Borealkitchen

Spring has Sprung!

2011-05-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

Just turned the corner, so to speak, on Spring. The leaves on the trees are out -- there's that definite tinge of green as you look at the hillside. Birch are always first, but some of the smaller cottonwoods have opened up their leaves. The BIG cottonwoods haven't leaved out yet.

Gardening news:
Around the May 1st I started direct-seeding mustards, kale and spinach. On Mother's Day I seeded carrots w/ radishes as markers. Been keeping these covered these beds with plastic.
Today, Youngest and I planted some more: Arugula, Mache, dill, and a few flowers.
We've had some clear cold nights in the beginning of May (so far, last frost was May 9th -- we had to scrape the car in the morning!)
Indoors, I've got 2 pots planted with tomato plants. "why bother?" Because one of these years we may actually get enough sun in the summer to grow some decent tomatoes... Hope springs eternal!

Another exciting news: got a shipment today from Fungi Perfecti! I'll be growing shiitake mushrooms indoors, and pearl oyster mushrooms by spiking cottonwood logs with inoculated "plug spawn". New adventures in gardening !!!

Baking scones

2011-05-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

OATMEAL – BLUEBERRY SCONES

1.5 c all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ c brown sugar

¾ c butter, cold, cut into pieces

1 c rolled oats

½ c dried blueberries

1 egg, lightly beaten

¾ c buttermilk or milk

CHOCOLATE – ORANGE SCONES

2 c all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ c sugar

1 tsp grated orange peel

¾ c butter, cold, cut into pieces

½ c chocolate chips

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ c orange juice or milk

Measure dry ingredients into bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter in until it resembles coarse meal. Add berries or chips. These can be stored in a closed jar, refrigerated, for a couple of weeks.

Add wet ingredients until just blended. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet, or roll out on a floured surface and cut into triangles. Bake approx. 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on rack.

Optional: dust with powdered sugar or simple glaze of powdered sugar with water or lemon/orange juice.

Recipes for Alaskan Barley

2011-04-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

This week our CSA box contains Alaskan-grown barley!
Here are some recipes, thanks to Glacier Valley CSA.

The barley is naturally hull-less, which is handy, since it doesn’t have to be hulled in a grain mill. Just use the barley as you would use pearl barley, but I don’t think it will get quite as creamy as pearl barley does. You can cook it up and use it in place of rice or other grains, adding it to soups or muffins, for example. Arthur made a beef & barley soup out of it, and said it turned out great! I don’t have a recipe for that, but I have used it successfully in breakfast porridge. (Recipe for the porridge follows.)

Here’s a couple of basic ways of cooking it, as if you were going to eat it in place of brown rice, for example:
Cook 1 cup of barley in 3 cups of water, (and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, if desired). You’ll need to bring it to a boil, and then cover and simmer it for 1 1/2 hours, or until tender, to get it fully cooked. If you soak it overnight, you can cut the cooking time down—but I’m not sure by how much. (Sorry.)

Another way to cook it is to simmer it (covered) in plenty of water, as if you were cooking pasta, until it’s tender (probably about 90 minutes), and then drain it. Put it back in the hot pot and cover it to let the remaining moisture absorb into the grains.

barley & apricot porridge
I like this breakfast porridge with barley, inspired by a recipe from Mollie Katzen’s breakfast cookbook: Sunlight Café. Her recipe is for a traditional Turkish dish called Anooshavoor.

½ cup barley
1 cup water, plus more as needed
1 ½ cups apple juice
¼ teaspoon cardamom (or 6 cardamom pods)
¼ teaspoon salt
10 or more dried apricots, sliced
1 tablespoon honey, or more to taste
-----------
optional toppings:
milk, soymilk, or yogurt
toasted almonds, chopped
more honey

1. Combine the barley and water and apple juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer, add the salt and cardamom, and let cook, covered, over low heat for about 1 ½ hours, or maybe more, stirring occasionally and adding more water as necessary to keep the porridge a bit soupy.
2. When the barley is tender, check the consistency. If you want the porridge soupier, add more apple juice. Add the apricots and honey, stir, remove from the heat and cover the pot. Let stand for 10 minutes to let the apricots soften and blend into the barley.
3. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Top with your choice of milk, almonds, and more honey.

Borealkitchen's Beef Barley Soup
Our family often eats soup in the winter. This one is simple but satisfying -- great for preparing ahead and putting in the crockpot for a busy day. It makes a meal with some hearty wholegrain bread and a salad. The key is to use home-made beef stock from scratch (my recipe here) -- after defatting, it keeps well in the freezer.
Note: can easily make this without meat pieces, only stock

beef (round or other) -cut into small pieces
stock
barley (if not pre-soaked, allow well over 2 hrs until cooked!)
carrots
celery
onion
other rootcrops as desired (turnips, potatoes)
bay leaf
salt, pepper

New Favorite: Rye-Buckwheat Bread

2011-03-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Made another loaf of Sourdough Rye-Buckwheat bread, and we love it. It's a dark firm loaf with a super crust! Better write down what I did, before I forget!

First of all, I've been experimenting with feeding my sourdough a whole-wheat diet (I use King Arthur brand) instead of the commercial unbleached All-purpose (White) Flour. I knew to change their diet slowly, given that my sourdough pet is a bunch of live microbes, and sudden changes in diet can be hard on any organism. At first I thought I had a reasonably bubbly ("active") sourdough. But lately I've notice less activity and quicker development of the "Hooch" often within half a day -- a sign that my sourdough is not at its prime. My solution, for now, is to change its diet back to half white and half wheat...

Sauerteig Roggen-Buchweizen Brot (Rye-Buckwheat Bread)
inspired by post on The Fresh Loaf blog by Hanseata, whose recipe is for a yeast bread rather than a sourdough bread. My recipe works without commercial yeast.

Sourdough starter:
1 c sourdough (can be fed with white, wheat or rye flour), active*
1 c rye flour

*sourdough is at 100% hydration, been fed for at least 3 days and kept at room temperature, NOT the refrigerator.

Final dough:
all of the starter above
1 c warm water
1 T molasses
2.5-3 c flour (combination of whole wheat, AP and buckwheat flours)
I used 1 c whole, 1 c white and 1/2 c buckwheat, plus 1 T Gluten flour
1 t salt
1 t each fennel and anise (optional)
1-2 T flax seed (optional)
1-2 T sunflower seed (optional)

For starter, mix sourdough with flour. Forms a sticky dough -- let rise, covered, in warm place for 4-6 hrs (I preheat my oven w/ pizza stone for 1 minute, then turn it off).
For dough, cut up the sourdough starter and soak with water and molasses. Using paddle attachment, I mix it in my Kitchenaide (careful of splashing -- don't expect a smooth integrated dough). Start adding flour. Switch to dough hook once paddle can't handle it anymore. After all ingredients are in there and dough has pulled from the side, transfer to floured board and knead dough (not too much -- just stretch and fold). Let sit a few minutes (up to 1omin ), esp if still very sticky -- the gluten will develop and absorb more of the liquid.
For retarding step, place dough in the frig, covered, overnight (up to 3 days).
On baking day, take dough out of frig, knead and form into loaf. Let rise in banneton or loaf pan, in warm place, until risen (to roughy twice). Bake in preheated oven at 415 F on pizza stone with initial steam, for 1 hr+.

Last a rather ugly picture of a comparison of the pure sourdough bread with the one where I added 1 T commercial yeast in step 2 (in this case, I did also retard in the frig, and it's definitely over-risen -- probably could have done with half the yeast). For school sandwich purposes, the kids prefer the lighter version, but for a hearty German-style bread to go with soup or as a snack smeared with creamcheese and smoked salmon, I prefer the denser version!

The BEST Homemade Sourdough buns

2011-01-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today I managed to make some excellent buns, if I may say so!
So I'll write down what I did, so I can reproduce them -- 'cause I ain't buying grocery store buns for burgers no mo!
This went relatively fast, since it does not take long to rise, and does not require ageing the dough. But I do start out with a good active sourdough starter or "Mother".

As a starting point, I used the recipe for "Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread" (p.91) in Ruth Allman's book Alaska Sourdough.

1 c sourdough starter (mine is fairly hydrated, and pours like pancake batter)
Important: sourdough is at room temperature, and well-fed within a day or two.
1 T yeast (active, granular)
2 T sugar
1.5 c warm water
5-6 c flour (unbleached, white)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda

1.) Stir the sourdough well and measure out 1 cup. (I go ahead and feed the mother starter w/ equal amounts of water and flour at this time, and set it on the counter with a loose lid).
2.) In the Kitchenaide with regular paddle attachment, mix water, sugar and yeast. Let sit until you can see that the yeast is alive and well -- starts bubbling at bit.
3.) Add the sourdough, and mix well.
4.) add 4 c of the flour and salt. This will be sort of soft and sticky, not something you can knead!
5.) Lightly grease a large bowl, and transfer the sticky mess into it.
6.) Cover with a clean towel, or a lid ( I use a glass bowl with lid).
7.) Place in a warm place (such as warm oven, turned off), and let double in size --approx. 1 hour.
8.) Mix soda into 1 c. flour, and add to the dough.
9.) Knead on floured board until satiny and springy to the touch. (Warning to self: do not incorporate too much flour making dough stiff -- instead keep this very "soft". If still a little sticky, stretch and fold the dough, and let it sit for 10 minutes to let the flour absorb some more of the moisture.
10.) Shape about a dozen buns. Let them rise on a floured towel or board, covered, for 30-45 minutes, while heating up the oven w/ baking stone at 400 F.
11.) Transfer buns onto hot stone, and bake 20 minutes + until golden brown on top.

Cajun Shepherd's Pie with Very Hot Sauce

2011-01-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

Cajun food does not always have to be super spicy. This is a good example: the pie itself is not especially spicy, but the sauce is, and so everybody can control the hotness of their own portion.

This favorite family recipe comes from Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, and it makes good company food. I like to make the 4 different parts ahead, assemble it, then throw it in the oven when company arrives.

Part 1: Meatloaf
2 pounds ground meat (usually beef, but could use 1/4-1/2 ground pork, turkey, moose, etc -- note that the leaner the meats are, the drier it will be, so may want to add some other fats)
1-2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 c bread crumbs
oil for sauteing veggies:
1/2+ c each onion, celery, bell peppers
1 T+ minced garlic
1/4 c milk (regular, evaporated or half-half)
seasoning (leave out the spicier stuff if desire it mild):
1 T Worcester sauce
Tabasco or other hot sauce, cayenne pepper (I usually leave these out, as the sauce has them too)
1 T each black and white pepper
3/4 ground cumin
1 t dried thyme leaves
1 t salt (or 1.5)

Saute the veggies, let cool slightly, then mix all the ingredients (I use my hands!)
Bake in 13x9" pan for 30 min, uncovered. Drain any liquid and set aside (I de-fat this and use when making the sauce). If not proceeding with next steps, cover meatloaf and store in cool place.

Part 2: Vegetable layer
olive oil for sauteing
1.5 c carrots, julienned
1 c onion, sliced
1-2 c summer squash, julienned
ok to substitute other veggies, such as green beans.
seasoning:
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/4 t each garlic and onion powder

Saute everything, in batches as needed, and pile on top of meatloaf

Part 3: Mashed potatoes
2 pounds potatoes, boiled
1/2 c milk (regular, evaporated or half-half)
1-2 T butter (optional)
1 t each salt and pepper (mix or white and black pepper is great for potatoes!)

Part 4: Cajun Very Hot Sauce
1/2 c each onions, bell peppers, celery
1/4 c minced jalapeno peppers
1 t minced garlic
1-2 c stock (or water, also use de-fatted dripping from meatloaf) Note that the original recipe calls for 3 c stock, but then boils it back down.
1/4 c oil (I use light olive oil that can handle the heat)
1/4 c flour
seasoning:
3/4 t ground red pepper (cayenne, or for milder, use Hungarian Paprika)
1/2 t each black and white pepper
Tabasco sauce or other hot sauce, as desired (I use SriRatcha)
Bay leaf

First make a light-brown roux. Using a whisk, mix flour (little at a time) into hot oil, stirring constantly until desired color is reached (approx 2-3 min). Add vegetables and seasoning (I switch to a spatula here), and cook until veggies are softened. Slowly add stock (watch for splashing! -- best to remove pot from heat, add liquid, then reheat to thicken, simmering on low for 10-15 minutes).

Assemble parts 1,2,3 and bake for 20-30 min or until thoroughly hot (this depends on how warm things were when assembled). Serve with VHS (Very Hot Sauce) as you would a "gravy".

Colorful Holiday Menu

2010-12-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

A holiday feast has to have all the major colors represented:

Brown: Smoked Turkey and it's yummy gravy
Yellow: mashed potatoes
Orange: Sweet Potato and Orange casserole
Red and Pink: cranberry sauces (3 kinds - see recipes here, incl. a Pepto-Bismol-colored dish!)
Green: Brussels Sprouts or broccoli
Blue-purple: Blaukraut (German red cabbage which turns purple)
White: King crab
Black: caviar -see below

and for New Year, it's a Southern tradition to serve Black-eyed peas for Good Luck.
I've made Hopping John before, but this year we'll need to try:

Texas Caviar (Black-eyed peas)
(Recipe by Mark Walther (a.k.a. Waldo, a real Texan!)

1 lb frozen or fresh blackeyed peas
(or if you have to 2 cans rinsed)

...1 small jar chopped Pimentos
1 11oz can White Shoepeg Corn
(Green Giant makes this, it may be a regional item, try and find if you can, otherwise "Nibblets" will probably work or if you are lucky enough to have some fresh frozen sweet corn. Shoepeg is a young, small kernel sweet corn)

Finely dice the following:
1/2 cup diced green or red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1 large fresh Jalepeno pepper (seeded) or the equivalent in canned.
(it is easier to control the "heat" if you use the canned, just keep adding till it gets to where you like it)

Cook blackeyed peas according to package instructions, drain and place in a medium bowl and add the chopped ingredients, corn and pimentos.

On the stove combine the following ingredients in a pan:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Stir to dissolve sugar and bring to a boil and cool.

When cool pour over vegetables and marinate 2 to 3 hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator. Serve as a side or with Chips for an appetizer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y'ALL!

Potatoes/ Kartoffeln

2010-12-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

Potatoes are one of the "workhorses" of my kitchen. We get Alaska-grown potatoes in our CSA box every week, plus I (try to) grow my own every summer.

Given that potatoes are from the New World (a.k.a. America), how did potatoes become so prevalent in European cuisine? Here's a little background from Germanfood.about.com:

Potatoes are a large part of German culinary culture, even though they didn't appear on the German table until 1716. Their earliest introduction was a half century earlier in Bavaria, but they were thought to be poisonous, so the peasants wouldn't adopt them until Karl V ordered them to grow and eat potatoes or have their noses cut off.

My favorite potato to have around are red potatoes, which are waxy or "fest-kochend" in German, which means they are low in starch and hold together well after cooking:
think German potato salad (my recipe here). And I prefer smaller sizes to the HUGE American monsters. I save them for roasted potatoes (see my recipe here).
The most common way that a German housewife serves her every-day potatoes is:

Pell-kartoffeln (peeled potatoes, cooked in their jackets)

whole potatoes (red or other waxy), small or medium-sized, washed
water (barely covering potatoes)
salt
optional: butter, fresh parsley

Boil potatoes for approximately 20 minutes, or until fork prick test indicates doneness.
Drain the water and return pot onto stove (without lid if ready to serves soon) to let skins dry.
Peel one potato at a time by holding on a fork while removing skin, using a small paring knife to make a cut and then remove all the peel. This is a somewhat time-consuming task right when the cook is busy getting all the other dishes ready for the table. Sooo-- this very boring but necessary task is often delegated to children, husbands or other bystanders with nothing better to do. Digression: Forgive my stab at men ("husbands and other useless bystanders")! Men are great cooks and account for probably 50% of my readers , but growing up in Germany, I never saw a man actually cook anything! In fact, when my dad retired, the only dish he knew how to cook was Pell Kartoffeln, which he likes to eat with Quark. I doubt his repertoire has expanded much -- it is still his favorite dish!

Optional: coat in butter and sprinkle fresh parsley over them.

For tips on growing potatoes, here are a couple of articles to consult come springtime:

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/p/Potatoes.htm
http://www.the-organic-gardener.com/growing-potatoes.html
http://tipnut.com/grow-potatoes/

The last is a really cool method for growing potatoes vertically:

Sauerbraten

2010-12-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

Does a German have a good recipe for Sauerbraten?
Is the Pope catholic?

I was asked recently for my recipe, and this is a Sabbath meal from the Jewish Festival Cookbook by Fannie Engle and Gertrude Blair.

SAUERBRATEN (literally sour roast)
4 lbs brisket or chuck
4 bay leaves
6 cloves
1 large onion, sliced
1 tsp salt
2 c vinegar
2 c water
1/4 c chicken fat (I substitute a vegetable oil)
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c raisins (optional)
2 T Einbrenn (Browned flour, see recipe below)
4-6 gingersnaps, crumbled

1.) Use meat whole or sliced into serving sizes. Simmer next 5 ingredients (thru water) and pour over meat. Store in a cool place overnight (in the old days, tougher meats required several days).
2.) Drain sauce from meat and save. Also, replace onion with a fresh one.
3.) Brown the meat in fat.
4.) Heat the sauce from step 2 and add brown sugar and raisins.
5.) Pour sauce over the meat (I use a Roemertopf. Could use a crockpot too). Cover.
6.) Simmer (stovetop) or oven (300F) for 2-3 hrs, until meat can easily be broken with a fork.
Make sure there is enough liquid --add more water if needed.
6.) When done, transfer meat to serving dish while making gravy:
Skim any extra fat from sauce, then thicken with einbrenn (mixed first with a little water). Add gingerbread crumbs, and stir until gravy is rich and creamy. Pour gravy over meat.

EINBRENN (browned flour for making gravies)
Spread a thin layer of flour on a shallow baking pan for oven method, or heavy frying pan (I use my largest cast-iron) for stovetop method. Keep stirring to keep from scorching.
I make enough for future use -- stores well in a glass jar.
Note that Einbrenn has less thickening power than regular flour, so need to use slightly more than you may be used to...

Breakfast Stollen, Borealkitchen variation

2010-10-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Stollen is German for Christmas Bread, but in our household we eat this for breakfast any time of the year. Full of candied/dried fruit (reminiscent of English-style "Fruitcake"), stollen is typically eaten only during the winter holiday season -- but German housewives start making it in fall to let it sit and "mature". Nowadays, many will simply buy commercially-made stollen, often with marzipan filling-- yummy!

When I researched "Stollen" on Wikipedia, I found the following tidbit of history -- sure am glad we don't have to petition the pope to use butter!

The old name Striezel came from Strüzel or Stroczel, "awaken" (Old Prussian: troskeilis), which came to mean "early-baked loaf of bread". The shape of the cake was originally meant to represent the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes.The early Stollen was a different pastry, the ingredients were very different - flour, oats and water.

As a Christmas pastry, Stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427, and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water. The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard. In the 15th century, in medieval Saxony (a region in the eastern part of Germany, north of Bavaria and south of Brandenburg), the Prince Elector Ernst (1441 - 1486) and his brother Duke Albrecht (1443 –1500) decided to remedy this by writing to the Pope in Rome. The Saxon bakers needed to use butter, as oil in Saxony was expensive and hard to come by, and had to be made from turnips, which was unhealthy.

Pope Nicholas V (1397 – 1455), in 1450 denied the first appeal. Five popes died until finally, Pope Innocent VIII, (1432 – 1492) in 1490 sent a letter to the Prince, known as the "Butter-Letter" which granted the use of butter (without having to pay a fine) - but only for the Prince-Elector and his family and household.

Others were also permitted to use butter, but with the condition of having to pay annually 1/20th of a gold Gulden to support the building of the Freiberg Cathedral. The ban on butter was removed when Saxony became Protestant.

Over the centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless "bread" to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients, such as marzipan, although the traditional Stollen is not as sweet, light and airy as the copies made around the world.

My version is much lighter and less rich than what you get during the holidays in Germany, so perhaps it is closer to the older versions? My version for everyday has almond flavoring, reminiscent of the marzipan flavor without the calories & expense! And I use the the lowest amounts of sugar and butter, so it is more bread-like than cake-like.

Borealkitchen's Breakfast Stollen
1/2 c each dried or candied fruit (I mix raisins, cranberries and apricots)
1/2 c chopped almonds
1 T yeast, dissolved in 1 c warm milk
1/2 c+ warm water, as needed
5 c+ flour
1 t salt
1/4-1/2 c sugar
1/2-1/2 c melted butter
1 egg (optional -- ok without eggs)
flavoring: 1 t Almond extract, or lemon peel, or cardamom, or cinnamon/nutmeg
Optional Glaze: powdered sugar mixed w/ water/lemon juice (I usually skip this)

I use my Kitchenaide with doughhook to mix the dough, then finish kneading on countertop.
Let rise until nearly doubled in bulk, then punch down and form 2 loaves (I use breadforms, but traditional shape is like in the picture above.
Let rise again, then bake at 375 F for approximately 1/2 hour -- test by tapping on the bottom of the loaf -if it sounds hollow, it's done!
Let cool on rack. Keeps reasonably well. We toast ours for breakfast, spread some butter, and then sprinkle w/ cinnamon sugar.

In defense of Brussel Sprouts

2010-10-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

I used to think of Brussels Sprouts as evil. My husband calls them "Martian heads", and they do seem a bit alien, indeed! But I'd like to make the case for this under-appreciated fall vegetable, which can be quite tasty when cooked properly.
Here's my mantra:
(1) Make sure they're fresh -- they get tough w/ age, and don't store well.
(2) Don't over-cook! Brussels Sprouts and many other members of the cabbage-family release sinigrin, a glucosinalate that smells and tastes sulphury. To avoid, steam or cook minimally.
(3) Try something new! For example, pair it with mustard & capers (recipe here), or an orange-maple-whiskey sauce (recipe here), or with chestnuts (recipe here).
(4) Simplest and best: Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, and pan-fry or roast until fork prick indicates doneness.

Remember, real men do eat Brussels Sprouts!!!

Kohl/Kraut-Index of last night's dinner

2010-10-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dinner last night was a whopping 3 on the cabbage index -- admittedly a bit high for my family. In my own defense, two of the dishes were left over from Oktoberfest (and I did not even serve the sauerkraut), plus we had a whole stalk of Brussels Sprouts in our CSA box.

Here's what I served (very colorful too -- alas, no pix!):

mashed purple potatoes
"Screaming Heads" (Brussels Sprouts gratin) -recipe here
"Blaukraut/Rotkohl" (Red cabbage) -recipe here
Coleslaw, Celeriac Slaw (left-over cold salads) -recipe previous post
Green salad

"Where's the meat?" my boys asked. "There's proscuitto in the gratin", I replied. "Trace Elements of meat hidden among Brussels Sprouts don't count!", hubby informed me!

I still think it was a smashing good dinner, even if my men merely tolerated it -- they know the high Kohl/kraut-Index is just one of those things about the fall harvest time. Soon, they hope, I will be back to serving meat and potatoes with cabbage as a mere "after-thought"...

Simple german raw vegetable salads

2010-10-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some recipes for some simple salads that Germans are very fond of.
I like to get these when I'm eating lunch at a restaurant in Germany and don't feel like ordering a Schnitzel & potatoes. I'm more used to a small mid-day meal of cold lunch, rather than the large German main-meal-of-the-day, so I might go for soup and/or salad. My best bet is to order the "Rohplatte" which translates to raw plate: it's a salad as a meal, often with meat or eggs for added protein.

Besides the usual salad using greens, tomatoes and cucumbers, German also make "salads" by grating root vegetables and adding a simple vinaigrette. Carrots, celeriac (celery root or knob celery), beets, even turnips. I've had a lot of these around lately, and the left-overs keep much better than your typical green salad.
A food processor is handy, but for small quantities, hand-grating works just fine. These salads, by the way, remind me of American "slaw" as in coleslaw, but they just don't contain any cabbage.

Carrot salad: finely grate carrots and add oil and vinegar/lemon juice, dash of sugar, salt.

Celeriac salad: finely grate celery root, apple, add cream, vinegar, sugar, salt.

Beet salad: finely grate beets, add either oil or cream, vinegar and horseradish (optional).

Russian-style beet salad: toss with garlic, blue cheese and hard-boiled egg.

HINT: Do not wear a white blouse while grating beets:)

these 3 salads are very pretty indeed, and can be added as a dallop on top of any green salad.

Menu for Oktoberfest

2010-10-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

This week we celebrate our annual Oktoberfest (2 Birthdays and the return of the prodigal daughter) -- so it's time to give some thoughts to the menu.

Beer (we don't mess around -- we get a small keg for this occasion!)
Bratwurst (variety: from Knockwurst to spicy Cajun)
Sauerkraut and Rotkohl (red cabbage)
Mustard selection
Potato salad (german, so no mayo!)
green salad(s)
raw salads from grated carrots, celery root, beets
coleslaw
salmon-burgers
Soups: lentils, squash (curried)
Dessert: Apple crisp w/ homemade icecream

This week, our CSA box promises to contain
From local harvest: carrots, new potatoes (farmer’s choice), cabbage
From Outside: Honeycrisp apples, d’anjou pears, green leaf lettuce, garlic, sunburst squash, Rainbow chard
Possibilities: Alaskan Brussels Sprouts | Alaskan beets |Alaskan broccoli | Alaskan celery root |Alaskan turnips

This week's family menu
Meatless Monday: Bubble & Squeak
Tues: eating out after lessons
Vegan Wed: vegetable curry in coconut-ginger sauce, quinoa
Thurs: spaghetti & meatballs, salad (B-day girl sleep-over, so they got to vote)
Fri morning: Biscuits and Gravy (B-day girl's special request!)
Fri: flanks and greens over rice
Sat: OKTOBERFEST
Sun: Brussels sprouts gratin, turnips with bacon, purple mashed potatoes, leftover salads

Fall special-occasion Meat Pie Recipe

2010-10-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a decent menu in quite a while.
Yes, I'm still cooking, and there's been a great variety of fall produce in our CSA box. Tonight we had a very special dinner guest: the prodigal daughter Kitchensister has returned!
(disclaimer: the photo is from last T-giving: no snow yet!!!)

