Kitchen Empress

Allergy-friendly, wheat-free, dairy-free, yeast-free pizza!

2010-07-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

Pizza 'sauce'
4 large tomatoes
sea salt & fresh-ground pepper
olive oil

Pizza dough
1 cup potato starch (also called potato flour)
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal)
1 cup brown rice flour or other whole-grain flour (EG quinoa,barley, amaranth, or millet; make sure it's gluten-free if you're cooking for someone with gluten intolerance)
1 cup tapioca starch
2 teaspoons of sea salt
2 tablespoons baking powder

chia seeds or other seeds, such as sesame or hemp (optional)

additional polenta (optional)

extra virgin olive oil

water (up to about 2 cups)
bacon grease (optional)

Making the 'sauce'

Slice the tomatoes into thin slices and lay onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and fresh-ground pepper. Broil on high until tomatoes begin to brown and you see them softening. Flip them over and broil until the other side of the tomatoes is slightly brown. Remove from oven and set aside. Switch the oven from broiling mode to baking mode and preheat to 430 degrees Fahrenheit, then begin to assemble dough.

Making the crust

Assemble dry ingredients in big metal bowl or dry Vitamix blender container, and mix. If you are using a Vitamix, you can start with whole dry grains, and grind them and continue blending until well mixed. Then, transfer into your large bowl. (When I use my Vitamix, I reserve some polenta and the seeds to add after the mixture goes into the bowl, so the dough has a bit of grainy texture.)

Add a tablespoon olive oil and about a cup of water, and mix the ingredients with your hands. Knead together,
adding water and a little more olive oil as needed and kneading until the mixture holds together loosely in a ball. It will be a crumbly and somewhat sticky dough.

Divide the dough into three sections. Two balls can go into a bag in the fridge for up to a week for future pizza adventures.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 12-inch cast iron skillet with bacon grease or olive oil. (Bacon grease makes for an amazing flavor, but if you're veggie or concerned about saturated fat, you'll want to stick to olive oil.) Press the dough into the skillet, using your fingers and the flat of your hand to press the dough down and toward the sides of the pan. Keep going until your dough is satisfactorily thin and even. I like to have it climbing up the sides a bit to make for a more deep-dish style pizza. It can make it easier to spread it out if you sprinkle a bit more olive oil on top and slide the dough out with your fingers. In any case, sprinkle it with a little olive oil before it goes into the oven.

Bake in an oven preheated to 430 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. While it's baking, assemble your allergy-friendly pizza toppings. Some favorites for us: shredded vegan 'cheese' and/or crumbled goat cheese (I personally can't have dairy and have to avoid yeasts, but seem to be able to tolerate goat cheese occasionally); roasted or sauteed vegetables (especially kale chopped into bite-sized pieces and sauteed in garlic and olive oil); fresh-chopped herbs from my garden such as oregano, thyme, and basil; Applegate's pepperoni (gluten and casein-free and free of hormones, antibiotics, and added nitrites). . . and the list goes on.

When the pizza crust has baked for 10 minutes, take it out of the oven. Lift the roasted tomatoes out of the baking dish and arrange in the bottom of the crust.

Sprinkle your cheese or cheese substitute over the tomatoes, and layer your remaining ingredients on top.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, until your cheese or cheese substitute has melted and the top of the pizza is gently browned. Serves about 2 persons.

To give credit where credit is due, the crust recipe is based on a gluten-free recipe I found on an excellent gluten-free food blog.

Stupidly easy balsamic chicken

2009-05-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

As far as recipes go, it doesn't get easier than this. I was once told that this dish is Mexican in origin, but to me it represents the fusion of cultures that comes of the Romance Languages Department that I've called home for the past 6 years.

Ingredients:
8 chicken thighs (it's perfectly OK to leave the bones in and the skin on)
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 large sweet onion, sliced
3 dried ancho chiles, rehydrated and some of the seeds removed

Directions:
1. In a dutch oven or large wide bottomed pot, heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil
2. Season the chicken liberally with salt and pepper.
3. Being sure not to crowd the pot, brown the chicken on both sides. (You may need to do this in batches.)
4. Add the remaining ingredients and allow to stew, covered, over medium heat for 30 minutes.

Serve over rice.
Serves 4

Crab Enchiladas with Black Bean Sauce

2009-05-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

These enchiladas just came together in my kitchen this evening. They were very much the product of what I had on hand so feel free to experiment with the contents of your own kitchen. The guiding rule is to keep the flavors fresh.

Ingredients:

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained--divided
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped--divided
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped--divided
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley (substitute 1 1/2 tsp dried herbs if needed)--divided
juice of 2 limes--divided
3 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp rum or tequila
1 jalapeno pepper, some seeds removed, diced
1/4 cup vegetable stock or water
2 small cans (or one large can) of crab meat
1 poblano pepper, some seeds removed, chopped
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 cups shredded jack cheese
10 corn tortillas
Salt and Pepper
Sour cream

Directions:
1. In a medium sauce pot, combine 1 1/2 cans of black beans, 1/2 the onion, 1/2 the bell pepper, cumin, 2 Tbsp of cilantro, the juice of one lime, tomato paste, rum, jalapeno pepper, and stock. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat while assembling the enchiladas. Stir occasionally.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the remaining black beans, cilantro, lime juice, crab, and poblano pepper. Set aside.
3. In a saute pan, heat the canola oil. Add the remaining onion and bell pepper. Saute for 5 minutes over medium high heat. Add onions and peppers to the crab mixture.
4. Add the cheese to the crab mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Grease a rectangular baking dish and set oven to 350 degrees.
6. Begin stuffing the tortillas with crab mixture. Roll each tortilla around the filling and place the enchilada into the baking dish, open side down. Arrange the enchiladas in row, filling in the sides of the dish with extra enchiladas placed perpendicularly to the row.
7. Remove the black beans from the heat and either blend the sauce with a hand blender or puree it in a food processor. Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, covering the entire pan.
8. Bake the enchiladas for 20 minutes. If desired, sprinkle additional cheese on top of the sauce.
9. Serve with sour cream.

Serves 4

Pot Roast

2009-04-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

So it seems as though I'm steering the Kitchen Empress into carnivorous territory, but at Ms. Heather's request, I'm sharing my recipe for pot roast. This is an amazingly simple recipe suitable for even kitchen novices.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp canola oil
2.5-3 lb beef chuck roast
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1/2 of a large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 can of Baxter's French Onion soup
3/4 cup red wine or water

Directions:

1. Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Sprinkle the salt and pepper evenly over the roast before placing it into the hot oil. Brown the roast on both sides.
3. Transfer the roast to a roasting pan with a lid.
4. Set oven to 350 degrees.
5. Sautee the onions in the skillet with any drippings from the beef. Cook until the onions begin to soften.
6. Layer the onions onto the roast in the roasting pan.
7. Pour the soup on top of the roast and onions and add the wine or water.
8. Place roasting pan into the oven and allow to cook, covered for 3 to 3.5 hours, turning the roast every hour.

The meat should be fork tender once it is done and the sauce should have formed a very thick, sweet oniony gravy. I served this with some fresh steamed green beans and an apple parmesean risotto, but mashed potatoes would go equally well.

Humble introductions and a modest (shepherd's) pie

2009-04-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

Ms Heather, a dear friend, kindly invited me to share some of my recipes and the joy that I find in creating tasty food on her blog. While I make no claims to being able to live up to live up to the status of a veritable Kitchen Empress, I'm willing to share my ideas and recipes as a lesser kitchen noble. I thus thought it only fitting to assay my status as a kitchen notable with a recipe of truly humble origins. This shepherd's pie was the perfect meal for a cold and rainy spring night in Michigan and was just the dish to share among friends. This recipe should feed you and three of your nearest and dearest.

Ingredients

1 lb. of ground lamb
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
Pepper to taste (four turns of my pepper mill normally does the trick)
1 bottle of flavorful beer (I happened to have Bell's Oberon on hand)
3 cups beef stock (If you're using a no/very low sodium stock, you may need to add some salt)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme or 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped or 1 1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 medium carrots, chopped
2/3 cup green peas (fresh or frozen)
1 Tbsp semolina
Mashed potatoes (about 5 medium potatoes worth. I usually just go with the plain butter and milk variety that might remind you of the ones your grandmother might make.)

