Still Alive

Still Alive, Still Cooking.
Not really actively blogging, but that may change- or it may not in 2016. I guess it depends on time and mood.
I love that this is an archive, especially now that a few years have changed. One good thing about food is that its timeless.
I've been considering opening a restaurant. One that features food cooked from scratch, without any junk or factory bought anything. If it happens, I'll keep you posted.
Anyway, wishing you and yours a wonderful season at this turning of the year!

My New Favorite Tipple: The Pink Victrola

So... life is funny and wonderful. I haven't felt like blogging in literally- a few years. I've been so involved with other things that the time and energy that I had to devote to cooking and documenting my cooking, and writing was pretty much nil. However, things have changed once again, and I now am feeling that pull towards fun and creativity that having a little more "me" time affords.
So to avoid boring you with more introspective epiphanies, let's cut to the chase.
I have a new favorite drink.
It all started with a new (for me) gin: Hendrick's gin. Love it. Really. I mean, I could go on about bouquet and roses and cucumber and juniper, but really you have to just try it and see if it's for you. It's definitely for me.
So I went on the Hendrick's site (which is great fun by the way) and started poking around to see if there was a cocktail recipe that jumped out at me. There was: The Pink Victrola.
This is not a super complicated drink recipe. The only fancy equipment you need is a nice glass and a cocktail shaker.

Here's your list of ingredients:

Pink Victrola
1.5 parts gin - Hendrick's is delicious.
1.5 part grapefruit juice - I use ruby red.
0.5 part lemon juice
0.5 part simple syrup* homemade, recipe to follow
1 spoonful of grenadine** homemade, recipe to follow

*Simple syrup is made by combining water and sugar in a 1:1 ratio. You may bring it to a boil and let simmer for a thicker syrup, or you may just let it dissolve for a thin syrup. I heated mine in a saucepan to facilitate sugar incorporation but didn't let it boil for any length of time. This made a nice syrup with a bit of body but not really thick or sticky.

**Grenadine is a delicious syrup made from pomegranate juice. I went out and bought a bottle of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and added sugar in equal proportion, warmed to just dissolve the sugar and that was that. There is no substitute for real pomegranate juice grenadine- and yes you can tell if it's not there. I tried it without to test, and it is discernibly better with. Plus, it makes it pink. Who doesn't love a pink drink?

There is no substitute for the real deal! And so simple, it's lovely.

Put everything in a cocktail shaker, add ice, do the shake-a shake-a, then decant into a worthy glass.
The final product: delicately pink, frothy on top from your vigorous attention to shaken, not stirred, and utterly delicious!

Enjoy!

Goat Curry

Goat is a wonderful meat. Even people who don't like lamb usually like goat. I hope we get more goat-eaters in this country soon: goats are inexpensive, ecologically happy animals to raise. They thrive eating plants that other animals can't stand- much less want to eat, such as brambles, briars and ivy. As smaller animals, they obviously don't require the resources larger animals like cows need. Does also produce milk which can be drunk as is, or from which excellent cheese can be made. Goats are awesome!
And tasty... which comes to the point of my post: Goat Curry
yummy stuff.
Goat is often found at the grocers in stew-meat format- usually with the bone. Perfect for this recipe.

Sorry if the photos are a little fuzzy, I took them with my phone. hehe

Firstly, wash the meat, get all the bone-dust off of it, if any.

Then salt and pepper the meat.

Fry the meat really well in a little oil.

Remove from the pan.

Meanwhile, make a paste of garlic, chiles (I used fresh green chiles and sweet red peppers) and fresh ginger. This looks picturesque, but I ended up switching to a stick blender! hehe

Fry some chopped onion in the pan after you have removed the meat. Add some black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, the seeds of a few cardomom pods and fry for a minute until you can smell them, then add a little bit of ground turmeric, and ground allspice. Fry another 30 seconds or so and then add your chile, ginger, and garlic paste.

Have some fresh tomatoes chopped, or use some canned chopped tomatoes. Here I'm using a mixture of sweet cherry tomatoes and a regular tomato and the cherry tomatoes add a hint of sweetness that this curry likes. You might want to add a pinch of sugar to the pot if your tomatoes are not very sweet.

Add the tomatoes.

Add the meat back to the pot. Add a cinnamon stick and water for simmering. Goat cut like this can take a LONG time to get tender. I'm talking as much as 4 hours simmering on low for it to achieve that fall-off-the-bone tender that we are looking for. Trust me, it's worth it. Put the lid on the pot, and have the flame on low. Your house will smell awesome.

Ok! This is our delicious goat curry after our long simmer. I've added a bit of water here and there along the way, and given things a stir from time to time, but other than that, it has done it's thing. Taste to see if it needs a bit of salt and there you have it!

Some tasty ways to serve this are with rice, flat-breads, crusty loaf breads, or with cubed potatoes added into the curry itself. Garnish with your favorite greenery- be it parsley or cilantro or even some minced lettuce for crunch.

Enjoy!

Scrapple and scrappin'

So, you know after my whiney post from yesterday about how busy I am, I realized that I might not have time to do photo walk-thrus of recipes, but I DO have time to talk! Jeesh >sheepish grin<

So, this weekend I got to talk with some people about different comfort foods and the conversation turned to scrapple.

If you don't know what scrapple is, well, that's a subject up to debate, and there are sites dedicated to it. Some say that it is called scrapple because you use the "scraps" from hog butchering, but I know I've read other theories on that, but honestly, can't remember what they are. The scraps theory works for me. hehe

Anyway, since I don't butcher piggies, I don't have scraps laying around. So, this is grocery store scrapple, but it is still economical and delicious. Some scrapple recipes also use buckwheat flour, but I've always made mine with cornmeal and flour, so that, dear readers, is what I'll pass on to you.

