Kimchi Soup

More adventures with kimchi!

I looked at a bunch of different recipes and then mostly worked off of this one, because it struck me that the addition of a little miso and mirin might help compensate for the lack of pork in my (vegetarian) version.

I made a lot more than the quantity in the recipe (as usual) and added a bunch of CSA veggies (also as usual!) that just needed to get eaten.  I think this would be lovely as a simple brothy soup, so I'm not necesarily exhorting anyone to do the veggie-packing thing, but my fridge has a truly intimidating stockpile in it and CSA day is coming around again soon!  (That said, this tasted very nice with the additions.)

So I know that all of my soups basically look the same in photos (warm-colored broth with veggies and tofu floating in it?  Again?).  But this taste is completely new for me and just amazing.  The kimchi mellows in the soup, and although I added plenty of Vietnamese chili-garlic sauce (not having any Korean chili powder on hand), the flavor was bright and tangy and not too burn-y for my timid (but improving!) tastebuds.

There, I think that is a record use of parens even from me.  So!  The Soup!

Ingredients:
8 cups water
2 cups kimchi
1 onion, chopped
5 tsp chopped garlic
1 bell pepper or large, mild hot pepper, chopped

1 small eggplant, cut into dice
1 package extra firm tofu, cut into dice
Whatever other veggies you need to use up, if any, chopped - zucchini, mushrooms, any greens...
3 TB butter
3 TB miso paste
3 TB mirin
1 TB soy sauce
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Ginger paste
Chili sauce or powder, or Sriracha, or what-have-you
4 sliced green onions

1.  Start by sauteeing onion, garlic, and green pepper in 2 TB butter.  When they soften, add kimchi (leaving behind its juice for now), eggplant, and other firm veggies.  Sautee a few more minutes, then add water, kimchi juice, miso paste, mirin, and soy sauce.

2.  Once broth gets to boiling, taste, and add ginger paste and chili sauce to taste, plus more miso/mirin/soy sauce (and/or salt) if needed.  You'll probably want one 1 TB or more of chili sauce.

3.  Boil until eggplant is nearly translucent, then add (1) any leafy greens that just need a little cook time, and finally (2) tofu, green onions, last TB butter, and lime juice.   Taste and adjust flavors again, and serve with rice.

Caramelized Kimchi Scrambled Eggs

For about a week now, as everyone has probably heard, it has rained like I've never seen in Denver.  It's like the summer of 2005 in New York when the subways kept flooding and the whole city was just streaming with water.  (Needless to say, things are a lot worse than just rainy in a lot of the communities surrounding us, and I'm grateful that the rain has stayed out of our basement, our roof has held up, and we've been home safe and dry throughout.)

The extra moisture has apparently led to some oversized veggies from our CSA, like last week's giant cabbage, which I took as my cue to finally make kimchi (I also included cucumbers, peppers, young leeks, and easter egg radishes from the CSA).  

When it was ready to eat, I wanted to do something a little more special than just rice (even though I'm sure that will be a frequent meal till we eat it all).  This was just the ticket - flavorful comfort food on a rainy night:

Ingredients: 

1-1.5 cups kimchi, plus more on the side 

Black rice 

4 eggs

1 TB milk

4 TB sugar

2 TB white vinegar

1 TB soy sauce

All you do is:  Mix the kimchi (1 to 1.5 cups - eyeball it; it depends how tightly packed they are and how much you like), sugar, vinegar and soy sauce.  In another bowl, whisk up 3 eggs and the yolk of the fork, plus the milk.  

Heat a frying pan up to high heat, add the kimchi mixture, cover with a lid, and watch it carefully for the liquid to caramelize - about 5 minutes (don't let it burn!).  

Once sticky, pour the egg mixture in, and scramble, stirring constantly until the eggs seem just a little bit runny.  (My brother-in-law, who makes the most amazing scrambled eggs, taught me the trick is to stop then, because they'll keep cooking once you turn off the heat.)  

Eat with rice and more kimchi.  Amazing.

Tomato Cucumber Salad with Middle Eastern Yogurt Dressing

Chop up 2 cups each cucumbers and tomatoes.   Dress with:

2 finely chopped chiles 

skin of 1/2 preserved lemon, finely chopped

chopped parsley and mint

juice of 1 lemon

1 cup good plain yogurt

plenty of salt
dash of olive oil

Frozen Yogurt

I've been experimenting with making yogurt and as a result we had a big container of Fage that wasn't getting eaten.  That led me to Heidi's frozen yogurt recipe.  I can't say that I've ever had better!

Ridiculous Camping Food: Grilled Strawberry Shortcake

Tastes like freaking heaven.  Involves simply this:  Buy an angel food cake at the store (or make one yourself).  Slice and grill with halved strawberries in a frying pan over the camp fire.  Serve w/whipped cream.  Die happy.

Lemon Ricotta Waffles

This is one of those reposting-in-its-entirety moments, because this recipe is perfect.

[Picture please, Annalise!]

Grilled Peach Panzanella

Here is a summary of this lengthy recipe, which you should make because it involves chewy grilled bread, velvety grilled peaches, fresh cherry tomatoes, and basil, like so:

[Annalise is going to add the picture she took here!  She is visiting me and does not approve of my usual, crappy, overly-zoomed-in iphone pics.]

Ingredients:
One loaf of ciabatta or similar (the pop-it-in-your-oven kind from King Soopers is A-OK)
4 large peaches
2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes (or whatever tomatoes)
5 TB citrus-infused olive oil
3 TB apple cider vinegar
2 shallots
1 clove garlic
Large handful fresh basil
Salt & pepper & sugar

1.  Combine vinegar, finely sliced shallot, and a pinch each of salt and sugar and set aside.

2.  Halve or chop tomatoes, toss in 3 TB olive oil + salt + finely sliced garlic clove, and set aside.

3.  Slice bread loaf in half horizontally (so you separate the top of the loaf from the bottom of the loaf).  Brush with 1 TB oil, salt, and place on grill to toast.  When toasted, chop or tear into bite-sized pieces; toss with vinegar mixture, then with tomato mixture.

