. Stick blenders work wonders in situations like this. Taste for salt and pepper and you're off to the races.

The sauce can wait as you cook the pasta in a lot of boiling water (more than you think would be necessary) for a few minutes.

Mushroom Pie!

2009-11-15T18:46:00.005-10:00

My roommate and I love mushrooms! Over a year ago I had the pleasure of eating a mushroom pot pie at Kalapawai restaurant in Kailua and was totally smitten. Unfortunately for me, the last time I was there the pie was no longer on the menu. Tonight, we've gone and attempted our own. This recipe is not for those who are afraid of butter!

Ingredients:

Mushrooms! - I used Oyster, Shimeji, Ali'i, and Pioppini - total 12 oz.
butter - about 6 T. total
1 onion
white wine - I used sauvignon blanc
heavy cream
1 T. thyme
pinch of sage
potato - I used 1 red skin and 1 russet
2-3 leaves swiss chard
salt and pepper to taste
2 pie crusts - I cheated and bought it

Directions:

I started by chopping the onion and sauteing it in the butter (about 2T.) at medium heat until the bottom of the pan was coated in brown deliciousness (which I just looked up - it's called "fond" according to reluctantgourmet.com) and the onion was caramelized. While this was cooking, the mushrooms were washed and chopped or separated depending on how big they were. Once the onions were finished, I added 2 T or so of butter to the pan and the mushrooms. I turned the heat down a little and stirred them up so the muchrooms all got a little coated in the butter, then I added maybe 1T. of thyme and a pinch and a half of sage.

I let that cook for about 5 minutes or so, then I added enough white wine to scrape the fond off of the bottom of the pan. I let that cook a little bit (maybe another 5 minutes), then I added the salt and pepper, heavy cream, and more wine - I wanted enough liquid to make sauce that would coat the mushrooms and the potatoes inside the pie crust.

At this point I also had chopped up the potato and had that boiling. Once they were soft (but not too soft) they were strained and set aside in the pot with 2 T. of butter and salt and pepper and partially mashed.

Once the sauce in the mushroom pot had thickened and settled sufficiently, we mixed 2 big spoonfuls of potato into the mushroom mixture. This was mixed until smooth then 2-3 leaves of chard were chopped and mixed in. This was poured into the pie crust and covered with a second pie crust and then put in the oven at 375 deg for 25 minutes.

It was more delicious than I can really describe!

Greens and Red Onion Pizza

2009-06-10T07:25:00.006-10:00

So this year the thing that I can't figure out to do with in my CSA box is greens. Greens like chard, beet greens, spigariello, mustard greens, kale, etc. So in the last few weeks Sarah and I have been scouring our cook books to find something - anything - to get us through this. By the way, I have a cook book problem: I like them too much and am running out of space in my kitchen to hold them all...damn.

Anyway, here is one variation on "Bread with Greens". Jesse smelled me eating something like this at lunch and had to have the recipe. No pictures this time, sorry.

Greens and Red Onion Pizza

1 Batch Pizza dough (see earlier post)
Olive oil
1 small yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
bunch of fresh herbs (I like oregano, basil, and thyme, but it's up to you)
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
5 cups cooking greens (chard, kale, spinach, beet greens, etc.)
Olive oil
2 very small red onions or 2 large shallots, thinnly sliced into rings
A good handfull of mozzarella
1/4 cup kalamata olives, diced
Extra cheese (romano, feta, brie, anything you like really)
Fresh oregano
Fresh basil

Make dough about 1 1/2 hours before hand. Pre-heat the oven to 500F about an hour before you're ready to bake the pizza. Rinse and chop the greens, do not dry.

Saute the onion in olive oil for about 10 to 15 minutes with some salt to draw out the juices. Once these have carmelized add the garlic, herbs, and pepper flakes; saute for another minute or two without browning the garlic. Add the greens all at once, cover, and steam them in their own water until slightly wilted then remove the lid and saute the greens over low heat with some lemon juice until all the liquid has evaporated. Set aside.

Roll out the dough onto a peel or pizza pan and cover libearally with olive oil. Sprinkle half of the red onion rings onto the dough then cover with the wilted greens. Cover this with mozzarella, then diced olives, a little extra cheese, and fresh oregano. Slide the whole mess into the hot oven and bake for about 7 minutes, or until the cheese just starts to bubble. Pull it out and top with strips of fresh basil. Voila!

Another variation would be to use butter in the pizza dough instead of olive oil and add an egg to enrich the dough. Then make a filling with the same wilted green saute by adding an egg and a hand full of cheese with about a tablespoon of paprika. Roll out little rounds of dough, about 6 inches across, and plop some of the filling in the middle. Fold the dough over the filling to make a turnover and pinch the edges with the tines of a fork. Brush with egg wash, poke holes in the top, and bake in a 400F over for about 15-20 minutes. This is adapted from Deborah Madison's
Vegitarian Cooking for Everyone.

Guest Chef: George!

2009-05-05T21:46:00.014-10:00

Udon and Broccoli A La George!

Udon Ingredients:

1 lb (ish) udon (fresh or frozen)
1 carrot
1/2 onion
mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
3 or 4 green onion stalks
2 T. sesame seeds
1-2 T. rice vinegar
1 T. sesame oil
1-2 T. soy sauce
vegetable oil

Directions:

Boil water for udon - cook for about 1 minute and then strain and rinse with tap water until cool to touch. set aside.
clean and slice mushrooms, carrots, onion, and green onion (separate white and green parts). Mince the garlic. Blanch carrot to begin with - put large frying pan (with lid) over high heat. Add a small amount of water when pan is hot, then add carrot and cover, add a small amount of vegetable oil if desired. Stir occasionally, carrot will probably char a bit, but once they're soft enough add onion, garlic, white parts of the green onion, and mushrooms and a little bit more vegetable oil. Let cook for about a minute.

After vegetables have cooked for a bit, add udon, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. stir fairly constantly for another minute or so before adding green onion (just want them to wilt) and turning off the fire.

sprinkle sesame seeds on and adjust vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil levels to taste.

Broccoli!

Ingredients:

3 heads broccoli (torn apart - see pic)
3-4 cloves garlic (minced)
vegetable oil
salt to taste

sauce
1 heaping tsp. corn starch
3/4 c. water

Directions:

blanch the broccoli - small amount of water and broccoli in a covered pan until broccoli turns nice and green and slightly soft but still firm.
While broccoli is blanching, combine cornstarch and water (start with the water and add the cornstarch to the water), stir until cornstarch is completely dissolved.
Strain broccoli then add 1 T. vegetable oil and garlic to the pan. cook the garlic for roughly 30 sec before adding the broccoli back in to the pan. stir for about a minute. Pour in the cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Add salt to taste.

Yum deliciousness!!!

The Golden Log

2009-04-28T13:45:00.006-10:00

This is a recipe for my "Golden Log" which is basically like a calzonne but with a sushi like roll to it. I was thinking of a way to use what I learned from the Cobbler Roll and apply it to something savory, here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. coriander

1 tsp. turmeric
1/4 C. cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 C. milk

Filling:

1-2 Chicken Breasts

1/2 can of chic peas (or dried)

1/2 can of black beans (or dried)

Tomatoes

Cilantro

Onions

Potatoes

Sweet potato (or yams)

(FROM Jeff's previous post):

"To make biscuits: sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter either using a stand-up mixer or a pair of hands (you can use your own or somebody else's, as long as they're ok with that kind of thing) until everything resembles coarse crumbles. Leave some pea sized chunks of butter scattered throughout, this will make the biscuits a little more flaky.

Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk or milk all at once. Stir a few times to wet the dough, then let it all sit for about 10 minutes to rest. Turn the very sticky dough out onto a heavily floured surface and fold over on itself five or six times. Use plenty of extra flour if you need it to keep yourself from getting DOUGH-HANDS!! Uhh....disgusting."

While you are working on the dough get the chicken and the potatoes/yams cooking. Once the chicken cooks up a bit put in the chick peas and black beans. Try to mash that mixture up a bit. Kinda shred up the chicken, and mash up the ligumes. Doesn't need to be crazy, but get rid of the big chunks.

Mash the potatoes/yams up, add milk, some butter, some salt, some pepper. Also, chop up some cilantro, tomatoes and some fresh onions.

Roll out the dough on a HIGHLY floured surface. Try to get it as thin as possible without losing the integrity of the dough. The thinner it is, the more times you can roll it, the more times you roll it, the smoooooother the inner parts of the Golden Log will be.

Make a simple cilantro, tomatoes, and onion salsa.

Place the whole log into the oven at ~350F for about 30mins - 1 hour or until the outside is good and crispy. Check the bottom of the log before consuming to be sure that it has cooked all the way through. Cut lengthwise to try to see the roll, and add the salsa to the top. It is a spicy, savory, and very hardy meal that will last days.

Fresh Caught Mussels

2009-04-21T09:40:00.005-10:00

A couple of weeks ago I went on a nice camping trip to some cabins on the ocean. A friend of mine Kate and I like to get mollusks from the sea whenever possible as we are divers. She suggested that we try to snatch some mussels for dinner one night. The tide was low enough on Saturday morning and we were successful at extracting a number of pounds of these delicacies. We actually caught more than we could eat with 20 people (tho many veggies), so it really is easy to get a bunch. The only thing is that you cannot collect mussels between May and Augustish because you can get red tides which makes the filterers toxic to your brain.

To cook:

Scrub clean (doesn't do much good luck)

Pan + Butter + White Wine + Garlic

Let them steam and open up. The ones that don't open are duds. Grab the fiberous material they use to hang on to the rocks and pull it out of its shell. Eat around the fiberous bits and enjoy!