Special-Occasion Cajun Meat-n-veggie Pie
Roasted baby taters w/ herbs du Provence
Roasted yams
Kale with proscuitto and honey
German Carrot salad

The RECIPE
The pie is my variation on Paul Prudhomme's "Paulette's Wonderful Meat Pie" -- it's an unusual recipe in that it calls for grated potatoes in the meat filling, and is topped by a white (dairy) topping. I use less meat & more veggies, but it still feels rich & tasty! It's about the yummiest dish I know that uses ground meat.
This is not a dinner you can throw together in a hurry. Although it's not complicated, there are LOTS of ingredients, and you gotta start early in the day.
I make the pie crust and filling well ahead of dinner (maybe even right after breakfast) -- then all I have to do later is assemble and bake.

Pie crust
1.3 c flour
3 T sugar
3/4 t salt
1/4 c butter
1 egg, beaten
3 T milk
Refrigerate dough, then roll out and freeze in pie tin.

Meat and Veggie filling
1 # ground beef, buffalo, moose, wallaby or whatever
(original recipe called for more meat, combo of beef and pork)
tons of veggies:
onions
garlic
celery
green or red bell pepper
several potatoes, carrots, turnips or other root crops, grated finely
spice mix: salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, basil (make it spicy, if desired, by adding cayenne?)
liquid as needed (water or stock)

Cook the ground meat. Drain if too fatty. Set aside.
Saute onion, celery and peppers, in batches, in a little olive oil. Add spices and meat.
Add grated root crops, together with enough (but not too much!) liquid to allow them to cook, simmering on low heat. Make sure liquid is mostly evaporated/absorbed by the potatoes before removing from stove. Let this mixture cool down completely.
Hint: might want to drain the filling, using a sieve. This is the only "tricky" part of this recipe -- watch out or the pie will be "soggy".

Topping:
Combination of cream cheese and plain (greek) yoghurt
Warm cream cheese slightly until you can stir this into a smooth paste --thin w/ milk if needed.
Add spices: salt, pepper, thyme (thanks, Susitna Cafe!)

Preheat oven. About 1 hour before planning to serve dinner, take out frozen pie crust, add filling and spread the topping. Bake 45-55 min, checking after about 30 min and protecting pie crust edges with shield or alu foil.

Roasted baby potatoes
Just toss them w/ oil, salt and herbs. It's so easy!!!!

Kale with proscuitto and honey
variation from a recipe in Glacier Grist

big bunch of kale, tough stems removed, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
proscuitto ham, chopped
2 T honey
1 T vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Parboil kale for a few minutes (approx.5) -that helps take the bitterness out of them, which kale can have late in the growing season. In the spring, I might just saute them right with the onions.
Other than the parboiling, this saute goes together real quick!

The end of this year's garden

2010-10-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, gardening season is indeed over. The one and only sunflower that bloomed is all droopy now after the frost hit last week, and I've harvested what I could and started turning the soil. So, time now for the end-of-the-season account of what grew well and what didn't.

Weather note: after a nice start, this summer turned way too rainy & cloudy in July, never letting up until September.

Carrots: puny, as we had neglected thinning and weeding.
Peas: good crop
Leeks: good, worth growing again.
Celery: forget it!
Swiss chard, Kale: good crop
Kohlrabi & Brussel sprouts: got eaten by some worms, never amounted to anything.
Potatoes: love'em, easy to grow, but remember to hill them!
raspberries: did great in their first year of transplant!

early summer crops
radish: fine
lettuce: bolted
raddicchio: yum
mustard greens: did well
beets: greens did well, but didn't get roots
dill, cilantro: watch them!
squash: forget them unless guaranteed more sunshine. they just rotted away...
tomatoes (in pots): surely you jest. Got just a few, but they tasted mealy!
chickweed: excellent crop, ha ha!

Family dinners: our anchor

2010-09-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight we were all laughing at the dinner table. Several of us had somewhat rough/blah days, but dinnertime seemed to "re-set" everybody. We all really need that time together at the end of the day.

We're a family that most always eats dinners together. It's very rare that one of us is gone -- we make it a priority to eat together, no matter how busy our lives get.

Not many American families eat dinner together regularly anymore. There have been studies correllating how well children do with how often their families eat dinner together. Statistics like that can't prove any causalities, but it sure seems reasonable to think that there's perhaps an underlying cause. Families need anchors, and dinnertime is such an important one -- it helps "center" everybody.

It's not easy to find family time with teenage kids, not when so many activities are scheduled. Especially when it comes to sports! I don't see how families manage with multiple kids in several sports. What amazes me, in a way, is the contradiction between sports (something good for health) and fast food that invariably gets eaten because nobody has time to cook (duh!).

Yes, I do spend a lot of time preparing my family's meals. It's not difficult -- just takes some planning, and an appreciative family (and I sure have one -- even if they joke, as this evening, about checking the "cauliflower index" of the meal before sitting down to dinner. We all had a hearty laugh, as our CSA box has been supplying us with a heavy dose of the Brassica family lately!

Sometimes I don't know just how time passes so quickly. Wasn't just summer? Weren't the kids in diapers not so long ago? Sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the days...

Sunrise, Sunset
from Fiddler on the Roof

Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty? When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday When they were small?
Sunrise, sunset Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

What words of wisdom can I give them? How can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another, Day by day
They look so natural together, Just like two newlyweds should be
Is there a canopy in store for me?
Sunrise, sunset...

Why so much sugar?!?

2010-09-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'm not anti-sugar, but really, why is American food so super sweetened?!?

Today I bought a smoothie at the grocery store (having just finished a workout and needing something to hold me over for teaching). I usually make my own smoothies, but this morning I got out of the door and sort-of forgot to eat a substantial breakfast -- and I don't go too far on just a cup of coffee w/ biscotti.

Anyway, I bought this "dairy beverage" and it was TERRIBLY sweet. Turns out to not only to contain HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) but a long list of other ingredients like sucralose and other artificial ingredients I was not familiar with, and I could not get it down. Not wanting to waste food, I later tried to "thin" it down with OJ and plain (unsweetened yoghurt) -- what a waste -- I still could not drink the stuff. YUCK! I finally tossed it.

Busy day today, and for dinner Liesl made a quick pizza using a commercial pizza sauce (the one that comes in the Boboli pizza crust package) -- yikes, again, way too sweet!

I keep on cutting sugar out of American recipes -- last week I made zuccini muffins in an attempt to make a dent in our zuccini stash -- I ended up cutting the recipe's sugar in half!
Kids were happy: it was still plenty sweet.

So if you're wondering why I don't blog much anymore -- too busy gardening, working and cooking from scratch...

Pastel de Choclo (Chilean Corn Pie)

2010-08-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is a family favorite, a main dish from my youth in Chile. The word choclo is a "chilenismo" for maize or corn, probably a native indian word. The word pastel means cake, but pie would be a better translation. There are many savory-sweet pastels in Latin American cooking: the combination of sweet (sugar, raisins) and savory (meat, olives, etc) is unusual to the American or European palate, but it works!
Best made with fresh corn, frozen sweet corn works quite well and makes it a relatively easy meal if you have food processor. Since American corn is plenty sweet, I leave out the added sugar, and my family prefers if I skip the raisins that are traditionally mixed into the meat.

Pastel de Choclo
The meat part:
1 # ground beef (I use 1/2 # ground beef plus 1 can of black beans)
1 onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
2-3 T cumin
1 t+ paprika or chile powder, to taste
salt, pepper
optional (traditional): 1/2 c raisins, black olives, sliced hardboiled egg

Cook meat, and drain liquid if needed. Add spices to taste. Spread in the bottom of a wide casserole dish, cover with corn topping, and bake until topping is browned slightly (approx. 3o-40 min)
The corn topping:
3-4 c corn kernels
1 egg
traditional: sugar, evaporated milk to taste

In my childhood, I remember many hours were spent grating the kernels directly from the cobs around harvest time. Now I just defrost the corn, and process into a paste together with an egg and some milk (if needed).

Tourlu -- a great way to cook up a mess of vegetables

2010-07-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

We're soon leaving on vacation, and I've got a bunch of vegetables to use up before we leave.
Came across a great recipe in the cookbook "Real Stew" by Clifford A. Wright, by the name of Tourlu: it's a Greek version of a Vegetable Stew from Turkey. I'd even describe it as a Moussaka without the meat!

This dish is really not a stew in the sense of coking with broth; rather, it's a baked dish -- slowly roasted vegetables coated in olive oil. Most recipes call for potatoes, but the one I used tonight featured parsnips. I used neither, and substituted carrots, of which I currently have A LOT.
Plus, of course, I've got the zuccini!!!
What drew me to the recipe is not only that it called for roasting veggies coated in olive oil, but that it asked for leeks, which I adore. I also had a bulb of fennel (it did not ask for that), but I thought it might fit in perfectly.
The basic idea is to cut up a bunch of veggies, and roast them -- just up my alley. Seasoning listed were garlic (but of course!), fresh cilantro leaves, cinnamon, salt and pepper.
It's not the prettiest dish, but very tasty, and it promises that the flavors improve by the second day. I'm looking forward to munching on the left-overs.

Over dinner, when I asked the family for feedback, my son asked:
"What do you mean "next time" -- do you HAVE to cook this again?"
I just cracked up! Well, I had left out the cinnamon in fear of alienating my eaters, but they thought it should go back in (on the other hand, the fennel was not everybody's favorite), and the general consensus was for more herbs and spices. It's not the prettiest dish, but who cares?!?

Soooo, now I'm searching the internet for more versions of Tourlou, and here's what I'll probably try next time:

Tourlou (Greek Vegetables)
Onions and/or leeks
potatoes, carrots or parsnips
bell peppers
zuccini
tomatoes (fresh or canned)
optional: eggplant, green beans, okra, fennel?
olive oil
garlic
fresh herbs: either parsley, oregano, cilantro or dill (but probably not all!)
cinnamon, paprika?
salt, pepper

Toss vegetables with olive oil. Bake for 1-1.5 hours in heavy casserole dish. Serve with Greek bread and Feta cheese, or as a side dish to meat.

Photo credit: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

Smoked Cheddar and Jalapenos Dip

2010-07-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

What to do on yet another COOL Alaskan summer day, with rain, in the 50's?
-bake Christmas cookies or a pumpkin pie
-make a big pot of stew, chili, or legumes
-bake bread or Dingo Dave's wonderful cheddar-bacon mini muffins (*recipe here)

Today I smoked me some cheddar -- that's what I do when I ran out of salmon to smoke!
It's incredibly easy to do: I buy me a big hunk of sharp cheddar at Costco, cut it up into chunks about 1.5 - 2 inches tall, place it on the highest rack of the smoker, and give it 1 panful of chips (alder/ apple/cherry) for about 2 hours of a cool smoke. (I recommend you don't do this on a very hot day -- if you don't care for dripping cheese all over your smoker -- yup, I've done that!)

Here is the RECIPE for a tasty and easy party dip that uses smoked cheddar:
1 c shredded smoked cheddar
1 jalapeno pepper, diced very finely
combination of sour cream, cream cheese, ranch dressing and/or mayo -- approx 1 c total
optional: chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Just mix it all up, and serve with crackers and vegetables as an appetizer.

A Trifle for dessert

2010-07-22T22:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had a potluck at work, and our resident Brit made TRIFLE for dessert.
This gentleman is famous for his desserts, and this was no exception -- it was excellent. Soooo, I decided to research the topic and find out what makes a trifle.

From Wikipedia:
A trifle is a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake fruit juice or gelatin, and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top... The earliest known use of the name trifle was for a thick cream flavoured with sugar, ginger and rosewater, the recipe for which was published in England, 1596, in a book called "The good huswife's Jewell" by Thomas Dawson.It wasn't until sixty years later when milk was added and the custard was poured over alcohol soaked bread (such as sweet sherry, madeira wine or port).

English Trife
RECIPE from the Brit, more or less, who says this is what's traditionally made on Mondays with the left-overs from the weekend's baking for company.
sponge cake
sweet sherry or port (alternatively, fruitjuice/ gelatin)
vanilla pudding or custard
seasonal fresh fruit: pears, bananas, grapes, cherries, berries, etc (save prettiest for top)
whipped cream, sweetened

Cut sponge cake and layer 1/3 in clear glass bowl. Soak cake with al-ki-hol.
add 1/3 of fruit, arranged nicely. Pour 1/3 of custard over fruit, and 1/3 of whipped cream.
Repeat with cake, fruit, custard layer. Lastly, decorate with fruit.

Note: Obviously you can make this without booze (and substitute juice, gelatin) -- but then the kids might want some too!

Mocha-Chocolate Trifle
now this is right up my alley!

brownie or other chocolate cake
Kahlua or other compatible alcohol
chocolate pudding (optional, dissolve some instant coffee granules in the milk)
fruit: cherries, strawberries, etc
whipped cream (flavored w/ cocoa, coffee or liqueur if desired)
optional: slivered almonds, chopped toffee bars

same idea as before.

Kitchen chores - done by house elves!

2010-07-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

In our household, kitchen chores get done by house elves, even though our last name is not Malfoy! For those few of you who may not know what house elves are: they're servants (more like slaves) in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Dobby (pictured), is a house elf. Beloved by many a Harry Potter fan, with his big eyes, big ears, and heart of gold, he saves Harry Potter's life numerous times, ultimately dying for him in the last book (sob!)

But back to kitchen chores, like parents all over the world, we've struggled to find a good arrangement for our young brood to help with the daily kitchen chores. Somebody's got to do the dishes, and besides, it builds character! The obvious one was for the kids to take turns: today it's your turn, tomorrow your sister, etc... And they, in turn, started referring to their assigned day as "house elf" day, reflecting the fact that in their own minds, having been assigned to wash dishes was just shy of slavery!

But there was always squabbling, and they begged us to revise the system. For one thing, each child seemed to feel very "put out" when the other did not have to do any chores on that particular day (nothing is worse than having to do chores while your sibling is watching!). SO, they kept on wanting to change the system, and after a while we reluctantly agreed, ok, why don't you come up with your own system!

Here is what they came up with -- yes, it's complicated, but they seem satisfied, and it works!
1st day (Monday): The "Clean" house elf empties the dishwasher and sets the table -- in other words, takes care of the clean dishes and helps with dinner prep. The "Dirty" house elf clears the table, helps put food away, and loads the dishwasher (not their favorite job!!!).
Next day: reverse

Simple enough, but how about the trash? To a parent that sounds like a clear-cut job for the "dirty" house elf -- but even that got more finely sub-divided: there's the actual carrying of the trash to the garage ("dirty" job"), putting in the new liner, and doing the recycling ("clean").

I admit that we parents did some eye-rolling at all the negotiating that takes place, but I now realize a couple of important things:
#1 they're doing it, with less reluctance than when we assigned their tasks point-blank.
#2 they like each other's company -- and they're often found negotiating finer points among themselves, like "If you can put that pan away and refill the ice cube tray, then I'll scrub the pancake mess off the counter, and then we can make cookies together after dinner..."
#3 there's power in self-determination- even among mere house elves!

A hankering for FRESH Salsa

2010-07-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

Even if we can't have sun here (yup, another rainy-cloudy day here in Southcentral AK), we can at least we can pretend it's a sunny summer day menu-wise!
Salsa Fresca
4 ripe tomatoes
1/4-1/2 red onion
1-2 jalapeno peppers
lime juice
cilantro
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 c olive oil
salt, to taste

Chop it all up, mix it up, and it's ready after sitting about 15 minutes!
Serve with tortilla chips, and optionally, avocado slices

IF you lack fresh ripe tomatoes (I sure do), you can substitute fleshy fruit, such as strawberries or mangoes. Our CSA had this recipe recently with mangoes and cucumbers, and I laughed at the comment from the author. The recipe came from a recent edition of Men’s Journal: "I didn’t even know there were recipes in there! "

Why not?
Men can be great cooks, when they get trained up a bit (to borrow a phrase from Hagrid, a good friend of Harry Potter's).
Some of the best cooks I know are men!

strawberries and other gardening news

2010-07-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Been harvesting strawberries from the garden -- smallish, pale-ish, but really sweet and yummy.
These are strawberries that came with the house: they grow all over my flower bed, and even on the gravelly hillside behind the house -- they're tough, and reproduce profusely by runners. This spring I did a major thinning of their numbers, ripping out about half of the plants, and now those that remain are growing bigger and better...
In other gardening news: the greens are doing well -- we got lots of chard, some lettuce varieties, kale and other members of the cabbage family growing nicely. Carrots are coming along slowly.
The peas are tall, zuccini not so much.
The weather has been cool lately -- not much in the way of sun (what sun?) -- it's not looking like much of a tomato year. In fact, I'm starting to wonder why I even bother with tomatoes...
We love to eat ripe tomatoes, but at the rate ours are growing, winter will be here long before ours produce fruit and ripen...

Photo credit: http://www.seedsofgrowth.com

Rock'in Moroccan Stew, doubled

2010-06-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

While researching recipes for dehydrated foods for backpacking, I came across a blog dedicated to cooking for the trail -- backpackingchef, where among many useful tips about processing and dehydrating veggies, fruit, even meat, I also found this recipe for Moroccan Root Stew.

I've modified it slightly to fit my needs, including what to do with the rich stock.

Step 1 (Stew for Dehydrator)
teensy bit of olive oil
onions, chopped
garlic, minced
jalapeno or other pepper, minced (depending on how hot you like it)
curry powder
cumin powder
cinnamon
1 can diced tomatoes
stock, as needed
root vegetable, cut in cubes of 1 inch or so: parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, beets, etc.
sweet potato or yam (cubed) -- stay away from potatoes, as they don't rehydrate well
optional: chickpeas or lentils

Saute first few ingredients until translucent, add spices, then rest of ingredients. Barely cover veggies with liquid, and cook until just softened. Let cool, then drain thru sieve. Save the stock!
Place root veggies in dehydrator (best if not touching much), and dry overnight.

When dry, package in ziploc bag, and add:
raisins or apricots
candied orange peels
dried jerky beef, chopped finely (optional)
Separately, package couscous (approx 1/2c per person)

Step 2 (Stew for home consumption)
generous amount of olive oil
onions, chopped
garlic, minced
celery, chopped
cubed meat, such as beef or lamb
stock from step 1
potatoes and/or Yams, cubed
carrots and other veggies that hold up well in stew, such as corn
optional: raisins, chickpeas
water or additional stock as needed
Sri Ratcha or other hot sauce, as desired
Oranges (see this recipe from Epicurean.com)
parsley, mint

Saute veggies and meat in olive oil. Add stock and vegetables, and cook until everything is done. This stew does well in crockpot or simmering on stove for flavors to blend.
Serve over couscous or with flat bread.

Step 3 (meal on the trail)
You can start re-hydrating stew with cold water, roughly 1 c water per cup of dried ingredients.
Or heat water, fix couscous first, then cook stew for about 1o minutes, add couscous and let sit another 10+ minutes until thickened (keep warm by keeping lidded and wrapped with something so it won't cool down).

No longer salmon-deprived

2010-06-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a long stretch without salmon, but alas, I'm smoking salmon fillets as we speak! (For the how to of smoking (and brine recipe), see last year's post here.
My mouth is already watering at the thought of all the salmon chowders/pizzas/quesadillas, etc we'll be having soon...
Here are links to some of my favorite salmon recipes:
Smoked Salmon Souffle
Thai Curry Soup with Salmon

I admit right up front that I bought Copper River Sockeye Salmon ($7.99/# for whole fish), ouch!, rather than participating in the yearly madness of Anchorites who dash to the Kenai peninsula to "get their fish".
The Russian River, a tributary to the Kenai River, is a popular angling spot, and when the salmon are running, it looks something like this:

Photo: Alaska Fish & Game

To this scene, my (peace-and-quiet-loving) hubby says "no thanks", and I don't blame him -- that's no idea of a vacation for anyone who finds crowds stressful. So we're headed to a quiet no-name lake way up in the Alaska Range next week -- far away from the maddening crowds. And you can bet there will be pasta w/ smoked salmon on the menu!

"Hiding" vegetables vs. creative cooking

2010-06-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

Who hasn't come across picky eaters, esp. when it comes to vegetables?
"But I don't like tomatoes/beets/squash..." -- who hasn't heard that 100 times?

And I'm not talking about just kids either. I've come across many adults who have a long list of dislikes and refuse to eat a lot of vegetables.
I fully understand allergies to nuts or wheat. I respect people who don't eat meat. I understand dietary restrictions and wanting to stay away from processed foods such as white sugar (I try not to use too much of it myself). I even get that mushrooms are an acquired taste, and for many it's a "texture-thing", but what's there not to like about vegetables?!? Gimme a break!

O.K., the curmudgeon in me is really showing now. I was brought up traveling and living in several cultures, and one of the lessons I learned (besides witnessing poverty and how much more simply many people of the world live) is that it's generally considered bad manners to refuse food cooked for you (unless you really have no other choice, such as that it makes you sick).

Don't worry, I won't make you eat all your vegetables when you come over to my house. I try to keep unusual ingredients as a "side option" to let guests add them as desired. In fact, I do have a real problem with parents pile the food on and command their kids to "eat everything", invariably creating a power struggle. The way I look at it, offer them the food, and if the kid won't eat it, then they'll just have to go without. No fuss! But no alternatives either, esp. no treats! Just let them wait until the next meal... (Digression: our kids have made that choice only rarely when they were small, and no, they did not starve!)

But adults, seriously, you could try a "wee bit" of something. Maybe the way I cook beets (roasted, with maple syrup) will surprise you. No big deal if you don't care for it, but thanks for giving them a try! (Digression: and for heaven's sake, why do some people cover everything on the plate with salt before even taking a bite? That sure makes me feel like they assume everything I've cooked is bland.)

Back to vegetables! I know moms sometimes resort to "hiding" secret ingredients. Did you know that you can "hide" cooked mashed veggies (even spinach) in brownies? Vegetable really do make moist and delicious cakes (just think carrot cake). However, to me that's not the same as truly having the family eating their vegetables (the sugar and chocolate, in my humble opinion, makes it a dessert experience rather than one of eating vegetables as part of a real meal). Still, may I point you to an excellent recipe for Devil's Chocolate cake with beets as a secret ingredient).

Instead of hiding vegetables, first try different ways of fixing vegetables. Many people, esp. small children, will prefer vegetables raw or minimally cooked. I've been surprised by how often kids will eat fresh peas and many other veggies raw, but hate them cooked (esp. over-cooked). Get them into a garden at harvest time, or take them to a farmer's market, and they might just munch away on veggies you never dreamed they'd eat -- one of our local farmer offers slices of "snow apples" (white turnips) -- and you'd be amazed by the surprised faces of his customers. Yummy!

Remember when baby/toddler ate most everything? It's only later that they started getting fussy. "It's a phase", everybody said. And it is, to some degree -- just keep on offering them a variety, rather than letting their finickiness dictate what you cook. Most people need to try something new several times before they warm up to it -- the mistake we cooks often make is that we give up too fast.

Here are a couple of tricks I use with my family:
Winter squashes: try them in soups (curry is great) or even as part of the sauce in Maccaroni and "Cheese" casserole -- see Alison's Lunch for her recipe here.

Greens -- fresh is best, but they can be blanched and frozen. Try simple stir-fry, additions to casseroles and soups, and as pesto-like sauces, such as these greek recipes.

Cabbage -- tired of same old cole slaw? I've got several posts on what to do with cabbage, including cabbage cooked in a whiskey sauce, and of course, "Bubble and Squeak".

Add the veggie-in-question to a proven favorite:
Pizza - will hide a multitude of veggies under the cheese... start with small quanties!
Mexican - for example, my daughter makes a dang-good quesadilla (Barbara Kingsolver style, see link on sidebar) with cooked sweet potatoes, chard, garlic, basil, cheese, and black beans.

The flavor of many root crops will be intensified when roasted -- often tasting so much better than boiled! I used to hate Brussels Sprouts (boiled until mushy in my youth) -- but now I've discovered AK-grown Brussels roasted with just a light coating of olive oil and salt --what a difference!! For delicious recipes, go to this post from last fall.

Lastly, try eating local and in season as much as possible. The CSA boxes and Farmer's Markets have helped our family eat better -- just being in touch with what's in season. Why eat asparagus when it's not in season -- it's expensive, travelled a LONG ways, and doesn't even taste that good. But when it's asparagus season, the price comes down and the flavor goes up -- you can't lose! Maybe even buy extra to blanch and freeze -- how about making a blended asparagus soup base to freeze for a rainy day: just add dairy when reheating (cream & parmesan) for a quick meal in middle of winter.

By the way, I also strongly suggest not keeping secrets.
I cook it, they try it, and if they ask, I'll tell them what's in it.
But then again, if I suspect scepticism, I may be "vague" when asked what's for dinner: I'll call it a mexican casserole rather than specifying that it contains curly kale... just a bit of armchair psychology: gain their trust & don't deceive.

Picture Credit: Shootingstar.blogspot.com

Zen Bars

2010-06-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

ZEN BARS: the next generation of backpacking energy bars coming out of my kitchen! See earlier posts for a progression of recipes so far.