4.  Slice up peaches, toss in last TB olive oil + salt, and grill.  Once nicely roasted, toss them into the rest of the ingredients, add the basil (chopped), more salt and pepper if needed, and eat.  

Squash Tacos with Roasted Tomatoes and Cucumber Slaw

This was a CSA-user-upper kind of dinner, which I ate twice (once with spouse, once with mom and little sis!).  It tasted just fine.

Ingredients:

Tacos

2-3 summer squashes
2 small onions
1-2 jalapenos
2 ears of corn
Small head of garlic
2 TB butter
Cumin, cayenne, salt
4 medium-large garden tomatoes
Corn tortillas
Feta or queso fresco or goat cheese

Slaw

Fresh garden cucumbers
half a jalapeno
Small red onion
Juice of 4 limes
1-2 tsp chili paste
2 tsp fish sauce
1 TB brown sugar
Salt

Sides
Spanish rice & black beans

For the taco filling:

Dice the onion and squash into corn-sized pieces, the jalapenos a bit smaller, and cut the corn off the cob.  Melt butter in a skillet.  Add the onion and jalapeno, and cook over medium-low heat until they start to get soft.  (Don't let them start browning yet.)  When onions are getting soft, add squash and corn and spice with cumin, cayenne and salt.  Then just let it all cook until the veggies barely start to brown.

Meanwhile, put the head of garlic in the oven or toaster at 325 to soften it.  For the tomatoes, halve them and put them under the broiler to roast - keep your eye on them so they don't get too blackened.  Towards the end of the veggies' cooking time, peel the softened garlic and mash or chop it into the mix (depending how soft it is).

Serve each taco with 2 tomato halves, a scoop of filling, and feta.

For the slaw (served on the side or in the tacos):

Cut cucumbers (I had 3 small ones) into small slices.  Cut jalapeno and a small quantity of onion paper-thin.  Mix up the other ingredients in a bowl to dissolve sugar in lime juice, then toss everything together (putting them in a tupperware and shaking them up works well), adjusting quantities to taste.  Even better the next day.

Drop Biscuit Cobbler with Blackberries & Strawberries (Gluten Free)

Baking used to be something I did when I needed to be soothed. But this year, the things happening are beyond the edges of any kind of self-soothing. This year is full of things that make you unable to swallow anything for days, things that creep up and hit you just as you are relaxing into a meal, things that are wretched and disgusting and horrifying and make you drop the spoon and try not to choke on the back of your own throat.

And so I haven't baked since the holidays. 

This isn't a very good way to sell a recipe. I suppose we might all be better off right now if I had decided to gush about how baking is therapeutic, or given you a hyper-filtered photo of bubbling dough and oozing berries with a caption about making peace in the midst of grief and confusion. But though I've mustered a cobbler, I can't quite muster happy. This is all I've got. Everything is shitty but somehow I made a great cobbler. 

Gluten-Free Blackberry Strawberry Cobbler

As the NY Times informed us well over a week ago, the line between cobbler and buckle and crumble and all other bready desserts with baked fruit is fluid, even contentious. In my family, cobbler has historically been made with a batter that is poured over berries in a clean sheet, then baked into a thick, golden layer of pancake-like doughiness that invades the depths of the fruit underneath. 

This cobbler is different, topped instead with drop biscuits that form a raggedy, discontinuous crust that sinks down into the fruit but does not encase the berries. 

Ingredients

1 bag Pamela's Gluten Free Biscuit and Scone Mix* 

8 tablespoons cold butter

1 tablespoon honey

1-1/4 cup milk

*You can of course substitute any drop biscuit recipe here; you'll need 8-12 biscuits. If you are looking to make gfree drop biscuits from scratch, Shauna Ahern has several recipes on her site glutenfreegirl.com. 

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons gluten free flour (any kind, all purpose is best but others will be fine)

2 pints strawberries, tops removed and quartered

1.5 pints blackberries

Preheat your oven to 400 F. In a deep 9 inch baking dish (I used ceramic but glass is fine), toss your berries with 2/3 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons gluten free flour. Set aside. Prepare your drop biscuits following whatever recipe you are using. If you are using the Pamela's mix, this means using a pastry blender to cut in the butter until it forms pea-sized pieces, then incorporating the milk by hand. I added a little honey because I wasn't sure how sweet the dough was going to be. Drop biscuit-sized scoops onto the top of your berries--this can be quite haphazard--and bake for 25-30 minutes until berries are oozing and your biscuits are browned. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream. 

Fourth of July Pie

Last summer, I did a terrible thing. I made lots of pies and I never shared them on this little bloggy.

Luckily, it's never too late to share a recipe, so just in time for you to run to the store and get ingredients  to whip up the most fitting dessert for tomorrow's holiday (or, really, any holiday at all), I'll start to share them.

Last year on the Fourth I threw together a quick, easy and patriotic pie.  It's more giant-pile-of-berries-and-cream-and-crust that I made look pretty, but it's so worth it.  5 steps to messy, good-looking magic.

Ingredients:
1 pre-baked pie crust
Extra pie dough for cutouts
6 cups blueberries and strawberries, sugared (raspberries could work, too)
Whipping cream
Vanilla extract

The Steps:

1. Toss cleaned and hulled berries in sugar.
2. Whip up some cream. 
3. Pour berries into baked pie shell.
4. Top with whipped cream.
5. Cut out star shapes from extra dough, bake and coat with cinnamon sugar.  Place on whipped cream.

Happy 4th everyone!

Fava Beans with Tomatoes and Toasted Bread

It's confession time.

As the baby sister on this blog, I have an embarrassing childhood nickname to admit to (thanks to S, and her active childhood imagination) in order to fully explain the significance  of me eating beans tonight. The nickname, in its most basic form, was, well, Bean.