Ingredients:

1.5 cup corn meal

3/4 cup flour

1 lb bulk sausage

1 lb chicken livers or pork liver if you want to be über authentic, or leave it out if you're a wimp

About 2 qts of chicken broth/broth and water mix

spices: black & red pepper, sage, thyme, & salt

So, what you are going to do is cook the meat, and you can fry it, or simmer it in the water or broth. It needs to be chopped into very small pieces regardless. Bring the liquid to a boil, turn the heat down and add the cornmeal and flour. Stir.

What you are looking for at this point is for the cornmeal to thicken. It can take 15 -30 minutes to achieve this altered state. You will know it when it happens. It will also start to hold its "shape", sort of like whipped cream does, when dropped from the spoon into the pot. This is important, because scrapple needs to gel. When the pot has changed texture from soup to, well, like cream of wheat cereal, then it's ready to turn out.

Turn out into a greased loaf pan. This recipe will most likely give you two loaves. Let cool.

How do I eat scrapple? Well, after the scrapple cools, it is now a bonafide solid loaf. Turn it out, slice it, dredge it in a little flour and pan-fry it until golden on both sides.

My preferred method then is to eat with maple syrup. This is not everyone's way, however, and some use ketchup, butter, applesauce, fried apples, or plain with eggs. Honestly, that part is up to you.

Don't turn your nose up at this oft-maligned peasant food. It is really tasty. Pass me the big slice of Americana -with syrup, please.

Life eats my time

This has been a bad blogging year. Renovating a hundred year-old house, full time college student and full-time Mom extraordinaire- sorry folks, but the foodiness is suffering.

Sometimes I think it's all I can do to put healthful and tasty food on the table for my kids- sometimes, when I'm really tired, I even get tempted to give in to their childish demands of hot dogs and mac n'cheese >shudder<.

I still think about this blog, and when my kitchen is renovated, and my life is more my own I'll get cooking, but just wanted to let people know I was still alive and kicking :)

This new house has a grape-vine. Never had access to fresh grape leaves before....hmmmmm.

Nam Prik Pao and Happy Hubby Sauce

However you want to spell it, this is some tasty stuff. A delicious dark paste made from deeply caramelized onions and garlic and chiles, it is seasoned with fish sauce and shrimp paste, tamarind and sugar. Sound Thai? It is. And also, I should say, it is traditionally made with shallots and not onions, but I can't get a reliable source for good shallots, so I use onions with good results.

Anyway, this paste has so many uses. My kids use it instead of that nasty seasoning packet in their ramen noodles. I use it in stir-fry noodles, soups, etc, etc. Just try it and taste it, and you too will find a million and one uses for it. It's that tasty.

My disclaimer- this may not be the most authentic or traditional way to make nam prik pao, I'm not really sure, but I get good results, and I definitely think it's better than store-bought.

Nam Prik Pao

1 very large onion, or use two smaller, or use shallots if you can find them

2 heads of garlic

Dried chiles to taste or a mix of chiles and red pepper

1 cup oil

A few Tablespoons of sugar- you can use coconut or palm sugar as well
1-2 Tablespoons thai-style shrimp paste

few Tablespoons fish sauce

few Tablespoons of tamarind

few Tablespoons of water

Slice the onions very thin and fry them in the oil until dark and crisp and then remove. Then fry the garlic- I've fried them, sliced, chopped, and whole, but smashed and I didn't really detect much of a difference, so it's up to you to decide how you want to process them. Remove from the oil.

Then fry the dried chiles for a bit- depending on how small your chiles are and how many you are using. You don't want them to burn, so be careful. I usually replace quite a bit of the chiles for sweet red peppers that I fry because my family only likes things moderately hot at most. Also, removing the seeds of the chiles will reduce the heat.

Puree the onions, garlic and chiles/peppers in a blender. You may add oil and the tamarind and fish sauce and a bit of water as needed to get lubrication for blending.

In your wok or frying pan, fry the shrimp paste in some of the oil until it begins to release it's aroma. (it doesn't smell all that great, but it really adds a great flavor to the finished product) Then add the blended puree back to the wok, add the sugar and anything else you didn't add and cook until dark and bubbly, the texture loosely thick. The sauce will thicken as it stands. Taste the sauce for seasoning. It should be sweet and spicy- but not overly so, with the sweet tempered with the tang of the tamarind, and dark, caramelized, smokey undertones. Add a bit more sugar, or fish sauce or tamarind to suit your taste.

Happy Hubby Sauce is a sauce I created and it became a hit in our house. I make it from a mixture of nam prik pao, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, honey, water and a bit of chile paste with garlic. My husband loves it so much, I named it Happy Hubby sauce for him- otherwise it didn't have a name and I got tired of hey- can you make me that stuff?...

Enjoy!

Well, not New Mexico and Pomegranate Juice

So I moved- Not to New Mexico.

Ha! How 'bout that, life is interesting!

So I bought a 110 year old house in upstate NY, and am in the process of renovating it, which is a trip in and of itself. It's been taking most of my attention, which has led me to neglect this blog a bit, and for that I apologise.

However, I have been concocting some foodie experiments on the sly. I'm actually quite pleased with how it's turned out. The experiment was spearheaded by the fact that I was contacted by POM Wonderful, and they asked me if they could send me some free product. Well sure! Send away. So I became the proud and happy owner of a box of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice.

So I started think of all the wonderful things I could do with the juice.

The other catalyst was that I found in my new local grocery store a bottle of Bragg's Cider Vinegar which is undistilled or cooked, and still contains the "mother", or, the bacteria necessary for the fermentation of sugar into vinegar.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Yes! I decided to see if I could turn some of the POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice into pomegranate juice vinegar. Many juice manufacturers add preservatives to juice to prevent it from naturally turning into vinegar on the shelf. The fact that the mother of vinegar culture took hold in the pomegrante juice and started doing it's thing backed up POM Wonderful's claim that their juice does not contain preservatives. Great for vinegar! If you can't get juice from a non-preservative brand, or make your own, frozen juice concentrate is the way to go.

