The Serendipitous Chef

Healthy as a Horse - WHB

2007-02-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

Maybe this is something familiar to many. As a food stuff for people, I mean.

It was not to me. At least, when I saw this stuff, I am sure I had never eaten any before.

Although that is surprising, it being the third on the list of most important crops in the US, as well as the rest of the world. Right behind corn and soybeans.

And healthy.

Bursting with vitamins, fiber, all sorts of useful things.

But it is mostly fed to the horses. As fodder. Being known to most as hay.

But the tender sprouts of this hay – alfalfa sprouts – are surprisingly tender.

So, as I was buying my weekly supply of sage, thyme, rosemary, arugula, and what all, I asked about the unfamiliar herb next to the thyme.

Alfalfa. Said the farmer’s market herb guy. What do you do with that, asked both TeenGirl and myself, in unison. She having been mildly infected with my fascination with all things new disease.

No idea, replied the herb guy. Some lady keeps asking if we have alfalfa, so I finally brought some. No idea what to do with it.

Well, that was already more than enough. If someone else was already in on the secret, we had to find out about this as well. So we grabbed a small bundle.

Turns out, of course, that this is nothing new or unusual. Maybe not high profile like other sprouts, and uncommon in mainstream markets, but not unheard of.

So off I went on the internet, looking for ways to take best advantage of my newly found alfalfa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfalfa

Fresh in flavor, a bit grassy, as you might expect from a sprout. A tad more in the direction of eating your fresh lawn clippings than a bean sprout. In fact, if you close your eyes while munching on a few alfalfa sprouts, the images of humid summer days with giant clouds floating in a painfully blue sky over the endless fields of my youth come rushing back. A few aspirin and a cup of strong coffee eventually took care of this problem.

But not a bad flavor. Different, for sure. But, maybe in the right combination, a pleasant flavor.

I found several recipes that combined the alfalfa sprouts with carrots. With the naturally sweet carrots complementing the alfalfa flavor somehow, and decided to base things on that.

A simple salad, based on grated carrots and alfalfa sprouts, napped around a somewhat overripe Haas avocado combined the carrot sweetness, the avocado creaminess, and the alfalfa freshness and crunch nicely.

Sticking with the low-fat theme, I made a dressing out of pureed almonds, olive oil, lemon juice, tamari, and wasabi powder. Which I whipped in the food processor with some warm water until a sort of almond mayonnaise resulted. Despite its super thick and creamy texture, this stuff is very low fat, has no cholesterol, and packs a wonderful punch with the wasabi and soy flavors layered o top of the lemon.

This week, we created Alfalfa and Carrot Salad with Avocado and Almond Wasabi Mayonnaise. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Kalyn herself, of Kalyn's Kitchen.

A sprinkle of sliced almonds and wasabi powder on top, and a delicious appetizer was on the way to the table.

Print Recipe

Alfalfa and Carrot Salad with Avocado and Almond Wasabi Mayonnaise
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 2 as an appetizer

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado, cut in half, peel and pit removed, drizzled in lemon juice
1 large carrot
a bunch alfalfa sprouts
Almond Wasabi Mayonnaise (recipe follows)
almond slivers, for garnish
wasabi powder, for garnish

Slice the avocado halves into slices lengthwise. Reserve.

Grate the carrot as finely as possible, and pat with paper towels to dry.

Roughly chop the alfalfa sprouts.

Toss the grated carrots and alfalfa sprouts together, and arrange on a small salad plate. Place the avocado slices decoratively on the plate. Thin the almond wasabi mayonnaise with some warm water as necessary, whisking to combine, and spoon some of the dressing over the salad. Sprinkle with a few almond slivers, and a sprinkle of wasabi powder. Serve. Enjoy!

Almond Wasabi Mayonnaise
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
110 grams (4 ounces) raw almonds (I used slivered, and left the skins on)
1 lemon, juiced
4 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp tamari or shoyu soy sauce
1-2 tsp wasabi powder, to taste
warm water as necessary

In a food processor, grind the almonds to a powder. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, rice vinegar, wasabi powder, and soy sauce, and puree, scraping down the sides, and. adding just enough warm water to create a mayonnaise-like consistency to the sauce. Let the sauce sit for 10 minutes. Add additional wasabi powder if desired, and add additional warm water, whisking to combine, if the dressing gets too thick (the almonds will continue to absorb water for a while).

Those Lusty Fruits - WHB

2007-01-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

Bigger than a kumquat.

Smaller than an orange.

And pretty sour.

But with lots of flavor. Not quite an orange flavor. Maybe more in the Kumquat direction.

We were just standing around at our farmer’s market. They have a raffle. Which we have never participated in before. But the idea seems to be that everyone who takes a free raffle ticket will absolutely win something. Maybe a small bag of oranges. Or a few select herbs from the herb stand. Or a cinnamon bun. We won a loaf of fresh organic bread – a $4 value. Pretty sweet. Very good bread, too.

And, while standing there waiting for the raffle to work its way through the tickets until ours was called, I noticed these fruits. Bright orange. Sitting in the same crate as the kumquats. Which are also back in season.

Naturally, sucker that I am for new things, I was instantly enamored to them soon as the guy manning the stand told me a little about them.

Orangquats. Had to try some.

Apparently, unlike kumquats, the skin of the orangquats edible but not really intended to be eaten. And they seem to be more sour than a kumquat. But that could just be this batch of them. The kumquats we got from the same stand were more sour than I expected as well.

While we were talking about orangquats, it seemed to me that there is a lot of promiscuous fruit out there now days. Spreading their pollen around like no one’s business. Maybe from watching too many of those explicit food porn shows on the FoodNetwork. Resulting in a lot of unusual cross-breeds. Apparently it was only a matter of time before some kumquat took a stroll through the orange orchard looking to hook up for a booty call.

Well, what to do with all this lusty fruit.

The bold orange flavor, sour though it was, seemed destined to be matched with something hot. Maybe a salsa of sorts, based on the orangquats, with some hot chili pepper, and cilantro. A little red onion. Something like that.

The result was delicious. Somehow, the sour of the orange was mellowed by the fire of the chili pepper and the addition of a little salt. Everything meshed into a very nicely nuanced, balanced flavor that really let this unique orange flavored fruit shine through.

Ideal to set on top of the salmon filet we had bought earlier that day.

The other thing I love together are roasted beets and oranges. We frequently make a stack of roasted beets, orange slices, fennel slices and maybe goat cheese, with an orange thyme vinaigrette on top. Wonderful.

So, with this in mind, we roasted up some baby beets we had on hand. Till they were tender and caramelized. Peeled them, sliced them into sticks, and tossed them in a light dressing of orange, thyme, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Ideally, I would have liked to use the orangquat juice for this dressing as well, but we had used them all up on the salsa, so we used navel oranges here.

For the plate – a bottom layer of some mixed baby greens with the same orange thyme vinaigrette, the roasted beet sticks as a base for the salmon, a piece of the roasted salmon, and then the orangquat salsa spooned on top.

And we ended up with Salmon on Roasted Baby Beets with Orangquat Salsa. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Ed, of Tomato.

Sounds like a lot, but each element in and of itself was fairly easy. And it made for a wonderfully elegant dinner that was the very essence of orange. A wonderfully subtle aroma, a delicate flavor, a visual delight.

Print Recipe

Orangquat Salsa
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes enough for 6 servings as a condiment

Ingredients:
14 orangquats, peel removed (we cut the skin off, as they are hard to peel)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped fine
1 serano chili pepper, minced very fine
1 small red onion – or half of a large one – minced
salt, pepper
¼ cup red wine vinegar
Additional fresh squeezed orange juice, if necessary

Cut the orangquats into pieces, reserving as much of the juice as possible, and discarding all the seeds.

Place the orangquat pieces, chopped cilantro, minced chili pepper, minced onion and red wine vinegar into a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Toss well. Let sit for an hour to allow flavors to combine. Toss again, taste and season as necessary. Add a few table spoons of additional fresh squeezed orange juice if necessary to achieve a chunky salsa consistency.

Serve as on top of grilled fish or chicken. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Orangquat : Salsa : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Only the Criticism Stung - WHB

2007-01-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

Some sleep in. Warm and cozy in a pile of blankets and pillows.

Some sip steaming hot coffee, wrapped in warm robes and slippers, reading about the latest movies, books or sports in the Sunday paper.

Some may even go out for an invigorating walk in the warm, early morning sun. Maybe to the nearby café for a Latte, before strolling home.

Others fight slings of barbs. Sharp, poisoned arrows of criticism, from all sides.

Yesterday, when we saw the first nettles of the season, I snapped them up. They look just like spring, even if it is only January. Super deep green. Bushy and full. I didn’t even have to touch them, as they were placed in a plastic sack by the Farmer’s Market guy.

Safely wrapped up, they went right into the fridge without anyone seeing them.

But the next morning, as I was working on blanching them, and stripping all the tender green leaves off the woody stalks, the comments came furious and stinging.

“Bitter!”

“What else is there to eat?”

“Why would you eat something like that?”

“How can you eat something you can’t even touch?”

“Bitter, bitter, bitter!!!”

This is what I have to put up with when I venture to try something new.

I had, however, been reading up on nettles. That despite their seemingly impenetrable coating of tiny little needles, each of which was loaded with some toxic acid that has been known to be able to kill a horse, I was assured that a quick blanching in boiling water would disarm the plant completely.

And would thereby make accessible to me all the unbelievable health benefits ascribed to this plant. Which seemingly can clear the skin, clean the liver, thicken hair, cure hay fever, eliminate asthma, control dandruff, and act as a sort of natural steroid for body builders. Among other things. More complete information can be found in the links below:

http://www.econetwork.net/~wildmansteve/Plants.Folder/Nettle.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettle

Most seem to make tea from this stuff. Or soup. But I had been warned that this could, in fact, be bitter. The Farmer’s market guy suggested that sautéing the leaves in olive oil and garlic was best. And, several online sources indicated that this was indeed a pretty tasty way to go.

The real dilemma was how best to disarm the plant. You have to separate the leaves from the stalks, which are woody. After donning my thickest plastic gloves, I blanched the entire plant, leaves, stalk and all, first in a huge pot of boiling water for maybe 30 to 60 seconds first, plunged it into cold water, and then carefully pulled the now wilted, and very mushy, leaves from the stems. The nettles were completely disarmed by this procedure, and could be handled with bare hands. I think, with very thick gloves, you could also pluck the leaves first and blanch them separately, or even sauté them unblanched, but this will have to wait for the next trial.

I removed as much water as possible from the blanched leaves with paper towels, sautéed them in olive oil with some onion and garlic, and turned them into a frittata. Stinging Nettle Frittata with Garlic and Parmesan. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Kalyn herself, of Kalyn's Kitchen.

The frittata, once out of the oven, looked delicious. Sort of like a spinach frittata. Puffed, golden brown, with lots of bright green.

But no one was willing to take that first bite. Afraid the nettles were still there and would sting the tongue. Or maybe that the nettled leaves would themselves stick to the tongue. Embedding the leaves there forever by the little spikes. It makes me wonder who the first one was who decided these things could be eaten at all.

To my surprise, the flavor was the opposite of bitter. Almost sweet. With a floral sort of note to it. Clearly the blanching and cold water rinse had purged any trace of bitterness. The sweet flavor was not at all like spinach. Much fresher. With some wonderful garlic and parmesan flavors to add depth.

A lot of work, mainly because of the necessary blanching and leaf plucking steps. Especially for a Sunday morning. But the flavor was great. And, as of this writing, no one has succumbed to the effects of the plant, everyone still healthy, although not visibly more healthy than before eating the frittata.

So while everyone agreed the flavor was a winner, the jury is still out on the health aspects. As to the mental health aspects, well, all I can say is, if you are going to work with nettles, it helps to have a very thick skin!

Print Recipe

Stinging Nettle Frittata
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 large bunches of young stinging nettle
Olive oil
1 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
9 eggs
1 cup milk
salt, pepper
2 cups parmesan cheese, grated

In a very large pot of boiling salted water, blanch the nettles for 1 minute. Remove to a cold water bath. Remove from the cold water and drain well. Carefully strip the leaves from the stalks. Discard the stalks.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt pepper and about 2/3s of the cheese.

Heat olive oil in a large, ovenproof skillet. Sautee the onion over medium heat till softened. Add the garlic, and sauté, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the blanched nettle leaves, and sauté, stirring, for a few minutes. Pour the egg mixture over the top. Cover the skillet, and cook until bubbles form across the top of the egg mixture.

Sprinkle the frittata with the remaining grated cheese, and place under broiler until the top is puffed and well browned in places. Remove from broiler and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Stinging Nettle : Frittata : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Happy Meal

2007-01-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, eating dinner, maybe something I’ve prepared quickly, or something that had to be made because something was in danger of going bad, or maybe something I made primarily for someone else, I can think of a thousand things I would really rather be eating.

Truffles, maybe. Black, earthy, smoky slivers. On some super rich and creamy risotto. Or used as the base for some sauce napping some wonderful fish.

Or fresh oysters. On large trays packed with ice. Sitting in a tablespoon of their own juice, on the half shell, waiting for me to slurp them down, one after the other.

Or a nice pate. Sinfully rich, buttery, thick. Where you can just taste the herbs, a touch of pepper, and maybe a hint of champagne beneath the liver-y wonderfulness.

Or some painfully, squeaky fresh sushi, sliced to exact geometric perfection, combined with some fish roe, and a quail egg, and tied together with some crisp seaweed.

It seems like the list is endless.

Of course, mainly because all the things I am imagining are impossible to have at that moment. Forbidden, in a sense. The more impossible it all is, the more forbidden, the more things I can think of that I would rather be eating.

That’s the easy one.

Much harder is the question – suppose nothing is impossible. What one thing would you pick. Only one. If you could have anything.

The possibilities expand out to infinity. So quickly that they seem to suck all the concrete ideas out of your head. Since everything’s possible to consider, the proposition of selecting just one thing from such a sea of possibilities is almost too difficult to comprehend. So the mind goes blank. And you sit there wondering where all those great ideas from the other day have vaporized away to.

Well, at least, that was how I felt. Fortunately, the problem was not mine.

I had been thinking about this as I was going to make a special birthday dinner for TeenBoy. And I was at a loss as to what to make. My mind had expanded to the infinite, and was useless.

He, however, answered in one second.

“Those giant meatballs you made that time, the sage ones, in marinara sauce, piled high on a sub roll, with lettuce, onion, melted cheese, those Italian peppers, and some tomatoes”.

“Oh yeah, and chocolate mousse. Not with dark chocolate (yuck!), with the sweet chocolate. And some raspberries mixed in.”

How can you know something like this? And so quickly?

Fortunately, I didn’t have to have the ingredients for all this overnighted from some exotic location. As in my mental wanderings.

So we made the gigantic meatballs with sage and rosemary. And simmered them in marinara sauce. And put them on gigantic rolls. And melted some cheese on top. And lettuce, and pepperocino. The tomatoes didn’t fit anymore.

And made mousse. With milk chocolate, not dark. Which everyone seems to like better than a cake anyways. And the mousse, as always, is almost painfully delicious. It is amazing how the addition of beaten egg whites and cream takes the chocolate to a whole new dimension.

The mousse is pretty basic, with two tricks that always makes chocolate mousse easier. I beat the egg whites with cream of tartar first, then beat the cream, and then I melt the chocolate last. So the chocolate is still as warm as possible as I fold it into the beaten items. The second trick is, Chocolate mousse always involves whisking egg yolks into the melted chocolate. Which causes the chocolate to seize up immediately and get very thick. I always reserve a few tablespoons of the cream to whisk into the chocolate egg yolk mixture, and it immediately reverts back to a smooth, creamy texture that can then be easily folded into the egg whites and whipped cream. Resulting in a luscious dessert.

And the mousse was even firm enough to hold the birthday candles.

Print Recipe

Basic Milk Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
½ pound fine milk chocolate, chopped into small pieces no larger than ¼ inch
2 cups heavy cream, ¼ cup reserved for the chocolate mixture
4 eggs, separated, and at room temperature
a pinch of cream of tartar
Frozen raspberries, defrosted on a paper towel, for garnish

Bring the water of a double boiler or Bain Marie to a boil, and turn down the heat, keeping the water just below a simmer. Make sure the hot water does will not touch the container holding the chopped chocolate.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add a pinch of cream of tartar, and beat until they hold still peaks. Reserve.

With clean, chilled beaters, and in a chilled, tall container, beat the cream (except the reserved ¼ cup) until it just holds stiff peaks. Reserve

Place the chopped chocolate over the simmering water, stirring. Continue to stir until all the chocolate pieces are melted, and the mixture is smooth. Remove the chocolate from the heat. Whisk in one egg yolk at a time, incorporating the yolks as much as possible. Add the reserved ¼ cup of heavy cream, and whisk the mixture smooth.

Add a heaping tablespoon or two of both the beaten cream and the egg whites to the chocolate mixture, and combine completely. Add ½ of the remaining beated cream, and carefully fold into the chocolate. Add ½ of the remaining beaten egg whites to the chocolate mixture, and carefully fold in. Add the remaining beaten cream and egg whites to the chocolate mixture, and fold carefully. Chill the mousse, covered with plastic wrap, for at least one hour. Spoon onto serving dishes, decorate with the raspverries. Seve immediately. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Big Meatball Subs
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as a main course

Ingredients:
4 pounds ground turkey
1 onion, chopped fine
1 cup parsley, chopped fine
1-2 cups panko bread crumbs – depending on if you like your meatballs meatier or breadier
3-4 eggs – use 4 if you added more bread crumbs
salt, pepper
2-3 tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped fine
2-3 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
olive oil
4 cups marinara sauce
1 cup red wine
4 foot long sub rolls
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cups lettuce, shredded
½ cup pepperocino, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, sliced thin

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, onion, parsley, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, sage, rosemary and thyme well. Form into 20 large balls.

Heat olive oil in 2 large skillets. Brown the meatballs over medium high heat, turning (with tongs is easiest), until browned on all sides. Pour ½ of the marinara sauce and ½ of the wine over the meatballs in each pan. Turn the meatballs to coat. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or so, covered, turning the meatballs occasionally.
While the meatballs are simmering, heat the rolls in the oven for 15 minutes at 350ºF.

Slice the rolls in half – or more clever – slice down on both sides of the top at an angle so the top comes off as a sort of shallow ‘V’. This keeps the meatballs in the roll better. Place 4-5 meatballs on each roll. Spoon sauce over the meatballs. Sprinkle each sandwich with the grated parmesan cheese. Place the sandwiches under the broiler until the cheese melts. Top the sandwiches with the shredded lettuce, pepperocino, and tomato slices. Serve immediately. Open very, very wide and enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Chocolate Mousse : Meatball Subs : Food and Dining

Banana! Happy 2007!

2007-01-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, late as usual. But better late …

Hopefully a tasty 2007. Seems to be starting out that way.

I was thinking about some of the things we found people doing on New Year’s Eve, and Day, that were somewhat food related.

Lately, we’ve opt for fish. Supposed to bring luck. Despite the mercury and other toxins. Maybe because you have to be lucky to catch one?

We used to go in for lentils. Which are considered good luck bringers for the New Year in parts of Italy. For example, pasta with a lentil–based sauce. Which we had one year. While clinging precariously to the top of a mountain (Monte Pori) a few thousand feet up in the Dolomites, in what I call Süd Tirol (southern Tyrolia), and others call Alto Adagio. In a tiny apartment with way too many people. Who all spoke Italian but me. With bottles of Grappa, champagne, and lots of pasta with lentils. Running up and down the halls, stairs, and around the apartment grounds, yelling BANANA!! At the top of our lungs. Fireworks going off everywhere.

Well, I yelled “BANANA!” till I could no longer make an audible noise.

Everyone else apparently yelled “Bon Anno”. Which, after lots of grappa, champagne, et al, sounded a lot liked banana. It was years and years before I found out that Italy, New Years and bananas are not somehow connected.

At other times, we ate noodles. For example, in Chinatown in San Francisco. But, naturally, not around the beginning of January. This year, the Chinese New Year will occur on February 18th, coinciding with a full moon. With a traditional 15 day long party. And will be year 4703 of their calendar. When we will transition from the year of the dog (2006) to the year of the pig. Lots of people trying to squeeze their newborns into the current year (good luck with all that!). The pig babies ( David Letterman, Elton John) being modest, shy, honest, trustworthy (hmm!). As opposed to the dog types (Bill Clinton, me), who are supposed to be loyal (of course), intelligent (not based on my dog!), unselfish and idealistic (double hmm!!). Well, so much for the zodiac!

In Munich, it seems to me that we also aimed for fish. Carp, to be exact. Again, for the luck factor.

In Florence, it was a super elegant dinner, with wonderful food and wine, packed with Florentinians (?), who spent the entire evening trying to talk to us, them speaking no English, us speaking no Italian. By midnight, we were somehow best of friends, we knew each others entire life story. And eventually exited the now wildly raucous restaurant to the totally chaotic streets of old city Florence, where crowds thronged around shooting off fireworks, yelling, singing, drinking, and generally having a pretty good time. While ancient statues watched on in a sort of detached bemusement, draped with streamers of confetti.

In Alsace, it was their classic Choucroute, made with that wonderful sauerkraut steeped in Champagne for the holiday, and not at all sour, but instead sweet with apples and juniper berries, and layered with sausages, roasted goose, liver dumplings, and so on. That took the chill off quickly.

Hamburg was all about the herring. Which I like. Either Matjes style, or Bismark style. Matjes are a little sweeter, being cured in sugar as well as brine, and Bismark are just sour, having a vinegar and brine curing bath. Or even better, Rollmops, which are Bismark style herring wrapped around a pickle and held together with a toothpick. Great for a hangover!

I mentioned yesterday the Mussels steamed in garlic and red wine that we had for New Year’s Eve dinner. Delicious. Everyone still healthy. We complemented that with some chocolate mousse, and lots of champagne.

For the last few years, I’ve forged my own way on New Year’s Day, though. Yes, we always seem to catch a few minutes of the Tournament of Roses Parade on TV. As it’s gentle pace and relatively quiet tone goes well with a headache and a cup of hot coffee. And no, it has never occurred to me to be a good idea to sit out on the street for a few days to get a curbside view of the parade live. Although thousands do, bringing the entire kitchen along so as not to miss out on a New Year’s Eve feast.

And of course we watch USC kick butt in the Rose bowl (football, American style).

But after that, it’s on to serious cooking. Very serious. French. From Provence. Ok, classic French food snobs, it’s not from Lyon, but still damn tasty!

Bourride. That king of dishes from Provence (at least in my mind).

Basically, a fish soup, perfumed with fennel and orange, thickened with a garlicky and lemony Aioli. Served over fresh toasted baguettes.

Again with the fish. I know. But the thing that intrigues me with Bourride is not just the fish, but also the clever use of the aioli as a thickener. As the aioli is made with raw egg yolks. And gentle heating in the fish broth results in a sort of very loose custard, or thickened soup, depending on your perspective. If you’re careful. Otherwise, as has happened some years, you get scrambled eggs with your fish soup.

In any event, a fun dish, with wonderful flavors, and a bit of a showcase for aspiring home chefs.

To me, there are two tricks to the dish. One is to procure a variety of very fresh, whole fish. One sort of fish will not do. The brilliant flavor comes in part from variety. The second trick is slow gentle cooking, both of the fish bones to keep the broth clear, as well as the egg yolks while thickening the broth.

Traditionally, Bourride is made with a Loup de Mer (sea bass), a Bauroue (monkfish) and a Merlan (whiting). I found the sea bass, and the monkfish, but used a catfish instead of the merlan. Probably a cod or an ocean perch would have been better. But it all worked out. I generally use one whole fish per person.

The fish are filleted, and the bones and head used to make a broth. Being careful to simmer, but not boil the bones. Using a classic bouquet garni, champagne, and a sautéed onion for additional flavor.

The aioli is just the classic garlic, egg yolk, lemon juice, salt and olive oil mixture. Using two cloves of garlic and one egg yolk per person. Adding the lemon juice and olive oil to match.

Once the broth and the aioli are ready, the fish filets are gently poached – not boiled – in the broth, further flavored with fennel, thyme, bay, and orange peel. This makes a delicate but wonderfully flavorful aroma while cooking.

The filets are removed from the poaching liquid, the aioli tempered with some of the poaching liquid, then the tempered aioli whisked into the broth. Just like a custard, the mixture is cooked over low heat just until it coats the back of a wooded spoon.

Some toasted baguette slices are placed in flat soup bowls, the fish fillets distributed on top, and the wonderfully fragrant, hopefully thickened and not lumpy broth ladled over everything. A sprinkle of chopped parsley, and then as quickly as possible served while still hot. With a glass of the same champagne used to make the broth.

A real treat, if you can pull it off!

Cheers! Prost! Salute! Health! Banana!!!

Print Recipe

Bourride
From the book ‘La Cuisiniere Provencale’, Noevelle Edition, J.B.Reboul
Translated painstakingly from French by surfindaave
Serves 4

3 whole, very fresh fish, preferable one Loup de Mer (sea bass), one bauroue (monkfish, or substitute a red snapper, some shark, or even some lobster tail) and one merlan (whiting, ocean perch or cod), fillets removed and reserved, bones and head chopped roughly
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
some fresh thyme
several springs parsley
a piece of celery
a bay leaf
olive oil
1-2 cups champagne or white wine
6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
juice of one lemon, or to taste
olive oil – at least one cup
1-2 baguettes, sliced
olive oil
1 onion, minced fine
1 small fennel bulb, sliced thinly into juliennes, or chopped
the peel from 1-2 oranges (depends on size of orange), sliced into thin juliennes
several sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed from stems
2 bay leaves
Additional parsley, chopped for garnish

Make the fish broth:
Rinse the fish bones and heads under cold water. In a heavy pot, sauté the onion, carrots and shallot in the olive oil. Deglaze the pan with the champagne or white wine. Add the fish bones and heads. Sautee for a few minutes. Add just enough water to cover the bones after you have packed them down a bit. Add the bouquet gari herbs, tied together or loose, and bring the broth just to the boiling point. Reduce heat, and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, skimming any scum that rises to the surface. Strain the broth through a cheese cloth, pressing on the solids, reserving the broth and discarding the rest.

Make the aioli:
In a mortar and pedestal, reduce the garlic and some salt to a paste. Place in a small bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks. Add some lemon juice – not all of it – whisking. In a slow stream, whisk in the olive oil. Add some additional lemon juice if the mixture gets too thick. Continue to add olive oil in a stream until you have a mayonnaise consistence. Taste, and add additional salt and/or lemon juice as necessary. Place in refrigerator and reserve. Note that it will increase in garlic flavor while it sits.

Make the toasts:
Slice the baguettes on a diagonal into 1 inch slices, brush both sides with olive oil, and toast under the broiler until both sides are browned. Reserve.

Make the fish:
In a large, heavy skillet, add the onion, fennel, thyme, orange peel, bay leaves, and most of the fish broth. Season with lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Gently place the fish fillets into the broth in a single layer. Cover loosely, and poach at a simmer – do not boil – for 12 minutes. Remove the fish fillets to a heated plate, keeping them as intact as possible, spoon a little of the broth over them, cover loosely, keep warm and reserve.

Thicken the broth:
Turn off the heat on the broth in the pan. Whisk several tablespoons of the hot broth into the aioli. Continue to add broth to the aioli, whisking, until you have added 1-2 cups of liquid. Carefully whisk the tempered aioli mixture back into the hot broth in the pan. Stirring constantly, heat the broth over low heat until the broth begins to thicken. Slow and gentle is the best method to avoid scrambling the egg yolks. When the broth has thickened a bit, and just coats the back of a wooden spoon, remove the pan from the heat.

Plate it:
Place several slices of the toast in the bottom of each soup bowl. Place a few pieces of each kind of fish fillet onto the pieces of toast. Spoon the hot broth over the fish, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve immediately! Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Bourride : Food and Dining

Living and Eating on the Edge

2007-01-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

Who knew that I liked to live so dangerously?

Well, besides me, who knew?

I consider my most reckless days to be behind me, for the most part. At least I don’t actively look for ways to do myself direct harm – i.e. have fun – quite so often as I used to.

For the last few weeks, I have had a growing urge for mussels. Quickly steamed in a hot broth of reeking of garlic, wine and tomatoes. With a crusty baguette to mop up the broth. A sure fire cure for a cold winter evening.

But no luck. Mussels could not be found. My Asian market, serving at least 20 varieties of fresh fish every day, plus all manner of fresh clams, oysters, lobsters, crabs and shrimp, said they didn’t carry mussels.

That should have been a clue, I suppose.

But in my mind were the wonderful dinners I had had in Munich, and Amsterdam, and Paris, in months with an ‘R’ of course, where buckets of mussels were served just as described. In either red wine or white. Sitting in some tight, crowded, noisy little restaurant heated like a furnace against the freezing cold wind blowing outside. With more mussels piled in buckets on the table than any one could, or should, reasonably eat. And wonderfully fresh bread. And lots of wine. And the piles of empty shells left after the feast.

So I persevered.

And looked harder.

At my special fish store, that I go to only occasionally, mainly because it’s somewhat of a drive, I was really surprised that they also had no mussels. I was sure they would stock them. But the owner, who actually mans the ship that does the fishing up around the channel islands off the coast of LA said he would not stock anything he would not personally eat.

Fair enough. But why wouldn’t he eat one?

He’s afraid of dying. He’s afraid of eating one bad mussel, especially from ones caught around here, and getting PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning), or something like that.

Jeez. All I was looking for was a pot of mussels, steamed in garlic, wine and tomatoes. Dying was not on the menu.

Apparently, things are to the point that eating a California mussel, one of the most common sea foods in existence, is basically a lethal proposition.

The fish guy told me that farm raised mussels, from New Zealand, the green lipped ones, were probably safe enough to eat. And there were other mussels, also from farms in other parts of the world, what might be edible. But he wouldn’t eat them either.

Hell, you only live once! The fish guy told me I could find some of these farm raised mussels nearby, at a different fish store, so I did it. I jumped off the cliff and bough 4 pounds.

Everyone in the shop, apparently there for all things other than mussels, turned and looked at me when I made my order. Or so it seemed to me.

And I finally made my mussels. As part of a New Years Eve dinner. Because fish is supposed to bring good luck for the new year! Not Death!! I have to admit we all sort of looked at the bowl of steaming mussels for a second or two before tasting the first one.

But they were fine. Delicious even. And I had lots of crusty baguettes to mop up the broth with. And plenty of wine. And we had a mountain of empty shells when we were done.

I was only missing an overheated, crowded little restaurant with a fierce, cold wind blowing outside. Someone opened the door, I sipped my wine. I could almost hear the wind howl!

(I don't have a picture of the final dish, cause it was New Year's Eve, and we had lots of champagne, which does not go well with driving or photography)

Print Recipe

Mussels in Garlic and Red Wine over Linguini
Serves 4
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
4 pounds fresh mussels, washed in several changes of cold water, and the shells and beards scrubbed off under cold running water
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup parsley, roughly chopped
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
½ cup finely chopped basil
2 pounds linguini pasta
Fresh baguettes

In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil, and cook the pasta according to package instructions. When the pasta is cooked, drain well, but do not rinse. Place in a large heated serving bowl, and toss with some olive oil. Keep warm and reserve.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large, heavy pot, heat several tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, and sauté until softened. Add the garlic, stirring, and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the red wine and red pepper flakes, and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the mussels, stir quickly, and cover tightly. Reduce the heat to medium high, and steam the mussels, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove the lid, and stir in the tomatoes, basil and parsley. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. Scoop the mussels and sauce over the pasta. Discard any unopened shells. Sprinkle with additional chopped parsley if desired, and serve immediately with the baguettes and a green salad. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Mussels : Food and Dining

1000 Cookies – Give or Take

2007-01-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

Happy 2007! Some catching up to do ...

The week or so before Christmas always a challenge for me when I was a kid. How to deal with the Christmas situation without money of my own to buy some token presents for friends and family. It’s that awkward age between the time when you’re eventually aware that your parents have been lying to you all those years, and the time you are old enough to get an actual money paying job, the first of which I got at 15. But there were plenty of years in between to be challenged.

We must have gotten some nominal funds, maybe for doing some odd jobs around the house. Things we probably would have had to do anyways for no reward other times of the year. And some kids surely get allowances. But all this is not really your own independent money, as you still get it from the parents, and again probably for chores you would have to do with or without monetary reward.