More of a name replacement than a nickname in actuality, throughout the years it received variations of Beanie, Beaners, Beanalise, and perhaps the most embarrassing as thought of by my HS XC coach, Beanalicious. My grandfather used to tell me to call my sisters Asparagus and Broccoli in retaliation, but they never had quite the same ring to them.

The only positive that embarrassed-kid-version-of-me found in this family name was that it could be used to bolster my arguments against certain foods and help me stubbornly hang on to my pickiness. If any form of bean were set in front of me, I would say"I can't eat that, it's cannibalism!" quite smugly.

I'm hear to share is because I, Beanalise, not only consumed beans tonight (gasp!) but also cooked them for myself.

it helps that the beans were in this delicious dish 

Of course, this recipe and trying of beans was not my own doing, like most of the dishes that have led to the demise of my finicky habits. (such as the salad my grandmother made me my freshman year of college), but was Katelyn's. I won't say that I am a fully converted bean-eater just yet, but this Bean has both spilled the (nickname) beans and eaten them. This dish is perfectly fresh, bright, flavorful, and filling.

(The simplicity of this recipe means I am going to share it in an equally simple form, as well as give an insight into how recipe sharing goes in this family- quick text messages about that-one-time-you-made-beans-and-I-actually-ate-them. Here's a screen shot, ha)

Watermelon Feta Quinoa Salad

I've been meaning to make this for around a year, since Annalise emailed a similar recipe to Katelyn and I with the comment, "Look!  A recipe we would all like!" I finally saw some great watermelons at the store today, and although I'm not generally a huge fan, it makes this salad really refreshing.  Tastes like summer!  :)

2 cups (dry) rainbow quinoa, cooked
1/4 of a watermelon, chopped
7 oz feta, crumbled

Vinaigrette:
1/4 cups finely chopped fresh mint leaves
2 VERY finely chopped scallions (be careful, cold salads get oniony-er over time)
Lemon olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, tiny squirt of mustard to emulsify, tiny squirt of honey, pinch salt.

(And I just now realized I posted this right after another quinoa recipe.....!!)

Honey Glazed Carrots with Golden Tomatoes and Garlicky Quinoa

K was right when she said that we sisters love quinoa.   This is a recipe from a few nights ago that I was reminded to post when a blog search with the word "quinoa"  turned up a variety of results.  It's a bit of a spin on basic idea of the Curried Pineapple Quinoa I posted recently, so my apologies if you begin to feel quinoa-ed out (I have a warm-salad-with-quinoa-recipe I will also be posting soon).  I love how many different spins this grain can have, and was pleased that this recipe that I threw together was equally delicious as its inspiration, yet entirely different.

I bought some carrots from a farmer's market, and figured their farm fresh glory deserved to shine in a dish built for them.  Remembering how simple the curried quinoa was, I tweaked it, replaced spices, found a great carrot recipe which I also tweaked, and tossed it together to create this:
For Quinoa:
1 1/2 cups veggie or chicken broth

3/4 cup quinoa

2 teaspoons lemon garlic spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Lemon zest

Lemon juice

For tomatoes:

A quarter of a red onion

1 clove garlic, minced

About 1/2 pint golden cherry tomatoes

For the carrots: 

1 bunch carrots

1 small head garlic, halved

Coarse salt

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons honey

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Bring broth, quinoa, lemon garlic spice powder, salt, and pepper to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. 

Dice onion and sauté with garlic and olive oil for a few minutes.  Toss in as many cherry tomatoes as you like.  Sauté until onion is tender and cherry tomatoes have cooked down until they begin to char and burst.

Place carrots and garlic in a separate pan, salt and cover with water. Simmer about 10 minutes or until tender. Remove carrots and garlic, and set aside, clean pan. Heat to medium high. Add oil, honey, rosemary, and 1 tablespoon water and cook until bubbling. Add carrots and garlic and cook, stirring, until coated and slightly caramelized, about 5 minutes.

Combine quinoa, carrots and tomatoes and enjoy.

Indian-Spiced Black Lentil Soup

This is one of those times when I really really don't want to let a recipe slip away from me, so I'm reposting it even though I have nothing really useful to add.  If you hit an unseasonable cold streak, or crave Indian food and live in a city without much of it, or don't know what to do with a bag of black lentils, trust me, this is the answer.  

Avocado Kale Salad with Roasted Chicken, Radishes, Sweet Corn, Grapes, and Hazelnuts

Alright, this is a ridiculously long title. But these ingredients went so well together that I didn't have the heart to leave any of them off.

I made this delightful salad to complete a baby shower spread for one of my dearest friends. We also served this quiche; a cheese spread with honey goat gouda, blueberry goat cheese, wine-soaked syrah, white apricot stilton, and sharp cheddar; a mix of hazelnuts, almonds, and pistachios toasted with sea salt and rosemary; chocolate covered strawberries; grapes and tangerines; cake; and some delightful drink that involved grapefruit bitters.

Everything But Kale Salad

Unfortunately in the photos I didn't capture the salad, but you can see the rest of the table. The quiche cooks up beautifully even when you use skim milk rather than cream.

Despite its somewhat unorthodox ingredients, this salad was much enjoyed.

Please do note that I made this for more than thirty people and thus can't really provide exact amounts for a smaller salad. In the notes below I've given loose guidance for a salad to serve five.

Ingredients

Kale
Chicken
Radishes
Raw Sweet Corn
Grapes

Hazelnuts (pistachios would also be amazing here; in one bowl I actually used both. If those are too
expensive, use sliced or blanched almonds)

Avocados

Notes
To serve five people, I usually use two big bundles of kale. If you are using  a whole-roasted chicken, use the best meat for this and judge accordingly. If not, I would recommend one big breast for a five person serving. One or two cobs of corn will be fine, again for a medium sized salad, and just buy one bunch of radishes and use to your preference. Be generous with the grapes and hazelnuts. I usually use two avos for a regular sized salad. 