I was unprepared for the onslaught of fruit-flys. I found that I had to rubberband my coffee-filter to my jar and that kept it safe. But wow...they must like the smell of vinegar doing it's thing. Also, mother of vinegar forming is rather unattractive. This is a great article on making vingegar from left-over wine, complete with a photo of the mother.

So, Ya Wanna Make Vinegar From Leftover Wine, Eh?

I found a really yummy recipe using pomegranate vinegar that sounds tasty. I already do something similiar with balsamic. However, pomegranate juice is such a beautiful ruby color, I imagine this has a pretty look to it.

Pomegranate Reduction for Steamed Vegetables

Must note though, homemade vinegar is really strong. Most store-bought vinegar is already diluted, and if I tried to use 1/4c of my homemade vinegar undiluted like the recipe calls for, my mouth would turn inside out. I don't know of any real hard and fast rules for dilution. Most commercial vinegar is diluted to 5% acidity, but I just dilute to taste.

Anyway, enjoy!

Homemade Mayonnaise...easier than you might think

Everyone has a line drawn in the sand. A point at where you just raise your fist to the heavens and shout "No more!". This, my friends, is what has happened to me.  My line was crossed. In the grocery store isles, shopping for mayonnaise, the ugly scene ensued... it went something along the lines of, "Are you freaking kidding me? Over $4 a quart for freaking mayonnaise?"

Freaking indeed.

Now I make my own mayonnaise, because I no longer find it convienant to be fleeced in that particular aspect of my life. Yes I realize I'm fleeced in many other areas that I have no control over. But darn it, I know how to make some darn tasty mayonnaise, and now I'm mad and motivated, and I will share with you :)

First off, I have come to love making mayonnaise. It really is kitchen chemistry at it's finest. It sort of makes me feel like a mad scientist..and not just mad at the cost of store mayo. Anyway, mayo is tempermental ...but only at first. Then it's relatively forgiving. However, you MUST follow the beginning steps or else you will not have mayonnaise. But no worries, I'll get to that.

Mayonnaise is an emulsion of eggs and oil. According to chemistry, an emulsion is "any colloidal suspension of a liquid in another liquid." Thank you dictionary.com. Good eggs are important for taste and also because we're going to use them raw- as in uncooked. You can use pasteurized eggs, and if you're at all sqeamish about raw eggs, that's what you should do. You can use any oil. The Spanish love to make mayo with olive oil for the taste, but in this post I'm aiming to reproduce store-bought mayo, so we want to use a neutral-flavored oil. Pick your favorite.

I like to make mayonnaise in my kitchenaid with the whisk attatchment. It's easiest for me, but you can adapt to a hand beater or a whisk if you're determined to get an arm workout.

Basic Recipe for Mayonnaise

(all seasoning will be tasted for and adjusted up if needed at the end, so you can go lightly)

3 eggs- separated and reserved

1.5-2.5 c. oil approximately

1-2 T. of acid (lemon juice, lime juice, assorted vinegars)

.5-1 t. salt

pinch of sugar if desired

a squirt of prepared mustard or some mustard powder if desired

also: some people enjoy a few drops of hot sauce or pinch of cayenne. It's up to you.

Start with eggs that have been out of the refrigerator for a few minutes. 

Ice-cold ingredients can doom your mayonnaise.

We start with the egg-yolks only.

This is the fairly runny mixture of egg-yolk, acid, mustard and salt/sugar.

Now this is where I get serious. With the mixer running,

or you whisking away, start adding the oil to the egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon at a time. 

This is literally a few drops at a time, a dribble, a wee bit.

You must do this for at least the first 1/4 cup of the oil

if you want the mayonnaise to form properly.

If you over-dribble, stop oiling and let it beat in for a bit

and pray for the best!! 

You can see it starting to thicken some more here.

Yes, it is very yellow at first, but will gradually get

lighter as you keep adding oil. You don't have to be

quite so precise after the first 1/4 cup, but do add

slowly and let it mix in before you add more.

Keep going, but you can see it getting lighter and thicker.

Here I'm scraping down the sides. The downside of

my mixer on high speed is that it likes to kick stuff

onto the sides of the bowl.

It's really gelling here. You can see that the texture is

definately thick. I'm going to add a bit more oil.

Ok, so we're going to stop for a bit. We need to chat mayonnaise. What we have here is called "heavy mayonnaise". Obviously, you can tell from the picture that it is very thick and saturated stuff. It's used in the food industry quite often. It is better for foods like mayonnaise salads that are going to be made ahead of time. It doesn't get as weepy or icky since the moisture content is minimal, it coats very well and doesn't get absorbed as easily as regular mayo. This is useful to know, especially if you are going to make something with mayonnaise and need to hold it for awhile.

Here you can see the very custard-y texture of the heavy mayonnaise. Like I said, heavy mayonnaise has lots of uses. However, this is not quite the product that we buy in the supermarket when we pick up a jar. (or not if it's $4!!!!) For that type of mayonnaise, we must do a final step.

See what happened?  We went from gloopy to creamy, yellow-y to ivory in a single bound by simply adding 2 of the reserved egg whites back into the mix. It's magic, I tell you! See how pretty it is? Now you can taste it and check for seasonings...does it need more lemon juice? more salt? Add it in and mix it up. It's quite forgiving at this point.

So now, all that's left to do is put the delicious, homemade, preservative-free (and cheap, did I mention cheap? as in not $4 a jar?) mayonnaise into a jar and into the fridge.  With all the sandwhiches that get made at my house for school lunches, it goes pretty fast and I haven't had a problem with spoilage.  However, you can easily make a smaller batch if you have a smaller group to feed.

Enjoy!

Tortilla Española

I was sitting in class a few weeks ago, and found out a classmate of mine was from Spain originally, and she told everyone about one of her favorite foods, the Tortilla Española. More importantly, she explained to us how to make one, and I'm so glad she did!

