13 posts tagged “food”

It's term paper season, and so I've been experimenting in the kitchen between fits and spurts of writing.  It's one way to get the creativity flowing.

All-goodest of the All-good Cookies: (makes about 2 dozen large cookies)

• 1/2 cup butter
  
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 over-ripe banana, mashed
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 1 tsp ground cardamon seed
  
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup besan (chickpea flour)
  
• 2 tbsp rum
• 1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
  
• 1 cup goji berries (aka wolf berries or lycium berries)
• 2 1/2 to 3 cups rolled oats

1. Soak the goji berries in the rum.
2. Soften the butter and coconut oil and whisk together
3. Beat the eggs and the banana together
   
4. Mix the sugar into the butter
5. Whisk the sugar/butter and eggs/banana together
6. Mix the dry ingredients: flours, salt, baking powder, and cardamon
7. Mix the wet ingredients of #5 in with the dry ingredients of #6
8. Add the goji berries, rum and coconut to #7
9. Mix in the oats
10. Use spoons to make balls of the cookie dough, place on a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment paper
11. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-15 minutes
12. Remove when edges are browned

Caveats: cookies with coconut oil tend to spread out a lot when baking.  After baking, cookies are relatively moist. If kept in a sealed container, they will keep their rum flavor. However, they will also be crumbly and fall apart easy. 

I attribute the crumbliness to the rice and besan flours, but what do I know? It could be the coconut oil. I think next time I'll try some flax seed meal instead of rice flour (since the rice flour contributed nothing in the way of nutritional value to the cookie).

Kept in a not-airtight container (a ceramic nabe pot which has a small hole in the lid), the cookies hold together well and are moist and chewy,

Questions: Why the rum?  When searching for a recipe to play with, I ran across a rum raisin oatmeal cookie. I transplated the idea and substituted goji berries. The berries were really dry, and I wanted them to be relatively soft in the cookie.

Aren't goji berries expensive to put in a cookie?  Not if you get them from Pacific Ocean Market.

Why coconut oil?  You know you're not cutting down on calories or saturated fats that way, right?  Right.  I had only one stick of butter and what I was making called for two. My other options were: greek olive oil or expired vegetable shortening.

Does it taste really banana-y? No, only mildly so. I added it because: I had it, and it was a coconut cookie, and there was rum involved, and so...well, let's just say that if I had dried pineapple and sugared lime, they would have been somehow added as well. Consider it to be a colada cookie.

I'm rewarding myself for diligent study by making no-knead bread.  I might bake it some time tomorrow, but probably not until Wednesday.  If it turns out, I'll try no-knead challah on Thursday (to bake on Friday).

2/5 Update: I baked it tonight, and it really does crackle as it cools.

Vegetarian Sausage Strata:

• 8 whole eggs
  
• 2 pints almond milk
• 12 oz chevre
• 1 lb vegan "sausage"
• chickpea flour
• sage
• canola oil
  
• rustic wheat bread (from Udi's at the Boulder Farmer's Market)
• baby spinach
• black olives, sliced
• hatch green chiles (mild) diced
• 2 cups shredded Dubliner Irish Cheese
• salt and pepper

Yesterday I made another version of the sausage strata, going to great lengths of experimentation, dirtying almost all of my mixing bowls, my blender, food processor, cutting boards and other kitchen miscellany in the process.  Also, I got all manner of it on my clothing--fool that I was, I put my apron in the wash before I got started on the process.  However, kitchen-witchery is often enhanced by a sort of bumbling comedic affect, so it was for the better.

The first step in the overall process was to make almond milk. I had a 3lb bag of almonds from Costco, so I thought it thrifty to make my own almond milk, rather than go buy a couple of quarts. Per advice of a few googled recipes, I put a jar of almonds (about a cup and a half) in water in the fridge on Friday morning to begin a soak.  I pulled them out on Sunday, drained and rinsed them, and put them in my blender with about 2 cups of water to start.  Pulse, pulse, pulse, then liquify.  I added 2 more cups of water (reaching the blender's capacity), and kept it running for about 2 minutes.