Ingredient Prep and Assembly

Husk your corn and wash all vegetables

De-stem and chop your kale

Thinly slice your radishes

Saw the corn off of the cob

Slice grapes in half

Pit avos and cut in half

Shred chicken

After everything is cleaned and prepped, I begin by massaging my kale with the avocado. This can be a bit laborious, but is absolutely necessary. Massage until your kale is tender and there are very few whole avo pieces remaining. Then, add your radishes, corn, grapes, chicken, and hazelnuts, pistachios, or other nuts of choice. Toss well. 

Dressing Suggestions

For the bridal shower, I made a mustardy dressing that I unfortunately didn't document. The basic ingredients and process went like this: 

Whisk a generous amount of whole-grain mustard with 1/4 cup of olive oil. Add lemon juice, brown sugar, and sea salt to taste. You can substitute the lemon juice for apple cider vinegar or the juice of an orange. Start with small amounts and work up in increments until you find a nice balance of acidity, sweetness, and saltiness. 

This would also be great with a homemade buttermilk dressing! When I make a homemade buttermilk, I usually combine 1/2 cup or so buttermilk with several tablespoons greek yogurt or sour cream, lemon juice, and sea salt. You may need a splash of olive oil to get to the right consistency.

Considerations for food ethics and allergies: Using the mustard-based dressing, I made a vegan version of this by omitting the chicken; it was still hearty and delicious. If you are concerned with protein, consider adding chickpeas. Gluten free. Dairy free unless you use the buttermilk dressing.

Ed. 5/19/13 (by Sarah):  Here is a picture of the salad as I made it this weekend!

Curried Pineapple Chicken Quinoa

Whenever a friend asks me to "teach" them to cook, I feel at a loss because I am not quite sure how to do so.  Teach them lingo?  Tell them what the different types of knives are? Tell them how to cut different fruits and vegetables? The one thing I consistently come back to is sharing that the best way to learn to cook is to follow recipe after recipe until you learn what works, and then you will eventually learn to vary them slowly, until you one day will feel able to develop your own recipe.  You have to learn the rules so that you can break them. This year I have found myself more often than any other ever googling recipes with ingredients I have on hand, considering, adjusting, and making things outside of my tried-and-true basics.

Tonight, I had pineapple and I had quinoa. I googled and found a few different recipes, but ultimately decided upon this one, which I found here. I followed the beginning and changed it up near the end. Being the resident carnivore on this blog (even as my title has officially been changed to Happy Omnivore),  I also grilled up some chicken and added it in as well, though it would have been just as delicious without.  I served mine hot rather than cold, so here is the recipe I landed upon, with which I was quite happy.

1 1/2 cups veggie or chicken broth
3/4 cup quinoa
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup pineapple chunks

A quarter of a red onion

1 chicken breast

Bring broth, quinoa, curry powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. 

Dice onion and sauté with olive oil until tender.  Add bite sized pieces of chicken seasoned with more curry, pepper, salt and garlic to your taste. Sauté until almost cooked through, add pineapple chunks.  Let the chicken cook in the juices until fully cooked, and pineapple is softened.

Mix chicken and pineapple with cooked quinoa, serve hot.

"Ricotta"

In quotes b/c I have no idea if this is how one actually makes ricotta.  But you can't beat the level of effort:

Bring 1/2 a gallon of whole milk and a cup of cream to a boil with 1/2 a tsp of salt.  As soon as it reaches a rolling boil, toss in 4 TB fresh lemon juice, bring down to a simmer, and stir for a minute or two to make sure everything curdles.  (Fascinating!)  Drain in a cheesecloth-coated strainer for an hour.  Keep the whey for smoothies if you're into that kind of thing.  Eat.

Spring Pasta with Grapes, Ricotta, Parsley and Grilled Bread

I mean.... I don't even know what to say if I didn't have you at "grapes, ricotta, parsley and grilled bread."  Swoon.  (This recipe is kind of an entree-scale flavor rip-off of this one, btw.)

Ingredients:
1 bunch asparagus (I used purple!)
Sugar snap peas
Thin spinach pasta
1 bunch red grapes, halved
1.5 cups ricotta
1/2 a bunch of parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Lemon olive oil
Crusty bread cut into crouton-sized chunks
Salt
Lemon juice

In a large frying pan, heat olive oil (lemon flavored if possible) on high heat.  Chop snowpeas in half and chop asparagus spears into small bite-sized pieces.  Toss those and some salt into the hot oil, cover, and cook on high heat until very tender, shaking the entire pan occasionally to prevent burning.

Meantime, get your pasta water boiling, and whenever it boils, make your pasta.  Preheat oven to 225 so that whatever gets done first can go into a big serving bowl to stay warm.  When pasta is done, drain, toss with a bit more olive oil to prevent sticking, and put in bowl in oven.

Add veggies to bowl when they are done.  Use frying pan (without rinsing), with a little additional oil and salt if needed, to grill chunks of bread - not as hard as for croutons, but somewhere in the middle! Set bread aside to top each bowl of pasta.

Finally, use same pan, with more oil if needed, to grill grape halves and parsley.  The grapes should give off juice and become slightly translucent.  Toss them into pasta bowl before they lose shape.

Finish by tossing in ricotta, salt and lemon juice to taste, and top each bowl with bread chunks.

Chiles Rellenos

Turns out it is extremely fun to make chiles rellenos at home.... don't believe me?  Behold:

There, now that you are completely persuaded....

You will need a poblano for each person you are feeding, some kind of gas flame (gas stove? flame thrower? welding torch?  gas grill?  broiler? sky's the limit here, really), and the following (for 4 poblanos):

3 cups shredded Jack cheese
salt & pepper

4 eggs, room temperature
another 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup evil vegetable oil

That is ALL!

Now for the harder parts.

First, you need to blister your chiles, like you see above.  Basically putting them right in the gas flame and turning them with tongs every so often worked out just dandy.  They snap and crackle as you roast their skins, it is jolly good fun!  Takes awhile though, so leave some time.

