Cranberries in December

First, let me apologize for not having posted anything in a few weeks.  I've been having a difficult time with the early darkness of winter, as I always do at this time of year.  I have been trying to accept the cold, but I need the sun to help me out a little, too.

Also, it's difficult to cook a dish and photograph it before I lose natural light.

But enough with the excuses.  Let's bring some of that brightness we're craving back into the kitchen.

During Thanksgiving this year, I learned how to roast a turkey (!). This is a first for me, because I had been a vegetarian for the previous couple of decades.  My aunt Lynne usually hosts Thanksgiving and  texted me a while back so see if I would eat turkey along with everyone else if she purchased a sustainably-raised one.  I gladly accepted this offer and jumped at the chance to actually learn how to cook a turkey.

While our family has a set of traditional dishes at Thanksgiving, like the turkey and fixings, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetable sides, and my beloved cranberry sauce, the way in which each is prepared changes each year.  This is wonderful for us home cooks, because we get to try out new dishes and flavors.  Our menu is always current and accommodating (last year I wrote about cooking for a group with various dietary needs).

Cranberry sauce from a can is absolutely delicious.  But it's also easy to make from scratch and can be varied endlessly.  Aunt Lynne made a cranberry chutney this year, more savory than sweet.  Of course I wanted the recipe - it called for a reprise during Christmas!

I'm hosting a smaller group of family for Christmas this week.  I'm so excited that I planned a seven course meal and maybe even a "table scape."  Okay, not really a table scape, but I do have a tablecloth and matching napkins. And a table and chairs, if I remember to bring them in from the patio in time to warm to room temperature.

Part of this meal is a cheese plate with olives, crackers, and this festive cranberry chutney. You can make it in about a half hour and hardly need to pay that much attention.  If you have been crazy with holiday get-togethers and have been charged with bringing an appetizer to one, I encourage you to steal this idea. No one will be disappointed, except Grinches.

CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

• 4 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 small onion, chopped finely
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 T. ginger root, minced
• 2 t. mustard seed
• 1/2 t. red pepper flakes
• 1/2 t. salt

In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Put on high heat until simmering, then reduce to low. Simmer until thickened and cooked through, stirring occasionally.  Allow to cool, transfer to fancy serving bowl, and think of all the possibilities!

Japanese Pickled Ginger and Sushi at Home. Sort of...

Like many, one of my favorite meals out is sushi.  I have made (vegetarian) sushi at home, too, which is a lot of fun, but also an event.

When I'm wanting the flavor of sushi without the cost of going out or all the work, I make "Sushi Salad."  It satisfies my craving and is fairly easy to make.  It does call for a few specialty ingredients, like the pickled ginger that is a standard at sushi bars, which I tried making at home recently with very good results.

If you have a mandoline (I'm absolutely loving my new one!), Japanese Pickled Ginger is quite simple. Slicing the ginger paper thin is definitely the most difficult and time-consuming part, but it's certainly worth the effort.

I bought about a pound of ginger a few weeks ago at the Asian market with the intention of making the condiment, and I was lucky enough to find very fresh, young ginger at a good price.  I made a double recipe, which is a couple pints, and the ginger will keep for months in the refrigerator.

So, basically, I have a lot of home sushi projects to complete in the coming year.  For now, I will settle for my simple sushi salad.  The flavor and texture of the pickled ginger is so nice, though, and I may dream up other ways to use it.  At the very least, it make for a great pick-me-up and cook's snack while other ingredients are being prepped.

JAPANESE PICKLED GINGER
(adapted from The Joy of Pickling, by Linda Zeidrich)

• 8 oz. fresh, peeled ginger, very thinly sliced
• 1 t. sea salt (or pickling salt), plus more for sprinkling
• 1 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
• 3 T. sugar
• 1 t. soy sauce

Bring a saucepan with about a quart of water to a boil.   Add ginger and return to boil.  Boil ginger for a few seconds and drain well in a colander.  Place ginger in a bowl and sprinkle very lightly with salt.  Toss to coat and pack into one pint or two half-pint jars.  These are quick fridge pickles and a loose pack will be fine.

In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar, one teaspoon salt, sugar, and soy sauce to a simmer.  Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar.  Pour hot mixture over ginger and cap the jars.  Store them in the refrigerator for at least two days before using. Ginger will keep for several months.