So it always seemed like a sham somehow. Because whatever money could be appropriated was more of a charity affair than something of mine that I could then share as a present with someone else. And the modest presents that could be bought really didn’t represent a terribly thoughtful present.

So, as that problem started appearing in our house, I decided to take action.

In the form of cookies.

Lots of cookies.

Lots and lots of Christmas cookies.

Every year, for some years now, we all make a ton of cookies. Wrap them up in cellophane and ribbons. And that constitutes the presents from all of us to the rest of the family and some close friends. Since everyone had a hand in picking the cookies to make, shopping (if not actually paying for the ingredients), making the 1000 plus cookies (no kidding), cleaning up the mess, and, not least of the effort, packaging all the baked cookies for actual giving, everyone has an a feeling of having given something of actual meaning and value. Despite the modest monetary costs for the ingredients. All in all, I guessed we spent about 70 to 80 hours between three people doing all this.

Although 5 pounds of butter, one gallon of cream, pounds and pounds of hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, dried cranberries, dried apricots, and what all still add up to a few bucks.

This year, school ended the Thursday before Christmas, leaving only two full days to bake everything. With Sunday reserved for packing everything up.

We made a list of possible cookies to make the weekend before. And each choose four different types from the list. With an eye towards having both a diverse final choice, and ensuring everything could actually be made in the short timeframe we had to work with. This is the fun step.

Our choices this year were:

TeenBoy:
Toffee, Almond and Dark Chocolate Bark (Gourmet Magazine Dec 1998)
Hazelnut Raspberry Triangles (Gourmet Magazine Dec 1995)
Black and White Sugar Cookies (Gourmet Magazine Dec 2005)

TeenGirl:
Cranberry Milk Chocolate Truffles (Gourmet Magazine Dec 1998)

Fig and Date Swirls (Gourmet Magazine Dec 2001)

Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti (Gourmet Magazine Dec 2001)

SerendipitousChef:
Espresso Dark Chocolate Truffle Kisses (Gourmet Magazine Dec 1998)

Raspberry Jellies (Gourmet Magazine Dec 1985)
(no picture as I seem to be hopelessly pectin challanged)

Lime Jellies (Gourmet Magazine Dec 1985)
(no picture, as they died an ugly death - see below)

Polish Apricot Twists (Gourmet Magazine Dec 2004)

Plus we made a frozen cranberry mousse for the actual Christmas dinner, which my sister hosted this year.

All of these recipes are from various editions of Gourmet Magazine, and most can be found on www.epicurious.com

Our target for each was approximately 100 pieces per type. Since we were making 10 gifts. About 100 pieces per gift. About 1000 pieces total.

And every year, a few of the attempts go awry.

For example, we always begin by making a master list al all the ingredients we need, naturally everything multiplied out (some recipes need to be doubled, tripled, or halved), all the instances of butter consolidated to see how much we need to buy. And of course, mistakes are always made here. Too much or too little of something being noted on the list. Which is then discovered at the worst possible moment. Naturally after stores have closed, for example.

Plus, some things just go wrong.

This year, we lost the lime jellies. Because the pan we made the jellies in gave up some long-baked-on deposits from the bottom of the pan, which floated around in the translucent jelly as it cooked. Little black flecks in the lime green jelly. Really not so Christmas-looking as we intended. Had to be tossed.

And, somehow, the first batch of chocolate for the truffles got some moisture in it as the chocolate was melting, turning a pound of chocolate into a sort of grainy, sandy mess. Still tasty, if your not too finicky about the texture. But again, nothing you could use as the basis of a gift. Something to nibble on the rest of the week.

So was actually made well over 1000 pieces. Having to toss a couple hundred along the way.

But, all things considered, they all turned out beautifully for the most part.

Everyone made their batches of treats in the same kitchen at the same time, somehow coordinating oven, stove, counter space, etc. A pretty good trick.

The winners were clearly the cranberry truffles, the bark, the apricot twists and the fig swirls. Although the biscotti was the first thing to be eaten.

TeenGirl and I then packaged the bounty. Wrapping 1/10th of each type of cookie first in some clear cellophane, tied with ribbons. Then arranging the different packaged cookies on a plastic plate wrapped in tin foil, and wrapping then entire package in clear cellophane, again tied with long ribbons. A 6 hour activity.

The results are festive, beautiful to look at, and delicious to enjoy over a cup of coffee or tea. Maybe after all the holiday hysteria is over.

And when it was all done, everyone had a real sense of having given something of meaning. Not just some cash. Something that was carefully selected, something that took real time and effort to create, something that had a little meaning. A sense of the giving side of the holidays, to balance the overwhelming avalanche of taking that seems to pervade the holiday season.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Christmas : Cookies : Food and Dining

The Chef Suffers for Art – WHB

2006-12-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

The bright red little bulbs ripen this time of year. Late fall, early winter. Filled with bright magenta fruit. A little sweet. Sort of like a strawberry, maybe, or, some say, like a watermelon. In any event, it is subtle, but very pleasant.

But unlike the defenseless strawberry or watermelon, these things come with insidiously clever mechanisms to discourage would-be chefs.

They are, after all, the fruit of a cactus. The prickly pear cactus, to be precise. Known in Spanish as ‘La Tuna’, these fruits are easy to find here in SoCal. With some care, I could pick some from the dry, hilly fields near our house. With some care!

http://www.foodsubs.com/Fruittroex.html
http://eduscapes.com/nature/cactus/index1.htm

Coming from a thing called a prickly pear cactus, nominally clever cooks would probably anticipate some painful issues with their use.

You can eat them raw, cutting them in half and scooping out the flesh much like you would with a kiwi fruit, spitting out the black seeds as you go. Or, you can scrape out the flesh, strain out the seeds, and use it as a base for a sauce, as we did for today’s recipe.

Careful inspection of the outside of these fruits reveled no obvious sharp spines. Even running a finger over the surface seemed to indicate that the fruit had been well cleaned.

But in the process of removing the flesh of the fruit from the peel, and the necessary tasting of the fruit in the process, each finger and the tongue eventually caught at least one of the sharp, almost microscopic spines, which had to be extracted carefully with a pair of tweezers.

Ah, the suffering of the would-be artist-chef!

And why, you are of course asking yourself, would anyone subject themselves to this culinary torture?

Well, obviously, ignorance is high on the list.

But in general, the fruit is really beautiful. Bright red, almost festive, this being Christmas time. And the flesh inside is even more brilliant. When I saw the basket of these in the market, I had picked out a half dozen before I had even given much thought to what to do with them.

Frequently the fruit is turned into jelly. Or syrup. But the best idea for using the fruit, after some searching, seems to be a wonderful sounding Margarita. The cactus fruit flesh pureed, and mixed up with tequila, a squeeze of lime, and some other things, and served over crushed ice. That’s on file for next summer, for sure.

I chose to make a sort of sauce out of the fruit. Reducing the flesh with some lime juice, and a touch of sweetener (agava nectar, of course).

The trick to a subtle flavored fruit like this is to reduce about 2/3s to 3/4s of the fruit, boiling out the excess water and thickening the mixture up, but also destroying some of the delicate flavors. To restore the lost flavor, the remaining ¼ to 1/3 of the fruit is added at the end, uncooked. The mixture, when pureed, is both fairly thick, as well as full-flavored.

I added some pomegranate seeds to the sauce just to make it that more festive.

I put this sauce over some shrimp I had marinated in cayenne, cumin and cinnamon. Lately, I have been putting cinnamon in almost everything spicy that I make. Just a hint. In chili, in soups, etc. It adds an interesting dimension.

In any event, the shrimp were fiery hot. Quick sautéed. And placed over linguini that had been tossed with a little olive oil and cilantro.

The cactus pear sauce with the pomegranate seeds was drizzled on top.

So, Linguini with Cayenne Shrimp in Cactus Pear Sauce for Weekend Herb Blogging. I guess since Kalyn is doing a special holiday WHB series, this doesn't really so much fit into that concept, but it was fun to make, and more than a little bit festive to look at!

You got a blast of the spicy with the shrimp, and a soothing taste of the sweet with the sauce.

Altogether a deliciously balanced flavor. And a beautiful presentation.

Worth suffering for any day!

Print Recipe

Linguini with Cayenne Shrimp in Cactus Pear Sauce
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 6

Ingredients:
6 cactus pears, cut in half, flesh scooped out
1-2 limes, juiced
2-3 tbsp sweetener (sugar, agava nectar)
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
3 pounds large shrimp, peeled, deveined
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 tsp cumin
good pinch of cinnamon, to taste
1-2 tsp salt
olive oil
1 ½ pounds dried linguini pasta

Place about 2/3 of the cactus fruit flesh in a small pot with the lime juice and sweetener. Bring to a rapid boil, reduce heat somewhat, and reduce the mixture to about ½ of its volume, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool. Add remaining cactus flesh. Puree mixture. Strain pureed mixture back into cleaned pot, discarding cactus seeds. Add the pomegranate seeds to the mixture, and reheat over low heat, without boiling.

In a small bowl, mix the cayenne pepper, cumin, cinnamon and salt well. Toss the shrimp with olive oil, and then with the spice mixture.

Heat a large pot of water. When it boils, add some salt, and cook the linguini per package directions until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a large sauté skillet till very hot. Add olive oil. Quickly sauté the shrimp over high heat, tossing frequently, until they are just cooked through and no longer pink. Remove from heat, and keep warm.

When pasta is al dente, drain well. Toss pasta with some olive oil and chopped cilantro.

Place some herbed pasta in warmed pasta bowls, place several shrimp on top of each bowl, and spoon some of the hot cactus sauce over the top. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Cactus Fruit : Shrimp : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Anti-Social Behavior

2006-12-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

First you have to stop a moment and consider your short term schedule.

Tea with the queen? No, that’s not tomorrow (didn’t we just suffer through that last week?).

Lunch with Barack? No, no, he’s still in New Hampshire signing books and pretending not to run for president. I think we're doing lunch next week.

Bono dropping by later for a jam session? Nope, he’s on tour in Japan with his buds.

Nicole was just picked up (again) for DUI, so we won’t be hitting the clubs tonight. And Lindsay is drying out in rehab, so morning breath won’t be an issue there either.

Then a quick look around the house.

Dog chewing on dirty socks. He’ll notice, but might actually enjoy the odor.

Kids arguing over TV / bathroom / phone / music / etc. An odor-enforced buffer zone seems like a perfect solution. Too bad the odor is not thick enough to create a sound barrier as well.

Cool breeze blowing, windows open, the odor should dilute sufficiently in the open air such that the neighbors are not permanently affected. The lawsuits should be nominal.

OK – roasted garlic is now on the menu!

Actually, roasting garlic mellows the flavor out a bit from just plain raw garlic. Roasting transforms the crunchy little garlic toes (toes, right, or cloves? hmm) into a soft tan mush. And transforms the flavors from a sharp bite to a deep, rich, enveloping earthiness. The roasted mush is then squeezed out from the papery skin. And subsequently mashed into anything that needs a sublime, earthy, powerful kick in its culinary butt.

Along with the garlic, I roasted some leeks. Till they were soft, wrinkly, somewhat caramelized as well.

I know this seems like it might kill the delicate flavor of the leeks, but somehow it transforms them as well, and the leek essence shines through.

And these two things then became the basis of a very flavorful risotto. Certainly nothing necessarily new, but this is my version.

Added to my basic risotto concept, we got a creamy, earthy dish with a very deep, satisfying flavor. A lot of flavor for really not that much work. A little fresh ground pepper on top helps bring out the flavors, and a splash of your best extra virgin olive oil only adds to the creamy texture of the final presentation.

It’s true that my breath can probably still peel paint a day later, but roasted garlic is a real treat and worth an antisocial day every now and then!!

Print Recipe

Roasted Garlic and Leek Risotto
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 6 as main course

Ingredients:
6-8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 large leeks, root end and green end trimmed, white part cut in half lengthwise, washed well and dried
olive oil
8 cups chicken broth
700 grams arbiato rice
¼ cup dry white wine, or 2-3 tbsp rice vinegar
1-2 cups grated parmesan (I like more, some like less)
1 cup chopped parsley
Fresh ground black pepper
A splash of extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Place garlic and leeks on parchment paper on a backing pan. Drizzle with olive oil, and turn a few times to ensure even coating. Place leeks cut side down. Roast in oven for 20 minutes, until garlic cloves are soft, but not burned, and leeks are browned and softened. Remove from oven. Remove outer layers of leeks, if they are too rough to cut. Let cool till they can be handled. Chop leeks fine. Cut tops off garlic cloves, and squeeze roasted garlic out into a small bowl. Mash with a fork. Reserve.

Heat the chicken broth to a boil in a pan, and reduce heat, keeping broth at a bare simmer.

In a large, heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add leeks, and sautee for 2-3 minutes. Increase heat to high and add rice. Cook rice, stirring, until it just turns translucent, about 3-4 minutes (don’t let it burn!). Reduce heat to medium high. Add wine or rice vinegar, stirring. Add 2 ladlefuls of broth, stirring, and roasted garlic. As broth is absorbed, continue adding broth one ladleful at a time, stirring. Reduce heat as necessary to keep risotto just at a bare boil. When most of the broth has been added, stir in the grated parmesan. Continue to add broth, a little at a time, until the rice has reached an al dente stage. The risotto should be creamy and moist, if it gets too dry, stir in additional liquid. Just before serving, stir in parsley. Serve with a light grind of fresh black pepper, and a splash of the ol’ extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Roasted Garlic : Leeks : Risotto : Food and Dining

Same Time Next Year - WHB

2006-12-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

It’s because we sort of missed it at Thanksgiving. And, like white after Labor Day, once the season’s oven, it’s over. So time was running out fast.

Which is too bad.

Because a lot of traditionally seasonal foods are very healthy, as well as tasty.

Fresh cranberries, for instance. Wonderful flavor. Lots of health benefits. But, traditionally, only available for purchase for a few weeks of the year.

And fresh pumpkins. Same thing. Lots of health benefits. Lots of flavor. Versatile, too.

It's not that you couldn't cook with these things in June if the notion struck you. It's not so much that it is against the law, or prohibited by the food police. It's just that things like fresh cranberries and pumpkins are simply not offered for sale except a few weeks of the year. So you gotta make while the makins' good!

Soups, ravioli, brulee, pancakes, bread, all made from pumpkin. Today’s brunch treat as well.

When we saw this latest foodie fad start popping up at our Farmer’s Market, having already blogged on both pumpkin soup and pumpkin ravioli, and having missed out on the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving (too much dark meat turkey), the thought of turning these interestingly shaped things into muffins with that familiar cinnamon / nutmeg / clove / allspice aroma was just waiting for a chilly day to happen.

I suppose the reason these pumpkins, or squashes, or whatever they are, have begin popping up is their unusual shape. The one shameless stand at the Farmer’s Market wanted $10 for one. And they sold some, mainly due to the novelty.

But we eventually found them at our bulk vegetable store. Maybe not quite as picture perfect as the $10 version, but just as flavorful inside.

Well, being the first rainy day since last year, pretty much, this was the day. I was thinking for just a moment about pumpkin pancakes, but the thought of the oven warming up the kitchen was too much to resist. So today, we get Roasted Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins for breakfast. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Pookah of What's Cooking in Carolina?.

I’ve blogged previously about pumpkins, mentioning that the anti-oxidant content of these bright orange bulbs is especially high. Plus an abundance of vitamin A. Both of which are now thought to provide some protection against some types of cancer and heart disease. Plus potassium, very good for the men! Health, beauty and flavor!

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins/nutrition.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=53573

To convert this to a muffin, I first cut it into sections, cleaned it, peeled it, and roasted it. 20 minutes later, we were ready to start.

When I looked at pumpkin muffin and pancake recipes, most warned against overloading the batter with too much pumpkin, for fear the result would be too heavy. Also, although many recipes call for oil, this seems to be a culprit in heavy muffins as well, so we opted for butter. Hey – an occasionally butter binge can’t be sooo bad, we rationalized as our arteries silently hardened.

We countered the butter with whole wheat flour, raisins, and the anti-oxydent pumpkin.

We actually doubled the recipe below, making 24 muffins, with some extra batter left for another 6 or so.

And achieved the desired result. The kitchen heated up, both from the roasting of the pumpkin as well as the baking of the muffins. Everything toasty warm for a late breakfast. House full of that spice aroma. And very nice, light muffins, more than we could possibly eat in one setting, still giving off a little steam as they were savored, one after the other.

After trying one plain, no butter or jam, just to get the full taste of the pumpkin and spice, I opted to go naked on the rest of my share of the bounty. The muffins were moist and light, perfect with a very strong cup of coffee. Some fruit on the side, maybe a little yogurt, and breakfast was perfect!

Print Recipe

Roasted Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes 12 muffins

1 small pumpkin (3 pounds or less), cut into sections, peeled, cleaned, and cut into 1 inch cubes
olive oil
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter
¾ cup fresh roasted pumpkin, pureed
¼ cup milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cup white whole-wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
good pinch of allspice
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup seedless raisins
12 pecan halves

Preheat oven to 450° F. and butter twelve 1/2-cup muffin cups.

Place pumpkin pieces in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and toss well. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, until tender and lightly browned in places. Remove from oven and let cool somewhat. Puree in food processor. You will have more than is necessary for this recipe, reserve extra for soup, pancakes, etc.

Melt butter and cool slightly. In a bowl whisk together butter, pumpkin, milk, eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Into a large bowl sift together flours, baking powder, spices, salt, and baking soda and whisk in brown sugar. Make a well in center of flour mixture and add pumpkin mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in dates and divide batter among cups. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over batter in each cup and bake muffins in middle of oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until puffed and a tester comes out clean. Cool muffins in cups 5 minutes and turn out onto a rack. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Pumpkin : Muffins : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

White Flag

2006-12-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

It was a combination of unanticipated events. It took The Serendipitous Chef down like a bag of cement.

What pushed it over the top was the already mentioned high school sports. While running achieved unanticipated success, and demanded commensurate time from me, soccer was just revving up. One recent Friday evening, I received an e-mail requiring me to be at the school a 6 am the next morning, a Saturday, for an all day soccer tournament. Just when I thought I could sleep in for once.

Prior to that was the usual holiday stuff. In addition to Thanksgiving, and the looming Christmas and New Years, it seems everyone in my family was born in November and December. Which is too bad really, because much as everyone denies it, you get screwed your whole life on presents, parties and recognition when your birthday is too close to Christmas. Life can be soo harsh!

But the thing that probably did the most damage was the power outages.

Over the last few weeks, the power in the entire neighborhood has gone out quite a few times. Sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for 15 minutes. Sometimes it went out, came back on for half an hour, then went out again. Plus, at other times, the Internet cable went out.

It is not weather related, unless the wires melted from the dry heat. It’s most likely tree roots attacking the underground cables. Which the power company is in the process of repairing.

I know a power outage seems fairly mild. I did in fact loose the text I was intending to post more than once as the power died suddenly, crashing my computer. A little frustrating.

And, of course, all the clocks have to be reset. Over and over. Certainly one of the more idiotic activities of modern life. Everything has a clock in it now. Coffee makers, ovens, microwaves, VCRs, you name it. And of course, if you don’t reset them all, someone will eventually look at just exactly that one that you were too lazy to set, and blame you for the consequences. Despite the 10 correctly set clocks within a few feet of that one.

Worst is when the power goes off, comes back on for 15 or 20 minutes – just long enough for you to conclude your tirade and set all the clocks – before going out again.

The insidious part of this is that while the power is out, you can not really do much of anything. Even the gas stove has an electric ignition. I’m sure we could fire it up with a match as well, but I was not that desperate yet. But cooking is out, homework – forget it. Being winter, it’s dark inside the house from mid-afternoon on, so life is put on hold.

Gong outside is like being in a sci-fi film. No lights, no streetlights, few cars (people don’t seem to want to drive during a blackout for some reason). Everything dark.

And no noise. All the TVs, radios, stereos, fans, air conditioners, heaters, pool motors, whatever, are suddenly quiet. All the noise you never really notice anymore suddenly seems like a roar now that it is gone. It gets a little weird after a while.

Of course, we get no actual benefits of the blackouts, as nearby LA showers the heavens with light despite our darkness, blocking out most of the stars.

And when it’s over, you have all the things you couldn’t do still waiting to be done. The insidious part of it all. Suddenly the day is oven, and things just have to be left undone.

Between the sports, the holidays and birthdays, and the power outages, the Chef threw up the white flag for a week or so.

We did eat however, but in the stress, the quality and presentation of the food suffered.

But back to business.

Today, we made a wonderful chestnut soup, flavored with cayenne and cinnamon roasted pecans. Easy, if not directly quick. And wonderful fall flavors. Chestnuts make a fantastic base for a soup.

I coupled this with some roasted salmon and baked polenta with a thyme tomato coulis.

The salmon was simply broiled with some olive oil. This is the current preferred everyday cooking method, being low fat. I like the low-temp cooking (i.e. roasting the salmon at 165ºF for 20 minutes), which results in a super buttery texture, but everyone else is only willing to try that on rare occasions.

The tomato coulis was just two cans of tomatoes, drained, and cooked together with some garlic and thyme. We chose thyme to complement the thyme in the polenta, but of course any herb would be fine.

Somehow, roasted polenta evokes a sense of winter for me. Maybe because of its origin in the cold and snowy mountains of northern Italy. Kind of fun to make, too, as you can cut the polenta into any necessary shape to complement the meal. The polenta starts out just like any other, as a sort of mush, which is then cooled, cut and baked. It brings a wonderful balance to the salmon and tomatoes.

Print Recipe

Chestnut Soup with Cayenne and Cinnamon Roasted Pecans
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4-6 as appetizer

Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh chestnuts
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
10 sage leaves, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup pecan halves
cayenne pepper
cinnamon
olive oil
Additional sage leaves for garnish, if desired

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

Cut an X in the flat side of each chestnut. Place on a roasting pan, cut side up, and roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove and wrap in a towel for 10 minutes. Peel off outer shell and inner membrane. Reserve.

Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF.

In a heavy soup pot, sauté onion, celery and carrot in olive oil over medium heat until softened, 6-7 minutes. Add chestnuts (reserve a few whole ones if you want to use them as garnish). Add chicken broth, sage, and a little salt and pepper. Bring broth just to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

While soup is simmering, toss pecan halves with olive oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne pepper (or to taste), and a teaspoon or so of cinnamon. Toss well. Place on a baking sheet in a single layer, and put in 350ºF oven for 10 minutes or so, until they have browned, but are not burned. Remove from oven to a plate or board to stop cooking, and reserve.

When soup has cooked, puree soup in a food processor. Add additional water to thin to desired constancy. Reheat over low heat in pot.

Serve soup steaming hot with a sprinkle of the roasted pecan halves, and a sage leaf or two for garnish. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Roasted Polenta Squares
Based on a recipe from www.foodnetwork.com
Adapted by surfindaave
Serves 4-6 as a side dish

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups milk
2 cups polenta
Dash of salt
Fresh thyme, if desired
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
salt, pepper
Additional grated parmesan, optional

In a heavy pot, bring broth and milk just to a boil. Be careful not to let mixture boil over. Turn off heat, and slowly whisk in the polenta. Return to medium heat, and cook so that it just bubbles a little, whisking, for 10 minutes, until it thickens somewhat. Change to a wooden spoon, continuing to stir constantly, for a total of about 25 minutes. The polenta should be thick and very smooth. Stir in the parmesan cheese and thyme.

Cover two baking pans with parchment paper. Pour half of the polenta mixture onto each baking pan, and tilt the pan a little to make a uniform thin layer of polenta across the entire bottom of the pan. Place the pans in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour – the longer the better. The polenta should be firm to the touch, and able to be cut.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Remove the polenta from the refrigerator. Cut into shapes, such as triangles, with a sharp knife. Carefully peel shapes off parchment paper into a new sheet of parchment paper, leaving a space between each piece (you will need to do each chilled sheet in two batches). (Optional – you can sprinkle the pieces with additional parmesan cheese at this point, if desired). Bake the pieces for 15 minutes. When baked, broil the pieces a few inches from the broiler until puffed and browned, 3-4 minutes. Remove from broiler and keep warm. Bake and broil remaining pieces as described. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Chestnut Soup : Polenta : Food and Dining

Prison Blues

2006-11-29T10:34:00.000-08:00

We really are prisoners of our own desires. Even if the desires diverge significantly.

One revels in all things known. The familiar. Reliving things that have already happened. Over and over.

Driving down the street, or taking a walk, names of known people who live in the houses being passed are recited, events that took place at some location are recalled in a sort of short hand code, the first time a restaurant was visited is recounted in the key details such as year and wine and main course and clothing worn. Favorite restaurants are visited over and over, with the identical dish being ordered each time. The same comments being offered. Like a religious ceremony, whose well worn rituals are caressed over and over. The routine providing comfort and maybe a sense of security, or possibly a sense of everlasting longevity, projecting the ritual into the infinite future.

Then there are the relentless experimenters. Always something new. New location, new people, new gadgets, new tastes. As soon as something is tried, it’s done, crossed off. Time to move on. Push the envelope. Never the same thing twice. Always on the search for the next thing. Always noting the new restaurant, the menu changes. Interest in the past exists only in that it indicates where not to go in the future.

Either road can be a tough grind.

One leading to a certain stagnation, and, anyways, certain to eventually deliver disappointment, as nothing remains the same forever, least of all memories. Seems like a dreary sort of prison to me.

The other leading to certain mental burnout in the attempt to find all things new, let alone new things actually worth trying. This prison might be worse, barring the familiar, holding the prisoner like a rat on a treadmill, always running but never arriving.

All this leading up to the lentils dilemma. You know, cooking something for the umpteenth time, because everyone really does like it, and besides, it’s cold out, the first rainy day in nine months around here. So lentil soup. Over rice.

While some were relishing the reappearance of the known, others (i.e. me) were dreading another go round with the same old thing.

So, despondent due to lack of sun and being stuck in my prison (of my own design, of course), moping about (apparently my creativity is closely tied to the sun), actually moping about on the internet, I stumbled across some ideas. Maybe some keys to escaping both prisons. For a day, anyways.

The ideas coming from the www.emeril.com web site, although we didn’t actually follow the recipes there, just the ideas. Improvising as we went.

Lentil soup with a new hairdo. Of roasted carrots and apples. Not mixed in, but set on top of the soup as a garnish. The carrots and apples caramelizing during the roasting process, adding a component of sweetness to the lentil soup.

Plus a simple cayenne crème. Just crème fraîche mixed with cayenne pepper. Drizzled around the edge of the soup for visual interest as well as for a taste punch. Delicious!

And a cracker, made from the lentil soup. Just something fun. With the added benefit of a warm oven on a cold day.

In the end, something familiar with a new twist. Enough of a twist to unlock all of our prisons.

Print Recipe

Lentil Soup with Roasted Carrots and Apples, Cayenne Crème and Lentil Crackers
Based on a recipe from www.emeril.com
Adapted by surfindaave
Serves 6 to 8 as a main course

Ingredients:
2 pounds spicy Italian-style chicken sausages
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 carrot, chopped fine
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ pounds dry black lentils
5-6 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
several sprigs thyme
1-2 tbsp cumin
salt, pepper
2 gala apples, peeled
4 carrots, peeled
olive oil
½ cup crème fraîche
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste (start with less, add more to taste)
Lentil Crackers (recipe follows)
Steamed rice as an accompaniment, if desired

In a large, heavy soup pot, cook the sausages over high heat until well browned. Remove to a plate, reserving fat in pan.

Drain all but 2 tbsp of fat from the pan, and in that, sauté the onions, celery and carrots over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes. When softened, add the garlic, stirring, and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 cup of the chicken broth, and scrape up any brown bits stuck to the bottom and sides of the pan. Add the lentils, bay leaf, thyme, cumin, salt and pepper to taste, and the remaining chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Add the sausages back to the pot. Cover partially, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add additional liquid if necessary to achieve the desired consistency.

While the soup is simmering, roast the carrots and apples. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Grate the carrots and apples on the roughest side of your grater, using long strokes to get as long of strands as possible. Alternatively, if you have time and the tools, use one of those rotating potato peelers to pare the apples and carrots into super longs, thin strands. Toss the grated carrots and apples with a few tbsp olive oil. Place on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spread out as much as possible. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture has to give up a lot of water before it will begin to brown, so be patient (and watchful). When the carrots and apples have browned significantly in places, remove from oven and reserve.

Stir the cayenne pepper into the crème fraîche, taste, adjust (it should be hot, but not unbearable), and reserve.

When the lentils are tender, serve the soup in large, flat soup bowls with a heap of the roasted carrots and apples placed on top (not mixed in), and drizzle some of the cayenne crème around the edges. Place a lentil cracker on the side of the bowl. Enjoy!

Lentil Crackers
Based on a recipe from Emeril Lagasse
Makes 6 large crackers

Ingredients:
¾ cup of the lentil soup
¾ cup flour, plus extra for rolling
olive oil
kosher salt

In a bowl, mix the lentil soup with about ½ cup of the flour, mashing the lentils. Slowly add additional flour, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the mixture forms a ball. Continue to mix with your hand, adding additional tablespoons of flour, until the dough achieves a smooth, non-sticky texture and is firm like modeling clay. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, flatten to a disk, and set in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Divide the dough into six pieces. On a floured board, roll out each piece into a long, thin strip, maybe 14 inches long by 2-3 inches wide. Dust off excess flour. Place the strip on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I was able to bake three strips at a time). Brush the top lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Repeat for remaining pieces of dough.

Bake the strips for about 20 minutes, until they are lightly browned and crisp. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Lentil Soup : Lentil Cracker : Food and Dining

A Purist Dreams

2006-11-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

Three groups of people walk into a pizza parlor.

There are the, let’s call them the purists, for whom pepperoni, tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil are the necessary and exclusive components to even consider calling something a pizza. Maybe an olive or an anchovy could appear on occasion. But that’s it.

Then there’s the indulgers. Who pile the pies high with long lists of diverse ingredients on top of the poor crust, until the thing is so tall, it is hardly edible in a practical sense. Not satisfied with pepperoni, they add sausage, ham, meatballs, everything they can think of. Along with any number of different vegetables, mushrooms, who knows what all. Better to have some of everything than risk leaving anything out, is the motto.

Then there are the ones who dare to put unheard of things on top of a crust and deem it a pizza. The innovators. The dreamers. The crazy ones.

This is nothing new. There is an entire chain restaurant dedicated to offering a few dozen non-traditional ingredients on top of a baked crust, and calling it a pizza. Actually, a California pizza, to be more precise.

Generally speaking, I tend not to be much of a traditionalist. More a break the rules type. Eyes closed and jump is more in line with my motto. So, you might expect to find me in the innovators camp on this topic. And, for the most part, I am when it comes to most types of foods.

Until we get to pizza.

For some reason, well, not some reason, but for a very specific reason, that involves wonderful pizzas made by hand in a small pizza parlor after midnight, with the dough stretched to fantastic diameters, heaped high with mozzarella, spicy tomato sauce, pepperoni, and nothing else, said pizza fresh from the oven and surrounded by a dozen or so friends, for that reason, I tend towards the purists side when it comes to pizza. The memories are too strong.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I understand that pesto pizza is fine. And that teriyaki chicken and tofu and whatever can be baked onto a crust. And that it might even taste good. Good and fine in the sense that such things do not have to be directly outlawed, and that the possibility of the death penalty for even suggesting putting such things on a pizza is maybe just a bit too much. But I have never quite gotten to the point where I, deep in my soul, have agreed that such a thing is a pizza.

So when TeenGirl suggested pizza for dinner, I, of course, envisioned a somewhat purist style pie. Lots of tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni, with a pool of molten grease in the center. You know, pizza!

She, however, had an entirely different idea.

Together, we made a very nice whole wheat pizza dough (already a stretch for me to associate anything whole wheat with pizza). Which she baked with just some fresh tomatoes and goat cheese. It actually looked pretty good. Primarily because it very much resembled a purist pizza.

She then took a jump off the cliff by then making a spinach and white bean salad, with a powerful lemon juice and garlic dressing, which she proceeded to place on top of the baked pizza. Along with a few shavings of parmesan cheese.

The result, if not directly something I would deem pizza in my book, was delicious. And dramatic to look at. And, in a sense, practical. You had your carbs (whole grain of course), your protein in the form of cheese and beans, and your salad, all at once.

To balance this novel pizza concept, TeenBoy made a more purist style pie, with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni and basil. Albeit on the whole wheat crust. None the less, very good as well.

So after a slice or two of a dreamer’s innovation, which I actually enjoyed very much, I reverted back to my purist obsession. And contemplated the oddly disjointed pizza emotions raging inside me as I sipped my glass of Bordeaux.