Directions

Over medium-high heat, brown the lamb, onions, garlic, and pepper in a large sauce pan.
Add the beer, stock, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and allow the meat to stew for about 4 hours. Check it occasionally and give it a stir, but by and large you can trust the lamb, liquid, and seasonings to play nicely with each other. If you find that the liquid is evaporating too quickly simply add some water and/or stock. (The cooking time for this step can easily be cut by 2 or even 3 hours. The flavor and tenderness of the meat simply build the longer you let it simmer. And besides, shepherd's pie is best served on days that could benefit from the gentle heat coming from a slowly simmering pot.)
Stir in the carrots and peas and remove the lid. Turn the heat up to medium to get the liquid to start evaporating.
Allow the mixture to reduce for roughly half an hour before sprinkling in the semolina to thicken it. When adding the semolina, it's best to do so very slowly and while dusting it into a thin layer on the surface of the liquid. That way you can stir it in easily without any danger of starchy lumps. This would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Let the mixture continue to cook down until it's a thick, rich broth that only just seems to keep all the goodness in the pot in suspension.
Transfer the content of the pot into an ovenproof casserole dish. I typically go for a 9x9x2.5 pan. (Alternately, you could begin the whole process in a dutch oven or other stove-top-to-oven vessel. Just keep in mind that having a large surface area will call for more mashed potatoes to "crust" the pie.)
Use a piping bag or a steady hand and a spatula to pipe/spread an even layer of mashed potatoes onto the lamb mixture.
Put the casserole into the over and allow to bake for 35 minutes or until the potatoes start to turn brown. Using your broiler for the last 3-4 minutes of the cooking time will create a lovely golden potato crust.

It may not be much to look at, this pie was praise-worthy in it's humbleness.

White House Kitchen Garden

2009-03-22T04:49:00.000-07:00

Very exciting news for the local food movement: the Obamas are going to "eat the view"!

2009-02-28T03:01:00.000-08:00

This is an inspiring little article from the New York Times about pears, distilling, and the local food revolution.

Making jam without a recipe -- spiced berry jam with honey

2009-01-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

Since I just arrived home from winter break, I'm trying to clean things up in the cottage a bit before the semester becomes truly insanely busy. One thing I'd been putting off for a while is cleaning the freezer. I had a new motivation when I saw that the power had been out during the three weeks I was away, and recently for long enough that my homemade stock in a mason jar in the freezer was mostly liquid. Sadly, many things went right into the garbage, but the butter and fruit looked okay.

But what was I going to do with two pints of organic cranberries I'd intended to make Grandma's cranberry nutloaf with, and with several huge bags of slightly frost-bitten fruit I'd bought at COSTCO for smoothie-making? Make an experimental entree into the world of jam-making, that's what. After poking around on the web a bit, with particular interest in finding out what I could about sugar-free jam, I decided to do it, but my own way, without a recipe.

I was inspired by some of the combinations I saw here, so I dumped the two bags of wild blueberries, some strawberries, and the cranberries into a big pot with a couple sticks of cinnamon, some cloves, and a piece of nutmeg. The fruit was defrosted and quite liquidy, so I didn't even need to add water. Skipping sugar for now, I just started cooking it, and spooned in about a cup's worth of honey that was pretty well crystallized and needed to be used in something baked or cooked or just get tossed out. I simmered it for a long time, probably a couple of hours, until it had cooked down quite a bit and had also thickened a lot. Then I left it for a while with the cover on it and the heat off while I went to the store to buy pectin.

I looked at the various types of pectin that were available here. I was attracted to the low-sugar pectin, but when I saw that dextrose was the first ingredient, I shied away from that, too -- I had a bad reaction once to dextrose candy they eat in Hungary, so I think it's yet another food allergy. I opted for the regular pectin, and figured I'd risk it with a limited sugar allowance, treat it as freezer jam, even though it's cooked, and re-cook it with more pectin and sugar if it doesn't set right.

So, when I came back, I started cooking the fruit mixture again, and I added the two packets of liquid pectin and just one cup of granulated sugar. I cooked it a while longer, continuing to stir, until it had thickened some more, then I ladled it into my newly cleaned, newly purchased jam jars.

So, right now the jam is cooling in the sweet little jars, and I'll check in the morning to see if it's set. I can't wait to eat it on homemade bread and in homemade yogurt. It's lovely, tart and a little sweet, tasting mostly of spiced blueberry with bursts of cranberry here and there.

Everybody says you're supposed to follow the recipe if you want good results with jam, and that it needs to be mostly sugar. Well, we'll see how this works out!!

Photos and update to come tomorrow. :)

Filled date cookies with walnuts, cinnamon, and spiced rum - easy step-by-step recipe with photos

2009-01-05T23:25:00.000-08:00

I have updated another family classic from the old town in Minnesota where my ancestors lived and baked. Mom remembers Adeline, the lovely woman who used to play the organ in the community, and whose Date Filled Cookies recipe appeared in the Zion Lutheran cookbook. Unfortunately, the original baker didn't give too many details about preparation, so I winged it and have ended up with a lovely variation that comes out a bit like a jazzed-up snickerdoodle, which I have to hope she would approve of! The addition of spiced rum would probably have raised the eyebrows of many of the Zion ladies . . . even though the alcohol naturally bakes off in the oven. Can we keep this our little secret? :)

Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda

Date filling
1 pound dates
water to cover the dates
splash of dark spiced rum (about 1/2 cup)
cinnamon
ground ginger
1 cup chopped walnuts

Topping
large walnut pieces, preferably halves (approximately 3 dozen)
ground cinnamon

Directions

Cook the pitted dates over medium heat in a little water in a medium saucepan, stirring frequently. When dates have a fairly smooth consistency, cool, then stir in a splash of spiced rum and a little ground cinnamon and ground ginger (to taste), and chopped walnuts. Set aside filling mixture to continue to cool. (You can make this ahead and refrigerate for a couple days until you're ready to make the cookies.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars.
Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
Add the hot water and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, and soda).
Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir well.
Prepare a lightly greased cookie sheet.
Remove dough by the teaspoonful from the bowl, and gently roll into small balls in your hand, placing on cookie sheet with plenty of space (about an inch or so) between the balls.
When you have filled the sheet with cookie dough balls, wash your hands, and using a clean, wet finger, make a small depression in each ball. It's okay if the ball gets a little flattened in the process.
Fill each depression with a small amount of date filling.
Take a walnut half (or large piece of walnut) and press into the date filling in the center of each cookie dough ball. Finish by dusting lightly with ground cinnamon.
Bake for approximately 13 minutes, or until cookies are firm and golden.
Cool for a minute on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

This recipe seems to make about 2-3 dozen cookies (depending on their size). The cookies are nicely symmetrical and would be pretty on a holiday cookie & candy plate.
Variations: consider adding raisins, chocolate chips, or shredded coconut to the mixture.

Eco-conscious coffee consumption -- shade-grown

2008-12-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

Eco-conscious coffee consumers take notice: U of M researchers have found that shade-grown coffee benefits birds and general biodiversity in coffee plantations where overhanging trees are allowed to remain. Though the article here notes the trendiness of shade-grown coffee, I have to admit that I'd never heard about this issue and this was the first I'd ever known about this aspect of coffee growing practices. I'll definitely be paying attention to this in the future, and looking for shade-grown coffee.

The caramels that melt hearts; the stuff of Christmas legends

2008-12-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

Some family recipes have rather mysterious origins. This old timer made its way into the Zion Lutheran Church cookbook in the mid-1950s in North Germany Township, Minnesota, thanks to my great-aunt, who called it "Amy's Caramels." Who Amy was, and where Artis found the original recipe that Grandma Ethel and Great-Aunt Lorraine made every year, is unknown to me. All I know is that it has become a family tradition to make these caramels every year at Christmastime, since they were the favorite among the fudge, divinity, and various other candies that Grandma made every year for us kids.

There is nothing healthful in the slightest about the ingredients; nonetheless, this is the kind of recipe that could get you a marriage proposal. No, really. Just make sure you have a candy thermometer, a long-handled wooden spoon (burns from hot sugar HURT, trust me) and a lot of energy to stir, because it'll keep you standing over the pot for close to an hour. It'll be worth it. They make an unforgettable gift for family and friends, if you can relinquish the idea of eating the whole pan yourself.