There is really something deeply satifying in hunting/gathering your own food.

pineapple spiral

2009-04-03T23:05:00.006-10:00

The Spring and Summer seasons of Beijing meet with street intersections laden with vendors selling wares of pottery, services... and fruit.

oh, pineapple quarters: real sweet treat

For the affordable sum of ¥1, the common people pause on a typical afternoon to enjoy a quarter of a pineapple on a stick - a cooling and tangy refreshment to ward off the dryness and heat of Beijing.

The vendors wheel their goods up to the street curb, pull off a tarp that covers a bounty of fresh fruit, and set blade into action...

...With this in mind, it was time to try my hand at this art of carving pineapples and see if I could tame this flowering fruit in my very own kitchen.

[click here to learn how you, too, can carve your very own pineapple]

eggs benedicite

2009-04-01T17:50:00.006-10:00

"Making eggs in Beijing can be an exciting deviation from the regular breakfast duty..."

Not Your Average Chicken Soup

2009-02-28T12:03:00.004-10:00

This soup was recommended for me by my teacher and it's soooooooooooo delicious!

INGREDIENTS

1 whole organic chicken
wild/brown rice
celery
carrot
onion
mushrooms (so far I think shiitake are the best)
parsnip
parsley
bay leaf
3 pieces dang gui tou (angelica sinensis root)
3 pieces bai shao yao (white peony root)
3 pieces bai zhu (white atractylodes root)
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

rinse and pat dry the chicken after removing the bag of organs. stuff the cavity of the chicken with the rice (rinsed or presoaked) to weigh it down.

chop the vegetables and add half of them to the pot to contribute to the broth. add all herbs setting aside some parsley for final garnish.

add water until the chicken is totally covered with enough extra that the pot can simmer for 3-4 hours without the chicken being exposed. Bring the pot to a boil then turn the heat way down so that it is only just simmering. You want to slow cook the chicken over 3 hours or so.

around 30-45 minutes before you want to serve the soup, add the remaining vegetables to the pot . after that 30-45 minutes prepare one large bowl and a smaller bowl -CAREFULLY remove the chicken from the pot - it will basically fall apart so be aware and place in the larger of the two bowls. remove all bones and anything else you aren't excited about eating - for me this is any skin and knuckles (even though I have heard these are some of the best parts) - and discard. You can add all the meat back into the soup or you can keep it separate. It's pretty much ready to go at this point! Check the salt and pepper levels and enjoy! garnish with parsley.

I don't have any pics after this point because I get so messy deboning the chicken I can't pick up the camera and then the soup is so good I forget to take any =)

Cobler Roll Completed

2009-02-26T05:49:00.004-10:00

I took a stab at Jeff's cobler roll this weekend and it turned out great. Took me about two hours from start to mouth to complete. Tasted amazing!

Rolled Berry Cobbler

2009-02-15T13:41:00.008-10:00

It is Winter, and it's raining...a lot. At least it is today. In this time of overarching wet, cold, and stay-at-homeyness one begins turning to thoughts of warm gooey goodness. Here's something to tide us over.

Fruit Cobbler Rolls

Ingredients:

Berry mix:
2 packages frozen berry mix (or about 4 cups fresh berries, or more, it's up to you)
I used 1 pack of frozen blackberries and 1 back of frozen blue berries this time round.
3/4 cup sugar (or less, or more, to taste)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
(If cinnamon and nutmeg with berries weirds you out...just skip 'em)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. all-purpose flour

Biscuits:
1 1/4 C. unbleached low protein flour (cake flour)
3/4 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
(or just use 2 C. all-purpose flour, the biscuits will be great either way)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 C. milk

Buttermilk Biscuit Variation: Substitute cultured buttermilk for the milk and add 1/4 tsp. to the dry ingredients.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix sugar, spices, 2 Tbs. flour, and 1/2 tsp. salt with the berries until the berries are covered and have moistened the flour and sugar. Spread half of this mix into a 2 quart baking dish and pop this in the oven while you make this biscuits.

To make biscuits: sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter either using a stand-up mixer or a pair of hands (you can use your own or somebody else's, as long as they're ok with that kind of thing) until everything resembles coarse crumbles. Leave some pea sized chunks of butter scattered throughout, this will make the biscuits a little more flaky.

Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk or milk all at once. Stir a few times to wet the dough, then let it all sit for about 10 minutes to rest. Turn the very sticky dough out onto a heavily floured surface and fold over on itself five or six times. Use plenty of extra flour if you need it to keep yourself from getting DOUGH-HANDS!! Uhh....disgusting.

Roll the dough out to about 3/4 inch thickness and pile on the other half of the berry mix. Roll it all jelly-roll style then pinch the edges so the berries can't escape. Now cut the roll into at least six sections sushi-wise and lay on top of the first half of the berry mix in the now hot baking dish.

Pop everything back into the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the biscuits firm up and start to brown on the top. Be careful: make sure everything is cooked through. You don't want the bottoms of the biscuits to be all un-cooked and gooey...or do we?

Serve by itself, or with vanilla bean ice cream.

This is Sarah and our cat, Snickers. Both Sarah and I had had a bit of wine at this point and the cat is wondering why I'm in her face with the camera. You can see her thinking it. It's uncanny.

Summer Rolls

2009-01-26T20:54:00.014-10:00

These summer rolls are a hybrid of the ones Caroline taught me how to make in Houghton and the ones people can buy in Hawaii at Down to Earth ... but better of course!

Ingredients

spring roll wrappers (made of rice or tapioca - banh trang)
bean threads - 2 bundles
tempeh/tofu/whatever protein you prefer
avocado - 2
cucumber - 1
sprouts
carrot (optional) - 1
fresh mint
fresh basil
fresh lime juice

Peanut Sauce - best to make the night before so the flavors can mix well
raw peanut butter
sesame oil
braggs/soy sauce
garlic
lime juice

Directions - This made roughly 6 rolls

The bean threads need to be cooked/softened first - this can be done by boiling them like regular noodles or you can just submerge them in hot water and let them sit until they are chewy all the way through - it's important not to strain them completely because they will dry out.
While the noodles are doing their thing, prepare all the other veggies. I like to seed the cukes and then grate the cucumber (also works to slice, but it gets tricky when it's time to wrap) and carrot (if you're using them), the avocado can be mashed or sliced but I add some salt to it either way.
The tempeh should be cut into strips that are roughly 2.5-3" long, 3/4" wide, and not more than a 1/4" thick if possible. The herbs should be washed and ready to go.
When the noodles are ready, I strain out 3/4 or so of the water and then squish them in my hands to brek them into smaller pieces. I've tried doing this a less 'hands on' way, but the noodles are so slippery and have such a strange texture that cutting htem up with a knife doesn't really work. I suppose you could cut them with scissors, but that kinda takes the wind out of my sails because it's not nearly as fun!

See?!

Once you have all the ingredients ready to go, prepare a frying pan with salty water - the diameter has to accommodate the diameter of the wraps you bought. heat the water until it's hot enough that you can't keep your fingers in the water for more than a few seconds without it being too hot - so just on the borderline of too hot. The wraps are very delicate once they're ready so it's important to be careful if you haven't worked with them before - they rip very easily.
Inspect the wrap for holes before putting it into the hot water. If the holes are on the outer edge of the wrap it's still usable. Start to feel the wrap when the outer edges curl up. You want to gently feel for stiff areas and let thos areas cook longer while not over cooking the rest of the wrap. When the wrap is ready spread it out on a plate - best to let a good amount of the dripping water on the plate.

Building the Roll
1. noodles
2. tempeh/tofu/etc
3. avocado for padding (if using something like tempeh - the side of the wrap can get a hold poked in it)
4. pile the rest on however you want. More mint and basil the better! peanut sauce can be on the inside or outside or both/
5. I roll it up like an eggroll - starting with the bottom (tighten), fold over each short side, then roll it over to finish! (I'm going to try and make a good instructional video of me doing this, but there's one of Angelica at the bottom of this post)

For dessert we enjoyed oranges and merlot sauce! It was cinnamony redwine orange deliciousness!

Dad's Kitchen: Merlot Sauce

2009-01-18T10:40:00.009-10:00

I'm not exactly sure where my dad got this recipe, but it's pretty delicious!

Ingredients

1 bottle merlot (Dad uses yellow tail - I used fetzer because it was on sale at don quixote for the same price as the yellow tail and I thought it'd be interesting to note any differences)
1 cup sugar (I used the Maui turbinado sugar, but I'd like to try honey or agave)
3-6 cinnamon sticks
orange zest

I quadrupuled this recipe.

Directions

Add wine, sugar, and cinnamon sticks together and bring to a boil stirring to dissolve the sugar. MEASURE the depth of the wine and then boil it down until the volume is reduced by 1/2. I should have timed it, but I think this process took about 2 hours for my 4 bottles.

When the wine is close to finishing it's reduction, zest the oranges and put ~1tsp. in each of the containers you're going to store it in. In my case they are 8oz. mason jelly jars - perfect! You may want to increase the amount of zest if you're using a large container.

Fill the jars (or whatever glass container you're using) and seal them. The mason jars were nice because they self sealed because the wine sauce was so hot when I put the lids on, so I didn't have to worry that they'd leak all over the place when I biked them to work!

The original recipe calls for the sauce to be poured over cut up orange sections. This is delicious! After trying the sauce with the oranges I think it's easier to imagine other foods to combine the sauce with.

Thanks Dad!

Dad's Kitchen: Creme Caramel

2008-12-28T12:16:00.018-10:00

When I go home for Christmas, my parents and I enjoy going all out for our meals. When it comes to dessert, this usually means creme caramel. It's pretty much the same thing as the flan you can buy at mexican restaurants (Yay Los Chaparros!)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups sugar
4 T. water
1 vanilla pod (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
1 3/4 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks

Directions

Put 7/8 cup sugar in a small saucepan with the water to moisten. Bring to boil over high heat, swirling to dissolve the sugar.