Print Recipe

The Dreamer’s Salad Pizza with Goat Cheese
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes 2 large pies

Ingredients:
500 grams whole wheat flour, plus extra for kneading
200 grams white flour
2 packets dry yeast
pinch of sugar
1 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp olive oil
12 to 16 ounces of goat cheese
8 fresh roma tomatoes, cut into slices
1 large bunch of baby spinach
2 15 ounce cans of white beans, such as cannelloni, drained well
2-3 cloves garlic
juice of one lemon
salt, pepper
parmesan curls, for garnish

Make the pizza dough:
In a large bowl, combine the flours. Mound the flour, and make a depression in the center. Pour the yeast into the depression, add some lukewarm water, a pinch of sugar, and a punch of flour. Stir gently to moisten yeast, and let proof for 10 minutes. When yeast is foamy, sprinkle salt and olive oil around outside of flour mound. Add some lukewarm water to the bowl and begin mixing with a wooden spoon. Continue adding just as much water as necessary and mixing until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and all the flour is incorporated. Move the dough to a floured board and knead briskly for 15 minutes. Place in a warm oven to rise for 1 hour.

When the dough has risen, divide into two equal pieces. On a flat surface lined with parchment paper, roll or press dough into the desired pizza shape (round or rectangle), pushing up the edges.

Brush the bottom (only!) of the shaped dough with some olive oil.

Preheat the oven to the highest temperature it will go – mine goes to 500ºF on a good day. An oven stone is the ideal surface to bake the pizza on, but a baking sheet will do as well.

Make the pizzas:
Line the bottom of the shaped dough with slices of tomato. Crumble the goat cheese and sprinkle the entire bottom of the shaped dough evenly with cheese.

Bake the pizzas for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the crust and cheese are browned. Remove from oven.

While the pizzas are baking, whisk the lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Drizzle in the olive oil, whisking, until the dressing is emulsified.

In a large bowl, toss the baby spinach leaves with the drained beans. Pour the dressing on top, and toss well. Divide the salad between the two pizzas, heaping the salad directly in the center of the hot pizzas. Garnish with a few parmesan curls. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Dreamer's Pizza : Pizza Dough : Food and Dining

Champions Weekend

2006-11-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

I am just getting to the Thanksgiving wrap-up.

As mentioned, food took a back seat to high school sports for another weekend. TeenGirl proved to be one of the fastest running girls in the state of California on Saturday in an event that gathered all the best high school runners from across the state to Fresno for a 5000 meter (3.11 mile) race across fields, over hills, through gullies, and for some, including TeenGirl, a chance to stand on the winners podium and collect medals. As the one of best high school runners in the Sate of California.

To get to Fresno, other than the 5 hour drive north through LA, across the San Fernando valley, though the Tejon pass (4144 feet up), and then deep into the heart of the San Joaquin valley, past miles and miles of almond trees, millions of rows of grape vines all neatly trimmed and ready for next year, past thousand and thousands of cows, and literal mountains of cow poo, past huge dairy complexes and ramshackle rundown farm houses, all you have to do is run. A lot.

Run twice a day for 6 months. Every single day, never missing one. Over mountains. Through parks. Around streets with motorists who have no intention of yielding right of way to a mere runner. Through blazing afternoon heat. And chilly evenings. Wind, rain, dust, fog, whatever. At 6 am in the morning, and 10 pm at night, if need be. Usually alone, as no one else can keep up anymore, least of all me. Set some school records along the way, win lots of cross country races along the way, gather a satchel full of medals, pose for lots of pictures that eventually appear in local papers, usually just after finishing running, with sweat still dripping, hair and makeup long destroyed by wind and effort. That’s all you have to do.

You also have to put up with your overly proud father running all over the parks where the races are held, ‘cheering’ (read screaming his head off like a complete idiot), taking pictures at inopportune moments, bragging shamelessly, etc.

So, food took a backseat to a championship running this weekend.

But I did want to catch up on Thanksgiving. Of course, there was the turkey, which was great. With tons of dark meat for me. While everyone else fought over the breast meat.

As mentioned in the previous post, we made four dishes for the Thanksgiving pot-luck-pourre last Thursday.

As could have been predicted, the much anticipated Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and bacon were not the highlight of our offerings. They were very good, and the roasted sprouts could not have gone better with the chestnuts and bacon. Really a great way to combine some traditional fall flavors. And they generated lots of complements. But they were outdone by two other dishes. None the less, the sprouts, chestnuts and bacon were good enough that they were long gone before a reasonable picture could be taken.

The roasted root vegetables with caramelized pecans won hands down. Everyone agreed. Once you tried them, you could not stop nibbling away. The roasting brings out a wonderful natural sweetness to the vegetables, which the caramelized pecans complemented perfectly. The tart apples and the red onions pulled the dish back from just plain sweet to nicely balanced. The only thing to watch for is to avoid over-roasting the vegetables. This one has already made the list of Thanksgiving regulars.

Unfortunately, I could not get any pictures of the roasted root vegetables before they were gone.

Also, the cayenne sweet potato pie with pecan crust was great. Creamy and smooth, with a hint of a cayenne bite. Though not as many tried this one, possibly fearing an instant weight gain just by looking at it, those who did try it raved. So I was pretty happy about that.

The final entry, the apple galette, which I have made lots of times, and always had success with, fell victim to an error on my part. I always halve the recipe when I make it, and did so this time as well. I halved everything except the butter. Essentially using twice the butter in the Pâte Brisé dough as called for. Man, what a mess. I knew the whole time something was wrong, too. But I could not figure out what. Until we baked it. The excess butter literally oozed out of the dough. Needless to say, the dough never achieved the desired flaky crispy texture, ending up tough and chewy. So we left that one home. Just an error on my part due to too many things going on at once.

I didn't take any pictures of the galette, of course. Well, three out of four ain't all that bad!

Print Recipe

Roasted Fall Root Vegetables with Apples and Caramelized Pecans
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish

Ingredients
6 large parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
6 to 8 small beets, peeled, cut into 2 inch pieces
6 carrots, peeled, cut into 2 inch lengths
2 large tart apples, such as Granny Smith, cored and cut into eighths
2 medium red onions, each cut into 8 wedges through the core
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
2 ½ cups pecan halves
6 tbsp unsalted butter
6 tbsp sugar (we used agava nectar)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 450°.

In a large roasting pan, toss the parsnips, beets, carrots, apples and red onions with olive oil and thyme leaves. Roast in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring once or twice, until vegetables are tender and well browned. Remove from oven and keep warm.

In a small skillet, heat butter until foam subsides. Add sugar, swirling pan, until sugar melts. Continue cooking until the mixture achieves the desired caramel color. Add pecans, stirring, until they are well coated with the caramel. Pour the caramelized pecans over the roasted vegetables, and toss gently. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts
Recipe by surfindaave
Based on a recipe by Charlie Palmer
Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish

Ingredients
3 pounds small Brussels sprouts, stems trimmed and outer leaves removed, cut in half
1 pound double-smoked slab bacon or other smoked bacon, cut into lardons (1/4-by-3/4-inch rectangles)
2 cups onions, chopped
2 pounds fresh chestnuts
2 to 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
Salt, pepper
Additional thyme, for garnish, if desired

To roast the chestnuts: cut an X on the flat side of each chestnut. Roast on a flat baking pan in a 400ºF oven for 20 minutes or so, until the edges of the cuts curl back. Remove from oven to a towel, and let cool somewhat. Remove shell and inner membrane. Reserve chestnuts, ideally still as a single piece.

In a small skillet, heat bacon over medium heat, stirring, and cook until all fat is rendered out of bacon, and bacon is well browned. Remove bacon pieces to a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve fat.

In the same skillet, sauté the onions over medium heat until they are a deep golden color, about 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

In a large roasting pan, toss the Brussels sprouts, chestnuts, bacon, and onions with all of the bacon fat. Add thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Toss well. Roast in oven for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the Brussels sprouts are well browned. Remove to a serving dish. Stir in just enough chicken broth to moisten the dish. Season with salt and pepper as necessary, and sprinkle with additional thyme for garnish. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Cayenne Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Crust

This recipe is directly from Gourmet magazine, November 2005, (which you can find on www.epicurious.com)with the only modifications being that I added 2 tsp of cayenne pepper to the sweet potato mixture in the food processor, and I made a pecan and whole wheat pie crust, as opposed to the pecan and ginger snap cookie crust suggested in the magazine. We decorated the pie with some extra crust pieces cut into leaves, as well as some of the caramelized pecans from the Roasted Fall Root Vegetables with Apples and Caramelized Pecans recipe above.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Roasted Root Vegetables : Roasted Brussels Sprouts : Chestnuts : Sweet Potato Pie : Food and Dining

Pot (Luck) Pourri

2006-11-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

It’s not really a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner. As the final menu is tuned somewhat. But everyone coming is contributing something. Which, as the dishes are determined by the people coming, are announced to everyone so that a reasonable variety of final dishes can be assembled. For 26 people. Mostly family, some friends. Coming to enjoy this most lucky of pot-luck-pourris.

Being a bit in stress, as this is a week of both soccer championships (TeenBoy’s team), and the California State Cross Country Running Championship race, for which TeenGirl has qualified, being one of the fastest high school girls in California (this is also the reason that my postings have been a bit infrequent over the last few weeks - all this sports takes up a lot of time!), I was not the first to pass on a list of proposed dishes that I would be contributing to this event. In fact, looking at the current list, I am probably about the last.

It’s being hosted this year at my brother’s new house, as he certainly has by far the most room for so many people. So his family will contribute the turkey, and will be stuck with most of the mess. Been there done that many times. Usually fun until the wine buzz wears off and the mountain of dishes and assorted broken things looms. Of course everyone helps clean after dinner, but it seems there is always another mountain of mess after everyone has finally left.

Some day, I am going to just roast a turkey when it’s not a holiday. This will certainly be a shocking event for everyone here. As there seems to be some unwritten food law that roasted turkey happens only twice a year, max. And those occasions must be holidays. But everyone is raving about salting the turkey before roasting, for maximum crisp skin and juicy meat. This being the next logical progression beyond brining. Which is now apparently passé. A salted roast turkey with fig, chestnut and sage dressing? Not to mention turkey soup the next day made from the remnants. Something I want to try soon. Well, we can all dream…

So, the infamous green beans baked in the Campbell’s mushroom soup are coming. (First dish announced. Can we cancel this holiday? No? Too late?) Along with the sweet potatoes and marshmallow mixture. Another blast from the past (curse that Betty Crocker!!). At least edible. There will certainly be good things as well. Some killer mashed potatoes. With lots of butter. There are usually interesting desserts. The gravy is always one of the highlights. And, being a dark meat lover, and in the distinct minority on this issue, despite the proven fact that the dark meat is moister and infinitely more flavorful, I will have almost the entire bounty of dark turkey meat all to myself. On a 24 pound turkey, that is a pile!

So, the question becomes, what will we contribute?

For some reason, I’ve had Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts on my mind for a while. My idea is to render the bacon, and roast the chestnuts and Brussels sprouts in the bacon drippings in the oven till tender and caramelized. Maple syrup may also become involved somehow, not quite sure yet. Then toss it all with the rendered bacon. Then eat a large pile of it. As vegetables are usually not the big sellers at these events, so there should be lots for me. Is it bad form to bring something you know pretty much only you will like?

To this end, I found Italian chestnuts. These being the current foodie rage as the best tasting chestnuts. At least the sign said they were Italian. Maybe the sign is Italian and the nuts are from the tree out behind the vegetable market?

Plus some super fresh looking Brussels sprouts. And some apparently high quality thick slab bacon.

Another dish we are looking to make is a sort of fall root vegetable roast, with beets, parsnips and carrots, all roasted together with some apples for moisture. Sounded good. Again, however, something I fear will have limited appeal to the guests, being basically vegetables.

Even though sweet potatoes, mashed together with marshmallows (really!) are coming, I intend to offer my infamous sweet potato pie with pecan crust. Maybe put some candied pecans on top for decoration. This stuff has a little fire to it (cayenne pepper), and is intended for dinner, not dessert. And is delicious. Smooth and creamy. I figure that since my sweet potatoes are so different from the others, I can get away with this. On the plus side, I would be happy in no one ate any of this, and I could take the entire thing home again (more bad manners?).

On the dessert side, an apple galette, maybe soaking the apples in calvados, which is an apple brandy produced in the Calvados department of Lower Normandy, France. With some sort of flavored Crème Frâiche to go on top.

Hopefully, this is neither too much nor too little. And I am sure we do not have to worry about duplicate entries for any of these dishes from other guests. As these dishes either contain vegetables, or are a bit of work to prepare.

The sweet potato pie and the apple galette will be made today. They will keep overnight. The vegetable dishes will be made tomorrow morning, and heated through just before serving.

So here’s our proposed offerings:

Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts (with Maple Syrup?)

Roasted Fall Root Vegetables and Apples

Spicy Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Crust and Candied Pecans

Calvados Apple Galette with (Whisky?) Crème Frâiche

Hopefully some pictures and recipes later today and tomorrow as these things start to appear from our kitchen.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Thanksgiving Ideas : Food and Dining

Sourdough Experiment #6 – The Ups and Downs, but mostly Ups

2006-11-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

It really can’t be called an experiment any more.

We’ve made a different sort of sourdough bread, based on home-made sourdough starter grown right on my kitchen table, every week for a few months now. And, to my endless surprise, they turn out pretty damn good, considering I’ve never been very successful with yeast-based breads in the past. The sourdough starter bacteria really pump out a lot of gas, lifting the dough to great heights.

This is definitely the up side of the sourdough experiment. All it takes is patience. Warm days help, but are not absolutely necessary. Cold days just means more patience is necessary to allow the little bacteria time to multiply so that there are enough little gas passers to raise a dough. Eventually, this happens. And another couple of loaves of sourdough bread are ready for baking.

Another up is that the bread rises significantly as baking begins. So far in each of a dozen or so tries, the final bread has at least tripled in size by the time baking is done. Which makes for a nice, light loaf of bread.

Plus, I like the taste of the sour bread. A definite up, for me, in any event. Flavor that you cannot get in any bread from a store.

But there are the downs.

The main one being that, if you are severely mentally challenged like me, and you forget every time to save some sourdough starter for the next loaf, you really can not plan exactly when the next loaf will be ready to be baked.

So I wanted to make some of the rye and whole wheat sourdough bread for Thursday, that being Thanksgiving.

And in the weekend rush of high school sports events last Saturday, not only did I forget to save some starter before kneading the entire batch into a new loaf and popping it into the oven, but I forgot for the next two days to start a new batch of sourdough starter.

So, unless the little bacteria have a prolific non-stop three day orgy in their little bucket of flour and water, the starter I made yesterday will not be ready in time for Thanksgiving.

Maybe it is for the better. I’m not entirely sure the sourdough bread is ready for the ultimate judges panel- the relatives. These guys make Gordon Ramsey look meek. The barbs are always heated till red hot before they are slung across the table. Naturally in the guise of a pseudo-compliment. Laden however with layers of resentment and frustration and who knows what all before they are slid between the ribs and twisted, or jabbed viciously and deep during an apparent pat on the back. Maybe I can sit at the kids table during the turkey dinner. The kids haven’t reached this level of sophistication yet!

Anyhoo, last Saturday, we went for a whole wheat and oat bread with lots of molasses. Based on a pure whole wheat sourdough starter.

Though I personally prefer the natural sour flavor – i.e. sourdough bread without added honey or molasses, I am but one of many here, and my preferences usually get voted down quickly.

So we have experimented a bit with whole wheat flour based breads, which are not as sour as rye in the first place. And we have tried a few combinations of honey, looking to balance the sour flavor a bit and mollify the rest of the people who live here.

This time, I wanted to try adding oats. In the form of whole steel cut rolled oats. Supposed to be very healthy!

Plus, some super iron-rich molasses. Also highly recommended from a health perspective.

The molasses turned the bread a deep, dark brown color. And added a very striking flavor. Molasses being a more intense flavor than, say, honey. Sweet, salty, a little sulfury, all at once.

I think, however, that the addition of the oats made for a less soft crumb. The bread rose well, as the pictures illustrate. But the resultant bread was more crumbly than others. Maybe the oats interrupt the natural formation of the gluten fibers of the whole wheat flour as the bread is kneaded? Maybe I should have done something different with the oats before adding them to the dough?

I soaked the raw oats for a while in some boiling water. And then just mixed them into the starter, along with additional flour, prior to kneading. Although the oats sort of dissolved into the dough, I could tell while kneading that the texture would be a little different.

The flavor was great, however. Very rich and hearty, mainly from the molasses. Something we will certainly try again.

Recipe to follow shortly!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Wheat-Oat Sourdough : Molasses : Food and Dining

Quintessential Fall Flavors – WHB

2006-11-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Fall, crisp cool mornings with steaming cups of hot black coffee, the dog tracking footprints from the lawn thick with glistening dew throughout the house, and depositing piles of beautiful colored leaves caught in his ever-thickening fur on every chair and sofa. What could say fall more than all that? Don’t ya just love it?!

Also in season are chestnuts. One of my favorite nuts. Difficult, yes. Temperamental, I’ll give you that. But bursting with a unique combination of nuttiness and sweetness that you just don’t find in any other nut.

The trick to chestnuts is to buy them fresh, refrigerate them immediately, as they spoil very quickly, and learning the subtleties of getting the peel and inner skin off the nut before you lose your sanity.

I learned to love chestnuts in Munich, where, as in most European cities in winter, chestnuts are sold in little paper bags by street vendors freshly roasted. All you have to do is find a way to get the peel off with your gloves on. The gloves help in the sense that the chestnuts are usually (not always!) still hot, but hinder in that it is that much harder to get the thin papery inner peel off if the roasting process has not loosened it sufficiently. There was always a certain proportion that had to be tossed.

At home, the main difficulty is finding a fresh chestnut. They appear around November and December in stores, then are gone. Whether the store has actually kept the chestnut in reasonable condition prior to your purchase of it is another question. The best idea is to get the fresh chestnuts right into the fridge as soon as possible, and use them as quickly as possible. The fresher, the better.

Roasting them is not so hard, just 20 minutes at 400ºF will usually roast them sufficiently that the outer and inner peel will come off with relative ease. I have learned that no matter what technique you use to roast them, there will be some that just cannot be peeled. And I have learned to accept this as the price of enjoying fresh chestnuts as opposed to (shudder!) canned.

Since chestnuts have a natural sweetness to them, which the roasting process accentuates, I like to build on that. Whether in chestnut soup, maybe chestnuts and Brussels sprouts in bacon and maple syrup, or simply, as today, chestnuts caramelized in butter and sugar.

The chestnuts today are the eye candy to a really tasty pasta sauce based on a kobasha squash and sage mixture. The kobasha squash has a dark green outer peel, which is very tough, hiding a bright orange inner flesh. When cooked down a bit, it is sweeter and more flavorful than most other types of squashes, in my opinion. It harmonizes well with sage and nutmeg.

So this week, we made Pasta with Kobacha and Sage Sauce with Caramelized Chestnuts. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

With the natural earthy sweetness of the creamy kobacha and sage sauce, the caramelized chestnuts not only complement it wonderfully, but they make for a very dramatic presentation.

As usual, we put this on top of some whole grain pasta. Which only adds to the earthy and nutty flavors of the dish as a whole.

A very flavorful way to incorporate some of the seasonally fresh elements available only at this time of year!

Print Recipe

Pasta with Kobacha and Sage Sauce and Caramelized Chestnuts
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as main course

1 large kobacha squash, cut into sections, peeled, and flesh cubed
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 leeks, cleaned, white part chopped
Salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
6 fresh sage leaves, cut in thin strips
4 cups chicken broth
Sage leaves, sliced thin, for garnish
1 ½ pounds pasta (we used whole wheat fettuccini)
Caramelized chestnuts, for garnish (recipe follows)

Place the olive oil and leeks in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. When the leeks begin to color, add the squash and season with salt and pepper. Sauté 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, to lightly caramelize the surface of the cubes. Add the bay leaf, nutmeg, sage, and about 3 cups of the chicken broth. Cover the pan and cook until the squash is tender but still holding its shape, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Puree the sauce in a food processor in batches. Reheat the sauce in the skillet, adding additional chicken broth to thin the sauce to the desired pasta sauce consistency.
Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot, and cook pasta per package directions. Drain well.
Serve the pasta with the kobacha and sage sauce, placing several caramelized chestnuts on top, and sprinkling the pasta sauce with the slivered sage leaves. Enjoy!

Caramelized chestnuts

1 pound whole fresh chestnuts in the shell
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. With a paring knife, score the bottom of each chestnut with an "x". Roast the cut chestnuts on a baking sheet for 20 minutes. Remove chestnuts from oven and wrap in a dishtowel until cool enough to handle. Peel off chestnut shells, including the inner membrane. In a large sauté pan, melt the butter and add the chestnuts. Cook over a low flame for about 5 minutes. Once evenly browned, add the sugar and toss. Allow to caramelize for another 5 to 6 minutes.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Chestnuts : Kobacha Squash : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Anti-Smoked Out Food

2006-11-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

November 17 is the day targeted by the American Cancer Society to encourage people to quit smoking by staging the so-called Great American Smoke-Out. Originally called Don’t Smoke Day. The idea being that smokers would be encouraged to not smoke for one day, and contribute the money usually spent on cigarettes to some charitable cause. Initially a high school scholarship fund, and eventually things like the American Cancer Society.

When the idea started, more than 30 years ago, it seemed like everyone smoked. On planes, in restaurants, in hospitals, on TV, in movies, everywhere. Back before these anti-smoking campaigns, our high school was so clouded with smoke that they had to establish an outdoor smoking area for the students. Underage students. Who were doing 2 plus packs a day. When the bathroom doors opened at school between periods, smoke would just billow out like the place was on fire.

Somehow, smoking had become the sort of way to communicate the concept ‘I know it’s bad, but I still do it, so I must be bad too!’. Bad as in very cool. Which seems odd in those ‘down with the establishment’ days. Smoking being an established habit of everything establishment back then, from the military to movies to business. But the allure was too strong, the advertisements too good, and the nicotine grip too addictive.

As the Smoke-Out concept became a real movement in the late 70, kids in my first college would participate in a sort of intentionally misguided concept of their own. That being to smoke as many cigarettes as possible for the 48 hours preceding the Smoke-Out day, thereby making themselves so physically sick that they could not bring themselves to smoke on the actual Smoke-Out day itself. Thus meeting the letter of the concept, if missing the intent of the concept by as wide a margin as possible. Naturally, the long-term effect of this was an even deeper dependence on nicotine, with all its associated health effects.

Having survived college, barely, both in grades and health, things have now turned completely from trying to kill ourselves at every opportunity to looking at options to stay alive.

Anti-oxidants are now the new drug of choice. As food is metabolized and turned into energy for the body, the unwanted by-products of this process include oxygen molecules and other so-called ‘free radicals’ (subversive elements for sure! Illegal aliens of sorts?! Maybe even terrorists!?!). Smoking also apparently releases these free radicals in the body. As these free radicals rage through the body, they are thought to cause extensive damage to the body, having been identified as keys to heart disease, aging (shudder!!), cancer of various types, cardio-vascular diseases, and on and on. Anti-oxidants counteract these affects by neutralizing the free-radicals and excess oxygen. The body generates anti-oxidants naturally, but diet can play an important role in supplementing the body’s natural defenses with additional anti-oxidants. Can’t have too many, apparently!

Since oxidation is the process here, and anti-oxidants prevent oxidation, and oxidation is just another word for rust, I always wondered if we are really just talking about the body becoming, literally, rusty, and tossing in a can of primer in the form of beta carotene to try to prevent that rust from forming? Well, obviously too much time on my hands!!

In any event, in honor of the Smoke-Out day, and in memory of those odd, misguided college days and friends, an anti-oxidant meal.

Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selinium, and Beta Carotene. Those are the anti-oxidant elements that need to be added to the diet.

Of course, this time of year, the most orange of vegetables is a great source of a lot of these elements. Namely the pumpkin. Other key sources are whole grains, such as whole wheat pasta. So we constructed a meal around these ingredients. We tossed spinach into the mix as well, as it is also a big contributor to our cause.

The resultant meal is whole wheat pasta with a spicy roasted pumpkin, spinach and amaranth seed sauce, topped with a sprinkle of shredded chicken breast.

The pumpkin offers a ton of beta carotene, along with vitamin C. The whole grain pasta contributes selenium. The spinach contributes vitamin E, vitamin C and some additional beta carotene. A sprinkle of parsley on top pumps up the vitamin C some more. And a little chicken in the mix increases the selenium levels. The amaranth contributes lots of iron (which will be quickly absorbed by the body due to all the vitamin C) and protein, along with some vitamin C. So this is a seasonal meal pumped full of all four key anti-oxidants.

Now – just to be clear, these ingredients, irregardless of what quantities of them you eat will not reverse 30 years of a 2 pack a day of Camel no-filters habit. It certainly won’t hurt, but more to the point would be to quit first, then help the body clean up as best as possible.

Just to be sure my body was staving off rust at full throttle, I tossed down a few glasses of anti-oxidant rich red wine (Bordeaux 2000). And put some of that to work scraping off the internal rust as well. Better safe than sorry!

Print Recipe

Whole Wheat Pasta with Spicy Roasted Pumpkin, Spinach and Amaranth Sauce
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 6 as a main dish

Ingredients:
1 small pie pumpkin, 2 ½ to 3 pounds, cut into sections, seeds removed, peeled, and then cut into 1 inch pieces
olive oil
cinnamon
cayenne pepper
cumin
2-3 pounds chicken breasts
4 cups chicken broth
1 onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, cut into several pieces
1 carrot, cut into several pieces
8 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
4-5 tbsp amaranth seeds
6-8 sage leaves, chopped
1 bunch spinach, washed well, chopped roughly
salt, pepper
2 pounds whole wheat pasta (we used fettuccini)
parsley, chopped, as garnish

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Toss the pumpkin pieces with olive oil, and then sprinkle with cinnamon, cayenne pepper and cumin to taste. I like more cinnamon, and note that the cayenne will stay strong through the entire cooking. Roast the pumpkin pieces on a parchment paper lined baking tray for 25 to 30 minutes, until browned and tender. Remove from oven and reserve.

In a large pot, combine the chicken breasts, broth, onion quarters, celery, carrot, peppercorns and bay leaf, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a bare simmer, and cook, covered, for 30 minutes. Turn off heat, and let chicken cool in pot. When cooled, remove chicken to a plate and reserve. Strain broth into a bowl, discarding solids, and reserve.

Heat a small skillet with a tight fitting lid until very hot. Place 2 tbsp of amaranth seeds on the skillet, quickly cover with lid, and shake skillet over heat until most of the seeds have popped, 30 seconds or so. Transfer popped seeds to a bowl. Repeat procedure with more amaranth seeds until you have about 2 cups of popped amaranth seeds. Reserve popped seeds.

Place the roasted pumpkin in a food processor. Add about 1 cup of the reserved chicken broth. Process until smooth, adding additional chicken broth as necessary. When smooth, add about ¾ of the popped amaranth seeds, reserving the rest for garnish. Process the mixture, again adding chicken broth as necessary. The consistency should be that of a thick sauce, not runny.

Transfer the sauce to a large, heavy pan. Heat over medium heat, stirring. Add sage leaves, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Thin with additional chicken broth as necessary to achieve the desired pasta sauce consistency. Adjust the seasonings, especially the cinnamon. Simmer until heated through. Add chopped spinach, stirring. Cook over medium heat, covered, until spinach has wilted and is tender.

With two forks, shred chicken breasts and reserve shredded meat.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook according to package directions. When done, drain.

Place drained pasta in a large bowl (or in individual bowls). Top with pumpkin sauce. Sprinkle with shredded chicken. Sprinkle with parsley and popped amaranth seeds. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Anti-Oxidant : Pumpkin Pasta : Amaranth : Food and Dining

Fixing Things Up

2006-11-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

I am not a programmer. That is for sure. But there are a few things I want to improve here.

A few useful features, for my benefit as well as for others who may want to use the recipes.

So I added a 'Print Recipe' capability.

And even got it to actually work!

The idea is that next to each recipe is a link 'Print Recipe'. Click on it and a new window will open containing only that recipe with a black text / white background format. It also pops up the print dialog box, which you can either close, or select print to get the desired recipe on paper.

I intend to go back and add these links to previous posts. And of course they should appear next to all the future posts.

Just a little thing, but a lot of work for me!

Next will be a recipe index. As I have almost 300 recipes now. Even I can't keep them straight anymore.

Sourdough Experiment Part V – Holiday Prelims

2006-11-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is maybe my second favorite food holiday.

It misses first place because, first of all, New Year’s Eve was just made for crazy foodies willing to experiment with flavors and presentations. Guests are usually more receptive to fun ideas on New Year's Eve as well. It also misses first place because at Thanksgiving, someone always seems to bring some supposedly sentimental favorite from the past that everyone really wishes would finally be forgotten, but never seems to be (canned green beans cooked in cream of mushroom soup again?!? Yikes! Or that jiggly pink stuff that still has the can imprints on it from when it was slid right from the can onto the serving plate). That always drags down the overall effect.

For a few years, we had a sort of Prime Rib for Christmas dinner thing going on. Which made a strong run at beating out Thanksgiving for second place. But that seems to have fallen by the way side as the roast turkey fans are the overwhelming majority. I think if Norman Rockwell had just painted a rib roast instead of a turkey, we would have had a chance there. And besides, Christmas has so many strong traditions that everyone seems to expect, its just plain harder to try new things.

On the other hand, for Thanksgiving, it’s really just a matter of deciding to break out of the tried and true and slide one or two new things in every year. Some will fail, of course. But some will become instant hits, talked about for years.

Plus, Fall has such wonderful fruits, vegetables, and the weather is usually conducive to some serious cooking and eating. I love the variety of earthy, savory vegetables, like brussels sprouts with chestnuts. Maybe braised with bacon and maple syrup. Or sweet potatoes mashed up with something super spicy in them. Roasted cauliflower. Maybe with some apples as well. All sorts of squashes. Parsnips (yum!). Fennel. Beets. Pears. Nuts. The list goes on and on.

So we tried out a few things that might make the list for this year.

A new attempt at sourdough bread. This time a sort of honey rye whole wheat mix. Which I am thinking will go well with roasted turkey. Not as sour as a pure rye sourdough. But very good!

And two soups. One a roasted pumpkin with cayenne and molasses – hot! The other a roasted sweet potato (actually a yam, I guess), with ginger and lime.

This was the best rising sourdough bread I have been able to make yet. It was about 50% rye, 40% whole wheat, and 10% white flour. With some honey and some olive oil – maybe a quarter cup of each – tossed in. I think the olive oil helped make a much softer crumb. And the honey took a bit of the edge off the sour flavor. It was still there, but not in an overpowering way. It turns out that not everyone wants a strong sour flavor with every meal. Go figure!

The soups are fun ways to turn squashes into something packed with flavor.

I tossed the pumpkin in olive oil and cayenne pepper, and roasted it till well browned. I added the roasted pumpkin to a mirepoix mixture, added some chicken broth, and a good dose of dark molasses. The molasses combined with the pumpkin, bringing out some if its natural sweetness. With just a touch of sage. And the cayenne of course dropped a layer of fire on top.

The sweet potatoes were also roasted, but plain. I then combined them also with a mirepoix mixture, some chicken broth, as well as a few teaspoons of powdered ginger and some lime juice and zest. Everyone liked this soup best. Maybe because the pumpkin soup was truly hot hot hot (wimps all!). In the next version, I think I would be a bit more circumspect with the cayenne pepper, just to make sure the ginger and lime flavor of the sweet potato soup came through as well.

Placed in the same bowl, the two soups provided an interesting flavor contrast. Similar in foundation, because the sweet potato and the pumpkin have sort of similar textures. But diverse in spice and heat. I put a streak of sage infused olive oil down the middle of the bowls mainly for color, but that also added an element of flavor the meshed nicely. With the fresh bread on the side – a real treat!

Recipes will be added shortly.

Print Recipe

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Cayenne and Molasses
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as appetizer

Ingredients:
1 small pie pumpkin, about 3 pounds, cut into sections, seeds and membranes removed, peeled and flesh cut into 1 inch pieces
olive oil
1-2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
5-6 cups chicken stock
5-6 sage leaves, minced
2-3 tbsp dark molasses, or to taste

Pre-heat oven to 450ºF.