Of course, you can also find pickled ginger at an Asian grocery, but it will likely have MSG and pink food dye.  I won't judge you.

SUSHI SALAD

• 1 1/2 cup rice - I like brown rice in this application
• 1/4 cup plus 3 T. rice vinegar (again, unseasoned)
• 3 T. sugar
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 2 T. sesame seeds (I like the black ones for this, but I'm out of them at the moment)
• 3 T. vegetable oil
• 2 T. Japanese Pickled Ginger, minced
• 1/2 cup carrots, julienned (or fine dice)
• 1 cucumber, seeded and julienned (or fine dice)
• 1 avocado, sliced thin
• 2 t. wasabi powder
• 3 T. water
• 2 T. soy sauce
• 1 T. ginger pickling brine
• 1-2 sheets nori

Cook rice according to type and transfer to a large bowl and set aside to cool.  Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and stir until sugar and salt is dissolved.  Stir into cooked rice along with sesame seeds.  Stir in three tablespoons vinegar, oil, ginger, carrots, and cucumber.  Set aside.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine wasabi powder, water, soy sauce, and pickling brine. Set aside.

In serving bowl, place rice mixture and top with avocado.  Drizzle with wasabi mixture and strips of nori.  With the nori, I like to cut a sheet in thirds with kitchen shears, roll lengthwise, and cut crosswise with the shears over the salad.  Enjoy!

Garden Series, Part VIII: Carrots and Cucumbers

Recently, I was in the middle of a baking project and realized I had missed lunch.  Also recently, I went on an excursion to H-Mart in the suburbs with a dear friend of mine and loaded up on ingredients not found in the local grocery.  Such a good match, these two occurrences.  Throw in some garden produce, and you've got a late lunch. Or dinner, I'm not picky.

But not to worry, I'm not giving you a recipe with a bunch of hard-to-find ingredients.  In fact, it relies on the American standard of the sweetest, most-hydrogenated peanut butter, which I love despite all its failures.  Of course, you are welcome to use the natural stuff, if you have that sort of thing lying around.

Besides the Jiffy, the most exotic ingredients are soba noodles, Sriracha, and shiitake mushrooms - all of which one can find in the regular grocery store, but probably for twice the cost.  I'm not sure about the Sriracha, though, since I bought a huge bottle of it the last time I went to H-Mart and have never looked back.  It's basically an essential pantry ingredient.

In the pictures, you'll see a pile of fried seaweed with sesame seeds.  This stuff is seriously delicious, but probably far less likely to be found anywhere but the giant Asian grocery in the suburbs.  It turns out that it's best eaten as a snack on the side anyway.  I have no idea what's in it it either, but I'm pretty sure that it's manufactured to have an addictive balance of salt, sugar, and fat that makes it so you can't stop eating it.  You'll never know whether I'm snacking on it right now while I'm writing this.

As for the carrots and cucumbers, I highly recommend getting your hands on homegrown.  I know this isn't necessarily that easy, but homegrown carrots are the best.  They taste really, really good and if you eat conventional baby carrots from the supermarket, you will be really surprised at the carrot-y taste of back yard carrots.  I grow a variety of them because I am still fascinated by purple (Cosmic) and red (Atomic) carrots after my fifth garden.  I grow a few different cucumbers, but my long-standing favorite is Suyo Long.  It's a strange-looking variety that stays crisp, has few seeds, and refreshing cucumber flavor.

SOBA NOODLES WITH VEGETABLES

• 1 bundle (serving) soba noodles
• 2-4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cucumber, seeded and cut into matchsticks
• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
• large handful mung bean sprouts, picked over and rinsed
• radishes, or any other vegetable that sounds good (optional), cut into matchsticks/julienned
• 1/4 avocado, sliced
• olive oil
• pinch salt
• 2 t. peanut butter
• 2 t. soy sauce
• Sriracha, to taste

Cook soba noodles according to package directions.  Rinse well under cold, running water and allow to drain.

Heat a scant tablespoon olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add shiitakes and stir to coat with oil. Stir in salt and sauté until thoroughly cooked.  Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, and Sriracha.  In individual serving bowl, toss together noodles, shiitakes, cucumbers, carrots, sprouts, and sauce.  Top with avocado.  Feel free to add more soy sauce and/or Sriracha to season to taste.

Serves one. 