Why ZEN? Well, Eldest asked for the TaoTe Ching, a book by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, and right next to it, at the used bookstore where I like to shop (and get credit for reselling our own books) were lots of these tiny books: The Little Zen Companion. Several Christmases ago, everybody probably got one in their stocking -- now they're practically free if you have paperback credit! Perfect wrapping material for a girl who's studying Taoism while munching on my bars along the PCT, I'd say.

Sooo, we're wrapping each of our little bars in cling wrap, and identifying ingredients on the back of a nice little Zen quote!

Here's my newest invention, inspired by Larabar's "Jocalat", subtitled "German Chocolate Cake", containing dates, nuts, coconut, and cocoa powder. DIGRESSION: I never got why Americans call a Chocolate-Coconut cake "German" -- it was probably all the rage around 1900 when many German immigrated here, but certainly today it's not particularly German (E.O.D.)! So, I'll probably call mine:

Mock German Chocolate Cake Bars
1/2 c honey
1/2 c peanut butter
2 c dates, and/or raisins
1 c walnuts
1.5 c shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened, either works)
2-3 T dark cocoa powder (unsweetened, I used Droste)
optional: ground flaxseed, wheatgerm, oats, or other, esp if need to thicken

Melt the first 2 ingredients, and then blend everything else in. I like to add flaxseed or other until stirring gets really difficult -- so my bars don't melt on the trail!
Press into greased pan (I use a bread loaf pan) and refrigerate overnight. Cut into bars (makes 8 4-oz bars). You probably can hardly believe that I actually measured and weighed something (!), but I was curious how my bars compared price-wise to Larabars -- I still need to calculate it, but my guess is that mine cost a third or a quarter of theirs...

Chewy Cherry Garcia Bar
7 oz marshmallow cream
3 T Peanut Butter
1 T butter
1/4 c honey
2 c oats
2 c dried cherries
1 c pecans
1/2 c chocolate chips, if desired
optional: seeds (for coating), such as sesame, flax or sunflower

Warning, this is messy! Melt the first 4 ingredients, stir in the rest, and mix by hand (oil them first!). Then press into pan, coat with seeds, and refrigerate overnight, or alternatively, bake to make firmer bars.

East Meets West Granola Bars
1 can sweetened evaporated milk
2 T Tahini (sesame paste)
2 c oats
2 c almonds
1 c pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 c dried mangoes
1 c dried cranberries
2 T candied dried ginger
2 T+ sesame seeds

Heat milk in pan, add tahini and blend. Add dry ingredients. Press into greased pan and bake at 250 for 30-45min, until lightly browned. Cut into bars while still warm.
Note: if you want these really crunchy, bake longer (1 hr+)

Greeks know how to cook with Greens!

2010-06-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

We love greens here at Borealkitchen. Can't get enough of them -- I grow them in my garden, it's first thing eaten out of the CSA box, and then I go to the grocery store and buy more (and yes, we do make it thru the HUGE spinach bags from Costco). Greens are not only super healthy and good for you, they taste great IF YOU KNOW HOW TO COOK THEM!

I discovered a great website of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska by Laurie Helen Constantino, author of the cookbook Tastes like Home. And being Greek, this woman knows and loves her greens. Not only are there lots of good recipes, she teaches you how to harvest and cook such wild greens as dandelions, fireweed and Devil's Club (you read right -- you can harvest the shoots in the springtime) -- she makes Devil's Club Gnocchi!

Here is a wonderful recipe I've got to try really soon: Plasto (recipe here), a greens & cheese pie with cornbread crust, or you could also call it cornbread with a layer of greens and cheeses -- sounds delicious, and perfect for all those greens coming up in my garden, including those dandelions!

Another yummy-looking recipe is Spinach Skordalia (recipe here), a sort of garlic-pesto-like green sauce that goes well with fish -- she pairs it with crispy salmon fingers.

And I learned you can cook the green tops from radishes in a simple dish with olive oil and lemon juice. See Radish Horta (recipe here).

Dehydrator Woes and Recipes

2010-06-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

In many ways, dehydrating your own food is easy with a dehydrator. The challenge I'm finding with this method (new to me) is the timing -- how long does it really take? So far, everything has taken me much longer than recipes have suggested. "Dry for 6 -8hrs" sometimes turns out more like 12 hours! Inconvenient when that ends up being in the middle of night, like tonight...
I do also wonder about the cost effectiveness of drying your own -- by the time you factor in the electricity to run the dehydrator for 12 hours, the amount of fuel it takes to get fresh fruit from where it's grown (California!) to my house, dehydrated, and then shipped back to California...
But alas, it's a LABOR OF LOVE, and some of the products are truly much better that what you can buy!

Being a novice deydratorette, I want to share my tricks of the trade I've learned so far:

1.) Start in the morning, in case it ends up taking twice as long...
2.) Take copious notes.
3.) To test doneness: cut or break pieces in two, and if no beaded moisture visible, it's done.
depending on the item and how long you plan to store it, it does not need to be "bone-dry".
4.) Package in ziploc bags, or for longer storage, vacuum-pack.
5.) For something like fruitleather or other "wet" item spread out to dry, "flip" it over half-way through -- when it can be handled and not fall apart -- this will greatly speed up the drying process!
6.) For thick liquids like bean soup or hummus, you'll end up with chips: use a food processor to chop it into a more user-friendly consistency.
7.) Don't attempt potato soups or mashed potatoes (as my daughter found out) -- something about the starch drying results in HARD TACK that's difficult to reconstitute!

Dried Fruit
This is the easiest place to start! Depending on the fruit, may need pretreatment if concerned about color. Apples, for example, can be dipped in an ascorbic acid bath to keep them from darkening, unless you don't care...
Canned fruit works too: Pineapple rings, from the can, make a great snack, and are so much better than the super sweetened ones you find at the grocery store!

Fruit Leather
applesauce, canned peaches, pears, etc... Just blend and pour onto the fruit leather tray. Dehydrate at 135 F. Flip over after approx. 6 hours, then go for another 6 hrs or so.

Pumpkin leather or Pumpkin Bark
1 15-oz can of Pumpkin
1/4 c maple syrup
2 t pumpkin spice

Vegetable Chips
Slice carrots, parsnips, beets, squash.etc. (Mandolin is nice to use for this)
Drop into boiling water for 2 minutes, remove and cool in icewater. Pat dry with paper towel. Sprinkle with salt if desired. Dehydrate at 135 F for 6 + hours.

On the trail, these can be added to pasta dishes and soups, or eaten plain like potato chips -- might even try some baked Curly Kale chips with that: coated lightly with oil, salted and baked in oven until crunchy.

Sweet Potato Chips
1 can sweet potatoes or yams (or cooked sweet potatoes)
3 T maple syrup (or 1 T brown sugar)
1/4 c apple juice or other liquid, as needed
optional: cinnamon

mash well, and spread on dehydrator sheet -- flip 1/2 way thru drying (approx after 5 hrs).
Note: When sufficiently dry, the potato sheet will easily snap into chips. Continue drying if the potato sheet bends rather than breaks.
On the trail, these can also be rehydrated as mashed sweet potatoes for dinner.

Carrot-Pineapple Salad
1 can crushed pineapple -drained, save the juice
4-6 good size carrots, shredded
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c (or more) pineapple juice

Heat pineapple juice, dissolve sugar, and soak shredded carrots in this juice.
Drain through a sieve, squeeze, and dehydrate for approx. 5 hours. Makes approx 1 c+.
Save all the the juice, incl. carrot-colored. It's nice to drink for breakfast, or use in other recipes.

NOTE: I originally found a version of this on Recipezar -- and it called for 1 whole cup of sugar, and lemon juice and zest. Figuring this was WAY TOO SWEET, I quartered the sugar. I also replaced the juice with the readily available pineapple juice, but am sure the lemon would be nice too!

On backpacking trip: soak (equal amounts water and dried food) for 1/2hr-1hr. Eat as a salad or side-dish, optionally adding nuts.

Maroccan Root Stew
Great-looking recipe here from the Backpackingchef.

photo credit: http://www.food-dehydrator-pro.com

The search continues for backpacking "Energy Bars"

2010-06-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

I dislike the term "Energy Bar" -- it conjures too many commercial images, everything from dieting to body-building, and many are not much more than glorified "Candy Bars". What I'm looking for is a basic energy bar that's good for you, mostly, as in providing some good nutrition without a whole lot of processed food, and does not cost an arm and a leg -- the solution: MAKE MY OWN.

So my search for the perfect home-made backpacking energy bars continues (see previous post). Not knowing what to call these in the first place ("Granola Bar" dates me back to my granola days), I did a little research on Google, and started to learn some lingo:

ENERGY BAR TERMINOLOGY

Meal Replacement Bar Rather than a quick burst of energy during prolonged workouts, meal replacement bars are designed more for dieting and weight loss. They are meant to provide the complete nutrition of a lunch or breakfast and to fill you up. Nutribars and Balance bars are two examples of energy bars designed to replace, rather than supplement, a meal. Each of these bars provides calories from carbs, proteins and fats in proportions that sate hunger.

Protein Bars Some energy bars, such as protein bars, are designed to help you gain muscle mass. These bars attempt to cram as much protein as possible for recovery from strenuous workouts. Pure Protein bars and most Met-Rx bars fit into this category.

Endurance Bars Endurance bars are primarily designed to be eaten before a long workout. They typically have a higher proportion of carbohydrates to provide complex, non-sugary energy that is digested over a long period of time. The most well-known endurance bars include PowerBar and Honey Stinger Bars.

Activity Bars Similar to endurance bars, activity bars focus on prolonging energy. However, they tend to focus on all-day outdoor activities that require both energy and some meal-replacement nutritional features. Clif Bar is perhaps the most prevalent bar in this category. Outdoor bars, Clif Bar included, often focus on organic ingredients and have crunchier, more granola, textures.

Organic Bars There are a new wave of energy bars that focus largely on providing energy in as natural a method as possible. Organic bars reject artificial sweeteners and inserted protein, preferring to have a compact load of simple ingredients. Larabar is particularly popular, with an ingredient list that typically includes only a few items and never adds protein, gluten or soy.

Back to why I' m searching for energy bar recipes. I make them to send to my daughter, who's currently some 700 miles into through-hiking the PCT from Mexico to Canada (for more about that crazy adventure, see my other blog, Borealkraut).

My daughter mentioned a couple of brandnames she likes: Larabar, KIND, Lunabar. She's loo king for something to replace breakfast, but obviously not as in the "dieting" type. Also, given that she's sensitive to soy and dairy, I'm trying to avoid or minimize that. And, of course, I'd like to make it reasonably healthy, tasty, and use mostly organic and/or minimally-processed ingredients.

Recipe for a most basic Energy Bar

1 cup natural-style peanut butter
3 cups dry uncooked oatmeal
5/8 cup honey
Protein powder (optional)

Combine the peanut butter and honey in a large nonstick pot and warm over low heat until runny and mixed. Mix in the oatmeal and protein powder. Do not bake, but heat enough to mix nicely. Press into a 9×9 inch pan and let cool. Makes 16 bars.

Next, we should add fruit and nuts -- they give a lot of "bang for the buck" to the backpacker! They contain a lot of calories (fat and sugar) for their weight. I found this next recipe on an athlete's site, and I'll skip the protein powder, and play around with some of the other ingredients -- I'd like to see more seeds and nuts.

Runner's Energy Bar

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup vanilla protein power
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup raisins or dried fruit of your choice/chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup honey or light Karo syrup

and now, ta-da, my latest invention, which turned out pretty good:
Borealkraut's ABC Bar
ABC stands for Alaska Blueberry & Cranberry
1/2 c honey
1/2 c PB
1/4 c Orange Juice concentrate (reduce to 1 or 2 T)
2 c rolled oats
1 c chopped pecans
1 c blueberries
1 c cranberries
optional: sesame seeds for coating bars, top and bottom.

Heat first 3 ingredients, then stir in everything else. Press into greased pan & refrigerate. Cut into bars.
This tasted really great, but came out rather sticky -- might want to add coconut, wheatgerm and/or ground flax.

New line of Backpacking Food for the PCT

2010-05-31T14:23:00.000-07:00

Daughter Liesl (Youngest) and I have turned our kitchen into a production center for Backpacking Food: I'm the cook, and she designs the product names and packaging (VERY IMPORTANT!) -- she's even hiding special messages in the packaging for her big sis!
Right now we're dehydrating strawberries, bananas and kiwis, and are having tons of fun inventing and making breakfast/energy bars.

So, before I forget what went into them, here is the first set of recipes.

Move over, commercial bars, we got our own brand-names!

A-Bar: Awesome Alaska Bar
a baked bar containing oats, cranberries, pecans, pumpkin seeds, flax & sesame seeds.
I used Nigella's basic recipe from my last post.

1 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk, heated on stove in large enough pan to hold rest.
2.5 c oats (rolled, but not instant)
1 c dried cranberries
1 c nuts - I used pecans
1 c seeds - I used pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/2 c flax and sesame seeds (save some to sprinkle on bottom of pan)

Bake for 1 hour. Let cool and cut into bars.
Critique: maybe a bit too much baking -- very dry, crunchy, like a traditional granola bar. Perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning or some cool water on the trail...

T-Bar: Truly Tropical Bar
contains Oats, Mango, Apricots, cashews, almonds, almond butter, honey, crystallized ginger.
I used the 2nd recipe from last post, with the melted marshmallows. Did need the butter and added extra honey to help make it all mix and stick together.
These are uncooked bars, thus chewy -- pretty good. I predict the favorite out of this batch!

2 c rolled oats
1 c dried fruit -I used mango and apricots
1/2 c almonds and cashews
1 T sesame seeds (could have used more)
1 T crystallized ginger
3 T almond butter
5 oz marshmallows, melted
2 T butter
honey as needed -- I probably added 1/2 cup

Chop everything finely. In double boiler, melt marshmallows, butter, almond butter and honey, then mix with everything else. Press into greased pan. Let cool in frig for at least 1 hour. Cut into bars.
Critique: pretty darn good!

O-Bar: Ominous* Oat-Carob Bar
contains Oats, carob, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almond butter, honey
*this name is due partially to the ominous brown color, and the fact that carob is NOT popular in this household.

Similar idea to the last: warm up the nutter butter and honey, and mix with all the other ingredients. I used my hands -- it was the easiest way to mix it all up. The carob chips melted right along with the honey, turning everything into a 1970-s looking healthnut bar.

2 c rolled oats
1 c sunflower seeds
1 c walnuts
optional: ground flax seeds (also useful for coating or hand-shaping the bars)
1 c carob chips (could use chocolate chips too!)
1/2 almond butter
1/2 c honey
more honey, maple or agave syrup -- as needed. Again, I needed something to make it all mix and stick together.

Warm up the almond butter and honey (probably needed a whole cup of honey, but not sure of the quantity actually used). Mix everything up using hands, or mixer(?), until it all sticks together. Press into a greased pan and cool in frig.
Alternatively, shape bars by hand, roll in ground flax seeds, and wrap individual bars in parchment paper or cling wrap.

Critique: I liked them, but I think I'm the only taker of carob bars in this household.
Curious to hear if any of the hikers liked them...

M-Bar: Mom's Apple Pie Bar
This is based on a $4 Rawwaylife bar I tasted when I told a co-worker about my bar-making adventures, plus reading the booklet that came with the dehydrator, on loan from Eldest, and finally being put to some good use!
I made this in the Cuisinard, chopping everything right up, making this go super-quick!

1 c hazelnuts
1/2 walnuts
1 c raisins
1 c applesauce
2 t cinnamon
1 T flax seeds (whole)
1 T flax (ground)
1/4 c agave syrup (can play around with sweeteners: honey, maple, etc)

Chop nuts. Add all the other ingredients and blend them up. Spread on the fruit-leather tray of dehydrator, and dry at 135 F for approx 6 hours, according to instruction booklet (NOTE: it's been in there 11 hours now, and still not done!!! -- let's just say "drying time varies").
Critique: A nice break from the oats-centered bars (this has no oats at all -- just fruit and nuts!)
I probably could have upped the cinnamon. I liked the chewy fruit-leatheriness. Probably the least messy (at least crumb-wise) to eat right in the sleeping bag!

That's as far as we've gotten so far, but we've got lots more ideas:

B-Bar: Bravo Blueberry Bar
similar to A-Bar or T-bar: another oats, nuts and dried fruit bar.

P-Bar: Perfect Pumpkin Bar
I was thinking of something similar to the Apple-Pie fruit leather, starting with a can of pumpkin, adding pumpkin seeds, raisins, honey and some pumpkin spices (cinnamon, cloves), then drying in dehydrator.

P-O-Bar: Pecan-Orange Bar/ a.k.a. "Southern Belle"
Here I was thinking of another fruit-leather-type bar, starting with pecans, adding concentrated orange juice, candied orange peel, dried apricots, honey, then drying in dehydrator.

Can't wait to mail them to California (I'm sure over half the ingredients were grown in California!) and find out if they pass "muster" on the PCT!

AWESOME Breakfast Bars/ Energy Bars

2010-05-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

The daughter hiking the PCT made this request: "Mom, if you could experiment with making some breakfast bars, that would be AWESOME: something high-energy that I can nibble on while I'm still in my sleeping bag or even while I'm hiking" -- well, there's a challenge! The remaining kids (Wolf and Pixie) and I will be experimenting and test-tasting...

Never having made anything like this, but feeling confident I CAN DO THAT, I start by searching the internet for some recipes -- ingredients fall into these main groups:
DRY INGREDIENTS
Nuts, seeds, dried fruits, oats
BINDING INGREDIENTS
sweeteners and fats (honey, syrup, oil/butter, nut butters, melted marshmallows, etc)
Optional: FLAVOR & EXTRA PROTEIN
protein or milk powders, vanilla, cinnamon, espresso, chocolate, etc

METHOD: most often the binding ingredients are heated to allow for good mixing.
Some recipes call for baking at a low temperature, others for setting in the frig.

Here's a recipe from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson (NPR listeners will recognize the name):
Nigella's Breakfast Bars

1 14-fl-oz can condensed milk

2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)

1 cup natural unsalted peanuts, walnuts, or other

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees and oil a 9- x 13-inch baking pan or just use a disposable aluminum foil one.

2. Warm the condensed milk in a large pan.

3. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together and add the warmed condensed milk, using a rubber spatula to fold and distribute.

4. Spread the mixture into the oiled or foil pan and press down with a spatula or, better still, your hands (wearing those disposable latex CSI gloves to stop you from sticking) to make the surface even.

5. Bake for 1 hour, remove, and after about 15 minutes, cut into four across and four down, to make 16 chunky bars. Let cool completely.

Here's another recipe I found, bound together with PB & melted marschmallows:
Backpacker's Breakfast Bars

1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup hulled sunflower seeds
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup unsweetened dried coconut
3-1/2c cups crisp toasted rice cereal
1 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
7 cups (12 oz.) mini-marshmallows

Same idea as rice crispy treats: Melt the last 3 ingredients in double-boiler and mix into the dry. Press into brownie tin, and let cool in frig. NOTE: melted marshmallows are VERY messy & difficult to mix. I was going to leave out the butter, but it seemed that it was crucial to the mix, so I did use it. CONCLUSION: probably stay away from marshmallows in the future, or buy marshmallow cream. The crucial test, of course, will be how they hold up on the trail!!!

The rest of the recipes, plus the picture, came from an outdoor blog, Windedbowhunter:

Energy Bars- Unbaked Recipe
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup vanilla protein powder
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup raisins or dried fruit and chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup light Karo syrup
Mix it all well. Freeze in bar shapes

Fruity Nut Chocolate Bar
Equal measures of the following (approximately 1/4 Cup each):
Dried Cranberries
Navitas Goji Berries
Navitas Cacao
Peanuts
Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seed Nut
Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seed Butter
Honey

I put the first 4 ingredients in the blender, and twirled it around for about two minutes, until it was all in fairly fine pieces (rice sized or smaller). I then drizzled the honey in slowly. When the ingredients stick together, scoop them out and put on a sheet of waxed paper. I then folded the paper over it and spread it out until it was about 1/4″ thick. I did taste it at this point, and was happy with the taste. Not to sweet, and you could definitely pick up a nice chocolate flavor. The Hemp Seed Butter and Honey held it together nicely. Put in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Granola Nut Protein Bar Recipe
2-1/2 cups natural peanut butter
2 cups honey
2-1/4 cups protein powder
3 cups uncooked oatmeal
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup wheat bran

In a double boiler, warm the peanut butter and honey to a smooth consistency. This step can be done in the microwave as well–just heat both ingredients for 70 to 90 seconds. In a mixing bowl, stir together all remaining dry ingredients. Pour in the peanut-butter mixture and stir until completely combined. Spread uniformly into a brownie pan. Slice into 12 to 16 pieces, and then wrap each piece in plastic wrap.

Oatmeal Maple Breakfast Bar
1 Cup Oatmeal
1/4 Cup Raisins
1/8 Cup Hemp Seed Nut Butter
1/8 Cup Maple Syrup
1/8 Cup of Cashews
1/8 Cup Honey

Mix dry ingredients in blender until mixed and in smaller pieces. Add Maple Syrup and Honey and mix until everything sticks together and is ‘clumpy’. Scoop out onto wax paper, and shape into a 1/4″ thick slab. Put a thin layer of oatmeal onto a baking sheet, and then put the slab on top (prevents sticking, and gives the bars a crunchier layer. Bake at 250F for 45 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Pineapple-Cranberry-Strawberry-Almond Bar
1/4 Cup of each of dehydrated strawberries and pineapple
1/4 Cup Almonds
1/4 Cup Honey
1/8 Cup Hemp Seed Nuts
1/8 Hemp Seed Butter

Mix all dry ingredients in blender until everything is broken into small pieces. Add the Hemp Seed butter and Honey, mix until ingredients stick together. When the ingredients are stuck together, scoop them out and put on a sheet of waxed paper. I then folded the paper over it and spread it out until it was about 1/4″ thick. Put in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Did I mention, that all of these great recipes are from Leesa over at 4 All Outdoors?!

Radishes & greens in the cold-frame!

2010-05-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

Came back from camping to a thriving garden (Thanks, L, for watering!)
Starting the "Greenhouse-raised-bed-winebottle-style" really paid off.
Here's what I did in early May: The winebottles are full of water, corked and secured with duct tape: their purpose is to provide some passive heating of the soil.

I seeded all kinds of greens: Swiss chard, Mustard greens, radishes, spinach.

Mid-May, I started adding a few bedding plants (bought, I admit), and added more chard, kale, bok choi, lettuce varieties such as raddicio. Gradually, I started replacing some of the winebottles with bedding plants!

I still covered my garden with plastic every day -- besides providing warmth (protection from wind), I needed to keep out the local wildlife: snowshoe hare!

Now it's the end of May, and I'm harvesting radishes and the first outer leaves of chard...

Scandinavian supper

2010-05-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

When we traveled through Denmark and Norway a number of years ago, we noticed something:
everything on the dinner plate was white (or yellow in the case of potatoes), with green being the only actual "color".
Last night, for Syttente Mai (17th of May), we celebrated Norwegian independence with:
Alaskan cod, baked in parchment with herb butter
roasted potatoes
spinach with onions and cream
asparagus

Sorry, no picture -- but it did look lovely, and was rather tasty and healthy, too.
Say a great big Hurrah for Syttente Mai, and take a swig of Aquavit!

menu for mid-May

2010-05-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

CSA this week: Alaskan potatoes & beets.
From Outside: certified organic Cameo apples | certified organic choice navel oranges | certified organic kiwi | certified organic asparagus | certified organic broccoli | certified organic Romaine lettuce | certified organic ~~Lacinto~~ red kale | ~~certified organic red or green cabbage raab~~ | certified organic sweet onions

Sunday (B-day): Cajun Shepherd's Pie, Rhubarb pie
Monday: quinoa - jambalaya style, with carrots & sausage
Tues: German pancakes
Wed: Pita breads filled w/ Gyros, cucumbers, yoghurt, spinach
Thurs: Salmonburgers, green salad, quinoa
Fri: mexican burritos w/ black beans, chorizo, braised greens
Sat: B-day party potluck at friends'house -- too many pasta salads, but delicious grilled salmon!

German pancakes with strawberries

2010-05-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we have breakfast for dinner -- Do you?
Strawberry season is upon us, and they're so good that sometimes we just eat them at every meal!

Start the day with strawberries over homemade granola; have some for lunch in a salad or just plain, and for dinner there's strawberries over pancakes!

One of our special treats is a nutritious German-style pancake, originally made with Quark, but we actually like it best made from cottage cheese. There's enough dairy in this meal to make a decently well-rounded meal.

German Cottage-Cheese Pancakes
4 eggs, separated
1 pint cottage cheese (2 c)
approx 1/4 c milk
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 c+ flour
butter or oil for frying

Separate the eggs. Mix the yolks with cottage cheese, milk, sugar and salt. Add enough flour to make a slightly stiff batter.
Separately, whip the egg whites until stiff. Fold them carefully into the cottage cheese batter.
Fry on griddle until golden brown. Serve immediately with sweetened strawberries or syrup.

Optional additions into the batter:
1.) Bacon bits
2.) grated apples & nuts
3.) blueberries and/or cranberries

Rhubarb Pie for the Birthday Boy!

2010-05-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

It's May, and we had our first Rhubarb Pie, on special request by Birthday Boy! I actually went and BOUGHT some rhubarb at the grocery store, since the rhubarb in the garden is not ready for harvest quite yet -- but what mother can resist her child requesting Mom's specialty on his birthday! Aren't we moms just suckers for praise?!?

For my special best-ever recipe for Rhubarb Pie, go here.

Beets for dessert!

