Root Vegetable Hash

We are coming to the end of winter, and spring produce is starting to appear at the store, although it's still mostly coming out of California or even further away.  I will indulge in a few things for now but mostly we'll try to wait until we can buy less crunchy strawberries and crispier asparagus from closer to home, and enjoy it at it's peak.

In the meantime, some of those hearty winter vegetables can keep making appearances on the table.  We made this root vegetable hash the other night and it was a big hit--all the appeal of country fried potatoes with the extra vitamins and nutrients from some powerhouse veg.

Peel and dice:

1 turnip
2 parsnips
1 sweet potato
1 rutabaga

You can mix and match as produce is available and depending on the size of the roots you are working with. And let us not forget personal taste.  Some of these are not everyone's favorites, although I would encourage you to revisit it if you haven't tried something in the last decade.  You want to end up with about 4-5 cups of peeled and diced vegetables.

3 tablespoons bacon fat or 2 tablespoons olive oil and one of butter
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon of thyme

Warm the fat in the pan over medium heat, add the garlic and stir round for a few seconds.  Add the vegetables, stir to coat with the fat or oil and to warm then add 1/2 cup of water, cover and turn to medium low.  Leave covered for about 10 minutes. 

Remove the lid, stir to help evaporate off the water.  Raise the heat back to medium, and get a good sizzle going.  When the water is all gone, let the vegetables sit for a couple of minutes, and turn with a spatula when they start to brown on the bottom.  Add in the thyme and salt and pepper to taste. 

Bring to the table when everything looks nice and golden and a little nibble tells you they are tender, probably only another ten minutes or so.  This is great with a roasted chicken or a green salad, good cheese and bread.

Enjoy the last of winter, and here's to spring!

Holiday Improv

This year I decided to get on the bandwagon for St. Patrick's Day.  I'd never attempted the traditional corn beef and cabbage meal on any day of the year, and thought the crew round here would think it fun.  Not to mention the practicality of a crockpot dinner on a day which involved work, school and soccer practice.  The corned beef, potatoes and onions all simmered away and were delicious smelling as we came in the door.  I did nothing fancy to them, just water to cover,.  I had my heart set on a bit of Irish soda bread and figured this wasn't the greatest idea with only about 20 minutes to get dinner on the table.  However, it occurred to me one could put the batter in muffin tins, and sure enough, ten minutes to mix and another 12 or so in the oven, and they made it to the table right on time.

The following recipe is an adaptation from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin and has some nice healthy add-ins.

Irish Brown Bread

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or a splash of vinegar along with 1 1/2 cups milk)

Mix together dry ingredients.  Blend in butter as you would for biscuits, ending up with clumps no larger than peas.

Pour in buttermilk or soured milk.  Spoon batter in to greased muffin tins and bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned and starting to pull away from the edges of the pan.

Mediterranean Pasta

The other night found me coming home with little idea of what to cook for dinner or even what's in the fridge.  On a good day, I can have dinner mentally on the back burner, go through the shelves in my mind, fit bits of this and that together.  On a great day, I've prepped the night before and there's something ready to go already, or at least thought through and planned.

Every once in the while though, it all comes together despite it being the last minute and dinner is still pretty darn good.  There's something about bringing a bowl of beautiful steaming pasta to the table that makes one feel a little redeemed, for the moment, anyway.

1 pound short fat pasta (rotini, farfalle, penne, or the like)
1/2 jar prepared pasta sauce (I find myself very partial to Barilla or Classico--something without much added sugar)
1 can chickpeas, drained
a few chopped olives
4 cloves of garlic
splash of olive oil
generous pinch of oregano
1/2 to 1 cup crumbled feta

Set the pasta water on to boil, chop the garlic and throw it in a skillet  with a bit of olive oil,  give it a few stirs and when it starts to sizzle, add most of the can of drained chickpeas, reserving a 1/3 cup or thereabouts.  Add the pasta sauce, olives and oregano.  Let it simmer while you cook the pasta.