Now first off, this is a Spanish tortilla, not a Latin American tortilla, so it's not bread. It's technically an omelet. However, a Tortilla Española is not just a plain old omelet. Somehow, the method of cooking seems to raise it light years above the regular omelet in status and stature. I don't pretend to get it. Ingredient-wise, it's really not that different from the omelet you've been making for years. However, and this is the miracle part of it,  it just tastes so good! It IS different. It's delicious eaten hot, I think it's even better warm, and a wonderful snack at room temperature. Can you imagine an omelet as a picnic food- and it being great?! I know, it's weird. The only temperature it doesn't like is cold, as in out of the refrigerator cold. However, if you have a microwave with a warming function, you're back in the game.

Now, I've made this quite a few times since I learned how to, and now again for this post...I know, I know, I sacrifice for this blog. I've diced my potatoes small dice because my friend said to "chop them up" and that's what I thought of. However, if you do a little internet snooping, you will find that in Spain, what chopping means really, is to cut the potatoes in half, and slice them thinly. Since it tastes awesome to me both ways, I'm not sure if the potato shape makes much of a difference, so the preference is yours. However, some people seem to think that letting the already cooked potatoes rest in the beaten raw egg allows the potatoes to soak up some egg and makes for a better tortilla. So, with this school of thought, technically the larger surface area and thinner depth of the thinly sliced potato would facilitate this, which is perhaps why in Spain the slice thin variation seems to win out over the small dice. I will have to say that I've let the potatoes and eggs soak for a varied amount of time, and I really did like how it turnes out when it soaks for an hour or so, and as such, I've started slicing more and dicing less.

There is a tricky thing with this tortilla that seems to freak some people out. You have to flip it. Yep, as in with a plate and then put it back in the pan to cook the other side. Honestly, it was easy, so I don't know why it seems to cause so much consternation. I used a cast iron skillet too, not non-stick, and had no problems. If you put the eggs into a pre-heated skillet, you won't have a problem either. That's the real trick.

Maria's Tortilla Española

2 potatoes "chopped"

1 small onion

8 eggs

olive oil -with a bit of butter if you like, as per Maria

salt and pepper

Optional Sauce:

mayonnaise

sour cream

chives

After "chopping" your potatoes and onions, cook them in olive oil until soft, but keep the heat low, because we're not looking for browning here. You can be a bit generous with the oil if you want to retain some to cook the tortilla in. I seasoned the potatoes, but to do it or not is your call.

Beat the eggs. I used a little milk.

Remove the potatoes and onions and add them to the beaten eggs. I kept stirring as I did this, because I didn't want to really start cooking the eggs in the bowl. If you want to let them rest to absorb some egg, do it now.

Put the pan back on the fire to get it hot again, and then turn the heat to pretty low. Add olive oil if you don't have any in the skillet. Add the egg mixture. Let this cook slowly. I think that's a fairly key step. I used a temp-resistant spatula to make sure it was loose about the edges, and to lift corners now and again to allow liquid egg to run off the top, down under, and cook. 

When it's pretty well set, grab your plate and flip the tortilla out of the pan and onto the plate. 

Return the pan to the stove, and slide the tortilla back into the pan. I remember Maria saying to let it cook on the other side for "oh, 10 minutes or so", so that should give you an idea of just how slowly this thing should be cooking.

That's it.

You can see I lost a little bit that stuck in the pan, but oh well, it happens to the best of us, and when you flip it again, you won't see it. So there is a chance for redemption!

Then, cut into wedges and serve.

Maria said that in the Catalan region of Spain, a sauce of mayonnaise, sour cream and chives is popular to serve with this, and even though that's not where she is from, she loves it. I love it too. Here, I'm making a sauce with fresh cracked black pepper and sun-dried tomatoes. Another delicious variation I stumbled upon was to use chopped up marinated artichoke hearts. Sigh...divinity. 

When I made the tortilla, I played with it, as I always do, can't help it, so I added some fresh red pepper to my potatoes and onions, which was awesome. The second time, I used some chopped tomato. I've since used bacon, mushrooms, ham. They're all great.

Sorry this is a bad photo, but you get the idea.

Tortilla Española is now my favorite semi-quick and easy food fix. And talk about economical! It's cheap, beyond simple, but just so marvelous and versitile! It fits the bill for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. What's not to love?

Enjoy!

Eierlikör

Eierlikör...it's a beautiful thing

OK kids, I realize I've been AWOL for a little bit, but I have a really good reason besides holidays and kids and all that. So guess what?! I'm moving! Yes, I'm going to be leaving the Empire State for the Land of Enchantment...doesn't that sound cool? And for those who don't know the lingo, that's New York for New Mexico. Still New, but it's all in the suffix.

I can officially report, moving is hell, and I haven't even moved yet. This is the pre-move stage. Which I'm sure is a completely different circle of hell entirely from the actual moving and post-move circles of hell that I'm sure await me. If I'm not incinerated, I'll keep you informed.

But anyway, to drown my sorrows- and make it up to you, dear reader, I want to share something wonderful that I stumbled upon!!!

It's called Eierlikör, and it doesn't translate well into English- (can we say Egg Liquor?- yeah I didn't think so either) so just say it in German! It sounds better, and lets your guests enjoy this ambrosia without trying to figure things out too much.

Anyway, as you know, I love cookbooks. I've discovered that many European cookbooks that get translated into English are often are full of interesting recipes and have a tendency to be sold as the "bargain" cookbooks you get at booksellers. I love them! They sometimes have glitches and inconsistencies and ingredients that are not common or translated into something recognizeable, but to me, that's half the fun! It's like food sleuthing! So, when I came upon a cake drizzled with Egg Liquor in a translated-from-German cookbook, I have to admit I was completely intrigued but also scratching my head. But after I put on my foodie version of a Sherlock Homes cap- aka, the internet, I was able to figure it out, and even come up with a recipe to try!