2010-04-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

My kids are, shall we say, rather "skeptical" of red beets. Something about that bright red color of borscht makes them uneasy. Until recently, the only dish they like is when I roast them (I cut them up and coat w/ oil & a wee bit of maple syrup before baking).

But today, I surprised them with a new recipe, and they barely believed me when told that they were eating their BEETS!!! My husband nearly dropped his fork... but our daughter did reassure him that mommy was pureeing a bunch of beets earlier in the day. It really does not taste beety at all -- just a very nice moist rich chocolate cake. TRY IT.

Red Devil Chocolate Cake (with a secret ingredient)
The recipe is originally from Moosewood Cookbook of Desserts, and was on the list from our CSA, Glacier Grist # 64)

14 oz beets (called for roasted, I boiled mine)
1/2 c water (I needed more like 1 c)
2 eggs
1.5 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 c oil (can reduce by half)
1/2 t salt
1.5 c flour (I used 2 c)
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 t baking soda

1. Grease and flour pans (I used 2 8-inch round pans), and preheat oven to 350.
2. Puree the boiled or roasted beets with water -- I'm guessing mine came to somewhere around 3 cups, and I was worried it was too much! That's why I ended up using a little more flour.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar and remaining wet ingredients, incl. beet puree, then fold in the dry ingredients.
4. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 30-45 min, until toothpick comes out clean.
5. After cooling, you can frost cake, or dust w/ powdered sugar.
I served it with whipped cream and strawberries. Yummy.

Home-made Granola Recipe

2010-04-20T17:06:00.001-07:00

Back in my granola days, I used to make my own.
More recently, Eldest introduced granola-making to the younger crowd. Now that she's hiking the PCT (see Borealkraut post here), she needs lots of horsefeed to keep those calories burning, so she requested we send her some home-made granola, and provided this recipe from someone named Joe. content="Microsoft Word 2008">

In a large bowl, mix the following. Joe triples this recipe by measuring with a 4-cup scooper and mixing in a 5-gallon paint bucket, then eating from a trough with yogurt and powdered milk.

9 scoops old-fashioned rolled oats (equal to all other ingredients)
1 ½ scoops wheat (or oat) bran
1 ½ scoops sesame seeds (½ ground in blender)
1 ½ scoops sunflower seeds (cooked or uncooked)
1 scoop sliced almonds
½ scoop flax seed ground in blender
1 ½ scoop dates

Note: If you want raisins in the granola, add them after it is cooked.

Stir the dry ingredients together with your hands. Then pour in:

1 ¼ scoop oil

Stir the oil in well (with your hands), working the oil through all the oat mix. Then add and do the same with:

1 ½ scoop honey

Work this in until all the lumps are gone.

Spread foil on two cookie sheets and grease them with Pam or oil. Spread the raw granola in the pans, no more than 1-inch deep. Cook at 325ºF for 15 minutes (set a timer) or until the edges of the granola in the bottom pan begin to get slightly brown. If this takes much more than 15 minutes, turn up the heat in your oven a bit, but keep in mind that the honey makes the granola burn easily when the temperature is too high.

After 15 minutes, switch the pans on the oven racks, one to the top, one to the bottom, so both brown evenly. (You only want a very light browning for most of the granola.) Cook for another 15 minutes (30 minutes total).

Immediately after removing the granola from the oven, use a spatula to scrape it into a big container or bowl to cool. When it is cool, cover it tightly and store at room temperature.

Now to this week's variation, which I shall call

ALASKAN GRANOLA FOR THE MOJAVE DESERT

my "scoop" was sized 1/4 cup -- I'm starting small since my oats are running low...

2 1/4 c rolled oats

1/4 c sesame seeds

1 T ground flax seed

1/2 c sliced almonds

1/2 c dried blueberries

1 T finely chopped candied orange peel

Test eaters at Borealkitchen generally prefer their granola without fruit, but otherwise approved.

Future variations might include:

ginger?

coconut

Menu for last week of April

2010-04-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

CSA box this week brings:
Alaskan white potatoes | Alaskan beets | Alaskan carrots,
certified organic d’anjou pears | certified organic choice navel oranges | certified organic kiwi fruit | certified organic asparagus | certified organic Romaine lettuce | certified organic cabbage raab | certified organic collard greens | certified organic mustard greens

First of all, I gotta do something with those beets -- still have some from last box!
Borscht is not exactly welcomed with open arms around here, but last week's Glacier Grist (#64) has an intriguing recipe for a red devil chocolate cake using red beets as the secret ingredient!

The greens is what I usually use up first, and our favorite application is Flanks and Greens,a cajun recipe, but this week I'm trying some different recipes.

Sunday: Jambulaya w/ spicy brats and shrimp, green salad
Monday: carrot-tahini soup (GG#64), Bubble and Squeak (GG#2), green salad
Tues: Indian Lamb and pea curry w/ brown rice
Wed: White Bean soup with collard greens, German pancakes w/ strawberries
Thursday: Salmon baked en papillote, potatoes & artichoke gratin (GG#63), asparagus
Friday: Pasta or Pizza
Saturday: Nature Center Auction & Dinner
Sunday: Pasta w/ Raab, red peppers, etc

Health Nut Bread

2010-03-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

My son surprised me the other day, upon leafing through The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (borrowed from a friend), by requesting Health Nut Bread (p.166), full of fruit, nuts and containing soybeans.
Given that I did not have all the ingredients on hand, nor am known for following recipes anyhow, here's what I tried:

I had some sprouted beans (small navy), so I ground those up with a bit of water and added them to the dough in lieu of the soy grits. The result was a moist loaf, on the dense side, but it lasted well for a week (I did refrigerate the 2nd loaf). Good toasted!

Meanwhile, I bought some soyflour, which I plan to add to my next "Health Nut" loaf.

Borealkitchen's Health Nut Bread
1 c assorted dry hard fruits (raisins, apricots, peaches, prunes, cherries, etc), soaked in warm water if very hard
2 t active yeast, dissolved in 1/2 c warm water
1/2 c yogurt
2-3 T oil or butter
pureed cooked or sprouted beans (1/2 cup)
(Note: original recipe called for 1/3 c soy grits soacked in 1/2 c hot water)
1.5 c fruit broth (from soaking fruit) or fruit juice (apple, etc), water, or combination
1-2 T ground flaxseed
optional: 1/4 c soy flour, garbanzo bean flour, or buckwheat flour
5 c+ whole wheat flour (plus 1 T Gluten flour)
1 t salt
1/2 c toasted nuts, chopped

Let rise once, then form 2 loaves, let it rise again, and bake for approx 1 hour at 350F.

Makes a good breakfast toast.

Antibiotics in Factory Farmed Animals

2010-03-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

Why eat less meat?

There's a bumper sticker I see around occasionally, which reads

PETA People for the Eating of Tasty Animals

(For my German relatives, let me spell out that PETA originally stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which is the most vocal Animal Rights Advocacy group in the US.)

Besides Animal Rights issues (and despite how tasty meat can be), there are good reasons to eat less of them, and to me one of the main argument is that it's wasteful to raise meat -- both in the sense that productive land that could be used to raise vegetables, but also that it's inefficient to grow grains and corn for the purpose of feeding to livestock... But there is further trouble!

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that in the United States, 70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.

More antibiotics are fed to livestock in North Carolina alone than are given to humans in the entire United States, according to the peer-reviewed Medical Clinics of North America. It concluded that antibiotics in livestock feed were “a major component” in the rise of antibiotic resistance.

Kristof concludes his piece quoting a former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Dr. Martin J. Blaser, as agreeing that agricultural use of antibiotics produces cheaper meat. But he says the price may be an enormous toll in human health.

“You could have very lethal pandemics,” he said. “We’re brewing some perfect storms.”

Rye Bread revisited

2010-02-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

It was snowing like crazy yesterday -- perfect day to bake!

My sourdough Rye Bread is getting better and better, and I'm continuing to tweak the recipe. This picture shows a hearty loaf that I think even my German relatives in the "Old Country" would approve.

I've tried it both with retarding the dough overnight in the frig, and without. Both produce good results, with retarding bringing out more of the sourdough flavor.
I also made these as dinner rolls recently to serve with Bouillabaise -- very tasty, and easy to freeze the left-over rolls for another snowy winter-soup day...

Gudrun's Rye Bread
1 T active yeast, dissolved in 1 c warm water
2T molasses (approx. 40 g)
1 c rye starter (150g) --mine is fairly liquid
optional: altus (old rye bread, soaked & drained through a sieve)
1 c dark rye flour
3 c+ white flour (350 g) -I used Montana White Whole Wheat, which has 15% gluten content
optional: 1-T additional gluten
1 t salt
Optional flavors: caraway seed, fennel seeds (crushed or ground), minced onion, flax seeds (soaked overnight), sunflower seeds, raisins; and if desired to achieve darker color, instant coffee or cocoa.

Total weight of ingredients:
First 3 items "mostly liquids" were 400 g before adding flour to make sponge
Final loaf weighed 800 g

9am: Started w/ sponge (after having given the starter a fresh feeding).
9:30am: added althus, all the flour, ground fennel seed and salt, and started kneading.
9:45am: Let rise in warm oven (woodstove is cold because a certain teenager got behind on her firewood duties -ahem!)

11am: Punched down, kneaded (actually stretch and fold), and let rise again.
noon-ish: Punched down, kneaded and formed loaves. Let rise again.
Preheated the oven to 375 w/ pizzastone -- it needs to be thoroghly heated for good crust.

1:20pm Boiled water and placed in pan at bottom of oven.
1:25pm Transferred bread onto pizzastone.
1:35pm Removed pan of water. Reduced temp to 350 F.
2pm Bread is done.

I'm afraid that my rye sourdough today may not have been aged very much -- I had accidentally used up all of Gudrun last time I baked, so a couple of days ago (2?), I took some Pedro sourdough starter (who only eats white flour), and started daily feedings w/ rye and water, and in my oh-so-casual way, I didn't measure anything! The fact that my recipe contains yeast as well was probably its saving grace!

But seriously, although my casual approach to sourdough feeding seems to work fine, below is a more serious approach by HarryGermany from www.thefreshloaf.com discussion board (link here), where he makes a large quantity of a much thicker ("porridge-consistency") sourdough initially.

Feed your starter with 100 g rye flour and 100 g warm water (approx. 1/2 c each). Stir and keep in a warm place for 24 hours, covered. Repeat for 3 more days, so on the 4th you have about 800g. Save 100 g in frig (feeding weekly w/ 1 T rye flour and water). About 3 days before baking next loaf, take starter out of the frig and feed & build as above.

Harry says: "Rye flour needs acid to be ready for baking. The sourdough has the acid. For a bread with rye flour turn 30-50% of the rye flour sour in a sourdough. A wheat-rye bread 30%, a pure rye bread 50%." (Translation: if you're making pure rye bread, then 50% of the rye should be soured in the sourdough process, whereas for a wheat-rye bread (such as my Gudrun), only 30% needs souring.

Harry's rye-wheat bread 2 loaves of ca 850 g each; hydration 73%
============

Ingredients:
700 g rye-sourdough (made from wholemeal)
400 g rye flour
400 g all-purpose wheat flour
450 g water
25 g salt
1 pouch (7 g) dry yeast or 21 g fresh yeast
(The recipe also works without any added yeast, but the yeast makes it success proof and quickens the prove.)
---------------------

* Mix all ingredients (rye-sourdough, rye flour, all-purpose wheat flour, water with solved yeast, salt) and knead well (by mixer ca 7 minutes, by hand longer).

* Let the dough rest 20 minutes. (cover and keep warm)

* Knead short by hand. Let the dough rest 5 minutes.

* Shape two loaves, give them surface tension and place them in floured dough rising baskets. Cover with a cloth.
Let the loaves rise in a warm place until volume has doubled. This might require 60-90 minutes (with yeast) or up to 5 hours (no yeast).

* Very carefully place the loaves on a baking sheet with baking paper.

* Start baking with 480°F for 15 minutes. Steam once within the first 3 minutes.
(To steam, use a fresh flower spray, spray hot water against the hot inner walls of the oven. Don't hit the electric lamp!)

* Turn down the heat to 400°F and finish baking in another 50 minutes.

Bread w/ sprouted grain: Round 2

2010-02-25T08:23:00.000-08:00

I broke down and bought a kitchen scale!
Can you believe it?
It's a cheap scale (not electronic) and I doubt that I will start weighing everything -- but for baking, at least, I want to get a better handle on the ingredients, so I'm turning into more of a German/scientist (your pick!) and am starting to actually weigh my ingredients...

SO, let's start with the sprouting: I used hard (winter) red wheat berries.
1 c berries (before sprouting) = 250 g
yield after 4-5 days was 3 c sprouted wheat (white tails, roughly the length of berries) = 400 g

I did not dry these, but that's what's needed in order to grind them if using a grain mill.
Instead, I took the sprouts and used my food processor, combining with 1 c sourdough.

I dissolved 1 t active yeast in 1 c water and 1 T sugar/honey, then added 1 c flour (King Arthur whole wheat, 150g) to form a sponge, waiting for 15-30 min for it to get nice and "bubbly". Then I added the food-processed sprout-sourdough mash (the 400g sprouts plus 1 c sourdough).

Now it's time for the rest of the flour (don't forget the 1 t salt -- best to add at the very end).
It took another 2.5 c of flour until I had a kneaded dough, still slightly sticky, but workable. And since I have a handy scale now, I can tell you that the final weight of my dough was 1340 g.

Rise until doubled, twice, then bake at 350 for about 45 min. May need longer -- internal temperature of loaf should read 200F.

Makes a nice moist bread, not too heavy. I'm guessing this to be around 1/3 sprouted, but to calculate that accurately, the sprouted grain should have been dried first. Stay tuned for another post on the subject.

Bread Pudding

2010-02-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

Experimenting with baking lots of different bread recipes means:
(a) got lots of bread around,
(b) there are some experiments that end up with "less than perfect" results (over-risen, under-done, etc).

Bread pudding to the rescue!
Our family's favorite is from The Silver Palate by Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins, and it's shining glory is the rich Butter-Whiskey Sauce drizzled over it!

Bread Pudding
1 loaf bread (calls for French, but use any that's compatible), cut into pieces
1 qt milk
3 eggs
1.5 c granulated sugar (I use alot less, maybe 1/2!) -- there's plenty of sugar in the sauce!
2 t vanilla extract
1 c raisins

Soak the bread in milk for 1 hr. Mix eggs and sugar, add to bread mixture w/ remaining ingredients, and pour into pan (use spray or butter). Bake at 350 F for 1hr until browned and set. Serve with:
Butter-Whiskey Sauce
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1 c confectioner's sugar
optional: 1 egg
4 T Whiskey (to taste)

Melt butter and sugar in top of double boiler, stirring until hot and well mixed. If desired, whisk in beaten egg. Let cool slightly, then stir in the whiskey.

From Mark Bittman's Food Matters, here is another (tamer) recipe:
Breakfast Bread Pudding
2 eggs
1 c milk
1/4 c honey
1 t cinnamon
pinch salt
4 apples, (peeling optional), cut into chunks or slices
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts
8 slices of multi-grain bread, cubed (approx 3 cups)

Mix it all up, and let sit at least 15 min to let liquids soak into bread. (OK to make ahead: cover and store in frig overnight). Bake 45 min at 350F until golden.

Savory Bread Pudding
2 eggs
1 c milk
8 slices of multi-grain bread, cubed (approx 3 cups)
4-5 c lightly cooked vegetables (asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, etc)
Optional: herbs & grated hard cheese, such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
salt & pepper to taste

Bake 30-40 min.
Menu choice: Comfort food for a winter meal: goes well with a soup, salad & maybe a baked squash or other roasted root veggies.

Help for the Cabbage-inundated

2010-02-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

HELP!!! There are 2 heads of cabbage in my frig, and a third one will invariably arrive in our CSA box this Wednesday. When my daughter, Eldest, signed up for the CSA she confessed to me "Mom, I'm scared of all the cabbage -- what am I going to do with it?!"
Take heart, my child.
This is a clearly a case of "Too much cabbage and not enough inspiration".

As far as vegetables go, cabbage is actually fairly bland, so it takes well to different flavors and cuisines. Before I start with the more unusual stuff, here are a few standards:

Coleslaw -doesn't have to be boring! try some unusual ingredients; for example, blue cheese and cranberries can transform a boring coleslaw to something interesting!
Bubble & Squeak - one of my family's favorites: mix leftover mashed potatoes with cabbage and fry them up like pancakes.
Stir-fry -I like to use ginger and orange in the sauce.
stuffed cabbage rolls -with mixture of rice and ground beef
Cabbage Soup - esp. the traditional Russian "Schi"

We've invented a new dinner entree at our house, and in our eccentric family-manner, we've given it a catchy name! Why? No particular reason, other than that it rhymes, and perhaps the fact that son is currently studying WWII in History!
Inspiration for this invention goes to Glacier Grist #52. Pasta with cabbage and toasted walnuts, was my starting point: This recipe can truly be touted as "healthy, healthy, healthy" because it has loads more vegetables than pasta.

Mussolini Linguini
small amount of pasta (maybe half of what you'd normally serve your family) -- I use about 1/2 pound of whole wheat spaghetti, linguini or fettucini
1 small head of cabbage (or 1/2 large head), shredded
optional: carrots, julienned
olive oil
onion, sliced
garlic, minced
Salt, pepper, optional: herbs such as basil, oregano
freshly grated parmesan and/or Pecorino Romano
optional for meat-lovers: ham or fried sausage
vegetarians may want to add freshly roasted pine nuts, for added protein.

Boil the pasta. Meanwhile, saute the onion in olive oil. Add garlic & cook briefly (we do like it garlicky!). Add cabbage and cook until starting to get translucent (add water if you need to, but only in small amounts). Mix pasta into the cabbage, add flavors, cheese, and optional nuts or meat (In which case our family calls this dish "Benito Mussolini"...)
I served this with a medley of roasted root vegetables: beets, celery roots, carrots.
I must say, it was surprisingly good, and even the teens ate it!

Here's an intreaguing recipe from Kuchenlatein, a German site I recently discovered:
Cabbage with Orange and Whiskey sauce.
Ulrike sautees the cabbage with butter, maple syrup, whiskey and grated orange peel. For quantities, go to the above blogpost (in German), which is easy to figure out if you know that Essl means tablespoon, and Teel means teaspoon (figuring that my only curious reader is a certain daughter afraid of cabbage, who does know more German than she thinks!).
here it is in english:
Brussels sprouts or cabbage, thinly sliced, braised in
1 T butter
1 T maple syrup
1 T whiskey
1 t grated orange
salt & pepper to taste

Next, a french recipe for
Gratin au Chou, or Cabbage Gratin w/ Bechamel Sauce
go here for recipe
This is baked like a casserole, and again, meat-lovers may add a wee bit of ham or sausage.

As you can tell from the frequent mention of meat, my "boys" do better with their cabbage if I disguise it with a little meat...

Sausage, Beer and cabbage
I've prepared this recipe often using sauerkraut (and then I cook it with apples!), but it can also be made with fresh cabbage.

2 T butter
1+ large onion, sliced into long section
1 T brown sugar
1 head cabbage, shredded, or cut into thick wedges
1 bottle beer
1 lb smoked kielbasa, cut into pieces
small red red potatoes, quartered
salt & pepper to taste
optional: caraway seed

Sautee onions in butter, add sugar and cabbage wedges to brown. Add sausage, potatoes and beer. Cover and simmer until potatoes are done. If too much liquid remains, drain or reduce by turning up heat (remove veggies first if fully cooked). Serve w/ mustard and hearty bread.

This recipe lends itself well to crockpot cooking, as long as it's not a super long day....

Introducting Gudrun: a Sourdough Rye Bread

2010-02-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

I'm in search of a rye bread recipe that uses sourdough, and is somewhat "Foolproof" for somebody like me who does not weigh ingredients -- in fact, I don't own a scale at all. I'm rather the "pinch of this and that" cook, but realize that in baking, the chemistry of the ingredients matters, which is why professional bakers use percentages in their recipes -duh!

Further, I am torn between wanting to bake bread in the German style (which tend to be rather solid), and bread that appeals to my American family -- i.e. "fluffier", or at least not so dense!

Here are some rye breads I found on blogs:
Caraway-Molasses Rye by Ananda on The Fresh Loaf.
Here is a Jewish Pumpernickel from dmsnyder on the Fresh Loaf, adapted from Secrets of a Jewish Baker, by George Greenstein, which is described as " moist and chewy. It is not the dry, dense German-style pumpernickel. "

Gudrun's Bread
1 T active yeast, dissolved in 1 c warm water
1 T molasses
1 c rye starter
optional: altus (old rye bread, soaked and "wrung out")
1 c dark rye flour
3 c+ white flour -I used King Arthur all-purpose, which has good gluten content
optional: 1-T additional gluten
1 t salt
Optional flavors: caraway seed, minced onion, flax seeds (soaked overnight), sunflower seeds, raisins; and if desired to achieve darker color, instant coffee or cocoa.

To get a rye stater, I took my white flour sourdough starter (Pedro), and fed it twice with rye instead of white flour. I named my new starter Gudrun. Why Gudrun? Here's a brief summary of Norse mythology from Wikipedia:

Gudrun fell in love with Sigurd, who did not care for her, because he was in love with the valkyrie Brynhild (Brünnhilde), to whom he gave the ring Andravinaut. Gudrun's brother Gunnar, however, wished to marry Brynhild, but this was impossible because Brynhild, knowing that only Sigurd could do so, had sworn to marry only the man who could defeat her in a fair fight...
Gudrun's mother Grimhild, who is called Ute in the Nibelungenlied, gave her a potion to make Sigurd forget his love for Brynhild. Gunnar allowed Sigurd to marry Gudrun under the condition, that Sigurd would win Brynhild for him. Sigurd succeeded in doing so; taking the shape of Gunnar, he took the ring Andravinaut from Brynhild and gave it to Gudrun as his morning gift. Both queens, Gudrun and Brynhild, were married on the same day.

Photo credit: http://www.neuschwanstein.de

Now on to the baking of the bread, which is nearly as exciting as a battle in the Nibelungen saga -- will Gudrun succeed?

I did make a sponge first, let it sit about 1/2 hr, then added rest of ingredients. When dough started getting hard to stir, I turned it onto a floured surface and finish kneading (dough is definitely "stiffer" than my other breads). NOTE: this stiffer rye dough is supposedly a good candidate for mixing by machine.
Then I let it rise, kneaded, and retarded by setting dough in frig overnight.
Next day, I kneaded and let it rise again, using a springform pan for a "backform" or baking form (Alternatively, divide dough and use 2 loafpans). Took it out at 6am, baked at noon.

Right before I'm ready to bake this bread on my pizzastone (oven preheated, 375 or 400F) with steam pan ready, I poked several deep holes into the dough with a skewer, to allow air to escape (this is traditional for rye breads). Bake 30-45 min, until bottom tapped sounds hollow.

Bread was a bit on the dense side! Next time, I plan to try this without the retarding step -- I think it did slow the process down too much, and probably should have allowed more than the 6 hrs for the rising of the cold dough.

I'll post pictures soon...

Gardening on my mind

2010-02-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

The raised garden beds are under 16" of snow. But gardening is on my mind as the days get longer. It won't be long now... until I start itching to start vegetables indoors, from seed -- and invariably many of them fail!
I don't have the best success starting plants indoors (no grow lights or heating mats), but I try a few every year, nonetheless. Sometime between Mother's Day and Memorial Day, I end up at the big commercial Greenhouse down the road and buy bedding plants, by then having realized that the sad little plants on my window sill will not amount to much in our short growing season...
Another thing I need to remember is not to start planting outdoors too early: many plants should not go out until June, which seems sooooo late. Instead, REMINDER: check the soil temperature!!! I'll probably be experimenting this coming spring with covering my raised beds w/ plastic overnight to help prevent the soil from radiatively cooling overnight.
Last year I planted my red potatoes somewhere around May 20th, and they just sat there doing absolutely nothing. I replanted in early June with fingerling seed potatoes, and then sometime later in June they both started putting down roots and leafing out. By then, the weeds were established very nicely, thank you!

Before snowfall, many moons ago, I found myself debating covering the beds up with plastic to keep them somewhat more weed-free (ha!), and decided on a couple of different treatments: I covered the potato bed with plastic, and tried another with newspapers weighed down by rocks, while the remainder was left uncovered --those will melt out first and I want to try making them into coldframes by covering them with clear plastic in the spring. It sure would be nice to have a greenhouse someday!

Been doing a bit of reading about what to seed directly into the garden. Here in Alaska, the traditional ones include kale, carrots, lettuces, peas, snap peas, beets, spinach, beans and potatoes.

Last summer I successfully grew leeks from starter plants I found at P&M greenhouse -- I do want to grow leeks again (as I've admitted on this blog before: I adore leeks!), perhaps even from seed? Here's a article by Jeff Lowenfels for how to start leeks. He writes that some of his readers

"are complaining that I encouraged them to plant leeks early and now the plants are not only spindly and flopping over but the tips are browning. If you grow leeks from seed, both of these are common occurrences. The solution to correct both symptoms, as well as preventing both, is to cut off an inch or two of the tips with sharp scissors. This will not affect the bulb part of the plant nor the bottom stem of the leek, and these are what you eat when you harvest leeks. "

Too bad that the gardening column is no longer found in our ever-shrinking daily newspaper -- instead we have to go to the web for that local knowledge -- see the sidebar on my blog for Gardening in Alaska (TALK DIRT TO ME), which is on the Anchorage Daily News website.