When they are black on the outside and tender, take them away from the gas.  Split each one up the side and carefully remove the seeds without ripping the pepper anywhere else, and rub the outer blackened skin off.  Then season with salt & pepper and stuff with cheese.

Second, you need to mix up your batter.   Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites with salt until stiff peaks form. Mix the yolks up with a fork, then gently ever so gently fold them into the whites.  Voila!

Now, heat the oil in a large frying pan.  The internet teacheth that the oil is hot when you put a wooden spoon handle in it and it sizzles.  When hot, here's what you do:

Make a chile-sized little island of batter in the oil.  Flatten it a little with wooden spoon and then let it brown some.  When it seems like it will hold its shape, gently plop a chile atop it.  Start another little island going.  When the first one (the chile-containing island) is brown enough to eat, flip the whole thing over on top of Island #2, so that now the chile is totally encased in batter, and let that brown until it matches the topside.  Then, put that chile on a metal rack and stick it into a 250 degree oven.

Do the same with yr remaining chiles, bake them a bit longer all together, and eat with delicious toppings!

English Pea Risotto

I found some English peas at the store awhile ago and this seemed the only proper thing to do with them!  It tasted like spring, and in particular, the mint flavor (from some very sharp dried spearmint) was really nice.

Finely chop a medium onion and sautee in butter until translucent.  Then add your arborio rice, cook it until the grains are chalky, add a big splash of white wine, and then add your broth in batches (for more detailed risotto instructions refer to google!!).

While the risotto cooks, bring the shelled peas to a boil in a saucepan, boil for 2 minutes, drain and bathe in ice water, then drain again.  When the risotto is done, add the peas, salt, pepper, finely grated parmesan to taste, perhaps a splash more white wine, and 2 tsp finely ground dried mint (or to taste depending on how strong your mint is - be cautious as too much mint would not be a good thing!).  

West African Peanut Stew, Revisited

So we've been down this road before, using a recipe that was just way too peanut buttery.  One night this week, I asked Chris if he had any dinner requests, and he emailed me.... the exact same too-peanut-buttery West African Peanut Stew recipe.  But luckily for us, Katelyn suggested a similar but much better recipe in the comments after the first go-round, so I turned the that one for inspiration, and it was fantastic.   I messed with quantities some, so here's what I did with it:

1.  Dice an onion and 2 small sweet potatoes into very small dice.  Toss them into some coconut oil on medium-high heat to soften.  When they are close, add 2 tsp of diced garlic as well.

2.  Add 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes, 1 can drained chickpeas, 6 cups veg broth, 4 TB natural peanut butter,  2 TB coconut milk, a squirt of ginger from a tube, 1 TB each red curry and garam masala, 2 tsp cayenne, and 1 tsp cinnamon, and some torn kale if you like your vitamins.  Simmer till done.

It's spicy, brothy, savory, and a total winner - thanks sister!  

Brussels Sprouts & Orecchiette

Another way to use your roasted brussels sprouts:

First roast the sprouts - toss them in a lot of oil and salt and bake at 315 for a very long time (I did mine for two hours, but they were whoppers).  When they are dark and crispy on the outside, remove from the oven. 

Boil a bag of orecchiette while toasting pine nuts and  a container of baby tomatoes in the toaster.  Chop all the roasted sprouts into quarters.  When the pasta is done, toss it all together with some grated nutty white cheese.  You want about the same amount of sprouts as of pasta.  

Lemony Wild Rice & Brussels Sprouts

Tonight I roasted brussels sprouts like this (halve; toss in lemon olive oil and tons of salt; bake at 315 for about an hour) and tossed them with northern wild rice (the kind with the super long, black grains), the juice of a meyer lemon, and grated aged gouda.  Super satisfying on a snowy night.

Grandma's Fresh Lemon Pie

One of the things I love about food is the connections it creates between people.  Around Christmas I wrote about how our family celebrations center on food, but that is just one of the many ways that food keeps us close.  Another way I have been thinking about lately is that food connects us throughout generations- a family recipe can be passed down, and members from different time periods, geographic locations and more can enjoy the same comforting taste.  For example, a shared love of cooking connects me to our Grandmother, even though she and I couldn't lead more different lives.

Grandma is something of a legend in the kitchen.  She grew up during the Depression and raised three children in the post-WWII era on a military income, but still found ways to create recipes using the cheapest meat that were delicious enough to be passed down as family recipes to this day.  Having moved to Arizona for my college days, I have been lucky to be the benefactor of her talents in many ways.  First, as a lonely freshman living off of cafeteria food, I could drive a mere twenty minutes down the road and be certain to be filled with home-cooked, mouthwatering food, as well as lots of love and good conversation.  Second, as I have slowly developed into a cook myself, I've been hoping that if cooking magic is not genetically inherited, it would rub off on me by spending time in her kitchen. Over the years I have been working on gathering family recipes from her (to be sure they are passed down). This isn't as easy as it seems. Grandma has what she likes to call a "one-butt kitchen" (meaning there's not much room for an apprentice-or another master, for that matter). She also has her recipes so committed to memory that her sharing usually involves telling you to put "a bit of this and a dash of that and some of this other thing" in the oven "for about such-and-such amount of time", as most talented cooks tend to do.  My favorite part of getting recipes from her, however, is that each one comes with a story - this recipe came from this-old-friend, and they lived in such-and-such-place together and oh! how the children loved to go to their house and play.

I feel quite lucky, then, to have gotten her recipe for lemon pie for this citrus season.  I actually got this recipe from her twice (I was quite determined to have it in time for lemons) and it is evidence of how deeply rooted in her memory these recipes are that each version is slightly different, and evidence of her culinary skill that each is quite delicious.  I'll share one with you here.

With lemons picked from the tree in my yard (the thing that is currently bringing me the most happiness), this pie was bright and fresh in flavor, and only made more beautiful by my brand new pie pan that Sarah gave me for Christmas.  It was simple and quick to make, and today I called my Grandmother and we chatted about food for awhile and I thanked her for the recipe.  I'm so grateful to be connected to her in this way, and to have her nearby to continue teaching me about food and life and love.