Boil without stirring, until the syrup turns a dark caramel color (about 4-5 minutes)

Immediately pour the caramel into a 4 cup souffle dish. Holding the dish with oven mits, quickly swirl the dish to coat the base and sides with the caramel and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 325 deg. Split the vanilla bean pod lengthwise and scrape the seeds into a medium saucepan.

Add the milk and cream and bring just to a boil over a medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, cover and set aside for 15-20 minutes

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks with the remaining sugar for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Whisk in the hot milk and carefully strain the mixture into the caramel lined dish. Cover with foil.

Place the dish in a roasting pan and pour in enough boiling water to come up 1/2 way up the sides of the dish. Bake the custard for 40-45 minutes until a knife inserted about 2" from the edge of the dish comes out clean. Remove from the roasting dish and cool for at least 1/2 hour, then chill overnight.

To turn out, carefully run a knife around the edge of the dish to loosen the custard. Cover with a plate and invert.

Gently lift one edge of the custard dish to allow the caramel to run over the sides, then lift off the rest of the dish.

We missed the exact edge in a couple of places on this one, but it still tasted delicious!!

Pizza, plain and simple

2008-11-26T19:15:00.009-10:00

Sarah and I eat Pizza often. Maybe too often. This is the recipe I use and it's done me well so far. A note however: if using mushrooms, saute them in a frying pan before adding them to the pizza. This way all the water in the mushrooms won't gush all over the top of your pizza.

The dough:

Ingredients: For 2 thin-ish pie crusts

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or 1 cups whole wheat flour, ~2 cups all purpose)
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeasts
2 Tbs. honey or sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Prime the yeast in warm water (1/3 part boiling to 2/3 part ice water) for about 10 minutes. If using sugar add to the priming water, if using honey, wait until the first of the flour is added. I've found that yeast don't like honey overmuch.

Add the first cup of flour to the water and mix by hand until just incorporated. Add to this batter the olive oil, honey if using, and salt. Mix this in by hand too.

Begin working in the rest of the flour either by hand or by machine. If using machine, the dough is ready when it starts to climb the dough hook. If doing this by hand, work in as much as you can with a spoon, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly for about three minutes. We're going for a relatively soft dough here, so don't over knead or work in too much flour. We do this, and the crust becomes really tough and unpleasant to eat. Be gentle with the dough; love it, and it will love you...to eat it.

Turn dough out into a lightly oiled bowl. Turn once to coat, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and plop the thing in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

Ta da!

Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a floured surface. Kinda squish it out into the semblance of a round flat shape with the tips of your fingers. Leave it to rest for about 10 minutes. This will allow the gluten in the dough to relax enough so that it will just collapse into the pizza shape when you roll it.

I have no idea how you throw a pizza dough into shape. I've seen it done and it makes no sense to me what-so-ever. It's magic.

The Sauce:

Ingredients: Makes enough for more than one pizza (it freezes well)

1 Tbs. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (or more to taste, some like it hot)
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
salt to taste

Warm the garlic and red pepper flakes in the olive oil over medium heat. Don't let any of this burn.

Add in the rest of the ingredients and cook over low heat until reduced a bit, about 15 minutes.

The Pizza:
Pre-heat oven to about 475 degrees at least half an hour before the pizza goes in the oven. If you have a pizza stone, great. If so, make it 45 minutes, an hour is better. We want that oven HOT!

Roll out the dough and slap onto a cornmeal dusted pizza peel. Or slap it into a cornmeal dusted cookie sheet; whatever is available. Slather on the sauce. Give the peel a little jiggle so that the dough slides around a little bit, we don't want the dough to stick to the peel. If waiting a while for the oven to heat, shake the peel a few times until baking to keep the dough loose.

Slather on the toppings. In this case: kalamata olives, garden tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.

Slide the pizza right off the peel onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for about 7 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown in the center. Slide the pizza out, cut it up, open a beer, and stuff your face.

Stock Variation

2008-11-15T16:45:00.009-10:00

Looks like Liz beat me to a veggie stock posting. Had pictures ready to go and everything and she stole my thunder. Damn. This post is just going to be a little pattering of rain in comparison. Excuse my blabbiness in advance.

Quick Stock and Notes on Variations

Ingredients: for 8 cups stock

1 Large Onion
2 Large Carrots
2 Sticks Celery
Salt
Herbs and Spices (Garlic - 8 cloves, bouquet garni: Thyme - 6 sprigs, Parley - 8 branches, Bay leaf - 2. Others to add as they come about: Rosemary, Marjoram, Oregano, Tarragon, etc.)
Mixed Vegetable Trimmings
(Where do these come from? Don't have pounds of vegetables to go through every time you make stock? No problem...that's why freezers were invented. Through the week, as you use up your veggies for other dishes, save those trimmings that will be good for stock and shove them into an old bread bag or ziplock baggie. Stick this in the freezer and continue to fill it up as new veggie scraps come along. When its full, make a batch of stock and start over again.)

Good trimmings:
Leek Greens and Roots, leaves and stems from greens (kale, chard, broccoli rabe, beet), mushroom caps and stems, green onions, potato peelings (organic only please, conventional peelings are relatively toxic by comparison), celery root peelings, stems from old herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil), fennel (stocks and other trimmings), corn cobs, squash (skins and seeds), bell peppers, hard cheese rinds.

Bad trimmings:
Turnips and rutabagas, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower, red beets (good for borscht though), onion skins, artichoke trimmings, excessive amounts of green leaves (more than 4 cups for 8 cups water), anything that would make you sick if you ate it by itself (rotten things). These things turn bitter when boiled too long and will overpower the deep tastes we're going for.

Ok...

Saute onion, celery, and carrot in butter 5 - 10 minutes. Could add brewer's yeast at this point, which would add a "meaty" flavor to the finished stock for all you veggie eaters out there who still crave the hint of a once living animal in their dishes now and then.

Add in the trimmings and cook over medium heat for another 5 - 10 minutes.

Add the water and some salt to start out. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Unlike a meat stock, veggie stock does not benefit from extra boiling; so after 30 minutes, the veggies have given all they're going to give.

Drain through a colander or a sieve and taste for salt.

Variations on the Quick Stock:
1. Roasted Veggie stock (this is Liz's stock and it sounds amazing)
2. Dark stock (caramelize the onions before adding the celery and carrot or add about 1 Tbs. soy sauce at the end when tasting for saltiness).
3. Adding lentils, split peas, sprouted beans, bean broth, and brewer's yeast to the original stock will give it extra dimensions of deep dark earthiness...mmm.

Tomato Bisque

2008-11-15T15:08:00.014-10:00

Another thing we've been getting a lot of in our CSA is tomatoes and I've also been wracking my brain to figure out what to do with them all. Sarah and I love creamy tomato soups but I've never had enough fresh tomatoes just lying around to try one out. So here goes...

Roasted Tomato Bisque

Ingredients:

A Bunch of tomatoes, skinned
(To skin tomatoes, score an X on the bottom side after having washed them, then dunk the tomatoes a few at a time into boiling water. Boil for about 15 seconds then scoop them out and dunk them in ice water. This will shock the skin right off the meat of the tomato, leaving you to peel it off like you would off a banana.)

Boiling water for 15 seconds.

Ice water for 15 seconds.

Then peel off the skin, leaving the meat.

6 garlic cloves, left unpeeled and uncrushed
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 medium onion, diced (here's a good way to dice an onion)
1 or 2 sticks celery
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. flour
3 cups veggie stock
1/2 cup cream or milk
pinch baking soda

Start by halving the tomatoes and arranging them cut side up in a baking dish with the garlic. Drizzle all with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 350 degree oven for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the tops of the tomatoes begin to brown and the garlic is soft when you poke it. When done, remove the garlic from their husks and mash in a bowl or mortar.

Cook the onion in a large pot in the butter over very low heat for at least 10 minutes. More time on the stove will not hurt the onion and will add deeper flavor to the soup. When you feel that you've given the onion enough time, add the celery, oregano, and cloves. Sautee for 30 seconds or so. Then add 2 tsp. sugar and cook until it begins to caramelize.

Add in the roasted tomatoes, mashed garlic, and stock and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes. Before adding the cream, add a pinch of baking soda to the soup to bring the pH closer to neutral. This will keep the acid of the tomato from curdling the cream when it is added to the soup with the flour.

So, after fizzing the soup, either run it through a food mill or blender it with a stick blender until smooth. Warm the cream over the stove for a minute or two. Remove from heat and wisk in the flour until completely encorporated. Add this mixture to the soup and bring it all back to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, another 5 minutes.

Serve with cheesy toast.

Vegetable Stock

2008-11-13T16:34:00.005-10:00

So, its Tuesday night, I look in the fridge and all I see are vegetables about to go "bad". How am I going to possibly eat all those vegetables by myself? Then it dawns on me... now's my chance to finally make stock. About 2 hours later I have a rich, flavorful stock perfect for soups, stews or anything else requiring a stock. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients:
Any vegetables that you have. I used...
1 large onion
4 carrots
1 bunch of celery
1 red pepper
1 bunch of leeks
1 whole head of garlic
1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of basil
1 small bunch thyme
small handful of peppercorns
1 bay leaf
12 cups water
1/2 cup white wine (optional)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and coarsely chop all your vegetables, removing the seeds from the peppers and peeling the garlic cloves, but not chopping them. Toss the vegetables with a little oil and roast them in a shallow baking pan for 45 minutes, turning them every 15 minutes.

In the meantime, remove the stems from the herbs and place them in the pot. I used two pots because I don't have one huge pot.