Menu for mid-Feb

2010-02-16T07:30:00.001-08:00

CSA boxes are full of good winter crops.
Last Wed: Alaskan onions, potatoes, carrots. From Outside: certified organic Fancy Fuji apples | certified organic large navel oranges | ~~certified organic kumquats~~ | certified organic romaine lettuce | certified organic Rainbow chard | certified organic sunchokes | certified organic broccoli, butternut squash.
This Wed: Alaskan beets, red or yellow onions , celery root, cabbage. From Outside: certified organic Asian pears | certified organic pummelo | certified organic Murcott mandarins | certified organic butter lettuce | certified organic green kale | certified organic living pea shoots | certified organic garlic.

When the boxes first arrive, we use the greens first -- so last week that meant a stir-fry and cajun greens (I actually bought extra greens at the grocery store)! And the fruit gets attacked as part of snacks and lunches, esp. by my youngest, the fruit-bat.

Sat: Cajun Flanks and Greens
Sun: Gumbo w/ jumbo prawns, roasted potatoes & Brussels sprouts, green salad
Mon: Grilled fish, roasted sunchokes and yams, rice, salad
Tues: squash soup, Bubble and Squeak, salad
Wed: Thai Soup w/ salmon, Thai noodles w/ pea shoots, carrots, etc
Thurs: Musselini Linguine (*), Roasted medley of root veggies: celery root, beets, carrots
Fri: eat out: pizza?

I also had to look up pummelo: it's a large citrus, ancestor of the grapefruit, and also called a pamplemousse, pomelo, Bali lemon, Limau besar, and shaddock. My little fruitbat should be happy!

Sprouting barley...

2010-02-15T14:32:00.001-08:00

No, I'm not getting into beer or whiskey-making, but I did start sprouting some barley a few days ago, and plan to make sourdough bread with it.
I did try this once a while back, but I did not grind the sprouted barley, resulting in a loaf of bread with some rather hard chewy nuggets that could potentially have dislodged a small child's loose tooth!
Soooo -- this time I'm planning to grind up the sprouted grains BEFORE adding them to the dough!

Two days ago I started soaking 1 c of barley, expecting it to take several days until it's ready
Today there are definite white tails on the barley, and since I'm itching to try this recipe, I'm going ahead (but it probably could have gone on sprouting into a third day).

I found a recipe for a modified "Essene" or sprouted spelt grain bread, and here's what it recommends for sprouting:

Sprouting the Grain
Soak the spelt grain for 12 hours in two litres of water. Drain off the water, rinse, pour off the water, then lay the jar on its side so that the water can drain out. Rinse 2 - 3 times per day for 1 - 3 days. The weather will determine how long you sprout and how often you need to rinse. You need to make sure that the sprouts do not dry out and that they do not grow bacteria or mould. The sprouts are ready when the rootlets are about 1-2 mm long. If you sprout the grain for too long then they may become woody.

PS: I've read elsewhere that you want to keep them in the dark once sprouting -- does anybody know if that's true for all species, or only wheat?!?!

Meanwhile, the search is on for a recipe.

Besides the Essene bread from above (which calls for 2 c grain sprouted, 2 c flour, 1/2 c sourdough, 2 T coconut oil, salt and water), I also found this very promising recipe on a blog called Cook.Eat.Think. for making sprouted grain bread in a breadmachine-- judging from the picture and recipe, this looks pretty perfect! And it turns out, this is Denise, who's Mom in Madison blog I've been following after I discovered her thru Mountainpulse! I sure am excited to read more of Denise's cooking blog...

I do want to add sourdough to the recipe, however, so I'm making modifications. Also, since I've lately done a lot better with bread-baking by hand (without using my Kitchenaide), I plan to make a sponge, knead by hand, and make it an old-fashioned 2-day event.

So here's my game plan for

Sourdough sprouted grain bread

1 c grains to sprout (this time it's barley, but could use a mix of many other grains*)

1 tsp active yeast dissolved in 1 c warm milk

1 c sourdough starter, freshly fed

approx 3 c whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur, but occasionally I get freshly ground Montana wheat from the Natural Pantry -yummy!) Optional, add 1-2 T of gluten -- to help it rise.

1-2 Tbsp sweetener (sugar, honey, molasses, or malt syrup)
2+ Tbsp oil or butter (I wonder why so many sprouted grain recipes call for coconut oil???)
1-2 tsp salt

Gameplan:

Place the freshly fed sourdough into a big bowl and let it rise in a warm place for several hours, until it's good and bubbly.

Dissolve yeast in warm milk, feed with about 1/2 c flour and let it sit and form a sponge before adding to the sourdough.

Drain as much water from sprouted grains as possible, then chop them up in a food processor (if need a liquid, add some of the sourdough). Add this and the remaining ingredients to the sponge, stirring with spoon until no longer feasible, then transfer to counter and knead. It will be sticky -- keep adding flour until it stays together and "behaves".

Give it 2 risings, with an optional "retard" (place in frig overnight, covered w/ plastic film). Next day, take the dough out and let it come to room temperature.

Punch and knead, form into loaves, and let rise until double.
Bake at 375 for 45 min or so.

Notes from today:
I used 1 T molasses, melted 2 T butter, and did not use any additional gluten (and it did not seem to need it, either). I did not start with very warm milk, so the yeast did not get a roaring start, which I think is probably a good thing -- don't want to over-rise this bread! The food-processor still left some good-sized pieces of sprouted barley-- let's see if it bothers the the bread-eating masses (I may need to grind it better next time, using a spatula to get everything and processing it again and again!)

I did not do the "retard". I started making the sponge at 2pm, let it rise twice, then formed loaves around 5:30pm. Baked it at 6:30 (with steam in first 10 minutes), and was done around 7:15pm.
We ate some for dessert, not being able to wait until breakfast -- it looked so good (at first I did not want to cut into it -- you're supposed to wait -- but they charmed me with compliments like "Mom, you make the best bread in Eagle River valley, Please, can we have some?", so I gave in!)
It tasted really good, but alas, the grains were not ground up enough -- and every other bite we found ourselves chewing down on one of those kernels! GOTTA GRIND IT BETTER!!!
Now my husband tells me he still has his grain grinder from his beer-making days -- what wonderful news! I wonder how long he was going to hold out before telling the best bread-baker in Eagle River Valley!!!

Sourdough Potato Bread

2010-02-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

Potatoes are a great addition to bread-baking, and I happen to have some left-over mashed potatoes in my frig.

I want to make up my own recipe, preferably with a sourdough component.
So, let's see where the thought-process and experimentation leads!

I could start with the absolute basic bread recipe: 3 cups flour, 1 + a little cups of water, 2 teaspoons yeast, 2 teaspoons salt. Replacing between 10 and 30 percent of the flour with mashed potatoes should make a nice, moist loaf of potato bread.
One has to be careful, though: potatoes are considerably lower in gluten than wheat, so adding too much potato may result in a dense, moist loaf that resembles mashed potatoes more than actual bread! I've read that 1/2 cup potatoes to around 3 cups flour is about right.

What else could I add? Some fat is nice, and it makes the bread last longer too. Butter, oil or even sour cream is good. For flavor and an extra kick, I think I may add some roasted garlic and/or bacon bits too! And if my chives weren't under 2 ft of snow, I'd snip some and add them as well.

Last, I want to add my sourdough starter, Pedro. Probably should reduce the yeast , and allow for a slower rising process.

So here it is:
Potato Sourdough Bread
1 c sourdough starter, fed w/in last 12 hours
1 t active yeast, dissolved in
1/4 c warm water
optional: 1 t sugar
3 c flour, approx.
2 t salt
1/2 c mashed potatoes (skin, salt pepper, butter, etc are all fine)
1 T butter, oil or bacon fat
optional Flavors: bacon, chopped into bits
roasted garlic, mashed
chives or other fresh herbs, chopped

place sourdough starter in large bowl, add about 1/2 c flour and stir.
Meanwhile, dissolve yeast in warm water, add sugar, and when foaming, add to sourdough mix and stir. If mashed potatoes are cold, warm them up before adding to bowl. Stir in salt, optional flavors, fat and flour, 1/2 c at a time, until cannot stir anymore, then transfer to counter and knead dough until "feels right" -- this will be stickier than regular bread, so don't overdo it!
Note: I made a double batch and had a little less than 1 c flour left over.

Let dough rest and double (takes approx 1-2 hours).
Punch down and knead again (but gently) -- best to pull and fold rather than hard kneading.
Let rise again until double (at this point, could place in frig to "retard" and continue next day).

Punch, knead, and place in loafpan (or free-form) to rise.
Bake at 400F for approx 1/2 hr -- adding steam in first 10 minutes will make for crunchier crust!

Note from testing-round 1: this bread got rave reviews -- it rose quite well and fast (I did not retard dough in frig), and can probably be made with less or no yeast, and/or more potatoes...

photo credit: http://www.freefoto.com

Dreaming of Bretzels and Bagels...

2010-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

Now that I've got sourdough-baking more or less down to a reliable loaf of bread, I'm ready to embark on that combination of boiling and baking that produces pretzel (Bretzel in German) and bagels.

Here are some great recipes I'm looking forward to trying sometime soon (and yes, they do use sourdough starter!):

1) recipe for an authentic German Bretzel on the blog Confections of a Master Baker,
2) Jewish Pumpernickel Bagel from the blog A Fresh Loaf.

Last, but not least, I just learned that the German "Dinkelbrot" translates to Spelt bread!
Here's an American recipe for German Dinkelbrot from A Fresh Loaf.

SLOW sourdough bread-baking

2010-02-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

We're eating our first loaf of retarded bread (a.k.a. Two-day-bread) -- it did turn out good!
Definitely more sour than without the retarding. Retarding is the way to go if you like your bread authentically sour!

Here's what I did:
Day 1: started sourdough bread (recipe here) and gave it its first rising.
Given that this recipe had no added yeast, and that the house was not nearly as warm as on Sunday morning with a nice fire going in the woodstove, this first rising took a couple of hours.
I punched it down, kneaded a bit more, wrapped it in plastic, and placed dough in the frig to "retard" for the night.

Day 2:
Took dough out of the frig mid-morning. It took many hours to warm up and start rising again -- something like 4-5 hrs. Again, no woodstove blazing, just a relatively cool kitchen while we were all at work/school.
In the afternoon, I punched it down (still felt cool!), shaped it into 2 loaves, and set on the stove to rise. Again, this took longer than I anticipated, and I did not get this bread baked until after dinner. Still, it was yummy!

Lessons learned: this is SLOW bread, not much work, but got to think ahead!
Next time, I should take dough out of frig first thing in the morning (before the High Schooler's run to the bus stop!) if I want to serve bread with dinner! At least in ALASKA during February....

NOTE: This was a white bread loaf, so I suspect it might be even slower for a mixed grain loaf.

More sourdough baking... with Pedro!

2010-02-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

Pedro is the name I gave to my sourdough starter -- it seems to be the "rage" nowadays to give a name to that bubbling live thing on your counter (my daughter, Kitchensister, has named hers "Stinky Pete"). In my blog-reading, I've come across names like Herman, Virgil, Ed; and my first starter (see last blog) was named Jedediah.
Now I can say things like "I need to feed Pedro", or "I've got Pedro rising behind the woodstove, so no, I cannot run down to Blockbuster"...
After all, a sourdough starter is a alive, and thus a member of the household, and to survive, it needs care just like a baby or pet...
Why Pedro? Well, I thought it was a good name for an Alaskan Sourdough starter, since the "Sourdough miner" who first discovered gold in Fairbanks (which was our first Alaskan home, and where I first started seriously baking bread weekly) was an Italian immigrant named Felix Pedro --more about him and Fairbanks Gold Rush history here.

So here's the recipe for my own version of an everyday mixed grain bread:
Pedro's Peasant Bread
1 c sourdough starter (fed within the last 12 hrs)
1 c warm water
1-3 t yeast (I'm still experimenting -- may not need much yeast at all!)
1/2 c white flour
1-2 t sugar
1 T oil
1-2 t salt
1 T + flaxseed, ground
1 c whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur organic WW)
1 c rye flour (I use Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye)
approx 1 c+ unbleached white flour -- as needed

Set sourdough aside. Mix warm water, yeast, flour and sugar in a large bowl, and let it sit for a while (minimu 5-10 minutes) to form a bubbly "sponge". Then add the sourdough starter (my Pedro lives in a mason jar that has volumetric measurements on the side, so I just pour out what I need, and then give the remaining Pedro its daily feeding of equal amounts of water and flour).
Stir the remaining ingredients into the sponge, 1/2 c at a time, until stirring gets hard and the dough starts pulling together and off the sides of the bowl.
Transfer the dough onto your counter into a pile of flour, and start kneading.
Knead (adding flour as needed) until the dough feels right: smooth, not too sticky (although rye does make for a more sticky dough than wheat), and "smooth as a baby's bottom".
Note: I've read that you're supposed to knead first without salt, let it sit 20 min, then knead in the salt -- this influences the gluten chemistry. But I also have to admit that it works fine to throw the salt right in near the end of the flour additions -- I tend to forget the salt otherwise...

Place the dough ball in clean, oiled bowl, and let it rise in a warm place, covered, for approx 1 hour, until doubled in bulk. Punch down and knead.
Variation at this point: go for a second rise, or else "retard" the dough (covered w/ plastic, but with room to expand) by placing it in the frig.
I've done a bit of research on this topic on the web, plus talked to a friend who baked professionally. Professional bakers use a "retarder" for sourdough breads -- the dough is cooled down in the frig or special "retarder box" for somewhere between 6-18 hrs, slowing down the yeast into something close to hibernation while letting the bacteria do their magic, S-L-O-W-L-Y, which is said to improve the flavor, esp. if you like more sourness.
I personally am not looking for much extra sourness, but I can see advantages in timing, such as mixing and rising on the first day, then pulling the dough from the frig, finish rising and baking the next day... Retarding can be done either in the early stage (after 1st rising), or at the last stage with shaped loaves (but that takes up more space in the frig)...

Final rise (after shaping): I either use a greased loaf pan (easiest), or do a free-form loaf, or a use a form: Sprinkle cornmeal on a cookie sheet, and place bread inside a bottomless baking form (I use my smallest springform pan (without the bottom) -- the form's shape can be round or square. Let it rise again, covered. Optional: with a sharp knife, make some slashes into the top of loaf right before baking.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 (or 425) F with pizza stone on the top rack. On the bottom rack place an empty pan. 5-10 minutes before the bread hits the oven, carefully (wear gloves) pour some hot water into that bottom pan and close the oven -- that's to give the oven a good shot of steam, which helps form a nice crust. Some websites suggest filling this pan with lava rocks. Can also add extra steam by spritzing the oven w/ a spray bottle.

Using a your best transferring skills from pizza baking (better yet, use a baker's peel -- I'm lucky to have received a Superpeel from my daughter for Christmas), transfer the loaf (including the form, if using one) onto the pizza stone. Work quickly and carefully, because you don't want to loose all that steam!
After 10 minutes, remove the water pan, if there's still water left in it. Also turn heat down to 375 F. Basically you need to finish dry-baking the bread, rather than steaming it the whole baking time, in order to get that nice color and crust! This takes about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf/loaves.

Result from today: Was in a hurry, wanting to bake bread before needing to go to work. Used a full T of yeast, sugar, and forgot the salt. Result was very fast rising (last one doubled in bulk in 1/2 hr, which was definitely too fast) , but bread still turned out quite good.
Next time: Try less yeast, also, try retarding overnight.

More hints for sourdough baking can be found at:
http://sourdough.com
http://sourdoughhome.com
http://www.foodreference.com/html/sourdough-bread-729.html

Sourdough

2010-01-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

"Sourdough" is a nickname for old-timer Alaskans (especially miners), because in the Gold Rush days, the only way to get bread or pancake to rise without the use of Baker's yeast or eggs was, of course, by using a sourdough starter.

In Alaska lore, one earned the title "Sourdough" after having lived thru at least one winter, whereas the newcomer who has not seen a full winter yet is called a "Cheechako".

"Sourdough" by Fred Machetanz, Alaskan painter (1908-2002)
Photo credit: http://americangallery.files.wordpress.com

When the Prof and I got married, one of the most unusual gifts we received was a live culture of "Jedadiah's Sourdough Starter" together with a recipe book and a beautifully handcrafted bread bowl. Alas, Jedediah did not survive the trip to Alaska -- the bowl, however, did!

Sourdough is a live culture of bacteria, and the lactic acid produced by these bacteria causes the "sourness". According to Wikipedia, sourdough starters are actually stable symbiotic culture of bacteria and the yeasts Candida milleri or Saccharomyces exiguus, which usually populate sourdough cultures symbiotically with Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.
Look back at the species name of the last critter: now that's a cool scientific name, named after another Gold Rush city famed for it's sourdough! These sourdough cultures later made it North in the Alaska Goldrush, up the Yukon, to the Klondike and Nome! And my kitchen...

Eldest (a.k.a. Kitchensister) made her own from scratch earlier this year: mix equal quantities of water and unbleached flour, keeping it in a warm place, loosely covered. Some recipes call for the use of potato water, a teeny bit of sugar, and sometimes even the skin from grapes, as they have some good bacteria & yeasts on them (the important critters for populating the starter come mostly from the grain outer shell, not so much the air in your kitchen).

Whether your sourdough comes from a friend, a freeze-dried culture bought at the supermarket (available in the tourist section of many Alaska stores), or you started your own from "scratch", the most important thing is to keep feeding it.
Every day (occasionally I'm forgetful and skip a day), I feed my sourdough by adding some water and flour, and stirring it: it keeps that culture of critters alive and multiplying. (Otherwise you end up with more dead than alive, it gets more and more sour, and can even start turning nasty colors on the container's sides -- if that happens, don't panic. Just stir it up, spoon out some from the middle into a new clean container, and feed it with fresh water and flour.)
If I know I won't be using my sourdough for a while (vacation, or general laziness), then I put the starter in the frig. There the processes slow down, but I still should feed it every week or so.
Turns out, you can even freeze it, thaw it out later, and start again with feeding it, but it's nearly like starting from scratch (patience!) -- it will take several feedings before your starter starts bubbling again and acting like a sourdough...

There's lots of do's and don'ts surrounding sourdough. Don't use metal is one rule often mentioned. Indeed, a metal container will cause the acidity to react chemically, which you don't want -- so always use glass or ceramic for your starter. But there's also the rule to never use a metal utensil, only wood or plastic. Turns out, using an occasional stainless steel spoon to stir your dough is no big deal -- that's too short of a contact time to be a problem (just don't leave that spoon sitting in the starter).

It's good to cover your starter, but never tightly. The cover needs to be loose to let the air escape -- sourdoughs have been known to explode, esp during transport! If your sourdough needs to travel somewhere, be very careful: keep in a cooler or thermos, and loosen the lid frequently.
Also, don't let sourdough get too hot, or subject it to ultraviolet light -- that kills it!

The first couple of days a newish starter may not have much "umph" to it -- it needs to be babied for a few more days. Feed it every day (toss some if you find your container getting too full), and pretty soon you'll see it bubbling away. Those bubbles are good sign! Even better, mix up a batch of sourdough pancakes, and if you'll know right away if your sourdough starter is up to snuff!

Using sourdough:

Never add anything other than flour and water to your starter.
Before using or feeding, always stir the "hooch" (liquid that separated & floats on top) back in.
If you feel that your sourdough is a bit too sour for your tastes, add some baking soda to the recipe to neutralize (sweeten) it -- but not to your starter!
Keep this in mind for your recipes: salt decreases the yeasties' activity, while sugar increases it.

Sourjacks (a.k.a. Sourdough Pancakes)
from Ruth Allman's Alaska Sourdough recipe book

2 c. starter (room temperature, fed last the day before)
2 T sugar
4 T oil
1 egg
1/2 t salt
1 scant teaspoon baking soda (more if your starter is real sour!)

Mix first 5 ingredients well. Have your griddle hot before proceeding.
Add soda (some dilute w/ water in a jigger first), fold in gently (don't beat!) and very soon you get this chemical reaction that is a joy to behold: the batter fills with bubbles and doubles in bulk. Pour batter on hot griddle. Flip.
Yummy with syrup!

My variation of this recipe (and a few other sources) is to make a few shortcuts, and to make smaller quantities, because I just can't cook them fast enough, and the batter starts going flat before I got them all cooked...

First I make a dry mix that I store in a jar ("Felix"):
2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
2 T salt
2 T baking soda

To make Pancakes, I use a container that holds at least 4 c liquid (beware of expansion!)
1 c starter (room temp, etc)
1 egg (optional, but makes darn good pancakes)
tad of oil (about 1 T)
tad of milk or buttermilk (1-2 T)
1/2 c of my dry mix

Proceed the same as above, with griddle hot and ready before the soda-containing dry mix gets stirred in. This should start expanding immediately if you're sourdough is good & sour!

Sourdough Bread without added yeast

2 c sourdough starter (proofed: freshly fed, bubbly and frothy, called a "sponge")
this may take several hours depending on your starter (if starting with refrigerated starter, this may take 6-8 hrs).
When the sponge is ready, start adding flour and mixing it in 1/2 c at a time --this takes
approximately 3 c unbleached flour (amounts can vary greatly).
Also, as desired, add up to 2 T olive oil, up to 1 T sugar, and 1-2 t salt.

Knead the dough until it feels right (flexible, not too heavy).
Let rise in a warm place, covered with a dishtowel (preferrably a clean one!) until doubled in bulk -- again, this may vary greatly, but will probably take longer than yeast breads you might be used to baking.

Punch down the dough, knead a little more, form loaf, and let rise until nearly doubled in size. Bake at 350F for 30+ minutes. I check mine when it has a nice crust, and thump the bottom and if it sounds good and "hollow", it's ready. Cool on rack, resisting cutting right into it!

I tell ya, it felt like a great achievement when I baked my first loaf of successfully risen sourdough bread without any added yeast!!!

Sourdough Rye Bread
Rye lends itself better to sourdough baking than just plain yeast-- in fact, most Northern Europeans still make their Rye bread with sourdough. And good German "Roggenbrot" is one of the foods I still miss the most from Germany, so, I gotta make my own. I've made rye bread with yeast, but I'm hoping to embark on sourdough rye baking soon!
Searching for a good rye bread recipe, I came across a very interesting story and recipe from a Lithuanian American at Armchair.com.
For a NY Jewish Sourdough Rye recipe (using a special rye sourdough starter, and old rye bread) , go to Recipe Rascal.

Finally, check out this blog dedicated to sourdough baking, Wildyeastblog.com

Soups in Winter

2010-01-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

During the cold months (which some would argue constitutes some 9+ months of the year here in Alaska), I love to have a pot of soup going on the stove and some bread baking in the oven. Soups can also be my "fast" food when I'm too busy to cook a full dinner: just defrost some soup, add salad or sandwich/panini.
I was surveying my freezer today, and I have a bunch of homemade stocks -- everything from fish to beef to chicken/turkey. Plus there are several types of beans, from white to black, from chickpeas to lentils. Now to some soup recipes -- no quantities, as usual -- soups are sooooo easy & perfect for using up left-overs.

First a few that are pretty much just vegetables, and cook up fairly quickly:

Apple-Onion soup
Sauté equal amounts chopped, peeled apples and onions in butter until soft. Add stock or water to cover, then simmer for 10 minutes. Cool and purée. Serve sprinkled with Stilton or other blue cheese.

Mostly-Red Mid-Winter Soup
I sort of "invented" this is one to use up those red chard or beet stems after cooking the greens, with inspiration from Glacier Grist recipes (see GG#52). Basically can make it with any winter vegetables hanging around the frig this time of year (good way to use that cabbage!)
Saute onions, add shredded cabbage, celery, fennel (if you have it), beets and beet stems, carrots. For flavor, it's nice to add garlic, ginger, pepper or paprika. Cover with stock & simmer until vegetables are tender. Blend into smooth paste, correct seasoning (salt, pepper), and serve with dollop of yoghurt or sour cream.

Sweet Potato-Kale Soup
Sauté chopped onion in butter, then chunks of sweet potato and stock or water to cover. Simmer until the sweet potatoes can be pierced with a knife, then add chopped kale and cook until wilted.

Leek-Potato Soup
Saute leek slices in butter, add potatoes and stock or water to cover. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Blend all ingredients, then add salt. pepper, cream and parmesan cheese to taste.

African Peanut Soup
from an old post -- see recipe here.

Legume soups take longer to cook when you start with dried legumes, but a shortcut is to use canned beans or to keep a variety of pre-cooked beans in the freezer. Legumes make good hearty meals with all that protein: I have quite a few soup recipes under legumes here.

NEXT IS FISH. Fish Soups are also very quick and easy to make. When I process salmon, halibut or lincod in the summer, I freeze the smaller pieces in bags labelled "Fish for soup".
Here is a new family favorite:

Bouillabaise
A french soup that can be made with most any firm-fleshed fish. According to tradition, there should be at least five different kinds of fish in a proper bouillabaisse. In Marseille, considered the mecca of bouillabaisse, they use at least seven, not counting the shellfish. There are lots of veggies in this soup,one of the key ones being fennel and zest of an orange!
Saute onions, leeks and fennel in olive oil, add garlic, zest of 1 orange, saffron (optional), thyme and /or tarragon, chile or cayenne pepper. Add fish stock or water, chopped tomatoes (canned ok) , diced red potatoes, carrots or parsnips, and seafood (such as cod, halibut, scallops, shrimp, clams, etc). During the last 5 minutes, add white wine, clam juice and/or lemon juice, plus salt and pepper to taste.
Traditionally served over french bread with Sauce Rouille (see full Bouillabaise and Rouille recipe complete with quantities here)

Cooking up a mess of Cajun greens

2010-01-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

My men LOVED dinner tonight, praising it as the best batch ever made -- so I'm trying to write down what I did: a little bit of this, and a dash of that...
Originally this dish, called simply FLANKS AND GREENS, came from Paul Prudhomme "Fork in the Road" cookbook, which is a whole lot healthier than his earlier works. His recipe calls for Flank Steak, but you can substitute other beef cuts, or probably other meats as well (moose, anyone?). It's very much a dish along the lines of a meal featuring the vegetables with just a small amount of meat for protein and flavor, without the meat being the central attraction.

