Mystery tomatillo Curry

Roast in oven, then food process:

35 oz. Tomatillos

4 banana peppers
8 Garlic cloves
1 onions
 

Transfer to pan and add:

1 Tbsp. Curry powder
1 tsp. cumin

1/2 c.  Raisins
some Cashews
some Mushrooms

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

salt

Cook together 30 minutes. Make ahead; it's better after it's had some time to marry flavors. Recipe loosely based on http://cookieswithfriends.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/farm-fresh-tomatillo-curry/.

Veggie scrambled eggs

This tasty dish used up the oyster mushrooms and spinach. It also contains three eggs, a little half and half, and some shredded mozzarella.

Greek potatoes with vegetation

We started with this recipe and made:

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. olive oil
A bunch of leeks, cut into slices
1-1/4 lb. small red potatoes, quartered
salt and pepper
A bunch of Swiss chard, cut up
6 oz curly endive leaves, torn
Some Greek oregano
leaves from 2 mint sprigs, torn
good squeeze of lemon juice
2 packets of powdered lemon
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 cup Greek yogurt

Instructions

1. Put the oil into a heavy saucepan and add the leeks and potatoes. Season, add a splash of water, cover and sweat for 20 minutes. Add a bit of water every so often and stir.

2. Once the potatoes are almost tender, add the chard, garlic, and endive. Add another splash of water, season, cover and cook until the leaves have wilted—about 4-5 minutes.

3. Stir in the herbs, yogurt, and lemon stuff.

We had it with lemon salmon, which was tasty. I liked it with all the different flavors; Clay thought it was okay.

We started making an Emeril recipe and ended up with homemade Hamburger Helper

We started with this recipe by Emeril Lagasse but of course diverged in the name of using stuff around the house. Our ingredient list was more like this:

1/2 pound cooked elbow macaroni
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 medium onions, cut into small dice (about 2 cups)
2 cups red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for the pasta water
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 1/2 pounds sausage without casings, compensate with Italian seasoning if not Italian
4 garlic scapes
1 giant head of escarole, cut into bite-size pieces
1 head of curly endive, cut the same
1 jar of cheesy tomato sauce

The short version of the instructions: While you're cooking the pasta, cook the aromatics down. Add the sausage and break it up as cooks. Add the greenery and remainder of the seasonings. When those are cooked add the pasta and sauce, then make sure everything is cooked through.

To see the finished product you'd never guess the huge amounts of greenery that went into the pot. And despite using half the pasta I would say that you could get away with even less.

Escarole and White Bean Soup

To use up the escarole we tried this recipe from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/escarole-and-bean-soup-recipe.html

It's a good soup have along with something strongly flavored. Clay made a white bean spread that was rather spicy, and we had that on bread with the soup.

Bonito flakes: they're not just for cats

Boil together for a little while:
1 seafood udon seasoning packet
4 cups water (instead of 2)
A bunch of bonito flakes
Salt

Drop heat, add, cook until almost done:
5 cabbage that is an awful lot like bok choy leaves, cut into strips
8ish crimini mushrooms, cut into slices

Return to a boil, add your udon, and cook as directed (2 minutes for me). Serve!

I'm not sure what this green stuff is, but I bet it will be good with bacon.

 

I had no idea what to do with the mizuna, so I cooked it with a bunch of other stuff and put it on a hot dog. My logic was that if you cook something with bacon it will be good, and if you put greens on a hot dog it's healthy. Look at me eating healthy food!

 

I actually made two batches, both with the same ingredients (read as: stuff out of the fridge that needed to be used). The first batch of mizuna stuff made enough stuff for two dogs but had too much citrus in it, so the second, adjusted batch of mizuna stuff turned out better. That one contained two slices of bacon cut into small pieces, four sliced cloves of garlic, four Japanese kumquats cut into small pieces, a little salt, and some adobo cooked for a bit on the stove in maybe a teaspoon of canola oil. After the garlic was cooked I added the cut up mizuna and some of the Greek oregano from the CSA. All of that wilted together and cooked down until it was done (I don't have more precise instructions than that). Voila.