I have to say, I love food sleuthing, but even I was impressed with the super-sleuthing skills of a fellow food blogger named Justin who has a great story to tell here.

Yes, the Chrissy he talks about in his marvelous tale of cookies lost and found, is indeed, your truly, but really, he did all the work :)

I should have posted this before, but man, as I have said, I've been in moving hell!

Back to the Eierlikör! Really, it's delicious stuff. Serve it in pretty little aperitif glasses, the one in the above photo is way too large, but I just liked the way it looks.

**A word about salmonella, because it always comes up when you use raw eggs. If you don't want to use raw eggs, use a pastuerized product, or slowly heat the mix up to 160° and let cool before adding the alcohol. Pretty simple, really.

Step 1: Separate 10 eggs and place the yolks in a large bowl.

Step 2: Add 2 cups of cream, 1 pound of sugar (granulated or powdered, it's up to you) and 2 cups of alcohol. I used a very light rum, which is popular, but apparently brandy is traditional, as it is with alot of old fashioned drinks. I say go with what you like.

Step 3: Mix this well. You can use a blender or a hand mixer or just whisk away.

Step 4: Add some vanilla extract, about a teaspoon or two, and the juice of 1/2 a lemon. I also added a pinch of sea salt.

As you can see, it get really rich and creamy. For this batch, I was intrigued by the notion of using powdered sugar, since I wouldn't have thought of that myself, and so I used it for half of the required sugar. I was able to detect a slightly "starchy" consistency in the drink when tasted. Happily however, after a few days of sitting, the starchyness completely dissapeared and became an absolutely silken mouth-feel. I don't know if the acohol broke it down or what, but yes, it does improve with age.

This was my yield for the above recipe. After letting it rest for a few days, it was my intention to strain and then decant into a pretty bottle. However, I will admit that it never got into that pretty bottle, as once my family tasted it, that was the end of that. Apparently they like mason jars just fine!

Enjoy!

Kitchen Woes- but Tasty Joe-Joe's

So, it probably one of the most food-tastic times of year, but I'm, sadly, out of the loop. My kitchen remodeling..or should I say demolishing, is taking FOREVER! At this thankful time of year though, I am thankful that now there is drywall over the bare joists. Yay! The next step is painting. However, there's still no floors, sink, counters, stove, you know, things that make a kitchen a kitchen. Good new is, I have become very skilled cooking on a hot plate, master of a toaster oven, and so thankful for my weird electric skillet/crockpot device that is actually like a mini-kitchen all by itself. My sad thing is that we're basically on subsistance-food mode, so holiday cooking is really beyond what we can do camped on the kitchen table.

So, my foodie posts are mostly wanna-be's right now. Like I wanna-be cooking, and am not so much. :(

I have, out of necessity, bought store-bought cookies, which I very rarely do when I have a working oven. As you know, I'm very picky about what sort of ingredients will go in my belly. But I've found some goodies. If you haven't tried Trader Joe's Candy-Cane Joe Joe's..do! They're very tasty! Think Oreo's, with crushed candy-canes in the filling, AND without the High-Fructose Corn Syrup! What's not to love? The only thing is they're seasonal and will disappear after the holidays, so it's a get 'em while they're hot sort of thing.

Anyway, I wish everyone a Happy Holidays, and Happy Cooking!

Gravad Lax

So recently I bought this cookbook entitled Swedish Cooking- from where else? Yes, Ha. Ikea. However, upon flip-through, I could tell this was not a commercial giant watered-down frozen meatball cookbook! It was also not dumbed-down Swedish cooking for Americans (I HATE books like that!). It has a recipe for Blood Soup. YES! Blood Soup! Any cookbook that has enough culinary gumption to include a recipe for blood anything must be bought -at once.

So now I am the proud owner of Swedish Cooking that includes Svartsoppa, but that's not what I feel like talking about today. What I feel calling to me today is...Gravad Lax.

I love Salmon. I think I started loving Salmon when I lived in Alaska and people kept giving me free Salmon for my freezer which I found to be infinitely better than the free moose-meat that started taking over my freezer. I have discovered though, that I prefer the variety of non-cooked salmon dishes to cooked. Give me smoked salmon lox, gravad lax or salmon sushi rather than a cooked fillet any day of the week. So, it is in homage to raw and semi-raw salmon, that I present the following recipe from my wonderful new cookbood entitled Swedish Cooking that has Blood Soup, (printed in Germany by Naumann & Göbel Verlagsgesellschaft mbH). I'm going to paraphrase the instructions and my comments are in *stars*

Gravad Lax (serves 4) *that's about 1/2 lb fish per person, which seems like alot imo*

3 bunches fresh dill, chopped fine
4 T salt
5 T sugar
2.25 lb or 1kg salmon, boned and filleted, with skin on. *This equals 2 pieces*
1 T. peppercorns *grind*
mustard seed to taste *grind*
allspice to taste *grind*

Spread half of the dill on a plate and lay one half of the fish skin side down in the dill. Using half the salt and sugar, rub into the fish. Then season with the black pepper, mustard and allspice. Repeat with the remaining half. Fold up both pieces with the skin on the outside, wrap up and chill in the fridge for 3 days.

*One point is a little obscure with the recipe...do you put any fresh dill on the flesh of the fish? I think that according to the recipe, the dill might solely be for the skin of the fish- which doesn't get eaten, by the way. However, I love dill, so I think I'd use some on the flesh as well.*

After 3 days of marinating in the fridge, you "extract the marinated salmon from its skin and the spices" (love it!) and slice thin. It is recommended to be served on crispbread with mustard-dill sauce. The sauce is as follows:

Dill-Mustard Sauce
5 T sweet swedish mustard *substitute spicy brown and add sugar to taste, it's sort of a honey-mustard taste- that would work too actually :)*
4 T. vinegar
3 T sugar
1 t salt & .5 t pepper (or to taste)
3/4 c oil
2 bunches dill, chpd fine

Blend the mustard, vinegar, sugar and salt and pepper together and beat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the oil slowly and whisk to incorporate. Stir in the dill and keep cold.