Old-time Homemade Caramels

2 cups white sugar
2 cups white corn syrup
1 pinch salt
4 tablespoons butter
4 cups whipping cream (or 2 cups whipping cream and 2 cups half and half)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped walnuts (we usually add even more than this, since we're a nutty bunch)

Combine first four ingredients and just 2 cups cream.
Bring to boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (don't use plastic; it will MELT in the hot sugar, and metal will require using a potholder, since this mixture is going to get HOT), lower heat to medium and take care not to scorch. Bring to soft-ball stage on candy thermometer.
Slowly, while continuing to boil, add remaining 2 cups cream (or half & half), stirring constantly.
Continue to stir and cook until candy makes a firm pliable ball when dropped into a saucer of cold water (about 45 minutes entire cooking time).
Add vanilla and nuts and pour into a well-buttered 9x13-inch pan.
Cool, then cover and refrigerate.
When cool, cut into squares and wrap individual pieces in squares of waxed paper.
Keep refrigerated until just before serving (about 30 minutes)

Note: If you haven't made candy before, you may want to read up a little about the various stages of carmelization. The basic idea of the stages, though, is about what texture the candy makes when dropped into ice-cold water. "Soft ball" means that it firms up a bit, and you can squish the caramel into a soft ball. "Hard ball," similarly, means that the ball that forms in the water is hard. Watch the thermometer carefully; if it gets too hot, the candy will be more like a brittle texture, rather than caramels that soften to perfect chewiness when at room temperature. These keep for more than a week in the refrigerator. Mom says a couple months, but that might be pushing it.

~~We'll be making them in the next week or so, and I'll be sure to update with photos.~~

The results of this particular cooking adventure got rave reviews from friends at my New Year's party. Particularly beloved were those on which we sprinkled my sister's fleur de sel, a coarse salt from France that transforms the sweet to . . . transcendental.

Blackberry Scones -- Easy recipe with photos

2008-12-24T17:07:00.001-08:00

4 cups flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup organic butter or margarine
1 cup milk (I recommend whole organic milk; I mixed skim milk and half & half because we had no whole milk)
4 organic eggs, beaten
Zest of one orange
1 cup, more or less, of blackberries or boysenberries

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt).
With a pastry blender (or two forks), cut the butter into the dry ingredients, until they look like crumbs.
In a separate bowl, combine milk, eggs, and orange zest.
Add milk-egg mixture to the main bowl and stir until the dry ingredients are just combined (do not overbeat.)
Carefully fold in the blackberries to avoid bruising the fruit unnecessarily (the more blackberry juice gets mixed into the batter, the darker the color of the batter will be).
Using a large spoon, scoop scone mixture onto baking sheet.
Sprinkle lightly with extra sugar (I like coarse raw sugar for this purpose).
Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden.
Makes a dozen large scones.
Scones are deliciously light and biscuit-like, with a hint of sweetness without being overly sweet. They are traditionally served with English clotted cream and jam; another delicious alternative is jam and creme fraiche (as seen below).

I realize this is more of a summer recipe, but we had blackberries from COSTCO and I was having a hankering for some scones to go with our coffee this morning. What a treat!

(Thanks, Karen Winters, for the original recipe I modified for pure delight!)

Vintage Hungarian Sausage Commercial

2008-12-05T23:23:00.001-08:00

Mmmm, Hungarian kolbasz. Nothing like it.

Holiday baking

2008-11-27T13:35:00.001-08:00

Mom and I are planning to bake cookies and/or make candy every day when I'm home in California. So, naturally, we've both started obsessively thinking about it and saving recipes. So far on my list:

Pecan sandies
Almond biscotti
Jacques' chocolate mudslide cookies
Gingerbread
Martha Stewart crisp sugar doily cookies
Meyer lemon lace tuiles
Deborah's anise shortbread
Fudge
Grandma Ethel's homemade caramels

Do you have holiday favorites to suggest?

Ghost World

2008-11-02T06:35:00.001-08:00

One of my friends pointed me to the blog Cake Wrecks, a hilarious examination of the less elegant examples of professional baking. Or, in their words, "When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." Kitchen Empress recommends for your entertainment.

Whole grain lemon pancakes with spiced peach sauce

2008-10-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this was rather lovely. I used my trusty pancake recipe, but substituted spelt flour for the white flour, used a hint of lemon extract instead of vanilla, and omitted the blueberries. The texture was on the dry side, but quite nice when covered with luscious, steaming peach sauce. (If you're not a health food junkie like I am, just make the pancakes with white flour for a tender, fluffy, delicious result.)

The peach sauce was a nice use of the end-of-season local peaches, which were a little soft and not quite as flavorful as I had hoped they would be when they were fresh. They're positively stunning when cooked until their natural sugars are enhanced and accented with notes of cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves.

Spiced Peach Sauce

Ingredients

fresh peaches
green cardamom pods
whole cloves
stick of cinnamon
maple syrup
water
cornstarch

Directions

Peel, pit, and slice the peaches, and place into a small pot. (I used about 5 small peaches, and didn't even bother peeling them.)
Add spices (I used 4 whole cardamom pods, about 6 cloves, and a few little pieces of a stick of cinnamon.)
Heat on a medium-high flame, stirring occasionally.
In a small bowl, dissolve some cornstarch (about 1/2 a teaspoon or so) into a roughly equal amount of water, stirring until lumps disappear.
When the peaches are at a desirably soft texture and adequately sweet (taste them!), add cornstarch mixture, bit by bit, stirring constantly, until the sauce is at a desirable thickness. Repeat if sauce is still too thin for your tastes.
Add a dash of maple syrup to sweeten, if desired.
Serve over pancakes (or, bathe in it, or invent other mischievous uses, once it's cooled a bit). Garnish with fresh mint and raspberries, if desired.

Eggplant Caviar on Homemade Rye Bread

2008-10-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Mmmm . . . There's nothing like a simple evening meal of fresh tomato, luscious brie, and flavorful eggplant caviar on homemade rye bread with a bit of red wine . . .

EGGPLANT CAVIAR RECIPE

Notes: I found this gem in Alice Water's Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook several years ago, and then found a way to "cheat" to make it even easier -- and a bit lower in fat. I'll tell you both ways to prepare it. It is an easy, flavorful, completely delicious vegetarian appetizer. I especially like to include it in a meze spread when sharing a meal with friends from Southern Europe. I also often make it up along with other salads and leave it in my fridge for part of an easy and delicious lunch.

Ingredients

1 large globe eggplant
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 shallots
balsamic or red wine vinegar (I always use organic balsamic vinegar, which I can tolerate despite a sulfite allergy)
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup chopped parsley or cilantro (I tend to prefer parsley)
Grilled bread for serving (I particularly recommend homemade rye bread.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
ALICE'S VERSION: Peel the eggplant and cut into 1-inch cubes. Put the eggplant in a baking dish, season liberally with salt and pepper, and toss with a generous amount of olive oil. Sprinkle with a few tablespoons water, cover tightly, and bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until very soft. MY EASY VERSION: Wash and dry the eggplant, pierce it deeply a number of times through the skin with a fork, rub olive oil on the outside of it, and put it in a baking dish in the oven. Bake until very soft (for about an hour). Remove from oven, slice down the middle to let the steam escape, and let it cool until you can handle it without burning yourself. When you can handle it, scoop out the inside portion of the eggplant (leaving the skin behind) and mash it thoroughly with a fork.
While the eggplant is baking, peel and dice the shallots very fine. Let them macerate for about 10 minutes in about 2 tablespoons of the vinegar. Peel and mash the garlic (you can use a garlic press if you like) and add it to the shallots and vinegar.
When the eggplant is done, add it to the shallot and garlic mixture, mashing with a fork, and let it cool to room temperature.
Stir in the chopped parsley or cilantro (or a combination of both) and adjust the seasoning. Add additional olive oil and vinegar to taste. Serve on grilled bread.

NOTE: Alice's version is undoubtedly the more flavorful one, but if you're pressed for time, baking the eggplant whole as I've described above is a suitable alternative.

Speaking of wine, by the way, I have a new favorite. For ages, Orleans Hill was the vineyard that made the most affordable wine I liked and could drink (I have a sulfite sensitivity), and Bonterra was far and away the best low-sulfite wine I'd ever tried, but its $13 pricetag was prohibitive. Well, now there's a Trader Joe's label Zinfandel that is really quite drinkable, and for $5.50, there's really no beating it out for the price. Hooray!