Note: this recipe involves a microwave, but coming from a woman who makes everything from salad dressing to barbecue sauce from scratch, you better believe it truly makes no taste difference and is genuinely much easier this way.

Ingredients:

1 pie crust

for the lemon filling:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cup cold water
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp. butter

for the meringue:
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

for the filling:
Mix and cook sugar, cornstarch and water in microwave 3 minutes at a time.  Remove, stir, and cook again until thick.

Separate eggs, set whites aside.  Beat yolks with a whisk and add filling by spoonfuls until all together. Back in microwave for one minute.  Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice, stir, add melted butter, stir, add to baked pie shell.

for the meringue:
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff and glossy, add sugar and vanilla just at the end.  Meringue should stay in shape if a spoon is swept through it, or not fall off the back of a spoon held in the air.

Add meringue to top of pie, shape into peaks.  Bake for 10 min.

Coconut-Ginger Pork

...... Yes, I am the vegetarian sister.... or I have been for the past 10 years and 10 months.   After a lot of agonizing that I won't go into here, I am reintroducing meat, or at least trying to.  I'm a bit cooking-handicapped when it comes to meat, though, having learned to cook only after I gave it up.  Although this mostly tasted like PORK to me, Chris loved it, so here goes...... a meat recipe.  (It comes entirely from here.)

**Ed. 8/29/13:  I did not succeed in re-introducing meat.  Animals, you are safe from me!**

Buy a 3-4 pound pork shoulder, on the bone or off.  Rub it with a mixture of 2 tsp each coriander, cumin, salt and pepper.  Put it in the slow cooker with an onion and sweet potato cut in chunks; 4 chopped garlic cloves; a 3-inch chunk of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced; and a can of coconut milk.

Then slow-cook on low for 8-10 hours.  I was pretty fascinated by the transformation.... that big chunk of solid raw meat, basically dissolving into juice and falling apart!  The coconut milk flavor is not strong by the time cooking is through.  Made the house smell great.

Beets & Their Greens with Orange-Pistachio Topping

Just another beet-citrus combo:

At the store, pick up a bunch of 4 smallish beets with nice tops (or, if you can't find any with tops, beets and a nice bunch of chard, which is the same thing).  At home, separate the beets from their greens and roast the beets in a covered baking dish in 1/2 cup of water at 400 for 30 or 40 minutes, until they are well and truly soft.

In the meantime, clean the beet tops and throw them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes, just until they get dark and a bit limp.  Strain them and chop them a few times with a knife.  

Then make the orange mixture (what is the cooking term for something like this?  A relish?):  Peel a large orange or blood orange (or two small ones) and remove what pith you can, then chop each section into thirds.  Throw the orange chunks into some heated sesame oil in a skillet. Add a handful of shelled pistachios, crushed a bit with a mortar and pestle.  Add about 1 TB of capers.  Cook until the oranges look a bit... well, cooked... but no longer (just a few minutes).  

When beets are cooked and cooled, peel and slice them.  Toss it all together in a bowl and eat with nori salt (a great idea from the blog post that inspired this dinner).

Almond-Meal Tortilla Chips

I am giving up all kinds of foods this month (trying out a form of paleo eating), and I expected the hardest to be sugar and cheese.  Not so, actually - what I am missing like the dickens are tortilla chips, to dip in greek yogurt, salsa, guacamole.... but this recipe completely fills that hole, and they're so yummy I think I will bring some with me if for some reason I should ever attend a Super Bowl party.  

I started with this recipe but found I needed more eggwhite and (perhaps as a result) a lot more baking time - here's what I did exactly:

Mix together 1 cup almond meal (this only made 25 chips, so it might be wise to double everything), 2 eggwhites, 1/2 tsp each of cayenne, cumin, coriander, and orange peel (or whatever other spices you like), 1 TB of dried "Just Onions," and 1 tsp salt, until they cohere into a "dough." 

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Plunk your dough on there (split in 2 if you doubled the recipe), cover with more parchment, and roll out as thin as you can. I didn't get mine quite to the edges of the sheet, and I think I could've gone a little thinner, so aim for the edges.  

Remove the top sheet of parchment, and score the dough into a grid with chip-sized squares with a wettened knife.  Be gentle so you don't "drag" hunks of dough along with the knife blade and ruin your chips.  

Then just put the sheet into a 350-degree oven and bake, removing chips that are done with a spatula.  My "edge" chips were done after about 15 minutes and center ones, more like 20, but this will depend a lot on thickness, so just watch for them to begin to brown.  

Harissa Butternut Soup

Thick, well-spiced, smooth winter soup.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash and 1 sweet potato - roast the smithereens out of them ahead of time (like, till squash has brown bubbly skin and starts to lose its shape), peel and deseed.
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Ghee
Harissa paste or spice mix
1 can diced tomatoes
1 TB orange juice
4 cups veggie broth
Salt

Sautee onion and garlic in ghee until onion is translucent.  Add everything else.  Puree with immersion blender, taste & adjust flavors.  

Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Hot Cocoa

This is from Mark's Daily Apple and it's yummy!  (I forgot to take a picture till I'd nearly drank it all...)

All you do is, heat a 15-oz can of coconut milk on the stove with one chopped date.  Boil gently for a few minutes, then let sit to soften dates.  Blend in blender with 2 TB cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Top with cinnamon.  

Eggplant-Lentil Mole

This is another recipe of Theya's, adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and it is amazing.   Great texture, great heat, perfect winter dinner.

Ingredients:
One diced onion
One diced red pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
1 peeled, cubed eggplant
2 minced dates
1 cup pink lentils
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups veggie broth
2 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1 TB chili powder
2 tsp ea cumin, coriander, oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Coconut oil or olive oil

1. Sautee the onion and red pepper in oil until translucent, then add garlic, sautee for one more minute, and add spices (except cocoa) and salt.