Well, that's that. If you ever wanted to make your own gravad lax, now you know how. It's very tasty, I love it. No, I'm not doing photo today. I'm in an anti-camera mood, mostly because I'm redoing the kitchen and it's a total disaster area- no floors, walls, counters, stove, nothing. Makes cooking interesting! Sorta like camping- but in your house and no s'mores.

I need to find out how to make smoked lox. I know that you use a cold smoke, - hot smoke would cook the fish and you'd have jerky, but I'm sort of a noob when it comes to the ways of do-it-yourself smoking. I'll have to research it further. One day, I'm going to own my own smoke-house where I will be able to produce all sorts of smoked delicacies! One day! Oh, speaking of smoked fish, have you ever had smoked trout? or smoked whitefish? Delicious.

Enjoy the Gravad Lax!

Lovely Lentil Curry and Brown Sweet Rice

I've fallen in love with brown sweet rice!! The texture is unique, the rice literally "pops" in your mouth with the similar feel of a good barley. I don't really feel the need to extol the vast and varied virtues of eating brown rice, it's been done before..perhaps not with such seriously superb alliteration though, hehe.

However, I do want to tote the virtues of brown sweet rice because it's sooooooo darn tasty! I've tried a few methods for cooking this type of rice, but I think the best method is the boil/steam method. What you do is this:

Bring a generous amount of water to boil, add washed rice and boil until when you taste it, the texture is nearly done. This will vary depending on the age of the rice, hardness of your water, etc, so you really do have to taste it! Then you'll know for next time. Anyway, next... Strain it, put it back inyo the pot on the warm burner, put a lid on it and let it steam in it's own heat for about 10 minutes. You won't be unhappy with the results.

Anyway, I've been promising a friend of mine that I would post something nice and lentilly for him to try. Lentils are like legume fast-food. They're super fast and easy and nutritious to boot. They get a bad rap in some circles for whatever reason. I once read this cookbook on Middle Eastern food and the author had put in a little song translated from Arabic about lentils. It went something like:

"By the life of my father, by the life of my father I will not marry the poor man who will tell me to pound the lentils in the morning. By the life of my father, by the life of my father, I will marry the rich man who will tell me to pound the pastry with fat."

So I remember thinking..so lady, you've still got some guy telling you to pound on something and now you're pudgy to boot.

So now you know that lentils are wrapped up with that great little ditty in my mind which probably has it's own psychological definition or something. See what I get for reading too many cookbooks?

Back to the cooking bit.

Lovely Lentil Curry

Wash 1.5 cups of lentils, and simmer until soft. This is a fairly generous portion of lentils, about 6 to 8 people's worth.

2 T virgin coconut oil (of course you can use something else, but this has nice flavor)
2 t. whole cumin seeds
1/2 t. ground coriander
1 t. ground turmeric
2 t. black mustard seeds
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
salt and pepper, red chile flakes to taste
1/2-1 cup coconut milk - Use fresh or powdered and use it to adjust the consistency.
dessicated coconut -optional, but tasty
cilantro, chopped

Fry the cumin and mustard seeds in the coconut oil until the mustard seeds begin to sputter and the cumin release it's fragrance, then add the powdered spices. Add the onion and fry until golden, then add the garlic. Stir for a minute and add the cooked lentils, then coconut milk, dessicated coconut if you're using it, salt and pepper and red chile flakes to taste. Cook for a few minutes to desired consistency, perhaps a little soupier if you're serving with brown rice, perhaps a little drier if it's being served solo, add cilantro to taste and serve.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Curry

Sweet Potatoes and Coconut...so good together!

I made a curry last night that I want to share. It has all the principles of a family keeper. It was fast,fast, fast, easy and fast. It's so tasty, and the kids loved it. As in I actually got a "Wow, Mom, this is delicious!" Did I mention I got compliments from the kids..as in they ate it all. I almost fell off my chair. On that virtue alone, I post it here. Maybe one of you may be so lucky and get empty bowls without whining!

I based the curry I made on a recipe I found online. Here is the link if you're interested in seeing that version. One of the main differences, I didn't puree the onions in a food processor. I also added chicken because I was making a main dish, not a side dish or vegetarian main. I think it would certainly be delicious without the meat. I also used candied ginger. You could use fresh ginger, but the candied was really superb. Candied ginger has this sweet heat, it really added depth of flavor. This recipe serves 5.

1 onion, chopped
a few pieces of candied ginger, chopped fine
1 T virgin coconut oil (substitute butter, ghee or olive oil)
1-2 t. garam masala + .5 t. whole cumin (I make my own garam masala, but you could use any nice blend of warm spices)
salt and pepper to taste
1 to 1.5 cups coconut milk. Unless you're using fresh, in which I say bully for you! I really recommend using the powdered coconut over the canned stuff. The flavor is so superior, you will forever pooh-pooh the can.
3 smallish sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked. Use more if you're making this vegetarian.
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chunked (use breast if you prefer)
3 T fish sauce (nuoc mam, nam pla..etc) If you're veg., use soy sauce.
2 t. turbinado sugar, or to taste

Start the onions working in the coconut oil. You want a little more than translucent, but not really brown. Add the ginger, then the spices. Let this cook a minute or two to take the raw off the spices. Add the coconut milk and then the sweet potatoes, chicken, fish sauce and sugar. Put a lid on it and let simmer until the sweet potatoes are tender.

I served this over a mixture of brown rice and beans (from the garden! hehe). When you use chicken, the meat naturally creates some more broth, so if you prefer a drier curry, I would add mostly cooked brown rice and beans or lentils towards the end of cooking and let them soak up some of the broth. Or add raw lentils straight to the curry, they themselves will soak up moisture. Just check it periodically to make sure there's enough liquid to cook everything nicely.

The sweet potatoes were so good! They developed this silken texture, it was almost like silken tofu with sweet potato flavor. MMMM!