When the vegetables are done roasting (its okay if the edges are dark) put them into the pot (or pots) with the 12 cups of water, cover and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, place the baking pan over two burners and heat over medium-high heat. Pour in the white wine and using a whisk, deglaze the pan. When all the alcohol has burned off and most of the delicious roasted vegetable bits have mixed in with the wine, pour it in with the water.

After the water has come to a boil, take the top off and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finally, strain the mixture using a large colander over a bowl. If you desire a thinner, clearer stock, strain again to remove the little bits of herbs and any vegetable pulp. For extra flavor, squeeze any juice from the vegetable mixture.

Now, how should I store all this stock, you ask. Simply pour into ice cube trays and freeze for use at a later date

Breakfast Quesedilla (aka B-Dillas)

2008-11-11T11:53:00.007-10:00

Ingredients:
Tortillas (Tortillas)
Cheese (Queso)
Tomatoes (Tomates)
Avocado (Aguacate)
Onions (Ceballos)
Salsa (Salsa)
1 Egg per Dilla (Huevos)
Potatoes (Papas)

Hot pan + butter + tortilla + cheese

3 eggs w/o broken yokes, let the bottom bits cook first.

The break the yokes and stir a bit (but not as much as a scramble)

Fold the eggs into an omlette type thing. (Cut into 3 strips again 1 egg per dilla).

Splash the salsa, avo chunks, tomato chunks, salt and pepper

Fry up the potato chunks

Place all into the tortilla and fold in half, continue to cook in pan until it is mostly covered in brown flakey crispy golden goodness.

Enjoy!

Curry Lentil Vegetable Soup

2008-11-08T23:03:00.011-10:00

This was a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants recipe and it turned out well! I wasn't sure I would use all the ingredients I bought, but I went slowly and cautiously, tasting along the way, and now this soup and I are friends. The whole experience was made all the more fun by the Prince Pandora station!

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. red lentils
1 1/2 c. water
1 heaping teaspoon Garam Masala
1 handful chopped onion
1 can chicken broth (optional)
1/2 head broccoli
1 can diced tomato (or fresh)
1/2 zucchini diced
salt to taste
1 can coconut milk (optional)

Rinse lentils in colander until they stop gassing then rinse them in your pot until the water is clear. Add the 1 1/2 cups of water to cook the lentils in (I didn't measure it so just use what looks right to you - you can always add more) and the garam masala. Heat on medium fire.

This is what mine looked like after heating for a while... not too much stuff in there!

While the lentils and spice are cooking, chop up the onion. Add the onion when the lentils start to get soft, then chop up the rest of the veggies. After the lentils have been cooking for about 20-30 mins (most of the water will have been sucked up by the lentils), add the chicken broth, or another cup of water/veggie broth if you're not using the chicken broth. Next add the can of diced tomato and salt.

Bring this to a boil, then simmer, stirring to make sure the lentils haven't stuck to the bottom of the pan, then add the rest of the veggies.

Simmer this until the vegetables are cooked to your desired amount, check the salt and then you can be done!

If you're adding the coconut milk you can do it two ways - on top of each individual bowl

Or in the whole pot. It was pretty tasty!

china's comfort food

2008-11-08T02:22:00.006-10:00

*EXCERPTED FROM THEJADETEASPOON

tomato•fried•egg

Tomato and egg join the familiar sweet and salty in an unlikely way, making this tasty comfort food a popular among locals and foreigners alike. The simplicity is surprisingly delicious.

In the campus canteen, the combo is often served over a bed of noodles or next to a bowl of rice.

tomato meets egg

THE RECIPE: TOMATO FRIED EGG

(1) tomato • (1) egg • oil • salt • sugar

THE METHOD: TOMATOES FIRST, EGGS LAST

1 egg and 1 large tomato per serving
core and wedge tomatoes
add generous amount of oil* to wok
reduce the ripe tomatoes over medium-high flame
-meanwhile- add sugar and salt, for a balanced taste
beat eggs separately in a bowl
add pinch of salt to eggs
add water, approximately 1/3 quantity of eggs, beat
remove tomatoes from heat when saucy**
rinse pan and reuse for eggs
preheat liberal amounts of oil
scramble eggs in oil (have lid handy)
add tomatoes back into wok and reheat briefly
serve over noodles or rice

NOTES:

*Do no use extra virgin olive oil, aka evoo. In fact, I recommend not using any oil with recognizable flavor - a plain vegetable oil is perfect. The tomatoes and egg, coupled with sugar and salt provide plenty of flavor. I found a flavorful oil, such as evoo complicated the overall taste in a way that ruined the simplicity and made it an entirely different dish.

**If you only have sad, pink tomatoes at hand, the addition of plain tomato sauce (or paste) compensate nicely for the missing flavor and flavonoids alike.

*** While it is tempting for most cooks to add garlic at the oil-preheating stage, here too, I found that garlic complicated the flavor in an undesirable. Which is to say... it is simply another dish.

Feel free to adjust the ratio of egg:tomato as your palette calls to you.

The recipe above yield a pure, simple version tomato•fried•egg:

classic comfort food

fried•rice

Fried rice might be just leftover rice, but it is a second chance for steamed rice to remake itself in yet another wholesome way.

spicy Anaheim accents fresh eggs

THE RECIPE: FRIED•RICE

leftover•steamed•rice
scrambled•eggs
diced•Anaheim•pepper
vegetable•oil
thick•sweet•soy•sauce
pinch•o•salt

THE METHOD: MUSTGO*

preheat oil in wok over high flame
toss leftover rice in wok
break up an rice clumps
add soy sauce and toss evenly
add chopped vegetables and retoss
salt to taste
serve!

Every grain of rice ought to have a chance to bask in the heat of the oil, continuously tossing for an added depth.

Fried rice dictates very few rules, other than everything must be rice-size or comparably diced. As rice is the dominating component, any competition from the décor renders the rice an invader and the dish weak.

simply fried rice

Here in Beijing, it is quite common to find corn, ham, bell or Anaheim peppers, and the occasional carrot, all finely diced. And of course, fried rice is not fried rice without the scrambled egg.

Roasted Beets and Onions with Steamed Broccoli

2008-11-05T19:18:00.005-10:00

I have another simple yet delicious couple of dishes that come in handy when you only have a little time and one or two people to feed.

Ingredients

3 medium sized beets
2 medium onions
2 T. (ish) braggs
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. olive oil

1 head broccoli

Chop the beets into bite sized pieces and dice the onion. Mix them together in a small baking dish (I used a bread pan). Squirt some Braggs in there, salt and pepper, mix thoroughly. Add olive oil and mix again, making sure that everything is evenly coated with the oil

I turned the oven to 375 (I didn't preheat), covered the pan with aluminum foil and baked it for about 45 minutes. I then took it out, mixed the veggies, tasted one and then cooked for another 30 mins uncovered.

perfect

I then cut up the broccoli and steamed it and ate them together. This made 2 meals for me and was pretty darn tasty!

Monkey dal?

2008-11-01T17:29:00.006-10:00

Ahoy hoy! Inspired by Sarah and Jeff's naan adventures... this is a dal recipe we've done a few times, along with a recipe from Vegetarian cooking for everyone... that I can't remember right now... even though I just cooked it and ate it tonight. It's an indian-ish dish, with potato, cauliflower, spinach, and watercress. I'll find it some other time. With the dish I can't remember, this dal recipe, some rice, and naan, you've got a feast for 4.

Sautee paper thin slices of one large onion in 2-3 tbsp ghee (mmmmm!) until they're golden. Once the onions have started, bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a heavy saucepan, and add 1 cup mung ki dal (small yellow lentils, or a similar sized lentil--french green work fine, too) plus 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp turmeric, and 1/4 tsp ground red chile. Simmer over low heat, partly covered, for about 30 minutes. When it's done add the onions, simmer until everything's hot, and taste for spices. Yummmmmm!

apple pie

2008-11-01T10:21:00.005-10:00

Craving apple pie? My recipe ended up a bit long-winded, so here is a link to it instead...

apple pie in a tart pan

Beet Amuse Bushe with Tomatoes Provencal

2008-11-01T07:41:00.016-10:00

So we've been getting weekly veggies from our local CSA and lately have been getting lots and lots of beets. Beets are one of those plants that are available year round here in Santa Cruz, so I'm afraid that we are going to be getting beets every week from now on...ugh! It's not that I don't like beets, they're just something that showed up on holidays at my grandparents house once or twice a year. We'd eat them, and like them, but not see them again until the year after. Now I've got beets coming out of my ears! Here's something we whipped together to use up our inventory.

Ingredients:

Butter
2 small mashing Potatoes
1 Tbs. blue cheese
1 Apple
Tomatoes
3/4 cup Bread Crumbs
3 cloves Garlic
3 Tbs. chopped Fresh Basil
Olive Oil
1 Beet
Salt and Pepper

Start in by preheating the oven to 400F. Then continue by peeling, coring, and slicing the apple. Peel and Cube the potatoes. Cook each in boiling water until tender.

Drain the apples and make applesauce (plain or sweetened, your choice). Of course, we just need a little bit of apple sauce for this recipe but if you have bucket loads of apples, make bucket loads of applesauce. If you're really intrepid you can then take some of this and cook it down over really really low heat for several hours (double boiler? Crock pot?), which will caramelize the sugars in the applesauce and leave you with apple butter...yum.

For this recipe heat 1 Tbs. butter in a frying pan, spoon in about 3 Tbs. of the applesauce and cook it all for about 30 seconds. This will approximate apple butter for us here real quick. No waiting.

Peel and slice the beet into rings. Beware of beet hands!! Not as bad or as bad looking as biscuit hands, but still. Boil the beet in water until tender.