Then, the fun began.  Having not adequately thought about the process in advance, I began misfiring synapses when considering what to do next.  Initially, I thought I'd put it all in the fridge and wait for it to a) cool and b) settle before trying to separate out the almond milk from the almond puree.  So I started pouring it into ball jars, making rather a bit of a mess in the process, because somehow the bottom of my blender (it comes apart there for cleaning the blade) had worked itself loose.  Once I'd poured all of the slurry and started cleaning up some of the mess, I thought it wise to taste-test.  That revealed that the slurry was in a rather fine state of suspension that might take days to settle out, and I was planning to assemble strata in a few hours, so I had to come up with a plan b.

I dug out my mesh strainer and a small glass mixing bowl I scored from the free box and started the separation process, which took the better part of a half hour.  After draining everything, I had less than 2 pints of almond milk (which is what I needed at minimum), so I ran the almonds through the blender again with more water, and then mixed it into the previous batch. Once that was in ball jars and in the fridge, I put the almond paste in a jar and into the freezer, for later experimentation (probably a savory vegan pate), and washed up everything.

A few hours later, I started whisking 12 oz of chevre into an initial 2 cups of almond milk.  The sausage strata recipe calls for a pint of heavy cream and a pint of whole milk, so my cow-dairy-adverse compromise is 2 pints of almond milk and goat cheese, in attempts to make something of the same texture/consistency.  It worked.  I then beat 8 eggs, and whisked them into the chevre/milk, added a lot of black pepper and about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, and put it in the fridge.

The whole wheat bread I got from the farmer's market was still too fresh, dense and moist, so I sliced up as much as I thought I'd need, and put it on a cookie sheet in the oven to slowly toast it.

I had some "Gimme Lean"  vegetarian "sausage", which I'd planned to put in the strata without cooking it first. I tried to crumble it, but it's so sticky that it proved impossible to do so.  I worked in about a cup of besan (chickpea flour) to make it more like coarse meal than paste, but still it was too sticky to crumble, so I compromised with frying it in a little canola oil.  While doing so, I added some powdered sage, since I can't imagine a breakfast sausage without it.

Then, I started assembling strata: base layer of bread, then a lot of spinach, then "sausage", then black olives and chiles, then more spinach, then bread, then pour in the egg/etc. batter, then shredded cheese on top.  Then into the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees.  Ideally, the strata should sit in the fridge overnight, tightly wrapped & compressed so that everything can soak together.

Lessons learned:

1. Always plan out the whole scope of a culinary experiment--trying to figure out tactics in the middle means that I have to wash more dishes.
2. Kitchen experiments are more fun with an audience who can laugh at the antics.
   
3. Wheat-based vegetarian meat substitutes are always too sticky to crumble--better to buy "crumbles".  I may even try Quorn.
   
4. Whole wheat bread is too thick/chewy/dense for the desired consistency of strata, although it tastes very good.
5. More chiles and olives next time, maybe some hot peppers too.  Also, mushrooms would be excellent.
6. I should always put shredded cheese in the middle
   
7. A deeper pan would work better for the strata overall.
   
8. My friends are always happy to try the results of my experiments.
   

Some several months ago, I went to the Pacific Ocean Market in Broomfield to pick up a variety of inexpensive ingredients for ethnic cuisines of the Chinese, Japanese and Indian varieties. Among my purchases was a 2lb bag of besan, which is flour made from chickpeas.  It has been languishing in my cupboard ever since.  Last night, I decided it was time to make dosas.

A dosa is basically a savory Indian crepe-sort-of-thing, usually made with diced or shredded vegetables, herbs, and lots of spices.  I've made them a couple times, but it never turns out as I hope.  It's simply because I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to Indian cookery--I can follow a recipe, but so much is dependent upon a feel for the technique and texture of things.  An idea of how things should look helps a lot, and so I was very glad to discover Manjula's Kitchen.  After watching Manjula's dosa video, I saw that I was going about it all wrong, using a dosa recipe that had more in common with American pancakes than actual dosas. 