Toss the pumpkin pieces with the olive oil, cayenne pepper and cumin. Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, or until well browned in places and tender. Remove from oven and reserve.

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, celery and carrot, and sauté until softened.

Add chicken stock, molasses and sage, stirring to combine. Simmer soup for 30 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in a food processor until smooth. Add additional chicken stock to thin to desired consistency. Serve with a sprinkle of sage leaves if desired. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Sourdough : Pumpkin Soup : Sweet Potato Soup : Food and Dining

Down and Out in SoCal - No WHB :~(

2006-11-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

Well, down in any event. For a few hours. Not quite out (football to be watched!).

Between all the high school sports events, the celebration yesterday, making the petit fours the previous day, and illness today, I just could not get something together for Weekend Herb Blogging. So, a weekend off. First time in quite a few months. Feeling better now, but too late to make and post something by 3pm.

Maybe I can post what we had in mind later this evening, even if it is too late for the WHB round-up.

She’ll only be 50 once!

2006-11-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

But 29 probably for the next 20 years, just like for the last 20. I won't say who is having the birthday for fear of life-threatening bodily harm.

Seems like 50 is some sort of bad age. People not being cognac or wine. In preparation for the party, everyone wants to focus on the celebration without any mention of the age. I guess it’s not such a challenge any more in this country to make it to 50. A lot of people try to freeze time at 29. As if that is some magical number for an age. Like a numerical fountain of youth. Just keep telling everyone that and you will stay young forever.

So she is still panting after the hot young aerobics class ‘spinning’ instructor. Spinning away right next to her now early 20’s daughter panting away at the same instructor. Isn’t it nice when families can enjoy similar passions together? I would say that he’s a lucky guy, but since he is apparently gay (current boyfriend in the class as well), I guess he won’t be taking advantage of that opportunity.

Anyhoo, I wanted to make something that I might only make once every 50 years or so for this special occasion.

And I’ll tell you right up front, it was all a lot harder than it looks in these pictures.

I got inspired by the last Sugar High Friday – Petit Fours edition. Especially the entry from Cake or Death’s Liz. She made some really incredible looking stuff called plastic chocolate.

So I looked around on the Web, and found a site called Baking 911, which lists recipes for making plastic chocolate, as well as the foundational layers for the petit fours that will be covered by the plastic chocolate.

Making plastic chocolate is deceptively easy. It’s just melted chocolate, any sort, kneaded together with light corn syrup. When you mix the two ingredients, you initially get a sort of grainy sand. Continued kneading (like for bread dough) results in a smooth, supple play-dough texture. This can then be rolled out as thin as you fingers will allow you to work with it.

I initially made some Genoise cakes, one chocolate, one vanilla, from a basic recipe I found at Joy of Baking. I have never made such a cake before. My first attempt looked spectacular. Light. Fluffy. I even got it cut into three layers, and reassembled with raspberry jam between the layers. I was so proud.

When TeenBoy opened the fridge, it fell upside down onto the floor from the top shelf of the fridge. And was promptly squished to nothing, and embedded with a layer of dog hairs.

I didn’t actually cry. But it took more than a few minutes for me to catch my breath again.

Actually it was a stroke of luck. I made two more Genoise cakes the next day, the chocolate one and the vanilla one, and they both turned out better than the first one. Just to be sure, I only cut each one into two layers. So in the final petit fours, there is only one layer of jam or ganache. Three layers I could just barely pull off. I personally do not understand how the cake can be cut into four layers and still be expected to stay together.

Then we made the plastic chocolate. Half with milk chocolate, half with white chocolate. I added some food coloring drops to the white chocolate after kneading to get the colors.

The two cakes got cut, into 50 pieces of course.

And the plastic chocolate got rolled. The milk chocolate got rolled into large sheets, much like a ravioli dough. Using cacao powder instead of flour. I cut them out so they would drape over the top of the cut pieces of cake and down the sides. TeenGirl came up with the idea of folding the corners over on either side, which made the final presentation look a lot like a package wrapped in real paper.

We then rolled out the different colored white chocolate balls. I could not make a ribbon out of that stuff to save my life. It stuck to my fingers like pine tar, and had no inclination to attach itself to the chocolate wrapped cakes. TeenGirl and TeenBoy both, however, were able to make some very nice ribbon designs on the cakes.

In the end, we tried for 50 petit fours, and got about 24 finished and presentable. I think we could have hit 35 if we had to. The rest was destroyed in various ways. The dog was ecstatic. And we have lots of tasty crumbs to enjoy long after the birthday party!

Print Recipe

Plastic Chocolate – White or Milk Chocolate
Based on a recipe found at Baking911.com
With suggestions added by surfindaave

Ingredients:
1 pound white or milk chocolate, chopped into small pieces no larger than ¼ inch
½ cup light corn syrup
Food coloring (for white chocolate)
Unsweetened cacao powder (at least one cup)
Powdered sugar (at least one cup, probably more)

Heat water in a double boiler until it boils. Reduce heat to very low. Place chocolate bits in top of double boiler, and heat, stirring constantly, until most of the chocolate is melted. Remove the chocolate from the double boiler, and continue to stir until all the chocolate is melted, and the chocolate has cooled just a bit.

Stir in the corn syrup thoroughly. At first, the mixture will seem like a grainy mess, but with continued stirring, it will smooth out into a sort of modeling clay type texture. It should come easily off the sides of the bowl, and form a non-sticky (or not too sticky) ball. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap, and let sit until completely cooled and firm.

When cooled and firm, cut the ball into several pieces (4 to 8) with a sharp knife. For white chocolate, you can now dye each ball separately (see below). For milk chocolate, it’s just easier to knead a smaller ball than everything at once.

Knead the plastic chocolate as described below:

For milk chocolate:
Spread some unsweetened cacao powder on a board, and on a rolling pin. Roll one of the balls in the cacao power. With the rolling pin, begin rolling the chocolate out. It will be very stiff at first, requiring some strong force and short movements. Eventually, it will soften up, and can be rolled flat enough to fold over. Continue to roll the chocolate, turning and folding, until it is soft enough to be kneaded by hand. Continue to knead the chocolate by hand, much like for a bread dough, until it is very smooth and resilient.

The chocolate can now be rolled out flat on a cacao powder covered surface to a very thin layer, and cut with a sharp knife into ‘wrapping paper’, ribbons, or other designs.

For white chocolate:
Spread some powdered sugar on a board, and on a rolling pin. Roll one of the balls in the powered sugar. With the rolling pin, begin rolling the white chocolate out. It will be very stiff at first, requiring some strong force and short movements. Eventually, it will soften up, and can be rolled flat enough to fold over. Continue to roll the white chocolate, turning and folding, until it is soft enough to be kneaded by hand. Continue to knead the white chocolate by hand, much like for bread dough, until it is very smooth and resilient.

At this point, food coloring can be added. Wear rubber gloves! Flatten the ball out, dust it with some powdered sugar, and add a few drops (too many and the texture will get too soft to work with!!!), between three and eight drops total, and carefully knead the food coloring into the white chocolate. Colors can be mixed (blue and green to make teal, etc.), as desired. Knead until the color in the white chocolate is uniform. Add additional drops to intensify the color, but do not add too many! Wash the plastic gloves thoroughly between color applications, and be sure to dry them thoroughly as well.

The white chocolate can now be rolled out flat on a flat surface lined with max paper to a very thin layer, and cut with a sharp knife into ‘wrapping paper’, ribbons, or other designs.

Print Recipe

Chocolate or Vanilla Genoise Cake with filling
Recipe from Joy of Baking
Some adaptations by surfindaave

Note – since the procedure is identical for chocolate and vanilla genoise cakes, only the ingredients differ, I have listed the ingredients separately, but the procedure just once.

Ingredients:
Either raspberry jam (not jelly) or chocolate ganache (recipe follows)

Chocolate:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup cake flour (much finer texture than regular white flour, recommended)
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cacao powder
4 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
additional flour and butter for greasing baking pan

Vanilla:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (much finer texture than regular white flour, recommended)
4 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
additional flour and butter for greasing baking pan

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Place a wire rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven (important to ensure proper hot air flow over the top of the cake during cooking.

Thoroughly butter a 9 inch round cake pan with a removable bottom. Flour the pan, and then flour the pan again with cacao powder. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper.

In a small bowl, heat the butter and the vanilla extract until very hot in the microwave. Reserve.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour and cacao powder (or just sift in the flour for the vanilla cake). Reserve.

In a large heat-proof bowl, that fits into a pan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs and the sugar. Bring the pan of water to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low. Place the bowl with the eggs and sugar over the simmering water, and whisk until the mixture is heated to lukewarm, about 5 minutes. Do not let the egg mixture sit, or the eggs will cook!

Remove the egg mixture from the simmering water, and beat the mixture with an electric mixer at high speed until it triples in volume, about 5 minutes, and becomes thick and fluffy, like whipped cream. It should fall off the beaters in thick ribbons when done.

Carefully sift 1/3 of the flour mixture over the beaten eggs. Gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Sift ½ of the remaining flour mixture carefully over the egg mixture. Gently fold this into the egg mixture. Repeat for the remaining flour mixture.

Reheat the butter mixture until very hot. Stir. Scoop about 1 cup of the egg and flour mixture into the butter, and fold together thoroughly. Gently pour the butter mixture over the egg mixture, and gently but completely fold the butter mixture into the egg mixture.

Gently pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Ensure, by tipping just a little, even coverage in the pan. Place the pan in the oven, and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. When done, the cake will come away from the sides of the baking pan, and will be slightly springy in the center to a gentle touch.

Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. When the cake is completely cooled, run a knife around the outside and remove the side of the pan. Let the cake cool some more.

When cake is completely cooled. Set the cake on a raised surface, like a cutting block. A towel under the cake helps steady the cake and keeps it from turning during the cutting. With a very long serrated knife, and a very steady hand, begin cutting the cake into either thirds (if you're brave!) or in half by cutting in just a little ways, then turning the cake a bit, and cutting in a bit, turning, etc. Until a guide cut has been made around the entire cake. At that point, cut the cake into the desired portions, looking at both sides of the knife as you cut, ensuring both sides are in line with the guide cut.

At this point, I slid a piece of very thin but strong cardboard (actually one of those political mailers) into the cut, set a plate on top lined with wax paper, and, using the cardboard to lift, flipped the cake half (or third) onto the plate.

If cutting into thirds, repeat the above two paragraphs.

For the final piece, place a plate lined with wax paper upside down over the remaining layer. Flip the cake over onto the plate. Very carefully remove the cake pan bottom and the parchment paper round from the bottom of the cake layer.

You now have all your layers on separate plates lined with wax paper.

Spread the raspberry jelly or chocolate ganache on all except one of the layers. With someone helping, position the layers one by one over each other, and gently slide the layer off the wax paper onto the top of the other layer, ending with the layer that has no jam or ganache on top.

You now have a completely reassembled cake with filling between each layer.

Using a long sharp serrated knife and a ruler, cut the cake carefully into the desired petit four shapes. Mine were 2 inches long by 1 inch wide.

Decorate with the plastic chocolate.

Print Recipe

Chocolate Ganache
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
200 grams of dark chocolate, cut into bits no larger than ¼ inch
½ cup heavy cream

Place the chocolate bits into a very clean and very dry heat-proof bowl.

Bring the cream to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth and well combined.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Plastic Chocolate : Petit Fours : Food and Dining

Jammin’ with Mugs o’ Guava

2006-11-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

Sterilize?

Sounds too harsh. Like something from Orwell or Kafka. Something that is inflicted on unfortunate people by dark dictatorships. Not something we do in my cheery little kitchen.

Besides. Sterilize assumes you actually have something to sterilize. Like those Ma and Pa Kettle style mason jars with the funny two-piece lids.

No jars here. We don’t even have any old pickle or mustard jars that have been recently emptied, as we recycle vigorously. My bad, I guess.

But I did find some ancient beer mugs we stole decades ago (!?!) from our old college hang-out. The kind with the false bottom that is actually raised so it looks like you have more beer in the mug than you really do (how dumb could we all have been back then?).

So I washed these things of their decades of dust, collected from a half dozen states. No international dust, as they were in storage for those 12 years. But the storage probably added some interesting layers of yuck as well.

They do look clear again, not yellow anymore, so I deemed them good enough to hold my freshly concocted pineapple guava honey jam.

This was something we immediately thought of making as we tasted the pineapple guavas the other week. The taste was nice, but the effort to get the little bit of flesh out of these small fruits was significant in relation to the reward. So it seemed doing it all at once and having it available for the next month or so as a jam would be infinitely more convenient.

We went with jam, jelly being basically jam’s no-fiber cousin. The goal was to have all the fruit, not just the flavor.

We also used honey, as we are now a ‘no sugar’ kitchen. I have mentioned this before. I thought the honey would work well with the pineapple flavor of these guavas anyways.

So we cooked the pineapple guavas up. Not pectin needed, apparently. The guava must already contain enough natural pectin to create the desired gel-effect. Well, at least that is what I hoped. As all recipes I could find using guavas left out any mention of pectin.

I have to say, that whether the jem gels or not, the wonderfully sweet and fragrant pineapple aroma wafting from the kitchen that enveloped the entire house is reason enough to cook up a batch of this fruit. Wow! Like moths drawn to light, everyone began immediately coming by for a closer whiff. Hoping it was something for immediate consumption, disappointed to find they would have to wait.

I started with about two cups of pineapple guava fruit, seeds and skin removed. Tossed it with the juice of one lemon, cooked that down a bit till soft, then added one half cup mesquite honey, and one half cup agava nectar.

I boiled this mixture for a while, maybe 20 minutes or so, and tried to do the droplet test to see when it was done. Apparently, you drop droplets of the cooking jam onto a damp saucer, and observe whether is gels. If so, done. If not, cook more. The danger being that if you cook the jam too long, the result will be too thick and hard, like toffee rather than jam, to spread on toast. Well, I’m not much of a jam expert. So I dropped droplets for a while until, taking a look at what was cooking in the pan, it was clear to me that the stuff cooking would almost certainly be thick enough when cooled. I think I have to try this droplet test again sometime.

The results? Delicious. Simply delicious.

An ethereal combination of pineapple and honey. I am sure guava is in there too, but since I am not an expert on guava flavor, maybe I’m mixing it in with the pineapple. In any event, very nice.

The only disappointment, at least temporarily, is that my next batch of sour dough bread is not ready to go yet. I just started it yesterday, so it’s not even bubbling yet. It will be a rye and whole wheat combination. I guess the jam will have to wait a few days for the real taste test!

Pineapple Guava Jam
I found the initial recipe on a sort of Hawaiian recipe page, and adapted it
Recipe from Rotaman Recipes, adapted by surfindaave
Makes about 2 cups of jam

Ingredients:
Ripe guavas (I had about 2 pounds of whole pineapple guavas)
Juice from one lemon
½ cup honey
½ cup agava nectar (or use brown sugar)
Water (just enough to cover fruit)
Jam jars (sterilized)

Cut the pineapple guavas in quarters. With a sharp knife, slice the peel from the flesh. Remove the seeds. When making guava jam the outer yellow skins and the seeds are not used. Put the quartered guavas in a large heavy saucepan. Add the lemon juice, and pour just enough water into the saucepan to just cover guavas. Boil briskly until the fruit is all pulpy or soft. Remove from stove.

Measure out this fruit mixture, you should have about two cups. I combined the honey and agava nectar and used about 1 cup of that mixture to the two cups of fruit. Some might want to use more sweetener, but I found this to be plenty sweet. Put the fruit and sweetener into a big heavy saucepan and keep boiling briskly, stirring every now and then until a little dropped onto a wet saucer begins to gel or thicken.

Appearances can be deceptive, the jam mixture may look and seem to be runny, while it is boiling away merrily on the stove, but do not be fooled by this. If it is over-cooked it will become hard and almost like toffee when it has cooled down.

Remove from stove and while still hot fill all the jars. Make sure they have good tight lids. This jam can keep for months.

Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Pineapple Guava : Jam : Food and Dining

Hot and Spicy Temperament

2006-11-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

I was never much of one for cauliflower. Until two things happened.

Some years ago, a friend told me that cauliflower was that person’s favorite vegetable.

I had to stop and think about that. This was a person who had exhibited good food judgment and taste in the past. All of the sudden cauliflower. Not tomatoes, or carrots, or corn or some other more expected choice. Was I missing something here? I investigated briefly, and decided not. But it sort of stuck in my mind.

Then I began looking into hot cuisines. Like Indian. And it caught my eye how often cauliflower was paired with something spicy hot. Did they know something I did not? Most likely. In fact, of course they did! Most everyone knows lots of stuff I have no clue about. That’s pretty much a given.

So I decided to try cauliflower hot and spicy.

My experience with cauliflower till that point had been limited to bland Thanksgiving and Christmas veggie trays with onion soup mix sour cream dip set on one of those plastic trays that looked like a turkey or a Christmas tree or something similarly kitschy.

I was not inclined to explore further. But I had not really given the oddly shaped vegetable its due.

We eventually made up for this oversight by roasting cauliflower. First just with olive oil, then with ever hotter spices. Cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, cumin, etc. And the true nature of cauliflower began to emerge. Hot and spicy! Delicious.

It turns out that cauliflower has a hot and spicy temperament! Like the kind our movie star Governor Ah-nold was referring to recently (maybe he was really talking about cauliflower?!). You just would never know it to look at it!

We make spicy roasted variations of cauliflower on a regular basis now.

But today, a new dilemma was upon us. We had not only an aging cauliflower in the fridge, but also some chicken breasts. On the bone. And I was just not in the mood for some complicated fancy chicken affair. Nor did I have the time.

I was leaning towards soup. A chicken soup. Where the breasts on the bone would form the basis of a quick broth.

And as we were thinking about the soup, TeenGirl suggested we toss the cauliflower in. But that didn’t sit right with anyone. Too bland. Mushy cauliflower dissolved in some chicken broth?

Of course, maybe not so bland if we spice it up first. And roast it first. Can you put spicy roasted cauliflower into a soup? And why not?

And spicy chicken soup? That actually sounded pretty good. We had some chipotles in the fridge, left over from something. They’re hot. Chicken soup with chipotles and roasted cauliflower? Hmmm. A few more spices. Some beans (ideally pinto, but we only had cannelloni beans). Maybe some bell peppers to round out the veggies.

And roasted cauliflower chili chicken soup was born!

It may sound unusual (I am avoiding the word strange). But it was pretty damn good. The roasted cauliflower melded wonderfully with the chipotle chilies. You got the nice toasted flavor, with a nice heat, and a wonderfully fresh chicken broth all in one bite. The soup broth itself was very rich in flavor, but thin in texture, despite the beans, so we put it over a scoop of rice (brown, of course!). Something we almost always do, mainly to feed TeenBoy without going broke. You could certainly serve it without the rice as well. A complete and delicious meal in a bowl!

Roasted Cauliflower and Chili Chicken Soup
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 6 to 8 as a main course

Ingredients:
1 large cauliflower, core removed, broken or cut onto flowerets
Olive oil
Cumin
Cayenne pepper
6 split chicken breasts on the bone
1 onion, cut into quarters, not peeled
1 stalk celery, chopped roughly
1 carrot, chopped roughly
thyme
8 peppercorns
salt
2 bay leaves
2 to 4 chipotle chilies, chopped
chili powder
paprika
3 16 ounce cans cannelloni beans, rinsed
2 bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
grated cheddar cheese for garnish, if desired
cilantro, chopped, for garnish, if desired
steamed rice, if desired

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

In a large soup pot, combine chicken breasts, onion pieces, celery, carrot, thyme, peppercorns, salt and bay leaves with water to cover. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Simmer the soup, partially covered, for 1 hour.

While the chicken cooks, in a large roasting pan, toss the cauliflower pieces with olive oil, cumin and cayenne pepper. Roast for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until well browned. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the soup has cooked an hour, remove from heat and remove all chicken pieces and all vegetables. Let the chicken pieces cool. Remove the chicken from the bone, and shred it with a fork.

If possible, remove any fat that has risen to the top of the broth.

Bring the broth to a gentle boil, and add the chipotles, the beans, and the spices to taste. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add the bell pepper pieces and cook for 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and the roasted cauliflower pieces, and let heat through, stirring gently.

Put a scoop of steamed rice in a soup bowl. Ladle the soup around the rice. Sprinkle with grated cheese and chopped cilantro, if desired. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Cauliflower : Chicken Soup : Food and Dining

Popcorn of the Gods - WHB

2006-11-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

I know people have written about Amaranth before for WHB. As the greens are used in a number of cuisines. Indian. South American. Asian. Maybe not the most widely known type of green, but common enough, none the less.

So I wasn’t really looking to comment on the Amaranth greens.

But in my recent dabblings into various types of whole grains, I stumbled across Amaranth the grain. This caught my eye because of reading about amaranth the green in this forum.

And shortly thereafter, I found some recipes that use both the green part and the grain part of Amaranth to make some surprisingly tasty dishes. The grain is used both whole, popped, and ground into a flour.

Popped! Like teeny tiny pop corn! You have to read the links to see what the Gods have to do with it, but suffice to say they were Aztec Gods.

It’s sort of been the trend lately to create dishes that use many variations of, or different parts of, a given ingredient in one dish. So here comes my contribution to pop cuisine!

The other reason I became more interested in Amaranth the grain is its nutritional value. Offering a much more complete protein than almost any other grain. Putting it on par with Quinoa and Buckwheat. This is of special interest to anyone trying to reduce the amount of animal-derived protein in their diet, whether from health reasons or ethical ones. It’s tough to get sufficient protein from plants alone. So finding one that offers an especially complete array of amino acids and a significantly higher amount of protein per weight is noteworthy.

Plus, it is gluten-free. Which is also of interest to many.

Plus, to be honest, the Quinoa did not get good reviews here. I’ve made it several times, a couple of different ways, and there is always lots left over (a bad sign), and usually that eventually gets tossed (an even worse sign). Nothing against Quinoa, but there is not a tremendous amount of flavor there. The Amaranth solves that problem.

I have included a number of links to Amaranth information below. Since they lay out the history, chemistry and botany of the issue much better than I could, plus a number of interesting sounding recipes, I will leave it at that, and focus on the fun we had with this unique plant.

Except for one tiny comment – if you read the history of this fantastically nutritious grain in the links below, used by the Aztecs for thousands (!) of years, until the religiously fanatical Western ‘explorers’ came and forbid them to eat or grow the stuff, things like that make me wonder that these ‘explorers’ have ended up so unquestioningly celebrated in our history books, and also, what other things of potential value they destroyed in these self-centered fanatical pursuits. But, to the victor goes the spoils, I guess, and this is just a food blog.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-211.html
http://dmoz.org/Home/Cooking/Grains/Amaranth/
http://www.nuworldamaranth.com/content/resources/recipes.asp
http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t-135-1019/SautÃ©ingFryingStirFrying-Grains.asp
http://www.globalgourmet.com/ggt/ggt0498/ggt043098.html

The Quinoa experiences were the basis of Teenboy’s concerns when he asked me, as I was preparing the Amaranth grain dish for dinner, if this was another of those weird health diet meals. I.e. should he begin a pre-dinner heavy snacking cycle to compensate for the anticipated yucky dinner about to be served? I could offer only vague sympathies, no concrete assurances.

But one try of the Amaranth grain, and I am sold. One hundred percent. It’s good. And even better, it’s fun!

This stuff pops! Into miniature pop corn like stuff. Millions of tiny white puffs flying all over your kitchen if you’re not careful. And it’s both easy and fun to do!

So for fun, I found a few recipes that I combined into one dish that use the Amaranth grain as a whole grain, in its puffed form, and includes the Amaranth greens as well, ending up with Chicken in Amaranth Sauce with Cheesy Amaranth Grits. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored by Kalyn’s Kitchen.

When you cook Amaranth grain, it mushes up, sort of like corn meal. And makes a sort of grits. So we made cheesy Amaranth grain grits.

The puffed form of Amaranth grain can act as a thickening agent, a flavoring agent, and a decorative garnish. So me made a unique Mexican dish that combines chicken breasts with a spicy sauce based on puffed Amaranth grain, that has the Amaranth greens in it, and has a sprinkle of puffed Amaranth grains on top for both flavor and decoration.

The grits were delicious. The Amaranth grain has a very tasty nutty flavor, not too strong. It eventually cooked into a thick pasty grit. I added a heap of parmesan cheese to it, which thickened it up a bit more, and added a nice complementary flavor. Delicious. We will be making this again.

The chicken dish is based on a sauce that uses the puffed grain as a thickening agent. We first heated a skillet up until it was practically glowing. Then tossed in a tablespoon or so of the tiny grains, and quickly slapped on the lid. The stuffed began popping explosively. And filled the skillet with a layer of white puffy snow. We repeated this procedure a few times to get the two cups of puffed grains we needed. The puffed grains were then combined with chipotle chilies and chicken broth, and processed until smooth. I think you can see in the picture how thick and rich the sauce became.

The Amaranth greens were sautéed with some onions, tomatoes and spices. The puffed Amaranth sauce was added, along with the browned chicken breasts, and everything was left to braise a little, combining flavors and getting thick. Delicious. Popcorn for dinner. Easier than it sounds, very unique in flavors, and an all around wonderful dish. Low fat, full of vegetables, and full of this very enjoyably flavored Amaranth grain.

Chicken in Amaranth Sauce on cheesy Amaranth Grits
From the Web site NuWorldAmaranth.com

Recipe Category: Entree (gluten free)
This dish, and other similar chicken and Amaranth combinations, are also called mole de amaranto and tinga de pollo con amaranto, depending on the part of the country where they are found. Despite its different regional names, the dish always contains chipotle chilies.
Diet Types: gluten free, casein free
Makes 4 servings

4 boneless chicken breast halves, salted to taste
2 tablespoons corn oil
2 large white onions, peeled and cut into thin half-moons
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup Amaranth leaves, or small, young spinach leaves, cut into thin strips
1/2 lb. tomatoes, seeded and peeled
2 canned chipotle chilies in adobo
1 cup puffed Amaranth (recipe follows)
1 1/2 cups well-seasoned chicken broth
Cheesy Amaranth Grits (recipe follows)

Wash the chicken pieces and pat them dry.
In a large skillet, heat the oil and sauté the chicken until just golden brown on both sides.
Remove to a platter; add the onions, garlic and Amaranth leaves to the skillet, and sauté until the onion slices are transparent.
Place the tomatoes, chipotles, puffed Amaranth, and chicken broth in the blender, and purée.
Add the purée to the ingredients in the skillet and cook 10 minutes.
Return the chicken to the skillet and cook until the chicken is just done.
Serve some sauce over each piece of chicken and adorn with a sprinkle of additional puffed Amaranth, if desired.

Cheesy Amaranth Grits
Recipe adapted from various Internet sources by surfindaave
Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
1 cup amaranth grain
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 cups chicken stock
Sea salt or tamari soy sauce to taste
1 ½ cups grate parmesan cheese
Hot sauce, if desired
Chopped tomatoes for garnish, if desired

Combine the amaranth, garlic, onion, and stock in a 2 quart saucepan. Boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered until most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Add the grated wheeze and stir well. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil while stirring constantly until thickened. Add salt or tamari to taste.

Stir in a few drops of hot sauce, if desired, and garnish with chopped tomatoes.

Puffed Amaranth
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
Several tablespoons of Amaranth grain

Heat a small skillet with a lid that fits over high heat until it is very hot. Pour one to two table spoons of Amaranth grain into the skillet, cover immediately with the fitting lid, and begin shaking the pan. The popping should begin within a few seconds. As the popping dies down, and before the popped kernels burn, remove the skillet from the heat and pour the popped grain into a heat proof bowl.

Repeat as above to pop as much Amaranth as necessary. Do not crowd the skillet with too much Amaranth each time, or it will steam and not pop. If the Amaranth does not start popping within a few seconds, your skillet was not hot enough (my problem the first time).

The popped Amaranth can be used to thicken sauces, as a topping, in shakes, as a sort of popcorn ball, or even eaten with milk as a cereal. All these recipes are floating around on the Internet.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Amaranth : Greens : Grains : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Eternal Optimist

2006-10-31T13:49:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that one has to be, at heart, somewhat of an optimist to cook.

Whether you believe in some larger picture of the universe, or some particular religion, or are simply wallowing along in your own happy bubble, transforming raw ingredients into something more substantial requires a fundamental belief in the idea that the reward will exceed the time and effort put into the cooking.

You consider all the demands placed on the proposed dish – low fat, something new and exciting, use up that stuff in the back of the fridge, it’s a school night and everyone has to get to bed early, clothes are not fitting so well anymore, etc..

You consider the choices – seasonal produce, amount of gas left in the car, anticipated trade off between criticism and complements from different family members based on final dish prepared, the thought of having to eat rice / potatoes / pasta / whatever for the third night in a row.

You look at the alternatives – watch Monday Night Football and try to shut out the moans and whining of the starving family, make what ever you really want and try to shut out the moans and whining of the unhappy family, skip out to the nearest bar for a few weeks and try to shut out the moans and whining of the ex-family in divorce court.

In the end, you chose a path that more or less resolves all these conflicting issues. A choice that likely reflects a somewhat balanced compromise. A choice fraught with a huge logic-defying dose of optimism.

So it was. A simple weeknight. The demands already registered. A survey of the refrigerator contents already done. An agonizing resolution of the Monday Night Football dilemma more or less achieved (turns out the game was not that great).

My goal was to use up the tomatillos. And keep the dinner simple – both in execution and in clean-up. And mollify the conflicting fractions as best I could.

Solution: tostadas on whole wheat tortillas, brown rice, and fresh salsa verde. TeenBoy is happy about the Mexican food and rice, even if brown and whole wheat. TeenGirl is happy that this is basically a salad, is fairly low fat, and is all whole grain. I am initially happy in my delusion that this will be easy in both preparation and in clean-up. Optimism reigns supreme.

And, actually, each individual component of the tostada was easy. Tomatillo salsa does not take a long time. Home made refried beans are also easy, if time consuming. And taco-style ground turkey is done in no time. Chop some avocados, lettuce, cheese, and it’s go time.

But, as the evening unfolded, my optimism was put under steady and withering attack. The usual barrage of teen issues, homework (Is it done? All of it? Really done? Or just half done like last time?, etc), innocent comments misinterpreted (requiring protracted explanations of the obvious), dog behaving badly, and so on. My easy little dinner was under full attack, and with three pans plus the oven going and two chopping boards in use, optimism was fading as fast as dishes were piling up.

In the end, watching the tostadas being inhaled with frightening speed, faster than the taste sensation could possibly travel from the tongue to the brain, and surveying the looming clean-up effort in the kitchen, I think I could have just as easily tossed the entire pile of ingredients in the blender and microwaved the result. This could have then been super-injected into the teen mouths at an even faster pace, with a lot less mess to clean up.

But I did get complements from all sides. Except from the dish washing crew. The complements were not specific, as I do not think taste or visual appeal registered in the feeding frenzy, but it was enough to rekindle the almost extinguished spark of optimism for yet another day.

Tostadas with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 to 6 as a main course

Ingredients:
3 pounds of ground turkey
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp tomato paste
Generous amounts of: chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, onion powder, dried oregano (season based on your personal tastes)
2-3 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
12 whole wheat tortillas
Three 15 ounce cans of black beans
2 dried ancho or New Mexico chilies
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and cut in half
6 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
1 bunch cilantro
1 jalapeno chili pepper, chopped roughly, including seeds
juice of one lime
1-2 tsp salt
2-3 cups romaine lettuce, sliced thinly
1 ripe avocado, cut in half, pit removed, peeled, and flesh cut into this slices
2 cups Monterey jack or cheddar cheese, grated
Brown rice as an accompaniment

In a large skillet, sauté the chopped onion in olive oil until soft. Add the garlic, and sauté for a few minutes. Add the ground turkey. Increase heat to high. Sautee turkey, breaking up clumps, until most of the pink is gone. Reduce heat to medium. Add the tomato paste, and all the spices (I add a lot of chili powder and cumin, some like less). If necessary, add a little water. The meat should have a thick sauce, not be watery. Sautee the meat mixture, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to lowest setting, cover, and reserve.

Place 2/3 of the beans and their liquid, the dried chili peppers, and the minced garlic in a heavy pot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain the beans, reserving the liquid, and place in a food processor, removing the dried chilies, and puree. Add some of the liquid as necessary. Place the pureed beans back in the pot. Add the remaining beans. Bring the mixture to a boil, adding additional liquid if it is too dry. Reduce the heat to low, and cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until thick. Turn off heat and reserve.