Slice the tomatoes in half and gently scoop out the seeds and liquids. Set these in a largish baking dish.

Here Sarah has mixed together the garlic, basil, breadcrumbs, and a little bit of the tomato juice to hold it all together. She then added salt and pepper to taste. Having mixed all this together, she then spoons it into the tomatoes, heaping a bit.

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over all and shove the whole mess into the oven. Roast until the bread crumbs start to brown a little bit.

In the mean time I've drained the potatoes and have added some pepper, butter, and blue cheese before mashing it all with a stick blender (I've probably said it before, but this invention is amazing!).

Spoon the mashed potato onto a tin-foiled baking sheet. Smooth out the peaks so they don't burn in the oven.

After baking for about 15 minutes or so. I can't remember so you'll have to check on it every once in a while. Lay down a small bed of lettuce. Place a single boiled beet slice on afore said bed. Spoon up one of the potato pods and place this on top of the stack. Top it off with a small amount of apple butter. The bigger the plate, the more you could charge for it in a fancy restaurant.

We put the tomato on a bed of eggy rice and drizzled a little more olive oil over all. It was great.

Eggy Rice:
1 cup white rice
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
Steam the rice. When done stir in the beaten egg. The heat of the rice should cook the egg. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tomatillo Sauce...and other things

2008-10-29T17:56:00.011-10:00

Sorry guys, no photos this time. I'm posting this recipe real quick for reference. We'll all probably have photos in a little bit.

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh tomatillos
1/2 small red onion, very finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Serrano or other hot green chilies, seeded and finely chopped
1 to 2 Tbs. cilantro leaves, chopped
Sugar, if needed
Mild Vinegar to taste
Salt

Roast the tomatillos in a 400F oven until they start to crisp, about 30 minutes, maybe. Make sure to turn them over every 10 minutes or so. After they are done, drop them, the onion, garlic, chilies, cilantro, vinegar, and salt into a food processor. Food process the hell out of all of this until it is sauce-like (blender may work better). Give it a taste and if too sour, add some sugar.

The flavor can be deepened by sauteing the onions in butter before they go into the blend. This should cut the sharpness of the onion and thus the overall sauce.

And we're done.

But...some quick words on low fat enchiladas:
1. Substitute hummus (homemade) for the cheese.
Hummus:
1 can chickpeas
1 Tbs. tahini
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. lemon juice
salt
water
Work it all in a food processor until spreadable. Good with other things beside enchiladas of course.

2. Make your own low fat beans or chili.
Quick and easy Black Bean Chili:
1 tsp. olive oil
1 can black beans
1/2 small red onion
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. paprika
1 garlic clove, crushed
water
Saute the onion and garlic in the oil for a few minutes, add the spices and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the beans and water, bring to a boil then lower and let the water cook away. Should be left with a very viscous black bean chili in about 10-15 minutes.

I like to stack my enchiladas instead of roll them. Cover the bottom of your dish with some sauce and lay down some tortillas to cover. Spread on some hummus, then some chili. More tortillas, then sauce, then hummus and chili. Make sure to end with a layer of tortillas covered in sauce. Sarah and I are bad because we then spread mozzarella all over the top of it. We can't help ourselves. If you keep the cheese off this can actually be vegan...amazing.

Red Devil (Beet) Cake

2008-10-26T14:41:00.009-10:00

So I had some friends over a while back who are big chocolate fans (choc cake, choc brownies, choc choc...everything) and wanted to put together a dessert. I'm usually a pie or cobbler person myself but was in the mood to branch out. I also had some red beets left over from the previous week's veggie delivery from our local CSA (Two Small Farms). So I've got beets, and I've got chocolate cake desire...and I guess red beets would go well with chocolate.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups beet puree
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

After having cooked and blended the beets to a bloody pulp (don't get this bloody pulp anywhere outside of the pot...beet stains suck) heat the oven to 350F. In a new bowl beat the eggs very well, until they reach a lemony yellow color (they should also gain some volume). Beat in the oil, vanilla, sugar and salt until all well combined (i.e.: no residual grittiness from the sugar). Work in the beet puree. Sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Work this into the beet-egg mix in three stages until all is nice and moist.

Yeah...it's purple.

Pour this into one 9" round cake pan that has had a round of parchment paper placed in its bottom. Parchment paper is not absolutely necessary but makes getting the cake out...cake. If no parchment paper: grease the bottom of the pan and dust with flour, this should help the cake slide out when finished.

Bake at 350F for about 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before trying to get it out of the pan, it's an ass to work with when warm. Top with cream cheese frosting (or whatever your little heart desires) and stuff your face.

Orange and Thyme Turkey Tenderloins wth Sweet Potatoes!!

2008-10-24T05:27:00.012-10:00

This is a pretty simple Fall recipe. You can always substitute yams for sweet potatoes, but I like sweet potatoes better because they are tastier and more nutritious! I made this dish (with help) for 6 people, so I doubled the recipe, although I will post the normal amounts here.

Ingredients:

2 turkey tenderloins (hardly any fat)

2 lbs. of sweet potatoes

1 medium onion

1/2 cup orange juice

1/3 cup chicken broth

2 tbs. thyme (fresh is better!)

3 tsp. honey
3 tsp. Dijon mustard

First, peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into 1-inch cubes. Then, chop the onion into 1/2 inch, smallish pieces.

Next step is to combine the orange juice, chicken broth, Dijon mustard, honey and thyme in a medium sized bowl and wisk together until all ingredients are mixed. Make sure the honey is room temperature, or else it will be hard to wisk. If you are using fresh thyme (I hope you are) be sure to take all the tiny leaves off the stems. Set aside for later.

Then, get a largish pot, put it on med-high heat and brown both sides of the turkey tenderloins.

When the turkey tenderloins are nice and browned, add the sweet potatoes and onions, making sure to move the turkey tenderloins to the top of the pot. Then pour the orange juice mixture on top.

Cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are done, stirring occasionally. It should look like this when its done. Yum!

The final step is to remove the turkey tenderloins and cut them into slices and serve alongside of the sweet potatoes. When it came time to eat this, I had no complaints.

Quinoa, the Super Grain!

2008-10-21T10:11:00.003-10:00

Here is an NPR post about the awesomeness of quinoa. It also has three really nice quinoa recipes!

Woot for Quinoa!

the egg crisp is born

2008-10-21T05:14:00.010-10:00

Sometimes a tortilla needs to go crispy. Even when you had hopes of folding it sensuously around the innards of your meal.

On a late night in my kitchen like tonight, the only vegetable in my pantry is garlic. So, I reached into the far corners of my vegetarian kitchen and looked for a way to make tortillas with garlic a little more interesting.

Here is the story of the egg crisp. Tortillas from the freezer, a little garlic from the market, pine nuts from the co-op, eggs from the crate, and cheese from a cow.. is all you need for a surprisingly satisfying meal.

the recipe: egg crisp

hard•white•cheese
wee•bit•o•salt
fried•crispy•egg
pine•nuts
garlic
tortilla

the method: random progression

pull (2) tortillas out of freezer
put (head) of garlic into microwave for (2) minutes
preheat toaster oven to 200ºc
wash (2) eggs clean
add oil liberally to a wok*
turn the stove on for a big** fire.
remove the softened garlic bulb from the microwave
pull the skin off the garlic cloves***
recall the oil boiling and crack (1) egg into it
sprinkle a bit o' salt as desired onto the egg
cover the wok and save yourself some cleaning
put tortilla(s) into oven
return to peeling garlic
remove egg from wok (start a second egg...)
slice and julienne hard white cheese
remember to pull your tortillas out of the oven
frame *crispy* as the latest in sensuality
mash the garlic cloves in a bowl
spread garlic mash over crispy tortilla(s)
sprinkle pine nuts liberally over garlic mash
slide the egg on top
top with cheese (hope it melts)
pick up with both hands and *fold* in half (you will need both hands for this)
Enjoy the crunch of the egg crisp

notes:

*A wok is recommended because of the small circular cooking surface next to the heat, which allows the oil to concentrate in minimal surface area and thus allows the egg to fry 1) efficiently and 2) in a perty lil' round shape.

**In Mandarin, a "big" fire simply means a full flame (as opposed to a little fire or low heat).

***I used all of the big outer cloves for two egg crisps. Surprisingly, the garlic did not overwhelm, but instead settled into its usual duty of adding nutritious flavor.

If I had had more ingredients, I would've built freely upon the layers, surely adding some green and red. But it was not in my destiny, and as it turns out... it was not needed. The overly crisp tortilla complimented the egg and cheese, and the slippery pine nuts added just the right amount of aroma.

And for a perfect dessert, I recommend a green-tea egg-roll (that is, the Chinese version of the eggroll... a crispy, egg-inspired rolled wafer.)

redefining the eggroll

By now, you might be wondering which liquid will best wash down such a meal. On tonight's menu, I serve up a cup of osmanthus tea, straight from the famous city called Guilin in southern China. The fragrant yellow flowers of the osmanthus tea blend sweetly with the green tea base for a flavor that is unique and intense. Even an average (low?) grade of tea, such as below, will satisfy for many a refill:

have you had your osmanthus tea today?

Happy dining! And as the Chinese would say, "Eat slowly" (慢慢吃) and "eat more" (多吃)!

Naan and Curry Photos! Whoo!

2008-10-12T17:19:00.013-10:00

These photos go along with "Curried Inspirations 1" and "Curried Inspirations 2" that were posted earlier in the blog. We liked these things so much that we went back and made them again, but this time I took pictures. I'm going to focus mainly on the Naan because I think bread is incredibly interesting.

Just a quick list: Yeast, Sugar, Butter, Yogurt, Whole Wheat Flour, Unbleached All Purpose Flour, Wheat Bran, Salt, Water.