You may notice, the link above is to a review. Well, one of the reviews is by yours truly, but I also want to draw your attention to the community, called Cork'd, where you can establish your own account and keep track of your favorite wines, and wines you want to avoid, and connect with other wine-lovers. Looks great! I still remain a big fan of GroupRecipes, too, where I originally posted my eggplant caviar recipe. . .)

Delicious, quick pancakes for the starving student . . .

2008-09-15T17:20:00.001-07:00

I'm getting really good at eating on a shoestring. For one thing, I'm just trying to reduce my overall consumption of food. And hiding out at home much of the week helps too, because it's much easier to save money when you're cooking. I also am falling back on some basic, simple foods. Happily, the garden is providing just enough to give a little green here and there. This diet isn't sustainable in the long-term for optimal health, but it's not too bad for the moment.

One of my new rediscoveries is pancakes! They're so good, filling and warm. . . I have adapted this recipe, using reconstituted powdered milk, and making a few other small modifications, to excellent effects:

1 cup flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 T brown or white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups reconstituted powdered milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
splash vanilla
frozen blueberries

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. Beat egg, vanilla, and butter into reconstituted milk. Pour wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until combined. Add blueberries. The batter will be very thick. Don't worry. It will make outstanding, fluffy, delicious pancakes. Pour in 1/3-cup-sized dollops into an iron skillet hot with melted butter. Serve with maple syrup or eat all by themselves. Cheap, fast, easy, and delicious. For me, this makes enough for one nice filling short stack to eat while hot and another small stack to put in the fridge for later after hours of reading and studying.

$30 at the farmer's market in Southeast Michigan in early July gets you . . .

2008-07-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

(From left to right) Green beans, two zucchini, snow peas, a bunch of radishes (with greens), a jar of local wildflower honey, a bunch of flowering bok choy, a quart of strawberries, "peaches" (that seem an awful lot like nectarines), a sweet potato, and a bunch of beets (with greens). All non-organic, needless to say, though they are local. Is it just me, or is it not as cheap as it seems it should be? Am I just spoiled as a Californian? Still, it's an incredible relief to have some local fresh vegetables and fruits even AVAILABLE. Even at this time of the year, most of the farmer's market was filled up with soap, sugar-sweet breads, and perennial plants. The local Michigan grain, even unground (before being ground into flour), is $2 a pound for wheat berry.

Oh, my GOD, this Michigan economy is going to kill me.

2008-07-06T06:39:00.001-07:00

Unmanageable milk jugs: another reason to buy local milk you collect in your own glass bottle.

Eat the View -- Lawns to carrots and lettuce, please

2008-07-06T05:02:00.000-07:00

One of my major aggravations about mainstream American culture is our obsession with large, bright green lawns. Being a Californian from an area where local foodie and restauranteur Alice Waters built a local organic gardening program in the schoolyard of a junior high school, where the local government offered financial support for a while to those replacing their lawn with drought-resistant native plants (in Oakland), and where the San Francisco City Hall is recruiting the community to plant vegetables on its grounds and monitoring the planting of "Victory Gardens" throughout the city, it's weird and unnerving to live now in a place where people ride back and forth every weekend on giant lawnmowers, and where I have to fight to keep my edible plants safe from the muscle men who the landlords pay to do "lawn and garden maintenance".

So, I'm excited by ideas of how to challenge the status quo on this particular issue. This is a really interesting one, and would be SO great if it were actually implemented. The concept is for the next president of the United States to reapportion the space of the White House lawn to be an organic victory garden. Take a look, and sign the petition!

Rye Crisps -- Variations on the rye theme

2008-06-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

So today I tried a modified version of my quick rye bread recipe, which is proving absolutely outstanding. One potential benefit is that it's lower in gluten than the other version. Rye isn't gluten-free, so this isn't a gluten-free bread, but the other flours here are fine for gluten-free diets, so maybe this could be good for people who are looking to reduce their gluten consumption but can still have some in their breads. I'm only now learning a little bit about gluten sensitivities, since my sister, Ms Scrumptious, visited me a couple weeks ago.

Here's the ingredient list:

Quick Whole Grain Rye Bread:
* 2 cups organic nonfat milk
* 2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
* 4 Tbsp. unsulphured blackstrap molasses
* 3 cups rye flour
* 1 cup buckwheat flour
* 1/2 cup quinoa flour
* 1 cup rolled oats
* 2 tsp fennel seeds
* 3 tsp cumin seeds
* 2 tsp sesame seeds
* handful (about 1/2 cup) raw sunflower seeds
* 3 tsp. baking powder
* 1 tsp. baking soda
* 1 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Follow the basic directions I outlined before, including the salt and sesame and sunflower seeds with the dry ingredients.

Divide the dough in half when it is holding together nicely after kneading. This recipe makes two loaves.

For a rustic round loaf like the one above (gorgeous for little open-faced avocado sandwiches) follow the directions for shaping it in my original recipe. For delicious rye crisps, excellent for a Southern-European-style mezze with eggplant caviar, olives, salty Bulgarian feta cheese, etc., press the dough into a small rectangular loaf that is relatively flat, about an inch thick.

When the dough cools, you can slice it thinly, and toast it or bake it for lovely rye toasts for parties. Mmmm. I need to work on getting the sesame seeds to stick on top, though.

I baked the little guys for about 12 minutes on each side to yield right around 25 crispies that look quite a bit like thin biscotti, only they're savory.

Rye bread revisited

2008-06-24T08:06:00.001-07:00

I have tried my hand again with the quick rye bread. This time I doubled the recipe, and upped the fennel and cumin seeds I used in the dough, skipped the sugar, and used just 2/3 the amount of molasses. It's lovely and still sweet without being overly so. I also sprinkled the top with coarse French sea salt, yielding a result that looks almost like a giant gingerbread cookie.

I think I'll add a little salt to the recipe next time I make it, perhaps 1/2-1 tsp in with the dry ingredients, especially if I don't use the coarse salt on top again.

I have to reiterate how delicious the bread is with fresh avocado. Now that I had a ripe one, I couldn't resist making a simple, delicious sandwich with just sliced avocado and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a turn of fresh-cracked black pepper.

Here it is in the oven. . .

Now that I knew how sticky the dough would be, I was prepared with extra flour, and the kneading went considerably more quickly than last time. I seriously got the loaf in the oven in right around 10 minutes. Not bad for lovely fresh-baked bread.

Farm Fresh Eggs

2008-06-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

Ms Scrumptious has finally recounted the adventure of buying eggs in the country around here in Michigan, a story I've been meaning to tell for ages. It delights me every single time I pull off the road onto the gravel drive behind an old farmhouse, wave hi to the cats and dogs and horses, and help myself to the eggs offered in a mini-fridge on the honor system. Thanks for sharing the photos and the story, Ms Scrumptious! And thank you so much for the wonderful visit, too. :)

(This has been an In My Box/Kitchen Empress crossover post!)

Quick Rye Bread Recipe -- Easy step-by-step guide with photos

2008-06-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

As I learned from Alton Brown recently in his episode on muffins, the term "quickbread" distinguishes this class of breads from those that rely on yeast for leavening, since quickbreads generally use baking soda or baking powder for leavening and therefore do not require rising time.

The quickbreads most of us are familiar with are the sweet, fruity ones, like muffins and banana bread. Somewhere I happened upon a recipe for rye quickbread in the past few days, though, so I felt inspired to try my hand at another type of whole-grain loaf that didn't depend on yeast. I was craving bread today and didn't want to wait several hours before I could eat it fresh from the oven, steaming and crusty and spread with fresh organic butter. As I am writing this post, I smell the sweet, delicious scent of molasses-rich rye bread baking in the oven, and I know this is going to be a winner.

This is a modified version of a recipe I found on the veggieboards (here). It yields a delicious result in just over an hour from start to finish: dense, moist, and sweet with molasses. I would recommend it especially for avocado sandwiches, as suggested by the original poster, to accompany fresh salad and soup, or perhaps as the sandwich bread for a simple ham & cheese. Umlud and I are probably just going to devour it plain with some sharp cheddar cheese. It bears a little resemblance to the flavor & texture of the yummy fresh-baked bread we used to get with salads at Intermezzo in Berkeley.