I have to boast and show a picture of some of my latest garden goodies. :)

Boast, boast, boast

Enjoy!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

I've been waiting all summer for the tomatoes to be ready and now they're here! Yay! There's nothing in the whole world like a tomato off the vine. I have had some real growing experiences this year with my garden, learning alot about the joys and pitfalls of growing food plants. Here are some of the pests, other than weeds, that I've come into battle with this summer.

I nearly had one tomato stripped clean by a tomato hornworm. I can't believe how big that thing was or how many leaves it could eat so fast. As soon as I noticed the top of one of my tomato plants deprived of leaves, I went looking for it. I found it by it's own weight! As soon as I touched the branch it was on I knew because it was so heavy! Unbelievable. Luckily for me, I noticed it quickly and before it ate the whole thing. The plant bounced back, grew new leaves and is now producing. From what I hear, and I believe it, they eat so fast that you most often loose the whole plant.

Another pest I came into contact with is the dreaded squash vine borer. I had two squash plants, one zucchini and one summer squash essentially killed by them. Well, I saved the plants with squash surgery, but they were so mutilated that they won't produce any more this summer, so it prettty much amounts to the same thing. Squash vine borers are revolting creatures that look like maggots. They chew into your squash plants vine and start eating their way up and you know when all of a sudden your beautiful, healthy plant just completely wilts overnight.

Unfortunately, I am too much of a novice gardener to know what had happened quickly enough to extract the borer before it ruined the plant. It took me two days to find out what happened, and by the time I cut into the vine and removed the grub, the damage was done. I buried the vine to encourage new roots, and they're both still alive, but they died back to just a few leaves as opposed to a huge fruit bearing vine, but oh well. Now I know about it, and will know what to do for next year. One thing about gardening, I'm learning, is that you really have to jump in and get your feet wet to learn.

The zucchini on the left weighed over 2.5 lbs! Crazy! And it still was sweet and tender, couldn't believe it. The eggplants are really yummy, and not bitter.

Another pest I had land on my poor squash, again, was the Mexican bean beetle. I saw these bright yellow, spiky things crawling all over one of the plants, and it looked like they were eating the leaves, so I physically removed them. Found out they were the larvae of the Mexican bean beetle, which looks like a yellow ladybug when mature, and is actually a member of the ladybug family, but one of the few non-friendly ladybug types. Usually ladybugs are good, the red kind anyway, they kill aphids that suck the juice out of your plants.


Mmm, raspberries. Didn't have any problems with them, I think their prickles take care of that themselves, and they were tasty!




I grew a beautiful sage plant. The leaves are huge!! If you've never had fried sage leaves, this is the time to try this wonderful delicacy. Pan-fry sage leaves in butter or olive oil, either as is, or dusted with a little flour, until crisp. You will marvel over the oh, so delicate taste, which is quite unlike fresh sage, and the crisp, buttery texture. They cook quickly, and the flavor goes nicely with beurre noisette, in my oppinion. I've seen them offered as is for hors d'oeuvres just by themselves, or as a garni for meat or grain like polenta or scrapple. Try them yourself, see what you can do with them. They are definately a summer-time treat, or anytime you can get nice fresh sage.

Anyway, happy summer eating and gardening!

Really Good Vegetable Curry

So I had this post all ready to go and I added the photos like I normally do, put in the captions and it all went to hell in a handbasket. And because blogspot autosaves your work for you, which is usually a good thing, all my recipe goodness was lost. I have to tell you it made me so mad I haven't even thought about a redo for a week now.

However, I felt that I should move on with life, and so I'm going to attempt the remake of my last post, however I'm sure it won't be as witty or clever and will be but a poor shadow of it's former self, but such is life when the computer eats your homework.

This first picture is a show-off because I just can't believe that I'm growing anything that lives, much less is producing tasty things I can eat. It is amazing! I want a pair of overalls and a straw hat, pronto! Actually, really I do, it's like the perfect gardening getup. Anyway, so here one of my zucchini plants doing it's thing. I love it!

Ok, so the original purpose of this post was to talk about this really awesome vegetable curry that I found from Gordon Ramsay, who I really like actually. Not the hyper-obnoxious American TV persona, but the Gordon Ramsay who you find from British sources and is a damn fine chef. So one of the mystiques of looking at him from British sources, is translating the recipes. Once we get past the obvious, like courgette=zucchini, the mystery of this recipe was an ingredient called madras curry paste, which is something I'd actually never heard of. I love when that happens! So after a little research I found out that it is a dry spice masala, mixed with a little fresh ginger, garlic and vinegar to form a paste. It's actually sold pre-fab in England, and I'm sure you could order it, but you can certainly whip up your own and stick the extra in a jar in the fridge, which is what I did.

Madras Curry Paste

Madras Curry Paste

2.5 T coriander seed
1 T cumin seed
1 t black mustard seed
1 t black peppercorns
1 t red chile flakes
1 t ground turmeric
3 garlic
1 T ginger, grated
3-4 T vinegar
Toast the coriander, cumin, mustard and peppercorns in a dry skillet until they start to release their fragrance. Be careful as they can scorch easily. Next grind the toasted spices, or grind in a mortar. If using a mortar, pound in the garlic. Add the chile flakes, turmeric, grated ginger and moisten with the vinegar until a nice paste consistency. That's all there is to it!

Now for the vegetable curry. I'll post the original, and then I'll tell you what I did. Not because I wanted to mess with it, but because I use what I have on hand, and a good method will embrace that, which it does, so experiment!