*Later in the week I made a crazy delicious Bacon Pad Thai.  I took no pictures of it, but perhaps round two will surface in a week or two.

Garden Series Part VII: Tomatillos

Okay, it's more like Part VI-b because I just wrote about the nightshade family a couple of weeks ago...

...but my nightshade recipe did not include tomatillos and I have now written over fifty (!) little articles for you all, so I have license to be a little cavalier.

I spent a little hangout time in the garden the other morning realizing how terribly overgrown the whole thing is and then lost track of time pulling up over-prolific strawberry plants, rearranging cucumber vines, and staking quinoa stalks.  I also disentangled the many, many branches of tomatillos that were starting to climb through the privacy fence to my neighbor's yard.  Guessing by the way she ripped the pole beans apart that reached her side, I don't think she would appreciate the tomatillos.

I'm actually really happy with the shear abundance of fruit on the tomatillo plants this year.  Last year I grew one very large plant that had hundreds of sweet yellow flowers, but never produced a single fruit.  While I hadn't read anything on the subject, I know that sometimes growing more than one plant of a single variety is necessary and I gave that theory a shot this year.  It worked.

The tomatillos you see here are the Purple de Milpa variety and are quite a bit smaller than the standard ones you find in the grocery store.  As they get more direct sunlight, they get more purple (purpler?).  The purple stripes and shoulders you see on the fruits themselves are where the husks either split or grew transparent as they dried.

So what to actually do with tomatillos?  I only know one recipe that uses them, which is an especially delicious salsa I learned to make from my friend Hector's mother, Angelica.  She's from Mexico (they both are) and the salsa is likely traditional to Michoacán, but I got the impression that she is inventive in her own right.  She makes a smoky chile oil that I would buy by the case.

DISCLAIMER: I checked to make sure the recipe isn't a family secret and now I get to share it with you here.  If you like it, Angelica gets all the credit.  If you don't, I probably forgot something and it's totally my fault.  Or you simply have bad taste, you poor thing.

This is an avocado salsa, but is completely different than guacamole.  It's wonderful on just about anything, especially fish tacos.  I didn't have the fixin's for fish tacos today (plus, I'm still working on the food-sensitivity thing from last week), so I put it on the chicken I made for dinner.  I'm not a huge fan of chicken, so this was a good move.


SALSA DE AGUACATE

• 1 pint tomatillos

• 1-2 jalapeños, depending on how spicy you like
• 1 avocado
• salt to taste

Peel the husks off the tomatillos and rinse thoroughly to remove the sticky film.  Wash the jalapeños and trim the stem from the end.  Put the tomatillos and jalapeños in a medium saucepan, add water just to cover, and set over medium heat.  Bring to a boil and simmer until the tomatillos are softened, about five minutes.

Using the saucepan lid to hold the tomatillo mixture back, drain off the excess water.  Put the mixture into a blender.  If you are using a standard blender, remember to remove the center of the lid and cover with a washcloth and your hand to avoid a hot-blended-mess from erupting onto your ceiling and into your eyes.  Blend until smooth.  I sort of have a feeling that Angelica strains the seeds from the mixture at this point, but I'm a little lazy and don't mind the seeds.

Add the avocado and salt and blend until smooth.  The consistency should be just pourable, so add water as necessary to thin.  Taste for salt before pouring the salsa into a bowl.  My favorite way to taste-test a salsa is to use a tortilla chip.  And to do several tests.

Allow to cool and chill until ready to use.  Seriously, put it on anything you can think of.

Look at that well-balanced meal!!!

Note:  Uhh...I'm aware that I posted two salsa recipes in a row.  I'm letting the 50+ posts thing go to my head and I'm fine with that.  And also, my dear friend is hosting a Labor Day Salsa Challenge and it's been on my mind.  And it's summer, for crying out loud.  But I promise something more substantial next week.

Garden Series Part V: Green Beans & Chiles

This week the garden has been neglected.  It was not intentional, but for once I was busy doing more traditional thirty-somethings' pass times.  If you live in the Denver area, you may be aware of the UMS (Underground Music Showcase) and that it can take up a lot of your time.

It was fun and I saw some long-overdue shows.  I saw many friends and had many drinks.  I happened upon Residual Kid, and holy shit, they were awesome.  But if I'm being honest, I normally tend towards the nerdier of hobbies.  Like this poor garden, overgrown with runner beans and turnips and dill.  And wilting in the July sun.