Kale and Kohl Rabi Salad

When I picked up our first week of veggies the CSA folks had very thoughtfully provided prints of a couple recipes, so it was really easy to come home and make something immediately. The provided recipe was this one from Epicurious which we modified for available ingredients and efficiency, as always.
 

Ingredients
 

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bunch kale, stems and center ribs discarded, then finely chopped
2 kohlrabi bulbs, peeled and finely sliced
4 Japanese kumquats, finely sliced
1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/3 cup salted roasted pistachios, chopped
4 button mushrooms, sliced
 

Preparation
 

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sauté garlic until pale golden, about 30 seconds. Add kale; when wilted sauté with 1/2 teaspoon salt until just tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool. When room temperature stir in remaining ingredients plus 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Serve.
 

(Might be good with some chili flakes or other spicey addition.)

Swiss Chard and Chickpea Curry

The original recipe is here. We made a few modifications because our goal was to use stuff in the fridge and pantry. We may have tweaked the recipe more, but honestly it's been so long that we don't really remember how...

Ingredients:
1-14 oz can chickpeas
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bunch swiss chard
1-14 oz can diced tomatoes
Garlic ginger paste (I didn't add it, so no idea how much.)
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Salt, to taste
1/2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add chopped onions, tumeric, coriander, curry, and stir fry on medium heat for 1-2 minutes, periodically stirring.
2. Add diced tomatoes and juice, kale, and chickpeas and juice and cover with a lid. Cook 3-5 minutes.
3. Add garlic ginger paste.
4. Serve by it self or as a side dish.

Wild Blackberry Jam

 What does one do when one has pounds of highly perishable wild blackberries that need to be used? I can think of a few things. Personally, I'm a big fan of jam and so decided to give canning a shot.

I used this recipe by MizzNezz because of the large number of high ratings, and after doing some reading about lower sugar canning and discovering that pectin does not come in packets around here, this is what I used:

 

5 c. crushed blackberries (almost 50 oz. of loose berries to get that)

7c. 6c. sugar

1 packet 3 Tbsp. low-sugar powdered pectin

 

I wanted a mixture of jar sizes, so I ended up with (5) 8 oz jars, (7) 4 oz jars, and maybe 1-2 oz of leftover in a jar in the fridge. That means the equivalent of (8.5) 8 oz jars instead of the 7 the the recipe told me to expect. Thank goodness I planned for extra jars.

 

 

Of couse we sampled a little bit of the leftover, and there will be some tweaking next time. Wild berries have a lot of seeds, straining blackberry jam results in jam on the ceiling (family story there), so we need to figure out how to deal with the former without producing the latter. We aren't big fans of really sweet stuff, so I'll probably try 5 cups of sugar next time instead of the 6 cups. Overall it went well, set up nicely, etc. We plan to make more in the next day or two.

Another Misguided Egg Roll Recipe

You may or may not be familiar with the original Somewhat Misguided Egg Roll Recipe (his, which makes for pretty good dumplings), but regardless I've made another version. I wanted to use up napa from the CSA basket, so I did some research and decided to try this recipe. After looking over the comments and adjusting for stuff I wanted to use up from the fridge and freezer I ended up with something like this (marked out stuff is what I did, with what to do in the future next to it):

Stirfry over high heat until fragrant, 30 seconds:

4 tablespoons vegetable oil 

4-inch grated fresh ginger
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped

 

Add and stirfry for 2 minutes:

9 scallions, sliced thinly
4 carrot, cut into 1-inch julienne strips
1 small red pepper, cut into 1-inch julienne strips

 

Add, bring to boil, and simmer 5 minutes, until veggies are soft:

10 cups 8 cups Napa cabbage, shredded
1 cup 2 cups shrimp stock

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sugar

2 little bags of salad shrimp

 

Add, then rest 15 minutes and strain if too wet:
1/4 cup sesame oil

some chopped cashews

 

Fill with 1/3ish cup of filling, roll, and fry until golden brown:
20 wonton wrappers covered loosely with a damp paper towel to prevent drying
little bowl of water for sealing edges

The flavor was good, but since I A) inadvertently added too much liquid, and B) then tried to cook it off, the filling was rather soft. We think we'll try it again with the correct cooking time and see how that batch turns out. In terms of other feedback: This quadruple batch only made 16 reasonably sized egg rolls, so I can only assume that the original recipe used dumpling/wonton wrappers instead of actual egg roll wrappers. It could stand to have more cabbage, so I'd probably do something like 10 cups minimum.

We also need to learn to make sweet and sour sauce. We've tried a few versions now, and this latest one tasted like sweet and sour ketchup...

Vietnamese-Style Pickled Spring Turnips and Carrots

I wanted to do a light pickle on some of the turnips, and I found this recipe for what are essentially refrigerator pickles. The batch I made was 2# turnips, 1# carrots, and a 3/4 batch of the pickling solution. We also had some cabbage hearts in the fridge so I prepared them the same way and put them in some leftover liquid. We'll see how they turn out.

Lamb Virgin

First time I've ever cooked lamb before. Until tonight.

I got a boneless leg of lamb from costco. Marinated for 1 day, ground it up with the coarse blade, turned it in to patties, and left it another day. Grilled them up, put it on toasted, buttered soft portugese rolls.

Marinade:
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 stems lemon thyme
2 stems citrus mint
2T salt
5 cloves garlic
heaping scoop of grainy mustard
Olive oil

Puree, lather, refrigerate.

Tapas

Smushed, steamed red potatoes, oil & parmesian, toast, top with baked-potato toppings

Girl Scout Cookie Recipes

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/01/make_girl_scout_cookies_at_home.php

So, who wants to try making some girl scout cookies?

Chex Mix Recipes

While on the drive to Vermont a while back we got to talking about Chex mix, and I decided to search the interweb for recipes. Why make it at home when I can buy it at the grocery store? Because it's better. I remember my mom making it when I was a kid, and it's best when fresh. You can also customize the seasonings and snacking goods. If you take a look at the recipes on the Chex website you'll find upwards of 50 variations on the original mix. As for the add-ins, Banik can add bagel chips to his, and I can have peanuts in mine. I hadn't heard of this until about 15 minutes ago, but apparently Cheerios are also a common addition we'll have to try.

So on the Chex website the (half recipe, interestingly enough) "Original Chex Party Mix" says:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cups Corn Chex® cereal
1 1/2 cups Rice Chex® cereal
1 1/2 cups Wheat Chex® cereal
1/2 cup mixed nuts
1/2 cup bite-size pretzels
1/2 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips
or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces

Heat oven to 250°F. In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In ungreased 13x9-inch pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in seasonings. Gradually stir in cereal mixture until evenly coated. Bake 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

BUT I know that bagel chips weren't in any Chex mix I had as a kid, and I'm pretty sure they were a rather recent addition. Something there is wonky.

So I found a "Real Original Chex Party Mix" based on the recipe off of a 1950s Chex box that says:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
3 cups Wheat Chex square cereal
2 cups Rice Chex square cereal
1-1/2 cups peanuts
1-1/2 cups small pretzel rods

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Melt butter in a shallow pan. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, and garlic salt (not garlic powder). Add Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, nuts (peanuts, pecans or cashews), and pretzel rods. Mix until all pieces are coated with the butter mixture. Place on a shallow baking pan with sides. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

AND THEN I looked at the comments for that recipe and learned that allegedly "Corn chex didn't come out until 1958. The 1952 recipe was wheat and rice chex, worcestershire, butter, nuts, salt and garlic salt. Seasoned salt and corn chex were added in the late 1950s."