Hunks of cheddar cheese with delicious, wholesome molasses-rye bread. So hot from the oven, the steam blurred the photo. . . :)

Quick Rye Bread
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 cup organic milk or soymilk
1-1.5 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. organic brown sugar (optional; I think I'd omit.)
3 Tbsp. unsulphured molasses
1 1/2 cups rye flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 Tbsp. caraway seeds (I used 1/2 tsp fennel seeds and 1.5 tsp cumin seeds, since I didn't have caraway, yielding an Indian-spiced bread delicious with cheddar cheese)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
additional whole wheat flour for kneading

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, sour the milk by adding in the vinegar, waiting a couple minutes, stirring, and adding a splash more of vinegar if necessary.The milk will be thick and a little chunky, sort of like yogurt or buttermilk.
Stir in the molasses and sugar, if desired. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the rye flour, all-purpose flour, oats, caraway seeds, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the milk mixture and stir well. Your dough will be rather sticky.

Photos courtesy of Umlud, mostly.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured bread board or countertop. A rubber spatula will help for scraping out stubbornly sticky dough.
Knead until the dough holds together (2 to 3 minutes).
If the dough remains very sticky, knead in a little more flour. Shape the dough into a round.
As you'll see in this little video, courtesy of Umlud, the dough is really quite sticky. It would be handy to have extra flour at hand to bind all the dough together and remove it from your hands.
Place it on a lightly oiled baking sheet, and finish shaping as necessary, flattening and rounding until you have a satisfactory-looking rustic loaf. Bake until crusty and well browned (about 1 hour).

2008-06-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Kitchen Empress is applying for her very first professional baking gig. Wish me luck!

Local sources for raw goat and cow milk in Livingston County, Michigan

2008-06-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

Above, goat and proud owner at the Chambers family farm in Pinckney, Michigan. Image from Heavenly Dairy.

As I was recently raving about in Our Lady of the Lakes, I have recently discovered sources for local goat and cow milk in Livingston county, Michigan.

The lovely folks at Garden Patch Farms have pointed me to a local goat herder at Heavenly Dairy in Pinckney, and an organic bovine dairy in Cohoctah Township called Dairy Delight, both also in Livingston County. :) In the words of Kris Unger of Dairy Delight: "We disasterized the food system," she said. "How dare the government tells us we can't drink raw milk."

I'll follow up with a visit to the farms and photos sometime soon!!

By the way, Jim Wallace has compiled a helpful online list of local sources for raw milk, in case you're interested but don't live here in Michigan. There's another list available here.

And Dr. Mercola just wrote a couple pieces on the politics and trials and tribulations of organic dairy farming, including some information on the health aspects of organic dairy consumption, and one on weight loss and milk consumption.

Step-by-step illustrated breadbaking guide

2008-06-02T10:51:00.001-07:00

Delicious, homemade whole wheat bread with crunchy hints of cornmeal and 10-grain cereal.

Recently, in Our Lady of the Lakes (my personal blog), I was waxing philosophical about bread baking. Though I've been making quick breads frequently for many years, it hasn't become a regular practice for me to bake yeasted breads up until recently. It's a combination of interest in cooking, desire for delicious homemade bread, concern for health, stress relief, and budgetary reasons* that compel me to make my own breads.

Under regular circumstances I don't have the time to do so as a doctoral student juggling papers, meetings, and teaching responsibilities, but the spring term brings some extra time. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with the process, though, I find that it isn't nearly as time-consuming as it can seem. If you're doing work from home, taking a break to knead or punch down a dough can be fun and very relaxing. Also, contrary to popular understanding, baking yeasted bread really isn't difficult, as long as you have a clear sense of the appropriate proportions and the stages involved. Recently I've made several variations including leftover rice, sweetened condensed milk, cream, and a variety of other things I had leftover and needed to clean out of the fridge. All of them have been exceptional.

As I explained in my post a few weeks ago, I bake from the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown, which lays out the directions in easy, clearly explained steps with images, perfect for beginners. Here are a few photos of my process, making a nice sweet whole wheat loaf with molasses, whole milk, and a hint of cornmeal and multi-grain cereal.

I opted to make 3/4 of Brown's general whole wheat bread recipe, yielding three nice loaves. I only took the photos later in the process, after the second rising. I turned the nice dough out on a floured board, cut it into three roughly evenly sized pieces, and began the final kneading and shaping of the loaves.

Ingredients:

I. For the sponge:

6 cups lukewarm water (subsitute a portion with milk, if desired)
2 tablespoons yeast (2 pkgs)
1/2-3/4 cup honey or brown sugar or molasses
2 cups powdered milk (I omit, using regular milk instead)
7-9 cups whole grain flour
-- Brown calls for whole wheat flour, but I generally use a mixture including whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur brand), buckwheat, spelt, and rye flours, and about a half-cup each of whole-grain cornmeal (polenta) and 10-grain cereal from Bob's Red Mill (the 10-grain cereal contains: whole grain wheat, whole grain corn, whole grain rye, whole grain triticale [wheat], whole grain oats, soy beans, whole grain millet, whole grain barley, whole grain brown rice, oat bran, flaxseed)

II. For adding after the sponge rises:

2.5 tablespoons salt
1/2-1 cup fat (oil, butter, etc; I often use almond or other nut oils with beautiful results)
6-8 cups additional whole wheat flour
2-3 cups whole wheat flour (for kneading)

Directions (I still recommend Brown's book for more complete explanation)

I. Make the sponge.

Dissolve yeast in the water.
Add sweetening and powdered milk.
Stir in the flour until a thick batter is formed.
Beat all these ingredients together well with a spoon, about 100 strokes.
Let rise for 60 minutes.

II.

Fold in salt and oil.
Fold in additional flour until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
Knead for about 10-15 minutes on a floured board, using more flour as needed until dough doesn't stick to hands or board.
Place into an oiled bread bowl, and let bread rise for 50 minutes
Punch down.
Let rise 40 more minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).
Turn the dough onto the board, shape into a ball, and cut into four even pieces. Shape into balls again, and let sit for five minutes.
Now, shape your dough into loaves.

It's best, in general, to use a flat palm for kneading, pushing the dough forward with the weight of your whole body, centering the weight into the ball of the hand toward the end of the push.

Occasionally I also do a little punching, though. With a heavy dough like this one it can be easier to get it compacted this way, and it's a fun way of getting out aggression, too.

10. Once you finish the final kneading (about 5-6 rounds of kneading, folding in half, turning a quarter turn, and kneading again), it's time to finish shaping the loaves. Roll the dough into a little log shape, then proceed to pinch the seams together.

11. Then pat it into the form of a loaf, squaring off the edges.

(Action shots above courtesy of Umlud.)

12. Put the loaves into greased pans, and press down into loaf pan with flat fingers. (I actually have only one bread pan at the moment, so I typically make rolls or round loaves and just one rectangular loaf. Up top is the prettiest of the three that I made this time, a round loaf.)
16. Remove from pans and cool on baking rack.
13. Let loaves rise for about 20 minutes.
14. Cut slits into the top of the loaves, about 1/2 inch deep, to allow steam to escape.
15. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50-70 minutes, until the top is nice and golden brown. If you have differently shaped or sized loaves, they may need to bake different amounts of time.
17. Though Brown recommends letting it cool for an hour to ensure the slices are clean, I like to eat it right out of the oven with organic butter and organic strawberry jam. Sunspire makes a delicious one you can buy in a big jar at COSTCO for about $8, probably less than the cost of making it yourself in the height of berry season. (That is, unless you have access to berry fields where you can pick organic strawberries for $1 a pound, like Ms Scrumptious does at Eatwell Farms!)

*Even buying the highest-quality whole grain flours, I save considerably on the loaves. Comparable bread from local bakeries like Avalon or Zingerman's cost in the range of $7-10 for a fresh loaf, plus the cost of gas to and from the market, no small factor for those of us living in rural areas, as Wise Bread points out. In the winter, I also heat up my kitchen with the gas oven, reducing the heating required in the house.

Mexican Chocolate Cake - Recipe with Photo

2008-03-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Last night, in honor of my friend Jenay's birthday, I felt inspired to bake a cake, and I tried a variation on my favorite fail-safe chocolate cake recipe that was quite magnificent. The innovations built on one another slowly. Earlier in the day I had tried some lovely imperial melange tea I'd bought in an Arabic shop some time back, and I had some left over, so in lieu of my usual strong coffee I substituted the fragrant black tea for Aunt Georgie's original hot water.