When the pasta is finished, drain, toss with the sauce, put in a serving bowl.  Top with the reserved chickpeas and feta cheese.

(I think one could easily throw in a few bits of veg lurking towards the back of the fridge while the sauce is simmering--broccoli, greens, zucchini or green beans would work great in this mix.)

Breakfast off the Beaten Path

I love breakfast, always have.  I start out the day hungry, which I know not everyone does and that first cup of coffee is something I look forward to and I always want to eat something I enjoy, not just fill my stomach  Also, in late winter, post-holidays I am always resolved to get closer to the "five a day" recommendation and up my fruit and vegetable servings.  Here's a couple of good health recipes we've been enjoying around here that are a nice change from the bowl of cereal or egg breakfast ruts one can fall into.

I should give a nod to Molly Katzen's "Pretend Soup" for the noodle kugel idea, although I've tinkered with it a bit.  This is a really delightful cookbook for pre-school age kids.  It gives picture instructions for vegetarian recipes.  We aren't vegetarian more than a night or two a week, but I love that there are no convenience or processed foods in the recipes.  So many "kids" cookbooks are thinly disguised promotion for cartoon characters or dubious food brand names.  This is a great cookbook for any little person in your life.  

Winter Muesli
(1-2 servings)
1 good crunch apple, cored and chopped
1/4 cup chopped toasted almonds
1 cup unsweetened yogurt (you could substitute vanilla, then just leave out the sugar)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon flax seed
pinch of cinnamon or cardamom

Mix all the above in a bowl and enjoy.  I love the crunch and energy all the nuts and apples give to an otherwise mellow serving of yogurt.

Noodle Kugel in a Hurry 
(about six servings)

1 lb Trader Joe's whole wheat pasta
1 lb cottage cheese
3 tablespoons sugar (brown or white, as you please--turbinado would be yummy too, now that I think of it, because of the extra crunch)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
a good handful of dried cherries, cranberries or raisins

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.  Drain, put the warm pot back on the burner and add the butter, sugar and cinnamon.  Melt and combine, then take off the heat.  Add the cooked drained pasta, cottage cheese and cherries to the pan.  Stir and serve. 

Birthday Cake

We rarely buy birthday cakes, we like to cook and bake and we can't quite imagine not just doing for ourselves.  Occasionally good friends contribute, wonderful creations, and I feel lucky we haven't had to politely plow through a less than stellar store bought cake at a home party for a long time.  (not that all store bought is bad, but we all know--a heck of a lot of them are).  I'll admit some of the kid cakes are more about appearance than lends itself to complete deliciousness but they're all fun, and we hedonistic adults nearly always end up with something whose sole intent is to make you smile when it hits your tongue.

Our family birthday month of craziness is February, with a total of 5 in the near and dear having birthdays and another 8 or 10 by the time we spread the net wide to good friends near and far.  It is definitely time to research some good cake!

My John loves anything involving chocolate, caramel and pecans.  Coconut is no bad things either.  Previous birthdays have involved things like German Chocolate Tart and Chocolate Pots de Creme.  This year I was casting about for something interesting and came across an amazing sounding recipe.  It was so tantalizingly trashy yet delicious sounding.  Occasionally I like to go back to my roots, which are inextricably intertwined in the kind of church potluck which always included jello, cream of something soup, taco seasoning, cake mix concoctions and other chemical delights. This promised just that.  

It turned out suprisingly well--the promised effect achieved nearly effortlessly.  From the furthest reaches of the internet (and then further Frankensteined), I present:

Chocolate Flan Cake

For the cake:

•  devil's food cake mix
• 1 12 oz can of coke
• oil and eggs as dictated on the back of the cake mix box 

 For the flan:

• 1 can evaporated milk
• 8 ounces of cream cheese
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extra
• 2/3 cup caramel sauce (in that vicinity--part of a jar of Smuckers caramel ice cream topping works great--this does not need to be precise--eyeball it)
• pan spray or oil for greasing the pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  You'll need a bundt pan, which you can spray with pan spray or grease generously, pour the caramel sauce in the bottom and set aside. 
Make the cake mix according to the direction but substitute the Coke for the water.  Set prepared mix to the side.