2.  Add 1/2 cup of broth and cocoa powder, cook a minute to dissolve.

3.  Add lentils, remaining broth, eggplant and dates.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 40 minutes.  Garnish with greek yogurt.

Apple Toddy

Chris made these for Thanksgiving and I forgot to share them.  They were the best hot drink I've ever had!  I drank two! 

Recipe makes 8.

2 cups Apple Brandy (Calvados)
2 oz simple syrup
2 oz honey
2 TB lemon juice
4 cups water
4 baked tart apples

Heat everything but apples on the stovetop or in a crockpot, taste and adjust liquid ingredients to your liking. 

Bake apples, halved but not peeled, in a 350 oven till soft (about 1/2 an hour).  Remove peels and set aside the soft mush the apples have become.

Muddle apple mush with liquid, strain, and drink. 

 

Assaulted Moose

.....That is, "A Salted Mousse," or what we call it when Sarah makes the mousse slightly too salty.  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Whew.

Anyway, here is a laughably easy mousse.  I learnt it by having the good sense to take a cooking class from Theya of "What the Hell Do I Cook!?!?"  If you live in Denver, I advise you to do the same .

Ingredients:
4 Eggs (these will be eaten raw but my food-scientist father-in-law says that's usually fine these days)
1 4-oz bar of 70% or darker chocolate (best you can get yr paws on)
pinch salt
splash of coffee if you want
THAT IS ALL.

Melt the chocolate bar in a double broiler - if need be you can set one up by putting some water in the bottom of a small saucepan and fitting a bowl/corningware/whatever on top of the saucepan, with the chocolate in it.

Separate the eggs.  Beat the whites with a pinch (not too big or you'll have to make TERRIBLE PUNS to save face!) of salt until they form stiff peaks.  Stir up the yolks and remove any weird bits.

When the chocolate is melted, add coffee and/or any spices you want, let it cool just a bit, and drizzle it SLOWLY into the yolks, stirring all the while - not too fast or you'll cook 'em!

Fold the whites, 1/3 at a time, into the chocolate, as gently as you can.

Divide into 4 ramekins or bowls or whatever, chill, top with whipped cream, and eat.

Asparagus Parmesan Tart with Garlic Olive Oil and Balsamic Reduction

So I graduated, am working my first "real" job and am spending my year navigating the pitfalls and advantages that come with being an adult.  And suddenly it's December, and I recently had my first work Christmas potluck.  I wanted to make something that demonstrated (mostly for me) how very grownup and together I am.

see, there's a green vegetable that i am going to promptly coat with that big pile of cheese, some oil and lots of buttery bread.  how very adult of me.

You see, as a postgrad, it's the small things that make you feel either incredibly accomplished or like you should just lock yourself inside and never try to do anything remotely responsible ever again. It's like this comic, which has become a sort of anthem for my friends and I in this stage of life due to its stunning (and terrifying) accuracy. One day you are decorating your entire house for Christmas and making cider for your book club that you actually read the book for, and the next day you are running late and there's a pile of dishes in the sink and you end up eating mac n' cheese straight out of the pan.  And your emotions run a similar roller coaster to your functionality.

GRATE ALL THE CHEESE

And so I knew that if I were able to create something mouthwateringly delicious and semi creative, than I would have a responsible high to cruise on for weeks.  Potlucks are tricky, because the food has to be transportable and you also have to predict what others will bring.  I know we are all stunned that I didn't bring a pie, especially with so many options in my arsenal.  But it's the holiday season, and I knew at least half the spread would be sweets, so savory it was.

I discover this tart from my aforementioned favorite blogger, Joy The Baker.  Here's her version.   The minute I saw it I knew it would perfectly suit my needs for something fancy yet entirely doable and affordable.  Here's my version, which is mostly modified due to cost and availability of ingredients.

parmesan instead of gruyere, crescent roll dough instead of puff pastry

Ingredients
2 cans of crescent roll dough
1 lb of asparagus
1 egg, beaten
about 2 cups of grated Parmesan
A few tablespoons of olive oil
Some garlic
1 bottle of balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll each can of crescent roll dough onto one cookie sheet. Smooth over perforations in dough, creating full sheets of dough.  At this point you can optionally cut the dough into smaller rectangles if you want individualized tarts.  Brush dough with beaten egg. Layer parmesan cheese on top, press asparagus on top in a row. Simmer olive oil with garlic to infuse.  Brush on top of asparagus generously (it will soak into the dough and take it to a whole 'nother level).  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until dough is golden.

Simmer balsamic vinegar in a small pan until reduced to a thick syrup.  Drizzle artistically on top of tart.  Admire, serve and receive compliments while eating.

**We are currently baking a version of this for Christmas Eve dinner, with puff pastry as Joy calls for and thinly sliced apricots snuggled between the asparagus.  Get creative, too!**

This is the recipe for the next time you need a large dose of affirmation in your life perfect dish for a party, holiday or otherwise.  It comes together easy and quick, stands out in a lineup and is also incredibly aesthetically pleasing.  Enjoy!

Italian Amaretto Cookies and Bourbon Hot Toddies

This year, I didn't make any big baking plans for Christmas. My favorite kind of baking is the kind I get to do with little sister A. Sadly for me, she is home in Wyoming with the rest of the family and I am doing the very adult thing of staying behind in too-warm Arizona to celebrate with my in-laws.

But, even though I made no plans and am missing my favorite sous chef, I knew it wouldn't feel like the holidays unless I baked something. Yesterday I offered, then, to bring dessert over to a friend's house. Now, normally this would not stress me out but said friend is notoriously uninterested in dessert. After hours searching the web, I decided to go with the light, sophisticated Italian amaretto cookies to serve with an after-dinner hot toddy.

The result was delightful. I very slightly adapted a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, found here and after reading several hot toddy recipes online settled on the path below.

For the Cookies
1 1/4 cup almond meal*
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup white sugar

These have a beautiful flavor and are a nice light ending to any large holiday dinner. They would also be delicious with an afternoon cappuccino or a hot cup of black tea.