That got me thinking how nice it would be to add spices; I considered cardamom, and even lavender, but I settled on cinnamon, thinking about the delight of Mexican chocolate. I fresh-ground a hint of cinnamon with a mortar and pestle, and the gorgeous aroma filled my kitchen.

When I added the first bit to the batter, though, it wasn't quite as strong as I wanted, so I grabbed another cinnamon stick from my Indian spice cupboard. There among the black cardamom pods, cloves, and dried pomegranate seeds, I noticed the jar of red chili flakes, and, thinking of the popular precolonial habit of merging the flavors of chili and cacao, I decided to throw in a pinch of that too.

By the time the fragrant spiced chocolate cake was baking in the oven in an old timer garage sale Bundt pan I'd unearthed in the back of my cabinet, I knew I was committed all the way and needed to find something to top the cake with. I settled on a glaze, but was disappointed with many of the first recipes I saw, which called for corn syrup. . . and then I found Rebecca Rather's Mexican chocolate cake recipe, bursting with real cream and melted chocolate, butter, and toasted pecans, and knew I had the right glaze, particularly since her chocolate cake recipe bore a real similarity to mine. I just opted for milk rather than half-and-half, and decided to keep the pecan halves intact, since I thought that would make an elegant topping for the cake.

What follows is my new Mexican chocolate cake recipe, my own version, from what I made last night with rave reviews from everybody at the party. :) I'm hoping a [bigger cake] photo will follow at some point, since many were taken there!

Mexican Chocolate Cake (with Pecan Glaze topping)

Ingredients

For cake

3 cups (300 g) sifted flour

2 cup (400 g) sugar

6 Tbsp (100 ml) baking cocoa

2 tsp (10 ml) baking soda

1 tsp (5 ml) salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup (120 g) organic unsalted butter, melted

2 cup (500 ml) sour organic milk (see note below in Directions, Tip #1)

1/2 cup (120 ml) hot black tea (Earl Grey or Imperial Melange)

2 Tbsp (39 ml) vanilla

2 sticks cinnamon

1 pinch hot red chili flakes (a bit more if you actually want it spicy)

For glaze

2 cups pecan halves (71/2 oz)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted organic butter
1/2 cup whole organic milk
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
5 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), broken into pieces (I used a 4-oz bar of Ghiradelli bittersweet and1 oz of Ghiradelli 100% chocolate)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Special equipment: a 9-inch tube pan or 12-cup bundt pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F or 175C. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt into mixing bowl.

Add egg, butter, sour milk, hot water and vanilla.

Grind cinnamon and chili to a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. Add to the batter.

Beat (preferably with an electric mixer) at medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into a very well greased Bundt pan.

Bake at 350F or 175C until it tests done (a toothpick or fork comes out clean), about 55 minutes. Cool in pan.

Tip: To sour sweet milk, place 2 Tbsp (15 ml) vinegar in a measuring cup and add enough milk to make 2 cups (500 ml).

Walnut Molasses Hermits

2008-03-08T22:36:00.000-08:00

They aren't the prettiest ever, but boy do they taste good.

Ingredients

2 1/2 c unbleached flour
1/4 ts Salt
1 1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp cloves)
1/2 c organic unsalted butter
2 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 cage-free organic eggs, beaten
1/2 c unsulphured blackstrap molasses
1 cup raisins, chopped
2 Tbsp organic whole milk
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Instructions

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and molasses.
Mix in the dry ingredients, raisins, and milk, then add walnuts.
Gather the dough together in one lump, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350F.
On a lightly floured board, roll out 1/2 of the dough at a time to a thin sheet and cut into desired shapes.
Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10 minutes.

Yield: 60 small cookies

(Based on recipe for molasses hermits from The New Settlement Cookbook, posted to MM-Recipes Digest by "Cindy Hartlin" on Nov 16, 1999.)

Fannie Farmer's Banana Nut Bread -- Illustrated Recipe

2007-12-08T15:43:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar (regular, or turbinado works fine, too)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup nut meats, coarsely chopped (I prefer walnuts)

Directions

Mix in a bowl 3 ripe bananas, well mashed, and 2 eggs, beaten until light.
Sift together 2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
Add to the first mixture.
Add 1/2 cup nut meats, chopped.
Stir well.
Put in a buttered loaf pan 9 by 5 inches.
Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 Celsius).

The bread is delicious served warm, with a butter dish nearby. It makes a nice breakfast quick bread or snack. It keeps well for 2-3 days, and is very nice toasted.

Tip #1: I have substituted homemade applesauce for a portion of the banana puree when I was short on bananas with excellent results.

Tip #2: If you like especially nutty breads, use one cup instead of 1/2 cup nut meats. I also usually double the nuts (actually, I think I use even more than a cup) because I love walnuts.

Tip #3: I often have substituted 1 cup or even all of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour with delicious results. I tried it with half buckwheat flour this last time, and that worked out nice, too. I tend to add a bit less sugar (about 1/2 a cup, usually), and substitute turbinado for regular white sugar with fine results.

Tip #4: Some like to add 2 tablespoons melted butter to the batter. I make it without, according to Fannie Farmer's original recipe. It is delicious without the added fat.

Grown-up Mac & Cheese

2007-12-01T17:48:00.001-08:00

I had a chunk of ever-so-stinky old raclette in my fridge, some leftover heavy cream from my pumpkin pie expedition, and some mushrooms that were really needing use. And, I had some leftover roasted acorn squash. And, I'd been craving something creamy and starchy, since the snow is currently dumping all over the Midwest. And, since necessity is the mother of invention . . . I created my new invention, something I'll try freezing and thus may be eating for several weeks: Grown-up Macaroni and Cheese. All I can say is, Yum. It may sound kind of odd, but man it's rich and delicious, without being very cheesey.

Grown-up Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked (with ample salt in the water) and drained
1 chunk raclette, trimmed of rind and chopped into small pieces
Small amount of creamy blue cheese (I used a little hunk of leftover cambozola), cut into small pieces
some heavy cream (about 3 Tablespoons)
some butter (about 3 Tablespoons)
3 zucchini squash, thinly sliced in half-circle shapes
1 acorn squash, roasted
1 bunch of broccoli, steamed, drained, then chopped into small pieces
3/4 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
meat from 1 Amish rotisserie chicken, chopped into small pieces (omit for vegetarians)
salt
pepper
a little olive oil

Directions

When the pasta is finished, empty out the pot and put it back on the burner over low heat.
Put the butter in the bottom of the pot, pour in the cream, and add the cheese, stirring frequently to prevent any scorching or other troubles.
In a large skillet, saute the mushrooms and zucchini in olive oil. Season with a little fresh-ground pepper. Saute until they are nicely browning and the zucchini is getting soft.
When the cheeses are melting nicely into the cream and butter, scrape the acorn squash out of its shell and mix into the pot. Add the cooked pasta, mixing well.
Add the sauteed mushrooms and zucchini and the steamed broccoli.
Add the chicken pieces, if you're using them, and mix it all up.
(I'm contemplating an added step of putting it in a baking pan covered with parmesan and other Italian cheeses and baking it for a while. But honestly, it's so good just like this, I'm not going to bother right now!)

This makes such a big batch, it would be a good potluck dish. I'm going to try freezing individual portions for lunches and I'll let you know how that goes.

Dinner tonight: Garlic Lovers' Special

2007-11-24T16:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight I'm preparing a simple dinner. Leftover pasta from last night and chili-garlic roasted broccoli. I must still be fighting that cold, because I sure am craving garlic. I wouldn't necessarily recommend these dishes together for most folks.

The pasta is one of my all-time favorites, an old standby I made up when I was living in Austin around the corner from the Wheatsville food co-op. Super simple, but delicious:

Whole wheat spaghetti with kale, garlic, white beans, walnuts, and herbs

Ingredients

whole wheat spaghetti
garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper
lavender
herbes de provence
1 bunch kale
1 can white beans
handful of walnuts (more if omitting beans)
fresh parmesan cheese
(cheese is optional; you can also opt for either beans or nuts)

Directions

1. In a large pot, cook whole wheat spaghetti according to directions, with a good dose of salt, and drain well when finished.