So really, I'm not sure if anyone has the original recipe, but these are a good starting point. Now all I need is a real oven in which to try them.

No knead bread

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=no-knead%20bread&st=cse

No-Knead bread recipe I want to try one day.

Saurkraut - Day 0

The inaugural run of saurkraut has been started. Once we got through all the sanitizing procedures it was even kind of fun.

Because we can't do anything new at a reasonable scale we began with 4 heads of cabbage totaling 17.52 pounds, and after removing the outer leaves and core it was probably down 2 or 3 pounds. This was shredded (thank goodness for salad shooters) and liberally mixed with kosher salt, about 13-15 tablespoons we think.
We didn't think to photograph the cabbage heads at the beginning, but here's everything shredded and salted and packed into the crock. It takes up less space than we expected, but honestly it's still more than we know what to do with. Planning ahead ftw.
And here is Shade beside the 6 gallon-ish crock for scale. This was before he decided that cabbage was not made of pork or cheese and therefore beneath his notice.

The cabbage is now weighted down with a plate and a gallon ziplock containing salt water; by tomorrow night it should have released enough water to submerge itself in brine. The crock has been lidded and placed under Banik's desk where the AC register will keep it relatively cool during the pickling process.

My hands smell like cabbage and bleach, and I think it's time for bed.

SaurKraut

The Real Stuff

Well, this weekend, while on the way to the Round-Hill Highland Games, we stopped at a yard sale. At this yard sale we found three items.

Item the First: A silver tea box with a lion engraved on it. enLethe liked this a lot, so we got it. What will we use it for? Probably put Splenda packets out in the open- they'll look a lot nicer.

Item the Second: A Carnival glass bowl. It's a smokey, silvery glass, with a nice iridescent sheen in blues, purples, and reds. It has a rose motiff, and 3 legs. It's nice. I think the patterns is called, "Imperial Open Rose."

Item the Third: An earthenware crock. It must be at least 5 gallons, with a lid. A small chip or two hidden on the underside of the lid. Great condition, otherwise.


So, the plan? Take the 4 giant heads of cabbage we just happen to have and make some home made, real, live saurkraut.

Let's see if it'll be tasty!

Here are three possible source-recipes:

Alton Brown
Wild Fermentation
Random

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

So I was reading Popular Science and read about a website called shop4freebies, and since many of the best things in life are free I was obligated to go look at this website. Aside from "yes, I would love for you to send me a free sample" type things they also have recipe books that you can download or ask to have mailed to you for free. One booklet I skimmed was for Sun-maid raisin recipes, and that resulted in:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (24)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix in a small bowl:
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix in a large bowl:
1 c. brown sugar
6 Tbsp. nonfat vanilla yogurt
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Add the dry mix to the wet and stir until well combined.

Stir in:
1 1/3 c. uncooked rolled oats
1 c. raisins

Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet about 1.5" apart. You should get about 24 cookies. *

Bake 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned. **

Immediately remove with a spatula and transfer to a cooking rack or plate. If you wait they will be harder to get off of the tray. ***

_____

* I used 2 half sheet pans with a 3x4 layout, and the amount of cookie dough worked out perfectly for 24 cookies.

** Doneness is admittedly hard to determine since the brown sugar and wheat flour make the cookies so dark. I look for the cookies to be matte instead of glossy on top and for resiliance when I poke them.

*** To make your life easier you could lightly grease the sheet with butter to make the cookies easier to remove. You could also use a silpat that you can just lift off and move to the counter, the cookies will easily peel off once cooled and set.
______
Feedback: As a first attempt these are quite tasty. I think they have good flavor and texture. Banik finds the cookies to be a bit too sweet. Since we tend to like less sweet foods I may try using half brown and half white sugar next time to see if that helps. They must be decent though- he's already eaten 4 of them.