Preheat your oven to 325 F. Mix the almond meal and the powdered sugar and set aside. Using an electric mixer, whip your egg whites with the almond extract and the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. (At this stage egg whites should be white, glossy, and fairly stiff but still falling over a bit rather than standing straight up.) Add in the 1/2 cup of white sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and beat until stiff peaks form. If egg whites lose their glossiness you have beaten them too much and should start over.

Fold in the almond meal and powdered sugar mixture. Scoop cookies onto an oiled cookie sheet, parchment paper, or a silpat (I prefer the silpat). They should not spread much but make sure to give them a little space. The BHG recipe said to scoop them out with a 1-inch diameter, but I found they held up well up to a 2-inch diameter and we preferred the large ones. Bake for 15-17 minutes, let cool, and enjoy.

*I used Trader Joe's almond meal but you can make your own using a food processor. Try grinding with a bit of gluten-free flour to avoid turning the meal into a paste.

For the Hot Toddies

According to my five minutes of googling, hot toddies can be made with hot tea or with just hot water, with cloves and star anise or with just lemon, with honey or sugar or both, and with whiskey or brandy or bourbon or even gin. We went with black tea, lemon, brown sugar and honey, and bourbon and didn't regret that for a second.

I made these one at a time so the recipe below will serve just one person. Alton Brown has a crockpot recipe to serve a crowd if you need to do that.

Black tea
Honey
Bourbon
Brown Sugar
Lemon

Heat 8oz of hot water until boiling; add black tea and let steep. Coat the bottom of another mug with honey and add 1 teaspoon brown sugar and 1oz of bourbon. Pour the tea over the honey/bourbon/sugar mixture and stir. Squeeze in the juice from 1 wedge of lemon and enjoy.

Considerations for Food Allergies and Ethics
The Italian amaretti cookies are gluten-free and vegetarian but not vegan and not safe for those with nut allergies.

I consider the hot toddies gluten free. My research indicates it is safe for people with celiac disease to drink alcohol distilled from grains with gluten because the gluten protein is removed during distillation. Others disagree. I get very sick from small amounts of gluten and have never had a problem with bourbon, whiskey, or vodka distilled from gluten-containing grains, but you should make your own decision in consultation with your doctor. If you want an alternative, consider the more adventurous hot gin toddy.

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie(s)

Sarah's husband Chris is spending his first Christmas in our home, and on the drive here he asked her what sorts of holiday traditions we have together.  Sarah's answer was mostly "Well, we cook, and then we eat, and then we make dessert and then....oh we go on a Christmas Eve ride in our jammies to see the lights!  But mostly we cook."

This is a fairly accurate picture of our holiday celebrations at our Mom's (and our Dad's!), and we love every minute.  For our family, food encompasses what we think is most important about the holidays.  We spend time together cooking, share creative new ideas, give one another new recipes and new tastes, and most of all enjoy talking over a good, well-made meal. Mum makes our favorite meals from when we were kids, Sarah whips up new soup versions, Kate crafts new pies and I fill in the gaps.  There's pie for breakfast Christmas morning and a Christmas buffet feast with our closest family friends. I'm currently eating dark chocolate mousse Sarah whipped up for dessert after Mum made her famous oven-fried chicken.

So while we are about to flood your blog feed with various recipes (including the long-ago promised Thanksgiving pies) we hope you'll be happy to allow us to share the various things simmering (metaphorically and literally) on our stove at the moment.

And now the bittersweet chocolate pecan pies.

yes, I said pies, plural

In the annual pie recipe email frenzy, I sent Kate a version of bittersweet chocolate pecan, thinking it sounded like a new and improved version of an old favorite.

same angle, different pie.  same concept, different recipe.

We made this version for Thanksgiving, and it was phenomenal.  It's essentially a normal pecan pie covered with a bittersweet chocolate ganache, except instead of corn syrup it uses honey and brown sugar, hooray!  This pie is Peter's new favorite Thanksgiving pie, and it was far above better than the usual corn syrupy, overly sweet incarnation.

contestant #1

A few weeks later, I had a holiday party and a specific request for a pecan pie, but I could not crawl back to a classic corn syrup filled one when I knew better was out there (yes, sometimes pie recipe finding is a bit like dating).  Unfortunately, multiple phone calls to Kate went unreturned (cough, cough) and thus I was sent to the interwebs alone.  I found this version instead, more of a dark chocolate pie studded with pecans  I added a generous handful of extra pecans and it received rave reviews at the party.

contestant #2

Both pies come highly recommended.  The ganache version is richer, and closer to a classic pie, while the southern chocolate is smoother and more adventurous.  Either way, you can't lose when you add chocolate to pie, right? Win-win.

Happy Holidays, and may you enjoy your family and food as much as we.

Orange-Chipotle Spiced Pecans

A friend tipped me off to this recipe, and I made them as holiday gifts for coworkers.  Not your run of the mill spiced nut recipe!  I am reposting because I like them so much, and because I made a huge batch for gift purposes and can save you from multiplying things by 4 (helpful, I know!).  I did find they needed more baking time than the recipe suggested.

Kate doesn't like pecans and asked if this would be good with pistachios.  Maybe, but I did 1/4 cashews and thought those were great, so I suggest that as a back-up nut.

Ingredients:

8 cups nuts (6 cups pecans and 2 cups cashews)
2 cups sweetened dried cranberries
4 TB freshly squeezed OJ (one juicy orange gave me more than enough)
4 TB freshly grated zest (three oranges were a little short of this for me....)
4 large eggwhites
4 TB dark brown sugar
4 tsp kosher salt
3 tsp ground chipotle chili powder
Cooking spray

What to do:

Preheat oven to 225.

Whisk together eggwhites with juice & zest.  Add pecans & toss to coat.

In a separate bowl, mix sugar, salt, and chili powder.  Mix into nuts.

Spread nuts onto 2 baking sheets, coated w/cooking spray, in an even layer.  Bake for about 1.5 hours until no longer goopy.  Then mix in cranberries.