2. In a very large nonstick skillet, saute a whole lot of coarsely chopped garlic (close to a head) in a very generous amount of olive oil, about half a cup or so (eyeball it), over medium flame. Crush in a generous amount of herbes de provence and lavender (some varieties of the herbes come with lavender, others don't).

3. When the garlic is getting soft and only starting to brown, add about half a bunch to a whole bunch of kale, washed and ripped into bite-sized pieces (with the tough stems removed), still a bit wet.

4. Add a can of white beans, well rinsed (to remove the metallic taste of the can), and walnuts, broken into coarse pieces.

5. Grind in a good dose of black pepper, and add some coarse sea salt to taste.

6. Heat for a few minutes and stir it up with a couple wooden spoons so it's all nicely tossed with the herbs and oil and garlic, and the beans are heated through.

7. Lower the flame to a flicker, and add the drained pasta in handfuls into the pan. Toss with the other ingredients over the low flame, adding more olive oil if needed, so the pasta is also dressed nicely.

8. This can be a nice simple vegan dish as-is, or for richer flavor, shave in a generous amount of fresh parmesan cheese to taste.

________________________________________________________________

Chili-garlic Roasted Broccoli

The roasted broccoli was a real surprise when I first tried it. It's adapted (only slightly) from Rachael Ray, from her 30 Minute Meals show. It takes just minutes to do the preparation before putting it into the oven, and it yields amazingly rich flavor. The broccoli taste will help you remember why you once loved broccoli. And the spicy garlicyness of the sauce is a nice contrast to the usual. It makes an excellent side dish with a meat entree, or it's pretty satisfying on its own with fresh steamed quinoa with a little butter and tamari sauce (for a vegetarian meal).

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, eyeball it

5 to 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (I actually use up to a whole head sometimes, because I REALLY love garlic)

1 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon grill seasoning blend (eg: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick Grill Mates). I just use hot Hungarian paprika, which is excellent, salt to taste, fresh-ground black pepper, and some red pepper flakes (these are hot & spicy; use to your tastes)

1 large head broccoli, cut into thin, long spears (I use "baby broccoli" from Trader Joes and just trim the ends and halve the larger pieces.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place olive oil, garlic, chili powder and grill seasoning or paprika in the bottom of a large bowl.

Add the broccoli spears.

Toss to coat broccoli evenly. (I use my clean hands!)

Transfer to a large nonstick baking sheet.

Roast the broccoli until ends are crisp and brown and stalks are tender, 17 to 20 minutes.

Thanksgiving Baking: Easy as. . . Cobbler

2007-11-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year (which I spent with my wonderful friend Alice and her wonderful family), I prepared apple cobbler and pumpkin pie. My thinking was that since I had never before attempted a pie, I could use the cobbler as a back-up.

Fruit cobbler is a family standard, and we have a tried and true family recipe that always comes out exquisitely. This time was no exception. The key is always to use delicious, very fresh, seasonal fruit. I was sincerely concerned when I arrived to the Howell Farmer's Market site on Sunday and only remembered when I saw the street empty except for a few blowing autumn leaves that the market ends in October. But I was lucky to see a couple bags of Michigan apples at Busch's, that were crisp and lovely. The golden delicious, a variety I had never previously enjoyed in the least, proved to be even tastier than the Fujis, and it was these I used for the cobbler. It was a real hit. Here below is a photo of my cobbler before it went in the oven. Unfortunately, I forgot to capture an image of the finished product!

You may notice the brownish color of the sugar on the top. I used turbinado sugar in this version of the cobbler, and mixed just a little turbinado and brown sugars to sprinkle on top. These never caramelize quite as nicely as white sugar, so for this Thanksgiving, I kept the baking time on the short end, brought the cobbler to Alice's brother's place, and when we were finished with the savory part of the meal, we sprinkled the top of the cobbler with a more generous amount of white sugar, heated up the cobbler in a 375 degree (F) oven for about 15 minutes, then put it under the broiler just until the sugar was browned. It was an effective way of getting a nicely browned top and also having warm cobbler (which I always prefer, served with vanilla ice cream).

. . .

Now, the Pumpkin Pie is somewhat of a different story. The finished product got RAVE reviews, but it was a big experiment. The thing is, my mother hates pumpkin pie, so we never made it in our house for the holidays. My starting point, as it often is for "traditional" household and baking questions, was Martha Stewart's website. There I found a recipe for Traditional Pumpkin Pie with Betty White. Well, one of my pet peeves with recipes is always when people assume you have thousands of dollars worth of kitchen equipment. Why begin with the assumption that you naturally have a KitchenAid, a Cuisinart, pie weights, a wire cooling rack, and a gazillion other specific tools for baking, just because you're ambitious enough to want to make something as "easy as pie"? Since I knew making a pie crust by hand would be time-consuming and potentially disastrous, I bought a couple inexpensive frozen pie crusts at Busch's, and thought I'd just make the pumpkin custard fresh to pour in.

In the end, though, I woke up Thanksgiving morning wanting to rise to the challenge. So, halving Betty White's Pate Brisee recipe (because I didn't have leaf-shaped cookie cutters, and opted to make a single-crust pie), I went through the fun, if slightly tedious, task of making the pie dough in two batches in my tiny-sized Cuisinart mini food processor. Since the mini version doesn't allow you to add liquid while pulsing, I waited until I had the butter & dry ingredients mixed together and all together in one bowl before I used a pastry cutter to mix in the ice water.

Unfortunately, I made two small errors/changes that may have influenced the crust. One was that in halving the recipe, I forgot to halve the amounts of sugar and salt. So the crust ended up rather on the salty side. Not outrageously so, though, and I skipped the salt in the custard to balance it out a bit. The other change I made was that, because I had no white sugar on hand, I used powdered sugar. I thought that was a safer substitution than brown or turbinado sugar. I may or may not have been right in that.

The crust was delicious, but it wasn't completely watertight. So, Martha & Betty's advice of removing the pie crust from the pie pan and baking the custard-filled pie pastry on a rimmed baking sheet proved somewhat unfortunate. My delicious pie, like a paradise island, had a rather ugly peninsula of pumpkin custard oozing out onto the sheet.

There were some other changes I made to the recipe. Well, when I went to Trader Joe's and picked up my canned organic pumpkin, I grabbed the canned milk that was right next to it. Since I generally cook with fresh ingredients, I was not up on the not-so-subtle differences between evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. It was only after I'd mixed the sticky sweetened condensed milk into the pumpkin puree that I looked again at the recipe, realized the potential seriousness of the change, and looked online for help to confirm that my custard could recover. Seeing that there are others who use sweetened condensed milk for pumpkin pie, I proceeded with some improvisation.

In the end, this is the pumpkin pie I've come out with, that I will recreate the next time I do this. I'll use the appropriate amounts of salt and sugar for the Pate Brisee, but I'll make the pumpkin custard in exactly the same way I did this time. And, I'll bake the filled pie crust in a pie pan in case of any leakage!!

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Heather's Pumpkin Pie
(thanks to Martha Stewart, Betty White, and the internet)

Makes one 10-inch pie

Pate Brisee Ingredients

Makes enough for one single-crust pie

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/8 to 1/4 cup ice water

Pate Brisee Directions

Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. (If you don't have a food processor, use two forks or a pastry cutter.) Add butter, and pulse until mixture forms coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds.
While continuing to mix (with machine running, or with pastry cutter or two forks), add ice water in a slow, steady stream just until dough holds together without being wet or sticky, no longer than 30 seconds.
Divide dough in half, and shape into disks. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. Dough can be frozen up to 1 month; thaw in refrigerator overnight, or at least for a couple hours, before using.

Pie Ingredients

1 1/2 cups solid-pack canned pumpkin (one 15-ounce can)
Pate Brisee (see above)
All-purpose flour, for work surface
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk
Fresh (unsweetened) heavy whipped cream, for serving
Optional: 2 teaspoons heavy cream and 1 egg for egg wash

Pie Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough into a 14-inch round. Fit round into a 10-inch pie plate; trim and fold dough under flush with rim of pie plate. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
Cut a large circle of parchment paper; fit into pie plate, extending about edges. Fill with dry beans or lentils (to use as pie weights).*
Bake pie shell 10 minutes. Remove weights and parchment; bake 5 minutes more. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
Place pumpkin in a large bowl. Add condensed milk, cornstarch, spice, vanilla, and 3 eggs; whisk until combined.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Place pie back into pie pan. If desired, prepare egg wash by whisking 1 egg and heavy cream in a small bowl. Brush edges of pie shell with egg wash. Transfer pumpkin mixture to pie shell. Bake until all but the center is set, 50 to 60 minutes. Let pie cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into wedges, and serve with whipped cream.