Most of the time, friends are surprised about the gardening habit.  I'm not sure they are more surprised that I actually have a back yard in the city or that I would willingly do all the work.   I usually meet the astonishment with confusion, because I see it as more than rewarding for not much work at all. Sure, digging up 300 square feet of compacted soil by hand is serious labor, but I only had to do that once four years ago and there is machinery available for that sort of thing.  And I don't mind working when I'm properly compensated.

If you really want to know about why I do it, it's not just about the produce or eating off the land.  It's not about making any and all guests take my garden tour (which is pretty high on the things-I-love-about-gardening list). Although I am concerned about the food industry and I like to know where my food comes from, I'm not even trying to reach some high level of local eating.  It's mostly because I find the entire process endlessly fascinating. Every summer I am shocked to see what I get from a handful of seeds in March.  I am enamored with the hundreds of heirloom and unusual varieties that you just never see at the grocery store.  I consider getting some sort of advanced degree in botany.

Plus, I'm growing quinoa this year.  Quinoa, guys!

As for my other nerdy interests, like cooking and sewing and learning about things...uh, I'm not much of a camper or an athlete. Ahem, but when the world ends and we sink into survivalist indecency, I will have clothing and food and a warm quilt and I will know stuff.*  And I share.

Oh.  How about a recipe?

BLISTERED & SPICY GREEN BEANS

• Large handful green beans, trimmed
• Splash olive oil
• 1 hot chile, sliced thinly
• Salt to taste
• Sesame oil

Set a medium pot of salted water to boil and meanwhile prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Once at a boil, blanch green beans for about 2-3 minutes.  Strain through a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.  Drain well and blot them with a towel to dry before adding them to hot oil.  Ouch.

Put olive oil in a medium sauté pan and heat to medium-high.  Toss in chile and allow to sizzle.  Once hot, add the blanched green beans and toss to coat.  Stirring or flipping the pan only a few times, allow the beans to cook until blistered on all sides.  Season with salt and plate them up.

Drizzle a very small amount of sesame oil over the top.  Pretty delicious.



*I'm feeling a little ornery this time.

**The purple beans in the first picture are Trionfo Violettos.  They turn dark green when cooked.  The purple chile is a 5-Color Chinese Chile.  These make for such beautiful plants - the chiles start purple, then turn white, yellow, orange, and red.  The purple stage is quite spicy enough.

First, Salad

The garden has shown a rather remarkable renewal in the past week.

While I have been convalescing inside, the lettuce has been growing, the red mustard is showing its color, and a meadow of dill as popped up.

Everything is loving the arrival of warm weather, so much that it's time to start thinning the rows and debating what is a weed and what is not.  I began picking out the extra plants and gathered a rather large handful that came together like a bouquet.  Above is a mix of heirloom lettuces, green and red mustard, arugula, watercress, bok choy, and dill.  There's a French Breakfast Radish in there, too, but it's striking color is hidden underneath the rest of the bundle.

I didn't take the radish out to take pictures, because, as you can see, I had to work quickly!  Everyone loves a good, green salad.  Even bonafide carnivores.

With my appetite coming back, nourishment is on my mind.  My go-to salad combination is a quick homemade vinaigrette, dried fruit, and nuts.  Cheese would be awesome, but I only wanted blue cheese or chèvre - of which I'm out.

So now I get to eat peacefully on my back patio, enjoying the weather, eating food I grew, reading a novel. Maybe I won't take off to North Carolina after all.


GARDEN SALAD

• large bowl of mixed greens, including herbs, washed and rinsed
• a radish or two, sliced thinly
• dried fruit of choice (here I used apricots)
• nuts of your choice (walnuts today)
• olive oil
• fresh lemon juice or vinegar of choice
• dijon or other prepared mustard (not the bright yellow American kind)
• salt and pepper to taste

Add radishes, fruit, and nuts to bowl of greens.

For the dressing, pour a few tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar into a small mason jar.  Add an equal amount of olive oil - since it separates, you don't need to measure, just eyeball it.  Add a spoonful of mustard, cap, and shake.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Basically, it's easier than shaking the hell out of a new bottle of store-bought and still getting grease everywhere, so you may as well make it yourself.

Pour dressing on the salad and toss.  Eat outside.