Fling everything for the flan in the blender.  (That'd be pretty much be the remaining ingredients).  Zap it til smooth.

Pour the cake mix carefully into the bundt pan.  Then pour the flan mix down the side of the pan so it sorta slides under the cake mix.  Not all of it will but most, and don't worry, it will all be fine.

Figure out a pan you can put a little water into and set the bundt pan in, it doesn't have to be a lot of water, an couple of inches--I found a round cake pan that did the trick--an ovenproof skillet would probably work too.  Set all this in the oven and bake.  It will probably take about an hour, possibly even a little longer.  This is a fairly moist cake--almost brownie-like so you'll want your toothpick test to show sticky but not wet--the cake pulling away from the sides a bit is a good sign too.

Cool the cake completely, refrigerate overnight ideally.  Put a few warm wrung out clothes on the top of the pan to help loosen it once you've tipped up upside down onto a serving platter.  You should end up a with a lovely caramel sauce covered flan layer perched on top of a surprisingly good cake.  Moist and delicious!  We toasted up a few pecans for those who liked them, and I think it would be very pretty to put those in the caramel before you pour everything else in.

Cinnamon Toast Season

When we were kids, our mother let us have snacks after school every day since like most kids we were "so hungry, right this minute!" when we got home.  I didn't realize until many years later it was a rather idiosyncratic selection and definitely aimed for the filling, nutritious but still inexpensive.  We ate a lot of baked potatoes with various toppings and a lot of toast--toast with peanut butter, toast with jam, toast with cinnamon sugar. 

When I am feeling tired or under the weather, cinnamon toast is still so homey and comforting.  However, now that I'm an adult, I want variety, and novelty!  :-)   I realized the other day that one could add other warm spices to sugar, not just cinnamon.  The combination we came up with is wonderful on toast, but also great sprinkled on apples, or stirred into coffee or oatmeal.

And did I mention I saw pre-mix cinnamon sugar in the spice section the other day?  $2.50 for about two ounces.  Good heavens, are we really to the point of needing someone else to combine those two ingredients for us so as to save the inconvenience?  Sigh . . . .

Spiced Sprinkling Sugar

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp cardamom

Combine all the above ingredients and put into a shaker or a nice air tight container.  Keep handy for impulsive use. 

Kim Chee!

For many years I've been a little skeptical about kim chee.  I envisioned sitting down to a meal and spooning up a portion as a side dish and couldn't muster much enthusiasm.  The few times I've tried it, I've thought it was interesting . . but certainly not anything that rocks my world.  Recently, though, I've had one of those "aha" moments that's made me realize it's something I've underestimated.

Out with a group of co-workers, I found myself curious about a menu item in an Asian food court.  "Kim Chee Fried Rice".  Kim chee is practically the national dish of Korea and thousands of people feel passionate about it.  Sure enough, with this meal it finally made its mark on my palate.   I may not yet be sitting down to a bowl for a snack, but kim chee used as a an ingredient in stir fry or marinade is radically different from kim chee as a side dish.  It's like the difference between that glass of wine you had with dinner and beef borguignon.   Kim chee fried rice is now a firm part of my own home repertoir.  

The other night, with friends to dinner, I made kim chee stir-fried green beans.  They were amazing, and everyone was fascinated to know there was kim chee in the sauce.  I think I'm finally getting it.  I'm hoping soon I'll appreciate it all on it's own.  The next step, home-made kim chee!