*For more on pie weights, see notes from Nicole in Baking Bites. Once you use beans or other legumes as pie weights, you shouldn't use them for anything else, but you can put them back into a bag and continue to use them in the future for that express purpose.

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Mom's Perfect Fruit Cobbler

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

1 cup + 1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

3 cups fresh seasonal fruit, cut (if necessary) into slices or chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C) In the oven, melt butter in a glass pan, without allowing it to brown.

In a bowl, mix flour, 1 cup sugar, and baking powder. Add milk and stir until combined but still slightly lumpy.

Pour the mixture over the melted butter in the glass pan.

Pour fruit over the top. Don't mix it at all!! Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup sugar over the top. Bake for approximately 35 minutes until it is browning on the edges. If you like your cobbler really caramelly brown on top (I know I do), overbake it a little bit, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Serve warm or cool. It's especially nice warm with vanilla ice cream or heavy whipped cream.

Tip #1: If you're making an apple cobbler, you can use a little lemon juice sprinkled on the fruit to prevent it from browning while you're preparing the other ingredients, and it's nice to add a little cinnamon (about 1 tsp) to the dry ingredients.

Tip #2: There are many fruit variations possible, and I've never had one I didn't like. I can't emphasize enough what a difference it makes to use truly fresh fruit, right from the tree. Some of my favorite combinations are: Nectarine + Blackberry (my absolute favorite!); Peach + Blueberry; Apple; Peach; Plum; Cherry; Apricot; Blackberry

Tip #3: If you like an extra-crusty cobbler, you can make 1.5 times the batter while leaving the fruit amount constant.

Tip #4: In the interest of making a slightly healthier adaptation, I recently tried a newfangled variation using half buckwheat flour and turbinado sugar in about 2/3 the amount called for above. It turned out pretty good, but not at all the pure sweet perfection of the original recipe. If I DO try a "healthier" version again, though, I think I'll reduce the butter too, because the buckwheat one didn't quite absorb all the butter in the bottom of the pan like the standard version. The turbinado sugar didn't seem to carmelize quite as effectively as the standard white sugar.

Applesauce Nut Bread

2007-10-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

homemade applesauce from 3-4 apples
2 eggs
2-3 tablespoons butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fresh-ground cinnamon and cardamom mix (I use a coffee grinder I reserve for spices)
1/2-1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Applesauce Directions

Wash, peel, and core apples. Chop into small pieces and place in a medium saucepan with 1-2 tablespoons water. Simmer on medium-low, stirring occasionally, until the apple pieces have mostly dissolved into a pulp (oh, about 15 minutes, probably).

Quickbread Directions

Add the butter to the warm apples and stir until it has melted into the sauce. Let the mixture cool somewhat.

Beat the eggs until they're light and mix in the applesauce. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add to the first mixture. Add the walnuts and spices. Stir well. Put in a buttered loaf pan 9 by 5 inches. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Broiled Salmon with Tomatoes, Onions, and Cilantro

2007-10-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe that I improvised earlier this summer, riffing off a Joy of Cooking recipe. Ooh, it was good.

Wash and pat dry two salmon fillets, and place into a glass baking dish. Generously drizzle with olive oil, season with plenty of salt and fresh cracked black pepper, and five cloves of crushed garlic. Rub this mixture into the salmon and allow it to marinate for a few minutes. Drizzle with a bit of soy sauce and some seasoned rice vinegar. Dump on half a pint of cherry tomatoes, one very thinly sliced onion, and a generous handful of cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped. Drizzle more olive oil on top. Spread the vegetables & herbs around in the pan to mix with oil and spread evenly in the baking dish. Broil about 8 inches from the flame until onions are carmelized and fish is done, about 10-15 minutes.

Farmers Markets in the Ann Arbor Area

2007-10-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday
Howell; State Street in downtown Howell, alongside the historic Livingston County Courthouse
(May-October) 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Tuesday
Dexter; 3233 Alpine Street
(season unknown) 4-7 pm

Wednesday
Ann Arbor Kerrytown, 315 Detroit Street
(May-December) 7:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Ypsilanti; Depot Town Freight House
(May-November)9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Thursday
Ann Arbor West Side, Jackson Road, Zingerman's Parking Lot
(June-September) 3:00-7:00 PM

Saturday
Ann Arbor Kerrytown, 315 Detroit Street
January-April, 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
May-December, 7:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Brighton; Parking lot off North First Street
(May-October) 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Dexter; 3233 Alpine Street
(May-October) 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Saline; South Ann Arbor Street
(May-October) 8 a.m. to noon

Ypsilanti; Depot Town Freight House
(May-November) 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In the beginning . . .

2007-10-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

I have a notion that a food blog is highly topical and not particularly autobiographical. Every writer has his or her own take on how to approach the topic of food, but the idea of separating cooking from life is, indeed, rather artificial. After all, eating is one of these practices that is universal among human beings, and therefore cooking, whether you do it yourself, or you rely on your mother, a servant, or the hot dog stand guy on the street corner, is something that is a part of all of our lives.

For me, cooking has been a deeply important part of my life, one that at times offers a clarity and order to the chaos around me, for years and years. My grandmother Ethel was a remarkably talented cook and baker. Her sugar cookies, and many other recipes, were published in Betty Crocker cookbooks. She was always the one to prepare elaborately architected layer cakes for the wedding ceremonies in her community in rural Minnesota. My mother is a very fine cook in her own right, and her berry cobbler recipe made it into a Junior League cookbook in the 1980s. I have very fond, though somewhat vague, memories of the old farmhouse kitchen in which Ethel recruited my brother and me into cookie-cutting at Christmastime. My mother, however, kept us far from the kitchen, where she liked to watch the evening news while she prepared a family dinner every single night as I was growing up. We always sat down to the table together. It was always brief, but it was always together as a family.

That is, until our family house burned down in the Oakland/Berkeley Firestorm of 1991. I was fifteen at the time, a new sophomore in high school. Suddenly, we were thrown into a complete tailspin as a family, and we moved six times in just three years, as we waited to return to our newly rebuilt home. Family dinners were just one of many practices that fell to the wayside in our house. In fact, my mother stopped cooking entirely for a while. She suffered from illness, undoubtedly from the stress of what we were enduring.

And so, I learned to cook.

That may sound callous in the way I frame it, but in the end, you have to eat, and if you aren't going to live on cereal and takeout, somebody has to enter the kitchen. So I did, and I had an unusual entree into the experience of cooking. After all, I had seen two other generations of women in my family prepare food. But I had had very little hands-on experience with food preparation. So, I began very simply, and I stuck with vegetarian foods. I bought pasta and cooked it according to the instructions on the package, and learned the basics of preparing a tomato sauce. But quickly I was inspired by the wide array of new-to-us cookbooks my mother was rapidly accumulating at garage and estate sales (since literally everything we'd previously owned had been incinerated). I explored the various techniques for preparing omelettes, through traditional French cookbooks. I tried my hand at fondue, at lemon cream sauces, at French onion soup. I was off and running. Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had a palate that was curious and accustomed to a rather wide variety of foods, including many types of ethnic cuisines and a large array of fresh fruits and vegetables. I may be one of the only kids who grew up loving Brussels sprouts! By the time I was in college, I felt confident picking up a cookbook and tackling just about anything I had directions for. But travel and life in Europe, India, and Morocco broadened the horizons further, and they just keep expanding. Every close friend I've every cooked with has transformed my practice in the kitchen, especially when we have had the gift of living together for a period.

So, you see, life has always been intimately enmeshed in my cooking; or perhaps it's more appropriate to say that my cooking has always been woven tightly into the fabric of my life. So you're never going to be able to avoid me in this blog, even when I'm talking about creme brulee or pasta alla puttanesca.

The Empress

2007-10-14T12:10:00.001-07:00

The Empress is the Creator. As Aeclectic Tarot tells us,

While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

Poised in a field of ripe wheat, clad in a gown marked with pomegranates, bearing a shield with the symbol of Venus, she is the quintessential mother figure.

In the kitchen -- in my kitchen-- she gives life, brings beauty to fruition, and offers nourishment and abundance.