Prep-work is the name of the game here -- lots of work goes into getting all the ingredients ready, but it cooks up super fast. Sometimes I make a double batch of meat, and freeze it without any greens, then cook it w/ fresh greens after thawing out (which makes it a super fast meal!)

I slice the meat REALLY thinly, against the grain (stir-fry style) , and work the spice mix into the meat before cooking it. I don't use much meat -- one steak feeds the 4 of us easily.
The spice mix:
1 T cumin seeds, whole
1 t each black and white pepper corns
dried mexican pepper, such as chipotle or poblano
1/2 t mustard seeds
--grind all these in a spice grinder.
1 t each garlic and onion powder
1-2 t thyme
1 t Hungarian paprika
1+ t salt (if that's not enough, add more salt at the end when tasting finished product)
Work this spice mix into the meat slices. Set aside.
also need flour for thickening
optional: Tabasco sauce or other hot sauce (I serve this at the table, esp. if I don't make it very spicy on account of whimpier diners, such as daughters and sometimes myself!)

Vegetables
1-2 onions, chopped
2+ cloves garlic, chopped
1 T+ jalapenos, chopped (fresh or canned)
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch red chard or beet greens
1 bunch kale or collard greens
1 bunch spinach
optional: other bitter greens, such as endives, sorrel, dandelion greens

Prepare all veggies ahead of time: wash and remove tough stems of greens. Chop or rip leaves into smaller pieces (don't bother drying the greens in a salad spinner -- you will need that extra moisture when cooking).

Heat oil in pan and saute onions. Add garlic and jalas. Add meat & spice mix. Cook until the meat is no longer pink. Make a roux by adding flour (for thickening) and water as needed.
Once there is a good brown roux, start adding the greens (whatever amount fits, starting with the toughest first, usually kale or collards) and cover with lid, checking occasionally until the greens have cooked down and there's room for the next batch.

Serve over rice. This dish is rich and dark -- not exactly pretty to look at, but tasty and VERY healthy!

picture credit: http://www.motherearthnews.com

Menu for mid-January

2010-01-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we went on a cabin trip, and our meals were simple, yet tasty.
Upon returning, I continued to cook simple meals as we're catching up with life, laundry, etc.
"E-zy" Meals, to me, is defrosting something cooked previously in a more industrious state -- so we ate wholesome tasty food. I LOVE having a freezer full of ready meals!

Wed we finally got some fresh produce when the CSA box arrived, plus I went grocery-shopping, and now the frig is full of fresh ingredients again. (Aside: I used to worry about whether we could get thru the produce in our CSA box during the week before the next one arrived, and now I'm buying extra vegetables!)

Sunday (at cabin): jambalaya w/ carrots and sausage
Monday: Gumbo and crab
Tues: Mexican: burritos w/ black beans & chorizo, grilled veggies & meat.
Wed: Chili and cornbread, green salad
Thurs: Flanks & greens over rice
Fri: Thai fish soup or bouillabaise, Pasta w/ carrots, cabbage & roasted walnuts, salad
Sat: Beet and Carrot soup, Pasta w/ goatcheese, broccoli & smoked salmon, green salad
Sun: Bubble & squeek, roasted turnips, celery roots, potatoes, salad

QUINOA: the Incas "Mother Grain"

2010-01-10T23:56:00.000-08:00

I was asked by friend "what to do with Quinoa?"
She wanted to give it a try as part of a gluten-free diet as a substitute for wheat and other grains: in fact, it has the highest protein content of all "grains" -- and unlike others, it has all 8 essential amino acids, so it is a very wholesome food indeed.

First of all, let's clarify: Quinoa isn't truly a grain (all grains are graminoids or grasses), rather, Quinoa is in the goosefoot family (Chenopodium), and is thus more closely related to spinach, beets and tumbleweed.
So, kids, eat your tumbleweed!!!

Storage: I recently learned you're supposed to refrigerate it, and not store it for months in a cupboard-- that was news to me, but it does make sense that quinoa's proteins would degrade if stored too long.
I don't refrigerate mine (too little room in my frig!), but I do mark the date of purchase so that it does not linger too long...
Washing: Many recipes call for washing/soaking/rinsing quinoa to rid it of its bitter saponins.
This may not strictly be necessary (most quinoa commercially available in the US has the saponins removed already) -- I've never heard my family complain about the taste, but it may be a good idea if you find it has a bitter taste. Soak in warm water for at least 5 minutes, then rinse it, using a fine sieve.
Cooking Proportions: 1.5 to 2 cups liquid for each cup of quinoa.
If you rinse it first, go for 1.5 ratio, esp if using a rice cooker (yes, you can!)
I often heat up stock or broth, then use the 2/1 ratio and cook until all liquid is absorbed.
Uses for Quinoa: replace any recipe that calls for rice or cous-cous.
For breakfast, eat it like oatmeal with honey, nuts and dried fruit.
Make a vegetarian chili by replacing the meat with quinoa.
Use it in brothy soups, such as chicken-vegetable soup, replacing the noodles.
Bake with it: add some cooked quinoa to your favorite bread or muffin recipe.

Quinoa w/ fennel and sun-dried tomatoes
olive oil
onions, chopped
fennel bulb, chopped
celery stalk, chopped
carrots, you guessed it: chopped
sundried tomatoes, cut into smaller pieces (soak in warm water and add w/ veggies, unless packed in oil -- then add at the end w/ olives)
garlic -- finely chopped
1/2 t dried thyme
1 cup quinoa
1.5 cups stock, broth or water
1/2 t salt (unless using a salty broth)
optional: calamata olives
fennel greens, chopped

Saute veggies in olive oil, add spices, add quinoa, stir everything well. Add broth and simmer for about 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Let sit for another 5 minutes or so, then fluff with a fork and add olives and chopped fennel greens before serving.

Quinoa & Fruit Winter Salad
recipe from Eldest -- and may I add is perfect for winter when you're low on fresh vegetables...

cooked quinoa
raisins (or cranberries)
scallions (or red onions)
canned mandarin oranges
orange zest
mint
peanuts (or cashews)
sesame or other delicate, aromatic oil

Yesterday, I made a yummy mexican-style Quinoa bean salad I posted a while back (see here), and here is a whole bunch more quinoa recipes on the website savvyvegetarian.com

Photo credit: http://andescrop

When life gives you lemons (or frozen beer)...

2010-01-06T08:14:00.001-08:00

Over the holidays we put some beer on the porch to cool down before a party -- and promptly forgot about it completely. Result: 3 beer bottles frozen solid!
When life gives you lemons (or frozen beer, in this case), find some recipes that use beer, and cook with it.
First, I made a really good batch of beer bread. I like making bread -- the whole process of kneading the dough, letting it rise, punching it down, etc. To me it's a real treat when I have the kind of relaxed day at home that lets me bake a batch of homemade bread.

Not having a recipe exactly, I just make up my own:
Borealkitchen's Beer Bread
1 bottle of beer (I used an IPA)
2-3 t dry yeast
tiny bit of sugar (just a dash)
unbleached white flour
salt
rye flour
whole wheat
optional: 1 t caraway seed, crushed

Heat beer (approx 1.5-2 cups) in the microwave- warm but not hot to the touch. Doesn't matter if it's previously frozen or gone flat because you forgot all about a beer you poured yourself the night before. If I didn't have enough beer, I would just add water.
Stir yeast and sugar into warm beer, let sit briefly. Pour 1 c white flour into mixing bowl and add the beer-yeast mixture. Let this form a "sponge" (this really is the correct term!). This may take 10-15 minutes, during which time I putter around the kitchen, unload the dishrack, etc.
When the sponge is ready, add the rest of the ingredients (I know I don't list quantities-- I go for a ratio of about 1/2 white to dark, with rye constituting maybe a 1/4 to 1/3), mixing with big spoon or dough blade of food processor until dough starts holding together. Take out of the bowl and knead by hand with extra flour on the counter top.
Then I oil my big ceramic bowl and put the dough in, cover w/ clean dishtowel, and set it on or near the woodstove (make sure it's not too hot!). I pull out a good book, or check my email, or bake a batch of cookies, or start making a batch of soup, or just putter around for an hour or 2, checking occasionally on the dough, waiting for it to double in size.
Then I punch the dough down and knead it again, put it in a lightly greased loaf pan, and let it rise again -- this second rising seems to go a little faster. Bake in preheated oven for approx 30 minutes. I test it by taking it out and tapping the bottom -if it sounds right, it's ready to come out and cool on the rack. And if you have a pot or soup or stew going, you're all set for a dinner tonight!

Beef with Stout
This recipe is a modification of recipe by Irish food writer Darina Allen. See her website with weekly Irish recipes at the Ballymaloe Cookery School.
Instead of baking it in the oven, this recipe could probably also be made in a crockpot.

2 lbs (900g) lean stewing beef, eg. Chuck
seasoned flour
3 tablespoon olive oil
2 thinly sliced onions
1-2 c celery, carrots, and/or turnips, chopped -my addition, I like to add loads of veggies!
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dry English Mustard
1 tablespoon concentrated tomato puree
1 strip of dried orange peel
a bouquet garni made up of 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of fresh thyme, 4 parsley stalks.
1/2 bottle of beer: Beamish, Murphy or Guinness
approx 2 c beef stock
optional: mushrooms, sauteed in butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh parsley

Cut the meat into 1½ inch (4cm) cubes and toss in seasoned flour. Heat some oil in a hot pan and fry the meat in batches until it is brown on all sides. Transfer the meat into a casserole and add a little more oil to the pan. Fry the thinly-sliced onions until nicely browned; deglaze with the stout. Transfer to the casserole, add the stock, sugar, mustard, tomato puree, orange rind and bouquet garni. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer in a very low heat, 150C/300f/ regulo 2, for 2-2½ hours or until the meat is tender.

Meanwhile wash and slice the mushrooms. Saute in a very little melted butter in a hot pan. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Set aside. When the stew is cooked, add the mushrooms and simmer for 2-3 minutes, taste and correct the seasoning. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley. Note: This stew reheats well. You may need to add more sugar to the recipe if you find it a little bitter.

Lastly, there is the vegetarian German Beer Soup, perfect for a beer gone flat:
Hot German Beer Soup
1 quart beer (light is milder, use dark for a richer flavor)
1 T butter
2 T flour
1 T sugar
lemon: peel and chop the rind, juice 1/2 of lemon
1 stick cinnamon
6 whole cloves
2 egg yolks

optional "Snowballs" (eggwhite dumplings)
2 egg whites
2 T sugar
dash of cinnamon

Pour beer and let stand for several hours until it's gone flat. Heat in saucepan.
Meanwhile melt butter and stir in the flour and sugar, whisking and cooking until it has a rich caramel color. Add this by the spoonful to the hot beer, along with lemon and spices. Bring to a boil and simmer for approx 15 minutes. Remove from stove and add beaten eggyolk and snowballs, if desired. Serve in mugs when your loved one come in from the cold after skiing or sledding (BTW, alcohol contents is very low!)

Snowballs:
Beat eggwhites into still peaks, gradually adding sugar. Drop by spoonfuls onto the hot soup which has been removed from heat, and cover with lid. Let it sit for 5-10 min, letting snowballs swell an cook. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve.

There are also some recipes that call for cream/sour cream in the soup, and serve it over bread and Swiss cheese, such as this one here, found on allrecipes.com. Several readers comment on how bland this recipe was, and that it tasted too much like beer! Beer soup is definitely not for everyone, especially the sweet version w/ cinnamon... Note: I've seen recipes that call for hot pepper sauce & garlic too -- so there's the potential for making it spicy!

And now a German recipe that calls for cabbage and beer, from
Cooking with Beer Taste-Tempting Recipes and Creative Ideas for Matching Beer & Food
by Lucy Saunders

Kriek Cabbage

1/3 cup dried sweetened cherries
1 cup cherry ale or kriek (a Belgian cherry lambic)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced orange zest
1 tablespoon minced shallots or mild sweet onion
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
10-12 oz. red cabbage, tough outer leaves
removed and cored, quartered, and sliced thin
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the cherries in an oven-proof dish and cover with the cherry-flavored beer. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and heat in the microwave for 1 minute on high power; remove wrap and let cool.

2. Stir together the olive oil, orange zest, shallots or sweet onion in a 10-inch heavy sauté pan placed over low heat. sauté gently until the shallots are translucent and tender, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the cabbage, red wine vinegar, cherries and beer, stirring often, and cook for 15 minutes or until the cabbage is tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

Borealkitchen's Note: I don't happen to have Kriek or red cabbage lying around. But I do have another bottle of previously frozen IPA and a head a white cabbage, so I'm planning to give this recipe a try with the following variations
skip the cherries -- maybe try an Alaskan version with dried cranberries?
Heat oil and saute onions, add cabbage, grated orange zest, beer-infused cranberries, salt and pepper (skipping the vinegar too).
I'll let you know how it turns out, and what the fam thinks -- cabbage is not exactly their favorite...

Menu for early January

2010-01-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

No CSA box this week -- just working on various hardy root crops stored in frig and cellar, plus taking stock of what's in the freezer... Need to do a Costco run too!
Started some Mung sprouts today, and looking hard at the head and a half of cabbage...

Having completely ran out of bread, and not feeling like venturing out Monday morning ("I got a throat", an expression coined by one of my kids), I even baked some homemade bread -- aaaaah, heaven: a quiet house now that everybody's gone back to work/school...

MON: corned beef, potatoes, cabbage & homemade Beerbread
TUES: Thai Kitchen (eating out)
WED: Leek soup, braised greens, Baked Ziti, Soprano-style, salad
THUR: Chicken&veggie stir-fry w/ sprouts, rice, potstickers
FRI: Gimme More Pie (recipe here), braised greens, roasted potatoes
SAT: Porrotos Granados (recipe here), empanadas, carrot salad
SUN: Pasta w/ veggies, smoked salmon and goat cheese, green salad

Eating less meat

2010-01-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

When I was young, I was a vegetarian for many years. Like many young people, I used to think in "black and white" terms: meat was bad, vegetables were good. I had read Frances Moore Lappe's book "Diet for a Small Planet" my first year in college (having just moved to the US after living in a developing country, I was aghast at the waste and conspicuous consumption) -- I became convinced that meat production was a waste of our planet's scarce agricultural resources. By the time I had children I started eating meat again -- in fact I craved it when I was pregnant!

I didn't give all that much thought to how food was raised as I was busy raising and feeding my growing family -- I was thinking less about the environment and more about cooking well-balanced meals and avoiding junk food! But it does turn out that meat production can be very wasteful indeed, and is perhaps becoming more so than when Lappe's book was first written! I'm now coming back around to thinking about those issue again. A big turning point for me was reading Michael Pollen's In Defense of Food and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

As I've been learning more about where our food comes from, I find I don't care to eat industrially-produced meat, and the alternative (organic, local, wild) is much more difficult and expensive to come by. I have friends here in Alaska who will only eat meat they hunted or caught themselves -- but alas, hubby is not "into" hunting, and our freezer is already out of salmon fillets. ASIDE: in many parts of Alaska, churches and other non-profit organization have volunteers who will process road-killed moose, and the meat is donated to food banks (plus the volunteers get a cut -maybe I need to sign up in order to get some "church moose"?) -- since it is illegal for the driver of the vehicle to simply take home the moose they ran over! EOD, End of Digression.
I'm realizing more and more that not all meat (or eggs and dairy for that matter) is bad -- rather, it can vary greatly. For example, cows are naturally grass-eaters, but in an effort to grow beef faster and faster, they are now fed a diet of mostly corn (which is difficult for them to digest) and thus cattle are given lots of hormones and antibiotics. These are showing up in our drinking water! DNA analysis shows that between corn-fed hamburgers and HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) that's used heavily in processed foods and sodas, Americans are starting to have a food signature that's mostly corn (an interesting movie to see is King Corn)!
The implications of how food is raised have huge impacts not only on the nutritional food value of our food, but on the health of our planet as well. So I'm finding myself eating less and less meat. I'm not a vegetarian, and I do think it's natural for humans to eat meat -- evolutionarily we're omnivores after all -- but yet, I feel less and less like eating industrially-produced meat.

This past year our family has been eating more vegetables, legumes and whole grains, due in part to getting a weekly CSA box full of fresh organic produce! And I must say that I feel healthier and even have lost some of that 40+something weight gain (without even trying -- I certainly am not the "dieting" type (more on that topic on my post Diet is a 4-letter word).

But really, how much meat do we really need to eat? Humans certainly can and do thrive on a mostly vegetarian diet. I admit that while I enjoy a good cut of meat, I find myself less willing to buy what's for sale at the grocery store. Right now I'm reading an interesting book by Nicolette Hahn Niman called Rightous Porkchop (Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms). The more I learn about the food industry, the more I want to get away from industrially-produced meat. I stand there in the grocery store and wonder: did this meat come from a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) where animals are kept in horrible conditions, standing knee-deep in their own excriments while being fattened on corn products and kept from getting sick only by heavy administration of antibiotics? Were these eggs laid by chickens crammed into barns by the thousands, unable to walk even a few steps? Did the bacon come from pigs produced in a giant warehouse operation that produces more wastewater pollution than a small city?

I do recommend the movie Food, Inc (Santa brought me that for Christmas), which does a good job of reporting on food issues without being overly sensational. It makes a really good point about how we vote on food issues every time we're at the checkout stand of the the grocery store -- as our food purchases get scanned, we VOTE with our dollars: for example, as organic products are making more and more gains in the US/World market, industry is starting to pay attention! Within the last few years, our family has switched first to organic milk, then many of our vegetables, chicken and now also beef. And of course we do love eating our Alaskan Wild salmon!

I'm still working on figuring out eggs -- there are a few with the label "organic" and many more with the less meaningful label "natural". Some brands advertise they're antibiotic and additive-free, vegetarian-fed (= no animal by-products), and even cage-free. But does "cage-free" mean they really get to roam the farmyard, or did they get an itty-bitty "yard" attached to a giant facility that very few of the chickens can even get to? Vegetarian feed is better than ground up recycled dead chicks, but then again, eating bugs is actually an important and normal part of a chicken's diet...
Ideally I'd like to raise our own chickens, but I'm worried about the wildlife factor here: would raising backyard poultry act as an attractant to the many bears (black and brown) that occasionally roam our neighborhood? I wish I could find a good local source of eggs that don't cost an arm and a (chicken)-leg! These last few years I've been buying Wilcoxfarms Omega-3 eggs available at Costco (chickens that are fed grass-based diets do lay eggs that are higher in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids) -- but it's still part of a huge factory-style operation (I think?!) -- but then again, one step at a time: at least they're not as bad as some of the other industrial producers out there...

So here I am, puzzled. I go grocery-shopping (and vote!) every week, and I want to do what's best for my family and for my planet. My boys/men certainly do like their spicy food and meat, while my daughters and I would be happy eating mostly vegetarian. So the compromise I'm making is that I try to cook more and more with organic/local produce, and while I do cook with meat several times a week, I use smaller quantities than I used to. For example, I might use sausage more as a spice than a main ingredient, or make stir-fry or curry with more vegetables than meat. I've learned a couple of things over the last few years:

change seems easier when it's gradual.
if I cook too "healthy" and lean, then they eat more snacks/junkfood inbetween meals.
I am the queen of the kitchen:)
they will eat what I cook --an awesome power, I know -- and I'll try not to let that get to my head!

Photo credits:
Meat from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons
Eggs from http://www.zetafarms.com

New Year's Menu

2009-12-31T18:01:00.000-08:00

It's New Year's Eve, and I've been cooking up a proverbial storm.
First of all there's the tradition in our family to turn the last of the Christmas turkey leftovers into a tasty batch of GUMBO, which usually is done by the dear husband -- but I made it today while he napped on the couch... Sooo, I won't be revealing any of HIS secrets of Gumbo-making, merely my own (albeit probably inferior, or at least less fiery) version.
New Years Gumbo
left-over turkey, cut into small pieces
turkey stock -lots!
oil, such as canola, sunflower, or other oil that can handle being heated
For starters, the trinity of cajun vegetables:
onions, chopped
celery, chopped
bell peppers, chopped
jalapeno peppers (or other hot peppers), chopped
optional meats: ham, sausage
garlic, crushed
pepper (both black and white, best if freshly ground)
ground cumin (a goodly amount)
cayenne pepper (to taste, or other hot pepper, ground)
ground paprika (smoked is great for flavor!)
thyme (generous amount -- this is a signature of cajun cooking!)
oregano, basil
onion powder, garlic powder
stewed tomatoes, canned ok, with liquid
bay leaf
water or stock
sweet potatoes, cubed
other veggies, such as green beans, okra, carrots, turnips...
salt, to taste
tabasco sauce
oil and flour, roughly equal amounts, for making roux
optional: seafood, such as shrimp

Note that I do not list quantities, because it's (a) a function on what you happen to have at hand right then -- in other words, clean-out-the-frig, and (b) it's a matter of taste -- give your creativity free reign: no 2 batches of gumbo should ever be the same!

I start by heating the defatted stock in my largest stockpot, adding the turkey and all other ingredients as I saute them in my biggest cast-iron frying pan: First, I sautee the onions, celery & peppers, adding the spices and cooking a bit. After they're done, dump that into stockpot, add more oil to the frying pan, and sautee the next batch: sausage, ham, etc... The sweet potatoes onward do not need to be sauteed -- they go directly into the stockpot.

While the big pot is bubbling away (on low), make the roux:
This takes some skill & confidence, but most importantly, the knowledge that it can splatter and burn you! I heat the oil in the cast-iron pan, and add flour while whisking it continuously. Heat and keep whisking until the flour turns dark, but don't burn it.
Remove from heat and spoon roux into the stockpot in small batches -- it's VERY hot and can splash when it hits the liquid -- it really helps to have a spouse or older child there who will stir the big pot after each addition of roux. Simmer the stockpot, letting flavors mingle and gumbo thicken, but keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally. If I want to add shrimp, I do it at this stage.
Note: this freezes very well -- but don't add shrimp or other seafood until thawing and re-heating.
Serve gumbo over rice.

Note on roux-making: another approach commonly seen is starting with the roux. Heat oil, add flour and whisk until dark. Then add the veggies and spices and cook, stirring. Add stock, stirring... Note that this approach requires all your ingredients to be ready to go, and you do a lot of continuous stirring, and my wrist/arms need breaks -- so I do like to do this in batches.

For a recipe (with actual quantities), go here for a Paul Prudhomme gumbo.

Next, I cooked Hoppin' John, which is a Southern tradition, made from Black-eyed peas (a.k.a. cowpeas), and I made both a vegetarian and traditional version.

Hopping John
tradional version: cook cowpeas with ham, hamhock or bacon
my own vegetarian creole version:
black-eyed peas, soaked in warm water for a few hours or overnight, drained
oil
onions, chopped
celery, chopped
bell peppers, chopped
garlic, crushed
pepper (both black and white, best if freshly ground)
cayenne pepper (to taste, or other hot pepper, ground)
ground paprika (smoked is great for flavor!)
thyme (generous amount -- this is a cajun staple)
optional: onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder
bay leaf
water or stock
salt, to taste
greens, such as kale or collard greens.

Heat oil and saute the veggies. Add garlic and all spices, cooking for a little while, then add the drained black-eyed peas, bay leaf and enough water/stock to cover. Cook until peas are soft. Add salt.
While legumes are cooking, prepare the greens: wash, remove tough stems, and cut. Add into peas when they are nearly all the way cooked. Serve with cornbread.

Lastly, as I type on my new laptop (in the kitchen, isn't that nifty!!!), I've got 2 different versions of poached pears simmering on the stove. I posted the recipe yesterday, but here's what I've learned today when I found this treatise on How to make poached pears (go there if you want actual measurements!):

This works with Asian pears too!
Keep those pears covered with some parchment paper
there are lots of flavors you can add: vanilla, cloves, allspice, etc
try replacing some of the water with wine
add some dried fruit to the poaching liquid at the end
serve hot or cold, by itself or with a sauce
it's a great way to preserve fruit you can't eat fast enough...

QUARK: a staple of German dessert-making

2009-12-30T00:13:00.000-08:00

If you've never heard of QUARK, you're not alone. It does not have a translation in English. It's a fresh (or white) soft cheese similar to queso blanco or Indian Paneer. The closest I can come to describing this dairy product is to call it a cross between sour cream and ricotta cheese, or cream cheese and cottage cheese-- sort of like the Italian mascarpone. I occasionally treat myself to a tub of "real" Quark, available in Anchorage at New Sagaya Market. I've got one in my frig right now, and am trying to decide what special German dessert to make with it.

Wikipedia defines Quark (pronunciation "qvark") as a fresh curd cheese of East European origin (from the slavic "tvorag"). It is soft, white and un-aged, similar to the french fromage frais. It usually has much lower fat content (about the same as yoghurt) than cream cheeses and has no salt added.
I grew up eating Quark both savory and sweet: we spread it on bread, and ate it as a simple dessert with fruit. And it is the best for making German cheesecake! As a substitute, you can create your own from buttermilk (link here) or by using a yoghurt cheese (strain unflavored yoghurt through a cheese cloth). Even simpler is to substitute mascarpone, or blend 9 parts ricotta w/ 1 part sour cream, or use a blender to make you own mix of cottage cheese, cream cheese and/or yoghurt, depending on how much creaminess you're after...
Suesser Quark mit Frucht
Blend quark, sugar or honey and berries -- it's so easy a five-year old can be in charge of this! Probably the first dessert I ever made.