Line a heavy skillet with tine foil, and heat over high heat. When hot, place the tomatillos, cut side down, one the tine foil (do this in two batches to avoid crowding). Place the whole garlic on the tin foil as well. Roast the tomatillos and garlic for 5-6 minutes, until well browned. Turn the pieces over, and roast on the other side for an additional 3-4 minutes, until the tomatillos are well softened. Remove them to a plate to cool. Transfer the tomatillos and garlic to a food processor. Add the cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, and salt, and either pulse (for chunky salsa) or puree. Reserve.

Heat tortillas in a dry skillet over high heat, one at a time, on both sides until crisp.

To assemble, place two tortillas on each plate. Spread some of the bean mixture over the tortillas. Scoop some of the meat mixture over the beans. Spoon some salsa verde over the meat. Top with avocado slices, shredded lettuce and grated cheese.

Serve with additional salsa verde and brown rice on the side. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Tostadas : Salsa Verde : Food and Dining

A bit of a Stretch - WHB

2006-10-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

First off, just to state the obvious, I am not a young lady, never was a young lady, and therefore have nary a clue as to what that all entails. You could probably take the sum total of my knowledge of what being a young lady could possibly mean and pack it easily, with room to spare, in a fairly small thimble. So, there is room to stretch here.

Bear with me, this will eventually be about food. Mustard spinach and pineapple guavas, if you can believe it!

I came to this rather self-evident contemplation as I stood outside, off to the side so as not to attract undue attention, with TeenGirl, as she waited for her ‘crew’ to show up and take her to a dinner and then a formal dance. The ‘Homecoming Prom’, as it known.

As a boy, such an event typically involves the excruciating anxiety of asking some girl to the dance. This is followed by a long period of doing nothing. Maybe watching football on TV, snacking, video games, etc.. Until 20 minutes before the event. When a quick shower (no shaving necessary at this tender age), application of an overdose of cologne, and the donning of some wrinkled clothes and black tennis shoes pulled out of the back of the closet, executed in rapid succession, constitute the sum total of the pre-dance preparation. Mom might stuff a floral corsage (which she took the initiative to remember to buy) into the hand on the way out the door, dad might offer some vague warnings about driving and sex, otherwise it’s time to party!

As I found out this week, the girl’s side is a bit more time consuming. Beginning more than a week before the event. Dresses. Shoes. Purses. Wraps. Hair. Face. Jesus. There seems to be no end to the details. Which have to be discussed for endless hours over the phone or per text messages. Thank God the dress didn’t have to be adjusted somehow. Hair has to be trimmed / colored / moisturized / who knows what all. I spent an hour watching a professional Clinique make-up person transform a little girl into the cover shot of some teen magazine (something between awe-inspiring and terrifying). Ten pairs of shoes left in the final round to choose from. Three wraps. An assortment of necklaces. Finally, after an unbelievable amount of preparation, none of which involved watching football or eating pizza, some incarnation of a fairy princess was ready for the ball. I was exhausted. I was glad someone finally showed up and drove her off so I could collapse and watch some football! Since at this stage it seems to be more an amorphous group of young people than any particular paring, I was not so worried about the evening.

Of course, as it turns out, at the actual dance, shoes, wraps, purses, necklaces and corsages are all discarded during the shoulder to shoulder pulsating to the dance music. The ever increasing temperature of the gymnasium does a job on the makeup and hair as well.

And the thing that struck me, while standing outside observing these tennis shoe clad young men in wrinkled blazers and shaggy hair chatting with these transformed fairy princesses, is that this is really a lot like much of the dishes I prepare day after day. (How’s that for a stretch?!)

Isn’t it the case that some dishes seem to require the most tedious of procedures, tons of time, a huge number of delicate steps, to coax the exquisite flavors and colors out of the combination of ingredients? While other dishes are, in comparison, practically slammed together, ingredients barely transformed from their original state, flavorings added with abandon as the concept of ‘too much’ does not apply, the appeal being the earthy and full-bodied tastes and textures of the ingredients themselves?

Who hasn’t fretted over a delicate soufflé, or maybe some dish that requires multiple individual components, sauces, purees, braised items and some tricky garnishes coming together at the end, along with planning and procurement that stretches out over days? Hoping to achieve that lightness, that fusion of elements, which bring diners to culinary ecstasy? I can get just as excited over a beefy chili, redolent with almost too much garlic and enough chili peppers to take the top coating off the tongue.

Both elicit ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ and prodigious praise if executed well. And of course, both are ripped to shreds shortly after their presentation in the process of the actual dinner.

And this has to do with WHB how? Well, I said it would be a stretch!

This week, we were able to get to our farmer’s market for the first time in a month. And promptly found two things we had never seen before. Mustard spinach, also known as Japanese spinach, and pineapple guavas.

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/komjapmusspi.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Brassica+rapa+perviridis
http://gurneys.com/product.asp?pn=14574&bhcd2=1162139411

http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-feijoa.html
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/feijoa.htm
http://www.foodsubs.com/Fruittroex.html

I was told that the mustard spinach is best cooked somehow, and I immediately thought of a frittata for Sunday breakfast. For this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Fiber of 28 Cooks.

The mustard spinach is somewhat hardier than ‘regular’ spinach, with thicker stems and leaves. This is a characteristic that I liked, as it held up much better to cooking. Instead of dissolving to a tiny pile of limp, soggy goo, the mustard spinach retained a lot of its volume and shape during a quick sauté with onion and red pepper. It also did not release nearly as much water as I would have expected, and lent itself very well to a frittata. Too much water here would have ruined the texture of the result.

And it had flavor. My main complaint with spinach is its lack of flavor. I much prefer chard, of beet greens, to spinach, especially when cooking.

But the mustard spinach delivered on flavor as well. Nothing overpowering. Delicate. But definitely there. It gave the basic frittata a very nice flavor and texture.

The pineapple guava became part of the fall fruit platter. When people mention fall fruit, most likely think of pears and apples. But persimmons, guavas, pomegranates, grapes, and many other fruits are at their peak now as well.

The inner fruit of the pineapple guava delivered the expected subtly sweet guava flavor with a very light pineapple note. Very nice. The entire pineapple guava fruit is edible, however, with the peel adding a distinctive sour bite. Eaten as a whole, it tastes sort of like a Starburst candy – sweet and tart in the same bite.

Taken together, these discoveries made for a very flavorful meal!

Mustard Spinach Frittata
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
½ red pepper, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
a large bunch mustard spinach (consisted of about 8 individual plants), washed well, left wet, chopped roughly
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of mace
pinch of allspice
salt, pepper
8 eggs
½ cup milk
2 cups grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese

Sautee the onion and red pepper in olive oil in a large oven-proof sauté pan. When softened, add garlic, and sauté for a few minutes. Add the spinach to the pan, toss, and cover with a large lid. Sautee the spinach, stirring frequently, until it is softened. Remove the lid, increase the heat, and let any liquid evaporate. Add the spices and salt and pepper, and toss well.

Reduce the heat to low.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and 2/3 of the cheese. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the vegetables. Cover the pan with a large lid, and cook over medium low heat without stirring until bubbles form across the entire surface of the frittata. Remove the lid, sprinkle the top of the frittata with the remaining grated cheese, and place the entire pan under the broiler. Broil until the top is well browned and puffy, but not burned. Remove from broiler. Let stand a few minutes (helps the eggs set, makes it easier to cut). Cut into pie wedges with a sharp knife. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Mustard Spinach : Frittata : Pineapple Guava : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Petits Fours, Mignardises or Friandises? You decide! - SHF #24

2006-10-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well, they’re not exactly ‘petits fours’ in the classical sense. As they never came near a hot ‘four’, spending most of their time in the chilly ‘frigo’.

Maybe they fit more in the ‘magnardises’ arena. Although I might not go directly to ‘delicate’ in describing these tasty adult treats. Well, mousse can be described as delicate, I suppose, until you add all the alcohol.

Certainly ‘friandises’ would apply. Albeit in the spirit of the ‘La Toussaint’ holiday, which is just a few days away on November 1st.

What with Halloween, not to mention All Saints Day, close on our heels, and everything turning orange anyways (fall foliage and raging brush fires here in SoCal), I guess I got carried away in the spirit of the season.

Don’t the kids get enough attention, not to mention sugar overdose, this time of year? While you’re sitting home, protecting your property from pint-sized pumpkin smashing and toilet-paper tossing vandals, wouldn’t it be nice to be munching on a whisky-laced bite of heaven made just for you? Letting the little ones squirm at the door for a moment while you savor another bite of your amaretto-laden chocolate bliss. Popping another limoncello and vodka infused eye-ball to help numb the cascade of shrill tiny voices chanting “Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!” for the one millionth time?

Well, even if you not the complete Scrooge or Grinch depicted above, these ‘friandises’ are pretty damn tasty! And a fun way for those handing out the treats to enjoy a tasty holiday as well!

So I made some:

- Whisky Roasted Pumpkin Mouse in Dark Chocolate Cups with Whisky Caramel Pumpkin Seeds

- Amaretto Dark Chocolate and Pumpkin Chocolate Jack-O-Lanterns

- Limoncello and Vodka Eye-Ball Jello Shots

for Sugar High Friday #24, sponsored by Jeanne, of Cook Sister!.

That’s my contribution to this month’s Sugar High Friday #24 – ‘Petits Fours, Mignardises or Friandises’ Edition.

Whisky Roasted Pumpkin Mouse in Dark Chocolate Cups with Whisky Caramel Pumpkin Seeds
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes 8 to 10 desserts

Ingredients:
1 sugar pumpkin, about three pounds, cut into sections, seeds removed, peeled, and flesh cut into 1 inch pieces, reserving the pumpkin seeds
Olive oil
¾ cup whisky
1 packet gelatin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tap ground ginger
4 eggs
2/3 cup agava nectar or sugar
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces fine quality dark (70%) chocolate, chopped very fine into pieces no larger than ¼ inch.
8 small foil muffin molds
½ cup green pumpkin seeds (pepitos)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp agava nectar or sugar
2 tbsp whisky

In a small ceramic bowl, melt the chocolate in a microwave by heating for 30 seconds, and then stirring well. Repeat cycle 2 or three times, until chocolate can be stirred smooth. (At this point, you can temper your chocolate if desired).

Working with one foil muffin mold at a time, holding it on its side, spoon the melted chocolate onto the sides of the foil, turning the foil to completely cover the sides evenly. Pour any excess chocolate back onto the bowl. Set the foil down on a baking tray (the chocolate from the sides will run back down and cover any holes in the bottom, so concentrate on making the sides as even as possible). Repeat this for the remaining foils. Set the finished foils on the baking tray in the refrigerator for several hours to set.

Pre-heat the oven to 450ºF.

While the chocolate cups are setting, toss the pumpkin pieces with some olive oil, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast in oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally, or until they are well browned all over, but not burned. Remove from oven, let cool, and reserve.

When the pumpkin pieces are cooled, puree them in a food processor, scraping down the sides as necessary.

In a small bowl, mix the whisky and gelatin, and let soften for 5 minutes. Heat the mixture in a microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval, until the gelatin is dissolved. Alternatively, heat the mixture in a small pot until dissolved. Let cool.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the agava nectar (or sugar) for 5 minutes, until the eggs are pale yellow. Mix in 1 ½ cups of the pumpkin puree, the whisky mixture, and the spices. Combine well.

With cleaned chilled beaters, beat the heavy cream until it holds stiff peaks. Fold about ¼ of the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture thoroughly. Gently fold the remaining whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture until just combined. Place in refrigerator to begin to set for one hour.

Carefully peal off the foil from the chocolate cups (they break very easily!). Set the cups back down on the cold baking tray as they are peeled. Scoop some of the pumpkin mousse into the chocolate cups, heaping it slightly above the rim of the cup. Place the filled cups back on the baking tray, and the tray back into the refrigerator for several hours to set completely.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat, and add the butter, agava nectar (or sugar) and heat without stirring until it caramelizes. Carefully add the whisky, and heat until it melts again. Add the pumpkin seeds, and cook for a few minutes. Turn out onto a plate lined with parchment paper. Let cool, and separate seeds.

TO serve, arrange several whisky pumpkin seeds on top of each chocolate pumpkin mousse cup. Serve. Enjoy!

Amaretto Dark Chocolate and Pumpkin Chocolate Jack-O-Lanterns
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes 8 to 12 Jack-o-Lanterns, depending on size

Ingredients:
12 ounces dark (70%) chocolate, chopped into pieces no larger than ¼ inch
2/3 cup heavy cream
¼ cup Amaretto
12 ounces white chocolate, chopped into small pieces no larger than ¼ inch
Orange food dye
Green food dye
Wooden skewers

In a small pan, bring the cream just to a boil. Put the dark chocolate shavings in a heat-proof bowl, and pour the cream over the dark chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Add Amaretto, and stir until well combined. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour, until firm, but not hard.

With a tablespoon, scoop out balls of ganache, and roll them gently in your hands to a ball shape. Place on a tray lined with parchment paper. Chill for one hour. Roll in your hands again, smoothing them gently into the final ball shape. Chill until firm.

In a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water, heat the white chocolate, stirring, until it melts. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Add orange food coloring (red and yellow) to create desired pumpkin color. Holding the dark chocolate balls one at a time in a spoon over the white chocolate bowl, spoon the white chocolate over the balls, covering them completely. Tap the spoon on the rim of the bowl to help the excess white chocolate run off and to get a smooth coating. Place the coated balls back on the parchment-lined pan. Repeat for the remaining balls. Place the finished balls back in the refrigerator until firm.

Reheat the white chocolate and repeat the coating procedure as above, giving each ball two complete coats of orange colored white chocolate. Return the balls to the lined pan and refrigerate until firm.

With a very sharp small knife, carve away the outer orange layer of white chocolate to form the desired ‘carved pumpkin’ image – scary, funny, it’s only limited by your imagination and patience! Carefully remove all of the carved away orange areas and any resulting debris. Place the carved balls back in the refrigerator until firm. Touch up any carving ‘irregularities’, and clean up the finished carved ball as necessary.

Cut the wooden skewers into 1 ½ inch lengths. Color with the green food coloring. Heat the cut skewer pieces in the microwave for a few seconds till warm, and carefully push them into the tops of the balls to form the stems of the pumpkin.

Make a somewhat darker shade of orange than the color of the balls, and with a toothpick, draw lines to look like the segments of a pumpkin. Chill the final result until very firm. Enjoy!

Eye-ball Jello Shot Recipe to follow shortly!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : SHF : Sugar High Friday : Pumpkin Mousse : Truffles : Jello Eyes : Food and Dining

A Wasteful Youth

2006-10-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

When I was young, we just tossed all the leftovers. In-sink garbage disposals, trash compactors, new gadgets were designed just to get rid of the leftovers. Eat ‘em? Yuck! Eventually we got a dog, and he became the primary leftover disposal concept.

You never saw Margaret serve Jim (Father Knows Best) any leftovers. June certainly didn't spend her time bundling up whatever Wally and the Beaver didn't finish for the next day. And nary once did Alice hear complaints from the Brady kids on this subject. Did we all just collectively forget what to do with them? Or maybe the concept of leftovers didn't fit into those prosperous boom times?

Seems unbelievably wasteful now. I knew then, and still know, people who categorically refuse to eat something that is left over from a meal.

But before super markets, nutrition was too hard to come by and too precious to just throw away.

Fried rice. Minestrone soup. Hash on the day after roast beef. Recycled leftovers all.

Seems like every food culture has come up with lots of ways to deal creatively with leftovers. Food cultures that involve a lot of bread seem particularly prolific in dealing with leftovers.

Such as Germany. Big bread eaters. They often make bread dumplings. Taking stale bread, moistening it with milk, some eggs, onion and parsley. Then simmering balls of the dough like pasta, and serving them with a lot of gravy.

Pain Perdu, one of my favorites (French Toast over here), is an ideal way to use up those leftover ends of French baguettes that have gotten too stale to enjoy.

Bread pudding, Tuscan tomato and bread soup, bread salad (panzanella), the list goes on. To my surprise at the time (long ago), bread crumbs and croutons are not things that turn up in cellophane bags in the grocery store in every country on earth. In many places, these things are produced continuously, at no extra cost, as the daily fresh bread that does not get eaten is saved for a day or two and used some other way.

What brought all this thinking on, in a round-about way, was an interesting looking ricotta and tomato tart I had seen in the Weekend herb Blogging round-up at a Blog called Experimentation of Taste, by Crispy. And it occurred to me that I had a container of ricotta in the fridge that was not getting any fresher. Screaming to be made into some ravioli, or something.

But there is no time for making ravioli this week. Even in my dreams, I’m too busy to pull that off.

And that tart looked delicious. Bright roasted tomatoes. Creamy ricotta. Basil. I had everything on hand, and I felt everything would be acceptable to the critics here, until we got to the crust. No bread crumbs. And anyways, I can’t get anyone to eat bread crumbs, even panko style, except me.

But, this is fortunately where my miserly habits and knowledge of international leftover culture came in handy. Because I don’t throw leftovers away until someone pries it, occasionally green and fuzzy, from my desperate hands. So I had some failed sourdough whole grain bread, a good week old, sitting around becoming despondent. And it took just a few minutes in the food processor to turn this very healthy, if dry and dense, bread into some great tasting bread crumbs.

And there we were. With a variation of the ricotta tart that was maybe a bit heavier and earthier of crust than the Experimentation of Taste version, but pretty much the same else wise.

Naturally, since I can’t seem to make anything without changing it a bit, I used all the rest of my ricotta, which was a good 2 cups instead of the suggested one, and increased the eggs to 3 from 2 to compensate. And we tossed in more grated cheese than suggested as well. Well, TeenBoy did. Mainly because TeenGirl was not around to stop him. The result of this seemed to be that the tart took longer to bake. I left it in the oven for a full hour at 450ºF before it seemed ‘done’. But I can tell you, it was just as delicious tasting as the original picture looked!

On the side, I made a simple wheat berry salad. Just wheat berries, cooked in chicken broth and thyme, with a little orange juice and zest, and some cooked chicken and parsley tossed in at the end. This really complemented the tomato ricotta tart nicely.

Ricotta and Tomato Tart
Recipe by Crispy
Found at: Experimentation in Taste

My modifications were to increase the ricotta to about 2 ½ cups, the eggs to 3, the grated parmesan to ¾ of a cup, and I used fresh whole rye sour dough bread crumbs. The baking time seemed to increase as well, to about an hour, same temp. Otherwise, everything the same!

Wheat Berry Salad with Chicken
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 6 as a side dish

Ingredients:
3 cups soft wheat berries
5 cups chicken broth
fresh thyme sprigs
juice from 1 orange
zest from one orange
salt, pepper
2 chicken breasts, cooked, de-boned and cut into small cubes
1 cup parsley, chopped

In a large pot, combine wheat berries, thyme, chicken broth, orange juice and orange zest. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 60 minutes, adding additional water if it dries out. The result should be moist, with just a little unabsorbed broth. Stir in the chopped chicken, heat through for a few minutes, and stir in the parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Tomato Tart : Wheat Berry Salad : Food and Dining

The Sourdough Experiment Part IV – And It from the Ashes arose like a Phoenix

2006-10-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

As promised, it rose. And rose. And then it a-rose some more.

Maybe not exactly from actual ashes, more like the ashes of the last disaster. Into a veritable tower of a loaf of bread.

This is without a doubt one of the best rising breads I have ever made. All sourdough starter, no yeast.

The sourdough starter took longer than last time. Which I attribute to the somewhat lower daily temperatures, what with fall being in full swing. But eventually, it started bubbling up like crazy.

This starter was again 100% whole grain rye flour and water. It took about 5 days of ‘feeding’ and being placed in the warmest room during the day to get it up to full strength. I could tell it was ready as after ‘feeding’ it, it would start bubbling immediately and double in bulk within an hour or two. It deflated during the cool nights, but was back to work as the day heated up.

For this loaf of bread, I used the 100% rye starter, and mixed in an equal mixture of whole wheat flour and white flour to make the final dough. Ending up with roughly 50% rye, 25% whole wheat and 25% white flours in the final dough.

I did this for two reasons. One, to give the rye flour, which is inherently poorer at holding the trapped air in the dough bubbles, some reinforcement. Secondly, just to see how the whole wheat did in general. And it did great!

I also added a pinch of salt to the dough, as well as a few tablespoons of olive oil.

The resultant bread has a wonderful texture. A nice light, soft, fine grained crumb. And an incredibly tasty sourdough flavor. Not at all heavy. The rye and sourdough flavors are very dominant. Despite the giant size, very suitable for sandwiches. And with a flavor able to stand up to the heartiest of soups, stews, lunch meats, cheeses or mustards.

I baked the bread in an old ceramic baking dish that I have had for years and years. It is not designed for bread by any means. It is more intended for braising stews and Oso Bucco in the oven. But the size seemed like a good fit, and I wanted to see if preventing the dreaded ‘run out’, i.e. the bread rising in a horizontal direction due to lack of containment, would allow it to rise better vertically. And it did. So, despite the odd shape of the resulting loaf, I think I have found my bread pan.

Rye and Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes one humongous loaf, or maybe two medium loafs

Ingredients:
Rye Sourdough Starter (recipe follows)
600 grams whole wheat flour (includes extra for kneading)
600 grams white flour (includes extra for kneading)
dash of salt
2-3 tbsp olive oil

In a large ceramic bowl, combine starter and about ½ of the whole wheat and white flours, the salt, and the olive oil. Combine, adding enough additional flours until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball.

Move the dough to a floured kneading board. Knead the dough vigorously, adding additional flour as necessary to prevent sticking in the first 5 to 10 minutes of kneading, and adding as little as possible in the last 5 to 10 minutes of kneading, for at least 15 minutes. I put a 10 pound weight on my kneading board to help stabilize it (this helps a lot), and scrape the dough that sticks to the board away every few minutes with a pancake turner. Both these tricks help reduce the amount of extra flour that has to be used, especially in the last few minutes of kneading.

Move the dough to a well oiled (I used olive oil) ceramic baking dish that is at least twice as big as the initial dough, shaping the dough to fit in the bottom of the dish. Let the dough rise, lightly covered, in a warm place, until it is two to three times its initial size. This took about 2 to 2 ½ hours for mine.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Place the bread in the middle of the oven, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes (I baked mine for 1 hour, as I am always concerned that it bakes all the way through). Remove from oven, and let cool. Slice. Enjoy!

Rye Sourdough Starter
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes starter for one loaf

Ingredients:
600 grams whole grain rye flour
Lukearm water

In a non-metallic bowl, combine 100 grams of flour, and 150 grams of lukewarm water. Stir. Cover lightly – ensure plenty of air can get to the mixture. Let sit in a warm place to 24 hours.

Add 100 grams of flour and 100 to 150 grams of lukewarm water. Combine well. The mixture should be like a thick pancake batter. Cover loosely, ensuring plenty of air can get to the mixture. Let sit in a warm place for 24 hours.

Repeat this procedure for another day or so. You should see the mixture start to bubble a little bit after the second day. By day three or four, it should be clearly bubbling and smelling sour. The mixture is ready to use when it bubbles up to at least twice its volume within a few hours of sitting in a warm room. Note – mine deflated a lot a night (cool), but perked right back up as the day warmed up.

To use – reserve ¼ to ½ cup of the mixture for the next starter. Place this in the fridge. It keeps for a week or so. Use the entire rest of the starter mixture for the recipe above.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Rye Sourdough : Sourdough Starter : Food and Dining

A Gold most Precious - WHB

2006-10-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

You know you’re popular when your continued existence is 100% dependant on the altruistic generosity of others. That without non-stop, dedicated efforts by untold millions over the millennium, you would no longer be a living member of the planet. Just a dusty golden memory.

Saffron, whose name derives from the Latin – Italian – Spanish words, which in turn derive from the Arabic word for yellow, ‘afar’, and in turn the Arabic word for the spice, ‘zafarān’, has enjoyed just such popularity for over 4000 years.

The flower producing saffron is sterile. Unable to reproduce on its own. 100% dependant on the efforts of growers of the host plant, the saffron crocus, for its continued existence.

This sterility situation originated from efforts by ancient saffron agriculturists to create a strain of saffron crocus with ever longer stigmas. The stigmas being the deep golden threads that are carefully plucked from the flower and dried. Three tiny stigma threads per flower. That’s a lot of flowers and nurturing to supply the world with the necessary pile of fried saffron.

There are different grades of saffron. It turns out that most mere mortals usually get a mild variant grown in Spain. This variant lacks the vibrant color and has a subdued flavor compared to the ‘real’ stuff. The ‘real’ stuff is grown primarily in the Kashmir region of India, where weather and politics make it tough to get for Indians as well as those outside India. There is also a region in Italy that produces a superior type of saffron. But unless you’ve got three Michelin stars, you are probably not getting much of that stuff. And irrespective of the price in the local grocery store, or package labeling indicating the saffron being a product of India, you are most certainly getting the milder Spanish saffron.

None the less, there are certain dishes that simply require its presence, mild or authentic.

Certainly color is one reason. Saffron imparts a beautiful hue to dishes. Like risotto Milanese, or paella.

But the flavor is also a big part. Maybe a little bitter. Maybe somewhat floral. But in any event unique. It is that certain something that transforms an ordinary assemblage of ingredients into something special.

Of course, anything that has been in the consumption chain for thousands and thousands of years has every possible benefit attributed to it. Originating in the Mediterranean region, apparently in Crete. From there, it spread across Northern Africa and eastward into Asia. It was used in cooking, perfumes, art work, medicines, seemingly everything.

The saffron I used today is certainly of the milder variety. But, as mentioned, Paella is just not Paella without saffron. Even if I am hesitant to toss in enough of the stuff to achieve the culinary taste sensation that has dazzled humanity for 4000+ years.

So, whether real or imagined, we enjoyed the brilliant color and unique flavor of saffron in a chicken paella. For this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Pat of Up A Creek Without A PatL

As a twist, I made the paella with ‘brown’ short grained rice. This in our continuing exploration of the whole grain life style. Or maybe it’s the do what’s necessary to appease the bickering factions life style. The brown rice kept TeenGirl happy, the chicken and lack of sea food kept TeenBoy happy. The absence of protracted arguing kept the Serendipitous Chef happy.

Plus, in a nod to the ferocious level of activities going on around here lately, I endeavored to do it all in a single pan. To minimize clean up.

To do this, I first roasted the chicken pieces in olive oil under the broiler until browned on all sides in a large roasting pan. I then roasted the onions and red peppers in a little olive oil under the broiler in the same pan. I then combined all the ingredients in the same roasting pan, brought the whole thing to a boil on a couple of burners, and moved it to the oven to finish. The result was triply satisfying – great flavor, vibrant color, minimal clean up.

Just the thing when you’re about to collapse after a 20 hour day.

(Well - I got one not too clear photo of the paella, my camera batteries died, my second set of batteries were gone from excessive photographing earlier in the day, and by the time the batteries got charged, the food had been eaten! Must have been good!!)

Brown Rice Chicken Paella
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients:
4 pounds boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 red peppers, cleaned, cut into 1 inch pieces
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1-2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp paprika
1 gram package dried saffron threads
sprinkle of turmeric
salt, pepper
1 32 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes with juice
2 cups frozen peas
8 cups chicken broth
2 ½ to 3 cups short grain brown rice
Parsley, chopped, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for garnish

In a large roasting pan with high sides, toss the chicken pieces with olive oil, and roast under the broiler, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides. Remove to a plate and reserve.

In the same pan, toss the onion and red pepper pieces in olive oil, and roast under the broiler until softened, and all liquid has evaporated.

Turn to oven to 400ºF.

Move the pan to the stove top, setting it across two burners. With the burners on medium, add the cumin, paprika, turmeric, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and stir. Add tomatoes, breaking them up with a wooden spoon as you stir. Cook until most of the tomato liquid is gone. Add the peas, chicken, saffron, rice, and enough chicken broth to cover. Increase the heat on the two burners, and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. When the mixture comes to a boil, move it to the oven.

Roast the paella for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, adding additional chicken broth as necessary, and checking the rice (at the bottom of the pan) to ensure it is completely done. When rice is completely cooked through, remove from oven, and let sit for a few minutes. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley and a wedge of lemon. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Paella : Saffron : Brown+Rice : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

The Sourdough Experiment Part III – It was Murder!

2006-10-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

My initial success with the sourdough bread encouraged me to try to make some more.

But things went awry. Badly. Murder or suicide. Call in CSI:SoCal!

I won’t try to blame outside events on this gruesome situation. It’s easy to do when you are still in shock. Mourning, as it were. The lost potential of all those little bacteria.

The outside event that took up a lot of time was this jury duty, which I have mentioned recently. It’s not the jury duty per se, but having to fit all the other things in around the jury duty. In the end, the warning signs were there. I should have noticed the murderous glint in the perpetrators eye, the malicious sneaking around after everyone else had gone to bed. But I was too rushed during the day, and too tired at night. Lame excuses, I agree.

The sourdough starter died. That is for sure. A limpid, murky pool of liquid. No bubbles. No live bacteria. Nothing but a bad smell. Which I was forced to wash down the drain.

I thought for a long time about how this had happened.

For survival, you need air, water and warmth. Pretty much in that order.

Air seemed to be everywhere, so I focused elsewhere.

Did I not mix the starter correctly? Wrong proportions of flour and water? No. I remember measuring everything using my kitchen scale.

Did it suddenly get too cold for the starter to grow successfully? That was my theory for a while, as the temperature had dropped a bit that week. But still, were talking temps in the 60s and 70s instead of the 80s. Not really winter’s frosty chill. So that theory waned.

I was back to incorrect measurement of flour and water. As the starter had separated into a layer of damp flour, with a layer of brown water on top. Maybe too much water had sort of asphyxiated the little bacteria. The water layer preventing them from getting the necessary air.

Finally, long after the fact, the true circumstances of the ‘murder’ became clear to me.

And in the end, murder it was. Murder by suffocation. The little bacteria were slowly starved of air until they died en mass. Shudder!

With this starter, you are supposed to ‘feed’ it every day by adding 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water, stirring, and setting it in a warm place, loosely covered. I did this feeding in the evening, just before bed. Setting the container lid slightly ajar, and the container on the top of the fridge, as that is as warm a place as any.

After I had done this, the murderer came by and simply snapped the lid down on the container. Sealed it tight. Every night. It remained sealed until the following evening, when I opened it, not even consciously realizing it was sealed, and ‘fed’ it. This continued for a few days, until the little guys had all died. And I was left with a gooey, very dead mass.

The judge declared unintentional ‘bacteria’-slaughter, and let the perpetrator off with a warning. There’s justice!

So now, wiser and hardened by the grim experience, I am at it again. A new starter. And through my vigilant guarding of the starter, it is clear that bacteria are multiplying at a ferocious rate. This stuff could lift the Titantic. More sourdough bread is on the way!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Sourdough : Food and Dining

Michelangelo steals Halloween, leaves the seeds

2006-10-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

Pumpkins got complicated.

When I was younger, before TV and cars (well, before iPods and cell phones anyways), pumpkins were simple. Round orange things that appeared shortly before Halloween, were smashed to bits on Halloween eve, and not seen again for a year.

Pumpkins involved triangles. Several appropriately spaced triangles. For eyes, nose, and even the mouth was really just some conjoined triangles. At least, that’s how they were cut out. All able to be carved by very young hands using very dull knives.

And pumpkins involved seeds. Which were spit at other siblings. At the dog. At various targets around the house. And for maximum distance competitions. Seeds popped up the entire year. Hidden under furniture, victims of errant attempts to hit something with the slippery little projectiles.

Oddly enough, we never ate either the seeds or the pumpkins back then. When spitting was done, and trick-or-treating over, everything was tossed. Too bad.

Nowadays, pumpkins are complicated. They have to be carved into incredibly intricate designs using complicated stencils and tricky little ‘knives’ and miniature saws specially designed the purpose. Each one takes hours and hours. Assuming you can get it to look anything like the stencil. It’s like Michelangelo stole Halloween.

The first time we saw these new, complicated pumpkins, two conflicting thoughts crashed into our minds. You could see in the kid’s eyes that we were going to have to have these things. And you could also see in their eyes that they knew they would not be doing the carving.

They argued for a week about which design they had to have. I anguished for a week over all the time it was going to take me to try to pull one of these fancy carvings off. Assuming I could even do it. Of course there is a kit you can buy with everything necessary (except patience and valium). And of course the instructions say it’s easy. Even though it’s not.