Proof the yeast in warm water (make by adding two parts ice water to 1 part boiling water) with the sugar for about ten minutes. Should get bubbly, at least a little bit.

Separately: add the yogurt, hot water, melted butter, bran, salt, and whole wheat flour to a bowl. Mix in all purpose flour. Knead--by hand or machine. Set in oiled bowl.

Rise, about 1 hour.

Separate dough and roll out into pancakes. Sarah's hand is for perspective. Keep in mind that Sarah has small hands.

Cook in skillet.

Munch, munch, munch!

Mushroom Risotto (nasty looking this time but so good)

2008-10-11T20:12:00.035-10:00

This risotto was made with a very dark mushroom broth so it kind of looks like poop in the photos...hell, it looked like poop when I was making it. I know, gross. For a better look you might think about using a very light colored veggie broth instead; this will keep things looking tasty. Risotto is fairly labor intensive as you have to stand over it and stir in the liquid as it cooks in. So make sure that you don't have any previous engagements planned for the week and please, drink responsibly.

Let's begin:

So we're looking at:

4 Cups Broth, plus 1 1/2 cups water

1 Small Onion, diced

1 Clove Garlic, crushed

1/2 Cup dried shitake mushrooms

1/2-1 lb. white button mushrooms
1 1/2 cups Arborio Rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 Tbs. butter
Juice of 1 lemon
Some fresh herb, like parsley or chives
Milk?? I don't know why milk is in this picture; sometimes I'll use cream towards the end but didn't this time around. Don't use milk.
And don't add candle wax...it will make you sick.

So...First set the four cups broth on the stove to simmer; we want this to be hot when we start adding it to the rice, otherwise it will cool things down and it would take hours to cook. Also hydrate the dried shitake mushrooms in about 1/2 cup boiling water for about 10 to 15 minutes. When these are hydrated, drain and add the squeezings to the simmering broth. In the mean time...

Drink some of the wine and have a good time. Then melt some butter in a large pot and in a frying pan; fry half of the diced onion in the frying pan for a few minutes then set the now chopped button mushrooms on to cook with the onion and the garlic. They should release all of their juices all of a sudden. And then their juices will evaporate away. This is the stage we're looking for.

As this is all happening the other half of the onion is being fried in the butter in the large pot. After a few minutes add the rice. After a minute or two more...

Add the wine. Cover and allow to simmer for about five minutes, or until the wine has been absorbed into the rice. Then....

We start adding the hot broth in 1/2 cup increments, stirring constantly between additions until each has been almost completely absorbed by the rice. Beware, this is a long process and will test your will; be prepared to have a lackey or two take over after about 10 minutes so you can go huddle in a corner and submit to the horror of it all. And if you picked a really dark broth for this dish you might get something that looks like...

This. Yeah, eww. Keep stirring and adding broth as it gets absorbed. After about 15 minutes add the mushrooms (all the mushrooms). You will then have...little improvement. Still eww. Stir in the last of the butter (about 1 Tbs.) and some cream if you like (up to 1/2 cup). Season with salt and pepper and serve with a nice salad. Garnish with parsley or chives or whatever, if you're so inclined.

It might look icky but like I said, it's really tasty.

Pasta with Chickpeas

2008-10-03T15:07:00.017-10:00

This wonderfully quick meal is a staple in our home. We fall back on this so often that it's kind of embarrassing...but I love it! You have to use butter, the meal just isn't the same without it. Butter adds a depth of flavor that you just don't experience using olive oil or other cooking fats. You can make your own pasta if you're so inclined but we use dried because it's faster and not nearly as much work. We paired this with a Bonny Doon 2005 Ferraris Piemonteses Blend (70% ruche, 20% barbera, and 10% syrah), which is wonderful on its own but didn't quite go with the spiciness of the pasta. I would recommend a Savignon Blanc instead. Optional additions this time were a zucchini and tomato cooked only by the heat of the finished chickpeas and pasta. Sometimes I'll sometimes cook up some white button mushrooms in white wine to add at the end but decided against it this time. Fresh lemon juice and lemon zest make this pasta incredibly fresh.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. dried pasta (small pastas work better, avoid noodles)

1 can garbanzo beans, drained (or 1/2 dried beans, soaked in at least 1 1/2 cups water for 6 hours and then simmered from 1 to 1 1/2 hours on the stovetop in as much water is necessary)

1 Tbs. butter

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

2 Tbs. parmesan cheese

Juice of 1/2 lemon (optional)

1 tsp. lemon zest (optional)

1 zucchini (optional)

1 tomato (optional)

1 Tbs. fresh herb of choice (parsley, basil, cilantro)

Bread crumbs

If using dried pasta: Bring 1 quart water to a boil. Salt and add the pasta, cook for as long as you are directed to do so. In the mean time...

melt the butter in a frying pan, before it gets hot add the garlic and red pepper flakes. If we put this in when the butter is hot we'll burn the butter, the garlic, and the pepper flakes, each of which has its own consequence but together spell utter disaster. Then...

Add chickpeas and about 1/4 cup water. Bring to a simmer and simmer until dry. Add the zucchini, tomato, and chopped herb and allow the hot chickpeas to cook the veggies for a few minutes.

Then add all this to the drained pasta and grate parmesan over all. Serve sprinkled with bread crumbs and extra parmesan.

Black Bean Soup

2008-09-28T21:18:00.007-10:00

I came up with this soup one day when I came home and my downstairs neighbor had made some whole wheat tortillas (from scratch). I checked what ingredients I had in the kitchen and it happened to turn out awesome. Again, I'm sorry - I don't measure anything so all the amounts I put for the spices are just my best guesses.

Ingredients:

2 T. butter
1 onion - diced
1 tomato - diced
1 bell pepper - diced
1 can black beans - OR you can soak dry black beans for a couple of days and use them
chicken broth
1 lime
1 avocado

1/2 - 1 T. whole cumin seed
1-2 T. chili powder
1/2 T. paprika
1/2 T. ground cumin
ground cayenne to taste - I'm a spice wimp so I probably used 1/2 tsp and my cayenne is old
salt to taste

Directions:

melt the butter, add onion, cumin seed, and salt. Saute for ~5-10 mins then add the tomato. Continue to saute for another 5 mins.

Add the rest of the spices and juice the lime into the pot. Add chopped bell pepper.

Add chicken broth until you get to the desired liquid:other goodies ratio that pleases you most, then simmer for about an hour.

Serve with tortilla strips, avocado, sour cream/plain yogurt - I had some today with overly salted guacamole (see the first post on this blog) and it was delicious!!

For any of you crazy cilantro lovers out there, go nuts!

I used a lot of broth and I think I'll get 3-4 servings out of this pot.

Egg Salad Sandwich

2008-09-27T01:12:00.008-10:00

So Angelica was making fun of me for wanting to make a post about egg salad, but I make damn good egg salad, it's really easy and basic, and maybe someone out there doesn't know what they're doing and this is exactly what they need..

Egg Salad Ingredients:

4 XL eggs
onion - finely chopped/minced (I use red cause it's pretty - but it can change the color of the salad if it sits for a while
vegenaise - unfortunately real mayonnaise disgusts me and veganiase is delicious
salt and pepper to taste

Optional:

fresh parsley
paprika

Directions:

Hard boil the eggs (~8 mins after the water starts to boil) then let cool down under running water. While the eggs are cooling, mince the onion and add it to your bowl. After the eggs are cool enough I like to cut the eggs open and put the yolks in the bowl with the onion first - I swear this makes it taste better!

I mash up the yolks with the onion, then add the veganaise and salt and pepper

Then chop up the whites to about 1/4 - 1/2" cube size and mix in. Taste to make sure salt and pepper levels are good. If you're using the fresh parsley and paprika you may add them now.

If you're making a sandwich, I recommend some kind of rye or bread with caraway seed in it, and fresh tomato (salt and peppered) is a MUST!! Paprika can also be added before the tomato.

Recently, I've been using arugula instead of romaine lettuce and it's been wonderful. I like to have a lot of greens on my sandwiches to make sure they're not too dry and the added spark of arugula just put this sandwich over the top for me.. although I have to really smush it down to get it to fit in my mouth.

Mixed Vegetable Curry and Apple Crisp for Dessert

2008-09-21T17:37:00.007-10:00

Along with the lentil dahl and the whole wheat naan there was also mixed veggie curry, salad, and apple crisp. Jesse made the salad, and he made it so the leaves were too big--it was unbearable. The leaves were like paper sheets and had to be folded--many times--so that they'd fit into our mouths. Gosh. Anyway, I should give the guy a break, it's the thought that counts.

Mixed Veggie Curry: a co-effort between Jesse and myself

Ingredients:

1 Onion

2 cloves Garlic

1 tbs. olive oil

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Baby Bok Choy

1 15 oz. can Chickpeas

Carrot

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tbs. butter

2 tsp. curry powder

1 tbs. flour

1 1/2 cups veggie stock

1 cup cream or mix of cream and milk

(or...1 14 oz. can coconut milk and about 1/2 cup water instead of the stock and cream)

In a 4 ct. sauce pan saute one of the onions and 2 cloves garlic in the butter on med-high heat for about 2 minutes. Add 2 tsp. curry powder and 1 tbs. flour. Add the liquids and wisk until the flour/powder mix is worked in completely. Bring to a boil then reduce to a light simmer. Simmer on lower for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Once thick, pass through a blender or blend in the pot using a stick blender.

As the sauce is thickening but in a separate skillet: stir-fry the onion in the olive oil on high heat for about 1 minute, add the garlic and stir-fry for an extra 30 seconds (don't burn the garlic). Now add those vegetables that will take longer to cook (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower) and stir-fry for a few minutes. Then add the soft veggies (zucchini and summer squash) and stir-fry for a minute or two more. Place the greens on the top and cover with a lid--give it a few minutes more so the greens wilt a bit. Once all the veggies have been cooked through pour on the blended curry sauce and serve.