Here's what I improvised last night:

• 1 cup besan
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp curry powder
• pinch of asafoetida powder
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• salt to taste
• water (1 cup or more)
  

Mix all of the above with a whisk, then add water.  I'm not sure how much water I used, but it was at least a cup.  The first dosa I fried (on a dry nonstick pan over medium heat) was very thick, so I had to add more water to the remaining batter.  With a thinner batter comes a thinner dosa which can be fried on a higher heat, faster.  I think this will vary with vegetable content, so I have to experiment.

Next time, I will give this a try with shredded carrot, since I have the better part of a 2-lb bag of carrots in my fridge. I imagine it will be good with goat cheese.

It's probably not like any pasta e fagioli recipe you've ever seen, but since the name just means "pasta with beans", how can it be wrong?

I call it purple because three of the ingredients in the mix are purple.  Technically, two of them are called red, but since they look purple both raw and cooked, I don't know why they're called "red onions" and "red cabbage".

Ingredients:

• 1 large mason jar of fully-cooked pinto beans
  
• 2 slices of bacon
• olive oil
  
• 1/4 of a medium red (purple) onion
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• 1/2 bunch purple kale
• 1/4 red (purple) cabbage
• 1 can diced tomatoes (Muir Glen)
  
• handful fresh spinach
• fresh cilantro, about 1/4 cup chopped & loosely packed (I would have used parsley or basil, but this is what I had on hand)
• dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin seed, ground black pepper
• Bragg's liquid aminos
• bowtie pasta
  

Method:

1. Boil water for pasta and go through the pasta making process.  This should run in parallel to making the fagioli
   
2. Dice the bacon and fry in a large pan over medium heat until it's about medium done and the fat is significantly melted.
3. Crush the garlic and dice the onions and saute in the bacon fat with the diced bacon
4. Chop the cabbage into bite-size bits. When the onions are translucent, add the cabbage.  Stir a bit and cover.
5. When the cabbage is translucent and softening, add the kale (coarsely chopped) and mix.
6. Add oregano, basil, pepper and cumin, about 1/4 tsp each.
   
7. When the kale is not quite cooked, add the beans and some Bragg's to season.  Mix thoroughly.  Some water may be needed.
8. Add the canned tomatoes and 3 tbsp olive oil.  When warm, taste test for saltiness and add Bragg's as desired.
9. When it looks to be done, toss in spinach and serve over bowtie pasta.
10. Garnish with cilantro.
11. Take leftovers as lunch to work for several days. 
    

This past weekend, I made a variation on the Kitchen's sausage strata, using more of what I had available and less what the recipe called for.  So here's my ingredient list:

• 7 whole eggs
  
• 1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream
• 1 and 1/2 pint of almond milk
• approximately 1 and 1/2 pound of Morningstar Farm vegetarian "sausage" patties
• sliced stale rustic bread I got from Udi's Bakery at the farmer's market on the previous weekend
• 1 and 1/2 cup of grated Basque brebis cheese
• a few hand full of fresh baby spinach
• salt & pepper
  

I pressed Emily into service as sous chef -- she broke the sausage patties into crumbles.  Meanwhile, I sliced the bread and figured out how I'd fit it into my largest glass baking dish.  I then broke the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a whisk, then added the cream and whisked it in.  I added about 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and several grinds of black pepper.

Then I poured almond milk into the cream carton to get more of the dairy out, and again for the final half pint.  I've got this cow dairy sensitivity thing going on (it causes migraines), so if I can figure out a way to make this sans cow dairy, I'll be happy.  Right now I'm fermenting an idea of mixing chevre with almond milk until it has the consistency of cream.

Due to the thickness of the bread slices (next time, I'll make them thinner, there was really only room for two layers of bread...so this was assembled rather sandwich-like, as follows:
bread on the bottom
sausage crumbles
(pour in some of the egg/cream/etc mix)
cheese
spinach
cheese
bread
(gradually pour in the rest)
cheese

Then I covered the top with cling wrap and gently pressed to smoosh things together.  Then another layer of foil and into the fridge for the night.

The next morning, I woke early, pulled it from the fridge, removed the plastic and replaced the foil, and stuck it in the oven at 350 for an hour.  As it baked, it started to overflow the pan a bit, so I had to put a cookie sheet under it midway thru. The center was not quite set after an hour of baking, but the outer part was done.  I think it's better to cook this on the same day you make it, so it doesn't go into the oven cold.