Poached Pears with cheese & berries
I learned this recipe from Eldest daughter (Kitchensister). You can use quark, mascarpone or ricotta cheese. several fresh pears (not super-ripe)
ginger, sliced real thin
ground cinnamon (1/2 -1 tsp?)
honey (1/2 cup?)
water, as needed (may substitute partially with wine)
berries (can be frozen) - 1 or 2 cups
quark or ricotta or mascarpone cheese - 1 tub

In a sauce pan, heat the honey/water/wine mixture with cinnamon and sliced ginger. Add pear slices and simmer with just enough liquid to cover the pears. When pears are soft, remove them and set aside. Discard the ginger.
Boil the liquid down until there's barely any left (watch that you don't burn this!).
Stir in the cheese.
Separately, make a berry compote ("soup") from berries -- simmer in a saucepan, adding sweetener if you feel it's needed.

Serve this dessert by placing a few slices of pear on each plate, spooning sweetened cheese over it, and drizzling with berries.

Streuselkuchen mit Quarkfüllung
Dough:
2 c. flour
1/2 package dry yeast (1 heaping teaspoon) or 1/2 cube of fresh yeast
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (110°F)
2 T. butter
2 T. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Filling:
5 T. butter
1 tsp. lemon zest
6 T. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. Quark or yogurt cheese
2 T. cornstarch
optional: berries or other fruit

Streusel Topping:
1 1/2 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Preparation:

Make the yeast dough: Place the flour in a bowl and create a hollow in it with the back of a spoon. Crumble fresh yeast or sprinkle dry yeast in the hollow, fill with the lukewarm milk, add a pinch of sugar and mix a little to incorporate some of the flour. Let the sponge sit in a warm place for 15 minutes.

After the yeast is activated and showing strong growth, add the butter, salt and sugar to the milk and mix the dough, incorporating the flour as you go. You may also use a stand mixer for this step. Continue mixing until the dough is smooth and forms a ball. Add a little more flour if necessary. Form dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, turning once, and cover. Let rise 15 to 30 minutes.

Roll out on a lightly floured board to a 9 x 13 inch rectangle and transfer to a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Press towards the edges gently, creating a lip (like a pizza crust). Let this dough rest while you mix the filling and topping.

Make the filling: Cream together butter, sugar and lemon zest for 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl as you go. Add the Quark or yogurt cheese, mixing until smooth. Sprinkle the cornstarch on top and mix to incorporate. Spread over the yeast dough.

Optionally, add fruit at this stage (something not too watery, such as berries).

Make the streusel topping: Mix 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2/3 cup sugar, salt and cinnamon. Using your hands or a pastry mixer, cut 7 tablespoons butter into the flour mix until you have course crumbs. Sprinkle these crumbs on top of the Quark filling.

Bake the cake at 350°F for 30 minutes, or until cake is lightly browned and filling is almost set. Filling will set up more as it cools.

Menu for last week of December

2009-12-26T11:06:00.000-08:00

It's that wonderful week after Christmas, when the frig is full, but the calendar is not!

We're about cookied-out, and I find myself craving mostly fruits and vegetables. Perfect for all that wonderful produce from the CSA box: carrots, taters, celery root, cabbage, pears, apples, oranges, greens, etc.
At Costco I bought 2 special treats: King Crab, and Leg of lamb, imported from Australia.
The lamb will last me a few month: I cut it up into chunks and freeze it in 1-pound portions, plus I make stock from the scraps...) I love making an indian feast with lots of vegetarian dishes plus lamb korma or lamb stew!

An old Southern tradition is to eat black-eyed peas and greens on New Year's Day -- so we're adding this to our family tradition. My Swedish-American husband is the force behind our family's predeliction for CAJUN food -- every year for the last 17 we turn the turkey left-over into a great big batch of GUMBO. It freezes very well!

SAT "Boxing Day": leftover turkey, mashed pototoes, etc.
SUN: Polenta w/ red sauce, super-garlicky garlic bread, big green salad
MON: Cajun Flanks & greens, over rice, oven-roasted celery root
TUE: Bubble & Squeek (potatoes and cabbage)
WED: Cardamon Lamb Curry (recipe from Dingo Dave Downunder), other veggies & rice
THUR: Gumbo and King Crab (more here)
FRI: Cajun black-eyed peas, mess of greens, cornbread
SAT: Corned beef, potatoes & cabbage

Recipe for Hot-buttered rum MIX

2009-12-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

For the holidays this year, we made, and consumed, large quantities of this:

Hot-buttered Rum Mix
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
2 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t cardamon (optional) a favorite spice in our household

Mix it all together & store in jars.
No need for refrigeration.

To use, put 1-2 teaspoons in a mug, add hot water and rum to taste.
Can also be used to flavor hot cocoa, coffee or tea.

BUTTER BEER (Hogwarts-style)
Hot version: Add mix to hot water, and optional, stir in vanilla icecream, too.
Cold version (rootbeer-float style): Add mix to cream soda, stir, then add icecream.

Baking European Christmas cookies

2009-12-22T00:31:00.000-08:00

I did a bit of baking today, trying to catch up -- cookie tins are once again empty on account of maraundering teenagers...

I challenged myself to bake (which I love) a variety of cookies (a must at Christmas-time) without a whole lot of dish-washing (which I don't care for)... it's all in the name of efficiency, don't you know!

So, without washing any mixing bowls, spatulas, etc until the end of the exercise, here's what I figure can be made one after the other without looking at the sink until the very end:

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon stars, German)
Spritz (cookie press cookies, int'l) or Scottish shortbread cookies
Spekulatius (very thin spice cookies, German/Danish)
Rokkekager (literally translates to "Rock cookies", Scandinavian)

ZIMTSTERNE (Cinnamon stars) -this is completely wheat/gluten-free
3 egg whites
1/2 # granulated sugar
3 t cinnamon
2 c grated almonds (save approx 1/4 c for dusting pastry board) -- I grind my own, blanching them first
1/2 t almond extract

Beat eggwhites and as they start foaming, slowly add sugar. Set aside some of this for topping.
Transfer to another bowl where you carefully mix in the remaining ingredients. Keep adding nutflour until dough holds together enough to be rolled out on dusted pastry board. Cut star shapes, brush w/beaten eggwhites, and bake on greased cookie sheet at 300F for approx 30 min, until golden brown and slightly chewy.
PS: mine never turn out looking as nice as this picture I found on google...

SPRITZ (Cookie press)
there's lots of recipes. Basically calls for butter, sugar and flour, plus egg yolks, which is why I make them after Zimtsterne, where I have leftover egg yolks! Just use same mixing bowl that the eggwhites were beaten it -- (in case of nut allergies, be sure not to use any tools that touched nuts)...
Typically this dough needs to chill, so move on to the next recipe, without washing that bowl!

Here's my version (based on Joy of Cooking -adjusted to use up the 3 egg yolks)
1.5 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
3 egg yolks
1.5 t vanilla or almond extract
3 c to 3.5c flour
3/4 t salt
optional: add ground almonds as well -- adjust flour as needed

SPEKULATIUS
again, butter, sugar, flour, plus spices. Keep on using the same bowls to soften the butter, mix the dough, etc...

1/2 # butter, softened at room temp
1 # sugar
2 eggs
grated rind of 1 lemon
4.5 c flour
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground gloves
1/4 t ground cardamom
optional: slivered almonds
(some recipes call for ground almonds as well)

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, one at a time. Fold in all dry ingredients. Chill dough (instructions are for overnight), but my Alaskan trick is to stick them outside, already spread 1/8th inch thick on the greased cookie sheet (I cover w/ plastic wrap first).
Traditionally, Spekulatius are "relief-printed" cookies (often w/ windmills or other designs), but sure could bake them plain.
Sometimes they have a thin glaze of eggwhite wash, and perhaps sprinkled w/ a bit of sugar.
Bake at 350F (I've even seen lower temps, like 300) until lightly golden.
As soon as you remove them from oven, cut them apart into squares.

From Germanfood.about.com: The history of Springerle is quite interesting. It is said that a effigy of an animal was used in place of an actual animal sacrifice for those who could not afford the real thing. These imprints were used during pagan midwinter festivals at which people prayed for an early spring. They were commonly exchanged instead of Christmas cards and Biblical scenes on the cookies served to educate the illiterate in the middle ages. For more on the history, check out godecookery.com.

ROKKEKAGER (Rock cookies)
1 c butter
1.5 c brown sugar
3 eggs
2.5-3 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
1 t vanilla
3 c mixed candied fruit and/or raisins
1 c each hazelnuts and pecans/walnuts

cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Add dry ingredients & fruit & nuts.
Drop by the spoonful onto baking sheets. Bake 8-10 min at 375F. These store well (but beware if you find them at Easter -- then they may resemble Hagrid's rock cakes!)

Phew, now better get to some dishes...

How to make one chicken stretch for a week

2009-12-17T23:04:00.000-08:00

Our family recently rented the DVD of Food, Inc.
An excellent movie -- I highly recommend watching it! Much of it is based on Michael Pollen's work (In Defense of Food and Omnivore's Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation.

Our family has been switching over to organic food more and more, as we learn more about where our food comes from, and as we see that yes indeed, we afford it! At first glance, going organic seems to cost significantly more, but I'd say that as we're doing this we're not going bankrupt, and not only are we eating healthier, but also we consume less bad stuff.
Take meat, for one. We just don't need to eat all that much. We're not vegetarians, but we're buying better meat and stretching it further. We still get plenty of protein -- such as from legumes, etc... AND THEY ARE CHEAP!
My daughter and I have been splitting the Costco 2-pack of whole organic chicken every couple of weeks (comes to about $10 per chicken). She roasts hers whole and then gets a week's worth of chicken-enriched meals out of that.
My approach is to divide & conquer: I plan several meals around it.
First you gotta actually CUT the bird up, and like many women my generation, that's something I never officially learned. Most women I know buy meat all cut up -- if the recipe calls for chicken breasts, well, they go and buy chicken breasts neatly wrapped with plastic on a styrofoam tray.

I learned to cut a whole chicken from my mother-in-law (#2), when I was a bride in her 30's!
I'm sure she was appalled that I did not know how to do this, but she was a kind woman, and patiently showed me. I'm grateful, for not only did I learn how to save money (Hubby and I were poor graduate students, and buying whole chickens sure is cheaper!), but it also taught me not to be afraid of dealing with bird's anatomy.
Aside: This skill came in later when we moved to Alaska, and in the first week a grouse flew into our window killing itself -- I called hubby at work, and he said "Great, let's have it for dinner!" And I did indeed cook it. I've even learned to fillet fish, but that's another story, and takes way more skill than cutting up a bird. (EOD, End of Digression)

So back to the whole chicken sitting on my cutting board (plastic, not the wooden one!).
First, I make sure I have a sharp knife! And my hands are very clean (trim those fingernails).

I remove the skin, and harvest the 2 breasts (Images from Food,Inc of commercial chickens run thru my head -- breeding for large breasts has gotten so extreme that the poor chickens can hardly take a few steps! Good thing they haven't bred us womenfolk for larger breasts! EOD)
I save the 2 breasts for a meal (it used to be I felt a need to serve each family member one chicken breast each, but I found that those 2 breasts feed the 4 of us just fine!)

Next I remove the leg-thigh ensemble. It does involve finding the joint and cutting through that -- after a bit of twisting till it "pops". Not difficult, just do it. Those 2 legs go into another dinner -- often I will bake those in a casserole with grains (such as rice) and lots of veggies. Once cooked, the dark meat just slides right off...

Now it's time to attack the carcass. I get rid of as much of the skin as I can (if needed, use a papertowel to grab the skin --this really helps when pulling it off the legs). Then I try to find all the meat that's left: using my fingers mostly plus a small knife, I harvest what I can. All those small pieces will go into the first dinner of this chicken -- something ethnic perhaps, like stir-fry, indian curry, Thai Tom Ka Kai, or filling for a Mexican burrito. Again, by stretching this meager assembly of meat with lots & lots of veggies, we get the flavor and protein, but not the heaviness of big chunks of meat.

Last, the chicken carcass (and don't forget the neck and other innards that came in the little bag) goes into the big stockpot. I also add any onion & celery "butts" I may have laying around in the frig, or any sad-looking turnips, carrots from the back of the produce drawer.
I let the stock go for several hours. Often I do the chicken butchering in the morning between when kids have gone to school & I need to get ready for work, and leave the stock cooking on LOW -- I prefer not to have to deal with the butchering in the late afternoon when it's time to cook dinner. Everybody is too hungry, grumpy, etc to wait around for me to do this...
I find it helps me tremendously to plan ahead -- the key to eating less processed food is using fresher ingredients, but they do require prepping...
Remember to clean counters & tools, and make sure the cutting board gets scrubbed, bleached and/or goes thru the dishwasher.

Anyway, the stock is poured into jars, placed in the frig, and defatted. I use the stock in so many recipes -- for example, boil bulghar wheat or quinoa with stock instead of plain water, or use it as stock in a mostly vegetable-based soup.

So here is a sample menu for a week
MON: stir-fry chicken w/ loads of veggies, or Chicken tacos/enchiladas
TUES: White Bean soup, made with chicken stock
WED: Rice, broccoli and Drumstick casserole
THURS: Bulghar pilaf with lots of veggies, plus oven-roasted squash & root crops
FRI: Cajun breaded chicken breasts, rice, and vegetable side dish
SAT: Pizza night - build your own (left-over chicken goes well on pizza)

Mid-December Menu

2009-12-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

This week in our CSA box: Alaskan potatoes - farmer’s choice | Alaskan Brussels Sprouts | Alaskan carrots | Alaskan onions | Alaskan cabbage | Alaskan celery root. From Outside:certified organic Honeycrisp apples | ~~certified organic kiwi fruit~~ | certified organic pears| ~~certified organic red romaine lettuce~~, cauliflower| certified organic garlic

I also did the big Costco shopping trip, and came home with a box of japanese Mandarins (a favorite for lunches), 5 pack of avocadoes, organic whole chicken, scallops and king crab for Christmas eve!

Monday: butternut squash-filled ravioli in a sauce with red peppers and scallops, green salad w/ beans, etc
Tues: It was going to be a roast, but hubby and kids ate in Anchor-town on acct of crazy roads due to snow -- so I had some delicious left-overs...
Wed: stir-fry with chicken, broccoli, carrots, bean sprouts, brown rice, spring rolls (from Costco's freezer section, not home-made)
Thurs: Coconut-curry squash soup, pizza, raw celery & apple salad, green salad
Fri: Gimme more pie, potatoes, Brussels sprouts
Sat: chili night - white chili & red chili, cornbread, salad
Sun: salmon? bubble and squeek (potatoes and cabbage)

Roasted veggies

2009-11-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

My new favorite way to fix veggies is to roast them. Flavors are intensified when veggies are roasted instead of boiled.

Here are a few simple recipes -- perfect for this time of year when I love to bake, and the oven is a welcome source of heat and good smells!

Note: Use oils that can take the heat: I use "light" olive oil-- not the extra virgin which smokes when heated -- I save that for salad dressings and drizzling.

Roasted Red Potatoes w/ Garlic
(Wolf's Favorite)
Red potatoes, skin on, washed, dried and cut into quarters
Olive oil
Salt, pepper
fresh squeezed garlic
Rosemary, optional

Toss the taters with oil and spices, then roast in 375/400F oven for a good long while (depends on how done and shrivelled you like them -- at least 30 min, preferrably 45.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes
sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into cubes
oil
S&P, as desired
Optional: slivers of either onions or orange, for extra flavor

Toss and roast in oven --takes a little less time than potatoes.

Roasted Carrots
carrots, cut into big chunks
butter (or mixture of butter and olive oil)
balsamic vinegar, optional
brown sugar or maple syrup (Thanks, Patty P!) -- add near the end to prevent scorching

Toss and roast in oven. This takes less time than you think (less than potatoes) -- check w/ fork.
Note to self: don't bake in cast-iron pan -- gets too hot and burns.
Here's a great description from Chef Doughty on how to glaze carrots on the stove-top for a similar result. Carrots never tasted this good in the old days of boiling...

Roasted root veggies and sausage
Olive oil
Onions
Potatoes
carrots, turnips
celery root
beets
green beans or other green veggies that don't go mush!
Optional: sausage, such as Kjelbasa or Reindeer sausage

Cut up veggies, not too small. Potatoes can be smallish cubes, but keep faster-cooking veggies sized a little larger. Fry up the sausage, using oil as needed. Add veggies, coating well with oils.
Roast for 30 minutes or so...

Roasted cauliflower
Cauliflower, cut into florets
olive oil
curry spices
S&P

There are lots of other veggies that do very well roasted:
Jerusalem Artichokes
Brussels Sprouts
Asparagus
squash (summer or winter varieties --cooking times vary greatly)
Beets
Celery Root
Mushrooms

Toss with a good oil (light olive oil or one of the nut oils, such as walnut or hazelnut), and experiment with spices (oregano, thyme, basil, fennel, even wasabi or mustard) -- but often best plain.

Cranberries at Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T13:42:00.000-08:00

We like our cranberries here in the North, and this year there will be not just one, but 3 sauces at our Thanksgiving table.
First, the traditional, standard
Cooked Cranberry Sauce
2 c whole cranberries
1 c sugar
1 c water

Combine in sauce pan and bring to boil. Reduce heat, stirring occasionally, and cook for 10 minutes. Keeps well.

Next, NPR's Susan Stamberg shares this recipe every year at Thanksgiving, and I've always wanted to try this unusual Pepto-Bismal pink relish!
Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish
2 c whole raw cranberries, washed
1 small onion
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons horseradish from a jar ("red is a bit milder than white")

Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," Stamberg says. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind, not a puree.") Add everything else and mix. Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some little icy slivers left.") The relish will be thick, creamy and shocking pink. ("OK, Pepto Bismol pink.") Makes 1 1/2 pints.

Last, if not least,
Cranberry Orange Relish
1 medium orange, washed, preferrably organic
2 c cranberries
1 c sugar
cinnamon, optional

Cut oranges, skin and all, into sections, and remove seeds.
Chop all ingredients in food processor. Serve raw, or you can cook this too.

The Three Sisters: Corn, beans and squash

2009-11-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

November & Thanksgiving time is a good time to plan meals around indigenous American vegetables -- and the 3 sisters are perfect! They all store well, and not only do they complement each other well in the garden (see below), they also complement each other well nutritionally:

CORN - in its unprocessed form, corn is a great staple, but it lack two essential amino acids - lysine and tryptophane - as well as riboflavin and niacin. However, these are supplied by beans.
BEANS - good carbohydrates, low in fats. Most beans contain at least 20% protein, and provide essential B Vitamins and Iron.
SQUASH - are rich in carbohydrates, great source of vitamin A, and their seeds provide quality vegetable fats that corn and beans lack.

Here's a description of Native American "Three Sister's Garden" from the Gardening101 website:

Women of the village would hill up the soil and plant corn (maize) in the center of the hill. Once the corn came up, probably about two weeks, they would then plant the beans around the corn seedlings followed by the squash seeds at the furthest distance from corn seedlings.

This form of growing these three vegetables worked very well because the three plants complemented each other and made great companions. The corn gave beans a place to climb, the beans provided nitrogen to the corn roots and the large squash leaves provided shade and living mulch which helped to deter weeds and hold moisture in the soil.

For recipes combining all 3, I had to search a bit.
But 2 out of 3 is easy: think of how many Mexican dishes combine corn and beans!
Here are some other ideas: look for Stuffed Squash recipes -- there are plenty -- bake a winter squash with a filling of wild rice and beans.

Combining all 3 sisters is usually in the form of a stew or soup.

Three Sister's Stew
(from the website Vegetarian Kitchen by Nava Atlas)

1 small sugar pumpkin or 1 large butternut or carnival squash (about 2 pounds)
olive oil
onion, bell peppers, celery, garlic
can diced tomatoes, with liquid
2 cups cooked or canned pinto beans
2 cups corn kernels
1 cup homemade or canned vegetable stock, or water
1 or 2 small fresh hot chiles, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon each: ground cumin, dried oregano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

Cut the pumpkin or squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and fibers. Cover with aluminum foil and place the halves, cut side up, in a foil-lined shallow baking pan. Bake at 400F for 40 to 50 minutes, or until easily pierced with a knife but still firm (if using squash, prepare the same way). When cool enough to handle, scoop out the pulp, and cut into large dice. Set aside until needed.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and sauté over medium-low heat until translucent. Add the garlic, other vegetables, and pumpkin and all the remaining ingredients except the last 2 and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently, covered, until all the vegetables are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If time allows, let the stew stand for 1 to 2 hours before serving, then heat through as needed. Just before serving, stir in the cilantro. The stew should be thick and very moist but not soupy; add additional stock or water if needed. Serve in shallow bowls.

There are many other soups based on squash and beans, such as the Chilean national dish
Porrotos Granados
1 pound cranberry beans (traditional) or other beans
1 winter squash or pumpkin
2 c frozen corn kernels
olive oil
onion, bell peppers, garlic, carrots, chopped
fresh basil
paprika or ground chili
salt & pepper, to taste
water or broth
"Pebre Sauce" optional

Soak beans overnight, drain and cook until nearly tender.
Separately, saute onions etc in olive oil, add cubed squash, corn and beans. Cook on low until squash & beans are done. Shortly before serving, add spices.
This may seem like an ordinary soup, but wait till you've added a good helping of this fiery green
Pebre Sauce
(keeps in frig for 1 week+, good also on grilled meats, fish, eggs, etc)
2 T olive oil
1 T wine vinegar or lemon juice
1/2 c water (* or less)
1/2 c cilantro, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 t salt
4-6 habanero chiles, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients, and allow to sit for a couple of hours.
*If using pre-processed cilantro, then don't need much water (I sometimes use a cilantro paste by "Gourmet Garden", available in the produce section at Safeway).

Last, but not least, don't forget about serving some simple baked squash, beans, and cornbread with your next meal.
Simple Corn pudding
3 c corn kernels
2 eggs
1 c milk
1c grated cheese (gouda, cheddar)
2 tbs parley
1 tbs marjoram
S & P to taste

Combine and bake for 25 minutes.

Martian Heads (a.k.a. Brussels Sprouts)

2009-11-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

My vegetable of the week :

Most people I know, my own kids included, will make funny faces when you announce Brussels Sprouts for dinner. It is truly an under-appreciated vegetable, and when overcooked, frozen or tough, it is indeed one of those "suffer thr0ugh the veggies to get to dessert" foods.

But Brussel Sprouts can be delicious, really.
First of all, let's have some fun re-naming them. My kids get a giggle out of their dad calling them "Martian Heads", and this first recipe's name sure got their interest piqued. All these are new recipes I'm planning on trying this week (after all, I got a whole stalk of them in my CSA box this week!)

screaming heads

(recipe from Glacier Valley CSA's newsletter GG#46)

Not your basic gratin by any means. And it is a little caloric heavy, but it is fun to splurge every now and then. This comes from Foodnetwork.com and was featured on their Thanksgiving special.

Brussels sprouts with mustard & caper sauce

(recipe found at GG#45)

This recipe is based on a recipe from Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors, from Alison and Dan’s Rise and Shine Bakery website. It is a great resource not only for whole grain bread featuring Alaskan ingredients, but fantastic recipes! http://riseandshinebread.com

Roasted brussels sprouts with dijon, walnuts and crisp crumbs

(recipe found at GG#44)

The mustard-Worcestershire seasoning is a tangy counterpoint to the sprouts. You can do the crumb topping hours before serving. This is a version of a recipe out of Cold-Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase.

photo credit: http://www.defeatdiabetes.org
where I also learned a great deal more about these miniature cabbage heads:

The forerunner to the modern Brussels sprout was probably first cultivated in ancient Rome. Brussels sprouts, as we now know them, were grown as early as the 1200s in what is now Belgium. The first written reference of the Brussels sprout dates to 158 7. During the sixteenth century they were popular in the southern Netherlands and eventually spread to the cooler parts of Northern Europe.

They grow like buds in a spiral array of 20 – 40 on the side of long thick stalks th at are 2–4 ft in height. The stalk matures ove r several weeks from the lower to the upper part of the stalk and averages about 2 pounds per stalk. In the ho me garden, "sprouts are said to be sweetest after a good, stiff frost."

Whatever cooking method is employed, care must be taken not to overcook. Overcooking releases the sulphurous smelling glucosinolate and, sinigrin. This is the reason many people profess to dislike Brussels sprouts; only ever having tried them overcooked with the accompanying sulfuric taste and smell. Generally 6–7 minutes boiled or steamed is enough to cook, without overcooking and releasing the sinigrin.

Hurrah for Northern vegetables!

2009-11-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

After a summer of shopping for produce at the Farmer's Market and growing our own garden, we're now back to getting the CSA box again! Here's what came this week:

The CSA box comes with recipes (also available on-line), and there once again, there are some fantastic recipes!

Here's what this week's Glacier Grist #47 holds:

acorn or delicata squash filled with wild rice, golden raisins, & pine nuts

beet roesti with rosemary

parsley salad

honey glazed roasted parsnips and carrots

sauteed kale

I already made the squash with left-over quinoa instead of rice, and it was delicioso: the fennel flavor is wonderful! I also highly recommend the honey-glazed turnips & carrots!

In search for the perfect Northern Meal

2009-11-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

In honor of Eldest return from Germany, we searched for the perfect welcome-home-to-Alaska dinner. And then we said: "Duh, SALMON!"