Individual Apple Crisps:

Ingredients:

5-6 Apples (Golden delicious or Granny Smith are best though any crisp tart apple will do)

Spoon fulls of sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 pinch nugmeg

1 tbs. flour

6 tbs. butter

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. extra cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Peel and slice the apples into bite-sized cuts. After each apple has been peeled and cut, place in a bowl and sprinkle a spoon full of sugar over it (be either liberal or conservative with the sugar--based on your political leanings, of course). After all the apples have been cut and be-sugared stir in 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tbs. four, and 1 pinch nutmeg. Mix this all together and set aside. In a separate bowl mix together the butter, 2/3 cup flour, the oats, salt, and extra cinnamon. Work all this together with a fork (I like to use my hands because it gives me a better feel for things...yeah) until evenly crumbly. Spoon apples into individual oven safe cups and cover with the crumble top (try not to make too much of a mess), place cups on cookie tray and place whole mess into the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the filling starts to bubble out around the edges. Let everything cool down for about 10 minutes before handing the cups out for devouring.

So that was dinner and dessert. Whoo!

Naan and Red Lentil Dahl

2008-09-20T15:16:00.009-10:00

So Sarah and I (Sarah is my wife) wanted to get together with Jesse and his new lady for a fine dinner with friends before he scampers off to The City and becomes impossible to tack down. The four of us all treck up to Boulder Creek to visit Jesse's friends Matt and Kat (cute) and had a fantastic indian inspired mixed veggie curry dish with yellow aromatic dahl and naan flat breads (sorry, no pictures. I brought food, but no camera. You'll just have to use your imagination).

Jesse grabbed some fresh produce from his CSA grab bag: I think I remember him bringing up some yellow summer squash of various varieties, baby bok choy, an onion or two, small red tart apples, and Hungarian Hot Wax peppers (they look like big red Jalapeno peppers). Matt and Kat bought apples, onions, and garlic. They also had this awesome beer called Delerium Tremmens. Not only did Matt and Kat provide a place and good drink, they also provided most all cooking materials and all unplanned for necessities; they're awesome people. Sarah and I brought with us red lintels, naan dough that I had rising in a bowl, two bottles of wine (2004 Alexander Cellars Zinfandel and 2007 Venetian Moon Pinot Grigio--this last from Trader Joes), mini ramekins, and our cook book: "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison--which I believe is one of the best gifts we've ever been given. I also brought up my spice box, because you never know.

So I'm just going to lay this all out, most likely in order of appearance.

Naan flatbread:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup warm water

1 packet active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/2 tbs. sugar

2/3 cup hot water

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup clarified butter or ghee, soft or melted (I just use normal butter because I'm lazy; I think making clarified butter is a pain)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat bran (if you don't want to use bran just add a little more wheat flour)

3 cups all purpose flour (unbleached please)

Prime the yeast in the warm water with 1/2 tbs. sugar for at least 10 minutes. No need to mix. The yeast should get really really bubbly after these 10 minutes are up. If this doesn't happen the yeast is either a little too old, or is dead. This first instance is more likely but isn't too much to worry about, the second is less likely but is a real issue. In the mean time mix the yogurt, hot water, butter, and salt. Add to this the whole wheat flour and bran and mix to a moist batter; add the yeast to this mix and work in. Add enough all purpose flour to make a heavy dough or to the point at which the dough can be handled without getting your hands too gummed up (no dough hands, dough hands are bad). Don't just put all three cups of flour into the mix. We're not making pancakes here so doing this may make the dough too dry, leading one to overwork it which will ultimately lead to a very chewy flat cracker like bread. Lay the dough out on a floured surface and knead in enough extra flour so that the dough is smooth and slightly tacky (just so it stops sticking to your fingers after the flour has been worked in). Drop this into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a moist towel, and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour, 1 1/2 hours if possible. When ready, heat a non-stick skillet on the stovetop. Punch down the dough and pull off pieces a bit smaller than your fist; roll these out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness (too thin and the naan will not rise during cooking) and plop them into your heated skillet. Cook on each side for about 2 minutes or until well browned (not evenly browned, this is impossible).

Makes eight 6" naans.

Red Lentil Dahl:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups red lentils (rinsed)

3 cups water

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 spicy pepper (we used one of the Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, we could have used 2)

1/4 tsp. turmeric

1 14 ounce can coconut milk (lite please)

2 tbs. clarified butter or ghee

3 bay leaves

1 tsp. mustard seeds

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, or however much you can stand.

Saute the onion, garlic, turmeric and pepper in 1 tbs. of the butter for about 2 minutes. Add the lentils and water, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer very slowly for about 20-30 minuets, until the lentils are soft. Once soft add the coconut milk and put back on low heat. In the mean time fry the bay leaves, mustard seeds, and red pepper flakes in the remaining butter until the mustard seeds turn a greyish yellow. Add these to the hot lentils and serve.

Makes a good portion, the six of us each had about 1/2 cup and there were leftovers.

I'll pause for now. I'll talk about the curried stir fry and dessert later.

Balsalmic Mushrooms

2008-09-16T17:55:00.012-10:00

Ingredients:

Not pictured- balsalmic vineger.

Directions:

Cut stuff up.

Start boiling the water.

Cook half and onion in butter with lots of garlic. While letting that go for a bit, dice up the tomatoes (use heirlooms), and toss them in, be sure to get all the yummy juices, mmm. Then douse the whole concoction with balsalmic vineger (use the black stuff and use a good amount). Finally, add some smoked pepper salsa if possible- not 100% required, but really adds some smokey zest to it.

Toss the pene in the water.

Start the squash. Until tonight, I've been cooking squash with the lid on, to steam it. Tonight I attempted to cook them at higher heat to try to sear the outside and get it crispy yummy brown. I would say I was 90% successful with only a bit of burning. It really added a grand amount of texture and flavor to the squashes, and I suggest you risk it and attempt this.

Dice up the mushrooms; I used chimi mushrooms, but I think any would work. Put them in the tomato concoction last so they don't over cook. Let the entire thing reduce down until it starts to get a bit sticky. The pene should definately be done by now as well as the squash. Put it all on a plate, add the feta (I used goat cheese feta)- minus feta and butter and you have vegan. Boom!

UPDATE: I ate this and it was fantastic, yummyum.

A Work in Progress

2008-09-09T23:10:00.002-10:00

A month or so ago I was in Umeke Market and I saw in their deli case a square of something with a dark purple layer, yellow layer, and green layer. The colors were so rich and delicious looking I instantly got all these ideas in my head of how to make something like that and what to use for the ingredients.
Well, I finally got myself together and tried it yesterday. It's definitely a work in progress, but it has a lot of potential and I already have improvements in mind! The finished project was definitely sweeter than I'd originally planned, but somehow it still works and is delicious.
This is a super long post and if you really are interested in making this concoction, reading and making note of the changes to the recipe are necessary - no skimming and half-assing like I like to do!!
Oh yeah, and if anyone can think of a good name for this thing I'd be really excited.

Ingredients:

3 Okinawan sweet potatoes
yamaimo (about 6")
butternut squash (probably about 3 lbs)
leafy greens of your choice (I used collard greens, but would like to have had spinach as well)
2 large onions
coconut milk (I used a whole package of Hawaiian Sun frozen coconut milk)
16oz ricotta cheese
butter (about 1/2 stick)
nutmeg
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

pre-heat oven to 375 deg. Split the squash and remove the seeds. Brush all exposed surfaces (except the skin) with olive oil, put the squash face down in a pyrex dish, baking sheet, or equivalent and bake until the skin is browned and you can easily stab with a fork (45-60 mins depending on the shape of the squash). Wash the sweet potatoes, rub with olive oil, split down the middle and bake along with the squash (they're fine on the oven racks).

The sweet potatoes should be finished around the same time as the squash and should also be easily stabbed with a fork. They will be dark purple and soft on the inside. While the squash and potatoes are baking, cut the yamaimo and boil until it is also easily split with a fork as if you were making mashed potatoes. Remove everything from the oven and let it cool - enough to be easily handled. The potatoes don't take too long if you finish cutting them in half and separate them.

Scrape the sweet potato off of the skin and into a large mixing bowl. Combine with the yamaimo and coconut milk and mash with a potato masher until creamy.

like this! woohoo!

Spread the potato mixture into the casserole dish/es

Next, remove the skin from the squash, add the ricotta, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. I used quite a lot of nutmeg, but I'm a nutmeg monster so figure out your own level of deliciousness.

When I was finished, it looked like this:

Make a squash layer on top of the potato. I would have preffered mine was about twice as thick as this

For the greens I chopped up all the onion, and sauted them in the butter with salt and pepper.

While they were cooking I washed and chopped up the collard greens

then added them to the onion. I let them cook for maybe 15-20 minutes or until the leaves are cooked. Depending on the type of greens you use the time will vary majorly. I definitely would have preferred to have maybe 3 times the amount of greens I used. Next time, I'll be combining spinach and whatever other kinds of big leafy greens I can get my hands on. I added 6 eggs to my greens due to the fact that I had such a small volume of greens but I wanted a thick enough layer to balance out the sweetness of the potato and squash.

I scrambled the eggs first then added them to the greens after they'd cooled enough to not cook the eggs through contact heat. In retrospect, I'd do this step (the cooking of the onion and greens) first so they have plenty of time to cool off while everything else is cooking.

The oven was preheated to 350 deg and I cooked both casserole dishes for about an hour - it took that long for the egg to solidify. I'm not sure how long I'd cook it if I had more greens and less eggs.