Easy Vegetable Curry

2 T oil (I used butter)
1 banana shallot, chpd (I used onion)
1 garlic, chpd (more!)
1 sm celeraic, peeled and chpd (Didn't have this :( Hard to get where I am, next year I'll grow my own!)
sea salt and bl. pepper
3 T madras curry paste
few cardamom pods
1 gr. pepper, deseeded and chpd (I used Hungarian Wax chiles from the garden)
1/2 cauliflower, cut into florets (I had some frozen cauliflower)
400g can chpd tomatoes
1/2 head broccoli, cut into florets (Ihad some nice mixed veggies, edamame, corn and red peppers and some fresh swiss chard that I used instead)
1 large courgette, chopped (Zucchini fresh from the garden)
250ml container Greek-style yogurt (I used Kefir)
chopped fresh cilantro if you want

The method is such, heat the fat and start cooking the aromatics, onions, garlic and chiles, then when they're soft, add the curry paste and cardamom. Next add the celeraic and the cauliflower since they would take the longest to cook, or whatever you're using that would take the longest. Salt and pepper- a little water if the pan is getting too hot. Next add the can of tomatoes, and the other veggies. If you're using greek-style yogurt which is very thick, add a can of water to start it to stew. Since I was using kefir, which is much thinner, I added just a little water, put a lid on the pot to capture the steam, and let it stew in it's own juice since the kefir was going to thin it out considerably. When the veggies are tender to your desired degree, on low heat, stir in the dairy and cilantro.

That's all there is too it. Very tasty!

I've noticed that Gordon Ramsay has a little how-to video of this curry circulating around, so if you want to see it, it's available. The only annoying part is that the camera-man focused mainly on his face and upper torso, but not so far out that you could see what his hands were doing- or the pot for that matter....hello, cameraman, we want to see the food! But other than that, you can get a fairly good idea of the method.

Enjoy!

To the Farm, in dream if not reality

Hungarian Wax Peppers (rather chiles)

I've been living in suburbia and cities my whole life, with brief visits to the very rural part of Louisiana where my husband spent summers on his Uncle's farm. That hasn't stopped me from realizing that I've been bitten by the farm bug.

Maybe it happened because I love the country. Maybe it happened because the more I read about food production the more I realize that I want to have control over mine. Maybe it happened because I've always wanted to live in a zoo. I have no idea. However, I do know, that sometime in the future, I will have my farm. Until then, I will continue to learn what I can, dream what I may, and have fun with my garden.

I had this sort of surreal experience the other day. I was in Costco, and I discovered that they've created a huge walk-in cooler space for milk and eggs. So I walk through these plastic swinging door-thingies, and I'm in the cooler space, and it's quieter in there, and all around me on gleaming steel shelves are gallons of bright and shiny milk containers, and cartons of eggs, bundled two-by-two in plastic-wrap. As I picked up a gallon of milk and my hand closes around the cold, plastic handle, and grab a bundle of eggs that I couldn't even check to see if they were cracked, I just got this awful, bone-deep sensation of wrongness, of knowing that this was not natural, this was the farthest thing from natural, and with my skin crawling, just wondering what on earth was in this stuff? I started to balk, but unfortunately, or fortunately, or whatever, I sucked it up because where else am I going to get food? I vow, that someday soon, my food predicament will change. I vow that all my eggs are coming from my own happily scratching chickens, not stuffed and caged critters fed whatever crap makes them spit out the most eggs in the shortest amount of time without keeling over. And my milk will be from happy, pastured animals, chewing on whatever they chew on, the milk split between my family and theirs. Sigh..the dream.

The reality...I ate my first home-grown zucchini tonight...I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think about it. I cut it from the vine, cut it into sticks, dusted them in some flour, and fried it in olive oil. Sprinkle on the salt and my-oh-my. It was heavenly. The flavor was so mild, it was pure zucchini divinity. It really tasted different. Maybe because it ripened on the vine, maybe because there were no chemicals used in it's production, maybe it was the varietal. I really don't know the reason.

What I do know, is that I can't wait for my first yellow summer squash. I have one that's only a few days away. I have delicious, brightly colored swiss chard that I am starting to use in many different things. I also have young green tomatoes and baby eggplants growing. It's so exciting to see them start to produce fruit. Amazing!

My first real yield of anything was Hungarian Wax Peppers...they're really chiles. They are early producing here in the northeast, and prolific! I was very pleasantly surprised, they've gotten a big jump start over the sweet peppers I've planted, although the plants themselves look fairly identical. I've got tons of little babies after bringing in a bunch just a few days ago. They have a nice flavor, a grassy, sharp heat when raw, especially with the seeds, but mellower, losing that bright, sharp edge when cooked. I'm going to start pickling them. They seem like they would be perfect for it.

I'm sort of amazed at how much I am loving growing food! I love the planting, the watering, less keen on the weeding, but I know it's necessary, so I do it. I am eagerly awaiting the next fruit of the vine, so to speak. I'll keep you posted.

My Favorite Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is one of the delectable delights of strawberry season. There are a few different versions on the same general theme, the biggest difference in the varieties seems to be in the style of cake that comes with it. I will label the two main varieties as the "sponge-cake variety", and the "short-bread variety". I prefer the short-bread variety, and this is my favorite recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups white flour
1 T. b.powder
3/4 t salt
3 T. sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
About 1/3 cup milk
4 cups strawberries, sliced, cut in half, or crushed mixed with a little sugar
enough butter to spread on the cake generously
heavy cream

Heat oven to 450*. Mix dry ingredients, and cut in butter with 2 knives or a pastry blender until it resembles corn meal.

The butter cut in

Next add the egg, then add enough milk to make an easily handled dough.

Complete Dough

Next pat the dough into a 1/2" round. Alternately, you can make a rectangle and cut out individual rounds or squares.

Dough rolled 1/2"

Baked pastry

The next step is to split the cake while hot and butter it generously. You can do this in one piece, or in smaller slices, it's up to you. Sprinkle with sugar and fill with berries.

Yum

Whip up some cream... Mmm I love whipped cream.

The complete cake

For serving, top the shortcake with berries and whipped cream, or pass plain cream. My Mom and Gram used to eat this with milk, so there's a few ways to do it. This recipe makes 6 servings.
Enjoy!