So for several years, Halloween was all about my ability to do a Michelangelo on a pumpkin. Eventually, everyone got old enough to try it on their own. And of course, when the pumpkin inevitably gets smashed on Halloween night, which is really the main reason for the holiday in the first place, everyone cries. And of course, even if the intricately carved pumpkin is kept in a window, safe from vandals, it molds immediately, and everyone cries as the dripping, oozing mess is shoveled into a garbage bag.

But all that has ended. Now pumpkins are about soup, and ravioli, and especially about the seeds. Of course, a great advantage of the seeds is they don’t have to be carved. They remain within my grasp.

I got to like the seeds when I discovered that they can be roasted with additional flavorings. Flavorings like cayenne pepper. Or cinnamon. Things that take the simple seeds beyond the ordinary and turn them into addictive snacks.

This year, I will certainly carve one big pumpkin for display. And cook many, many more. One or two more carved ones may appear if homework, parties and sports schedules permit. And that makes for a bunch of seeds.

So I usually roast the seeds. In olive oil. Ideally with a liberal sprinkling of something hot and spicy. As mentioned, cayenne being my personal favorite, although Tabasco works, along with other hot things.

But this year, while wandering around the internet, I stumbled across a very simple recipe for seeds that are both spicy and caramelized. Hot and sweet. Now that’s a treat I couldn’t resist.

This recipe recommends pepitos, which are the green inner parts of the pumpkin seeds, with the hulls removed. These can be purchased in small amounts at many stores. I do not recommend anyone spend the time it would take to hull pumpkin seeds. Unfortunately, I think using the whole pumpkin seed for this recipe would not work, as the seeds are not roasted till crisp, but instead simply swirled in the caramel sauce. The heat is added via cayenne pepper and a few other spices. The result? Fantastic. This is an idea that really works well.

Since I had a lot of pumpkin laying around after extracting all the seeds, I roasted up the flesh, and made a simple roasted pumpkin soup. I used the spicy caramelized pepitos as a seasoning and garnish for the soup.

A wonderful way to use both the pumpkin as well as the seeds.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Spicy Caramelized Pepitos
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as an appetizer

Ingredients:
1 sugar pumpkin (pie pumpkin), about 3 pounds, cut into slices, seeds removed (reserve), peeled, and cut into 1 inch pieces
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
salt, pepper
1-2 tbsp cumin
¼ cup heavy cream
4 cups chicken broth
Spicy caramelized pepitos, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Toss pumpkin pieces with olive oil, and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast for about 1 hour, until the pumpkin is very tender and well browned in many places. Remove from oven and let cool.

In a heavy soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and celery, and sauté until tender. Add pumpkin, cumin, cream, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a bare simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Taste, and season with salt and pepper as necessary.

Let soup cool slightly, and puree in a food processor. Return soup to pot, and reheat.

Serve the soup with a sprinkle of the spicy caramelized pepitos. Enjoy!

Spicy Caramelized Pepitos (Green pumpkin Seeds)
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
½ cup green pumpkin seeds (pepitos)
1 ½ tbsp butter
1 ½ tbsp agava nectar (or sugar)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp paprika
dash of salt

In a small heavy skillet, heat the butter and nectar (or sugar) together without stirring until it caramelizes. Add the seeds and spices. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove to a plate lined with wax paper. Let cool. Serve as is, or use as a garnish.

Cayenne Pumpkin Seeds
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds, well cleaned and rinsed
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

In a small baking pan, toss pumpkin seeds with olive oil and cayenne pepper. Roast in oven for about 30 minutes. Remove and let cool. Enjoy as a snack!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Pumpkin Soup : Pumpkin Seeds : Food and Dining

A Fall from Fruit

2006-10-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

I love fall. Aside from the return of football (whew! made it through another summer!), I love the cool crisp nights. The bright colors of leaves. The proliferation of birds on their way south. The way everything seems to sort of settle down into its blanket of fallen foliage, pulling it up tight to ward off the oncoming winter chill.

But mostly I love the fall fruit. Perfectly ripe pears. Crisp fresh apples. Grapes just in from harvest on their way to becoming wine. Plus pomegranates, quinces and a fresh crop of oranges. To name just a few. So I sort of have had fruit on the mind lately.

I had been thinking for a while on ways to get more flavor into all these whole grains we are eating lately. Imagine health and flavor in one dish! Would be quite a combination.

One thing I thought about would be to cook the grains in chicken broth instead of water. Even better, herb infused chicken broth.

But the main thing I have been thinking about is adding fruit somehow. Fall fruit. Letting the fruit bring out some of the natural sweetness of the grains.

The fruit I have on hand at the moment, this being fall, are quince.

The quince have to be cooked somehow before serving, as they are hard as rocks. I chose to roast them in the oven. I think they also could have been diced raw and sautéed in a skillet, maybe with a little juice of some sort. Either way would work.

I think pears or apples would work just as well. If it was me, I would roast the pears or apples as well. Just because I like that roasted flavor.

This salad combines the nutty flavor of the whole wheat spelt berries with the subtle fruity flavors of roasted quince. Everything infused with some fresh herbs.

Since spelt is just a type of wheat, I think almost any wheat berry could be used to a similar effect. For example soft wheat, buckwheat, etc.

Per a recent suggestion regarding whole grains, I added some orange juice, and then some orange zest as well, to the salad. The intent here is to balance out the rough whole wheat berry flavor a bit with a little citrus acid.

The salad is easy to make, though it does take time to roast the quince. The flavors are wonderful, the delicate sweetness of the quince combining perfectly with the nutty grains and the woodsy herbs. The orange flavor adds a real brightness to the taste. The texture moist from both the chicken broth as well as the orange juice and broth. I think this salad pairs well with any sort of roasted fowl or pan roasted fish.

To me, it has the quintessential taste of fall.

Spelt Salad with Roasted Quince
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
4 whole quince, peeled, cut in half, and core removed
olive oil
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups spelt berries (or other whole grain berries)
fresh thyme
fresh rosemary
juice from ½ orange
zest from 1 orange
½ cup chopped parsley
Salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Rub quince halves with olive oil, and place in a roasting pan, covered with tin foil. Roast for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until very tender. Remove from oven. Let cool. When cool, cut quince halves into a small dice. Reserve.

Combine chicken broth, spelt berries, thyme sprigs, rosemary sprigs, orange juice and orange zest in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 40 minutes, until almost all liquid is absorbed. Remove from pot to a heat proof serving bowl, and let cool. When cool, combine with diced quince, parsley, and additional fresh thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Quince : Spelt : Food and Dining

Ravioli in the Rye - WHB

2006-10-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

We are going a bit nuts with this whole grain mania around here.

All manner of berries and whole grain flours are being consumed with abandon.

But we finally came to a crisis the other day.

I had promised to make some ravioli. I make a passable pasta dough, usually with semolina flour and water. Sometimes adding eggs. It holds, and ravioli results.

I often make this with a spinach and ricotta cheese filling. But spinach has been killing people lately, so we decided to avoid the spinach and go seasonal.

Roasted pumpkin and ricotta filled ravioli. With sage. In a brown butter sage sauce. For this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Sher of What did you eat?

We started roasting pumpkins a few years ago, after the kids became older and found many of the Halloween traditions to be a bit beneath them. No time to carve pumpkins, no interest in going around and collecting candy. A party with friends has taken precedence. Fine with me, as it is in any event safer to be at a friend’s house rather than walking the streets. Plus, who needs all that sugar?!

So we roasted the pumpkins. After all, they are just squashes. Really nothing special. You could just as well carve up a butternut squash instead of a pumpkin for Halloween.

We look for pumpkins, called sugar pumpkins, that are specially grown to be eaten. I am a bit concerned the pumpkins intended for carving may have higher doses of pesticides than the eating ones. These sugar pumpkins are small, smaller than a basketball, maybe 3 pounds at the most. Perfect size for a pie, or for stuffing some ravioli!

Oddly enough, both kids love the roasted pumpkin raviolis. The first time I made them, they were skeptical, but the flavor, when combined with the ricotta, is really delicious. Very earthy. With that beautifully intoxicating caramelized roasted flavor.

The crisis came about as I wanted to make the pasta dough.

I have mentioned lately that we are apparently off white flour. Whole grains only. OK. But whole wheat pasta seemed too sweet a flavor for the earthy pumpkin filling.

So I hunted on the Internet for alternatives. I found few. Mainly for buckwheat, popular in the northern mountain region of Italy. But I had no buckwheat flour. So I decided to invent my own rye flour pasta. I found no mention of rye flour pasta on the Internet, although I am sure it has been done before. It seemed to me that the bite of the rye would go perfectly with the roasted pumpkin and sage flavors.

My procedure was that same as for any pasta dough, mixing the rye flour and lukewarm water by hand, with the exception that I added two eggs. For one, I wanted to make sure the dough held together, and secondly, I wanted a rich result, again to complement the roasted flavors. Also, to hedge my bet, I kneaded the dough on a board dusted with white flour.

After 15 minutes of kneading, what came out was a beautiful pasta dough. I let it sit for an hour, and was able to roll it out till it was see through thin. 84 raviolis later, we tested one in the water. Worked fine!

A quick simmer, a toss in browned butter and sage, some fresh ground pepper and a sprinkle of parmesan. Fantastic fall flavors!

Rye Ravioli with Sage Roasted Pumpkin in Sage Butter Sauce
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 sugar pumpkin (3 pounds or so)
32 ounces of fresh ricotta cheese
1 cup grated parmesan
2 cloves garlic, peeled
salt, pepper
10 sage leaves, chopped
olive oil
2 cups of rye flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
2 eggs
salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
fresh sage leaves
parmesan cheese, grated
fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Make the filling:
Cut the pumpkin into sections. Remove all the seeds and inner membrane. Peel the pumpkin sections. Cut the sections into 1 inch pieces. In a bowl, toss the pumpkin with some olive oil and the chopped sage leaves. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and roast for 45 to 60 minutes, until tender and well browned in places. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the pumpkin is cooled, combine roasted pumpkin (including all the sage leaves), ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, and some salt and pepper in a food processor, and puree until very smooth. Reserve.

Make the pasta dough:
In a large bowl, combine the flours and salt. Have 1 cup of lukewarm water ready. Make a well in the center of the flour, and crack the eggs into it. With your hand, begin mixing the egg into the flour. As the egg is completely incorporated, begin adding some water, a little at a time, combining with your hand. Add just enough water so that the dough comes together and incorporates all the flour. The dough should be pliable, not too firm.

Transfer the dough ball to a lightly floured board. Knead the dough, dusting with additional flour as necessary, for a good 15 minutes. The dough should be elastic in nature, and not too firm. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge, and divide into 6 equal sized balls. Work with one ball at a time, keeping the other balls wrapped in plastic wrap.

On a floured board, roll out the ball of dough until it is very thin, and about 12 inches by 24 inches in size.

At this point, you can either use a long ruler to measure and cut the dough into neat, even squares (say 2 ½ inches square), or just go with a more free hand design. If it is just for us, I go free hand, as I like the varied shapes of the resulting ravioili. Also, I use the fold over technique: i.e. I cut rectangles twice as long as they are wide, place some filling in the center, and fold the one side up over the filling, and seal it on three sides, the forth side being the fold. Alternatively, you can cut matching pairs of dough and try to place one square exactly over the other. This takes much longer, and takes a steadier hand that I have to get good results.

Based on your technique, place teaspoon sized amounts of filling on the dough at appropriate intervals. Brush the dough edges with a little water. Fold dough over and seal, or place dough squares on top and seal well. Place the finished raviolis on well floured pieces of wax paper. Repeat this for the remaining 5 balls of dough. I got 84 (2 1/2) inch square raviolis out of this, along with some excees dough trimmings. Let them dry slightly.

In a small skillet, heat the butter and chopped sage over medium low heat, stirring, until the butter just begins to brown. Don’t let it burn!

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, and turn down the heat. Cook the raviolis, without letting the water boil, until they float to the surface for a few minutes. Drain well. Place in serving dishes and drizzle with a little of the brown butter sauce. Sprinkle with some grated parmesan and fresh ground pepper. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Roasted Pumpkin : Sage : Rye Ravioli : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Justice Gets Served (a Krispy Kreme)

2006-10-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

So the testimony ended, the summations were given, and we were sent to a small room to deliberate.

Justice was at hand.

The bailiff led us into the room and locked the door. Along with the usual instructions, he told us where we could find a nearby Starbucks and Krispy Kreme (doughnuts) during our break. Was this a veiled request for a bribe? No Krispy Kreme, no opening jury room door? Already reduced to bribing the guards? Our only consolation was that our tiny jury deliberation room had two bathrooms. Just for us (hopefully with fans!).

I had wondered about the fact that every court room, all 50 of them, had an armed sheriff sitting in the room as bailiff. The duties seemed nominal. Let witnesses into the court room, announce that the judge was entering or leaving the room, chat on the phone occasionally. Seemed like a sweet assignment, compared to walking the streets in the immediate neighborhood.

But when we got a chance to talk with our bailiff a little, it seems the job can be a lot more stressful.

Apparently, on a frequent basis, witnesses and defendants jump over the tables and try to attack someone. Maybe they think the person is lying, or they get upset that they will be found guilty. So they try to take justice into their own hands, so to speak. The bailiff has a second or two to try to intervene. Along with a gun.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending who’s perspective, our case did not generate such emotions.

But the case next door to us – a child molester, victim 4 years old, 600 counts, including videos he took of himself with the child in the act – might have gotten a lot of people upset. The families of the victims were there, the TV news was there with their cameras and sleek suited reporters. That trial ended as the accused agreed to all charges (50 years prison, no parole). But I could see people in that one needing some restraint.

All in all, this trial and jury business got me thinking about a few things. You get 12 more or less random people, present some information to them, and then let them express their opinions. Seems like a recipe for chaotic disaster.

In the end, most people on our jury exhibited an impressive degree of reasonableness. More than I would have expected.

It reminded me of how I sometimes feel about driving through traffic.

There, you also have a lot of random people, only instead of passing judgment on others, they are steering thousands of pounds of fast moving metal right next to each other. An unreasonable person could cause a lot of destruction. And yes, sometimes cars collide. And terrible things can happen. But not nearly as often as you might expect. And considering the number of people involved, and the literally millions of opportunities for something to happen, people in general seem to exhibit a lot more reasoned behavior than I usually give them credit for. What a cynic I am!

Just like this trial. An unreasonable person could have easily disrupted the entire procedure. And I am sure that happens in some trials. But apparently a lot less often that I would have guessed.

So we delivered our verdict. And were thanked and dismissed. And the little dispute we sat judgment on came to an end. And though some on the jury apparently had trouble sleeping last night, I didn’t.

And yes, the bailiff got his Krispy Kreme (like he needed it!!)!

Along the way, as I had limited time in the evenings, I whipped up a variation on a dish we make frequently. Usually, this is a pasta ‘sauce’ made of sausage and greens cooked in some broth and served over penne pasta. The greens are usually kale, chard, and beet greens. I start with a huge amount, as they cook down to nothing. This is an all time favorite. Quick to make, the greens take on a nice flavor from the spicy sausage, and the steaming brothy presentation moves it in the direction of comfort food.

I usually make my own sausage for this. Which is very easy to do. The sausage being ground turkey or chicken, and a mixture of spices, along with grated parmesan and parsley. It turns out surprisingly tasty. This is doubly easy to do as I use a loose sausage for this recipe, not one in a casing. All I have to do is mix everything up a few hours before cooking, and let it sit, chilled, so the flavors can develop. Presto, sausage!

For today’s variation, we are back to whole grains. Instead of penne pasta, which, of course, is based on white semolina flour, we used unhulled red jasmine rice. And ladled the ‘sauce’ over the red rice.

Now, I like the red rice a lot. I have blogged on this before. And I like the variation on the usual, trading the pasta for the red rice. And I know it is healthier that way. But I hope the whole grain phase around here wanes a bit to the point where we can slide a white pasta in there now and again!

Greens And Sausage on Red Rice
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 pounds fresh spicy sausage (recipe follows), casing removed
4 large bunches various greens (we use 2 bunches kale, one bunch chard, and the greens from about 6 to 8 beets), washed well, and chopped into large strips, stalks included
olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
8 cups chicken broth
salt, pepper
4-6 cups steamed red rice
Fresh ground pepper, if desired
Grated parmesan for garnish, if desired

In a very large soup pot, brown the sausage in olive oil over high heat, stirring frequently to break up the clumps. As the sausage browns and is no longer pink, remove it to a bowl and reserve, leaving the sausage drippings in the pot.

Heat the sausage drippings over medium high heat. Add a little additional olive oil if necessary. Begin adding the chopped greens, tossing lightly to coat in oil. As the greens cook down and room permits, continue adding until all greens are in pot and tossed in oil. Cover and let cook down, stirring occasionally, until there is room to add the sausage to the pot. Add the sausage, the chicken broth, and the garlic. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, and reduce heat. Simmer for a few minutes.

Scoop some red rice into the center of four flat soup bowls. Ladle some of the greens and sausage sauce around the rice. Top each bowl with some fresh ground pepper and grated parmesan, if desired. Serve. Enjoy!

Fresh Turkey or Chicken Sausage, Spicy Italian Style
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes about 4 pounds

Note – you can make this sausage as hot or mild as you like, all measurements should be viewed as guidelines only

Ingredients:
4 pounds fresh ground turkey or chicken
2-3 tbsp fennel seeds, freshly ground (or smash them fine with a hammer, as we do)
1-2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 cup finely chopped parsley
1-3 tbsp red pepper flakes (some like it hot! Use less if you like mild!)
2-3 tbsp salt
pepper

Combine all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl (I use my hands). Let sit for a few hours, chilled.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Greens : Fresh Sausage : Justice : Food and Dining

Back to Food

2006-10-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today is a holiday for the courts. Columbus Day. Probably a day of mourning for the native inhabitants here in SoCal. But I get to cook. And blog.

Despite the apparent tone in my recent post, I am neither against this jury duty business, nor necessarily upset that I got onto a trial. Frustrated at the legal manipulations, yes.

But really, it is mostly this immense feeling of sadness that descends on you in the court house as you cannot help but overhear all the tales of woe from all the people involved in trials there. So many of them involving children and broken families. Kids who maybe don’t even have a chance any more, from the emotional and physical scarring they are receiving. I’m happy enough to participate on the jury, but sad is not a strong enough word.

I should say that given enough time, I am sure I could find a restaurant within walking distance that offered something reasonable to eat while I am on this jury duty. Though the court house is in a pretty rough neighborhood.

I did try bringing some food one day, as there is a nice little green belt surrounding the whole court house and city hall. With some benches, picnic tables, etc. Shady trees. Seemed nice.

I was a bit surprised to find that almost every seat in the park was taken by one of more persons who have evidently camped there for the long run. They seem to be more or less living there, having erected makeshift shelters out of the concrete benches.

I choose one of the few unused benches, and started reading the paper, eating some food I had brought, enjoying the sun. When a new friend sauntered by. Said his name was Albert. Carrying a few bottles of malt liquor, he sat down next to me, and began regaling everyone in earshot, myself included of course, vivid details concerning his daily auto-erotic practices. He offered me a beer as well. Which I declined. As I packed up my lunch and moved back indoors.

Funny story, sort of. True, too. Seems I’ve been leading an isolated life.

Back to food, though.

I mentioned that we are now focused on whole grains. And this causes a bit of a problem. Despite being more nutritious than things based on white flour, not everyone seems so enamored with the taste, not to mention the after effects, of the whole grains.

Looking to mollify all fractions, I announced we were having risotto for dinner. Risotto being a favorite here. When made from short grain white rice, that is. I did neglect to mention that we were making barley risotto.

But the barley had gone over well last time. So I didn’t anticipate too many issues.

The trick to the barley risotto, as I saw it, was to get some flavor into the dish. I decided to try adding flavor from four directions:
1. toast the barley grains before cooking
2. roast the vegetables in olive oil before adding them to the risotto
3. add some herbs to the chicken broth used to make the risotto
4. sauté the onions very slowly for a long time, until they were deeply caramelized, before adding them to the risotto

For vegetables, we used cauliflower and eggplant. We tossed the cauliflower and eggplant in olive oil, cumin and red pepper flakes, then roasted them in the oven for almost an hour. That really adds some color and flavor.

For the broth, we heated chicken broth with thyme and sage added to infuse those flavors throughout the risotto.

And for the onions, I just sautéed them at a very low temperature for about 30 minutes in olive oil, till they were a deep golden brown.

The barley got toasted right in the cooking pan prior to adding the broth.

The result of all this effort was a super rich, complex, deeply flavored ‘risotto’. The flavor just exploded in your mouth with every bite. The barley combined with all those caramelized flavors to create a thick creamy brown ‘sauce’ that enveloped every kernel.

In keeping with the roasted fall vegetable theme, we roasted an acorn squash as well, and arranged the risotto over a slice of the squash for presentation. A sprinkle of sage on top, and the dish was as dramatic to look at as to taste!

Despite being surprised, everyone seemed to enjoy the dish. Maybe a bit more elegant and complex than our usual fare. After some initial hesitation, a satisfied silence enveloped the table. If few direct complements were forthcoming until after dinner, no criticisms were offered either. That’s a definite success for this tough crowd!

Toasted Barley Risotto with Roasted Fall Vegetables
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower, broken into flowerets
2 medium eggplants, cut into large cubes
olive oil
cumin
red pepper flakes
salt, pepper
1 acorn squash, cut into quarters, seeds removed
2 onions, sliced thin
2 cups barley
2-3 tbsp rice vinegar (or 1/2 cup white wine)
8 cups chicken broth
fresh thyme
fresh sage
2 cups parmesan cheese, grated
additional fresh sage, chopped for garnish, if desired
additional grated parmesan, for garnish, if desired

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

In a large roasting pan, toss the cauliflower flowerets and eggplant pieces with some olive oil. Sprinkle with cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Toss well. Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how dark you like your vegetables. Remove from oven and let cool.

Reduce the oven temperature to 400ºF.

Place the acorn squash slices in an ovenproof dish. Rub with olive oil. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until tender. Remove from oven, and keep warm.

In a small skillet, heat several tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, toss well, and reduce the heat to medium low. Sautee the onions very slowly, tossing often, until they are deep golden in color, about 20 to 30 minutes.

While the squash is baking, make the risotto. In a pot, heat the chicken broth with a few sprigs of thyme and some sage leaves. Bring to a boil, and keep at a bare simmer, covered. In a large heavy pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil. When hot, add the barley kernels. Toast the kernels, stirring often, until the kernels begin to brown. Do not let the kernels burn. When they are browned, reduce the heat to medium. Add the rice vinegar, and a few ladles of chicken broth to the barley, stirring. Continue to add the broth, a few ladles at a time, stirring frequently, until the barley is tender, and the mixture has thickened somewhat, about 30 to 40 minutes. Add the onions, the vegetables, and the cheese, stirring gently. Add additional broth to keep the mixture slightly soupy. Cook over low heat, stirring, until the vegetables are just heated through, adding additional broth if necessary.

To plate, place one slice of roasted squash on each plate. Spoon some risotto over the squash and onto the plate. Garnish with grated cheese and chopped sage, if desired. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Barley Risotto : Food and Dining

Harvest Moon

2006-10-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

The harvest moon was so beautiful, so huge, so clear in the sky, we just had to give it a shot.

Try to capture it.

We did bad. But we tried! In real life, this harvest moon was huge. And you could see every crater and pot hole in the surface. As it floated, glowing orange, just over the hillside near our house.

More food blogging coming up shortly!

Down By Law

2006-10-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

The Serendipitous Chef has been taken down by the law. Sort of. I plead my case here.

Since Tuesday afternoon, I have become part of ‘The People’.

Ostensibly there to right wrongs, dole out justice, put the evil doers behind bars, all that crap.

Jury duty. And picked to sit on a trial.

It has killed my ability to blog, as I have to do everything else I am not doing all day long while I am sitting in a court room.

Now, I’ve seen the movie Runaway Jury.

Along with a few other movies concerning trials.

And those jury folks ate WELL. I mean really well! White table cloths, multi-courses menus, wine, the works.

All nonsense!

The Serendipitous Chef is on jury duty. And the food is bad! And I’m a prisoner to this bad food.

For those who may not be familiar with our jury system here, it works sort of like this:

Random people are coerced under penalty of jail to sit in a huge room with hundreds of other likewise coerced people for hours and hours with TVs showing day time game shows. Bad food and worse coffee are offered at fantastically high prices, much like in a bad airport, as a sort of shock technique. All this is to psychologically wear you down to the point that you begin agreeing to anything to get this duty over with.

At random points during the day, people are selectively singled out and shipped off to points unknown, most never return. Everyone cowers as names are read off, the unlucky shuffle off to their fate, those not called collapse back into their chairs, damp with sweat and still quivering from fear.

Then it happened. My name was called. The first time, I was so surprised, I didn’t react. No problem, they repeated it louder. Everyone began looking around to see who this apparent unpatriotic resistor to the American Way could be. As they called my name the third time, I could see they were already issuing orders to round up my family and seize my assets. I stood up and acknowledged my presence.

Actually, I had a mouthful of that awful coffee in my mouth, and it took a few seconds to get it down before I could respond. Still, I could see them gleefully contemplating who would get my 12 year old Ford (low mileage).

You may have seen court room dramas on TV. But the real world is nothing like this.

The real world is like two 2 year olds fighting over one scoop of ice cream. With a beleaguered, overtaxed parent, totally exasperated and almost comatose, paying just enough attention to see that they don’t actually come to physical blows.

After some hours spent watching these emotionally and socially underdeveloped misanthropes quibble in the most painfully tedious manner possible (It’s mine! No mine! I called it first! No you didn’t! Mom! I had it first! No you didn’t! Mom! She touched me!! Give it back! Mom!!! And so on), you get another chance to empty your wallet on some over priced, poorly prepared, categorically unhealthy food. High in fat and salt, and low in any sort of actual nutritionally contributing elements.

And you get to enjoy this dream meal while sitting amongst other teams of people with other, similar misanthropic quibbles.

The overall impression one is left with is that of immense sadness.

These quibbles, which have involved hundreds of people by the time they reach here, are mainly the result of stubbornness. Either in the ability to find some reasonable common ground in the case of accidents, or in the inability to admit the truth in most other cases.

Other discussions revolve around giving away children, as if they were some sort of furniture. Playing newly restricted parent-child visiting time against additional money.

After a few days of bad food, worse coffee, restricted movement, and having to listen to these overgrown toddlers quibble, you become afraid.

Afraid of the day that your life and livelihood may be put in the hands of this system, these lawyers, and these jurors, who by now are so pissed at the whole nonsense, so sick from the food, and so mind numbingly nauseous from the incredible tedium, they are ready to throw everyone behind bars – including the lawyers and judges.

Me? I would have been happy if the food had been like in the movies. Justice on an empty stomach? Not possible!

Only two more weeks of this to go! Will blog as time permits!

(Warm) ‘Pizza’ for Brunch - WHB

2006-10-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

We were shooting for our much loved Frittata for Sunday.

A potato base, sautéed in chicken broth for flavor. Fresh veggies, lightly sautéed and mixed in with a batch of eggs. Everything finished with a layer of cheese on top broiled till bubbly and browned.

This is a dish everyone seems to like. A bit of work for Sunday morning, but usually worth it.

Not to be. Not today. No chicken broth. No veggies. No parmesan cheese.

It’s the effect of this jury duty. No time to shop.

So we improvised. With what we had on hand.

Potatoes sautéed in tomato juice instead of chicken broth.

Basil and oregano instead of thyme or rosemary.

Mozzarella instead of Parmesan.

The result looked more like pizza than a frittata. Everything colored red from the tomatoes. With bubbly, stringy mozzarella on top. I'm thinkin' this has got to be an original!

In retrospect, I might have added some sausage or pepperoni to the mix. It would have been perfect!

Of course, we didn’t have left over cans of flat beer to go with it, as we might have in our college days. Some pleasures are best left to fond memories.

Although I will say that the hot coffee and the tomato-y frittata didn’t go together so well. Somehow tomatoes and coffee clash. Both are too acidic to get along, I suppose.

That being the only dissonant chord, the now dubbed ‘pizza’ frittata was an unqualified success. I had to fight to keep one slim slice for the pictures!

So I offer this one up with oregano and basil being the herbs this week. For this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast.

Although I have enjoyed fresh basil since I started cooking, it is only recently that I have begun buying fresh oregano.

Aside from this frittata, fresh oregano now goes into many ‘Italian’ oriented dishes, as well as almost anything Mexican in origin, such as the meat, spice and tomato mixture that is the base of tacos, as well as some of the spicy stews we have been making. Oregano has also popped up in some vinaigrettes, although it sometimes seems a little too strong for this purpose for my taste.

As part of the herb base of this ‘pizza’ frittata, the oregano complemented the basil perfectly, providing a nice balance to the tomato base, helping move the dish from something that might have tasted thrown together to something we expect to make again on a regular basis (next time with sausage!).

‘Pizza’ Frittata
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 pounds small potatoes, white or red, cut into a small dice
One 32 ounce can of tomatoes, including juice
Olive oil
Salt, pepper
½ red onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper
10 basil leaves, sliced in thin strips
Several springs of fresh oregano, leaves removed from the stems
8 eggs, lightly beaten
mozzarella cheese, grated (we used the firmed ‘aged’ mozzarella ,but fresh is also OK)
Additional mozzarella for garnish, if desired
Additional basil, chopped, for garnish, if desired

Note - As mentioned, some sautéed sausage, or even some sliced pepperoni sprinkled on top just before broiling, might be fun as well!

Heat some olive oil in a sauté pan. Add the diced potatoes, and all the juice from the can of tomatoes (squeeze the tomatoes to extract all their juices). Bring the potatoes to a boil, covered, and simmer, stirring frequently, until just tender.

In a large, oven proof skillet, heat some olive oil over medium heat. Sautee the onions and red pepper until softened. Add the garlic, and sauté for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with a wooden spoon, as well as the basil and oregano. Cook the mixture, uncovered, until most of the liquid is gone. Remove from the pan to a plate to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and the cooled vegetable mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When the potatoes are just tender, place then in the large skillet over medium high heat. As the potatoes begin to cook, pour the egg mixture over the top, covering the potatoes evenly. Let the mixture cook, covered, over medium heat, until the eggs on top are beginning to set and bubble.

Turn on the broiler in the oven.

Remove the pan from the stove. Sprinkle the top liberally with grated cheese. Place the pan under the broiler, and roast, watching carefully, until the cheese is bubbly and browned in places, and the eggs are completely set. Remove the pan from the broiler, and let sit for a few minutes (to let the eggs set completely). Slice the frittata into 8 pieces, and serve with a sprinkle of additional mozzarella and chopped basil. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : 'Pizza' Frittata : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Breaking Free

2006-10-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

I first experienced communal living and tabouli at my second college.

Along with people who played soccer indoors, with a real soccer ball, using things like the fireplace for a goal. While listening to The Grateful Dead non-stop for days at a time.

After working up an appetite with the soccer ball, everyone gathered around the kitchen for some sort of ‘stir-fry’, which was just another word for random fridge leftovers heated up in a Wok with soy sauce added to help kill the bacteria. Or on rare occasions they made some sort of grainy dish, such as some variation of tabouli.

Because the 60’s still held sway, and everyone was still in a sort of Haight-Ashbury back-to-nature mode. Vegetarian concepts were big. Anything that could possibly be somehow connected to India, considered the Mac Daddy of vegetarianism and alternative living, was on the agenda and menu. Tabouli, probably Lebanese in origin, was close enough for the addled brains of everyone at that time. Most living in that house would have been hard pressed to find India on a map, let alone Lebanon. Finding the US might have been a challenge as well.

Good times, good times!

So I sort of associate Tabouli with that youthful striving for freedom. Breaking free. From what, I can’t quite remember. Oppressors, in any event.

I guess from the oppressive clampdown on indoor soccer playing in most homes across the country. As usual, the wealthy land baron parents holding down the exuberant youthful masses. No wonder soccer never caught on in this country!

It was only a matter of time before TeenGirl, pursuing her current interest in all things whole grain, hit upon Tabouli. That bulgur-based grain salad with tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and lemon. Bulgur being readily available in stores here.

So that reminded me of those times. Kind of a culinary coming of age. Breaking free from the childhood wonder bread and Campbell’s soup to experience the heady flavors of these cultures that, in our eyes, embodied the very freedom we thought we were looking for.