In the end, this dish took a lot of prep and time. It's really tasty which makes it worth it, but I think with some mostly minor changes it could be really great. My first change would be to really make sure I have enough greens, otherwise, by the time the coconut milk is added to the sweet potatoes and baked a second time, everything is pretty sweet and the small amount of greens and egg just didn't even it out as much as I'd have liked. The flavor was excellent though.
Also, a suggestion that Ann at work brought up was the possibility of playing with filo dough or laying down some large leaves on the bottom of the casserole dish so the stuff can be scooped out without losing most of it. I will try any or all of these things next time! I could also see adding some regular blue potato to the mixture as well to bring down the sweetness factor... anyway, the possibilities are really endless. Have fun!

Qunioa Vegan Burritos

2008-09-03T12:11:00.007-10:00

I make these burritos fairly often, and it has become a staple of mine. They are very easy, and only take maybe 15minutes to cook in total since there is no meat. You can easily adulterate them into a vegetarian, or go all the way to come corny meat if you wish. I need to add pictures and shall the next time I make this dish- as I made it for Dave last night.

Ingredients:
1 cup of qunioa (any color)
1 can of black beans (or equivalent if you want to soak/make dried beans)
1/2 an onion
1 zuccini
1 squash
1 red bell pepper
1 or 2 leaves of chard
1 spicy pepper (type and size depends on your huevos)
1 tomato
1 avocado
some cilantro if you aren't Liz
some oil (or butter)

Directions:
Start with the quinoa, do a 2:1 water:quinoa ratio (or err on the side of some extra water). Bring the water to a boil, then add the quinoa and put the burner on low and let simmer. Basically cook it just like rice and everything should go ok. While the quinoa is cooking, dice up the onion and the spicy pepper into small pieces and cook them in oil (butter). Keep the pan covered at all times that you are not putting things in as the juices are yummy and should be retained. While the onion is reducing, you chop up the summer squashes. You can cut them however you want, I tend towards slices, maybe half or quarter slices depending on the gearth of the phalic veggie you are handling. Toss those into the pan and let them cook a bit, maybe even develop some yummy golden browness on the sides of the slices. While the squashes are cooking, chop up the red bell pepper into reasonable edible size bits. Now that most things are cooking, wash and strain the black beans so they are ready to get heated up when the quinoa is almost done. Chop up the chard into maybe 1" to 2" squares (they reduce). Toss the chard in last minute, you only want to cook the chard for maybe a couple of minutes, until it gets psychadelic green from the steam in the pan. Meanwhile, chop up the tomato and avocado and cilantro. You can make them into a gringo pico de gallo by mixing them up, or you can leave them seperate to be added at the individuals leisure. Dump the black beans into the warm/hot quinoa just to heat the beans up as they are typically already cooked. Heat up some burrito shells either on the stove, or in the micro. Finally, just take a shell and add the black bean/quinoa combo, dump some veggies onto the quinoa, slather on some avocado (use it as burrito glue), and some tomato and cliantro, maybe some salt and pepper- and ENJOY!

(This was just off the top of my head and there may be some mistakes, feel free to add/subtract).

Look what's happening next door!

2008-09-02T13:01:00.006-10:00

angelica's tomato sauce (with an entire HEAD of garlic in it)

they recently bought a dehydrator... so naturally beef jerky has got to be made! This one was marinated with fresh papaya

This one is the smoked flavor

I can't wait to try it!

Calabrese Meatballs

2008-09-01T11:26:00.006-10:00

Here's the meatballs that go with the Calabrese Sauce which is posted below. They are the most delicious meatballs I've ever had. Again, my parents brought back these recipes from some vacation they were on.

At the beginning of the recipe there is this story:

This famous meatball recipe is my father's. He was the cook for almost all the Italian weddings when we lived in Schreiber. His tomato sauce and meatballs were the talk of the town. The amazing thing about my father's meatballs is the fact that the meatballs go directly into the sauce to cook - no frying, baking, etc. Once you have tried these meatballs you will not settle for any other. This recipe is my pride and joy. The secret to the moistness of the meatballs is in the ricotta cheese. You may choose to mix half pork and half beef, but the pork tastes the best. Make these and enjoy!

I wish I knew who wrote this all out so I could credit them for what is indeed the beat sauce and meatballs I've ever had!

Ingredients:

3 lbs pork (I used 1lb organic pork and 2 lbs grass fed beef from the big island)
3/4 cuo Romano cheese grated (I didn't have romano, I used parmesean)
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup breadcrumbs, moistened with
1/3 cup water
3 eggs whisked
fresh basil approx. 6-10 leaves (I like to use more)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together.

I did all the mixing by hand, using finger cots to keep the raw meat from getting underneath my fingernails. This was the first time I actualy remembered to try this and it was wonderful. Make sure that all ingredients are well mixed.

In mixing the meatballs, make sure they are not too stiff, but rather medium soft and about the size of a gold ball or even slightly bigger (Mine were about the size of raquetballs). A rule to follow is always make one meatball to see if it holds together but is not as hard as a ball. If the mixture is too soft, add some more grated cheese and breadcrumbs. If the mixture is too hard, add another egg and perhaps 1/4 cup of water. I had none of these issues, but would like to add that as with the Calabrese sauce (and in general everything you're cooking), the quality of your ingredients is a large factor in the quality of the finished product. Spending a little extra for the organic ricotta, eggs, and meat was well worth it for this recipe.

Drop the meatballs into the ready Calabrese tomato sauce. Make sure the sauce is not too thick. If ti is, then add 2 cups (I added about 3 I think) of water before you add the meatballs. In this way, the meatballs will be able to float easier. I also needed the extra volume of sauce to ensure that all the meatballs were covered by enough sauce and so that I could definitively say when they were floating.

When the meatballs float to the top of the sauce, they are ready to eat.

Yum!

Calabrese Sauce

2008-08-30T11:58:00.006-10:00

I've always loved Italian food, and have always have loved meatballs. This recipe might be the best meatballs I've ever had. I was lucky enough to get a copy of this recipe after my parents brought this recipe back from some trip they went on where they took a cooking class. It changed how we make tomato sauce for Italian foods and completely blew my mind on meatballs.

I cooked this last night for DnA, Sandra, and Matt - rave reviews from all!

In this first post, I'll just be posting the sauce. The meatballs themselves will follow.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped onion (I use more cause I love onion)
125 grams tomato paste (I just used the whole small can - 175 g)
dash red wine
2 - 24 oz cans/jars crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper

The recipe states that it is essential to use the finest tomatoes you can find in order to have the best tasting sauce. Makes sense, right? Last night I was using the Muir Glen organic Fire Roasted crushed tomatoes. I like to have lots of extra sauce, so I used 3 - 28oz cans of tomato, 2 of which were the fire roasted, 1 of the regular pureed tomato.

Directions:

The order in which you add ingredients is very important.

Saute the onion in the oil so that they are not under or overcooked. The recipe states that this should take about 9 minutes, I chopped my onion rather fine so it was more like 5-6 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and wine. I did this and mixed them a bit to try and incorporate the oil into the paste. I'm not sure this is necessary, but it made sense to me in the moment.

Next, quickly pour in the crushed tomatoes. (Note: add 2 cups of water if the tomatoes are very thick - I added at least 2 cups if not 3) Add the salt and pepper. Let simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours. When this sauce is ready, the olive oil will rise to the top.

If you are also making the Calabrese Meatballs, you add the meatballs to cook in the sauce after the sauce is finished and the oil has risen to the top.

Interesting Ingredients:

2008-08-29T17:01:00.007-10:00

Pomelo! AKA Jabong or Citrus maxima, is the biggest species of citrus and can weigh up to 22 pounds. Can you imagine??

I can not get enough of these in my diet. Pomelo are my favorite fruit right now! They are sweeter than grapefruit but with a touch of the sour and bitterness. The rind is very thick and spongy. I've been cutting it up and dehydrating it for use in tea, but I just heard at the garden that you can dry the peel and burn it as incense as bug repellant.

Liz Guacamole

2008-08-27T16:52:00.008-10:00

This is the guacamole I make all the time. It's simple and very easy and always makes people happy. It's genesis was pretty much trial and error which gives me lots of room for variation when its needed. Also, because I'm not big on measuring, all ingredients are added to taste.

With this recipe, I have noted that the guacamole always tastes better off my finger than it does off the chip, so make sure to taste it with a chip after you think you have everything right.

ingredients

the must haves:

ripe avocado (the more you use the more you get!)
onion (I prefer red for looks, but it's not necessary)
lime
salt

optional:

cumin
fresh parsley
tomato
hot peppers

Preparation:

cut the avocado in half and de-stone (if you're using a heavier knife you can whack it into the seed and twist to remove).

scoop the avocado (this one came from the backyard!) into a bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients and still have space to mix everything up. Next, mince the onion. I have found that I prefer the onion to be in very small pieces so the flavor gets nice and distributed. Add the onion to the bowl and cut the avocado up a bit.

Next, I add salt and fresh lime juice - I will not stand for lime juice out of anything other than a lime I cut open and squeeze - I think that is VERY important. Once these are added, I mic the guac up to the consistency I want - this can be done using a fork or spoon whichever you prefer, but when I'm making a big bowl I really enjoy squishing them up with my hands (after washing of course)!

I also chose this time to add the fresh parsley and a little bit of fresh hot pepper (I have no idea what kind it was because it came out of the garden!) for garnish as well.

Finished product!

and served with 2 tamales from my neighbor downstairs - YUM!!!

Do I?

2008-08-27T15:30:00.002-10:00

Here's the new blog! I'm hoping to get a few people whom I know to be good cooks to post some deliciousness here!

Wohoo!