Here's a couple of delicious dinners that are, in my book, perfect combinations of foods grown or caught (but hopefully not mined) in the North.

Baked salmon, roasted potatoes, braised greens
BBQ salmon, Bulghar wheat pilaf w/ cheddar cheese, glazed carrots
Salmon souffle, "Screaming Heads" (Brussel sprouts gratin from GG#46)
Halibut tacos (gotta get this recipe from Mountainpulse!!)
Kale and sweet potato Quesadilla a la Kingsolver from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Here's the pilaf & cheddar recipe, given to me by a dear friend: it's easy, and a crowd pleaser!

Bulghar Wheat Pilaf w/ cheddar
1 c bulghar wheat (a.k.a. cracked wheat)
1.5 c liquid (water, stock, wine, or combination)
butter or olive oil, for sauteing
optional: onions, mushrooms, garlic
salt, pepper
1/2 c. cheddar cheese, cubed (optional)

Saute veggies and cracked wheat in butter or oil.
Add liquid and spices. Cover and cook over low heat until tender (about 25 minutes).
When done, poke cheddar cheese cubes into dish & let it melt.

Pork Tenderloin

2009-11-08T21:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight we tried a new recipe that turned out scrumptious delicious!
Last week my hero (husband) did the shopping, and came home with a smoking deal on pork tenderloin, and I, never having cooked such a beast before, consulted the Oracle "Google" by typing in: pork tenderloin. And since I have a half-dozen jars of homemade apricot jam in the pantry,which did not do the "jam" thing (did not "gel"), this recipe was a perfect choice!

Recipe from the website http://allrecipes.com
My only adjustment was to use less BBQ sauce, only about 1 Tablespoon.

Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin With Apricot Ginger Glaze

2 (1 pound) pork tenderloins, trimmed
Spice Rub:
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups apricot preserves
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 lime, juiced

Place chili powder, garlic powder, sugar, salt and pepper in a jar; shake to blend. Rub spice mixture onto pork tenderloins. Cover tenderloins and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.
Prior to grilling, melt apricot preserves in saucepan over medium heat. Remove pan from the heat and stir in remaining glaze ingredients. Place half of the glaze in a serving bowl and hold for service.
Prepare grill at medium-high heat. Grill pork tenderloins for 15-20 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees F. on an instant-read thermometer.
When approximately 4 minutes of cook time remains, brush the pork tenderloins with the apricot glaze remaining in the pan. Cook for 2 minutes, turn the pork tenderloins and brush glaze on other side. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Remove pork from the grill and let set for about 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with reserved glaze.

Halloween foods

2009-10-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

Halloween is a good excuse to come up with some fun foods. As I'm planning for the Nature Center's Halloween party, I've been searching the web and came across some great recipes.

Gotta love these fingers -- this came from cookwithme.com, where you also can see hot-dog-mummies, graveyards cakes and deviled-egg-eyeballs...

Since I'm looking for healthy, I love these apple-bites dentures where the teeth are almonds. I found them on biccin.com.

These cute eyes looking out of their mummy wrap are probably just oreos & icing -- I found these and much more on a site called recipecommander.

That reminds me, I should see if I have any jello around -- I'll make a batch and mix those with gummi worms - yummers!

Perhaps not specifically Halloweenish, but cute as can be are edible Penguins made from hard-boiled eggs, olives and carrots on Mountainpulse. Check them out -- they are sooo cute!

Taxing sugar???

2009-10-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

Americans eat (and drink -- in the form of sodas) way too much sugar: refined & high fructose corn syrup is showing up more and more in processed foods from breakfast cereals to salad dressings. In small quantities, these may be harmless, but the trend in our increasing unhealthiness among Western nations is alarming.

Obviously, just as it's not healthy for us to eat loads of fats, we should not consume all this sugar that's hiding in much of our food, and it contributes heavily (pun intended) to childhood obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. I wrote about this on a previous reflection post, entitled Diet is a Four-letter Word.

Recently, I got to thinking about something I heard on the radio one morning while barely awake when the alarm came on: a proposed tax on sugar in drinks, a penny per ounce on sugary drinks. Is that a good idea???
Pros
It would make us more aware of how much sugar we're consuming.

Some people would indeed change their habits.

The pinch in the pocketbook is not a hardship to the extend that sugary sodas are not nutrition we need: they're not "food" we need to sustain us (in other words, real food is not being taxed).

The money collected in taxes could be used for a good cause (education about dangers of childhood obesity, for example).

Cons
Diet drinks are not necessarily any healthier. Maybe they should be taxed too?!? For more info, here's more about the link between diet sodas, weight gain and diabetes.

Taxation for behavior modification is controversial -- would it really change behavior, or would people just start getting used to it after the initial "shock", and keep up the unhealthy habits..?

Would "natural fruit juice" start replacing refined sugar in most drinks, allowing manufacturers to charge a higher price, yet without significantly affecting the desired outcome, i.e. people still end up just as overweight on fructose as they do on sucrose...

Would the government end up being a "sugar police"? Is sugar the last legal drug...?

Hey, we're evolutionarily programmed to like sugar: we all know our early human ancestors had a better chance of surviving (and escaping the sabertooth tiger) if they found foods high in calories. But that's not the situation we're in, now is it?

I admit that I love dessert as much as the next person -- but I believe it should remain a special treat, rather than an abused substance!

The British Isles

2009-10-28T20:29:00.001-07:00

This week's theme seems to be evolving into the cuisine of the British Isles. We have a ton of potatoes (after finishing our own harvest of red potatoes, I stocked up with a big sack of Valley-grown, organic, absolutely delicious "German Butterballs"). There's lots of cabbage around, of course, and there have been repeated calls for Bubble & Squeak, a British dish that combines potatoes and cabbage.
I had to promise the Prof that there would be no Haggis, but maybe Bangers and Mash..?

We started with corned beef on Sunday. From the left-overs, I made a family favorite: Gimme-More-Pie, my own invention, and named by a bunch of kids calling "Gimme more pie" at the dinner table several years ago...

Gimme More Pie
any good piecrust, doubled, so there's a top too!
left-over meat, cut into small pieces (roast beef or corned beef)
left-over vegetables, cut up (carrots, potatoes, other firm vegetables)
left-over gravy
onions, spices (garlic & onion powder, thyme, etc), salt & pepper

If I don't have enough left-overs to put into the pie, I add more as I cook this!
Saute onions, add vegetables and meat, spices, and gravy (if necessary, I cheat and use a gravy mix). Taste, and add spices as needed or desired. Let filling cool.
Prebake piecrust, if desired.
Fill pie and cover with extra crust. Cut slits for steam to escape (if you want to get fancy, cut our shapes with cookie cutter). Bake at 375 Fahrenheit until crust is done (approx 35-45 min).

Other main dish pies that come to mind are Shephard's Pie -- similar idea, but replace the topping with mashed potatoes (sometimes cheese is added).

Yorkshire Pudding
Bread-like accompaniment for British main meals. These are made from a batter similar to pancake batter (flour, eggs, milk) and cooked in hot grease or meat drippings. It really is very similar to what Americans call Popovers.
My recipe is:
1 cup flour
1 c milk
3 eggs, beaten
optional: grated cheese, such as Parmesan
salt
melted butter for muffin tins

Bake 1/2 hour in hot oven (400 F), no peeking!

Irish Stew
An Irish stew would have beef (or mutton) and lots of root crops: potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, turnips, etc.
Making stew is so easy, and so satisfying -- use good stock (see here for my post on homemade), and don't forget the bay leaves!

Irish Soda Bread
Soda Bread recipe from Recipesource.com

3      cups          Unbleached white flour
2      teaspoons     Baking powder
2      cups          Raisins
1      teaspoon      Baking soda
1                    Egg
1/2  teaspoon      Salt
1/2  cup           Honey
12      tablespoons   (1 1/2 sticks) sweet butter, cold
1      cup           Buttermilk

Makes 1 large loaf.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut
the butter into small pieces and add.  Cut it into the flour with a pastry
blender until the mixture is the size of peas. Add the raisins and toss to
distribute evenly, using two forks.

Beat the egg in another bowl until very frothy.  Beat in the honey. When
it is well blended, beat in the buttermilk.

Gradually pour the liquids into the flour, tossing all the while with a
fork so the mixture gets evenly moistened.  Continue tossing lightly with
two forks until the batter comes together; it doesn't have to be completely
mixed and should be very rough and lumpy.

Butter a heavy skillet or casserole, 10 to 11 inches in diameter and 2 to
3 inches deep.  Round is the traditional shape.  Spoon batter out into the
pan and push it gently to fill the pan.  It can mound up somewhat in the
middle.  Bake at 350 F about an hour or until the middle is set. Cut out a
piece to test if necessary.

Cut into wedges and serve warm from the pan.

The Garden Way Bread Book From the collection of Jim Vorheis

Menu for last week of October

2009-10-28T20:23:00.001-07:00

The theme seems to be potatoes & cabbage -- very proper for a blog by a "kraut".

Sunday: Corned Beef, with potatoes and green beans
Monday: White Bean soup with ham, biscuits
Tuesday: Gimme More Pie, mashed potatoes, braised kale
Wednesday: Salmon soup, Bubble & Squeak
Thursday: Beef Stew with Irish Soda Bread
Friday: Shepherd's Pie, cabbage & bacon
Saturday: Papa's cooking?

Hot German Potato Salad

2009-10-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend we're hosting our annual Oktoberfest to celebrate 2 family birthdays: 12 years ago our youngest pixie arrived exactly one week before her Papa's Birthday "the best Birthday present I ever got", as he's fond of telling his little girl!

Of course, there are about as many potato salad recipes in Germany as there are Germans, and they vary widely from region to region.
Here's a recipe from Paul Prudhomme's Seasoned America cookbook for
Hot German Potato Salad
seasoning mix:
1 t dry mustard
1 t onion powder
1 t garlic powder
1 t white pepper
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t salt

20 unpeeled small red new potatoes
4 hard-boiled eggs
8 slices bacon, chopped
1 c onion, chopped
1 c celery and/or bell peppers, chopped (my addition -- I like lots of veggies in this)
1/4 c flour
1 c chicken stock
3/4 c distilled vinegar
1/2 c sugar (I use a little less -- just check the taste as you make this)
1/2 c green onions or chives

Boil potatoes until just tender (about 5 minutes from when water starts to boil). Drain, cool and slice into large bowl.
Meanwhile, saute bacon. Remove bacon with slotted spoon, and saute onions & veggies.
Add seasoning mix and whisk in the flour. Slowly add the chicken stock (careful about splashing), vinegar, sugar. Stir and cook until thickened to desired consistency (Turn on the fan!)
Pour hot sauce over the potatoes and fold it in. Add chopped hardboiled eggs, reserved bacon and green onion/chives.
Best when served warm or at room temperature, not cold!

Goulash and Paprikash

2009-10-06T22:41:00.000-07:00

These are dishes of Hungarian origin, but Germans are fond of their Goulash and Paprikash dishes -- it's probably one of the more spicy ("sharf") dishes in a typical German housewife's repertoire, albeit not by cajun standards!

Goulash is typically made from beef, and does not contain much, if any tomato sauce. Rather, it's pieces of beef in a rich dark brown gravy generously spiced with paprika powder and other spices. Goulash can be made either as a soup or thick stew.
Paprikash, on the other hand, which can be made with chicken or even mushrooms, is reddish-pink from the addition of heavy cream or sour cream. Both dishes are often served with noodles -- I like to serve them over homemade spaetzle (click here for my recipe).

Beef Goulash
1-2 onions, finely chopped
oil or lard
2 pounds cubed beef
several cloves of garlic, minced
3+ T paprika powder
chili powder (to taste)
1 t thyme
beef stock or water, to cover
2-3 bay leaves
caraway seed (optional)
salt, pepper
root vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes)
oil and flour for making a roux, if desired
tad of tomato paste, if desired
wine or wine vinegar, if desired

Saute onions and set aside. Brown the beef in hot oil. Add spices, onions, garlic and cook for a few more minutes, then cover with stock or water. Add bay leaves, and caraway seed (crush first) if desired. Let cook on low for several hours --a crockpot is ideal.
In the last hour, add root vegetables -- potatoes especially will help thicken the stew.
If desired, make a dark roux to thicken. Taste and adjust hot spices, salt and pepper.

Chicken Paprikash
whole chicken, cut up
(alternatively 4 chicken breasts, cubed)
oil
spice rub for chicken:
1 tsp each salt, onion powder, thyme
1/2 tsp each garlic powder, basil, black and white pepper
2 onions, chopped
2 green peppers
1/4 c paprika powder
1 c tomato sauce or tomato paste and chicken stock
1/2 c sour cream or heavy cream

Rub the chicken with spice mix, then saute in oil until browned. Add vegetables and cook until translucent. Add remaining ingredients -- be sure to control the level of liquids by either not adding too much water, or evaporating by longer cooking.
Immediately before serving, fold in the cream.

Zwiebelkuchen (German onion tarte)

2009-10-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Zwiebelkuchen is a simple german vegetarian meal -- although it is often made with speck (saltpork or bacon).

It is often served at this time of the year, and is especially popular when the new wine, or "Moscht" comes out a few weeks after the grapes are crushed.
I like to use my Alaskan "Ulu" knife for cutting pizza and tartes.

Zwiebelkuchen (German onion tarte)
dough: use a yeast dough (same as for pizza)
Preheat pizza stone at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Topping: Saute 3-4 large onions in oil or bacon grease until translucent and caramelized, but not too brown. Place them on the pizza dough (with sides raised), and cover with custard topping:
blend together 2 eggs, 1/2 c cream or creme freche, salt, nutmeg and caraway (optional).

Bake 25-35 minutes until crust is golden brown and custard set. Serve with potatoes, salad and wine. Guten Appetit!

Menu for German Week (Oktoberfest)

2009-10-04T20:57:00.001-07:00

Sonntag: Zwiebelkuchen, Kartoffeln und Salat
Montag: Huehnchensuppe mit schwaebischen Eiernudeln, Roggenbroetchen, Selleriesalat
Dienstag: Paprikash mit Spaetzle, Gruener Salat
Sauerkraut mit Wurst und Kartoffeln, oder Himmel und Erde
Mittwoch: Goulash und Kartoffelknoedel, Gruener Salat, Rote Beete
Donnerstag: Linsensuppe mit Wurst, Vollkornbroetchen, Moehrensalat
Freitag: Sauerkraut mit Wurst und Kartoffeln, oder Himmel und Erde
Samstag: Koenigsberger Kloepse, Rotkohl und Kartoffeln

I'll be translating this gobbledigook, plus post recipes as the week goes by...

Oktoberfest!

2009-10-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm declaring this week's culinary theme to be German.
I've been negligent on writing on this blog for a while, busy with all kinds of stuff in preparation for Eldest daughter heading to Germany, where she's going to be catching the very end of Munich's Oktoberbest this weekend!

Here's a good saying that sums up food and drink in Germany:
"Iss, was gar ist,
trink, was klar ist,
und sprich, was wahr ist:" Translation:
Eat what is well cooked,
drink what is clear,
and speak what is true.

How do you describe German food? Well, there's my first husband's grumbling summary: "Everything is some sort of a product of fermentation: beer, bread, cheese, sauerkraut..." This same husband (yes, I do number them!) also did not care for the sad state of overcooked vegetables at my mother and grandmother's house.
Current husband (a.k.a. #2) is much more tolerant of German food, with the exception of chicken still on the bone when served. He still raves about the food and all the tortes served at my brother's wedding (an amazing assortment all baked by the bride's mother and her friends) -- they sure beat the pants off your run-of-the-mill american wedding cake, which is typically pretty to look at, but making up in sugariness what it lacks in flavor. But I digress...

Well, there's meat: what a variety just in sausages alone, and what a central part meat plays in German cuisine! There are vegetarians, of course, but most Germans, my own mom included, feel very strongly about the nutritional need for meat -- you need something to "stick to the ribs".

Bread, I daresay, has an even more central role than meat. Germans take their breads very seriously -- the variety is mind-boggling, and it's got to be fresh, made with whole grains, and have a decent crust on it: none of this squishy Wonderbread stuff. Can you tell I'm biased?!? To me, the lack of decent bread was the hardest thing to get used to when I moved to this country 3 decades ago -- american bread back then was truly appaling! But again, I digress...
Coldcuts of cheeses and meats arealways served with bread, and there's usually a wonderful variety...

Starches at the main meal of the day are either potatoes or some sort of noodles or Knoedel.
I still think of a "real" entree as consisting of a meat, starch and vegetable, perhaps accompanied by a sauce or gravy. Before the entree, there's a salad tossed with a simple oil & vinegar dressing, and after the entree, there's usually dessert (Nachtisch in German, which translates literally to After-table).

My daughter flies to Germany as I'm writing this, and my thoughts are there as wel. So I shall get out the German cookbooks. Time to set aside garlic and Louisiana Hot Sauce, and get out the mustard and horseradish -- and serve us up some Wuerstli!

Filling for Humitas

2009-10-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

Been searching for a good recipe for the corn-pudding-like filling for humitas, which I recently declared as one of my favorite childhood foods from Chile.

Humitas are basically vegetarian versions of mexican tamales, and I found this recipe for the filling at a website called Rickcooks.com

This is a sweet and savory, creamy corn filling used in the Chilean tamal called humita, and the casserole called pastel de choclo. It employs a Chilean sweet corn called choclero which I believe is unknown in the U.S. Choclero is distinguished by its stout ears and fat, semi-milky kernels. It is harvested just as the kernels have reached maximum size and turned from white to golden yellow. The popular American sweet corn hybrids are characterized by long, slender ears, and small, very sweet, milky kernels. This recipe has been adapted to account for the extra sweetness and moisture of American sweet corn, primarily by the addition of polenta. (In Chile, the cornmeal, or grits, made from the choclero is called chuchoca, which is Chilean polenta.)

Buy the corn fresh and unhusked, if possible. Reserve the husks for the humitas.

You will have to play with the milk and polenta to acheive the right consistency. It all depends on the moisture content of the corn. Some chocleros are so dry, a cup of milk (and no polenta) will be necessary, while fresh American silver queen may require no milk and up to a cup of polenta. You can even use both, and you won't do any damage.

6 large ears of corn
2 shallots, chopped
8 leaves of fresh basil, finely chopped
1 t salt
3 T butter
½-1 c milk, or
½-1 c polenta or cornmeal, depending on kernel consistency

Remove kernels from ears of corn using a grater. Or cut off kernels with a knife and process very briefly in a food processor (do not liquefy). Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan and sauté the chopped shallots.
Add the corn, chopped basil, and salt, and cook over medium heat, stirring. If the mixture is too dry, add the milk little by little, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. The amount will depend on the moisture content of the corn. Stop adding milk when the mixture begins to lose consistency.
If too soupy, add the polenta gradually, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. It should be creamy, not soupy nor thick. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes, let cool, and chill overnight.

Another recipe on the internet added squash, bell peppers and parmesan cheese.

Also: if substituting frozen corn kernels, use about 3-4 cups.

Viva Chile!

2009-09-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

As a child I spent six wonderful years living in Chile. This week Chileans celebrate Dieciocho on the 18th, which commemorates when Chile gained Independence from Spain.
My childhood memories of the Dieciocho holiday involve our family cramming into our little Volkswagen Beetle and driving to the countryside for a long weekend to celebrate with friends. Chilean flag were decorating everything, there were parades and dancing, and we would stop at the roadside to buy empanadas or humitas (steamed packets of corn pudding encased in corn husks), -- this was my absolute favorite food , seconded only by corn on the cob-- imagine my disappointment when we moved back to Germany, where corn is not sweet, and fed to pigs! I missed corn so much that I'd beg my mom to buy baby corn in cans, the only form of corn ever eaten there... but I digress...

Here are some other wonderful foods that I remember from my childhood:

Empanadas, meats fresh off the grill, queso fresco, pastel de Choclo (a meat and corn casserole), porotos granados (Bean-vegetable stew), and dulce chileno (a sweet), and of course lots and lots of seafood, such as congrio and langostinos.

Here are some recipes, most are taken from South American cooking by Barbara Karoff

Empanadas
any good piecrust or flaky pastry (2 c.flour, 1 c lard, salt, icewater)
Filling:
1/2 # ground beef
olive oil, onions, garlic
3-6 serrano or jalapeno chilies
1 T ground cumin
Salt, pepper
2 T parsley
2 T cilantro
2 tomatoes
1/2 c raisins
pimiento-stuffed olives, cut in half

Saute all ingredients (except the olives), let cool.
Roll out approx 20 circles of dough. Place 1/2 olive and spoonful filling. Seal w/ tines of fork.
Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Pastel de Choclo
The filling can be either ground beef (similar to empanadas above, with raisins and olives), or chicken, or both.
Topping:
6 c corn kernels (freshly grated, or frozen kernels processed in food processor)
1/3 c milk
1 egg,
1 t sugar (optional) for sprinkling on top

Bake in a casserole dish, with the topping spread over the meat.
I like to serve this with rice, but potatoes would be authentic too.

photo credit:
http://www.allsouthernchile.com

September Menu (South of the Border)

2009-09-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

This week we're heading SOUTH - to Chile in South America where I grew up, by way of Mexico and other Central/South American dishes.

Sun: Carne asada, black beans, rice, tomatoes, avos, all rolled up in a tortilla
Mon: White chili, corn muffins, salad
Tues: eat out -lessons
Wed: empanadas, porotos granados
Thurs: Pastel de Choclo (*)
Fri - Sun: they're on their own while I'm in Homer on a mini-vacation with Eldest daughter.

Greek cooking

2009-09-09T22:42:00.001-07:00

What image does Greek cooking bring to your mind?
To me, it's colorful, delicious food: lots of feta cheese & yoghurt, olives and olive oil, tons of vegetables (sun-ripened tomatoes, cucumbers & eggplant, which I love), stuffed grapeleaves, wine, and, of course, garlic!

In college I once met a Greek student, and what I remember most vividly is the smell of GARLIC seeming to come from every pore! A bit overwhelming for a German who grew up in a garlic-phobic home, and at first I pitied his girlfriend, but then I realized it was the wonderful food she fixed that caused his unique odor -- I'm sure they'll both live to be 110 years old!

SO, on to Greek cuisine.
Of course, I've got to make Moussaka, the traditional casserole of ground meat, eggplant (or other veggies such as zuccini, potatoes) covered with a bechamel white sauce and cheese, au gratin.

THEN, there are some wonderful Greek chicken recipes, often marinaded in lemon juice, then baked surrounded with vegetables. I know this wonderful greek recipe for a lemony chicken egg-drop soup, but I think I might spare my son who feels fervently about eggs not belonging in soup...

Here's an intreguing chicken dish I might just have to try:
Chicken with a cream sauce flavored w/ ouzo

1/2 pound of skinless chicken breasts
2/3 cup of carrots, coarsely grated
2/3 cup of zucchini, coarsely grated
6 1/2 tablespoons of heavy cream
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of ouzo (or other anize-flavored liqueur)
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Preparation:

Cut the chicken into large square chunks.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. When hot, add the chicken and sauté for 4 minutes. Add the carrots and zucchini and continue to sauté 3 minutes longer. Add the ouzo, cream, salt, and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes more until the sauce melds.

Next, I found these recipe on a "A Dash of Life", who writes about her life as a doctor in Greece, and wrote several interesting posts about the greek cooking and benefits of olive oil. Since I adore leeks (and grew some for the first time in my garden this year), I've got to try these!

Prasoryzo (Rice with leeks, tomatoes and lemon)

This is supposedly served alot all over Greece, a sort of "comfort food". I changed the recipe slightly from the original (I was pressed for time), and it turned out yummy, albeit perhaps not quite authentic.

Olive oil (I used my homemade garlic-infused, see recipe here*)
Leeks, cut up
water
chicken buillon cubes, or stock
stewing tomatoes from can (I skipped these)
rice (I used brown rice I had already cooked)
Salt & pepper to taste
Lemon juice

Saute leeks in olive oil. Add water and/or chicken stock and rice. Watch water level-- don't let it boil dry. Add lemon juice immediately before serving (tastes ok without lemon too!)

photo credit: http://www.greekrestaurant.com

September menu (Greek week)

2009-09-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

The mediterranean theme is continuing this week -- too good to move away from, esp. with missing several days with us gone camping over the long weekend (Labor Day)...

Mon: return from camp trip -- threw together a meal of grilled meat (carne asada), baked potatoes, mess of greens, and freshly-grated carrots from Liesl's garden!
Tues: eat out at Nino's (lessons in Anchorage)
Wed: chicken-orzo soup w/ fennel, Greek-style burgers w/ onions & feta, fresh tomatoes, salad
Thurs: Indian Take-out (let's just say it was a CRAZY day!)
Friday: Prasoryzo (leeks & rice), Greek-style baked chicken, greens
Sat: Moussaka w/ potatoes and eggplant
Sun: something on the grill or Chicken w/ ouzo and cream sauce over rice, steamed veggies

Menu for September (Italian Week)

2009-09-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff from the garden is going into our dinners now.
Carrots, potatoes, kale, and even zuccinis are producing well right now. And the tomatoes growing in containers on the porch are ripening too -- yummy!

This week is Italian week. A nice change of pace and less work for me than last week's menu.

Mon: BBQ ribs, new potatoes in cream sauce, fried zuccini, tomato & mozarella salad
Tues: Baked ziti w/ veggies and pepperoni, cucumber & tomatoes w/ oil & balsamic vinegar
Wed: Lasagna, sauteed kale, green salad
Thurs: Spaghetti w/ Clamsauce, broccoli, carrot salad
Fri: Pizza at Moose's Tooth
Sat: Camping over Labor Day Weekend!
Pasta w/ kale, soup & panini w/ pastrami & provolone