Bulgur, not to be confused with cracked wheat, is pre-cooked whole wheat berries that have been dried, crushed lightly, and sorted by sifting into various sizes of particles. Some bulgur has the bran removed, some is whole grain. Because the wheat has already been par-boiled, the bulgur need only be soaked in hot water, much like couscous. It does not require long cooking times. Cracked wheat is a raw product that, much like raw wheat berries, requires substantial cooking times.

Our bulgur did not indicate what type of wheat grain it came from, but I understand most bulgur is made with durum wheat. Because it is whole grain, it has a low glycemic index.

Fairly simple to make, the only real trick is to taste frequently to ensure you get enough flavor into the dish. Letting the salad sit a few hours, or even over night, allows the garlic to really come alive and permeate everything. The garlic gets a nice balance from a ton of parsley, some fresh mint, and lots of lemon juice.

We served the tabouli salad with a roasted salmon fillet. Low fat, full of energy and nutrition. Quick and easy to make. A delicious way to make break through the oppressive bonds and experience the heady flavor of freedom in your kitchen!

Tabouli Salad
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
2 cups whole grain bulgur
4 cups boiling water
4-5 tomatoes, chopped
2 cucumbers, seeded and chopped
2 green onions, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups parsley, chopped
1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1-2 tbsp salt
pepper
juice from 2 lemons
olive oil

Place the bulgur in a heat proof bowl, and pour in boiling water. Let the bulgur soak for 30 to 60 minutes, covered.

Drain the bulgur, and transfer to a serving bowl. Add all remaining ingredients except olive oil. Toss. Drizzle with olive oil to taste. Toss well. Chill for several hours, or over night. Taste, and adjust seasonings as necessary. Toss well. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Bulgur : Tabouli : Food and Dining

Flour and Water – Sourdough Experiment Part II

2006-10-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

That’s all. No yeast. No oil. No salt. No anything but flour and water. As simple a recipe as can be.

And it still turned into a loaf of rye and spelt sourdough bread.

Everyone loved it. It was all gone in a day.

I’ve already blogged about the rye starter. That also is just rye flour and water, set out in a warm room.

I took some of the starter, and added additional flour (half rye, half spelt) and water, and kneaded it up into an elastic dough.

Because it only contained flour and water, no oils, it was a sticky jpb kneading it. But seemed to get elastic just the same after about 15 minutes of kneading.

Then I let it rise. In a large ceramic bowl, that I had lightly oiled and dusted with flour (so the dough would come out again, I hoped).

It took another 5-6 hours or so to get this dough to rise to what seemed like double its original volume.

Here’s where I made my mistake. I tried to remove the risen dough from ceramic bowl onto a baking pan. And of course it stuck badly to the bowl. So pretty much all the rise was lost getting it out of the bowl.

But, as I mentioned a few posts ago, age brings patience, if not always wisdom.

So I reformed the dough, this time into a sort of brick shape, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. And let it rise some more. Over night, plus some. And it slowly, very slowly, rose. Like lifting the titanic. But eventually, after almost an additional day of rising, it was clearly at least twice it’s original size. It never got as light and fluffy looking as the initial rise in the ceramic bowl, though.

And hop it went into the oven.

Not an ideal recipe if you are in the process of starving or in a hurry. I hope to reduce the time required to get a loaf baked by a few days in subsequent trials!

Not too much additional rising occurred in the oven. I baked it at 425ºF for 10 minutes, and then reduced the temperature to 400ºF. And baked it, and baked it.

Along with the loaf, I placed a ceramic bowl of hot water in the oven as well, as this is supposed to keep the crust soft. After all, this is rye bread, not a baguette.

Finally, at about 50 to 60 minutes, we felt pretty confident it was baked through. I was, as always, worried about taking it out too soon and having uncooked dough in the center.

After taking it out of the oven, and letting it sit for half an hour, we finally cut it open.

Bear in mind again that this is a rye bread. And is not expected to be light and fluffy like wonder bread. I expected a boat anchor.

What came out had definitely risen. And was baked through. There is a definite structure of tight air pockets throughout the bread.

And I think, if not perfect, it is definitely bread. By any definition.

And flavorful!

Wow. Thick, smoky, nutty, deep, intense flavor. Even without salt, oil or anything else. You can’t get flavor like that from a store. The sourdough flavor very clearly evident in every bite. Harmonizing nicely with the nutty spelt and rye flavors.

In every bite, you can just feel yourself transported back to an open hearth, family huddled around for light and warmth, enjoying food delicious because the simple pure flavors come out so clearly.

So, a qualified success. Very tasty bread, but could have had a better rise.

I think the key improvement for the next one will be to let the kneaded dough rise in a baking vessel. Something ceramic bowl that is intended for bread baking. Because I think that this will help the dough keep its initial rise and form without having to transfer it to something else.

But we have some time to contemplate this. As the next sourdough loaf is going to be 9 grain whole wheat, with a rough ground 9 grain mixture going in with the whole wheat and the sourdough starter. I think this one will rise better in general, and will not have the problem of ‘running out’ during rising and baking.

We’ll see!

Rye and Spelt Sourdough Bread
Recipe by surfindaave
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
Rye flour – have 800 grams available
Spelt flour – have 500 grams available

Make the starter:
Mix 100 grams of rye flour with enough water to make a thick paste. Cover it lightly, and leave it in a warm (75 to 85 ºF) place for 24 hours, undisturbed.

After 24 hours, stir in another 100 grams of rye flour and sufficient water to make a thick paste. Let it sit, covered, for another 24 hours.

As the starter begins to bubble up, you may need to move it to a larger container.

After another 24 hours, you should see some bubbles forming. And some increase in volume. Add another 100 grams of rye flour, and sufficient water to make a thick paste. Let it sit again, covered, in a warm place.

The starter is ready when it is full of bubbles, and has puffed up significantly. If you push a spoon down into it, it will have the consistency of a thick meringue. A sour smell will be very noticeable. And after adding additional flour and water, the bubbling action will start up almost immediately.

It can take anywhere from 2 to 5 days to get the starter to this point. Patience! The bacteria are everywhere, and will fond your starter too!

Basically at that point, your bacteria colony has increased in size to the point that it can create enough gas quickly enough to raise a loaf of bread.

Make the bread:
Take most of the starter, placing it in a large mixing bowl. Save the remaining starter, covered and placed in the fridge, for the next loaf.

Assuming you have used the 300 grams of rye flour per the Starter recipe above, mix together about 300 grams of rye flour and 300 grams of spelt flour.

Add most of the flour to the bowl, reserving some for flouring the kneading board.

Stir in enough water, a little at a time, mixing the dough with your hand, to incorporate all the flour into a ball.

Move the ball of dough to a floured kneading board. Knead the dough vigorously until smooth and elastic in texture (I kneaded for 15 minutes), adding additional flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the board.

Transfer the dough to a well greased ceramic baking vessel, or form the dough into a desired shape on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (for example into a round shape, a brick shape). I cut thin lines into the dough, about 1 cm deep, as this is how I’ve always seen these loafs, and some hints indicated this aided in the rising.

Let the dough rise until at least doubled in size in a warm place, covered with a towel. This could take from 4 to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Place an ovenproof bowl of hot water in the oven (helps keep the crust soft, as the crust will be more than firm when done)..

Bake the bread for 10 minutes at 425ºF, and then reduce the temperature to 400ºF. Bake form an additional 40 minutes, or until done (the usual tests – sounds hollow when tapped, browned crust, toothpick comes out clean, etc.). I tend to err on the side of caution and bake longer if in doubt.

Remove from oven, and let cool. Slice thickly. Serve with everything! Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Sourdough : Rye : Spelt : Food and Dining

Favorite(s) – WHB 1 Year Anniversary

2006-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

First- congrats to Kalyn for coming up with the Weekend Herb Blogging idea! Every week brings out new and interesting ideas from a seemingly inexhaustible worldwide supply. Always fun to read! And this week's topic is fun as well. Favorites. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored by Kalyn’s Kitchen.

It’s not fair to say that I have participated in this weekly online event, as really it is as much TeenGirl as it is me doing the participating. Both in the searching for herbs as well as in the researching of ways to use them. Somehow, the WHB concept fit what we were already more or less doing. Wandering around our Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, looking for new, and yes, unusual, things to try.

I guess for many, it’s especially enjoyable to find the familiar. To relive that particular pleasure over and over. Always a bit apprehensive that the special something may not be available, always filled with joy to find it once again.

But I’ve never been like that.

In fact, more the opposite.

So we go on our weekly search, not for the familiar, but more for the unexpected.

And that comes in two forms. Either something we’ve never heard of before. Like Hoja Santa leaves, or Pepicha. Or, new ways to create something we’ve tried many times. Like mustard ice cream. Or frozen gazpacho soup with frozen cilantro leaves.

But, of course, even the nuttiest of explorers eventually come home on occasion to enjoy the tried and true. Refuel, as it were, on the known to build up more energy to seek the unknown.

And, of course, we can ponder what it is we reach for when we want some tried and true.

Like when I see some fresh cilantro, and just have to gently rub a few leaves and breath in that unique aroma.

Or when carefully stripping the tiny leaves off the thyme twigs and you forget what you were doing as the woodsy aroma envelops you.

Or feeling the tactilely sensuous sage leaves as they are plucked and chopped for a smoky and savory braised stew.

Or being unable to get the sliced heirloom tomatoes to the table because the fresh licorice scent of the tarragon dressing was so irresistible and all the tomatoes, with dressing, had to be eaten in the kitchen, with almost none for anyone else.

Yes, there’s oregano, and basil. And of course lemon verbena. And bay. Not to mention dill, or mint, and of course, the most often used herb of all, parsley. We put parsley on and in everything. If favorite were based on usage, parsley would win hands down.

Of course, it's always a bit anticlimactic to talk about absolute favorites. Because by definition it is the realm of the known. And it's not as if the items lower on the list are necessarily bad in any way.

But when we talked about it, the first herb we both mentioned was tarragon.

But I think that is mainly because summer has just ended. I love tarragon in the summer. On a fresh sliced tomato salad. That has to be the summer winner.

But in the cooler months, sage takes the lead. Sage, braised for a long time in stews, or sprinkled on top of things, or fried and added as a garnish. There is an old saying “Is it fair one should die when there is sage growing in the garden?”. Of course not. It adds that complex, deep, smoky dimension that takes simple food from kindergarten into the adult world.

So said, if I could only have one of the two, maybe at the end of the day it would be tarragon.

But, tarragon represents only half the answer to the question.

Because the other half is in the quest.

My other favorite herb is the one I’ve not yet tried. The one I’ve not yet discovered. The one sitting innocently at the Asian stand at the Farmer’s market. Or hidden on the shelves of the Indian market. Or offered for sale at a roadside stand on the Baja peninsula in Mexico. Or something I have yet to stumble upon in traveling to Hungary, or Slovakia, or some other place I’ve yet to see all of. The one who’s exquisite flavor is just sitting there, waiting for me to discover it.

And that’s the fun. As we’ve found out week after week, the adventure is often to be able to see these things hiding right under your nose. To force yourself to look past the known, to discard preconceived notions, and to be willing to stretch a bit. And looking for ways to use the herbs. In unfamiliar cuisines. Or with new techniques. Or together with combinations that seemed unlikely before.

Even if every new discovery does not necessarily make the list of favorite herbs.

Because sometimes, the hunt is as much a part of the fun as the eating.

So, to answer the question posed by Kalyn, I have two favorite herbs. Tarragon (or sage? no tarragon! well, maybe sage, but also tarragon!!) and the one I am still searching for.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Favorites : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

It’s Alive! Sourdough Bread Experiment – Part I

2006-09-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Our innocuous little experiment, just some rye flour mixed with water, came alive!

And it stinks! Whew! Talk about sourdough!

We started our experiment by mixing 100 grams of rye flour with a little lukewarm water. Just enough to make a thin paste. We covered it lightly, and left it for a day.

Nothing. Not a bubble.

It’s like waiting for Christmas. Lots of hype. Then lots of nothing. Just the waiting. With the ever growing doubt that this is all real. Maybe it is a conspiracy. Hmmm.

After a day of nothing, we fed the mixture. Though it didn’t seem very hungry.

Another 100 grams of rye flour mixed with a little lukewarm water. This then mixed into the initial mixture. And I set it, covered, in a room that gets lots of sunlight, so is relatively warm.

And got busy with life.

By the time I got back to check on it, about 12 hours later, it had blown the lid off the container. It had expanded into a blob of bubbles at least 5 times its original size. I had to transfer it to a larger bowl.

And it started to stink. No so bad yet. But noticeable.

I fed it again. Same procedure. 100 grams of rye flour mixed with a little lukewarm water. And covered it for the night.

The next day – it was alive!

A light fluffy blob of bubbles. Some popping as we watched. Like it was on the stove cooking.

And stink! Whew! A strong sour rye smell.

I have to admit, I didn’t think it would even work. It seems too simple. Rye flour and water. Hopefully our house is infested with good bacteria. And I certainly didn’t think it would work so fast! I was planning on at least a week of waiting.

Well, I fed it again today – same procedure.

But now, it starts to bubble immediately. No waiting necessary.

It’s time to make bread!

If I have time today, I will try to bake the first loaf. Although, not being an expert bread baker, I have zero hopes the first attempt will come out.

But – can’t be so negative!

The first attempt will be for a spelt – rye bread (Dinkel-Roggen in German). Something I remember from Munich days, but can't get here in SoCal. This combination is common in northern European countries. As both rye and spelt are cold weather grains, historically surviving much better than the soft wheat grains in the cool climates.

All the sourdough Web sites (I’ve only researched the German ones) warn that this is a tough mixture to get to rise well.

Rye is especially tough to get to rise due to the makeup of its cellulose molecules, which differ fundamentally from wheat cellulose molecules. Rye cellulose contains a high amount of pentose sugars, which act to weaken the dough structure formed through kneading that traps air bubbles and leads to rising of the dough, and a light textured bread.

This pentose sugar, however, is easily dissolved in a light acid solution. Eliminating the pentose, such as by infusing the dough with a light acid during fermentation into a sourdough, allows the dough to retain much more of the necessary structure to trap air bubbles, and raise the dough.

That is one reason that many breads baked in this region are sourdough breads. The sourdough fermentation process allowed viable baked goods to be produced from grains that grew well in that climate.

Plus, from my perspective, it traded the yeast, which was just one more ingredient that had to somehow be procured, for bacteria, which is everywhere, and available for free.

To get the dough to rise, my sources recommend about 30% to 40% sourdough starter to additional flour and water. I.e. if you normally make a loaf of bread with 5 cups of flour, this time you use 3 ½ cups of flour and 1 ½ cups of starter. The rest of the starter is used to create another batch of starter for the next loaf.

They also recommend to bake the bread in a form. Even though the sourdough starter acts to improve to rising ability of the dough, the dough tends to both run out easily as well as to lose the trapped gas easily during baking. The form acts to both contain the dough during baking as well as to keep the air trapped inside the dough.

In Munich, they had wonderful ceramic baking pots with lids and those characteristic ridges built into them. I don’t have anything that elaborate, so I’m not sure what I will come up with.

But, with any luck, I’ll have a picture of something tomorrow. How tall of a something is yet to be determined!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Sourdough : Rye : Spelt : Food and Dining

Nuts for Berries

2006-09-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned yesterday, we are now nuts for berries. Berries as in the edible part of grains. Wheat. Oat. Barley. And so on. Nuts as in lost our minds (?!).

A new market is growing in prominence on our shopping forays. One which caters to berry eating people. Sort of an upscale, over priced store for displaced, now employed hippies. Called Mother’s Market.

It carries all the things that were once the badges of the back to nature movement of the late 60s and early 70s. Strong emphasis on organic.

Except for the prices, which are steep, it has that sort of laid back, friendly casualness. If not directly of a food cooperative, like back in ‘the day’, at least compared to most modern markets. Until you get to the cash register. But then, everyone there is apparently well employed (unlike back in ‘the day’), and therefore seemingly unconcerned about this aspect.

And it employs oddly reggae looking people, but still dressed in a casual uniform. They should have Bob Marley piped in, but when we were there it was Joe Jackson. More 80’s San Francisco than 70’s Jamaica, but maybe more fitting.

Their selection is pretty interesting. Things are stacked tightly, floor to ceiling, so you really have to hunt. But I have found things I haven’t seen in a US market for 20 years.

It used to be, you could go to any store and get a variety of flours. Rye, wheat, white, etc. But that all went away. Now, there is only white and wheat. Apparently no one makes bread anymore, and the few who do stick to the basics.

But here at Mother’s, I was able to find not only whole wheat, but also spelt. Something that is found often in northern Europe. Called ‘dinkel’ in German, it is made into a variety of breads and rolls.

This is of interest, as we are embarking on an experiment to make a real sourdough bread, made with our own home grown rye sourdough starter (at work as I write), along with a mixture of flours from rye, spelt, and a few other grains. Possibly for an announced World Bread Blogger Event. Assuming the experiment comes out reasonably photogenic. But the starter has a week to go before we can even experiment with baking. So I am not getting my hopes up.

Other than that, we have stocked up on all manner of grains. And TeenGirl has scoured the Internet for recipes that use these grains.

I feature another one here today. A salad made with wheat berries.

You can get wheat berries in ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ varieties. We chose ‘soft’, mainly because it seemed they would cook up faster.

To get some flavor into the berries, they are finished in chicken broth, and tossed not only with thyme and lemon zest, but also goat cheese.

Plus a colorful addition of wilted Swiss chard. Swiss chard not only adds a delicious flavor component, but also gives the entire salad a sort of reddish glow. Adding immeasurably to the appeal of the dish. Plus, of course, the contrast of the wilted chard to the slightly crunchy berries is also very nice.

The result was delicious. As well as low fat. And low glycemic index carbohydrates.

The nutty grain infused with lemon and thyme, moist with goat cheese and Swiss chard, it was a beautiful accompaniment to some oven grilled chicken breasts.

Aside from the fact that you have to plan ahead to cook the grain, the salad came together quickly. And delivered a lot of flavor for the effort!

Wheat Berry Salad with Swiss Chard
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish

Ingredients:
2 cups soft wheat berries
2 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
4 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
4 ounces crumbled reduced-fat goat cheese
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 bunch Swiss chard, washed, ends trimmed, cut into strips
4 tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds, if desired
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Additional fresh thyme leaves for garnish, if desired

Soak wheat berries in cold water to cover by 2 inches in a bowl, overnight, covered and chilled.

Drain wheat berries well and cook in pot of 2 quarts boiling water uncovered until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain well and toss with thyme and lemon peel.

Heat chicken broth in a large skillet over medium heat till it boils. Add Swiss chard, and sautee until wilted, 3-4 minutes. Add wheat berry mixture. Simmer mixture until broth is reduced to a couple of tablespoons, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl, gently toss in goat cheese, lemon juice, and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add sunflower seeds if using to salad, and toss.

Place salad on serving plates. Sprinkle with thyme leaves if desired. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Wheat Berries : Chard : Food and Dining

Venerable Kitchen Sage gets Punk’ed

2006-09-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

In fact, I probably am happy, once I get over being a little put off by someone out chef-ing me. In my own kitchen!

Not making demands so much. Simply causing menus to move in a different direction than I would have chosen. Just by being there.

It’s like we are all helpless to confront this new and growing kitchen force.

That I would have made some pasta? Irrelevant. Pasta is white flour. (Sigh!).

It turns out we no longer eat white flour. Or sugar. Or a number of other things.

And we apparently now eat wheat berries, quinoa, bulgar, and other whole grains. Plus only rice with the husks still on. Like brown rice, or red rice, or black rice.

All this new stuff appears daily in my kitchen pantry. With no effort at all on my part. Like magic. Except I still pay for it all. And our newly refined eating habits are spelled out to me with the firm authority of someone who has been doing this for 50 years. Along with some hints as to why (less fat, whole grain, complete protein, low glycemic index, iron, zinc, who knows what all).

So I can not really even participate fully in the menu discussion, as there are shelves full of stuff I don’t yet know about.

Hrumpf. There young punks! Think they know better.

But I ‘hrumpf’ to myself, because, as I mentioned, I’m actually happy that TeenGirl is interested not just in food, but in nutrition and health. And we are benefiting as well. Plus, as I can dimly recall, I was 16 once as well. Hard to believe!

However, the ground turkey is still a day older. And the red bell peppers are a day softer. So, pasta or no, we still have to figure something out quick.

Actually, though I wouldn’t admit it, it is sort of a fun challenge. Out with the same old same old. In with something.

My initial idea for today was a red pepper based pasta sauce. So minus the pasta, we decided to just go with a different grain. Since I have not really tried many of these grains, I figured to keep things simple, cook some up, and see how it worked.

We chose the quinoa. Although it looks like a grain, or a rice, it is actually a seed. Originating in South America, it was revered by the Incas and Aztecs. Even better, it contains a complete set of amino acids, making it a complete protein. So its nutritional factor is very high.

I made a simple red pepper sauce, adding some tomatoes as well, mainly to achieve enough volume and thickness of sauce.

And we put some sage meat balls on top. Sage! I kept the red pepper sauce simple as I wanted the sage meat balls to flavor the sauce as well. And they did! Nicely!

There should really be a better name for these things than meat balls. It sounds Neanderthal. Meat balls. Like someone took a giant scoop and dug out a hunk of wooly mammoth to gnaw on. But, hey! Everyone loves them! And heavily herbed up with sage, they really are delicious. We browned the meat balls first, finishing them in the red pepper sauce, letting them soak up the sauce for an hour.

The result was great! Simple, but very satisfying. The quinoa worked well with the sauce mainly because it is not a sticky, gummy sort of grain (no gluten). Rather, with just a bit of sauce, it keeps a nice light texture. Seems like it would work well in a lot of instances where a lighter looser texture is required.

And sage! I really love sage. Especially as the weather cools. It adds that depth to foods that touches you deep inside.

And all together? A very satisfying new combination.

Sage Meat Balls in Red Pepper Sauce on Quinoa
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 red bell peppers, seeds removed, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
4-5 Roma tomatoes, peeled, chopped (or a 32 ounce can)
¼ to ½ cup red wine
4 pounds ground turkey
1 ½ cups bread crumbs (I used panko style)
4 tbsp chopped fresh sage
3 eggs
½ cup chopped parsley
salt, pepper
olive oil
1 ½ cups dry quinoa
Additional sage leaves, chopped, for garnish, if desired

In a food processor, puree the red peppers, onion and garlic. Add pureed mixture to a large, heavy pot, large enough to hold the sauce and the meat balls. Add the chopped tomatoes and wine. Cook the sauce over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly (note that the meat balls will absorb additional liquid).

While the sauce is cooking, in a large bowl, combine the meat, bread crumbs, eggs, sage, parsley, and salt and pepper. Form into egg sized meat balls.

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Carefully place meatballs in skillet, and sautee, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides. The meat balls do not have to be cooked through.

As the meat balls are browned, move them with a slotted spoon into the red pepper sauce. Let them simmer in the sauce for 30 to 60 minutes.

While the meat balls are simmering, place the quinoa along with 3 cups of water in a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, until all the water is absorbed.

To serve, scoop some quinoa onto a serving plate. Place a few meat balls on top. Spoon some red pepper sauce over the top, and sprinkle with chopped sage leaves. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Sage : Quinoa : Red Pepper Sauce : Food and Dining

Oktoberfest Fun - WHB

2006-09-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

Fall is really the best time of year in Munich and the surrounding areas.

The weather in summer can be either hot and humid, or cold and rainy. Spring brings rain, snow, hail, winds, heat, sun, clouds and cold, usually all on the same day. Often within hours of each other. It’s the effect of the nearby Alps. Winter, although beautiful in the mountains, is a grey, damp, cold, messy affair in the city, with piles of crusty old snow riddled with yellow and brown dog droppings.

But autumn, sometimes quite warm, sometimes bringing the first snow by the beginning of October, is usually punctuated by beautiful ‘Indian Summer’ conditions. Painfully blue skies, crisp air, bright leaves, and of course the Oktoberfest. Certainly one of the world’s biggest parties. Causing over a million people to visit Munich in a two week period. Beginning in mid- to late September and ending every year on the first full weekend in October, which is why it is called the Oktoberfest.

But beyond the Oktoberfest, Autumn is the best season because Bavarian food is keyed to a cool or cold climate. A bit on the heavy side, at least by California standards, lots of roasted pork, smoked pork, things cooked in pork fat, with the world’s best beer to wash it all down. Stuff intended to keep your internal fire burning to stave off the cold nights.

As fall slowly descends on SoCal, the temperatures drop from the 90’s into the 80’s, sometimes even lower, the evenings begin to cool to the point that you really need a jacket. Sometimes dew appears on the lawns in the mornings.

Maybe we don’t have to huddle in a beer tent, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others, noshing on crackling crisp roasted pig knuckle and gigantic dumplings and drinking beer in liter mugs. But if we could, we probably would!

With all that in mind, I went a little Bavarian with ‘Zwiebelkuchen’, or Bavarian Onion Tart. Something I learned about while living in Munich. A simple dish, based on the most common vegetable, the yellow onion. And, of course, roasted pork fat. Plus some caraway seeds. For Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored by Kalyn’s Kitchen.

In Bavaria, the dish is more oniony. As you move west across southern Germany to Schwabbbenland, the Black Forest and Stuttgart area, it turns more and more into an eggy, quiche like dish. Mine is sort of in the middle, with a quiche-style filling on a more bready base. But the key is still the yellow onion.

The common yellow onion seems simple, but is not. Their high sulfur content causes the eyes to water profusely while chopping. Long, patient sautéing is required to coax out a golden, caramelized sweetness from their sharp bite. And often, something like caraway seeds are added to help relieve potential discomfort from eating too many of them.

Maybe the most common vegetable, onions come in a variety of colors and degrees of pungency or sweetness. Related to leeks, shallots, garlic, chives, they seem to be integral to almost every cuisine around the world.

A few links:
yellow onions
wikipedia Yellow_onion
wikipedia Onion

To get the most flavor out of an onion, they need to be sautéed over medium heat for a long time. Until the liquid trapped in the onion cells has evaporated away, and the starches in the onion have caramelized and sweetened. The initially while onion flesh turns to a deep golden brown, and loses most of its volume. You have to have patience to get to this point without burning the onions first. At least 30 minutes, if not more, of patience.

Since I don’t have access to authentic Bavarian style smoked pork belly, I used some good quality applewood smoked bacon. I sautéed this slowly, to render the fat, resulting in crisp tasty bacon bits. After pouring off most of the fat, this was used to sautee the onions. As mentioned, I let them cook over medium to low heat for about 45 minutes, turning more often as the liquid evaporated.

The onion and bacon mixture is then mixed with eggs, cream and caraway seeds, poured in a yeast dough shell, and baked.

The resulting ‘Zwiebelkuchen’, or Bavarian Onion Tart, makes a wonderful snack on a cool day. In wine drinking regions of Germany and Austria, they drink it with something called a ‘Heurigen’, which is newly bottled, very young wine. In Vienna especially, they are wild about this stuff in the fall.

But you can also enjoy it with a Munich style beer. After all, it is Oktoberfest!

Zwiebelkuchen
Bavarian Onion Tart
Recipe translated from ‘Bayerisches Kochbuck’, 53rd edition, by surfindaave

Ingredients:
375 grams flour (I used 300 gr whole wheat, and 75 gr white)
1 packet dry yeast
¼ liter warm milk
80 grams warm butter
salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 ¼ kg yellow onions, peeled, sliced very thing into rings
1 pound smoked bacon, cut into small pieces
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup heavy cream
caraway seeds

Make the dough:

In a large bowl, combine the flours and salt. Make a mound of the flour, with a depression in the center. Add the yeast to the depression, along with a few tbsps of the warm milk. Sprinkle with flour. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let rise until doubled or more in size.

Add the softened butter, egg and most of the remaining milk to the bowl. Begin mixing the yeast ball into the flour (I use my hands for the whole procedure, but you can also use a wooden spoon). Mix the ingredients until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl, and all the flour is incorporated. Use additional milk if necessary to incorporate all the flour.

On a lightly floured board, knead the dough vigorously, adding as little additional flour as possible, for a good 15 minutes.

Place the kneaded dough in a lightly buttered bowl, and cover with a towel. I let my dough rise at room temperature to get a finer pore structure, but you can also put it in a barely warm oven. At room temperature, it takes about 3-4 hours to rise the first time. I punch it down lightly after about 2 ½ to 3 hours.

While the dough is rising, in ah large heavy skillet, render the bacon over medium heat. When crisp, remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels.

Pour off all but a few tbsps of fat from the pan, and return it to medium high heat. Add the onions, tossing to coat with the fat. Add the bacon bits. Let the onions sautee, tossin often, and reducing the heat slightly as they cook and begin to caramelize. They should cook at least 30 minutes, till they are very soft, and a deep golden color. Keep the heat low enough to avoid burning the onions as they cook.

Remove the onions to a bowl to cool

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

In another bowl, mix the eggs, cream, and caraway seeds. Mix the cooled onions with the egg mixture.

Press the dough into a shallow baking dish, pressing it up the sides.

Pour the onion mixture into the dough shell. Place the tart into the oven, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the filling is puffed, golden brown, and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.

Remove the tart from the oven, and let cool. Cut into pie shaped slices, and serve with a green salad and a glass of very young white wine. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Onions : Bavarian Onion Tart : Zwiebelkuchen : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

A Simple Surprise – Sugar High Friday 23 ‘Surprise’ Edition

2006-09-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

Surprises are not what they used to be.

In the old, old, old days, before times of embarrassing plenty and instant gratification of almost every whim, a surprise was a rare thing. It didn’t have to be something especially expensive. Because special things were so rare. They were precious simply because of how seldom appeared.

Of course, the old, old, old days had other problems, like black plague, and burnings at stake, and all manner of rapes, pillages and mayhem much worse in many regards than today’s issues (some frighteningly just the same today), so I am not wishing the past upon us.

Just setting some perspective.

When I first heard of this treat, I really couldn’t put myself in the frame of mind to see what the big deal was. There is a ‘surprise’ involved, but hardly seemed like one to make you turn off your iPod and log off the internet for. And if I wouldn’t do that, it certainly wouldn’t be worth it to fire up the Hummer, let alone the horse cart, to drive down to the local café to try one of these. Just google the cafe and get a picture of it, post it and done. We're so jaded.

But, age brings perspective. If not always wisdom.

Maybe it was the kids, exploring the world for the first time when they were young, things I no longer noticed occasions for exuberant excitement and surprise, with most of those things ending up in their mouths. And I see how one could find joy in a simple surprise, like a plum or a fig, baked deep into a pastry. Gently tearing open the sweet, still steaming dough to get to the juicy baked surprise in the center. Eating it all with some sweet, syrupy juices and fresh fruit. Maybe prepared for a special occasion. A holiday, or a birth.

So, with this acquired advantage of perspective, I immediately thought if this Bavarian treat for the ‘Surprise’ edition of Sugar High Friday. Sponsored this month by Alanna of A Veggie Venture .

A ‘Zwetchgennudel’ is basically a 'Rohrnudel', which is a sweet yeast dough, baked somewhat like a puffy roll, but in the center is stuffed (usually) a plum. Often with a cube of sugar inside the plum where the pit would have been. The plum, baked inside the dough, turns to a soft, sweet, mushy delight. Making a sort of instant topping for the pastry once it is torn open.

Well, the type of plums traditionally used in this, called Zwetchgen, are available here, but they are huge. Way too big to try to stuff into a roll like this.

So I went local, and used California figs. Making ‘Feigennudeln’, if you will. I have to admit I am not sure how to translate ‘Rohrnudel’ and ‘Feigennudel’ exactly. So I’m going with Bavarian baked pastry and Bavarian Fig pastry. I’m open to better translations. Maybe they are a sort of baked dumpling? Bavarian baked dumplings? Sounds better, but I digress …

Also, I didn’t want to use sugar cubes, as oddly enough no one here would eat them, so I went with honey. The trick being how to get the honey into the center of the figs, and the filled figs into the dough and baked. I froze the honey, and cut it into little cubes. I could then, if I was fast, get a cube of frozen honey into a cut open fig, and wrap the whole thing in the dough, pinching it shut, before the honey softened.

Lastly I made it with whole wheat flour. Just for TeenGirl. By the way, all the pictures today are again by TeenGirl (she's gettin' pretty good at this!).

So, a Munich specialty, updated. With figs, honey and whole wheat flour.

To go with this, people usually serve a sort of fruit compote.