Next time I give this one a try, I'm going to slice the bread thinner so that I can have at least 3 layers of bread, and use a hard goat cheese instead of the softer sheep cheese.  And add mushrooms in with the spinach.  I can imagine a variation with green chiles and black olives as well, maybe with soyrizo.

Incidentally, the strata delightful served cold.  It's like a quiche, but much lighter.

Today we're having a potluck picnic at work, and so I came up with something I could serve cold on a hot day.  Here's the rundown of ingredients:

I've been looking at my income & expenses of late to estimate how much per month I can tuck away, and how much I have available to spend on food & fun.  It's not a lot, all told, and so I have to look at some things to cut, as well as look into how to be thrifty. I also need to start tucking money away in my 401K again, which I haven't done since I left UCSC.

I was sort of intending this entry to contribute to Help Us Help Ourselves, but I don't know what's up with that carnival since the March edition.  Perhaps I'll ping my fellow feminists about getting it rolling again.  Anyhow, via that particular carnival, I found Getting Rich Slowly, from which I learned that I should put money in a high interest CD for 6-18 months, depending, in which I can earn more interest than my college loan accumulates.  If I tuck away some of my savings there, instead of paying of my loans asap, I'll be ahead.  Granted, I'll only be ahead around 1%, but that slight perk of interest is enough to cover a medium grocery bill.  And a medium grocery bill is nothing to sneeze at when you're making a non-profit income.

Recently, I went out with a bunch folks for a friend's birthday. One of the folks did something annoyingly cheap, which is to say he put in cash to cover sushi, but not tip.  This means he's a cheap bastard.  It's frugal to intend to spend $x amount, including an estimate of 15% for lunch tip and 17-20% for dinner tip.  Like last night, I went out with a different set of friends and ordered a salad ($8.50), for which $10 covers both the entree and dinner tip.  A cheap bastard never plans to tip and leaves it to his friends (by his early departure) to foot the rest of the bill.  Feh. 

Frugal versus cheap, people -- do the former, not the latter.  Like WTF, have you ever had to live off of tips or had any friends that worked in the restaurant/cafe/bar sector?  Cheap bastards are intentionally ignorant and completely uncaring about the financial situations of other people.

Whatever the case, I should stop going out -- it's a waste of what little money I have. I hate turning down social occasions, so I'll have to convince folks to do things far less spendy, like potlucks and soirees.

Okay, onto the more interesting party: thrifty @home dining.  This past weekend, I went to the farmer's market and got a big wheel of locally-made pane rustica, which is to say, Udi's Bakery's 5 pound round loaf of hearth-baked bread.  It's phenomenally good with locally-made goat cheese.  It's also only $6, so it's like buying 3 loaves at $2 each, which is cheaper than I buy Rudi's @CostCo.  Now, Rudi's loaves, being the uniform sort of plastic packed mass-manufactured bread, freezes easily, unlike the rustic bread.  So what am I going to do with the remaining loaf after I (and my friends have noshed about half of it? 

Some of it will be chopped into bits and added to my breadcube bag in the freezer.  I can later tap into these when I make tomato soups, gazpacho, and other things that either need bread cubes or bread crumbs.  However, the bulk of the leftover bread will be made into sausage strata.

With regard to my previous post, I would never have gotten through my thesis without Dagoba's eclipse bar (87% extra dark chocolate).  Right now, I wouldn't be able to sit with this case of menstruality without it either.  Ugh.  Ibroprofin helps with the cramps, but it also has the side-effects of a faint dizziness or lightheadeness.  I feel a little stoned, distinctly sleepy, and rather not myself.  I think I need some hearty food, a good hoppy beer, and some iron supplements.

On the upside, I am no longer this cranky, although I certainly was this morning:

Today's lunch, care of my camera phone:

At the bottom, there's my oven-broiled coho salmon.  To the left: fresh broccoli.  Top left: raw red sweet cherries.  Top right: bowtie pasta with tomato basil sauce.  Of these items, only the salmon and the tomato basil sauce were leftovers.  The rest took me 15 minutes to prepare and package (including boiling the water for pasta and cooking it)

You might also notice my lunch reading.