Kim Chee Fried Rice

1/3 cup vegetable oil
11/2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium-sized brown onion, finely diced
1 finely diced carrot or sweet red pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced Chinese sausage (lup chong) or 8 oz.  ground pork or 8 oz. tofu, drained and cubed
5 cups cooked medium-grain white rice
4-6 sliced green onions
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen green peas

1 teaspoon white sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup light soy
1/4 kim chee, chopped fine

sliced green onions, sesame seeds, sliced fresh chilis and/or cilantro for garnish

Mix final six ingredients together in a bowl to make a good goop, set aside.  Prepare everything else that needs to be sliced or diced and have it ready to go.  Get the oil good and hot in your wok or large skillet.  Add the ginger and garlic, stir with a spatula just a few times and add the onion.  When the onion starts to become translucent, add your carrot or pepper, stir fry for a minute or two, add your protein.  When your protein is starting to brown nicely, or in the case of the tofu, have a few browned spots, add your rice, and mix it all to combine.  Pour your goop over the top, stir fry until your starting to seem some nicely browned rice here and there.  Scoop out into a serving dish, top with your garnishes and enjoy. 

Kim Chee Green Beans

The same six ingredient sauce from the recipe above can be added to stir-fried green beans with great results.

2 tbsps. veg. oil
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 pounds green beans, rinsed and destemmed

Heat oil in wok or skillet, add garlic and ginger, stir fry a few moments, add green beans, stirfry about three minutes, add sauce, stir fry another minute and then begin tasting beans.  When they've reached a texture you like, turn out into a serving dish.  Garnish with sesame seeds.

Good Reads for 2011

So sorry to be gone so long, I finally sank without a trace beneath the onslaught of holidays, basement flooding, appliance death and minor plumbing disaster.  I expect Agatha Christie would have sailed through writing page after page, in her hip waders, a pencil between her teeth and one behind each ear.  Ah well.  (One can't really argue it was great lit, but how in the world was that woman so prolific?!)

I have been reading a cookbook or two (or several) over the past year and just finished one that I especially liked so I figured an nice book post wouldn’t be out of order.  So, to start with the most recent that really inspired me:

The Art of Eating In - http://theartofeatingin.com/

Cathy Erway writes passionately about food and the dilemma all working people have—the pull of take-out food convenience weighed against any reasonably good cooks certainty that they can often cook better and less expensive meals.  I loved her sense of adventure, I loved having a peek into a single 20-something New Yorker’s life and the recipes look really good.

A Homemade Life - http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Life-Stories-Recipes-Kitchen/dp/1416551050

You can probably see a pattern at this point.  I don’t like sterile cookbooks.  I want as much of a sense of the person writing as I would get if I met them and got to talking about life and food.  Molly Wizenberg writes about food and memory in a way that reminds me of a young M.F.K. Fisher.   Ms Fisher once said ““When I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and it is all one.”  Molly’s book intertwines food and family and love just beautifully. 

 

On a completely different note, David Chang’s Momofuku http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295115353&sr=1-1 gives a sense of one of the largest personalities in the food world today.  Easily the most profane cookbook I’ve ever read, and a greatly entertaining read.  Amazing recipes and ideas, although the amount of pork fat he strews round is not for the faint of heart.  We’ve tried a few recipes and they are uniformly spectacular and unlike anything else you’ve ever eaten. 

 

Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros http://www.amazon.com/Apples-Jam-Colorful-Tessa-Kiros/dp/0740769715/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295115473&sr=1-1 is the sort of cookbook I am just learning to like, it has a tremendous focus on the beautiful and wanders over into the sentimental for a lot of the commentary.  The recipes, most unusually, are organized by color.   The index is adequate enough to make up for any confusion for the more traditionally minded searcher and the recipes are friendly homey food that is heavily influenced by Tessa’s European roots and travels.   

All of these were pretty easily available at the local library, and it is really a delight to curl up with a cookbook in bed on a rainy winter evening and plan meals.      I would love to hear of anything you’ve read lately that has made you happy and/or inspired.