I decided to go with the fig theme here too, and made a Fig and Pomegranate compote in Pomegranate syrup. Fresh pomegranates, squeezed, the juice boiled down with some agava nectar into a thick syrup. Delicious. I cooked the fig quarters in this for a few minutes, then tossed them with some remaining pomegranate seeds.

My surprise was that it actually came out halfway edible!

Eveyone else was completely surprised, expecting a plum, which is good but not such a surprise. And getting a wonderfully roasted fig. Which was a total surprise!

Bayerische Feigennudeln mit Feigen und Granatapfel Kompott
Bavarian Fig Pastries with Fig and Pomegranate Compote
Recipe translated and adapted from Bayerisches Kochbuch, 53rd Edition, by surfindaave

Ingredients:
400 grams whole wheat flour
100 grams white flour
1 package dry yeast
¼ liter warm milk
2-3 tbsp agava nectar (or sugar)
pinch of salt
zest from one lemon
80 grams softened butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
Butter for greasing pan and buttering the 'nudeln'
8 fresh figs (not too large), tips trimmed, sliced about ¾ of the way through
8 tsp honey
Fig and pomegranate compote (recipe follows)

Place honey in a small dish in the freezer.

Mix the warmed milk and the agava nectar (or sugar).

In a large bowl, combine the flours and salt. Make a mound of the flour, with a depression in the center. Add the yeast to the depression, along with a few tbsps of the warm sweetened milk. Sprinkle with flour. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let rise until the yeast ball is doubled or more in size.

Add the softened butter, egg, lemon zest and most of the remaining milk to the bowl. Begin mixing the yeast ball into the flour (I use my hands for the whole procedure, but you can also use a wooden spoon). Mix the ingredients until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl, and all the flour is incorporated.

On a lightly floured board, knead the dough vigorously, adding as little additional flour as possible, for a good 15 to 20 minutes.

Place the kneaded dough in a lightly buttered bowl, and cover with a towel. I let my dough rise at room temperature to get a finer pore structure, but you can also put it in a barely warm oven. At room temperature, it takes about 3-4 hours to rise the first time. I punch it down lightly after about 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Without adding any additional flour, divide the dough into eight fairly equal pieces. Form each onto a ball.

Butter a 10 inch baking form thoroughly.

Preheat the oven to 360ºF (180 to 190ºC).

Remove the honey from the freezer. One at a time, stretch each ball large enough to completely wrap one fig. Place the stretched dough on a board, place one split fig on top, and quickly spoon a tsp of frozen honey into the center of the fig. Close the fig around the honey. Wrap the dough completely around the fig, pinching the seams tightly and completely, and reform into a ball shape. Place each wrapped ‘nudel’ ball into the buttered baking form. Leave some space between each ball.

Repeat the procedure for the remaining balls of dough. Drizzle all the balls with a little additional melted butter, and roll them to cover completely.

Let the ‘nudels’ rise, covered, until puffed and doubled in size, about an hour at room temperature.

Bake the ‘nudels’ for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden. Its hard to tell when the center doughs are completely cooked through, so I usually bake a bit longer to be on the safe side.

Remove the ‘nudels’ from the oven, and invert them onto a plate. Let them cool, then separate them into individual ‘nudels’.

Serve along with the fig and pomegranate compote. Eat by pulling them apart at the center to release the 'surprise', and mopping up the pomegranate syrup with the ‘nudel’. Enjoy!

Fig and Pomegranate Compote
Recipe by surfindaave

Ingredients:
1 pint small black figs, tips trimmed, cut into quarters
2 pomegranates
1/3 cup agava nectar (or sugar)
juice of 1 lemon

Cut the pomegranates in half. Using a hand juicer, squeeze the juice out of 3 quarters of the pomegranates, reserving the last quarter piece. Carefully remove the seeds from the last quarter and reserve for later.

Compine the pomegranate juice, the agave nectar (or sugar) and the lemon juice in a small heavy pan. Bring to a boil, and reduce by about ½. Remove from heat.

Carefully add the figs to the syrup. Cook the figs over medium heat for a few minutes, until the soften, but have not fallen apart. Remove the figs from the syrup.

Boil the syrup until it thickens somewhat. Remove it from the heat, and let it cool.

In a bowl, combine the figs, pomegranate syrup, and the reserved pomegranate seeds.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : SHF23 : Sugar High Friday 23 : Rohrnudeln : Compote : Food and Dining

Finding Comfort South of the Border

2006-09-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

I love the unique flavor tomatillos give to dishes.

They usually end up in salsa. Where the hot chilies and other things tend to overpower their flavor.

Moles offer a better stage for the tomatillo. Their complex and subtle flavors allowing the slightly acidy floral flavors of the tomatillo to shine through.

But better still is chili verde. Which is really not chili at all, in the sense we currently have for chili. It’s more stew verde. Where the tomatillo plays the main role.

Chili Verde is like the ultimate Mexican comfort food. Simmered long enough to extract all the flavors. Simmered long enough that the meat is practically falling apart. And simmered until it is thick enough to scoop up with a tortilla.

Since comfort is sort of the opposite of mouth-blisteringly hot, I keep the heat dialed down on this one. There’s some heat, but not enough to detract from the tomatillo flavor.

The fresh flavor and the slight acidity make tomatillos a perfect foil for rich roasted pork. But no one here will eat pork.

So I modified a nice recipe for chili verde from pork to chicken, and got Chili Verde con Pollo.

For the background heat, I used poblano chilies. Which are fairly mild, and give the final dish a wonderfully bright green color. I add a few red bell peppers for color, and balance it with some lime juice.

The basic dish is just chicken, first browned, then stewed in chicken broth until it is fall apart cooked. The flavorings, mainly the tomatillos, chili peppers and cilantro, come in later. The tomatillos also add a thickness to the stew, giving it some nice body.

Served over a whole grain rice (such as a brown rice, or we used red cargo rice, which is unhulled jasmine rice), this is a very balanced low fat, high vitamin, high protein and low glycemic index carbohydrate meal.

Easy to make and a comforting, if not directly quick, meal to enjoy after a hectic day.

Chili Verde con Pollo with Red Rice
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 pounds chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 onions, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
4 to 5 cups chicken broth
2-3 tbsp cumin
salt, pepper
4 poblano chilies, cut into ½ inch pieces, seeds can be used for a hotter chili, or discarded for a milder result
1 large red bell pepper, cut into ½ inch pieces
juice of 1 lime
2 pounds tomatillos, husks removes, and washed
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed
Additional chopped cilantro, for garnish, if desired
Whole grain steamed rice as an accompaniment

In a large, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over high heat. Sear the chicken pieces, tossing, until browned on all sides. Remove to a plate.

Add additional olive oil to the skillet if necessary and sautee the onions over medium heat. When softened, add the garlic, an dsautee, stirring, for 1-2 minutes. Add the chicken and cumin. Toss. Increase heat to high and add enough chicken broth to just cover the chicken pieces. Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce heat to a bare simmer. Let the chicken cook for 40 minutes or so.

While the chicken is cooking, puree the tomatillos and cilantro in a food processor.

Add the chilies, peppers, tomatillo mixture and lime juice to the stew. Season with salt. Return stew to a bare simmer, and cook for an additional 30 to 40 minutes.

TO serve, place a scoop of steamed rice in the middle of a flat soup bowl. Ladle the chili verde around the rice. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro, if desired. Serve. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Chili Verde : Pollo : Food and Dining

Thinking Globally, Didn't Act Locally

2006-09-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Isn’t that what they always say you should do? Think globally, act locally? That’s what I should have done. Dream globally, accept locally might have worked as well. But it was the daydream globally, try to buy globally that got me into a mess.

In Holland, specifically Amsterdam, you can wander the canal-lined streets and find, among other things, wonderful cheese shops.

Very old buildings with tiny doorways, packed floor to ceiling with huge wheels of cheese and gigantic wedges cut there from. A pungent aroma fills the room. Throngs of people are packed into the tight walkways between these teetering stacks of cheese, forcing you to stop frequently and simply breathe in the pungent aromas. You can practically taste it as you inhale.

Unexpectedly helpful people are eager to cut you a thin slice of cheese after cheese. Unexpected maybe because it seems rare, outside Holland and Switzerland, to find such a level of enthusiasm, such a passion, over cheese.

But this is not just cheese. This is beyond cheese. This is simple, everyday milk turned into art. Gouda being maybe the most prolific of the different sorts.

The offerings range from the very fresh, soft, pale yellow of the youngest, to the deep, firm yellow of the middle aged, to the bright orange of the brittle and crumbly old aged cheese. The super old aged Gouda is often so brittle that it is not really possible to cut a slice. It resembles more a rocky cliff, rife with huge cracks, piles of rubble lying at the base where they have broken away and fallen off.

The flavors cover the range from a relative buttery, creamy barely perceptible taste to the bold, very sharp tang of the super aged ones. I favor the older, aged cheeses. They have a flavor that makes it clear why cheeses are so revered in some countries.

Mixed amongst the Goudas are the colorful rinds of Leeredamers, and Edams, and Leidenkaas, and Freisekaas. Also smoked Gouda. Something a bit different. I’m not really sure if this is a classic way to prepare the cheese, or something dreamed up to ensnare the tourists.

Well, I guess I had that image in my mind when my eye caught a recipe that called for smoked Gouda (or smoked mozzarella, but I didn’t dwell on that).

I found the cheese recipe while looking for a way to serve either barley or wheat berries. Don’t ask. Well, OK, ask. TeenGirl has read that wheat berries, and barley for that matter, are particularly healthful. Plus they are low glycemic index carbohydrates. Every day is a chemistry lesson here nowadays. If she doesn’t ace her chemistry class this year, I’m gonna make that teacher spend a week eating with us. She’ll learn a few new things about food chemistry. Whether she wants to or not!

The recipe I found is basically a salad combining cooked barley and wheat berries with some veggies. I figured I would get mega bonus points for getting both grains onto a single recipe. But what caught my eye was the smoked Gouda.

Now, I know that getting real aged Gouda, deep orange, almost red, sharp, pungent and brittle, in not possible in the US. Like smoking hash in public, this is reserved exclusively for the Dutch.

But, I was pretty sure I had seen smoked Gouda. Again, I was fixated on the authentic cheese from Holland. And I did in fact find a product called smoked Gouda. With a label indicating its origin was Holland. Despite my apprehension, I went for it.

The salad itself is fairly easy to make. Aside from boiling the grains, it is just a matter of combining the grains with vegetables, and a dressing based on balsamic vinegar, garlic and shallots. The smoked cheese was supposed to add a significant flavor component.

The basic salad was nice. As expected, the balsamic did indeed carry the day. With a parsley salad and a few grilled sausages (chicken, of course!) on the side, it made for a very flavorful, and healthy, meal.

But the cheese disappointed. Plastic in texture and artificial in taste. I guess I should have expected that.

In retrospect, after watching everyone pick out the cheese pieces from the salad, I should have gone with a home grown substitute. Something more local, made with real knowledge and love for cheese, maybe something from the Cowgirl Creamery, or Three Sisters Cheese, or Point Reyes Farmstead Cheeses, or Fiscalini Farmstead Cheeses, or Fagundes Old World Cheese.

Which are all California artisan style cheese makers. Local, so to speak.

But awfully hard to find. Apparently we live in the Velveeta and Kraft slices capital of California.

None the less, I’ll look a little harder next time. And encourage any who want to make the recipe to substitute a local, strong flavored artisan cheese, ideally something aged, for the smoked Gouda called for in this recipe.

Barley and Wheat Berry Salad with Parsley
Recipe adapted from Epicurious by surfindaave
Serves 4

1 cup wheat berries
1 cup pearl barley
1 small red onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1 shallot, minced
1 medium zucchini, grated
1/2 pound aged or smoked artisan cheese
6-8 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
Parsley Salad as an accompaniment if desired (recipe follows)

Into a kettle of salted boiling water stir wheat berries and cook at a slow boil 30 minutes. Stir in barley and cook grains at a slow boil 40 minutes.

While grains are cooking, in a large bowl stir together onion, garlic paste, vinegar, and oil. Drain grains well and add to onion mixture.

Toss mixture well and cool. Add shallots, zucchini, cheese, tomatoes, chives, and salt and pepper to taste and toss well. Salad may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring salad to room temperature before serving. Serve salad with parsley salad.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Wheat Berries : Barley : Parsley Salad : Food and Dining

Classic Dilemma

2006-09-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Time again to magically produce something where there is apparently an abundance of nothing. But, it’s a dilemma of my own making.

Poor planning on my part, not to mention some high school sports events that went until after 10 pm in the evening, had left no time for cooking in the last few days. Let alone for shopping. No meals. No leftovers. An empty fridge! Everyone had to scrounge for what they could find. Survival of the quickest!

So, tonight, I wanted to sort of atone for the last few days. Make something, if not directly special, at least substantial and flavorful. Maybe atone is the wrong word. I just wanted people to not be able to complain anymore. Because their mouths were full of food.

Chicken breasts, figs and lots of wine. Plus a few onions. That was it. Most herbs in the fridge had finally given up the ghost. Except for the thyme, and miraculously the sage (go figure!).

In thinking about the possibilities to combine these into a meal (that people here would eat!), I drew a blank. Nothing tried and true seemed to be close enough to modify for the ingredients on hand. And the classic preparations rarely call for figs. Which is too bad, as they are not only delicious, but versatile.

My first thought was a sort of stew. Chicken breasts, browned, then stewed with the figs. A broth based primarily on red wine. As I had no white wine or chicken broth. But I also had no other veggies to go in it. And besides, carrots and figs? Hmmm.

I kept it simple.

In retrospect, the dish came tantalizingly close to the classic Coq au Vin.

Except that I had no mushrooms. Instead, figs. An improvement, in my opinion!

And I had no whole chicken. Just the breasts. Lightly floured and browned, they would be fine. But we were definitely giving up some of the flavor of the whole chicken for a low fat alternative. Everyone but me would be happy with that.

And I had no small onions. Not even an ersatz small onion. I did add a bit of lime juice as an acid to balance the figs’ sweetness, again mainly because that’s what I had on hand. I think here I could have used some balsamic vinegar instead. Next time!

Plus, as mentioned, I didn’t even have celery for a mire poix. Carrots alone didn’t seem to fit. So the thyme and bay would have to fill in the foundation here.

But, all that not withstanding, chicken and figs braised in red wine, with thyme and bay leaf, started to sound pretty good, again considering the starting point!

The last question was what to put in on. We could have added some rice to the stew, but I had promised TeenBoy some roasted garlic mashed potatoes since forever, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go with that. Until I opened the bag of potatoes, and promptly threw the contents out.

Polenta was the back-up plan. Creamy polenta with parmesan. TeenBoy was not directly mad, but definitely unhappy. TeenGirl, on the other hand, was in heaven. Hard to tell if it was because of the polenta, or because TeenBoy didn’t get his mashed potatoes.

The now ruby red chicken was tender as butter. The figs, balanced with the lime, lusciously rich.

All in all, I think the polenta was a better choice. The fig sauce was not heavy and fatty, but thick and rich. The polenta was a nice clean counterpoint to that heady rich flavor.

This one will get made again. That’s for sure!

And as we were done, that’s when it occurred to me that this was not soooo far from the classic Coq au Vin dish. Maybe not completely up to the level of the classic dish, but certainly a nice treat for a hectic Monday!

Chicken and Figs Braised in Red Wine over Parmesan Polenta
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 pounds chicken breasts (if very large, cut in half lengthwise)
1 cup flour
salt pepper
olive oil
2 onions, cut into eighths
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pints small black figs, ends trimmed, cut in half, reserving 4-8 of them whole for garnish
2-3 tsp fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 bottle dry red wine
1 lime, juiced
2-3 tbsp honey
Parmesan Polenta (recipe follows)
Parsley, chopped, for garnish, if desired

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour, shaking off the excess.

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over high heat. Brown the chicken breasts on both sides, removing them to a plate as they are done.

In the same skillet, add additional olive oil, if necessary, and sautee the onions over medium heat, stirring, until they begin to soften. Add the fig halves and garlic stirring gently, and sautee for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add the wine to the pan, and increase the heat to high. Bring to a boil, scraping any brown bits clinging to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the chicken breasts, stirring (if necessary, transfer mixture to a large, heavy pot). Bring to a very gentle simmer, cover, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 40 minutes.

Remove the chicken and figs from the pan, discarding the bay leaves, and any thyme stems. Boil the remaining liquid until it is reduced by about ½, and has thickened somewhat. Transfer about half the figs and onions to a food processor, and puree them with the reduced liquid. Return the sauce to the pan. Stir in the lime juice and the honey to taste. Add the chicken and remaining figs and onions, and heat through over medium heat.

Serve the chicken, figs and onions on top of the polenta, spooning some of the sauce over the top. Garnish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley, and one of the reserved figs, cut decoratively, if desired. Enjoy!

Parmesan Polenta
Recipe by surfindaave
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 cups whole milk
3 cups water
1 ½ cups polenta
salt
1-2 cups grated parmesan cheese (depends how cheesy you like it!)

Bring the milk and water to a simmer over medium high heat – watching carefully as it will boil over at the last second! Slowly whisk in the polenta and salt. Continue to whisk as the polenta thickens. If it starts to boil, turn down the heat a bit. Let it thicken to the point that it is hard to move the whisk. This will take 10 to 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Stir in the cheese. Serve.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Fig Sauce : Chicken : Parmesan Polenta : Food and Dining

Turning Gold to Rubies - WHB

2006-09-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Apparently we are getting immature fruit. Well, it probably fits in with us better anyways. We are not really oozing with maturity here. Markets around here sell the fruit when it is still green, although fully mature fruit turns a bright golden yellow.

Bur I love the fruit not for it’s golden color, but for the beautiful translucent ruby color it turns after roasting or sautéing.

It’s the quince, of course. One of the main reasons I love fall.

Once one of the most popular fruits across Europe. Now, seldom seen. Looking like a cross between an apple and a pear, usually hard as a rock, and not at all flavorful raw. Until cooked somehow, usually for quite a long time. Whereupon it transforms itself into one of the most delicious of all fruits. A favorite of mine.

Actually, quinces grow pretty well in SoCal. Although they are not such a common tree here. For some odd reason, I associate then fruit with New Zealand, apparently a big producer. Although, as I found out recently at our local Persian market, the fruit is very integral to the Persian cuisine, and indigenous to that region.

Known as the golden apple, the fruit was a favorite of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and so carries those sensuous connotations. Ancient Greeks loved it. Those of Christian faith are of the opinion that Eve actually plucked a Quince from the forbidden tree and fed it to Adam. Charlemagne brought the quince to France around 810 AD, where it spread quickly. The English probably brought the fruit and seeds to Australia and New Zealand in the 1800s. It was brought to the colonies early in the 1600s, and had a brief stint of popularity in America, but that has long ago given way to the apple, and to some extent the pear.

Here are a couple of links with some more detailed info on quinces:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince
http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch51.html

Most commonly served now days as a sort of jelly, or often made into a hard paste, which is sliced and served with cheese. But these preparations hardly show off the quince to its fullest.

Over the years, I have most often roasted quinces along with chicken, fish, etc. Pork would also be a good choice, if I could get anyone here to eat pork. They also work well peeled, sliced into sections, and pan roasted. This can be done in both a savory preparation, such as in a stew, or as a sweet dish, maybe cooked in a buttery caramel. Or you can just roast the whole thing, and serve it as it as a side dish, or puree it into a sort of ruby-red quince apple sauce.

Quince based deserts are also good.

So when I found a recipe for a Quince Tart Tatin, that upside down dessert where the fruit is cooked in butter and sugar, then covered with dough and baked, I went for it. For this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, sponsored this week by Piperita of The Kitchen Pantry.

I was hoping the quinces would develop that wonderful ruby color during the roasting, and they did. They didn’t turn red until after the dough was put on top and they were baked in the oven, so it was a real pleasant surprise when we flipped the dessert out of the pan and revealed beautiful result.

All pictures are by TeenGirl, by the way. I think she did a great job!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, however. We basically don’t eat white flour anymore. No white bread, and all the things we bake are predominantly based on whole grains (teenagers!). Mainly because we are eating predominately carbohydrates with low glycemic indexes. So if you are into all that, and you have a clue what the glycemic index of a food means, then you know why we are doing this. If not, or if you are on a carbohydrate restricted diet, check here: http://www.glycemicindex.com/ Oddly enough, although most people use the glycemic index as a guide to choose foods to help lose weight, we use it as a guide to maintain weight. Turns out eating low glycemic index foods help control weight in general, helping maintain a proper weight, rather than focusing on specifically losing weight. Seems to be working well.

Plus, I mentioned a few weeks ago that we have given up sugar. No more white powdery sugar. So to make the caramel for the Tart Tatin, I used butter and agava nectar. I was more than a bit interested to see if the agava nectar would caramelize and brown up as required. And it did. Perfectly. Aside from having to boil off a bit more liquid than with sugar, I could not tell the difference. The caramel turned deep golden brown, and had a wonderfully buttery flavor.

I have been using this agava nectar for every instance where sugar is called for. Salad dressings, baked items, ice creams, everything. Works perfectly. And eliminates the well documented problems with white sugar.

So, even though this decedent looking Quince Tart Tatin would appear to be fattening and unhealthy, it is actually sugar free, made only with low glycemic index whole grains, and very healthy. Of course, adding the Crème Fraiche sort of tipped the balance back towards decedent and naughty.

Quince Tarte Tatin
Recipe adapted by surfindaave

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into little cubes
1/3 cup very cold water
4 whole quince, peeled, cored, and cut into slices
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup agava nectar (or sugar)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the pastry dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the cold butter and quickly massage with your fingers until the mixture resembles a very course meal with pea sized lumps of butter. Add the cold water and quickly mix and form the mixture to a ball. Turn out onto counter and form into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Combine the butter and agava in a 10 inch diameter cast iron or heavy bottomed pan with short sides. Heat until sugar turns a golden amber color about 5 to 7 minutes. Swirl pan to combine butter. Add the quince slices, toss to coat completely, and sautee over medium heat until the slices start to soften, stirring frequently.

Turn off the heat. Working quickly, remove the slices from the pan to a plate. Arrange the slices in the pan, starting on the outer parimeter of the pan, and working in a circular manner towards the center of the pan, packing the slices close together and in an interlocking design. Cover the bottom of the pan completely and evently.

Place the pan over medium high heat, and, without stirring, cook the quince slices for a few minutes, letting the caramel come to a full bubbly boil, until the caramel is a deep brown. Remove the pan from the heat.

While the quince slices are cooking, on a lightly floured surface roll dough into a circular shape about 1/4 inch thick. Diameter should be at least 1 inch larger than the pan with the quince.

Place circle of dough over surface of quince and tuck edges underneath quince to neatly cover.

Bake for 20 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden (mine took a long time, maybe because of the whole wheat flour?). Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes. Flip quince tart onto a serving plate or wooden board. Serve warm with Crème Fraiche. Enjoy!

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Quince : Tart Tatin : Weekend Herb Blogging : WHB : Food and Dining

Making the Cut – ‘Foods to Die For’ Meme Items That Didn’t Make It

2006-09-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is my continuation of a Meme called: ‘5 things you've eaten and think that everyone should eat at least once before they die’, started by Melissa, of The Traveler's Lunchbox. I was selected by Haalo, of ‘Cook (almost) Anything at least once’, to offer my thoughts on the subject. Where upon I promply broke the rules and called mine 'Foods to Die For'. This a special entry of some things that were on the list, but not in the top 5. Item #1 is still to come.

While thinking about the ‘top’ five Foods to Die For, which is a relative thing, and probably would change a bit on any given day, I made up a list. Which I subsequently ‘prioritized’. So, I thought it would be fun to give a brief mention to some things that were on the list, but fell out of the top five spots.

So far, we have:
#5 – The communal sushi experience, three ways (Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul)
#4 – Open air non-touristy food markets
#3 – Steak with all the trimmings at Doe’s Eat Place in Little Rock, Arkansas
#2 – Wines from good vintage years from the Haut-Médoc region of Bordeaux, France
#1 – of course, I’m not going to spill the beans on that just yet!

In my intro, I also mentioned pizza after midnight at Lena’s in Fredonia, NY. As well as Bavarian Weissbier, the national drink of the Free State of Bavaria, enjoyed under giant chestnut trees along the Isar river in Munich.

Other items on the list that didn’t make the top five were:

Blueberry picking in Michigan: In mid-summer, when we lived on the shores of White Lake on the west side of Michigan, just down from Muskegon, in a tiny town called Whitehall, we went ONE TIME, and picked blueberries. Michigan has got to be the blueberry capital of the US. I vaguely remember moving through the short, scrubby bushes on a sweltering day, eating way more than half the berries picked. The main reason it didn’t make the list is just cause the memory is so fuzzy, I can’t really remember any of the emotion associated with the event. So, maybe I just assume it was fun, or maybe I read about other people having fun doing this, and had no actual fun myself. Who would know?

Buying buckets of live crawdads and shrimp along the Mississippi in New Orleans, and taking them home to boil and eat on tables layered with newspaper. Knowing just the right technique for removing the heads, popping out the body meat and consuming as many in as short a time as possible. Hey – it was on the list!

I could probably list a few restaurants in San Francisco over the decades that I liked a lot.

Paris too.

Then there are the roasted chickens at the Lindwurmstueberl restaurant on the Lindwurmstrasse in Munich, Germany. Tears still come to my eyes when I think of all the perfectly grilled chickens and French fries we enjoyed there over the years.

Of course, also in Munich is the world’s greatest open air food market, the Viktualienmarkt, in the center of town. I opted for the open air market in Paris, mainly because it was smaller, more intimate, and such a surprising find. But I went to the Viktualienmarkt with my two kids every Saturday for eight years, leaving at 7 or 7:30 in the morning on my bike, summer and winter, and loading up on amazing things. The kids got a free treat at almost every stand, maybe a pretzel, or a wiener, or a hunk of cheese. I loved it. I think they did too, for the most part. The shops offering 1000 different kinds of sausage, for example, boggles the mind. Or the potato guy, with his 30+ different varieties of potatoes. Sometimes we would get a bowl of soup at the Soup Kitchen, maybe Leberknuedel, or Erbseneintopf mit Wurst. Highly recommended.

Nice (France) has a nice open air food market, as well. Very crowded in the summer, though.

And of course the Biergartens throughout Bavaria. ‘Nuff said!

Or the wonderful hard sausages we bought from the shops all over Italy. In Sardinia, in Sicily, in Milano or Florence. That flavor is unique, intense, and completely addictive. I do not know the names of all the sausages we tried, but they are the hard ones, usually with a sort of whitish papery casing, and often tied with strong twine.

Or maybe being in Tuscany during grape harvesting and wine pressing time. Tasting our way around the tiny villages sitting on top of the hilly landscape. And veal. Tender and delicate, grilled in olive oil. Florence is the veal eating capital of the world.

Or black risotto and spaghetti in Venice, where they flavor the dish with squid ink.

Or just having had the wonderful luck to be able to enjoy 10 years worth of vacations around Italy. Spending weeks in every possible region. Mostly eating. And drinking.

Or the dessert cart that was rolled out to us in a restaurant in Wien (Vienna), Austria. I couldn’t really write about it ‘cause I forgot the name of the restaurant and can’t seem to find any hint of it in all my travel books. But I can say that it was stupendous. Outrageous. Verging on obscene, laden with sweet decadence of every possible sort. You could take a taste of any or all of the items. Whew! They had to pry me out of the restaurant.

Or the equally outrageous sausage cart that was wheeled out at the restaurant ‘D’Chez Eux’ in Paris, piled high with sausages, patês and breads.. Which was rated as a ‘good table’ 20 some years ago, when we tried it.

And Café Latte at any street cafe in Paris anytime in the morning. We had a contest one time to see if we could find the most expensive Café Latte in the city. We gave up a Les Duex Maggots, the ultra-tourist Mecca. It cost a bunch! Of francs, way back then. And it was far from the best (the best was also one of the cheapest!).

I also tried once to find the best baguette in Paris, based on various reviews. That’s worth a day of your life for sure.

A tour of single malt scotch whiskies, whether in Scotland (best!) or at home (with friends) is on the list. Lagavulin 16 year old won.

Aioli in Provence. Maybe served at a bistro on that wonderfully tree-lined street in the center of town.

And just in general, while we’re in Provence, Bourride, that silky smooth fish dish of the south of France, with some Aioli, is something I make every New Year’s eve.

Argmanac is on the list. Along with Calvados. Both of which can be sipped from bottles that are 50 or more years old. For a price!

Appenzell cheese, purchased in the Appenzell region of Switzerland is on the list. They make this stuff in 50 or more varieties. New, aged, aged more, really aged, and so on.

Red currants from Germany. I love love love the huge cardboard baskets of red currents you can buy all over Germany in the summer. Unavailable in SoCal!

Fresh tamales purchased from a roadside stand in Baja Mexico. Sweet corn tamales, green chili tamales, pork tamales, all sorts. Delicious is not a strong enough word. Go for the stands lined with locals. The food is the best and the turn-over is high enough to ensure the food is fresh.

Dropping $1000 at a super hip, super fancy restaurant in Brey, or Montjoi, or even London or Paris, that is rated mega stars. Four plus hours of tongue gymnastics. Flavors and combinations you’ve never dreamed of, with wines to match.

East Tennessee pulled pork BBQ. I didn’t know BBQ till I went to Tennessee. Eastern Tennessee, that is. At the Dixie Barbeque, on Roan Street in Johnson City, for example. Not ribs. But hunks of pork, smoked for hours, and simmered for hours more in their special vinegary BBQ sauces, then the fibers of meat pulled apart and served with additional sauces. Like Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Sauce. I saved a bottle in my fridge for 15 years just on the name alone!

Finally, one of my favorites, but not a food per se, is to experience a foreign culture intimately. So close up that the experience changes your life and lasts for a life time. This happened to me shortly after I moved to Munich. I had been living there for six months. Was learning the language. And was beginning to feel a bit comfortable. And I wanted to try more and more of the local specialties. Like the famous veal sausage ‘Weisswurst’. So one evening, I ordered it. Just like that. We were sitting at a communal table, as is the custom in many restaurants in Munich. The talking stopped. Everyone, and I mean everyone, turned and looked my way. Aghast. The waitress, no lightweight, hiked her foot up on the chair next to me. Set her pad down. I figured she was going to smack me. She declared that she would not be bringing any of these Munich treats, as I had violated seven rules associated with the sausages. Seven! Everyone in the room nodded. Simultaneously. Who knew food could even have so many rules! And that everyone would be in such agreement!

Then she read off the rule violations, one after the other, and the room nodded and gave verbal encouragement to her. Tradition was at stake here!
Rule #1: Weisswurst may not hear the noon church bells. I.e. you don’t’ eat them after noon. It was evening at the time (they get old fast!).
Rule #2: Weisswurst are always ordered in pairs – i.e. one pair, two pairs, etc. I had ordered three individual sausages. My bad!
Rule #3: Weisswurst are eaten with special sweet Weisswurst mustard. I had asked for spicy mustard.
Rule #4: Weisswurst are only eaten with a Bavarian style pretzel on the side. I had asked for potato salad.
Rule #5: Weisswurst are always heated, never boiled, in warm broth. I apparently had inadvertently asked for them grilled, as assumed they were like other brat wursts. That may have been the last straw with everyone.
Rule #6: Weisswurst are eaten with Weissbier, the Bavarian national drink. I may have ordered water (apparently my feet were dirty?), or wine, or possibly even regular beer (Helles).
Rule #7: Weisswurst are eaten in a special manner (more later), that does not require fork or knife. I probably asked for a table setting, because it is common in Munich restaurants to get the table setting based on the order. Turns out, that was unnecessary in this case.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, nodded their heads in total agreement to the list of rules. Needless to say, I got no Weisswurst that evening. In the ensuing years of living in Munich, I became a bit of a Weisswurst expert, sharing tips on the where to get the best ones, how much parsley should be in them, finer points like that. As well as the special techniques for eating them, as the sausage casing is not eaten, and the best way is to sort of suck the tender flesh out of the casing in a method known as ‘Zuzeln’. Working for one of the large companies in Munich, we all stopped work on Friday at 10 am for a second breakfast of Weisswurst, Weissbier and pretzels.

But I never forgot the lecture I got that day, or the realization I came to that there were layers of unspoken collective understanding that bind a culture together that I did not even know existed. I’ve spent the remaining years searching out these unspoken, hidden layers, experiencing them, and gaining a new respect for some of the complexities of the different cultures around the world.

Up next – the #1 Food to Die For.

Tags : Recipes : Cooking : Foods To Die For : Meme : Food and Dining